Des Brown and senior MoD a**eholes should be sacked immediately on this farce. But there again this is NEW LABOUR at its worse.

I'm ashamed to have served in the RN.

FT has also done a great dis-service to all the other females in our forces (some of whom really are "frontline").

The clock will be set back 15 years now.

I love how Des Brown got severe sloping shoulders and states that the Gayvy faces a "tough call" on why it allowed it's wimps to go squealing to the press.

Chuffed to nuts that i'm a Pongo.


The Gayvy look real bad over this fiasco.

There is also the little problem of the review of what went off up to the point where they were captured. It's difficult to see how letting all the information out couldnt prejudice the cases of anyone who might still face some form of fallout over the complete shambles that allowed them to be caught in the first place. Has that only just occurred to the MoD I wonder? Did anyone ask the lawyers whether it was a good idea?

Fat FAYE proper sold out. wants to tell her side of the story...ha ha. wat,boarded cruise ship,had a little holiday in iran,came home. my boy been to Iraq twice..seen more,done more and got the oblig T shirt...can he tell his SIDE for 100,000 grand...no thought not. Royal Navy, my arsse.(c wat i did there)

The Gayvy look real bad over this fiasco.

If thats the best your wit can muster then you do the army a dis-service also.Perhaps if you paid more attention during lessons at school you also could have been in the Gayvy [sic].

Why not just add a non disclosure contract when everyone goes through basic? You sign enough random documents there, why not another?

They need to make their minds up, they should have learned their lesson back in '91. Blanket ban, only way to go.

Originally Posted by Taz_786

Im just reading on Teletext that the youngest captive Arthur Batchelor, Mr Dopey, is complaining that the Iranians confiscated his £160 iPod. Now please dont tell me that carrying MP3 players is allowed during boarding ops? You couldnt make it up, I dont whether to laugh or cry.

I feel so ashamed by the actions of these moronic individuals, im just glad my grandfather who survived the sinking of HMS Repulse in 1941 and four years as a japanese POW is not around to see his beloved RN besmirched by these people

Originally Posted by wilson

I am so disappionted in all this. If anything the cash should go to soldiers shot or injured in the face of the enemy, these brave warriors families must be cared for first. They need our support more than ever having fought with distinction. When I first joined the services 25 years ago, my old granny who had lived through two world wars, told me that I must never embarress my country or pass on information to the enemy. These officers and men are guilty on both counts, yet they make money out of it. To me it is shameful. If anything the officers should recieve a white feather for their cowardice, then apologise to all British servicemen for having to look at a nightly briefing specially from Iran on our Tv's. It made us look weak in the eyes of all professional servicemen within NATO. Personally, I think they should have stayed there since they were so comfortable with their new found friends.

You and so many others.

Thank you.

Many comments on this topic have understandably been made already and I haven't checked them all, so apologies if what follows has already been noted.

But here is how it was 57 years ago. I guess readers can draw their own conclusions about what should happen in a hostage situation.

From The Edge of the Sword, Star, 1981, first published in 1954, p 199-201, by the late General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley, former Commander-in-Chief of Allied Forces Northern Europe in NATO. As Captain Farrar-Hockley, General Sir Anthony was adjutant of the 1st Battalion, the Gloucestshire Regiment and went into Communist captivity with the survivors of the battalion when they were forced to surrender after four days of heavy fighting at the battle of the Imjin River, April 1951, during the Korean War.

General Sir Anthony writes as follows.

"Part of the unworked coal-mining settlement of Kang-dong [was] known formerly by prisoners as "The Caves." In 1950 and until the summer of 1951, many United Nations prisoners had been crowded into old tunnels in the hillsides round about, often drenched by the water that ran in from underground streams. The numbers of men who died in these black holes in the ground will never be known exactly. In cross-checking to find our friends, we accounted for over two hundred and fifty deaths; but this is not the total figure.

"Of all the many stories of gallantry and selflessness on the part of prisoners in these caves, I will recount only one here: a story that was told to us later by men who had formed part of it; a story which provided us with inspiration to continue resistance to our captors during the most difficult moments. Terry - the last remaining platoon commander of "A" Company - was taken to "The Caves" in the summer of 1951. He had been a member of a column of seriously wounded captives which had marched slowly north from the Imjin River some little time after the two main columns had set off. Though he was in great pain from a wound in his leg and a terrible head injury, Terry set a splendid example on the march, caring, as best he could, for other serious casualties with him. By the time they reached "The Caves," the condition of many prisoners had deteriorated dangerously; for they had had no medical attention of any sort en route and many still wore the dressings, by now ragged and filthy, placed on their wounds by our own medical staffs before capture.

"Terry, and Sergeant Hoper of the Machine-gun Platoon, were placed with a number of others from the column in a cave already crowded with Koreans - themselves dying of starvation and disease. Except when their two daily meals of boiled maize were handed through the opening, they sat in almost total darkness. A subterranean stream ran through the cave to add to their discomfort, and, in these conditions, it was often difficult to distinguish the dead from the dying.

"One day, a North Korean colonel visited them to put forward a proposition.

""We realize," he said, "that your conditions here are uncomfortable. We sympathize. I, myself, am powerless to help you - unless you are prepared to help us. If you care to join the Peace Movement to fight American Aggression in Korea, we can take you to a proper camp where, in addition to better rations and improved accommodation, your wounds will be cared for by a surgeon."

"Our men refused this offer, individually. But Terry, seeing their condition, their numbers dwindling, came to a decision on which he acted the next morning. He drew Sergeant Hoper to one side and said:

""I have thought this business over and have decided that you must go over to the 'Peace-Fighters' Camp. Most of you will die if you stay here. Go over, do as little as you can; and remember always that you are British soldiers."

""What about you, sir?" asked Hoper.

""It is different for me," said Terry. "I am an officer; I cannot go. But I order you to go and take our men with you."

"Terry remained firm in his decision; and when the North Korean colonel returned, as they had guessed he would, Sergeant Hoper and his party left "The Caves" with a group of American soldiers. The colonel pressed Terry to accompany them, advising him that he would not accept a final refusal just then but would return later.

"He returned four times. Armed with promises of an operation on Terry's wounds by a surgeon, and a special diet of eggs, milk and meat in place of the boiled maize, he failed each time.

"Terry was a young subaltern, not long out of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. Yet, irrespective of his service and youth, he saw clearly, an officer representing the British Commonwealth in enemy country: by his actions, the Commonwealth's reputation would be judged. Quite simply, he was given a choice: life, and agreement to reject, at least outwardly, the principles for which he was fighting in Korea; or a steadfast adherence to those principles - and death. Coolly, loyally, like the gallant officer he was, Terry chose death. And so he died."

It is not a case of being judgemental. But I believe that current events could beneficially be viewed in the context of how such things were evidently perceived in the not-so-distant past.

It is, of course, all too easy for someone who has never been a hostage to say this, but this country could do with more of the kind of inspiration and adherence to principles that General Sir Anthony Farrar-Hockley alludes to above.