JOHNSON BEHARRY VC - THE GUARDIAN - RICHARD NORTON-TAYLOR FRIDAY 18TH MARCH 2005.

A young soldier has been awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military honour, for bravery under fire in some of the fiercest, and largely unreported, engagements between British forces and insurgents in south-eastern Iraq.

Private Johnson Beharry, 25, is the first soldier to receive the VC since the Falklands war in 1982 and the first living recipient since 1969, when two Australians were given the award for action in Vietnam.

The citation, gazetted today, describes his "great heroism" in two separate encounters in the town of Amara, north of Basra, last summer. In the first, on May 1, the Warrior armoured vehicle he was driving was hit by multiple rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs).

His company, the citation says, had been ordered to extract a foot patrol pinned down by small arms and heavy machine-gun fire and an attack by an improvised explosive device and RPGs.

As they passed a roundabout on their way to the pinned-down patrol, his platoon noticed that the road ahead was empty of civilians and traffic, an indicator of a potential ambush. The platoon commander ordered the vehicle to halt so that he could assess the situation. The vehicle was then hit by RPGs.

The citation continues: "As a result of this ferocious initial volley of fire, both the platoon commander and the vehicle's gunner were incapacitated by concussion and other wounds, and a number of the soldiers in the rear of the vehicle were also wounded."

Pte Beharry had no means of communication with the turret crew or any of the other Warriors around him. He did not know if his commander or crew were still alive or how serious their injuries were.

"On his own initiative, he closed his driver's hatch and moved forward through the ambush position to try to establish some form of communications, halting just short of a barricade across the road."

The Warrior was hit again by RPGs. It caught fire and filled with thick, noxious smoke.

Pte Beharry, continues the citation, "assessed that his best course of action to save the lives of his crew was to push through, out of the ambush. He drove his Warrior directly through the barricade, not knowing if there were mines or improvised explosive devices placed there to destroy his vehicle. By doing this he was able to lead the remaining five Warriors behind him towards safety."

Another RPG hit the Warrior. "The flames and force of the blast passed directly over him, down the driver's tunnel, further wounding the semi-conscious gunner in the turret."

Pte Beharry was "forced to drive the vehicle along the rest of the ambushed route, some 1,500 metres, with his hatch opened up and his head exposed to enemy fire, all the time with no communications with any other vehicle."

A 7.62mm bullet penetrated his helmet and remained lodged on its inner surface.

Pte Beharry then climbed on to the turret of the burning vehicle and, "seemingly oblivious to the incoming enemy small arms fire, manhandled his wounded platoon commander out of the turret, off the vehicle and to the safety of a nearby Warrior".

Remounting his burning vehicle for the third time, he drove it through "a complex chicane and into the security of the defended perimeter of the outpost, thus denying it to the enemy". Once inside, he collapsed from physical and mental exhaustion.

A few weeks later, on June 11, another Warrior convoy he was leading was ambushed. A grenade detonated six inches from his head.

"With the blood from his head injury obscuring his vision, Beharry managed to continue to control his vehicle and forcefully reversed the Warrior out of the ambush," says the citation. He then collapsed, unconscious.

The Grenada-born private was paraded by the top brass yesterday among his comrades in the 1st Battalion, the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, and other recipients of high military honours.

"I was just doing my job. I was just thinking of the guys in the vehicle and the guys behind me," he said.

He was asked what was going through his mind at the time. "An RPG", Pte Beharry promptly replied.

He was not afraid at the time, only afterwards. Asked why he had left Grenada, he said he wanted "a change of life".

Asked if he would be Britain's first black general, he quickly replied: "No."

His wife Lynthia said that after he had been injured he was told he had only a 50-50 chance of surviving. She said her husband would return to Iraq "if he has to".

Pte Beharry's award was described by Gary Sheffield, a leading historian of the modern British army, as "a classic in the VC mould - he was rescuing colleagues". He added: "It is also testimony of what a nasty war is going on in Iraq."

Lieutenant Colonel Matt Maer, Pte Beharry's commanding officer, described yesterday how his troops were in action every day for five months, more than 800 times in all. It was the longest period of continuous combat experienced by the British army since the Korean war 50 years ago. The soldiers were repeatedly attacked by Mahdi militia, supporters of the radical Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr.

He said 40 of his soldiers were wounded and three killed from his battlegroup of about 1,300. British military sources who experienced the action say they do not know how many Iraqis were killed, but add that hundreds would be an exaggeration.

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TIM HILL - ROD HILL 2006

I had the privilege of meeting him down at the Tidworth garrison when we tailored his Number 1 Dress uniform & medals and noticed the horrific scars and lack of movement in his upper body.

After my Dad Rod gave him the Number 1 Dress Uniform and medals - He asked us How much do i owe you ? My dad replied "nothing you have earnt it son" my gesture of giving him a Miniature Victoria Cross seemed insignificant and he was due to collect his Victoria Cross (VC) from H M The Queen.

A living legend and his book is a fantastic read - Barefoot Warrior.