Rusty's Naval/Military History thread

[Buster's Uncle]

Very in interesting read...

http://www.vox.com/2014/8/19/5942585/40-maps-that-explain-the-roman-empire

[Geo]

Thanks. Just made a pagemarker for this site.

[Rusty Edge]

 Brutus, one of the assassins, supposedly shouted "sic semper tyrannis" — "thus always to tyrants" — as he delivered the fatal blow, though this is probably apocryphal.

Those were the words of the actor John Wilkes Booth when he assassinated Lincoln. I figured it came from a play or something.

[Geo]

Well, the Classical Greeks at the very least were drama whores... Perhaps its something the Romans inherited from them.

[Buster's Uncle]

For some history enthusiasts, World War One tributes go further
Reuters
By Sarah Young  August 22, 2014 6:46 AM



Factory landlord Lawrence Taylor poses in the factory he rents to Enfield Speciality Doors in Enfield, north London, August 12, 2014. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor



LONDON (Reuters) - For some people fascinated by World War One, the poppies and wreath-laying of Remembrance day services and the commemorative events of solemn anniversaries like this year's centenary are not enough.

Lawrence Taylor, a 55-year old businessman, is one of them. He is part of a group of people across Britain who spend their weekends paying tribute to the Great War fallen.

Taylor acts as a senior non-commissioned officer in the Rifles Living History Society, a 35-strong group which stages displays and sometimes mock action at dozens of events in Britain and across the Channel in Belgium and France.

His interest in the "war to end all wars" began at school.

"I asked my headmaster, 'why did we win World War One?' And he said to me 'Taylor, you stupid boy, because we had the better soldiers and the better generals,' and that stuck with me," he told Reuters.



Factory landlord Lawrence Taylor (L), portraying a Colour Sergeant from the King's Royal Rifle Corps, part of the Rifles Living History Society, performs a drill with Connor Young (R) of the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment Living History Group as they recreate the life of a First World War soldier at the Eden Valley Museum in Edenbridge in southeast England May 10, 2014. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor


Ten years ago he decided to join the Rifles society.

The group, whose day jobs range from lorry driver to construction manager and nurse, set up camp and get into character, ready to provide crowds with an idea of life on the Western front.

Attention to period detail extends right down to the way men talked to each other in the trenches.

"You have to watch (against) using modern terms like 'guys' - it's blokes, chaps and chums," says Taylor.

When not showing visitors around the traditional army bell tents that they erect at the camp, the group performs marching and gas-mask drills in front of visitors, as well as mounting displays of infantry tactics plus occasional demonstrations of skirmishes using blank ammunition.



Custom silicone technician Corin Watts, portraying a Lance Corporal in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps, part of the Rifles Living History Society, participates in a rifle drill whilst recreating life as a First World War soldier at the Colchester Military Tournament in Colchester, eastern England July 6, 2014. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor


PASSING OF THE VETERANS

Education is all part of the hobby, says technician Corin Watts, 43.

"A number of teachers have said to me they're grateful to us for the way we put it across, because kids are able to see the stuff, talk to people who know something about it, and learn directly through access more perhaps than they could in a few lessons," he said.

In a strange way too, the passing of the veterans has prompted more people to ask questions of what happened.

"When I was a kid in the 70s, it was very much mud, blood and horror. It was very much the dark side of history. There were still so many veterans around and they didn't want to talk about it," Watts said.



Theatre nurse Ciaran Dukes (C) portraying a Captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps marches with other re-enactors depicting World War One drills at the Eden Valley Museum at Edenbridge in south east England May 10, 2014. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor


The silence of many of that generation means visitors at events often approach the group after displays and ask questions around what their relative's experiences might have been, Watts said.

He reads diaries, memories, letters and poetry to help answer their questions.

"It was known as quite a literary war with people like Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, famously, and at the other end of the spectrum you've got other ranks by which we mean non-officers, the serving soldiers," said Watts.

