This Day in History

[Sir Slash]

That explains it then. The Nile had to be around before the Nile in order to be named after the Nile. Same with the Trafalgar. But...what if the Nile had been at the Nile? Wouldn't that been something to see? 

[bob48]

That was a pretty pointless statement, even by your standards.

[besilarius]

1716 Eugene of Savoy wins a complete success against an Ottoman army of 150,000 at Peterwardein.
1864. Admiral Farragut damns the torpedoes.
1940  Admiral Ernest J. King assumed command of the Atlantic Fleet, displaying his flag in the old battlewagon Texas during the Neutrality Patrol.  King made a lot of changes to the fleet's routine. Most of them were very useful. One wasn't.
While the fleet's ships were painted battleship gray, the men who served in them wore white, at least in the warmer seasons. King thought the men ought to be camouflaged as well. So orders went out that all sailors were to turn in one of their white uniforms, to be dyed a suitably subdued color.
The necessary procedure was done in the galley, using enormous vats of coffee. Uniforms were boiled up in the coffee, then dried, ironed, and returned to their owners. Unfortunately, quality control was a bit of a problem. As one officer put it, as they emerged from their coffee baths, the uniforms ranged from "ecru to chocolate brown."

King never admitted his idea was wrong, but the subject was never brought up again.

[Sir Slash]

 

[besilarius]

1943. Just before midnight, Task Force 31.2 waits at Vella Gulf as four Japanese destroyers carrying soldiers and supplies steam into radar range. Not giving away the position until firing their torpedoes, all four Japanese destroyers were subsequently hit. Bursting into flames, the destroyers, Hagikaze, Arashi, and Kawakaze were sunk. The last one, Shigure, is hit by a dud and escapes into the night.

1944  the German army launches Operation Luttich (Liege) to cut off the American Third Army after the breakout from the bocage, Operation Cobra.  Initially gaining some surprise, they were halted at Mortain by the 30th division, Old Hickory.

[besilarius]

1808  Commanding the frigates A mph ion and later Bacchante, Captain William Hosts is the scourge of the French in the Adriatic.  Capturing numerous ships and coastal vessels, beating a larger force at the first battle of Lissa, and capturing garrison's forts by hauling naval cannon up steep hills, he makes the sea an English domain.  As a result, he becomes immensely wealthy from prize money.  Regrettably, he entrusted this to his clergyman father in England. That worthy develops a love of the bottle and drinks it all away.
Until relatively recent times loot was major perq of warriors.  Many armies and navies – which preferred to call loot "prize" – regularized the collection of booty so that it could distributed equitably among those in the ranks.  Initially custom was the primary guideline for dividing up the loot, but during the Renaissance, as armies became more formally organized, detailed regulations began to be introduced.
A French military treatise of 1592 provides one of the earliest examples of written guidelines for the division of loot by a regiment.
The treatise first specified which personnel qualified for a share in the booty.  After all, a man might assigned to the regiment, but not be present at the siege and capture of a particular town or take part in a particular victory. After that, the treatise explained how much each eligible soldier was to be awarded.  First, the commanding officer was to be given 10-percent of the total booty.  The remaining loot was then divided into "shares" based on the specified allocation for each rank.

Captains   6 shares
Lieutenants   4 shares
Ensigns & gentleman volunteers   3 shares
Sergeants   2 shares
Common soldiers   1 share
In addition, the sergeant major of the command was to be given a half share for each company under his charge during the action.  This was because at the time regiments did not have a fixed number of companies.
Guidelines for larger formations provided a major percentage for the overall commander and other higher officers, including the sergeant major of the army, and demoted regimental commanders to a set number of shares.
Depending upon the loot taken, awards could represent considerable sums.  Even common soldiers occasionally came away with enough money to buy a farm or a shop, provided they didn't spend it immediately on wine, women, and song.
1942  Marines land on Guadalcanal in the first act in a grinding four month campaign.
 

[bayonetbrant]

I wonder how often the loot taken in was less than the cost of mustering and supplying the force sent to capture it

[Sir Slash]

I wonder how much of the loot never made it into the, 'Official' records? We'll probably never know for certain.

[Sir Slash]

   For the Marshall.

