The Chaplain–Medic massacre was a
war crime that took place in the
Korean War on July 16, 1950, on a mountain above the village of Tunam, South Korea. Thirty critically wounded US troops were stranded at the top of a mountain. Attended to by only two
noncombatants, a
chaplain and a
medic, the wounded were discovered by a North Korean patrol. Though the medic was able to escape, the North Koreans executed the unarmed chaplain as he prayed over the wounded, then killed the rest of them. The massacre was one of several incidents that led US commanders to establish a commission in July to investigate war crimes. The same month, the North Korean commanders, concerned about the way their soldiers were treating prisoners of war, laid out stricter guidelines for handling enemy captives.
HMS Courageous (
pennant number 50) was the
lead ship of the
Courageous-classcruisers built for the
Royal Navy during the
First World War. Designed to support the
Baltic Project championed by the
First Sea Lord,
John Fisher, the ship was very lightly armoured and armed with only a few heavy guns. Courageous was completed in late 1916 and spent the war patrolling the
North Sea. She participated in the
Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917 and was present when the German
High Seas Fleet surrendered a year later. Courageous was
decommissioned after the war, but rebuilt as an
aircraft carrier during the mid-1920s. She could carry 48 aircraft compared to the 36 carried by her
half-sisterFurious on approximately the same tonnage. After recommissioning she spent most of her career operating off
Great Britain and
Ireland. She briefly became a training carrier, but reverted to her normal role a few months before the start of the
Second World War in September 1939. Courageous was torpedoed and sunk in the opening weeks of the war, going down with more than 500 of her crew.
HMS Eagle was an early
aircraft carrier of the
Royal Navy. Ordered by Chile as the
Almirante Latorre-classbattleshipAlmirante Cochrane, she was laid down before
World War I. In early 1918 she was purchased by Britain for conversion to an aircraft carrier; this work was finished in 1924. Eagle spent the first nine months of
World War II in the
Indian Ocean searching for German
commerce raiders. She was transferred to the Mediterranean in May 1940, where she escorted multiple
convoys to
Malta and
Greece and attacked Italian shipping, naval units and bases in the Eastern Mediterranean. The ship also participated in the
Battle of Calabria in July, but her aircraft failed to score any hits when they attempted to torpedo Italian cruisers during the battle. The ship was relieved by a more modern carrier in March 1941 and ordered to hunt for
Axis shipping in the Indian Ocean and the
South Atlantic. After completing a major refit in early 1942, the ship made multiple trips delivering fighter aircraft to Malta to boost its air defences in the first half of 1942. Eagle was torpedoed and sunk by the
German submarine U-73 on 11 August 1942 while escorting a convoy to Malta during
Operation Pedestal.
Jovan Vladimir or John Vladimir (died 1016) was ruler of
Duklja, the most powerful
Serbian principality of the time, from around 1000 to 1016. Acknowledged as a pious, just, and peaceful ruler, he ruled during the protracted war between the
Byzantine Empire and the
First Bulgarian Empire. In 1016 Vladimir fell victim to a plot by
Ivan Vladislav, the last ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire. He was beheaded in front of a church in
Prespa, the empire's capital, and was buried there. He was soon recognized as a
martyr and
saint; his
feast day is celebrated on
22 May. His widow, Kosara, reburied him in the Prečista Krajinska Church, near his court in southeastern Duklja. In 1381 his remains were preserved in the
Church of Saint Jovan Vladimir near
Elbasan, and since 1995 they have been kept in the
Orthodoxcathedral of
Tirana,
Albania. The saint's remains are considered
relics, and attract many believers, especially on his feast day, when the relics are taken to the church near Elbasan for a celebration.
