The campaigns of Rumyantsev, Potemkin and Suvorov in Turkey. Theater of the Absurd of Warfare
In 1788, the Austrian Emperor Joseph II decided, out of the blue, to free the Balkans from the Turkish yoke - a desire worthy of a Christian, but based, of course, not on pious intentions, but on the desire to extend Austria’s influence to the so-called “underbelly of Europe.” Having collected huge army, the Austrians crossed the border.
After marches, transitions, large and small battles with varying success, both sides were preparing for the decisive battle.
On the moonless night of September 19, 100,000 Austrians approached the 70,000-strong Turkish army with the goal of giving a battle that was to determine the fate of the war.
A company of hussars, marching in the vanguard of the Austrians, crossed the small river Temes, near the city of Karansebes, but there were no Turkish troops on the shore - they had not yet arrived. However, the hussars saw a gypsy camp. Delighted by the opportunity to earn extra money, the gypsies offered the hussars refreshment after the crossing - for money, of course. For a few coins, the cavalrymen bought a barrel of alcohol from the gypsies and began drinking water.
Meanwhile, in the same place, several infantry companies crossed, whose share did not get the watermen, but they wanted to kick... A squabble began between the hussars and the infantrymen, during which one cavalryman, either accidentally or out of anger, shot at a soldier. It collapsed, after which a general dump began. All the hussars and all the infantrymen nearby intervened in the fight.
Both the drunken hussars and the thirsty infantry, heated by the massacre, did not want to yield. Finally, one of the sides prevailed - the vanquished shamefully fled to their shores, pursued by a jubilant enemy. Who was defeated? – history is silent, or rather, the information is contradictory. It is quite possible that in some places the hussars won, and in others the infantry won. Be that as it may, the troops approaching the crossing suddenly saw frightened running soldiers and hussars, crumpled, bruised, covered in blood... Victorious cries of their pursuers were heard behind them.
Meanwhile, the hussar colonel, trying to stop his fighters, shouted in German: “Halt! Halt!” Since in the ranks of the Austrian army there were many Hungarians, Slovaks, Lombards and others who did not understand the German language well (THIS IS THE MINUS OF LARGE STATES), some soldiers thought they heard: “Allah! Allah!”, after which panic became general.
During the general running and noise, several hundred cavalry horses that were in the corral broke out from behind the fence. Since this happened in the dead of night, everyone decided that the Turkish cavalry had broken into the army’s location. The commander of one corps, hearing the menacing noise of the “advancing cavalry,” gave the order to the artillerymen to open fire. Shells exploded in a crowd of maddened soldiers. The officers who tried to organize resistance formed their regiments and threw them into an attack on the artillery, in full confidence that they were fighting the Turks. In the end everyone fled.
The emperor, who does not understand anything, is also confident that Turkish army attacked the camp, tried to take control of the situation, but the fleeing crowd threw him off his horse. The emperor's aide-de-camp was trampled. Joseph himself saved himself by jumping into the river.
By morning everything was quiet. The entire space was strewn with guns, dead horses, saddles, provisions, broken shell boxes and overturned cannons - in a word, everything that a completely defeated army throws. On the field of the strangest battle in the history of mankind, 10 thousand dead soldiers remained lying - that is, in terms of the number of dead, the battle ranks among the largest battles of mankind (in the famous battles of Hastings, Agincourt, Valmy, the Valley of Abraham and many others, the number of deaths was much higher less). The Austrian army ceased to exist, as the survivors fled in horror.
Two days later the Turkish army arrived. The Turks looked at the piles of corpses in surprise, wandered among the wounded, groaning, delirious soldiers, racking their brains over the question - what unknown enemy completely defeated one of the most powerful armies in the world?!
This military disaster may have become the largest in history that was caused by one's own carelessness. Near the city of Caransebes, the Austrian army managed to defeat itself. Here is how it was.
By September 17, 1788, Austria had already been at war with Turkey in alliance with Russia for about a year. The assembled army of about 100 thousand people approached the city of Caransebes, now located in Romania.
