nswC DESPATCH |
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DID YOU KNOW?QUOTESActive & Passive Aspects of Warfare
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Page 2 Last Update 20/January/2007The NSWC Despatch is the Quarterly magazine of the Northern Sydney Wargames Club of Sydney Australia. There are many interesting articles, some single issue and others continue from one issue to the next. Read and enjoy. Following is a section of articles from various issues of the Despatch.
DID YOU KNOW?By Thoran Braune 1)
That medieval stone-throwing engines were similar to Greco-Roman engines
because they were copied from the Byzantines and from ancient Roman military texts such as
that by Vegetius.[1] 2)
That General Giulio Douhet of 3)
That Big
Hole, Wisdom,
Montana is the site of a clash between US Colonel John Gibbons force and the Nez
Perce of Chief Joseph in August 1877.[3] 4)
In 1598 Juan de Onate, founded a colony in the 5)
The Apaches, who were allies of the Keres and help to defend 6) That the Boer commandos were organized on the basis of peacetime administrative districts and according to the size of the Afrikaner population. The Commandant was elected by the burghers within the commando. At the start of the Anglo-Boer War these commandos averaged 1,000 men each, with some as small as 200 and others as large as 3,000.[6] [1]
Canby, Courtland. A History of
Weaponry, Hawthorne Books, New York, 1965, p.19. [2] Ibid. p.87. [3] Hook, Jason, To Live and Die in The West, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, 1999. P.53. [4] Ibid. p.132. [5]
Opcit. p.132. [6]
Knight, Ian, Colenso 1899,
Osprey, Reed Consumer Books, Melbourne, 1995. p.14.
QUOTES 1) War is a
series of catastrophes that results in a victory George Orwell (1903 -
1950), Polemic, May 1946, "Second Thoughts on James Burnham" 2) You can no
more win a war than you can win an earthquake. Homer (800 BC - 700 BC), The Iliad
3) You cannot
simultaneously prevent and prepare for war. Albert Einstein (1879 -
1955) 4) He hoped
and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction
involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife. Douglas Adams 5) Human
beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of
others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. Douglas Adams, "Last
Chance to See" 6) The man who
prefers his country before any other duty shows the same spirit as the man who surrenders
every right to the state. They both deny that right is superior to authority. 7) Power tends
to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Lord Acton, Letter
to Bishop Mandell Creighton, 1887 8) If there
are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get
smart just in time to ask questions? Scott Adams 9) In war,
truth is the first casualty. Aeschylus Greek
tragic dramatist (525BC - 456BC) 10) It is easy
to be brave from a safe distance. Aesop Greek
slave & fable author (620BC - 560 BC) 11) I took a
speed reading course and read 'War and Peace' in twenty minutes. It involves Woody Allen 12) Force is
all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived. Abraham Lincoln 16th
president of US (1809 - 1865) 13) There are
always survivors at a massacre. Among the victors, if nowhere else. Lois McMaster Bujold,
14) When a man
tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: 'Whose?' Don Marquis 15) Never,
never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the
strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who
yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master
of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Sir Winston Churchill
British
politician (1874 - 1965) 16) Please
give me some good advice in your next letter. I promise not to follow it. Edna St. Vincent
Millay, Letters
US poet (1892 - 1950) 17)
Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status. Laurence J. Peter
The
Irish Legion By Lochet
Initially,
only a single battalion was raised under the direction of Adjutant General Bernard
Macsheehey, a French officer of Irish birth and many years of service in the French army. The organization of the battalion was completed on
1 Capitaine Eventually,
the battalion was raised to the standard nine company organization of all French
battalions. This gave it eight chasseur
companies and a single carabinier company. Later,
like in other French army infantry units, one company of chasseurs was changed to a
company of voltigeurs. Since the
Irish Legion initially had only a single battalion it did not have a full regimental
staff. Its staff consisted of: 1 Chef de bataillon The Decree of After the
French victories over the Prussians in 1806, a number of Irish were released from Prussian
captivity and added to the regiment. It
appears that the British had sold a number of Irishmen who were involved in the
insurrections of 1798 to the On On
Irishmen ... had been sold by the
British to the
The Decree of
17 December, l808 reorganized the 2nd Battalion, then serving in 1 Chef de
bataillon Each company
had: 1 Capitaine This gave the
battalion a total theoretical strength of 848 men. The
actual strength of the battalion was 556 when this reorganization was completed in The 1st
Battalion was reorganized with six companies identical to that of the battalion in 1 Chef de
bataillon On The 3rd
Battalion was formed on When formed,
the 4th Battalion went to When the five
battalion organization was completed a full regimental staff was established and consisted
of: 1 Colonel This set the
strength of the regiment at five battalions, one being the depot. It had 108 officers and 3,862 men, 3,970 total. With the
capture of
During 1813, the Irish were finally able to come to
grips with the enemy.
