1.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
2.
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
3.
No. 1 Group RAF
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No.1 Group of the Royal Air Force is one of the two operations groups in Air Command, the other being the No.2 Group. The group is located alongside Air Command at RAF High Wycombe, the current Air officer commanding No 1 Group is Air vice-marshal Gerry Mayhew. The following stations and squadrons are under the command of No 1 Group, RAF Coningsby, No 3 Squadron RAF, No.11 Squadron RAF,29 and 41 Squadrons and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. RAF Leeming,100 Squadron RAF Lossiemouth, No.1 Squadron RAF, No.2 Squadron RAF No.6 Squadron RAF Squadrons RAF Marham, No.9 Squadron RAF, No.31 Squadron RAF, No. The Group was renumbered as No.6 Group on 19 May 1924 at RAF Kenley, two years later on 12 April 1926 the Group disappeared from the order of battle by being renumbered as No.21 Group. The next year the Group was reformed on 25 August 1927 by the renaming of Air Defence Group and this designation lasted until 1936 when it became No.6 Group again. As in 1924 the Group was reformed the day, this time as a bomber formation. By this time the Group had shrunk to ten squadrons, all equipped with Fairey Battle aircraft and located in pairs at RAF Abingdon, RAF Harwell, RAF Benson, RAF Boscombe Down and RAF Bicester. The Group re-emerged a few days later within Bomber Command on 12 September and it was reformed at RAF Bawtry on 22 June 1940 where No.1 Group was based for 44 years and has been continuously active in the RAF ever since inception. During the Second World War,1 Group was primarily based at airfields in north Lincolnshire, among others, No.1 Group included Polish Bomber Squadrons Nos.300,301,304,305. During Bomber Commands Second World War campaign, No.1 Group having higher than average losses. When Bomber Command was subsumed into the new Strike Command on 1 April 1968, No.1 Group took on the old role of the command, holding the bomber and strike aircraft of Strike Command. In around 1984, Headquarters No.1 Group moved from RAF Bawtry in South Yorkshire to RAF Upavon in Wiltshire, on 1 April 1996 No.2 Group RAF was disbanded by being absorbed into No.1 Group. In January 2000 the RAF was restructured and the Group took on its present role, the Group is responsible for UK air defence operations through QRA North at RAF Leuchars and QRA South at RAF Coningsby. Air Officers Commanding have included, List of Royal Air Force groups Rawlings, the History of the Royal Air Force. No 1 Group at Royal Air Force Website Air of Authority – No 1 Group – No 1 Group
4.
RAF Leeming
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Royal Air Force Leeming or RAF Leeming is a Royal Air Force station located near Leeming, North Yorkshire, England. HRH The Duchess of Cornwall is the Honorary Air Commodore of RAF Leeming, the station opened in 1940 as a bomber station during the Second World War. In 1943 the station was assigned to No.6 Group Royal Canadian Air Force with a sub-station at RAF Skipton-on-Swale, the main aircraft operated were Whitley, Stirling, Halifax and Lancaster bombers. A detachment of No.219 Squadron RAF used the airfield between 4 October 1939 and 12 October 1940 when the section of the squadron was at RAF Catterick flying the Bristol Blenheim IF. No.10 Squadron RAF between 8 July 1940 and 5 July 1942 flying the Handley Page Halifax Mks I & II, No.7 Squadron RAF reformed at the airfield on 1 August 1940 with the Short Stirling I before moving to RAF Oakington on 29 October 1940. No.102 Squadron RAF between 25 August 1940 and 1 September 1940 flying the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley V before moving to RAF Prestwick, No.35 Squadron RAF between 20 November 1940 and 5 December 1940 using the Halifax I before moving to RAF Linton-on-Ouse. No.77 Squadron RAF between 5 September 1941 and 6 May 1942 flying the Whitley V before moving to RAF Chivenor, No.408 Squadron RCAF between 14 September 1942 and 27 August 1943 with the Halifax V and I before moving to RAF Linton-on-Ouse. 1659 HCU RAF 1941–1942 No.424 Squadron RCAF between 8 April 1943 and 3 May 1943 using the Vickers Wellington X before moving to RAF Dalton, No.427 Squadron RCAF between 5 May 1943 and 31 May 1946 when the squadron disbanded. The squadron initially used the Halifax V and III before switching to the Avro Lancaster Mk. I, No.429 Squadron RCAF between 13 August 1943 and 31 May 1946 when the squadron disbanded. The squadron initially used the Halifax V and III before switching to the Avro Lancaster Mk. I, following the war, the station became a night fighter base, equipped initially with Mosquito and then with Meteor and Javelin aircraft before becoming a Training Command airfield in 1961. The station was home to No.3 Flying Training School. There were also several other units using the airfield during the same period, initially it hosted Nos 11,23, and 25 Squadrons, all flying the F3. 23 Squadron was disbanded on 1 March 1994, and was reformed at RAF Waddington in 1996 flying the Sentry E3D and this left two Tornado squadrons, which were half of the air defence fighter squadrons of the RAF. 11 Squadron was disbanded in October 2005, but it re-formed at RAF Coningsby on 29 March 2007 flying the Eurofighter Typhoon F2, the last Tornado squadron at Leeming disbanded on 4 April 2008. The only remaining jets are the BAe Hawks of 100 Squadron which provides an air combat training service as well as support to the Joint Forward Air Controller Training, Leeming then began operating as a Forward Operating Base and as a Fast Jet Turnround facility. The remaining air defence bases are RAF Leuchars in Fife, Scotland which exchanged its Tornado F3s for Typhoons, Coningsby took over from Leeming as Englands main air defence base in April 2008 when 3 Sqn became fully operational. Leeming is also home to No 11 Air Experience Flight and Northumbrian Universities Air Squadron, the future of RAF Leeming following the disbandment of its remaining Tornado squadron was not clear for a period. RAF Leeming saw substantial redevelopment as a hub, with 90 Signals Unit being the resident unit
5.
Malay language
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Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It has a status in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia. As the Bahasa Kebangsaan or Bahasa Nasional of several states, Standard Malay has various official names, in Singapore and Brunei it is called Bahasa Melayu, in Malaysia, Bahasa Malaysia, and in Indonesia, Bahasa Indonesia and is designated the Bahasa Persatuan/Pemersatu. However, in areas of central to southern Sumatra where the language is indigenous, Indonesians refer to it as Bahasa Melayu and consider it one of their regional languages. There are also several Malay trade and creole languages which are based on a lingua franca derived from Classical Malay, as well as Macassar Malay, Malay historical linguists agree on the likelihood of the Malay homeland being in western Borneo stretching to the Bruneian coast. A form known as Proto-Malay language was spoken in Borneo at least by 1000 BCE and was, it has been argued, the ancestral language of all subsequent Malayan languages. The history of the Malay language can be divided into five periods, Old Malay, the Transitional Period, the Malacca Period, Late Modern Malay and it is not clear that Old Malay was actually the ancestor of Classical Malay, but this is thought to be quite possible. Old Malay was influenced by Sanskrit literary language of Classical India, Sanskrit loanwords can be found in Old Malay vocabulary. Batenburg on November 29,1920 at Kedukan Bukit, South Sumatra, on the banks of the Tatang and it is a small stone of 45 by 80 centimetres. The earliest surviving manuscript in Malay is the Tanjong Tanah Law in post-Pallava letters and this 14th-century pre-Islamic legal text produced in the Adityawarman era of Dharmasraya, a Hindu-Buddhist kingdom that arose after the end of Srivijayan rule in Sumatra. The laws were for the Minangkabau people, who still live in the highlands of Sumatra. The Malay language came into use as the lingua franca of the Malacca Sultanate. During this period, the Malay language developed rapidly under the influence of Islamic literature, the development changed the nature of the language with massive infusion of Arabic, Malayalam and Sanskrit vocabularies, called Classical Malay. Under the Sultanate of Malacca the language evolved into a form recognisable to speakers of modern Malay, however, there is no connection between Malaccan Malay as used on Riau and the Riau vernacular. One of the oldest surviving letters written in Malay is a letter from Sultan Abu Hayat of Ternate, Maluku Islands in present-day Indonesia, the letter is addressed to the king of Portugal, following contact with Portuguese explorer Francisco Serrão. The letters show sign of non-native usage, the Ternateans used the unrelated Ternate language, Malay was used solely as a lingua franca for inter-ethnic communications. Malay is a member of the Austronesian family of languages, which includes languages from Southeast Asia, malagasy, a geographic outlier spoken in Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, is also a member of this language family. Although each language of the family is mutually unintelligible, their similarities are rather striking, many roots have come virtually unchanged from their common ancestor, Proto-Austronesian language
6.
BAE Systems Hawk
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The BAE Systems Hawk is a British single-engine, jet-powered advanced trainer aircraft. It was first flown at Dunsfold, Surrey, in 1974 as the Hawker Siddeley Hawk and it has been used in a training capacity and as a low-cost combat aircraft. Operators of the Hawk include the Royal Air Force and a number of foreign military operators. The Hawk is still in production in the UK and under licence in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited with over 900 Hawks sold to 18 operators around the world, in 1964 the Royal Air Force specified a requirement for a new fast jet trainer to replace the Folland Gnat. Accordingly, in 1968, Hawker Siddeley Aviation began studies for a simpler aircraft, the design team was led by Ralph Hooper. This project was funded by the company as a private venture, the design was conceived of as having tandem seating and a combat capability in addition to training, as it was felt the latter would improve export sales potential. The RAF selected the HS.1182 for their requirement on 1 October 1971, the prototype aircraft XX154 first flew on 21 August 1974 from Dunsfold piloted by Duncan Simpson, Chief Test Pilot of HSA, reaching 20,000 ft in a flight lasting 53 minutes. All development aircraft were built on production jigs, the program remained on time, the Hawk T1 entered RAF service in late 1976. The first export Hawk 50 flew on 17 May 1976 and this variant had been specifically designed for the dual-role of lightweight fighter and advanced trainer, it had a greater weapons capacity than the T.1. In 1981 a derivative of the Hawk was selected by the United States Navy as their new trainer aircraft, all airframes are planned to undergo avionics upgrades to a common standard. By early 1998, a total of 734 Hawks had been sold, military customers often procured the Hawk as a replacement for older aircraft such as the BAC Strikemaster, Hawker Hunter, and Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. Malaysia and Oman cancelled their arranged Tornado orders in the early 1990s, on 22 December 2004, the Ministry of Defence awarded a contract to BAE Systems to develop an advanced model of the Hawk for the RAF and Royal Navy. In October 2006, a GB£450 million contract was signed for the production of 28 Hawk 128s, the aircrafts maiden flight occurred on 27 July 2005 from BAE Systems Warton Aerodrome. According to BAE Systems, as of July 2012 they have sold nearly 1000 Hawks so far, in May 2015, Indian aerospace manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics revealed that it was examining the prospects of performing its own Hawk upgrades, including armed light attack variants. Missile developer and manufacturer MBDA may provide their ASRAAM and Brimstone missiles to arm the new attack type, the Hawk is an advanced trainer with a two-man tandem cockpit, a low-mounted cantilever wing and is powered by a single turbofan engine. Unlike many of the trainers in RAF service, the Hawk was specifically designed for training. Hawker had developed the aircraft to have a level of servicability. The Hawk has been praised by pilots for its agility, in particular its roll, the design of the fuselage included a height differential between the two seats of the cockpit, this provided generous levels of visibility for the instructor in the rear seat
7.
