UN and NATO forces have been drafted in to keep the peace between two neighbouring states at war in Europe.

As the brave troops struggle to keep the nationalist forces under control, hundreds of soldiers, refugees and civilians are bombarded with shrapnel and gunfire and rushed to makeshift hospitals.

This isn't former Yugoslavia, however. It is Towthorpe Lines army training centre near York where members of Bradford's recently established TA medical unit are practising their medical skills under simulated war conditions.

TA doctors and nurses from Belle Vue barracks, Manningham Lane, joined colleagues from the 212 Field Hospital Army Medical Corps in setting up and running a field hospital from scratch for the first time. Taking over an empty purpose-built hangar, which can create hot climates and power cuts endured in war situations, a 100-bed hospital was set up and fully operational within 24 hours.

Complete with operating theatres, wards and x-ray departments, the hospital received its first casualties from the scenario on Saturday morning - army cadets from the north suffering everything from 'gunshot wounds' to 'missing limbs'.

Commanding officer Col Philip Mixer said: "It gives us a chance to look at the unit and how they respond."

The TA medical services are made up of specialist and independent units whose members give up between 19 and 27 days a year for training. Although they receive army pay for the time they devote, for many who also work full-time in the NHS it is the challenge and social side of the TA which attracts them.

Lieut Col Jan Lowe, Bradford Royal Infirmary consultant pathologist and medical director of the field hospital, has been in the TA for 16 years. "I love it because the people are excellent," he said. "We get them here and they really buzz and spark."

And the officer in charge of the Bradford unit, Captain Neil Allen from Pudsey, said the weekend was a challenge rather than another stressful day in a hospital. "The TA's about comradeship," he said. "We play hard and work hard."

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I was a staged victim in battle zone

Looking around at the myriad of broken bones, blood and flesh in the bus transporting the injured to the field hospital, I realised I had got off very lightly, with just a blackened eye and swollen face.

I, along with army cadets from across the north, had been transformed into casualties of war, thanks to stage make-up applied by medical TA volunteers from Cardiff. All our faces had been painted white for shock or with gory splatterings of fake blood and some had big, blue letters across their forehead indicating they had been given a dose of morphine. One youngster even had half an ear missing.

Having supposedly lost my footing in a ruined house in the war zone and banged my head on rubble, I was a fairly minor case for the dozens of doctors and nurses in the field hospital. We had all been briefed about our injuries, and those who had been told they were unable to talk were carried away on stretchers upon arrival.

And for the rest of us, there was no two-hour wait for a hospital bed. Casual-ties were quickly processed through the appropriate departments such as resuscitation or x-ray and the rows of beds on the wards were already starting to fill up with wounded cadets in blue pyjamas when I was checked out of the hospital to be evacuated.

My only disappointment was I had no time to watch the shooting re-enactment take place in the afternoon - maybe next time I'll get a piece of the action.

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