Nice surprise for soldiers surrounded by rubbish? (5)
I believe the answer is:
treat
'nice surprise' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'soldiers surrounded by rubbish?' is the wordplay.
'soldiers' becomes 're' (Royal Engineers).
'surrounded by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'rubbish?' becomes 'tat' (I've seen this before).
're' inserted inside 'tat' is 'TREAT'.
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for treat that I've seen before include "Enjoyable party" , "Cure" , "Deal with - delightful surprise" , "pay for another" , "Celebration" .)