Infinite Wisdom

"C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre. C’est de la folie – It’s magnificent, but it is not war, it’s folly"

--	French General de division Pierre F. J. Bosquet, witnessing “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” Balaklava, October 25, 1854

La Triviata

• During World War II 17 Americans served as officers in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps (formed as the 60th Royal Americans in 1750), all of whom were either killed or wounded.
  
  
• Although the Iron Cross has not been awarded since the Second World War, during the 1950s a supply was struck by the German Federal Republic so that recipients could trade-in their swastika-bedecked Nazi era decorations for ones of a more traditional pattern.
  
  
• During a siege in 1748, Afghan King Ahmed Shah’s prize cannon fired a ball in excess of 500 pounds with such devastating effect that the Persian city of Nishapur surrendered after only one round, despite the fact that the gun itself blew up.
  
  
• On the eve of World War I some 8.4% of the officers of the Austro-Hungarian Imperial-and-Royal Army were Jewish, comprising only 0.6% of the officers on active duty, but fully 18% of the reserve officers, and an amazing 30% of the medical officers.
  
  
• One of the most unique duels between commanders occurred in 281 B.C., at the Battle of Corupedion, during the Wars of Alexander the Great’s Successors, when Seleucus of Syria and Mesoptomia defeated and slew Lysimachus of Bithynia, both men being, at the time, over 80 years old.
  
  
• When France collapsed in June of 1940, the Polish 2nd Infantry Division, raised from refugees and expatriates, retreated into Switzerland, where it was interned, though the wily Swiss left it largely intact, in case they needed some extra support should Hitler decide to invade their country as well.
  
  
• Having lost its colors at Waterloo, a British regiment – the 33rd seems to be meant – attempted to cover up the disgrace by secretly ordering new ones to be made, a deception that failed to retrieve the regimental honor.
  
  
• Feeling their mannhood insulted when higher authorities tried to limit their exposure to venereal disease by issuing prophylactics, one day on the Eastern Front during World War II the troops of the Spanish “Blue Division” afixed inflated condoms to their bayonets as they marched in review for a contingent of very senior German officers.

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