Topics created by Witt

Seeing Hooker was never going to take the offensive, Lee pulled two more Divisions, those of South Carolinian RH Anderson and Georgian Lafayette McLaws from in front of Hooker and led them himself against Sedgwick in conjunction with Jubal Early. It was to be a day of frustration for Lee, as he could not prod McLaws forward and get the 3 division attack going. Sedgwick withdrew over Banks’ Ford when he lost Marye’s Heights to Early.(Early had a great battle.)
This was the cue for Hooker to call the campaign over and he withdrew over US Ford on the 5th. Casualties were high for the four day battle: 13000 for Lee and 17000 for Hooker. Lee’s proportion was too high, considering he only had 60000 to start with.
Lee and the South had bettered an army twice the size of their own and given Virginia breathing space. Lee’s next move, as it had been in 62, after a victory, was to move North.
Gettysburg awaited.
Jackson would never again be Lee’s “right arm”’ as he passed away on the 10th from complications from his amputation.
His last words were: let us cross over the river and rest in the shade of the trees.

The 26th April 1937 saw Hitler’s Condor Legion bomb the Northern Spanish Basque town of Guernica. It was seen as a proving ground for the Nazi party’s new Luftwaffe and much experience was to be garnered from the Spanish Civil War. The Condor Legion was led by Oberstleutnant Wolfram Freiherr Von Richthofen(The Red Baron’s cousin) and under Nationalist control. Guernica was behind the front lines and was a town of about 7000 population. The bombing was in waves and exact casualty reports are unknown, but probably numbered around 1000. The Legion was a mix of Fighters and Medium Bombers, all names we know: 109s(B not Es), HE 51s (biplanes), DO 17s, JU52s and HE111s. There were also some Italian Fiat Fighters and the versatile SM79.
The outcome of the bombing was to demoralise the townsfolk and lead to its falling to Franco’s Nationalists on the 29th April.
This bombing raid was to be a preview of what was to happen between 39-45 to larger cities like Warsaw, London,Berlin, Dresden and finally Tokyo.

Try replacing your saline solution with hydrogen peroxide, seems to sting less than looking at it!

Wait wait wait…

St Edmund?

I think you’ve mistaken him for Boramir from Lord of the Rings…

Thank you Marc: he did live in France for a long time, but spent the last 5 years in Italy, dying in Rome.
Thank you for correcting me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiten

Oh… wait. Nevermind.

@wittmann:

Today, the 14th April, in 1471 saw the death in battle of one of Medieval England’s greatest men: Richard Neville, Warwick the Kingmaker. He was killed at the Battle of St Albans fighting against the King he put on the throne, Edward IV, one of the great warrior kings.
Richard Neville was born in 1428 titled and wealthy, but it was his marriage to Warwick’s daughter that made him the richest in the land. And he was ambitious. He had worked with the Duke of York to remove the mentally unsuited  Henry VI from the throne in the Wars of the Roses from 1455-1461. That is when the discontent began. He felt slighted by the King, he believed he had put in the throne. Matters only got worse when Edward married, not Warwick’s daughter, but an older and formerly married, Elizabeth Woodville. Her relations started getting top positions and Warwick decided to act.
In 1470 he placed the former feeble minded  King Henry on the throne(he had been imprisoned until now). Edward fled the country, to return in 1471 and defeat Warwick(Edward never lost a battle). The battle went wrong for Warwick when his ally, Oxford,  mistakenly opened fire on his brother. Shouts of “treason” sent men fleeing rearward. Warwick, horseless, was surrounded, his visor opened with an axe and a sword plunged in.
He was allowed a proper burial in an abbey, but Henry VIII’s reforms meant his tomb and remains were lost.

I’m an amature when it comes to in-depth historical history but I liked this post Witt! It’s been a while but I love Tudor era history and the period before and after thier Dynasty. Good post.

Morning Cromwell. Thank you for your time on this thread.
I have enjoyed reading all you have posted.

