British Parachute Brigade Embrace Islam.

There has always been some controversy as to how the battle cry of the 1st Parachute Brigade came to be adopted.
This was a shout of :-

Waho Mahommed
As far as I am aware it was merely copied from the local Arabs during this phase of the campaign.
These people, who lived near and sometimes within the brigade sector, were continually calling out from one hilltop to another.
Like all hill people they knew how to make their Voices carry and, as every Arab's name in that part of the world seemed to begin with Mahommed, all their shouted conversations began with:
'Waho Mahommed.'
'Waho.'
'Waho Mahommed bil Munchar,'
and so on to the text of the message.

It was too much to expect that the soldiers would refrain from joining in.
Some became expert at imitating the more guttural sounds and before long, as soon as our neighbours started up, the air became jammed with real and bogus Arabic.

Long after the Arabs had moved and wherever the brigade went a concerted cry of :-

Waho Mahommed
brought extra spurs of energy, in action or play.
Some authorities not in the know feared that the whole formation had secretly embraced Islam, but it was in fact just something to shout when shouting seemed to be a good thing to do.

Anyway, it became a custom in the rather indefinite way that Customs do and one had to hope that nobody's feelings were hurt.
We were the only troops out there who wore camouflaged smocks.
These smocks had a fork piece which was meant to be fasted in the front by two press studs.
These studs had a way of getting damaged or torn off and then the fork pieces hung down behind in a most unmilitary manner like a tail.
This much amused the Arabs, and despite all our other distinctive characteristics, they always referred to us as:-

'The Men with Tails'

Reference:-
Book: A Drop Too Many. Page 110
Author: Major-General John Frost CB. DSO. MC.

Nigel Watson. December 2007...

Found This Piece of Trivia When I Was Reading The Book. Thought It Was Worth Putting On The Web!

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