War

A Turk returns a British soldier to his comrades.

The compressed area of the battlefield became an open cemetery in which every square foot contained some decomposed piece of flesh.
— Alistair Horne, The Price of Glory: Verdun, 1916, 1979.

The scientific knowledge needed for the use of gunpowder and the boring of cannon appeared to Donne as ‘the light of reason’.
— Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, Sphere Books, 1967, 362.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
— Martin Luther King (1929 – 1968), Strength to Love.

At the neighbouring village of Stoughton, whither I meant to walk (since an inn is there) was born, in 1783, the terrible George Brown — Brown of Brighton — the fast bowler, whose arm was as thick as an ordinary man’s thigh. He had two long stops, one of whom padded his chest with straw. A long stop once held his coat before one of Brown’s balls, but the ball went through it and killed a dog on the other side. Brown could throw a 4–1/2 oz. ball 137 yards, and he was the father of seventeen children. He died at Sompting in 1857.
— E. V. Lucas, Highways and Byways in Sussex, 1904.

… a dirigible armed with rockets would be at a disadvantage compared to one armed with a gun. But until the question has been settled either by ordeal of combat or at least by practical experiment, it would be rash to dogmatize as to the outcome.
— Colonel H. A. Bethell, Modern Artillery in the Field. London: Macmillan, 1911.

The present type of military aeroplane is a light craft which can be packed in a wagon and taken into the field with the troops. It is only constructed to carry two men; if made larger it would become unwieldy and difficult to start without special launching ways, and would require a shed for its protection. It is clear, therefore, that the present type cannot carry a gun weighing 3 cwt. with an extra man to work it. Moreover, the vibration of the framework would render it necessary to stop the engine in order to fire; this is easy in a dirigible, but is risky in an aeroplane. It would appear therefore that a repeating rifle is the only weapon which an aviator can carry. It has been proposed to carry grenades or high explosive shell for fighting dirigibles, the idea being to rise above a dirigible and drop the shell on her … But probably a star-shaped arrangement of scythe blades would be as effective as a shell if dropped on top of the gas bag, and would be safer to handle.
— Colonel H. A. Bethell, Modern Artillery in the Field. London: Macmillan, 1911.

When hostile aeroplanes meet, they will fight as certainly as hostile dirigibles. Their weapons of offence are more limited, being restricted to rifles, hand-grenades and the scythe-blade arrangement referred to above … If this grenade, or the scythe-blade star, were dropped on to the wing of an aeroplane, it would certainly do some damage and might very possibly disable her. If neither can rise above the other, the more active plane will try to circle and come up behind the other within a range at which there is a prospect of hitting with the rifle. There is also a possibility of one aeroplane “sinking” another with its down-draught by flying close over it.
— Colonel H. A. Bethell, Modern Artillery in the Field. London: Macmillan, 1911.

It is certain that even in those parts of Hindostan that never were frequented by Mahommedans or Europeans, we have met with rockets, a weapon which the natives almost universally employ in war. The rocket consists of a tube of iron, about 8 in. long, and one and a half inches in diameter, closed at one end. It is filled in the same manner as an ordinary sky-rocket and fastened toward the end of a piece of bamboo, scarcely as thick as a walking-cane, and about 4 ft long, which is pointed with iron. At the opposite end of the tube from the iron point, or that towards the head of the shaft, is the match. The man who uses it points the end that is shod with iron, to which the rocket is fixed, to the object to which he means to direct it, and setting fire to the match, it goes off with great velocity. By the irregularity of its motion, it is difficult to be avoided, and sometimes acts with considerable effect, especially among cavalry.
— Quintin Craufurd (1743 – 1819), Sketches Chiefly Relating to the History, Religion, Learning, and Manners of the Hindoos, vol. 2, 55.

The first operations of our corps were to throw over the 3rd Guards, under the command of the gallant Colonel Stopford; this was not accomplished without much difficulty: but it was imperatively necessary, in order to protect the point where the construction of the bridge of boats would terminate. They had not been long on the French side of the river before a considerable body of men were seen issuing from Bayonne. Sir John Hope ordered our artillery, and rockets, then for the first time employed, to support our small band. Three or four regiments of French infantry were approaching rapidly, when a well-directed fire of rockets fell amongst them. The consternation of the Frenchmen was such, when these hissing, serpent-like projectiles descended, that a panic ensued, and they retreated upon Bayonne. The next day the bridge of boats was completed, and the whole army crossed.
Captain Rees Howell Gronow (1794 – 1865), Reminiscences of Captain Gronow.

I saw and conversed with a French sergeant who was taken in this affair. He assured me, that he had been personally engaged in twenty battles, and that he had never really known the sensation of fear till today. A rocket, it appeared, had passed through his knapsack without hurting him; but such was the violence with which it flew, that he fell upon his face, and the horrible hissing sound produced by it was one which he declared that he never could forget. It skips and starts about from place to place in so strange a manner, that the chances are, when you are running to the right or left to get out of the way, you run directly against it; and hence the absolute rout, which a fire of ten or twelve rockets can create, provided they take effect. But it is a very uncertain weapon. It may, indeed, spread havoc among the enemy, but it may also turn back upon the people who use it, causing, like the elephant of other days, the defeat of those whom it was designed to protect. On the present occasion, however, it proved materially serviceable, as every man can testify who witnessed the result of the fire.
— George R. Gleig (1796 – 1888), The Subaltern, 291.

“The rocket,” to use the words of Congreve, brings into operation the power of artillery every where, and is nowhere embarrassed by the circumstances limiting the application of artillery.” It imparts to infantry and cavalry the force of artillery, in addition to the power of their own respective arms. Thus, a foot-soldier might, on particular occasions, carry several 12-pound rockets, each having the propulsive and penetrating effect of a 12-pound cannon-shot, without the embarrassment of the 12-pounder gun. The rocket, as we shall hereafter discover, may be discharged on many occasions without the aid of any apparatus; but even the corresponding rocket-tube, by which its accuracy of flight is promoted, weighs only 20 pounds, whereas the weight of a 12-pounder gun is no less than 18 hundredweights.
— Chambers’ Journal, ‘What is a Congreve Rocket?’, 1854, 265.

If co-operation had not been the stronger force, the more complicated animals, whether arthropods or vertebrates, could not have evolved from simpler ones, and there would have been no men to worry each other with their distressing and biologically foolish wars.
— Warder C. Allee, ‘Where Angels Fear to Tread’, Science, 97, 1943, 521

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