 Okay, listen then. Good morning. Welcome to P company. Welcome to depot para Outside the various selection courses for the various elements of special forces. This is arguably the hardest course in the British army You are here to be assessed for your suitability These soldiers are volunteers from different units of the British army gunners signalers engineers They have one ambition in common to be selected for parachute training and join the airborne brigade Any man here who we suspect is going to prove a liability To the survivability and efficiency of our battalions will not pass this course Points to note. Okay, we do not run a quota system here If every man here is up to the standard then every man will pass If no man here is up to the standard then every man will fail if you need any advice or guidance Speak to the P company staff. Okay, they are here to get the best out of you Remember it is a test. It is not supposed to be easy. Stick with it. Work hard Get up For these men this will be the hardest three weeks of their life Most of them won't pass the course There are all ranks, privates, NCOs and officers, numbers not names The officers are distinguished only by their white PT vests As an officer it's quite refreshing I've been used to putting the foot on the other end of the bottom for the last four years and To be told now what to do is it's great because I normally run a squadron I'm second in command of the squadron. It's good for me to insert or take out the brain and insert my physical sign Well, it's just a challenge really. I've already completed the all-arms commando course five six years ago I'm reaching the grand old age of 30 and I thought well one more before I reach 30 really It's a hard physical course So it could cause a lot of motivation finish It's a challenge more than anything It's a very hard challenge and it's Not many people do it. Not many people are fitting up to do it So what I've always wanted to do What I've always had in the back of my mind been trying to get here since 1985 to an airborne unit The course is 15 days of relentless physical and mental stress During the first phase over a fortnight the students are brought to a peak of fitness ready for testing Each event is designed to take the candidate to the limit of his endurance and then beyond This hill is climbed 20 times in succession each man carrying 43 pounds Anyone injured or unable to keep up is sent back to the medic safety vehicle We've been off to your feet to your best off each man is allowed three lives Three times on the wagon and he's returned to unit or RTU Is it painful there? Oh, yes Yeah, it's what in there Injuries including stress fractures are common the medic isn't here to dole out comfort He's checking to see whether the man's fit to continue That means that if he doesn't improve by Thursday, or you come off Thursday. That's you are to you Each evening the injured line up to see the company sergeant major it is he who decides their futures By the end of the second day Six students have already been returned to unit There's a lot of people carrying injuries now But they're not going to go sick with them because if they go sick and they're going to get binned off the course So what what you do is before the day starts you pump yourself full of proofing or something like that So I do that because I've done my knee here now and that's causing me a lot of trouble at the moment And hopefully the proofing will hold it off Until you finish the tab or whatever the exercise you're on All the speed of bleak endurance marches are the bread and butter of the parachute regiment and the airborne forces The ability to cover distance carrying weight at speed is arguably one of the things that separate airborne forces From perhaps the rest of the army It is it is one thing that we do if you like that it is our forte that other people do not do And I suppose it is derived through time from the need to move at speed if you like from a from a dropping zone to a target Officers, I want to see you motivate you are not going to win unless all six of you give 100% It is as simple as that. I would not expect to see anybody falling off the log Winfring and missing they go I think I have an obligation of selecting and Passing people are good enough to go and serve up there up the battalion lines with people that I know who are good soldiers and It's a bit respected them really as well as myself. I will not pass crap through me They go up to the top where they're gonna drop out This log run is the first team event The officers will be closely watched for qualities of leadership During the race another casualty Number eight a corporal who's already passed the Royal Marines commander course takes himself off the event Now we don't only being one more event today. I thought I might be able to cope with the pain I took a few paint for us and I kept still on the log and that the first half mile or so But I thought I'd become not so much unbearable, but if I went on any further damaged it even more repairable They are well card we have two lives I use one of them now There are certainly occasions of people going sick frankly because dare I say it they are feeling sorry for themselves Now a soldier who goes sick obviously will be checked over by the medic And the medic at the end of the day Obviously needs to be able to identify an injury if he cannot identify that injury There will always be the suspicion that the the student involved Perhaps has just had enough and and would prefer to be somewhere else It's bad organization officers. It's no good running along the side Shouting at people who cannot hear you and it does not make sense Organising on as a squad it took a bloody junior to sort this lot out. That is not acceptable to me We do expect a fair amount more on the officers and they are here To show leadership. They're expected to lead by example They're expected to help the weaker members of the course and to get them through And to impress upon us that they have the qualities to lead airborne soldiers You make the main characters will be dragging today We've got to be number 37. He'll be there. Well, I'm amazed we've lost so many