Soldiers from North Yorkshire regiment the Green Howards were in the thick of the action when the Army bared its teeth on Salisbury Plain. Reporter TONY TIERNEY covered his ears and sat back to watch the show

THERE'S something pretty odd about hearing the Louis Armstrong classic What A Wonderful World drifting out of a PA system having just witnessed the most fearsome display of military weaponry from a stand perched above the mist-shrouded landscape of Salisbury Plain.

But then the soothing melody is a welcome moment of peace after having been rocked to the core by the earth-shattering booms and bangs of just about every arm that could be brought to bear by Britain's armed forces at war.

And, perhaps stretching a point, the choice of tune could also imply that ours is much more of a wonderful world in comparison to some turbulent corner of the globe because of this ever-poised 'big stick'.

The thrice-yearly Combined Arms Firepower Demonstration, conducted by the troops of the Land Warfare Training Centre Battlegroup, based at aptly-named Warminster, in Wiltshire, sees soldiers of the 1st Battalion the Green Howards, which recruits heavily from North Yorkshire, at the forefront of the action.

It is a rare opportunity for these infantrymen to see how they would blend with other elements of the armed forces in a full-scale land battle.

"It's a fairly major spectacle," said Green Howards commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Roberts. "The men enjoy it because it's a chance for them to show off just what they can do."

And what they can do, alongside the First Royal Tank Regiment, the Royal Engineers, the Royal Artillery, the Army Air Corps, Assault Pioneers and the Royal Air Force, is frighteningly effective.

The audience of more than a thousand, which includes officer cadets from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, teenage Army Cadet Force members, press and charity draw prizewinners, gets to see a range of redundant tanks and other military vehicles being turned into scrap with pin-point accuracy.

The first blast of the day comes from a demonstration of the anti-tank barmine.

Away in the distance chunks of earth are silently ripped up and sent skyward before the slower moving sound of the blast washes over us a split-second later.

The vehicles used to put these and other mines in place and the kit needed to clear the deadly devices are put through their paces. The equipment used to dig massive trenches to stop enemy tanks and the counterparts which overcome these are also on show.

Challenger 2 Main Battle Tanks and AS90 155mm self-propelled guns lay waste to a selection of targets dotted across the training area.

Our commentator, Green Howards Captain Rory Philips, has already assured us that none of the ammunition fired today contains depleted uranium.

A well-practised AS90 battery can deliver more than a ton of high explosive on to a target in ten seconds, we are told.

When the guns fire, the noise is thunderous and ear-splitting, even through ear defenders, and it is followed by a potent sulphurous stench which wafts across the stunned crowd.

Tornado, Jaguar and Harrier jets, of the Royal Air Force, scream overhead loosing off powerful projectiles which thud into the targets below.

Lynx and Gazelle helicopters swoop along the ridgelines demonstrating their role as a battle group commander's eyes in the skies.

We are then taken through the full gamut of the infantryman's stock-in-trade.

A wire-guided missile from a Milan anti-tank weapon shoots across the ground in front of the crowd and smacks into a tank on a hillside.

Mounted on Warrior Armoured Infantry Fighting Vehicles, 81mm mortars lob high explosive bombs into the air. These come hammering down into the distant target area ripping up the earth.

Belt-fed General Purpose Machine Guns spit out glowing tracer rounds on to charging figure targets while invisible marksmen armed with futuristic-looking 7.62mm L96 snipers' rifles pick off the rest. A trained sniper can score a first round hit at 600 metres every time.

One such sharpshooter is Green Howards Lance Corporal David Lightfoot, whose mother Eleanor Duckitt lives in Snaith, near Selby.

"This is one of the only times in the year when we get to see what each other can do and so there is quite a bit of competition," said the 22-year-old. "Being a sniper is quite a prestige job in the battalion and there's a lot of emphasis on getting it right, particularly today."

As the Senior Range Conducting Officer, Lieutenant Alcuin Johnson, 26, a Pocklington School old boy whose has family in York and Helmsley, is responsible for overall safety on the day - "Making sure nobody dies and everything runs smoothly," as he puts it.

For him the best part of the day is when the controlled carnage has subsided.

He said: "There's a huge amount of build-up goes into today's demonstration and it's very rewarding to see the whole thing come together."

Private Simon Boyes, 24, from Malton, whose mother Lynn is a nursery school teacher there, was playing his part by firing a 51mm mortar.

"Unless you go to the ranges in Canada this is one of the only chances we get to take part in a demonstration like this, so I really enjoy it," he said.

Fellow Private Matthew Crosier, from Hunmanby, near Scarborough, is equally enthusiastic.

"It's a really good opportunity for us to see all the kit the Army has in action," he added.

The demonstration culminates in a defensive battle which sees many of the weapons pouring out fire simultaneously.

The most hard-hitting statistic from the day is that the devastating power we have just witnessed is only five per cent of what a battlegroup commander would have at his disposal.

Updated: 12:01 Wednesday, January 24, 2001