The 1907 Tiflis bank robbery, also known as the Yerevan Square expropriation, was an armed robbery on 26 June 1907 in the
Georgian city of Tiflis (now Georgia's capital,
Tbilisi). A bank cash shipment was stolen by
Bolsheviks to fund their revolutionary activities. The robbers attacked a bank stagecoach and surrounding security forces using bombs and guns while the stagecoach was transporting money through
Yerevan Square (now Freedom Square) between the post office and the Tiflis branch of the
State Bank of the Russian Empire. The attack killed forty people and injured fifty others, according to official archive documents. The robbers escaped with 341,000
rubles (equivalent to around US $3.4 million in 2008). The robbery was organized by a number of high-level
Bolsheviks, including
Vladimir Lenin,
Joseph Stalin,
Maxim Litvinov,
Leonid Krasin, and
Alexander Bogdanov, and executed by a gang of Georgian revolutionaries led by Stalin's early associate
Kamo. Because such activities were explicitly prohibited by the
5th Congress of the
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), the robbery and the killings caused outrage within the party against the Bolsheviks (a faction within the RSDLP). As a result, Lenin and Stalin tried to distance themselves from the robbery. Kamo was captured and sentenced to death for his crimes including the 1907 robbery, but released after the
1917 Revolution. None of the other major participants or organizers of the robbery were ever brought to trial.
Franco-Mongol relations were established in the 13th century, as Christian
Crusaders and the
Mongol Empire attempted to form a Franco-Mongol alliance against the Muslims. Such an alliance might have seemed an obvious choice: the Mongols were already sympathetic to Christianity, given the presence of many influential
Nestorian Christians in the Mongol court. The
Franks (Western Europeans and those in the
Crusader States of the
Levant) were open to the idea of support from the East, owing to the long-running legend of the mythical
Prester John, an Eastern king in a magical kingdom whom many believed would one day come to the assistance of the Crusaders in the Holy Land. The Franks and Mongols also shared a common enemy in the Muslims, but despite many messages, gifts, and emissaries over the course of several decades, the often-proposed alliance never came to fruition.
John Raeburn Balmer,
OBE,
DFC (1910–1944) was a senior officer and bomber pilot in the
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). An
instructor at
Point Cook from 1935 to 1937, he achieved renown in Air Force circles when he reportedly parachuted from a training aircraft to motivate his pupil to land single-handedly. He also became known to the general public as a cross-country motorist, setting records for trans-Australia and round-Australia trips prior to World War II. In June 1940 Balmer became the inaugural commanding officer of
No. 13 Squadron, which operated
Lockheed Hudsons out of
Darwin, Northern Territory. He was raised to temporary
wing commander in April 1941, and within a year had taken charge of the RAAF's first
Bristol Beaufort unit,
No. 100 Squadron. Appointed an
Officer of the Order of the British Empire in June 1942, he led the Beauforts on bombing and torpedo missions against Japanese targets in the
New Guinea campaign. Posted to England in June 1943, Balmer took command of
No. 467 Squadron RAAF, flying
Avro Lancasters in the
air war over Europe. He led his unit through the
Battle of Berlin from November 1943 to March 1944. In April he was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross, and the following month promoted to temporary
group captain. On the night of 11/12 May, the last scheduled operation of his tour as No. 467 Squadron's commanding officer, Balmer failed to return from a mission over Belgium. Initially posted as missing, his plane was later confirmed to have been shot down, and all of the crew killed. Balmer was buried outside
Brussels.
Mark Ivor Satin (born 1946) is an American political theorist, author, and newsletter publisher. Although often referred to as a "
draft dodger", he is better known for contributing to the development and dissemination of three political perspectives –
neopacifism in the 1960s,
New Age politics in the 1970s and 1980s, and
radical centrism in the 1990s and 2000s. Satin's work is sometimes seen as building toward a new political ideology, and had been labeled "transformational", "post-liberal", "post-Marxist" and "post-hip". After emigrating to Canada at the age of 20, Satin co-founded the Toronto Anti-Draft Programme, which helped bring American
Vietnam War resisters to Canada. He also wrote the Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants to Canada (1968), which sold nearly 100,000 copies. After a period that author
Marilyn Ferguson describes as Satin's "anti-ambition experiment", Satin wrote New Age Politics (1979), which identifies an emergent "third force" in North America pursuing such goals as
simple living, decentralism, and global responsibility. Satin spread his ideas by co-founding an American political organization, the New World Alliance, and by publishing an award-winning international political newsletter, New Options. He also co-drafted the foundational statement of the
U.S. Green Party, "Ten Key Values". After a period of political disillusion, Satin launched a new newsletter and wrote an award-winning book, Radical Middle (2004). Both projects criticized political partisanship and sought to promote mutual learning and innovative policy syntheses across social and cultural divides. In an interview, Satin contrasts the old radical slogan "Dare to struggle, dare to win" with his radical-middle version, "Dare to synthesize, dare to take it all in".
The Nyon Conference, held in
Nyon, Switzerland, in September 1937, addressed international piracy in the
Mediterranean Sea, especially piracy aimed at
intervention in the Spanish Civil War. The
United Kingdom and
France led the conference, which was also attended by
Bulgaria,
Egypt,
Greece,
Romania,
Turkey, the
Soviet Union and
Yugoslavia. The first agreement, signed on 14 September, dealt with plans to counterattack aggressive
submarines. Naval patrols were established; the United Kingdom and France were to patrol most of the western Mediterranean and parts of the east, and the other signatories were to patrol their own waters.
Italy was to be allowed to join the agreement and patrol the
Tyrrhenian Sea if it wished. A second agreement followed three days later, applying similar provisions to surface ships. Italy and
Germany did not attend, although the former did take up naval patrols in November. In marked contrast to the
Non-Intervention Committee and the
League of Nations, this conference did succeed in preventing attacks by submarines.
