Interesting facts of military history

Just watched today the first part of "Russian revolution in colour" and somehow again the clown making jokes of the party is to be finished. Found some details in the net:

When the Cheka opened for business in Moscow, their list of candidates to receive brutal treatment was extensive. Heading the list was the celebrated circus clown Bim Bom. His repertoire included jokes about the Bolsheviks in particular and Communists in general.

When Cheka agents attempted to arrest the irreverent clown during one of his performances, the audience thought the antics were part of the act. Bim Bom fled from the ring with the agents firing at him. His escape was made possible when the audience in panic bolted for the exits. As one amused bystander so aptly put it, the clowns were chasing the clown.

http://aia.lackland.af.mil/homepages/pa/spokesman/Mar02/heritage.cfm

 

Kitchener and boy soldiers

http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/tv_guide/full_details/British_history/programme_2304.php

War: Boy soldiers of the Great War by Richard van Emden

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2102-1567284,00.html

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/a-b/boysoldiers.html

The worst casualties among boy soldiers were in the second year of the war, when the British Army was relatively small and the underage soldiers formed a good proportion of the forces committed abroad. Had they been withdrawn in 1915, when Germany had a substantially larger military force, the war might have been lost. (??)

Sir Arthur Markham, who struggled in parliament to get honest answers from the War Office, gained a reluctant admission in 1916 that no boy had ever been court-martialled for disguising his age.

 

Titanic´s sister ship

HMHS Britannic


A perfect day, Tuesday November 21, 1916 she was steaming through the Kea Channel in the Aegean during World War One. Shortly after 8:00am she was struck by a tremendous explosion and quickly began to sink by the bow. Captain Bartlett tried unsuccessfully to beach her on Kea Island but in 55 minutes, Britain's largest liner had gone, and not quite a year from trials to sinking of only 351 days. The explosion apparently occurred at the watertight bulkhead between holds 2 and 3, and the bulkhead separating holds 2 and 1 were also damaged. At the same time, boiler rooms 5 and 6 began taking water. This was roughly the same damage as that sustained by her sister the Titanic four and a half years earlier.

http://www.webtitanic.net/frameBritannica.html

Just saw a new documentary on this and it seems the ship sank due to a German mine left by a U-boat there.

 

very interesting....i have heard many people say that they think that the titanic was sunk by a mine or a torpedo....when that happened that wasnt to far from WW1...but i dont know for sure...

 

BTW,



Violet Constance Jessop (1 October 1887 – 5 May 1971) worked on the Olympic-class ocean liner, the RMS Titanic, and its sister ship Gigantic (later Britannic) when each ship suffered a collision. Working as a stewardess for the White Star Line, Violet Jessop was on board when the RMS Olympic collided with the HMS Hawke and on board the RMS Titanic when it stuck an iceberg and sank killing more than 1,500 people. During World War I she was serving as a nurse on board the HMHS Britannic when it was sunk by a naval mine, killing 30 people. The coincidence on being on all three Olympic-class vessels when each suffered a serious hull breach has made Violet Jessop a popular story among Titanic enthusiasts.

 

First Blood

On 5th September 1914, the underestimated U-boat was finally able to show its deadly potential and draw first blood. With the first life torpedo fired by a submarine in wartime, Kptlt. Otto Hersing from SM U 21 hit the British light cruiser HMS Pathfinder (3,000 tons) off the Firth of Forth on a calm, sunlit day. The cruiser sank within minutes with heavy loss of life. Hersing, who was to become one of Germany's leading U-boat aces, remained in command of SM U 21 for 3 years and conducted 21 war patrols, during which he sank 36 ships, including two battleships and two cruisers. Considering the continuing strain and stress connected with the unique position of a U-boat commander, this achievement must be regarded as outstandingly remarkable.

This striking first appearance of the submarine in war time history was even surpassed on 22nd September 1914, when SM U-9 (Kptlt. Otto Weddigen) sank the three cruisers HMS Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy (12,000 tons each) off the Hook of Holland in 75 mins.
1,460 British sailors died in this world shattering demonstration of the U-boat's terrible capabilities.

http://uboat.net/history/wwi/part2.htm

 

The Oxford Union has been at the centre of controversial debate throughout its history. As the most prominent debating platform outside Westminster it is no surprise debates have been unrivalled in their quality and impact. One of the most famous motions, "This House will under no circumstances fight for King and Country", was passed in 1933 by 275 votes to 153. The result sparked off a national outcry in the press, and Winston Churchill denounced it as "that abject, squalid, shameless avowal" and "this ever shameful motion"; some say that the result encouraged Hitler in his decision to invade Europe. Maybe??

http://oxu.amis.uk.com/mod.php?mod=userpage&menu=11&page_id=4

 

Lenin and new clothes....

According to Prof. Yuri Denisov-Nikolsky, over the past 30 years of observations, in which he took part, Lenin's clothes have been changed ten times.

