A PLYMOUTH soldier fought his way out of a Taliban ambush after his pelvis had been smashed by a bullet.

Serjeant Lee French, 31, came under attack while leading a patrol in the town of Musa Qaleh, in the north of Afghanistan's Helmand province.

His section of eight men were working alongside a dozen Afghan Army troops when they were attacked by 50 or 60 Taliban fighters.

Sjt French was hit by a bullet that smashed his pelvis.

His comrades tried to carry him out by stretcher, but when they came under attack again from RPG rockets and heavy machine gun fire, Sjt French took command as his patrol fought their way back to safety.

And yesterday, up and about on crutches, he sent a message to his men, whose tour in Afghanistan continues until next April: "Keep your heads down and stay safe. I'll be back."

Sjt French, of 1st Battalion The Rifles, said: "It was a normal patrol, working with the Afghan Army in Musa Qaleh. There were eight of us and 12 of them.

"Our job was to show our presence and head off anything that might be kicking off.

"We had to push north about 1,200 metres, up to where we believed the front line of enemy troops were on the north edge of town. One side was trees and green and the other was desert.

"We got the Afghan boys to search an old school building and go in and clear it. It had been used recently by the Taliban as a casualty aid post.

"We had reports from Roshan tower observation point that they had seen guys running off as we approached.

"The school was all built up with sandbags. As we went in it all kicked off. The Afghans had run up on to the roof and started firing everywhere.

"I ran up to try to get a grip on what they were doing. There were RPGs, heavy machine gun rounds, coming through the walls. I got the Afghans to engage their positions.

"That's when I was hit.

"At first I thought it was just fragmentation – a rock or something kicked up by an RPG.

"I cracked on, but the pain didn't go away. It was like the worst dead leg you've ever had.

"I got the Afghan commander to check me out and I was bleeding. He pulled me down to the ground. All I wanted right then was a cigarette.

"As they started to carry me out on a stretcher we were contacted again and cut off. We turned back and started to head west, up a road.

"Again we were contacted, and they were firing directly down the road with RPGs and heavy machine guns.

"Four guys were carrying the stretcher, with me on it, and that only left three to carry on fighting. So they put me down. I got up off the stretcher and started coordinating the move back.

"When I was first treated in the building they'd taken off my body armour and taken away my rifle, so I didn't have any protection. I was running around with a broken pelvis, barking orders like a lunatic.

"The pain is in the back of your mind. You're the patrol commander and the guys look to you. You've got to give them the get-up-and-go. I wouldn't have any morphine.

"Guys in the control base started coming up in vehicles to extract us, and they were ambushed, so they were having to fight their way to us.

"The Americans came up to secure a helicopter landing site, and the Afghans pushed the Taliban back. They pulled me out by quad bike to the helicopter and whisked me away to hospital at the main UK base at Camp Bastion.

"That was where a CT scan showed I had actually been shot.

"At Camp Bastion I was operated on by Surgeon Commander Lambert, who is from Derriford Hospital."

Sjt French spent a week in hospital in Bastion and had two operations. Then he was moved to Selly Oak, Birmingham, where he had two more operations, then back to Plymouth.

The doctors have told him it will take four to six months to recover, but Sjt French is adamant he'll be out to join his men before then.

Around 200 Plymouth men have been serving with The Rifles in Helmand since September.

Sjt French has been in the Army for 14 years, and was with the Devon and Dorsets until it was amalgamated in The Rifles.

He has served in Iraq, the Balkans and Northern Ireland.

Yesterday he praised the Help for Heroes charity, which is trying to raise £6 million to build a swimming pool and gym complex at the rehabilitation centre at Headley Court.

He said hydrotherapy was vital to help many casualties of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sjt French will be introduced to the public tomorrow when around 30 young Plymouth musicians join forces with the Salamanca Band and Bugles of The Rifles for a Night at the Movies concert at Plymouth Guildhall.

Concert details – Page 31