Harry’s Apache helicopter instructor claims he was WRONG to reveal how many people he killed whilst in Afghanistan

Prince Harry’s Apache helicopter instructor has claimed the Duke was wrong when he revealed how many people he killed during his time in Afghanistan.

The Duke of Sussex went to Afghanistan as an infantryman in 2008, trained as a pilot and returned in 2012, aged 27, as an Apache gunner.

In his memoir Spare, Harry describes killing 25 Taliban fighters, writing: ‘Every killing was on video.

‘The Apache has seen everything. The camera in his nose recorded everything. So after each mission there would be a careful review of that video.

“I was part of six missions that ended in the taking of human lives, and they were all considered justified… I considered them the same.”

The prince also wrote that he did not view the dead “as people” but instead “chess pieces” he had taken from the board.

Steve Jones, Harry’s Apache helicopter instructor, criticized the Duke for revealing his death count, describing the slain individuals as “real people” with families.

Prince Harry at the British-controlled refuge line at Camp Bastion, southern Afghanistan, in 2012

“We’re not about that,” he said The TelegraphH. ‘We’re not here to say, ‘I did this, I did that.’ It’s not a game. These are real people. They have families.

‘I wouldn’t have commented. I get a very uncomfortable feeling about anyone who says, “I killed ten of them.” That’s not what needs to be said at all.’

Mr Jones added: “But [Harry] had a successful tour. It’s a shame he didn’t stick around to do more, but I think he checked that box, scratched the itch and moved on.

“I would say he has regressed in a way from the way he was [how he is] now.’

Nearly a decade after leaving the army, Mr Jones is in the commercial sector, flying helicopters to the oil rigs in the North Sea off Aberdeen.

He also praised Harry for his work in the army, saying: ‘I’ve had people say he only succeeded because of who he is.

‘Nothing could be further from the truth. He definitely played hard, but he was also going to work hard.”

Prince Harry’s Apache helicopter instructor has claimed the Duke was wrong when he revealed how many people he had killed in Afghanistan

Prince Harry with his wife Meghan Markle or the Invictus Games Düsseldorf 2023

Last year the duke – known in the army as ‘Captain Wales’ – wrote that he did not regard the dead as ‘people’ but as ‘chess pieces’ he had removed from the board.

It was the first time Harry had specified the number of insurgents he had personally killed during his time in Afghanistan, where he went in both 2007-2008 and 2012 and flew an Apache attack helicopter during his second tour.

In Spare, the prince said in his leaked autobiography that he carried out six missions that resulted in the “taking of human lives.”

Although many soldiers do not know how many enemies they have killed in battle, the Duke wrote that “in the age of Apaches and laptops” he could say “with accuracy” how many insurgents he had killed.

Harry wrote that ‘you can’t kill people if you see them as people’ and said he instead saw them as ‘chess pieces removed from the board’… ‘bad guys eliminated’.