When a homemade grenade went wrong as he was on patrol in Afghanistan, the first thought of a British soldier was for the safety of his comrades. So, to protect them, Lance-Corporal David Choat dived on top of the grenade which had been primed to go off next to him, where there was only one rucksack containing a first-aid pack, 66mm rockets and radio equipment strapped to his body armour to shield him. Seconds later, the booby-trap device exploded. Thanks to the cover provided by the Royal Marines' bag and his own body armour, the 24-year-old escaped with nothing more than a few bruises. The rucksack, however, was not so lucky. Choat explained: "It blew straight through my ruck. The blast threw me a full metre. My lithium battery, for my communications equipment, took the brunt of the shrapnel - it landed 10 metres away, sparking and flaming, like something out of Star Wars, I was completely disorientated. All I could hear was a loud ringing and faint voices shouting 'Are you alright? Are you alright?' Then I felt one of the lads give me a thorough check-over. A minute later, someone said: 'You're F****** lucky,' or words to that effect, like 'What were you doing, you nutter?' But you could sense their relief."