Hi To all of you,
On the subject of why British Regiments behave like noone else really counts
one has to think about time scale. I am English and live in England, and
there are biudings still standing near where I live that are older than the US
by a number of centuries.
The British Army is made up of Regiments that have several hundred years of
history tradition. I am not aware of any British units in existence without
some kind of Royal award, hero or great battle honour; hell even the Royal
Artillery (who's job it is now to shoot people from a very long way away
with very big guns/missiles) have one. The Fusiliers have their Hakle
(sp?),
The RA their "Ubique" etc, the British army doesn't really consider the RAF to
have proper traditions (more sort of habbits!). With all the amalgamations
going on these days most units have strings of honours as long as their
preverbial arms. The Paras, not having been around for very long, still feel
that they have something to prove, and it has fought in nearly every available
war since its formation.
This is not to in any way look down on the US Army and its Battle honours, I
am sure that a Yank (or Jonny Reb) is as brave as the next man in battle, its
just that the British army has a very very long and very distinguished history
of which is is rightfully very proud and so each regiment does tend to have a
flavour that can easily be adopted and extended easily for a
made-up unit (since capbadges, badges of rank and beret colour etc. can
be looked up and can be recognised by those in the know very easily).
Well thats enough of a civilian going on about how great the British army is
(BTW my family's (on both sides) military history goes waaaaaaaaaaaay back
***
On the subject of why British Regiments behave like noone else really counts
one has to think about time scale. I am English and live in England, and there
are biudings still standing near where I live that are older than the US by a
number of centuries.
***
Not to worry, US'ers are not unaware of this. I recall, back in college, about
three decades ago, a French hitchhiker who was 'crashing' at our house related
his gentle humor, he refrained on comments, at being told of this or that
building being over a century old. His dorm in Paris was in a building aged
over a thousand years.
However, Americans have been doing a fair job of making traditions out of
relatively young groups or organizations, and I've no doubt that the monarch
would find it useful to try to grow such amongst each constituent of the
confederation. That would include traditions starting after our own time
period.
The_Beast
> However, Americans have been doing a fair job of making traditions out
Yup, anything to keep the natives happy
"I know, if we give them a metal disk on a ribbon they'll fight harder!"
-
Some military genius a while ago
Still there is nothing as great as the Guards out on exersize ("I hope you
remembered the fish knives private Smithe-Humphrey-Williams"), now
that's tradition!
> --- Richard Kirke <richardkirke@hotmail.com> wrote:
> "I know, if we give them a metal disk on a ribbon
Patton was once criticized for his emphasis on making sure troops get
decorated, and his comment was that he felt "an inch of silk for a German
machine nest is a fair trade."
> devans@uneb.edu wrote:
> Not to worry, US'ers are not unaware of this. I recall, back in
This being a by-product of the fallacy that US/Canadian/Mexican
culture/History is the only American History. The native peoples of this
hemisphere can claim descendance from civilizations that were building
pyramids and designing complex calendars back when that Frenchman's ancestors
were living in mud huts along the banks of the seine.
From: "Brian Bilderback" <bbilderback@hotmail.com>
> This being a by-product of the fallacy that US/Canadian/Mexican
Mmm... yes, just remember that the guys who actually did the building were
living in mud huts, too.
Greetings Karl Heinz
> At 6:46 AM +0100 12/3/01, K.H.Ranitzsch wrote:
One could say the same thing about the craftsman that built many of the
edifices across europe that still stand today.
> From: KH.Ranitzsch@t-online.de (K.H.Ranitzsch)
> Mmm... yes, just remember that the guys who actually did the building
As were almost all workers on all gret building projects in the anvient
world - that pesky class issue. The point remains valid, however, that
"Indian" (ie pre-columbian American) culture was pretty impressive,
despite what happened to it.