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Guards magazine news
letter 65
September 2007
by Colonel Oliver
Lindsay CBE
Horse Guards
Whitehall
London SWIA
2AX
To: All
Overseas Branches of
The Guards
Association
LETTER FROM
LONDON
GUARDS MAGAZINE NEWSLETTER
NUMBER 65
- AUTUMN
2007
You will all
be aware that our battle groups face considerable danger in Afghanistan
and Iraq. The last successful attempt to drive a resupply column into
Basra, Iraq met 26 enemy incendiary explosive devices over a two day
period at a cost of Three British lives and other casualties, reports an
Irish Guards Company Commander. Forty rockets and mortar rounds hit his
company base in one 24 hour period. "But it. like the battle group, is
holding up pretty
well." He
adds!
Writing in
early August, Lieutenant Colonel A G C Hatherley tells us that his
recently commissioned platoon commander joining his Grenadier Battalion in
March "has been involved in forty (yes.. .40) fire fights with the
Taliban. As with the Guardsmen received from Catterick, the standard of
young officers arriving in the Battalion from Sandhurst and Brecon ready
for
operations remains
high."
Journalists
have recently tried to compare the ratio of British casualties in the
Middle East to the Second World War. One should also remember that 651
Servicemen were killed in Northern Ireland and 6,307 wounded. 255
Servicemen (46 from the Household Division) died in
the Falklands
campaign.
News of
individual Regiments
is as
follows:
-
Two
Squadrons of the Household Cavalry Regiment deployed to Iraq in May.
while another Squadron and the Regiment's Headquarters goes to
Afghanistan this
autumn.
-
1st Bn Grenadier Guards has been in Afghanistan
since March. Five Grenadier Guardsmen have been killed and at least 25
seriously
wounded to
date.
-
1st
Bn Coldstream Guards moves to Afghanistan this autumn but, once there,
will be split up in different directions under command of
other battle
groups.
-
1st
Bn Scots Guards: one Company is now in Afghanistan; the remainder of the
Battalion move to Iraq at the end
of this
year.
-
1st
Bn Irish Guards is now in Iraq. Two-NCOs have been killed in action and
three NCOs attached to the Micks from RTR and REME have also
died to
date.
-
1st
Bn Welsh Guards, back from Kosovo earlier this year, found three Guards
for The Queen's Birthday Parade and moves to Aldershot next year before
deploying on
operations.
The three
Representative Companies have also had exciting times. Nijmegen Company
Grenadier Guards has been on exercise in Jamaica. No 7 Company Coldstream
Guards found the Escort for the Colour at a magnificent Queen's Birthday
parade in June. F Company Scots Guards is currently finding The Queen's
Royal Guard at Balmoral and will be the Roulement Infantry Company in the
Falklands for six weeks starting
in early
January.
The
Regimental Bands may be committed in turn to infantry soldiering in
Cyprus, starting with the Grenadier Band
early next
year.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
I am delighted to report that
the Major General has awarded his Certificate for Meritorious Service to
Dick Kite, the President of the New South Wales Branch, and Pat Culley the
President of the New Zealand Branch. Both have organised very major
bi-ennual reunions for all the Australasian Guards Associations and
contributed much for so long. These two former Coldstreamers deserve our
warmest congratulations and thanks.
All your
Newsletters continue to be most welcome. Four of your photographs sent to
me recently will be in the next Guards Magazine (which contains six
articles on
Iraq/Afghanistan).
The new
large coffee table size book: Excellence in Action: Portrait of the Guards
is due to be published before Christmas. For details on costs, write to
Third Millennium, 2-5 Benjamin Street, London EC1M 5QL. The book
is highly
recommended. |