1.
British Raj
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The British Raj was the rule by the British Crown in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947. The rule is also called Crown rule in India, or direct rule in India, the resulting political union was also called the Indian Empire and after 1876 issued passports under that name. It lasted until 1947, when the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two sovereign states, the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The British Raj extended over almost all present-day India, Pakistan and this area is very diverse, containing the Himalayan mountains, fertile floodplains, the Indo-Gangetic Plain, a long coastline, tropical dry forests, arid uplands, and the Thar desert. In addition, at times, it included Aden, Lower Burma, Upper Burma, British Somaliland. Burma was separated from India and directly administered by the British Crown from 1937 until its independence in 1948, among other countries in the region, Ceylon was ceded to Britain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens. Ceylon was part of Madras Presidency between 1793 and 1798, the kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan, having fought wars with the British, subsequently signed treaties with them and were recognised by the British as independent states. The Kingdom of Sikkim was established as a state after the Anglo-Sikkimese Treaty of 1861, however. The Maldive Islands were a British protectorate from 1887 to 1965, India during the British Raj was made up of two types of territory, British India and the Native States. In general, the term British India had been used to also to the regions under the rule of the British East India Company in India from 1600 to 1858. The term has also used to refer to the British in India. The terms Indian Empire and Empire of India were not used in legislation, the monarch was known as Empress or Emperor of India and the term was often used in Queen Victorias Queens Speeches and Prorogation Speeches. The passports issued by the British Indian government had the words Indian Empire on the cover, in addition, an order of knighthood, the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, was set up in 1878. At the turn of the 20th century, British India consisted of eight provinces that were administered either by a Governor or a Lieutenant-Governor, during the partition of Bengal the new provinces of Assam and East Bengal were created as a Lieutenant-Governorship. In 1911, East Bengal was reunited with Bengal, and the new provinces in the east became, Assam, Bengal, Bihar, there were 565 princely states when India and Pakistan became independent from Britain in August 1947. The princely states did not form a part of British India, the larger ones had treaties with Britain that specified which rights the princes had, in the smaller ones the princes had few rights. Within the princely states external affairs, defence and most communications were under British control, the British also exercised a general influence over the states internal politics, in part through the granting or withholding of recognition of individual rulers. Although there were nearly 600 princely states, the majority were very small
2.
The Crown
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The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their sub-divisions, although the term is not only a metonym for the State. The Crown is a sole that represents the legal embodiment of executive, legislative. These monarchies are united by the union of their monarch. The concept of the Crown developed first in the Kingdom of England as a separation of the crown and property of the nation state from the person. The concept spread through English and later British colonisation and is now rooted in the lexicon of the other 15 independent realms. In this context it should not be confused with any physical crown, the concept of the Crown took form under the feudal system. Though not used this way in all countries that had this system, in England, all rights, land, for instance, was granted by the Crown to lords in exchange for feudal services and they, in turn, granted the land to lesser lords. One exception to this was common socage—owners of land held as socage held it only to the Crown. The Crown as ultimate owner of all property also owns any property which has become bona vacantia, the monarch is the living embodiment of the Crown and, as such, is regarded as the personification of the state. He office cannot exist without the office-holder, the Crown also represents the legal embodiment of executive, legislative, and judicial governance. While the Crowns legal personality is usually regarded as a sole, it can, at least for some purposes. Historically, the Crown was considered to be indivisible, two judgments—Ex parte Indian Association of Alberta and Ex parte Quark —challenged that view. The Crown in each of the Commonwealth realms is a similar, because both Canada and Australia are federations, there are also crowns in right of each Canadian province and each Australian state. The Succession to the Crown Law 2013 defined the Crown, for the purposes of implementing the Perth Agreement in Jersey law, as the Crown in right of the Bailiwick of Jersey. Legislation in the Isle of Man also defines the Crown in right of the Isle of Man as being separate from the Crown in right of the United Kingdom and this constitutional concept is also worded as the Crown in right of the Bailiwick of Guernsey. The reserve powers of the Crown for each territory are no longer considered to be exercisable on the advice of the UK government, often cases are brought by the Crown according to the complaint of a claimant. The title of the case follows the pattern of R v Y. Thus R v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union is R v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, where Miller is Gina Miller, in Scotland, criminal prosecutions are undertaken by the Lord Advocate in the name of the Crown
3.
British Indian Army
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The Indian Army was the principal army of India before independence from the United Kingdom in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of both British India and the Princely states, which could also have their own armies. The Indian Army was an important part of the British Empires forces, the term Indian Army appears to have been first used informally, as a collective description of the Presidency armies of the Presidencies of British India, particularly after the Indian Rebellion. The first army officially called the Indian Army was raised by the government of India in 1895, however, in 1903 the Indian Army absorbed these three armies. The Indian Army should not be confused with the Army of India which was the Indian Army itself plus the British Army in India, before 1858, the precursor units of the Indian Army were units controlled by the Company and were paid for by their profits. These operated alongside units of the British Army, funded by the British government in London. Many of these took part in the Indian Mutiny, with the aim of reinstating the Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah II at Delhi. The meaning of the term Indian Army has changed over time, The officer commanding the Army of India was the Commander-in-Chief, the title was used before the creation of a unified British Indian Army, the first holder was Major General Stringer Lawrence in 1748. By the early 1900s the Commander-in-Chief and his staff were based at GHQ India, Indian Army postings were less prestigious than British Army positions, but the pay was significantly greater so that officers could live on their salaries instead of having to have a private income. Accordingly, vacancies in the Indian Army were much sought after and generally reserved for the higher placed officer-cadets graduating from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. British officers in the Indian Army were expected to learn to speak the Indian languages of their men, prominent British Indian Army officers included Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts, William Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood, Claude Auchinleck and William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim. Commissioned officers, British and Indian, held identical ranks to commissioned officers of the British Army, Kings Commissioned Indian Officers, created from the 1920s, held equal powers to British officers. Viceroys Commissioned Officers were Indians holding officer ranks and they were treated in almost all respects as commissioned officers, but had authority over Indian troops only, and were subordinate to all British Kings Commissioned Officers and KCIOs. They included Subedar Major or Risaldar-Major, equivalents to a British Major, Subedar or Risaldar equivalents to Captain, recruitment was entirely voluntary, about 1.75 million men served in the First World War, many on the Western Front and 2.5 million in the Second. Soldier ranks included Sepoys or Sowars, equivalent to a British private, British Army ranks such as gunner and sapper were used by other corps. In the aftermath of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, also known as the Sepoy Mutiny. The three Presidency armies remained separate forces, each with its own Commander-in-Chief, overall operational control was exercised by the Commander-in-Chief of the Bengal Army, who was formally the Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies. From 1861, most of the manpower was pooled in the three Presidential Staff Corps
4.
Infantry
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Infantry is the general branch of an army that engages in military combat on foot. As the troops who engage with the enemy in close-ranged combat, infantry units bear the largest brunt of warfare, Infantry can enter and maneuver in terrain that is inaccessible to military vehicles and employ crew-served infantry weapons that provide greater and more sustained firepower. In English, the 16th-century term Infantry describes soldiers who walk to the battlefield, and there engage, fight, the term arose in Sixteenth-Century Spain, which boasted one of the first professional standing armies seen in Europe since the days of Rome. It was common to appoint royal princes to military commands, and the men under them became known as Infanteria. in the Canadian Army, the role of the infantry is to close with, and destroy the enemy. In the U. S. Army, the closes with the enemy, by means of fire and maneuver, in order to destroy or capture him, or to repel his assault by fire, close combat. In the U. S. Marine Corps, the role of the infantry is to locate, close with, and destroy the enemy fire and maneuver. Beginning with the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century, artillery has become a dominant force on the battlefield. Since World War I, combat aircraft and armoured vehicles have become dominant. In 20th and 21st century warfare, infantry functions most effectively as part of a combined arms team including artillery, armour, Infantry relies on organized formations to be employed in battle. These have evolved over time, but remain a key element to effective infantry development and deployment, until the end of the 19th century, infantry units were for the most part employed in close formations up until contact with the enemy. This allowed commanders to control of the unit, especially while maneuvering. The development of guns and other weapons with increased firepower forced infantry units to disperse in order to make them less vulnerable to such weapons. This decentralization of command was made possible by improved communications equipment, among the various subtypes of infantry is Medium infantry. This refers to infantry which are heavily armed and armored than heavy infantry. In the early period, medium infantry were largely eliminated due to discontinued use of body armour up until the 20th century. In the United States Army, Stryker Infantry is considered Medium Infantry, since they are heavier than light infantry, Infantry doctrine is the concise expression of how infantry forces contribute to campaigns, major operations, battles, and engagements. It is a guide to action, not a set of hard, doctrine provides a very common frame of reference across the military forces, allowing the infantry to function cooperatively in what are now called combined arms operations. Doctrine helps standardise operations, facilitating readiness by establishing common ways of accomplishing infantry tasks, doctrine links theory, history, experimentation, and practice
5.
