Military History

#51
#51
hog88 said:
My ancestors would have risen from their graves.

The big house on the farm was built in the 1830s and the only reason it wasn't burnt by the northern invaders is it was being used as a hospital.
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I'm surprised that actually stopped them.

Sherman wasn't exactly the most cordial of Generals.
 
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#54
#54
Cold war had some pretty interesting weapon systems come and go.
 
#58
#58
10351101_458971790913345_2464696998730226249_n.jpg


Men of the Border Regiment resting in ‘funk holes’ (scraped out dugouts) near Thiepval Wood during the Battle of the Somme, July/August 1916.
(© IWM Q 872)

The Colour Sergeant (on the left) wears the padded cap, the man lying on the top is using a groundsheet as bedding and has laid out his 1908 pattern webbing with small pack, entrenching tool and water bottle by his feet.
 
#59
#59
10354898_550680131742510_7550616784411219300_n.jpg


“Portrait of an unidentified member of the 24th Australian Battalion at a frozen water point. He is wearing a sheepskin vest and balaclava. Note the large icicles hanging from the timber beams and the snow on the ground.” France 1916
(Australian War memorial – ID number EZ0123)

Note: the AWM file of this image claims the person in it is unidentified. However, in Anthony Staunton’s ‘Victoria Cross: Australia’s Finest and the Battles they Fought’ it has been conclusively identified as Whittle.
“An informal portrait of Sergeant John Woods Whittle VC DCM at a frozen water point in France during 1916.” (possibly January)

We think that if this photo was indeed taken in early 1916, then he would still have been a Private, he wasn’t promoted to Sergeant until October 1916. (so the photo could have been taken later)
He was awarded the DCM for action in February 1917 and the VC in April of the same year.

(Colourisation by Johnny Sirlande from Belgium)

https://www.facebo

ok.com/groups/coloredphoto/?fref=ts
 
#60
#60
hog88 said:
My ancestors would have risen from their graves.

The big house on the farm was built in the 1830s and the only reason it wasn't burnt by the northern invaders is it was being used as a hospital.
Click to expand...

Has anyone ever hunted this homesite for relics?
 
#61
#61
AirVol said:
Has anyone ever hunted this homesite for relics?
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Yeah, some little stuff has been found but most everything war related in the house was pilfered before my time. There weren't any major battles fought there just a few skirmishes.
 
#64
#64
YorkVol said:
There are more lessons to be learned from that conflict than most others, imo.
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Amazing to think that tactics developed at Vicksburg and Petersburg would play a massive role nearly 50 years later.
 
#66
#66
I live very close to the point where the Confederate lines broke in the Battle of Nashville. We have many minnieballs and Hotchkiss shell.
 
#71
#71
LouderVol said:
just curious to hear, what lessons are you referring to? Tactical, strategic, society, technology?
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Pretty much all of the above. WWI introduced most of the technologies that modern warfare employs. Everything from widespread use of automatic weapons to tank warfare to aerial combat. And the strategic worldwide alliances that still come together today in warfare.

However, I'm curious about what you mean by society.
 
#72
#72
Picked up a painting today at goodwill, 2 Lafayette Escadrielle planes (with swastikas on the body, a good luck symbol then) engaging a German plane. Recognized the war chief insignia so i had to have it.
 
#75
#75
Carrying over from the heroes to jerks thread in the PF.

Greatest Flag Officer of WWII? Could include General, Admiral or Field Marshall.

I'd have to go with one of the following:

General George Patton. His ability to format a plan of action along with surrounding himself with great leaders that would make it work was key to the African, Sicilian and Western theater. And many of those leaders would go on key roles or even surpass him like Abrams, Truscott and Bradley. And of course he was instrumental in liberating massive amounts of territory and his invasion into Germany. And very likely could have bashed his way deep into Germany in 1944 had Eisenhower thrown the support towards 3rd Army rather than Montgomery for Market-Garden.

The other, and likely as equal, would be Marshall Georgy Zhukov. Between breaking the Axis at Stalingrad and the eventual counteroffensive there and the Battle of Kursk, his was a master at waiting on his opponents to toss themselves onto his defensive works and then going in for the kill when they exhausted themselves. And of course the Eastern Front culminated with the Battle of Berlin in which the Germans finally surrendered.

For Patton's aggressiveness, you had Zhukov's patience. And without the two, I think the war in Europe might have drug on even longer.

Dark horse category certainly goes to Admiral Raymond Spruance. For being tossed into command of a carrier group less than a week prior to the Battle of Midway to the Battle of the Philippine Sea, his grasp of modern naval warfare and the application of carrier tactics were instrumental in retaking the Pacific. And the utter destruction of the Japanese fleet as an effective fighting force. While the Battle of Leyte Gulf was larger, the Japanese had run out of seasoned pilots by then and resorted to kamikaze attacks against the US Fleet. And due in large part to the previous engagement in the Philippine Sea where their naval air had been decimated. Spruance was seen as cautious, but made the right decisions at the right time of when and where to engage. And more often than not, those decisions were spot on allowing lopsided victories on the part of his forces.
 
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