Royal Marines fight Christmas Day battle with Taliban - then march back to base wearing Santa hats

The men of 40 Commando left their Afghan base at 4.30am - midnight in Britain - to probe rebel lines a few hundred yards from their camp.

It was only a matter of time before the insurgents attacked. As shots rang out, one commando joked: "Merry Christmas!"

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The Marines had spent two and a half hours creeping along river beds and clearing homes long abandoned to the fighting.

Then a burst of fire from an AK47 erupted from a tumbledown compound close to another patrol.

Corporal Wilf Rees said: "I put my sights on the compound and then I saw the muzzle flash."

The Taliban gunman was aiming at a group of Marines who had taken up supporting positions on high ground nearby.

Moments later another Kalashnikov burst rang out and Corporal Rees replied with a fierce volley of shots from his rifle.

His target was a football-sized hole in a mud wall some 1,000 yards from his lookout on the roof of an abandoned farmhouse.

"I don't know for sure if I got him, but he didn't fire again after that,' said the father of two.

Christmas was essentially another working day for the men of Charlie Company at their Forward Operating Base in Kajaki, northern Helmand.

But as they neared the final mile of their patrol, almost five hours after setting out, the men swapped their helmets for Santa hats.

Corporal Richard Thomas, 27, from Aberdeen, said: "It's like groundhog day out here sometimes - you do the same thing every day and you get the same food.

"It's easy to lose track of time so it's important to remind yourself it's Christmas."

Their camp is the most isolated UK outpost in Helmand.

It is too dangerous for convoys to reach by road so all food, fuel, ammunition and post comes in by helicopter.

Post takes priority over fresh food because there just aren't enough flights to go round.

Chef James Hampson said: "I can't remember the last time we got fresh food. Christmas dinner is rations.

"No turkey, it's chicken stew, spaghetti bolognese and noodles."

While cooks at Camp Bastion, the main UK base, served up more than a ton of turkey yesterday, the only culinary nod to Christmas at Kajaki was a precious slice of Christmas cake.

"We were sent about 50 individual-Christmas cakes," said Corporal Hampson, 36, from Warrington.

"There should be a slice for everyone."

The Marines' galley was decked out with a Christmas tree and bunting made from red and white tape, usually used to cordon off landmines.

In the absence of alcohol, men drank coffee from mugs made from old mortar tubes. Presents from family were opened and there was even time for a quiz.

The men all do their bit to keep morale high because they know, as far as the fighting goes, that tomorrow and the next day will only bring more of the same.

And maybe, if they're lucky, some fresh food.

This report was compiled under MoD censorship rules.

• Two diplomats were given hours to leave Afghanistan yesterday after trying to negotiate with anti-government warlords in Helmand.

Irishman Michael Semple, the deputy head of the European Union mission in Afghanistan and Mervin Patterson, a United Nations official who is believed to be British, were detained by secret police.

They were accused of threatening Afghanistan's national security by allegedly offering aid and development incentives to tribal elders in the Taliban heartlands.

A spokesman for the UN insisted the arrests were a "misunderstanding of what people were doing in Helmand".