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1
History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by besilarius on Today at 06:55:47 PM »1183 BC the Greeks took Troy [Trad].
1066 Comet Halley makes an appearance
1811, then-Viscount Wellington moved to capture Almeida, a city in eastern Portugal that had been in French hands for nearly a year. Lacking heavy artillery to conduct a proper siege, Wellington blockaded the place, hoping to starve the garrison out. The French holding Almeida, some 1,400 men under General de Brigade Antoine Brennier, resisted stoutly.
Learning that André Massena was concentrating a relief force, Wellington maintained the blockade with about 13,000 troops, while holding the bulk of his army in readiness to counter the French marshal. In the resulting Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro (May 3-5, 1811), Wellington, with about 38,000 troops repeatedly beat off assaults by Massena’s 48,000
Despite his defeat, Massena maintained his army nearby, perhaps in the hope of renewing the fight.
Then, very early one morning, as Wellington was shaving in his tent, Baron Aylmer, of his staff, told him that Massena had pulled out, and that even as he spoke “the last cavalry [was] mounting to be gone," and thus the fall of Almeida was certain.
Wellington reacted by taking the razor from his face for a moment, to say “Aye, I thought they meant to be off; very well," and then continued his shave, not mentioning the enemy again until he had completed dressing, yet again demonstrating his remarkable tranquility.
As for Almeida, realizing that all was lost, a few days later, on the night of May 10-11, Brennier managed to slip most of his men out of the town, right through the British lines, after having rigged the defenses with explosives, which went off in spectacular fashion, demolishing the fortress.
The incident led Wellington to come close to expressing anger, when he wrote of the officers commanding the blockade, "They had about 13,000 to watch 1,400. There they were all sleeping in their spurs even; but the French got off. I begin to be of the opinion that there is nothing on earth so stupid as a gallant officer."
1862. Farragut runs the Confederate batteries on the Mississippi below New Orleans
1863 War Department isues GO No 100, The Law of Land Warfare, the first US ROE.
1943. U.S. 7th Infantry Div. having trained for desert warfare, sails from San Francisco for Alaska
Fire in the freighter 'El Estero' at Jersey City threatens to detonate 5,000 tons of ammunition aboard her, two nearby ships, and at dockside; USCG tows the vessel into New York Bay and floods her
1967. Vladimir Komarov (40), first man to die in space, Soyuz 1 disaster
1066 Comet Halley makes an appearance
1811, then-Viscount Wellington moved to capture Almeida, a city in eastern Portugal that had been in French hands for nearly a year. Lacking heavy artillery to conduct a proper siege, Wellington blockaded the place, hoping to starve the garrison out. The French holding Almeida, some 1,400 men under General de Brigade Antoine Brennier, resisted stoutly.
Learning that André Massena was concentrating a relief force, Wellington maintained the blockade with about 13,000 troops, while holding the bulk of his army in readiness to counter the French marshal. In the resulting Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro (May 3-5, 1811), Wellington, with about 38,000 troops repeatedly beat off assaults by Massena’s 48,000
Despite his defeat, Massena maintained his army nearby, perhaps in the hope of renewing the fight.
Then, very early one morning, as Wellington was shaving in his tent, Baron Aylmer, of his staff, told him that Massena had pulled out, and that even as he spoke “the last cavalry [was] mounting to be gone," and thus the fall of Almeida was certain.
Wellington reacted by taking the razor from his face for a moment, to say “Aye, I thought they meant to be off; very well," and then continued his shave, not mentioning the enemy again until he had completed dressing, yet again demonstrating his remarkable tranquility.
As for Almeida, realizing that all was lost, a few days later, on the night of May 10-11, Brennier managed to slip most of his men out of the town, right through the British lines, after having rigged the defenses with explosives, which went off in spectacular fashion, demolishing the fortress.
The incident led Wellington to come close to expressing anger, when he wrote of the officers commanding the blockade, "They had about 13,000 to watch 1,400. There they were all sleeping in their spurs even; but the French got off. I begin to be of the opinion that there is nothing on earth so stupid as a gallant officer."
