Soldier free-wheels his Land Rover into action

A soldier in a broken down vehicle was so desperate to help his colleagues in a battle with the Taliban – he pushed his vehicle down a hill and rolled into the fight.

Sergeant Andrew McNulty (pictured) was in a heavily-armed Land Rover which had broken down when the Taliban attacked his convoy as it went over a hill.

Seemingly stranded, Sgt McNulty knew his comrades needed his help and his firepower so he asked an officer to tow him to the brow of the hill, then he and his colleagues pushed themselves over, and they rolled a kilometre down into the battle.

Sgt McNulty, 29, from Churchill, said: “When I appraised the situation I realised that I needed to get the weapons systems into the battle. The crew of the vehicle helped me give it a push and we then climbed aboard; we rolled about a kilometre into the fire-fight.

“I did not really concern myself with how we would get the vehicle out of the contact area at the bottom of the hill, my colleagues were already there and we needed to support them.”

Sgt McNulty, known to all as ‘Mac’, is a soldier with 2nd Battalion, The Mercian Regiment (Worcesters and Foresters), based in Holywood, County Down, in the middle of a six month tour of Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

He is the platoon sergeant, the second in command, of Ava Platoon, based at Camp Bastion, a 30-strong team which provides protection for the huge resupply convoys, conducted by 19 Light Brigade Combat Service Support Battalion.