bintananth
behind a desk
I'll have to watch that later.
Interesting Military Facts & Stories You Discovered
- Thread starter Husky_Khan
- Start date
I'll have to watch that later.
GROGNARD
Well-known member
weird American Civil War facts.
• Glowing wounds.
After the Battle of Shiloh in 1862, soldiers reported a peculiar phenomenon: glow-in-the-dark wounds. More than 16,000 soldiers from both armies were wounded during the battle, and neither Union nor Confederate medical personnel were prepared for the carnage. Soldiers lay in the mud for two rainy days, and many of them noticed that their wounds glowed in the dark. In fact, the injured whose wounds glowed seemed to heal better than the others. In 2001, two Maryland teenagers solved the mystery (and won a top prize at an international science fair). The wounded became hypothermic, and their lowered body temperatures made ideal conditions for a bioluminescent bacterium called Photorhabdus luminescens, which inhibits pathogens.
* Love note.
During his invasion of Georgia, General Sherman came upon the mansion of a woman he had once courted.
General Sherman put the property under guard and left a message for his erstwhile sweetheart which read,
"Dixie" was was a huge hit across the country and quickly became one of Abraham Lincoln's favorite tunes.
*The U.S. government paid a Civil War pension until 2020.
In 2014, the Wall Street Journal found Irene Triplett, the 86-year-old daughter of Civil War veteran Mose Triplett , who fought for both sides. Mose died in 1938, but his daughter continued receiving the $73.13 owed to her from Department of Veterans Affairs. She was the last Civil War beneficiary, dying at age 90 in May 2020.
• Glowing wounds.
After the Battle of Shiloh in 1862, soldiers reported a peculiar phenomenon: glow-in-the-dark wounds. More than 16,000 soldiers from both armies were wounded during the battle, and neither Union nor Confederate medical personnel were prepared for the carnage. Soldiers lay in the mud for two rainy days, and many of them noticed that their wounds glowed in the dark. In fact, the injured whose wounds glowed seemed to heal better than the others. In 2001, two Maryland teenagers solved the mystery (and won a top prize at an international science fair). The wounded became hypothermic, and their lowered body temperatures made ideal conditions for a bioluminescent bacterium called Photorhabdus luminescens, which inhibits pathogens.
* Love note.
During his invasion of Georgia, General Sherman came upon the mansion of a woman he had once courted.
General Sherman put the property under guard and left a message for his erstwhile sweetheart which read,
*Popular music.
"Dixie" was was a huge hit across the country and quickly became one of Abraham Lincoln's favorite tunes.
*The U.S. government paid a Civil War pension until 2020.
In 2014, the Wall Street Journal found Irene Triplett, the 86-year-old daughter of Civil War veteran Mose Triplett , who fought for both sides. Mose died in 1938, but his daughter continued receiving the $73.13 owed to her from Department of Veterans Affairs. She was the last Civil War beneficiary, dying at age 90 in May 2020.
The British used tanker relays and inflight refueling to conduct the then-longest ranged bombing missions ever during the Falklands war.
Operation Black Buck - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Each mission required 13 aircraft operating from the same runway.
How could you post a link to Operations Room and be remiss in linking the video to the actual Black Buck Raid!?
First thing I thought of when he mentioned it.
How could you post a link to Operations Room and be remiss in linking the video to the actual Black Buck Raid!?
First thing I thought of when he mentioned it.
Because I brought up the even LONGER mission by B 52s
bintananth
behind a desk
How could you post a link to Operations Room and be remiss in linking the video to the actual Black Buck Raid!?
First thing I thought of when he mentioned it.
One of my older sisters told me about a SciFi story she'd heard that was a non-violent Black Buck writ large.
Astronomers from a very advanced society spotted a planet with a lot of O2 in the atmosphere about 25,000ly away and wanted to go take a look. An FTL capable warship was stripped of weapons and fitted with extra fuel tanks in their stead to extend the jump range from 400ly to 500ly and all of the jumps were done "blind" with no margin for error in uncharted space.
GROGNARD
Well-known member
Weird facts from WW1, the War to End All Wars.
Nice Digs
*German trenches were in stark contrast to British trenches. German trenches were built to last and included bunk beds, furniture, cupboards, water tanks with faucets, electric lights, and doorbells.
