Animal organs from the local slaughterhouse are sometimes hung from the fences. Amputees play the role of the injured, screaming for their mothers as the cacophony of gunfire blasts from speakers and drones circle the skies.
British military trainers on Operation Interflex, the mission to train Ukrainian forces, are trying to prepare their comrades for the horrors they might face on the battlefield against Russia.
“We are not running these dry and empty-feeling exercises. We are trying to make it look and sound and maybe even smell like a battlefield,” said Lieutenant Colonel Ben Irwin-Clark, the commanding officer in charge of the bespoke training, on an undisclosed military base in East Anglia.
The soldiers are preparing to be ready for every eventuality in battle
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE
Lieutenant Colonel Ben Irwin-Clark
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE
Before deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, Irwin-Clark, of the Irish Guards, used to
