They stood in line high up in the mountains, wearing their body armour and green berets as the sound of the last post drifted down the valley.

Since last November, 42 British troops have died in Afghanistan

The Taleban on the front line just a few kilometres away may even have heard the bugler from the Remembrance Day service at the furthest outpost of British forces in southern Afghanistan.

From the vantage point high up on the Kajaki Dam, the 100 or so men of 40 Commando Royal Marines could certainly see the positions where less then 24 hours earlier they had been locked in a fierce battle with the insurgents.

But now looking out over the mountains and the Helmand River, they were silent as they contemplated the deaths of 19 Royal Marines since last Remembrance Day, the 42 British troops who have died in Afghanistan in that time, and the thousands killed in the wars of the past.

The 42nd soldier to be killed died further down this valley on Friday - here they are fighting a war very much in the present.

'Bullets fizzing'

The previous day we joined Seven Troop out on a patrol to secure and clear mines from high ground above the Taleban front lines.

Not surprisingly the insurgents wanted to do everything they could to stop the British forces from gaining a strong position, and so as soon as the first men arrived on the ridge they opened fire on the Marines.

First came the crack-thump of incoming bullets fizzing overhead and then as their aim became more accurate, they struck right in front of the gunners who had jumped into narrow trenches and were trying to spot the Taleban firing positions.

Soldier killed in Afghanistan

They laughed nervously as dust and bullet casings danced up as they were hit, and a high-pitched whizzing sound told us the bullets were passing just a metre or so above our heads.

Someone spotted the flash of a gun barrel, the gunners opened fire and mortars from the base four kilometres away started to rain down onto the compounds, exploding into plumes of dust and smoke.

Another day out in the no-man's land of Kajaki.

Last time they had pushed out this far from their base a few days earlier four men had been injured.

Having cleared the high ground and achieved their aim for the day, the orders came to pull back from the fighting, but as the troops moved off the hill the firing came in from a different direction - suddenly there was no cover.

A handful of smoke grenades were thrown and that screened the withdrawal, but we all had to run for cover as the bullets landed close by and continued to fizz overhead.