Raw Recruits

In these initial weeks, the teens must pick up a vast range of new and essential skills - sharpish. They learn weapon handling, how to strip down a rifle correctly and target indication as well as experiencing first-hand the effects of CS Gas - to learn to trust their gas masks.

The Junior Soldiers of 19 Platoon continue their Army Phase 1 training at AFC in Harrogate, as the army start to assess who is mentally and physically strong enough to become a soldier.

Our raw recruits are now asked to confront the realities of soldiering, and the difficult truths associated with it, chief among them the fact that they'll potentially be taking lives and risking their own. In the remembrance garden Padre Andrew Earle shows them a monument to all the former Junior Soldiers who've died since the college was opened over 30 years ago.

In the four months of training so far the harsh physical and mental conditioning has taken its toll; there are only 40 recruits left now. The remaining Junior Soldiers must use everything they've learnt so far and face all oncoming hurdles together as a fully-functioning platoon.

The 16 and 17 year old boys and girls of Army Foundation College, Harrogate are the youngest soldiers in Britain. No other country in Europe trains soldiers this young. These teenagers will go through 5 months of tough Phase 1 training as the army turns 43 teenagers in to a well-drilled and disciplined platoon.

Allegations of bullying mean one Junior Soldier faces being kicked out for bad behaviour, while another tearful recruit wants to leave.