Beware of the bloodbath

Hundreds more have died since, stricken by illness, although allegations of them falling victim to "Gulf War Syndrome" are still disputed.

Now a substantial part of the British Army, probably up to 20,000 men, is preparing for another crack at Saddam Hussein and his "elite"

Republican Guard.

In 1991, Dave Miles, then 27, from Worthing, was an Army cameraman, and his vivid footage of the war was beamed all over the world.

But there were many scenes of carnage which were never aired.

Dave, now a civilian forensic officer with Sussex Police, said: "One afternoon I was sitting in the sergeants' mess when news about Iraq invading Kuwait came through.

"A surprisingly short period of time passed before we were painting our team Landrover and trailer yellow, checking our guns and equipment and, more importantly for me, signing on the dotted line for a brand new Sony Betacam video camera.

"The training was impressive. The British Army knows its business when it comes to setting up realistic preparations for combat.

"The American marines were still shouting 'bang!'

on their exercises when my footage of the Staffordshire Regiment staging a live round exercise went out over BBC, ITN and CNN.

"Soon after, the British were asked to assist in setting up similar ranges for the Yanks.

"The preparations took months, enough time to let the fact sink in that we might not all be coming home from this one.

"But Saddam had given the world all this trouble, and it went against reason that we should let him stay in power, his people not liberated.

"We expected to free them all, village by village, street by street, then end it by installing a democracy.

"We punched through their initial defences all right, smashing their units all to hell. Some of their guns were pointing the wrong way, their crews gripped by sheer panic as they realised that we were flying at them full speed through the fog from the direction they expected their mail to come from.

"We crossed the minefield breach into Iraq. It poured down with rain all night and we were soaked to the skin, wet and cold - not how I had imagined desert warfare.

"The Landrover I was riding in got a couple of punctures. Fresh, sharp, smoking shrapnel lay on the ground all around us.

We were temporarily left behind by the column, lost in the fog.

"It was the most unnerving period for me. There was nothing to video. All I could record was the sound of the bombardment ahead of us.

"A recovery vehicle pulled up and a corporal jumped down to ask me to take a wounded prisoner.

The Iraqi had been overrun by a main battle tank and he had terrible abdominal wounds.

"I climbed up to see what I could do. The man was very pale and he had lost too much blood. The man looked up at me. He must have thought I was a medic.

"He reached out to me, weakly mumbling something.

The look in his eyes was momentary relief, at last someone was there to help him.

"There was purple flesh seeping through the field dressing. I took his hand for a second and moved him into a sitting position with his legs folded up to hold his guts in.

"I knew there was nothing I could do except give him false hope. The nearest regimental aid post was probably miles away, and I have no idea whether he survived. By the time the bombardment was over all we had to do was move in and take prisoners. Some of my best footage was shot here and I still see clips on TV from time to time.

"The wounded were sent off to an emergency field hospital, their weapons crushed under the tracks of a Warrior armoured vehicle, while the dead and their ammunition was buried in pits.

"With all these tasks completed, we turned our attention to the next target. We slowly weaved our way between the burning, exploding enemy vehicles to the start line.

"Some of the most sickening moments of my life, witnessing the distress of Iraqi soldiers crushed in combat, were rapidly followed by one of the proudest, seeing British soldiers compassionate in victory, treating the PoWs with firmness, fairness and efficiency, no matter what rank.

"Those still putting up a fight were dealt with quickly and brutally.

They soon saw that the British were not putting up with anything but unconditional surrender.

"Word got around and they started to surrender in their hundreds."

The troops were expecting to push on deep into Iraq, but the American politicians called a halt after the retreating Iraqi troops were bombed on the Basra road, causing carnage, which Dave recorded.

Dave said: "Those of us on the ground had just endured three days without sleep. I for one was ready for a ceasefire, if only so I could get my head down for a few hours.

"There was a sandstorm and I didn't care about anything. Dead to the world I unrolled my sleeping bag and fell fast asleep next to the trailer wheel.

"When I woke up I was under several inches of sand. That's when my driver brought me a cup of rather sandy tea and informed me of the 'friendly fire' deaths of nine Fusiliers, wiped out not by Iraqi forces, but by the American airforce. I was angry with the Americans about that. I couldn't help feeling let down.

"To die in a firefight with the enemy is something we all accepted.

Being killed by your own side was tragic.

"The next few weeks were spent clearing mines, clearing a pathway through the wreckage on the Basra road and, worst of all, clearing away the hundreds of dead Iraqi soldiers, lying bloated out in the sun and the rain.

"Their 20-man graves were marked by a satellite navigation instrument, and family photographs and personal effects passed on to the Red Cross.

"As a Gulf War veteran, one of the most frequent questions asked of me since September 11 is should we go back and attack Saddam Hussein?

"Personally, I don't think the weapons of mass destruction theory has been proved enough to the general public, and what about the ordinary people of Iraq?

"The size of the British Army has been run down since the end of the Gulf War, when we had to dismember large sections of the British Army on the Rhine just to make up one fully operational armoured division.

"We are extremely well-trained and experienced, but stretched beyond the limit."