Almost 9,000 British troops have been forced to quit in the past five years because of serious injuries.
Many of those medically discharged were badly wounded while fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Hundreds lost limbs in bomb blasts while others suffered terrible burns and gunshots wounds, leaving them blinded and paralysed.
Other servicemen and women have been unable to cope with the trauma of seeing friends die and have developed mental illnesses which left them unfit for duty.
Andrew Cameron, chief executive of the charity Combat Stress, which has been helping discharged troops since the First World War, warned: “Numbers are through the roof while resources are tighter by the month.”
New Ministry of Defence figures show that the 2,804 troops forced to leave in 2013/14 because they were no longer fit to fight is 222% more than in 2009/10.
Worryingly, over 1,630 of them have been discharged after developing mental health problems – a rise of 173% since 2009.
Of those, 506 service personnel were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the mental illness linked to suicides in the Armed Forces.
2,804
Troops forced to leave forces in 2013/14
In 2012 more serving troops and veterans killed themselves – a total of 50 – than died fighting the Taliban.
Separately figures obtained by a Freedom of Information request show that 754 soldiers sought help for PTSD in the past three years.
Among all three services, damages to muscle and bones, known as musculoskeletal injuries, were the cause behind most medical discharges.
Troops are only medically discharged when they are no longer fit enough to carry out their trained role.
In some cases, they can be medically downgraded and stay in service.
All medically discharged troops receive a tax-free inflation-proof pension.
An MoD spokesman said: “The number of medical discharges in the Army has increased following new guidance in 2010 designed to improve the process.
“Injured personnel now receive a tailored Recovery Plan and no one who is wounded, injured or sick leaves until it is right for them to leave.
“We are investing £7.4million to improve mental health services.”
