Ambushed: Shooting the War

Ambushed: Shooting the War offers a unique and unvarnished look at what it is like to be on the front lines in Afghanistan. Raw uncensored footage shot by soldiers wearing wireless helmet cams captures the bravery, the grief, the exhilaration of war, and when a comrade gets shot, the fear and the adrenalin. Helmet-mounted cameras are being used more and more in modern-day conflicts. President Obama, for example, was able to watch real-time footage of US Navy Seals as they approached Osama bin Laden's compound in May using this technology. In Afghanistan, thousands of hours of footage have been recorded by soldiers on the front lines, but its rare to see this kind of material except on YouTube when clips are posted by soldiers. Recently this powerful and uncensored footage has been released by the British Ministry of Defence, and it's been woven into a BBC documentary series called "Our War: Tens Year in Afghanistan".

Read a blog post on dealing with death on the frontline in Afghanistan from the BBC

Ambushed: Shooting the War (one of the episodes from that series) tells the story of a close-knit group of friends from Britain's 3 Platoon, 1st Battalion Royal Anglian regiment, who were sent to Helmand province in 2007. Many of the soldiers were still young schoolboys when the twin towers were hit, and this is their first experience of war. Their entire tour was filmed on a helmet camera by the platoon's Sergeant Simon Panter. Forgetting the camera was rolling, he captured the dramatic moments before and after one of his men, 19-year-old Private Chris Gray, was shot in a Taliban ambush. After we hear the panicked words "man down", the helmet cam picked up the escalating tension and confusion as the soldiers tried to figure out how to get out of the ambush alive.

Ambushed: Shooting the War explores the effects of this shooting, the intense helicopter rescue, and ultimately the young soldier's death on both his mates in the platoon and his family back home. An emotional letter from the sergeant to the downed soldier's mother is intricately woven throughout the film, offering a moving juxtaposition to the adrenalin of the helmet-cam footage. It's directed and produced by Bruce Goodison for the BBC. Executive Producer is Colin Barr.