Liberty Heights is a 1999 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Barry Levinson. The film is a semi-autobiographical account of his childhood growing up in Baltimore in the 1950s. Portrayed are the racial injustices experienced both by the Jewish and African-American populations. Both of Nate Kurtzman's sons find women "prohibited" to them; for Van because he is Jewish and white, and for Ben because he is white. Their father goes to prison for running a burlesque show with Little Melvin, an African-American and known local drug dealer.

It is the fourth of Levinson's tetralogy "Baltimore Films", set in his hometown during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s: Diner (1982), Tin Men (1987) and Avalon (1990).

Plot
In the fall of 1954, the Kurtzmans, a Jewish family, live in Forest Park, a suburban neighborhood in northwest Baltimore. Nate, the father, runs a burlesque theater, and engages in a numbers racket. His wife Ada is a housewife. Van, the older son, attends the University of Baltimore, and Ben is in his senior year in high school.

Ben meets Sylvia, an African-American girl, who begins attending his school after the district has been integrated. Ben immediately starts to develop feelings towards Sylvia, and introduces himself. They become close based on a mutual love for Little Richard, James Brown, jazz, and black comedians. Sylvia's father, an affluent doctor, disapproves of their relationship and forbids them to see one another.

On Halloween, Ben dresses up as Adolf Hitler, which shocks his parents greatly, and he's forbidden to go in public wearing it. Van and his friends head over to a party in a predominantly bourgeois, gentile section of town. He is attracted to a mysterious blonde woman. A fight between one of Van's buddies and a gentile erupts over his Jewishness and Trey, one of the party-goers, drunkenly crashes his car into the house. Van must leave the mystery woman.

Trey goes to court for the car crash. Van and his friends are there as witnesses, but they find ways to avoid testifying against him. After the hearing is over, Van asks several of the other party attendants about the blonde woman he met. Trey discovers that the girl Van has fallen in love with is Dubbie, Trey's own girlfriend.

Meanwhile, Nate's burlesque theatre has problems. In order to boost returns on the numbers game, an additional bonus number is added that will increase the pay-off. Little Melvin, a local drug dealer, makes a large bet, defies expectations, and hits the number. Unable to pay on such a big win, Nate is forced to cut Melvin a 'slice of the pie'. When Nate offers Melvin the numbers business instead, Melvin claims that Nate is trying to "Jew" him out of his money, and a fight breaks out between their bodyguards.

Sylvia gives Ben tickets to see James Brown & The Famous Flames in concert. There, Ben and his friend are the only white patrons in the audience. Van and his friends head out to a gathering, where he again runs into Dubbie and learns she is with Trey.

Little Melvin spots Nate's car off of Pennsylvania Avenue in the African-American neighborhood where James Brown is performing, and after seeing Ben and his friend inside, deduces that one of them must be Nate's son. After the concert, Melvin abducts Ben, Sylvia, and their friends in a payback to Nate's racket.

Van discovers Trey is in surgery after a car accident. He and Dubbie go see him in Virginia. Trey breaks up with her, and on their way back to Maryland, she suggests they stop in a motel. She gets quite drunk, bursts into tears, and then Van realizes  she doesn't really want to be with him.

Nate and his associates from the nightclub are charged and booked with prostitution and racketeering. Before leaving for prison, Nate manages to attend Ben and Sylvia's high school graduation. She is attending Spelman College in Atlanta; he is staying to attend the University of Maryland. As they say goodbye, he steals a kiss, shocking both families

Ben's family is attending a Jewish ceremony as Nate walks out of the synagogue and blows a goodbye kiss to his wife.

Cast

 Adrien Brody as Van
 Ben Foster as Ben
 Orlando Jones as Melvin "Little Melvin"
 Bebe Neuwirth as Ada
 Joe Mantegna as Nate
 Rebekah Johnson as Sylvia
 Gerry Rosenthal as Murray
 David Krumholtz as Yussel
 Justin Chambers as Trey
 Carolyn Murphy as "Dubbie"
 Kevin Sussman as Alan
 Shane West as Ted
 Anthony Anderson as "Scribbles"
 Elizabeth Ann Bennett as Mary
 Carlton J. Smith as James Brown
 Richard Kline as Charlie, Nate's Assistant
 Vincent Guastaferro as Pete, Nate's Assistant
 James Pickens Jr. as Sylvia's Father
 Kiersten Warren as Annie, The Stripper
 Charley Scalies as Louie
 Katie Finneran as Mrs. Johnson
 Frania Rubinek as Grandma Rose
 Evan Neumann as Sheldon (Credited as Evan Neuman)
 Cloie Wyatt Taylor as Gail
 Ellyn O'Connell as Anne Whittier
 Timothy J. Scanlin Jr. as Nick
 Jake Hoffman as "Turk"
 Joseph Patrick Abel as Lenny
 Brenda Russell as Singer
 Misha Collins as Guy (uncredited)
 Stacy Keibler as Extra (uncredited)

Liberty Heights marked the last appearance of Ralph Tabakin, who appeared in cameo roles in every Levinson movie since his first, Diner. Tabakin died in 2001.

Reception
The film earned positive reviews from critics, as Liberty Heights currently holds an 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 49 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A moving film with moments of humor, Liberty Heights succeeds in capturing the feel of the 1950s with great performances and sensitive direction." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 75 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Soundtrack
Two Liberty Heights soundtracks were released on January 4, 2000: one of the score by Andrea Morricone and one of the music appearing in the film.

References

External links
 Official site
 Barry Levinson official site

 Roger Ebert's review
  for the original soundtrack
  for the Morricone release

1999 films
1990s coming-of-age comedy-drama films
Films set in 1954
Films set in 1955
American coming-of-age comedy-drama films
Films directed by Barry Levinson
Films set in Baltimore
Films shot in Baltimore
Jews and Judaism in Baltimore
Warner Bros. films
Films about brothers
1990s English-language films
1990s American films

Liberty Heights


Honkai Impact 3rd () is a free-to-play 3D action role-playing game (originally a mobile exclusive, later ported to Microsoft Windows) developed by miHoYo, published by miHoYo in mainland China and worldwide by Cognosphere, d/b/a HoYoverse. It is the spiritual successor to Houkai Gakuen 2, using many characters from the previous title in a separate story. The game is notable for incorporating a variety of genres, from hack and slash and social simulation, to elements of bullet hell, platforming, shoot 'em up and dungeon crawling across multiple single and multiplayer modes. It features gacha mechanics.

In addition to the game, the storyline of Honkai Impact 3rd spans multiple supplementary media including a series of animated shorts, multiple manhua series, and promotional videos.

Etymology
The word "Honkai" based on the Japanese 崩壊 (ほうかい, "collapse" or "decay"), pronounced "hōkai", which is the direct translation of the Chinese 崩坏 (bēng huài) used in the original Chinese title. The "Impact" part of the title is absent from both the Chinese and Japanese versions, and is only used in English marketing.

In-game, the term 'Honkai Impact' (also 'Honkai Eruption' or 'Honkai Outbreak') refers to a large-scale Honkai disaster that coincides with the birth of a Herrscher.

Gameplay
Honkai Impact 3rd has players control a team of up to three characters, known as Valkyries, in real-time combat against various enemies. During battle, players may freely switch between characters and move around the battlefield. Each Valkyrie has unique attack, evasion, switch, and ultimate skills, as well as a type. The three main types, Mech, Biologic, and Psychic, are based on a rock-paper-scissors-based system, wherein types are advantaged and disadvantaged depending on both the enemy type and their own type. The two additional types, Quantum and Imaginary, are disadvantaged over each other, neutral towards the above three types, and advantaged over themselves. Valkyrie stats and skills can be changed with various weapons and equipment, which can be improved by using in-game resources. New equipment (known as Stigmata), weapons, and Valkyries can obtained either through in-game crafting or through a gacha system.

Single-player game modes include the Story campaign, consisting of stages punctuated by dialogue in cutscenes and full motion videos (FMVs); Chronicles, a series of brief side stories that explore Valkyries' backstories or other aspects of the world; and Open World, allowing exploration of several large open-ended fields to gather materials and complete various challenge tasks, coupled with their own storylines.

The game features various multiplayer cooperative and competitive modes, such as Co-op Raid, where players team up to progress through several stages and obtain legendary weapons and related rewards; Memorial Arena, where players compete against a set of bosses for the highest score across the server; and Abyss, where players attempt to progress as far as possible through a gauntlet of battles to compete for high scores against others in a small group. Players are able to join groups of other players, called Armadas, which allow for more opportunities for events and rewards. Armadas allow for limited requesting of materials and resources from other players in the Armada.

Outside of battles, Honkai Impact 3rd allows players to interact with the Valkyrie and Stigmata characters through the Dorm mode. Upon completing character-specific tasks, different characters may be able to move into the dorms, whereupon new character information and dialogues between those characters can be seen. Players can craft various pieces of furniture and design the layout of the dorm rooms to increase the "comfort" of the Valkyries and Stigmata therein. Greater comfort levels allow players to level up their dorm limits for more elaborate decoration. Players are able to visit and view each other's decorated dorm layouts.

Secondary gameplay mechanics include various minigames incorporating bullet hell, platforming, and shoot 'em up elements that allow players to gather various crafting and experience materials. Limited-time seasonal events may also include gameplay styles such as dungeon crawling and battle royale which are not normally seen in the main gameplay modes.

Weapons
Each Valkyrie can equip one type of weapon. The weapon types in the game are dual pistols, blade (katana), heavy (cannon), two-handed (greatsword), cross, fists (gauntlet), scythe, lance, bow, chakram, and javelin.

Players can obtain weapons through shop purchases, crafting, and the gacha system, among other methods. After players obtain weapons, they can upgrade the weapons to improve their attribute effects.

After reaching player level 50 and weapon level 50, some weapons can be further upgraded into PRI-ARMs, changing their design, attributes, and effects. However, players will not be able to increase the maximum weapon level until reaching player level 81.

Stigmata
Each Valkyrie can equip three Stigmata. Players can increase their characters' attack, defense, critical chance, and other attribute effects while those characters wear various Stigmata.

