The World's Elite Forces [antikvár]

CHAPTER ONE_ REGAEDLESS OF RISK THE ROLE OF ELITE FORCES K Regardless of risk, he charged up the hill and, although mortally wounded, succeeded in eliminating the enemy machine-gun nest so that the other men in his section could advance to take their objective.' How bald it sounds, and yet how many citations for the Victoria Cross and other awards for extreme valour read in just this way. Many perfectly ordinary men, faced with a situation which they know will quite probably lead to their own death, find the inner reserves to act with extraordinary courage if the circumstances demand it. The stranger diving into a roaring river torrent to rescue a drowning child, or hurling himself into a blazing building to save the life of an unconscious neighbour, is no less courageous than the soldier who defends his wounded comrade until his ammunition runs out; but there is a difference. Soldiers who have volunteered for their career (rather than being conscripted) know that their choice is one of kill or be killed, and come to an acceptance of the possibility of their death which is foreign to the average civilian. Nowhere is this more true than in the ranks of the élite military forces of the world, volunteers from the word 'go', who undertake even more intensive and rigorous training which will lead them in time of war or emergency into the front line wherever the action is hottest. Since World War 2, the term 'élite', as applied to military formations, has come to acquire at least three separate connotations. The traditional and historical meaning goes back to the Praetorian Guard of the Caesars, to the Saxon huscarls at Hastings, to Cromwell's Ironsides, Napoleon's Old Guard or the men who died at Camerone, defending the Alamo or marching to the relief of Khartoum. Today, this tradition is maintained by such formations as the British Brigade of Guards. Since World War 1, though, and even more so since World War 2, a different type of élite soldier has emerged. In the early days he would have been a member of an ad hoc battle group, a small unit of volunteers, often