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Black Watch

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The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland
File:Scotbadge tn.png
Cap Badge of the Royal Regiment of Scotland
Active28 March 2006-
CountryUnited Kingdom
BranchArmy
TypeLine Infantry
RoleLight Role
Part of19 Light Brigade
Garrison/HQFort George
Motto(s)Nemo Me Impune Lacessit
"No One Provokes Me With Impunity"
AnniversariesRed Hackle Day (5 January)
Commanders
Royal ColonelHRH The Duke of Rothesay
Insignia
Tactical Recognition FlashFile:Royal Regiment of Scotland TRF.PNG
TartanGovernment
Royal Stewart (Pipers kilts and plaids)
HackleRed
The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment)
File:Black Watch slim.png
badge and tartan
Active1 July 1739 – 28 March 2006
CountryUnited Kingdom
BranchArmy
TypeLine Infantry
RoleArmoured Infantry
SizeOne battalion
Part of4 (Armoured) Brigade
Garrison/HQSennelager, Germany
Nickname(s)"Ladies from Hell" (during WWI & II)[1]
"The Forty Twa" [2]
"Black Jocks" (slang term used by members of other regiments)
Motto(s)Nemo Me Impune Lacessit
Latin: "No man touches me with impunity"
MarchQuick: All the Blue Bonnets are o'er the Border
Slow: The Garb of Old Gaul
Pipes & Drums Quick: Hielan' Laddie
Pipes & Drums Slow: My Home
Pipes & Drums Slow: Highland Cradle Song
AnniversariesRed Hackle Day (5 January)
Battle honourssee below
For other uses, see Black Watch (disambiguation).

The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS) is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

Prior to 28 March 2006, the Black Watch was an infantry regiment in its own right; The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) from 1931 to 2006, and The Royal Highland Regiment (The Black Watch) from 1881 to 1931. Part of the Scottish Division, it was the senior regiment of Highlanders. The regiment's name came from the dark tartan that they wore and from its role to "watch" the Highlands. "Black Watch" was originally a nickname for the 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot, but was used more and more so that, in 1881, when the 42nd amalgamated with the 73rd Regiment of Foot, the new regiment was named "The Royal Highland Regiment (The Black Watch)", with The Black Watch becoming the regiment's official designation in 1931. The uniform changed over time, but the nickname has been more enduring. The regimental motto was Nemo me impune lacessit (no man provokes me with impunity). The Royal Stewart Tartan is worn by the battalion's Pipes and Drums due the royal designation. Six independent companies were first formed from 1725 to stop fighting among the clans.

History

For the pre-1881 history of the "Black Watch", see 42nd Regiment of Foot.

The Black Watch was formed as part of the Childers Reforms in 1881 when the 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot (The Black Watch) was amalgamated with the 73rd (Perthshire) Foot to form two battalions of the newly named Royal Highland Regiment (The Black Watch).

The 1st Battalion then served in Africa taking part in the Highland Brigade's dawn assault on the Egyptian position at Tel-el-Kebir in 1882. Two years later it was in the thick of the fight with the Mahdi's fanatical tribesmen at El Teb and Tamai. The following year 1885, saw it taking part in the Nile Expedition and fighting at Kirbekan and Abu Klea.[5]

20th century

See also: Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment)

During World War I the 25 battalions of Black Watch fought mainly in France and Flanders, except for the 2nd Battalion which fought in Mesopotamia and Palestine, and the 10th Battalion, which was in the Balkans. Only the 1st and 2nd battalions were regulars, with the rest either part of the Territorial Force or New Army. The fearsome reputation of these kilted soldiers led to their acquiring the nickname "Die Damen aus der Hölle" or "the Ladies from Hell" from the German troops that faced them in the trenches. (Scottish troops wore kilts up until 1940). German soldiers were even known to retreat before battle just from the skirling of the pipes signalling an onslaught from the Black Watch. The Black Watch served with the British 51st (Highland) Division (World War I).

