Since I broke my leg six months ago, I have become quite a devotee of YouTube, so much so that I have even started my own YouTube channel. Recently I discovered a number of videos from Chile that show its armed forces undertaking formal parades ... and they certainly go if for impressive displays!
For historical reasons, the Chilean Army has a very Prussian style when it comes to its dress uniforms, its music (including using the Preussischer Präsentiermarsch), and the way it mounts its parades. Its troops even use the traditional goosestep or Stechschritt (literally, 'piercing step') as the following photographs show:
Troopers of the 1st Cavalry (Horse Guards) Regiment 'Grenadiers' in their dress uniforms.
Soldiers from the NCO School still wear the German steel helmet (stahlhelm) on parade.
Gunners of the 1st Artillery Regiment in their dress uniforms. Note that the traditional spike on the pickelhaube helmet has been replaced by a ball, just as it was in the Prussian Army.
Only a few weeks ago, the Chilean public broadcaster, TVN (Televisión Nacional de Chile), broadcast a parade that lasted just under three and a half hours! (The first fifty-five minutes is a celebration of Chilean culture and features folk dance and music.)
It featured units from across the Chilean armed forces and was entitled Gran Parada Militar de Chile en el día de las Glorias del Ejército – 2024 and can be seen on YouTube here. It was interesting to see that some of those troops marching past wore uniforms that looked as if they dated from the Chilean War of Independence.
Watching this parade (and several others) certainly gave me a few ideas for uniforms for late nineteenth and early twentieth century imagi-nations.
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