This Day in History

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1746. Austrian troops investing Genoa disregarded the advice of the local peasantry to select an excellent camp site, with the result that hundreds of men and horses and tons of equipment were lost when a heavy rainfall caused a flash flood on the River Polceverra.

1815. The total amount of “prize” awarded the officers and “people” of the Royal Navy during the French Wars (1793-1815), was some £30 million, today easily the equivalent of £25 billion!

1917. When the US navy chose five battleships to send to joint the Royal Navy, older coal fired vessels were chosen due to a fuel oil shortage in England.

1942  "Senator, if you are interested in that officer's advancement, the best thing you can do is never mention his name to me again. Good-bye."

--   General George C. Marshall,
Telephone Conversation,
Overheard by an aide.

1945. Aircraft production.  By 1937 Germany was out-producing Britain (c. 3,000 aircraft a year) and Italy (c. 2,400), and was well ahead of France, which only produced about 500 aircraft that year due to Depression-inspired austerity and a poorly managed attempt to modernize the aviation industry.
Poor management, however, was not just a French problem.  There was little coherent oversight of the German aviation industry until Albert Speer became Minister of Armaments and War Production in early 1942, which resulted in a significant increase in production.
Despite Speer’s influence, the German aviation industry never experienced the sort of exponential expansion that affected the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain.  The German aviation industry suffered from too many experimental types, too many different models in production, and a generally over-engineered product.  In addition, even Speer supported the diversion of resources to certain “special projects”, such as the Me-262 jet fighter, and the “Vengeance” weapons; postwar analysis by the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey suggested that just in the last 12 months of the war alone resources expended on the V-1 and V-2 missiles might have been sufficient to produce 24,000 addition fighter aircraft.  Further problems were an increasing shortage of materials, the loss of manpower to the fighting forces, to be replaced by less-efficient slave laborers, and, of course, the continuing attention of Allied strategic bombers.  As a result, while Germany produced rather more than 100,000 aircraft from 1939 through to the end of the war, American output exceeded 300,000, the Soviets reached 160,000, and the British about 130,000.

 

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1551. The Italian Renaissance mercenary Giovanni Serbelloni once lost a battle because he refused to read a dispatch that omitted some of his numerous titles.
His kinsman, cardinal Giovanni Antonio Serbelloni died in Rome on 18 March 1591 and was buried in Santa Maria degli Angeli.  At his death was found a overnight bag near his bed with inside 100 thousand golden scudi and titles for other 400 thousand.

1864. One evening during the war President Jefferson Davis took an evening stroll with his wife, Varina.  As they walked, the two chanced to pass the notorious Libby Prison.  Obedient to his orders, one of the guards challenged Davis, and ordered him to walk on the other side of the street.
"I'm your President," replied Davis, or words to that effect.
"None of your gammon," responded the guard.  Leveling his musket, he went on, "if you don't get into the street I'll blow your head off."
"But I am your President," shouted Davis, and attempted to shoulder his way past the man.  The soldier shoved him back, roughly.  Enraged, Davis drew a short sword from his walking stick.  Things might have gotten still uglier had not Mrs. Davis interposed herself between the two.  Meanwhile, the shouts of the two men and cries of Mrs. Davis had attracted the prison's officer of the day, who arrived momentarily with a couple of men.  Immediately recognizing Davis, the officer hastened to make apologies, and the President and his lady went on their way.
And the sentry?  Despite an ancient tradition rewarding strict adherence to the regulations, on direct orders from Davis the man was put on bread and water for several days.

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1776         Col John Glover & his Marblehead Regiment fight the British in the Bronx
This unit was vital to Washington's attack on Trenton.  Being primarily fishermen and sailors, they managed the small boats used to cross the Delaware.
Endicutt Peabody was a well known governor of Massachusetts and it is noted that four towns were named in his honor:
Endicutt, Peabody, Marblehead, and Athol.

1799   HMS Triton (32), Cptn. John Gore, HMS Naiad (38) and HMS Alcemene (32), Cptn. H. Digy, captured Santa Brigida (36), Don Antonio Pillon, from Vera Cruz with specie valued at 1,400,000 dollars.

