MoD 'fails to prepare servicemen for combat'

Servicemen and women were inadequately prepared for the "horrors of war", the High Court was told yesterday on the first day of a lawsuit against the Ministry of Defence.

A "macho" attitude towards psychiatric problems was partly to blame for the MoD's "systemic failure" to deal with the issue, Stephen Irwin QC said.

The MoD is being sued by veterans of Northern Ireland, Bosnia, and the Falklands and Gulf wars who have post-traumatic stress disorder. While the group action involves nearly 2,000 cases, the hearing will focus on 15 lead claimants.

Mr Irwin spoke of a man aged 19 from northern England sent to Bosnia. He walked into a village where, breathing in smoke and fearful of cross-fire, he saw a pregnant woman tied to a post with her belly ripped open. Another serviceman saw his best friend being burnt to death in the Falklands conflict. Another young man from the West Country saw eight of his companions blown up by a bomb.

While exposure to war was what soldiers should expect, the MoD had not taken adequate care to prepare servicemen for the stresses of war, Mr Irwin told Justice Owen.

"War is a uniquely horrible human activity. It seems to be universal in time and place and it causes injury to mind," Mr Irwin told Mr Justice Owen.

"I wish to stress to the court that we, for the claimants, are not suing the MoD for exposure to war. War is what soldiers should expect ... It is also what their masters should expect and they should provide for this exposure to the horrors of war. In a sentence, we say they did not." The MoD failed to "protect and care for soldiers, sailors and airmen", he said."They didn't do it systematically and so far as they had a system, it did not work properly to protect and care for soldiers, sailors and airmen in the forces," he added.

The MoD allegedly failed to deal with the predictable psychological or psychiatric consequences of their exposure to war. Mr Irwin told the court that the effects of combat on the individual had been documented for many decades ­ particularly since the Second World War ­ by psychiatrists and servicemen themselves. A "huge body of knowledge" had been available to the MoD long before the period covered by yesterday's case. The hearing continues.