| serge joe | 30 Mar 2015 11:03 a.m. PST |
hi
Gents,
Did this realy happen? greetings serge joe |
| olicana | 30 Mar 2015 11:14 a.m. PST |
If he's over 50 (pre PC printed scripts), ask your local pharmacist. I once had one call the prescribing doctor to find out what I was to have, and that was after giving him the gist of my illness. "Did this really happen?" Still does. |
| vtsaogames | 30 Mar 2015 11:15 a.m. PST |
Why not? Orders were misunderstood due to jealousy, envy, cowardice, fatigue and lots of other reasons. Even with the best will in the world, orders were misunderstood because the perspective of the person receiving the order was so different from the person sending the order, as in the Light Brigade or Black Hawk Down. |
| John the OFM | 30 Mar 2015 11:29 a.m. PST |
They have blamed the Charge of the Light Brigade on everything else, so why not add bad hand writing too? |
| 15th Hussar | 30 Mar 2015 11:58 a.m. PST |
My terribly bad hand-writing has kept me from being appointed "Lord High God Commander of the Universe" for the last 50 years! |
| Oldmoustache | 30 Mar 2015 1:39 p.m. PST |
Read about D'Erlons's advance to Ligny from Quatre Bras. Many brlieve the reason the French left flank became alarmed and a Napoleon suspended the impending Guard attack, was due to D'Erlon arriving on the wrong axis due to a misunderstanding of the village he was to march on,
It absolutely happened. Probably more than we will ever know |
| 138SquadronRAF | 30 Mar 2015 3:57 p.m. PST |
Try writing on horseback. I did it years ago as an experiment. I usually have quite good copperplate hand. Not that day. |
| Tyler326 | 30 Mar 2015 4:13 p.m. PST |
General Lee CSA "Take that hill if practicable". One of the greatest misunderstood orders ever. May have cost the CSA the battle of Gettysburg and the ACW. |
| Marshall Vorwarts | 30 Mar 2015 5:54 p.m. PST |
Lee's order was a poorly given order not a understood one. What does "practicable" mean in the context that he gave it? |
| rmaker | 30 Mar 2015 6:02 p.m. PST |
It means "Take the hill." No general is going to say "Oh, I don't think my boys can do that." So Lee's "if practicable" was a bit of CYA. |
| 138SquadronRAF | 30 Mar 2015 6:16 p.m. PST |
It means "Take the hill." No general is going to say "Oh, I don't think my boys can do that." So Lee's "if practicable" was a bit of CYA. Proving one again that you need a proper General Staff on the Prussian model – von Moltke would never have been caught like that. |
| 49mountain | 01 Apr 2015 11:33 a.m. PST |
Not understanding – sure. Could be incidental or deliberate. If practicable meant different things to different Generals. In this case Jackson vs Ewell for interpretation. Jackson would have done it. Ewell thought about it for awhile and didn't. Just look at their nick names. Stonewall vs Black Dick. Says it all IMHO. |
| 1968billsfan | 01 Apr 2015 12:13 p.m. PST |
General Patton said something like: " You write an order not so that it can be understood, but so that it can't be misunderstood. " This also works in many other environments. |
| vtsaogames | 01 Apr 2015 12:33 p.m. PST |
For clarity see most of Grant's orders. Go there, take that… |
| Supercilius Maximus | 02 Apr 2015 7:16 a.m. PST |
There was an incident in the Korean War where a British formation was left unsupported and eventually over-run because the CO used understatement in a radio message to his US contacts when explaining how serious his predicament was. Unfamiliar with this, the American area commander assumed he was ok and sent his reserves elsewhere. |
| serge joe | 02 Apr 2015 8:02 a.m. PST |
So beter for the co in c to send a a.d.c. as wel with the spoken order! greetings serge joe |
| Royal Marine | 02 Apr 2015 4:50 p.m. PST |
… do you really trust the ADC? "There Raglan, there are your guns" … bemused look on Raglan's face! |
| serge joe | 03 Apr 2015 8:09 a.m. PST |
If he got some brains to understand his given orders i would yeah greetings serge joe |
| 138SquadronRAF | 03 Apr 2015 9:47 a.m. PST |
It is possible to represent this on the wargames table, but you need players who are willing to roleplay a bit. |
| Captain de Jugar | 07 Apr 2015 4:10 a.m. PST |
I think this question inevitably leads into the whole issue of micro-management by the CinC. Napoleon is widely condemned for trying to run his Spanish campaign from Paris and then for leaving Grouchy and Ney with too free a hand in 1815. Wellington never forgave any subordinate who didn't follow his orders to the letter, especially when their disobedience avoided disaster. But local commanders and even junior officers had to be given a certain degree of independence to act on local circumstances. There is no right way to define where that line be drawn. And it is extremely difficult for game rules to provide this key feature of battlefield command of control. |
| Londongamer | 07 Apr 2015 4:58 a.m. PST |
Royal Marine, Wrong item of clothing (or part thereof). It was Raglan who sent the order to Lucan and Cardigan. |
goes to sea with the Terrain Mat.