On 11 April 1951, US President
Harry S. Truman relieved
General of the ArmyDouglas MacArthur, a popular war hero of
World War II who was then the commander of
United Nations forces fighting in the
Korean War, of his commands for making public statements that contradicted the administration's policies. The relief remains a controversial topic in the field of
civil-military relations. MacArthur led the Allied forces in the
Southwest Pacific during World War II, and afterwards was in charge of the
Occupation of Japan. When
North Korea invaded
South Korea in June 1950, he was designated commander of the United Nations forces defending South Korea. He conceived and executed the
amphibious assault at Inchon on 15 September 1950, for which he was hailed as a military genius. However, when he followed up his victory with a full-scale invasion of North Korea on Truman's orders, China intervened in the war and inflicted a series of defeats, compelling him to withdraw from North Korea. By April 1951, the military situation had stabilized, but MacArthur's public statements became increasingly irritating to Truman, and he relieved MacArthur of his commands. The
Senate Armed Services Committee and the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a joint inquiry into the military situation and the circumstances surrounding MacArthur's relief, and concluded that "the removal of General MacArthur was within the constitutional powers of the President but the circumstances were a shock to national pride."
A dreadnought race between Argentina, Brazil, and Chile was kindled in 1907 when the Brazilian government announced its intention to purchase three
dreadnoughts from the British company
Armstrong Whitworth. Previous Argentine–Chilean naval
arms races, combined with a Brazilian coup d'état and subsequent civil war, left the
Brazilian Navy well behind the other two major South American navies in terms of quality and total tonnage. Brazilian politicians moved to address this deficiency in 1904, as part of an overarching goal of becoming an international power. Three small battleships were ordered in 1906, but were later canceled in favor of the new "dreadnought" type. Two ships of the
Minas Geraes class were laid down immediately with a third to follow. The Argentine and Chilean governments immediately canceled a naval-limiting pact between them, and both ordered two dreadnoughts. Meanwhile, Brazil's third dreadnought was canceled in favor of an even larger ship, which was laid down and ripped up several times after repeated major alterations to the design. When the Brazilians finally settled on a design, they realized it would be outclassed by the Chilean dreadnoughts' larger armament, so they sold the ship to the
Ottoman Empire and attempted to acquire a more powerful ship. By this time, however, the First World War had broken out, and many shipbuilders suspended work on dreadnoughts for foreign countries. Argentina's two dreadnoughts were delivered, as the United States was neutral in the opening years of the war, but Chile's two dreadnoughts were purchased by the United Kingdom. In the interwar years, many naval expansion plans were proposed. While most never came to fruition, in April 1920 the Chilean government reacquired one of the dreadnoughts taken over by the UK. No other dreadnoughts were purchased by a South American nation, and all were sold for
scrap in the 1950s.
George Andrew Davis, Jr. (1920–1952) was a US
flying ace in
World War II and the
Korean War. He rose to
lieutenant colonel and was posthumously awarded the
Medal of Honor for his actions in Korea's "
MiG Alley". He was the only US ace to be
killed in action durng the war. Davis joined the
US Army Air Corps in early 1942, and after training was sent to the
Pacific Theatre. He flew in the
New Guinea and
Philippines Campaigns, scoring seven victories over
Japanese aircraft. He gained a reputation as a skilled pilot and accurate gunner whose "daredevil" flying style contrasted with his reserved personality. Davis did not see action in Korea until late 1951, but quickly became the war's
ace of aces, downing 14
Chinese,
North Korean and
Soviet aircraft before his death in 1952. During his final combat mission, he surprised and attacked 12 Chinese
MiG-15 fighters, downing two before himself being shot down and killed. This controversial action earned him the Medal of Honor. With a total of 21 victories, Davis is one of only seven US military pilots to have become an ace in two wars, and one of only 31 to gather more than 20 victories. He was the fourth highest-scoring ace of the Korean War.
(
French: 7ème Compagnie indépendante) was a short-lived
company of
francophone volunteers in the
Rhodesian Security Forces. As an exclusively expatriate unit, it was unique in the history of the Rhodesian Army, which usually incorporated foreign soldiers into its regular ranks. It existed between October 1977 and May 1978 as a company in the 1st Battalion, the
Rhodesia Regiment, and served two
counter-insurgency tours on Operation Hurricane in north-eastern
Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe). Though most servicemen in the Rhodesian Army were locally based, it actively accepted
foreign volunteers into its regular regiments, giving them the same pay and conditions of service as its Rhodesian soldiers. Most foreigners who joined enlisted in the
Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI), which launched a wide-reaching and productive overseas recruitment programme in 1974, but required successful applicants to speak good English. Seeking to further bolster its thinly-spread ranks, the Army attempted to transfer the success of the RLI campaign to French-speakers during late 1977, and formed a designated company in the Rhodesia Regiment for them; as the regiment already had six independent companies, the francophone unit became 7 Independent Company. The company's men, a mixture of former French paratroopers, ex-
Foreign Legionnaires and young adventurers, had trouble from the start integrating with the Rhodesian forces, and became unsettled by the respective ranks they were given in the Rhodesian Army. In an attempt to raise their morale and create a strong esprit de corps, the Army issued them beret insignias backed with the French tricolour and allowed them to raise the flag of France alongside that of Rhodesia each morning.
The Battle of Caldera Bay, or the Sinking of the Blanco Encalada, was an engagement fought during the
Chilean Civil War between Balmacedist and Congressional naval forces on 23 April 1891. It involved two Balmacedist
torpedo boats, Almirante Lynch and Almirante Condell, sinking the Congressional
armored frigateBlanco Encalada. The loss of the Blanco Encalada hindered the Congressional forces, but they ultimately defeated the Balmacedist forces in August of the same year. Notably, Blanco Encalada was the first ironclad warship lost to a
self-propelled torpedo.
The Battle of Radzymin took place during the
Polish-Soviet War, in the area around the town of
Radzymin, some 20 kilometres (12 mi) north-east of
Warsaw, between August 13 and 16, 1920. Along with the
Battle of Ossów and the Polish counter-offensive from the
Wieprz River area, the action was one of the key parts of what later became known as the
Battle of Warsaw. It also proved to be the bloodiest and the most intense. The first phase of the battle began on August 13 with a frontal assault by the
Red Army on the
Praga bridgehead. The Soviet forces captured Radzymin on August 14 and breached the lines of the
1st Polish Army defending Warsaw from the east. Radzymin changed hands several times in heavy fighting. The Russians wanted to break through the Polish defences to Warsaw, while the Polish aim was to defend the area long enough for a two-pronged counter-offensive from the south, led by
GeneralJózef Piłsudski, and north, led by General
Władysław Sikorski, to outflank the attacking forces. After three days of intense fighting, the
corps-sized 1st Polish Army under General
Franciszek Latinik managed to repel a direct assault by six Red Army rifle
divisions at Radzymin and Ossów. The struggle for control of Radzymin forced General
Józef Haller, commander of the
Polish Northern Front, to start the 5th Army's counterattack earlier than planned. Radzymin was recaptured on August 15, and this victory proved to be one of the turning points of the battle of Warsaw. The strategic counter-offensive was extremely successful, pushing Soviet forces away from Radzymin and Warsaw and eventually crippling four Soviet armies.
HMS Argus was a British
aircraft carrier that served in the
Royal Navy from 1918 to 1944. She was converted from an
ocean liner that was under construction when the First World War began, and became the world's first example of what is now the standard pattern of aircraft carrier, with a full-length
flight deck that allowed wheeled aircraft to take off and land. Argus was too top-heavy as originally built and had to be modified to improve her stability in the mid-1920s. She spent one brief deployment on the
China Station in the late 1920s before being placed in
reserve for budgetary reasons. The ship was recommissioned and partially modernised shortly before the Second World War and served as a
training ship for deck-landing practice until June 1940. The following month she made the first of her many
ferry trips to the Western Mediterranean to fly-off fighters to
Malta; she was largely occupied in this task for the next two years. The ship also delivered aircraft to
Murmansk in Russia,
Takoradi on the
Gold Coast, and
Reykjavik in Iceland. By 1942, the Royal Navy was very short of aircraft carriers and Argus was pressed into front-line service despite her lack of speed and armament. In June, she participated in
Operation Harpoon, providing air cover for the Malta-bound convoy. In November, the ship provided air cover during
Operation Torch, the invasion of
French North Africa, and was lightly damaged by a bomb. After returning to the UK for repairs, Argus was used again for deck-landing practice until late September 1944. In December, she became an
accommodation ship and was listed for disposal in mid-1946. Argus was sold in late 1946 and
scrapped the following year.
Named after its
lead boat, the
Ohio class of
nuclear-powered submarines is currently serving with the
United States Navy. Fourteen of the eighteen boats are
ballistic missile submarines (SSBN), which, along with
U.S. Air Forcestrategic bombers and
intercontinental ballistic missiles, constitute the
nuclear-deterrent triad of the U.S. The remaining four have been converted from their initial roles as SSBNs to
cruise-missile carriers (SSGN). The Ohio-class boats, each
displacing 18,750 tons submerged, are the third largest submarines in the world, behind the 48,000-ton
Typhoon class and 24,000-ton
Borei class of the
Russian Navy. The Ohio class was designed in the 1970s concurrently with, and to carry, the
Tridentsubmarine-launched ballistic missile. The first of the class,
USS Ohio, was laid down in 1976. Due to an unspecified "series of unfortunate problems in
Washington D.C." and manufacturing issues, Ohio did not initiate
sea trials until June 1981, setting back the boat's
commissioning date to November that year, three years behind schedule. Originally, it was decided that 20 boats were to be built, but due to the 1991
START I agreement between the U.S. and
Soviet Union, the U.S. agreed to reduce its order to 18 boats. The last of the class,
Louisiana, was commissioned in September 1997, nearly 16 years after the first boat. With the first retirement of an Ohio-class boat scheduled for 2029, the US Navy is currently undertaking a program tentatively named
SSBN-X to study the prospective replacement of the class.
Vice AdmiralSir Roy Russell DowlingKCVO,
KBE,
CB,
DSO (1901–1969) was a senior commander in the
Royal Australian Navy (RAN). He served as
Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), the RAN's highest-ranking position, from 1955 until 1959, and as Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC), forerunner of the role of Australia's
Chief of the Defence Force, from 1959 until 1961. Graduating from the
Royal Australian Naval College in 1919, Dowling went to sea aboard various
Royal Navy and RAN vessels, and later specialised in gunnery. In 1937 he was given command of the sloop
HMAS Swan. Following the outbreak of World War II, he saw action in the
Mediterranean as
executive officer of the Royal Navy cruiser
HMS Naiad, and survived her sinking by a German
U-boat in March 1942. Returning to Australia, he served as Director of Plans and later Deputy Chief of Naval Staff before being appointed captain of the light cruiser
HMAS Hobart in November 1944. Dowling took command of the RAN's first
aircraft carrier,
HMAS Sydney, in 1948. He became Chief of Naval Personnel in 1950, and
Flag Officer Commanding HM Australian Fleet in 1953. As CNS from February 1955, he had to deal with shortages of money, manpower and equipment, and with the increasing role of the United States in Australia's defence planning, at the expense of traditional ties with Britain.
Knighted in 1957, Dowling was Chairman of COSC from March 1959 until May 1961, when he retired from the military. In 1963 became Australian Secretary to
HM Queen Elizabeth II, serving until his death in 1969.
