1.
Bombing of Frampol
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The Bombing of Frampol occurred during the German invasion of Poland in 1939. On 13 September, the town of Frampol with a population of 4,000 was bombed by the German Luftwaffe as a run for future missions. Over 60% to 90% of the town was completely destroyed — only two streets remained untouched, including houses on the outskirts. Frampol was destroyed by the bombers of Luftwaffes 8th Air Corps, according to Polish historians Pawel Puzio and Ryszard Jasinski no units of the Polish army were stationed in Frampol and the town did not have any military facilities. The first German reconnaissance plane appeared over Frampol on 9 September 1939 taking reconnaissance photographs of the location then on 11 and 12 September the town was bombed, the first raids did not cause any significant damage, but the subsequent bombing on 13 September completely destroyed the town. According to historian Norman Davies 125 bombers dropped 700 tons of explosives during bombing, furthermore, German fighter pilots trained strafing techniques on refugees who were trying to flee from the city. Frampol lost 90% of its buildings and 50% of the population became casualties, after the bombing, on 18 September, a German reconnaissance plane again appeared over Frampol to take photographs of the destruction. Also, in his book, Eyes on the Sky, Wolfgang Schreyer wrote, Frampol was chosen as an object, because test bombers, flying at low speed. Also, the centrally placed town hall was an orientation point for the crews. We watched possibility of orientation after visible signs, and also the size of village, from one side it should make easier the note of probe, from second side it should confirm the efficiency of used bombs. The bombing of Frampol plays an important part in the short story The Little Shoemakers by Isaac Bashevis Singer, Isaac Bashevis Singer also wrote The Tale of Three Wishes in which artist Irene Lieblich beautifully illustrates the Market Of Frampol, a direct reflection of her memories of Frampol. Mieczysław Cieplewicz, Eugeniusz Kozłowski, et al
Bombing of Frampol
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Frampol before (left) and after (right) the German Luftwaffe bombing raids, September 1939
2.
Strategic bombing during World War II
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Strategic bombing during World War II was the sustained aerial attack on railways, harbours, cities, workers housing, and industrial districts in enemy territory during World War II. Strategic bombing is a strategy which is distinct from both close air support of ground forces and tactical air power. As the war continued to expand, bombing by both the Axis and the Allies increased significantly, in September 1940, the Luftwaffe began targeting British cities in The Blitz. From 1942 onward, the British bombing campaign against Germany became less restrictive and increasingly targeted industrial sites and eventually, when the United States began flying bombing missions against Germany, it reinforced these efforts and controversial firebombings were carried out against Hamburg, Dresden, and other German cities. In the Pacific War, the Japanese bombed civilian populations throughout the war, the effect of strategic bombing was highly debated during and after the war. Both the Luftwaffe and RAF failed to deliver a blow by destroying enemy morale. The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, which address the codes of conduct on land. Despite repeated diplomatic attempts to update international humanitarian law to include aerial warfare, many reasons exist for the absence of international law regarding aerial bombing in World War II. Most nations had refused to ratify laws or agreements because of the vague or impractical wording in treaties such as the 1923 Hague Rules of Air Warfare. Also, the major powers possession of newly developed advanced bombers was a military advantage. Article 25 of the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions on Land Warfare also did not provide a guideline on the extent to which civilians may be spared. Consequently, cyclical arguments, such as advanced by Italian general and air power theorist Giulio Douhet. Before World War II began, the pace of aviation technology created a belief that groups of bombers would be capable of devastating cities. For example, British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin warned in 1932, when the war began on 1 September 1939, Franklin D. If the Luftwaffe confined attacks to purely military targets, the RAF should launch an attack on the German fleet at Wilhelmshaven, the first RAF raid on the interior of Germany took place on the night of 15/16 May 1940 while the Battle of France was still continuing. During the German invasion of Poland, the Luftwaffe engaged in air raids against Polish cities, bombing civilian infrastructure such as hospitals. Notably, the Luftwaffe bombed Warsaw, Wieluń, and Frampol, in his book, Eyes on the Sky, Wolfgang Schreyer wrote, Frampol was chosen as an experimental object, because test bombers, flying at low speed, werent endangered by AA fire. Also, the centrally placed town hall was an orientation point for the crews
Strategic bombing during World War II
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A B-24 on a bomb run over the Astra Romana refinery in Ploiești, Romania, during Operation Tidal Wave
Strategic bombing during World War II
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Wieluń, the first Polish city destroyed by Luftwaffe bombing, on 1 September 1939. In one of the first acts of the German aggression during World War II, German bombers destroyed 75% of all the buildings, including a clearly marked hospital and the historic Gothic church, killing approximately 1,200 civilians.
Strategic bombing during World War II
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Polish mothers with their newborn infants in a makeshift maternity ward inside a hospital basement during the Bombing of Warsaw by the German Luftwaffe.
Strategic bombing during World War II
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Warsaw burning after a German bombardment of the city. The Luftwaffe air campaign resulted in the deaths of over 25,000 civilians.
3.
Allies of World War II
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The Allies of World War II, called the United Nations from the 1 January 1942 declaration, were the countries that together opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Allies promoted the alliance as seeking to stop German, Japanese, at the start of the war on 1 September 1939, the Allies consisted of France, Poland and the United Kingdom, and dependent states, such as the British India. Within days they were joined by the independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Poland was a minor factor after its defeat in 1939, France was a minor factor after its defeat in 1940. China had already been into a war with Japan since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937. The alliance was formalised by the Declaration by United Nations, from 1 January 1942, however, the name United Nations was rarely used to describe the Allies during the war. The leaders of the Big Three – the UK, the Soviet Union, in 1945, the Allied nations became the basis of the United Nations. The origins of the Allied powers stem from the Allies of World War I, Germany resented signing Treaty of Versailles. The new Weimar republics legitimacy became shaken, by the early 1930s, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became the dominant revanchist movement in Germany and Hitler and the Nazis gained power in 1933. The Nazi regime demanded the cancellation of the Treaty of Versailles and made claims to German-populated Austria. The likelihood of war was high, and the question was whether it could be avoided through strategies such as appeasement, in Asia, when Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, the League of Nations condemned it for aggression against China. Japan responded by leaving the League of Nations in March 1933, after four quiet years, the Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937 with Japanese forces invading China. The League of Nations condemned Japans actions and initiated sanctions on Japan, the United States, in particular, was angered at Japan and sought to support China. In March 1939, Germany took over Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich Agreement signed six months before, Britain and France decided that Hitler had no intention to uphold diplomatic agreements and responded by preparing for war. On 31 March 1939, Britain formed the Anglo-Polish military alliance in an effort to avert a German attack on the country, also, the French had a long-standing alliance with Poland since 1921. The Soviet Union sought an alliance with the powers. The agreement secretly divided the independent nations of eastern Europe between the two powers and assured adequate oil supplies for the German war machine, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. Then, on 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, a Polish government-in-exile was set up and it continued to be one of the Allies, a model followed by other occupied countries. After a quiet winter, Germany in April 1940 invaded and quickly defeated Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Britain and its Empire stood alone against Hitler and Mussolini
Allies of World War II
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Poland first to fight — British wartime poster supporting Poland after the German invasion, 1939
Allies of World War II
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Allied Powers (and their colonies)
Allies of World War II
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British Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft (left) flying past a German Heinkel He-111 bomber aircraft (right) during the Battle of Britain
Allies of World War II
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British tanks during the North African Campaign
4.
Aircraft ordnance
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Aircraft ordnance or ordnance is weapons used by aircraft. The term is used when describing the weight of air-to-ground weaponry that can be carried by an aircraft or the weight that has been dropped. Aircraft ordnance also includes air-to-air, anti-ship and anti-submarine weapons, ordnance can be carried in a bomb bay or hung from a hardpoint. For many weapons there is a limit to the length of time they can be flown and this can be a problem if weapons designed for high intensity conflict are carried on multiple missions in a long counter-insurgency campaign
Aircraft ordnance
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A-6 and ordnance in 1962
5.
Factory
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Factories arose with the introduction of machinery during the Industrial Revolution when the capital and space requirements became too great for cottage industry or workshops. Early factories that contained small amounts of machinery, such as one or two spinning mules, and fewer than a dozen workers have been called glorified workshops, most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production. Large factories tend to be located with access to multiple modes of transportation, with some having rail, highway, factories may either make discrete products or some type of material continuously produced such as chemicals, pulp and paper, or refined oil products. Oil refineries have most of their equipment outdoors, discrete products may be final consumer goods, or parts and sub-assemblies which are made into final products elsewhere. Factories may be supplied parts from elsewhere or make them from raw materials, continuous production industries typically use heat or electricity to transform streams of raw materials into finished products. The term mill originally referred to the milling of grain, which usually used natural resources such as water or wind power until those were displaced by steam power in the 19th century. Because many processes like spinning and weaving, iron rolling, and paper manufacturing were originally powered by water, according to translations of Demosthenes and Herodotus, Naucratis was a, or the only, factory in the entirety of ancient Egypt. A source of 1983, states the largest factory production in ancient times was of 120 slaves within 4th century BC Athens, although The Cambridge Online Dictionary definition of factory states, a building or set of buildings where large amounts of goods are made using machines elsewhere. The wheel was invented circa 3000 BC, the spoked wheel c.2000 BC, the Iron Age began approximately 1200-1000 BC. However, other sources define machinery as a means of production, according to one text the water-mill was first made in 555 A. D. by Belisarius, although according to another they were known to Pliny the Elder and Vitruvius in the first century B. C. By the time of the 4th century A. D. mills with a capacity to grind 3 tonnes of cereal an hour, the Venice Arsenal provides one of the first examples of a factory in the modern sense of the word. Founded in 1104 in Venice, Republic of Venice, several hundred years before the Industrial Revolution, the Venice Arsenal apparently produced nearly one ship every day and, at its height, employed 16,000 people. One of the earliest factories was John Lombes water-powered silk mill at Derby, by 1746, an integrated brass mill was working at Warmley near Bristol. Raw material went in at one end, was smelted into brass and was turned into pans, pins, wire, housing was provided for workers on site. Josiah Wedgwood in Staffordshire and Matthew Boulton at his Soho Manufactory were other prominent early industrialists, the factory system began widespread use somewhat later when cotton spinning was mechanized. Richard Arkwright is the credited with inventing the prototype of the modern factory. After he patented his water frame in 1769, he established Cromford Mill, in Derbyshire, England, the factory system was a new way of organizing labour made necessary by the development of machines which were too large to house in a workers cottage. Working hours were as long as they had been for the farmer, overall, this practice essentially reduced skilled and unskilled workers to replaceable commodities
Factory
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Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg, Germany
Factory
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Reconstructed historical factory in Žilina (Slovakia) for production of safety matches. Originally built in 1915 for the business firm Wittenberg and son.
Factory
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Entrance to the Venetian Arsenal by Canaletto, 1732.
Factory
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Interior of the Lyme Regis watermill, UK (14th century).
6.
Civilian casualties
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Under the law of war, civilian casualties are civilians who perished or suffered wounds as a result of wartime acts. In both cases, they can be associated with the outcome of any form of action regardless of whether civilians were targeted directly or not, however, United Nations Childrens Fund reports that civilian fatalities have climbed from 5 per cent at the turn of the century. To more than 90 per cent in the wars of the 1990s. ]</refhttp, one problem is that the attribution of the label ‘civilian’ is contested in some cases. To make effective use of statistics as there are about civilian casualties of war. All too often, there is a lack of clarity about which of the categories of civilian casualties are included in any given set of figures. Those killed as an effect of war,2. Those injured as an effect of war,3. Victims of one-sided violence, such as when states slaughter their own citizens in connection with a war,5, victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence in connection with a war,6. Those uprooted in a war – that is, refugees and Internally Displaced Persons,7 Those who, even after a war is over, the inclusion of people in each of these categories may be defensible, but needs to be explicit. Each category presents its own methodological problems, in the case of people dying from indirect effects, much careful work is needed to distinguish between ‘expected’ and ‘excess’ levels. In the case of victims of sexual crimes there could be an argument for including not only direct crimes by combatants, in the case of those uprooted in war, the implication that refugees and IDPs always count as war victims is too simple. Some may be fleeing one-sided violence from a repressive state apparatus, natural calamity, indeed, in the 1971 and 1999 wars, refugee return was a stated reason for launching hostilities. Yet this key observation finds remarkably little reflection in the literature about the casualties of contemporary war. A focus on the numbers of those uprooted in war is problematic as those who are trapped in conflict zones may in fact be worse off than those uprooted. Figures for war deaths and for war-related migration should be presented separately, following the Second World War, a series of treaties governing the laws of war were adopted starting in 1949. These Geneva Conventions would come into force, in no small part, although ratified by 173 countries, the only countries that are currently not signatories to Protocol I are the United States, Israel, Iran, Pakistan, India, and Turkey. The Rome Statute defines that intentionally directing attacks against the population to be illegal. Many modern nations views on the ethics of civilian casualties align with the Just War theory, an act of war is deemed proportional in Just War theory if the overall destruction expected from the use of force is outweighed by the projected good to be achieved
Civilian casualties
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Monument to commemorate 29 executed members of the Dutch resistance movement, October 24, 1944. Statue made by Jan Havermans (nl)
Civilian casualties
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Casualties of a mass panic during a June 1941 Japanese bombing of Chongqing. More than 5000 civilians died during the first two days of air raids in 1939
7.
Casualty (person)
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In civilian usage, a casualty is a person who is killed, wounded or injured by some event, and is usually used to describe multiple deaths and injuries due to violent incidents or disasters. Casualties is sometimes misunderstood to mean fatalities, but non-fatal injuries are also casualties, any casualty is no longer available for the immediate battle or campaign, the major consideration in combat, and the reason for lumping together all these different cases. The word has been used in a military context since at least 1513, civilian casualties are civilians killed or injured by military personnel or combatants, sometimes instead referred to by the euphemistic expression collateral damage. Any casualty incurred as the result of hostile action, sustained in combat or relating thereto. These definitions are popular among military historians, in relation to personnel, any person killed in action, missing in action or who died of wounds or diseases before being evacuated to a medical installation. There is a distinction between combat medical casualty and non-combat medical casualty, a casualty classification generally used to describe any person reported missing during combat operations. They may have deserted, or may have killed, wounded. A casualty classification generally used to any person who has incurred an injury by means of action of hostile forces. A casualty classification generally used to any person captured and held in custody by hostile forces. These numbers are cited together with or instead of total casualties. According to WHO World health report 2004, deaths from injuries were estimated to be 2. 8% of all deaths. In the same report, unintentional injury was estimated to be responsible for 6. 2% of all deaths, list of causes of death by rate Casualty – Definition from the Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary. Online text, War Casualties, by Albert G. Love, Lt. Colonel, Medical Corps, Medical Field Service School, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. The Army Medical Bulletin Number 24, selected Death Tolls for Wars, Massacres and Atrocities Before the 20th Century. Twentieth Century Atlas – Death Tolls, combat Casualties and Race, What Can We Learn from the 2003–2004 Iraq Conflict. Armed Forces & Society, Jan 2005, vol, kummel, Gerhard and Nina LeonhardCasualties and Civil-Military Relations, The German Polity between Learning and Indifference. Armed Forces & Society, Jul 2005, vol. A Review of Popular Theories of Casualty Aversion, Armed Forces & Society, Jul 2005, vol. 31, pp. 487–512 Van Der Meulen, Jan and Joseph Soeters. Considering Casualties, Risk, Armed Forces & Society, Jul 2005, vol
Casualty (person)
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Temporary grave of an American machine-gunner during the Battle of Normandy.
8.
Venice
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Venice is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is situated across a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and these are located in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay that lies between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Parts of Venice are renowned for the beauty of their settings, their architecture, the lagoon and a part of the city are listed as a World Heritage Site. In 2014,264,579 people resided in Comune di Venezia, together with Padua and Treviso, the city is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, with a total population of 2.6 million. PATREVE is a metropolitan area without any degree of autonomy. The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC, the city was historically the capital of the Republic of Venice. Venice has been known as the La Dominante, Serenissima, Queen of the Adriatic, City of Water, City of Masks, City of Bridges, The Floating City, and City of Canals. The City State of Venice is considered to have been the first real international financial center which gradually emerged from the 9th century to its peak in the 14th century and this made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history. It is also known for its several important artistic movements, especially the Renaissance period, Venice has played an important role in the history of symphonic and operatic music, and it is the birthplace of Antonio Vivaldi. Venice has been ranked the most beautiful city in the world as of 2016, the name Venetia, however, derives from the Roman name for the people known as the Veneti, and called by the Greeks Eneti. The meaning of the word is uncertain, although there are other Indo-European tribes with similar-sounding names, such as the Celtic Veneti, Baltic Veneti, and the Slavic Wends. Linguists suggest that the name is based on an Indo-European root *wen, so that *wenetoi would mean beloved, lovable, a connection with the Latin word venetus, meaning the color sea-blue, is also possible. The alternative obsolete form is Vinegia, some late Roman sources reveal the existence of fishermen on the islands in the original marshy lagoons. They were referred to as incolae lacunae, the traditional founding is identified with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo on the islet of Rialto — said to have taken place at the stroke of noon on 25 March 421. Beginning as early as AD166 to 168, the Quadi and Marcomanni destroyed the center in the area. The Roman defences were again overthrown in the early 5th century by the Visigoths and, some 50 years later, New ports were built, including those at Malamocco and Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. The tribuni maiores, the earliest central standing governing committee of the islands in the Lagoon, the traditional first doge of Venice, Paolo Lucio Anafesto, was actually Exarch Paul, and his successor, Marcello Tegalliano, was Pauls magister militum. In 726 the soldiers and citizens of the Exarchate rose in a rebellion over the controversy at the urging of Pope Gregory II
Venice
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A collage of Venice: at the top left is the Piazza San Marco, followed by a view of the city, then the Grand Canal, and (smaller) the interior of La Fenice and, finally, the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore
Venice
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UNESCO World Heritage Site
Venice
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Photography of Venice at dusk
Venice
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The Grand Canal seen from the bridge at Ponte di Rialto
9.
First Italian War of Independence
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The First Italian War of Independence was fought in 1848 and 1849 between the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Austrian Empire. The war saw major battles at Custoza and Novara in which the Austrians under Joseph Radetzky attained victory, the war was part of the Revolutions of 1848 in the Italian states, which generally saw the reactionary forces triumphant and many rebels forced into exile. In 1848 revolutionary riots broke out in parts of Europe, including numerous places in the Apennines. Charles Albert of Piedmont and Leopold II of Tuscany were forced to make concessions to the democrats, Charles II, Duke of Parma was ousted. Sicily, excepting Messina, revolted against the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, there were also rebellions in the two capitals of the Austrian-controlled Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, Milan and Venice. With Vienna itself in revolt, the Austrian Empire was tottering, the Kingdom of Sardinia decided to exploit the apparently favorable moment. Sardinia declared war on Austria, in alliance with the Papal States and the Two Sicilies, the Piedmontese army was composed of two corps and a reserve division, for a total of 12,000 troops. Artillery and cavalry were the best units, on March 21 the Grand Duke of Tuscany also declared his entrance in the war against Austria, with a contingent of 6,700 men. The Papal Army had a similar sized force, backed by numerous volunteers, on March 25 the vanguard of the II Piedmontese Corps entered Milan. After an initial campaign, with the victories at Goito and Peschiera del Garda. The kingdom of the Two Sicilies also retired, but the general Guglielmo Pepe refused to return to Naples, in the revolutionary year of 1848, popular uprisings were springing up everywhere in Europe. Revolutionaries in many countries supported a revolution to establish constitutions and representative government in much of Europe, in every case the reactionary forced prevailed using military force. The French did not enter the First War for Italian Independence in 1848, at the Curtatone on May 29,1848, the Austrians attacked a combined force of Piedmontese and Tuscan troops. Although the Austrians won the battle, the resistance offered at Curtatone allowed the Piedmontese troops to regroup, the Piedmontese Army was defeated by Radetzky and the Austrians at Custoza on July 25,1848. The defeat of the Piedmontese at Custoza was followed up by the capture of Milan on August 6,1848, while not a total Austrian victory, the spirit of King Charles Albert and of his generals was all but broken. An armistice was signed on August 9,1848 between Austria and Sardinia at Vigevano, the Piedmontese Army retreated within the borders of the Kingdom of Sardinia. This armistice, however, lasted less than seven months, before Charles Albert denounced the truce on March 12,1849, the Austrian army took the military initiative in Lombardy and heavily defeated the Piedmontese at Novara on March 23,1849. The attempt to renew the war was a disaster and it resulted in another victory for Radetzky and the effective end of the First Italian War of Independence, all the rebellious provinces returned to Austrian rule
First Italian War of Independence
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The Battle of Novara (1849)
First Italian War of Independence
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Battle of Pastrengo, lithography by Grimaldi de Puget
First Italian War of Independence
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Battle of Custoza
First Italian War of Independence
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Charles Albert
10.
Edirne
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Edirne served as the third capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1363 to 1453, before Constantinople became the empires fourth and final capital. At present, Edirne is the capital of Edirne Province in Turkish Thrace, the citys estimated population in 2014 was 165,979. The city was founded as Hadrianopolis, named for the Roman Emperor Hadrian and this name is still used in the Modern Greek. The name Adrianople was used in English, until the Turkish adoption of Latin alphabet in 1928 made Edirne the internationally recognized name. The Turkish, Edirne, Bulgarian, Одрин, Albanian, Edrêne, Slovene, Одрин and Serbian, Једрене / Jedrene are adapted forms of the name Hadrianopolis or of its Turkish version, see also its other names. The area around Edirne has been the site of no fewer than 16 major battles or sieges, military historian John Keegan identifies it as the most contested spot on the globe and attributes this to its geographical location. According to Greek mythology, Orestes, son of king Agamemnon, built this city as Orestias, at the confluence of the Tonsus and the Ardiscus with the Hebrus. The city was founded eponymously by the Roman Emperor Hadrian on the site of a previous Thracian settlement known as Uskadama, Uskudama, Uskodama or Uscudama and it was the capital of the Bessi, or of the Odrysians. Hadrian developed it, adorned it with monuments, changed its name to Hadrianopolis after himself, licinius was defeated there by Constantine I in 323, and Emperor Valens was killed by the Goths in 378 during the Battle of Adrianople. In 813, the city was seized by Khan Krum of Bulgaria who moved its inhabitants to the Bulgarian lands towards the north of the Danube. During the existence of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, the Crusaders were decisively defeated by the Bulgarian Emperor Kaloyan in the Battle of Adrianople. Later Theodore Komnenos, Despot of Epirus, took possession of it in 1227, in 1369, the city was conquered by the Ottoman sultan Murad I. The city remained the Ottoman capital for 90 years until 1453, Edirne is famed for its many mosques, domes, minarets, and palaces from the Ottoman period. Under Ottoman rule, Edirne was the city of the administrative unit, the eponymous Eyalet of Edirne, and after land reforms in 1867. Sultan Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, was born in Edirne, Sultan Mehmed IV left the palace in Constantinople and died in Edirne in 1693. During his exile in the Ottoman Empire, the Swedish king Charles XII stayed in the city during most of 1713, baháulláh, the founder of the Baháí Faith, lived in Edirne from 1863 to 1868. He was exiled there by the Ottoman Empire before being banished further to the Ottoman penal colony in Akka and he referred to Edirne in his writings as the Land of Mystery. Edirne was briefly occupied by imperial Russian troops in 1829 during the Greek War of Independence, the city suffered a fire in 1905
Edirne
Edirne
Edirne
Edirne
11.
First Balkan War
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The First Balkan War, lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and comprised actions of the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies, as a result of the war, the League captured and partitioned almost all remaining European territories of the Ottoman Empire. Ensuing events also led to the creation of an independent Albania, despite its success, Bulgaria was dissatisfied over the division of the spoils in Macedonia, which provoked the start of the Second Balkan War. By 1867, Serbia and Montenegro had both secured independence, which was confirmed by the Treaty of Berlin, the question of the viability of Ottoman rule was revived after the Young Turk Revolution of July 1908, which compelled the Sultan to restore the suspended Ottoman constitution. Serbias aspirations to take over Bosnia and Herzegovina were thwarted by the Bosnian crisis, the Serbs directed their expansionism to the south. Following the annexation, the Young Turks tried to induce the Muslim population of Bosnia to emigrate to the Ottoman Empire and those who took up the offer were re-settled by the Ottoman authorities in districts of northern Macedonia where there were few Muslims. The experiment proved to be a catastrophe for the Empire since the immigrants readily united with the population of Albanian Muslims. They participated in the series of Albanian uprisings before and during the spring Albanian Revolt of 1912, some Albanian government troops switched sides. Serbia, which had helped arm the Albanian Catholic and Hamidian rebels and sent secret agents to some of the prominent leaders, things got so far out of hand that no one was satisfied with the situation in Turkey in Europe. It became unbearable for the Serbs, the Greeks and for the Albanians, by the grace of God, I have therefore ordered my brave army to join in the Holy War to free our brethren and to ensure a better future. To all of them we bring freedom, brotherhood and equality, in a search for allies, Serbia was ready to negotiate a treaty with Bulgaria. The agreement provided that, in the event of victory against the Ottomans, serbias expansion was accepted by Bulgaria as being to the north of the Shar Mountains. The intervening area was agreed to be disputed, it would be arbitrated by the Tsar of Russia in the event of a war against the Ottoman Empire. After the successful coup détat for unification with Eastern Rumelia, Bulgaria began to dream that its national unification would be realized, for that purpose, it developed a large army, and identified as the Prussia of the Balkans. But Bulgaria could not win a war alone against the Ottomans and they also wanted to reverse their defeat in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 by the Ottomans. An emergency military reorganization led by a French military mission had been started for that purpose, in the discussions that led Greece to join the Balkan League, Bulgaria refused to commit to any agreement on the distribution of territorial gains, unlike its deal with Serbia over Macedonia. Bulgarias diplomatic policy was to push Serbia into an agreement limiting its access to Macedonia, Bulgaria believed that its army would be able to occupy the larger part of Aegean Macedonia and the important port city of Salonica before the Greeks. In 1911, Italy had launched an invasion of Tripolitania in present-day Libya, the Italians decisive military victories over the Ottoman Empire encouraged the Balkan states to imagine they might win a war against the Ottomans
First Balkan War
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Clockwise from top right: Serbian forces entering the town of Mitrovica; Ottoman troops at the Battle of Kumanovo; The Greek king and the Bulgarian tsar in Thessaloniki; Bulgarian heavy artillery
First Balkan War
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Greek artillerymen with 75 mm field gun.
First Balkan War
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The armored cruiser Georgios Averof, flagship of the Greek fleet. At the time, she was the most modern warship involved in the conflict, and played a crucial role in operations in the Aegean Sea.
First Balkan War
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Ottoman troops during the Balkan Wars
12.
Mexican Revolution
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The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle c. 1910–1920 that radically transformed Mexican culture and government. Although recent research has focused on local and regional aspects of the Revolution and its outbreak in 1910 resulted from the failure of the 35-year long regime of Porfirio Díaz to find a managed solution to the presidential succession. This meant there was a crisis among competing elites and the opportunity for agrarian insurrection. Madero challenged Díaz in 1910 presidential election, and following the rigged results, armed conflict ousted Díaz from power and a new election was held in 1911, bringing Madero to the presidency. The origins of the conflict were broadly based in opposition to the Díaz regime, with the 1910 election, elements of the Mexican elite hostile to Díaz, led by Madero, expanded to the middle class, the peasantry in some regions, and organized labor. In October 1911, Madero was overwhelmingly elected in a free, Huerta remained in power from February 1913 until July 1914, when he was forced out by a coalition of different regional revolutionary forces. Then the revolutionaries attempt to come to a political agreement following Huertas ouster failed, Zapata was assassinated in 1919, by agents of President Carranza. The armed conflict lasted for the part of a decade, until around 1920. Revolutionary forces unified against Huertas reactionary regime defeated the Federal forces, although the conflict was primarily a civil war, foreign powers that had important economic and strategic interests in Mexico figured in the outcome of Mexicos power struggles. The United States played a significant role. Out of Mexicos population of 15 million, the losses were high, perhaps 1.5 million people died, nearly 200,000 refugees fled abroad, especially to the United States. Politically, the promulgation of the Mexican Constitution of 1917 is seen by scholars as the end point of the armed conflict. The period 1920–1940 is often considered to be a phase of the Revolution, during which power was consolidated, after the presidency of his ally, General Manuel González, Díaz ran for the presidency again and legally remained in office until 1911. The constitution had been amended to allow presidential re-election, Díazs re-election was ironic, since he had challenged Benito Juárez on the platform no re-election. During the Porfiriato there were regular elections although there were contentious irregularities, the contested 1910 election, was a key political event that led to the Mexican Revolution. As Díaz aged, the question of succession became increasingly important. In 1906, the office of president was revived, with Díaz choosing his close ally Ramón Corral from among his Cientifico advisers to serve in the post. By the 1910 election, the Díaz regime had become highly authoritarian and he had been a national hero, opposing the French Intervention in the 1860s and distinguishing himself in the Battle of Puebla on 5 May 1862
Mexican Revolution
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Collage of the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
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General Porfirio Díaz, President of Mexico
Mexican Revolution
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Anti-Diaz newspaper, Regeneración, the official publication of the Mexican Liberal Party (PLM).
Mexican Revolution
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A vanner (1903) at the office of opposition magazine El hijo de Ahuizote reads: "The Constitution has died" (La Constitución ha muerto).
13.
Biplane
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A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, while a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage over a monoplane, it produces more drag than a similar unbraced or cantilever monoplane wing. Improved structural techniques, better materials and the quest for greater speed made the biplane configuration obsolete for most purposes by the late 1930s. Biplanes offer several advantages over conventional cantilever monoplane designs, they permit lighter wing structures, low wing loading, however, interference between the airflow over each wing increases drag substantially, and biplanes generally need extensive bracing, which causes additional drag. Biplanes are distinguished from tandem wing arrangements, where the wings are placed forward and aft, instead of above, the term is also occasionally used in biology, to describe the wings of some flying animals. In a biplane aircraft, two wings are placed one above the other, either or both of the main wings can support ailerons, while flaps are more usually positioned on the lower wing. Bracing is nearly always added between the upper and lower wings, in the form of wires and/or slender interplane struts positioned symmetrically on either side of the fuselage. The primary advantage of the biplane over the traditional single plane or monoplane is to combine great stiffness with light weight. A braced monoplane wing must support itself fully, while the two wings of a help to stiffen each other. The biplane is therefore inherently stiffer than the monoplane, also, the structural forces in the spars of a biplane wing tend to be lower, so the wing can use less material to obtain the same overall strength and is therefore much lighter. A disadvantage of the biplane was the need for extra struts to space the wings apart, the low power supplied by the engines available in the first years of aviation meant that aeroplanes could only fly slowly. This required an even lower stalling speed, which in turn required a low wing loading, combining both large wing area with light weight. A biplane wing of a span and chord has twice the area of a monoplane the same size and so can fly more slowly. Alternatively, a wing of the same area as a monoplane has lower span and chord, reducing the structural forces. Biplanes suffer aerodynamic interference between the two planes and this means that a biplane does not in practice obtain twice the lift of the similarly-sized monoplane. The farther apart the wings are spaced the less the interference, given the slow speed and low power of early aircraft, the drag penalty of the wires and struts and the mutual interference of airflows were relatively minor and acceptable factors. The smaller biplane wing also allows greater maneuverability, during World War One, this further enhanced the dominance of the biplane and, despite the need for speed, military aircraft were among the last to abandon the biplane form. Specialist sports Aerobatic biplanes are still occasionally made, biplanes were originally designed with the wings positioned directly one above the other
Biplane
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Reproduction of a Sopwith Camel biplane.
Biplane
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The Antonov An-2 is the largest single-engine biplane design and has the longest production history of any aircraft, except for the C 130.
Biplane
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Biplane hang glider under tow. Philadelphia, USA, 1920s.
Biplane
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Zeppelin-Lindau D.I strutless biplane
14.
Airship
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An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from large gas bags filled with a gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early dirigibles, the gas used was hydrogen, due to its high lifting capacity. Helium gas has almost the same lifting capacity and is not flammable, unlike hydrogen, significant amounts were first discovered in the United States and for a while helium was only used for airships by the United States. Most airships built since the 1960s have used helium, though some have used hot air, the envelope of an airship may form a single gas bag, or may contain a number of internal gas-filled cells. An airship also has engines, crew, and optionally also payload accommodation, the main types of airship are non-rigid, semi-rigid, and rigid. Non-rigid airships, often called blimps, rely on internal pressure to maintain the shape of the airship, semi-rigid airships maintain the envelope shape by internal pressure, but have some form of supporting structure, such as a fixed keel, attached to it. Rigid airships have a structural framework which maintains the shape and carries all structural loads. Rigid airships were first flown by Count Zeppelin and the vast majority of rigid airships built were manufactured by the firm he founded, as a result, rigid airships are called zeppelins. S. Navy helium-filled rigids, the USS Akron and USS Macon respectively, during the pioneer years of aeronautics, terms such as airship, air-ship, air ship and ship of the air meant any kind of navigable or dirigible flying machine. In 1919 Frederick Handley Page was reported as referring to ships of the air, in the 1930s, large intercontinental flying boats were also sometimes referred to as ships of the air or flying-ships. Nowadays the term airship is used only for powered, dirigible balloons, semirigid architecture is the more recent and the late appearance is caused by both advancements about deformable structures and exigiency of reducing weight and volume of the airships. They have a structure that ensure to keep the shape jointly with overpressure of the gas envelope. An aerostat is an aircraft which remain aloft using buoyancy or static lift, Airships are a type of aerostat. The term aerostat has also used to indicate a tethered or moored balloon as opposed to a free-floating balloon. A blimp is a non-rigid aerostat, in American usage it refers specifically to a non-rigid type of dirigible balloon or airship. In British usage it refers to any non-rigid aerostat, including balloons and other kite balloons, having a streamlined shape. The initials LZ, for Luftschiff Zeppelin, usually prefixed their crafts serial identifiers, streamlined Parsifal-shaped rigid airships are usually referred to as Zeppelin, because of the fame that this company has acquired due to the number of airships it produced
Airship
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A modern airship, Zeppelin NT D-LZZF in 2010
Airship
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Dirigible airships compared with related aerostats, from a turn-of-the-20th-century encyclopedia
Airship
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US Navy airships and balloons, 1931: in the background, ZR-3, in front of it, (l to r) J-3 or 4, K-1, ZMC-2, in front of them, "Caquot" observation balloon, and in foreground free balloons used for training.
Airship
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A gondola fitted with twin propellers
15.
Warsaw
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Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It stands on the Vistula River in east-central Poland, roughly 260 kilometres from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population is estimated at 1.750 million residents within a metropolitan area of 3.101 million residents. The city limits cover 516.9 square kilometres, while the area covers 6,100.43 square kilometres. In 2012 the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Warsaw as the 32nd most liveable city in the world and it was also ranked as one of the most liveable cities in Central Europe. Today Warsaw is considered an Alpha– global city, an international tourist destination. Warsaws economy, by a variety of industries, is characterised by FMCG manufacturing, metal processing, steel and electronic manufacturing. The city is a significant centre of research and development, BPO, ITO, the Warsaw Stock Exchange is one of the largest and most important in Central and Eastern Europe. Frontex, the European Union agency for external security, has its headquarters in Warsaw. It has been said that Warsaw, together with Frankfurt, London, Paris, the city is positioning itself as Eastern Europe’s chic cultural capital with thriving art and club scenes and serious restaurants. The first historical reference to Warsaw dates back to the year 1313, after the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, Warsaw was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars, the city became the capital of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. In accordance with the decisions of the Congress of Vienna, the Russian Empire annexed Warsaw in 1815, only in 1918 did it regain independence from the foreign rule and emerge as a new capital of the independent Republic of Poland. Warsaw gained the title of the Phoenix City because it has survived wars, conflicts. Most notably, the city required painstaking rebuilding after the damage it suffered in World War II. On 9 November 1940, the city was awarded Polands highest military decoration for heroism, the historic city-centre of Warsaw with its picturesque Old Town in 1980 was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Buildings represent examples of nearly every European architectural style and historical period, folk etymology attributes the city name to a fisherman, Wars, and his wife, Sawa. According to legend, Sawa was a living in the Vistula River with whom Wars fell in love
Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw
16.
Antwerp
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Antwerp is a city in Belgium, the capital of Antwerp province in the region of Flanders. With a population of 510,610, it is the most populous city proper in Belgium and its metropolitan area houses around 1,200,000 people, which is second behind Brussels. Antwerp is on the River Scheldt, linked to the North Sea by the Westerschelde estuary, the Port of Antwerp is one of the biggest in the world, ranking second in Europe and within the top 20 globally. Antwerp has long been an important city in the Low Countries, the inhabitants of Antwerp are nicknamed Sinjoren, after the Spanish honorific señor or French seigneur, lord, referring to the Spanish noblemen who ruled the city in the 17th century. The city hosted the 1920 Summer Olympics, according to folklore, notably celebrated by a statue in front of the town hall, the city got its name from a legend about a giant called Antigoon who lived near the Scheldt river. He exacted a toll from passing boatmen, and for those who refused, he severed one of their hands, eventually the giant was killed by a young hero named Silvius Brabo, who cut off the giants own hand and flung it into the river. Hence the name Antwerpen, from Dutch hand werpen, akin to Old English hand and wearpan, a longstanding theory is that the name originated in the Gallo-Roman period and comes from the Latin antverpia. Antverpia would come from Ante Verpia, indicating land that forms by deposition in the curve of a river. Note that the river Scheldt, before a period between 600 and 750, followed a different track. This must have coincided roughly with the current ringway south of the city, however, many historians think it unlikely that there was a large settlement which would be named Antverpia, but more something like an outpost with a river crossing. However, John Lothrop Motley argues, and so do a lot of Dutch etymologists and historians, aan t werp is also possible. This warp is a hill or a river deposit, high enough to remain dry at high tide. Another word for werp is pol hence polders, historical Antwerp allegedly had its origins in a Gallo-Roman vicus. Excavations carried out in the oldest section near the Scheldt, 1952–1961, produced pottery shards, the earliest mention of Antwerp dates from the 4th century. In the 4th century, Antwerp was first named, having been settled by the Germanic Franks, the name was reputed to have been derived from anda and werpum. The Merovingian Antwerp was evangelized by Saint Amand in the 7th century, at the end of the 10th century, the Scheldt became the boundary of the Holy Roman Empire. Antwerp became a margraviate in 980, by the German emperor Otto I, in the 11th century Godfrey of Bouillon was for some years known as the marquis of Antwerp. In the 12th century, Norbert of Xanten established a community of his Premonstratensian canons at St. Michaels Abbey at Caloes
Antwerp
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Antwerp Antwerpen
Antwerp
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Coat of arms
Antwerp
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The Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal (Cathedral of our Lady) and the Scheldt river.
Antwerp
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Grote Markt
17.
Entente Powers
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Historians continue to debate the importance of the alliance system in igniting the Great War. At the start of World War I in 1914, all three Triple Entente members entered it as Allies of World War I against the Central Powers, Germany and Austria-Hungary. The situation in the Balkans and the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, in an attempt to stop Russia from allying with France, Bismarck signed the secret Reinsurance Treaty with Russia in 1887. It assured that both parties would remain neutral toward each other if war broke out, after the Reinsurance Treaty was not renewed in 1890, Russias leaders grew alarmed at the countrys diplomatic isolation and entered into the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1894. In 1904 Britain and France signed a series of agreements, the Entente cordiale, the Entente heralded the end of British neutrality in Europe. It was partly a response to growing German antagonism, as expressed in the expansion of the Kaiserliche Marine into a fleet that could threaten the supremacy of the Royal Navy. The Entente, in contrast to the Triple Alliance or the Franco-Russian Alliance, was not an alliance of mutual defence, as British Foreign Office Official Eyre Crowe minuted, The fundamental fact of course is that the Entente is not an alliance. For purposes of ultimate emergencies it may be found to have no substance at all. For the Entente is nothing more than a frame of mind, in 1907 Britain and Russia signed an agreement called the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 to stop both countries rivalry in Central Asia, The Great Game. In the last decade of the century, Britain continued its policy of splendid isolation. However, by the early 1900s the German threat increased dramatically, some in Britain thought it was in need of allies. The Tangier Crisis later encouraged co-operation between the two countries from their fear of apparent German expansionism. Russia was defeated in the Russo-Japanese War, which resulted in concern over Russian imperialism. France was already allied to Russia in the Dual Alliance, Britain was frightened about the rising threat of German imperialism. Kaiser Wilhelm II had announced to the world his intentions to create a global German empire, Britain, traditionally having control of the seas, saw this as a serious threat to its own empire and navy. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, Prussia defeated the Second French Empire, in the Treaty of Frankfurt, Prussia forced France to cede Alsace-Lorraine to the new German Empire. Ever since, relations had been at an all time low, France, worried about the escalating military development of Germany, began building up its own war industries and army to deter to German aggression. As another measure, France developed a bond with Russia by ratifying the Franco-Russian Alliance
Entente Powers
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A 1914 Russian poster in which the upper inscription reads "agreement". The uncertain Britannia (right) and Marianne (left) look to the determined Mother Russia (centre) to lead them in the coming war.
Entente Powers
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European military alliances prior to World War I
18.
Cologne
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Cologne is the largest city in the German federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the fourth-largest city in Germany. It is located within the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, one of the major European metropolitan areas, and with more than ten million inhabitants, Cologne is located on both sides of the Rhine River, less than eighty kilometres from Belgium. The citys famous Cologne Cathedral is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Cologne, the University of Cologne is one of Europes oldest and largest universities. Cologne was founded and established in Ubii territory in the first century AD as the Roman Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, Cologne, the French version of the citys name, has become standard in English as well. The city functioned as the capital of the Roman province of Germania Inferior, during the Middle Ages it flourished on one of the most important major trade routes between east and west in Europe. Cologne was one of the members of the Hanseatic League and one of the largest cities north of the Alps in medieval. Up until World War II the city had several occupations by the French. Cologne was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany during World War II, the bombing reduced the population by 95%, mainly due to evacuation, and destroyed almost the entire city. With the intention of restoring as many buildings as possible. Cologne is a cultural centre for the Rhineland, it hosts more than thirty museums. Exhibitions range from local ancient Roman archeological sites to contemporary graphics, the Cologne Trade Fair hosts a number of trade shows such as Art Cologne, imm Cologne, Gamescom, and the Photokina. The first urban settlement on the grounds of modern-day Cologne was Oppidum Ubiorum, founded in 38 BC by the Ubii, in 50 AD, the Romans founded Colonia on the Rhine and the city became the provincial capital of Germania Inferior in 85 AD. The city was named Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium in 50 AD, considerable Roman remains can be found in present-day Cologne, especially near the wharf area, where a notable discovery of a 1900-year-old Roman boat was made in late 2007. From 260 to 271 Cologne was the capital of the Gallic Empire under Postumus, Marius, in 310 under Constantine a bridge was built over the Rhine at Cologne. Roman imperial governors resided in the city and it one of the most important trade. Cologne is shown on the 4th century Peutinger Map, maternus, who was elected as bishop in 313, was the first known bishop of Cologne. The city was the capital of a Roman province until occupied by the Ripuarian Franks in 462, parts of the original Roman sewers are preserved underneath the city, with the new sewerage system having opened in 1890. Early medieval Cologne was part of Austrasia within the Frankish Empire, Cologne had been the seat of a bishop since the Roman period, under Charlemagne, in 795, bishop Hildebold was promoted to archbishop
Cologne
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From top to bottom, left to right: Hohenzollern Bridge by night, Great St. Martin Church, Colonius TV-tower, Cologne Cathedral, Kranhaus buildings in Rheinauhafen, MediaPark
Cologne
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Cologne around 1411
Cologne
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Hängebrücke
Cologne
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The devastation of Cologne, 1945
19.
Zeppelin
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A Zeppelin was a type of rigid airship named after the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelins notions were first formulated in 1874 and developed in detail in 1893 and they were patented in Germany in 1895 and in the United States in 1899. After the outstanding success of the Zeppelin design, the word came to be commonly used to refer to all rigid airships. Zeppelins were first flown commercially in 1910 by Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG, the worlds first airline in revenue service, by mid-1914, DELAG had carried over 10,000 fare-paying passengers on over 1,500 flights. During World War I the German military made use of Zeppelins as bombers and scouts. The defeat of Germany in 1918 temporarily slowed down the airship business, an exception was made allowing the construction of one airship for the US Navy, which saved the company from extinction. In 1926 the restrictions on airship construction were lifted and with the aid of donations from the public and this revived the companys fortunes, and during the 1930s the airships Graf Zeppelin and the larger LZ129 Hindenburg operated regular transatlantic flights from Germany to North America and Brazil. The Hindenburg disaster in 1937, along political and economic issues. The principal feature of Zeppelins design was a rigid metal framework made up from transverse rings. The advantage of design was that the aircraft could be much larger than non-rigid airships. The framework of most Zeppelins was made of duralumin, early Zeppelins used rubberised cotton for the gasbags, but most later craft used goldbeaters skin, made from the intestines of cattle. The first Zeppelins had long cylindrical hulls with tapered ends and complex multi-plane fins and they were propelled by several engines, mounted in gondolas or engine cars, which were attached to the outside of the structural framework. Some of these could provide reverse thrust for manoeuvring while mooring, early models had a comparatively small externally mounted gondola for passengers and crew which was attached to the bottom of the frame. This space was never heated so passengers during trips across the North Atlantic or Siberia were forced to bundle themselves in blankets, the flight ceiling was so low that no pressurization of the cabins was necessary, though the Hindenburg did maintain a pressurized air-locked smoking room. Access to the Zeppelin was achieved in a number of ways, the Graf Zeppelins gondola was accessed while the vessel was on the ground, via gangways. This describes a large rigidly framed outer envelope containing several separate gasbags and he had previously encountered Union Army balloons in 1863 when he visited the United States as a military observer during the American Civil War. Count Zeppelin began to pursue his project after his early retirement from the military in 1890 at the age of 52. Convinced of the importance of aviation, he started working on various designs in 1891
Zeppelin
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The USS Los Angeles, a US Navy airship built by the Zeppelin Company
Zeppelin
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Keel plan of the Hindenburg
Zeppelin
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Ferdinand von Zeppelin
Zeppelin
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The first flight of LZ 1 over Lake Constance (the Bodensee) in 1900
20.
Great Yarmouth
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Great Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a coastal town in Norfolk, England. It is located at the mouth of the River Yare,20 miles east of Norwich, the town has been a seaside resort since 1760, and is the gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the North Sea. The discovery of oil in the North Sea in the 1960s led to an oil rig supply industry. More recently, the development of energy sources, especially offshore wind power, has created further opportunities for support services. A wind farm of 30 generators is within sight of the town on the Scroby Sands, the town has a beach and two piers. The town itself is on a 3. 1-mile spit sandwiched between the North Sea and River Yare and its well-known features include the historic rows and the main tourist sector on the seafront. The area is linked to Gorleston, Cobholm and Southtown by Haven Bridge and to the A47 and A149 by the Breydon Bridge. The urban area that makes up the town of Great Yarmouth has an area of 8.3 sq mi and it is the main town in the larger Borough of Great Yarmouth. The ONS identify a Great Yarmouth Urban Area, which has a population of 68,317, including the sub-areas of Caister-on-Sea, the wider borough of Great Yarmouth has a population of around 92,500, increasing to 97,277 at the 2011 census. Great Yarmouth lies near the site of the Roman fort camp of Gariannonum at the mouth of the River Yare and its situation having attracted fishermen from the Cinque Ports, a permanent settlement was made, and the town numbered 70 burgesses before the Norman Conquest. Henry I placed it under the rule of a reeve, in 1101 the Church of St Nicholas was founded by Herbert de Losinga, the first Bishop of Norwich, and consecrated in 1119. This was to be the first of several priories founded in what was a trading centre of considerable importance. In 1208, King John granted a charter to Great Yarmouth, a hospital was founded in Yarmouth in the reign of Edward I by Thomas Fastolfe. In 1551, a school founded and the great hall of the old hospital was appropriated to its use. The school was closed from 1757 to 1860, was re-established by the charity trustees, in 1552 Edward VI granted a charter of admiralty jurisdiction, later confirmed and extended by James I. In 1668 Charles II incorporated Little Yarmouth in the borough by a charter which with one brief exception remained in force until 1703, in 1673 during the Third Anglo-Dutch War the Zealand Expedition was assembled in the town. In 1797, during the French Revolutionary Wars, the town was the supply base for the North Sea Fleet. The fleet collected at the roadstead, from whence it sailed to the decisive Battle of Camperdown against the Dutch fleet, again in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars, the fleet collected at and sailed from the roadstead to the Battle of Copenhagen
Great Yarmouth
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Great Yarmouth Town Hall, Hall Quay (opened: 1883; architect: J.B. Pearce)
Great Yarmouth
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Regent Road
Great Yarmouth
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The 133-foot-tall Britannia Monument, built in 1817.
Great Yarmouth
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Britannia Pier in 1930.
21.
Sheringham
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Sheringham is an English seaside town within the county of Norfolk in the United Kingdom. The motto of the town, granted in 1953 to the Sheringham Urban District Council, is Mare Ditat Pinusque Decorat, Latin for The sea enriches and the pine adorns. Historically, the parish of Sheringham comprised the two villages of Upper Sheringham, a community, and Lower Sheringham, which combined farming with fishing. The fishing industry was at its peak in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, through the 1900s the focus of the fishing, as all along the north Norfolk coast, began to be on crabs, lobsters and whelks. The local fishermen were major suppliers of crabs and lobsters to the London fish markets, long lining for cod and the catching of herring began to become less important in the second half of the century, as did whelking. Today, from a peak of maybe 200 boats, Sheringham has eight boats operated single-handed, the current town of Sheringham was once Lower Sheringham, a fishing station for the main village, now known as Upper Sheringham. It is a town that was developed with the coming of the Midland. Most of Sheringhams range of buildings and shops come from this period and it has a particularly interesting range of buildings using flint, not normally in the traditional Norfolk style but in a variety of techniques. Sheringham town centre is centred on a high street with a wide range of privately owned shops. On Saturdays throughout the year there is a market in the car park next to the railway station which attracts large crowds even out of the holiday season. The town also has a selection of specialist shops such as second-hand books, antiques and bric-a-brac, fishing tackle and bait, a computer shop, a model shop. There is a selection of food outlets, pubs, restaurants, on 15 October 2010, Tesco won a 14-year battle to open a store in the town. In a split vote North Norfolk District Council development committee chairman Simon Partridge used his casting vote in favour of the scheme, the store finally opened on 24 October 2013. An annual Cromer and Sheringham Crab/Lobster festival is held in May, Otterndorf Green is a small green space between the towns railway stations. It commemorates Sheringhams twinning with the German town of Otterndorf, the Church of England Parish Church of St Peter was consecrated in 1897. The towns museum now known as The Mo includes a collection of old lifeboats, various displays, Sheringham is reputed to be the only place in the world to have four of its original lifeboats. The Sheringham Museum Trust owns three of these, JC Madge pulling and sailing, foresters Centenary the towns first motorised lifeboat. Manchester Unity of Oddfellows an Oakley Class lifeboat, Sheringham’s last offshore boat, the town has no harbour, so the lifeboat has to be launched by tractor, and the fishing boats are hauled up the beach
Sheringham
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Town centre
Sheringham
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The preserved North Norfolk Railway
Sheringham
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The east end of St Joseph's interior
Sheringham
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St Joseph's
22.
Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet
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In 1942, the British Cabinet agreed to the area bombing of German cities. Harris was tasked with implementing Churchills policy and supported the development of tactics, Harris emigrated to Southern Rhodesia in 1910, aged 17, but returned to England in 1915 to fight in the European theatre of the First World War. At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Harris took command of No.5 Group RAF in England and he retained that position for the rest of the war. After the war Harris moved to South Africa where he managed the South African Marine Corporation, Harris was born on 13 April 1892, at Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, where his parents were staying while his father George Steel Travers Harris was on home leave from the Indian Civil Service. A former Allhallows student, the actor Arthur Chudleigh, often visited the school, Harris received such a ticket in 1909, and went to see the play during his summer holidays. The lead character in the show was a Rhodesian farmer who returned to England to wed, harriss father was disappointed, having had in mind a military or civil service career for his son, but reluctantly agreed. In early 1910, Harris senior paid his sons passage on the SS Inanda to Beira in Mozambique, Harris earned his living over the next few years mining, coach-driving and farming. Harris quickly gained his employers trust, and was made manager at Lowdale when Townsend went to visit England for a year in early 1914. Having acquired the necessary to ranch successfully in Rhodesia, Harris decided that he would start his own farm in the country as soon as Townsend returned. According to Probert, Harris by now regarded primarily as a Rhodesian. When the First World War broke out in August 1914, Harris did not learn of it for nearly a month, having learnt to bugle at Allhallows, he successfully applied for the bugler slot and was sworn in on 20 October 1914. The 1st Rhodesia Regiment briefly garrisoned Bloemfontein, then served alongside the South African forces in South-West Africa during the first half of 1915. When the South-West African Campaign ended in July 1915, the 1st Rhodesia Regiment was withdrawn to Cape Town, Harris sailed for England from Beira at the Company administrations expense in August, a member of a 300-man party of white Southern Rhodesian war volunteers. 45 Squadron, flying the Sopwith 1½ Strutter and Sopwith Camel, before he returned to Britain to command No.44 Squadron on Home Defence duties, Harris claimed five enemy aircraft destroyed and was awarded the Air Force Cross on 2 November 1918. Intending to return to Rhodesia one day, Harris wore a shoulder flash on his uniform. He finished the war a major, in April 1920 Squadron Leader Harris was jointly appointed station commander of RAF Digby and commander of No.3 Flying Training School. He later served in different functions in India, Mesopotamia and Persia and he said of his service in India that he first became involved in bombing during the usual annual North West Frontier tribesmen trouble. In Mesopotamia he commanded a Vickers Vernon squadron and we cut a hole in the nose and rigged up our own bomb racks and I turned those machines into the heaviest and best bombers in the command
Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet
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Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Travers Harris, 24 April 1944
Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet
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Harris, circa 1943
Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet
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Heilbronn in 1945
Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet
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Dresden in 1945
23.
Vickers Vernon
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The Vickers Vernon was a British biplane troop carrier used by the Royal Air Force. It was the first dedicated troop transport of the RAF, entering service in 1921, the Vernon was a development of the Vickers Vimy Commercial, a passenger variant of the famous Vickers Vimy bomber, and was powered by twin Napier Lion engines or Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII engines. In February 1923, Vernons of Nos.45 and 70 Squadrons RAF airlifted nearly 500 troops to Kirkuk and this was the first-ever strategic airlift of troops. Vernons of No.45 Squadron had bomb racks and sights fitted, in May 1924 the squadron was officially designated No.45 Sqdn. Vernons were replaced by Vickers Victorias from 1927, Vernon Mk I Twin-engined military transport aircraft for the RAF. Vernon Mk II Powered by two 450 hp Napier Lion II piston engines, Vernon Mk III Powered by two Napier Lion III piston engines. United Kingdom Royal Air Force No.45 Squadron RAF No.44 lb/ft² Power/mass,0.0717 hp/lb Related development Vickers Vimy Related lists List of aircraft of the RAF
Vickers Vernon
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Vernon
Vickers Vernon
24.
Mohammed Abdullah Hassan
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Hajji Hafiz Sayyīd Muhammad Abd Allāh al-Hasan was a Somali religious and patriotic leader. Referred to as the Mad Mullah by the British, he established the Dervish State in Somalia that fought the 20 year Somaliland Campaign against British, Hassan was born in 1856 in the valley of SaMadeeq. Some say he was born in Kirrit in northern Somalia, at the time, this part of Somalia was a protectorate of the United Kingdom. Between 1884 and 1960, the area was known as British Somaliland, Hassan was the eldest son of Sheikh Abdille, who hailed from the Ogaden sub-clan of the Darod major clan. His mother, Timiro Sade, also a Somali, belonged to the Dhulbahante clan, Hassans grandfather, Hasan Nur, in turn, left his home and moved closer to the Dhulbahante stronghold in north-eastern Somalia. There, he founded several centres and devoted himself to the worship of Allah. Following in the footsteps of Hasan Nur, Hassans father Abdille also led a religious life, Abdille married several Dhulbahante women by whom he had about 30 children, of which Hassan was the eldest. Hassans mother, Timiro Sade, came from the Ali Geri sublineage of the Dhulbahante clan, Hassan thus grew up among the Dhulbahante pastoralists, who were good herdsmen and warriors and who tended and used camels as well as horses. Young Hassans hero was his grandfather, Sade Magan, who was a great warrior chief. In addition to being a good horseman, by the age of eleven, Hassan had learned the entire Quran by heart, in 1875, Hassans grandfather died, which came as a shock. That same year, he worked as a Quranic teacher for two years, Hassan received education from as many as seventy-two Somali and Arab religious teachers. In 1891, upon returning home, he married an Ogadeni woman, three years later, along with two uncles and eleven other companions some of whom were his maternal kin, Hassan went to Mecca to perform the Hajj. The party stayed there for a year and a half and came under the influence of the newly-developing Saalihiya order under the leadership of the great Sudanese mystic. Hassan received initiation and very rigorous training under Salih. From this experience, Hassan emerged a changed man — spiritually transformed, shaken and over-awed, in 1895, Hassan returned to Berbera. The British considered Berbera merely Adens butchers shop, since they were interested in getting regular supplies of meat from Somalia through this port for their British India outpost of Aden. The British withdrew from this area of their territory in Somalia, in Berbera, Hassan could not succeed in spreading the teaching of the Saalihiya order due to the hostility of the local Qadiriyyah inhabitants. They did not like him criticising their eating khat, gorging on the fat of sheeps tail, in 1897, he left Berbera to be with his Dulbahante kinsmen
Mohammed Abdullah Hassan
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Statue of Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Mohammed Abdullah Hassan
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Somali Dervish soldiers engage their British counterparts at sea.
Mohammed Abdullah Hassan
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Mohammed Abdullah Hassan's fort in Taleex.
25.
