# Colours in Battle?



## Vladd67 (Mar 1, 2008)

Here is a quick question 
Can any one tell me the last time the British Army carried its regimental colours on a battlefield? Also when was the last time a regiment in any army went to battle carrying its colours?


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## Pyan (Mar 1, 2008)

> Isandhlwana, Rorke's Drift. (1879)
> Six companies of the 24th Regiment were annihilated at Isandhlwana. Following this defeat British regiments no longer carried colours in the field.



South Africa - Wars

But warships continued to hoist battle ensigns, huge versions of their normal ones, when the enemy was in sight throughout WWII.


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## ray gower (Mar 1, 2008)

The 58th Rutlands (Now Royal Anglia) were the last British Regiment to carry their full Colours into battle against the Boers in the Transvaal in 1881. 
That said the 2 Para carried their pennant into battle during the Falklands War.

Theoretically the Colours are still carried in a battalion deployment, though they are normally kept at the Brigade HQ, well behind the shooting


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## Pyan (Mar 1, 2008)

Take your pick, Vladd - looks as if it was the Boer War, anyway. The problem is that they provide such a damn good target.


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## The Ace (Mar 1, 2008)

My church was the Battalion church for the Black Watch in both world wars, WWI colours are on display there to this day.


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## Vladd67 (Mar 1, 2008)

I had a feeling it was the Boer War


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## Wiglaf (Mar 1, 2008)

Does anyone know the last time ever worldwide?
Also does anyone know if the colors were flown by any US units in battle after the Civil War?  I am pretty sure they were in use in the Indian wars.
I only know about bayonets, the last full platoon bayonet charge was by the 3rd platoon, part of the US army's 27th infantry, in 1951 against the Chinese.


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## Vladd67 (Mar 1, 2008)

Doing a bit of digging I discovered that in the British Army, colours were last carried       into action by the 58th Northamptonshire       Regiment during the First Anglo-Boer War       at the battle of Laings Nek in January 1881. In answer to Wiglaf the colors of the 14th U.S. Infantry were carried in action during the Boxer Rebellion  in China in 1900. In fact, they were planted on the walls of Peking on 14 November 1900, and the French lost four regimental colours in action in 1914 - those of the 20e, 250e and 309e régiments d'infanterie and the 1er régiment de tirailleurs algèriens. A number of others were burnt to prevent their capture.


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## The Ace (Mar 1, 2008)

Wiglaf said:


> Does anyone know the last time ever worldwide?
> Also does anyone know if the colors were flown by any US units in battle after the Civil War?  I am pretty sure they were in use in the Indian wars.
> I only know about bayonets, the last full platoon bayonet charge was by the 3rd platoon, part of the US army's 27th infantry, in 1951 against the Chinese.




Errr no, actually, the Black Watch made a bayonet charge against Iraqi insurgents in Basra in 2003 after an inconclusive firefight.


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## Wiglaf (Mar 2, 2008)

The Ace said:


> Errr no, actually, the Black Watch made a bayonet charge against Iraqi insurgents in Basra in 2003 after an inconclusive firefight.


My sources may have been American centric and all other reports were of perhaps small groups of individuals.  I honestly did check.  The British military does not seem as good at providing info/PR of the internet as the American military.
In short you may be right but it was not an intentional slight on my part.
As for the Falklands, bayonets were apparently used but no claim to a full unit charge is made.  I have yet to figure out an explanation of that one.  You all need about a billion government web pages providing official info perhaps ending in uk.gov and uk.mil .  It is damn difficult to get you all point of view here, and I'm actually trying!


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## Wiglaf (Mar 2, 2008)

I did actually find a mention of the Black Watch's bayonet charge courtesy of the Sun.  The page 3ers must've distracted me.


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## ray gower (Mar 2, 2008)

The use of the bayonet as an offensive weapon is still very much a part of standard British Army training. While a full scale charge across open ground is not considered clever anymore, getting in close and eyeballing your enemy when ripping his guts out is: Not for the gallons of offal it creates, but because it so puts the wind up the enemy when they realise your troops are quite prepared to do it they run away. However bayonet actions are not considered hugely good for PR, and the MOD have never been good enough at spin to present it as anything other than gory. So while the Black Watch (2003) and Sutherland's (2004) activities in Iraq are the last public records, you will find as the records become available they are being used by the British in Afghanistan as well.

For the record of Army lasts: 
The last successful cavalry charge by any British cavalry unit was in 1918 on Armistice day by the 7th Husaars at Lessines. 
The last mounted cavalry charge by the US cavalry was Lazan in January 1942 during the retreat from Bataan. 
It was pipped at the post as last ever by the Burmah Frontier Force (A British Empire squadron mostly consisting of Sikhs) at Toungoo, March 1942. It was rather less successful.
The Russian Cossack cavalry continued to play a harassing and scouting role throughout the war.


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