Major Phil Ashby ~ Unscathed (Biography)

An astonishing true story of bravery and survival.

On 6 May 2000 Major Phil Ashby's mission as a UN Peacekeeper in war-ravaged Sierra Leone was brought to a violent end.  The notorious rebel soldiers restarted the country's civil war and turned on the UN's representatives, torturing and butchering a number of his colleagues and taking over 500 hostages.  Ashby and three other Western soldiers found themselves cut off in hostile territory.

After four days of physical and psychological bombardment, Ashby decided to risk an escape attempt rather than be taken alive.  So at 2.45 the next morning his team went over the wall.  They were outnumbered by more than twenty to one.  They were also unarmed.  Their chances of escaping were slim.  But despite trekking day and night for almost a week without food and water, Ashby somehow found the strength and the courage to lead his colleagues on a daring, dramatic and heart-stopping race to freedom through the hostile jungle.  He was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal for his actions, and is, without doubt, a true British hero.