Who Were the "British Grenadiers"?
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- Опубліковано 9 чер 2021
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The "British Grenadiers" are possibly the most iconic soldiers of all the 18th Century. That's not surprising, with their great bearskin or mitre caps, impressive height and strength, and notorious reputation for battlefield excellence. But who exactly were these brave heroes? Much is said of the British Grenadiers, but much is also rather inaccurate! Did you know, for example, that for much of the later 18th Century, the "Grenadiers" didn't even use grenades?
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Also, sorry my greenscreen is a little off here and there. I bought a few new little lights to carry with me so we should be able to avoid that in future!
During the (all too famous) last Ottoman siege of Vienna, the Ottomans used Glass grenades, while the Austrians/European forces used iron ones.
I have no clue of the Ottomans used glass ones later on, still. It'd be an interesting thing to have a look at.
Also- during the offensive from Rangoon upstrram to the then- city of Ava, in 1825? 26? (Alright I forgot the year) it was the Grenadier company of one of the few units sent there (I believe a Highland regiment?), spent a good week rowing upstream in jollyboats, landing every time they came under fire from Burmese troops, and then charged the stockades, by bayonet... Hardly even firing until they chances the enemy out of the stockades abd had them flee through the forests and jundles.
I'm thought i had signed up for your patreon fella, did it not go through? Just the base level membership?? Just wondering?
@@dick_richards Sorry, it may just be a timing thing! I probably made the credits for this one before you signed in. Newer videos will have it!
@@BrandonF Sorry i should have explained Brother, I don't mean to sound vain.
It wasn't the name i was worried about, i was legit wondering if you got the money or not Buddy.
With all due respect, and please don't take me wrong here, but just so you get my pov, the name thing doesn't matter in the slightest too me, it just lets me know you got the money i tried to donate to you my man. It's not much, but the butter is spread kinda thin these day's unfortunately.
You're one of the very few i support. The quality of your videos, and your proper usage of the English Language are commendable Sir.
@@BrandonF I appreciate the way you present your case. It's nice to see someone use the English Language properly, for a change. God Bless U and Your's Brother
Sometimes less is more; I think your editor is trying to keep the camera moving at all times to try to fill dead space. The pop-up graphics are a nice touch but the camera constantly zooming in and out and all around can get dizzying. Just some constructive feedback, keep up the good work.
Agreed. That camera is moving far too much.
Sounds good! Thank you!
Yooooooooo The Armchair Historian saw this video
Indeed, the camerawork and unnecessary popups make otherwise brilliant work seem tacky and forced
it bothered me as well
One of the upgrades for grenadier companies was boss music. Not many historians mention it.
Hey Puffin
@@napoleonbonaparte45 more like Napoleon Blown Apart
@@napoleonbonaparte45 :)
@@thepuffin4050 :( big sad
Grens are basically feared in cqc
The grenadiers were obviously drummers you need to play more Assassin’s Creed Brandon.
@Random guy.mp3 and they waited their turns to attack a single person.
Iirc the grenadiers in AC were basically pioneers from highland regiments.
I am confused, there are Seljuks and Crusaders everywhere. Nobody uses drums. Help.
@@hannibalburgers477 that's ac1. Dudes talking about ac3
Why did I instinctively know that you were going to read out the lyrics of “British Grenadiers”
because how can one not?
@@vroomkaboom108 Read it? Brandon probably knows all four verses by heart!
Sure, I'd love to know more about the development of the grenade.
"Once the fuse is lit, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend"
First used during the Crusades I believe m
@@Plymouth888 "bring up the holy hand grenade of Antioch"
@@anthonyhayes1267 Well done!
"Three shall be the number of thy counting."
Also check out Sir William Congreve as the rocket also used an exploding warhead
Interesting bit of trivia was that, when improvements to technology resulted in practical grenades during WW 1, officers for the Grenadier Guards insisted that soldiers using them couldn't be called grenadiers so as not to dilute the traditional title. So the grenades had to be called bombs instead of grenades and the troops using them bombers.
Lol
Oh that song was cool. Impressive they made an entire military unit about it.
