0:00:15 > 0:00:21Scotland, according to an old saying, was born fighting.
0:00:21 > 0:00:26Over the centuries, her soldiers have crossed swords with many enemies -
0:00:26 > 0:00:29the Romans, the Vikings, the English.
0:00:29 > 0:00:31Especially the English.
0:00:31 > 0:00:37To their enemies, they were savages, a warrior race, the stuff of nightmares.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41The names of their heroes and battles have gone into legend -
0:00:41 > 0:00:44Bruce, Wallace, Bannockburn.
0:00:46 > 0:00:49And, of course, Culloden.
0:00:49 > 0:00:54It was at Culloden in 1746 that the Scottish Highlanders
0:00:54 > 0:00:58led by Bonnie Prince Charlie were massacred by the British Army.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03And yet, within a few years, men who had lined up on opposite
0:01:03 > 0:01:07sides of the battlefield were fighting side by side.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10Highlander and Englishman, shoulder to shoulder.
0:01:12 > 0:01:14Men like my own great-grandfather,
0:01:14 > 0:01:17surgeon John Ogilvy from Aberdeenshire.
0:01:17 > 0:01:19He was decorated in the Crimean War,
0:01:19 > 0:01:23proud to play his part in Scotland's great military history.
0:01:26 > 0:01:31Here on the Somme, and on battlefields around the world,
0:01:31 > 0:01:34Scots gave their lives for King and Empire.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38And that's the thing.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42They died for Britain's kings and queens, and the British Empire.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45Yet for centuries, the Scots and the English had been bitter enemies.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49What fascinates me is how and why all that changed.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52How, in the space of little more than a generation,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55they went from being the kilted bogeymen to the heroes of Empire.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09This is Culloden Moor near Inverness.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13Here in 1746 was fought the last battle on British soil.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16It's a place central to the history of Britain
0:02:16 > 0:02:19and the history of the Scottish soldier.
0:02:19 > 0:02:24The records show that Bremners fought here, possibly my ancestors.
0:02:24 > 0:02:26Soldiering is in the family.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30I must have come here for the first time about
0:02:30 > 0:02:32all of 30 years ago as a boy.
0:02:32 > 0:02:34But I can still remember
0:02:34 > 0:02:38it's got an extraordinary eerie, desolate atmosphere to it.
0:02:43 > 0:02:44The Act of Union in 1707
0:02:44 > 0:02:48had united the parliaments of England and Scotland.
0:02:48 > 0:02:54As Britain built an empire abroad it hoped for stability at home.
0:02:58 > 0:03:05But one man had other ideas. In 1745, Charles Stuart, the Young Pretender,
0:03:05 > 0:03:10returned from exile in France and raised an army of Highlanders.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12He planned a coup d'etat,
0:03:12 > 0:03:16an overthrow of George II and the Hanoverian dynasty.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20His Highland soldiers were feared and despised across much of Britain,
0:03:20 > 0:03:22including most of lowland Scotland.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24They marched south.
0:03:25 > 0:03:30By December they'd reached Derby, only five days' march from London.
0:03:30 > 0:03:35The capital lay at their mercy and the citizens were terrified
0:03:35 > 0:03:38of an assault by the Highland barbarians.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40It didn't happen.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47When the promised support from France failed to appear,
0:03:47 > 0:03:50Bonnie Prince Charlie's generals persuaded him to turn back.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52After one more victory at Falkirk,
0:03:52 > 0:03:56they reached the Highlands, where they'd take their last stand.
0:04:01 > 0:04:07On 16th April 1746, 7,000 Highlanders lined up here
0:04:07 > 0:04:11to do battle against the Duke of Cumberland's 8,000 Government troops.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15Four of Cumberland's regiments were themselves Scottish,
0:04:15 > 0:04:17loyal to the British crown.
0:04:19 > 0:04:24What followed was savage, short and exceptionally bloody.
0:04:24 > 0:04:29Inside an hour, 1,200 men were killed, almost all of them Jacobites.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33An eyewitness wrote that the moor "was covered in blood,
0:04:33 > 0:04:37"and the soldiers looked more like butchers than Christian soldiers".
0:04:37 > 0:04:41Here was the ruin of the Jacobite cause.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56Absolutely brutal. Not just brutal in the fight itself,
0:04:56 > 0:05:00but what happened in the battlefield afterwards. No quarter given.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04Prisoners, any survivors dispatched where they stood or where they lay.
0:05:04 > 0:05:09It is one of the darkest days of the British Army.
0:05:09 > 0:05:15No British regiment has Culloden on its battle honours.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18What the British Army wanted to do,
0:05:18 > 0:05:21what the Government army wanted to do was to get rid
0:05:21 > 0:05:24of the Highlands as soon as possible and go back to the real action
0:05:24 > 0:05:27in the continent of Europe fighting French armies.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30This is a sideshow as far as they were concerned.
0:05:30 > 0:05:32The best way to do that of course
0:05:32 > 0:05:36was just to brutally repress the Highlands as quickly as possible,
0:05:36 > 0:05:38make sure that nothing could ever rise
0:05:38 > 0:05:40against the Government army again.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44New repressive laws were rushed through
0:05:44 > 0:05:46to crush any Highland resistance.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49Scots were forbidden to carry weapons,
0:05:49 > 0:05:51clan chiefs lost their legal powers.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55Even Highland dress was outlawed.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57They banned tartan.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59Banned the kilt, banned tartan.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04The kilt was if you like the symbolic garment of the Highlands,
0:06:04 > 0:06:07it made them different from the rest of Britain
0:06:07 > 0:06:10and that is one thing the Government didn't want to do.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14It wanted to integrate the Highlands with the rest of the country.
0:06:17 > 0:06:18Yet even after Culloden
0:06:18 > 0:06:24policing the Highlands was a drain on British resources, a festering sore.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27In order to end the Highland threat once and for all,
0:06:27 > 0:06:29a different tactic was tried.
0:06:29 > 0:06:31Their solution,
0:06:31 > 0:06:36an extraordinary solution if you think about what was happening in Culloden Moor in 1746,
0:06:36 > 0:06:41was, just ten years later, to start recruiting Highland regiments,
0:06:41 > 0:06:45many of them made up by people who had faced Government troops
0:06:45 > 0:06:49and fought against them just a few years previously,
0:06:49 > 0:06:51taking them into the British Army as regiments,
0:06:51 > 0:06:56sending them across the world to fight for the British Empire against France.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59It is an amazing turnaround, one of the most extraordinary turnarounds,
0:06:59 > 0:07:01I think, in Scottish history.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05People thought that France, Bonnie Prince Charlie's great ally,
0:07:05 > 0:07:09but the Government in London's greatest enemy,
0:07:09 > 0:07:12people up here in the Highlands thought that the French
0:07:12 > 0:07:13had sold them down the river.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17Joining the British Army, fighting the French wherever
0:07:17 > 0:07:20they were across the globe, this is their way of getting their own back.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23I think a lot of it has got to do with that. Of course,
0:07:23 > 0:07:27there's another very good reason for fighting with the British Empire
0:07:27 > 0:07:29and that is the fact they won.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32You fight with the winners, you ally yourselves to the winner.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35They had knocked the stuffing out of the Highlands comprehensively
0:07:35 > 0:07:38in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising.
