When were marching bands last used in warfare?
Upvote:2
Your title says 'bands' and the question uses 'musicians' in the plural, so this is going to be a bit of a stretch, but I can't pass up this opportunity to whip out 'Mad' Jack Churchill.
Norway (1941)
Churchill was second in command of No. 3 Commando in Operation Archery, a raid on the German garrison at Vågsøy, Norway, on 27 December 1941. As the ramps fell on the first landing craft, he leapt forward from his position playing "March of the Cameron Men" on his bagpipes, before throwing a grenade and charging into battle. For his actions at Dunkirk and Vågsøy, Churchill received the Military Cross and Bar.
Upvote:10
One later example of the use of a band in combat occurred during the Vietnam War when U.S. Army Major-General John Hay ordered the 1st Infantry Division band to march down a road held by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) while playing the "Colonel Bogey March". NVA forces were, reportedly, so confused by the impromptu parade that they withdrew from the area, allowing American infantry to seize the road without opposition.
Wikipedia sources this from the website for the 1st Infantry Division Band, which indicates this happened on the notorious "Thunder Road" between Saigon and Quan Loi, but the description on the band's website does not date the incident. Mother Jones says this happened in March, 1969.
There is also a list of campaigns the band served in.The last campaign listed is the first Gulf War in 1991.However, none of the others have any description of combat, so this incident during the Vietnam War was probably the last time for them.
More post
- 📝 Where can I find all Hitler speeches in original German?
- 📝 What campaigns did the Mexican army fight against American Indians in the North?
- 📝 Where can I find digitised versions of Japanese war documents in original Japanese?
- 📝 Why did Japan take so long to attack Wuhan?
- 📝 What were the flaws in the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey?
- 📝 Why did Kabila discard the name and flag of Zaire?
- 📝 What kind of knife could this be?
- 📝 Were there any long-term political effects on Argentina after Eichmann's kidnapping?
- 📝 What did NATO AFCENT commander Bennecke do during World War 2?
- 📝 Why would a 16th century Italian painter choose canvas over wood panel?
- 📝 Who erected Luis Argüello's tombstone?
- 📝 Adapting clothes, weapons, tools and customs from other nations in the middle ages - judging plausability
- 📝 Were NC, IL, and VA's latest concurrent constitutions' effective dates coincidental?
- 📝 Why did the Nazis target Jehovah's Witnesses?
- 📝 Where there any female soldiers in the Soviet army who partook in the mass rapes in eastern Germany?
- 📝 About how long ago was the most recent day on which a human did not die
- 📝 Was the term connoisseur used during the 1400s?
- 📝 Which Allied forces held the French-Italian border from Operation Dragoon to the end of WWII in Europe?
- 📝 Why did the Zimmerman telegram upset America if it was not asking for aggression against America?
- 📝 When was the tactic of chaining ships together last used in a major naval battle?
- 📝 Why was Colonel Bill Eddy kneeling in front of FDR and King Saud?
- 📝 How many times did the the sacred fire of Vesta die?
- 📝 New World Sickness
- 📝 Has anyone survived triggering a bounding landmine?
- 📝 Did Paul Robeson wash the US flag in protest?
- 📝 How were enslaved girls usually dressed in Arabia in early Islamic societies?
- 📝 How were the Morisco refugees from Europe received in North Africa, given that they were foreigners and Christian?
- 📝 Why were pre-missile era cruisers often attached to fleet battlegroups?
- 📝 Did ancient people regularly suffer from colds?
- 📝 What does MLK mean by "lonely island" and "vast ocean"?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 When were marching bands last used in warfare?
- 📝 When were swords last used in European warfare?
- 📝 When was the tactic of chaining ships together last used in a major naval battle?
- 📝 When was the last moment that Dutch, German and Swiss German were the same language?
- 📝 When was the last time there were border controls, customs, or border patrols inside what is now the contiguous US?
- 📝 When were both minuscule and majuscule letters used for the first time in the same Latin manuscript?
- 📝 Where and when were air guns used in a major battle?
- 📝 When were the first heating apparatus used for bathing?
- 📝 When were the last autonomous indigenous American settlements conquered by the Spanish?
- 📝 What drugs were used in England during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 Why were Navajo code talkers used during WW2?
- 📝 When has a sovereign state last given territory to another as a gift?
- 📝 When did the Romans finally acknowledge that they were living in an empire?
- 📝 Were there occasions when a sovereign country voluntarily joined another country?
- 📝 How were drawbridges and portcullises used tactically?
- 📝 When were 'time zones' (or at least time difference) discovered?
- 📝 Were slings used for throwing hand grenades? If not, why?
- 📝 Were there ethnic Russians in Alaska when the US purchased it 1867? Did they stay?
- 📝 What were sandbags used for in medieval duels?
- 📝 What kind of ink was used by medieval scribes in Iceland, given that there were no plant galls for iron-gall ink?
- 📝 When was the last time a reigning monarch personally participated in battle?
- 📝 How were diplomats and their staffs treated when World War II was declared?
- 📝 When and where were the first coins made showing the currency or a face value?
- 📝 When was the last documented occasion that Arab or Ottoman slave traders abducted people from Europe?
- 📝 When did the English and Americans realize that vegetables were healthy?
- 📝 Were taiko drums used to determine village sizes?
- 📝 When did one-way mirrors become widely used by police?
- 📝 What were the “passports” that diplomats requested when declaring war?
- 📝 When were US Presidential candidates' names first shown on the ballot?
- 📝 What wars were started when an indebted country refused to pay?