Actors Brad Pitt and Shia LaBeouf spent an afternoon with U.S. soldiers in California last week (begs24Jun13) in preparation for their upcoming film Fury.

As research for the thriller, about the demise of the Third Reich during World War Two, the future co-stars met with members of the military and spent the night at the Fort Irwin National Training Center (Ntc) in the Mojave Desert on Wednesday (26Jun13).

On Thursday (27Jun13) the celebrities teamed up with the Operations Group for some combat experience, and a spokesperson at the base says, "It was a unit-sponsored event with just a small group of soldiers in the field. They talked about the mission of the Ntc, what those particular soldiers do and the soldiers' experience and background."

LaBeouf has posted several videos of their trip on his Twitter.com account, which feature the Transformers star in military fatigues examining the inner workers of a gun and exploring the insides of an army tank.