"It was one of those bush wars that hared up on the edges of the Napoleonic wars. This young officer was the most junior in a naval vessel — wet navy, of course — wind-powered, in fact. This youngster was about the age of most of your class and was not commissioned. He carried the title of temporary third lieutenant — note that this is the title you are about to carry. He had no combat experience; there were four officers in the chain of command above him. When the battle started his commanding officer was wounded. The kid picked him up and carried him out of the line of fire. That’s all — make pickup on a comrade. But he did it without being ordered to leave his post. The other officers all bought it while he was doing this and he was tried for 'deserting his post of duty as commanding officer in the presence of the enemy.' Convicted. Cashiered."

I gasped. "For that? Sir."

"Why not? True, we make pickup. But we do it under different circumstances from a wet-navy battle, and by orders to the man making pickup. But pickup is never an excuse for breaking off battle in the presence of the enemy. This boy’s family tried for a century and a half to get his conviction reversed. No luck, of course. There was doubt about some circumstances but no doubt that he had left his post during battle without orders. True, he was green as grass — but he was lucky not to be hanged."

Is this anecdote from Starship Troopers based on something that actually happened? Or did Heinlein make it up?

In 1945, Francoist Spain began producing license - built Heinkel 111 (itself a 1930s design) bombers, which served in the Spanish Air Force until the 1970s. By 1945 every major power had pioneered jet aircraft; and by the mid 50s jet bombers were pretty commonplace. What was Spain doing with a propeller-powered bomber as the backbone of its air forces in the postwar period, particularly a decade-Old design that had already been shown to be outdated in actual air combat?

After Poland was divided between Prussia, Austria, and Russia, would a Polish person hailing from Galicia (the Austrian province formed from Polish territory) be known as a Galician, or a Pole? What about a Pole hailing from those other parts of Poland that were now integrated into these larger empires?

That's the basic question. But if it's not too complicated, the broader one would be: "To what extent was Polish national identity supplanted or rebranded by the partition?"

Why wasn't Mongolia incorporated into Soviet Union but kept as a satellite?

I heard that in the early 90’s, Russia made an offer to Germany to return/sell back East Prussia (Kaliningrad) after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

This offer wasn’t seriously considered/ turned down because of the German population being completely removed.

Is this true?

EXECUTIVE MANSION, October 17, 1861

MAJOR RAMSEY.

MY DEAR SIR:—The lady bearer of this says she has two sons who want to work. Set them at it if possible. Wanting to work is so rare a want that it should be encouraged.

Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN.

Do we have any idea who this lady bearer or her sons are, and what type of work they may have been seeking?

Were Vietcong tunnels a one-time thing used only during Vietnam War or were they used previously by Vietnamese to repel other invaders such as Mongols or Chinese or French?

What are the history and reasons why Protestants and Roman Catholics have different canons of scripture? It came up in another thread and I realized I didn't know the answer, even though that thread's poster does.

I just read u/pangerandipanagara's answer in the thread "Was China's influence on southeast Asia ever comparable to European influence in Africa and the Americas in the age of colonization?".

The answer, quoting Tome Pires, mentions "...infinite quantities of the black wood that grows in Singapore..."

Has the tree, or the type of tree, that gave this "black wood" been identified?

Was hitler or the nazi party really looking for artefacts like the spear of destiny and the arch of the covenant?

I've come across the factoid that Danish resistance members of the Second World War used the catchphrase 'rødgrød med fløde' as a shibboleth for catching out German spies. Is there any substance to this? How else did resistance members root out enemy agents?

which countries and time periods are covered by the phrase "The Industrial Revolution"?

It just occurred to me that the names of September, October, November and December contain Latin prefixes meaning seven, eight, nine, and ten, respectively. However, obviously these do not match which number months of the year they actually are. For example, shouldn’t October be December, since it’s the tenth month, not the eighth, and August be October? For that matter, why is it only the last four months of the year that have this naming scheme? For example, why isn’t April called Quatember or May Pentember? Did they ever have names like that in the past? I’d be curious to know the historical reasons for why the months are named and numbered as they are.

Does anyone have anything resembling a new world population count for the period 1-500 AD?

I saw on a thread that there was a lot of criticism of Ken Burns’ Vietnam doc, but at the time I wasn’t interested in reading all the links and comments. Now I’m watching it on Netflix and I would really love to hear some criticism. Does anyone have links or opinions on Ken Burns’ Vietnam?

How did India get named India?

Are there really dead bodies in the great wall of China?

Where did the ‘trope’ of people in the western us (“Wild” West era) tying people (particularly women) to train tracks come from? Did it actually happen, is it pure Hollywood, or something in between?

What's the consensus on The Black Count by Tom Reiss, or on Reiss as an author? I'm reading the book and loving it, especially the parts about the French Revolution and just how crazy and blood thirsty it spiralled into. I think I've seen it used as a source once or twice, or maybe not as a source but as suggested reading.

Are there any good books about the air raids on Madrid and/or Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War?

Apart from tabards and surcoats, what kinds of cloth garments were/could be worn with plate armor?

Audiobooks on an overview of the Spanish Empire? The two books on the reading list have no audiobook options

Do any scholars believe that the disciples had separate visions of Jesus that were later embellished as them all seeing him at once?

Please recommend me academic works which regard early department stores -- 19th century to the turn or so.

How many men would have been in a "file" of musketeers during the English Civil War?

I saw a reference to a certain number of musketeer files, without explanation of how many men that would be.

were massive carriages (if that's the accurate word) like the one from Les Miserables when they sing "Do you hear the people sing?" real?

Can anyone link me to a portrait of the Captain of the Frigate Medusa, Hugues Duroy de Chaumareys?, many different portraits pop up in google images and i'm not sure they are the same guy

How would the words “Stronger” and “Together” be translated and written in traditional Mongolian script?