Category Archives: Military History

STONES RIVER – “BRAGG’S A GOOD DOG, BUT HOLD FAST’S A BETTER!”

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Graves of men of Hazen's Brigade killed at the Battle of Stones River.
Graves of men from the 41st Ohio Infantry of Hazen’s Brigade killed at the Battle of Stones River.

A three-day affair to end 1862 and begin the new year, the Battle of Stones River – also known as the Battle of Murfreesboro – resulted in the highest percentage of casualties of any major battle of the American Civil War.  32.7% of the 78,400 who fought died, became wounded or went missing or captured after the battle’s end.  Four brigadier generals died either outright or from mortal wounds from the battle – two on each side.  Braxton Bragg’s newly renamed Army of Tennessee moved first on the morning of 31 December rolling through the Federal lines.  But true to his nature, Bragg would find a way to turn victory into a tactical defeat.  Much of Tennessee remained under Federal control as 1863 began.

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DOBERDO – HUNGARIAN SACRIFICE RECAPTURED IN THE KRAS

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Headstone in the Austro-Hungarian military cemetery in Bovec, Slovenia bedecked with a faded Hungarian tri-colored ribbon.
Headstone in the Austro-Hungarian military cemetery in Bovec, Slovenia bedecked with a faded Hungarian tri-colored ribbon similar to graves in cemeteries in Doberdo.

In 2018, as part of centenary observances of World War 1, a monument unveiled at Fiume Road Graveyard in Budapest.  This became the first national memorial erected commemorating the efforts Hungarians undertook during the Great War.  Government officials noted the memorial was in line with a fundamental theme of the nation: to restore historical continuity broken during the Nazi and Communist occupations.

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RAVELNIK AND ČELO – MEMORIES OF THE GREAT WAR IN THE BOVEC BASIN

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Ravelnik lies at the head of fields extending east of Bovec – Svinjak rises high in the distance.

Ravelnik and Čelo are two open-air museums allowing visitors a chance to visit spaces where soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army defended the Bovec basin from invading Italian troops from the end of May 1915 until the end of October 1917. The two sites restored by locals and the Slovene government are different in what they offer as well as their original purpose with regard to their roles in holding off the Italians.

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INFANTRY REGIMENT 97 – DIFFERENT HISTORIES IN THE REDEEMED LANDS

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Men of Infantry Regiment 97 leaving from the Trieste train station for the Galician front.

Stuck away on the east side of multiple train tracks at the train station in Trieste is a small monument.  It stands forlornly nest to a like sized monument dedicated to rail workers who died in World War 2.  The monument in question reads: “In riccordo di cittadini del littoral Austriaco partiti da questi binary nell’agosta del 1914 per lontani cmapi di battaglia” – “In memory of citizens of the Austrian Littoral who left from these tracks in August 1914 for battlefields far away.”  The sign is fixed on a large stone on which also is placed, a cap design for the Imperial and Royal – Kaiserliche und Königliche (K. und K.) – Infantry Regiment 97.  The K. und K. Infantrie Regiment 97 entrained from here to the battlefields of Galicia from which many of the men, locals from Trieste and the surrounding region, would never return.

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EMPHEMARILTY OF SPENDING – DEFENSE OF THE PANAMA CANAL

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Squadron of B-17 bombers flying over the entrance to Panama Canal with Fort Amador below.
Squadron of B-17 bombers flying over the entrance to Panama Canal with Fort Amador below. Defense of the Canal beginning to pass from the gun to the air.

Recently, I made my fourth trip to Panama.  Each trip, a short visit to the Canal in one form or another, gets included in the itinerary.  To understate the importance of the Canal to Panama and the World from an economic point of view is not possible.  The Canal gives Panama money to do things many other countries in Latin America – especially in Central America – can only dream about.  Large freeways, light rail, subways, and a seemingly burgeoning economy from a casual tourist outlook reflect success in the heat, humidity, and constant drip – or sudden deluge – from the skies here in Panama. One factor hiding from plain sight today are the former huge efforts made in defense of the Canal.

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EMILIO AGUINALDO – HOME AND TOMB OF THE INSURGENT ENIGMA

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The Man - Emilio Aguinaldo - and his Shrine. Aguinaldo family home in Kawit, Cavite, Philippines.
The Man – Emilio Aguinaldo – and his Shrine. Aguinaldo family home in Kawit, Cavite, Philippines.

Emilio Aguinaldo is considered by many to be the “George Washington” of the Philippines.  His family home is preserved – much like Washington’s at Mount Vernon – and a museum is dedicated to his life and times.  Additionally, to the Aguinaldo home, the leader himself is entombed on the grounds behind the house. The grounds became the official Aguinaldo Shrine in 1964 just after his death.

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DEFEAT ON THE KOLOVRAT CHANGES INTO CATASTROPHE

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Restored Italian trench line atop Na gradu – Green mountain in background is Mrzli vrh.

Standing in the renewed Italian positions of the open-air museum of the Kolovrat, you are rewarded with an all-world view over the Isonzo River valley with the Krn-MonteNero massif rising dramatically on the other side. Of the Bovec-Kobarid open-air museums, the view from here is only matched by what you gain at the former Austrian artillery base on Čelo above Bovec.

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MAGINOT FORTS – COUNTERWEIGHTS TO DARK MAGIC OF THE EAST

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Machine gun turret - in eclipsed position - atop Block 2 at Gros Ouvrage Schoenenbourg.
Machine gun turret – in eclipsed position – atop Block 2 at Gros Ouvrage Schoenenbourg of the Maginot Line.

As the Cold War ended, a resurgence in interest took place in France as many of the former fortifications the country spent so much time, money, and hope in keeping war away from the home door.  The jury of historical writers seem a bit divided in opinions regarding whether the fortifications built between the late 1920 and 1930’s accomplished much.  Forts have had a history of being very expensive and difficult to upgrade, keeping them current with the rapid advances in artillery.

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HOUSE OF SAVOY LEADS ITALY INTO THE NEW

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The magnificent Savoyard fortress complex at Fennestrelle erected soon after the House of Savoy joined the ranks of kings in 1713.

World War One – La Grande Guerra in Italian – destroyed four of the great ruling houses of Europe.  The House of Savoy was not one of them.  That would take another war.  The House of Savoy is one of the older families of Europe making it into the rarefied heights of ascendant nobility.  Like most of these families, the family history is complicated by time and politics.  That history becomes confused further by looking at maps of the feudal lands over the years as they waxed and waned with time.  Little bits of color interspersed with each other, seemingly with no rhyme or reason at times.  So much of history tied up in abstruse, rarefied, esoteric stories understood by only a few of the most dedicated students.

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REDIPUGLIA, FASCIST TWIST TO THE GREAT WAR

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The Redipuglia Ossuary climbing the slopes of the Carso above the Via Eroica.
The Redipuglia Ossuary climbing the slopes of the Carso above the Via Eroica.

Italy remembers World War One – la Grande Guerra – a bit differently than World War Two.  First off, they were on the winning side in the first war.  Second, a little over a hundred thousand more Italians died during the First than the Second – 651,000 to 689,000 compared to approximately 500,000.  The vast cost of the First War in treasure and men along with THE thought by Italians as unfair results of their sacrifices at the treaty tables at the war’s end ended destabilizing the nation.  Enter the Blackshirts and Benito Mussolini.

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