1862. Farragut runs the Confederate batteries on the Mississippi below New Orleans
1863 War Department isues GO No 100, The Law of Land Warfare, the first US ROE.
1943. U.S. 7th Infantry Div. having trained for desert warfare, sails from San Francisco for Alaska
Fire in the freighter 'El Estero' at Jersey City threatens to detonate 5,000 tons of ammunition aboard her, two nearby ships, and at dockside; USCG tows the vessel into New York Bay and floods her
1967. Vladimir Komarov (40), first man to die in space, Soyuz 1 disaster
2
History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by besilarius on Yesterday at 04:24:53 PM »1370 Construction of the Bastille begins in Paris
1676. Naval Battle off Etna/Agosta/Catania: Dutch-Spanish vs. French. French fleet of 29 men-of-war, 5 frigates and 8 fireships under Abraham Duquesne engaged 17 Dutch and 10 Spanish ships plus 5 fireships under Lieutenant-Admiral-General Michiel de Ruyter. The battle was a short but intense affair and ended abruptly when Duquesne, after hearing that De Ruyter had been mortally wounded, retreated. Neither side lost a ship, though there were many dead and wounded, especially among the Dutch.
1769 Madame du Barry becomes King Louis XV's "official" mistress
1778. During the American Revolution, two boats of volunteers from the sloop-of-war Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones, go ashore at Whitehaven, England, burning ships in the harbor and spiking the guns of the fort.
1809 Battle of Eggmuhl: The French defeat the Austrians
1870. Born Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov, known as "Lenin" - intellectually inclined mass murderer, d. 1924
1915. The Germans initiated the use of chemical weapons at Ypres in 1915. By the end of the war, the major combatants were all using gas to vary degrees. And despite the greater industrial resources of her opponents, Germany maintained its advantage in chemical weapons until the end of the war, expending more agents than all of the Allied powers combined.
Chemical Agents Expended, 1915-1918
(in thousands of tons)
Country 1915 1916 1917 1918 Total
Britain -- 2.0 4.0 8.0 14.0
France -- 4.0 6.0 15.0 25.0
Italy -- 0.5 2.5 3.0 6.0
United States -- -- -- 1.5 1.5
Allied Total -- 6.5 12.5 27.5 46.5
Austria-Hungary -1.0 2.5 6.0 9.5
Germany 4.0 6.0 15.0 30.0 55.0
Central Powers4.0 7.0 17.5 36.0 64.5
Total 4.0 13.5 30.0 63.5 111.0
When first introduced gas caused considerable panic, a characteristic of its use that continued until the end of the war. But in fact it was among the least lethal of the many weapons used in the war. Even the most deadly of the agents used, yperite, was fatal in less than 4-percent of cases.
1945 3rd Inf Div committed an act of cultural insensitivity -- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JFdoGlUmBSo
1676. Naval Battle off Etna/Agosta/Catania: Dutch-Spanish vs. French. French fleet of 29 men-of-war, 5 frigates and 8 fireships under Abraham Duquesne engaged 17 Dutch and 10 Spanish ships plus 5 fireships under Lieutenant-Admiral-General Michiel de Ruyter. The battle was a short but intense affair and ended abruptly when Duquesne, after hearing that De Ruyter had been mortally wounded, retreated. Neither side lost a ship, though there were many dead and wounded, especially among the Dutch.
1769 Madame du Barry becomes King Louis XV's "official" mistress
1778. During the American Revolution, two boats of volunteers from the sloop-of-war Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones, go ashore at Whitehaven, England, burning ships in the harbor and spiking the guns of the fort.
1809 Battle of Eggmuhl: The French defeat the Austrians
1870. Born Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov, known as "Lenin" - intellectually inclined mass murderer, d. 1924
1915. The Germans initiated the use of chemical weapons at Ypres in 1915. By the end of the war, the major combatants were all using gas to vary degrees. And despite the greater industrial resources of her opponents, Germany maintained its advantage in chemical weapons until the end of the war, expending more agents than all of the Allied powers combined.
Chemical Agents Expended, 1915-1918
(in thousands of tons)
Country 1915 1916 1917 1918 Total
Britain -- 2.0 4.0 8.0 14.0
France -- 4.0 6.0 15.0 25.0
Italy -- 0.5 2.5 3.0 6.0
United States -- -- -- 1.5 1.5
Allied Total -- 6.5 12.5 27.5 46.5
Austria-Hungary -1.0 2.5 6.0 9.5
Germany 4.0 6.0 15.0 30.0 55.0
Central Powers4.0 7.0 17.5 36.0 64.5
Total 4.0 13.5 30.0 63.5 111.0
When first introduced gas caused considerable panic, a characteristic of its use that continued until the end of the war. But in fact it was among the least lethal of the many weapons used in the war. Even the most deadly of the agents used, yperite, was fatal in less than 4-percent of cases.
