Some Interesting Military Data

[Timerover51]

I should have added that, BlackBat. That was one reason why I view the Kitchener comment as so bizarre.

 

[Timerover51]

Executive Warrant

An example of an Executive Warrant, per Abraham Lincoln. Note the date.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 1, 1861
All ofllcers of the Army and Navy to whom this order may be exhibited will aid by every means in their power the expedition under the command of Colonel Harvey Brown, supplying him with men and material, and cooperating with hini as he may desire.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

I do not think that President Lincoln viewed this as an April Fools joke. Colonel Brown was the Army officer in charge of the relief expedition for Fort Pickens at Pensacola, Florida.

 

[simonh]

An example of an Executive Warrant, per Abraham Lincoln. Note the date.

The wording of that is close enough to that of an Imperial Warrant, I have to wonder if it was the inspiration for them.

Simon Hibbs

 

[Timerover51]

The wording of that is close enough to that of an Imperial Warrant, I have to wonder if it was the inspiration for them.

Simon Hibbs

Only Marc Miller knows.

 

[aramis]

Only Marc Miller knows.

Actually, that sounds more like a Frank Chadwick contribution.

 

[rancke]

The wording of that is close enough to that of an Imperial Warrant, I have to wonder if it was the inspiration for them.

It is commonly assumed that the inspiration was the Cardinal's Get Out of Jail Free card to Mylady in The Three Musketeers, but there are some pretty significant differences; you're right that this one is much closer.

Except for being to a specific individual rather than 'to bearer', of course.

It is with my knowledge and for the good of the United States that the bearer of this has done what he has done.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Hans

 

[Timerover51]

The following description of anti-tiger elephant armor comes from Sir Samuel Baker's book, Wild Beasts and Their Ways, Vol. 1. It can be found on Project Gutenberg, and it you have your characters wandering around in terrain similar to either India or Eastern Africa, I would highly recommend some reading of his books on hunting and exploration.

I had an excellent hood arranged for a large tusker which was lent to me by the Commissariat. The first layer of material was the soft but thick buff leather of sambur deer. This entirely covered the head, and was laced beneath the throat; at the same time it was secured by a broad leather strap and buckle around the neck. A covering for about three feet from the base of the trunk descended from the face and was also secured by lacing. The lower portion of the trunk was left unprotected, as the animal would immediately guard against danger by curling it up when attacked. Upon this groundwork of buff leather I had plates of thick and hard buffalo hide, tanned, overlapping like slates upon a roof. This armour was proof against either teeth or claws, as neither could hold upon the slippery and yielding hard surface of the leather tiles; at the same time the elephant could move its trunk with ease. Two circular apertures were cut out for the eyes, about six inches in diameter.

 

[salochin999]

The following description of anti-tiger elephant armor comes from Sir Samuel Baker's book, Wild Beasts and Their Ways, Vol. 1. It can be found on Project Gutenberg, and it you have your characters wandering around in terrain similar to either India or Eastern Africa, I would highly recommend some reading of his books on hunting and exploration.

Adventure that comes to mind from that...

Players invited by a local Prince to an elephant-mounted tiger hunt on a backwater planet and the armor on the Prince's elephant is sabotaged so players have to stop the Prince being killed when the incident happens and then find the culprit.

(elephant and tiger here meaning their alien equivalent on that planet)

 

[Timerover51]

Adventure that comes to mind from that...

Players invited by a local Prince to an elephant-mounted tiger hunt on a backwater planet and the armor on the Prince's elephant is sabotaged so players have to stop the Prince being killed when the incident happens and then find the culprit.

(elephant and tiger here meaning their alien equivalent on that planet)

Ah, you have caught the essence behind my posting of these tidbits of information.

To trigger the imagination of the reader as to how to apply it to Traveller.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Ah, man!

Adventure that comes to mind from that...

Players invited by a local Prince to an elephant-mounted tiger hunt on a backwater planet and the armor on the Prince's elephant is sabotaged so players have to stop the Prince being killed when the incident happens and then find the culprit.

(elephant and tiger here meaning their alien equivalent on that planet)

Do we have to? :devil:

I mean is he a dirtbag or a good guy, also, is he important to the Imperium? I mean there might be a reason the armor was sabotaged. Just saying, not sure we want to get all up in local politics. :CoW:

 

[Timerover51]

Do we have to? :devil:

I mean is he a dirtbag or a good guy, also, is he important to the Imperium? I mean there might be a reason the armor was sabotaged. Just saying, not sure we want to get all up in local politics. :CoW:

Generally, it is not good form to allow one's host to be assassinated. Against that, it does make for a great adventure. Either the PC's find the perpetrator or the PC's are the ones that get torn into quarters by said elephants. (Or the equivalent, maybe Triceratops? Never know when good old Terra might have had interstellar visitors.)

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

"See I told you!"

Generally, it is not good form to allow one's host to be assassinated. Against that, it does make for a great adventure. Either the PC's find the perpetrator or the PC's are the ones that get torn into quarters by said elephants. (Or the equivalent, maybe Triceratops? Never know when good old Terra might have had interstellar visitors.)

"'Ooo, it'll be cool guys, riding space elephants and hunting the vicious sabre-toothed tigeriod.' I hate you, just for the record. I told you these back water principalities are dangerous, 'just exaggerating for effect' my #%*€...sir."

 

[Timerover51]

With due respect for those who fought and died, and fought and lived, during World War One.

