UK supplies 'stretched to extremes'

Mr Stevens worked loading ammunition into tank guns

Ian Stevens, a former lance corporal in Iraq with the Desert Rats, has told BBC Five Live of dire shortages in clothing, breathing kit and food while doing his job in early 2003 - loading tank guns with ammunition.

Mr Stevens has left the army but says the consequences of not having the right kit in the Iraqi desert "hit home" once he got back to the UK.

The Ministry of Defence told BBC News Online it has increased soldier's clothing provisions, breathing kit was available and catering was shared with the US army.

As MPs published a report criticising supply provision in Iraq, Mr Stevens told Five Live his combat uniform there wore out but was not replaced.

They should not send people to war and risk their lives if they haven't got the right equipment, it's just not on Ian Stevens Warning over troops' kit

He had to wear green combats in the desert - spare uniforms were promised but never came.

"On a desert-coloured tank I'm going to stand out like a sore thumb to the enemy," he said.

"It hits home when you get back and think about these things."

"We didn't have enough preparation, we didn't have enough equipment. We were speaking to some Americans out there and they were stocked up to the nines with equipment.

"It's unacceptable. If you're going into a war situation you need to be equipped ready for months and months of battle because you don't know how long you're going to be out there.

"Fortunately, we were out there for three months - the supply chain was stretched to the extremes but it worked.

"If we were out there for six, eight months, a year, who knows what would have happened?"

'Eating US rations'

Food supplies and chemical protection were also a problem, he said, with UK soldiers eating American rations and meals.

"It came to a point where the British didn't have enough food to give us down the supply chain so at least one meal a day was supplied by the Americans."

Mr Stevens said he was given only two gas canisters to filter the air on his respirator and guard against chemical attack.

But while troops were waiting in Kuwait to go over the border into Iraq, there were up to nine scud missile attacks

"All of those scud missile attacks could be a chemical attack," he said.

Mr Stevens says he did not have enough gas canisters

"If there were eight or nine attacks and I've got two filters in my pouch then you're going to be left short."

He added: "They should not send people to war and risk their lives if they haven't got the right equipment, it's just not on."

A Ministry of Defence spokesman welcomed the MPs' report, which has criticised the problems with supplies in the Iraq war.

He said a full response would be issued once the MoD has looked at its recommendations.

But he addressed Mr Steven's concerns.

'Glitches' acknowledged

Since the Iraq War and the strategic defence review, he said the number of sets of uniforms ready for soldiers to be deployed had increased from 9,000 to 32,000.

He acknowledged there were "glitches" in supplying food to particular units.

But he said there were shared catering facilities in the coalition army camps, where the US was the "major player" with greater numbers of troops.

UK soldiers had sufficient supplies of gas canisters, he said, with two per person, and four per person after combat began.

He said the canisters wore out when they came into contact with chemicals and the army would have reallocated more to the front line if needed.