The Fascinating History of Scottish Highland Warriors

[Music] hi folks welcome to the Canadian War Museum well you have finally decorated dirts and Deb's got a gentleman right here so this exhibition the Highland warriors exhibition is running until the 12th of January 2020 and this was made specifically for the Canadian War Museum here in Ottawa so if you want to see this exhibition now is the time you have until January next year and I've taken a tour through here it is very impressive okay we'll be taking a look at some parts of the museum and joining me today is dr. Peter McLeod who is the local historian and the director of research of the museum anta thank you very much for having this talk with us and telling us more about the museum well thank you for coming as a pleasure to meet you yes you do absolutely there's out to be here it is an impressive exhibition well thank you so a Canadian War Museum is Canada's National Museum of military history we examine the history of war in Canada from the very beginnings 5000 years ago right up to the present and we've selected few questions that were asked by viewers that we're going to go through and the first one is why is there a Scottish regiment in Canada it's not something that people necessarily think of at first even though considering the history it's not surprising right well in point of fact there is not one Scottish judgment in Canada there are 16 there are more Scottish regiments or Highland regiments in Canada than any other country in the world including Scotland Highland regiments in Canada really date back to the mid 18th century this is a point where Canada is growing and expanding we're getting more and more settlers from Scotland and as Canadian society evolves and changes people start looking for a greater sense of identity and some of it comes from their national origins and you can see this in st. Patrick societies st. Andrew societies at saint george societies but for the scots you can also see it in forming Highland regiments and these are locally raised militia registers in Canada that frequently adopt names and form associations with the famous Scottish regiments like the Black Watch our villain Sutherland Highlanders each almost every major Scottish Highland regiment has a Canadian counterpart and of course you always have to think about the importance of this sort of cultural identity national identity for warfare because it is a substantial source of morale especially when you consider that there may be pipers on the battlefield that could actually rally them that has happened a number of times in history right one of the most most interesting stories of Canadian history is the Battle of San wah and this is the battle after the plans to Abraham when the French come back and beat the British outside the walls of Quebec and one point in the battle the Frasers Highlanders who are part of the British Army are starting to break then their holler starts to flip their prepper starts to play they rally and hold off the French for a little while longer before they make an orderly retreat so yes the bagpipes some people call them a weapon of war really it's more martial music in its most extreme form there is something about the bagpipes something about the kilts that create an image of almost an ultimate soldier which is often very important for the soldiers in the regiment though I have to say there are also many many soldiers in Canadian Highland regiments who think that wearing kilts so a modern battle is a completely foolish idea but not foolish enough to actually stop doing it it's it's not a practicality sort of decision well aside from the effects on morale and all that there's a certain practical element to it when you think about it because it's for unit cohesion and a sense of us versus them which of course is part of warfare that is okay morale is hugely important and especially in a grim ugly war like the First World War where there's been the first several years fighting in trenches the feeling then that you belong to a special organization is very important and helps people keep you from going and again as you pass the museum looking at the Second World War you will see there yes implications the mall where someone says well yes was terrible battle but we want it because we're going win it because we're the Black Watch that's what we do yeah and of course that also has an impact on enemy troops they wouldn li see a regimen of Highlanders show up with their kills and and tartan and the Piper's it's an awesome sight to behold I would imagine I would not want to face it I know there are you know people are actually frightened of Highlanders at the battle of plans to Abraham there is a an English volunteer surfing with the Royal Navy wins in the battlefield and he looks at the Highlanders charging with their broad swords and he says the bullet and the banner are decent death compared to the execution of their swords for many people Highlanders and battle are extremely frightening yes yes they have the reputation of being particularly ferocious which leads me to the next question that was asked what lesser-known feats of arms and achievements can you talk about all the Highland regiments well my personal favorite for start for stories of Highland achievements is corporal Ryan technical I apologize by Frances name wrong he is a corporal in the rural home peace Louise of Canada serving with Royal Canadian regiment in 2006 and in Afghanistan and he is have interest because in operation Medusa September of that year he becomes as far as I know the last Piper to play for troops in action in battle Wow and I very significant this is this is a Canadian who's doing this for Canadian soldiers and the row at the Royal is served with the Royal Canadian regiment they're not a Highland regiment but he's nonetheless via his unofficial company Piper and as he is playing these post soldiers are making requests black bear Scott on the brave tunes that would have been familiar to Scottish soldiers since the 19th century at least in nowadays it's not a requirement to be of Scottish ethnicity to join the Highland regiments right absolutely not we look at Canadian