I saw this tagged onto the end of a report on supplying airborne units with ammunition in the then upcoming Normandy assault. I can't fathom who the officer was, but his comments made me smile. "My only point of difference is this beastly expression "ground troops". Personally I regard soldiers as people who fight on the ground (whether transported by land, sea or air), as opposed to sailors who fight on the sea and airmen who fight in the air. If we are going to talk about "ground troops", surely we should logically refer to "water sailors" and "sky airmen"? "Please acknowledge receipt on attached AF A16. G (Ops) 4 November 1943" I shudder to think what he would have made of the term "boots on the ground"... Gary
I suppose if you wanted to be counter-pedantic, there might be some examples that undermine his "logic". I'm thinking of the Royal Naval Division (admittedly a different war i.e. WWI), where reserve sailors were used as infantry. Were they sailors or soldiers? What about RAF observers on the front line - airmen or soldiers? What about marines? Or maybe I'm completely missing the point and he simply doesn't like the word "ground" put before "troops"? Kind of like "broad daylight" ("broad" being superfluous in some people's eyes). Either way, like you say it is amusing that during the fight against Nazism and the biggest armed conflict the world has ever known, this was the thing that really annoyed him.
What about paratroopers - would they start off life as ground soldiers, but then become air soldiers when enroute, but if they missed their DZ could become water soldiers, but hitting their DZ would become ground soldiers again I'm confused TD
To continue in a pedantic theme; they weren't soldiers at all, they were passengers until they got their 'boots on ground'.
To be perhaps even more pedantic, once they leave the aircraft and cease being passengers in your eyes, they have the ability to fight so are they air soldiers again?, and only become ground troops when they have boots on the ground?? He He TD
Hi The forces fighting as infantry against ELAS in Athens in 1944 and 1945 included: Three Battalions Parachute Regiment Three Royal Tank Regiments Six RAF Regiment Squadrons Two Royal Artillery LAA Regiments One Squadron RAF Iraq Levies Detachment LRDG Detachment SBS Detachment RSR Detachments Royal Marines Detachment Commandos Gus