Taleeh
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Taleh is a historical town in the eastern Xaysimo region of Somaliland. It served as the headquarters of the pre-independence Dervish State, Taleh is home to several historic forts and structures dating from the 1900s and earlier. Of these, there are five forts erected by Mohammed Abdullah Hassans former Dervish State in present-day Sool, constructed between 1910 and 1915, most of the edifices are concentrated in the Sanaag region, including Jida Ali, Midhisho, Shimbir Bariis and Badhan. Taleh/Taleex is the largest of the structures and it was built around a collection of Dervish tombs, the earliest of which belong to Sultan Nur Ahmed Aman and Carro Seed Magan, the Dervish leader Hassans mother. From 1910 to 1912, the Dervish constructed the fort around the older tombs. They spent the two years in the mountainous regions of Sanaag building three more smaller forts. In 1919–1920, the British bombarded the Sanaag forts, where most of the Dervish had operated since 1913, having destroyed the structures and driven out Hassans men to Taleh in 1920, they finally attacked the town, assisted by horsemen and Somali clan heads. The settlement was bombarded by the Royal Air Force on 4 February and taken days later, among the casualties at Taleh were Ibrahim Buqul and Haji Sudi. The former was the commander of the Dervish at Taleh, another Dervish leader, Aw Yusuf Bare, one of the chief commanders of the fort, was captured alive and later executed by former Dervish Abdi Dhere, who had defected to the opposition in 1919. Hassan himself managed to escape to the Ogaden, where his Dervishes were later routed in a 1921 raid led by the clan leader Haji Warabe. Although the term Taleh or Taleex is often used to describe the entire Dervish fort complex in the town, the latter complex includes Falat, Silsilad, Dar Ilaalo and Taleh. The broader Taleh District has a population of 28,354 residents. In 2012, Taleh was named the headquarters of Khatumo State, local control is disputed between Khatumo State and the autonomous Puntland and Somaliland regions of Somalia. Taleh has a number of academic institutions, according to the Puntland Ministry of Education, there are eight primary schools in the Taleh District. Among these are Kalad, Labas, Aroley and Halin, secondary schools in the area include Jeerin. Air transportation in Taleh is served by the Taleh Airport, the facility is named in honor of Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, leader of the Dervish State. Air travel to Taleh Airport was planned and organized by Khatumo State officials, on 4 December 2012, the airport hosted its inaugural flight from Mogadishu, the national capital
Taleeh
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Mohammed Abdullah Hassan 's fort in Taleh.
Taleeh
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Overview of Hassan's fort
26.
Somaliland Campaign
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The British were assisted in their offensives by the Ethiopians and Italians. During the First World War, Hassan also received aid from the Ottomans, Germans and, for a time, the conflict ended when the British aerially bombed the Dervish capital of Taleh in February 1920. In the colonial period, the Somali-inhabited territories in the Horn of Africa were collectively referred to as Somaliland, although nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, Yemen and the sahil came progressively under the control of Muhammad Ali, ruler of Egypt, between 1821 and 1841. After the Egyptians withdrew from the Yemeni seaboard in 1841, Haj Ali Shermerki, shermerkis governorship had an instant effect on the city, as he manoeuvred to monopolize as much of the regional trade as possible, with his sights set as far as Harar and the Ogaden. Shermerki was later succeeded as Governor of Zeila by Abu Bakr Pasha, in 1874–75, the Egyptians obtained a firman from the Ottomans by which they secured claims over the city. At the same time, the Egyptians received British recognition of their jurisdiction as far east as Cape Guardafui. In actuality, however, Egypt had little authority over the interior and their period of rule on the coast was brief, among the Somali signatories were the Gadabuursi, Habar Awal, and Warsangali. By the end of 1885, the two powers were on the brink of armed confrontation, but opted instead to turn negotiations and they later signed a convention on 1 February 1888 defining the border between French Somaliland and British Somaliland. In April, Yusufs uncle and rival, Boqor Osman, requested a protectorate from the Italians and was granted it. In signing the agreements, the rulers also hoped to exploit the rival objectives of the European imperial powers so as to more effectively assure the independence of their territories. The terms of each treaty specified that Italy was to clear of any interference in the sultanates respective administrations. In return for Italian arms and a subsidy, the Sultans conceded to a minimum of oversight. The Italians also agreed to dispatch a few ambassadors to both the sultanates and their own interests. The new protectorates were thereafter managed by Vincenzo Filonardi through a chartered company, the first offensive campaign was led by Hassan against Ethiopian encampment at Jijiga in March 1900. Hassan seized control of the Ogaden but did not attack Harar, instead, he raided the non-Dervish Qadariyyah clans for their camels and arms. In 1901, the British joined with the Ethiopians and attacked the Dervishes with a force 17,000 strong, Hassan was driven across the border into the Majeerteen Sultanate, which had been incorporated into the Italian protectorate. The Ethiopians failed to get a hold on the western Ogaden, in this campaign, borders were ignored by both British and Somali. The British became convinced of their need of Italian assistance, in 1903, the Italian Foreign Ministry permitted the British to land forces at Hobyo
Somaliland Campaign
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Aerial bombardment of Dervish forts in Taleh
Somaliland Campaign
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One of the forts of the Majeerteen Sultanate in Hafun
Somaliland Campaign
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Cavalry and fort belonging to the Sultanate of Hobyo
Somaliland Campaign
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British camel troopers in 1913, between Berbera and Odweyne in British Somaliland.
27.
Bombing of Naco
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The Bombing of Naco was an international incident which occurred in the border town of Naco, Arizona, during the 1929 Escobar Rebellion. The bombing, although unintentional, is noted for being the first aerial bombardment of the contiguous United States by a power in history. From there, General Escobar intended to carry the war south and ultimately oust Emilio Portes Gil, the battle for Naco began early the next year, on the night of March 31,1929. The rebels later claimed that they waited until 8,00 PM to attack, to start the attack, the rebels loaded a train car full of explosives and sent it down the tracks toward the center of town. Unfortunately for the rebels, their plan failed when the car derailed and exploded before reaching its intended target. After their failure with the car, the rebels sought outside help from the United States. Other pilots were hired as well, and the Federales found a pilot of their own named Jon Gorre, an Arizona citizen named Charlie Elledge saw much of the fighting in Naco, Sonora, while working to repair the roof of the immigration building along the border. Some brought their children and picnic baskets with lunch and others climbed on top of train cars sitting idle along the border for a view of the action. The men gambled with each other on where the bombs would fall, the bombs were then stuffed in suitcases that could be attached to the side of the plane and opened during flight to deliver the payload. Other improvised bombs were made the same way using five-gallon gasoline cans, among the casualties were a reporter and a photographer, along with many others, but nobody was killed and all of the injuries were considered minor. After realizing the danger of watching the battle from such a distance away. The first bomb to actually hit Arizona soil landed at 7,45 AM on April 2, murphys bombing runs smashed windows and otherwise damaged several buildings on the American side of the border, including a garage, the Phelps-Dodge Mercantile and the Haas Pharmacy. One bomb also struck the post office building, making it a federal offense, other bombs left large craters in the dirt streets and other unpaved surfaces. Murphys bombs were responsible for at least a few deaths on the Mexican side of the border, the Americans suffered more casualties over the following days as bombs landed on their side, but none of the injuries were life-threatening. The final bombardment took place on April 6, when the rebels launched their attack to take control of the city. Murphy was shot down by Mexican soldiers the following day, but he managed to escape and get across the border and he was released for unspecified reasons after only a couple nights in jail. After being repulsed in their attack, the rebels retreated to Cananea by way of Agua Prieta. The United States Army was slow in responding to the situation, having closed all military posts in Arizona the same year, with the exception of Fort Huachuca
Bombing of Naco
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A Dodge touring car destroyed by Patrick Murphy in the bombing of Naco.
28.
Cristero War
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The rebellion was set off by enactment under President Plutarco Elías Calles of a statute to enforce the anticlerical articles of the Mexican Constitution of 1917. Calles sought to eliminate the power of the Catholic Church and organizations affiliated with it as an institution, the massive, popular rural uprising was tacitly supported by the Church hierarchy and was aided by urban Catholic support. US Ambassador Dwight W. Morrow brokered negotiations between the Calles government and the Church, the government made some concessions, the Church withdrew its support for the Cristero fighters and the conflict ended in 1929. The Mexican Revolution remains the largest conflict in Mexican history, the overthrow of dictator Porfirio Díaz unleashed disorder, with many contending factions and regions. Having a change of leadership or a wholesale overturning of the order was potentially a danger to the Churchs position. In the democratizing wave of activity, the National Catholic Party was formed. Francisco Madero was overthrown and assassinated in a February 1913 military coup led by Gen, the Constitutionalist faction won the revolution and its leader, Venustiano Carranza, had a new revolutionary constitution drawn up. The Constitution of 1917 strengthened the anticlericalism of the previous document, neither President Carranza nor his successor, Gen. Alvaro Obregón, enforced the anticlerical articles. The Calles administration felt its revolutionary initiatives and legal basis to pursue them were being challenged by the Catholic Church, on the opposing side was an armed professional military sponsored by the government. Calles’ Mexico has been characterized as an atheist state, and his program as being one to religion in Mexico. A period of resistance to the enforcement of the anticlerical provisions of the constitution by Mexican Catholics brought no result. Skirmishing broke out in 1926, and violent uprisings began in 1927, the rebels called themselves Cristeros, invoking the name of Jesus Christ under the title of Cristo Rey or Christ the King. The rebellion eventually ended by diplomatic means brokered by the U. S. Ambassador to Mexico Dwight Whitney Morrow, with financial relief, the rebellion attracted the attention of Pope Pius XI, who issued a series of papal encyclicals between 1925–37. On December 11,1925, the pontiff issued Quas primas, on November 18,1926, he issued Iniquis afflictisque, denouncing the violent anti-clerical persecution in Mexico. Despite the governments promises to the contrary, it continued the persecution of the Church, in response, Pius issued Acerba animi on September 29,1932. The Political Constitution of the United Mexican States was drafted by the Constitutional Congress convoked by Venustiano Carranza in September 1916, the new constitution was based in the previous one instituted by Benito Juárez in 1857. Three of its 136 articles—Article 3, Article 27 and Article 130—contain heavily secularizing sections, restricting the power, the first two sections of article 3 state, I. According to the liberties established under article 24, educational services shall be secular and, therefore
Cristero War
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Mexican government forces publicly hanged Cristeros on main thoroughfares throughout Mexico, including in the Pacific states of Colima and Jalisco, where bodies would often remain hanging for extended lengths of time.
Cristero War
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Peaceful protesters standing against President Plutarco Calles' law forbidding public religious practices.
Cristero War
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A vintage photo of officers and family members from the Cristeros Castañon fighting regiment.
Cristero War
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Armed Cristeros congregating in the streets of Mexico
29.
Naco, Arizona
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Naco, a Census-Designated Place located in Cochise County, Arizona, United States had a recorded population of 1,046 during the 2010 census. Its located directly across the United States–Mexico border from its sister city Naco, the Naco port of entry is open 24 hours per day. The present-day unincorporated town of Naco, Arizona, was established in the early 20th century, the area was originally settled by the Nahua and Opata Indians. Naco means nopal cactus in the Opata language, the U. S. Congress officially established Naco as a Port of Entry on June 28,1902. Naco is located at 31°20′14″N 109°56′40″W, according to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 3.4 square miles, all of it land. Naco is home to Turquoise Valley, the oldest continuously operated course in Arizona—the first to reach 100 continuous years of age. As of the U. S.2010 census, there were 1046 people,334 households, the population density was 307.6 people per square mile. The racial makeup of the CDP was 62. 8% White,0. 67% Native American,33. 7% from other races,83. 9% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 334 households out of which 146 had children under the age of 18 living with them, the population of Naco, by 2010 census estimates, is 48. 7% male,51. 3% female. According to the 2000 census, the income for a household in the CDP was $22,045. Males had an income of $21,923 versus $15,882 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $9,169, about 33. 0% of families and 34. 2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 46. 1% of those under age 18 and 25. 4% of those age 65 or over. The Naco-Mammoth Kill Site is located near Naco, excavations from this archeological site in the 1950s revealed mammoth bones with embedded Clovis points, providing evidence of the hunting activities of Paleo-Indians some 13,000 years ago. Fort Naco is a military post on the outskirts of Naco. Subsequent to Pancho Villas raid on Columbus, New Mexico, in 1916 and it was the headquarters of the 1st Infantry Regiment of the Arizona National Guard. Bombing of Naco – the first ever aerial bombardment of the contiguous United States by a foreign power Naco history and prehistory, by National Park Service
Naco, Arizona
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US Customhouse at Naco, Arizona
Naco, Arizona
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Fort Naco, located on the outskirts of Naco, Arizona
30.
Naco, Sonora
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Naco is a Mexican town in Naco Municipality located in the northeast part of Sonora state on the border with the United States. It is directly across from the town of Naco, Arizona. The name Naco comes from the Opata language and means nopal cactus, the town saw fighting during the Mexican Revolution and during a rebellion led by General José Gonzalo Escobar in 1929. During the second conflict, an American pilot by the name of Patrick Murphy volunteered to bomb federal forces for the rebels, today, the town has been strongly affected by the smuggling of drugs, people and weapons across the international border. Before the arrival of Europeans, the area was dominated by the Opata peoples, Naco, Sonora, along with Naco, Arizona, came into being in 1897 as a border crossing to connect copper mines on both sides. Naco, Sonora, was founded in 1900 with the construction of the Naco-Cananea rail line. Until 1901, the area was part of the municipality of Fronteras and it became an independent municipality in 1937. There was a major strike in Naco in 1906, which is seen as a precursor to the Mexican Revolution in 1910. The instability from this strike resulted in troops on both sides of the border facing each other, during the Mexican Revolution, the town would change hands various times. At stake was the revenue from the house and when Arizona voted itself dry in 1915. One of the major battles occurred in 1913, General Ojeda, who was in command of Mexican federal troops in Sonora, moved this force of Yaquis and regular army soldiers from Agua Prieta to Naco as rebel forces closed in on 12 March. Ojeda fought against the rebels from his Naco base for a number of days before the Yaquis decided to cross the border into the U. S. and surrender. Ojeda continued to fight with the men he had left but eventually the rebels overran Naco on 13 April, with Ojeda, a more important confrontation took place here called the Siege of Naco. The siege was the longest sustained battle of the Mexican Revolution lasting 119 days from 1914 to 1915, the conflict directly or indirectly involved or affected all of the major players of the Revolution and affected the final outcome of the conflict. The battle was fought between forces loyal to Francisco Villa and forces loyal to the Constitutionalist faction of Venustiano Carranza, maytorena’s forces attacked Calles’ forces in Nogales and forced them to retreat to Naco. Here the Constitutionalists dug in and Maytorena began a siege, trying to overrun Naco’s defenses for nearly four months, the protracted conflict claimed heavy losses on both side and property damage to Naco, Arizona, prompting fears of US citizens violating federal neutrality laws. Extra troops were sent to nearby Fort Huachuca to protect U. S. interests and this resulted in several cavalry soldiers being wounded by stray bullets. U. S. Army Chief of Staff Hugh L. Scott was sent to broker a truce, during the 1920s, with the Arizona side remaining dry due to Prohibition, Naco made money off of saloons and gambling, giving it a seedy reputation
Naco, Sonora
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Border crossing at Naco
Naco, Sonora
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Coat of arms
Naco, Sonora
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One main drag near the border crossing
31.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
Italy
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The Colosseum in Rome, built c. 70 – 80 AD, is considered one of the greatest works of architecture and engineering of ancient history.
Italy
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Flag
Italy
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The Iron Crown of Lombardy, for centuries symbol of the Kings of Italy.
Italy
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Castel del Monte, built by German Emperor Frederick II, UNESCO World Heritage site
32.
Ethiopia
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Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north and northeast, Djibouti and Somalia to the east, Sudan and South Sudan to the west, and Kenya to the south. With nearly 100 million inhabitants, Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked country in the world and it occupies a total area of 1,100,000 square kilometres, and its capital and largest city is Addis Ababa. Some of the oldest evidence for modern humans has been found in Ethiopia. It is widely considered as the region from modern humans first set out for the Middle East. According to linguists, the first Afroasiatic-speaking populations settled in the Horn region during the ensuing Neolithic era, tracing its roots to the 2nd millennium BC, Ethiopia was a monarchy for most of its history. During the first centuries AD, the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilization in the region, subsequently, many African nations adopted the colors of Ethiopias flag following their independence. It was the first independent African member of the 20th-century League of Nations, Ethiopias ancient Geez script, also known as Ethiopic, is one of the oldest alphabets still in use in the world. The Ethiopian calendar, which is seven years and three months behind the Gregorian calendar, co-exists alongside the Borana calendar. A slight majority of the population adheres to Christianity, while around a third follows Islam, the country is the site of the Migration to Abyssinia and the oldest Muslim settlement in Africa at Negash. A substantial population of Ethiopian Jews, known as Bete Israel, resided in Ethiopia until the 1980s, Ethiopia is a multilingual nation with around 80 ethnolinguistic groups, the four largest of which are the Oromiffa, Amhara, Somali, and Tigrayans. Most people in the country speak Afroasiatic languages of the Cushitic or Semitic branches, additionally, Omotic languages are spoken by ethnic minority groups inhabiting the southern regions. Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken by the nations Nilotic ethnic minorities. Ethiopia is the place of origin for the coffee bean which originated from the place called Kefa and it is a land of natural contrasts, with its vast fertile West, jungles, and numerous rivers, and the worlds hottest settlement of Dallol in its north. The Ethiopian Highlands are Africas largest continuous mountain ranges, and Sof Omar Caves contain Africas largest cave, Ethiopia has the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Africa. Ethiopia is one of the members of the UN, the Group of 24, the Non-Aligned Movement, G-77. In the 1970s and 1980s, Ethiopia suffered from civil wars, the country has begun to recover recently however, and now has the largest economy in East Africa and Central Africa. According to Global Fire Power, Ethiopia has the 42nd most powerful military in the world, the origin of the word Ethiopia is uncertain
Ethiopia
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Coins of the Axumite king Endybis, 227–235 AD, at the British Museum. The inscriptions in Ancient Greek read "AΧWMITW BACIΛEYC" ("King of Axum") and "ΕΝΔΥΒΙC ΒΑCΙΛΕΥC" ("King Endybis").
Ethiopia
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Flag
Ethiopia
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Dawit II (Lebna Dengel), Ethiopia (nəgusä nägäst) (Emperor) of Ethiopia and a member of the Solomonic dynasty.
Ethiopia
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King Fasilides' Castle.
33.
Regia Aeronautica
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The Italian Royal Air Force was the name of the air force of the Kingdom of Italy. It was established as an independent of the Royal Italian Army from 1923 until 1946. In 1946, the monarchy was abolished and the Kingdom of Italy became the Italian Republic, during World War I, the Italian Corpo Aeronautico Militare, then still part of the Regio Esercito, operated a mix of French fighters and locally-built bombers, notably the gigantic Caproni aircraft. The Regia Marina had its own air arm, operating locally-built flying boats, the Italian air force became an independent service—the Regia Aeronautica—on March 28,1923. This pioneering achievement was organized and led by General of Aviation Italo Balbo, during the latter half of the 1930s, the Regia Aeronautica participated in the Spanish Civil War, as well as the invasions of Ethiopia and Albania. The first test for the new Italian Royal Air force came in October 1935, during the final stages of the war, Regia Aeronautica deployed up to 386 aircraft, operating from Eritrea and Somalia. The Italian aviators did not have any opposition in the air, as the Imperial Ethiopian Air Force had just 15 transport and liaison aircraft, only nine of which were serviceable. However the Regia Aeronautica lost 72 planes and 122 aircrew members while supporting the operations of the Regio Esercito, and after the end of hostilities, on 5 May 1936, for the following 13 months the Regia Aeronautica had to assist Italian forces in fighting Ethiopian guerrillas. During the Spanish Civil War Italian pilots fought alongside Spanish Nationalist and this deployment took place from July 1936 to March 1939 and complimented an expeditionary force of Italian ground troops titled Corps of Volunteer Troops. In Spain, the Italian pilots were under command of the Spanish Nationalists and took part in training. The Aviazione legionaria achieved approximately 500 air victories, losing 86 aircraft in air combat, the Regia Aeronautica played a limited role during the Italian invasion of Albania. When World War II began in 1939, Italy had the smallest air force among the three major Axis powers, with a paper strength of 3,296 machines, only 2,000 were fit for operations, of which just 166 were modern fighters. The Macchi MC.200 and Fiat G.50 were the best available but were slower than potential Allied fighters. While numerically still a force to be reckoned with, it was hampered by the aircraft industry which was using obsolete production methods. Technical assistance provided by its German ally did little to improve the situation, on 10 June 1940, during the closing days of the Battle of France, Italy declared war on France and the United Kingdom. On 13 June, Fiat CR. 42s attacked French air bases, two days later, CR. 42s from 3° Stormo and 53° Stormo attacked again French Air Force bases and clashed with Dewoitine D. 520s and Bloch MB. 152s, claiming eight kills for five losses. The Regia Aeronautica carried out 716 bombing missions in support of the Italian invasion of France by the Regio Esercito, Italian aircraft dropped a total of 276 tons of bombs. Only about 80 long tons of bombs were dropped on the targets, during this short war, Regia Aeronautica lost 10 aircraft in aerial combat and 24 aircrew personnel, while claiming 10 kills and 40 French planes destroyed on the ground
Regia Aeronautica
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A Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 during a bombing raid in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). The black crosses on the tails are Saint Andrew's Cross, the insignia of the Spanish Nationalist Air Force (Franco side). The smaller planes are FIAT CR.32 of the Italian XVI Gruppo Autonomo Cucaracha.
Regia Aeronautica
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Insignia applied with a decal on the tail of the Règia Aeronautica aircraft (reconstruction).
Regia Aeronautica
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Destruction of Muslim graveyard and the Istiklal Mosque by Italian bombers during the bombing of Haifa, September 1940.
Regia Aeronautica
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An early Macchi C.202 (note lack of radio mast) of 81ª Squadriglia, 6° Gruppo, 1° Stormo CT; this photo appears to have been taken in Libya.
34.
Barcelona
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Founded as a Roman city, in the Middle Ages Barcelona became the capital of the County of Barcelona. Barcelona has a cultural heritage and is today an important cultural centre. Particularly renowned are the works of Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The headquarters of the Union for the Mediterranean is located in Barcelona, the city is known for hosting the 1992 Summer Olympics as well as world-class conferences and expositions and also many international sport tournaments. It is a cultural and economic centre in southwestern Europe, 24th in the world. In 2008 it was the fourth most economically powerful city by GDP in the European Union, in 2012 Barcelona had a GDP of $170 billion, it is leading Spain in both employment rate and GDP per capita change. In 2009 the city was ranked Europes third and one of the worlds most successful as a city brand, since 2011 Barcelona has been a leading smart city in Europe. During the Middle Ages, the city was known as Barchinona, Barçalona, Barchelonaa. Internationally, Barcelonas name is abbreviated to Barça. However, this refers only to FC Barcelona, the football club. The common abbreviated form used by locals is Barna, another common abbreviation is BCN, which is also the IATA airport code of the Barcelona-El Prat Airport. The city is referred to as the Ciutat Comtal in Catalan. The origin of the earliest settlement at the site of present-day Barcelona is unclear, the ruins of an early settlement have been excavated in the El Raval neighbourhood, including different tombs and dwellings dating to earlier than 5000 BC. The founding of Barcelona is the subject of two different legends, the first attributes the founding of the city to the mythological Hercules. In about 15 BC, the Romans redrew the town as a castrum centred on the Mons Taber, under the Romans, it was a colony with the surname of Faventia, or, in full, Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino or Colonia Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino. It enjoyed immunity from imperial burdens, the city minted its own coins, some from the era of Galba survive. Some remaining fragments of the Roman walls have incorporated into the cathedral. The cathedral, also known as the Basilica La Seu, is said to have founded in 343
Barcelona
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Central business district, Sagrada Família, Camp Nou stadium, The Castle of the Three Dragons, Palau Nacional, W Barcelona hotel and beach
Barcelona
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A marble plaque in the Museu d'Història de la Ciutat de Barcelona, dated from around 110-130 AD and dedicated to the Roman colony of Barcino
Barcelona
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Basilica of La Mercè (Mare de Déu de la Mercè)
Barcelona
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Barcelona in 1563
35.
Valencia (city in Spain)
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Its urban area extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of around 1. 5–1.6 million people. Valencia is Spains third largest metropolitan area, with a population ranging from 1.7 to 2.5 million, the Port of Valencia is the 5th busiest container port in Europe and the busiest container port on the Mediterranean Sea. The city is ranked at Gamma in the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, Valencia was founded as a Roman colony by the consul Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus in 138 BC, and called Valentia Edetanorum. In 1238 the Christian king James I of Aragon reconquered the city and divided the land among the nobles who helped him conquer it and he also created a new law for the city, the Furs of Valencia, which were extended to the rest of the Kingdom of Valencia. In the 18th century Philip V of Spain abolished the privileges as punishment to the kingdom of Valencia for aligning with the Habsburg side in the War of the Spanish Succession, Valencia was the capital of Spain when Joseph Bonaparte moved the Court there in the summer of 1812. It also served as capital between 1936 and 1937, during the Second Spanish Republic, the city is situated on the banks of the Turia, on the east coast of the Iberian Peninsula, fronting the Gulf of Valencia on the Mediterranean Sea. Valencia is integrated into an area on the Costa del Azahar. Valencias main festival is the Falles, the traditional Spanish dish, paella, originated in Valencia. The original Latin name of the city was Valentia, meaning strength, or valour, the Roman historian Livy explains that the founding of Valentia in the 2nd century BC was due to the settling of the Roman soldiers who fought against an Iberian rebel, Viriatus. It is not clear if the term Balansiyya was reserved for the entire Taifa of Valencia or also designated the city, by gradual sound changes, Valentia /waˈlentia/ has become Valencia or in Castilian and València in Valencian. In Valencian, the grave accent <è> /ɛ/ contrasts with the acute accent <é> /e/—but the word València is an exception to this rule and it is spelled according to Catalan etymology, though its pronunciation is closer to Vulgar Latin. Valencia stands on the banks of the Turia River, located on the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, at its founding by the Romans, it stood on a river island in the Turia,6.4 km from the sea. The Albufera, a lagoon and estuary about 11 km south of the city, is one of the largest lakes in Spain. The City Council bought the lake from the Crown of Spain for 1,072,980 pesetas in 1911, in 1986, because of its cultural, historical, and ecological value, the Generalitat Valenciana declared it a natural park. Valencia has a Mediterranean climate with short, very mild winters and long, hot and its average annual temperature is 18.4 °C.23.0 °C during the day and 13.8 °C at night. In the coldest month – January, the temperature typically during the day ranges from 14 to 21 °C. In the warmest month – August, the temperature during the day typically ranges from 28–34 °C. Generally, similar temperatures to those experienced in the part of Europe in summer last about 8 months
Valencia (city in Spain)
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Clockwise from top: City of Arts and Sciences, modernist buildings in Town Hall Square, La Lonja, Queen Square with a view of the Cathedral and its tower the Miguelete, Business Offices in France Avenue, the America's Cup port and the Malvarrosa beach.
Valencia (city in Spain)
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Commercial zone
Valencia (city in Spain)
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Port of Valencia
Valencia (city in Spain)
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The North station (Estació del Nord)
36.
Benito Mussolini
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Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician, journalist, and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country as Prime Minister from 1922 to 1943. He ruled constitutionally until 1925, when he dropped all pretense of democracy, known as Il Duce, Mussolini was the founder of Italian Fascism. In 1912 Mussolini was the member of the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party. Mussolini was expelled from the PSI for withdrawing his support for the stance on neutrality in World War I. He served in the Royal Italian Army during the war until he was wounded and discharged in 1917, Mussolini denounced the PSI, his views now centering on nationalism instead of socialism, and later founded the fascist movement. Following the March on Rome in October 1922 he became the youngest Prime Minister in Italian history until the appointment of Matteo Renzi in February 2014, within five years he had established dictatorial authority by both legal and extraordinary means, aspiring to create a totalitarian state. Mussolini remained in power until he was deposed by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1943, a few months later, he became the leader of the Italian Social Republic, a German client regime in northern Italy, he held this post until his death in 1945. Mussolini had sought to delay a major war in Europe until at least 1942, however, Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, resulting in declarations of war by France and the United Kingdom and starting World War II. In the summer of 1941 Mussolini sent Italian forces to participate in the invasion of the Soviet Union, and war with the United States followed in December. On 24 July 1943, soon after the start of the Allied invasion of Italy, the Grand Council of Fascism voted against him, on 12 September 1943, Mussolini was rescued from prison in the Gran Sasso raid by German special forces. In late April 1945, with total defeat looming, Mussolini attempted to escape north and his body was then taken to Milan, where it was hung upside down at a service station for public viewing and to provide confirmation of his demise. Mussolini was born in Dovia di Predappio, a town in the province of Forlì in Romagna on 29 July 1883. During the Fascist era, Predappio was dubbed Duces town, pilgrims went to Predappio and Forlì, to see the birthplace of Mussolini. His father, Alessandro Mussolini, was a blacksmith and a Socialist, while his mother, Benito was the eldest of his parents three children. His siblings Arnaldo and Edvige followed, as a young boy, Mussolini would spend some time helping his father in his smithy. His fathers political outlook combined views of anarchist figures like Carlo Cafiero and Mikhail Bakunin, the military authoritarianism of Garibaldi, in 1902, at the anniversary of Garibaldis death, Benito Mussolini made a public speech in praise of the republican nationalist. The conflict between his parents about religion meant that, unlike most Italians, Mussolini was not baptized at birth, as a compromise with his mother, Mussolini was sent to a boarding school run by Salesian monks. After joining a new school, Mussolini achieved good grades, in 1902, Mussolini emigrated to Switzerland, partly to avoid military service
Benito Mussolini
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Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
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Birthplace of Benito Mussolini in Predappio, now used as a museum
Benito Mussolini
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Mussolini's father, Alessandro
Benito Mussolini
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Mussolini's mother, Rosa
37.
General Franco
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Francisco Franco Bahamonde was a Spanish general who ruled over Spain as a military dictator for 36 years from 1939 until his death. As a conservative and a monarchist, he opposed the abolition of the monarchy, with the 1936 elections, the conservative Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Groups lost by a narrow margin and the leftist Popular Front came to power. Intending to overthrow the republic, Franco followed other generals in attempting a coup that precipitated the Spanish Civil War. With the death of the generals, Franco quickly became his factions only leader. Leaving half a million dead, the war was won by Franco in 1939. He established a dictatorship, which he defined as a totalitarian state. Franco proclaimed himself Head of State and Government under the title El Caudillo, under Franco, Spain became a one-party state, as the various conservative and royalist factions were merged into the fascist party and other political parties were outlawed. Although Francos Spain maintained a policy of neutrality during World War II. Francos regime has been called a fascist one, Spain was isolated by the international community for nearly a decade after World War II. By the 1950s, the nature of his regime changed from being openly totalitarian, by the 1960s Spain saw incremental reforms and progressive economic development. After a 36-year rule, Franco died in 1975 and he restored the monarchy before his death, which made King Juan Carlos I his successor, who led the Spanish transition to democracy. After a referendum, a new constitution was adopted, which transformed Spain into a democracy under a constitutional monarchy. Franco was born at half past noon on December 4,1892, at 108 Calle Frutos Saavedra in Ferrol and his father was of Andalusian ancestry. His mother was María del Pilar Bahamonde y Pardo de Andrade, Francisco was to follow his father into the Navy, but as a result of the Spanish–American War the country lost much of its navy as well as most of its colonies. Not needing any more officers, the Naval Academy admitted no new entrants from 1906 to 1913, to his fathers chagrin, Francisco decided to try the Spanish Army. In 1907, he entered the Infantry Academy in Toledo, graduating in 1910 as a lieutenant, two years later, he obtained a commission to Morocco. Spanish efforts to occupy their new African protectorate provoked the protracted Rif War with native Moroccans and their tactics resulted in heavy losses among Spanish military officers, and also provided an opportunity to earn promotion through merit. It was said that officers would receive either la caja o la faja, Franco quickly gained a reputation as a good officer
General Franco
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Franco in 1923
General Franco
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Generalissimo Francisco Franco
General Franco
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Franco in Reus, 1940
General Franco
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Front row in order from left to right: Karl Wolff, Heinrich Himmler, Franco and Spain's Foreign Minister Serrano Súñer in Madrid, October 1940
38.
Catalan people
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The Catalans are a Romance ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia, who form a nationality in northern Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are included in this definition, also, Catalan is sometimes used to define people from the so-called Catalan Countries, expression used to include other areas where the Catalan is spoken. The aforementioned territories are often designated Països Catalans, Catalan Countries, the area that now is known primarily as Catalonia was, as the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, invaded in 1500 BCE by Proto-Celtic Urnfield people who brought the rite of burning the dead. These Indo-European people were absorbed by the Iberians beginning in 600 BCE in a process that would not be complete until the fourth century BCE. These groups came under the rule of various invading groups starting with the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, following the Punic Wars, the Romans replaced the Carthaginians as the dominant power in the Iberian eastern coast, including parts of Catalonia, by 206 BCE. Rome established Latin as the language and imparted a distinctly Roman culture upon the local population. An early precursor to the Catalan language began to develop from a form of popular Latin before. Various Germanic tribes arrived following nearly six centuries of Roman rule, the Visigoths established themselves in the fifth century and would rule the area until 718 when Muslim Arabs and Berbers conquered the region and held it for close to a century. The Franks held back small Muslim raiding parties, which had penetrated virtually unchallenged as far as central France, larger wars with the Muslims began with the Spanish March which led to the beginnings of the Reconquista by Catalan forces over most of Catalonia by the year 801. Barcelona became an important center for Christian forces in the Iberian Peninsula, Catalonia emerged from the conflicts in Muslim Spain as a regional power, as Christian rulers entrenched themselves in the region during the Carolingian period. Rulers such as Wilfred the Hairy became masters of a territory encompassing Catalonia. The Crown of Aragón included Catalonia, Aragón, Valencia, some sporadic regional unrest led to conflicts such as the Revolt of the Germanies in Valencia and Majorca, and the 1640 revolt in Catalonia known as the Reapers War. This latter conflict embroiled Spain in a war with France as many Catalan nobles allied themselves with Louis XIII. The Catalan government took sides with the Habsburg pretender against the Bourbon one during the War of the Spanish Succession that started in 1705 and ended in 1714. The Catalan failure to defend the perpetuation of Habsburg dynasty in Spain culminated in the surrender of Barcelona on 11 September 1714, which came to be commemorated as Catalonias national day. During the Napoleonic Wars, much of Catalonia was seized by French forces by 1808, in France, strong assimilationist policies integrated many Catalans into French society, while in Spain a Catalan identity was increasingly suppressed in favor of a national identity. The Catalans regained autonomy during the Spanish Second Republic from 1932 until Francisco Francos nationalist forces retook Catalonia by 1939. It was not until 1975 and the death of Franco that the Catalans as well as other Spaniards began to regain their right to cultural expression, which was restarted by the Spanish Constitution of 1978
Catalan people
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Battle of the Puig by Andreu Marçal de Sax depicting the Christian victory with the aid of Saint George.
Catalan people
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After the Catalan defeat during the War of Spanish Succession, Philip V of Spain ordered to publicly burn all the Catalan flags and banners.
Catalan people
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The castells, human towers, are part of the Catalan culture since 1712 and were declared by UNESCO to be amongst the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Catalan people
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Catalan children wearing the traditional outfit, including the barretina.
39.
Bombing of Chongqing
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A total of 268 air raids were conducted against Chongqing, with more than 11,500, mainly incendiary, bombs dropped. The targets were usually residential areas, business areas, schools, hospitals and these bombings were probably aimed at cowing the Chinese government, or as part of the planned Sichuan invasion. In the first two days of the campaign, the raids of May 1939 killed more than five thousand Chinese civilians, on 5 June 1941, the Japanese flew more than 20 sorties, bombing the city for three hours. About 4,000 residents who hid in a tunnel were asphyxiated, the majority of the air raids conducted against Chongqing were made with squadrons of medium-heavy bombers composed of Mitsubishi G3Ms, known as Nells, Ki-21s Sallys, Fiat BR. The introduction of the Zero-sen fighter plane in 1940, the most advanced fighter aircraft at the time. The last recorded air raid of the campaign took place on 19 December 1944, three-thousand tons of bombs were dropped on the city between 1939 and 1942. A total of 268 air raids were conducted against Chongqing, in March 2006,40 Chinese who were wounded or lost family members during the bombings sued the Japanese government demanding 10,000,000 yen each and asked for apologies. By filing a lawsuit, we want the Japanese people to know about Chongqing bombings, memorial site Bombing of Chongqing, Nippon News, No.2. in the official website of NHK
Bombing of Chongqing
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The city after bombing
Bombing of Chongqing
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Casualties of a mass-panic during a Japanese air raid in Chongqing in 1941. Photo by Carl Mydans.
Bombing of Chongqing
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Volunteer army leaving Chongqing
40.
Mukden
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Shenyangs city region includes the ten metropolitan districts of Shenyang proper, the county-level city of Xinmin, and two counties of Kangping and Faku. In the 17th century, Shenyang was conquered by the Manchu people, along with its nearby cities, Shenyang is an important industrial center in China, and serves as the transportation and commercial hub of Chinas northeast — particularly with Japan, Russia and Korea. A center of industry in China since the 1930s, and the spearhead of the Chinese central governments Northeast Area Revitalization Plan. The citys name, Shenyang, literally means the Yang side of the Shen River, referring to the fact that the Hun River, according to Chinese tradition, a rivers north bank and a mountains south slope are considered to be the sunny – or Yang – side. Archaeological findings show that humans resided in present-day Shenyang as early as 8,000 years ago, the remains of the Xinle culture, a late neolithic period society over 6, 800–7,200 years old, are located in a museum in the north part of Huanggu District. It is complemented by a village on site. A wood-sculptured bird unearthed there is the earliest cultural relic in Shenyang, the city now known as Shenyang was first established in about 300 BCE during the Warring States period by Yan general Qin Kai, who conquered the Liaodong region, and was then named Hou City. However, around 350 years later during the reign of Emperor Guangwu of Han and it came back to prominence during early Liao dynasty and was known as the Shen Prefecture through to the end of Jin dynasty, and became the Shenyang Circuit during the Yuan dynasty. During the Ming dynasty, it was designated as a town named Shenyang Central Guard. In 1625, the Manchu leader Nurhaci captured Shenyang and decided to relocate his entire administrative infrastructures to the city, the official name was changed to Shengjing, or Mukden, in 1634. The new name derives from the Manchu word, mukdembi, meaning to rise as reflected also by its Han Chinese name, under Nurhacis orders, the Imperial Palace was constructed in 1626, symbolizing the citys emerging status as the Jurchen political center. The palace featured more than 300 ostentatiously decorated rooms and 20 gardens as a symbol of power, however, Shenyang retained considerable importance as the secondary capital and the spiritual home of the Qing dynasty through the centuries. Treasures of the house were kept at its palaces. In 1657, Fengtian Prefecture was established in the Shenyang area, during the Russo-Japanese War, Mukden was the site of the Battle of Mukden from February 19 to March 10,1905. Involving more than 600,000 combat participants, it was the largest battle since the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, following the Japanese victory, Mukden became one of the chief bases of Japanese presence and economic expansion into southern Manchuria. It also became the government seat of Fengtian province in 1910, in 1914, the city changed back to its old name Shenyang, but continued to be known as Mukden in some English sources and in Japan through much of the first half of 20th century. The postmark of the Chinese postal administration kept the spelling MOUKDEN/奉天 for usage on international mails until the late 1920s, after that, a Chinese–Manchurian bilingual type SHENYANG /瀋陽 datestamp was used until 1933. In the early 20th century, Shenyang began expanding out of its old city walls, the Shenyang Railway Station on the South Manchurian Railway and the Shenyang North Railway Station on the Jingfeng Railway, both west of the old city, became the new commercial centers of Shenyang
Mukden
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Clockwise from top: Sanhao Bridge, Liaoning Broadcast and TV Tower, Downtown Shenyang, Sacred Heart Cathedral of Shenyang, Shenyang Imperial Palace.
Mukden
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Xinle Civilization
Mukden
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Japanese troops entering Shenyang during Mukden Incident
Mukden
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People's Liberation Army and Type 97 Chi-Ha tanks advance into Shenyang.
41.
Imperial Japanese Army Air Service
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The Imperial Japanese Army Air Service (often called the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force, was the land-based aviation force of the Imperial Japanese Army. The IJAAS also provided important reconnaissance support for the Army, however, the Army Air Service usually did not control the light aircraft or balloons deployed and operated by the IJA artillery battalions as spotters or observers. The Imperial Japanese Army made use of balloons for observation purposes in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 and purchased its first aircraft. However, serious interest in military aviation did not develop until after World War I, nakajima later license-produced the Gloster Gannet and Bristol Jupiter. Kawasaki also produced engines under license from BMW. By the end of the 1920s, Japan was producing its own designs to meet the needs of the Army, by 1941, the Japanese Army Air Force had about 1,500 combat aircraft. The officer commanding the chutai was the Chutaicho, whose rank was usually that of captain, the commanders aircraft often had distinctive markings, often a partly or totally scarlet, red, orange or yellow tail. In a reorganization of 1927-05-05, the Air Regiment was created, each Air Regiment was a mixed purpose unit, consisting of a mixture of fighter and reconnaissance squadrons. In August 1938, a complete re-organization of the Army Air Service resulted in the creation of the Air Combat Group, each Air Combat Group was a single-purpose unit consisting typically of three Squadrons, divided into three flights-小隊-shōtai of three aircraft each. Together with reserve aircraft and the flight, an Air Combat Group typically had 45 aircraft or up to 30 aircraft. Two or more Air Combat Groups formed an Air Division, which, together with base and support units, in 1942, the Air Corps were renamed Air Divisions, to mirror the terminology for infantry divisions, but the structure remained the same. Two Air Divisions, together with some independent units made an Air Army, 6th Air Army – on Kyūshū covering Taiwan and Okinawa In April 1944, a reorganization of the Japanese Army Air Service occurred. Maintenance and ground units, formerly a separate command, were merged into the Air Combat Group. The flying squadrons of the Air Combat Group were re-designated as Attack Units, and these units were specially designated and trained with the mission of air-to-air ramming of Allied bomber aircraft. They usually had their armaments removed and their airframes reinforced, in the final phase of the war, the Special Attack Units evolved into dedicated suicide units for kamikaze missions. Around 170 of these units were formed,57 by the Instructor Air Division alone, notionally equipped with 12 aircraft each, it eventually comprised around 2000 aircraft. Teishin Shudan was the IJAs special forces/airborne unit during World War II, the word teishin may be literally translated as dash forward, and is usually translated as raiding. It may also be regarded as similar to the designation in the terminology of other armies
Imperial Japanese Army Air Service
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Identification chart for Japanese military planes during World War II
Imperial Japanese Army Air Service
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Rising Sun Flag
Imperial Japanese Army Air Service
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Captain Okuyama and Giretsu Airborne unit depart on their mission to Okinawa
42.
Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service
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The Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service was the air arm of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. The organization was responsible for the operation of aircraft and the conduct of aerial warfare in the Pacific War. It was controlled by the Navy Staff of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service was equal in function to the Royal Navys Fleet Air Arm, the Italian Navys Aviazione Navale, or the Soviet Navys Morskaya Aviatsiya. The Imperial Japanese Navy Aviation Bureau of the Ministry of the Navy of Japan was responsible for the development, the Japanese military acquired their first aircraft in 1910 and followed the development of air combat during World War I with great interest. They initially procured European aircraft but quickly built their own and launched themselves onto an aircraft carrier building program. They launched the worlds first purpose-built aircraft carrier, Hōshō, in 1922, afterwards they embarked on a conversion program of several excess battlecruisers and battleships into aircraft carriers. The IJN Air Service had the mission of air defence, deep strike, naval warfare. It retained this mission to the end, the Japanese pilot training program was very selective and rigorous, producing a high-quality and long-serving pilot corps, who ruled the air in the Pacific during early World War II. However, the duration of the training program, combined with a shortage of gasoline for training. Moreover, the Japanese, unlike the U. S. or Britain, the resultant decrease in quantity and quality, among other factors, resulted in increasing casualties toward the end of the war. In 1912, the Royal Navy had informally established its own flying branch, the Japanese admirals, whose own Navy had been modeled on the Royal Navy and whom they admired, themselves proposed their own Naval Air Service. The Japanese Navy had also observed technical developments in other countries, the following year, in 1913 a Navy transport ship, the Wakamiya was converted into a seaplane tender, a number of aircraft were also purchased. On 23 August 1914, as a result of its treaty with Great Britain, the Japanese, together with a token British force, then laid siege to the German held territory of Kiaochow and its administrative capital Tsingtao on the Shandong peninsula. During the siege, starting from September, Maurice Farman seaplanes onboard the Wakamiya conducted reconnaissance and aerial bombardments on German positions and ships. On 30 September the Wakamiya was later damaged by a mine, the Wakamiya conducted the worlds first naval-launched aerial raids in history and was in effect the first aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy. By the end of the siege the aircraft had conducted 50 sorties and dropped 200 bombs, the mission consisted of a group of 29 British instructors, headed by Captain William Sempill, and stayed in Japan for 18 months. The British government hoped it would lead to lucrative an arms deal, the mission also brought the plans of the most recent British aircraft carriers, such as the HMS Argus and the HMS Hermes, which influenced the final stages of the development of the carrier Hōshō. The Hōshō became the first designed aircraft carrier from the keel up to be built, the military in Japan were also aided in their quest to build up their naval forces by Sempill who had become a Japanese spy
Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service
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A formation of Japanese bombers taking anti-aircraft fire, seen from the Australian cruiser, HMAS Hobart.
Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service
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Rising Sun Flag
Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service
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Japanese seaplane carrier Wakamiya.
Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service
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Mitsubishi B1M torpedo bomber.
43.
Beijing
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Beijing is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China and the worlds third most populous city proper. It is also one of the worlds most populous capital cities, the city, located in northern China, is governed as a direct-controlled municipality under the national government with 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts. Beijing is the second largest Chinese city by population after Shanghai and is the nations political, cultural. It is home to the headquarters of most of Chinas largest state-owned companies, and is a hub for the national highway, expressway, railway. The citys history dates back three millennia, as the last of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, Beijing has been the political centre of the country for much of the past eight centuries. Beijing was the largest city in the world by population for much of the second millennium A. D, the city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, parks, gardens, tombs, walls and gates. Its art treasures and universities have made it centre of culture, encyclopædia Britannica notes that few cities in the world have served for so long as the political headquarters and cultural centre of an area as immense as China. Siheyuans, the traditional housing style, and hutongs, the narrow alleys between siheyuans, are major tourist attractions and are common in urban Beijing. The city hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics and was chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, many of Beijings 91 universities consistently rank among the best in China, of which Peking University and Tsinghua University are ranked in the top 60 universities in the world. Beijings Zhongguancun area is known as Chinas Silicon Valley and Chinas center of innovation. According to the 2016 InterNations Expat Insider Survey, Beijing ranked first in Asia in the subcategory Personal Finance Index, expats live primarily in urban districts such as Dongcheng and Chaoyang in the east, or in suburban districts such as Shunyi. Over the past 3,000 years, the city of Beijing has had other names. The name Beijing, which means Northern Capital, was applied to the city in 1403 during the Ming Dynasty to distinguish the city from Nanjing, the English spelling is based on the pinyin romanisation of the two characters as they are pronounced in Standard Mandarin. Those dialects preserve the Middle Chinese pronunciation of 京 as kjaeng, the single Chinese character abbreviation for Beijing is 京, which appears on automobile license plates in the city. The official Latin alphabet abbreviation for Beijing is BJ, the earliest traces of human habitation in the Beijing municipality were found in the caves of Dragon Bone Hill near the village of Zhoukoudian in Fangshan District, where Peking Man lived. Homo erectus fossils from the date to 230,000 to 250,000 years ago. Paleolithic Homo sapiens also lived more recently, about 27,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found neolithic settlements throughout the municipality, including in Wangfujing, the first walled city in Beijing was Ji, a city from the 11th to 7th century BC
Beijing
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Clockwise from top: Beijing CBD skyline, Tiananmen, Temple of Heaven, National Center for the Performing Arts, and Beijing National Stadium
Beijing
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The museum at Zhoukoudian
Beijing
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The Tianning Pagoda, built around 1120.
Beijing
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Longevity Hill in Beijing where Kublai Khan wrote his poem.
44.
Tianjin
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Tianjin, formerly known in English as Tientsin, is a metropolis in northern coastal Mainland China and one of the five national central cities of the country, with a total population of 15,469,500. It is governed as one of the four direct-controlled municipalities of the PRC and is thus under direct administration of the central government, Tianjin borders Hebei Province and Beijing Municipality, bounded to the east by the Bohai Gulf portion of the Yellow Sea. Part of the Bohai Economic Rim, it is the largest coastal city in northern China, in terms of urban population, Tianjin is the fourth largest in China, after Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou. In terms of area population, Tianjin ranks fifth in Mainland China. The walled city of Tianjin was built in 1404, as a treaty port since 1860, Tianjin has been a major seaport and gateway to Beijing. During the Boxer Rebellion the city was the seat of the Tianjin Provisional Government, under the Ta-tsing Empire, and the Republic of China, Tianjin became one of the largest cities in the region. At that time, numerous European-style buildings and mansions were constructed in concessions, after the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, Tianjin suffered a depression due to the policy of the central government and Tangshan earthquake, but recovered from 1990s. As of the end of 2010, around 285 Fortune 500 companies have set up base in Binhai, Tianjin is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese characters 天津, which mean Heavenly Ford or Ford of Heaven. The origin of the name is obscure, one folk etymology is that it was an homage to the patriotic Chu poet Qu Yuan, whose Li Sao includes the verse. departing from the Ford of Heaven at dawn. Another is that it honors a former name of the Girl, a third is that it derives from a place name noted in the River Record of the History of Jin. The most common are that it was bestowed by the Yongle Emperor of the Ming, before this time, it was open sea. The opening of the Grand Canal during the Sui dynasty prompted the development of Tianjin into a trading center, during the Qing dynasty Tianjin was promoted to a prefecture or Zhou in 1725 with Tianjin County established under the prefecture in 1731. Later it was to upgraded to a prefecture or Fu before becoming a relay station under the command of the Viceroy of Zhili. In 1856, Chinese soldiers boarded The Arrow, a Chinese-owned ship registered in Hong Kong flying the British flag and suspected of piracy, smuggling and they captured 12 men and imprisoned them. In response, the British and French sent gunboats under the command of Admiral Sir Michael Seymour to capture the Taku forts near Tianjin in May 1858. At the end of the first part of the Second Opium War in June of the year, the British and French prevailed, and the Treaties of Tianjin were signed. The treaties were ratified by the Emperor of China in 1860, and Tianjin was formally opened to Great Britain and France and these nations left many architectural reminders of their rule, notably churches and thousands of villas. Today those villas provide a flavour to Tianjin
Tianjin
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Clockwise from top: Jinwan Square, Tianjin Financial Center and Hai River, Xikai Church, Panorama of downtown Tianjin, Tianjin Railroad Station, Tianjin Eye
Tianjin
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17th century depiction of Tianjin
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1902 map of Tianjin
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Church of Our Lady's Victories, built in 1869, was the place where the Tientsin Church Incident happened.
45.
Second Sino-Japanese War
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The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from July 7,1937 to September 9,1945. The First Sino-Japanese War was fought from 1894 to 1895, China fought Japan, with some economic help from Germany, the Soviet Union and the United States. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war merged into the conflict of World War II as a major front of what is broadly known as the Pacific War. Many scholars consider the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 to have been the beginning of World War II, the Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the 20th century. The war was the result of a decades-long Japanese imperialist policy to expand its influence politically and militarily in order to access to raw material reserves, food. The period after World War One brought about increasing stress on the Japanese polity, leftists sought universal suffrage and greater rights for workers. Increasing textile production from Chinese mills was adversely affecting Japanese production, the Depression brought about a large slowdown in exports. All of this contributed to militant nationalism, culminating in the rise to power of a militarist fascist faction and this faction was led at its height by the Imperial Rule Assistance Associations Hideki Tojo cabinet under the edict from Emperor Shōwa. Before 1937, China and Japan fought in small, localized engagements, the last of these incidents was the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937, which is traditionally seen as the beginning of total war between the two countries. Since 2017 the Chinese Government has regarded the invasion of Manchuria by the Kwantung Army in 1931, initially the Japanese scored major victories, such as the Battle of Shanghai, and by the end of 1937 captured the Chinese capital of Nanjing. After failing to stop the Japanese in Wuhan, the Chinese central government was relocated to Chongqing in the Chinese interior, by 1939, after Chinese victories in Changsha and Guangxi, and with Japans lines of communications stretched deep into the Chinese interior, the war reached a stalemate. The Japanese were also unable to defeat the Chinese communist forces in Shaanxi, on December 7,1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and the following day the United States declared war on Japan. The United States began to aid China via airlift matériel over the Himalayas after the Allied defeat in Burma that closed the Burma Road, in 1944 Japan launched the invasion, Operation Ichi-Go, that conquered Henan and Changsha. However, this failed to bring about the surrender of Chinese forces, in 1945, the Chinese Expeditionary Force resumed its advance in Burma and completed the Ledo Road linking India to China. At the same time, China launched large counteroffensives in South China and retook the west Hunan, the remaining Japanese occupation forces formally surrendered on September 9,1945 with the following International Military Tribunal for the Far East convened on April 29,1946. China was recognized as one of the Big Four of Allies during the war, in the Chinese language, the war is most commonly known as the War of Resistance Against Japan, and also known as the Eight Years War of Resistance, simply War of Resistance. It is also referred to as part of the Global Anti-Fascist War, which is how World War 2 is perceived by the Communist Party of China, in Japan, nowadays, the name Japan–China War is most commonly used because of its perceived objectivity. In Japan today, it is written as 日中戦争 in shinjitai, the word incident was used by Japan, as neither country had made a formal declaration of war
Second Sino-Japanese War
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The dead bodies of victims massacred in the Rape of Nanking on the shore of the Qinhuai River, with a Japanese soldier standing nearby.
Second Sino-Japanese War
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Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Allied Commander-in-Chief in the China theatre from 1942 to 1945.
Second Sino-Japanese War
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Japanese troops entering Shenyang during the Mukden Incident
Second Sino-Japanese War
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Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek announced the Kuomintang policy of resistance against Japan at Lushan on July 10, 1937, three days after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident.
46.
League of Nations
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The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organisation founded on 10 January 1920 as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first international organisation whose mission was to maintain world peace. Its primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament, at its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members. The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a shift from the preceding hundred years. The League lacked its own armed force and depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, keep to its economic sanctions, however, the Great Powers were often reluctant to do so. Sanctions could hurt League members, so they were reluctant to comply with them, after a number of notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis powers in the 1930s. Germany withdrew from the League, as did Japan, Italy, Spain, the onset of the Second World War showed that the League had failed its primary purpose, which was to prevent any future world war. The League lasted for 26 years, the United Nations replaced it after the end of the Second World War on 20 April 1946 and inherited a number of agencies and organisations founded by the League. As historians William H. Harbaugh and Ronald E. Powaski point out, the organisation was international in scope, with a third of the members of parliaments serving as members of the IPU by 1914. Its aims were to encourage governments to solve disputes by peaceful means. Annual conferences were held to help refine the process of international arbitration. Its structure consisted of a council headed by a president, which would later be reflected in the structure of the League, at the start of the 20th century, two power blocs emerged from alliances between the European Great Powers. It was these alliances that, at the start of the First World War in 1914 and this was the first major war in Europe between industrialised countries, and the first time in Western Europe that the results of industrialisation had been dedicated to war. By the time the fighting ended in November 1918, the war had had an impact, affecting the social, political and economic systems of Europe. Anti-war sentiment rose across the world, the First World War was described as the war to end all wars, the causes identified included arms races, alliances, militaristic nationalism, secret diplomacy, and the freedom of sovereign states to enter into war for their own benefit. Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson, a British political scientist, coined the term League of Nations in 1914, together with Lord Bryce, he played a leading role in the founding of the group of internationalist pacifists known as the Bryce Group, later the League of Nations Union. The group became more influential among the public and as a pressure group within the then governing Liberal Party. In Dickinsons 1915 pamphlet After the War he wrote of his League of Peace as being essentially an organisation for arbitration and conciliation
League of Nations
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The 1864 Geneva Convention, one of the earliest formulations of international law.
League of Nations
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1939–41 semi-official flag
League of Nations
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Lord Bryce, one of the earliest advocates for a League of Nations.
League of Nations
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The official opening of the League of Nations, 15 November 1920
47.
8th Air Force
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The Eighth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command. It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, the command serves as Air Forces Strategic – Global Strike, one of the air components of United States Strategic Command. The Eighth Air Force includes the heart of Americas heavy bomber force, the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, the B-1 Lancer supersonic bomber, and it was the largest of the deployed combat Army Air Forces in numbers of personnel, aircraft, and equipment. Elements of 8 AF engaged in operations during the Korean War, Vietnam War. Eighth Air Force is one of two active duty numbered air forces in Air Force Global Strike Command, Eighth Air Force, with headquarters at Barksdale AFB, in the Bossier City – Shreveport, Louisiana, metro area, supports U. S. Joint Forces Command, and is designated as U. S. Strategic Commands Task Force 204, providing on-alert, the mission of The Mighty Eighth is to safeguard Americas interests through strategic deterrence and global combat power. Eighth Air Force controls long-range nuclear-capable bomber assets throughout the United States and its flexible, conventional and nuclear deterrence mission provides the capability to deploy forces and engage enemy threats from home station or forward positioned, anywhere, any time. The 8th Air Force motto is Peace Through Strength and this air power includes the heart of Americas heavy bomber force, the B-2 Spirit and the B-52 Stratofortress. The B-2 force consists of 20 bombers assigned to the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman AFB, for additional history and lineage, see United States Air Forces in Europe The history of Eighth Air Force begins on 2 January 1942 with its activation at Savannah Air Base, Georgia. In quick order, on 5 January, Major General Carl Spaatz assumed command of HQ Eighth Air Force at Bolling Field, Washington, on 8 January the order activating the U. S. Air Forces in the British Isles was announced. On 12 May, the first contingent of USAAF personnel arrived in England to join the Eighth Air Force, on 15 June, Spaatz arrived in England to establish the Headquarters of Eighth Air Force at Bushy Park,15 miles WSW of London. Eighth Air Force was the command and control organization over its operational components, VIII Bomber Command Strategic bombardment using heavy, VIII Fighter Command Provide fighter escort of heavy bombers VIII Air Support Command Provide reconnaissance, troop transport, and tactical bombardment using twin-engine medium bombers. VIII Air Service Command Service and logistical support, VIII Bomber Command was activated at Langley Field, Virginia, It was reassigned to Savannah Air Base, Georgia on 10 February 1942. The first combat group of VIII Bomber Command to arrive in the United Kingdom was the ground echelon of the 97th Bombardment Group, during World War II, the offensive air forces of the United States Army Air Forces came to be classified as strategic or tactical. In Europe, Eighth Air Force was the first USAAF strategic air force, Eighth Air Force carried out strategic daytime strategic bombing operations in Western Europe from airfields in eastern England. On 4 January 1944, the B-24s and B-17s based in England flew their last mission as a part of VIII Bomber Command. On 22 February 1944, a reorganization of American airpower took place in Europe. VIII Bomber Command was redesignated as Eighth Air Force, with VIII Fighter and this is from where the present-day Eighth Air Forces history, lineage and honors derive
8th Air Force
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B-2A Spirit, 82-1069, "Spirit of Indiana", 509th Bomb Wing B-52H Stratofortress, 2d Bomb Wing
8th Air Force
8th Air Force
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World War II European-African-Middle Eastern Theater
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Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with Combat "V" Device
48.
