The Sinking Of HMS Hood and Bismarck

1.In May 1941,the German's battleship Bismarck and new cruiser,Prinz Eugen were put out of sea from Germany.
2.However,they were located by the British reconnaisance in North Sea near Bergen.
3.On 24th May 1941,the battle cruiser HMS Hood and Prince Of Wales engaged Bismarck and Prinz Eugen.
4.Hood was sunk,Bismarck fuel supply was put out of action,so her commander Admiral Gunther Lutjens decided to make for the French coast.
5.Separating from the Prinz Eugen which escaped,Bismarck was sought again some 660 miles west of Brest.
6.Then.she has been paralyzed by the torpedo bomber from Ark Royal,bombarded by King George V and later sunk by Rodney and Dorsetshire on May 27th 1941.

Russo-Finnish War

What we will learn this day is the Russo-Finnish War,an engagement between the Soviets and the Finnish during the early phase in World War 2..I have summarized it into the simplest facts and there it is..
1.Estonia,Latvia and Lithuania admitted Soviet garrisons onto their territory,Finland refused to comply it..
2.Finland have only 200000 troops in 10 divisions,while The Soviets brought 70 divisions,it is about 1'000'000 mens and some 1000 tanks.
3.Soviet troops attacked the Finnish line on 30th November 1939.
4.Finnish's Mannerheim Line was broken on 1st February 1940,the Soviets swept the Finnish position at Karelian Isthmuths.
Finland collapsed and suffered 70'000 casualties while the Soviets more than 200'000.
Thats all folks,the simplest from the simple..

The Battle of Britain

1.With France conquered,Hitler could now turn his forces on Germany's sole remaining enemy,Great Britain.
2.But,it was protected by the water of English Channel.
3.An amphibious invasion of Great Britain will be impossible since the Great Britain have the largest navy in Europe.
4.Luftwafte chief,Herman Gorring issued 2nd August 1940 as the Eagle Day,termed as the Operation Sea Lion.
5.Their objective was to open the way for the invasion by destroying the British's infrastructure,industrial town and the Royal Airforce military installation.
6.Great Britain disposed some 600 frontline fighter to defend the country.
7.The German's Luftwafte made available about 900 fighter planes and 1300 bombers.
8.The bombing raid was called The Blitz.
9.Luftwafte had no systematic plan of action,sometimes they seek to destroy the Great Britain's ports ..then,another Blitz they will try to raid the British's Fighter Command by bombing the installation..the others will seek direct strategic result by attack London,
10.Great Britain,however,capable detected hostilities from a various chain of radar.
11.The Battle of Britain started on 8th August 1940.
12.In 4 actions,German's Luftwafte lost 145 aircraft as against the British loss of 88..
13.By late of August.
a)Luftwafte lost 600 aircraft.
b)RAF lost 260 aircraft and badly needed fighters and experienced pilot.
14.April 1941,German's Blitz over Great Britain was withered.
15.The result,Luftwafte lost 1700 warplanes while RAF loss of more than 900.

Evacuation of Dunkirk

Today,I will post some simplest fact about the evacuation of Dunkirk...It was happened during the earlier phase in WW2.
1.For the Allies,they was trapped by the arc of the westward Germany advance from Ardeness to the Somme.
2.Dunkirk was now the only port left available for the withdrawal of the mass of the Allies troops from Europe.
3.On May 27,Luftwafte bombing Dunkirk,so that many of the thousands of men had to fastly evacuate from Europe.
4.It is about 198000 British and 140000 French and Belgian troops had been saved,but all of their heavy equipment had to be abandoned.
5.From 41 destroyers participated in the evacuation mission,6 was sunk and 19 damages.
6.The miracles of the evacuation happened because..
a)Hitler's fatal order on May 24 halting Guderian.
b)Fighter planes cover from Royal Airforce.

Leapfrogging

This strategy can be apply by the smaller forces when countering the larger forces.
1.Definition:Known as the buddy system.
2.Concept
a)Advancing personnel on or post a target area being defended by an enemy.
b)Requires dividing an attack into at least 2 parts.
3.Tactics and Execution
a)Team A will surpress the enemy,while Team B will change position and advance.
b)When Team B reach the objective,they will signaled Team A to advance while the members of Team B will surpressing fire.
c)This manuevres will be repeated until the defenders are forces to fallback.

