(silently applauding that soldier)
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The crows keep leaving bones in our bird bath.
I wonder if the British guards ever take a holiday to come heckle the Tomb of the Unknown.
HOW DE YAH LIKE EET NAH?
IIRC it depends on the threat level, Most of the time the gun isn’t loaded, and they may or may not have live rounds in their pocket.
They’re probably loaded this week.
Well done! Now, I guess half the internet’s going to have a new opportunity to throw up their hate for jews.
Oh, here we go. It’s on, guys.
They do keep moving and switching arms to relieve stress and pressure on the muscles. After all, they’re actually not just there for fun - if you try to assault one and get past them, you’ll wind up dead / severely injured. Much as you’d expect with any guard with a weapon.
If they notice a build-up of crowd or disturbance, they stomp and switch hands a lot - that’s to get the people to notice they’re actually a loud, tough, stomping soldier, on guard duty.
If the stomping doesn’t work, they shout and / or have weapons ready.
They aren’t in a position to know who is or isn’t a real threat, or a disguised threat, so they treat any infraction on their ‘guard space’ as something too be countered.
Youtube Queen’s Guard for some fun videos of soldiers shouting, stomping, getting weapon-ready, posing for shots with kids, so on.
They are real soldiers, really guarding, and will take real action if required to protect what they’ve been told to guard.
They guard things like: the Crown Jewels (limitless value), Windsor Castle (see any other guards? Nope! They’re the front line), Buckingham Palace (same), Horseguard’s Parade (the clue is in the title).
A lot of tourists think it’s pomp and circumstance - and yes, the outfits are silly in today’s era. But they look nice, and they’re not slovenly unshaven khaki-dressed guards smoking and leaning on their post. They’re disciplined, functional, real soldiers, and as a few people have discovered, do not abide infraction on their role.
Even the idiot terrorists know not to go after them. Why on earth tourists mess with them I don’t know. Goading an armed soldier is never smart.
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Not loaded? I wouldn’t be so sure. Have you seen those bayonets?
Bit more info here:
i.e. nobody is quite sure whether they’re loaded - just the way you’d like people to feel.
I couldn’t imagine that they wouldn’t have live ammo. If someone decided to actually do something nefarious and all those guards couldn’t do anything it’d be a huge problem.
When i visited Sweden last year the royal guards there looked pretty similar to the one’s in the UK and they carried some pretty serious assault rifles. I know i would not want to mess with them.
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The only thing is they might not be loaded on the basis that someone might grab their rifle and use it. That said, the bayonet is enough, frankly.
This would be pretty hard to do. But yes, the sharp end of a bayonet would be enough given the chance
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