Question of the Hour

[redleafjumper]

Bern Dawg is correct.  La Regazona was the largest vessel in the Spanish Armada.

 

[geo]

the Urban Legends Reference Pages, addresses this very question.

As the page explains, the theory is that on a statue of a solider on horseback, if the horse is depicted with one hoof off the ground, the soldier was wounded in battle (and may have died later from the wounds); Two raised hooves indicate that the soldier died in battle. If the statue shows all four hooves on the ground, the rider survived all battles unharmed.

As you may have guessed, the site declares this theory to be nothing more than an urban legend, and lists a number of statues that do not conform to the code.

A further search phrase, this time honed down to a sleek "statue hoof," led us to a lively message board discussion on the topic.

One thoughtful and in-depth post offers the following opinion:

The number of the horse's feet taken up from the ground has nothing to do with any attribute of the person depicted and everything to do with the skill of the sculptor and his ability to overcome nearly insurmountable problems in solid geometry, stress of materials, and other aspects of civil engineering...
A post on another message board states that the statue code is only true of Civil War statues found at Gettysburg. But, following a link in another post, we visited the web site of the U.S. Army Military History Institute. There, a park historian from Gettysburg National Military Park asserted, "Any relationship between the number of raised hooves on a horse-and-rider statue and the rider's actual experience in battle is merely a coincidence..."

 

[AJFitzpatrick]

Inspired by the Armada question

What was the name of the last wooden warship sunk by enemy action and the circumstances?

 

[redleafjumper]

HMS Wellesley?  Kind of a tricky question!

Built in 1815, HMS Wellesley was literally demolished dockside by a 500 pound bomb during a night time German air raid on Portsmouth naval base, March 10-11, 1941, thus gaining the distinction of being the last wooden ship of the line to be sunk by enemy action.

HMS Victory suffered some damage to 120 square foot of her hull when a 500 pound bomb fell & detonated between the wall of her dry dock, her hull, and the cradle she rests upon. She proved extremely resilient in the low degree of damage she took as a result.

It was initially considered a German mistake - sheer luck - but as time has passed some have made a reasonable argument that the Germans became aware that up to 6 of Britains old ships of the line were utilized quite often as conference sites by British Naval Officers.

 

[AJFitzpatrick]

That's the one and it was deliberately tricky.

Another one, everyone knows that the oldest ship in commission in the RN is HMS Victory; what is the second oldest ship in commission in the RN?

 

[larry Strong]

HMS Caroline 3rd oldest warship after HMS Victory and USS Constitution

 

[AJFitzpatrick]

Correct Again

HMS Caroline;
commissioned 4 December 1914
Amongst other things she is the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland, is the last afloat training establishment in the RNR, is the HQ of the RNVR Ulster Division, and set the fastest build time of any significant warship, 9 months from keel laid til launch.
Moored at Belfast she is scheduled to remain in commission until 2011.

Sourced from the wikipedia page

 

[larry Strong]

Thank you, feel free to post, I just like trying to answer them, hope thats ok.

 

[AJFitzpatrick]

No problems, I just ran out of questions for a bit.
What was the name of the Infantry Bn that Winston Churchill commanded in WWI?

 

[geo]

Winnie was 1st Sea Lord between 1911 & 1915 and is credited with modernizing the Home fleet... good thing
Winnie is also credited supporting the Russians in the opening of a second front to the Turks. AKA the Dardanelles & Gallipoli..... bad thing

Any infantry command he might have had would have been honorary

 

[redleafjumper]

It was a battalion of the 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers - he was later honourary colonel of that regiment.  He was appointed to command it on New Years Day 1916.  He went back to the army after he resigned as First Sea Lord and by all accounts he was a good battalion commander.

 

[hugh19]

No he held a battalion command from sometime after he left the Admiralty until about Jan 1916. Cannot not remember what regiment tho. But he wore a french helmet and not a british one.

 

[redleafjumper]

There is a photo of him in a French helmet, but he was definitely the commander of the British Battalion I mentioned.  I don't have his biography in front of me to post the reference, but I suppose some googling would find it in a hurry.

Here what I found googling regimental history of the 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers and Churchill:

From: http://www.btinternet.com/~james.mckay/rsf21st.htm  Scots Royal Fusiliers Lineage

"In the war of 1914-1918 the regiment expanded to 18 battalions and was represented in every main action on the Western Front. They were also at Gallipoli, in the Palestine campaign till Jerusalem fell and at Salonika. The late Right Hon. Winston Churchill was Colonel of the 6th Battalion from December, 1915, to May, 1916. Only the 1st and 2nd battalions were regulars, the others consisted of the Special Reserve, Territorial and War Service battalions. "

 

[geo]

Sir Winston Churchill commanded the 6th Battalion of the Regiment (Territorial Army) on the Western Front for a few months in 1915 while in disgrace after Gallipoli (his second in command was Sir Archibald Sinclair later Air Minister).  Major General Hakewell Smith, later the commander of 52 (Lowland) Division in WWII was one of his subalterns.

 

[AJFitzpatrick]

It was a battalion of the 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers - he was later honourary colonel of that regiment.  He was appointed to command it on New Years Day 1916.

Correct or more correctly the 6th battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers (Formerly the 21st Regiment of Foot). I can well understand the confusion here as regiments in WWI raised multiple Bn of various types.
Although Winston commanded 6 RScotsF as an acting Lt. Col. what regiment was he actually commissioned in?
and What British regiment raised the most battalions in World War I?

Edit: I've got to learn how to type faster 

 

[redleafjumper]

He was commissioned in the 4th Queen's Own Hussars.

 

[cplcaldwell]

What British regiment raised the most battalions in World War I?

A creaky old memory makes me want to say the KOYLI at 26 (really, I read that somewhere and it stuck!).

I'll bet the RB's weren't far behind.

 

[AJFitzpatrick]

He was commissioned in the 4th Queen's Own Hussars.

This is true when he was a regular but he transferred to the territorials (not sure of exact date), what regiment did he transfer (? usage) the commission to. Perhaps I initially phrased it badly.

A creaky old memory makes me want to say the KOYLI at 26 (really, I read that somewhere and it stuck!).

I'll bet the RB's weren't far behind.

A good guess but not the answer I have.

 

[AJFitzpatrick]

The answer to the first question is:
The Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars (Captain. 4 Jan 1902).

I'll leave the 2nd question for a bit longer.

 

[cplcaldwell]

What British regiment raised the most battalions in World War I?

Okay, I really thought it was the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. But I guess it wasn't. So I went through some of what I thought was the next most obvious ones. Ox & Bucks, Black Watch, London Scottish, KOSB, PWOR (Green Howards), North Riding and West Riding of York (resp.).

And I don't have enough time to do the whole OrBat but I did come across one that seems like a reasonable guesstimate.

The Middlesex Regiment 46 Battalions raised. Includes 4 regular TA and the remaining 42 HO, some line, some work.

Best I can do.