Fabian Strategy

This was a defensive strategy used by the Roman Consul,Fabius Maximus to defeat Hannibal.
1.Concept
a)Known as "the delayer"
b)Pitched battle are avoided in favor of wearing down an opponent through a war of attrition.
2.Employment and Strategy
a)Weaker side believes time is on its side.
b)Also best adopt when no alternative strategy.
c)Maybe the coward and demoralizing type of strategy.
d)The policy of continual retreat.
e)Combined the scorched earth,giving up the territory without a fight.
f)Promise extended war rather than a quick victories.
3.Help to drove Hannibal from Italy

Charge

Today, I want to write about 3 strategies in this blog.All of these strategies was taken from my second book.The Battleplan Manual.
First,we start with the offensive tactic.The Charge
1.Definition:Advance towards the enemy at their high speed to engage in close combat.
2.Concept
a)The defending formation breaking up and scatter.
b)Cause panic for the defender,usually in mass charge.
c)Wild mass charge can be victorious.
d)Even in the firearm age,the charge usually conducted by the cavalry,with their lancer and sabre,it can still be won against the infantryman equipped with the rifle.
e)But it still got the disadvantage:
-When the enemy form square
-When the enemy defending a structure.
-When counter the enemy equipped with heavy machineguns.

World War 2

Yesterday, I didn't post anything right,this was because I was watched The Longest Day, a World War 2 epic movie..This movie was quite interesting, although it was black-white movie,but the storyline,sound was awesome..For history fact of the day,I would like to tell my opinion about the factor that affect and brought German to a disastrous result in WW2.
1.Hitler made and had decided a various of fatal order in WW2.
a)On May 24th 1940,he ordered Guderian to stopped,thus,the evacuation of the remained allied troops which are the French,British,Polish at Dunkirk successfully completed by the allies high command, the same evacuated troops fought the German when the Normandy invasion on 6th June 1944.
b)During Operation Barbarossa on 1941,the situation of German troops was very critical,but Hitler declared war against United States although they were not in war situation.
c)Hitler ordered Gen.Friedrich Paulus to stand and fight during the Battle of Stalingrad.Actually, Paulus can fight with his way by moving eastward and combined with the special forces led by Field Marshal Erich Von Manstein and make a counterattack against Zhukov at Stalingrad.
d)During the Normandy invasion,Hitler ordered the entire of Germans troops to hold their position and there should not be any withdrawal.The result was disastrous,they are being surrounded by a large pocket made by the allied troops.The desperated German troops disobey the order and tried to breach the pocket, as the result,many of them was slaughtered or became the prisoners of war.If they make a major withdrawal,the German forces will form a strong defensive barrier line along the Seine River and they might be repel the invasion.
e)Hitler refused to transferred his remaining troops to the Eastern Front which are threated by a large number of infantry and armour division.But,he concentrated his forces to western front and willing to stop the allied advance at Ardeness.
f)The last factor was,after Battle of Britain and Operation Barbarossa,the Germans was totally lack of armour vehicles,warplanes and of course,the troops.During the Battle Of Britain,Luftwafte lost 1900 warplanes and they lost their air superiority during the last phase of war,which are mean during the Normandy invasion and the Vistula-Oder Offensive.While in Normandy invasion,the allies gain a superiority of 20:1 in number of armour vehicles and 25:1 in the number of warplanes,while the Eastern Front which is nominally Soviet had more 225 infantry division and 22 armour group.For the Germans,they just have 59 division and 10 armour division to faces the Western allied and had only 50 infantry division and 12 armour division to make a last stand at Eastern Europe against the superior Red Army.

Trafalgar

Naval battle in Imperial Glory was just fine but it is too hard to board the marine right, the enemy ship was superior even if we fight their sloop..we can't get too close with them..Ok,let us start our lesson and it is about the famous Battle of Trafalgar
Battle of Trafalgar,21st October 1805
1.Franco-Spanish Fleet have 33 ships under the command of Adm. Pierre Villeneuve,the British Fleet under the overall command of Adm.Horatio Nelson have only 27 ships.
2.At 1150 AM, Nelson signaled his famous message

"England expected that every man will do his duty"

3.Then the British squadron attacked the van and centre of Villeneuve's line,majority of Nelson's ships broke through and shattered the French line in pell mell battle.
4.The battle ended in 0500 PM, Villeneuve was captured and he lost 20 ships which was surrendered to the British and along with 14000 men.
5.Nelson died at 0430 PM after wounded by a French sniper from Redoubtable.About 1500 British seamen was killed or wounded,but no ship were lost.
6.The defeat shattered Napoleon's plan to invade England since he was already stationed his 120000 La Grande Armee at Calais.

