Natal Field Force

The Natal Field Force (NFF) was a multi-battalion field force originally formed by Major-General Sir George Pomeroy Colley in Natal for the First Boer War. It was later re-established for the Second Boer War (1899–1902) and commanded by Major-General Sir Redvers Buller (although after the failed attack at Colenso he was replaced as overall commander in South Africa by Lord Roberts).
First Boer War.
The First Boer War broke out in December 1880 with the Boer Commando's in the Transvaal besieging British garrisons there. The Governor of Natal Sir George Pomeroy Colley raised the Natal Field Force which took part in the actions at Laing's Nek, Schuinshoogte and Majuba Hill.
It was composed of:
After Schuinshoogte the NFF was reinforced by 6 companies of the 92nd (Gordon) Highlanders and two squadrons of the 15th (The King's) Hussars.
Second Boer War.
At the outbreak of the Second Boer War General Sir George White was appointed Governor in Chief of Natal, superseding General Sir Penn Symons. Symons had already split his forces chiefly into two garrisons at Ladysmith and Dundee.
Other garrisons.
At Pietermaritzburg:
At Escourt:
At Colenso:
After the battles at Talana Hill and Elandslaagte General White recalled the Dundee garrison and concentrated his forces in defence of Ladysmith.
The Relief of Ladysmith.
During the Second Boer War relief operation of the besieged town of Ladysmith, the NFF comprised:
Cleary's Division.
General Cornelius Francis Clery's (2nd & 3rd) Division although temporarily commanded by Lyttelton for a time due to illness. The 3rd division was General Gatacre's command but most was diverted to Natal leaving him with only two and a half Battalions.
2nd Infantry Brigade commanded by General Sir Henry Hildyard
4th Infantry Brigade initially commanded by General The Hon. Neville Lyttelton and later by Colonel Charles Norcott.
5th Infantry Brigade commanded by General Arthur Fitzroy Hart
6th Infantry Brigade commanded by General Geoffrey Barton
Cavalry Division.
The (ad hoc) Cavalry Division commanded by Colonel Douglas Cochrane, 12th Earl of Dundonald
Artillery.
Artillery commanded by Lieutenant-colonel Charles James Long, RA
1st Brigade Royal Artillery commanded by Lieutenant-colonel Henry Vaughan Hunt, RA
2nd Brigade Royal Artillery commanded by Lieutenant-colonel Lawrence Worthington Parsons, RA
Naval Artillery Brigade commanded by Captain Edward Pitcairn Jones, RN ()
Misc unit's that joined after the battle of Spion Kop
Warren's Division.
General Sir Charles Warren's (5th) Division (later succeeded by Hildyard) joined up with the main body of the force shortly after the Battle of Colenso.
11th Infantry Brigade initially commanded by General Edward Woodgate but he was wounded at Spion Kop and died shortly afterwards. He was succeeded by General Arthur Wynne who was later wounded at the Battle of the Tugela Heights and succeeded by Colonel Walter Kitchener.
10th Infantry Brigade commanded by General John Talbot Coke.
Support troops.
Royal Engineers commanded by Lieutenant-colonel George Hamilton Sim ("may not have been present")


Peace of Nikolsburg

The Peace of Nikolsburg or Peace of Mikulov, signed on 31 December 1621 in Nikolsburg, Moravia (now Mikulov in the Czech Republic), was the treaty which ended the war between Prince Gabriel Bethlen of Transylvania and Emperor Ferdinand II of the Holy Roman Empire. Nikolaus Esterházy de Galántha was one of the treaty's chief negotiators.
History.
To take advantage of Ferdinand's preoccupation with the Bohemian Revolt at the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, Bethlen invaded Habsburg-controlled Royal Hungary in 1618 and fully conquered it until 1620. Although a peace was settled in January 1620 giving Bethlen 13 counties in eastern Royal Hungary, the prince resumed the war in September. Ferdinand's defeat of the Bohemians at the Battle of White Mountain in November allowed him to focus his forces on Bethlen, and the emperor was able to reconquer most of Royal Hungary by 1621. Because Bethlen did not distribute the confiscated property of Catholic noblemen to his Protestant noblemen as he had promised, they rescinded their support. These setbacks, as well as Bethlen's lack of support from the Ottoman Empire, led Bethlen and Ferdinand to seek terms in Nikolsburg.
In return for Bethlen's renunciation of any claims to the throne of the Kingdom of Hungary, Ferdinand agreed to observe the conditions of the Treaty of Vienna of 1606, which had granted full freedom of worship to Protestants in Transylvania and agreed on the summoning of a general diet within six months. In addition, Bethlen secured the (purely formal) title of "Imperial Prince" (of Transylvania), seven counties around the Upper Tisza River (in present-day Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary, and Romania), the fortresses of Tokaj, Munkács, and Ecsed, and a duchy in Silesia. The treaty gave Ferdinand peace in the east and allowed him to focus his forces on subduing the Rhenish Palatinate.
The Peace of Nikolsburg was confirmed by the Treaty of Vienna in 1624 and the Third Peace of Pressburg in 1626.


