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96-595: The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) , formerly the 3rd Regiment of Foot , was a line infantry regiment of the British Army traditionally raised in the English county of Kent and garrisoned at Canterbury . It had a history dating back to 1572 and was one of the oldest regiments in the British Army, being third in order of precedence (ranked as the 3rd Regiment of the line). The regiment provided distinguished service over

192-541: A 2nd Line duplicate of the 4th Battalion when the Territorial Army was doubled in size. Initially, the 5th Buffs was assigned to the 37th Infantry Brigade , part of the 12th (Eastern) Infantry Division , which was a 2nd Line duplicate of the 44th (Home Counties) Division. However, on 26 October 1939, it was transferred to the Division's 36th Infantry Brigade in exchange for the 2/6th East Surreys. The 5th Buffs, along with

288-415: A breakdown in cohesion was assured, especially in uneven or wooded terrain. As a result, the line was mostly used as a firing formation, with troops moving in column formations and then deploying to the line at their destination. Usually, columns would be adopted for movement and melee attacks. Line infantry was trained in the manual of arms evolutions, the main objectives of which were fast deployment of

384-511: A company of voltigeurs , who were expected to act as skirmishers as well being able to deploy into line. In the Russian Empire, light infantry was forming at a very fast pace; by the end of the 18th century, regiments of light infantry totaled 40,000 soldiers ( Jaeger ). The armament of light infantry was very different from the armament of linear infantry. They were armed with high-quality muskets, as well as pistols (for close combat). After

480-461: A dragon on a buff background, following the award of this distinctive symbol to the regiment as "a reward for its gallant conduct on all occasions"; according to the Army historian Richard Cannon in a book published in 1839. The dragon was believed to have been adopted as it was one of the supporters of the royal arms of Elizabeth I , who issued the warrant for the raising of the regiment in 1572. Through

576-426: A flag, or colour, in a specific shade so as to be easily distinguished. The lining of uniform jackets came to be made from material of the same regimental colours, and turning back the material at the cuffs, lapels and tails of the jacket exposed the lining, or "facing". Most European armies adopted facings during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. By the 19th century, for reasons of economy, coat linings had become

672-484: A line, rapid shooting, and manoeuvre. Line infantry quickly became the most common type of infantry in European countries. Musketeers and grenadiers , formerly elite troops , gradually became part of the line infantry, switching to linear tactics. Over time the use of line infantry tactics spread outside of Europe, often as a result of European imperialism. In European colonies and settlements with small populations from

768-426: A particular army, each with its own uniform and facings. As a general rule, cavalry uniforms tended to be more varied, and it was not uncommon for each mounted regiment to retain its own facing colours up to 1914. Artillery, engineers and support corps normally had a single branch colour, although exceptionally each regiment of Swedish artillery had its own facing colour until 1910. The United States regular army after

864-553: A period of almost four hundred years accumulating one hundred and sixteen battle honours . In 1881, under the Childers Reforms , it was known as the Buffs (East Kent Regiment) and later, on 3 June 1935, was renamed the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) . In 1961, it was amalgamated with the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment to form the Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment , which

960-492: A pied (light infantry), one of Grenadiers and one of Carabiniers . Similar differentiations were made in the majority of European armies of the period, although English-speaking authors sometimes use the designation "line infantry" when referring to the ordinary infantry of some other countries where the exact term was not in use. The term was also used by US units during the Second World War, as shown by this quote from

1056-557: A report of the 782nd Tank Battalion in late April 1945: On the 22nd of April, the Battalion moved from Oberkotzau, Germany to Wunsiedel , Germany. Here the attachment of the line companies to the Regimental Combat Teams of the 97th Division was completed. We separated, not coming together again until the war was over. Company "A" joined the 303rd at Rehau, Germany: Company "B" joined the 386th at Arzburg, Germany: and Company "C"

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1152-435: A small part of the infantry branch of most armies, because of their vulnerability to hostile cavalry. Pikemen formed the majority of infantrymen and were known as heavy infantry. A significant part of infantry consisted of old-style musketeers, who did not use the linear tactics, instead skirmishing in open formation. However, by the middle of the 17th century, musketeers deployed in line formation already provided about half of

1248-469: A universal white or black and distinctive regimental facings were reduced to collars and cuffs sewn on to the basic garment. The tradition of associating particular colours with specific regiments continued into the 20th century, even when the general use of red tunics ceased in favor of khaki . Facings remained a part of the ceremonial uniforms retained by Household troops, bandsmen, officers and other limited categories after World War I . The practice

