Largest ever repatriation for Wootton Bassett today (From This Is Wiltshire)

Largest ever repatriation for Wootton Bassett today

6:15am Tuesday 14th July 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(2)

The bodies of eight British soldiers killed during the army's bloodiest 24 hours in Afghanistan will be flown home to a military base today.

Thousands are expected to line the streets of Wootton Bassett, near RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire, to watch the mens' cortege - the largest yet to drive through the market town.

Among the servicemen to be repatriated are five soldiers from 2nd Battalion The Rifles who died near Sangin, in Helmand province on Friday, in two "daisy-chain" explosions.

Corporal Jonathan Horne, 28, and Riflemen William Aldridge, 18, James Backhouse, 18, and Joseph Murphy, 18, were rescuing comrades from an earlier blast when a second device detonated.

Rifleman Murphy was carrying rifleman Daniel Simpson, 20 - who was injured by the first makeshift bomb - when both were killed in the following explosion.

Rifleman Aldridge, from Bromyard, Herefordshire, was attempting to reach casualties from the first blast, despite being wounded himself.

Also returning on the C17 plane will be Corporal Lee Scott, 26, of 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, who died in an explosion on the same day, just north of Nad-e-Ali, during Operation Panther's Claw.

Making up the eight are two men killed in separate incidents on Thursday. Private John Brackpool, 27, of Prince of Wales' Company, of 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, was shot at Char-e-Anjir near Lashkar Gah, while on sentry duty.

Rifleman Daniel Hume, 22, of 4th Battalion The Rifles was killed in an explosion while on a foot patrol, again near Nad-e-Ali.

The families of all the men are expected to attend a private ceremony at RAF Lyneham's chapel after their coffins, each draped in a flag, are carried from the plane.

The hearses will then drive through Wootton Bassett three miles away, on their route to the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxfordshire. Inquests into their deaths will be held in the coming weeks.

Crowds have appeared spontaneously in Wootton Bassett to pay their respects since the bodies of British service personnel started being brought back to Lyneham in 2007.

Campaigners want to rename the repatriation route The Highway of Heroes.

Yesterday The Prime Minister said the last few weeks of fighting had been "a sad and difficult time" for Britain, but said it was right to press on and stop al Qaida using Afghanistan as a base for worldwide terror.

His words came after a total of 15 soldiers died in Afghanistan in ten days, bringing the total number of UK military fatalities in the country since 2001 to 184 - surpassing the 179 who died in Iraq.

On Friday five more heroes were returned to their families. Resident Peter Gray, 69, a former Royal Engineer, said: "The people of Wootton Bassett will continue to pay their respects until RAF Lyneham closes next year.

He said: "We will still be here when they come back, come rain, shine or hail."