Battlefield Britain - Spanish Armada

Blogger's Bit is . . . the lesson that I took away from this documentary: If you have to do a professional job, you better be professional yourself or get someone who is - or don't even go near that job until you are that professional enough or have someone who is that professional enough. In other words -- the heat of battle (or a challenging task or job to do) is no circumstance for a raw recruit to be in.


The Spanish raised a huge powerful naval force but they failed to recruit professional cannon gunners to do the actual fighting.

Having soldiers who don't know how to handle the tools of war means you're not in a position to even go into that battle because you can't use amateurs to do the job that's only for professionals to do.

So now matter how powerfully equipped the ships may have been, the men that they staffed them with -- were inexperienced in the use of the military equipment they relied upon. When the British ships came close to the Armadas ships, they let loose with continuous cannon fire and destroyed half the ships that were part of the Armada.

And this stage of the fighting doesn't even include either the fire ships that had scattered the Armada earlier on nor the storms that would destroy what what left of the Armada after this engagement.

During the Spanish Civil War, the militia forces and volunteers on the side of the Republican government, also lacked military knowledge for making effective use of it. In contrast, the soldiers fighting for the rebel cause, especially the Army of Africa, these were professionally trained and led. They had been so thoroughly trained and taught in the use of military weapons and weapons systems that they were too much of a challenge for the Republican forces.

If you're going to have people doing the deadly business of fighting a war, you must have people who know what they're supposed to do in the heat of battle.

So, in the final analysis, Don't Fight Battles that You're Not in a Position to Win!