The Royal Green Jackets - a short history .........

The Formation and Origins of the Regiment

On 1st January 1966 The Royal Green Jackets was formed as a single Large Regiment. Its creation followed logically from the composition of The Green Jackets Brigade in 1958, which grouped together three former single-battalion infantry regiments: The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (43rd and 52nd), The Kings Royal Rifle Corps and The Rifle Brigade. A family tree of these regiments and their antecedents is shown later.

It was no accident that these particular regiments came together so easily. They each share a distinguished past, with similar histories, traditions and ethos. They, and The Royal Green Jackets as their heirs, lay claim to being forward looking and innovative, responsible for the development of much of the new thinking in the British Infantry in the fields of tactics, training, equipment and man-management from the mid-eighteenth century onwards.

The leadership of such distinguished officers as Henri Bouquet, Francis de Rottenburg, Coote Manningham and Sir John Moore generated a succession of advanced ideas later to be adopted as ideals by the rest of the Army: open order tactics and mobility in place of rigid drills and deliberate movement, camouflage and concealment in place of closely formed ranks of red coats, individual marksmanship in place of massed musket fire, and intelligence and self reliance in place of rigid obedience instilled by the fear of brutal punishment. The Peninsular Campaign was where these new professional soldiering skills and tactics first achieved major operational success, and where the Green Jackets made their name.

Green Jackets have always been operationally focused and at the forefront of action throughout the years, by role and tradition “First in and last out”, and their 59 Victoria Crosses is a number matched by no other regiment. Since its formation in 1966, Green Jackets have served with distinction on operations in every theatre; in particular in Northern Ireland from 1969 to the present day, where the regiment has had an almost continuous presence, and has played a decisive and influential role in the campaign. Its officers and Riflemen have continued to display the professional approach, mutual trust and unique spirit that is the Green Jacket way, embodied in the regimental tradition of the “Fighting, Thinking Rifleman” and the Regimental motto – ‘Swift and Bold’.

The following pages trace these themes as they record how the legacy of the former regiments laid the foundation for the success of The Royal Green Jackets since its formation, and illustrate some of what the Regiment has achieved in the last 40 years since its formation.

 

The Green Jacket Legacy

The Green Jackets and the Rifle

The 5th Battalion of the 60th, descended from the Royal American Regiment, was the first British infantry regiment to be dressed in green and the Rifle Corps adopted a similar uniform from its foundation. The purpose was both practical and symbolic, representing the first camouflage as required for the new open order tactics and role as both skirmishers and sharpshooters, as well as a clean break with the rigid mechanical methods of “redcoat” troops. Both regiments were armed with rifles, a more accurate and longer-range weapon than the musket, but with a shorter barrel that required a long sword-bayonet to compensate for close-quarter fighting, whence the term “sword” for bayonet in Rifle Regiments.

The Bugle

Open order tactics and skirmishing where individuals often found themselves beyond the range of the human voice called for an efficient means of signalling to control battlefield manoeuvres. The bugle provided the appropriate means and a complex system of calls was developed, many of them still in use today. On parade bugles in Rifle Regiments are used rather than the drums of other infantry, hence “Sounding Retreat” rather than “Beating Retreat”.

The Cap Badge

Green Jacket regiments carried no colours, as they operated in open order rather than on mass, so a selection of battle honours is displayed on the Royal Green Jacket cap badge. At the centre is the bugle horn, the badge of all Rifle and Light Infantry Regiments. The Maltese Cross is derived from the badges of both The Kings Royal Rifle Corps and The Rifle Brigade. At the top is the Royal Crown, and at the foot is a Naval Crown awarded to The Rifle Brigade to commemorate their forebear’s service as sharpshooters on Royal Navy ships under Nelson at the battle of Copenhagen.

Marching Pace

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the heavy infantry moved in close formation at a slow controlled pace. Rifle and Light Infantry Regiments, on the other hand, frequently on outpost duty, needed to move around the battlefield faster, often at the “double”. The Royal Green Jackets of today march at 140 paces to the minute compared to the Army standard of 120, and retain the custom of the “double past” as a parade manoeuvre.

Marksmanship

The introduction of the rifle and a skirmishing role led to a tradition of marksmanship, as Green Jackets were required to be the sharpshooters of the Army. For many years Green Jackets dominated Army shooting competitions and have always valued marksmanship as one of their core values. In recent years The Royal Green Jackets have been at the forefront in the renewal of snipers in the British Army.

Discipline

The officers of the British Army of the eighteenth century have been described as mainly incompetent and habitually drunk; their soldiers as largely drawn from the criminal class. It was with this unpromising material that a succession of forward-thinking officers, many of them from the former Green Jacket Regiments and culminating in Sir John Moore, set about turning into a dedicated and efficient fighting force by a system of discipline based on thorough training and encouragement, rather than the threat of the lash. Much of the Army was slow to follow, but the principles of mutual trust and respect remain the foundation of Green Jacket leadership and discipline today.

Innovation

The assumption that Green Jackets should be in the forefront of military thinking long predates the name. The Royal Americans (described by JFC Fuller as “the first true light infantry the British Standing Army ever had”) adopted equipment and tactics for a new role in forest warfare; the Light Brigade developed this further into an extraordinarily successful approach in the Peninsular War. Through the nineteenth century the Regiment’s predecessors were constantly seeking ways of increasing mobility by developments in mounted infantry using horses, camels and elephants. It was a logical consequence that The 60th and The Rifle Brigade should have been chosen to pioneer the motor battalion concept before and during World War II, while the 52nd did the same for airlanding by glider. In Northern Ireland Green Jacket battalions were recognised as consistently showing an innovative and successful approach to counter terrorist operations.

The Future

Since The Royal Green Jackets was formed, new areas of conflict have opened most notably Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Iraq and now Afghanistan, and all battalions have taken their turn on operational tours of duty. New overseas garrisons have been added in Belize and the Falklands to those of the post-war years, such as Hong Kong, Cyprus and Gibraltar, and Green Jackets have served in all of these since the Regiment was formed. The end of the Cold War, the increasing expeditionary nature of operations, and the growing asymmetric threat, have all created new challenges which The Royal Green Jackets have grasped and turned into opportunities to lead the way again.

The lessons of past achievements, the example of illustrious predecessors, and traditions based on them, deserve to be remembered. But they are no substitute for an attitude of mind which always sees the future as an opportunity. For over 200 years Green Jackets have led the way in facing each new challenge of enemy, climate, technology and organisational change which has faced the Army. When The Royal Green Jackets found itself once more at a point in its history where change was required, the Regiment stood ready to seize the opportunity again in a proactive and forward looking spirit. What is certain is that their originality of thinking and fostering of a regimental spirit based on mutual trust and respect still marks them out as exceptional. This will remain a key part of the rich and unique legacy that the The Rifles inherited from the Royal Green Jackets at their formation on 1st February 2007.