0:07:39 > 0:07:44Gaels had seen what the Government did to people in the losing side,
0:07:44 > 0:07:46they didn't want to be on the losing side again.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00The new Highland recruits from these faraway lands
0:08:00 > 0:08:04would have to be organised and trained into British regiments,
0:08:04 > 0:08:05ready to take on the French.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08That task would fall to the clan chiefs,
0:08:08 > 0:08:11many of whom had led the Jacobite forces.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16This is the island of Coll in the Southern Hebrides,
0:08:16 > 0:08:20home to a historian whose own military roots go back to those distant days.
0:08:22 > 0:08:24It was a covenant, if you like, between them.
0:08:24 > 0:08:29The Government would give commissions to form regiments
0:08:29 > 0:08:31to a major landowner
0:08:31 > 0:08:34who could raise men for rank.
0:08:34 > 0:08:41Then it gave enormous political power to people wanting commissions.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45He would do it in exchange for their vote. And somebody like the Earl of Breadalbane,
0:08:45 > 0:08:49who could raise 1,600 men on his own estate which stretched from one side of Scotland to the other,
0:08:49 > 0:08:521,600 men wasn't enough for the amount of regiments he'd got.
0:08:52 > 0:08:57So he would go to one of his friends who he knew in the Highlands society in Scotland,
0:08:57 > 0:09:01say, Alexander Maclean of Coll, who had been in the Western Fencibles in the previous war.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04And he'd get him and he'd produce 100 men.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06And that was a company.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09And so as a result of that, he became the major.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12And he was followed, I'm quite certain he was followed by people
0:09:12 > 0:09:15out of loyalty, they had always followed him.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18He would have done the same. So they would want to do it.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22So in creating the regiments, you had a structure there already.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25- Built it into the society. - They were private armies.
0:09:25 > 0:09:30- They had private armies.- To form a regiment it was a question of putting together these private armies,
0:09:30 > 0:09:37the laird's household men, putting them together, amalgamating them and forming regiments.
0:09:37 > 0:09:42And going off to be assembled and join the regular army and sign on
0:09:42 > 0:09:47and have your medical and all things that happen today.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50Over the last 30 years, MacLean-Bristol has rebuilt this,
0:09:50 > 0:09:54his ancient family home, Breachacha Castle.
0:09:55 > 0:10:03That's Alan Maclean who was the younger son of Maclean of Coll and he went to India in 1781.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07'The Macleans of Coll have been soldiering since the 17th century.'
0:10:09 > 0:10:14The Scots here, or the Highlanders, have produced soldiers since the beginning of time.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17It is built in their culture right back from
0:10:17 > 0:10:20- when they first arrived here. - It is a warrior culture.
0:10:20 > 0:10:27It is a warrior culture, it has got warrior...um...mores.
0:10:27 > 0:10:35And I suspect that every time, every generation, the old men inspired the children,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38captured their imagination to want be soldiers, to be heroes.
0:10:38 > 0:10:43They want to come back and have their stories told in the crofthouses at ceilidhs,
0:10:43 > 0:10:47telling those stories, or in castles that this, at great feasts the lairds would have.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50Everybody wants be a hero, we wanted it when we joined the army.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54One wants to come back and win lots of medals and things like that.
0:10:54 > 0:10:56It never actually happened.
0:10:56 > 0:10:58But it doesn't stop you wanting to do it.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02I think that is why a lot of people join the army, why they've always joined.
0:11:03 > 0:11:08Before Culloden, there were seven Scottish regiments loyal to the British Government.
0:11:08 > 0:11:14After Culloden, no fewer than 37 were created from the Highland clans.
0:11:14 > 0:11:19The process of integrating them into the Government army was never likely to be easy.
0:11:19 > 0:11:26The men from the Highlands were hated and feared in equal measure by conventional British regiments.
0:11:27 > 0:11:31Here's an insight into how some English officers saw the Scottish soldiers.
0:11:31 > 0:11:37This is a letter from Lieutenant Colonel James Wolfe, later General Wolfe, to his friend Captain Rickson,
0:11:37 > 0:11:41who was about to undertake an operation in North America in 1751.
0:11:43 > 0:11:49"Yours is now the dirtiest as well as the most insignificant and unpleasant branch of military operations.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53"No room for courage and skill to exert itself, no hope of ending it
0:11:53 > 0:11:57"by a decisive blow and a perpetual danger of assassination. I should imagine
0:11:57 > 0:12:02"that two or three independent Highland companies might be of use.
0:12:02 > 0:12:08"They are hardy, intrepid, accustomed to a rough country and no great mischief if they fall.
0:12:08 > 0:12:15"How can you better employ a secret enemy than by making his end conducive to the common good."
0:12:15 > 0:12:17For Wolfe, who had fought at Culloden,
0:12:17 > 0:12:22throwing the Highlanders to the enemy canons was a win-win situation.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26Britain could harness their fighting spirit and, at the same time,
0:12:26 > 0:12:30every dead Highlander reduced the odds of another Jacobite rebellion.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37But could the Highlanders integrate with the rest of the British Army?
0:12:37 > 0:12:40How would they fare fighting alongside their erstwhile enemy?
0:12:40 > 0:12:44Among the first to find out was General Wolfe himself.
0:12:44 > 0:12:51Eight years after writing his letter, his 4,000-man army included a regiment of Fraser Highlanders.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55Their task was to capture the French stronghold of Quebec.
0:12:55 > 0:13:03On the evening of 12th September, 1759, Wolfe ordered his entire force across the St Lawrence River.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06The Fraser Highlanders were among the first ashore.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09Legend has it that skills they learned in the service
0:13:09 > 0:13:12of the French Jacobites won the day for the British.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17When the British were coming up to the Plains of Abraham,
0:13:17 > 0:13:21when Wolfe was making his landing, they were challenged by the French.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25Quite a few of the officers had served in the French army
0:13:25 > 0:13:29after the Jacobite uprising, and that wasn't particularly unusual.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31Scottish troops served around Europe.
0:13:31 > 0:13:37And so, serving in the French army, obviously they had had to learn French. They spoke fluent French.
0:13:37 > 0:13:41It was a Highland soldier at the front of the first boat, he spoke French,
0:13:41 > 0:13:47and he convinced the French guard that they were a supply convoy coming to Quebec from Montreal.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50And that's what allowed Wolfe to land his troops.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53And so of course it was the Scottish Highlanders who were
0:13:53 > 0:13:56responsible for the victory at Quebec, for the conquest of Canada.
0:14:00 > 0:14:06What followed was perhaps the most famous British military victory of the 18th century.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09Wolfe's forces scaled the impossibly steep Heights of Abraham.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15The next morning, they crushed the French.
0:14:15 > 0:14:22Wolfe, who'd said of the Highlanders that it no great mischief if they fell,
0:14:22 > 0:14:23was killed in the fighting.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27When you get this great heroic painting by Benjamin West, of Wolfe's death, there is
0:14:27 > 0:14:33very specifically a Highland soldier there with Wolfe, with all the other troops painted there,
0:14:33 > 0:14:38to show that it is clear that Highlanders are there and are participating in this campaign.
