30th March 1996 a prison riot took place at Sierra Chica, Olavarria where 17 hostages were killed, with the some of the bodies cremated in the prison bakery ovens. It's also said that the rioters later made empanadas from dead bodies and later fed them to inmates.

I then came across a picture showing one of the mutiny leaders (released 2005) on his YouTube channel showing how to make empanadas, which kind of put me off them for life.

It's a gruesome story.

https://pledgetimes.com/one-of…d-tells-prison-anecdotes/

The rum clearly saved John Capes in this remarkable tale of survival.

On This Day.

1941 Perseus (N36) HMS Perseus sunk 7 miles north of Zante (Zakinthos) Island, west coast of Greece in Ionian Sea - by Italian mines.

Originally attributed to contact with Royal Italian Naval forces, probably a submarine was based on Mediterranean Fleet intelligence estimates. However, these estimates came into question in 1943 when the then 33 year old John Capes showed up at Alexandria via the British consulate in Turkey, claiming to be a survivor of His Majesties Submarine Perseus.

He stated that the ship had been mined on the night of 6/7 December 1941, and that it sank in 170 feet of water with the stern section holding air. He had been in the Petty Officer Stokers mess with several others at the moment of the mining sharing a bottle of rum. He and three others made it into the stern section alive, sealed it off, and after coming to rest on the sea floor in pitch darkness, donned their DESA escape gear and commenced flooding the after spaces in preparation to making a free ascent escape.

All four left the submarine, with Capes being last. Before departing, he polished off the remaining rum, and then left through the after escape hatch. He came to the surface alone and then was faced with swimming 7-9 miles to Cephalonia. He did so, met up with Greek partisans, and then spent 20 months with them before successfully reaching Turkey. The other three survivors of the mining did not make it to the surface alive, most probably due to a failure to exhale completely throughout the ascent, which was made, as it turned out, from 20 feet deeper than it was thought possible.

To say that Capes story was thought to been overly remarkable by many is an understatement. Many did not believe it, nor did they believe Capes was in fact himself, though those making those conclusions had to admit that, the crew list being classified, it was unlikely an imposter could have come up with the facts he had. None the less, his statements concerning the location of the sinking did not jive with Admiralty estimates, and many considered him a fraud to the day he died.

However, in 1996, Greek divers located HMS Perseus on the ocean floor, exactly where Capes said it would be. It was in 170 feet of water, and the rear escape hatch was open. Upon looking into the open hatch, the divers clearly saw on the floor below the rum bottle emptied by Capes just before his departure. All of this was photographed. Though Capes had been dead for some 15 years when the sub was discovered, it can truly be said that he had the last laugh on those that doubted his story. It is probably the single most remarkable survival story to come out of WW II.

A TV docuseries was also made.

Christmas 1914, The Western Front, Belgium. Tragic but heart lifting.

The Christmas Truce of 1914
Celebration in No Man’s Land!

On Christmas Day 1914 British and German troops, after months of bitter fighting, dared to venture out into no man’s land and celebrate with the enemy.

This totally ad-hoc armistice brought a brief period of peace and celebration in the carnage of a world war.

Along with the United Kingdom and the German Empire, the French Republic, Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire all took part in fraternisation with their respective enemies.

This ‘good will between enemies’ was very much frowned upon by the powers that be but the Christmas spirit shone through!

The following are diary extracts from four British soldiers describing this momentous occasion.

The extracts are from Max Arthur’s excellent book ‘Forgotten Voices of the Great War’ and Richard Van Emden’s superb title ‘The Soldiers’ War – The Great War Through Veterans’ Eyes’:

Corporal Arthur Cook, 1st Somerset Light Infantry
A few days ago, we were trying our hardest to slaughter each other, and here today are our men and the enemy walking about together in no-man’s-land, laughing and joking with each other and shaking hands as if they were old friends meeting after a prolonged absence. You had to see it to believe your own eyes.

After exchanging cigarettes for cigars, they would stroll along arm in arm. Not to be done out of this little armistice, I too went out and had a chat with several of the Germans, most of whom spoke very good English. They all looked extremely well and assured us that they would not shoot as long as we didn’t, so I don’t know who will start the ball rolling here again. Anyway, we are making the most of this fantastic situation while it lasts.

This truce had its advantages, for it enabled us to collect our dead which had been lying about here since 19 December, and give them a proper burial in the cemetery near Somerset House (battalion HQ) in Ploegsteert Wood. The Germans themselves handed over the body of Captain C. C Maud, and told us he was a very brace man.

Corporal Charlie Parke, 2nd Gordon Highlanders
I never saw, and never found out, how that truce started but it soon spread through the trenches like wildfire. As an NCO, I stayed in the trench, it was only the privates who mixed with the enemy; the officers from both sides paced along the top of their own parapet refusing to acknowledge each other, pouting and clearly disapproving of the events. The men played good-natured football games with empty Maconochie tins [tinned stew ration] and exchanged their ration of rum or cigarettes for generous-sized German cigars. Close to dusk, the two sides were ordered back to the trenches; the ceasefire had been scrupulously adhered to by both parties.