You Can't Say That Here
*Until it was suppressed forcefully during WWI, German was the second most widely spoken language in the United States of America. Many local governments, schools, and newspapers operated in German.
You missed! My turn!
*The ocean liner Olympic, sister ship to Titanic, became the only merchant vessel in WWI to sink an enemy warship when she rammed U-boat U-103.
Hey! That's MY name!
*In WWI, British armed merchant cruiser RMS Carmania engaged and sank the German merchant cruiser SMS Cap Trafalgar. Ironically, the two ships had been disguised as each other.
The Great Wolf War
*During WWI, on the Eastern Front, starving wolves amassed in such great numbers that Germans and Russians had to declare a temporary ceasefire just to fight off the wolf attacks.
--Why yes, I was a history minor in college. How can you tell?--
Nice Digs
*German trenches were in stark contrast to British trenches. German trenches were built to last and included bunk beds, furniture, cupboards, water tanks with faucets, electric lights, and doorbells.
You Can't Say That Here
*Until it was suppressed forcefully during WWI, German was the second most widely spoken language in the United States of America. Many local governments, schools, and newspapers operated in German.
You missed! My turn!
*The ocean liner Olympic, sister ship to Titanic, became the only merchant vessel in WWI to sink an enemy warship when she rammed U-boat U-103.
Hey! That's MY name!
*In WWI, British armed merchant cruiser RMS Carmania engaged and sank the German merchant cruiser SMS Cap Trafalgar. Ironically, the two ships had been disguised as each other.
The Great Wolf War
*During WWI, on the Eastern Front, starving wolves amassed in such great numbers that Germans and Russians had to declare a temporary ceasefire just to fight off the wolf attacks.
--Why yes, I was a history minor in college. How can you tell?--
PsihoKekec
Swashbuckling Accountant
And HMS Dreadnaught is the only battleship to sink a submarine.
bintananth
behind a desk
"On purpose" and "confirmed" should be added to that sentence.
USS New York wasn't trying to sink a submarine when she ran over what was probably one which was a little too close to the surface in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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Clanner Moment
Gone
Thread on the Imperial Japanese’ inadequate Bulldozer/earth mover supply, one of many things they failed to build enough of.
Harlock
I should have expected that really
Not really a bombing mission though, I mean they were launching cruise missiles from a hundred miles away from the Iraqi border far from any air defences. The Vulcans had to go in at 300 feet and actually overfly the enemy airbase before dropping bombs rather than standing off nice and safe.
I'd call the B52 run the longest combat mission, but not the longest bombing mission given they didn't really bomb anything. Just trucked missiles.
Anyway on topic, I suppose a bit of a tangent but it involves the military. This guy...
I think most of us have seen this picture of a random Chinese chap playing chicken with a tank batallion and winning. Now I always thought this was some kind of parade, the usual sort of showing off dictatorships like and that it was one of the things tied to Tianamen square.
Well it was but I recently learned it was actually just after the massacre and far from being a parade these were the tanks that had helped murder 3,000 democracy protestors and were on their way home. The wider angle picture shows some of the burnt out busses left over from the riots in the background not cleared up yet.
So not only is this guy standing in front of a line of Commie tanks, he's standing in front of tanks which had just finished killing a whole bunch of civilians. He would have known these guys had no issue rolling over civilians and yet there he stands. That for me makes the entire story just that much more courageous.
Harlock
I should have expected that really
Though on the subject of B-52s there is a story from Afghanistan.
This was very early in the campaign, November 2001 when Afganistan was still actively being fought over. Northern Alliance forces backed by NATO were fighting with the Taliban over Bagram airbase and this was a real fight involving thousands of soldiers, one of the major actions of the war.
So the Taliban are making a big push and the Alliance guys are in a bad position, the Taliban have a whole army there, thousands of guys, artillery, tanks and it is not going well. Air support is minimal and the attached US spec ops guys are getting desperate, Taliban forces are less than 500 yards away with only a road seperating the front lines of the two forces. They manage to finally get through to an aircraft expecting a strike jet.
Nope, its a B52 hauling no less than 45 mk82 dumb bombs.
