Colours, Standards and Guidons - Guns

Guns

In regiments of the (British) Royal Artillery, and artillery regiments of other Commonwealth countries, the guns are afforded the status of colours. This is due to the difficulty of artillery regiments being able to carry flags onto the battlefield, and the fact that the guns themselves were the rallying points for the soldiers manning them. As a consequence, whenever artillery regiments parade, the etiquette that would normally be applied to the colours is applied to the guns. During the Battle of Balaclava gunners abandoned their guns, in effect abandoning their colours, causing disgrace.

Because the guns have the status of colours, gunners of commonwealth countries will attempt to prevent their guns falling intact into enemy hands both for practical reasons (so that the guns can not be turned and used against their own side) and for the honour of the regiment. For example the last action of gunners of the Royal Artillery during the fall of Singapore was to destroy their guns.

The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest regiment in the British Army, and not part of the Royal Artillery, is the only artillery regiment to have both colours and guns, which are treated with equal respect.

In Singapore, however since its independence the Singapore Army's artillery arm (the Singapore Artillery) uses Colours instead of Guns. But in the Venezuelan Army, Guns and Colors are both used, but the colours are attached to the lead gun of the unit.