Former Army commanders have criticised a new £1.6million diversity campaign telling new recruits it is OK to cry, have feelings and pray.

Military officials have launched a series of YouTube videos to encourage recruits from different backgrounds, genders, sexualities and faiths.

The scheme, which will see a series of adverts broadcast on television, radio and digital platforms, is titled 'This Is Belonging 2018'.

But Colonel Richard Kemp, who led British troops in Afghanistan, claimed today that it shows how the Army 'is being forced down a route of political correctness'.

And retired Army officer Major General Tim Cross said it is important for people to know 'we are not going to be soft and we are not going to be nice to people'.

Another of the animations released on YouTube is called: 'What if I get emotional in the Army?'

One of the other frames from the advert which asks 'What if I get emotional in the Army?'

A third frame from the 'What if I get emotional in the Army?' recruitment advert released

The drive includes a series of animations on social media, among them films that ask: 'Can I be gay in the Army?' and 'What if I get emotional in the Army?'.

Other videos ask: 'Can I practise my faith in the Army?', 'Will I be listened to in the Army?' and 'Do I have to be a superhero to join the Army?'.

One medic describes wanting to join the Army after his brother served in Afghanistan.

'I was really worried about whether I would be accepted, but within days I was more than confident about being who I was,' he says.

'I'm not afraid to talk about having a boyfriend. I thought I'd have to hide it, but once you've done it you think: 'Why did I have to make it such a big thing for so long?''

But retired Army officer Major General Tim Cross said he was in favour of recruiting from a broader base to boost the number of soldiers, but stressed they must be able to deliver high-intensity fighting power capable of 'duffing up the Queen's enemies'.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'The concern, I think, for a lot of people - and it's an understandable concern and to some degree I have some concern as well - is that you end up with an Army that's not capable of doing what you want to do and when you send it away on operations it's not able to deliver.

'So we must ensure that we reach out to people, we must ensure that everybody knows that they have an opportunity of joining the British armed forces and joining the Army in particular, but we are not going to be soft and we are not going to be nice to people.'

The drive includes a series of animations on social media, including: 'Can I be gay in the Army?'

Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, told BBC Breakfast that he did not 'subscribe to the view that the British Army is 'going soft''.

Major General Cross warned against discouraging Christians or people from other faiths amid reports that one advert was focused on showing Muslims they could practise their religion while serving as a soldier.

'It happens to focus on the Muslim community; my point is we have Gurkhas, we have Sikhs, all faiths represented in the British Army, and what we don't want to be doing is isolating other people by focusing on these particular communities,' he said.

Major General Cross, who retired in 2007, added that the Army was 'really struggling' with its recruitment and insisted it should not try to be 'jolly nice to people'.

Also today, Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, told BBC Breakfast that he did not 'subscribe to the view that the British Army is 'going soft''.

But he said the ad campaign was 'neglecting the main group of people who are interested in joining' and will not solve the 'recruiting crisis' facing the armed forces.

He said: 'Unfortunately, I think it's on the wrong lines, is my view. What it clearly is doing is appealing, trying to appeal, to a series of minorities who may or may not be interested in joining the forces.

'And by doing that, it's almost neglecting the main group of people who are interested in joining. And the main group of people who are interested in joining aren't worried so much about whether they're going to be listened to, or those emotional issues.

'What they're worried about more is how they're going to face combat. And not only that, they're going to be attracted, I think, by images of combat, because that's why people join the armed forces.

'Can I practise my faith in the Army?' Military officials have launched a series of YouTube videos to encourage recruits from different backgrounds, genders, sexualities and faiths

A retired Army officer warned against discouraging Christians or people from other faiths amid reports that this advert called 'Can I practise my faith in the Army?' was focused on showing Muslims they could practise their religion while serving as a soldier

'So I think in a way by doing this they're missing out on the vast majority of people who want to join, and therefore it will not – in my opinion, unfortunately – solve the recruiting crisis that the Army faces.'

He added: 'This also reflects the fact that the Army, like the rest of Government is being forced down a route of political correctness.

'What is most important is that the Army recruits and is full of soldiers. It's of secondary importance that they reflect the composition of society.'

However, a former soldier and academic said suggestions that new recruitment adverts portray the Army as 'soft' are 'completely ridiculous'.

Dr Mike Martin, a former officer and Afghanistan veteran, said both old and new campaigns shared status and belonging as motivations for signing up.

He said: 'What Karmarama (the company behind the adverts) is trying to do is tap into the two things that subconsciously motivate people to fight, even when there is a risk of dying. Those two things are status and belonging.

'Even the war-fighting adverts are doing that because they focus on belonging, as often the activities shown are done in teams, and status as well, as for young people there's that sense of cool.

'I don't see these new adverts as a particular diversion from that, but a lot of people have painted these adverts as 'Well, what we did before was war-fighting and now it's all soft and cuddly and about belonging'.'

Mr Martin, who is also a visiting research fellow at King's College London's War Studies Department, said his personal experience, particularly in Afghanistan, was that the Army was '100 per cent a place where you could belong because you had teams working under pressure'.

Military officials have released a video asking: 'Do I have to be a superhero to join the Army?'

A frame taken from the recruitment ad asking: 'Do I have to be a superhero to join the Army?'

He said: 'People only cared about whether you were able to keep your people alive, or whether you were able to deliver whatever your job was, not what particular flavour of human you were.'

He added: 'I find that the criticism from outside of the Army is often unknowing of the realities (of Army life).'

Questioning the 'non-argument' of a 'soft' Army, Mr Martin pointed to the thousands of troops currently deployed in places like Somalia and Nigeria as well as the Army's 15-year role in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He said: 'Even people who criticise this approach because it's soft would accept that the most important part of fighting power is the teams that you generate to deliver that fighting power.

'That's what military training is all about. It's about creating robust teams that don't fall apart when they are under extreme pressure.'

Speaking about the drop in enlisting numbers, Mr Martin said: 'It's pretty simple. If you look at the economy and the employment rate in the UK over the last 30 years and peg that against Army recruitment, you'll see a very close relationship.

'Secondly, we're not fighting any wars at the moment. Young people ... want to fight in wars. So when Iraq and Afghanistan were on, people joined the Army because they wanted to fight.

One clip released by the Army addresses the question: 'Will I be listened to in the Army?'

Colonel Kemp said of the video: 'The main group of people who are interested in joining aren't worried so much about whether they're going to be listened to'

'That's why I joined the Army. I wouldn't have joined a peacetime Army. I joined because I wanted to go to Afghanistan. That's really why recruitment is suffering at the moment.'

In the videos, during an animation discussing emotional awareness, a voice says: 'Once you're in, you realise no one is a machine. The Army is family. I've probably told them things I wouldn't tell my own family. There's always someone there to talk to.'

In another clip in the new campaign, the voice says: 'I grew up with brothers and I always played sports, but I always thought the Army was dominated by men and it wasn't for me. I decided to get a normal job, but men at work would often talk over me.

'I felt like I didn't have a voice, so I decided to join the Army. It was totally different, all that matters is that you're good at your job.'

The campaign's release comes weeks after the Army faced an outcry over reported plans to scrap its 'Be the Best' slogan and historic crest.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson was forced to intervene and halt the re-branding exercise, which had reportedly been based on market research that found the slogan was considered 'dated, elitist and non-inclusive' by key audiences.

The latest public relations exercise focuses on inclusivity, ending with the phrase: 'Find where you belong'.