1.
Mountbatten family
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The Mountbatten family is a European dynasty originating as a branch of the German princely Battenberg family. The name was adopted during World War I by family members residing in the United Kingdom due to rising anti-German sentiment amongst the British public, the name is an Anglicisation of the German Battenberg, a small town in Hesse. The title of count of Battenberg, later prince of Battenberg, was granted to a branch of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt, itself a cadet branch of the House of Hesse. The family now includes the Marquesses of Carisbrooke and Milford Haven, Lady Louise Mountbatten became Queen Consort of Sweden, after having married Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden. The Mountbatten family are a branch of the German house of Battenberg, the Battenberg family was a morganatic branch of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt, rulers of the Grand Duchy of Hesse in Germany. Julia was elevated in her title to Princess of Battenberg with the style Serene Highness in 1858, two of Alexander and Julias sons, Prince Henry of Battenberg and Prince Louis of Battenberg, became associated with the British Royal Family. Prince Henry married The Princess Beatrice, the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria, Prince Louis married Victorias granddaughter, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, and became the First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy. Their cousin, George V compensated the princes with British peerages, Prince Louis became the 1st Marquess of Milford Haven, while Prince Alexander, Prince Henrys eldest son, became the 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke. The marquessate of Milford Haven was created in 1917 for Prince Louis of Battenberg, the former First Sea Lord, and he was at the same time made Earl of Medina and Viscount Alderney, also in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Louis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven m, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine Princess Alice of Battenberg m. Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark Princess Margarita of Greece and Denmark m, gottfried, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark m. Berthold, Margrave of Baden Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark m, georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark m. Prince George William of Hanover Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven m. Countess Nadejda Mikhailovna de Torby Lady Tatiana Mountbatten David Mountbatten, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven m, janet Mercedes Bryce George Mountbatten, 4th Marquess of Milford Haven m. Clare Steel Lady Tatiana Mountbatten Henry Mountbatten, Earl of Medina Lord Ivar Mountbatten m, penelope Anne Vere Thompson div.2011 Ella Mountbatten Alexandra Mountbatten Louise Mountbatten Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma m. Edwina Ashley Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma m, John Knatchbull, 7th Baron Brabourne Lady Pamela Hicks m. On his accession in 1950 as Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden, the letters patent creating the title specified the following special remainder to his daughters. Both of these titles, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, have the special remainder as the Earldom
2.
Earl Mountbatten of Burma
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Earl Mountbatten of Burma is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1947 for Rear Admiral Louis Mountbatten, 1st Viscount Mountbatten of Burma, the letters patent creating the title specified the following special remainder. to his eldest daughter Patricia Edwina Victoria, Baroness Brabourne. As a result, Lord Mountbattens eldest daughter Patricia succeeded as the Countess Mountbatten of Burma upon the formers death. Should the legitimate line of descent of the 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma become extinct, the peerages will be inherited by her sister, Lady Pamela Hicks. Should the legitimate line of both sisters become extinct, the peerages will become extinct. The subsidiary titles of the Earldom are, Viscount Mountbatten of Burma, of Romsey in the County of Southampton, both of these titles, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, have the same special remainder as the Earldom. Lord Romsey was the title by which Lady Mountbatten of Burmas eldest son. The family seat is Newhouse Manor, near Ashford, Kent, the heir apparent is the present holders eldest son Norton Louis Philip Knatchbull, 8th Baron Brabourne
3.
RAF Mount Batten
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RAF Mount Batten was a Royal Air Force station and flying boat base at Mount Batten, a peninsula in Plymouth Sound, Devon, England. Originally a seaplane station opened in 1917 as a Royal Navy Air Service Station Cattewater it became RAF Cattewater in 1918, the station motto was In Honour Bound which is the motto of the Mountbatten family. As early as 1913 the sheltered Cattewater in Plymouth Sound was used for seaplane trials, in February 1917 RNAS Cattewater was opened. It had a hangar for aircraft, storage and maintenance and a pier with a railway track that enabled a steam crane to place the seaplanes in. The first aircraft based there were the Short 184 and these were followed by other seaplanes. Operational flying was carried out from Cattewater, mainly coastal patrols, with the formation in April 1918 of the Royal Air Force the station became RAF Cattewater. The station was used but in 1919 the station became notable with the arrival of the Curtiss NC4 flying boat making the first aerial crossing of the Atlantic. From 1923 the station was re-built and extended and was re-opened in 1928, on 1 October 1928, following re-building, the old Cattewater seaplane station was opened as RAF Mount Batten. The main reason for the new station was to provide a base for flying boats to defend south-west England, the first squadron became operational with the Supermarine Southampton. The station also became a base for high-speed air sea rescue launches on which, in the 1930s, was employed Aircraftman Shaw, better known as T. E. Lawrence, who had suggested the change of name. The base is named after Captain Batten, a Civil War commander who defended this area at the time with the Mountbatten family motto taken as the stations motto. With the start of the Second World War there was an increase in operational flying from Mount Batten and it was also the target for a number of German air raids including the destruction of one of the hangars and a Short Sunderland on 28 November 1940. At the end of the war the Australian squadron departed for home, at the end of the 1950s the station became the Marine Craft Training School and from 1961 became the main base of the RAF Marine Branch, with the closure of No.238 MU, Calshot. Although without any aircraft, the became the centre for both marine craft until the marine branch closed in 1986 and the School of Survival until it moved in 1992. It also housed No.3 Maritime Headquarters Unit of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force providing Communications and Operations Room personnel. 209 Squadron operated the aircraft types Blackburn Iris III, Saro A.7, Blackburn Iris IV, Singapore II, Southampton II, Perth, Saro London I, Supermarine Stranraer. Jefford MBE, Wg Cdr C G. RAF Squadrons, a comprehensive record of the movement and equipment of all RAF squadrons and their antecedents since 1912. Mount Batten, Flying Boat Base Plymouth 1913-1986
4.
Plymouth Hoe
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Plymouth Hoe, referred to locally as the Hoe, is a large south facing open public space in the English coastal city of Plymouth. The Hoe is adjacent to and above the low cliffs that form the seafront and it commands views of Plymouth Sound, Drakes Island. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon word Hoe, a sloping ridge shaped like an inverted foot, until the early 17th century large outline images of the giants Gog and Magog had for a long time been cut into the turf of the Hoe exposing the white limestone beneath. These figures were periodically re-cut and cleaned, the British Library holds a 1591 Spry map of Plimmouth from this era. Its purpose was to protect the port and probably also to intimidate the townsfolk who had leaned towards Parliament during the Civil War and it remains occupied by the military. From 1880 there was a bandstand on the Hoe. It was removed for scrap metal during the Second World War, a three tier belvedere built in 1891 survives, it was built on the site of a camera obscura, probably built in the 1830s, which showed views of the harbour. Below this site was the Bull Ring, and a pleasure pier, started in 1880, which provided a dance hall, refreshment, promenading. The pier was destroyed by German bombing in World War II, a prominent landmark on the Hoe is Smeatons Tower. This is the portion of John Smeatons Eddystone Lighthouse, which was originally built on the Eddystone Rocks in 1759. It was dismantled in 1877 and moved, stone by stone, Smeatons Tower overlooks Tinside Pool, an unusual 1930s outdoor lido which sits upon the limestone shoreline at the base of the cliff. Most of the works to create the areas and Madeira Road were carried out to make work for the local unemployed during the Depression. A statue of Sir Francis Drake by Joseph Boehm was placed here in 1884 to commemorate him, there are also several war memorials along the northern side of the Hoe. The Armada Memorial was opened in 1888 to celebrate the tercentenary of the Spanish Armada, below and to the east, perched on the rocky foreshore is the clubhouse of the Royal Plymouth Corinthian Yacht Club. The Hoe is an area for Plymothians and visitors. The Fastnet yacht race ends here, the annual two-day British Firework Championships attracts tens of thousands of spectators. For forty years, there has been controversy about development on the edges of the Hoe green space. The erection of two discount hotel chain box buildings, at the end of Armada Way and the other at the Sound end of Leigham Street
5.
