It was him or me, says the first female soldier to kill in combat who shot Taliban SEVEN time

A female Army medic has told of the dramatic moment she gunned down a Taliban fighter after being caught in an ambush, saying: ‘It was him or me.’

Chantelle Taylor, who became the first woman soldier known to have killed in combat, said the man was only 50 feet away and firing ‘drug-crazed bursts from his AK-47’.

The 32-year-old, then serving as a sergeant in the Royal Army Medical Corps in Afghanistan, was ‘overwhelmed by fear’ during the firefight but after a ‘rush of blood to the head’ she fired seven shots, killing him.

Terrifying account: Army medic Chantelle Taylor pictured in Afghanistan where she was caught in a Taliban ambush

Miss Taylor, on the front line in Afghanistan. The young medic, who now works as a security consultant, even once taught Prince William to apply a tourniquet.

It was the first time Miss Taylor had ever fired her standard issue SA80 assault rifle at another person.

Speaking about being forced to choose between his life or her own, she said: ‘Faced with the choice of him or me, I chose me.’

Officially, female soldiers in the Army are not allowed to fight on the front line in battle. 

But Miss Taylor is one of many women who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq as medics, drivers and artillery support troops.

The young medic, who now works as a security consultant, even once taught Prince William to apply a tourniquet.

Describing her first and only ‘kill’ in a book about her experiences in Afghanistan, Miss Taylor said the attack happened as a patrol was ambushed by 20 heavily-armed insurgents in the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, Helmand, in July 2008.

‘As we turn on to one of the tracks that leads to a canal, I can see villagers running – and they are running away,’ she writes.

‘Boom! Boom! Two deafening explosions are followed by small arms fire and heavy machine guns. The first explosion rocks the vehicle, smashing my head against the front of the wagon. 

‘An airburst of incoming rocket-propelled grenades rains debris and shrapnel around us.’

'The convoy quickly turned into a ‘Taliban shooting gallery’, Miss Taylor added. Her Land Rover was peppered with bullets. ‘I immediately get eyes on a Taliban fighter – a little more than 50ft away, in a field to our left,’ she says.

‘Suddenly, overwhelmed by a fear that I am about to be shot in the face, I experience a massive rush of blood to the head.

‘Instinctively and purposefully I engage him, firing seven shots, which would later become quite the joke within my regiment. Apparently I was wasting ammunition.

Miss Taylor pictured left with her fellow medics. Officially, female soldiers in the Army are not allowed to fight on the front line in battle.

Helmand in 2008. Soon after firing her rifle Miss Taylor turned her attention to her colleagues, and saved the life of a soldier who had been shot in the stomach

Miss Taylor wrote of the incident: 'I am struck by the fearlessness. He [her attacker] knows the odds are that he is about to die, but continues to fire elaborate drug-crazed bursts from his AK-47.'

‘The first two are hazy, I just fire in his general direction. Then I can see him clearly. His baggy clothing is darker than the field that he is standing in. His face is long, this exaggerated by the straggly black beard.

‘I am struck by the fearlessness. He knows the odds are that he is about to die, but continues to fire elaborate drug-crazed bursts from his AK-47.’ Finally, she writes, ‘the fighter I engaged has dropped’.

She adds: ‘It would never be right to claim a kill as a medic but, at the end of the day, he no longer had the ability to engage us and that’s all that I am concerned about. Faced with the choice of him or me, I chose me.’ 

Soon afterwards Miss Taylor turned her attention to her colleagues, and saved the life of a soldier who had been shot in the stomach by making sure he was taken to their base in a helicopter.

The dramatic account appears in Miss Taylor’s book Bad Company: A Woman Face To Face With The Taliban, which is being serialised in the Mail on Sunday.

THE WEST MUST PERSEVERE IN AFGHANISTAN, SAYS COMMANDER

Western nations cannot turn their back on Afghanistan and must see the job through after making an ‘investment in blood’, the commander of British forces in the country has said.

Lieutenant General James Bucknall (right) said coalition forces were pushing the Taliban back, with 130 to 140 insurgent leaders killed every month. ‘We almost owe it to those who have gone before to see the job through,’ he said. ‘Having made this investment in blood, I am more determined.’

He said the Western coalition must stick together in the run-up to the planned draw-down of combat troops by the end of 2014.