The Stigmata system can be divided into three types: top, middle, and bottom, which correspond to the types of attack, defense, and auxiliary. Players can also activate different set effects when wearing two or three Stigmata of the same set. Players can obtain Stigmata through the gacha, stage completion, events, and crafting. After players obtain a Stigmata, they can enhance, upgrade, and refine it to improve the Stigmata's stats and effects.

Item enhancement
Players can enhance Valkyrie stats by enhancing (leveling-up) weapons and Stigmata. Stigmata level up requires a different EXP item type than weapons. Upon enhancement, the equipment can get a better attribute effect bonus.

Item upgrading
Players can improve the attribute effect of equipment by upgrading weapons and Stigmata. All weapons or Stigmata can upgrade the star level through an upgrade. After upgrading, the maximum level limit increases, allowing stronger effects. More advanced weapons and Stigmata require more advanced upgrade materials. Players can obtain upgrade materials by challenging stages, pulling in the gacha, and purchasing in stores.

Currency
The main currencies are crystals and coins, which have various non-premium obtaining methods. Asterite is a currency obtained from various miscellaneous sources throughout the game and can be exchanged for supplies in specific shops. Many of the game's gameplay modes and events each have their own corresponding currencies and shops.

Story

Setting
Honkai Impact 3rd is set in an alternate version of Earth, plagued by catastrophes resulting from the Honkai. The Honkai is largely viewed as a malevolent force with a will of its own. It has the ability to corrupt humans (ranging from mind manipulation and diseases to turning them into undead creatures), create various monsters, and imbue certain individuals with god-like powers, enabling them to trigger apocalyptic events. These super-powered humans are known as Herrschers. The Honkai is a cyclic phenomenon, returning to test civilization on Earth each time it gets too advanced.

The game takes place in the year 2015 of the Current Era, with the technologically-advanced Previous Era having ended 50,000 years prior. In the Current Era, various global factions exist to combat or take advantage of the power of Honkai. These include Schicksal, a European-based peacekeeping organization that deploys human warriors known as Valkyries to combat the Honkai; Anti-Entropy, formerly the North American branch of Schicksal that objected to the use of human soldiers in favor of mechanized robots; and World Serpent, a shadow organization that has been manipulating events since the end of the Previous Era.

Three Herrscher awakenings (or Impacts) have already occurred in the Current Era: the Herrscher of Reason, who became the leader of Anti-Entropy instead of fighting humanity; the Herrscher of the Void, who was defeated by Schicksal and Anti-Entropy in 2000; and the Herrscher of Thunder, who was prevented from fully awakening and sent to train as a Valkyrie at Schicksal's St. Freya Academy.

Major characters

Playable
Kiana 'K-423' Kaslana
Voice Actors:   (CN), Rie Kugimiya (JP)
The main protagonist of the game and recurring character in other miHoYo games. An homage to miHoYo's main character in their first game and second game. She is a clone of the original Kiana Kaslana mixed with genes from Sirin. The player will predominantly follow her perspective throughout the Part 1 of the story. Kiana becomes the second Herrscher of the Void, the Herrscher of Flamescion and the Herrscher of Finality. Shares a deep bond with Raiden Mei*.

Raiden Mei
Voice Actors: Ju Huahua  (CN), Miyuki Sawashiro (JP)
One of the three major main characters and a recurring one in miHoYo's games. Mei becomes the Herrscher of Thunder and the Herrscher of Origin. Shares a deep bond with Kiana Kaslana*.

Bronya Zaychik
Voice Actors: Hanser (CN), Kana Asumi (JP)
One of the three major main characters and a recurring one in miHoYo's games. Bronya becomes the third Herrscher of Reason and later the Herrscher of Truth. She is regarded as a smart strategist and ranged specialist. She also loves video games and wants to be a developer of one one day. Shares a deep bond with Seele*.

Theresa Apocalypse
Voice Actors: Hua Ling  (CN), Yukari Tamura (JP)
The founder and principal of St. Freya Academy. Although she defies him, she is closely tied to Otto, who created her from Kallen's genes. She was close friends with Kiana's parents, especially her mother. Can be considered the equivalent of Previous Era MANTISes, as her genes contain parts of the Honkai Beast Vishnu.

Murata Himeko
Voice Actors: Lin Su  (CN), Rie Tanaka (JP)
Teacher at St. Freya Academy, leader of Squad V and former Captain of the Hyperion. She was originally deployed to rescue Kiana, Mei and Bronya from Nagazora, and acted as their squad leader and mentor after their enrollment. She is acquainted with Rita and Durandal through their former mentor, Ragna Lothbrok.

Fu Hua
Voice Actors: Mace (CN), Minami Takayama (JP)
A member of the 13 Flamechasers of the Previous Era and ranked 12th, codenamed 'Vicissitude'. She was originally tasked with a mission to guide the Current Era, which caused the regions of her influence to deify her. Her backstory is recounted in multiple pieces of media including manga and the visual novel Seven Swords. After meeting Otto and striking a deal with him, she was employed as one of his agents. Later on becomes host to the Herrscher of Sentience.

Rita Rossweisse
Voice Actors: Li Jiang 丽将 (CN), Aoi Yūki (JP)
Assistant of Bianka Ataegina, one of the few current S-rank Valkyries (in game's world) and Maid of Schicksal. She is Durandal's second-in-command. Second in-command of the Immortal Blades Valkyrie Squad.

Bianka Ataegina/Durandal
Voice Actors: Miao☆Jiang  (CN), Mamiko Noto (JP)
Often called by her chosen name Durandal. The current strongest Valkyrie of Schicksal, also an S-rank. Later in Part 1 of the story, it is revealed that she is the original Kiana Kaslana who the game's protagonist was cloned from. She is the main character of the visual novel Durandal.

Seele Vollerei
Voice Actors: Tang Yajing  (CN), Mai Nakahara (JP)
An Estonian girl who grew up in the same orphanage as Bronya. Seele is a Stigma Awakened individual and shares her body with her Stigma persona, also named Seele (sometimes called Dark Seele or "Seele", quotation marks included). Her Stigma's symbol is similar to the Stigma of the Previous Era's Herrscher of Death. Shares a deep bond with Bronya*.

Kallen Kaslana
Voice Actors:   (CN), Nana Mizuki (JP)
A medieval Kaslana family member and childhood friend of Otto. Known as the most legendary Valkyrie of Schicksal. She was executed after defying Schicksal and publicly declaring her love for Yae Sakura. Otto embarked on a quest to revive her.

Yae Sakura
Voice Actors: Du Mingya  (CN), Ayane Sakura (JP)
A shrine maiden from Yae village, she had a little sister named Rin. She met Kallen when Kallen fled from Schicksal forces to the Far East, and fell in love with her.

Elysia
Voice Actors: Yan Ning  (CN), Marina Inoue (JP)
A member of the 13 Flamechasers of the Previous Era and ranked 2nd, codenamed "Ego". She is the owner of the Elysian Realm and one of the major main characters of the "Elysian Realm" story arc in the game. Elysia was born as the Herrscher of Origin, but her actions in life earned her the title Herrscher of Humanity.

Mobius
Voice Actors: Cai Shujin  (CN), Rumi Okubo (JP)
A member of the 13 Flamechasers of the Previous Era and ranked 10th, codenamed "Infinity". She is a scientist responsible for the creation of Stigmata and assisted in the development of other Projects.

SAKURA
Voice Actors: Du Mingya  (CN), Ayane Sakura (JP)
A member of the 13 Flamechasers of the Previous Era and ranked 8th, codenamed "Setsuna". Shares a name and appearance with the Current Era's Yae Sakura, but is otherwise unrelated. Her younger sister, RIN became the Herrscher of Corruption.

Natasha Cioara
Voice Actors: Xie Ying  (CN), Sanae Kobayashi (JP)
A member of World Serpent, nicknamed "Raven". A highly skilled mercenary who runs an orphanage called "The Roost", survivor of the Second Eruption in Siberia.

Carole Pepper
Voice Actors: Wang Xiaotong  (CN), Junko Iwao (JP)
A character from the futuristic open world "A Post-Honkai Odyssey". Daughter of Lewis Pepper, former Valkyrie who fought in the Second Eruption. Usually seen as an energetic troublemaker, with a tendency to go AWOL. Despite all that, she values her place as a Valkyrie.

Pardofelis
Voice Actors: Jin Na  (CN), Nozomi Yamamoto (JP)
A member of the 13 Flamechasers of the Previous Era and ranked 13th, codenamed "Reverie". She acts as a merchant in the "Elysian Realm" along with her pet cat Can. Described as weakest of the Flamechasers. Also has a sort of kleptomania, usually played for laughs. Able to use 'shortcuts', most likely referring to a sort of dimensional portals.

Aponia
Voice Actors: Yang Menglu  (CN), Haruka Shiraishi (JP)
A member of the 13 Flamechasers of the Previous Era and ranked 3rd, codenamed "Discipline". She is a psychic MANTIS with the power to see into the future and decipher people's fates. Along with that, she can bestow Disciplines, mental seals or commands that influence a person's will.

Eden
Voice Actors: Zhang Anqi  (CN), Juri Kimura (JP)
A member of the 13 Flamechasers of the Previous Era and ranked 4th, codenamed "Gold". She was a well-known singer and philanthropist in the Previous Era. She is often seen drinking alcohol, especially wine. There have been hints of a romance between her and Elysia, although their relationship status was never officially confirmed.

Griseo
Voice Actors: Zisu Jiuyue  (CN), Hina Kino (JP)
A member of the 13 Flamechasers of the Previous Era and ranked 11th, codenamed "Stars". The youngest of the Flamechasers, she is a painter with a beaming curiosity. Has taken on a Discipline (mental seal) to make her focus on painting and to not think about the tragedies all around her, which were common in Previous Era.

Vill-V
Voice Actors: Ruan Congqing  (CN), Hisako Kanemoto (JP)
A member of the 13 Flamechasers of the Previous Era and ranked 5th, codenamed "Helix". She is an inventor, a magician, a chef, an evil mastermind, a shy girl. This is due to her ability to split her own mind and partition those parts for specific tasks. She created multiple Divine Keys from the Cores of the Previous Era's Herrschers.

