TWO Darlington soldiers have spoken of their experiences working in Afghanistan on a mission widely unrecognised by the British public.

Corporal William ‘Billy’ Murphy, 44, and Lance Corporal Andrew Duff, 36, are currently on operational duty with their military working dogs Teal and Riley in the Afghanistan capital city of Kabul.

They are part of around 450 British Army personnel serving on an operation codenamed Toral, which is the UK’s contribution to the NATO mission, Op Resolute Support.

This is a multi-national coalition helping Afghanistan to take control of its own affairs and establish its place in the international community.

Corporals Murphy and Duff are part of a team performing a variety of non-combat roles such as advising Afghan ministers and senior officials on security issues and mentoring the instructors at the Afghan National Army Officers’ Academy (ANAOA) - their equivalent of Sandhurst.

The two Darlington soldiers are based in Camp Qargha right next door to the Officers Academy along with their canine charges.

They form a formidable team when it comes to protecting areas against the threat of planted explosives, or IEDs (improvised explosive devices) as they’ve come to be known.

L/Cpl Duff explained: “We get tasked on a daily basis with having to search areas, it may be landing zones or it could be vehicle routes.

“We’ll arrive with the dogs and let them off their leashes; using their super sensitive sense of smell they’ll scour the area sniffing about and if there are any tell-tale scents of danger they’ll immediately let us know.”

Speaking of his love of being an Army dog handler, Cpl Murphy said: “I first came into contact with the dog section whilst out in Brunei and thought - I’ll give that a go, and I’ve never looked back since.”

L/Cpl Duff added: “I wanted to make a real difference in my Army career; I wanted to be able to save lives and by finding bombs, explosives and hidden weapons that’s precisely what the dogs do.

“In fact, I owe my life to one of them.

“Some years ago I was clearing a compound and the dog I had at the time discovered a pressure plate (a trigger for an IED) just as I was about to step on it.”

Cpl Murphy joined the Army back in 1999 and lives in Darlington with his wife Abbie and their two sons, L/Cpl Duff enlisted in 2004 and lives in Whinfield with his wife Jessica.