TROOPS who set off from their headquarters in Chester are arriving in Afghanistan where they will now spend their Christmas.
The first of the five hundred extra British soldiers, from The 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh (Royal Welsh Fusiliers), yesterday stepped off a C-130 Hercules aircraft at Camp Bastion, near Lashkar Gah, southern Afghanistan.
The group, from the Dale Barracks, off Liverpool Road, landed in the Middle Eastern country at 5.05am.
Stepping off the plane, Cpl Andrew Wrigley said: “We’ve come to back-up the guys who are already here and hopefully make a bit of a difference. It feels good.”
Fusilier Calvin Owen added: “We’ve just been waiting to get out here really, so we’re out here now. Let’s do the job.”
The troops will undergo a special in-theatre training package before deploying onto the ground alongside the 9,000 other regular troops that make up 11 Light Brigade.
In the coming weeks and months, it is expected the soldiers will carry out a variety of roles including mentoring the Afghan National Army and the police.