Ai Hyperion Λ/Lambda
Voice Actors: Wang Yaxin  (CN), Horie Yui (JP)
Character used for bridging the game world and the players (breaks the 4th wall). She is seen fixing bugs in Honkai Impact with her 3 miniature copies, referred to as the "Ai"s in the Honkai Salvation Log event, where she acts as the administrator of Honkai Impact 3rd. Has the ability to concentrate all the Captain's willpowers throughout "parallel dimensions".

*Although never officially stated, the bonds are interpreted as romantic love by the majority of the fanbase, mostly due to various acts, mangas and words chosen during their dialogue (in all localisations).

NPCs
 Kevin Kaslana, A member of the 13 Flamechasers of The Previous Era, ranked 1st, also the current head of World Serpent and the first Kaslana. Codenamed "Deliverance". His strength allowed him to eliminate a lot of Previous Era's Herrschers. He acts as an antagonist throughout the majority of the story.
 Otto Apocalypse, 500 years old human genius, head of Schicksal for most of that time. He acts as the main antagonist in the first part of the story. Had a strong affection for Kallen Kaslana, and is primarily motivated by his goal to revive her.
 Sirin, a Belarusian girl who became Current Era's Herrscher of the Void after suffering abuse at the hands of Schicksal's research. She is a main character in the manga "Second Eruption". During the events of the game, her leftover malice personified acts as the secondary antagonist, triggering another Eruption.
 Welt J. Yang, the second Herrscher of Reason and current head of Anti Entropy. He inherited his name from the first Herrscher of Reason. His true name is Joachim Nokianvirtanen.
 Frederica Nikola Tesla and Lieserl Albert Einstein, Anti Entropy scientists that frequently help the main cast. Have been involved in Anti-Entropy leaving Schicksal and research on the 9th Divine Key. Age slower due to complications during latter's events.
 Su, A member of the 13 Flamechasers, ranked 7th, codenamed "Bodhi" and MOTH scientist/doctor. A friend to Kevin. He is the perceived antagonist of the manga volume "Second Key", during which he sends Durandal through tribulations in a bubble universe called Seed of Sumeru.
 Dr. MEI, a previous era scientist that led humanity's effort against the Honkai, creating various projects to combat the phenomenon. Bears a resemblance to the Current Era's Raiden Mei, but is otherwise unrelated. Had a romantic relationship with Kevin Kaslana.
 Cecilia Schariac, one of Schicksal's most powerful Valkyries and mother to Kiana Kaslana. She plays a major role in the events of the Second Honkai War and is a main character in the manga "Second Eruption".
 Siegfried Kaslana, a Schicksal Knight and father of Kiana Kaslana. After the events of the Second Honkai War, he acted against Schicksal and the World Serpent. Latter captured him and keeps him in the Kaslana Stigma Space.
 Kalpas, A member of the 13 Flamechasers of the Previous Era, ranked 6th, and codenamed "Decimation". Has been fused with the Honkai Beast Asura. Most likely not human, rather an alien humanoid.
 Kosma, A member of the 13 Flamechasers of the Previous Era, ranked 9th, and codenamed "Daybreak". Has been fused with the Honkai Beast Vishnu.

Development
The production team for Honkai Impact 3rd grew from a 7-person start to employing over 200 employees in 2018. miHoYo offers small amounts of in-game currency to users that fill out surveys about their experience in the game, allowing the game's developers to adjust future events and tweak the game. As a result, Honkai Impact 3rd is under a continuous-update system, patching bug fixes and changing or adding content multiple times per year. The game has had many significant changes since launch, including rewriting the entire first two chapters of the story in a December 2018 update. The developers stated that their decision to make Honkai Impact 3rd be in the free-to-play monetization system (rather than a premium, or paid, game) with the purpose of making the game more available to players. Devil May Cry and Bayonetta significantly affected the game makers' ideas for the fight system of Honkai Impact 3rd.

After a few years of users emulating Honkai Impact 3rd on computers and an update making emulation more difficult, the game's official PC version was developed, releasing to the public on 26 December 2019.

Manga
Honkai Impact 3rd features an ongoing serialized manga of the same name in Chinese and in English. The manga begins before Chapter 1 of the main game story arc that aims to supplement and flesh out the in-game plot, and often includes character origins. Several in-game battlesuits worn by the Valkyries are illustrated in the manga as well. The manga has three prequel titles and one main title.

Media

Anime
A non-canon slice of life cooking television anime series featuring 19 short episodes Cooking with Valkyries () was released from July to September 2020. The Bilibili releases are available in Mandarin Chinese, while the Japanese broadcast versions are in Japanese.

Another non-canon anime called "ELF Academy" with 10 episodes was released from July  to September 2021. There is a finished version in Mandarin and a Japanese version that is still airing. This series is about ELFs (Equipment: Living Form), which are autonomous weapons created to replace living soldiers, going to school and interacting with each other.

Reception

The game first attracted a large fanbase in Asia before spreading globally: first released in China in late 2016, it reached 1 million downloads in Japan 11 days after release, and IGN reported that Honkai Impact 3rd gathered a total of 35 million downloads worldwide as of March 28, 2018. The game has been released in Korea, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, North America, and Europe, and supports multiple languages including Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, French, German, and Indonesian.

In an article from 2017, Ungeek.com says that the game has some later-game systems that are unintuitive, and cites the large download size for a mobile game as a negative. The review praised the game's visual quality and the ease of learning to play the game, as well as the overall quality of the game, and positively recommended it. The article mentioned that the quality of the game was comparable to console games.

Controversies

On 22 April 2021, as part of the 3rd anniversary of the game's global server, a music video titled "Brilliant Bright" in collaboration with Myth & Roid, was released on miHoYo's Honkai Impact 3rd YouTube channel. While the video featured characters wearing bunny-girl outfits, none of the outfits were actually made available in-game - the cosmetics were solely for the purpose of the video. The backlash from the Chinese players was immediate and severe, with many considering it insensitive and unfair to release content for international players only. Two days later, on 24 April, one Chinese man, armed with a knife, was reported to have infiltrated the developers' office of miHoYo in Shanghai, in an allegedly planned, but failed attempt to assassinate the miHoYo founders, before he was apprehended on the spot and sent in police custody.

Since the incident, the special video from Honkai Impact 3rd was removed from their channel, although the video itself is still available online, through fan reuploads. The Japanese band Myth & Roid have pulled out from the collaboration, and also had their special video single removed, but Brilliant Bright will still be available through streaming platforms and will be released as their digital single. In the game, any content related to 3rd-anniversary bunny girls, with the exception of the correlating event stigmata, are now removed as according to the game's official statement and was instead given 500 crystals for every GLB player as compensation. Chinese server players were given greater compensation (10 focused supply cards = 2800 crystal), despite not actually having any content removed in the Chinese version.

See also
 Action Taimanin, a game with similar gameplay
 Genshin Impact, another game also developed by miHoYo with similar characters
 Honkai: Star Rail, a 2023 game that is the 4th in its series
 Punishing: Gray Raven, a mobile game with similar gameplay and futuristic setting

References

External links

2016 video games
Action role-playing video games
Android (operating system) games
Apocalyptic video games
Gacha games
Hack and slash games
IOS games
Mobile games
Science fiction video games
Video games adapted into comics
Video games adapted into television shows
Video games developed in China
Video games featuring female protagonists
Free-to-play video games
Windows games
MiHoYo games
Cloning in fiction

Honkai Impact 3rd


The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the contingent of the British Army sent to France in 1939 after Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany on 3 September, beginning the Second World War. The BEF existed from 2 September 1939 when the BEF GHQ was formed until 31 May 1940, when GHQ closed down and its troops reverted to the command of Home Forces. During the 1930s, the British government had planned to deter war by abolishing the Ten Year Rule and rearming from the very low level of readiness of the early 1930s. The bulk of the extra money went to the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force but plans were made to re-equip a small number of Army and Territorial Army divisions for service overseas.

General Lord Gort was appointed to the command of the BEF on 3 September 1939 and the BEF began moving to France on 4 September 1939. The BEF assembled along the Belgian–French border. The BEF took their post to the left of the French First Army under the command of the French 1st Army Group () of the North-Eastern Front (). Most of the BEF spent the Phoney War (3 September 1939 to 9 May 1940) digging field defences on the border. When the Battle of France () began on 10 May 1940, the BEF constituted 10 per cent of the Allied forces on the Western Front.

The BEF participated in the Dyle Plan, a rapid advance into Belgium to the line of the Dyle River, but the 1st Army Group had to retreat rapidly through Belgium and north-western France, after the German breakthrough further south at the Battle of Sedan (12–15 May). A local counter-attack at the Battle of Arras (1940) (21 May) was a considerable tactical success but the BEF, French and Belgian forces north of the Somme River retreated to Dunkirk on the French North Sea coast soon after, British and French troops being evacuated in Operation Dynamo (26 May – 4 June) to England after the capitulation of the Belgian army.

Saar Force, the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division and reinforcements, had taken over part of the Maginot Line for training. The force fought with local French units after 10 May, then joined the Tenth Army south of the Somme, along with the improvised Beauman Division and the 1st Armoured Division, to fight in the Battle of Abbeville (27 May – 4 June). The British tried to re-build the BEF with Home Forces divisions training in Britain, troops evacuated from France and lines-or-communications troops south of the Somme river (informally known as the 2nd BEF) but BEF GHQ was not reopened.

After the success of the second German offensive in France (), the 2nd BEF and Allied troops were evacuated from Le Havre in Operation Cycle (10–13 June) and the French Atlantic and Mediterranean ports in Operation Aerial (15–25 June, unofficially to 14 August). The Navy rescued 558,032 people, including 368,491 British troops but the BEF lost  of whom  killed or died of wounds,  and  missing or captured. About 700 tanks, 20,000 motor bikes, 45,000 cars and lorries, 880 field guns and 310 larger equipments, about 500 anti-aircraft guns, 850 anti-tank guns, 6,400 anti-tank rifles and 11,000 machine-guns were abandoned. As units arrived in Britain they reverted to the authority of the Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces.