Brandon: "You can't just take all the tallest people of the army and slap them into one big "TaLl PeRsOn ReGiMeNt "
Freidrich I of Prussia: "And that's where you're wrong kiddo."
And he enjoyed having them parade through his bedroom while he fiddled with bits of his undercover.
That's what I read.
One of the tallest guys he got was kidnapped in the UK, sent to him in a box, the guy was dead on arrival.
Box was too small.
Ah, I love history memes.
And old Friedrich Wilhelm was so fond of them he never let them anywhere near combat.
When Friedrich II (Friedrich der Grosse) became king he disbanded them.
The British also did that for an attack on Tibet, on the basis that they believed taller men were inherently more suited to high altitudes. It wasn't entirely accurate, but there was some logic
His son was also very much into tall men. To one certain officer so much that at a certain point Freddy-the-not-quite-so-Great-Yet attempted to elope with him in an actual horseback flight if I remember correctly they were caught tho and his father must have been jealous or some shit because he eventually pressured his son into ending the affair (no idea to which degree this was an open secret) by threatening to cut off his son's boyfriend's head (and maybe that other thing he might cut off to prevent his son's ah... 'Rise' to Frederick the 'Great').
Source: vague memory of a wikipedia article
You have to give Brandon some respect when you realize he wears that nice coat even in the scorching hot summer.
Edit: The Swedish grenadiers have barged into my house and are holding me hostage because I watched a video on the British grenadiers and not one about them.
That last one got me lol.
Its his Bermuda shorts and socks bellow shot that helps.
In one word: Heroes
Legendary
Tomatoes
The Grenadier Guards got their modern name after the Battle of Waterloo, where it was mistakenly reported that they defeated the Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard in the final French attack. In fact it was the Chasseurs of the Guard (still part of the "Old Guard" though)
Everybody gansta til the Cuthbertson comes out.
If the British army in North America was like high school then the grenadiers would definitely be the guys who would be the jocks or would be on the football team.
A video about why grenades fell out of usage would be cool
It's probably about how technology between two sides in a battle have changed since the first application of grenades. Since muskets early on didn't have a very large effective distance, soldiers were far closer to each other, and so grenades could be very effective, and in WW1 and WW2 did grenades stop being so useful. Artillery was now far more effective due to rifling being a very common practice for both firearms and guns. This meant if you needed to blow something up, you could just have the artillery bomb the hell out of the location, and if you needed to bomb a place from short range, you either had your hand grenades, or an attachment for someone's rifle from which you could launch a grenade. Then in the 70s you had aircraft like the AC-130 that could act as artillery, but now it didn't have to be indirect fire, and that meant a bombardment could be fired far more accurately. Now grenade rifles are also less like the old plug bayonets, and more like socket bayonets, in the form of essentially another firearm mounted to the bottom of your firearm.
Well that's my take on it anyway, I could be largely wrong.
@@sumvs5992 in modern conflict hand-grenades are widely used and are an essential part of the rifleman's kit.
early hand-grenades were more like small cannon shells with thick walls (the French 1777 grenade was a 9.5cm [3.77in] affair weighing 1.9kg [4.19Lb]) which meant they were inconvenient to use and hard to deploy safely (most grenades could be thrown really further than 15-16 paces, or about 12m), in addition that most often they would be closed by a wooden plug which would absorb moisture and render the powder ineffective.
all of this was due to the limitations in manufacturing capabilities and technology, along with muskets becoming better and better leading to less opportunities to throw grenades. so military tactics evolved away from using them in the field.
this changed with WWI and WWII, the generalisation of trench warfare and street combat where ranges can be very close made the grenade a much useful tool in the rifle company, so early on old stocks of round grenades were used, sometimes slightly updated before more modern (and lighter) examples could be developed and fielded, which was rendered possible with the industrialisation and development of better explosives
Modern hand grenades came into being during World War I. The Mills bomb was the first conventional modern fragmentation grenade and was perfect for trench warfare. They definitely have not gone out of fashion and they are very versatile combat tools in the 21st century. Ask any soldier who wants to blow something up without exposing themselves to fire.
