HOMECOMING SOLDIERS ARE REUNITED WITH LOVED ONES
BY MARTIN NAYLOR
MNAYLOR@DERBYTELEGRAPH.CO.UK
09:30 - 26 September 2007
Scenes of celebration and relief greeted the first Derbyshire soldiers to arrive home last night from a tour of duty in Afghanistan.
They were among 111 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards returning to their base in Aldershot.
Families and friends greeted them with banners and balloons.
One soldier from the 351-year-old regiment was 28-year-old Lance Corporal Tim Leatherland, from Alfreton.
Afghanistan was his fifth overseas tour of duty. He has also served in Bosnia, Kosovo, Northern Ireland and Iraq.
He said: "Even though I am relatively experienced I can honestly say that I have never done a tour like that.
"The fighting was incredibly intense and we were dealing with a determined enemy."
The battalion was based at Camp Shorabak, in Helmand province, during the six-month tour which included 'Operational Mentoring and Liaison Training'.
This involved working with the Afghan national army and training them in the same way British soldiers would be trained.
They were given advice and access to the same armaments and equipment used by the British Army.
Another member of the battalion back on British soil last night was Lance Corporal Martin Jordan, 24, of Alvaston.
He said: "This was easily the toughest tour of duty I have undertaken in eight years in the Army.
"The hardest part for me was losing two close friends, Guardsman Downes and Guardsman Probyn. Morale does take a bit of a dip when things like that happen.
"When we lost them both I didn't have a girlfriend, which they both did, and I found myself thinking why couldn't it have been me?"
As well as Neil Downes, 20, from Manchester and Daniel Probyn, 22, from Tipton, the Grenadier Guards also lost Guardsman Simon Davison, 22, from Cannock, and David Atherton, 25, also from Manchester.
Another Grenadier, 27-year-old guardsman Daryl Hickey, from Birmingham, was killed while on manoeuvres with the 2nd Mercian (Worcesters and Foresters) regiment in Afghanistan on July 12.
Regiment Adjutant Major Grant Baker heaped praise on the guards as they came off coaches from RAF Brize Norton, in Oxfordshire.
He said: "This tour is the first time the regiment has seen fighting and warfare this intense since the Second World War. Our committed men showed bravery beyond their years in the face of an enemy stiff with resolve."
The 2nd Mercian Regiment (Worcesters and Foresters), in which most of Derbyshire's soldiers are represented, is due home next month, at about the same time as the rest of the Grenadier Guards.