MY DUG-OUT
By Capt. Bruce Bairnsfather

What is this slimy dismal hole
Where oft I’m lurking like a mole
And cursing Germans heart and soul?
My Dug-Out

Where is it that beneath the floor
The water’s rising more and more
And where the roof’s a broken door?
My Dug-Out

Where is it that I try to sleep
Betwixt alarms, when up I leap
And dash through water four feet deep?
My Dug-Out

Where is it that I’ll catch a chill
And lose my only quinine pill
And probably remain until
I’m dug out?
My Dug-Out

from Fragments from France by Capt. Bruce Bairnsfather

This volume and his Bullets & Billets can be found and downloaded from Project Gutenberg. They do make excellent, and in many cases, thought provoking, reading.

 

[Timerover51]

The following quote, while not directly concerning the military, does give an idea of what went on behind the scenes in Great Britain when it came to providing timber and other supplies to the Royal Navy between the years of 1652 and 1862, the heyday of the wooden warship. The opening chapter of the book from which it is taken, Forests and Sea Power, by Robert Albion, paints a fascinating picture of the official and officially tolerated corruption in the purchasing of timber for the Royal Navy. The book may be downloaded from the Internet Archive.

Peter Pett, master shipwright at Chatham, was continually recommending the purchase of timber, at a good price, from a certain Moorcock. When it was found that Moorcock was really a dummy contractor, the selling agent for Pett's own timber, that son of the famous Phineas was suspended from his office. Late in the eighteenth century, clerks at Plymouth yard received from the contractors a regular "honorarium" of two guineas [2 guineas would be 2 pounds 2 shillings] on every £1000 for passing timber and bills. In 1798, they were successful in the request for an increase, and an assistant clerk, who had formerly been receiving £80 to £85 a year from this source, testified that his income jumped to £276. A whole chapter, or even a whole book could be written on this subject of dockyard "graft," for there is a wealth of interesting and edifying source material, showing that the above instances are only typical of a condition which existed throughout the period.'

For more information of what went on, I would also recommend the Diary of Samuel Pepys, available in download on Project Gutenberg. It does make for quite interesting, and at times, "racy" reading.

 

[Timerover51]

For our Australian members, who just celebrated the 100th Anniversary of the Landing at Anzac on the Gallipoli Penisula, the following entry from General Ian Hamilton's diary for May 5th, so a few days early. By the way, Hamilton's Diary is available both on Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive, and makes for quite interesting reading and insight into the British military mind of the early World War 1 period.

5th May, 1915. H.M.T. "Arcadian." A wearing, nerve-racking, night-long fire by the Turks and the French 75's. They, at least, both of them, seem to have a good supply of shell. To the Jews, God showed Himself once as a pillar of fire by night; to the French soldier whose God is the 75 He reveals Himself in just the same way, safeguarding his flimsy trenches from the impact of the infidel horde. The curse of the method is its noise—let alone its cost. But last night it came off: no Turks got through anywhere on the French front and the men had not to stand to their arms or use their rifles. We British, worse luck, can't dream of these orgies of explosives. Our batteries last night did not fire a shot and the men had to drive back the enemy by rifle fire. They did it easily enough but the process is wearing.

An answer has come to my prayer for 18 pr. stuff: not the answer that turns away wrath, but the answer that provokes a plaster saint.

"We have under consideration your telegram of yesterday. The ammunition supply for your force, however, was never calculated on the basis of a prolonged occupation of the Gallipoli Peninsula, we will have to reconsider the position if, after the arrival of the reinforcements now on their way out to you, the enemy cannot be driven back and, in conjunction with the Fleet, the Forts barring the passage of the Dardanelles cannot be reduced. It is important to push on."

 

[JimMarn]

I remember reading one of Ballatine's War book series about WW2, Company Comander, that the British regiment would get in trouble for requesting an extra pair of boots. At the same a U.S. Regimental commander was expected to ask for extra gear; like weapons, grenades, 60mm morter rounds, extra ammo, etc.

 

[Timerover51]

Presently, I am reading an account of Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow downloaded from Project Gutenberg, written by a French staff officer. It makes for interesting reading, and is not exactly flattering with respect to its portrayal of the Emperor. The following quote dates to about November 6th, when the first snows hit. It tells the story of what happened to the French, and other nationalities, stragglers at the hands of the Russians.

Most of them, attracted by the sight of by-paths, dispersed themselves over the country in hopes of finding bread and shelter for the coming night; but on their first passage all had been laid waste to the extent of seven or eight leagues: they met only with Cossacks and an armed population, which gathered around them, wounded and stripped them naked, and then left them, with bursts of savage laughter, to perish in the snow. These people, who had risen at the call of Alexander and Kutusoff, and who had not then learned, as they since have, to avenge nobly a country which they had been unable to defend, hovered on both flanks of the army under favor of the woods. Those whom they did not despatch with their pikes and hatchets, they drove back to the fatal and all-devouring high road.

 

[salochin999]

I remember reading one of Ballatine's War book series about WW2, Company Comander, that the British regiment would get in trouble for requesting an extra pair of boots. At the same a U.S. Regimental commander was expected to ask for extra gear; like weapons, grenades, 60mm morter rounds, extra ammo, etc.

I sometimes wonder if the *relative* frequency of bayonet charges by British units in Iraq and Afghanistan is simply because they run out of ammo more often.

 

[Condottiere]

No, it's because the Afghanis have not forgotten of the power of the charge of the 3rd Foot and Mouth Regiment

 

[salochin999]

They don't like it up 'em Captain Mainwaring.