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When Sartre Got Conscripted
On September 20th, 1939, Jean-Paul Sartre was conscripted into the French Army.
When India’s First Woman Photojournalist Documented India’s First Republic Day Parade
Homai Vyarawalla was India's first woman photojournalist.
Napoleon's hat auctioned at $2.1M
At an auction in France, a black felt bicorn hat believed to have belonged to Napoleon sold for $2.1 million, fetching the highest price ever paid for one of the 19th-century French emperor’s hats.
When the South Korean Army Banned Friend by Paek Nam Nyong
Friend by Paek Nam Nyong (translated by Immanuel Kim, published by Columbia University Press) is the first English novel approved by North Korea’s regime. Published in 1988, it is a beloved classic there about characters caught up in marital strife and disappointed by their spouses, based on Paek Nam Nyong’s experience of sitting in on North Korean divorce hearings. South Korea's defence ministry has included it in a list of 23 “seditious books” banned for reading in the South Korean army (among them are two by Noam Chomsky, a linguist with radical politics). This prohibition applies to all male citizens having 18 months or more of their mandatory military service left. The ministry’s apparent fear is that a sympathetic portrait of South Korea’s hostile northern neighbour could undermine soldiers’ resolve to defend their country.
When Graham Greene worked for the MI6
Graham Greene had continued working for British intelligence into his seventies.
Agreeing with the KGB ...
Did you hear the old Soviet joke where a KGB director asked one of his lieutenants what he thought of the government. The other nervously said "I agree with you, comrade", so the boss had him arrested.
Served as Chief of Staff of Three Different Army Commands
Lt Gen HRS Mann has had the unique distinction of having served as the Chief of Staff of the Army's Central Command, Training Command and the Western Command, probably the only officer to do so.
Father and Son Commanding the Same Division
General George S. Patton followed his father in command of the 2nd Armoured Division of the US Army
Wartime Propaganda Slogan During World War II
Loose lips [might] sink ships.
Edward Gibbon
And the winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.
John A Logan
Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations, that we have forgotten, as a people, the cost of a free and undivided Republic.
Lieutenant General William Pagonis
Owning the facts is a prerequisite to leadership. But there are millions of technocrats out there with lots of facts in their quivers and little leadership potential. In many cases, what they are missing is empathy. No one is a leader who can’t put himself or herself in the other person’s shoes. Empathy and expertise command respect.
Lt Gen Hubert Worthington
An Officer should be comely, spratly and above all else, confident in his own dress and bearing. He should, where possible, eat a small piece of meat each morning with molasses and beans. He should air himself gracefully when under fire and never place himself in a position of difficulty when being shot at. He should eat his meals comfortably and ahead of his soldiers, for it is he who is more important tactically on the battlefield and therefore he who should be well nourished. His hair should be well groomed and if possible he should adorn a moustashe or similar facial adornment. When speaking to his soldiers he should appear unnerved and aloof and give direction without in any way involving himself in the execution of arduous or unofficer like duties. He should smoke thin pantellas except when in the company of ladies when he should take only a small gin mixed with lemon tea. He should be an ardent and erudite gentleman and woo the ladies both in the formal environment and in the bedroom where he should excel himself beyond the ordinary soldier with his virulent love making prowess. These I say to you are the qualities of an Officer that set him apart from the lay person and the common soldier.
Bernard Brodie, Military Strategist
Thus far, while the chief purpose of the military establishment had been to win wars, after the advent of nuclear weapons, its chief purpose was to avert them.
Graham Greene
The novelist and the intelligence officer have this in common: each must feel his way in the dark.
Carl Sagan
The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.
BH Liddell Hart
{Strategy is} the art of distributing and applying military means to fulfill the ends of policy.
USJCS
Military strategy is the art and science of employing the armed forces of a nation to secure the objectives of national policy by the application of force, or threat of force.
Name this unique place famous for its intersection of soldiering and sports.