Thomas Jerome Hudner, Jr. is a retired
United States Navyofficer and a former
naval aviator who rose to the rank of
captain and received the
Medal of Honor for his actions in trying to save the life of his
wingman,
ensignJesse L. Brown during the
Battle of Chosin Reservoir in the
Korean War. Arriving near Korea in October 1950, Hudner flew support missions from the
USS Leyte. On 4 December 1950, Hudner and Brown were among a group of pilots on patrol near the
Chosin Reservoir when Brown's Corsair was struck by ground fire from
Chinese troops and crashed. In an attempt to save Brown from his burning aircraft, Hudner intentionally
crash landed his own aircraft on a snowy mountain in freezing temperatures to help Brown. In spite of these efforts, Brown died of his injuries and Hudner was forced to evacuate, having also been injured in the landing. Following the incident, Hudner held a number of positions in the U.S. Navy aboard several ships and with a number of aviation units, including a brief stint as first officer of the
USS Kitty Hawk during a brief tour in the
Vietnam War, before retiring in 1973. In subsequent years, he has won several awards and worked for various veterans organizations in the United States. He is currently living in retirement in
Concord, Massachusetts.
Gustav Julius Werner Hartenstein (1908–1943) was a
corvette captain (
German: Korvettenkapitän) with the
Kriegsmarine during
World War II and
U-boat commander of
U-156. He was also a recipient of the
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (
German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes). The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. He is credited with the sinking of 20 ships for a total of 97,504
GRT, further damaging three ships of 18,811
GRT and damaging one warship of 1,190
GRT. Hartenstein joined the
Reichsmarine of the
Weimar Republic in 1928. After a period of training on surface vessels and service on various
torpedo boats, he transferred to the U-boat service in 1941. In September 1942, Hartenstein was involved in the
Laconia incident, when he sank
RMS Laconia and then organised the rescue for her survivors. Hartenstein and the entire crew of U-156 were
killed in action by depth charges from a US
PBY Catalina aircraft on 8 March 1943.
John Francis JacksonDFC (23 February 1908 – 28 April 1942) was an Australian
fighter ace and squadron commander of World War II who was credited with eight aerial victories, and led
No. 75 Squadron during the
Battle of Port Moresby in 1942. Born in
Brisbane, he was a
grazier and businessman when he joined the
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Reserve in 1936. He also operated his own private plane. Called up for active service following the outbreak of war in 1939, Jackson served with
No. 23 Squadron in Australia before posting to the
Middle East in November 1940. As a fighter pilot with
No. 3 Squadron he flew
Gloster Gladiators,
Hawker Hurricanes and
P-40 Tomahawks during the
North African and
Syria-Lebanon campaigns. He was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross and
mentioned in despatches for his actions in the Middle East. Posted to the
South West Pacific theatre, he was promoted to
squadron leader in March 1942 and given command of No. 75 Squadron at
Port Moresby, New Guinea, operating P-40 Kittyhawks. Described as "rugged, simple" and "true as steel",[1] Jackson was nicknamed "Old John" in affectionate tribute to his thirty-four years. He earned praise for his leadership during the defence of Port Moresby before his death in combat on 28 April 1942. His younger brother
Les took over No. 75 Squadron, and also became a fighter ace.
Jacksons International Airport, Port Moresby, is named in John Jackson's honour.
Jesse LeRoy Brown (1926–1950) was the first
African-Americannaval aviator in the
United States Navy, and the first naval officer killed in the
Korean War. Born in
Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to an impoverished family, Brown gained an avid interest in aircraft from a young age. In spite of encountering deep-seated institutionalized
racism, Brown was able to graduate as
salutatorian of his high school. Brown enlisted in the US Navy in 1946 and became a
midshipman one year later. Brown earned his
pilot wings on 21 October 1948, to great press coverage. He was subsequently assigned to
Fighter Squadron 32 aboard the
USS Leyte. Upon the outset of the
Korean War, the Leyte was ordered to the
Korean Peninsula, arriving in October 1950. Brown, an
ensign, flew 20 combat missions until 4 December 1950, when during a mission supporting ground troops at the
Battle of Chosin Reservoir, Brown's
F4U Corsair aircraft was shot down on a remote mountaintop, pinning him inside. In spite of efforts by wingman
Thomas J. Hudner, Jr., who intentionally crashed his aircraft to try and rescue Brown, the latter died of his wounds. Hudner was awarded the
Medal of Honor for his actions. Brown's efforts to overcome
segregation in the US military and his death served as an inspiration for other African Americans. His life was later memorialized in several books, and the
USS Jesse L. Brown (DE-1089) was named in his honor.
The
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its variants were the highest awards in the military of the
Third Reich during
World War II. It was awarded for a wide range of reasons and across all ranks, from a senior commander for leadership of his troops in battle to a low-ranking soldier for a single act of gallantry. A total of 7,322 awards were made between 30 September 1939 and 17 June 1945. This number is based on the analysis and acceptance of the order commission of the
Association of Knight's Cross Recipients (AKCR). Presentations were made to members of the three military branches of the
Wehrmacht—the
Heer (
Army),
Kriegsmarine (
Navy) and
Luftwaffe (
Air force)—as well as the
Waffen-SS, the
Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) and the
Volkssturm. There were also 43
recipients in the military forces of allies of the Third Reich. The 7,322 recipients are listed in the 1986 edition of
Walther-Peer Fellgiebel's book, [Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (
help) — The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945. In 1996 a second edition was published with an addendum delisting nine of these original 7,323 recipients. Author and historian Veit Scherzer has cast doubt on a further 192 of these listings. The majority of the disputed recipients had received the award in 1945, when the deteriorating situation of the Third Reich during the final days of World War II left a number of nominations incomplete and pending in various stages of the approval process.
