Royal Dragoon Guards prepare for deployment to Helmand Province in Afghanistan

RAZOR-SHARP creases along his combat fatigues are uppermost in Trooper James Dalby's mind, because he and his mates are collecting the top troop award from their garrison commander. It’s a proud moment, but also the last time James will take part in a formal parade for six months. From Monday, his thoughts will turn to his main job – fighting.

James, 19, from Heworth, is a cavalry-man with Catterick-based D Squadron, Royal Dragoon Guards, which is about to deploy to Helmand Province in Afghanistan.

There much of his thinking time will be spent worrying about the heat, because the six-month tour of duty coincides with the height of summer, and temperatures can reach a sweltering 50C.

James is a driver. Since the Second World War the Dragoons have been a tank regiment, but due to the nature of war in Afghanistan he will be at the wheel of a Viking armoured vehicle, and the baking temperature outside will be nothing compared to that inside the cockpit.

“You just learn to live with it, I sup-pose,” he says. “We’re not used to it, and I just hope the air conditioning holds out.”

And then there is the dust.

“Two of our squadrons have already flown out and the guys say the dust is unbelievable. One minute it is hot sun-shine, the next you can be in the middle of a dust storm.”

Microscopic particles of dust get every-where and, as every soldier knows, the priority is then to clean your rifle; Af-ghanistan isn’t the place to discover it has jammed.

This will be the first time James has been on operations. “It’s a bit daunting and I’m a bit nervous,” he says. “But it’s part of the job and you can’t really say how you will react until you get out there.”

Ash Smith lives in Acomb, and like James it will be his first time in Afghani-stan. He’s also a driver, and at the age of 21 will be responsible for the safety of troops in his vehicle.

Summer is a dangerous time because Taliban fighters will be ferociously pro-tective of the new poppy harvest, which is the world’s biggest source of opium and used to make heroin.

“They’re going to be more aggressive towards us,” says Ash. “And the elections are taking place during our tour, so I think there’s going to be more trouble out there.”

And the lads will be working seven days a week, with just a bit of down-time each evening. That’s when Ash says they will try to steady each other’s nerves.

“We’ll just have a laugh with each other; the best thing is to work as a team and make it easier for everyone else. If you’re having a bad day, there’s always someone who will build you up again. “And if we know people at home are supporting us and think we’re doing a good job, that’ll lift our morale a lot.”

Corporal Dave Swift, from Selby, is an elder voice in D Squadron at the tender age of 25. And he’s taking with him in-valuable experience drawn from the conflict in Iraq.

Again, he wasn’t on tanks out there, but Warriors. They are lighter, which means they can be used in more places.

“Swifty” says his time in Iraq will help him because the heat and terrain are similar, but he knows the warfare will be completely different.

“It was dangerous in Iraq, but not to the point Afghanistan is now. They are more organised, they watch you, and they take notes and are a much smarter enemy.”

At the moment he says the magnitude of the task facing him hasn’t sunk in.

“I’m not overly concerned yet. I’ll wait till we get out there and see for myself. It feels good to be going out. We’re as pre-pared as we can be and this is why I joined the Army. Sitting in camp isn't what we’re paid to do.”

The Royal Dragoon Guards recruit from Yorkshire and Northern Ireland, and have strong ties to York including, since 1999, the freedom of the city.

That’s something 18-year-old Shaun Craine, from Acomb, is hugely proud of.

Shaun joined the Dragoons straight from school and thinks they’re the best, because the regiment is small and everyone knows each other.

“It’s like a family really. I’m looking forward to going on operations, but I’m also quite nervous. Still, I’ll have all my mates around me to help.

“I suppose it is quite young to be going out because I’ve got my whole life ahead of me, but it’s what I chose to do and I’m going out to the job I’ve always wanted to do.”

The only family man in the group before me is Tom Harding, from Clifton, who at the age of 19 not only has a wife but a baby son, who may well be taking his first tentative steps the next time he sees him.

He says: “My wife doesn’t really like talking about me going, because she doesn’t know what’s going to happen and I don’t know what’s going to happen.

“I’ll miss her and I’ll be worried, but she’s going to send me a few bits and bobs while I’m out there and it's good to know I’ve got someone back home.”

The Viking can do more than a tank be-cause it’s lighter, more manoeuvrable and can get almost anywhere.

In Helmand, D Squadron will be protecting logistic convoys and ferrying troops.

Commanding officer Major Denis James will have 42 of the armoured vehicles at his disposal.

“That’s a regimental size, a massive number,” he says. “There is a role to be filled out there, and we are delighted to be doing it because it requires the capa-bilities of cavalrymen and so directly plays to our skill sets as tank soldiers.”

The regiment has been training for this deployment since last July, with much of the instruction coming from troops who have just come back from Afghanistan.

“The training is magnificent and covers every facet,” says Major James. “It has been based on lessons learned and we have been on exercise in Canada, taken part in battle camps and conducted live firing to make sure we are fully pre-pared.”

The Royal Dragoons’ motto is Quis Separabit (who shall separate us) which, judging by the camaraderie on display at the last parade before venturing into the unknown, is as true today as it was when the regiment formed 300 years ago.

“You do miss some things, but you’re not on your own, because you've got your mates going with you,” says Shaun. “When you get some down-time, that’s when you start thinking about family and girlfriends and that’s when it gets to you. But we’re like a family in the Dragoons and we look out for each other. That’ll get us through it all.”

Regiment’s history

The history of the Royal Dragoons goes back to 1685, when the Earl of Arran was granted a commission as colonel and raised The 6th Horse which became the 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards.

A few years later King William issued a warrant for the formation of new regiments, one of which was The 10th Horse raised by Colonel William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, which became the 7th Dragoon Guards.

The two were amalgamated in 1922, and 70 years later formed the Royal Dragoon Guards with the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards.

During the Second World War the regiment was the first British armoured unit to arrive in France with the British Expeditionary Force.

It took part in the Normandy landings on D-Day at Gold Beach using Sherman tanks, and on the first day of the invasion liberated Creully, where the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards Memorial is situated.

It fought at the liberation of Lille before moving on to Holland to take part in Operation Market Garden, the largest airborne operation of all time. But they were unable to reach paratroopers who had dropped at Arnhem because of strong German resistance.

The regiment finally entered Germany and reached Bremerhaven on May 6, 1945.

After the war, the 4th/7th was dis-patched to Palestine to help in the peacekeeping operations and completed tours in Korea and the Suez Canal.

The Royal Dragoon Guards are now equipped with Challenger II tanks and completed their last tour in Iraq in June 2008, which was followed by a Freedom Parade in York.

Last year was spent preparing for the current tour of duty in Afghanistan.

The Museum of The Royal Dragoon Guards is in Tower Street, York.

A war-torn nation

AFGHANISTAN’S war-fuelled troubles show no sign of abating. The present conflict dates back to 1992, after the Russian army withdrew and left a power vacuum, which was filled by the Mujahideen.

Most of Kabul was flattened and the country slid into a state of anarchy. Then the Taliban emerged from the southern city of Kandahar and won support with their call for the removal of the Mujahideen. They captured Kabul in 1996 and imposed strong rule based on strict Islamic principles.

After 9/11 the United States tried unsuccessfully to pressure the Taliban to give up al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

The US and its allies then forced the Taliban out of power, and the regime of president Hamid Karzai took over in Kabul.

But the Taliban has has re-emerged as a fighting force and thousands of people have been killed, including 288 British military personnel, since the latest operations began in 2001.