Groups and Single Decorations for Gallantry

The outstanding ‘Iraq 2003’ C.G.C. group of seven awarded to Corporal, later Warrant Officer Class 2, S. G. Jardine, King’s Own Scottish Borderers, later Royal Regiment of Scotland, a Quick Reaction Force fire-team leader who, having found himself pinned down with no reinforcements in an increasingly untenable position near Al Uzayr security base, Maysan Province, took the initiative and, ordering covering fire, assaulted three enemy positions in succession, allowing his men to move forward and prompting the enemy to withdraw.Charging directly in the face of automatic rifle fire from an enemy in well prepared positions whilst also under intense and accurate heavy machine-gun fire from range, he single-handedly assaulted the first position, killing two of the enemy, capturing their weapons and causing a third man to flee:‘I started running across the bridge and they had seen me immediately. They were lying down, prone position, and firing at me as I ran; I saw their fingers on the triggers, then the muzzle flashes and then I could hear the rounds zipping past. I remember thinking, Why are they not hitting me?... I got to within 15 or 20 metres of them and just thought, I’m going no further, here. I dropped to one knee, aimed, fired one round, quickly moved onto the second, and fired again... I just aimed at the body and in both cases my rounds went into the chest, under the arm, and came out the back of the neck. Both guys were instantly dead.’Proceeding to suppress the depth machine gun, Jardine then called his team forward and, with a third enemy position also having now been identified, ordered heavy fire to be laid down on both positions until the enemy disengaged: his courage, leadership and quick thinking in the face of a determined enemy attack undoubtedly preventing casualties among his own team and other supporting units.Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, E.II.R., reverse officially inscribed ‘25090313 Cpl S G Jardine, KOSB’ and officially dated ‘2004’; General Service 1962-2007, 1 clasp, Northern Ireland (25090313 L Cpl S G Jardine, KOSB); Iraq 2003-11, no clasp (25090313 Cpl S G Jardine KOSB); Operational Service Medal 2000, for Afghanistan, 1 clasp, Afghanistan (Sgt S G Jardine, Scots, 25090313); Jubilee 2012, unnamed as issued; Accumulated Campaign Service Medal 1994 (Cpl S G Jardine KOSB); Army L.S. & G.C., E.II.R., 2nd issue, Regular Army (C Sgt S G Jardine CGC Scots 25090313) mounted court style as worn, some minor contact wear, otherwise generally good very fine (7) £120,000-£140,000---The Conspicuous Gallantry Cross was instituted as a result of the 1993 review of the British honours system and is second in seniority only to the Victoria Cross. The C.G.C. was awarded for the first time as a result of the Bosnian War in 1995 and to date 60 such awards have been made, of which 15 were for the Iraq War. The award to Jardine is unique to the King’s Own Scottish Borderers and is the only C.G.C. to have been awarded to any Scottish Regiment.C.G.C. London Gazette 23 April 2004:‘In recognition of gallant and distinguished services in Iraq during the period 1st April to 30th September 2003.’The original recommendation states:‘Corporal Jardine was commanding a Fire Team employed as the Immediate Quick Reaction Force for the Al Uzayr Security Force Base in Maysan Province on the morning of Saturday 9th August 2003. At 0815hrs a prolonged and intense mix of Heavy Machine Gun and small arms fire was heard 300m to the north of the base and Corporal Jardine and his fire team deployed to investigate.Corporal Jardine and his team advanced North on foot until they were engaged by two enemy positions 100 metres to their West. The first was occupied by three men armed with automatic rifles, the second by a Heavy Machine Gun. Corporal Jardine immediately ordered his team into what limited cover was available. Simultaneously, other elements of the Al Uzayr Multiple, which had also deployed came under fire to the South. Realising that no reinforcements were available and assessing that his team’s position was becoming untenable, Corporal Jardine decided to take the offensive. Corporal Jardine ordered the remainder of his team to provide covering fire, and despite intense and accurate HMG fire, assaulted the first position alone, killing two of the enemy and capturing their weapons. The third enemy fled in the face of his determined action. Corporal Jardine then proceeded to suppress the depth machine gun position, whilst calling forward the remainder of his own team to join him. At this point a third enemy position was identified to him by the Platoon Commander. Corporal Jardine’s team located this position and proceeded to lay down fire on both positions, allowing the remainder of the Multiple to move forward. At this point the enemy disengaged from the action and withdrew to the North.Corporal Jardine’s quick thinking and total disregard for his own