In the evening, the advance detachment of hussars crossed the Timis River, where, as expected, the Turkish camp was located. But instead of a Turkish camp, a gypsy camp was discovered. It was fun in the camp, and most importantly, there was a lot of wine, which the gypsies shared with the soldiers.
While the hussars were having fun, the first infantry detachments approached the camp. The infantrymen demanded that drinks be shared with them as well. But the hussars rudely refused or, more simply put, sent the infantry through the forest, because whoever is ahead of him is the slipper. And in general, the French will come up with equality and brotherhood only after a few years, and the brave Austrian hussars will drink it all themselves.
The infantrymen also did not like this situation and took up defensive positions behind the gypsy carts, declaring that if the infantrymen climbed in, they would start shooting. And the shooting began. It is unclear who fired first, but in any case, a battle ensued between their units.
And then someone, not understanding what was going on, shouted “Turks!” The cry was picked up and panic began. The chaos was also intensified due to the fact that there were representatives in the army different nations united into the Austrian Empire. The Germans, Slavs, Hungarians, Italians, Romanians did not understand well, but they all ran together.
The officers were mostly Germans and commands were usually given to German. Those running were stopped by shouts of “Halt! Halt!”, which in the heads of the panicked soldiers who did not know German was perceived as “Allah! Allah!". On top of that, the commander of one artillery unit mistook the fleeing cavalry for the advancing Turks, deployed his cannons and opened fire with grapeshot.
In general, those who could fought with their own fleeing troops, but most of I just ran. And so quickly that they almost trampled their own emperor Joseph, who took part in the campaign. His adjutant was thus trampled, and Joseph himself was saved only by falling into a ditch.
Two days later, the Turkish army approached the same city, finding a field covered with the bodies of the Austrians. The army fled, and the losses in the battle with themselves amounted to about 10 thousand people.
To the credit of Emperor Joseph, it should be noted that Austria did not withdraw from the war, but continued the war, gathering the remnants of its forces and subsequently recruiting a new army.
They say that history repeats itself, and all exploits and achievements constantly serve as an example for us. This is why it is important to teach history, which helps guide civilization and our lives. But there have also been major mistakes in history, which sometimes led to catastrophic consequences. These are the wrong decisions, stupid mistakes and unwise actions that should not be repeated.
1.NASA Accidentally Erased Record Of The Moon Landing. In fact, no original recordings of this event survive.
2. It took 177 years to build the Leaning Tower of Pisa and only 10 years for it to begin to lean.
3. Absence sufficient quantity lifeboats on board the Titanic, as it was considered unsinkable. 
4. The Beatles were rejected by the record company Decca Records because they thought they were not marketable. 
5. NASA's loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter, due to the fact that part of the team used the metric system of measurement, and the other - the imperial system. 
6. Napoleon, who believed that he could capture Russia in winter. 
7. Hitler, who believed he could do it better than Napoleon. 
8. The Persians sent Genghis Khan's beheaded envoys back to the Khan, incurring the wrath of Mongolia. 
9. The Dutch, who discovered Australia 100 years before the British did, but ignored the discovery because they considered it a useless desert. 
10. Russia selling Alaska for 2 cents per acre. 
11. Inca ruler Atahualpa, who agreed to meet with conquistador Francisco Pissaro when 200 Spanish horsemen ambushed and defeated 80,000 Inca warriors. 
12. Those who fell for the Trojan Horse, if it actually existed. 
13. Filling the world's largest airship, the Hindenburg, with flammable hydrogen, which then caught fire and crashed. 
14. Someone who opened the city's gates and allowed the Turks to capture Constantinople in 1453. 
15. China of the 14th century, which abandoned the navy and began to pursue a policy of isolation. Perhaps he would have become more influential than any European power. 
16. The driver of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who made a wrong turn that led him to the feet of the murderer Gavrilo Princip. This murder became the reason for the outbreak of the First World War. 
17. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, when there was not a single American aircraft carrier in the port, which accelerated America's entry into the Second world war.