Division (military)
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A division is a large military unit or formation, usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. Infantry divisions during the World Wars ranged between 10,000 and 30,000 in nominal strength, in most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, in turn, several divisions typically make up a corps. In the West, the first general to think of organising an army into smaller units was Maurice de Saxe, Marshal General of France. He died at the age of 54, without having implemented his idea, victor-François de Broglie put the ideas into practice. He conducted successful practical experiments of the system in the Seven Years War. The first war in which the system was used systematically was the French Revolutionary War. It made the more flexible and easy to manoeuvre. Under Napoleon, the divisions were grouped together into corps, because of their increasing size, napoleons military success spread the divisional and corps system all over Europe, by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, all armies in Europe had adopted it. In modern times, most military forces have standardized their divisional structures, the peak use of the division as the primary combat unit occurred during World War II, when the belligerents deployed over a thousand divisions. With technological advances since then, the power of each division has increased. Divisions are often formed to organize units of a particular type together with support units to allow independent operations. In more recent times, divisions have mainly been organized as combined arms units with subordinate units representing various combat arms, in this case, the division often retains the name of a more specialized division, and may still be tasked with a primary role suited to that specialization. For the most part, large cavalry units did not remain after World War II, in general, two new types of cavalry were developed, air cavalry or airmobile, relying on helicopter mobility, and armored cavalry, based on an autonomous armored formation. The former was pioneered by the 11th Air Assault Division, formed on 1 February 1963 at Fort Benning, on 29 June 1965 the division was renamed as the 1st Cavalry Division, before its departure for the Vietnam War. After the end of the Vietnam War, the 1st Cavalry Division was reorganised and re-equipped with tanks, the development of the tank during World War I prompted some nations to experiment with forming them into division-size units. Many did this the way as they did cavalry divisions, by merely replacing cavalry with AFVs. This proved unwieldy in combat, as the units had many tanks, instead, a more balanced approach was taken by adjusting the number of tank, infantry, artillery, and support units. A panzer division was a division of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS of Germany during World War II
6.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
7.
Mesopotamian campaign
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The Ottoman Empire had conquered the region in the early 16th century, but never fully gained complete control. Regional pockets of Ottoman control through local rulers maintained the Ottomans reach throughout Mesopotamia. With the turn of the 19th century came reforms, work began on a Baghdad Railway in 1888, by 1915 it had only four gaps, and travel time from Istanbul to Baghdad had fallen to 21 days. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company had obtained rights to petroleum deposits throughout the Persian Empire, except in the provinces of Azerbaijan, Ghilan, Mazendaran, Asdrabad. In 1914, before the war, the British government had contracted with the company for oil for the navy, the operational area of the Mesopotamian campaign was limited to the lands watered by the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. The main challenge was moving troops and supplies through the swamps, shortly after the European war started, the British sent a military force to protect Abadan, the site of one of the worlds earliest oil refineries. British operational planning included landing troops in the Shatt-al-Arab, the reinforced 6th Division of the British Indian Army was assigned the task, designated as Indian Expeditionary Force D. At first the campaign was run by the India Office and Indian Army, the Ottoman Fourth Army was located in the region. It was composed of two corps, the XII Corps, with the 35th and 36th Divisions at Mosul, and XIII Corps, on 29 October 1914, after the pursuit of Goeben and Breslau, Breslau bombarded the Russian Black Sea port of Theodosia. On 30 October the High Command in Istanbul changed the force distribution, on 2 November Grand Vizier Said Halim Pasha expressed regret to the Allies for the actions of the navy. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Sazonov said it was too late, the Cabinet tried to explain that hostilities were begun without its sanction by German officers serving in the navy. The Ottoman Committee of Union and Progresss official Declaration of War came on 14 November, when the Caucasus Campaign became a reality with the Bergmann Offensive, Enver Pasha sent the 37th Division and XIII Corps Headquarters to the Caucasus in support of the Third Army. The entire XII Corps was deployed to the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, Fourth Army Headquarters was sent to Syria, to replace the Second Army Headquarters, which was sent to Istanbul. In place of the Fourth Army was the Iraq Area Command with only the 38th Division under its command, Mesopotamia was a low priority area for the Ottomans, and they did not expect any major action in the region. Regiments of the XII and XIII Corps were maintained at low levels in peacetime, lieutenant Colonel Süleyman Askerî Bey became the commander. He redeployed portions of the 38th Division at the mouth of Shatt-al-Arab, the rest of the defensive force was stationed at Basra. The Ottoman General Staff did not even possess a proper map of Mesopotamia and they tried to draw a map with the help of people who had worked in Iraq before the war, although this attempt failed. Enver Pasha bought two German maps scaled 1/1,500,000, on 6 November 1914, British offensive action began with the naval bombardment of the old fort at Fao, located at the point where the Shatt-al-Arab meets the Persian Gulf
8.
Indian Army during World War I
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The Indian Army during World War I contributed a large number of divisions and independent brigades to the European, Mediterranean and the Middle East theatres of war in World War I. Over one million Indian troops served overseas, of whom 62,000 died, in total at least 74,187 Indian soldiers died during the war. In World War I the Indian Army fought against the German Empire in German East Africa, at the First Battle of Ypres, Khudadad Khan became the first Indian to be awarded a Victoria Cross. Indian divisions were sent to Egypt, Gallipoli and nearly 700,000 served in Mesopotamia against the Ottoman Empire. While some divisions were sent overseas others had to remain in India guarding the North West Frontier and on internal security, field-Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck, Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army from 1942 asserted that the British couldnt have come through both wars if they hadnt had the Indian Army. Herbert Kitchener was appointed Commander-in-Chief, India in 1902 and after five years, the reforms now directed that there would be only one Indian Army, the three armies of the Presidencies being merged into a unified force. At the same time, the regiments of the Princely states were made available to be called out to become Imperial Service Troops, the British Army also continued to supply units for service in India, in addition to those of the Indian Army. The term Army of India was instituted to refer to the command structure which included both the British and Indian Army units. The Indian Army was also responsible for supplying a division in Burma, to assist command and control of the new divisions, two field armies were formed— the Northern Army and the Southern Army. The regiments and battalions of the new organisation would be numbered in a sequence and the old titles of the Bombay, Madras. One change that was not accepted was the formation of all-British or all-Indian brigades and it was regularly called upon to deal with incursions and raids on the North West Frontier and to provide garrison forces for the British Empire in Egypt, Singapore and China. The two armies contained 39 cavalry regiments,138 infantry battalions, a joint cavalry-infantry unit the Corps of Guides, the nine divisions formed by these reforms each consisted of one cavalry and three infantry brigades. The cavalry brigade had one British and two Indian regiments while the infantry consisted of one British and three Indian battalions. Indian Army battalions were smaller than the British battalions, consisting of 30 officers and 723 other ranks as compared to the British 29 officers and 977 other ranks, Indian battalions were often segregated, with companies of different tribes, castes or religions. Additional troops attached to the headquarters of each included a cavalry regiment. Each division had about 13,000 men on strength, somewhat weaker than a British division in part due to the infantry battalions. The Indian Army was also weakened when 500 British officers on home leave, in addition to the regular Indian Army, the armies of the Princely States and regiments of the Auxiliary Force could also be called upon to assist in an emergency. The Princely States formed the Imperial Service Brigades and in 1914, had 22,613 men in 20 cavalry regiments and 14 infantry battalions, by the end of the war 26,000 men had served overseas on Imperial Service
9.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
10.