Peninsula
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A peninsula is a piece of land surrounded by water on the majority of its border, while being connected to a mainland from which it extends out. Examples include the upper and lower peninsulas of the state of Michigan, the surrounding water is usually understood to be continuous, though not necessarily named as a single body of water. Peninsulas are not always named as such, one can also be a headland, cape, island promontory, bill, point, a point is generally considered a tapering piece of land projecting into a body of water that is less prominent than a cape. A river which courses through a very tight meander is also said to form a peninsula within the loop of water. In English, the plural of peninsula is peninsulas or, less commonly, peninsulas can be found on coastlines and in smaller bodies of water throughout the world, ranging in scale from square meters to millions of square kilometers. Theres the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe, and in Southern Europe theres the Iberian Peninsula, the Italian Peninsula, south America has the Brunswick Peninsula, and Antarctica has the Antarctic Peninsula. In Africa, theres the Horn of Africa, and in Australia, asia has the 3 largest peninsulas in the world, the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian Peninsula, and the Indochinese Peninsula
6.
Plymouth Sound
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Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a bay on the English Channel at Plymouth in England. Its southwest and southeast corners are Penlee Point in Cornwall and Wembury Point in Devon and its northern limit is Plymouth Hoe giving a north-south distance of nearly 3 nautical miles. The Sound has three water entrances, the marine entrance is from the English Channel to the south, with a deep-water channel to the west of the Plymouth Breakwater. There are two inlets, one, from the northwest, is from the River Tamar via the Hamoaze and Devonport Dockyard. The other, at northeast, is from the River Plym disgorging into its narrow estuary, in addition to ships of the Royal Navy, large commercial vessels, including ferries to France and Spain use the Sound from Millbay Docks. Fishing vessels use it from Sutton Harbour beside the old town of Plymouth, there are marinas at Sutton Harbour, Mount Wise in the Hamoaze and at Turnchapel. Waterborne traffic in the Sound is controlled by the Queens Harbour Master for Plymouth, in the centre of the Sound, midway between Bovisand Bay and Cawsand Bay, is Plymouth Breakwater, which creates a harbour protecting anchored ships from the frequent south-western storms. The breakwater is around 1,700 yards long, stands in around 11 metres /36 feet of water and was built by John Rennie, the breakwater has a 23-metre-tall lighthouse on its western end and a 9-metre-tall beacon with a spherical cage on top at the eastern end. It is said that the cage is a device designed to keep wrecked sailors from drowning in the huge waves of a storm on the low-lying breakwater. Drakes Island is 400 metres long and around 100 metres wide and it was fortified to defend Drakes Channel, the only deep-water route to Devonport. The Bridge is a reef that links Drakes Island and the Cornish mainland. At low water the depth of the Bridge can be less than one metre, in World War I this natural barrier was supplemented by other obstructions to prevent submarines and small ships attacking the naval base. Mount Batten, a former Royal Air Force flying boat and search, T. E. Lawrence was stationed here as Aircraftman Shaw. Over the years, the Sound has been defended by Drakes Island, Picklecombe Fort, Cawsand Fort, a harbour and reservoir were built at Bovisand before the fort existed to supply men-o-war anchored in the Sound with fresh water. Joseph Whidbey supervised the building of the Breakwater from Bovisand Lodge, the Titanic was supposed to have docked here briefly on its return voyage to Britain, and the ship had a painting of Plymouth sound on board. This event caused a local and national sensation as thousands took to the water, several paintings in Londons National Maritime Museum document the event, such as the one shown here. The Sound has been the site of a number of crashes and shipwrecks, Die Fraumetta Catharina von Flensburg. The P&O ship Nepaul sank on the Shagstone in December 1890, a Short Sunderland flying boat crashed in March 1942 between the Breakwater Fort and the breakwater lighthouse killing five passengers
7.
Plymouth Development Corporation
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It had an indicative budget of £45 million and a lifetime of five years. Although subject to criticism for financial irregularities, it laid the foundation for improvements that continued for years after it was wound up. The chairman was Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Gerken, a former Flag Officer at Plymouth, with deputy John Ingham, three sites were designated and they were all on the waterfront. They were, part of Stonehouse, including the Royal William Victualling Yard, the nearby Mount Wise area, moD land at all three sites was transferred to the PDC. The Royal William Victualling Yard was built in the early 19th century and is one of the countrys most architecturally significant groups of maritime buildings, all Grade I listed. Development of the Yard was the single largest aspect of the remit. The chief executive of the PDC was John Collinson, former property director of the Black Country Development Corporation, the committee also censured the corporation for poor stewardship of public funds and said that it had lost control over the expenditure of public funds. However one of the companies that had been criticised by the Public Accounts Committee complained that its report contained errors and not all the evidence had not been considered. Following this, the National Audit Office, which had provided much of the evidence for the report, by October 1996, The Times was reporting that the PDC had made little real progress. Expected to be completed in three years, the project was anticipated to create 500 new jobs and attract over 2 million visitors in its first year, boosting the citys economy by £40m. However English Heritage criticised the plans as being fundamentally in conflict with the character of the architecture, although several proposals were made by other companies, none had come to fruition by 2000. After the PDC was dissolved in 1998, the National Audit Office reported that during its lifetime it had built 11,900 m2 of commercial space and 99 homes. Private sector finance amounting to £8m had been leveraged in and 427 new jobs created, about 3 miles of new road and footpaths were put in place. A local newspaper reported that at the Royal William Yard the PDC had installed or reinstalled all main services, including telephone and it had also restored the swing bridge and refurbished the Brewhouse, and improved the road access to the yard. Following the winding-up of the corporation, responsibility for the Royal William Victualling Yard devolved to the South West of England Regional Development Agency. At Mount Batten, the built an access road costing £2m and redeveloped the headland with car parking, a safe public space with toilet facilities. Most of this work was complete by 2000, RUDI – Resource for Urban Design Information
8.
Marina
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A marina is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large ships or cargo from freighters. The word marina is also used for inland wharves on rivers, marinas may be located along the banks of rivers connecting to lakes or seas and may be inland. They are also located on coastal harbors or coastal lagoons, either as stand alone facilities or within a port complex, a marina may have refueling, washing and repair facilities, marine and boat chandlers, stores and restaurants. A marina may include facilities such as parking lots for vehicles. Slipways transfer a trailered boat into the water, a marina may have a boat hoist well operated by service personnel. A marina may provide in- or out-of-water boat storage, fee-based services such as parking, use of picnic areas, pubs, and clubhouses for showers are usually included in long-term rental agreements. Visiting yachtsmen usually have the option of buying each amenity from a fixed schedule of fees, arrangements can be as wide as a use, such as a shower. The right to use the facilities is frequently extended at overnight or period rates to visiting yachtsmen, since marinas are often limited by available space, it may take years on a waiting list to get a permanent berth. Boats are moored on buoys, on fixed or floating walkways tied to an anchoring piling by a roller or ring mechanism, buoys are cheaper to rent but less convenient than being able to walk from land to boat. Harbor shuttles, may transfer people between the shore and boats moored on buoys, the alternative is a tender such as an inflatable boat. Facilities offering fuel, boat ramps and stores will normally have a common-use dock set aside for such short term parking needs, where the tidal range is large, marinas may use locks to maintain the water level for several hours before and after low water. Marinas may be owned and operated by a club, especially yacht clubs —. Marinas may be private businesses, components of a resort. List of marinas MARINA - Maritime Industry Authority
9.
