1.
Military transport aircraft
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Originally derived from bombers, military transport aircraft were used for delivering airborne forces during the Second World War and towing military gliders. Fixed-wing transport aircraft are defined in terms of their range capability as strategic airlift or [[tactical |-, for example, the military transport helicopter is the primary transport asset of US Marines deploying from LHDs and LHA. Transport helicopters are operated in assault, medium and heavy classes, air assault helicopters are usually the smallest of the transport types, and designed to move an infantry squad or section and their equipment. Helicopters in the role are generally armed for self-protection both in transit and for suppression of the landing zone. This armament may be in the form of door gunners, or the modification of the helicopter with wings and pylons to carry missiles. For example, the Sikorsky S-70, fitted with the ESSM, the assault helicopter can be thought of as the modern successor to the military glider. Finally, there is the term utility helicopter, which generally refers to medium-lift designs. Unlike the assault helicopter they are not expected to land directly in a contested landing zone. Examples include the versions of the Mil Mi-8, Super Puma. The lower speed, range and increased consumption of helicopters are more than compensated by their ability to operate virtually anywhere
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
Douglas Aircraft Company
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The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer based in Southern California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. Douglas Aircraft Company largely operated as a division of McDonnell Douglas after the merger. MD later merged with Boeing in 1997, the Douglas Aircraft Company was founded by Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. on July 22,1921 in Santa Monica, California, following dissolution of the Davis-Douglas Company. An early claim to fame was the first circumnavigation of the world by air in Douglas airplanes in 1924. In 1923, the U. S. Army Air Service was interested in carrying out a mission to circumnavigate the Earth for the first time by aircraft, Donald Douglas proposed a modified Douglas DT to meet the Armys needs. The two-place, open cockpit DT biplane torpedo bomber had previously produced for the U. S. Navy. The DTs were taken from the lines at the companys manufacturing plants in Rock Island, Illinois and Dayton. The modified aircraft known as the Douglas World Cruiser, also was the first major project for Jack Northrop who designed the system for the series. After the prototype was delivered in November 1923, upon the completion of tests on 19 November. Due to the expedition ahead, spare parts, including 15 extra Liberty L-12 engines,14 extra sets of pontoons. These were sent to airports along the route, the last of these aircraft was delivered to the U. S. Army on 11 March 1924. After the success of the World Cruiser, the Army Air Service ordered six similar aircraft as observation aircraft. The success of the DWC established the Douglas Aircraft Company among the aircraft companies of the world. Douglas adopted a logo that showed aircraft circling a globe, replacing the original winged heart logo, the logo evolved into an aircraft, a rocket, and a globe. It was later adopted by the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, and then became the basis of the current logo of the Boeing Company after their 1997 merger, many Douglas aircraft had long service lives. Douglas Aircraft designed and built a variety of aircraft for the U. S. military, including the Navy, Army Air Forces, Marine Corps, Air Force. The company initially built torpedo bombers for the U. S. Navy, within five years, the company was building about 100 aircraft annually. Among the early employees at Douglas were Ed Heinemann, Dutch Kindelberger, and Jack Northrop, the company retained its military market and expanded into amphibian airplanes in the late 1920s, also moving its facilities to Clover Field at Santa Monica, California
4.
United States Army Air Forces
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Each of these forces had a commanding general who reported directly to the Army Chief of Staff. S. Army to control its own installations and support personnel, the peak size of the AAF during the Second World War was over 2.4 million men and women in service and nearly 80,000 aircraft by 1944, and 783 domestic bases in December 1943. By V-E Day, the Army Air Forces had 1.25 million men stationed overseas, in its expansion and conduct of the war, the AAF became more than just an arm of the greater organization. By the end of World War II, the Army Air Forces had become virtually an independent service and this contrast between theory and fact is. fundamental to an understanding of the AAF. Gen. Billy Mitchell that led to his later court-martial, a strategy stressing precision bombing of industrial targets by heavily armed, long-range bombers emerged, formulated by the men who would become its leaders. Since 1920, control of units had resided with commanders of the corps areas. Both were created in 1933 when a conflict with Cuba seemed possible following a coup détat. Activation of GHQ Air Force represented a compromise between strategic airpower advocates and ground force commanders who demanded that the Air Corps mission remain tied to that of the land forces. GHQ Air Force organized combat groups administratively into a force of three wings deployed to the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts but was small in comparison to European air forces. Corps area commanders continued to control over airfields and administration of personnel. The expected activation of Army General Headquarters prompted Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall to request a study from Chief of the Air Corps Maj. Gen. Henry H. Arnold resulting on 5 October 1940 in a proposal for creation of an air staff, unification of the air arm under one commander, and equality with the ground and supply forces. Marshall implemented a compromise that the Air Corps found entirely inadequate, naming Arnold as acting Deputy Chief of Staff for Air but rejecting all organizational points of his proposal. GHQ Air Force instead was assigned to the control of Army General Headquarters, although the latter was a training and not an operational component, when it was activated in November 1940. A division of the GHQ Air Force into four air defense districts on 19 October 1940 was concurrent with the creation of air forces to defend Hawaii. The air districts were converted in March 1941 into numbered air forces with an organization of 54 groups. Marshall had come to the view that the air forces needed a simpler system, Arnold and Marshall agreed that the AAF would enjoy a general autonomy within the War Department until the end of the war, while its commanders would cease lobbying for independence. Marshall, a proponent of airpower, left understood that the Air Force would likely achieve its independence following the war
5.
Royal Air Force
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The Royal Air Force is the United Kingdoms aerial warfare force. Formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, following victory over the Central Powers in 1918 the RAF emerged as, at the time, the largest air force in the world. The RAF describe its mission statement as, an agile, adaptable and capable Air Force that, person for person, is second to none, and that makes a decisive air power contribution in support of the UK Defence Mission. The mission statement is supported by the RAFs definition of air power, Air power is defined as the ability to project power from the air and space to influence the behaviour of people or the course of events. Today the Royal Air Force maintains a fleet of various types of aircraft. The majority of the RAFs rotary-wing aircraft form part of the tri-service Joint Helicopter Command in support of ground forces, most of the RAFs aircraft and personnel are based in the UK, with many others serving on operations or at long-established overseas bases. It was founded on 1 April 1918, with headquarters located in the former Hotel Cecil, during the First World War, by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps, at that time it was the largest air force in the world. The RAFs naval aviation branch, the Fleet Air Arm, was founded in 1924, the RAF developed the doctrine of strategic bombing which led to the construction of long-range bombers and became its main bombing strategy in the Second World War. The RAF underwent rapid expansion prior to and during the Second World War, under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of December 1939, the air forces of British Commonwealth countries trained and formed Article XV squadrons for service with RAF formations. Many individual personnel from countries, and exiles from occupied Europe. By the end of the war the Royal Canadian Air Force had contributed more than 30 squadrons to serve in RAF formations, additionally, the Royal Australian Air Force represented around nine percent of all RAF personnel who served in the European and Mediterranean theatres. In the Battle of Britain in 1940, the RAF defended the skies over Britain against the numerically superior German Luftwaffe, the largest RAF effort during the war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany by Bomber Command. Following victory in the Second World War, the RAF underwent significant re-organisation, during the early stages of the Cold War, one of the first major operations undertaken by the Royal Air Force was in 1948 and the Berlin Airlift, codenamed Operation Plainfire. Before Britain developed its own nuclear weapons the RAF was provided with American nuclear weapons under Project E and these were initially armed with nuclear gravity bombs, later being equipped with the Blue Steel missile. Following the development of the Royal Navys Polaris submarines, the nuclear deterrent passed to the navys submarines on 30 June 1969. With the introduction of Polaris, the RAFs strategic nuclear role was reduced to a tactical one and this tactical role was continued by the V bombers into the 1980s and until 1998 by Tornado GR1s. For much of the Cold War the primary role of the RAF was the defence of Western Europe against potential attack by the Soviet Union, with many squadrons based in West Germany. With the decline of the British Empire, global operations were scaled back, despite this, the RAF fought in many battles in the Cold War period
6.
United States Navy
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The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U. S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, the U. S. Navy has the worlds largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 323,792 personnel on duty and 108,515 in the Navy Reserve. It has 274 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of October 2016, the U. S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy. It played the role in the World War II defeat of Imperial Japan. The 21st century U. S. Navy maintains a global presence, deploying in strength in such areas as the Western Pacific, the Mediterranean. The Navy is administratively managed by the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Navy is itself a division of the Department of Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of Defense. The Chief of Naval Operations is an admiral and the senior naval officer of the Department of the Navy. The CNO may not be the highest ranking officer in the armed forces if the Chairman or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, the United States Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of the United States. The Navys three primary areas of responsibility, The preparation of naval forces necessary for the prosecution of war. The development of aircraft, weapons, tactics, technique, organization, U. S. Navy training manuals state that the mission of the U. S. Armed Forces is to prepare and conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest, as part of that establishment, the U. S. Navys functions comprise sea control, power projection and nuclear deterrence, in addition to sealift duties. It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, the Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia, the establishment of a national navy was an issue of debate among the members of the Second Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, detractors countered that challenging the British Royal Navy, then the worlds preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned the ocean-going schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchant ships, and reported the captures to the Congress
7.
Royal Canadian Air Force
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The Royal Canadian Air Force is the air force of Canada. Its role is to provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower, the RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Canadian Armed Forces. Lieutenant-General Michael J. Hood, CMM CD, is the current Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force, the RCAF is a partner with the United States Air Force in protecting continental airspace under the North American Aerospace Defense Command. The RCAF also provides all primary air resources to and is responsible for the National Search, the RCAF traces its history to the Canadian Air Force which was formed in 1920. The Canadian Air Force was incorporated in 1923 and granted royal sanction in 1924 by King George V, in 1968 the RCAF was amalgamated with the Royal Canadian Navy, and the Canadian Army, as part of the unification of the Canadian Forces. Air units were split between several different commands, Air Defence Command, Air Transport Command, Mobile Command, Maritime Command, in 1975 some commands were dissolved, and all air units were placed under a new environmental command called simply Air Command. Air Command reverted to its name of the Royal Canadian Air Force in August 2011. The Royal Canadian Air Force has served in the Second World War, the Korean War, as a NATO member, the force maintained a presence in Europe during the second half of the 20th century. The Canadian Air Force was established in 1920 as the successor to a short-lived two-squadron Canadian Air Force formed during the First World War in Europe. John Scott Williams, MC, AFC, was tasked in 1921 with organizing the CAF, the new Canadian Air Force was a branch of the Air Board and was chiefly a training militia that provided refresher training to veteran pilots. Many CAF members also worked with the Air Boards Civil Operations Branch on operations that included forestry, in 1923, the CAF became responsible for all flying operations in Canada, including civil aviation. In 1924, the Canadian Air Force, was granted the royal title, most of its work was civil in nature, however, in the late 1920s the RCAF evolved into more of a military organization. After budget cuts in the early 1930s, the air began to rebuild. By the end of the war, the RCAF had become the fourth largest allied air force, after the war, the RCAF reduced its strength. In 1950, the RCAF became involved with the transport of troops and supplies to the Korean War, however, members of the RCAF served in USAF units as exchange officers and several flew in combat. Both auxiliary and regular air defence squadrons were run by Air Defence Command, at the same time, the Pinetree Line, the Mid-Canada Line and the DEW Line radar stations, largely operated by the RCAF, were built across Canada because of the growing Soviet nuclear threat. In 1957, Canada and the United States created the joint North American Air Defense Command, coastal defence and peacekeeping also became priorities during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1968 the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Canadian Air Force and this initiative was overseen by then Liberal Defence Minister, Paul Hellyer
8.
Douglas DC-3
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The Douglas DC-3 is a fixed-wing propeller-driven airliner. Its cruise speed and range revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s and its lasting effect on the airline industry and World War II makes it one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made. The DC-3 was a twin-engine metal monoplane, developed as a larger and it had many exceptional qualities compared to previous aircraft. It was fast, had a range and could operate from short runways. It was reliable and easy to maintain and carried passengers in greater comfort, before the war it pioneered many air travel routes. Civil DC-3 production ended in 1942 with 607 aircraft being produced, however, together with its military derivative, the C-47 Skytrain, and with Russian- and Japanese-built versions, over 16,000 were built. Following the Second World War, the market was flooded with surplus C-47s and other transport aircraft. While the DC-3 was soon made redundant on main routes by more advanced such as the Douglas DC-6 and Lockheed Constellation. Large numbers continue to see service in a variety of niche roles well into the 21st century. In 2013 it was estimated that approximately 2,000 DC-3s and military derivatives were still flying, the DC-3 was the culmination of a development effort that began after an inquiry from Transcontinental and Western Airlines to Donald Douglas. TWA asked Douglas to design and build an aircraft that would allow TWA to compete with United, Douglas design, the 1933 DC-1, was promising, and led to the DC-2 in 1934. The DC-2 was a success, but there was room for improvement, Douglas agreed to go ahead with development only after Smith informed him of Americans intention to purchase twenty aircraft. The new aircraft was engineered by a led by chief engineer Arthur E. Raymond over the next two years, and the prototype DST first flew on December 17,1935. Its cabin was 92 in wide, and a version with 21 seats instead of the 14–16 sleeping berths of the DST was given the designation DC-3, there was no prototype DC-3, the first DC-3 built followed seven DSTs off the production line and was delivered to American Airlines. The DC-3 and DST popularized air travel in the United States, eastbound transcontinental flights could cross the U. S. in about 15 hours with three refueling stops, westbound trips against the wind took 17 1⁄2 hours. A few years such a trip entailed short hops in slower and shorter-range aircraft during the day. A variety of engines were available for the DC-3. Early-production civilian aircraft used Wright R-1820 Cyclone 9s, but later used the Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp
9.
Douglas XCG-17
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The Douglas XCG-17 was an American assault glider, developed by the conversion of a C-47 Skytrain twin-engine transport during World War II. It was determined that the best solution to the requirement was the conversion of the Douglas C-47 Skytrain, already in large-scale production, the C-47 could be converted to a glider configuration with minimal alteration to the airframe, and would provide the required capacity. Trials conducted using a conventional, powered C-47, first conducting ordinary deadstick landings, then being towed by another C-47, therefore, a C-47-DL was taken in hand for conversion into a glider, which was given the designation XCG-17. The conversion, carried out at Clinton County Army Air Field, was completed on June 12,1944 and this configuration was dangerous for the middle C-47, however, and it was determined that a single C-54 was the optimal tug aircraft. The XCG-17 was also capable of carrying three jeeps in a load, or alternatively two 105-millimetre howitzers. Regardless of the load, no ballast was required to maintain the aircrafts center of gravity. No further examples of the type were produced, the prototype, its trials complete, was placed in storage, in August 1949, the aircraft was sold to Advance Industries, its engines being reinstalled to return the aircraft to powered status in DC-3C configuration. Some sources, however, indicate that the XCG-17 was reconverted to C-47 configuration in 1946, following its restoration to powered status, the aircraft was transferred to Mexico, where it remained in civilian service until 1980. Referred to as XCG-47 as well as XCG-17, and named Nez Perce, the flight tests of the field-converted aircraft proved favorable, and an ambitious flight, towing the aircraft from Luzon to Tokyo in Japan, was planned. This flight was intended to prove the suitability of large gliders to act as a freight train for regular transport. The flight, conducted in late June 1946, took 11 hours of time and included an overnight stay on Okinawa, covering 1,800 miles. Despite the success of the flight, the freight train concept did not catch on
10.
Douglas AC-47 Spooky
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The Douglas AC-47 Spooky was the first in a series of gunships developed by the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War. It was designed to provide more firepower than light and medium ground-attack aircraft in certain situations when ground forces called for air support. The AC-47 was a United States Air Force C-47, that had modified by mounting three 7. Other armament configurations could also be found on similar C-47-based aircraft around the world and it could orbit the target for hours, providing suppressing fire over an elliptical area approximately 52 yd in diameter, placing a round every 2.4 yd during a three-second burst. The aircraft also carried flares it could drop to illuminate the battleground, the AC-47 had no previous design to gauge how successful it would be because it was the first of its kind. The USAF found itself in a situation when requests for additional gunships began to come in because it simply lacked miniguns to fit additional aircraft after the first two conversions. The next four aircraft were equipped with 10 20mm AN/M2 machine guns, all four of these aircraft were retrofitted to the standard armament configuration when additional miniguns arrived. The AC-47 initially used SUU-11/A gun pods that were installed on locally fabricated mounts for the gunship application, emerson Electric eventually developed the MXU-470/A to replace the gun pods, which were also used on later gunships. In August 1964, years of fixed-wing gunship experimentation reached a new peak with Project Tailchaser under the direction of Capt. This test involved the conversion of a single Convair C-131B to be capable of firing a single GAU-2/A Minigun at an angle out of the left side of the aircraft. Even crude grease pencil crosshairs were quickly discovered to enable a pilot flying in a turn to hit a stationary area target with relative accuracy. The Armament Development and Test Center tested the craft at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida and he received permission to conduct a live-fire test using the C-131 and revived the side-firing gunship program. Captain Terry and a testing team arrived at Bien Hoa Air Base, South Vietnam, on 2 December 1964, the first test aircraft was ready by 11 December, the second by 15 December, and both were allocated to the 1st Air Commando Squadron for combat testing. The newly dubbed FC-47 often operated under the call sign Puff. Its primary mission involved protecting villages, hamlets, and personnel from mass attacks by VC guerrilla units, puffs first significant success occurred on the night of 23–24 December 1964. An FC-47 arrived over the Special Forces outpost at Tranh Yend in the Mekong Delta just 37 minutes after an air support request, fired 4,500 rounds of ammunition, the FC-47 was then called to support a second outpost at Trung Hung, about 20 miles away. The aircraft again blunted the VC attack and forced a retreat, between 15 and 26 December, all the FC-47s 16 combat sorties were successful. On 8 February 1965, an FC-47 flying over the Bong Son area of Vietnam’s Central Highlands demonstrated its capabilities in the process of blunting a Viet Cong offensive
11.
Airlift
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An airlift is the organized delivery of military supplies or military personnel primarily via military transport aircraft. Airlifting consists of two types, strategic and tactical airlifting. Typically, strategic airlifting involves moving material long distances, whereas a tactical airlift focuses on deploying resources, depending on the situation, airlifted supplies can be delivered by a variety of means. When the destination and surrounding airspace is considered secure, the aircraft land at an appropriate airport or airbase to have its cargo unloaded on the ground. However, when the area is too small for this method, as with a base, and/or is too dangerous to land in. Serbian Air Force, made first transport of wounded soldiers from Serbia through Albania to Corfu and that was the first Medevac operation in air history. April 1923 aircraft of the RAFs Iraq Command flew 280 Sikh troops from Kingarban to Kirkuk in the first British air trooping operation, the worlds first long-range combat airlift took place in July 1936. Luftwaffe Ju 52 and Italian Air Force Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 were used by the Spanish Nationalists to transport troops from Spanish Morocco to Spain at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Airlifts became practical during World War II as aircraft became large and this joint effort is estimated to have saved more than a million lives in Biafra. Most airplanes departed from the Portuguese colony of Sao Tome and Principe to the landing strip of Uli, the only operational airport in Biafra. Flights were made flying at night all lights off and under near-total radio silence to avoid Nigerian MIG aircraft. All the airplanes, crews and logistics were paid, set up, JCA and their crews and aircraft kept flying into Biafra at the cost of many crews lives. Strategic airlift is the use of transport aircraft to transport materiel, weaponry. Typically, this involves airlifting the required items between two airbases which are not in the same vicinity and this allows commanders to bring items into a combat theater from a point on the other side of the planet, if necessary. Aircraft which perform this role are considered strategic airlifters and this contrasts with tactical airlifters, such as the C-130 Hercules and Transall C-160, which can normally only move supplies within a given theater of operations. This difficulty has prompted investment in lighter armoured fighting vehicles, as well as some research into alternative airlift technologies such as ground effect vehicles. Civilian aircraft are commonly used for transportation. For some civilian airlines, such as Miami Air International and Volga-Dnepr Airlines, tactical airlift is a military term for the airborne transportation of supplies and equipment within a theatre of operations
12.
Allies of World War II
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The Allies of World War II, called the United Nations from the 1 January 1942 declaration, were the countries that together opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Allies promoted the alliance as seeking to stop German, Japanese, at the start of the war on 1 September 1939, the Allies consisted of France, Poland and the United Kingdom, and dependent states, such as the British India. Within days they were joined by the independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Poland was a minor factor after its defeat in 1939, France was a minor factor after its defeat in 1940. China had already been into a war with Japan since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937. The alliance was formalised by the Declaration by United Nations, from 1 January 1942, however, the name United Nations was rarely used to describe the Allies during the war. The leaders of the Big Three – the UK, the Soviet Union, in 1945, the Allied nations became the basis of the United Nations. The origins of the Allied powers stem from the Allies of World War I, Germany resented signing Treaty of Versailles. The new Weimar republics legitimacy became shaken, by the early 1930s, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became the dominant revanchist movement in Germany and Hitler and the Nazis gained power in 1933. The Nazi regime demanded the cancellation of the Treaty of Versailles and made claims to German-populated Austria. The likelihood of war was high, and the question was whether it could be avoided through strategies such as appeasement, in Asia, when Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, the League of Nations condemned it for aggression against China. Japan responded by leaving the League of Nations in March 1933, after four quiet years, the Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937 with Japanese forces invading China. The League of Nations condemned Japans actions and initiated sanctions on Japan, the United States, in particular, was angered at Japan and sought to support China. In March 1939, Germany took over Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich Agreement signed six months before, Britain and France decided that Hitler had no intention to uphold diplomatic agreements and responded by preparing for war. On 31 March 1939, Britain formed the Anglo-Polish military alliance in an effort to avert a German attack on the country, also, the French had a long-standing alliance with Poland since 1921. The Soviet Union sought an alliance with the powers. The agreement secretly divided the independent nations of eastern Europe between the two powers and assured adequate oil supplies for the German war machine, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. Then, on 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, a Polish government-in-exile was set up and it continued to be one of the Allies, a model followed by other occupied countries. After a quiet winter, Germany in April 1940 invaded and quickly defeated Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Britain and its Empire stood alone against Hitler and Mussolini
13.
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
14.
Military glider
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Military gliders have been used by the military of various countries for carrying troops and heavy equipment to a combat zone, mainly during the Second World War. The one-way nature of the missions meant that they were treated as disposable leading to construction from common, troops landing by glider were referred to as air-landing as opposed to paratroops. Landing by parachute caused the troops to be spread over a large drop-zone and separated from other airdropped equipment, such as vehicles, gliders, on the other hand, could land troops and ancillaries in greater concentrations precisely at the target landing area. Furthermore, the glider, once released at some distance from the target, was effectively silent. Larger gliders were developed to land heavy equipment like anti-tank guns, anti-aircraft guns, small vehicles, such as jeeps and this heavier equipment made otherwise lightly armed paratroop forces a much more capable force. The Soviets also experimented with ways to light tanks by air, including the Antonov A-40. By the time of the Korean War, helicopters had largely replaced gliders, helicopters have the advantage of being able to extract soldiers, in addition to delivering them to the battlefield with more precision. Also, advances in powered transport aircraft had made, to the extent that even light tanks could be dropped by parachute. Only special forces use gliders for silent, small-scale insertion today, the development of modern gliders was spurred by the Versailles Treaty following World War I, under the terms of which Germany was prohibited from constructing certain high powered airplanes. The early sporting objectives of gliders were quickly overtaken in the Soviet Union and in Germany by military applications, by 1934, the Soviet Union had ten gliding schools and 57,000 glider pilots had gained licences. In 1932, the Soviet Union demonstrated the TsK Komsula, a four-place glider, larger gliders were then developed culminating in an 18-seater at the military institute in Leningrad in 1935. Luftwaffe Colonel Kurt Student visited Moscow as part of the military collaboration programme with the Soviet Union and he reported back to his superiors in Berlin details of a 1,500 man parachute drop and the large transport gliders that he had seen. The Luftwaffe opened a school as a result in 1937. Further field testing convinced Student that a vehicle was needed to deliver the weapons for the lightly armed parachute troops. This idea was dismissed until October 1938 by which time Student had risen to major-general and was appointed Inspector of Airborne Forces. Development of a glider was assigned to Hans Jacobs of the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug to develop the DFS230 which could carry 9–10 fully equipped troops or 1,200 kg. Ten gliders landed on the roof of the fortress. Only twenty minutes after landing the force had neutralized the fortress at a cost of six dead, Hitler was anxious to gain maximum publicity and so several foreign attachés were given guided tours of the fortress
15.
