DrDoom - I hope those tears weren’t caused by excessive laughter! The story at that web page is written in an emphatic style not popular nowadays, but the facts are true.
casdave - I’m not an expert on swiss mercenaries, so I suppose I will have to read more on them. All the descriptions I read are of their infantry and long pikes. Though William Tell (almost certainly a ficitional character) is of course famous for his crossbow shot, and crossbows were a traditional weapon in Switzerland, I didn’t know that they were a habitual weapon of the swiss mercenaries.
ishmintingas - Thank you for the information! I never knew that GBS had written a play starring a swiss soldier. I’m off to the library today to find it!
I mean, the Sun Dance where their breast muscles are slowly torn out and they remain silent and perfectly impassive throughout this ordeal for several hours, while staring into the sun, is some seriously tough shit. (And this is no legend, but documented fact.) They have my vote!
Well, the “leatherneck” story is at the very least debatable. Marines (British and US) wore leather stocks long before the SA war. The phrase “leatherneck” dates back to at least 1890 in reference to British marines.
See: http://www.wilton.net/wordorl.htm
The Magellan story is just wrong. Magellan died in an ill-advised skirmish with natives on the island of Mactan, the primary lesson being that people in armor shouldn’t trying fighting in thigh deep water.
The story at that web page is written in an emphatic style not popular nowadays, but the facts are true.