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00:30Oh, God!
00:46Hey, get down here!
00:47Get down here!
00:48Hey, get down here!
00:49Hey!
00:50Get through there!
00:51Get through there!
00:52Hurry up!
00:53Hurry up!
00:54Stop it!
00:55You're fleeing!
00:56You're fleeing!
00:57Come here!
00:58Come here!
00:59Go!
01:00Go!
01:01Go!
01:02Go!
01:03Go!
01:18Battle is a harrowing experience.
01:21Most soldiers are anxious before it and terrified during it.
01:25Its sounds and sights assault the senses and its stresses can break even the strongest will.
01:31Sheer self-interest suggests that it's an experience best avoided
01:35and that a soldier would be well advised to take cover or even to run away.
01:40And yet most soldiers do somehow keep going,
01:43mastering their fear, coping with the stress and doing their job.
01:47What keeps them in action when so many pressures combine
01:50and suggest an urgent deployment elsewhere is that crucial military quality,
01:55hard to define but easy to identify.
01:58We'll call it fighting spirit.
02:04Fighting spirit and esprit de corps are part of the tradition of the U.S. Marine Corps
02:09and these young recruits are showing just how these qualities are stimulated.
02:14It was this same quality of fighting spirit which enabled another generation of Marines
02:19to assault scores of island fortresses in the Pacific,
02:22to face a resolute and implacable enemy, to suffer crippling casualties and to keep going.
02:30Good morning, 1st Battalion!
02:31Good morning, sir!
02:32Are we ready for some more motivating United States Marine Corps history?
02:36Yes, sir!
02:37Now, we're going to talk about the Marine Corps going against a very, very powerful army
02:42and that is the German Army.
02:44And we're going to talk about World War I.
02:49Fighting spirit helped the men on both sides during the First World War
02:53to sustain the misery of trench warfare and face the perils of going over the top.
02:59In Bella Woods there was 1,200 German soldiers that were dug in.
03:04They were ready for anybody to come in.
03:06They had artillery, they had machine guns, and they were prepared for anything.
03:12The Marines knew they had to get into Bella Woods.
03:14The German machine gun fire was so intense coming out of this wood line
03:18that it was cutting the wheat down just like if someone had a sickle out there.
03:22The Marines were dropping left and right.
03:25So Dan Daly stands up in this wheat field with his bayoneted rifle over his head
03:30and he says,
03:32and he says,
03:37Do you understand?
03:38Yes, sir!
03:39Are you sure?
03:40Yes, sir!
03:41If it is not always that easy to identify fighting spirit,
03:44it is all too easy to spot when it disappears.
03:47I could see them coming down the hill
03:50and they were walking in a way that I'd never seen people walk before,
03:54like puppets on a stage,
03:57as though somebody was jerking them from behind, pulling a string.
04:01They did not walk naturally.
04:04It was the first time I had ever seen men who had nothing left in them.
04:10The colonel came out of his dugout and he said,
04:14Come on, chaps, I'll take you back up there.
04:17Follow me. I'll come with you.
04:21Don't let the regiment down.
04:24But they just took no notice of him at all.
04:26They simply went past him.
04:28His reaction often would be to come to me
04:31and ask to go to a back corner of the command bunker
04:35and just be by himself for a while.
04:38And I would hear him sitting back in a corner just sobbing.
04:42The pressures were not from so much what the enemy was doing,
04:46but its effect on their fellows, the men they'd become close to.
04:50I think after you've put the 20th or 25th of your closest friends
04:54on a helicopter or in a body bag in a stretcher,
04:58it's going to have an effect,
05:00particularly when you don't know when it's going to end.
05:03Every man, in my opinion,
05:05has got some sort of a psychological breaking point
05:08under that kind of traumatic pressure.
05:14What is it then that makes one man run away
05:21and another stay and fight?
05:23I, Robert Graham Cruiser...
05:25I, Darren King...
05:26I, Anthony Walter Bell...
05:28Swear by the mighty God...
05:30That I will be faithful...
05:31That I will be faithful...
05:33Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
05:36Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
05:39Yes, I do. Yes, I do.
05:42Crochet.
05:43Okay, P.
05:45Block.
05:48This is the first stage of the process.
05:50These young men are beginning their military service,
05:53whether as soldiers in the French Foreign Legion,
05:56the British Army,
05:58the Red Army of the Russian Revolution,
06:02or as officers in the United States Army.
06:05By taking an oath...
06:06I solemnly swear that I will support and defend...
06:12This sort of ceremony,
06:14which dates back at least as far as the sacramentum,
06:17the military oath of ancient Rome,
06:19is a ritual designed to impress upon participants
06:22that they are joining an organization
06:24in which their individual instincts and values
06:26must be subordinated to the common good,
06:29that they are accepting a contract of unlimited liability
06:33which may require them to kill or be killed.
06:38I have the privilege to now pronounce you
06:40Second Lieutenants in the United States Army.
06:50But from the outset,
06:52the soldier is the product of the society which nurtured him.
06:56Deep-seated cultural factors
06:58lay behind the appeal of Nazism to the German soldier.
07:01German society had long respected the profession of arms
07:05and the military virtues of discipline and obedience.
