Heroism: Introducing The Fort from The History Podcast

Rory Stewart: The Long History of...

BBC

Society & Culture, Philosophy, History

4.6 • 593 Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2025

⏱️ 4 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Afghanistan, January 2007.

It's a piece of military daring that went down in history: Three Royal Marines and a Royal Engineer hold on to the side of Apache attack helicopters, heading into battle to recover a fallen comrade.

Those involved in a gripping, almost unbelievable day, tell their story, many speaking for the first time.

It begins with British forces, tasked with bringing security to Helmand Province in the South of Afghanistan.

But Lieutenant Colonel Rob Magowan commanding the IX Battlegroup has a problem.

Jugroom Fort.

The Taliban command and control centre is a crucial route for enemy fighters making their way in from Pakistan. They train there. They rearm there. Jugroom Fort is the launchpad for attacks on British troops.

But a bold plan to occupy the ancient stronghold with the battle-hardened Royal Marines of Zulu Company is about to meet intense resistance.

And amid a gruelling firefight, a man is left behind.

The Fort is told solely by current and former members of the Armed Forces.

To listen to more episodes, search "The History Podcast" on BBC Sounds.

Produced by Kev Core

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, radio podcasts.
0:07.3	Right, you feeling ready? I'm feeling ready.
0:10.8	I'm Amal Rajin. Join me on my new podcast for in-depth conversations with pioneers and
0:16.0	innovators, talking about the trends and ideas that could help shape and change our future.
0:21.4	We are going to be digital citizens of this AI world, whether we like it or not.
0:26.2	From declining birth rates to disinformation online, can they solve the world's biggest challenges?
0:32.0	What I would love to do is go to the transfer and say radically cut the taxes of those with children.
0:37.3	Radical with me, Amal Rajan.
0:39.3	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:42.7	As you've been listening to the long history of heroism, we thought you might like to hear
0:48.0	some heroes in their own words.
0:50.9	I'm Kev Kor and I'm the producer of the history podcast series, The Fort. It's about
0:57.0	a Royal Marines attack on a Taliban stronghold during the Afghanistan war, which results in a daring rescue
1:04.1	mission as pilots, Marines and soldiers refuse to leave a man behind. And they tell their story themselves.
1:12.6	Here's a taste of it.
1:14.6	You can listen to the whole series of the fort right now on BBC Sounds.
1:19.6	It was a daring and brave mission to rescue a Royal Marine who'd been trapped in fighting in Afghanistan.
1:26.6	It all began the night before. Royal Marines of 4-5 commando to rescue a Royal Marine who'd been trapped in fighting in Afghanistan.
1:29.5	It all began the night before.
1:34.4	Royal Marines of 4-5 Commando attacking a Taliban fort in Helmand Province.
1:38.1	They were trying to find their comrade Lance Corporal Matthew Ford who'd become separated from the rest of his force during fighting.
1:42.5	From BBC Radio 4 and the history podcast, The Fort.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.