Season 1
5 episodes
0 min. per episode
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A soldier's son confronts harrowing truths of war, forging bonds with troops while uncovering the personal costs of conflict.
Episodes
Ross prepares for deployment and joins up with 1 Royal Anglian as they train during a cold British winter on Salisbury Plain. They're training for what they will face in Afghanistan which includes convoy protection and deploying from Chinook helicopters. During one exercise Ross' group is attacked and Ross and several others are told that they have been 'killed' by the enemy. It's a sobering thought. Three months later and Ross will be playing this scenario for real.
Ross arrives at Camp Bastion, he's given a medical briefing then straight out on an offensive operation in the 'green zone', a thin strip of agricultural land that lines the banks of the Helmand. It's during this first foray that Ross experiences the dangers faced by British soldiers. Only a few hours out from base and the convoy immediately behind Ross' hits an explosive device and the crew learn that Corporal Darren Bonner has been killed. Further into their mission B Company patrol come under fire from Taliban positions. Ross and the crew are pinned down in open ground for some minutes by enemy fire before the Army can extract them.
Episode three focuses on the life of the soldier - what's it like to live on Britain's front line at the Now Zad base. It's at Now Zad that the Royal Anglians suffered their first casualty, Private Chris Gray, killed during a fierce fire fight with Taliban fighters in May 2007. Ross meets his mother Helen Gray and talks to her about how it feels to have lost her son to the conflict.
While Ross is back in the UK three soldiers from B Company are killed in a tragic blue-on-blue accident. On the 23rd August Privates Aaron James McClure, Robert Graham Foster and John Thrumble died when the air support called in to help defeat the enemy hit the compound in which the three were engaging the Taliban from. Eight days later Ross returns to the front line to be with the men of B Company and 7 platoon. We tell the story of how the men were affected by the attack. The families have given us exclusive access to video footage showing the moments before, during and just after the bomb destroyed the compound; and we talk with the men who tell Ross how they feel about what has happened. Ross joins the fire-support group as they attack Taliban positions and re-assert their dominance of the area since the blue-on-blue attack. This is just one-half of the operation.
In Episode five Ross joins 1 Royal Anglian as they capture and destroy the compound in which the three men were killed. At times the Taliban are no more than 50 meters away. Back in the UK Ross talks to the Foster family about their tragic loss and interviews Corporal Stuart Parker, a soldier who miraculously survived the bombing. After six months overseas 1 Royal Anglian returns to the UK. It's an emotional moment as their families meet them on the parade ground. They've been away fighting on Britain's front line for six months.
In the summer of 2007 Ross joins his father's old regiment, 1 Royal Anglian and, for the first time, heads to Afghanistan. Ross is immediately embedded with frontline troops where for weeks at a time he lives a soldier's life as they fight a fanatical and determined enemy. Off the battlefield he tells the stories of those who risk their lives fighting the Taliban, stories of soldiers who have lost friends in battle and the impact that a loss has on relatives back home. Told the only way it can be done, by living with the guys on the "Frontline", keep up the good work Ross.