07:08A sense of soldierly honor was one of the qualities
07:11which helped to make the Germans such formidable fighters.
07:15To me, the greatest thing on earth was Germany.
07:19Germany could not be wrong.
07:21Deutschland, my Deutschland.
07:23And to me, the Führer was something like a second God.
07:27How anyone could doubt the Führer.
07:29I totally believe in the German spirit.
07:32I believe that the German spirit
07:34is the spirit of the German people.
07:36The German spirit is the spirit of the German people.
07:39The German spirit is the spirit of the German people.
07:42As a Führer, I totally believed
07:44that we as a German people were superior
07:47and that it more or less was our duty
07:49to go into other countries and force our way onto them.
08:01The Japanese soldier, too, owed much of his fearsome reputation
08:05to a martial culture which emphasized obedience,
08:08the unimportance of the individual,
08:10and indifference to pain and discomfort.
08:26Unwounded Japanese were rarely taken prisoner.
08:30Of the 23,000-strong garrison of Iwo Jima,
08:33only 1,000 were captured.
08:35On the Japanese-held island of Saipan,
08:38millions committed suicide rather than face capture.
08:43If their position was hopeless,
08:45Japanese soldiers would often make a final suicidal charge
08:48into enemy fire with a cry of,
08:50Banzai!
08:52The eeriest thing of the lot
08:54was the cries of these young Japanese soldiers
08:58before they died.
09:00And it was almost a cry of defiance.
09:03And the word was, Banzai!
09:06I'd never heard it before in my life,
09:09but it was imprinted on me so much
09:12that they were saying thank you to the emperor
09:15for the privilege of allowing them to die for Japan.
09:22Not all cultures place the same emphasis on military values.
09:26Even when men enlist to fight for their country,
09:29patriotism alone is rarely sufficient
09:31to sustain them on their journey
09:33to and beyond the firing line.
09:35On behalf of the commanding general,
09:37Major General McMonagle, welcome to Parris Island.
09:40Look to your left over there.
09:42You see the yellow footprints, right?
09:44These young Americans do not necessarily regard
09:46dying for their country as the ultimate honor.
09:48They may want to be soldiers,
09:50but they come from an un-military society.
09:52To make fighting men of them, therefore,
09:54requires a process of comprehensive indoctrination.
09:57Now that you are part of the United States Marine Corps,
10:00you are subject to uniform code of military justice.
10:03Article 86 of this code is unauthorized absence.
10:06Anytime you fail to be exactly what you're told to be
10:09by either a drill center or supervisory personnel,
10:11you are subject to this article.
10:13Article 92 is disobeying a lawful order.
10:16Anytime you fail to do exactly what you are told to do
10:19by either a drill center or supervisory personnel,
10:21you are subject to this article.
10:23Now that you are at Parris Island,
10:25you will no longer be smoking any cigarettes.
10:27You will do exactly what you are told to do
10:29to the best of your ability.
10:31I want everything out of your pockets empty.
10:38Take all your trash and go now.
10:40I don't care how you pack it, just get it away.
10:42Get rid of that.
10:46I want them both emptied out now.
10:50Parris Island, South Carolina.
10:52The recruit training depot, boot camp,
10:55for the United States Marine Corps.
10:57Reception of new recruits takes place
10:59between midnight and 4 a.m.
11:01The timing is deliberate.
11:03It is intended specifically to disorient the new arrivals.
11:07From now on, for the next 11 weeks,
11:09they will be subjected to a constant barrage
11:11of verbal abuse, harassment, and humiliations.
11:15Each personality will be quickly destroyed
11:18and then rebuilt in the model of the U.S. Marine.
11:28We'll get that done as well.
11:36The psychological transformation
11:38is accompanied by a physical change.
11:43Nowadays, recruits to many armies
11:45must undergo the rigors of a military haircut.
11:48Military fashion has changed in this,
11:51as in so much else.
11:54In the 18th century, for example,
11:56a recruit was likely to have to add false hair
11:58if his own was not long enough
12:00to make it into the military pigtail.
12:02But whether the assault on the recruit's hair
12:04involves lengthening or shortening,
12:06its aim is the same,
12:08to impose uniformity of appearance
12:10in accordance with the standards of the age.
12:14I offer you the challenge of recruits training,
12:18the opportunity to be a United States Marine.
12:26Don't stop listening. Take charge.
12:30Now, if you don't listen to me,
12:32there's going to be one thing you're going to learn,
12:34and that's you are going to look at me when I speak.
12:37Understand me?
12:38Yes, sir!
12:39You understand me?
12:40Yes, sir!
12:41I do not understand.
12:43What it's like the first day is pretty hectic.
12:45It's...
12:47For the first ten minutes,
12:49it's usually totally, you know, it's crazy.
12:52Privates, they don't know where they're at,
12:55and we're not trying to help them
12:57to find out where they're at either.
12:58We're trying to snap them into this environment
13:01as fast as we can do it.
13:03Get back!
13:06Don't move!
13:08Don't try to move!
13:09Put it back! Put it back now!
13:11Get it back!
13:12Nobody try to move!
13:14Get it back! Hurry up!
13:15Get online! Lock it up!
13:17The floor is no longer floor!