The 1907 Tiflis bank robbery, also known as the Yerevan Square expropriation, was an armed robbery on 26 June 1907 in the
Georgian city of Tiflis (now Georgia's capital,
Tbilisi). A bank cash shipment was stolen by
Bolsheviks to fund their revolutionary activities. The robbers attacked a bank stagecoach and surrounding security forces using bombs and guns while the stagecoach was transporting money through
Yerevan Square (now Freedom Square) between the post office and the Tiflis branch of the
State Bank of the Russian Empire. The attack killed forty people and injured fifty others, according to official archive documents. The robbers escaped with 341,000
rubles (equivalent to around US $3.4 million in 2008). The robbery was organized by a number of high-level
Bolsheviks, including
Vladimir Lenin,
Joseph Stalin,
Maxim Litvinov,
Leonid Krasin, and
Alexander Bogdanov, and executed by a gang of Georgian revolutionaries led by Stalin's early associate
Kamo. Because such activities were explicitly prohibited by the
5th Congress of the
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), the robbery and the killings caused outrage within the party against the Bolsheviks (a faction within the RSDLP). As a result, Lenin and Stalin tried to distance themselves from the robbery. Kamo was captured and sentenced to death for his crimes including the 1907 robbery, but released after the
1917 Revolution. None of the other major participants or organizers of the robbery were ever brought to trial.
Franco-Mongol relations were established in the 13th century, as Christian
Crusaders and the
Mongol Empire attempted to form a Franco-Mongol alliance against the Muslims. Such an alliance might have seemed an obvious choice: the Mongols were already sympathetic to Christianity, given the presence of many influential
Nestorian Christians in the Mongol court. The
Franks (Western Europeans and those in the
Crusader States of the
Levant) were open to the idea of support from the East, owing to the long-running legend of the mythical
Prester John, an Eastern king in a magical kingdom whom many believed would one day come to the assistance of the Crusaders in the Holy Land. The Franks and Mongols also shared a common enemy in the Muslims, but despite many messages, gifts, and emissaries over the course of several decades, the often-proposed alliance never came to fruition.
John Raeburn Balmer,
OBE,
DFC (1910–1944) was a senior officer and bomber pilot in the
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). An
instructor at
Point Cook from 1935 to 1937, he achieved renown in Air Force circles when he reportedly parachuted from a training aircraft to motivate his pupil to land single-handedly. He also became known to the general public as a cross-country motorist, setting records for trans-Australia and round-Australia trips prior to World War II. In June 1940 Balmer became the inaugural commanding officer of
No. 13 Squadron, which operated
Lockheed Hudsons out of
Darwin, Northern Territory. He was raised to temporary
wing commander in April 1941, and within a year had taken charge of the RAAF's first
Bristol Beaufort unit,
No. 100 Squadron. Appointed an
Officer of the Order of the British Empire in June 1942, he led the Beauforts on bombing and torpedo missions against Japanese targets in the
New Guinea campaign. Posted to England in June 1943, Balmer took command of
No. 467 Squadron RAAF, flying
Avro Lancasters in the
air war over Europe. He led his unit through the
Battle of Berlin from November 1943 to March 1944. In April he was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross, and the following month promoted to temporary
group captain. On the night of 11/12 May, the last scheduled operation of his tour as No. 467 Squadron's commanding officer, Balmer failed to return from a mission over Belgium. Initially posted as missing, his plane was later confirmed to have been shot down, and all of the crew killed. Balmer was buried outside
Brussels.
Mark Ivor Satin (born 1946) is an American political theorist, author, and newsletter publisher. Although often referred to as a "
draft dodger", he is better known for contributing to the development and dissemination of three political perspectives –
neopacifism in the 1960s,
New Age politics in the 1970s and 1980s, and
radical centrism in the 1990s and 2000s. Satin's work is sometimes seen as building toward a new political ideology, and had been labeled "transformational", "post-liberal", "post-Marxist" and "post-hip". After emigrating to Canada at the age of 20, Satin co-founded the Toronto Anti-Draft Programme, which helped bring American
Vietnam War resisters to Canada. He also wrote the Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants to Canada (1968), which sold nearly 100,000 copies. After a period that author
Marilyn Ferguson describes as Satin's "anti-ambition experiment", Satin wrote New Age Politics (1979), which identifies an emergent "third force" in North America pursuing such goals as
simple living, decentralism, and global responsibility. Satin spread his ideas by co-founding an American political organization, the New World Alliance, and by publishing an award-winning international political newsletter, New Options. He also co-drafted the foundational statement of the
U.S. Green Party, "Ten Key Values". After a period of political disillusion, Satin launched a new newsletter and wrote an award-winning book, Radical Middle (2004). Both projects criticized political partisanship and sought to promote mutual learning and innovative policy syntheses across social and cultural divides. In an interview, Satin contrasts the old radical slogan "Dare to struggle, dare to win" with his radical-middle version, "Dare to synthesize, dare to take it all in".
The Nyon Conference, held in
Nyon, Switzerland, in September 1937, addressed international piracy in the
Mediterranean Sea, especially piracy aimed at
intervention in the Spanish Civil War. The
United Kingdom and
France led the conference, which was also attended by
Bulgaria,
Egypt,
Greece,
Romania,
Turkey, the
Soviet Union and
Yugoslavia. The first agreement, signed on 14 September, dealt with plans to counterattack aggressive
submarines. Naval patrols were established; the United Kingdom and France were to patrol most of the western Mediterranean and parts of the east, and the other signatories were to patrol their own waters.
Italy was to be allowed to join the agreement and patrol the
Tyrrhenian Sea if it wished. A second agreement followed three days later, applying similar provisions to surface ships. Italy and
Germany did not attend, although the former did take up naval patrols in November. In marked contrast to the
Non-Intervention Committee and the
League of Nations, this conference did succeed in preventing attacks by submarines.