Astrodome (aeronautics)
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An astrodome is a hemispherical transparent dome fitted in the cabin roof of an aircraft to allow the use of a sextant during astro-navigation. To do this requires a 360-degree view of the horizon and the astrodome was devised to allow a view of the sky from horizon to horizon. In the 1950s and 60s, the use of astrodomes in aircraft was phased out as radionavigation. Astrodomes did, however, enjoy a career on ocean racing yachts. Not only could he use it for sextant astro-navigation, but it provided a place from which he could steer his yacht during a stormy race. This was quite useful, as his wind-vane autopilot had broken down
16.
Santa Monica, California
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Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. The Census Bureau population for Santa Monica in 2010 was 89,736, due in part to an agreeable climate, Santa Monica became a famed resort town by the early 20th century. The city has experienced a boom since the late 1980s through the revitalization of its core, significant job growth. The Santa Monica Pier remains a popular and iconic destination, Santa Monica was long inhabited by the Tongva people. Santa Monica was called Kecheek in the Tongva language, the first non-indigenous group to set foot in the area was the party of explorer Gaspar de Portolà, who camped near the present-day intersection of Barrington and Ohio Avenues on August 3,1769. Named after the Christian saint Monica, there are two different accounts of how the name came to be. One says it was named in honor of the feast day of Saint Monica, another version says it was named by Juan Crespí on account of a pair of springs, the Kuruvungna Springs, that were reminiscent of the tears Saint Monica shed over her sons early impiety. In Los Angeles, several battles were fought by the Californios, following the Mexican–American War, Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which gave Mexicans and Californios living in state certain unalienable rights. US government sovereignty in California began on February 2,1848, in the 1870s the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad, connected Santa Monica with Los Angeles, and a wharf out into the bay. The first town hall was a modest 1873 brick building, later a beer hall and it is Santa Monicas oldest extant structure. By 1885, the towns first hotel was the Santa Monica Hotel, around the start of the 20th century, a growing population of Asian Americans lived in and around Santa Monica and Venice. A Japanese fishing village was near the Long Wharf while small numbers of Chinese lived or worked in Santa Monica, the two ethnic minorities were often viewed differently by White Americans who were often well-disposed towards the Japanese but condescending towards the Chinese. The Japanese village fishermen were an economic part of the Santa Monica Bay community. Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. built a plant in 1922 at Clover Field for the Douglas Aircraft Company, in 1924, four Douglas-built planes took off from Clover Field to attempt the first aerial circumnavigation of the world. Two planes returned after covering 27,553 miles in 175 days, the Douglas Company kept facilities in the city until the 1960s. The Great Depression hit Santa Monica deeply, one report gives citywide employment in 1933 of just 1,000. Hotels and office building owners went bankrupt, in the 1930s, corruption infected Santa Monica. The federal Works Project Administration helped build several buildings, most notably City Hall, the main Post Office and Barnum Hall were also among other WPA projects
17.
Long Beach, California
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Long Beach is the 36th most populous city in the United States and the 7th most populous in California. It is located on the Pacific Coast of the United States, as of 2010, its population was 462,257. Long Beach is the second largest city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the Port of Long Beach is the second busiest container port in the United States and is among the worlds largest shipping ports. The city also maintains a progressively declining oil industry with minor wells located both directly beneath the city as well as offshore, manufacturing sectors include those in aircraft, automotive parts, electronic equipment, audiovisual equipment, petrochemicals, precision metals and home furnishings. Long Beach lies in the corner of Los Angeles County. Downtown Long Beach is approximately 22 miles south of Downtown Los Angeles, indigenous people have lived in coastal Southern California for over 10,000 years, and several successive cultures have inhabited the present-day area of Long Beach. By the 16th-century arrival of Spanish explorers, the dominant group were the Tongva people and they had at least three major settlements within the present-day city. Tevaaxaanga was a settlement near the Los Angeles River, while Ahwaanga and Povuunga were coastal villages. Along with other Tongva villages, they were forced to relocate in the century due to missionization, political change. In 1784 the Spanish Empires King Carlos III granted Rancho Los Nietos to Spanish soldier Manuel Nieto, the Rancho Los Cerritos and Rancho Los Alamitos were divided from this territory. The boundary between the two ran through the center of Signal Hill on a southwest to northeast diagonal. A portion of western Long Beach was originally part of the Rancho San Pedro and its boundaries were in dispute for years, due to flooding changing the Los Angeles River boundary, between the ranchos of Juan Jose Dominguez and Manuel Nieto. In 1843 Jonathan Temple bought Rancho Los Cerritos, having arrived in California in 1827 from New England and he built what is now known as the Los Cerritos Ranch House, a still-standing adobe which is a National Historic Landmark. Temple created a cattle ranch and prospered, becoming the wealthiest man in Los Angeles County. Both Temple and his house played important local roles in the Mexican–American War. On an island in the San Pedro Bay, Mormon pioneers made an attempt to establish a colony. Two years previous Flint, Bixby & Co had also purchased along with Northern California associate James Irvine, to manage Rancho Los Cerritos, the company selected Lewellyns brother Jotham Bixby, the Father of Long Beach. Three years later Bixby bought into the property and would form the Bixby Land Company
18.
Oklahoma City
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Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U. S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 27th among United States cities in population, the population grew following the 2010 Census, with the population estimated to have increased to 631,346 as of July 2015. Oklahoma Citys city limits extend into Canadian, Cleveland, and Pottawatomie counties, the city ranks as the eighth-largest city in the United States by land area. Oklahoma City has the largest municipal population of any city in the Great Plains region of the central United States as well as all neighboring states to Oklahoma, excluding Texas, lying in the Great Plains region, Oklahoma City features one of the largest livestock markets in the world. Oil, natural gas, petroleum products and related industries are the largest sector of the local economy, the city is situated in the middle of an active oil field and oil derricks dot the capitol grounds. The federal government employs large numbers of workers at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma City is on the I-35 Corridor, which is one of the primary travel corridors south into neighboring Texas and Mexico and north towards Wichita and Kansas City. Located in the Frontier Country region of the state, the citys northeast section lies in a region known as the Cross Timbers. The city was founded during the Land Run of 1889, the city was the scene of the April 19,1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, in which 168 people died. It was the deadliest terror attack in the history of the United States until the attacks of September 11,2001, and remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U. S. history. Oklahoma City was settled on April 22,1889, when the known as the Unassigned Lands was opened for settlement in an event known as The Land Run. Some 10,000 homesteaders settled the area that would become the capital of Oklahoma, the town grew quickly, the population doubled between 1890 and 1900. Early leaders of the development of the city included Anton Classen, John Shartel, Henry Overholser, by the time Oklahoma was admitted to the Union in 1907, Oklahoma City had surpassed Guthrie, the territorial capital, as the population center and commercial hub of the new state. Soon after, the capital was moved from Guthrie to Oklahoma City, before World War II, Oklahoma City developed major stockyards, attracting jobs and revenue formerly in Chicago and Omaha, Nebraska. With the 1928 discovery of oil within the city limits, Oklahoma City became a center of oil production. Post-war growth accompanied the construction of the Interstate Highway System, which made Oklahoma City a major interchange as the convergence of I-35, I-40 and it was also aided by federal development of Tinker Air Force Base. In 1950, the Census Bureau reported citys population as 8. 6% black and 90. 7% white, patience Latting was elected Mayor of Oklahoma City in 1971, becoming the citys first female mayor. Latting was also the first woman to serve as mayor of a U. S. city with over 350,000 residents. As with many other American cities, center city population declined in the 1970s and 1980s as families followed newly constructed highways to move to housing in nearby suburbs
19.
Pathfinder (military)
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During the Second World War small groups of parachute soldiers were formed into pathfinder units, to parachute ahead of the main force. Their tasks were to mark the drop zones or landing zones, set up radio beacons as a guide for the carrying the main force and to clear. The units were formed two companies to work with the two British airborne divisions created during the war, the 1st and 6th, both of which were to serve with distinction. The 22nd Independent Parachute Company was raised in May 1943 and was part of the 6th Airborne Division and they then took part in Operation Slapstick, part of the Allied invasion of Italy, landing by sea at Taranto on 9 September. Held in reserve and unused for the Allied invasion of Normandy, after marking the DZs and LZs the company was trapped with the rest of the division in the Oosterbeek Perimeter, suffering heavy casualties in what is now known as the Battle of Arnhem. The company did not see any action in the war. It was then attached to the 6th Airborne Division, then serving in Mandate Palestine where it was serving in September 1946. The 22nd Independent Parachute Company were the elements of the 6th Airborne Divisions drop into Normandy as part of Operation Tonga in the early hours of D-Day,6 June 1944. Post war the Regular Armys parachute force was reduced to the 16th Parachute Brigade, to provide this formation with a pathfinder capacity the Guards Independent Parachute Company was formed in 1948 on the disbandment of Composite Guards Parachute Battalion. The Company deployed on a variety of operations between 1948 and 1977. The pathfinder role in the Territorial Army, the British Armys part-time reserve, was continued by 16 Independent Parachute Company as part of 44th Parachute Brigade, the 16 Air Assault Brigade employs elite pathfinders in their Pathfinder Platoon. The pathfinder teams were made up of a group of eight to twelve pathfinders and these navigational aids included compass beacons, colored panels, Eureka radar sets, and colored smoke. When they jumped, the many times would encounter less resistance than the follow-up waves of paratroopers. Once the main body jumped, the pathfinders then joined their original units, the first two U. S. airborne campaigns, the drops into North Africa and Sicily did not make use of pathfinders. The next major operation took place in the invasion of Sicily in July 1943. Many of the problems were encountered, as the men were scattered as far as 65 miles from their drop zones, due to high winds. In fact, some of the paratroopers landed so far off course that it would be a matter of weeks before finally found their way back to Allied lines. In a history of the 509th PIBs wartime actions titled Stand in the Door, the wartime history of the 509th Parachute Infantry, authors and 509th veterans Charles H. Doyle and Terrell Stewart described how their unit formed the first U. S. Army pathfinder unit
20.
Normandy landings
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The Normandy landings were the landing operations on Tuesday,6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. The largest seaborne invasion in history, the operation began the liberation of German-occupied northwestern Europe from Nazi control, planning for the operation began in 1943. Adolf Hitler placed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in command of German forces, the amphibious landings were preceded by extensive aerial and naval bombardment and an airborne assault—the landing of 24,000 American, British, and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight. Allied infantry and armoured divisions began landing on the coast of France at 06,30, the target 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast was divided into five sectors, Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. Strong winds blew the landing craft east of their positions, particularly at Utah. Casualties were heaviest at Omaha, with its high cliffs, at Gold, Juno, and Sword, several fortified towns were cleared in house-to-house fighting, and two major gun emplacements at Gold were disabled, using specialised tanks. The Allies failed to any of their goals on the first day. Carentan, St. Lô, and Bayeux remained in German hands, and Caen, German casualties on D-Day have been estimated at 4,000 to 9,000 men. Allied casualties were at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead, museums, memorials, and war cemeteries in the area now host many visitors each year. Between 27 May and 4 June 1940, over 338,000 troops of the British Expeditionary Force, after the German Army invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin began pressing his allies for the creation of a second front in western Europe. In late May 1942 the Soviet Union and the United States made a joint announcement that a. full understanding was reached with regard to the urgent tasks of creating a front in Europe in 1942. Instead of a return to France, the Western Allies staged offensives in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations. By mid-1943 the campaign in North Africa had been won, the Allies then launched the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and subsequently invaded Italy in September the same year. By then, Soviet forces were on the offensive and had won a victory at the Battle of Stalingrad. The decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion within the year was taken at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. Initial planning was constrained by the number of landing craft, most of which were already committed in the Mediterranean. At the Tehran Conference in November 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill promised Stalin that they would open the second front in May 1944. Four sites were considered for the landings, Brittany, the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy, as Brittany and Cotentin are peninsulas, it would have been possible for the Germans to cut off the Allied advance at a relatively narrow isthmus, so these sites were rejected
21.