Focke Wulf
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Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG was a German manufacturer of civil and military aircraft before and during World War II. Many of the successful fighter aircraft designs were slight modifications of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. It is one of the companies of todays Airbus Group. The company was founded in Bremen on 24 October 1923 as Bremer Flugzeugbau AG by Prof. Henrich Focke, Georg Wulf, almost immediately, they renamed the company Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG. Focke-Wulf merged, under government pressure, with Albatros-Flugzeugwerke of Berlin in 1931, the Albatros-Flugzeugwerke engineer and test pilot Kurt Tank became head of the technical department and started work on the Fw 44 Stieglitz. Dr Ludwig Roselius became Chairman in 1925 and handed over to his brother Friedrich in early 1933, in 1938 Roselius HAG combine increased its shareholding to 46% and C. The company was reconstituted as Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau GmbH and no longer had to publish its accounts, a substantial capital injection occurred at this time. In August 1933 Hans Holle and Rudolf Schubert were given power of attorney over the Berlin branch of Focke-Wulf, then in October 1933, Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau A. G. Albatros Berlin was officially registered with the Department of Trade. Dr Roselius always remained the driving force of Focke-Wulf and he and his closest collaborator, Barbara Goette, often met with technical director Professor Kurt Tank. The four-engined Fw 200 airliner flew nonstop between Berlin and New York City on August 10,1938, making the journey in 24 hours and 56 minutes and it was the first aircraft to fly that route without stopping. The return trip on August 13,1938 took 19 hours and 47 minutes and these flights are commemorated with a plaque in the Böttcherstraße street of Bremen. The Fw 190 Würger, designed from 1938 on, and produced in quantity from early 1941–1945, was a mainstay single-seat fighter for the Luftwaffe during World War II and those plants used many foreign and forced labourers, and from 1944 also prisoners of war. Focke-Wulfs 100-acre plant at Marienburg produced approximately half of all Fw 190s and was bombed by the Eighth Air Force on October 9,1943, many Focke-Wulf workers, including Kurt Tank, worked at the Instituto Aerotécnico in Córdoba, Argentina between 1947 and 1955. Focke-Wulf began to make gliders in 1951, and in 1955, Focke-Wulf, Weserflug and Hamburger Flugzeugbau joined forces in 1961 to form the Entwicklungsring Nord to develop rockets. Focke-Wulf A3 Focke-Wulf A4 Focke-Wulf A5 Focke-Wulf A6 Focke-Wulf A7 Focke-Wulf A16 - light transport aircraft,1924, Focke-Wulf A17 Möwe, 8-passenger airliner,1927. Focke-Wulf GL18 - light transport aircraft developed from the A16,1926, Focke-Wulf F19 Ente - experimental civil utility aircraft,1927. Focke-Wulf A20 Habicht, 4-passenger airliner,1927, Focke-Wulf A21 Photomöwe, aerial photography version of A17,1929. Focke-Wulf GL22 - revised GL18,1927, Focke-Wulf K23 - two-seat reconnaissance aircraft,1928
Focke Wulf
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Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau
49.
Malbork
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Malbork is a town in northern Poland in the Żuławy region, with 38,478 inhabitants. Situated in the Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999, it was assigned to Elbląg Voivodeship. It is the capital of Malbork County, the town was built in Prussia around the fortress Ordensburg Marienburg, which was founded in 1274 on the east bank of the river Nogat by the Teutonic Knights. Both the castle and the town were named for their patron saint and this fortified castle became the seat of the Teutonic Order and Europes largest Gothic fortress. During the Thirteen Years War, the castle of Marienburg was pawned by the Teutonic Order to their soldiers from Bohemia. They sold the castle in 1457 to King Casimir IV of Poland in lieu of indemnities, under continuous construction for nearly 230 years, the castle complex is actually three castles combined in one. A classic example of a fortress, it is the world’s largest brick castle. The castle was in the process of being restored by the Germans when World War II broke out, during the war, the castle was over 50% destroyed. Restoration has been ongoing since the war, the castle and its museum are listed as one of UNESCOs World Heritage Sites. The town of Marienburg grew in the vicinity of the castle, the river Nogat and flat terrain allowed easy access for barges a hundred kilometers from the sea. During Prussias government by the Teutonic Knights, the Order collected tolls on river traffic, the town later became a member of the Hanseatic League, and many Hanseatic meetings were held there. The Teutonic Order weakened greatly after the Battle of Grunwald against advancing Poles, the Siege of Marienburg left the Teutonic Order in control only of the town, until it sold the castle and in 1457 transferred its seat to Königsberg. The town of Marienburg, under Mayor Bartholomäus Blume and others, but when the Poles finally took control, Blume was hanged and quartered, and fourteen officers and three remaining Teutonic knights were thrown into dungeons, where they met a miserable end. A monument to Blume was erected in 1864, the town became part of the Polish province of Royal Prussia after the Second Peace of Thorn. In the town of Marienburg,9,641 votes were cast for Germany,165 votes for Poland, as a result, Marienburg was included in the Regierungsbezirk Marienwerder within the German Province of East Prussia. During the Weimar era, Marienburg was located at the tripoint between Poland, Germany and the Free State of Danzig, the town was hit by an economic crisis following the end of World War I. After a brief recovery in the mid-1920s, the Great Depression was particularly severe in East Prussia. ), after the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, leaders of the Polish minority were arrested and sent to concentration camps. During World War II a Focke-Wulf aircraft factory was set up at the airfield to the east of Marienburg and it was bombed twice by the USAAF in 1943 and 1944
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Teutonic Castle in Malbork
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Statue of Casimir IV Jagiellon in Malbork
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Malbork / Marienburg castle viewed over the Nogat River.
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94th Bomb Group B-17 Flying Fortress targeting the Focke-Wulf factory as described.
50.
V-2 rocket
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The V-2, technical name Aggregat 4, was the worlds first long-range guided ballistic missile. The V-2 rocket also became the first artificial object to cross the boundary of space with the launch of MW18014 on 20 June 1944. Research into military use of long range rockets began when the studies of graduate student Wernher von Braun attracted the attention of the German Army, a series of prototypes culminated in the A-4, which went to war as the V-2. Beginning in September 1944, over 3,000 V-2s were launched by the German Wehrmacht against Allied targets during the war, first London and later Antwerp and Liège. As Germany collapsed, teams from the Allied forces—the United States, the United Kingdom, Wernher von Braun and over 100 key V-2 personnel surrendered to the Americans. Eventually, many of the original V-2 team ended up working at the Redstone Arsenal, the US also captured enough V-2 hardware to build approximately 80 of the missiles. The Soviets gained possession of the V-2 manufacturing facilities after the war, re-established V-2 production, in the late 1920s, a young Wernher von Braun bought a copy of Hermann Oberths book, Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen. Starting in 1930, he attended the Technical University of Berlin, von Braun was working on his doctorate when the Nazi Party gained power in Germany. An artillery captain, Walter Dornberger, arranged an Ordnance Department research grant for von Braun, von Brauns thesis, Construction, Theoretical, and Experimental Solution to the Problem of the Liquid Propellant Rocket, was kept classified by the German Army and was not published until 1960. By the end of 1934, his group had launched two rockets that reached heights of 2.2 and 3.5 km. At the time, Germany was highly interested in American physicist Robert H. Goddards research, before 1939, German engineers and scientists occasionally contacted Goddard directly with technical questions. Von Braun used Goddards plans from various journals and incorporated them into the building of the Aggregat series of rockets, during 28–30 September 1939, Der Tag der Weisheit conference met at Peenemünde to initiate the funding of university research to solve rocket problems. By late 1941, the Army Research Center at Peenemünde possessed the essential to the success of the A-4. The four key technologies for the A-4 were large liquid-fuel rocket engines, supersonic aerodynamics, gyroscopic guidance, at the time, Adolf Hitler was not particularly impressed by the V-2, he pointed out that it was merely an artillery shell with a longer range and much higher cost. Hitler was sufficiently impressed by the enthusiasm of its developers, and needed a weapon to maintain German morale. The V-2s were constructed at the Mittelwerk site by prisoners from Mittelbau-Dora, the A-4 used a 74% ethanol/water mixture for fuel and liquid oxygen for oxidizer. The rocket reached a height of 80 km after shutting off the engine, the fuel and oxidizer pumps were driven by a steam turbine, and the steam was produced by concentrated hydrogen peroxide with sodium permanganate catalyst. Both the alcohol and oxygen tanks were an aluminium-magnesium alloy, the combustion burner reached a temperature of 2,500 to 2,700 °C
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Peenemünde Museum replica of V-2.
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Wind tunnel model of an A4 in the German Museum of Technology in Berlin
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Layout of a V-2 rocket.
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Captured V2 on public display in Antwerp, 1945. Exhaust vanes and external rudders in tail section shown.
51.
Slovnaft
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Slovnaft is an oil refining company in Slovakia. The company, located in Bratislava, is a subsidiary of MOL Group, Slovnaft is the successor of the Apollo company, which was established in 1895 in Bratislava and whose refinery was bombarded by the Allies in June 1944. It was located near todays Apollo Bridge, the Slovnaft refinery started to be built in 1949. On 1 May 1992, Slovnaft was reorganized as a joint-stock company, in 1995, it bought its domestic competitor Benzinol. Since 2000, Slovnaft has been affiliated with the MOL Group, Slovnaft refines 5.5 to 6 million tonnes of crude oil per annum and produces a broad range of motor fuels, fuel oils and petrochemical products. After intensive modernisation, the refinery is noted today for its rate of conversion and flexibility. Slovnaft is the market leader in motor fuels, and supplies its customers with high-quality products which meet the most stringent European standards. The company has an important position in the markets of neighbouring countries, represents the Petrochemicals Division of Slovnaft Group. It produces polymers of high quality which are materials with a broad range of uses. The geographical position of the company gives it an important advantage when penetrating the quickly-growing polymer markets of Central Europe, a Slovnaft Subsidiary, produces electricity, heat, and power. Slovnaft is a sponsor of the league competition since 2007. The largest ice arena in Bratislava is named Slovnaft Arena. It is the partner of the Slovak Cup, now named Slovnaft Cup. Transpetrol AS, Slovak oil pipeline company, operator of the Slovak section of the Druzhba pipeline Official website
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Slovnaft with bridges
Slovnaft
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New polypropylene plant PP3
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Slovnaft Arena Bratislava
52.
Bratislava
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Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia, and with a population of about 450,000, the countrys largest city. The greater metropolitan area is home to more than 650,000 people, Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia, occupying both banks of the River Danube and the left bank of the River Morava. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the national capital that borders two sovereign states. The history of the city has strongly influenced by people of different nations and religions, namely by Austrians, Croats, Czechs, Germans, Hungarians, Jews, Serbs. The city served as the site and legislative center of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1536 to 1783. Bratislava is the political, cultural and economic centre of Slovakia and it is the seat of the Slovak president, the parliament and the Slovak Executive. It is home to several universities, museums, theatres, galleries, many of Slovakias large businesses and financial institutions also have headquarters there. The capital of Slovakia is the eighth best city for freelancers to live in, mostly because of fast internet, in 2017, Bratislava was ranked as the third richest region of the European Union by GDP per capita. GDP at purchasing power parity is about three times higher than in other Slovak regions, the city received its contemporary name in 1919. Beforehand it was known in English by its German name, Pressburg, as it was long dominated by Austrians. This is the term which the German, the pre-1919 Slovak, the citys Hungarian name, Pozsony, was given after the castles first castellan, Poson. The origin of the name is unclear, it come from the Czech Pos or the German Poscho. Hungarian speakers still use the Hungarian name, Pozsony, the medieval settlement Brezalauspurc is sometimes attributed to Bratislava, however the actual location of Brezalauspurc is under scholarly debate. The citys modern name is credited to Pavel Jozef Šafáriks misinterpretation of Braslav as Bratislav when analyzing medieval sources, thus coming up with the term Břetislaw, during the revolution of 1918–1919, the name Wilsonov or Wilsonstadt was proposed by American Slovaks, as he supported national self-determination. The name Bratislava, which was used only by some Slovak patriots. The name Pressburg was also used in English-language publications until 1919, in older documents, confusion can be caused by the Latin forms Bratislavia, Wratislavia etc. which refer to Wrocław, Poland – not to Bratislava. The first known permanent settlement of the area began with the Linear Pottery Culture, about 200 BC, the Celtic Boii tribe founded the first significant settlement, a fortified town known as an oppidum. They also established a mint, producing silver coins known as biatecs, the area fell under Roman influence from the 1st to the 4th century AD and was made part of the Danubian Limes, a border defence system
Bratislava
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Bratislava Montage. Clockwise from top of left: View of Bratislava from the castle, St. Michael's Gate in the Old Town, Eurovea shopping complex, Primate's Palace, Hviezdoslav Square, Bratislava castle and the Danube riverbank at night
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An original Biatec and its replica on a former 5- koruna coin
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Pressburg in the 17th century
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Coronation of Maria Theresa in 1741
53.
Bombing of Helsinki in World War II
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The capital of Finland, Helsinki was bombed several times during World War II. Between 1939–1944 Finland was subjected to a number of bombing campaigns by the Soviet Union, the largest raids were three raids in February 1944, which have been called The Great Raids Against Helsinki. The air defense of Helsinki was significantly strengthened from spring 1943 onwards under the lead of Colonel Pekka Jokipaltio. During the Continuation War Germany provided two early warning radars and four gun laying radars to Helsinki, further,18 very effective German heavy 88 mm AA guns were placed in Helsinki. The new six-gun batteries were grouped at Lauttasaari, Käpylä and in Santahamina, by February 1944 Helsinki was protected by 13 light and heavy AA-batteries. Air defenses included 77 heavy AA-guns,41 light AA-guns,36 search lights,13 acoustic locators and 6 radars in addition to visual spotters, Germany also provided some night fighter support against the Soviet attacks. The air defense system was based on the German system and was quite effective – key personnel had trained in Germany. Due to manpower shortages, the air defense also used 16-year-old boy volunteers from Suojeluskunta to man the guns, helsinkis air defenses prioritized stopping bombs from reaching the city over the destruction of air targets. In a special type of barrage, several batteries would fire a wall of flak in front of the bombers in an attempt to scare them into dropping their payloads too early. AA shells had been jury-rigged by drilling the fuze-hole larger and filling the space with magnesium mixed with aluminium. The bombing of Finland was generally conducted by the bombing and reconnaissance group of the Soviet Air Force. This group was subordinated to the Soviet High Command. During the February bombings of 1944 the ADD was reinforced with other units, the ADD commander was Marshal Aleksandr Golovanov. Bombing raids were sometimes done by the VVS and the BF. The Soviet bomber fleet was very diverse, the majority of the aircraft were twin-engined Ilyushin-4, Lisunov Li-2, North American B-25 Mitchell and Douglas A-20 bombers. The B-25s and the A-20s had been supplied to the Soviet Union as Lend Lease material from the United States, the Lisunov Li-2 was a Soviet bomber version of the American Douglas DC-3. There were also some heavy four-engined bombers participating in the bombings, before the war, Helsinki had quite an extensive civil defense system. By a city decree of 1934, shelters were constructed in all high-rise building basements and these were merely basement rooms with reinforced walls in order to withstand nearby bomb impacts
Bombing of Helsinki in World War II
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Bofors anti-aircraft gun firing at enemy bombers. Taivaskallio, Helsinki. November 1942
Bombing of Helsinki in World War II
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An 88 mm AA-gun at the Finnish anti-aircraft museum
Bombing of Helsinki in World War II
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Search lights at the Finnish anti-aircraft museum
Bombing of Helsinki in World War II
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An American B-25
54.
Coventry Blitz
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The Coventry blitz was a series of bombing raids that took place on the English city of Coventry. The city was bombed many times during the Second World War by the German Air Force, the most devastating of these attacks occurred on the evening of 14 November 1940. At the start of the Second World War, Coventry was a city of around 238,000 people which, like much of the industrial West Midlands. In Coventrys case, these cars, bicycles, aeroplane engines and, since 1900. In the words of the historian Frederick Taylor, Coventry. was therefore, in terms of what little law existed on the subject, however, it developed many large interwar suburbs of both private and council housing, which were relatively isolated from industrial buildings. There were seventeen small raids on Coventry during the Battle of Britain between August and October 1940 during which around 198 tons of bombs fell, together, the raids killed 176 people and injured around 680. The most notable damage was to the new Rex Cinema which had opened only in February 1937 and had already been closed by an earlier bombing raid in September. War production in two factories had ceased on a temporary basis because of it, with a number of people living nearby having to be evacuated. Campbell found that the bomb was fitted with a delayed action fuse that was impossible to remove and that was done by lorry, and he lay alongside the bomb so that he could hear if it started ticking and could warn the driver to stop and run for cover. Having taken it to a distance, he disposed of the bomb successfully but was killed whilst dealing with another bomb the next day. Campbell was posthumously awarded a George Cross for his actions on 17 October 1940, the raid that began on the evening of 14 November 1940 was the most severe to hit Coventry during the war. It was carried out by 515 German bombers, from Luftflotte 3, the initial wave of 13 specially modified Heinkel He 111 aircraft of Kampfgruppe 100, which were equipped with X-Gerät navigational devices, accurately dropped marker flares at 19,20. The British and the Germans were fighting the Battle of the Beams and these later waves dropped a combination of high explosive and incendiary bombs. There were two types of bomb, those made of magnesium and those made of petroleum. Coventrys air defences consisted of twenty-four 3.7 inch AA guns, however, only one German bomber was shot down. At around 20,00, Coventry Cathedral, was set on fire by incendiaries for the first time. During the same period, more than 200 other fires were started across the city, most of which were concentrated in the area, setting the area ablaze. The raid reached its climax around midnight with the all clear sounding at 06,15 on the morning of 15 November
Coventry Blitz
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Winston Churchill visiting the ruins of Coventry Cathedral in September 1941
Coventry Blitz
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Broadgate, Coventry in 1917
Coventry Blitz
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Coventry Cathedral, in ruins after the Luftwaffe air raid.
Coventry Blitz
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The Holy Trinity Church rises above a scene of devastation
55.
Belfast Blitz
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The Belfast Blitz was four attacks of high-casualty German air raids on strategic targets in the city of Belfast in Northern Ireland, in April and May 1941 during World War II. The first was on the night of 7–8 April 1941, an attack which probably took place only to test Belfasts defences. The next took place on Easter Tuesday,15 April 1941, two hundred bombers of the Luftwaffe attacked military and manufacturing targets in the city of Belfast. Some 900 people died as a result of the bombing and 1,500 were injured, High explosive bombs predominated in this raid. Apart from those on London, this was the greatest loss of life in any night raid during the Blitz, the third raid on Belfast took place over the evening and morning of 4–5 May 1941,150 were killed. Incendiary bombs predominated in this raid, the fourth and final Belfast raid took place on the following night, 5–6 May. In total, more than half the housing stock was rendered uninhabitable by the bombings. As the UK was preparing for the conflict, the factories, Belfast made a considerable contribution towards the Allied war effort, producing many naval ships, aircraft and munitions, therefore, the city was deemed a suitable bombing target by the Luftwaffe. Meanwhile, unlike Northern Ireland, southern Ireland was no part of the UK. Under the leadership of Éamon de Valera, it had declared its neutrality during the Second World War, the Government of Northern Ireland lacked the will, energy and capacity to cope with a major crisis when it came. James Craig, Lord Craigavon, had been Prime Minister of Northern Ireland since its inception in 1921 up until his death in 1940 and his death came at a bad time and arguably inadvertently caused a leadership vacuum. Richard Dawson Bates, was the Home Affairs Minister, Sir Basil Brooke, the Minister of Agriculture, was the only active minister. He successfully busied himself with the task of making Northern Ireland a major supplier of food to Britain in her time of need. John Clarke MacDermott, the Minister of Public Security, after the first bombing, initiated the Hiram Plan to evacuate the city and it was MacDermott who sent a telegram to de Valera seeking assistance. He said, I have heard speeches about Ulster pulling her weight, and the government has been slack, dilatory and apathetic. Craigavon died on 24 November 1940 and he was succeeded by John Miller Andrews, then 70 years old, who was no more capable of dealing with the situation than his predecessor. On 28 April 1943, six members of the Government threatened to resign and he was replaced by Sir Basil Brooke on 1 May. Harland and Wolff was one of the largest shipbuilding yards in the world, up to 35,000 people were employed
Belfast Blitz
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Rescue workers searching through rubble after an air raid on Belfast
Belfast Blitz
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Sir James Craig, former Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. HMSO image
Belfast Blitz
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John Miller Andrews Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. HMSO image
Belfast Blitz
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Junkers Ju-88
56.
Orkney
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Orkney /ˈɔːrkni/, also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of Great Britain. Orkney is 16 kilometres north of the coast of Caithness and comprises approximately 70 islands, the largest island Mainland is often referred to as the Mainland. It has an area of 523 square kilometres, making it the sixth-largest Scottish island, the largest settlement and administrative centre is Kirkwall. A form of the dates to the pre-Roman era and the islands have been inhabited for at least 8500 years, originally occupied by Mesolithic and Neolithic tribes. Orkney was invaded and forcibly annexed by Norway in 875 and settled by the Norse, the Scottish Parliament then re-annexed the earldom to the Scottish Crown in 1472, following the failed payment of a dowry for James IIIs bride Margaret of Denmark. Orkney contains some of the oldest and best-preserved Neolithic sites in Europe, Orkney is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, a constituency of the Scottish Parliament, a lieutenancy area, and a historic county. The local council is Orkney Islands Council, one of only three Councils in Scotland with a majority of elected members who are independents. In addition to the Mainland, most of the islands are in two groups, the North and South Isles, all of which have a geological base of Old Red Sandstone. The climate is mild and the soils are fertile, most of the land being farmed. Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy, the significant wind and marine energy resources are of growing importance, and the island generates more than its total yearly electricity demand using renewables. The local people are known as Orcadians and have a distinctive Orcadian dialect of Scots, there is an abundance of marine and avian wildlife. Pytheas of Massilia visited Britain – probably sometime between 322 and 285 BC – and described it as triangular in shape, with a northern tip called Orcas and this may have referred to Dunnet Head, from which Orkney is visible. Speakers of Old Irish referred to the islands as Insi Orc island of the pigs, the archipelago is known as Ynysoedd Erch in modern Welsh and Arcaibh in modern Scottish Gaelic, the -aibh representing a fossilized prepositional case ending. The Anglo-Saxon monk Bede refers to the islands as Orcades insulae in his seminal work Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Norwegian settlers arriving from the ninth century reinterpreted orc as the Old Norse orkn seal. The plural suffix -jar was later removed in English leaving the modern name Orkney, according to the Historia Norwegiæ, Orkney was named after an earl called Orkan. The Norse knew Mainland Orkney as Megenland Mainland or as Hrossey Horse Island, the island is sometimes referred to as Pomona, a name that stems from a sixteenth-century mistranslation by George Buchanan, which has rarely been used locally. A charred hazelnut shell, recovered in 2007 during excavations in Tankerness on the Mainland has been dated to 6820–6660 BC indicating the presence of Mesolithic nomadic tribes
Orkney
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Coat of arms
Orkney
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Flag
Orkney
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Blaeu's 1654 map of Orkney and Shetland. Map makers at this time continued to use the original Latin name "Orcades".
57.
RAF Bomber Command
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RAF Bomber Command controlled the RAFs bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bombing campaign against Germany became less restrictive and increasingly targeted industrial sites, in total 364,514 operational sorties were flown,1,030,500 tons of bombs were dropped and 8,325 aircraft lost in action. Bomber Command crews also suffered a casualty rate,55,573 were killed out of a total of 125,000 aircrew, a further 8,403 were wounded in action. Bomber Command stood at the peak of its military power in the 1960s, the V bombers holding the United Kingdoms nuclear deterrent. In August 2006, a memorial was unveiled at Lincoln Cathedral, a memorial in Green Park in London was unveiled by the Queen on 28 June 2012 to highlight the price paid by the aircrews. At the time of the formation of Bomber Command in 1936, Giulio Douhets slogan the bomber will always get through was popular, until advances in radar technology in the late 1930s, this statement was effectively true. Attacking bombers could not be detected early enough to assemble fighters fast enough to prevent them reaching their targets. Some damage might be done to the bombers by AA guns, and by fighters as the returned to base. Consequently, the conception of Bomber Command was as an entity that threatened the enemy with utter destruction. In 1936, Germanys increasing air power was feared by British government planners who commonly overestimated its size, reach, planners used estimates of up to 72 British deaths per tonne of bombs dropped, though this figure was grossly exaggerated. As well, the planners did not know that German bombing aircraft of the day did not have the range to reach the UK with a load of bombs, British air officers did nothing to correct these perceptions because they could see the usefulness of having a strong bombing arm. At the start of the Second World War in 1939, Bomber Command faced four problems, the first was lack of size, Bomber Command was not large enough effectively to operate as an independent strategic force. The second was rules of engagement, at the start of the war, the third problem was the Commands lack of technology, specifically radio or radar derived navigational aids to allow accurate target location at night or through cloud. The fourth problem was the accuracy of bombing, especially from high level. When the war began on 1 September 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the neutral United States, the French and British agreed to abide by the request, provided that these same rules of warfare will be scrupulously observed by all of their opponents. British policy was to restrict bombing to military targets and infrastructure, such as ports, while acknowledging that bombing Germany would cause civilian casualties, the British government renounced deliberate bombing of civilian property as a military tactic. The British abandoned this policy at the end of the Phoney War, or Sitzkrieg, on 15 May 1940, one day after the Rotterdam Blitz
RAF Bomber Command
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Bomber Command
RAF Bomber Command
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A photograph taken during a typical RAF night attack with Avro Lancasters far below
RAF Bomber Command
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97 percent of Wesel was destroyed before it was taken by Allied troops.
RAF Bomber Command
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Thor missile launch, code name "Bean Ball", Vandenberg AFB, 3 August 1959. The third of 21 Thor missiles launched by RAF crews
58.
Bombing of Cologne in World War II
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A total of 34,711 long tons of bombs were dropped on the city by the RAF. While air raid alarms had gone off in the winter/spring of 1940 as British bombers passed overhead, the most notable attack on Cologne was the first 1,000 bomber raid on 30/31 May 1942. The first ever 1,000 bomber raid by the RAF was conducted on Cologne on the night of 30/31 May 1942, the raids were useful propaganda for the Allies and particularly for RAF Bomber Command head Arthur Harriss concept of a Strategic Bombing Offensive. Bomber Commands poor performance in bombing accuracy during 1941 had led to calls for the force to be split up and diverted to other urgent theatres i. e. Battle of the Atlantic. By using bombers and men from Operational Training Units,250 from RAF Coastal Command and from Flying Training Command, however, just before the raid took place, the Royal Navy refused to allow the Coastal Command aircraft to take part in the raid. The Admiralty perceived the propaganda justifications too weak an argument against the real, in addition to the bombers attacking Cologne,113 other aircraft on Intruder raids harassed German night-fighter airfields. Cologne was not Harriss first choice, he wanted to bomb Hamburg, the recent introduction of GEE allowed the bombers to fly a given route at a given time and height. In the raid,868 aircraft bombed the target with 15 aircraft bombing other targets. The total tonnage of bombs dropped was 1,455 tons with two-thirds of that being incendiaries, two and a half thousand separate fires were started with 1,700 classed by the German fire brigades as large. The action of fire fighters and the width of the streets stopped the fires combining into a firestorm, but nonetheless most of the damage was done by fire and not directly by the explosive blasts. 3,330 non-residential buildings were destroyed,2,090 seriously damaged and 7,420 lightly damaged, the only military installation damaged was the flak barracks. The damage to homes, most of them apartments in larger buildings, was considerable,13,010 destroyed,6,360 seriously damaged,22,270 lightly damaged. The number reported killed was between 469 and 486, of whom 411 were civilians and 58 combatants,5,027 people were listed as injured and 45,132 as bombed out. It was estimated that from 135,000 to 150,000 of Colognes population of nearly 700,000 fled the city after the raid, the RAF lost 43 aircraft,3. 9% of the 1,103 bombers sent on the raid. 22 aircraft were lost over or near Cologne,16 shot down by flak,4 by night fighters,2 in a collision, a posthumous Victoria Cross was awarded to Flying Officer Leslie Thomas Manser who sacrificed himself so his crew could abandon the aircraft
Bombing of Cologne in World War II
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Cologne in 1945
Bombing of Cologne in World War II
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Innenstadt, Cologne in 1945
Bombing of Cologne in World War II
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Official British war art imagining a bombing raid on Cologne. The city's cathedral is clearly visible. It survived the war, despite being hit dozens of times by Allied bombs.
Bombing of Cologne in World War II
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RAF bomber H2S radar display from the 30/31 October 1944 Cologne attack with post-attack annotations
59.
Essen
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Essen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Its population of approximately 589,000 makes it the ninth-largest city in Germany and it is the central city of the northern part of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area and seat to several of the regions authorities. Founded around 845, Essen remained a town within the sphere of influence of an important ecclesiastical principality until the onset of industrialization. The city then — especially through the Krupp family iron works — became one of Germanys most important coal and steel centers. Essen, until the 1970s, attracted workers from all over the country, following the region-wide decline of heavy industries in the last decades of the 20th century, the city has seen the development of a strong tertiary sector of the economy. Although it is the most indebted city in Germany, Essen continues to pursue its redevelopment plans, notable accomplishments in recent years include the title of European Capital of Culture on behalf of the whole Ruhr area in 2010 and the selection as the European Green Capital for 2017. In 1958, Essen was chosen to serve as the seat to a Roman Catholic diocese, in early 2003, the universities of Essen and the nearby city of Duisburg were merged into the University of Duisburg-Essen with campuses in both cities and a university hospital in Essen. Essen is located in the centre of the Ruhr area, one of the largest urban areas in Europe, comprising eleven independent cities and four districts with some 5.3 million inhabitants. The city limits of Essen itself are 87 km long and border ten cities, five independent and five kreisangehörig, the city extends over 21 km from north to south and 17 km from west to east, mainly north of the River Ruhr. The Ruhr forms the Lake Baldeney reservoir in the boroughs of Fischlaken, Kupferdreh, the lake, a popular recreational area, dates from 1931 to 1933, when some thousands of unemployed coal miners dredged it with primitive tools. Generally, large areas south of the River Ruhr are quite green and are quoted as examples of rural structures in the otherwise relatively densely populated central Ruhr area. According to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, Essen with 9. 2% of its covered by recreational green is the greenest city in North Rhine-Westphalia. The city has been shortlisted for the title of European Green Capital two consecutive times, for 2016 and 2017, winning for 2017, the city was singled out for its exemplary practices in protecting and enhancing nature and biodiversity and efforts to reduce water consumption. Essen participates in a variety of networks and initiatives to reduce gas emissions. The lowest point can be found in the borough of Karnap at 26.5 m. The average elevation is 116 m, Essen comprises fifty boroughs which in turn are grouped into nine suburban districts often named after the most important boroughs. Each Stadtbezirk is assigned a Roman numeral and has a body of nineteen members with limited authority. Most of the boroughs were originally independent municipalities but were annexed from 1901 to 1975
Essen
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Skyline of Essen
Essen
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Despite its industrial history, Essen is generally regarded as one of Germany's greenest cities. The picture shows the borough of Kettwig, annexed in 1975.
Essen
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Essen Minster
Essen
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Alte Kirche (Old Church, built 1887), Altenessen
60.
Blockbuster bomb
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A blockbuster bomb or cookie was any of several of the largest conventional bombs used in World War II by the Royal Air Force. The bombs then called Blockbusters were the RAFs HC bombs and these bombs had especially thin casings that allowed them to contain approximately three-quarters of their weight in explosive, with a 4, 000-pound bomb containing over 3,000 pounds of Amatol. Most General-purpose bombs contained 50% explosive by weight, the rest being made up of the bomb casing. Blockbusters got larger as the war progressed, from the original 4,000 pounds version, the Mark I4000 lb bomb was a welded, cylindrical shell, made of 0. 31-inch thick steel. The body of the bomb was 30 inches in diameter and 88 inches long with a overall length of 115 inches. The nose of the bomb was conical and a 27-inch long cylindrical tail was fitted, a T-section steel beam was welded to the inner surface of the bomb to strengthen it. Subsequent Mark II and Mark III HC bombs differed in detail, the nose was replaced with a domed nose. The Mark IV bomb did not have the T-section beam, the Mark V and Mark VI bombs were versions manufactured in the United States. The larger 8,000 lb bomb was constructed from two 4,000 lb sections that together with bolts, although these sections were of a larger 38 in diameter. A12,000 lb version was created by adding a third 4,000 lb section, the 4,000 lb high capacity design was little more than a cylinder full of explosives—it was unaerodynamic and did not have fins. The same weight American 4,000 lb AN-M56 general purpose bomb was designed as its others were, with a sheet metal tailfin assembly and shaped nose. When fitted with a spoiler and a drum tail the British blockbuster bomb fell straight. These bombs were designed for their blast effect, to damage to buildings - specifically to blow roof tiles off. These high capacity bombs were used only by the RAF, being too big to fit in the bays of other aircraft. The local newspaper referred to him as Blockbuster Brooks, the 8,000 lb and the 12,000 lb could only be carried by the Avro Lancaster, slightly modified with bulged bomb-bay doors. First use of the 8,000 lb was by 15 Squadron Lancasters against Berlin on 2 December 1943, bad weather and other factors meant their effectiveness was not noted. The 4,000 lb cookie was regarded as a particularly dangerous load to carry, due to the airflow over the detonating pistols fitted in the nose, it would often explode even if dropped, i. e. jettisoned, in a supposedly safe unarmed state. We dropped it in the middle of town, which gave the aircraft a hell of a belt, lifted it up, an unusual dry period led to low river levels in the Rhine in December 2011, exposing a 4,000 lb blockbuster in the riverbed near Koblenz
Blockbuster bomb
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A Lancaster drops a “cookie” (left), incendiary bombs and bundles of incendiary bombs (right) on Duisburg on 15 October 1944
Blockbuster bomb
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57 Squadron Avro Lancaster with the "Usual" area bombing load of a "cookie" and clusters of incendiary bombs
Blockbuster bomb
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Bomb bay showing earlier "Usual" area bombardment mix of 4,000-pound "Cookie" blast bomb and 30lb incendiary bombs
Blockbuster bomb
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Disposal of a 4,000 pound blockbuster bomb dropped by the RAF during World War II. Found in the Rhine near Koblenz, 4 December 2011.
61.
Firestorm
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A firestorm is a conflagration which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system. It is most commonly a natural phenomenon, created during some of the largest bushfires and wildfires, although the word has been used to describe certain large fires, the phenomenons determining characteristic is a fire with its own storm-force winds from every point of the compass. The Black Saturday bushfires and the Great Peshtigo Fire are possible examples of forest fires with some portion of combustion due to a firestorm. A firestorm is created as a result of the effect as the heat of the original fire draws in more and more of the surrounding air. This draft can be increased if a low-level jet stream exists over or near the fire. As the updraft mushrooms, strong inwardly-directed gusty winds develop around the fire and this would seem to prevent the firestorm from spreading on the wind, but the tremendous turbulence created may also cause the strong surface inflow winds to change direction erratically. A firestorm may also develop into a mesocyclone and induce true tornadoes/fire whirls and this occurred with the 2002 Durango fire, and probably with the much greater Peshtigo Fire. The greater draft of a firestorm draws in greater quantities of oxygen, the intense heat of a firestorm manifests largely as radiated heat, which may ignite flammable material at a distance ahead of the fire itself. This also serves to expand the area and the intensity of the firestorm, the very high temperatures ignite anything that might possibly burn, until the firestorm runs low on fuel. Thus the fire front is essentially stationary and the spread of fire is prevented by the in-rushing wind. At Hiroshima, this inrushing to feed the fire is said to have prevented the firestorm perimeter from expanding, large wildfire conflagrations are distinct from firestorms if they have moving fire fronts which are driven by the ambient wind and do not develop their own wind system like true firestorms. In Australia, the prevalence of eucalyptus trees that have oil in their leaves results in forest fires that are noted for their extremely tall, hence the bush fires appear more as a firestorm than a simple forest fire. Sometimes, emission of gases from swamps has a similar effect. For instance, methane explosions enforced the Peshtigo Fire, for example, the black rain that began to fall at ~20 minutes after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima produced in total 5–10 cm of black soot-filled rain in a 1–3 hour period. Moreover, if the conditions are right, a large pyrocumulus can grow into a pyrocumulonimbus and produce lightning, apart from city and forest fires, pyrocumulus clouds can also be produced by volcanic eruptions due to the comparable amounts of hot buoyant material formed. The same underlying combustion physics can also apply to structures such as cities during war or natural disaster. Firestorms are thought to have part of the mechanism of large urban fires, such as accompanied the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Firestorms were also created by the raids of World War II in cities like Hamburg
Firestorm
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View of one of the Tillamook Burn fires in August 1933.
Firestorm
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Picture of a pyro-cumulonimbus taken from a commercial airliner cruising at about 10 km. In 2002 various sensing instruments detected 17 distinct pyrocumulonimbus cloud events in North America alone.
Firestorm
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Braunschweig burning after aerial firebombing attack in 1944. Notice that a firestorm event has yet to develop in this picture, as single isolated fires are seen burning, and not the single large mass fire that is the identifying characteristic of a firestorm.
Firestorm
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Hiroshima after the bombing and firestorm. No known aerial photography of the firestorm exists.
62.
Bombing of Hamburg in World War II
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The Allied bombing of Hamburg during World War II included numerous strategic bombing missions and diversion/nuisance raids. As a large port and industrial centre, Hamburgs shipyards, U-boat pens, before the development of the firestorm in Hamburg there had been no rain for some time and everything was very dry. Various other previously used techniques and devices were instrumental as well, such as bombing, Pathfinders, and H2S radar. The raids inflicted severe damage to German armaments production in Hamburg, – Genesis 19,24 The Battle of Hamburg, codenamed Operation Gomorrah, was a campaign of air raids beginning 24 July 1943 and lasting for 8 days and 7 nights. It was at the time the heaviest assault in the history of warfare and was later called the Hiroshima of Germany by British officials. Until the focus of RAF Bomber Command switched to Hamburg it had been on the Ruhr industrial region which had been the target of a five-month-long campaign, the operation was conducted by RAF Bomber Command and the USAAF Eighth Air Force. The British conducted night raids and the USAAF daylight raids, No 35 Squadron led the target marking and, thanks to the clear weather and H2S radar navigation, accuracy was good, with markers falling close to the aiming point. On 24 July, at approximately 00,57, the first bombing started by the RAF, the confusion caused to German radar kept losses of aircraft low. A second, daylight raid, by the USAAF was conducted at 16,40 and it had been intended for 300 aircraft to attack Hamburg and Hanover but problems with assembling the force in the air meant that only 90 B-17 Flying Fortresses reached Hamburg. The bombers attacked the Blohm and Voss shipyard and an aero-engine factory, in return the shipyard was not badly damaged and the aero-engine manufacturer could not be seen for smoke. RAF Mosquitos of the Light Night Striking Force carried out raids to keep the city on a state of alert. Extra firemen were brought in other cities including Hanover, as a result when the US bombers attacked. Another attack by the RAF on Hamburg for that night was cancelled due to the problems the smoke would cause and 700 bombers raided Essen instead, Mosquitos carried out another nuisance raid. A third raid was conducted on the morning of the 26th and that attack is often not counted when the total number of Operation Gomorrah attacks is given. There was no day raid on the 27th, on the night of 27 July, shortly before midnight,787 RAF aircraft—74 Wellingtons,116 Stirlings,244 Halifaxes and 353 Lancasters— bombed Hamburg. Asphalt streets burst into flame, and fuel oil from damaged and destroyed ships, barges and storage tanks spilled into the water of the canals, the majority of deaths attributed to Operation Gomorrah occurred on this night. A large number of those killed died seeking safety in bomb shelters and cellars, on the night of 29 July, Hamburg was again attacked by over 700 RAF aircraft. A planned raid on 31 July was cancelled due to thunderstorms over the UK, the last raid of Operation Gomorrah was conducted on 3 August
Bombing of Hamburg in World War II
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Typical bomb damage in the Eilbek district of Hamburg, 1944 or 1945
Bombing of Hamburg in World War II
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Lancaster over Hamburg, 30/31 January 1943
Bombing of Hamburg in World War II
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Sculpture at the main memorial, Nikolaikirche ruins.
63.
Bombing of Darmstadt in World War II
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Darmstadt was bombed a number of times during World War II. The most devastating air raid on Darmstadt occurred on the night of 11/12 September 1944 when No.5 Group of the Royal Air Force bombed the city,66,000 of the 110,000 inhabitants of Darmstadt at the time became homeless. Darmstadt lost between 12,500 and 13,500 inhabitants during World War II, the calligraphic memorial Darmstädter Brandnamen lists about 4,000 names. Darmstadt had several major industrial targets including Merck and Rohm and Haas chemical works as well as military communications networks. On the night of 24/25 April 1944, some RAF planes bombed Darmstadt and other towns when, due to low cloud, they failed to find the main target of the night which was Karlsruhe. An attack on the night of 25/26 August 1944 by No.5 Group RAF failed when the Master Bomber had to return to base, the pathfinder Illuminating Force flares fell too far west. As a result, most of the Main Force did not bomb at all, the few bombs which hit the town hit 95 buildings and killed 8 people. Following the main raid another diversionary raid by 4 Mosquitos was made on the night of 23/24 February 1945 to draw night fighters away from the target of Pforzheim. The raid was to incorporate a new technique where, instead of flying along a single path across the target. The intention was to spread the bombload. The attack started a fire in the centre and in the districts immediately to the south. The destruction of dwellings in this area was almost complete, the raid killed as many as 12,300 inhabitants and rendered 66,000 homeless from a population of 110,000. The RAF lost 12 Lancasters,5.3 per cent of the bomber force, among industries known to the RAF in Darmstadt, the Rohm and Haas chemical works was not destroyed, while the E. Merck chemical works was damaged, and additional damage resulted in a loss of production of about 1 months work by the local metal production and fabrication industry. Hastings, Max, Bomber Command, ISBN 0-7181-1603-8 James Stern, eine Reise im besetzten Deutschland 1945. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-8218-0749-0, dokumente von der Zerstörung Darmstadts am 11. Friedrich, Jörg, Titel, Der Brand,2002,11, the maasgrave and memorial site at the Darmstadt Waldfriedhof Pictures of the destroyed city Durmstädter Brandnamen, a calligraphic memorial
Bombing of Darmstadt in World War II
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The Luisenplace in Darmstadt (Citycenter) after the bombing raid
Bombing of Darmstadt in World War II
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Aerial photograph of the western part of Darmstadt(Poststrike)
64.
Caen
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Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department, the city proper has 108,365 inhabitants, while its urban area has 420,000, making Caen the largest city in former Lower Normandy. It is also the second largest municipality in all of Normandy after Le Havre, the metropolitan area of Caen, in turn, is the second largest in Normandy after that of Rouen, the 21st largest in France. It is located 15 kilometres inland from the English Channel, two hours north-west of Paris, and connected to the south of England by the Caen--Portsmouth ferry route. Caen is located in the centre of its region, and it is a centre of political, economic. Located a few miles from the coast, the landing beaches, the city has now preserved the memory by erecting a memorial and a museum dedicated to peace, the Memorial de Caen. Current arms, Gules, an open castle Or, windowed and masoned sable. Under the Ancien Régime, Per fess, gules and azure,3 fleurs de lys Or, during the First French Empire, Gules, a single-towered castle Or, a chief of Good Imperial Cities. Today, Caen has no motto, but it used to have one, as a result, its spelling is archaic and has not been updated, Un Dieu, un Roy, une Foy, une Loy. This motto is reflected in a notable old Chant royal, Caens home port code is CN In 1346, King Edward III of England led his army against the city, hoping to loot it. During the attack, English officials searched its archives and found a copy of the 1339 Franco-Norman plot to invade England, devised by Philip VI of France and this was subsequently used as propaganda to justify the supplying and financing of the conflict and its continuation. Only the castle of Caen held out, despite attempts to besiege it, a few days later, the English left, marching to the east and on to their victory at the Battle of Crécy. It was later captured by Henry V in 1417 and treated harshly for being the first town to put up any resistance to his invasion. During the Battle of Normandy in the Second World War, Caen was liberated from the Nazis in early July, British and Canadian troops had intended to capture the town on D-Day. However they were held up north of the city until 9 July, the Allies seized the western quarters, a month later than Field Marshal Montgomerys original plan. During the battle, many of the inhabitants sought refuge in the Abbaye aux Hommes. Both the cathedral and the university were destroyed by the British. Post-Second World War work included the reconstruction of complete districts of the city and it took 14 years and led to the current urbanization of Caen
Caen
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View of downtown Caen and the Abbey of St. Étienne
Caen
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Ruins of Caen
Caen
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Hôtel d'Escoville, 16th century, Caen
Caen
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Anonymous pen-and-ink bird's-eye view of the fortifications of Caen (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris)
65.
Milan
–
Milan is a city in Italy, capital of the Lombardy region, and the most populous metropolitan area and the second most populous comune in Italy. The population of the city proper is 1,351,000, Milan has a population of about 8,500,000 people. It is the industrial and financial centre of Italy and one of global significance. In terms of GDP, it has the largest economy among European non-capital cities, Milan is considered part of the Blue Banana and lies at the heart of one of the Four Motors for Europe. Milan is an Alpha leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, design, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, services, research, and tourism. Its business district hosts Italys Stock Exchange and the headquarters of the largest national and international banks, the city is a major world fashion and design capital, well known for several international events and fairs, including Milan Fashion Week and the Milan Furniture Fair. The city hosts numerous cultural institutions, academies and universities, with 11% of the national total enrolled students, Milans museums, theatres and landmarks attract over 9 million visitors annually. Milan – after Naples – is the second Italian city with the highest number of accredited stars from the Michelin Guide, the city hosted the Universal Exposition in 1906 and 2015. Milan is home to two of Europes major football teams, A. C. Milan and F. C. Internazionale, the etymology of Milan is uncertain. One theory holds that the Latin name Mediolanum comes from the Latin words medio, however, some scholars believe lanum comes from the Celtic root lan, meaning an enclosure or demarcated territory in which Celtic communities used to build shrines. Hence, Mediolanum could signify the central town or sanctuary of a Celtic tribe, indeed, the name Mediolanum is borne by about sixty Gallo-Roman sites in France, e. g. Saintes and Évreux. Alciato credits Ambrose for his account, around 400 BC, the Celtic Insubres settled Milan and the surrounding region. In 222 BC, the Romans conquered the settlement, renaming it Mediolanum, Milan was eventually declared the capital of the Western Roman Empire by Emperor Diocletian in 286 AD. Diocletian chose to stay in the Eastern Roman Empire and his colleague Maximianus ruled the Western one, immediately Maximian built several monuments, such as a large circus 470 m ×85 m, the Thermae Herculeae, a large complex of imperial palaces and several other buildings. With the Edict of Milan of 313, Emperor Constantine I guaranteed freedom of religion for Christians, after the city was besieged by the Visigoths in 402, the imperial residence was moved to Ravenna. In 452, the Huns overran the city, in 539, the Ostrogoths conquered and destroyed Milan during the Gothic War against Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. In the summer of 569, a Teutonic tribe, the Lombards, conquered Milan, some Roman structures remained in use in Milan under Lombard rule. Milan surrendered to the Franks in 774 when Charlemagne took the title of King of the Lombards, the Iron Crown of Lombardy dates from this period
Milan
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Milan Cathedral, La Scala opera house and Porta Nuova business district
Milan
Milan
Milan
66.
Turin
–
Turin is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region and was the first capital city of Italy. The city is located mainly on the bank of the Po River, in front of Susa Valley and surrounded by the western Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 892,649 while the population of the area is estimated by Eurostat to be 1.7 million inhabitants. The Turin metropolitan area is estimated by the OECD to have a population of 2.2 million, in 1997 a part of the historical center of Torino was inscribed in the World Heritage List under the name Residences of the Royal House of Savoy. Turin is well known for its Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neo-classical, many of Turins public squares, castles, gardens and elegant palazzi such as Palazzo Madama, were built between the 16th and 18th centuries. This was after the capital of the Duchy of Savoy was moved to Turin from Chambery as part of the urban expansion, the city used to be a major European political center. Turin was Italys first capital city in 1861 and home to the House of Savoy, from 1563, it was the capital of the Duchy of Savoy, then of the Kingdom of Sardinia ruled by the Royal House of Savoy and finally the first capital of the unified Italy. Turin is sometimes called the cradle of Italian liberty for having been the birthplace and home of notable politicians and people who contributed to the Risorgimento, such as Cavour. The city currently hosts some of Italys best universities, colleges, academies, lycea and gymnasia, such as the University of Turin, founded in the 15th century, in addition, the city is home to museums such as the Museo Egizio and the Mole Antonelliana. Turins attractions make it one of the worlds top 250 tourist destinations, Turin is ranked third in Italy, after Milan and Rome, for economic strength. With a GDP of $58 billion, Turin is the worlds 78th richest city by purchasing power, as of 2010, the city has been ranked by GaWC as a Gamma World city. Turin is also home to much of the Italian automotive industry, the Taurini were an ancient Celto-Ligurian Alpine people, who occupied the upper valley of the Po River, in the center of modern Piedmont. In 218 BC, they were attacked by Hannibal as he was allied with their long-standing enemies, the Taurini chief town was captured by Hannibals forces after a three-day siege. As a people they are mentioned in history. It is believed that a Roman colony was established in 27 BC under the name of Castra Taurinorum, both Livy and Strabo mention the Taurinis country as including one of the passes of the Alps, which points to a wider use of the name in earlier times. In the 1st century BC, the Romans created a military camp, the typical Roman street grid can still be seen in the modern city, especially in the neighborhood known as the Quadrilatero Romano. Via Garibaldi traces the path of the Roman citys decumanus which began at the Porta Decumani. The Porta Palatina, on the side of the current city centre, is still preserved in a park near the Cathedral
Turin
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From top to bottom, left to right: panorama of the Mole Antonelliana, Valentino Park with the medieval village, Piazza Castello with Palazzo Reale and Palazzo Madama, San Carlo Plaza with the Caval ëd Bronz, the Arco Olimpico and the Lingotto, the sarcophagus of Oki at the Egyptian Museum, a view of the hills, the Po, the Gran Madre, the Monte of Cappuccini and Palatine Towers.
Turin
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The Roman Palatine Towers.
Turin
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Siege of Turin
Turin
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Turin in the 17th century.
67.
Yugoslavia
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Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe during most of the 20th century. The Serbian royal House of Karađorđević became the Yugoslav royal dynasty, Yugoslavia gained international recognition on 13 July 1922 at the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris. The country was named after the South Slavic peoples and constituted their first union, following centuries in which the territories had been part of the Ottoman Empire, renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929, it was invaded by the Axis powers on 6 April 1941. In 1943, a Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was proclaimed by the Partisan resistance, in 1944, the king recognised it as the legitimate government, but in November 1945 the monarchy was abolished. Yugoslavia was renamed the Federal Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia in 1946 and it acquired the territories of Istria, Rijeka, and Zadar from Italy. Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito ruled the country as president until his death in 1980, in 1963, the country was renamed again as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The constituent six socialist republics that made up the country were the SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SR Croatia, SR Macedonia, SR Montenegro, SR Serbia, and SR Slovenia. Serbia contained two Socialist Autonomous Provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo, which after 1974 were largely equal to the members of the federation. After an economic and political crisis in the 1980s and the rise of nationalism, Yugoslavia broke up along its republics borders, at first into five countries, eventually, Serbia and Montenegro accepted the opinion of the Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession. Serbia and Montenegro themselves broke up in 2006 and became independent states, the concept of Yugoslavia, as a single state for all South Slavic peoples, emerged in the late 17th century and gained prominence through the Illyrian Movement of the 19th century. The name was created by the combination of the Slavic words jug, Yugoslavia was the result of the Corfu Declaration, as a project of the Serbian Parliament in exile and the Serbian royal Karađorđević dynasty, who became the Yugoslav royal dynasty. The country was formed in 1918 immediately after World War I as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by union of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and it was commonly referred to at the time as the Versailles state. Later, the government renamed the country leading to the first official use of Yugoslavia in 1929, on 6 January 1929 King Alexander I suspended the constitution, banned national political parties, assumed executive power and renamed the country Yugoslavia. He hoped to curb separatist tendencies and mitigate nationalist passions and he imposed a new constitution and relinquished his dictatorship in 1931. None of these three regimes favored the policy pursued by Alexander I, Alexander attempted to create a centralised Yugoslavia. He decided to abolish Yugoslavias historic regions, and new internal boundaries were drawn for provinces or banovinas, the banovinas were named after rivers. Many politicians were jailed or kept under police surveillance, the effect of Alexanders dictatorship was to further alienate the non-Serbs from the idea of unity. During his reign the flags of Yugoslav nations were banned, Alexander was succeeded by his eleven-year-old son Peter II and a regency council headed by his cousin, Prince Paul
Yugoslavia
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Partisan Stjepan Filipović shouting "Death to fascism, freedom to the people!" shortly before his execution
Yugoslavia
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Marshal Josip Broz Tito
68.
Bucharest
–
Bucharest is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, at 44°25′57″N 26°06′14″E, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than 60 km north of the Danube River, Bucharest was first mentioned in documents in 1459. It became the capital of Romania in 1862 and is the centre of Romanian media, culture and its architecture is a mix of historical, interbellum, communist-era and modern. In the period between the two World Wars, the citys elegant architecture and the sophistication of its elite earned Bucharest the nickname of Little Paris. Although buildings and districts in the city centre were heavily damaged or destroyed by war, earthquakes. In recent years, the city has been experiencing an economic, in 2016, the historical city centre was listed as endangered by the World Monuments Watch. According to the 2011 census,1,883,425 inhabitants live within the city limits, the urban area extends beyond the limits of Bucharest proper and has a population of about 1.9 million people. Adding the satellite towns around the area, the proposed metropolitan area of Bucharest would have a population of 2.27 million people. According to Eurostat, Bucharest has an urban zone of 2,183,091 residents. According to unofficial data, the population is more than 3 million, Bucharest is the sixth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits, after London, Berlin, Madrid, Rome, and Paris. Economically, Bucharest is the most prosperous city in Romania and is one of the industrial centres. The city has big convention facilities, educational institutes, cultural venues, traditional shopping arcades, the Romanian name București has an uncertain origin. Tradition connects the founding of Bucharest with the name of Bucur, who was a prince, an outlaw, a fisherman, in Romanian, the word stem bucurie means joy, and it is believed to be of Dacian origin. Other etymologies are given by scholars, including the one of an Ottoman traveler, Evliya Çelebi. A native or resident of Bucharest is called a Bucharester, Bucharests history alternated periods of development and decline from the early settlements in antiquity until its consolidation as the national capital of Romania late in the 19th century. First mentioned as the Citadel of București in 1459, it became the residence of the famous Wallachian prince Vlad III the Impaler, the Ottomans appointed Greek administrators to run the town from the 18th century. A short-lived revolt initiated by Tudor Vladimirescu in 1821 led to the end of the rule of Constantinople Greeks in Bucharest, the Old Princely Court was erected by Mircea Ciobanul in the mid-16th century. Under subsequent rulers, Bucharest was established as the residence of the royal court
Bucharest
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Clockwise, from top: Palace of the Parliament (Palatul Parlamentului) • Romanian Athenaeum (Ateneul Român) • Palace of Justice (Palatul Justiției) • Grozăvești Bridge (Podul Grozăvești) • Victory Avenue (Calea Victoriei)
Bucharest
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Early 18th century woodcut (1717)
Bucharest
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Ottoman massacre of Greek irregulars in Bucharest (August 1821)
Bucharest
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I.C. Brătianu Boulevard in the 1930s
69.
Stalingrad
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Volgograd, formerly Tsaritsyn, 1589–1925, and Stalingrad, 1925–1961, is an important industrial city and the administrative center of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. It is 80 kilometers long, north to south and is situated on the bank of the Volga River, after which the city was named. The city became famous for its resistance during the Battle of Stalingrad against the German Army in World War II and it is often regarded as the largest and bloodiest battle in the history of warfare. Although the city may have originated in 1555, documented evidence of Tsaritsyn located at the confluence of the Tsaritsa, grigori Zasekin established the fortress Sary Su as part of the defences of the unstable southern border of the Tsardom of Russia. The structure stood slightly above the mouth of the Tsaritsa River on the right bank and it soon became the nucleus of a trading settlement. In 1607 the fortress garrison rebelled against the troops of Tsar Vasili Shuisky for six months, in 1608 the city acquired its first stone church, St. John the Baptist. At the beginning of the 17th century, the garrison consisted of 350 to 400 people, in 1670 troops of Stepan Razin captured the fortress, they left after a month. In 1708 the insurgent Cossack Kondraty Bulavin held the fortress, in 1717 in the Kuban pogrom, raiders from the Kuban under the command of the Crimean Tatar Bakhti Gerai blockaded the town and enslaved thousands in the area. In August 1774 Yemelyan Pugachev unsuccessfully attempted to storm the city, in 1708 Tsaritsyn was assigned to the Kazan Governorate, in 1719 to the Astrakhan Governorate. According to the census in 1720, the city had a population of 408 people, in 1773 the city became the provincial and district town. From 1779 it belonged to the Saratov Viceroyalty, in 1780 the city came under the newly established Saratov Governorate. In the 19th century Tsaritsyn became an important river-port and commercial center, the population expanded rapidly, increasing from fewer than 3,000 people in 1807 to about 84,000 in 1900. The first railroad reached the town in 1862, the first theatre opened in 1872, the first cinema in 1907. In 1913 Tsaritsyn got its first tram-line, and the citys first electric lights were installed in the city center, during the Russian Civil War of 1917-1923, Tsaritsyn came under Soviet control from November 1917. In 1918 White troops under the Ataman of the Don Cossack Host, Pyotr Krasnov, the Reds repulsed three assaults by the Whites. However, in June 1919 the White Armed Forces of South Russia under the command of General Denikin captured Tsaritsyn, the fighting from July 1918 to January 1920 became known as the Battle for Tsaritsyn. The city was renamed Stalingrad after Joseph Stalin on April 10,1925 and this was officially to recognize the citys and Stalins role in its defense against the Whites between 1918 and 1920. In 1931, the German settlement-colony Old Sarepta became a district of Stalingrad, renamed Krasnoarmeysky Rayon, it became the largest area of the city
Stalingrad
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Mamayev Kurgan with the The Motherland Statue
Stalingrad
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Map of Tsaritsyn (Volgograd) City map, Russian edition on 1909
Stalingrad
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City tram on Gogolya Street in 1914
Stalingrad
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Volgograd on the 1979 map
70.
