Of the 110,000 soldiers in the British Army, seven per cent of them are women. Peterborough Evening Telegraph features editor Rachael Gordon got a small taste of army life when she joined other wannabe soldiers on an insight day...

When I was invited to join other young city people at a British Army Insight Day, I thought it would be a laugh.

But I soon wiped the smile off my face when I realised I'd have to report to the Armed Forces Careers Office in Hereward Centre, Peterborough at 7.30am on a Saturday.

I wasn't happy. A girl needs her beauty sleep, but after a little persuasion from the editor, I decided to grin and bear it.

"After all," he said. "Isn't discipline what the Army is all about?"

I abandoned my lie-in, and my high-heeled shoes, put on my best stiff upper lip, pulled on my walking boots and signed on the dotted line.

The Army holds the days at Bassingbourn Barracks near Royston, Hertfordshire - the training regiment where 16-year-old soldiers carry out their basic training.

"If 16-year-olds that are only just growing bum fluff on their chins can do it," I thought, "it can't be that hard."

But just how wrong could I be.

For an almost-30 journalist, who is more at home stripping her bed than an SA80 5.56 calibre rifle, then it turned out to be an interesting day.

Arriving at the barracks, we met up with 11 young wannabe soldiers who were keen to get a taste of what a life in uniform would be like.

Thankfully, I wasn't the only girl, Charlotte Chapman (17), from Wisbech, Sharon Goddard (19), from South Africa and Tashana Campbell (18), from Jamaica, were also among the line-up.

But as they all had been down to the Army careers office in the hope of joining up, I was sure they were all a lot fitter than me.

Suddenly, I wished I had utilised my gym membership a bit more.

After introducing ourselves to the rest of the group it was time to get kitted out in our uniforms. To be honest I was quite looking forward to it, after all, aren't combats and camouflage gear back in fashion this season? I know Madonna looked great in hers.

But as soon as I was handed my huge green and brown baggy camouflage jacket, combat trousers, black woolly hat, and helmet I knew I wasn't going to be winning any beauty contests.

Milan catwalk it certainly wasn't, but then we weren't there for a fashion parade, we were learning what it takes to become a modern-day soldier.

First activity of the day was finding out about the kit.

Magazines, webbing, a Bergan backpack, a poncho - isn't that something Red Indians wear?

I soon found out it wasn't. It was a strip of waterproof fabric which we would shelter and sleep under when out in the desert or on an operation.

Together with two pairs of boots, a bayonet, a gun, spare combat trousers, wash kit, rations of brown biscuits, chocolate sweets and lamb stew, I soon realised you needed to have muscles just to carry your kit.

Lance Corporal Jamie Bale talked us through all the essentials and the other potential recruits all seemed to know what he was talking about. I'm just glad we weren't tested on it. There was a lot to take in, in such a short period of time.

After we'd finished the kit training it was on to weapon handling.

We collected our SA80 rifle and I began to feel like a real soldier. But there was to be no shooting today. Instead we learned how to strip and clean it.

After Lance Corporal Micky Marsh told us a bit about the gun i.e that it fires a bullet at 900 metres per second, it is accurate to 300 metres, that a magazine has thirty rounds in it and that it was 5.56 calibre (the size of the bullets), he showed us how to do the seven-point safety checks and how to strip it down.

He made it look easy. I soon found it wasn't. Where was that safety catch again?

Luckily, it wasn't loaded and Sergeant Bill Nairn was there beside me to make sure I didn't shoot myself or any of the rest of the group.

But then came the real test, we had to do the checks, strip down the weapon, and put it all back together as quickly as we could.

Now ever since I was a kid I've never been a problem taking things apart. I used to love dismantling my toys to see how they worked. But putting them back together again, that wasn't my strong point.

I've still got a Rubik's Cube in bits somewhere in the loft.

With a little help from those around me, I managed to do it well within five minutes.

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