Squad History within WWII Online/Battleground Europe

As recalled by Gadwin.. Our squad was formed in July of 2002. It was about 6 months after WWIIOnline was first released. Every now and then, you will hear an old 333rd vet mention the name "Highlanders." At the time, the CO of the Highlanders was Wld1944 and the XO was N2Deep. Wld1944 was ... well, as his name implied, quite wild. One day all of a sudden, he decides to outright disband the squad. So, all the Highlanders are disbanded and overnight, we all became squadless.

Within a few days though, N2Deep and Ricemag, who were also part of the Highlanders, decide to create a new squad, calling them the "333rd British Knights." N2Deep and Ricemag then rounded up as many Highlanders as they could and even added a few new players to form the original 333rd.

Many of those original Highlanders are still with the 333rd, today. In fact our squad salute: (_!_) originated with the Highlanders as a text-based version of a "mooning". (Imagine the Scottish warriors from "Braveheart" bending over and lifting their kilts to "salute" the English!) (_!_)

For a blast from the past, portions of the one of the first 333rd website are still available at this link.

Actual WWII Historical References

Although there were artillery and fighter squadron units during World War II which had the designation of "333rd", those units were part of American forces -- not British forces. (So there are no "real" historical ties between our squad and the British Expeditionary Force modelled in the game.)

However, there was a British "4th Brigade" and it was indeed part of the British "2nd Infantry Division". The 2nd Infantry Division fought in France in 1940. Its flag may be seen here:

You can click on the flag if you'd like to find out more about the historical 2nd Infantry Division.