Відео

The USMC is a branch just like the US Army and both in fact (and most) branches have special operations elements that would be considered elite, US Marines have the Raiders, US Army have Special Forces and Rangers, US Navy have the Seals, and US Air Force have Pararscue.

Marines will hate me for this but they aren't an elite force. Specialized, yes, but not elite. There are elite units within the Marines, such as Marine Recon Battalions, but the force as a whole is a regular force.

Oh, Canada , we stand on Guarrd for thee ! And for our friends, if necessary.

Sadly another case of modern people struggling to understand that pre-modern armies simply didn't function like contemporary militaries - much less emphasis on physical training in particular as part of their recruitment process means there was really no mechanism for filtering 'better' soldiers into more 'elite' regiments, at least not at the scale of the entire army. The real factors that made a regiment elite or not were their standard of equipment, the calibre of their officers, and battlefield experience. Napoleon formed his guard regiments out of older soldiers who had proven themselves under fire - that's about the closest you'd get to an 18th or 19th century era SAS or Navy Seals programme.

I feel like the “elite” perception of the Marine Corps is mostly just due to marketing. Sure, their basic training is just a tad harder than Army BMT/OSUT, but it is most definitely doable for most military aged men with a room-temperature IQ and a mediocre level of physical fitness. They won’t have a very fun time, but it’s definitely possible for them to make it through. Same with the Army and all other branches. In my mind, an “elite” serviceman in the modern sense is someone with training/credentials that few others in the services have. Examples would be your SOF units (think SEALS, SF, Rangers, PJs, MARSOC, Recon Marines, etc…) I’d even consider people with things like a Ranger or Sapper tab elite. They may not be in a high speed unit, but they had to demonstrate elite skills and traits to graduate the courses required to wear that tab… EOD is sorta the same way, while the school is not nearly as physically challenging as a SOF selection course, the academic requirements are absolutely INSANE for those dudes, hence the 50-75% attrition rate for a school that just teaches troops the fundamental duties of their MOS/job.

*Burning Man has entered the chat*

USMC Force Recon, when they are getting into specifics, are supposed to be elite, but normal USMC just think they are. Also worth noting that the Legion Etrangere, the French Foreign Legion, can trace themselves to the French Royal Guard regiments, which had foreign mercenary regiments, the Scottish and Swiss Guard are the main ones I remember. Then Napoleon happened, but there's a sort of line there, if you squint. Kinda cool anyways. Anyways, congrats on the book, sounds awesome!

That add transition was smooth Brandon… well played…

I wouldn't count Marine Corps as "elite." US Special Forces (Green Berets) are certainly to be considered elite.

It was a missed opportunity not to give new elite roles like airborne to old elites

Elite doesn't always mean "special forces" for instance fighter pilots are the elite of pilots, Submariner are elite sailors, etc... Marines are 100% elite (by entrance standards and training, etc) compared to regular army... they just are not all special forces...

US Marine Corps has a reputation of being the best infantry outside of special operators, with a higher baseline "toughness" and combat effectiveness. I'd say they consider themselves elite, their infantry an elite within an elite, but still lesser than an elite within an elite within yet another elite that is special operators. But one of the funny things about them is that they are rather known for being austere and spartan. Unlike Guards, they don't have the nicest equipment. Much of their utility stuff is old, beaten up, purchased secondhand from the Army, etc. Like Guards, however, they easily have the nicest dress uniforms in the US military.

Couldn't the guards in UK at least, always recruit from the entire country (Scotland or England or Wales, etc...) whereas the line regiments would only recruit from a specific town or county? That would allow them to be more discerning in who they let in right?

I have a cousin at horse guards, sir.

Commie hipster. 😂

The USMC has a well deserved and prestigious reputation but in actuality your typical Marine infantry unit is on par with a typical US Army infantry unit. There are more elite segments of the Marine Corps such as Force Recon. The most elite light infantry formation the United States has though is the 75th Ranger Regiment. There used to be high end formations in other arms like the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment before it's transition to OPFOR at the National Training Center. 11th ACR is still an above average unit but it's not a combat unit anymore. The 82nd Airborne's Rapid Deployment Brigade is the elite of regular infantry. Special Forces are certainly elite soldiers but not in the same way. They are highly trained specialists but I wouldn't put 1st SOG into the trenches in Ukraine and tell them to hold the front against a basic bitch Motor Rifle Regiment and expect them to hold the line. I would do so with a battalion of the 75th Rangers if I had nothing else in reserve. The Rangers are elite light infantry. The Green Berets are unconventional warfare specialists and trainers of soldiers. Rangers have the firepower and training to do it. 1st SOG would not have the firepower. To put either unit in to defend a trench line would be an utter waste of their skills. The 82nd Airborne would be a far better choice.

