Lancers, Fusiliers, Rats …

WHEN the British, over 40,000 strong, arrived in the Persian Gulf, they brought more than troops, hardware, support staff, and supplies. There was history, too, in their baggage. One need look no further than the names of just some of the units now deployed in the war—storied regiments with lineages that stretch back through the centuries, from Kuwait to Normandy, the Somme, the Crimea, and often far past.

The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (the successors of a regiment that served in Afghanistan, but in 1879-80) are in the Gulf for the war against Saddam, and so, to pick out but a few more, are the Black Watch (whose battle honors include, ahem, a “successful action” in Brooklyn, N.Y., against one George Washington), the Life Guards (who first saw action in 1685), and that enduring symbol of Churchill’s defiance and determination, the Parachute Regiment.

WHEN the British, over 40,000 strong, arrived in the Persian Gulf, they brought more than troops, hardware, support staff, and supplies. There was history, too, in their baggage. One need look no further than the names of just some of the units now deployed in the war—storied regiments with lineages that stretch back through the centuries, from Kuwait to Normandy, the Somme, the Crimea, and often far past.

The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (the successors of a regiment that served in Afghanistan, but in 1879-80) are in the Gulf for the war against Saddam, and so, to pick out but a few more, are the Black Watch (whose battle honors include, ahem, a “successful action” in Brooklyn, N.Y., against one George Washington), the Life Guards (who first saw action in 1685), and that enduring symbol of Churchill’s defiance and determination, the Parachute Regiment.