It was supposed to be a routine mission like countless others during the long campaign in Afghanistan.
A joint force of British soldiers and United States Marines would helicopter into an area, flush out any fighters that might be there and hold meetings with the village elders.
Yet on what should have been an ordinary patrol, L/Cpl Joshua Leakey’s actions were so extraordinary that he has now won Britain’s highest award for battlefield gallantry.
The 27-year-old serving with 1st Bn the Parachute Regiment single-handedly turned the tide of a Taliban attack and prevented considerable loss of life by repeatedly running through heavy fire to man machine guns.
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