Records
indicate that in January 1810, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the
Irish Legion were serving in During June
1810, the Irish Legion found itself assigned to the Army of Portugal. It was still in
Junot's VIII Corps and was assigned to the brigade of General Thomieres. Its next major
combat effort was to be the siege of Ciudad-Rodrigo as Marshal Massena began his advance
into The order of On On 4 and
The two battalions of the
Irish Legion were destroyed...
After the
battle, Marmont assumed command of the Army of Portugal.
The Division in which the Irish Legion's served was now commanded by Major
General Brenniers and its strength formally recorded as a single battalion. On In 1812 the 1st
Battalion occupied the islands of Goeree and Overflanque, the 2nd Battalion was
in Berg-op-Zoom and the 3rd was in Willemstadt.
On During 1813,
the Irish were finally able to come to grips with the enemy. Two of its battalions were assigned to Lauriston's
V Corps, 17th Division (Puthod), 1st Brigade (Vachot). On 19 August 1813, facing the Army of Silesia,
they were heavily engaged in the battle of Lowenberg, losing ten officers. It appears to have been engaged with Langeron's
corps. On The Legion was
not engaged at Katzbach, which
occurred on 26 August, but on 29 August it was engaged in a savage skirmish on the The battle
went poorly for Puthod's Division, and according to Prussian sources, of the 11,885 men he
led over the Bober that morning, only 254 escaped. The rest were either captured or
killed. The portions
of the Irish Legion that survived the Bober disaster also escaped the Decree of This
reorganized regiment went to When Napoleon
abdicated, Louis XVIII began a general reorganization of the French army. The regiment was technically disbanded Before the
Legion had totally disbanded, Louis XVIII issued the Royal Ordinance of 1 Colonel Each company
was to have: 1 Capitaine This Royal
Irish Regiment was disbanded by Napoleon's Decree of Uniforms During the
period 1803 to 1814, the Irish Legion wore the basic French Light Infantry uniform in a
striking light green color with pockets a la Soubise.
The waist-coat and trousers were white in 1811 and the breeches may have
been green prior to that date.[1] The facing colors were yellow, i.e., collar,
turnbacks, etc. They wore knee-length black gaiters, black shoes and white belts. Initially, the
carabiniers wore a bearskin bonnet with red cords, patches and plumes. A shako with the same accouterments eventually
replaced this. The chasseurs wore a shako
with white cords and pompons of the company colors: yellow, green, violet and light blue. The voltigeurs' shako had a yellow over green
plume and green cords. All shakos had the
Imperial Eagle plate. The regimental
sappers wore the same uniform as the carabiniers, but their bearskin had a primrose patch
with a red grenade, plume and cords. Commanders The regimental
commandants and colonels of the Irish Legion were as follows: Commandants: April
1803-Macsheehy Colonels:
Of the
regimental colonels, William Lawless led a most interesting career. He was born in On Bibliography Belhomme, Lt.
Col., Histoire de l'infanterie en Couderc de
Saint-Chamant, H., Napoleon ses dernieres armees, E. Flammarion, Paris, date unknown. Fieffe, E.,
Histoiredes troupes etrangeres au service de la Friederich,
R., Geschichte des Herbstfeldzuges 1813, Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Malibran, H.,
Guide a l'usage des artistes et des costumiers, Combet & Cie, Paris, 1904. Martinien, A.,
Tableaux par corps et par batailles des officiers tues et blesses pendant les guerres de
l'Empire (1805-1815), Editions Militaires Europeennes, Paris, 1987.
© Copyright 1995 by The Emperor's Press
[1]
Malibran,
H. Guide a l'usage des artistes et des costumiers, Combet & Cie, Paris, 1904, p. 314
gives the trousers as white in 1811.
Copyright@Thoran Braune 1999 |