What is Beating The Retreat?
Beating the Retreat is not retreating. Retreating in the face of the enemy is a shameful although sometimes necessary thing. Beating the Retreat is an ancient military ceremony indicating the end of hostilities for the day or the period. In the evening the band would march out with the drum beating and the buglers playing the call ‘retreat’. The Colours would be there under guard to indicate that the unit was withdrawing as an orderly and controlled body of men who had not given up but were merely ending the killing for that day. The troops would retire to the ale houses and eat and drink until the prescribed time to go to their billets. It is now a Ceremonial Parade performed on specified occasions that includes but is not limited to the end of a Unit such as where 28 Commonwealth Infantry Brigade ceased to exist and by so doing bought into existence ANZUK Brigade.
