Al Nofi's CIC
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Issue #139, September 25th, 2005 |
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This Issue...
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Infinite Wisdom
"To be a successful soldier you must know history. Read it objectively, dates, even minute details of tactics are useless. What you must know is how a man reacts."
La Triviata
- In 1908 Wilhelm II suffered a tragic loss, when the Chief of the Imperial Military Cabinet, Dietrich Graf von Hulsen-Haeseler suffered a heart attack and died before he could be rushed to a hospital, much time having been lost whilst the Kaiser and his aides attempted to get the general into a uniform, since at the time he was wearing a tutu so that he could dance for the entertainment of his Supreme Warlord.
- During the Second World War the Soviet Union suffered a daily average death rate of 19,014 men, women, and children, a number slightly higher than the greatest ever one day death toll in the history of the British Army, July 1, 1916, on the opening of the Battle of the Somme.
- Only once in more than a century has bean soup not appeared on the menu of the Senate dinning room, on September 14, 1943, when wartime shortages dried up the supply of white Michigan beans, sparking a senatorial uproar that insured the bean supply both for the next day, and on every one since.
- The bugler assigned to the 1st Marine Defense Battalion on Wake Island on the eve of World War II was so inept that once, when told "Sound �Call to arms'," he ran through "Pay Call," "Church Call," "Fire Call," and several others before accidentally hitting upon the right tune.
- William Golding, author of The Lord of the Flies, served as an officer in the Royal Navy during World War II, taking part in the Bismarck chase and later commanding a rocket launching LST during the Normandy invasion.
- Of approximately 200,000 African troops in the British Army during World War II, only two were officers, one of whom was the brother of the King of Buganda and the other the son of the Prime Minister thereof.
- During 1941, the British Empire devoted 80,000 tons of precious shipping to carry beer to its troops in North Africa.
- In late 1776, having captured a letter from Martha Washington to her husband, British Gen. Sir William Howe promptly returned it unopened to George, despite the fact that the latter was commanding the American troops opposed to him.
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