THE MOST RIDICULOUS FAILURES IN MILITARY HISTORY Pt.2

The most ridiculous failures in military history

Yes, Austria once fought itself. How can a country fight a battle against itself? A civil war? A revolt? No, much worse.

First things first, let’s contextualize. It all happened during the 2^nd Russian-Turkish war (1787-1792). 100,000 Austrian soldiers were to camp in Karansebes (Romania) in order to invade Turkish land. But they weren’t in fact Austrian – most of them were natural from other subdued countries: Italy, Romania, Hungary… and few spoke German.

So, it all started with the Hussars exploring to ensure that the camping site was secure. It indeed was, but they encountered some gypsy merchants selling spirits beverages. Why I say “but”, you will guess it in a moment. The hussars bought almost all their stock, and got drunk as good hussars they were. Sometime later other regiment came, and they demanded some drink, but the drunken hussars refused and started a fight. In the turmoil, a shot was fired.

Then, chaos. The Romanian infantry thought it was a Turkish sniper who had fired that shot. Realizing of what they had done, the hussars fled – but the damage was done. While the infantry was running away, the Austrian officials tried to call to order saying “Halt! Halt!” – but, as the Romanians didn’t speak German they understood “Allah! Allah!”, the Turkish battle cry, so the chaos got even worse.

Just by the time another regiment was drawing near and, seeing the mess in the camp and the hussars circling around it, they had no doubt that the Turk cavalry caught them, so their officials ordered their cavalry to charge to the battle; only to alert an artillery regiment that was coming close too, who thought – with no doubt, again – that they were the Turks, and they deployed the artillery and fired to these last horsemen.

All the army was driven mad, and they kept of fighting for hours. Finally, confused to the limit, they all ran away for their lives. During this butchery, the horse of Joseph II, the Austrian emperor ran wild and he ended down in a pit.

Well, told you that not only Spain is so sad in battles! Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to comment!

Energy from the Sun is made illegal

Energy  from  the  Sun  is  made  illegal

In October, the Government approved the Royal Decree 900/2015, rule that validates the ‘tax to the Sun', to the satisfaction of the electricity companies. This April 11 it was the deadline for the auto consumers who had previous installations to this Decree to adapt to it. In fact, most have not done so, which means that thousands of installations of auto consumption in Spain are now illegal. They face fines ranging from 6 to 60 million euros, in addition to having to pay for the so-called 'tax to the Sun'. The legislation, approved by the Government of Rajoy, is the most restrictive in the world. 

On April 7, the organizations Amigos de la Tierra, Anpier, Asgeco, Asociación Medio Ambiente y cambio climático, Ecologistas en Acción, Fundación Global Nature, Fundación Renovables, Greenpeace, Plataforma por un Nuevo Modelo Energético, SEO/BirdLife y WWF España sent a letter to the President accusing the Ministry of Industry, chaired by José Manuel Soria, of preventing that such installations comply with the obligations which the Ministry had established, without detailing how to comply with the complex techniques required to modify the installations.  The auto consumption Decree contradicts last communications from the European Union, which stresses that the role of an active and committed citizenship will be essential in the process to achieve the necessary energy transition. On the other hand, the Spanish Decree prevents any possibility of carrying out new projects of energy production in people’s hands.

According to some experts from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, when renewable energies posed a high economic cost, Spain was the pioneer country. However, now that they have become incredibly cheaper and that they represent a step forward and a great investment for Spain, Government hampers the own electricity production of citizens and also the investigations that could be made here in Spain, so other countries like Germany are developing them leaving Spain behind and forcing scientists, engineers and students to go to other countries. Also, the Sun is a renewable, abundant and cheap energy source that could reduce our energy dependence, generate sustainable and decentralized energy and promote citizen economy. All because the Minister Soria protects the interests of large electric companies, that would not win money, since its main competitor are renewable energy sources.

SERAPHINA

“-You make me ashamed, Seraphina. Your courage always does.

-It´s not courage , it´s stubbornness.”

Book information

English title: Seraphina

Spanish title: Seraphina

Author: Rachel Hartman

Nº Pages: 529

Editorial: Nocturna Ediciones

Approx. price: 17.00€

ISBN: 978-84-942862-9-2

Set in:  Medieval fantasy world.

