This Day in History

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1327         King Edward II of England (1307-1327), murdered at 43

Improbable Wars: The War of the Bastards (August-September, 1324)

This curiously named conflict, in French “La Guerre des Bâtards”, is often referred to more politely as the “War of Saint-Sardos”.  It grew out of a jurisdictional dispute between King Edward II of England (r. 1307-1327), in his capacity as of Duke of Aquitaine, and King of France, Charles IV (r. 1322-1328), overlord of Aquitaine, and not incidentally Edward’s brother-in-law.  In 1322 the Parlement of Paris (effectively France’s supreme court) ruled that the tiny village of Saint-Sardos, in Gascony, was not subject to Edward II’s authority, and authorized the Abbot of the local Benedictine Priory to turn the place into a bastide, a fortified village.  This rankled the local petty nobility, who were happy to be Edward’s vassals (as he was an inept ruler) and worried that the bastide would attract outsiders who might displace them as regional prominenti.  So in late 1323, when King Charles sent a serjeant to post a royal emblem, some of the local nobles promptly burned down Saint-Sardos, and for good measure lynched the poor man.
Naturally this upset Charles, who demanded apologies and an explanation.  Edward tried to smooth things over, but was widely – perhaps rightly – viewed as being responsible for the violence against the French Crown.  Tentative negotiations followed, but by June of 1324, Charles was preparing for war, and in August sent an army under his uncle, Count Charles of Valois, into the district.  The Count was highly successful, as Edward had few resources with which to defend his lands.  After about six weeks the war was over, and Edward ceded some territories back to the King of France.
So why was it called “The War of the Bastards”?  Well, rather than openly make war against King Edward, King Charles claimed the expedition was necessary to suppress banditry by the bastard sons of some Gascon lords, a swipe at the local folks who burned the village and killed his serjeant.

1797. The crew of HMS 'Hermione' mutiny overnight, murdering the brutal Capt. Hugh Pigot and nine officers, and defect to the Spanish

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219  cohors XX Palmyrenorum   
Among their many military innovations, the Romans seem to have invented paperwork, a matter about which we’ve commented before.  Some of this paperwork actually survives, usually in trash heaps near long-abandoned fortresses.
One of the greatest troves of surviving Roman military documents comes from the ruins of the fortress-city of Dura-Europos, about ten miles north of where the Euphrates River passes out of modern Syria into Iraq, a site now devastated by the maniacal minions of the self-proclaimed “Islamic State.”  Most of these documents are from the cohors XX Palmyrenorum equitata milliaria, a combined infantrycavalry regiment.  The cohort formed the principal garrison at Dura-Europos from as early as AD 170 until the city was taken and destroyed by the Persians in 257.  The XX Palmyrenorum included six centuries (companies) of infantry and five turmae (troops) of cavalry plus a troop of dromedarii or “camelry,” with a normal complement of some 1,100 to 1,200 men, rather more than the thousand implied by the tag “milliaria.”  The surviving paperwork is extensive, hundreds of documents having been found, some fragmentary and some largely intact.  Several documents are so detailed we know the names of nearly a thousand of the troops, and even those of some of the horses.
Among the papers that come down to us are portions of several morning reports, which can be pieced together to give us an idea of the daily routine and duties of an elite unit on frontier duty in the early Third Century.
A morning report from an uncertain date in the latter half of AD 219 details the “ordinary” distribution of the troops in the cohort.

       

Cohort Strength   1,210 men
    Present at Dura   (   936)
        Headquarters   [     30]
        Guards   [     21] a
        Other   [   885]
    Detached Service   (   274)
        Headquarters   [     30]
        Imperial Delegation   [     56] b
        legio IV Scythica   [       1] c
        Scouts   [     14]
        Lion Hunting   [       7] d
        Outposted   [   196] e
 

Notes:
a. Guarding the unit standards, shrine, and bank, rather than on ordinary sentry duty.
b. Men detailed to express the loyalty of the cohort to the Emperor Elagabalus (proclaimed June 8, 218), in far-off Bithynia (northwestern Turkey-in-Asia), close to 1,500 miles away by the fastest route.
c. Apparently, a liaison to the detachment of the legio IV Scythica that was also based at Dura. 
d. Procuring lions for the garrison’s arena.
e. Stationed along the Euphrates in over a dozen posts. There were 91 men at Becchufrayn and 63 more at Appadana to conduct patrols along the frontier with Parthia and from 1-10 men at the smaller posts, combining the duties of customs agents, border guards, and local police.
These figures seem to have been more or less stable over many years.  A report for March 27, AD 233, indicates cohort strength at 1,137, which probably does not include its commander, the tribune Iulius Rufianus, otherwise unknown to history, nor his personal staff and bodyguards.  An actual nominal roll of AD 239 dated May 31-June 1 shows 914 infantry, 223 cavalry, and 34 camelry, for a total of 1,171, again without the commander or his entourage.