On 11 April 1951, US President
Harry S. Truman relieved
General of the ArmyDouglas MacArthur, a popular war hero of
World War II who was then the commander of
United Nations forces fighting in the
Korean War, of his commands for making public statements that contradicted the administration's policies. The relief remains a controversial topic in the field of
civil-military relations. MacArthur led the Allied forces in the
Southwest Pacific during World War II, and afterwards was in charge of the
Occupation of Japan. When
North Korea invaded
South Korea in June 1950, he was designated commander of the United Nations forces defending South Korea. He conceived and executed the
amphibious assault at Inchon on 15 September 1950, for which he was hailed as a military genius. However, when he followed up his victory with a full-scale invasion of North Korea on Truman's orders, China intervened in the war and inflicted a series of defeats, compelling him to withdraw from North Korea. By April 1951, the military situation had stabilized, but MacArthur's public statements became increasingly irritating to Truman, and he relieved MacArthur of his commands. The
Senate Armed Services Committee and the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a joint inquiry into the military situation and the circumstances surrounding MacArthur's relief, and concluded that "the removal of General MacArthur was within the constitutional powers of the President but the circumstances were a shock to national pride."
A dreadnought race between Argentina, Brazil, and Chile was kindled in 1907 when the Brazilian government announced its intention to purchase three
dreadnoughts from the British company
Armstrong Whitworth. Previous Argentine–Chilean naval
arms races, combined with a Brazilian coup d'état and subsequent civil war, left the
Brazilian Navy well behind the other two major South American navies in terms of quality and total tonnage. Brazilian politicians moved to address this deficiency in 1904, as part of an overarching goal of becoming an international power. Three small battleships were ordered in 1906, but were later canceled in favor of the new "dreadnought" type. Two ships of the
Minas Geraes class were laid down immediately with a third to follow. The Argentine and Chilean governments immediately canceled a naval-limiting pact between them, and both ordered two dreadnoughts. Meanwhile, Brazil's third dreadnought was canceled in favor of an even larger ship, which was laid down and ripped up several times after repeated major alterations to the design. When the Brazilians finally settled on a design, they realized it would be outclassed by the Chilean dreadnoughts' larger armament, so they sold the ship to the
Ottoman Empire and attempted to acquire a more powerful ship. By this time, however, the First World War had broken out, and many shipbuilders suspended work on dreadnoughts for foreign countries. Argentina's two dreadnoughts were delivered, as the United States was neutral in the opening years of the war, but Chile's two dreadnoughts were purchased by the United Kingdom. In the interwar years, many naval expansion plans were proposed. While most never came to fruition, in April 1920 the Chilean government reacquired one of the dreadnoughts taken over by the UK. No other dreadnoughts were purchased by a South American nation, and all were sold for
scrap in the 1950s.
George Andrew Davis, Jr. (1920–1952) was a US
flying ace in
World War II and the
Korean War. He rose to
lieutenant colonel and was posthumously awarded the
Medal of Honor for his actions in Korea's "
MiG Alley". He was the only US ace to be
killed in action durng the war. Davis joined the
US Army Air Corps in early 1942, and after training was sent to the
Pacific Theatre. He flew in the
New Guinea and
Philippines Campaigns, scoring seven victories over
Japanese aircraft. He gained a reputation as a skilled pilot and accurate gunner whose "daredevil" flying style contrasted with his reserved personality. Davis did not see action in Korea until late 1951, but quickly became the war's
ace of aces, downing 14
Chinese,
North Korean and
Soviet aircraft before his death in 1952. During his final combat mission, he surprised and attacked 12 Chinese
MiG-15 fighters, downing two before himself being shot down and killed. This controversial action earned him the Medal of Honor. With a total of 21 victories, Davis is one of only seven US military pilots to have become an ace in two wars, and one of only 31 to gather more than 20 victories. He was the fourth highest-scoring ace of the Korean War.
(
French: 7ème Compagnie indépendante) was a short-lived
company of
francophone volunteers in the
Rhodesian Security Forces. As an exclusively expatriate unit, it was unique in the history of the Rhodesian Army, which usually incorporated foreign soldiers into its regular ranks. It existed between October 1977 and May 1978 as a company in the 1st Battalion, the
Rhodesia Regiment, and served two
counter-insurgency tours on Operation Hurricane in north-eastern
Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe). Though most servicemen in the Rhodesian Army were locally based, it actively accepted
foreign volunteers into its regular regiments, giving them the same pay and conditions of service as its Rhodesian soldiers. Most foreigners who joined enlisted in the
Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI), which launched a wide-reaching and productive overseas recruitment programme in 1974, but required successful applicants to speak good English. Seeking to further bolster its thinly-spread ranks, the Army attempted to transfer the success of the RLI campaign to French-speakers during late 1977, and formed a designated company in the Rhodesia Regiment for them; as the regiment already had six independent companies, the francophone unit became 7 Independent Company. The company's men, a mixture of former French paratroopers, ex-
Foreign Legionnaires and young adventurers, had trouble from the start integrating with the Rhodesian forces, and became unsettled by the respective ranks they were given in the Rhodesian Army. In an attempt to raise their morale and create a strong esprit de corps, the Army issued them beret insignias backed with the French tricolour and allowed them to raise the flag of France alongside that of Rhodesia each morning.
The Battle of Caldera Bay, or the Sinking of the Blanco Encalada, was an engagement fought during the
Chilean Civil War between Balmacedist and Congressional naval forces on 23 April 1891. It involved two Balmacedist
torpedo boats, Almirante Lynch and Almirante Condell, sinking the Congressional
armored frigateBlanco Encalada. The loss of the Blanco Encalada hindered the Congressional forces, but they ultimately defeated the Balmacedist forces in August of the same year. Notably, Blanco Encalada was the first ironclad warship lost to a
self-propelled torpedo.
