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During the (all too famous) last Ottoman siege of Vienna, the Ottomans used Glass grenades, while the Austrians/European forces used iron ones. I have no clue of the Ottomans used glass ones later on, still. It'd be an interesting thing to have a look at. Also- during the offensive from Rangoon upstrram to the then- city of Ava, in 1825? 26? (Alright I forgot the year) it was the Grenadier company of one of the few units sent there (I believe a Highland regiment?), spent a good week rowing upstream in jollyboats, landing every time they came under fire from Burmese troops, and then charged the stockades, by bayonet... Hardly even firing until they chances the enemy out of the stockades abd had them flee through the forests and jundles.
@@BrandonF Sorry i should have explained Brother, I don't mean to sound vain. It wasn't the name i was worried about, i was legit wondering if you got the money or not Buddy. With all due respect, and please don't take me wrong here, but just so you get my pov, the name thing doesn't matter in the slightest too me, it just lets me know you got the money i tried to donate to you my man. It's not much, but the butter is spread kinda thin these day's unfortunately. You're one of the very few i support. The quality of your videos, and your proper usage of the English Language are commendable Sir.
@@BrandonF I appreciate the way you present your case. It's nice to see someone use the English Language properly, for a change. God Bless U and Your's Brother
Sometimes less is more; I think your editor is trying to keep the camera moving at all times to try to fill dead space. The pop-up graphics are a nice touch but the camera constantly zooming in and out and all around can get dizzying. Just some constructive feedback, keep up the good work.
Interesting bit of trivia was that, when improvements to technology resulted in practical grenades during WW 1, officers for the Grenadier Guards insisted that soldiers using them couldn't be called grenadiers so as not to dilute the traditional title. So the grenades had to be called bombs instead of grenades and the troops using them bombers.
Brandon: "You can't just take all the tallest people of the army and slap them into one big "TaLl PeRsOn ReGiMeNt " Freidrich I of Prussia: "And that's where you're wrong kiddo."
And he enjoyed having them parade through his bedroom while he fiddled with bits of his undercover. That's what I read. One of the tallest guys he got was kidnapped in the UK, sent to him in a box, the guy was dead on arrival. Box was too small.
And old Friedrich Wilhelm was so fond of them he never let them anywhere near combat. When Friedrich II (Friedrich der Grosse) became king he disbanded them.
The British also did that for an attack on Tibet, on the basis that they believed taller men were inherently more suited to high altitudes. It wasn't entirely accurate, but there was some logic
His son was also very much into tall men. To one certain officer so much that at a certain point Freddy-the-not-quite-so-Great-Yet attempted to elope with him in an actual horseback flight if I remember correctly they were caught tho and his father must have been jealous or some shit because he eventually pressured his son into ending the affair (no idea to which degree this was an open secret) by threatening to cut off his son's boyfriend's head (and maybe that other thing he might cut off to prevent his son's ah... 'Rise' to Frederick the 'Great'). Source: vague memory of a wikipedia article
You have to give Brandon some respect when you realize he wears that nice coat even in the scorching hot summer. Edit: The Swedish grenadiers have barged into my house and are holding me hostage because I watched a video on the British grenadiers and not one about them.
The Grenadier Guards got their modern name after the Battle of Waterloo, where it was mistakenly reported that they defeated the Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard in the final French attack. In fact it was the Chasseurs of the Guard (still part of the "Old Guard" though)
If the British army in North America was like high school then the grenadiers would definitely be the guys who would be the jocks or would be on the football team.
@@BrandonF I've been with you since the start Brandon i am so happy to see your channel grow this far I love this channel very much and you taught me so much thank you.
