Category Archives: Military

Magic mushrooms could help ex-soldiers to overcome trauma

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As more troops self-medicate with psychedelic drugs to help with PTSD, a group of experts lobby for proper clinical trials

A growing number of soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder are turning to “magic mushrooms” and LSD to treat their condition. But drug laws make it almost impossible to establish whether they work.

Now a new body, the Medical Psychedelics Working Group, a consortium of experts, academics, researchers, policy specialists and industry partners, is to begin lobbying for a change in the law so that scientists can conduct clinical trials.

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Queen’s birthday marked with physically distanced event at Windsor Castle

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Welsh Guards stage unique ceremony to replace trooping the colour during lockdown

The Queen’s official birthday has been marked with a brief ceremonial tribute by the military under physical distancing measures.

Soldiers from the Welsh Guards, who a few weeks ago were staffing coronavirus test centres, staged the unique event in the grounds of Windsor Castle, as the head of state made her first official public appearance since lockdown was imposed.

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IRA and former soldiers urged to help solve 1972 killing of young woman

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Police appeal for information on Belfast shooting of Jean Smyth-Campbell

A senior detective investigating one of Britain’s most controversial spy scandals has appealed to both ex-IRA and retired soldiers to help him get the truth about the killing of a young woman in the Troubles.

Jon Boutcher is a former chief constable of Bedfordshire and the head of Operation Kenova, which is investigating the military intelligence agent known as Stakeknife who betrayed the IRA for three decades.

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Red Arrows fly over London to mark 75th anniversary of VE Day – video

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The RAF's display team colour the skies above London red, white and blue to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day. Nazi commanders surrendered to allied forces in a French schoolhouse 75 years ago on 8 May 1945, bringing the second world war in Europe to an end.

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RAF jets to roar over UK to mark 75th anniversary of VE Day

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Boris Johnson urges nation to unite in tribute as celebrations are adapted owing to Covid-19

RAF jets will roar over Britain to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, as Boris Johnson urged the nation to unite in tribute to the achievement and sacrifice of the wartime generation.

The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall will lead a two-minute silence from Scotland on a day of celebration and commemoration which also includes a “national toast”, an address by the Queen, and a nationwide sing-a-long of Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again.

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Under Boris Johnson, Putin and Trump the world has uncanny parallels to 1945

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Russia on the offensive, Brexit Britain stands alone, and US disdain for European allies recalls its naivety with Stalin

Victory in Europe was made possible by a remarkable military collaboration between the main anti-Axis powers – the US, Russia and Britain. But the three-way relationship, between Franklin D Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill, was never easy, and it set a pattern of national rivalry, suspicion, fear and distrust that persists to this day.

A row over a top-secret message, known as SCAF-252, sent to Stalin in late March 1945 by Gen Dwight Eisenhower, the supreme allied commander, shows how fraught the relationship could be. In it, Eisenhower detailed his plans for the final defeat of Nazi Germany – but omitted to first consult or inform his British allies.

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Show your mettle: Victoria Cross not made of captured Russian guns after all

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The long-held belief about the UK’s highest award for valour may have originated in speculation by the press, research has found

The Victoria Cross, or VC as it is popularly known, is the most cherished award in the British armed forces, awarded since 1857 for courage displayed “in the presence of the enemy”.

Its long history is filled with true stories of great bravery. But one long-held belief – that Victoria Cross medals were made from enemy guns captured during the Crimean war against Russia – is unlikely to be true, and originated instead from speculation in the press, according to new research.

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Harry Dunn parents write to UK army chief after ‘near misses’ near base

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Police investigate three incidents of Americans driving on wrong side of road near RAF Croughton

The parents of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn have pleaded with the head of the armed forces to set up a meeting with a US military base after claims of “three near misses” involving their staff.

Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn wrote to Gen Sir Nick Carter on Sunday to say they “bear our American friends no ill will”, but insisted RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire could not “practice splendid isolation” on safety issues.

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Ex-paratrooper walking UK coastline isolates on empty Shetland island

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Chris Lewis is staying on usually uninhabited Hildasay until charity challenge can resume

A former paratrooper is isolating on a usually uninhabited Shetland island after lockdown measures were introduced when he was on a fundraising challenge to walk the UK coastline.

Chris Lewis, 39, has walked 12,000 miles since setting off from Llangennith beach on the Gower peninsula near his home city of Swansea, south Wales, in August 2017.

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Labour calls for better coronavirus protection for UK armed forces

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John Healey says number of tests on frontline personnel should be made public

The shadow defence secretary called on the government to do “everything it can” to protect the British armed forces from coronavirus – and make public the number of times service personnel have been tested for the disease.

John Healey wrote to the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, amid concerns about a lack of transparency with the British military and after serious outbreaks of the respiratory disease on US and French warships.

