This opening part of the series tells the story of a close-knit group of friends from 3 Platoon, 1st Battalion Royal Anglian regiment, who were sent to Helmand province in 2007. For most of them it was their first experience of war. The whole tour was filmed on a helmet camera by the platoon's sergeant, who captured the moment when one of his men, 19-year-old Private Chris Gray, was killed in a Taliban ambush. The film explores the effects of his death on both his mates in the platoon and his family back in the UK.
The second episode focuses on a young platoon from the Grenadier Guards and their terrifying struggle with landmines, also known as Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). Captain Alex Rawlins filmed his men as they lost of one their mates, 23-year-old Guardsman Jamie Janes, who stood on a landmine during a patrol. The film shows how Jamie Janes's death became a turning point in the British public's awareness of the human cost of IEDs and how a misspelled letter turned into a political storm for the then prime minister, Gordon Brown.
The final part starts in 2009 and tells the story of 2nd Battalion Princess of Wales regiment as it comes to terms with new rules of fighting brought in to protect civilians. Private Mike McCabe is filmed being shot in the leg during a Taliban ambush. By 2010, the Scots Guards find themselves fighting a very different war - a battle for hearts and minds. They struggle to train a local force, the Afghan National Police, who fight in a reckless and dangerous way. The risks are hammered home when Guardsman Daniel Clarke films a three-year-old girl who has been seriously injured by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by the ANP. The Scots Guards tour ends in tragedy when six members of the ANP are massacred in their sleep.
More stories of life on the frontline in Afghanistan. A daring mission deep into enemy territory is captured on camera by soldiers during the country's bloodiest summer on record.
C Company, 2nd Battalion the Mercian Regiment enter a dangerous area of Helmand.
Stories of life on the frontline in Afghanistan. How a Welsh Guards platoon fell into a deadly ambush yards from the isolated mud fort which was their patrol base.
Marking the end of the British campaign in Helmand, this documentary tells the story of the Afghanistan war through the words and pictures of the soldiers who fought it. The 13-year campaign has been documented like no other conflict, by young soldiers who took video cameras into battle, recording the war as only they could see it. The Ministry of Defence and the soldiers have allowed BBC filmmakers to use this remarkable footage to tell the real story of this modern war. The soldiers' individual stories are gripping and often deeply moving - from the intimate account of a platoon sergeant who lost one of his men just two weeks into their tour and the terrifying moment a British Apache helicopter fired on its own men with devastating consequences for one 18-year-old paratrooper, to the eye-opening testimony of a surgeon working in Bastion field hospital at the height of the IED threat and the dramatic scenes when a war-weary sergeant leads his men into a surprise attack on one of the Taliban's largest bomb-making factories. The soldiers, some of them a decade older than when they first went to fight, some still barely out of their teens, recall their extraordinary experiences in intimate first-hand testimonies. As well as recounting their personal stories of war, they chart the bigger picture of how this small mission escalated into a prolonged stand-off with a determined and capable enemy. The film catches up with the soldiers today in bittersweet moments of reflection - many have left the army, often for medical reasons, and all of their lives are dominated by the legacy of this long and brutal war.
