Voices: They broke every rule in the book: No wonder the Low’s Gully army expedition turned out to be such a fiasco

YESTERDAY Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Neill, commander of the near-disastrous army expedition to Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, said he was 'extremely critical and angry' at colleagues who broke away and left him to cope with novice soldiers.

He might well be angry. From the start, the adventure-training expedition seems to have been split into two groups that had very little to do with each other. And what began as an attempt at the first-ever descent of Low's Gully, the sheer 2,000ft canyon below Mount Kinabalu, ended in an eleventh-hour rescue operation, with worldwide media coverage - and a very lucky escape from death.

Lt-Col Neill, 46, and his second-in-command, Major Ron Foster, 54, had set up the 10-man team that set off up the mountain on 21 February. The group's technical expertise was in the hands of the non-commissioned officers whom the two older men had recruited. Three young, strong and capable corporals were at its core: Steve Page and Hugh Brittan (aged 26 and 24) worked together for