This Day in History

[bbmike]

Happy Birthday, Bob! Hope it's a great day and you get some wargaming in. And cake. Lots of cake! 

[bob48]

 

[Sir Slash]

That's a great idea, a Waterloo Cake. Three layers, one for each army involved. 

[besilarius]

Bob Hope?

[bbmike]

[besilarius]

1421. St. Elizabeth's Flood: A seawall on the Zuiderzee in the Netherlands collapses, c. 10,000 die

1944. A young general came to Washington, sent from the Southwest Pacific with the mission of explaining to Army Chief-of-Staff George C. Marshall how Gen. Douglas MacArthur wished to fight the war against the Japanese.
The young general made an impressive presentation, albeit that it was much too long Worse, the presentation was not very cogent. Needless to say, it was also not particularly convincing. When he concluded, the general added, "I will stake my military reputation on the soundness of these plans."
At that, Marshall, who could explain the strategic, logistical, and tactical problems of the American Civil War in under 20 minutes, leaned across the table and asked acidly, "Just what is your military reputation?"

1989. Last US battleship is retired.
Beginning in 1895 with the second class battleships Texasand Maine, the United States Navy would eventually put into commission 61 battleships, more than any other fleet save the Royal Navy. By the time the four sisters of the Iowa Class were stricken from the Navy List, nearly 110 years later, various American battleships had seen wartime service in six wars: that with Spain in 1898, the world wars of 1917-1918 and 1941-1945, Korea, 1950-1953, Vietnam, 1968-1969, and Operation Desert Storm, 1991, not to mention occasional more limited operations, such as the Vera Cruz landings in 1914.
In the course of their active careers, these vessels suffered the loss of over 2,400 sailors killed in the line of duty.
Some 260 men perished when the Maine exploded on February 15, 1898, an incident which, despite strenuous – and often strident – claims to the contrary has still not been adequately explained.
Nearly 300 other battleship sailors were killed in various shipboard accidents, about half of them in turret explosions,

Kearsarge (BB-5)    April 12, 1906   10 killed
Georgia (BB-15)    July 15, 1907   10
Mississippi (BB-41)   June 12, 1924   48
Missisippi (BB-41)   November 20, 1943   43
Iowa (BB-61)    April 19, 1989   47
Nearly 2,000 American battleship men were killed by Japanese air attack. Most of these men, about 1,500, perished at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Of those who died that day, over a thousand were crewmen of the USS Arizona (BB-39) and the rest were serving aboard the other six battleships present. In the course of the 44 months of war that followed Japanese air attacks, notably kamikaze, killed over 400 American battleship men. In addition, approximately 30 American battleship sailors were killed by “friendly fire” during enemy air attacks.
During World War II and later conflicts American battleships were occasionally struck by enemy coast defense fire during shore bombardments. Several of these resulted in casualties, but it seems that only one man was killed; On February 17, 1945, during the preliminary bombardment of Iwo Jima , the USS Tennessee (BB-43) received a hit on one of her 5”/38 gun mounts, which killed Seaman First Class Leon Andrew Giardini and wounded four others.
Apparently only 38 American battleship sailors were killed in surface combat. This occurred off Guadalcanal on the night of November 14-15, 1942. This was a wildly confusing action that saw the South Dakota (BB-57) and the Washington (BB-56) take on HIJMS Kirishima. During the action the “Sodak” was struck by numerous enemy 5-, 6-, and 8-inch rounds, plus one – possibly two – 14-inchers. The 14" round – or rounds – that South Dakota collected on this occasion make Kirishima the only enemy battleship ever to lay a glove an American one.
But then, there were only two other occasions when American battleships engaged enemy ones.
The first encounter between an American battleship and an enemy one occurred on November 8, 1940, just a week before the Guadalcanal shoot-out, when the USS Massachusetts (BB-59), sister to the South Dakota, swapped rounds with the French Richelieu at Casablanca, to the misfortune of the latter; the “Big Mamie” received one hit in return during this action, but it was from a French shore battery, not the battleship, and she suffered no casualties from the experience.
The third, and last time, American battleships engaged enemy ones occurred during the Battle of Surigao Strait (October 24-25, 1944), during which Mississippi (BB-41), Maryland (BB-46), West Virginia (BB-47),Tennessee (BB-43), California (BB-44), and Pennsylvania (BB-38) engaged the Japanese Fuso and Yamashiro, with most of the work being done by the first three plus flocks of cruisers, destroyers, and torpedo boats that were in support; PennsylvaniA did not fire.