Battle of Stalingrad
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Marked by fierce close quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians by air raids, it is often regarded as one of the single largest and bloodiest battles in the history of warfare. German forces never regained the initiative in the East and withdrew a vast military force from the West to replace their losses, the German offensive to capture Stalingrad began in August 1942, using the German 6th Army and elements of the 4th Panzer Army. The attack was supported by intensive Luftwaffe bombing that reduced much of the city to rubble, the fighting degenerated into house-to-house fighting, and both sides poured reinforcements into the city. By mid-November 1942, the Germans had pushed the Soviet defenders back at great cost into narrow zones along the west bank of the Volga River. On 19 November 1942, the Red Army launched Operation Uranus, the Axis forces on the flanks were overrun and the 6th Army was cut off and surrounded in the Stalingrad area. Adolf Hitler ordered that the stay in Stalingrad and make no attempt to break out, instead, attempts were made to supply the army by air. Heavy fighting continued for two months. By the beginning of February 1943, the Axis forces in Stalingrad had exhausted their ammunition, the remaining units of the 6th Army surrendered. The battle lasted five months, one week, and three days, elsewhere, the war had been progressing well, the U-boat offensive in the Atlantic had been very successful and Rommel had just captured Tobruk. In the east, they had stabilized their front in a running from Leningrad in the north to Rostov in the south. There were a number of salients, but these were not particularly threatening, neither Army Group North nor Army Group South had been particularly hard pressed over the winter. Stalin was expecting the main thrust of the German summer attacks to be directed against Moscow again, with the initial operations being very successful, the Germans decided that their summer campaign in 1942 would be directed at the southern parts of the Soviet Union. The initial objectives in the region around Stalingrad were the destruction of the capacity of the city. The river was a key route from the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea to central Russia and its capture would disrupt commercial river traffic. The Germans cut the pipeline from the oilfields when they captured Rostov on 23 July, the capture of Stalingrad would make the delivery of Lend Lease supplies via the Persian Corridor much more difficult. On 23 July 1942, Hitler personally rewrote the operational objectives for the 1942 campaign, both sides began to attach propaganda value to the city based on it bearing the name of the leader of the Soviet Union. The expansion of objectives was a significant factor in Germanys failure at Stalingrad, caused by German overconfidence, the Soviets realized that they were under tremendous constraints of time and resources and ordered that anyone strong enough to hold a rifle be sent to fight. If I do not get the oil of Maikop and Grozny then I must finish this war, Army Group South was selected for a sprint forward through the southern Russian steppes into the Caucasus to capture the vital Soviet oil fields there
Battle of Stalingrad
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Soviet soldier waving the Red Banner over the central plaza of Stalingrad in 1943.
Battle of Stalingrad
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Infantry and a supporting StuG III assault gun advance towards the city center.
Battle of Stalingrad
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October 1942: German officer with a Russian PPSh-41 submachine gun in Barrikady factory rubble. Many German soldiers took up Russian weapons when found, as they were more effective than their own in close quarter combat.
Battle of Stalingrad
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German soldiers on their way in Stalingrad
71.
Leningrad
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Saint Petersburg is Russias second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject, situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 271703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, between 1713 and 1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the government bodies moved to Moscow. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saint Petersburg is home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of consulates, international corporations, banks. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress, at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, in a then called Ingermanland. A small town called Nyen grew up around it, Peter the Great was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, and he intended to have Russia gain a seaport in order to be able to trade with other maritime nations. He needed a better seaport than Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea to the north, on May 1703121703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans, and soon replaced the fortress. On May 271703, closer to the estuary 5 km inland from the gulf), on Zayachy Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia, tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712,9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war, he referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital as early as 1704. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the bank of the Neva, near the Peter. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan, by 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed, but is evident in the layout of the streets, in 1716, Peter the Great appointed French Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great, in 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two. His endeavours to modernize Russia had met opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life
Leningrad
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Top left to bottom right: Peter and Paul Fortress on Zayachy Island, Smolny Cathedral, Moyka river with the General Staff Building, Trinity Cathedral, Bronze Horseman on Senate Square, and the Winter Palace.
Leningrad
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The Bronze Horseman, monument to Peter the Great
Leningrad
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Palace Square backed by the General Staff arch and building, as the main square of the Russian Empire it was the setting of many events of historic significance
Leningrad
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Map of Saint Petersburg, 1903
72.
Soviet Air Force
–
The Soviet Air Forces was the official designation of one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces, the Air Forces were formed from components of the Imperial Russian Air Service in 1917, and faced their greatest test during World War II. The groups were involved in the Korean War, and dissolved along with the Soviet Union itself in 1991–92. Former Soviet Air Forces assets were divided into several air forces of former Soviet republics. March of the Pilots was its anthem, the All-Russia Collegium for Direction of the Air Forces of the Old Army was formed on 20 December 1917. This was a Bolshevik aerial headquarters initially led by Konstantin Akashev and it became the Directorate of the USSR Air Forces on 28 March 1924, and then the Directorate of the Workers-Peasants Red Army Air Forces on 1 January 1925. Gradually its influence on aircraft design became greater, from its earliest days, the force mimicked ground forces organization especially in the 1930s, by which time it was made up of air armies, aviation corps, aviation divisions, and aviation regiments. At first, the I-16 proved superior to any Luftwaffe fighters, however, the Soviets refused to supply the plane in adequate numbers, and their aerial victories were soon squandered because of their limited use. Later, Bf-109s delivered to Francos Spanish Nationalist air forces secured air superiority for the Nationalists, on 19 November 1939, VVS headquarters was again titled the Main Directorate of the Red Army Air Forces under the WPRA HQ. Between 1933 and 1938, the Soviet government planned and funded missions to break numerous world aviation records, not only did aviation records and achievements become demonstrations of the USSRs technological progress, they also served as legitimization of the socialist system. With each new success, Soviet press trumpeted victories for socialism, furthermore, Soviet media idolized record-breaking pilots, exalting them not only as role models for Soviet society, but also as symbols of progress towards the socialist-utopian future. The early 1930s saw a shift in focus away from collectivist propaganda. In the case of aviation, the government began glorifying people who utilized aviation technology instead of glorifying the technology itself. Pilots such as Valery Chkalov, Georgy Baydukov, Alexander Belyakov, in May 1937, Stalin charged pilots Chkalov, Baydukov, and Belyakov with the mission to navigate the first transpolar flight in history. On 20 June 1937, the aviators landed their ANT-25 in Vancouver, a month later, Stalin ordered the departure of a second crew to push the boundaries of modern aviation technology even further. The public reaction to the flights was euphoric. The media called the pilots Bolshevik knights of culture and progress, Soviet citizens celebrated Aviation Day on 18 August with as much zeal as they celebrated the October Revolution anniversary. Literature including poems, short stories, and novels emerged celebrating the feats of the aviator-celebrities, feature films like Victory, Tales of Heroic Aviators, and Valery Chkalov reinforced the positive hero imagery, celebrating the aviators individuality within the context of a socialist government
Soviet Air Force
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Soviet Tu-95 escorted by U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcat
Soviet Air Force
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Flag of the Soviet Air Force
Soviet Air Force
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An air-to-air right underside rear view of a Soviet MiG-25 Foxbat aircraft carrying four AA-6 Acrid missiles
Soviet Air Force
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Soviet MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter aircraft in 1989.
73.
Air raids on Japan
–
Allied forces conducted many air raids on Japan during World War II, causing extensive destruction to the countrys cities and killing between 241,000 and 900,000 people. During the first years of the Pacific War these attacks were limited to the Doolittle Raid in April 1942, Strategic bombing raids began in June 1944 and continued until the end of the war in August 1945. Allied naval and land-based tactical air units also attacked Japan during 1945, the United States military air campaign waged against Japan began in earnest in mid-1944 and intensified during the wars last months. While plans for attacks on Japan had been prepared prior to the Pacific War, from June 1944 until January 1945, B-29s stationed in India staged through bases in China to make a series of raids on Japan, but this effort proved unsuccessful. The strategic bombing campaign was expanded from November 1944 when bases in the Mariana Islands became available as a result of the Mariana Islands Campaign. Aircraft flying from Allied aircraft carriers and the Ryukyu Islands also frequently struck targets in Japan during 1945 in preparation for the invasion of Japan scheduled for October 1945. During early August 1945, the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were struck, Japans military and civil defenses were unable to stop the Allied attacks. Fuel shortages, inadequate training, and a lack of coordination between units also constrained the effectiveness of the fighter force. Despite the vulnerability of Japanese cities to firebombing attacks, the firefighting services lacked training and equipment, as a result, the B-29s were able to inflict severe damage on urban areas while suffering few losses. The Allied bombing campaign was one of the factors which influenced the Japanese governments decision to surrender in mid-August 1945. However, there has been a debate over the morality of the attacks on Japanese cities. The most commonly cited estimate of Japanese casualties from the raids is 333,000 killed and 473,000 wounded, there are a number of other estimates of total fatalities, however, which range from 241,000 to 900,000. In addition to the loss of civilian life, the raids contributed to a large decline in industrial production. The United States Army Air Corps began developing plans for an air campaign against Japan during 1940. The first American Volunteer Group began operations as part of the Chinese Air Force in late 1941 using P-40 Warhawk fighter aircraft, a second American Volunteer Group was also formed in late 1941 to attack Japan from bases in China using Hudson and A-20 Havoc medium bombers. The attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 led to hostilities between the US and Japan and ended the need for covert operations, however, and this unit did not become active. The small number of Second Air Volunteer Group personnel who were dispatched from the United States in November 1941 were diverted to Australia upon the outbreak of war. Before the outbreak of war, the USAAF had planned to bomb Japan from Wake Island, Guam, the Philippines and coastal areas in China
Air raids on Japan
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B-29 Superfortress bombers dropping incendiary bombs on Yokohama during May 1945
Air raids on Japan
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An air-raid shelter being built in Japan, September 1940
Air raids on Japan
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A B-25 Mitchell taking off from USS Hornet on 18 April 1942
Air raids on Japan
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Locations of B-29 bomber bases in China and the main targets they attacked in East Asia during Operation Matterhorn
74.
Nagasaki, Nagasaki
–
Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Part of Nagasaki was home to a major Imperial Japanese Navy base during the First Sino-Japanese War, during World War II, the American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki made Nagasaki the second and, to date, last city in the world to experience a nuclear attack. As of 1 January 2009, the city has an population of 446,007. The total area is 406.35 km², a small fishing village set in a secluded harbor, Nagasaki had little historical significance until contact with Portuguese explorers in 1543. An early visitor was Fernão Mendes Pinto, who came on a Portuguese ship which landed nearby in Tanegashima and his followers who remained behind converted a number of daimyōs. The most notable among them was Ōmura Sumitada, the little harbor village quickly grew into a diverse port city, and Portuguese products imported through Nagasaki were assimilated into popular Japanese culture. The Portuguese also brought them many goods from China. Thus, for a period after 1580, the city of Nagasaki was a Jesuit colony, under their administrative. It was administered by the captain of the Portuguese black ship, the highest representative of the Portuguese Crown and it became a refuge for Christians escaping maltreatment in other regions of Japan. In 1587, however, Toyotomi Hideyoshis campaign to unify the country arrived in Kyūshū, however, the expulsion order went largely unenforced, and the fact remained that most of Nagasakis population remained openly practicing Catholic. In 1596, the Spanish ship San Felipe was wrecked off the coast of Shikoku, in response, Hideyoshi ordered the crucifixions of twenty-six Catholics in Nagasaki on February 5 of that year. Portuguese traders were not ostracized, however, and so the city continued to thrive, in 1602, Augustinian missionaries also arrived in Japan, and when Tokugawa Ieyasu took power in 1603, Catholicism was still tolerated. Many Catholic daimyōs had been allies at the Battle of Sekigahara. Once Osaka Castle had been taken and Toyotomi Hideyoshis offspring killed, though, in addition, the Dutch and English presence allowed trade without religious strings attached. Thus, in 1614, Catholicism was officially banned and all missionaries ordered to leave, most Catholic daimyo apostatized, and forced their subjects to do so, although a few would not renounce the religion and left the country for Macau, Luzon and Japantowns in Southeast Asia. A brutal campaign of persecution followed, with thousands of converts across Kyūshū and other parts of Japan killed, tortured, catholicisms last gasp as an open religion and the last major military action in Japan until the Meiji Restoration was the Shimabara Rebellion of 1637. Consequently, in Tokugawa society the word Shimabara solidified the connection between Christianity and disloyalty, constantly used again and again in Tokugawa propaganda, the Shimabara Rebellion also convinced many policy-makers that foreign influences were more trouble than they were worth, leading to the national isolation policy. The Great Fire of Nagasaki destroyed much of the city in 1663, including the Mazu shrine at the Kofukuji Temple patronized by the Chinese sailors, in 1720 the ban on Dutch books was lifted, causing hundreds of scholars to flood into Nagasaki to study European science and art
Nagasaki, Nagasaki
Nagasaki, Nagasaki
Nagasaki, Nagasaki
Nagasaki, Nagasaki
75.
Bombing of Singapore (1941)
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The bombing of Singapore was an attack on 8 December 1941 by seventeen G3M Nell bombers of Mihoro Air Group, Imperial Japanese Navy, flying from Thu Dau Mot in southern Indochina. The attack began at around 0430, shortly after Japanese forces landed on Kota Bharu and it was the first knowledge the Singapore population had that war had broken out in the Far East. The attack on Singapore was assigned to 34 bombers of Genzan Air Group and 31 bombers of Mihoro Air Group and their targets were RAF Tengah, RAF Seletar, Sembawang Naval Base and Keppel Harbour. Six squadrons from both air groups took off from southern Indochina on the night of 7 December 1941, however, bad weather conditions were encountered while over the South China Sea. Thick clouds offered poor visibility for the pilots, while rough winds caused most of the formations to become separated, only seventeen G3M bombers of Mihoro Air Group reached Singapore on schedule, unobstructed by bad weather. The Japanese formation was detected by a station in Mersing, Malaya. Three Brewster Buffalo fighters of No.453 Squadron RAAF were on standby at RAF Sembawang, however, Flight Lieutenant Tim Vigors request to scramble and intercept the Japanese bombers was denied. Air Chief Marshal Robert Brooke-Popham feared that the batteries would fire on the friendly fighters. He was supplemented by the belief that the Buffalo fighter was only suited for daylight fighting, paradoxically, there were 12 Bristol Blenheim Mark IF night fighters of No.27 Squadron RAF stationed in Sungai Petani, Malaya, but were being used as ground-attack aircraft. The streets were brightly lit despite air raid sirens going off at 0400. Air Raid Precautions Headquarters was not even manned, and there was no blackout as police, when the bombers began their attack at 0430, Allied anti-aircraft guns immediately opened fire. The battleship Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse also responded, a formation of nine bombers flew over without releasing their bombs to draw the searchlights and anti-aircraft guns away from the other group. They were flying at 12,000 feet, while the formation was at 4,000 feet. The Raiders Passed signal was sent out at 0500, the bombers succeeded in bombing the airfields at Seletar and Tengah, damaging three Bristol Blenheim bombers of No.34 Squadron RAF. A number of bombs fell on Raffles Place. 61 people were killed and more than 700 were injured, most of the casualties were troops of the 2/2nd Gurkha Rifles, 11th Indian Infantry Division. The Japanese bombers all returned safely to Thu Dau Mot, though the bombing caused only minor damage to the airfields, it stunned the British Far East Command. The raid came as a surprise to Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, Singapore had respite from further air raids while the Japanese focussed their attacks on Allied positions in northern Malaya
Bombing of Singapore (1941)
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A dead civilian lying on the floor of a five-foot way along South Bridge Road, victim of the Japanese air attack on Singapore.
Bombing of Singapore (1941)
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Mitsubishi G3M Nell of Mihoro Air Group, with underwing ordnance.
Bombing of Singapore (1941)
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Civilians hiding in an air raid shelter at Tiong Bahru Estate during a Japanese bombing raid in December 1941.
Bombing of Singapore (1941)
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Two women grieving over a child killed in an air raid at Jinrikisha Station on 3 February 1942.
76.
Easter Sunday Raid
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The Easter Sunday Raid was an air attack by carrier-based aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy against Colombo, Ceylon, on Easter Sunday,5 April 1942, during World War II. This attack was part of the Indian Ocean Raid, and was followed a few days later by an attack on Trincomalee. The British had been in occupation of the areas of Ceylon since 1796. The Ceylon Defence Force and Ceylon Navy Volunteer Reserve were mobilized and expanded, the Royal Navy maintained naval installations in Trincomalee and the Royal Air Force had established an aerodrome in China Bay, Trincomalee, long before the war. With Japans entry into the war, and especially after the fall of Singapore, the Royal Navys East Indies Station was moved to Colombo and then to Trincomalee. The fixed land defences consisted of four coastal batteries at Colombo and five at Trincomalee, Air defences were expanded in 1941 with the RAF occupying the civil airfield at Ratmalana near Colombo with its station headquarters set up at Kandawala. Another airbase was built at Koggala near Galle and several temporary airstrips were built across the country with the largest at Colombo Racecourse grounds. Several RAF squadrons were sent to Ceylon, somerville retreated with the main body of the Eastern Fleet to Addu Atoll in the Maldives. He left at Ceylon the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes, heavy cruisers HMS Cornwall and Dorsetshire, after the sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse and the fall of Singapore, British morale on the island dropped. The sinking of two capital ships shocked much of the world, the awareness of the vulnerability of battleships to air power increased dramatically. On Ceylon, there was much anxiety that a Japanese attack appeared to be inevitable, a large sea turtle which came ashore was reported by an Australian unit as a number of Japanese amphibious vehicles. However, actual preparations for defence were lackadaisical, apart from the deployment of an RAF squadron at the Colombo Racecourse, anti-British sentiment increased within some portions of the indigenous population and their hopes ran high for liberation by the Japanese. The Japanese fleet comprised five aircraft carriers plus supporting ships under the command of Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, on 4 April 1942, the Japanese fleet was located by a PBY Catalina aircraft flown by squadron leader Leonard Birchall, out of Koggala. Birchalls Catalina was shot down by six A6M2 Zero fighters from the carrier Hiryū and he managed to radio in the position of the Japanese fleet and alert Colombo about the impending attack. However, Nagumos air strike on Colombo the next day achieved near-complete surprise, the British radars were not operating, they were shut down for routine maintenance. The survival of the British Eastern Fleet prevented the Japanese from attempting a troop landing in Ceylon. The first attack wave of Japanese planes took off in darkness from the aircraft carriers Akagi, Hiryu. The first attack wave of 36 fighters,54 dive bombers, and 90 level bombers was led by Captain Mitsuo Fuchida, the Hawker Hurricanes of the RAFs No.30 Squadron were on the ground at Ratmalana Airport when the Japanese aircraft passed overhead
Easter Sunday Raid
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British heavy cruisers HMS Dorsetshire and Cornwall under Japanese air attack and heavily damaged off the southwest of Ceylon, on Easter Sunday, 5 April 1942
Easter Sunday Raid
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Leonard Birchall spotted the Japanese Imperial Navy approaching Ceylon and radioed the strength and the position of the Japanese fleet before his PBY Catalina was shot down by Zero fighter aircraft.
Easter Sunday Raid
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HMS Cornwall, burning and sinking following Japanese dive bomber attacks, in the Indian Ocean, 5 April 1942
Easter Sunday Raid
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RAF Hawker Hurricanes were scrambled from the temporary airstrip at the Colombo Racecourse. The Hurricanes were involved in several dogfights with the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service Zero fighters and bombers which were attacking the city
77.
Conflagration
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A conflagration is a large and destructive fire that threatens human life, animal life, health, and/or property. It may also be described as a blaze or simply a fire, a conflagration can begin accidentally, be naturally caused, or intentionally created. Arson can be for fraud, murder, sabotage or diversion, a firestorm can form as a consequence of a very large fire, in which the central column of rising heated air induces strong inward winds, which supply oxygen to the fire. Conflagrations can cause casualties including deaths or injuries from burns, trauma due to collapse of structures and attempts to escape, firefighting is the practice of attempting to extinguish a conflagration, protect life and property, and minimize damage and injury. One of the goals of fire prevention is to avoid conflagrations, when a conflagration is extinguished, there is often a fire investigation to determine the cause of the fire. A destructive fire, usually an extensive one a very intense and uncontrolled fire a large disastrous fire During a conflagration a significant movement of air, hot gaseous products of combustion move upward, causing the influx of more dense cold air to the combustion zone. Sometimes, the influx is so intense that the fire grows into a firestorm, inside a building, the intensity of gas exchange depends on the size and location of openings in walls and floors, the ceiling height, and the amount and characteristics of the combustible materials. Industrial conflagrations include fires at oil refineries, such as the 2009 Cataño oil refinery fire. One or several fire in forests or other areas, i. e. wildfire, may grow up into or unite to a conflagration. An urban conflagration moves beyond a block. In some ships, a large uncontained fire may lead to a ship conflagration. The conflagration of a building is known as a structure fire, an asteroid more than 4.3 miles in diameter colliding with the Earth, spewing out enough ejecta to cause a global conflagration
Conflagration
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Chelsea, Massachusetts, USA, Oct. 14, 1973, the Second Great Chelsea Fire destroying 18 city blocks
Conflagration
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Forest fire
Conflagration
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Ostankino Tower fire
Conflagration
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A fire in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina
78.
High-explosive
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An explosive charge is a measured quantity of explosive material, which may be composed of a single ingredient or a combination of two or more. Materials that detonate are said to be high explosives and materials that deflagrate are said to be low explosives, Explosives may also be categorized by their sensitivity. Sensitive materials that can be initiated by a small amount of heat or pressure are primary explosives. A wide variety of chemicals can explode, a number are manufactured specifically for the purpose of being used as explosives. The remainder are too dangerous, sensitive, toxic, expensive, unstable, in contrast, some materials are merely combustible or flammable if they burn without exploding. The distinction, however, is not razor-sharp, though early thermal weapons, such as Greek fire, have existed since ancient times, the first widely used explosive in warfare and mining was black powder, invented in 9th century China. This material was sensitive to water, and it produced copious amounts of dark smoke, the first useful explosive stronger than black powder was nitroglycerin, developed in 1847. Since nitroglycerin is a liquid and highly unstable, it was replaced by nitrocellulose, TNT in 1863, smokeless powder, dynamite in 1867, World War I saw the adoption of TNT trinitrotoluene in artillery shells. World War II saw a use of new explosives. In turn, these have largely replaced by more powerful explosives such as C-4. However, C-4 and PETN react with metal and catch fire easily, yet unlike TNT, C-4 and PETN are waterproof, the largest commercial application of explosives is mining. In Materials Science and Engineering, explosives are used in cladding, a thin plate of some material is placed atop a thick layer of a different material, both layers typically of metal. Atop the thin layer is placed an explosive, at one end of the layer of explosive, the explosion is initiated. The two metallic layers are forced together at high speed and with great force, the explosion spreads from the initiation site throughout the explosive. Ideally, this produces a metallurgical bond between the two layers and it is possible that some fraction of the surface material from either layer eventually gets ejected when the end of material is reached. Hence, the mass of the now welded bilayer, may be less than the sum of the masses of the two initial layers, there are applications where a shock wave, and electrostatics, can result in high velocity projectiles. Thus, explosives are substances that contain an amount of energy stored in chemical bonds. Consequently, most commercial explosives are compounds containing -NO2, -ONO2 and -NHNO2 groups that
High-explosive
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Tet Offensive 1968. 175mm cannons at USMC Camp Carroll firing on advancing enemy troops as seen from LZ Betty 15 miles southeast.
79.
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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The United States dropped nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9,1945, respectively, during the final stage of World War II. The United States had dropped the bombs with the consent of the United Kingdom as outlined in the Quebec Agreement, the two bombings, which killed at least 129,000 people, remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history. In the final year of the war, the Allies prepared for what was anticipated to be a costly invasion of the Japanese mainland. This was preceded by a U. S. conventional and firebombing campaign that destroyed 67 Japanese cities, the war in Europe had concluded when Nazi Germany signed its instrument of surrender on May 8,1945, just after Hitler committed suicide. The Japanese, facing the fate, refused to accept the Allies demands for unconditional surrender. The Allies called for the surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945—the alternative being prompt. The Japanese response to this ultimatum was to ignore it, orders for atomic bombs to be used on four Japanese cities were issued on July 25. Three days later, on August 9, a plutonium bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, in both cities, most of the dead were civilians, although Hiroshima had a sizable military garrison. Japan announced its surrender to the Allies on August 15, six days after the bombing of Nagasaki, on September 2, the Japanese government signed the instrument of surrender, effectively ending World War II. The justification for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is still debated to this day, in 1945, the Pacific War between the Empire of Japan and the Allies entered its fourth year. The Japanese fought fiercely, ensuring that U. S. victory would come at an enormous cost, December 1944 saw American battle casualties hit an all-time monthly high of 88,000 as a result of the German Ardennes Offensive. In the Pacific, the Allies returned to the Philippines, recaptured Burma, offensives were undertaken to reduce the Japanese forces remaining in Bougainville, New Guinea and the Philippines. In April 1945, American forces landed on Okinawa, where fighting continued until June. Along the way, the ratio of Japanese to American casualties dropped from 5,1 in the Philippines to 2,1 on Okinawa, although some Japanese were taken prisoner, most fought until they were killed or committed suicide. Nearly 99% of the 21,000 defenders of Iwo Jima were killed, of the 117,000 Japanese troops defending Okinawa in April–June 1945, 94% were killed. American military leaders used these figures to estimate high casualties among American soldiers in the invasion of Japan. As the Allies advanced towards Japan, conditions became steadily worse for the Japanese people, Japans merchant fleet declined from 5,250,000 gross tons in 1941 to 1,560,000 tons in March 1945, and 557,000 tons in August 1945
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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Atomic bomb mushroom clouds over Hiroshima (left) and Nagasaki (right)
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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Situation of Pacific War by August 1, 1945. Japan still had control of all of Manchuria, Korea, Taiwan and Indochina, a large part of China, including most of the main Chinese cities, and much of the Dutch East Indies
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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U.S. Army poster prepares the public for the invasion of Japan after ending war on Germany and Italy
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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A B-29 over Osaka on June 1, 1945
80.
Nagasaki
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Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Part of Nagasaki was home to a major Imperial Japanese Navy base during the First Sino-Japanese War, during World War II, the American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki made Nagasaki the second and, to date, last city in the world to experience a nuclear attack. As of 1 January 2009, the city has an population of 446,007. The total area is 406.35 km², a small fishing village set in a secluded harbor, Nagasaki had little historical significance until contact with Portuguese explorers in 1543. An early visitor was Fernão Mendes Pinto, who came on a Portuguese ship which landed nearby in Tanegashima and his followers who remained behind converted a number of daimyōs. The most notable among them was Ōmura Sumitada, the little harbor village quickly grew into a diverse port city, and Portuguese products imported through Nagasaki were assimilated into popular Japanese culture. The Portuguese also brought them many goods from China. Thus, for a period after 1580, the city of Nagasaki was a Jesuit colony, under their administrative. It was administered by the captain of the Portuguese black ship, the highest representative of the Portuguese Crown and it became a refuge for Christians escaping maltreatment in other regions of Japan. In 1587, however, Toyotomi Hideyoshis campaign to unify the country arrived in Kyūshū, however, the expulsion order went largely unenforced, and the fact remained that most of Nagasakis population remained openly practicing Catholic. In 1596, the Spanish ship San Felipe was wrecked off the coast of Shikoku, in response, Hideyoshi ordered the crucifixions of twenty-six Catholics in Nagasaki on February 5 of that year. Portuguese traders were not ostracized, however, and so the city continued to thrive, in 1602, Augustinian missionaries also arrived in Japan, and when Tokugawa Ieyasu took power in 1603, Catholicism was still tolerated. Many Catholic daimyōs had been allies at the Battle of Sekigahara. Once Osaka Castle had been taken and Toyotomi Hideyoshis offspring killed, though, in addition, the Dutch and English presence allowed trade without religious strings attached. Thus, in 1614, Catholicism was officially banned and all missionaries ordered to leave, most Catholic daimyo apostatized, and forced their subjects to do so, although a few would not renounce the religion and left the country for Macau, Luzon and Japantowns in Southeast Asia. A brutal campaign of persecution followed, with thousands of converts across Kyūshū and other parts of Japan killed, tortured, catholicisms last gasp as an open religion and the last major military action in Japan until the Meiji Restoration was the Shimabara Rebellion of 1637. Consequently, in Tokugawa society the word Shimabara solidified the connection between Christianity and disloyalty, constantly used again and again in Tokugawa propaganda, the Shimabara Rebellion also convinced many policy-makers that foreign influences were more trouble than they were worth, leading to the national isolation policy. The Great Fire of Nagasaki destroyed much of the city in 1663, including the Mazu shrine at the Kofukuji Temple patronized by the Chinese sailors, in 1720 the ban on Dutch books was lifted, causing hundreds of scholars to flood into Nagasaki to study European science and art
Nagasaki
Nagasaki
Nagasaki
Nagasaki
81.
Cold War
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The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc. Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. The term cold is used there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, although there were major regional wars, known as proxy wars, supported by the two sides. The Cold War split the temporary alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the Soviet Union. The USSR was a Marxist–Leninist state ruled by its Communist Party and secret police, the Party controlled the press, the military, the economy and all organizations. In opposition stood the West, dominantly democratic and capitalist with a free press, a small neutral bloc arose with the Non-Aligned Movement, it sought good relations with both sides. The two superpowers never engaged directly in full-scale armed combat, but they were armed in preparation for a possible all-out nuclear world war. The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years after the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Berlin Blockade was the first major crisis of the Cold War. With the victory of the communist side in the Chinese Civil War and the outbreak of the Korean War, the USSR and USA competed for influence in Latin America, and the decolonizing states of Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was stopped by the Soviets, the expansion and escalation sparked more crises, such as the Suez Crisis, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The USSR crushed the 1968 Prague Spring liberalization program in Czechoslovakia, détente collapsed at the end of the decade with the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. The early 1980s were another period of elevated tension, with the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, at a time when the communist state was already suffering from economic stagnation. In the mid-1980s, the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the reforms of perestroika and glasnost. Pressures for national independence grew stronger in Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Gorbachev meanwhile refused to use Soviet troops to bolster the faltering Warsaw Pact regimes as had occurred in the past. The result in 1989 was a wave of revolutions that peacefully overthrew all of the communist regimes of Central, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control and was banned following an abortive coup attempt in August 1991. This in turn led to the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. The United States remained as the only superpower. The Cold War and its events have left a significant legacy and it is often referred to in popular culture, especially in media featuring themes of espionage and the threat of nuclear warfare
Cold War
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Photograph of the Berlin Wall taken from the West side. The Wall was built in 1961 to prevent East Germans from fleeing and to stop an economically disastrous drain of workers. It was a symbol of the Cold War and its fall in 1989 marked the approaching end of the war.
Cold War
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Allied troops in Vladivostok, August 1918, during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War.
Cold War
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The " Big Three " at the Yalta Conference: Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, 1945.
82.
Nuclear weapon
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A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from small amounts of matter. The first test of a bomb released the same amount of energy as approximately 20,000 tons of TNT. The first thermonuclear bomb test released the same amount of energy as approximately 10 million tons of TNT, a thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than 2,400 pounds can produce an explosive force comparable to the detonation of more than 1.2 million tons of TNT. A nuclear device no larger than traditional bombs can devastate a city by blast, fire. Nuclear weapons are considered weapons of destruction, and their use. Nuclear weapons have been used twice in nuclear warfare, both times by the United States against Japan near the end of World War II, the bombings resulted in the deaths of approximately 200,000 civilians and military personnel from acute injuries sustained from the explosions. The ethics of the bombings and their role in Japans surrender remain the subject of scholarly, since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons have been detonated on over two thousand occasions for the purposes of testing and demonstration. Only a few nations possess such weapons or are suspected of seeking them, israel is also believed to possess nuclear weapons, though in a policy of deliberate ambiguity, it does not acknowledge having them. Germany, Italy, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands are nuclear weapons sharing states, south Africa is the only country to have independently developed and then renounced and dismantled its nuclear weapons. Modernisation of weapons continues to occur, all existing nuclear weapons derive some of their explosive energy from nuclear fission reactions. Weapons whose explosive output is exclusively from fission reactions are commonly referred to as bombs or atom bombs. This has long noted as something of a misnomer, as their energy comes from the nucleus of the atom. The latter approach is considered more sophisticated than the former and only the approach can be used if the fissile material is plutonium. A major challenge in all nuclear weapon designs is to ensure that a significant fraction of the fuel is consumed before the weapon destroys itself. The amount of energy released by fission bombs can range from the equivalent of just under a ton to upwards of 500,000 tons of TNT, all fission reactions necessarily generate fission products, the radioactive remains of the atomic nuclei split by the fission reactions. Many fission products are highly radioactive or moderately radioactive. Fission products are the radioactive component of nuclear fallout
Nuclear weapon
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The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 rose some 11 miles (18 km) above the bomb's hypocenter.
Nuclear weapon
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Nuclear weapons
Nuclear weapon
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Edward Teller, often referred to as the "father of the hydrogen bomb"
Nuclear weapon
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A demilitarized and commercial launch of the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces R-36 ICBM; also known by the NATO reporting name: SS-18 Satan. Upon its first fielding in the late 1960s, the SS-18 remains the single highest throw weight missile delivery system ever built.
83.
ICBM
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An intercontinental ballistic missile is a guided ballistic missile with a minimum range of 5,500 kilometres primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery. Similarly, conventional, chemical, and biological weapons can also be delivered with varying effectiveness, most modern designs support multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles, allowing a single missile to carry several warheads, each of which can strike a different target. Early ICBMs had limited precision that allowed them to be used only against the largest targets such as cities and they were seen as a safe basing option, one that would keep the deterrent force close to home where it would be difficult to attack. Attacks against military targets, if desired, still demanded the use of a more precise manned bomber, the result is that the power of a nuclear explosion to rupture hardened structures is greatly decreased by the distance from the impact point of the nuclear weapon. So a near-direct hit is generally necessary, as only diminishing returns are gained by increasing bomb yield, second- and third-generation designs dramatically improved accuracy to the point where even the smallest point targets can be successfully attacked. Short and medium-range ballistic missiles are known collectively as theatre ballistic missiles, the ICBM A9/A10 rocket initially was intended to be guided by radio, but was changed to be a piloted craft after the failure of Operation Elster. The second stage of the A9/A10 rocket was tested a few times in January and February 1945, the progenitor of the A9/A10 was the German V-2 rocket, also designed by von Braun and widely used at the end of World War II to bomb British and Belgian cities. All of these rockets used liquid propellants, in the immediate post-war era, the US and USSR both started rocket research programs based on the German wartime designs, especially the V-2. In the US, each branch of the military started its own programs, in the USSR, rocket research was centrally organized, although several teams worked on different designs. Early designs from both countries were short-range missiles, like the V-2, but improvements quickly followed, in the USSR early development was focused on missiles able to attack European targets. This changed in 1953 when Sergei Korolyov was directed to development of a true ICBM able to deliver newly developed hydrogen bombs. Given steady funding throughout, the R-7 developed with some speed, the first launch took place on 15 May 1957 and led to an unintended crash 400 km from the site. The first successful test followed on 21 August 1957, the R-7 flew over 6,000 km, the first strategic-missile unit became operational on 9 February 1959 at Plesetsk in north-west Russia. It was the same R-7 launch vehicle that placed the first artificial satellite in space, Sputnik, the first human spaceflight in history was accomplished on a derivative of R-7, Vostok, on 12 April 1961, by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. The U. S. initiated ICBM research in 1946 with the RTV-A-2 Hiroc project and this was a three-stage effort with the ICBM development not starting until the third stage. However, funding was cut after only three successful launches in 1948 of the second stage design, used to test variations on the V-2 design. With overwhelming air superiority and truly intercontinental bombers, the newly forming US Air Force did not take the problem of ICBM development seriously. Things changed in 1953 with the Soviet testing of their first thermonuclear weapon, the Atlas A first flew on 11 June 1957, the flight lasted only about 24 seconds before the rocket blew up
ICBM
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The Atlas missile was the first US ICBM. First launch 1957, successful launch 1958
ICBM
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The R-7 Semyorka was the world's first ICBM and satellite launch vehicle
ICBM
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Test launch of an LGM-25C Titan II ICBM from an underground silo at Vandenberg AFB during the mid-1970s
ICBM
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A Minuteman III ICBM test launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA, United States
84.
Mutually assured destruction
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It is based on the theory of deterrence, which holds that the threat of using strong weapons against the enemy prevents the enemys use of those same weapons. The strategy is a form of Nash equilibrium in which, once armed, the expected result is an immediate, irreversible escalation of hostilities resulting in both combatants mutual, total, and assured destruction. The doctrine requires that neither side construct shelters on a massive scale, if one side constructed a similar system of shelters, it would violate the MAD doctrine and destabilize the situation, because it would not have to fear the consequences of a second strike. The same principle is invoked against missile defense, the payoff of the MAD doctrine was and still is expected to be a tense but stable global peace. It was also responsible for the race, as both nations struggled to keep nuclear parity, or at least retain second-strike capability. Although the Cold War ended in the early 1990s, the MAD doctrine continues to be applied, since the credibility of the threat is critical to such assurance, each side had to invest substantial capital in their nuclear arsenals even if they were not intended for use. In addition, neither side could be expected or allowed to defend itself against the others nuclear missiles. This led both to the hardening and diversification of nuclear systems and to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. This MAD scenario is often referred to as nuclear deterrence, the term deterrence was first used in this context after World War II, prior to that time, its use was limited to legal terminology. Richard Jordan Gatling patented his namesake rotary gun in 1862 with the intention of illustrating the futility of war. No decisive war is possible that will not entail even upon the victorious Power, the destruction of its resources, War has therefore become impossible, except at the price of suicide. In 1937, Nikola Tesla published The Art of Projecting Concentrated Non-dispersive Energy through the Natural Media, Tesla described his device as a superweapon that would put an end to all war. In March 1940, the Frisch–Peierls memorandum anticipated deterrence as the means of combating an enemy with nuclear weapons. In August 1945, the United States accepted the surrender of Japan after the attacks on Hiroshima. Four years later, on August 29,1949, the Soviet Union detonated its own nuclear device, at the time, both sides lacked the means to effectively use nuclear devices against each other. The official nuclear policy of the United States became one of massive retaliation, the strategy of Mutually Assured Destruction and the acronym MAD are due to John von Neumann and his taste for humorous acronyms, another example being his MANIAC computer. He was, among other things, an inventor of theory, a cold war strategist. The RAND corporation futurist and cold war strategist Herman Kahn believed that although MAD was useful as a metaphor, when pushed to its logical conclusion it became absurd
Mutually assured destruction
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Aftermath of the atomic bomb explosion over Hiroshima, August 6, 1945
Mutually assured destruction
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Atomic bomb explosions over Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 1945 (left) and over Nagasaki, Japan, 9 August 1945 (right).
Mutually assured destruction
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Boeing B-47B Stratojet rocket-assisted take off (RATO) on April 15, 1954
Mutually assured destruction
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B-52D Stratofortress being refueled by a KC-135 Stratotanker, 1965
85.
UN
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The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict, at its founding, the UN had 51 member states, there are now 193. The headquarters of the UN is in Manhattan, New York City, further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states, the UNs mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union and their respective allies. The organization participated in actions in Korea and the Congo. After the end of the Cold War, the UN took on major military, the UN has six principal organs, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Trusteeship Council. UN System agencies include the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, the UNs most prominent officer is the Secretary-General, an office held by Portuguese António Guterres since 2017. Non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UNs work, the organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, and a number of its officers and agencies have also been awarded the prize. Other evaluations of the UNs effectiveness have been mixed, some commentators believe the organization to be an important force for peace and human development, while others have called the organization ineffective, corrupt, or biased. Following the catastrophic loss of life in the First World War, the earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. It incorporated Soviet suggestions, but left no role for France, four Policemen was coined to refer to four major Allied countries, United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and China, which emerged in the Declaration by United Nations. Roosevelt first coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries, the term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, by 1 March 1945,21 additional states had signed. Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto, the foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism. During the war, the United Nations became the term for the Allies. To join, countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis, at the later meetings, Lord Halifax deputized for Mr. Eden, Wellington Koo for T. V. Soong, and Mr Gromyko for Mr. Molotov. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, the General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the UN, and the facility was completed in 1952. Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi—is designated as international territory, the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN Secretary-General
UN
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1943 sketch by Franklin Roosevelt of the United Nations' original three branches: The Four Policemen, an executive branch, and an international assembly of forty UN member states.
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The Chilean delegation signing the UN Charter in San Francisco, 1945
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Dag Hammarskjöld was a particularly active Secretary-General from 1953 until his death in 1961.
86.
Air force
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An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nations armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy, or a marine corps. Typically, air forces are responsible for gaining control of the air, carrying out strategic and tactical bombing missions, Air forces typically consist of a combination of fighters, bombers, helicopters, transport planes and other aircraft. Many air forces are responsible for operations of the military space, intercontinental ballistic missiles. Some air forces may command and control other air defence assets such as artillery, surface-to-air missiles, or anti-ballistic missile warning networks. In addition to pilots, air forces have ground support staff who support the aircrew, however, some supporting personnel such as airfield defence troops, weapons engineers and air intelligence staff do not have equivalent roles in civilian organizations. Balloon or flying corps are not generally regarded as examples of an air force, however, with the invention of heavier-than-air craft in the early 20th century, armies and navies began to take interest in this new form of aviation as a means to wage war. The first aviation force in the world was the Aviation Militaire of the French Army formed in 1910, in 1911, during the Italo-Turkish War, Italy employed aircraft for the first time ever in the world for reconnaissance and bombing missions against Turkish positions on Libyan Territory. The Italian–Turkish war of 1911–1912 was the first in history that featured air attacks by airplanes, during World War I France, Germany, Italy, the British Empire and the Ottoman Empire all possessed significant forces of bombers and fighters. World War I also saw the appearance of senior commanders who directed aerial warfare, the British Royal Air Force was the first independent air force in the world. The RAF was founded on 1 April 1918 by amalgamation the British Armys Royal Flying Corps, on establishment the RAF comprised over 20,000 aircraft, was commanded by a Chief of the Air Staff who held the rank of major-general and was governed by its own government ministry. Over the following decades most countries with any military capability established their own independent air forces. The Canadian Air Force was formed at the end of World War I and it became the permanent Royal Canadian Air Force when it received the Royal title by royal proclamation on 1 April 1924. It did not however become independent of the Canadian Army until 1938 when its head was designated as Chief of the Air Staff. Similarly, the Royal New Zealand Air Force was established in 1923 as the New Zealand Permanent Air Force, other British-influenced countries also established their own independent air forces. For example, the Royal Egyptian Air Force was created in 1937 when Egyptian military aviation was separated from Army command, outside of the British Empire, the Finnish Air Force was established as a separate service on 4 May 1928 and the Brazilian Air Force was created in 1941. Both the United States Air Force and the Philippine Air Force were formed as a separate branches of their armed forces in 1947. The Israeli Air Force came into being with the State of Israel on 18 May 1948, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force was not established until 1954, in World War II Japanese military aviation had been carried out by the Army and Navy
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Four fighters and a tanker aircraft of the USAF.
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USAF B-2 Spirit stealth strategic bomber.
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Refuelling a Jaguar GR1 of the Royal Air Force (1991).
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RAF Supermarine Spitfire played a vital role in British victory during the Battle of Britain.
87.
People's Republic of China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
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Yinxu, ruins of an ancient palace dating from the Shang Dynasty (14th century BCE)
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Some of the thousands of life-size Terracotta Warriors of the Qin Dynasty, c. 210 BCE
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The Great Wall of China was built by several dynasties over two thousand years to protect the sedentary agricultural regions of the Chinese interior from incursions by nomadic pastoralists of the northern steppes.
88.
United States Navy
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The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U. S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, the U. S. Navy has the worlds largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 323,792 personnel on duty and 108,515 in the Navy Reserve. It has 274 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of October 2016, the U. S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy. It played the role in the World War II defeat of Imperial Japan. The 21st century U. S. Navy maintains a global presence, deploying in strength in such areas as the Western Pacific, the Mediterranean. The Navy is administratively managed by the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Navy is itself a division of the Department of Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of Defense. The Chief of Naval Operations is an admiral and the senior naval officer of the Department of the Navy. The CNO may not be the highest ranking officer in the armed forces if the Chairman or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, the United States Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of the United States. The Navys three primary areas of responsibility, The preparation of naval forces necessary for the prosecution of war. The development of aircraft, weapons, tactics, technique, organization, U. S. Navy training manuals state that the mission of the U. S. Armed Forces is to prepare and conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest, as part of that establishment, the U. S. Navys functions comprise sea control, power projection and nuclear deterrence, in addition to sealift duties. It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, the Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia, the establishment of a national navy was an issue of debate among the members of the Second Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, detractors countered that challenging the British Royal Navy, then the worlds preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned the ocean-going schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchant ships, and reported the captures to the Congress
United States Navy
United States Navy
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United States Navy portal
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USS Constellation vs L'Insurgente during the Quasi-War
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USS Constitution vs HMS Guerriere during the War of 1812
89.
South Vietnam
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South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam, was a state governing the southern half of Vietnam from 1955 to 1975. It received international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam, the term South Vietnam became common usage in 1954, when the Geneva Conference provisionally partitioned Vietnam into communist and non-communist parts. The Republic of Vietnam was proclaimed on 26 October 1955, with Ngô Đình Diệm as its first president and its sovereignty was recognized by the United States and eighty-seven other nations. It had membership in several committees of the United Nations. After the Second World War, the Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh, in 1949, anti-communist Vietnamese politicians formed a rival government in Saigon led by former emperor Bảo Đại. Bảo Đại was deposed by Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm in 1955, after Diệm was killed in a military coup led by general Dương Văn Minh in 1963, there was a series of short-lived military governments. General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu led the country from 1967 until 1975, the Vietnam War began in 1959 with an uprising by Viet Cong forces armed and controlled by Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Fighting reached a climax during the Tet Offensive of 1968, when there were over 1.5 million South Vietnamese soldiers and 500,000 U. S. soldiers in South Vietnam. Despite a peace treaty concluded in January 1973, fighting continued until the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong armies overran Saigon on 30 April 1975, the creation of this republic, during the Indochina War, allowed France to evade a promise to recognise Vietnam as independent. This pre-Vietnam government prepared for a unified Vietnamese state, but the countrys full reunification was delayed for a year because of the problems posed by Cochinchinas legal status, Nguyễn Văn Xuân 1949–55 State of Vietnam. Roughly 60% of Vietnamese territory was controlled by the communist Việt Minh. Vietnam was partitioned at the 17th parallel in 1954, once highly lauded by America, he was ousted and assassinated in a U. S. -backed coup. In 1963–65, there were numerous coups and short-lived governments, several of which were headed by Dương Văn Minh or Nguyễn Khánh, Prime Minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ was the top leader in 1965–67. Surrendered to Communists when others abandoned their posts, 1975–76 Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam. Huỳnh Tấn Phát Before World War II, the third of Vietnam was the concession of Cochinchina. Between Tonkin in the north and Cochinchina in the south was the protectorate of Annam, Cochinchina had been annexed by France in 1862 and even elected a deputy to the French National Assembly. It was more evolved, and French interests were stronger than in parts of Indochina. During World War II, Indochina was administered by Vichy France, japanese troops overthrew the French administration on 9 March 1945, Emperor Bảo Đại proclaimed Vietnam independent
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About 1 million Vietnamese refugees left the newly created communist North Vietnam during Operation "Passage to Freedom" (October 1954).
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A woman casting her ballot in the 1967 Elections in the Republic of Vietnam
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Scene of a Việt Cộng bombing in a residential area of Saigon, 1965.
90.
Tet Offensive
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It was a campaign of surprise attacks against military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam. The name of the offensive comes from the Tết holiday, the Vietnamese New Year, the North Vietnamese launched a wave of attacks in the late night hours of 30 January in the I and II Corps Tactical Zones of South Vietnam. This early attack did not lead to defensive measures. The offensive was the largest military operation conducted by either side up to point in the war. During the Battle of Huế, intense fighting lasted for a month, during their occupation, the North Vietnamese executed thousands of people in the Massacre at Huế. Around the US combat base at Khe Sanh fighting continued for two more months. S, public support for the war declined and the U. S. sought negotiations to end the war. The term Tet offensive usually refers to the January–February 1968 offensive, there was a discrepancy, however, between MACV and the Central Intelligence Agencys order of battle estimates concerning the strength of Viet Cong guerrilla forces within South Vietnam. The MACV Combined Intelligence Center, on the hand, maintained that the number could be no more than 300,000. The agency responded that such a notion was ridiculous, since the militias were responsible for half of the casualties inflicted on U. S. forces. With the groups deadlocked, George Carver, CIA deputy director for Vietnamese affairs, was asked to mediate the dispute, George Allen, Carvers deputy, laid responsibility for the agencys capitulation at the feet of Richard Helms, the director of the CIA. He believed that it was a political problem, contravening the policy interest of the administration. During the second half of 1967 the administration had become alarmed by criticism and this trend was fueled not by a belief that the struggle was not worthwhile, but by mounting casualty figures, rising taxes, and the feeling that there was no end to the war in sight. A poll taken in November indicated that 55 percent wanted a war policy. But now that were there, lets win – or get out, under the leadership of National Security Advisor Walt W. Rostow, the news media then was inundated by a wave of effusive optimism. Every statistical indicator of progress, from kill ratios and body counts to village pacification, was fed to the press and we are beginning to win this struggle asserted Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey on NBCs Today show in mid-November. Upon their arrival, the two men bolstered the administrations claims of success, General Bruce Palmer, Jr. one of Westmorelands three Field Force commanders, claimed that the Viet Cong has been defeated and that He cant get food and he cant recruit. He has been forced to change his strategy from trying to control the people on the coast to trying to survive in the mountains, Westmoreland was even more emphatic in his assertions. At an address at the National Press Club on 21 November he reported that, as of the end of 1967, the communists were unable to mount a major offensive
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Some communist targets during the Tet Offensive
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General William C. Westmoreland, COMUSMACV.
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General Hoàng Văn Thái, Viet Cong leader, also Tet Offensive main leader
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North Vietnamese Defense Minister Võ Nguyên Giáp
91.
Vietnam Air Force
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The VNAF began with a few hand-picked men chosen to fly alongside French pilots during the State of Vietnam era. It eventually grew into the sixth largest air force at the height of its power. It is an often neglected chapter of the history of the Vietnam War as they operated in the shadow of the United States Air Force and it was dissolved in 1975 after the Fall of Saigon, many of its members emigrated to the United States. See also Operation Farm Gate In March 1949, Emperor Bảo Đại officially requested that the French help set up a Vietnamese military air arm. Pressure was maintained with the assistance of Lt. Col. Nguyễn Văn Hinh, in March 1952, a training school was set up at Nha Trang, and the following year two army co-operation squadrons began missions flying the Morane-Saulnier MS.500 Criquet light aircraft. In 1954, the French allocated a number of Dassault MD.315 Flamant armed light transports to the inventory of this Vietnamese air arm, Vietnamese pilot trainees began to be sent to France for more advanced training. In May 1954, with the fall of Điện Biên Phủ, the position of France changed, and on January 31,1955, the Vietnam Air Force was inaugurated. French instructors for pilots and mechanics remained until late 1956, and transferred 69 F8F Bearcat aircraft to the VNAF, in contrast with the Norths Vietnam Peoples Air Force, most allied air operations in the Vietnam War were conducted by the U. S. armed forces. The South Vietnamese forces operated at a basic level compared to the U. S. forces. The 19th Tactical Air Support Squadron was organized on 17 June 1963, the United States in May 1956 had started to train and advise the South Vietnamese Air Force. The VNAF was supplied with H-19 helicopters, and later H-34s, initially, they employed simple T-28 Trojan prop powered trainers which could carry a small bombload. The first jets were B-57 Canberra bombers arriving in 1965, in October of the same year the VNAF received its first modern UH-1 Huey turbine powered helicopters. By late 1972, the VNAF operated 18 squadrons with 500 new helicopters, in 1972, President Thieu asked for, but did not receive, the F-4 Phantom with its massive bombload and speed that was widely used for all roles by US air services. When the Vietnam Peoples Army started to install anti-aircraft missiles near Khe Sanh, the VNAF lacked the radar jamming gear, and the navigational aids required to attack the missile sites. The VNAF primarily flew close support as communist forces did not fly aircraft over US-held territory, so they never had the opportunity to fight MiGs or “go downtown” in heavy fighter bombers. Consequently, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam was at a significant disadvantage once the US air force left Vietnam due to the lack of the bombings, during the final 1975 offensive, it was not simply a case of a massive collapse. The ARVN forces in Long Khánh were fighting to the death, a cooperative effort between the ARVN and the VNAF enabled ARVN troops there to hold on. CH-47 helicopters brought in 193 tons of artillery ammunition over two days, A-1 Skyraiders flew in and C-130 Hercules transports dropped massive 15, 000-pound daisy cutter bombs on enemy positions
Vietnam Air Force
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USS Midway transporting over 100 ex-VNAF aircraft from Thailand to Guam following the Fall of Saigon
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Emblem.
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Ex-VNAF A-37s on deck of USS Midway.jpg
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Ex-VNAF Hueys on deck of USS Midway.jpg
92.
Vietnam People's Air Force
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The Vietnam Peoples Air Force is the air force of Vietnam. It is the successor of the former North Vietnamese Air Force, the Vietnam Peoples Air Force is one of three main branches in the Vietnam Peoples Army which is a part of the Ministry of Defence. The main mission of the VPAF is the defence of Vietnamese airspace, the first aircraft in service for the Vietnamese Armed Forces were two trainers, a de Havilland Tiger Moth and a Morane-Saulnier, which were initially the private property of the emperor Bảo Đại. In 1945, Bảo Đại gave the aircraft to the Vietnamese government, on 9 March 1949, General Vo Nguyen Giap was authorised to establish the Air Force Research Committee under the General Staff to study ways to deal with the air war. The first Vietnamese service aircraft flight was made by the Tiger Moth on 15 August 1949, a small-scale training was carried out in the following years. Further development of aviation in North Vietnam began in 1956, when a number of trainees were sent to the USSR and they were organised into two groups, for pilots and mechanics, respectively, and among others, utilised the Czechoslovak Zlín Z-226 and Aero Ae-45. The first unit of the VPAF was the No.919 Transport Regiment, organised on 1 May 1959, with An-2, Li-2, Il-14 aircraft, in 1963 the Air Force and Air Defence Force were merged into the Air and Air Defence Force. The first North Vietnamese combat plane was a T-28 Trojan trainer, whose pilot defected from the Royal Lao Air Force, the T-28 was the first North Vietnamese aircraft to shoot down a US aircraft, a C-123, on 15 February 1964. On 3 February 1964, the first fighter regiment No,921, aka Red Star squadron, was formed, and on 6 August it arrived from China in North Vietnam with its MiG-17s. On 7 September, the No.923 fighter regiment, aka Yen The Squadron, in May 1965, No.16 bomber company was formed with Il-28 twin engine bombers. Only one Il-28 sortie was flown in 1972 against Royal Laotian forces, the North Vietnamese Air Forces first jet air-to-air engagement with US aircraft was on 3 April 1965. The NVAF claimed the shooting down of two US Navy F-8 Crusader, which was not confirmed by US sources, although they acknowledged having encountered MiGs, consequently,3 April became North Vietnamese Air Force Day. On 4 April the VPAF scored the first confirmed victories to be acknowledged by both sides, the US fighter community was shocked when relatively slow, post-Korean era MiG-17 fighters shot down advanced F-105 Thunderchief fighters-bombers attacking the Thanh Hóa Bridge. The two downed F-105s were carrying their heavy bomb load, and were not able to react to their attackers. In 1965, the NVAF were supplied with supersonic MiG-21s by the USSR which were used for high speed GCI controlled hit, the MiG-21 tactics became so effective, that by late 1966, an operation was mounted to especially deal with the MiG-21 threat. The result was a loss of almost half the inventory of MiG-21 interceptors, the VPAF stood down for additional training after this setback. However it did conduct limited attacks on the naval vessels. In a separate incident, MiG-17s that ventured over water were shot down by missiles fired by US warships
Vietnam People's Air Force
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Wings
Vietnam People's Air Force
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Vietnam People's Air Force emblem
Vietnam People's Air Force
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Anti-aircraft systems the North used against US aircraft during Operation Linebacker and Linebacker II
Vietnam People's Air Force
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USAF's F-105 Thunderchief bomber was hit and crashed by VPAF's SA-2 missile
93.
