Tag Archives: Scotland

A bit of desert that will always be Scotland

Posted on by Leave a comment

“The graves of two Scottish soldiers are marked by upturned rifles in the sand, North Africa, 5 November 1942,” some 75 years ago this quiet Sunday.

Photo by No 1 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Smales (Sgt) IWM (E 18952) Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205204021

This reminds me of Scottish poet Roderick Watson Kerr‘s piece, From the Line. Kerr himself was invalided out after picking up the MC while a junior officer in the 2nd Royal Tank Corps during the Great War.

From the Line

Have you seen men come from the Line,
Tottering, doddering, as if bad wine
Had drugged their very souls;
Their garments rent with holes
And caked with mud
And streaked with blood
Of others, or their own;
Haggard, weary-limbed and chilled to the bone,
Trudging aimless, hopeless, on
With listless eyes and faces drawn
Taut with woe?

Have you seen them aimless go
Bowed down with muddy pack
And muddy rifle slung on back,
And soaking overcoat,
Staring on with eyes that note
Nothing but the mire
Quenched of every fire?

Have you seen men when they come
From shell-holes filled with scum
Of mud and blood and flesh,
Where there’s nothing fresh
Like grass, or trees, or flowers,
And the numbing year-like hours
Lag on – drag on,
And the hopeless dawn
Brings naught but death, and rain –
The rain a fiend of pain
That scourges without end,
And Death, a smiling friend?

Have you seen men when they come from hell?
If not, – ah, well
Speak not with easy eloquence
That seems like sense
Of ‘War and its Necessity’!
And do not rant, I pray,
On ‘War’s Magnificent Nobility’!

If you’ve seen men come from the Line
You’ll know it’s Peace that is divine !
If you’ve not seen the things I’ve sung –
Let silence bind your tongue,
But, make all wars to cease,
And work, and work for Everlasting Peace !

–from War Daubs (London: John Lane, 1919) via the Scottish Poetry Library

RM force protection unit goes AR

Posted on by One comment

It seems a sizable portion of the Royal Marines are ditching the long-maligned L85 (SA80) Enfield bullpup in favor of an AR-15/M16 platform that, in basic design at least, predated it by about 25 years.

American and Royal Marines prepare to enter a mock nuclear facility in the Scottish Highlands, testing the close-quarters combat techniques they shared during exercise Tartan Eagle 14, Sep. 18. The three-week exercise brought U.S. Marine Security Forces and Royal Marine Fleet Protection Group to deepen their relationships and operational capacity for the protection and safeguard of nuclear weapons. (USMC Photo: MSgt Chad McMeen)

American Marines and 43 Commando Royal Marines prepare to enter a mock nuclear facility in the Scottish Highlands, testing the close-quarters combat techniques they shared during exercise Tartan Eagle 14, Sep. 18. The three-week exercise brought U.S. Marine Security Forces and Royal Marine Fleet Protection Group to deepen their relationships and operational capacity for the protection and safeguard of nuclear weapons. (USMC Photo: MSgt Chad McMeen)

The unit that is making the switch, 43 Commando Fleet Protection Group, was orignially set up as the Comacchio Group back in the 1980s to keep Soviet Naval Infantry and Spetnsaz types off of the North Sea oil derricks and from poking around HM Naval Base Faslane, where the Queen keeps her only nukes (remember, the UK only has SLBMs, having retired its last strategic bombers with the Vulcans in 1984, and has no ICBMs hiding in the moors).

As noted by Janes, the group’s 790 members will switch to the Colt Canada C8 carbine with its standard 14.5-inch barrel, which they have used in small numbers for years designated as the L119 in British service (as witnessed in the above image).

The Royal Navy said this was a “one-off” purchase and was not a signal that the Royal Marines 3 Commando Brigade was going to be re-equipped with new weapon.