The Battle of Radzymin took place during the
Polish-Soviet War, in the area around the town of
Radzymin, some 20 kilometres (12 mi) north-east of
Warsaw, between August 13 and 16, 1920. Along with the
Battle of Ossów and the Polish counter-offensive from the
Wieprz River area, the action was one of the key parts of what later became known as the
Battle of Warsaw. It also proved to be the bloodiest and the most intense. The first phase of the battle began on August 13 with a frontal assault by the
Red Army on the
Praga bridgehead. The Soviet forces captured Radzymin on August 14 and breached the lines of the
1st Polish Army defending Warsaw from the east. Radzymin changed hands several times in heavy fighting. The Russians wanted to break through the Polish defences to Warsaw, while the Polish aim was to defend the area long enough for a two-pronged counter-offensive from the south, led by
GeneralJózef Piłsudski, and north, led by General
Władysław Sikorski, to outflank the attacking forces. After three days of intense fighting, the
corps-sized 1st Polish Army under General
Franciszek Latinik managed to repel a direct assault by six Red Army rifle
divisions at Radzymin and Ossów. The struggle for control of Radzymin forced General
Józef Haller, commander of the
Polish Northern Front, to start the 5th Army's counterattack earlier than planned. Radzymin was recaptured on August 15, and this victory proved to be one of the turning points of the battle of Warsaw. The strategic counter-offensive was extremely successful, pushing Soviet forces away from Radzymin and Warsaw and eventually crippling four Soviet armies.
HMS Argus was a British
aircraft carrier that served in the
Royal Navy from 1918 to 1944. She was converted from an
ocean liner that was under construction when the First World War began, and became the world's first example of what is now the standard pattern of aircraft carrier, with a full-length
flight deck that allowed wheeled aircraft to take off and land. Argus was too top-heavy as originally built and had to be modified to improve her stability in the mid-1920s. She spent one brief deployment on the
China Station in the late 1920s before being placed in
reserve for budgetary reasons. The ship was recommissioned and partially modernised shortly before the Second World War and served as a
training ship for deck-landing practice until June 1940. The following month she made the first of her many
ferry trips to the Western Mediterranean to fly-off fighters to
Malta; she was largely occupied in this task for the next two years. The ship also delivered aircraft to
Murmansk in Russia,
Takoradi on the
Gold Coast, and
Reykjavik in Iceland. By 1942, the Royal Navy was very short of aircraft carriers and Argus was pressed into front-line service despite her lack of speed and armament. In June, she participated in
Operation Harpoon, providing air cover for the Malta-bound convoy. In November, the ship provided air cover during
Operation Torch, the invasion of
French North Africa, and was lightly damaged by a bomb. After returning to the UK for repairs, Argus was used again for deck-landing practice until late September 1944. In December, she became an
accommodation ship and was listed for disposal in mid-1946. Argus was sold in late 1946 and
scrapped the following year.
Named after its
lead boat, the
Ohio class of
nuclear-powered submarines is currently serving with the
United States Navy. Fourteen of the eighteen boats are
ballistic missile submarines (SSBN), which, along with
U.S. Air Forcestrategic bombers and
intercontinental ballistic missiles, constitute the
nuclear-deterrent triad of the U.S. The remaining four have been converted from their initial roles as SSBNs to
cruise-missile carriers (SSGN). The Ohio-class boats, each
displacing 18,750 tons submerged, are the third largest submarines in the world, behind the 48,000-ton
Typhoon class and 24,000-ton
Borei class of the
Russian Navy. The Ohio class was designed in the 1970s concurrently with, and to carry, the
Tridentsubmarine-launched ballistic missile. The first of the class,
USS Ohio, was laid down in 1976. Due to an unspecified "series of unfortunate problems in
Washington D.C." and manufacturing issues, Ohio did not initiate
sea trials until June 1981, setting back the boat's
commissioning date to November that year, three years behind schedule. Originally, it was decided that 20 boats were to be built, but due to the 1991
START I agreement between the U.S. and
Soviet Union, the U.S. agreed to reduce its order to 18 boats. The last of the class,
Louisiana, was commissioned in September 1997, nearly 16 years after the first boat. With the first retirement of an Ohio-class boat scheduled for 2029, the US Navy is currently undertaking a program tentatively named
SSBN-X to study the prospective replacement of the class.
Vice AdmiralSir Roy Russell DowlingKCVO,
KBE,
CB,
DSO (1901–1969) was a senior commander in the
Royal Australian Navy (RAN). He served as
Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), the RAN's highest-ranking position, from 1955 until 1959, and as Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC), forerunner of the role of Australia's
Chief of the Defence Force, from 1959 until 1961. Graduating from the
Royal Australian Naval College in 1919, Dowling went to sea aboard various
Royal Navy and RAN vessels, and later specialised in gunnery. In 1937 he was given command of the sloop
HMAS Swan. Following the outbreak of World War II, he saw action in the
Mediterranean as
executive officer of the Royal Navy cruiser
HMS Naiad, and survived her sinking by a German
U-boat in March 1942. Returning to Australia, he served as Director of Plans and later Deputy Chief of Naval Staff before being appointed captain of the light cruiser
HMAS Hobart in November 1944. Dowling took command of the RAN's first
aircraft carrier,
HMAS Sydney, in 1948. He became Chief of Naval Personnel in 1950, and
Flag Officer Commanding HM Australian Fleet in 1953. As CNS from February 1955, he had to deal with shortages of money, manpower and equipment, and with the increasing role of the United States in Australia's defence planning, at the expense of traditional ties with Britain.
Knighted in 1957, Dowling was Chairman of COSC from March 1959 until May 1961, when he retired from the military. In 1963 became Australian Secretary to
HM Queen Elizabeth II, serving until his death in 1969.
