A damned sight worse.
Four British soldiers including a teenager paid to protect the Queen are feared to have gone AWOL to fight Vladimir Putin’s invading forces after booking a one-way ticket to Ukraine.
A 19-year-old member of the Coldstream Guards regiment, reportedly dropped his ceremonial duties as one of the prestigious Queen’s Guards in Windsor and signed up for Ukraine’s International Legion of foreign volunteer fighters.
The shock development has sparked panic at the Ministry of Defence, with security chiefs racing to intercept the teenager in case Russia tries to claim that Britain has entered the war if active army soldiers are found fighting on the frontlines.
The soldier reportedly wrote to his parents before booking a one-way ticket to Poland over the weekend with an intention to then cross the border into Ukraine. He has since posted a photo of his boots on Snapchat, according to The Sun.
Christ almighty. For rampant stupidity, it’s difficult to imagine worse. These twats could between them trigger an international conflict that encompasses NATO. If caught, the Russians will have a propaganda coup handed to them on a plate and will jump at the chance of confirming NATO’s involvement with boots on the ground. All we can do is hope that they are caught and hauled before a court martial. Idiots.
Its not AWOL, its desertion. And if they get captured, then the Russians will know they are deserters by the fact that they are active here. It might work if there’s a complete battalion but not just four. They would probably end up back here, getting their bollocks removed with pliers by the army.
The very least they deserve, frankly.
Oh, absolutely. Its not that long ago that deserters, or conscripts that refused to fight faced a firing squad here. Another consideration is that they have gone to Poland. Having landed there, and if our boys haven’t managed to catch them first, will the Polish allow them to leave? After all, they just told Biden to get bent and do his own dirty work after he asked them to send in a shitload of MiG29s on promise of replacement with F16s. Other world leaders such as the Saudi Arabians have also refused to take his calls, begging for oil/gas.
What linguistics skills have the British Army given them?
What is Ukrainian/Russian for “Duck”, “Toilet paper? Please. ”
Or even “Take me to your leader.”
Did they leave in their bear skins?
It seems to me that many people (usually young men but also would be ‘Jihadi Brides’) are dissatisfied with the challenges of life and seek meaning in ‘adventures’ abroad.
You could argue that this willingness to fight elsewhere is because bravery and honour is no longer valued by the managerial classes.
Still a dumb thing to do though.
Previous generations would have been sent to war. We’ve had a couple of generations who have never known this. But yes, an incredibly stupid ting to do.
They probably figure it cannot be much different from their video games.
Real life will recalibrate their view pretty quickly…
I wonder how much the Coldstream Guards actually do “to protect the Queen”. Note the article says “ceremonial duties”. I’ve a mate who works as an Armed Officer for the Met on royal protection duties at Windsor. They’re the ones who’d actually jump in front of a bullet for her.
My point being that these lads join up looking for adventure only to find that even that side of the job is really done by middle-aged coppers. It must be frustrating.
Some people like war. A rugby playing mate of mine re-enlisted just to fight in the Gulf back in ’91. He loved the drama of it all and felt rather lost in civilian life.
Nice lad. Not the sharpest tool in the box.
Without these un-sharp tools, where would the armed forces be?
What baffles me about this current war is how public it all is. With this splashed all over the media, the Russians will be actively seeking these people out in order to gain the most mileage from it.
It seems like every little detail about every plan, every option and every suggestion, no matter how plausible or stupid, is all over Twitter. I always thought war plans and developments were supposed to be secret, not splashed all over some internet platform for all the world to see
Churchill didn’t have the Internet.
Good job. The full battle plans for the D-Day landings would have been all over it
Nah, he used a dead body with fake documents.
Operation Mincemeat….?
That’s the one.
Seems that way.
Although it could all be wrong and/or misinformation.
If I was running a war, I would definitely just get a group of people to sit on a room with a load of images and just spam the f*ck out of Twitter.
Hundreds and hundreds of
“Looking forward to pushing forward on the northern front tomorrow with my besties!”
“Can’t wait for Southern front fry up on Wednesday!”
“Boys of the 99th Reg, Parachuting 20miles behind their lines tonight! Gonna be sick! They’ll never see us coming! Lolz!”
Over power them with noise and they’d have way too much to sort through.
I’m following it all on the assumption that that’s basically what is going on.
Four British soldiers including a teenager paid to protect the Queen
Isn’t this treason?
There was a time when it would have involved a firing squad.
One of them has just turned up on the front near Kiev. If….or when… he’s captured, what will Boris do?