13:19Understand me?
13:20Yes, sir!
13:21They'll be shaking.
13:23Some of them will...
13:26will urinate all over themselves.
13:28It's...
13:29Some of them will even pass out.
13:31They'll start to hyperventilate,
13:32and you'll see them.
13:34They'll turn all sorts of different shades
13:36of white and green,
13:37and then one of them, he'll raise his hand,
13:39and he'll say,
13:40sir, the private doesn't feel good,
13:41and then he'll fall over.
13:43Hurry up! Get on to the floor!
13:45Get it in there!
13:46Hurry up!
13:47Get it back online!
13:48It's gone!
13:49Get online!
13:50Get it in there!
13:51Get it in there!
13:52Keep your eyes off of them!
13:53They're not here for your amusement!
13:55You know, you can scare them
13:57into wanting to be, you know,
13:59a fighting machine,
14:00or you can motivate them into...
14:03to want to kill somebody,
14:05saying, yes, it's for the good of America.
14:07It's for, you know,
14:09you're the best fighting force
14:11in the United States,
14:12or, in fact, the world.
14:14And you can get a private's mind going,
14:17you know, within a couple of minutes.
14:19And I've seen privates just, you know,
14:21they'll be spitting all over themselves.
14:23They're so...
14:24They're almost crazy
14:25with motivation and...
14:27and esprit de corps.
14:29Oh, yeah!
14:30Oh, no!
14:31When you arrive,
14:33the drill instructor
14:35never called you a marine.
14:37You were a marine.
14:38You were a shithead.
14:40And that was the word that was always used.
14:43A man is put up in a tree
14:45and told...
14:46it's an apple tree and told
14:48to throw the apples down.
14:49But it's not an apple tree,
14:50so he doesn't have anything to throw down.
14:52So the drill instructor says,
14:54Smith is having...
14:56shithead Smith up there is having problems.
14:58Can't throw the apples down.
14:59Let's help him by knocking him down
15:01with a few stones.
15:02So here's this poor bastard up on the train.
15:04He's being stoned by everybody in his platoon.
15:06And then there were more shocking cases
15:09of...
15:11corporal punishment
15:13and clubbing
15:15with the butts of rifles.
15:17But the psychological plan behind all this
15:21is to destroy a man's personality
15:24and rebuild it.
15:28By learning to cope
15:29with his fear of the instructor
15:31and the stress of the training program,
15:32the recruit is learning how to face up
15:34to the impact of battle.
15:36To the marines,
15:37it's a tried and tested method.
15:40From these camps,
15:41thousands of young men
15:42once left for the battlefields of the Pacific,
15:44ready to die
15:46rather than dishonor the Marine Corps.
16:16We proclaim herewith
16:27that our Japanese army
16:29has occupied this island of Guam
16:31by order of the great emperor of Japan.
16:34You all good citizens
16:36need not worry anything
16:38under the regulations
16:39of our Japanese authorities.
16:41It is for the purpose
16:42of restoring liberty
16:44and rescuing the whole Asiatic people
16:46and creating the permanent peace in Asia.
16:52The island of Guam in the Pacific,
16:5440 years on.
16:58Here and on many other islands,
17:00the U.S. Marine Corps
17:02fought some of the fiercest battles
17:03of the Second World War
17:05and secured its reputation
17:06for indomitable fighting spirit.
17:15Almost half a million marines
17:17fought in the Pacific War.
17:19They suffered nearly 90,000 casualties.
17:29There was always fog and smoke
17:31and chaos
17:33and a great deal of killing.
17:35Your uniform is soaked in blood,
17:38great gobs of blood underfoot.
17:42It's very slippery.
17:43Blood is very slippery.
17:46And you are in a state of shock.
17:49The Japanese,
17:51as I remember them,
17:52looked like badly wrapped
17:55brown paper parcels
17:57and their eyes were glazed
18:01and I suppose our eyes
18:02were glazed too.
18:07I cannot really recreate
18:10that.
18:11It is so beyond
18:12the range of normal experience
18:14that you really have to take it on faith
18:17that I'm coming as close as I can.
18:22Marine units fought on
18:24despite losses which should,
18:26in theory,
18:27have rendered them ineffective.
18:29The eight square miles of Iwo Jima
18:31cost the marines almost 29,000 men,
18:34including 19 battalion commanders.
18:36An American admiral
18:37paid tribute to their achievement.
18:39Uncommon valor, he wrote,
18:41was a common virtue.
18:43If you tell a man
18:44that he is an extraordinary fighter
18:47in an extraordinary organization,
18:49he is likely to behave
18:51in an extraordinary fashion
18:53because this is expected of him
18:55and he's not going to let this slide down.
18:57He's not going to be the first marine to run,
19:00which he believes he would be.
19:02It's not true.
19:03At Bull Run in 1862,
19:05the marines broke and fled,
19:07but he has never been told that.
19:11After the Battle of Sugarloaf Hill,
19:15my regiment had taken
19:17over 80% casualties.
19:20We were marching
19:22toward the landing behind Naha,
19:25and someone started whistling the marine hymn,
19:29and suddenly the whole regiment
19:31was whistling the marine hymn.