Lebanon
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Lebanon, officially known as the Lebanese Republic, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, Lebanons location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland facilitated its rich history and shaped a cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity. At just 10,452 km2, it is the smallest recognized country on the entire mainland Asian continent, the earliest evidence of civilization in Lebanon dates back more than seven thousand years, predating recorded history. Lebanon was the home of the Canaanites/Phoenicians and their kingdoms, a culture that flourished for over a thousand years. In 64 BC, the region came under the rule of the Roman Empire, in the Mount Lebanon range a monastic tradition known as the Maronite Church was established. As the Arab Muslims conquered the region, the Maronites held onto their religion, however, a new religious group, the Druze, established themselves in Mount Lebanon as well, generating a religious divide that has lasted for centuries. During the Crusades, the Maronites re-established contact with the Roman Catholic Church, the ties they established with the Latins have influenced the region into the modern era. The region eventually was ruled by the Ottoman Empire from 1516 to 1918, following the collapse of the empire after World War I, the five provinces that constitute modern Lebanon came under the French Mandate of Lebanon. The French expanded the borders of the Mount Lebanon Governorate, which was populated by Maronites and Druze. Lebanon gained independence in 1943, establishing confessionalism, a unique, foreign troops withdrew completely from Lebanon on 31 December 1946. Lebanon has been a member of the Organisation internationale de la francophonie since 1973, despite its small size, the country has developed a well-known culture and has been highly influential in the Arab world. Before the Lebanese Civil War, the experienced a period of relative calm and renowned prosperity, driven by tourism, agriculture, commerce. At the end of the war, there were efforts to revive the economy. In spite of troubles, Lebanon has the highest Human Development Index and GDP per capita in the Arab world. The name of Mount Lebanon originates from the Phoenician root lbn meaning white, occurrences of the name have been found in different Middle Bronze Age texts from the library of Ebla, and three of the twelve tablets of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The name is recorded in Ancient Egyptian as Rmnn, where R stood for Canaanite L, the name occurs nearly 70 times in the Hebrew Bible, as לְבָנוֹן. The borders of contemporary Lebanon are a product of the Treaty of Sèvres of 1920 and its territory was the core of the Bronze Age Phoenician city-states. After the 7th-century Muslim conquest of the Levant, it was part of the Rashidun, Umyayad, Abbasid Seljuk, with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, Greater Lebanon fell under French mandate in 1920, and gained independence under president Bechara El Khoury in 1943
Lebanon
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The Fall of Tripoli to the Egyptian Mamluks and destruction of the Crusader state, the County of Tripoli, 1289
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Fakhreddine II Palace, 17th century
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1862 map drawn by the French expedition of Beaufort d'Hautpoul, later used as a template for the 1920 borders of Greater Lebanon.
94.
Beirut
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Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. No recent population census has been done but in 2007 estimates ranged from more than 1 million to slightly less than 2 million as part of Greater Beirut. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanons Mediterranean coast, Beirut is the countrys largest and it is one of the oldest cities in the world, inhabited more than 5,000 years ago. The first historical mention of Beirut is found in the ancient Egyptian Tell el Amarna letters dating from the 15th century BC, the Beirut River runs south to north on the eastern edge of the city. Beirut is Lebanons seat of government and plays a role in the Lebanese economy, with most banks and corporations based in its Central District, Badaro, Rue Verdun, Hamra. Following the destructive Lebanese Civil War, Beiruts cultural landscape underwent major reconstruction, identified and graded for accountancy, advertising, banking/finance and law, Beirut is ranked as a Beta World City by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. In May 2015, Beirut was officially recognized as one of the New7Wonders Cities together with Vigan, Doha, Durban, Havana, Kuala Lumpur, and La Paz. Beirut I, or Minet el Hosn, was listed as Beyrouth ville by Louis Burkhalter and said to be on the beach near the Orent, the site was discovered by Lortet in 1894 and discussed by Godefroy Zumoffen in 1900. The flint industry from the site was described as Mousterian and is held by the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon, Beirut II, or Umm el Khatib, was suggested by Burkhalter to have been south of Tarik el Jedideh, where P. E. Gigues discovered a Copper Age flint industry at around 100 metres above sea level, the site had been built on and destroyed by 1948. Beirut III, Furn esh Shebbak or Plateau Tabet, was suggested to have located on the left bank of the Beirut River. Burkhalter suggested that it was west of the Damascus road, although this determination has been criticized by Lorraine Copeland, P. E. Gigues discovered a series of Neolithic flint tools on the surface along with the remains of a structure suggested to be a hut circle. Auguste Bergy discussed polished axes that were found at this site. The area was covered in red sand that represented Quaternary river terraces, the site was found by Jesuit Father Dillenseger and published by fellow Jesuits Godefroy Zumoffen, Raoul Describes and Auguste Bergy. Collections from the site were made by Bergy, Describes and another Jesuit, a large number of Middle Paleolithic flint tools were found on the surface and in side gullies that drain into the river. They included around 50 varied bifaces accredited to the Acheulean period, some with a lustrous sheen, Henri Fleisch also found an Emireh point amongst material from the site, which has now disappeared beneath buildings. Levallois flints and bones and similar material were found amongst brecciated deposits. The area has now built on
Beirut
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clockwise from top left: Mosque in Downtown Beirut, Beirut Souks, High rise construction near Manara, Place de l'etoile, Cafés in Downtown, Saifi Village
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Seal
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Canaanean Blade. Suggested to be part of a javelin. Fresh grey flint, both sides showing pressure flaking. Somewhat narrower at the base, suggesting a haft. Polished at the extreme point. Found on land of the Lebanese Evangelical School for Girls in the Patriarchate area of Beirut.
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View of Beirut with snow-capped Mount Sannine in the background – 19th century
95.
Siege of Beirut
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The Siege of Beirut took place in the summer of 1982, as part of the 1982 Lebanon War, which resulted from the breakdown of the cease-fire effected by the United Nations. The siege ended with the Palestinian Liberation Organization being forced out of Beirut, the PLO moved its primary base of operations to Beirut in the early 1970s, after Black September in Jordan. Over the next few years, the Syrians and the PLO gained power in Lebanon, throughout this time, artillery and rocket attacks were launched against Israel. Israel bombed targets in Lebanon and in 1978 launched an invasion in to Southern Lebanon codenamed Operation Litani. In 1978, and again in 1981 and early 1982, the United Nations sponsored a cease-fire, the architect of the war, Ariel Sharon, presented it to the Israeli government as a limited incursion into Southern Lebanon but took his troops to Beirut. This plan failed when Gemayel was assassinated not long after being elected President by the Lebanese parliament under Israeli pressure, the Israeli forces invaded in a three-pronged attack. The ring around Beirut was closed by 13 June 1982,7 days after the start of Israeli invasion to Lebanon, PLO and part of Syrian forces were isolated in the city. Israel hoped to complete the siege as quickly as possible, their goal all along in invading Lebanon was for a quick and decisive victory. In addition, the United States, through their representative Philip Habib, was pushing for negotiations, the longer the siege took. At first Israelis thought that Christian Maronite forces would eradicate the PLO quasi-government in Beirut, for the IDF, the capture of Beirut in street-to-street fighting would have involved unacceptable level of casualties. This is why the method chosen, was the combination of military pressure, as with most sieges, the population of the city, thousands of civilians, suffered alongside the PLO guerrillas. Israel was roundly accused of shelling the city in addition to the other measures taken to weaken the PLO. By the end of the first week of July 500 buildings had been destroyed by Israeli shells and bombs. On 14 July, Ariel Sharon and chief of staff Rafael Eitan obtained Prime Minister Begins support for a large operation to conquer West Beirut in order to achieve the eviction of the PLO. But the plan was rejected on 16 July by the full Israeli cabinet, some parties threatened to leave the ruling coalition if the plan was adopted. At the end of July, with negotiations still deadlocked, the IDF intensified its attacks, mossad, using their Phalangist contacts, sent Arab agents into Beirut with car bombs in order to terrorize the Palestinians into submission and the Lebanese to increase pressure for their departure. Dozens of people died as a result of these bombings, some of the Israeli agents were caught and ultimately confessed. Israeli Air Forces intensified missions specifically designed to assassinate Palestinian leaders – Yassir Arafat, Abu Jihad, the IAF were assisted by agents with transmitters on the ground
Siege of Beirut
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An aerial view of the stadium used as an ammunition supply site for the Palestine Liberation Organization during a confrontation with the Israelis
96.
Tel Aviv
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Tel Aviv-Yafo is a major city in Israel, located on the countrys Mediterranean coastline. It is the center and the technology hub of Israel, with a population of 432,892. Tel Aviv is the largest city in the Gush Dan region of Israel, Tel Aviv is also a focal point in the high-tech concentration known as the Silicon Wadi. Tel Aviv is governed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, headed by Ron Huldai, Tel Aviv is a global city, and is the thirty eighth most important financial center in the world. Tel Aviv is known to have the third-largest economy of any city in the Middle East after Abu Dhabi and Kuwait City, the city receives over a million international visitors annually. Known as The City that Never Sleeps and a party capital, it has a lively nightlife, the city was founded in 1909 by Jewish immigrants on the outskirts of the ancient port city of Jaffa. It is named after the Hebrew translation of Theodor Herzls 1902 novel, Altneuland, the modern citys first neighbourhoods had already been established in 1886, the first being Neve Tzedek. Immigration by mostly Jewish refugees meant that the growth of Tel Aviv soon outpaced Jaffas, Tel Aviv and Jaffa were merged into a single municipality in 1950, two years after the establishment of the State of Israel. Tel Avivs White City, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, Tel Aviv is the Hebrew title of Theodor Herzls Altneuland, translated from German by Nahum Sokolow. The name was chosen in 1910 from several suggestions, including Herzliya and it was found fitting as it embraced the idea of a renaissance in the ancient Jewish homeland. Aviv is Hebrew for spring, symbolizing renewal, and tel is a man-made mound accumulating layers of civilization built one over the other and symbolizing the ancient. Although founded in 1909 as a settlement on the sand dunes North of Jaffa. The marketing pamphlets advocating for its establishment in 1906, wrote, In this city we will build the streets so they have roads and sidewalks and electric lights. Every house will have water wells that will flow through pipes as in every modern European city. Since 1886, Jewish settlers had founded new neighborhoods outside Jaffa on the current territory of Tel Aviv, the first was Neve Tzedek, built on lands owned by Aharon Chelouche and inhabited primarily by Mizrahi Jews. Other neighborhoods were Neve Shalom, Yafa Nof, Achva, Ohel Moshe, Kerem HaTeimanim, once Tel Aviv received city status in the 1920s, those neighborhoods joined the newly formed municipality, now becoming separated from Jaffa. The Second Aliyah led to further expansion, in 1906, a group of Jews, among them residents of Jaffa, followed the initiative of Akiva Aryeh Weiss and banded together to form the Ahuzat Bayit society. The societys goal was to form a Hebrew urban centre in an environment, planned according to the rules of aesthetics
Tel Aviv
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תל אביב-יפו
Tel Aviv
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The ancient port of Jaffa —according to the Bible, where Jonah set sail into the Mediterranean before being swallowed by a fish
Tel Aviv
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Port of Jaffa in 1906
Tel Aviv
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Lottery for building plots in Tel Aviv, 1909
97.
Haifa
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Haifa, is the third-largest city in the State of Israel, with a population of 278,903 in 2015. The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area and it is also home to the Baháí World Centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a destination for Bahai pilgrims. Built on the slopes of Mount Carmel, the settlement has a history spanning more than 3,000 years, the earliest known settlement in the vicinity was Tell Abu Hawam, a small port city established in the Late Bronze Age. In the 3rd century CE, Haifa was known as a dye-making center, over the centuries, the city has changed hands, being conquered and ruled by the Phoenicians, Persians, Hasmoneans, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Ottomans, British, and the Israelis. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Haifa Municipality has governed the city, as of 2016, the city is a major seaport located on Israels Mediterranean coastline in the Bay of Haifa covering 63.7 square kilometres. It lies about 90 kilometres north of Tel Aviv and is the regional center of northern Israel. According to researcher J. Kis-Lev Haifa is considered a haven for coexistence between Jews and Arabs. Two respected academic institutions, the University of Haifa and the Technion, are located in Haifa, in addition to the largest k-12 school in Israel, the city plays an important role in Israels economy. It is home to Matam, one of the oldest and largest high-tech parks in the country, Haifa also owns the underground rapid transit system located in Israel. Haifa Bay is a center of industry, petroleum refining. Haifa formerly functioned as the terminus of an oil pipeline from Iraq via Jordan. With locals using it to refer to a tell at the foot of the Carmel Mountains that contains its remains. The name Efa first appears during Roman rule, some time after the end of the 1st century, Haifa is also mentioned more than 100 times in the Talmud, a work central to Judaism. Hefa or Hepha in Eusebius of Caesareas 4th-century work, Onomasticon, is said to be another name for Sycaminus, references to this city end with the Byzantine period. Following the Arab conquest in the 7th century, Haifa was used to refer to a site established on Tel Shikmona upon what were already the ruins of Sycaminon. Haifa is mentioned by the mid-11th-century Persian chronicler Nasir Khusraw, the Crusaders, who captured Haifa briefly in the 12th century, call it Caiphas, and believe its name related to Cephas, the Aramaic name of Simon Peter. Other spellings in English have included Caipha, Kaipha, Caiffa, Kaiffa and Khaifa.5 miles to the east. The new village, the nucleus of modern Haifa, was first called al-imara al-jadida by some, but others residing there called it Haifa al-Jadida at first, the ultimate origin of the name Haifa remains unclear
Haifa
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Western Haifa from the air
Haifa
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חֵיפָה
Haifa
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Jars excavated at Tell Abu Hawam
Haifa
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Mount Carmel before 1899
98.
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
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The PDPA came to power through a coup known as the Saur Revolution, which ousted the government of Mohammad Daoud Khan. Daoud was succeeded by Nur Muhammad Taraki as head of state, soon after taking power a power struggle began between the Khalqists led by Taraki and Amin and the Parchamites led by Babrak Karmal. The Khalqists won and the Parcham faction was purged from the party, the most prominent Parcham leaders were exiled to the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union. After the Khalq–Parcham struggle, a struggle within the Khalq faction began between Taraki and Amin. Amin won the struggle, and Taraki was killed on his orders and his rule proved unpopular within his own country, and in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union intervened, supported by the Afghan government, in December 1979, Karmal became the leader of Afghanistan in his place. The Karmal era, lasting from 1979 to 1986, is best known for the Soviet war effort in Afghanistan, the war resulted in large numbers of civilian casualties, as well as millions of refugees who fled into Pakistan and Iran. Karmals policies failed to bring peace to the country. Najibullah pursued a policy of National Reconciliation with the opposition, a new Afghan constitution was introduced in 1987, after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, the government faced increasing resistance. On the military front, the government proved capable of defeating the opposition in open battle. Geographically, the DRA was bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, the Soviet Union in the north, Hafizullah Amin, a Khalq, was the coups chief architect. The first conflict between the Khalqists and Parchamites arose when the Khalqists wanted to give PDPA Central Committee membership to military officers who participated in the Saur Revolution. Amin, who opposed the appointment of military officers to the PDPA leadership, altered his position. The PDPA Politburo voted in favour of giving membership to the military officers, to make matters worse for the Parchamites, the term Parcham was, according to Taraki, a word synonymous with factionalism. On 27 June, three months after the revolution, Amin managed to outmaneuver the Parchamites at a Central Committee meeting, the meeting decided that the Khalqists had the exclusive right to formulate and decide policy, which left the Parchamites impotent. Later, a coup planned by the Parchamites, and led by Karmal, was discovered by the Khalqist leadership, the discovery of the coup prompted a swift reaction, a purge of Parchamites began. Parchamite ambassadors were recalled, but few returned, for instance, Karmal, when Taraki realized the degree of popular dissatisfaction with the reform he began to curtail the policy. Afghanistans long history of resistance to any type of strong centralized governmental control further undermined his authority, consequently, much of the land reform was not actually implemented nationwide
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
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Amin ruled Afghanistan for 104 days
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
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Flag (1987–92)
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
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History of Afghanistan
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
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Najibullah giving a decoration to a Soviet serviceman
99.
Herat
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Herat is the third-largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 436,300, and serves as the capital of Herat Province and it is linked with Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif via highway 1 or the ring road. It is further linked to the city of Mashhad in neighboring Iran through the town of Islam Qala. Herat dates back to the Avestan times and was known for its wine. The city has a number of sites, including the Herat Citadel. During the Middle Ages Herat became one of the important cities of Khorasan and it has been governed by various Afghan rulers since the early 18th century. In 1717, the city was invaded by the Hotaki forces until they were expelled by the Afsharids in 1736, after Nader Shahs death and Ahmad Shah Durranis rise to power in 1747, Herat became part of Afghanistan. It witnessed some political disturbances and military invasions during the half of the 19th century. Herat suffered from destruction during the Soviet war in the 1980s. Herat lies on the ancient trade routes of the Middle East, Central, the roads from Herat to Iran, Turkmenistan, and other parts of Afghanistan are still strategically important. As the gateway to Iran, it collects high amount of revenue for Afghanistan. The city has an international airport, Herat is a regional hub in western Afghanistan in close proximity to Iran and Turkmenistan. The city has high residential density clustered around the core of the city, however, vacant plots account for a higher percentage of the city than residential land use and agricultural is the largest percentage of total land use. Herat dates back to ancient times, but its exact age remains unknown, during the period of the Achaemenid Empire, the surrounding district was known as Hariva, and in classical sources the region was correspondingly known as Aria. In the Zoroastrian Avesta, the district is mentioned as Haroiva, the name of the district and its main town is derived from that of the chief river of the region, the Herey River, which traverses the district and passes some 5 km south of modern Herāt. Herey is mentioned in Sanskrit as yellow or golden color equivalent to Persian Zard meaning Gold, the naming of a region and its principal town after the main river is a common feature in this part of the world—compare the adjoining districts/rivers/towns of Arachosia and Bactria. The district Aria of the Achaemenid Empire is mentioned in the lists that are included in various royal inscriptions, for instance. Representatives from the district are depicted in reliefs, e. g. at the royal Achaemenid tombs of Naqsh-e Rustam and they are wearing Scythian-style dress and a twisted Bashlyk that covers their head, chin and neck
Herat
Herat
Herat
Herat
100.
Soviet war in Afghanistan
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The Soviet–Afghan War lasted over nine years, from December 1979 to February 1989. Insurgent groups known as the mujahideen fought against the Soviet Army, between 562, 000–2 million civilians were killed and millions of Afghans fled the country as refugees, mostly to Pakistan and Iran. The war is considered part of the Cold War, prior to the arrival of Soviet troops, the Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan took power after a 1978 coup, installing Nur Mohammad Taraki as president. The government vigorously suppressed any opposition and arrested thousands, executing as many as 27,000 political prisoners, anti-government armed groups were formed, and by April 1979 large parts of the country were in open rebellion. The government itself was unstable with in-party rivalry, and in September 1979 the president was deposed by followers of Hafizullah Amin. Deteriorating relations and worsening rebellions led the Soviet government, under leader Leonid Brezhnev, arriving in the capital Kabul, they staged a coup, killing president Amin and installing Soviet loyalist Babrak Karmal from a rival faction. Afghan insurgents began to receive massive amounts of aid and military training in neighboring Pakistan and China, paid for primarily by the United States, CIA covert action worked through Pakistani intelligence services to reach Afghani rebel groups. By the mid-1980s, the Soviet contingent was increased to 108,800 and fighting increased throughout the country, by mid-1987 the Soviet Union, now under reformist leader Mikhail Gorbachev, announced it would start withdrawing its forces. The final troop withdrawal started on May 15,1988, due to its length it has sometimes been referred to as the Soviet Unions Vietnam War or the Bear Trap by the Western media, and thought to be a contributing factor to the fall of the Soviet Union. The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was formed after the Saur Revolution on April 27,1978, the government was one with a pro-poor, pro-farmer and socialist agenda. It had close relations with the Soviet Union, on December 5,1978, a friendship treaty was signed between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan. In 1885, Russian forces seized the oasis at Panjdeh south of the Oxus River from Afghan forces. The border was agreed by the joint Anglo-Russian Afghan Boundary Commission of 1885–87 and this interest in the region continued on through the Soviet era, with billions in economic and military aid sent to Afghanistan between 1955 and 1978. Dubs death led to a deterioration in Afghanistan–United States relations. In Southwestern Asia, drastic changes were taking place concurrent with the upheavals in Afghanistan, in February 1979, the Iranian Revolution ousted the American-backed Shah from Iran, losing the United States as one of its most powerful allies. The United States then deployed twenty ships to the Persian Gulf, March 1979 marked the signing of the U. S. -backed peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. The Soviet leadership saw the agreement as an advantage for the United States. One Soviet newspaper stated that Egypt and Israel were now gendarmes of the Pentagon, the Soviets viewed the treaty not only as a peace agreement between their erstwhile allies in Egypt and the U. S. -supported Israelis but also as a military pact
Soviet war in Afghanistan
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Mujahideen fighters in the Kunar Province of Afghanistan in 1987
Soviet war in Afghanistan
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Afghanistan Scout Association in 1950s.
Soviet war in Afghanistan
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History of Afghanistan
Soviet war in Afghanistan
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Soviet infantry at the time of deployment.
101.
Precision-guided munition
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For the weapon systems customized to a single person, see personalized gun. A precision-guided munition is a guided munition intended to hit a specific target, to minimize collateral damage. Because the damage effects of explosive weapons decrease with distance due to an inverse cube law, thus, even if some guided bombs miss, fewer air crews are put at risk and the harm to civilians and the amount of collateral damage may be reduced. The advent of precision-guided munitions resulted in the renaming of older bombs unguided bombs, dumb bombs, recognizing the difficulty of hitting moving ships during the Spanish Civil War, the Germans were first to develop steerable munitions, using radio control or wire guidance. The U. S. tested TV-guided, semi-active radar-guided, in addition, the U. S. tested the rocket-propelled Gargoyle, which never entered service. Japanese PGMs—with the exception of the anti-ship air-launched, rocket-powered, human-piloted Ohka suicide flying bomb—did not see combat in World War II, prior to the war, the British experimented with radio-controlled remotely guided planes laden with explosive, such as Larynx. The U. S. programs restarted in the Korean War, in the 1960s, the electro-optical bomb was reintroduced. They were equipped with cameras and flare sights, by which the bomb would be steered until the flare superimposed the target. The camera bombs transmitted a bombs eye view of the back to a controlling aircraft. An operator in this aircraft then transmitted control signals to steerable fins fitted to the bomb, in World War II, the U. S. National Defense Research Committee developed the VB-6 Felix, which used infrared to home on ships. While it entered production in 1945, it was never employed operationally, Precision guidance has been applied to weapons other than conventional bomb warheads. The Raytheon Maverick heavy anti-tank missile has among its various marks guidance systems such as electro-optical, imaging infra-red, the Pakistani NESCOM H-2 MUPSOW and H-4 MUPSOW is an electro-optical is a drop and forget precision-guided glide bomb. The Israeli Elbit Opher is also an I, during NATOs air campaign in 1999 in Kosovo the new Italian AF AMX employed the Opher. All such bombs work in much the way, relying on the target being illuminated, or painted. They have the significant disadvantage of not being usable in poor weather where the target illumination cannot be seen, or where a target designator cannot get near the target. The laser designator sends its beam in a series of pulses so the bomb cannot be confused by an ordinary laser. Laser-guided weapons did not become commonplace until the advent of the microchip and they made their practical debut in Vietnam, where on 13 May 1972 they were used in the second successful attack on the Thanh Hóa Bridge. This structure had previously been the target of 800 American sorties and was destroyed in each of two successful attacks, the other being on 27 April 1972 using Walleyes
Precision-guided munition
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BOLT-117, the world's first laser-guided bomb
Precision-guided munition
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Diagram showing the operation of a laser-guided ammunition round. From a CIA report, 1986.
Precision-guided munition
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A laser-guided GBU-24 (BLU-109 warhead variant) strikes its target.
Precision-guided munition
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A F-22 releases a JDAM from its center internal bay while flying at supersonic speed
102.
U.S. war in Afghanistan
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The war in Afghanistan followed the 2001 United States invasion of Afghanistan. Supported initially by the United Kingdom, the US was later joined by the rest of NATO and its public aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda and to deny it a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by removing the Taliban from power. Key allies, including the United Kingdom, supported the U. S. from the start to the end of the phase and this phase of the war is the longest war in United States history. In 2001, U. S. President George W. Bush demanded that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden and expel al-Qaeda, bin Laden had already been wanted by the United Nations since 1999. The Taliban declined to extradite him unless given evidence of his involvement in the September 11 attacks, the request for evidence was dismissed by the U. S. as a delaying tactic, and on 7 October 2001 it launched Operation Enduring Freedom with the United Kingdom. The two were joined by other forces, including the Northern Alliance which had been fighting the Taliban in the ongoing civil war since 1996. In December 2001, the United Nations Security Council established the International Security Assistance Force, at the Bonn Conference the same month, Hamid Karzai was selected to head the Afghan Interim Administration, which after a 2002 loya jirga in Kabul became the Afghan Transitional Administration. In the popular elections of 2004, Karzai was elected president of the country, NATO became involved in ISAF in August 2003, and later that year assumed leadership of it, with troops from 43 countries by this stage. NATO members provided the core of the force, one portion of U. S. forces in Afghanistan operated under NATO command, the rest remained under direct U. S. command. The Taliban was reorganised by its leader Mullah Omar, and in 2003, launched an insurgency against the government, the Taliban exploited weaknesses in the Afghan government, among the most corrupt in the world, to reassert influence across rural areas of southern and eastern Afghanistan. In the initial years there was fighting, but from 2006 the Taliban made significant gains. ISAF responded in 2006 by increasing troops for operations to clear and hold villages and nation building projects to win hearts. Violence sharply escalated from 2007 to 2009, while ISAF continued to battle the Taliban insurgency, fighting crossed into neighboring North-West Pakistan. On 2 May 2011, United States Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in Abbotabad, in May 2012, NATO leaders endorsed an exit strategy for withdrawing their forces. UN-backed peace talks have taken place between the Afghan government and the Taliban. In May 2014, the United States announced that its combat operations would end in December 2014. In October 2014, British forces handed over the last bases in Helmand to the Afghan military, on 28 December 2014, NATO formally ended combat operations in Afghanistan and transferred full security responsibility to the Afghan government. Tens of thousands of people were killed in the war, over 4,000 ISAF soldiers and civilian contractors as well as over 15,000 Afghan national security forces were killed, as well as nearly 20,000 civilians
U.S. war in Afghanistan
U.S. war in Afghanistan
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Ground Zero in New York following the attacks of 11 September 2001
U.S. war in Afghanistan
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U.S. Army Special Forces and U.S. Air Force Combat Controllers with Northern Alliance troops on horseback
U.S. war in Afghanistan
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A U.S. Navy Corpsman searches for Taliban fighters in the spring of 2005.
103.
Iraq
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The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
Iraq
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Cylinder Seal, Old Babylonian Period, c.1800 BCE, hematite. The king makes an animal offering to Shamash. This seal was probably made in a workshop at Sippar.
Iraq
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Flag
Iraq
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Victory stele of Naram-Sin of Akkad
Iraq
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Bill of sale of a male slave and a building in Shuruppak, Sumerian tablet, circa 2600 BCE
104.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
Iran
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Cave painting in Doushe cave, Lorestan, Iran, 8th millennium BC
Iran
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Flag
Iran
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A depiction of the united Medes and Persians in Apadana, Persepolis
Iran
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Ruins of the Gate of All Nations, Persepolis
105.
Halabja poison gas attack
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The attack was part of the Al-Anfal Campaign in northern Iraq, as well as part of the Iraqi attempt to repel the Iranian Operation Zafar 7. It took place 48 hours after the fall of the town to Iranian army, the attack killed between 3,200 and 5,000 people and injured 7,000 to 10,000 more, most of them civilians. Thousands more died of complications, diseases, and birth defects in the years after the attack, the Halabja attack has been recognized as a distinct event of the Anfal Genocide conducted against the Kurdish people by the Iraqi regime under Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi High Criminal Court recognized the Halabja massacre as an act of genocide on March 1,2010, the attack was also condemned as a crime against humanity by the Parliament of Canada. The Kurdish rebellion was put down by mid-1980s. The Halabja event was part of Iraqi efforts to counter-attack Kurdish. The five-hour attack began in the evening of March 16,1988, Iraqi MiG and Mirage aircraft began dropping chemical bombs on Halabjas residential areas, far from the besieged Iraqi army base on the outskirts of the town. According to regional Kurdish rebel commanders, Iraqi aircraft, coordinated by helicopters, eyewitnesses told of clouds of white, black and then yellow smoke billowing upward and rising as a column about 150 feet in the air. It was a spring day. As the clock approached 11,00 in the morning, I felt a strange sensation, within minutes, artillery rounds began to explode in Halabja and planes began dropping bombs on the town. The bombing was concentrated on the neighborhoods, so we ran. At 2 oclock in the afternoon, as the intensity of the bombing wound down, I carefully sneaked out of the basement to the kitchen, when the bombing stopped, we began to hear noises that sounded like metal pieces falling on the ground. But I didn’t find an explanation, I saw things that I wont forget for as long as I live. It started with a strange noise that sounded like bombs exploding. We hurried into our car and closed its windows, I think the car was rolling over the bodies of innocent people. I saw people lying on the ground, vomiting a green-colored liquid, while others became hysterical, later, I smelled an aroma that reminded me of apples and I lost consciousness. When I awoke, there were hundreds of bodies scattered around me, after that I took shelter again in a nearby basement and the area was engulfed by an ugly smell. It was similar to rotting garbage, but then it changed to a smell similar to that of apples
Halabja poison gas attack
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An officer of the U.S. 25th Infantry Division patrolling a local cemetery for some 1,500 victims in 2003
Halabja poison gas attack
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Ali Hassan al-Majid "Chemical Ali" during an investigative hearing in 2004
Halabja poison gas attack
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An original bomb casing used as flower pot at the Halabja Memorial Monument in 2011
106.
Somali Air Force
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The Somali Air Force, Al-Qūwāt al-Gawwīyä as-Ṣūmāl) is the air force of Somalia. The Somali Aeronautical Corps was the name of the Somali Air Force during the pre-independence period, after 1960, when Somalia gained independence, the name changed to the Somali Air Force. SAF principal organizer and the first Somalia pilot Ali Matan Hashi became the founder as well as the Chief of SAF, the SAF at one point had the strongest airstrike capability in the Horn of Africa. Following the outbreak of the war in the early 1990s. A reconstituted Somali Central Government later relaunched the SAF in the 2010s, following an agreement signed between the Somali and Italian governments in 1962, Somali airmen began a training regimen in Italy with the assistance of Italian technical staff and pilots. On October 15,1969, while paying a visit to the town of Las Anod. His assassination was followed by a military coup détat on October 21,1969. The putsch was spearheaded by Major General Mohamed Siad Barre, who at the time commanded the army, Barre then proclaimed Somalia to be a socialist state, and rapid modernization programs soon followed suit. Numerous Somali airmen were sent to train abroad in countries such as the United States, Italy, the Soviet Union. After their training, many of these men went on to become the nations leading instructors, the Somali Air Force was at this time considered to be among the very best air forces on the continent. Asli Hassan Abade was the first female pilot in the Somali Air Force and she had been training on single prop aircraft, and later earned a scholarship to study at the United States Air Force Academy. Some of these had been used by the Italian forces in Somalia in the 1950s, in July 1977, the Ogaden War broke out after Barres government sought to incorporate the predominantly Somali-inhabited Ogaden region in Ethiopia into a Pan-Somali Greater Somalia. The Somali Armed Forces invaded the Ogaden and was successful at first, the invasion reached an abrupt end with the Soviet Unions sudden shift of support to Ethiopia, followed by almost the entire communist world siding with the latter. The Soviets halted their previous supplies to Barres regime and increased the distribution of aid, weapons and they also brought in around 15,000 Cuban troops to assist the Ethiopian military. By 1978, the Somali troops were pushed out of the Ogaden. With the fall of Siad Barres regime in 1991 and the start of the war, funding for any government activity, including the SAF. The remains of the SAF were subsequently photographed in a state at Mogadishu Airport in 1993 by U. S troops in Mogadishu. In the early 2010s, the Somali Air Force was re-established by Somalias central government, on October 29,2012,40 senior SAF and Somali National Army officers participated in the three-day Improving Understanding and Compliance with International Humanitarian Law workshop in Djibouti
Somali Air Force
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Asli Hassan Abade, a pioneer in the Somali Air Force.
Somali Air Force
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Somali Air Force Emblem
107.
Kuwait City
–
Kuwait City is the capital and largest city of Kuwait. Kuwait City is the political, cultural and economic center of Kuwait, Kuwait City is considered a global city. Kuwait Citys trade and transportation needs are served by Kuwait International Airport, Mina Al-Shuwaik, in 1613, the town of Kuwait was founded in modern-day Kuwait City. In 1716, the Bani Utubs settled in Kuwait, at the time of the arrival of the Utubs, Kuwait was inhabited by a few fishermen and primarily functioned as a fishing village. In the eighteenth century, Kuwait prospered and rapidly became the commercial center for the transit of goods between India, Muscat, Baghdad and Arabia. By the mid 1700s, Kuwait had already established itself as the trading route from the Persian Gulf to Aleppo. During the Persian siege of Basra in 1775–1779, Iraqi merchants took refuge in Kuwait and were instrumental in the expansion of Kuwaits boat-building and trading activities. As a result, Kuwaits maritime commerce boomed, between the years 1775 and 1779, the Indian trade routes with Baghdad, Aleppo, Smyrna and Constantinople were diverted to Kuwait. The East India Company was diverted to Kuwait in 1792, the East India Company secured the sea routes between Kuwait, India and the east coasts of Africa. After the Persians withdrew from Basra in 1779, Kuwait continued to trade away from Basra. Kuwait was the center of boat building in the Persian Gulf region, during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, ship vessels made in Kuwait carried the bulk of trade between the ports of India, East Africa and the Red Sea. Kuwaiti ship vessels were renowned throughout the Indian Ocean, regional geopolitical turbulence helped foster economic prosperity in Kuwait in the second half of the 18th century. Kuwait became prosperous due to Basras instability in the late 18th century, in the late 18th century, Kuwait partly functioned as a haven for Basras merchants fleeing Ottoman government persecution. According to Palgrave, Kuwaitis developed a reputation as the best sailors in the Persian Gulf, during the reign of Mubarak Al-Sabah, Kuwait was dubbed the Marseilles of the Gulf because its economic vitality attracted a large variety of people. In the first decades of the century, Kuwait had a well-established elite, wealthy trading families who were linked by marriage. The elite were long-settled, urban, Sunni families, the majority of which claim descent from the original 30 Bani Utubi families, the wealthiest families were trade merchants who acquired their wealth from long-distance commerce, shipbuilding and pearling. They were an elite, they traveled extensively to India, Africa. The elite educated their sons more than other Gulf Arab elite
Kuwait City
–
The Skyline of Kuwait City
Kuwait City
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Oil fires in Kuwait in 1990, which were a result of the scorched earth policy of Iraqi military forces retreating from Kuwait.
Kuwait City
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Kuwait National Assembly Building
Kuwait City
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Satellite image of Kuwait
108.
1991 uprisings in Iraq
–
The 1991 uprisings in Iraq were a series of popular rebellions in northern and southern Iraq in March and April 1991 in a cease fire of the Gulf War. Within the first two weeks, most of Iraqs cities and provinces fell to rebel forces, participants of the uprising were a diverse mix of ethnic, religious and political affiliations, including military mutineers, Shia Arab Islamists, Kurdish nationalists, and far-left groups. Following initial victories, the revolution was held back from continued success by internal divisions as well as a lack of anticipated American support, during the brief, roughly one-month period of unrest, tens of thousands of people died and nearly two million people were displaced. After the conflict, the Iraqi government intensified a prior systematic forced relocation of Marsh Arabs, on February 15,1991, then President of the United States of America, George H. W. Bush, made a speech targeting Iraqis via Voice of America radio. The speaker on the radio was Salah Omar al-Ali, a former member of the Baath Party. Iraqi armed forces were composed largely of Shia conscripts and contained substantial anti-regime elements, the turmoil first began in the towns of Abu Al-Khaseeb and Az Zubayr, south of Basra, at the end of February. The uprising in Basra was entirely spontaneous and disorganised, the news of this event and Bushs radio broadcasts encouraged the Iraqi people to revolt against the regime in the other towns and cities. In Najaf, a demonstration near the citys great Imam Ali Mosque became a gun battle between army deserters and Saddams security forces, the rebels seized the shrine as Baath Party officials fled the city or were killed, prisoners were freed from jails. The uprising spread within days to all of the largest Shia cities in southern Iraq, Amarah, Diwaniya, Hilla, Karbala, Kut, smaller cities were swept up in the revolution as well. Many exiled Iraqi dissidents, including thousands of Iran-based Badr Brigades militants of SCIRI, crossed the borders, another wave of insurgency broke out shortly afterwards in the Kurdish populated northern Iraq. In the north, the defection of the government-recruited Kurdish home guard militias, known as jash, the rebellion in the north erupted on March 5 in the town of Rania. Entire units surrendered without much or any resistance, including the whole 24th Division which did not fire a single bullet, in Sulaymaniyah, the rebels besieged and captured the regional headquarters of the dreaded Directorate of General Security secret police. In a bloody revenge, they killed several hundred of captured Baathist officials and security officers without a trial, reportedly, unlike in the south, the Kurdish rebellion was preceded by demonstrations with clear political slogans, democracy for Iraq and autonomy for Kurdistan. After Mosul was taken, Jalal Talabani proposed to march on the capital Baghdad, at the height of the revolution, the government lost effective control over 14 of Iraqs 18 provinces. However, the people of Baghdad remained largely passive, as the Dawa Party, the Communist Party, there was only a limited unrest in the Shia-populated vast slum of Saddam City while the rest of Baghdad remained calm. Soon, regime loyalists regrouped and went on an offensive to reclaim the cities, there were several reports of chemical warfare attacks, including of a nerve agent being used during the assault on Basra. According to the U. S. S. forces that have been stationed there at the time, in the south, Saddams forces quelled all but a scattering of the resistance by the end of March. On March 29, SCIRI leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim conceded that Shia rebels withdrew from the cities, the Kurdish uprising in the north of the country collapsed even more quickly than it began
1991 uprisings in Iraq
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An Iraqi government tank disabled by rebels
1991 uprisings in Iraq
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U.S. Gulf War leaflet depicting Saddam Hussein as Death
1991 uprisings in Iraq
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UNHCR trucks with aid supplies for Kurdish refugees, 29 April 1991
1991 uprisings in Iraq
–
Kurdish children in a refugee camp built during the U.S. and coalition Operation Provide Comfort play on a ZPU gun which was abandoned by Iraqi forces during Operation Desert Storm, 1 May 1991
109.
Helicopter
–
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and these attributes allow helicopters to be used in congested or isolated areas where fixed-wing aircraft and many forms of VTOL aircraft cannot perform. English language nicknames for helicopter include chopper, copter, helo, heli, Helicopters were developed and built during the first half-century of flight, with the Focke-Wulf Fw 61 being the first operational helicopter in 1936. Some helicopters reached limited production, but it was not until 1942 that a helicopter designed by Igor Sikorsky reached full-scale production, with 131 aircraft built. Though most earlier designs used more than one rotor, it is the single main rotor with anti-torque tail rotor configuration that has become the most common helicopter configuration. Tandem rotor helicopters are also in use due to their greater payload capacity. Coaxial helicopters, tiltrotor aircraft, and compound helicopters are all flying today, quadcopter helicopters pioneered as early as 1907 in France, and other types of multicopter have been developed for specialized applications such as unmanned drones. The earliest references for vertical flight came from China, since around 400 BC, Chinese children have played with bamboo flying toys. This bamboo-copter is spun by rolling a stick attached to a rotor, the spinning creates lift, and the toy flies when released. The 4th-century AD Daoist book Baopuzi by Ge Hong reportedly describes some of the ideas inherent to rotary wing aircraft, designs similar to the Chinese helicopter toy appeared in Renaissance paintings and other works. In the 18th and early 19th centuries Western scientists developed flying machines based on the Chinese toy. It was not until the early 1480s, when Leonardo da Vinci created a design for a machine that could be described as an aerial screw, that any recorded advancement was made towards vertical flight. His notes suggested that he built flying models, but there were no indications for any provision to stop the rotor from making the craft rotate. As scientific knowledge increased and became accepted, people continued to pursue the idea of vertical flight. In July 1754, Russian Mikhail Lomonosov had developed a small coaxial modeled after the Chinese top but powered by a spring device. It was powered by a spring, and was suggested as a method to lift meteorological instruments. Sir George Cayley, influenced by a fascination with the Chinese flying top, developed a model of feathers, similar to that of Launoy and Bienvenu. By the end of the century, he had progressed to using sheets of tin for rotor blades and his writings on his experiments and models would become influential on future aviation pioneers
Helicopter
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A police department Bell 206 helicopter
Helicopter
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A decorated Japanese taketombo bamboo-copter
Helicopter
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Leonardo's "aerial screw"
Helicopter
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Prototype created by M. Lomonosov, 1754
110.
Gulf War
–
The Iraqi Armys occupation of Kuwait that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. US President George H. W. Bush deployed US forces into Saudi Arabia, an array of nations joined the coalition, the largest military alliance since World War II. The great majority of the military forces were from the US, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost, the war was marked by the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the US network CNN. The war has also earned the nickname Video Game War after the daily broadcast of images from cameras on board US bombers during Operation Desert Storm. The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991 and this was followed by a ground assault on 24 February. This was a victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait. The coalition ceased its advance, and declared a ceasefire 100 hours after the campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, Iraq launched Scud missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia and against Israel. The following names have been used to describe the conflict itself, Gulf War, a problem with these terms is that the usage is ambiguous, having now been applied to at least three conflicts, see Gulf War. The use of the term Persian Gulf is also disputed, see Persian Gulf naming dispute, with no consensus of naming, various publications have attempted to refine the name. Other language terms include French, la Guerre du Golfe and German, Golfkrieg, German, Zweiter Golfkrieg, French, most of the coalition states used various names for their operations and the wars operational phases. Operation Desert Storm was the US name of the conflict from 17 January 1991. Operation Desert Sabre was the US name for the offensive against the Iraqi Army in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations from 24–28 February 1991, in itself. Operation Desert Farewell was the given to the return of US units and equipment to the US in 1991 after Kuwaits liberation. Operation Granby was the British name for British military activities during the operations, Opération Daguet was the French name for French military activities in the conflict. Operation Friction was the name of the Canadian operations Operazione Locusta was the Italian name for the operations, in addition, various phases of each operation may have a unique operational name. The US divided the conflict into three campaigns, Defense of Saudi Arabian country for the period 2 August 1990, through 16 January 1991
Gulf War
–
Clockwise from top: USAF F-15Es, F-16s, and an F-15C flying over burning Kuwaiti oil wells; British troops from the Staffordshire Regiment in Operation Granby; camera view from a Lockheed AC-130; Highway of Death; M728 Combat Engineer Vehicle.
Gulf War
–
Donald Rumsfeld, as U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, meets Saddam Hussein on 19–20 December 1983.
Gulf War
–
Kuwait Army M-84 main battle tanks.
Gulf War
–
Iraqi Army T-72 M main battle tanks. The T-72M tank was a common Iraqi battle tank used in the Gulf War.
111.
Basra
–
Basra, also al-Baṣrah, is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab between Kuwait and Iran. It had an population of 1.5 million in 2012. Basra is also Iraqs main port, although it not have deep water access. The city is part of the location of Sumer, one of the ports from which Sinbad the Sailor journeyed. It played an important role in early Islamic history and was built in 636, Basra is consistently one of the hottest cities in Iraq, with summer temperatures regularly exceeding 50 °C. The city was called by many throughout its history, Basrah being the most common. In Arabic the word means the overwatcher, which might have been an allusion to the citys origin as an Arab military base against the Sassanids. Some sources claim that the name is derived from the Persian word Bas-rah, others have argued that the name is derived from the Aramaic word basratha, meaning place of huts, settlement. During the pre-Islamic era, the area was known to the Arabs as al-Khariba due to the existence of an ancient city called al-Kharba. After the present city was built, it was called by names, including the mother of Iraq, the reservoir of Arabs, the prosperous city. The name Al-Basrah, which in Arabic means the over watching or the seeing everything, was given to it because of its role as a base against the Sassanid Empire. However, other sources claim the name originates from the Persian word Bas-rāh or Bassorāh meaning where many ways come together, in 639 Umar established this encampment as a city with five districts, and appointed Abu Musa al-Ashari as its first governor. Abu Musa led the conquest of Khuzestan from 639 to 642 and was ordered by Umar to aid Uthman ibn Abu al-ʿAs, then fighting Iran from a new, more easterly miṣr at Tawwaj. In 650, the Rashidun Caliph Uthman reorganised the Persian frontier, installed ʿAbdullah ibn Amir as Basras governor, Ibn Amir led his forces to their final victory over Yazdegerd III, the Sassanid King of Kings. In 656, Uthman was murdered and Ali was appointed Caliph, Ali first installed Uthman ibn Hanif as Basras governor, who was followed by ʿAbdullah ibn ʿAbbas. These men held the city for Ali until the death in 661. The Sufyanids held Basra until Yazid Is death in 683, the Sufyanids first governor was Umayyad ʿAbdullah, a renowned military leader, commanding fealty and financial demands from Karballah, but poor governor. In 664, Muʿawiyah I replaced him with Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan, often called ibn Abihi, on Ziyads death in 673, his son ʿUbaydullah ibn Ziyad became governor
Basra
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Basrah city
Basra
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Ashar Creek and bazaar, ca.1915
Basra
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Shanasheel of the old part of Basra city, 1954
Basra
–
Basra at night
112.
Operation Desert Storm
–
The Iraqi Armys occupation of Kuwait that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. US President George H. W. Bush deployed US forces into Saudi Arabia, an array of nations joined the coalition, the largest military alliance since World War II. The great majority of the military forces were from the US, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost, the war was marked by the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the US network CNN. The war has also earned the nickname Video Game War after the daily broadcast of images from cameras on board US bombers during Operation Desert Storm. The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991 and this was followed by a ground assault on 24 February. This was a victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait. The coalition ceased its advance, and declared a ceasefire 100 hours after the campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, Iraq launched Scud missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia and against Israel. The following names have been used to describe the conflict itself, Gulf War, a problem with these terms is that the usage is ambiguous, having now been applied to at least three conflicts, see Gulf War. The use of the term Persian Gulf is also disputed, see Persian Gulf naming dispute, with no consensus of naming, various publications have attempted to refine the name. Other language terms include French, la Guerre du Golfe and German, Golfkrieg, German, Zweiter Golfkrieg, French, most of the coalition states used various names for their operations and the wars operational phases. Operation Desert Storm was the US name of the conflict from 17 January 1991. Operation Desert Sabre was the US name for the offensive against the Iraqi Army in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations from 24–28 February 1991, in itself. Operation Desert Farewell was the given to the return of US units and equipment to the US in 1991 after Kuwaits liberation. Operation Granby was the British name for British military activities during the operations, Opération Daguet was the French name for French military activities in the conflict. Operation Friction was the name of the Canadian operations Operazione Locusta was the Italian name for the operations, in addition, various phases of each operation may have a unique operational name. The US divided the conflict into three campaigns, Defense of Saudi Arabian country for the period 2 August 1990, through 16 January 1991
Operation Desert Storm
–
Clockwise from top: USAF F-15Es, F-16s, and an F-15C flying over burning Kuwaiti oil wells; British troops from the Staffordshire Regiment in Operation Granby; camera view from a Lockheed AC-130; Highway of Death; M728 Combat Engineer Vehicle.
Operation Desert Storm
–
Donald Rumsfeld, as U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, meets Saddam Hussein on 19–20 December 1983.
Operation Desert Storm
–
Kuwait Army M-84 main battle tanks.
Operation Desert Storm
–
Iraqi Army T-72 M main battle tanks. The T-72M tank was a common Iraqi battle tank used in the Gulf War.
113.
SFR Yugoslav Air Force
–
Not to be confused with the air force of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav Royal Air Force. The Yugoslav Air Force was the air force of Yugoslavia, the official name of the branch was Air Force and Anti-Air Defence. At its height, it was one of the largest air forces in Europe, the Yugoslav Air Force was disbanded following the war in Yugoslavia 1991-1995. By early 1945, Yugoslav Partisans under Marshal Tito had liberated a large portion of Yugoslav territory from the occupying forces, on 5 January 1945 the various air units of the NOVJ were formally incorporated into a new Yugoslav Air Force. At the same time, a Yugoslav fighter group which had been under Soviet instruction at Zemun airfield became operational, thus, when peacetime came, the JRV already possessed a strong and experienced nucleus of personnel. On 12 September 1945 the Military Aviation Academy in Belgrade was established to train future pilots, the development of the JRV was further helped in late 1945 with the creation of the Aeronautical Union of Yugoslavia. This comprised six aeronautical unions - one for each constituent republic - with the joint aim of promoting sport flying, in June 1947 the first VSJ flying school at Borongaj started training pupils. The organization of the post-war JRV was based on the Soviet pattern of divisions, regiments, virtually all of the initial equipment was supplied by the Soviet Union – the aircraft captured during the war had quickly been retired. By the end of 1947, the JRV had reached a strength of some 40 squadrons of aircraft, in June 1948 Yugoslavia broke off relations with the Stalinist Soviet Union. The country was subjected to extreme political pressure from the Soviet Union and its Balkan neighbors. The possibility of an invasion was taken seriously, the serviceability of JRV aircraft fell rapidly, with some aircraft being cannibalised to provide spares for the remainder. However, the strength of the JRV was still declining, so in 1951 the Yugoslav Chief of Staff, Colonel General Koča Popović. It was agreed that a shipment of aircraft would be forthcoming. In October 1951, the first de Havilland Mosquito F. B.6 fighter-bombers were supplied, the following year,150 Republic F-47D Thunderbolt fighter-bombers were delivered from the USA under a Mutual Assistance Pact. The first jet aircraft to be operated by the JRV, four Lockheed T-33A jet trainers, serials for the Thunderjets were from 10501 to 10729. The first eight Thunderjets, all former 48 TFW aircraft, arrived at Batajnica on June 9,1953, at the same time, a number of Yugoslav pilots underwent jet flying training in Germany. These deliveries substantially improved the effectiveness of the JRV. Ten Westland Dragonfly helicopters were obtained in 1954, and in 1956, in 1959 the JRV was merged with the air defence units operated by the Army and became known as the Air Force and Air Defence
SFR Yugoslav Air Force
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Spitfires of the No 352 (Y) Squadron British Royal Air Force (Balkan Air Force) before first mission on August 18, 1944, from Canne, Italy
SFR Yugoslav Air Force
SFR Yugoslav Air Force
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Yugoslav air force G-4 Super Galeb on display at the 1991 Paris air show
SFR Yugoslav Air Force
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Yugoslavian J-22 Orao exhibited in the Museum of Aviation in Belgrade
114.
Croatian War of Independence
–
In Croatia, the war is primarily referred to as the Homeland War and also as the Greater-Serbian Aggression. In Serbian sources, War in Croatia and War in Krajina are used, Croatia declared independence on 25 June 1991, but agreed to postpone it with the Brioni Agreement and cut all remaining ties with Yugoslavia on 8 October 1991. The JNA initially tried to keep Croatia within Yugoslavia by occupying all of Croatia, after this failed, Serb forces established the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina within Croatia. During that time, the RSK encompassed 13,913 square kilometers, in 1995, Croatia launched two major offensives known as Operation Flash and Operation Storm, which would effectively end the war in its favor. The remaining United Nations Transitional Authority for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja, the war ended with Croatian victory, as it achieved the goals it had declared at the beginning of the war, independence and preservation of its borders. 21–25% of Croatias economy was ruined, with an estimated US$37 billion in damaged infrastructure, lost output, a total of 20,000 people were killed in the war, and refugees were displaced on both sides. The Serb and Croatian governments began to cooperate with each other but tension remains, in part due to verdicts by the ICTY. Between 2008 and 2012, the ICTY had prosecuted Croatian generals Ante Gotovina, Mladen Markač, Čermak was acquitted outright, and the convictions of Gotovina and Markač were later overturned by an ICTY Appeals Panel. The International Court of Justice dismissed Croatia and Serbia genocide claims in 2015, the Court reaffirmed that serious crimes against civilians had taken place, but ruled that specific genocidal intent was not present. From 1967 to 1972 in Croatia and 1968 and 1981 protests in Kosovo, nationalist doctrines, the suppression by the state of nationalists is believed to have had the effect of identifying nationalism as the primary alternative to communism itself and made it a strong underground movement. A crisis emerged in Yugoslavia with the weakening of the Communist states in Eastern Europe towards the end of the Cold War, in Yugoslavia, the national communist party, officially called the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, had lost its ideological potency. SR Slovenia and SR Croatia wanted to move towards decentralization, the rhetoric was approved by the Serbian political leadership, and accused the Croatian leadership of being blindly nationalistic when it objected. In 1989, political parties were allowed and a number of them had been founded, including the Croatian Democratic Union, led by Franjo Tuđman, who later became the first president of Croatia. In January 1990, the League of Communists broke up on ethnic lines, with the Croatian, at the congress, Serbian delegates accused the Croatian and Slovene delegates of supporting separatism, terrorism and genocide in Kosovo. The Croatian and Slovene delegations, including most of their ethnic Serb members, eventually left in protest, January 1990 also marked the beginning of court cases being brought to Yugoslavias Constitutional Court on the matter of secession. The first was the Slovenian Constitutional Amendments case after Slovenia claimed the right to unilateral secession pursuant to the right of self-determination, the Constitutional Court ruled that secession from the federation was only permitted if there was the unanimous agreement of Yugoslavias republics and autonomous provinces. On 4 March 1990,50,000 Serbs rallied at Petrova Gora, and shouted negative remarks aimed at Tuđman, chanted This is Serbia, the first free elections in Croatia and Slovenia were scheduled for a few months later. The first round of elections in Croatia were held on 22 April, the HDZ based its campaign on greater sovereignty for Croatia, fueling a sentiment among Croats that only the HDZ could protect Croatia from the aspirations of Milošević towards a Greater Serbia
Croatian War of Independence
–
Clockwise from top left: the central street of Dubrovnik, the Stradun, in ruins during the Siege of Dubrovnik; the damaged Vukovar water tower, a symbol of the early conflict, flying the Croatian tricolour; soldiers of the Croatian Army preparing to destroy a Serbian tank; the Vukovar Memorial Cemetery; a Serbian T-55 tank destroyed on the road to Drniš
Croatian War of Independence
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President Franjo Tuđman wanted Croatia to disengage from Yugoslavia.
Croatian War of Independence
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Map of the strategic offensive plan of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) in 1991 as interpreted by the US Central Intelligence Agency
Croatian War of Independence
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The Croatian military eased their equipment shortage by seizing the JNA barracks in the Battle of the Barracks.
115.
Serbia
–
Serbia, officially the Republic of Serbia, is a sovereign state situated at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central Balkans. Relative to its territory, it is a diverse country distinguished by a transitional character, situated along cultural, geographic, climatic. Serbia numbers around 7 million residents, and its capital, Belgrade, following the Slavic migrations to the Balkans from the 6th century onwards, Serbs established several states in the early Middle Ages. The Serbian Kingdom obtained recognition by Rome and the Byzantine Empire in 1217, in the early 19th century, the Serbian Revolution established the nation-state as the regions first constitutional monarchy, which subsequently expanded its territory. During the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbia formed a union with Montenegro which dissolved peacefully in 2006, in 2008 the parliament of the province of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, with mixed responses from the international community. Serbia is a member of organizations such as the UN, CoE, OSCE, PfP, BSEC. An EU membership candidate since 2012, Serbia has been negotiating its EU accession since January 2014, the country is acceding to the WTO and is a militarily neutral state. Serbia is an income economy with dominant service sector, followed by the industrial sector. The country ranks high on the Social Progress Index as well as the Global Peace Index, relatively high on the Human Development Index, located at the crossroads between Central and Southern Europe, Serbia is found in the Balkan peninsula and the Pannonian Plain. Serbia lies between latitudes 41° and 47° N, and longitudes 18° and 23° E. The country covers a total of 88,361 km2, which places it at 113th place in the world, with Kosovo excluded, the area is 77,474 km2. Its total border length amounts to 2,027 km, all of Kosovos border with Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro are under control of the Kosovo border police. The Pannonian Plain covers the third of the country while the easternmost tip of Serbia extends into the Wallachian Plain. The terrain of the part of the country, with the region of Šumadija at its heart. Mountains dominate the third of Serbia. Dinaric Alps stretch in the west and the southwest, following the flow of the rivers Drina, the Carpathian Mountains and Balkan Mountains stretch in a north–south direction in eastern Serbia. Ancient mountains in the southeast corner of the country belong to the Rilo-Rhodope Mountain system, elevation ranges from the Midžor peak of the Balkan Mountains at 2,169 metres to the lowest point of just 17 metres near the Danube river at Prahovo. The largest lake is Đerdap Lake and the longest river passing through Serbia is the Danube, the climate of Serbia is under the influences of the landmass of Eurasia and the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea
Serbia
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Clay figure from Vinča culture, 4000–4500 BC, British Museum
Serbia
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Flag
Serbia
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Felix Romuliana, UNESCO World Heritage Site
Serbia
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Temnić inscription, is one of the oldest records of Old Church Slavonic Cyrillic script from the territory of Serbia.
116.