18. Faulty design of the Chernobyl reactor, the consequences of which are still being felt. 
19. 12 publishing houses that refused to publish Harry Potter. 
20. Alexander the Great, who did not name an heir to the throne, which led to the death of his empire. 
21. Although no one knows who was responsible, the burning of the Library of Alexandria was the greatest loss of knowledge in history. 
22. Assassination of Caesar in order to save the Republic and failure to understand that this will only lead to its end. 
23. In 1788, the Austrian army accidentally attacked its own and lost 10,000 people. 
3270 years ago, in 1260 BC. e., according to Herodotus, the most famous war of antiquity began - the Trojan War. According to Homer, this conflict began with the absurd abduction of Helen the Beautiful and ended with the even more absurd operation of the Trojan horse. It is not known whether this war actually happened, but since then there have been many armed conflicts that seem to be the epitome of stupidity and absurdity. However, behind each of them there were always quite meaningful economic interests.
KIRILL NOVIKOV
Favorites and alcohol
Wars often receive unflattering epithets from ordinary people and historians. They are often called dirty, unfair, senseless, and for the most part they deserve all of these names.
Examples of wars that seemed to promise considerable benefits, but in fact were not worth the effort, have been known since ancient times. So, in 356 BC. e. The Phocian League, which was located in central Greece, coveted the treasures of the Delphic Oracle and without a fight captured the city of Delphi, sacred to all Hellenes. At first, the Phocians believed that they had pulled off a brilliant raiding operation, because they had more than 10 thousand talents of gold in their hands, that is, about 1.7 thousand tons of metal accumulated by the Delphic temple over several centuries. However, soon a powerful coalition, outraged by such sacrilege, rallied against the Phocians, and a war began that lasted ten years. During this time, all the captured treasures had to be used to pay for mercenary armies, and after the defeat, the Phocian League was forced to pay reparations to the victors - 60 talents of gold per year.
In the Middle Ages, people, as before, fought, hoping to get untold treasures and new lands. However, in that era, interest in getting rich was closely intertwined with religion, and therefore people went to the next holy war in the hope of plundering well and at the same time getting a pass to heaven. Some of these military campaigns were planned in such a way that the role of the main striking force was assigned to God's providence, which usually ended in disaster.
It would seem that in the era of reason everything should have become reasonable, including war. But the New Age turned out to be as rich in military follies as the previous centuries.
At the dawn of modern times, world politics, as in the Middle Ages, was determined primarily by dynastic interests, state affairs often incompetent favorites were in charge, and the troops had little sense of discipline. All this sometimes led to ridiculous military adventures with catastrophic consequences. One of these wars happened in 1625 between England and Spain. It all started with the same thing that most wars start with - with money. King James I of England really wanted to rule the country without parliamentary interference. But parliament collected taxes, and the king could not do without its support. Help came from an unexpected quarter: the Spanish ambassador proposed to arrange a dynastic marriage between the son of the English king, Prince Charles, and the daughter of Philip III of Spain, Maria Anna. The Spanish princess was promised a dowry of £600 thousand, which was comparable to the budget of a large kingdom. In return, the Spaniards asked to rein in the unruly pirates of the Caribbean, many of whom enjoyed the patronage of the English crown.
Karl was in dire need of funds and hastened to accept the offer. The king's favorite and lover, the Duke of Buckingham, also seized on this idea, and Prince Charles was not averse to marrying the Spanish infanta. But parliament was categorically against it, since English Protestants did not want to have anything to do with Spanish Catholics. As a result, the marriage agreement reached was dissolved. And then Buckingham got down to business, and if this man took on anything, then failure was almost guaranteed. Buckingham and Prince Charles came to Madrid incognito, hoping to arrange a profitable marriage away from the English parliament. Since England and Spain were worst enemies, the secret trip of the heir to the throne and presenter statesman England to the Spanish court was a pure gamble. As one might expect, the Spaniards did not hand over the infanta to the prince, who had sneaked into Madrid like a spy, and, apparently, they laughed cruelly at Buckingham. One way or another, the prince and the royal lover returned to England as irreconcilable enemies of the Spanish crown.