1945 3rd Inf Div committed an act of cultural insensitivity -- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JFdoGlUmBSo
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Intel Dump / Re: Tuesday Newsday! Weekly dump of wargaming news
« Last post by bayonetbrant on Yesterday at 03:21:26 PM »Massive Game Industry Corporate Changes, Plus Wargaming ~ #TuesdayNewsday
Start your week with a bang by catching up on the latest wargaming happenings in our #TuesdayNewsday column
https://www.armchairdragoons.com/news/tn042324/
Start your week with a bang by catching up on the latest wargaming happenings in our #TuesdayNewsday column
https://www.armchairdragoons.com/news/tn042324/
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Age of Gunpowder / Re: Bawb....
« Last post by bob48 on April 22, 2024, 01:19:39 PM »Its a pretty simple, straightforward system, and I do like the attritional combat rules. Plays very fast and looks nice.
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Intel Dump / Re: Gamesurvey.org ~ 2024 Edition
« Last post by bayonetbrant on April 22, 2024, 01:08:50 PM »Per Dr Mercer, we're extending the reply deadline all the way out to 1 July, which will also get us past a few of the conventions in the early Summer.
We weren't going to get to the data analysis until July anyway with other things on our schedules, so we're going to leave it open for now.
We weren't going to get to the data analysis until July anyway with other things on our schedules, so we're going to leave it open for now.
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Age of Gunpowder / Re: Bawb....
« Last post by JudgeDredd on April 22, 2024, 11:57:45 AM »Genuinely not sure.
Longstreet Attacks has kind of muted my taste for ACW. I have Gettysburg and Pea Ridge by Compass which I like and The US Civil War. That might be enough.
I have to say though - 8 pages of rules is very enticing.
Longstreet Attacks has kind of muted my taste for ACW. I have Gettysburg and Pea Ridge by Compass which I like and The US Civil War. That might be enough.
I have to say though - 8 pages of rules is very enticing.
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Age of Gunpowder / Re: Bawb....
« Last post by bob48 on April 22, 2024, 11:28:56 AM »In view of the fact that I'll probably never be able to get 'A Most fearful Sacrifice', this may well be a realistic contender.
JD, do I sense that this is on your shopping list?
JD, do I sense that this is on your shopping list?
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History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by besilarius on April 22, 2024, 09:49:47 AM »753 BC Romulus founded a city, killed his brother, named it for himself, and reigned for 36 years
1494 King Charles VIII of France like most of his line a little dotty in the head invaded Italy with the intention of asserting a slender claim to the throne of Naples, just then occupied by a cadet branch of the House of Aragon. As the French Army was the best in the world at the time, it quickly overran most of the Peninsula, taking Naples itself on March 31, 1495. In mid-June, the conquest seemingly complete, Charles left some 20,000 troops to occupy his new kingdom, and began the long trek back to France. Meanwhile, King Ferrante II of Naples appealed for support to his uncle, King Ferdinand of Aragon, better known to history as part of the famous team of "Ferdinand and Isabella.
Now Ferdinand was a notorious pinch-penny (remember how Isabella supposedly had to hock her jewels to finance Columbus?), but even before the French had taken Naples he could see the necessity of supporting his kinsmen. So he sent Ferrante some money, and Gonzalvo Fernandez de Cordoba y Aguilar, a commander who had proven himself in the wars against the Moors in Spain and the Turks in the Ionian Islands.
Commanded by Cordoba, Sicilian, Neapolitan, and Spanish troops landed near Naples. The commander of the French garrison in the city foolishly offered battle outside the walls. Scarcely had his troops marched out when the Neapolitans rose, slaughtered the few troops he had left inside the city, and closed the gates against him. Threatened by Cordoba's army in front and the raging people of Naples to his rear, the French commander retreated. Naples was recovered for King Ferrante on July 7, 1495, just two weeks after Charles VIII had marched north! Cordoba quickly went on to clear the French out of the rest of the kingdom. This was an arduous task, for other French garrison commanders were by no means as stupid as the one who had lost Naples; the "storied headland fortress" of Gaeta, for example, garrisoned by 2,500 French and turncoat-Neapolitans, held out for 71 days. Thus it was not until late in 1496 that the last French garrison was rooted out.
With that, King Ferdinand instructed Cordoba whom the Italians nicknamed "The Great Captain," which the Spanish quickly adopted and by which he is forever known to press on to Rome. Although of Spanis indeed Aragonese descent, Pope Alexander VI, a miserable excuse for a pontiff, had collaborated with the French invaders, and Ferdinand appears to have wished to "impress" upon His Holiness the importance of supporting the Spanish Crown.
