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This is the story of the most famous
fighting men in the world—the Brigade of Guards—and of their magnificent
tradition of discipline and courage.
The author tells how the Brigade began and how it has shaped our
history. It is a story filled with dramatic incident and heroism—a
record of the men who have helped to make Britain great. It includes
stories of the V.C.’s won by the Guards during the last war and of the
battles they fought; it tells how recruits from all walks of life are
infused with the spirit of a great past and how, after Dunkirk,
Guardsmen were for the first time put into tanks and achieved some of
their greatest triumphs. This book also reveals many fascinating
little-known incidents in our island story; how the Guards gave New York
its name; how a party of Coldstream Guards one stormy night helped to
save the Rock of Gibraltar; how the Guardsmen won some of the first
Crosses awarded by Queen ~ .Victoria in the Crimean War; how they fought
at sea and how, with the Americans, they won one of the most amazing
battles of the last war.
The Guards have the spirit to turn apparent defeat into victory: the
spirit which in Africa in 1943 inspired Kenneally of the Irish Guards to
charge a company of Germans single-handed: the spirit which inspired
Wright of the Coldstream Guards in Italy (when all his company officers
were killed or wounded) to lead what remained of his company to take its
objective against impossible odds: the spirit which iired Nicholls of
the Grenadier Guards in 1940 when, in the retreat to Dunkirk, he held an
overwhelming force of enemy: the spirit in which Furness of the Welsh
Guards died outside Arras in May 1940 to save a precious supply column
from certain destruction.
In a fascinating chapter the author describes the ceremonial duties
of the Household Cavalry and reveals many little-known traditions which
help to bring colour and pageantry to our national life. A thoughtful
Postscript suggests what future lies ahead of the Brigade of Guards.
Lt.-Col. Keith Briant was educated at Haileybury and Merton College,
Oxford, where he took an Honours Degree in Law and edited Isis. After
coming down from Oxford he wrote and edited a number of books and was
Features Editor of the Sunday Chronicle. He served in the R.A.F. during
1940 and 1941, entered Sandhurst in 1942 and was commissioned in the
Irish Guards. In the North Western Europe Campaign he fought with the
tanks of the Guards Armoured Division and was with the leading armour
which liberated Brussels after what was described by the War Office -
Intelligence Review as "an armoured dash unequalled for speed in this or
any other war". He continued to serve in the Irish Guards after the war
and was Director of Public Relations to the British Army of the Rhine
from 1947 to 1951. In 1951 he relinquished his commission and joined a
London publishing house. He is married with two sons and his hobbies are
trout fishing and golf. |
