Private Johnson Beharry
British Army
Victoria Cross
Al ‘Ama¯rah, Iraq
May 1 and June 11, 2004
“Some days you the bug, some days you the windshield,” was the way Caribbean-born British army Private Johnson Beharry put it.
In Iraq he was the windshield.
For his actions in “two individual acts of great heroism by which he saved the lives of his comrades,” Beharry received Britain’s highest military honor, the Victoria Cross. His was the first VC awarded since the 1982 Falklands War, and he became the first living recipient of the award since 1969.
Born in Grenada in 1979, Beharry moved to Great Britain in 1999 and two years later joined the Princess of Wales’ Royal Regiment, the senior English line infantry regiment of the army. Trained to operate the Warrior tracked armored vehicle, he served six months in Kosovo and three months in Northern Ireland before deploying to Iraq.
In Al ‘Ama¯rah on the night of May 1, 2004, Beharry was called to drive the lead vehicle of six Warriors tasked with extracting a foot patrol that had been attacked by an improvised explosive device (IED) and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), then pinned down by small-arms and machine-gun fire. As Beharry passed a roundabout en route, his platoon commander noticed the road ahead was empty of civilians and traffic, a sign of a potential ambush. The commander ordered a halt. Almost immediately multiple RPGs struck the Warrior, knocking out its radio systems, incapacitating the commander and the vehicle’s gunner, and wounding other soldiers in the vehicle. When Beharry tried to drive on, additional RPGs struck the Warrior, setting it afire. Opening his hatch to clear the smoke, Beharry spotted an incoming RPG. “The flames and force of the blast passed directly over him, down the driver’s tunnel, further wounding the semiconscious gunner in the turret,” the VC citation reads.
Acting on his own volition, Beharry decided the best course of action was to drive through the ambush despite the potential risk posed by IEDs. As the RPG blasts had damaged his periscope, Beharry was forced to drive with the hatch open and his head exposed in order to steer. Amid heavy small-arms fire a 7.62mm bullet penetrated his helmet, lodging in the liner.
Once clear of the ambush zone, Beharry climbed onto the turret of his burning vehicle and, “seemingly oblivious to the incoming enemy smallarms fire,” hefted first his wounded commander and then the gunner from his vehicle to a safe position. After leading the other wounded men in his vehicle to safety, Beharry remounted his burning Warrior and drove it to a defended outpost, thus keeping it from enemy hands.
“His valour is worthy of the highest recognition,” reads the VC citation.
Just six weeks later, on June 11, Beharry was again driving the lead vehicle of a Warrior convoy through the streets of Al ‘Ama¯rah when multiple RPGs hit the vehicle. One detonated just inches from Beharry’s head, inflicting serious shrapnel injuries to his face and brain, while other rounds injured the convoy commander and several crew members. Despite his injuries and blood obscuring his vision, Beharry maintained control of his vehicle, smashed through an enemy roadblock and drove clear of the ambush before losing consciousness. Other Warrior crews then came to his aid. Initial reports listed Beharry as P1, the highest medical priority, given to patients in need of immediate evacuation. Beharry required brain surgery and the insertion of a titanium plate in his skull.
“Maybe I was brave, I don’t know,” he later said. “At the time I was just doing the job. I didn’t have time for other thoughts.”
Beharry returned to England, still suffering severe pain in his back and head. He remains in the army and has said he would return to frontline service if physically able.
Queen Elizabeth II presented Beharry his Victoria Cross on April 27, 2005. “You’re very special,” she told him. “It’s been rather a long time since I’ve awarded one of these.”
Originally published in the July 2014 issue of Military History. To subscribe, click here.