The AD 233 report also details personnel distribution in the cohort.

Milites caligati (literally “booted soldiers,” i.e. infantry), 880, including officers. There were nine centurions: one the primpilus or chief centurion of the cohort, one as chief of infantry, one as chief of cavalry, and one for each of the six foot centuries.
There were also eight duplicarii  (double-pay men, more or less
“sergeants”), and one sesquiplicarius (pay-and-a-half man, “corporal”);
Milites equitata (“horsed soldiers”), 223, including 5 decuriones (platoon leaders), 7 duplicarii, and 4 sesquiplicarii;
Dromedarii (camelry), 33 and 1 sesquiplicarius.  Normally this would have been commanded by a decurio, so perhaps the post was vacant and command had devolved on the sesquiplicarius.
In this morning report Tribune Rufianus issues the standing orders for the day and gives the watchword, “Holy Mercury.”  He then details personnel transfers or movements by name, designates the commander of the watch and the personnel assigned to guard the regimental shrine, and gives instructions on preparations for religious observances to be held on the 29th. 
This was a standard format, repeated in the morning reports over the next few days, with some variation, such as the notice of the death of one man, the detailing of several men for special duties, such as collecting wood for the unit baths, a couple of discharges, several men listed as AWOL, and similar routine information.
Not very much different from a modern morning report.

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1941. Like many British aristocrats of his times, Charles Henry George Howard, born in 1906, was of trans-Atlantic heritage, his father being Henry Howard, the Earl of Suffolk, and his mother Margaret Leiter, daughter of the Chicago department store millionaire Levi Leiter.  When Charles’s father was killed in action in Mesopotamia in 1917, the 11-year old became the 20th Earl of Suffolk, the 13th Earl of Berkshire, and much else besides.
Shortly after World War I, the young Earl enrolled in the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, intending to become a naval officer.  Apparently finding the regimen too rigid, the Earl quit and signed on as a deck hand aboard a sailing ship working the Australian grain run.  After various adventures, he returned to Britain sporting some impressive tattoos and secured a commission in the Scots Guards.  His “wild ways” and casual insubordination eventually led to a request that he resign for the good of the service.  The Earl shortly returned to Australia, where he spent five or six years farming and sheep ranching.  In 1934 he married the American ballet dancer Mimi Forde-Pigott, which seems to have steadied him.  Over the next few years the pair had three children, while the Earl graduated with honors in Chemistry from Edinburgh University, completing a bachelor’s course in only three years.  By the eve of World War II he was a research chemist at Oxford University, experimenting (in his words) with "explosives and poisons".   On the outbreak of the war he went to work for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and served as liaison officer with French scientists doing war work.
Now in 1939 the French had initiated a program to investigate the possibility of developing an atomic bomb, the first nuclear weapons project in history.  By May, 1940, when the Germans began their conquest of Western Europe, the French had made some progress, accumulating specialized research equipment, procuring several tons of heavy water and samples of uranium ore and ordering thousands of tons more from the Belgian Congo.  So in May and June of 1940, as the Battle of France unfolded, the Earl was sent to rescue what he could.  Armed with two pistols, which he nicknamed "Guinevere" and "Josephine", and assisted by his secretary Eileen Beryl Morden, he went to France where, with the help of French security agents, he organized the transfer to Britain of 50 scientists (some with their families), as well as specialized research and machine tools, a supply of heavy water and the accumulated research documents from the atomic bomb program; all while taking time out to hi-jack millions in industrial diamonds. 
The Earl managed to get his fugitives and loot to the coast, where two small vessels were waiting.  As they made their way to sea, they came under German air attack, and the boat carrying the heavy water and some equipment was sunk.  This sparked something of a panic aboard the civilians in the other vessel, which the Earl reportedly calmed by distributing champagne which he had lifted from some nearby chateaux while on the way to the coast.  These adventures, which greatly advanced Britain’s atomic bomb program, also earned the Earl the nickname "Mad Jack.”
Returning to Britain, the Earl worked for the Ministry of Supply, conducting research into explosives ordnance disposal and developing the procedures necessary to defuse German bombs during the Blitz.  He also headed his own bomb disposal team, which consisted of himself, Miss  Morden (who observed and took notes) and his chauffeur Fred Hards.  The trio soon earned the nickname “the Holy Trinity" for their skill in rendering bombs harmless.
the trio were working on their 35th bomb (an older device found in the Erith Marshes in Kent) when the device exploded, killing all three plus the five soldiers who were assisting them.  The Earl was awarded the George Cross, and those with him lesser decorations.

