Королевские фузилеры: История британского полка

Line infantry regiment of the British Army
the historic regiment

The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. It was known as the 7th Regiment of Foot until the Childers Reforms of 1881. The regiment served in many wars and conflicts throughout its long existence, including the Second Boer War, the First World War and the Second World War. In 1968, the regiment was amalgamated with the other regiments of the Fusilier Brigade – the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, the Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers and the Lancashire Fusiliers – to form a new large regiment, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. The Royal Fusiliers War Memorial, a monument dedicated to the almost 22,000 Royal Fusiliers who died during the First World War, stands on Holborn in the City of London.

It was formed as a fusilier regiment in 1685 by George Legge, 1st Baron Dartmouth, from two companies of the Tower of London guard, and was originally called the Ordnance Regiment, later the Royal Regiment of Fuziliers (a variety of spellings of the word "fusilier" persisted until the 1780s, when the modern spelling was formalised). Most regiments were equipped with matchlock muskets at the time, but the Ordnance Regiment were armed with flintlock fusils. This was because their task was to be an escort for the artillery, for which matchlocks would have carried the risk of igniting the open topped barrels of gunpowder. The regiment was also known by the names of its colonels until 1751. before returning home in 1690. It embarked for Flanders later that year and fought at the Battle of Steenkerque in August 1692 and the Battle of Landen in July 1693 and the Siege of Namur in summer 1695 before returning home. The regiment took part in an expedition which captured the town of Rota in Spain in spring 1702 and then saw action at the Battle of Vigo Bay in October 1702 during the War of the Spanish Succession. The regiment served as Marines aboard Royal Navy ships in 1703 (and again in 1718–18, April 1742 (details only), and 1756–57). The regiment was broken up into detachments that served at Montreal, Quebec, Fort Chambly and Fort St Johns (Saint Jean sur Richelieu). In the face of the American invasion of Canada in 1775/76, the 80 man garrison of Fort Chambly attempted to resist a 400 man Rebel force but ultimately had to surrender, losing its regimental colours as a result. The bulk of the regiment was captured when St John's fell. A 70 man detachment under the command of Captain Humphrey Owens assisted with the Battle of Quebec in December 1775. The men taken prisoner during the defence of Canada were exchanged in British held New York City in December 1776. Here, the regiment was rebuilt and garrisoned New York and New Jersey. In October 1777, the 7th participated in the successful assaults on Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery and the destruction of enemy stores at Continental Village. In late November, 1777 the regiment reinforced the garrison of Philadelphia. During the British evacuation back to New York City, the regiment participated in a diversionary raid in the days leading up to the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778. The 7th participated in Tryon's raid in July 1779. In April 1780, the Royal Fusiliers took part in the capture of Charleston. Once Charleston fell, the regiment helped garrison the city. Between October 1780 and early January 1781, the regiment, having lost about one third of its officers and men to sickness and disease, protected the communication and supply lines between Camden and Winnsboro, South Carolina. On 7 January 7, 1781, a contingent of 171 men from the Royal Fusiliers was detached from Cornwallis's Army and fought under the command of Tarleton at the Battle of Cowpens in January 1781. The Royal Fusiliers were on the left of the line of battle: Tarleton was defeated and the regiment's colours were once again captured, stored in the baggage wagons. A 19 man detachment from the regiment fought through North Carolina participating in the Battle of Guilford Court House in March 1781 and ultimately the Siege of Yorktown, where it served with the regiment's Light Infantry Company. There was another detachment, composed largely of men recovered from the hospital and recruits, which remained in the South under the command of Lt Col. Alured Clarke: these men remained in garrison in Charleston, until they were transferred to Savannah, Georgia in December 1781. The regiment returned to England in 1783.

The regiment embarked for Holland and saw action at the Battle of Copenhagen in August 1807 during the Gunboat War. It was then sent to the West Indies and took part in the capture of Martinique in 1809. It embarked for Portugal later that year for service in the Peninsular War and fought at the Battle of Talavera in July 1809, the Battle of Bussaco in September 1810. and the Battle of Albuera in May 1811. The regiment then took part in the Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo in January 1812, the Siege of Badajoz in spring 1812 and the Battle of Salamanca in July 1812 as well as the Battle of Vitoria in June 1813. It then pursued the French Army into France and fought at the Battle of the Pyrenees in July 1813, the Battle of Orthez in February 1814 and the Battle of Toulouse in April 1814. It returned to England later that year before embarking for Canada and seeing action at the capture of Fort Bowyer in February 1815 during the War of 1812. A 2nd Battalion was formed in 1804 and also took part in the Peninsular Campaign from 1809 to 1811. Both battalions took part in the 1811 Battle of Albuera. The 2nd Battalion was disbanded after the war.