History

Background

1918–1932

After 1918, the prospect of war seemed so remote, that Government expenditure on the armed forces was determined by the assumption that no great war was likely. Spending varied from year to year and between the services but from July 1928 to March 1932, the formula of the Committee of Imperial Defence (CID) was

and spending on equipment for the army varied from £1,500,000 to £2,600,000 per year from 1924 to 1933, averaging £2,000,000 or about 9 per cent of armaments spending a year. Until the early 1930s, the War Office intended to maintain a small, mobile and professional army and a start was made on motorising the cavalry and the artillery. By 1930, the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) had been mechanised, some of the artillery could be moved by tractors, and a few engineer, signals and cavalry units had received lorries. From 1930–1934, the Territorial Army (TA) artillery, engineer, signals units were equipped with lorries and in 1938 the regular army gained its establishment of wheeled vehicles and half of its tracked vehicles, except for tanks. From 1923 to 1932,  vehicles were ordered at a rate of about  year, just under half being six-wheeler lorries. By 1936, the army had  of which  light tanks and  mediums;  considered obsolete;  the light tanks were modern but did not begin to reach the army until 1935. The rule had reduced war spending from £766 million in 1920 to £102 million when it was abolished on 23 March 1932. The British army had fewer men than in 1914, no organisation or equipment for a war in Europe, and it would have taken the War Office three weeks to mobilise only an infantry division and a cavalry brigade.

Rearmament

Limited Liability

In March 1932, the Ten-Year Rule was abolished and in 1934, the Cabinet resolved to remedy equipment deficiencies in the armed forces over the next five years. The army was always the least favoured force but equipment spending increased from £6,900,000 from 1933–1934 financial year (1 April to 31 March), to £8,500,000 the following year and to more than £67,500,000 by 1938–1939 but the share of spending on army equipment only grew beyond 25 per cent of all military equipment spending in 1938. The relative neglect of the army led to a theory of "limited liability" until 1937, in which Britain would not send a great army to Europe in time of war. In 1934, the Defence Requirements Sub-Committee (DRC) of the CID assumed that a regular field army of five divisions was to be equipped as an expeditionary force, eventually to be supplemented by parts of the Territorial Army. The force and its air support would act as a deterrent greatly disproportionate to its size; plans were made to acquire sufficient equipment and training for the TA to provide a minimum of two extra divisions on the outbreak of war. It was expected that a British army in Europe would receive continuous reinforcement and in 1936, a TA commitment of twelve divisions was envisaged by Alfred Duff Cooper, the Secretary of State for War.

As rearmament of the navy and the air force continued, the nature of an army fit to participate in a European war was kept under review and in 1936, the Cabinet ordered the Chiefs of Staff Sub-Committee of the CID to provide a report on the role of an expeditionary force and the relative values of the army and the air force as deterrents for the same cost. The chiefs were in favour of a balanced rearmament but within financial limits, the air force should be favoured. In 1937, the Minister argued that a continental commitment was no longer feasible and that France did not now expect a big land army along with the navy and air force, Germany had guaranteed Belgian neutrality and that if the quantity of money was limited, defence against air attack, trade protection and the defence of overseas territories were more important and had to be secured before Britain could support allies in the defence of their territories. The "continental hypothesis" came fourth and the main role of the army was to protect the empire, which included the anti-aircraft defence of the United Kingdom (with the assistance of the TA). In 1938, "limited liability" reached its apogee, just as rearmament was maturing and the army was considering the "new conspectus", a much more ambitious rearmament plan.

In February 1938, the CID ruled that planning should be based on "limited liability"; between late 1937 and early 1939, equipment for the five-division field army was reduced to that necessary for colonial warfare in the Far East. In Europe, the field force could only conduct defensive warfare and would need a big increase in ammunition and the refurbishment of its tank forces. The field force continued to be the least-favoured part of the least-favoured military arm and in February 1938, the Secretary of State for War, Leslie Hore-Belisha, warned that possible allies should be left in no doubt about the effectiveness of the army. The re-armament plans for the field force remained deficiency plans, rather than plans for expansion. The July 1934 deficiency plan was estimated at £10,000,000 but cut by 50 per cent by the cabinet; by the first rearmament plan of 1936, the cost of the deficiency plan for the next five years had increased to £177,000,000. In the first version of the "new conspectus", spending was put at £347,000,000, although in 1938 this was cut to £276,000,000, still substantially more than the deficiency plan for 1936 but much of this sum was for anti-aircraft defence, a new duty imposed on the army.

Continental commitment

Obtaining equipment for the Field Force benefited from plans for the TA which, sometimes covertly, was used as a device to get more equipment which could be used by the regular army. At first it was admitted in the deficiency programmes of 1935–1936, in which an expansion of the TA in three stages to twelve divisions, was to complement the five regular divisions. The Cabinet postponed this plan for three years, during which the policy of limited liability precluded such developments, except for the purchase of the same training equipment for the TA as that used by the army, equivalent to that needed to equip two regular divisions, which was the maximum commitment promised to the French in 1938. The mobile division was split into two divisions and some extra equipment went to artillery and engineer units. By 1938 the deficiency programme was due to mature; in the wake of the Munich Crisis in September and the loss of the 35 divisions of the Czechoslovak Army, the Cabinet approved a plan for a ten-division army equipped for continental operations and a similar-sized TA, in early 1939. By reacting to events, the British Cabinet made it inevitable that

The British made a commitment on 21 April 1939 to provide an army of six regular and 26 Territorial divisions, introduced equipment scales for war and began conscription to provide the manpower. In February 1939, the first four regular army divisions of the Field Force had been promised to the French, scheduled to reach the assembly area in France on the thirtieth day after mobilisation. Until this commitment, no staff work had been done, there was no information about French ports and railways and no modern maps.

Prelude

Despatch of the BEF

After the Invasion of Poland by Germany on 1 September 1939, the Cabinet appointed General John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort (Lord Gort) to the command of the BEF on 3 September, subordinate to General Alphonse Georges, the French commander of the North-eastern Theatre of Operations, with the right of appeal to the British government. The BEF was to assemble on the Franco-Belgian border and advanced parties of troops left Portsmouth on 4 September under "Plan W4" and the first troop convoy left the ports on the Bristol Channel and Southampton on 9 September, disembarking at Cherbourg on 10 September and Nantes and Saint Nazaire on the French Atlantic coast two days later. German submarines had been held back by Hitler to avoid provoking the Allies and only a few mines were laid near Dover and Weymouth. By 27 September,    tons of ammunition,  of petrol and  of frozen meat had been landed in France.

On 3 October, I Corps with the 1st Infantry Division and 2nd Infantry Division began to take over the front line allocated to the BEF and II Corps with the 3rd Infantry Division and 4th Infantry Division followed on 12 October; the 5th Infantry Division arrived in December. By 19 October, the BEF had received 25,000 vehicles to complete the first wave. The majority of the troops were stationed along the Franco-Belgian border but British divisions took turns to serve with the French Third Army on the Maginot Line. In April 1940, the 51st Highland Infantry Division, reinforced by additional units and called Saar Force took over part of the French line. Belgium and the Netherlands were neutral and free of Allied or German military forces and for troops along the Maginot Line, inactivity and an undue reliance on the fortifications, which were believed to be impenetrable, led to "Tommy Rot" (portrayed in the song "Imagine Me in the Maginot Line"). Morale was high amongst the British troops but the limited extent of German actions by 9 May 1940, led many to assume that there would not be much chance of a big German attack in that area.

From January to April 1940, eight Territorial divisions arrived in France but the 12th (Eastern) Infantry Division, 23rd (Northumbrian) Division and 46th Infantry Division, informally called labour divisions, were not trained or equipped to fight. The labour divisions consisted of 26 new infantry battalions which had spent their first months guarding vulnerable points in England but had received very little training. Battalions and some engineers were formed into nominal brigades but lacked artillery, signals or transport. The divisions were used for labour from St Nazaire in Normandy to Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise (St Pol) in French Flanders, on the understanding that they would not be called upon to fight before they had completed their training.

By May 1940 the BEF order of battle consisted of ten infantry divisions ready for field service, in I Corps, II Corps, III Corps and Saar Force. BEF GHQ commanded the Field Force and the BEF Air Component Royal Air Force (RAF) of about 500 aircraft but the Advanced Air Striking Force (AASF) long-range bomber force was under the control of RAF Bomber Command. GHQ consisted of men from Headquarters (HQ) Troops (consisting of the 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards, the 9th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment and the 14th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers), the 1st Army Tank Brigade, 1st Light Armoured Reconnaissance Brigade, HQ Royal Artillery and the 5th Infantry Division.

Phoney War

The period from September 1939 to 10 May 1940 was known as the "Phoney War", which consisted of little more than minor clashes by reconnaissance patrols. The section of the Franco-Belgian border to be held by the BEF at that time stretched from Armentières westward towards Menin, then south to the junction of the border and the River Escaut (the French name for the Scheldt) at Maulde, forming a salient around Lille and Roubaix. The British began to dig trenches, weapons pits and pill boxes of the Gort Line. The first BEF fatality was 27-year-old Corporal Thomas Priday, from the 1st Battalion, King's Shropshire Light Infantry, attached to the 3rd Infantry Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division, killed on 9 December 1939, when his patrol set off a booby-trap and was fired upon by friendly troops. By November 1939, the French had decided that a defence along the Dyle Line in Belgium was feasible but the British were lukewarm about an advance into Belgium. Gamelin talked them round and on 9 November, the Dyle Plan/Plan D was adopted and on 17 November, Gamelin issued a directive that day detailing a line from Givet to Namur, the Gembloux Gap, Wavre, Louvain and Antwerp. For the next four months, the Dutch and Belgian armies laboured over their defences, the BEF expanded and the French army received more equipment and training.

Dyle plan, Breda variant

By May 1940, the 1st Army Group () defended the Channel coast to the west end of the Maginot Line. The Seventh Army  Henri Giraud), BEF (General Lord Gort), First Army ( Georges Maurice Jean Blanchard) and Ninth Army ( André Corap) were ready to advance to the Dyle Line, by pivoting on the right (southern) Second Army. The Seventh Army would take over west of Antwerp, ready to move into Holland and the Belgians were expected to delay a German advance and then retire from the Albert Canal to the Dyle, between Antwerp to Louvain. The BEF was to defend about  of the Dyle from Louvain to Wavre and the First Army on the right of the BEF was to hold  from Wavre across the Gembloux Gap to Namur. The gap from the Dyle to Namur north of the Sambre, with Maastricht and Mons on either side, had few natural obstacles and led straight to Paris. The Ninth Army would take post south of Namur, along the Meuse to the left (northern) flank of the Second Army.