RAF North Witham
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RAF North Witham is a former World War II airfield in Lincolnshire, England. During the war it was used primarily as a transport airfield, after the war it was closed in late 1945. Today the remains of the airfield are mostly maintained by the Forestry Commission with the old concrete runways still accessible. North Witham was known as USAAF Station AAF-479 for security reasons by the USAAF during the war and its USAAF Station Code was NW. North Witham was allocated to the USAAF Troop Carrier Command in August 1943 and its immediate task was to distribute transport aircraft and the means of maintaining them to operational groups of the USAAF. USAAF C-47 maintenance repair activities continued at North Witham until May 1945, on 1 June 1945 the station was handed over to No.40 Group, RAF Maintenance Command. Part of it is now a reserve for butterflies and the concrete is slowly being broken up, ghostly outlines of large numbers of loop dispersal hardstands can be seen in aerial photography, with the perimeter track being reduced to a single lane road. The runway pattern can clearly be seen, some remaining at full width. All of the runway sections are in a very deteriorated condition. However, the end of the airfield is something of an industrial estate with large numbers of grain silos. In addition, there appears to be a large graveyard of ex MOD equipment. The airfields proximity to a junction of the A1 road means that development is pressing against the wood from the north-west. Nonetheless the derelict control tower remains and on a summers day, on the runway, in the quiet of the trees. List of former Royal Air Force stations 82d Airborne Division also flew from RAF Folkingham, 101st Airborne Division This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http, //www. afhra. af. mil/. Bruce Barrymore Halpenny Actions Stations 2 ISBN 1-85260-405-0, Forestry Commission website, Twyford Wood wildlife Freeman, Roger A. UK Airfields of the Ninth, Then and Now 1994. After the Battle ISBN 0-900913-80-0 Chorlton, Martyn O Paths in the Wood, Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama, Office of Air Force History
22.
Guadalcanal Campaign
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It was the first major offensive by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan. The Allies also intended to use Guadalcanal and Tulagi as bases to support a campaign to capture or neutralize the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain. Powerful American and Australian naval forces supported the landings, surprised by the Allied offensive, the Japanese made several attempts between August and November to retake Henderson Field. In December, the Japanese abandoned their efforts to retake Guadalcanal and evacuated their forces by 7 February 1943. The Guadalcanal campaign was a significant strategic combined arms Allied victory in the Pacific theater, along with the Battle of Midway, it has been called a turning point in the war against Japan. The Japanese had reached the peak of their conquests in the Pacific, on 7 December 1941, Japanese forces attacked the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack crippled much of the U. S. battleship fleet and precipitated an open, to further those goals, Japanese forces captured the Philippines, Thailand, Malaya, Singapore, Burma, the Dutch East Indies, Wake Island, Gilbert Islands, New Britain and Guam. Joining the U. S. in the war against Japan were the rest of the Allied powers, several of whom, including the United Kingdom, Australia, coral Sea was a tactical stalemate, but a strategic Allied victory which became clear only much later. Up to this point, the Allies had been on the defensive in the Pacific, originally the objectives were the occupation of the Santa Cruz Islands, codenamed Huddle, Tulagi, codenamed Watchtower, and adjacent positions. Guadalcanal, eventually the focus of the operation, was not even mentioned in the early directive, the Imperial Japanese Navy had occupied Tulagi in May 1942 and had constructed a seaplane base nearby. By August 1942, the Japanese had about 900 naval troops on Tulagi and these bases would protect Japans major base at Rabaul, threaten Allied supply and communication lines and establish a staging area for a planned offensive against Fiji, New Caledonia and Samoa. The Japanese planned to deploy 45 fighters and 60 bombers to Guadalcanal, in the overall strategy for 1942 these aircraft could provide air cover for Japanese naval forces advancing farther into the South Pacific. The Allied plan to invade the southern Solomons was conceived by U. S. Admiral Ernest King, Commander in Chief, United States Fleet. He proposed the offensive to deny the use of the islands by the Japanese as bases to threaten the supply routes between the United States and Australia and to use them as starting points. With US President Franklin D. Roosevelts tacit consent, King also advocated the invasion of Guadalcanal, an early obstacle was a desire by both the Army and Roosevelt to initiate action in Europe. The directive held that the goal was the American reconquest of the Philippines. Joint Chiefs of Staff created the South Pacific theater, with Vice Admiral Robert L. Ghormley taking command on 19 June 1942, Admiral Chester Nimitz, based at Pearl Harbor, was designated as overall Allied commander in chief for Pacific forces. In preparation for the offensive in the Pacific in May 1942, other Allied land, naval and air force units were sent to establish or reinforce bases in Fiji, Samoa, New Hebrides and New Caledonia
23.
New Guinea
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New Guinea is a large Island in the South West Pacific region. It is the worlds second-largest island, after Greenland, covering an area of 785,753 km2. The island is divided between two countries, Papua New Guinea to the east, and Indonesia to the west, the island has been known by various names. The name Papua was used to refer to parts of the island before contact with the West and its etymology is unclear, one theory states that it is from Tidore, the language used by the Sultanate of Tidore, which controlled parts of the islands coastal region. The name came from papo and ua, which means not united or, ploeg reports that the word papua is often said to derive from the Malay word papua or pua-pua, meaning frizzly-haired, referring to the highly curly hair of the inhabitants of these areas. When the Portuguese and Spanish explorers arrived in the island via the Spice Islands, when the Dutch colonized it as part of Netherlands East Indies, they called it Nieuw Guinea. The name Irian was used in the Indonesian language to refer the island and Indonesian province, the name was promoted in 1945 by Marcus Kaisiepo, brother of the future governor Frans Kaisiepo. It is taken from the Biak language of Biak Island, and means to rise and this name of Irian is the name used in the Biak language and other languages such as Serui, Merauke and Waropen. The name was used until 2001, when the name Papua was again used for the island, the name Irian, which was originally favored by natives, is now considered to be a name imposed by the authority of Jakarta. New Guinea is an island to the north of Australia, and it is isolated by the Arafura Sea to the west and the Torres Strait and Coral Sea to the east. A spine of east–west mountains, the New Guinea Highlands, dominates the geography of New Guinea, stretching over 1,600 km from the head to the tail of the island. The western half of the island of New Guinea contains the highest mountains in Oceania, rising up to 4,884 m high, the tree line is around 4,000 m elevation and the tallest peaks contain permanent equatorial glaciers—which have been retreating since at least 1936. Various other smaller mountain ranges occur both north and west of the central ranges, except in high elevations, most areas possess a warm humid climate throughout the year, with some seasonal variation associated with the northeast monsoon season. At 4,884 metres, Puncak Jaya makes New Guinea the worlds fourth highest landmass, Puncak Mandala, located in Papua, is the second highest peak on the island at 4,760 metres. Puncak Trikora, also in Papua, is 4,750 metres, mount Wilhelm is the highest peak on the PNG side of the border at 4,509 metres. Its granite peak is the highest point of the Bismarck Range, mount Giluwe 4,368 metres is the second highest summit in PNG. It is also the highest volcanic peak in Oceania, another major habitat feature is the vast southern and northern lowlands. Stretching for hundreds of kilometres, these include lowland rainforests, extensive wetlands, savanna grasslands, the southern lowlands are the site of Lorentz National Park, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site
24.
Burma Campaign
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The Burmese Independence Army was trained by the Japanese and spearheaded the initial attacks against British Empire forces. The campaign had a number of notable features, the geographical characteristics of the region meant that factors like weather, disease and terrain had a major effect on operations. The lack of transport infrastructure placed an emphasis on engineering and air transport to move and supply troops. The campaign was politically complex, with the British, the United States. It was also the land campaign by the Western Allies in the Pacific Theatre which proceeded continuously from the start of hostilities to the end of the war. This was due to its geographical location, the climate of the region is dominated by the seasonal monsoon rains, which allowed effective campaigning for only just over half of each year. Japanese objectives in Burma were initially limited to the capture of Rangoon and this would close the overland supply line to China and provide a strategic bulwark to defend Japanese gains in British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. The Japanese successfully attacked over the Kawkareik Pass, and captured the port of Moulmein at the mouth of the Salween River after overcoming stiff resistance and they then advanced northwards, outflanking successive British defensive positions. Troops of the 17th Indian Infantry Division tried to retreat over the Sittaung River, on 22 February, the bridge was demolished to prevent its capture, a decision that has since been extremely contentious. The loss of two brigades of 17th Indian Division meant that Rangoon could not be defended, although some units arrived, counterattacks failed and the new commander of Burma Army, ordered the city to be evacuated on 7 March after its port and oil refinery had been destroyed. The remnants of Burma Army broke out to the north, narrowly escaping encirclement, with the effective collapse of the entire defensive line, there was little choice left other than an overland retreat to India or to Yunnan. After the fall of Rangoon in March 1942, the Allies attempted to make a stand in the north of the country, having been reinforced by a Chinese Expeditionary Force. The Japanese had also reinforced by two divisions made available by the capture of Singapore, and defeated both the newly organised Burma Corps and the Chinese force. The Allies were also faced with growing numbers of Burmese insurgents, with their forces cut off from almost all sources of supply, the Allied commanders finally decided to evacuate their forces from Burma. The retreat was conducted in very difficult circumstances, starving refugees, disorganised stragglers, and the sick and wounded clogged the primitive roads and tracks leading to India. Burma Corps managed to make it most of the way to Imphal, in Manipur in India just before the monsoon broke in May 1942, having lost most of their equipment, there, they found themselves living out in the open under torrential rains in extremely unhealthy circumstances. The army and civil authorities in India were very slow to respond to the needs of the troops, due to lack of communication, when the British retreated from Burma, almost none of the Chinese knew about the retreat. After recuperating they were re-equipped and retrained by American instructors, the rest of the Chinese troops tried to return to Yunnan through remote mountainous forests and out of these, at least half died
25.
Siege of Bastogne
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The Siege of Bastogne was an engagement in December 1944 between American and German forces at the Belgian town of Bastogne, as part of the larger Battle of the Bulge. The goal of the German offensive was the harbour at Antwerp, in order to reach it before the Allies could regroup and bring their superior air power to bear, German mechanized forces had to seize the roadways through eastern Belgium. The siege was from 20 to 27 December, until the besieged American forces were relieved by elements of General George Pattons Third Army. After the successful invasion of Normandy and the subsequent eastward push through France, the valuable port city of Antwerp had been captured during the push, and by the time winter arrived, the Allies even had control of German territory near the city of Aachen. Despite major misgivings from his commanders, including Gerd von Rundstedt and Walther Model, the plan was not modified. Meanwhile, the Allied commanders considered the Ardennes area to be unsuitable for a large-scale German attack, the Allies believed only an infantry division was present opposite the 28th Infantry, and they believed any attack along this sector would be limited in scale. The seven roads in and out of Bastogne were critical to the movement of German armor, hasso von Manteuffel—commanding the 5th Panzer Army—gave Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz′s XLVII Panzer Corps the responsibility of capturing Bastogne, before crossing the Meuse near Namur. Lüttwitz planned to attack a 7 mi front with three divisions, the 26th Volksgrenadier and the 2nd Panzer would lead the assault, with the Panzer-Lehr-Division behind them. The Allied forces were gathered into groups at major Luxembourgish villages. The forces were too thin to maintain an even battle line, the 2nd Panzer Division was assigned to cross the river along this road, while the 26th Volksgrenadier Division would construct a bridge near Gemünd for its crossing. Lüttwitz realized the importance of the network of Bastogne—he knew that the town had to be captured before his corps could venture too far westward. Therefore, he ordered the Panzer-Lehr Division to push forward to Bastogne as soon as his troops had crossed the Clerf River in Northern Luxembourg. On the evening of 15 December, the 26th Volksgrenadier established an outpost line on the west bank of the Our, at 03,00, engineers began ferrying men and equipment over the river where they began assembling at the departure point, quite close to the American garrisons. At 05,30, the German artillery began bombarding the American positions, knocking out telephone lines, the Germans attacked swiftly, their advances made possible by sheer weight of numbers. German engineers completed bridges over the Our before dark, and armor began moving to the front, but in the end, the Germans were significantly delayed by the American defenders—their plan to cross the Clerf River by nightfall on the first day was delayed by two days. On 19 December, the 28th Division command post transferred to Bastogne from Wiltz, at Wiltz, the division put up its last stand, 3rd Battalion of the 110th—supported by armor and artillery—arrived at the town around noon of that day. The 44th Engineer Battalion was set up north of the town and this small force—numbering no more than 500 in total—held out until the evening, when their position became completely untenable and they retreated to the west. With the 110th Infantry completely destroyed as a combat unit, it would be up to the rest of the Allied army to defend Bastogne
26.
