# Question for WW2 faux historians **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 27, 2013, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ww2-faux-historians/656830 "2013-04-27T11:27:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ww2-faux-historians/656830/21 "2013-04-28T22:06:26Z")
> [@David\_H\_Singanas](#): > > The > main interest of the group (going by number of threads) was the history > of Britain up to the death of Richard III, the last king to lead his soldiers > into battle. His death was considered to be the end of Chivalry. _Richard_ III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) **Gustav II Adolf** (9 December 1594 – 6 November 1632,) 😕 Gustav not only lead his army in combat, he actually died in combat. I guess chivalry wasn’t quite done :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ww2-faux-historians/656830/22 "2013-04-28T22:37:25Z")
\*\*Tipu Sultan \*\* (1750-1799), led his army and died as Arthur Wellesley was checking his pulse after the Seige of Seringapatam ---
**Author:** ![colonial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@colonial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colonial)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ww2-faux-historians/656830/23 "2013-04-28T23:46:40Z")
I believe Swedish Kings Carl X, Carl XI and Carl XII also led troops in battle. Carl XII was possibly killed by enemy fire in action during a siege while observing the field from a forward trench. I say “possibly” because it may be that he was shot by one of his own troops, many of whom had been involved in constant war their entire adult lives, and were sick and tired of it. Elsewhere Frederick the Great of Prussia was a brilliant commanding general of the mid 1700s, and his collateral descendant Frederick III commanded troops in battle as a Crown Prince when he led the Prussian II Army in the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and then the III Army in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). He was by all accounts highly capable. The last royal commanding general may have been the WW I era Bavarian Crown Prince Rupprecht. He was also an excellent general. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ww2-faux-historians/656830/24 "2013-04-29T01:09:19Z")
[aside] I would like to publicly acknowledge and thank **colonial** for no longer hitting his “enter” key to make line breaks. [/aside] 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ww2-faux-historians/656830/25 "2013-04-29T06:10:17Z")
> [@colonial](#): > > I say “possibly” because it may be that he was shot by one of his own troops,. oops 😛 ---
**Author:** ![David\_H\_Singanas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@David\_H\_Singanas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_H_Singanas)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ww2-faux-historians/656830/26 "2013-04-29T07:20:34Z")
> [@moriah](#): > > SD threads show up on Google almost immediately. Most likely Google has this board listed as a high priority to index due to the reliability of this board to answer common and uncommon questions quite well. To be more exact, the Google sysop de jour of the group “alt.history.british” sent me a red text message that my posts were no longer wanted. It was not an ad hominem rant. The group apparently did have a moderator who deleted “nut cases” and trolls who tried to commandeer threads (something common in USENET). Your opinion of Google is rather sterling. My opinion of Google and Facebook is that their mission is “market share” and secondly “revenue.” The stated mission of SDMB is “combating ignorance.” The flipside of that is “promoting intelligence.” ---
**Author:** ![David\_H\_Singanas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@David\_H\_Singanas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_H_Singanas)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ww2-faux-historians/656830/27 "2013-04-29T07:45:30Z")
Piper, I should have said the group “alt.history.british” felt that Richard III’s defeat at Bosworth was the end of Chivalry. The only thing I knew related to this is that the “Romantic Era” in English Lit ended with the death of Sir Walter Scott. I assumed that Chivalry was Knighthood and all the virtues and defects of knights. These posters were connected to an international club (members in Britain and USA) devoted to restoring the honor of Richard III. IIRC, the Tudors had every last Plantagenet first cousin murdered after the death of Richard III. ---
**Author:** ![David\_H\_Singanas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@David\_H\_Singanas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_H_Singanas)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ww2-faux-historians/656830/28 "2013-04-29T08:05:17Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > Blondi. > Didn’t even have to think for a moment. Actually, AH took her with him by testing the capsules on her — and in both sets of suicides, the alternatives would have been much worse than ‘living in a world without national socialism’, which reason Blondi never publicly subscribed to. My source for the OP is the German movie “Fallen” (IIRC) . I believe the AH role was played by Bruno Gantz. I remembered Blondi because Hitler’s personal secretary “Trudi” said she liked to kick Blondi whenever the dog touched her legs under the table. Trudi survived the war, and she gives a firsthand recollection of those last hours in the bunker. In the film, Dr. Goebbels goes above ground after Hitler’s suicide and shoots himself in the head. The orders were for their bodies to be doused with petrol and burned. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ww2-faux-historians/656830/29 "2013-04-29T08:11:59Z")
> [@David\_H\_Singanas](#): > > Crossposting introduced me to some great folks from Australia and Canada > as well. In the end a GOOGLE administrator told me I was no longer welcome > in Google Groups. The USENET component was dismantled. This must have happened in the last couple minutes, and without any advance warning, because I was on Google Groups an hour ago and the Usenet gateway is still there. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ww2-faux-historians/656830/30 "2013-04-29T08:18:27Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > Nazis - they shoot puppies. If you needed any extra reasons to hate them. Yeah, but to be fair so did the Allied liberators. American sergeant William Blazkowicz in particular was infamous for [shooting puppies](https://www.google.de/search?q=wolfenstein+3d+dog&biw=1186&bih=843&sei=aCt-Ud2iB-KG4ASCrYDgAQ&tbm=isch) in Nazi strongholds. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2013, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ww2-faux-historians/656830/31 "2013-04-29T18:48:59Z")
> [@David\_H\_Singanas](#): > > My source for the OP is the German movie “Fallen” (IIRC) . I believe the AH > role was played by Bruno Gantz… Do you mean _Downfall_, perhaps?: [Downfall - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downfall_(film)) Presidents George Washington (during the Whiskey Rebellion), James Madison (at the Battle of Bladensburg during the War of 1812) and Abraham Lincoln (near Norfolk in 1862, during the Civil War) also personally exercised command of U.S. forces in the field while serving as head of state. ---
**Author:** ![David\_H\_Singanas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@David\_H\_Singanas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_H_Singanas)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ww2-faux-historians/656830/32 "2013-04-30T11:12:05Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Do you mean _Downfall_, perhaps?: [Downfall - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downfall_(film)) > > Presidents George Washington (during the Whiskey Rebellion), James Madison (at the Battle of Bladensburg during the War of 1812) and Abraham Lincoln (near Norfolk in 1862, during the Civil War) also personally exercised command of U.S. forces in the field while serving as head of state. Bingo. Thanks for looking up the correct title. In the movie, the bunker neighborhood is surrounded by Russian troops. “Trudi” switches to civilian clothes and walks right thru the Russian cordon while grasping the hand of a German boy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ww2-faux-historians/656830.md?page=1)