Battle honour
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In European military tradition, military units may be acknowledged for their achievements in specific wars or operations of a military campaign. These honours usually take the form of a place and a date, theatre honours could be listed and displayed on regimental property but not emblazoned on the colours. Since battle honours are emblazoned on colours, artillery units. These honour titles were permitted to be used as part of their official nomenclature, similar honours in the same tenor include unit citations. Battle honours, theatre honours, honour titles and their ilk form a part of the variety of distinctions which serve to distinguish military units from each other. For the British Army, the need to adopt a system to recognise military units battlefield accomplishments was apparent since its formation as an army in the later part of the 17th century. Although the granting of battle honours had already been in place at the time, before then, a regiments colours were practical tools for rallying troops in the battlefield and not quite something for displaying the units past distinctions. The first battle honour to be awarded in the British Army was granted to the 15th Hussars for the Battle of Emsdorf in 1760, thereafter, other regiments received battle honours for some of their previous engagements. The battle honour is held by the successor regiment, the Princess of Waless Royal Regiment. During these early years of the British standing army, a regiment needed only to engage the enemy with musketry before it was eligible for a battle honour, thus in 1882, a committee was formed to adjudicate applications of battle honour claims. This committee, later called the Battles Nomenclature Committee, still maintains its function in the British Army today. A battle honour may be granted to infantry/cavalry regiments or battalions, as well as ships and squadrons, they are granted to sub-units such as companies. Battle honours are presented in the form of a name of a country, region, or city where the units distinguished act took place. Not every battle fought will automatically result in the granting of a battle honour, conversely, a regiment or a battalion might obtain more than one battle honour over the course of a larger operation. Similarly, while in Korea, Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry earned both Kapyong and Korea 1951–1953, supporting corps/branches such as medical, service, ordnance, or transport do not currently receive battle honours. However and uniquely the Royal Logistic Corps has five battle honours inherited from its previous transport elements, Commonwealth artillery does not maintain battle honours as they carry neither colours nor guidons—though their guns by tradition are afforded many of the same respects and courtesies. However, both the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers were in 1832 granted by King William IV the right to use the Latin Ubique, meaning everywhere and this is worn on the cap badge of both the Corps of Royal Engineers and the Royal Regiment of Artillery. The practice was extended to these same regiments and corps in the successor Commonwealth armed forces
8.
Western Front (World War I)
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The Western Front or Western Theater was the main theatre of war during World War I. Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by invading Luxembourg and Belgium, the tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne. Following the Race to the Sea, both sides dug in along a line of fortified trenches, stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier with France. This line remained unchanged for most of the war. Between 1915 and 1917 there were several major offensives along this front, the attacks employed massive artillery bombardments and massed infantry advances. However, a combination of entrenchments, machine gun emplacements, barbed wire, as a result, no significant advances were made. In an effort to break the deadlock, this front saw the introduction of new technology, including poison gas, aircraft. But it was only after the adoption of improved tactics that some degree of mobility was restored, the German Armys Spring Offensive of 1918 was made possible by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that marked the end of the conflict on the Eastern Front. In spite of the stagnant nature of this front, this theatre would prove decisive. The terms of peace were agreed upon with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, belgiums neutrality was guaranteed by Britain under the 1839 Treaty of London, this caused Britain to join the war at the expiration of its ultimatum at 11 pm GMT on 4 August. Armies under German generals Alexander von Kluck and Karl von Bülow attacked Belgium on 4 August 1914, Luxembourg had been occupied without opposition on 2 August. The first battle in Belgium was the Siege of Liège, which lasted from 5–16 August, Liège was well fortified and surprised the German Army under von Bülow with its level of resistance. German heavy artillery was able to demolish the main forts within a few days. Following the fall of Liège, most of the Belgian field army retreated to Antwerp, leaving the garrison of Namur isolated, with the Belgian capital, Brussels, although the German army bypassed Antwerp, it remained a threat to their flank. Another siege followed at Namur, lasting from about 20–23 August, for their part, the French had five armies deployed on their borders. The pre-war French offensive plan, Plan XVII, was intended to capture Alsace-Lorraine following the outbreak of hostilities, on 7 August the VII Corps attacked Alsace with its objectives being to capture Mulhouse and Colmar. The main offensive was launched on 14 August with 1st and 2nd Armies attacking toward Sarrebourg-Morhange in Lorraine, in keeping with the Schlieffen Plan, the Germans withdrew slowly while inflicting severe losses upon the French. The French advanced the 3rd and 4th Armies toward the Saar River and attempted to capture Saarburg, attacking Briey and Neufchateau, before being driven back
9.
Battle of Passchendaele
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The Battle of Passchendaele was a major campaign of the First World War, fought by the Allies against the German Empire. Passchendaele lay on the last ridge east of Ypres,5 miles from a junction at Roulers. The next stage of the Allied plan was an advance to Thourout–Couckelaere, to close the German-controlled railway running through Roulers, further operations and a British supporting attack along the Belgian coast from Nieuwpoort, combined with Operation Hush, were to have reached Bruges and then the Dutch frontier. The campaign ended in November, when the Canadian Corps captured Passchendaele, apart from attacks in December. In 1918, the Battle of the Lys and the Fifth Battle of Ypres were fought before the Allies occupied the Belgian coast, a campaign in Flanders was controversial in 1917 and has remained so. The British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, opposed the offensive, field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, commanding the British Expeditionary Force, did not receive approval for the Flanders operation from the War Cabinet until 25 July. Belgian independence had been recognised in the Treaty of London which created a sovereign, the German invasion of Belgium on 4 August 1914, in violation of Article VII of the treaty, was the reason given by the British government for declaring war on Germany. British military operations in Belgium began with the arrival of the British Expeditionary Force at Mons on 22 August. On 10 October, Lieutenant-General Erich von Falkenhayn, the Chief of the German General Staff, ordered an attack towards Dunkirk and Calais, followed by a turn south to gain a decisive victory. On 16 October, the Belgians and some French reinforcements began the defence of western Belgium, when the offensive failed, Falkenhayn ordered the capture of Ypres to gain a local advantage. By 18 November, the First Battle of Ypres ended in failure, large British offensive operations in Flanders were not possible in 1915, due to the consequent lack of resources. The Germans conducted their own Flanders offensive at the Second Battle of Ypres, Sir Douglas Haig succeeded Sir John French as Commander-in-Chief of the BEF on 19 December 1915. A week after his appointment, Haig met Vice-Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon, Haig preferred an advance from Ypres, to bypass the flooded area around the Yser and the coast, before a coastal attack was attempted, to clear the coast to the Dutch border. Other operations were begun by the British to regain territory or to evict the Germans from ground overlooking their positions, engagements took place on 12 February at Boesinghe and on 14 February at Hooge and Sanctuary Wood. There were actions from 14–15 February and 1–4 March at The Bluff,27 March –16 April at the St. Eloi Craters, in January 1917, the Second Army held the line in Flanders from Laventie to Boesinghe with eleven divisions and up to two in reserve. There was much trench mortaring, mining and raiding by both sides and from January to May, the Second Army had 20,000 casualties. In May, reinforcements began moving to Flanders from the south, in January 1916, General Herbert Plumer, the Second Army commander, began to plan offensives against Messines Ridge, Lille and Houthulst Forest. General Henry Rawlinson was also ordered to plan an attack from the Ypres Salient on 4 February, planning continued but the Battle of Verdun, at meetings in November 1916, Haig, the French commander-in-chief Joseph Joffre and the other Allies met at Chantilly
10.
Second Battle of the Somme (1918)
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The Second Battle of the Somme of 1918 was fought during the First World War on the Western Front from late August to early September, in the basin of the River Somme. It was part of a series of successful counter-offensives in response to the German Spring Offensive, after a pause for redeployment, instead, Haig began to plan for an offensive at Albert, which opened on 21 August. The main attack was launched by the British Third Army, with the United States II Corps attached, the second battle began on 21 August with the opening of the Second Battle of Bapaume to the north of the river itself. That developed into an advance which pushed the German Second Army back over a 55 kilometre front, from south of Douai to La Fère, south of Saint-Quentin, Albert was captured on 22 August. On 26 August, the British First Army widened the attack by another twelve kilometres, sometimes called the Second Battle of Arras. The Australian Corps crossed the Somme River on the night of 31 August, and broke the German lines at the Battle of Mont St. Quentin and the Battle of Péronne. The British Fourth Armys commander, General Henry Rawlinson, described the Australian advances of 31 August –4 September as the greatest military achievement of the war, on the morning of 2 September, after a heavy battle, the Canadian Corps seized control of the Drocourt-Quéant line. The battle was fought by the Canadian 1st Division, 4th Division, heavy German casualties were inflicted, and the Canadians also captured more than 6,000 unwounded prisoners. By noon that day the German commander, Erich Ludendorff, had decided to withdraw behind the Canal du Nord, by 2 September, the Germans had been forced back to the Hindenburg Line, from which they had launched their offensive in the spring. In late September/early October, one of the battles of the whole war was the breach of the Hindenburg Line by British. Soon after, the Canadians breached the Hindenburg Line at the Battle of Cambrai, a key part of the German supply line ran parallel with the front. This policy worked but it some very determined work at the St. Quentin Canal, among the prepared defences. List of Canadian battles during World War I Hundred Days Offensive Bomford, beaten Down by Blood, The Battle of Mont St Quentin-Péronne 1918. 1918, Gamble for Victory, The Greatest Attack of World War I, Spring Offensive, New Zealand and the Second Battle of the Somme. The Third Armys Advance to Victory, Western Front 1918, retreat and Rearguard – Somme 1918. Media related to Second Battle of the Somme at Wikimedia Commons
11.