[besilarius]

636         (A.H. 15) the Moslem Arabs defeated the Persians in the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah, leading to the collapse of the Sassanid Empire

1703  "The Man in the Iron Mask," of natural causes, after 24 years in the Bastille and other prisons

1828  Manikarnika Tambe, later Lakshmibai, the Rani of Jhansi (1842-1858), a leader of the "Sepoy Mutiny", and lover of Harry Flashman, kia

1912  the launching of H.M.S. Dreadnought in 1905 touched off a naval arms race that saw something like 125 battleships and battlecruisers laid down before the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Of these, almost a third were built by Britain. In a show of imperial unity, several dominions and colonies offered to help defray the cost of this great shipbuilding program. In this way, two new battlecruisers of the Indefatigable Class were laid down in 1910, sponsored by Australia and New Zealand, and named, appropriately enough, in their honor.  Of these, Australia became the nucleus of the new Royal Australian Navy. New Zealand , on the other hand, was presented to the Royal Navy, because the Dominion could not afford to man and operate her; in fact, New Zealand had to go into debt to find the £1,684,990 to pay for the ship, a loan that was not finally paid off until two world wars had past.
Displacing some 22,000 tons at full load, H.M.S. New Zealand was an imposing vessel, toting eight 12-inch rifles at speeds up to 26 knots. Shortly after she was commissioned, in November of 1912, the Royal Navy thoughtfully sent the new battlecruiser on a good will visit to New Zealand, to show the folks what all that debt had gotten them.
While touring New Zealand in April, May, and June of 1913, the ship was visited by a delegation of Maori chiefs.  The chiefs pronounced some traditional Maori blessings on her, and also presented a number of gifts.  One of these was a ship’s wheel made from native woods and inscribed with the defiant war cry of the famous Maori chief Rewi Maniapoto, "Ake! Ake! Ake! Kia Kaha! –We will fight on, for ever and ever and ever!” In addition, the ship’s captain was given a green stone tiki pendant and a traditional Maori piu-piu, a black and white flax war kilt, and told that if he wore these in battle the ship would never come to harm.
New Zealand’s captains followed these instructions. And no harm befell the ship at the battles of Helgoland Bight (August 14, 1914) and Dogger Bank (January 24, 1915). Indeed, at Dogger Bank, when Vice-Admiral David Beatty came aboard New Zealand after having to abandon his flagship due to damage, he found Captain Lionel Halsey wearing both the tiki and piu-piu.
At Jutland (May 31-June1, 1916), New Zealand’s skipper, John Green, wore only the tiki, for he was little too plump to look good in the piu-piu. Nevertheless, Green kept the piu-piu close at hand, hanging in the ship’s conning tower.  Even so, the talismans provided excellent protection; of six ships in the Battle Cruiser Fleet, two blew up under enemy fire, Indefatigable and Queen Mary, while Princess Royal, Tiger, and Lion, were heavily damaged, suffering several casualties, Lion only surviving by chance and raw courage. In contrast, New Zealand took a single hit, and lost only one crewmember, a pet canary.
Battlecruisers were known for the weakness of their armor, but H.M.S. New Zealand was clearly much better protected than most. And the tiki and piu-piu? Well, they’re preserved at a museum in New Zealand, but are apparently not currently on exhibit.

[Sir Slash]

Great story! 

[besilarius]