so far. We're down sir 32 33 32 More fun for the rest of us Most of the students are from outside the Parachute Regiment The exceptions of the regiments own new young subletons recently graduated from Sandhurst Steve and I have roughly done exactly the same we've both been through P company once and We both fell off the log and as a result being regimental officers We can't really fail any events and we've got to go through it again It's got the happy experience of running around these happy heels again The pressures that that's on us more so than the other officers is just to shine within the officers I mean the the officers have to shine within the course and the Parachute Regiment officers have to shine within the officers Everybody understand During an early morning run a bridge over a local canal is used as a first test of nerve Those unable to walk the girder face serious consequences stop shuffling and get walking On the outside Come on You're holding people up You are looking suspect son I don't believe we're here to be in anybody's popularity stakes. We are here to select them to go on to airborne forces I tend to I'd rather be more standoffish from my students. I'm approachable for them If they got a problem or emergency then come and see us But I'm not into having a jack-o'-nory with them Soldiers failing to walk the girder are given a last chance to overcome their fear At headquarters, they're put over the train asium an aerial confidence course You Go up there you will get three attempts once you told you three times if you have failed it That is you you will be at this depot by lunchtime today There's nothing for you to be afraid of up there. It is only the height of a five-story building It's a smile and enjoy it. Stand by. Don't make sense. Stand by Don't go down jump across and come on down Among the four failures is number eight who lost a life on the log run You do why don't you fucking do it? Well, let's have a fucking bit of bottling start doing it. Okay, you will have another Fucking fail this time and that is it Okay Stand by Don't stand by don't come down I'm right double across to the Land Rover. Stay there. All right. Follow on you three Onto the bars 31 Go No, no, no, don't touch the bars Stand up straighten your legs nice and easy. Just change the balance of your feet Come on. Don't waste all that effort. You're a fit lad. We don't want to lose you Now come on Right continue Don't touch the bars Stand up stand up Good lad, I'd go for it Climb down confidently Right, what was your excuse on the bridge this morning? What went on the bridge so bottle up on the bridge. What about the train asian? Same again, sir. I went and joined listen to me. I know your background Right, I know where you've come from and I know what course you have done before and I know on that course You use hikes or you are up in high places. So there is no excuse for your bottle going I will tell you what I think I think you've come down here to get yourself R2U off this course So you can have the other two fucking weeks off resting. All right But I will put this to you now There is no chance that that's gonna happen you will continue on this course until I see fit to R2U you do you understand? Sir fall out I've just been three weeks of painful training over the road on the pre-parer this week's been quite painful as well I'll extremely painful with the ankle injury received I won't go through all that just for two weeks off work. I'm sure if I put in a leaf pass I'll get two weeks off work If I've R2U'd I'd have to report to my normal place of work tomorrow morning anyway We wish to see as we said when people got here Determination and there's a lot of people here who do not have determination They do not possess team spirit, you know, they are too content to sit back and do the minimum 545 a.m. And the last day of the week in less than two hours the officer commanding P company Will be here to inspect the barracks This inspection half seven Which no matter what we do They'll still pick it up and it'll give them excuse to beast us Because it's Friday And they always beat you on a Friday because let you know that you're still on the course No, it's going there with him. If you stand here All this to be an airfoam warrior I can see the point of doing the physical side, but the bullshit really pisses me off It's just another form of pressure. I think get your crack in another different way They've got to be driven to their their maximum efforts I mean the physical side of things one thing but to have the pressure on from the word go I've been assessed from the word go as soon as they get here from the opening address till they leave They've been assessed all the time and they know that So they've got always got psychological pressure as part from a physical pressure We've got something out of Okay Wait wait wait Wait over your head Wait away stand up Right get away and get it filled half a bottle is no good you out there Speed marching is known in the airborne brigade as tabbing tactical advance to battle From a second you start tabbing for the first like mile and a half you get severely bad shins the matter How good you are at it? It really pounds on your shins and when you hit the hills after you've done the whole along valley It's just pain from the start to the finish Come on It was a steady pace going out there a bit muddy once we got to long valley Got on the hills and worked hard on the hills and I completed the hills I was quite pleased I thought a couple of mile back to camp in the weekend's mine Off it from Monday Anyway, there's like 800 meters of mud down Long Valley before we hit the path and that's what really sat me That's the hardest thing you've done because it was so soft on the foot my boots were filling with mud My legs were like lead I was at the back of the squad I Kept trying to keep up but couldn't the Stefan encouraging me all the way just give me the normal You know come on cabbie Jed and all that I tried me hardest. It just wasn't enough Get on the wagon now Get on it get on the wagon don't stop waving your face By then I'd used all my energy and I was completely sad That was my third life. I'm off