Best "Eve of battle speech" - Col.Tim Collins

Many commentators (including this one) hailed the speech as a masterpiece of martial rhetoric, but Captain Beattie, then regimental sergeant-major says "

“He had left the men somewhere they shouldn’t have been: thinking about home, wondering if they would ever return there again, fearful of the dangers that faced them.

“It pulled no punches, the message was stark,” the soldier writes, recalling his reaction as the speech ended: “Cheers boss, thanks a bloody lot.”

But it is still one of the finest pieces of battlefield oratory ever delivered. The day after Colonel Collins’s speech, I wrote: “Collins spoke of history, family, respect, dignity and the individual moral choice between killing justly, and just killing . . . A century hence, people will still be reading the speech.” I still believe that.

Truly great oratory transcends the time and place of its delivery, and Colonel Collins’s words resonated far beyond the battlefield. A copy of the speech hangs in the Oval Office; the Prince of Wales described it as “extraordinarily stirring, civilised and humane”.

The power of the speech lay in the way it connected to people across the world, causing them to see the conflict, and Iraq, in a different way. “It is the site of the Garden of Eden, of the Great Flood, and the birthplace of Abraham . . . the only flag that will be flown in that ancient land is their own.”

Great battlefield oratory is seldom recognised instantly, but hallowed by time – and victory. Abraham Lincoln’s address inaugurating the cemetery at Gettysburg in November 1863, just 272 words, may be the most eloquent speech ever made in war-time, but then even the finest judges did not realise that they were hearing history in the making.

Extract of the Collins speech

“We go to liberate, not to conquer. We will not fly our flags in their country. We are entering Iraq to free a people and the only flag which will be flown in that ancient land is their own. Show respect for them. There are some who are alive at this moment who will not be alive shortly. Those who do not wish to go on that journey, we will not send. As for the others, I expect you to rock their world. Wipe them out if that is what they choose. But if you are ferocious in battle, remember to be magnanimous in victory. Iraq is steeped in history. It is the site of the Garden of Eden, of the Great Flood and the birthplace of Abraham. Tread lightly there . . .

“If there are casualties of war then remember that when they woke up and got dressed in the morning they did not plan to die this day. Allow them dignity in death . . . there may be people among us who will not see the end of this campaign. We will put them in their sleeping bags and send them back. There will be no time for sorrow.”

The Times..