Private Frank Sumpter, London Rifle Brigade
After the 19th December attack, we were back in the same trenches when Christmas Day came along. It was a terrible winter, everything was covered in snow, everything was white. The devastated landscape looked terrible in its true colours – clay and mud and broken brick – but when it was covered in snow, it was beautiful. Then we heard the Germans singing ‘Silent night, Holy night’, and they put up a notice saying ‘Merry Christmas’, so we put one up too.

While they were singing our boys said, ‘Let’s join in,’ so we joined in and when we started singing, they stopped. And when we stopped, they started again. So we were easing the way. Then one German took a chance and jumped up on top of the trench and shouted out, ‘Happy Christmas, Tommy!’ So of course our boys said, ‘If he can do it, we can do it,’ and we all jumped up. A sergeant-major shouted, ‘Get down!’ But we said, ‘Shut up Sergeant, it’s Christmas time!’ And we all went forward to the barbed wire.

We could barely reach through the wire, because the barbed wire was not just one fence, it was two or three fences together, with a wire in between. And so we just shook hands and I had the experience of talking to one German who said to me, ‘Do you know where the Essex Road in London is?’ I replied, ‘Yes, my uncles had a shoe repairing shop there.’ He said, ‘That’s funny. There is a barber shop on the other side where I used to work.’

They could all speak very good English because before the war, Britain was invaded by Germans. Every pork butcher was German, every baker’s shop was German, and they were all over here getting the low-down on the country. It’s ironic when you think about it, that he must have shaved my uncle at times and yet my bullet might have found him and his bullet might have found me.

The officers gave the order ‘No fraternisation’s and then they turned their backs on us. But they didn’t try to stop it because they knew they couldn’t. We never said a word about the war to the Germans. We spoke about our families, about how old we were, how long we thought it would last and things like that. I was young and I wasn’t that interested, so I stood there for about half an hour then I came back. But most of the boys stayed there the whole day and only came back in the evening. There we no shots fired and some people enjoyed the curiosity of walking about in no man’s land. It was good to walk around.

As a sign of their friendliness the Germans put up a sign in English saying, ‘Gott mit uns’ which means ‘God is with us’ and so we put up a sign in English saying ‘We got mittens too’. I don’t know if they enjoyed that joke.

Rifleman Henry Williamson, London Rifle Brigade
That evening the Germans sent over a note saying that their Staff was visiting their trenches that night, so the truce must end and they would have to fire their machine-guns. They would fire them high but could we in any case keep under cover in case regrettable accidents occurred.

At 11 o’clock precisely they opened up. We saw flashes of the machine-guns going high and it was passed back to Intelligence that the Germans were using Berlin time in the trenches, which is one hour before British time. I suppose that was an important item for Intelligence, and that was the end of our truce. We did not fire, and they did not fire for a day or two, but the Prussians came in and relieved the Saxons and then we began to lose more men from sniping and we went out after that.

The Christmas truce remains an iconic example of the ‘Christmas spirit’ and ‘good will to all men’ despite the circumstances.

The truce lasted from anything between a day to a week depending on the sector.

Unfortunately the war would see another three Christmases and further truces were actively discouraged and prevented by senior commanders.

On 22nd February 1797, 1,400 members of the French Legion Noire of the French Revolutionary Army landed in Carregwasted bay near Fishguard, which remains the last time Britain was invaded by a foreign military force.

Irish revolutionary leader, Wolfe Tone had received support from France to help end British rule in Ireland. Part of the plan was to organise French invasions of Britain to divert and weaken the British forces, with the overall aim of sending a much larger force to Ireland to overthrow the British there. However, bad weather and poor organisation resulted in only the invasion through Wales, to target Bristol and the west of England, going ahead.

The invasion force was led by an Irish American colonel, William Tate and consisted of 1,400 men, nearly half of whom however were deserters and convicts. An initial attempt to land was unsuccessful due to the defensive cannons at Fishguard fort, so the fleet landed 3 miles away in the bay at Carregwasted under the cover of darkness. They moved inland and established their headquarters at a nearby farmhouse, but the convicts and pressed men deserted, got drunk and ran away. The next morning the French moved inland and occupied strong defensive positions on high rocky ground. Meanwhile, the British, although outnumbered, decided to attack, with many Fishguard locals volunteering to fight, notable among whom was Jemima Nicholas, who single-handedly took twelve French soldiers prisoner in St Mary's Church armed only with a pitchfork.

These actions convinced Tate that although he had much the superior forces, he had to accept an unconditional surrender and the following afternoon the French laid down their weapons on Goodwick sands.