Infinite Wisdom

"In war you have to run risks."

La Triviata

• Of 15 chaplains who dropped into Arnhem with the British 6^th Airborne Division on September 17, 1944, only two returned to Allied lines at the end of the battle on the 26^th, the rest having either been killed or captured
• The 125,000 troops that the Emperor Trajan concentrated for the conquest of Dacia in AD 105-106, were apparently the largest force the Romans ever put into the field under a single commander during the Empire.
• Because their helmets were painted white, U.S. Army MPs in Britain during World War II were nicknamed "Snowdrops" by both American and British troops.
• One of Denver's architectural gems is Richthofen Castle, built in 1883-1887 by one of the city's early settlers, Karl Freiherr von Richthofen, uncle and godfather to the rather more famous Manfred von Richthofen, the “Red Baron.”
• Of the 1,338 enemy vessels captured by American privateers during the War of 1812, over 500 were taken by raiders fitted out in Maryland, which numbered only about 117 ships.
• In addition to inflicting some useful damage on industry and infrastructure, one reason for the American and British battleship raids on Japanese coastal areas late in World War II was the hope that the ships would attract enemy aircraft, which could then be shot down by covering Allied fighters.
• In 1909 Winston Churchill owed his wine merchant £250, easily equivalent to £20,000 today, due to his habit of ordering case lots of Pol Roger champagne.
• Because he supported naval arms limitation and the Hoover administration's Depression-driven budget cuts, when Adm. William Veazie Pratt assumed the post of Chief of Naval Operations in 1930, his predecessor, Adm. Charles F. Hughes refused to shake his hand.

More...