Vaughan Smith in Afghanistan: September 2007 Archives

This is the full 16 minute documentary that originally aired on BBC Newsnight on 26 September, 2007. It's available for download on Google Video. My original text from the evening that I returned from Sangin:I have been out on......more

Vaughan is interviewed in the Press Gazette this week about the hows, whys and history of frontline journalism, “When we started off we wanted to have complete independence, we were paying for our own trips and we were risking our......more

You can view the 16 minute Newsnight documentary on the Newsnight website for, I think, three days. We'll post the entire film on the blog, on YouTube and Brightcove as soon as we can. Meanwhile, take a minute to......more

The Newsnight film shows in half an hour - and just in case you're still tuned in here - there's a bit more background and preamble on the BBC Newsnight website, Twenty years ago I left the Grenadier Guards to......more

[video:youtube:QGf7fY98RhM] As promised earlier, here is an interview with Brigadier John Lorimer, the Brigade Commander of 12 Brigade, currently in Helmand.......more

Tonight is the night: 10.30pm on BBC 2. BBC Newsnight plan to show my 16 minute film. I could get bumped off by a major news event and if this happens it should then appear tomorrow night. The film might......more

Sadly my time is up with the British Army in Afghanistan. There are lots of journalists who want the space and I will have to wait my turn to come back. I tried to get back to Kabul in......more

[video:youtube:dEnPKWSBYqk] I returned from Gereshk in a convoy of “Vikings”.  The Royal Marines left behind these strange looking vehicles when they were here last winter.  Each vehicle has two pods and wide tracks.  They are highly manoeuvrable and as useful......more

[video:youtube:HEDRM6l0SKs] I was in Gereshk to witness the first deployment in Southern Afghanistan of what the military would call “proper armour”. A company of Scots Guards, called the Right Flank, arrived in a large sand-cloud with more than 20 “Warrior”......more

Lieutenant Commander Mike Parr of the Royal Navy has been with me wherever I go in Helmand. I would not have been allowed to come here without a “minder”. Mike’s main job is to make sure that I don’t......more

[video:youtube:Gs07W2TeF_4] Another chocolate story from the front.........more

[video:youtube:vF2Ec9_r4qY] Now I have arrived in a forward operating base in Gereshk, still in Helmand, where I am staying with 3 Company, Grenadier Guards. I have been told that the base is frequently mortared but the soldiers seem jovial. But......more

[video:youtube:jJS124JAQ7I] Everyone likes a helicopter ride. I have been flying around with the Royal Air Force Chinooks over the British Army’s 12 Brigade’s area in Helmand as they delivered ammunition in under-slung loads. The helicopters are armed with machine guns......more

[video:youtube:ac0TXK6yuj0] I woke up early in the morning, and was sitting up on my camp-bed, when I heard a distant “pop”. It took me about a second to realise what I thought it was and I reassured myself that I......more

[video:youtube:x0FeOOHDcKQ] The soldiers have been living on field rations, many of them for months on end. The rations aren’t bad. They contain the right balance of nourishment that the soldiers need but they are boring day after day. Some of......more