An Army medical field training centre near York is expanding and has attracted attention from across the Atlantic. DAVID WILES became a war casualty for the day during a training exercise

Corporal Craig Bourne has his fake wounds seen to by PO's Jo Braid, left, and Claire Demortimer Picture David Harrison

The rifle butt crashes against my cheekbone and I am knocked sprawling onto the floor.

Before the pain kicks in, I fade into unconsciousness.

Minutes later I come to, slumped in a military bus with concussion, surrounded by troops and refugees in a far worse state than me.

Sharing my seat is a young lad of about 17, bandaged from neck to fingertip down one side with burns visible on his chin and ear.

"What happened to you?" I ask.

"Phosphorus grenade," he winces.

As the bus bumps away towards the field hospital, two soldiers laid out across the bench seat at the back howl in pain.

My fellow passengers are in a sorry state. Head wounds, burns, lacerations and shrapnel injuries make my fractured cheekbone seem insignificant.

All the injuries - including my meeting with a rifle butt - are purely cosmetic, designed to test the abilities of Territorial Army medics in a battlefield situation during a training exercise called Petit MASH at Towthorpe Lines, a medical field training centre near Strensall.

After a seemingly endless journey the bus pulls up outside the tented hospital and medics raise their voices above the cries and groans to ask if everyone is still conscious.

Then in order of the severity of our wounds - and I'm well down the pecking order - we are guided inside to await treatment.

The TA medics are on a recruitment drive in North Yorkshire. They are trying to attract more healthcare professionals into the ranks, and everyone from dentists to radiographers and psychiatrists is needed to don military fatigues come the weekend.

The training centre is set to be used by all three armed services in future, and the facilities are so highly rated that the Canadians have asked if they can attend a training course there.

My fellow war casualties are Army cadets, and before the start of the exercise we are assigned injuries and made to look the part with impressive speed.

The hangar building that serves as a field hospital can produce different conditions to present the medics with problems they may encounter in the field.

The heat can be cranked up to simulate a climate like that in the Gulf, and the power switched off to mimic a power cut.

Our scenario is a British/US-led operation in a partitioned foreign country under the auspices of Nato, and the men and women of the 212 Field Hospital Royal Army Medical Corps are there to support the forward troops.

Despite the giggles between the screams and the fake blood and gore, it is a realistic enough operation and one that could help save lives the next time our armed forces are called into action.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.