From SKY NEWS 30 October 2008
Lieutenant Colonel Joe O'Sullivan, of 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, was speaking at a memorial service to honour the fallen troops.

During its recent tour of Afghanistan the battalion lost nine soldiers, plus a further six who were either linked to or who worked with it.

The service, at St Peter's Church, in Colchester, Essex, followed a march through the garrison town by 600 members of the battalion.

Hundreds of people lined the streets to applaud as they passed.

Speaking during the church service, Lt Col O'Sullivan said: "This was the very hardest end of soldiering, which the battalion had not seen for 26 years, with little margin for error and no place for the faint-hearted."

He continued: "There were individual acts of bravery, which the nation may recognise in time, but every man gave his best in his own way and the soldiers of 2 Para today were the successors to the battalion that held the Arnhem Bridge with such tenacity, or refused to contemplate defeat against superior numbers at Goose Green.

"People outside looking in have been amazed by the battalion's resilience, its ability to carry on and on and its humour that defied the very worst of days."

The soldiers were based at Sangin in the north of Helmand, an area fiercely contested by the Taliban, who have resorted increasingly to suicide bombings and roadside booby traps.

Photography Copyright © 2008 Ken Chambers ARPS