@@skepticalbadger yea but he got a good laugh out of actually being a grenadier PS they could also be women , While I didnt personally meat any female infantry, but that doesn't mean there are not any
It's probably about how technology between two sides in a battle have changed since the first application of grenades. Since muskets early on didn't have a very large effective distance, soldiers were far closer to each other, and so grenades could be very effective, and in WW1 and WW2 did grenades stop being so useful. Artillery was now far more effective due to rifling being a very common practice for both firearms and guns. This meant if you needed to blow something up, you could just have the artillery bomb the hell out of the location, and if you needed to bomb a place from short range, you either had your hand grenades, or an attachment for someone's rifle from which you could launch a grenade. Then in the 70s you had aircraft like the AC-130 that could act as artillery, but now it didn't have to be indirect fire, and that meant a bombardment could be fired far more accurately. Now grenade rifles are also less like the old plug bayonets, and more like socket bayonets, in the form of essentially another firearm mounted to the bottom of your firearm. Well that's my take on it anyway, I could be largely wrong.
@@sumvs5992 in modern conflict hand-grenades are widely used and are an essential part of the rifleman's kit. early hand-grenades were more like small cannon shells with thick walls (the French 1777 grenade was a 9.5cm [3.77in] affair weighing 1.9kg [4.19Lb]) which meant they were inconvenient to use and hard to deploy safely (most grenades could be thrown really further than 15-16 paces, or about 12m), in addition that most often they would be closed by a wooden plug which would absorb moisture and render the powder ineffective. all of this was due to the limitations in manufacturing capabilities and technology, along with muskets becoming better and better leading to less opportunities to throw grenades. so military tactics evolved away from using them in the field. this changed with WWI and WWII, the generalisation of trench warfare and street combat where ranges can be very close made the grenade a much useful tool in the rifle company, so early on old stocks of round grenades were used, sometimes slightly updated before more modern (and lighter) examples could be developed and fielded, which was rendered possible with the industrialisation and development of better explosives
Modern hand grenades came into being during World War I. The Mills bomb was the first conventional modern fragmentation grenade and was perfect for trench warfare. They definitely have not gone out of fashion and they are very versatile combat tools in the 21st century. Ask any soldier who wants to blow something up without exposing themselves to fire.
Hello Brandon! I was at Vincennes Rendezvous with Wayne’s Light Infantry, and I met a very nice couple named Paul and Ellen. It was amazing to talk to people who know you personally! Very cool.
About the Grenadier Guards, there is an interesting history. When Charles II came to power, around 1660, he brought a small unit of soldiers who had followed him into exile, while Cromwell ruled England. These men became the First Foot Guards since they were men of absolute loyalty. A group of Cromwell's soldiers assembled at the village of Coldstream and came over to Charles's cause. Their reward was to become the Second Foot Guards. But this rankled, because, on the one hand, they were a guards regiment, but, on the other, their loyalty was seen as not quite on the same level as the First Foot. The Second made their motto 'Nullis Secundis'; that is, 'Second to None.' By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Second had proved their point, particularly by holding onto a key strong point at Waterloo, La Haye Sainte. The Second Foot became the Coldstream Guards and the First Foot became the Grenadier Guards.
@@Marinealver What exactly do you not understand about the stages between the Greek Slave ownership The Middle Ages Serfdom And Early 1700's Britain where a young man of High Birth would have had a group of Servants dedicated to his Service So consequently going into Military Service as a young Officer he would be allowed to choose his men !!!
I would love a video on the light infantry, I really want to hear the differences between them and the grenadiers. I am just imagining that they are the smol Bois. great video
How I had heard it explained years ago (though I'm no expert), the Gredadiers were chosen from the most physically fit in order to throw grenades the furthest (which of course makes sense). But as armies decided that grenades maybe weren't really that useful they still saw a usefulness of having a group of really strong lads and so they started to use them for other purposes.
Oh looks like he’s approaching 100k! A preemptive congratulation to the good sir for his contributions both to history and entertainment here on RU-vid. God bless!
Congratulations on 100,000 subscribers. I'm very glad you are doing this, and not a university professor, limited to teaching a select few. At 100,000 you are still criminally undersubscribed. Thanks for being a RU-vid Uni professor.
