[blam]

GGG Ping?

[digger48]

Eeesh! Lousy way to go!

[Zeroisanumber]

A half-million man army reduced to 3000 pathetic survivors. Amazing.

[Abcdefg]

Louse? Are they talking about Bob Beckel? 'Cause it sure sounds like Bob Beckel.

[kalee]

ping

[ClearCase_guy]

Probably the best statistical graphic ever drawn, this map by Charles Joseph Minard portrays the losses suffered by Napoleon's army in the Russian campaign of 1812. Beginning at the Polish-Russian border, the thick band shows the size of the army at each position. The path of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow in the bitterly cold winter is depicted by the dark lower band, which is tied to temperature and time scales.

[radiohead]

Did anyone see the dramatization of this on one of the cable shows? It was hosted by James Woods and had re-enactments of different eras in history. This was one of them and it was mind-numbing. At one of the shelters/hospitals they stacked bodies in the windows to keep out the draft. I can't imagine being a soldier then, either freezing to death yourself or watching your comarades die by the thousands from disease.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam. Probably no ping, but it does give me a cheap excuse to pontificate about Napoleon's great error. Herodotus was known, and H's account of the Persian attempt to bring Scythia (basically, the lands north and east of the Danube) under dominion is a precursor to Napoleon's, Kaiser Wilhelm's, and Hitler's invasion of Russia. Obviously the people involved were different, but the basic tactic of the Scythians was to bug out, and ride off in a different direction. The Persians would take a few more days to march after them and nearly catch up, then the Scythians would up and ride off again. Finally, the winter could be felt closing in, and supply line (and retreat route) problems arose, and the Persians withdrew.

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[SunkenCiv]

The Histories
by Herodotus
tr by George Rawlinson
Book IV -- Melpomene

When this reply reached the Scythians, they resolved, as the neighbouring nations refused their alliance, that they would not openly venture on any pitched battle with the enemy, but would retire before them, driving off their herds, choking up all the wells and springs as they retreated, and leaving the whole country bare of forage... [and] ...to keep at the distance of a day's march from the Persians, falling back as they advanced...Their waggons wherein their women and their children lived, and all their cattle, except such a number as was wanted for food, which they kept with them, were made to precede them in their retreat, and departed, with orders to keep marching, without change of course, to the north. The scouts of the Scythians found the Persian host advanced three days' march from the Ister, and immediately took the lead of them at the distance of a day's march, encamping from time to time, and destroying all that grow on the ground. The Persians no sooner caught sight of the Scythian horse than they pursued upon their track, while the enemy retired before them. The pursuit of the Persians was directed towards the single division of the Scythian army, and thus their line of march was eastward toward the Tanais. The Scyths crossed the river and the Persians after them, still in pursuit. in this way they passed through the country of the Sauromatae, and entered that of the Budini.