PULLING the trigger of a gun is a peculiar experience. My one experience of it occurred high on a blistering Kenyan plain during a week-long Press trip with the Army.

I was immediately overwhelmed by contrasting feelings: of utter revulsion at the horrific violence which could be perpetrated by the weapon; but also a strange fascination at its power.

Beleaguered Geoff Hoon, the Teflon-like Defence Secretary, looked like he would enjoy the act as he metaphorically opened fire on the Armed Forces during a Commons statement this week.

Sporting a light tan, he appeared in his element as he rounded on the ranks of the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. Like a crack marksman, Hoon picked off 20,000 men and women as part of a sweeping review by the Ministry of Defence.

Bang! He disposed of 11,000 troops and civilians in the Army.

Kapow! Hoon picked off 7,500 RAF jobs.

Bam! 1,500 jobs in the Royal Navy fell.

The Defence Secretary, revelling in his role as a sharp-shooter, also took on the big guns: axing aircraft, ships, tanks and submarines. They would be replaced with state-of-the-art military hardware, he said.

North Yorkshire did not emerge unscathed. RAF Leeming, which employs 2,000 in Bedale, took a direct hit. Its Tornado F3 jet fighters will be withdrawn by 2008 and plans to station a squadron of Typhoon aircraft there were scrapped.

Two historic single-battalion regiments - the 316-year-old Green Howards, based in Richmond, and the York-based Prince of Wales's Own Regiment, which was formed in 1685 - suffered wounds.

They will be forced to merge with other battalions to create a single 'super-regiment', most likely centred on Yorkshire.

But their names, traditions and their own uniform, which boast distinctive colours, may well survive, suggested Mr Hoon.

The Defence Secretary sat, pleased. But he was immediately bombarded by the Tory's very own heavy artillery - corpulent Nicholas Soames.

Sir Nick is a giant of a man, a veritable B52 Bomber. He peppered Hoon's trenches with verbal missiles, howling of betrayal.

He said: "The nation will be dismayed that its armed forces, whom it loves and admires, who have repeatedly been deployed at the drop of a hat all over the world, and who have brought such success and distinction to Britons internationally, should be treated in such an underhand way."

Rounding on the proposals to scrap single-battalion regiments, he bellowed: "All that these regiments stand for, and all that they have given over the years in the fighting efficiency of the Army, is not to be lightly tossed away as it has this afternoon."

Hoon, resorting to the infuriatingly patronising manner at which he excels, accused Soames of "lacking credibility".

He barely wavered when Bruce George, Labour chairman of the Defence Committee, demanded to know "which idiot thinks you can cut the infantry at a time when the pressure on them is enormous?"

But maybe Mr Hoon, a loyal Blair-ite, should hope he is not running out of ammunition.

Speculation is rife that the Prime Minister is set to announce a re-shuffle.

Outside the obsessive political and media worlds, ministerial shake-ups make virtually not a ripple. But after a series of gaffes which saw him labelled "Buff" Hoon by mischievous newspapers, the public will be interested in the outcome of this one.

The Hutton inquiry heard Mr Hoon admit authorising the MoD press office to "out" Dr David Kelly during the row over the Iraq dossier, an event which led to the Government scientist's death.

Then the widow of one soldier said Mr Hoon had her husband's "blood on his hands" after he died in Iraq after being told to hand back his flak jacket because of equipment shortages.

And he caused an outcry when he chose to go on a skiing holiday as British troops were in the desert awaiting war.

Mr Hoon must hope that after clamorous calls for his resignation, he himself is not placed before the PM's firing squad.

Updated: 11:15 Friday, July 23, 2004