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1847  Captain Braxton Bragg is nearly fragged for the second time but he was not injured either time. In the more serious of the two incidents, one of his soldiers detonated a 12-pound artillery shell underneath his cot. Although the cot was destroyed, Bragg himself somehow emerged without a scratch. Bragg had suspicions about the perpetrator's identity but had insufficient evidence to bring charges.

here is a  “OER” (Officer Evaluation Report) for one of the Confederacy’s most senior, least successful, and most decidedly disliked generals, Braxton Bragg (1817-1876).

“ . . . simply muddle headed.” – Brig. Gen. Edward P. Alexander, C.S.A.
“Irritable and quarrelsome, he made many enemies.” – Dictionary of American Biography
“ . . . as baffling a mixture of high ability and sheer incompetence as the Confederacy would produce.” – Bruce Catton, historian
“Even Bragg's staunchest supporters admonished him for his quick temper, general irritability, and tendency to wound innocent men with barbs thrown during his frequent fits of anger.” – Peter Cozzens, historian.
“ . . . a remarkably intelligent, and well-informed man, professionally and otherwise . . .” with “ . . . an irascible temper and was naturally disputatious.” – General Ulysses S. Grant, U.S.A.
“I doubt Bragg has confidence in his troops or himself either. He is not likely to do a great deal for us.” – Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, C.S.A.
“Too ambitious to be satisfied with himself or with others; he sought perfection, and was disappointed when he failed to find it or achieve it. Authoritarian himself, he nevertheless resented his superiors’ authority.” – Grady McWhiney, historian.
“. . . tyrannical, impetuous, narrow minded . . . unfit for command” and “. . . too weak to fight, too unpopular to run.” – Brig. Gen. William Preston, C.S.A
“Goodbye Wilmington” – The Richmond Examiner, in an editorial published late 1864, on the news that Bragg had been assigned to command the coast defenses of North Carolina, covering the Confederacy’s last port.
“ . . . [an] able officer . . . . [His] greatest defect was that he did not win the love and confidence of either the officers or men.” – Lt. Gen. Alexander P. Stewart, C.S.A.
"None of Bragg's soldiers ever loved him. They had no faith in his ability as a general. He was looked upon as a merciless tyrant . . . . He loved to crush the spirit of his men." – Pvt. Sam Watkins, 1st Tennessee
“ . . . a good officer, a man of fair capacity, [but] self-willed, arrogant, and dictatorial.” – Maj. Gen. Jones M. Withers, C.S.A.
Now objectively, Bragg was actually a pretty able guy. He was very energetic, a hard worker and good administrator, with a fair grasp of the strategic problems confronting him. Bragg was also an excellent organizer and planner, and arguably a good tactician as well. His personality, however, militated against his attaining greatness as a commander. Most people who knew Bragg considered him abrasive, prone to caustic comments, quarrelsome, as sensitive about himself as he was insensitive toward others, self-centered, and occasionally mendacious.
In his Memoirs, U.S. Grant, mentioned a tale about Bragg that circulated in the “Old Army” before the war.
On one occasion, when stationed at a post of several companies commanded by a field officer, he was himself commanding one of the companies and at the same time acting as post quartermaster and commissary. He was first lieutenant at the time, but his captain was detached on other duty. As commander of the company he made a requisition upon the quartermaster—himself—for something he wanted. As quartermaster he declined to fill the requisition, and endorsed on the back of it his reasons for so doing. As company commander he responded to this, urging that his requisition called for nothing but what he was entitled to, and that it was the duty of the quartermaster to fill it. As quartermaster he still persisted that he was right. In this condition of affairs Bragg referred the whole matter to the commanding officer of the post. The latter, when he saw the nature of the matter referred, exclaimed "My God, Mr. Bragg, you have quarreled with every officer in the army, and now you are quarrelling with yourself!”
Grant’s anecdote is probably not true, but that it circulated suggests the degree to which Bragg was, as Grant put it, “disputatious.”
Despite occasional efforts to rescue Bragg’s reputation, usually by shifting blame for his command and staff problems to his subordinates, some of whom were inept and insubordinate, such as Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk, it’s hard to dispute that his personality prevented him from effectively demonstrating his very real talents.