0:14:38 > 0:14:39Does this turn the war around?
0:14:39 > 0:14:44It's very strange, because almost overnight the British start winning great victories.
0:14:44 > 0:14:49Whereas through to 1757 the British have suffered a whole string of defeats.
0:14:49 > 0:14:53When Highland troops arrived, suddenly the British start winning.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55Wherever the Highland troops are, they win.
0:14:55 > 0:15:00So they've become almost like... from the defeated Clansmen of Culloden
0:15:00 > 0:15:02they've become almost like a talisman.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06It's about the structure and organisation of the Scottish regiments.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09This is a time when the British are moving from encouraging men to fight
0:15:09 > 0:15:14by fear of punishment. Men no longer fight because they're afraid to be
0:15:14 > 0:15:19executed if they desert, because they're afraid of being brutally whipped or beaten.
0:15:19 > 0:15:24This still goes on but it's not the motivation for fighting and it's the beginnings of pride in regiment.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28You fight because you're proud of your regiment, to protect your comrades,
0:15:28 > 0:15:30to protect your brothers in arms.
0:15:30 > 0:15:34The way that the Scottish regiments are recruited promotes this.
0:15:34 > 0:15:39Everybody knows one another, there are very close ties of kinship.
0:15:39 > 0:15:44This makes the Scottish regiments much more coherent and, of course, they look very different.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46They're wearing kilts.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50They're back in the kilts. In Scotland the kilt is banned,
0:15:50 > 0:15:54but the only people who are allowed to wear the kilt are troops in the British Army...
0:15:54 > 0:15:57Highland soldiers serving in the British Army.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59And a lot of them are speaking Gaelic.
0:15:59 > 0:16:00This makes them distinctive.
0:16:00 > 0:16:06They look different, they sound different and, of course, this makes it very easy for them
0:16:06 > 0:16:11to make themselves proud of who they are and make themselves stand out from other British regiments.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15How are people reading about this, how are people seeing imagery?
0:16:15 > 0:16:16Does the printing at the time help?
0:16:16 > 0:16:20Nearly every colony in North America had its own newspaper -
0:16:20 > 0:16:23printed reports of what was happening in these campaigns.
0:16:23 > 0:16:28I think they had a slight soft spot for Scottish troops. In the 18th century there's no law of copyright.
0:16:28 > 0:16:33If you're publishing a newspaper in Edinburgh, you just republish everything
0:16:33 > 0:16:37that's come from the Virginia Gazette or the Pennsylvania Gazette as is.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40So these stories get reprinted word for word in Britain.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44"In about seven minutes, Lascelles and the Highlanders rushed in upon them
0:16:44 > 0:16:47"with bayonets fixed and sword in hand,
0:16:47 > 0:16:49"making a most dreadful slaughter
0:16:49 > 0:16:55"and the field of the battle was soon covered with the dead and the wounded of all ranks."
0:16:55 > 0:17:00Quebec was certainly a promising start, a valiant action in the distant Americas.
0:17:04 > 0:17:10The Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century gave the Scots a chance to prove themselves closer to home,
0:17:10 > 0:17:18first in the Peninsular Wars in Spain and Portugal and then, in 1815, at Waterloo.
0:17:18 > 0:17:23There it was the action of one man, Ensign Charles Ewart of the Royal Scots Greys,
0:17:23 > 0:17:27who captured the British imagination with an audacious cavalry charge.
0:17:30 > 0:17:35While thousands of Scots were commemorated with monuments and memorials across France
0:17:35 > 0:17:39and in their native Scotland, Ensign Ewart received the ultimate accolade,
0:17:39 > 0:17:41a grave on the Castle Esplanade and a themed pub!
0:17:52 > 0:17:59That summer day in 1815, Ewart rode into the heart of the French ranks to seize the ceremonial eagle
0:17:59 > 0:18:01of the French 45th regiment,
0:18:01 > 0:18:06which from then on was to become the ceremonial emblem of the Royal Scots Greys.
0:18:06 > 0:18:12It was a spectacular piece of military theatre and Ewart was celebrated across the country.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15Almost 70 years had passed since Culloden.
0:18:15 > 0:18:20The notion of the Scottish soldier as an insidious threat was slowly being replaced
0:18:20 > 0:18:26by an image of courage and loyalty to the British Crown and the British Empire.
0:18:34 > 0:18:39And this is where my great grandfather arrives in the story.
0:18:39 > 0:18:44John Ogilvy from Aberdeen, a surgeon general with the 33rd Regiment of Foot.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48He saw action in the Crimean War in the 1850s.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51Only last year, I discovered his war diaries.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55He'd written them out here, in present-day Ukraine.
0:18:55 > 0:19:00In fact, our guide has just told me that they were written right here in these very fields.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03- My goodness.- Yes.
0:19:03 > 0:19:09They would have camped here in the winter, where your great grandfather wrote his letters.
0:19:09 > 0:19:11It was just here.
0:19:11 > 0:19:13My goodness.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16- Yeah.- Oh...
0:19:16 > 0:19:18That's extraordinary.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27Britain and France were fighting the Russians.
0:19:27 > 0:19:33John was here for the winter of 1854 to '55, the coldest in living memory.
0:19:33 > 0:19:35The conditions were horrifying.
0:19:35 > 0:19:40Britain lost ten times more men to illness than to enemy action.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44As a surgeon, he must have seen more than his share of misery.
0:19:47 > 0:19:49So here you were, John.
0:19:55 > 0:19:56One hundred and...
0:19:56 > 0:20:00- What will it be? 155 years ago.- Yes.
0:20:00 > 0:20:02Your great grandson's back.
0:20:08 > 0:20:13"November 1854, conditions already very bad, slept in the trenches last night.
0:20:13 > 0:20:18"The roads are so bad, it's said no ration will be issued tomorrow.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21"28th November...
0:20:21 > 0:20:24"felt sick and ill all night. Diarrhoea in the morning.
0:20:24 > 0:20:30"The ration of salt pork today is reduced to a quarter of a pound." And that would be for several days.
0:20:30 > 0:20:34"It's a foggy, rainy day. 29 November, dreadful day, rainy and windy.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37"Confined to the tent all day.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40"Got Aberdeen Journal at night.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43"So a bit of Scotland arrives in the Crimea."
0:20:48 > 0:20:51The Crimean War was the first to be photographed.
0:20:51 > 0:20:57Roger Fenton's black and white stills have preserved all the colour of a distant conflict.
0:20:57 > 0:21:04Image became important and one battle of this far-off war would provide the defining moment
0:21:04 > 0:21:07of the Scottish soldier in the service of the British Army.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14The battle was in defence of this place - Balaklava.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20It's now a prosperous holiday resort.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29In my great grandfather's day, it was the British supply base.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36It's strange to think, really, that it was on this scratty outcrop,
0:21:36 > 0:21:38almost a rubbish dump, really,
0:21:38 > 0:21:43between vineyards on that side and derelict factories and a boat graveyard on the other,
0:21:43 > 0:21:47was where the 93rd Highland Regiment wrote one of the most
0:21:47 > 0:21:50legendary chapters in the history of Scottish infantry.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55It was morning of the 25th of October 1854.