Part of the appeal of World War One for him is the ability to read stories from different parts of society. Earlier conflicts, such as the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century, produced some accounts from outside the officer class but these became more common in World War One.

One of his favorite accounts of the war, is Frank Richards' 'Old Soldiers Never Die', a former coalminer's tale of the four years he spent as a signalman in some of the most famous battles at Mons and Ypres.



Carpenter Richard Helad, portraying a Lance Corporal of the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Living History Group, participates in a mock WWI battle at the Colchester Military Tournament in Colchester, eastern England July 5, 2014. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor


AUTHENTIC KIT

For their displays, the Rifles are often able to use authentic equipment but modern practicalities sometimes force them to fall back on replicas.

Metal helmets for example, issued to soldiers from 1916 onwards, offered better protection than the cloth hats they formerly wore, or so thought the men braving the muddy trenches and artillery bombardments. But the helmets were lined with asbestos, a toxic material which has since been banned in Britain, so Taylor and his comrades opt for modified versions.

One hundred years ago, men were also about three inches shorter, meaning men of average build today require custom-made uniforms which cost upwards of eight hundred pounds ($1,300).

These unofficial experts in the ways of the British Army - Taylor is familiar with 25 different War Office manuals from the time - can portray rifleman in any of the years between 1914 and 1918.

"We owe it to that generation to keep them in people's memories," said Taylor.

"You listen to those chaps who fought in World War One, they all said we don't want medals, we don't want to be called heroes, we just want to be remembered and it's as simple as that."

(editing by Stephen Addison)

http://news.yahoo.com/history-enthusiasts-world-war-one-tributes-further-104637079.html

---

See also Ils ne passeront pas by Harry Turtledove, wherein the Apocalypse commenced between the lines during  the Battle of Verdun, and no one even realized...

[Buster's Uncle]

http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=10198.0

[Buster's Uncle]

Replica of 18th century ship tests French waters
Relaxnews
September 7, 2014 3:48 PM






Cheered by tens of thousands, a life-size replica of the Hermione, the French navy frigate that shipped General Lafayette to America to rally rebels fighting British troops in the US war of independence, began its maiden voyage on Sunday.

Spectators lined the port in Rochefort in southwestern France to see the reproduced vessel, which took 17 years to build, set sail.

A cannon boomed as the ship passed the arsenal at Rochefort, as spectators applauded wildly and sailors gathered on its deck cried "Hurrah!"

The Hermione was accompanied by 120 boats. She will sail up the Charente river to Rochefort's commercial port. From there, the frigate will head to the Atlantic Ocean island of Aix for several weeks of sea trials.

The vessel will make a public stop in Bordeaux in October before returning to its home port a month later for final preparations.

The 65-metre (210 feet) ship is due to set sail for the United States in April 2015, following the route from Rochefort to Boston made by French General Gilbert du Motier -- the Marquis de Lafayette -- in 1780 to bolster American revolutionaries in their fight against British troops.

Sunday's launch is a major milestone in the journey undertaken by a group of restoration enthusiasts who in 1997 embarked on the arduous task of recreating the three-masted vessel using only eighteenth-century shipbuilding techniques.


- 'An important step' -

"It is an important step to sail Hermione at sea, which no one has ever done," said Benedict Donnelly, president of the Hermione-Lafayette Association.

"We were often told that it wouldn't work. But we have always said that she will cross the Atlantic and we are going to do just that," he added.

"It's all very impressive," said a man watching Sunday's launch. "We will continue to follow her adventures."

Since its foundation the association has attracted artisan craftsmen from France, Britain, Germany, Spain and Sweden and now comprises some 8,000 members.

"There is real pride in the collective force behind this project. There have been tense moments, but we remained united," Donnelly said.

The project cost 25 million euros ($32 million), financed by more than four million visitors to the shipyard -- also home to Rochefort's original arsenal -- as well as through crowd-funding initiatives for specific parts of the ship.

