Lost Battalion Publishing Dispatch #23

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While the casino was closed to the public, the rock group Deep Purple had contracted to use the theatre to make their debut album Machine Head. From this disaster on the eve of their recording session was born “Smoke on the Water,” the group’s most memorable song and one of the most iconic songs in rock history.

Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore has frequently gaslighted gullible interviewers with the claim that the song’s familiar riff is really the motif from the beginning of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony played backward. It’s not. It doesn’t even use the same interval between the notes. Beethoven’s Fifth uses the major third interval. “Smoke on the Water” uses the perfect fourth.

Fredrick used a feint attack against the Austrian right to distract the enemy while he marched the bulk of his force behind concealing terrain to attack the left. Deceived by this, Charles transferred his reserves to his right. The Prussians advanced around the Austrian left flank in oblique order and attacked. The first line of defense for the Austrians was Württemberger infantry. Württemberg was a Protestant duchy within the Roman Catholic Hapsburg Empire. As the Prussians were also Protestant, the Württembergers may have been less than enthusiastic about fighting them. They fired a few volleys before routing when they saw the Prussian columns advancing through the smoke. The rout carried a contingent of Catholic Bavarians away with it.

Charles belatedly rushed troops to his left flank but by this time the Prussians had pushed the Austrians back into the village of Leuthen where, crowded together, they suffered terrible casualties. The arrival of an Austrian artillery battery allowed their infantry to redeploy, but Prussian heavy guns soon moved into position to bombard them. Austrian cavalry attempted to intervene but was countered by Prussian cavalry and, in their defeat, the Austrians were swept into the redeployed infantry lines creating a confusing mess. Realizing he had lost; Charles ordered a retreat.

Fredrick the Great, like Alexander the Great, owed a modicum of his success to his father’s preparation of a well-drilled professional army. Fredrick William I, the “Soldier-King,” had expanded the size of Prussia’s standing army and drilled his men relentlessly to improve firing speed with their flintlock muskets and quicken the pace of formation maneuvers. His son used this to full advantage. Fredrick the Great also had a keen eye for terrain and was quick to adopt tactical innovations like oblique order. He is perhaps overrated as a military genius because his opponents were still fighting the “last war” while he was moving on toward the next.

The fall of Kiev effectively ended the Kievan Rus civilization, a federation of Norse, Finn, and East Slav peoples ruled by the decedents of Rurik, a Viking adventurer whose men rowed their way down the Volga River and established themselves at Novgorod in the 9th Century.

Four battleships were sunk and four more heavily damaged along with 11 other Navy ships. 2,335 sailors, Marines, and soldiers were killed as were 68 civilians. 1,177 of those killed were crewmen aboard the battleship USS Arizona. Of the battleships sunk at Pearl Harbor, all but Arizona were raised. USS Oklahoma was deemed too old and badly damaged to refit, but the others returned to service.

Fortunately for the Americans, the Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers Enterprise, Saratoga, and Lexington were not at Pearl Harbor. The Japanese also failed to destroy the fuel storage facility south of Hickam Field, leaving 4.5 million gallons of fuel oil untouched.

Horace was born a Roman slave but later bought his freedom. He was a poet who composed in Latin in an age when most educated Romans read their poetry in Greek. Thus, he used Greek poetic conventions that could be easily adapted to Latin. His work was imitated by contemporaries, Medieval and Enlightenment writers, and 19th-century poets including William Wordsworth and Robert Frost.

Despite his disappearance from Western education, quotes from Horace are common within the Western collective conscience. Most notable, and the only one sometimes rendered in Latin, is carpe diem, “Seize the day.” The full quote, “Seize the day, put no trust in tomorrow,” did not, however, mean to Horace what it is often taken to mean today. Rather than advice to enjoy life in the moment it was an admonishment to plan ahead. “Anger is a brief madness,” “Once begun, half done,” and “Keep the faith” are only a few samples of Horace that survive in modern memory.

The Peruvian War of Independence had its roots in political upheaval in Spain caused when Ferdinand VII returned to power. After the fall of Napolean, Ferdinand revoked the Constitution of 1812 that had been established while he was a prisoner in France. Trouble in the homeland meant that no Spanish reinforcement could be spared for the Americas.

The Spanish viceroy in Peru was overthrown by a coup in 1821, but Royalist forces remained in control of the southern part of the country and the fortress at the important port of Callao. Confusion and political infighting among the Patriots allowed the Royalists to regain much of their losses until the entire Royalist army in Upper Peru (Bolivia) revolted, allowing an army led by the great liberator Simon Bolivar to move into Peru and defeat a Royalist force led by Jose de Canterac. The other Peruvian Royalist commander Jose la Serna sent troops to occupy Cuzco and block Bolivar’s advance.

Patriot politics resulted in the removal of Bolivar from command while his army was besieging Cuzco and his replacement by Antonio de Sucre. La Serna force marched an army into the area and attempted to relieve the siege of Cuzco by cutting off Sucre’s line of supply. The subsequent maneuvers led to the Battle of Ayacucho.

The opposing forces at Ayacucho each numbered about 6000 men. The Royalists attempted to outflank the Patriot line on the right, but their maneuvers were uncoordinated. Sucre took advantage of the confusion and defeated the outflanking force in detail. La Serna’s attempt to rally and reorganize his troops was hampered by the lack of veteran soldiers in the ranks, all of whom had deserted to the Patriots. Some of the Royalist soldiers shot their own officers for attempting to prevent them from retreating. La Serna himself was wounded and captured.

A peace agreement was made following the battle that ceased hostilities and eventually led to independence for Peru and Upper Peru. The latter was renamed the Republic of Bolivar in honor of the Liberator.

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