Now the B-52 is not a close support aircraft, this one in particular didn't have any laser guidance gear or anything. Normally the just drop JDAMS which are GPS guided, but this one is hauling plain old iron bombs.
The situation though is critical so the aircraft commander decides to go in, the air controller asks him to drop everything in a line at 500 yards, danger close for any bomb let alone dumb bombs dropped from forty thousand feet.
The crew have to pretty much wing it inventing a CAS protocol as they set up on their run They have to drop from behind the Alliance position which means for those guys it looks like the bombs are being dumped on them which caused a little bit of concern. They had to drop from seven miles back and it took a minute for them to fall.
Fortunately the calcs were good and the b-52 dropped all 45 bombs across the frontline, each bomb being 500lbs. The results were as you'd expect from a carpet bombing danger close, apocalyptic.
It ended the fight then and there completely silencing the battle. After the shock wore off the Alliance troops charged forward with a cheer and drove off the remaining Taliban securing Bagram.
Post battle analysis credited that one aircraft with 1,200 kills.
This was very early in the campaign, November 2001 when Afganistan was still actively being fought over. Northern Alliance forces backed by NATO were fighting with the Taliban over Bagram airbase and this was a real fight involving thousands of soldiers, one of the major actions of the war.
So the Taliban are making a big push and the Alliance guys are in a bad position, the Taliban have a whole army there, thousands of guys, artillery, tanks and it is not going well. Air support is minimal and the attached US spec ops guys are getting desperate, Taliban forces are less than 500 yards away with only a road seperating the front lines of the two forces. They manage to finally get through to an aircraft expecting a strike jet.
Nope, its a B52 hauling no less than 45 mk82 dumb bombs.
Now the B-52 is not a close support aircraft, this one in particular didn't have any laser guidance gear or anything. Normally the just drop JDAMS which are GPS guided, but this one is hauling plain old iron bombs.
The situation though is critical so the aircraft commander decides to go in, the air controller asks him to drop everything in a line at 500 yards, danger close for any bomb let alone dumb bombs dropped from forty thousand feet.
The crew have to pretty much wing it inventing a CAS protocol as they set up on their run They have to drop from behind the Alliance position which means for those guys it looks like the bombs are being dumped on them which caused a little bit of concern. They had to drop from seven miles back and it took a minute for them to fall.
Fortunately the calcs were good and the b-52 dropped all 45 bombs across the frontline, each bomb being 500lbs. The results were as you'd expect from a carpet bombing danger close, apocalyptic.
It ended the fight then and there completely silencing the battle. After the shock wore off the Alliance troops charged forward with a cheer and drove off the remaining Taliban securing Bagram.
Post battle analysis credited that one aircraft with 1,200 kills.
This...this is why we have the B 52. If you want things dead you call them in
PsihoKekec
Swashbuckling Accountant
I would chalk this up to the usual USAF overclaiming, there is no way you are getting that many kills with bombing carpet unless the enemy is using Napoleonic era formations and Talibans were not that dumb. It's the same as the claim during Kosovo war that B-52 mission annihilated two Serbian infantry battalions, but in reality they only killed bunch of trees.
There's likely an overclaim on the kills but it's not "the same" as Operation Allied Force considering the US Special Forces and Opposition Forces were actually in contact with the enemy during this strike and took the field of battle shortly afterwards.
PsihoKekec
Swashbuckling Accountant
Considering that I can't even find a mention of similar clash near Bagram, I reckon it's one of those military legends that from multiple retellings start meshing up several events together, amping them up severely.
You know, like when the SF guys tells the guys from the 10th mountain about how they were under assault from 200 taliban somewhere in the Kunduz province, but then they finally got a B-1 and its bombs sent the Talibans packing. Two dozens retellings later, some staff guy who never left the Bagram base, writes the heavily distorted story on the internet, like he was one of the participants.
You know, like when the SF guys tells the guys from the 10th mountain about how they were under assault from 200 taliban somewhere in the Kunduz province, but then they finally got a B-1 and its bombs sent the Talibans packing. Two dozens retellings later, some staff guy who never left the Bagram base, writes the heavily distorted story on the internet, like he was one of the participants.
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'Ten Seconds to Impact' The B-52 Air Strike at Bagram, Afghanistan, November 12, 2001 in Air Power History, 2014.