Desired scans : Black Powder - Rebellion Rank and File supplements Harpoon 3 & 4 supplements Force on Force supplements Hind Commander At Close Quarters War and Conquest
Jaxson Young
2nd of December in military history:
1804 – At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of the French. 1805 – War of the Third Coalition: Battle of Austerlitz: French troops under Napoleon Bonaparte decisively defeat a joint Russo-Austrian force. 1823 – Monroe Doctrine: In a State of the Union message, President James Monroe proclaims American neutrality in future European conflicts, and warns European powers not to interfere in the Americas. 1845 – Manifest Destiny: In a State of the Union message, President James K. Polk proposes that the United States should aggressively expand into the West. 1848 – Franz Josef I becomes Emperor of Austria. 1851 – French President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte overthrows the Second Republic. 1852 – Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte becomes Emperor of the French as Napoleon III. 1859 – Militant abolitionist leader John Brown is hanged for his October 16 raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. 1899 – Philippine–American War: The Battle of Tirad Pass, termed "The Filipino Thermopylae", is fought. 1917 – World War I: Russia and the Central Powers sign an armistice at Brest-Litovsk. 1920 – Following more than a month of Turkish–Armenian War, the Turkish dictated Treaty of Alexandropol is concluded. 1943 – World War II: A Luftwaffe bombing raid on the harbour of Bari, Italy, sinks numerous cargo and transport ships, including the American SS John Harvey, which is carrying a stockpile of World War I-era mustard gas. 1956 – The Granma reaches the shores of Cuba's Oriente Province. Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and 80 other members of the 26th of July Movement disembark to initiate the Cuban Revolution. 1975 – Laotian Civil War: The Pathet Lao seizes the Laotian capital of Vientiane, forces the abdication of King Sisavang Vatthana, and proclaims the Lao People's Democratic Republic. 1980 – Salvadoran Civil War: Four U.S. nuns and churchwomen are murdered by a military death squad.
Cooper Flores
It is 211 years since the Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors; one of the most important and decisive engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. Widely regarded as the greatest victory achieved by Napoleon, the Grande Armée of France defeated a larger Russian and Austrian army led by Tsar Alexander I and Holy Roman Emperor Francis II. The battle occurred near the village of Austerlitz in the Austrian Empire (modern-day Slavkov u Brna in the Czech Republic). Because of the near-perfect execution of a calibrated but dangerous plan, the battle is often seen as a tactical masterpiece of the same stature as Cannae, the celebrated triumph by Hannibal some 2,000 years before. Austerlitz brought the War of the Third Coalition to a rapid end, with the Treaty of Pressburg signed by the exhausted Austrians later in the month.
In the summer of 1805, with threats emerging from Russia and Austria, Napoleon abandoned his ambitions to invade England and turned to deal with these new adversaries.
Moving with speed and efficiency, 200,000 French troops departed their camps near Boulogne and began crossing the Rhine along a 160-mile front on September 25. Responding to the threat, Austrian General Karl Mack concentrated his army at the fortress of Ulm in Bavaria. Conducting a brilliant campaign of maneuver, Napoleon swung north and descended on the Austrian rear.
After winning a series of battles, Napoleon captured Mack and 23,000 men at Ulm on October 20. Though the victory was dampened by Nelson's triumph at Trafalgar the next day, the Ulm Campaign effectively opened the way to Vienna which fell to French forces in November.
To the northeast, a Russian field army under Kutusov had gathered and absorbed many of the remaining Austrian units. Moving towards the enemy, Napoleon sought to bring them to battle before his lines of communication were severed or Prussia entered the conflict.
Carter Nguyen
On December 1, the Russo-Austrian leadership met to decide their next move.
While Tsar Alexander I wished to attack the French, Austrian Emperor Francis II and Kutuzov preferred to take a more defensive approach. Under pressure from their generals, it was finally decided that an attack would be made against the French right flank which would open a path to Vienna. Moving forward, they adopted a plan devised by Austrian Chief of Staff von Weyrother which called for four columns to assault the French right.