Presidencies and provinces of British India
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Provinces of India, earlier Presidencies of British India and still earlier, Presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in the subcontinent. Collectively, they were called British India, in one form or other they existed between 1612 and 1947, conventionally divided into three historical periods. During 1612–1757, the East India Company set up factories in several locations, mostly in coastal India and its rivals were the merchant trading companies of Holland and France. By the mid-18th century, three Presidency towns, Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta had grown in size, during the period of Company rule in India, 1757–1858, the Company gradually acquired sovereignty over large parts of India, now called Presidencies. However, it increasingly came under British government oversight, in effect sharing sovereignty with the Crown. At the same time it gradually lost its mercantile privileges, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Companys remaining powers were transferred to the Crown. In the new British Raj, sovereignty extended to a few new regions, increasingly, however, unwieldy presidencies were broken up into Provinces. In 1608, the English East India Company established a settlement at Surat, and it was followed in 1611 by a permanent factory at Machilipatnam on the Coromandel Coast, and in 1612 the company joined other already established European trading companies in Bengal. Company rule in Bengal, however, ended with the Government of India Act 1858 following the events of the Bengal Rebellion of 1857 and these rulers were allowed a measure of internal autonomy in exchange for British suzerainty. British India constituted a significant portion of India both in area and population, in 1910, for example, it covered approximately 54% of the area, in addition, there were Portuguese and French exclaves in India. Independence from British rule was achieved in 1947 with the formation of two nations, the Dominions of India and Pakistan, the latter also including East Bengal, present-day Bangladesh. The term British India also applied to Burma for a time period, starting in 1824, a small part of Burma. This arrangement lasted until 1937, when Burma commenced being administered as a separate British colony, British India did not apply to other countries in the region, such as Sri Lanka, which was a British Crown colony, or the Maldive Islands, which were a British protectorate. It also included the Colony of Aden in the Arabian Peninsula, the original seat of government was at Allahabad, then at Agra from 1834 to 1868. Bombay Presidency, East India Companys headquarters moved from Surat to Bombay in 1687, the East India Company, which was incorporated on 31 December 1600, established trade relations with Indian rulers in Masulipatam on the east coast in 1611 and Surat on the west coast in 1612. The company rented a trading outpost in Madras in 1639, meanwhile, in eastern India, after obtaining permission from the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan to trade with Bengal, the Company established its first factory at Hoogly in 1640. Almost a half-century later, after Emperor Aurengzeb forced the Company out of Hooghly, by the mid-18th century the three principal trading settlements, now called the Madras Presidency, the Bombay Presidency, and the Bengal Presidency were each administered by a Governor. After Robert Clives victory in the Battle of Plassey in 1757, in 1772, the Company also obtained the Nizāmat of Bengal and thereby full sovereignty of the expanded Bengal Presidency
11.
Little Zab
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The Little Zab or Lower Zab originates in Iran and joins the Tigris just south of Al Zab in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The river is approximately 400 kilometres long and drains an area of about 22,000 square kilometres, the river is fed by rainfall and snowmelt, resulting in a peak discharge in spring and low water in summer and early fall. Two dams have been built on the Little Zab, regulating the flow, providing water for irrigation. The Zagros Mountains have been occupied since at least the Lower Palaeolithic, human occupation of the Little Zab basin has been attested for every period since then. The Little Zab rises in the Zagros Mountains in Iran at an elevation of circa 3,000 metres amsl, in its upper reaches, the course of the Little Zab is determined by the alignment of the major mountain chains that make up the Zagros. Most tributaries join the Little Zab upstream from Dukan, with the largest being the Baneh River, a number of smaller streams joined the Little Zab in the Ranya Plain, which is now partly inundated by Lake Dukan. Different estimates have given for the length of the Little Zab,380 kilometres,400 kilometres and 456 kilometres. The river is fed by snowmelt and rainfall, resulting in a discharge in the period February–May. Low water levels are recorded for the period July–October, the average discharge of the Little Zab is 197.8 cubic metres per second, whereas the maximum recorded discharge is 3,420 cubic metres per second. Average annual discharge is 7.2 cubic kilometres, because of its torrential nature, Medieval Arab geographers have described the Little Zab, and the Great Zab as well, as demoniacally possessed. The drainage basin of the Little Zab covers 21, 475–22,250 square kilometres, from the location where the Dukan Dam has been constructed, the larger part of the basin is located within Iraqi borders, the remainder is in Iran. On the north, it is bordered by the Great Zab basin while on the south it is adjoined by the basins of the Adhaim, the parallel mountain ranges of the Zagros consist of limestone folds rising to elevations over 3,000 metres. Water erosion has filled the Little Zab valley and the foothill zone south-west of the Zagros with layers of gravel, conglomerate, the Ranya Plain is the largest valley in the Little Zab drainage basin, and the second-largest in the Iraqi Zagros behind the Shahrazor. The Little Zab crosses very diverse climatic and ecological zones, annual precipitation along the course of the river diminishes from over 1,000 millimetres in the Iranian Zagros to less than 200 millimetres at the confluence with the Tigris near Al Zab. Average temperatures follow a similar gradient, with the valleys generally experiencing colder winters than the foothill zone. In the high Zagros, three different ecozones can be distinguished, the tree line is at approximately 1,800 metres, above which herbs and shrubs predominate. The dominant vegetation between 1,800 and 610 metres was an oak forest, but not much of this original vegetation remains. The river valleys are characterized by water-loving plants, and marshy areas were in the past – in the absence of drainage – prone to malaria
12.
9th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment
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The 9th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment was an infantry battalion of the British Army. Part of the Volunteer Force, later the Territorial Force, the battalion was part of the Middlesex Regiment and it served as infantry in the Mesopotamian campaign during World War I and as an air defence regiment during and after World War II. The battalions origins lay in the enthusiasm for joining local Rifle Volunteer Corps engendered by an invasion scare in 1859, two of the many units formed in the populous county of Middlesex were the Marylebone & West Middlesex Rifles and the Harrow Rifles. The 9th Middlesex RVC was formed at Lords Cricket Ground on 14 October 1859 under the command of Lord Radstock, initially consisting of six companies, it rose to eight by April 1860. Under the Localisation of the Forces scheme introduced in 1872 by the Cardwell Reforms and its original uniform was grey with red facings, but in 1891 it adopted the KRRCs Rifle green with red facings. Its HQ was at 29 Park Road, Regents Park, the Stanhope Memorandum of December 1888 proposed a Mobilisation Scheme for units of the Volunteer Force, which would assemble by brigades at key points in case of war. In peacetime the brigades provided a structure for collective training, the 5th Middlesex RVC formed part of the South London Volunteer Infantry Brigade. By the time the Volunteer Force was subsumed into the Territorial Force in 1908, Volunteers from the unit served in the Second Boer War, earning it the Battle honour South Africa 1900–02. The 18th Middlesex RVC was formed at Harrow as a company on 30 December 1859. Many of the recruits came from the staff and senior pupils of Harrow School. The unit also ran its own athletic club and it was always associated with the West Middlesex, together, they formed a battalion-sized unit within the Volunteer Infantry Brigades. In the renumbering of 1880, the Harrow unit became the 9th Middlesex RVC and like the 5th was attached to the Royal Fusiliers in 1881 and its uniform was Rifle green with green facings. In 1899 it amalgamated with the West Middlesex, the Harrow School Cadet Corps becoming the 27th Corps until it too joined the West Middlesex, on the formation of the Territorial Force in 1908, the 5th RVC became the 9th Battalion Middlesex Regiment. It formed part of the Middlesex Brigade of the Home Counties Division and its headquarters moved to Pound Lane, Willesden Green. During the period of tension before the outbreak of war, the 9th Battalion sent two special service sections to guard a cable station at Cuckmere Haven and Birling Gap. When the mobilisation orders were received on 4 August 1914, the Home Counties Division was on the march from Aldershot to Salisbury Plain for its annual training, the Middlesex Brigade had reached Larkhill, when the battalions were sent back to their headquarters to mobilise. The 9th Battalion entrained at Amesbury on 5 August and reached Willesden that morning, by the end of the day the battalion was entrained again for its war station at Sheerness. Here it dug trenches until relieved by Special Reserve troops and moved to Sittingbourne, on 11 August, in common with the majority of the men of the Home Counties Division, the 9th Battalion accepted liability for overseas service
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Middlesex Regiment
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The Middlesex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1966. The latter regiment was, however, short-lived and itself subject to a merger on 9 September 1992 with the Royal Hampshire Regiment to form the Princess of Waless Royal Regiment, the Middlesex Regiment was one of the principal home counties based regiments with a long tradition. They inherited their nickname, the “Die-hards”, from the 57th Regiment of Foot, albuhera was the principal battle honour on the Middlesex Regiments colours. The 4th Volunteer Battalion, Kings Royal Rifle Corps, joined the Middlesex Regiment as the 9th Battalion, the 10th Battalion was formed by a nucleus of 300 officers and men from the disbanded 2nd Volunteer Rifle Corps. The four TF battalions constituted the Middlesex Brigade in the Home Counties Division, on formation in 1881 the regimental title was The Duke of Cambridges Own. The regiment inherited the designation Duke of Cambridges Own from the 77th Foot, the regiment was also permitted to bear the coronet and cypher of Prince George, Duke of Cambridge on its colours and badges. The regiment had earlier granted the plumes and motto of the Prince of Wales in 1810 for twenty years service in India. In 1921, in common with other regiments, the regimental title was effectively reversed to The Middlesex Regiment. The Duke was colonel-in-chief of the regiment from 1898 to his death in 1904 and its regimental marches were Sir Manley Power and Paddys Resource, and Caledonian and Garb of old Gaul. The 1st and 2nd battalions both saw turns in India during the late 19th century, following the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899, the 2nd battalion embarked for active service in South Africa in December 1899 and took part in the Relief of Ladysmith the following Spring. The 6th Battalion was embodied in December 1899, and 530 officers, the regiment relocated from Hounslow Barracks to the newly-built Inglis Barracks in 1905. The 1st Battalion landed at Le Havre, as line of communication troops, the 2nd Battalion landed at Le Havre as part of the 23rd Brigade in the 8th Division in November 1914 also for service on the Western Front. The 4th Battalion land at Boulogne-sur-Mer as part of the 8th Brigade in 3rd Division in August 1914 for service on the Western Front, some 400 men of the 4th Battalion were killed at the Battle of Mons later that month. Late in 1917 the 1/9th Bn was assigned to the 18th Indian Division, general Kitchener was not in favour of the Territorials although he and other critics were silenced after the Territorials fought so well with the BEF after Mons. A Third Line battalion, the 3/10th, also landed at Le Havre for service on the Western Front, additional war-formed service battalions were the 11th to 34th and 51st to 53rd. In October 1966 the regiment paid a record sum of £900 for the Victoria Cross awarded to Private Robert Edward Ryder, of the 12th Battalion. In the early 1920s the 3rd and 4th battalions were disbanded, in 1935 the Post Office Rifles and 19th Londons became searchlight regiments, and in 1937 The Kensingtons formally became a territorial battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. In 1938 the two battalions formed duplicates, thus forming the 1/7th, 2/7th, 1/8th and 2/8th battalions
14.