Waterloo

Battle of Waterloo,18th June 1815
1.Napoleon's final defeat and ended the Hundred Days of Napoleon's restoration.
2.It was fought between Napoleon's 72000 La Grande Armee and the combined forces of the Duke of Wellington and Von Blucher's 45000 men.
3.After defeating Blucher at Ligny and holding Wellington at Quatre-Bras, Napoleon's Marshal,Michel Ney and Emmaneul Grouchy failed to annihilate the enemy while their armies was separated.
4.Napoleon made a major blunder in delaying the attack on Wellington from morning until mid-day,allowing the ground to dry and give Blucher's troops exactly the time they needed to reach Waterloo and support Wellington.
5.Finally,Ney employed his troops in a coordinated attack and captured La Haye Sainte.Ney requested for infantry reinforcement but it was refused by Napoleon because he was threated by the Prussian flank attack.
6.Only after 7 PM, he release several batallions of the Imperial Guards to Ney when his flank secured.
7.Wellington had reorganized his troops, aided by the arrival of Prussians corps under H.E.K Zieten, together they advance and assaulted the French troops.
8.The panic French troops retreat disorganized and several battalion of La Grande Armee made a last stand rather than retreat.
9.Napoleon lost 25000 men and 9000 was captured by the British-Prussian troops. Wellington suffered a casualties about 15000 troops while Blucher lost 8000.

Austerlitz

Battle of Austerlitz,2nd December 1805
1.It was the first engagement of the War of the Third Coalition and one of the Napoleon greatest victory.
2.Napoleon's 68000 troops defeated almost 90000 Russians-Austrians nominally under Gen Mikhail Kutuzov.
3.The Allies decided to fight Napoleon west of Austerlitz,a place called Pratzen Plateau, which Napoleon had made a trap there.
4.Marshal Davout's corps of 10500 men resisted the Allies assault and later Marshal Soult with 20000 infantry was launched by Napoleon and Soult managed to smashed the weak Allies line at the centre of Pratzen Plateau.
5.With another 25000 reserve infantry, the Allies has lost hope and under Austrian commander,Gen Karl Mack, they surrendered to Napoleon.
6.The result, the allied lost 15000 men and 11000 captured, while Napoleon lost 9000 troops. The remnants of Allies army were scattered and broken.

Historical Battle in Imperial Glory

Imperial Glory have 6 historical battle to be play : Battle of Pyramid,Salamanca,Waterloo,Austerlitz,Friedland and Trafalgar.Each of the battle was the famous battle during the Napoleonic War.Well,In history of the day, i would like to post a simple fact about the battle..let us start with the Pyramid first.
Battle of Pyramid,21st July 1708
1.Napoleon invented his one significant contributions to tactic, the massive divisional square.
2.Napoleon's 25000 troops faced 40000 Egyptian led by Murad Bey, 6000 from them was the Mamelukes cavalry
3.The Egyptians were concentrated near the village of Embabeh with the pyramid of Giza on their flank.
4.At the height of the battle, Napoleon formed his forces in 5 divisional square, each was six ranks infantry and protected the cavalry and arttilery in their centres, They effectively repulsed the wild massed charge of Mamelukes.
5.After the battle, 300 French died while a large number of Egyptians was killed, captured or dispersed.

Charge of The Heavy Brigade

Shortly after the Thin Red Line and before the event of disastrous charge of the Light Brigade, there was another engagement during the Battle of Balaclava,the victorous charge of British's Heavy Brigade or also known as the Charge of Heavy Brigade.
1.8 squadron of the Heavy Brigade consisted of two each from the Scots Grey, 6th and 4th Dragoons Guard, 5th Dragoon and 1st Royal Dragoon were left in their original position to the west of No.6 redoubt.
2.Initialy, just 3 squadrons engaged the Ryzhov's cavalry, 2 of the Scots Grey on the left and one of the 6th Inniskillens Dragoons on the right, totaled about 300 men.
3.The Ingermanland Hussar under the command of Major Gen. Khaletsky was the first to engage the Heavies,
5.It was described by one of the member from Ingermanland..

"We had to fight with the regiment of Queen Victoria's Dragoons Guard in their Red Coat..neither we nor the English wanted to yield.."

Staff Cpt.Arbuzov

6.It was also described by the members of the Heavy Brigade when they managed to flanked the Russians

"We were superior in numbers, they outflanked by us, and they were in middle of us,I hope god will forgive me, for I felt like a devil than a man.."

7.Shortly, the 2nd squadron of Inniskillens attacked the left flank, followed by the 5th squadron of Dragoon Guards, Scots Grey crash the rear of the Russians.4th Dragoon attacking the right rear,Royal Dragoon striking the right front.
8.The Russian cavalry retreating..

"At length they turned and well they might.."

Lt.Godman

9.The charge had lasted no more than 10 minutes.
10.The Russians suffered 40-50 killed and 200 wounded, while the British lost 10 men and 98 wounded.

