I WAS in war-torn Helmand province, Afghanistan, while Prince Harry was serving as a 2nd Lt with the Household Cavalry.

The Scarborough Evening News along with other newspapers in Britain had agreed to a news blackout on the Prince’s tour of duty.

In all my various reports to the Evening News and its website I agreed not to endanger his life in the Taliban heartland by making the fact known.

At one point, while I was with the Royal Artillery at a forward base, his regiment was just over the hill.

I lost count of the number of times my editor told me not to mention “you know who” in any of my reports from the front line and I was well aware of the consequences if I did.

Flying into Kandahar in a blacked-out aircraft I was wondering what I had let myself in for. It was a trip I had wanted to make for a few years but when you are flying into a warzone it is a different story.

I had heard of the capture of the former Taliban stronghold of Musa Qala and that soldiers from the Scarborough area had helped in the operation. I wanted to get there to see the town for myself.

And by Christmas Day I was walking through its dusty streets on patrol with British and Afghan troops. It was strangely quiet and the town’s people were friendly but still a little suspicious.

At one point I was kept well back because a suspect explosive device had been found at the side of the road.

It turned out to be harmless which is probably a good thing because the Afghan soldiers had investigated it by kicking it.

I did not know it at the time but I met Corporal Damian Lawrence while on patrol. He was in the other group and all I knew was that he was a Whitby lad. He was killed in action recently and when you hear news like that it really brings home the danger of the situation.

The following day, as I was preparing to leave Musa Qala we heard the whine of a couple of mortars go overhead.

They landed about 1000m away but it was a nerve-racking wait for the all-clear.

I never actually met Prince Harry but I feel I endured the same conditions as him. Having left my washbag in Musa Qala I then spent four days in the desert without washing and had to clean my teeth with chewing gum. Never has a shower and a tube of toothpaste been more welcome.

It was a Christmas I will remember but by New Year I felt it was time to come home. I did just two weeks – where the British lads do six months and the Americans do a 15 month tour – you have got to admire them for that.

Christmas finally comes for soldier

CHRISTMAS came exactly two months late for the family of one Scarborough soldier when he returned home safe and sound on leave from Afghanistan.

Sgt David Lightfoot, 29, has spent the past five months with 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment (Green Howards) in the notorious Helmand province.

And during his time in Sangin his troops were attacked a total of 70 times and in one prolonged onslaught they defended themselves by firing 3000 rounds at the enemy.

His 27-year-old wife Rachael has lived at home in Northstead while he has been away.

She said they celebrated Christmas on Monday, February 25, because “it felt right” and his safe return had been the best Christmas present.

She said: “We had a party on the ‘Boxing Day’ and we had friends and neighbours around. Any excuse for a party. It was good to know he was back safe and sound.”

Sgt Lightfoot, who joined the Green Howards in 1996, said this was his second tour of Afghanistan – the first was in Kabul in 2004 – and it had been a tougher time.

He said: “There has been more war fighting and it is for real. I’ve been in the Army for 11 years and I have trained for this but it’s the first time I’ve had to put it into practice.

“You should never underestimate the Taliban, they are an evolving enemy, they change their tactics as much as we change ours.”

As well as a fighting role British troops have had to supply human aid and help with the needs of the local Afghan people.

He said: “We organise a shura, or meeting, and the locals all came in. We had tea with them and ate with them. Then we discussed their problems.

“With it being winter their immediate concerns are shelter and food. We had a doctor and dentist check them out and treated their injuries.”

As a father to four-year-old Imogen and two-year-old Jake he said it really affected him when he saw injured Afghan children.

He said: “There was a young lad who was playing with unexploded ordnance. He banged it on the floor and injured most of his arm.

“I have seen gunshot wounds to children and shrapnel wounds to children. We’ve had all sorts with us being on the frontline they used to come to the Afghan National Army (ANA) gate for help.”

He added on one occasion a stray mortar round hit a compound which housed five or six families and was full of children. “One six-year-old girl got fragments in her chest and they needed help that badly that they walked down the road while the fighting was still going on,” he said.

“I ran out of the front gate, scooped her up, brought her back into the camp and gave her first aid. We passed her onto the doctor but I stayed with her until we got a helicopter for her to take her to Bastion.

“Two weeks later she was back at our camp for treatment. We got to know the family very well after that.”

He said he had extended his leave to go to the funeral of Cpl Damian Lawrence who died while on a night patrol in Helmand. He said: “He was a very good bloke and he was definitely a role model. I knew him ever since he joined the Army and he went from strength to strength.”

From The Scarborough Evening News on Saturday March 1 2008.