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202 BC. By nightfall tomorrow we shall know whether it is Rome or Carthage that shall give laws to the world!"

--   Publius Cornelius Scipio,
the eve of the Battle of Zama

1602 construction of 6.5 miles of new defenses for the Russian city of Smolensk consumed 150 million bricks, 620,000 facing stones, and one million loads of sand.

1917   Zeppelin attack on england.  The eleven attacking zeppelins dropped 275 bombs, which caused the deaths of 36 people. But five of the airships failed to return, though only one was lost to enemy action.
Despite these heavy losses, the morale of the Kaiser’s airshipmen remained high throughout the war. Indeed, it was so high that many of the men, already volunteers for hazardous duty, would eagerly volunteer for the even more hazardous duty of serving as observers.
Since navigation was often uncertain when Zeppelins were flying above clouds, some were equipped with an observation basket that could be lowered through the cloud layers. In that way one or two men in the basket would have a good view of the earth’s surface. From this position, they could keep the ship informed by telephone of the landmarks below, helping it navigate to and from its target.
Of course this was particularly hazardous, as the men were without parachutes in a flimsy basket dangling at the end of a 750 meter tether, in freezing cold. Yet there never seems to have been a shortage of volunteers for this duty. In part this was due to the very high morale of the airshipmen. But volunteers also gained a privilege denied to everyone else on the ship; the little basket dangling at the end of nearly a half-mile of cable was the only place on the airship where a man was allowed to have a cigarette.

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1808.    21 Danish gunboats, under Cptn. Johan C. Krieger, attacks a British convoy in the southern part of the Sound. The convoy consisting of 137 ships is escorted by HMS Africa (64), Cptn. John Barrett, HMS Thunder bomb, James Caulfield, and 2 brigs. Due to lack of wind Africa could not manouvere and was severely damaged.

1941  Despite concerns about their loyalty, during World War II Egyptian anti-aircraft crews proved quite adept at shooting down Axis aircraft attacking Alexandria and other places, one battery even winning a prize for the most "kills," albeit that as good Moslems they were perhaps less than overwhelmed by receiving a case of whisky.

1943. Not until September of 1943, 22 months after plunging into war with the United States and Britain, did the Japanese army staff schools and war college shift the focus of theoretical training from a conflict with the Soviet Union to one with the West.

1958. Johnny Weissmuller, sometime Olympic champion and perennial movie Tarzan, went to Cuba to play in a celebrity golf tournament.  Now this was in the final days of the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, as Fidel Castro’s insurgents were spreading across the country, fighting to replace one brand of tyranny with another.
Driving to the golf course one day with a couple of friends and some bodyguards, Weissmuller's car was surrounded by a band of guerrillas who appeared suddenly out of some roadside woods.
The guerrillas rousted everyone from the car, lined them up, and disarmed their bodyguards.
For a moment it looked like the guerrillas were going to impose some “revolutionary justice” on the rich-looking Americans, or perhaps just hold them for ransom.
At this critical moment, Weissmuller had a bright idea.
He suddenly belted out the famous “Tarzan yell”.
For a moment, the guerrillas were stunned.  Then, recognizing their prisoner, one of them cried out, “Tarzan! Tarzan!”, a shout the others quickly took up, along with cries of “Welcome to Cuba!” and other friendly comments, while crowding forward to shake Weissmuller’s hand and ask for his autograph.
Soon afterwards, Weissmuller and his party arrived at the golf course, escorted rather in triumph by some very cheerful guerrillas, who made sure he arrived safely.
What Batista or Castro thought of the incident is unrecorded.