The Hump
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Flying over the Himalayas was extremely dangerous and made more difficult by a lack of reliable charts, an absence of radio navigation aids, and a dearth of information about the weather. The task was given to the AAFs Tenth Air Force. The operation began in April 1942, after the Japanese blocked the Burma Road, and continued daily to August 1945, final operations were flown in November 1945 to return personnel from China. The India-China airlift delivered approximately 650,000 tons of materiel to China at great cost in men, the Japanese invasion of French Indochina closed all sea and rail access routes for supplying China with materiel except through Turkestan in the Soviet Union. That access ended following the signing of the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941, the rapid success of Japanese military operations in Southeast Asia threatened this lifeline, prompting discussion of an air cargo service route from India as early as January 1942. Chiangs foreign minister, T. V. Soong, estimated that 12,000 tons of materiel could be delivered monthly by air from India if 100 C-47 Skytrain-type transports were committed to an airlift. The original scheme envisioned the Allies holding northern Burma and using Myitkyina as a terminal to send supplies by barge downriver to Bhamo. However, on 8 May 1942 the Japanese seized Myitkyina and this, coupled with the loss of Rangoon, to maintain the uninterrupted supply to China, U. S. and other allied leaders agreed to organize a continual aerial resupply effort directly between Assam and Kunming. Tenth Air Force was hampered by a constant diversion of men and aircraft to Egypt and its Air Service Command was still en route by ship from the United States, forcing it to get aircraft and personnel for the India-China Ferry from any available source. Ten former Pan American World Airways DC-3s and flight crews were sent from the ferry route to outfit the new operation. Armys Services of Supply, commanded in the CBI by Maj. Gen. Raymond A. Wheeler, the airlift was the final leg of a journey of 12,000 mi from Los Angeles to China often taking four months. Col. Robert L. Scott, a pursuit pilot awaiting an assignment in China, was assigned as his operations officer and a month later as executive officer. Haynes was a choice to be the airlifts first commander. However, at the time the India-China Ferry was conceived, the ABC Ferry Command was not prepared to plan, control and its formal organization was minimal, it had no units of its own, and its few aircraft were committed to establishing air transport routes. By June, however, the ABC Ferry Command had begun a greatly expanded wartime restructuring, the first mission over the hump took place on 8 April 1942. Flying from the Royal Air Force airfield at Dinjan, Lt. Col. William D, old used a pair of the former Pan Am DC-3s to ferry 8,000 U. S. gallons of aviation fuel intended to resupply the Doolittle Raiders. The collapse of Allied resistance in northern Burma in May 1942 meant further diversion of the already minuscule air effort, only two-thirds of the aircraft were serviceable at any time. Dinjan was within range of Japanese fighters now based at Myitkyina, forcing all-night maintenance operations, the official history of the Army Air Forces states, The Brahmaputra valley floor lies 90 feet above sea level at Chabua
27.
India
–
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
28.
China
–
China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
29.
Berlin Airlift
–
The Berlin Blockade was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies railway, road, the Soviets offered to drop the blockade if the Western Allies withdrew the newly introduced Deutsche mark from West Berlin. In response, the Western Allies organized the Berlin airlift to carry supplies to the people of West Berlin, the Soviets did not disrupt the airlift for fear this might lead to open conflict. By the spring of 1949, the airlift was clearly succeeding, on 12 May 1949, the USSR lifted the blockade of West Berlin. The Berlin Blockade served to highlight the ideological and economic visions for postwar Europe. These zones were located roughly around the then-current locations of the allied armies, also divided into occupation zones, Berlin was located 100 miles inside Soviet-controlled eastern Germany. The United States, United Kingdom, and France controlled western portions of the city, factories, equipment, technicians, managers and skilled personnel were removed to the Soviet Union. Stalin and other leaders told visiting Bulgarian and Yugoslavian delegations in early 1946 that Germany must be both Soviet and communist, a further factor contributing to the Blockade was that there had never been a formal agreement guaranteeing rail and road access to Berlin through the Soviet zone. At the end of the war, western leaders had relied on Soviet goodwill to them with access. The Soviets also granted only three air corridors for access to Berlin from Hamburg, Bückeburg and Frankfurt, in response, the Soviets started a public relations campaign against American policy and began to obstruct the administrative work of all four zones of occupation. Until the blockade began in 1948, the Truman Administration had not decided whether American forces should remain in West Berlin after the establishment of a West German government, Berlin quickly became the focal point of both US and Soviet efforts to re-align Europe to their respective visions. As Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov noted, What happens to Berlin, happens to Germany, what happens to Germany, Berlin had suffered enormous damage, its prewar population of 4.3 million people was reduced to 2.8 million. After harsh treatment, forced emigration, political repression and the hard winter of 1945–1946. Local elections in 1946 resulted in a massive anti-communist protest vote, Berlins citizens overwhelmingly elected non-Communist members to its city council. Meanwhile, to coordinate the economies of the British and United States occupation zones, after March 1946 the British zonal advisory board was established, with representatives of the states, the central offices, political parties, trade unions, and consumer organisations. As indicated by its name, the advisory board had no legislative power. The Control Commission for Germany – British Element made all decisions with its legislative power and it created its own central bodies headed by a secretariat seated in Stuttgart. Eventually the London Agreement on German External Debts, also known as the London Debt Agreement, was concluded, in response to the announcement of the first of these meetings, in late January 1948, the Soviets began stopping British and American trains to Berlin to check passenger identities
30.
Douglas C-54 Skymaster
–
The Douglas C-54 Skymaster was a four-engined transport aircraft used by the United States Army Air Forces in World War II and the Korean War. Like the Douglas C-47 Skytrain, the C-54 Skymaster was derived from a civilian airliner, besides transport of cargo, the C-54 also carried presidents, prime ministers, and military staff. Dozens of variants of the C-54 were employed in a variety of non-combat roles such as air-sea rescue, scientific and military research. During the Berlin Airlift it hauled coal and food supplies to West Berlin, after the Korean War it continued to be used for military and civilian uses by more than 30 countries. This was one of the first aircraft to carry the President of the United States, the first, a C-54, flew from Clover Field in Santa Monica, California on 14 February 1942. To meet military requirements the first civil aircraft had four additional auxiliary fuel tanks in the main cabin which reduced the passenger seats to 26. The following batch of aircraft were designated C-54A and were built with a floor, cargo door with a hoist. The first C-54A was delivered in February 1943, with the introduction of the C-54B in March 1944 the outer wings were changed to hold integral fuel tanks allowing two of the cabin tanks to be removed, this allowed 49-seats to be fitted. The C-54C was a hybrid for Presidential use, it had a C-54A fuselage with four fuel tanks. The most common variant was the C-54D which entered service in August 1944, with the C-54E the last two cabin fuel tanks were moved to the wings which would allow more freight or 44 passenger seats. Aircraft transferred to the United States Navy were designated Douglas R5D, with the introduction of the Tri-Service aircraft designation system in 1962, all R5Ds were re-designated C-54. C-54s began service with the USAAF in 1942, carrying up to 26 passengers, the C-54 was one of the most commonly used long-range transports by the U. S. armed forces in World War II. Of the C-54s produced,515 were manufactured in Santa Monica, California and 655 were manufactured at Orchard Place/Douglas Field, in unincorporated Cook County, Illinois, during World War II, the C-54 was used by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Douglas MacArthur, and Winston Churchill. The American delegates to the Casablanca Conference used the Skymaster, the C-54 was also used by the Royal Air Force, the French Air Force, and the armed forces of at least 12 other nations. More than 300 C-54s and R5Ds formed the backbone of the US contribution to the Berlin Airlift in 1948 and they also served as the main airlift during the Korean War. After the Korean War, the C-54 was replaced by the Douglas C-124 Globemaster II, the last active C-54 Skymaster in U. S. Navy service was retired on 2 April 1974. In late 1945, several hundred C-54s were surplus to U. S. military requirements, the aircraft were sold to airlines around the world. By January 1946, Pan American Airways was operating their Skymasters on transatlantic scheduled services to Europe, trans-Pacific schedules from San Francisco to Auckland began on 6 June 1946
31.
Paratrooper
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Paratroopers are military parachutists — military personnel trained in parachuting into an operation and usually functioning as part of an airborne force. Military parachutists and parachutes were first used on a large scale during World War II for troop distribution and transportation, Paratroopers are often used to seize strategic objectives such as airfields or bridges. They are used for tactical advantage as they can be inserted into the battlefield from the air and they jump out of airplanes using their parachutes to land safely on the ground. It is one of the three types of forced entry strategic techniques for entering a theater of war, the two are by land and sea. Another common use for paratroopers is to establish an airhead for landing other units and this doctrine was first practically applied to warfare by the Italians and the Soviets. During World War II, however, the two countries ground forces were overstretched, leaving their elite paratroopers to be employed as regular infantry. The first extensive use of paratroopers was by the Germans during World War II and later in the war also by the Americans, owing to the limited capacity of cargo aircraft of the period they rarely, if ever, jumped in groups much larger than 20 from one aircraft. In English language parlance, this load of paratroopers is called a stick, the terms come from the common use of white chalk on the sides of aircraft and vehicles to mark and update numbers of personnel and equipment being emplaned. In World War II, paratroopers most often used parachutes of a circular or round design and these parachutes could be steered to a small degree by pulling on the risers and suspension lines which attach to the parachute canopy itself. German paratroopers, whose harnesses had only a single riser attached at the back, today, paratroopers still use round parachutes, or round parachutes modified as to be more fully controlled with toggles. The parachutes are deployed by a static line. Mobility of the parachutes is often limited to prevent scattering of the troops when a large number parachute together. Some military exhibition units and special forces units use ram-air parachutes, many countries have one or several paratrooper units, usually associated to the national Army or Air Force, but in some cases to the Navy. Argentina was the first country on the continent of South America to use Paratroopers, the first paratroopers were issued jump helmets similar to that used by the British at the time, as the rest of the equipment slightly based on the Fallschirmjäger. The 4th Parachute Brigade is a unit of the Argentine Army specialised in airborne assault operations and it is based in Córdoba, Córdoba Province. The Rapid Deployment Force is based on this unit, the members of the unit wear Boina Rojas of the paratroopers with unit badges. During the Second World War the Australian Army formed the 1st Parachute Battalion, however, in the post-war period Australias parachute capability was primarily maintained by special forces units. In the 1970s and 1980s a parachute capability was revived, while a Parachute Battalion Group based on the 3rd Battalion
32.
Allied invasion of Sicily
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The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II, in which the Allies took the island of Sicily from the Axis powers. It was an amphibious and airborne operation, followed by a six-week land campaign and was the beginning of the Italian Campaign. Husky began on the night of 9/10 July 1943, and ended on 17 August, the Italian leader, Benito Mussolini, was toppled from power in Italy and the way was opened for the Allied invasion of Italy. The German leader, Adolf Hitler, canceled a major offensive at Kursk after only a week, in part to divert forces to Italy, resulting in a reduction of German strength on the Eastern Front. The plan for Operation Husky called for the assault of Sicily by two Allied armies, one landing on the south-eastern and one on the central southern coast. The amphibious assaults were to be supported by gunfire, as well as tactical bombing, interdiction. As such, the operation required a complex structure, incorporating land, naval. The overall commander was American General Dwight D. Eisenhower, as Commander-in-Chief of all the Allied forces in North Africa, British General Sir Harold Alexander acted as his second-in-command and as the 15th Army Group commander. The American Major General Walter Bedell Smith was appointed as Eisenhowers Chief of Staff, the overall Naval Force Commander was the British Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham. The Allied land forces were from the American, British and Canadian armies, the Eastern Task Force was led by General Sir Bernard Montgomery and consisted of the British Eighth Army. The Western Task Force was commanded by Lieutenant General George S. Patton, the two task force commanders reported to Alexander as commander of the 15th Army Group. Seventh Army consisted initially of three divisions, organized under II Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General Omar Bradley. Middleton, sailed from the United States via Oran in Algeria, the 2nd Armored Division, under Major General Hugh Joseph Gaffey, also sailing from Oran, was to be a floating reserve and be fed into combat as required. On 15 July, Patton reorganized his command into two corps by creating a new Provisional Corps headquarters, commanded by his deputy army commander, Major General Geoffrey Keyes. The two divisions of XIII Corps, the 5th and 50th Infantry Divisions, commanded by Major-Generals Horatio Berney-Ficklin and Sidney Kirkman and this request was granted by the British, displacing the veteran British 3rd Infantry Division. The Red Patch Division was added to Leeses XXX Corps to become part of the British Eighth Army, in addition to the amphibious landings, airborne troops were to be flown in to support both the Western and Eastern Task Forces. To the east, the British 1st Airborne Division, commanded by Major-General George F. Hopkinson, was to seize vital bridges and high ground in support of the British Eighth Army. The initial plan dictated that the U. S. 82nd Airborne Division, Allied naval forces were also grouped into two task forces to transport and support the invading armies
33.
Invasion of Normandy
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The Western Allies of World War II launched the largest amphibious invasion in history when they assaulted Normandy, located on the northern coast of France, on 6 June 1944. The invaders were able to establish a beachhead as part of Operation Overlord after a successful D-Day, Allied land forces came from the United States, Britain, Canada, and Free French forces. The Normandy invasion began with overnight parachute and glider landings, massive air attacks, the invasion began and during the evening the remaining elements of the airborne divisions landed. Land forces used on D-Day sailed from bases along the south coast of England, Allied forces rehearsed their D-Day roles for months before the invasion. On 28 April 1944, in south Devon on the English coast,749 U. S. soldiers and sailors were killed when German torpedo boats surprised one of these landing exercises, Exercise Tiger. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allied forces conducted an operation, Operation Fortitude, aimed at misleading the Germans with respect to the date. There were several leaks prior to or on D-Day, through the Cicero affair, the Germans obtained documents containing references to Overlord, but these documents lacked all detail. Double Cross agents, such as the Spaniard Juan Pujol, played an important role in convincing the German High Command that Normandy was at best a diversionary attack. After being told, Eisenhower reduced Miller to lieutenant colonel and sent him back to the U. S. where he retired, another such leak was General Charles de Gaulles radio message after D-Day. He, unlike all the leaders, stated that this invasion was the real invasion. This had the potential to ruin the Allied deceptions Fortitude North, in contrast, Gen. Eisenhower referred to the landings as the initial invasion. A full moon occurred on 6 June, Allied Expeditionary Force Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower had tentatively selected 5 June as the date for the assault. The weather was fine during most of May, but deteriorated in early June, the Allied troop convoys already at sea were forced to take shelter in bays and inlets on the south coast of Britain for the night. It seemed possible that everything would have to be cancelled and the returned to their embarkation camps. The next full moon period would be nearly a month away, at a vital meeting on 5 June, Eisenhowers chief meteorologist forecast a brief improvement for 6 June. Commander of all forces for the invasion General Bernard Montgomery. Commander of the Allied Air Forces Air Chief Marshal Leigh Mallory was doubtful, on the strength of Staggs forecast, Eisenhower ordered the invasion to proceed. As a result, prevailing overcast skies limited Allied air support, some troops stood down and many senior officers were away for the weekend
34.
Pacific War
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The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in the Pacific and East Asia. It was fought over a vast area that included the Pacific Ocean and islands, the South West Pacific, South-East Asia, and in China. The Pacific War saw the Allied powers pitted against the Empire of Japan, the formal and official surrender of Japan took place aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. In Allied countries during the war, The Pacific War was not usually distinguished from World War II in general, or was known simply as the War against Japan. Japan used the name Greater East Asia War, as chosen by a decision on 10 December 1941. Japanese officials integrated what they called the Japan–China Incident into the Greater East Asia War, in Japan, the Fifteen Years War is also used, referring to the period from the Mukden Incident of 1931 through 1945. The Phayap Army sent troops to invade and occupy northeastern Burma, also involved were the Japanese puppet states of Manchukuo and Mengjiang, and the collaborationist Wang Jingwei regime. The official policy of the U. S. Government is that Thailand was not an ally of the Axis, Japan conscripted many soldiers from its colonies of Korea and Formosa. To a small extent, some Vichy French, Indian National Army, Germany and Italy both had limited involvement in the Pacific War. The German and the Italian navies operated submarines and raiding ships in the Indian, the Italians had access to concession territory naval bases in China, while the Germans did not. After Japans attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declarations of war, mexico, Free France and many other countries also took part, especially forces from other British colonies. Between 1942 and 1945, there were four main areas of conflict in the Pacific War, China, the Central Pacific, South East Asia, U. S. sources refer to two theaters within the Pacific War, the Pacific theater and the China Burma India Theater. However these were not operational commands, in the Pacific, the Allies divided operational control of their forces between two supreme commands, known as Pacific Ocean Areas and Southwest Pacific Area. In 1945, for a period just before the Japanese surrender. By 1937, Japan controlled Manchuria and was ready to move deeper into China, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on 7 July 1937 provoked full-scale war between China and Japan. In August 1937, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to fight about 300,000 Japanese troops in Shanghai, the Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanking in December 1937 and committed which was known as Nanking Massacre. In March 1938, Nationalist forces won their first victory at Taierzhuang, but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by Japanese in May. In June 1938, Japan deployed about 350,000 troops to invade Wuhan, the Japanese achieved major military victories, but world opinion—in particular in the United States—condemned Japan, especially after the Panay incident
35.
Berlin Tempelhof Airport
–
Berlin Tempelhof Airport was one of the airports in Berlin, Germany. Tempelhof was designated as an airport by the Ministry of Transport on 8 October 1923, the old terminal was originally constructed in 1927. In anticipation of increasing air traffic, the Nazi government began a reconstruction in the mid-1930s. While it was cited as the worlds oldest operating commercial airport, the title was disputed by several other airports. Tempelhof was one of Europes three iconic pre-World War II airports, the others being Londons now defunct Croydon Airport and the old Paris – Le Bourget Airport and it acquired a further iconic status as the centre of the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49. Tempelhof Airports main building was once among the top 20 largest buildings on earth, in contrast, Tempelhof Airport closed all operations on 30 October 2008, despite the efforts of some protesters to prevent the closure. A non-binding referendum was held on 27 April 2008 against the impending closure, the former airfield has subsequently been used as a recreational space known as Tempelhofer Feld. In September 2015 it was announced that Tempelhof would also become a refugee camp. Tempelhof was often called the City Airport and these events respectively marked the debut at Tempelhof of the largest aircraft in commercial airline service at the time and the then-largest aircraft overall. Runway 09L/27R was 2,094 metres long and runway 09R/27L was 1,840 m, the taxiway was in the shape of an oval around these two runways, with a single terminal on the northwest side of the airport. Other possible uses for Tempelhof have been discussed, and many people are trying to keep the buildings preserved. The site of the airport was originally Knights Templar land in medieval Berlin, later, the site was used as a parade field by Prussian forces, and by unified German forces from 1720 to the start of World War I. In 1909, Frenchman Armand Zipfel made the first flight demonstration in Tempelhof, Tempelhof was first officially designated as an airport on 8 October 1923. Deutsche Luft Hansa was founded in Tempelhof on 6 January 1926, the old terminal, originally constructed in 1927, became the worlds first with an underground railway. As part of Albert Speers plan for the reconstruction of Berlin during the Nazi era, ernst Sagebiel was ordered to replace the old terminal with a new terminal building in 1934. With its façades of shell limestone, the building, built between 1936 and 1941, forms a 1.2 kilometre long quadrant. Arriving passengers walked through customs controls to the reception hall, Tempelhof was served by the U6 U-Bahn line along Mehringdamm and up Friedrichstraße. Zentralflughafen Tempelhof-Berlin had the advantage of a location just minutes from the Berlin city centre
36.
Berlin Blockade
–
The Berlin Blockade was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies railway, road, the Soviets offered to drop the blockade if the Western Allies withdrew the newly introduced Deutsche mark from West Berlin. In response, the Western Allies organized the Berlin airlift to carry supplies to the people of West Berlin, the Soviets did not disrupt the airlift for fear this might lead to open conflict. By the spring of 1949, the airlift was clearly succeeding, on 12 May 1949, the USSR lifted the blockade of West Berlin. The Berlin Blockade served to highlight the ideological and economic visions for postwar Europe. These zones were located roughly around the then-current locations of the allied armies, also divided into occupation zones, Berlin was located 100 miles inside Soviet-controlled eastern Germany. The United States, United Kingdom, and France controlled western portions of the city, factories, equipment, technicians, managers and skilled personnel were removed to the Soviet Union. Stalin and other leaders told visiting Bulgarian and Yugoslavian delegations in early 1946 that Germany must be both Soviet and communist, a further factor contributing to the Blockade was that there had never been a formal agreement guaranteeing rail and road access to Berlin through the Soviet zone. At the end of the war, western leaders had relied on Soviet goodwill to them with access. The Soviets also granted only three air corridors for access to Berlin from Hamburg, Bückeburg and Frankfurt, in response, the Soviets started a public relations campaign against American policy and began to obstruct the administrative work of all four zones of occupation. Until the blockade began in 1948, the Truman Administration had not decided whether American forces should remain in West Berlin after the establishment of a West German government, Berlin quickly became the focal point of both US and Soviet efforts to re-align Europe to their respective visions. As Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov noted, What happens to Berlin, happens to Germany, what happens to Germany, Berlin had suffered enormous damage, its prewar population of 4.3 million people was reduced to 2.8 million. After harsh treatment, forced emigration, political repression and the hard winter of 1945–1946. Local elections in 1946 resulted in a massive anti-communist protest vote, Berlins citizens overwhelmingly elected non-Communist members to its city council. Meanwhile, to coordinate the economies of the British and United States occupation zones, after March 1946 the British zonal advisory board was established, with representatives of the states, the central offices, political parties, trade unions, and consumer organisations. As indicated by its name, the advisory board had no legislative power. The Control Commission for Germany – British Element made all decisions with its legislative power and it created its own central bodies headed by a secretariat seated in Stuttgart. Eventually the London Agreement on German External Debts, also known as the London Debt Agreement, was concluded, in response to the announcement of the first of these meetings, in late January 1948, the Soviets began stopping British and American trains to Berlin to check passenger identities
37.
