A NORTH-EAST soldier told tonight how he narrowly escaped death after being shot during a fierce gun battle with Taliban.

Sergeant Craig Johnson, from Middlesbrough, narrowly was shot by an insurgent in the Babaji district of Helmand province - but saved by his chest armour.

The 28-year-old, who serves with the 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment (Green Howards), is second in command of an Operational Mentor and Liaison Team, a small team of soldiers training soldiers from the Afghan National Army (ANA). The British team live, work and fight alongside their Afghan counterparts in a remote and isolated base in the centre of Helmand.

Sgt Johnson had his lucky escape during an operation working alongside members of the Coldstream Guards.

Today he explained: “The first few hours of the patrol went without incident. "At around 0730 hours the atmospherics within the village we were near turned sour. The locals began to leave the area and informed us that there was Taliban in the village. An attack was about to take place.”

At around 1030 the patrol was fired on by the Taliban who were only 50m away. The Taliban were firing a machine gun over the top of a compound wall. Soon shots rained down from a second Taliban position; firing through a hole in the wall of a separate compound. The Taliban fire unfortunately resulted in three casualties from the Coldstream Guards. Sgt Johnson said: “The split second that the fire started, I hit the deck. At first I thought I’d been shot in my right arm and spent the next five to ten seconds checking myself for any signs of bleeding or injury. Once I realised I was OK I commanded the Afghans into position to win the firefight.” With the combined force of the Afghan National Army and the British troops, the Taliban were suppressed.

This allowed the casualties to be extracted to a safe location where they could be lifted by helicopter to the field hospital in Camp Bastion.

It was only then that Sgt Johnson realised how lucky he had been: “One of the other soldiers pointed out some damage to my chest plate. "I took the chest plate out of the body armour cover and noticed pieces of a 7.62mm round approximately two inches from the edge. "I realised when I thought I’d been shot I actually had. But due to the protection from the chest plate I was able to carry on fighting and assist with the extraction of the casualties.

“I realise I was very lucky on that day and the other soldiers are happy for me to patrol at the front from now on. Now they know I can stop a bullet!”

This is the third time Sgt Johnson has served in Afghanistan.

He has also completed operational tours of duty in Bosnia (twice), and Northern Ireland. Waiting for him in the UK are his wife Vicky, step-daughter Leigha and son Harley.