1344-481: A way of instilling discipline and unit cohesion . Members of the US Army utilize the term "line company" (informally) in light infantry battalions to differentiate those companies (generally A–D) that perform the traditional infantry role from the support companies (generally F and HHC) charged with supporting the "line companies". The Marine Corps does the same for all its infantry units. In this vein, officers assigned to

1440-416: The 141st Regiment Royal Armoured Corps and the 89th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery in 1941 due to the shortage of armoured troops and artillery in the British Army. When the Territorial Army was reformed in 1947 the 4th and 5th Buffs were merged into a single battalion. In 1956 410 (Kent) Coast Regiment , Royal Artillery , was converted to the infantry role and became 5th Buffs. In 1961,

1536-657: The 16th Brigade in the 6th Division until 12 August 1914 when it moved to Cambridge before landing in France on 8 September 1914. The 2nd Battalion returned from Madras in December 1914 and remained in England as part of the 85th Brigade in the 28th Division ; meanwhile the 3rd Battalion remained in Canterbury as a training unit. The 1/4th Battalion sailed for India in October 1914 while

1632-506: The 230th Brigade in the 74th Division . The 6th (Service) Battalion, 7th (Service) Battalion, 8th (Service) Battalion and 9th (Reserve) Battalion were all formed for active service in France. Corporal William Richard Cotter was awarded the VC whilst serving with the 6th (Service) Battalion. After the end of the First World War, a small number of men from several battalions saw action during

1728-670: The 31st Foot . Apart from the 1719 Vigo expedition , the next 25 years were spent on garrison duty in England and Scotland. It returned to Flanders in 1742 during the War of the Austrian Succession , as Thomas Howard 's regiment; to distinguish it from that led by Sir Charles Howard , one became the " Buffs ", and the other the Green Howards . It fought at the Battle of Dettingen in June 1743 and at

1824-609: The 36th British Infantry Division and served with the British Fourteenth Army in the Burma Campaign . The 4th Battalion Buffs was a 1st Line Territorial Army unit that served with the BEF in France 1940. The battalion was transferred to the island of Malta in 1941 and served throughout the siege . The battalion then joined the 234th Infantry Brigade , which took part in the disastrous Battle of Leros in an attempt to capture

1920-610: The American Civil War adopted a universal dark and light blue uniform under which each regiment was distinguished only by numbers and other insignia, plus branch colors. The latter were yellow for Cavalry, red for Artillery and white (later light blue) for infantry. Combinations of colours such as scarlet piped with white for Engineers, orange piped with white for the Signal Corps and black piped with scarlet for Ordnance personnel gave wide scope for adding distinctive branch facings as

2016-429: The American Civil War . The Austro-Prussian War in 1866 showed that breech-loading rifles , which gave the individual shooter a greatly increased rate of fire as well as the capability to reload from a prone position, were greatly superior to muzzle loaded rifles. In the 1860s, most German states and Russia converted their line infantry and riflemen into 'united' infantry, which used rifles and skirmish tactics. After

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2112-663: The Battle of Fontenoy in May 1745. With the outbreak of the 1745 Rising , it was sent to Scotland, taking part in the Battle of Falkirk Muir in January 1746 and Battle of Culloden in April 1746. It returned to the Netherlands in April 1747 and saw action at the Battle of Lauffeld in July. Following the 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle , it spent the next ten years on garrison duty in England; in 1751, it

2208-841: The Battle of Orthez in February 1814 and the Battle of Toulouse in April 1814. It became part of the Army of Occupation of France in 1816 before returning home in autumn 1818. The regiment had a tour of service from 1821 until 1827 in the British colony of New South Wales . For the duration of their service, The Buffs was divided into four detachments. The first was based in Sydney from 1821. The second arrived in Hobart in 1822. The third, entitled "The Buffs' Headquarters", arrived in Sydney in 1823. The fourth, arrived in Sydney in 1824, but variously saw service throughout

2304-683: The Battle of Vitoria in June 1813. At Albuhera the regiment suffered heavy losses (about 400 out of 728) when caught in open order during a hail/rain storm by charging Polish lancers and French hussars. Following Vitoria the Buffs then pursued the French Army into France and fought at the Battle of the Pyrenees in July 1813, the Battle of Nivelle in November 1813 and the Battle of the Nive in December 1813 as well as