The Austrians - great masters of being beaten - in 1788 accomplished the impossible, but proved that they could be defeated even by themselves
In the spring of 1625, King James died, and the sickly short Charles I ascended the throne. The new king wanted to get even with Spain, and Parliament willingly supported him. Buckingham, who held the post of Lord Admiral, undertook to plan the operations, but since he knew little about military affairs, the matter ended very badly. It was decided to send a large military expedition to capture Cadiz. Buckingham hoped to capture the Spanish fleet there, loaded with gold, coming from America, but due to storms, the English squadron missed the galleons. The British misfortunes did not end there. The English commander Sir Edward Cecil did not have intelligence information and was therefore quite surprised to discover that Cadiz was well fortified and it was unlikely to be taken by storm. The supply for which Buckingham was responsible was very poorly organized, and it soon became clear that the English army, which consisted of about 10 thousand people, had neither food nor drink. And then Cecil allowed the soldiers to drink captured wine, found in houses abandoned by the Spaniards. Even the Spaniards could not have harmed the English more than this order. A few hours later the entire English army was lying drunk, and those soldiers who could still stand were fighting and firing at each other with muskets. To save the army, Cecil ordered a retreat, after which the besiegers boarded ships and departed for England. In the morning, the Spaniards entered the empty English camp and found more than a thousand dead drunk soldiers there. The angry Spaniards slaughtered them all. This is where the war ended. Financial losses England from the failed expedition amounted to about £250 thousand, and the blow to its prestige was simply colossal. Three years later, Buckingham was assassinated by a religious fanatic, and King Charles I ended up losing the war against his own Parliament and was executed in 1649.
Poor management, low morale of troops and alcohol abuse have more than once led to dire consequences. Perhaps the most monumental military disaster generated by these reasons was the Battle of Caransebes, in which the Austrian army managed to defeat itself.
For the right to start a war for the free sale of slaves to the Spanish colonies, Captain Robert Jenkins gave his right ear
War for the severed ear
With the development of navigation, Europeans increasingly fought each other for trade advantages on distant shores. The powers actively waged so-called trade wars, during which they sought to oust competitors from overseas markets, seize other people's colonies, or simply reduce the tonnage of someone else's merchant fleet. In the era of mercantilism, when the idea that the main source of wealth for any country was international trade, wars were fought with the prudence of merchants. From time to time, conflicts broke out in Europe, the pretexts for which were literally pulled from thin air. But even the most ridiculous conflicts in those days were based on obvious commercial interests. For example, Oliver Cromwell imposed a war on Holland, which was a trade competitor of England, but politically its traditional ally. To achieve this, the Lord Protector passed a law through Parliament that required all foreign ships passing through the English Channel to lower their flag at the sight of English warships. Lowering the flag was already considered a symbol of shame and surrender in those days, so conflict with the Dutch, who were proud of their naval power, became inevitable. And so it happened: in 1652, the Dutch squadron refused to lower the flag in front of the English one, after which the guns started talking.
The British were generally masters at inventing ridiculous pretexts for starting wars. In the 18th century, the slave trade was the order of the day, but fighting for the right to import dark-skinned slaves was still considered indecent. Since the beginning of the century, an agreement on “asiento” existed between England and Spain: the Spaniards granted English merchants the right to import an unlimited number of slaves into their American colonies. The British, of course, did not limit themselves to exporting forced Africans and, in addition to slaves, imported all kinds of contraband into the Spanish colonies. In response to this, the Spaniards began to inspect English ships and punish violators. By the end of the 1730s, things had reached the point where Spain decided to take away the “asiento” from the British. The issue of war with Spain was raised in the English Parliament, but the head of the British cabinet, Robert Walpole, was not at all eager to plunge the country into war for the sake of the interests of slave traders. And then the pro-war lobby found a worthy reason for war. A certain Robert Jenkins was brought to parliament, who told the parliamentarians the story of how he lost his ear.