Barry Cunliffe
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Sir Barrington Windsor Cunliffe CBE FBA FSA, known as Barry Cunliffe, is a British archaeologist and academic. He was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford from 1972 to 2007, since 2007, he has been an Emeritus Professor. Cunliffes decision to become an archaeologist was sparked at the age of nine by the discovery of Roman remains on his uncles farm in Somerset. After studying at Portsmouth Northern Grammar School and reading archaeology and anthropology at the University of Cambridge, fascinated by the Roman remains in nearby Bath he embarked on a programme of excavation and publication. In 1966 he became a young professor when he took the chair at the newly founded Department of Archaeology at the University of Southampton. There he became involved in the excavation of the Fishbourne Roman Palace in Sussex, another site in southern England led him away from the Roman period. He began a series of summer excavations of the Iron Age hill fort at Danebury. His interest in Iron Age Britain and Europe generated a number of publications, Cunliffe lives with his wife in Oxford. Cunliffe inspired the name for the character Currant Bunliffe, an archaeologist in David Macaulays 1979 book, Motel of the Mysteries. Keith Brannigan, alternative perspectives from archaeology, genetics and literature. Britain Begins By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean, The Birth of Eurasia Barry Cunliffe School of Archaeology, video interview Prof Cunliffe describes the East Gate at Danebury hillfort
10.
Bronze Age Britain
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Bronze Age Britain is an era of British history that spanned from c.2500 until c.800 BC. Lasting for approximately 1,700 years, it was preceded by the era of Neolithic Britain and was in turn followed by the period of Iron Age Britain. Being categorised as the Bronze Age, it was marked by the use of copper and then bronze by the prehistoric Britons, Great Britain in the Bronze Age also saw the widespread adoption of agriculture. This has been described as a time when elaborate ceremonial practices emerged among some communities of subsistence agriculturalists of western Europe, there is no clear consensus on the date for the beginning of the Bronze Age in Great Britain and Ireland. Some sources give a date as late as 2000 BC, while others set 2200 BC as the demarcation between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The period from 2500 BC to 2000 BC has been called the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age, 2500–2000 BC, Mount Pleasant Phase, Early Beaker culture, Britain, copper+tin. 2100–1900 BC, Late Beaker, knives, tanged spearheads, 1500–1300 BC, Acton Park Phase, palstaves, socketed spearheads, copper+tin, also lead. 1300–1200 BC, Knighton Heath Period, rapiers, 1200–1000 BC, Early Urnfield, Wilburton-Wallington Phase. 1000–900 BC, Late Urnfield, socketed axes, palstaves, 800–700 BC, Ewart Park Phase, Llyn Fawr Phase, leaf-shaped swords. In Ireland the final Dowris phase of the Late Bronze Age appears to decline in about 600 BC, in around 2700 BC, a new pottery style arrived in Great Britain, the Beaker culture. Beaker pottery appears in the Mount Pleasant Phase, along with flat axes, people of this period were also largely responsible for building many famous prehistoric sites, such as the later phases of Stonehenge along with Seahenge. Movement of Europeans brought new people to the islands from the continent, recent tooth enamel isotope research on bodies found in early Bronze Age graves around Stonehenge indicates that at least some of the new arrivals came from the area of modern Switzerland. The Beaker culture displayed different behaviours from the earlier Neolithic people, integration is thought to have been peaceful, as many of the early henge sites were seemingly adopted by the newcomers. Also, the burial of dead became more individual, for example, in the Neolithic era, a large chambered cairn or long barrow was used to house the dead. The Early Bronze Age saw people buried in barrows, or sometimes in cists covered with cairns. They were often buried with a beaker alongside the body, modern thinking tends towards the latter view. Alternatively, a Beaker elite may have made the migration and come to influence the population at some level. Believed to be of Iberian origin, part of the Beaker culture brought to Great Britain the skill of refining metal, at first they made items from copper, but from around 2150 BC smiths had discovered how to make bronze by mixing copper with a small amount of tin
11.
Bronze Age
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The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition, although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic. Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing, according to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt developed the earliest viable writing systems. The overall period is characterized by use of bronze, though the place and time of the introduction. Human-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques, tin must be mined and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of use of metals. The dating of the foil has been disputed, the Bronze Age in the ancient Near East began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC. Societies in the region laid the foundations for astronomy and mathematics, the usual tripartite division into an Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age is not used. Instead, a division based on art-historical and historical characteristics is more common. The cities of the Ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands of people, ur in the Middle Bronze Age and Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had large populations. The earliest mention of Babylonia appears on a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 23rd century BC, the Amorite dynasty established the city-state of Babylon in the 19th century BC. Over 100 years later, it took over the other city-states. Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, by that time, the Sumerian language was no longer spoken, but was still in religious use. Elam was an ancient civilization located to the east of Mesopotamia, in the Old Elamite period, Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Its culture played a role in the Gutian Empire and especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it
12.
Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
13.
Ictis
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Ictis, or Iktin, is or was an island described as a tin trading centre in the Bibliotheca historica of the Sicilian-Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, writing in the first century BC. While Ictis is widely accepted to have been an island somewhere off the southern coast of what is now England, candidates include St Michaels Mount and Looe Island off the coast of Cornwall, the Mount Batten peninsula in Devon, and the Isle of Wight further to the east. The record of the voyage of Pytheas was lost in antiquity but was known to later writers, including Timaeus, Posidonius. Their work is contradictory, but from it deductions can be made about what was reported by Pytheas, no other sources concerning the tin trade in the ancient world are known. Diodorus gives an account that is supposed to be a description of the working of Cornish tin at about the time of the voyage of Pytheas. He says, The inhabitants of that part of Britain which is called Belerion are very fond of strangers and they prepare the tin, working very carefully the earth in which it is produced. The ground is rocky but it contains earthy veins, the produce of which is ground down and they beat the metal into masses shaped like knuckle-bones and carry it off to a certain island off Britain called Iktis. During the ebb of the tide the intervening space is left dry, however, some commentators doubt that Ictis is correct and prefer Iktin. It has been suggested that insulam Mictim was an error for insulam Ictim. However, while it is possible that Mictim and Iktin are one, the word inwards can be interpreted as meaning towards our home, and six days sail from Britain could take a boat to somewhere on the Atlantic coast of what is now France. Strabo, a contemporary of Diodorus, stated in his Geography that British tin was shipped from Massalia on the Mediterranean coast of Gaul. William Camden, the Elizabethan historian, took the view that the name Ictis was so similar to Vectis, the Latin name for the Isle of Wight, that the two were probably the same island. The Cornish antiquary William Borlase suggested that Ictis must have been near the coast of Cornwall, in 1960, Gavin de Beer concluded that the most likely location of Iktin was St Michaels Mount, a tidal island near the town of Marazion in Cornwall. Apart from the effect of the tide being consistent with what is said by Diodorus and this identification is supported by the Roman Britain Organization. In 1972, I. S. Maxwell weighed up the claims of no fewer than twelve possible sites. In 1983, after excavations, the archaeologist Barry W. Cunliffe proposed the Mount Batten peninsula near Plymouth as the site of Ictis. Mount Batten seems archaeologically more likely as there are a number of finds from there which indicate it was prominent in trade from the fourth century BC until the first century AD. In Oxford Journal of Archaeology, vol,2, issue 1 John Taylor, Albion, the earliest history S. Mitchell, Cornish tin, Julius Caesar, and the invasion of Britain Christopher F. C
14.