Thin Red Line

Yesterday i'm playing the historical game, the Age Of Empire 3..then, I discovered one of my unit special ability..the British's Red Coat special ability was a Thin Red Line..do you know what is it, yeah,after studying about it at Wikipedia and I finally got the answer.
1.The famous Thin Red Line was described by William Russel during the clash of Ryzhov's cavalry and the 93rd Highlander Regiment.
2.Liprandi order Ryzhov's cavalry consisted of 8 squadron of the 11th Kiev Hussar, 6 of the 12th Ingermanland Hussars, 3 of the 53rd Don Cossack Regiment and the 1st Ural Cossask, totalling some 3000 men and 16 guns.
3.0900, Ryzhov across Chernaya and streamed into the North Valley.
4.Then, he detached 400 men from the Ingermanland Hussar to head straight for the allied infantry position.
5.Gen. Sir Colin Campbell, the high officer in command of the 93rd Scottish Highlander Regiment ordered his men to move forward from behind the hillock that had sheltered them from the Russian artillery.
6.To boost the moral of his men.Campbell said..

"Men,remember there is no retreat from here, you must die where you stand..:

7.William Russel described the battle as the Thin Red Line..

"The Russian dash at the 93rd, the ground flies beneath their horses feet, gathering speed at every stride, they dash on towards that thin red streak topped with a line of steel"

8.The Turks fired a volley at 800 yards and fall back.
9.The second volley come within 150 yards, supported by fire from guns of Barker's W Battery.
10.3rd volley delivered by the 93rd right Grenadier Guard company under the command of Cpt.Ross.
11.The Ingermanland Hussars retreating and heading towards the Causeway Height.

Charge Of The Light Brigade

1.Commander of the Light Brigade, Earl of Cardigan did not attack as he believed his order from Lucan required him to hold position, thus the golden opportunity was missed
2.Liprandi had infantry and artillery on the Causeway Height as well Zhabokritsky men and guns on the Fedyukhin Height
3.Raglan issued Lucan a confusung order to attack 2 fronts with infantry support.
4.The infantry did not arrived, Raglan deployed the Light Brigade to cover the North Valley and the Heavy Brigade to protect the South Valley.
5.Raglan order the cavalry to attack on 1045 a.m

"I wishes the cavalry to advance rapidly to the front, follow the enemy carrying away the guns. Horse artillery may accompany, French cavalry in your left. Immediate?"

6.However, Lucan was confused by the order that dispatcher, Cpt Nolan insolently stated that Raglan desired an attack and indiscriminately pointing up the North Valley towards Ryzhov's guns rather than Causeway Height.
7.Cardigan questioned the orderas they were artillery and enemy forces on 3 sides.
8.Lucan replied

"But Lord Raglan will have it, we have no choice but to obey.."

9.Mounting up,some 673 men from the Light Brigade consisted of the 4th and 13th Light Dragoons, 18th and 11th Hussars and also the 17th Lancers under the overall command of Earl of Cardigan moved off down the valley as Raglan able to see the Russian watching in horror.
10.Charging forward, the Light Brigade was hammered by the Russian artillery losing nearly half its strong before reached Ryzhov's forward guns.
11.Its realized that the charge was aimed at the wrong target and there is an attempt to stop or turn the brigade before the charge.
12.In their left, the French's 4th Chasseurs D'Afrique regiment swept along Fedyukhin Height to drive the Russians from their position.
13.It was succesfully done by the French and provided cover for the remaining elements of the Light Brigade as they will use it to withdraw later.
14.Battling around the guns, the Light Brigade drove off some Russian cavalry, but was compelled to retreat when they realizedthat no support was coming.
15.Surrounded, the survivor fought their back up the valley under fire and later retreating.
16.The Heavy Brigade consisted of the 4th Royal Irish, Scots Grey, 5th Dragoons Guards and the 6th Inniskillens Dragoons entered the mouth of the valley but did not advance further.
17.Lucan saw no point in having a second brigade move down and that he was to render assistance to Light Brigade.
18.Earl of Cardigan survived the battle.He led the charge from the front, under heavy shelling, never looking back, did not see what was happening to the troops behind him, having reached the Russians, took part in the fight and then returned alone up the the valley without bothering to rally.
19.The aftermath was disastrous for the Light Brigade, from 673 men, 110 killed(less than 17%), 129 wounded, 32 taken prisoners and the brigade was about to reduce to 195 men only..375 horses was killed.
20.Marechal Pierre Bosquet commented the charge

"C'est magnifique, mais ce'nest pas laguere, c'est de la follie"
("It is magnificent, but it is not war, it is madness")

21.The Russian commander believed that the British must have been drunk before the charge.
22.The British cavalry reputation was enhanched after the charge..
"The reputation of the British Cavalry was significantly enhanced as a result of charge, though the same can't be said for their commander.