The Battle of Masan was an engagement between
United Nations (UN) and
North Korean (NK) forces, which took place early in the
Korean War between August 5 and September 19, 1950, in the vicinity of
Masan and the
Naktong River in
South Korea. It was part of the
Battle of Pusan Perimeter, and was one of several large engagements fought simultaneously. The battle ended in a victory for the UN after large numbers of
United States (US) and
Republic of Korea (ROK) troops were able to repel the repeated attacks of two North Korean divisions. Throughout the six-week battle, the
Korean People's Army6th and
7th Divisions attacked the
US Army's
25th Infantry Division in an attempt to break through and attack
Pusan. An initial UN counteroffensive out of Masan proved ineffective but the
US 35th Infantry Regiment was subsequently able to repel the North Koreans at the
Battle of Nam River. The UN units were able to repel the North Koreans repeatedly, including through a
coordinated offensive across the entire perimeter. In delaying and pushing back the North Koreans, the 25th Infantry Division was able to buy time for UN forces to
counterattack at Inchon, effectively defeating the North Korean Army at the Pusan Perimeter.
The De Lackner HZ-1 Aerocycle, also known as the YHO-2 and by the manufacturer's designation DH-4 Heli-Vector, was an American one-man "personal
helicopter" developed by
de Lackner Helicopters in the mid 1950s. Intended to be operated by inexperienced pilots with a minimum of instruction, the HZ-1 was expected to become a standard
reconnaissance machine with the
United States Army. Although early testing showed that the craft had promise for providing mobility on the
atomic battlefield, more extensive evaluation proved that the aircraft was in fact too difficult to control for operation by untrained
infantrymen, and after a pair of crashes the project was abandoned. A single model of the craft was put on display.
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.
Between the mid 1860s and the early 1880s, the
Prussian and later
German Imperial Navies purchased or built sixteen
ironclad warships. The term "ironclad" in this period frequently referred to armored
capital ships that succeeded the sailing or steam-powered
ship of the line and preceded
pre-dreadnoughtbattleships, though other historians have used the term more generally, especially in relation to the small armored ships operated by the US Navy during the
American Civil War. The rival Danish fleet had three ironclads in service by the time the
Second Schleswig War broke out in 1864; as a result, Prussia purchased the ironclads
Arminius and
Prinz Adalbert, which entered service by 1865. The Prussian Navy acquired three more ships—
Friedrich Carl,
Kronprinz, and
König Wilhelm—by the outbreak of the
Franco-Prussian War in 1870. A fourth would not be completed in time to see service during the war. In 1871, the various Germanic states were unified under Prussian dominance as the
German Empire; the Prussian Navy became the core of the Imperial Navy. The three turret ships of the
Preussen class were built in Germany in the early 1870s, followed by two
Kaiser-class vessels, the last
capital ships ordered from foreign yards. The next design, the four
Sachsen-class ships, was intended to operate from fortified bases against a naval blockade, not on the high seas. The last German ironclad was another new design,
Oldenburg, before the Navy instead began to focus on
torpedo boats for coastal defense.
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.
Field MarshalSir Thomas Albert Blamey (1884–1951) was a general of the
First and
Second World Wars, the only Australian to date to attain the rank of field marshal. He joined the Australian Army as a regular soldier in 1906. During the First World War he participated in the
landing at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915, and served as a staff officer in the
Gallipoli Campaign and the
Western Front. After the war Blamey was Deputy
Chief of the General Staff, and was involved in the creation of the
Royal Australian Air Force. He resigned from the regular Army in 1925 to become Chief Commissioner of the
Victoria Police, but remained in the
Militia. He resigned from the police in 1936 following two scandals. During the first years of the Second World War he commanded the
Second Australian Imperial Force and
I Corps in the Middle East. In 1942, Blamey returned to Australia as Commander in Chief of the Australian Military Forces and Commander of Allied Land Forces in the
South West Pacific Area. He oversaw several successful campaigns, including a series of controversial offensives in the last months of the war. Blamey signed the instrument of surrender on behalf of Australia at Japan's ceremonial surrender in Tokyo Bay on 3 September 1945, and later personally accepted the Japanese surrender at
Morotai. He was promoted to field marshal in June 1950.