19:34We had every reason to be disillusioned
19:38and to be disgusted
19:41by all the costume, jewelry,
19:44and phraseology of war,
19:48but we still whistled the marine hymn.
20:03A common culture,
20:05a similar background,
20:07helps an army turn its recruits
20:09into fighting soldiers.
20:12But the training process
20:14can work on men
20:16who have nothing in common.
20:18The training process
20:20can work on men
20:22who have nothing in common.
20:24But the training process
20:26can work on men
20:28who have nothing in common.
20:31Repeat.
20:41All these men have in common
20:43is that they have run away from something.
20:45Yet in 16 weeks,
20:47the French Foreign Legion
20:49will turn them into soldiers
20:51whose fighting spirit is second to none.
20:53They start by giving them
20:55a common language.
21:01These legionnaires
21:03must learn to master
21:05the tools of their trade.
21:07In this instance,
21:09the Saint-Etienne automatic rifle.
21:11But this training has a broader purpose
21:13than simply imparting a technical skill.
21:15There's far more to the forging
21:17of fighting spirit
21:19than simply teaching a man
21:21how to fire a rifle or drive a tank.
21:23So alongside this sort of training
21:25goes the process of fusing together
21:27individuals into a team.
21:30Singing in French
21:54Drill is a classic example
21:56of an activity which helps bond soldiers
21:58and instills instinctive obedience.
22:00It once had
22:02vital practical functions.
22:23Constant repetition
22:25of basic drill movements
22:27ensured that the soldier
22:29could load and fire his weapon
22:31and stay in formation
22:33in the din and confusion of battle.
22:35It took weeks to become proficient
22:37in the handling of the flintlock musket.
22:39These French soldiers
22:41of the Napoleonic period,
22:43in common with their allies and opponents,
22:45spent hours on the drill square
22:47learning their trade.
22:49Proficiency in drill
22:51gave soldiers a real advantage
22:53on the battlefields of the horse
22:55and musket era.
22:57They could fire faster
22:59and move more efficiently
23:01than their opponents.
23:03And they were less likely
23:05to crumble under the impact
23:07of a close-range firefight.
23:19Drill
23:35The drill which we see
23:37being executed here today
23:39is itself a survival of the drill
23:41carried out as training for combat
23:43on the battlefields of the 18th and 19th centuries.
23:45But in the warfare of the 20th century
23:47such skills are an irrelevant anachronism,
23:49seemingly pointless.
23:51So why do it?
23:53Well, there are two reasons.
23:55First, it's a simple but proven way
23:57of instilling absolute obedience,
23:59of guaranteeing that the soldier
24:01will do what he's told instinctively,
24:03however difficult or dangerous the circumstances,
24:05without considering the consequences
24:07for his personal safety.
24:09But second and more important,
24:11it is the time-honored way
24:13of welding men together,
24:15in that of the group.
24:21Molding a recruit
24:23who is a well-disciplined,
24:25responsible individual
24:27requires an effective
24:29and rigorous training program.
24:31We feel that our program
24:33at Parris Island meets that test.
24:35It is a very demanding
24:37and difficult experience,
24:39for you see, we have designed it
24:41to be that way.
24:43We believe that the man
24:45who has proven himself
24:47through strenuous training
24:49is also the man who is most likely
24:51to cope with the extremes of combat.
24:55The training program
24:57gets out of the soldier
24:59exactly what it puts in,
25:01an abiding respect for discipline.
25:03It's taught me a lot of discipline,
25:05it's taught me a lot of self-respect,
25:07a lot of respect for my superiors
25:09and my elders.
25:11It changed my whole way of life.
25:13You come from civilian life
25:15and you come from undisciplined society
25:17and you come in here
25:19and they train you to become disciplined,
25:21become a more disciplined person.
25:23A crucial element in the creation
25:25of fighting spirit is discipline
25:27and in every army that discipline
25:29is backed up by the sanction of punishment.
25:31For much of history those punishments
25:33tended to be brutal.
25:35Flogging was a frequent occurrence
25:37in the British army of the 18th and 19th centuries.
25:39This cat of nine tails
25:41preserved here at Sandhurst
25:43was last used on the 28th of June 1850
25:45on Private Charles Lacey
25:47of the Coldstream Guards.
25:49You can still see the bloodstains.
25:51Private Lacey
25:53was charged with being absent without leave,
25:55with using abusive and threatening language
25:57to his superior officer
25:59and with refusing in a very improper manner
26:01to do a punishment awarded by his commanding officer.
26:03For these offences
26:05he received six months with hard labour
26:07and 50 lashes.
26:09The procedure was ruthless.
26:11The offender was spread-eagled
26:13against a triangle of pikes,
26:15the hands lashed together at the top,
26:17the feet one at each corner.
26:19The flogging was then carried out
26:21in front of the assembled troops
26:23and in the presence of a doctor.
26:25The doctor's responsibility was to ensure
26:27that the man didn't die during punishment.
26:29Private Lacey was comparatively lucky.
26:31He received only 50 lashes.
26:33For those whose sentences
26:35did not include hard labour,
26:37the average was 150
26:39and the maximum, almost unbelievably,
26:41was 600.
