The first Combat Logistics Patrol (CLP) of Op MOSHTARAK, with 35 vehicles, set out from Camp Bastion on 18 February, bound for Shahid 11 miles away and successfully returned to Camp Bastion the same day having delivered vital heavy equipment and supplies.

As this operation moves into its next phase the supply routes are being opened up so heavy equipment and other vital supplies can be brought in by road, leaving helicopters free to be used for other tasks.

The CLP Commander, Major Patch Reehal, 10 Queens Own Ghurkha Logistics Regiment, is very pleased with progress so far. "There was a real and credible threat to the convoy and the soldiers have worked really hard to pull it out of the bag. But it is not over yet," he says. "This is the first of many."

The Commanding Officer, Lt Col Martin Moore, 10 Queens Own Ghurkha Logistics Regiment, was right on the front line with his troops as the CLP reached its destination. He said: "Everyone has been raring to go and we have been stood by waiting to get on with it, but it was important for conditions to be right with the local leaders before we started with the CLP.

"All the troops are really well drilled in this type of Op, so in many ways it is just another task, but it does feel special to be part of something so big."

'It does feel special to be part of it'

The troops waited for five days for the order to go. Corporal Lucy Marrow, who is based in Camp Bastion with 33 Field Hospital, is a medic on the convoy and this is her 12th CLP. She said: "Op MOSHTARAK is a massive Op and so it does feel special to be part of it, but in many ways it is just another Op for me.

"The hardest part was the waiting. We had been stood by for five days waiting to go on the Op. At one point we were all standing by our vehicles ready to go and expecting to go when we got stood down at 9 pm only to be back again at 4 am the next morning ready to go again. We were all really glad to finally be off on the OP."

It has been a quiet day and the convoy successfully delivered the key supplies to Shahid and returned to Camp Bastion without incident, piped in by the Regimental Bagpiper.

Corporal of Horse Daniel Abbott, Household Cavalry, whose job is to call in air support if the convoy is attacked, thought it had all gone really well. "So far as Op MOSHTARAK is going - it all seems to have gone pretty well, especially given what it had been built up to be. As far as I am concerned a quiet day is a good day," she said.