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Johnson served


in Kosovo and Northern Ireland. Then, in 2005, while driving the lead Warrior armoured vehicle of a convoy, his platoon was caught in a ferocious enemy ambush. Beharry was faced with a stark choice: to drive over a mine and take his platoon to safety while very likely losing his own life, or do nothing and have all his men die together. Johnson: I knew when that mine went off


I was going to die, because I was sitting next to the engine. The engine and then me - and the mine is right at the front. So, what I decided to do is place the big


lump of metal, the engine, over the mine so the engine is going to take most of the blast. Yes I’ll get killed but the guys at the back I was hoping they were going to be okay. ...The vehicles from behind would pick the


12 WWW.THEBESTYOU.CO


guys up and carry on. Well I did go over the mine. Did it go off? I can’t tell you! There was so much explosion! With his Warrior still


miraculously under power, he drove deeper into the "killing zone". Then, he saw something coming towards him. Johnson: I had the hatch


open because my driver’s tunnel was full of smoke... I pulled the hatch closed... I didn’t manage to lock it, it blew off in my hand. ...It was a rocket propelled grenade coming directly at my head. Johnson's story didn't end there. With his


vehicle on fi re, still fi ghting an ambush and with no communications, he fi nally located a company of soldiers in a building. With them nearby, he now had to think about saving his comrades. Johnson: ...I get out of the driver’s seat


and I lie in front of the vehicle to take cover so I don’t get shot. I’m thinking I need to get on top of the vehicle to make sure the two


guys on the top are okay. But the vehicle was on fi re and... under heavy machine gun fi re. So I couldn’t come up with any idea how I was going to get on top of the vehicle, which is about six feet in height... So I just went for it. I put my rifl e on my back and run up on top of the vehicle run through the fi re. First person I saw was my boss, he was unconscious, down inside the turret in the gun. [I] pulled him out, put him on my back...


carried him into safety through the fi re. Come back again, did the same thing with the gunner... Then I went round the back of the vehicle. There were four guys in the back. Individually I carried them to safety then checked the other vehicles for casualties... then I went back and sat in the burning vehicle. He now drove the vehicle under heavy fi re


down a river bank, where he disabled it and the weapons system. Johnson: I sit in the back of a vehicle and


the last thing I remember was someone... removing my helmet from my head, and saying to me, “Harry, Harry, stay with me.”


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