Anecdotes IV
---Kurt "Panzer" Meyer
---Max Hastings
---Max Hastings
---Max Hastings
At Abwehr headquarters an ambitious officer's chances for promotion would forever be squashed if Canaris even heard a rumour that he had spoken disparingly about dogs. Consequently the building at 72-76 Tirpitz Ufer was crammed with outspoken dog lovers. ---William B. BreuerNot exactly Knights of the Air This was illustrated by an incident involving [a] Soviet pilot, Lt. Vladimir Lavrinenkov, 35 victories, who shot down a Messerschmitt in Soviet territory. The German pilot belly-landed, and ran to a ditch to hide from the strafing he expected from his victor. Instead, the Russian landed his plane beside the German aircraft, ran to the ditch, and choked the Luftwaffe pilot to death. He then calmly took off and returned to his unit! ---Walter A. Musciano
---Geoffrey Regan
---Stephen Ambrose
---Richard Woodman
---Nigel Davies Diplomacy, Meso-American Style. The Chalcans (who, judging by their previous treatment of Moctezuma I in 1428 showed a peculiar disregard for diplomatic immunity), seized the Tlatelolcan ambassadors and handed them over to Axayacatl, who had them killed; their bodies were returned to Chalco, boiled, and served at a banquet in honour of Moquihuix, present in person in Chalco to plead his case.---Nigel Davies First Canadian Parachute Battalion, Normandy, 1944. While leading the forced march, Hill was wounded by shrapnel, which took a chunk out of his backside. Hill used a borrowed bicycle pushed by one of his men to reach his objective. For the next forty-eight hours he issued orders sitting on "one cheek" some distance from his men "because his wound smelled so bad." When asked why he refused evacuation to get immediate treatment, he replied somewhat sharply that he "hadn't trained his Brigade for ten months to let someone else command it in action."---Terry Copp. (My old history prof!) Pricus became something of a legend - it was rumoured that on one occasion the general's bellowing cry had caused twenty-seven soldiers to drop dead. ---Anthony R. Birley Mongol Problem Solving [Bayan] saw the whole problem as one of excessive Sinicisation, and is said to have proposed (unsuccessfully) that it should be dealt with by the execution of all Chinese named Chang, Wang, Liu, and Chao. This, if effectively implemented, would have removed about nine-tenths of the population, and no doubt Toghun Temur's immediate problem as well. ---David Morgan Peace loving monks in the Angevin Empire Unfortunately the court's verdict still had to be enforced. When a steward of the Abbot of Bury read out the king's letter he was "treated with great abuse and violence", so Abbot Samson ordered a night raid by 600 well-armed men. They carried off all their adversary's cattle and did what damage they could. ---John Gillingham Not everyone thought Charles was Great The abbot-elect Potho was accused of open disloyalty to [Charlemagne]; a commission containing Frankish and Roman officials and clerics heard the accusations of one monk, Rodicausus: the abbot had refused to pray for Charles, saying that if it were not his duty to think for the monastery and Beneventan territory, he would esteem Charles as highly as a dog, and that he valued those Franks in the district as so many vegetables. ---Peter Llewellyn. Henry "Scourge of God" V's Justice The king maintained discipline in his own imaginative way. When dauphinists ambushed and cut to pieces an English foraging party, one man escaped by running away. On being informed, Henry had a deep pit dug and ordered the deserter to be buried alive in it. ---Desmond Seward. Henry "Scourge of God" V's Standing Orders ...under pain of death, that there must be no arson, that churches and church plate were to be left alone and that women and priests must go unmolested. No harlots might come within three miles of the camp; after a first warning any harlot who did so would have her left arm broken. Nor must there be any swearing. ---Desmond Seward. Succession struggles...there's nothing new under the sun.
Was Igigi king? Was Nanum king? Was Imi king? Was Elulu king? Their tetrad was king, and reigned 3 years! ---Sumerian King List, c2193 BC. Military Bureaucracy The winter of 1917-18 was a severe one for the camels. Lawrence's [of Arabia] army was at Tafileh in January, at an altitude of five thousand feet. The snow drifted to a depth of four feet, impassable for the camels unless their riders dismounted and dug a path with their hands. Many of them, both camels and Arabs, perished from the cold. Lawrence sent a request to headquarters, Cairo, for heavy clothing and boots for his men. Instead of receiving them, he got a wireless message telling him that Arabia was a "tropical country"! ---Lowell Thomas.
A Roman Description of the Huns [They] eat the roots of wild plants and the half raw flesh of any kind of animal whatever, which they put between their thighs and the backs of horses and thus warm it a little. ---Ammianus A popular Incan ditty
Decisions, decisions In 1914, an officer of the Russian Imperial Guard wondered whether he should take his full dress uniform with him, for the triumphant entry into Berlin, or leave it to be brought by the next courier. ---J. F. Lazenby
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