I really appreciate the point made around 24:35 about the imminent danger the people on shore would be (should be) in moments after the explosion. That's not something I'd thought about before, but it's of a piece with the rest of the film's representation of British-supporting civilians. A big deal is often made of the British targeting civilians while the Patriots do not, but how many scenes actually feature civilians who are not Patriot sympathizers? As Brandon points out here and in other videos, jobs that historically would have been done for the British Army by civilians are here carried out by British soldiers. In this scene, that the civilians on shore are not harmed has far less to do with mercy on the militia's part than with the laws of physics being bent to the filmmakers' will!

It's like saying, hey, my great grandfather had his slaves taken away, and I never got reimbursed, so now black people owe me a living. Yeah, exactly like that.

RED COAT 1776 😂😂😂😂

Thought the defences were a last minute thought

God save the King!

Russian and Soviet Guards Divisions are kinda the same in both the modern times and during WW2. Their guard status seemed to have been due to distinguishment in certain battle rather than the general quality of recruits or special equipment. Their TO&E might be a bit different but not necessarily means that they get the better stuff. In modern times, its more of an honorific than anything and doesn't reflect their combat effectiveness.

Gentleman volunteers, a future episode hint or just a slip of the tongue?

Elite in the modern context just means committed to committing War crimes

Guard probably comes closest to loyal troops or crack troops.

Thanks Brandon!!!

Cool so were gonna get a video on jaegers at some point.

You're no fun any more...

Thank you so very much for the amazing rich history sir !.

So we should go back to sending the idle rich into war again? Cool

The way I approach it is love the movies message, but dislike its very inaccurate portrayal of history.

From what I understand about Napoleon's Imperial Guard, he actively only let veterans of one or more campaigns join. So, because it was composed of much more veteran and skilled troops, would it make sense to say that the Imperial Guard is elite?

Not by this point. Even the vaunted Gardes Frances were routed at Dettinggen with a volley or 2 from an Imperial regiment. The Gardes also barely survived Fontenoy.

Small mistake at 11:34, it was actually his son, Frederick William I, the “Soldier King” who did that. It was like a project that he started during his father’s reign, but was more famously part of his own.

I'm the English teacher who loves the way you speak. Using your provided subtitles (additional points, by the way) I can see how your improvisations and asides are as eloquent as your script while also breaking down information that might be too dense for some and breaking up rhythms that might become monotonous. Marvelous.

The USMC has their own elite units. Just being a marine doesn’t signify that status.

Marines are just boots on the ground, their training is mediocre.

I would love to watch a video about gentleman volunteers if you're thinking about making one.

The Swedish royal guards ("Svea Livgarde" or "Svea Lifgarde") was consider one of the better regiments in the Swedish army. The men did not come from newly conquered former Danish provinces so they would not try to kill the King or thinking of defecting over to the enemy side in the middle of a battle. Their peace time duty was to act as the body guards of the royal family and to protect the Capitol against any coup attempts. Still to this day do Sweden have its tradition of troops guarding the royals, and a military band play some music when one unit takes over the responsability for guard duty from unit. Nowaydays are Stockholm often visited by regiments from all over Sweden who shares the responsability to guarding the palace for a few days. Svea Livgarde is one of the oldest regiments in the world. And it was among one of the best. During the battle of Lund 1676 did it come into direct contact with the Danish royal guards, and the both sides continued to fight each other instead of fleeing even after both sides had suffered 90% casualties... which says a lot about the dicipline and the fighting morale in those units. In modern day combat do most units lose their willingness to continue fighting after they have recieved say 20-25% losses. However Svea Livgarde with their nicer gold blue uniforms instead of the typical yellow blue other regiments had.. was still not the best unit in the Swedish army. That unit was Drabantkåren (Drabant Corps of Charles XII). It was the unit that was the elite of the elite. Even the Swedish royal guards was nothing compared to them. Indeed, no other regiment in Europe was had the same extremely high combat value as them. They were a small force consisting of the best men in the Swedish army. They had the best training and wore the best and most modern weapons in the world. If the troops asked for an expensive special weapon, then the King ordered that for them no matter of the cost. Even if it meant importing expensive luxuries from a foreign country. The men were well paid and had the nicest uniforms in the Swedish army. They were a Cavalry unit, but they could fight in any type of combat. And even if you had the lowest and simplest job in this regiment, would your rank be considered that of an officer in other regiments, so it was not uncommon that a man from Drabantkåren could take over command over other units in the Swedish army and lead them in battle. They had the skill and had such an enormous amount of combat experience that this was no problem. The men in this unit was made up of the most capable men so they could also take over responsability of governing the civil administration over an area.

