Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Battle of Gibraltar
At the Battle of Gibraltar, on April 25, 1697--a century before Aboukir Bay--a Dutch fleet surprised a Spanish fleet at anchor, doubled their line, and destroyed it. The Spanish didn't save a single ship. Nelson is famous for capturing or destroying 11 of 13 French ships at Aboukir Bay; nobody has heard van Heemskirk.
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1 comment:
Farragut is justly famous as is Nelson, few know of Cochrane. It's like that - we hear some stories, miss some other really good ones.
Tell me why McArthur gets all the kudos from the Pacific Campaign? There were several excellent generals in that theater.
I posted an article to a friend about six Canadians who got awards, one of whom got the Star of Military Valour, one notch below the VC.
Rob told two stories of equal merit in reply - one about mechanics repairing a LAV while under insurgent fire, one about a single C9 gunner (M249) encountering 8 insurgents and having to engage them himself. Both medal worthy, but they got 'mentioned in dispatches' if anything.
It's nor really a just world as far as story propagation and reward goes.
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