Watched Stalag 17(1953)Timeframe : Battle of the Bulge

Interesting Marc. Thanks.

@wittmann:

Don’t worry Worsham. You are very passionate about the subject and I am still learning.
Sorry I did not check and discreetly tell you by PM.
Hope you are having a good weekend. The 4th tomorrow….

Thank you for the kind words.

30th August: Rapunzel.
In 1862 in Northern Virginia, however, Major General John Pope was about to get his long awaited comeuppance. Lee was ready to take the offensive against the man he had come to despise, for his over confident bombast and disregard and disrespect of Virginia and the men he had come east to command.
Not heeding his subordinates’ requests for caution, Pope tried once again to break Jackson’s battered Corps(one Brigade did break, but others plugged the gap). On the union far left were only two brigades of Infantry and they were to be assailed by ten times their number. Three Southern Divisions, Hood’s, Kemper’s and Jones’ crashed onto the field, making short work of the outnumbered Northern troops.
Pope did well to recognise the danger when it appeared and sent four Brigades from three different Divisions to hold at Henry House Hill on his left. Remember this was ground fought over 13 months ago, by much the same men and officers, although most were now promoted.
This time around there would be no rout. Understandably, there was much jubilation on the side of the Southerners and a great loss of morale on the Northern side. This sense of martial superiority, begun last Summer  at 1st Manassas, was to continue and come to a head on the field of Gettysburg another Summer from now.

Thank you Toblerone.
I do not mind people going off at a tangent incidentally. It is all fun.
As you said, Flashman made a very good point.

On the 24th May 1864 Grant gifted Lee the  kind of opportunity that rarely happens in a campaign: to wreck the other’s army.
After the bloodletting of May 5-12th, that cost Lee 22000 casualties and Grant 34000,'weakening both armies by 33% and 25% respectively, Grant again disengaged and moved South towards Richmond. Lee had followed and had been reinforced with 7 small Brigades from his capital.
Grant had inadvertentally straddled his large army across the North Anna river.
Lee saw the way to take advantage of his smaller numbers and punish the Federal II Corps, Grant’s best. He could throw 30000 men at the 24000 that were over the V in the river separating Grant’s two halves of his army. Hancock’s 24000 could not be reinforced, because of the V of the river, so he readied his assault.
On the afternoon of the 24th Lee fell violently sick with diarrhoea. He lay helplessly for hours while the opportunity to assault, before the Union commanders realised the sure situation were in.
The reason Lee’s defensive strike could not be undertaken was simple: the attrition of the last 19 days had robbed him of a subordinate able to manage it.
Time and opportunity passed. Grant and Hancock’s isolated Corps were extremely lucky.
We all know the loss of a quarter of Grant’s force would never have changed his resolve to “fight it all out, even if it takes all Summer”, but another battering would have diminished his potential to do so sooner.

Battle of Brienne was fought today, 29th January, in 1814.
(I had never heard of this one.)
The town is in North East France and the battle here took place because the 6th coalition invaded  France in the hope of overthrowing Napoleon.
As the roads were bad because of the weather, Napoleon was able to catch his old enemy, Blucher, with only one wing of his army: the Russian contingent under Lt Gen Baron Osten-Sachen, about 17000 men. Napoleon had 30000 on hand, but after his earlier reverses most were straight out of training camps.
Napoleon pinned down Blucher’s forces with Grouchy’s Cavalry and Horse Artillery, while Marshal Ney took the Young Guard into the town and captured the Chateau with the aid of Victor’s 2nd Corps. That night Blucher was forced to withdraw, after nearly being captured withGeneral Gneisenau. (Napoleon also narrowly missed capture.)
Blucher’s losses were 4000 casualties to Napoleon’s 3000.

I think it’s unsportsman like, but obviously nothing can be done and it’s available to all players, so there isno disparity. I try not to do it. I get tunnel vision when I play, so I don’t even think about it until someone mentions it.

The Spongebob Squarepants Movie  :-D