Injured personnel were flown from a North Yorkshire air base to a field hospital as RAF Linton-on-Ouse came under mortar attack.

As explosives fell on the base, near York, more than 100 "casualties" were airlifted to Queen Elizabeth Barracks, Strensall, in a major exercise which united the RAF with US services.

Servicemen and women from RAF Lynam, in Wiltshire, teamed up with personnel from a field hospital from Liverpool, and a Hercules aircraft and ground units from the United States, for the medical exercise designed to examine how the injured would be moved from a battlefield.

The casualties, made up of army cadets from Durham, Humberside and South Yorkshire, were flown to Strensall in the Hercules.

Squadron Leader Noz Orzel said: "The exercise was designed to test all our skills to see how we would cope if we were deployed to war and had to lift casualties to field hospitals, and it was an absolute success.

"It tested us under conditions which we would find in a warzone."

The simulated mortar attack on the airfield was created by a noise and smoke generator.