Prince Harry’s deployment to Afghanistan has won plaudits from his fellow soldiers. Sending their comments to an army chatline service, they praised the Prince unanimously “for having the balls” to take on the Taleban and criticised the foreign media who broke the story.

“Damn right, respect to the bloke for getting on the ground,” one wrote. “Well done Ginge!” another wrote.

One soldier confirmed that Prince Harry had been on active service throughout his ten weeks in southern Afghanistan and had not been kept away from the Taleban. “Well done, and all I’ll say is he hasn’t sat in Bastion [Camp Bastion, the British main base in central Helmand province] for three months,” he wrote.

Prince Harry’s exploits against the Taleban produced a mass of favourable comments about the Royal Family. “Well done that fine young representative of the Royal Family,” one said. “And people wonder why we respect our Royal Family more than the Government,” another wrote.

“No argument from me. I consider it a shame that this got reported, it will make him a more valuable target for mad fools. OTOH [on the other hand], it does show that the Royal Family are more in touch with the reality facing British people than anyone in government,” another soldier wrote. One soldier said that it was a “smack in the face” for the Taleban.

One comment seemed to sum up the view of the majority about the way that the story was leaked – first of all in an Australian magazine and then on the front page of the American website Drudge Report. “It had to be a frigging convict that broke the story, nice one w*****s,” a soldier wrote.

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