Random Military Facts

[500]

My 5 cents:

Civil war in US started when Confederants attacked Sumter fort. After two days of bombardment fort accepted surrender offer, tough no one was killed. Defenders decided to give a gun salute to the fallen fort before leaving it. But when they gave a salute one of the guns exploded killing one soldier. That was the first casualty of the US civil war.

After the German capitulation in WW2 British troops landed on German occupied Crete island to take control over it. But suddenly they were attacked by local Greek communist partisans. British were forced to call German troops on island for help and only together managed to repel the attackers.

Swedish king Charles XIV John was French born Jean Bernadotte. After his death there was discovered tattoo on his hand with inscruiption "Death to Monarchs". He made this tattoo when as a young man joined French revolution.

 

[third eye]

In February of 1951, an American soldier named Corporal Einar Ingman found himself in command of two squads, since both sergeants had to be taken out of combat due to wounds and frostbite. He led his men against a Chinese machine gun nest, but Ingman took a hit in the head from a grenade fragment that tore away part of his ear. Then, a rifle bullet hit him in the face.

Dazed, Ingman rushed into the nest, using rifle fire and his bayonet to kill all of the CHinese soldiers there. When his men finally caught up to him, they saw that Ingman killed all ten Chinese soldiers himself. He survived and got the Medal of Honor. He was later asked how he managed to accomplish so incredible a feat, and he replied "That bullet in my head sort of made me quit thinking."

---------- Post added at 05:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:54 AM ----------

Fact #1: The REAL Cold War

Most Americans have no idea that the United States and Russia did openly engage each other in war. In 1918, about 11,000 American soldiers and Marines were sent to Russia to support what remained of the Czarist Russian army, where (in future irony) they joined Japanese troops fighting in support of the Czarist forces. In September of 1918, 7000 Marines landed in Vladivostok, and shortly thereafter, 4000 soldiers arrived in the far north of Russia, where British troops were already fighting the Bolshevik army. It was not until 1920 that Woodrow Wilson decided that he could not stop the Bolshevik takeover and quitely withdrew all American forces from Russia. American involvment in the Russian Revolution was well remembered in Russia, especially during the Cold War, even though it has been nearly forgotten in the United States. The number of American dead has still not been officially released to the American public.

Fact #2: The Black and the Baddest

The US Army's 369th Infantry Regiment, a black unit with white officers, served with amazing distinction in the First World War, earning much praise (especially from the French) and setting many records. They served in combat for 191 days in a row, more than any other American ground unit. But they trumped all Allied regiments in that they were the first to reach the Rhine. They were cited eleven times for bravery. They never lost a single foot of ground to the Germans and not one man was captured by the enemy. 171 men and officers were awarded the French Croix de Guerre by war's end.

Fact #3: Southern Gentleman

Long before his stint as Confederate President, a young US Army Lieutenant named Jefferson Davis dealt with insubordination in a rebellious private by beating him senseless with his fists, then refused to put the young man on report, stating that it was a fair fight. No one was insubordinate in Lt. Davis's unit again.

Fact #4: If you want peace...

Woodrow Wilson is remembered as the 'peace president,' because he tried to keep America out of World War I. But during his terms of office, he sent Marines to Haiti in 1915, troops to the Dominican Republic and Mexico in 1916, more troops to invade Cuba in 1917, even more troops to Panama in 1918, and then sent a few more the same year to Nicaragua (to force the country to elect a hand-picked pro-American presidential candidate, who was then forced to sign a commerce treaty with the US on favorable terms to US businessmen), sent most of the military to Europe to fight the Great War, then sent soldiers and Marines to the aforementioned Russian Revolution, and in 1919 sent ships of the US Navy to blockade Russian ports. Peace, huh?