Navy.ca's Fallen Comrades

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old

It is a commonplace that the history of civilisation is largely the history of weapons. In particular, the connection between the discovery of gunpowder and the overthrow of feudalism by the bourgeoisie has been pointed out over and over again. And though I have no doubt exceptions can be brought forward, I think the following rule would be found generally true: that ages in which the dominant weapon is expensive or difficult to make will tend to be ages of despotism, whereas when the dominant weapon is cheap and simple, the common people have a chance. Thus, for example, tanks, battleships and bombing planes are inherently tyrannical weapons, while rifles, muskets, long-bows and hand-grenades are inherently democratic weapons. A complex weapon makes the strong stronger, while a simple weapon–so long as there is no answer to it–gives claws to the weak.

- George Orwell

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Today in Military History

March 15

1311:

Battle of Halmyros: The Catalan Company defeats Walter V of Brienne to take control of the Duchy of Athens, a Crusader state in Greece.

1781:

American Revolutionary War: Battle of Guilford Courthouse - Near present-day Greensboro, North Carolina, 1,900 British troops under General Charles Cornwallis defeat an American force numbering 4,400.

1916:

President Woodrow Wilson sends 12,000 United States troops over the U.S.-Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa.

1917:

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia was forced to abdicate in the February Revolution, ending three centuries of Romanov rule.

1939:

World War II: Nazi troops occupy the remaining part of Bohemia and Moravia; Czechoslovakia ceases to exist.

1943:

World War II: Third Battle of Kharkov - the Germans retook the city of Kharkov from the Soviet armies in bitter street fighting.

1944:

World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino - Allied aircraft bomb the Nazi-held monastery and stage an assault.

1988:

The Halabja poison gas attack of the Iran-Iraq War begins.

1991:

Germany formally regains complete independence after the four post-World War II occupying powers (France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union) relinquish all remaining rights.

44BC:

Julius Caesar murdered by Brutus in Rome

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