Infinite Wisdom

"All warfare is, to a great extent, asymmetric, as each side seeks to pit its strengths against an opponent’s weaknesses."

La Triviata

• At the height of the struggle to vindicate Alfred Dreyfus (c. 1898-1903),  the falsely convicted officer was supported by, among others, the Bourbon, Orleans, and Bonaparte claimants to the throne of France, as well as the former Empress Eugenie, Queen Victoria of Great Britain, and even Pope Leo XIII, not to mention numerous political, literary, and cultural figures from across the world.
• Sir Robert Napier’s 13,000-strong expedition from the Red Sea to Magdala, in what is now Ethiopia, during 1867-1868, was accompanied by 14,500 camp followers and 36,000 draught animals, who provided logistical support.
• By the end of World War II approximately 940,000 men had served in Hitler's Waffen-SS, of whom only about 250,000 were actually ethnic Germans.
• In earlier times, in many countries, the wives of  military officers often bore courtesy titles based on the ranks of their husbands – in France, for example, the wife of a marechal was “Madame Marechale.”
• Apparently, during the Republic, when a Roman general won a battle he thought merited a triumph, he would send the Senate a special dispatch wrapped in laurel leaves, suggesting that a supply of such leaves was a standard part of every commander's equipment.
• In 1759-1760, at the height of the Seven Years’ War, the Royal Navy assigned 30 captains, 105 lieutenants, 215 petty officers, and over 1,200 men to Impressment duties, who were supported by a further 1,200 officers and men manning the vessels that transported the “recruits” to the fleet.
• The oldest known manual for the training of war horses, in this instance to draw chariots, was written around 1345 BC by one Kikkuli, a Mittanian in the service of King Suppiluliumas I of the Hittites.
• On becoming Minister of War to the French republic in 1793, the brilliant Lazare Carnot cashiered himself from the Army, so that generals would not have to take orders from a mere captain of engineers.

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