Tag Archives: Royal Regiment of Fusiliers

Warwickshire Cuckoos

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Some 85 years ago this week, the regulars of 2 Battalion, the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, part of the 2nd Infantry Division, British Expeditionary Force, drill in their snow-covered trench near Rumegies, Northern France on 22 January 1940 during the eight-month “Phoney War” or “Sitzkrieg” period between the fall of Poland and the invasion of France.

Note the Great War-era “tin plate” Mk. I Brodie helmets and Short, Magazine Lee-Enfield Rifle No.1 Mk IIIs, items very familiar to the trench life in France.

Photo by Leslie Buxton Davies and Stanley Hedley Kessell, War Office official photographers, IWM F 2212.

And seen the same day in platoon formation in the snow, complete with Bren guns, gas mask chest bags, and at least a few men wearing sleeveless leather jerkins, another Great War throwback:

Drink in that Pattern 37 kit. Men of the 2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment on parade in the snow at Rumegies, 22 January 1940. Photo by Leslie Buxton Davies and Stanley Hedley Kessell, War Office official photographers, F 2207.

And how about this gem, taken the same place and date:

2nd Battalion, the Warwickshire Regiment sniper in a tree taking aim with his rifle. 22nd January 1940.

The above lads saw much action in May 1940, with several of their men massacred at Wormhoudt after being captured by the Waffen SS, but managed to evacuate at Dunkirk, sans anything that couldn’t be carried while swimming. Dedicated to the defense of England until the time was right, they came back to France with lots of friends in June 1944 and fought across Belgium and Holland to Germany.

Raised in 1673 as an ad-hoc force and made official in 1685 as the 6th Regiment of Foot, the Warwickshires were reliable campaigners and earned no less than 15 honors ranging from Namur to Niagara and Corunna to Khartoum before picking up another ~70 during the Great War, the latter so high due to the fact that they had raised 31 battalions for the fight against the Kaiser.

Recruiting poster, 5th Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, c1905, via NAM

In WWII service, the Warwickshires still managed to raise 11 battalions and earned 16 honors (Defence of Escaut, Wormhoudt, Ypres-Comines Canal, Normandy Landing, Caen, Bourguébus Ridge, Mont Pincon, Falaise, Venraij, Rhineland, Lingen, Brinkum, Bremen, North-West Europe 1940 ’44–45, Burma 1945).

Post-war, they were amalgamated several times until the traditions of the unit were handed down to the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers in 1968, with their current RHQ in the Tower of London.

Today they field an active duty armored infantry battalion (1st) equipped with Warriors while a TA unit, (5th bn) is equipped as light infantry.

Retiring the Colours

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“The Royal Fusiliers marching through the City of London in 1916” At the time, the Regimental Colour carried honours for “Namur, 1695,” “Martinique, 1809,” “Talavera,” “Busaco,” “Albuhera,” “Badajoz,” “Salamanca,” “Vittoria,” “Pyrenees,” “Orthes,” “Toulouse,” “Peninsula,” “Alma,” “Inkerman,” “Sevastopol,” “Kandahar, 1880,” “Afghanistan, 1879-80,” “Relief of Ladysmith,” “South Africa, 1899-1902.” Plate by Ernest Eggersun, via Regimental Nicknames and Traditions of the British Army 5th ed. London Gale & Polden. 1916

Today’s Royal Regiment of Fusiliers is a fairly new unit, only formed in 1968. However, it was amalgamated from at least four previous regiments (20th Foot/The Lancashire Fusiliers, 5th Foot/Northumberland Fusiliers, 7th Foot/The Royal Fusiliers/City of London Regiment, and 6th Foot/Royal Warwickshire Regiment) which dated back to as far as 1674.

The current colours Royal Regiment Of Fusiliers carry more than 40 honors from past campaigns, presented to the units in the Regiment’s lineage. (All photos: British Army)

Recently, the long-retired colours of the 2nd Battalion (carried in the Second Anglo-Afghan War 1880) and later 10th Battalion of the old Royal Fusiliers, having deteriorated to a point where dignified preservation was apparently no longer an option, were honorably burned and buried in the Royal Fusiliers Garden of Remembrance.

Moving forward, 3 October will be known in the Regiment as “Afghanistan Day” honoring the chain from 1880 to today, when the modern unit has been active in the same region, although with a different mission.

“The vibrant colours of the current Standards and Colours laid on the high altar in the church with the Royal Fusilier Victoria Crosses contrast sharply with the burnt remains of the Colours buried today. In the moving ceremony, enacted for the first time by the Regiment of Fusiliers, there is time to reflect on the bravery and service of the officers and men who have served through the Regiment’s history. The final, formal burial of old Colours which have decayed over the decades is still a rare event in modern-day soldiering.” noted the Army on Thursday.