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505BC. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus tells us one occasion when a battle of champions intended to resolve a problem with minimal bloodshed did precisely the opposite, in an incident that cannot be dated with much accuracy, but probably occurred before 500 BC, from Chapter 82 of the first book of his The Histories, Revised (Penguin Classics) .
Now at this very time the Spartans themselves were feuding with the Argives over the country called Thyrea; for this was a part of the Argive territory which the Lacedaemonians had cut off and occupied. . . .  The Argives came out to save their territory from being cut off, then after debate the two armies agreed that three hundred of each side should fight, and whichever party won would possess the land. The rest of each army were to go away to their own country and not be present at the battle, since, if the armies remained on the field, the men of either party might render assistance to their comrades if they saw them losing.
Having agreed, the armies drew off, and the picked men of each side remained and fought. Neither could gain advantage in the battle; at last, only three out of the six hundred were left alive at nightfall, Alcenor and Chromios of the Argives, and Othryades of the Spartans.  Then the two Argives, believing themselves victors, ran to Argos, but Othryades, after stripping the Argive dead and taking the arms to his camp, waited at his position.  On the second day both armies came to learn the outcome.  For a while both claimed the victory, the Argives arguing that more of their men had survived, the Spartans showing that the Argives had fled, while their man had stood his ground and stripped the enemy dead.  At last from arguing they fell to fighting; many of both sides fell, but the Spartans gained the victory.
To this account, Herodotus later adds that, in a curious demonstration of the Spartan military ethic, not long after the battle, feeling disgraced for having survived his comrades, Othryades committed suicide.

1600. Battle of Sekigahara: With the help of a little treachery, Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats the Toyotomi under Ishida Mitsunari, to secure the shogunate for his family for more than 250 years
 1797  The frigate Constitution launches at Edmund Hartt's Shipyard, Boston, Mass. The ship is now the oldest commissioned ship in the U.S. Navy.

1805. Trafalgar.  "It is annihilation that the country wants, not merely a victory."

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2134   BC   Chinese scholars make the earliest recorded observation of an eclipse

1777  Charles Scott (1739-1813), a native Virginian, gave up farming to serve in the French and Indian War (1754-1763), gaining some fame as a scout in Col. George Washington’s First Virginia Regiment, and by the end of the war had risen to captain in the Provincial forces. Returning to farming, on the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Scott – like Cincinnatus – once more abandoned the plow for the sword. During the first year of the war he rose from command of a militia company to that of the 5th Virginia Continentals.
Scott and his regiment joined Washington’s army in New Jersey in November of 1776, as it was retreating from its series of defeats in and near New York City over the summer and fall.
Following his victory at Trenton (December 26, 1776), Washington took his little army east into central New Jersey, in order to set up an attack at Princeton a few days later. Knowing Scott well from their days together during the French and Indian War, Washington assigned his regiment the task of securing a bridge over a stream to impede pursuit by the British. When Scott acknowledged his orders, Washington turned and rode off.
At that, Scott turned and addressed his troops, “Well, boys, the old hoss has put us here to defend this bridge; and by God! -- it must be done, let what will come. Now I want to tell you one thing. You’re all in the habit of shooting too high. You waste your powder and lead; and I have cursed you about it a hundred times. Now I tell you what it is nothing must be wasted; every crack must count. For that reason, boys, whenever you see them fellows first put their feet upon this bridge, do you shin ‘em”
At that a strong laugh rang out over the assemblage. Turning about, Scott was chagrined to see that Washington had not, in fact, ridden off. He had had merely gone a few yards and halted to observe Scott’s preparations, and thus had heard the colonel’s little speech, “old hoss” and all.
Perhaps anticipating a blast of Washington’s notable vocabulary, Scott was surprised when the general merely gave him a pleasant smile, and rode off.

1904   Russian fleet shoots up British fishing trawlers in the North Sea

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1904   Russian fleet shoots up British fishing trawlers in the North Sea

and then promptly started a war with the Japanese...   

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379 B.C., seeking to round out his holdings in southern Italy, Dionysios of Syracuse decided to attack Thurii, a Greek city about 150 miles southeast of Naples, on the instep of the Italian boot. Although today it survives only as the tiny hamlet of Thurio, back then Thurii was major city, celebrated for its wealth and the justice of its laws. Founded around 460 B.C., it numbered among its first settlers Herodotos, the “Father of History,” Lysias, one of the most noted orators of ancient times, and many other distinguished people of the age.
Faced with the might of Dionysios, the people of Thurii despaired, for his resources were far more numerous than their own. His fleet alone numbered some 300 warships, and he had an equally impressive army, which included many mercenaries, far more skilled than the city’s citizen-militia. So the Thuriians awaited their fate, ensconced in behind their walls while offering prayers to the gods for salvation.
To their amazement, their prayers were answered.
As Dionysios’ fleet sailed into the Gulf of Taranto, the winds shifted. A strong north wind buffeted the fleet, damaging and sinking many of the ships, with great loss of life. Unable to continue, Dionysios was forced to abandon his attempt to take the city.
The Thuriians, grateful for their salvation by the “divine wind,” as it were, decided it would be appropriate to thank Boreas, the God of Winds, for his favor to them. They offered sacrifices and instituted an annual festival in his honor. But that wasn’t enough, so they also declared him a citizen and gave him a house to live in whenever he chanced to be in the neighborhood.

