"Celer at Audax"
Yanks in Royal Rifle Regiment of British Army Become Part of a Three-Century-Old Tradition
FROM out of the dust and smoke of the African campaign has come the story of five gallant soldiers who, long before this country entered the war, set out for themselves to join the battle against oppression.
In June, 1941, five young Americans, newly graduated from college, sailed for England to take officers' training in the King's Royal Rifle Regiment of the British Army, having received special dispensation to do so from the British war office. They were Robert Cox and Heyward Cutting, from Harvard, and Charles G. Bolte, John F. Brister III, and William P. Durkee, from Dartmouth. (These original five were joined within a year by three compatriots- William E. Channing, Harvard, and Thomas W. Braden Jr. and Theodore R. Ellsworth, Dartmouth '40.)
The King's Royal Rifles is the old 60th Infantry Regiment which was formed in 1754 for the purpose of protecting outlying British colonies in North America during the French and Indian wars, At that time it was known as Rogers' Rangers and it kept that title until 1783 when it took its present name. Down through the years this regiment has won for itself more battle honors than any other regiment in the British Army.
In modern warfare, the Rifles "do the tanks' dirty work," and an officer must learn to operate all kinds of army vehicles, various types of guns and field pieces, and wireless, as well as to command and care for his outfit in the field. And so the Yanks in the British Army worked hard to advance from private to lance corporal and from lance corporal to lieutenant.
But the months of training in England were not unpleasant. Although the would- be officers sometimes drilled to the point of exhaustion and were more than once baffled by such intricate mechanisms as the Brenn gun, there were compensating features. The people of England were extremely kind to the volunteers, and they were entertained by various well-known personages. No one, perhaps, has shown them more cordiality and generosity, however, than the American Ambassador to England, Mr. John G. Winant.
There can be no doubt that the Americans took their training seriously, for they graduated at the head of their group in the officers' school and were commended highly by their superiors. Then, their training completed, early in June, 1943, they sailed with the British Bth Army for the Middle East, where they took part in the now historic battle for Egypt.
Today, not one of the original five marches with Britain's most famous infantry regiment. In the battle of El Alamein, Cox, Cutting, and Bolte were wounded while leading their units against the 15th Panzer Division. Durkee was unscathed until after the breakthrough, when he was machine-gunned by an enemy fighter.
Bolte, following the amputation of his right foot, has come home; Cutting and Durkee, at last reports, were in a hospital in Cairo; Cox returned to his battalion and was killed during the action at Enfidaville; and Jack Brister, after having been wounded and returning to the Regiment three times, died in action in North Africa on April 27.
KING'S ROYAL RIFLEMEN from Dartmouth who joined up with the famous British infantry regiment in June, 1941, were, left to right, Lieutenants Charles G. Bolte, John F. Brister III, and William P. Durkee, all of the Class of 1941.
* Motto of the King's Royal Rifle Regiment.
