Infinite Wisdom

"No man would be a sailor who had contrivance enough to get himself into gaol."

La Triviata

• Of their total male population of military age, during World War I about 80-percent of French and German men served in uniform, as did 75-percent of Austro-Hungarian men, some 50- to 60-percent of that of Britons, Serbs, and Ottoman subjects, and perhaps 40-percent of Russians.
• During the 1960s and 1970s the Swedish Navy operated what was certainly the most unique "warship" in the world, the 250-ton Sigrun, a sea-going laundry that served the needs of isolated bases and forts.
• In 1873, only 227 of 721 lieutenants, 52 of 264 commanders, and 22 of 118 captains in the French Navy were actually serving afloat.
• During the London Blitz in 1940, an average of 40 pedestrians were struck by motor vehicles each night, due to blackout conditions and the movement of emergency vehicles.
• When on campaign most Roman senators took to the field with an entourage of dozens of servants, but while commanding in Spain in 195 B.C. Marcus Porcius Cato – known as “Cato the Elder” – notorious for his aversion to luxury and waste, limited himself to just five.
• Early in twentieth century Argentina and Brazil, deadly rivals, used the same infantry tactics, having translated the current German tactical manual.
• Marshal Vauban (1633-1707), the great French fortification expert, once calculated that any fortress could be taken in one month by 60,000 infantrymen with 2,400 tons of supply, supported by 130 heavy guns provided with 16,000 rounds (132 tons of ball and powder), a force which required 20,000 horses to move, who would need 80,000 tons of fodder.
• When Lt. Luigi Durand De La Penne, Italian Royal Navy, was awarded the Medaglia d’oro de Valor Militare in March of 1945, for leading an intrepid team of “frogmen” who sank two battleships and a tanker in Alexandria harbor on the night of December 18-19, 1941, the decoration was pinned on by Commodore Sir Charles Morgan, who had been captain of one of the ships that was sunk, HMS Valiant.

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