Thorneloe, who commanded about 650 officers and soldiers, was the first CO to be killed on operations since January 1991, during the first Gulf War. The last army CO killed on active duty died in May 1982, during the Falklands War.
General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the army, paid tribute to Thorneloe who he described as an "oustanding commanding officer and a born leader... at the leading edge of his generation".
In a statement released by the Ministry of Defence, Thornloe's wife Sally described his death as a "devastating blow" but said he had loved his job.
"I know he led from the front and would not have had it any other way. He cared deeply about his men as he did about so many," she said.
The pair died during Operation Panther's Claw, a major airborne assault on a Taliban stronghold launched at the end of June.
Their deaths take the number of British service personnel to have died in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in 2001 to 171.
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