Favorite Historical British Regiments

[R011]

Uits were very well-trained at bn level, then sent to war in a hodge-podge of uncoordinated bns that had little idea of how to work togther.

That's more a failing of implementation rather than principle. It's something of a function of the colonial policeman role and limited budgets that discouraged brigade and division training under realistic conditions. Unfortunately, that mindset carried on well into the war.

 

How did the pre-war US Army regimental system compare, BTW? Did officers and men normally stay in the same regiment as they did in the British Army, or was it more like the US Army of today?

[KingSargent]

That's more a failing of implementation rather than principle. It's something of a function of the colonial policeman role and limited budgets that discouraged brigade and division training under realistic conditions. Unfortunately, that mindset carried on well into the war.

Agree 100% on all counts. However it wasn't ALL due to money problems. The RTC had waxed the Infantry in several maneuvers, so a maneuver was "cooked" so the infantry won "to impove the Infantry morale." Umpires ruled that soldiers laying across a road were a legitimate method of denying the road to the tanks. I don't think infantrymen reclining in traffic stopped many panzers in 1940. That was the most blatant "cheat" I know of, but other exercises were "cooked," as official policy.

 

Even the RN was not immune. In 1933 (IIRC) Fleet Air Arm torpedo bombers got seven actual hits (real torpedoes with inert heads) on Royal Oak while the Battle Line was free to maneuver during a fleet problem. Many other ships were also hit. Umpires decided that Royal Oak would be able to remain in the battle line and maneuver at 16 knots after the seven hits if the warheads had been real. "Lessons" like that one might explain why Phillips pooh-poohed the IJN torpedo-bomber threat before he got Force Z sunk in 1941.

 

How did the pre-war US Army regimental system compare, BTW? Did officers and men normally stay in the same regiment as they did in the British Army, or was it more like the US Army of today?

That depends largely on the timeframe. In many instances personnel remained assigned to the same unit for long times. The catch is that people spent their careers on the books of "their" regiment, but actually SERVED elsewhere. An example would be the 7th Cavalry, "Custer's regiment." Custer, however, was not the Regt's CO, he was the XO; the CO was serving on somebody's Staff in WDC. Custer was the de facto senior officer and "field CO," but he was a LtCol and not in official command. In 1976, while Custer was getting half the 7th massacred in Montana a bunch of the 7th's officers were making the first US exploratory expedition in Interior Alaska. Papers including diaries of the expedition are in the Univ of AK Archives. I've done a little work on them, and one 7th Cav officer's diary entry about going up the Tanana and being eaten alive by mosquitoes was written on the very day the 7th was dying on the Greasy Grass. What fun - come home and your regiment is dead.

 

Much the same practices occurred during the 1920-30s. Officers were pulled from their units and sent to schools, taught at schools, served on staffs or in the War Department, or did special projects like when Eisenhower was assigned to take a unit across the US in motor vehicles. The fun and games he went through on that little two-year jaunt led to the Interstate Highway projects when he became POTUS in the 1950s.

 

So the US Army was in practice more flexible about regimental assignments than I get the impression the British Army was. I know the Brits had officers who served away from their units, and the US had officers who just stuck with troop duty in their regiment.

[MiloMorai]

In 1976, while Custer was getting half the 7th massacred in Montana a bunch of the 7th's officers were making the first US exploratory expedition in Interior Alaska.

 

1976?

[swerve]

1976?

 

What's a hundred years, to someone like him? A mere blink of an eyelid.

[Briganza]

As in Regiment or as in mincing?

 

BillB

 

to you too

 

I have a story about that and 3 Queens and 3 Queen’s and a bar in Celle but the memory is a little off.

 

With the modern Queen’s each company was associated with one of the old regiments - A = Tangiers, B = Holland, C = Sobraon , SP = Quebec and HQ = Albuera. Each company banner (never paraded with the coy) had the badge of the former regiment at its centre and was of the regimental colour. That was lost with the PWRR.

[WRW]

Ref the RGJ & buttons, I'm told my grandfather (ex-13th (Service) Battalion KRRC) referred to serving with the "Black Buttoned Bastards" during WW1, altho I've not yet come across it anywhere else as yet.

 

Oh, and you missed the Royal Army Medical Corps (Rob All My Comrades) and Worcester Foresters (Woofers and Poofers) from your list.

 

BillB

 

Did the KRRC not kill some nuns at some stage in 1800s, thus the B in the name

[capt_starlight]

The old ASC - Ally Sloper's Cavalry.

 

Personally the "Die Hard's", "Pontius Pilot's Bodyguard", "The Lilywhites" and the family regiment "The Wild MacRaes" (78th Regiment of Foot of course).

[JN1]

In no particular order:

 

Royal Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons), now the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers and Greys) after amalgamating with the 3rd Carabiniers in 1971, because it is my local regular RAC regiment.

 

Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, now C (Fife and Forfar Yeomanry/Scottish Horse) Squadron, Queens Own Yeomanry, because it is my local yeomanry regiment.

 

The Black Watch, now 3 SCOTS, because it is my local infantry regiment.

 

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, now 5 SCOTS, because it was my Great Grandfather's regiment (he was in 7 Argylls) in WW1.

 

I also have a particular attachment to every other Scottish regiment (regular and TA), and for some reason the North Irish Horse (B Sqdn, QOY these days), probably because they were the first RAC regiment to knock-out a Tiger by direct gunfire.

[ABNredleg]

This was the same book where they quoted a Royal Marine as saying 'Only 2 things drop out of the sky, birdshit and paratroopers'. I couldnt possibly agree of course.

 

At Fort Bragg it's "Two things fall from the sky - birdshit and fools"

[cheese possessed]

7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery (7 Para RHA)

[WRW]

The Royal Irish and its ancestors

[WRW]

Any thoughts on the outcome of this review of reserves?

also I read in FT that the heavy armour and RA regiments are being looked at again