Yann Cariou, the ex-naval officer who will captain the frigate for its voyage to Boston, said the next weeks of testing would give the 72-strong crew a chance to "get their sea legs".

"Above all there will be emotion. It's still the Hermione and nobody has navigated a ship like this for two centuries," Cariou said.

It took Lafayette 38 days to cross the Atlantic, a voyage that confirmed his renown as a military mastermind and a hero of the American Revolution.

Lafayette's noble charm and strategic genius during the American revolutionary war have earned him the honour of having at least 42 US counties and cities and hundreds of streets and squares -- including Lafayette Square opposite the White House -- named after him or his ancestral home in France, La Grange.

http://news.yahoo.com/replica-18th-century-ship-tests-french-waters-194817179.html

[Geo]

Need to find out where its homeport is (on the map I mean).

[gwillybj]

Google Earth screenshot

[Buster's Uncle]

Official history of Hirohito dodges controversies
Associated Press
By MARI YAMAGUCHI and KEN MORITSUGU  8 minutes ago



In this 1928 file photo, Emperor Hirohito poses in the imperial robes that he wore when he succeeded his father to Japan's throne in Kyoto, western Japan. Japan’s longest-serving emperor has received one of the longest-ever official histories, but despite being 24 years in the making and 12,000 pages long, scholars and journalists say the annals of Emperor Hirohito are still incomplete. In a tradition that dates back 14 centuries, the Imperial Household Agency released a 61-volume history on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014 that includes childhood letters to his parents while stepping gingerly around what many really want to know: Hirohito’s thinking on issues such as his responsibility for World War II and the Yasukuni shrine for the war dead. (AP Photo/File)



TOKYO (AP) — A 12,000-page history of Emperor Hirohito released in Japan on Tuesday includes childhood letters to his parents but steps gingerly around what many want to know: his thinking on issues such as his responsibility for World War II. The record took 24 years to create, but scholars and journalists say it is still incomplete.

The official annals released by the Imperial Household Agency, a tradition dating back 14 centuries, provide a detailed timeline of Hirohito's life but don't appear to shed much new light on a 62-year reign that spanned Japan's brutal invasion of much of Asia and its reconstruction and emergence as a global economic power in the postwar years.

The 61-volume record "hardly contained anything new that reverses conventional wisdom and history," the liberal-leaning Mainichi newspaper said in an editorial. "We must keep asking ourselves why that catastrophic war could not be avoided. ... The question is hardly resolved."

The conservative Yomiuri newspaper noted that the annals left out Hirohito's own words on Yasukuni Shrine, where war dead are deified, and criticized the palace for attempting to avoid trouble.

Instead, the official history cites a 2006 scoop by the Nikkei newspaper, which obtained a memo written by a former head of the Imperial Household Agency that quoted Hirohito as expressing displeasure over the shrine's decision to include Class-A war criminals. The memo itself, which some researchers and journalists were hoping to see, was left out of the record, according to Japanese media reports.

Chris Winkler, a senior research fellow at the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo, said giving an official imprimatur to Hirohito's remarks would have risked enraging Japan's vocal right-wing.



In this May 19, 1988 file photo, Japanese Emperor Hirohito waves as Crown Prince Akihito, left, looks on during the imperial garden party at the Akasaka Imperial Gardens in Tokyo. Japan’s Imperial Household Agency has compiled a 61-volume biography of the former emperor that portrays him as being distressed that he could not stop his country from going to war, according to Japan’s Kyodo News agency. Hirohito died on January 7, 1989. (AP Photo/File)


"They don't want any trouble," he said of the Imperial Household Agency. "They just want the emperor or the imperial institution to stay out of trouble. That's their primary concern."

The record conveys some of the frustrations Hirohito felt early in his reign, through some of the 10,000 "waka" poems he is believed to have written. Only about 900 of the poems are known, including three new ones discovered during the project.

