Vincent Van Goatse posted:

You should tailor your war crimes according to the culture you're fighting, duh. That's like, Tyranny 101.

Robert J. Kodosky, Psychological Operations American Style posted:

The core of OSS planning contained plans to use the fox, an animal that, when illuminated, Shintoists view as a harbinger of bad times. “Project Fantasia” stemmed from the believe that “under extremely trying conditions,” Japanese “would be adversely affected by what they might consider an evil omen.” Based on what they learned from “experts familiar with Japanese superstition and mythology,” OSS personnel hoped the project would instill their enemy with “fear, terror, and despair.” Beginning in 1943, American experimented with fox-shaped balloons covered in luminous paint that could be dangled by fishing line to scare Japanese observers. By the end of 1944, they shelved that idea and shifted to testing live foxes sprayed with paint they resolved to disperse across the “entire field of combat.”

Ensign Expendable posted:

These guys know that the Hound of the Baskervilles was fiction, right?

Alchenar posted:

Yeah, real armies just attach explosives to dogs and let them run towards the enemy.

Ensign Expendable posted:

These guys know that the Hound of the Baskervilles was fiction, right?

MrYenko posted:

The last part is optional.

Ainsley McTree posted:

I’ve played R:TW, you’re supposed to light the dogs on fire to spook elephants

Fangz posted:

Only pigs light on fire, dogs are just low tier horses

Ainsley McTree posted:

I’ve played R:TW, you’re supposed to light the dogs on fire use your screeching women to spook elephants

OwlFancier posted:

dog dimension

canyoneer posted:

The dog handlers are doggy necromancers. That's why if the handler dies, you don't get the dog back.

A Handed Missus posted:

limp_cheese posted:

I was reading the posts about psyops and how human beings are prone to mistakes and group think and it reminded me about a battle a long time ago that I can't remember the people involved but I remember the details.

Basically in the 1600s or some poo poo in eastern Europe 2 countries were at war. For the sake of arguement let's say Poland and Romania although those are probably wrong. The Poles were vastly outnumbered and were worried about being overrun the next day when they heard a poo poo load of fighting in the night. They went out to scout and found a few Romanian survivors. They told the story how they were attacked in the night by a large force that ended up routing their army. They assumed it was the Poles but they hadn't moved and were not expecting reinforcements.

Turns out it was a large Romanian force coming to reinforce them so they could overrun the Poles. For whatever reason the guys on guard duty confused them for an enemy force and opened fire which resulted in both sides bringing everything they had to bear. They fought an extremely bloody battle that resulted in large casualties and both sides being routed. I think it actually cost them the war because they lost so many men and couldn't regain the initiative.

I'm sure I got some details wrong but does this sound familiar to anyone?

SeanBeansShako posted:

Well they had the time machine so of course they'd win.

Vincent Van Goatse posted:

Sounds like the Battle of Karánsebes, which was mostly apocryphal.

Wikipedia posted:

Different portions of an Austrian army, which were scouting for forces of the Ottoman Empire, fired on each other by mistake, causing self-inflicted decimation. The battle took place on the night of 21–22 September 1788. The Ottomans took advantage and captured the city.
The army of Austria, approximately 100,000 strong, was setting up camp around the town of Karánsebes (now Caransebeș, in modern Romania). The army's vanguard, a contingent of hussars, crossed the Timiș River nearby to scout for the presence of the Ottoman Turks. There was no sign of the Ottoman army, but the hussars did run into a group of Tzigani, who offered to sell schnapps to the war-weary soldiers. The cavalrymen bought the schnapps and started to drink.
Soon afterwards, some infantry crossed the river. When they saw the party going on, the infantry demanded alcohol for themselves. The hussars refused to give them any of the schnapps, and while still drunk, they set up makeshift fortifications around the barrels. A heated argument ensued, and one soldier fired a shot.
Immediately, the hussars and infantry engaged in combat with one another. During the conflict, some infantry began shouting "Turci! Turci!" ("Turks! Turks!"). The hussars fled the scene, thinking that the Ottoman army’s attack was imminent. Most of the infantry also ran away; the army comprised Austrians, Serbs, Croats, and Italians from Lombardy, plus other minorities, many of whom could not understand each other. While it is not clear which one of these groups did so, they gave the false warning without telling the others, who promptly fled. The situation was made worse when officers, in an attempt to restore order, shouted "Halt! Halt!" which was misheard by soldiers with no knowledge of German as "Allah! Allah!".[dubious – discuss][citation needed]
As the cavalry ran through the camps, a corps commander[who?] reasoned that it was a cavalry charge by the Ottoman army, and ordered artillery fire. Meanwhile, the entire camp awoke to the sound of battle and, rather than waiting to see what the situation was, everyone fled. The troops fired at every shadow, thinking the Ottomans were everywhere; in reality they were shooting fellow Austrian soldiers. The incident escalated to the point where the whole army retreated from the imaginary enemy, and Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II was pushed off his horse into a small creek.[citation needed]
Two days later, the Ottoman army arrived. They discovered dead and wounded soldiers and easily took Karánsebes.[citation needed]

limp_cheese posted:

I get that I most assuredly got the names of the sides wrong, I just threw those in there as placeholders instead of saying Army A and Army B. I'm also going off a memory of a story I read a long time ago and figured I would ask the thread in case it was a fever dream of some sort.

Edit:


That's the one. I love that it was so much more hosed up than I imagined.

