The 2nd Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles And

Famous Irish Regiments

Vittoria was the final major battle fought by Wellington in Spain. After spending the winter of 1812 reorganising and strengthening his forces, Wellington set out from Portugal and marched his army across the mountains of Northern Spain to engage the 58,000 - strong army of Marshal Jourdan deployed between the rivers Douro and Tagus. The French were compelled to retreat, hotly pursued by Wellington's men, who marched hard to to cut off the French from the road back to France.

The Duke of Wellington, born in Dublin

On the 21st June 1813 Wellington launched a three column attack against the French at Vittoria. After some ferocious fighting General Picton's 3rd Division broke Jourdan's centre. The remainder of the French Army crumbled in the face of determined attacks and its retreat abruptly became a rout. Jourdan's losses amounted to 8,000 killed and wounded, 2,000 prisoners and 154 artillery pieces. Wellington's losses were put at 4,500 killed or wounded. The following December British troops were encamped on French soil. An officer highly praised for his actions at Vittoria was one Captain Frederick Vandeleur of the 87th Regiment. He was severely wounded during the battle and died of wounds on the 6th July 1813. In September 1944 the advance by XXX Corps up the single road from the Belgian border towards Arnhem would be led by the tanks of the Guards Armoured Division. They in turn would be led by the Irish Guards Group, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel J.O.E Vandeleur, with his brother Giles in command of the 2nd Battalion. An Irishman would lead XXX Corps in its attempt to reach Arnhem. Brian Horrocks was the son of a Lancastrian doctor who had joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and been posted to India. Here he met his future wife, an Ulster Presbyterian and also from a family of doctors.

Joe and Giles Vandeleur in the uniform of the Irish Guards

The couple married in 1894 and Horrocks was born a year later at Ranniker, a hill station in India. In October 1912 this ' rash impetuous ' student entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, bottom but one! While Horrocks excelled at games, his military studies were less than successful. He was foreordained to remain a ' gentleman cadet ' ( equivalent to a private soldier ) throughout his time at Sandhurst. Four days after te declaration of war, Horrocks found himself reporting for duty with a militai battalion of the Middlesex Regiment.

Brian Horrocks

Two weeks later he led a draft of reinforcements for the 1st Battalion, then in France, to the shores of the continent. When this august body eventually joined up with the Battalion it was taking part in the retreat from Mons. During this confused time Horrocks remained in command until after the Battle of the Aisne, a month later. When the reinforcements were allotted to their companies Horrocks was made a platoon commander. On the 21st October 1914 during the 1st Battle of Ypres, the enemy surrounded Horrocks and his platoon. In the ensuing melee Horrocks was wounded in the lower stomach and became a prisoner of war, bringing an end to his military career for the next four years. Horrocks always maintained that his time spent in prison camp was the best apprenticeship for the difficult lessons of command in war. The most important of these was self-reliance: without superioir officers to take responsibility, or junior ranks on which to depend, prisoners were forced to account for their own actions, and mistakes had to be lived with. At the end of the First World War Horrocks returned to his Regiment, then stationed in Germany. It was here that he saw at first hand the horrors of inflation on an economy and became convinced that any sacrifice was worthwhile in order to stop what he called ' this economic cancer. ' Shortly thereafter he found himself seconded for duty in Russia, a period he found both fearful and fascinating, especially his time as a prisoner of the Red Army. During the inter-war years he served in England, doing duty in connection with the coal strike, in Ireland in connection with the never ending ' troubles ' and in Silesia during the plebiscite to decide the frontiers between Poland and Germany. In 1924 the Olympic Games were held in Paris and Horrocks represented Great Britain in the modern pentathlon. Despite being superbly fit, the competition was such that he finished well down in the order of merit. During the Dunkirk campaign Horrocks commanded the 2nd Battalion Middlesex Regiment, a machine-gun battalion. During the retreat from their position in Belgium to the French coast at Dunkirk, Horrocks had nothing but the highest regard for the behaviour of the men under his command. He maintained that while other armies have men just as brave and professional in arms, none has the sense of humour of the British fighting soldier, and it is this humour that sees him through all adversity. After the withdrawl from France, Horrocks spent the next two years in England, then in August 1942 he was given command of XIII Corps and posted to North Africa. Throughout the desert campaign he performed well and it was sheer bad luck that his military career was once again put on hold in June 1943. He was at the port of Bizerta to watch the 46th Division carry out a full-scale rehearsal for the assault on the Salerno beaches. As the air raid siren sounded Horrocks and other staff officers went outside to see if the famous American smokescreen worked as well as they claimed. Everything seemed to be going well, and the thick smoke rolled over the town, but not before a lone German fighter made a strafing run and deposited a bullet through Horrocks's chest, severely wounding him. He was still suffering from the effects of this injury when he led XXX Corps northwards from the Dutch-Belgian border in September 1944 . . .