Search the archive:
YaBB - Yet another Bulletin Board
 
   
 
Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send Topic Print
Best pep talk ever - "We Band of Brothers" (Read 1067 times)
Dec 17th, 2010 at 11:00pm

Webb   Offline
Colonel
Go 'Noles!
Morningwood Golf Resort

Posts: 1068
*****
 
Henry V's army was tired, sick and hungry and just wanted to reach English held Calais.  Charles d'Albret had to stop him.

They met on a muddy field near Agincourt on St. Crispin's Day, 1415.  French outnumbered English 3 to 1.

As Henry's troops were on the verge of desertion he told them:

"This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered,
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother."

But even the best speeches look bad in print so watch the video here.

(Spoiler. This was written by William Shakespeare 200 years after the fact.)
 

A bad day at golf is better than a good day at work.

...

Jim
IP Logged
 
Reply #1 - Dec 20th, 2010 at 2:35pm

C   Offline
Colonel
Earth

Posts: 13144
*****
 
For comparison, a unscripted speech, given with notes on 19th March 2003 from a British Colonel of the Royal Irish Regt on the eve of Gulf War 2. It's slightly longer, but then again, the battle they were about to face was far more complex:

Quote:
We go to liberate, not to conquer.
We will not fly our flags in their country
We are entering Iraq to free a people and the only flag which will be flown in that ancient land is their own.
Show respect for them.

There are some who are alive at this moment who will not be alive shortly.
Those who do not wish to go on that journey, we will not send.
As for the others, I expect you to rock their world.
Wipe them out if that is what they choose.
But if you are ferocious in battle remember to be magnanimous in victory.

Iraq is steeped in history.
It is the site of the Garden of Eden, of the Great Flood and the birthplace of Abraham.
Tread lightly there.

You will see things that no man could pay to see
-- and you will have to go a long way to find a more decent, generous and upright people than the Iraqis.
You will be embarrassed by their hospitality even though they have nothing.

Don't treat them as refugees for they are in their own country.
Their children will be poor, in years to come they will know that the light of liberation in their lives was brought by you.

If there are casualties of war then remember that when they woke up and got dressed in the morning they did not plan to die this day.
Allow them dignity in death.
Bury them properly and mark their graves.

It is my foremost intention to bring every single one of you out alive.
But there may be people among us who will not see the end of this campaign.
We will put them in their sleeping bags and send them back.
There will be no time for sorrow.

The enemy should be in no doubt that we are his nemesis and that we are bringing about his rightful destruction.
There are many regional commanders who have stains on their souls and they are stoking the fires of hell for Saddam.
He and his forces will be destroyed by this coalition for what they have done.
As they die they will know their deeds have brought them to this place. Show them no pity.

It is a big step to take another human life.
It is not to be done lightly.
I know of men who have taken life needlessly in other conflicts.
I can assure you they live with the mark of Cain upon them.

If someone surrenders to you then remember they have that right in international law and ensure that one day they go home to their family.
The ones who wish to fight, well, we aim to please.

If you harm the regiment or its history by over-enthusiasm in killing or in cowardice, know it is your family who will suffer.
You will be shunned unless your conduct is of the highest -- for your deeds will follow you down through history.
We will bring shame on neither our uniform or our nation.

(On Saddam's chemical and biological weapons.)

It is not a question of if, it's a question of when.
We know he has already devolved the decision to lower commanders, and that means he has already taken the decision himself.
If we survive the first strike we will survive the attack.

As for ourselves, let's bring everyone home and leave Iraq a better place for us having been there.

Our business now is north.



 
IP Logged
 
Reply #2 - Dec 21st, 2010 at 10:35pm

Webb   Offline
Colonel
Go 'Noles!
Morningwood Golf Resort

Posts: 1068
*****
 
That's why I posted the video link.

I got through about three sentences before ...
...

I'm sure it's a really great speech, though.
 

A bad day at golf is better than a good day at work.

...

Jim
IP Logged
 
Reply #3 - Dec 22nd, 2010 at 3:15pm

C   Offline
Colonel
Earth

Posts: 13144
*****
 
Webb wrote on Dec 21st, 2010 at 10:35pm:
That's why I posted the video link.

I got through about three sentences before ...
[img]

I'm sure it's a really great speech, though.


There was no video. The transcript was made from a shorthand record taken by a British newspaper journalist.

It is a good speech. A two minute lesson in "how to go about invading a foreign land, which you will inevitably will occupy, without alienating most of the indigenous population".

Sadly, not everyone in the coalition forces were instilled with that wisdom before they entered Iraq, which in the long term has made things far more difficult for everyone.
 
IP Logged
 
Reply #4 - Jan 1st, 2011 at 11:51pm

Webb   Offline
Colonel
Go 'Noles!
Morningwood Golf Resort

Posts: 1068
*****
 
Looks OK in print, nothing special ...

Quote:
What General Weygand has called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin.

Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire.

The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands.

But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.

Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, this was their finest hour.


But wow, what a delivery!

 

A bad day at golf is better than a good day at work.

...

Jim
IP Logged
 
Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send Topic Print