0:21:55 > 0:22:01The Highlanders were all that stood between the advancing Russian cavalry and the British supply base.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04It was one of the key moments of the battle of Balaklava.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08In front of them, 400 or 500 charging Russian cavalrymen.
0:22:08 > 0:22:15Behind them, the port of Balaklava. Between, two lines of Highland infantrymen, the 93rd Regiment.
0:22:15 > 0:22:21Sir Colin Campbell, their commander, said, "There's no retreat from here, men, you must die where you stand."
0:22:21 > 0:22:25At which his aide, Private John Scott, is said to have replied,
0:22:25 > 0:22:29"Aye, Sir Colin. If needs be, we'll do just that."
0:22:29 > 0:22:33Campbell ordered his men into two defensive lines.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36A highly unusual formation.
0:22:36 > 0:22:42Their commander, Sir Colin Campbell, commanded to stay on the line but it was a very extraordinary line.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46It was not the usual square, four people deep,
0:22:46 > 0:22:50it was very unusual because it was only two people deep.
0:22:50 > 0:22:56There were not enough people there to form this square, but two people deep
0:22:56 > 0:23:00gave an opportunity to make this line very long.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04So we know that the cavalry are coming towards this line of Highland infantry
0:23:04 > 0:23:06but what are the 93rd seeing at this stage?
0:23:06 > 0:23:13They saw very courageous Russian cavalry, because the Russian cavalrymen
0:23:13 > 0:23:19were very brave and they were very famous for their courage.
0:23:19 > 0:23:21So you really had two reputations.
0:23:21 > 0:23:25- You have the Russian cavalry...- Clash of reputations.- Absolutely.- Yes.
0:23:26 > 0:23:32The Highlanders began to fire and they fired the first volley, then the second volley,
0:23:32 > 0:23:37maybe the third volley, because there are different versions as to the number of volleys.
0:23:37 > 0:23:42The cavalry stopped there and didn't move.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46After the third or second volley, they turned back and they retreated.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50The most dramatic account of the Battle of Balaklava reaches London
0:23:50 > 0:23:54three weeks later on November 14th, 1854,
0:23:54 > 0:23:58in a report in The Times, by William Russell, a famous report
0:23:58 > 0:24:01which later describes the charge of the Light Brigade.
0:24:01 > 0:24:06"The Russians drew breath for a moment and then in one grand line dashed at the Highlanders.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10"The ground flies beneath their horses feet, gathering speed at every stride.
0:24:10 > 0:24:15"They dash on towards that thin red streak, topped with a line of steel."
0:24:15 > 0:24:17That's the 93rd Regiment.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21The first reference to what became known as, "the thin red line",
0:24:21 > 0:24:27which was later immortalised in a painting by Robert Gibb, done in 1881,
0:24:27 > 0:24:30called just The Thin Red Line.
0:24:31 > 0:24:36The image of the steely Highlanders in their kilts and bearskins, standing firm
0:24:36 > 0:24:41against the Russian cavalry, played very well back in Victorian Britain.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47Balaklava's thin red line would become synonymous
0:24:47 > 0:24:52with the bravery and loyalty of the men from the Scottish Highlands.
0:25:16 > 0:25:20Scottish soldiers returned to a country becoming more tartan by the minute.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24The Highlands, and the Highlanders, had become fashionable.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29Walter Scott had started the trend.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32The novelist and arch Tory had been horrified as Europe
0:25:32 > 0:25:36was convulsed first by the French Revolution and then Napoleon.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40The natural order of things, as he saw it, had been threatened.
0:25:40 > 0:25:46In common with the European Romantics, he looked for examples of a traditional, settled society.
0:25:46 > 0:25:50And like them, he found it in the Highland clan system.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53In the Waverley novels, he depicted the Highlanders
0:25:53 > 0:25:57as every bit as wild and Romantic as the scenery they inhabited.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01By the second half of the century, the movement was all the rage,
0:26:01 > 0:26:03with Queen Victoria its most ardent supporter.
0:26:03 > 0:26:07An avid reader of Scott, she had fallen in love with the Highlands.
0:26:07 > 0:26:12In 1848 she bought Balmoral, which she called "our own dear paradise".
0:26:12 > 0:26:16The Queen's enthusiasm for all things Scottish bordered on the obsessive.
0:26:17 > 0:26:22Britain's monarch would play her part in transforming the fighting Scotsman
0:26:22 > 0:26:26into a cultural phenomenon, a true Victorian icon.
0:26:28 > 0:26:35The British are falling in love with the romance of Scotland and the kilts and the pipes and all the rest of it.
0:26:35 > 0:26:36There's a reinvention going on.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40Queen Victoria was largely responsible for
0:26:40 > 0:26:44the transformation of the Scottish soldier, her soldiers.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48She took a special delight in the performance of Scottish troops,
0:26:48 > 0:26:53which again helped to play up to their changing image.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57The Scottish regiments within the army started to reflect this romanticism
0:26:57 > 0:27:04and this tied in with the whole introduction of tartans and kilts and regimental paraphernalia.
0:27:04 > 0:27:08So you have lowland regiments with kilts and tartan trews
0:27:08 > 0:27:11and all these various fripperies and romantic nonsense
0:27:11 > 0:27:16which would have been anathema to any sensible soldier.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19Essentially, it created the Scottish soldier as somebody
0:27:19 > 0:27:25that could be readily identifiable, whether he was from a highland or lowland background.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28It gave them a shared sense of identity.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32Also, while they were becoming the poster boys of the British Army,
0:27:32 > 0:27:36they also enjoyed very good PR and press coverage.
0:27:36 > 0:27:42So if the war correspondents or the sketch artists record anyone, they covered the activities
0:27:42 > 0:27:45of the Scottish soldier rather than the British Army as a whole.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49The great irony of the period is that at the time when the Scottish soldier
0:27:49 > 0:27:54had become the darling of Britain's upper classes, recruitment levels were at their lowest.
0:27:54 > 0:27:59Scottish regiments increasingly looked to Ireland and England to sign up new men.
0:27:59 > 0:28:06Changes in the fabric of Highland life threatened the very existence of Highland regiments.
0:28:06 > 0:28:11This is the whole period of the Highland clearances, where essentially crofters,
0:28:11 > 0:28:15who had loyalty to their clan chiefs, were being replaced by sheep,
0:28:15 > 0:28:18which obviously didn't have much loyalty to anyone.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21So when a clan chief before might have essentially
0:28:21 > 0:28:27raised his own regiment and offered all his tenantry to be soldiers,
0:28:27 > 0:28:29this wasn't going to happen.
0:28:29 > 0:28:34There's even the case of the Duke Of Sutherland, he tries to raise a regiment and his crofters
0:28:34 > 0:28:37tell him pretty bluntly that this wasn't going to happen.
0:28:38 > 0:28:44The stream of Highland men flowing into Highland regiments was drying up.