The Allied plan played directly into Napoleon's hands. Anticipating that they would strike at his right, he thinned it to make it more alluring.
Believing that this assault would weaken the Allied center, he planned on a massive counterattack in this area to shatter their lines, while Marshal Davout's III Corps came up from Vienna to support the right. Positioning Marshal Lannes's V Corps near Santon Hill at the northern end of the line, Napoleon placed General Legrand's men at the southern end, with Marshal Soult's IV Corps in the center.
At dawn, the first Allied columns began hitting the French right near the village of Telnitz and throwing then back. Regrouping, the French effort was reinvigorated by the arrival of Davout's corps. Moving to the attack, they recaptured Telnitz, but were driven out by Allied cavalry. To the north, the next Allied column hit Sokonitz and was repulsed. Bringing in artillery, the French managed to retake the village, but soon lost it again. Fighting around Sokolnitz raged throughout the day.
Around 8:45, believing that the Allied center had been sufficiently weakened, Napoleon summoned Soult to discuss an attack on the enemy lines atop Pratzen Heights. Stating that "One sharp blow and the war is over," he ordered the assault to move forward at 9:00. Advancing through the morning fog, General Saint-Hilaire's division attacked the heights and was thrown back. Charging again, they managed to capture them.
Jaxson Morales
To their north, General Vandamme's division defeated Allied forces around Staré Vinohrady. Moving his command post to the heights, Napoleon ordered Marshal Bernadotte's I Corps into the battle on Vandamme's left. As the battle raged, the Allies decided to strike Vandamme's position with the Russian Imperial Guards cavalry. Storming forward, they had some success before Napoleon committed his own heavy Guards cavalry to the fray. As the horsemen battled, some of Bernadotte's men turned the tide, and with artillery support, were able to force the Russians to retreat.
At the northern end of the battlefield, fighting began as Prince Liechtenstein led Allied cavalry against General Kellermann's light cavalry. Under heavy pressure, Kellermann fell back behind Lannes' infantry who blocked the Austrian advance. After the French finished off the cavalry, Lannes moved forward against Prince Bagration's Russian infantry. After engaging in a hard fight, Lannes forced the Russians to retreat from the battlefield.
To complete the victory, Napoleon turned south and directed St. Hilaire's division and part of Davout's corps in a two-pronged attack on Sokolnitz. Enveloping the Allied position, the assault forced them to retreat. As their lines began to collapse all along the front, Allied troops started to flee the field.
Two days later, with their territory overrun and their armies destroyed, Austria made peace through the Treaty of Pressburg. In addition to territorial concessions, the Austrians were required to pay a war indemnity of 40 million francs. The remains of the Russian army withdrew east, while Napoleon's forces encamped in southern Germany. Having taken much of Germany, Napoleon abolished the Holy Roman Empire and established the Confederation of the Rhine as a buffer state. French losses at Austerlitz numbered 1,305 killed, 6,940 wounded, and 573 captured. Allied casualties included 15,000 killed and wounded, as well as 12,000 captured.
Parker Nguyen
The great victory was met by sheer amazement and delirium in Paris, where just days earlier the nation had been teetering on the brink of financial collapse. Napoleon wrote to Josephine, "I have beaten the Austro-Russian army commanded by the two emperors. I am a little weary....I embrace you." Tsar Alexander perhaps best summed up the harsh times for the Allies by stating, "We are babies in the hands of a giant." The Holy Roman Emperor Francis II is remembered to have said after the allied defeat in the Battle of Austerlitz: "The British are dealers of human flesh. They pay others to fight in their place." After hearing the news of Austerlitz, British Prime Minister William Pitt referred to a map of Europe, "Roll up that map; it will not be wanted these ten years."
The Battle of the Three Emperors is one of the most famous battles in military history, and an absolute must-play for the Napoleonic wargamer.
By the end of 1943, the strategic initiative in WW2 had passed to the Allies. They feared that Hitler could use poison gas to redress the balance. While the United States condemned the use of gas, President Roosevelt pledged that the US would reply in kind if the Germans used it first. In support of this pledge, the Liberty Ship, SS John Harvey was selected to convey a shipment of mustard gas to Italy to be held in reserve.