Abyei Liberation Front

The Abeyi Liberation Front was a guerrilla organization in Sudan, active in the Abyei region of South Kordofan in the early 1980s. The group had emerged amongst the Ngok Dinka, in response to attacks on their community by Misseriya Arabs supported by police and army forces. The ALF was one of the armed groups active during this period that were linked to the 'Anyanya II' movement of Southern army mutineers. The commanders of ALF were Deng Alor Kuol and Chol Deng Alaak. Around 1984 the ALF was contacted by Sudan People's Liberation Army detachments from Ethiopia and incorporated into the SPLA.


Gisco (died 239 BC)

Gisco was a Carthaginian general who served during the closing years of the First Punic War and took a leading part in the events which sparked the Mercenary War. He was a citizen of the city state of Carthage, which was located in what is now Tunisia. His date of birth and age at death are both unknown, as are his activities prior to his coming to prominence towards the end of the First Punic War.
He was commander of the major base of Lilybaeum (modern Marsala) on Sicily when the Carthaginians conceded defeat in the war in 241 BC. The army commander retired to Carthage in a rage, leaving Gisco, as the next most senior commander, to negotiate peace with the Romans, which he did with the Treaty of Lutatius. Meanwhile, the troops which he had sent from Sicily to Africa to be repatriated were in a mutinous state, and Gisco, who had a good reputation with them, was hastily recalled to deal with the situation. The discontent seemed to have abated when, for some unknown reason, discipline broke down. Several soldiers insisted that no deal with Carthage was acceptable, a riot broke out, dissenters were stoned to death. Gisco and his staff were taken prisoner and his treasury was seized.
He was held prisoner for two years, during which the rebels suffered several defeats. After a large force of rebels deserted to the Carthaginians in 239 BC and were well received the rebel leaders feared the disintegration of their army; they were aware that such generous terms would not be extended to them personally. To remove the possibility of any goodwill between the sides, they had Gisco and 700 other Carthaginian prisoners tortured to death.
Life.
Gisco, also known as Gesco and Gesgo, was a citizen of the city state of Carthage, which was located in what is now Tunisia. By the mid-3rd century BC it had come to dominate southern Spain, much of the coastal regions of North Africa, the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia, and the western half of Sicily in a military and commercial empire. Gisco's date of birth and age at death are both unknown, as are his activities prior to his coming to prominence towards the end of the First Punic War.
First Punic War.
The First Punic War began in 264 BC and was fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For 23 years, in the longest continuous conflict and greatest naval war of antiquity, the two powers struggled for supremacy, primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters. In 250 BC Carthage's main Sicilian stronghold, Lilybaeum (modern Marsala), was besieged from the land. Determined attempts by the Romans to storm the city were repelled. By 248 BC the Carthaginians held only two cities on Sicily: Lilybaeum and Drepana; these were well-fortified and situated on the west coast, where they could be supplied and reinforced by sea, without the Romans being able to use their superior army to interfere. When Hamilcar Barca took command of the Carthaginians on Sicily in 247 BC he was only given a small army and the Carthaginian fleet was gradually withdrawn.
After more than 20 years of war, both states were financially exhausted and suffering from a large drop in male citizens of fighting age. Evidence of Carthage's financial situation includes their request for a 2,000 talent loan from Ptolemaic Egypt, which was refused. Rome was also close to bankruptcy and the number of adult male citizens, who provided the manpower for the navy and the legions, had declined by 17 percent since the start of the war. The classicist Adrian Goldsworthy describes Roman manpower losses as "appalling".