0:28:44 > 0:28:48But the Highland image was a potent recruiting device.
0:28:48 > 0:28:52Men from all over Britain and Ireland rushed to Queen Victoria's tartan regiments,
0:28:52 > 0:28:56now among the most dashing and prestigious of the British army.
0:28:58 > 0:29:03Wars in Afghanistan, Sudan and South Africa enriched their reputation.
0:29:03 > 0:29:06Jingoism hadn't yet become a dirty word.
0:29:06 > 0:29:09The Scottish soldier had never been more popular.
0:29:12 > 0:29:17So, in 1914, when the British Government asked for volunteers to fight in France,
0:29:17 > 0:29:23it was the Scots who rushed to enlist in numbers greater than any other part of Britain.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27Within months, these young men, and their laughing enthusiasm,
0:29:27 > 0:29:31would be thrown into the carnage of World War I
0:29:43 > 0:29:49The final reckoning may never be known, but it's thought very likely that Scotland, with ten per cent
0:29:49 > 0:29:54of Britain's population, suffered at least 13 per cent of her casualties.
0:29:59 > 0:30:03That extra three per cent might seem almost insignificant
0:30:03 > 0:30:07until you realise it equates to an extra 30,000 souls.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33This is Dud Corner Cemetery in Northern France.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36Buried here are the casualties of the Battle of Loos.
0:30:40 > 0:30:42What's striking about this cemetery at Dud Corner,
0:30:42 > 0:30:47so-called after all the unexploded munitions that were found here after the war,
0:30:47 > 0:30:52is that at first glance you think it's a war cemetery surrounded by
0:30:52 > 0:30:56a plain wall until you realise that each part of the wall has 15 panels
0:30:56 > 0:31:03and each panel contains 200 names of those who were killed or wounded
0:31:03 > 0:31:04in this battle.
0:31:09 > 0:31:14This is very much a Scottish selection of panels, Highland Light Infantry,
0:31:14 > 0:31:17Seaforth, Gordons and then the Cameron Highlanders.
0:31:17 > 0:31:22Here, one, two, three, four, five, six.
0:31:22 > 0:31:30All men from Wester Ross, Invernesshire, who would never return to their homes again.
0:31:30 > 0:31:37Of the 72,000 soldiers who took part in the assault phase, at least 36,000 of those were Scots.
0:31:37 > 0:31:42So on this battlefield, on this great plain in northern France,
0:31:42 > 0:31:46were brought together the largest number of Scottish soldiers
0:31:46 > 0:31:49since the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
0:31:55 > 0:32:00And the account is extraordinary because they walked in this line, just walking into enemy fire.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03We can still imagine what it must have been like.
0:32:03 > 0:32:07The roar of artillery in advance of the infantry attack.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11The infantry moving slowly and inexorably off across this open ground.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15They were buoyed up for this battle, wearing their kilts.
0:32:15 > 0:32:20They wore a khaki apron over their kilts, so they were instantly identifiable,
0:32:20 > 0:32:24not just as Scottish soldiers, but as Highland soldiers.
0:32:24 > 0:32:30They got on to the German lines, they got beyond them, but then they were counter-attacked
0:32:30 > 0:32:34and had to withdraw. But even when they were taking the roll call later that night,
0:32:34 > 0:32:41all that was said when a man's name wasn't returned and he was obviously dead,
0:32:41 > 0:32:44they just shouted back, "Over the hill, over the hill."
0:32:57 > 0:33:02All across northern France are reminders of the Scots who lost their lives.
0:33:02 > 0:33:08This is the memorial to the Highland Division at Beaumont-Hamel on the Somme.
0:33:08 > 0:33:09It's a great memorial.
0:33:09 > 0:33:13It is indeed, and it represents to me everything that's good and honourable
0:33:13 > 0:33:19about the service of the Scottish soldiers on the Western Front during the First World War.
0:33:19 > 0:33:24We're hundreds of miles away from the Highland counties, yet this part of the Somme battlefield
0:33:24 > 0:33:27at Beaumont-Hamel is forever a part of Scotland.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30The granite plinth from the north-east
0:33:30 > 0:33:34and above all the Scottish soldier standing there, proud in his kilt,
0:33:34 > 0:33:37they all were desperately proud to be part of the Highland Division
0:33:37 > 0:33:43and the words of the motto here, "La a bhlair s'math na cairdean" -
0:33:43 > 0:33:45"Friends are good on the day of battle" -
0:33:45 > 0:33:52that sums up everything that was great and decent about this fighting force.
0:33:55 > 0:33:59These were men from all over Scotland but if we look to the south of us, there's a place
0:33:59 > 0:34:05where the 17th and 16th Highland Light Infantry went into the attack, very interesting battalions.
0:34:05 > 0:34:09Both from Glasgow. One representing the Glasgow Boys Brigade, the other
0:34:09 > 0:34:13representing the Glasgow Chambers Of Commerce, so when the casualty list came in,
0:34:13 > 0:34:19it meant that huge areas of Glasgow were affected by the deaths in this part of France.
0:34:19 > 0:34:21And these were the Pals battalions?
0:34:21 > 0:34:24Yes. If you were in the Glasgow Boys Brigade in 1914,
0:34:24 > 0:34:28you joined up together and you were amongst friends and
0:34:28 > 0:34:34that was a very important factor in maintaining unit solidarity in the Scottish infantry regiment.
0:34:34 > 0:34:38And there was a tremendous spirit of bravado as they went in
0:34:38 > 0:34:43because obviously we now know the Somme as being one of the most bloodiest and attritional battles
0:34:43 > 0:34:46but on the eve of battle they had no idea what they were in for.
0:34:46 > 0:34:50They didn't look at themselves as lambs going to the slaughter.
0:34:50 > 0:34:53They had a great conceit of themselves. They were well-trained.
0:34:53 > 0:34:54And morale was sky-high.
0:34:54 > 0:34:59Indeed, we know from the commanding officer of the 16th HLI, the Boys Brigade Pals,
0:34:59 > 0:35:01that the men were whooping and whistling
0:35:01 > 0:35:06as if they were going to a football match, and not about to take part in one of the most
0:35:06 > 0:35:10exacting battles any soldier was likely to undertake on the Western Front.
0:35:17 > 0:35:19And what happened on that first day?
0:35:19 > 0:35:23On the first day, the casualty rate in the British Army was appalling.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26It was known ever afterwards as the black day of the British Army.
0:35:26 > 0:35:32And for the two HLI battalions it meant up to 900 casualties killed, wounded or missing.
0:35:32 > 0:35:37The following day, and the days that followed, the papers were full of the casualty lists.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40And the people back home could just see how high
0:35:40 > 0:35:43the attrition rate was for their menfolk on the Western Front.
0:35:50 > 0:35:55And the casualties, and the effect on the communities back home, I think, was it something like
0:35:55 > 0:35:58100,000 or more over the First World War as a whole?
0:35:58 > 0:36:02If you go up to the Scottish War Memorial in Edinburgh, where the dead of the First World War
0:36:02 > 0:36:07are commemorated, it now stands at over 140,000. I think that's a fair indication.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11Because casualties weren't just people who were killed in battle.
