Norway's His Majesty the King's Guard

[Ghostwolf]

Check out this video, but don't drop your jaw like I did.
all I can say is...... Holy!!

http://www.hmkg.com/video/drillmann.mpg

Other videos at this Website:
http://www.mil.no/haren/hmkg

[Jooglae]

This......has.....got to be.......some......kinda......photo-op...... rofl

[-Max2-]

Very impressive... woot

[Alpha Leader]

These soldiers are in for only one year
and are some of the best in the world
they makes me proud to be an
Norwegian.
I have been to seveal Norwegian Military Tatoo
and this is no fake these guys are for real. ;)

[Vance]

I could do that. ;)

[fred_engles]

Brubeck!

[non-zero possibility]

My... lord.

[Marsuitor]

Lol, good thing these guys take care of most of the ceremonial crap so the other units don't have to... ;)
But seriously, it's nice to see they've finally seen the value of actually training to fight too. Give them some more years and they'll really be a respectable unit.

[exocet]

On the subject, how about the USMC Silent Drill Platoon. If anyone is in Washington DC in the summer, I would suggest trying to get some tickets to see these guys. Very good show.

There is a video of them at the bottom:
http://marines.com/about_marines/silentdrillplatoon.asp?format=flash

[DeltaWhisky58]

I've seen these guys & girls at the Edinburgh Military Tatoo - they are superb!

[memphiz]

damn that first video was awsome, and the USMC one was amazing im lost for words wow...

are those guns loaded?

[Ghostwolf]

I gotta see a doctor about my dropping jaw......
The rifle was spinning so fast that, it was nothing but blur.
I really would like to see the USMC Drill Platoon
try this trick. It is just damn awesome.

[Seoulstriker]

I gotta see a doctor about my dropping jaw......


did you hear a loud snap followed by severe pain followed by unconsciousness? :P


that video was awesome! woot

[mustamato]

I love these kinds of parade units. And it´s really fascinating to see what kind of uniforms and so forth they are wearing in different countries.


are those guns loaded?

I´ve seen the norweigians on a tattoo once. It was some impressive ****, the bayonets were not many centimeters from cutting the nose of their friends, but you never had to fear any accident because it was all done with precision, like in a mechanical watch. And they ended the tattoo by shooting a blank up in the air at the same time (which I guess answers your question), at a moment where nobody expected it. They were simply superb.

______________________________

Here in Sweden we have parade units as well that are really good at what they do, but atleast I have not seen them handle their rifles as good as the norweigians. The one of the parade units here in Sweden I like the most is the "drabanterna", these were the "SS" for the victorious swedish king Karl XI 1660-1697. The uniforms are made of moose! Together with the chest plate they offered a good protection in close combat, however not surprisingly they were not all too comfortable.

http://www.hogvakten.mil.se/images/local/drabant.jpg

http://img11.photobucket.com/albums/v33/mustamato/drabantuniform.jpg
Close-up of the uniform made by moose skin

[memphiz]

@mustamato
thanks for the reply

[mustamato]

@mustamato
thanks for the reply

... and the guns are of course loaded with live rounds when they stand guard at the castle. In example these guys below (cavalry, and yeah they have horses too) may not look very dangerous but a loaded gun (even though it´s from the 19th century) and a bayonet that long, well I wouldn´t mess with them. These guys with the fancy uniforms are "professional parade units", and very disciplined in their own way. There is however ordinary units that do some guarding at the castle sometimes as well. With them it has happened a couple of accidents, such as accidentally firing their guns and so forth. So yep, live rounds.

http://www.tatyglarna.nu/album/hogvaktsbilder_fran_linnea_clomen/aan.sized.jpg

[memphiz]

wow thanks for all the info mustamato
-those are pretty sweet helmets they got there
-and was any body hurt when these rounds went off?

[AFG]

in the video wat gun is that? looks like an M1 Garand but cant be right?

[stateofequilibrium]

Sweet jesus! Anyone else notice the smug look on his face? The USMC was cool too, but well, "slow" compared to the Norweigan. MORE VIDEOS! Need to jack off to this :-D

[Ian H]

I don't think they're a military unit but the 2003 Edinburgh Tattoo had a Swiss group of drummers, and they were incredible, they'd be in a line, drumming each other's drums, throwing drumsticks right over the group of about twenty to the guy on the other end, all whilst moving around and keeping the drumbeat going flawlessly. The Norwegian unit was there in a previous year and they were amazing too, especially considering they are all conscripts who only do one year in the unit.

This is the drummer's website:

www.topsecretbasel.ch

[mustamato]

-and was any body hurt when these rounds went off?

Well I remember that one got killed when his friend played around with the weapon and it didn´t click as he had wanted to, cause there was a round in the chamber. There was some other incident a couple of years ago when a guard on a bridge managed to fire his weapon, and the bullet wounded two soldiers that stood in line a bit away from the bridge. It doesn´t happen often, but anyway.

