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Happy Anniversary
Aug. 24th, 2007 09:34 amA few years ago now I found myself in Shrewsbury on a grey and rainy afternoon and so on a whim I decided to go round the regimental museum of the Shropshire Regiment. The British Isles are dotted with these little museums dedicated to a past rather more militaristic than the present and they're slowly vanishing in the advent of defense budget cuts, which I think a shame in a 'only understand the future by remembering the past' sort of way, but I digress.
Whilst strolling round the museum looking at weaponry and pictures and regimental colours and the rest I came across something utterly unexpected; tucked away without any fuss in a corner in a glass case, with only a pictureboard next to it to identify it, was the baton of office of Reichsmarshall Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz - Hitlers nominated successor and last leader of the Third Reich. It turned out that Doenitz's personal surrender, and therefore the definitive end of the war in Europe in 1945, was accepted not by Eisenhauer in person or anything like that, but instead by a couple of military policemen from the Shropshire regiment and as a result they were allowed to keep his stuff.
I find it rather satisfying that after the horror of the previous decade or more, the whole show was brought to a close by a couple of rough lads from Oswestry who only got the job because they were better with a truncheon than their brains.
The baton is pretty impressive - about a foot of platinum and purple velvet, dotted with gold swastikas and eagles. Just the thing for a villain to be waving about in his mountain base before falling into his own reactor.
There's something charmingly British about putting what is a fairly potent symbol in such an unprepossessing place; if Stalin had got his grubby mitts on it, he'd've probably kept it in his bedroom to get out in the early hours and touch in an unnatural way. If the US had captured it then it'd've probably got it's own wing in the Smithsonian by now. As it is, it's tucked away in a quiet corner beside battle honours ranging ranging from Napoleon, the Emperor of China, the Kaiser and Nana Sahib to General Galtieri and Saddam Hussein as if to say "Pft. What's one more tyrant?"
Finding this got me looking at the history of the Shropshire regiment and it's pretty impressive; they sorted out Napoleon at Salamanca and then guarded him on St Helena, they fought at Sobraon (possibly the greatest forgotten battle of the imperial era), they invaded Dunkirk, and more.
And, most pertinent of all, on 24th August 1814 - 193 years ago today - they stormed Washington, D.C., and burned it to the ground. The only major buildings to survive were the US patent office and the newspaper, the National inteligencier, which expedition leader George Cockburn was persuaded not to destroy by local women who feared the fire would spread to their homes. Instead he simply destroyed all copies of the letter 'C' on the presses, so the paper could not write anything bad about him.
I think that's my favourite bit.
Anyway...
If you go down to the DC today, you're sure of a big surprise
If you go down to the DC today, you may not believe your eyes.
For ev'ry Brit that ever there was, will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the British burned down the White House.
For Uncle Sam it's one of those days, the capitol has been set ablaze
'Cause that's the way the British burned down the White House.
Whilst strolling round the museum looking at weaponry and pictures and regimental colours and the rest I came across something utterly unexpected; tucked away without any fuss in a corner in a glass case, with only a pictureboard next to it to identify it, was the baton of office of Reichsmarshall Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz - Hitlers nominated successor and last leader of the Third Reich. It turned out that Doenitz's personal surrender, and therefore the definitive end of the war in Europe in 1945, was accepted not by Eisenhauer in person or anything like that, but instead by a couple of military policemen from the Shropshire regiment and as a result they were allowed to keep his stuff.
I find it rather satisfying that after the horror of the previous decade or more, the whole show was brought to a close by a couple of rough lads from Oswestry who only got the job because they were better with a truncheon than their brains.
The baton is pretty impressive - about a foot of platinum and purple velvet, dotted with gold swastikas and eagles. Just the thing for a villain to be waving about in his mountain base before falling into his own reactor.
There's something charmingly British about putting what is a fairly potent symbol in such an unprepossessing place; if Stalin had got his grubby mitts on it, he'd've probably kept it in his bedroom to get out in the early hours and touch in an unnatural way. If the US had captured it then it'd've probably got it's own wing in the Smithsonian by now. As it is, it's tucked away in a quiet corner beside battle honours ranging ranging from Napoleon, the Emperor of China, the Kaiser and Nana Sahib to General Galtieri and Saddam Hussein as if to say "Pft. What's one more tyrant?"
Finding this got me looking at the history of the Shropshire regiment and it's pretty impressive; they sorted out Napoleon at Salamanca and then guarded him on St Helena, they fought at Sobraon (possibly the greatest forgotten battle of the imperial era), they invaded Dunkirk, and more.
And, most pertinent of all, on 24th August 1814 - 193 years ago today - they stormed Washington, D.C., and burned it to the ground. The only major buildings to survive were the US patent office and the newspaper, the National inteligencier, which expedition leader George Cockburn was persuaded not to destroy by local women who feared the fire would spread to their homes. Instead he simply destroyed all copies of the letter 'C' on the presses, so the paper could not write anything bad about him.
I think that's my favourite bit.
Anyway...
If you go down to the DC today, you're sure of a big surprise
If you go down to the DC today, you may not believe your eyes.
For ev'ry Brit that ever there was, will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the British burned down the White House.
For Uncle Sam it's one of those days, the capitol has been set ablaze
'Cause that's the way the British burned down the White House.
