"Sergeant Tony Bolton, Coldstream Guards, in action near Gereshk"

by David Rowlands

Giclee Print 58 x 38 cm

26th March 2008: Sergeant Tony Bolton of the Coldstream Guards was attached to a company of the Danish Life Guards, based at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Armadillo, north of Gereshk. Every two to three days, a foot patrol of 30 to 36 men from the FOB pushed northward through the ‘green zone’.

Tony was the Mortar Fire Controller (MFC) in the middle of a patrol in the early afternoon of 26th March 2008, when the forward section came under fire. Four men were hit, and the Danes dropped to the ground. As the MFC, Tony ran forward through the poppy fields to the front of the patrol. The MFC has to ensure there are no friendly troops in front when he radios to call in mortar fire. He then crawled 20 metres through incoming fire, past a dead Danish soldier, to reach the contact point. In an irrigation ditch, he joined a medic who was treating a wounded soldier. Enemy small arms and mortar fire were blowing away the surrounding branches as he called in a fire mission on the radio. He put down three magazines-worth of rifle fire, and two minutes later the first mortar rounds fell among the enemy.

Tony then looked to the Dane beside him, badly wounded in his arm and leg, and lifted his head out of the water as the medic applied field dressings. After 30 minutes, a Chinook helicopter with the Immediate Response Team (IRT) landed 400 metres to their rear. The enemy fire was suppressed as the four Danish casualties were extracted. Then Tony was left alone, with 3 Danes 20 metres to his right, as enemy fire redoubled. Outnumbered, and being encircled on their right, they fought there for two hours more before Danish reinforcements arrived. Mortar fire continued for three hours, creating lots of dust.

Tony had a 345 Radio with a 0.5 metre whip in a side pouch (from his Bergen rucksack) carried on his back. He wore the newly introduced Mark 6A helmet. Black tourniquets are looped on the back of the Dane’s medical pack.