A CROWD of almost 2,000 people stood side by side and paid a silent tribute to the six servicemen who were brought home through Wootton Bassett yesterday.

Despite the drizzle, more people than ever before turned out to support the dozens of family members and friends of those killed in action, five of whom were shot dead by a rogue Afghan police officer they were training last Tuesday.

Warrant Officer Class 1 Darren Chant, 40, Sergeant Matthew Telford, 37, and Guardsman Jimmy Major, 18, from the Grenadier Guards, died alongside Corporal Steven Boote, 22, and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith, 24, from the Royal Military Police.

Two days later, Sergeant Phillip Scott, 30, of 3rd Battalion The Rifles, was killed by an improvised explosive device near Sangin, in Helmand.

Colleagues of the dead wept as they saluted their friends’ Union Flag-draped coffins as they passed through the town.

Family and friends of 18-year-old Guardsman Major, from Grimsby, who was due to turn 19 tomorrow, wore T-shirts with his picture on and a large red poppy on the back.

Friends of Corp Boote held up a banner saying “Welcome Home Our Hero Steven” and threw dozens of red poppies on his hearse as it made its way along the High Street.

Yesterday was Wootton Bassett’s 98th repatriation and the second largest in terms of the number of soldiers repatriated at one time.

Anne Bevis, the treasurer of the town’s Royal British Legion branch, said support from the townspeople would not wane.

She said: “Each repatriation is different, and it does not get any easier.

“They have all done their job and paid the ultimate price so a few moments of our time is nothing in comparison.

“We have come to represent everybody across the UK, and even overseas, in supporting our forces.

“When we first started doing this it was a personal tribute but now we do it to represent the whole nation, but it is no less real to us.

“The way the five soldiers died has shocked people. Roadside bombs and being shot can be expected in wartime, but training someone and working alongside them for them to turn on you is shocking.

“It must be terrible for their colleagues to have to carry on, but they go on because they have to.”

As the hearses left the town the crowd burst into a round of applause and members of the dead soldiers’ families exchanged hugs.

The town must now prepare for the next repatriation ceremony which is due to be held on Monday.