Combat Trivia!

Here's a bit of combat trivia to cheer you up:

Weird weapons:

So you thought biological warfare was a modern phenomenon? Not so! In 1500 Leonardo da Vinci suggested using bombs containing saliva from mad dogs or pigs, or the venom of toads or snakes. They even catapulted the corpses of rotting horses and other animals into enemy castles to infect the inhabitants! (Meat) pie in the sky, I say!

In 1865 during a war between Uruguay and Brazil a Uruguayan ship ran out of cannon balls. Instead they fired stale Dutch cheeses, one of which dismasted an enemy vessel and killed two sailors! Hard cheese, eh!

In 1870 the US military invented boomerang bullets, designed to fire in a curved line. They had to be withdrawn when they kept travelling in a complete circle and killing the person that fired them!

After inventing gunpowder the Chinese hit on the idea of turning camels into killers! A small cannon was strapped to a camel, then covered with silk, so called 'silk guns'. Obviously Camels of Mass Destruction (CMDs) - that would really give you the hump!

The Chinese and Okinawans weren't the only people to use farm implements as weapons. In 1862, C.M French and W.H Fancher of Waterloo, New York patented a combined gun and plough. It was designed to be used by farmers so they could quickly turn their ploughs into powerful guns if they were attacked while ploughing. 'We'll plough the fields and blast you....'

Weird laws:

It is against the law to wear a suit of armour in the House of Commons.

There is an un-repealed law that states that within the city boundaries of York, a local man can kill a Scotsman on sight with a bow and arrow.

Anyone detonating a nuclear weapon within the city limits of Chico, California, USA, is liable to a $500 fine! Don't do it, it will cost you an arm and a leg!

If you live in Arkansas, USA, then you need to know that it is illegal to extract the teeth of a bear or otherwise surgically alter it.

Beware all those that live in Spades, Indiana, USA - you are not allowed to open a can with a revolver.

And just to end:

Kung Fu Chaos

When the British first witnessed Chinese soldiers using Kung-fu they didn't quite know what to make of it. One observer described it like this:

"It is impossible to imagine anything more whimsical and comic than the evolutions of the Chinese soldiers; they advance, draw back, leap, pirouette, cut capers, crouch behind their shields, as if to watch the enemy, then jump up again, distribute blows right and left, and then run away with all their might,
crying "Victory! Victory!" "

Hope you enjoyed!

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