BRITAIN THE BRAVE

Pride in the military achievements of one’s country and respect for the personal qualities which make these achievements possible are unfashionable concepts; I simply believe they must and should be celebrated and that every schoolchild and thus every adult needs to acquire a lively comprehension of the valour of their nation. The charge that such admiration amounts to militarism is quite mistaken. Gibbon, writing about the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, gives us the correct perspective: “War he detested, as the disgrace and calamity of human nature, but when the necessity of a just defence called upon him to take up arms, he readily exposed his person to eight winter campaigns on the frozen banks of the Danube”. The British reluctantly go to war, but once there, apply their genius and perseverance to ensure an acceptable outcome.

Drake's Fireships amongst the Spanish Armada

We will ignore the civil conflicts which ravaged Britain in the distant past and open with Sir Francis Drake and the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. His sang-froid playing bowls on Plymouth Hoe on the enemy’s approach may be a legend but it epitomises the grit of the British. There was no great engagement but Drake’s light ships danced around the laden Spanish galleons and his fire-ships sowed confusion in the anchored enemy fleet. It dispersed in panic and most ships were lost in a storm-wracked circuit of Britain and Ireland. Had the Spanish landed their troops, Britain may never have grown to be a great power itself.

Towards the end of the 17^th century a great captain emerged, to some the finest soldier ever to lead Britain, John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough. Careful but daring, well-organised but original, his military peak, with the priceless patronage of Queen Anne, was reached during the War of Spanish Succession allying Britain with the Dutch and Austrians against France, Bavaria and Spain. France under the brilliant regime of Louis XIV dominated Europe but the campaigns of Marlborough, leading to the stunning victories of Blenheim, Ramillies and Oudenarde and the drawn battle of Malplaquet established Britain as a European power and raised the prestige of British arms to great heights.

King's Horse in action at Ramillies 1706

We jump forward to the creation of the Empire. At Plassey in 1757 Clive’s East India Company army of 3,000 (including 750 Europeans and 2,100 native sepoys) swept aside the huge 53,000-strong army of Siraj-ud-daulah, Nawab of Bengal, despite his battle-elephants. Britain’s dominant position in India was established, typically against heavy odds.

Clive triumphs at Plassey 1757

Two years later another feat of British arms secured Canada from the French. General Wolfe outwitted the Marquis de Montcalm by a surprise attack down the St Laurence involving the scaling of the cliffs of The Heights of Abraham. A fierce battle between armies equally matched (each had about 5,000 men) resulted in a British victory, the surrender of Quebec and the death from their wounds of both Wolfe and Montcalm. As was often the case a distinguished place was won by a Scottish regiment (Fraser’s Highlanders) but usually the bulk of the soldiers were sturdy English, leavened by brave Scots, Welsh and Irish.

Scaling The Heights of Abraham 1759

Jumping forward we come to the mortal struggles of the Napoleonic Wars. The French drove all their enemies on land from the field although first Napoleon himself and then Soult were repulsed by Sir John Moore’s (ex-Glasgow High School) gallant rear-guard action culminating at Corunna in 1809. At sea, inspired by their fearless Admiral Nelson, Britain triumphed at The Nile, Copenhagen and finally at decisive Trafalgar in 1805, although Nelson himself was mortally wounded by a French sharp-shooter.

Nelson's victory at Trafalgar 1805

Frustrated on land, Britain finally found a general to match Napoleon in Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington. Wellington conducted a brilliant campaign on the Iberian Peninsula, with Portuguese and Spanish allies, breaking out of Torres Vedras to triumph at Fuentes de Onoro, Albuera, Badajoz, Salamanca and Vitoria. Napoleon was in retreat from Spain, Russia and Germany and in time accepted exile in Elba. He escaped to rally his country and armies again, making a supreme effort at Waterloo in 1815. In a famously “close-run thing” Wellington and the Prussian General Blucher won the day, not least thanks to the steady courage of the British infantry squares and the dash of the British cavalry.

"Scotland Forever!" The Royal Scots Greys charge at Waterloo

Europe enjoyed peace for almost 40 years until the Crimean War (“one of the bad jokes of history” in Guedalla’s phrase) broke out in 1853 pitting the British, French and Turks against the Russians. The military machine was creaking and blunders abounded but there was no doubting the courage of the British soldier, notably manning “The Thin Red Line” at Balaclava against hordes of Russian horsemen, with the Sutherland Highlanders distinguishing themselves.