the course Listening then week one over a hard demanding week by anybody's standards Those of you who have come through unscathed well done, okay a big slap on the back Okay, you will feel the benefit of this. It is doing you good. I don't expect you to believe me But it is okay over this weekend get plenty of food and rest stay off the piss Hard it and big bag of hard things that had was a hard sub very Prefer to give birth to quadruples And do that again Make sure you come up and drop this off. I thought you'd shoot off At the end of the week number eight is finally sent home I am gonna pass the course. It means doing the course ten times. I will pass No, I've no intentions of letting this course get me down. I will be the winner in the end. I'm gonna win Pick up the number twenty six or twenty six was the problem twenty six Fuck's up. Just fuck. That's a fail Okay, not a great drama. So one time on the wagon. No great problem with you so far I'll just talk you on life on this go away get yourself sorted out ready to rock on Monday morning All right, this up with life off your brush Everyone now has back sores caused by packs rubbing during marches This gives me shit going down. It's not too bad on the front and I feel What's but I've done some courses in the army that to say a hard This is a harder. This is harder. I mean, I've done a diving course, which they say is pretty hard But that is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. And that is fact People may think that Things are done pretty callously down here that there is not much sympathy afforded to the students going through the course Certainly, I think the instructors if they came clean would sympathize with the effort and the misery some of those students are going through However, having said that you must remember firstly that everybody on the staff has been through equal misery and Secondly that the people are fiercely proud of the standards of soldiers in this brigade Now we start off with 39 we're down now to 24 and people have gone for various reasons but all in all and the feeling of the staff is that there's a good hard core on this course and pessimistically, I would hope no no less than 15 passes Test week has begun the final five days 22 out of the 39 volunteers remain Passmarks are now given a maximum of 10 for each of 10 test events No one will know his score. None even knows the pass mark But the parachute regiment officers. This is the most crucial event of all as this is the hardest event We cannot afford to come off this as members of the parachute regiment if I fall off this event. I'm out of parachute regiment simple as that The log race I think is the hardest event on peak company and it is just agony The log is is no little piece of wood and the real killer is that you get different people with different amounts of energy at different times So just when you're lagging someone else might go sprinting off You're knackered. There's a big hill you got to go up You can't lie down it Starts out really hideously and then it doesn't get any better just gets worse and worse as you go around and more Tired to get the worst it gets and struck. There's one more from you Always shouting at you to give 100% 110% Get it up get that log up now I don't know whether it's just the feeling of having finished that My body said that's it. I've done it unless they switched off now And I just you know went dizzy and sort of But all over the place I Think it was um, it was lack of a sort of feel really because I didn't have much to eat this morning You go all the way with that team you don't give up and let everybody else do it They were absolutely chin strap because you two fell off Okay, it would have been a better time had you stayed there when I say go get away big relief But I mean it's not just an individual effort. It's down to all the people in my squad They all pulled their way didn't make my job carrying an eight for the log any harder coming down the hill up there is Is not living? It's the nasty that just takes away from you that Oh Do you have any come off? No, I galloped in the forest and I both come off before yeah, and they both stayed on There's none of the offices. I really do their job as officers. No, they're not they're not encouraged But they were actually briefed once they get the test week and then it's just verbal inclusion. Yeah Well, I said, yeah, exactly, but I mean no pulling or tugging I mean they gallops voice once the whole the whole way around and I was only when you see it said to him Yeah coasting suffering an injury So went to your lunch time and I Just don't look so sorry for myself and they carry on so Number 24 decides to do the next test the assault course despite his injury He knows that missing an event is a sign of a wrong attitude What he doesn't know is he's already The test on test week in isolation Perhaps are not all that demanding But the whole thing about it is that it is a gradual wearing down process It's the combination of those events all together that really take their toll on the student Number 23 has landed badly injuring a foot with four days to go his chances of doing well are now in doubt Okay, what you've got is a Common injury in the posh you read me. This is abuse to you Well, give you for that is some painkillers Get some tonight give you some for tomorrow morning, and you'll be okay for the top my week is day-to-day She's all the speed event She's not I'm so big a bloke for To get my body down so fast like it's been pretty rough really it I've done the course before so I've done the events before and last time I was lasting just about everything for this time I was up the front so quite happy with it. It's just tomorrow. I'm a bit worried about doing the 10-mile less. I've had problems with it before so Some get out of the way. It's all a lot of owners on test week they Put too much on anything the site themselves out a lot of time people have been doing well through the course Just put too much on it and just don't produce the goods at the end of the week 23 I think he's been seeking the week with At least in the night. He's probably made me split his tendons sheet On his on the back