Poignant front line diary notes reveal innermost thoughts of Afghan soldiers

From a determination to serve on the front line to psychological struggles off the battlefield, these are the poignant innermost thoughts of British troops as collected by an artist in Afghanistan.

Derek Eland asked soldiers to write down their thoughts about experiencing warfare - and the stories he collected are filled with raw emotion, memories and experiences.

He asked troops to pen their most personal thoughts on anything they could lay their hands on.

Willing soldiers in Afghanistan scrawled on whatever was nearby, including food packets, medical forms or the corner of a cardboard box.

Their uncensored diary notes show the exhilaration, boredom, sorrow, humour and fear they experienced on the front line.

One soldier Colum McGeown jotted a note describing the need to 'stay strong' - and just three days later had his legs blown off by an IED.

Photographs of the soldiers writing the notes accompany 100 stories have been published in Eland's book 'Diary Rooms: Being Human on the Front Line in Afghanistan'.

Many of the notes were written in dangerous forward operating bases on Helmand's front line.

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Ranger Curley, of the Royal Irish Regiment, used a green biro to describe seeing a father and son working in an Afghan field reminded him of making a living with his dad, where 'the only battle we had was the one my mother had to fight off cancer and the only soldier we had in our safe environment in the west of Ireland was my mam'.

Doc Richards wrote: 'My abiding memory of Afghanistan?...It will be a humble local farmer who one day took me by surprise by asking after my family. 'You are far from home. You must miss your family. We are very grateful.'

Troops' raw front-line notes also reveal the 'other war' that raged - in their minds.

One wrote: 'If you are close to someone that is away out here know that you will always be in their minds because there are two wars bring fought, one which is publicised and one which goes on in a soldiers head when everything goes quiet?.'

He added: 'Sometimes it drives you crazy missing everything and sometimes it makes you smile knowing that you will have those things to look forward to again...'

Colum McGeown, an Irish Guardsman wrote in bold capital letters: 'Gotta stay strong, focused, switched on. Skills and drills got to be perfect, keep fighting, out-tank them, out-smart them, out-work them... My love I will see you at Brize in 2 1/2 weeks.'

But just three days later he had both legs blown off when he stood on an improvised explosive device.

David Dalzell was killed in Afghanistan, not by the enemy but by a friend and fellow soldier.

They had just returned from an exhausting patrol when the young Royal Irish Regiment soldier was shot by an accidental discharge from a rifle.

His thoughts from a few days before his tragic death are revealed in a handwritten note collected by Eland.

David's mother Susan and father Gordon watched footage Eland had taken of the two friends together on patrol in Helmand. 

'For that we are extremely grateful,' Susan wrote in the foreword to Diary Rooms.

'Reading the messages on the postcards, you get a snapshot into the lives of the soldiers on the frontline and we feel privileged to read their thoughts, some very funny and others so heartfelt, moving and so profoundly sad,' she wrote.

Artist Derek, from Cumbria, said: 'I wasn't a slightly aloof, pretentious artist turning up with a paintbrush.

'Because I took the same risks that the soldiers took to get them, they were willing to give me their stories.'

'Some people were actively against it - they thought it would lead to mutinous comments and reduce morale.

'But the soldiers at the sharp end of the front line absolutely got it. They were willing to write their hearts out.The soldiers wrote with the same intensity that they fought.'

The project collated notes written by British soldiers, Afghan troops and interpreters, a BBC journalist, American Special Forces, as well as Australians and Canadians.

The diary notes were first displayed in the Ministry of Defence - 'because my army sponsor wanted people in Whitehall who had never been in war to understand it'.

They were on show at the Imperial War Museum North and are now at Middlesbrough Institute for Modern Art, part of Tate network.

Diary Rooms: Being Human on the Front Line in Afghanistan was published in November and raises funds for the Veterans' mental health charity Combat Stress.