Napoleon abdicated today, the 11th April, 1814. He had been ruler of 70 million people, 30 million of them French, the rest Spanish, Belgian, Dutch, some Italian and German. He had also ruled parts of Poland and Yugoslavia. Then he attacked Russia. After the disaster that was Russia he was outnumbered two to one by a coalition of Austrian, Prussian, Russians and Swedes at the battle of Leipzig, losing this battle.  This too had come  after the loss of Spain to Wellington(June 1813).
On the 31st March 1814 the Allies entered Paris. His Generals persuaded him to abdicate in favour of his 3 year old son. His 10 year Empire had come to a close.
He tried to poison himself on the 12th, but ended up vomiting and not dying.  On the 29th he was on his way to exile on Elba.
He would return.

I wonder if you are hanging there thinking: I hope they do not snap. Or are you thinking I hope they do and I tumble 100ft to my death?
How can you not be on the point of passing out?

In San Gimignano(near Siena, Tuscany) they have a Torture Museum.
I love it. One of the first instruments you view is an anal pear.
I believe it was used on sodomites.
Of course the Rack was much used here and that was a hell of an instrument.

I suppose if you ste commiting treason, the lesson is: do not get captured alive!

On the 7th April 1862 the reinforced Northern army attacked the battle weary and battered Southern army. Grant’s 6th Division(Lew Wallace, later of Ben Hur fame) had at last joined him after getting lost yesterday and more importantly 3 Divisions from Major General Buell’s army arrived on boats. As Buell’s army was not subordinate to Grant, he could not command them and the jealous and petty Buell did not coordinate with him.
All these reinforcements were spotted by a Tennessee Cavalry Colonel and former slave trader, now self made millionaire,  NB Forrest and revealed to two commanders. Neither saw fit to report his findings to the new Southern commander, Beauregard. The Northern attack was to be a surprise, therefore.
The Southern soldiers did not run when hit by twice their number(probably only 20000 remained of the 40000), but by 3pm had withdrawn under fire.
Grant was happy not to follow. It had been a terrible two days for the US, with close to 25000 men becoming casualties. Six months later the two Western armies would fight another less bloody, but inconclusive battle in Kentucky. Many of the same names would be present, including a promoted NB Forrest. The Western armies had learnt how to fight and bleed.

Thank you.
I have probably seen it then, but would have been more than twenty years ago if I did, hence I have forgotten about it.
Al loves Paris; am not sure if she wants to see Versailles though.

@wittmann:

I try my best to use gargantuan as much as possible these days.
I know it means so much to all of us.

sounds like a gargantuanish plan to me wittmann… :-)

@wittmann:

Hi Siris:  My point was that the US can sneak past the mines while at peace and if their TTs make it through them on T6, bombard without having been subject to a mine attack.
That was all. Wanted confirmation that they did not need to survive a round of mines, before bombardment.
I think I knew the answer. Wanted to be sure.

As to taking fhe US ships out of port, in the game I played the Germans could not get its  Subs to survive  one round in the open, because of the preponderance of Allied ships.
Why not sail the US ones away if the Germans cannot get past the UK?
The US does not need to protect them in this case.

The US transports would be susceptible to the mines since they are moving into the mined seazone.

I believe those interested in politics do not read my history posts. (Otherwise how could they negative them?)
Thank you for your compliment, Malachi.
Hope you are enjoying your weekend.

He gave Barron an advantage, knowing his eyesight was not good: he did not take the usual number of steps, so making himself a bigger target.
Probably cost him his life and the US a great Naval Officer.
Who knows: could he have been as good as Nelson?
He seemed to fight like him.

Picked up my first book(McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom) when in my last year at University. Second book was two years later in a second hand bookshop in Wales: 2nd Volume of Shelby Foote’s trilogy. That was in 92.
I now have 60 books(that is a guess!).
I think what fascinated me at first was the battles were so bloody, yet inconclusive.
They did it again and again! Seemed mad.
It has replaced WW2 as my most knowledgeable subject.
I have said before I have very little knowledge of WW1 or Napoleonic battles.

Town…. not really. They were some ten miles from the next food depot, and they knew where it was, but just couldn’t make it. There are no real towns on Antarctica even today, and there were certainly no permanent settlements either back then.

Very interesting. Thanks again Wittmann.

True. Well said.
I meant smaller details of the battles and the senior commanders, rather than just a few names.
They were colossal affairs and so much was decided on one battle.
In the US Civil War both sides would lick their wounds and go again!