Corporal_Jones

Politicians as bad as each other no matter their colour or party. To paraphrase JFK, their motto is “Ask not what you can do for your country, but what your country can do for you”.

Lieutenant John Chard, who famously commanded the British forces at the Battle of Rorke's Drift in 1879... At 31 years old, with eleven years of military service and not a single day of combat behind him, John Chard assumed command of 150 men — thirty of them hospital patients — and held a fortified station against 4,000 Zulu warriors. He had spent his career as a Royal Engineer. Bermuda, 1870. Malta, 1874. Constructing fortifications. Improving sea defences. He was a lieutenant assigned to repair a pontoon bridge at the Rorke's Drift mission station when, on the morning of 22 January 1879, news arrived from Isandlwana: over 1,300 British soldiers had been killed. And 4,000 Zulu warriors were crossing the valley. Chard was the senior officer present — not by merit, by the date of his commission, three years earlier than his counterpart's. Command fell to him by technicality. He ordered them not to retreat. A garrison of 150, moving through open ground with carts of hospital patients, would be run down. He directed the rapid construction of a defensive perimeter from mealie bags and biscuit boxes. When the hospital was breached and set on fire, he ordered an inner redoubt built from biscuit tins to save those still inside. For ten to twelve hours, he held that line. The Zulus attacked in mass waves, hand to hand. Seventeen of his men died. Four hundred of theirs did not leave the station alive. The Victoria Cross citation was published in the London Gazette on 2 May 1879. Queen Victoria invited him to Balmoral in October of that year and presented him with a gold signet ring. Historical analysis of the defence, conducted across the following century, concluded uniformly that his specific engineering decisions — the perimeter, the inner redoubt — were the reasons the garrison survived. The institution had a different conclusion. In the months following Rorke's Drift, those above him privately characterised Chard as a dull, heavy man scarcely able to perform routine work. They placed eleven Victoria Crosses at Rorke's Drift alongside political calculations they resented, and Chard absorbed the consequence. He was quietly assigned to Cyprus. Then Singapore. Then Perth, Scotland. He held these posts for eighteen years. He did not see combat again. He accepted each posting without recorded complaint. He continued to serve as a Royal Engineer — doing the work he was given in the garrisons he was sent to. In January 1893, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. On 8 January 1897, he was promoted to Colonel. Ten months later, on 1 November 1897, he died of cancer of the tongue at the age of forty-nine. Every subsequent military analysis of the defence of Rorke's Drift has confirmed the same conclusion: his decisions — made in the first minutes of command, without experience, without preparation, on the basis of engineering logic applied to desperate necessity — are the reason 133 men came home. Military historians have, in the decades since, systematically dismantled the characterisation that followed him through the last eighteen years of his career. © Reddit #drthehistories

They're everywhere

The search for our ship's Resident Alien begins! (The Thrilling Thirty-Two +) Choose!

@bagshaw2112 1994

THE MUSIC CHART QUIZ ❤️❤️ What year ?? Please repost so others can play ! A nice UK chart .what year is it from Try to do it without using google or Grok . . #music #popchart #thursday

@bagshaw2112 2003?

The TV GAME QUIZ What is the year - please repost so others can play. Tv teaser! What was the year ? #thursday #retro #television

@bagshaw2112 1983

THE MUSIC CHART QUIZ ❤️❤️ What year ?? Please repost so others can play ! A nice UK chart .what year is it from Try to do it without using google or Grok . . #music #popchart #wednesday

@bagshaw2112 1988

The TV GAME QUIZ What is the year - please repost so others can play. Tv teaser! What was the year ? #wednesday #retro #television

Sorcha Eastwood with a Q for the PM "What was it about the twice disgraced paedophile adjacent self styled prince of darkness that you found so attractive to put into this job?" Starmer is the frontman for a faction Mandelson was a key part of, he wanted the job, so he got it

The party is over @Keir_Starmer. Resign.

The search for our ship's Resident Alien begins! (The Thrilling Thirty-Two +) Choose!

And, new, delicious, Soylent Green: The "miracle food" of high energy plankton, gathered from the oceans of the world. Due to its enormous popularity, Soylent Green is in short supply, so remember—Tuesday is Soylent Green day. #SoylentGreen

@bagshaw2112 1986

The TV GAME QUIZ What is the year - please repost so others can play. Tv teaser! What was the year ? #tuesday #retro #television

@TheMekon_Venus 29

How many have you tried of these? I counted 28 that I’ve eaten.

@x_Sala_24_12_72 Yes!

Guys what do we think of this colour Yes Or No

@CuriosityonX Who says they haven’t done so already?

If aliens exist, why haven’t they visited Earth?

@andrewc44104127 Blue skies sir.

Rip mate,I'm glad you have been found and now they will give you a full burial like you deserve. Thank you for your service x