He recalled that when Lenin was first buried in the Mausoleum, he was dressed in a military uniform, but "shortly before the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), someone decided that the uniform symbolized Lenin's militant character and totalitarian policy, and he was immediately dressed in civilian clothes," Denisov-Nikolsky said.

http://newsfromrussia.com/science/2003/11/07/51085.html

 

I don't have any experience with corpses, do you know if the body becomes fragial like old newspaper after a number of years and if so how do they change the clothes without damage to the body ?

Also who do they get to do the job ?

 

The body’s just another piece of meat ain’t it TA. It deteriorates like any other dead animal. Fastest above ground, slower below ground, and slowest in a tomb. Virtually to bones in about a year, gone in the ground by 10 to 12 years, while in a tomb down to '‘safe'’ bones (tomb can be opened for removal of bones without protective clothing) in 25, less in some countries. Arctic climates of course ‘deep freeze’.

Lenin (if indeed it’s still the original body), is more than mummified, he’s petrified. My view, better get Disney or Madame Tussauds to come up with a replica. Stick some animatronics inside it and you could have him get up and deliver famous speeches – maybe do a toothpaste add?

Never mind about changing his clothes, who cuts his hair?

No.9

 

Ten Year Rule

http://www.answers.com/topic/ten-year-rule

The Ten Year Rule was a British government order, under Winston Churchill as Secretary of State for War, of August 1919 to the armed forces that they should draft their estimates 'on the assumption that the British Empire would not be engaged in any great war during the next ten years'.

In 1928 Churchill, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, successfully urged the Cabinet to make the rule self-perpetuating and hence it was in force unless specifically countermanded. In 1931 the Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald wanted to abolish the Ten Year Rule because he thought it unjustified based on the international situation. This was bitterly opposed by the Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson who succeded in keeping the rule.

The Ten Year Rule was abandoned by the Cabinet on March 23 1932 but this was countered with: '...this must not be taken to justify an expanding expenditure by the Defence Services without regard to the very serious financial and economic situation' which the country was in.

 

German war criminals and Leipzig trials after WW1

http://www.historians.org/Projects/GIRoundtable/Criminals/Criminals3.htm

Lists of war criminals were made up by each of the principal Allied governments, from which a joint sample list of about 900 names was handed to the Germans on February 3, 1920. France demanded the surrender of 334 persons, among them the Crown Prince, Marshal von Hindenburg, Count Bismarck (grandson of the Iron Chancellor), and General Stenger, who was accused of having ordered his men to massacre all prisoners, including the wounded.

Although, in signing the Treaty of Versailles, the German government obligated itself to deliver up the accused, it soon refused to do so. In Germany, feeling ran high when the Allied list was published. Mass meetings of protest were held and everywhere the surrender of the war criminals was denounced.

On January 25, 1920—even before the list of 900 was presented—Germany had proposed, as a compromise, that all persons charged by the Allies with war crimes and misdemeanors should be tried before the Supreme Court of the Reich at Leipzig. As evidence of its determination to punish its own people, the German government declared that it had brought about the passage of a law on December 13, 1919 providing for the prosecution of war offenders.

After an exchange of many diplomatic notes, the Allies in May 1920 agreed to deliver to the Germans a sample list of 45 war criminals for trial at Leipzig. To this list the British contributed only 7 selected names.

Altogether 12 men were tried at Leipzig—2 on German charges, 4 on British, 5 on French, and 1 on Belgian. Of these 12 men, 6 were convicted. The sentences imposed included: on German charges, 2 of four years; on British charges, 2 of six months and 1 of ten months; on French charges, 1 of two years. The French case involved a German major prosecuted for killing wounded French war prisoners, allegedly on General Stenger’s orders. The General himself was acquitted despite much evidence against him by German witnesses. Crowds applauded his acquittal and admirers gave him flowers.

The Allied mission sent to Leipzig withdrew in protest against the outcome of the 12 cases. The French particularly were angered and saddened.

In January 1922 a Commission of Allied jurists, set up to inquire into the business, unanimously declared that it was useless to let the Leipzig court continue and recommended that the German government be compelled to hand over the accused persons for trial by the Allies under Article 228 of the Versailles Treaty. German groups, however, organized protest meetings at which high-ranking German officers reminded the Allies that “250,000 soldiers and the police of the Reichswehr” were ready to prevent the handing over of Germans to the “justice of the Entente.”

It is significant to note that of the 6 men convicted, the 2 with the longest terms soon escaped from the house of detention (not a prison) under suspicious circumstances. Thus ended the fiasco of bringing the German war criminals to trial.

----------------

Maybe this explains ( one of the reasons ) the request for an unconditional surrender set by the Allied?!

 

Britain's First Supersonic Aeroplane plan

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A882272

Within a few weeks of the American's visit, the Air Ministry Director of Scientific Research, Sir Ben Lockspeiser, cancelled the British supersonic project, saying:

...in view of the unknown hazards near the speed of sound ... [it is] considered unwise to proceed with the full-scale experiments.
Despite 90% of the design work being completed and half of the construction finished, the project fell, apparently due to a Treasury savings measure.