of his heel He's been given anti-inflammatory and things like that to try and keep them going But as you can see Having difficulties with it The 10 mile march must be covered in one hour 45 minutes Number 23 has fallen further and further behind Eventually, he's been put on the wagon Despite getting this far. He loses all 10 points available for the event You're not told what the marks are so that if you're giving your marks then there's a possibility That you may not give your best in the next event because you you'll try and average everything out so the incentive is to do best to do your best in all the events and Therefore get a top mark the one exception is the train asium a straight pass fail test Anyone who fought us here will be returned to unit immediately whales at all doesn't bother me in slightest Not one bit of work. It's this And the trick is again when he says go just run sprint the sides you can yeah, don't worry about those gaps I mean you could pull down them, but I've never done it Okay, then listen in Venezium aerial confidence course We are looking for a number of things this morning. Obviously. We are looking for a degree of physical courage We are looking for confidence and equally important. We are looking for your reaction to the word of command So did you get the words carry on? Continue safely There's nothing wrong whatsoever about being slightly perturbed about throwing your parts over this scaffolding this morning However, what is important is that you must conquer that fear I was on the last course Managed to get all the way to test week without any injuries without losing any lives And then on the Trenesium and I failed to jump off the losing jump That's always been off the last course So now I'm on the next one go Number 11 also failed the bridge during week one And he finds the Trenesium just as difficult the second time around Oh Number 11 is the only student to be sent home during test week Don't stand on the right hand side of the land over double the way go The remainder get round the course, but not all to the satisfaction of the instructors Three of the students will be failed at the end of the week for showing lack of confidence here What has happened here quite frankly gentlemen I have stood here on about 45 occasions in the last 14 months And I can tell you without fear of contradiction This is without doubt the worst set of soldiers I have ever seen go over this piece of apparatus We have 14 year old school boys who come down here and do this And I tell you something they would put every man jack here to shame God help us on the milling this afternoon if that is what we're going to get again You people better get yourself sorted out because that's the thing stand at the moment fellas We're going to be seeing you all again in january All that fucking effort number 11 Unlucky that's the second time in a row is that See you next year. You're obviously a pervert January 28th If not, I'm here for two years As far as peak companies concerned your aim is to extract as much blood and snot out of the opposition as possible To do that you get two things one is a set of boxing gloves The other is a minute During that minute you are expected to show The quality is required of an airborne soldier He's got an officer Have you? Ah Remember what I said officers I want noses like parachute regiment soldiers, you know He's gonna have a flat one Milling is a fighting test peculiar to airborne forces Designed to test controlled aggression definitely not boxing no points for punches landed The prime target is the head the panel are looking for spirit rather than physical prowess Okay, fellas good effort that is what we want to see well done both of you draw I am obviously wasting my breath with you young man. Okay. It is not happening. Is it? You have 15 seconds left in the clock. You better get on top of it. Is that clear? Yes, sir All you are lacking at this moment in time is a handbag. Is that clear? Yes, sir Get on with it It is a question of controlled aggression It is seeing a man how he would perform in a situation of physical adversity You know, it is it is highly unpleasant and some people may say it is brutal Perhaps to the casual observer it looks pretty excessive and some may say unacceptable However, you know, we are looking to assess how a soldier will react in a combat situation when it is actually coming at him the other way So that is much of the logic behind it For the final three days the course moves to wales and the breccan beacons Tough terrain longer distances We get to wales for a number of reasons The hills are steeper and longer So it is harder to get them down them Add it on to that the distances are longer and for many people the distance becomes quite a mental problem And also interesting enough the climate down there is far more variable the weather conditions are worse So again, it expands this this question of expecting people to perform in conditions of adversity So if you've had problems today, you're going to have severe problems tomorrow So what you need is a good scoff inside you tomorrow morning and some brew All right, regardless of the weather, it could be like the costa del sol up there You still need a good hot scoff and a brew inside of it before you go up that hill The big one tomorrow is at first ridge Okay We're looking for blokes in this brigade who can do the job I mean this part here in wales is more important than the old shot phase Because this is our bread and butter of what we do a good example the faultlands Get down there same sort of terrain as this people was carrying between 80 to 120 pound on the back And this is the job that they was doing going over hills like that You've got to work hard now Come on, you've got to get up here And these guys have got to be able to they're in pain. I've got to keep going through it There's probably not one of us here that don't carry a permanent injury all the time And you just got to run through it and we expect them to be able to do the same We've had guys in the past who've had a lot of pain and have completed the course Mr. Forest come straight It's no good walking a little bloody sideways get up get