"Honour insulted – Guadeloupe 1759" Topic

"The incident at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801 when Nelson put his telescope to his blind eye and stated "I really do not see the signal!" is the most famous case of a Royal Navy officer disobeying orders and thereby achieving victory. A less well-known case occurred some four decades earlier in the West Indies.

The Seven Years War of 1756 – 1763 should merit the title of "The First World War," for was the first to be fought on a global scale. It was longer indeed that seven years, for hostilities had opened between Britain and Britain in North America in 1754, triggered by an incident in Pennsylvania involving a 22-year old officer called George Washington. Two years later the conflict took on an even wider European dimension. The British-led alliance included Prussia, Portugal and the smaller German states, including Hanover, and was opposed by a French alliance with the Austrian Empire, Spain, Sweden and Saxony. Russia was initially allied with Austria but changed sides halfway through. Vast in geographical scope, it was a war in which, in Thomas Babington Macaulay's phrase, European enmities ensured that "black men fought on the coast of Coromandel and red men scalped each other by the great lakes of North America."…."

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Amicalement
Armand

Ha ha. I love that telescope story!

I wonder if anyone has already come out and said it never happened, as seems to be the trend these days about so many things. :)

Dan

Glad you enjoyed it my good friend!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand