Airstrip One

Evidence emerges that the British Army was unprepared for the war - 6th July 2003,

Sean Rayment, in the Sunday Telegraph, reported on the lack of kit that the British army was given to fight the war.

Colour Sgt S Baillie, a company quartermaster sergeant with the 1st battalion of the Light Infantry, revealed that his troops went into battle without adequate body armour, grenade launchers, rifle grenades, night-vision devices, desert boots, hats, socks and uniforms.

This issue was highlighted before the war as an example of the supply problems that the armed forces have faced, with increasing severity, for some years. It comes as no surprise that the Ministry of Defence preferred to downplay this problem as a "minor issue", given that the Hoon did not appear to address this concern. He told the Defence Select Committee on May 14th,

"When they [British troops] went into operations all of our forces were given the right boots. There was sufficient clothing and protective equipment in-theatre to deal with a force of this size."

When an article is written, providing evidence that the British Army did not have sufficient clothing or protective equipment, the Ministry of Defence is ordered to protect the political reputation of their master rather than the troops in theatre.

An MoD spokesman said: "We do not believe there is a contradiction between what the Secretary of State told the defence select committee and what CSgt Baillie said in his letter. With a logistics operation of this size there are always going to be one or two glitches. There is a lessons-learned exercise under way to make sure that we can improve future operations."

I am sure that underequipped soldiers will appreciate that they suffering from a glitch!