In late 243 BC, realizing they would not capture Drepana and Lilybaeum unless they could extend their blockade to the sea, the Roman Senate decided to build a new fleet. With the state's coffers exhausted, the Senate approached Rome's wealthiest citizens for loans to finance the construction of one ship each, repayable from the reparations to be imposed on Carthage once the war was won. The result was a fleet of approximately 200 quinqueremes, built, equipped, and crewed at private expense. The Carthaginians raised a larger fleet which they intended to use to run supplies into Sicily. It was intercepted by the Roman fleet under Gaius Lutatius Catulus and Quintus Valerius Falto, and in the hard-fought Battle of the Aegates Islands the better-trained Romans defeated the undermanned and ill-trained Carthaginian fleet. After achieving this decisive victory, the Romans continued their land operations in Sicily against Lilybaeum and Drepana.
Gisco is first recorded at this time, as the commander of Lilybaeum. Its commander during the initial years of the siege was Himilco. When he was replaced by Gisco is not known. During Gisco's tenure the military situation was quiet around Lilybaeum; the Romans had accepted that they could not storm the city, and had constructed strong earth and timber walls to prevent Carthaginian sorties, but which would also greatly hamper any further assaults on the city. The focus of the fighting moved to the north.
Treaty of Lutatius.
With their relief effort defeated, the Carthaginian Senate was reluctant to allocate the resources necessary to have another fleet built and manned. In any case, it was probable their Carthaginian garrisons would be starved into surrender before that could be done. Instead, it ordered Hamilcar to negotiate a peace treaty with the Romans, on whatever terms he could obtain. After receiving the order to make peace, Hamilcar refused, claiming the surrender was unnecessary. It is possible that for political and prestige reasons Hamilcar did not wish to be associated with the treaty which formalised Carthage's defeat in the 23-year-long war. As the next most senior Carthaginian on the island, it was left to Gisco to broker the peace terms.
Gisco opened discussions with Catulus, the recently victorious Roman commander on Sicily. It was the long-standing Roman procedure to appoint two men each year, known as consuls, to each lead an army. Catulus's term was near its end and his replacement could be expected to arrive on Sicily shortly. This caused him to be eager to conclude a definitive peace and thus claim the credit for bringing the lengthy war to a close. Gisco and Catulus agreed that Carthage would hand over what it still held of Sicily; release all Roman prisoners without ransom, although ransom would need to be paid to secure the release of prisoners held by the Romans; and pay an indemnity of 2,200 talents of silver over 20 years. These terms were referred to Rome for ratification, where they were rejected. A commission of ten was sent to settle the matter. As the commission was chaired by Catulus's brother Quintus Lutatius Cerco, who was to succeed him as consul, this may have been largely a negotiating ploy. Gisco rapidly agreed further concessions with the commission: several islands close to Sicily would also be handed over; the indemnity was increased to 3,200 talents, with the additional 1,000 talents payable immediately and the time allowed to pay the balance reduced to 10 years. There were other minor clauses in the final agreement, which was formalised in the Treaty of Lutatius. Hamilcar immediately handed over command on Sicily to Gisco, and it was left to him to formally inform Carthage of what had been agreed.
Mercenary War.
The Carthaginian forces on Sicily evacuated the rest of the island and concentrated in Lilybaeum. The withdrawal of these 20,000 men from Sicily was in the hands of Gisco. Few, if any, of them would have been Carthaginians; in most circumstances Carthage recruited foreigners to make up its army. Many would be from North Africa, with others from Spain, Gaul, Italy, Greece, Sicily and the Balearic Islands. Not wishing the freshly idle soldiers to combine for purposes of their own, Gisco split the army into small detachments based on their regions of origin. He sent these back to Carthage one at a time. He anticipated they would be promptly paid the several years back pay they were owed and hurried on their way home. The Carthaginian authorities decided to instead wait until all of the troops had arrived and then attempt to negotiate a settlement at a lower rate. Meanwhile, as each group arrived it was billeted inside the city of Carthage where the advantages of civilisation were appreciated to the full after up to ten years under siege. So much so, that before the full 20,000 had arrived they were relocated to Sicca Veneria (modern El Kef) away, even though a significant portion of their arrears had to be paid before they would go.
