By Gary Mead
Whilst 25-year previous deepest Johnson Beharry received the Victoria pass in 2005 for bravery less than hearth in Iraq, he was once the 1st individual to win Britain's maximum army honour because the Falklands warfare in 1982 and the 1st residing recipient because 1969, whilst Australians got the award for motion in Vietnam.
Born out of the squalor of the Crimean struggle in 1856 and the fragility of the monarchy at the moment, the VC's status is such that it takes priority over all different orders and medals in Britain. yet whereas many books were written approximately particular features of the VC and its recipients, none have requested why such a lot of courageous males who deserved the medal have been denied it, and why no girls have ever been offered the VC, although they're entitled.
Military historian Gary Mead's bright and balanced account of the VC's lifestyles and occasions exposes the hypocrisy in the back of one of many UK's final sacred cows, and explores its position as a barometer for the moving sands of political and social swap over the past a hundred and fifty years.
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Extra info for Victoria’s Cross: The Untold Story of Britain’s Highest Award for Bravery
Sample text
Get into cover!? I shout as we start following him, running, bent double in single file towards the ditch. Ditches equal IEDs. Check for IEDs, check for IEDS! Spread out!? s platoon. Reports bounce over the canal: Zip. Crack. Zipzip. Crackcrack . . Duhduhduh. Duhduh. Taliban bullets are zinging over our heads as they try to hit 9 Platoon, who are between us and them on the other side of the canal. 9 Platoon are firing back. Close the door. Close the door. t let a suicide bomber jump out and blow the lads away.
S the anti-malarial drugs I am on. I stop taking them and fight through. The school has an edge to it that Sandhurst does not.
I begin crawling out of the forest and into a rush-covered field, still half asleep. As I move closer, I can hear, despite the wind, the noise of soldiers loading up on to a truck. The rear gate is pulled closed, the distinctive clang of metal on metal echoing out from the road. The engine guns. re leaving us! ve forgotten us! 27 PLATOOOON, IS THAT YOU GETTING ON THE BUS?? From behind me, where the platoon is still shivering in the forestry block, comes a swift reply. It is in a Scottish accent I both recognize and fear.