0:36:11 > 0:36:17They were people who were maimed, either mentally or physically, and suffered afterwards.
0:36:17 > 0:36:23But I think it's a fair bet to say that the Scottish casualties were in the region of about 140,000-150,000.
0:36:42 > 0:36:48So why exactly did the Scots rush to the British colours and pay such an agonising price?
0:36:48 > 0:36:54Soldiering in Scotland was considered to be an honourable profession.
0:36:54 > 0:36:58Young men joined the Territorial Army, which was a part-time volunteer force.
0:36:58 > 0:37:03They did it for all sorts of reasons - the chance to wear a turkey-cock uniform, wearing a kilt.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06The opportunity to learn something.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09And there was also companionship and steadiness.
0:37:09 > 0:37:13And the notion that you were doing something for your country.
0:37:13 > 0:37:16These were very important virtues in Presbyterian Scotland.
0:37:16 > 0:37:18And the Scots responded accordingly.
0:37:18 > 0:37:23During the great volunteer craze of the 19th century, more Scots volunteered to join
0:37:23 > 0:37:26in these part-time forces than any other part of the country.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30I suppose not just that. I mean, that's the more romantic side of it.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33But also, there would have been a lot of unemployment, and for some,
0:37:33 > 0:37:38it was an obvious choice when they couldn't get a job elsewhere.
0:37:38 > 0:37:43When the call for volunteers went out in September 1914, to build these great volunteer armies,
0:37:43 > 0:37:46which fought here on the Western Front,
0:37:46 > 0:37:49the young men who joined up looked at the Army as being a good option.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52You got three square meals a day. You got running hot water.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56Didn't always get that in a tenement in the industrial West of Scotland.
0:37:56 > 0:38:01Didn't get that if you were living on the land in the Highlands of Scotland.
0:38:01 > 0:38:03You got companionship and a sense of adventure.
0:38:03 > 0:38:07These were young men who never thought what death was going to bring to them.
0:38:07 > 0:38:11They probably thought they were going to live for ever.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14They joined up, they felt part of a company of friends.
0:38:14 > 0:38:16And they went into battle together.
0:38:16 > 0:38:18Many of them died together.
0:38:18 > 0:38:22Those who died lie here in the battlefields of western France.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38Back home, the war had touched everyone.
0:38:40 > 0:38:43The losses and the bravery of the fighting Scots
0:38:43 > 0:38:47had earned them a position at the heart of the British Army.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55Only 20 years later, Britain would come calling once again.
0:39:09 > 0:39:14But could Scotland's soldiers continue to be both British and Scottish?
0:39:14 > 0:39:18Were they in danger of losing their own hard-won identity?
0:39:18 > 0:39:21Just weeks into the war, it certainly might have seemed so.
0:39:21 > 0:39:25The kilt was no longer to be worn into battle.
0:39:26 > 0:39:30The War Office had laid down that henceforth
0:39:30 > 0:39:34the Highlanders would fight in battledress.
0:39:34 > 0:39:35They got the dress code!
0:39:35 > 0:39:37The dress code. That's right.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40This caused consternation in Highlands circles.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44The Highland Society sent a delegation down to London to try and
0:39:44 > 0:39:49persuade the authorities to change their minds, but to little effect.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53In fact, the 5th Gordon Highlanders actually burnt a kilt on their parade ground
0:39:53 > 0:39:59as a mark of protest against this attack on the Highlanders' traditional dress.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04Scots served on every front. But it's the 51st Highland Division who,
0:40:04 > 0:40:09more than anyone, took Scotland's image and personality into the war.
0:40:11 > 0:40:17The entire division was captured by Rommel, as the Highlanders covered the British retreat from France.
0:40:17 > 0:40:24Within two years, the 51st had reformed and prepared to face Rommel again, in North Africa.
0:40:24 > 0:40:31The new division was commanded from June 1941 by, erm, Major-General Douglas Wimberley.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34Wimberley was a passionate Highlander.
0:40:34 > 0:40:37He was known as Tartan Tam
0:40:37 > 0:40:40to his soldiers. And he was determined to
0:40:40 > 0:40:45instil a strong Scottish national identity across the division.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48They weren't just volunteers, these were conscripted troops as well.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51These were conscripts as well. Absolutely.
0:40:51 > 0:40:57It was very important to him that it had this very strong Scottish esprit de corps.
0:40:57 > 0:40:58Why would that be?
0:40:58 > 0:41:02Well, I think it's because he was a passionate Highlander.
0:41:02 > 0:41:06But I think he felt that, in order to get the best out of the troops,
0:41:06 > 0:41:09a strong Scottish esprit de corps is what was required.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12So, kilts were to be worn whenever possible.
0:41:12 > 0:41:15Pipe bands were to be turned out at the first opportunity.
0:41:15 > 0:41:18And he insisted that all his junior officers
0:41:18 > 0:41:21learnt how to Highland dance for the divisional battle school.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24Very important part of military warfare.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28If you can't do the sword dance, you're no use in a firefight.
0:41:28 > 0:41:30Er, so, what happened?
0:41:30 > 0:41:32Did they have some success?
0:41:32 > 0:41:40Well, they did. I mean, perhaps the other thing I should say is that he was insistent that Scots,
0:41:40 > 0:41:46preferably Highlanders, but where necessary Lowlanders, should be posted to his division.
0:41:46 > 0:41:50And he was indefatigable in poaching Scots from other units
0:41:50 > 0:41:54and formations, in order to keep that strong ethnic recruitment profile.
0:41:54 > 0:41:59I'm Scottish, and this is a bit embarrassing, this kind of constant painting the army tartan!
0:41:59 > 0:42:02- But it went on.- It went on. - What happened in El Alamein?
0:42:02 > 0:42:05Well, the new division's baptism of fire was at El Alamein.
0:42:05 > 0:42:12Montgomery chose the division to be one of the spearhead divisions for the assault.
0:42:12 > 0:42:18And the division's objectives were codenamed after
0:42:18 > 0:42:21towns and cities associated with the Highland Regiments -
0:42:21 > 0:42:26Inverness, Aberdeen, Montrose, Arbroath and so on.
0:42:26 > 0:42:33And Wimberley's order of the day to his troops was, "Scotland for ever and second to none."
0:42:33 > 0:42:37And that night, the opening night of the offensive, the troops advanced
0:42:37 > 0:42:42towards enemy lines with the moonlight glinting on their bayonets,
0:42:42 > 0:42:48with crosses of St Andrew's on their backs as an aid to identification, and with the pipes playing.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51WILD EXPLOSIONS
0:42:54 > 0:43:00The stirring deeds of the Highland Division at El Alamein received widespread praise.
0:43:00 > 0:43:04There was a great deal of adulation in the newspapers and on radio.
0:43:04 > 0:43:09Indeed, such was the adulation that there were letters in the Welsh press
0:43:09 > 0:43:12complaining about Scots-mania on the BBC.
0:43:12 > 0:43:13- The Welsh got cross?- They did.
