Infinite Wisdom

"The situation is overwhelming; if we remain here, we shall be shot by the enemy; if we retire, we shall be shot by our own High Command."

La Triviata

• The first British monarch to be a qualified pilot, Edward VIII created The King's Flight, now 32 (The Royal) Squadron, in 1936 to provide air transport for the Royal family's official duties, about the only permanent accomplishment of his short reign.
• According to official Chinese sources, 1,010,700 Chinese “volunteers” became casualties during the Korean War, including c. 152,000 dead, 383,000 wounded, 450,000 medical hospitalizations, 21,700 prisoners of war, and 4,000 missing in action.
• The David Taylor Boat Basin, in Potomac, Maryland, has seen many highly secret tests of hull forms in its history, though reportedly security has never been tighter than during trials of new designs for America's Cup yachts.
• In a letter home on July 25, 1811, John Mills, an officer of the Coldstream Guards, wrote “The conscripts for the Portuguese Army I see are brought in irons, and are forwarded from jail to jail till they arrive at their regiments.”
• On March 14, 1945, the newly commissioned frigate HMSAS Natal sailed from the builder’s yard in Newcastle-on-Tyne for her first active service, and four hours later sank the German submarine U-714, one of the most unique feats in naval history.
• In 1881 reading rooms on Army post were daily visited by an average of 4,800 troops, some 20 percent of the enlisted force.
• During World War II a great-grandnephew of the illustrious Prussian field Marshal, Helmuth von Moltke, Wilhelm Viggo von Moltke, a naturalized American citizen, served as an officer in the U.S. Army, and was under orders for movement to the European Theater of Operations on May 8, 1945, the day Germany surrendered.
• Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel, the Duke of Alba, who commanded in the Spanish Netherlands (1567–1573) during the opening phases of the Dutch Revolt, always dressed in what was described as a "brilliant blue."

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