Robert Jenkins was captain of the brig Rebecca. In 1731, his ship was detained by a Spanish warship on suspicion of piracy and smuggling. The captain of the Spanish ship, Julio Leon Fandinho, ordered Jenkins to be tied to the mast and cut off his ear with his own hands. At the same time, according to Jenkins, he said: “Go and tell your king that if he does the same as you, then I will do to him what I did to you.” In fact, Jenkins should have been glad that he got off so lightly, because pirates were usually hanged on the yardarm. But upon returning to England, the smuggler began to knock on the doors of various institutions and complain about Spanish arbitrariness. In 1731, when the Asiento was not in danger, the captain's severed ear did not bother anyone. But in 1739, Great Britain felt offended by the act of Captain Fandinho and declared war on Spain, which became known as the "War of Jenkins' Ear." The war lasted a year, after which it quietly developed into the War of the Austrian Succession. England and Spain, who were already at war, simply joined different warring coalitions and continued to fight, forgetting about Captain Jenkins and his severed ear. After the war, England agreed to abandon the “asiento”, receiving £100 thousand and a profitable trade agreement with Spain as compensation. The War of the Ear left a significant mark on British culture, as it was then that the famous patriotic song "Rule Britannia" appeared. Slaves were also mentioned in this song: "Rule, Britannia! Rule the waves; never will the Britons be slaves."
Almost all the rebels from the famous frigate "Bounty" who escaped from the English gallows died at the hands of the Tahitians, from whom they took their wives.
Women, chair and flagpole
Perhaps the most absurd conflict of the early colonial era was Civil War on Pitcairn Island, and it was not fought for gold or land. The background to that war is well known from the film "Mutiny on the Bounty" with Marlon Brando in the role of the main rebel Fletcher Christian. In 1778, the British government sent His Majesty's Bounty to the Pacific Ocean under the command of Captain William Bligh. The expedition was supposed to collect breadfruit sprouts on the Pacific islands, which were supposed to be grown in the Caribbean colonies of Great Britain. After a long and difficult voyage, the sailors ended up in Tahiti, where they tasted all the delights of resort life in the arms of liberated Tahitian women. On the way back, discipline began to rapidly decline, and in April 1779, a mutiny broke out on the ship, led by first mate Fletcher Christian. Captain Bligh and his loyal people were put into a boat and sent into the ocean, and the Bounty returned to Tahiti. Here a split occurred among the rebels. The majority planned to stay on the island and enjoy life, while the minority listened to the words of Christian, who predicted that one day the British fleet would come to the island and the rebels would go to the gallows. Christian gathered a team of eight like-minded people, lured six Tahitians and eleven Tahitian women onto the Bounty and sailed away to look for a new homeland. Later, the rebels who remained in Tahiti were indeed arrested by the British military, but the people who left with Christian swam to the uninhabited island of Pitcairn, where they founded their colony. The film is silent about further events. Meanwhile, the colonists were quite happy with life for some time, since there were enough gifts of nature on the island for everyone. However, there was one “resource” that was in very limited supply on Pitcairn—women. It was because of them that the war began.
When the Tahitian wife of one of the rebels died in 1793, the white settlers could think of nothing better than to take the wife away from one of the Tahitians. He was offended and killed his girlfriend’s new husband. The rebels killed the avenger, and the remaining Tahitians rebelled against the rebels themselves. Christian and four of his men were killed by the Tahitians, but the war did not end there. The Tahitian wives of the sailors went to avenge their murdered husbands and killed the rebel Tahitians. As a result of the war, the male population of the island was reduced to four people, and then they constantly feuded and quarreled until one of them was killed and the other died from drunkenness. But the remaining two divided the women among themselves and enjoyed eternal peace until one of them died from natural causes. When an American ship landed on the island in 1808, the only man living on Pitcairn was John Adams, who had nine wives and about forty children.