Battle of the Ruhr
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The campaign bombed twenty-six major Combined Bomber Offensive targets. The targets included the Krupp armament works, the Nordstern synthetic-oil plant, some targets were not sites of heavy industrial production but part of the production and movement of materiel. Before the Battle of the Ruhr ended, Operation Gomorrah began the Battle of Hamburg, the British bomber force was made up in the main of the twin-engined Vickers Wellington medium bomber and the four-engined heavies, the Short Stirling, Handley Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster. The Wellington and Stirling were the two oldest designs and limited in the type or weight of bombs carried, the Stirling was also limited to a lower operational height. Bombers could carry a range of bombs - Medium Capacity bombs of about 50% explosive by weight, High Capacity Blockbusters that were mostly explosive, the combined use of the latter two were most effective in setting fires in urban areas. British raids were by night - the losses in daylight raids having been too heavy to bear, by this point in the war, RAF Bomber Command were using navigation aids, the Pathfinder force and the bomber stream tactic together. Guidance markers put the force over the target area, where they would then drop their bombloads on target markers. The bomber stream concentrated the force of bombers into a time window, such that it overwhelmed fighter defences in the air. For most of the Battle of the Ruhr the Oboe de Havilland Mosquitoes came from one squadron, the number of Oboe aircraft that could be used at any time was limited by the number of ground stations. USAAF raids were by daylight, the closely massed groups of bombers covering each other with defensive fire against fighters, between them, the Allies could mount round the clock bombing. The USAAF forces in the UK were still increasing during 1943, the German defence was through anti-aircraft weapons and day and night fighters. The Kammhuber Line used radar to identify the bomber raids and then controllers directed night fighters onto the raiders, during the battle of the Ruhr, Bomber Command estimated about 70% of their aircraft losses were due to fighters. By July 1943, the German night fighter force totalled 550, through the summer of 1943, the Germans increased the ground-based anti-aircraft defences in the Ruhr Area, by July 1943 there were more than 1,000 large flak guns and 1,500 lighter guns. This was about one-third of all guns in Germany. Six-hundred thousand personnel were required to man the AA defences of Germany, the British crews called the area sarcastically Happy Valley or the valley of no Return. During the battle other German targets received large attacks, berlin 27/28 March, 29/30 March Stettin 20/21 April In his study of the German war economy, Adam Tooze stated that during the Battle of the Ruhr, Bomber Command severely disrupted German production. Steel production fell by 200,000 tons, the armaments industry was facing a steel shortfall of 400,000 tons. After doubling production in 1942, production of steel increased only by 20 percent in 1943, hitler and Speer were forced to cut planned increases in production
12.
Battle of Berlin (RAF campaign)
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The Battle of Berlin was the British bombing campaign on Berlin from November 1943 to March 1944. Not limited solely to Berlin, the campaign targeted other German cities as well, the campaign was launched by Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, AOC of RAF Bomber Command in November 1943. Harris believed this could be the blow that broke German resistance and it will cost us between 400 and 500 aircraft. It will cost Germany the war, by this time he could deploy over 800 long-range bombers on any given night, equipped with new and more sophisticated navigational devices such as H2S radar. Between November 1943 and March 1944, Bomber Command made 16 massed attacks on Berlin, the USAAF, having recently suffered heavy losses in its attacks on Schweinfurt from which it was still recovering, was unable to participate. It is generally accepted that the Battle of Berlin was a failure for the Royal Air Force as it was not the blow that Harris had predicted. In response to attacks on German cities, the Luftwaffe began Operation Steinbock —a series of attacks on London, the Germans suffered heavy losses, but they persisted until May 1944. Over every mission during Steinbock, attacking formations suffered a higher percentage than the RAF sustained over Germany. Although primarily a British operation, Australian and Canadian bomber squadrons took part in the battle. The first raid of the battle occurred on the night of 18/19 November 1943, Berlin was the main target and was attacked by 440 Avro Lancaster heavy bombers and four de Havilland Mosquitos. The city was under cloud and the damage was not severe, the second major raid was on the night of 22/23 November. This was the most effective raid on Berlin by the RAF of the war, causing damage to the residential areas west of the centre, Tiergarten and Charlottenburg, Schöneberg. Because of the dry conditions, several firestorms ignited. Both the Protestant Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, now serving as a war memorial, on 17 December, extensive damage was done to the Berlin railway system. By this time the effect of the bombing campaign had made more than a quarter of Berlins total living accommodation unusable. There was another raid on 28–29 January 1944, when Berlins western and southern districts were hit in the most concentrated attack of this period. On 15–16 February, important war industries were hit, including the large Siemensstadt area in the west, with the centre and this was the largest raid by the RAF on Berlin. Despite the devastation caused, these raids failed to achieve their objectives
13.
Normandy landings
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The Normandy landings were the landing operations on Tuesday,6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. The largest seaborne invasion in history, the operation began the liberation of German-occupied northwestern Europe from Nazi control, planning for the operation began in 1943. Adolf Hitler placed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in command of German forces, the amphibious landings were preceded by extensive aerial and naval bombardment and an airborne assault—the landing of 24,000 American, British, and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight. Allied infantry and armoured divisions began landing on the coast of France at 06,30, the target 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast was divided into five sectors, Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. Strong winds blew the landing craft east of their positions, particularly at Utah. Casualties were heaviest at Omaha, with its high cliffs, at Gold, Juno, and Sword, several fortified towns were cleared in house-to-house fighting, and two major gun emplacements at Gold were disabled, using specialised tanks. The Allies failed to any of their goals on the first day. Carentan, St. Lô, and Bayeux remained in German hands, and Caen, German casualties on D-Day have been estimated at 4,000 to 9,000 men. Allied casualties were at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead, museums, memorials, and war cemeteries in the area now host many visitors each year. Between 27 May and 4 June 1940, over 338,000 troops of the British Expeditionary Force, after the German Army invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin began pressing his allies for the creation of a second front in western Europe. In late May 1942 the Soviet Union and the United States made a joint announcement that a. full understanding was reached with regard to the urgent tasks of creating a front in Europe in 1942. Instead of a return to France, the Western Allies staged offensives in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations. By mid-1943 the campaign in North Africa had been won, the Allies then launched the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and subsequently invaded Italy in September the same year. By then, Soviet forces were on the offensive and had won a victory at the Battle of Stalingrad. The decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion within the year was taken at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. Initial planning was constrained by the number of landing craft, most of which were already committed in the Mediterranean. At the Tehran Conference in November 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill promised Stalin that they would open the second front in May 1944. Four sites were considered for the landings, Brittany, the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy, as Brittany and Cotentin are peninsulas, it would have been possible for the Germans to cut off the Allied advance at a relatively narrow isthmus, so these sites were rejected
14.
Battle of Walcheren Causeway
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It was the first of many conflicts on and around Walcheren Island that constitute Operation Infatuate during the Scheldt battles. After the breakout from Normandy by the Allied armies, beginning August 13,1944 and this forced the Allies to bring all supplies for their rapidly advancing armies from the artificial harbor they had constructed off the beaches of Normandy, and from Cherbourg. Because of its port capacity Antwerp became the objective of the British 21st Army Group commanded by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. While Antwerp fell to Montgomery on September 4 no supplies could be landed there until the German forces holding the lower reaches of the Scheldt, between Antwerp and the North Sea, were removed. By 31 October 1944, all surrounding the Scheldt estuary had been cleared of German control, save for Walcheren Island. These guns prevented the Allies from making use of the facilities of Antwerp to alleviate their logistical concerns. This flooded the part of the island, forcing the German defenders onto the high ground around the outside. The 2nd Canadian Infantry Division had marched west down the South Beveland isthmus, Walcheren Island was connected to South Beveland by a narrow causeway,40 metres wide and 1600 metres long. Plans to employ assault boats over the Sloe Channel were thwarted by muddy conditions unsuitable for water craft, in the event, the ground was too boggy to employ the boats, and the Highlanders were utilized as conventional infantry in a landward attack directly over the causeway. C Company of the The Black Watch of Canada took heavy casualties on the afternoon, during their attack, the existence of a deep crater on the causeway was discovered, this crater had been blown by German engineers as an anti-tank obstacle. It was later utilized by the Canadians as a command post during the battle as it developed. B Company of The Calgary Highlanders were ordered forward just before midnight and were stopped halfway down the causeway. A new fireplan was drawn up and Major Bruce McKenzies D Company inched forward under intensive gunfire, reaching the west end, German counter-attacks were heavy and prolonged, and included the use of flame weapons on the Canadians. At one point, all Calgary Highlander officers in one company were wounded or killed, two platoons of Le Régiment de Maisonneuve took over the bridgehead on Walcheren Island on 2 November, but were forced back onto the Causeway. A battalion of Glasgow Highlanders were ordered to pass through, landings by British Commandos of the 4th Commando Brigade eventually sealed the fate of the German defenders on Walcheren Island, attacking from seaward at Flushing and Westkapelle. The battle for the causeway itself had been a costly, and ultimately unnecessary, the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division went into reserve in the first week of November, moving into the Nijmegen Salient for the winter. The Calgary Highlanders suffered 64 casualties in the 3 days of fighting at Walcheren Causeway, Le Regiment de Maisonneuve had one man killed and 10 wounded. The Black Watch suffered 85 casualties in the period 14 October to 1 November 1944, representatives and members of the local Dutch community in Calgary are usually invited to attend the service
15.
Saltire
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A saltire, also called Saint Andrews Cross, is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross, like the shape of the letter X in Roman type. The word comes from the Middle French sautoir, possibly owing to the shape of the areas in the design. It appears in flags, including those of Scotland and Jamaica. A variant, also appearing on many past and present flags, a warning sign in the shape of a saltire is also used to indicate the point at which a railway line intersects a road at a level crossing. In Unicode, the cross is encoded at U+2613 ☓ saltire, see X mark#Unicode for similar symbols that might be more accessible. The saltire appears on vexilla that are represented consistently on coinage of Christian emperors of Rome, in the ninth and tenth century the saltire was revived in Constantinople as a symbol of Christian-imperial power. Anne Roes detected the symbol, which appears with balls in the quadrants formed by the arms of the chi-cross. She suggested that early Christians endorsed its solar symbolism as appropriate to Christ and she also wrote, although it cannot be proved. In the white saltire of St. Andrew we still have a reminiscence of the old standard of the Persepolitan kingdom, when two or more saltires appear, they are usually blazoned as cut off. A saltorel is a saltire, the term is usually defined as one-half the width of the saltire. A field per saltire is divided into four areas by a saltire-shaped cut, otherwise, each of the four divisions may be blazoned separately. Examples include, Suffolk County Council, England, The Corporation of the Municipality of Brighton, when five or more compact charges are in saltire, one is in the center and one or more lie on each arm of an invisible saltire. The Saint Andrews Cross was worn as a badge on hats in Scotland, the Cross of Burgundy, a form of the Saint Andrews Cross, is used in numerous flags across Europe and the Americas. It was first used in the 15th century as an emblem by the Valois Dukes of Burgundy, the Duchy of Burgundy, forming a large part of eastern France and the Low Countries, was inherited by the House of Habsburg on the extinction of the Valois ducal line. As a result, the Cross of Burgundy has appeared in a variety of flags connected with territories formerly part of the Burgundian or Habsburg inheritance. Examples of such diversity include the Spanish naval ensign, the flag of Carlism, the flag of the Dutch municipality of Eijsden, the naval ensign of the Imperial Russian and Russian navies is a blue saltire on a white field. Prior to the Union the Royal Scots Navy used a red ensign incorporating the St Andrews Cross, with its colours exchanged, the same design forms part of the arms and flag of Nova Scotia. The Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza also use a blue saltire on a white field, the flags of the Spanish island of Tenerife and the remote Colombian islands of San Andrés and Providencia also use a white saltire on a blue field
16.