Diodorus Siculus
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Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily was a Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history Bibliotheca historica, much of which survives and it is arranged in three parts. The first covers mythic history up to the destruction of Troy, arranged geographically, describing regions around the world from Egypt, India and Arabia to Greece, the second covers the Trojan War to the death of Alexander the Great. The third covers the period to about 60 BC, Bibliotheca, meaning library, acknowledges that he was drawing on the work of many other authors. According to his own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily, with one exception, antiquity affords no further information about his life and doings beyond in his work. Only Jerome, in his Chronicon under the year of Abraham 1968, writes, Diodorus of Sicily and it was divided into three sections. In the next section, he recounts the history of the world from the Trojan War down to the death of Alexander the Great, the last section concerns the historical events from the successors of Alexander down to either 60 BC or the beginning of Julius Caesars Gallic Wars. He selected the name Bibliotheca in acknowledgment that he was assembling a composite work from many sources. His account of gold mining in Nubia in eastern Egypt is one of the earliest extant texts on the topic, pappus of Alexandria wrote a Commentary on Diodoruss Analemma. The now lost Analemma applied geometrical constructions in a plane to solve some astronomy related problems of spherical geometry and it contained, for example, a discussion of sundial theory. They are also boasters and threateners and are fond of pompous language, pliny the Elder Strabo Acadine Ambaglio, Dino, Franca Landucci Gattinoni and Luigi Bravi. Diodoro Siculo, Biblioteca storica, commento storico, introduzione generale, aspects of Greek History 750-323 BC, A Source-based Approach. Library of History, Loeb Classical Library, Siculus, Diodorus, G. Booth, H. Valesius, I. The Historical Library of Diodorus the Sicilian in Fifteen Books to which are added the Fragments of Diodorus, siculi, Diodori, Peter Wesseling, L. Rhodoman, G. Heyn, N. Eyring. Bibliothecae Historicae Libri Qui Supersunt, Nova Editio, Diodorus Siculus, the manuscripts of the Bibliotheca Historica
15.
Ptolemy
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Claudius Ptolemy was a Greek writer, known as a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in the city of Alexandria in the Roman province of Egypt, wrote in Koine Greek, beyond that, few reliable details of his life are known. His birthplace has been given as Ptolemais Hermiou in the Thebaid in a statement by the 14th-century astronomer Theodore Meliteniotes. This is a very late attestation, however, and there is no reason to suppose that he ever lived elsewhere than Alexandria. Ptolemy wrote several treatises, three of which were of importance to later Byzantine, Islamic and European science. The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest, although it was entitled the Mathematical Treatise. The second is the Geography, which is a discussion of the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. The third is the treatise in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day. This is sometimes known as the Apotelesmatika but more known as the Tetrabiblos from the Greek meaning Four Books or by the Latin Quadripartitum. The name Claudius is a Roman nomen, the fact that Ptolemy bore it indicates he lived under the Roman rule of Egypt with the privileges and political rights of Roman citizenship. It would have suited custom if the first of Ptolemys family to become a citizen took the nomen from a Roman called Claudius who was responsible for granting citizenship, if, as was common, this was the emperor, citizenship would have been granted between AD41 and 68. The astronomer would also have had a praenomen, which remains unknown and it occurs once in Greek mythology, and is of Homeric form. All the kings after him, until Egypt became a Roman province in 30 BC, were also Ptolemies, abu Mashar recorded a belief that a different member of this royal line composed the book on astrology and attributed it to Ptolemy. The correct answer is not known”, Ptolemy wrote in Greek and can be shown to have utilized Babylonian astronomical data. He was a Roman citizen, but most scholars conclude that Ptolemy was ethnically Greek and he was often known in later Arabic sources as the Upper Egyptian, suggesting he may have had origins in southern Egypt. Later Arabic astronomers, geographers and physicists referred to him by his name in Arabic, Ptolemys Almagest is the only surviving comprehensive ancient treatise on astronomy. Ptolemy presented his models in convenient tables, which could be used to compute the future or past position of the planets. The Almagest also contains a catalogue, which is a version of a catalogue created by Hipparchus
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Geography (Ptolemy)
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Its translation into Arabic in the 9th century and Latin in 1406 was highly influential on the geographical knowledge and cartographic traditions of the medieval Caliphate and Renaissance Europe. Versions of Ptolemys work in antiquity were probably proper atlases with attached maps, no Greek manuscript of the Geography survives from earlier than the 13th century. In Europe, maps were sometimes made using the coordinates provided by the text. Later scribes and publishers could then copy these new maps, as Athanasius did for the emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus, the three earliest surviving texts with maps are those from Constantinople based on Planudess work. The first Latin translation of texts was made in 1406 or 1407 by Jacobus Angelus in Florence, Italy. It is not thought that his edition had maps, although Manuel Chrysoloras had given Palla Strozzi a Greek copy of Planudess maps in Florence in 1397, the Geography consists of three sections, divided among 8 books. Book I is a treatise on cartography, describing the methods used to assemble, from Book II through the beginning of Book VII, a gazetteer provides longitude and latitude values for the world known to the ancient Romans. The rest of Book VII provides details on three projections to be used for the construction of a map of the world, varying in complexity and fidelity, Book VIII constitutes an atlas of regional maps. The maps include a recapitulation of some of the values given earlier in the work, Maps based on scientific principles had been made in Europe since the time of Eratosthenes in the 3rd century BC. Ptolemy improved the treatment of map projections and he provided instructions on how to create his maps in the first section of the work. The gazetteer section of Ptolemys work provided latitude and longitude coördinates for all the places and his Prime Meridian ran through the Fortunate Isles, the westernmost land recorded, at around the position of El Hierro in the Canary Islands. The maps spanned 180 degrees of longitude from the Fortunate Isles in the Atlantic to China, Ptolemy was aware that Europe knew only about a quarter of the globe. Ptolemys work included a large and less detailed world map and then separate. As early as the 1420s, these maps were complemented by extra-Ptolemaic regional maps depicting. The original treatise by Marinus of Tyre that formed the basis of Ptolemys Geography has been completely lost, a world map based on Ptolemy was displayed in Augustodunum in late Roman times. Pappus, writing at Alexandria in the 4th century, produced a commentary on Ptolemys Geography, for instance, Grant Parker argues that it would be highly implausible for them to have constructed the Bay of Bengal as precisely as they did without the accounts of sailors. Muslim cartographers were using copies of Ptolemys Almagest and Geography by the 9th century, a 1037 copy of these are the earliest extant maps from Islamic lands. Nallino suggests that the work was not based on Ptolemy but on a world map
17.
Bronze mirror
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Bronze mirrors preceded the glass mirrors of today. This type of mirror has been found by archaeologists among elite assemblages from various cultures, polished bronze or copper mirrors were made by the Egyptians from 2900 BCE onwards. In the Indus valley civilization, manufacture of bronze mirrors goes back to the time between 2800 and 2500 BCE, Bronze mirrors were produced in China from neolithic times until the Qing Dynasty, when western glass mirrors were brought to China. Bronze mirrors were circular, with one side polished bright, to give a reflection. They often had a knob in the center so that they could be attached to clothing, some of the earliest examples of Chinese bronze mirrors belonged to the Neolithic Qijia culture from around 2000 BCE. However, until Warring States times, bronze mirrors were not common with only twenty having been discovered. During the Warring States period, mirrors became particularly popular and it was during the Han Dynasty, and the introduction of the TLV mirror, that mirrors started to be mass-produced. Both Han and Tang mirrors are considered to be the most technically advanced, in Europe, bronze mirrors from the Bronze Age have been discovered from various places, including Britain and Italy. A notable example includes the Birdlip mirror, Etruscan mirrors were produced from between the 6th and 2nd centuries BCE. Celtic mirrors in Britain were produced up until the Roman conquest, shinju-kyo Aranmula kannadi Speculum metal Chinese magic mirror B. Schweig, “Mirrors”, Antiquity, Vol.15, pp. 257–268 Chinese Bronze Mirrors - Australian Museum
18.
