There was no running water at all, pretty horrific conditions to be living in. Tragic.The enclave had 40,000 people in it, a valley running north-south encircled by high ground, seven-eighths held by Serbs armed with mortars, heavy guns, basically shelling randomly It was horrific. They'd drop huge pallets, the size of three pianos, filled with the basics. The townspeople were going out with candles in cut-away tin cans, because they didn't have torches, so the Serbs were actually shooting to the left of the lights - because most people are right-handed - and shooting women and children looking for food. But they needed us there, to put up the communications systems that enabled the UN to air-drop food supplies.The women and children were really chuffed, we were like pied pipers: when they'd see us going to the football pitch at night they'd know there was food coming. The fighters were all hanging round in groups and as we walked past they'd run out behind us and fire in the air. It was a bit unnerving.You wouldn't actually hear the planes because they were flying at 14,500ft, to avoid the SAMs, but you would hear the parachutes deploying.

They'd throw the stuff out the back over the football pitch and you'd hear the whip, crack and you knew the chute was opening. The Croats couldn't believe it, but the road was opened: a day later the UN was in there with food trucks.But the Muslim fighters didn't want us. What we had done was to take away a lot of their glory, because they'd been defending the town I can see their point of view looking back now. A deal had gone on between the Serbs and Croats that is shrouded in mystery, but left the Croats holding a check-point on the road.We told the Croats we had guys inside Maglaj and radioed ahead and told the guys to come and meet us. They went into a hole in the ground, waiting all night, under intense fire.

In the morning they surrendered to the Muslims and said they were from the UN.What the lads found out was that people were very, very low on food but it wasn't malnutrition as the outside world had thought.Within 24 hours we had another two guys walk in through the Croat lines without telling the Croats My patrol was still hoping to drive in. It was a Sea King manned by Norwegian pilots, really brave lads. The first night the choppers got shot at really badly and had to turn back.The second night they went in and the tail rotor was hit by a SAM - the boys debussed and the pilots turned round. But the Serbs thought the boys were Muslims and the Muslims thought they were Serbs, so everybody was shooting at them. We were going to use infra-red headlights and night goggles - that was put on hold as well.We were going to parachute in: that would have been the best plan but apparently that's against UN regulations.So we decided to use a helicopter - bearing in mind the Serbs had surface to air missiles (SAMs) up there. The River Bosna runs north-south through Maglaj - that was a good plan, maybe go down that in a canoe, but the Serbs had mined that river.