2400-570: The Cardwell Reforms of the 1870s, which gave it a depot at Canterbury Barracks from 1873, or by the Childers reforms of 1881 – as it already possessed two battalions, there was no need for it to amalgamate with another regiment. Under the reforms the regiment became the Buffs (East Kent Regiment) on 1 July 1881. The East Kent Militia became the regiment's 3rd (Militia) Battalion (1881–1953) and its short-lived 4th (Militia) Battalion (1881–1888). At

2496-746: The Crimean War . In 1858, the 2nd Battalion was stationed in Malta . Lieutenant John Cotter , Adjutant of the 2nd Buffs, would shout "Steady, The Buffs!", a phrase which has entered common parlance. The 1st Battalion saw action in the Taku Forts action during the Second Opium War as well as in the Perak War while the 2nd Battalion saw action in the Anglo-Zulu War . The regiment was not fundamentally affected by

2592-574: The Dodecanese Islands in late 1943. The brigade and other Allied forces, mainly Italian, attempted to hold the island from the Germans, but without success. This was due mainly to German air superiority as the Allies had very few planes to cover them. The 234th Brigade Commander, Robert Tilney , ordered the surrender after many days of resistance and hard fighting. The 5th Battalion was reformed in 1939 as

2688-626: The Franco-Prussian War , both the German Empire and the French Third Republic did the same. However, Great Britain retained the name "line infantry", although it used rifled muskets from 1853 and breech loading rifles from 1867, and switched from closed lines to extended order during the Boer wars . The growing accuracy, range, and rate of fire of rifles, together with the invention of

2784-621: The London Gazette of 21 January 1685 describing the clothing of three deserters from what was still the Holland Regiment, referred for the first time to the colour buff: "a new Red Coat lin'd with a Buff colour'd lining, surtout Sleeves, cross Pockets with three scallops, large plain pewter Buttons, Breeches of the same colour as the Coat lining" . An illustration of the Colonel's colour in 1707 shows

2880-626: The Maxim machine gun in 1883, meant that close order line infantry would suffer heavy losses before being able to close with the enemy, while the defensive advantages given to line infantry against cavalry became irrelevant with the effective removal of offensive cavalry from the battlefield in the face of the improved weaponry. With the turn of the 20th century, this slowly led to infantry increasingly adopting skirmish style light infantry tactics in battle, while retaining line infantry drill for training. Although linear battle tactics had become obsolete by

2976-531: The Napoleonic Wars led to increasing standardisation of facing colours, for reasons both of economy and supply efficiency. Thus, for example, the French line fusiliers and grenadiers of the early 19th century had red facings, with only numbers to distinguish one regiment from another. The voltigeurs had yellow or/and green facings. From 1854 on red facings became universal for all of the line infantry who made up

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3072-628: The Napoleonic Wars . During the Ancien Régime , there were many different facing colours (notably various shades of blue, red, yellow, green and black) on the standard grey-white uniforms of the French line infantry. Examples included blue for the Régiment du Languedoc , red for the Régiment du Béarn etc. The initiative in fixing or changing facing colours was largely left to individual colonels, who in effect had ownership of their regiments. This tendency towards variegated facings reached its height in

3168-624: The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (Queen's and Royal Hampshires) . The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) still has some exhibits at Beaney House , although most of the collection was subsumed into the National Army Museum in 2000. The Colonels-in-Chief were as follows: The Colonels were as follows: The regiment was awarded the Freedom of the City of London , giving them the right to march through

3264-725: The Second Boer War with Captain Naunton Henry Vertue of the 2nd Battalion serving as brigade major to the 11th Infantry Brigade under Major General Edward Woodgate at the Battle of Spion Kop where he was mortally wounded in January 1900. Following the end of the war in South Africa in June 1902, 540 officers and men of the 2nd battalion returned to the United Kingdom on the SS St. Andrew leaving Cape Town in early October, and

3360-607: The Sicilian Campaign , as part of the British Eighth Army . The 5th Buffs and the rest of 78th Division then took part in the fighting in Italy and served there until the 1945 Offensive . The Buffs also raised many more battalions during the war, mainly for home defence or as training units. None, save the 7th and 11th Battalions, saw active service overseas. The 7th and 11th Battalions were raised in 1940 and were converted to

3456-597: The Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919. The 1st Battalion served in many different brigades and divisions, mainly with British Indian Army units, and fought in many different battles and campaigns such as the North African Campaign , the Italian Campaign and the Battle of Anzio when they were a part of 18th Infantry Brigade , assigned to the 1st Infantry Division where they were involved in some of