high already growling regiments you see they're extremely diverse and you will also see women serving in the inventory wearing kilts on ceremonial occasions the Highland tradition remains very strong but it's gone far beyond Highlanders a cultural identity as much as an ethnic one and probably more so more so yeah arguably yes okay and the third question was about the highland charge exactly what is it well the Highland charge is a tactic that the Highlanders developed in the 1600s to overcome the power of the musket before the muskets Highlanders fight with 200 broad swords shields and Spears but that becomes problematic in an era where the musket is being and dominate the battlefield and they find themselves more and more facing trained British soldiers fighting in linear formation the question is how do you handle this their solution is to oppose British firepower with velocity and shock ideally they will pick location from the battle where they have the advantage of height so they're running downhill across a fairly even dry slope and they will advance rapidly to musket range fire a volley throw down their muskets and charge covered by the smoke as they run they are shouting war cries they appear terrifying although it's important remember this is a carefully calculated tactic yes they appear terrifying they when they reach the British line they will use their shields the round shields the charges to push aside the bayonets the defenders get inside their offensive and attack them with a broadsword and this is this is a horrifying experience and if they make it this bar they can be pretty sure their opponents will break and yeah and this is actually a tactic that dominates Celtic battlefields in Britain right up until the mid 18th century so if you imagine as a British soldier you have this enemy formation that fires at you which is you know business as usual so to speak but especially if that's the first encounter suddenly out of the smoke after that volley these Highland Warriors charged out with their very distinct equipment and they're you know shouting war cries and then swing the source this would be extremely demoralizing for one and as soon as they get past the bayonet which is essentially your spear you have essentially nothing you are in deep trouble yes now it's important to remember that this is a carefully organized carefully planned tactic they may the may perceive the Highlanders as a gang of wild savages coming at them but actually this is carefully planned carefully organized and you have to get it right if it's worth noting that you know some of the same Highlanders who would have charged the British at Culloden Raven broadswords show up again in the plains of Abraham in disciplined ranks firing volleys with the British rest of the British Army that is generally a good thing to keep in mind they the image of the wild savage without discipline that is generally something that the enemy talks about as propaganda you have that already with the Celts in Roman times the Romans would portray them as uncivilized savages that are not organized that will you know break at the drop of a hat but of course there's always more to it they would not have been effective if they had just been a and disorganized mob well exactly the Highland chard is a brilliant tactic for its time and it is extremely extremely successful now what defeats it ultimately is the socket bayonet it works really well against troops armed with plug bayonets which actually get into the muzzle yes and take a certain amount of time to get ready but against disciplined troops who hold their ground it really doesn't work out so well it's like any tactic it's created in response to a particular situation and after a while someone develops a countermeasure of course yes just type of equipment mm-hm weapons and armor it's always the race oh no we beat this right now but then they have a chance to adjust and go on so now we're going to finally look at some of your favorite objects okay in the exhibition so I'll bring you guys off okay well we're standing next to a claymore that belonged to sergeant James Thompson of Fraser Highlanders the 78th regiment which he carried at the volatile plains of Abraham this is from the Canadian War Museum collection it's a very important artifact for us because it is the one artifact we have that provides a direct link to the most important battle of Canadian history the Battle of the plains of Abraham now for for James Thompson the battle is a horrifying experience again Highlanders are not innately ferocious savage warriors for Thompson this was his first experience fighting with a broadsword in battle and he was horrified at the the damage that the swords inflicted on their French adversaries he talks about how he saw one body with the part of the cheek cut off and just hanging by the enemy soldiers face he talks about how horrific the red blood looks against the white coats of the French had it looked like a field of dead sheep plains of Abraham is also an object lesson in the power of the musket and the obsolescence of charging with the broadswords after an exchange of always with the front with the French regulars the Perdition charge and the English regiments and they advanced with a bayonet these Scots throw down their muskets draw their swords and charge its charge very effective in terms of the French regulars who make a rapid retreat but not for the Canadian militia and the indigenous warriors who take cover go to ground and open fire and actually succeed in driving the Scots back three times before they're finally pushed off the battlefield okay so here we've got a very impressive war painting if you can tell us about that well this is the conquerors by a British artist named Eric Kennington it was actually originally named the victims but the colonel of the battalion portrayed in the portrait painting and getting to that and so it was changed to the conquerors that is a very different meaning right there for soldiers in the First World War both titles are most appropriate yes when you think of the horrendous suffering they underwent and yet that they were ultimately victorious and ultimately defeated German