History Thread

"Things are a bit sticky, sir," Brig Tom Brodie of the Gloucestershire Regiment told General Robert H Soule, intending to convey that they were in extreme difficulty.

With no extra support promised, the colonel in charge of the Gloucesters fell back to a hill overlooking the river, where they made their stand. For four days, mostly without sleep, they held off 30,000 Chinese troops trying to surge across the river, killing 10,000 of them with Bren gun fire. When they tried to withdraw, they were too late. More than 500 of them were captured and spent years in Chinese camps. Fifty-nine were killed or missing. Only 39 escaped. Two soldiers were awarded Victoria crosses for bravery.

rams said:

"Things are a bit sticky, sir," Brig Tom Brodie of the Gloucestershire Regiment told General Robert H Soule, intending to convey that they were in extreme difficulty.

With no extra support promised, the colonel in charge of the Gloucesters fell back to a hill overlooking the river, where they made their stand. For four days, mostly without sleep, they held off 30,000 Chinese troops trying to surge across the river, killing 10,000 of them with Bren gun fire. When they tried to withdraw, they were too late. More than 500 of them were captured and spent years in Chinese camps. Fifty-nine were killed or missing. Only 39 escaped. Two soldiers were awarded Victoria crosses for bravery.

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Just looked it up and it's indeed as shocking as it sounds. Even if you don't understand the average casualty rates in battles then you'll know that the loss of ten thousand soldiers in an army 15-30k strong are beyond horribly grievous losses. Them taking casualties during reteats, being outnumbered and no one managing to relieve them and still managing to inflict so much damage is pure astounding. Underrated event.

"In time, even death itself might be abolished; who knows but it may be given to us after this life to meet again in the old quarters, to play chess and draughts, to get up soon to answer the morning roll call, to fall in at the tap of the drum for drill and dress parade, and again to hastily don our war gear while the monotonous patter of the long roll summons to battle.

Who knows but again the old flags, ragged and torn, snapping in the wind, may face each other and flutter, pursuing and pursued, while the cries of victory fill a summer day?

And after the battle, then the slain and wounded will arise, and all will meet together under the two flags, all sound and well, and there will be talking and laughter and cheers, and all will say,

Did it not seem real? Was it not as in the old days?"

- Private Barry Benson, Army of Northern Virginia (1880)

char said:

"In time, even death itself might be abolished; who knows but it may be given to us after this life to meet again in the old quarters, to play chess and draughts, to get up soon to answer the morning roll call, to fall in at the tap of the drum for drill and dress parade, and again to hastily don our war gear while the monotonous patter of the long roll summons to battle.

Who knows but again the old flags, ragged and torn, snapping in the wind, may face each other and flutter, pursuing and pursued, while the cries of victory fill a summer day?

And after the battle, then the slain and wounded will arise, and all will meet together under the two flags, all sound and well, and there will be talking and laughter and cheers, and all will say,

Did it not seem real? Was it not as in the old days?"

- Private Barry Benson, Army of Northern Virginia (1880)

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Makin a man proud. And reminded me about the maddest lad in the whole of the ACW
Witcher was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia in 1837. And actually he got the nickname “Clawhammer” from the type of formal coat that could resemble that of the working tool. Which Witcher ALWAYS wore.

Prior to the war. Witcher was involved in a family feud. Which happened due to his sister, Victoria Witcher. Marrying a man with the surname Clement. Now Clement apparently was a very clingy man. And Victoria eventually left the Clement man to file for divorce. And she went to her brother, Vincent. Who was actually a lawyer believe it or not. And soon they were in court to file the divorce. But while the father of the Witcher family, Captain. Vincent Oliver Witcher. I believe from record that a small verbal argument broke out. Leading Clawhammer to grasp onto the shoulder of one of the Clement brothers and reportedly yelled, “Shoot this sumbitch!” To which father Witcher produced a pistol. And shot all three Clement brothers.