Albatross
–
Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds allied to the procellariids, storm petrels and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes. They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific and they are absent from the North Atlantic, although fossil remains show they once occurred there and occasional vagrants are found. Albatrosses are among the largest of flying birds, and the albatrosses have the largest wingspans of any extant birds. The albatrosses are usually regarded as falling into four genera, albatrosses are highly efficient in the air, using dynamic soaring and slope soaring to cover great distances with little exertion. They feed on squid, fish and krill by either scavenging, albatrosses are colonial, nesting for the most part on remote oceanic islands, often with several species nesting together. Pair bonds between males and females form over several years, with the use of ritualised dances, a breeding season can take over a year from laying to fledging, with a single egg laid in each breeding attempt. A Laysan albatross, named Wisdom, on Midway Island is recognised as the oldest wild bird in the world, longline fisheries pose the greatest threat, as feeding birds are attracted to the bait, become hooked on the lines, and drown. Identified stakeholders such as governments, conservation organisations and people in the industry are all working toward reducing this bycatch. The albatrosses comprise between 13 and 24 species in four genera and these genera are the great albatrosses, the mollymawks, the North Pacific albatrosses, and the sooty albatrosses or sooties. The North Pacific albatrosses are considered to be a taxon to the great albatrosses. The taxonomy of the group has been a source of much debate. The albatrosses can be separated from the other Procellariiformes both genetically and through morphological characteristics, size, their legs, and the arrangement of their nasal tubes, within the family, the assignment of genera has been debated for over 100 years. By 1965, in an attempt to bring order back to the classification of albatrosses. Both the British Ornithologists Union and the South African authorities split the albatrosses into four genera as Nunn suggested, while some agree on the number of genera, fewer agree on the number of species. Historically, up to 80 different taxa have been described by different researchers, based on the work on albatross genera, Robertson and Nunn went on in 1998 to propose a revised taxonomy with 24 different species, compared to the 14 then accepted. This expanded taxonomy elevated many established subspecies to species, but was criticised for not using, in every case. On all sides is the agreement on the need for further research to clarify the issue. The molecular evidence suggests that the petrels were the first to diverge from the ancestral stock
38.
United States Air Force
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The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947. It is the most recent branch of the U. S. military to be formed, the U. S. Air Force is a military service organized within the Department of the Air Force, one of the three military departments of the Department of Defense. The Air Force is headed by the civilian Secretary of the Air Force, who reports to the Secretary of Defense, the U. S. Air Force provides air support for surface forces and aids in the recovery of troops in the field. As of 2015, the service more than 5,137 military aircraft,406 ICBMs and 63 military satellites. It has a $161 billion budget with 313,242 active duty personnel,141,197 civilian employees,69,200 Air Force Reserve personnel, and 105,500 Air National Guard personnel. According to the National Security Act of 1947, which created the USAF and it shall be organized, trained, and equipped primarily for prompt and sustained offensive and defensive air operations. The stated mission of the USAF today is to fly, fight, and win in air, space and we will provide compelling air, space, and cyber capabilities for use by the combatant commanders. We will excel as stewards of all Air Force resources in service to the American people, while providing precise and reliable Global Vigilance, Reach and it should be emphasized that the core functions, by themselves, are not doctrinal constructs. The purpose of Nuclear Deterrence Operations is to operate, maintain, in the event deterrence fails, the US should be able to appropriately respond with nuclear options. Dissuading others from acquiring or proliferating WMD, and the means to deliver them, moreover, different deterrence strategies are required to deter various adversaries, whether they are a nation state, or non-state/transnational actor. Nuclear strike is the ability of forces to rapidly and accurately strike targets which the enemy holds dear in a devastating manner. Should deterrence fail, the President may authorize a precise, tailored response to terminate the conflict at the lowest possible level, post-conflict, regeneration of a credible nuclear deterrent capability will deter further aggression. Finally, the Air Force regularly exercises and evaluates all aspects of operations to ensure high levels of performance. Nuclear surety ensures the safety, security and effectiveness of nuclear operations, the Air Force, in conjunction with other entities within the Departments of Defense or Energy, achieves a high standard of protection through a stringent nuclear surety program. The Air Force continues to pursue safe, secure and effective nuclear weapons consistent with operational requirements, adversaries, allies, and the American people must be highly confident of the Air Forces ability to secure nuclear weapons from accidents, theft, loss, and accidental or unauthorized use. This day-to-day commitment to precise and reliable nuclear operations is the cornerstone of the credibility of the NDO mission, positive nuclear command, control, communications, effective nuclear weapons security, and robust combat support are essential to the overall NDO function. OCA is the method of countering air and missile threats, since it attempts to defeat the enemy closer to its source
39.
Strategic Air Command
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At a lower echelon, headquarters divisions included Aircraft Engineering, Missile Concept, and Strategic Communications. In 1992, as part of an overall post-Cold War reorganization of the U. S. Planning to reorganize for a separate and independent postwar U. S. Air Force had begun by the fall of 1945, with the Simpson Board tasked to plan. the reorganization of the Army, SAC initially totaled 37,000 USAAF personnel. S. Air Force as an independent service, kenney, initial units reporting to the Strategic Air Command headquarters on 21 March 1946 included the Second Air Force, the IX Troop Carrier Command and the 73d Air Division. In addition to the bombing mission, SAC also devoted significant resources to aerial reconnaissance. An F-13 squadron, the F-13 later re-designated as the RB-29 Superfortress, was also established, SAC conducted routine aerial reconnaissance missions near the Soviet borders or near the 12-mile international waters limit, although some missions actually penetrated into Soviet airspace. The flight profiles of these missions—above 30,000 feet and in excess of 300 knots—made interception by Soviet air forces difficult until the Soviets 1948 introduction of the MiG-15 jet fighter. Project Nanook, the Cold War’s first Top Secret reconnaissance effort, used the first RB-29 missions for mapping and visual reconnaissance in the Arctic, later missions were Project LEOPARD along the Chukchi Peninsula, followed by Projects RICKRACK, STONEWORK, and COVERALLS. In 1946, the US possessed only nine atomic bombs and twenty-seven B-29s capable at any one time of delivering them, unfortunately, postwar budget and personnel cuts had had an insidious effect on SAC as its Deputy Commander, Major General Clements McMullen, implemented mandated force reductions. This continued to wear down SAC as a command and morale plummeted, as a result, by the end of 1947, only two of SACs eleven groups were combat ready. In terms of overall Air Force basing and infrastructure, SAC continued to acquire a share of USAF infrastructure. In 1947, before the USAF was established as an independent service, construction commenced on Limestone AAF, Maine, fort Dix AAF, New Jersey, Spokane AAF, Washington, and Wendover Field, Utah were also transferred to SAC between 30 April and 1 September 1947. Following establishment of the USAF as a service, SAC bases in the United States consisted of
40.
6th Special Operations Squadron
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The 6th Special Operations Squadron is part of the Air Force Special Operations Air Warfare Center at Duke Field, Florida. It is a Combat Aviation Advisory unit and its mission is to assess, train, advise, and assist foreign aviation forces in airpower employment, sustainment and force integration. The unit is manned by Combat Aviation Advisors, who are specially trained Air Commandos responsible for the conduct of special activities by, with. The squadron was first activated at Asansol Airfield, India in September 1944 as the 6th Fighter Squadron, the 6th flew combat missions in the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II from 17 October 1944 –8 May 1945. It again flew missions from 1 March 1968 to 15 November 1969 during the Vietnam War. Its Douglas A-1 Skyraiders were transferred to the 56th Special Operations Wing, the squadron went on to conduct replacement training for US and allied pilots in Cessna A-37 Dragonfly aircraft from January 1970 – September 1974. As the only two Air Force operational squadrons performing this mission, their deployment tempo is best described as averaging around one deployment a month. In 2015, the 6th SOS shares a building, flightline, PZL C-145 Skytruck aircraft, Maurer, Maurer, ed. Air Force Combat Units of World War II. Washington, DC, Office of Air Force History, Maurer, Maurer, ed. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II. Washington, DC, Office of Air Force History, Air Force Combat Wings, Lineage & Honors Histories 1947-1977. Washington, DC, Office of Air Force History, project Corona Harvest, USAF Force Withdrawal from Southeast Asia 1 January 1970 –30 June 1971. 6th Special Operations Squadron Fact Sheet Haas, Col Michael E. 6th Special Operations Squadron, 6th SOS performs unique mission worldwide. 1st Special Operations Wing Public Affairs, pugmire, Lt Col Marvin S. Unconventional Airmen, Present and Future Roles and Missions for 6th SOS Combat Aviation Advisors. Air commandos to deploy longer to train foreign services
41.
Indian Air Force
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The Indian Air Force is the air arm of the Indian armed forces. It is the fourth largest air force in terms of both personnel and aircraft. Its primary responsibility is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during a conflict and it was officially established on 8 October 1932 as an auxiliary air force of the British Empire and the prefix Royal was added in 1945 in recognition of its services during World War II. After India became independent from the United Kingdom in 1947, the Royal Indian Air Force served the Dominion of India, since independence, the IAF has been involved in four wars with neighbouring Pakistan and one with the Peoples Republic of China. Other major operations undertaken by the IAF include Operation Vijay, Operation Meghdoot, Operation Cactus, apart from conflicts, the IAF has been an active participant in United Nations peacekeeping missions. The President of India serves as Supreme Commander of the IAF, the Chief of Air Staff, an air chief marshal, is a four-star officer and commands the Air Force. There is never more than one serving ACM at any time in the IAF. The IAF provides close air support to the Indian Army troops in the battlefield and also provides strategic, IAF also provides infantry and artillery transportations or secondary Airlift for the Indian Army. The IAF provided extensive assistance to relief operations during natural calamities such as the Gujarat cyclone in 1998, the IAF also provides assistance to other countries during relief activities such as Operation Rainbow in Sri Lanka. On 1 April 1933, the IAF commissioned its first squadron, No.1 Squadron, with four Westland Wapiti biplanes, the Indian pilots were led by RAF Commanding officer Flight Lieutenant Cecil Bouchier. During World War II, the IAF played a role in blocking the advance of the Japanese army in Burma. It also carried out missions against the Japanese airbases at Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai. The IAF was mainly involved in Strike, Close Air Support, Aerial reconnaissance, Bomber Escort, RAF Pilots were embedded in IAF units and vice versa to gain combat experience. IAF pilots participated in air operations in Europe as part of the RAF, during the war, the IAF went through a phase of steady expansion. New aircraft, including the US built Vultee Vengeance, Douglas DC-3, in recognition of the services rendered by the IAF, King George VI conferred the prefix Royal in 1945. Thereafter the IAF was referred to as the Royal Indian Air Force, in 1950, when India became a republic, the prefix was dropped and it reverted to being the Indian Air Force. After it became independent from the British Empire in 1947, British India was partitioned into the new states of the Dominion of India, along the lines of the geographical partition, the assets of the air force were divided between the new countries. The RIAF Roundel was changed to an interim Chakra roundel derived from the Ashoka Chakra, around the same time, conflict broke out between them over the control of the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir
42.
Pakistan Air Force
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The PAF also has a tertiary role of providing strategic air transport and logistics capability to Pakistan. The PAF employs approximately 65,000 full-time personnel and currently operates 1,032 aircraft and its primary mandate and mission is to provide, in synergy with other inter-services, the most efficient, assured and cost effective aerial Defence of Pakistan. Since its establishment in 1947, the PAF has been involved in combat operations, providing aerial support to Inter–Servicess operations. Under the Article 243, the Constitution of Pakistan appoints the President of Pakistan as the civilian Commander-in-Chief, the Chief of Air Staff, by statute a four-star air chief marshal, is appointed by the President with the consultation and confirmation needed from the Prime Minister of Pakistan. The Pakistan Air Force is currently commanded by Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman, two PAF F-86F Sabres of No.15 Squadron on Air Defence Alert were scrambled from Sargodha Air Base to intercept the IAF aircraft. Butt attempted to bring down the Canberra by firing his Sabres machine guns, when Yunis took over from his leader, the Canberra suddenly lost height while executing a turn over Rawalpindi. Yunis fired a burst that struck the Canberra at an altitude of 47,500 feet and brought it down over Rawat, marking the first aerial victory of the PAF. Both crew members of the IAF Canberra, ejected and were captured by Pakistani authorities and were released after remaining in detention for some time. The PAF fleet at the time consisted of 12 F-104 Starfighters, some 120 F-86 Sabres, the PAF claims to have had complete air superiority over the battle area from the second day of operations. S. Equipment, claiming it to be superior to the operated by the IAF. However some Pakistanis refute this argument, as per them, the IAFs MiG-21, Hawker Hunter and Folland Gnat aircraft had better performance than the PAFs F-86 fighters. According to Air Cdre Sajad Haider, the F-86 Sabre was inferior in power and speed to the IAFs Hawker Hunter. It was a high-level interceptor designed to neutralize Soviet strategic bombers in altitudes above 40,000 feet, nevertheless, the IAF is believed to have feared the Starfighter although, it was not as effective as the IAFs Folland Gnat. According to Indian sources, the F-86F performed reasonably well against the IAF Hawker Hunters but not as well against the Folland Gnat, according to Indian sources most aircraft losses of IAF were on ground while PAF lost most in aerial combat. The PAF had achieved far more in terms of aircraft destroyed on the ground but without doubt. The two countries have made claims of combat losses during the war and few neutral sources have verified the claims of either country. The PAF claimed it shot down 104 IAF planes and lost 19 of its own, while the IAF claimed it shot down 73 PAF planes, according to the independent sources, the PAF lost some 20 aircraft while the Indians lost 60–75. Despite the intense fighting, the conflict was effectively a stalemate, during this conflict the PAF sent personnel to Egypt, Jordan and Syria to support the Arabs in their battle against the Israelis
43.
