Sybil: Do you know what aniversary today is,Basil?
Basil: Agincourt?
Sybil: What?
Basil: Battle of Agincourt?
Posted on 10/25/2016 5:44:34 AM PDT by harpygoddess
Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, when the English under King Henry V defeated the French on St. Crispin's Day (25 October) of that year. Henry (1387-1422) followed his father King Henry IV to the throne in 1413 and two years later announced his claim to the French throne and rekindled the Hundred Years War by invading Normandy.
In a post-battle compromise, Henry later married Catherine of Valois and was named by France's Charles VI as his successor, but Henry's untimely death to illness in 1422 prevented him from assuming the French kingship.
This is also the anniversary of the "the charge of the Light Brigade" at the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854. Although of relatively little importance in the larger context of the Crimean War, Balaclava has emerged as its most famous encounter because of Tennyson's poem, which immortalizes the brave, but foolhardy, British light cavalry assault on massed Russian guns and infantry at the end of a shallow valley near Sevastapol. Of the 673 men who started out, 118 were killed outright, and only 195 remained on horseback at the end of the encounter.
And finally, today is the anniversary of the largest naval encounter of World War II in the Pacific, the Battle of Leyte Gulf (which actually lasted from 23 to 26 October 1944), in which the U.S. Third and Seventh Fleets decisively defeated the Japanese Combined Fleet after the latter sortied in an attempt to destroy the forces supporting the ongoing Allied invasion of the Philippine Islands. The U.S. victory at Leyte Gulf essentially destroyed the Japanese Navy as a fighting force, and its remnants posed little threat for the remaining months of the war.
(Excerpt) Read more at vaviper.blogspot.com ...
Agincourt. A great battle but did Henry have to kill 300 French prisoners with fire and archers?!
Not to mention...from The Charge of the Light Brigade era...
The fabulous contributions made to the modern clothing world by Lord Raglan (raglan sleeve), and James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan (cardigan sweater).
Here’s one, “WAR STORIES WITH OLIVER NORTH: THE BATTLE FOR LEYTE GULF”
...and there are more unless you insist on a Hollywood extravaganza.
do a search....
Due to the fact that people no longer read books, the studios took it upon themselves to “educate” the masses about historical events and personalities. This is, after all a good thing because then kids who are interested in a particular film or persona look it up on the Internet and then learn more about the actual events and actual people.
From “Saving Private Ryan” to the upcoming “Mighty Eighth” we have started to take a seriously look at events and we are not yet at Leyte Gulf but hopefully, we will cover those battles too.
Balaclava was literally a wrong turn, the result of a vague order. There were two parallel ravines, and the Light Brigade charged up the wrong one, the one with “cannon to the left of them, cannon to the right.” And when the remaining handful reached the end of the valley, they found ... you guessed it ... more artillery.
Today is also the anniversary of the US invasion of Grenada, arguably the turning point of the Cold War. Grenada was the first member of the Soviet bloc to be removed and replaced by a free government since the conflict began.
The overthrow of Grenada’s Communist regime came only a few months after the Soviet empire reached its apogee when a pro-Soviet government was installed in Suriname. Eight years later, the Soviet bloc was history.
90 minute documentary: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1o7fv1_battlefield-the-battle-of-leyte-gulf-military-history-world-war-ii-documentary_tv
The British weren’t the good guys in the Crimea. They were protecting the Opium Trade and the Csar was waging the first War on Drugs.
Pardon me. Leyte Gulf was a major victory for THE US Navy, despite the loss of the destroyers. Taffy 3 was able to fool the Japanese into thinking it was the main US force, causing the Japanese to withdraw. This protected both the jeep carriers and the Marines at the Leyte beachhead. Captain Ernest Evans posthumously was awarded the MOH.
The japs lost because of their foolish charge.
The light brigade lost because of their foolish charge.
the French lost because of their foolish charge.
You are a condescending SOB. Do you really think I am not familiar with the documentaries? Why the heck do you think I used the word “movie”? You are not as smart as you think you are.
You are a condescending SOB. Do you really think I am not familiar with the documentaries? Why the heck do you think I used the word “movie”? You are not as smart as you think you are.
That is my favorite documentary of the Leyte navalbattle. It is one of the greatest naval battles and yet so few are familiar with it. It would make a great movie for the masses.
Anyone who has an interest in Agincourt should read,
Bernard Cornwall’s Azincourt ,
“Azincourt is the tale of Nicholas Hook, an archer, who begins the novel by joining the garrison of Soissons, a city whose patron saints were Crispin and Crispinian.
What happened at Soissons shocked all Christendom, but in the following year, on the feast day of Crispin and Crispinian, Hook finds himself in that small army trapped at Azincourt. The novel is the story of the archers who helped win a battle that has entered legend, but in truth is a tale, as Sir John Keegan says, ‘of slaughter-yard behaviour and outright atrocity’.”
An excerpt from Agincourt.
http://www.bernardcornwell.net/azincourt-extract/
Hollywood was covering World War II in blockbuster movies as late as the mid-70s. About the only reason I can think of for ignoring Leyte is that it violates the commonly-held narrative that the Pacific War was “won” at Midway, which of course is wildly incorrect.
Good point...the heroic sacrifices at Samar would not have been necessary if Admiral Halsey hadn’t screwed up and taken the fleet chasing after the decoy Japanese force of (empty) aircraft carriers.
All films about WWII were like the “Combat” series.”Cha-kee”, “Cha-kee”, Kirby, take that ridge...”
One film IMHO is one of the best, the 1949 12 O'clock High with Gregory Peck.
In any event, the style, genre and stories about units or GIs made a radical transformation with “Saving Private Ryan”.
Perhaps Leyte Gulf” was too much of a “Turkey shoot” to be shown as PC fair and balanced with both sides fighting moral dilemmas...?
Have you read “Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors”?
(I have a Remington version of your screen name)
Another great speech, between Henry V and the French Herald Mountjoy (Spanish subtitles). I play that part a half-dozen times a year because of Mountjoy's (Ralph Truman) delivery.
Sybil: Do you know what aniversary today is,Basil?
Basil: Agincourt?
Sybil: What?
Basil: Battle of Agincourt?
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