Fighting on the Frontline

The Fighting on the Frontline team are the first documentary crew ever to follow Apache attack helicopter pilots in a war zone. The pilots speak in detail about a job that until now has been shrouded in secrecy. This first episode follows the Apache helicopter crews as they take the fight to the enemy in Helmand Province. The Apache is the deadliest, most technologically advanced attack helicopter in history and it costs £46m per aircraft. Together with the Chinook helicopter crews who fly to rescue injured soldiers, the crews talk about what it is really like to wage war from above in Afghanistan, which is, for them, as dangerous, brutal and raw as war ever gets. Apache pilots describe the moment before they pull the trigger and how they try to stay emotionally detached from what they're doing: killing. They are filmed as they fly on operations into the 'Green Zone', to hunt Taliban. Footage from the Chinook medical rescue missions emphasises the alarming number of troops being blown up by Improvised Explosive Devices. And the cameras are there as Chinooks race again and again to the rescue of yet more casualties of war.

The cameras follow the soldiers taking the fight to the enemy on board the British Army's latest armoured vehicle - the Warthog. This heavy, tracked armoured vehicle can fight in places where other military vehicles cannot. The crews call it 'combat caravanning', spending weeks at a time out on patrol in the deserts and main river valley of Helmand. The cameras capture the detail of this extraordinary camping trip as the crews try to snatch brief periods of relaxation, surrounded by an enemy that is always watching, ready to attack, but is rarely seen. The Warthog crews are from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, which used to ride horses into battle. But they do develop affection for their modern-day mounts, naming them and constantly repairing and caring for them in order to stay on the move. When the fighting kicks off, camera rigs on the Warthogs capture the different angles of an intense battle with the Taliban, who are firing from less than 80 metres away. The bullets ricochet off the vehicles and past the heads of the commanders, who are exposed in their turrets. As the tour progresses, the crews' vulnerability is exposed when they strike their first IED (improvised explosive device) of the tour. Later, a rapid sequence of events leaves the Warthogs stranded in a river, like sitting ducks surrounded by the enemy.

This episode meets the infantry soldiers, or 'bullet catchers' as they call themselves. These troops are never more than 500 metres from the enemy, living in a world where injury and death are an occupational hazard. In just a few months, three of the 15 soldiers based on a small compound on the frontline of Helmand Province are seriously injured: one by an IED (improvised explosive device); one by gunshot wound to the neck; and one by a grenade. It's a stark reminder of the risks they face each time they set outside the wire on foot patrol. In spite of the dangers, the soldiers open up about their passion for fighting and the adrenaline-fuelled excitement of cheating death. One soldier describes it as 'better than sex' while another says, 'I'd take a good scrap over getting laid any day'. But during moments of intimacy, rarely captured among soldiers, the young troops, some of whom are only 18 years old, lay bare their anxieties. James says 'I've never been so scared in my whole entire life', while Liddell tells of his horror at having to hang his kilt up before leaving home in case it was needed for his funeral. As the tour progresses the soldiers are told they must push north, further into Taliban-held territory, to an area where one of their comrades was previously blown up by an IED. With no alternative but to follow orders, the soldiers' deepest fears become reality yet again.