Interwar Era RMC deployment

[adm]

Another thought on security procedures. The British Officers likely know Latin or Ancient Greek, discussing information in these languages should add another layer of protection.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by adm

Another thought on security procedures. The British Officers likely know Latin or Ancient Greek, discussing information in these languages should add another layer of protection.

While they would often have studied them, they are more than likely to have learnt small Latin and less Greek, as a memorable British officer once remarked on his boyhood studies.

[Engurrand]

Originally Posted by johndallman

UNESCO doesn't exist yet. Like all UN organisations, it is post-WWII, in this case, from November 1946. The WWII Allies called themselves the "United Nations", and set up the UN as a body to try to prevent future world wars.

The political context is worth thinking about. Thailand is not a British colony - it always managed to evade being colonised by any European power - and while permission for an archaeological expedition shouldn't be that hard to get, a large escort of foreign soldiers implies that the government can't keep the peace, which isn't a concept they'll welcome.

Edit: Is there a specific reason for Royal Marines, rather than British Army? The Royal Marines are only about 10,000 strong at this point, and thus in short supply. They're also based in the UK, but the British Indian Army is large and available quite nearby. The British Army has always been willing to split off companies and platoons for specific missions; they think more like marines than the US Army does.

Again, a good correction, thank you. I was reading about the site on the UNESCO heritage page, and concurrently and saw that the Arts Council of Thailand had designated the ruin a protected archeological site in 1935, and commissioned an extensive survey. Somehow confabulated the two.

The Captain would be a marine because the first and only encounter with this antagonist was ship-board and the marine captain there gave a good accounting of himself, even if he was unsuccessful. (The monks were after a high value cargo recently dug up in Antarctica, which they got).

It makes a degree of sense to me that they would fly him to Bhurma and attach him as an adviser to an Indian army officer with some Siamese political connections.

I had been imagining they wouldn't have more than a section or two because of the political challenges. They've brought along a set of academics and archeological tools, and had their troop approved as an archeological expedition. I imagined the weapons would be hidden among their supplies until they were away from prying eyes. The Thai government is not aware of the monks.

RE: Persons of unusual power,
First, in this mythology, powers require all of moderately rare talent (less than 1 in 10,000), exposure to extremely rare (less than a dozen exist, all are lost or hidden) catalysts, and high degrees of even more rare esoteric training. Given the improbability of this confluence of factors, there are less than 50 persons of power in the world. Generally they're concentrated around places where the catalysts are available, and only where the teachings of how to tap the catalyst has remained uninterrupted.
Secondly, the marines actually do have one: a volunteer whose exposure to the catalyst found in Antarctica permitted him to predict where the thieves would take it (Ayutthaya), but the effort cost him his sanity in a bad way and he's stayed elsewhere for study and care.

I appreciate the questions and suggestions they do force me to evaluate my premise and sequence of events in detail I had not considered.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Icelander

While they would often have studied them, they are more than likely to have learnt small Latin and less Greek, as a memorable British officer once remarked on his boyhood studies.

Originally Posted by adm

Another thought on security procedures. The British Officers likely know Latin or Ancient Greek, discussing information in these languages should add another layer of protection.

There was, IIRC, at least one instance of army officers who had attended the same public school thoroughly baffling German ElInt units by conversing with one another in their school argot if that helps.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

There was, IIRC, at least one instance of army officers who had attended the same public school thoroughly baffling German ElInt units by conversing with one another in their school argot if that helps.

I've not met that one, but there was a case of someone who showed up in a PoW camp claiming to have attended a particular school but ignorant of its language and in-jokes. He was removed by the Germans for his own safety. It was never clear if he was a spy, or just a Walter Mitty.

[dcarson]

In that era many of the academics would have served in WW I and are pro imperialism. So that raises the number of troops you have or lets you lower the number of escorts.

[trans]

Originally Posted by adm

Another thought on security procedures. The British Officers likely know Latin or Ancient Greek, discussing information in these languages should add another layer of protection.

In his Oxford Book of Military Anecdotes, Max Hastings cited a communication at the Siege of Lucknow that used a mishmash of English words spelled in Greek, French words, English abbreviations, and maybe a little Latin - I'm not sure about that last one.

[chimchim]

The abbreviation RMC is a modern designation for Royal Marine Comando. During the inter war years they woukd have been just Royal Marines.
To confuse the locals the marines should be selected from Scotland or or Wales. Some broad scots accents are confusing enough to the rest of the Brits let alone locals not familier and the Welsh have their own language.