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Two army bomb disposal experts - one killed in the line of duty - were today awarded the George Cross for outstanding bravery in Afghanistan.
Staff Sergeants Kim Hughes and Olaf Schmid, who was killed last October on the final day of his tour, each received the most prestigious military honour in existence.
S/Sgt Schmid's award will be collected in a royal ceremony at a later date by his widow Christina.
S/Sgt Hughes was praised for: "The single most outstanding act of explosive ordnance disposal ever recorded in Afghanistan."
He deactivated seven improvised explosive devices (IEDs) found when a helicopter landed in a minefield to extract seriously injured soldiers.
In an "extraordinary act" last August, he tackled the devices without protective clothing to save time as the patrol was under attack from the Taliban near the town of Sangin.
His unit had been called in after stretcher bearers evacuating a seriously injured soldier stood on other IEDs, killing two soldiers outright and causing four more very serious casualties, one of whom died later.
His citation read: "Hughes and his team were called in to this harrowing and chaotic situation to extract the casualties and recover the bodies. Speed was absolutely essential if further lives were not to be lost.
"His utterly selfless actions enabled all the casualties to be extracted and the bodies recovered."
S/Sgt Schmid personally dealt with 70 IEDs on his five month tour. On one occasion he spent 11 hours in 45 degree Celsius heat, clearing a vitally important road in Wishtan Province that had been laced with IEDs.
On another occasion in Sangin he was led by unsuspecting army soldiers to an unexploded shell that he realised was radio controlled and could cause slaughter in a nearby bazaar if it detonated. He neutralised the IED manually.
He was killed three weeks later when he and his team were caught in an alleyway surrounded by buried IEDs. His citation said: "He was killed whilst dealing with a device. Schmid's actions on that fateful day, when trapped in an alleyway with no safe means of escape, probably saved the lives of his team."
Both soldiers were from the Royal Logistics Corps.
Today the Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshall Sir Jock Stirrup, said: "Their selfless commitment, unswerving devotion to duty and unsurpassed courage are both awe inspiring and humbling."
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- Steve, London, England, 18/03/2010 15:56
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