[qoute=Wikipeida]
Different portions of an Austrian army, which were scouting for forces of the Ottoman Empire, fired on each other by mistake, causing self-inflicted decimation. The battle took place on the night of 21–22 September 1788. The Ottomans took advantage and captured the city.
The army of Austria, approximately 100,000 strong, was setting up camp around the town of Karánsebes (now Caransebeș, in modern Romania). The army's vanguard, a contingent of hussars, crossed the Timiș River nearby to scout for the presence of the Ottoman Turks. There was no sign of the Ottoman army, but the hussars did run into a group of Tzigani, who offered to sell schnapps to the war-weary soldiers. The cavalrymen bought the schnapps and started to drink.
Soon afterwards, some infantry crossed the river. When they saw the party going on, the infantry demanded alcohol for themselves. The hussars refused to give them any of the schnapps, and while still drunk, they set up makeshift fortifications around the barrels. A heated argument ensued, and one soldier fired a shot.
Immediately, the hussars and infantry engaged in combat with one another. During the conflict, some infantry began shouting "Turci! Turci!" ("Turks! Turks!"). The hussars fled the scene, thinking that the Ottoman army’s attack was imminent. Most of the infantry also ran away; the army comprised Austrians, Serbs, Croats, and Italians from Lombardy, plus other minorities, many of whom could not understand each other. While it is not clear which one of these groups did so, they gave the false warning without telling the others, who promptly fled. The situation was made worse when officers, in an attempt to restore order, shouted "Halt! Halt!" which was misheard by soldiers with no knowledge of German as "Allah! Allah!".[dubious – discuss][citation needed]
As the cavalry ran through the camps, a corps commander[who?] reasoned that it was a cavalry charge by the Ottoman army, and ordered artillery fire. Meanwhile, the entire camp awoke to the sound of battle and, rather than waiting to see what the situation was, everyone fled. The troops fired at every shadow, thinking the Ottomans were everywhere; in reality they were shooting fellow Austrian soldiers. The incident escalated to the point where the whole army retreated from the imaginary enemy, and Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II was pushed off his horse into a small creek.[citation needed]
Two days later, the Ottoman army arrived. They discovered dead and wounded soldiers and easily took Karánsebes.[citation needed][/qoute]

Army of 100,000 strong routed itself because some assholes on horses refused to share some liquor with the ground pounders. God I love history.

quote:

"On the 21st the army left its camp near Illova in 2 columns [and headed] for Caransebes. When the rear guard of the 2nd column fell back, there arose a false alarm, and when the pickets fired, such confusion gripped the army's baggage train that had been sent ahead towards Caransebes that the teamsters, packers, and grooms hurriedly fled, the lashings of the pack horses slipped off, loads and baggage were thrown, and other such disorder began. Because some wagons had become lost [and were] out of sight of the column, not all of the lost baggage could be collected, but order was re-established and the march resumed. Meanwhile, the other column had traveled as far as Caransebes in complete order, and its rear guard had held off the advancing enemy with every step. The cavalry, supported by the infantry, often attacked [the enemy] and always drove it back with losses. Near Caransebes the Turks attacked a hussar regiment, and as this [regiment] fell back, [the Turks] reached Caransebes. Their infantry crept up to the first houses, began to set them afire, but our infantry drove them [back], whereupon the Turks returned to Armeniș. Our losses among the rear guard may amount to 150 men, dead and wounded. The enemy's losses are considerable. Our cavalry captured 3 banners. On the 22nd, our army moved into camp near Sacu, without seeing the enemy."

Vincent Van Goatse posted:

None of that happened, unfortunately. On the talk page some Wikipedia editors actually found contemporary accounts of the battle and they're completely different. One account from the Erlangen Real Zeitung translates like this:

limp_cheese posted:

Well that's disappointing. I'm sure something like the original bullshit story has happened somewhere during history albeit at a smaller size. It just seems like something that would happen because large groups of humans can get caught in a panic loop. Oh well.

13th KRRC War Diary, 23rd Nov 1917 posted:

2.30 pm. Artillery fired practice rounds for S.O.S. Barrage. These fell well clear of our outpost line about the line of the BASSEVILLEBEEK. Enemy made no reply.

limp_cheese posted:

Well that's disappointing. I'm sure something like the original bullshit story has happened somewhere during history albeit at a smaller size. It just seems like something that would happen because large groups of humans can get caught in a panic loop. Oh well.

Libluini posted:

Bullshit stories are sadly very common. My favorite story is the one were French soldiers during the 7 Years War terrorize a German village, and get their comeuppance after they find a wine cellar. They just excitedly open all the barrels and drink and drink and drink

Later, their wine soaked corpses are found floating in the now flooded cellar.

Probably never happened, but this story was apparently known enough to be put into song by some weirdo I never ever heard off before and after. (I have to see if I can find his CD again, he also had some songs about witchery, I think.)

Ithle01 posted:

You hear the exact same stories about the October Revolution soldiers looting the wine cellars of aristocrats in St. Petersburg.

limp_cheese posted:

Isn't there one where the English give a fleet to a General, not an Asmiral, and tell him to raid the Spanish Treasure Fleets? If I remember right he was hit by a couple of storms almost immediately, missed the fleets by a few days, eventually landed his troops in Spain to try and assault a fort and succeeds in taking the fort. At which point he realizes he has no food or water, but there is a gently caress ton of wine in the fort and his men have to drink something. The men get plastered and when the Spanish come back they take the fort with little difficulty.

The General manages to escape with some of his ships and sails back to England, but not before getting hit by another storm. He gets back to England with a fraction of the men and ships he left with.

Don Gato posted:

i got you fam

Nenonen posted:

Without houses, the House of Habsburg is just 'Habs' because you can't have a burg without buildings.

limp_cheese posted:

That's the one, thanks.

Edit:
That actually brings another question to mind, how did returning veterans cope with fighting in fruitless wars or ones in which they got decimated? I know the usual things of drugs and alcohol, but how often were they able to turn the public at large into not supporting the war? Is this even something people cared about or was it just seen at the time as the norm? I'm interested in any period of history and understand "norms" have always changed.