Philip Brazier

This day July 22nd (1812) Lt-Colonel Pearce, of the 2nd Battalion 44th East Essex Regiment of Foot, captured one of the two ‘French Imperial Eagles’ taken at the battle of Salamanca during the Peninsular War in Spain.

Ask most people to name the best British general of World War Two and they will say Montgomery. Ask the historians who study it closely and a lot of them will quietly tell you the real answer is a man most people have never heard of. His name was William Slim, and his soldiers just called him Uncle Bill. Slim was not born into any of it. No fortune, no famous family, no smooth path through the elite schools that produced most British generals. He was a working class kid who had been a teacher and a clerk, and he only slipped into the army through a technicality before the First World War. He got shot up at Gallipoli, wounded again in the Middle East, and clawed his way up the ranks the hard way, on merit, one rung at a time. By 1942 he was handed one of the worst jobs in the entire war. The Japanese had smashed the British in Burma, and Slim was put in charge of the retreat. It became the longest fighting withdrawal in British military history, close to a thousand miles back to the border of India, through jungle and mountains, hounded the whole way. Most commanders are remembered for the battles they win. Slim first had to prove himself by saving a beaten army from being wiped out, and he brought it home still fighting. Then he did the thing that should make him a household name. He took that broken, sick, forgotten army, an incredible mix of British, Indian, African, and Gurkha soldiers, and he rebuilt it from the ground up. He got a grip on the malaria that was dropping more men than bullets. He fixed the food, the training, the supply, and above all the morale. He walked among the troops constantly, talked to them like human beings, and made them believe again. They started calling themselves the Forgotten Army, half proud and half bitter, because the war in Europe got all the headlines while they bled in the jungle. In 1944 the Japanese threw everything into a massive invasion of India, aimed at Imphal and Kohima. Slim let them come, stretched their supply lines to breaking, and then broke them. The fighting at Kohima was so brutal it has been called the Stalingrad of the East, with men grenading each other across a district commissioner's tennis court. When it was over, the Japanese had suffered the single greatest defeat their army had ever endured on land. Tens of thousands of them never went home. And Slim was not finished. In 1945 he pulled off a masterpiece of deception, faked out the Japanese about where he would cross the Irrawaddy river, seized the town of Meiktila and cut the enemy in half, then drove all the way to Rangoon and finished the reconquest of Burma. He had taken the most humiliating defeat in British Far Eastern history and turned it completely inside out. He literally titled his memoir Defeat into Victory, and it is still considered one of the finest books a soldier has ever written. What his men remembered was not the strategy. It was that he never lied to them, never wasted them, and never forgot they were people. In a war full of commanders who spent lives cheaply and hungered for glory, Uncle Bill did the opposite, and they loved him for it. He ended his life as a viscount and the Governor General of Australia, but the title that mattered was the one his soldiers gave him. Montgomery got the fame. Slim got the respect of the people who actually knew.

@cas_rasen Nerds, rise! But sit down quickly and maintain the scorecard.

'County nerds' - what patronising claptrap from someone who knows little about who actually supplies a good number of the players playing. If you think this is good quality you are easily pleased. I'll take being a 'County Nerd' over being a plastic fan of a made up franchise.

@madeofstone71 Did those blokes survive?

Everyone likes a before and after photo. The 4th AT Regiment v IJA tanks, Muar /Bakri road. 1945 and the original 1942 action.

@SeaSpitfires Read this in my teens and was gripped. The doco @PaulHic80466580 recommends pretty much mirrors the book. Interesting to see photos of the younger versions of those interviewed. "Fire the bl**dy guns where we want, or you'll lose the lot of us. Over."

I just watched Danger Close, mainly because it’s currently free on YouTube in the UK. A brilliant film about an aspect of Vietnam not so well known, and well worth sticking on. youtu.be/3r_kMaD6RXo?is…

@Ford_4000 As the DS said on a course "Food goes off, charges detonate."

Cliche comment, commonly stated by people who have never used explosives or seen an actual “bomb go off” for which the correct term is detonate

@PaulHic80466580 @SeaSpitfires Agreed. Great interviews with those who were there. The radio logs bring it to life.

@SeaSpitfires A great documentary on the battle. youtu.be/8gUSq7pxux4?is…

Today is the return of the Metro Bank Fever and let’s all get behind all 18 counties and support them throughout this years 50 over One Day Cup. Just remember county cricket always need YOU and YOU always need your county 🏏

ON THIS DAY This day July 21st (1979), the Essex Cricket team won their first major trophy in 103 years, beating Surrey by 35 runs in the Benson and Hedges Cup Final. The team went on to win the County Cricket Championship. Graham Gooch was named player of the match.

@HorsebackSapper Forced into resigning? Thought such organisations needed leaders/instructors.

Went to a shindig yesterday with a few folks that I had been with in the local cadets to find that some had been forced into resigning. Very sad as they are excellent instructors & their work with cadets is 1st class. To be honest I'm not sad, I'm really fecking angry about it.

Two months ago Cat & I had the Northants County Cricket team for a barbecue at Althorp - I promised them that if they won the T20 Trophy they could come back for a proper banquet in the House. Well done on your victory this evening - delighted to make good my promise very soon!

Well said!!!

@dr_wendym_RN Slippery slope. Should be with a govt health warning and behind a screen with the cigarettes.

@PhilipBrazier3 Hate to tell you but you can buy this in Christchurch now!

Running a post grad academic skills session. I was of course in charge of this the snacks so off course it had to include biscoff

@dr_wendym_RN What was it like in the old days, Muss?

One person in my undergrad class is born in 2007 - it’s year uni. I was talking about the early 2000’s swine and bird flu as if it was only a couple of years ago - let alone Covid!

@Digital_Sapper @AndyAitcheson Not that long ago the over 50s had about 14-15 mins to do 2.4 km. Have the oldies got fitter or the young uns got slower? #confused

@AndyAitcheson @PhilipBrazier3 Frustrating that even at over 50 i’m still ‘assessed’ at the same level as the teenagers! 👴🏻🤣

Lined up for the Annual Fitness Test alongside sappers born 7 years after I enlisted. #theoldman

@AndyAitcheson Designed to replicate TAB/Yomp, advance to contact, short firefight, casualty extraction and re-supply/re-org.

@PhilipBrazier3 That seems ok. Whats the RFT?

@GKNoddy @AndyAitcheson I wish.

@AndyAitcheson @PhilipBrazier3 Retire for tea.

@Peter_S_Bailey Naturally the Old Comrades group, take another swig at their pint, draw on the fag and chant "In my day..." #puttees, #bootsDMS, #58pattern, #SLR, #shirthairy, #roadslappers

@AndyAitcheson Couldn't find one of the graphs the PTIs use. Basically: 2km run under 13.10 Trap bar deadlift: 80kg x 3 reps Press Ups: min 23 in 60s Pull Ups: attempt, but expected to show progression. All now gender/age free. CFT replaced by RFT, which is a 'joy'.

@PhilipBrazier3 What is the fitness test now?