26:45The purpose of military discipline
26:47is simple enough.
26:49To force men to endure the rigours of campaigning
26:51and the stress of battle.
26:53Frederick the Great believed that his soldiers
26:55would only fight if they were more frightened
26:57of their own officers than they were of the enemy.
26:59So his army enforced its discipline
27:01with a wide range of cruel punishments.
27:03A common penalty was running the gauntlet
27:05when the offender had to walk,
27:07stripped to the waist,
27:09between two ranks of soldiers
27:11who lashed him as he passed.
27:15Punishment has naturally tended
27:17to be harsher at the front
27:19than in barracks.
27:21During World War I,
27:23the British army still resorted
27:25to the degrading procedure
27:27known as Field Punishment No. 1.
27:29I had a court martial
27:31and I had 10 days
27:33of No. 1 field punishment
27:35and that was tied up
27:37against a wagon wheel
27:39where they tied your ankles
27:41at the bottom
27:43and your wrists
27:45up above
27:47and you had your wrists crossed
27:49and that was for 10 days
27:51an hour in the morning
27:53and an hour in the afternoon.
27:55All the while you were tied there
27:57you could feel yourself
27:59getting colder and colder
28:01as if you were sort of sinking
28:03all the time.
28:05You know,
28:07a funny sensation.
28:09Shelf fire was coming over all the time
28:11because they knew where you was billeted
28:13sort of thing
28:15and you often get the shelves fall there.
28:23Come on, son.
28:25Come on, son.
28:29Cowardice and desertion are fatal
28:31to an army's fighting spirit.
28:33They have consequently attracted
28:35the ultimate punishment, death.
28:49During the First World War,
28:51the British army executed
28:531,000 soldiers,
28:55266 of them for desertion.
29:17Firing party, unload!
29:20The firing party,
29:22men from the prisoner's unit,
29:24sometimes quailed at what one veteran
29:26called their intolerable obligation
29:28and failed to kill the victim outright,
29:30forcing the officer to administer
29:32the coup de grâce with his revolver.
29:41The Germans made widespread use
29:43of the death penalty at the end
29:45of the Second World War.
29:47The soldiers often found the results
29:49of flying court martial teams
29:51whose victims were hanged,
29:53usually bearing a placard with the words
29:55So die all traitors to the fatherland.
30:01The severity of punishment,
30:03official or unofficial,
30:05varies very much from army to army.
30:11I was arrested for being drunk
30:13and asleep,
30:15I think a combination of both,
30:17on guard duty and given 15 days
30:19in a stockade.
30:21The first thing that happened
30:23was I got a beating up from the RSM.
30:25The tradition is you stand to attention
30:27and you get beaten up
30:29and then when you fall on the ground
30:31you stand again and you look the guy
30:33in the eye and you know he won't hit you
30:35if you stand your attention,
30:37and sure enough he does.
30:39So by the time you've had a bit of that
30:41you're quite well squared off around here.
30:43Then I was given a sack of rocks
30:45with metal shoulder straps
30:47instead of the ordinary shoulder straps
30:49and began what is called the plot
30:51where you run in a circle
30:53and a sergeant stands over you
30:55with a whistle and he blows
30:57one blast of the whistle
30:59you do a forward roll,
31:01two blasts you march in knees bend
31:03and three blasts you crawl
31:05and you've got on your bald head
31:07and you've got on your shoulder
31:09and you've got on your shoulder
31:11and you've got on your bald head
31:13you have a metal helmet
31:15without the inside of the hat
31:17so it's metal on skull
31:19and you do that for a couple of hours
31:21and that's the introduction
31:23to the stockade.
31:41Discipline in the foreign legion
31:43may have acquired a certain notoriety
31:45but a harsh discipline is not enough
31:47to create fighting spirit.
31:49Fear of punishment may stop a man
31:51running away, but it will not make him brave.
31:53A soldier fights better
31:55when he has a group to identify with
31:57so armies take pains
31:59to foster pride in that group.
32:11Present arms!
32:33Legionnaire Padillo, Premier Company
32:35two months of service.
32:37Mon Colonel, la première fois que tu as fait
32:39le huit kilomètres, tu as mis quel temps?
32:45Je n'ai pas compris la question, mon colonel.
32:49Legionnaire Murray, two months of service.
32:51Premier Company, section of sergeant chef
32:53Menici, au besoin de mon colonel.
32:55La première fois que tu prends la garde?
32:57Oui, mon colonel.
32:59They've read about the legion,
33:01they've heard about the legion
33:03and the reputation of the legion
33:05is as a fighting force.
33:07When you arrive there in basic training
33:09you are apart from learning
33:11the disciplines of being a soldier
33:13how to handle a gun and so on
33:15you are soaked up in the traditions
33:17of the legion.
33:19They give you all the history,
33:21they tell you about their famous battles
33:23you are brainwashed, it's a bit strong
33:25but it's that sort of process.
33:27There's a lot of singing, military songs
33:29by the time you've been in the legion
33:31six months time you think
33:33you're the best thing that ever happened
33:35the greatest fighting force that ever happened
33:37and off you go.
33:39Music
34:03On Cameroon day
34:05legion tradition is celebrated with the greatest pomp.
