Prince Harry War Hero Status Hugely Understated by Royals Until 'Spare'

Prince Harry's glittering military career was substantially understated on the Royal Family's official website for ten years—until after he gave a detailed account of it in his book Spare.

The Duke of Sussex served two tours in Afghanistan and during the second flew an Apache attack helicopter. As recently as January 2023, the month Harry's book Spare was published, the Royal Family website's entry for Harry's military career ended in 2008, before his crucial second tour of Afghanistan.

The duke's first tour saw him call in air strikes on enemy positions, a huge responsibility, however, he did so from the safety of a military base.

He went back to front line again from September 2012 to January 2013 for a second tour in which he was in harm's way at the controls of an Apache attack helicopter, firing on enemy positions and killing members of the Taliban.

Despite a high-profile TV interview at the end of this tour, in which he acknowledged his combat role, the royal family's website was not updated with the details for ten years.

During that time, the final entry read: "On 13th April 2008, Prince Harry was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant with The Household Cavalry (Blues and Royals)."

It did include some details of his first tour, noting: "On 28th February 2008 The Ministry of Defence confirmed that Prince Harry had been serving with the British Army in Helmand, Afghanistan for more than two months.

"At the time, Clarence House issued the following statement: 'Prince Harry is very proud to serve his country on operations alongside his fellow soldiers and to do the job he has been trained for'."

And for ten years that was all there was on the website, only changing some time after March 2023, although it is not clear exactly when.

The website now reads: "In September 2012, Prince Harry was deployed to Afghanistan, based in Camp Bastion in Helmand province to conduct operational tour as an Apache pilot.

"He was working as part of the Joint Aviation Group (JAG) which provides helicopter support to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Afghan forces operating throughout Regional Command (South West) and ended his four month tour in January 2013."

It goes on to detail his work with the veteran community after his combat tour was over, including the launch of the Invictus Games in 2014.

Harry's second tour was by far the more high profile, seeing him fire on enemy positions from the cockpit of his Apache helicopter and killing 25 Taliban.

Palace staff have been updating the royals' official site in the aftermath of the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September, 2022, and recent research by the Daily Express found numerous outdated paragraphs and references.

However, proper recognition of Harry's military career is a touchy subject after he was not permitted to wear his military uniform to Queen Elizabeth II's funeral in September 2022 because he is not a working royal.

Prince Edward, who dropped out of the Royal Marines before completing the training, was allowed to wear his, in light of honorary military appointments given to him as a working royal.

Harry had previously held similar honorary titles, including Captain General of the Royal Marines, but was stripped of them in 2021 following his decision to quit royal life.

In Spare, the prince described how all his kills were recorded on video using the helicopter's hi-tech systems and reviewed afterwards.

"Most soldiers can't tell you precisely how much death is on their ledger," he wrote. "In battle conditions, there's often a great deal of indiscriminate firing.

"But in the age of Apaches and laptops, everything I did in the course of two combat tours was recorded, time-stamped. I could always say precisely how many enemy combatants I'd killed. And I felt it vital never to shy away from that number.

"Among the many things I learned in the Army, accountability was near the top of the list. So, my number: Twenty-five. It wasn't a number that gave me any satisfaction. But neither was it a number that made me feel ashamed."

Harry also spoke with pride about the achievement of learning to fly an Apache, which was far more complicated than his earlier training aircraft.

"Day by day the Apache felt less alien," he wrote, "and some days it even felt good. I learned to be alone in there, to think alone, function alone.

"I learned to communicate with this big, fast, nasty, beautiful beast, to speak its language, to listen when it talked.

"I learned to perform one set of skills with my hands, while doing another with my feet. I learned to appreciate how phenomenal this machine was: unthinkably heavy, yet capable of ballet-like suppleness.

"The most technologically complex helicopter in the world, and also the most nimble. I could see why only a handful of people on earth knew how to fly Apaches, and why it cost millions of dollars to train each of those people."

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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