British forces have suffered more than 4000 casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, the equivalent of one in 24 of all trained soldiers in the Army, The Herald can reveal.
The roughly 4% attrition rate includes 263 dead and 635wounded in action between the two war zones and 2876 hospitalised with non-battle injuries and disease. It does not include frontline troops with minor shrapnel wounds who have been patched up by their own unit medics and remained on duty.
Of the fatalities, 197 have died by enemy hands and the rest in accidents or from other causes such as disease, heart attacks or suicide.
The casualty toll rises to between 10% and 11% for the average infantry unit fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, about the same level as that experienced by British troops at the height of the Second World War.
The frightening intensity of combat in Helmand was exposed last year when the Royal Anglians revealed that they had fired one million rounds, killed 1,028 Taliban and lost nine of their own men in a six-month tour of duty.
The 650-strong regiment sustained a further 135 wounded or seriously injured in the fighting in the Sangin Valley, having to "winkle out the Taliban at the point of a bayonet", according to Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart Carver, its commanding officer.
By the end of the tour, the Anglians had lost almost 22% of their manpower to enemy action, over twice the "going rate" for battle casualties.
One officer who spoke to The Herald said: "The real story lies in the number of wounded with life-threatening injuries. It's more than half of those listed as sustaining battlefield wounds. At least 50 men have had limbs amputated, lost the use of arms or legs or lost eyes since 2003."
Although the Ministry of Defence is reluctant to release details of individuals' wounds unless forced to do so by a compensation claim, more than 30 soldiers are known to have lost legs. Four or five have suffered double amputations and another five have had arms amputated. At least two soldiers have lost the use of limbs and 10 have also lost eyes, while another six have been diagnosed with irreparable brain damage.
The Herald has learned that one soldier serving with 52(Scottish) Brigade in Helmand as part of the current deployment has lost both legs.
The official MoD figures concede that 323 of the 635 wounded by hostile action have been seriously or very seriously hurt. This denotes life-threatening wounds and covers everything from a bullet impact to the traumatic amputation of legs or arms in a roadside bomb blast.
However, the killed-in-action rate for US troops in the Iraq-Afghanistan wars is half what it was in the Second World War and one--third less than Vietnam and Desert Storm, according to the Pentagon, largely due to battlefield medical teams stabilising the wounded and getting them to doctors faster than their predecessors.
Briefing papers show the American battlefield death rate is 12.5% for current wars compared with 25.3% for the Second World War and 18.6% for Vietnam/Desert Storm.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article