George VI
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George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death. He was the last Emperor of India and the first Head of the Commonwealth, known as Albert until his accession, George VI was born in the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria, and was named after his great-grandfather Albert, Prince Consort. As the second son of King George V, he was not expected to inherit the throne and spent his life in the shadow of his elder brother. He attended naval college as a teenager, and served in the Royal Navy, in 1920, he was made Duke of York. He married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923 and they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, in the mid-1920s, he had speech therapy for a stammer, which he never fully overcame. Georges elder brother ascended the throne as Edward VIII upon the death of their father in 1936, however, later that year Edward revealed his desire to marry divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin advised Edward that for political and religious reasons he could not marry a divorced woman, Edward abdicated in order to marry, and George ascended the throne as the third monarch of the House of Windsor. During Georges reign, the break-up of the British Empire and its transition into the Commonwealth of Nations accelerated, the parliament of the Irish Free State removed direct mention of the monarch from the countrys constitution on the day of his accession. The following year, a new Irish constitution changed the name of the state to Ireland, from 1939, the Empire and Commonwealth – except Ireland – was at war with Nazi Germany. War with Italy and Japan followed in 1940 and 1941, respectively, though Britain and its allies were ultimately victorious in 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union rose as pre-eminent world powers and the British Empire declined. After the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, George remained king of countries, but relinquished the title of Emperor of India in June 1948. Ireland formally declared itself a republic and left the Commonwealth in 1949, George adopted the new title of Head of the Commonwealth. He was beset by problems in the later years of his reign. He was succeeded by his eldest daughter, Elizabeth II, George was born at York Cottage, on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria. His father was Prince George, Duke of York, the second and eldest-surviving son of the Prince and his mother was the Duchess of York, the eldest child and only daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Teck. His birthday was the 34th anniversary of the death of his great-grandfather, Albert, uncertain of how the Prince Consorts widow, Queen Victoria, would take the news of the birth, the Prince of Wales wrote to the Duke of York that the Queen had been rather distressed. Two days later, he again, I really think it would gratify her if you yourself proposed the name Albert to her. Consequently, he was baptised Albert Frederick Arthur George at St. Mary Magdalenes Church near Sandringham three months later, within the family, he was known informally as Bertie
17.
North Yorkshire
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North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan county and larger ceremonial county in England. It is located primarily in the region of Yorkshire and the Humber, created by the Local Government Act 1972, it covers an area of 8,654 square kilometres, making it the largest county in England. The majority of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors lie within North Yorkshires boundaries, the largest settlements are York, Middlesbrough, Harrogate and Scarborough, the county town, Northallerton, has a population of 16,832. The area under the control of the county council, or shire county, is divided into a number of local government districts, Craven, Hambleton, Harrogate, Richmondshire, Ryedale, Scarborough, the changes were planned to be implemented no later than 1 April 2009. This was rejected on 25 July 2007 so the County Council, the largest settlement in the administrative county is Harrogate, the second largest is Scarborough, while in the ceremonial county, the largest is York. The largest urban area within the county is the Middlesbrough built-up area sub-division of Teesside. Uniquely for a district in England, Stockton-on-Tees is split between North Yorkshire and County Durham for this purpose, Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, and Redcar and Cleveland boroughs form part of the North East England region. The ceremonial county area, including the authorities, borders East Riding of Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria. The geology of North Yorkshire is closely reflected in its landscape, within the county are the North York Moors and most of the Yorkshire Dales, two of eleven areas of countryside within England and Wales to be officially designated as national parks. Between the North York Moors in the east and the Pennine Hills in the west lie the Vales of Mowbray, the Tees Lowlands lie to the north of the North York Moors and the Vale of Pickering lies to the south. Its eastern border is the North sea coast, the highest point is Whernside, on the Cumbrian border, at 736 metres. The two major rivers in the county are the River Swale and the River Ure, the Swale and the Ure form the River Ouse which flows through York and into the Humber estuary. The River Tees forms part of the border between North Yorkshire and County Durham and flows from upper Teesdale to Middlesbrough and Stockton and to the coast, North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan county that operates a cabinet-style council, North Yorkshire County Council. The full council of 72 elects a council leader, who in turn appoints up to 9 more councillors to form the executive cabinet, the cabinet is responsible for making decisions in the County. The county council have their offices in the County Hall in Northallerton, the county is affluent and has above average house prices. Unemployment is below average for the UK and claimants of Job Seekers Allowance is also very low compared to the rest of the UK at 2. 7%, agriculture is an important industry, as are mineral extraction and power generation. The county also has high technology, service and tourism sectors. This is a chart of trend of gross value added for North Yorkshire at current basic prices with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling
18.
Hingham, Norfolk
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Hingham is a market town and civil parish in the Forehoe district in the heart of rural Norfolk, in England. The civil parish covers an area of 14.98 km2 and had a population of 2,078 in 944 households at the 2001 census, grand architecture surrounds the market place and village green. According to an 18th-century source, a fire destroyed many of the towns buildings, the same source claims that the Hingham gentry were so fashionable in their dress that the town is called by the neighbors Little London. Hingham is 17 miles from Norwich, Norfolk’s county town, the many and varied local shops have the special character of a small market town but are up-to-date in what they provide. Despite the influence and attractions of neighbouring Norwich, an active and independent town life continues to thrive, a fair visits every year, setting up on the historic Fairlands. There is a school, providing education for children from the ages of 4-11. For the purposes of government, the parish falls within the district of South Norfolk. The nearest railway stations are Wymondham and Attleborough, both on the Breckland Line, the town, originally spelled Hengham, is an ancient city, as its Saxon name denotes. It was the property of King Athelstan, in 925, and retained many privileges coming from its ownership, including the the grandeur of. St. Andrews. In years that followed, the town was a royal domain, for William the Conqueror. In 1414 the town was exempted from an English toll and in 1610, over the years, from 1272 to the towns church, not the same as that in Norwich, has had 32 rectors. By the 1600s, the town of Hingham was still agricultural, john Speeds maps of Kingdom of England during the Tudor period in 1610 and 1611, showed that the town was near Wymondham. With Speeds drawing of a castle at the location of Hingham, the town must have been of some stature. Many Puritans refused to conform to the wishes of the King and his loyal Archbishop, so they fled to the Plymouth Bay or Massachusetts Bay colonies, which has been labeled the “Great Migration. ”In 1633, migration from England to the the Americas began with a number of participants on a ship named the Bonaventure. The passengers on the Diligent, working-class people such as shoemakers and millers, a number of ministers, once there, the passengers founded New Hingham, to remind them of Old Hingham in England. Once most of the passengers settled there, the population of the town had doubled. The parishioners who left Hingham had been so prominent in the Hingham community that the town was forced to petition British Parliament, in the years the followed, Hingham continued to develop. Apart from the attachment between the Hingham in England ant that in the Americas, the St
19.
Norfolk
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Norfolk /ˈnɔːrfək/ is a county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the west and north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea and, to the north-west, The Wash. With an area of 2,074 square miles and a population of 859,400, of the countys population, 40% live in four major built up areas, Norwich, Great Yarmouth, Kings Lynn and Thetford. The Broads is a network of rivers and lakes in the east of the county, the area is not a National Park although it is marketed as such. It has similar status to a park, and is protected by the Broads Authority. Norfolk was settled in times, with camps along the higher land in the west. A Brythonic tribe, the Iceni, inhabited the county from the 1st century BC to the end of the 1st century AD, the Iceni revolted against the Roman invasion in AD47, and again in 60 led by Boudica. The crushing of the second opened the county to the Romans. During the Roman era roads and ports were constructed throughout the county, situated on the east coast, Norfolk was vulnerable to invasions from Scandinavia and Northern Europe, and forts were built to defend against the Angles and Saxons. Norfolk, Suffolk and several adjacent areas became the kingdom of East Anglia, the influence of the Early English settlers can be seen in the many place names ending in -ton and -ham. Endings such as -by and -thorpe are also common, indicating Danish place names, in the 9th century the region came under attack. In the centuries before the Norman Conquest the wetlands of the east of the county began to be converted to farmland, and settlements grew in these areas. Migration into East Anglia must have high, by the time of the Domesday Book survey it was one of the most densely populated parts of the British Isles. During the high and late Middle Ages the county developed arable agriculture, the economy was in decline by the time of the Black Death, which dramatically reduced the population in 1349. During the English Civil War Norfolk was largely Parliamentarian, the economy and agriculture of the region declined somewhat. During the Industrial Revolution Norfolk developed little industry except in Norwich which was an addition to the railway network. In the 20th century the county developed a role in aviation, during the Second World War agriculture rapidly intensified, and it has remained very intensive since, with the establishment of large fields for growing cereals and oilseed rape. Norfolks low-lying land and easily eroded cliffs, many of which are chalk and clay, make it vulnerable to the sea, the low-lying section of coast between Kelling and Lowestoft Ness in Suffolk is currently managed by the Environment Agency to protect the Broads from sea flooding
20.
