In September 1918, the German government issued a diplomatic protest, complaining that the Model 97 Trench Gun was illegal because “it is especially forbidden to employ arms, projections, or materials calculated to cause unnecessary suffering” as defined in the 1907 Hague Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land. When the Americans rejected this, the German high command then threatened to execute any soldier caught with a Trench Gun or even just Trench Gun shells. General Pershing replied that, henceforth, any Germans caught with flamethrowers or saw-bladed bayonets would be lined up and shot.
Wait, wait, wait, they bitched about trench guns causing unnecessary suffering while setting people on fire with flamethrowers?
Blackjack Pershing and German diplomat (1918 colorized)
They also game them to the hicks cowboys and rednecks so they could shoot grenades out of the sky like pigeons and if that isn’t some of the funniest shit you can imagine you’re not imagining it right
Oh it’s quite the opposite of a warcrime. As a matter of fact, soldiers on the opposite end don’t feel a God Damn thing.
On this day, 17 March 1876 US troops attacked sleeping Cheyenne and Oglala Lakota people in Montana in the Battle of Powder River, marking the beginning of the Great Sioux War. They destroyed the village and stole large amounts of the Native Americans’ possessions. But despite firing nearly 2,000 bullets, US forces only managed to kill one Native American. On the other hand the Cheyenne and Lakota warriors, led by Éše'he Ôhnéšesêstse (Two Moons, pictured) with only around 200 bullets killed four and seriously wounded six soldiers. They also recaptured 500 of their horses the next morning.
The US commanding officer, colonel Joseph Reynolds, was court-martialed following the failed assault and suspended from duty. The incident likely galvanised resistance to the enforced relocation of Native Americans from the Black Hills to a reservation.
Learn more about Indigenous resistance in the Americas in this book: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/books/products/500-years-of-indigenous-resistance-gord-hillhttps://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1674447262740417/?type=3
This blog is mostly so I can vent my feelings and share my interests. Other than that, I am nothing special.
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