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Op-Ed: Has the British army gone soft?

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I am frequently asked if the army has gone soft.

Political correctness has taken a deep root throughout the whole of the so-called “upper tier” of British society. In any position of official capacity, what you can say and do are utterly controlled by a whole new set of rules. On a recent visit to a top university in the U.K., I was instructed that there were three toilets: the usual male and female, and one for those who were not sure. This is what we are dealing with. These people will eventually become the decision makers for the country, yet they somehow cannot even determine their own sex.

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  • Susan H

    I absolutely agree, Alan. I always enjoy reading YP’s comments – full of knowledge and wit. He is a huge asset to SOFREP.

  • Susan H

    Thank you, YP. It must be sad for veterans when their regiments are disbanded, particularly when they have lost brothers within those regiments.

  • James Walper

    Agreed. Fortunately the younger guys take everything in stride and carry on.

  • Yankee Papa

    .
    …Ah yes. The old regiments. But so many are gone now. As each regiment retired from active service it was “amalgamated” into another regiment… (sometimes units that loathed each other…) This has happened so often as to be silly. Eventually you won’t have enough soldiers to carry the Colours of the various units.
    …A couple of decades ago I purchased a book called “The Last of the Regiments” about this… but even the book no longer appears on the internet… My copy is in Seattle. Ah well… another book then…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2761699ee2497f221ee7d90026bf5e05d0987f21d0aa921b96d19c961a7cd47f.jpg
    …There was a time when it was the U.S. that would close down combat units. In the early 1970s I saw an Army Reserve Drill Sgt. battalion that carried not only infantry guidons… but artillery as well… having been (administratively) handed the “heritage” of a disbanded unit…
    …In 1951 a battalion of the British Glosters in Korea fought a holding action against vast waves of Chinese infantry crossing the Imjin river heading for Seoul. Cut off (on what came to be called “Gloster Hill”) the lads held out until their ammunition was almost gone. Survivors who could still move attempted to escape and evade. Most never made it.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/21e62c6158a06d4961d1f737121bb5e51c7c202aadba2d89664b951943163203.jpg
    …One group was about to be overrun when they were spotted by U.S. tanks who at first mistook them for enemy troops (no friendlies known in that area…) Quickly discovering their mistake the American tanks slaughtered large numbers of Chinese who tried to close with the Brits… who at last crossed into American lines. The Glosters had bought precious time for the UN lines to firm up… and the Chinese offensive lost momentum and was savaged by massive firepower.
    …The Glosters in a battle in the early 19th Century were attacked from both sides at once… Faced half the regiment one way and half the other. From that incident, the Glosters became the only unit in the British military to have two cap badges… one in the front, and a smaller one on the back…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/88bb4f2907e9d6b6b4786b1248d40f0aaa47863624729f67ba91dc94cc355c68.jpg
    (Gloster Hill)
    …Every year British regiments send telegrams to foreign units who have helped the British in a “sticky place…” One British regiment and the Commandant of the Marine Corps exchange telegrams each year in memory of their troops fighting side by side in the 19th Century. Quotation below from 1963 book…
    ” Each year, a telegram comes to one American tank battalion that gained great tradition and prestige in the bloody hills of Korea, whose men, like those of the Glosters, learned to walk the hills with confidence and pride. Because of them, certain men now living in England and elsewhere are still alive.
    When the message comes to this battalion, however, the people in the Pentagon do not know what to do with it. On the rolls of the Pentagon, where slowly human hearts and the legends men live by are being replaced by computers… this unit no longer exists.
    The Gloucestershire Regiment, now with forty-five battle honors and an American citation, will never understand…” (TKOW)
    Sadly, perhaps these days they do.
    “…the Gloucestershire Regiment was amalgamated with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Royal Regiment to form the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment. The new regiment maintained the back badge tradition, and when it was in turn amalgamated in 2007, it passed the tradition on to its successor regiment, The Rifles, who wear the back badge with their ceremonial uniform.[
    …The Glosters paraded for the last time on 26 March 1994 in Gloucester. The colours, carrying more battle honours than any other regiment of the line, were then marched to the Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum, and the regiment followed the 28th and 61st Regiments of Foot into history…”
    -Yankee Papa-

  • Yankee Papa

    James,
    The mission of the military is to fight. When not fighting their mission is to train to fight. Anything that does not support that mission detracts from it.
    -YP-