Brandon: ( On the subject of the dangers of grenades) They aren't that safe for people on the receiving end, but they aren't meant to be. Me: Fair enough
Grenadiers as light infantry: in their early days the grenadiers often operated as looser formed troops to undertake more irregular tasks such as (but not exclusively) throwing grenades. Indeed, these tasks seemed to continue in the Austrian army whilst grenadiers became more formal in other armies.
Even when I was in the British army the right flank company on parade was called the Grenadier company. For some reason they tended to be the company best at drill even though there was no plan for this, institutional memory. The left flank company was often the one that had the soldiers who were a bit more street wise like the light infantry. I think these traits continue to this day. In Rick Atkinson’s book the Long Grey Line similar institutional memory persist with the flank companies at West Point.
I always thought that it is simply tradition "right wing is the position of honour", descended from Romans. So it makes sense to have your best guys there.
Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules Of Hector and Lysander, and such great names as these. But of all the world's great heroes, there's none that can compare. With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, to the British Grenadiers. Those heroes of antiquity ne'er saw a cannon ball, Or knew the force of powder to slay their foes withal. But our brave boys do know it, and banish all their fears, With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, for the British Grenadiers. Whene'er we are commanded to storm the palisades, Our leaders march with fusees, and we with hand grenades. We throw them from the glacis, about the enemies' ears.[N 1] Sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, the British Grenadiers. And when the siege is over, we to the town repair. The townsmen cry, "Hurrah, boys, here comes a Grenadier! Here come the Grenadiers, my boys, who know no doubts or fears! Then sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, the British Grenadiers. Then let us fill a bumper, and drink a health of those Who carry caps and pouches, and wear the loupèd clothes. May they and their commanders live happy all their years. With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, for the British Grenadiers.
Hey Brandon could you do a video on the early colonial aspect of the French British and native Americans leading up to the French and Indian war and there interactions.
I wonder how much of a difference just having the title of Grenadier made for the individual soldiers in terms of morale. If you're an average Joe line infantryman, you might feel there's a lot less riding on you so you're not as sharp or prepared to die in the line of duty. But if you're a *British Grenadier* and you're given an order to advance or to hold, you might be a lot more willing to follow the orders to the letter just because you don't want to shame yourself more than you would otherwise. Just an idea.
That was perhaps a contributing factor. But the main advantage was that of bundling multiple Grenadier companies together into a strong elite force which could attack the enemy at a critical point on the map. And you know that those high quality men will not break for anything. And if not even the best troops in your army can hold - then will your other men not be able to do much either. During World War II did the Germans run low on manpower so old men and young boys without military training and proper equipment was sent out to fight. Those units were named "Grenadiers" and "Sturm" and other scary things. Volksgrenadier division or Volksturm. A cool name for his unit might perhaps cheer up a young boy sent out to fight a hopeless fight. And the name might as well also have confused the allies, and perhaps scared them at first by making them believe they were going to face heavy infantry - soldiers with much fire power weapons at their disposal and sturm (storm) troopers. The Germans also named their weapons the same way: "sturmgewehr" aka "storm rifle", was called so because it would boost morale a bit when the war had been going bad for a long time. Naming it "machine-pistol" as its first name was did not seem to be a powerful name for the worlds first assault rifle.
Thank you for this! I’ve been researching my family history and recently found out one of my ancestors was a grenadier in the King’s Royal Regiment of New York during the American Revolution. Jacob Sheets Jr, served 1780-84.
Please could you do a video like this on the Royal Marines, they are one of the most decorated outfits in the British military but they don't get enough recognition and I'm currently waiting to start training to be a RM commando myself so any extra history on the corps would go a long way :) cheers for the great content.
Great job Brandon. Any plans to do a video of the irish regiments? Hard men from a hard country.
2 года назад
Strangely enough, if I were an officer back then, and my superior officer would say to me "choose a company to give one grenade to each men", I would chose light infantry, more prone to be mobile, to be ambushing and harassing the enemy. One grenade can be thrown from an advantageous point. And since those guys were supposed to be athletic anyway, it's not one grenade that will handicap them a lot.
