A soldier writing a letter home while wearing his gas mask during a chemical weapon alert in the northern Kuwaiti desert, 2003

Photograph, Operation Telic, (2003-2011), 2003.

British troops began deploying to Kuwait in January 2003. Large tented camps were constructed there but last-minute training and planning for the soldiers arriving there were complicated by destructive dust storms and the potential threat from biological and chemical attacks. On 20 March, the US, UK and their allies launched a full-scale invasion into Iraq.