SOLDIERS sent to tackle the chemical warfare threat during the war in Iraq found themselves with the wrong boots and ill-fitting respirators, it has been claimed.

The allegations were made by a member of the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, the specialist Territorial Army unit based at the TA Centre in Church Place, Swindon. The soldier insisted on not being identified for fear of disciplinary action.

Controversy over the issue of incorrect or defective equipment to British troops in Iraq continues to rage, with calls for the resignation of Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon.

War widow Samantha Roberts has met Mr Hoon personally to discuss the death of her husband, Steven.

The Army sergeant was shot dead while trying to end a riot, just days after being ordered to hand back padding from his flak jacket because there was not enough to go around.

The soldier who spoke to the Evening Advertiser said: "I know of a few people who were ordered to hand back the metal plates in their flak jackets. The rumour was that they were going to start doing that with us, but thank God they didn't because I would have refused to obey the order. We had one guy, not in my regiment, who did not even have a weapon, and I don't know whether he even got one eventually.

"There were also people who didn't have enough ammunition for their weapons. In some cases, mine included, the respirators we had were not safe because they did not fit properly.

"Some of us had to have them specially fitted, and in my case and some others that did not happen.

"I didn't even have desert boots I had to order a pair from home via my mother."

The soldier, who was in Iraq for three months, added: "Things were not done very well.

"I don't think the Government was adequately prepared to send so many people out.

"It seems to me to have been a case of sending as many people as possible out there before the war kicked off and then worrying about the problems later."

Ministry of Defence spokesman Paul Sykes conceded that there were problems with supplying troops with equipment for the war in Iraq.

"But that did not stop them doing the job, and doing it very well," he said.

Barrie Hudson