TL;DW: Grenadiers are heavy infantry with connotations of eliteness. Each Regiment had 12 Companies- ten of Fusiliers, one of Light Infantry, one of Grenadiers. The British Army would form Task Forces comprised of Grenadiers from various regiments.
@@edwardbayfield1401 it was both. They adopted that style of bearskin after taking them from dead soldiers as trophies, and they got thier name after defeating Napoleon's grenadiers
It's always nice to wake up and find that Brandon not only has uploaded a new video but also talking about one your favourite units of the 18th century. Great video and my sincere congratulations for the 100k subscribers! P.S: please consider doing the video explaining the decline of the use of hand granades on the battlefield, it sounds like a great topic
The concept of Brigading is alive and well in modern doctrine under the term battlegrouping. A Battalion loses (a) company /(ies) and gains armoured squadron(s) as well as specialist support (engrs, med, arty) to form a combined arms manoeuvre unit to complete a specific task or tasks.
It was a bit more complicated than that, it depended on the regiment /organization/MOS. A German Army private's rank could be "Schutze," "Grenadier," "Kanonier," or "Soldat." In the SS it was "SS-Mann." Too much to go into here, but Google "WW2 German Army Ranks" for the whole array.
@@wayneantoniazzi2706 Aye, I forgot to mention that it was specifically an Army thing. SS and even the Volksturm, let alone the Luftwaffe and Kroegsmarine, had their own ranks. But it did not depend on the regiment. It was renamed for everyone in the Army.
I'd kill for a series on regiment structure for prussia and other nations during napolenic wars all that fun. But keep up the videos I love being able to get home from work and learn history
at the 6:00 mark, I guess we might also mention that the U.S. military has this little section of soldiers called the "Marines" that don't seem to have anything to do with oceans or sailing.
Not to brag but I'm pretty sure I was one of your first 2000 subs and have been watching for a while. I just wanted to say you're awesome. I love historical content, and you do a fine job of entertaining while informing. I'm jealous of the re-enacting, tbh. I'd just about kill to get a Revolutionary era Royal Welch Fusilier or Coldstream Guards uniform for myself. I had kin in both regiments. I actually had kin who was a Captain in the Coldstream Guards at Yorktown (later promoted to Lt. Col). Anyway, keep up the good work. You have certainly improved vastly.
Well, what can I say? "So let us fill a bumper and drink a health to those, Who march with bombs and fuses and wear the loup-ed clothes! May they and their commander live happy all their years! Sing tow-row-row-row-row-row-row for the British Grenadiers!" LOVED that spirited piano arrangement of "British Grenadiers" at the closing! Or was it "War And Washington?"
Then of course many armies had horse grenadier regiments. The Mounted Grenadiers of Napoleon's Imperial Guard were one of the all-time legendary cavalry units, rarely if ever defeated in open battle, known throughout the French Army as The Gods or The Big Heels both for their warrior reputation and for the way they carried themselves.
Reportedly the grenadiers of Gatenois and Royal Deux Ponts hurled grenades into the British/Hessian redoubt at Yorktown prior to storming it. An interesting example of grenades being used against besiegers was at the epic Great Siege of Malta in 1565. Exploding firepots (as well as flaming hoops) wrought considerable carnage on closely packed Ottoman warriors trying to overrun forts that were stubbornly held by the Knights of St. John along with their Maltese militia, professional Spanish and Italian infantry and "gentlemen volunteers" from all over Catholic Europe.
Oh yes I have family stories the Boer War. stories passed down how great their Atlas VPN was. Stories that they didn't know how they would have made it if they didn't have the ability to watch their favorite TV shows
In Canada we have the Dragoons, who are an armoured unit (I used to joke about that a lot, as our infantry units ride in LAVs to battle, then dismount, much more dragoon like). I was part of Princess Patricia's Canadian LIGHT Infantry... who were never really light. I mean, light tasks, sometimes light units, but as a regiment not so much.