[besilarius]

1794         Maj. Arthur Wellesley. 33rd Regiment, first saw combat in the Battle of Boxtel, Flanders --
"I learnt what one ought not to do, and that is always something."
--   Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington,
On the disastrous Netherlands Campaign of 1794-1795


2005         Don Adams (Donald James Yarmy), Guadalcanal marine, actor ("Get Smart"), at 82

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HWtPPWi6OMQ&pp=ygUZZ2V0IHNtYXJ0IGNvbmUgb2Ygc2lsZW5jZQ%3D%3D

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1918  Probably most people would name the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944 and early 1945 as America’s greatest battle.  The Bulge, however, is only the second biggest battle in American history.  America’s biggest battle occurred a generation earlier, only about 60 miles southeast of where the Bulge unfolded, the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne, in 1918.

Battles Compared
Meuse-Argonne   The Bulge
Sep 26-Nov 11, ‘18   Dec 16, ‘44-Jan 16, ‘45
Days   47   32
US *   1.26 million   1.0 million
Enemy   0.47 million   0.5 million
US Loses       
   Dead   26,277  (559/day)   c. 10,275 (321/day)
   Wound   95,786   c. 47,500
   Missing   c. 5,000**   c. 23,000***
* Figures exclude Allied troops.
** Some captured, most later declared kia.
*** Mostly captured, some later declared kia.
During the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the average daily number of American battle deaths, 559, exceeded the daily average of battle deaths suffered by the French Army during the 302 day Battle of Verdun (Feb. 21-Dec. 19, 1916), about 530.

The primacy of the Meuse-Argonne extends even to materiél expended; nearly 2,500 American and French artillery pieces expended four million rounds in support of the offensive. This came to nearly 50,000 a day, the greatest barrage in American history.

 

[besilarius]

1761  Cosmé Damian de Churruca, Spanish admiral, kia at Trafalgar, 1805

This Frenchman Will Kill Us All!"

Such was the conclusion of Spanish Captain Cosm Damian de Churruca upon observing the disposition of the Franco-Spanish fleet ordered by French Vice-Admiral Pierre Charles de Villeneuve, as Lord Nelson's British fleet approached at Trafalgar on October 21, 1805. Churruca was a fine captain, a distinguished explorer and navigator in the tradition of Britain's Cook and France's La Perouse, and by no means a novice to battle. Like Churrucca, so too were many of the other Spanish and French captains present. But the commander of the combined fleet, Villeneuve was far less experienced than many of his subordinates. A nobody and a courtier, he had been promoted far above his level of competence by Napoleon, who himself knew little about maritime warfare, and, worse, knew not the extent of his ignorance.
The conduct of war at sea had been changing radically during the decades that lead up to Trafalgar. The British particularly had begun to question traditional regulations that required fleets to fight in parallel lines, regulations which had led to nearly a century of indecisive action at sea. And so, at first tentatively, indeed almost by chance, but later with increasing boldness, British admirals had begun to break the rigidity of linear tactics, seeking instead to cut through the enemy fleet, isolating portions of it and reducing them to ruin piecemeal.
The leaders of the French and Spanish navies had failed to keep up, despite the fact that the British seemed to be winning with increasing frequency and intensifying decisiveness. So when Nelson's fleet brought the combined Spanish and French fleets to battle, he found them prepared to fight in the traditional fashion, deployed in line. Although Churrucca and other fine young officers among the French and Spanish captains were aware of the danger from the innovative British tactics, Villeneuve persevered. Villaneuve survived the ensuing disaster, Churrucca, and thousands of other good men, did not




1957      the Dodgers left Brooklyn, initiating the decline of baseball as the national Sport.

