Infinite Wisdom

"Fortunate is the general staff which sees a war fought the way it intends."

La Triviata

• Documentary evidence for the ancient use of the so-called “Roman Salute” – the right arm extended upwards – consists of a short aside by Flavius Josephus in his history of the Romano-Jewish War and a couple of reliefs, leading many scholars to believe it may not have been the customary salute of the Roman Army, which has not discouraged generations of film makers and fascists from making extensive use of it.
• In 1734, finding that some 1,200 of his soldiers had gone AWOL to join the better-paying Spanish Army at Genoa, King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia instituted cavalry patrols to prevent the troops from escaping, and ordered captured deserters executed, which seems to have done little to stem the outflow of troops, lured by that extra cash..
• In just six weeks in August and September of 1940, British gold reserves plunged from £380 million to £290 million, nearly a quarter, due to the purchase of food, raw materials, and military equipment from the United States.
• The earliest book on high tech weaponry appears to have been Construction of War Engines and Artillery written in Greek by one Biton, otherwise completely unknown, save that he lived in the late third century B.C., because he dedicated the work to King Attalus I of Pergamum (r. 241-197 B.C.).
• The Grenadier Guards acquired their distinctive “bearskin” shakoes after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, when they were instrumental in smashing the famed final attack of the Grenadiers of Napoleon's Old Guard, who were so chapaeued at the time.   
• The Marquis of Granby (1721-1770), Colonel of The Blues and a brigade commander during the Seven Years’ War, arranged for non-commissioned officers who had been disabled in action to set up in business, as a result of which for generations his name adorned many an inn and pub across England.
• By one estimate, in the late seventeenth century the daily ration of an army of 40,000 men was 30 tons of bread, 27,000 gallons of wine or beer, and 135-200 head of cattle to feed the troops, plus 60 tons of fodder to feed the horses.
• When the notorious Banastare Tarleton told a Patriotic woman of occupied Wilmington that he regretted never having crossed swords with the famed American dragoon Col. William Washington, the lady replied, “Your wish, Colonel, might have been fully gratified had you ventured to look behind you after the Battle of the Cowpens,” from which the brutal Tory had fled in haste, becoming one of the few British soldiers to escape death or capture.

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