89th Punjabis
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The 89th Punjabis was an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army raised in 1798 as a battalion of Madras Native Infantry. It was designated as the 89th Punjabis in 1903 and became 1st Battalion 8th Punjab Regiment in 1922, in 1947, it was allocated to Pakistan Army, where it continues to exist as 1st Battalion, The Baloch Regiment. The regiment was raised on 9 November 1798 at Masulipatam as the 3rd Extra Battalion of Madras Native Infantry by Captain Alexander MacLeod and was known as MacLeod ki Paltan. In 1800, it was designated as the 1st Battalion 15th Regiment, the battalion was composed mostly of Muslims, Tamils and Telugus of South India. In 1818, it was dispatched to Ceylon to suppress a rebellion of the Sinhalese, in 1832, it was stationed at Malacca, Malaya, when it was again engaged in suppressing a revolt in the State of Naning. The regiment served in Burma during the Third Burma War of 1885–87, in 1893, it was reconstituted with Punjabi Muslims, Sikhs, Rajputs & Brahmins, and permanently based in Burma. Its new designation was 29th Regiment of Madras Infantry, in 1901, its title was changed to 29th Burma Infantry. The Burma Battalions were special units raised to police the new territories acquired in the Third Anglo-Burmese War, subsequent to the reforms brought about in the Indian Army by Lord Kitchener in 1903, all former Madras units had 60 added to their numbers. Consequently, the designation was changed to 89th Punjabis. In 1910, the Burma Battalions were delocalized from Burma and in 1914, the 89th Punjabis have a most distinguished record of service during the First World War. They have the distinction of serving in more theatres of war than any other unit of the British Empire. Gallipoli, where they fought in the Second Battle of Krithia in May 1915, france, where they endured the horrors of trench warfare from May to December 1915. Mesopotamia, where the regiment fought with distinction and was almost decimated in the bloody battles for the Relief of Kut al Amara on the Tigris Front in 1916. North West Frontier of India, where served on the Mohmand Blockade in 1917. Salonika, where they arrived in 1918 but were not actively engaged, russian Transcaucasia, where they served from 1918–20 as part of the British Expeditionary Force. The regiment finally arrived home in August 1920 after six years of active service. During the war, it suffered 1018 casualties including 211 killed and their long list of honours and awards includes the Victoria Cross awarded to Naik Shahmed Khan in 1916. The regiment raised a battalion on 5 June 1917
15.
3 Gorkha Rifles
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The 3 Gorkha Rifles is an Indian Army infantry regiment comprising Gurkha soldiers of Nepalese origin. It was originally a Gurkha regiment of the British Indian Army formed in 1815 and they were present at a number of actions and wars including the Siege of Delhi in 1857 to the First and Second World Wars. Prior to independence, the regiment was known as the 3rd Queen Alexandras Own Gurkha Rifles, in 1950 the regiments title was changed to 3 Gorkha Rifles. Since 1947 the regiment has participated in a number of conflicts including the 1947 and 1971 wars against Pakistan, the regiment was raised during the Gurkha War by Sir Robert Colquhoun on 24 April 1815 as the Kemaoon Battalion. It did not consist entirely of Gurkhas but of men from Kumaon, the regiment adopted the tartan of the Clan Colquhoun. The regiment was used to police the border with Nepal. The battalion was involved in the efforts to quell it. The mutiny was quelled by July 1858, the regiment saw service in an expedition to Bhutan shortly after the name change. In 1878 the Second Afghan War began and the regiment, as part of the 2nd Infantry Brigade of the Kandahar Field Force, the field force successfully captured the city on 8 January 1879, having experienced great hardship on the march there. The following year the Kandahar Force began the march towards the Afghan capital Kabul to join Major-General Roberts force in an attempt to consolidate their situation in the country. During the journey, near Ghaziri, the force were attacked by a force of Afghan tribesmen at Ahmad Khel on 19 April 1880. The fighting that ensued was intense and the field forces situation was in the balance until the Afghan forces were repulsed when the 3rd Goorkhas formed an infantry square. The regiment took part in the Third Burmese War after it began in 1885, in 1887 the 2nd Battalion was formed, consisting entirely of Garhwalis, but this was separated from the regiment in 1890 to form the 39th Regiment of Bengal Light Infantry. A new 2nd Battalion for the 3rd Goorkhas was raised that year and in 1891 the Regiment was designated a rifle regiment. The battalion was part of the Tirah Field Force intended to put down a large tribal revolt by the Afridi and Orakzais, orchestrated by Afghanistan. The 3rd Gurkhas took part in the advance into the Tirah Region, after this was done the force marched on Dargai where they intended to take the heights above Dargai, controlled by tribal forces. The operation to retake the heights began with a bombardment at 10. The regiment took part in the assault, positioned at the forefront of the attack with the 2nd Gurkha Rifles
16.
7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles
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The 2nd Battalion was raised at Quetta in 1907 by Major N G Woodyatt, the Right Wing becoming the 1st Battalion and the Left Wing becoming the 2nd Battalion 7th Gurkha Rifles. It was from here that the 2nd Battalion deployed at the start of the First World War to join British forces which were to fight against the Turkish Empire in the Middle East, the Battalion’s first campaign in Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq, was ill-fated. In spite of successes, such as the battles at Nasiriyah and Ctesiphon. After a long siege the garrison, exhausted by a lack of food and ammunition, was forced to surrender to the Turkish Army and went into captivity in 1916. Thereafter, the two regular battalions spent the years on occasional tours of duty on the northwest frontier of India. The 2nd Battalion played a part in rescue operations following the disastrous earthquake which destroyed much of Quetta in 1935. At the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, 2nd Battalion was mobilized for overseas operations in 1941, returning to Iraq to participate in the campaign to secure oil supplies for the Allies and then to defeat Vichy French forces in Syria. It then redeployed to join the 8th Army in North Africa where it had the misfortune to be captured at Tobruk in 1942 along with the rest of the garrison. In the meantime the 1st Battalion together with a hastily raised 3rd Battalion had joined British forces fighting a Japanese army which had invaded Burma, despite heavy casualties during the retreat to India both battalions survived the ordeal. 1/7 GR re-armed and retrained, then took part in the defensive battle at Imphal in 1944 which broke the Japanese advance. The gallantry displayed by a rifleman, Ganju Lama, during a subsequent action near Bishenpur was recognised by the award of the Victoria Cross. The 3rd Battalion which had been redesigned as a parachute unit took part in the assault to liberate Rangoon. As these events unfolded in the south east Asia, a new 2nd Battalion was again created in time to rejoin 8th Army in Italy, the Battalion completed its wartime service in Greece as part of the British force sent to stabilise the country following the end of German occupation. For the 7th Gurkhas the coming of peace was a time to disband both the 3rd Battalion and the 4th Battalion, raised in 1941 for frontier protection and internal security. The years after 1945 saw all Gurkha regiments preoccupied with the issue of Indian independence and the conditions of civil war attendant on the partition of India. The Regiment moved almost immediately to Malaya which was to be the main Gurkha base for the next 25 years and they stayed in the artillery role for only a year, before reverting to infantry in 1949. The campaign has been judged by posterity to have been a great success, from now on the Regiment was to be styled, ‘7th Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Gurkha Rifles’. A short time later they were joined by the 2nd Battalion, the Brunei Revolt was a prelude to a war between an expansionist Indonesia and the new Malaysian Federation backed by Britain and the Commonwealth which is known as the Borneo Confrontation
17.
Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment
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The Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1961. The regiment was created on 1 July 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms, originally as the Queens Own, by the amalgamation of the 50th Regiment of Foot and the 97th Regiment of Foot. In January 1921, the regiment was renamed the Royal West Kent Regiment and, in April of the year, was again renamed. Throughout its existence, the Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment was popularly and operationally known as the Royal West Kents, when the regiment was formed, Kent was one of five counties that was split to create more than one regiment. Kent was split into two areas, with those in West Kent forming the Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment, the dividing line that separated the two regimental areas was east of the River Medway. The regiments recruitment area covered both the towns and rural areas of West Kent and a number of south-east London suburbs that were included in the County of London. It then spent two years on duty in Cyprus before being transferred to Sudan, where it fought at the Battle of Ginnis during the Mahdist War. It spent the years up to the outbreak of the First World War on garrison duty, the 2nd Battalion was deployed to South Africa shortly after its formation, in the aftermath of the First Boer War. It was then posted to Ireland and spent the years of the 19th century in the United Kingdom before being sent back to South Africa for the Second Boer War. Its only action was a skirmish at Biddulphsberg, alongside the 2nd battalions of the Grenadier and it then served in Ceylon, Hong Kong, Singapore, Peshawar and Multan before the outbreak of the First World War. Between 1881 and 1913, the regiment lost 219 men,22 killed in action or died from wounding,12 by accident, a memorial for those who died in service exists in All Saints Church, Maidstone, which is located next to the regiments barracks. The 4th Volunteer Battalion was disbanded, and the 1st VB was formed into the 4th and 5th Battalions of the QORWK in the Kent Brigade of the TFs Home Counties Division, during the First World War, over 60,000 men served with the Queens Own. However,6,866 officers and other ranks lost their lives, among its first major engagements were the Battle of Mons on 23 August and the Battle of Le Cateau three days later. In October, the made a heroic stand at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. Out of 750 men, only 300 commanded by a lieutenant, the 2nd Battalion was shipped from Multan to Mesopotamia, via Bombay, arriving in Basra in February 1915, where it was attached to the 12th Indian Brigade. Two companies were attached to the 30th Indian Brigade and were captured in the Siege of Kut in April 1916, the remaining companies were attached to 34th Indian Brigade, and were transferred to 17th Indian Division in August 1917. The 2nd Battalion remained in Mesopotamia for the duration of the war, the 1/4th and 1/5th Battalions were both part of the Kent Brigade, alongside the 4th and 5th Buffs, of the Home Counties Division were both sent to British India in late October 1914. The 3/4th Battalion landed at Le Havre in June 1917 and served as a Pioneer battalion on the Western Front, several of the Service battalions of the New Army fought in France and Flanders and in the Italian Front
18.
25th Punjabis
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The 25th Punjabis was an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. It was raised in 1857, as the 17th Regiment of Punjab Infantry and it was designated as the 25th Punjabis in 1903 and became 1st Battalion 15th Punjab Regiment in 1922. In 1947, it was allocated to the Pakistan Army, where it continues to exist as 9th Battalion The Punjab Regiment. The regiment was raised by Captain R Larkins at Mian Mir, Lahore on 8 June 1857, during the upheaval of the Indian Mutiny, the recruits were mostly Punjabi Muslims, Sikhs and Dogras from other infantry battalions in the Punjab. For the next two years, it remained engaged in suppressing the rebellion in numerous actions in North India. The regiments next opportunity for active service came in 1878, when it took part in the Second Afghan War, where it fought in the Battles of Ahmad Khel and Kandahar. In 1895, it took part in the Relief of Chitral, while in 1897, subsequent to the reforms brought about in the Indian Army by Lord Kitchener in 1903, the regiments designation was changed to 25th Punjabis. In 1911, the 25th Punjabis moved to Hong Kong to protect British interests following the Chinese Revolution of 1911, on the outbreak of the First World War, the regiment returned from Hong Kong to India. In December 1917, it moved to Mesopotamia as part of the 54th Indian Brigade, in September 1918, the 25th Punjabis moved to Salonika in Greece and then to Turkey as part of the Allied occupation forces. It returned to India in 1921, the regiment raised a second battalion on 1 November 1917. The 2/25th Punjabis served in the Third Afghan War of 1919, the battalion was disbanded in 1922. In 1921-22, a reorganization was undertaken in the British Indian Army leading to the formation of large infantry groups of four to six battalions. Among these was the 15th Punjab Regiment, formed by grouping the 25th Punjabis with the 26th, 27th, 28th and 29th Punjabis, the battalions new designation was 1st Battalion 15th Punjab Regiment. During the Second World War, the fought in the Burma Campaign. In 1947, the 15th Punjab Regiment was allocated to Pakistan Army, in 1956, it was merged with the 1st, 14th and 16th Punjab Regiments to form one large Punjab Regiment, and 1/15th Punjab was redesignated as 9 Punjab. During the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War, it fought in Chhamb-Jaurian Sector, while in 1971, a History of the 1st Battalion, 15th Punjab Regiment, 1857-1937. Veteran Campaigners – A History of the Punjab Regiment 1759-1981, a Sketch of the Services of the Bengal Native Army to the Year 1895. Sons of John Company, The Indian and Pakistan Armies 1903–91
19.
52nd Sikhs (Frontier Force)
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The 52nd Sikhs was an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. It was raised in 1846 as the 2nd Regiment of Infantry The Frontier Brigade and it was designated as the 52nd Sikhs in 1903 and became 2nd Battalion 12th Frontier Force Regiment in 1922. In 1947, it was allocated to the Pakistan Army, where it continues to exist as 4th Battalion The Frontier Force Regiment, the regiment was raised on 22 December 1846 at Kangra as the 2nd Regiment of Infantry The Frontier Brigade by Major JWV Stephen. It was composed mostly of Dogras, with some Pathans and Gurkhas, in 1847, it was designated 2nd Regiment of Sikh Local Infantry, becoming the 2nd Regiment of Sikh Infantry in 1857. In 1851, the regiment became part of the Punjab Irregular Force, the Piffers consisted of five regiments of cavalry, eleven regiments of infantry and five batteries of artillery besides the Corps of Guides. Their mission was to order on the Punjab Frontier, a task they performed with great aplomb. The 2nd Sikh Infantry took part in numerous frontier operations besides the Second Sikh War of 1848-49 and the Great Indian Mutiny of 1857-58, during the Second Afghan War of 1878-80, the regiment fought in the Battles of Ahmad Khel and Kandahar. In 1902, it went to British Somaliland to suppress the movement led by the Somali religious leader Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan of the Dervish State. Subsequent to the reforms brought about in the Indian Army by Lord Kitchener in 1903, in 1914, the regiments class composition was three companies of Dogras, two each of Pathans and Sikhs, and one of Punjabi Muslims. During First World War, the regiment joined the 18th Indian Division in Mesopotamia in 1917 and it moved to Kurdistan in 1919 and took part in suppressing the Iraqi Revolt of 1920. After the First World War, the 52nd Sikhs were grouped with the 51st, 53rd and 54th Sikhs, the 52nd Sikhs became 2nd Battlaion of the new regiment. The battalion was captured by the Japanese after the British surrender at Singapore in February 1942, in 1947, the Frontier Force Regiment was allotted to Pakistan Army. 2 FF was back in action in 1948, when it fought in the Kashmir War against India, in 1956, the Frontier Force Rifles and the Pathan Regiment were merged with the Frontier Force Regiment, and 2 FF was redesignated as 4 FF. During the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965, the fought in the Sialkot Sector, while during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971. For exceptional valour, Major Muhammad Akram and Major Shabbir Sharif were awarded the Nishan-i-Haider, History of the 2nd Sikhs, 12th Frontier Force Regt 1846-1933. The Historical Record of the 2nd Sikh Infantry Punjab Frontier Force, the Frontier Force Regiment, Aldershot, Gale & Polden Ltd. The Punjab Frontier Force, A Brief Record of Their Services 1846-1924, jafar Ali Khan, Maj Gen M. One Hundred Glorious Years, A History of the Punjab Frontier Force, lahore, Civil and Military Gazette Press
20.