[bayonetbrant]

1957      the Dodgers left Brooklyn, initiating the decline of baseball as the national Sport.

and ultimately leading the Astros to get moved to the American League so Selig could get his beloved Brewers into the NL.

[besilarius]

1850, Congress abolished flogging in the Navy and Merchant Marine, with many abstaining or absent, and most Slave State members voting against abolishment, ncluding Jefferson Davis

1914. Austria-Hungary.  While their German allies had to plan for a two front war, against France in the West and Russia in the east, on paper at least the Austro-Hungarians had to consider a three front war, against the Russians in the east, the Serbs in the south, and, just in case, the Italians in the southwest.   For our purposes, though they did have plans for Italy their deployment planning for Russia and Serbia were the most important.  The Imperial-and-Royal general staff organized the available forces into three groups:
Minimalgruppe Balkan:  Three army corps to deploy against Serbia.
A-Staffel:  Nine army corps to deploy in Galicia, against Russia.
B-Staffel:  Three army corps constituting the strategic reserve.
The deployment of B-Staffel varied depending upon which of the two mobilization planes was to be implemented, which essentially reflected who was to be the main enemy.
Plan B envisioned a war solely against Serbia, in which B-Staffel would join Minimalgruppe Balkan for offensive operations, while A-Staffel would keep watch on the Russians. 
Plan R assumed a war with Russia and Serbia, with B-Staffel joining A-Staffel in Galician for operations against Russia while Minimalgruppe Balkan would take a defensive stance against a possible Serbian offensive.
As was the case with the German and French war plans, the Austro-Hungarian ones also had some flaws.  The most important was that at some point a decision had to be made to implement one or the other plan.

Russia.  The Russians also developed two different war plans, depending upon whether Germany made a major effort against France, leaving only small force in the East, or if Germany put stronger forces in the East.
Plan G:  Presumed that Germany would make its main effort against Russia.  As Germany would mobilize much faster than Russia, the Russians accepted that they would have to conduct a fighting withdrawal.  Abandoning Poland, they would retreat to the fortified zone running north from the Pripyet marshes through Brest-Litovsk and Kovno.  There they would complete mobilization and then assume the offensive and throw the Germans back.
Plan A:  Assumed Germany would make its main effort against France, in which case Russia would undertake an early offensive against the Germans in East Prussia with two armies to ease pressure on the French, while concentrating the bulk of her forces for an offensive against Austria-Hungary.
Like all planners, the Russians assumed that their troops were at least as good as those of their enemies.  They were correct in the case of Austria-Hungary, but not in that of Germany.
 

Britain:  In a sense, the British really didn’t have a “war plan.”  They had a contingency plan in the event they entered a Continental war, intending to coordinate their deployment and movements on the French left flank.  In the first days of the war, as the BEF was preparing to ship out, some individuals, notably Admiral of the Fleet John Fisher, advocated ignoring events in France and Belgium to land the expeditionary force on the German Baltic coast for a march on Berlin.  Given the total lack of experience in such operations, the lack of preparation for one, the presence of the German High Sea Fleet, German coast defenses, and German preparations if such an adventure were to have occurred (a reserve corps and substantial Landwehr forces were temporarily retained in northern Germany for such an eventuality) this might have been a formula for a disaster.
Oddly, Fisher’s proposal was the only alternative Britain had to placing an army on the French left, demonstrating a serious lack of strategic imagination.   If the Baltic proposal or some other alternative plan had been properly studied, rather than just thrown out at the last minute, Britain perhaps might have found a better use for the BEF than to help cover the French Left Flank.  Of course, the BEF did well.  But in its movements and operations on the French flank from the landing on the Continent, through the advance into Belgium, the subsequent retreat, and the Battle of the Marne, the BEF might have done even better with a better commander than Sir John French.  And while the British plan more or less worked, it did ultimately involved the Empire in a major continental commitment, for which it was wholly unprepared.

[besilarius]

480   BC   Battle of Salamis: The Athenian-Allied fleet defeats the Persians off Athens [
Traditionally, the goddess Athena spoke to the hesitating Greek sailors, "Well?  Get tore in!"