3552-611: The Third Anglo-Dutch War began in 1672, the Duke of Buckingham was authorised to recruit an additional eight companies but the two countries made peace in the February 1674 Treaty of Westminster . These men were incorporated into the Anglo-Scots Dutch Brigade and fought in the 1672–1678 Franco-Dutch War ; in November 1688, it accompanied William III to England. It was transferred onto the English military establishment as

3648-408: The matchlock muskets of some line infantry were equipped with bayonets . Bayonets were attached to the muzzles and were used when line troops entered melee combat. They also helped to defend against cavalry. At the end of the 17th century, a solution was sought to a flaw within the design of matchlock muskets. Since the matchlock musket used a slow burning piece of twine known as a slow match ,

3744-596: The "4th The Lord High Admiral's Regiment" and in 1689 became the 3rd (Prince George of Denmark's) Regiment of Foot . During the 1689–1697 Nine Years War , it served in the Low Countries , including the battles of Walcourt , Steenkerque and Landen . It returned to England when the war ended with the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick . During the War of the Spanish Succession , it served in Marlborough campaigns, including

3840-469: The "Dress Regulation Facings for the Army" of 31 May 1776 when unusual shades such as silver-grey, aurore , and "red speckled with white" were added to the by-then white uniforms of the French infantry. In 1791 an attempt was made to rationalize facings by giving groupings of up to six regiments a single colour, relying on secondary features such as piping or button patterns to distinguish separate units. The rise of mass conscript armies during and following

3936-493: The (now metal) headdress badge, although replaced on collars by the white horse of Kent. The horse had been the insignia of the East Kent Militia , which formed the 3rd battalion of the new regiment. Both changes were unpopular within the regiment, and in 1887 the Buffs were authorised to convert the white facings on their scarlet tunics to buff – at the regiment's expense and using a pipeclay mixture developed by an officer of

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4032-476: The 1/5th (Weald of Kent) Battalion sailed for India in October 1914 and then transferred to Mesopotamia in November 1915. The 2/4th Battalion, the 2/5th (Weald of Kent) Battalion, the 3/4th Battalion and the 3/5th (Weald of Kent) Battalion all remained in England throughout the war while the 10th (Royal East Kent and West Kent Yeomanry) Battalion was formed in Egypt in February 1917 and then transferred to France as part of

4128-678: The 1568–1648 Eighty Years' War was supported by Protestants across Europe; the origins of the regiment were Thomas Morgan's Company of Foot , a group of 300 volunteers from the London Trained Bands formed in 1572. In 1586, these English and Scottish volunteer units were brought together in the Anglo-Scots Brigade , which in various formats served in the Dutch military until 1782. When the Second Anglo-Dutch War started in 1665,

4224-563: The 18th century when such decisions were largely left to commanding officers and uniforms were made by individual contractors rather than in centralised government clothing factories. By the second half of the nineteenth century, the Dutch, Spanish, Swiss, Belgian, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, Swedish, Chilean, Mexican, Greek and Turkish armies had come to follow French standardised arrangements, although in some cases variety might still be used to denote different types of infantry (grenadiers, fusiliers, rifles, light infantry etc.) within

4320-419: The 2nd Battalion. In 1890 buff was officially restored as the regimental colour on flags, tunics and mess jackets. On 23 May 1894 approval was given for the dragon to be resumed as the collar badge. For the rest of its existence as a separate entity, both dragon badge and buff facings remained as primary distinctions of the regiment. This was the case even on the simplified dark blue "No. 1 Dress" worn by most of

4416-547: The 387th at Waldsassen, Germany. The British Army retains the traditional distinction between "Guards", "Line Infantry" and "the Rifles" on ceremonial occasions for historical reasons. It is linked to the order of precedence within the British Army and regimental pride, so for example Colonel Patrick Crowley states in the "introduction" in A Brief History of The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment (2015): The examples of valour, adherence to duty, and fortitude, continue to inspire

4512-410: The 6th and 7th Royal West Kents , remained in the 36th Brigade for the rest of the war. Like the 2nd and 4th Battalions, it served with the BEF in France in 1940 and fought in the Battle of France and was evacuated at Dunkirk. The 12th Division suffered heavy casualties due mainly to most of the men having little training and the division having no artillery or support units. After returning to England,

4608-497: The American Civil War, both Union and Confederate armies had only a few line regiments equipped with the old-style smooth-bore muskets. However, France, due to Napoleon III, who admired Napoleon I, had 300 line battalions (comprising an overwhelming majority) even in 1870. Although the French line infantry received Chassepot rifles in 1866, it was still being trained in the use of close formations (line, column and square), which