In one, written a few years after ascending the throne in 1926, he lamented that his ideas were not being reflected in palace policies, according to Japanese media reports. Two other poems from 1929 refer to "a missing fruit," an allusion to the frugal life at the palace during the global economic slump.

The history says Hirohito was first notified of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city of Hiroshima nearly 12 hours after the blast on Aug. 6, 1945, according to Japanese media reports.

It says Hirohito judged on the evening of Aug. 8 that it had "become impossible to continue the war" and expressed hope that the war would be concluded "as swiftly as possible," according to the reports. The United States dropped another atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki the next day, and Hirohito announced Japan's surrender on Aug. 15.



In this Sept. 27, 1945 file photo, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, left, poses with Japan's Emperor Hirohito during the latter's visit to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo for their first meeting. Japan’s Imperial Household Agency has compiled a 61-volume biography of the former emperor that portrays him as being distressed that he could not stop his country from going to war, according to Japan’s Kyodo News agency. The 12,000-page record also cites MacArthur, who led America’s postwar occupation of Japan, as saying Hirohito had said he accepted full responsibility for the war. (AP Photo/File)


The practice of documenting an emperor's reign follows a Chinese tradition, though in earlier times the records were intended mainly for the imperial household.

The annals of Hirohito's grandfather, the Meiji emperor, didn't start coming out until 1968, more than 50 years after his death. The record of Hirohito's father, the Taisho emperor, was only released in 2002 after the Asahi newspaper filed a public records request, and parts were blacked out, triggering criticism.

Hirohito's official history was completed this year and presented to his son, current emperor Akihito, in August. The 24-year project cost 200 million yen ($1.9 million), not including personnel costs for a staff that averaged about 26 people.

The release of the history was the lead story in Japan's major newspapers Tuesday, playing bigger than tennis star Kei Nishikori's bid for the U.S. Open championship.

The relatively quick release of Hirohito's record, 25 years after his death in 1989, was welcomed as progress by the media and scholars. It's also the first time the annals were written in modern Japanese, instead of a less-accessible archaic form of the language. None of the annals was blacked out, though that left many wondering what was left out.

Hirohito "is a first-rate witness of his era, which is an extremely turbulent part of Japanese history, and historical studies of that era are moving forward beyond views that tend to see the royals as taboo," the Nikkei newspaper said Tuesday. "But we should remember that the record is not a complete documentation of his accounts and try to read the Imperial Household Agency's intentions."

http://news.yahoo.com/official-history-hirohito-dodges-controversies-150507293.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Canada finds 1 of 2 explorer ships lost in Arctic
Associated Press
By ROB GILLIES  32 minutes ago



1845: The ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror used in Sir John Franklin's ill-fated attempt to discover the Northwest passage. (Photo by Illustrated London News/Getty Images)



TORONTO (AP) — One of two British explorer ships that disappeared in the Arctic more 160 years ago has been found, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Tuesday.

The HMS Erebus and HMS Terror were last seen in the late 1840s. Canada announced in 2008 that it would search for the ships led by British Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin.

Harper, speaking in Ottawa, said it remains unclear which ship has been found, but images show there's enough information to confirm it's one of the pair.

Franklin and 128 hand-picked officers and men vanished on an expedition begun in 1845 to find the fabled Northwest Passage. Franklin's disappearance prompted one of history's largest and longest rescue searches, from 1848 to 1859, which resulted in the passage's discovery.

The route runs from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Arctic archipelago. European explorers sought the passage as a shorter route to Asia, but found it rendered inhospitable by ice and weather.

"This is truly a historic moment for Canada," said Harper, who was beaming, uncharacteristically. "This has been a great Canadian story and mystery and the subject of scientists, historians, writers and singers so I think we really have an important day in mapping the history of our country."



Sir John Franklin, c1860s. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)


Harper's government began searching for Franklin's ships as it looked to assert Canada's sovereignty over the Northwest Passage, where melting Arctic ice has unlocked the very shipping route Franklin was after.