1918, the 27th Division was assigned to the British Fourth Army for training, for which purpose it was attached to the British 66th Division.
As O’Ryan was settling into a temporary headquarters at St. Riquier, Maj. Gen. Sir Hugh Keppel Bethell, the commander of the British 66th Division, came calling.
Now Bethell (1882-1947), was a battle hardened veteran, and an unconventional soldier (he once “pinched” the machine guns from one of the Army’s training schools, to provide his troops with more fire-power). And at 35, he was the youngest division commander in the British Army since Napoleonic times, a distinction that he apparently still retains. Possessed of a fiery temper, Bethell – who was nicknamed “Beetle” – was by no means a “snooty Brit.” He had also done some homework about the Americans with whom he would be working.
Bethell’s first words to O’Ryan were, “General O‘Ryan, I understand you are the youngest division commander in the American Army; I am the youngest division commander in the British Army. Look here, I think we had better get together for mutual protection.” That pretty much broke the ice. The two men had a cup of tea together, and then got down to the serious business of preparing the division for war.
John O’Ryan proved the mettle of his division when it shattered the Hindenburg Line at the St. Quentin Tunnel complex the following September. He himself was an excellent commander, and was one of only two officers in the war to command a division for the duration (the other was Maj. Gen. George Bell of the 33rd Division). O’Ryan was too capable for biased Regulars to relieve, but – War College credentials or not – unacceptable for promotion to a higher command. After the war he returned to the practice of law, served as transit commissioner and later police commissioner of New York City, and was state Director of Defense during World War II. The shoulder sleeve insignia of the 27th Division – now the 27th Brigade – of the New York National Guard bears the stars of Orion in his honor.

1940  in the first three weeks of the war in the Mediterranean, British warships sank six Italian submarines and aircraft another four.  The Italian submarine force never recovered from this shock.

[besilarius]

1788         FitzRoy James Henry Somerset, later FM Lord Raglan, d. 1855
As a young man FitzRoy James Henry Somerset (1788-1855), later known as Lord Raglan, was a rather outstanding officer.  During the Peninsular War (1808-1814) he distinguished himself in the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo and of Badajoz, and later during the Waterloo Campaign, he lost his right arm while serving as the Duke of Wellington’s military secretary.  But after Waterloo Raglan saw no further troops service until 1852, as he continued to be military secretary to the Duke until the latter’s death.  In 1854 he was ennobled as Baron Raglan, promoted to full general, and sent to command the British contingent in the Anglo-French expedition to capture Sebastopol in the Crimea.
The subsequent campaign was one of multitudinous blunders by the British.  Many were due to the flaws of British military institutions.  These were compounded by Raglan’s lack of any particular qualification for command of an army in the field.  Naturally, his performance in that role was pretty abysmal.
But while an inept commander, Raglan was nevertheless very devoted to his troops.  Because the British Army’s supply and command arrangements were so complex, even convoluted, he had no control over the flow of supplies to the men, and their sufferings during the Crimean winter of 1854-1855 troubled him greatly.
Raglan was often seen wandering among the tents, giving food or other comforts to sick, wounded, or hungry men.  For Christmas, he took the unusual step of personally paying to procure and transport gifts of food for the troops, not just the British ones, but the French as well, who generally were much better looked after (Napoleon III even sent them a ration of good brandy to toast the holiday).
This caused the British troops to begin referring to Raglan as “Father Christmas.”  The French picked up the nickname as well, mangling it as “Pére Crees Mass.”
Raglan’s health deteriorated during the war, and he died on June 29, 1855.  He was widely mourned, the French saying “Le pauvre vieux Pére Crees Mass a cassé son pipe – Poor old Pére Crees Mass has kicked the bucket.”

[bayonetbrant]

I never knew that about the New York National Guard shoulder insignia for the 27th. That's kind of cool

[besilarius]

1800  Spain ceded Louisiana to France in return for Tuscany, but retains the right of first refusal should Napoleon chose to dispose of the place