[besilarius]

1788 Death of Louis François Armand de Vignerot du Plessis (1696-1788), the duc de Richelieu and great-grand nephew of the famous French churchman, was himself a notable statesman, diplomat, and soldier, rising to Marshal of France, as well as a dissolute rake and a notable wit, who have have suffered from scoliosis.
Richelieu was a childhood friend of King Louis XV (r. 1715-1774), who made him a marshal in 1748 for his services in the Wars of the Polish (1733–1738) and Austrian Succession (1740-1748).  Now, like all close friends, from time to time Richelieu and the King had their little fallings-out.
Once, apparently during the Seven Years' War, Richelieu was at a banquet, when he said something that irked King Louis, probably a crack about the royal mistress, the famous Madame de Pompadour, whom he greatly disliked.  The King gave Richelieu a slap, not a playful tap with a gentle hand, but a fair smack.  Normally, as a proper nobleman, such an act would have required a demand for immediate apologies or satisfaction.  But Richelieu could hardly demand that the king apologize or challenge his sovereign to a duel, and striking the Royal Person was totally out of the question.  Yet neither would his honor bear respect among the other nobles if he bore the insult.
Thinking fast, the Marshal turned immediately to the man at his right and, saying, "The King wishes you to pass this on," gave him a slap in turn.  The assembled diners promptly broke out in laughter, and the smack was passed from nobleman to nobleman.
Thus did Richelieu defuse a potentially dangerous situation.

[besilarius]

1628 Swedish warship Vasa (64), Cptn Söfring Hansson, capsized and sank, a few minutes after departure on her maiden voyage, in the Saltsjon, Stockholm.  Besides being designed by an unqualified naval architect (the king), there was a flaw in construction.  Two teams of builders worked Vasa, one port, one starboard.  It was discovered the measuring sticks used were different by half an inch.
1932 RinTin Tin, c. 15, German Army veteran and American movie star, dies.I
1916. The first naval aircraft production contract begins when the Bureau of Construction and Repair contacts Glenn H. Curtiss via telegram asking him to supply 30 school hydro aeroplanes. The N-9s become the Navy's most popular training aircraft during World War I.
1944. Smokey the Bear born.
1946. The Italian battleship Conte di Cavour possesses one of the most unique – and dubious – distinctions in naval history.
On the night of November 11, 1940, Conte di Cavour was in company with several other Italian battleships in Taranto Harbor, on the instep of the Italian boot, when a squadron of Royal Navy Swordfish torpedo bombers off HMS Illustrious put a fish into her, causing her to settle on the bottom of the shallow anchorage. She was shortly raised, and towed to Trieste, where repairs were begun. These dragged on for nearly two years. Then, on the night of September 9, 1943, Italy having concluded an armistice with the Allies, Conte di Cavour was scuttled in shallow water to prevent her capture by the Germans. The Germans seized the sunk vessel, raised her, and commenced desultory repairs. These were not yet completed when American heavy bombers once again sank her, on February 15, 1945.
Amazingly, in 1946 Conte di Cavour was raised once again, shortly to be towed to a breaker’s yard, and there scrapped.
Thus, Conte di Cavour has the dubious distinction of being the only battleship that was not only sunk three times, but also salvaged three times.

[bayonetbrant]

Amazingly, in 1946 Conte di Cavour was raised once again, shortly to be towed to a breaker’s yard, and there scrapped.
Thus, Conte di Cavour has the dubious distinction of being the only battleship that was not only sunk three times, but also salvaged three times.

and by three different countries!


I wonder if that one's got a counter in a game anywhere?

[Sir Slash]

Good question. TOAW Maybe?

[Staggerwing]

Avalanche Press probably has a Cavour counter in their La Regia Marina title.


Simulations Canada also has a La Regia Marina game which definitely has one.

[besilarius]

1456 Death of Janis Hunyadi, voivode and regent of Hungary.  The White Knight of Wall achia spent his entire life building up and defending Hungary against the Ottomans and other local warlords.  Surprisingly, he adapted the Hussites use of wagenburgs to negate the Turkish spahis.
The kings of Hungary were elected by the high nobles so often young, inexperienced boys were kings.  At both battles that the young kings were present, Varna and Mohacs,  premature charges lead to the annihalation of the national army.  Hunyadi and his son, Mathias Corvinus, held things together and were praised as the Shields of Europe.
Hunyadi's parentage is very uncertain.  a letter of 1489, Matthias Corvinus wrote that his grandmother's sister, whom the Ottoman Turks had captured and forced to join the harem of an unnamed Sultan, became the ancestor of Cem, the rebellious son of Sultan Mehmed II.  If Matthias Corvinus' report is valid, John Hunyadi—the hero of anti-Ottoman wars—and the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II were first cousins.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hunyadi

1718. Battle of Cape Passaro, War of the Quadruple Alliance.  Admiral George Byng smashes the Spanish Navy four months before the Alliance is announced.  The Spanish sailors were so lubberly that they never formed an organized line of battle, it was simply a massacre.  The San Felipe's captain was incapacitated by the flying bones of a sailor who was cut in half by British shot.
George Byng was the father of admiral John Byng who was courtmartialled and executed in the Seven Years War "for the encouragement of other admirals".