The original search for the ships helped open up parts of the Canadian Arctic for discovery back in the 1850s.

Harper said the ship was found Sunday using a remotely operated underwater vehicle.

The discovery comes shortly after a team of archeologists found a tiny fragment from the Franklin expedition. Searchers discovered an iron fitting that once helped support a boat from one of the doomed expedition's ships in the King William Island search area.

Franklin's vessels are among the most sought-after prizes in marine archaeology. Harper said the discovery would shed light on what happened to Franklin's crew.

Tantalizing traces have been found over the years, including the bodies of three crewmen discovered in the 1980s.

The bodies of two English seamen — John Hartnell, 25, and Royal Marine William Braine, 33 — were exhumed in 1986. An expedition uncovered the perfectly preserved remains of a petty officer, John Torrington, 20, in an ice-filled coffin in 1984.

Experts believe the ships were lost in 1848 after they became locked in the ice near King William Island and that the crews abandoned them in a hopeless bid to reach safety.

The search for an Arctic passage to Asia frustrated explorers for centuries, beginning with John Cabot's voyage in 1497. Eventually it became clear that a passage did exist, but was too far north for practical use. Cabot, the Italian-British explorer, died in 1498 while trying to find it and the shortcut eluded other famous explorers including Henry Hudson and Francis Drake.

No sea crossing was successful until Roald Amundsen of Norway completed his trip from 1903-1906.

http://news.yahoo.com/canada-finds-1-2-explorer-ships-lost-arctic-142332900.html

[Geo]

I read about this in a sailing ship book I have.
Looks like the info in it just became dated.

[Buster's Uncle]

US Military's New Laser Gun Zaps Drones
LiveScience.com
By Elizabeth Palermo, Staff Writer  1 hour ago



Boeing's High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD).



The U.S. military is now one step closer to having a laser gun that can shoot down enemy drones in the blink of an eye.

Boeing recently announced that its mobile laser weapon, dubbed the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD), successfully shot down more than 150 drones, rockets and other mock enemy targets in a third round of tests. The trials prove that the laser weapon is reliable and capable of consistently "acquiring, tracking and engaging a variety of targets in different environments," according to Boeing.

The most recent demonstration of the 10-kilowatt, high-energy laser took place at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. The laser was installed on a military vehicle, making it the first mobile, high-energy laser built and demonstrated by the U.S. Army, according to Boeing.

Directed-energy technologies like the HEL MD could soon be used by the military to augment what are known as kinetic strike weapons, such as missile interceptors, that don't contain explosives but destroy targets by colliding with them at extreme speeds.

Kinetic strike weapons are expensive, and the HEL MD could offer "a significant reduction in cost per engagement," Dave DeYoung, Boeing's directed-energy systems director, said in a statement.

This push for laser weaponry is part of the U.S. military's Ground-Based Air Defense Directed Energy On-the-Move (GBAD) program. The goal of the program is to provide what officials from the Office of Naval Research call an "affordable alternative to traditional firepower," to guard against drones and other enemy threats.

The recent demonstration of Boeing's mobile laser weapon is just a prelude of things to come. By 2016, the military plans to have a 30-kilowatt laser gun ready for testing, according to the Office of Naval Research.

And Boeing isn't the only defense contractor working with the military to develop high-powered laser weapons. In August, the Office of Naval Research awarded Raytheon an $11 million contract to build a vehicle-mounted laser device capable of shooting down low-flying enemy targets. The system will reportedly generate at least 25 kilowatts of energy, which will make it more than twice as powerful as the laser recently tested by Boeing.

http://news.yahoo.com/us-militarys-laser-gun-zaps-drones-132903413.html

[Geo]

Wonder if this weapon is also capable of shooting ground targets, like in approaching gunmen.

[Buster's Uncle]

I would think that's using a sledgehammer to kill roaches.