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Defence minister says fighting in Afghanistan just as tough as the Second World War
Fighting in Afghanistan is now as intense as the battles fought by British troops during the Second World War, a government defence minister has claimed.
Bob Ainsworth, the armed forces minister, risked incurring the wrath of veterans of previous conflicts by making comparisons with the war in Europe against the Nazis and the fighting taking place in Helmand today.
"Unless you came all the way up with the Eighth Army from El Alamein and through Italy, you didn't do much more than lads (in Afghanistan) are having to do now", the minister said.
The unit from Arbroath in Scotland lost 12 men in action while 52 other marines suffered serious injuries, with many losing limbs. During the tour the commandos also discovered 320 improvised explosive devices.
In an article for the Royal British Legion magazine, Mr Ainsworth said: "People shouldn't be in any doubt about it. What our guys are doing in Helmand now, and were doing in Iraq before, is as hard as anything that the British Army has faced in its history.
"We were in a battle for national survival during the Second World War and there were a lot more people involved.
"But if they do six months hard fighting in Helmand and then they go back for another year of hard fighting, it stands up to what previous generations have had to do before."
The minister also stressed that decision-making and responsibility extend more widely through the ranks in today's army than in previous decades.
He continued: "Somebody at the lowest level, a private or a corporal can do something, for good or bad; and it can reverberate around the world. These decisions are not all in the hands of generals and colonels any more.
"One of the things that's enormously impressive is the degree of decision-making capability that there is right down at the low end. A 20- or 22-year-old corporal has a huge amount of responsibility for their age. I'm always flabbergasted by it."
Fighting in Afghanistan is now as intense as the battles fought by British troops during the Second World War, a government defence minister has claimed.
Bob Ainsworth, the armed forces minister, risked incurring the wrath of veterans of previous conflicts by making comparisons with the war in Europe against the Nazis and the fighting taking place in Helmand today.
"Unless you came all the way up with the Eighth Army from El Alamein and through Italy, you didn't do much more than lads (in Afghanistan) are having to do now", the minister said.
The unit from Arbroath in Scotland lost 12 men in action while 52 other marines suffered serious injuries, with many losing limbs. During the tour the commandos also discovered 320 improvised explosive devices.
In an article for the Royal British Legion magazine, Mr Ainsworth said: "People shouldn't be in any doubt about it. What our guys are doing in Helmand now, and were doing in Iraq before, is as hard as anything that the British Army has faced in its history.
"We were in a battle for national survival during the Second World War and there were a lot more people involved.
"But if they do six months hard fighting in Helmand and then they go back for another year of hard fighting, it stands up to what previous generations have had to do before."
The minister also stressed that decision-making and responsibility extend more widely through the ranks in today's army than in previous decades.
He continued: "Somebody at the lowest level, a private or a corporal can do something, for good or bad; and it can reverberate around the world. These decisions are not all in the hands of generals and colonels any more.
"One of the things that's enormously impressive is the degree of decision-making capability that there is right down at the low end. A 20- or 22-year-old corporal has a huge amount of responsibility for their age. I'm always flabbergasted by it."
