A SOLDIER who showed repeated courage in the face of fierce attack in Afghanistan has been awarded the Military Cross.
Captain Michael Dobbin, 28, from Reigate, was honoured for leading his men when the odds were most against them on four separate occasions, just days apart, last summer.
He showed exemplary gallantry, relentlessly pursuing attacks in the face of fierce enemy fire, on occasions just yards away, and deep behind enemy lines.
Speaking to the Mirror of his award, he said: "It is more for the platoon's work over the whole tour.
"We were in a fairly high intensity area so there were quite a lot of occasions where there was a high amount of pressure, and we had to perform pretty well to ensure we came out of those situations."
Captain Dobbin, who went to Micklefield School in Reigate and The Hawthorns School in Bletchingley, was commanding the Reconnaissance Platoon in the 1 Grenadier Guards Battle Group.
In charge of between 27 and 50 men, including Afghan National Army and Afghan police, he was operating almost exclusively in insurgent safe havens in Nahr-e-Saraj district. In one of the incidences for which he was honoured, two men were killed, including Lance Corporal James Ashworth, who this week became only the second soldier to win the Victoria Cross – the country's highest gallantry medal – in the 12-year Afghan campaign.
Soldiers were injured in each of the other incidents, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were a "constant danger".
"Your training teaches you to treat everything as a process," said Captain Dobbin. "You are trying to make everything as logical as it can be, but at the same time everything is changing around you.
"You are having to take information in quickly, process it, take actions for the platoon. You might be out there for 12 hours on the ground which is a long time when it's hot and you're in your kit. There are times when it's pretty quiet, you're just talking to each other. All it takes is one crack of a round over your head."
"Physically, the conditions were very exhausting," he added. "It was in the high 40 degrees Celsius and our kit was heavy. The enemy had the advantage of fighting on their own turf and laying IEDs but the morale was great within our very tight platoon.
"In combat, your brain is going at a million miles an hour and you are trying to predict what the enemy will do as well as assess the position of your soldiers so it is offensive and defensive."
Captain Dobbin, who has two younger sisters, is now on leave, spending time with his family in Reigate. With British combat forces set to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2015, his second tour, which finished in October, will be his last in the country.
"The Army has a very good system in place for normalising you again [after a tour]" he said. "You are definitely slightly different for a few months when you are readjusting. When you're out there, it's 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All you bring back is the memories of what it has been like for the last six months.
"It is a little bit strange, it takes a few months.
"You get back and nothing has really changed, the town is the same, everyone is doing the same thing. That makes it quite easy to slot back in."
When his leave is up, Captain Dobbin's work will be quite different – he'll be donning his tunic and bearskin on duty outside Buckingham Palace.
In June last year, Captain Michael Dobbin's platoon was ambushed deep behind enemy lines. Two soldiers were injured but, after they were evacuated, he launched an audacious attack, relentlessly driving his men forward. After two hours of combat over 1 km, they defeated the attackers. Just three days later, his platoon was airlifted behind enemy lines to take out a Taliban sniper team. Under heavy fire, Captain Dobbin led the charge 200 metres across open ground. Two of his men were killed, but he continued the assault, with machine gun fire raining in from just five metres away. Two more soldiers were wounded but, ultimately, the unit successfully routed the Taliban sniper stronghold. Just three days later, the platoon again found itself under fire, this time seven metres from four armed insurgents as they emerged from a maize field. A soldier was shot in the ensuing firefight but Captain Dobbin unhesitatingly charged forward in the face of fierce attack, establishing a baseline from which the unit drove off the insurgents. The very next day, he again found himself face to face with the enemy at the door of his platoon's temporary checkpoint. Despite the ferocious attack, he grabbed his kit and rushed through the door after the insurgents. His men quickly followed, allowing him to secure the perimeter and co-ordinate the treatment of a gravely wounded soldier. His citation reads: "Dobbin's repeated courage at pivotal moments and cool head under fierce fire inspired his men to succeed when the odds were most against them. He never once flinched from danger and always led from the front."