4704-475: The Army became more technical and diverse. This system continued in general use until blue uniforms ceased to be general issue in 1917, and survives in a limited form in modern blue mess and dress uniforms. Notable exceptions to such standardisation within branches were the British Army (as noted above) and the Austro-Hungarian one. As late as World War I the latter employed 28 different colours, including 10 different shades of red, for its infantry facings. In

4800-441: The Austrian army abandoned their pikes. In 1703, the French army did the same, in 1704 the British and 1708 the Dutch. In 1699–1721, Peter I converted almost all Russian foot-regiments to line infantry. The abandonment of the pike, together with the faster firing rate made possible by the introduction of the new flintlock musket and paper cartridge , resulted in the replacement of the deeper formations of troops more suitable for

4896-405: The Brigade's units were ordered to swear loyalty to the Stadtholder and those who disobeyed were cashiered. Using his own funds, Sir George Downing , the English ambassador to the Netherlands, raised the Holland Regiment from the starving remnants of those who refused to sign. In 1665, it was known as the 4th (The Holland Maritime) Regiment and by 1668 as the 4th (The Holland) Regiment . When

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4992-476: The British Army as full dress after World War II, although the buff colour was here reduced to piping edging the shoulder straps. Regimental titles in italics indicate they were disbanded or renumbered before 1881. Line infantry Line infantry mainly used three formations in its battles: the line, the square, and the column. With the universal adoption of small arms (firearms that could be carried by hand, as opposed to cannon) in infantry units from

5088-604: The German Jäger ), armed with rifled carbines and trained in aimed shooting and use of defilades . In Britain, much of the light infantry was armed with smooth-bore muskets, only a few regiments used rifled muskets. In France, during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , the division into the Guard, line infantry and light infantry formally continued to exist, line and "light" regiments had identical weaponry (smooth-bore fusils) and tactics. (Napoleon preferred smooth-bore weaponry for their faster reload speeds.) However, each battalion in both line and "light" regiments included

5184-400: The Russian light infantry were equipped with the M1854 rifle, the remainder retaining smoothbore percussion muskets. In the second half of the 19th century, the development of mass production and new technologies, such as the Minié ball , allowed European armies to gradually equip all their infantrymen with rifled weapons, and the percentage of line infantry equipped with muskets fell. In

5280-403: The Sixth Coalition , the training of regular French line infantry recruits was limited due to the relentless attack of the Coalition Forces. A recruit was trained by firing only two cartridges and four blanks. There was also light training of forming several formations. However, training large quantities of elite line infantry was generally a complicated process. In the middle of the 16th century,

5376-429: The army at large. Some regiments (such as the Buffs and Green Howards ) derived their names or nicknames from the colour of their facings and the Duke of Wellington's Regiment (who had red facings) lost their claim to be the only truly red-coated regiment in the British Army. So widespread was opposition to the order, and so frequent the requests for special exceptions to be made, that the scheme in its original form

5472-563: The artillery. Today, the Royal Bermuda Regiment , a 1965 amalgam of the Bermuda Militia Artillery (part of the Royal Regiment of Artillery) and the Bermuda Rifles wears dark blue No. 1 Dress with red facings, recalling its Royal Artillery heritage, while the drummers of its band wear red tunics with black facings (recalling the black facings, buttons and equipment worn by rifle units, which had mostly worn rifle green tunics). The practice of using different facing colours to distinguish individual regiments had been widespread in European armies in

5568-401: The battalion was subsequently stationed at Dover . In 1908, the Volunteers and Militia were reorganised nationally, with the former becoming the Territorial Force and the latter the Special Reserve ; the regiment now had one Reserve and two Territorial battalions. For service in the First World War, ten additional battalions were raised. The 1st Battalion was based in Fermoy as part of

5664-453: The battles of Blenheim , Ramillies , Malplaquet and Oudenarde , before returning to England in August 1714. Until the 1751 reforms, units were commonly named after their current colonel; it reverted to this practice when Prince George of Denmark died in 1708, although it was also referred to as the 'Holland Regiment' or " Buffs " after its coat facings . It was also sometimes called "The Old Buffs", to distinguish it from "The Young Buffs",

5760-478: The best shooting soldiers fight in loose ranks and cover their battalions from the enemy skirmishers. The total number of light infantry reached 40% of the entire field infantry. The sharp increase in the number of light infantry greatly influenced their quality of training and equipment. The Russian infantry of 1854 comprised 108 regiments, of which 42 were line infantry. The remainder were specialized or elite units such as Guards, Grenadiers and Jägers. Only part of

