Neil Spencer still remembers the moment he thought he was going to die.
Lying stunned and motionless in a ditch outside a British military base in southern Iraq, bits of flesh hung from his left arm, with blood squirting from his severed ulnar artery. With dead bodies scattered around him, the then-23 year old was scared and alone as he shakily tried to stem the flow of blood with his one good hand as the dust settled around him.
It was April 21, 2004, one of the worst days of suicide bombings in the Iraq War. After three attacks in central Basra that morning killed more than 60 civilians, Neil, a soldier with the Royal Welch Fusiliers, was caught up in the fourth, which saw two car bombs explode outside his base in the nearby town of Az Zubayr, one just 20 feet from where he was standing. You can get more articles like this and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
