For nearly a decade it was the epicentre of Britain’s war in Afghanistan - a huge military city built in the midst of the dusty Helmand desert.

Camp Bastion and its adjoining US and Afghan camps once housed 30,000 people, the UK’s largest overseas base since the Second World War.

The perimeter fence ran for 40 km – roughly the size of Reading - and the airfield was busier than any UK regional airport.

It even had its own laws and speed limits.

In October 2014 British and American soldiers left and Bastion (and the adjoining US base Camp Leatherneck) were dismantled and handed over to the Afghan National Army who renamed it Camp Shorabak.

I first visited Bastion in 2012 and spent three months working there as a journalist, filming British troops across Helmand.

It was a busy, functional place filled with troops, armoured vehicles and the constant drone of helicopters.