Vickie X
Telegraph – Beharry, VC, pays terrible price for valour
Pte Beharry, 27, of the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, twice cheated death in acts of exceptional bravery when his Warrior tank was hit by rocket-propelled grenades in two ambushes in 2004.
Exposed to enemy fire, with his hatch blown away, his communications gone and his periscope shattered, he led his five-vehicle convoy to safety then clambered on to the red-hot metal to save colleagues, including his commanding officer.
Aaand:
Telegraph – ‘I can see no end to the killing zone, and for the first time I feel real fear’
Pte Johnson Beharry VC is the first person since 1965 to be awarded Britain’s highest award for gallantry while still alive. A 27-year-old native of Grenada, who came to Britain in 1999 and joined the British Army in 2001, he was a member of the 1st Battalion Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment when he was posted to Iraq in April 2004. He was awarded the VC on March 18, 2005. This is his story, taken from his soon to be published book, ‘Barefoot Soldier’.
A gripping tale.
Update (9.26):
Telegraph – ‘You’re a very special person,’ says the Queen [second extract]
I know that the bronze used for each VC comes from a Russian cannon captured at the end of the Crimean War. The block of metal is held by the 15th Regiment Royal Logistic Corps at Donnington and is so precious that it is only removed from its vault on special occasions. There are 358 ounces of the block left, enough to make only another 12 VCs. Somebody tells me I need to insure mine for a million pounds. I just can’t get my head around that.
I had no idea.
September 23rd, 2006 at 9:31 pm
Public pride in the military (at least in one as good as the Brits’) is a good sign of a return of civilizational confidence (to use the Mark Steyn term). More stories like this; more recognition (in the form of reasonable pay, also); and greater respect for the military’s role would be a good start. The fact that Britain is suffering from a lack of self-respect is staggering to an Australian mind. You know that if we had come up with a fraction of the stuff that had been invented in Britain, our heads would be so big even this continent sized island would hardly contain them. Even now, having done little more than invent the rotary clothesline, we are barely tolerable.
Popularity of the military returned here in a big way in the 80s with a turn around in the popularity of the Anzac Day parades; attendence had been steadily declining through the 60s and 70s. Now each year brings a new record crowd, even though the number of old diggers is dwindling.
I don’t know if Britain has anything similar, but they should if they don’t.
September 25th, 2006 at 7:37 am
There has been a resurgence in the popularity of Remembrance Sunday, but a lot of the discussion of it is cast in terms of soldiers having been victims of war in the abstract rather than having fought for King and Country. World War II was OK because it was anti-Hitler.
I’d suggest, without trying to be at all funny, that the realities of life in Australia discouraged self-loathing liberals from either turning up in the first place or from staying there too long. There’s the animal rights bloke who’s clearly nuts and then that’s about that. Whereas in the UK they’re bloody everywhere – BBC in particular. I reckon it may have something to do with Australia having started life as a place thwere there weren’t all that many people you could look down on socially in comparison with the England of let’s call her Jane Austen.
September 25th, 2006 at 9:56 am
I must say, though, for all the American rube militancy hick whitetrashity, the Brits are waaaaaay better at remembering war dead than we are. I mean, not only do they know what the poppy represents, and can even recite the poem, but they wear the thing for a month. Everyone. Even the type you don’t think would.
And other than that, there’s always Guy Falkes Day. Who needs an Anzac Day when you can burn catholics in effigy?!
September 25th, 2006 at 10:11 am
There was a while in the 70s when poppies weren’t that popular, but they’ve come back strongly. Maybe the Falklands had something to do with it, on reflection.