Freed of their long period of military discipline and with nothing to do, the men grumbled among themselves and refused all attempts by the Carthaginians to pay them less than the full amount due. Frustrated by the Carthaginian negotiators' attempts to haggle, all 20,000 troops marched to Tunis, from Carthage. Panicking, the Senate agreed to payment in full. The mutinous troops responded by demanding even more. Gisco, who had a good reputation with the army, was brought over from Sicily in late 241 BC and despatched to the camp with enough money to pay most of what was owed. He started to disburse this, with promises the balance would be paid as soon as it could be raised. The discontent seemed to have abated when, for some unknown reason, discipline broke down. Several soldiers insisted that no deal with Carthage was acceptable, a riot broke out, dissenters were stoned to death, Gisco and his staff were taken prisoner and his treasury was seized. Spendius, an escaped Roman slave who faced death by torture if he were recaptured, and Matho, a Berber dissatisfied with Carthage's attitude towards tax raising from its African possessions, were declared generals. The news of a formed, experienced, anti-Carthaginian army in the heart of its territory spread rapidly and many cities and towns rose in rebellion. Provisions, money and reinforcements poured in; an additional 70,000 men according to Polybius. The pay dispute had become a full-scale revolt threatening Carthage's existence as a state.
War-weary Carthage fared poorly in the initial engagements of the war. Its army was commanded by Hanno; the military historian Nigel Bagnall wrote of his "incompetence as a field commander". At some point during 240 BC the Carthaginians raised another, smaller, force, of approximately 10,000, which was placed under the command of Hamilcar, who had commanded the Carthaginian forces on Sicily for the last six years of the First Punic War. He was faced by a rebel force of 25,000 men commanded by Spendius, who still held Gisco and his staff as prisoners. Hamilcar defeated this army at the Battle of the Bagradas River.
While Hanno manoeuvred against Matho to the north near Hippo (modern Bizerte), Hamilcar confronted various towns and cities which had gone over to the rebels, bringing them back to Carthaginian allegiance with varying mixtures of diplomacy and force. He was shadowed by a superior-sized rebel force, which kept to rough ground for fear of Hamilcar's cavalry and elephants, and harried his foragers and scouts. Some time in 239 BC Hamilcar moved his force into the mountains south west of Utica in an attempt to bring the rebels to battle, but was surrounded. The Carthaginians were only saved from destruction when a Numidian leader, Naravas, who had served with and admired Hamilcar in Sicily, swapped sides with his 2,000 cavalry. This proved disastrous for the rebels, and in the resulting battle they lost 10,000 killed and 4,000 captured.
Death.
Since leaving Carthage, Hamilcar had treated rebels he had captured well and offered them a choice of joining his army or free passage home. He made the same offer to the 4,000 captives from the recent battle. The rebel leaders perceived this generous treatment as the motivation behind Navaras's defection and feared the disintegration of their army; they were aware such generous terms would not be extended to them personally. To remove the possibility of any goodwill between the sides, they had Gisco and 700 other Carthaginian prisoners tortured to death: they had their hands cut off, were castrated, their legs broken and were thrown into a pit and buried alive.
Hamilcar in retaliation killed his 4,000 prisoners. From this point, neither side showed any mercy, and the unusual ferocity of the fighting caused Polybius to term it the "Truceless War". Any further prisoners taken by the Carthaginians were trampled to death by elephants, while the rebels crucified numerous captured Carthaginians. In 238 BC at the Battle of the Saw, Hamilcar took Spendius and nine of his principal lieutenants prisoner during a parley and in turn had them crucified.


