VIDEO: Doncaster soldier caught up in dramatic gun battle

Trooper Callum Hall was among those taking part in the British Army exercise on a new training camp.

The 20-year-old said: “It’s been really good fun firing the guns.

“It’s a massive change from being a driver but it’s what I signed up to do.”

The night firing exercise – a breathtaking sight with the blast of flares over the hillside, the glow of tracers across the range and flash of muzzle blasts - saw more than 200 soldiers from the Light Dragoons take part in the exercise at Warcop Training Area in Cumbria.

Most of the Catterick-based soldiers who are going through the three week camp are drivers, being trained as gunners.

The course will train them in both infantryman skills – firing small arms – and mounted shooting from the back of vehicles.

The soldiers fired general purpose machine guns, heavy machine guns and grenade machine guns from the back of Jackal armoured vehicles.

They worked in all weather, shooting at targets on the side of a snow-capped hill, at distances between 300 and 1200 metres.

The troops have been provided with more than 100,000 rounds of ammunition which they will go through over the course of the training package.

Training Officer, Captain Simon Nicholson, said: “We are very much driving the whole light cavalry concept.

“With a lot of what we do - in terms of how we employ weaponry, vehicles and tactics - we are the first people to do it.”