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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch
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To: lurqer who wrote (35389)1/16/2004 8:16:52 PM
From: lurqer  Read Replies (2) of 89467
 
Hoon may go before Blair.

'We had no armour plates - and no body bags either'

First-hand testimony from troops emerged yesterday to contradict the Defence Secretary's evidence to Parliament and his attempt to portray the death of Sgt Roberts as an isolated case.

One officer in 7th Armoured Brigade told the British Forces Broadcasting Service that none of the troops had any body armour when they went into Iraq.

"None of us had body armour plates when we crossed the line of departure into Iraq," the unnamed officer said in an interview with a BFBS reporter shortly after the war.

"They did arrive with us but in many cases people had seen action without being correctly equipped."

Mr Hoon has repeatedly said there were no significant shortages of equipment. He told the Commons defence select committee that "all the requisite numbers of boots and clothing and equipment were there".

The BFBS report makes clear that Sgt Roberts was not alone among British Army officers and NCOs in his anger at the shortages.

One senior NCO said he and his men were ordered not to use monitors designed to warn them of chemical or biological attack because of a lack of batteries and none of the brigade's tanks had chemical filters. "An ineffective chemical detection system could have ended up with us taking people home in body bags, except that we didn't have any body bags either."

Yet even after the National Audit Office published a highly critical report detailing the lack of supplies, Mr Hoon insisted that "British forces were properly protected" against the chemical and biological threat.

The report catalogued a series of failings which left only a few troops with all their proper kit. But Mr Hoon told the defence committee: "The truth is that when they 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."

He is likely to face further criticism from MPs who visited Iraq and found that weeks after the end of the war many troops still had no desert kit.

telegraph.co.uk

lurqer
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