 1653 the British Navy arrange to provide medical supplies to the fleet, allocating £5 per hundred men per ship.

1805   Trafalgar prizes Santisima Trinidad (136), Rayo (100), Bucentaure (80), Neptuno (80), L'Aigle (74), Redoutable (74) and San Francisco de Asis (74) wrecked or foundered in a storm after the battle.

1942The British opening barrage at the Battle of El Alamein, involved some 530,000 rounds in 24 hours, for an average of 22,083.3 per hour, or approximately one every 2.8 minutes from each of the 1,030 guns and howitzers available.

1943  Franceska Mann (Manheimer-Rosenberg), Polish ballerina, murdered by the SS at 26, but not before killing two of them and maiming a third

1944   U.S. submarines attacking two elements of the Japanese armada moving towards Leyte. In the Palawan Passage, USS Darter and USS Dace sink heavy cruisers Maya and Atago. Takao is also hit, but survives. Off Manila Bay, USS Bream's torpedoes damage the heavy cruiser Aoba.

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1805   Trafalgar prize Indomptable (80) wrecked and Intrépide (74) blown up deliberately after the battle.
1915.  Sergeant Dailey wins his second congressional medal of honor..Daniel Joseph Daly (1873-1937), known as “Dan”, was a one of those unique characters that the U.S. Marines seem to produce from time to time.
Only about 5'6" tall and weighing in at 132 pounds, Daly, a lightweight boxer in his youth, joined the Marine Corps early in 1899.  He earned a Medal of Honor during the Boxer Rebellion on August 14, 1900, single-handedly holding an isolated position in the Legation Quarter at Peking overnight against enormous odds, while inflicting hundreds of casualties on the enemy.  In 1915, Daly won a second Medal of Honor  for helping to lead 35 marines to safety when they were ambushed by about 400 insurgents near Ft. Dipitie, Haiti, on October 24, 1915.  During the fight for Belleau Wood, in France (June 5-10, 1918), Daly again turned in such an outstanding performance that he was nominated for a third Medal of Honor, which was disapproved in favor of the Navy Cross and the offer of a commission.  Daly declined the commission, saying "To be a sergeant, you have to know your stuff.  I'd rather be an outstanding sergeant than just another officer."
Now during the fighting for Belleau Wood, Gunnery Sergeant Daniel Daly is famous for supposedly leading an attack with the cry, "Come on, you sons of bitches -- do you want to live forever?"

1944  Acrimonious confrontation between Rachele Mussolini and Clara Petacci, as Il Duce sheepishly tries to calm things down
1944. The Battle of Leyte Gulf continues, with Task Force 38 aircraft attacking the Japanese in the Sibuyan and Sulu Seas. U.S. Navy carrier planes sink the Japanese battleship Musashi and damage numerous other enemy ships, among them battleships Yamato, Nagato, Fuso and Yamashiro. Japanese air attacks hit the small USS Princeton (CVL 23), which eventually has to be scuttled. The desperate kamikaze tactic makes its appearance, causing damage and casualties on U.S. ships off the Leyte invasion beaches.

[bayonetbrant]

1944  Acrimonious confrontation between Rachele Mussolini and Clara Petacci, as Il Duce sheepishly tries to calm things down

[Sir Slash]

There'd be some Poo Poo for sure! 

[Staggerwing]

"Meow Mein's"?

