Desired scans : Rank and File supplements Harpoon 3 & 4 supplements Force on Force supplements Hind Commander At Close Quarters War and Conquest Modern Spearhead
Alexander Bennett
October 26 in military history:
1185 – The Uprising of Asen and Peter begins on the feast day of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki. 1341 – The Byzantine civil war of 1341–47 formally begins with the proclamation of John VI Kantakouzenos as Emperor. 1597 – Imjin War: Admiral Yi Sun-sin routs the Japanese Navy of 300 ships with only 13 ships at the Battle of Myeongnyang. 1775 – King George III of Great Britain goes before Parliament to declare the American colonies in rebellion, and authorized a military response to quell the American Revolution. 1813 – War of 1812: A combined force of British regulars, Canadian militia, and Mohawks defeat the Americans in the Battle of the Chateauguay. 1881 – The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral takes place at Tombstone, Arizona. 1909 – Itō Hirobumi, four time Prime Minister of Japan and Resident-General of Korea, is assassinated by An Jung-geun at the Harbin train station. 1912 – First Balkan War: The Ottoman occupied city of Thessaloniki, is liberated and unified with Greece. 1917 – World War I: Battle of Caporetto; Italy suffers a catastrophic defeat to the forces of Austria-Hungary and Germany. The young unknown Oberleutnant Erwin Rommel captures Mount Matajur with only 100 Germans against a force of over 7000 Italians. 1917 – World War I: Brazil declares war on the Central Powers. 1918 – Erich Ludendorff, quartermaster-general of the Imperial German Army, is dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany for refusing to cooperate in peace negotiations. 1940 – The P-51 Mustang makes its maiden flight. 1942 – World War II: In the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands during the Guadalcanal Campaign, one U.S. aircraft carrier is sunk and another aircraft carrier is heavily damaged, while two Japanese carriers and one cruiser are heavily damaged. 1943 – World War II: First flight of the Dornier Do 335 "Pfeil". 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends with an overwhelming American victory.
James Barnes
It is 100 years since the start of the Battle of Caporetto (also known as the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, the Battle of Kobarid or the Battle of Karfreit), fought near the town of Kobarid (now in north-western Slovenia, then part of the Austrian Littoral), on the Austro-Italian front of World War I. The battle was named after the Italian name of the town.
Austro-Hungarian forces, reinforced by German units, were able to break into the Italian front line and rout the Italian army, which had practically no mobile reserves. The battle was a demonstration of the effectiveness of the use of stormtroopers and the infiltration tactics. The use of poison gas by the Germans also played a key role in the collapse of the Italian Second Army
In August 1917 von Hindenburg decided that to keep the Austro-Hungarians in the war, the Germans had to help them defeat the Italian army. Ludendorff was opposed to this but was overruled. In September three experts from the Imperial General Staff, led by the chemist Otto Hahn, went to the Isonzo front to find a site suitable for a gas attack. They proposed attacking the quiet Caporetto sector, where a good road ran west through a mountain valley to the Venetian plain.
The Austro-Hungarian Army Group Boroević, commanded by Svetozar Boroević, was prepared for the offensive. In addition, a new 14th Army was formed with nine Austrian and six German divisions, commanded by the German Otto von Below. The Italians inadvertently helped by providing weather information over their radio.
Foul weather delayed the attack for two days but on 24 October there was no wind and the front was misted over. At 02:00, 894 metal tubes dug into a reverse slope similar to Livens projectors (Gaswurfminen), were triggered electrically to simultaneously fire canisters containing 600 ml (21 imp fl oz; 20 US fl oz) of chlorine-arsenic agent and diphosgene, smothering the Italian trenches in the valley in a dense cloud of poison gas.
Carter Reyes
Knowing that their gas masks could protect them only for two hours or less, the defenders fled for their lives, though 600 were still killed. Then the front was quiet until 06:00 when all the Italian wire and trenches to be attacked were bombarded by mortars.
At 06:41, 2,200 guns opened fire, many targeting the valley road along which reserves were advancing to plug the gap. At 08:00 two large mines were detonated under strong points on the heights bordering the valley and the infantry attacked. Soon they penetrated the almost undefended Italian fortifications in the valley, breaching the defensive line of the Italian Second Army. To protect the attackers' flanks Alpine Troops infiltrated the strong points and batteries along the crests of the adjoining ridges, playing out their telephone lines as they advanced to maintain contact with their artillery. They made good use of the new German model 08/15 Maxim light machine gun, light trench mortars, mountain guns, flamethrowers and hand grenades.
The attackers in the valley marched almost unopposed along the excellent road toward Italy. The Italian army beat back the attackers on either side of the sector where the central column attacked, but Below's successful central penetration threw the entire Italian army into disarray. Forces had to be moved along the Italian front in an attempt to stem von Below's breakout, but this only weakened other points along the line and invited further attacks. At this point, the entire Italian position was threatened.
The Italian 2nd Army commander Luigi Capello was commanding while bedridden with fever. Realizing that his forces were ill-prepared for this attack and were being routed, Capello requested permission to withdraw back to the Tagliamento. He was overruled by Cadorna who believed that the Italian force could regroup and hold out. Finally, on 30 October, Cadorna ordered the majority of the Italian force to retreat to the other side of the Tagliamento.
