The gunner driver, who had joined the army when he was 19, had only been in the trouble-spot for about a month on his first tour with the Royal Logistic Corps.

Just under three months later, he was being flown home to the UK after his armoured Land Rover was blown up by a mine – shattering the bones in his lower body, cheek and jaw.

Yet after almost 10 months of gruelling treatment and a recent operation to amputate his lower left leg, the 2007 Carmen's Soldier of the Year, says he has not ruled out returning to Afghanistan.

The former shop-fitter from Bradford, who had been supplying front line troops with ammunition and rations, was manning a heavy machine gun as "top cover" on convoy escort duty when his vehicle was hit.

With the stoicism which caught the attention of the Carmen's Company – which gives the award for the outstanding Royal Logistic Corps Soldier of the Year – he said he hopes to be walking with crutches within 14 days when he returns to defence medical rehabilitation centre, Headley Court, to have an artificial leg fitted later this month.

Private Clowes, 22, said: "Before me there were only two major incidents as far as my regiment was concerned. Two people were seriously injured when an Improvised Explosive Devise (IED) went off in a vehicle in May and two mine strikes had destroyed American vehicles but nobody was hurt."

But on July 11, 2007, his life was to change radically when his vehicle was struck by a mine as it navigated a dried-up river on a re-supply mission.

"When we were going down the dried-up riverbank, the back right tyre of the vehicle caught the mine," said Private Clowes, who remained conscious throughout the ordeal.

"One minute we were driving along and the next minute there was smoke in the air. I did not hear the boom. I just heard people screaming my name. My legs were in the vehicle but my body was outside.

"My ankles and legs were broken. I could see my right knee was dislocated and I could feel that my jaw and cheek were broken on the right hand side. My shins had gone through my feet but I did not know that at the time.

"There was a massive cavity on the ground where the mine had gone off and there was nothing left of the vehicle. I was devastated. I just wanted to get up and I was getting angry because I couldn't move."

Remarkably, one of his colleagues escaped the blast unhurt and the other suffered a broken arm.

After surgery back at his base, he was airlifted to the UK where he spent 14 weeks in the military-managed ward of Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham with his jaw wired and a tube in his throat to help him breathe, before being transferred to Headley Court in Surrey.

Within a month the soldier was able to walk with the aid of crutches but as his right side healed, he was told he was going to lose his left leg below the knee.

He said: "I always had confidence in my right ankle getting better but not the left because it was always swollen and painful. I just knew it was never going to get better so really I had been prepared for it for months.

"At Headley Court, it was comforting because I had been there for five months and seen people with below knee amputations. They could run and jump and do everything I could before the amputation.

"Had it been above the knee it would have been so much harder. That's why I have a positive attitude.

"There is no point in feeling sorry for yourself. You just have to think how you make it better and that's the way I have looked at it.

"I'll be fitted with a prosthetic soon and after that I'll be raring to go. I am very optimistic about the future."

Earlier this week, just days after the operation, Private Clowes met the Prince of Wales during his visit to Selly Oak.