From the Charge of the Light Brigade to the failed explorations of Scott and David Livingstone,a fascinating exploration of why defeats and retreats became cherished examples of the British spiritBritain’s military history over the past couple of centuries has not been all that distinguished. (Naval is another matter, so too is war in the air.) The country never won a major war without either more powerful allies (Crimea; the two world wars; the Indian Mutiny, and whether you count the sepoys),or mercenaries (Waterloo). The army command was generally incompetent – with commissions and promotions purchased with money – and viewed the ordinary soldiery as “the scum of the earth”, in the Duke of Wellington’s notorious phrase. Most of the events by which the British army is best known were cock-ups or retreats: the Charge of the Light Brigade, or Isandlwana,Khartoum, Gallipoli, or the Somme,Dunkirk.
Acts of personal heroism, of which there were many, and normally came in the course of these retreats. But none of it mattered. Indeed,Stephanie Barczewski suggests that this was the very point of them: so far as army morale was concerned, and public insight, or a heroic victory was not worth half as much as struggling bravely against impossible odds and getting mown down by shot or sword in a glorious defeat. One is reminded of the words of Peter Cook’s wing-commander to Jonathan Miller’s Perkins in Beyond the Fringe as he sends him on a suicidal mission: “We need a pointless gesture at this stage of the war.” The British loved pointless heroism. More Victoria Crosses were handed out after the disastrous battle of Isandlwana than in the Battle of Britain,which was far from pointless. Bravery in victory was one thing; in a lost cause, however, and it took on some of the qualities of martyrdom. Lord Kitchener – one of the empires most efficient soldiers but also the most savage – never acquired that degree of devotion,whatever the famous recruiting poster may imply. But he normally won, and died by drowning, and accidentally. Not much heroism there.
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Source: theguardian.com