In the heat of the struggle against British colonialism, the Maori leader Hone Heke dug up his hatchet and chopped up the flagpole with the British flag
Photo: Mary Evans Picture Library/PHOTAS
The further history of colonialism knows many wars with ridiculous names, although the essence of these conflicts was not so ridiculous. The fact is that over time, the natives got tired of oppression from the colonialists, and at some point their patience was overflowing. As a result, the war could break out over an insignificant reason, or resistance could result in forms unusual for Europeans. Thus, in 1846, the “War for the Ax” broke out in South Africa, and a year earlier in New Zealand, the “War for the Flagpole” began. In South Africa, indigenous people attacked native soldiers of the British army who were escorting their fellow tribesman who had stolen an ax, after which war broke out between the colonialists and local tribes. In New Zealand, Maori chief Hone Heke learned from French traders that the British flag flying over a hill near an English settlement was a symbol of his submission to the British crown. The chief went up the hill and cut down the flagpole. The British erected a new flagpole, and Hone Heke cut it down again. Then the British installed an iron-bound mast and assigned a guard to it. The Maori killed the sentries and again cut down the Union Jack pole, after which a full-scale war began. By the way, it ended just as absurdly as it began. The Maori were excellent at building fortresses, and even English artillery was of little help against strong palisades and high earthen ramparts. But one Sunday, when the British army was besieging the fortress of Hone Heke itself, the British soldiers noticed that the fortress was suspiciously quiet. The British burst onto the walls, which were almost unguarded, and easily occupied the fortress. It turned out that most Maori were praying in church at that time. Brave and skillful Maori warriors had long been converted to Christianity, and they believed so fervently that it never occurred to them to fight on Sundays.
The colonialists themselves often incurred the wrath of the natives by treating local customs and beliefs with contempt, which caused even more absurd wars. So, in 1900, the British governor of the Gold Coast (modern Ghana), Lord Hodgson, tried to annex the warlike African kingdom of Ashanti. In the past, the Ashanti people repeatedly fought back against the British and had every reason to be proud of their military traditions. The symbol of the kingdom's independence was the Golden Chair on which the Ashanti king sat. Hodgson captured the king and sent him into exile, and demanded that the Ashanti hand over the Golden Chair, declaring that he himself would now sit on it as the rightful ruler of the conquered country. The Ashanti hid the chair and soon rebelled, killing many of the English in the process. England won the “War for the Golden Chair” with considerable difficulty, but the colonialists never found the relic itself.
El Salvador-Honduras 3:0
IN late XIX centuries, the great powers argued about the division of the world and increasingly resorted to “gunboat diplomacy,” that is, they got their way using the threat of military force. This style of conducting international politics was fraught with constant border conflicts, each of which could escalate into a full-scale war. Suffice it to recall the Fashoda Incident of 1898, when England and France almost went to war because a small French detachment occupied the city of Fashoda in southern Sudan, where the climate was so bad that the Egyptian authorities at one time exiled criminals there. At that time, the great powers sought to conquer any territory, even desert, swampy or covered with impenetrable jungle, without having any guarantee that at least some valuable resources, which in itself was quite absurd. But sometimes people directly involved in territorial conflicts acted so recklessly that contemporaries did not know what to say. Thus, an incident that occurred in 1899 off the coast of Samoa was called a mental error that will forever remain a paradox of human psychology.
At the end of the 19th century, Germany and the United States laid claim to control of the islands Pacific Ocean, and the Samoan archipelago was of particular interest to both powers. True to the principles of “gunboat diplomacy,” Berlin and Washington sent their squadrons to the islands, which met in the harbor of the capital of Samoa, Apia. Both squadrons had three warships and several supply ships, so the bay was quite crowded. On March 15, 1889, both squadrons noticed the approach of a terrible tropical cyclone. Any ship that remained in the harbor would inevitably be smashed against the rocks. The only salvation was immediate access to the open sea. But neither the German nor the American admirals could decide to be the first to move away from the shore. Leaving the harbor first meant admitting defeat in the mini-confrontation for possession of Samoa, and so both squadrons stood in port until a typhoon struck. The results were more than disastrous. Of the ships in the bay, only one American and one German ship survived, and even they had to be removed from the reefs and repaired. The number of victims was in the hundreds. However, if the squadrons had opened fire, there would have been much more casualties in a possible German-American war. And so the confrontation between the USA and Germany ended with the islands simply being divided.