East Surrey Regiment
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The East Surrey Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1959. However, the Queens Regiment was soon amalgamated with the Royal Hampshire Regiment to form the present Princess of Waless Royal Regiment, in 1702 a regiment of marines was raised in the West Country by George Villier. Villier was drowned in 1703, and the regiment was taken over by Alexander Luttrell, after Luttrells death in 1705, the command went to Joshua Churchill until 1711 when it became Gorings Regiment. In 1715 the regiment was removed from the marines and became the 31st Regiment of Infantry, five years later a second battalion was raised in Scotland, the 2/31st Foot, which was re-designated in 1758, the 70th Regiment of Foot. Further changes were made in 1782, the 31st became known as the 31st Regiment of Foot, while the 70th became the 70th Regiment of Foot. They stayed with this title until 1881 when they became the 1st & 2nd battalions of the East Surrey Regiment, following amalgamation, The Barracks, Kingston upon Thames became the regimental depot. The 1st Battalion, after formation, was based in India until 1903 when it moved to Aldershot, it moved to Jersey in 1905, the 2nd Battalion on the other hand was in action soon after formation, being part of the British expedition to the Sudan in 1884. After South Africa the battalion was shipped to India in 1903 where they remained until the outbreak of the First World War, the 3rd Battalion, which was formed from the 1st Royal Surrey Militia in 1881, was a reserve battalion. It was embodied for service during the Second-Boer War in South Africa on 3 May 1900, disembodied on 15 October 1900, re-embodied on 6 May 1901 and disembodied on 26 July 1902. More than 600 officers and men returned to Southampton by the SS Gaika in July 1902, following the end of the war, the 4th Battalion, formed from the 3rd Royal Surrey Militia in 1881 was also a reserve battalion. On 4 August 1914, the 1st Battalion, East Surrey Regiment was in Dublin, eleven days later, mobilization completed and at full war establishment, the 1st Battalion landed at Le Havre in France, and before the end of the month was in action against the Germans. The battalion was assigned to the 14th Brigade, 5th Division, during the Retreat from Mons and afterwards, the Battalion took part in the great battles of 1914, Le Cateau, the Marne and the Aisne. In 1915, after the Battle of La Bassée, the 1st Surreys withstood a most determined attack on Hill 60, in the desperate fighting which ensued, the Battalion won three Victoria Crosses and seven Distinguished Conduct Medals. Among the VCs was Lieutenant George Roupell, who became the last Colonel of the East Surrey Regiment. In late 1915 the brigade was transferred to the 32nd Division, in 1916, the 1st Battalion took part in the great battles of the River Somme, and distinguished itself notably at Morval in September. The Battalion took part in many of the battles of 1917, such as Arras. After a four-month tour on the Italian Front, the Battalion was back in France in March 1918, and was engaged in the Battles of Albert and Bapaume, and the subsequent advance to victory. The 2nd Battalion returned from India at the outbreak of war and it was soon in action to the south of Ypres where it lost many men, some by poison gas, the battalion lost some 800 troops out of about 1,000
21.
116th Mahrattas
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The 116th Mahrattas were an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. The regiment traces their origins to 1800, when they were raised as the 2nd Battalion, during World War I the regiment was attached tp the 18th Indian Division for the Mesopotamia Campaign. They were involved in the Actions at the Fat-ha Gorge and on the Little Zab, after World War I the Indian government reformed the army moving from single battalion regiments to multi battalion regiments. In 1922, the 116th Mahrattas became the 4th Battalion 5th Mahratta Light Infantry, after independence they were one of the regiments allocated to the Indian Army. 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry -1800 16th Bombay Native Infantry -1824 16th Bombay Infantry -1885 116th Mahrattas -1903 Barthorp, Michael, Burn, order of Battle British Army 1914. Valour and sacrifice, famous regiments of the Indian Army, official History of the War, Mesopotamia Campaign
22.
5 Gorkha Rifles (Frontier Force)
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The 5 Gorkha Rifles is an infantry regiment of the Indian Army comprising Gurkha soldiers of Indian and Nepalese origin. It was formed in 1858 as part of the British Indian Army and served in the First World War, the regiment was one of the Gurkha regiments that was transferred to the Indian Army following independence in 1947. The regiment was known as the 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles. Since 1947, the regiment has served in a number of conflicts, including the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 and it has also participated in peacekeeping operations in Sri Lanka. The regiment was raised in 1858 as the 25th Punjab Infantry, the soldiers of the regiment originated from the Kingdom of Nepal and in 1861 it was renamed the 5th Gurkha Regiment. The regiments first major action was during the Second Afghan War, in 1891 the regiment was awarded the prestigious title of a Rifle regiment and became 5th Gurkha Regiment which was shortened to 5th Gurkha Rifles in 1901. This connection was reflected when in 1903, the regiment was renamed the 5th Gurkha Rifles, during the First World War, the regiment primarily saw service in the Middle East—the 1st Battalion saw extensive and hard service at Gallipoli in 1915. During the withdrawal, a company of the 5th Gurkhas were among the last troops to leave, the 2nd Battalion initially served in India with the 2nd Division before transferring to Mesopotamia in April 1916 and joining the 42nd Indian Brigade, 15th Indian Division. The 1st Battalion joined them in March 1917 from the 1st Division, a 3rd Battalion was raised for service on the North-West Frontier, before being disbanded in 1921. In 1921, the regiment was given the title the 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles, during the inter-war period, the regiment received three further battle honours, for the Third Afghan War in 1919, and two for service on the North West Frontier. The regiment together with the 13th Duke of Connaughts Own Lancers were the only units awarded such honours, during the Second World War, the 1st Battalion 5th Gurkhas as part of the 8th Indian Infantry Divisions 17th Indian Infantry Brigade served in the Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre. Rifleman Thaman Gurung of the 1st Battalion won the Victoria Cross while serving in Italy, when the bridge over the river was blown up, preventing the Japanese forces from entering India, many of the regiment were left on the wrong side. The regiment was involved in the re-entry into Burma in 1943 where three members of the regiment were awarded the Victoria Cross. After the war, the 2nd Battalion was re-issued with new uniforms, equipment and transport, the Battalion had the unique distinction of getting four Battle Honours for the five battles fought. Major I M Brown of the 4th Battalion was one of the few soldiers of the Second World War who was awarded the Military Cross three times. On Independence, the 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles was one of the six Gurkha regiments that remained part of the new Indian Army, during this deployment, the 4th battalions commander, Lieutenant Colonel Bawa, was injured and later died, along with many of his officers and soldiers. The regiments present headquarters are at Shillong, in North-Eastern India, 1858–1861, 25th Punjab Infantry 1861–1891, 5th Gurkha Regiment 1891–1901, 5th Gurkha Regiment 1901–1903, 5th Gurkha Rifles 1903–1950, 5th Gurkha Rifles 1950–present, 5th Gorkha Rifles. History of the 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles, 1858–1947, Aldershot, UK, sons of John Company, A History of the Indian and Pakistan Armies
23.
Royal Field Artillery
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The Royal Field Artillery of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It came into being when created as an entity from the Royal Artillery on 1 July 1899. The Royal Field Artillery was the largest arm of the artillery and it was responsible for the medium calibre guns and howitzers deployed close to the front line and was reasonably mobile. It was organised into brigades, attached to divisions or higher formations, ernest Wright Alexander, Victoria Cross recipient. Colin Gubbins, prime mover of the Special Operations Executive, arthur G. Hobbs, driver, Distinguished Conduct Medal recipient. Donald McLeod, represented Scotland at football Cecil Patteson Nickalls, D. S. O. was a polo player who took his own life with a gun on April 7,1925. Herbert George Robinson, was a Bombardier, Distinguished Conduct Medal recipient, alfred William Saunders, World War I flying ace. Garth Neville Walford, Victoria Cross recipient, francis Wallington, first recipient of the Military Cross four times. Norman Manley, first Premier of Jamaica, serving from 14 August 1959 to 29 April 1962 Carman, British Artillery 1914–19 Field Army Artillery. Volume 94 of New Vanguard Series, a List of the formation, attachments and history of each Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery
24.
