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Britain's Most Massacred Regiments

British Regiments massacred in battle during the 18th and 19th Centuries:

Pride of place must go to the 44th Foot, later the Essex Regiment and now the Royal Anglian Regiment, massacred on three occasions.

The 44th, as Lee’s Regiment, formed part of Sir John Cope’s army annihilated at the battle of Prestonpans on 21st September 1745 by Prince Charles Edward Stuart’s highlanders. Almost all the infantry were killed, wounded or captured. The other regiments massacred by the highlanders at Prestonpans were the 6th (now the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers), 46th (now the Light Infantry) and 47th (now the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment).

Almost exactly 10 years later on 9th July 1755, the 44th, commanded by Colonel Sir John Halkett, who as lieutenant colonel had commanded the regiment and been taken prisoner at Prestonpans, was part of Major General Edward Braddock’s force massacred by the Indians fighting for France on the Monongahela River, in what is now Western Pennsylvania. Halkett and his son died in the battle with many of his officers and soldiers. The other regiment massacred in the battle was the 48th (now also the Royal Anglian Regiment). Braddock was killed by the Indians.

44th Foot at Gandamak

In August 1840, the 44th was part of General Sale’s ill-fated army in the First Afghan War. The army was forced to retreat from Kabul pursued by the Afghans in strength. At Gandamak in the Afghan mountains the 44th Regiment was annihilated.
The 24th Foot was massacred by the Zulus at the battle of Isandlwana on 22nd January 1879. Caught unawares by the sudden attack of the Zulu army, the 1st Battalion, 24th Foot, failed to take up the square formation essential against the overwhelming number of Zulu warriors and were wiped out to a man. The successor regiment to the 24th Foot is the Royal Regiment of Wales.

The 24th Foot massacred by the Zulus at Isandlwana

The 66th Regiment at Maiwand: Bobbie the dog doing his stuff

The 66th Foot was massacred at the battle of Maiwand by the Ghazis on 27th July 1880 in the Third Afghan War; one of the few survivors being a dog called “Bobbie�? In 1882 the regiment, or what was left of it, became the 1st Battalion of the Royal Berkshire Regiment. Two massive stone lions in Forbury Park, Reading, the county town of Berkshire, inscribed with the names of the fallen commemorate the battle. The regiment is now embodied in the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment.

66th Foot at the Battle of Maiwand in 1880. Bobbie can be seen doing his bit

The colossal memorial Lion in Forbury Gardens, Reading, commemorating the Battle of Maiwand and the loss of the 66th Regiment

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The Braddock expedition (also called "Braddock's campaign") was a failed British attempt to capture the French Fort Duquesne in the summer of 1755 during the French and Indian War. The expedition takes its name from General Edward Braddock, who led the British forces and died in the effort. Braddock's defeat at the Battle of the Monongahela was a major setback for the British in the early stages of the war with France.

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[edit] Background

Braddock's expedition was just one part of a massive British offensive against the French in North America that summer. As commander-in-chief of the British Army in America, General Braddock led the main thrust, commanding two regiments (about 1,350 men) and about 500 regular soldiers and militiamen from several British American colonies. With these men Braddock expected to seize Fort Duquesne easily, and then push on to capture a series of French forts, eventually reaching Fort Niagara. Twenty-three year-old George Washington, who knew the territory, served as a volunteer aide-de-camp to General Braddock.^[1]

Braddock's attempt to recruit Native American allies from those tribes not yet allied with the French proved mostly unsuccessful; he had but eight Mingo Indians with him, serving as scouts. A number of Indians in the area, notably Delaware leader Shingas, remained neutral. Caught between two powerful European empires at war, local Indians could not afford to be on the side of the loser. Braddock's success or failure would influence their decisions.

[edit] Braddock's Road

Setting out from Fort Cumberland in Maryland on May 29, 1755, the expedition faced an enormous logistical challenge: moving a large body of men with equipment, provisions, and (most importantly for the task ahead) heavy cannon, across the densely wooded Allegheny Mountains and into western Pennsylvania, a journey of about 110 miles. Braddock had received important assistance from Benjamin Franklin, who helped procure wagons and supplies for the expedition. Among the wagoners, incidentally, were two young men who would later become legends of American history: Daniel Boone, and Daniel Morgan. Among the British were Thomas Gage; Charles Lee and Horatio Gates.

The expedition progressed slowly, in some cases moving as few as two miles a day, creating Braddock's Road—an important vestige of the march—as they went. To speed up movement, Braddock split his men into a "flying column" of about 1,500 men (commanded by him), and a supply column with most of the baggage (commanded by Colonel Thomas Dunbar), which lagged far behind. They passed the ruins of Fort Necessity along the way, where the French had defeated Washington the previous summer. Small French and Indian war bands harried Braddock's men during the march, but these were minor skirmishes.