@@marmite8959 i would wager the French F1 (May 1915) was first
@@quentintin1 probably yeah, I'd only heard of the mills bomb but I'm not an expert by any means
I literally worked with a member of the British grenadier guards who had a grenade launcher on his his L85A2 and was a grenadier
I'm sure you know this, but two men in every British infantry squad carry a UGL-equipped rifle.
@@skepticalbadger yea but he got a good laugh out of actually being a grenadier
PS they could also be women , While I didnt personally meat any female infantry, but that doesn't mean there are not any
Im also in the grenadiers, we just got our first two female soldiers👍🏻
Thank you for your service.
@@callin141 sorry for your loss
Best sponsor messages made by youtubers in history:
1. Brandon F.
2. Oversimplified
and Caddicarus
Great job on 100 thousand Brandon! You’ve come such a far way!
47 more to go! It's so surreal to think about. Thank you!
Didn't expect to see Napoleon dropping a favorable comment under a video about British troops
@@BrandonF I've been with you since the start Brandon i am so happy to see your channel grow this far I love this channel very much and you taught me so much thank you.
@@BrandonF Time to bring out the alt accounts.
@@thepuffin4050 eh, I have admitted my defeat to the British. I can’t win again, so.
Yes please on more info about grenade use!!
They go bang, they throw out shrapnel, you end up unwell...... end of.
What about the rank of Chosen Man?
@@Marinealver What exactly do you not understand about the stages between the Greek Slave ownership The Middle Ages Serfdom And Early 1700's Britain where a young man of High Birth would have had a group of Servants dedicated to his Service So consequently going into Military Service as a young Officer he would be allowed to choose his men !!!
I would love a video on the light infantry, I really want to hear the differences between them and the grenadiers. I am just imagining that they are the smol Bois. great video
How I had heard it explained years ago (though I'm no expert), the Gredadiers were chosen from the most physically fit in order to throw grenades the furthest (which of course makes sense). But as armies decided that grenades maybe weren't really that useful they still saw a usefulness of having a group of really strong lads and so they started to use them for other purposes.
Hello Brandon! I was at Vincennes Rendezvous with Wayne’s Light Infantry, and I met a very nice couple named Paul and Ellen. It was amazing to talk to people who know you personally! Very cool.
I feel like Brandon would be the perfect stereotype of an elegant history teacher
I mean… he already is. Just on UA-cam instead of at some overpriced university.
@@cecilyerker you need to pay for university ? Why?
About the Grenadier Guards, there is an interesting history. When Charles II came to power, around 1660, he brought a small unit of soldiers who had followed him into exile, while Cromwell ruled England. These men became the First Foot Guards since they were men of absolute loyalty. A group of Cromwell's soldiers assembled at the village of Coldstream and came over to Charles's cause. Their reward was to become the Second Foot Guards. But this rankled, because, on the one hand, they were a guards regiment, but, on the other, their loyalty was seen as not quite on the same level as the First Foot. The Second made their motto 'Nullis Secundis'; that is, 'Second to None.'
By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Second had proved their point, particularly by holding onto a key strong point at Waterloo, La Haye Sainte. The Second Foot became the Coldstream Guards and the First Foot became the Grenadier Guards.
We all know what you did at the start there Brandon 😌
I knew he was gonna do that as the ads were playing hahhahaha
Was not even mad when he started his advertisement. This man is as entertaining as he is knowledgeable of his craft.
Thank you for the videos.
18:10 - "They were the chosen men"
**desire to rewatch Sharpe intensifies**
Now thats soldiering
@@thatoneguy7028 sad nostalgia noises
"General Burgoyne! Your orders?"
"SPEED AND POWER!!!! I mean..... how hard can it possibly be??"
"Just because you are tall, doesn't make you elite"
Frederick William (mid-kidnapping): - obstinate screeching-
I wish more people did their sponsored adverts like this. Made me smile.
A video on the decline and resurgence of hand grenades would be most welcome. It's a fascinating topic that I'm sure you could do justice.
