NEWS of the deaths sent shock waves among soldiers and their families at the Army's largest garrison.

Barracks at Catterick, in North Yorkshire, were eerily quiet yesterday, as so many of the regiments based there are en route to the Gulf.

Within days, they will be taking over military operations around Basra from the 7th Armoured Brigade, which has been in the country since Allied forces crossed the Iraqi border on March 20.

Although the fighting may be over, Tuesday's attacks in Al Majar Al-Kabir and Al Amarah is a stark reminder that a very real danger remains.

Troops from 19 Mechanised Brigade spent much of last summer on the Canadian prairies preparing for just such a deployment. They returned home across the Atlantic as the UK's "instant-readiness force" and, if it had not been for the firefighters' strike, they would have led the thrust into southern Iraq instead of the Desert Rats.

Instead, the 4,000-strong brigade arrives in the Middle East as a relief force - just as tensions have soared.

Units that were arriving in Iraq yesterday included 1st Battalion of the King's Regiment - an armoured infantry unit based at Catterick's Bourlon Barracks - 1st Battalion of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, from the garrison's Alma Barracks, and the 1st Battalion of the King's Own Scottish Borderers, from the base's Somme Barracks.

The garrison has also sent 3 Close Support Medical Regiment and the 5th Battalion of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, a company of Royal Military Police, a detachment from the Royal Logistical Corps' bomb disposal squad, and a Headquarters and Signals squadron.

Sappers from Ripon's 38 Engineer Regiment flew out last week, while the Royal Artillery's 40 Regiment, based at Alanbrooke Barracks, near Thirsk, and 5 Regiment, from Marne Barracks, Catterick, are also part of the brigade.

Some of the soldiers served with units which were part of the first phase of the war with Iraq who returned for leave in the UK - only to be sent straight back again.

Ripon-based Sapper Mark McCay admitted the situation in the Gulf now could be potentially more dangerous.

"Although we have to be as friendly as we can with the locals, it will be best not to trust anyone," he said. "Suicide bombers pose a real risk and we will always have to be on our guard."

Regular units will be supplemented by reservists, including 150 soldiers from the Territorial Army's Tyne Tees Regiment, which recruits in Durham, Cleveland and North Yorkshire, and a similar number from 168 Pioneer Regiment, which has units in Teesside and Northumberland.