Clawhammer. Now not only a suspect in a three man murder. Went alongside his father and dismembered, and mutilated the corpses of the three, cutting off limbs and cutting their throats. But before he could be charged, they were acquitted due to lack of evidence (old time justice was fuckin weird). And the war broke out. To which Clawhammer gathered a band of men to make a militia element. Hunting out and killing Union sympathizers in Virginia. Quickly they went out to the eastern parts of Virginia where they committed MANY unspeakable acts against anyone who they thought were working with the Union. And one of the most common ways of execution was coined by Clawhammer as “Witcher’s Paroll” in which they would tie a rope around the neck of the victim and attach it to a sapling. Then they would spring the sapling back like a slingshot. And let it go. Most of the time the neck of the victim wouldn’t so much snap as the head would just pop right fucking off their shoulders.

And that’s only the beginning of it... The paramilitary group full of cutthroat killers then called “Witcher’s Boys” ACTUALLY got fucking legitimatized by the State of Virginia as the 34th Virginia Calvary. To which they were sent to Lee County Virginia to deal with a band of pro-Union sympathizers. Locals were shocked when they discovered the bodies of a small band of men on Powell Mountain. Whose bodies were SO mangled and unidentifiable that only one was able to have been identified by the special undergarments that his window had made for him. Which she identified. And in 1862 in Wayne County, Virginia. Vincent reportedly took the head of one Union Sympathizer, and beat his head so hard and so much into a rock that his head actually split open, and spilt its contents onto the ground and rock. Vincent would reportedly do this ALOT during the war. Even fucking J.E.B Stuart would commend him following the Battle of Gettysburg which he served in.

In 1864 he was eventually tried for war crimes... And do you know how fucked up you gotta be and how many fucked up things you gotta do BEFORE the Geneva Convention that even your own people who condone and partake in the bondage and torture of another race to stop and go, “Jesus Christ man like you gotta stop that’s seriously fucked up”. But once again he was acquitted because... Lack of evidence! There was either a lack of evidence or Vincent was a really fucking good lawyer...

Then finally after the war he somehow managed to survive, escape out towards the Utah territory. CONVERT TO MORMONISM, and then die peacefully in 1912

Major Farrar-Hockley spotted Argentine reinforcements on the hills before them. He shouted, "Ambush! Take cover!" just as the machine-guns opened fire. The Paras were pinned down by heavy machine gun and automatic rifle fire. Between 9 and 10 that morning, 2 Para's A and B Companies broke off their attacks. They began to withdraw to the reverse side of Middle Hill and the base of Coronation Point.

Corporal David Abols later said that an Argentine sniper who killed seven paras with shots to the head during the morning fighting was mainly responsible for holding up A Company. Nevertheless, the paras called on the Argentines to surrender.

As it was now daylight, Lieutenant Colonel Jones led an unsuccessful charge up a small gully. Three of his men, his adjutant Captain Wood, A Company's second-in-command Captain Dent, and Corporal Hardman, were killed. Jones was seen to run west along the base of Darwin Ridge to a small re-entrant, followed by his bodyguard.

It was time for personal leadership and action. Lieutenant Colonel Jones immediately seized a sub-machine gun, and, calling on those around him and with total disregard for his own safety, charged the nearest enemy position. This action exposed him to fire from a number of trenches. As he charged up a short slope at the enemy position he was seen to fall and roll backward downhill. He immediately picked himself up, and again charged the enemy trench, firing his sub-machine gun and seemingly oblivious to the intense fire directed at him. He fell meters short of the trench, shot in the back and the groin, and died within minutes. Jones was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

Fun Fact, Tsar Nicholas II had a dragon tattoo he got in Japan on his right arm

Mute said:

Fun Fact, Tsar Nicholas II had a dragon tattoo he got in Japan on his right arm

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bit awkward

Dr Heckyll said:

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looks about right

Mute said:

Fun Fact, Tsar Nicholas II had a dragon tattoo he got in Japan on his right arm

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The Duma of Dojima

Mute said:

Fun Fact, Tsar Nicholas II had a dragon tattoo he got in Japan on his right arm

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He also got part of the right side of his head chopped off by a Japanese police officer with a Katana, mad lad

Mic15000 said:

He also got part of the right side of his head chopped off by a Japanese police officer with a Katana, mad lad

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I also heard he got his chest chopped by some funny Russians with guns

This evening my good friend who works currently at the sportsmans/gun shop I used to work at texted me about something very interesting and sobering that has happened during his shift.