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Royal Navy shadows Russian ships after ‘high activity’ in Channel

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Seven ships remained off UK coast for unusually long time this month

Nine Royal Navy ships were involved in a major operation shadowing seven Russian vessels who had lingered in the Channel for several days this month as the coronavirus crisis was beginning to worsen in the UK.

The unusually high level of Russian activity concluded about a week and a half ago and navy officials said they believed it was primarily a response to western exercises in Europe rather than to a perception that the disease was leaving the UK vulnerable.

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Worker posts video from ExCeL centre being converted into coronavirus hospital

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The building work to turn London’s ExCel conference centre into an emergency hospital treating coronavirus patients 'within days' has begun. 

As construction began on Wednesday morning, Alex Woodside, who has been working on the cabling, posted a chilling video on Facebook showing the cavernous 100,000 sq metre Docklands site, saying: 'If you are not taking this seriously, like I wasn't, I think we really need to start'

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Bill sets five-year limit to prosecute UK armed forces who served abroad

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Legislation to stop ‘vexatious’ claims excludes alleged crimes by military personnel in Northern Ireland

A five-year time limit on bringing prosecutions against soldiers and veterans who have served abroad – except in “exceptional circumstances” – is to be imposed under legislation introduced by the government.

Clauses in the overseas operations (service personnel and veterans) bill would protect serving and former military personnel from what the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, claimed was a “vexatious” cycle of claims and re-investigations.

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UK’s air war against Isis ends after five years

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RAF has launched no attacks in Syria or Iraq since September, but controversy continues over civilian casuality numbers

Britain’s five-year air war against Isis has quietly come to an end, with official figures revealing no bombs have been dropped since September – yet the MoD still acknowledges only one civilian casualty in the entire conflict.

The data shows that over a period longer than the first world war, 4,215 bombs and missiles were launched from Reaper drones or RAF jets in Syria and Iraq, and a wide discrepancy has emerged between UK and US estimates of the number of civilians killed.

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England rugby players’ ex-soldier father stuck in Fiji because of immigration rules

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Ilaitia Cokanasiga, who was prevented from watching his son Joe play in the World Cup last year, says he feels betrayed

A former British army sergeant whose two sons are English rugby internationals is stuck in Fiji, prevented by immigration rules from returning to the UK to rejoin his wife as she undergoes cancer treatment.

Ilaitia Cokanasiga, who over almost 14 years in the armed forces served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, told the Guardian that his immigration difficulties had stopped him from travelling to see his 22-year-old son, Joe Cokanasiga, play for England in the World Cup in Japan last year. He is devastated at being stranded 10,000 miles away from his family, unable to support his wife as she waits for an operation on a brain tumour.

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Harry and Meghan in first official UK appearance since royal split

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Couple appear at the Endeavour Fund awards as they begin final round of public engagements

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have made their first official appearance together in Britain since their shock announcement they are stepping back as senior working royals.

Meghan flew in from Canada, where the couple have been living since November, to join Harry as they begin their final round of public engagements in the UK.

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Families of Troubles victims warn against amnesty for soldiers

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Emmett McConomy, whose 11-year-old brother died in 1982, said cases ‘not going away’

A man whose 11-year-old brother was killed by a soldier in Northern Ireland nearly 40 years ago has warned that victims’ families “were not going to go away” if the British government tried to introduce an amnesty for military personnel.

Emmett McConomy, whose older brother Stephen was shot in the back of the head with a plastic bullet, said the new Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, needed to understand the strength of feeling among families who had not yet seen cases involving British soldiers come to court.

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UK army ‘years off’ full strength despite recruitment drive

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Successful Snowflake campaign has helped military hit annual target for first time in six years

Army recruiters have conceded it will take several years to get the British army near to full strength despite the perceived success of its Snowflake ad campaign, which has helped it to reach its annual target for the first time in six years.

Enlisting had collapsed after recruitment was part-privatised in 2012 when Capita partnered the army but new figures showed that 99% of the year’s 9,440 target had been signed up with seven weeks to go.

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‘People like you’ still uttered: BAME armed forces personnel on racism in services

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Concerns persist despite MoD initiatives to tackle racism, Guardian call-out shows

Serving soldiers from BAME backgrounds who spoke to the Guardian about their experience of the armed forces say the days of daily abuse and overt name-calling are gone, but instead it has been replaced with “subtle racism”.

“Comments such as ‘people like you’, ‘you people from the colonies,’ or ‘passport seeking’ are still uttered in plain hearing,” said one veteran serviceman, who described his experience over more than a decade in the ranks as “nothing but traumatic”.

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IRA man John Downey participated in Hyde Park bombing, judge rules

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Civil court decision opens way for relatives of four killed soldiers to obtain damages

A convicted IRA member in jail on separate murder charges was an “active participant” in the 1982 Hyde Park bombing, the high court has ruled in a civil action taken by the victims’ families.

Relatives of four soldiers who died in the IRA blast were told that John Downey was liable for the explosion that killed their loved ones.

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