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ABOUT FACTS NET
Weapons & War
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General Grant Picture Source: http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist General Stonewall Jackson was a strange person. He had the idea that his right hand was getting more blood than his left hand. To counter this he began walking with his right hand held up in the air. He thought that this would correct the blood flow to the left side of his body. He also had strange ideas about food. It is said he wouldn't eat anything that tasted good because he assumed if something tasted good it wouldn't be good for you. If you lived in Massachusetts and were not in any of the services you were probably a shoemaker. The morning period for a woman during the Civil War and after was two and one half years. The medical profession during the Civil War believed that glasses with colored lenses would help with illness if worn. That is where we get the saying, 'looking at the world through rose colored glasses.' During the Civil War the Confederates went through Canada and attacked a small area of Vermont. A funny thing happened to weapons research. In 1803 a breach loading rifle was invented. The breach loaders were faster than muzzle loaders, yet muzzle loading rifles were used in the Civil War. The reason for this was that the government thought the faster loading rifles would cause ammunition to be wasted. When the Battle of Gettysburg was over all discarded
rifles were collected to be sent to Washington for inspection and
reissue. Washington received 37,000 + rifles. 24,000 rifles were still
loaded, 6,000 had one round in their barrel while 12,000 had TWO rounds
in their barrels. And amazingly 6,000 had THREE rounds in their barrels.
They even found a rifle with TWENTY THREE rounds in the barrel. The Union armies had from 2,500,000 to 2,750,000 men. Their losses, by the best estimates: Battle deaths: 110,070 The Confederate strength, known less accurately because of missing records, was from 750,000 to 1,250,000. Its estimated losses: Battle deaths: 94,000 World War I
Soldier and Horse With Gas Masks Picture Source: http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist How many men went to war in World War One? While precise figures are not available we can get some idea from the following facts: Over 20,000,000 men went to war in the first two week in August of 1914. Germany had a large reserve of about 4.5 million men. It was organized into 25 army corps. This comprised 87 infantry divisions and 11 cavalry divisions. There were 32 reserve divisions backing up the front line. The Russians had more manpower but they were not trained
as well as the Germans. They had 114 infantry divisions and 36 cavalry
divisions. An amazing fact about World War One is that Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and King George V of England were all first cousins. 50 percent of all who died in World War One had no graves. The U.S. navy were the first to allow women in a branch of their services. Women were admitted into the U.S. Navy. They were yeomen, official designation yeomen(F). Many animals met their deaths in World War I. There were over 40,000 dogs killed in the Allied Armies. While there are no exact figures, it is estimated that the British lost 800,.000 horses in Belgium. Some animals became heroes. A dog named "Stubby" saved his regiment from a mustard gas attack and was decorated by Gen. John J. Persing for valor. John J. Persing became the first four star General in the U.S. Army. There were some terrible bloody battles. Verdun had
the highest density of dead per square yard. Not only weapons were responsible for mass deaths. On the Italian Alpine Front over 50,000 soldiers lost their lives to avalanche. In the short period that the U.S. was in the war in actual combat, about 7 months, they had over 366,000 killed and wounded. The British soldiers suffered over 250,000 amputations. If you took the total number of military killed during the war the average killed would be about 232 per hour. Most people believe that Russia lost about 6,000,000 of its military. World War II
USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor 1941 Picture Source: http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist Who commanded the Pearl Harbor Naval Installation before World War II. Why it was the U.S. Navy Command CINCUS (pronounced SINK US). Twenty one American and Canadian Troops were killed at Kiska as they stormed ashore. No Japanese were found on the island. Have you ever wondered how young was the youngest soldier in World War II, probably not, but I did? He was 12 years old but had lied about his age and was in the U.S. Navy. He was dishonorably discharged when the Navy found out his true age but an act of Congress corrected that. Submarines were not always sunk by the enemy. In a bizarre stroke the German Sub U-120 sunk because its toilet malfunctioned. We were always looking for new weapons. It was decided that if you fit a bat (the live kind) into a bomb casing with an explosive attached to it, it would look for a building to perch on and then the explosive would go off. Well things never seem to work the way they are planned. The bats fell asleep when the bombs were dropped from a high altitude due to the cold air. When dropped from a low altitude, they didn't have time to get out of the bomb casings. Then the Army got it right and when the bats flew out of the casings they immediately headed for caves not buildings. Fighter pilots used to load a tracer bullet as every fifth round. This was a deadly mistake as it made it easier for the enemy to zero in on them when they fired. Also the tracer bullets did not have the same ballistic characteristics so they might hit a target but the normal round would miss. When you captured the enemy forces you didn't always only capture the enemy. At Normandy several Koreans were captured with the German forces. They had been captured by the Russians and forced to fight for them. The Germans captured them and forced them to fight for them. |