Thomas Jerome Hudner, Jr. is a retired
United States Navyofficer and a former
naval aviator who rose to the rank of
captain and received the
Medal of Honor for his actions in trying to save the life of his
wingman,
ensignJesse L. Brown during the
Battle of Chosin Reservoir in the
Korean War. Arriving near Korea in October 1950, Hudner flew support missions from the
USS Leyte. On 4 December 1950, Hudner and Brown were among a group of pilots on patrol near the
Chosin Reservoir when Brown's Corsair was struck by ground fire from
Chinese troops and crashed. In an attempt to save Brown from his burning aircraft, Hudner intentionally
crash landed his own aircraft on a snowy mountain in freezing temperatures to help Brown. In spite of these efforts, Brown died of his injuries and Hudner was forced to evacuate, having also been injured in the landing. Following the incident, Hudner held a number of positions in the U.S. Navy aboard several ships and with a number of aviation units, including a brief stint as first officer of the
USS Kitty Hawk during a brief tour in the
Vietnam War, before retiring in 1973. In subsequent years, he has won several awards and worked for various veterans organizations in the United States. He is currently living in retirement in
Concord, Massachusetts.
Gustav Julius Werner Hartenstein (1908–1943) was a
corvette captain (
German: Korvettenkapitän) with the
Kriegsmarine during
World War II and
U-boat commander of
U-156. He was also a recipient of the
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (
German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes). The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. He is credited with the sinking of 20 ships for a total of 97,504
GRT, further damaging three ships of 18,811
GRT and damaging one warship of 1,190
GRT. Hartenstein joined the
Reichsmarine of the
Weimar Republic in 1928. After a period of training on surface vessels and service on various
torpedo boats, he transferred to the U-boat service in 1941. In September 1942, Hartenstein was involved in the
Laconia incident, when he sank
RMS Laconia and then organised the rescue for her survivors. Hartenstein and the entire crew of U-156 were
killed in action by depth charges from a US
PBY Catalina aircraft on 8 March 1943.
John Francis JacksonDFC (23 February 1908 – 28 April 1942) was an Australian
fighter ace and squadron commander of World War II who was credited with eight aerial victories, and led
No. 75 Squadron during the
Battle of Port Moresby in 1942. Born in
Brisbane, he was a
grazier and businessman when he joined the
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Reserve in 1936. He also operated his own private plane. Called up for active service following the outbreak of war in 1939, Jackson served with
No. 23 Squadron in Australia before posting to the
Middle East in November 1940. As a fighter pilot with
No. 3 Squadron he flew
Gloster Gladiators,
Hawker Hurricanes and
P-40 Tomahawks during the
North African and
Syria-Lebanon campaigns. He was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross and
mentioned in despatches for his actions in the Middle East. Posted to the
South West Pacific theatre, he was promoted to
squadron leader in March 1942 and given command of No. 75 Squadron at
Port Moresby, New Guinea, operating P-40 Kittyhawks. Described as "rugged, simple" and "true as steel",[1] Jackson was nicknamed "Old John" in affectionate tribute to his thirty-four years. He earned praise for his leadership during the defence of Port Moresby before his death in combat on 28 April 1942. His younger brother
Les took over No. 75 Squadron, and also became a fighter ace.
Jacksons International Airport, Port Moresby, is named in John Jackson's honour.
Jesse LeRoy Brown (1926–1950) was the first
African-Americannaval aviator in the
United States Navy, and the first naval officer killed in the
Korean War. Born in
Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to an impoverished family, Brown gained an avid interest in aircraft from a young age. In spite of encountering deep-seated institutionalized
racism, Brown was able to graduate as
salutatorian of his high school. Brown enlisted in the US Navy in 1946 and became a
midshipman one year later. Brown earned his
pilot wings on 21 October 1948, to great press coverage. He was subsequently assigned to
Fighter Squadron 32 aboard the
USS Leyte. Upon the outset of the
Korean War, the Leyte was ordered to the
Korean Peninsula, arriving in October 1950. Brown, an
ensign, flew 20 combat missions until 4 December 1950, when during a mission supporting ground troops at the
Battle of Chosin Reservoir, Brown's
F4U Corsair aircraft was shot down on a remote mountaintop, pinning him inside. In spite of efforts by wingman
Thomas J. Hudner, Jr., who intentionally crashed his aircraft to try and rescue Brown, the latter died of his wounds. Hudner was awarded the
Medal of Honor for his actions. Brown's efforts to overcome
segregation in the US military and his death served as an inspiration for other African Americans. His life was later memorialized in several books, and the
USS Jesse L. Brown (DE-1089) was named in his honor.
The
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its variants were the highest awards in the military of the
Third Reich during
World War II. It was awarded for a wide range of reasons and across all ranks, from a senior commander for leadership of his troops in battle to a low-ranking soldier for a single act of gallantry. A total of 7,322 awards were made between 30 September 1939 and 17 June 1945. This number is based on the analysis and acceptance of the order commission of the
Association of Knight's Cross Recipients (AKCR). Presentations were made to members of the three military branches of the
Wehrmacht—the
Heer (
Army),
Kriegsmarine (
Navy) and
Luftwaffe (
Air force)—as well as the
Waffen-SS, the
Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) and the
Volkssturm. There were also 43
recipients in the military forces of allies of the Third Reich. The 7,322 recipients are listed in the 1986 edition of
Walther-Peer Fellgiebel's book, [Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (
help) — The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945. In 1996 a second edition was published with an addendum delisting nine of these original 7,323 recipients. Author and historian Veit Scherzer has cast doubt on a further 192 of these listings. The majority of the disputed recipients had received the award in 1945, when the deteriorating situation of the Third Reich during the final days of World War II left a number of nominations incomplete and pending in various stages of the approval process.