Thus it was that early in 1497 El Gran Capitan and his army entered Rome, to a great reception staged by the Pope. As the army passed in review before him, Pope Alexander, clearly not knowing how parsimonious or maybe just cheap King Ferdinand was, expressed shock when he saw how ragged was the appearance of the troops.
In response to the Pope's inquiry, Cordoba replied, "At least, Your Holiness, no one will think of attacking them for the sake of loot
1865 Abraham Lincoln's funeral train leaves Washington
1870. Hermann Frölich (1839-1900) was a German military surgeon who ultimately rose to Oberst-Stabsarzt (medical colonel) in the Royal Saxon Army. His years of peacetime training and his field service in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 (in which Saxony was allied to Austria) and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 (with Saxony allied to Prussia) had made him a specialist in wounds and their treatment, about which he wrote extensively.
Like any educated man of his day, Frölich was well versed in the classics, and could read ancient texts in the original Greek and Latin. Some time during the 1870s, perhaps after once again reading The Iliad, Homer’s grim tale of the great war between the Greeks and Trojans, Frölich started to think about the poet’s description of military medicine around 1250 BC. So he began to study the text in great detail, searching for evidence of the medical practice of the time, the nature of wounds, and the treatments provided.
Frölich published his results as Die Militärmedicin Homers. In a slim volume of only 65 pages, he gave a brief outline of military practice and medicine as described by Homer, and then presented the results of his analysis of 147 instances in which a wound was described with sufficient detail to permit some conclusions to be drawn. The principal weapons were, of course, spears (both stabbing and throwing types), swords, arrows, and rocks, the latter often grabbed up during desperate hand-to-hand fights.Of Frölich’s 147 cases, 114 were fatal (78 percent). Spears were the most dangersou weapons accounting for 84 deaths (57 percent). Wounds to the head were always fatal, and those to the torso resulted in death in 84 percent of the cases, followed by those to the neck, 82.3 percent, while those to the arms and legs were much less deadly, at 20 percent and 9 percent respectively.
A more recent look at casualties in The Iliad in Richard A. Gabriel’s Man and Wound in the Ancient World, breaks them down somewhat differently, considering only the range at which wounds were inflicted. This means more cases are included, since Frölich limited his work to injuries for which some detail was given. In Gabriel’s analysis of 213 casualties, 192 died, about 90 percent. The largest number of casualties, 147 were injured at “close-range,” in hand-to-hand fighting, of whom 138 died, 93 percent, while of the 66 injured at “long-range,” 54 died, 82 percent. Interestingly, Gabriel’s analysis of casualties from Virgil’s epic The Aeneid, composed about six or seven centuries after The Iliad, yielded figures that were not particularly different from those in earlier epic. In The Aeneid, 180 men were wounded, of whom 164 died, about 91 percent. Of these casualties, 120 were injured at “close-range,” with 115 perishing, 96 percent, while of 60 men injured at “long-range,” 49 died, 81.6 percent.
Despite the somewhat different bases of calculation, the figures found by Frölich and those found by Gabriel are not very different.
1918. Manfred "The Red Baron" von Richthofen, ground fire after his aircraft had been disabled in air-to-air combat, at 25
1967 Barnabus Collins returns to his family to Collinsport.
1494 King Charles VIII of France like most of his line a little dotty in the head invaded Italy with the intention of asserting a slender claim to the throne of Naples, just then occupied by a cadet branch of the House of Aragon. As the French Army was the best in the world at the time, it quickly overran most of the Peninsula, taking Naples itself on March 31, 1495. In mid-June, the conquest seemingly complete, Charles left some 20,000 troops to occupy his new kingdom, and began the long trek back to France. Meanwhile, King Ferrante II of Naples appealed for support to his uncle, King Ferdinand of Aragon, better known to history as part of the famous team of "Ferdinand and Isabella.
Now Ferdinand was a notorious pinch-penny (remember how Isabella supposedly had to hock her jewels to finance Columbus?), but even before the French had taken Naples he could see the necessity of supporting his kinsmen. So he sent Ferrante some money, and Gonzalvo Fernandez de Cordoba y Aguilar, a commander who had proven himself in the wars against the Moors in Spain and the Turks in the Ionian Islands.
