Commentary: No surprise this natural soldier has gone back

So Harry’s back in Afghanistan.

It was always going to happen because it’s one of things he likes doing best.

Harry is a natural soldier, as those who serve with him know. His people skills are high. He cares for those he commands, as his repeated visits to his wounded comrades-in-arms testify.

He was gutted, according to his squad, when he was outed by the Australian media and had to cut short his first tour in January 2008. Then he was a forward aircraft controller — one of the most exposed positions you can get on the nearest thing to a front line in Helmand’s crazy paving warscape.

This time he could be in an even more vital role as the weapons man in his Apache attack helicopter. In training he passed out as one of the top guns in his course.

The Apache is crucial to protecting troops when they get into trouble on the ground. We saw this week what happened when a ground patrol couldn’t call in the Apaches. A harrowing episode of BBC3’s Our War depicted a huge ambush on 7 Platoon of the Welsh Guards in which the commander Lt Mark Evison was killed. The Apache also flies as shotgun escort to medical evacuation helicopters. It has more firepower than a flying tank, through Hellfire and Brimstone missiles, an array of rockets, and a machinegun that can fire hundreds of rounds a second, known ominously as “Puff the Magic Dragon”.

The British version of the Apache Longbow also has an extraordinary range of vision — through its masthead sight which sits on top of the rotor hub. This proved invaluable in scoping the desert in Libya last year. In the moonscape of Helmand’s wadi valleys it can look out for 30 to 50 miles. So Harry will be able to see about a quarter of the world’s prime opium poppy fields in a couple of blinks of his electronic eye.

The Apaches are going to be even more important as British troops will spread out to prepare for international forces to start pulling out from next year.

Security won’t be such a problem as last time. Harry will work out of secure bases like the main home of the Apaches at Camp Bastion.

Two bits of good news: According to reports from the Gulf and Pakistan, serious talks now seem to be under way between the Taliban, the Americans and Kabul.

Second: Temperatures will be so cold through much of Harry’s winter deployment that he’ll have to keep most of his clothes on most of the time.