Yomp (computer Game)
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Royal Marines The Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious warfare, amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a Company (military unit), company str ...
slang A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...
describing a long-distance
loaded march A loaded march is a relatively fast march over distance carrying a load and is a common military exercise. A loaded march is known as a forced foot march in the US Army. Less formally, it is a ruck march or rucking in the Canadian Armed Forces ...
carrying full kit. It was popularised by journalistic coverage in 1982 during the
Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...
. The origin of the word is unclear, and there is no evidence to suggest that it derives originally from an acronym. Various
backronym A backronym is an acronym formed from an already existing word by expanding its letters into the words of a phrase. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. The ...
ic definitions have however been proposed, including "young officers marching pace", "your own marching pace" and a connection with the term ''yump'' used in rally-driving in the sense of "to leave the ground when taking a crest at speed", apparently a Scandinavian pronunciation of ''
jump JuMP is an algebraic modeling language and a collection of supporting packages for mathematical optimization embedded in the Julia programming language. JuMP is used by companies, government agencies, academic institutions, software projects ...
''.


Falklands War

The word and its meaning came to national prominence in the UK during the
Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...
in 1982. After disembarking from ships at San Carlos on
East Falkland East Falkland () is the largest island of the Falkland Islands, Falklands in the South Atlantic, having an area of or 54% of the total area of the Falklands. The island consists of two main land masses, of which the more southerly is known as L ...
, on 21 May 1982, Royal Marines and members of the Parachute Regiment yomped with their equipment across the islands, covering in three days carrying loads. They were supposed to be transported by helicopters, but after the '' Atlantic Conveyor'', which carried the helicopters, was sunk by Argentinian Exocet missiles on 25 May, the soldiers had to march across the island.


Photograph

The image of Royal Marine Corporal Peter Robinson with a
Union Jack The Union Jack or Union Flag is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. The Union Jack was also used as the official flag of several British colonies and dominions before they adopted their own national flags. It is sometimes a ...
fixed to his radio antenna became one of the most widely published of the Falklands War. Now known as "The Yomper", it was taken by Petty Officer Peter Holdgate, Commando Forces Photographer, whilst working as part of the Commando Forces News Team. After landing with 40 Commando at San Carlos, Holdgate accompanied British forces across the Falklands War zone taking hundreds of photographs as the Royal Marines proceeded along the Moody Brook track towards
Stanley Stanley may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film * ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy * ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short * ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...
. When news of the surrender of Argentine forces was received, Marine Trev Gillingham produced a small Union bunting flag from his
bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...
, which he had acquired from
SS Canberra SS ''Canberra'' was an ocean liner, which later operated on cruises, in the P&O fleet from 1961 to 1997. She was built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland at a cost of £17 million. The ship was named on 17 March 19 ...
's bunting locker. Marine Gillingham first tied the flag to Corporal Robinson's radio aerial, who was the last man in the patrol. It eventually blew off and was then fixed with masking tape to the radio aerial. The photograph itself was entirely spontaneous and not staged. The original Union Jack has been lost.


Memorial

The image was used as the inspiration for a statue of Royal Marine Commando that was unveiled by
Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...
at the
Royal Marines Museum The Royal Marines Museum is a museum on the history of the Royal Marines from their beginnings in 1664 through to the present day. A registered charity, it is also a designated service museum under the terms of the National Heritage Act 198 ...
in
Southsea Southsea is a seaside resort and a geographic area of Portsmouth, Portsea Island in the ceremonial county of Hampshire, England. Southsea is located 1.8 miles (2.8 km) to the south of Portsmouth's inner city-centre. Southsea began as a f ...
, Portsmouth on 8 July 1992 to mark the 10th anniversary of the conflict.


Similar terms

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
slang for the same marching conditions is "tab", while in
United States military The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. U.S. United States Code, federal law names six armed forces: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States Navy, Na ...
slang, the terms to "ruck" (from the "
rucksack A backpack, also called knapsack, schoolbag, rucksack, pack, booksack, bookbag, haversack, packsack, or backsack, is in its simplest frameless form, a fabric sack carried on one's back and secured with two straps that go over the shoulders; b ...
" being carried) or to "hump" (from the phrase "humping a pack") are used.


See also

*
Dartmoor Yomp The Dartmoor Yomp is an annual Charitable organization, charitable fundraising event run in aid of the various charities that support injured British Armed Forces Royal Marines. The Yomp is a daytime trek held in the Dartmoor National Park in t ...
*
Loaded march A loaded march is a relatively fast march over distance carrying a load and is a common military exercise. A loaded march is known as a forced foot march in the US Army. Less formally, it is a ruck march or rucking in the Canadian Armed Forces ...


References

{{Falklands War , style=wide Royal Marines Falklands War Military slang and jargon