Meanwhile, at Fort Duquesne, the French garrison consisted of only about 250 regulars and Canadian militia, with about 640 Indian allies camped outside the fort. The Indians were from a variety of tribes long associated with the French, including Ottawas, Ojibwas, and Potawatomis. The French commander, realising that his fort could not withstand Braddock's cannon, decided to launch a preemptive strike: an ambush of Braddock's army as he crossed the Monongahela River. The Indian allies were initially reluctant to attack such a large British force, but the French commander donned Indian war dress, complete with war paint, and convinced them to follow his lead.

[edit] Battle of the Monongahela

19th century engraving of the death of Major-General Braddock at the Battle of the Monongahela.

On July 9, 1755, Braddock's men crossed the Monongahela without opposition, about nine miles south of Fort Duquesne. The advance unit under Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Gage began to move ahead, and unexpectedly came upon the French and Indians, who were hurrying to the river, behind schedule and too late to set an ambush. The battle, which came to be known as the Battle of the Monongahela (or the Battle of the Wilderness, or just Braddock's Defeat), was joined. Braddock's impressive column of almost 1,500 men faced less than 900 French and Indians.^[2]

After an initial defense, Gage's advance group fell back. In the narrow confines of the road, they collided with the main body of Braddock's force, which had advanced rapidly when the shots were heard. The entire column dissolved in disorder as the Canadian militamen and Indians enveloped them and continued to fire from the woods and ravines on the sides of the road. At this time, the French regulars began advancing from the road and began to push the British back.

Following Braddock's example, the officers kept trying to reform units into regular order within the confines of the road, mostly in vain and simply providing targets for their concealed enemy. In a fruitless attempt, cannon were used, but in such confines of the forest road were ineffective. The colonial militia either fled or took cover and returned fire. In the confusion, some of the militiamen who were fighting from the woods were mistaken for the enemy and fired upon by British regulars.

Finally, after three hours of intense battle, Braddock was mortally wounded, and effective resistance collapsed. However, Colonel Washington, with no official position in the chain of command, was able to impose and maintain some order and formed a rear guard, which allowed the force to evacuate and eventually disengage. This earned him the sobriquet Hero of the Monongahela, by which he was toasted, and established his fame for some time to come.

By sunset, the surviving British and American forces were fleeing back down the road they had built. Braddock died of his wounds during the long retreat, on July 13, and is buried within the Fort Necessity parklands.

Of the approximately 1,460 men Braddock had led into battle, 456 were killed and 421 wounded. (Commissioned officers were prime targets and suffered greatly: out of 86 officers, 63 were killed or wounded.) Also, of the 50 or so women that accompanied the British column as maids and cooks, only 4 survived. The roughly 250 French and Canadians reported 8 killed and 4 wounded; their 637 Indian allies lost but 15 killed and 12 wounded.

Colonel Dunbar, with the rear supply unit, took command when the survivors reached his position. He ordered the destruction of supplies and cannon before withdrawing, burning about 150 wagons on the spot. Ironically, at this point the demoralised and disorganised British forces still outnumbered their opponents, who had not even dared to pursue.

[edit] Aftermath

Braddock's defeat at the Battle of the Monongahela was a momentous event for the people of the region. The French and their Indian allies gained the upper hand in the struggle for control of the Ohio Country, and a ferocious frontier war quickly escalated. Indians in the area who had been inclined to remain neutral now found it nearly impossible to do so. And the colonists of "backcountry" Pennsylvania and Virginia now found themselves without professional military protection, scrambling to organise a defence. This brutal frontier war would continue until Fort Duquesne was finally abandoned by the French as a result of the successful approach of the Forbes Expedition in 1758.

Another notable outcome of Braddock's defeat was the effect it had on the reputation of George Washington. Washington, despite being in poor health before the battle, distinguished himself as being calm and courageous under fire. He emerged from the disaster as Virginia's military hero.

[edit] Debate

The debate on how Braddock—with professional soldiers, superior numbers, and bigger guns—could fail so miserably began soon after the battle, and continues to this day. Some blamed Braddock, some blamed his officers, some blamed the British regulars or the colonial militia. George Washington, for his part, supported Braddock and found fault with the British regulars.

