TWO heroic Merseyside soldiers have received medals for the bravery they showed when serving in Afghanistan.

Corporal Paul Mather, 28, from St Helens was awarded the Military Cross and Corporal Carl Thomas, 29, from Bootle received the Queens Gallantry Medal at a ceremony in London yesterday which saw 150 honoured.

Their actions in the war–torn country saved the lives of their comrades while putting their own lives at risk.

Cpl Mathers, who serves with the Army Air Corps, was badly injured when the Taliban attacked his unit with rocket propelled grenades in Afghanistan.

Hot flying shrapnel sliced open his body, leaving gaping holes across his arms, legs and buttocks.

But while his comrades furiously applied dressings and a tourniquet to stem the bleeding, he managed to radio instructions to the jets circling above them.

From his stretcher, he directed them to open fire on the Taliban insurgents.

The attack happened after his platoon, from the 2nd Battalion The Rifles, found an old Russian anti-tank mine near a group of compounds near their base.

They surrounded the compound while experts dismantled the mine.

Cpl Mather, the worst hit of six wounded soldiers, realised jets and Apache attack helicopters above them had seen the explosions and needed to know what had happened.

Speaking to ECHO when he returned from Selly Oak in Birmingham where he received treatment for his wounds the forward air controller said: "I told one of the soldiers to take a smoke grenade from my bag and throw it into the compound where the grenades had come from.

"The pilot immediately picked up the smoke signal and I gave directions for a strike on to the compound."