Battalions of the Black Watch fought in almost every major British action in World War II, from Palestine to Normandy and as Chindits (42 and 73 columns) in Burma. The Territorial Army Black Watch units were originally cut off at Dunkirk with the rest of the 51st (Highland) Division, but were later reformed by reserve units of the 9th (Highland) Infantry Division, and fought at the Battle of El Alamein and the Allied invasion of Sicily. After the war, in 1948, the two regular battalions were merged into one.

The regiment won honours after the Battle of the Hook during the Korean War in November 1952, and were subsequently involved in peacekeeping and counter-insurgency in various parts of the world such as the Mau Mau Uprising and Malayan Emergency; the same activity for which the regiment was raised 250 years earlier. In 1967, the regiment lost its Territorial battalions, which were amalgamated into the 51st Highland Volunteers. The Black Watch was the last British military unit to leave Hong Kong in 1997 and played a prominent role in the handover ceremony.

21st century

File:Shaibah group.jpg
Soldiers of the Black Watch, deployed on Operation TELIC in Iraq, wear the distinctive red hackle on their Tam o'Shanters

During the 2003 Iraq War, the Black Watch fought during Operation Telic in the initial attack on Basra, and during its deployment the unit suffered a single fatality. The following year, the Black Watch was dispatched to Iraq again, as part of 4 (Armoured) Brigade. On 12 August a soldier from the regiment was killed as a result of an improvised explosive device (IED). In October, the Black Watch was at the centre of political controversy after the United States Army requested British forces to be moved further north outside of the British-controlled Multi-National Division (South East), in order to replace forces temporarily redeployed for the Second Battle of Fallujah. Despite objections in Parliament, the deployment went ahead. Based at Camp Dogwood, located between Fallujah and Karbala, in an area later dubbed the "Triangle of Death", the Black Watch came under sustained insurgent attack from mortars and rockets. On the 29 October, during the journey to their new base, a Black Watch soldier was killed in a road accident. On 4 November three soldiers and an interpreter were killed by a car bomb at a check point and on 8 November another soldier was killed. The high profile nature of the deployment caused a magnification of these events back home in Britain.

Under a plan devised by Alistair Irwin and approved by General Sir Mike Jackson, on 16 December 2004 it was announced that the Black Watch was to join with five other Scottish regiments - the Royal Scots, the King's Own Scottish Borderers, the Royal Highland Fusiliers, The Highlanders and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders - to form the Royal Regiment of Scotland, a single regiment consisting of 5 regular and 2 territorial battalions. The measure, which reflected recruiting difficulties and the inefficiencies inherent in maintaining a number of relatively small separate units, took place on 28 March 2006.

These plans encountered considerable opposition from a well co-ordinated campaign backed by politicians, retired soldiers and the Scottish public. It was claimed by proponents of the plan that the establishment of a large regiment would improve conditions of service for serving personnel. As with the other former Scottish regiments, the Black Watch will retain its former name as its primary identifier, with its battalion number as a subtitle. Therefore, the regiment is now known as The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland; in addition, the battalion is also permitted to retain its most famous accoutrement, the red hackle on the Tam o'Shanter. The Black Watch's primary recruiting areas are in Fife, Dundee, Angus and Perth and Kinross, with the Battalion Headquarters located at Balhousie Castle.

Australia/New Zealand

While Australia has had various units of its military with affiliations to the Black Watch, no regiment in Australia or New Zealand has formally borne that title, although one company Alpha Company, of the 2/17 Battalion, the Royal NSW Regiment does wear the kilt, bonnet and hackle.

