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By Richard Doherty, military historian, writer and broadcaster.
‘Their attack was one of the finest displays of human courage in the world’
When The Royal Irish Rangers was formed by the amalgamation of the three antecedent regiments of the North Irish Brigade on 1st July 1968, the date chosen marked not only the birth of the new regiment, but a major battle honour shared by its antecedents: The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, The Royal Ulster Rifles and The Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria’s).
The Battle of Verdun began on 21 February 1916 and was fought until 18 December 1916. One of the greatest and longest battles of the First World War, it lasted 300 days and cost some 800,000 French and German lives. Allied offensives were launched during the summer of 1916 to relieve German pressure on the French at Verdun, including the Somme, but it was the Russian offensive against the Austro-Hungarians on the Eastern Front that forced an end to the battle when Germany had to send troops east to bolster the Austro-Hungarians.
Including:
- Battle of Soissons and of the Ourcq, 23 July - 2 August.
- Battle of Tardendois, 20 - 31 July.
On 8 June 1981, the Bands, Bugles, Pipes and Drums of the Irish Regiments Beat Retreat on Horse Guards Parade in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Representatives of all the Irish regiments that remained in the British Army were assembled to take part in the traditional ceremony of Beating Retreat. The Guidons and Colours on parade commemorated past battles and glories. The 370 Battle Honours represented were evidence of the indomitable spirit of the Irish Soldier.
Not far beneath the earth of the Somme Battlefields of France is a deep layer of soft white chalk. The soldiers of the First World War had to dig down into this to construct the trenches that they lived in and fought from in 1916. The walls of the trenches were blindingly white when freshly dug. A Royal Irish Rifleman found this piece of Somme chalk in March 1917. A soldier of the 8/9th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, part of the 16th (Irish) Division when the Division was fighting near Ginchy and Guillemont, had carved it in the autumn of 1916.
The first Allies to reach the typhus and dysentery infested concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen was a two-man reconnaissance patrol of a Special Air Service officer, Lt Randall, and his Jeep driver, Cpl Brown. Later, troops of the British 11th Armoured Division/VIII Corps found thousands of unburied bodies and tens of thousands of severely ill prisoners among the 53,000 prisoners. A total of 52,000 prisoners from all over Europe were killed in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp or died immediately after its liberation as a result of their imprisonment.
Germany, at the end of the Second World War, was divided into four zones under British, French, American and Soviet administration. The 'Big Four' also occupied Berlin, dividing the city into sectors, even though it was located well inside the Soviet sector. Relations between the Big Four became increasingly strained in the immediate post-war era and co-operation between the Soviets and the others began to break down in 1947.
During the month of April 1968, when the 1st Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiiers was based at Norton Barracks in Worcester as the 'Spearhead Battalion', the Battalion was tasked with what was to be the final operational move of the Inniskillings before becoming The Royal Irish Rangers. Growing unrest in Bermuda had been little reported in the UK press until, midway through a Ladies Guest Night in the Inniskillings Officers Mess, the order was received to deploy Tactical Headquarters (Tac HQ) and one company to the island where the Governor had declared a State of Emergency. B Company was seen off at 0600 hours the following morning by the remainder of the officers still in their mess kit.
