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Posted by History Host (U14671356) on Thursday, 1st December 2011
Just to let you know that I won't be setting a quiz tomorrow as I'm on holiday. Please feel free to start a thread yourselves though.
Have a good weekend,
Katy
, in reply to message 1.
Posted by Vizzer aka U_numbers (U2011621) on Friday, 2nd December 2011
No point starting a new thread when this one will serve perfectly well. So here's an easy question to get going a belated Friday Quiz:
What is the common name for the 'Battle of the Three Emperors' fought on this day (2nd December) in 1805?
Austerlitz?
, in reply to message 3.
Posted by Vizzer aka U_numbers (U2011621) on Friday, 2nd December 2011
That's right suv - although I'd imagine that for the Russians that day it wasn't the 2nd December at all but was the 20th November. Also one wonders if old Alexander Suvorov (your namesake) had still been alive at that time that the Russian army might have fared better on the day than they did.
Your turn.
Hard to say. Sometimes I wonder for how much politics factored into the built up image as opposed to the real extent of one's abilities and/or contributions. Supposedly, Kutuzov and Bagration were Suvorov's glory heirs. Of course, both of them were at Austerlitz taking it on a chin. Although, technically, the Czar Alexander himself was the Commander in Chief for the Russian troops, and, consequently, he wisely fired himself from the job.
So, having wondered this far down the Austerlitz road, what epic literary fiction work was this battle described in?
A little hint: its title is often used as clichΓ© for lengthy writing.
Is this easy questions week? I suspect the title may be the antithetical "War and Peace" by Lev Tolstoy.
I guess, I shouldn't have given away the hint. Go ahead, Allan.
I think i just might have tumbled to it without the clue, Suv, but thanks anyway!
Keeping to the theme - which novel is set against the backdrop of war between the Austrians and Italians?
, in reply to message 9.
Posted by Vizzer aka U_numbers (U2011621) on Friday, 2nd December 2011
If it's the one I'm thinking of, then I can never remember the name of it or who wrote it. Is it the one set during the First World War and was made into a film starring Gregory Peck or someone?
For some reason the name 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' springs to mind but I'm sure that's not right as that was the one set during the Spanish Civil War and was written by Ernest Hemingway.
Argh ... frustration!
I read Stendhal's The Chartreuse of Parma which had some sort of background of Italy and I think Austria war, but I don't suppose that is what you are thinking of, even if I have got the setting right.
, in reply to message 10.
Posted by Minette Minor (U14272111) on Friday, 2nd December 2011
Never read it but "Captain Correli's Mandolin", everyone seems to like it. So I can't lol!
Good book; Nicholas Gage badly miscast in the movie. They grabbed a well-known Italian actor regardless of whether he fitted the character or not.
You're right, "For whom the Bell Tolls" is set during the Spanish Civil War so not the right one. However you're on the right lines. This book has had at least two film versions. The first one starred the same actor that appeared in the original version of "FWTBT". Not Gregory Peck but do not forsake him.
I had two alternative answers I am willing to allow but that book wasn't one of them, I'm afraid. It's set in the Napoleonic era and so mainly involves the French, although the Austrians are their allies. If no one comes up with any alternatives I'm willing to allow it but try to think of 20th century (both for the novels and - in one instance - of the war).
Except that was the Italians and the Germans in Greece! I know that Austria was subsumed into Germany during WWII but it's rather stretching a point, I think.
A Farewell To Arms?
Yes, U-L, Ernest Hemingway's 1929 breakthrough novel, set against the backdrop of there Italian front in WWI, fought mainly between the defending Italians and the Austrians (although with a few Hungarians thrown in, along with, later, some Brits and Americans on the Italian side). The 1932 film starred Gary Cooper as did the 1943 film of his later book, "For Whom the Bell Tolls", set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. The title is derived from a 16th-century sonnet by George Peele.
I would have also accepted Jean Giono's 1951 novel, "Le Hussard sur le Toit" (The Horseman on the Roof) and Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's posthumous 1958 novel, "The Leopard", both set against the backdrop of the 19th-century Italian Wars of Independence, fought principally against the Austrians.
Your go, U-L, many apologies for my absence.
Why is June 10th 1918 celebrated in the Italian Navy, and why should the exploits of a leech on November 1st in that year have been a cautionary tale for the Royal Navy?
, in reply to message 19.
Posted by Vizzer aka U_numbers (U2011621) on Saturday, 3rd December 2011
Is that 2 questions or 1 linked question?
With regard to the Italian Navy - did they win a victory over the Habsburg or the Ottoman fleet on that day? No idea about the leech though.
Two examples which had the same outcome - and yes, both were Italian successes - I might not classify them as "victories" in the usual sense, though.