Imagine being taught maths or physics by a dragon. It sounds crazy, doesn´t it ? For Seraphina- a sixteen-year-old gifted musician- it´s as common as breathing. In the kingdom of Goredd humans and dragons has worked side by side for four decades: dragons go to the Royal Palace as ambassadors and live within humans folding into their human shape but the tension and hostility between the two species hasn´t disappeared with the treaty and years.

 That  fragile- and apparently- peace gets perturbed by the murder of one of the members of the royal family in a suspicious “dragonian” style, just after our protagonist joins the royal court as part of the chorus.

Seraphina has reasons to fear both sides. She knows how dragons are but also knows how humans can be. The mystery around the dead body will be investigated by the musician and Prince Lucian-the dangerously perceptive captain of the Queen´s Guard- but she must be careful: the answers she is looking for could discover her secret and destroy her very life.

Other facts about the book:

-This saga is formed by two books : Seraphina and Shadow Scale (which is now available in Spanish by Nocturna Ediciones).

-The book has at the end of the pages two sections:

 “Cast of characters” where you can find all the relationships between the characters of the book.(Which I found really helpful as there´re too many names and families)

“Glossary” This book is so unique that has its own expressions, saints and culture in general so it´s necessary to have a glossary to look for clarifications about some terms.

-This book has more different covers than other books I´ve read before.I find very interesting that some countries have their own new fresh cover and others have just the same cover as the USA but changing in some way the original colors. And for a reason I don´t really know the Indonesian cover reminds me of the game “FINAL FANTASY” . (I really liked the cover of Poland).

WARNING: If you buy the Spanish / EE.UU 1/EE.UU 2 / edition I must warn you that the title “Seraphina” is made of some metallic gold/silver paint so be careful when you place it on/ take off  the bookshelf  as the friction with another book  can damage the paint and make it disappear.(My copy is already just “Seraphi” )

THE MOST RIDICULOUS FAILURES IN MILITARY HISTORY Pt. 1

Guam

Imagine you are the admiral of a navy in the Pacific, 1898, and you are drawing near an enemy settlement in the coast. To heat things up, you fire some shots to the coast, so that your newbie crew start experiencing what war looks like - but the shots don’t even hit a wall. Suddenly, to your surprise, you see a small boat row close to your ship. It is the enemy Governor, who tells you that he is sorry not to respond your cannon salutes, as they don’t have ammunition and their cannons are rusty, and he is afraid that they might explode if they are fired…

Well, that actually happened, in the American-Spanish war of 1898, in Guam. The Mariana Islands Governor, Juan Marina, wasn’t even informed that they were in war against the USA, and, as the shots fired by the American navy appeared failed on purpose, he thought they were salutes, not attacks.

The American admiral, Henry Glass, politely informed him of the situation of both their countries, of that he captured him as war prisoner, and ordered him to go back to shore and sign surrender… but Spanish laws didn’t permit a soldier or a military official to obey any orders coming from an enemy official. Henry Glass was considered, and ordered one of his soldiers to go with him and so he could demand the settlement surrender. This was the surrender paper Juan Marina signed:

Sin defensas de ninguna clase, ni elementos que oponer con probabilidad de éxito a los que usted trae, me veo en la triste decisión de rendirme, bien que protestando por el acto de fuerza que conmigo se verifica y la forma en que se ha hecho, pues no tengo noticia de mi Gobierno de haberse declarado la guerra entre nuestras dos naciones.

Juan Marina, General del destacamento en Guaján, 1898

Translation to English:

Having no defences of any kind, nor any means of presenting successful opposition to yours, I see myself in the saddest situation of surrender, nonetheless protesting the way I verify and I have been done, that I had no notice of my Government that our two nations engaged in war

          Juan Marina, General del destacamento en Guaján, 1898

After the surrender, the Spanish army was disarmed and taken as prisoner, and the native army celebrated their departure.

 

As a fact, Henry Glass didn’t know that the settlement he captured was the very capital of the entire region of Guam, and so the Spanish could sell the rest of the archipelago to Germany – causing more conflicts between Germany and USA.

When Henry Glass left, as he left no garrison, the Spanish officers hang back the Spanish flag, but that action was purely ceremonial and had no actual effects whatsoever.

Hey, but not only Spain is so sad to have such a miserable defeat! Next time we will take a look at the battle of Austria were Austria killed 10,000… Austrians. Don’t forget to comment!