The Grenadier Guards ( 1st Foot Guards) received the name after Waterloo, and the action in which they (along with the 51st Regiment of Foot and a Dutch Battalion) forced the French Old Guard to retire. They mistook the unit in front of them for the Grenadiers a Pied, when in fact they were Chasseurs a Pied (which is why the Bearskins of the Guards’ Brigade don’t have a badge plate).
@@Apollo890 my apologies, both regiments are now part of The Rifles. I don’t know why I got the West Yorkshire Regiment confused with the Oxfordshire Regiment, both were Light Infantry at the time.
I'm pretty sure that by the late 18th century in the British army after the promotion of composite battalions by William Howe; the light infantry and grenadiers essentially performed the same role in battle; they both operated as fast moving shock troops used to shatter battle lines in big advances and bold flanking manoeuvres, rather than detailed fighting or skirmishing. Both roles blended tactically on the battlefield especially during the American revolution. This did not change until the reforms of the Duke of York and Dundas at the turn of the century.
The caps worn by the British Grenadiers in the American War of Independence are shaped in such a way that they look like flames rising from an old hand grenade symbol.
Tow-row-row-row-row is pronounced tow (as in towing car) & row (as in a row of houses). The time taken to sing or say these words basically indicates the time a grenadier had between igniting the grenade & tossing it. To hold it any longer might mean the grenade would blow up in the grenadier's hand! The words would be sung or said to a swinging back-and-forth arm action to build up momentum before the grenade is tossed.
Many units that we now use or that are extinct started as temporary formations. Mediaeval ‘battles’, which appear to have given rise to the battalion, platoons and brigades all started in this manner. Brigades were sort of equivalent to Second World War ‘Kampfgruppen’ or the German Army or Jock columns of the British. The same goes for many ranks. Navy commodores were just the senior captain in a squadron. Sub-lieutenants started as ‘acting lieutenants.’ The rank of commander started as ‘master and commander,’ the name given to the officer commanding a sloop or other such, smaller, vessel which did not warrant a captain’s command.
I worked with the royal guard at one point and we had a new guy who asked a lot about why things were the ways they were and 9/10 the reply would be "TRADITION!!!".. Guess that whats happen when your regiment clocks in just above 500 years of active service xD
I served 13 years in the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards. During training we were regularly tested on Regimental history. I cannot fault your research other than to note that the 1st regiment of foot became the Grenadier Guards after defeating the elite Grenadier company of the French Imperial Guard and taking the bearskin cap, now worn on parade in London as a battle honour. P.S. Serious props on the seamless and hilarious segwe to the sponsor.
Oh Mr. O'Toole, the French Imperial Guard had a corps of Grenadiers and a corps of Chasseurs and in the regiments of each most were only one type of soldier, that is, the Old Guard regiment of the Corps of Grenadiers was the 1st Grenadiers-a-Pied (at Waterloo also the 2nd), and every soldier was a grenadier. There was no elite flank company of grenadiers. Also, Matlin's brigade faced the 3rd and 4th Grenadiers-a-Pied and 3rd and 4th Chasseurs-a-Pied, which weren't the Old Guard, they were the Middle Guard. And they were not really uniformed or equipped consistently, and were wearing their blue greatcoats and carrying muskets with cord for slings. So while they had the hearts of veterans they had the appearance of militia. So whoever wrote your regimental history should check his French language sources.
Also as a member of a re-enacting grenadier company I enjoyed this video immensely, thank you! I definitely am glad to be lifting weights as much as I do to properly represent the burliness of a grenadier, since I'm not terribly tall at 5'8"
Proud member of the 79th Cameron Highlanders - Light Company Napoleonic historical reenactment group, established in Catalonia, which recreates the Scottish light company of the 79th infantry regiment of the Highlands, in the British army of the 19th century.
I knew about the Grenadiers only from games. They would be rarely shown in any movie featuring 18th century warfare nor mentioned by our history teachers. I learned about them thanks the Cossacks game series :) Most movies I saw are from Napoleonic era, where, as you explained they have no grenades.