Commanded by Cordoba, Sicilian, Neapolitan, and Spanish troops landed near Naples. The commander of the French garrison in the city foolishly offered battle outside the walls. Scarcely had his troops marched out when the Neapolitans rose, slaughtered the few troops he had left inside the city, and closed the gates against him. Threatened by Cordoba's army in front and the raging people of Naples to his rear, the French commander retreated. Naples was recovered for King Ferrante on July 7, 1495, just two weeks after Charles VIII had marched north! Cordoba quickly went on to clear the French out of the rest of the kingdom. This was an arduous task, for other French garrison commanders were by no means as stupid as the one who had lost Naples; the "storied headland fortress" of Gaeta, for example, garrisoned by 2,500 French and turncoat-Neapolitans, held out for 71 days. Thus it was not until late in 1496 that the last French garrison was rooted out.
With that, King Ferdinand instructed Cordoba whom the Italians nicknamed "The Great Captain," which the Spanish quickly adopted and by which he is forever known to press on to Rome. Although of Spanis indeed Aragonese descent, Pope Alexander VI, a miserable excuse for a pontiff, had collaborated with the French invaders, and Ferdinand appears to have wished to "impress" upon His Holiness the importance of supporting the Spanish Crown.
Thus it was that early in 1497 El Gran Capitan and his army entered Rome, to a great reception staged by the Pope. As the army passed in review before him, Pope Alexander, clearly not knowing how parsimonious or maybe just cheap King Ferdinand was, expressed shock when he saw how ragged was the appearance of the troops.
In response to the Pope's inquiry, Cordoba replied, "At least, Your Holiness, no one will think of attacking them for the sake of loot
1865 Abraham Lincoln's funeral train leaves Washington
1870. Hermann Frölich (1839-1900) was a German military surgeon who ultimately rose to Oberst-Stabsarzt (medical colonel) in the Royal Saxon Army. His years of peacetime training and his field service in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 (in which Saxony was allied to Austria) and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 (with Saxony allied to Prussia) had made him a specialist in wounds and their treatment, about which he wrote extensively.
Like any educated man of his day, Frölich was well versed in the classics, and could read ancient texts in the original Greek and Latin. Some time during the 1870s, perhaps after once again reading The Iliad, Homer’s grim tale of the great war between the Greeks and Trojans, Frölich started to think about the poet’s description of military medicine around 1250 BC. So he began to study the text in great detail, searching for evidence of the medical practice of the time, the nature of wounds, and the treatments provided.
Frölich published his results as Die Militärmedicin Homers. In a slim volume of only 65 pages, he gave a brief outline of military practice and medicine as described by Homer, and then presented the results of his analysis of 147 instances in which a wound was described with sufficient detail to permit some conclusions to be drawn. The principal weapons were, of course, spears (both stabbing and throwing types), swords, arrows, and rocks, the latter often grabbed up during desperate hand-to-hand fights.Of Frölich’s 147 cases, 114 were fatal (78 percent). Spears were the most dangersou weapons accounting for 84 deaths (57 percent). Wounds to the head were always fatal, and those to the torso resulted in death in 84 percent of the cases, followed by those to the neck, 82.3 percent, while those to the arms and legs were much less deadly, at 20 percent and 9 percent respectively.
A more recent look at casualties in The Iliad in Richard A. Gabriel’s Man and Wound in the Ancient World, breaks them down somewhat differently, considering only the range at which wounds were inflicted. This means more cases are included, since Frölich limited his work to injuries for which some detail was given. In Gabriel’s analysis of 213 casualties, 192 died, about 90 percent. The largest number of casualties, 147 were injured at “close-range,” in hand-to-hand fighting, of whom 138 died, 93 percent, while of the 66 injured at “long-range,” 54 died, 82 percent. Interestingly, Gabriel’s analysis of casualties from Virgil’s epic The Aeneid, composed about six or seven centuries after The Iliad, yielded figures that were not particularly different from those in earlier epic. In The Aeneid, 180 men were wounded, of whom 164 died, about 91 percent. Of these casualties, 120 were injured at “close-range,” with 115 perishing, 96 percent, while of 60 men injured at “long-range,” 49 died, 81.6 percent.
Despite the somewhat different bases of calculation, the figures found by Frölich and those found by Gabriel are not very different.
1918. Manfred "The Red Baron" von Richthofen, ground fire after his aircraft had been disabled in air-to-air combat, at 25
1967 Barnabus Collins returns to his family to Collinsport.
10
Intel Dump / Re: Wargame Design Studio News Thread + Latest Sale Titles
« Last post by bayonetbrant on April 22, 2024, 09:07:23 AM »oooooh.... airborne!