safety undoubtedly served to prevent casualties amongst his own team and the remainder of the Multiple. His courage and inspirational leadership in the face of a determined enemy attack deserve recognition.’Shaun Garry Jardine, a native of Dumfries in south-west Scotland, joined the King’s Own Scottish Borderers at the age of 16 and was deployed to Iraq with the 1st Battalion on TELIC 2 after the initial invasion, in mid-June 2003 at the age of 21. The following extracts relating to Jardine’s service in Iraq, in particular the action for which he was awarded the C.G.C., are taken from an 8 page interview with Corporal Jardine which appears in the book In Foreign Fields by Dan Collins:‘We arrived in Basra and then drove down to Kuwait to get acclimatised for a couple of weeks. Coming from Scotland, we definitely needed that. It was roasting hot, around 100 degrees in the shade, and a wee bit different to the weather back home...A week after we arrived the six Royal Military Policemen got murdered in Al Majar Al Kabir, so we were fast tracked to move up earlier than planned. There was a lot of activity to try and find the killers, and make sure everyone knew the British Army was in control, and so they needed plenty of boots on the ground.We made our way up through Basra towards Camp Abu Naji. The way it worked was we rotated on a four week basis...The fourth week was spent down at the Al Uzayr Security Force Base, an out station roughly 70 or 80 km south of Al Aamarah and the same distance north of Basra. It was a very small camp, an old police station in the shape of a squared-off figure eight, with courtyards in the middle. Around the whole compound, five or ten metres from the building, there was a perimeter wall. If you looked over the wall you would see Al Uzayr itself. Its a pretty poor place sitting on the banks of the Tigris there in the middle of the marshland that runs down to the Iranian border which isn’t far away at all...We would patrol the immediate area of the village and then strike out into the other villages and the marshland round about. We were just showing a presence, and obviously looking for weapons and insurgents. You have to remember, Saddam’s own police and Army had sort of vanished, so there wasn’t that much formal law and order apart from us.Of course there were people who didn’t want us there. It had all kicked off two nights before. I had taken a six man patrol out around the village in a Land Rover, and we had been shot at from a number of rooftops. The rounds were close enough, probably AK, and we de-bussed from the vehicle and tried to locate the shooters. But we couldn’t so we went back and reported it. There were no casualties, but we were slightly shaken up...The next night, another patrol was out and as they pulled out onto Route Six - the main road from Basra through to Al-Amarah - they got heavy incoming fire from the other side of the road, again from the village. They also de-bussed and started to return fire. Its always sketchy, particularly in the dark, but from the muzzle flashes and noise they thought there were between ten and twenty insurgents. I deployed with six more guys towards the south, and we swept them out of the village, on to the other side of the road and over around 300 metres of flat, open ground to a farm complex. They were firing at us all the way. [An M.C. and an M.I.D. were were awarded to men of the regiment for this action.]It was the next morning when the main thing happened. A team went out to clear the area and as they were returning, just as they got back to control base, there was a lot of gunfire to the north east of our position. It was a mixture of heavy machine gun and small arms. You can hear the difference. Heavy machine gun is an awful lot louder and when it is fired over your head you hear the thump of the weapon and then a much louder crack as the round passes over. I was on Quick Reaction Force, dressed and ready to go, so I grabbed my guys. The sentries on our roof shouted down and they’d spotted some enemy up to the north east of the camp, on the other side of the river.’There was only one bridge across the river, and Corporal Jardine and his men had to cross it to get to the enemy. This was extremely hazardous; the bridge would channel them into a narrow killing ground in front of the enemy guns. Despite knowing this, Cpl. Jardine and his men did not hesitate.‘I moved out with my team - there were five of us, including myself. As we were moving up the road, we received incoming fire from the opposite side of the river, which was about 100 metres from our position. We started fire-manoeuvring over some waste ground until we came to the river. We were still unclear as to exactly where the enemy were, or how many of them there were. Because it was broad daylight, the muzzle flashes were much less vivid, but we were seeing clouds of dust come up as people ran about. However, we couldn’t just fire willy nilly into those clouds because...