5856-414: The bulk of the French metropolitan Army, although the Chasseurs , who constituted a separate branch, retained yellow facings as a special distinction. The standard red jacket (" redcoat ") worn by British infantry soldiers from the mid-17th century made it difficult to distinguish between units engaged in battle. The use of colour assisted soldiers in rallying on a common point, and each regiment had

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5952-443: The city. The honours in bold were worn on the Colours. The following members of the regiment were awarded the Victoria Cross : In 1667 the Holland Regiment is recorded as wearing "red jackets lined with yellow". Subsequently, Nathan Brook's Army List of 1684 referred to "Coated red, lined with a flesh colour". This marked the beginning of the historic association of the regiment with buff facings (a dull-yellow colour). A notice in

6048-403: The colonies, being stationed at Port Dalrymple , Parramatta , Liverpool , Newcastle , Port Macquarie and Bathurst . The regiment reunited and was transferred to Calcutta in 1827. During their service in New South Wales , The Buffs was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel W. Stewart and Lieutenant Colonel C. Cameron. The regiment also saw action at the siege of Sevastopol in winter 1854 during

6144-550: The commands of the officers. This disrupted the system, while the gunsmoke prevented accurate shooting. Such a shootout in clouds of smoke could occur for an extended period of time and the result was unpredictable. In addition, at the time of the “hot” shootout, the soldiers were so engaged and focused on shooting that they were not watching out for an attack of cavalry from the flank. For these reasons, experienced officers tried to avoid such uncertain exchanges and restrained their soldiers from premature firing in order to get as close to

6240-480: The current officers and soldiers of the modern Regiment, who are proud to belong to the most senior English Regiment of the Line. The Canadian Army also retained these traditional distinctions, and its infantry regiments were organized, titled, and uniformed in full dress as foot guards , fusiliers , light infantry, line infantry, rifles, and kilted infantry regiments. The infantry of most 21st-century armies are still trained in formation manoeuvre and drill , as

6336-427: The division was disbanded in July 1940, due to the casualties it had sustained. In 1942, the 36th Brigade was assigned to the newly raised 78th Division and took part in Operation Torch , the Allied landings in North Africa, followed by the campaign in Tunisia , where the 78th Division, as part of the British First Army , distinguished itself during the crucial capture of Longstop Hill . The division then fought in

6432-477: The enemy’s line as possible so that they could deliver several devastating volleys at a short distance. In some cases, it was possible to defeat the enemy with just one volley at close range. The line was considered the fundamental battle formation as it allowed for the largest deployment of firepower. Against surrounding enemy cavalry, line infantry could swiftly adopt square formations to provide protection. Such squares were hollow (consisting of four lines), unlike

6528-422: The fiercest fighting of the war. The 18th Brigade returned to the 1st Armoured Division in August 1944 but, on 1 January 1945, the division was disbanded and 18th Brigade was broken up and used as replacements for other units. The 1st Buffs spent the rest of the war with the 24th Guards Brigade attached to the 56th (London) Infantry Division . With the 56th Division, the battalion fought in Operation Grapeshot ,

6624-435: The final offensive in Italy which effectively ended the campaign in Italy. The 2nd Battalion was sent to France in 1940 with the 132nd Infantry Brigade attached to the 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Division to join the British Expeditionary Force and fought in the short but fierce Battle of Dunkirk , after which it was evacuated back to Britain. The 44th Division was sent to fight in the North African Campaign, where it

6720-399: The foot troops in most Western European armies. Maurice of Nassau was noted as the first large scale user of linear tactic in Europe, introducing the 'counter-march' to enable his formations of musketeers to maintain a continuous fire. After the invention of the bayonet, musketeers could finally defend themselves from the enemy's horsemen, and the percentage of pikemen fell gradually. In 1699,

6816-406: The home country, line infantry forces were often raised from the local population, with the British East India Company 's sepoys perhaps being the most historically significant example. Line tactics required strict discipline and simple movements practiced to the point where they became second-nature. During training, the drill and corporal punishments were widely used. During 1814, in the War of

6912-479: The material was turned back on itself: the cuffs , lapels and tails of the jacket exposed the contrasting colours of the lining or facings , enabling ready visual distinction of different units: regiments , divisions or battalions each with their own specific and prominent colours. The use of distinctive facings for individual regiments was at its most popular in 18th century armies, but standardisation within infantry branches became more common during and after