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899      Death of King Alfred "the Great" of Wessex (871-99), c. 50

1905  German use of wargaming during the mid-1890s was instrumental in convincing Chief-of-the-Great-General Staff Alfred von Schlieffen that a frontal attack into France from Lorraine was probably a bad idea. This ultimately led him to conceive of the right wing sweep into the French rear through Belgium that became the core of the German war plan of 1914. Moreover, as Erich Ludendorff noted in his war memoirs, the sweep through Belgium “was based on the assumption that France would not respect Belgian neutrality or that Belgium would join France. . . . Any other plan of campaign would have been crippled owing to the danger from Belgium to the German right flank, and would have precluded a quick and decisive blow at France, which was essential in order to meet in time the great danger of a Russian invasion into the heart of Germany.”
In 1905 Schlieffen ran his last wargames. Several scenarios were played, in at least one of which the French were only played by a couple of junior staff officers, hardly a fair match against more seasoned and senior officers. The final game in the series presumed a German strategic defensive against simultaneous French and Russian offensives. Schlieffen took advantage of Germany’s central position to use 15 active or reserve corps to crush the Russians, while holding off the French with only eight corps.
In the East, the Germans used their superior rail connections to execute an elaborate envelopment of one of the invading Russian armies and threw back the other, a scenario that had already been played repeatedly, with an outcome remarkably like the Battle of Tannenberg in 1914. Three decades later historian Hajo Holborn would write “Hoffman and Ludendorff executed an oft-posed Schlieffen war game problem in a manner which would have delighted their military teacher.”

1918  The practice of paying prize money to the officers and men who helped capture or destroy enemy ships has its roots deep in the history of the sea. Originally a way to systematize the division of loot, by the twentieth century the custom was largely dead. Indeed, in the twentieth century only the Royal Navy continued to pay prize, doing so in both world wars.
At the end of the First World War the Royal Navy allocated £14 million, a sum that would today easily be equal to nearly $850 million. Unlike awards in previous wars, which went only to the officers and men who actually participated in capturing or destroying enemy vessels, the Royal Navy decided to award prize across the board, to all personnel in the serivce, as a way of rewarding the enormous number of sailors who performed important duties that were not likely to put them in situations where they might be able to earn prize, such as destroyermen performing convoy duty.

Typical Awards, 1919
Rank   Amount   2001
Admiral   £3,000   $150,000
Captain   800   40,000
Able Seamen   25   1,250
Boys   15   750
In the hoary tradition of prize, the money was divided according to rank, on a decidedly class conscious scale. Intermediate ranks of course received proportionally appropriate shares.

As for World War II, well, that’s another story.

1944. The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends with Navy carriers and U.S. Army Air Forces aircraft continuing the attack on the retreating Japanese. Three enemy light cruisers and several smaller ships are lost during the day. At a distinct disadvantage at the beginning of the Leyte Gulf fight, the Japanese Imperial Navy loses so many ships and men in a few days of battle that it could play only a minor role during the remainder of  the war.

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In October of 1776, George Washington’s bedraggled American Army, having been driven from New York City, was ensconced in the relative safety of Westchester County. On October 27th, as the two armies were preparing for battle near White Plains, an American patrol captured a Hessian soldier who had straggled from camp.
The man was taken to Washington. Washington explained – presumably through a translator – that the Americans bore the Hessians no ill-will, and, indeed, would offer “great encouragement” to Hessians who deserted to the Revolutionary cause. The man refused. Despite this, Washington gave the man a guinea in gold and Washington arranged for him to be sent back to the British lines.
When the Hessian returned to the British lines, he was brought to Gen. William Howe, commander of the British Army. The man explained what had happened to him, and expressed a desire to return to his regiment. Howe rewarded him for his loyalty with another guinea, and sent him back to his regiment.
Then the Hessian returned to his own people. Brought before a Hessian general, the man explained what had happened. Hearing the soldier’s story, the general promptly had him flogged, for straying from camp.
 “one wonders who kept the golden guineas."

1864   Lt. William Cushing, USN, sinks Confederate ram Albemarle with a spar torpedo attached to the bow of his launch.

 1942. Battle of Santa Cruz, USS Hornet sunk.  Hornets skipper was Charles Perry Mason.  The legal stories by Erle Stanley Garner had come out and gave the Captain a nickname, Lawyer.  Mason read Western novels and was confused by this.