Braddock's tactics are still debated. One school of thought holds that Braddock's reliance on time-honoured European methods, where men stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the open and fire mass volleys in unison, was not appropriate for frontier fighting and cost Braddock the battle. Skirmish tactics that American colonials had learned from frontier fighting, where men take cover and fire individually ("Indian style"), was the superior method in the American environment, so the argument goes.^[3]

A less popular interpretation, though perhaps the one favoured by military historians, counters that the European use of concentrated firepower was unmatched when properly executed, and that the superiority of frontier tactics is an American myth. Braddock's failure, according to proponents of this theory, was not that he did not use frontier tactics. He failed because he did not adequately apply traditional military doctrine, particularly by not using distance reconnaissance.^[4]

[edit] Footnotes

^ Some accounts state that Washington commanded the Virginia militia on the Braddock Expedition, but this is incorrect. (Though it is true that Washington commanded Virginia militia before and after the expedition.) As a volunteer aide-de-camp, Washington essentially served as an unpaid and unranked gentleman consultant, with little real authority, but much inside access.
^ The Battle of the Monongahela has often been mistakenly described as an ambush. The encounter was actually a meeting engagement, where two forces clash at an unexpected time and place. The quick and effective response of the French and Indians led many of Braddock's men to believe they had been ambushed. However, French documents reveal that the French and Indian force was too late to prepare an ambush, and had been just as surprised as the British.
^ See, for example, Armstrong Starkey's European and Native American Warfare, 1675-1815 (University of Oklahoma Press, 1998).
^ This argument is most recently presented in Guy Chet's Conquering the American Wilderness: The Triumph of European Warfare in the Colonial Northwest (University of Massachusetts Press, 2003).

Did no one in those massacres understand the concept of strategic disengagment or were they so unlucky as to be totally surrounded.

I understand Isandalwana where they had no place to run to, but were the officers that stupid as to think, that no recon was needed?

They thought the Zulu army was miles away which is why the main body of the British army went looking for it that morning leaving less than 2000 behind. In fact the Zulus were just behind a ridge a few miles in the other direction.

There is no such thing as a stupid, or ugly, or unkind officer.

Any such descriptions are pure left wing propaganda.

There is no such thing as a stupid, or ugly, or unkind officer.

REPLACE THAT OLD MIRROR OF YOURS, FLASH.

"oo's a pretty PBA, then?"

NEVER KNEW AN OFFICER THAT COULD AFFORD A MIRROR.

Parrot smuggling was a thriving industry in my Merchant navy days. We shipped through British Guiana and La Guayra. £2.00 parrot would fetch £25 in the UK. A week's pay for a senior rate.

Lexington & Concorde out of 700 of the originale red coats that engaged the 75 farmers The Welch Guard sufferd 30% casualties.

Breeds Hill ( Bunker Hill)

The result was a Pyrrhic victory for the British, who suffered more than 1000 casualties. On their third assault, the British forces overran the revolutionaries' fortified earthworks on Breed's and Bunker Hill. Afterwards, British General Henry Clinton remarked in his diary that "A few more such victories would have surely put an end to British dominion in AmericaThe result was a Pyrrhic victory for the British, who suffered more than 1000 casualties. On their third assault, the British forces overran the revolutionaries' fortified earthworks on Breed's and Bunker Hill. Afterwards, British General Henry Clinton remarked in his diary that "A few more such victories would have surely put an end to British dominion in America

A couple of points about Lexington and Bunkers Hill

The Welsh Guards were not formed until 1915 so were unlikely to be at Lexington

After Bunkers Hill a term entered the British language ie; 'Doing a bunk' an abreviation of doing a Bunkers hill. Which refers to the revolutionaries running away when the British went in with the bayonet.

At the battle of Islawanda the British had South African Horse troops out on recconaisance and they did give some warning. However the collumn was stretched out and unable to form the usual fighting formation. A withdrawl was not even considered. The British Infantry's faith in its musketry and use of the Bayonet was considered sufficient to defeat untrained savages.

Nobody was expecting a shortage of ammunition arising variously units would not share with other units, difficulties in opening ammunition boxes without a special tool.

At subsequent battles these problems did not arise or had been solved leading to overwhelming British victories

It's sad how every Yank will tell us about Islawandha as an example of British incompetence (they seem to forget our game of catch-up at Rorke's drift due to good fire control and discipline), but they'll never tell you about rear Admiral King,

Google will..From January 1942 to about August of that year. German submariners named it the happy time or the golden time as defence measures were weak and disorganised, and the U-boats were able to inflict massive damage with little risk. During the second happy time, Axis submarines sank 609 ships totaling 3.1 million tons for the loss of only 22 U-boats. This was roughly one quarter of all shipping sunk by U-boats during the entire Second World War, and constituted by far the most serious defeat ever suffered by the US Navy.