The John Harvey was loaded with two thousand M41-A1 100 lb mustard bombs at Baltimore. It sailed for Norfolk on October 15, 1943 and then onto Oran, Algeria by convoy arriving on November 2, 1943. From Oran, it proceeded in convoy to Augusta, Sicily and then to Bari, Italy arriving on November 28, 1943.
In late November 1943, the recently liberated harbor at Bari was extremely crowded and busy. All the berths in the inner harbor were full or not ready for unloading. The John Harvey was ordered to berth at Pier 29 on the East jetty (outer mole) until there was a berth free in the inner harbor where she could unload her cargo. The East jetty was extremely crowded. The Liberty Ship SS John Motley was moored on her starboard side while the British ships Testbank and Fort Athabaska as well as the Liberty ship Joseph Wheeler were on her port side. The John Harvey was still waiting to unload on December 2. Since secrecy was paramount and few people knew of the mustard gas on board, the John Harvey was not given priority to unload its cargo of mustard bombs.
A German air raid - comprising 105 Ju88s - began on Bari began at 7:20 in the evening. The planes flew in from the east. The docks were brilliantly lit and the East jetty was packed with ships. There was no time for the ships in the harbor to get underway.
Isaac Edwards
During the raid the John Harvey remained intact sustaining no direct bomb damage but caught fire when showered by flaming debris from a nearby damaged ship, then without warning, blew up. All hands were killed instantly and debris thrown in the air. Gas released from the broken bombs mixed with the oil on the waters surface and with billowing clouds of smoke.
The Americans sustained the highest losses from the German raid losing five Liberty Ships. The British lost four ships, the Italians three, the Norwegians three and the Poles two. There were more than 1,000 military and merchant marine casualties with 800 admitted to local hospital. A conservative estimate places civilian casualties at around 1,000.
Casualties from the raid began pouring into the hospitals. Swamped with casualties and not realizing they were dealing with poison gas, hospital staffers let the injured remain in their oil and gas soaked clothes. Victims suffered from burns and blisters, temporary blindness, swollen genitals and irritated respiratory systems. As victims began to die, the doctors started to suspect that a chemical agent was involved.
There were 628 mustard casualties among military and merchant marine personnel with 69 dying in the first two weeks. Most victims fully recovered. There was no accounting for the civilians who must have been exposed to the chemicals. Additionally, there was a mass exodus of civilians out of the city and some were probably gas victims that died for lack of care.
Elijah Campbell
A member of Eisenhower's medical staff, Dr. Stewart F. Alexander, was dispatched to Bari following the raid. Alexander had trained at the Army's Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland, and was familiar with some of the effects of mustard gas. Although he was not informed of the cargo carried by the SS John Harvey, and most victims suffered atypical symptoms caused by exposure to mustard diluted in water and oil (as opposed to airborne), Alexander rapidly concluded that mustard gas was present. Although he could not get any acknowledgment from the chain of command, Alexander convinced medical staffs to treat patients for mustard gas exposure and saved many lives as a result.
From the start, Allied High Command tried to conceal the disaster, in case the Germans believed that the Allies were preparing to use chemical weapons, which might provoke them into preemptive use, but there were too many witnesses to keep the secret, and in February 1944, the U.S. Chiefs of Staff issued a statement admitting to the accident and emphasizing that the U.S. had no intention of using chemical weapons except in the case of retaliation.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower approved Dr. Alexander's report. Winston Churchill, however, ordered all British documents to be purged, listing mustard gas deaths as "burns due to enemy action".
U.S. records of the attack were declassified in 1959, but the episode remained obscure until 1967 when author Glenn B. Infield published the book Disaster at Bari. In 1986 the British government finally admitted to survivors of the Bari raid that they had been exposed to poison gas and amended their pension payments accordingly.
In 1988, Alexander received recognition from the Surgeon General of the United States Army for his actions in the aftermath of the Bari disaster.
A subsequent inquiry exonerated the Allied commander but found that the absence of previous air attacks had led to complacency.