Kosovo
–
Kosovo is a disputed territory and partially recognised state in Southeastern Europe that declared independence from Serbia in February 2008 as the Republic of Kosovo. Kosovo is landlocked in the central Balkan Peninsula, with its strategic position in the Balkans, it serves as an important link in the connection between central and south Europe, the Adriatic Sea, and Black Sea. Its capital and largest city is Pristina, and other urban areas include Prizren, Pejë. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, the Republic of Macedonia to the southeast, Montenegro to the west, while Serbia recognises administration of the territory by Kosovos elected government, it still continues to claim it as its own Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija. In antiquity, the Dardanian Kingdom, and later the Roman province of Dardania was located in the region, the area was inhabited by several ancient Illyrian tribes. In the Middle Ages, it was part of the Byzantine, Bulgarian and Serbian Empires, Kosovo was the core of the medieval Serbian state and it has been the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church from the 14th century when its status was upgraded into a patriarchate. After being part of the Ottoman Empire from the 15th to the early 20th century, the war ended with a military intervention of NATO, which forced the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to withdraw its troops from Kosovo, which became a UN protectorate under UNSCR1244. On 17 February 2008 Kosovos Parliament declared independence and it has since gained diplomatic recognition as a sovereign state by 111 UN member states, Taiwan, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the Cook Islands and Niue. Serbia refuses to recognise Kosovo as a state, although with the Brussels Agreement of 2013 it has accepted the legitimacy of Kosovar institutions, the entire region is commonly referred to in English simply as Kosovo and in Albanian as Kosova or Kosovë. The name of the plain was applied to the Kosovo Province created in 1864, Albanians refer to Kosovo as Dardania, the name of a Roman province located in Central Balkans that was formed in 284 AD which covered the territory of modern Kosovo. The name is derived from the Albanian word dardha/dardā which means pear, the former Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova had been an enthusiastic backer of a Dardanian identity and the Kosovan flag and presidential seal refer to this national identity. However, the name Kosova remains more widely used among the Albanian population, the official conventional long name of the state is Republic of Kosovo, as defined by the Constitution of Kosovo, and is used to represent Kosovo internationally. This arrangement, which has dubbed the asterisk agreement, was agreed in an 11-point arrangement agreed on 24 February 2012. By the independence declaration in 2008, its long name became Republic of Kosovo. In prehistory, the succeeding Starčevo culture, Vinča culture, Bubanj-Hum culture, the area in and around Kosovo has been inhabited for nearly 10,000 years. During the Neolithic age, Kosovo lay within the area of the Vinča-Turdaş culture which is characterised by West Balkan black, bronze and Iron Age tombs have been found in Metohija. However, life during the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age is not confirmed yet, therefore, until arguments of Paleolithic and Mesolithic man are confirmed, Neolithic man, respectively the Neolithic sites are considered as the chronological beginning of population in Kosovo. From this period until today Kosovo has been inhabited, and traces of activities of societies from prehistoric, ancient, whereas, in some archaeological sites, multilayer settlements clearly reflect the continuity of life through centuries
Kosovo
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The Sinan Pasha Mosque and old stone bridge in Prizren
Kosovo
–
Flag
Kosovo
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German soldiers set fire to a Serbian village near Kosovska Mitrovica, circa 1941.
Kosovo
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U.S. Marines set up a road block near the village of Koretin, 16 June 1999
117.
Grozny
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Grozny is the capital city of the Chechen Republic, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River, according to the 2010 Census, it had a population of 271,573, up from 210,720 recorded in the 2002 Census, but still only about two-thirds of 399,688 recorded in the 1989 Census. In Russian, Grozny means fearsome, or redoubtable, the word as in Ivan Grozny or Ivan the Terrible. While the official name in Chechen is the same, informally the city is known as Соьлжа-Гӏала, Sölƶa-Ġala, which literally means the city on the Sunzha River. In December 2005, the Chechen parliament voted to rename the city Akhmadkala —a proposition which was rejected by his son Ramzan Kadyrov, the fortress of Groznaya was founded in 1818 as a Russian military outpost on the Sunzha River by general Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov. As the fort was being built the workers were fired upon by the Chechens, the Russians solved the problem by placing a cannon at a carefully chosen point outside the walls. When night fell and the Chechens came out of their places to drag the gun away all the other guns opened up with grapeshot. When the Chechens recovered their senses and began to carry away the bodies the guns fired again, when it was over 200 dead were counted. Thus did the fort receive its baptism of fire. It was a prominent defense center during the Caucasian War, after the annexation of the region by the Russian Empire, the military use of the old fortress was obsolete and in December 1869 it was renamed Grozny and granted town status. As most of the residents there were Terek Cossacks, the town grew slowly until the development of oil reserves in the early 20th century and this encouraged the rapid development of industry and petrochemical production. In addition to the oil drilled in the city itself, the city became a center of Russias network of oil fields. The result was the population almost doubled from 15,600 in 1897 to 30,400 in 1913, one day after the October Revolution, on November 8,1917, the Bolsheviks headed by N. Anisimov seized Grozny. As the Russian Civil War escalated, the Proletariat formed the 12th Red Army, however, with the arrival of Denikins armies, the Bolsheviks were forced to withdraw and Grozny was captured on February 4,1919 by the White Army. Underground operations were carried out, but only the arrival of the Caucasus front of the Red Army in 1920 allowed the city to end up with the Russian SFSR on March 17. Simultaneously it became part of the Soviet Mountain Republic, which was formed on January 20,1921, on November 30,1922, the mountain republic was dissolved, and the national okrug became the Chechen Autonomous Oblast with Grozny as the administrative center. At this time most of the population was still Russian, as Cossacks were viewed as a potential threat to the Soviet nation, Moscow actively encouraged the migration of Chechens into the city from the mountains. In 1934 the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Oblast was formed, becoming the Chechen-Ingush ASSR in 1936, in 1944, the entire population of Chechens and Ingush was deported after rebelling against Soviet rule
Grozny
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Soviet-era postage stamp with a view of Grozny's Avgustovskaya Street
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A street in Grozny after the First Chechen War
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Damaged apartment buildings in 2006
118.
Battle of Grozny (1994-1995)
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The First Battle of Grozny was the Russian Armys invasion and subsequent conquest of the Chechen capital, Grozny, during the early months of the First Chechen War. The initial assault resulted in very high Russian Army casualties and an almost complete breakdown of morale in the Russian forces and it took them another two months of heavy fighting, and a change in their tactics, before they were able to capture Grozny. The battle caused enormous destruction and casualties amongst the civilian population, Chechen separatist forces recaptured the city in August 1996, ending the war. The Chechen fighters had the advantage in that they were highly motivated, as Soviet citizens, they spoke and were educated in Russian and had served in the Soviet armed forces. Chechen units were divided into groups consisting of 15 to 20 personnel. A fire team consisted of a gunner, usually armed with Russian-made RPG-7s or RPG-18s, as well as a machine gunner. To destroy Russian armoured vehicles in Grozny, five or six hunter-killer fire teams deployed at ground level, in second and third stories, and in basements. The snipers and machine gunners would pin down the infantry while the antitank gunners would engage the armoured vehicle aiming at the top, rear. The Chechen forces had a number of heavy weapons, including a handful of T-62. Most of the weapons were at disposal of the regular forces. In proactive moves, the Russians started to set up points of their own. The city was awoken at 5 A. M. on New Years Eve from a Russian bombardment, bombs and shells hit oil tanks on the western side of the city, creating black smoke that spread around the city. The Oil Institute, in the center of the city, was set ablaze after coming under fire. Pamphlets urging the Chechens to surrender were distributed, the Russian Defense Minister, General Pavel Grachev, had infamously boasted earlier that month that he could seize Grozny in two hours with just one airborne regiment. Before the battle, Grachev said, It is not a question of an assault in the sense of the word. What does an assault on a city mean and it means the use of all the forces and weapons in the countrys arsenal. It primarily means heavy rocket preparation lasting several hours and it means heavy bombing raids on the whole city with the aim of disabling 60% of the defenders and demoralizing the rest. The regiment was at 50% strength, and lacked the riflemen, one third of its officers and half of its enlisted personnel were reserve, and had not had significant training in preparation for the operation
Battle of Grozny (1994-1995)
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A Chechen militia fighter takes cover behind a burned-out Russian BMP-2 armoured vehicle. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev
Battle of Grozny (1994-1995)
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A Chechen fighter during the battle for Grozny, January 1995.
Battle of Grozny (1994-1995)
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A Chechen civilian prays in Grozny, January 1995. The flame in the background is coming from a gas pipeline which was hit by shrapnel.
Battle of Grozny (1994-1995)
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A Chechen separatist near the Presidential Palace in Grozny, January 1995
119.
First Chechen War
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The First Chechen War, also known as the War in Chechnya, was a conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought from December 1994 to August 1996. The official figure for Russian military deaths is 5,732, although there are no accurate figures for the number of Chechen forces killed, various estimates put the number at about 3,000 to 17,391 deaths and missing. The conflict led to a significant decrease of population due to violence. Following long local resistance during the 1817−1864 Caucasian War, Imperial Russian forces defeated the Chechens, in 1936, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin established the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The official pretext was punishment for collaboration with the invading German forces during the 1940–1944 insurgency in Chechnya, eventually, Soviet first secretary Nikita Khrushchev granted the Vainakh peoples permission to return to their homeland and restored their republic in 1957. Russia became an independent nation after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, while Russia was widely accepted as the successor state to the USSR, it lost a significant amount of its military and economic power. In the Soviet period, some of Russias approximately 100 nationalities were granted ethnic enclaves that had various formal federal rights attached, relations of these entities with the federal government and demands for autonomy erupted into a major political issue in the early 1990s. Boris Yeltsin incorporated these demands into his 1990 election campaign by claiming that their resolution was a high priority, there was an urgent need for a law to clearly define the powers of each federal subject. In almost all cases, demands for autonomy or independence were satisfied by concessions of regional autonomy. The treaty outlined three basic types of subjects and the powers that were reserved for local and federal government. The only federal subjects that did not sign the treaty were Chechnya, neither Yeltsin nor the Chechen government attempted any serious negotiations and the situation deteriorated into a full-scale conflict. The storming caused the death of the head of Groznys branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Vitaly Kutsenko and this effectively dissolved the government of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic of the Soviet Union. In the following month, Dudayev won overwhelming support to oust the interim administration that was supported by the central government. He was made president and declared independence from the Soviet Union, in November 1991, Yeltsin dispatched Internal Troops to Grozny, but they were forced to withdraw when Dudayevs forces surrounded them at the airport. The newly created republic of Ingushetia then joined the Russian Federation, from 1991 to 1994, tens of thousands of people of non-Chechen ethnicity left the republic amidst reports of violence and discrimination against the non-Chechen population. During the undeclared Chechen civil war, factions both sympathetic and opposed to Dudayev fought for power, sometimes in pitched battles with the use of heavy weapons, in March 1992, the opposition attempted a coup détat, but their attempt was crushed by force. A month later, Dudayev introduced direct rule, and in June 1993. To prevent the invasion of Chechnya, he did not provoke the Russian troops, in August 1994, the coalition of the opposition factions based in north Chechnya launched a large-scale armed campaign to remove Dudayevs government
First Chechen War
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Russian Mil Mi-8 helicopter brought down by Chechen fighters near the capital Grozny in 1994
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Dudayev's supporters pray in front of the Presidential Palace in Grozny, 1994
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Chechen women pray for Russian troops not to advance towards the capital Grozny, December 1994.
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A Chechen fighter near the burned-out ruins of the Presidential Palace in Grozny, January 1995
120.
Second Chechen War
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The Second Chechen War was an invasion launched by the Russian Federation, starting 26 August 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Brigade. On 1 October, Russian troops entered Chechnya, the campaign ended the de facto independence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and restored Russian federal control over the territory. Some Chechen separatists also carried out attacks against civilians in Russia and these attacks, as well as widespread human rights violations by Russian and separatist forces, drew international condemnation. In mid-2000, the Russian government transferred certain military operations to pro-Russian Chechen forces, the military phase of operations was terminated in April 2002, and the coordination of the field operations were given first to the Federal Security Service and then to the MVD in the summer of 2003. By 2009, Russia had severely disabled the Chechen separatist movement, Russian army and interior ministry troops no longer occupied the streets. Grozny underwent reconstruction efforts and much of the city and surrounding areas were rebuilt quickly, sporadic violence continues throughout the North Caucasus, occasional bombings and ambushes targeting federal troops and forces of the regional governments in the area still occur. On 15 April 2009, the government operation in Chechnya was officially ended, as the main bulk of the army was withdrawn, the burden of dealing with the ongoing low-level insurgency mainly fell on the shoulders of the local police force. The exact death toll from this conflict is unknown, unofficial estimates range from 25,000 to 50,000 dead or missing, mostly civilians in Chechnya. Russian casualties are over 5,200 and are about 11,000 according to the Committee of Soldiers Mothers, Chechnya is an area in the Northern Caucasus which has constantly fought against foreign rule, including the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century. The Russian Terek Cossack Host was established in lowland Chechnya in 1577 by free Cossacks who were resettled from the Volga to the Terek River, in 1783, Russia and the Georgian kingdom of Kartl-Kakheti signed the Treaty of Georgievsk, under which Kartl-Kakheti became a Russian protectorate. To secure communications with Georgia and other regions of the Transcaucasia, Russian forces first moved into highland Chechnya in 1830, and the conflict in the area lasted until 1859, when a 250, 000-strong army under General Baryatinsky broke down the highlanders resistance. Frequent uprisings in the Caucasus also occurred during the Russo-Turkish War, the Chechen states were opposed by both sides of the Russian Civil War and most of the resistance was crushed by Bolshevik troops by 1922. Then, months before the creation of the Soviet Union, the Chechen Autonomous Oblast of the Russian SFSR was established and it annexed a part of territory of the former Terek Cossack Host. Chechnya and neighboring Ingushetia formed the Chechen–Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1936, in 1941, during World War II, a Chechen revolt broke out, led by Khasan Israilov. Chechens were accused by Joseph Stalin of aiding Nazi forces, in February 1944 Stalin deported all the Chechens and Ingush to the Kazakh and Kirghiz SSRs. Up to a quarter of people died during the resettlement. In 1957, after the death of Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev allowed the Chechens to return, afterwards, the authority of the Soviet government gradually eroded. During the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Chechnya declared independence, in 1992, Chechen and Ingush leaders signed an agreement splitting the joint Chechen–Ingush republic in two, with Ingushetia joining the Russian Federation and Chechnya remaining independent
Second Chechen War
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Russian artillery shell militant positions near the village of Duba-Yurt in January 2000.
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A Russian helicopter downed by Chechen militants near the capital Grozny, during the First Chechen War
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Cadets of the Ichkeria Chechen National Guard, 1999
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Zhani-Vedeno ambush, March 2000
121.
Presidential Palace, Grozny
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The Presidential Palace in Grozny was a building in the center of the Chechen capital Grozny. The building became a symbol of resistance for the supporters of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria during the stages of the conflict in Chechnya. The building was ruined by repeated artillery and air strikes, the Russians demolished it in 1996. The 11-floor building was originally the headquarters of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Eventually General Dzhokhar Dudayev, the first leader of the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, adopted it as his presidential palace, the palace was the target of abortive attacks by the Russian-supported Chechen opposition forces through 1994 but was not targeted in the initial Russian bombing campaign. Although Dudayev left Grozny early in the battle, the concrete structure of his presidential palace turned into the main Chechen stronghold in the city. It, together with the buildings, was fiercely defended by several hundred separatist fighters, including some of Dudayevs presidential guards. Sergei Kovalev, six other state State Duma deputies, as well as several journalists, eventually, by January 16 the Russians managed to surround the burning building on three sides, but still failed to dislodge the defenders. On January 17,1995, two enormous nine-ton bunker buster bombs were dropped, in an instance of the use of precision-guided munitions by the Russian Air Force in Chechnya. The site was a scene of a peace demonstration in February 1996. The rally ended in bloodshed when the Russian government forces fired on the demonstrators, the Russians demolished the ruins soon afterwards
Presidential Palace, Grozny
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Dudayev's supporters in front of the Presidential Palace in Grozny, December 1994, just days before the battle for the city began. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev
Presidential Palace, Grozny
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A Chechen fighter near the burned-out presidential palace during a short lull in fighting in Grozny, January 1995. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev
122.
2003 Invasion of Iraq
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The 2003 invasion of Iraq lasted from 20 March to 1 May 2003 and signalled the start of the Iraq War, which was dubbed Operation Iraqi Freedom by the United States. 160,000 troops were sent by the Coalition into Iraq, during the invasion phase. About 130,000 were sent from the USA alone, with about 28,000 British soldiers, Australia,36 other countries were involved in its aftermath. In preparation for the invasion,100,000 U. S. troops were assembled in Kuwait by 18 February, the coalition forces also received support from Kurdish irregulars in Iraqi Kurdistan. Others place a greater emphasis on the impact of the September 11 attacks, and the role this played in changing U. S. strategic calculations. The invasion of Iraq was strongly opposed by some long-standing U. S. allies, including the governments of France, Germany, and New Zealand. Their leaders argued that there was no evidence of weapons of destruction in Iraq. According to the French academic Dominique Reynié, between 3 January and 12 April 2003,36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests against the Iraq war. The invasion was preceded by an airstrike on the Presidential Palace in Baghdad on 20 March 2003, the following day, coalition forces launched an incursion into Basra Province from their massing point close to the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border. Massive air strikes across the country and against Iraqi command and control threw the army into chaos. The main body of forces continued their drive into the heart of Iraq. Most of the Iraqi military was defeated and Baghdad was occupied on 9 April. Other operations occurred against pockets of the Iraqi army, including the capture and occupation of Kirkuk on 10 April, Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and the central leadership went into hiding as the coalition forces completed the occupation of the country. On 1 May, an end of combat operations was declared, ending the invasion period. Hostilities of the 1991 Gulf War were suspended on 28 February 1991 and it was revealed that a biological weapons program in Iraq had begun in the early 1980s with help from the U. S. and Europe in violation of the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972. The investigation concluded there was no evidence the program had continued after the war. The U. S. and its allies then maintained a policy of containment towards Iraq, Iraqi military helicopters and planes regularly contested the no-fly zones. In October 1998, removing the Saddam regime became official U. S. foreign policy with enactment of the Iraq Liberation Act
2003 Invasion of Iraq
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U.S. Army M1A1 Abrams tanks and their crews pose for a photo in front of the " Hands of Victory " monument at Baghdad 's Ceremony Square in November 2003.
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Gen. Anthony C. Zinni briefs reporters at The Pentagon following Operation Desert Fox, 21 December 1998
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A UN weapons inspector in Iraq, 2002.
2003 Invasion of Iraq
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Two US F-16 Falcons prepare to depart Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia for a patrol as part of Operation Southern Watch, 2000.
123.
Shock and Awe
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Shock and awe is a military doctrine based on the use of overwhelming power and spectacular displays of force to paralyze the enemys perception of the battlefield and destroy its will to fight. The doctrine was written by Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade in 1996 and is a product of the National Defense University of the United States. Rapid dominance and shock and awe, they write, may become a change as the United States military is reduced in size. Subsequent U. S. military authors have written that rapid dominance exploits the superior technology, precision engagement, the term shock and awe is most consistently used by Ullman and Wade as the effect that rapid dominance seeks to impose upon an adversary. It is the state of helplessness and lack of will. The doctrine of rapid dominance has evolved from the concept of decisive force, ulman and Wade contrast the two concepts in terms of objective, use of force, force size, scope, speed, casualties, and technique. The threat and fear of action that may shut down all or part of the society or render his ability to fight useless short of complete physical destruction. You also take the city down, by that I mean you get rid of their power, water. In 2,3,4,5 days they are physically, emotionally and psychologically exhausted, Ullman and Wade argue that there have been military applications that fall within some of the concepts of shock and awe. Massive bombardment, Described as precise destructive power largely against military targets, blitzkrieg, The intent was to apply precise, surgical amounts of tightly focused force to achieve maximum leverage but with total economies of scale. Sun Tzu, The selective, instant decapitation of military or societal targets to achieve shock, haitian example, Imposing shock and awe through a show of force and indeed through deception, misinformation, and disinformation. The Roman legions, Achieving shock and awe rests in the ability to deter and overpower an adversary through the perception and fear of his vulnerability. Decay and default, The imposition of societal breakdown over a lengthy period, before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, United States armed forces officials described their plan as employing shock and awe. Before its implementation, there was dissent within the Bush Administration as to whether the shock, according to a CBS News report, One senior official called it a bunch of bull, but confirmed it is the concept on which the war plan is based. CBS Correspondent David Martin noted that during Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan in the prior year, the U. S. forces were badly surprised by the willingness of al Qaeda to fight to the death. If the Iraqis fight, the U. S. would have to throw in reinforcements and win the old fashioned way by crushing the Republican Guards, continuous bombing began on March 19,2003 as United States forces unsuccessfully attempted to kill Saddam Hussein. Attacks continued against a number of targets until March 21,2003, when, at 1700 UTC. Its forces launched approximately 1700 air sorties, Coalition ground forces had begun a running start offensive towards Baghdad on the previous day
Shock and Awe
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According to its original theorists, shock and awe renders an adversary unwilling to resist through overwhelming displays of power. Ullman cites the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Nagasaki is pictured) as an example of shock and awe.
124.
Aleppo
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Aleppo is a city in Syria, serving as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,132,100, Aleppo was the largest Syrian city before the Syrian Civil War, however, now Aleppo is likely the second-largest city in Syria after the capital Damascus. Aleppo is an ancient city, and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, such a long history is attributed to its strategic location as a trading center midway between the Mediterranean Sea and Mesopotamia. For centuries, Aleppo was the largest city in the Syrian region, and it was also one of the largest cities in the Levant before the advent of the Syrian Civil War. The citys significance in history has been its location at one end of the Silk Road, when the Suez Canal was inaugurated in 1869, trade was diverted to sea and Aleppo began its slow decline. At the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, Aleppo ceded its northern hinterland to modern Turkey, in the 1940s, it lost its main access to the sea, Antakya and İskenderun, also to Turkey. Finally, the isolation of Syria in the past few decades further exacerbated the situation and this decline may have helped to preserve the old city of Aleppo, its medieval architecture and traditional heritage. It won the title of the Islamic Capital of Culture 2006, during the Battle of Aleppo the city suffered massive destruction, and has been the worst-hit city in the Syrian Civil War. In December 2016, the Syrian government achieved full control of Aleppo following a successful offensive, modern-day English-speakers commonly refer to the city as Aleppo. It was known in antiquity as Khalpe, Khalibon, and to the Greeks, during the Crusades, and again during the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon of 1923–1946, the name Alep was used. Aleppo represents the Italianised version of this, the original ancient name, Halab, has survived as the current Arabic name of the city. Some have proposed that halab means iron or copper in Amorite languages, the modern-day Arabic nickname of the city, ash-Shahbaa, which means the white-colored, also allegedly derives from the famous white marble of Aleppo. From the 11th century it was common usage to apply the term Aram-Zobah to the area of Aleppo. Aleppo has scarcely been touched by archaeologists, since the city occupies its ancient site. The site has been occupied from around 5000 BC, as shown by excavations in Tallet Alsauda, Aleppo appears in historical records as an important city much earlier than Damascus. The first record of Aleppo comes from the third millennium BC, some historians, such as Wayne Horowitz, identify Aleppo with the capital of an independent kingdom closely related to Ebla, known as Armi, although this identification is contested. The main temple of the storm god Hadad was located on the hill in the center of the city. In the Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian Empire period, Aleppos name appears in its form as Ḥalab for the first time
Aleppo
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Ancient City of Aleppo Aleppo Citadel • The entrance to al-Madina Souq Great Mosque of Aleppo • Baron Hotel Saint Elias Cathedral • Queiq River Panorama of Aleppo at night
Aleppo
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Queiq River
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Ancient Aleppo
125.
Hungarian Revolution of 1956
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Though leaderless when it first began, it was the first major threat to Soviet control since the USSRs forces drove out Nazi Germany from its territory at the end of World War II. The revolt began as a student demonstration, which attracted thousands as they marched through central Budapest to the Parliament building, calling out on the using a van with loudspeakers. A student delegation, entering the building to try to broadcast the students demands, was detained. When the delegations release was demanded by the demonstrators outside, they were fired upon by the State Security Police from within the building, one student died and was wrapped in a flag and held above the crowd. This was the start of the revolution, as the news spread, disorder and violence erupted throughout the capital. The revolt spread quickly across Hungary and the government collapsed, thousands organised into militias, battling the ÁVH and Soviet troops. Pro-Soviet communists and ÁVH members were executed or imprisoned and former political prisoners were released and armed. Radical impromptu workers councils wrested municipal control from the ruling Hungarian Working Peoples Party, a new government formally disbanded the ÁVH, declared its intention to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact, and pledged to re-establish free elections. By the end of October, fighting had almost stopped and a sense of normality began to return, after announcing a willingness to negotiate a withdrawal of Soviet forces, the Politburo changed its mind and moved to crush the revolution. On 4 November, a large Soviet force invaded Budapest and other regions of the country, the Hungarian resistance continued until 10 November. Over 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviet troops were killed in the conflict, mass arrests and denunciations continued for months thereafter. By January 1957, the new Soviet-installed government had suppressed all public opposition, public discussion about this revolution was suppressed in Hungary for more than 30 years. Since the thaw of the 1980s, it has been a subject of intense study, at the inauguration of the Third Hungarian Republic in 1989,23 October was declared a national holiday. During World War II Hungary was a member of the Axis powers, allied with the forces of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Romania, in 1941, the Hungarian military participated in the occupation of Yugoslavia and the invasion of the Soviet Union. The Red Army was able to back the Hungarian and other Axis invaders. Fearing invasion, the Hungarian government began negotiations with the Allies. These ended when Nazi Germany invaded and occupied the country and set up its own pro-Axis regime, both Hungarian and German forces stationed in Hungary were subsequently defeated when the Soviet Union invaded the country in 1945. Towards the end of World War II, the Soviet Army occupied Hungary, immediately after World War II, Hungary was a multiparty democracy, and elections in 1945 produced a coalition government under Prime Minister Zoltán Tildy
Hungarian Revolution of 1956
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A destroyed Soviet T34-85 in Budapest, 1956. The turret is lying behind the hull.
Hungarian Revolution of 1956
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Flag of Hungary, with the communist coat of arms cut out. The flag with a hole became the symbol of the revolution. (Photographed at the "Corvin köz")
Hungarian Revolution of 1956
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A recreation of the statue of Joseph Stalin, toppled during the revolution (currently on display at Memento Park near Budapest)
Hungarian Revolution of 1956
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Flyer. Imre Nagy, Head of government – 1956.10.27
126.
Gori, Georgia
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Gori is a city in eastern Georgia, which serves as the regional capital of Shida Kartli and the centre of the homonymous administrative district. The name is from Georgian gora, that is, heap, Gori was an important military stronghold in the Middle Ages and maintains a strategic importance due to its location on the principal highway connecting eastern and western parts of Georgia. In the course of its history, Gori has been invaded by the armies of regional powers several times, the city was occupied by Russian troops during the 2008 Russia–Georgia war. Gori is also known as the birthplace of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, ballistic missile designer Alexander Nadiradze, Gori is located 86 kilometers west of Georgias capital Tbilisi, at the confluence of the rivers Mtkvari and Greater Liakhvi,588 meters above sea level. The climate is transitional from moderately warm steppe to moderately humid, the average annual temperature is 10.6 °C, minimal in January and maximal in July and August. The maximum precipitation falls in May and minimum in February, the territory of Gori has been populated since the early Bronze Age. According to medieval Georgian chronicles, the town of Gori was founded by King David IV who settled refugees from Armenia there. However, the fortress of Gori appears to have been in use already in the 7th century, in 1299, Gori was captured by the Alan tribesmen fleeing the Mongol conquest of their original homeland in the North Caucasus. The Georgian king George V recovered the town in 1320, pushing the Alans back over the Caucasus mountains and it was first taken and sacked by Uzun Hassan of the Ak Koyunlu in 1477, followed by Tahmasp I of Persia in the mid-16th century. The town was again garrisoned by the Persians under Shah Abbas I in 1614. Following the Russian annexation of Georgia, Gori was granted the status of a town within the Tiflis Governorate in 1801 and it grew in size and population throughout the 19th century but was destroyed in the 1920 earthquake. An important industrial center in Soviet times, Gori suffered from an economic collapse, Gori is close to the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone. It is connected to breakaway South Ossetias capital Tskhinvali via a spur which has been defunct since the early 1990s. Since the 2000s, Georgia has increased the military infrastructure in, thus, the Central Military Hospital was relocated from Tbilisi to Gori and re-equipped in October 2006. On January 18,2008, Georgia’s second NATO-standard base to accommodate the 1st Infantry Brigade of the Georgian Ground Forces was established at Gori, the Georgian Agrarian Science Academy Branch was established in the city in 1995, this became Sukhishvili University in 2003. Human Rights Watch claimed that Russian forces had indiscriminately deployed cluster bombs in areas around Gori. According to HRW, on August 12 Russian forces dropped bombs in the center of Gori, killing 11 civilians. Russian military officials deny using cluster munitions in the conflict, calling the HRW assertion slanderous, numerous unexploded bomblets have been found by locals and HRW employees
Gori, Georgia
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Gori გორი
Gori, Georgia
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Gori Fortress as of 1642, by an Italian missionary Cristoforo Castelli
Gori, Georgia
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Gori Fortress on the hilltop
Gori, Georgia
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A damaged apartment building in Gori.
127.
Georgia (country)
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Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. The capital and largest city is Tbilisi, Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 square kilometres, and its 2016 population is about 3.72 million. Georgia is a unitary, semi-presidential republic, with the government elected through a representative democracy, during the classical era, several independent kingdoms became established in what is now Georgia. The kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia adopted Christianity in the early 4th century, a unified Kingdom of Georgia reached the peak of its political and economic strength during the reign of King David IV and Queen Tamar in the 12th and early 13th centuries. Thereafter the kingdom declined and eventually disintegrated under hegemony of various powers, including the Mongols, the Ottoman Empire. Russian rule over Georgia was eventually acknowledged in various treaties with Iran. Since the establishment of the modern Georgian republic in April 1991, post-communist Georgia suffered from civil, the countrys Western orientation soon led to the worsening of relations with Russia, culminating in the brief Russo-Georgian War in August 2008. Georgia is a member of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and it contains two de facto independent regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which gained limited international recognition after the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. Georgia and a part of the international community consider the regions to be part of Georgias sovereign territory under Russian military occupation. Georgia probably stems from the Persian designation of the Georgians – gurğān, in the 11th and 12th centuries adapted via Syriac gurz-ān/gurz-iyān, starting with the Persian word gurğ/gurğān, the word was later adopted in numerous other languages, including Slavic and West European languages. This term itself might have established through the ancient Iranian appellation of the near-Caspian region. The self-designation used by ethnic Georgians is Kartvelebi, the medieval Georgian Chronicles present an eponymous ancestor of the Kartvelians, Kartlos, a great-grandson of Japheth. However, scholars agree that the word is derived from the Karts, the name Sakartvelo consists of two parts. Its root, kartvel-i, specifies an inhabitant of the core central-eastern Georgian region of Kartli, ancient Greeks and Romans referred to early western Georgians as Colchians and eastern Georgians as Iberians. Today the full, official name of the country is Georgia, before the 1995 constitution came into force the countrys name was the Republic of Georgia. The territory of modern-day Georgia was inhabited by Homo erectus since the Paleolithic Era, the proto-Georgian tribes first appear in written history in the 12th century BC. The earliest evidence of wine to date has found in Georgia. In fact, early metallurgy started in Georgia during the 6th millennium BC, the classical period saw the rise of a number of early Georgian states, the principal of which was Colchis in the west and Iberia in the east
Georgia (country)
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It is said that Georgians were so named because they revered Saint George.
Georgia (country)
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Flag
Georgia (country)
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Ancient Georgian states of Colchis and Iberia, 500-400 BC
Georgia (country)
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Queen Tamar of Georgia presided over the "Golden Age" of the medieval Georgian monarchy. Her position as the first woman to rule Georgia in her own right was emphasized by the title "Mepe mepeta" ("King of Kings").
128.
2008 South Ossetia war
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The Russo-Georgian War was a war between Georgia, Russia and the Russian-backed self-proclaimed republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The war took place in August 2008 following a period of worsening relations between Russia and Georgia, both constituent republics of the Soviet Union. The fighting took place in the strategically important Transcaucasia region, which borders the Middle East and it was regarded as the first European war of the 21st century. The Republic of Georgia declared its independence in early 1991 as the Soviet Union began to fall apart, following the war, a joint peacekeeping force of Georgian, Russian, and Ossetian troops was stationed in the territory. Meanwhile, a stalemate developed in the region of Abkhazia. By August 1,2008, Ossetian separatists began shelling Georgian villages, to put an end to these deadly attacks and restore order, the Georgian Army was sent to the South Ossetian conflict zone on 7 August. Georgians took control of most of Tskhinvali, a separatist stronghold, Georgia later stated it was also responding to Russia moving non-peacekeeping units into the country. Russia accused Georgia of aggression against South Ossetia, and launched a land, air. Russian and Ossetian forces battled Georgian forces in and around South Ossetia for several days, Russian and Abkhaz forces opened a second front by attacking the Kodori Gorge held by Georgia. Russian naval forces blockaded part of the Georgian coast and this was the first war in history in which cyber warfare coincided with military action. An active information war was waged during and after the conflict. President of France Nicolas Sarkozy negotiated an agreement on 12 August. Russian forces temporarily occupied the Georgian cities of Zugdidi, Senaki, Poti, the South Ossetians destroyed most ethnic Georgian villages in South Ossetia and were responsible for an ethnic cleansing of Georgians. Russia recognised Abkhazia and South Ossetia as separate republics on 26 August, in response, Russia mostly completed its withdrawal of troops from Georgia proper on 8 October. In the aftermath, Russias international relations were largely unharmed, the war displaced 192,000 people and while many returned to their homes after the war,20,272 people remained displaced as of 2014. Russia has, since the war, occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia in violation of the agreement of August 2008. In the tenth century AD, Georgia for the first time emerged as a concept in the territories where the Georgian language was used to perform Christian rituals. After the Mongol invasions of the region, the Kingdom of Georgia eventually was broken up into several kingdoms, in the nineteenth century, the Russian Empire gradually annexed the Georgian lands
2008 South Ossetia war
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Russian BMP-2 from the 58th Army in South Ossetia
2008 South Ossetia war
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Location of Georgia (including Abkhazia and South Ossetia) and Russian North Caucasus
2008 South Ossetia war
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Destroyed Georgian tank in Tskhinvali
2008 South Ossetia war
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Georgian servicemen leaving South Ossetia (August 2008)
129.
Karlsruhe
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Karlsruhe is the second-largest city in the state of Baden-Württemberg, in southwest Germany, near the French-German border. It has a population of 307,755, the city is the seat of the two highest courts in Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court and the Federal Court of Justice. Its most remarkable building is Karlsruhe Palace, which was built in 1715, the city lies at an altitude between 100 m and 322 m. Its geographical coordinates are 49°00′N 8°24′E, the 49th parallel runs through the city centre and its course is marked by a stone and painted line in the Stadtgarten. Almost all of these survived until today. The city centre is the oldest part of town and lies south of the palace in the quadrant defined by nine of the radial streets, the central part of the palace runs east-west, with two wings, each at a 45° angle, directed southeast and southwest. The market square lies on the street running south from the palace to Ettlingen, the area north of the palace is a park and forest. The area west of the palace is now mostly residential, Karlsruhe experiences an oceanic climate and its winter climate is milder, compared to most other German cities. Summers are also hotter than elsewhere in the country and it is one of the sunniest cities in Germany, precipitation is almost evenly spread throughout the year. In 2008, the station in Karlsruhe, which had been operating since 1876, was closed, it was replaced by a weather station in Rheinstetten. A variation of this claims that he built the new palace in order to find peace from his wife. Charles William founded the city on June 17,1715, after a dispute with the citizens of his previous capital, the founding of the city is closely linked to the construction of the palace. Karlsruhe became the capital of Baden-Durlach and in 1771 of the united Baden until 1945, built in 1822, the Ständehaus was the first parliament building in a German State. In the aftermath of the revolution of 1848, a republican government was elected here. Karlsruhe was visited by Thomas Jefferson during his time as the American envoy to France, Jefferson passed to him maps of 12 European towns to consult, one of which was a sketch he had made of Karlsruhe during his visit. In 1860, the international professional convention of chemists, the Karlsruhe Congress, was held in the city. Much of the area, including the palace, was reduced to rubble by Allied bombing during World War II but was rebuilt after the war. Located in the American zone of the post-war Allied occupation, Karlsruhe was home to an American military base, in 1995, the bases closed, and their facilities were turned over to the city of Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
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View over Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
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The 49th parallel north in the Karlsruhe Stadtgarten
Karlsruhe
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MiRO oil refinery
Karlsruhe
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Panorama of Karlsruhe, looking south from the palace tower. The Institute of Technology is on the left, the market square in the centre, the Federal Constitutional Court on the right. Note wings of the palace aligning with streets, all radiating out from the centre of town, i.e., the palace tower.
130.
Cenotaph
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A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. The word derives from the Greek, κενοτάφιον kenotaphion Cenotaphs were common in the ancient world with many built in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and across Northern Europe. The Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence, Italy, contains a number of cenotaphs including one for Dante Alighieri, a cenotaph is the focal point of the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, South Africa. It is situated below the main point of interest, a marble Historical Frieze in the Hall of Heroes. The Hall of Heroes itself has a dome from the summit of one can view the interior of the monument. At noon on 16 December each year the sun shines through another opening in the dome onto the middle of the cenotaph, the ray of sunshine symbolises Gods blessing on the lives and endeavours of the Voortrekkers. 16 December is the date in 1838 that the Battle of Blood River was fought, durban, South Africa, has a striking and unusual cenotaph made of granite and lavishly decorated with brightly coloured ceramics. Port Elizabeth, South Africa, has a cenotaph, on either side of the central sarcophagus are statues by Technical College Art School principal, James Gardner, who served in the trenches during the war. One depicts St George and the Dragon, the other depicts the sanctity of family life, surrounding the sarcophagus are a number of bas-relief panels depicting scenes and people during the First World War. It was unveiled by Mrs W F Savage and dedicated by Canon Mayo on 10 November 1929, a surrounding memorial wall commemorates the men and women killed during World War II. In Livingstone there is a cenotaph at the Eastern Cataract of The Victoria Falls with the names of the men of Northern Rhodesia who died during the Great War 1914–18 and it was unveiled by HRH Prince Arthur of Connaught on 1 August 1923. There is also a cenotaph in Lusaka at Embassy Park, opposite the Cabinet Office along Independence Avenue, the cenotaph was commemorated in 1977. A monument which has come to be known to as the Cenotaph was erected in Plaza San Martín, in downtown Buenos Aires, to commemorate the Argentinian soldiers who died during the Falklands War, in 1982. The monument consists of a series of plaques of marble with the names of the fallen, surrounding a flame. Another cenotaph, which is a replica of the Argentine Military Cemetery in Darwin on the Falkland Islands, exists in Campo de Mayo, a limestone replica of the Cenotaph at Whitehall in London was erected outside the Cabinet Building in Hamilton, Bermuda in 1920. In the United States, a cenotaph in Yale Universitys Hewitt Quad honours men of Yale who died in battle, the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial in Dallas is often described as a cenotaph. It has an Egyptian Revival cenotaph base, surmounted by a fasces bound together with ribbons bearing the names of the dead and it was designed by French émigré architect Maximilian Godefroy in 1815, and construction was completed in 1827
Cenotaph
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Cenotaph of Tomb of I'timād-ud-Daulah, Agra
Cenotaph
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The Cenotaph, Whitehall, London
Cenotaph
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Remembrance Day parade, at the Cenotaph, in the City of Hamilton, Bermuda.
Cenotaph
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The Cenotaph, Auckland, New Zealand
131.
International humanitarian law
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International humanitarian law is the law that regulates the conduct of war. IHL is inspired by considerations of humanity and the mitigation of human suffering and it includes the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Conventions, as well as subsequent treaties, case law, and customary international law. It is designed to balance humanitarian concerns and military necessity, and subjects warfare to the rule of law by limiting its destructive effect, serious violations of international humanitarian law are called war crimes. International humanitarian law, jus in bello, regulates the conduct of forces engaged in war or armed conflict. It is distinct from jus ad bellum which regulates the conduct of engaging in war or armed conflict and includes crimes against peace, together the jus in bello and jus ad bellum comprise the two strands of the laws of war governing all aspects of international armed conflicts. The law is mandatory for nations bound by the appropriate treaties, there are also other customary unwritten rules of war, many of which were explored at the Nuremberg War Trials. By extension, they also both the permissive rights of these powers as well as prohibitions on their conduct when dealing with irregular forces and non-signatories. International humanitarian law operates on a division between rules applicable in international armed conflict and internal armed conflict. The relationship between human rights law and international humanitarian law is disputed among international law scholars. This discussion forms part of a discussion on fragmentation of international law. In a nutshell, those who favor separate, self-contained regimes emphasize the differences in applicability, international humanitarian law applies only during armed conflict. Modern international humanitarian law is made up of two streams, The law of The Hague, referred to in the past as the law of war proper. Both are branches of jus in bello, international law regarding acceptable practices while engaged in war and armed conflict. The Law of The Hague, or the laws of war proper, determines the rights and duties of belligerents in the conduct of operations and limits the choice of means in doing harm. In particular, it concerns itself with the definition of combatants, establishes rules relating to the means and methods of warfare, systematic attempts to limit the savagery of warfare only began to develop in the 19th century. Such concerns were able to build on the view of warfare by states influenced by the Age of Enlightenment. The purpose of warfare was to overcome the enemy state, which could be done by disabling the enemy combatants, the massacre of civilians in the midst of armed conflict has a long and dark history. These date back to ancient times, in the Old Testament, the King of Israel prevents the slaying of the captured, following the prophet Elishas admonition to spare enemy prisoners
International humanitarian law
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The First Geneva Convention of 1864.
132.
Hague Convention of 1907
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The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 are a series of international treaties and declarations negotiated at two international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands. The First Hague Conference was held in 1899 and the Second Hague Conference in 1907, along with the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions were among the first formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in the body of secular international law. A third conference was planned for 1914 and later rescheduled for 1915, the 1874 Brussels Declaration listed 56 articles that drew inspiration from the Lieber Code. Much of the regulations in the Hague Conventions were borrowed heavily from the Lieber Code, both conferences included negotiations concerning disarmament, the laws of war and war crimes. This effort, however, failed at both conferences, instead a voluntary forum for arbitration, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, was established, the peace conference was proposed on 24 August 1898 by Russian Tsar Nicholas II. Nicholas and Count Mikhail Nikolayevich Muravyov, his minister, were instrumental in initiating the conference. The conference opened on 18 May 1899, the Tsars birthday, the treaties, declarations, and final act of the conference were signed on 29 July of that year, and they entered into force on 4 September 1900. Convention with respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land This voluminous convention contains the laws to be used in all wars on land between signatories, inhabitants of occupied territories may not be forced into military service against their own country and collective punishment is forbidden. The section was ratified by all major powers mentioned above and it too was ratified by all major powers. The declaration was ratified by all the powers mentioned above, except the United Kingdom. Ratified by all major powers, except the United States and this directly banned soft-point bullets and cross-tipped bullets. It was ratified by all major powers, except the United States, the second conference, in 1907, resulted in conventions containing only few major advancements from the 1899 Convention. However, the meeting of powers did prefigure later 20th-century attempts at international cooperation. The second conference was called at the suggestion of U. S. President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904, the Second Peace Conference was held from 15 June to 18 October 1907. The intent of the conference was to expand upon the 1899 Hague Convention by modifying some parts and adding new topics, in particular, the 1907 conference had an increased focus on naval warfare. The British attempted to secure limitation of armaments, but these efforts were defeated by the powers, led by Germany. Germany also rejected proposals for compulsory arbitration, however, the conference did enlarge the machinery for voluntary arbitration and established conventions regulating the collection of debts, rules of war, and the rights and obligations of neutrals. The treaties, declarations, and final act of the Second Conference were signed on 18 October 1907, Convention respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land This convention confirms, with minor modifications, the provisions of Convention of 1899
Hague Convention of 1907
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The First Hague Conference in 1899
Hague Convention of 1907
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The Second Hague Conference in 1907
Hague Convention of 1907
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Nicholas II of Russia
Hague Convention of 1907
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Commemorative medal of the 1907 convention
133.
Area bombardment
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In military aviation, area bombardment is a type of aerial bombardment that targeted indiscriminately at a large area, such as a city block or an entire city. The term area bombing came into prominence during World War II, the British Royal Air Force began area bombing at Monchengladbach on 11 May 1940. Area bombing is a form of strategic bombing, other terms for area bombing are carpet bombing, saturation bombing, and obliteration bombing. At the time, area bombing was contrasted with precision bombing, Aerial bombardment and international law Aerial bombing of cities Civilian casualties of strategic bombing Firestorm High-level bombing Precision-guided munition Tactical bombing
Area bombardment
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This Tokyo residential section was virtually destroyed after a massive firebombing raid by the U.S. Army Air Forces B-29s on March 9–10, 1945, the single most destructive raid in military aviation history. The bombing of Tokyo in World War II cut the city's industrial productivity in half.
Area bombardment
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"Usual" British area bombing load of a 4000 pound blast bomb and 12 SBCs containing 2,832 4 lb incendiary bombs, seen in an Avro Lancaster, World War II
134.
Missile guidance
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Missile guidance refers to a variety of methods of guiding a missile or a guided bomb to its intended target. The missiles target accuracy is a factor for its effectiveness. Guidance systems improve missile accuracy by improving its Single Shot Kill Probability and these guidance technologies can generally be divided up into a number of categories, with the broadest categories being active, passive and preset guidance. The concept of missile guidance originated at least as early as World War I, in World War II, guided missiles were first developed, as part of the German V-weapons program. Project Pigeon was American behaviorist B. F. Skinners attempt to develop a pigeon-guided missile, Guidance systems are divided into different categories according to what type of target they are designed for - either fixed targets or moving targets. The weapons can be divided into two categories, Go-Onto-Target and Go-Onto-Location-in-Space guidance systems. A GOT missile can target either a moving or fixed target, the trajectory that a missile takes while attacking a moving target is dependent upon the movement of the target. Also, a target can be an immediate threat to the sender of the missile. The target needs to be eliminated in a fashion in order to preserve the integrity of the sender. In GOLIS systems the problem is simpler because the target is not moving, the target tracker is also placed on the launching platform. Homing Guidance, The guidance computers are in the missile and in the target tracker and these systems include, Command guidance - The missile tracker is on the launching platform. These missiles are controlled by the launching platform that sends all control orders to the missile. The 2 variants are Command to Line-Of-Sight Command Off Line-Of-Sight Line-Of-Sight Beam Riding Guidance - The target tracker is on board the missile, the missile already has some orientation capability meant for flying inside the beam that the launching platform is using to illuminate the target. It can be manual or automatic, the CLOS system uses only the angular coordinates between the missile and the target to ensure the collision. The missile is made to be in the line of sight between the launcher and the target, and any deviation of the missile from this line is corrected. That is, the missile is controlled to stay as close as possible on the LOS to the target after missile capture. is used to transmit signals from a ground controller to the missile. More specifically, if the acceleration is taken into account and added to the nominal acceleration generated by the beam-rider equations. Thus, the beam rider acceleration command is modified to include an extra term, the beam-riding performance described above can thus be significantly improved by taking the beam motion into account
Missile guidance
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A guided bomb strikes a practice target
Missile guidance
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Inspection of MM III missile guidance system
135.
V-weapons
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This article is about the offensive use of the V-weapons and the military campaign in which they were employed. For descriptions of the weapons, see V-1 flying bomb, V-2 rocket. For other German superweapons, see Wunderwaffe and they comprised the V-1, a pulsejet-powered cruise missile, the V-2, a liquid-fuelled ballistic missile, and the V-3 cannon. All of these weapons were intended for use in a campaign against Britain, though only the V-1. After the invasion of Europe by the Allies, these weapons were employed against targets on the mainland of Europe, mainly Britain. The V-terrorbombing killed approximately 18,000 people, mostly civilians, the cities London, Antwerp and Liège were the main targets. They were part of the range of the so-called Wunderwaffen of Nazi Germany, following the relative failure of the Baedeker Raids on Britain in 1942, development of both flying bomb and rocket accelerated, with Britain designated as the target. On September 29,1943, Albert Speer publicly promised retribution against the bombing of German cities by a secret weapon. Then the official 24 June 1944 Reich Propaganda Ministry announcement of the Vergeltungswaffe 1 guided missile implied there would be another such weapon, after the first operational A-4 launch in September 1944, the rocket was renamed the V-2. However, the V-2 operations manual distributed to firing batteries continued to use the A-4 name for the rocket, beginning in October 1943, launch sites for the V-1 were constructed in Northern France, along the coast from Calais to Le Havre. Aerial bombing attacks on these sites by the Allied airforce were only partially successful, prompted by the Normandy Landings of June 6, in the early morning of June 13,1944, the first V-1 flying bomb attack was carried out on London. Ten missiles were launched of which four reached England, the first of these impacted near Swanscombe, causing no casualties. At Bethnal Green, however, a bridge was destroyed and six people killed, after the 15th the attacks became sustained at a rate of about 100 a day. With the first attack the British put their pre-planned Operation Diver into action, the buzzing sound of the V-1s pulse jet engine was likened by some to a motor cycle in bad running order. At least one business in London advertised how quickly a patron could access a nearby shelter, despite this, the cloudy and rainy conditions of June and July aided the effectiveness of the weapon and casualties were high. By late August a million and a people had left London. By the late summer and autumn, however, increasingly effective countermeasures against the V-1 were taken and people started returning to London. A total of 9,251 V-1s were fired at targets in Britain, with the vast majority aimed at London,2,515 reached the city, killing 6,184 civilians and injuring 17,981
V-weapons
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V-2 rocket on Meillerwagen.
V-weapons
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V-2 rocket victim in Antwerp, Belgium, November 27, 1944.
V-weapons
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A V-1 is rolled out
V-weapons
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The aftermath of V-2 strike at Battersea, London (27 January 1945)
136.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
International Standard Book Number
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A 13-digit ISBN, 978-3-16-148410-0, as represented by an EAN-13 bar code
137.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
Wayback Machine
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Wayback Machine
138.
A. C. Grayling
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Anthony Clifford Grayling CBE, usually known as A. C. Grayling, is a philosopher and author and he was born in the British expatriate community in Zambia and spent most of his childhood there and in Malawi. In 2011 he founded and became the first Master of New College of the Humanities, until June 2011, he was Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London, where he taught from 1991. He is also a fellow of St Annes College, Oxford. The Meaning of Things, The Good Book, The God Argument, and The Age of Genius, The Seventeenth Century and the Birth of the Modern Mind. He was a Trustee of the London Library and a Fellow of the World Economic Forum, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. For a number of years he was a columnist on The Guardian newspaper and he has lectured in the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Singapore and Spain. In 2013 he was awarded the Forkosch Literary Prize, and in 2015 he received the Bertrand Russell Award and he was a director and contributor at Prospect Magazine from its foundation until 2016. He is a Vice President of the British Humanist Association and Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and his main academic interests lie in epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophical logic and he has published works in these subjects. His political affiliations lie on the centre-left, and he has defended human rights and politically liberal values in print and he is associated in Britain with the new atheism movement and has been described as the Fifth Horseman of New Atheism. He frequently appears in British media discussing philosophy and public affairs, Grayling was born and raised in Luanshya, Northern Rhodesia, within the British expatriate enclave, and raised there and in Nyasaland where his father worked for the Standard Bank. He attended several boarding schools, including Falcon College in Southern Rhodesia and his first exposure to philosophical writing was at the age of twelve, when he found an English translation of the Charmides, one of Platos dialogues, in a local library. When he was 19 years old, his elder sister Jennifer was murdered in Johannesburg and she had been born with brain damage, and after brain surgery to alleviate it at the age of 20 had experienced personality problems that led to emotional difficulties and a premature marriage. She was found dead in a river shortly after the marriage, when her parents went to identify her, her mother—already ill—had a heart attack and died. Grayling said he dealt with his grief by becoming a workaholic, Grayling lectured in philosophy at St Annes College, Oxford, before taking up a post in 1991 at Birkbeck, University of London, where in 1998 he became reader in philosophy, and in 2005 professor. Grayling resigned from Birkbeck in June 2011 to found and become the first master of New College of the Humanities and he is a Supernumerary Fellow of St Annes College, Oxford. He was a judge on the Man Booker prize 2003 and Chairman of the Judges for the 2014 Man Booker Prize and he has also been a judge on the Wellcome Trust Book Prize and the Art Fund prize. Grayling was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to philosophy, for Grayling, work on technical problems is only one aspect of philosophy
A. C. Grayling
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At the 2011 Edinburgh International Book Festival
139.
Bombing of Akita in World War II
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This was reportedly the farthest-range and also the last bombing mission in World War II, coming only hours before Japan announced its surrender. The town of Tsuchizaki was a port on the Sea of Japan coast, railway nexus. The town was incorporated into the city of Akita on April 1,1941. Despite its military significance, it had not been attacked during the stages of the strategic bombing campaign. The bombs completely destroyed the oil refinery belonging to Nippon Oil and adjacent port facilities, the estimated civilian casualties were more than 250 people killed, and an estimated 200 were severely injured. Strategic bombing during World War II Werrell, Kenneth P. Blankets of Fire, washington and London, Smithsonian Institution Press. Contribution of Major Fire Raids Toward Ending WWII, the Army Air Forces in World War II, Combat Chronology, 1941-1945. The Cigar that brought the Fire Wind, Curtis LeMay and the Strategic Bombing of Japan, downfall, The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire. Among the Dead Cities, The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany, new York, Walker Publishing Company Inc. Hoyt, Edwin P. Inferno, The Fire Bombing of Japan, shannon, Donald H. United States air strategy and doctrine as employed in the strategic bombing of Japan. U. S. Air University, Air War College, the Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb. Pacific War Chronology Japanese government site
Bombing of Akita in World War II
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Tsuchizaki air raid memorial
140.
Bombing of Augsburg in World War II
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The bombing of Augsburg in World War II included two British RAF and one USAAF bombing raids against the German city of Augsburg on 17 April 1942 and 25/26 February 1944. To take advantage of the capabilities of the new Avro Lancaster, the target was a long distance inside Germany, and a night-time attack would not have been as accurate, so the plan was to attack by day and cross enemy territory at low level. The bomber force was drawn from No.44 Squadron at RAF Waddington, each provided a flight of six aircraft. They practised low flying for a week, thirty Douglas Boston medium bombers and a large Fighter Command effort were dispatched to targets in Northern France intending to draw off German fighters. One Boston was lost in these diversionary activities, Flying at around 50 ft, the bombers crossed France but the aircraft of 44 Squadron, under Squadron Leader John Dering Nettleton, flew close by an airfield of II Gruppe/Jagdgeschwader 2. German fighters coming in to set off in pursuit and shot down four Lancasters. The two remaining bombers flew on and attacked the target with four 1,000 lb bombs each, one was hit by flak and crash-landed with the loss of three of the crew. The second six, from 97 Squadron, attacked shortly after in two sections of three, the first attacked at roof height, flying lower after dropping their load to evade flak on the way out but one was hit and crashed exploding. Of the last three aircraft, two were hit and caught fire, one exploded after completing the attack, the others had also completed the bomb run and were able to return home. In the course of the raid, seven of the 12 Lancasters had been shot down with the loss of 49 crewmen,37 killed and 12 taken prisoner, seven bombers were claimed by Hpt. Only two of the first formation of Lancasters dropped their bombs on the factory, five of the next dropped their bombs. After attacking the surviving Lancasters flew home at higher level under cover of darkness, Squadron Leader Nettleton returned in a badly damaged aircraft, landing near Blackpool. For his outstanding determination and leadership, Nettleton, who had nursed his crippled Lancaster aircraft back to England, many of the other officers and men who had survived the mission received recognition with the award of Distinguished Service Orders, Distinguished Flying Crosses and Distinguished Flying Medals. The operation had propaganda value to the British public, however, Lord Selborne, the Minister of Economic Warfare, was infuriated that the target had not been one of those specified by his Ministry for attack. Post-war analysis indicated the damage inflicted on the enemy was minor, eight machine tools were destroyed out of a total of 2,700, and five cranes out of 558. Courageous men and valuable aircraft had been lost although Bomber Command had already learned not to send unescorted bombers on such sorties, another lesson was that the Lancaster bombers rifle-calibre machine guns had proved quite inadequate against enemy fighters that were fitted with self-sealing fuel tanks. In a final Big Week mission, the Eighth Air Force bombed the Augsburg Messerschmitt works during the day on 25 February 1944 and that night, RAF Bomber Command followed with 594 aircraft and destroyed large parts of the centre of Augsburg. 21 RAF aircraft,3. 6% of the force was lost, during the Christmas holiday of 2016,50,000 Augsburg residents were evacuated to remove a 3.8 tonne dud bomb
Bombing of Augsburg in World War II
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Bomb shelter in Wittelsbacherpark
141.
Barrow Blitz
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The Barrow Blitz is the name given to the Luftwaffe bombings of Barrow-in-Furness, United Kingdom during World War II. They took place primarily during April and May 1941, although the earliest Luftwaffe bombing occurred in September 1940, VSEL shipyard was the main target for bombing alongside Barrows steelworks which were formerly the largest in the world. During the Second World War, Walney Island was home to two of the many coastal artillery installations, numerous pillboxes can to this day be found littered across the Walney coastline. They were used as lookouts and contained rifles and light guns that could be used to defend Barrow against the Luftwaffe. The entrance to a large underground air-raid shelter that was used by shipyard workers can be found in the car park of the Waterfront Barrow-in-Furness development. A large unit of the Royal Air Force was based at Barrow/Walney Island Airport which was expanded during the war in an effort to aid Britains air defences, surrounding towns and villages were often mistaken for Barrow and were attacked instead, while many streets in Barrow were severely damaged. Bombing during mid-April 1941 caused significant damage to a portion of Abbey Road, completely destroying the Waverley Hotel as well as Christ Church. The towns main public baths and Essoldo Theatre were also severely damaged, hawcoat Lane is a street that is most noted for taking a direct destructive hit in early May 1941. This shortage of shelters was believed to have led to high casualties. Two fire watchers were killed in May 1941 when the hammer head crane they were stationed in at Vickers Shipyard was bombed by the Luftwaffe, in May 1941 it was attacked and badly damaged by the Luftwaffe. Most of the hotel was demolished and the remaining part became a public house/restaurant known as The Abbey Tavern. Her memoirs were adapted for television. Barrows main war memorial is a located in Barrow Park. It bears the names of hundreds of Barrovians who died in combat during various wars, including 616 in the First World War,268 in the Second World War, the Dock Museum in Hindpool contains an exhibit about the Barrow Blitz. In 2016, filmmaker and Barrow Sixth Form student Matthew Dodd created a documentary to commemorate the Barrow Blitzs 75th anniversary, Timeline of events during the Barrow Blitz. September 1940 The first compulsory blackout in Barrow,300 incendiaries are dropped on Salthouse, and a 5 year old child becomes the first victim of the Barrow Blitz. May 1941 Bombing intensifies as the Luftwaffe drops land-mines, incendiaries, Barrow Central railway station is completely destroyed by bombing. Some 2,250 children are evacuated from the town, june 1941 A further 4,000 children are evacuated as the death toll from bombing exceeds 80
Barrow Blitz
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The Hindenburg Zeppelin flying over Walney Island in 1936.
