Author Topic: False histories. What irks you the most?  (Read 56675 times)

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Offline TORN

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Re: False histories. What irks you the most?
« Reply #360 on: March 31, 2013, 12:22:17 am »
Well how much resistance did you do?  :P
I don't think anyone would think ou just welcomed them, but since nobody has ever heard about you fighting the invaders, my guess would be the same amount of fighting that we Danes did at the invasion in 1940  :P
since i'm on my ipod i can't awnser properly but i can asure you we did give alot of resistance

Offline Docm30

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Re: False histories. What irks you the most?
« Reply #361 on: March 31, 2013, 12:25:02 am »
Nobody has ever heard of it? I'd contend that anyone that knows anything about the Western Front of WW1 knows about the stiff resistance the Belgians put up and the subsequent atrocities committed against them.

While they were still fairly easily beaten by the Germans, their resistance (where the Germans had expected neutrality. I guess the Germans figured violating their neutrality wouldn't particularly bother the Belgians) gave the French precious time to recover from their failed invasion of Alsace-Lorraine.

The invasion itself also presented the UK (and thus the commonwealth, for various reasons) with a convenient excuse to declare war on the Germans.
« Last Edit: March 31, 2013, 12:27:21 am by Docm30 »

Offline TORN

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Re: False histories. What irks you the most?
« Reply #362 on: March 31, 2013, 12:28:09 am »
we gave enough time to britian and france to mobolize their armies so they could come to our aid.

Offline Hugh MacKay

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Re: False histories. What irks you the most?
« Reply #363 on: March 31, 2013, 03:21:46 am »
MacKay, you guys were (seriously) beaten in a couple hours. In the same war, Belgium resisted Germany for eightteen days.

Back to WW1, I don't know for sure, but the Belgian army (which was in a bad shape) held the Germans for at least multiple days.

Take it as a bad attempt to troll ;) Honestly I had thought you guys could take a hint when I compare them to the danish military of the '40s   :)
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Offline KillerMongoose

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Re: False histories. What irks you the most?
« Reply #364 on: March 31, 2013, 05:55:12 am »
Indeed, the Belgian army put up a resistance that bought the allies time to mobilize and also provided a great source for allied propaganda. There are lots of allied posters saying things like "Bravo Belgium!" And "Brave little Belgium!"

Not many people understand that in WW1 Belgium was never fully taken over, they held at the Yser River in Ypres throughout the war. Belgium at the start of the war (like most countries) was not prepared for modern warfare, many of the uniforms wouldn't look out of place at the Battle of Waterloo. When the war started, Belgium's military underwent one of the most dramatic military changes in the war. In a period of a few months (I believe 6 months roughly) they went from blue coats, shakos, kepis, and bearskins, to helmets and khakis. And as a result of the Battle of Haelen, the Germans learned that old fashioned cavalry tactics would never again work in modern warfare. During the battle, the Belgian cavalry dismounted and repelled the German cavalry with massed rifle fire.

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Offline TORN

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Re: False histories. What irks you the most?
« Reply #365 on: March 31, 2013, 01:06:53 pm »
Indeed Belgium's army wasn't ready for a modern war. Our forts were outdated and couldn't resist anything bigger than 21cm. Except the fort of Antwerp.

On the 4th picture  Killermongoose posted the lion stand on the word liege. Liege is a city here in the south of Belgium and was the first battle in Belgium.
Just hours after we deliverd our reply to Germany that we wouldn't give passage through. 2 german Cavalry division were send to outflank the fortified city of Liège but found that we destroyed the bridges and all the passages were guarded. General von Emmich with 130.000 men and plentifull artillery thought that General Leman would capitulate rather than defending a lost city.
When Leman refused passage the germans immediately started an offence on the forts of Chuadfontaine, Fléron, Evegnée, Barchon and Pontisse.
9 German brigades stormed across the fields between the forts but were everywhere repulsed with such heavy losses that several dibisions withdrew back into Germany.
They had to bring reinforcements in large numbers.
The German death count was estimated to be 42.712 men.
But the unexpected resistance held up the invading army with enormous traffic jams. The overcrowded roads and railways caused such confusion inside Germany that the whole army had to mark time for several days.

This gave France and The United Kingdom enough time to mobolize their armies. They say that the defence of Liège had a real influence on the outcome of the 1914 campaign.

Offline Duuring

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Re: False histories. What irks you the most?
« Reply #366 on: March 31, 2013, 04:01:29 pm »
To name something else:

It irks me quite a lot that people think (and say) that 'nobody came back from Russia', and that those who didn't come back died. Same goes with the 'all-murdering cossacks'.

Fact is, I've come by hundreds of Dutch Russia-veterans who joined up in the new Dutch army in 1814. While undoubtedly a good deal of them died, many more had come back, were still imprisoned or on their way back from Russian imprisonment. Many of these POW had been captured by cossacks who usually robed them, and passed them over to the prison camps.
So yes, a majority of the men never returned, but certainly not all.

I wish I could give a good estimation, but it really differs per battalion. One Russia veteran in every fifty soldiers is a good guess, and it's certainly not below that.
« Last Edit: March 31, 2013, 04:06:19 pm by Duuring »