7008-497: The melee-oriented pikemen with shallower lines that maximized the firepower of an infantry formation. Besides regular line infantry, there were elite troops (royal guards and other designated elite regiments) and the light infantry . Light infantry operated in extended order (also known as skirmish formation) as opposed to the close order (tight formations) used by line infantry. Since the late 18th century, light infantry in most European countries mostly consisted of riflemen (such as

7104-491: The mid-17th century, the battlefield was dominated by linear tactics , according to which the infantry was aligned into long thin lines, shoulder to shoulder, and fired volleys . A line consisted of two, three, or four ranks of soldiers. The soldiers were expected to fire volleys at the command of officers, but in practice this happened only in the first minutes of the battle. After one or two volleys, each soldier charged his musket and fired at his own discretion, without hearing

7200-467: The movement of units. In Russia, Great Britain, France, Prussia, and some other states, linear tactics and formation discipline were maintained into the late 19th century. With the invention of new weaponry, the concept of line infantry began to wane. The Minié ball , an improved rifle ammunition, allowed individual infantrymen to shoot more accurately and over greatly increased range. Men walking in formation line-abreast became easy targets, as evidenced in

7296-412: The new fusils retained the name "musket". Both muskets and fusils were smoothbore , which lessened their accuracy and range, but made for faster loading, lesser amount of bore fouling and more robust, less complicated firearms. The accuracy of smooth-bore muskets was in the range of 300–400 yd (270–370 m) against a line of infantry or cavalry. Against a single enemy, however, the effective range

7392-407: The pikemen's and old-style musketeers' square. Troops in skirmish formation, though able to take cover and use initiative, were highly vulnerable to cavalry and could not hold ground against advancing infantry columns. Line infantry provided an "anchor" for skirmishers and cavalry to retreat behind if threatened. Movement in line formation was slow, and unless the battalion was superbly trained,

7488-560: The regiment served under Sir John Moore at the Battle of Corunna in January 1809 before being evacuated to England later that month. The rest of the regiment remained on the Peninsula and fought at the Battle of Talavera in July 1809 and the Battle of Bussaco in September 1810 before falling back to the Lines of Torres Vedras . It then saw action at the Battle of Albuera in May 1811 and

7584-622: The regiment was amalgamated with the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment to form the Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment , which was later merged, on 31 December 1966, with the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment , the Royal Sussex Regiment and the Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) to form the Queen's Regiment . This, in turn, was amalgamated with the Royal Hampshire Regiment , in September 1992, to create

7680-409: The remainder of the 18th century both the dragon and the buff facings (worn on cuffs, lapels and coat linings) remained as particular distinctions of the regiment. A Royal Warrant of 1751 standardising all colours (flags), badges and uniforms listed the "3rd Regiment, or The Buffs". The Buffs were at this time the only infantry regiment to owe their official title to their facing colours. The green dragon

7776-527: The rifle companies are referred to as "line officers" while billeted to positions such as Platoon Leaders and Commanding and Executive Officers. Facings A facing colour , also known as facings , is a common tailoring technique for European military uniforms where the visible inside lining of a standard military jacket , coat or tunic is of a different colour to that of the garment itself. The jacket lining evolved to be of different coloured material, then of specific hues . Accordingly, when

7872-628: The same time two Kent rifle volunteer corps were redesignated as the 1st Volunteer Battalion and 2nd (The Weald of Kent) Volunteer Battalion of the Buffs. The 1st Battalion saw action in the Anglo-Egyptian War , was from 1885 stationed at Malta, then moved to India where it saw several postings, including in Shwebo in inland Burma until late 1902 when it moved to Poona . The 2nd Battalion, 3rd Battalion, 1st Volunteer (Militia) Battalion and 2nd Volunteer (Weald of Kent) Battalion all saw action during

7968-631: The scarlet uniforms were normally worn only by regimental bands and by officers in mess and levee dress. As examples, the Norfolk Regiment regained its former yellow facings in 1925 and the North Staffordshire Regiment its pre-1881 black facings in 1937. In the Royal Artillery and various supporting corps, full dress tunics that were worn up until 1914 were actually dark blue, sometimes with facings in other colours, including red for

8064-574: The second half of the nineteenth century, regiments in several European armies retained the "line infantry" (or cavalry) title. This designation had come to mean an army's regular or numbered regiments, as opposed to specialist or elite formations. Accordingly, the distinction had become a traditional title or classification without significance regarding armament or tactics. For example, the Belgian Army order of battle in 1914 comprised 14 regiments of Infanterie de Ligne (line infantry), three of Chasseurs

