THEY have known each other since nursery school.

Now friends James Cheesman and Shaune Maxwell are set to stand shoulder to shoulder on the frontline in Afghanistan.

The two soldiers, from the 3rd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment, fly tomorrow to Camp Bastion, the British Army’s base in Helmand Province.

They are due to deploy for a six-month tour, supporting the Coldstream Guards.

It will be the first time they have been involved in active operations together.

James, 26, a corporal, will be senior to 25-year-old Shaune, a private.

He said: “We’ve known each other for a long time, so I won’t boss him about as much as the others.”

James, of Ashes Lane in Almondbury, and Shaune, of St Paul’s Road in Kirkheaton, met when they were just three-years-old, at St Joseph’s nursery in Dalton.

From there they went to St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School together and All Saints Catholic High School in Bradley.

After leaving school at 16, James went to work for WT Johnson’s textile finishers on Wakefield Road in Moldgreen.

Shaune stayed at college for a short time to do A-levels, but quit and went to work for Morrisons in Waterloo before working in various temporary jobs.

James said: “We lost touch a bit – we’d see each other around town, but not much more than that.”

James, who wanted to become a police officer, joined the Army in 2002 as a step towards fulfilling his ambition.

Unbeknown to him, Shaune then signed up 16 months ago.

James said: “It was only when I bumped into him through the Army that I found out. I was like, ‘What are you doing here?’”

Both men have done tours of duty in Iraq and have been on training in Canada, but have never served together.

They only discovered two weeks ago that they were definitely going to Afghanistan.

“I’ve not really thought about it up to now,” Shaune said. “But it’s getting very real.”

James added: “I’ve got some friends out there already. They say it’s not as bad as it is made out to be.

“In a way I want to go out because it’s another medal on the chest. You want to do go to these places, because it’s what you have trained for.”