Poor equipment kills British soldier

Last Modified: 15 Feb 2008
By: Nick Paton Walsh

Is Captain Philippson's death inexcusable and unforgivable?

Longer and costlier than ever anticipated, Britain's six year war in Afghanistan is now overstretched and challenged like never before.

There have been 87 dead fighting the Taliban, at times in trench warfare.

But today a coroner damningly concluded one of them was not killed by enemy bullets, but by the poor equipment he was given.

The first casualty of Britain's deployment here in Helmand was Captain James Phillipson, who died in June 2006 when rescuing ambushed colleagues.

The ministry of defence has admitted he lacked "mission essential equipment", like night-vision goggles. Today, Oxford coroner Andrew Walker spelt out what that meant.

Andrew Walker, assistant coroner for Oxfordshire said: "They were defeated not by the terrorists but by the lack of basic equipment. To send soldiers into a combat zone without basic equipment is unforgivable, inexcusable and a breach of trust between the soldiers and those who govern them."

Captain Philippson's father, was today much more personal in his anger.

Anthony Phillipson said: "The ministry of defence was starved of cash by the then chancellor, now our miserable parsimonious prime minister. It's a question of money, and they've not spent the money and they've risked soldiers' lives and in this case lost a life."

He added they'd been hampered in their fight back, as their heavy machine guns weren't mounted on their Land Rover, vehicles meant for Belfast and eventually replaced amid the roadside bombs of Iraq or Afghanistan.

Today, another inquest in Wiltshire heard two soldiers in Iraq had asked for more armoured vehicles, but were denied them and later killed by a roadside bomb.

Britain does war on the cheap, one officer told me.

For example, British troops in Basra, under regular rocket attack from insurgents, sleep in breeze block beds. But the Dutch in Afghanistan sleep in mortar-proof portacabins that cost £20,000 each.

In southern Afghanistan, Nato countries differ greatly in how much they spend on operations per soldier.

This past year America spent the most in Afghanistan, with an estimated £600,000 per soldier.

The Dutch spent £264,000 for each of their 1,700 troops, while the Canadians spent £170,000 per soldier. But the UK spent £94,615 per soldier.

The ministry of defence today said their sympathies were with Captain Phillipson's family, and regretted the delay in getting him night vision goggles.