The Last Charge of the Calcutta Light Horse - how middle-aged amateurs defeated the German navy

An extraordinary tale of improvised warfare in World War Two, of pluck against the odds, and how the old-boy network could get things done.

The Calcutta Light Horse was disbanded in 1947 with Indian independence, and so never saw action again, hence the title. I didn't know as I recorded what the title would be.

Thanks to Karan Singh Kamboj for suggesting the topic.

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Lindybeige: a channel of archaeology, ancient and medieval warfare, rants, swing dance, travelogues, evolution, and whatever else occurs to me to make.

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[lindybeige]

Oh my word! I have just noticed that I left out the word 'India' in the opening introduction! Sorry for confusing everyone! Still, I dare say that you twig that I'm talking about India after a while.

[joedewitt]

I really respect this ability to speak for so long without edits on a topic, I can barely manage five minutes.

[yuslaven]

Can you imagine how good a storyteller this man is, when in this age of short attention span, he mustered a million subscribers on an hour plus long videos.
Homer of our age.

[lhaviland]

Lindy: Doesn't like the feature film about this event.
Lindy: Makes his own.

[KeignarGaming]

As a portuguese person, hearing Lindy say "Senhor" is... an experience that's both unexpected and hard to describe.

[paradox]

When you think you have a pretty good grasp of WW2 history, then Lindy goes and throws another gem at you!

The war was FAR more complex than you realised.

[semibreve]

Those 18 men, if the mission had gone any other way, would have been regarded as fools and madmen. But no. Absolute legends, each and every one of them. I also love to think how excited these middle-aged, upper-class gentleman were to be playing special operative.

[freakysteve]

I can only imagine the wives of the men when the story finally came out. Hear about all the heroism and all the cloak and dagger to pull off the mission... “so you lot got drunk and booked out an entire streets worth of brothels for a week then!?”

[griff]

Hiring a brothel for a week free for sailors, if that didnt get a big round of applause certainly a clap.

[caleb]

Imagine working at a brothel, and your boss is like: "yea next week is free for all sailors"
_Shudders_

[templarknight]

If I had my way, Lindybeige would be the Minister of English education setting standards and criteria for our children to be taught in schools. Why on earth no tv channel has not snapped him up is beyond me, he is marvelous, witty and so informative.

[snehallit]

Thank you Lloyd . The Indian side of things isn't really talked about much when it comes to world war two .

[dontcheckmychanel]

I'm really glad you missed your calling as a history teacher. A single video lecture of yours reaches more people than your whole career combined would.

[olivercromwell]

My dad was a psychiatric nurse. The charge nurse on the first ward he worked on used to be an ex cavalry trooper in India. He was a nice bloke- had a family and three children who he loved. Yet the prominent photo in his office was of his horse back in India. My dad got to know him quite well and they became friends. He told my dad that the only time he ever cried was when they took his horse away and gave him an armoured car.

[josmo]

Door: *HIGH VOLTAGE DANGER OF DEATH*
"Let's have a look in this one"

well obviously

[mr.pavone]

Lindy: 19:00 "People like it when my videos are long, and I think this one is going to be quite long..."
Me: checks length of video
Also Me: "Oh my God..."

[LuxisAlukard]

I think this video exist only to point out that someone, somewhere at that time - used beige paint for cars

[RimmyDownunder]

I was meant to be up early to sink warships with Digby tomorrow. I'll likely be sleeping in now. Sorry Digby, military bed time stories are too interesting.

[zachary]

I appreciate all the “translations” for Americans, because as an American... I honestly needed most of them. BOO-EY.

[JPASSY]

Very well told 👍
Bill Grice was my grandfather 😏Thank you very much for telling such a great story about incredibly brave men.
I feel however that I need to correct you on a couple of points:
My grandfather ( Bill Grice)actually did fight in the 1st World War as a naval officer and was mentioned in the dispatches he was only 18. And they weren’t “0ld Codgers” my grandfather was the oldest at 45 at the time all the others were under 40 and very fit, all in reserved occupations and couldn’t go to war.
This is information I received from my mother Doris Jane Grice (Bill Grice’s daughter) who is still alive and fit (87yo)
But nice to see that this story is still being told about a very brave and selfless mission “reasonably” accurately after all these years 😉