Al Nofi's CIC
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Issue #30, April 11, 2001 |
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This Issue...
- Infinite Wisdom
- la Triviata
- Short Rounds
- Officer Casualties in the United States Navy, 1797-1815
- America's V-1
- "'Ere Now, Mind the Bats, Guv'nor."
- Testimony of the Witnesses: - "The Bullet Has Little Stopping Power Against the Horse."
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Infinite Wisdom
"Nobody dislikes war more than warriors."
--Daniel James, Jr.
La Triviata
- During December of 1944 an average of 70 jeeps per day were reported lost in the Brussels area, although the nearest enemy troops were some 50 miles away.
- The ancient Greek writer Aeneas Tacticus recommended disguising women as men during sieges, so that there would appear to be more troops on the battlements than was actually the case, but strictly admonished his readers not to let them throw spears, "for they will betray their sex by their clumsiness."
- Rookie seems to have been coined in the Civil War, from 'recruit,' which became 'reckie,' which became 'rookie.'
- In 1935 the British Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Field Marshal Sir Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd proposed that officers of the Royal Tank Corps be provided with horses for use on parade.
- As a young man the great Russian novelist Tolstoy was a professional army officer who served in the siege of Sebastopol during the Crimean War, 1854-1855.
- The construction of the Citadel of Lille in France 1667-1670 required some 60 million bricks and 3.3 million stone ashlars for the foundation, plus untold tons of miscellaneous stone, masonry, mortar, and earth, for a total mass of materials so great that it proved more economical to dig a canal of some 20 kilometers in length than to transport the materials by wagon.
- When properly deployed for an attack in "blunt wedge" formation, a World War II German panzer battalion of 75 to 90 tanks occupied an area of from 30 to 40 acres.
- On April 16, 1810, Rep. Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina introduced a resolution in Congress "that the whole army ought to be abolished," at a time when the threat of war with Britain was rising.
Short Rounds
Officer Casualties in the United States Navy, 1797-1815
The formative years of the United States Navy were rough on the officer corps. Of 2,983 officers enrolled in the Navy between September of 1797 and February of 1815, the period of the Quasi-War with France, the Tripoli War, and the War of 1812, fully 1,779 were separated from the service for various reasons.
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