A sentry manning one of the Sangar lookout posts reported on the radio: "I can see a huge pile of smoke over Sangin. I can hear many explosions..." Broomfield ordered over the intercom: "Tower, stand to, stand to. Look in the direction of Sangin and report." As the tower confirmed, Robinson came back on the company net. "Fob Rob, Fob Rob, this is Copper Two Two Alpha. Reference contact, we have one times One casualty, we are taking heavy fire from multiple firing points. We have a vehicle burning. Wait out." Broomfield put the company medics on alert, ready to receive casualties. He ordered 5 Platoon to get ready to storm into Sangin and help in a rescue. He then contacted the battle group operations centre at Camp Bastion, demanding a MERT helicopter. The medical emergency response team had an HC2 Chinook heavy-lift craft equipped for casualty evacuation. Back at the ambush scene inside one of the Vikings, Robinson - B Company's second-in-command - cradled a man's head in his hands as he spoke to Broomfield on the radio. The soldier's regimental insignia had been blown off with his shirt. There was so much blood his face was completely unrecognisable. He had a huge hole in the back of his head, his wounds so bad that Robinson assumed he was dead. He put his hand into the soldier's mouth and felt a breath on his skin. "Doc, doc, this guy's alive," he said. The wounded soldier pushed himself up with one arm and let out a groan. The doc, jammed in at the other end of the wagon, yelled back: "Get some oxygen on him - now! Everybody get out your field dressings and find a bleeding point." Robinson grabbed the oxygen mask and pressed it firmly over the injured man's face. Some of the troops were so tightly packed together they could not reach their dressings. Instead they shoved their fists into the open wounds of the soldier now spreadeagled beneath them, desperately trying to stop him bleeding to death. Robinson felt around the man's bloody neck and found his dog tags. What he read shocked him. Now this was personal. L/Cpl Dean Bailey had been one of his boys when he led sniper platoon a few months earlier. They had been a particularly tight-knit team. "Dean, Dean, you are going to be OK, mate. The helicopter is on the way to get you." The Taliban machine-gun crew that had been killed when the ambush began had been replaced and was firing again from the same spot in the open ground. Robinson's Viking bounced along, throwing Bailey's badly broken body from floor to roof. The column drove as fast as possible back to Forward Operating Base Robinson, screaming past the guard post. The medics took Bailey into the medical centre. Tredget followed them in and he and a US Army doctor went to work. At the same time, the MERT Chinook came in to land nearby. Its two Apache escorts circled like vultures overhead. After 15 minutes the doctors decided Bailey was as stable as he was going to get for the flight back to Bastion. The two Apaches hunting down the enemy had spotted the group of Taliban in the ambush - eight men escaping across the river in boats, trying to get back north to the safety of their stronghold in Musa Qalah. Cannon and missile fire wiped them out from above. Moments later, Aston arrived. "I'll be brief, boys, then go and get yourselves some scoff. What we had out there, that was a well- planned ambush. But the idea of an ambush is you destroy all the enemy in it, or at least you cause them real damage," he said. "We're all hoping Bailey will pull through and the other casualties will be OK too." He added: "I'm incredibly proud of you all."’
Bailey’s injuries were severe - his ear was ripped off, he sustained serious wounds to his head, shoulders, and hands, and was permanently deafened. He is slowly recovering.
For his gallantry in saving Bailey’s life, his fellow sniper Oliver ‘Teddy’ Ruecker was awarded the Military Cross (London Gazette 7 March 2008). Speaking after the event, he recalled: "I knew if I got into another vehicle and drove off I wouldn't be able to live with myself. I didn't know if he was in there so I had to make sure. I was scared. I didn't want to go back but I knew I had to. I don't know how I got close. There were flames, and rounds going off. It was a scene of pure destruction. I don't see myself as a hero. I was just saving my mate - doing him a favour - nothing special in my eyes. It is something which soldiers have between them - friendship and love that we have between us that makes men do that sort of thing for his mate. Every guy who was there had to stand up and be a man. Everyone shared death and destruction on a daily basis."
Sold together with the recipient’s evening Mess Dress, with miniature award for Iraq and sniper’s cloth badge; Army No. 2 Dress Uniform, with riband bar for the Iraq Medal; Regimental Belt and Tie; Beret, with Royal Anglians cap badge; and a water-colour painting showing by Paul Bishop showing the recipient, severely wounded, being rescued by Lance Corporal Reucker.
www.dnw.co.uk
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