The Air Ministry ordered Miles to break up all jigs6 and to send all their design data to Bell Aviation. As it seems likely that the M.52 would have been flying by the summer of 1946, and since it would most likely have achieved its specified performance, it is hard not to believe the British government was pressured by the Americans to cancel the M.52 project.

This allowed the US become the first 'through the barrier', in October 1947, using the rocket-powered M.52 lookalike, the Bell XS-1. As an added bonus, the Americans' first jet engine, the General Electric Type 1, drew heavily on the designs of the British jet.

 

1918

Russian terrorist Fanya Kaplan (née Feiga Efimovna Roidman), 28, shoots at the Bolshevik leader V. I. Lenin August 30 and says she did it because he betrayed the Revolution in making peace with Germany; she is executed soon thereafter despite Lenin's opposition. "A revolutionist executed in a revolutionary country! Never," Lenin's wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, has said.

The Royal Navy's H.M.S. Argus completed in September is the world's first aircraft carrier; begun in 1914 as the Italian ocean liner Conte Rosso, she was purchased by the Royal Navy in 1916, has an unobstructed, 560-foot flight deck that can accommodate 20 planes, can reach a speed of 20.2 knots, and is armed with six four-inch guns.

Nearly all of the war has been fought on French soil, and it has left one in every 28 French citizens dead; gassed and dismembered corpses swing from barbed wire that stretches along thousands of miles of trenches, 1,039 villages have been completely destroyed, and only half the buildings remain standing at Reims, Soissons, Verdun, Ypres, and more than 1,200 other cities that have suffered persistent shelling.

http://history.enotes.com/peoples-chronology/year-1918

 

Victory smiles upon those who anticipate the changes in the character of war, not upon those who wait to adapt themselves after the changes occur." Giulio Douhet, 1921

( excellent choice of words btw! )

http://www.comandosupremo.com/Douhet.html

Like those who came before him and those who would come after him, Douhet became impatient with the foot dragging of his superiors and commissioned his friend, Gianni Caproni, to build a three engine, 300 horse power bomber that, as it turned out, was years ahead of it's time.

Douhet's vision was of bombers that would be self-defending and fly as fast or faster than fighter aircraft. Fighter planes would be limited to a secondary role of defending bomber formations. Pre-emptive air strikes should be the order of the day. There was no need for the niceties of civilized society (declaration of war) as war itself was an uncivilized action. Lastly, the air arm should be independent of all other services and receive the lion's share of military expenditures.

 

Battle of Tanga

http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/tanga.htm

Often referred to as 'The Battle of the Bees', the Battle of Tanga, an amphibious attack launched by British and Indian forces, established the burgeoning reputation of Colonel (later General) Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck by the manner in which he successfully beat off the British-led attempt to capture German East Africa.

A costly defeat, the attack at Tanga had cost the British 847 casualties (including 360 fatalities). In turn the Germans had suffered 67 deaths (from a total of 148 casualties), but Lettow-Vorbeck gained much booty from the supplies left behind by the British in their hasty retreat, including machine guns, rifles and 600,000 rounds of ammunition.

The war in East Africa is often considered somewhat courtly and gentlemanly. For example, after the battle the British met the Germans under a white flag and, over a bottle of brandy, compared notes and opinions of the battle, in addition to taking care of the wounded.

Lettow-Vorbeck's reputation, already in the ascendant, continued to grow. His war record was indeed remarkable; he never lost a battle and remained undefeated by the time he eventually 'surrendered' to the British on 25 November 1918, having belatedly heard of the Armistice from a captured British prisoner. He returned to Germany a national hero, an East African Hindenburg.

 

In the prelude to the Battle of Tannenberg, General Alexander Samsonov was to tragically ignore warnings provided by his pilots. Field Marshal von Hindenburg did not. Almost all of Samsonov's army was either killed or captured. Samsonov committed suicide. After the stupendous German victory von Hindenburg acknowledged that "without airmen there would have been no Tannenberg."

http://www.firstworldwar.com/airwar/observation.htm

 

" If you want to make a pile of money, invent something that will enable these Europeans to cut each other´s throats with greater facility!"

In 1882 in Vienna what a friend told Hiram Maxim and why he started making THE gun...

 

Interesting to see how dictators often hurt themselves during their career when it comes to development of technology etc.

From Stalin´s folly by Pleshakov

" Hundreds of scientists and weapons designers were arrested as well, suspected of having ties with the purged marshals ( 1938 ). Among them were the leading aircraft makers Tupolev, Petlyakov and Myasishchev and the rocket scientists Kleimenov, Langemak amd Korolev. However, an exception was made for some: Langemak was shot, but Tupolev was sent to a prison/think tank, Central design office No 29. "

 

In regards to Haig, I think Blackadder sums up his successes well enough...."In 3 years we have advanced as far as an asthmatic ant with some heavy shopping"