DERBYSHIRE soldiers will be pulling out of Afghanistan over the next few days.
Senior officers confirmed that when the tour finishes, 2 Mercian regiment will not return to the war-torn country.
The withdrawal from Helmand Province will mark the end of a campaign which has lasted for more than a decade and cost the lives of more than 440 British servicemen.
From 2 Mercian, 13 soldiers have been killed, two of those from Derbyshire.
But Lieutenant Colonel Paul "Shove" Gilby, Commanding Officer of 2 Mercian, said that, overall, the Afghan mission had been a success.
He said: "The difference in Helmand now from when we arrived is total. We went into a wild, chaotic place and now its got a lot more normality.
"Our legacy is the security we have helped bring to the area and 2 Mercian has been a vital cog in that process. But with success comes sacrifice and in 2 Mercian we have had a considerable amount. It is a bitter-sweet pill; we have lost some very good friends and colleagues but that is our job.
"It is a price that has been worth paying but that price is going to be harder to bear for some more than others.''
The regiment has been deployed in Afghanistan four times. The troops serving out there are due to return to the UK by the end of the month and Lt Col Gilby said this would be the last full-scale deployment to the country.
He said: "When we first arrived in Afghanistan we were in full combat, we were in pitched battles with the Taliban. At one point we had 120 bases in the area.
"But now we have just a handful. We have been working with and training the Afghan forces.''
Of the six Derbyshire men killed in Helmand, two were serving in 2 Mercian: Private Ben Ford, of Chesterfield, and Pte Brian Tunnicliffe, of Ilkeston.
The four other men from the county served in different regiments. They were: Cpl Liam Riley, of Killamarsh, Drummer Thomas Wright, of Ripley, Lance Sergeant Dave Greenhalgh, of Ilkeston, and Marine Scott Taylor, of Buxton. Thomas Wright, 21, died in 2007, when the Land Rover in which he was travelling triggered a roadside bomb.
His sister, Laura, 22, said "nothing could be worth" her brother's death.
Laura, of Moss Lane, Ripley, named her 16-month old son James Thomas Mason, after him.
She said: "I think about Thomas every day. I am so proud of him and what he did. But nothing could be worth his death.
"I know the war in Afghanistan has had a positive effect. There have been no bombs in this country since and it has sent out a message. But I have still lost my brother, so it's hard to justify."
