28th/61st of Foot - The Glorious Glosters

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#1

The Gloucestershire Regiment (now part of the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment) has a very proud history with numerous battle honours, most notably the back badge, awarded after the Battle of Alexandria in 1801. Throw in Salamanca, Quatre Bras, Brandywine and Imjin River to name but a few of the others, and you see a fighting pedigree hundreds of years old, especially if you include the 28th and 61st of Foot before they merged to form the Glosters.

However, I have not heard them mentioned much with respect to the Second World War, which is where this post gets back on topic. I’d be interested to find out more, so if someone could recommend some good books or other start points beyond the first ten hits on google, I’d be happy to share what I find.

#2

The RGBW used to sponsor me until they were told they’re going to be disbanded, anyway check out the soldiers of Gloucester museum in Gloucester by the docks or ‘our laurels are green’ a brief though informative account of the history of the RGBW and its ancestor regiments, namely the 28th foot et al.

#3

Scaley - Do you live in or near Gloucester then?
Sorry I have jsut seen youre a Wiltshire lad.

#4

A wiltshire lad indeed, although i have lived in Dorset & Somerset, so i am quite west country!

#5

I am now the proud owner of “Our Laurels are Green” and “Never Feared a Foe of Any Kind”.

It seems there were no decisive engagements that the Glosters fought in of the type of Alexandria or Imjin River (Imjin river yet to come).

The 2nd Battalion fought in the Burma campaign, whilst the rest of the Regiment fought as a rearguard at Dunkirk, as well as later taking part in D-Day.

More detail will follow, but I have a terrible cold and am struggling to process the information correctly. The common theme running through the actions of the Glosters is that of a potent defensive unit. They seem to be the rearguard of choice for a withdrawal, and able to hold the line under almost any level enemy pressure. Of course, this shouldn’t detract from offensive successes, such as their actions during the American War of Independence.

#6

Ah yes, the famous brandywhine incident. Quite a ripping read ‘our laurels are green’ I was given it by the RGBW officer recruiting chappie when i first went along for a regimental interview. Such a shame their being alamagmated again.
RIP RGBW :cry:

#7

The only time I’ve ever heard of this Regiment was in the TV show MAS*H. Hawkeye commented that they didn’t wear helmets, and after one of them received a chest wound they gave him tea and he nearly died of some infection of the colon.

#8

So he got his tea - but did he get a medal? :slight_smile:

#9

Never understood that, black tea is actually quite a strong antiseptic, indeed it’s one of the reasons that the massively overpopulated and squalid UK cities of the industrial revolution were able to survive. The anti-bacterial properties of tea combined with making it from boiling water dramatically reduced the transmission of diseases.

#10

I’ll watch it again and find out what it was, but It’ll be a while because I have 3 seasons and I don’t remember which one it was on O_o.

As for tea, I love it.

#11

I remember that episode of M.A.S.H. , tea is bad for you? Whatever next? They’ll probably say exercise is bad for you? Well actually my ‘friend’ whose studying medicine told me it was,she said it should be done in ‘moderation’.
And as for the helmets thing, well i’ve worn a helmet on exercise and i hate the thing though it does seem odd that the brits didn’t wear theirs.

#12

By black tea I just mean without milk, by the way, not any of your fancy speciality stuff.
Not so sure about the helmet comment either, they’ve been issued since mid-WWI and generaly worn in battle since. That said there were apparently some units that went into action in the Falklands with berets, and consequently more head wounds - others may confirm this. There are also climate reasons for soft headdress. If I remember right though, the Imjin battle was on St. George’s day and Gloster tradition was to put a rose behind the capbadge on that day, as this is mentioned in connestion with the battle it may be that they were wearing berets in Korea.

#13

They definitely wore berets at Imjin - Lofty Large mentions in his book that he took his cap badge out because he thought it made too much of an aiming mark, then he saw fusiliers still wearing their hackles and felt ashamed of himself.

I’m guessing that all the British regiments in Korea were wearing berets, no idea why though :?:

#14

It was the 1st Batallion that fought in Burma during WW2. The 5th Bn (TA) and 2nd Bn fought in France. My grandfather was with the 2nd Batallion but was captured in May 1940 and spent the remainder of the war in a POW camp in Poland. You say there were no decisive engagements but both these batallions fought intense battles during May 1940 to support the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk. The 2nd battalion disappeared after the war “merging” with the 1st Bn. My grandfather then fought on the Imjin River in 1951 fortunately being one of only a couple of dozen soldiers from the batallion to escape and make it back to the UK. There is an excellent video documentarty of this battle which also shows the 30 or so survivors disembarking in England.

#15

Are you talking about that BBC documentary with Farrar-Hockley?

#16

student-scaley

Yes that’s the documentary. I taped it off the tv in 2001 during the 50th anniversary programmes about the Korean War.

#17

It was quite good, though I didn’t think Farrar-Hockley was too special, would have been better with Richard Holmes IMHO. Still good documentary, just p1sses me off that now they’re being amalgamated again I won’t be able to join my county regiment, i hope Blair rots!