November 5, 2009

WOOTTON BASSETT, ENGLAND - Christina Schmid, the wife of Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid, applauds the hearse carrying his body as it passes mourners lining the High Street of Wootton Bassett on November 5 2009 in, Wiltshire, England. The 30-year-old British soldier from the Royal Logistic Corps Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment, who was one week away from the end of his six-month tour, was killed trying to defuse a bomb in Helmand province Afghanistan and was repatriated to nearby RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire earlier today. The repatriation comes on the day when the Ministry of Defence released the names of the five British soldiers killed in an attack by a rogue Afghan police officer in what has become one of the bloodiest incidents for British troops in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001. A total of 92 UK servicemen have now been killed this year alone - the highest annual figure since the Falklands War in 1982 - and the deaths take the number of UK troops killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 229. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)