Infinite Wisdom

"It is astonishing to see the amount of good will one will throw into the digging of a trench under the inspiration of a raking enemy machine-gun and shell fire."

La Triviata

• In April of 1194, while Duke Baldwin VIII of Hainault was besieging Arquennes, in what is now Belgium, a thunderstorm broke out that was so violent it panicked his troops, of whom 85 percent of fled, forcing him to give up the attempt to take the town.


• Anti-espionage vigilantism in Germany during the opening days of World War I led to the deaths of some 28 motorists who did not stop fast enough when challenged.


• During 1941-1942 over 50,000 U.S. troops became ill, and some died, as a result of improperly administered yellow fever vaccine, a matter which was known to the press, but not reported in the interests of national security.


• In 260 B.C., the Roman Consul Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio lost 17 ships in Rome’s first naval battle, when the Carthaginians surprised him in port in the Lipari Islands, for which he was ever afterwards referred to as Scipio “Asinus—the Ass”


• The blueprints for a World War II-era Gato Class submarine covered approximately a quarter of an acre.


• Despite widespread anti-Semitism in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1914 Jews, who comprised about 5-percent of the population, totaled c. 17-percent of the reserve officers; so that upon mobilization there were six Jewish officers in the army for every Jewish enlisted man.


• Prussian conscription regulations adopted in 1733 required the enrollment of all boys at the age of ten, though they were not actually drafted for another eight years, usually for 18-24 months, followed by a minimum of 2-3 months active duty each year.


• In the course of World War II, the Cunard liner Queen Mary, traveled over 600,000 nautical miles, carrying some 800,000 troops, prisoners-of-war, and occasional passengers.

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