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History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by besilarius on Today at 12:20:35 AM » International Sex Workers Day
1624. King Jan II Sobieski of Poland (1674-96), savior of Vienna, 1683
1635. John Milton joins The Honourable Artillery Company of London.
1666. First day of The Four Days Battle, off the North Foreland between the English fleet of 56 ships, under George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, and the Dutch fleet of 84 ships, under Lt.-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter.
1676. Danish-Dutch fleet of 25 ships-of-the-line, 10 frigates and some minor ships, under Dutch General Admiral Tromp and Admiral Niels Juel, defeats a Swedish force of 27 ships-of-the-line, 11 frigates and some minor ships, under Admiral Lorentz Creutz,.off Oland, Sweden
1677. The Danish Baltic Squadron of 10 ships-of-the-line and 3 frigates, under Admiral Niels Juel, defeated a Swedish squadron of 7 ships-of-the-line, 2 frigates and 2 armed cutters, under Admiral Sjöblad, off Moen
1794. Glorious First of June. British fleet under Lord Howe defeat French fleet under Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse.
1865. The Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department surrenders to Union forces
1908. General Sir Redvers Henry Buller, VC, GCB, GCMG, inept commander, at 68 --
The line, “It was a very trying day” appears in the report written British Major General Sir Redvers Buller about the Battle of Colenso against the Boers on December 15, 1899, in which his 17,000 British troops with 44 guns had been badly beaten, with heavy casualties and the humiliating loss of ten cannon, by about 4,200 Boer militiamen.
Colenso was the last of three serious defeats suffered by Buller’s troops during “Black Week”, coming after the Battles of Stormberg on the 10th and that of Magersfontein on the 11th ; in the three fights British forces totaling about 33,750 had lost 2,776 men killed, wounded, or missing (8 percent) against Boer forces of about 15,300, who lost only about 300 in killed, wounded, or missing (2 percent).
The British defeat resulted from several factors. One was a lack of respect for the long-range repeating rifle. Despite their experience shooting down ill-armed “natives” in the thousands using the rifle during various colonial wars, British troops had not grasped the importance of cover, since their opponents were not shooting back with modern weapons. A second problem was a failure to realize that the Boers were so ignorant of “real soldiering” that their very lack of knowledge enabled them to come up with some very innovative tactics, such as using available cover, relying on aimed fire, and defending high ground from its base (rather than its military crest), which rendered British preparatory artillery fire ineffective.
Born in 1839, Redvers Buller (his given name was pronounced “Reevers”) had attended Eton and in 1858 was commissioned into the 60th Rifles (King's Royal Rifle Corps). He almost immediately saw active service in the Second Anglo-Chinese “Opium” War (1856-1860), then the Canadian Red River Expedition (1870), and served as an intelligence officer in the Third Anglo-Ashanti War (1873-1874), during which he was wounded. Service in South Africa followed, in the Ninth Kafir/Cape Frontier War (1878), the Great Anglo-Zulu War (1879), in which he earned a Victoria Cross, and the disastrous First Anglo-Boer War (1881). Buller then fought the Mahdi in the Sudan (1882-1885), earning a promotion to major-general. Over the next few years he had several administrative or special assignments. In 1898 Buller was assigned to command at Aldershot, on the Salisbury Plain, the British Army’s principal maneuvering grounds.
During the autumn maneuvers of 1898, Buller commanded an army corps acting as the spearhead for an invasion of Britain from its southern coast. The results were disappointing. As historian David M. Leeson put it “Buller was defeated in almost every battle on Salisbury Plain in the autumn of 1898, just as he was later, in the South African summer of 1899-1900.”
Despite his dismal performance at Aldershot, unlike the U.S. Army’s reaction to ineptitude during maneuvers on the eve of World War II, the British Army didn’t hold losing against him. So when war with the Boers broke out, just a few months later, Buller was dispatched to South Africa to command a corps. Leeson went on the noted it was “clear that General Buller had fallen victim to the Peter Principle, and risen to his level of incompetence”, a demonstration of institutional failure that earned the man the nickname “Reverse Buller”.
