Therefore, their training is equally gruelling. When members from Peterborough's 158 (Royal Anglian) Transport Regiment were put through their paces during a two-week session, TA volunteer and ET reporter Mark Lewis Was among them.

CHOKING dust swirls as army trucks lumber along a narrow gravel track, engines revving hard as they battle the hilly terrain.

While the drivers pick their routes carefully, conscious of the vital supplies of food and ammunition their vehicles carry, their mates stand guard through hatches in the cab roofs, faces muffled against the billowing clouds of grit as they scan the sides of the valley for would-be attackers.

Overhead, a helicopter clatters nervously, its crew watching the ground for signs of trouble.

Suddenly, a huge explosion booms and the vicious chatter of gunfire crackles as an ambush is launched by insurgents.

A casualty, bloody and confused, stumbles from one of the trucks, while just behind another vehicle grinds to a halt, crippled by the powerful blast.

Soldiers help the wounded man into an ambulance and the convoy pours fire on to the enemy as it tries to force an escape.

What those involved had hoped would be a routine operation has become a fight for survival.

If that sounds like the sort of drive into danger faced by British troops today in Iraq and Afghanistan, that is because it was meant to be.

But the setting was not the highway between Kuwait and Basra, nor an unmade road in Helmand, but an equally dusty, if less hazardous, corner of the British Army's immense training area on Salisbury Plain.

And the soldiers taking part were not regulars preparing for an imminent deployment, but Territorial Army (TA) part-timers at the climax of their annual two-week training camp held last month.

The soldiers – members of Peterborough-based 158 (Royal Anglian) Transport Regiment – were put through their paces amid an impressive barrage of explosions rigged by their commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Dave Tyler.

An ammunition technical officer (ATO), Lt-Col Tyler is a regular soldier, who during a tour in Afghanistan last year was responsible for developing the strategy to counter roadside bombs, or improvised explosive devices (IED's), for the 35-nation coalition.

As he enthusiastically prepared another batch of bangs, he said the regiment's training was now based around the sort of work its members have to do when called up in support of the regular army.

Lt-Col Tyler said: "We are trying to focus our training as closely as possible on what the soldiers will encounter in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our role is to drive from A to B, but as people are aware, there's a significant IED threat, so we are practising combat logistic patrols (escorted convoys) in a high-threat environment.

Continues on next page:

External link:
Territorial and Reserves - www.army.mod.uk.