Royal Flying Corps
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The Royal Flying Corps was the air arm of the British Army before and during the First World War, until it merged with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force. During the early part of the war, the RFC supported the British Army by artillery co-operation, at the start of World War I the RFC, commanded by Brigadier-General Sir David Henderson, consisted of five squadrons – one observation balloon squadron and four aeroplane squadrons. These were first used for spotting on 13 September 1914. Aerial photography was attempted during 1914, but again only became effective the next year, by 1918, photographic images could be taken from 15,000 feet and were interpreted by over 3,000 personnel. By this time parachutes had been used by balloonists for three years, on 17 August 1917, South African General Jan Smuts presented a report to the War Council on the future of air power. On 1 April 1918, the RFC and the RNAS were amalgamated to form a new service, after starting in 1914 with some 2,073 personnel, by the start of 1919 the RAF had 4,000 combat aircraft and 114,000 personnel in some 150 squadrons. The recommendations of the committee were accepted and on 13 April 1912 King George V signed a royal warrant establishing the Royal Flying Corps, the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers became the Military Wing of the Royal Flying Corps a month later on 13 May. The Flying Corps initial allowed strength was 133 officers, and by the end of year it had 12 manned balloons and 36 aeroplanes. The RFC originally came under the responsibility of Brigadier-General Henderson, the Director of Military Training, and had branches for the Army. Major Sykes commanded the Military Wing and Commander C R Samson commanded the Naval Wing, the RFCs motto was Per ardua ad astra. This remains the motto of the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth air forces, the RFCs first fatal crash was on 5 July 1912 near Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain. Loraine and his observer, Staff Sergeant R. H. V, an order was issued after the crash stating Flying will continue this evening as usual, thus beginning a tradition. Four months later on 11 December 1912 Parke was killed when the Handley Page monoplane in which he was flying from Hendon to Oxford crashed. The Naval Wing, with pilots and aircraft than the Military Wing. In November 1914 the Royal Flying Corps, even taking the loss of the Naval Wing into account, had expanded sufficiently to warrant the creation of wings consisting of two or more squadrons and these wings were commanded by lieutenant-colonels. In October 1915 the Royal Flying Corps had undergone further expansion which justified the creation of brigades, further expansion led to the creation of divisions, with the Training Division being established in August 1917 and RFC Middle East, being raised to divisional status in December 1917. Finally, the air raids on London and the south-east of England led to the creation of the London Air Defence Area in August 1917 under the command of Ashmore who was promoted to major-general. Two of the first three RFC squadrons were formed from the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers, No.1 Company becoming No.1 Squadron, RFC, a second heavier-than-air squadron, No.2 Squadron, RFC, was also formed on the same day
21.
Portsmouth
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Portsmouth is a port city in Hampshire, England, mainly on Portsea Island,70 miles south-west of London and 19 miles south-east of Southampton. It is the United Kingdoms only island city and has a population of 205,400, the city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Southampton and the towns of Havant, Waterlooville, Eastleigh, Fareham, and Gosport. The citys history can be traced to Roman times, a significant naval port for centuries, Portsmouth has the worlds oldest dry dock and was Englands first line of defence during the French invasion in 1545. Special Palmerston Forts were built in 1859 in anticipation of invasion from continental Europe. The worlds first mass production line was set up in the city, during the Second World War, the city was a pivotal embarkation point for the D-Day landings and was bombed extensively in the Portsmouth Blitz, which resulted in the deaths of 930 people. In 1982, the city housed the entirety of the forces in the Falklands War. Her Majestys Yacht Britannia left the city to oversee the transfer of Hong Kong in 1997, Portsmouth is one of the worlds best known ports. HMNB Portsmouth is the largest dockyard for the Royal Navy and is home to two-thirds of the UKs surface fleet, the city is home to some famous ships, including HMS Warrior, the Tudor carrack Mary Rose and Horatio Nelsons flagship, HMS Victory. The former HMS Vernon naval shore establishment has been redeveloped as a park known as Gunwharf Quays. Portsmouth is among the few British cities with two cathedrals, the Anglican Cathedral of St Thomas and the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St John the Evangelist, the waterfront and Portsmouth Harbour are dominated by the Spinnaker Tower, one of the United Kingdoms tallest structures at 560 feet. Nearby Southsea is a resort with a pier amusement park. Portsmouth F. C. the citys football club, play their home games at Fratton Park. The city has several railway stations that connect to London Waterloo amongst other lines in southern England. Portsmouth International Port is a cruise ship and ferry port for international destinations. The port is the second busiest in the United Kingdom after Dover, the city formerly had its own airport, Portsmouth Airport, until its closure in 1973. The University of Portsmouth enrols 23,000 students and is ranked among the worlds best modern universities, Portsmouth is also the birthplace of author Charles Dickens and engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The Romans built Portus Adurni, a fort, at nearby Portchester in the third century. The citys Old English name Portesmuða is derived from port, meaning a haven, and muða and it was mentioned in an Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for the year 501, Her cwom Port on Bretene 7 his. ii
22.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
23.
Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2
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Between 1911 and 1914, the Royal Aircraft Factory used the F. E.2 designation for three quite different aircraft that shared only a common Farman pusher biplane layout. The third F. E.2 type was operated as a day and this re-use of the F. E.2 designation has caused much confusion. The first F. E.2 was designed by Geoffrey de Havilland at the Royal Aircraft Factory in 1911. The new aircraft resembled the form of the F. E.1, with no front elevator. It made its flight on 18 August 1911, flown by de Havilland. Later in the year the F. E.2, refitted with an undercarriage, was modified to carry a Maxim machine gun on a flexible mount in the nose. The second F. E.2 was officially a rebuild of the first F. E.2, and may, indeed have included some components from the earlier aircraft. It was, however, a new and much more modern design, larger and heavier than the 1911 aircraft, with the wingspan increased from 33 ft to 42 ft. Loaded weight rose from 1,200 lb to 1,865 lb. The new F. E.2 used the wings of the B. E. 2a, with wing warping instead of ailerons for lateral control. It was destroyed when it spun into the ground from 500 ft on 23 February 1914, the pilot, R. Kemp, survived the crash, but his passenger was killed. Work started on another new design in mid-1914, the F. E. 2a, specifically intended as a fighter. Apart from the Farman layout it bore no relationship with either of the two earlier designs. It was a two-seater with the observer in the nose of the nacelle, the observer was armed with a.303 in Lewis machine gun firing forward on a specially designed, swivelling mount that gave it a wide field of fire. The first production order for 12 aircraft was placed off the board shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. The undercarriage of the third F. E, in order to gain a few extra miles an hour some of the production aircraft were fitted with a normal V type undercarriage. The V undercarriage remained standard for F. E.2 night bombers, the first production batch consisted of 12 of the initial F. E. 2a variant, with a large air brake under the top centre section, and a Green E.6 engine. The first F. E. 2a made its flight on 26 January 1915, but was found to be underpowered
24.
Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2
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The Royal Aircraft Factory B. E.2 was a British single-engine tractor two-seat biplane in service with the Royal Flying Corps from 1912 until the end of World War I. Initially used as reconnaissance aircraft and light bombers, variants of the type were also used as night fighters. Like many warplanes since, the B. E.2 was retained in service long after it had become obsolete. After its belated withdrawal it finally served as a trainer, communications aircraft, the B. E.2 has always been the subject of a good deal of controversy. The B. E.2 was one of the first aircraft designed at what was called the Royal Balloon Factory under the direction of Mervyn OGorman. Its designation followed the system devised by OGorman which classified aircraft by their layout, B. E. stood for Blériot Experimental, the official agenda of the Balloon Factory was research into aircraft design, but the construction of actual aircraft was not officially sanctioned. The layout of these aircraft has come to be seen as a conventional design, rather, with the contemporary Avro 500, it was one of the designs which established the tractor biplane as the dominant aircraft layout for a considerable time. On its first public appearance Flight wrote that one could see of the machine was of singular interest. Both aircraft were two-bay tractor biplanes with low-dihedral parallel-chord unstaggered wings with rounded ends, behind the pilot a curved top decking extended aft to the tail. The tail surfaces consisted of a horizontal stabiliser with a split elevator mounted above the upper longerons. There was no fixed vertical fin, a sprung tailskid was fitted and the wings were protected by semicircular skids beneath the lower wings. The wings were of unequal span, upper wingspan was 36 ft 7½in, the aircraft was not flown again until 27 December, modified by the substitution of a Claudel carburettor in place of the original Wolseley, which allowed no throttle control. Later, the Wolseley was replaced by a 60 hp air-cooled Renault, the B. E.2 was not so called because it was considered a separate type. At that time the numbers allocated are more properly regarded as constructors numbers rather than type designations. B. E.2 was almost identical to the B. E.1, differing principally in being powered by a 60 hp air-cooled Renault V-8 engine and in having equal-span wings. Like B. E.1 it was nominally a rebuild of an existing aircraft and it first flew on 1 February 1912, again with de Havilland as the test pilot. The Renault proved a more satisfactory powerplant than the Wolseley fitted to B. E.1. B. E.2 was flown extensively at the Military Aeroplane Competition held on Salisbury Plain in August 1912, flown by de Havilland with Major F. H. Sykes as passenger
25.
Douai
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Douai is a commune in the Nord département in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department, located on the river Scarpe some 40 kilometres from Lille and 25 km from Arras, Douai is home to one of the regions most impressive belfries. The population of the area, including Lens, was 552,682 in 1999. The main industries in the town are in the chemical and metal engineering sectors, Renault has a large vehicle assembly plant near the town, which has produced many well known Renault vehicles, such as the R14, R11, R19, and the Megane and Scenic of today. The Gare de Douai railway station is served by trains towards Lille, Arras, Lens, Amiens, Saint-Quentin. It is also connected to the TGV network, with high speed trains to Paris, Lyon, Nantes and its site probably corresponds to that of a 4th-century Roman fortress known as Duacum. From 10th century the town was a fiefdom of the counts of Flanders. The town became a textile market centre during the Middle Ages. In 1384, the county of Flanders passed into the domains of the Dukes of Burgundy, in 1667, Douai was taken by the troops of Louis XIV of France, and by the 1668 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the town was ceded to France. During successive sieges from 1710 to 1712, Douai was almost completely destroyed by the British Army, by 1713, the town was fully integrated into France. Douai became the seat of the Parliament of Flanders, the town is still a transportation and commercial center for the area, which was known up to the Sixties for its coalfield, the richest in northern France. Douais ornate Gothic style belfry was begun in 1380, on the site of an earlier tower, the 80 m high structure includes an impressive carillon, consisting of 62 bells spanning 5 octaves. The originals, some dating from 1391 were removed in 1917 during World War I by the occupying German forces and they were reinstalled after repairs in 1924, but 47 of them were replaced in 1954 to obtain a better sound. An additional larger bell in the summit, a La called Joyeuse, dates from 1471, the chimes are rung by a mechanism every quarter-hour, but are also played via a keyboard on Saturday mornings and at certain other times. The substantial Porte de Valenciennes town gate, a reminder of the towns past military importance, was built in 1453, one face is built in Gothic style, while the other is of Classical design. The University of Douai was founded under the patronage of Phillip II and it was prominent, from the 1560s until the French Revolution, as a centre for the education of English Catholics escaping the persecution in England. Connected with the University were not only the English College, Douai, founded by William Allen, but also the Irish and Scottish colleges and the Benedictine, Franciscan and Jesuit houses. However, the community was expelled at the time of the French Revolution in 1793 and, after years of wandering, finally settled at Downside Abbey, Somerset
26.
