IF you’ve ever wanted to play at being a soldier, elite Special Forces training is about as close as you can get to the real thing without actually getting your head blown off. Armed with M4 carbine assault rifles and kitted out in helmets, body armour and combat fatigues, we all look the business but our first real test is only just beginning.

Nobody from this bunch of lilylivered, soft-living civvies knows who’s behind that door and what they’re going to hit us with on the other side during this ultrarealistic action role play day at Rushock Trading Estate, near Droitwich.

Fortunately, we have been briefed and trained by Max Fitter, a former sapper in the Royal Engineers who later joined the French Foreign Legion, one of the toughest outfits in the world whose unofficial motto is “marche ou crève” (march or die).

If you want to picture Max, imagine a younger, tougher version of Daniel Craig with a beret and biceps carved from basalt and you’re not far off the mark.

He’s supported in this brainwave business enterprise by other soldiers and ex-soldiers, including a commando, paratrooper and a cavalry officer, one of them going by the somewhat menacing nickname of Sider Knife because of his deadly skill with a blade.

The SWAT (special weapons and tactics) experience begins with a variety of training exercises and assault techniques, teaching us how to handle a weapon, room clearing drills, team assault and rescue tactics.

Pyrotechnics in the form of grenades add bladder-bursting realism, giving a genuine sense of the sounds and scents, the sweat and mud and blood of battle.

My combat experience up until this point has consisted of playing Call of Duty and Battlefield Bad Company 2 online on my PlayStation 3.

But this is not like a video game.

Moving in squads we stack up against the wall in a tightly-knit line and edge closer to the door as Islamic music echoes eerily along the dimly lit corridors inside.

Then before we can take a breath, the point man is through the door yelling commands and the first squad is inside, checking the corners for enemies, emptying magazines into the terrorists, whether static targets or live ones firing back at us. Communication is vital. What’s in the room? Who’s in the room? Where are the enemies? How many are there?

Once the targets are down, the squad can advance to cover and provide suppressing fire until the next squad moves up and so-on until the building is cleared.

We are taught how to fight close quarter battles where your enemy may be only a few feet away, firing in your face. Any gung-ho macho man who fancies himself as a oneman army and rushes ahead of the rest of the pack is brought down to earth with a ear-splitting shout of ‘Oi Rambo!’ The look on Max’s face tells you straight away he doesn’t mean that as a compliment.

In the open with limited cover, smoke grenades are deployed to mask our advance from the enemy.

During the various missions we are constantly kept on our toes.

Enemies comes on us unexpectedly, sometimes when we think we’ve already wiped them all out. We drive away in the back of a military vehicle at breakneck speed but come under fire, forcing the squads to return fire out of the back window.

These surprises all help to make the experience seem more dramatic, tense and authentic.

At one point we have to crawl and fumble through a darkened room on our hands and knees while under fire from AK47s.

I forget to take the safety catch off my rifle, a schoolboy error which would have meant a journey home in a body bag if this was for real. Bootlaces come undone, people stumble, run headlong into each other, rifle muzzles snag in curtains and enemies blind-fire over petition walls which helps to create a nerve-shredding and ominous tension at all times.

During this visceral three-andhalf- hour adrenaline ride, terrorists leap out from the gloom of doorways, from behind smashedup cars, rusted oil drums or piles of old tyres just when you start to think the job is done and it’s time to get back to base.

This new SWAT training experience day has been launched to give civilians a taste of life in the elite Special Forces, combining genuine training techniques and weapons with a simulated terrorist situation for a true battle experience.

This is the team that brought the Zombie Boot Camp experience to Droitwich for those with a taste for slaughtering groaning legions of the undead.

The SWAT experience is more about combat realism than survival horror with an armed mission to find and clear a simulated terrorist bomb-making factory on a disused trading estate.

Max said: “We’re trying to make it as realistic as possible without blowing you guys up. It’s based on real weapons systems with a replica gun adapted to fire paint balls. This is not paintball. It’s real action role play. It’s the real deal.”

A 25-year-old lieutenant from the Royal Logistic Corps, trying out the experience for the first time, was of the same opinion although he said real troops would go through the drills in more detail.

Richard Kershaw, co-founder of Wish.co.uk, said of the experience: “Think Apocalypse Now, but in Droitwich.”

􀁥 The SWAT training experience is available in Droitwich and costs £59 per person. The experience runs on Thursdays and Fridays, with spaces for 12 people each session. For more information, visit Wish.co.uk.