From British Daily Telegraph:
The Military Cross awarded to Cpl Carl Taylor was among 131 decorations given to soldiers, sailors and airmen for their heroism in Afghanistan and Libya.
Cpl Taylor was on one of the 41,000 patrols that the brigade conducted when it was ambushed from two different positions in the village of Popalzay in Helmand.
The men dashed into the nearest mud brick compound and began returning fire.
A few minutes later, their interpreter told them that two women in the compound were extremely distressed because their children were trapped behind a low wall about 25 yards away.
“I stuck my head out of the compound to have a look,” said the 25-year-old soldier.
He saw the boys, aged between three and seven, sheltering from the gunfire. “The children were stuck behind a small wall,” the corporal said. “They were too scared to move because of the incoming fire from the insurgents.”
Without thinking about his own safety, the soldier, whose girlfriend is five months pregnant, ducked under the volleys of machinegun fire while his fellow soldiers gave him covering fire.
He rushed over to the weeping boys, picked one of them up and ran straight back to the compound with him under one arm.
He then made a second dash to the wall, this time accompanied by his platoon commander, Capt James Cook. They rescued the two remaining children who ran straight into their mothers’ arms.
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