Years of litigation over illegal labor migration and clashing football ambitions led Honduras and El Salvador to a short but bloody war.
In general, the most ridiculous thing about most wars of the twentieth century was not how they were fought, and not the pretexts with which they were justified. What was rather absurd was the discrepancy between the funds spent on the war itself and the economic benefits that were expected to be received in the event of victory. Thus, Germany started the First World War, although it had every chance to bypass its British and French competitors peacefully, and for the weakened Austria-Hungary, the first to open fighting, a major conflict meant inevitable collapse.
The era of world wars was followed by the collapse of the colonial system, and Europeans, having stopped dividing the world, stopped fighting each other. But the young states that arose from the ruins of colonial empires were ready to fight for a place under the tropical sun. Some of the conflicts of the emerging Third World were the product of the sick imagination of the newly minted dictators. Thus, the famous ruler of Uganda, Idi Amin, once declared war on the United States, and since Washington did not react to this, the next day he declared himself the winner. In 1978, “the ruler of all the creatures of the earth and the fish of the sea” came up with the idea of starting a real war with neighboring Tanzania, which was hopelessly lost, after which the cannibal dictator went into exile.
However, most of the wars of the second half of the twentieth century still had an economic basis. This applies even to the most ridiculous conflict of the past century, known as the "football war." By the end of the 1960s, relations between El Salvador and Honduras deteriorated sharply. Both countries were members of the Central American Common Market organization. According to the rules of this organization, the more economically developed El Salvador had some trade privileges, which Honduras did not like. Meanwhile, Salvadoran peasants suffered from land shortages and moved in their thousands to Honduras, where they illegally seized empty land. By 1967, about 300 thousand Salvadoran migrants lived in Honudras, many of them were engaged in trade and actively pushed Hondurans out of business. In the end, the Honduran authorities could not stand it and began to actively evict Salvadorans to their historical homeland, which was accompanied by massive harassment of migrant workers. In response, a wave of anti-Honduran sentiment arose in El Salvador. The military regimes of both countries were eager to strengthen their position, so the patriotic frenzy was very useful for the authorities on both sides of the border.
“Lord of all creatures of the earth,” Ugandan President Idi Amin declared war on the United States, and due to the lack of reaction from overseas, declared himself the winner in it
Photo: REUTERS/Uganda National Archive
In 1969, play-off matches for spots in the 1970 FIFA World Cup began, and the teams of El Salvador and Honduras had to compete. The Hondurans won the first match with a score of 1:0, after which one Salvadoran fan and patriot shot herself, unable to bear the national shame. The Salvadorans won the second match with a score of 3:0, after which the Salvadorans rushed to beat enemy fans and burn Honduran flags. The third match ended with a score of 3:2 in favor of El Salvador, after which the Hondurans beat up two Salvadoran vice-consuls and went to smash the illegal immigrants who had not yet been expelled, and the Honduran government broke off relations with the potential enemy. On July 14, El Salvador sent troops to Honduras. The war lasted six days and ended in victory for El Salvador. Honduras was forced to pay compensation to the robbed immigrants, but El Salvador lost its trade advantages and, in general, all its trade with Honduras. After this war, both countries faced a long period of economic and political turmoil. But both military juntas, in the wake of patriotic sentiments, noticeably strengthened their power.
This was far from the last ridiculous war. Suffice it to recall the futile search for weapons of mass destruction in occupied Iraq and the economic difficulties of the United States that followed. However, when states start another stupid war, someone always wins.
Guest_Phantom1_*
Well, yes, there were some funny things... this is how the Americans stormed the empty island
I hope TS doesn't mind, what's on his topic?
