| A couple of newspaper articles this week have commented on the extreme temperatures Brit soldiers are working, fighting and suffering under in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The brief, relevant excerpts are from today’s Times:
“The Commons Defence Committee said that soldiers in the back of Warrior armoured cars were having to endure temperatures as high as 60C (140F), which medical staff on the ground had told them could prove fatal.
However, Adam Ingram, the Armed Forces Minister, had told the committee during its inquiry into conditions for troops in Iraq that there were no plans to equip Warriors and other vehicles with air conditioning.
An alternative solution had been considered: to provide each soldier sitting in the back of a closed-up Warrior with coolant packs worn around their body armour.”
And from the Telegraph:
”Commanders say the mission has so far been "fantastically successful", but they believe that the relentless number of back-to-back operations being fought in harsh terrain in temperatures of up to 50C is beginning to take its toll.
"The men are knackered - they are on the brink of exhaustion," said one senior officer. "They are under considerable duress and have suffered great hardship."
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