The Second and Ninth armies were dug in on the west bank of the Meuse on ground that was easily defended and behind the Ardennes, giving plenty of warning of a German attack. After the transfer of the Seventh Army, seven divisions remained behind the Second and Ninth armies and other divisions could be moved from behind the Maginot Line. All but one division were either side of the junction of the two armies, GQG being more concerned about a German attack past the north end of the Maginot Line and then south-east through the Stenay Gap, for which the divisions behind the Second Army were well placed. On 8 November, Gamelin added the Seventh Army, containing some of the best and most mobile French divisions, to the left flank of the 1st Army Group to move into Holland and protect the Scheldt estuary. In March, Gamelin ordered that the Seventh Army would advance to Breda to link with the Dutch. The Seventh Army, on the left flank of the Dyle manoeuvre, would be linked to it and if the Seventh Army crossed into the Netherlands, the left flank of the 1st Army Group was to advance to Tilburg if possible and certainly to Breda. The Seventh Army was to take post between the Belgian and Dutch armies turning east, a distance of , against German armies only  distant from Breda.

Battle

10–21 May 1940

At  the German invasion of France and the Low Countries commenced. The French Seventh Army drove forward on the northern flank and advanced elements reached Breda on 11 May. The French collided with the 9th Panzer Division and the advance of the 25e Division d'Infanterie Motorisée was stopped by German infantry, tanks and Ju 87 () dive-bombers, as the 11re Division Légère Mécanisée was forced to retreat. (French heavy tanks were still on trains south of Antwerp.) The Seventh Army retired from the Bergen op Zoom–Turnhout Canal Line  from Antwerp, to Lierre  away on 12 May; on 14 May the Dutch surrendered.

In Belgium, German glider troops captured fort Eben-Emael by noon on 11 May; the disaster forced the Belgians to retreat to a line from Antwerp to Louvain on 12 May, far too soon for the French First Army to arrive and dig in. The  fought the XVI Panzer Corps in the Battle of Hannut  the first ever tank-against-tank battle and the  then withdrew behind the First Army, which had arrived at the Dyle Line. On 15 May, the Germans attacked the First Army along the Dyle, causing the meeting engagement that Gamelin had tried to avoid. The First Army repulsed the XVI Panzer Corps but during the Battle of Gembloux (14–15 May) GQG realised that the main German attack had come further south, through the Ardennes. The French success in Belgium contributed to the disaster on the Meuse at Sedan and on 16 May, Blanchard was ordered to retreat to the French border.

Operation David

The armoured cars of the 12th Royal Lancers crossed the border at  on 10 May, cheered on by Belgian civilians. The BEF sector ran along the Dyle about  from Louvain, south-west to Wavre. The 3rd Division (II Corps) took the north with the 1st Division and 2nd Division (I Corps) the south, some battalions defending a frontage double that recommended in British manuals. The rest of the BEF formed a defence in depth back to the River Escaut. The Dyle north of Louvain was occupied by Belgian troops who refused to give way, even when Brooke appealed to the King of the Belgians and Georges ordered them out. The British infantry began to arrive on the Dyle on 11 May and dug in screened by light tanks and Bren carriers operating west of the river until 14 May, when the front line units were ready; the bridges were then blown. Later that day probes by reconnaissance troops of three German infantry divisions were dispersed. Next day, attacks on Louvain by the German 19th Division were repulsed by the 3rd Division. Further south, the river was only about  wide, preventing tanks from crossing but passable by infantry. Richard Annand of the Durham Light Infantry in the southern sector was awarded a Victoria Cross. German bridgeheads across the Dyle were either eliminated or contained by British counter-attacks.

Ardennes

From  the XIX Panzer Corps engaged the two cavalry divisions of the Second Army, surprising them with a far larger force than expected and forced them back. The Ninth Army to the north had also sent its two cavalry divisions forward, which were withdrawn on 12 May, before they met German troops. The first German unit reached the Meuse in the afternoon but the local French commanders thought that they were far ahead of the main body and would wait before trying to cross the Meuse. From 10 May, Allied bombers had been sent to raid northern Belgium, to delay the German advance while the First Army moved up but attacks on the bridges at Maastricht had been costly failures, the  day bombers being reduced to  aircraft by 12 May. At  on 13 May, the  began bombing the French defences around Sedan and continued for eight hours with about  in the biggest air attack in history.

Little material damage was done to the Second Army but morale collapsed. In the French 55e Division at Sedan, some troops began to straggle to the rear and in the evening panic spread through the division. German troops attacked across the river at  and had gained three footholds on the west bank by nightfall. The French and the RAF managed to fly  and  sorties on the Sedan bridges on 14 May but only in formations of  The RAF lost  aircraft and the French were reduced to sending obsolete bombers to attack in the afternoon, also with many losses. On 16 May, the 1st Army Group was ordered to retreat from the Dyle Line, to avoid being trapped by the German breakthrough against the Second and Ninth armies but on 20 May, the Germans reached Abbeville on the Channel coast, cutting off the northern armies.

BEF retreat

The plan for the BEF withdrawal was that under cover of darkness, units would thin-out their front and make a phased and orderly withdrawal before the Germans realised what was happening. The objective for the night of 16/17 May was the Charleroi to Willebroek Canal (the Line of the Senne), the following night to the River Dendre from Maubeuge to Termonde and the Escaut to Antwerp (the Dendre Line), and finally on 18/19 May, to the Escaut from Oudenarde to Maulde on the French border (the Escaut Line). The order to withdraw was greeted with astonishment and frustration by the British troops who felt that they had held their own, but they were unaware of the deteriorating situation elsewhere. The withdrawal went mainly according to plan but required hard fighting from the corps rearguards. A communication breakdown caused a loss of co-ordination with the Belgian Army to the north-west of II Corps and a dangerous gap opened up between the two; fortunately it was covered by British light armour before the Germans could discover and exploit it.

Loss of the construction divisions
The three Territorial divisions, which had arrived in April equipped only with small arms, intended for construction and labouring tasks, were distributed across the path of the German spearhead. On 16 May, Georges realised that the Panzer divisions might reach the coast and outflank all the Allied armies to the north of them. He asked for the 23rd Division to defend the Canal du Nord at Arleux. The British Staff was of the opinion that the German breakthrough consisted of small detachments of light reconnaissance troops and that using these lightly armed and largely untrained troops against them did not seem unreasonable. The area was otherwise devoid of Allied units, so there was little alternative. The three divisions were grouped together in an improvised corps called Petreforce and on 18 and 19 May, the Territorials, lacking motor transport, began to march or entrain towards their defence positions.

The 70th Brigade of the 23rd Division dug in on the Canal Line but was ordered to withdraw towards Saulty on 20 May; in the process they were caught in the open by elements of 6th and 8th Panzer Divisions, from which only a few hundred survivors escaped. The 69th Brigade defended Arras and the 12th Division fought to delay 2nd Panzer Division on the Canal Line near Arras, at Doullens, Albert and Abbeville. The 138th Brigade of the 46th Division fought on the Canal Line but the 137th Brigade trains were attacked by the  en route; the survivors were able to withdraw to Dieppe and later fought on the Seine Crossings. The 139th Brigade fought on the River Scarpe and later defended the Dunkirk perimeter. By the end of 20 May, the divisions had ceased to exist, in most cases having only delayed the German advance by a few hours.

21–23 May

The push by Army Group A towards the coast, combined with the approach of Army Group B from the north-east, left the BEF enveloped on three sides and by 21 May, the BEF had been cut off from its supply depots south of the Somme. The British counter-attacked at the Battle of Arras on the same day. This was well to the south of the main BEF force on the Escaut, where seven BEF divisions were placed in the front line. The British divisions were facing nine German infantry divisions, who began their attack on the morning of 21 May with a devastating artillery barrage. Shortly afterwards, infantry assaults started along the whole front, crossing the canalised river either by inflatable boats or by clambering across the wreckage of demolished bridges. Although the Escaut line was penetrated in numerous places, all the German bridgeheads were either thrown back or contained by vigorous but costly British counter-attacks and the remaining German troops were ordered to retire across the river by the night of 22 May. Later that same night, events further south prompted an order for the BEF to retire again, this time back to the Gort Line on the Franco-Belgian border. The Channel ports were at risk of capture. Fresh troops were rushed from England to defend Boulogne and Calais but after hard fighting, both ports were captured by 26 May in the Battle of Boulogne and Siege of Calais. Gort ordered the BEF to withdraw to Dunkirk, the only port from which the BEF could still escape.

Retreat to Dunkirk

Le Paradis massacre

Detached rifle companies of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment of the 1st Battalion and Royal Scots of the 2nd Infantry Division provided rearguards during the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk. The 2nd Royal Norfolks held the line at La Bassée Canal with the 1/8th Lancashire Fusiliers, while the 2nd Royal Norfolks and 1st Royal Scots held the villages of Riez du Vinage and Le Cornet Malo, protecting the battalion headquarters at Le Paradis for as long as possible. After an engagement with German forces at dawn on 27 May in Le Cornet Malo, C Company and HQ Company of the 2nd Royal Norfolks fell back to the headquarters at the Cornet Farm outside Le Paradis. They were told by radio that their units were isolated and would not receive any assistance.

German forces attacked the farmhouse with tanks, mortars and artillery, which destroyed the building and forced the Norfolks to retreat to a nearby barn. The Royal Norfolks continued their defensive stand into the evening, by which point many had been wounded by the German bombardment. The last contact with Brigade Headquarters at L'Epinette occurred at  but despite a lack of support the Norfolks held on until  at which point they finally ran out of ammunition.

