Outrage as Army regiment ignores D-Day and flies rainbow flag for Pride Month instead

The HQ Battery at 47 Regiment Royal Artillery has chosen to support the gay and transgender community every day in June.

The move angered some servicemen and women at the regiment's base at Larkhill in Wiltshire with one saying: "The Army has become so woke it's ridiculous."

The flag is being raised every morning at Horne Barracks and features a white, pink and blue triangle for the transgender community and brown and black chevrons representing the "Black, Indigenous and People of Colour" or BIPOC community.

The rainbow stripes of the emblem represent red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, indigo for serenity and violet for spirit.

A serving member of the military told the Daily Express: "On the 80th anniversary of D-Day this is not welcome for goodness sake.

"The priorities here are completely out of whack. Since the pandemic the Army has become so woke it's ridiculous.

"We've had lectures and presentations about transgender people and the importance of diversity and inclusion.

"We've had nothing in that time about the war in Ukraine, or how artillery is of major strategic importance to both sides in that conflict or about the situation in Gaza.

"It's bad for morale, this is a military unit with patriotic servicemen who by and large have very traditional values.

"We are here to do an important job and to help defend our country's security.

"The flag is being flown at our headquarters. The flagpole would normally bear the colours of HQ Battery 47 Regiment in other words the pride of our regiment.

"Instead, on D-Day of all days we're focusing on Pride Month. It just doesn't make sense."

Elements of 47 Regiment date back to 1755 but in the modern Army its task is to operate the Watchkeeper unmanned surveillance drone.

The unit has played an important role in the last two decades gathering intelligence in Afghanistan and in use against people smuggling operations across the channel.

The Watchkeeper Tactical Unmanned Aerial System is packed with state of the art detection and video systems relaying battlefield video to commanders in real time.

Colonel Stuart Tootal who commanded 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment in Afghanistan's Helmand Province in 2006 said the Army was in danger of "over-focusing" on diversity issues.

He said: "It is important that the Army gets this issue right. In my experience it has been pretty good at improving its policies on diversity and inclusion as any organisation must.

"However, there is a danger of over-focus and I do sympathise with the artillerymen who may feel things have taken a step too far.

"We should not let the important need to focus on war-fighting become obscured by an obsession with wokeism.

"The key is to get the balance right on this important issue."

An Army source defended the unit's right to fly the flag adding: "The Regiment is flying the Union Flag from the main flagpole outside the HQ as usual while the progress flag is being flown in a working area.

"Flying the pride flag is in line with direction and is at unit discretion. D Day 80 and Pride Month aren’t mutually exclusive; respecting one doesn’t infer any disrespect to the other."

The MoD offered no comment.

The decision to support Pride Month came as Wiltshire Police investigated an incident six miles away in Ludgershall in which a Progress flag flying in the town centre was torn down.

Officers said a male suspect was seen using ladders from a nearby work van to access the flagpole on Monday.

A spokesman for the local authority said: "Ludgershall Town Council really wanted to show they were a progressive council in a progressive town, but it seems we have a way to go."