American actions in ground battles without technical support were not effective. Moreover, there were defeats and shameful moments that became part of military history. Experts cite Operation Cottage to liberate Kiska, one of the Aleutian Islands, from the Japanese in August 1943 as an example of failed actions. The Japanese held this island for a whole year with small forces. All this year, United States aircraft bombed both islands: Kiska and Attu. In addition, naval forces of both sides, including submarines, were constantly in the area. It was a confrontation in the air and on the water.
Fearing Japanese attacks on Alaska, the United States sent five cruisers to the Aleutian Islands, 11 destroyers, a flotilla of small warships and 169 aircraft, there were also six submarines. American air attacks occurred almost daily. By the end of the summer of 1942, the Japanese on Kisku Island began to experience food problems, and it became increasingly difficult to supply the islands. It was decided to evacuate the Japanese forces on the island.
Before this, in May 1943, bloody battles for Attu Island took place over three weeks. The Japanese held out so stubbornly in the mountains that the Americans were forced to request reinforcements. Left without ammunition, the Japanese tried to hold on, engaging in desperate hand-to-hand combat and using knives and bayonets. The battles turned into massacres, writes American researcher Theodore Roscoe.
The Americans did not expect the Japanese to give such a rebuff. The United States sent fresh reinforcements to Atta - 12 thousand people. By the end of May, the battle was over, the Japanese garrison of the island - about two and a half thousand people - was virtually destroyed. But the Americans also suffered significant losses - more than 2 thousand frostbitten, 1100 wounded and 550 killed. The Japanese showed true samurai spirit and fought with cold steel when all ammunition was exhausted. This will be remembered for a long time. And when the turn came to liberate the American island of Kiska, the US command knew what it might face.
The maximum possible forces were concentrated in the area of the island: about a hundred ships with 29 thousand American and five thousand Canadian paratroopers. The Kiska garrison numbered about five and a half thousand Japanese. To evacuate their forces and equipment from the island, the Japanese skillfully used weather conditions. Under the “cover” of fog, the Japanese managed to slip out of a trap that was about to slam shut, and even “spoil” the Americans by mining both land and sea. The operation to evacuate the Kiska garrison was carried out perfectly and was included in military textbooks.
Two cruisers and a dozen destroyers of the Japanese fleet were quickly transferred to the island of Kiska, entered the harbor, and within 45 minutes they took on board more than five thousand people. Their withdrawal was covered by 15 submarines. The evacuation of the island went unnoticed by the Americans. During the two weeks that passed between the evacuation of the Japanese and the American landing, the US command continued to build up its force in the Aleutians and bomb the empty island.
Then in accordance with classical theory After the capture, American and Canadian forces landed at two points on the western coast of Kiska. On this day, American warships shelled the island eight times, dropped 135 tons of bombs and piles of leaflets calling for surrender on the island. But the Japanese stubbornly refused to surrender, which, however, did not surprise the American command. The island was completely empty, but the Americans believed that the insidious enemy was hiding and waiting for close combat.
The Americans fought their way across the island for two days, shooting out of fear at their neighbors, mistaking them for the Japanese. And, still not believing themselves, for eight days American soldiers combed the island, searching every cave and turning over every stone, looking for the “hidden” cunning Japanese soldiers. Then they counted the losses during the capture of their island. There were more than 300 of them killed and wounded.
31 American soldiers died due to so-called “friendly fire”, sincerely believing that the Japanese were shooting, and fifty more were wounded in the same way. About 130 soldiers were out of action due to frostbite on their feet and trench foot, a fungal infection of the feet caused by constant dampness and cold. In addition, the American destroyer Abner Reed was blown up by a Japanese mine, killing 47 people on board and injuring more than 70.
"In order to drive them (the Japanese) out of there, we ultimately used troops numbering over 100 thousand and a large number of materiel and tonnage," admits Admiral Sherman. The balance of forces is unprecedented in the entire history of world wars." I wonder what awards the American command received for the operation to “successfully” liberate Kisku Island?