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    Little Wars
    Little Wars
    Little Wars
    Ebook101 pages1 hour

    Little Wars

    By H.G. Wells

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    About this ebook

    This delightfully unusual book by H. G. Wells is a comprehensive guide to Little War, a game invented by Wells for "boys from twelve to one hundred and fifty years old and for that more intelligent sort of girls who like boys' games and books". A fascinating look at a bygone era, when boys were boys, and most girls (except the more intelligent ones) were girls. With a history of Little War, detailed instructions to playing it, a description of an exemplary game, extensions and amplifications to the game, and a final challenge by the author to his young readers. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateApr 16, 2013
    ISBN9781447493532
    Author

    H.G. Wells

    H.G. Wells is considered by many to be the father of science fiction. He was the author of numerous classics such as The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The War of the Worlds, and many more. 

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      Book preview

      Little Wars - H.G. Wells

      CONTENTS

      ILLUSTRATIONS

      A country prepared for the war game

      Countries prepared for the war game

      The war game in the open air

      The war game in the open air

      The war game in the open air

      Sketch Plan of the Battle of Hook’s Farm

      Fig. 1.—The Battle of Hook’s Farm. General view

      of the battlefield and the Red Army

      Fig. 2.—The Battle of Hook’s Farm. A near view

      of the Blue Army

      Fig. 3.—The Battle of Hook’s Farm. The Red

      Army is in the foreground

      Fig. 4.—The Battle of Hook’s Farm. The affair is

      developing rapidly

      Fig. 5a.—The Battle of Hook’s Farm. Red

      Cavalry charging home over the Blue guns

      Fig. 5b.—The Battle of Hook’s Farm. After the

      cavalry mêlée

      Fig. 6a.—The Battle of Hook’s Farm. Three Red

      Cavalry prisoners are being led to the rear

      Fig. 6b.—The Battle of Hook’s Farm, Position of armies at end of Blue’s third move

      Fig. 7.—The Battle of Hook’s Farm. Showing the

      frantic rush of Red’s left wing across the open to

      join the main body

      Fig. 8.—The Battle of Hook’s Farm. The Red

      Army suffers heavy losses

      Fig. 9.—The Battle of Hook’s Farm. Complete

      victory of the Blue Army

      SECTION I

      OF THE LEGENDARY PAST

      OF THE LEGENDARY PAST

      LITTLE WARS is the game of kings—for players in an inferior social position. It can be played by boys of every age from twelve to one hundred and fifty—and even later if the limbs remain sufficiently supple—by girls of the better sort, and by a few rare and gifted women. This is to be a full History of Little Wars from its recorded and authenticated beginning until the present time, an account of how to make little warfare, and hints of the most priceless sort for the recumbent strategist. . . .

      But first let it be noted in passing that there were prehistoric Little Wars. This is no new thing, no crude novelty, but a thing tested by time, ancient and ripe in its essentials for all its perennial freshness—like spring. There was a Someone who fought Little Wars in the days of Queen Anne; a garden Napoleon. His game was inaccurately observed and insufficiently recorded by Laurence Sterne. It is clear that Uncle Toby and Corporal Trim were playing Little Wars on a scale and with an elaboration exceeding even the richness and beauty of the contemporary game. But the curtain is drawn back only to tantalise us. It is scarcely conceivable that anywhere now on earth the Shandean Rules remain on record. Perhaps they were never committed to paper. . . .

      And in all ages a certain barbaric warfare has been waged with soldiers of tin and lead and wood, with the weapons of the wild, with the catapult, the elastic circular garter, the peashooter, the rubber ball, and such-like appliances—a mere setting up and knocking down of men. Tin murder. The advance of civilisation has swept such rude contests altogether from the playroom. We know them no more. . . .

      SECTION II

      THE BEGINNINGS OF

      MODERN LITTLE WARFARE

      THE BEGINNINGS OF

      MODERN LITTLE WARFARE

      THE beginning of the game of Little War, as we know it, became possible with the invention of the spring breechloader gun. This priceless gift to boyhood appeared somewhen towards the end of the last century, a gun capable of hitting a toy soldier nine times out of ten at a distance of nine yards. It has completely superseded all the spiral-spring and other makes of gun hitherto used in playroom warfare. These spring breechloaders are made in various sizes and patterns, but the one used in our game is that known in England as the four-point-seven gun. It fires a wooden cylinder about an inch long, and has a screw adjustment for elevation and depression. It is an altogether elegant weapon.

      It was with one of these guns that the beginning of our war game was made. It was at Sandgate—in England.

      The present writer had been lunching with a friend—let me veil his identity under the initials J. K. J.—in a room littered with the irrepressible debris of a small boy’s pleasures. On a table near our own stood four or five soldiers and one of these guns. Mr J. K. J., his more urgent needs satisfied and the coffee imminent, drew a chair to this little table, sat down, examined the gun discreetly, loaded it warily, aimed, and hit his man. Thereupon he boasted of the deed, and issued challenges that were accepted with avidity. . . .

      He fired that day a shot that still echoes round the world. An affair—let us parallel the Cannonade of Valmy and call

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