ORIGINS OF THE MODERN DAY REGIMENT
The Historic Evolution and Campaigns of The Rifles
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Armies have always had to adapt their methods of fighting and their equipment to the type of country in which they might be required to operate. The antecedent regiments of The Rifles were in many cases the first regiments of The British Army to introduce such tactics and equipment. The following pages will introduce you to the development of Light Infantry and Rifle Regiments, their equipment and tactics.
On the plains and along the river valleys of Europe, where visibility could be measured at least in hundreds of yards, battles for several centuries after the introduction of firearms tended to be fought by infantry in close order. This allowed them to develop a concentrated fire and afforded protection against the shock action of the enemy's cavalry, and when the human voice could not be heard above the din of battle, signals were given by tap of drum. Up to the middle of the eighteenth century it was under conditions such as these that the British Army had gained most of its campaigning experience.
During the Seven Years War in Europe in the mid 1750s, the Austrian's employed frontiers men from the Balkans (modern day Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) successfully against Frederick the Great’s army. These men were accustomed to the use of arms in their everyday lives for hunting, protecting their herds and land from marauders and the Turks. The Prussian Army was hampered tactically by their attacks; preventing them from forming up in conventional formations and ambushing them on route. The Seven Years War was also Regimentally significant in that one of the greatest victories of the War was the Battle of Minden . It was fought on 1st August 1759 (which The Rifles to this day still celebrate due to the exploits of the 51st Regiment of Foot, into which Sir John Moore [the founding father of The Light Division], was to become an ensign) and saw British Infantry defeat French cavalry in 'Line' as opposed to 'square' formation. The 51st were to become a Light Infantry Regiment in 1808 and were more famously known later as the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. The white rose is still worn on Minden Day.
Prussia, in return, looked to its hunters and gamekeepers to recruit their own light troops. The Prussians named them Jägers, and in the French service, Chasseurs – both meaning hunters.They were skilled in marksmanship, observation and concealment. Hunters were men of the earth, used to operating in woods and forests - using ground and natural surroundings to conceal themselves.
They brought with them green uniforms and hunting horns to communicate orders. The horn of the European wild Ox (Bugle) was historically adapted as powder horn and then as a musical instrument to convey orders between units. The symbol of the Bugle Horn therefore became the identifying symbol for all light troops in European Armies - and has continued today with The Rifles.
A bugle horn that could be adapted as a powder horn or musical instrument
The proliferation of light Infantry was witnessed by the British during the Seven Years War. However, this form of warfare was alien to the British psyche and they were content to use the services of their German allies rather than raise their own units.
When, however, the Army found itself fighting against the French and their Red Indian allies in the wilderness of North America conditions were very different. The country was normally too close for cavalry, fields of fire were very limited, and the enemy adapted their own tactics to this state of affairs with such effect that too rigid an adherence to European methods invited disaster, and not infrequently found it. It was clearly necessary to meet and beat the enemy at his own game, and to this end one company in each regiment was organised on a lighter, more mobile scale than the rest.
These light companies were the first light infantry, and from 1770 onwards every foot regiment included one in its establishment. Two of the regiments raised at the beginning of the Seven Years War, the 85th and 90th Foot, were also designated Light Infantry, but they were disbanded in 1763. When these numbers returned to the Army List early in the French Revolutionary Wars their new owners, as will be seen, were not slow in claiming their light Infantry antecedents.
For the new kind of dispersed, mobile tactics practised by the light companies the drum no longer provided an adequate means of inter-communication', it was a cumbersome thing to carry about in rough country, and its sound did not carry very far. Something better was needed.
Our forces in America included contingents of Hanoverian and Hessian troops, and some of them had adopted the Prussian practice of organizing special units of Jaeger consisting of men from the German and Austrian forests skilled in the arts of the chase. No doubt some of them fulfilled Lord Wavell's later vision of the perfect infantryman: the poacher turned gamekeeper. Their ancestors had succeeded in extracting huntsmanlike sounds from the horn of the bugle, the wild ox that at one time abounded in the forests of Europe . As time went on "bugle horns'' were shaped from metal (those with silver in them gave the sweetest note), and the bugle horn also became a badge to identify those connected with hunting in its various forms. The British Army probably had its first experience of both horn and badge from the German troops sent out to North America during the Seven Years War.
American Rebels and British soldiers clash during the American War of Independence
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