Dragoons due home from gruelling tour

Norfolk-based soldiers involved in some of the fiercest fighting in Afghanistan in recent years are set to be given a very welcome reception from their wives and families when they return home this afternoon.

Norfolk-based soldiers involved in some of the fiercest fighting in Afghanistan in recent years are set to be given a very welcome reception from their wives and families when they return home this afternoon.

Light Dragoons who have been posted to Afghanistan for some seven months will arrive back at their Swanton Morley barracks.

Wives and their children have been preparing for the return with banners set to be displayed around the camp.

About 80 troops will arrive back at the base today, along with the Dragoons commanding officer Lt Col Gus Fair, with a further 80 due to return on Saturday. About 150 have already returned home.

Their tour saw them take part in Operation Panthers Claw.

Six Dragoons were killed on what is their latest tour of duty in Afghanistan - three of those were taking part in the operation in the greater Babaji area of Helmand.

It was a five-week campaign in soaring 50 degree heat to clear one of the few remaining Taliban strongholds in Helmand Province prior to the Afghan elections.

The Battlegroup remained in Babaji until the end of their deployment.

t To read a full report see next week's Dereham Times.

t Those who lost their lives were:

Lance Corporal Richard Brandon

Craftsman Anthony Lombardi

Lance Corporal Nigel Moffett

Trooper Phillip Lawrence

Trooper Christopher Whiteside

Lance Corporal David Dennis