#Light brigade band mod

In 2027 the battalion will move to MoD St Athan Personnel are based at Beachley Barracks, Chepstow. Initially configured in the light role as part of 3 Commando Brigade, it moved to 160th Infantry Brigade and Headquarters Wales under Army 2020, but transferred to the 7th Infantry Brigade and Headquarters East in 2019.

1st Battalion, an amalgamation of the 1st Battalion, Devonshire and Dorset Regiment and the 1st Battalion, Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment.

The regiment has four regular and three reserve battalions, each configured for a specific infantry role: The regiment's 4th battalion was re-subordinated to the Ranger Regiment on 1 December 2021. In March 2018 the 2nd Battalion returned home after a six-month operational deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Shader. The 1st battalion returned to the Nahri Sarah District of Afghanistan in April 2011, to then be relieved by the 2nd and 5th battalions in October 2011.

At the same time the 2nd Battalion was deployed to Sangin and was relieved in due course by the 3rd Battalion. The 4th Battalion provided reinforcement cover for the elections in Afghanistan and took part in Operation Panther's Claw in the Summer of 2009. The 5th Battalion was one of the last British Army units to leave Iraq in May 2009. The 1st Battalion undertook a tour in Afghanistan between October 2008 and April 2009, ground holding and mentoring the Afghan National Army in Helmand Province. The 2nd Battalion, the 3rd Battalion and the 4th Battalion were all deployed in Basra in Iraq during some of the worst fighting of the Iraq War including the withdrawal from Basra Palace in September 2007. The Rifles was formed to serve as the county regiment of the following counties:

7th Battalion The Rifles (formed from the Royal Rifle Volunteers minus the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment Company but with the surviving two Companies (F and G) from The London Regiment).

6th Battalion The Rifles (formed from the Rifle Volunteers).

5th Battalion The Rifles (formed from the 1st Battalion, Light Infantry).

4th Battalion The Rifles (formed from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Green Jackets).

3rd Battalion The Rifles (formed from the 2nd Battalion, Light Infantry).

2nd Battalion The Rifles (formed from the 1st Battalion, Royal Green Jackets).

1st Battalion The Rifles (formed from the 1st Battalion, Devonshire and Dorset Light Infantry and the 1st Battalion Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Light Infantry).

The regular battalions of The Rifles was formed on 1 February 2007 by the amalgamation of the four Light Infantry and Rifle Regiments of the Light Division as follows:

However, on 24 November 2005, the Ministry of Defence announced that the four regiments would amalgamate into a single five-battalion regiment.

Under the original announcement, the Light Division would have remained essentially unchanged, with the exception of the Light Infantry gaining a new battalion through the amalgamation of two other regiments, and both gaining a reserve battalion from within the Territorial Army (TA) as it was then called. The Rifles was created as a result of the Future Army Structure review.

Since formation the regiment has been involved in combat operations, first in the later stages of the Iraq War and in the War in Afghanistan. Each Regular battalion of The Rifles was formerly an individual battalion of one of the two large regiments of the Light Division (with the exception of the 1st Battalion, which is an amalgamation of two individual regiments). Formed in 2007, it consists of four Regular battalions and three Reserve battalions. And every soldier knew it.The Rifles is an infantry regiment of the British Army. Light units were mainly used for communication, reconnaissance and skirmishes. The Light Brigade got its name because its soldiers carried only light weaponry like a saber or a pistol. “The Charge of the Light Brigade” probably would have been doomed even if the numbers had been more equal. A small band of 670 soldiers received orders to attack a Russian cavalry of 5,240 heavily armed men.

The charge that led Lord Tennyson to put pen to paper occurred during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. The British journal, “The Examiner,” published it a few weeks later in December, 1854. The poet was so moved when he received news of the battle that inspired his work, he wrote the poem in a single day. When people seek poems about soldiers valiantly facing death, they often turn to “ The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.