Our War: Ambushed

[Rawns]

BBC - BBC Three Programmes - Our War, Ambushed

 

Did anyone watch this at all? I will be watching it tonight as it turns out one of the soldiers, Bjorn Rose, was my house mate at University!

[creese]

Might watch this. I was stationed in the same garrison as The Angle Irons in the late 70s

[sippo]

I watched it and was very moved. Won't give away too much but it made me angry in some places.

 

And I reckon some anti-war protestors would pick snippets out of it (unrightly so).

[EvLPhenom]

Yeah i watched it and thought it was very good.

[john]

I caught some of late on so need to re-watch it al on iPlayer, what i saw was interesting how the MOD covered up about that soilder that got shot so when Bjorn (think it was him) wrote to this guys parents they were like OMG we were lied to etc which was a bit I gues the MOD wanted to make them have comfort / peace but it just didn't seem right in a way to me, but yet I'd hate to be told yeh your son's dead he was shot to bits and had a long painful death so I can guess why it was done but just seems wrong if that makes any sense

[Rawns]

I caught some of late on so need to re-watch it al on iPlayer, what i saw was interesting how the MOD covered up about that soilder that got shot so when Bjorn (think it was him) wrote to this guys parents they were like OMG we were lied to etc which was a bit I gues the MOD wanted to make them have comfort / peace but it just didn't seem right in a way to me, but yet I'd hate to be told yeh your son's dead he was shot to bits and had a long painful death so I can guess why it was done but just seems wrong if that makes any sense

 

I watched it last night and it was very moving seeing the actual footage from their helmet cams. I can also see you point. On one hand, parents may want to know that their son was killed instantly, no pain, no suffering etc which I would assume helps the families healing process in coming to terms that their child is dead. Yet on the other hand, the parents may want to know every last detail about when, where, and how it happened along with details of everyone who helped him to get some form of closure. The mother did say she had a hundred questions she wanted to ask the guys on the ground and when she got Bjorns letter with all the details, it proved too much for her until a good couple of years later.

 

Obviously the MOD would inform the parents but I could imagine that the Office Commanding may also want to write which could cause contradictions in what the family has been told. I don't think there is an easy way of "matching" what information is passed on.

[creese]

A lot of people would be shocked at what was actually in some of the coffins that return from war zones and "conflicts". I won't say on here but a search on google would bring up the information if anyone really wants to know.

 

Having arrived on the scene of the Warrenpoint bombing shortly after it happened I'm too well aware of what happen with a bomb blast.

[-OOPSIE-]

I caught some of late on so need to re-watch it al on iPlayer, what i saw was interesting how the MOD covered up about that soilder that got shot so when Bjorn (think it was him) wrote to this guys parents they were like OMG we were lied to etc which was a bit I gues the MOD wanted to make them have comfort / peace but it just didn't seem right in a way to me, but yet I'd hate to be told yeh your son's dead he was shot to bits and had a long painful death so I can guess why it was done but just seems wrong if that makes any sense

 

The MOD didn't lie.

 

The footage of the incident clearly shows multiple soldiers there recognising he had been killed instantly, with them calling out the code meaning a fatality. The commanding officer couldn't accept this had happened and refused to believe it. Instead he classified him as a seriously injured person and called for evacuation.

 

The soldiers there clearly state that his eyes were open and unreactive. Meaning he was brain dead.