0:43:36 > 0:43:39'The enthusiasm of the crowd boiled over anew as the distant
0:43:39 > 0:43:44'rumble of transport grew to a roar, which was to finally emerge with a triumphant skirl of the pipes.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47'The glorious 51st Highlanders!'
0:43:48 > 0:43:51Whenever we've got Scots and Highlanders in battle,
0:43:51 > 0:43:55inevitably there's an image of kilts and tartan.
0:43:55 > 0:44:00That was banned at the beginning of the war, but the imagery creeps in during the course of it,
0:44:00 > 0:44:04with the cross of St Andrew, and what have you. How far did that extend?
0:44:04 > 0:44:07Well, it even extends to Englishmen.
0:44:07 > 0:44:14Erm, although he hailed from an old Oxfordshire family, Mad Jack Churchill led his commandos
0:44:14 > 0:44:21into battle playing the March of the Cameron Men on his bagpipes and then storming ashore with his claymore.
0:44:21 > 0:44:23- And he was from Oxfordshire!- He was.
0:44:23 > 0:44:25Slightly getting in there!
0:44:25 > 0:44:28'How to tackle a bloke with your bare hands.
0:44:28 > 0:44:31'Knock him out, spoil his prospects and pinch his weapons.
0:44:31 > 0:44:33'And his gold watch, too, if he's got one.'
0:44:33 > 0:44:38Mad Jack Churchill belonged to the commandos - a new breed of British soldier,
0:44:38 > 0:44:42with a special tie to the Scottish Highlands.
0:44:42 > 0:44:47First established in 1940, the commandos were all volunteers,
0:44:47 > 0:44:50elite troops, designed to travel light and hit hard.
0:44:50 > 0:44:54Their basic training centre was established at Achnacarry House.
0:44:54 > 0:44:59This was the home of the Camerons of Lochiel, who, of course,
0:44:59 > 0:45:04he was one of the leading supporters of Bonnie Prince Charlie in the '45.
0:45:04 > 0:45:09And it's interesting that in 1943 there was a fire at Achnacarry House,
0:45:09 > 0:45:11which did quite a bit of damage.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15And the Cameron family rather wryly commentated this was the second time
0:45:15 > 0:45:19the British Army had burned down their house, the first time being in 1746.
0:45:19 > 0:45:25From 1942, soldiers from all over Britain marched to the Highlands -
0:45:25 > 0:45:29the wild lands that 200 years earlier had given birth to the Jacobites.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32'Bonnie Scotland - it's a helluva place.
0:45:32 > 0:45:36'It rains here, too. Twice every five minutes.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39'The seven miles soon went by and we marched into Achnacarry Camp.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43'It's a bit of a shocker, that name, if you don't happen to be Scottish.'
0:45:48 > 0:45:53This wonderful sculpture, by Scott Sutherland in 1951, commemorates the commandos
0:45:53 > 0:45:59who were set up and trained here, at Achnacarry, in the heart of the Highlands, in 1942.
0:45:59 > 0:46:02You can see how the copper and metals from the soldiers
0:46:02 > 0:46:04is leaching into the local stone,
0:46:04 > 0:46:08just as the soldiers dissolved into the countryside around here,
0:46:08 > 0:46:10where they trained.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14Once again, that bond between the soldiers and the landscape,
0:46:14 > 0:46:17that goes right back to when the clansmen and the warriors
0:46:17 > 0:46:21came out of the Scottish Highlands two centuries ago.
0:46:26 > 0:46:30Just 100 or so yards from Scott Sutherland's statue,
0:46:30 > 0:46:34individual tributes have been left to generations of soldiers.
0:46:37 > 0:46:40You look at all the wartime dates. 1942, '43 and...
0:46:42 > 0:46:46And then suddenly you see Iraq, Afghanistan.
0:46:54 > 0:46:57It brings you up short.
0:46:57 > 0:46:59That it's not just history.
0:46:59 > 0:47:01It's happening now.
0:47:25 > 0:47:31The Gallant Forty-Twa, the Black Watch, saw some of the fiercest fighting in Iraq.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35Yet this would be their final battle as a regiment.
0:47:35 > 0:47:42In 2004, during their deployment to Camp Dogwood near Baghdad, the British Defence Secretary announced
0:47:42 > 0:47:46the death of the individual Scottish infantry regiments.
0:47:46 > 0:47:50The Royal Scots and the King's Own Scottish Borderers will merge.
0:47:50 > 0:47:53This and the other four battalions, including the Black Watch,
0:47:53 > 0:47:56will become part of a new, large regiment -
0:47:56 > 0:47:57the Royal Regiment Of Scotland.
0:48:03 > 0:48:06For centuries, recruits had been attracted
0:48:06 > 0:48:10to the traditions and romance of the individual Scottish regiments.
0:48:10 > 0:48:14The Government's decision brought down the curtain on 300 years of history.
0:48:21 > 0:48:25There has to be some truth in the sentiment that 300 years of history,
0:48:25 > 0:48:28if it comes to a grinding halt, an abrupt stop, a guillotine stop,
0:48:28 > 0:48:31erm, you know, that is very sad and it is very terminal.
0:48:31 > 0:48:35Erm... My own view is that of course you've then got to say,
0:48:35 > 0:48:38well, so, what is left and where do we go from here?
0:48:38 > 0:48:42And actually the decision was that the Black Watch, the Argyles, the Highlanders,
0:48:42 > 0:48:47the Royal Highland Fusiliers, the Royal Scots, the King's Own Scottish Borderers were no more.
0:48:47 > 0:48:53But the Royal Regiment of Scotland was, and it would be carrying forward the 2,500 years of history,
0:48:53 > 0:48:59tradition, culture, ethos - the business of being Scottish fighting infantrymen -
0:48:59 > 0:49:04in a way that perhaps might be more appropriate for the 21st century.
0:49:04 > 0:49:09The saddest thing of all would be if all of our battalions had, over time,
0:49:09 > 0:49:13as it were, all been withering on the vine simply through want of manpower.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17- Where d'you think you're going, laddie?- Take cover!
0:49:17 > 0:49:22Yet the loss of the regimental structure itself contributed to a reduction in recruitment.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25Right, lads, we're now going for a short nature ramble.
0:49:25 > 0:49:28Individual regiments had recruited in their own territories.
0:49:28 > 0:49:32Young men had followed their fathers into the family regiment.
0:49:32 > 0:49:34The army called it the Golden Thread.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38Veterans claimed that thread had broken.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42There are 30 trades open to men who join the infantry.
0:49:42 > 0:49:46Starting pay for three-year men, £19.53 a week.
0:49:46 > 0:49:53A more disturbing threat to Scottish recruitment came from the army's treatment of its own soldiers.
0:49:53 > 0:50:00In 2004, Fusilier Gordon Gentle, from Pollok in Glasgow, was killed in Iraq.
0:50:00 > 0:50:05An English coroner found a failure to provide suitable protective equipment
0:50:05 > 0:50:07and blamed army negligence.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10There was undoubtedly a huge dip in 2004/5.
0:50:10 > 0:50:13I think there was a coincidence of factors.
