UK Soldiers return home hours after soldier killed in Afghanistan

Joy and sadness blended together. This must be very hard on them and their families.

Heroes return home from Afghanistan


Published on Sat Oct 09 11:30:39 BST 2010

It was a bittersweet homecoming for Lancashire’s heroes as they returned home from Afghanistan just hours after one of their colleagues was killed in an explosion.

Around 75 soldiers from the 1st Battalion the Duke of Lancaster’s regiment arrived home at their Catterick, North Yorkshire, base yesterday after a gruelling six month tour, in which time they lost three of their own.

But celebrations were tempered when the news went round the Garrison that a soldier from 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment had died in Afghanistan that very day.

The soldier, attached to 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles, serving as part of Combined Force Nahr-e Saraj (South), was killed in an explosion in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province.

Dozens of families, many from Preston and the surrounding areas, had made the trip to Catterick to show their support for the battle-scarred soldiers.
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Heroes return home from Afghanistan