Floral tributes mount outside the barracks gates in honour of the latest soldiers to die at the hands of the Taliban – while inside the next wave of fighters prepare to head out to Afghanistan. Ashley Barnard reports

THE faces of the latest six soldiers to die in Afghanistan stare out from a mass of flowers.

They are laid at the gates of Battlesbury Barracks, on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire – home to the 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment.

It is there that five of the men killed last Tuesday, when their Warrior armoured vehicle was hit by a massive explosive device, were based.

The sixth, Sergeant Nigel Coupe, 33, of the 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s, was based at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire.

It was the deadliest attack on British forces since 2001 and the shock over the deaths of the soldiers has had a major effect on colleagues.

But despite that, the next wave of troops – including nearly 300 from 3 Yorks – are coming to the end of a weeklong series of exercises on Salisbury Plain to prepare them for a six-month tour of Afghanistan.

“Things like that happen out there, and now it is a time for us to pull together and do the job in hand,” said Bombardier Mike Randel, 28, from Saltburn, east Cleveland, who is in 19th Regiment Royal Artillery.

This will be his third tour of Afghanistan, but he will not allow the deaths of his comrades to get to him.

Bombadier Randel said the present conditions in Afghanistan mean soldiers are not under daily threat.

“Artillery fire and improvised explosive devices are still killers, but the main part of our job now is to bring the Afghan National Security Forces up to scratch. I do see an improvement in the country every time I go.”

On the final day of the exercise there was a dramatic demonstration involving an RAF Tornado and Chinook helicopter combining to rescue “casualties” from the ground.

It was a welcome break for the men from 3 Yorks, an armoured infantry company making up part of 12th Mechanized Brigade for Operation Herrick 16.

Private Steven Broxham, 18, from Scarborough, is going to Afghanistan for the first time and he said last week’s deaths had saddened him.

But, he said, it also made him more determined go and finish the job they started.

“It has affected us all. It always does when something like that happens, but it doesn’t mean I want to do my job any less,” he said.

“If anything, I want to do it more. Training exercises like these help build morale and pull us together. Once the morale is there, everything else falls into place.”

Sergeant Ronnie Sawdon, 45, is a Territorial Army soldier from Ingleby Barwick, near Stockton, and is in 4th Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment.

A technical manager at a Stockton company, Sgt Sawdon said he would mainly miss his three-yearold son, also called Ronnie, during his six-month tour.

“It will be hard, but I am looking forward to the challenge. It is something very different to my day job because I will be training dog handlers and acting as an advisor.”

Despite the dangers, all the servicemen and women were confident, relaxed and eager to do their job.

Pte Broxham said: “We are paid to do what we do, and it is just another job. We are trained well and it is only when we go to places like Afghanistan that we put our training in action and really start doing our job.”