Plymouth Blitz
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The Plymouth Blitz was a series of bombing raids carried out by the Nazi German Luftwaffe on the English city of Plymouth in the Second World War. The bombings launched on numerous British cities were known as the Blitz, the royal dockyards at HMNB Devonport were the main target in order to facilitate Nazi German efforts during the Battle of the Atlantic. Despite this, civilian casualties were high and the dockyards continued in operation. The first bombs fell on the city on Saturday 6 July 1940 at Swilly, in early 1941, five raids reduced much of the city to rubble. Attacks continued as late as May 1944 with two air raids in that month. During the 59 bombing attacks,1,172 civilians were killed and 4,448 injured, the resident population fell from 220,000 at the outbreak of war to, at one point, only 127,000. In 1941 most of the children were evacuated and on any night that a raid was expected thousands of people were taken by lorry into the countryside, in March 1941, St Andrews Parish Church was bombed and badly damaged. Amidst the smoking ruins a headmistress nailed over the door a wooden sign saying simply Resurgam, indicating the wartime spirit and that entrance to St Andrews is still referred to as the Resurgam door and a carved granite plaque is now permanently fixed there. Charles Church, destroyed by incendiaries on the nights of 20–21 March 1941, has preserved in its ruined state as a memorial to civilian victims of the Blitz. The Laboratory of the Marine Biological Association on the Hoe was also damaged on the evening of 20 March 1941. The bombardment is described in the obituary of Stanley Wells Kemp who was the director of the Association at the time, the seminal work by Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Fielding Huxley on the ionic basis of nerve conduction resumed there in June 1947. On the evening of 22 April 1941 during an attack on the central area, during the Blitz the two main shopping centres and nearly every civic building were destroyed, along with 26 schools, eight cinemas and 41 churches. In total,3,754 houses were destroyed with a further 18,398 seriously damaged, masters, Warren Plymouth in the Blitz
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Plymouth Breakwater
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Plymouth Breakwater is a 1, 560-metre stone breakwater protecting Plymouth Sound and the anchorages near Plymouth, Devon, England. It is 13 metres wide at the top and the base is 65 metres and it lies in about 10 metres of water. Around 4 million tons of rock were used in its construction in 1812 at the then-colossal cost of £1.5 million. In 1806, as the Napoleonic Wars impended, Lord St. Vincent commissioned John Rennie, in 1811 came the order to begin construction, Whidbey was appointed Acting Superintending Engineer. Nearly 4,000,000 tons of stone were quarried and transported, a paper to the Royal Society suggests that Whidbey found many fossils as a result of the quarrying necessary to the breakwater. The foundation stone was laid on Shovel Rock on August 8,1812 and it followed a line over Panther Rock, Shovel and St. Carlos Rocks, and was sufficiently completed by 1814 to shelter ships of the line. Napoleon was reported as commenting that the breakwater was a grand thing, severe storm damage in 1817 and 1824 prompted a change in the profile and height. Whidbey continued to work on the breakwater and other engineering projects, including the breakwaters lighthouse and it was finished by 1841, the final work being finished by Rennies son, Sir John Rennie. The lighthouse became operational in 1844, and soon afterwards a horse-drawn omnibus was driven from end to end, with a complement of passengers. A beacon was placed at the end, consisting of a 6-foot spherical cage on a 17-foot pole. In 1860, a Royal Commission, established by Lord Palmerston, produced a plan for the defence of Plymouth, the Breakwater Fort was designed to defend the entrances to Plymouth Sound in conjunction with forts and batteries on either shore. Designed by Captain Siborne, work on the oval masonry sea fort started in 1861 and it has its foundations on Shovel Rock and is 35 yards inside the Breakwater. After several changes in plan, the fort was armed in 1879 with fourteen 12. 5-inch. Although the fort had been disarmed before World War I, it served as a station, and from 1937. It was finally released by the military in 1976, national Harbor of Refuge, a comparable structure at the mouth of Delaware Bay in the United States, intended principally for civilian use. List of lighthouses in England Catterwater Harbour Commissioners
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Medieval period
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
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Scheduled monument
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In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation used for protecting heritage assets from damage. The protection given to scheduled monuments is given under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, a heritage asset is a part of the historic environment that is valued because of its historic, archaeological, architectural or artistic interest. Only some of these are judged to be important enough to have legal protection through designation. There are about 20,000 scheduled monuments in England representing about 37,000 heritage assets, of the tens of thousands of scheduled monuments in the UK, most are inconspicuous archaeological sites, but some are large ruins. According to the 1979 Act, a monument cannot be a structure which is occupied as a dwelling, as a rule of thumb, a protected historic asset that is occupied would be designated as a listed building. Scheduled Monuments are defined in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, in England, Wales and Scotland they are often referred to as a scheduled ancient monument, although the Act defines only ancient monument and scheduled monument. A monument can be, A building or structure, cave or excavation which is above or below the surface of the land, a site comprising any vehicle, vessel, aircraft or other moveable structure. In Northern Ireland they are designated under separate legislation and are referred to as a historic monument or a monument in state care. The first Act to enshrine legal protection for ancient monuments was the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882 and this identified an initial list of 68 prehistoric sites, which were given a degree of legal protection. This was the result of strenuous representation by William Morris and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, which had been founded in 1877. Following various previous attempts, the 1882 legislation was guided through parliament by John Lubbock, the first Inspector of Ancient Monuments, as set up by the act, was Augustus Pitt Rivers. At this point, only the inspector, answering directly to the First Commissioner of Works, was involved in surveying the scheduled sites and persuading landowners to offer sites to the state. The act also established the concept of guardianship, in which a site might remain in private ownership, however the legislation could not compel landowners, as that level of state interference with private property was not politically possible. The Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1900 extended the scope of the legislation to include medieval monuments, in a speech in 1907, Robert Hunter, chairman of the National Trust, observed that only a further 18 sites had been added to the original list of 68. Charles Peers, an architect, was appointed as Inspector in 1910 in the Office of Works becoming Chief Inspector in 1913. The job title Inspector is still in use, scheduling offers protection because it makes it illegal to undertake a great range of works within a designated area, without first obtaining scheduled monument consent. However, it does not affect the owner’s freehold title or other interests in the land
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Protection of Wrecks Act 1973
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The Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which provides protection for designated shipwrecks. Section 1 of the act provides for wrecks to be designated because of historical, archaeological or artistic value, section 2 provides for designation of dangerous sites. Wreck sites must have a location in order to be designated. Designated wrecks are marked on admiralty charts and their location is sometimes marked by means of a buoy. Information boards are provided at nearby launch points on land. It is an offence to interfere with a wreck designated under section 1 of the act without a licence. Navigation, angling and bathing are permitted provided this will not interfere with the wreck, a licence is required to dive at the wreck site. Separate licences are required for any disturbance, such as recovery of artifacts or underwater excavation, licences to survey, visit etc. can be obtained by applying online to Historic England, to Cadw, and Historic Scotland. Anchoring on the site is also not permitted except in accordance with licensed activities. The area designated may extend beyond the visible remains, designation and licensing under section 1 of the act is managed by Historic England, Cadw and Historic Scotland. The first wreck to be designated was the Cattewater Wreck at Plymouth, as of July 2007 there were 60 wreck sites under current protection under section 1 of the act. Two sites that had at some point been designated have subsequently been revoked, for a complete list see List of designations under the Protection of Wrecks Act. All protected wrecks are listed in the annual Admiralty Notices to Mariners and are marked on United Kingdom Hydrographic Office charts, a statutory instrument shows the location of the site and also the extent of the restricted protected area. This is often done using a buoy, although sites that are close to the shore may have notices on land not only serve to warn. Despite this, criminal damage to protected wrecks is reported frequently, artefacts from the site of the British warship HMS Coronation, off Penlee Point, were allegedly stolen in 2011, and arrests were made in April 2011 over thefts from the warship HMS London. As of July 2008, only two wrecks are designated as dangerous under section 2 of the act and these are the SS Richard Montgomery, and the SS Castilian. The MV Braer was also protected from 1993, until the order was revoked in 1994, designation provides for an exclusion zone for all activities around the wreck. Diving is strictly prohibited on these dangerous wrecks, designation and control under section 2 of the act is managed by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency
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Frigate
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A frigate /ˈfrɪɡᵻt/ is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries. In the 17th century, this term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability and these could be warships carrying their principal batteries of carriage-mounted guns on a single deck or on two decks. The term was used for ships too small to stand in the line of battle. In the late 19th century, the frigate was a type of ironclad warship that for a time was the most powerful type of vessel afloat. The term frigate was used because such ships still mounted their principal armaments on a continuous upper deck. Ship classes dubbed frigates have more closely resembled corvettes, destroyers, cruisers. The rank frigate captain derives from the name of type of ship. The term frigate originated in the Mediterranean in the late 15th century, referring to a lighter galleass type ship with oars, sails and a light armament, built for speed and maneuverability. The etymology of the word is unknown, although it may have originated as a corruption of aphractus, aphractus was, in turn, derived from the Ancient Greek phrase ἄφρακτος ναῦς, or undefended ship. In 1583, during the Eighty Years War, Habsburg Spain recovered the Southern Netherlands from the rebellious Dutch and this soon led to the occupied ports being used as bases for privateers, the Dunkirkers, to attack the shipping of the Dutch and their allies. To achieve this they developed small, maneuverable, sailing vessels that came to be referred to as frigates, in French, the term frigate became a verb, meaning to build long and low, and an adjective, adding further confusion. Even the huge English Sovereign of the Seas could be described as a frigate by a contemporary after her upper decks were reduced in 1651. The navy of the Dutch Republic was the first navy to build the larger ocean-going frigates, the first two tasks required speed, shallowness of draft for the shallow waters around the Netherlands, and the ability to carry sufficient supplies to maintain a blockade. The third task required heavy armament, sufficient to fight against the Spanish fleet, the first of these larger battle-capable frigates were built around 1600 at Hoorn in Holland. The effectiveness of the Dutch frigates became most visible in the Battle of the Downs in 1639, encouraging most other navies, especially the English, to adopt similar designs. The fleets built by the Commonwealth of England in the 1650s generally consisted of ships described as frigates, the largest of which were two-decker great frigates of the third rate. Carrying 60 guns, these vessels were as big and capable as great ships of the time, however, most other frigates at the time were used as cruisers, independent fast ships. The term frigate implied a long hull design, which relates directly to speed and also, in turn, in Danish, the word fregat is often applied to warships carrying as few as 16 guns, such as HMS Falcon which the British classified as a sloop
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HMS Amethyst (1799)
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HMS Amethyst was a Royal Navy 36-gun Penelope-class fifth-rate frigate, launched in 1799 at Deptford. Amethyst served in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars and she also participated in two boat actions and two ship actions that won her crew clasps to the Naval General Service Medal. She was broken up in 1811 after suffering damage in a storm. Amethyst was commissioned in May 1799 under the command of Captain John Cooke and she then operated on the Dutch coast later that year. During the Anglo-Russian Invasion of Holland, Amethyst conveyed the Duke of York to the Netherlands, on 18 December she and Beaulieu recaptured the brig Jenny. Eleven days after that, Amethyst and Beaulieu recaptured the ships Dauphin, Cato, Cabrus, on 29 December Amethyst captured the French privateer brig Aventurier. Aventurier, out of Lorient, was armed with 14 guns and had a crew of 75 men, one month earlier, on 29 November, Aventurier had captured the American ship Cato and taken her master, John Parker, and his crew prisoner. When Amethyst captured Aventurier Cooke freed the Americans and informed Parker that Cato had been sent to Cork, Cooke sent Aventurier into Plymouth from where Parker and his mate traveled to Cork. On 7 January 1800, the French armed ship Huzelle, came into Plymouth and she had been carrying passengers from Cayenne, including women and children, when Amethyst captured her. On her way into a British port, the French privateer Providence, of 14 guns and 152 men, had recaptured her, however, before she got get there, Beaulieu and Unicorn again captured her and sent her into Plymouth. Among Huzelles passengers were a Colonel Molonson of Invalids, and a naturalist, M. Burnelle, later that month, on the 26th, Oiseaux encountered the French frigate Dédaigneuse and gave chase. Sirius and Amethyst joined the next day, on the 28th Oiseaux and Sirius effected the capture. Unfavourable winds kept Amethyst from joining the action and she was brought into Royal Navy service as HMS Dedaigneuse. In February 1800 Amethyst was in company with Nymphe when on 15 February they captured the French privateer cutter Valiant, of Bordeaux, Valiant was armed with one long 18-pounder, two long 12-pounder, and twelve 6-pounders guns. She had a crew of 131 men who had been out four days, on 24 February, Nymphe, in company with Amethyst, captured the French letter of marque Modeste, of about 600 tons burthen. She was pierced for 16 guns and had a crew of 70 men and she had left the Île de France some nine weeks earlier and was sailing for Bordeaux with a cargo of cotton, coffee, tea, sugar, indigo, and the like. Still in company with Nymphe, Amethyst captured Julius Pringle and recaptured Active, then on 31 March, Amethyst, with Nymphe, captured the French privateer Mars. Mars was armed with twenty 12-pounder guns and two 36-pounder obusiers, and carried a crew of 180 men, Cooke described her as being one of the finest Privateers fitted out of Bourdeaux
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HMNB Devonport
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Her Majestys Naval Base, Devonport, is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy. HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth, having begun as Royal Navy Dockyard in the late-17th century, it is now the largest naval base in Western Europe and is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the Royal Navy. From 1934 until the early 21st century the barracks on the site was named HMS Drake. Recently, the name HMS Drake has been extended to cover the entire base, in the early 1970s the newly-styled Fleet Maintenance Base was itself commissioned as HMS Defiance, it remained so until 1994, at which point it was amalgamated into HMS Drake. HM Naval Base Devonport is the port of the Devonport Flotilla which includes the largest ship in the Royal Navy, HMS Ocean. In 2009 the Ministry of Defence announced the conclusion of a review of the long-term role of three naval bases. Devonport will no longer be used as a base for submarines after these move to Faslane by 2017. However, Devonport retains a role as the dedicated home of the amphibious fleet, survey vessels. In 1588, the ships of the English Navy set sail for the Spanish Armada through the mouth of the River Plym, Sir Francis Drake is now an enduring legacy in Devonport, as the naval base has been named HMS Drake. In 1689 Prince William of Orange became William III and almost immediately he required the building of a new Royal Dockyard west of Portsmouth, having dismissed the Plymouth site as inadequate, he settled on the Hamoaze area which soon became known as Plymouth Dock, later renamed Devonport. On 30 December 1690, a contract was let for a dockyard to be built, having selected the location, Dummer was given responsibility for designing and building the new yard. At the heart of his new dockyard, Dummer placed a stone-lined basin, previously the Navy Board had relied upon timber as the major building material for dry docks, which resulted in high maintenance costs and was also a fire risk. The docks Dummer designed were stronger with more secure foundations and stepped sides that made it easier for men to work beneath the hull of a docked vessel and these innovations also allowed rapid erection of staging and greater workforce mobility. He discarded the earlier three-sectioned hinged gate, which was labour-intensive in operation, Dummer wished to ensure that naval dockyards were efficient working units that maximised available space, as evidenced by the simplicity of his design layout at Plymouth Dock. He introduced a centralised storage area alongside the basin, and a positioning of other buildings around the yard. His double rope-house combined the previously separate tasks of spinning and laying while allowing the floor to be used for the repair of sails. On high ground overlooking the rest of the yard he built a terrace of houses for the senior dockyard officers. Most of Dummers buildings and structures were rebuilt over ensuing years, including the basin, the terrace survived into the 20th century, but was largely destroyed in the Blitz along with several others of Devonports historic buildings
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British Firework Championships
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It is watched by more than 200,000 people. The competition was first held in 1997, competitors set up their displays on the Mount Batten Breakwater which is closed to the public for the duration of the competition. The competition rules place restrictions on budget, duration and amount of ordinace that can be used for each display, as part of the events tenth anniversary in 2006, eight prior winners were invited to take part in a Champion of Champions competition. A lecturer from the University of Plymouth, Roy Lowry, attempted to break the record of the most amount of rockets fired simultaneously with 55,000. In 2012, no winner was declared due to bad weather in Plymouth, the 2013 event was a Champion of Champions with the six previous winners being invited. Star Fireworks being crowned Champion of Champions,2013, Champion of Champions winner, Star Fireworks 2014, Blitz Fireworks 2015, Fantastic Fireworks 2016, Gala Fireworks British Firework Championships
27.
