Protection in the heat of battle | Afua Hirsch

Temperatures in Basra can be so extreme they fall off the end of the thermometer. When Jason Smith, a private with the territorial army, arrived there for "acclimatisation" before being deployed, the temperature in the shade was at the unmeasurable level past 50C. He literally overheated, suffering a cardiac arrest and dying less than two months after he arrived.

It may be too much to ask for air conditioning for service personnel experiencing these conditions for the first time, but at the very least you would expect the Ministry of Defence to ensure they had someone trained in dealing with the effects of heatstroke. It should not take three court of appeal judges to have to tell them that.

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