Cornered, outnumbered and with many wounded, 99 Royal Norfolks made a rush into the open but eventually, under the orders of their commander Major Lisle Ryder, the Norfolks surrendered. In the confusion of battle and in part due to battle fatigue, the Norfolks had surrendered not to the German company they had been fighting, but rather to the 2nd Infantry Regiment of the SS Totenkopf Division (Death's Head) (SS- and  Fritz Knöchlein), which had been fighting another isolated BEF unit, the Royal Scots, at an adjacent farm. The Knöchlein  unit, notorious for their ruthlessness, had previously been engaged in mopping-up operations against Allied forces to the north and east of Cambrai. The 99 prisoners were marched to farm buildings on a nearby farm and lined up alongside a barn wall. They were then fired upon by two machine guns; Knöchlein then armed his men with bayonets to kill the survivors. All but two of the Norfolks were killed and their bodies buried in a shallow pit. Privates Albert Pooley and William O'Callaghan, hiding in a pigsty, were discovered later by the farm's owner, Mme Creton and her son. The two soldiers were later captured by a Wehrmacht unit and spent the rest of the war as prisoners of war.

II Corps rearguard

The II Corps commander Lieutenant General Alan Brooke, was ordered to conduct a holding action with the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 50th Infantry Divisions along the Ypres–Comines canal as far as Yser, while the rest of the BEF fell back. At mid-day on 27 May, the Germans attacked south of Ypres with three divisions. German infantry infiltrated through the defenders and forced them back. On 27 May, Brooke ordered Major-General Bernard Montgomery to extend the 3rd Division line to the left, freeing the 10th and 11th Brigades of the 4th Division to join the 5th Division at Messines Ridge. The 10th and 11th Brigades managed to clear the ridge of Germans and by 28 May, the brigades were dug in east of Wytschaete. Brooke ordered a counter-attack led by the 3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards and the 2nd Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment of the 1st Division. The North Staffords advanced as far as the Kortekeer River, while the Grenadiers managed to reach the Ypres–Comines Canal but could not hold it. The counter-attack disrupted the Germans, holding them back a little longer while the BEF continued its retreat.

Dunkirk

The Germans failed to capture Dunkirk and on 31 May, General Georg von Küchler assumed command of the German forces on the Dunkirk perimeter and planned a bigger attack for  on 1 June. The French held the Germans back while the last troops were evacuated and just before midnight on 2 June, Admiral Bertram Ramsay, the officer commanding the evacuation, received the signal "BEF evacuated"; the French began to fall back slowly. By 3 June, the Germans were  from Dunkirk and at  on 4 June, the Germans hoisted the swastika over the docks. Before Operation Dynamo,  were embarked from Dunkirk; most of the remaining  a total of  troops along with  and some Belgian troops, were evacuated from Dunkirk between 26 May and 4 June, though having to abandon much of their equipment, vehicles and heavy weapons.

After Dunkirk

Lines-of-communication

Allied forces north of the Somme were cut off by the German advance on the night of  which isolated the BEF from its supply  of Cherbourg, Brittany and Nantes. Dieppe was the main BEF medical base and Le Havre the principal supply and ordnance source. The main BEF ammunition depot and its infantry, machine-gun and base depots were around Rouen, Évreux and Épinay. Three Territorial divisions and three lines-of-communication battalions had been moved north of the Seine on 17 May. Rail movements between these bases and the Somme was impeded by German bombing and trains arriving from the north full of Belgian and French troops; the roads also filled with retreating troops and refugees. Acting Brigadier Archibald Beauman lost contact with BEF GHQ.

Beauman improvised Beauforce from two infantry battalions, four machine-gun platoons and a company of Royal Engineers. Vicforce (Colonel C. E. Vickary) took over five provisional battalions from troops in base depots, who had few arms and little equipment. The Germans captured Amiens on 20 May, setting off panic and the spread of alarmist reports. Beauman ordered the digging of a defence line along the Andelle and Béthune to protect Dieppe and Rouen. From  the 51st Highland Division (formerly Saar Force) a Composite Regiment and the remnants of the 1st Support Group, 1st Armoured Division, relieved the French opposite the Abbeville–St Valery bridgehead. The Beauman Division held a  line from Pont St Pierre,  south-east of Rouen to Dieppe on the coast, which left the British units holding  of the front line,  of the Bresle and  of the Andelle–Béthune line, with the rest of IX Corps on the right flank.

Second BEF

On 31 May, GHQ BEF closed and 2 June, Brooke visited the War Office and was given command of a new II Corps, comprising the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division and the 1st Armoured Division, with the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division and the 1st Canadian Infantry Division from Home Forces in Britain, then the 3rd Infantry Division as soon as it was ready. Brooke warned that the enterprise was futile, except as a political gesture. On 6 June, the Cabinet decided to reconstitute the BEF (Second BEF is an informal post-war term) with Gort remaining as commander in chief.

The 157th (Highland Light Infantry) Brigade (a brigade group) of the 52nd (Lowland) Division, departed for France on 7 June; Brooke returned five days later. On 9 June, the French port Admiral at Le Havre reported that Rouen had fallen and that the Germans were heading for the coast. Ihler and Fortune decided that their only hope of escape was via Le Havre. The port admiral requested British ships for  but this contradicted earlier plans for the IX Corps retirement and Dill hesitated, ignorant that the original plan was untenable. Karslake urged that the retirement be accelerated but had no authority to issue orders. Only after contacting the Howard-Vyse Military Mission at GQG and receiving a message that the 51st (Highland) Division was retreating with IX Corps towards Le Havre, did Dill learn the truth.

St Valery

The retreat to the coast began after dark and the last troops slipped away from the Béthune river at  Units were ordered to dump non-essential equipment and each gun were reduced to  to make room on the RASC transport for the men. The night move was difficult as French troops, many horse-drawn, encroached on the British route and alarmist rumours spread. Fortune and Ihler set up at a road junction near Veules-les-Roses to direct troops to their positions and by the morning of 11 June, IX Corps had established a defence round St Valery. French transport continued to arrive at the perimeter and it was difficult in some places to recognise German troops following up, which inhibited defensive fire. That night, Fortune signalled that it was now or never. Troops not needed to hold the perimeter moved down to the beaches and the harbour. An armada of  ships and  craft had been assembled but few had wireless; thick fog ruined visual signalling and prevented the ships from moving inshore. Only at Veules-les-Roses at the east end of the perimeter, were many soldiers rescued, under fire from German artillery, which damaged the destroyers , Boadicea and Ambuscade; 2,137 British and 1,184 French troops were evacuated.  Near dawn, the troops at the harbour were ordered back into the town and at  Fortune signalled that it might still be possible to escape the next night, then discovered that the local French commander had already surrendered.

Le Havre

Fortune had detached Arkforce comprising the 154th Infantry Brigade, A Brigade of the Beauman Division, two artillery regiments and engineers to guard Le Havre. Arkforce moved on the night of  towards Fécamp, where most had passed through before the 7th  Division arrived. A Brigade managed to force its way out but lost the wireless truck for liaison with the 51st (Highland) Division and Stanley-Clarke ordered Arkforce on to Le Havre. On 9 June, the Admiralty ordered Le Havre to be evacuated and the Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth sent a flotilla leader,  across the channel, accompanied by six British and two Canadian destroyers, smaller craft and Dutch coasters (known as schuyts). On 10 June,  escorted three blockships to Dieppe and two were sunk in the approach channel. Beach parties landed at Le Havre on 10 June and the evacuation began on 11 June, hindered somewhat by  bombing. The troopship  was beached and the electric power was cut, rendering the cranes on the docks useless and improvised methods to embark heavy equipment were too slow. On 12 June, RAF fighters deterred more raids and the quartermaster of the 14th Royal Fusiliers got the transport away over the Seine via the ferry at Caudebec and ships at Quillebeuf at the river mouth. The Navy got 2,222 British troops from Le Havre to England and 8,837 were taken to Cherbourg to join the forces being assembled for the new II Corps (Second BEF).

Retreat from Normandy

By 13 June, the Germans were across the Seine and the Tenth Army (General Robert Altmayer) was isolated on the Channel coast. The AASF was ordered to retreat towards Nantes or Bordeaux while supporting the French armies, flying armed reconnaissance sorties over the Seine from dawn, which cost ten aircraft and crews; bad weather limited fighter sorties to the coast. On 14 June, attacks resumed against German units south of the Seine but the weather deteriorated and fewer sorties were flown. Seven Blenheims were shot down raiding Merville airfield but ten Fighter Command squadrons patrolled twice in squadron strength or provided bomber escorts, the biggest effort since Dunkirk, fighters of the AASF patrolling south of the Seine. The remnants of the 1st Armoured Division and two brigades of the Beauman Division had got south of the river, with thousands of lines-of-communication troops but only the 157th Infantry Brigade, 52nd (Lowland) Division was in contact with the Germans, occupying successive defensive positions. The French armies were forced into divergent retreats, with no obvious front line.

On 12 June, Weygand had recommended that the French government seek an armistice, which led to an abortive plan to create a defensive zone in Brittany. On 14 June, Brooke was able to prevent the rest of the 52nd (Lowland) Division being sent to join the 157th Infantry Brigade Group and during the night Brooke was told that he was no longer under French command and must prepare to withdraw the British forces from France. Marshall-Cornwall was ordered to take command of all British forces under the Tenth Army as Norman Force and while continuing to co-operate, to withdraw towards Cherbourg. The rest of the 52nd (Lowland) Division was ordered back to a line near Cherbourg to cover the evacuation on 15 June. The AASF was directed to send its remaining bomber squadrons back to Britain and use the fighters to cover the evacuations. The German advance began again during the day, with the 157th Infantry Brigade Group engaged east of Conches-en-Ouche with the Tenth Army, which was ordered back to a line from Verneuil to Argentan and the Dives river, where the British took over an  front. German forces followed up quickly and on 16 June, Altmayer ordered the army to retreat into the Brittany peninsula.