U-boat commander Dönitz, however, saw the entry of the US into the war as a golden opportunity to strike heavy blows in the tonnage war. The German Navy no longer had its surface tankers in the North Atlantic to refuel submarines (these had been sunk by Allied forces after Ultra intelligence revealed their locations

So the only weapons Dönitz had on hand were the larger Type IX boats. These, however, were less maneuverable and slower to submerge, making them much more vulnerable than the Type VIIs, and few in number

Each U-boat made routine signals on exiting the Bay of Biscay, which were picked up by the British Y service and plotted in Rodger Winn's London Submarine Tracking Room, which was then able to follow the progress of the Type IXs across the Atlantic, and cable an early warning to the Royal Canadian Navy. Working on the slimmest of evidence, Winn correctly deduced the target area and passed a detailed warning to Admiral Ernest King in the USA

By this time there were 13 destroyers idle in New York Harbour, yet still none were employed to deal with the immediate threat, and over the following nights U-123 was presented with a succession of easy targets, most of them burning navigation lamps.

OK I'll stop Google short but what the outcome was is we British had to give you

In March, 24 Royal Navy anti-submarine trawlers and 10 corvettes were transferred from the UK for the defence of the US East Coast. The British also transferred 53 Squadron, RAF Coastal Command to Quonset Point, Rhode Island to protect New York harbour during July 1942. This squadron moved to Trinidad in August, with a U.S. squadron, to protect the critical sea lanes from the Venezuelan oil fields and then back to Norfolk, Virginia until the end of 1942. Royal Navy ships took over escort duties in the Caribbean and on the Aruba - New York tanker run.

ALL BECAUSE ADMIRAL KING REFUSED TO IMPLEMENT CONVOY DISCIPLINE, EXTINGUISH NAVIGATION MARKS, AND INSTITUTE A BLACK-OUT. WHY? HE HATED THE LIMIES AND WOULD BE DAMNED IF HE WOULFD DO WHAT THEY TOLD HIM

Maybe you are talking about the other Welch Guards. I meant this one.<o:p></o:p>

The Royal Welch Fusiliers were a regiment of the British Army, part of the Prince of Wales' Division. It was founded in 1689 to oppose James II and the imminent war with France. The regiment was numbered as the 23rd Regiment of Foot, though it was one of the first regiments to be granted the honour of a fusilier title and so was known as The Welch Regiment of Fusiliers from 1702. The "Royal" accolade was earned fighting in the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713.

It is one of the oldest regiments in the regular army, hence the archaic spelling of the word Welch instead of Welsh. In the Boer War and throughout World War I, the army officially called the regiment "The Royal Welsh Fusiliers" but the archaic "Welch" was officially restored to the Regiment's title in 1920 under Army Order No.56. During those decades, the regiment itself unofficially used the "Welch" form. As of 2004, it was one of five line infantry regiments never to have been amalgamated in its entire history, the others being:

The Regiment was amalgamated with the Royal Regiment of Wales (RRW) on 1 March 2006 to become 1st Battalion, The Royal Welsh (RRW becoming the 2nd Bn).

Soldiers of this regiment were distinguishable by the unique feature of the "flash", consisting of five overlapping black silk ribbons (seven inches long for soldiers and nine inches long for officers) on the back of the uniform jacket at neck level.[1] This is a legacy of the days when it was normal for soldiers to wear pigtails. In 1808, this practice was discontinued, but the RWF were serving in America when the order to discontinue the use of the flash was issued. Upon their return they decided to retain the ribbons with which the pigtail was tied, and were granted this special concession by the King. The Army Board attempted to remove the flash during the First World War citing the grounds that it would help the Germans identify which unit was facing them. The King refused, stating that "The enemy will never see the backs of the Royal Welch Fusiliers". As a fusilier regiment, the RWF wore a hackle, which consists of a plume of white feathers worn on headdress and mounted behind the cap-badge.

[edit] History

The light infantry and grenadier companies of the Fusiliers saw bloody action at the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Battle of Guilford Court House in the American Revolutionary War. The Regiment participated in nearly every campaign from Lexington & Concord to Yorktown. Many first hand accounts of the American Revolutionary War can be found in "the Diary of Lieutenant Frederick Mackenzie" or Serjeant Roger Lamb's "Original and Authentic Journal of Occurrences During the Late American War". The regiment also participated in the Napoleonic Wars - for example, at Waterloo, in the 4th Brigade under Lt-Col. Harry Mitchell, in the 4th British Infantry Division (see Order of Battle of the Waterloo Campaign.)

After Bunker Hilld the British language ie; 'Doing a b Which refers to revolutionaries running away when the British went in with the bayonet.

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You should read a bit more about the battle. Your boys ran down the hill how many times Brave Heart? If they issued sneakers to your boys at Lexington they would have broken the record for the modern marathon. FOR SHAME.

A bunch of untrained farmers with no ammunition, and no bayonets actually withdrew across the Charles and dug in. I didn’t read anything about your boys continuing the chase and actually capturing the Isthmus their objective.

Actually it was a set up for the Battle of Boston. Oh yeah your boys woke up one morning looked up in the hills and said “ooops�?they have canons. So how long did it take the best army in the world pack up and get on their ships and sail off with their tail between their legs.