Flying boat
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A flying boat is a fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water, that usually has no type of landing gear to allow operation on land. It differs from a floatplane as it uses a purpose-designed fuselage which can float, Flying boats may be stabilized by under-wing floats or by wing-like projections from the fuselage. Flying boats were some of the largest aircraft of the first half of the 20th century and their advantage lay in using water instead of expensive land-based runways, making them the basis for international airlines in the interwar period. They were also used for maritime patrol and air-sea rescue. Their use gradually trailed off after World War II, partially because of the investments in airports during the war. In the 21st century, flying boats maintain a few uses, such as dropping water on forest fires, air transport around archipelagos. Many modern seaplane variants, whether float or flying boat types, are convertible amphibious aircraft where either landing gear or flotation modes may be used to land, on 6 June 1905 Gabriel Voisin took off and landed on the River Seine with a towed kite glider on floats. The first of his flights was 150 yards. He later built a powered floatplane in partnership with Louis Blériot, other pioneers also attempted to attach floats to aircraft in Britain, Australia, France and the USA. On 28 March 1910 Frenchman Henri Fabre successfully flew the first successful powered seaplane, the Gnome Omega-powered hydravion, fabres first successful take off and landing by a powered seaplane inspired other aviators and he designed floats for several other flyers. The first hydro-aeroplane competition was held in Monaco in March 1912, featuring aircraft using floats from Fabre, Curtiss, Tellier and this led to the first scheduled seaplane passenger services at Aix-les-Bains, using a five-seat Sanchez-Besa from 1 August 1912. The French Navy ordered its first floatplane in 1912, in 1911-12 François Denhaut constructed the first seaplane with a fuselage forming a hull, using various designs to give hydrodynamic lift at take-off. Its first successful flight was on 13 April 1912, throughout 1910 and 1911 American pioneering aviator Glenn Curtiss developed his floatplane into the successful Curtiss Model D land-plane, which used a larger central float and sponsons. Combining floats with wheels, he made the first amphibian flights in February 1911 and was awarded the first Collier Trophy for US flight achievement, from 1912 his experiments with a hulled seaplane resulted in the 1913 Model E and Model F, which he called flying-boats. In February 1911 the United States Navy took delivery of the Curtiss Model E, in Britain, Captain Edward Wakefield and Oscar Gnosspelius began to explore the feasibility of flight from water in 1908. They decided to use of Lake Windermere in the Lake District. Meanwhile, Wakefield ordered a similar to the design of the 1910 Fabre Hydravion. By November 1911, both Gnosspelier and Wakefield had aircraft capable of flight from water and awaited suitable weather conditions, gnosspeliers flight was short-lived as the aircraft crashed into the lake
28.
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
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Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
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Search and rescue
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Search and rescue is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, International Search and Rescue Advisory Group is a UN organization that promotes the exchange of information between national urban search and rescue organizations. The duty to render assistance is covered by Article 98 of the UNCLOS, there are many different definitions of search and rescue, depending on the agency involved. Canadian Forces, Search and Rescue comprises the search for, and provision of aid to, persons, ships or other craft which are, or are feared to be, in distress or imminent danger. United States Coast Guard, The use of resources to assist persons or property in potential or actual distress. One of the worlds earliest well-documented SAR efforts ensued following the 1656 wreck of the Dutch merchant ship Vergulde Draeck off the west coast of Australia, survivors sought help, and in response three separate SAR missions were conducted, without success. All 5 crew members of an oil barge, which had run aground on Penfield Reef, were saved before the barge sank, in 1983, Korean Air Lines Flight 007 with 269 occupants was shot down by a Soviet aircraft near Sakhalin. The Soviets sent SAR helicopters and boats to Soviet waters, while a search, South Korean, and Japanese ships and aircraft in international waters, but no survivors were found. In July 2009, Air France Flight 447 was lost in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, an international SAR effort was launched, to no avail. A third effort nearly two years later discovered the site and recovered the black boxes. In early 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 crashed under mysterious circumstances, many nations contributed to the initial SAR effort, which was fruitless. 3mn to date on fuel and food in its own effort. The search for Flight 370 has become the largest SAR so far with the largest budget, mountain rescue relates to search and rescue operations specifically in rugged and mountainous terrain. Ground search and rescue is the search for persons who are lost or in distress on land or inland waterways, some ground search teams also employ search and rescue dogs. Urban search and rescue, also referred to as Heavy Urban Search and Rescue, is the location and rescue of persons from collapsed buildings or other urban and industrial entrapments. Due to the nature of the work, most teams are multi-disciplinary and include personnel from police, fire. While earthquakes have traditionally been the cause of US&R operations, terrorist attacks, combat search and rescue is search and rescue operations that are carried out during war that are within or near combat zones. Air-sea rescue refers to the use of aircraft and surface vessels, to search for. This treaty contains the definition of high seas, at Article 1, International Search and Rescue Advisory Group is a UN organization that promotes the exchange of information between national urban search and rescue organizations
31.
T. E. Lawrence
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Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO was a British archaeologist, military officer, diplomat, and writer. He was renowned for his role during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. Chapman had left his wife and first family in Ireland to live with Junner, in 1896, the Lawrences moved to Oxford, where Lawrence attended high school, then in 1907–1910 studied History at Jesus College. Between 1910 and 1914 he worked as an archaeologist, chiefly at Carchemish, soon after the outbreak of war he joined the British Army and was stationed in Egypt. In 1916, he was sent to Arabia on a mission and quickly became involved with the Arab Revolt, serving, along with other British officers. After the war, Lawrence served until 1922 as a diplomat, in 1922, he retreated from public life and spent the years until 1935 serving as an enlisted man, mostly in the Royal Air Force, with a brief stint in the Army. During this time, he wrote and published his work, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. He also translated books into English and completed The Mint, which was published posthumously and he corresponded extensively and was friendly with well-known artists, writers, and politicians. For the RAF, he participated in the design of rescue motorboats, Lawrences public image resulted in part from the sensationalised reporting of the Arab revolt by American journalist Lowell Thomas, as well as from Seven Pillars of Wisdom. In 1935, Lawrence was fatally injured in a accident in Dorset. Lawrence was born on 16 August 1888 in Tremadog, Carnarvonshire, Wales in a house named Gorphwysfa, now known as Snowdon Lodge. His Anglo-Irish father Thomas Chapman had left his wife Edith after he fell in love and had a son with Sarah Junner, a young Scotswoman who had been engaged as governess to his daughters. Sarah was the daughter of Elizabeth Junner and John Lawrence, who worked as a carpenter and was a son of the household in which Elizabeth had been a servant. She was dismissed four months before Sarah was born, Sarah and Thomas did not marry, but lived together under the name Lawrence. In 1914, Sir Thomas inherited the Chapman baronetcy based at Killua Castle, the family home in County Westmeath, Ireland. They had five sons, Thomas Edward was the second eldest, from Wales the family moved to Kirkcudbright, Galloway in southwestern Scotland, then Dinard in Brittany, then to Jersey. In 1894–96, the family lived at Langley Lodge, set in woods between the eastern borders of the New Forest and Southampton Water in Hampshire. The residence was isolated, and young Ned Lawrence had many opportunities for outdoor activities, in the summer of 1896, the Lawrences moved to 2, Polstead Road in Oxford, where they lived under the names of Mr and Mrs Lawrence until 1921
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Short Sunderland
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The Short S.25 Sunderland was a British flying boat patrol bomber developed for the Royal Air Force by Short Brothers. It took its name from the town and port of Sunderland in North East England. Based in part upon the S.23 Empire flying boat, the flagship of Imperial Airways, the S.25 was extensively re-engineered for military service. It was one of the most powerful and widely used flying boats throughout the Second World War, RAF Sunderlands also saw service in the Korean War and continued in service until 1959. It also took part in the Berlin airlift, Sunderlands remained in service with the Royal New Zealand Air Force until 1967. Sunderlands converted for use, known as Short Sandringhams, continued in airline operation until 1974. A single airworthy example remains on display in Florida at Fantasy of Flight. S, in response, Imperial Airways announced a competition to design and produce 28 flying boats, each weighing 18 long tons and having a range of 700 mi with a capacity for 24 passengers. The 1933 Air Ministry Specification R. 2/33 called for a flying boat for ocean reconnaissance. The new aircraft had to have four engines but could be either a monoplane or biplane design. Specification R. 2/33 was released roughly in parallel with the Imperial Airways requirement, Chief Designer Arthur Gouge originally intended that a 37 mm COW gun be mounted in the bow with a single Lewis gun in the tail. As with the S.23, he tried to make the drag as low as possible, while the nose was longer than that of the S.23. The military flying boat variant was designated S.25 and the design was submitted to the Air Ministry in 1934. Saunders-Roe also designed a flying boat, the Saro A.33, in response to the R. 2/33 competition, the initial S.25 prototype first took flight in October 1937. The S.25 shared much in common with the S.23, as construction proceeded the armament was changed to a single 0.303 Vickers K machine gun in the nose turret and four 0.303 Browning machine guns in the tail. Then there was a change in the turret to a powered version. The unarmed prototype first flew, on 16 October 1937, following some flight trials it was modified with a wing sweepback of 4°15 by adding a spacer into the front spar attachments. This moved the centre of lift enough to compensate for the centre of gravity. The modified K4774 flew on 7 March 1938 with Bristol Pegasus XXII engines of 1,010 hp, the crew was originally intended to be seven but increased in later versions to 11 crew members or more
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Royal Australian Air Force
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The Royal Australian Air Force, formed March 1921, is the aerial warfare branch of the Australian Defence Force. It directly continues the traditions of the Australian Flying Corps, formed on 22 October 1912, the RAAF provides support across a spectrum of operations such as air superiority, precision strikes, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, air mobility, and humanitarian support. The RAAF has taken part in many of the 20th centurys major conflicts, thousands of Australians also served with other Commonwealth air forces in Europe. By the time the war ended, a total of 216,900 men and women served in the RAAF, later the RAAF served in the Berlin Airlift, Korean War, Malayan Emergency, Indonesia–Malaysia Confrontation and Vietnam War. More recently, the RAAF has participated in operations in East Timor, the Iraq War, the War in Afghanistan, and the intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq. The RAAF has 259 aircraft, of which 110 are combat aircraft, the RAAF traces its history back to the Imperial Conference held in London in 1911, where it was decided aviation should be developed within the armed forces of the British Empire. By 1914 the corps was known as the Australian Flying Corps, soon after the outbreak of war in 1914, the Australian Flying Corps sent aircraft to assist in capturing German colonies in what is now north-east New Guinea. However, these colonies surrendered quickly, before the planes were even unpacked, the first operational flights did not occur until 27 May 1915, when the Mesopotamian Half Flight was called upon to assist the Indian Army in protecting British oil interests in what is now Iraq. The corps later saw action in Egypt, Palestine and on the Western Front throughout the remainder of the First World War, by the end of the war, four squadrons—Nos. 1,2,3 and 4—had seen operational service, while another four training squadrons—Nos,5,6,7 and 8—had also been established. A total of 460 officers and 2,234 other ranks served in the AFC, casualties included 175 dead,111 wounded,6 gassed and 40 captured. The Australian Flying Corps remained part of the Australian Army until 1919, although the Central Flying School continued to operate at Point Cook, military flying virtually ceased until 1920, when the Australian Air Corps was formed. The Australian Air Force was formed on 31 March 1921, king George V approved the prefix Royal in June 1921 and became effective on 31 August 1921. The RAAF then became the second Royal air arm to be formed in the British Commonwealth, when formed the RAAF had more aircraft than personnel, with 21 officers and 128 other ranks and 153 aircraft. A total of 17 RAAF bomber, fighter, reconnaissance and other squadrons served initially in Britain and with the Desert Air Force located in North Africa, thousands of Australians also served with other Commonwealth air forces in Europe during the Second World War. About nine percent of the personnel who served under British RAF commands in Europe and this statistic is further illustrated by the fact that No.460 Squadron RAAF, mostly flying Avro Lancasters, had an official establishment of about 200 aircrew and yet had 1,018 combat deaths. The squadron was therefore effectively wiped out five times over, total RAAF casualties in Europe were 5,488 killed or missing. The beginning of the Pacific War—and the rapid advance of Japanese forces—threatened the Australian mainland for the first time in its history, the RAAF was quite unprepared for the emergency, and initially had negligible forces available for service in the Pacific
34.
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
35.
Battle of the Atlantic
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The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, running from 1939 to the defeat of Germany in 1945. At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war and it was at its height from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943. The convoys, coming mainly from North America and predominantly going to the United Kingdom and these forces were aided by ships and aircraft of the United States from September 13,1941. The Germans were joined by submarines of the Italian Royal Navy after their Axis ally Italy entered the war on June 10,1940, as an island nation, the United Kingdom was highly dependent on imported goods. Britain required more than a million tons of imported material per week in order to be able to survive and fight. In essence, the Battle of the Atlantic was a war, the Allied struggle to supply Britain. From 1942 onwards, the Axis also sought to prevent the build-up of Allied supplies, the defeat of the U-boat threat was a pre-requisite for pushing back the Axis. The outcome of the battle was a victory for the Allies—the German blockade failed—but at great cost,3,500 merchant ships and 175 warships were sunk for the loss of 783 U-boats. The name Battle of the Atlantic was coined by Winston Churchill in February 1941 and it has been called the longest, largest, and most complex naval battle in history. The campaign started immediately after the European war began, during the so-called Phoney War and it involved thousands of ships in more than 100 convoy battles and perhaps 1,000 single-ship encounters, in a theatre covering millions of square miles of ocean. The Allies gradually gained the hand, overcoming German surface raiders by the end of 1942 and defeating the U-boats by mid-1943. The first meeting of the Cabinets Battle of the Atlantic Committee was on March 19, Churchill claimed to have coined the phrase Battle of the Atlantic shortly before Alexanders speech, but there are several examples of earlier usage. Following the use of unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany in the First World War, countries tried to limit, even abolish, the effort failed. or active resistance to visit or search. This made restrictions on submarines effectively moot, in 1939, the Kriegsmarine lacked the strength to challenge the combined British Royal Navy and French Navy for command of the sea. Instead, German naval strategy relied on commerce raiding using capital ships, armed merchant cruisers, submarines and these ships immediately attacked British and French shipping. U-30 sank the ocean liner SS Athenia within hours of the declaration of war—in breach of her orders not to sink passenger ships, much of the early German anti-shipping activity involved minelaying by destroyers, aircraft and U-boats off British ports. With the outbreak of war, the British and French immediately began a blockade of Germany, the Royal Navy quickly introduced a convoy system for the protection of trade that gradually extended out from the British Isles, eventually reaching as far as Panama, Bombay and Singapore. Convoys allowed the Royal Navy to concentrate its escorts near the one place the U-boats were guaranteed to be found, each convoy consisted of between 30 and 70 mostly unarmed merchant ships
36.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
