British Paras fighting the Taliban in southern Afghanistan came close to running out of rations and supplies, their commanding officer said.
Brigadier Ed Butler, the commanding officer of the recently returned 3 Para Battle Group, said that on occasions his men had been down to "belt rations".
Speaking to journalists in London, he said that some troops may have underestimated the "ferocity and tenacity" of the Taliban resistance.
But he insisted that they had never been in danger of being overrun by the Taliban forces.
Brig Butler did acknowledge that the delay in deploying Nato troops in the south of the country after the overthrow of the Taliban in 2002, while Britain and the US carried out the invasion of Iraq, had affected operations in Afghanistan.
"We could have carried on in 2002 in the same way we have gone about business now.
"Have the interim four years made a difference? I think realistically they have. It doesn't mean that we will not achieve what we set out to do," he said.
"We have not slipped back. I think we may have marked time and I think we are starting to make up for that time."
