"IT was like you see in the films - you hear the whistle and the bang, there's a cry of 'incoming' and everybody gets down on the ground."

This is how a York soldier described the many rocket and mortar attacks he endured while supporting the Black Watch during a month-long campaign at Camp Dogwood, near Baghdad.

Staff Sergeant Mark Wilford, 36, of 246 Signal Squadron - part of the 2 Signal Regiment based at York's Imphal Barracks - is one of about 100 York-based soldiers to return to the city from a six-month tour of Iraq, providing communications support for senior British military.

As one of the soldiers who supported the Black Watch, and who also took part in security operations on the streets of Iraq, he said it was a successful but difficult tour.

"We were mortared. There were rockets, one of which landed ten metres from the detachment, but luckily enough it was blind and it did not explode," he said.

"It's something you are trained to do, but it becomes very much more real because you feel the shockwave and see the blast. And we lost a lot of good men."

Signaller David Conway, 24, who also supported Black Watch, managed to provide light relief for his colleagues in the face of enemy fire.

He said: "With those attacks you could be doing anything at the time - I got caught out twice, so the lads had quite a good laugh.

"The first time I was on the toilet when a rocket attack came in and flew about three metres over my head.

"I just sat there; there was nothing I could do. Luckily, it exploded about five metres away from me on the other side of the mound so I avoided all the shrapnel. During the last attack before we left the camp in December, I had just got into the shower, which is outside, when the rocket attack came in.

"I just grabbed by armour and ran into the operations room wearing not very much. I just started running. I couldn't think about getting dressed. I just wanted to be alive."

During the six months' the soldiers tried to maintain routine.

Lieutenant Sarah Panting, 25, said: "It was a very steep learning curve for me, but I've had a very good time and the troop I had were good fun and good at their jobs."

Staff Sergeant Liam Tosh, 33, said: "Most people's normal jobs don't change we just take it somewhere different."

Updated: 10:49 Friday, January 14, 2005