10th June 1918, the sinking of the dreadnought Szent Istvan by Italian MTBs, and on the 1st November the Italians sank another dreadnought, the Virbus Unitas, in Pola harbour, this time with divers. A precedent for the frogmen attack on Queen Elizabeth and Valiant in Alexandria.
Away you go, O three-horned one. Correct in all particulars.
Thanks Ur,
Which ship started life as Hull No 460 in John Brown's shipyard?
Of all the ships built at John Browns’ on the Clyde I’m only certain of three: the Lusitania, HMS Hood and the QE2. To open the bidding and as a complete guess but seeing that the hull number is quite low(ish) - I’ll go for Lusitania.
Anywhere near?
Meles
Meles,
One of the three ships mentioned is the correct answer, it's not the Lusitania, but the next one.
HMS Hood then! A very lucky (wrong) guess.
That's the one Meles., over to you
OK. So continuing, yet again, the naval theme:
In 1945 the Japanese surrender was signed aboard the USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo bay and surrounded by a vast fleet of allied warships. The Missouri is still afloat (indeed she was only decommissioned in 1992 and since 1998 has been preserved as a Museum ship at Pearl Harbour). There may well be several other US vessels still afloat that witnessed this historic moment.
But, there is only one ship still afloat that was there as part of the large RN contingent.
What is her name?
, in reply to message 29.
Posted by Vizzer aka U_numbers (U2011621) on Sunday, 4th December 2011
HMS Belfast?
Good try .... but no.
As a clue, I can add that I'll accept any one of three names.
Three names - one English, two Arabic, I assume?
UR
Yes indeed. You obviously have some name or names in mind. Care to put your cards on the table?
Sorry - I remember there was a lot of hoo-ha a while ago about trying to buy her off the Egyptians, but that someone wanted Β£1,000,000 in bribes & the guys trying to buy her couldn't afford it, but I can't remember her name, just that she was a Black Swan clkass sloop.
Yes, HMS Whimbrel is a Black Swan class sloop and after sterling anti U-boat convoy service in the early years of WWII she went to the far east and was pesent at the Japanese Surrender.
In 1949 she was sold to Egypt and renamed "El Malek Farouq" and continued to operate as an anti-submarine frigate. In 1954 she became the training ship "Tariq" , under which name she is still in operation today in Egypt.
She re-entered the UK news in 2006 when a preservation attempt was launched to try and bring her home to Liverpool as a museum ship to be dedicated to all those who had died on the Atlantic Convoys. But the attempt stalled when it was not possible to agree a price with the Egyptian Government. So for the moment she remains in operational service with the Egyptian Navy.
And so, Ur-Lugal, I duly pass the baton - or is it the hot potato - on to you!
OK. So what is the similarity between Pan Pudding Hill and Rupert's Mount?
Hint : Take a look at a picture of Bridgnorth Castle - or consider the Three Ladies of the Vale.
Well apart from Bridgnorth Castle all these seem to have in common the fact that, along with every second place in Britain, they have weird names.
Perhaps that's not what you were looking for.
Caro :
Not sure you can safely refer to this
as a place with a weird name.
OK. So what is the similarity between Pan Pudding Hill and Rupert's Mount?Β They were the sites for the bombardment trains in the sieges of (respectively) Bridgnorth by the Parliamentarians, and Lichfield (by the Royalists)
, in reply to message 40.
Posted by somewhatsilly (U14315357) on Thursday, 8th December 2011
I guess that most folk have been thinking about other things Ur-l.
Why don't you show a bit of rebellious spirit and start a Thursday Quiz tomorrow?
, in reply to message 41.
Posted by somewhatsilly (U14315357) on Thursday, 8th December 2011
What nonsense - this is Thursday, it would be a Friday Quiz after all.
Oh dear, this is all getting too much, I think I should repair to the bar for repair.
Some places it is already Friday anyway. Nearly weekend - yay! No, not really yay - husband home and tends to start the day with "What are you going to do today?" Do? Isn't being enough? And our cricket against Australia starts again today - never a cause a celebration these days.
, in reply to message 40.
Posted by Vizzer aka U_numbers (U2011621) on Friday, 9th December 2011
OK. So what is the similarity between Pan Pudding Hill and Rupert's Mount?Β
They were the sites for the bombardment trains in the sieges of (respectively) Bridgnorth by the Parliamentarians, and Lichfield (by the Royalists)Β
There's no point starting a new thread this week - and as ferval righty says - the floor is yours Ur-Lugal so let's have another question.
I'll leave it while tomorrow - if no-one has started a new one / continued this one by then, I'll start off the Final Countdown Quiz - not feeling too good at the moment.
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