34:07Cameroon in Mexico
34:09was the setting for one of the legion's
34:11many heroic last stands.
34:13A fight to the finish by a tiny band
34:15of legionnaires against overwhelming odds.
34:17In the casket
34:19carried by a veteran in a wheelchair
34:21is a sacred relic
34:23the wooden hand of the detachment's commander
34:25Captain D'Anjou.
34:27Music
34:39An officer reads the account
34:41known to all present
34:43of how the last few faced death.
34:45Music
35:07Music
35:17The wooden hand of Captain D'Anjou
35:19is still preserved
35:21at the headquarters of the French Foreign Legion
35:23in the south of France.
35:25It's a reminder to the legionnaires of today
35:27of the traditions and the standards
35:29of their unit. For there can have been
35:31few more shining examples
35:33of that fighting spirit
35:35than Captain D'Anjou's last stand
35:37with his men at Cameroon.
35:39Most of his men weren't even French.
35:41They could have had little enough
35:43understanding of the complexities
35:45of French foreign policy.
35:47But they were tough professionals.
35:49They had a strong group identity,
35:51great cohesion, and robust morale.
35:53They were hopelessly outnumbered
35:55and they must have known that to fight on
35:57would mean only death.
35:59But for most of them was the risk
36:01even greater. And that was
36:03the risk of not living up
36:05to the standards of that unit.
36:07So, fight on they did.
36:09To death.
36:33The British soldier finds his spiritual home
36:57within the regiment.
36:59In the regimental system, the esprit de corps
37:01of the modern unit draws strength
37:03from the fighting spirit shown by its ancestors.
37:05The regiment's colours,
37:07decorated with battle honours,
37:09symbolise its ancient and honourable traditions.
37:15In the days of
37:17close range battle, colours
37:19served as rallying points.
37:21Indeed, the custom of trooping the colour
37:23along a regiment's ranks dates from
37:25those days when it was essential that men
37:27recognised their own regiment's colours
37:29in action.
37:39These officers of the Queen's Regiment
37:41are dining with their colours proudly displayed.
37:43To allow them to be captured
37:45was deemed a great disgrace
37:47and men risked their lives to defend them.
37:49In May 1811, the British
37:51Third Foot, the Buffs, now part
37:53of this regiment, was caught in line
37:55by French cavalry at the Battle of Albuhera.
37:57The massive silver centrepiece
37:59commemorates the incident.
38:01Both the ensigns
38:03carrying the colours were cut down
38:05and one of the colours was taken.
38:07The other was seized as it fell
38:09by Lieutenant Latham.
38:11A sword cut from a cavalryman took off
38:13part of his face and another severed his arm.
38:15But he held on to the colour
38:17with his remaining hand and despite
38:19his injuries, saved it for the regiment.
38:21The Queen.
38:35Other ornaments and relics help
38:37add to the regiment's self-esteem
38:39and its individuality is reinforced
38:41by a strong fabric of tradition.
38:43The Queen.
38:45The Queen.
38:53There are the formal occasions,
38:55the ceremonies, the special
38:57rituals unique to its membership.
38:59These officers, by regimental
39:01tradition, drink the loyal toast
39:03individually while remaining seated.
39:15But above all,
39:17there is that special sense of belonging
39:19which comes from the wearing of uniform.
39:46Uniform plays an important part
39:48in the creation of fighting spirit.
39:50Modern combat kit is chiefly practical
39:52and it's intended to make its wearer
39:54as inconspicuous as possible
39:56on the battlefield.
39:58But even this sombre and shapeless
40:00garb has symbolic functions.
40:02For these Sandhurst cadets,
40:04its issue typifies the process
40:06of turning a man into a soldier
40:08and its very uniformity sums up
40:10the way in which individual values
40:12are subordinated to group loyalties.
40:15For formal and ceremonial occasions,
40:17there are more elaborate uniforms.
40:19These have greater symbolism.
40:21Their insignia of rank define the steps
40:23of the military hierarchy and their
40:25buttons and badges denote specific
40:27regiment and corps.
40:29These cadets are being fitted
40:31with the mess kit that they'll wear
40:33when they join their regiments.
40:35All these things stimulate
40:37a soldier's pride in his unit
40:39and in himself and they help to create
40:41that indefinable ingredient
40:43that holds an army together,
40:45fighting spirit.
40:50In the days when battles were fought
40:52at close range, uniform provided
40:54a means of recognizing not only
40:56one's own side and the units within it,
40:58but also of stimulating the wearer's
41:00soldierly pride and confidence.
41:02The 18th century theorist,
41:04the Comte de Guibert wrote,
41:06personal bravery of a single individual
41:08does not decide on the day of battle,
41:10but the bravery of the unit.
41:12Serious splendor, the regularity
41:14of movements, the adroitness
41:16and at the same time firmness of the mass.
41:18All this gives the individual soldier
41:20the safe and calming conviction
41:22that nothing can withstand
41:24his particular regiment or battalion.
41:35The glories of the past are summoned up
41:37to encourage the soldiers of the present.
41:39These men of the Gloucestershire regiment
41:41carry their own unique regimental distinction.
