Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europ ... index.html

My favorite regiment was always the Scots Greys

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<center>Monsieur le Marechal Baron John Corbin
Duc de Paive
Commanding the Division de Cavalerie de la Jeune Garde
NWC President</center>

Tears in my eyes.[:(]

<font color="gold">Feldmarshall
Stefan Ritter von Reuter
Großfürst von Wahlstadt
CoA Armee des Niederrhein</font id="gold">

Sad day indeed, one of the oldest Regiments in the world the 1st Royal Scots " <i>Pontius Pilate's bodyguard</i>" now gone. [:(][V]

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Captain
2nd Battlion
95th Regiment of Foot
II Corps
Anglo-Allied Army</font id="red"></center></b>

Well, they aren't really "gone". The new amalgamated regiment will continue the lineage of all its constituent parts. Note that the article points out that one battalion each of the new large regiment continues the tradition of one of the older individual regiments. The British army has been doing this for nearly two centuries now--they almost never dissolve regiments, they just amalgamate them (obviously it's called "merging" in modern talk, but it's still the same). Having several battalions in a regiment instead of the older one-battalion regiments also makes possible wartime expansion and later contraction without dissolving regiments. It's a proven system, even if it has never been tested to the extent that the post-Cold War reductions necessitate.

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D.S. "Green Horse" Walter, Maréchal d'Empire
Duc des Pyramides, Comte de Normandie
Commandant la [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/3_VI_AdR_Home.htm"]3e Division Bavaroise[/url], L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/EdM_start.htm"]L'Ecole de Mars[/url], L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant des Grenadiers à Pied de la Vieille Garde, "les Grognards"
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Dierk is right, and this and previous amalgamations have taken place for many of the old and famous British Regiments, not just Scottish ones, but the traditions and identities live on. Take the Royal Scots Greys, they amalgamated decades ago with the 3rd Carabiniers (which was in turn an amalgamation of two older dragoon guards regiments), but the capbadge of today's regiment still contains the eagle that was captured at Waterloo, on top of the crossed carbines of the other old regiment.

Similarly the Royal Dragoon Guards (which has its museum here in York where I live) is made up from four regiments raised in the 1680's (4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards, the 5th Dragoon Guards, the 7th Dragoon Guards and the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons.) and still has its historical links with Yorkshire and (Northern) Ireland.

Having said all that though, I can understand the sadness such changes bring to those associated with the regiments.

<center>[url="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/a.r.barlow/Napoleonic/nap.htm"]Lieutenant Colonel Antony Barlow[/url]
~ [url="http://www.geocities.com/anglo_allied_army_stats/Anglo_Allied_Army_Cavalry_Corps.htm"]2nd British (Union) Brigade, Anglo-Allied Cavalry Corps[/url] ~
~ [url="http://www.geocities.com/militaireacademie/dragoons.html"]4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards[/url] ~
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Am I right in thinking that the Scots won a comprimise in that batallions will keep their previous names eg. 3rd Bn Royal Regiment of Scotland (The Black Watch). I know this hasn't happened with the more numerous English regiments that have also merged.

I think it's a good idea and I've no problem losing a couple of undermanned batallions, though it concerns me that our foreign policy doesn't seem to reflect this. Besides, I don't buy all the nonsense about history being crucial to the British army: the Paras don't exactly have a long (though it is colourful) history. Norwegian regiments are far older than any of the Scot's and they don't have the same sense of identity.

That said, there's going to be a lot of brawling in Scotland's naafis. I've a friend who was involved in the light infantry merges; he said the inter-batallion rivalry was well out of hand at the outset. You gotta love squadies...



<font color="orange">Luitenant-colonel Peter Robinson
Commander I Corps
[url="http://www.geocities.com/militaireacademie"]Koninklijke Militaire Academie[/url] Adjutant
Royal Horse Guards Blue</font id="orange">

A friend of mine came home from Iraq and we talked about the army for a bit. I was worried to hear him say that the army was looking more for mobile command units and such and wasn't so worried about actually having a ground force to hold terrain per say.....

After watching these trends unfold, I understand the need for more mobile forces, that's a given, but to dismiss a belief in having a core force capable of long term management and control is a little worrying.

But then again I have never served so I could be reading it wrong....

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Herr Windbagenführer General der Infanterie Scott Prinz Ludwig von Saxe-Weimar
Aide-du-Kamp and Webmaster
Kommandeur Garde-Grenadiere-Korps & 3. Infanterie-Brigade
Heer am Niederrhein
Preußische Armee

[url="http://www.prussianarmy.com/"]Königliche Preußische Armee[/url]

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[url="http://napoleonicwargaming.com"]Napoleonic Wargaming - 1NWCG[/url]</center>

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by SansSouci</i>
Besides, I don't buy all the nonsense about history being crucial to the British army...
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It has always appeared to me that it is the public more than the army that considers the continuation of individual regimental traditions important. The army usually points out that it is small unit cohesion, discipline and a sense of purpose in the first place that makes people fight, and that the pride of belonging to an old regiment with a history of having fought on all battlefields since Marlborough is nice, but not a crucial factor.

In amalgamation in the 1960s, the army was primarily afraid that it would increasingly lose its ties with society when local regiments were merged. The reform of the Territorial Army was a concern there as well.

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D.S. "Green Horse" Walter, Maréchal d'Empire
Duc des Pyramides, Comte de Normandie
Commandant la [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/3_VI_AdR_Home.htm"]3e Division Bavaroise[/url], L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/EdM_start.htm"]L'Ecole de Mars[/url], L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant des Grenadiers à Pied de la Vieille Garde, "les Grognards"
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