Indo-Pakistani War of 1947
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The Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948, sometimes known as the First Kashmir War, was fought between India and Pakistan over the princely state of Kashmir and Jammu from 1947 to 1948. It was the first of four Indo-Pakistan Wars fought between the two independent nations. Pakistan precipitated the war a few weeks after independence by launching tribal lashkar from Waziristan, in an effort to secure Kashmir, the inconclusive result of the war still affects the geopolitics of both countries. The Maharaja faced an uprising by his Muslim subjects in Poonch, on 22 October 1947, Pakistans Pashtun tribal militias crossed the border of the state. These local tribal militias and irregular Pakistani forces moved to take Srinagar, Hari Singh made a plea to India for assistance, and help was offered, but it was subject to his signing an Instrument of Accession to India. The war was fought by the J&K State Forces and by tribal militias from the Frontier Tribal Areas adjoining the North-West Frontier Province. Following the accession of the state, Indian troops were air-lifted to Srinagar, the British commanders officers initially refused the entry of Pakistani troops into the conflict, citing the accession of the state to India. However, later in 1948, they relented and the Pakistani armies entered the war after this, the fronts solidified gradually along what came to be known as the Line of Control. A formal cease-fire was declared at 23,59 on the night of 31 December 1948, the result of the war was inconclusive. However, most neutral assessments agree that India was the victor of the war as it was able to successfully defend about two-thirds of the Kashmir including Kashmir valley, Jammu and these were collectively referred to as the Punjab Hill States. These small states, ruled by Rajput kings, were variously independent, following the decline of the Mughals, turbulence in Kangra and invasions of Gorkhas, the hill states fell successively under the control of the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh. The First Anglo-Sikh War was fought between the Sikh Empire, which asserted sovereignty over Kashmir, and the East India Company. In the Treaty of Lahore of 1846, the Sikhs were made to surrender the region between the Beas River and the Sutlej River and required to pay an indemnity of 1.2 million rupees. The years 1946–1947 saw the rise of All-India Muslim League and Muslim nationalism, the demand took a violent turn on the Direct Action Day and inter-communal violence between Hindus and Muslims became endemic. The two provinces Punjab and Bengal with large Muslim-majority areas were to be divided between the two dominions, an estimated 11 million people eventually migrated between the two parts of Punjab, and possibly 1 million perished in the inter-communal violence. Jammu and Kashmir, being adjascent to the Punjab province, was affected by the happenings in Punjab. The original target date for the transfer of power to the new dominions was June 1948, however, fearing the rise of inter-communal violence, the British Viceroy Lord Mountbatten advanced the date to 15 August 1947. This gave only 6 weeks to all the arrangements for partition
44.
Buffalo Airways
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Buffalo Airways is a family-run airline based in Hay River, Northwest Territories, Canada, established in 1970. Buffalo Airways was launched by Bob Gauchie and later sold to one of his pilots and it operates scheduled passenger, charter passenger, charter cargo, firefighting and fuel services. Its main base is at Yellowknife Airport and it has two other bases at Hay River/Merlyn Carter Airport and Red Deer Regional Airport. The Red Deer base is the storage and maintenance facility. The airline is also the subject of the History television reality series Ice Pilots NWT, in 2007, Buffalo Airways began producing a clothing line that included T-shirts, hoodies and hats. com. The show, which is produced by Omnifilm Entertainment and shown on History, in 2011, Buffalo Airways was involved in a recreation of the historic Dam Busters raids of World War II, flying the mission, with their own plane and pilots. Buffalo dropped an inert reproduction of the Upkeep bouncing bomb from their Douglas DC-4, the project was documented in the television show Dambusters Fly Again in Canada, Dambusters, Building the Bouncing Bomb in the UK, and Nova season 39 episode Bombing Hitlers Dams in the US. A behind-the-scenes look was filmed in the Ice Pilots NWT season 3 episode 2 show Dambusters. On 27 July 2012, Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of Iron Maiden, on 28 July, Dickinson, who holds an Airline Transport Pilot Licence, flew a Douglas DC-3 to Yellowknife and spent a day as a guest star for a season five episode. Buffalo operates a service as Buffalo Air Express which started in 1982-1983. It offers service throughout the Northwest Territories and Northern Alberta, in association with Global Interline Network it can ship around the world from bases in Yellowknife, Edmonton and Hay River. Buffalo maintains and operates Waterbombers which are used for aerial firefighting, the aircraft include the amphibious Air Tractor 802 Fireboss, the amphibious Canadair CL-215, the specially converted Lockheed L-188 Electra as well as the Douglas C-54/DC-4. Waterbombers are assisted by smaller aircraft known as dogs, such as the Beech 95, Gulfstream/Rockwell 690. These aircraft are owned by Buffalo or are operated and maintained under contract on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories. The GNWT has recently purchased eight new amphibious Air Tractor 802 Fireboss aircraft which starting in the 2017 firefighting season will replace the eight CL-215 aircraft. In addition, two of Buffalos L-188 Electras have been converted into Waterbombers to replace the C-54/DC-4 which is being phased out due to government aerial firefighting regulations, the newer Electra turboprops offer greater efficiency and reliability than the older radial piston powered DC-4s. Buffalo previously operated the Canso PBY-5, however they are no longer in use, Buffalos aviation school offers an aircraft maintenance engineer program and several other courses. According to Transport Canada listings, it has three aircraft, two are fixed wing, an Aeronca Champion and a Fleet Canuck, the third a helicopter is a Robinson R22
45.
Vietnam War
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It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and the government of South Vietnam. The war is considered a Cold War-era proxy war. As the war continued, the actions of the Viet Cong decreased as the role. U. S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery, in the course of the war, the U. S. conducted a large-scale strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were fighting to reunify Vietnam and they viewed the conflict as a colonial war and a continuation of the First Indochina War against forces from France and later on the United States. The U. S. government viewed its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam and this was part the domino theory of a wider containment policy, with the stated aim of stopping the spread of communism. Beginning in 1950, American military advisors arrived in what was then French Indochina, U. S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with troop levels tripling in 1961 and again in 1962. Regular U. S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965, despite the Paris Peace Accord, which was signed by all parties in January 1973, the fighting continued. In the U. S. and the Western world, a large anti-Vietnam War movement developed as part of a larger counterculture, the war changed the dynamics between the Eastern and Western Blocs, and altered North–South relations. Direct U. S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973, the capture of Saigon by the North Vietnamese Army in April 1975 marked the end of the war, and North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year. The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities, estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed vary from 966,000 to 3.8 million. Some 240, 000–300,000 Cambodians,20, 000–62,000 Laotians, and 58,220 U. S. service members died in the conflict. Various names have applied to the conflict. Vietnam War is the most commonly used name in English and it has also been called the Second Indochina War and the Vietnam Conflict. As there have been several conflicts in Indochina, this conflict is known by the names of its primary protagonists to distinguish it from others. In Vietnamese, the war is known as Kháng chiến chống Mỹ. It is also called Chiến tranh Việt Nam, France began its conquest of Indochina in the late 1850s, and completed pacification by 1893. The 1884 Treaty of Huế formed the basis for French colonial rule in Vietnam for the seven decades
46.
RAF Mildenhall
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Royal Air Force Mildenhall, more commonly known as RAF Mildenhall, is a Royal Air Force station located near Mildenhall in Suffolk, England. Despite its status as a Royal Air Force station, it primarily supports United States Air Force operations, on 8 January 2015, the United States Department of Defense announced that operations at RAF Mildenhall would end, and be relocated to Germany and also within the UK. On 18 January 2016, the British Ministry of Defence announced that the site is to be sold and it is the only permanent USAF air refuelling wing in the European theatre, activated at RAF Mildenhall on 1 February 1992. The wing provides the critical air refuelling bridge that allows the Expeditionary Air Force to deploy around the globe with the appropriate urgency, the tactical component of the 100 ARW is the 351st Air Refueling Squadron, flying the Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker. The 501st Combat Support Wing was activated at RAF Mildenhall on 21 May 2005, the 352d Special Operations Wing is the Air Force component for Special Operations Command Europe, a sub-unified command of the US European Command. It transferred to RAF Mildenhall on 17 February 1995, from RAF Alconbury, the 352 SOW has two flying squadrons, a maintenance squadron, an operations support squadron and a special tactics squadron. The mission of the 352 SOW is to serve as the point for all US Air Force special operations activities throughout the European theatre, including Africa. The 352d SOW develops and implements peacetime and wartime contingency plans and it effectively uses fixed-wing and personnel assets in infiltration by, exfiltration by and resupplying of US and allied special operations forces. It was activated at RAF Mildenhall on 1 July 1994, having been assigned to RAF Alconbury. The 95 RS supports RC-135, OC-135, and E-4 missions when theatre deployed, the 488th Intelligence Squadron is a component of the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency. The units primary mission is the collection, analysis, and reporting of signals intelligence about foreign command and control, communications, currently assigned to the 488th Intelligence Squadron for administrative purposes is Operating Location Souda Bay, Crete. The unit was transferred to RAF Mildenhall, England, and in August 1970, in August 1979, the 6954th Security Squadron was re-designated as the 6988th Electronic Security Squadron in honour of the unit that operated out of Yokota, Japan, for nearly 20 years. On 9 January 1981, the 6988th ESS received the first operational deployment of the Block III electronically modernised RC-135 Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft, until Hellenikon operations ceased in March 1991, they were conducted through the units OL-RH detachment. In October 1991, the 6988th ESS became part of the Air Force Intelligence Command, a consolidation of the Air Forces intelligence operations, on 1 October 1993, the unit was re-designated the 488th Intelligence Squadron. In February 2000, the 488th IS operated the first Baseline 8 RC-135W reconnaissance aircraft which was a major reconfiguration of that platform. On 1 October 2002, the 488th IS was re-aligned from the 67th Information Operations Wing to the 55th Wing to consolidate all operations of the different RC-135 platforms, the unit is now part of the AFISRA, which became the successor of the AIA in June 2008. The 488th Intelligence Squadron, under its different unit designations, has received nine Air Force Outstanding Unit Awards, the 727th Air Mobility Squadron is a unit of the 721st Air Mobility Operations Group, based at Ramstein AB, Germany. The 727 AMS is part of AMCs en-route system that provides fixed and deployed maintenance, aerial port, the squadron was redesignated as the 727 AMS on 15 March 2001
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Argentina
Australia
Belgium
Benin
Biafra
Bangladesh
Bolivia
Brazil
Burma
Cambodia
Canada[18]
Chad
Chile
Republic of China
People's Republic of China
Colombia
Republic of the Congo
DR Congo
Cuba
Czechoslovakia
Denmark
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Ethiopia
Finland
France
Gabon
Nazi Germany[19]
Germany
Greece
Guatemala
Haiti
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Israel
Italy
Ivory Coast
Jordan
Japan
South Korea
Laos
Libya
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mauritania
Mexico
Monaco
Morocco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Northern Rhodesia[20]
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Rhodesia
Romania
Rwanda
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
South Africa
Somalia
Soviet Union (also as Lisunov Li-2)
Sri Lanka
Spain
Sweden
Singapore
Syria
Thailand
Togo
Turkey
Uganda
Uruguay
United Kingdom
United States
Venezuela
Vietnam
South Vietnam
Yemen
Yugoslavia
Zaire
Zambia[20]
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