Manfred von Richthofen
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Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, also widely known as the Red Baron, was a German fighter pilot with the Imperial German Army Air Service during the First World War. He is considered the ace-of-aces of the war, being credited with 80 air combat victories. Originally a cavalryman, Richthofen transferred to the Air Service in 1915 and he quickly distinguished himself as a fighter pilot, and during 1917 became leader of Jasta 11 and then the larger unit Jagdgeschwader 1. By 1918, he was regarded as a hero in Germany. Richthofen was shot down and killed near Amiens on 21 April 1918, There has been considerable discussion and debate regarding aspects of his career, especially the circumstances of his death. He remains perhaps the most widely known fighter pilot of all time, Richthofen was a Freiherr, a title of nobility often translated as baron. This is not a name nor strictly a hereditary title—since all male members of the family were entitled to it. This title, combined with the fact that he had his aircraft painted red, led to Richthofen being called The Red Baron both inside and outside Germany, during his lifetime he was more often described in German as Der Rote Kampfflieger. This name was used as the title of Richthofens 1917 autobiography, Manfred von Richthofen was born in Kleinburg, near Breslau, Lower Silesia, on 2 May 1892 into a prominent Prussian aristocratic family. His father was Major Albrecht Philipp Karl Julius Freiherr von Richthofen and he had an elder sister, Ilse, and two younger brothers. When he was four years old, Manfred moved with his family to nearby Schweidnitz and he enjoyed riding horses and hunting as well as gymnastics at school. He excelled at bars and won a number of awards at school. He and his brothers, Lothar and Bolko, hunted wild boar, elk, birds, after being educated at home he attended a school at Schweidnitz before beginning military training when he was 11. After completing cadet training in 1911, he joined an Uhlan cavalry unit, disappointed and bored at not being able to directly participate in combat, the last straw for Richthofen was an order to transfer to the armys supply branch. He is supposed to have written in his application for transfer, I have not gone to war in order to collect cheese and eggs, in spite of this unmilitary attitude, and to his own surprise, his request was granted. Manfred joined the service at the end of May 1915. From June to August 1915, Richthofen served as an observer on reconnaissance missions over the Eastern Front with Feldflieger Abteilung 69, after a chance meeting with the German ace fighter pilot Oswald Boelcke, Richthofen entered training as a pilot in October 1915. In February 1916 Manfred rescued his brother Lothar from the boredom of training new troops in Luben, the following month, Manfred joined Kampfgeschwader 2 flying a two-seater Albatros C. III
27.
Saint-Inglevert Airfield
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Saint-Inglevert Airfield is a general aviation airfield at Saint-Inglevert, Pas-de-Calais, France. In the First World War an airfield was established near Saint-Inglevert by the Royal Flying Corps, later passing to the Royal Air Force on formation, in 1920, a civil airfield was established on a different site which was a designated customs airfield. During the Second World War, Saint-Inglevert was occupied by the Royal Air Force, the airfield was captured by the Germans towards the end of the Battle of France and occupied by the Luftwaffe. It was abandoned in 1941, but in 1943 field artillery units were based around the airfield as part of the Atlantic Wall, although civil flying returned to Saint-Inglevert post-war, the airfield was abandoned in 1957 and returned to agriculture. It was reopened by laéroclub du Boulonnais in 1986, Saint-Inglevert airfield is located on a 130-metre-high hill to the north west of the village of Saint-Inglevert, and east of Hervelinghen. It lies 13 kilometres south west of Calais, there was a Royal Flying Corps airfield at Saint-Inglevert during the First World War, but not on the site of the current airfield. In April 1918, No.21 Squadron Royal Air Force were based at Saint-Inglevert, flying Royal Aircraft Factory R. E.8 aircraft. From 29 June to 23 October, No.214 Squadron RAF were based there flying Handley Page O/400s, and in November, they were replaced by No.115 Squadron RAF, who were flying the same type of aircraft. Two more squadrons, No.97 Squadron RAF and No.100 Squadron RAF, were based there from 17 November, All Royal Air Force squadrons departed from Saint-Inglevert on 4 March 1919. In 1920, an airfield was established at Saint-Inglevert on a different site to the military airfield. Facilities developed over the years to two hangars, customs facilities and ultra short wave radio. In March 1920, a Notice to Airmen was issued stating that Saint-Inglevert was open and fuel, oil and water were available, a proposal to designate Saint-Inglevert as a customs airfield in order to relieve Le Bourget of some of its workload was made in April 1920. Facilities then in existence included hangars, repair facilities and a radio station, later that month, it was notified that an aerial lighthouse had been installed at the airfield, flashing the Morse letter A, and Saint-Inglevert became a customs airport on 20 May. By July, the provision of signals at Saint-Inglevert had begun. A 10-metre-long arrow was displayed indicating the wind direction, in August, it was reported that Saint-Inglevert was sending weather report by radio seven times a day to Le Bourget. By October, aids available included a windsock and a landing T, requirements for aircraft to perform clockwise or anticlockwise circuits when landing were indicated by the flying of a red or white flag respectively. The aerial lighthouse was reported to be out of action in November 1920. As part of a series of trials to assess the viability of civil aviation in France, three laps of a circuit Paris – Orléans – Rouen – Saint-Inglevert – Metz – Dijon – Paris were flown
28.
Nancy, France
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Nancy is the capital of the north-eastern French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, and formerly the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine, and then the French province of the same name. The metropolitan area of Nancy had a population of 410,509 inhabitants at the 1999 census,103,602 of whom lived in the city of Nancy proper. The motto of the city is Non inultus premor, Latin for Im not touched with impunity—a reference to the thistle, the earliest signs of human settlement in the area date back to 800 BC. Early settlers were attracted by easily mined iron ore and a ford in the Meurthe River. A small fortified town named Nanciacum was built by Gérard, Duke of Lorraine around 1050, Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy, was defeated and killed in the Battle of Nancy in 1477, René II, Duke of Lorraine became the ruler. In 1736 Emperor Charles arranged her marriage to Duke François of Lorraine, exiled Polish king Stanisław Leszczyński, father-in-law of French king Louis XV, was given the vacant duchy instead. Under his nominal rule, Nancy experienced growth and a flowering of Baroque culture and architecture, with his death in 1766, the duchy became a regular French province and Nancy lost its position as a residential capital city with its own princely court and patronage. As unrest surfaced within the French armed forces during the French Revolution, a few reliable units laid siege to the town and shot or imprisoned the mutineers. In 1871, Nancy remained French when Prussia annexed Alsace-Lorraine, the flow of refugees reaching Nancy doubled its population in three decades. Artistic, academic, financial and industrial excellence flourished, establishing what is still the Capital of Lorraines trademark to this day, Nancy was freed from Nazi Germany by the U. S. Third Army in September 1944, during the Lorraine Campaign of World War II at the Battle of Nancy ), in 1988, Pope John Paul II visited Nancy. In 2005, French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Nancy is situated on the left bank of the river Meurthe, about 10 km upstream from its confluence with the Moselle. The Marne–Rhine Canal runs through the city, parallel to the Meurthe, Nancy is surrounded by hills that are about 150 m higher than the city center, which is situated at 200 m amsl. The area of Nancy proper is small,15 km2. Its built-up area is continuous with those of its adjacent suburbs, the neighboring communes of Nancy are, Jarville-la-Malgrange, Laxou, Malzéville, Maxéville, Saint-Max, Tomblaine, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy and Villers-lès-Nancy. Adjacent to its south is the quarter Charles III – Centre Ville and this quarter contains the famous Place Stanislas, the Nancy Cathedral, the Opéra national de Lorraine and the main railway station. The old city centers heritage dates from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, the cathedral of Nancy, the Triumphal Arch and the Place de la Carriere are a fine examples of 18th-century architecture. The Palace of the Dukes of Lorraine is the princely residence of the rulers
29.
Major general
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Major general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the rank of sergeant major general. In the Commonwealth, major general is equivalent to the rank of rear admiral. In some countries, including much of Eastern Europe, major general is the lowest of the officer ranks. In the old Austro-Hungarian Army, the general was called a Generalmajor. Todays Austrian Federal Army still uses the same term, see also Rank insignias of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces General de Brigade is the lowest rank amongst general officers in the Brazilian Army. AGeneral de Brigada wears two-stars as this is the level for general officers in the Brazilian Army. In tha Brazilian Air Force, the two-star, three-star and four-star rank are known as Brigadeiro, Major-Brigadeiro, see Military ranks of Brazil and Brigadier for more information. In the Canadian Armed Forces, the rank of major-general is both a Canadian Army and Royal Canadian Air Force rank equivalent to the Royal Canadian Navys rank of rear-admiral, a major-general is a general officer, the equivalent of a naval flag officer. The major-general rank is senior to the ranks of brigadier-general and commodore, prior to 1968, the Air Force used the rank of air vice-marshal, instead. In the Canadian Army, the insignia is a wide braid on the cuff. It is worn on the straps of the service dress tunic. On the visor of the cap are two rows of gold oak leaves. Major-generals are initially addressed as general and name, as are all general officers, major-generals are normally entitled to staff cars. In the Estonian military, the general rank is called kindralmajor. The Finnish military equivalent is kenraalimajuri in Finnish, and generalmajor in Swedish and Danish, the French equivalent to the rank of major general is général de division. In the French military, major général is not a rank but an appointment conferred on some generals, usually of général de corps darmée rank, the position of major général can be considered the equivalent of a deputy chief of staff. In the French Army, Major General is a position and the general is normally of the rank of corps general
30.
Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard
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Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO was a British officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Air Force. He has been described as the Father of the Royal Air Force, during his formative years Trenchard struggled academically, failing many examinations and only just succeeding in meeting the minimum standard for commissioned service in the British Army. As a young officer, Trenchard served in India and with the outbreak of the Boer War. While fighting the Boers, Trenchard was critically wounded and as a result of his injury, on medical advice Trenchard travelled to Switzerland to recuperate and boredom saw him taking up bobsleighing. After a heavy crash, Trenchard found that his paralysis was gone, following further recuperation, Trenchard returned to active service in South Africa. After the end of the Boer War, Trenchard saw service in Nigeria where he was involved in efforts to bring the interior under settled British rule, during his time in West Africa, Trenchard commanded the Southern Nigeria Regiment for several years. In Summer 1912, Trenchard learned to fly and gained his aviators certificate on 31 July flying a Henry Farman biplane of the Sopwith School of Flying at Brooklands and he was subsequently appointed as second in command of the Central Flying School. He held several positions in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I. In 1918, he served as the first Chief of the Air Staff before taking up command of the Independent Air Force in France. Returning as Chief of the Air Staff under Winston Churchill in 1919 and he was Metropolitan Police Commissioner in the 1930s and a defender of the RAF in his later years. Trenchard is recognized today as one of the advocates of strategic bombing. Hugh Montague Trenchard was born at Windsor Lodge on Haines Hill in Taunton and he was the third child and second son of Henry Montague Trenchard and his wife Georgina Louisa Catherine Tower. Trenchards father was a captain in the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, although in the 1870s the Trenchards were living in an unremarkable fashion, their forebears had played notable roles in English history. Notable ancestors were Sir Thomas Trenchard, a High Sheriff of Dorset in the 16th century and Sir John Trenchard, when Hugh Trenchard was two, the family moved to Courtlands, a farm-cum-manor house less than three miles from the centre of Taunton. The country setting meant that the young Trenchard could enjoy a life, including spending time hunting rabbits. It was during his years that Trenchard and his siblings were educated at home by a resident tutor. Unfortunately for Trenchards education, the tutor was neither strict enough nor skillful enough to overcome the childrens mischievous attempts to avoid receiving instruction, as a consequence, Trenchard did not excel academically, however, his enthusiasm for games and riding was evident. At the age of 10, Trenchard was sent to board at Allens Preparatory School near Botley in Hampshire, although he did well at arithmetic, he struggled with the rest of the curriculum
31.
Handley Page 0/400
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The Handley Page Type O was an early biplane bomber used by Britain during the First World War. The Type O was the largest aircraft that had built in the UK. Most were built in two versions, the Handley Page O/100 and Handley Page O/400, the bombers were used in France for tactical night attacks on targets in German-occupied France and Belgium and for strategic bombing of industrial and transport targets in the Rhineland. Some aircraft were diverted to anti-submarine reconnaissance and bombing in the Tees estuary in 1917. The impression made by the Type O was such that for years after the war, any large aircraft came to be called a Handley Page in Britain. Sueter requested a bloody paralyser of an aircraft for long-range bombing, the phrase had originated from Commander Charles Rumney Samson who had returned from the front. A prototype had already been commissioned from J Samuel White & Co. of Cowes, Handley Page suggested building a land-based aircraft of similar size, and a specification was drawn up around his suggestions and formally issued on 28 December 1914 for four prototypes. It called for a biplane to be powered by two 150 hp Sunbeam engines, which was required to fit in a 75 ft ×75 ft shed. It was to carry six 100 lb bombs and have armour plating to protect crew, the crew of two were to be enclosed in a glazed cockpit and the only defensive armament planned was a rifle to be fired by the observer/engineer. The name O/100 came from the proposed wingspan of the aircraft prefixed by an O, the outline design was approved on 4 February 1915, with 250 hp Rolls-Royce Eagle engines and on 9 February the contract was amended to include a further eight aircraft. Balanced ailerons were fitted to the wing only and extended beyond the wing trailing edge. The engines drove four-bladed propellers, rotating in opposite directions to cancel the torque and were enclosed in armoured nacelles, mounted between the wings on tubular steel struts. The nacelles had a long tapered fairing to reduce drag, to clear the wing rigging wires when the wings were folded, construction of the fuselage and flying surfaces was primarily of spruce, with much reduction in weight by extensive use of hollow section members. The four prototypes and first production batch of six aircraft were built at Cricklewood, the first flight of the prototype, serial number 1455, was made at Hendon on 17 December, when a short straight flight was made, the aircraft taking off without trouble at 50 mph. A second flight was made the day, when it was found that the aircraft would not fly faster than about 55 mph. This was blamed on the drag caused by large honeycomb radiators, after minor modifications, the aircraft was flown to RNAS Eastchurch, where full-speed trials were made. On reaching 70 mph, the unit began to vibrate and twist violently, the pilot immediately landed. Reinforcement failed to cure the problem, the cockpit and most of the armour plating were also removed
32.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
33.
Armistice
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An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, since it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace and it is derived from the Latin arma, meaning arms and -stitium, meaning a stopping. The United Nations Security Council often imposes, or tries to impose, armistices are always negotiated between the parties themselves and are thus generally seen as more binding than non-mandatory UN cease-fire resolutions in modern international law. An armistice is a modus vivendi and is not the same as a peace treaty, the 1953 Korean War Armistice Agreement is a major example of an armistice which has not been followed by a peace treaty. Armistice is also different from a truce or ceasefire, which refer to a cessation of hostilities for an agreed limited time or within a limited area. A truce may be needed in order to negotiate an armistice, under international law an armistice is a legal agreement which ends fighting between the belligerent parties of a war or conflict. The Hague II Treaty, says If duration is not fixed, the parties can resume fighting as they choose and this is in comparison to a fixed duration armistice, where the parties can renew fighting only at the end of the particular fixed duration. Most countries changed the name of the holiday after World War II, to veterans of that. Most member states of the Commonwealth of Nations adopted the name Remembrance Day, archived from the original on 2 February 2007. The Expanded Cease-Fires Data Set Code Book
34.
Casement Aerodrome
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Casement Aerodrome or Baldonnel Aerodrome is a military airfield to the southwest of Dublin, Ireland situated off the N7 main road route to the south and south west. It is the headquarters and the airfield of the Irish Air Corps. The airport is the property of the Irish Department of Defence, Baldonnel Aerodrome is also the home of the Garda Air Support Unit. The airfield was first laid out in 1917 and was used by the Royal Flying Corps and it was part of the RAFs Ireland Command. The aerodrome was originally run by two pilots from the Royal Air Force and it was also the destination at which Douglas Corrigan landed on his famous wrong way flight across the Atlantic. In February 1965 Baldonnel was renamed Casement Aerodrome in honour of the Irish nationalist Roger Casement, in 1995 it was suggested that it be used as a second commercial airport for Dublin, especially for low-cost carriers such as Ryanair. There has also been speculation since the early 2000s that Casement Aerodrome is used as an airport by the Central Intelligence Agency for their extraordinary rendition programme. Similar claims have made with regards to Shannon Airport, but as Baldonnel is a military airport. Queen Elizabeth II landed at Casement Aerodrome on 17 May 2011, list of Irish military installations Airport information for EIME at World Aero Data. Data current as of October 2006
35.
Dublin
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Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Dublin is in the province of Leinster on Irelands east coast, the city has an urban area population of 1,345,402. The population of the Greater Dublin Area, as of 2016, was 1,904,806 people, founded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin became Irelands principal city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800, following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland. Dublin is administered by a City Council, the city is listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network as a global city, with a ranking of Alpha-, which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world. It is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration, economy, the name Dublin comes from the Irish word Dubhlinn, early Classical Irish Dubhlind/Duibhlind, dubh /d̪uβ/, alt. /d̪uw/, alt /d̪u, / meaning black, dark, and lind /lʲiɲ pool and this tidal pool was located where the River Poddle entered the Liffey, on the site of the castle gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle. In Modern Irish the name is Duibhlinn, and Irish rhymes from Dublin County show that in Dublin Leinster Irish it was pronounced Duílinn /d̪ˠi, other localities in Ireland also bear the name Duibhlinn, variously anglicized as Devlin, Divlin and Difflin. Historically, scribes using the Gaelic script wrote bh with a dot over the b and those without knowledge of Irish omitted the dot, spelling the name as Dublin. Variations on the name are found in traditionally Irish-speaking areas of Scotland, such as An Linne Dhubh. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. Baile Átha Cliath, meaning town of the ford, is the common name for the city in modern Irish. Áth Cliath is a name referring to a fording point of the River Liffey near Father Mathew Bridge. Baile Átha Cliath was an early Christian monastery, believed to have been in the area of Aungier Street, there are other towns of the same name, such as Àth Cliath in East Ayrshire, Scotland, which is Anglicised as Hurlford. Although the area of Dublin Bay has been inhabited by humans since prehistoric times and he called the settlement Eblana polis. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. The subsequent Scandinavian settlement centred on the River Poddle, a tributary of the Liffey in an area now known as Wood Quay, the Dubhlinn was a small lake used to moor ships, the Poddle connected the lake with the Liffey. This lake was covered during the early 18th century as the city grew, the Dubhlinn lay where the Castle Garden is now located, opposite the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle
36.
Bristol F.2 Fighter
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The Bristol F.2 Fighter was a British two-seat biplane fighter and reconnaissance aircraft of the First World War developed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. It is often called the Bristol Fighter, other popular names include the Brisfit or Biff. Despite being a two-seater, the F. 2B proved to be an aircraft that was able to hold its own against opposing single-seat fighters. Having overcome a disastrous start to its career, the F. 2Bs robust design ensured that it remained in service into the 1930s. As the type was phased out of service, many of the surplus aircraft entered into civilian uses. Amongst other attributes and performance requirements, there was an emphasis placed upon the aircrafts self-defence capabilities. Various submissions were made to meet the RCFs specification, the Royal Aircraft Factory responded with its R. E.8 design, on 16 June 1916, the first prototype R. E.8 was presented for final inspection and production examples commenced delivery in September 1916. While thousands of R. E. 8s were produced, according to aviation author J. M. Bruce, the Bristol F.2 Fighter came about as a result of Frank Barnwells brief experience as a front-line pilot with the Royal Flying Corps. The first proposal that was prepared by Barnwell, which was designated the Type 9 R. 2A, was an equal-span two-seat biplane that made use of the 120 hp Beardmore engine. This was considered to be underpowered, and thus a second revised design, designated as the Type 9A R. 2B, was an unequal-span biplane that was powered by the 150 hp Hispano Suiza, was proposed. On both the R. 2A and R. 2B, the crew were placed together in a mid-gap mounted fuselage. Neither the R. 2A or R. 2B were constructed as a result of the new 190 hp Rolls-Royce Falcon inline engine having become available. Barnwell deciding to design a third revision of the aircraft around the Falcon engine and this aircraft, designated as the Type 12 F. 2A, was a two-bay equal-span biplane, closely resembling the R. 2A but being slightly smaller. These features were intended to optimize the field of fire for the observer, in July 1916, work commenced on the construction of a pair of prototypes, on 28 August 1916, a initial contract was awarded for 50 production aircraft. On 9 September 1916, the first prototype performed its maiden flight, the first prototype had its lower wings attached to an open wing-anchorage frame and had end-plates at the wing roots. Other changes to the first prototype during flight testing including the elimination of the end-plates from the wing roots. The first prototype was outfitted with a Scarff ring mounting near the rear cockpit. On 25 October 1916, the F. 2B variant performed its first flight, the F. 2B was over 10 mph faster than the F. 2A and was three minutes faster at reaching 10,000 ft
37.