The Chaplain–Medic massacre was a
war crime that took place in the
Korean War on July 16, 1950, on a mountain above the village of Tunam, South Korea. Thirty critically wounded US troops were stranded at the top of a mountain. Attended to by only two
noncombatants, a
chaplain and a
medic, the wounded were discovered by a North Korean patrol. Though the medic was able to escape, the North Koreans executed the unarmed chaplain as he prayed over the wounded, then killed the rest of them. The massacre was one of several incidents that led US commanders to establish a commission in July to investigate war crimes. The same month, the North Korean commanders, concerned about the way their soldiers were treating prisoners of war, laid out stricter guidelines for handling enemy captives.
HMS Courageous (
pennant number 50) was the
lead ship of the
Courageous-classcruisers built for the
Royal Navy during the
First World War. Designed to support the
Baltic Project championed by the
First Sea Lord,
John Fisher, the ship was very lightly armoured and armed with only a few heavy guns. Courageous was completed in late 1916 and spent the war patrolling the
North Sea. She participated in the
Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917 and was present when the German
High Seas Fleet surrendered a year later. Courageous was
decommissioned after the war, but rebuilt as an
aircraft carrier during the mid-1920s. She could carry 48 aircraft compared to the 36 carried by her
half-sisterFurious on approximately the same tonnage. After recommissioning she spent most of her career operating off
Great Britain and
Ireland. She briefly became a training carrier, but reverted to her normal role a few months before the start of the
Second World War in September 1939. Courageous was torpedoed and sunk in the opening weeks of the war, going down with more than 500 of her crew.
HMS Eagle was an early
aircraft carrier of the
Royal Navy. Ordered by Chile as the
Almirante Latorre-classbattleshipAlmirante Cochrane, she was laid down before
World War I. In early 1918 she was purchased by Britain for conversion to an aircraft carrier; this work was finished in 1924. Eagle spent the first nine months of
World War II in the
Indian Ocean searching for German
commerce raiders. She was transferred to the Mediterranean in May 1940, where she escorted multiple
convoys to
Malta and
Greece and attacked Italian shipping, naval units and bases in the Eastern Mediterranean. The ship also participated in the
Battle of Calabria in July, but her aircraft failed to score any hits when they attempted to torpedo Italian cruisers during the battle. The ship was relieved by a more modern carrier in March 1941 and ordered to hunt for
Axis shipping in the Indian Ocean and the
South Atlantic. After completing a major refit in early 1942, the ship made multiple trips delivering fighter aircraft to Malta to boost its air defences in the first half of 1942. Eagle was torpedoed and sunk by the
German submarine U-73 on 11 August 1942 while escorting a convoy to Malta during
Operation Pedestal.
Jovan Vladimir or John Vladimir (died 1016) was ruler of
Duklja, the most powerful
Serbian principality of the time, from around 1000 to 1016. Acknowledged as a pious, just, and peaceful ruler, he ruled during the protracted war between the
Byzantine Empire and the
First Bulgarian Empire. In 1016 Vladimir fell victim to a plot by
Ivan Vladislav, the last ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire. He was beheaded in front of a church in
Prespa, the empire's capital, and was buried there. He was soon recognized as a
martyr and
saint; his
feast day is celebrated on
22 May. His widow, Kosara, reburied him in the Prečista Krajinska Church, near his court in southeastern Duklja. In 1381 his remains were preserved in the
Church of Saint Jovan Vladimir near
Elbasan, and since 1995 they have been kept in the
Orthodoxcathedral of
Tirana,
Albania. The saint's remains are considered
relics, and attract many believers, especially on his feast day, when the relics are taken to the church near Elbasan for a celebration.