Howitzer
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In the taxonomies of artillery pieces used by European armies in the 17th to 20th centuries, the howitzer stood between the gun and the mortar. Howitzers, like other artillery equipment, are organized in groups called batteries. The English word howitzer comes from the Czech word houfnice, from houf, crowd, haufen, sometimes in the compound Gewalthaufen, also designated a pike square formation in German. This is particularly true in the forces of the United States. Because of this practice, the howitzer is used in some armies as a generic term for any kind of artillery piece that is designed to attack targets using indirect fire. Thus, artillery pieces that bear resemblance to howitzers of earlier eras are now described as howitzers. Most other armies in the reserve the word howitzer for guns with barrel lengths 15 to 25 times their caliber. The British had a method of nomenclature. In the 18th century, they adopted projectile weight for guns replacing the old naming system of culverin, saker, mortars had been categorized by calibre in inches in the 17th century and this was inherited by howitzers. The modern howitzers were invented in Sweden towards the end of the 17th century, originally intended for use in siege warfare, they were particularly useful for delivering cast-iron shells filled with gunpowder or incendiary materials into the interior of fortifications. In the middle of the 18th century, a number of European armies began to introduce howitzers that were enough to accompany armies in the field. Though usually fired at the high angles of fire used by contemporary siege howitzers. Rather, as the guns of the day were usually restricted to inert projectiles. Many, for the sake of simplicity and rapidity of fire, the Abus gun was an early form of howitzer in the Ottoman Empire. In 1758 the Russian Empire introduced a type of howitzer, with a conical chamber, called a licorne. The most famous of these gun-howitzers was the Napoleon 12-pounder, a weapon of French design that saw service in the American Civil War. The longest-serving artillery piece of the 19th century was the mountain howitzer, in 1859, the armies of Europe began to rearm field batteries with rifled field guns. These new field pieces used cylindrical projectiles that, while smaller in caliber than the spherical shells of smoothbore field howitzers, moreover, their greater range let them create many of the same effects that previously required the sharply curved trajectories of smoothbore field howitzers
25.
Trench mortar
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The 3-inch trench mortar is a smooth-bore, muzzle-loading weapon for high angles of fire. Although it is called a 3-inch mortar, its bore is actually 3.2 inches or 81 mm. Frederick Wilfred Scott Stokes – who later became Sir Wilfred Stokes KBE – designed the mortar in January 1915. The British Army was at the time trying to develop a weapon that would be a match for the Imperial German Armys Minenwerfer mortar, matheson of the Trench Warfare Supply Department to expedite manufacture of the Stokes mortar. The Stokes mortar was a weapon, consisting of a smoothbore metal tube fixed to a base plate with a lightweight bipod mount. The barrel is a seamless drawn-steel tube necked down at the breech or base end, to the breech end is fitted a base cap, within which is secured a firing pin protruding into the barrel. The caps at each end of the cylinder were 81 mm diameter. The bomb was fitted with a hand grenade fuze on the front, with a perforated tube containing a propellant charge. Range was determined by the amount of propellant charge used and the angle of the barrel, a basic propellant cartridge was used for all firing, and covered short ranges. Up to four rings of propellant were used for incrementally greater ranges. The four rings were supplied with the cartridge and gunners discarded the rings that were not needed, unless the legs are properly set up they are liable to injury. The mortar was in no sense a new weapon, although it had out of general usage since the Napoleonic era. In fact, while the British and French worked on developing new mortars, as well as receiving a knighthood for inventing the modern mortar, Stokes was given several forms of monetary reward by the Ministry of Munitions for his invention. The French developed a version of the Stokes mortar as the Brandt Mle 27, further refined as the Brandt Mle 31. Despite their indigenous production, out of 8,00081 mm mortars in service with the French in 1939,2,000 were of the original Mk, I build purchased from Great Britain. About 700 Stokes mortars were acquired by Poland between 1923 and 1926, in 1928, an unlicensed Polish copy was made as the Avia wz.28, but due to French pressure it was abandoned in 1931 because the French Brandt company held the patent for the ammunition. The Polish then produced a copy as the wz.31 model starting in 1935,1,050 were made in Pruszków. By 1939, the Polish army was equipped with some 1,200 Stokes-Brandt mortars, each Polish infantry battalion was intended to be equipped with four such mortars, but there were not enough available to fulfill this disposition. The upgraded 1931 version was used by the Polish Army during, amongst others, British Empire units had 1,636 Stokes mortars in service on the Western Front at the Armistice
26.
Bengal Engineer Group
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The Bengal Sappers have their regimental centre at Roorkee Cantonment in Roorkee city, Uttarakhand. Besides service on the battlefield, the Bengal Engineers also rendered valuable peacetime contributions, the military engineer, Lt. James Agg, designed St Johns Church in Calcutta. It was based on James Gibbss St Martin-in-the-Fields in London and was consecrated in 1787, wood at Kanpur as Bengal Pioneers in November 1803, also known as Roorkee Safar Maina. The remaining part of the Corps of Bengal Pioneers was absorbed in 1833, in 1843 Broadfoots Sappers, which had been raised in 1840, merged into the Bengal Sappers and Miners. In 1847 the Bengal Sappers and Miners was renamed Bengal Sappers and Pioneers, on 7 November 1853, the regiment moved to Roorkee, where it has maintained its regimental centre ever since. Lord Kitcheners reforms in 1903 saw it redesignated as the 1st Sappers and Miners, in 1937 it was renamed King George Vs Bengal Sappers and Miners, and in 1941 they became the King George Vs Bengal Sappers and Miners Group of the Indian Engineers. In 1946 it became the King George Vs Group of the Royal Indian Engineers, on Indian independence and partition in 1947, about half of the serving personnel were allocated to the Pakistan Royal Engineers. In 1950 they became the Bengal Centre, Corps of Engineers, after which they became the Bengal Engineer Group, Short Histories, The Indian Sappers and Miners, By Lieut. -Colonel E. W. C. Published by The Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham,1948, calendar of battles, honours and awards, King George Vs Own Bengal Sappers & Miners from 1803 to 1939, by Rhamat Ullan Khan, ca. History and digest of service of the 1st King Georges Own Sappers & Miners, Roorkee, 1st Kings Own Press, Regimental history of the King Georges Own Bengal Sappers & Miners. Roorkee, KGO Sappers & Miners Press,1937, Corps reunion and the unveiling of the war memorial.1927. History of the Corps of Royal Engineers, by Great Britain Army, the Bengal Sappers 1803–2003, by General Sir George Cooper GCB MC and Major David Alexander. The Military Engineer in India, by Lt. Col. E. W. C Sandes, a Short history of the Corps of King Georges Own Bengal Sappers & Miners during the War, 1914-1918. Brief history of the K. G. Vs own Bengal Sappers and Miners Group, Roorkee, Pearson,1947. org Bengal Sappers and Miners and the Victoria Cross
27.
Royal Engineers Signal Service
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The Royal Corps of Signals is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communications, colloquially referred to by some as Siggies, Royal Signals units provide the full telecommunications infrastructure for the Army wherever they operate in the world. The Corps has its own engineers, logistics experts and systems operators to run radio, in 1870, C Telegraph Troop, Royal Engineers, was founded under Captain Montague Lambert. By 1871, C Troop had expanded in size from 2 officers and 133 other ranks to 5 officers and 245 other ranks, in 1879, C Troop first saw action during the Anglo-Zulu War. Signalling was the responsibility of the Telegraph Battalion until 1908, when the Royal Engineers Signal Service was formed, as such it provided communications during the First World War. It was about time that motorcycle despatch riders and wireless sets were introduced into service. A Royal Warrant for the creation of a Corps of Signals was signed by the Secretary of State for War, Winston Churchill, six weeks later, King George V conferred the title Royal Corps of Signals. Before the Second World War, Royal Signals recruits were required to be at least 5 feet 2 inches tall and they initially enlisted for eight years with the colours and a further four years with the reserve. They trained at the Signal Training Centre at Catterick Camp, all personnel were taught to ride. Throughout the Second World War, members of the Royal Corps of Signals had served in every theatre of war, by the end of the war the strength of the Corps was 8,518 officers and 142,472 other ranks. In the immediate period, the Corps played a full and active part in numerous campaigns, including Palestine, Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation, Malaya. Soldiers from the Royal Signals delivered communications in the Falklands War, the first Gulf War, Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, East Timor and they are currently deployed in Cyprus and Afghanistan. In late 2012, 2nd Signal Brigade disbanded, the future structure of the Royal Signals will change under Army 2020. Other ranks are trained both as soldiers and tradesmen. Their basic military training is delivered at the Army Training Regiment at Winchester before undergoing trade training at 11th Signal Regiment. Whilst SSgts are generally regarded as being Regimental Duty, this roster does not start until WO2, the Corps wears a blue and white tactical recognition flash. This is worn horizontally on the arm with the blue half charging forward. Airborne elements of the Royal Signals wear a Drop Zone flash on the arm of their combat jacket
28.