1941. 'Long Island' (CVE-1), the first escort carrier, is completed, 88 days after conversion began
1969 South China Sea: Australian CV 'Melbourne' rams USS 'Frank E Evans' (DD-754), 74 die
1624. King Jan II Sobieski of Poland (1674-96), savior of Vienna, 1683
1635. John Milton joins The Honourable Artillery Company of London.
1666. First day of The Four Days Battle, off the North Foreland between the English fleet of 56 ships, under George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, and the Dutch fleet of 84 ships, under Lt.-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter.
1676. Danish-Dutch fleet of 25 ships-of-the-line, 10 frigates and some minor ships, under Dutch General Admiral Tromp and Admiral Niels Juel, defeats a Swedish force of 27 ships-of-the-line, 11 frigates and some minor ships, under Admiral Lorentz Creutz,.off Oland, Sweden
1677. The Danish Baltic Squadron of 10 ships-of-the-line and 3 frigates, under Admiral Niels Juel, defeated a Swedish squadron of 7 ships-of-the-line, 2 frigates and 2 armed cutters, under Admiral Sjöblad, off Moen
1794. Glorious First of June. British fleet under Lord Howe defeat French fleet under Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse.
1865. The Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department surrenders to Union forces
1908. General Sir Redvers Henry Buller, VC, GCB, GCMG, inept commander, at 68 --
The line, “It was a very trying day” appears in the report written British Major General Sir Redvers Buller about the Battle of Colenso against the Boers on December 15, 1899, in which his 17,000 British troops with 44 guns had been badly beaten, with heavy casualties and the humiliating loss of ten cannon, by about 4,200 Boer militiamen.
Colenso was the last of three serious defeats suffered by Buller’s troops during “Black Week”, coming after the Battles of Stormberg on the 10th and that of Magersfontein on the 11th ; in the three fights British forces totaling about 33,750 had lost 2,776 men killed, wounded, or missing (8 percent) against Boer forces of about 15,300, who lost only about 300 in killed, wounded, or missing (2 percent).
The British defeat resulted from several factors. One was a lack of respect for the long-range repeating rifle. Despite their experience shooting down ill-armed “natives” in the thousands using the rifle during various colonial wars, British troops had not grasped the importance of cover, since their opponents were not shooting back with modern weapons. A second problem was a failure to realize that the Boers were so ignorant of “real soldiering” that their very lack of knowledge enabled them to come up with some very innovative tactics, such as using available cover, relying on aimed fire, and defending high ground from its base (rather than its military crest), which rendered British preparatory artillery fire ineffective.
Born in 1839, Redvers Buller (his given name was pronounced “Reevers”) had attended Eton and in 1858 was commissioned into the 60th Rifles (King's Royal Rifle Corps). He almost immediately saw active service in the Second Anglo-Chinese “Opium” War (1856-1860), then the Canadian Red River Expedition (1870), and served as an intelligence officer in the Third Anglo-Ashanti War (1873-1874), during which he was wounded. Service in South Africa followed, in the Ninth Kafir/Cape Frontier War (1878), the Great Anglo-Zulu War (1879), in which he earned a Victoria Cross, and the disastrous First Anglo-Boer War (1881). Buller then fought the Mahdi in the Sudan (1882-1885), earning a promotion to major-general. Over the next few years he had several administrative or special assignments. In 1898 Buller was assigned to command at Aldershot, on the Salisbury Plain, the British Army’s principal maneuvering grounds.
During the autumn maneuvers of 1898, Buller commanded an army corps acting as the spearhead for an invasion of Britain from its southern coast. The results were disappointing. As historian David M. Leeson put it “Buller was defeated in almost every battle on Salisbury Plain in the autumn of 1898, just as he was later, in the South African summer of 1899-1900.”
Despite his dismal performance at Aldershot, unlike the U.S. Army’s reaction to ineptitude during maneuvers on the eve of World War II, the British Army didn’t hold losing against him. So when war with the Boers broke out, just a few months later, Buller was dispatched to South Africa to command a corps. Leeson went on the noted it was “clear that General Buller had fallen victim to the Peter Principle, and risen to his level of incompetence”, a demonstration of institutional failure that earned the man the nickname “Reverse Buller”.
1941. 'Long Island' (CVE-1), the first escort carrier, is completed, 88 days after conversion began
1969 South China Sea: Australian CV 'Melbourne' rams USS 'Frank E Evans' (DD-754), 74 die
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RPGs & Adventure Gaming / Re: RPG Deals!