________________________________________

More of those fancy helmets, pictures of the 4th Squadron (cavalry unit, 4 platoons):

http://www.tatyglarna.nu/album/030315_hogvakt_slottet/abh.jpg

http://www.tatyglarna.nu/album/030315_hogvakt_slottet/abc.jpg

http://www.tatyglarna.nu/album/hogvaktsbilder_fran_linnea_clomen/aaf.sized.jpg

http://www.tatyglarna.nu/album/030530_anhorigdagen/aag.sized.jpg
Conscript...

http://www.tatyglarna.nu/album/030530_anhorigdagen/aac.sized.jpg
... and officers.

http://www.tatyglarna.nu/album/030530_anhorigdagen/aau.sized.jpg

http://www.tatyglarna.nu/album/hogvaktsbilder_fran_linnea_clomen/aaa.sized.jpg

[OldRecon]

According to legend in Norway, US drill units equipped with the Garand use a lightened version of the weapon while the HMKG drill platoon use full weight standard Garands.

Though legends are legends. :D

Not all soldiers in HMKG are as proficient in drill as the members of the drill platoon, but the drill platooners are very proficient at it indeed.
Beside the gun rotating present arms drill shown, they also do weapons throwing "change arms" drills similar to the USMC drill unit. Though with the interesting variation that weapons are thrown when the men stand back to back rather than facing each other (sort of blind throw).
The origins of the drill platoon is somewhat shrouded, though I think it was established in the early 50's. At least it's a post WW-2 phenomenon in the history of the HMKG overall.
The drill platoon was commanded by the same officer for more than 30 years, who forsaked promotion more than once during his career in the army in order to stay with his beloved unit.
Don't know if that guy commanded the platoon from the outset, but prior to taking up his post at HMKG he had served with the NORMASH during the Korean war and may have witnessed / been inspired by US drill units there.
The HMKG itself was formed around the middle of the 19th century, around the time of the unification of Italy.
Thus it's uniform (the parade one that is) was modelled on the uniform of the Italian Bersaglieri (which were of some vouge at the time).
Served for a short while alongside a former soldier in the HMKG drill platoon that got categorised as "dead lazy" by his squad leader.
Well, that lazy guy later went to an army leadership school and upon examination from there served as the drill major of the drill platoon for many years. So he can't have been that lazy after all.
rofl

[OldRecon]

-and was any body hurt when these rounds went off?

Well I remember that one got killed when his friend played around with the weapon and it didn´t click as he had wanted to, cause there was a round in the chamber. There was some other incident a couple of years ago when a guard on a bridge managed to fire his weapon, and the bullet wounded two soldiers that stood in line a bit away from the bridge. It doesn´t happen often, but anyway.]

Reminds me a bit about a freaked out kid I did boot camp with.
Well this guy was one of those that would rather get out of the army than do his time in the service (not too uncommon in an army of conscripts in a nation who is not under a perceived direct threath).
Well, besides walking around with a napkin underneath, on the pretext that "he couldn't controll his excrementation", one day, during guard duty at the camp gate, he prepped himself up with swallowing a lot of downers and in hallucination fired off his complete set of guard duty ammunition (on "family" of course) after a car passing by on the road outside camp.
Well, did he achieve his aim of premature discharge from his conscript service then??
No! rofl In fact he had to endure a further full 7 months of service, with general ass dragging and several other freaky stunts on his part, berfore the army got tired of him and boothed him out with a most bad service record (not the best thing to show up with if you are interested in getting a job here).
Furthermore, as a prepatory to my service abroad, during training at home we allways had to carry a magazine loaded with blanks when doing duty "off range".
Now if any one had an ND during the preparatory training with one of those blank rounds, the sob in question was punished by having to buy a round of beer to the rest of his platoon in the bar.
Taking into consideration that in norway the cost of a pint then were about 3 - 5 £ and the platoons had a size of between 35 - 55 men each, that could be a quite considerable amount of money for a soldier on low wage.
Anyway this handling of loaded weapons from day one, made you accustomed to handling your weapon carefully. Making checking the safety of your weapon and any other weapon handed to you seccond nature.
Thus we didn't have many ND's with the blanks in training, and none with real ammo during operations :) (a fact of which I'm quite proud)

[Parzival]

Coool..........

[Guttorm]

Some more pic's of His majesty the King's guard.

http://www.mil.no/multimedia/archive/00033/370_sibo_33927a.jpg

http://www.mil.no/multimedia/archive/00033/180_sibo_33926a.jpg

http://www.mil.no/multimedia/archive/00027/kp1-felt1_24609a_27336a.jpg

http://www.mil.no/multimedia/archive/00032/helikopter_32226a.jpg

http://www.mil.no/multimedia/archive/00032/eskorte2_32242a.jpg

http://www.mil.no/multimedia/archive/00024/kp2-hovedbilde_24611a.jpg

They can do more than strutt around in fancy uniforms you see... :)

[Ian H]

What pistol is that? Glock? P7?

[memphiz]

wow great pics Guttorm and Mustamato

these helmets are just so cool :D
http://www.tatyglarna.nu/album/030315_hogvakt_slottet/abh.jpg

[Guttorm]

What pistol is that? Glock? P7?

Thats a Glock 17 yes. Designated P80 in Norway.

[Marsuitor]

Not that it really matters, but why are their faces blurred in the killhouse pic...? :|

[Guttorm]

Not that it really matters, but why are their faces blurred in the killhouse pic...? :|
No idea, I got them from the official military website.

http://www.mil.no

Could be blurred due to movement, but I don't know, theres no reason for doing it digitally.

[Marsuitor]

K, not a problem... Can't really see the need to censor them me neither.

Cheers,
Marcus

[Salty Dog]

i could have seen the USMC Silent Drill Team for free a couple months ago, but my girlfriend didn't want to go. but i have to see them sometime.