0:50:13 > 0:50:18The tragic death of Fusilier Gentle and the effect that had in Scotland,
0:50:18 > 0:50:22cos all politics are local and this was regional Scotland becomes
0:50:22 > 0:50:28national Scotland, and there was a whole approach to Iraq and that particular and very sad death.
0:50:28 > 0:50:33Then there was the reductions and what was seen as the loss of Scottish regimental identity,
0:50:33 > 0:50:35while we formed a new one.
0:50:35 > 0:50:37Then there was the whole business with the Iraq War.
0:50:37 > 0:50:39Was it good or bad or indifferent?
0:50:39 > 0:50:44At the same time, the army was giving its recruiting system the biggest shake-up for 40 years,
0:50:44 > 0:50:47so there were a number a contributory reasons
0:50:47 > 0:50:51for why the foot, in a sense, came off the pedal. It's coming back up again.
0:50:53 > 0:50:582009 has seen the first rise in Scottish army recruitment since 2003.
0:50:58 > 0:51:03Perhaps the result of increased unemployment and an unsteady economy.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06Left. Quick march!
0:51:06 > 0:51:09One figure though is even more revealing.
0:51:09 > 0:51:13It's the continued difference between Scotland and England.
0:51:13 > 0:51:17If Scotland is producing an infantry battalion for every 700,000 people,
0:51:17 > 0:51:21in England it's about every 1.3 million to produce a battalion.
0:51:21 > 0:51:27If you're thinking about contribution to the fighting capability of Britain,
0:51:27 > 0:51:31Scotland is owed an extraordinary debt by the rest of the country.
0:51:33 > 0:51:38This is a troop from a cavalry regiment, the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.
0:51:38 > 0:51:43Descendants of Ensign Ewart, the man who liberated the French regimental eagle at Waterloo.
0:51:43 > 0:51:48And these young men are already veterans of Iraq.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52MOCK GEORGE BUSH ACCENT: And I know folks say we got it wrong but we called it right in Iraq.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55They said there was no link between Iraq and Al-Qaeda.
0:51:55 > 0:51:57Let me tell me, there is now.
0:51:57 > 0:51:59THEY LAUGH
0:51:59 > 0:52:01Eyes front!
0:52:02 > 0:52:07Stand at ease. Stand easy.
0:52:09 > 0:52:12And what's next for you guys? Will some of you go to Afghanistan?
0:52:12 > 0:52:15Scheduled to go to Afghanistan soon.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18- I don't know how soon but... - How do you feel about that?
0:52:18 > 0:52:21- Can't wait. Excited to go. - It'll be good.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25There is that pride and tradition which is heavily relied on but the other side of that
0:52:25 > 0:52:30is people say, these are kids. The cannon fodder argument.
0:52:30 > 0:52:31How do you respond to that?
0:52:31 > 0:52:34I would refute it absolutely, Rory, because
0:52:34 > 0:52:40I don't think there are many organisations that give their young people the depth
0:52:40 > 0:52:46and breadth and extent of training that is designed to produce soldiers who are fit for purpose.
0:52:46 > 0:52:50We're pretty clear what the purpose is and it's not to be cannon fodder.
0:52:50 > 0:52:56It is to be thinking individuals, members of a team and able to play their part in difficult situations.
0:53:00 > 0:53:06Times when we've stripped out the vocational aspect of so many other parts of the country's workbase,
0:53:06 > 0:53:09I would hold my hand up tomorrow and say that we put young men
0:53:09 > 0:53:15who may choose to leave at the three or four year point, they are better people
0:53:15 > 0:53:17than they came in. And we have made them so.
0:53:17 > 0:53:22One day I thought, well, I'll see if I can make a bit of my life.
0:53:22 > 0:53:26Obviously, being the way the world is right now, there's not many jobs.
0:53:26 > 0:53:32It's hard for a young person to get into some sort of thing, so I thought I'd challenge myself.
0:53:32 > 0:53:37This being Scotland's only cavalry regiment, I thought I'd give this regiment a try.
0:53:37 > 0:53:39It really is good... It's proud to...
0:53:39 > 0:53:42Guys play football, they get to represent their country.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45Guys play rugby, they get to represent their country.
0:53:45 > 0:53:50Unfortunately I'm rubbish at both, so I'll come and represent my country in this fine regiment.
0:53:50 > 0:53:54By the left. Quick, march!
0:53:54 > 0:53:57When you are fighting, who are you fighting for?
0:53:58 > 0:54:00- Each other.- Yeah.
0:54:00 > 0:54:04Each other, the country, the regiment, the army
0:54:04 > 0:54:06and ourselves as well.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09It's really one big whole.
0:54:09 > 0:54:10One big happy family.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13So if I said you're fighting for the British army,
0:54:13 > 0:54:17you are but you're fighting for a bit of the British army.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20No, we're fighting for the whole army but we're still fighting
0:54:20 > 0:54:24for Scots as well because we're the only Scottish cavalry regiment.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27We're fighting for everybody but you're doing it for Scotland
0:54:27 > 0:54:30because we're the only Scotland's cavalry regiment.
0:54:30 > 0:54:32Definitely. Definitely.
0:54:35 > 0:54:38Looking back to the years after Culloden, I wonder if the men who
0:54:38 > 0:54:44came from these hills to fight under the British flag realised just what they were starting.
0:54:44 > 0:54:50Their impact on two and a half centuries of British history has been astounding.
0:54:50 > 0:54:54They built a deserved reputation for ferocious loyalty.
0:54:54 > 0:54:58Time and again, they surrendered only their lives.
0:55:13 > 0:55:17This is the Scottish National War memorial inside Edinburgh Castle.
0:55:20 > 0:55:25It was opened in 1927 as a tribute to the Scots who fell in the Great War.
0:55:29 > 0:55:35Today, the rolls of honour include every Scot who's fallen since that date.
0:55:35 > 0:55:37A list that continues to grow.
0:56:08 > 0:56:12Given the sacrifice of Scottish soldiers in the Great War,
0:56:12 > 0:56:18it's appropriate that this, the focal point of the Scottish National War Memorial, this casket containing
0:56:18 > 0:56:25the names of all those who fell in the war, should be set here at the very pinnacle
0:56:25 > 0:56:29of the rock on which the castle is built.
0:56:29 > 0:56:31The very top of the castle.
0:56:31 > 0:56:35That tells you how important these names are to the people of Scotland.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38Soldiering has come naturally to Scotland throughout history.
0:56:38 > 0:56:45The Scots have been there for glorious victories and bloody defeats all over the world.
0:56:45 > 0:56:50So, after 300 years of service to Britain's Kings, Queens and Empire,
0:56:50 > 0:56:53what will become of the Scottish soldier in the modern world?
0:56:53 > 0:56:59Will their illustrious reputation, like their famous regiments, simply disappear?
0:56:59 > 0:57:01Frankly, I doubt it.
0:57:05 > 0:57:09While the names of these great regiments may have altered,
0:57:09 > 0:57:13the tradition of the Scottish soldier is as alive and strongly felt as ever.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16I think it's in the blood of the nation.
0:57:16 > 0:57:20The role may be changing but the fighting Scots are here to stay.
0:57:31 > 0:57:35Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:57:35 > 0:57:39E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk