Al Nofi's CIC
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Issue #166, September 24th, 2007 |
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This Issue...
- Infinite Wisdom
- la Triviata
- Short Rounds
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Infinite Wisdom
"Who fights for freedom goes with joyful tread."
| -- | Sgt. Joyce Kilmer,
165th Infantry,
Killed in action,
Battle of the Ourcq,
July 30, 1918
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La Triviata
- During the Prussian siege of Paris in 1870-1871, the Jardin des Plantes, unable to feed its animals, sold them to the highest bidder, with the result that famous restaurants such as Voisin's were shortly serving such delicacies as "Roast camel a la anglais", stuffed ass's head, elephant soup, wolf haunch in venison sauce, and truffled antelope terrine, accompanied, of course, by appropriate wines, about the only comestible of which there was a surplus in the city.
- Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels (1913-1921), was not only a pacifist and a prohibitionist, but, worse, knew so little about maritime matters that he actually ordered the fleet to adopt "left and "right" in place of "port" and "starboard."
- During the American Revolution, the Patriot forces lost about 25,000 dead, of whom only about 7,000 seem to have been the result of combat.
- As a young man John Capistrano (1386-1456), now the patron saint of military chaplains, had soldiered, but then took Holy Orders in the 1450s, and later served as an advisor to the King of Hungary, during which, despite his advanced age, he personally led the left wing of the Christian forces against the Turks at the Battle of Belgrade on July 23, 1456, shortly before his death from natural causes.
- U.S. Lend Lease shipments to the Soviet Union during 1941 included 20,000 surgical saws and 15,000 amputation knives.
- The only time Carl von Clausewitz ever led troops in combat was when he took the temporary command a grenadier battalion following the disastrous Prussian defeats at Jena-Auerstadt on October 14, 1806, and for two weeks helped cover the army’s retreat.
- Because he bore a rather archaic Scottish name, U.S. Army Capt. Robert MisCampbell, who was killed at the head of a squadron of dragoons during the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, has sometimes been reported as having been a woman serving disguised as a man.
- When, in 1926, the Irish Army decided to issue helmets to its troops, they contracted with the British firm Vickers to produce over 10,000 slightly modified versions of the German World War I stahlhelm.
More...
Portions of "Al
Nofi's CIC" have appeared previously in Military Chronicles,
Copyright © 2005 Military
Chronicles (www.militarychronicles.com), used with permission, all rights
reserved.
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