An elderly gentlemen. Who must be somewhere in his 80s or 90s. Came in with a pistol. My friend was there when he came in and they started to talk about it.

This is the pistol that he had brought in. As my friend had sent me this.

But the story told by the elderly man was quite sobering.

The man was a Private of what he thought he said was the 4th Infantry Divison. And took part in the Liberation of Dachau concentration camp in April of 1945. The man understandably never went into detail about what he saw. But he did say that he was so horrified that when he saw an SS Officer. He simply shot the man dead where he stood. Walked over to the newly expired body of the high ranking officer. And took the pistol which I had shown above.

According to the documentation shown from the Army itself. What he had said was true. And the pistol was taken off of a dead high ranking SS Officer who was high among the ranks of Dachau.

The poor man by definition is a war criminal. But never faced court marshal or trial. And wanted to sell the pistol to help pay for his own funeral.

Mesa said:

On 18 July 1944, during a strategy conference in the Wolfsschanze, a fly began buzzing around the room, allegedly landing on Hitler's shoulder and on the surface of a map several times. Irritated, Hitler ordered Darges to dispatch the nuisance. Darges suggested that, as it was an airborne pest, the job should go to the Luftwaffe adjutant, Nicolaus von Below. Hitler took Darges aside, dismissed him on the spot and had him transferred to the Eastern Front.​

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mad lad

adolf couldnt handle the patter

Major Buang-Ly loaded his wife and five children into a two-seat Cessna O-1 Bird Dog and took off from Con Son Island. After evading enemy ground fire, Major Buang headed out to sea and spotted the Midway. The Midway's crew attempted to contact the aircraft on emergency frequencies but the pilot continued to circle overhead with his landing lights turned on. When a spotter reported that there were at least four people in the two-place aircraft, all thoughts of forcing the pilot to ditch alongside were abandoned— it was unlikely the passengers of the overloaded Bird Dog could survive the ditching and safely escape before the plane sank. After three tries, Major Buang managed to drop a note from a low pass over the deck:

"Can you move the helicopter to the other side, I can land on your runway, I can fly for one hour more, we have enough time to move. Please rescue me! Major Buang, wife and 5 child."

Captain Larry Chambers, the ship's commanding officer, ordered that the arresting wires be removed and that any helicopters that could not be safely and quickly moved should be pushed over the side. He called for volunteers, and soon every available seaman was on deck to help. An estimated $10 million worth of UH-1 Huey helicopters were pushed overboard into the South China Sea. Five additional UH-1s landed and cluttered up the deck. Chambers ordered them scuttled as well. Captain Chambers recalled:

"The aircraft cleared the ramp and touched down on center line at the normal touchdown point. Had he been equipped with a tailhook he could have bagged a number 3 wire. He bounced once and came stop abeam of the island, amid a wildly cheering, arms-waving flight deck crew."

Buang was escorted to the bridge where Chambers congratulated him on his outstanding airmanship and his bravery in risking everything on a gamble beyond the point of no return without knowing for certain a carrier would be where he needed it. He also called Buang-Ly the "Bravest man I have ever met in my life." and said of his decision to allow Lee to land that "When a man has the courage to put his family in a plane and make a daring escape like that, you have to have the heart to let him in." The crew of Midway was so impressed that they established a fund to help him and his family get settled in the United States. At the time, Chambers had only been in command of USS Midway for four to five weeks and believed that his order would get him court martialed.

Major Buang became the first, and last, South Vietnamese pilot ever to land on an aircraft carrier deck.