On Thursday 7 June Chris Terrill will be at the Royal Marines Museum at ‘Destination Afghanistan’, the hands-on family fun day, speaking about his experiences filming  the documentary ‘Royal Marines: Mission Afghanistan’ a program which saw him embed with Lima Company of the Royal Marines in 2011 for a six-month deployment in Helmand Province in Afghanistan.

Final blog from our guest blogger Petty Officer Hamish Burke whose photography is featured in our new exhibition ‘Shoulder2Shoulder’.

I joined A Company 1 RIFLES to deploy on Operation OMID HAFT on the 23 May 2011. A day I will never forget. I was at Patrol Base 4 (PB4) and had just returned from an operation with C Company and was preparing for an operation with A Company I RIFLES.  As darkness fell we were checking our kit, ammunition, and cleaning weapons, it was a quiet, calm night.  It hadn’t been dark for long when suddenly the lads and myself were called together into the centre of the camp.

We’ll continue this week with our guest blogger Petty Officer Hamish Burke whose photography is featured in our new exhibition ‘Shoulder2Shoulder’.

I am a Defence Photographer for the Royal Navy and last summer I was deployed to Helmand Province, Afghanistan as the photographer for 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines on Operation Herrick 14, April -October 2011.  This particular tour was usual for me because although 3 Commando Brigade was the lead for the tour there were multiple Army units attached from 7 Armoured Brigade "The Desert Rats'. On this mission,  not only would I be covering marines and sailors but also soldiers too - a bit like a fish out of water for me!

The Royal Marines Museum will be hosting the 'Shoulder2Shoulder' special exhibition between 2 and 20 April. This week on our blog you'll hear from our guest blogger, photographer Petty Officer Hamish Burke whose photos are featured in the exhibition.

The Shoulder2Shoulder exhibition came about following 3 Commando Brigade's tour to Helmand last year on Op HERRICK 14. On a daily basis top-class images from highly trained service photographers arrived at the headquarters in Lashkar Gah - sent in by email from remote patrol bases or flung onto a disc and delivered by hand via a helicopter re-supply. Day in and day out, our embedded photographers who are Royal Marines, Sailors and Soldiers are deployed in the most challenging and dangerous circumstances to tell the stories of our men and women. Without them and their work, the UK public, our families and supporters would have very little idea about the realities of day to day life in Helmand.

Don't miss the second episode of 'Royal Marines: Mission Afghanistan' on tonight at 9pm on Channel 5.

Venus Fly Trap is tonight's episode.

Embedded with Lima Company of the Royal Marines during a six-month deployment in Helmand Province in Afghanistan, award-winning documentary filmmaker Chris Terrill reports on what it is really like to work in one of the most dangerous locations in the world.

Episode 1 'Deadly Under Foot'

Available for replay on Channel 5 On Demand after it's aired (UK residents only)

Over the past three years the Royal Marines Museum and the Royal Marines Historical Society in Hampshire have been recording oral history interviews with serving Royal Marines about their experiences in Afghanistan.

Oral history interviews are usually conducted after a Royal Marine has completed their full career, meaning there can be a large period of time between a conflict and when the interview is conducted.

In 2008, the museum decided to create an exhibition about Afghanistan, which now has been installed in the permanent galleries. Because there had been little written at that time on the subject, oral history interviews were needed to help the project staff with their research.

When the US and UK first went into Afghanistan I had no idea how much that decision to invade a country would have such an impact on my professional life. In October 2001 I was studying at a university in Pennsylvania, close enough to the attacks on the World Trade Center to have everyone just a little nervous of what would happen next. I remember going to New York City for Columbus Day, the day after they US went into Afghanistan with my roommate and her parents shouting at us not to go before we went, petrified that there would be reprisal attacks on New York.  Little did I know then that not long after that the Royal Marines would be landing in the mountains in Afghanistan on Operation JACANA hunting for Al Qaeda in cave systems.

Royal Marines recently played Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers in the inaugural match of the newly-formed football league of Rahim Kalay, a small farming community previously ravaged by fighting and terrorised by insurgents.

When updating our Afghanistan area we had our fastest turn from object donation to display. We received a cricket bat in the post on Wednesday and it was in a show case on display the next day.

With over 15% of British fatalities in Afghanistan being Royal Marines and many Royal Marines on their second or third deployment to Helmand, the museum decided it needed to increase the amount on display about the conflict.