Barrow Blitz
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Damage caused by bombing during 1941 on Newland Street looking towards Hindpool Road.
Barrow Blitz
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Barrow was one of the most successful shipbuilding centres in Europe, the main reason it became a target. Aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable was launched by Winston Churchill in the town in 1940.
142.
Bath Blitz
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The term Bath Blitz refers to the air raids by the German air force on the British city of Bath, Somerset, during World War II. The city was bombed in April 1942 as part of the so-called “Baedeker raids”, in which targets were chosen for their cultural and historical, rather than their strategic or military, value. Bath was largely untouched during the Blitz, the German night bombing offensive against Britains cities, Bath was subject to numerous air raid warnings as raiders flew overhead on their way to Bristol, but no bombs were dropped on Bath at this point. Over the weekend of 25–27 April 1942, Bath suffered three raids, from 80 Luftwaffe aircraft which took off from Nazi occupied northern France. As the city sirens wailed, few citizens took cover, even when the first pathfinder flares fell, during the previous four months Bristol had been hit almost every night, so the people of Bath did not expect the bombs to fall on them. The first raid struck just before 11 pm on the Saturday night, the German aircraft then returned to France, refuelled, rearmed and returned at 4.35 am. Bath was still on fire from the first raid, making it easier for the German bombers to pick out their targets, the third raid, which only lasted two hours but caused extensive damage, commenced in the early hours of Monday morning. The bombers flew low to drop their high explosives and incendiaries,417 people were killed, another 1,000 injured. Over 19,000 buildings were affected, of which 1,100 were seriously damaged or destroyed, houses in the Royal Crescent, Circus and Paragon were destroyed and the Assembly Rooms were burnt out. A500 kilograms high explosive bomb landed on the side of Queen Square. The Francis Hotel lost 24 metres of its frontage. Casualties on the Square were low considering the devastation, with the majority of hotel guests, the majority of Baths churches were greatly damaged including St Andrews Church which had to be demolished and the site is now a park. The buildings have subsequently restored, although there are still some signs of the bombing. After the raid, a shelter was provided for Queen Square occupants in the then private central garden. In 1948, the residents gave the garden to the people of Bath with the intention it would become a memorial to the victims of the enemy attacks, today the square plays host to a variety of community activities including the Jane Austen Festival and the annual Bath Boules Tournament. Willi Schludecker,87, who more than 120 sorties for the Luftwaffe, including the Bath Blitz. Willi Schludecker died in a hospital in Cologne on 17 June 2010, among the firefighters assigned to the scene in Bath was Harry Patch, who in the 2000s became the last surviving British army veteran from the First World War. In 2016 a live 500 pounds bomb was discovered by workmen under the playground of the former Royal High School, Bath site
Bath Blitz
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View of the centre of Bath in 1958, still with signs of war damage.
Bath Blitz
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Willi Schludecker at the 25 April 2008 memorial service in Bath, with his remembrance wreath.
143.
Operation Retribution (1941)
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Operation Retribution also known as Operation Punishment, was the April 1941 German bombing of Belgrade, the capital of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It occurred in the first days of the World War II German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, the British Royal Air Force carried out two bombing raids on Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, in retaliation for the attacks on Yugoslavia. The invasion resulted in the surrender of Yugoslav forces on 17 April, in April 1939, Yugoslavia gained a second frontier with the Kingdom of Italy when that country invaded Albania. Between September and November 1940, Hungary joined the Tripartite Pact, Italy invaded Greece, from that time, Yugoslavia was almost surrounded by Axis powers or their client states, and her neutral stance toward the war was under tremendous pressure. Two weeks later, Bulgaria joined the Pact, the next day, German troops entered Bulgaria from Romania, closing the ring around Yugoslavia. Further pressure was applied by Hitler on 4 March 1941, when the Yugoslav Regent, Prince Paul, visited Berchtesgaden, but Prince Paul delayed a decision. On 6 March, the Royal Yugoslav Air Force was secretly mobilised, the VVKJ began dispersing to auxiliary airfields on 12 March, and this dispersal was completed by 20 March. Hitler, wanting to secure the flank of his impending invasion of the Soviet Union, demanded that Yugoslavia sign the Pact. Two days later a military coup détat was carried out by a group of VVKJ and Yugoslav Royal Guard officers, Prince Paul was deposed and replaced by the 17-year-old King Peter II who was declared to be of age. On the same day as the Yugoslav coup détat, Hitler issued Directive 25 and he ordered that even if Yugoslavia at first should give declarations of loyalty, she must be considered as a foe and therefore must be destroyed as quickly as possible. After the coup, German reconnaissance aircraft frequently violated Yugoslav airspace, the German incursions showed that the Yugoslav ground observation post network and supporting radio communications were inadequate. Hitler decided that Belgrade would be bombed as punishment for the coup against the government that had signed the Pact, on 27 and 28 March 1941 Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring transferred about 500 fighter and bomber aircraft from France and northern Germany to airfields near the Yugoslavian border. The commander of Luftflotte IV, Generaloberst Alexander Löhr, allocated these aircraft to attack the Yugoslav capital in waves by day, Löhr issued his orders for the bombing on 31 March, but the decision to bomb Belgrade was not confirmed by Hitler until 5 April. Although Hitler ordered the destruction of Belgrade, Löhr replaced these general directions with specific military objectives within the city at the last minute. On the afternoon of 5 April, a British colonel visited Mirković at the VVKJ base in Zemun and confirmed that the attack on Belgrade would commence at 06,30 the following morning. German ground forces crossed the border at 05,15 on 6 April, the VVKJs 51st Fighter Group at Zemun had been alerted before dawn, and when reports began to be received about Luftwaffe attacks on VVKJ airfields, the first patrol was sent into the air. At first, no aircraft could be seen approaching Belgrade. The first wave closed on Belgrade at 06,45, and consisted of 74 Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers,160 Heinkel He 111 medium bombers and Dornier Do 17 light bombers between 8, 000–10,000 feet
Operation Retribution (1941)
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Bomb-damaged buildings in Belgrade in April 1941
Operation Retribution (1941)
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The bomb-damaged Old Palace in central Belgrade. The royal palaces located in the city centre and the southern suburb of Dedinje were among the targets of the Luftwaffe during the first wave of bombing on 6 April 1941.
Operation Retribution (1941)
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The site of the National Library of Serbia, bombed on 6 April 1941
Operation Retribution (1941)
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Monument to the Royal Yugoslav Air Force defenders of Belgrade, located in New Belgrade
144.
Bombing of Berlin in World War II
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Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany, was subject to 363 air raids during the Second World War. It was also attacked by aircraft of the Red Air Force, British bombers dropped 45,517 tons of bombs, the Americans dropped 23,000 tons. As the bombings continued more and more people moved out, by May 1945,1.7 million people had fled. When the Second World War began in 1939, the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the United Kingdom had a policy of using aerial bombing only against military targets and against infrastructure such as ports and railways of direct military importance. The first RAF raid on the interior of Germany took place on the night of 10 –11 May, although killing German civilians was never an explicit policy, it was obvious that area bombing must lead to large-scale civilian casualties. With the technology available at the time, the bombing of military targets was possible only by daylight. Before 1941, Berlin, at 950 kilometres from London, was at the range attainable by the British bombers then available to the Allied forces. It could be bombed only at night in summer when the days were longer and it has been argued that this action may actually have saved Britain from defeat. During 1940 there were raids on Berlin, all of which did little damage. The raids grew more frequent in 1941, but were ineffective in hitting important targets. The head of the Air Staff of the RAF, Sir Charles Portal, justified these raids by saying that to get four million people out of bed, the Soviet Union started a bombing campaign on Berlin on 8 August 1941 that extended into early September. Navy bombers, operating from the Moonzund Archipelago conducted 8 raids to Berlin with 3-12 aircraft in each raid, Army bombers, operating from near Leningrad, executed several small raids to Berlin. In total in 1941,33 Soviet aircraft dropped 36,000 kilograms of bombs on Berlin, combat and operational losses for the Soviets tallied 17 aircraft destroyed and 70 crewmen killed. On 7 November 1941, Sir Richard Peirse, head of RAF Bomber Command, launched a raid on Berlin. More than 20 were shot down or crashed, and again little damage was done and this failure led to the dismissal of Peirse and his replacement by Sir Arthur Travers Harris, who believed in both the efficacy and necessity of area bombing. Harris said, The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to everyone else. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a hundred other places and they sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind. At the same time, new bombers with longer ranges were coming into service, particularly the Avro Lancaster, during most of 1942, however, Bomber Commands priority was attacking Germanys U-boat ports as part of Britains effort to win the Battle of the Atlantic
Bombing of Berlin in World War II
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The ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, heavily damaged in an Allied bombing and preserved as a monument
Bombing of Berlin in World War II
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US Air Force over Berlin, 19 May 1944.
Bombing of Berlin in World War II
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Bombing victims laid out in an exhibition hall, autumn 1944
Bombing of Berlin in World War II
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Buildings on fire after an air raid in 1944
145.
Birmingham Blitz
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The Birmingham Blitz was the heavy bombing by the Nazi German Luftwaffe of the city of Birmingham and surrounding towns in the United Kingdom, beginning on 9 August 1940 and ending on 23 April 1943. It is considered a part of the greater Blitz, which was part of the Battle of Britain, situated in the Midlands, Birmingham, Englands most populous British city outside London, is an important industrial and manufacturing location. Around 1,852 tons of bombs were dropped on Birmingham, making it the third most heavily bombed city in the United Kingdom in the Second World War, behind only London and Liverpool. There was also significant bombing of towns in the neighbouring Black Country, particularly in Dudley, Tipton and West Bromwich, as with most provincial cities bombed during the Blitz, reports of the bombing were kept low key. Wartime censorship meant that Birmingham was not mentioned by name in contemporary reports about the bombing, being referred to instead as a Midland Town. This was done in order to keep the Germans from knowing the outcome of their raids, overall, there were 365 air raid alerts, and 77 actual air raids on Birmingham, eight of which were classified as major. Official figures state that 5,129 high explosive bombs and 48 parachute mines landed on the city, along with many thousands of incendiary bombs. Of the high explosive bombs, around one fifth failed to detonate, in total,2,241 people were killed, and 3,010 seriously injured. A further 3,682 sustained lesser injuries,12,391 houses,302 factories and 239 other buildings were destroyed, with many more damaged. The first air raid on the city took place on 9 August 1940, one person was killed, and six injured. On 13 August the aircraft factory in Castle Bromwich which produced Spitfires was attacked, eleven bombs hit the main target causing significant damage. 7 people were killed, and 41 injured, regular small raids followed over August, September, October and early November. The city centre was hit between 25–30 October. Among the buildings hit were Birmingham University, the Art Gallery, the roof of the Council House was damaged by fire, and on the 29th, St Philips Cathedral suffered serious fire damage after being hit by an incendiary. In November 1940, a series of air raids on Birmingham took place. Between the 19th and 28th of that month around 800 people were killed and 2,345 injured, around 400 tonnes of high explosives were dropped during the raid, including 18 parachute mines. The raid turned out to be the most severe attack on Birmingham in the course of the war, a number of factories were badly damaged in the raid, including the Lucas Industries and GEC works. The Birmingham Small Arms Company factory was damaged, causing loss of production
Birmingham Blitz
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High Street, looking towards the Bull Ring area after heavy bombing, on 10 April 1941.
Birmingham Blitz
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A severely bomb damaged street in Aston Newtown.
Birmingham Blitz
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A ruined factory building.
Birmingham Blitz
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New Street after bombing
146.
Operation Charnwood
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Operation Charnwood was an Anglo-Canadian offensive that took place from 8 to 9 July 1944, during the Battle for Caen, part of the larger Operation Overlord, in the Second World War. The operation was intended to at least partially capture the German-occupied city of Caen, the British and Canadians advanced on a broad front and by the evening of the second day had taken Caen up to the Orne and Odon rivers. Supported by three armoured brigades, the British I Corps made gradual progress against the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend and the 16th Luftwaffe Field Division. By the end of the day the 3rd Canadian Division and the British 3rd Infantry Division and 59th Infantry Division had cleared the villages in their path and reached the outskirts of the city. Moving into Caen at dawn the following morning, the Allies encountered resistance from remnants of German units who were beginning a withdrawal across the Orne. Carpiquet airfield fell to the Canadians during the morning and by 18,00. The remaining bridges were defended or impassable and with German reserves positioned to oppose their crossing, with the capture of northern Caen and the many casualties inflicted on the German defenders, Operation Charnwood was a mutually costly tactical success for the Allies. Operationally, the Germans retired from north of the Orne River, the Germans established another defensive line along two ridges to the south of the city. The Allies maintained the initiative and began Operation Jupiter the next day and Operation Goodwood and Operation Atlantic a week later, the Norman city of Caen was one of the D-Day objectives for the British 3rd Infantry Division which landed on Sword Beach on 6 June 1944. The terrain between Caen and Vimont was especially attractive to Allied planners, being open, dry and conducive to swift offensive operations, since the Allies greatly outnumbered the Germans in tanks and mobile units, creating the conditions for a fluid, fast moving battle was to their advantage. The 3rd Infantry Division came ashore as planned but was hampered by congestion in its beachhead, diversions en route, the division was unable to assault Caen in force and its lead elements were brought to a halt short of the outskirts. Later attacks failed as the German defenders were reinforced by the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, on 7 June the British began Operation Perch, a pincer attack by I Corps and XXX Corps, to encircle Caen from the east and west flanks. The I Corps attack south of the Orne River was halted by the 21st Panzer Division, in the Battle of Villers-Bocage the 7th Armoured Division vanguard was ordered to retire and the Panzer-Lehr Division held its positions until XXX Corps captured Tilly-sur-Seulles on 19 June. The next British offensive, codenamed Operation Epsom, was launched by VIII Corps on 26 June, after Operation Martlet a preliminary attack on 25 June, VIII Corps advanced to the west of Caen on a 4-mile front from Rauray to Carpiquet. Once across the Odon and Orne rivers, VIII Corps was to make for high ground near Bretteville-sur-Laize, the objective was to seize the German-occupied Château la Londe and Château le Landel. The initial evening assault, led by the 1st Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment was repulsed but the morning further attacks gained the objectives. Contest, Authie and Cussy but this operation was cancelled by Crocker. The area of the Châteaux was later called the bloodiest square mile in Normandy. and 268 men, on 4 July, the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division conducted Operation Windsor, to seize Carpiquet and the adjacent airfield from the 12th SS-Panzer Division
Operation Charnwood
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Troops of British I Corps pick their way through the rubble of Caen
Operation Charnwood
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A Panzer IV of the 1/22nd Panzer Regiment in a dug-in defensive position, photographed near Lébisey
Operation Charnwood
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A Handley Page Halifax bomber, of No. 4 Group RAF, over northern Caen after the bombing of 7 July
Operation Charnwood
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Men of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, of the 185th Brigade of the British 3rd Division, advancing through a wheat field during the final assault on Caen.
147.
Cardiff Blitz
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The Cardiff Blitz refers to the bombing of Cardiff, Wales during World War II. Between 1940 and the raid on the city in March 1944 approximately 2,100 bombs fell. Cardiff Docks became a bombing target for Luftwaffe as it was one of the biggest coal ports in the world. Consequently, it and the area were heavily bombed. Llandaff Cathedral, amongst many other civilian buildings caught in the raids, was damaged by the bombing in 1941, during 1940 the Luftwaffe targeted Cardiff on 3,10 and 12 July and 7 August. This was followed in 1941 with raids on 2,3 and 10 January, over 100 bombers attacked the city over a 10-hour period beginning at 6.37 pm on the night of 2 January 1941. Dropping high explosive bombs, incendiary bombs and parachute mines, the Riverside area was the first to be bombed, in Grangetown, the Hollyman Brothers bakery was hit by a parachute mine and 32 people who were using the basement as a shelter were killed. When the raid was over 165 people had killed and 427 more injured. Chapels and the nave of Llandaff Cathedral were also damaged, western Cardiff was the worst hit area, particularly Canton and Riverside, where 116 people were killed, an estimated 50 of which were killed in one street in Riverside, De Burgh Street. The 10-hour air raid had started at 18,37 and Grangetown was the first area to be hit by 100 German aircraft. Further raids followed on 27 February, through 1,4,12,20 March and 3,12,29,30 April and 4 to 11 May. One landed harmlessly in the Castle grounds, narrowly missing the Civic shelter, ten died in Lewis Street in Riverside from one mine. The other two fell in Cathays on Llanbleddian Gardens and Wyverne Road, killing 23 people, in 1942 fewer raids occurred but two occurred on 30 June and 2 July. On the final raid, one of the bombers mistook the Irish Sea for the River Severn and bombed Cork in Ireland
Cardiff Blitz
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Cardiff Docks, shown in pre-1900 photo
148.
Operation Tigerfish
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Operation Tigerfish was the military code name in World War II for the air raid on Freiburg in the evening of 27 November 1944 by the Royal Air Force with about 2,800 dead. The name Tigerfish goes back to Air Vice-Marshal Robert Saundby, a fisherman who codenamed all German cities fitted for carpet bombing with a Fish code. Saundby was the deputy of Air Chief Marshal Arthur Harris, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of RAF Bomber Command, after Freiburg was mistakenly bombed by the German Luftwaffe on 10 May 1940 when 57 people were killed, the city remained spared from attacks until October 1943. For a long time people in Freiburg had lived in the hope that they would not have to suffer a major attack, the city was classified only as air protection location category 2 in 1935. As a consequence Freiburg had to make arrangements for protection of the population by the construction of shelters and bunkers without getting any financial resources from the state. The hope of being spared from bombing still existed, when air raids were made on nearby cities, in autumn 1943, the Allies dropped leaflets in northern Germany that homeless people from the Reich would be welcome in the city. The intention was to trigger a movement of refugees to Freiburg and this propaganda campaign remained, however, without consequences. From 3 October 1943 there was the first light bombing, thus, on 7 October 1943, when aircraft of the U. S. Air Force bombed rail facilities of the city. On 1 April 1944 the United States Army Air Forces flew an attack on Ludwigshafen, then the aircraft turned off, however, to bomb the planned secondary target Freiburg. Instead, the bombers attacked the Swiss city Schaffhausen. On 3 November 1944 the freight station and the airfield of Freiburg were the target of 16 bombers of the 9th U. S. tactical fleet. On 21 November 1944, there was a further attack, in the city there was hardly any enterprises of military importance. The Bombers Baedeker listed in 1944 Mez AG, Deutsche Acetate Kunstseiden A. G. „Rhodiaceta, only the railway junction appears in Category 2. Purely military targets were not mentioned, Freiburg came increasedly into the focus of the Allied Bomber Command when the front approached from the west to the frontier. Due to its convenient location on the Rhine Valley Railway and the Freiburg–Colmar railway via Breisach to the Alsace Freiburg played an important role for troop movements. The Allies assumed in 1943 that it would be possible for the Wehrmacht to move seven divisions from the Eastern to the Western Front within 12 to 14 days and that is why General Eisenhower ordered on 22 November 1944 to attack railway and transportation hubs from the air. After a daylight attack of the Americans on Offenburg the British should bomb Freiburg the following day and this is proven not least by the mission order that the target should be to destruct the city and the adjacent railway system. The preparation of the bombing on 27 November 1944 was made by 59 de Havilland Mosquito bombers of the No.8 Pathfinder Group and was coordinated through a mobile system in France
Operation Tigerfish
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The city center after the attack
Operation Tigerfish
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Approach and return flight, as well as mock attack on Mannheim.
Operation Tigerfish
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Air photograph shortly after the air raid with comments indicating landmarks
Operation Tigerfish
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Tomb of 1664 victims of the air raid on Freiburg Main Cemetery
149.
Bombings of Heilbronn in World War II
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During World War II, the German city of Heilbronn was bombed many times by the British and the United States Air Forces. The largest air-raid occurred on December 4,1944, but Heilbronn was targeted several times before, in 1944 Heilbronn was attacked to a point where alarms in the city were almost daily. Altogether, an estimated 7,000 inhabitants lost their lives during the bombing, the first raid occurred on December 17,1940. Three high-explosive and 20 incendiary bombs were released upon the city, resulting in the destruction of 20 houses, three people were killed, and a further twelve were injured. Two days later, heavy anti-air defence was installed in the city, between August and November 1941, the city was bombed four times. However, the damage was minimal. During the day of one of these raids, individual fighter-bombers had been seen flying close-to, on May 7,1942, a raid struck the city center, destroying or damaging approximately 150 houses, and killing seven people. In January and February 1944 Heilbronn suffered an attack by the Royal Air Force. These raids continued into April, by when the city had been utterly devastated, and air-raid alarms sounded almost daily. Later in the year, the attacks grew so bad that theater in the city was abolished, on August 5 air-defense devices and weaponry was reinforced. By the beginning of September, the number of air-raid alerts sounded in the city had risen to 160, by September 1944, Allied forces were seriously considering a major assault on Heilbronn. At this time, frequent and near-daily alerts were still occurring in the city, but on September 8, four alarms were triggered due to bombers heading for Nuremberg. The alarms happened from 1,45 am to 2,31 am,11,34 am to 12,42 pm,2,38 to 3,48 pm, the following day, September 9, only one alarm sounded. However, in the morning of September 10 approximately 100 airplanes of the 8th US Air Force went over Heilbronn, over Heilbronn, the sky was cloudless, and the actual assault was visible to the populace. Soon after 11,30 that morning, Allied planes struck at Heilbronns stations and ports, then ensued a bombardment of the city that continued for several hours, causing the death of over 280 people, with an estimated further 400 in need of help due to injury. The raid also caused the loss of over 300 houses, almost 100 cars were badly damaged or destroyed, many other buildings and stations were rendered irreparable. The planners of this raid called these statistics very good results afterwards, the ensuing fires were too much for the local brigade to handle, help had to be called from places such as Gronau, Lauffen am Neckar, Untereisesheim, Schwaigern and Weinsberg, among others. Even with this aid, the extinguishing of the many fires, the city hall burned for three days
Bombings of Heilbronn in World War II
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Heilbronn in March,1945
Bombings of Heilbronn in World War II
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The old part of the city after the December 1944 attacks
Bombings of Heilbronn in World War II
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The General Wever tower, where many people sought shelter from the December 4 bombardment
Bombings of Heilbronn in World War II
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Graves at the honor cemetery for those who died in the bombing
150.
Bombing of Hiratsuka in World War II
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Despite its obvious military significance, Hiratsuka was not bombed until the very late stages of World War II. The first major air raid occurred on the night of July 16,1945, during this attack,138 B-29 Superfortress bombers of the USAAF 20th Air Force, 314th Bombardment Wing dropped a total of 1163 tons Incendiary bombs on the city, destroying most of the city center. The estimated civilian casualties were 228 people killed, a year after the war, the United States Army Air Forcess Strategic Bombing Survey reported that 44.8 percent of the city had been totally destroyed. This attack was directed specifically at the facilities of Nissan aircraft. Eighteen 500 lb bombs were dropped on Buildings 2,6 and 7 of the plant, killing 25 workers, mostly schoolchildren who had been conscripted as labor. This raid was followed on August 13 by another attack involving 61 aircraft launched from USS Hancock, USS Belleau Woods, USS Bennington, USS Lexington and USS San Jacinto. The primary target was again the Nissan Aircraft production facilities, by this time virtually abandoned due to lack of materials, Strategic bombing during World War II Werrell, Kenneth P. Blankets of Fire. Washington and London, Smithsonian Institution Press, contribution of Major Fire Raids Toward Ending WWII. The Army Air Forces in World War II, Combat Chronology, the Cigar that brought the Fire Wind, Curtis LeMay and the Strategic Bombing of Japan. Dorr, Robert F. B-29 Units of World War II, downfall, The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire. Among the Dead Cities, The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany, new York, Walker Publishing Company Inc. Hoyt, Edwin P. Inferno, The Fire Bombing of Japan, shannon, Donald H. United States air strategy and doctrine as employed in the strategic bombing of Japan. U. S. Air University, Air War College, the Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb. Pacific War Chronology 67 Japanese Cities Firebombed in World War II
Bombing of Hiratsuka in World War II
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Hiratsuka after the 1945 air raid
151.
Hull Blitz
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The Hull Blitz was the Nazi German bombing campaign targeting on the English port city of Kingston upon Hull, during the Second World War. Large-scale attacks took place on nights in March 1941, resulting in some 200 deaths. The most concentrated attacks were between 3 and 9 May 1941, resulting in 400 deaths, and another large-scale attack took place in July 1941 with around 140 fatalities. The city spent more than 1,000 hours under alert during raids from 19 June 1940 to 1945, Hull was the most severely damaged British city or town during the Second World War, with 95 percent of houses damaged. Hull had more than 1,000 hours spent under air raid alerts, Hull was the target of the first daylight raid of the war and the last piloted air raid on Britain. Of a population of approximately 320,000 at the beginning of the war, overall almost 1,200 people were killed and 3,000 injured by the air raids. More than 5,000 houses were destroyed and half of the city centre destroyed, the extent of the damage was similar to that of the Plymouth Blitz. Despite the damage the port continued to function throughout the war and we lived in the middle of an industrial area that was a regular target for German bombers. One night as we were all filing into the air raid shelter Mam dashed back into the house, where are you going, Mary, said Dad. Back for my teeth, she replied. Come back here, the Germans are dropping bombs not meat pies, during the First World War Hull was bombed several times by Zeppelin airships. An attempted raid on Hull on 8/9 August 1915 bombed Goole by mistake owing to a navigation error, on 5 March 1916 two Zeppelins L11 and L14 were diverted to Hull from an attack on the fleet at Rosyth. Bombs were dropped on Earles shipyard and on Paragon station resulting in deaths, the raids showed that Hull was completely unprotected from aerial attack and public anger led to service personnel being mobbed. Further attacks came on 25 September 1917 and 10 March 1918, an air-raid-shelter-building programme was instigated in 1938 and more than £1.5 million was spent building 40,000 shelters. Additional targets included large grain mills on the River Hull, hulls first air-raid warning was at 02,45 on Monday 4 September 1939, as an air-raid yellow all operational crews were called to their posts. The public siren sounded at 03,20 and the all-clear at 04,08, the attacks on Hull during 1940 were at a relatively low level and scale, carried out by single or small numbers of planes. The first recorded bombing raid on Hull was during the night of 19/20 June 1940, by the end of the year around 20 raids had taken place and 12 people had been killed by the bombing. Bombing intensity increased in the part of 1941
Hull Blitz
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Troops of 9th Battalion, The Hampshire Regiment, helping to clear bomb damage in Hull.
Hull Blitz
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Remains of the burnt out Riverside Quay (2011)
Hull Blitz
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Burnt out National Picture Theatre (right) (2006)
152.
Leeds Blitz
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The Leeds Blitz comprised nine air raids on the city of Leeds, the largest of which took place on the night of 14/15 March 1941. The raid affected the city centre, Beeston, Bramley and Armley, Leeds is a large city in the industrial heartland of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The countys largest city, much of the economic, administrative. Leeds had taken precautions, including building many public air raid shelters, beginning just after 9 pm on Friday 14 March 1941, around 40 bombers took part in the raid on Leeds, in all 451 were over Britain that night. Incendiary bombs were first dropped onto the city on the Friday night, around 100 houses were destroyed,4,600 sustained damage, and around 65 people were killed. Other nearby towns were damaged in this raid. In total 25 tons of bombs fell on Leeds during the raid, german sources from the time claim raids on Glasgow, Leeds, Sheffield, Tilbury Docks, Plymouth and Southampton. The bombing of the museum resulted in the losses of historic civic possessions including the destruction of a mummy. Curator Herbert Ricketts described salvaging artefacts after the bombing as having a dig in our own museum, the museums front, dating from 1821, was also damaged and had to be taken down. A concrete front was built on the front to replace the destroyed Victorian facade, the museum closed in 1965 and was moved to the central library on the Headrow. The museum was demolished in 1966 and the site is now occupied by the HSBC bank, in 1999 the museum was moved from the library. The museum is now in the mechanics institute on Millennium Square. Other historic buildings were superficially damaged, at certain sites such as the town hall, shrapnel damage is still evident. 31st Anti-Aircraft Brigade was responsible for defence of West Yorkshire. There were many RAF airfields to the east of the city in the Vale of York, while most were home to command units. On the night of the main Leeds raid Junkers Ju-88 and Dornier Do-17 aircraft were shot down over Northern England, following the raids, unexploded bombs have been found in the city including one in Potternewton Park in 2012. Unexploded anti-aircraft shells have also found to the south and east of the city. Starting in September 1940, all unexploded bombs were to be logged in a detailed bomb diary, harrison, at the time a child, was sheltering in the cellar of a house on Tempest Road in Beeston
Leeds Blitz
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Directions to an ARP shelter at the University of Leeds
Leeds Blitz
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Spotter and predictor operators at a 4.5-inch anti-aircraft gun site in Leeds, 20 March 1941
Leeds Blitz
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The site of the former museum
Leeds Blitz
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Tempest Road, where Harrison was sheltering during the raid
153.
Liverpool Blitz
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The Liverpool Blitz was the heavy and sustained bombing of the British city of Liverpool and its surrounding area, during the Second World War by the German Luftwaffe. The government was concerned to hide from the Germans just how much damage had been inflicted upon the docks, around 4,000 people were killed in the Merseyside area during the Blitz. This death toll was only to London, which suffered 30,000 deaths by the end of the war. Liverpool, Bootle and the Wallasey Pool complex were strategically very important locations during the Second World War. The large port had for years been the United Kingdoms main link with North America. Liverpool was the end of a Transatlantic chain of supplies from North America. The evacuation of children at the start of the war, in September 1939, was a measure to save the population of urban or military areas from German aerial bombing. The evacuations were organised by Liverpool Corporation and though some children were transported to smaller towns nearby, many went to areas in North Wales. The first major air raid on Liverpool took place in August 1940 and this assault continued over the next three nights, then regularly for the rest of the year. There were 50 raids on the city during this three-month period, some of these were minor, comprising a few aircraft, and lasting a few minutes, with others comprising up to 300 aircraft and lasting over ten hours. On 18 September,22 inmates at Walton Gaol were killed when high-explosive bombs demolished a wing of the prison,28 November saw a heavy raid on the city, and the most serious single incident, when a hit on an air-raid shelter in Durning Road caused 166 fatalities. Winston Churchill described it as the single worst incident of the war, the air assault in 1940 came to a peak with the Christmas blitz, a three-night bombardment towards the end of December. A series of heavy raids took place in December 1940, referred to as the Christmas blitz, on 21 December another hit on a shelter killed 74 people. The bombing decreased in severity after the new year, may 1941 saw a renewal of the air assault on the region, a seven-night bombardment that devastated the city. The first bomb landed upon Seacombe, Wallasey, Wirral, at 22,15 on 1 May, the peak of the bombing occurred from 1 –7 May 1941. It involved 681 Luftwaffe bombers,2,315 high explosive bombs and 119 other explosives such as incendiaries were dropped, the raids put 69 out of 144 cargo berths out of action and inflicted 2,895 casualties and left many more homeless. Another landed on the front steps without exploding but incendiaries destroyed equipment in the yard at the west end. One incident on 3 May involved the SS Malakand, a ship carrying munitions which was berthed in the Huskisson Dock, although its eventual explosion is often attributed to a burning barrage balloon, this fire was put out
Liverpool Blitz
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Plaque on memorial to those killed on 21 December at Blackstock Gardens, Liverpool
Liverpool Blitz
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A panoramic view of bomb damage in Liverpool; Victoria Monument in foreground, the burned-out shell of the Custom House in middle distance
Liverpool Blitz
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Trees now grow in the shell of St Luke's Church
154.
Manchester Blitz
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The Manchester Blitz was the heavy bombing of the city of Manchester and its surrounding areas in North West England during the Second World War by the Nazi German Luftwaffe. Manchester was an important inland port and industrial city during the war, air raids began in August 1940, and in September 1940 the Palace Theatre on Oxford Street was bombed. The heaviest raids occurred on the nights of 22/23 and 23/24 December 1940, killing an estimated 684 people, Manchester Cathedral, the Royal Exchange and the Free Trade Hall were among the large buildings damaged. Nazi propaganda claimed that the city had been burned to the ground. Neighbouring Salford, Stretford and other districts were badly damaged by the bombing. It is estimated more than 215 people were killed and 910 injured in Salford. Seventy-three were killed in Stretford, and many more were injured, the following month Old Trafford was hit during an air raid that lasted 3 hours. In June 1941 German bombs damaged the original Salford Royal Hospital on Chapel Street, killing 14 nurses. On 11 March 1941 Old Trafford football stadium, the home of Manchester United F. C. was hit by a bomb aimed at the complex of Trafford Park, wrecking the pitch. The stadium was rebuilt after the war and reopened in 1949, in June 1941 German bombs damaged the police headquarters. Manchester continued to be bombed by the Luftwaffe throughout the war, on Christmas Eve 1944, Heinkel He111 bombers flying over the Yorkshire coast launched 45 flying bombs at Manchester. No V-1 landed in downtown Manchester, but 27 people in neighbouring Oldham were killed by a stray bomb, another 17 people were killed elsewhere and 109 wounded overall. One German bomber was shot down over the North Sea and another was damaged by a package of RAF De Havilland Mosquito. The city was beyond the range of the V-2 rockets, history of Manchester The Blitz Notes Bibliography Daily Dispatch and Evening Chronicle Our Blitz, Red Sky over Manchester. Manchester, Kemsley Newspapers The Manchester Christmas Blitz, by Frank Walsh
Manchester Blitz
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Firefighters putting out a blaze at a bomb site in Manchester city centre
155.
Battle of Manila (1945)
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The one-month battle, which culminated in the massacre of over 100,000 civilians and complete devastation of the city, was the scene of the worst urban fighting in the Pacific theater. Along with the loss of lives, the battle also destroyed architectural and cultural heritage dating back since the citys foundation. The battle ended the almost three years of Japanese military occupation in the Philippines, the citys capture was marked as General Douglas MacArthurs key to victory in the campaign of reconquest. On 9 January 1945, the Sixth U. S. Army under Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger waded ashore on Lingayen Gulf, MacArthur ordered Krueger to advance rapidly to Manila. The 37th Infantry Division, under the command of Major Gen. Robert S. Beightler, headed south. After landing at San Fabian on 27 Jan. the 1st Cavalry Division, free the internees at Santo Tomas. Take Malacanang Palace and the Legislative Building, meanwhile, the 11th A/B Divisions 511th Regimental Combat Team of Col. Orin D. Hard Rock Haugen parachuted onto Tagaytay Ridge on 4 February, Yamashita had withdrawn his main forces to Baguio City, where he planned to hold back the Filipino and U. S. forces in northern Luzon, poised for the invasion of Japan. In 1941, General Douglas MacArthur had declared Manila an open city before its capture, however, Rear Admiral Iwabuchi Sanji, commander of the 31st Naval Special Base Force, was committed to following the naval program, rather than the army program of abandoning the city. Prior to being promoted to Admiral, Sanji had commanded the battleship Kirishima in 1942 when she was sunk by a US Navy task force off Guadalcanal, Iwabuchi had 12,500 men under his command, designated the Manila Naval defence Force. Iwabuchi was joined by 4500 army personnel under the command of Col. Katsuzo Noguchi and they built defensive positions in the city, including Intramuros, cut down the palm trees on Dewey Blvd. to form a runway, and set up barricades across major streets. Iwabuchi formed the Northern Force under Noguchi, and the Southern Force under Capt. Takusue Furuse. Before the battle began, he issued an address to his men went, We are very glad. Now, with what remains, we will daringly engage the enemy. We are determined to fight to the last man, on 3 February, elements of the U. S. A squadron of Brig. Gen. William C, since 4 January 1942, a total of thirty-seven months, the university’s main building had been used to hold civilians. Out of 4,255 prisoners,466 died in captivity, colayco died seven days later in Legarda Elementary School, which became a field hospital. At 9 PM, five tanks of the 44th Tank Battalion, headed by Battlin Basic, the Japanese, commanded by Lt. Col. Toshio Hayashi, gathered the remaining internees together in the Education Building as hostages, and exchanged pot shots with the Americans and Filipinos
Battle of Manila (1945)
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Aerial view of the devastated Manila in May 1945
Battle of Manila (1945)
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Jones Bridge before
Battle of Manila (1945)
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Legislative Building in Manila before the liberation
Battle of Manila (1945)
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Manila declared Open City
156.
Battle of Okinawa
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The 82-day-long battle lasted from 1 April until 22 June 1945. The Tenth was unique in that it had its own air force. The battle has been referred to as the typhoon of steel in English, the nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of Japanese kamikaze attacks, and the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle was one of the bloodiest in the Pacific, with an total of over 82,000 direct casualties on both sides,14,009 Allied deaths and 77,417 Japanese soldiers. Allied grave registration forces counted 110,071 dead bodies of Japanese soldiers,149,425 Okinawans were killed, committed suicide or went missing, a significant proportion of the estimated pre-war 300,000 local population. As part of the operations surrounding the battle, the Japanese battleship Yamato was sunk. After the battle, Okinawa provided an anchorage, troop staging areas. Expeditionary Troops under Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. with Tenth Army, TF56 was the largest force within TF50 and was built around the 10th Army. The army had two corps under its command, III Amphibious Corps, consisting of 1st and 6th Marine Divisions, the 2nd Marine Division was an afloat reserve, and Tenth Army also controlled the 27th Infantry Division, earmarked as a garrison, and 77th Infantry Divisions. In all, the Army had over 102,000 soldiers, at the start of Battle of Okinawa 10th Army had 182,821 men under its command. It was planned that General Buckner would report to Turner until the phase was completed. Although Allied land forces were composed of U. S. units. Although all the carriers were provided by Britain, the carrier group was a combined British Commonwealth fleet with British, Canadian, New Zealand and Australian ships. Their mission was to neutralize Japanese airfields in the Sakishima Islands, most of the air-to-air fighters and the small dive bombers and strike aircraft were U. S. Navy carrier-based airplanes. The Japanese land campaign was conducted by the 67, 000-strong regular 32nd Army and some 9,000 Imperial Japanese Navy troops at Oroku naval base, supported by 39,000 drafted local Ryukyuan people. The Japanese had used kamikaze tactics since the Battle of Leyte Gulf, between the American landing on 1 April and 25 May, seven major kamikaze attacks were attempted, involving more than 1,500 planes. The 32nd Army initially consisted of the 9th, 24th, and 62nd Divisions, the 9th Division was moved to Taiwan prior to the invasion, resulting in shuffling of Japanese defensive plans. Primary resistance was to be led in the south by Lt. General Mitsuru Ushijima, his chief of staff, Lieutenant General Isamu Chō and his chief of operations, Yahara advocated a defensive strategy, whilst Chō advocated an offensive one
Battle of Okinawa
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A U.S. Marine from the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines on Wana Ridge provides covering fire with his Thompson submachine gun, 18 May 1945.
Battle of Okinawa
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The last picture of U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. (right), taken on 18 June 1945; later in the day he was killed by Japanese artillery.
Battle of Okinawa
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Japanese commanders of Okinawa (including Admiral Minoru Ōta, Lt. Gen. Mitsuru Ushijima, Lt. Gen. Isamu Chō, and Col. Hiromichi Yahara) in February 1945.
Battle of Okinawa
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Tekketsu Kinnotai
157.
Battle of Nanking
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Following the outbreak of war between Japan and China in July 1937 the Japanese government at first attempting to contain the fighting and sought a negotiated settlement to the war. However, after victory in the Battle of Shanghai expansionists prevailed within the Japanese military, Japanese soldiers marched from Shanghai to Nanking at a breakneck pace, rapidly defeating pockets of Chinese resistance. By December 9 they had reached the last line of defense, on December 10 Matsui ordered an all-out attack on Nanking, and after less than two days of intense fighting Chiang decided to abandon the city. Before fleeing, Tang ordered his men to launch a concerted breakout of the Japanese siege, most of Tangs units simply collapsed, their soldiers often casting off their weapons and uniforms in the streets in the hopes of hiding among the citys civilian population. Following the capture of the city Japanese soldiers massacred Chinese prisoners of war, murdered civilians, though Japans military victory excited and emboldened them, the subsequent massacre tarnished their reputation in the eyes of the world. Contrary to Matsuis expectations, China did not surrender and the Second Sino-Japanese War continued for eight years. China, however, wanted to avoid a confrontation in the north. The Japanese responded by dispatching the Shanghai Expeditionary Army, commanded by General Iwane Matsui, the city of Nanking is 300 kilometers west of Shanghai. Matsui made clear to his superiors even before he left for Shanghai that he wanted to march on Nanking, Yanagawa was likewise eager to conquer Nanking and both men chafed under the operation restriction line that had been imposed on them by the Army General Staff. On November 19 Yanagawa ordered his 10th Army to pursue retreating Chinese forces across the operation restriction line to Nanking, when Tada discovered this the next day he ordered Yanagawa to stop immediately, but was ignored. Matsui made some effort to restrain Yanagawa, but also told him that he could send some advance units beyond the line. Meanwhile, as more and more Japanese units continued to slip past the operation restriction line, Tada flew to Shanghai in person on December 1 to deliver the order, though by then his own armies in the field were already well on their way to Nanking. Here Chiang insisted fervently on mounting a defense of Nanking. He also noted that holding onto Nanking would strengthen Chinas hand in peace talks which he wanted the German ambassador Oskar Trautmann to mediate and they argued that the Chinese Army needed more time to recover from its losses at Shanghai, and pointed out that Nanking was highly indefensible topographically. The mostly gently sloping terrain in front of Nanking would make it easy for the attackers to advance on the city, while the Yangtze River behind Nanking would cut off the defenders retreat. Chiang, however, had become increasingly agitated over the course of the Battle of Shanghai, even declaring that he would stay behind in Nanking alone. Seizing the opportunity Tang had given him, Chiang responded by organizing the Nanking Garrison Force on November 20, the orders Tang received from Chiang on November 30 were to defend the established defense lines at any cost and destroy the enemy’s besieging force. Though both men declared that they would defend Nanking to the last man, they were aware of their precarious situation
Battle of Nanking
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General Iwane Matsui
Battle of Nanking
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Japanese soldiers stand atop the ruins of Nanking's Zhongshan Gate on December 13 with Zijinshan in the background.
Battle of Nanking
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General Tang Shengzhi
Battle of Nanking
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A Chinese civilian carries his dying son wounded in a Japanese air raid on Nanking.
158.
Attack on Pearl Harbor
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The attack, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, led to the United States entry into World War II. The Japanese military leadership referred to the attack as the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI, Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the U. S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions they planned in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Over the next seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the U. S. -held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, the attack commenced at 7,48 a. m. The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese fighter planes, bombers, all eight U. S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but the USS Arizona were later raised, and six were returned to service, the Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U. S. aircraft were destroyed,2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Important base installations such as the station, shipyard, maintenance. Japanese losses were light,29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, one Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured. The surprise attack came as a shock to the American people. The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan, the U. S. responded with a declaration of war against Germany and Italy. Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been fading since the Fall of France in 1940, Roosevelt to proclaim December 7,1941, a date which will live in infamy. Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, over the next decade, Japan continued to expand into China, leading to all-out war between those countries in 1937. Japan spent considerable effort trying to isolate China and achieve sufficient resource independence to attain victory on the mainland, from December 1937, events such as the Japanese attack on USS Panay, the Allison incident, and the Nanking Massacre swung public opinion in the West sharply against Japan. Fearing Japanese expansion, the United States, the United Kingdom, in 1940, Japan invaded French Indochina in an effort to control supplies reaching China. The United States halted shipments of airplanes, parts, machine tools, and aviation gasoline to Japan, an invasion of the Philippines was also considered necessary by Japanese war planners. War Plan Orange had envisioned defending the Philippines with a 40 and this was opposed by Douglas MacArthur, who felt that he would need a force ten times that size, and was never implemented. By 1941, U. S. planners anticipated abandonment of the Philippines at the outbreak of war and orders to that effect were given in late 1941 to Admiral Thomas Hart, commander of the Asiatic Fleet
Attack on Pearl Harbor
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Photograph of Battleship Row taken from a Japanese plane at the beginning of the attack. The explosion in the center is a torpedo strike on the USS West Virginia. Two attacking Japanese planes can be seen: one over the USS Neosho and one over the Naval Yard.
Attack on Pearl Harbor
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Pearl Harbor on October 30, 1941, looking southwest
Attack on Pearl Harbor
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Route followed by the Japanese fleet to Pearl Harbor and back.
Attack on Pearl Harbor
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An Imperial Japanese Navy Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter on the aircraft carrier Akagi.
159.
Operation Tidal Wave
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It was a strategic bombing mission and part of the oil campaign to deny petroleum-based fuel to the Axis. The mission resulted in no curtailment of overall product output and this mission was one of the costliest for the USAAF in the European Theater, with 53 aircraft and 660 aircrewmen lost. It was the second-worst loss ever suffered by the USAAF on a single mission, five Medals of Honor and numerous Distinguished Service Crosses were awarded to Operation Tidal Wave crew members. Romania had been a power in the oil industry since the 1800s. It was one of the largest producers in Europe and Ploesti was a part of that production. The Ploiești oil refineries provided about 30% of all Axis oil production, in June 1942,13 B-24 Liberators of the Halverson project attacked Ploiești. Though damage was small, Germany responded by putting strong anti-aircraft defenses around Ploiești, Luftwaffe General Alfred Gerstenberg built one of the heaviest and best-integrated air defense networks in Europe. The defenses included several hundred large-caliber 88mm guns and 10.5 cm FlaK38 anti-aircraft guns, the latter were concealed in haystacks, railroad cars, and mock buildings. The Luftwaffe had three groups within flight range of Ploiești. Gerstenberg also counted on warnings from the Luftwaffe signals intelligence station in Athens, the Ninth Air Force was responsible for the overall conduct of the raid, and the partially formed Eighth Air Force provided three additional bomb groups. All the bombers employed were B-24 Liberators, colonel Jacob E. Smart planned the operation, based on HALPROs experiences. The bombers to be used were re-equipped with bomb-bay fuel tanks to increase their capacity to 3,100 gallons. The operation was to consist of 178 bombers with a total of 1,751 aircrew, one of the largest commitments of American heavy bombers, the planes were to fly from airfields near Benghazi, Libya. Reaching Ploiești, they were to locate pre-determined checkpoints, approach their targets from the north, for political reasons, the Allied planners decided to avoid the city of Ploiești, so that it would not be bombed by accident. Early on the morning of 1 August 1943, the five groups comprising the strike force began lifting off from their air fields around Benghazi. Large amounts of dust kicked up during take-off caused limited visibility and strained engines already carrying the burden of large bomb loads and these conditions contributed to the loss of one aircraft during take-off, but 177 of the planned 178 aircraft departed safely. No survivors were seen, and due to the weight of fuel, Iovine was unable to regain altitude to rejoin the formation. The resulting confusion was compounded by the inability to regain cohesion due to radio silence maintained as per mission guidance
Operation Tidal Wave
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A B-24 Liberator called " Sandman " during a bomb run over the Ploiești Astra Romana refinery during Operation Tidal Wave.
Operation Tidal Wave
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B-24D's fly over Ploiești during World War II
Operation Tidal Wave
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Columbia Aquila refinery after the bombing, with bomb craters, largely intact
160.
Plymouth Blitz
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The Plymouth Blitz was a series of bombing raids carried out by the Nazi German Luftwaffe on the English city of Plymouth in the Second World War. The bombings launched on numerous British cities were known as the Blitz, the royal dockyards at HMNB Devonport were the main target in order to facilitate Nazi German efforts during the Battle of the Atlantic. Despite this, civilian casualties were high and the dockyards continued in operation. The first bombs fell on the city on Saturday 6 July 1940 at Swilly, in early 1941, five raids reduced much of the city to rubble. Attacks continued as late as May 1944 with two air raids in that month. During the 59 bombing attacks,1,172 civilians were killed and 4,448 injured, the resident population fell from 220,000 at the outbreak of war to, at one point, only 127,000. In 1941 most of the children were evacuated and on any night that a raid was expected thousands of people were taken by lorry into the countryside, in March 1941, St Andrews Parish Church was bombed and badly damaged. Amidst the smoking ruins a headmistress nailed over the door a wooden sign saying simply Resurgam, indicating the wartime spirit and that entrance to St Andrews is still referred to as the Resurgam door and a carved granite plaque is now permanently fixed there. Charles Church, destroyed by incendiaries on the nights of 20–21 March 1941, has preserved in its ruined state as a memorial to civilian victims of the Blitz. The Laboratory of the Marine Biological Association on the Hoe was also damaged on the evening of 20 March 1941. The bombardment is described in the obituary of Stanley Wells Kemp who was the director of the Association at the time, the seminal work by Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Fielding Huxley on the ionic basis of nerve conduction resumed there in June 1947. On the evening of 22 April 1941 during an attack on the central area, during the Blitz the two main shopping centres and nearly every civic building were destroyed, along with 26 schools, eight cinemas and 41 churches. In total,3,754 houses were destroyed with a further 18,398 seriously damaged, masters, Warren Plymouth in the Blitz
Plymouth Blitz
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Union Street before World War II showing trams
Plymouth Blitz
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The "Resurgam" door of St Andrew's Church
161.
Operation Cartwheel
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Operation Cartwheel was a major military operation for the Allies in the Pacific theater of World War II. Cartwheel was an operation aimed at neutralizing the major Japanese base at Rabaul, Allied forces from the Pacific Ocean Areas command, under Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, advanced through the Solomon Islands toward Bougainville. The Allied forces involved were from Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, MacArthur formulated a strategic outline, the Elkton Plan, to capture Rabaul from bases in Australia and New Guinea. Admiral Ernest J. King, the Chief of Naval Operations, proposed a plan with similar elements, army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, whose goal was for the U. S. This strategic plan, which was never adopted by the U. S. MacArthurs air forces countered in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea from 2–5 March 1943. MacArthur had presented Elkton III, his plan for taking Rabaul before 1944. It called for an attack by MacArthur against northeast New Guinea and western New Britain and this plan required seven more divisions than were already in the theater, raising objections from the British. The Joint Chiefs responded with a directive that approved the plan using forces already in the theater or en route to it, Elkton III then became Operation Cartwheel. The Cartwheel plan identified 13 proposed subordinate operations and set a timetable for their launching, of the 13, Rabaul, Kavieng, and Kolombangara were eventually eliminated as too costly and unnecessary, and 10 were actually undertaken. The U. S. 6th Army—under General Walter Krueger—was to take Kiriwina, Woodlark, the land forces would be supported by Allied air units under Lieutenant General George Kenney and naval units under Vice Admiral Arthur S. Carpender. In the midst of Operation Cartwheel, the Joint Chiefs met with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, there, the decision was made to bypass and isolate Rabaul rather than attempting to capture the base and attack Kavieng instead. Soon after the decision was made to bypass Kavieng as well, brief synopsis of Allied campaign to isolate Rabaul. Brief account of Japanese occupation of Rabaul and subsequent war crimes trials of many of the Japanese troops who had stationed there. Time of the Aces, Marine Pilots in the Solomons, 1942-1944, marines in World War II Commemorative Series. History and Museums Division, Headquarters, U. S. Marine Corps, account of U. S. Marine involvement in air war over Solomon Islands and Rabaul. World War II Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient Major Gregory Pappy Boyington, archived from the original on 2006-05-09. Information on Pappy Boyington Title, THE ASSAULT ON RABAUL, Operations by the Royal New Zealand Air Force December 1943 — May 1944
Operation Cartwheel
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The eastern part of the Territory of New Guinea, and the northern Solomon Islands; the area in which Operation Cartwheel took place, from June 1943.
Operation Cartwheel
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U.S. Marines hit three feet of rough water as they leave their LST to take the beach at Cape Gloucester, New Britain. 26 December 1943. (Source:National Archives)
Operation Cartwheel
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Elkton III Plan, March 1943.
162.
Bombing of Rome in World War II
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Pope Pius XII was initially unsuccessful in attempting to have Rome declared an open city, through negotiations with President Roosevelt via Cardinal Francis Spellman. Rome was eventually declared a city on August 14,1943 by the defending forces. The bombings of the Eternal City were controversial for several reasons, Rome had been the Capital City of Italy for around 70 years, but large parts of the city were more than 2,500 years old. Rome is the Capital of Catholicism and within its city limits was the neutral Vatican City, the Vatican also owned many churches and other buildings outside its territory but within Rome city limits. Many Americans were against a major destruction of Rome, however, the British War Cabinet refused to see bombing Rome as a crime against humanity. The first bombardment occurred on July 19,1943 and was carried out by 500 American bombers which dropped 1,168 tons of bombs. The entire working class district of San Lorenzo was destroyed, and 3,000 Italian civilians were killed in the raids over five residential/railway districts. The military targets were few, the largest Stazione Termini contained a yard, railways and industries that manufactured steel, textile products. Winston Churchill approved the bombardment by the words I agree, W. S. C. In the 110,000 sorties that comprised the Allied Rome air campaign,600 aircraft were lost and 3,600 air crew members died,60,000 tons of bombs were dropped in the 78 days before Rome was captured. On June 16,1943, Roosevelt replied, Bombing of Rome was controversial, arnold described Vatican City as a hot potato because of the importance of Catholics in the U. S. British public opinion, however, was aligned towards the bombing of the city. H. G. Wells was a vocal proponent of doing so. July 19,1943 On July 19,1943, Rome was bombed again, more heavily, by 521 Allied planes, after the raid, Pius XII, along with Msgr. Montini, travelled to the Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, which had been badly damaged, between 11 a. m. and 12 noon,150 Allied B-17 Flying Fortresses attacked the San Lorenzo freight yard and steel factory. In the afternoon, the target was the Scalo del Littorio on the northern side of Rome. The third target was the Ciampino airport, on south-east side of Rome, August 13,1943 Three weeks later, on August 13,1943, Allied planes again bombed the city, targeting San Lorenzo and Scalo del Littorio. Vatican City maintained a policy of neutrality during the war
Bombing of Rome in World War II
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Inscription on the wall of a bombed building, translated as "Work of the Liberators!" Rome, 1944
163.
Bombing of Sendai during World War II
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The city of Sendai was the largest population and commercial center of the Tohoku region of northern Honshu island, but lacked specific targets of strategic military significance. The Tōhoku Main Line railway connecting Tokyo with Aomori also ran through the city, the industrial city of Kamaishi was bombed on July 14,1945, which was also the first air raid experienced in Miyagi Prefecture during the war. On May 25,1945, a photo-reconnaissance B-29 overflew Sendai at an altitude of 8000 feet, on July 10,1945, another B-29 made an over flight of Sendai, this time dropping propaganda leaflets warning the residents of the city of its imminent destruction. On July 19,1945,131 B-29 bombers from the USAAF 58th Bombardment Wing launched from Tinian island in the Marianas. Several aircraft turned back due to problems, and 123 aircraft arrived over the target at an altitude of 10,000 feet at just after midnight in the early morning of July 20,1945. The bombers split into 25 groups of two and five aircraft each to carpet bomb the densely packed residential center of the city with 10,961 incendiary bombs. The resultant firestorm destroyed most of the center of city. As a result of one attack,2755 civilians were killed and 57,321 were injured. A five square kilometer portion of the center of the city was totally destroyed, also lost in the bombing were a number of cultural treasures, include the structures of Sendai Castle, and the Zuihoden mausoleum of Date Masamune. On the other hand, the large Sendai Arsenal, and the structures of the IJA 2nd Division were untouched by the air raid, during the air raid, one B-29 was destroyed on the runway at Tinian and no aircraft were lost over Japan. A year after the war, the United States Army Air Forcess Strategic Bombing Survey reported that 21.9 percent of the city had been totally destroyed, Sendai experienced a number of minor air raids afterwards. On July 12, a single B-29 dropped 36 incendiary bombs on a Sendai suburb, on July 13, July 25, August 9 and August 10, the city and airport were bombed and strafed by United States Navy carrier-based aircraft. Strategic bombing during World War II Werrell, Kenneth P. Blankets of Fire, washington and London, Smithsonian Institution Press. Contribution of Major Fire Raids Toward Ending WWII, the Army Air Forces in World War II, Combat Chronology, 1941-1945. The Cigar that brought the Fire Wind, Curtis LeMay and the Strategic Bombing of Japan, downfall, The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire. Among the Dead Cities, The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany, new York, Walker Publishing Company Inc. Hoyt, Edwin P. Inferno, The Fire Bombing of Japan, shannon, Donald H. United States air strategy and doctrine as employed in the strategic bombing of Japan. U. S. Air University, Air War College, the Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb
Bombing of Sendai during World War II
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Sendai after the 1945 air raid
Bombing of Sendai during World War II
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Area destroyed by the Sendai Air Raid
164.
Battle of Shanghai
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It was one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the entire war, described by Peter Harmsen as Stalingrad on the Yangtze. Since 1931, China and Japan had been embroiled in incessant, smaller conflicts, often known as incidents, the term incident was used by the Japanese Imperial High Command to play down the Japanese invasions of China. The Chinese soldiers had to rely primarily on weapons in their defense of Shanghai, against an overwhelming Japanese onslaught of air, naval. In the end, Shanghai fell, and China lost a significant portion of its best troops, the resistance of Chinese forces, however, shocked the Japanese, who had been indoctrinated with notions of cultural and martial superiority, and dramatically demoralized the Japanese army. The battle can be divided into three stages, and eventually involved nearly one million troops, the first stage lasted from August 13 to August 22,1937, during which the NRA attempted to eradicate Japanese troop presence in downtown Shanghai. In Chinese, the Battle of Shanghai is known as the Battle of Songhu, song is short for Wusong, a strategic town in the northern suburbs of Shanghai, where the Huangpu River flows into the Yangtze. Hu is the abbreviation for Shanghai, in Chinese literature, the battle is also referred to as 813, denoting August 13, the date when battle began. Several Japanese sources refer to the battle as the Second Shanghai Incident, however, the 1937 Battle of Shanghai was a full-scale battle signifying the beginning of an all-out war between the two countries. There were several underlying causes for this, since the outbreak of the war on July 7,1937, most combat had occurred in and around North China in operations collectively known as the Battle of Beiping-Tientsin. Originally, neither China nor Japan wanted the skirmishing to escalate into full-scale war and he decided to pursue full-scale war with Japan. The Japanese north-to-south advance meant that the Chinese army had to defend along a horizontal axis, in addition, most of the more robust Chinese defense works were not in North China, but in East China, along the lower Yangtze Delta. Importantly, Japanese troops were reinforced from Japan, through Korea and Manchukuo and on to North China, by way of efficient naval. Chinese troop movement was severely handicapped by lack of motorized vehicles, the vast majority of Chinese troops had reached the front line simply by marching. It took considerably longer for Chinese reinforcements from South China to reach North China than it did for the Japanese to reinforce from their home islands and this meant transferring the Chinese army to fight a war in North China was impractical. The Imperial Japanese Navy had total supremacy in Chinese seas and the retreating Chinese forces would have been annihilated, therefore, Chiang decided to establish a second front in Shanghai, with the intention of drawing enemy troops to the East and Central China Theater. His plan was to force the Japanese to change the direction of advance into east-to-west. This way, Chinese troops would have room in the southwest to retreat and regroup should Shanghai, Nanjing, the Chinese plan was to fight to delay the Japanese advance, as much as possible, gaining time to move the government and vital industries into the Chinese interior. This was the basis of the strategy of trading space for time, public opinion and patriotism were strong factors in Chiangs decision to pursue full-scale war with Japan
Battle of Shanghai
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A National Revolutionary Army machine gun nest in Shanghai
Battle of Shanghai
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A section of a Chinese road blockade defended by the 87th Division
Battle of Shanghai
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Soldiers from the 88th Division defending an intersection behind sandbag fortifications
Battle of Shanghai
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Chinese peace preservation corps in downtown Shanghai
165.
