Captain Davis of the Royal Marines has been awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross and dubbed the new Lawrence of Arabia for his work alongside Afghan allies:
He said: ‘So long as I was providing intelligence I could just get on with it.
‘My job was to go into areas where we didn’t have a lot of knowledge, to speak to the villagers and to train the local police officers.
‘In these areas allegiances could change in a moment, everyone knew somebody in the Taliban. I would lead these Afghan elements in engagements against the insurgents.’
He added: ‘Sharing a bed with the Afghans wasn’t the done thing, nobody else was doing that. I suppose I went a bit bush, especially with the really horrible beard.
‘I got accustomed to the title “Toran” too, which means captain in Pashto.
‘Fluency in Pashto was really important as I would have lost a lot of the wit and banter without that.
‘We were getting attacked by the Taliban every day. Then in the evening we’d prepare food together and recite poetry.
‘The Pashtuns have a history of great poets. We’d listen to this verse, which is often set to dreadful disco beats, until about midnight then fall asleep together on mattresses or these wicker beds outside, gazing at the stars.
‘We’d tell jokes too. They had a good sense of humour, a lot of slapstick. If somebody fell over they’d burst out laughing.
‘They loved cricket and being fairly ignorant about it I had to learn fast. We’d play together.
‘Family matters were also very important, so I’d always ask about their parents and children.
‘These were young guys from the villages, eager to do their bit and after a month or two together I did trust them.
‘Had there been any insurgents among them I’m sure those ALP I was closest to would have protected me.’
Davis’s friendships with his Afghans were tested to the extreme on June 13 last year when the ALP joined soldiers from the Grenadier Guards on an operation to capture a Taliban sniper — a mission which cost the life of Lance Corporal James Ashworth, who was later awarded the VC.
Davis recalled: ‘Me and the Afghans knew there was enemy inside the compound so we pushed in.
‘The guy with me was cut down pretty much straight away, killed after taking a burst of 15 to 20 rounds. He was touching distance from me.
‘As I moved forward to drag him out a grenade rolled around the corner. I jumped over a wall, landing upside down in a ditch. The guy who died was in his late 20s and was someone I was very close to. So I was really, really sad. Losing a close colleague is the worst feeling in the world.’
On a follow-up assault, L/Cpl Ashworth was killed trying to post a grenade through the window of a Taliban mud hut.
Davis cleared the remaining enemy from the building and rescued another British casualty.
Davis, who stands 6ft 4in and weighs 15 stone, joined the Marines after a serious back injury shattered his dreams of winning Olympic rowing glory in Beijing.
Now he is leaving the Marines to retrain as a doctor, and is hoping to work with medical charities in Africa. But Afghanistan will forever be in his heart.
What a fantastic soldier. Too bad all that heroism is being wasted on a shithole like Afghanistan, although I’ll bet that Captain Davis doesn’t agree with me.