[DS?] Royal units (was: camo schemes for vehicles)

On Thu, 10 Dec 1998 08:37:13 +0000 Ground Zero Games 
<jon@gzero.dungeon.com> wrote:

> Just a little point -- though we have the ROYAL Air Force and the 
ROYAL Navy, it is actually just the BRITISH Army; don't ask me why.... 
:) <

I think it stems from the historical organisation of the service in 
question. The Navy, once it became more than a loose collection of 
whoever had ships and was willing to employ them in combat under some 
admiral's command (if there wasn't something else to do that was more 
interesting, like plunder captured ships), was a single fighting 
service, right from the start (Henry VIII?).

By contrast, the army began as a collection of units -- regiments, 
etc., raised by various lords, squires, knights and the like, and the 
unit names and designations reflected that, and still do, even though 
the aristocratic connection is lost. The "Royal" units in the British 
Army are the _regiments_ -- the Royal Armoured Regiment, the Royal 
Artillery, etc. The Army is the super-authority that oversees the 
operation of the regiments.

If it comes to that, the very word "army" is ambiguous. The Army has, 
in the past, had several sub-armies -- the First Army, the Fifth Army, 
the Eighth Army, etc. Navies don't do this -- there are _Fleets_, but 
not Navies. It's interesting to note that the USAAF followed Army 
practice during WW2 and had the Eighth, Fourteenth, etc., "Air Forces", 
and I think that the USAF still does. The RAF, though, once it was 
formed from two other "Royal" units -- the RFC and the RNAS -- kept the 
Royal title for itself as a whole, as does the RN, and operates on a 
Command basis -- Fighter/Bomber/Coastal/Training Commands, and today's 
Strike Command.

Phil
------------------------------------------------------------
"I think... I think I am!     |        I think _I_ am:
 Therefore I am... I think?"  | 	Phil Atcliffe  
   -- The Moody Blues	      | (Phillip.Atcliffe@uwe.ac.uk)