How exhilaration of going in for the kill turned, in seconds, to utter despair

Less than six minutes later, a British soldier was dead and a four-year chain of events that would strain transatlantic relations had begun.

Matty Hull was 25 years old when he died, and the US pilot who killed him knew within seconds that he had made a terrible mistake, his exultation turning to sickened horror.

But the world outside the US military learned only yesterday of the confused exchanges and the adrenaline-charged split-second decisions that led to the death of L-Cpl Hull, a member of the Household Cavalry Regiment.

Those events came to light with the leaking of a classified video filmed from the cockpit of the plane whose attack killed L-Cpl Hull.

The videotape and the radio transmissions of the US personnel involved demonstrate all too vividly the exhilaration and fear of the pilots, codenamed POPOV35 and POPOV36, as they talk to their controller, MANILA HOTEL. It all starts with a failure to give the precise location of the British vehicles, which bore orange roof panels that should have identified them as coalition forces:

POPOV36: Hey, I got a four-ship. Looks like we got orange panels on them, though. Do we have any friendlies up in this area?

MANILA HOTEL: I understand that was north 800 metres. POPOV 36: Understand that was north 800 metres?

POPOV35: Confirm, north 800 metres. Confirm there are no friendlies this far north on the ground.

MANILA HOTEL: That is an affirm. You are well clear of friendlies.

POPOV35: Hey, dude.

POPOV36: I got a four-ship of vehicles that are evenly spaced along a road going north ...

they look like they have orange panels on, though.

POPOV35: He told me, he told me there's nobody north of here.

POPOV36: I know. There, right on the river.

POPOV35: I see vehicles, though. Might be our original dudes.

POPOV36: They've got something orange on top of them.

POPOV36: (to Manila Hotel) Hey, tell me what type of rocket launchers you got up here? ... I think they're rocket launchers.

MANILA HOTEL: ... (garbled) You were stepped on, say again.

POPOV35: Manila Hotel, fire your arty up that 800 metres north, and see how we do.

MANILA HOTEL: Roger, standby for shot. They are getting adjustments to the guns now.

POPOV35: Copy.

POPOV36: Roll up your right wing and look right underneath you.

POPOV35: (Angry) I know what you're talking about.

POPOV36: OK, well they got orange rockets on them.

POPOV35: Orange rockets?

POPOV36: Yeah, I think so

... I think killing these damn rocket launchers, it would be great. (The tape then becomes garbled).

POPOV36: OK, do you see the orange things on top of them?

MANILA HOTEL: POPOV36 from Manila Hotel. Are you able to switch to Crimson?

POPOV36: POPOV36 is rolling in.

MANILA HOTEL: Tell you what.

POPOV35: I'm coming off west. You roll in. It looks like they are exactly what we're talking about.

POPOV36: We got visual ... OK. I want to get that first one before he gets into town, then.

POPOV35: Get him! Get him!

POPOV36: All right, we got rocket launchers, it looks like. Number 2 is rolling in from the south to the north, and 2's in.

POPOV35: Get it.

At this point, POPOV36 "rolls in" for an attack and turns his A-10 into a vertical dive to strafe what he still does not realise is a British column, destroying two Scimitar armoured vehicles and killing L-Cpl Hull. The aircraft turns and then fires on the British convoy again.

After the second attack, Lightning 34, a US marine forward air-controller, enters the conversation.

LIGHTNING 34: Be advised that in the 3122 and 3222 group box you have friendly armour in the area. Yellow, small armoured tanks. Just be advised.

POPOV35: Ahh s*** ... Got a, got a smoke.

LIGHTNING 34: Hey, POPOV34, abort your mission. You got a, looks we might have a blue-on-blue situation.

POPOV35: F***. God bless it. F***, f***, f***.

[Manilla 34, another air controller enters the dialogue, repeating that the vehicles hit are "friendlies".]

POPOV35: Confirm those are friendlies on that side of the canal ... s***.

MANILA 34: Standby, Popov.

POPOV36: God damn it.

MANILA HOTEL: Hey Popov36, from Manila Hotel.

MANILA 34: OK, Popov. Just west of the 3-4 easting. On the berm up there, the 3422 area is where we have our friendlies, over.

POPOV35: All right, Popov35 has smoke. Let me know how those friendlies are right now, please.

MANILA 34: Roger, stand by.

POPOV35: Gotta go home, dude.

POPOV36: Yeah, I know. We're f*****.

POPOV35: S***.

POPOV35: Popov35 is Bingo. Let us know what's happening.

MANILA HOTEL: Roger. We are getting that information for you right now. Stand by.

POPOV36: F***.

MANILA 34: We are getting an initial brief that there was one killed and one wounded, over.

POPOV35: I'm going to be sick.

POPOV36: Ah f***.

POPOV35: Did you hear?

POPOV36: Yeah, this sucks.

POPOV35: We're in jail, dude.

POPOV36: Aaaahhhh ... F***. God f ***ing s*** ... Damn it. F***ing damn it. God damn it. F*** me dead (weeping).

POPOV35: You with me?

POPOV36: Yeah.

POPOV35: They did say there were no friendlies.

POPOV36: Yeah, I know. That thing with the orange panels is going to screw us. They look like orange rockets on top.

POPOV35: Your tape still on?

POPOV36: Yeah.

Tape's leak a mystery

AN American diplomat yesterday raised the prospect that British officials leaked the "friendly fire" tape.

"How it got released into the public domain, whether it was a UK official, is hard for us to know," said David Johnson, the deputy head of mission at the US embassy in London.

The US military had tried to withhold the "classified" tape for four years, refusing UK appeals that the MoD be allowed to release its copy to the Oxfordshire coroner investigating Matty Hull's death.

After the tape was leaked, the US last night bowed to the inevitable and declassified it, but suspicions linger that the tape was leaked to "bounce" the Americans into disclosure.