Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, wrote a memo to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) less than a month before he was killed in July saying helicopter movements were not fit for purpose, according to the Daily Mail.
The commander died with Trooper Joshua Hammond on July 1st, when their convoy was hit by an improvised explosion device (IED) in Helmand Province, north of the town of Lashkar Gah.
According to the newspaper, the Lieutenant Colonel wrote that the level of helicopter support available for his troops was 'unsustainable'.
'I have tried to avoid griping about helicopters – we all know we don't have enough,' he said in a weekly report.
He added: 'We cannot not move people, so this month we have conducted a great deal of administrative movement by road.
'This increases the IED threat and our exposure to it.'
In July, prime minister Gordon Brown insisted a lack of helicopters was not responsible for any loss of lives in Afghanistan.
The memo, classified Nato Secret, was leaked by an MoD official to Tory MP Adam Holloway, who passed the documents to the Daily Mail.
The commander died with Trooper Joshua Hammond on July 1st, when their convoy was hit by an improvised explosion device (IED) in Helmand Province, north of the town of Lashkar Gah.
According to the newspaper, the Lieutenant Colonel wrote that the level of helicopter support available for his troops was 'unsustainable'.
'I have tried to avoid griping about helicopters – we all know we don't have enough,' he said in a weekly report.
He added: 'We cannot not move people, so this month we have conducted a great deal of administrative movement by road.
'This increases the IED threat and our exposure to it.'
In July, prime minister Gordon Brown insisted a lack of helicopters was not responsible for any loss of lives in Afghanistan.
The memo, classified Nato Secret, was leaked by an MoD official to Tory MP Adam Holloway, who passed the documents to the Daily Mail.
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