Interview with Robert William Moore

British private and NCO served with 1st Bn Royal Anglian Regt in GB, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Ireland and Iraq, 1994-2007; NCO served with 1 Section, 3 Platoon, A Coy, 1st Bn Royal Anglian Regt during Operation Herrick VI in Helmand, Afghanistan, 4/2007-11/2007

REEL 1 Background in Southend-on-Sea, GB, 1976-1992: family; education. Aspects of enlistment and training as private with Queen's Regiment in GB, 1992: pattern of training; reception on arrival at training regiment; abortive request to leave British Army; inspections; weapons training in Phase 1; difference between Phase 1 and Phase 2 training; levels of fitness; importance of basic training for military career; passing out parade. Aspects of period as private with 1st Bn Royal Anglian Regt in GB, 1994-1995: advice given prior to joining battalion; exercise in United States of America; fitting into platoon life; daily routine at Colchester Garrison, including drilling for colours parade; air mobile role of B Coy; evasion training. Aspects of period as private with 1st Bn Royal Anglian Regt in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1995: reaction to hearing of deployment; preparations and role; rules of engagement; arrival at Split, Croatia. REEL 2 Continues: character of training; frustration of deployment; return to GB. Recollections of operations as private with 1st Bn Royal Anglian Regt in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1996: lectures; training in handling civil disturbances; description of camp and accommodation; role of close observation platoon; uniform and equipment; rota worked; layout of sangar; use of ARV Land Rover; method exiting and entering base; relations with civilians; patrolling; threats from Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and snipers; importance of observing out of the ordinary things; searching cars; co-operation with Royal Ulster Constabulary; amusing incident of being hung up on railings; usefulness of experience in Northern Ireland. REEL 3 Continues: Aspects of period as private with 1st Bn Royal Anglian Regt in GB, 1996-1999: role as home defence battalion; sense of frustration. Aspects of period as NCO with Reconnaissance Platoon, 1st Bn Royal Anglian Regt in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, 1999-2001: intensive training with Reconnaissance Platoon; intelligence training prior to deployment; role of platoon; duties; civilian look of platoon members; organisation of operations; question of being compromised; attending NCO cadre. Aspects of period as instructor on attachment at Bassingbourn Camp, GB, 2001-2003: instructional duties; treatment of female recruits; question of change in attitude of recruits from own period of training. Aspects of period as NCO with A Coy, 1st Bn Royal Anglian Regt in GB, 2003-2005: rejoining battalion at Pirbright Camp; opinion of period trialing Bowman Radio system; problems with Bowman Radio; opinion of Saxon Armoured Personnel Carrier; use of FV510 Warrior Tracked Armoured Vehicle during exercise in Canada. Recollections of operations as NCO with 1st Bn Royal Anglian Regt in Iraq, 2005: pattern of training for Iraq deployment; rules of engagement for Iraq; uniform and equipment; carrying less armament during tour; character of camp. REEL 4 Continues: building camp on site of oil refinery; vehicle patrolling; use of interpreters; attitude of local population towards Americans; contrast in behaviour of British and American military personnel towards Iraqi civilians; relations with civilians; climatic conditions. Aspects of period as NCO with 1st Bn Royal Anglian Regt in GB and Belize, 2005-2007: return to Pirbright Camp; role as instructor in jungle warfare in Belize; conditions in jungle. Recollections of operations as NCO with 1 Section, 3 Platoon, A Coy, 1st Bn Royal Anglian Regt during Operation Herrick VI in Helmand, Afghanistan, 4/2007-11/2007: awareness of situation in Afghanistan; rules of engagement in Afghanistan; training section in close contact drills prior to deployment to Afghanistan; types of Taliban fighters encountered; use of desert kit from Iraq; body armour; flight from GB to Afghanistan; acclimatisation period in Camp Bastion. REEL 5 Continues: sorting out kit; hand over from Royal Marines at Now Zad; deplaning from Boeing CH-47 Chinook Helicopter; terrain surrounding Now Zad; deserted nature of camp; description of camp; patrolling from camp; operation to clear Now Zad, 13/4/2007; start of engagement with Taliban, 13/4/2007; account of close contact nature of fighting with Taliban fighters, 13/4/2007; reaction to wounding, 13/4/2007; death of Private Chris Gray, 13/4/2007; nature of arm wound and attitude to prospect of casualty evacuation; evacuation to Now Zad and medical treatment for wound; evacuation by helicopter to Camp Bastion; reaction to hearing of death of Private Chris Gray. REEL 6 Continues: medical treatment at Camp Bastion; attending parade for repatriation of Private Chris Gray's body to GB; medical evacuation to GB; arrival at Pirbright Camp; nature of wounds and rehabilitation period; reaction of comrades to his return to Afghanistan, 8/2007; situation in Sangin; duties in Sangin; problems with wound on return to GB; award of Military Cross.