Operation Aerial

From  British and Allied ships were covered by five RAF fighter squadrons in France, assisted by aircraft from England as they embarked British, Polish and Czech troops, civilians and equipment from the French Atlantic ports, particularly St Nazaire and Nantes. The  attacked the evacuation ships and on 17 June, sank the troopship  in the Loire estuary. About  and crew were saved but thousands of troops, RAF personnel and civilians were on board and at least  died. Some equipment was embarked but ignorance about the progress of the German Army and alarmist reports, led some operations to be terminated early and much equipment needlessly was destroyed or left behind. About 700 tanks, 20,000 motor bikes, 45,000 cars and lorries, 880 field guns and 310 larger equipments, about 500 anti-aircraft guns, 850 anti-tank guns, 6,400 anti-tank rifles and 11,000 machine-guns were abandoned.

The official evacuation ended on 25 June, according to the terms of the Armistice of 22 June 1940 but informal departures continued from French Mediterranean ports until 14 August. From Operation Cycle at Le Havre, elsewhere along the Channel coast, to the termination of Operation Aerial, another  troops were rescued, bringing the total of military and civilian personnel returned to Britain during the Battle of France to   British troops. Left behind in France was eight to ten divisions' worth of equipment and ammunition. As troops returned to Britain, they increased the manpower of the Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces (General Edmond Ironside 27 May to 20 July, then Brooke) but the trained and equipped units had been stripped from Home Forces and sent to France; only about two divisions' worth of equipment remained in the country. The equivalent of twelve divisions returned to Britain but these could only be re-equipped by the Ministry of Supply from production. Deliveries of 25-pounder field guns had increased to about 35 per month by June but the establishment of one infantry division was 72 guns.

Aftermath

Analysis

In 1953, Lionel Ellis, the British official historian, wrote that by the end of the informal evacuations on 14 August, another  had been evacuated after the  by Operation Dynamo, a total of   British troops. In 2001, Brodhurst wrote that many civilians escaped from French Atlantic and Mediterranean ports to England via Gibraltar and that  civilians left the Channel Islands, from  Much military equipment was lost but    cycles.  of ammunition,  of stores,  of petrol,  and  were recovered. During the BEF evacuations  anti-aircraft guns and anti-tank guns were destroyed or abandoned along with  consisting of  cycles and 45,000 cars and lorries,  of ammunition,  of supplies and equipment and  of petrol.

For every seven soldiers who escaped through Dunkirk, one man was left behind as a prisoner of war. The majority of these prisoners were sent on forced marches into Germany to towns such as Trier, the march taking as long as twenty days. Others were moved on foot to the river Scheldt and were sent by barge to the Ruhr. The prisoners were then sent by rail to POW camps in Germany. The majority (those below the rank of corporal) then worked in German industry and agriculture for five years. An intelligence report by the German IV Corps, which had been engaged against the BEF from the Dyle line to the coast, was circulated to the divisions training for Operation Sealion. The report said of the men of the BEF,

Casualties

The BEF suffered  or died of wounds,  and  missing or taken prisoner.

Map gallery

Commemoration

No campaign medal was awarded for the Battle of France but serviceman who had spent 180 days in France between 3 September 1939 and 9 May 1940, or "a single day, or part thereof" in France or Belgium between 10 May and 19 June 1940, qualified for the 1939–1945 Star.

Notes

Footnotes

References

Further reading

Books

Reports

Theses

External links

 British Military History: France and Norway 1940
 London Gazette Dispatches

Commands of the British Army
Expeditionary units and formations
Field armies of the United Kingdom in World War II
Military units and formations established in 1939
Military units and formations disestablished in 1940
Military units and formations of the British Empire in World War II

bg:Британски експедиционен корпус#Втора световна война
ca:Cos Expedicionari Britànic#II Guerra Mundial
da:British Expeditionary Force#Anden verdenskrig
de:British Expeditionary Force#Zweiter Weltkrieg
fr:Corps expéditionnaire britannique#Seconde Guerre mondiale
it:British Expeditionary Force#Seconda guerra mondiale

British Expeditionary Force (World War II)


Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise? is the debut studio album by the English avant-garde synth-pop group Art of Noise, released on 19 June 1984 by ZTT Records.

It features the UK hit singles "Close (to the Edit)" which reached No. 8 in the UK chart in November 1984 and the double A-sided "Moments in Love"/"Beat Box", which made it to No. 51 during April 1985 in the UK.

Critical reception

In a retrospective review, Charles Waring of Record Collector magazine gave the album four out of five stars and called it a "techno-pop classic". He said that it encapsulates both the popularity of the Fairlight CMI synthesizer and popular music in 1984—"the dawn of a new pop sensibility where sequencers, samplers and drum machines held sway". Slant Magazine'''s Sal Cinquemani also gave it four stars and said that it was "as subtly influential as Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express". He found its "blend of experimental rock and New Wave" both "brash" and innovative, and said that the album is "at times irksome but always groundbreaking." In his five-star review of the album, AllMusic's Ned Raggett called it an "entertaining and often frightening and screwed-up package", and said that "rarely has something aiming for modern pop status also sought to destroy and disturb so effectively." Ian Wade of The Quietus viewed it as an influential "brilliant racket of" what contemporary listeners of the album believe would be the sound of the future, and called its music "thrillingly inventive, reasonably danceable and full of interesting bits to laugh, love and dance to."Pitchfork critic Tom Ewing gave the album's deluxe reissue a score of 8.6 out of 10 and said that it "flirts with annoyance and even boredom", but "could also be thrilling", and concluded in his review that it is "as sly, stirring, and occasionally infuriating now as it was on release." The Village Voice'' critic Robert Christgau said that, although its "concatenation of musical-instrument imitations and collapsing new sound effects" begets occasional interest and groove, only "Close (To the Edit)" sustains its performance.

Track listing

References

External links

Art of Noise albums
1984 debut albums
ZTT Records albums
Island Records albums
Avant-pop albums

Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise?


The Sabatier reaction or Sabatier process produces methane and water from a reaction of hydrogen with carbon dioxide at elevated temperatures (optimally 300–400 °C) and pressures (perhaps 3 MPa ) in the presence of a nickel catalyst. It was discovered by the French chemists Paul Sabatier and Jean-Baptiste Senderens in 1897. Optionally, ruthenium on alumina (aluminium oxide) makes a more efficient catalyst. It is described by the following exothermic reaction:
CO2{} + 4H2 ->[{}\atop 400\ ^\circ\ce{C}][\ce{pressure+catalyst}] CH4{} + 2H2O∆H = −165.0 kJ/mol

There is disagreement on whether the CO2 methanation occurs by first associatively adsorbing an adatom hydrogen and forming oxygen intermediates before hydrogenation or dissociating and forming a carbonyl before being hydrogenated.

{CO} + 3H2 -> {CH4} + H2O∆H = −206 kJ/mol
CO methanation is believed to occur through a dissociative mechanism where the carbon oxygen bond is broken before hydrogenation with an associative mechanism only being observed at high H2 concentrations.

Methanation reactions over different metal catalysts including Ni, Ru and Rh have been widely investigated for the production of CH4 from syngas and other power to gas initiatives. Nickel is the most widely used catalyst owing to its high selectivity and low cost.

Applications

Creation of synthetic natural gas
Methanation is an important step in the creation of synthetic or substitute natural gas (SNG). Coal or wood undergo gasification which creates a producer gas that must undergo methaneation in order to produce a usable gas that just needs to undergo a final purification step.

The first commercial synthetic gas plant opened in 1984 and is the Great Plains Synfuels plant in Beulah, North Dakota. As of 2016, it is still operational and produces 1500 MW worth of SNG using coal as the carbon source. In the years since its opening, other commercial facilities have been opened using other carbon sources such as wood chips.

In France, AFUL Chantrerie, located in Nantes, in November 2017 opened the demonstrator MINERVE. This unit produces 14 Mm3/day of methane. The plant feeds a compressed natural gas station and injects methane into a natural gas boiler.

The Sabatier reaction has been used in renewable-energy-dominated energy systems to use the excess electricity generated by wind, solar photovoltaic, hydro, marine current, etc. to make methane from hydrogen from water electrolysis.
In contrast to a direct usage of hydrogen for transport or energy storage applications, the methane can be injected into the existing gas network. The methane can be used on-demand to generate electricity overcoming low points of renewable energy production. The process is electrolysis of water by electricity to create hydrogen (which can partly be used directly in fuel cells) and the addition of carbon dioxide CO2 (Sabatier reaction) to create methane. The CO2 can be extracted from the air or fossil fuel waste gases by the amine process.

A 6 MW power-to-gas plant went into production in Germany in 2013, and powered a fleet of 1,500 Audi A3.

Ammonia synthesis
In ammonia production CO and CO2 are considered poisons to most commonly used catalysts. Methanation catalysts are added after several hydrogen producing steps to prevent carbon oxide buildup in the ammonia synthesis loop as methane does not have similar adverse effects on ammonia synthesis rates.

International Space Station life support
Oxygen generators on board the International Space Station produce oxygen from water using electrolysis; the hydrogen produced was previously discarded into space. As astronauts consume oxygen, carbon dioxide is produced, which must then be removed from the air and discarded as well. This approach required copious amounts of water to be regularly transported to the space station for oxygen generation in addition to that used for human consumption, hygiene, and other uses—a luxury that will not be available to future long-duration missions beyond low Earth orbit.

NASA is using the Sabatier reaction to recover water from exhaled carbon dioxide and the hydrogen previously discarded from electrolysis on the International Space Station and possibly for future missions. The other resulting chemical, methane, is released into space. As half of the input hydrogen becomes wasted as methane, additional hydrogen is supplied from Earth to make up the difference. However, this creates a nearly-closed cycle between water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide which only requires a relatively modest amount of imported hydrogen to maintain.

2H2O ->[\text{electrolysis}] O2{} + 2H2 ->[\text{respiration}] CO2{} + 2H2{} + \overset{added}{2H2} -> 2H2O{} + \overset{discarded}{CH4}

The loop could be further closed if the waste methane was separated into its component parts by pyrolysis, the high efficiency (up to 95% conversion) of which can be achieved at 1200 °C:

CH4 ->[\text{heat}] C{} + 2H2

The released hydrogen would then be recycled back into the Sabatier reactor, leaving an easily removed deposit of pyrolytic graphite. The reactor would be little more than a steel pipe, and could be periodically serviced by an astronaut where the deposit is chiselled out.

