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Harry and Meghan - OP updated with Threadbanned Users 4/5/21
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I meant actually fired a weapon at an enemy. Neither William not Phillip did, as far as I have been able to ascertain. Prince Phillip was commended for odering a raft set alight.
Philip fought at Cape Matapan and up until late 1943 the Mediterranean theatre was a naval nightmare of near constant action.
He was at Crete, where the Brits took heavy losses in 1941 and he also served in the far East from 44 on.
Philips war service after 1940 was heavy and very prolonged.
He may not have fired a rifle, but he served as a gunnery officer on a battleship armed with 15" guns and on almost every class of combatant in the RN.
There is a school of thought that if he had remained active as a sailor, he would have made admiral.
If your measure of action is firing a rifle?
Then he most probably only did that during training.
However if it is engaging in sustained combat operations against a peer force with men under your command and acquiting yourself well?
Philip had that in spades.
In naval service, particularly on ship.
One orders fire, rather than pulls a trigger
Even Andrew whilst not firing small arms, undertook extremely dangerous frontline flying duty in the Falklands.
The picket duty in particular was hazardous and had the Argentines been a better trained force, those missions would have been a 1st strike target.
If memory serves he ended his naval service commanding a mine sweeper?
Also quite hazardous service.
If memory serves, Victoria's children and grandchildren also served in combat roles.
Arthur Duke of Connaught, and Louis of Battenburg spring to mind.
Though Louis was a cousin and in law, he spent 40yrs in the RN became 1st sea lord and was then hounded out of service due to his perceived germaness.
Not a fan of the royal family and the knowledge shared was gained due to my interest in military history rather than royal
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I wasn't trying to belittle Philip or Andrew, but people often do that in respect of Harry, labelling him a toy soldier, which is disgusting.
I think it's a historically interesting notion that Harry is probably the first RF member to have personally engaged the enemy in a long time. If reports of him having killed a Taliban commander with a hellfire are true, then that would be an even more interesting milestone.
I have to wonder if Philip was on any of the ships my father flew air cover for over the med in WW2.
If your father flew from Gibraltar, Egypt or Malta I'd be quite confident he did tbh.
Could be interesting to reconcile his flight log (IIRC you still have it?) With the known movements of the ships Philip served on.
Harry's service with the AAC was intense and he did engage and fire upon the enemy.
That tour was certainly no toy soldier role.
There have been questions raised regarding his 2nd tour as an infantry officer.
Not something I'd pay much heed to, because tbh even if you are being buddied up by a group of Gurkhas.
Afghanistan is a hellish place to fight, and you don't go there and pretend
Of course he was surrounded and protected, but he volunteered to go back and to fight on foot.
That's a ballsy move and should be appreciated for that.0 -
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If your father flew from Gibraltar, Egypt or Malta I'd be quite confident he did tbh.
Could be interesting to reconcile his flight log (IIRC you still have it?) With the known movements of the ships Philip served on.
Harry's service with the AAC was intense and he did engage and fire upon the enemy.
That tour was certainly no toy soldier role.
There have been questions raised regarding his 2nd tour as an infantry officer.
Not something I'd pay much heed to, because tbh even if you are being buddied up by a group of Gurkhas.
Afghanistan is a hellish place to fight, and you don't go there and pretend
Of course he was surrounded and protected, but he volunteered to go back and to fight on foot.
That's a ballsy move and should be appreciated for that.
I do have his log book and a few other bits and bobs. He flew out of North Africa (Libya) mostly and was very familiar with Valetta and Egypt.
A US Colonel and Ranger (Airborne) gave a first person account of Harry in Helmund and his account doesn't come across as if he was exactly surrounded by a ring of gurkahs at all times, quite the opposite.
Apparently he's joined an aero club in cal. to keep his pilots licence current, which I think is a healthy thing.0 -
That was more comparing the cockpit and the interface of the Longbow Apache and it's innate "video-game" quality to a playstation IMO rather than comparing his service to being a call of duty warrior.
He qualified as a gunner on a piece of very high tech kit that places a video feed between the gunner and the target.
That's not an interview I'd use to hammer him tbh.
Harry later qualified as a pilot, outright. One US military contractor that developed a massive laser cannon supplied an xbox controller to operate it with. The US Navy Viginia attack submarines come equipped with an xbox controller to operate the sensor masts.
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Harry later qualified as a pilot, outright. One US military contractor that developed a massive laser cannon supplied an xbox controller to operate it with. The US Navy Viginia attack submarines come equipped with an xbox controller to operate the sensor masts.
We are gonna drag the whole thing off topic if we keep going.
An awful lot of US tech, drones and weapon systems have been developed using XBOX/playstation controllers.
I think at one point a custom control unit was being billed @$600k, part of the Virginia class refit and the photonics upgrade was to develop systems that were intuitive, cheap and maintainable.
They swapped in the controllers and gained cost savings in gear and training.
Anyway back on topic.
I wouldn't knock his military service, it's easy to say he was coddled but the fact is whatever people may think of his current situation and choices.
He went there twice.0 -
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