VC for Iraq
 

As I think most Ppruners on this site know, there have been rumours about the award for Private Johnson Beharry, PWRR, for several days.

However, the BBC and the Times are now carrying stories (although they are not yet front page links, since they are 18th March stories) - see here and here for starters. You can use the search function on the Times site to get to the Operational honours list - which is my excuse for posting here, since there is a section dedicated to Boscastle.

Thanks, Archimedes, for the confirmation.

Congratulations seems such a weak word to a man who's earned the VC. I'll raise a glass for him tonight.

When are MOD Press going to get weaving and put the citation online? The lead story is still Buster the Dog. :hmm:

adr

And lead story on BBC News 24 and Sky News as well (with honourable mention for Boscastle on the former) - the VC story, not Buster, obviously.

Quite a few DSOs, CGCs and MCs awarded as well.

Agree adr, how do you say respect in strong enough terms to a man of this calibre.

Well done I too will raise a glass to him tonight.:ok:

MoD website updated with story (and links to details of other awards)

Link above is to BBC so correct link below:

First Victoria Cross Since 1982

http://www.smilies-world.de/smilies/...smilies/19.gif I'll have one or two of these for me old mate Mario who's been awarded the QCBA. Nice one mate :ok:

"We can sleep soundly in our beds because there are great men preparred to comit violence on those who would do us harm."

I have just read the citation and I am almost in Tears.

There are some very brave people in our Armed Forces, I am eternaly grateful to you all.

The full citation for Private Johnson Beharry's award of a Victoria Cross reads:

Private Beharry carried out two individual acts of great heroism by which he saved the lives of his comrades. Both were in direct face of the enemy, under intense fire, at great personal risk to himself (one leading to him sustaining very serious injuries). His valour is worthy of the highest recognition.

In the early hours of the 1st May 2004 Beharry's company was ordered to replenish an isolated Coalition Forces outpost located in the centre of the troubled city of Al Amarah. He was the driver of a platoon commander's Warrior armoured fighting vehicle.

His platoon was the company's reserve force and was placed on immediate notice to move. As the main elements of his company were moving into the city to carry out the replenishment, they were re-tasked to fight through a series of enemy ambushes in order to extract a foot patrol that had become pinned down under sustained small arms and heavy machine gun fire and improvised explosive device and rocket-propelled grenade attack.

Beharry's platoon was tasked over the radio to come to the assistance of the remainder of the company, who were attempting to extract the isolated foot patrol. As his platoon passed a roundabout, en route to the pinned-down patrol, they became aware that the road to the front was empty of all civilians and traffic - an indicator of a potential ambush ahead. The platoon commander ordered the vehicle to halt, so that he could assess the situation. The vehicle was then immediately hit by multiple rocket-propelled grenades.

Eyewitnesses report that the vehicle was engulfed in a number of violent explosions, which physically rocked the 30-tonne Warrior. 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.

Due to damage sustained in the blast to the vehicle's radio systems, Beharry had no means of communication with either his turret crew or any of the other Warrior vehicles deployed around him. He did not know if his commander or crewmen were still alive, or how serious their injuries may be. In this confusing and dangerous situation, 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 placed across the road.

The vehicle was hit again by sustained rocket-propelled grenade attack from insurgent fighters in the alleyways and on rooftops around his vehicle. Further damage to the Warrior from these explosions caused it to catch fire and fill rapidly with thick, noxious smoke. Beharry opened up his armoured hatch cover to clear his view and orientate himself to the situation. He still had no radio communications and was now acting on his own initiative, as the lead vehicle of a six Warrior convoy in an enemy-controlled area of the city at night.

He 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.

As the smoke in his driver's tunnel cleared, he was just able to make out the shape of another rocket- propelled grenade in flight heading directly towards him. He pulled the heavy armoured hatch down with one hand, whilst still controlling his vehicle with the other. However, the overpressure from the explosion of the rocket wrenched the hatch out of his grip, and 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.

The impact of this rocket destroyed Beharry's armoured periscope, so he was forced to drive the vehicle through the remainder of the ambushed route, some 1500 metres long, with his hatch opened up and his head exposed to enemy fire, all the time with no communications with any other vehicle. During this long surge through the ambushes the vehicle was again struck by rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. While his head remained out of the hatch, to enable him to see the route ahead, he was directly exposed to much of this fire, and was himself hit by a 7.62mm bullet, which penetrated his helmet and remained lodged on its inner surface.

Despite this harrowing weight of incoming fire Beharry continued to push through the extended ambush, still leading his platoon until he broke clean. He then visually identified another Warrior from his company and followed it through the streets of Al Amarah to the outside of the Cimic House outpost, which was receiving small arms fire from the surrounding area.

Once he had brought his vehicle to a halt outside, without thought for his own personal safety, he climbed onto the turret of the still-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.

He then returned once again to his vehicle and again mounted the exposed turret to lift out the vehicle's gunner and move him to a position of safety.

Exposing himself yet again to enemy fire he returned to the rear of the burning vehicle to lead the disorientated and shocked dismounts and casualties to safety.

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.

Only at this stage did Beharry pull the fire extinguisher handles, immobilising the engine of the vehicle, dismounted and then moved himself into the relative safety of the back of another Warrior.

Once inside Beharry collapsed from the sheer physical and mental exhaustion of his efforts and was subsequently himself evacuated.

Having returned to duty following medical treatment, on the 11th June 2004 Beharry's Warrior was part of a quick reaction force tasked to attempt to cut off a mortar team that had attacked a Coalition Force base in Al Amarah. As the lead vehicle of the platoon he was moving rapidly through the dark city streets towards the suspected firing point, when his vehicle was ambushed by the enemy from a series of rooftop positions.

During this initial heavy weight of enemy fire, a rocket-propelled grenade detonated on the vehicle's frontal armour, just six inches from Beharry's head, resulting in a serious head injury. Other rockets struck the turret and sides of the vehicle, incapacitating his commander and injuring several of the crew.

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 area. The vehicle continued to move until it struck the wall of a nearby building and came to rest. Beharry then lost consciousness as a result of his wounds.

By moving the vehicle out of the enemy's chosen killing area he enabled other Warrior crews to be able to extract his crew from his vehicle, with a greatly reduced risk from incoming fire.

Despite receiving a serious head injury, which later saw him being listed as very seriously injured and in a coma for some time, his level-headed actions in the face of heavy and accurate enemy fire at short range again almost certainly saved the lives of his crew and provided the conditions for their safe evacuation to medical treatment.

Beharry displayed repeated extreme gallantry and unquestioned valour, despite intense direct attacks, personal injury and damage to his vehicle in the face of relentless enemy action."

What an outstanding individual.

Speechless, utterly speechless......

Having just seen Johnson Beharry at the top of the BBC news, he seems an archetypal 'hero'. You can almost hear him wondering what all of the fuss is about. I echo the previous sentiments - where would we be without such selfless, remarkable individuals?

Has anyone got any information on what the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment got involved in?

The Honours List shows that PWRR got a VC, an MBE, 2 DSOs, 2 CGCs, 7 [yes 7] MCs, 16 MiDs and a QCVS!!

Must have been a hell of a punch-up!

:ok: What a bloke, should be a long time before he has to buy a drink.

Pte Beharry VC, I hope that you regain full fitness and keep doing the job you obviously love, Congratulations is a weak word, but it is all we have.

Nice to see that the powers that be have acknowledged that you don't have to be a dead hero to get a VC. For the last few awards of the VC it seemed that the vast majority were posthumous!

Not one but two acts of selfless bravery. Pte Beharry VC you are truly an outstanding example to humankind. A real tonic in an increasingly selfish and self centred world. Brilliant. Well Done.

Five Livers,

Daily Telegraph: 'I bayoneted people. It was me or them'
By Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent

The daring and bravery shown in Iraq by the men of 1 Bn, the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment were so outstanding that their battlegroup receives no fewer than 37 of the honours awarded today. They include 33 gallantry awards, among them the Victoria Cross awarded to Pte Johnson Beharry, two Conspicuous Gallantry Crosses, the second highest award for gallantry, 10 Military Crosses and 17 Mentions in Dispatches.

The succession of heroic actions under fire included the first bayonet charge since the Falklands Conflict and the 23-day defence of the former governor's residence in Amarah under siege from a continuous attack.....

Lt-Col Matt Maer, CO of 1 Bn, the PWRR, described yesterday how his men were forced to fight every day for five months in Iraq, coming under 860 separate attacks, with 109 alone on one day. On the first day of their deployment they found themselves drawn into a three-hour running battle with insurgents, he said. "We knew it was going to be a very long and very hot summer."

The steadfast defence by Y Company of the former provincial governor's residence in Amarah saw a number of Military Crosses awarded to the battlegroup, which also included Royal Welch Fusiliers. Major Justin Featherstone, the Y company commander, who, despite repeatedly being told he could withdraw if he saw fit refused to do so, is among the 10 members of the battlegroup awarded the Military Cross.

But it was inevitably the bayonet charge, led by Sgt Chris Broome, from Trowbridge, Wilts, who is awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, that captured the imagination.

The three-hour battle during which it took place began on May 14 last year when a dozen gunmen ambushed nine soldiers from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in a pair of armoured Land Rovers. The Argylls were attacked on the road to Amarah, with insurgents repeatedly attacking the vehicles with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. The Land Rovers sped through the ambushes only to come upon two dozen insurgents putting together an improvised roadside bomb.

Two platoons of the PWRR, a total of 40 men in four Warrior armoured vehicles, were sent from nearby Camp Condor to hunt down the bombers. When they saw the insurgents waiting in ambush in foxholes alongside the road, the four infantry sections in the Warriors, 28 men in all, dismounted, carried out a flanking manoeuvre and charged the insurgents with fixed bayonets.

Cpl Mark Byles, 34, from Portsmouth, who is awarded the Military Cross, said: "The look on their faces was utter shock. They were under the impression we were going to lie in our ditch, shoot from a distance and they would run away.

"I slashed people, rifle-butted them. I was punching and kicking. It was either me or them. It didn't seem real. Anybody can pull a trigger from a distance, but we got up close and personal."

I feel properly humbled. My near-40 years of service palls into insignificance viewed against the actions of this one young man in the flower of his youth.

It gives me hope for the future that there are people like him in his generation with the sense of duty, loyalty and courage lacking in so much of youth today.

Congratulations Pte Beharry on having your brave deeds recognised by the award of the highest honour. Wear it with pride as an example to the young of this Nation.

That comment should be tattood onto the eylids of every MP and Member of the Upper Chamber. It should also be inserted into BuffHoons nether orifice at every opportunity. Once again the British Forces show why they are held in such high regard throughout the world. Gentlemen, I am not worthy!

No words can be sufficient....

Pte Beharry VC thoroughly deserves his award; his courage and valour under fire are exemplary.

One hopes that the PWRR will receive a battle honour for their outstanding work.

The only fly in the ointment will be having to endure the guff spouted by the likes of BuffHoon who is unworthy even to mention Johnson Beharry's name, let alone describe his outstanding bravery.

Cpl Byles description of his part in the bayonet charge against the insurgents is a truly inspiring account.

Well done, the British Army!

Valour... a rare quality, displayed by exceptional individuals. Pte Beharry VC deserves more than Hoon's weasel words - but, in the best traditions of British heroism, he seems bemused by all the fuss. Just doing his job, he'll say.

I think a lot of people will be drinking to his name tonight!

Words fail me. What a truly outstanding example of a British soldier.

Bloody well done!

In these days where everything is 'outstanding' and 'awesome' - Pte Beharry VC is actually outstanding and awesome.

I am humbled, sir, well done.

MOTF - "We can sleep soundly in our beds because there are great men preparred to comit violence on those who would do us harm."

But the more humbling bit of this is that it wasn't done visiting violence but in selfless help of his comrades. Wouldn't it have been so easy for him to jump out of his burning Warrior and thinking only of himself run to one of the other Warriors? He exhibited True Valour, and from my humble perch, CONGRATULATIONS.

As I sit here reflecting on the actions of this incredible young man I feel trully humbled that there are members of our Armed Forces who will make this level of commitment to there oppos and then have the complete decency to look so bemused as Gen Sir M Jackson sings there praises. I have tears rolling down my cheeks.

Pte Beharry VC I salute you and the modesty you posses, you are an insparation to a generation that desperatley needs it, a true hero, God bless you.

Dancing Bear

This young man has my respect. Well done, a credit to the British Army and the profession of arms in general.

It's good to know that such people exist in the British Army. It's also gratifying to know that their armoured vehicles are so tough. I was truly surprised by the amount of rpg's that hit Pte Beharry's Warrior without disabling or destroying it. Perhaps, when the chips are down, British forces do, sometimes, get the right kit for the job?

Please, somebody, tell me it won't happen
 

I as all the previous posters am truly proud to be in the same organisation as these awesome individuals, their acts of individual and group heroism have thankfully been recognised though I am sure there are others who have gone unrecognised for their own contributions to these named actions. There is a big picture of the finest traditions of our services being maintained..Well done all of you.

My problem now is that I am wondering how long it will be before some "pillok", sitiing in his/her nice cosy office, takes real offence to the remarks of Cpl Byles, and appeals to the poor insurgent terrorist F$c&w*t enemy factions of Osamma and offers to sue on his behalf for the cruelty and unreasonable force of our nasty British Soldiers in attacking their ambush with bayonettes, thereby removing the right of every good terrorist to create carnage and murder and then run away dressed as an innocent civilian bystander...

Pureteenlard

""Perhaps, when the chips are down, British forces do, sometimes, get the right kit for the job?""

The Warrior is a great, highly agile, incredibly fast and well protected IFV but the Vickers Rarden turret is crap. The 30mm Rarden steam gunnery is a joke and there is still no Thermal Sight on the thing. The II sights on there were proven crap in the first stramash in 1990/91 and eff all was done about it then....The Alvis people in Telford produced a world beater but the export version is light years better than the bog standard British Army one.

I feel very very humble.

A true hero.

During the last Olympics the word hero was far to often used to descibe some unknown has been's efforts in the domino competition. Could some one show the citation for Private Beharry's award to the press and overblown TV commentators and explain to them what a real hero does to qualify for the title.

Hello all
Reading Cpl Byle's account and knowing how short the SA80 is, even with a bayonet attached, one shudders to think how up close and personal that combat had to be. The courage of those men is incredible. They are an absolute credit to their Army and their nation.
regards
TDD

damned fine show by a brave man
respect

Words fail me.....

Well done Pte Beharry VC!

From a former PWRR (TA) soldier: Honi Soit Qui Mal y Pense

Role Model
 

Prive Beharry VC, I salute you.

I asked my 12 year old son to read the account of your bravery. He was awe struck. Many comment on role models for this, role models for that, but in doing "your job", (your words, not mine), you have become the inspriation, role model and the standard for many a young person, from whatever background, whatever creed or colour, to aspire to.

Words cannot truly describe the actions that led to such rightous recognition and are wholly inadequate now. Someone said earlier that you should not have to buy a drink for a long time. It appears to be a very long line that I need to join, but it will aways be there waiting.

Again, Sir, I salute you.

"While his head remained out of the hatch, to enable him to see the route ahead, he was directly exposed to much of this fire, and was himself hit by a 7.62mm bullet, which penetrated his helmet and remained lodged on its inner surface."

:eek: :uhoh: :eek:

:cool: :ok:

I must admit to a large bout of scepticism about the VC announcement coming at such a convenient pre-election, post-allegations of maltreatment in Iraq time.

And then I read the citation and sat myself down and gave myself a good slap.......

His unbelievable bravery and a matter-of-fact attitude about it remind me that whatever the rights and wrongs of this campaign, it's the actions of men like him that give our Forces the reputation they enjoy.

I raise a glass to you sir (once the sun is past the yardarm, of course)!

A humbling story. Well deserved and good to see it awarded.

As an aside, am I right in thinking that those that hold the VC are saluted by ALL others, regardless of rank ?

VC Info
 

My congratulations go to Pte Beharry VC.
I urge anyone reading this forum to check out www.victoriacross.net and read citations of every other VC ever one and you, like myself, will be absolutely awestruck at these heroes brave deeds.
BV
(If the link doesn't work just type 'Victoria Cross Reference' into Google and it should have the same result.

Incredible story... extremely well deserved.