« Last post by Silent Disapproval Robot on Yesterday at 02:33:59 PM »3
The Modern World / Re: Schutztruppe -Heis Safari
« Last post by LetsPlayHistory on Yesterday at 11:59:32 AM »A simple answer to a simple question. And I even won't answer to the incogruous "just a war game" reference, nor mention that "doing better than history" would mean killing more civilians as that was an integral part of Lettow-Vorbecks military strategy, to not provoke the intellect to think about the history depicted and let y'all have fun with it as if it was a eurogame. Thank you, OJ, much appreciated.
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History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by bob48 on Yesterday at 10:58:08 AM »
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The Modern World / Re: Schutztruppe -Heis Safari
« Last post by ojsdad on Yesterday at 10:26:30 AM »So, looking through the rules, it's as you would expect. The manual is a total of 16 pages, including front and back covers. In a browse through the rules, von Lettow-Vorbeck seems to be mentioned 3 times. Once in the short six paragraph Introduction, once in the Design Notes, and once in the Selected Bibliography, with a reference to his book, along with 11 others books. So, as shocking as it may be, it's just a war game challenging a player to see if they can do as good or better than what was historically done by either side in SE Africa during the First World War.
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History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by bbmike on Yesterday at 08:29:15 AM »Not enough.
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History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by bayonetbrant on Yesterday at 08:11:52 AM »1862 Battle of Seven Pines/Fair Oaks, Va
That spawned how many games at this point?
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History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by besilarius on Yesterday at 12:58:14 AM »1488 Lord Galeotto Manfredi of Faenza, Condottiero & Captain of Florence, murdered at 48 by his wife Francesca Bentivoglio because of his many affairs
1683. Count Luigi Fernando Marsigli, who later became a marshal in Hapsburg service and went on to found the Institute of Science at the University of Bologna, managed to survive the general massacre of prisoners by the Turks after the Battle of the Raab in 1683 because of his skill with an espresso machine.
1812. Having abandoned his army at Smorgoni on December 4, 1812, to rush back to France, Napoleon took a boat across the River Nieman Napoleon, and as they rowed across asked the ferryman if he had seen any deserters, prompting the man to reply, “No, you are the first.”
1862 Battle of Seven Pines/Fair Oaks, Va
1870 Prussian gun founder Alfred Krup refused to divert an order of artillery for use in the national war effort against to France until he recevied permission from his original customer, the Tsar.
1937. During the Spanish Civil War volunteers for the Republic from the barbers' union organized the Batallon de los Figaros
1683. Count Luigi Fernando Marsigli, who later became a marshal in Hapsburg service and went on to found the Institute of Science at the University of Bologna, managed to survive the general massacre of prisoners by the Turks after the Battle of the Raab in 1683 because of his skill with an espresso machine.
1812. Having abandoned his army at Smorgoni on December 4, 1812, to rush back to France, Napoleon took a boat across the River Nieman Napoleon, and as they rowed across asked the ferryman if he had seen any deserters, prompting the man to reply, “No, you are the first.”
1862 Battle of Seven Pines/Fair Oaks, Va
1870 Prussian gun founder Alfred Krup refused to divert an order of artillery for use in the national war effort against to France until he recevied permission from his original customer, the Tsar.
1937. During the Spanish Civil War volunteers for the Republic from the barbers' union organized the Batallon de los Figaros
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RPGs & Adventure Gaming / Mutant Year Zero: Zone Wars
« Last post by bayonetbrant on May 31, 2024, 02:02:11 PM »Mutated gaming with Mutant Year Zero: Zone Wars
https://wp.me/pae4WL-9g7
Quote
Zone Wars succeeds where other miniatures games occasionally fail in that it brings together stunning components married to an easy-to-learn combat system with just enough thematic distinction to create a super fast, super fun, super expandable game with an interesting lore powering play.
https://wp.me/pae4WL-9g7
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Intel Dump / Re: Wargame Design Studio News Thread + Latest Sale Titles
« Last post by rahamy on May 31, 2024, 09:16:14 AM »Updated versions of the Western Front Panzer Campaigns titles have been released today. Read more in todays blog post:
https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/western-front-1944-panzer-campaigns-4-04-updates
https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/western-front-1944-panzer-campaigns-4-04-updates