Question of the Hour

[Koenigsegg]

Oh, crap...

Can I pass it off?...

If not, I have one...

 

[geo]

Shoot................

 

[Koenigsegg]

Okey dokey.

In 1943, Winston Churchill said this, in reference to what German naval vessel? 
"It exercises a vague general fear, and menaces all parts at once. It appears and disappears, causing immediate reactions and perturbation on the other side. If she were only crippled and rendered unseaworthy the entire naval situation throughout the world would be altered and the naval command in the Pacific would be regained"

(should be an easy one, just so you all know)

 

[Kat Stevens]

I'll avoid the obvious answer (Big B), and say the raider Atlantis...........?

 

[Koenigsegg]

Almost...But the "Big B" was sunk in 1941...

 

[Rhibwolf]

Negat - Tack-Tack.  It would be the Big T (irpitz)

Staying the present course, which harbour saw some pretty cool frogman action 10 days before the end of World War I which saw two Italians penetrate the booms and nets to sink the former flagship of the Austrian Navy, and what was that Flagship called?

 

[Kat Stevens]

D'oh! I need to learn to RTFQ a bit closer.  I had Atlantis and Kormorant in mind, two raiders that punched well above their weight class.

 

[Koenigsegg]

That would be the Viribus Unitis, no?
That was a touphy, required some looking up...

 

[3rd Herd]

VIRIBUS UNITIS ('with joined forces'), 1st November 1918, northern Adriatic Sea at Pola (Pula) naval base (c 44-45’N, 13-45’E) - Italian 'Mignata' (or leech) self-propelled mines. With the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the state of Yugoslavia was formed by the southern Slavs and declared on the side of the Allies. 'Viribus Unitis' (Capt Janko Vukovic de Podkapelski, also provisional Yugoslav Fleet commander) was taken over on the 31st October by the Yugoslav National Council as flagship of the new navy. Apparently ignoring the new political situation, the Italians went ahead with a planned attack on Pola. Early in the morning of the 1st November and with few defensive precautions now being taken, two Italian frogmen, Maj of Naval Engineers Raffaele Rossetti and Doctor Lt Raffaele Paolucci, slipped into the naval base and attached mines to the dreadnought and liner 'Wien'. Both ships sank, 'Viribus Unitis' capsizing and going down around dawn. Several hundred men died including the new Captain.
SOURCE:http://www.naval-history.net/WW1NavyAustrian.htm

 

[Koenigsegg]

Well, there you go, I forgot to look up the port, drat.

 

[3rd Herd]

Well, there you go, I forgot to look up the port, drat.

You also forgot to add your source

 

[Koenigsegg]

true say...and it will be a pain to find again.

 

[3rd Herd]

On the 13th of January in 1842 British troops met a wandering doctor. What was his name and in what country did this meeting take place?

 

[geo]

The last, Doctor William Brydon, a surgeon in the Bengal Army,  his head and hands cut from sabre slashes, and  shot three times, rode his faithful pony as fast as it would carry him.  At one point, he actually threw the hilt of his broken sword at a pursuer, the useless weapon grazing the Afghan's head and causing him to turn and wheel away.  Exhausted and wounded, the pony stumbled on. Late in the day on the 13th of January, a sharp eyed sentry at the fort in Jalalabad spied a lone horse and rider emerging from the rocky valley above the fort. That solitary rider was the messenger of death. With the exception of two or three Indian sepoys, the prisoners and senior officers Elphinstone, Shelton, Pottinger, and Eyre, along with Lady Sale and a few other women and children, he was the only survivor of the over 16,000 souls who had left Kabul barely a week earlier.


http://www.jmhare.com/history6.htm

 

[3rd Herd]

Well done Geo and thanks for the source info. How about another one. The first world war carnage drained troops away from this country resulting in the third war in sixty years. What was the the actual year the war was fought in, by jingo.

 

[Rhibwolf]

3rd Herd, Im not sure I understand your question. 

 

[AJFitzpatrick]

3rd Afghan War ? 1919 (just checked it would have been 3rd war in 80 years 1st Afghan War 1839-1842, so wasn't that)

 

[3rd Herd]

Congrats AJFitzpatrick,
with the sudden interest in the Bear went over the Mountain I have been a little thematic.
Batter Up

 

[AJFitzpatrick]

Well, my knowledge of the 19th Century Russian involvement in Afghanistan only comes from the  Flashman series so i think I may have to disqualify myself henceforth.

 

[Rhibwolf]

In what might very well be the longest Freindly Fire incident in history  (~2 hrs 15 min) , three allied ships had at another for a considerable lenght of time during WWII in the Mid Atlantic. 
a) when was this collossal mistake made?
b) which ships were involved?
c) what was the impact on the Senior Officer's career?