Royal Norfolk Regiment

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Royal Norfolk Regiment
Active 1881 - 1959
Country United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Branch British Army
Type Infantry
Role Infantry
Nickname "The Holy Boys"
Motto "Firm"[1]
March Rule Britannia
Anniversaries April 25, Battle of Almansa
Battle honours see text
Commanders
Ceremonial chief HM The King
Insignia
Cap badge Britannia seated with shield and trident.

The Royal Norfolk Regiment, originally formed as the Norfolk Regiment, was an infantry regiment of the British Army. The Norfolk Regiment was created on 1 July 1881 as the county regiment of Norfolk. It was formed from the 9th (the East Norfolk) Regiment of Foot (formerly the 9th Regiment of Foot) and covered the local militia and volunteer infantry. It became the Royal Norfolk Regiment on 3 June 1935. The Royal Norfolks were amalgamated with their neighbours, the Suffolk Regiment, to become part of the 1st East Anglian Regiment, which in turn became the Royal Anglian Regiment of which "A" company of the first battalion is known as the Royal Norfolk.

Contents

[edit] Service

[edit] First World War

The Norfolks entered the First World War with two regular, one reserve and three Territorial Force battalions (one of cyclists) but the regiment expanded to nineteen battalions.

The total number of men raised during the war amounted to 32,375 of whom 5,576 were killed

[edit] In the East

The 2nd Battalion of the Norfolks fought in the Mesopotamian Campaign. The treatment of prisoners after the fall of Kut al Amara mirrors that that would later befall the Royal Norfolks in the Far East during the Second World War.

The two territorial battalions served in Gallipoli. The 1/5th included the "Sandringham Company" which recruited from the King's estate at Sandringham. On 12th August 1915, the Sandringham company suffered heavy losses at Gallipoli when it became isolated during an attack. A myth grew up after the War that they had advanced into a mist and simply disappeared.[2]{See also [[1]]}. A BBC TV drama, All the King's Men (1999), starring David Jason as Captain Frank Beck, was based upon their story.

In the Second Battle of Gaza, the 4th and 5th Territorial battalions suffered 75% casualties, about 1,100 men [3]

[edit] France

The 8th Battalion as part of the 18th (Eastern) Division was present on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916. They got beyond their initial target and had by 5.00pm reached the German trenches known as "Montauban Alley". Over one hundred men and three officers had been killed.

[edit] Second World War

Five members of the Royal Norfolks won the Victoria Cross in the Second World War:

[edit] Le Paradis Incident

Main article: Le Paradis massacre

During the Battle of France as part of the Battle of Dunkirk in 1940, members of the Royal Norfolks were victims of a German war crime at Le Paradis in the Pas-de-Calais on May 26.

The 2nd Battalion was one of the units of the 4th Infantry Brigade covering the retreat to Dunkirk. They were holding the line of the La Bassée Canal. Units became separated from each other. Their HQ company had formed a defensive position based at the Duriez farmhouse. they carried on their defence until the afternoon by which point many were injured and the enemy were shelling the farm. Making a last stand in the open they were outnumbered and surrendered to a unit of the 2nd Infantry Regiment of the SS 'Totenkopf' (Death's Head) Division. The commander was SS Obersturmfuhrer Fritz Knoechlein. The 99 prisoners were marched to some farm buildings on another farm where they were lined up alongside a barn wall. They were then fired upon by two machine guns. 97 of them were killed and the bodies buried in shallow pit. Privates Albert Pooley and William O'Callaghan had hid in a pig-sty and were discovered later by the farm's owner, Mdme Creton, and her son. The two soldiers were later captured by a Wehrmacht unit and spent the rest of the war as prisoners of war.

The bodies were exhumed in 1942 by the French and reburied in the local churchyard which now forms part of the Le Paradis War Cemetery. The massacre was investigated by the War Crimes Investigation Unit and Knoechlein was traced and arrested. Tried in a court in Hamburg, he was found guilty and hanged on January 28, 1949. A memorial plaque was placed on the barn wall in 1970.

[edit] Far East

The 4th, 5th and 6th Battalions served in the Far East, as part of the 18th Infantry Division, in the defence of Singapore and Malaya against the Japanese advance. The battalions ended up as prisoners-of war when Singapore fell in February 1942 . They would remain so until August 1945 during which time they were used as forced labour on projects such as the Death Railway.

[edit] Normandy 1944

The 1st Battalion of the Royal Norfolks formed part of the initial landings on D-Day. They were part of the 185th Brigade in the 3rd Infantry Division alongside the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and the Kings Shropshire Light Infantry. The battalion landed on Red Queen Beach (on the left flank of Sword Beach) at 07:25. On the 6 August 1944 at Sourdevalle, Sidney Bates won his Victoria Cross. The 7th Battalion of the Royal Norfolks was part of the 59th (Staffordshire) Division, one of the follow-up units.

[edit] Post War

The Norfolks served in Cyprus in the fight against EOKA in the post war period.

[edit] Traditions

The Norfolk Regiment held an anniversary on 25 April for the Battle of Almanza which they inherited along with the regimental nickname of the "Holy Boys" from the 9th Regiment of Foot. The story of the nickname is that it was gained it from a misidentification of their cap badge (which was of Britannia) by a Spanish soldier for the Virgin Mary.

The history of the Norfolk Regiment and its predecessors and successors is recorded at the Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum, at the Shirehall, Norwich having moved there from the regiment's former home, Britannia Barracks, now part of Norwich prison and at the Royal Anglian Regiment Museum based at the Land Warfare Hall of the Imperial War Museum Duxford.

[edit] Battle honours

The following honours were inherited from the 9th Regiment of Foot.

18th Century

19th Century

On top of these, the (Royal) Norfolk regiment gained the following battle honours before amalgamation:

20th Century

The Regimental colours do not have the full battle honours marked, those with a * are on it, leaving a further 43 unlisted.

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.rnrm.org.uk/history/history_06.html Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum
  2. ^ The Vanished Battalion
  3. ^ Eastern Daily Press Sunday section, May 5, 2007


[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Preceded by
9th Regiment of Foot		 (Royal) Norfolk Regiment
1881–1959		 Succeeded by
1st East Anglian Regiment