The 8th and 9th (Service) Battalions landed in France; they both saw action on the Western Front as part of the 36th Brigade of the 12th (Eastern) Division. The battalion was originally part of the 54th Brigade of the 18th (Eastern) Division, transferring to the 111th Brigade, 37th Division. The 25th (Frontiersmen) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, formed in February 1915, served in East Africa. in Palestine; many of its surviving members went on to be part of the founding of the State of Israel in 1948.

The 45th and 46th Battalions of the Royal Fusiliers were part of the North Russia Relief Force, which landed in early 1919 to support the withdrawal of international forces assisting "White" (anti Bolshevik) Russian forces during the Russian Civil War. The understrength 45th Battalion was composed mainly of former members of the Australian Imperial Force – many of them veterans of the Western Front – who had volunteered for service in Russia.

The 3rd and 4th Battalions were disbanded at Aldershot on 15 July 1922. The London Regiment having fallen into abeyance, the 1st–4th Londons reverted to their Royal Fusiluers affiliation. When the London Regiment was formally abolished they became the 8th (1st City of London), 9th (2nd City of London) and 10th (3rd City of London) Battalions (the 4th Londons had already been converted into 60th (City of London) Heavy Anti Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery). In the period of rearmament before the outbreak of World War II, the 8th and 9th Battalions each formed a duplicate battalion (11th and 12th respectively) while 10th Battalion was converted into 69th (3rd City of London) Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery. The 2nd Battalion was attached to the 12th Infantry Brigade, 4th Infantry Division and was sent to France in 1939 after the outbreak of war to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). In May 1940, it fought in the Battle of France and was forced to retreat to Dunkirk, where it was then evacuated from France. With the brigade and division, the battalion spent the next two years in the United Kingdom, before being sent overseas to fight in the Tunisia Campaign, part of the final stages of the North African Campaign. Alongside the 1st, 8th and 9th battalions, the 2nd Battalion also saw active service in the Italian Campaign from March 1944, in particular during the Battle of Monte Cassino, fighting later on the Gothic Line before being airlifted to fight in the Greek Civil War. The 8th and 9th Battalions, the two Territorial Army (TA) units, were part of the 1st London Infantry Brigade, attached to 1st London Infantry Division. These later became the 167th (London) Infantry Brigade and 56th (London) Infantry Division. Both battalions saw service in the final stages of the Tunisian campaign, where each suffered over 100 casualties in their first battle. In September 1943, both battalions were heavily involved in the landings at Salerno, as part of the Allied invasion of Italy, later crossing the Volturno Line, before, in December, being held up at the Winter Line. Both battalions then fought in the Battle of Monte Cassino and were sent to the Anzio beachhead in February 1944. The duplicate TA battalions, the 11th and 12th, were both assigned to 4th London Infantry Brigade, part of 2nd London Infantry Division, later 140th (London) Infantry Brigade and 47th (London) Infantry Division respectively. Both battalions remained in the United Kingdom on home defence duties. In 1943, the 12th Battalion was transferred to the 80th Infantry (Reserve) Division and later to the 47th Infantry (Reserve) Division. The regiment raised many other battalions during the war, although none of them saw active service overseas in their original roles, instead some were converted. The 20th Battalion, for example, formed soon after the Dunkirk evacuation, was sent to India in the summer of 1942 and later became part of the 52nd Infantry Brigade, acting in a training capacity to train British troops in jungle warfare for service in the Burma Campaign. The 21st and 23rd Battalions, also created in June/July 1940, were later converted into 54th and 46th Battalions, Reconnaissance Corps, assigned to the 54th (East Anglian) and 46th Infantry Divisions respectively; the 54th later formed the bulk of 15th Scottish Reconnaissance Regiment, while the 46th servied with its parent division for the rest of the war. 14th (Overseas Defence) and 22nd Battalions became 117th Light Anti Aircraft and 94th Anti Tank Regiments respectively of the Royal Artillery.

In August 1952, the regiment, now reduced to a single Regular battalion, served in the Korean War as part of the 28th Commonwealth Infantry Brigade. A 19 year old Michael Caine served with the battalion during the conflict; on several occasions his unit had to defend itself from Chinese human wave attacks.

On 23 April 1968, the regiment was merged with the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers (5th Foot), the Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers (6th Foot) and the Lancashire Fusiliers (20th Foot) to form the 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.

The Fusilier Museum is located in the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Headquarters at HM Tower of London. It also represents World War One soldiers of six London Regiment battalions (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 29th and 30th) which had been attached to the Royal Fusiliers prior to 1908.