41:43Not only do they wear a badge
41:45at the front of their caps,
41:47but they also have another tiny badge
41:49at the back.
41:55This tiny back badge commemorates
41:57the Battle of Alexandria in 1801,
41:59when the regiment faced both ways
42:01to repel an attack from front and rear.
42:04Fourteen years later at Waterloo,
42:06when the regiment's square was wavering,
42:08it was rallied by a shout of
42:1028th! Remember Egypt!
42:12Now, few of the soldiers present
42:14had actually been at Alexandria,
42:16but they held fast.
42:18They had remembered their regiment.
42:24The same regiment fought doggedly
42:26nearly a century and a half later
42:28on the Imjin River.
42:30Their cap badge still reminded its soldiers
42:32of their distinguished forefathers.
42:34There was a strong family feeling
42:36within the regiment.
42:38It had a reputation
42:40and a tradition to keep up.
42:42The regimental spirit
42:44had an effect.
42:46There was a consciousness
42:48that that regiment
42:50had been in service
42:52in spite of disasters
42:54in its history,
42:56such as at Salamanca, for example,
42:58with enormous casualties,
43:00without a single day's break
43:02since the latter part
43:04of the 18th century,
43:06and that it had had its ups and downs,
43:08but it had always attempted
43:10to do its duty
43:12and had done it on the whole well.
43:14There was the dependence
43:16on one another.
43:18We all knew one another.
43:20And, by and large,
43:22people did not want
43:24to let comrades down.
43:26It's the traditions
43:28of the regiment
43:30that forge these bonds
43:32of comradeship.
43:34This is an intercompany
43:36boxing match for the men
43:38of the 2nd Battalion,
43:40the Queen's Regiment,
43:42on active service in Northern Ireland.
43:44Most of the men here
43:46will remain with their regiment
43:48for the whole of their service.
43:56In ways like this,
43:58fighting spirit is reinforced
44:00by a unique kind of rivalry.
44:02Each soldier believes himself
44:04to be in the best platoon
44:06of the best company,
44:08of the best battalion,
44:10of the best regiment in the army.
44:14And I believe
44:16that we have seen examples
44:18of the very best type
44:20of fighting spirit.
44:22We've seen the will to carry on
44:24and the legs are beginning to turn to rubber.
44:26And, indeed,
44:28a significant amount of grit.
44:32Last night,
44:34Private Rooney, as you've heard,
44:36was shot by the IRA.
44:38Before he got
44:40carted off to hospital,
44:42I was talking to him,
44:44and his principal concern
44:46was whether or not Sea Company
44:48were actually going to be able
44:50to find a reserve to take his place.
44:52This regimental identity
44:54makes its own unique contribution
44:56to soldiers' morale.
44:58But it is the intimate relationship
45:00between the members of the small unit
45:02which lies at the very heart
45:04of fighting spirit.
45:12Throughout history,
45:14armies have tended to make
45:16the smallest brick of their organization
45:18a group of no more than ten men
45:20who know each other well.
45:26This four-man team patrolling Derry
45:28keeps going because each soldier
45:30in it knows his comrades,
45:32trusts them, and knows
45:34that they rely on him.
45:36The infantry section, or the crew
45:38of the armored vehicle,
45:40are the men at the cutting edge of war,
45:42and it is their efforts
45:44that decide the outcome of battles.
45:51Fighting spirit may start
45:53with patriotic enthusiasm
45:55and rigorous training
45:57and be shored up by discipline,
45:59but it is comradeship
46:01that really matters.
46:10Mates, buddies,
46:12camaraden, copains,
46:14most languages have a special word
46:16for a soldier's comrades,
46:18for whom his affection,
46:20forged in the heat of training
46:22and tried in the crucible of battle,
46:24will be, quite literally,
46:26passing the love of women.
46:32The ties of comradeship,
46:34far more than the threat of punishment
46:36or the lure of reward,
46:38enable soldiers to withstand
46:40the stresses and strains
46:42that are an inevitable part
46:44of their profession.
46:48Today's Marine recruits
46:50are taught, above all,
46:52never to let their comrades down.
46:56Yesterday's recruits remember why.
47:04That's how we live,
47:06and that's why we love and respect each other.
47:08We pray for each other.
47:10I was as close to some of these people
47:12as I am to my own brothers.
47:14We bore the same pain
47:17It's your friends
47:19that keep you
47:21from turning tail and running.
47:23It's your friends
47:25that force you out the door
47:27when you don't think you should go.
47:35I had been wounded
47:37in a gunshot wound
47:39right in the flesh
47:41with a million dollars.
47:43I was honorably out of it
47:45in a warm, safe, dry field hospital.
47:47And then I heard that my regiment
47:49was going to jump off and land
47:51behind enemy lines.
47:53And so I jumped hospital, illegally,
47:55hitchhiked to the front,
47:57and rejoined my regiment.
47:59And the second day after the landing
48:01I was critically wounded.
48:03But why did I go back?
48:05I went back to be with the men.
48:07You need the others.
48:09You need your friends.
48:11And that is essentially
48:13what men fight for.
48:15Not the flag, not for glory,
48:17not for the Marine Corps,
48:19but for one another.
48:21And the men beside you
48:23have saved your lives at times,
48:25and you save theirs.
