The Odd And Unusual In The Military

Charge 7

Master Gunner
Okay as my milbucks are going higher and with little to do with them I'm starting my own trivia game. This one will be about odd and unusual facts and figures in military history. I'll start out easy and with lower milbucks awarded to start but we'll see how it goes. I'll award more for harder ones later.

First Up:

The Medal of Honor has been twice awarded to individuals only 19 times. One of those awarded was the brother of a famous general.

For 150 milbucks name the general and for 150 more name the brother.
 
Second Lieutenant Thomas W. Custer both times for capturing the enemy's battle field

And of course his brother is Gen Custer.

now give me some ofmy mil bucks BACK!!! ;)
 
Okay you get the 300 milbucks :lol:

Told you the first one would be easy. Now here's the next one, and it won't be so easy.

The Civil War saw the youngest generals in America's history. Name the youngest for 150 milbucks and give his age for another 150 milbucks.
 
You get 150 milbucks. Pennypacker was 17.

Okay here come the hard ones. Next question.

One US destroyer did something quite remarkable that no other US ship did in WWII. Name the ship and what it did for 200 milbucks.
 
Okay that one must've been too hard. The answer is the USS Stewart DD-224. She was an old WWI era "four piper". Heavily damaged in action against Japanese forces in the invasion of Bali it was sent to a floating dry dock for repairs at Holland Pier Basin in Surabaya. While being lifted she fell off her keel blocks and came to rest at a 37 degree list. Efforts to right and repair her proved futile because of periodic Japanese air attacks. Eventually Stewart and the dry dock were extensively damaged by those air attacks and she was abandoned to the invading Japanese. Believed destroyed she was struck from the Navy's list of active ships and her name given to a new a destroyer escort. Then in 1944 and 1945 American airmen and submarine commanders reported sightings of a US Navy "flush-decker" (another name given to the "four pipers" denoting their even decks) operating deep within enemy waters. The ship had Japanese markings and a trunked funnel, but the hull had unmistakable "four-piper" lines. American occupation forces discovered her in Hiro Bay near Kure in August of 1945. She had been raised and repaired by the Japanese and had served as their Patrol Vessel No. 102 from September of 1943 until the end of the war. So USS Stewart was the only ship to have fought in WWII in both the US and Japanese Navies.

Next question will be a much easier one.

For 200 milbucks name the country that was first to invade Germany in WWII and give the date they did so. As there are few countries to pick from I will allow only a few guesses.
 
Correct! You get the money!

Odd indeed that the French invaded Germany first in WWII. They didn't do a very good job of recon as there were only about 200 Panzer I and IIs to stop them and absolutely no air cover as it was all in Poland. They could've stormed all the way to Berlin if thay had had the initiative to do so and the tactics to employ doing so, but they were still in the WWI mindset of using tanks piecemeal as infantry support weapons only though they possessed the largest army in Europe at the time. The lack of initiative goes without saying. The French only invaded several kilometers and still stayed within sight of French soil before turning back some days later to their fixed fortifications.

Next question:

General Robert E. Lee's famous horse "Traveler" was not originally named that. Lee had to rename the horse when he succeeded General Albert Sidney Johnston as Commanding General of the Confederacy. What was Traveler's original name and why was he renamed? The correct answer will get you 200 milbucks.
 
Correct! You get the milbucks. "Traveler" was originally named "Jeff Davis". Obviously it would have been unseemly for the commanding general to have riden a horse named after the President so "Traveler" got rechristened. Good job! For awhile there, I thought that one was going to be too hard.

Next question:

This one is rather hard so I'll bring the milbucks awarded up to 250.

In the early half of the 19th century John Ericsson was fired from the US Navy and if not for the great needs of the Civil War nearly 20 years later, might never have invented the Monitor - the first revolving turreted gunship. Ericsson was fired because he criticized the misuse of ideas originally conceived by him but put in play altered by another man. This lead to a great tragedy that many feel Ericsson was made a scapegoat for. What was the tragedy?
 
Are you talking about the accident on the Princeton?
The cannon that exploded was not of his design I believe.
 
Correct! Very good! You get the money again. It was indeed a tragedy. The US Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Navy were both killed in the explosion as was the Commandant of Annapolis. President Tyler missed being killed only because he was asked a question as he climbed up the ladder to observe the fire and turned back to answer. Correct also that the cannon was not of his design - exactly - it was designed by Commodore Stockton from Ericsson's original design and Ericsson suffered for having been the original holder of the patent and having the temerity to criticize it's modification. he was fired in disgrace and it was only the Civil War that saved him from obscurity.

Next question:

France has one of the most bizarre war monuments in existence - all the more so because it is very real and telling of the tragedy of war. Where is this monument in France and what does it show? The correct answer will get you 200 milbucks.
 
since Im on fire....
I think france have some bizarre monuments, but maybe it could be the skeleton on "mort homme" (dead mans hill)?
 
Okay nobody's taken a stab at this lately so I'll give another hint:

The monument is on one of the largest battlefields in France and there is also another hint in the sentence above this one.
 
ah.... then it must be the trench of bayonets.
It shows bayonets stuck in the ground. One for each soldier they found I think.
it also shows the power of artillery :?
 
Correct about the Bayonet Trench. You get the milbucks.

The Bayonet Trench marks the final resting place of No. 3 Company, 1st Battalion, 137th Infantry Regiment of the French Army at Verdun.

In January 1919, a French Army team from the 137th Infantry Regiment, searching a particular part of the part of the battlefield at Verdun for the remains of their comrades who had fallen during the desperate fighting there almost three years earlier, made a startling discovery. L'Abbé Ratier, the regimental chaplain, who had served as a stretcher-bearer during the bloodiest combat, stumbled upon an object protruding from the ground. Looking closer, he saw it was a French bayonet. He noticed another one a few feet away, then another. He counted dozens of bayonets over a distance of 30 yards. Removing the dirt from around one of them, the team found it was fixed to the barrel of a rifle. Digging beneath it, they discovered the decomposed body of a French soldier. Excavating further beneath the other bayonets, they found similar remains. The bombardment of June 12th, 1916 by German artillery had landed on either side of the trench and collapsed the earth in on the men below. The French nation was captivated by this a symbol of all who had stood their ground even against the fiercest odds and a monument was created over the trench where the men still are to this day.

Next question:

The War of 1812 saw many "firsts" in warfare but this question regards the first and only time a ship captured by the US Navy had as commander of its prize crew a US Marine. Name the ship and the Marine for 250 milbucks.
 
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