NationStates Jolt Archive

Basicaly this is a thread to post those little bits of history that you find funny, ironic, or generaly stupid.
To avoid political spamage, lets keep this all pre 1990, thank you.

First off:
Origin of The Finger:
During the Hundred Years War between France and England.
Ok, this is the Middle ages, knights, bows, arms and armour, all that. The superweapon of the day was the English longbow, a six foot tall (average) bow that had a range of something like 300 yards (same in meters, I think) and could put a bodkin arrow inside that fancy helmet of yours at about the same range.
So, the French did not like this, and whenver they caught said longbowmen they cut their index and middle fingers off, so they couldnt fire a bow.
So, before a battle the English longbowmen would walk to the front and display their fingers to the French and shout:
"Hey, we can still pluck yew!"
The slightly odd bit is that the longbow was fired left handed, if I recall right, the bowman would hold the wooden bit in his right hand, and the string and arrow in his left, then he would push the bow out with his right, using his whole body instead of just his arm.

Its most likely not true, but its still kinda funny.

Not pre-1990 but harmless...

The Republic of China claims to rule over Taiwan, mainland China, and Mongolia.

Gotta love those Mongolians and their crazy names, eh? :)

I guess that most of the forumers are responsible enough not to:
a. Start a political flame war
b. Respond to those who try to

I would thank you for doing this.

Actually, the Long bow thing is the origin of the British V-sign, done with the fore- and middle fingers. The American version may be derived from that, but the V-sign was the original. Anyway, it could all be bull anyway, like you said. I thought the original longbows were two man jobs, anyway?

In 1939, a large plane took off from an airstrip in Europe, with a sealed box on board, which the crew was not to open until over the North Atlantic, it contained their target. Upon reaching the North Atlantic, the crew opened the box to read the target, the city of Berlin. This large airplane then changed course, flew in over North Germany, and appeared over Berlin, beginning the very first "raid" of the Second World War. The plane and it's crew flew low over the city, dropping small bomblets (which did little to no damage) and scattering small arms (Rifle) fire around some avenues, then disengaged, and returned to it's home country, France. The very first "bombing" raid of the Second World War belongs not to the Luftwaffe for Warsaw, but to the Armee d'le Air for this raid, which killed no one, and did completely negligible damage.

1. The first German serviceman killed in WW2 was killed by the Japanese (China, 1937), the first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940), and the highest ranking American killed was Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps . . . So much for allies.

2. The youngest US serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham, USN. He was wounded and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about his age. (His benefits were later restored by act of Congress).

3. At the time of Pearl Harbor the top US Navy command was called CINCUS (pronounced "sink us"), the shoulder patch of the US Army's 45th Infantry division was the Swastika, and Hitler's private train was named "Amerika." All three were soon changed for PR purposes.

4. More US servicemen died in the Air Corps than the Marine Corps. While completing the required 30 missions (I believe in Europe the original mission total was 25, later raised to 35) your chance of being killed was 71%.

5. Generally speaking there was no such thing as an average fighter pilot. You were either an ace or a target. For instance Japanese ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa shot down over 80 planes. He died while a passenger on a cargo plane.

6. It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every 5th round with a tracer round to aid in aiming. This was a mistake. Tracers had different ballistics so (at long range) if your tracers were hitting the target 80% of your rounds were missing. Worse yet tracers instantly told your enemy he was under fire and from which direction. Worst of all was the practice of loading a string of tracers at the end of the belt to tell you that you were out of ammo. This was definitely not something you wanted to tell the enemy. Units that stopped using tracers saw their success rate nearly double and their loss rate go down.


7. When allied armies reached the Rhine the first thing men did was pee in it. This was pretty universal, from the lowest private to Winston Churchill (who made a big show of it) and Gen. Patton (had himself photographed in the act).

8. German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City but it wasn't worth the effort. (?)

9. German submarine U-120 was sunk by a malfunctioning toilet.

10. Among the first "Germans" captured at Normandy were several Koreans. They had been forced to fight for the Japanese Army until they were captured by the Russians and forced to fight for the Russian Army until they were captured by the Germans and forced to fight for the German Army until they were captured by the US Army.


11. Following a massive naval bombardment 35,000 US and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands. 21 troops were killed in the firefight. It would have been worse if there had been any Japanese on the island ...

8. German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City but it wasn't worth the effort. (?)



It could only carry about 2000 lbs of bombs, and German aircraft production could not produce enough to seriously damage the United States, and would have just cut into the production of aircraft far more essential to Germany. Like the JU-390, it was never really more then a fancy of Luftwaffe leaders, after the initial shock of the attacks, it is not likely they would have succeeded in their missions to bomb the US. They were also very hard to hide from the air (all the prototypes were destroyed by Allied bombing).

hence why it wasnt worth it :P

Actually, the Long bow thing is the origin of the British V-sign, done with the fore- and middle fingers. The American version may be derived from that, but the V-sign was the original. Anyway, it could all be bull anyway, like you said. I thought the original longbows were two man jobs, anyway?
My original post mentioned that, the 'two fingers', but I had my doubts so I removed it...

I think your thinking crossbows for the latter part, I know there were some wierd designes...

No, a crossbow was a shortrange handweapon, but I'm sure I remember in history class, I'm British and live in England, that the longbow was described as being so big and the string(or whatever) was so tight, you need the strength of two men to pull it back, and I think some legends describe certain heros as being able to fire a longbow single-handed. But I could be wrong.

Two years after Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod, Boston ministers cited the destruction of Lisbon, Portugal by an earthquake as a sign of God's wrath over man's diversion of His lightning bolts.

No, a crossbow was a shortrange handweapon, but I'm sure I remember in history class, I'm British and live in England, that the longbow was described as being so big and the string(or whatever) was so tight, you need the strength of two men to pull it back, and I think some legends describe certain heros as being able to fire a longbow single-handed. But I could be wrong.

I'm pretty sure you're wrong. The longbow is a one man weapon, and it won the battle of Agincourt (sp?) for the British.

Mentioned in Albert of Aix's account of the Peasants' Crusade (a popular, not to say overenthusiastic, unofficial element of the First Crusade), one group of peasants from Germany were supposedly led by "a goose that had been inspired by God". They also had a she-goat that was similarly touched by the Holy Spirit, and they wandered around the countryside for days behind these two confused farm animals, expecting to be led to Jerusalem.

In 13th-century Lyons a dog called Guinefort was revered as a saint. Although the Catholic Church attempted to stamp out the cult, reports of local people seeking the dog-saint's aid continued: the last recorded was in 1940.

I wouldnt know, our history classess pick up at 1776, usualy. I only got World History this year, and were only up to the early Chinese. I dont think the Brits get their own unit...though there is a Medeival Studies...

I'm pretty sure you're wrong. The longbow is a one man weapon, and it won the battle of Agincourt (sp?) for the British.

Yes, it did win us Agincourt, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't a mobile weapon. That's what the cavalry's supposed to be for, archers and longbowmen are like artillery, so you can have two people on one so you can make it stronger and not mind so much about weight and taughtness of string.

Maybe it was an optional attachment :)

The longbow was very definitely a one-man weapon, capable of firing around 10 arrows per minute. Here's an article (http://www.student.utwente.nl/~sagi/artikel/longbow/longbow.html) on the subject if anyone wants to read up on it.

(Mind you, I take exception to the second sentence: the English, longbows or not, never "conquered" Scotland.)

1941 6 People In Lakeview Oregon died when the house they were Bombed by
a JAPANISEBalloon. These People Were the only
people to die from a bombing attack on mainland America