AN RAF squadron has returned after completing an arduous eight-week jungle survival course.

Members of No 34 Squadron, based at RAF Leeming, North Yorkshire, lived in hammocks and faced daily trials to find enough to eat and drink.

Their only conciliation was that the exercise in the snake and insect-infested jungle of Belize, Central America, was completed without a whinging celebrity in sight.

About 160 gunners took part in Exercise Mayan Warrior to gain the prestigious jungle specialist award.

As well as learning basic survival skills, the squadron was taught jungle combat techniques.

Squadron leader Mick Smeath said: "It's been a massive challenge but everybody has met that challenge.

"The living conditions were probably the hardest aspect of the exercise. You get used to wearing just one set of clothes for the whole 28 days.

"You have a dry set in your bergen, but you only put that on when you go to bed, so you're constantly in one set that's wet.

"Also, we ate the same rations day in day out. Eating bacon and beans every day is quite a challenge."

In the new year, 34 Squadron, which recruits most of its members from the North-East and North Yorkshire, will be posted to Basra in Iraq.

"This whole jungle experience will have taught the men a lot about themselves," said Flight Lieutenant Howard Parr, of Yarm, near Stockton.

"Working as a team will be vital when they go on to the streets of Basra.

"Although it's different walking the streets of Basra, the principles are the same and command and control is the same anywhere."

Senior aircraftman Simon Milner, of Huntington, York, added: "All the things we would never experience back in the UK, such as the live firing, make this exercise worthwhile."