Hunter Anderson
It took the Italians four days to cross the river, and by this time the German and Austro-Hungarian armies were on their heels. About this time, however, the rapid success of the attack caught up with them. Their supply lines were stretched to breaking point and consequently they were unable to launch another attack to isolate a part of the Italian army against the Adriatic. Cadorna was able to retreat further and by 10 November had established a position on the Piave River, where the Central Powers advance ended.
When inadequate provisioning was combined with the gruelling night marches preceding the battle of Caporetto, a heavy toll was imposed on the German and Austro-Hungarian forces. Despite these logistical problems, the initial assault was extremely successful. However, as the area controlled by the combined Central Powers forces expanded, an already limited logistical capacity was overstrained.
Luigi Cadorna was forced to resign after the defeat, a final straw according to the Prime Minister, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando. Cadorna was known to have maintained poor relations with the other generals on his staff and by the start of the battle had sacked hundreds of officers. In addition, he was detested by his troops as being too harsh. Cadorna had been directing the battle 20 miles (32 km) behind the front and retreated another 100 mi (160 km) to Padua when replaced.
Italian losses were enormous: 10,000 were killed, 30,000 wounded and 265,000 were taken prisoner – morale was so low among the Italian troops, mainly due to Cadorna's harsh disciplinary regime, that most of these surrendered willingly. About 3,000 guns, 3,000 machine guns and 2,000 mortars were lost, along with a vast amount of stores and equipment. The Central Powers lost 70,000 killed and wounded.
Ayden Hughes
After this battle, the term "Caporetto" gained a particular resonance in Italy, and is used to denote a terrible defeat. Ironically, it would become a rallying point for the nation, and the war for Italy was now reframed as one of national defence. The army rebuilt itself and would finally avenge its defeat at the triumph of Vittorio Veneto in October 1918.
The Italian Front in WW1 is a neglected part of a neglected conflict in wargaming. Only one ruleset I can think of (Chadwick's old Over The Top) even includes an Italian army list. But it's a fascinating story, equally epic in its bravery and human suffering to anywhere else. This is where Rommel and Hemingway both fought. Caporetto is a historic encounter in terms of the weapons and tactics used, and offers a lot of potential for the strategic gamer.
It is 136 years since the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, a 30-second shootout between lawmen and members of a loosely organized group of outlaws called the Cowboys that took place at about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 26, 1881 in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. It is generally regarded as the most famous shootout in the history of the American Wild West. The gunfight was the result of a long-simmering feud, with Cowboys Billy Claiborne, Ike and Billy Clanton, and Tom and Frank McLaury on one side and town Marshal Virgil Earp, Special Policeman Morgan Earp, Special Policeman Wyatt Earp, and temporary policeman Doc Holliday on the other side. All three Earp brothers had been the target of repeated death threats made by the Cowboys, who were upset by the Earps' interference in their illegal activities. Billy Clanton and both McLaury brothers were killed. Ike Clanton claimed that he was unarmed and ran from the fight, along with Billy Claiborne. Virgil, Morgan, and Doc Holliday were wounded, but Wyatt Earp was unharmed. The shootout has come to represent a period of the American Old West when the frontier was virtually an open range for outlaws, largely unopposed by law enforcement officers who were spread thin over vast territories.
The gunfight was not well-known to the American public until 1931, when Stuart Lake published the initially well-received biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal two years after Earp's death. The book was the basis for the 1946 film My Darling Clementine, directed by John Ford, and the 1957 film Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, after which the shootout became known by that name. Since then, the conflict has been portrayed with varying degrees of accuracy in numerous Western films and books, and has become an archetype for much of the popular imagery associated with the Old West.
Gavin Davis
Despite its name, the gunfight did not take place within or next to the O.K. Corral, which fronted Allen Street and had a rear entrance lined with stalls on Fremont Street. The shootout actually took place in a narrow lot on the side of C. S. Fly's Photographic Studio on Fremont Street, six doors west of the O.K. Corral's rear entrance. Some members of the two opposing parties were initially only about 6 feet (1.8 m) apart. About 30 shots were fired in 30 seconds. Ike Clanton's brother Billy had been killed, and he filed murder charges against the Earps and Doc Holliday. The lawmen were eventually exonerated by a local justice of the peace after a 30-day preliminary hearing and then by a local grand jury.
The gunfight was not the end of the conflict. On December 28, 1881, Virgil Earp was ambushed and maimed in a murder attempt by the Cowboys. On March 18, 1882, Cowboys fired from a dark alley through the glass door of a saloon, killing Morgan Earp. The suspects in both incidents furnished alibis supplied by other Cowboys and were not indicted. Wyatt Earp, newly appointed as Deputy U.S. Marshal in Cochise County, then took matters into his own hands in a personal vendetta. He was pursued by county sheriff Johnny Behan, who had received a warrant from Tucson for Wyatt's shooting of Frank Stilwell.
Wild West shootouts have always been a popular staple of skirmish wargaming - and what better gun battle is there to recreate than the most famous shootout of them all?
