TA soldiers from Dorset came home to cheering families and told of the ‘scary’ experience of taking part in ‘the conflict of our generation’.

They were among 30 men from 6 Rifles who arrived at Beachley Barracks near Chepstow after spending six months with the regulars in Afghanistan.

They train at drill halls across the south west including Dorchester and Poole and they stepped off the bus to a tearful reunion with loved ones last week.

Over the summer they worked with 1 Rifles in Nahr-e Saraj, living in spartan conditions in daytime temperatures of more than 40C. Rifleman Jonathan Spriggs, 22, from Charlton Down, near Dorchester, estimated he had done far more than 100 patrols.

He said: “At first it was physically and mentally quite hard because you have got to get used to the weight and the heat. But when you do it every day, sometimes twice a day, you sort of go into robot mode and don’t think about the danger because you are too busy doing your job.”

He added: “At one point in my checkpoint, due to R&R and casualties, we were down to about four hours sleep a night. That was for about two months.”

The battalion had a quiet start after taking over but then fighting increased and Ramadan was the ‘worst period’, he said, when the corn grew to 13ft high.

“They can move around and plant IEDs. Our thermal cameras can’t see them because of the corn.”

Rifleman Connor Minshall, 19, from Westham in Weymouth, was in Checkpoint Perkha, and said: “It sounds stupid but we used to play Monopoly a lot and it became a bit of a thing, just everyone having a laugh.”

He finished at Thomas Hardye Sixth Form last year then mobilised for training in the autumn and was on patrol a few months later.

The other men returning included Rifleman Benjamin Fagan from Portland, Rifleman Mark Parry from Bournemouth, and Rifleman Michael Barrett, 22, who is from Yeovil but trains in Dorchester.

Lt Findlay Guerin, 28, is from Buckinghamshire but trains at the Dorchester barracks and was greeted by his parents and delighted girlfriend Sophie.

He said when they arrived the Afghan forces didn’t want to patrol.

“By the end of the six months, they were patrolling independent of us,” he said.