Soldier was asleep when bomb struck

Oct 9 2007 by Paul Loraine, The Journal

A YOUNG North-East soldier was fast asleep when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb, an inquest was told today.

Private Michael Tench, 18, a Light Infantry soldier from Sunderland, was returning to the British Army base in the north of Basra as part of a Warrior patrol when the device exploded early on January 21.

Yesterday Lance Corporal Rory Mackenzie, who was in the same vehicle as Private Tench and who lost a leg in the blast, gave evidence at the first day of the inquest at Sunderland Coroner’s Court.

He said: “Before the bomb went off I had just woken up and I put my safety goggles on. I looked over at Michael and he was fast asleep and to the best of my knowledge he didn’t wake up.

“It felt as if the Warrior reared up and I was lifted forward and flung back down. Michael was flung forward and his helmet struck my jaw, knocking me unconscious.”

Private Tench, from Carley Hill in Sunderland, was returning with his colleagues to their base at the Shaat al Arab Hotel in the north of Basra after completing a patrol to counter indirect fire, the inquest was told.

When the bomb exploded, their Warrior armoured fighting vehicle was turning off the road on to a carriageway which led to the base.

Company commander Major Giles Woodhouse said: “It was probably the most used vulnerable point for the entire city because everyone coming to our base location pretty much had to go through there.”

He told the court that in every 24 hour period, there were probably 20 to 30 military convoys passing through this point and that the device was probably already in place before the Warrior arrived.

Corporal David Lovell, travelling in a separate vehicle in the patrol, recalled trying to help Private Tench after the explosion.

He said: “He was up to his neck in equipment.

“I pulled some of that down and there was large entry wound around the chest area that had penetrated his armour. That’s when I knew he was dead.”

Posted to Iraq last September, Private Tench, a former Hylton Red House School pupil, spent his first Christmas away from home doing the job he had longed for since the age of seven.

A popular and well known teenager, he is survived by father Terry, 45, mother Janice, 45, stepfather Derek, 44, brother Mark, 25, and sister Stacey, 20.

He joined the Army two years ago, completing his training at the Infantry Training Centre in Catterick before being posted to the 2nd Battalion The Light Infantry.

He left for Iraq with A Company on September 4 last year.

Around 800 people attended his funeral at the Holy Trinity Church, in Southwick, Sunderland, in February.

The inquest continues today.