October 1, 1943, Allied troops entered Naples. The Germans had clung fiercely to the city, battling Italian partisans for days while trying to destroy its extensive harbor facitilities. As a result, there was much devastation. Food, water, medical supplies were all scarce, there were thousands of wounded civilians. Allied civil affairs personnel attempted to cope with problem, but were themselves beset by a shortage of resources.
The Prince of Caracciolo, scion of one of the noblest Italian families and head of the Italian Red Cross, knew of the location of extensive stocks of food, medicines, and other supplies that had been kept hidden from the Germans. But when he approached the Allied occupation authorities, he got nowhere; everyone either ignored him or fobbed him off on someone else, and his polite attempts to submit a written proposal explaining his purpose were ignored..
Finally the Prince hit upon a clever idea. He penned a note to the senior British naval officer in the city, which included the lines, "One of your admirals hanged one of my relatives. I demand an immeidate meeting."
One can immagine the consternation this caused. Within a very short time the prince was ushered into the British admiral's office. Before anyone could speak, the Prince said, "I am the head of the Italian Red Cross in Naples, and have access to large stocks of food and medical supplies."
Taken aback, the British admiral, said, "But what about this relative you say was hanged by one of our admirals?"
"Oh," replied the Prince, "that was my kinsman Admiral Francesco Caracciolo, who was hanged by your Admiral Nelson in 1799."

[Martok]

October 1, 1943, Allied troops entered Naples. The Germans had clung fiercely to the city, battling Italian partisans for days while trying to destroy its extensive harbor facitilities. As a result, there was much devastation. Food, water, medical supplies were all scarce, there were thousands of wounded civilians. Allied civil affairs personnel attempted to cope with problem, but were themselves beset by a shortage of resources.
The Prince of Caracciolo, scion of one of the noblest Italian families and head of the Italian Red Cross, knew of the location of extensive stocks of food, medicines, and other supplies that had been kept hidden from the Germans. But when he approached the Allied occupation authorities, he got nowhere; everyone either ignored him or fobbed him off on someone else, and his polite attempts to submit a written proposal explaining his purpose were ignored..
Finally the Prince hit upon a clever idea. He penned a note to the senior British naval officer in the city, which included the lines, "One of your admirals hanged one of my relatives. I demand an immeidate meeting."
One can immagine the consternation this caused. Within a very short time the prince was ushered into the British admiral's office. Before anyone could speak, the Prince said, "I am the head of the Italian Red Cross in Naples, and have access to large stocks of food and medical supplies."
Taken aback, the British admiral, said, "But what about this relative you say was hanged by one of our admirals?"
"Oh," replied the Prince, "that was my kinsman Admiral Francesco Caracciolo, who was hanged by your Admiral Nelson in 1799."

I don't think I'll ever get tired of this story.   

[besilarius]

1829. Wilhelm Lorenz Sigismund von Schlichting was born, German soldier and military reformer who was sacked for criticizing military abilities of “Kaiser Bill” -
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany was fond of ending the army's annual maneuvers by leading a grand charge, usually of cavalry, but occasionally by infantry. For example, during the maneuvers of 1888 he led two divisions of cavalry to "rout" the "enemy." Of course, being a bulb of notably low wattage, he did occasionally cause problems. For example, in 1893 he became disoriented during the "battle" and led his cavalry against his own infantry. But the following year he was again in proper form, and led his side to victory at the head of 60 squadrons of cavalry.
His successes were occasionally helped along by having the "enemy" troops switch sides indicated by arm bands of different colors in the midst of one of his attacks.
In any case, in September of 1904, Wilhelm decided to close the annual maneuvers with a grand assault by the Guard Corps. With sword in hand mounted on his steed, the Kaiser led the packed infantry of the Guard in an unsupported assault against the entrenched troops of the IX Army Corps, driving them from their positions at the point of the bayonet, without a shot being fired.
As one major "captured" during the grand assault observed, "Why do you Guardsmen bother carrying weapons, since you don't need them?"
Of course, this was hardly the proper way to prepare the Imperial Army for war. And while his antics say much about Wilhelm, they say even more about the alleged professionalism of Alfred von Schlieffen, the Chief of the Great General Staff. Although he privately expressed reservations about the Kaiser's games, Schlieffen, another supposed military genius, made no effort to put an end to them. Surprisingly, it was the allegedly inept Helmuth von Moltke the Younger who managed to get the Kaiser him to stop meddling in maneuvers.
It seems that one day Moltke quietly approached his Supreme War Lord and resolved the whole matter. Apparently he said something like, "Although Your Majesty and I both know you really can command the troops brilliantly, there are some small minded-people who might claim we've rigged the game to make you look good." This argument seems to have convinced the Supreme War Lord to lay off meddling in the maneuvers..

1959. US Army veteran Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone" premieres on CBS, runs for four seasons [Still on the air in reruns, and spawned two successor series]