army on the battlefield so the painting shows a group of soldiers from the 16th battalion of Canadian Expeditionary Force marching across is devastated landscape in 1918 this painting is notable in part for its portrayal of living and dead soldiers marching side by side the very pale man in the painting are meant to be the dead from the point of view of the Highland military tradition to me business painting epitomizes the kyln military addition tradition in Canada in that by 1918 it is no longer something that is just for white Canadian Highlanders it can brace us people from a wide range of range of ethnic backgrounds I think Kennington was impressed by the diversity of the 16th 16th battalion and he has included one soldier who is indigenous and another who looks like could be South Asian and it's this diversity in the painting that allows you to look at it from 21st century and see something of the Canada that is emerging in this law is the small group soldiers it is a very powerful painting over all hopefully it shows up well enough in the footage but I would definitely recommend when you're here to really walk up to it and take a closer look and take a look at the expressions on the faces and the whole image composition you definitely have this looming threat of the of the war I should also add that powerful as it is this is a coffee create a particular especially for the exhibition the original is on permanent display in our first world war gallery okay so now I'm here with Kevin the program interpreter thanks for joining us absolutely and we'll be doing some trivia questions perfect whatever yet I have four questions for you pertaining to the gallery now just something that visitors can do when they're here absolutely question one these are all fill in the blanks mm-hmm the grandson of Scottish immigrants John McCrae was a Canadian poet and soldier during the First World War he is best known for the poem a the soldier be in Flanders Fields see marching men or D - his love not go with B but I'm really not sure on this one B in Flanders Fields that's correct okay John McCrae and his poem are featured in a Scottish national library as a sort of national treasure and a national symbol though he was Canadian popular culture the Jacobite steam train travels a scenic part of the west highland railway line in Scotland an express train used the same rail route in which of the following films a Polar Express B Hugo see Harry Potter or D Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I think it's D de triumphe Chocolate Factory that is false it is see Harry Potter Harry Potter okay oh yeah question 3 this is on myths and legend Scotland is home to the most UFO sightings per year in the world true or false I would have to go with truth that is true as it seems that there's a certain culture of sightings of mysterious objects like Loch Ness of course would be the most famous it sort of fits in that same mindset yeah there is a small village east of Glasgow are called Bonnie bridge and despite having a population of 6,000 people it has about 300 sightings of UFOs per year Wow that's all avail against a tree they really love Scotland last and final question fill in the blank in addition to being Canada's first prime minister blank was born in Scotland was it a Wilfrid Laurier B Robert Borden see Johnny McDonald or D Arthur Meaghan see see Johnny McDonald that is correct yes okay of Canada's 23 Prime Minister's 14 23 since Confederation 14 have had Scottish roots including Justin Trudeau and John Diefenbaker congratulations you did really oh alright thank you and thanks for doing the trivia with us yeah for sure anytime and again anyone could do these one that comes in the galleries and there's another thing that people can do here which we'll get to now handle swords so what do we have here absolutely so the main exercise here is getting a feel for how much these swords way so just for my own safety on those around I'm gonna hold part of the sword at all times but first off this is called the basket hilted broadsword meant to be used with one hand now of course you've seen me handle a basket held sword before but that's that's a museum experience right here and yes this has a very well-made reproduction yeah the sword weighs about 3.5 pounds mm-hmm it's got a nice grip on it of course you can't tell but it is well shaped and comfortable and the basket of course or protection I've talked about that and one of the other videos so quite nice so let's put that back down and then the not Claymore which is the other one of you if you remember the video about what acclaim were is that's a two-handed sword not acclaim well this is the Claymore so this is the two-handed longsword so this this fields actually it feels a lot like other long swords so sometimes the clay of almost a claymore almost at the C word so sometimes this type of sword is sort of more along like closer toward a great sword but this one is actually more on the longsword side of things so this is fairly light and easy to maneuver so okay so that's the Canadian War Museum here in Ottawa and I very much enjoyed my stay I hope you enjoyed the trip too and had fun with the video now if you have a chance absolutely I would highly recommend visiting it and checking it out highland warriors exhibition is well worth it and of course there's a permanent collection as well and absolutely do check it out if you're here or just plan a visit come from wherever it's worth it so I hope you enjoyed it thanks for watching and have a good one folks [Music] you

Channel: Skallagrim

Views: 152,202

Keywords: Skall, Skallagrim, museum tour, Scottish history, highland warriors, highland charge, scottish soldiers, history of scotland, baskethilt broadsword, Canadian military, battlefield tactics, military history, sword vs. musket, broadsword, musket, highland regiments, Scottish highland regiments, military history highlanders, Canadian War Museum tour, military history canada, interview museum director, real highland charge, Canadian war museum highland warriors, military tradition

Id: PMGwZqpGFIo

Length: 21min 50sec (1310 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 06 2019