FOR the past six years Territorial Army doctors and nurses at the Childwall based 208 Field Hospital have watched the news of growing casualties in Afghanistan. As they watched, they knew the day might come when they would be called up to serve their country.

By RICHARD GRAY AND JEREMY WATSON THE "ambulances" arrive back with bullet holes in their fuselages. The injuries sustained by the young people in his care are horrific: missing limbs, gaping gunshot wounds, ghastly burns.