past me get some water You're in here by the skinnier team Get up here. You've got 10 seconds becoming number The reason why we have people do pee company is a man can get in that plane and jump out of it Then get out put heavy kit on his back go 10 mile and still stay switched on When you hear a shouting at the end stand up straight get your heads up You know, don't put your weapons on the floor. We're looking for people who stay switched on all the time What are you doing sitting down? Get off your fucking ass switch on lads. I will pin you here and now You fucking wise up boy Graham I'll set the last one 25 here Warm kit on Don't put your weapon down Say for now that we take them down and get them off the hill Quite hard coming up here and we'll leave them now They'll be even further behind the main pack by the time we get to the top which becomes dangerous. We can't Man that so we've got to take them down there Take them around to the tea stop and then they'll continue from there on over fan for and onto the high speed march At the top of penny fan People were in danger of getting just blown off the top We'd have stood up. I think a couple of us might have even gone over the edge I suppose it was quite fun in a way if it wasn't under such testing conditions It's gruesome But it's over now and onto the next bit After two mountain climbs totaling 3000 feet and covering 10 miles The course sets off yet again on the third test of the second day a 10 kilometer speed march This time everyone makes it to the end With one more event to go staff and students spend their last night in the camp The scores so far are known only to the instructors It's your last event you're just going to get your tea and get down to it. Okay or coaster. Bye I'm coming back to do it again if I feel once there's enough like tried it done it filled it fuck it No Fifty minutes up and then you know when you hit that you want to You're almost in the way Here we go judgment day is upon us stretcher ace last event on p company Points to note like the log race. This is a team event on which you are assessed as an individual Do not think that if you get in with the winning stretcher You will score good points because there is no guarantee of that Your only guarantee of good points this morning is to give 100 percent all the way around I will tell you now nobody here has yet done enough to pass this course Does not matter how many points you think you might have got If you do not perform this morning, you will fail that goes for every man jack of you You should have worked out by now that p company is something to be done once and once only You have one hour left on this course Make sure it counts We come down here 18 times a year every year We never want to see any of your hideous faces down here again Get it out of the way never to return Good luck work hard course course Go go go go In the stretcher race two teams run for six and a half miles uphill The stretcher is made from scaffolding poles and tank tracks. It weighs 140 pounds 10 stone The men take turns with the stretcher once again number 23 on the left in the front is struggling Straight in your back The injury he's been carrying all week has finally taken its toll another 10 points lost His stretcher is encapsulate what the course is all about Get ready for the shot And by that stage every man on the course early is merging on physical and indeed mental exhaustion And it is then that the strong characters come out and the weak ones go to the wall I have no doubts that for those young men going over that course It's a pretty soul-searching and exhausting time The second stretcher has fallen too far behind the team has done badly Once across the finishing line the instructor won't let them get away with it Those of you that will be coming back again if you've got the guts to do another course Do not darken our doors unless you have the character and the guts to put a bit of work in Some of you have blown it on that one event. You have not got what we require Do not be surprised at the results tomorrow gents If everybody worked as a team You would have won the race and won it well The problem is there's too many people willing to be carried by the remainder isn't there 17 Too many people looking very fresh And I point to you come to attention and give me your P company number And I saw the sound things are coming up now. Oh my god Don't be legs in gas squeezing the ones who've got it I'm very dubious. I just don't want to wake up tomorrow morning. Very dubious Not much room for a fucking debate there is it? Come again? To come again you think? We haven't come up anything are we? So unless it's attitude, I think we might have a surprise this time Six Quite good all the way through really Bit miss wise But uh as we as we saw on the stretcher It needs another word Because I mean when he goes up the road If he's going to throw a tantrum or throw his teddy in the corner If somebody's not performing then he can't react in the way he did 31 Yeah, pass sir All right, where's the fail from the gymnasium? Roger. Yeah You got that? Yeah As long as I live there's no way I'll do this course again Not a chance None of these men yet knows who's passed and who's failed It's a pass on the table For all of them there's one final public ordeal Okay, I'm sure you are all aware what is required here so without further ado number 38 Pass Number 31 Fail Number 24 Fail Number 23 Fail Number 17 Number 12 Pass Number 9 Pass Number 6 Pass Number 5 Number 2 Of the 39 volunteers who began P company only 15 passed Ahead of them the parachute training which finally earns the wings to go with the coveted red beret Okay, I'll just open the door then Wind will rush in right number one come forward then into the door That's it dot the position your arm over the top of mine. That's it Okay, look up don't look down There's Chuck again Both arms cross your reserve Go 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 Get kind of me Thank fuck for that Steer away from the cable Come on number two. Let's see you steer away When you've steered away parachute position assess your drift A good all-round observation and then steer away