“As I turned to peel I got shot in the right arm. But initially I thought, there’s some idiot, there’s some wanker in that bush and started shooting the bush thinking one of them had jumped up and tried to knock me down or something and as I did that and I looked and I just saw the top of my arm had turned red. And I was thinking what the hell’s happened there. Looked at it, everything’s going on around me still, and I turned round and went “Boss I’ve been hit, I’ll see you in a minute!” and just ran back. At that point somebody else had got up and started firing as well cause they’d seen, they’d sort of heard me shout I’ve been hit so I’m off back so they got up started firing. I ran back and I ran past platoon Sergeant shouting siphon..I’ve been hit I’ve been hit and it was not real sort of screaming I’ve been hit in pain, it was just like I’ve been hit sort of sense of I’m pissed off that I’ve got hit. I got dragged into a ditch by one of my team medic and engineer and patched up, whacked on two first field dressings and I had a sweat rag round my neck that I just put my arm into.”

“I got shot in the right upper arm, near enough I was lucky it didn’t hit the bone, cause they said that range and that velocity of the round it would have just ripped my arm clean off and I would have been complete arm amputation from the shoulder down but luckily it didn’t, I’ve just got a nice little edam wedge out of my arm now. But yeah I basically refused morphine when my team medic was about to give it to me. I said look if you give it to me you’re just going to have to carry me as well and I’m twice as fat as he is sort of thing and refused that just got myself in a comfortable position and operated my rifle with my left hand completely no no in the pamphlets way of using a rifle, you should never use it with your left hand you can’t use it properly but you can still use it to defend yourself. I was really pumped with adrenalin cause of what was going on and it felt like someone had just hit me with a lump of wood. There was no sharp pain or anything there was no and you could probably ask most people that were shot out there, that there’s very rarely any sharp pain it’s just thud and what was that, oh. That’s all the feeling was I say for anybody that’s never been shot walk into the corner of a coffee table with your leg or something and that’s the same sort of feeling.”

“Once they’d called the IRT [Immediate Response Team] back in, the medevac helicopter in and they took us out to the helipad and it was behind ANP hill and I was just literally stood there in my trousers, my boots and kneepads still on and that’s all I had on me no shirt nothing no body armour no helmet and the helicopter came in and all these marines that were doing the protection for the med team ran off expecting to pick up stretchers and walk on cause I’d been classed as a T1 that was like critical need to get in there quick because of the amount of blood I’d lost and then we had a T2 because he couldn’t walk – they were expecting two stretcher cases I wandered on saying alright lads to them and Vish just hopped on going alright? He’s like, a bit surreal at the time and then when we took off the med team just pounced on us and were sorting us all out, making sure we were all alright and then there was a guardian reporter on the chopper as well and he started taking pictures of us and I’ve got the pictures you look at the pictures from when we first get on there all joking and smiling and the realisation of what has happened and our faces have just drained.”

Sergeant Billy Moore MC of 1st Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment, was hit with a rifle bullet in his upper right arm during an ambush by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2007. He describes the treatment he received in hospital at Camp Bastion.

“I was in Bastion for about six days because when I got dragged into the ditch, I didn’t know what sort of ditch it was but, they sort of said it was quite a dirty ditch it was probably a sewage ditch that I got dragged into, so the wound was quite covered in dirty stuff so the first operation I had, they cut out all the dead or dying flesh and trying to get as much of the muck out as possible, then packed it with gauze and I was just getting pumped full of antibiotics all the time and I was on those until, for five days and then once I came off the intravenous antibiotics, that’s when I could fly home because they didn’t want to put me on the plane with all that and after two days they sort of stitched up the inside and stapled me up.”