1256   The Mongols under Hulugu Khan capture Maymum-Dis, mountain fortress of the Assassins

1759, the battle of Quiberon Bay, one of the most hair raising fights in the age of sail. The British, under Hawke, maintained a close blockade on the French coast in the vicinity of Brest. In that year, the French had made plans to invade England and Scotland, and had accumulated transports and troops around the Loire estuary. The defeat of the Mediterranean fleet at the Battle of Lagos in August made the invasion plans impossible, but Choiseul still contemplated a plan for Scotland, and so the fleet was ordered to escape the blockade and collect the transports assembled in the Gulf of Morbihan
Having struggled with unfavourable winds, Conflans had slowed down on the night of the 19th in order to arrive at Quiberon at dawn. 20 miles off Belleisle he sighted seven of Duff's squadron.] Once he realised that this was not the main British fleet, he gave chase. Duff split his ships to the north and south, with the French van and centre in pursuit, whilst the rearguard held off to windward to watch some strange sails appearing from the west. The French broke off the pursuit but were still scattered as Hawke's fleet came into sight. HMS Magnanime sighted the French at 8.30 and Hawke gave the signal for line abreast.
Conflans was faced with a choice, to fight in his current disadvantageous position in high seas and a "very violent" WNW wind, or take up a defensive position in Quiberon Bay and dare Hawke to come into the labyrinth of shoals and reefs. About 9 am Hawke gave the signal for general chase along with a new signal for the first 7 ships to form a line ahead and, in spite of the weather and the dangerous waters, set full sail. By 2.30 Conflans rounded Les Cardinaux, the rocks at the end of the Quiberon peninsula that give the battle its name in French. The first shots were heard as he did so, although Sir John Bentley in Warspite claimed that they were fired without his orders. However the British were starting to overtake the rear of the French fleet even as their van and centre made it to the safety of the bay.
Just before 4 pm the battered Formidable surrendered to the Resolution, just as Hawke himself rounded The Cardinals. Kersaint attempted to come to the aid of Conflans, but Thésée performed her turn without closing her lower gunports; water rushed into the gundeck, and she capsized with only 22 survivors. Superbe also capsized, and the badly damaged Héros struck her flag to Viscount Howe before running aground on the Four Shoal during the night.
Meanwhile, the wind shifted to the NW, further confusing Conflans' half-formed line as they tangled together in the face of Hawke's daring pursuit. Conflans tried unsuccessfully to resolve the muddle, but in the end decided to put to sea again. His flagship, Soleil Royal, headed for the entrance to the bay just as Hawke was coming in on Royal George. Hawke saw an opportunity to rake Soleil Royal, but Intrépide interposed herself and took the fire. Meanwhile, Soleil Royal had fallen to leeward and was forced to run back and anchor off Croisic, away from the rest of the French fleet. By now it was about 5 pm and darkness had fallen, so Hawke made the signal to anchor.
During the night eight French ships managed to do what Soleil Royal had failed to do, to navigate through the shoals to the safety of the open sea, and escape to Rochefort. Seven ships and the frigates were in the Vilaine estuary but Hawke dared not attack them in the stormy weather. The French jettisoned their guns and gear and used the rising tide and northwesterly wind to escape over the sandbar at the bottom of the river Vilaine. One of these ships was wrecked, and the remaining six were trapped throughout 1760 by a blockading British squadron and only later managed to break out and reach Brest in 1761/1762.The badly damaged Juste was lost as she made for the Loire, 150 of her crew surviving the ordeal, and Resolution grounded on the Four Shoal during the night.
Soleil Royal tried to escape to the safety of the batteries at Croisic, but Essex pursued her with the result that both were wrecked on the Four Shoal beside Heros. On the 22nd the gale moderated, and three of Duff's ships were sent to destroy the beached ships. Conflans set fire to Soleil Royal while the British burnt Heros

1805         Premiere of Beethoven's opera "Fidelio" in Vienna, with Napoleon sitting in the Hapsburg imperial box

1956         the USS 'Hartford', Farragut's Civil War flagship, sank at dockside, Norfolk, Va, the nation being too cheap to preserve her

[besilarius]

53 BC   Marcus Licinius Crassus, c. 60, beheaded by the Parthians (no molten gold involved), his head is then used as a prop in a play

1338. An archer named Robin Hood is enlists in the service of King Edward III at the garrison on the Isle of Wight

1917. Like most young Germans of noble family, Rudolph von Eschwege (b. 1895) was destined for a military career. And thus it was that the young man joined the cavalry, shortly before Europe erupted into what would become World War I. The young officer took part in the opening campaigns of the war, seeing action on several occasions. But it soon dawned on all but the very slow learners that cavalry wasn’t likely to garner much glory in this new kind of war. So late in 1915 von Eschwege joined the air service.
The young man was soon serving with the 36th Squadron, conducting reconaissance missions over the Western Front. In 1916 he was transferred to the Macedonian Front. It was over Macedonia that he began to acquire a reputation as a fighter pilot, scoring two kills while serving with the 66th Squadron. In Janaury of 1917, he was transferred to the 30th Squadron, and began raking up an impressive score, and soon became known as " The Eagle of the Aegean."
By October of 1917, von Eschwege had achieved 16 kills. Now all of these had been of Allied aircraft, often observation planes but sometimes fighters. The Allies had also deployed a number of observation balloons over the front, and these were proving troublesome to the German and Bulgarian troops holding the lines.
An observation balloon was essentially a large gas bag tethered to the ground by a cable. From under the balloon, a small gondola was suspended, from which one or two men could observe the front, direct artillery fire, and even spot troops movements in the enemy’s rear, communicating with the ground by telephone. Surprisingly, given they were held aloft by highly flammable hydrogen, observation balloons were rather hard to shoot down. In fact, by October of 1917 the Allies had not yet lost a single observation balloon to enemy aircraft over Macedonia.
So although observation balloons seemed pretty inoccuous targets, they began to interest von Eschwege. Now the British were in the habit of lofting an observation balloon pretty much every morning on the western side of the River Struma, which gave them an excellent view of the Bulgarian lines. The young German ace decided to make it his personal business to down the balloon. And he did so on the morning of October 28, 1917, flying a Halberstadt Scout. He dived down on the balloon from out of the sun, guns blazing, and had the satisfaction of seeing the British observer take to his parachute. But the balloon failed to explode! Apparently von Eschwege had either missed the gas bag entirely, or the rounds " he had thoughtfully loaded his machine guns with incendiary rounds " failed to ignite the hydrogen; there probably was not enough oxygen mixed with the hydrogen for it to explode. Finally, on his fourth pass, by which time the balloon was proably well perforated, and thus well aerated, von Eschwege was rewarded with a spectacular explosion, and watched as the burning balloon plunged earthwards; by his reckoning it was his 21st kill, though officially only 17 had been confirmed. At that moment, however, he spotted several Allied fighters that were rapdily approaching. On any other occasion, von Eschwege might have tried tangling with the enemy fighters, but with his ammo low, he eluded them and headed for home.
On the morning of November 21st, he downed another balloon, near Orljak. And then he spotted yet another. He bore in, and suddenly the balloon’s observation gondola exploded in a tremendous blast that tore von Eschwege’s airplane to pieces, apparently killing him instantly.
Having become tired of losing their aircraft, the men of No. 17 Balloon Section of the Royal Flying Corps had prepared a decoy target. They packed 500 pounds of explosives in the balloon's gondola, and then connected the detonator to the ground by a wire. When von Eschwege bore in for the kill, they had detonated the explosives.
Rudolph von Eschwege was officially credited with 20 kills, and claimed six more. Only 22 at the time of his death, von Eschwege never knew that he had been awarded the coveted "Pour le Merit - the Blue Max," the highest decoration of the House of Hohenzollern.