Canada

Main article: The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada

Canada (from 1862) has its own Black Watch, being raised as the 5th Battalion of the Canadian Militia, being renamed by 1914 as the 5th Regiment (Royal Highlanders of Canada). It adopted its current title, The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada, prior to the Second World War, in which it served in the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division from mobilization in 1939 to 1945. As part of the 5th Canadian Brigade, the Regiment's 1st Battalion landed in Normandy in July 1944 and participated in major combat actions afterwards including the fight for the Channel Ports, the Battle of the Scheldt, Operation Market Garden, the Rhineland, and the final battles of the war east of the Rhine River. Two battalions of the Black Watch (RHR) of Canada also served in Canada, one in the Regular Army, the other as a Reserve unit. For brief time between 1953 and 1970, the Regiment had two battalions on the order of battle of the Regular Force, with a battalion in the Militia. The Regiment reverted to a one-battalion Militia unit in 1972 and remains in that status today.

Australia

Before the Second World War the Australian Militia and after the Second World War the Militia, then renamed the Citizen Military Forces (CMF), had a regiment, The 30th Battalion, New South Wales Scottish Regiment, which was affiliated with the Black Watch, wearing the kilt, beret with red hackle and badge of the parent Regiment in Scotland. A Scottish Black Watch officer was seconded from the British Army to serve as a permanent cadre with the NSW Battalion. The Regiment was popular and was probably the only CMF unit at full strength with a waiting list for entry. With the reorganisation of the CMF following the introduction of compulsory National Service in the early 1950s, conscripted recruits were made to join existing CMF units alongside the volunteer part-time soldiers of the old CMF; consequently, 30th Battalion became fully manned with National Servicemen and it was disbanded as the CMF of this period lost all its volunteers who did not wish to serve alongside conscripts. Compulsory National Service was made more selective in 1957 with greater stress on skills rather than numbers with the system completely ending in 1959; however, it had effectively caused the demise of the old CMF due to the shifts in manpower that the scheme had caused and the changed administrative conditions under which the old CMF (and some other branches of the Armed Forces) had previously operated.

United States

Though no American units hold official ties to the Black Watch, its military record and high esprit de corps have inspired the U.S. Army's B Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment to adopt the title. The Stryker rifle company carries a Scottish claymore along with its guidon as a mascot.

Notable members

Battle honours

  • [combined battle honours of 42nd Regiment and 73rd Regiment, plus:]
    • Guadaloupe 17591, Martinique 17621, Havannah1, North America 1763-642, Mysore5, Busaco³, Salamanca4, South Africa 1846-76, 1851-2-36 Tel-el-Kebir, Egypt 1882 '84, Kirbekan, Nile 1884-5, Paardeberg, South Africa 1899-1902
    • The Great War [25 battalions]: Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914 '18, Aisne 1914, La Bassée 1914, Ypres 1914 '17 '18, Langemarck 1914, Gheluvelt, Nonne Bosschen, Givenchy 1914, Neuve Chapelle, Aubers, Festubert 1915, Loos, Somme 1916 '18, Albert 1916, Bazentin, Delville Wood, Pozières, Flers-Courcelette, Morval, Thiepval, Le Transloy, Ancre Heights, Ancre 1916, Arras 1917 '18, Vimy 1917, Scarpe 1917 '18, Arleux, Pilckem, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Cambrai 1917 '18, St Quentin, Bapaume 1918, Rosières, Lys, Estaires, Messines 1918, Hazebrouck, Kemmel, Béthune, Scherpenberg, Soissonnais-Ourcq, Tardenois, Drocourt-Quéant, Hindenburg Line, Épéhy, St Quentin Canal, Beaurevoir, Courtrai, Selle, Sambre, France and Flanders 1914-18, Doiran 1917, Macedonia 1915-18, Egypt 1916, Gaza, Jerusalem, Tell'Asur, Megiddo, Sharon, Damascus, Palestine 1917-18, Tigris 1916, Kut al Amara 1917, Baghdad, Mesopotamia 1915-17
    • The Second World War: Defence of Arras, Ypres-Comines Canal, Dunkirk 1940, Somme 1940, St. Valery-en-Caux, Saar, Breville, Odon, Fontenay le Pesnil, Defence of Rauray, Caen, Falaise, Falaise Road, La Vie Crossing, Le Havre, Lower Maas, Venlo Pocket, Ourthe, Rhineland, Reichswald, Goch, Rhine, North-West Europe 1940 '44-45, Barkasan, British Somaliland 1940, Tobruk 1941, Tobruk Sortie, El Alamein, Advance on Tripoli, Medenine, Zemlet el Lebene, Mareth, Akarit, Wadi Akarit East, Djebel Roumana, Medjez Plain, Si Mediene, Tunis, North Africa 1941-43, Landing in Sicily, Vizzini, Sferro, Gerbini, Adrano, Sferro Hills, Sicily 1943, Cassino II, Liri Valley, Advance to Florence, Monte Scalari, Casa Fortis, Rimini Line, Casa Fabbri Ridge, Savio Bridgehead, Italy 1944-45, Athens, Greece 1944-45, Crete, Heraklion, Middle East 1941, Chindits 1944, Burma 1944
    • The Hook 1952, Korea 1952-53; Al Basrah, Iraq 2003

