Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher
Matthew Croucher had less than three seconds to make a decision that
could have cost him his life.
As he led a fireteam of Royal Marine Commandos to investigate a suspected
Taliban bomb-making factory near the town of Sangin, Afghanistan, he set
off a trip-wire that unleashed a booby-trapped grenade.
Instantly realising that all four members of his patrol faced being
killed by the blast, the 24-year-old Lance Corporal leapt into action.
Without hesitation, Matthew hurled himself onto the floor, rolled over
and used his backpack, containing a large lithium battery and medical
kit, to cover the lethal shrapnel fragments from the explosion.
As he shouted to his comrades to take cover, Matthew braced himself for
the force of the grenade.
"It was a case of either having four of us as fatalities or badly
wounded, or one," he recalls. "I thought, 'I've set this thing off and
I'm going to do whatever it takes to protect the others'.
"I knew a grenade like this has a killing circumference of about five
metres. Within those precious few seconds I realised there was nowhere to
take cover and there was certainly no point running off because you'd
catch shrapnel."
The explosion hurled him across the compound and, although stunned and
deafened, all he suffered was a bleeding nose, while the kit from his
shredded backpack was sent flying through the air in flames.
"It took 30 seconds before I realised I was definitely not dead,'' he
says.
Matthew was examined by a medic who recommended that he should be
evacuated.
But the marine, from Birmingham, West Midlands, who has completed three
tours of Iraq, insisted on staying to fight the Taliban.
Matthew's heroism was made all the more remarkable by the fact that he is
only a reservist in the Royal Marines and later this
year he will become part of a select group of 20 living recipients of the
George Cross, which is awarded for acts of great heroism.
Major General Garry Robison, Commandant General Royal Marines, praised
Matthew's immense courage.
"I am extremely proud of Lance Corporal Croucher's actions and
outstanding bravery.
"The award of the George Cross recognises his selfless act under extreme
pressure and demonstrates a willingness to think of others before
himself, even when the consequences could have been so very different.
"What he did was instinctive and I'd like to think that this bears out
the very highest standards and ethos that Matthew aspires to as a Royal
Marine."