Imagine their panic, the sudden rush of adrenaline. It was May 14, 2004, and a patrol of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders were in some dodgy territory near Amarah in southern Iraq – and they were ambushed.
They came under fire from about 100 soldiers of the Mahdi army, a brutal group of insurgents trained and funded by Iran’s Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The position of the British soldiers was bad. Their communications were down. The battle lasted three hours and, for the first time in decades, British troops were obliged to fix bayonets and to charge across open ground.
It was bravery
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