The Sun -- AS heroes fought to pull two doomed comrades from a burning helicopter — THEN went on to raid a rebel hideout.

The special forces soldiers showed “awesome” courage and determination as they battled in vain to save their mates from the flames.

Within minutes of seeing their friends die the Who Dares Wins men got on with their mission, assaulting a compound and capturing two insurgent leaders.

The extraordinary events in Iraq, until now shrouded in secrecy, can be described by The Sun for the first time after we fought a seven-month legal battle to overturn an MoD ban.

The dead were Sergeant John Battersby, 31, formerly of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, and Trooper Lee Fitzsimmons, 26, an ex-Royal Marine.

They were in a team from 22 SAS’s A Squadron being dropped by helicopter in bad visibility outside Baghdad.

The ageing Puma crash-landed and rolled, injuring four of its 11 other SAS passengers and three RAF crew.

Sgt Battersby and Tpr Fitzsimmons were trapped unconscious in the wreckage, which caught fire from leaking fuel. Ignoring their own crash injuries and burns, the rest of the unit fought through the flames trying to free them.

They were joined by another team from a second Puma, finally withdrawing only seconds before the wreck erupted in a fireball and killed the two men instantly.

Almost immediately the troops re-focused on the mission and completed it successfully.

A source said: “The courage and determination these men showed was awesome. It shows our elite forces’ enormous professionalism and nerves of steel.”

The family of Tpr Fitzsimmons, from Liverpool, praised his comrades. Mum Jacqui said: “We are so grateful for the phenomenal efforts they made to save Lee and John. They put themselves in great danger and did everything humanly possible.”

The family of Sgt Battersby, from Lancashire, were too upset to speak. The crash, last November, is the subject of an inquiry.