The Commanding Officer of the Canterbury-based Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders has spoken for the first time about being shot in Afghanistan.

Lt Col David Richmond, 41, had his right leg shattered by an insurgent’s bullet in a battle between British and Taliban forces in Helmand province.

"We came under direct fire. I heard it clearly, a burst of between six and 10 rounds and I was down," he said.

"One struck my leg and the others whizzed past my right ear. I was walking just behind the lead company, tying-up details of our next operation, when it happened.

"Had that bullet struck an artery, I’d have been a gonna. I remember being dragged from the contact area and feeling gutted and horribly disappointed. I found it difficult to believe I had been hit."

Lt Col Richmond, one of the highest ranked soldiers in the British Army to be wounded in Afghanistan, is recovering in the trauma unit of Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham.

He hopes to be walking on crutches in a month’s time and his longer-term aim is to be fit enough to take the salute when his battalion returns to Howe Barracks in Canterbury in October.