Infinite Wisdom

"For our freedom and yours,
We soldiers of Poland
Gave
Our soul to God,
Our life to the soil of Italy,
Our hearts to Poland."

La Triviata

• In April of 1917, to help train operators of hydrophones, recently invented as an aid in anti-submarine warfare, the Royal Navy provided gramophone recordings of various types of engine and propeller noises.
• Russian efforts to hire troops in the United States to help fight the Crimean War (1853-1856) yielded 300 volunteers who claimed to be Kentucky riflemen, none of whom ever made it across the pond.
• In September 1944, the German 98^th Infantry Division and the British 56^th (London) Division tangled in the Romagna, in central Italy, both under the sign of a black cat as their unit emblem, the Londoners’ being based on Dick Whitington’s famous feline.
• At least 13 U.S. Army officers died in duels between 1815 and 1826, the year in which President John Quincy Adams decided to become less tolerant of the practice.
• An excellent inn near Harrogate, in England, is named for Banastre Tarleton, the notorious Tory leader, claiming he was the only successful British general of the American Revolution, though at least one observer has commented that this is an “exaggeration for which the quality of their beer easily gains forgiveness.”
• During World War II the only German field marshal who was not a member of the General Staff Corps was Erwin Rommel.
• Commanding the Roman fleet around 190 B.C. Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder, though immensely wealthy, limited his drinking to the same sour wine issued the rowers and marines.
• At Navarino on October 20, 1827, a combined British, French, and Russian fleet annihilated a Turkish-Egyptian one, in the last great battle of the age of sail, though it did just happened to occur in when these nations were all officially at peace.

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