The Thin Red Line at Balaclava 1854

Britain’s colonial wars are not well regarded by many but there are fewer braver actions than the defence of Rorke’s Drift by 150 English and Welsh soldiers against at least 3,000 Zulus in 1879, or one technologically more decisive than Kitchener’s victory over the 50,000-strong Army of the Mahdi at Omdurman in Sudan in 1898.

Although there are no longer survivors of the Great War, heroism of the first rank suffused the British Forces (628 VCs awarded), operating on a huge scale, as they bore the horrors of the Somme and Passchendaele. After 4 years the dam suddenly broke and brilliantly advancing from Amiens in summer 1918, Haig’s disciplined and well-trained army rolled up the German fronts and with the French threw them out of France and Belgium.

Trench warfare in the Great War 1916

21 years later, with the outbreak of World War II, Britain was in mortal danger. A gallant rearguard action by the 51^st Highland Division at St Valery covered the evacuation from Dunkirk, but the defiant Dunkirk spirit was much needed as Britain had lost most of its equipment and many men. Famously the brave, outnumbered RAF pilots, dubbed “The Few”, broke the German air offensive in 1940 and the Nazi invasion was abandoned.

An RAF Hurricane and a Spitfire

Even with her back to the wall, Britain was capable of inflicting serious damage upon her enemies. In November 1940 the Fleet Air Arm, using aerial torpedoes crippled the Italian fleet at Taranto, even though the British were using obsolete Swordfish bi-planes. The Japanese studied this action carefully while planning their infamous attack on Pearl Harbor. These same gallant Swordfish fliers, under heavy fire and in atrocious weather, pressed a torpedo attack on the huge Bismarck in May 1941, incapacitating its steering gear and allowing the Royal Navy’s capital ships to finish her off and avenge the earlier sinking of Hood.

Swordfish fly over Ark Royal

In 1942 the tide of war turned with the entry of the US, Montgomery’s victory over Rommel at El Alamein, Russian victory at Stalingrad, leading to D-Day in 6 June 1944, when there was heroism aplenty with Lovat’s commandos at Pegasus Bridge, desperate fighting on the beaches leading in time to the surrounding and destruction of the German army in the Falaise Pocket in August 1944.

The US and Russia soon dominated in Europe but in Asia Britain was still heavily engaged protecting India. The hitherto invincible Japanese, scything through South East Asia, finally confronted the British in North East India. They were routed by a British and Indian army under Slim at Kohima and Imphal in 1944 and later driven out of Burma after the decisive 1945 action at Meiktila. As the US historian J. M. Callahan wrote “Slim’s great victory helped the British, unlike the French, Dutch and later the Americans, to leave Asia with some dignity”.

Gurkhas clearing Imphal of Japanese 1944

The end of the World War hardly brought peace as there were conflicts everywhere. The British joined the UN force resisting North Korea’s attempt to take over the South and made a stand at the Imjin River in 1950 which slowed up the North’s and Chinese communists’ advance. The “Glorious Glosters”, the Gloucestershire Regiment, were eventually overrun and many captured but not before some 10,000 Chinese had been killed. Their CO, Lt-Colonel Carne was awarded the VC and the regiment won immortality.

Decolonisation was always a tense exercise and terrorists wanting to make easy gains were soon disabused by vigorous officers like Col Colin “Mad Mitch” Mitchell whose Argyll and Sutherlands gave short shrift to gunmen in Aden as he recaptured the Crater area in 1967 

Col Colin Mitchell (driving) in Aden

Finally we recall the 1982 Falklands War, a risky exercise far from home, but Margaret Thatcher read the public mood well and realised Britain was not prepared to be pushed around by a tin-pot Argentine dictator and his cronies. After some grievous naval losses on both sides, the British Army prevailed after a valiant action by the Parachute Regiment at Goose Green and the storming of Mount Tumbledown by the Scots Guards, leading to the liberation of Port Stanley.

The Taking of Mount Tumbledown 1982

Although this piece deals with violence and conflict, it is not the intention to glorify such events. These victories are part of our heritage, our history and what makes us Britons what we are – without them we would be naked. The Annals of Courage of some other nations would make a slim volume but not so Britain. This fact needs to be celebrated and the sacrifices, fortitude and bravery of our fighting men should ever be honoured and remembered.

SMD

04.05.12

Text Copyright Sidney Donald 2012