Prince Harry has recalled the "horrendous" images he saw during two tours of Afghanistan when he encountered children who had died from roadside bombs and soldiers lying on the battlefield.
The royal, who is a captain in the army, regularly flew injured personnel and civilians to the hospital at the Camp Bastion military base during his second tour of the country when he served as an Apache helicopter pilot.
Writing in the Sunday Times, Harry recalled flying home last year looking forward to seeing family, but said it was then that he was "hit" by the reality of war as he was joined on the plane by injured and fallen soldiers.
"I had never seen it first-hand," he wrote in the newspaper. "By 'it' I mean the injuries that were being sustained largely due to improvised explosive devices. Loss of life is as tragic and devastating as it gets, but to see young lads - much younger than me - wrapped in plastic and missing limbs, with hundreds of tubes coming out of them, was something I never prepared myself for." In his role as a pilot the prince said the memory of having to use the code "Op vampire" to let the medical team know the casualty they had on board would require a lot of blood still sends shivers down his spine.
The staggering question of how people cope with the trauma of war, especially those left without limbs, was one Harry said played on his mind, and eventually led him to set up an international sporting competition for injured troops.