1. awarded 1909 for services of 42nd Regiment.
2. awarded 1914 for services of 42nd Regiment.
3. awarded 1910 for service of 42nd Regiment.
4. awarded 1951 for service of 42nd Regiment.
5. awarded 1889 for service of 73rd Regiment.
6. awarded 1882 for service of 73rd Regiment.

Alliances

The Black Watch tartan.
 South Africa - Transvaal Scottish Regiment

Anecdotes

When wearing the kilt, it is customary for troops to "go regimental" or "military practice", wearing no underwear.[6][7] On the Western Front during the First World War, it is reported that some Sergeants Major had mirrors tied to the end of golf clubs or similar to inspect under and up the kilt at parade inspection. [citation needed] In the 1950s, kilted soldiers on parade would be checked by the Sergeant Major using a mirror on the barrack's floor. [7]In 1997, a Black Watch soldier received wide press exposure, because of windy conditions during a military ceremony in Hong Kong. [6]

In the American cartoon Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, the second-season episode Blackwatch Plaid features a parody of the American terrorism alert system that includes a number of levels above the real system's maximum of "Red/Severe." As implied by the episode title, one of these is "Black Watch Plaid," represented by the Black Watch's traditional tartan pattern.

In the Battletech universe, the Royal Black Watch regiment is the Star League Defense Force's most elite BattleMech unit, responsible for the direct defence of the First Lord of the Star League. This is the case with both the original Star League and the resurrected one.

Black Watch are also a playable unit in Rise of Nations, and Age of Empires III for the British.

The Black Watch is the subject of an Irish Rebel song, in which they are depicted as "the devil's own regiment" along with B Specials, Royal Ulster Constabulary and the much maligned Black and Tans.[8]

There are however also many more complimentary anthems associated with the regiment. The above is a parody of "The Gallant Forty-Twa"; there is also "Wha Saw the Forty-Second", a reworking of the Jacobite song "Wha Wadna Fecht For Charlie"; "Twa Recruitin' Sergeants", and so forth.

In 2006, the National Theatre of Scotland premiered a new play by Gregory Burke compiled from interviews with former soldiers, dealing with the history of the regiment and in particular the recent deployment in Iraq. It met with universally positive reviews.

The Black Watch pattern is a free tartan. This means anyone may wear a Black Watch tartan without disrespect to the culture of the Scottish Clan system.

See also

References

  1. ^ History and traditions
  2. ^ from regimental number - 42
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ [2]
  5. ^ Victorian Era
  6. ^ a b http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20010114/ai_n9626143 When a blue moon has more to do with the wind-chill factor The Sunday Herald, Jan 14, 2001
  7. ^ a b http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article464594.ece Scots tradition hit by cover-up ruling The Times, August 2, 2004, Accessed May 12, 2008
  8. ^ "Letters". The Plough. Irish Republican Socialist Party. 14 November 2004. Retrieved 2007-04-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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