Oh looks like he’s approaching 100k! A preemptive congratulation to the good sir for his contributions both to history and entertainment here on UA-cam. God bless!
Very well edited video, brandon!
Congratulations on 100,000 subscribers. I'm very glad you are doing this, and not a university professor, limited to teaching a select few. At 100,000 you are still criminally undersubscribed. Thanks for being a UA-cam Uni professor.
Brandon you better make a video explaining the decline of the Grenade, I really look forward to it!
Great video! insight, explanation and pictures!
Great topic, great opening, great animations and even better information. Great work!
Thank you for doing this video! It was very helpful! I am glad to find others out there that appreciate British Military History!
Even when I was in the British army the right flank company on parade was called the Grenadier company. For some reason they tended to be the company best at drill even though there was no plan for this, institutional memory. The left flank company was often the one that had the soldiers who were a bit more street wise like the light infantry. I think these traits continue to this day.
In Rick Atkinson’s book the Long Grey Line similar institutional memory persist with the flank companies at West Point.
I always thought that it is simply tradition "right wing is the position of honour", descended from Romans. So it makes sense to have your best guys there.
Lovely from start to finish. Notably the end.... nice touch
Congratulations to the 100,000 subscribers, you fully deserve it !!
Congratulations on 100,000 subscribers!
It's always nice to wake up and find that Brandon not only has uploaded a new video but also talking about one your favourite units of the 18th century.
Great video and my sincere congratulations for the 100k subscribers!
P.S: please consider doing the video explaining the decline of the use of hand granades on the battlefield, it sounds like a great topic
We've got a Grenadier Pond, here in High Park, which is in Toronto, Canada, not in the UK.
I wonder why?
Well done Brandon another great video.
Great video. Thank You & Very useful information always. Peace & Health
Happy 100k Brandon :D
Happy 100k man.
A very tight and well made video.
Woot woot 100k subscribers. Good job and keep it up👍
wow that was the smoothest ad transmission i've ever seen
The most entertaining ad I think I have ever seen.
Not to brag but I'm pretty sure I was one of your first 2000 subs and have been watching for a while. I just wanted to say you're awesome. I love historical content, and you do a fine job of entertaining while informing. I'm jealous of the re-enacting, tbh. I'd just about kill to get a Revolutionary era Royal Welch Fusilier or Coldstream Guards uniform for myself. I had kin in both regiments. I actually had kin who was a Captain in the Coldstream Guards at Yorktown (later promoted to Lt. Col). Anyway, keep up the good work. You have certainly improved vastly.
Hey Brandon could you do a video on the early colonial aspect of the French British and native Americans leading up to the French and Indian war and there interactions.
100,000 subscribers, nice job!
Excellent information and a God-tier sponsorship plug.
Very informative, and answered a question I'd wondered about.
I served 13 years in the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards. During training we were regularly tested on Regimental history.
I cannot fault your research other than to note that the 1st regiment of foot became the Grenadier Guards after defeating the elite Grenadier company of the French Imperial Guard and taking the bearskin cap, now worn on parade in London as a battle honour.
P.S. Serious props on the seamless and hilarious segwe to the sponsor.
Oh Mr. O'Toole, the French Imperial Guard had a corps of Grenadiers and a corps of Chasseurs and in the regiments of each most were only one type of soldier, that is, the Old Guard regiment of the Corps of Grenadiers was the 1st Grenadiers-a-Pied (at Waterloo also the 2nd), and every soldier was a grenadier. There was no elite flank company of grenadiers.
Also, Matlin's brigade faced the 3rd and 4th Grenadiers-a-Pied and 3rd and 4th Chasseurs-a-Pied, which weren't the Old Guard, they were the Middle Guard.
And they were not really uniformed or equipped consistently, and were wearing their blue greatcoats and carrying muskets with cord for slings. So while they had the hearts of veterans they had the appearance of militia.
So whoever wrote your regimental history should check his French language sources.
Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules
Of Hector and Lysander, and such great names as these.
But of all the world's great heroes, there's none that can compare.
With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, to the British Grenadiers.