1920. Mussolini's Blackshirts kill 11 political opponents in Bologna

[bayonetbrant]

1338. An archer named Robin Hood is enlists in the service of King Edward III at the garrison on the Isle of Wight

they seem to keep forgetting this part in the movies

[Staggerwing]

^ I think the one with Russell Crowe had an opening scene with robin and a couple of the Merry-Men-To-Be in the King's service.

[besilarius]

1529. During the siege of Florence by Imperial forces in 1529-1530, one of the key defensive positions that enabled the city to hold out for ten months was Mount San Miniato, which had been fortified under the direction of the distinguished military engineer Michelangelo Buonarotti.

1816. Defeating France during the Wars of the Revolution and Napoleon cost the British tax payers some £700 million, which was the equivalent of roughly 90.9 years of spending at the pre-war peacetime budget rate, and would today be worth between £21,000 million and £28,000 million.

1898. Craps was not widely played in the U.S. Army until the Spanish-American War, when white regulars and volunteers for the first time served protracted tours of duty with the black regulars of the four “colored” regiments, among whom it was a common form of gambling, after which it became a favorite among American troops in two world wars.

[bayonetbrant]

31 years ago today I was eating Thanksgiving dinner at the Shoney's on Avent Ferry road South of the NC State campus, because there were only two of us that spent all weekend at the radio station keeping it on the air over the Thanksgiving break

Of the 96 hours over that weekend, I think we were on the air for 84 of them between us including a bunch of them together

I didn't have anything else to do that weekend and wasn't going to go back to Oklahoma again, so I racked up a monster paycheck at the radio station and had a buffet for Thanksgiving dinner 😎

[besilarius]

60 BC. After  the Third Mithridatic War (66-61 BC), Pompey the Great claimed to have inflicted over 12 million casualties on enemy troops, to have sunk or captured 846 enemy ships, and to have accepted the surrender of 1,538 towns and cities, claims which many Romans took with a grain of salt.

1783         Benjamin Franklin has a congenial conversation with Giacomo Casanova in Paris

1915  During the opening stages of the British campaign against the Turks in what is now Iraq,  during World War I, Arab irregulars were quite active in harassing the invaders, especially at night.
It was not uncommon for raiders to sneak into camps, evading sentries and making their way among sleeping soldiers, to steal whatever they could find, such as boots, rifles, and blankets, and then getting away, usually without waking anyone.  One night in January of 1915, a raider managed to make off with a yellow flag from the camp of the 2nd Battalion, the Norfolk Regiment, shortly after which a Turkish spokesman reported the capture of “an enemy flag.”
Since flags have historically been among the most treasured of war trophies, the raider was probably well-rewarded for his efforts.  Naturally, other Arabs sought to emulate his achievement.  Soon thefts of the yellow flags became rather common.  To stop them, the British set booby-traps, and several raiders were killed trying to make off with the flags.
At the time of the first theft, Captain Alfred J. Shakeshaft of the Norfolks wrote in his diary, “We wondered if this would be hung up in the military museum at Constantinople.”  One wonders even now, particularly since yellow flags were the British Army’s standard markers for latrines

1986 the Council of the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago 30 miles west of Land's End, England, concluded a treaty of peace with the Netherlands, thus ending a technical state of war that had existed since 1651, when the Dutch got tired of having their ships victimized by Scillian "false-lighters," who would erect decoy beacons to lure ships onto rocks to be plundered.