106th Hazara Pioneers
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The 106th Hazara Pioneers was a pioneer infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. They were formed in 1904 at Quetta from Hazara refugees, the first contact between the British and the Hazaras was just before the First Afghan War, when some Hazaras served in Broadfoots Sappers from 1839–1840. A considerable number of Hazaras had come to India to work as labourers prior, in 1903–1904, however, due to high levels of persecution by the Afghans, large numbers of Hazaras refugees poured over the frontier. In 1904, Lord Kitchener, who at time was Commander-in-Chief in India. Prior to this, the only Hazaras in the Indian Army were those enlisted in the 124th and 126th Baluchistan Infantry, the Battalion was composed of eight companies of Hazaras, and their permanent peace station was at Quetta. Their full dress uniform was drab with red facings, the 106th Hazara Pioneers were now the only unit in the Indian Army enlisting Hazaras nationals. There were two changes in the title of the regiment after the 1914–1918 war, the 106th Hazara Pioneers became 1st Battalion 4th Pioneers in 1922 and the The Hazara Pioneers in 1929. As a result of the crisis in 1933, all Pioneer Regiments in the Indian Army. Following the 1914–1918 war, it increasingly difficult to recruit Hazaras from the Hazarajat. These men, however, lacked many of the best qualities of the Hazaras enlisted directly from the Afghan highlands, in addition, the Afghan government had requested the government of India to stop enlisting their subjects in the Indian Army. Field Marshal Sir Claud Jacob was colonel of the regiment from 1916 until its disbandment in 1933, in 1915, one company served with distinction in France with the 107th Pioneers. The whole regiment was employed during 1915–1916 with the Kalat Column, in 1917 they served on the Mohmand Blockade Line, and sent one company to join the 128th Pioneers in Mesopotamia. During 1919, they worked strenuously on the Shergat-Mosul line of communications, in the autumn of that year they took part in the Kurdistan Operations. In 1920, they were employed on the Shergat-Mosul lines of communications. They returned to Quetta in August 1921, during the above operations, several Indian Orders of Merit, as well as a number of Indian Distinguished Service Medals and Indian Meritorious Service Medals, were awarded to Hazaras for gallantry. During the Waziristan Operations of 1923–1924, the Hazara Pioneers took part in the road making through the Baravi Tangi, afterward, they helped with the construction of the railway and frontier roads in Zhob. In 1917, due to the difficulty of enlisting a sufficient number of Hazaras from Afghanistan, a recruiting party from the 106th Hazara Pioneers visited Baltistan in the late autumn of 1917. About 100 recruits were enlisted during 1917–1918 and even brought to Quetta for training, after the armistice, nearly all these Baltis were demobilized and returned to their homes
29.
Royal Army Medical Corps
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The Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. Together with the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps and Queen Alexandras Royal Army Nursing Corps, because it is not a fighting arm, under the Geneva Conventions, members of the RAMC may only use their weapons for self-defence. Other ranks do not fix bayonets, neither do they prefix Surgeon in front of their rank as medical officers of the Royal Navy do. The RAMC, like every other British regiment, has its own distinctive unit insignia, dark blue beret, the default Army colour worn by units without distinctive coloured berets. There is also a small attachment to Special Forces, the Medical Support Unit who wear the beret of the SAS. Cap badge depicting the Rod of Asclepius, surmounted by a crown, enclosed within a wreath, with the regimental motto In Arduis Fidelis. The cap badge is worn 1 inch above the eye on the beret. The cap badge of the ranks must also be backed by an oval patch of dull cherry-red coloured cloth measuring 3.81 cm wide and 6.35 cm high sewn directly to the beret. Officers do not use the backing, but have a cloth cap badge instead. Silver regimental collar badges, a miniature of the cap badge, stable belt comprising equal horizontal bands of dull cherry, royal blue, and old gold, reflecting the old uniform worn in the 1900s, the gold depicting the royal in the title. Silver belt buckle with engraved regimental badge, Medical services in the British armed services go as far back as the formation of the Standing Regular Army after the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. This was the first time a career was provided for a Medical Officer, known as the Regimental Surgeon, both in peacetime and in war. The Army was formed entirely on a basis, and an MO with a Warrant Officer as his Assistant Surgeon was appointed to each regiment. The MO was also for the first time concerned in the health of his troops. This regimental basis of appointment for MOs continued until 1873, when an army medical service was set up. There was much unhappiness in the Army Medical Service in the following years, for medical officers did not actually have military rank but advantages corresponding to relative military rank. They had inferior pay in India, excessive amounts of Indian and colonial service and they did not have their own identity as did the Army Service Corps, whose officers did have military rank. A number of complaints were published, and the British Medical Journal campaigned loudly, for over two years after 27 July 1887 there were no recruits to the Army Medical Department
30.
Royal Army Veterinary Corps
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The Royal Army Veterinary Corps is an administrative and operational branch of the British Army responsible for the provision, training and care of animals. It is a corps, forming part of the Army Medical Services. Unusually, although it is responsible for providing what could be termed materiel, it is under the purview of the Adjutant-General, the original Army Veterinary Service within the Army Medical Department was founded in 1796 after public outrage concerning the death of Army horses. John Shipp was the first veterinary surgeon to be commissioned into the British Army when he joined the 11th Light Dragoons on 25 June 1796, the Honorary Colonel-in-Chief is the Princess Royal who has visited RAVC dog-handling units serving in Afghanistan. In late March 2016, the Ministry of Defence announced that Fitz Wygram House, the RAVC provides, trains and cares for mainly dogs and horses, but also tends to the various regimental mascots in the army, which range from goats to an antelope. Personnel include veterinary surgeons and veterinary technicians providing medical and surgical care to animals, dogs are used extensively in the theatre of war, and are organised within the Military Working Dog Regiment. Horses are used primarily for ceremonial purposes, although the Corps continues to rehearse procedures for the deployment of horses. The main location for the RAVC is the Defence Animal Centre based at Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire and they are also responsible for explosives and drug search dogs. Its only subsidiary regiment is the 1st Military Working Dog Regiment, sadie, a black labrador retriever belonging to 102 MWDSU and cared for by handler Lance Corporal Karen Yardley, won the PDSA Dickin Medal in 2007. In February 2010, Treo, a black Labrador-Spaniel crossbreed, was awarded the Dickin Medal for services in Afghanistan, in 2011 Lance Corporal Liam Tasker of 104 MWD Squadron was killed in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He was posthumously mentioned in despatches and his Arms Explosive search dog, Theo, died shortly afterwards. Theo was posthumously awarded the Dickin Medal on 25 October 2012, a memorial to the RAVC and its predecessors was unveiled at the National Memorial Arboretum on 2 May 2014 by the Princess Royal. The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, 1919–1961, review of The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1919–1961. A History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, 1796–1919, london, Baillière & Co. p.268
31.
Royal Army Service Corps
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It became a Forming Corps of the Royal Logistic Corps. For centuries, army transport was operated by contracted civilians, the first uniformed transport corps in the British Army was the Royal Waggoners formed in 1794. It was not a success and was disbanded the following year, in 1799, the Royal Waggon Corps was formed, by August 1802, it had been renamed the Royal Waggon Train. This was reduced to two troops in 1818 and finally disbanded in 1833. A transport corps was not formed again until the Crimean War, in 1855, the Land Transport Corps was formed. This was renamed the Military Train the following year, in 1869, there was a major reorganisation of army supply and transport capabilities. Before 1869, supply duties had been the responsibility of the Commissariat, in 1869, the commissaries of the Commissariat and the officers of the Military Train amalgamated into the Control Department. The following year the other ranks of the Military Train were redesignated the Army Service Corps, in November 1875, the Control Department was divided into the Commissariat and Transport Department and the Ordnance Store Department. In January 1880, the Commissariat and Transport Department was renamed the Commissariat and Transport Staff, the ASC subsequently absorbed some transport elements of the Royal Engineers. In 1918, the received the Royal prefix for its service in the First World War. It was divided into Transport and Supply Branches, before the Second World War, RASC recruits were required to be at least 5 feet 2 inches tall and could enlist up to 30 years of age. They initially enlisted for six years with the colours and a six years with the reserve. Alone among the Services, RASC personnel were considered to be combatant personnel, in 1965, the RASC was merged with the Transportation and Movement Control Service of the Royal Engineers to form the Royal Corps of Transport. All its supply functions, along with the clerks, were transferred to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, leaving the new RCT solely responsible for transport. In 1993, the RCT and RAOC were merged to form the Royal Logistic Corps, officers of the Control Department, Commissariat and Transport Department, and Commissariat and Transport Staff held different ranks from the rest of the Army. From February 1885 they were given military ranks, which they held in conjunction with their commissary ranks. Officers of the ASC and RASC held full military rank
32.
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
33.
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
British India
British Indian Army
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