More than 100 Grenadier Guards returned home from Afghanistan tonight after what their commanding officer said was a “ferocious'' tour of duty.
Two coach loads comprising of 111 men from the 1st Battalion were greeted by applause and cheers from their loved ones as they finally returned to Lille barracks in Aldershot, Hants.
The battalion had spent six months in Helmand Province and sustained five fatalities and a further death of a Royal Artillery soldier attached to the unit.
The main job of the Grenadier Guards was to train Afghan forces and root out Taliban fighters.
Commanding officer of the battalion Lieutenant Colonel Carew Hatherley, 41, from Devon, was greeted by his seven months pregnant wife Candida and the couple's six-year-old daughter Isabelle with warm hugs.
The officer said: “It's absolutely fantastic to be home it's been a long old six months.
“It's been pretty ferocious at times. We have had six killed and a whole host injured. But at the end of the day we have made a big difference to the people of Helmand.
“I am glad to say that the men have done everything I have asked of them and I'm very proud of them and they've done a damn good job.''
Mr Hatherley said that one of the battalion's greatest achievements was reopening girls schools in the province which had been forcibly closed by the Taliban. He said now that children were going to the schools and they remain open.
His wife tearfully said: “Thank God, he's home but five of our men have died and that's very hard.''
She said that the couple had found out she was pregnant only the day before her husband left and she added: “He got back in time.''
Around 200 men from the battalion remain out in Afghanistan and will return in mid October.
Lieutenant Will Harries, 24, from Bath, who was shot in the thigh two months ago while clearing Taliban from Gareshk, said: “No 3 Company are still out there they are people we all know and one of my team lost a leg 10 days before he was due to come home so that puts it in perspective really.''
Few of the thousands of serviceman returning from Iraq and Afghanistan will be welcomed with a parade organised by their local council, the Daily Telegraph reported.
An investigation carried out by the newspaper found that out of 16 local authorities contacted, only two were aware of plans for a parade.
In both cases these plans had been instigated not by the council but by the returning regiment, the newspaper said.
The investigation comes just days after the head of the Army warned that lack of public appreciation for Britain's military effort in Iraq and Afghanistan is in danger of “sapping'' the willingness of troops to serve on such dangerous operations.
General Sir Richard Dannatt said that soldiers returning from conflict zones were dismayed to find that the public could be “dismissive or indifferent'' to what they had been through.
In a speech to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, he said: “Soldiers are genuinely concerned when they come back from Iraq to hear the population that sent them being occasionally dismissive or indifferent about their achievements, because if they ever did, they now no longer approve of the campaign - and of Afghanistan, they do not understand the campaign.
“We are in danger of sapping at our volunteer army's willingness to serve in such an atmosphere again.''
Gen Dannatt later added: “How many councils have written to their local battalions to ask when they are coming back from Iraq and whether they can give them a homecoming parade?
“The answer, I fear, is not high.''