Those heroes of antiquity ne'er saw a cannon ball,
Or knew the force of powder to slay their foes withal.
But our brave boys do know it, and banish all their fears,
With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, for the British Grenadiers.
Whene'er we are commanded to storm the palisades,
Our leaders march with fusees, and we with hand grenades.
We throw them from the glacis, about the enemies' ears.[N 1]
Sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, the British Grenadiers.
And when the siege is over, we to the town repair.
The townsmen cry, "Hurrah, boys, here comes a Grenadier!
Here come the Grenadiers, my boys, who know no doubts or fears!
Then sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, the British Grenadiers.
Then let us fill a bumper, and drink a health of those
Who carry caps and pouches, and wear the loupèd clothes.
May they and their commanders live happy all their years.
With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, for the British Grenadiers.
The loups are to hold the grenades.
If anyone who read that comment didn’t sing The British Grenadiers aloud immediately, they are a traitor to His Majesty. God Save the King! 🇬🇧
Brandon, you do good work, keep up the content and you'll be up top, no question
Hope you eventually do a video on the Grenadan Britishiers one day.
Ah, a nice start to my evening! Thank you, sir!
Thanks for the 22nd shoutout 👍🏼
I wonder how much of a difference just having the title of Grenadier made for the individual soldiers in terms of morale. If you're an average Joe line infantryman, you might feel there's a lot less riding on you so you're not as sharp or prepared to die in the line of duty. But if you're a *British Grenadier* and you're given an order to advance or to hold, you might be a lot more willing to follow the orders to the letter just because you don't want to shame yourself more than you would otherwise. Just an idea.
That was perhaps a contributing factor. But the main advantage was that of bundling multiple Grenadier companies together into a strong elite force which could attack the enemy at a critical point on the map. And you know that those high quality men will not break for anything. And if not even the best troops in your army can hold - then will your other men not be able to do much either.
During World War II did the Germans run low on manpower so old men and young boys without military training and proper equipment was sent out to fight. Those units were named "Grenadiers" and "Sturm" and other scary things. Volksgrenadier division or Volksturm.
A cool name for his unit might perhaps cheer up a young boy sent out to fight a hopeless fight. And the name might as well also have confused the allies, and perhaps scared them at first by making them believe they were going to face heavy infantry - soldiers with much fire power weapons at their disposal and sturm (storm) troopers.
The Germans also named their weapons the same way: "sturmgewehr" aka "storm rifle", was called so because it would boost morale a bit when the war had been going bad for a long time. Naming it "machine-pistol" as its first name was did not seem to be a powerful name for the worlds first assault rifle.
Congrats Brandon on the 100k subs
Brandon! You did it, 100 thousand subscribers!
Napoleons are coming up, but which one is the real?
Congratulations on 100k
A Top Gear and a Team Fortress 2 references in a Brandon F video. I am quite happy.
Thank you for this! I’ve been researching my family history and recently found out one of my ancestors was a grenadier in the King’s Royal Regiment of New York during the American Revolution. Jacob Sheets Jr, served 1780-84.
grenade history is actually quite fascinating and worth an episode
Brandon great job with the vpn advert! Seriously incorporating your Posh Historian manner into it was truly a blast to watch!😊
2:56 now I know what the ro in the British grenadiers song stands for
Please could you do a video like this on the Royal Marines, they are one of the most decorated outfits in the British military but they don't get enough recognition and I'm currently waiting to start training to be a RM commando myself so any extra history on the corps would go a long way :) cheers for the great content.
Going in the RM Commandos? Proud of you son!
This old US Marine says "Semper Fidelis" to you!
@@wayneantoniazzi2706 Thank you for your service 🇺🇸
@@cecilyerker That's so kind of you! I appreciate it!
@@wayneantoniazzi2706 thanks, I’ve passed my first few tests now onto my medical, thank you for your service 🙏 🇺🇸🇬🇧
@@Centurion1993 Thaks very kind of you! Thanks!
Great job Brandon. Any plans to do a video of the irish regiments? Hard men from a hard country.