8160-451: The twine sometimes would accidentally set fire to the gunpowder reservoir in the musket prematurely setting off the gunpowder, resulting in serious injury or death to the operator. For this reason and others, matchlock muskets began to be replaced by lighter and cheaper infantry fusils with flintlocks , weighing 5 kg (11 lb) with a caliber of 17.5 mm (0.69 in), first in France and then in other countries. In many countries,

8256-472: The unsuccessful army reforms of Paul I, the number of light infantry in the Russian army was significantly reduced and made up only 8% of the entire field infantry. However, the Russian army soon returned to the trend of increasing the number of light infantry, begun in the 18th century. By 1811, 50 light infantry regiments were formed in the Russian army. In addition, each linear battalion was required to have 100 of

8352-462: Was also adopted by Commonwealth military units that adopted dress distinctions from affiliated units of the British Army . In 1881 an attempt was made, as an economy measure, to standardise facing colours for British infantry regiments (other than the four rifle regiments who wore dark green uniforms) according to the following system: While this standardisation made the manufacturing and replacement of uniforms simpler, it proved unpopular amongst

8448-511: Was broken up due to an apparently poor performance in the Battle of Alam el Halfa despite the division having just the 132nd Brigade under command as other brigades had been detached to other divisions. The 132nd Brigade disbanded and 2nd Buffs was then transferred to the Far East with the 26th Indian Infantry Brigade and remained there for the war. In 1944, the brigade was redesignated the 26th British Infantry Brigade , which itself became part of

8544-460: Was changed only after the dethronement of Napoleon III. This was common practice in all conventional Western armies until the late 19th century, as infantry tactics and military thinking had yet to catch up with technological developments. In the years after the Napoleonic Wars, line infantry continued to be deployed as the main battle force, while light infantry provided fire support and covered

8640-415: Was finally dropped and the historic colours were re-instated in a number of regiments, until full dress for the Army as a whole finally vanished with the coming of war in 1914. While many regiments did continue with their new 1881 facings, instances where reversion to traditional colours was approved included: Even after World War I this tendency to revert to historic facings continued, although by that time

8736-425: Was later merged, on 31 December 1966, with the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment , the Royal Sussex Regiment and the Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) to form the Queen's Regiment . This regiment was, in turn, amalgamated with the Royal Hampshire Regiment , in September 1992, to create the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (Queen's and Royal Hampshires) . The Dutch fight for independence from Spain in

8832-468: Was no more than 50–100 yd (46–91 m). It should be borne in mind that ordinary linear infantrymen were poorly trained in aimed shooting, due to the expense of gunpowder and lead (modern reenactors achieve much better results by firing smooth-bore muskets). Line infantrymen were trained in rapid reloading. The recruit was expected to load 3 rounds a minute, while an experienced soldier could load 4–6 rounds per minute. In battle conditions, this number

8928-567: Was recorded in the same document as the "ancient badge" of the Buffs – displayed as a woven or painted device on the mitre cap of the Regiment's grenadiers , the colours and the drums. In 1881, the reorganisation of most infantry regiments on a territorial basis under the Childers Reforms led to the newly renamed "The Buffs (East Kent Regiment)" losing its buff facings in favour of the white collars and cuffs intended to distinguish all non-Royal English and Welsh regiments. The dragon survived as part of

9024-485: Was reduced and after the first few minutes of combat, no more than 2 rounds per minute could be expected even from well trained troops. The bulk of the line infantry had no protective equipment, as armor that could provide protection from musket fire were considered too expensive and heavy. Only the former elite troops could keep by tradition some elements of protection, for example, the copper mitre caps of grenadiers. Initially, soldiers equipped with firearms formed only

9120-562: Was retitled the 3rd Regiment of Foot, "The Buffs" . The Seven Years' War began in 1756; in autumn 1758, the regiment was posted to the West Indies , taking part in the January 1759 attacks on Martinique and Guadeloupe . After returning home, it took part in the capture of Belle Île in June 1761. It then moved to Portugal and fought at the Battle of Valencia de Alcántara in August 1762 before returning to England in spring 1771. The regiment

9216-650: Was sent to the West Indies in December 1795 for service in the French Revolutionary Wars . It took part in the capture of Grenada in March 1796 and of Saint Vincent in June 1796 and the capture of Trinidad in February 1797 and of various other islands in March 1801 before returning home in autumn 1802. The regiment embarked for Portugal in August 1808 for service in the Peninsular War . The grenadier company of

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