Alternatively, the loop could be partially closed (75% of H2 from CH4 recovered) by incomplete pyrolysis of the waste methane while keeping the carbon locked up in gaseous form as acetylene:
2CH4 ->[\text{heat}] C2H2{} + 3H2

The Bosch reaction is also being investigated by NASA for this purpose and is:
CO2 + 2H2 -> C + 2H2O
The Bosch reaction would present a completely closed hydrogen and oxygen cycle which only produces atomic carbon as waste. However, difficulties maintaining its temperature of up to 600 °C and properly handling carbon deposits mean significantly more research will be required before a Bosch reactor could become a reality. One problem is that the production of elemental carbon tends to foul the catalyst's surface (coking), which is detrimental to the reaction's efficiency.

Manufacturing propellant on Mars
The Sabatier reaction has been proposed as a key step in reducing the cost of human mission to Mars (Mars Direct, SpaceX Starship) through in situ resource utilization. Hydrogen is combined with CO2 from the atmosphere, with methane then stored as fuel and the water side product electrolyzed yielding oxygen to be liquefied and stored as oxidizer and hydrogen to be recycled back into the reactor. The original hydrogen could be transported from Earth or separated from Martian sources of water.

Importing hydrogen
Importing a small amount of hydrogen avoids searching for water and just uses CO2 from the atmosphere.

"A variation of the basic Sabatier methanation reaction may be used via a mixed catalyst bed and a reverse water gas shift in a single reactor to produce methane from the raw materials available on Mars, utilising carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere. A 2011 prototype test operation that harvested CO2 from a simulated Martian atmosphere and reacted it with H2, produced methane rocket propellant at a rate of 1 kg/day, operating autonomously for 5 consecutive days, maintaining a nearly 100% conversion rate. An optimised system of this design massing 50 kg "is projected to produce 1 kg/day of O2:CH4 propellant ... with a methane purity of 98+% while consuming ~17 kWh per day of electrical power (at a continuous power of 700 W).  Overall unit conversion rate expected from the optimised system is one tonne of propellant per 17 MWh energy input."

Stoichiometry issue with importing hydrogen
The stoichiometric ratio of oxidiser and fuel is 2:1, for an oxygen:methane engine:

CH4 + 2O2 -> CO2 + 2H2O

However, one pass through the Sabatier reactor produces a ratio of only 1:1. More oxygen may be produced by running the water-gas shift reaction (WGSR) in reverse (RWGS), effectively extracting oxygen from the atmosphere by reducing carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide.

Another option is to make more methane than needed and pyrolyze the excess of it into carbon and hydrogen (see above section), where the hydrogen is recycled back into the reactor to produce further methane and water. In an automated system, the carbon deposit may be removed by blasting with hot Martian CO2, oxidizing the carbon into carbon monoxide (via the Boudouard reaction), which is vented.

A fourth solution to the stoichiometry problem would be to combine the Sabatier reaction with the reverse water-gas shift (RWGS) reaction in a single reactor as follows:

3CO2 + 6H2 -> CH4 + 2CO + 4H2O

This reaction is slightly exothermic, and when the water is electrolyzed, an oxygen to methane ratio of 2:1 is obtained.

Regardless of which method of oxygen fixation is utilized, the overall process can be summarized by the following equation:

2H2 + 3CO2 -> CH4 + 2O2 + 2CO

Looking at molecular masses, 16 grams of methane and 64 grams of oxygen have been produced using 4 grams of hydrogen (which would have to be imported from Earth, unless Martian water was electrolysed), for a mass gain of 20:1; and the methane and oxygen are in the right stoichiometric ratio to be burned in a rocket engine.  This kind of in situ resource utilization would result in massive weight and cost savings to any proposed crewed Mars or sample-return missions.

See also

 Methane pyrolysis (for Hydrogen)

References

External links
 A Crewed Mission to Mars
 Development of an improved Sabatier reactor
 Improved Sabatier Reactions for In Situ Resource Utilization on Mars Missions
 Catalytic methanation experimental instructions, videos, and theory

Hydrogen
Methane
Organic redox reactions
Name reactions
Catalysis
Synthetic fuel technologies

Sabatier reaction


Feng Guifen (; 1809 – May 28, 1874, courtesy name Linyi (), art name Jingting (), later art name Dengweishanren (), jinshi degree 1840) was a scholar during the Qing Dynasty. He was also a teacher, and a government official, serving as adviser to leading statesmen of his time. Feng is known for his interest in techniques by which states had become wealthy and strong, highlighting these subjects in the essay he wrote to propose reforms for the Chinese empire.  He was the originator of the philosophy of the Self-Strengthening Movement undertaken in the late 19th century.

Life and career
Feng was born to a family of wealthy Suzhou landowners in Wuxian in China's Jainsu Province in 1809. After passing the imperial examination ranking the second, he started working as a compiler at the Hanlin Academy in 1840 and later became the civil service examination supervisor in Guangxi Province. He also finally served as a private secretary to the Viceroy of Liangjiang, Li Hongzhang.

During the Taiping Rebellion, Feng organized a local militia to fight the rebels. He fled to Shanghai when the rebels occupied Suzhou. Later in his life, Feng became the leader of the jingshi school during the Tongzhi Restoration (1862-1874). He also had an established intellectual relationship with Sun Yat-sen.

Chinese reform
When Feng fled to Shanghai, he came in contact with Westerners who were defending the city. He developed his ideas on modernization based from this interaction. Like other intellectuals and Qing officials such as Wenxiang, Zeng Guofan, and Zuo Zongtang, Feng argued for self-strengthening and industrialization by borrowing western technology and military systems, while retaining core Neo-Confucian principles. After the disasters experienced by China following Wei Yuan's death in 1857, he proposed wide-ranging reforms in a collection of works called Jiaobinlu kangyi or Essays of Protest. In his essay, On The Manufacture of Foreign Weapons, he was famously quoted as saying: "what we have to learn from the barbarians is only the one thing -  solid ships and effective guns", though in reality his proposals were a little more extensive.

The essays, which numbered 40 in total, outlined two measures. The first involved the technical improvements in the bureaucracy from the engineering initiatives in the Yellow River to fiscal reform such as the reform of the traditional salt gabelle. The second proposed constitutional changes, particularly the reallocation of political power and status. Although many of his reforms were never fully enacted, they were circulated for later generations of political reformers. It is also considered one of the earliest reformist agenda of modern China and would contribute to the Hundred Days Reform of 1898. His ideas also became the basis for the Self-Strengthening Movement that emerged in 1861 and lasted until 1895.

References

Further reading

1809 births
1874 deaths
Writers from Suzhou
19th-century Chinese educators
People of the Taiping Rebellion
Qing dynasty essayists
19th-century Chinese philosophers
Philosophers from Jiangsu

Feng Guifen


Tim Buckley: My Fleeting House is a DVD-Video collection of live appearances and performances by Tim Buckley. It features footage from throughout his career, starting from a 1967 performance of "Song to the Siren" on The Monkees TV show and ending with a performance from May 21, 1974 of "Dolphins" (written by fellow 1960s folk musician Fred Neil) for The Old Grey Whistle Test. Broadcasts from WITF-TV's The Show from 1970 has performances of "I Woke Up" and "Come Here Woman". The DVD also contains recorded interviews with occasional songwriting partner Larry Beckett, regular lead guitarist Lee Underwood and David Browne, author of Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley, a dual biography of Tim Buckley and his son Jeff Buckley. The release also contains a 12-page photo booklet with liner notes.

Track listing
All Songs by Tim Buckley except where indicated:
( * by Larry Beckett/Tim Buckley)

"No Man Can Find the War"* performed at Inside Pop
"Happy Time" performed at Late Night Line Up
"Morning Glory"* performed at Late Night Line Up
"Dolphins" (Fred Neil) performed at Old Grey Whistle Test
"Song to the Siren"* performed at The Monkees Show
"Who Do You Love" performed at Greenwich Village
"Happy Time" performed on Dutch TV
"Sing a Song for You" performed on Dutch TV
"Sally Go Round the Roses" (The Jaynetts) performed at Music Video Live
"Blue Melody" performed at Boboquivari
"Venice Beach (Music Boats by the Bay)" performed at Boboquivari
"I Woke Up"* performed at WITF-TV's The Show
"Come Here Woman"  performed at WITF-TV's The Show
"Pleasant Street" performed in the film The Christian Licorice Store

Tim Buckley video albums
2007 live albums
2007 video albums
Live video albums

Tim Buckley: My Fleeting House


Marie-Line Reynaud (born 17 July 1954 in Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire, Charente) is a French politician who was a deputy to the National Assembly of France for the second division of Charente department. She was first elected in 1997, lost her seat in 2002, regained it in 2007, then lost it again in 2017. Between her terms she served as a Member of the European Parliament for the west of France from 2004 to 2007.

Reynaud is a member of the Socialist Party, and sat with the Party of European Socialists in the European Parliament. She was a member of the Parliament's Committee on Constitutional Affairs and its Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality. She was also a substitute for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, a member of the delegation for relations with the Gulf States, including Yemen, and a substitute for the delegation for relations with the Korean Peninsula.

Career
 Master's degree in public law and international and Community law (1979)
 Lawyer at the Information Centre on Women's Rights (1991–1997)
 Member of Jarnac Municipal Council (1989–1995)
 First Deputy Mayor of Jarnac (2002)
 Vice-Chairwoman, Pays de Cognac (2002)
 Member of the National Assembly for the second constituency of Charente (1997–2002)
 Vice-Chairwoman of the Mitterrand Donation, Jarnac (2002)
 Gold Medal of the Society for Promoting Good
 Blood donor's medal

External links
 Official website (in French)
 Assemblée Nationale Biography (in French)
 European Parliament biography
 Declaration of financial interests (in French; PDF file)

1954 births
Living people
People from Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire
Socialist Party (France) politicians
Deputies of the 11th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic
Deputies of the 13th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic
Deputies of the 14th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic
Members of Parliament for Charente
Socialist Party (France) MEPs
MEPs for West France 2004–2009
Women members of the National Assembly (France)
21st-century women MEPs for France
20th-century French women

Marie-Line Reynaud