"What Color Are Your Trolls?" Topic

What was the average age of the members of Napoleon's Old Guard ? On the beautiful painting of the battle of Borodino by Russian artist Vereshchagin, they look like men in early 30s. But on one French picture they look really old, 50-70 years old men. Long, grey mustaches, sad eyes, etc. They look more like a bunch of grandpas than soldiers.

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ps.
Across the United States Armed Forces, the maximum age for enlistment for someone who has never served in the military before depends on the branch. For the Army, the maximum age is 35 (Navy – 34, Air Force – 39).
The USA Marines have the lowest maximum age for regular military service at 28-years-old, due to the physical challenges put upon the candidates compared to regular military service.

Do I suspect the bug strikes again?

Would love to know what the proposal was meant to be?

I am not a French fanatic, but soldiers had to have a few campaigns under their belts but doubt they were more than 50 years old. I would guess most in the 20 – 30 years range.
Somewhere I do have numbers of the Prussian's Landwehr recruiting ages, as expected ( and just giving estimates from memory) it went from the highest percentage 19,18, 20, 21, 17, 22- 25 26-29 30- 35 and down into the 40's but they were only 1 or 2 percent.

Men did age more quickly then. They may not have grown up well-nourished, add to that the hardships of campaigning, bearing in mind that anyone who had actually survived twenty years of campaigning (not many) could have been forty or more. Add a dash of C19th century sentiment- voilà

If you like, think of the men in their early to mid-twenties in WW2 photo who look like they're pushing forty.

Lots of details on French Guard Infantry ages :
link
(the part about ages starts about 1/4 down the page)

By 1810, the Old Guard was indeed getting a bit old-ish.

Kodansha have released a new hardcover edition of Yukito Kishiro's cyberpunk manga, Battle Angel Alita: link

The story is this: A cyborg girl is brought back to life by a kindly scientist/bounty hunter, Doc Ido. Their home is the Scrap Yard, an enormous junkheap (and the associated shanty town) beneath the vast floating city of Tiphares. Alita embarks on a journey of self-discovery punctuated by fairy-tale sweetness and gruesome, over-the-top ultraviolence. It's pretty bizarre.

Those wishing to check out the original ahead (or instead) of James Cameron's upcoming film would do well to pick up this volume. It's a 400-page hardcover, reading right-to-left. Most of the pages are black and white; the few color pages of the Japanese original are presented here in color, so far as I know for the first time in North America. The book lists for $29.99 USD.

Ron

BUG…………

Easy….

link

9/10

Amicalement
Armand

10/10 :-). I should do well in tomorrow's gaming night!