Close air support
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The requirement for detailed integration because of proximity, fires or movement is the determining factor. CAS may need to be conducted during shaping operations with Special Operations Forces, if the mission requires detailed integration with the fire, the term battlefield air interdiction is not currently used in U. S. joint doctrine. Close air support requires excellent coordination with ground forces, in advanced modern militaries, this coordination is typically handled by specialists such as Joint Fires Observers s, Joint Terminal Attack Controllers s, and Forward Air Controllers s. The use of aircraft in the air support of ground forces dates back to World War I. By that point, the startling and demoralizing effect that attack from the air could have on the troops in the trenches had been made clear, at the Battle of the Somme,18 British armed reconnaissance planes strafed the enemy trenches after conducting surveillance operations. The success of this improvised assault spurred innovation on both sides, in 1917, following the Second Battle of the Aisne the British debuted the first ground-attack aircraft, a modified F. E 2b fighter carrying 20-lb bombs and mounted machine-guns. After exhausting their ammunition the planes returned to base for refuelling and rearming, other modified planes used in this role were the Airco DH.5 and Sopwith Camel—the latter was particularly successful in this role. Aircraft support was first integrated into a plan on a large scale at the 1917 Battle of Cambrai. British doctrine at the time came to two forms of air support, trench strafing, and ground strafing —attacking tactical ground targets away from the land battle. As well as strafing with machine-guns, the planes were modified with bomb racks, the Germans were also quick to adopt this new form of warfare and were able to deploy aircraft in a similar capacity at Cambrai. While the British used single-seater planes, the Germans preferred the use of heavier two-seaters with a machine gunner in the aft cockpit. The Germans adopted the powerful Hannover CL. II and built the first purpose built ground attack aircraft, during the 1918 Spring Offensive the Germans employed 30 squadrons, or Schlasta, of ground attack fighters and were able to achieve some initial tactical success. The British later deployed the Sopwith Salamander as a ground attack aircraft. It was during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of 1918 that Close Air Support was first proven to be an important factor in ultimate victory, combined with a ground assault led by General Edmund Allenby, three Turkish armies soon collapsed into a full rout. In the words of the squadrons official report, No 1 Squadron made six heavy raids during the day. The panic and slaughter beggared description, the close air support doctrine was further developed in the interwar period. Most theorists advocated the adaptation of fighters or light bombers into the role, during this period, airpower advocates crystallized their views on the role of air-power in warfare. Aviators and ground officers developed largely opposing views on the importance of CAS, the inter-war period saw the use of CAS in a number of conflicts, including the Russo-Polish War, the Spanish Civil War, colonial wars in the Middle East and the Gran Chaco War
38.
Irish War of Independence
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The Irish War of Independence or Anglo-Irish War or the Tan War was a guerrilla war fought from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army and the British security forces in Ireland. It was an escalation of the Irish revolutionary period into armed conflict, in the December 1918 election, the Irish republican party Sinn Féin won a landslide victory in Ireland. On 21 January 1919 they formed a government and declared independence from Britain. Later that day, two members of the British-organized armed police force, the Royal Irish Constabulary, were dead in County Tipperary by IRA members acting on their own initiative. This is often seen as the beginning of the conflict, for much of 1919, IRA activity primarily involved capturing weapons and freeing republican prisoners. In September that year the British government outlawed the Dáil and Sinn Féin, the IRA began ambushing RIC and British Army patrols, attacking their barracks and forcing isolated barracks to be abandoned. The British government bolstered the RIC with recruits from Britain—the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries—who became notorious for ill-discipline, the conflict as a result is often referred to as the Black and Tan War or simply the Tan War. While around 300 people had killed in the conflict up to late 1920. A week later, seventeen Auxiliaries were killed by the IRA in an ambush at Kilmichael in County Cork, the British government declared martial law in much of southern Ireland. The centre of Cork City was burnt out by British forces in December 1920, violence continued to escalate over the next seven months, when 1,000 people were killed and 4,500 republicans were interned. The fighting was concentrated in Munster, Dublin and Belfast. These three locations saw over 75% of the conflicts fatalities, violence in Ulster, especially Belfast, was notable for its sectarian character and its high number of Catholic civilian victims. Both sides agreed to a truce on 11 July 1921, the post-ceasefire talks led to the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921. However, six counties remained within the United Kingdom. After the ceasefire, political and sectarian violence between republicans and loyalists continued in Northern Ireland for many months, in June 1922, disagreement among republicans over the Anglo-Irish Treaty led to an eleven-month civil war. The Irish Free State awarded 62,868 medals for service during the War of Independence, since the 1880s, Irish nationalists in the Irish Parliamentary Party had been demanding Home Rule, or self-government, from Britain. Fringe organisations, such as Arthur Griffiths Sinn Féin instead argued for some form of Irish independence, in turn, nationalists formed their own paramilitary organisation, the Irish Volunteers. But a significant minority of the Irish Volunteers opposed Irelands involvement in the war, the Volunteer movement split, a majority leaving to form the National Volunteers under Redmond
39.
RAF Spitalgate
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The station opened in 1915 as Royal Flying Corps Station Grantham, becoming RAF Station Grantham on 1 April 1918 - a name it bore until 1942 when it was renamed as RAF Station Spitalgate. Throughout the First World War the station was a training facility. The main lodging unit was No.12 Flying Training School RAF with further elements at the station at RAF Harlaxton. Flying training continued at RAF Grantham during the inter-war years, also in November 1943, elements of the HQ IX Troop Carrier Command of the USAAF were relocated to RAF Spitalgate, with their headquarters at St Vincents in the town centre. The station was also the training and point-of departure airfield for the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade during Operation Market Garden, the station was an Officer Cadet Training Unit in the 1950s. It was also the home of the Central Gliding School which moved to RAF Syerston in March 1975, the site is not part of Grantham, but the parish of Londonthorpe & Harrowby Without. Spitalgate acted as a parent station for a landing ground four miles further south at RAF Harlaxton from November 1916 until 1945. In 1975 the RAF vacated the site and the year it became a British Army base known as Prince William of Gloucester Barracks
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Lincolnshire
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Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It also borders Northamptonshire in the south for just 20 yards, Englands shortest county boundary, the county town is Lincoln, where the county council has its headquarters. The ceremonial county of Lincolnshire is composed of the county of Lincolnshire. Therefore, part of the county is in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. The county is the second-largest of the English ceremonial counties and one that is predominantly agricultural in land use, the county is fifth largest of the two-tier counties, as the unitary authorities of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire are not included. The county can be broken down into a number of geographical sub-regions including, Lincolnshire derived from the merging of the territory of the ancient Kingdom of Lindsey with that controlled by the Danelaw borough of Stamford. For some time the county was called Lindsey, and it is recorded as such in the 11th-century Domesday Book. In 1888 when county councils were set up, Lindsey, Holland and these survived until 1974, when Holland, Kesteven, and most of Lindsey were unified into Lincolnshire. A local government reform in 1996 abolished Humberside, and the south of the Humber was allocated to the unitary authorities of North Lincolnshire. These two areas became part of Lincolnshire for ceremonial such as the Lord-Lieutenancy, but are not covered by the Lincolnshire police and are in the Yorkshire. The remaining districts of Lincolnshire are Boston, East Lindsey, Lincoln, North Kesteven, South Holland, South Kesteven and they are part of the East Midlands region. Lincolnshire is home to Woolsthorpe Manor, birthplace and home of Sir Isaac Newton and he attended The Kings School, Grantham and its library has preserved his signature, applied to a window sill when he was a teenager. Lincolnshire is an area, growing large amounts of wheat, barley, sugar beet. In South Lincolnshire, where the soil is rich in nutrients, some of the most common crops include potatoes, cabbages, cauliflowers. Most such companies are long gone, and Lincolnshire is no longer an engineering centre, however, as a result of the current economic climate some food production facilities have closed down, this has caused some reduction in the levels of migrant workers. The large number of people from Portugal is still obvious in the town of Boston. A coalition of Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Independents currently controls Lincolnshire County Council, the Conservative Party comfortably controlled the County Council following the 2009 local elections, in which they increased their majority to 43 seats. The Labour Party lost a total of 15 seats including 7 in Lincoln, the Lincolnshire Independents gained a total of four seats, although one of their number moved to the Conservative group during 2010, increasing the number of Conservative seats to 61
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Vickers Vimy
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The Vickers Vimy was a British heavy bomber aircraft developed and manufactured by Vickers Limited. Developed during the stages of the First World War to equip the Royal Air Force. Only a handful of aircraft had entered service by the time that the Armistice of 11 November 1918 came into effect, shortly thereafter, the Vimy became the core of the RAFs heavy bomber force throughout the 1920s. The Vimy achieved success as both a military and civil aircraft, the using the Vimy Commercial model of the type. A deciated transport derivative of the Vimy, the Vickers Vernon, other record-breaking flights were flown using the type from the United Kingdom to destinations such as South Africa and Australia. The Vimy continued to be operated after the conflict as late as the 1930s in both military and civil capacities. One key area of advancement during the conflict was in the use of fixed-wing aircraft, on 16 August 1917, Vickers was issued with a contract for an initial batch of three prototype aircraft. Pierson discussed the proposed aircraft with Major J. C, on 30 November 1917, the first prototype, flown by Captain Gordon Bell, conducted its maiden flight from Royal Flying Corps Station Joyce Green, Kent. In January 1918, the first prototype was dispatched to RAF Martlesham Heath, Suffolk, unfortunately, the engines proved to be frequently unreliable during these trials, leading to its return to Joyce Green on 12 April 1918. Following these modifications, the prototype was used for years, surviving the war. In August 1919, the prototype was flown from Brooklands to Amsterdam, during early 1918, the second prototype was completed. Unlike the first prototype, it had plain elevators and ailerons that had an inverse tamper, the defensive armament was increased, giving the rear gunner two separate guns to fire, these changes would be standardised on production aircraft. The second prototype was powered by a pair of Sunbeam Maori engine, on 26 April 1918, it was dispatched to RAF Matlesham Heath for official tests, however, testing was interrupted by the loss of the second prototype in a crash following an engine failure. During the first half of the 1918, the prototype was also completed. It was equipped with a pair of 400 hp Fiat A.12 engines, as well as a nose section. On 15 August 1918, the prototype was sent to RAF Martlesham Heath for performance tests. On 11 September 1918, this prototype was lost when its payload of bombs detonated due to a hard landing and it was decided to construct a fourth prototype to test the Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII engine. On 11 October 1918, the prototype flew from Joyce Green to Martlesham to conduct official trials
United Kingdom
Royal Air Force