48:27And you're not going to let each other down.
48:29So this binds you together,
48:31and together you go into battle.
48:35This is what keeps a soldier going.
48:37His fighting spirit
48:39is displayed to his friends,
48:41and on behalf of his friends,
48:43in a private world where the respect
48:45of one soldier for another means everything.
48:49Soldiers do not fight
48:51for political slogans,
48:53nor just for their unit's reputation.
48:55They fight for one another.
49:41The Marine Corps of Engineers
49:43and the Marine Corps of Engineers
49:45and the Marine Corps of Engineers
49:47and the Marine Corps of Engineers
49:49and the Marine Corps of Engineers
49:51and the Marine Corps of Engineers
49:53and the Marine Corps of Engineers
49:55and the Marine Corps of Engineers
49:57and the Marine Corps of Engineers
49:59and the Marine Corps of Engineers
50:01and the Marine Corps of Engineers
50:03and the Marine Corps of Engineers
50:05and the Marine Corps of Engineers
50:07and the Marine Corps of Engineers
50:09and the Marine Corps of Engineers
50:11and the Marine Corps of Engineers
50:13and the Marine Corps of Engineers
50:15and the Marine Corps of Engineers
50:17and the Marine Corps of Engineers
50:19and the Marine Corps of Engineers
50:21and the Marine Corps of Engineers
50:23and the Marine Corps of Engineers
50:25and the Marine Corps of Engineers
50:27and the Marine Corps of Engineers
50:29and the Marine Corps of Engineers
50:31and the Marine Corps of Engineers
50:33and the Marine Corps of Engineers
50:35and the Marine Corps of Engineers
50:37The Marine Corps of Engineers
50:41The Marine Corps of Engineers
50:53Hold still down there!
50:55Get to her!
50:56Get to her!
50:57Hurry up!
50:59Stop it!
51:00Can we?
51:00Can we?
51:01Hurry up!
51:03Get up!
51:05In Bella Woods there was 1,200 German soldiers that were dug in.
51:10They were ready for anybody to come in.
51:13They had artillery, they had machine guns, and they were prepared for anything.
51:18The Marines knew they had to get into Bella Woods.
51:21The German machine gun fire was so intense coming out of this wood line
51:25that it was cutting the wheat down just like if someone had a sickle out there.
51:29The Marines were dropping left and right.
51:31So Dan Daly stands up in this wheat field with his bayoneted rifle over his head,
51:36and he says, Come on, you sons of bitches!
51:39You don't want to live forever, do you? Do you understand?
51:42Yes, sir!
51:43Are you sure?
51:44Yes, sir!
51:45If it is not always that easy to identify a fighting spirit,
51:48it is all too easy to spot when it disappears.
51:51I could see them coming down the hill,
51:54and they were walking in a way that I'd never seen people walk before,
51:58like puppets on a stage, as though somebody was jerking them from behind.
52:04Go! Go! Go! Go!
52:22Battle is a harrowing experience.
52:24Most soldiers are anxious before it and terrified during it.
52:28Its sounds and sights assault the senses,
52:31and its stresses can break even the strongest will.
52:34Sheer self-interest suggests that it's an experience best avoided,
52:38and that a soldier would be well advised to take cover or even to run away.
52:43And yet most soldiers do somehow keep going,
52:46mastering their fear, coping with the stress, and doing their job.
52:50What keeps them in action, when so many pressures combine
52:53to suggest an urgent deployment elsewhere,
52:56is that crucial military quality, hard to define, but easy to identify.
53:02We'll call it fighting spirit.
53:07Fighting spirit and esprit de corps are part of the tradition of the U.S. Marine Corps,
53:13and these young recruits are showing just how these qualities are stimulated.
53:18It was this same quality of fighting spirit which enabled another generation of Marines
53:23to assault scores of island fortresses in the Pacific,
53:26to face a resolute and implacable enemy,
53:29to suffer crippling casualties, and to keep going.
53:34Good morning, 1st Battalion!
53:36Good morning, sir!
53:37Are we ready for some more motivating United States Marine Corps history?
53:41Yes, sir!
53:43Now, we're going to talk about the Marine Corps going against a very, very powerful army,
53:48and that is the German Army!
53:50And we're going to talk about World War I.
53:55Fighting spirit helped the men on both sides during the First World War
53:59to sustain the misery of trench warfare and face the perils of going over the top.
54:04Pulling a string, they did not walk naturally.
54:08It was the first time I had ever seen men who had nothing left in them.
54:14The colonel came out of his dugout and he said,
54:18Come on, chaps, I'll take you back up there.
54:21Follow me. I'll come with you.
54:25Don't let the regiment down.
54:28But they just took no notice of him at all.
54:30They simply went past him.
54:32His reaction often would be to come to me
54:35and ask to go to a back corner of the command bunker
54:39and just be by himself for a while.
54:42And I would hear him sitting back in a corner just sobbing.
54:46The pressures were not from so much what the enemy was doing,
54:50but its effect on their fellows, the men they'd become close to.
54:54I think after you've put the 20th or 25th of your closest friends
54:58on a helicopter or in a body bag, in a stretcher,
55:01it's going to have an effect.