That one village, one family, one street gave India 14 Olympians, an unrivaled track record even today. Take a look at the haul: 14 Olympians – 15 medals (8 Gold, 1 Silver, 6 Bronze) 10 Asian Games players – 13 medals (4 Gold, 8 Silver, 1 Bronze) 5 Arjuna Awardees 4 Maharaja Ranjit Singh Awardees 2 Padma Shri winners 1 Tenzing Norgay (National Adventure) Award winner.
The Journey of Heinrich Harrer: From Dehradun’s Prem Nagar POW Camp to Seven Years in Tibet
However, the outbreak of World War II led to Harrer and other German and Austrian nationals in India being apprehended and confined by the British in internment camps.
The Book That Literally Saved A Life
Maurice Hamonneau, a French legionnaire and the sole survivor of an artillery attack near Verdun during the First World War, lay wounded and unconscious for hours after the battle. Upon regaining consciousness, he discovered that a 1913 French pocket edition of Rudyard Kipling's "Kim" had deflected a bullet, saving his life by a mere twenty pages. In recognition of his bravery, Hamonneau was awarded the Croix de Guerre, leading to a close friendship with Kipling. Learning of Kipling's grief over the loss of his son John, who served with the Irish Guards, Hamonneau was moved to send the medal and the torn copy of "Kim" to Kipling. Kipling, deeply touched, insisted he would return the items if Hamonneau ever had a son. When Hamonneau did, he named him Jean in honour of John Kipling. Kipling returned the items along with a heartfelt letter to young Jean, advising him to always carry a book of at least 350 pages in the left breast pocket. Eventually, the book went to auction and became part of the Library through the Colt-Kipling Collection.
Jim Corbett’s Stint in the Indian Labour Corps During World War I
Corbett raised the No. 70 Kumaon Company
The Doctor Surgeon with the Magic Scalpel
A story of dedication, courage, surgical skill and love for the uniform shared by Major General KA Muthanna.
The Time UK's Royal Navy Posted an Ad on LinkedIn to Recruit a Rear-Admiral
In December 2023, the UK’s Royal Navy was forced to advertise for a top job on social media in a move described as “utterly shameful” by military sources. Navy chiefs posted the advertisement for the £150,000-a-year rear-admiral position on LinkedIn as it struggled to fill the role internally. These developments occurred as former defence secretary Ben Wallace warned Britain’s armed forces were facing a recruitment crisis because Generation Z was not signing up. As per a report by The Telegraph, the Navy was seeking a candidate to replace then Rear-Admiral Simon Asquith as Director of Submarines. The new hire would be responsible for "highly classified stealth, elite operations and Trident, our nuclear deterrent." The overall number of Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel dropped by 1,450 from October 2022 to October 2023 — a 3.7% decrease, according to UK Ministry of Defence figures. The number of active personnel across the UK's armed forces fell by 3.9% over the same period.
A Major General ‘By Mistake’…
During the British raj in India, rulers of princely states eagerly sought honorary military ranks from the colonists. In one such instance in 1930, Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir was seeking promotion from the honorary rank of Colonel to Major General. In the process, Lt Colonel G D Ogilvie — the Resident of Kashmir — wrote a letter to the Political Secretary to the Government of India Sir Charles Watson to facilitate this. Ogilvie stated that a sufficient amount of time had passed since the Maharaja’s last promotion. Moreover, he occupied an important position in the Kashmir Army. He further pointed out that at 35 years old, there was not much difference in age between him and the Maharaja of Patiala Bhupinder Singh, who was made a Major General when he was 29 years old. In the extensive correspondence that resulted from this request, it emerged that the Maharaja of Patiala was given the rank of Major General accidentally. He was recommended for the rank of Colonel by the Government of India, “but His Majesty’s Government, through a misunderstanding, gazetted His Highness as Major-General. No steps, of course, were taken to rectify the error. The case of Patiala does not, therefore, appear to be a safe precedent for regulating the promotion of H.H. the Maharaja of Kashmir”. Hari Singh had to wait another five years before becoming Major General in 1935. As a further insult to injury, Bhupinder Singh of Patiala secured the rank of Lieutenant General ahead of him, achieving it in 1931 while Hari Singh remained at the rank of Colonel.