Six inches from death: New biography reveals Prince Harry’s bravery while serving in Afghanistan
In 2007, Prince Harry was deployed to southern Afghanistan with the Household Cavalry and now, a new biography has detailed his time in the war-torn Hemland Province and his close brushes with death.
Harry was based in the Gamsir area, close to the Pakistani border, which was, according to his commanding officer Major Mark Millford “about as dangerous as it can get”.
Harry was employed as a forward air controller, which involved studying “Taliban TV”, a live feed from cameras mounted on aircraft and unmanned drones, reported the Daily Mail.
Carefully analysing the images before him, Harry would search for troop movements or signs of body heat that could reveal the position of the Taliban.
The job involved hours of consulting detailed “pattern of life” studies to identify schools, mosques and marketplaces with innocent civilians to ensure they were not targeted.
For the first time in his life, Harry found that he could be unrecognised as a member of the royal family which allowed him to talk with the village elders and learn about local life.
However, his anonymity meant he was in just as much danger as all his other comrades.
Captain Dickon Leigh-Wood, who knew Harry since their time together at Ludgrove prep school and who had trained with him at Combermere Barracks, explained the time Harry and his unit “drove over” an unexploded landmine.
“One of the vehicles in the column suddenly noticed something flick underneath the tank in front and everyone was ordered to stop,” Captain Leigh-Wood said.
“You automatically think, ‘This is gonna go off. This is it’.
“The previous vehicles, including Harry’s, had missed the pressure plate of an IED by about six inches. If any of us had gone over it, it would have been game over.”
The captain said that Harry slept in trenches with up to four people in sleeping bags, with temperatures as low as -26C at night.
“I never once heard him complain.”
“He often went into the villages with the interpreter to chat to locals, just to find out what was going on, drink some chai, and experience their life. “He was never recognised and I think he really cherished that. These people had no TV.
“I don’t think they’d have recognised the Queen if she’d have been there. He was also brilliant at keeping everyone’s spirits up.
“We had a lot of Fijians in our troop.
“They love playing touch rugby and Harry’s obsessed with it, so he would often instigate a game right there in the middle of the desert with a ball he kept in the tank.”
Image credit: Air Force Space Command