Infinite Wisdom

"Ah! None but my brave English could do so brave an action."

La Triviata

• Although the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay began in 1932 and ended in 1935 with a resounding victory for the latter nation, a definitive peace was not signed until April 28, 2009.
• The trees that impressively adorn the earthen outworks of the fortified cities of Europe originally served a military purpose, as their root systems help hold the earthworks together, while the timber could be cut at the onset of a siege for construction materials and firewood.
• During the Buna-Gona Campaign against the Japanese in northeastern New Guinea (October 1942- February 1943), 53 percent of the men of the 32^nd Infantry Division suffered from malaria, dengue, or other tropical fevers, and the statistical infection rate was 5,358 cases per thousand men on strength, due to reinfections and relapses.
• Between 1792 and 1815 (sandwiching the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars), there were 92 generals of Hungarian origin in the Habsburg Army, of whom fully 48 (52.17%) died on active duty.
• Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Dowding, who commanded “The Few” during the Battle of Britain, was a champion skier, a vegetarian, a member of both the Fairy Investigation Society and the Ghost Club, and a spiritualist who believed he communed with his late wife and his dead airmen.
• The all-time record advance during wartime for mounted troops is reportedly held by a Prussian cavalry squadron that, during anti-partisan operations, covered 128 kilometers in 24 hours on January 20-21, 1871, for an average march rate of 5.3 kilometers per hour; though neither the outfit nor the operation can be identified.
• During China’s “Warring States” period (475-221 BC), the military regulations of some principalities rewarded women who stepped forward to take an active part in the defense of besieged cities with 5,000 cash, or about 200 grams of silver; which may be a trivial sum today, but then was enough to live on for some years.
• Although the British Army had been preparing for military operations alongside the French for many years, when the BEF went into action in France and Belgium in August of 1914, maps were in such short supply many officers had to rely on Michelin guides.

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