The latest in Gog's series on the
Second Punic War, this battle was fought between the
Carthaginian forces of
Hannibal and a
Roman army under
Publius Cornelius Scipio in November 218 BC. "No prizes for guessing who won", as Gog puts it. The battleground was the right bank of the
River Ticinus in northern Italy. Hannibal's 6,000
Libyan and
Iberiancavalry fought Scipio's 3,600 Roman,
Italian and
Gallic cavalry and a bunch of
javelinmen (numbers unknown). Scipio himself was wounded and only escaped with the aid of his son, the legendary
Scipio Africanus.
Although famous for his literary output, Somerset Maugham finds himself here owing to his service in World War I. Too old for combat, he was employed initially as an ambulance driver with the Red Cross in France. After moving to Switzerland following the birth of his daughter in 1915 he began working for
MI6, using his celebrity as cover while he acted as conduit between London and British agents behind enemy lines. His duties took him to
Samoa to observe German activity in the Pacific, and later to Russia to try and aid
Alexander Kerensky's republican government. Maugham's wartime espionage activities provided inspiration for subsequent stories.
The 42-cm kurze Marinekanone 14 L/12 (short naval cannon), or Minenwerfer-Gerät (M-Gerät), popularly known by the nickname Big Bertha, was a
Germansiege howitzer built by
Krupp AG and fielded by the
Imperial German Army from 1914 to 1918. It had a 42-centimetre (17 in)
calibre barrel, making it one of the
largest artillery pieces ever fielded. Designed in 1911, the M-Gerät was an iteration of earlier superheavy German siege guns intended to break modern fortresses in France and Belgium, and entered production in 1912. When the
First World War broke out, the two available M-Gerät guns, still prototypes, were sent to
Liège, Belgium, and destroyed Forts
Pontisse and
Loncin. German soldiers gave it nickname "Big Bertha", which then spread through German newspapers to the Allies, who used it as a nickname for all superheavy German artillery. The
Paris Gun, a
railway gun used to bomb Paris in 1918, has historically been confused for the M-Gerät.
Pilecki was a Polish cavalry officer,
intelligence agent, and
resistance leader. He took part in the
Polish–Soviet War that ended in 1921, and fought in the unsuccessful defense of Poland against the
German invasion in 1939. He then joined the
Polish resistance, co-founding the
Secret Polish Army. In 1940 Pilecki volunteered to allow himself to be captured by the occupying Germans to infiltrate
Auschwitz concentration camp. There he organized a resistance movement and drew up reports detailing atrocities that were smuggled from the camp and shared with the
Western Allies. After escaping Auschwitz, Pilecki fought in the
Warsaw Uprising of August–October 1944 and was taken prisoner. After the
communist takeover of Poland he remained loyal to the London-based
Polish government-in-exile. In 1945 he returned to Poland to report conditions to the government-in-exile. Before returning, Pilecki wrote Witold's Report about his Auschwitz experiences, anticipating that he might be killed by Poland's new communist authorities. In 1947 he was arrested by the
secret police on charges of working for "foreign imperialism" and, after torture and a
show trial, was executed in 1948.
Fort Southerland is a
redoubt built during the
American Civil War to protect
Camden, Arkansas.
Confederate forces built it along with four other redoubts in early 1864 after a
Union victory in the
Little Rock campaign the previous year. Fort Southerland is about the size of a
city block and is roughly oval. It could hold three cannons. When Union forces captured Camden in April 1864 during the
Camden Expedition, they improved the defenses of the five redoubts, which were not sufficient for proper defense of the city. After the Confederates retook Camden later that month, they continued to improve the city's defenses. The fort lies within Fort Southerland Park, a municipal park dedicated in 1974. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1994, and is part of the
Camden Expedition Sites National Historic Landmark. Along with
Fort Lookout (Redoubt A), it is one of only two of the redoubts around Camden still in existence.
About The Bugle
First published in 2006, the Bugle is the monthly newsletter of the English Wikipedia's Military history WikiProject.
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Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) during her time in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (Ministry of Information photographer)
360° panorama of a Soviet submarine B-515 by Tim Rademacher