Very interesting indeed

I think, the napoleonic Imperial guard was elite in concept, because they were recrutet from experienced soldiers from line regiments.

However, it must be mentioned that the Prussian Guards Regiments under Frederick the Great proved themselves on the battlefield, for example when they were the last regiments in the Battle of Kolin and covered the retreat. Or in den Battle of Hochfriedberg.

Afte t 1806 debacle when the Prussians were reorganize their army the show battalion to try new regulations was the Normal Battalion, eventually moving into the guard.

Very interesting video. About "elite" of guards, it maybe interesting how it was in Russia. During Peter the Great, Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky guards regiments were elite - they were better trained, they had better equipment, so for example in first Narva battle they were much better than other Russian forces(and yes, these regiments were "new", while others were mostly old Streltsy, but still). And then Russian guard(especially old guard) had an ideology that "We're Tsar's protectors and since Peter 1 we must be best of the best and we never run from the battlefield". Actually this was true, like Pavlovsky regiment in battle of Friedland or Guards regiments in battle of Borodino. On the other hand, guard regiments were used rarely and for example, Chevalier Guard Regiment took part only in Friedland, Austerlitz and Borodino, but then they were used, they tried to be best of the best. Also sometimes it caused problems, for example in Battle of Gorni Dubnik the Guard attacked Ottoman positions in lines and suffered unnecessary losses because of this ideology. But still, Russian HQ until 1917 considered the Guard always as the most steadfast and reliable part of the Russian army, which was periodically thrown into the most dangerous places P.s. also I think you can listen to the marches of the Guards regiments (Preobrazhensky, Semyonovsky, Pavlovsky especially) to understand their ideology P.s.s. I also think, that it is because the Guards regiments were the most famous. From non-guards regiments I can only remind Pavlograd Hussar Regiment(because of War and Peace and he became Guard in 1850s) and... that's all...

Here are the units who are considered Elite despite not being special forces. 75th ranger regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, 101st Airborne Division, 173rd infantry regiment, 5th and 6th Marine regiment, 10th mountain division, 160th SOAR, 27th Fighter Squadron (USAF) and the 1st Infantry Division. These are the US Military units who constantly show higher levels of experience and training than their counterparts.

I was going to comment on the status of Grenadiers within a battalion, but then Brandon dropped a bombshell with possibly doing a seperate video on them (and the Light company). Can't wait.

When my group started reenacting the Peruvian Legion of the Guard we got asked that question a lot. The distinction ended up being much more mundane for the taste of many in the public. The only reason it was a Legion is simply because it was a “corp” comprised of one foot regiment, one light cavalry regiment and three artilliery batteries. And guard was simply put due to them being the guard of the government, being allocated to the capital.

It's always interesting how Guards regiments composition and organisations are quite similar across cultures. One think I love about this video is your discussion on how terminologies have changed over the centuries. I did a meme about "sexy" Life Guard outfit in a class (in full armour and scarlet tunics) and the tutorial class was caught off guard cos of how the name "Life Guard" mean now. Or what the word "elite" mean for different groups of people. Great video!

Fine, I’ll play Empire TW again

So the answer to this question is, "Yes, they **were** 'elite' soldiers, but 'elite' didn't mean back then what it means today." Also, could we definitely do that video on "gentleman volunteers?"