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An inquest into the deaths of the most senior British officer to be killed in Afghanistan and his 18-year-old colleague is to be held later.Lt Col Rupert Thorneloe, 39, of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, was in charge of more than 1,000 soldiers.
He and Trooper Joshua Hammond, of 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, died in a blast near Lashkar Gah in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan on 1 July 2009.
The inquest into their deaths will be held at Wiltshire Coroner's Court.
The court will be sitting at Trowbridge Town Hall.
The men were killed in their Viking armoured vehicle when it was hit by a roadside bomb.
BBC defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt said: "After their deaths, attention focused on why the men were travelling in a Viking armoured vehicle.
"They [Vikings] were first used in Helmand in 2006, but by 2009 they had proved vulnerable to the ever-bigger bombs being laid by the Taliban.
"Last year, the MoD admitted the vehicles had reached the limit of how much they could be armoured. They are now being replaced with another vehicle."
Royal tribute
Sarah and Kevin Finnegan, Trooper Hammond's mother and stepfather, recently paid tributed to their son.
They said the teenager had died "doing what he loved".
Mrs Finnegan said: "We were devastated by Josh's death and as a family his loss has left a gaping hole in our lives.
"But we are also very proud. Not only of what he achieved but of the way he chose to live his life."
And, following his death, Lt Col Thorneloe's wife Sally said the father-of-two from Kirtlington, Oxford, would be "sorely missed".
Prince Charles, who is colonel-in-chief of Lt Col Thorneloe's regiment and knew the officer, said he was "mortified" when he learned of the deaths.
He said: "I was horrified to say the least about both deaths.
"Having been to visit the Welsh Guards at Aldershot before they left to go to Afghanistan, having met the families and having met Col Rupert's wife, my heart is very much with them."
Lt Col Thorneloe was commissioned into the Welsh Guards in 1992.
He served as a platoon commander and later company commander in the UK and on operations in Northern Ireland.
Lt Col Thorneloe spent a year as an intelligence liaison officer with the RUC Special Branch in south Armagh and as an intelligence analyst at the Permanent Joint Headquarters in Northwood.
He served as the Operations Officer of 1st (UK) Armoured Division in Germany and Iraq and was awarded the MBE for his military service in Iraq in 2005 and 2006.
He also spent two years as military assistant to the assistant chief of defence staff and then to the defence secretary.This article is from the BBC News website. ? British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.