The Battle of Masan was an engagement between
United Nations (UN) and
North Korean (NK) forces, which took place early in the
Korean War between August 5 and September 19, 1950, in the vicinity of
Masan and the
Naktong River in
South Korea. It was part of the
Battle of Pusan Perimeter, and was one of several large engagements fought simultaneously. The battle ended in a victory for the UN after large numbers of
United States (US) and
Republic of Korea (ROK) troops were able to repel the repeated attacks of two North Korean divisions. Throughout the six-week battle, the
Korean People's Army6th and
7th Divisions attacked the
US Army's
25th Infantry Division in an attempt to break through and attack
Pusan. An initial UN counteroffensive out of Masan proved ineffective but the
US 35th Infantry Regiment was subsequently able to repel the North Koreans at the
Battle of Nam River. The UN units were able to repel the North Koreans repeatedly, including through a
coordinated offensive across the entire perimeter. In delaying and pushing back the North Koreans, the 25th Infantry Division was able to buy time for UN forces to
counterattack at Inchon, effectively defeating the North Korean Army at the Pusan Perimeter.
The De Lackner HZ-1 Aerocycle, also known as the YHO-2 and by the manufacturer's designation DH-4 Heli-Vector, was an American one-man "personal
helicopter" developed by
de Lackner Helicopters in the mid 1950s. Intended to be operated by inexperienced pilots with a minimum of instruction, the HZ-1 was expected to become a standard
reconnaissance machine with the
United States Army. Although early testing showed that the craft had promise for providing mobility on the
atomic battlefield, more extensive evaluation proved that the aircraft was in fact too difficult to control for operation by untrained
infantrymen, and after a pair of crashes the project was abandoned. A single model of the craft was put on display.
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.
Between the mid 1860s and the early 1880s, the
Prussian and later
German Imperial Navies purchased or built sixteen
ironclad warships. The term "ironclad" in this period frequently referred to armored
capital ships that succeeded the sailing or steam-powered
ship of the line and preceded
pre-dreadnoughtbattleships, though other historians have used the term more generally, especially in relation to the small armored ships operated by the US Navy during the
American Civil War. The rival Danish fleet had three ironclads in service by the time the
Second Schleswig War broke out in 1864; as a result, Prussia purchased the ironclads
Arminius and
Prinz Adalbert, which entered service by 1865. The Prussian Navy acquired three more ships—
Friedrich Carl,
Kronprinz, and
König Wilhelm—by the outbreak of the
Franco-Prussian War in 1870. A fourth would not be completed in time to see service during the war. In 1871, the various Germanic states were unified under Prussian dominance as the
German Empire; the Prussian Navy became the core of the Imperial Navy. The three turret ships of the
Preussen class were built in Germany in the early 1870s, followed by two
Kaiser-class vessels, the last
capital ships ordered from foreign yards. The next design, the four
Sachsen-class ships, was intended to operate from fortified bases against a naval blockade, not on the high seas. The last German ironclad was another new design,
Oldenburg, before the Navy instead began to focus on
torpedo boats for coastal defense.
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.
Field MarshalSir Thomas Albert Blamey (1884–1951) was a general of the
First and
Second World Wars, the only Australian to date to attain the rank of field marshal. He joined the Australian Army as a regular soldier in 1906. During the First World War he participated in the
landing at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915, and served as a staff officer in the
Gallipoli Campaign and the
Western Front. After the war Blamey was Deputy
Chief of the General Staff, and was involved in the creation of the
Royal Australian Air Force. He resigned from the regular Army in 1925 to become Chief Commissioner of the
Victoria Police, but remained in the
Militia. He resigned from the police in 1936 following two scandals. During the first years of the Second World War he commanded the
Second Australian Imperial Force and
I Corps in the Middle East. In 1942, Blamey returned to Australia as Commander in Chief of the Australian Military Forces and Commander of Allied Land Forces in the
South West Pacific Area. He oversaw several successful campaigns, including a series of controversial offensives in the last months of the war. Blamey signed the instrument of surrender on behalf of Australia at Japan's ceremonial surrender in Tokyo Bay on 3 September 1945, and later personally accepted the Japanese surrender at
Morotai. He was promoted to field marshal in June 1950.