Grenadiers as light infantry: in their early days the grenadiers often operated as looser formed troops to undertake more irregular tasks such as (but not exclusively) throwing grenades. Indeed, these tasks seemed to continue in the Austrian army whilst grenadiers became more formal in other armies.
Brandon: ( On the subject of the dangers of grenades) They aren't that safe for people on the receiving end, but they aren't meant to be.
Me: Fair enough
Well done on a 100k subs Brandon.
Wow! The song at the beginning!
I’m pretty sure it would have been James May advising Gentleman Johnny.
I saw the title and i already knew that you were going to quote the song
This explanation video shall aid and assist many young inquiring minds.
This is the best sponsorship ad I've ever seen.
The concept of Brigading is alive and well in modern doctrine under the term battlegrouping. A Battalion loses (a) company /(ies) and gains armoured squadron(s) as well as specialist support (engrs, med, arty) to form a combined arms manoeuvre unit to complete a specific task or tasks.
I see brandon is experimenting with new editing, very cool
I think he hired one. He was talking about doing so in one dedicated video
@@_0_restart_0_ yeah i didnt pay much attention to the channel in a while so i probably missed it
Yep! The fellow's name is listed at the end. He's one of my new editors!
Strangely enough, if I were an officer back then, and my superior officer would say to me "choose a company to give one grenade to each men", I would chose light infantry, more prone to be mobile, to be ambushing and harassing the enemy. One grenade can be thrown from an advantageous point. And since those guys were supposed to be athletic anyway, it's not one grenade that will handicap them a lot.
Brandon you're on 100k congratulations
Thank you for this video!! Really inspiring!🇬🇧❤️💂🏻♀️👍😀❤🇬🇧
The Grenadier Guards got thier name after the battle of Waterloo after defeating Napoleon's grenadiers
I thought that they got their bearskin hats rather than their name from Napoleon’s grenadiers
@@edwardbayfield1401 it was both. They adopted that style of bearskin after taking them from dead soldiers as trophies, and they got thier name after defeating Napoleon's grenadiers
@@babyinuyasha yeah, bearskin caps were becoming more unpopular at the time, and I can't blame them, those things look heavy.
under a 100 to a hundred k since there will probably not be another video before you get a few more subscribers congratulations. 🎉🎉🎉 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
Thanks so much! Only about fifty to go, now!
at the 6:00 mark, I guess we might also mention that the U.S. military has this little section of soldiers called the "Marines" that don't seem to have anything to do with oceans or sailing.
I'd kill for a series on regiment structure for prussia and other nations during napolenic wars all that fun. But keep up the videos I love being able to get home from work and learn history
>Opens with lyrics to The British Grenadiers
Remember lads…
sheeesh
Hoo, that's a spicy one.
Interesting fact:
In WW2, the Private rank in Germany was renamed from Sczutze to Grenadier.
to the guillotine, citizen, you are accused of tyranny 🔪
It was a bit more complicated than that, it depended on the regiment /organization/MOS. A German Army private's rank could be "Schutze," "Grenadier," "Kanonier," or "Soldat." In the SS it was "SS-Mann."
Too much to go into here, but Google "WW2 German Army Ranks" for the whole array.
@@wayneantoniazzi2706 Aye, I forgot to mention that it was specifically an Army thing. SS and even the Volksturm, let alone the Luftwaffe and Kroegsmarine, had their own ranks.
But it did not depend on the regiment. It was renamed for everyone in the Army.
Remember: Once the fuze has been lit, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
TL;DW:
Grenadiers are heavy infantry with connotations of eliteness.
Each Regiment had 12 Companies- ten of Fusiliers, one of Light Infantry, one of Grenadiers.
The British Army would form Task Forces comprised of Grenadiers from various regiments.
One of your tunes is also a german christmas song named Tochter Zion. Made the video very wholesome to me.
The rise and fall and rise again of grenades would be a fun video.
Thank you for this great historical overview.
Best greetings from Hamburg, Germany.
A former tank grenadier.
Great video, nice ad :)
Bradon starting to look like that one British General who will tell stories to boost morale but in this case he was late for like 221yrs