TIDWORTH based soldiers from 1st Battalion the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (1PWRR) were engaged in a bloody three-hour battle in the Iraqi desert last month which involved a bayonet charge on Iraqi bandits.

The full story of how the British soldiers wiped out the heavily armed gang that had been terrorising travellers on a major road in southern Iraq was revealed in this month's issue of Soldier Magazine.

The battle began when a dozen gunmen attempted to ambush nine soldiers from the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders (A & SH) in a pair of armoured Land Rovers on the notorious Route Six motorway near the town of Al Amarah.

The Magazine reported: "Iraqi gunmen poured small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades at the vehicles which sped on with bullets ricocheting off their paintwork."

Minutes later the Land Rovers were fired on by a separate group of about 25 men while further down the road they came across bandits preparing a roadside bomb.

Two platoons, 28 men, of the PWRR were scrambled from nearby Camp Condor to hunt down the bandits and found them still dug in beside the road.

Using a flanking manoeuvre the soldiers fixed bayonets and cleared the trenches in what was described as "very heavy hand-to-hand fighting."

Meanwhile a further 60 PWRR soldiers in Warrior armoured fighting vehicles and supported by a Challenger 2 tank attacked and routed a force of about 50 Iraqis further along the road.

During the fighting around 30 Iraqis were killed and 12 were captured while a further dozen are believed to have run off.

Two soldiers from 1PWRR received shrapnel wounds, but were not seriously hurt.

Capt Justin Barry, Adjutant of the A & SH, said: "The fighters engaged were basically terrorists and gangsters - people out to destabilise the area and drive out the coalition, but at the end of the day we got the better of them and hopefully Route Six is now much safer.

"The PWRR were engaged in very heavy had-to-hand fighting and bayonets were fixed. There's a great sense of satisfaction among the men with the way this turned out."