Bombing of Shizuoka in World War II
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The Tōkaidō Main Line railway connecting Tokyo with Osaka also ran through the city. Shizuoka was bombed a total of ten times during World War II, on June 19,1945,137 B-29 bombers from the USAAF 314th Bombardment Wing launched a major firebombing attack on the central part of the city. The bombers attacked in two waves from east and west, so as to trap the population within the center of the city, the resultant firestorm destroyed most of the city. Shizuoka civil defense measures were crude at best, Air raid shelters consisted of a hole in the ground next to wooden houses with a wooden roof covered with a thin layer of soil and clay. Due to the ground water levels in the area, these shelters were shallow. The estimated civilian casualties in the June 19 raid were 1,952 people killed, an estimated 12,000 were severely injured, and 26,891 homes were destroyed. A year after the war, the United States Army Air Forcess Strategic Bombing Survey reported that 66.1 percent of the city had been totally destroyed, two B-29s collided mid-air during the operation, resulting in the deaths of 23 Americans. In 2008, a headstone with the names of the fallen Airmen was erected in front of the previous Japanese monument in the city, a joint US-Japan memorial service is held each year at the site on the Saturday closest to the day the crash occurred. The book The Blackened Canteen, by Jerry Yellin, a P-51 pilot, Strategic bombing during World War II Werrell, Kenneth P. Blankets of Fire. Washington and London, Smithsonian Institution Press, contribution of Major Fire Raids Toward Ending WWII. The Army Air Forces in World War II, Combat Chronology, the Cigar that brought the Fire Wind, Curtis LeMay and the Strategic Bombing of Japan. Downfall, The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire, among the Dead Cities, The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany and Japan. New York, Walker Publishing Company Inc, hoyt, Edwin P. Inferno, The Fire Bombing of Japan, March 9 – August 15,1945. Shannon, Donald H. United States air strategy and doctrine as employed in the bombing of Japan. U. S. Air University, Air War College, the Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb. Pacific War Chronology Mission Diary of Charles A Smith 330th Bomb Group Combat Mission Logs 67 Japanese Cities Firebombed in World War II
Bombing of Shizuoka in World War II
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Shizuoka after the 1945 air raid
166.
Bombing of Tokyo
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The US first mounted a small-scale raid on Tokyo in April 1942. Strategic bombing and urban area bombing began in 1944 after the long-range B-29 Superfortress bomber entered service, first deployed from China, B-29 raids from those islands began on 17 November 1944, and lasted until 15 August 1945, the day Japan capitulated. Japanese later called this event Night of the Black Snow, the raid was retaliation against the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The raid did little damage to Japans war capability but was a significant propaganda victory for the United States. Launched at longer range than planned when the force encountered a Japanese picket boat. One aircraft landed in the neutral Soviet Union where the crew was interned, two crews were captured by the Japanese in occupied China. Three crewmen from these groups were later executed, almost 90% of the bombs dropped on the home islands of Japan were delivered by this type of bomber. Once Allied ground forces had captured islands sufficiently close to Japan, airfields were built on those islands, the initial raids were carried out by the Twentieth Air Force operating out of mainland China in Operation Matterhorn under XX Bomber Command, but these could not reach Tokyo. Operations from the Northern Mariana Islands commenced in November 1944 after the XXI Bomber Command was activated there, changing tactics to increase the damage, Curtis LeMay ordered the bombers to drop incendiary bombs to burn Japans vulnerable wood-and-paper buildings. The first such raid was against Kobe on 4 February 1945, LeMay ordered all defensive guns but the tail gun removed from the B-29s so that the aircraft would be lighter and use less fuel. On the night of 9–10 March,334 B-29s took off to raid with 279 of them dropping 1,665 tons of bombs on Tokyo. The bombs were mostly the 500-pound E-46 cluster bomb which released 38 napalm-carrying M-69 incendiary bomblets at an altitude of 2, 000–2,500 ft. The M-69s punched through thin roofing material or landed on the ground, in case they ignited 3–5 seconds later. A lesser number of M-47 incendiaries was dropped, the M-47 was a 100-pound jelled-gasoline. In the first two hours of the raid,226 of the attacking aircraft unloaded their bombs to overwhelm the citys fire defenses. The individual fires caused by the bombs joined to create a general conflagration, approximately 15.8 square miles of the city were destroyed and some 100,000 people are estimated to have died. Damage to Tokyos heavy industry was slight until firebombing destroyed much of the industry that was used as an integral source for small machine parts. Firebombing also killed or made homeless many workers who had been taking part in war industry, over 50% of Tokyos industry was spread out among residential and commercial neighborhoods, firebombing cut the whole citys output in half
Bombing of Tokyo
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Tokyo burns under B-29 firebomb assault, 26 May 1945
Bombing of Tokyo
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Charred remains of Japanese civilians after the firebombing of Tokyo on the night of 9–10 March 1945.
Bombing of Tokyo
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This Tokyo residential section was virtually destroyed.
Bombing of Tokyo
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Bombing of Tokyo
167.
Bombing of Toyokawa in World War II
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By February 1945, the facility had 56,400 workers and covered an area of 330 hectares. The Tōkaidō Main Line railway connecting Tokyo with Osaka also ran through the city, despite its obvious military significance, Toyokawa was not bombed until the very late stages of World War II. On 1 November 1944, a small air raid occurred. This was followed on 23 November by a midnight fly-over by a lone camera-equipped B-29 Superfortress on a reconnaissance mission, however, a major air raid did not occur until the morning of 7 August 1945. During this attack,135 B-29 Superfortress bombers of the USAAF 20th Air Force, 58th 73rd, 313th and they were joined by 48 P-51 Mustang escort fighters deployed from Iwo Jima. A total of 3,256 500-lb bombs was dropped on the city from an altitude of 15,000 –17,000 feet, civilian casualty estimates range from 2,544 to 2,677 people killed. Victims included 452 schoolchildren and teenaged girls, some of whom had been conscripted, Japanese anti-aircraft fire damaged 21 B-29s during the raid, one of which crashed into the ocean near Iwo Jima. Another B-29 lost course and dropped its bombs on the village of Futamata. After the war, a monument was erected within the grounds of Toyokawa Inari temple. Several other memorials exist at various locations around Toyokawa City, Strategic bombing during World War II Werrell, Kenneth P. Blankets of Fire. Washington and London, Smithsonian Institution Press, contribution of Major Fire Raids Toward Ending WWII. The Army Air Forces in World War II, Combat Chronology, the Cigar that brought the Fire Wind, Curtis LeMay and the Strategic Bombing of Japan. Dorr, Robert F. B-29 Units of World War II, downfall, The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire. Among the Dead Cities, The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany, new York, Walker Publishing Company Inc. Hoyt, Edwin P. Inferno, The Fire Bombing of Japan, shannon, Donald H. United States air strategy and doctrine as employed in the strategic bombing of Japan. U. S. Air University, Air War College, the Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb. 9th Bomb Group History Toyokawa Tourist Association History of Toyokawa Arsenal in Japanese
Bombing of Toyokawa in World War II
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Memorial to the Toyokawa Air Raid, at Toyokawa Inari.
168.
Bombing of Treviso in World War II
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The bombing of Treviso took place on 7 April 1944, during World War II. Out of 4,600 buildings,700 were destroyed,1,100 heavily damaged and 1,962 slightly damaged. A large part of the parts of the city centre were destroyed. Between 1,000 and 1,600 civilians were killed, the attackers lost one B-17, shot down by anti-aircraft guns of the nearby airport. As the bombing occurred on Good Friday, fascist propaganda called the day passion of Christ, giuseppe Berto’s novel The Sky is Red and the film with the same name are set during the bombing of Treviso and its aftermath
Bombing of Treviso in World War II
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Palazzo dei Trecento after the bombing
169.
Bombing of Wesel in World War II
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The German town of Wesel was heavily bombed in Allied air raids during World War II. Between this and the attacks in support of the crossing of the Rhine, Wesel became a target of the Allies, particularly in its strategic position as a depot with bridges on the Rhine. On the 16,17,18 and 19 February 1945, the Rhine and Lippe bridges were blown by the Wehrmacht, among others, on 10 March 1945. The 1, 950m long railway bridge was the last Rhine bridge remaining in German hands, on 23 March, Wesel came under the fire of over 3,000 guns when it was bombarded anew, in preparation for Operation Plunder. 97% of the town was destroyed before it was taken by Allied troops. The town was taken quickly with 36 civilian casualties
Bombing of Wesel in World War II
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97% of Wesel was destroyed before it was finally taken by Allied troops
170.
Area Bombing Directive
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The Area Bombing Directive Grafton, Brian. Archived from the original on 13 June 2007, despatch on War Operations, 23rd February,1942, to 8th May,1945. The Bombers, The RAF offensive against Germany 1939-1945, physicists in Conflict, From Antiquity to the New Millennium. Germany and the Second World War, Germany and the second World War. The Strategic Air War in Europe and the War in the West and East Asia 1943-1945, british Bombing Survey Unit, Beetham, Michael, Cox, Sebastian. The Strategic Air War Against Germany, 1939-1945
Area Bombing Directive
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Avro Lancaster bomb bay showing "Usual" area bombardment mix of 4,000-pound "Cookie" blast bomb and 30-pound incendiary bombs before a raid on Bremen, September 1942
Area Bombing Directive
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An elderly woman in front of the bodies of school children in Cologne, Germany, after a bombing raid
171.
Dehousing
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After a heated debate by the governments military and scientific advisers, the Cabinet chose the strategic bombing campaign over the other options available to them. The paper came at a time while Bomber Command was in a period of much reduced bombing. The Butt report had shown that results were poor, and with the attrition rate it had been suffering in operations. Bombing policy had already moved away from attempts at precision bombing, the paper was produced by Cherwell using an analysis of recent raids on British cities then being undertaken. The information was given by the researchers in response to questions posed by Cherwell, the dehousing paper had been delivered to Churchill at a time of mounting criticism about the RAF bomber offensive. The criticism was coming from other branches inside the War ministry and was also becoming public and it had started with a report initiated by Cherwell and delivered on 18 August 1941 by D M Butt, a member of the War Cabinet Secretariat. The report based on analysis of aerial photographs concluded that less than one third of sorties flown got within five miles of the target, senior RAF commanders argued that the Butts statistics were faulty and commissioned another report. This report was delivered by the Directorate of Bombing Operations on 22 September 1941, the Chief of the Air Staff, Sir Charles Portal argued that with such a force RAF Bomber Command could win the war in six months. With this compromise between the services, Bomber Command was allowed to keep its planned allocation of war materiel. This did not stop those outside the Chiefs of Staff questioning the strategic bombing policy, a particularly damning speech had been delivered in the House of Commons by the Member of Parliament for the University of Cambridge, Professor A. V. Hill who pointed out that The total casualties in air-raids – in killed – since the beginning of the war are only two-thirds of those we lost as prisoners of war at Singapore. The loss of production in the worst month of the Blitz was about equal to that due to the Easter holidays and we know most of the bombs we drop hit nothing of importance. Portal and Sinclair still expressed their reservations that it could be met, the principal advocate for the reduction of RAF Bomber Command in favour of other options was Sir Henry Tizard. He argued that the benefit to strategic bombing was that it tied up enemy resources defending Germany. He wrote to Cherwell on 15 April querying the facts in the paper, as such the strategy would not work with the resources available, and that far bigger effort would be required. Mr. Justice Singleton, a High Court Judge was asked by the Cabinet to look into the points of view. The study of the effects of bombing on Hull and Birmingham was published on 8 April by Professors Bernal, originally published in the Legion Magazine. The Bombers, The RAF offensive against Germany 1939-1945, kirby, M. W. Operational research in war and peace, the British experience from the 1930s to 1970
Dehousing
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Typical bomb damage in the Eilbek district of Hamburg, 1944 or 1945
172.
Archibald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso
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Born in Chelsea, London, Sinclair was the son of a Scottish father and an American mother. He was the great-great-grandson of Sir John Sinclair, 1st Baronet, in 1912, he succeeded his grandfather, Sir John Sinclair, 3rd Baronet, as fourth Baronet, of Ulbster. Educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Sinclair served on the Western Front during the First World War and rose to the rank of Major in the Guards Machine Gun Regiment. They formed a friendship, which would become a significant political alliance in later decades. His constituency was the largest, in terms of area, in the United Kingdom and he rose through the Liberal ranks as the party shrank in Parliament, becoming Chief Whip by 1930. In 1931, the Liberal Party joined the National Government of Ramsay MacDonald and he was sworn of the Privy Council at the same time. In 1932, he, together with other Liberal ministers, resigned from the government in protest at the Ottawa Conference introducing a series of tariff agreements, Sinclair and the Liberal leader, Sir Herbert Samuel, were thus the last Liberal politicians to sit in the Cabinet until 2010. In the 1935 general election, Samuel lost his seat, Sinclair became the partys leader at the head of only 20 MPs. When Churchill formed an all-party coalition government in 1940, Sinclair became Secretary of State for Air, however, he did not sit in the small War Cabinet but was invited to attend meetings discussing any political matter. As Secretary for Air, his first task was to work with the RAF in planning the Battle of Britain, towards the end of the war he found himself at odds with Churchill, arguing against Bomber Harriss strategy for the Bombing of Dresden. He remained a minister until May 1945 when the coalition ended, in the 1945 general election, he narrowly lost his seat. His margin of defeat is one of the tightest on record, he came third, Sinclair awaited the imminent by-election, which never materialised. At the 1950 general election, Sinclair again stood for his old seat and moved to second place, in 1952, the year of his first stroke, he accepted elevation to the House of Lords as Viscount Thurso, of Ulbster in the County of Caithness. Sinclair married Marigold, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel James Stewart Forbes, in 1918 and they had four children, the Hon. Catherine, the Hon. Elizabeth, Robin, and the Hon. Angus. Sinclair was one of the largest landowners in the United Kingdom and he was handsome and charming and regarded as a daredevil, but in private life he was rather shy, reserved and antisocial, with a slight speech impediment. In the 1990s, his grandson, John Sinclair, entered politics and sat from 2001 to 2015 as the Liberal Democrat MP for his grandfathers seat, Caithness, Sutherland, sinclairs granddaughter, Veronica Linklater, Baroness Linklater of Butterstone, has also become a Liberal Democrat politician. 1890-1912, Mr Archibald Sinclair 1912-1922, Sir Archibald Sinclair Bt 1922, Sir Archibald Sinclair Bt CMG 1922-1931, Sir Archibald Sinclair Bt CMG MP 1931-1941, Sir Archibald Sinclair Bt CMG MP 1941-1945, The Rt Hon. Sir Archibald Sinclair Bt KT CMG MP 1945-1952, The Rt Hon, Sir Archibald Sinclair Bt KT CMG 1952-1970, The Rt Hon
Archibald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso
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Archibald Sinclair as Secretary of State for Air during the Second World War
Archibald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso
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Sketch of Sinclair commissioned by the Ministry of Information in the Second World War period
173.
Oil Campaign of World War II
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The Allied oil campaign of World War II was directed by the RAF and USAAF against facilities supplying Nazi Germany with petroleum, oil, and lubrication products. The reliance of Germany on oil and oil products for its war machine was identified before the war, after the US entered the war, it carried out daytime precision bombing attacks such as Operation Tidal Wave against refineries in Romania in 1943. The last major raid of the European theater of the war was on a refinery in Norway in April 1945. The British had identified the importance of Germanys fuel supplies before the war in their Western Air Plan 5, the focus of British bombing during 1940 changed repeatedly in response to directives from the Air Ministry. At the start of June, oil targets were made a priority of night bombing attacks on other war industry to be made on dark nights. On 20 June oil targets were made third priority below the German aircraft industry, sir Charles Portal was sceptical of the likelihood of success, saying that only a few targets could be located by average crews under moonlit conditions. The first US bombing of a European target was of the Ploieşti refineries on June 12,1942, priority fell with the need for attacks on German V-weapon targets in France and then the attacks on lines of communication in preparation for the invasion of France. In March 1944 the Plan for Completion of Combined Bomber Offensive was put forward which found favour with the British Ministry of Economic Warfare, the plan proposed attacking fourteen synthetic plants and thirteen refineries of Nazi Germany. In June 1944, in response to Air Ministry query on resources, harris agreed to divert spare effort to oil targets. They were deemed to be of importance that one raid was staged that consisted only of bomb carrying fighters, to rest the bomber crews. In late summer 1944 the Allies began using reconnaissance photo information to time bombing with the resumption of production at a facility. Even with the limitations, This was the big breakthrough. a plant would be wounded. by successive attacks on its electrical grid—its nervous system—and on its gas. However, due to bad fall and winter weather, a far greater tonnage was expended on Transportation Plan targets than oil targets, the benzol plant at Linz in Austria was bombed on 16 October 1944. In January 1945, the priority of oil targets was lowered, to prevent oil supplies from Romania reaching Germany, the RAF had extended its aerial mining activities to the Danube. In October 1975, Texas A&M University began the German Document Retrieval Project, despite its successes, by the spring of 1944 the Combined Bomber Offensive had failed to severely damage the German economy or significantly interrupt production of a vital item. The oil campaign was the first to accomplish these goals, the US strategic bombing survey identified catastrophic damage. Of itself, German industry was not significantly affected by attacks on oil targets as coal was its source of energy. Several prominent Germans, however, described the oil campaign as critical to the Third Reichs defeat, albert Speer, writing in his memoir, said that It meant the end of German armaments production
Oil Campaign of World War II
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The Sandman, a B-24 Liberator, emerges from smoke over the Astra Română refinery, Ploiești, during Operation "Tidal Wave" (1 August 1943).
174.
Area bombing directive
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The Area Bombing Directive Grafton, Brian. Archived from the original on 13 June 2007, despatch on War Operations, 23rd February,1942, to 8th May,1945. The Bombers, The RAF offensive against Germany 1939-1945, physicists in Conflict, From Antiquity to the New Millennium. Germany and the Second World War, Germany and the second World War. The Strategic Air War in Europe and the War in the West and East Asia 1943-1945, british Bombing Survey Unit, Beetham, Michael, Cox, Sebastian. The Strategic Air War Against Germany, 1939-1945
Area bombing directive
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Avro Lancaster bomb bay showing "Usual" area bombardment mix of 4,000-pound "Cookie" blast bomb and 30-pound incendiary bombs before a raid on Bremen, September 1942
Area bombing directive
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An elderly woman in front of the bodies of school children in Cologne, Germany, after a bombing raid
175.
Submarine pen
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A submarine pen is a type of submarine base that acts as a bunker to protect submarines from air attack. The term is applied to submarine bases constructed during World War II, particularly in Germany and its occupied countries. Among the first forms of protection for submarines were some open-sided shelters with partial wooden foundations that were constructed during the first World War and these structures were built at the time when bombs were light enough to be dropped by hand from the cockpit. By the 1940s, the quality of weapons and the means to deliver them had improved markedly. The mid-1930s saw the Naval Construction Office in Berlin give the problem serious thought, various factions in the navy were convinced protection for the expanding U-boat arm was required. An RAF raid on the capital in 1940 plus the occupation of France and Great Britains refusal to surrender was enough to trigger a massive building programme of submarine pens and air raid shelters. By the autumn of 1940, construction of the Elbe II bunker in Hamburg and it was soon realised that such a massive project was beyond the Kriegsmarine, the Todt Organisation was brought in to oversee the administration of labour. The local supply of items as sand, aggregate, cement. The steel required was mostly imported from Germany, the attitudes of the people in France and Norway were significantly different. In France there was no problem with the recruitment of men. It was a different story in Norway, there, the local population were far more reluctant to help the Germans. Indeed, most labour had to be brought in, the ground selected for bunker construction was no help either, usually being at the head of a fjord, the foundations and footings had to be hewn out of granite. Several metres of silt also had to be overcome, many of the workers needed were forced labour, most especially the concentration camp inmates supplied by the SS from camps near the pens. The incessant air raids caused serious disruption to the project, hampering the supply of material, destroying machinery, machinery such as excavators, piledrivers, cranes, floodlighting and concrete pumps was temperamental, and in the case of steam-driven equipment, very noisy. Storage space for spares, explosives, ammunition and oil was also required and they were usually constructed with new locks alongside an existing structure. There were two types that were either on dry land or over the water. The former meant that U-boats had to be moved on ramps, pumping the water out enabled dry dock repairs to be carried out. Some bunkers were large enough to allow the removal of periscopes, there is no truth in the rumour of an underground bunker on Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands
Submarine pen
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Surrendered German U-boats moored outside the Dora 1 bunker in Trondheim, Norway, May 1945
Submarine pen
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Forced concentration camp labour at U-boat pens in Bremen, 1944
Submarine pen
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Submarine pen at Bordeaux
Submarine pen
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U-boat pens at Brest
176.
Battle of the Ruhr
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The campaign bombed twenty-six major Combined Bomber Offensive targets. The targets included the Krupp armament works, the Nordstern synthetic-oil plant, some targets were not sites of heavy industrial production but part of the production and movement of materiel. Before the Battle of the Ruhr ended, Operation Gomorrah began the Battle of Hamburg, the British bomber force was made up in the main of the twin-engined Vickers Wellington medium bomber and the four-engined heavies, the Short Stirling, Handley Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster. The Wellington and Stirling were the two oldest designs and limited in the type or weight of bombs carried, the Stirling was also limited to a lower operational height. Bombers could carry a range of bombs - Medium Capacity bombs of about 50% explosive by weight, High Capacity Blockbusters that were mostly explosive, the combined use of the latter two were most effective in setting fires in urban areas. British raids were by night - the losses in daylight raids having been too heavy to bear, by this point in the war, RAF Bomber Command were using navigation aids, the Pathfinder force and the bomber stream tactic together. Guidance markers put the force over the target area, where they would then drop their bombloads on target markers. The bomber stream concentrated the force of bombers into a time window, such that it overwhelmed fighter defences in the air. For most of the Battle of the Ruhr the Oboe de Havilland Mosquitoes came from one squadron, the number of Oboe aircraft that could be used at any time was limited by the number of ground stations. USAAF raids were by daylight, the closely massed groups of bombers covering each other with defensive fire against fighters, between them, the Allies could mount round the clock bombing. The USAAF forces in the UK were still increasing during 1943, the German defence was through anti-aircraft weapons and day and night fighters. The Kammhuber Line used radar to identify the bomber raids and then controllers directed night fighters onto the raiders, during the battle of the Ruhr, Bomber Command estimated about 70% of their aircraft losses were due to fighters. By July 1943, the German night fighter force totalled 550, through the summer of 1943, the Germans increased the ground-based anti-aircraft defences in the Ruhr Area, by July 1943 there were more than 1,000 large flak guns and 1,500 lighter guns. This was about one-third of all guns in Germany. Six-hundred thousand personnel were required to man the AA defences of Germany, the British crews called the area sarcastically Happy Valley or the valley of no Return. During the battle other German targets received large attacks, berlin 27/28 March, 29/30 March Stettin 20/21 April In his study of the German war economy, Adam Tooze stated that during the Battle of the Ruhr, Bomber Command severely disrupted German production. Steel production fell by 200,000 tons, the armaments industry was facing a steel shortfall of 400,000 tons. After doubling production in 1942, production of steel increased only by 20 percent in 1943, hitler and Speer were forced to cut planned increases in production
Battle of the Ruhr
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The Möhne dam after Operation Chastise
Battle of the Ruhr
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Devastation of Krupp factory, Essen, 1945
177.
Battle of Berlin (RAF campaign)
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The Battle of Berlin was the British bombing campaign on Berlin from November 1943 to March 1944. Not limited solely to Berlin, the campaign targeted other German cities as well, the campaign was launched by Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, AOC of RAF Bomber Command in November 1943. Harris believed this could be the blow that broke German resistance and it will cost us between 400 and 500 aircraft. It will cost Germany the war, by this time he could deploy over 800 long-range bombers on any given night, equipped with new and more sophisticated navigational devices such as H2S radar. Between November 1943 and March 1944, Bomber Command made 16 massed attacks on Berlin, the USAAF, having recently suffered heavy losses in its attacks on Schweinfurt from which it was still recovering, was unable to participate. It is generally accepted that the Battle of Berlin was a failure for the Royal Air Force as it was not the blow that Harris had predicted. In response to attacks on German cities, the Luftwaffe began Operation Steinbock —a series of attacks on London, the Germans suffered heavy losses, but they persisted until May 1944. Over every mission during Steinbock, attacking formations suffered a higher percentage than the RAF sustained over Germany. Although primarily a British operation, Australian and Canadian bomber squadrons took part in the battle. The first raid of the battle occurred on the night of 18/19 November 1943, Berlin was the main target and was attacked by 440 Avro Lancaster heavy bombers and four de Havilland Mosquitos. The city was under cloud and the damage was not severe, the second major raid was on the night of 22/23 November. This was the most effective raid on Berlin by the RAF of the war, causing damage to the residential areas west of the centre, Tiergarten and Charlottenburg, Schöneberg. Because of the dry conditions, several firestorms ignited. Both the Protestant Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, now serving as a war memorial, on 17 December, extensive damage was done to the Berlin railway system. By this time the effect of the bombing campaign had made more than a quarter of Berlins total living accommodation unusable. There was another raid on 28–29 January 1944, when Berlins western and southern districts were hit in the most concentrated attack of this period. On 15–16 February, important war industries were hit, including the large Siemensstadt area in the west, with the centre and this was the largest raid by the RAF on Berlin. Despite the devastation caused, these raids failed to achieve their objectives
Battle of Berlin (RAF campaign)
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The ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
Battle of Berlin (RAF campaign)
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The ruins of St. Hedwig's Cathedral, 1946
178.
Operation Hurricane (1944)
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During the day of 14 October 1944,957 RAF Bomber Command aircraft dropped 3,574 long tons of high explosive and 820 long tons of incendiaries on Duisburg. Also during the day, USAAF VIII Bomber Command Mission 677 made PFF attacks on Cologne marshaling yards at Gereon, Gremberg, and Eifelter, as well as Euskirchen. A second RAF raid on Duisburg during the night of 14/15 October in two waves about two hours apart dropped a further 4,040 tonnes of explosive and 500 tonnes of incendiaries. In some cases RAF crews flew both the daylight and night-time raids, a total of eleven hours flying time in 24 hours. During the same night the RAF also bombed Brunswick, destroying the town centre, nearly fifty Mosquitos carried out nuisance raids and 132 aircraft from No.100 Group targeted German night fighter operations. In 24 hours, RAF Bomber Command had flown 2,589 sorties, losing 24 aircraft, dropping approximately 10,050 long tons of bombs, Bomber Boys, Fighting back 1940 —1945, Harper Press,2007, ISBN 978-0-00-718986-1 McKillop, Jack. U. S. Army Air Forces in World War II, Combat Chronology October 1944, Federal Depository Library Program Electronic Collection of the United States Staff October 1944
Operation Hurricane (1944)
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Blockbuster bomb (left) and incendiary bombs (right) dropped from an Avro Lancaster over Duisburg, 15 October 1944.
179.
Bristol Blenheim
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The Bristol Blenheim is a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the first two years of the Second World War. It was originally developed as the civil-orientated Type 142 in response to Lord Rothermeres challenge to produce the fastest commercial aircraft in Europe. First flying in April 1935, the Air Ministry was quickly impressed by its performance, on 10 March 1937, deliveries of the newly named Blenheim commenced to RAF squadrons. The Blenheim was one of the first British aircraft to feature an all-metal stressed-skin construction, retractable landing gear, flaps, a more capable bomber derivative, the Beaufort, was also developed, being both larger and heavier than the Blenheim. A Canadian-built variant named the Bolingbroke was used as a patrol aircraft. The Mark IV variant was equally unsuccessful in its daylight bombing role, the Blenheim was also used by a wide range of overseas operators, as well being produced under licence in Finland and Yugoslavia. By this point, proposed use of the Aquila engine had been shelved in favour of the supercharger-equipped, deeming it suitable for the issued challenge, the design of Type 135 was further adapted to produce the Type 142 in order to meet the requirements outlined by Rothermere. On 12 April 1935, the Type 142, which had given the name Britain First, conducted its maiden flight from Filton Aerodrome. Flight tests soon proved that the aircraft was in fact faster than any fighter in service with the Royal Air Force at the time, Rothermere presented the aircraft to the nation for a formal evaluation at a potential bomber. By June 1935, the Air Ministry had become interested in the due to its high performance. On 9 July 1935, a conference was held by Bristol at the ministrys request into the question of converting the Type 142 into a suitable medium bomber. Based upon talks from the conference, the Air Ministry quickly formalised Specification B. 28/35 for prototypes of a bomber version, the Type 142M. Other modifications included the addition of a position and a Browning machine gun gun in the nose along with provisions for a semi-retractable gun turret in the dorsal position. In September 1935, a contract for 150 aircraft was placed. The Air Ministry had chosen to order the type directly from the board, having been urgently sought as one piece of a wider. The first aircraft built of this model, K7033, served as the only prototype, on 25 June 1936. The service name for the aircraft became Blenheim Mk I after the battle during the War of the Spanish Succession. On 10 March 1937, production deliveries to the RAF formally started,114 Squadron became the first squadron to receive the Blenheim
Bristol Blenheim
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Blenheim (Types 142M, 149, 160)
Bristol Blenheim
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Blenheim Mk I reconstruction by the Aircraft Restoration Co at Duxford, for the owners, Blenheim (Duxford) Ltd. The reconstruction is based upon a restored Bolingbroke airframe with restored Blenheim Mk I nose section.
Bristol Blenheim
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Blenheim Mk IV bomber at the RAF Museum, London, with the new cockpit.
Bristol Blenheim
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Bolingbroke IV cockpit. The Blenheim Mk IV cockpit was similar, but with a shorter instrument console. The navigator's position was in the nose, in front of the pilot. The ring and bead gunsight for the forward firing guns is visible.
180.
Handley Page Hampden
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The Handley Page HP.52 Hampden was a British twin-engine medium bomber of the Royal Air Force. It was one of a trio of then-large twin-engine bombers procured for the RAF, the newest of the three medium bombers, the Hampden, was often referred to by aircrews as the Flying Suitcase because of its cramped crew conditions. While the Hampden was powered by Bristol Pegasus radial engines, a variant known as the Handley Page Hereford instead featured in-line Napier Daggers. In 1932, the Air Ministry issued Specification B. 9/32 seeking a day bomber as higher performance than any preceding bomber aircraft. The design team, led by G. R, during early 1936, the first prototype, designated as the HP.52 and given the serial number K4240, was completed. L7271 later received a pair of Dagger engines and was accordingly re-designated as the HP.53, on 1 July 1937, another prototype, L4032, was produced to serve as the production-standard prototype, on 24 June 1938, the third prototype conducted its maiden flight. Handley Page elected to name their new aircraft after John Hampden, L4032 and L4033, which was the second production-standard Hampden to be produced, would be later assigned to the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at RAF Martlesham Heath, Suffolk. By late 1938, the manufacturing plans for the Hampden had been formalised. Designated P.5 by the RSAF, it was operated by the service through to November 1945, on 22 February 1940, the first Preston-built Hampden, P2062, conducted its maiden flight. English Electric would go onto manufacture a total of 770 Hampdens, more than any other company, in July 1940, Handley-Page terminated its own production line for the Hampden upon the completions of its 500th aircraft. On 9 August 1940, the first Canadian-built Hampden, P5298, made its first flight, by October 1940, the Hampden Mk I had a crew of four, pilot, navigator/bomb aimer, radio operator and rear gunner. Conceived as a fast, manoeuvrable, fighting bomber, the Hampden had a fixed.303 in Browning machine gun in the forward fuselage, the layout was similar to the all-guns-forward cockpits introduced about the same time in the Luftwaffes own medium bombers, notably the Dornier Do 17. The Hampden used a flush-rivetted stressed skin design, which was reinforced with a mixture of bent, the structure employed an all-metal monocoque design. A split-assembly construction technique was employed, sections were prefabricated and then joined together, to enable rapid, the fuselage was in three major sections – front, centre and rear - that were built using jigs. The centre and rear sections were made of two halves, which meant that the sections could be fitted out in part under better working conditions prior to assembly. All possible assembly work was performed at the prior to installation upon each aircraft. In a similar fashion to the fuselage, the wings were made up of three units, centre section, port outer wing and starboard outer wing, which were in turn subdivided. Each section was built up around a main spar, leading edge section
Handley Page Hampden
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HP.52 Hampden
Handley Page Hampden
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The Hampden's cockpit
Handley Page Hampden
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Handley Page Hampden of No. 83 Squadron with crew, seated on a loaded bomb trolley at Scampton, October 1940
Handley Page Hampden
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Hampden P5436 at the Canadian Museum of Flight at Langley, British Columbia c.2006
181.
Avro Manchester
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The Avro 679 Manchester was a British twin-engine heavy bomber developed during the Second World War by the Avro aircraft company in the United Kingdom. Serving in the Royal Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force, the aircraft was the forerunner of the successful four-engined Avro Lancaster, which would become one of the most capable strategic bombers of the war. The Manchester was originally designed to the Air Ministry Specification P. 13/36, provision for catapult assisted takeoff to permit the maximum load was also part of the specification, although the need for this provision was explicitly removed in July 1938. Cruising speed was to be a minimum of 275 mph at 15,000 feet, the Air Ministry had expectations for an aircraft of similar weight to the B. 1/35 specification, but being both smaller and faster. Avro had already started work on a design before the invitation to tender and they were in competition with Boulton Paul, Bristol, Fairey, Handley Page and Shorts. Vickers had the Warwick with Napier Sabre engines but did not tender it. In early 1937, the Avro design and the rival Handley Page HP.56 were accepted and this skipping of the usual process was necessary due to the initiation of a wider expansion of the RAF in expectation of war. From 1939, it was expected that the P. 13/36 would replace existing medium bombers, such as the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, Handley Page Hampden and Vickers Wellington. When developed in 1935, the Vulture engine had promise — it was rated at 1,760 hp but it proved unreliable and had to be derated to 1. The Handley Page HP.56, always intended as the backup to the Avro, was redesigned to take four engines on the orders of the Air Ministry in 1937, when the Vulture was already showing problems. While the Manchester was designed with a tail, the first production aircraft, designated the Mk I, had a central fin added. They were succeeded by the Mk IA which reverted to the system but used enlarged, taller fin and rudders mounted on a new tailplane. This configuration was carried over to the Lancaster, except for the first prototype, Avro constructed 177 Manchesters while Metropolitan-Vickers completed 32 aircraft. Plans for Armstrong Whitworth and Fairey Aviation at Stockport/Ringway to build the Manchester were abandoned, faireys order for 150 Manchesters was replaced by multiple orders for the Handley Page Halifax. The Avro Manchester was designed with consideration for ease of manufacture. The fuselage of the aircraft comprised longitudinal stringers or longerons throughout, the wings were of a two-spar construction, the internal ribs being made of aluminium alloys, fuel was contained with several self-sealing fuel tanks within the wings. The tail shared a similar construction to the wing, featuring a twin fin-and-rudder configuration that provided good vision for the dorsal gunner, the cockpit housed the pilot and fighting controllers position underneath the canopy, and these two crew members were provided with all-round vision. The navigator was seated aft of the controller and the position included an astrodome for use of a sextant
Avro Manchester
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Manchester
Avro Manchester
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The forward section of a Manchester Mark I at Waddington, Lincolnshire, showing the nose with the bomb-aimer's window, the forward gun-turret and the cockpit, September 1941
Avro Manchester
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Avro Manchester Mk IA
Avro Manchester
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Interior view of a Manchester MK I
182.
De Havilland Mosquito
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The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is a British multi-role combat aircraft with a two-man crew which served during and after the Second World War. It was one of few operational front-line aircraft of the era constructed almost entirely of wood and was nicknamed The Wooden Wonder, the Mosquito was also known affectionately as the Mossie to its crews. It was also used by the British Overseas Airways Corporation as a fast transport to carry small high-value cargoes to, a single passenger could be carried in the aircrafts bomb bay, which would be adapted for the purpose. When production of the Mosquito began in 1941, it was one of the fastest operational aircraft in the world, entering widespread service in 1942, the Mosquito was a high-speed, high-altitude photo-reconnaissance aircraft, continuing in this role throughout the war. From mid-1942 to mid-1943, Mosquito bombers flew high-speed, medium or low-altitude missions against factories, railways and other pinpoint targets in Germany, from late 1943, Mosquito bombers were formed into the Light Night Strike Force and used as pathfinders for RAF Bomber Commands heavy-bomber raids. They were also used as bombers, often dropping Blockbuster bombs –4,000 lb cookies – in high-altitude. As a night fighter from mid-1942, the Mosquito intercepted Luftwaffe raids on the United Kingdom, starting in July 1942, Mosquito night-fighter units raided Luftwaffe airfields. As part of 100 Group, it was a fighter and intruder supporting RAF Bomber Commands heavy bombers that reduced bomber losses during 1944 and 1945. Second Tactical Air Force Mosquitos supported the British Army during the 1944 Normandy Campaign, from 1943, Mosquitos with RAF Coastal Command strike squadrons attacked Kriegsmarine U-boats and intercepted transport ship concentrations. The Mosquito flew with the Royal Air Force and other air forces in the European, Mediterranean and Italian theatres. The Mosquito was also operated by the RAF in the South East Asian theatre, during the 1950s, the RAF replaced the Mosquito with the jet-powered English Electric Canberra. By the early-mid-1930s, de Havilland had a reputation for innovative high-speed aircraft with the DH.88 Comet racer, the later DH.91 Albatross airliner pioneered the composite wood construction that the Mosquito used. The 22-passenger Albatross could cruise at 210 miles per hour at 11,000 feet,100 miles per hour better than the Handley Page H. P.42, on 8 September 1936, the British Air Ministry issued Specification P. Aviation firms entered heavy designs with new high-powered engines and multiple turrets, leading to the production of the Avro Manchester. In May 1937, as a comparison to P. 13/36, George Volkert, in 20 pages, Volkert planned an aerodynamically clean medium bomber to carry 3,000 pounds of bombs at a cruising speed of 300 miles per hour. There was support in the RAF and Air Ministry, Captain R N Liptrot, Research Director Aircraft 3, appraised Volkerts design, there were, however, counter-arguments that, although such a design had merit, it would not necessarily be faster than enemy fighters for long. The idea of a small, fast bomber gained support at an earlier stage than sometimes acknowledged though it was likely that the Air Ministry envisaged it using light alloy components. Geoffrey de Havilland also believed a bomber with an aerodynamic design and he thought that adapting the Albatross to meet the RAFs requirements could save time
De Havilland Mosquito
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DH.98 Mosquito
De Havilland Mosquito
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Construction concepts pioneered in the de Havilland Comet were later used in the Mosquito.
De Havilland Mosquito
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One of de Havilland's early designs was to adapt the de Havilland Albatross design to a fast, turret-armed bomber.
De Havilland Mosquito
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A 1943 advertisement for de Havilland taken from Flight & Aircraft Engineer magazine highlights the speed of the B Mk IV.
183.
Short Stirling
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The Short Stirling was a British four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It has the distinction of being the first four-engined bomber to be introduced into service with the Royal Air Force, the Stirling was designed during the late 1930s by Short Brothers to conform with the requirements laid out in Air Ministry Specification B. 12/36. When the preferred Type 317 had to be abandoned, the S.29, during early 1941, the Stirling entered active squadron service. The Sterling had a brief operational career as a bomber before being relegated to second line duties from late 1943. A handful of ex-military Stirlings were rebuilt and saw continued use on the civil market, in the 1930s, the Royal Air Force was interested primarily in twin-engine bombers. These designs put limited demands on engine production and maintenance, both of which were stretched with the introduction of so many new types into service. Power limitations were so serious that the British invested heavily in the development of engines in the 2,000 horsepower class in order to improve performance. During the late 1930s, none of these were ready for production, accordingly, in 1936, the RAF also decided to investigate the feasibility of the four-engined bomber. Amongst the several requirements specified, the load was to be a maximum of 14,000 lb carried to a range of 2,000 miles or a lesser payload of 8,000 lb to 3,000 miles. It was to have a crew of six and was to have a normal weight of 48, 000lb, while a maximum overload weight of 65. The aircraft would have to be capable of cruising at speeds of 230 mph or greater while flying at 15,000 ft, while possessing three individual gun turrets for self-defence. Additionally, the aircraft should also be able to be used as a troop transport for 24 soldiers. The concept was that the aircraft would fly troops to far corners of the British Empire, to help with this task as well as ease production, it needed to be able to be broken down into parts, for transport by train. Various companies responded to B. 12/36, including Supermarine and Armstrong Whitworth, Shorts were producing several four-engined flying boat designs of the required size and created their S.29 proposal by removing the lower deck and boat hull of the S.25 Sunderland. As originally designed, the S.29 was considered to be capable of favourable high-altitude performance, in October 1936, the S.29 was low down on the short list of designs considered and the Supermarine Type 317 was ordered in prototype form in January 1937. However it was decided that a design to Supermarine was needed for insurance. Shorts accepted this large amount of redesign work, the project had added importance due to the death of Supermarines designer, Reginald Mitchell, which had generated doubt within the Air Ministry. The S.29 used the Sunderlands 114 ft wing and it had to be reduced to less than 100 ft, in order to get the needed lift from a shorter span and excess weight, the redesigned wing was thickened and reshaped
Short Stirling
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Stirling
Short Stirling
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The Short S.31 half-scale replica used for aerodynamic tests of the Stirling design
Short Stirling
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Ground crew performing maintenance tasks
Short Stirling
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Instrument panel and controls of Stirling Mk I
184.
Window (codename)
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Modern armed forces use chaff to distract radar-guided missiles from their targets. Most military aircraft and warships have chaff dispensing systems for self-defense, an intercontinental ballistic missile may release in its midcourse phase several independent warheads as well as penetration aids such as decoy balloons and chaff. The idea of using chaff developed independently in the United Kingdom, Germany, an early idea was to use sheets the size of a notebook page, these would be printed so they would also serve as propaganda leaflets. However, it was found the most effective version used strips of black paper backed with foil, exactly 27 by 2 centimetres. The Head of the TRE, A. P. Rowe, meanwhile, in Germany, similar research had led to the development of Düppel. The German code name was that of the estate on which the first German tests with chaff had been made, circa 1942. Once the idea had been passed to the US via the Tizard Mission, Fred Whipple developed a system for dispensing strips for the USAAF, the systems were all essentially identical in concept, small aluminium strips cut to one-half of the target radars wavelength. When hit by the radar, such lengths of metal resonate and re-radiate the signal, opposing defences would find it almost impossible to distinguish the aircraft from the echoes caused by the chaff. Other radar-confusing techniques included Mandrel, Piperack, and Jostle and this caused concern in RAF Fighter Command and Anti-Aircraft Command, who managed to suppress the use of Window until July 1943. At this time, it was felt the new generation of centimetric radars available to Fighter Command would deal with any Luftwaffe response to RAF Bomber Command use. Bomber Harris, Commander-in-Chief of RAF Bomber Command, finally got approval to use Window as part of Operation Gomorrah, the first aircrew trained to use Window were 76 squadron. Twenty-four crews were briefed on how to drop the bundles of aluminised-paper strips, one every minute through the flare chute, the radar guided master searchlights wandered aimlessly across the sky. The anti-aircraft guns fired randomly or not at all and the fighters, their radar displays swamped with false echoes. Over a week of attacks a vast area of Hamburg was devastated, resulting in more than 40,000 civilian deaths, squadrons quickly had special chutes fitted to their bombers to make the deployment even easier. Seeing this as a development that made it safer to go on operations, a lesser known fact is that the Luftwaffe used this technology just six weeks after the above-mentioned Hamburg raid. The German strips were cut into 80 centimetre by 1.9 centimetre lengths, in a series of raids in 1943, and the mini-blitz of Operation Steinbock between February and May 1944, Düppel allowed German bombers to once again attempt to operate over London. Although theoretically effective, the number of bombers, notably in relation to the RAFs now-large night fighter force. The British fighters were able to go aloft in large numbers, the Germans obtained better results during the air raid on Bari, on 2 December 1943, when Allied radars were effectively deceived by the use of Düppel strips
Window (codename)
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Modern US Navy RR-144 (top) and RR-129 (bottom) chaff countermeasures and containers. Note how the strips of the RR-129 chaff, bottom, are of different widths, while those of the RR-144, top, are all the same width. The RR-144 is designed to prevent interference with civil ATC radar systems.
Window (codename)
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A Lancaster dropping chaff (the crescent-shaped white cloud on the left of the picture) over Essen during a thousand-bomber raid.
Window (codename)
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The effect of chaff on the display of a Giant Würzburg radar. The effect of jamming appears in the left "jagged" half of the circular ring, contrasting with the normal "smooth" (unjammed) display on the right half of the circle, with a real target at the 3 o'clock position – on the jammed left side the real target "blip" would have been indistinguishable from the jamming.
Window (codename)
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Letter from Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal to Merwyn Bly
185.
H2S (radar)
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H2S was the first airborne, ground scanning radar system. It was also used as a general navigation system, allowing landmarks to be identified at long range. The first systems worked at 9.1 cm like the AI Mk, VIII radar they were developed from, and went into service in 1942 as the TR3159 and TR3191. After it was found the resolution of these sets was too low to be useful over large cities like Berlin, in 1943 work started on an operating in the X band at 3 cm. A wide variety of these H2S Mk, III versions were produced before the Mk. IIIG was selected as the late-war standard, the US Radiation Laboratory also produced an X band system, the H2X. On its second mission on 2/3 February 1943, an H2S was captured almost intact by German forces. Combined with intelligence gathered from the crew, they learned it was a mapping system and were able to determine its method of operation. When they managed to piece one together from parts and saw the display of Berlin and this led to the introduction of the FuG350 Naxos radar detector, which enabled Luftwaffe night fighters to home on the transmissions of H2S. The British learned of Naxos and a debate ensued over the use of H2S. However, calculations showed that losses during this period were less than before. Development continued through the late-war Mk, IX that equipped the V bomber fleet. IX was tied into both the bombsight and navigation system to provide a complete long-range Navigation and Bombing System, in this form, H2S was last used in anger during the Falklands War in 1982 on the Avro Vulcan. IX units remained in service on the Handley Page Victor aircraft until 1993, the targeting radar was originally designated BN, but it quickly became H2S. The genesis of this remains somewhat contentious, with different sources claiming it meant Height to Slope. The rotten connection, with a twist, is propounded by R. V, later, when Cherwell asked how the project was progressing, he was most upset to hear that it had been put on hold, and repeatedly declared about the delay that it stinks. After the Battle of Britain, RAF Bomber Command began night attacks against German cities, the British developed a radio navigation system called Gee and then a second medium-range navigation scheme known as Oboe. Both were based on stations in the UK which sent out synchronized signals
H2S (radar)
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A photograph of the H2S display taken during an attack on Cologne - the annotations were added later for post attack analysis. The river Rhine is visible snaking from top to lower right.
H2S (radar)
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The H2S radome (top) and its enclosed scanning aerial (bottom) on a Halifax
H2S (radar)
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The Halifax V9977 pictured at RAF Hurn. This aircraft crashed in June 1942, killing several radar engineers
H2S (radar)
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Fishpond display (square grey box with circular screen) mounted in radio operator's position aboard an Avro Lancaster.
186.
Gee-H (navigation)
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Gee-H, sometimes written G-H or GEE-H, was a radio navigation system developed by Britain during World War II to aid RAF Bomber Command. The name refers to the use of the earlier Gee equipment. Its official name was AMES Type 100, Gee-H was used to supplant the Oboe bombing system, both of which worked along similar lines. By measuring the distance to a station, the bomber was able to navigate along an arc in the sky. Gee-H used much smaller gear on board the aircraft and was less accurate. Gee-H remained in use throughout the war, although it was subject to jamming from the Germans. It also remained a fixture of post-war RAF aircraft like the English Electric Canberra. Gee-H was adapted by RCA into the US wartime SHORAN system with improved accuracy, the same basic concept remains in widespread use today as the civilian DME system. Determining your location in 2D space requires two measurements of angle or range - two angle measurements, two measurements, or one angle and one distance. Early radio navigation was based on taking two angle measurements using radio direction finders, but these had limited accuracy on the order or tens of miles. The development of range-based systems had to wait until the invention of time measurement of radio was possible. The Luftwaffe pioneered the use of distance-measuring radio navigation systems with their Y-Gerät system in 1941, Y-Gerät used a single Knickebein-like beam for steering the bomber in the proper direction, and an onboard transponder for distance measurements. A special signal was sent from a ground station and on reception the transponder would send out an answering pulse after a known delay. A ground operator used an oscilloscope to measure the time between broadcast and reception, and deduced the range in a similar to conventional radar systems. He then radioed this information to the bomber by voice, telling them when to release their bombs, the downside to the beam system of navigation is that the beams are necessarily fan shaped, growing wider with increasing distance from the broadcaster. This means they have decreasing accuracy with increasing range, measurements of distance are dependant only on the accuracy of the equipment, and are independent of range. When two such signals are combined the accuracy is linear with range, however, such systems are also generally more difficult to use, as they require two range measurements to be made in quick succession, while the aircraft is moving. The Air Ministry developed a system known as Oboe which first started reaching the Pathfinder Force in late 1941 and was used experimentally in 1942
Gee-H (navigation)
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G-H Leader Avro Lancaster B Mark III of No. 467 Squadron RAAF as it begins its take-off run at RAF Waddington, August 1944
187.
Bomber stream
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The bomber stream was a tactic developed by the Royal Air Force Bomber Command to overwhelm the night time German aerial defences of the Kammhuber Line during World War II. The Kammhuber Line consisted of three layers of zones of about 32 km long and 20 km wide, in each zone there were two German night fighter aircraft receiving ground-directed guidance from their own Himmelbett controller within each zone. At the urging of British scientific military strategist R. V. Jones, a typical bomber stream of 600 to 700 aircraft was on average 8 or 10 miles broad, and 4,000 to 6,000 feet deep. The bomber stream allowed a bombing raid to be completed in a time frame. The first use of the stream was the first 1,000 bomber raid against Cologne on the night of 30–31 May 1942. The tactic proved successful and was used until the last days of the war, list of World War II electronic warfare equipment No
Bomber stream
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A Lancaster within the bomber stream dropping chaff — the crescent-shaped white cloud on the left of the picture
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Firebombing
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Firebombing is a bombing technique designed to damage a target, generally an urban area, through the use of fire, caused by incendiary devices, rather than from the blast effect of large bombs. In popular usage, any act which a device is used to initiate a fire is often described as a firebombing. This article is concerned with aerial incendiary bombing as a tactic, for non-military acts. The Chinese wartime capital of Chongqing was firebombed by the Imperial Japanese starting in early 1939, London, Coventry, and many other British cities were firebombed during the Blitz by Nazi Germany. Most large German cities were extensively firebombed starting in 1942, and this technique makes use of small incendiary bombs. If a fire catches, it could spread, taking in adjacent buildings that would have been unaffected by a high explosive bomb. This is an effective use of the payload that a bomber could carry. The use of incendiaries alone does not generally start uncontrollable fires where the targets are roofed with nonflammable materials such as tiles or slates, alternatively, a preliminary bombing with conventional bombs can be followed by subsequent attacks by incendiary carrying bombers. Early in World War II many British cities were firebombed, during the Coventry Blitz the Germans pioneered several innovations which were to influence all future strategic bomber raids during the war. The follow-up waves dropped a combination of explosive and incendiary bombs. There were two types of bombs, those made of magnesium and iron powders, and those made of petroleum. But it was observed that when the Germans did get an effective concentration, then our fire brigades had a hard time, if a rain of incendiaries is mixed with high explosives bombs there is a temptation for the fireman to keep his head down. The Germans again and again missed their chance, as they did during the London blitz that I watched from the roof of the Air Ministry, the second wave of 529 Lancasters dropped all of their bombs between 01,21 and 01,45. The mix of bombs to be used on the Dresden raid was about 40% incendiaries and this was quite a common mix when the USAAF anticipated cloudy conditions over the target. In its attacks on Japan, the USAAF abandoned its precision bombing method that was used in Europe before and these tactics were used to devastating effect with many urban areas burned out.4 acres. A lesser number of M-47 incendiaries was dropped, the M-47 was a 100-pound jelled-gasoline, in the first two hours of the raid,226 of the attacking aircraft or 81% unloaded their bombs to overwhelm the citys fire defenses. The first to arrive dropped bombs in a large X pattern centered in Tokyos working class district near the docks, after this raid, the USAAF continued with low-altitude incendiary raids against Japans cities, destroying an average of 40% of the built-up area of 64 of the largest cities. The 1967 semi-autobiographical short storyGrave of the Fireflies follows events after the firebombing of Kobe and it was eventually adapted into a 1988 film of the same name
Firebombing
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U.S forces drop Napalm on suspected Viet Cong positions in 1965.
Firebombing
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A German World War II incendiary bomb remnant
Firebombing
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Firebombing in Braunschweig, Germany, 15 October 1944
Firebombing
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Charred remains of Japanese civilians after a Bombing of Tokyo
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No. 100 Group RAF
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No.100 Group was a special duties group within RAF Bomber Command. The group was formed on 11 November 1943 to consolidate the increasingly complex business of electronic warfare, the group was responsible for the development, operational trial and use of electronic warfare and countermeasures equipment. It was based at RAF stations in East Anglia, chiefly Norfolk, other Mosquitoes would patrol around Luftwaffe fighter airfields ready to attack night fighters as they landed. From 1944–45, the Mosquitoes of 100 Group claimed 258 Luftwaffe aircraft shot down for 70 losses, top Mosquito ace with 100 Group was Wing Commander Branse Burbridge of 85 Squadron, with 21 claims from 1944–45. The bomber squadrons of 100 Group utilised various specialist electronic jamming devices to disrupt German radio communications, during 100 Groups existence over 32 different devices were evaluated and used. Specially equipped 100 Group aircraft would fly in the bomber stream, much of this equipment was developed at the Telecommunications Research Establishment. No.100 Group was headquartered at Bylaugh Hall, Norfolk from January 1944, the group also operated the Bristol Beaufighter for a short time. The group disbanded on 17 December 1945, during its existence it had one commander, Air Vice-Marshal Edward Addison
No. 100 Group RAF
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A Lancaster with Airborne Cigar (ABC) radio jamming equipment - the two vertical aerials on the fuselage
No. 100 Group RAF
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Royal Air Force Ensign
No. 100 Group RAF
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An electronic warfare Fortress III of 214 Squadron with nose-mounted H2S radome
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RAF Fighter Command
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RAF Fighter Command was one of the commands of the Royal Air Force. It was formed in 1936 to allow more specialised control of fighter aircraft and it served throughout the Second World War. It earned great fame during the Battle of Britain in 1940, the Command continued until 17 November 1943, when it was disbanded and the RAF fighter force was split into two categories, defence and attack. The defensive force became Air Defence of Great Britain and the force became the RAF Second Tactical Air Force. Air Defence of Great Britain was later renamed Fighter Command and it was finally disbanded in 1968. On 20 May 1926, Fighter Commands precursor organisation was established as a group within Inland Area, on 1 June 1926, Fighting Area was transferred to the Air Defence of Great Britain. Fighting Area was raised to Command status in 1932 and renamed Fighter Command on 1 May 1936. Fighter Command was divided into a number of Groups, each controlling a different part of the UK.11 Group took the brunt of the German attack, as it controlled southeast England and London. It was reinforced by 10 Group, which covered southwest England,12 Group, in the end, the Germans failed to attain air superiority, although the RAF had been eating into its reserves during the battle, as had the Luftwaffe. As 1941 began, Fighter Command began the task of winning air superiority over North Western France from the Germans. Large numbers of Spitfires were sent out small groups of medium bombers in often vain attempts to lure the German fighters into combat. Most of the factors that had allowed Fighter Command to win the Battle of Britain were now reversed, for example, British pilots who were shot down in 1940 and survived would be patched up and sent back to their units as quickly as possible. In 1941, over France, a shot down pilot would, as likely as not, the year saw RAF Fighter Command claim some 711 Luftwaffe fighters shot down for losses of approximately 400 RAF fighters lost. As 1941 ended, the appearance of the new Fw 190, with its obvious technical superiority over the current Spitfire Mark V, parallel to the day offensive in 1941 was the ongoing night bomber attacks against the United Kingdom in January to May. By this time, until May 1941, the Luftwaffe effort was aimed against both civilian and industrial targets, Fighter Commands defences, however improved almost daily during the first six months of 1941. An increasing number of guns and searchlights were also radar-controlled. From the start of 1941, the Luftwaffes losses mounted, with the impending invasion of Russia requiring the movement of air power to the East, the Blitz ended in May 1941 with Fighter Command in complete control of the night sky over the UK. The difficult task of slowly grinding down the Germans continued into 1942 and 1943, squadrons also found themselves on tiring defensive patrols as small formations of FW-190s started to fly hit and run nuisance raids all along the South Coast
RAF Fighter Command
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RAF Fighter Command Crest
RAF Fighter Command
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Propaganda shot of the fighter pilots of the Polish 303 squadron, 1940. Running low on pilots during the battle of Britain, Fighter Command accepted foreign pilots into its ranks.
RAF Fighter Command
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A Spitfire tipping the wing of a V-1, which disrupted the missile's automatic pilot during Operation Crossbow, 1944.
RAF Fighter Command
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The supersonic fighter English Electric Lightning, a mainstay of Fighter Command during the Cold War years.