Battle of Springfield

The Battle of Springfield was fought during the American Revolutionary War on June 23, 1780, in Essex County, New Jersey. After the Battle of Connecticut Farms, on June 7, 1780, had foiled Lieutenant General Wilhelm, Baron von Knyphausen’s expedition to attack General George Washington’s army at Morristown, New Jersey, Knyphausen and Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton, British commander-in-chief in North America, decided upon a second attempt. Although the British were initially able to advance, they were ultimately forced to withdraw in the face of newly arriving rebel forces, resulting in a Continental victory. The battle effectively ended British ambitions in New Jersey.
British plan.
A two-pronged assault was planned. Starting from Elizabethtown Point, one column would advance along the Galloping Hill Road, straight through Connecticut Farms and Springfield, while another column would take the Vauxhall Road north of Springfield along the southern edge of Short Hills. Both were heading for the same objective as on June 7: Hobart Gap, the path through the Watchung Mountains that would allow an advance across eleven miles of flat ground to Washington's main encampment at Morristown.
Clinton hoped that Washington would respond to Knyphausen's attack by bringing his main army round the northern tip of the Watchung Mountains west of Newark to hit Knyphausen's right flank. In anticipation of this response, Major General Alexander Leslie was dispatched up the Hudson with 6,000 men in order to prevent Washington from retiring behind the Watchung Mountains. Meanwhile, Major General James Robertson was to remain in reserve in Elizabethtown with five regiments (1,865 men) to protect Knyphausen's rear against attack from militia and to reinforce Leslie if necessary.
Opposing forces.
Knyphausen's corps comprised some 6,000 men, comprising the 17th Regiment of Light Dragoons; a detachment of the Royal Regiment of Artillery; the British Guards Battalion (a composite unit comprising detachments from the 1st Guards, Coldstream Guards and Scots Guards); the British 22nd, 37th, 38th, 42nd (Royal Highland), 43rd and 57th Regiments of Foot; the Hessian Prince's own Leib-Regiment; the Hessian Regiment von Donop; the Hessian Corps of Jägers and three Loyalist regiments: the Queen's Rangers and the 1st and 4th New Jersey Volunteers.
At Springfield and Elizabethtown, barring Knyphausen's path to Hobart Gap, Major General Nathanael Greene had 1,500 Continental troops and 500 New Jersey Militia. Greene's Continentals comprised Brigadier General William Maxwell’s New Jersey Brigade; Brigadier General John Stark’s under-strength brigade (comprising the 2nd Rhode Island Regiment and a regiment each from Massachusetts and Connecticut) and the 2nd Partisan Corps, commanded by Major Henry Lee and numbering 400.
British advance.
At 5 a.m. on June 23, Knyphausen's force advanced for Elizabethtown Point, with the Queen's Rangers and the New Jersey Volunteers in the vanguard. They overwhelmed the American outposts at Elizabethtown, capturing several men and three small cannons. Warned by retreating men, General Maxwell sent Colonel Elias Dayton’s 3rd New Jersey Regiment to guard the Galloping Hill Road and Henry Lee's 2nd Partisan Corps to the Vauxhall Road. Soon afterwards, the advancing Loyalist troops engaged Maxwell, who fell back toward Connecticut Farms with the rest of his brigade. Meanwhile, General Greene ordered the planking to be destroyed on the Vauxhall and Galloping Hill bridges over the Rahway River.
Greene’s dispositions.
Greene organized his left wing, at the Galloping Hill Road, into four successive lines of defense. Connecticut Farms was to be held by Colonel Dayton's 3rd New Jersey and some militia under Brigadier General Nathaniel Heard. Behind Dayton, Colonel Israel Angell with his 2nd Rhode Island Regiment, reduced by illness and expiring enlistments to only 160 men, was to defend the Galloping Hill Bridge. Behind Angell, at a bridge over the west branch of the Rahway, Greene positioned Colonel Israel Shreve and his 2nd New Jersey Regiment and, behind Shreve, Brigadier General Philemon Dickinson commanded a detachment of New Jersey Militia.
On the American right wing, Greene reinforced Major Lee and his 2nd Partisan Corps at the Vauxhall Bridge with Colonel Matthias Ogden and his 1st New Jersey Regiment.
In reserve, at Bryan's Tavern up on the high ground of the Short Hills, Greene retained the rest of Maxwell's and Stark's brigades.
The Galloping Hill Road.
The New Jersey Volunteers under Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Barton, now approached Connecticut Farms and engaged Dayton's force, who were well positioned in an orchard and behind a thicket. Outnumbered more than two-to-one by the defenders, Barton's men made little progress. However, Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe with his Queen's Rangers outflanked the Americans on the left and attacked them from the rear. Dayton and Heard's men were quickly swept away and Connecticut Farms was in British hands. Heard and some of his militiamen retired northward and reinforced the defenders of the Vauxhall Bridge.
Knyphausen now diverted the Queen's Rangers, the New Jersey Volunteers, the Guards Battalion and most of his other British troops from the Galloping Hill Road northward to the Vauxhall Road, in the hope of outflanking the defenders of the Galloping Hill Bridge. Meanwhile, Knyphausen himself advanced on the bridge with 3,000 men, comprising the British 37th and 38th regiments and most of the German troops.
At the Galloping Hill Bridge, Knyphausen bombarded Colonel Angell's defenders with six cannons, which the Americans answered with their only available gun. As the American artillery ran low on wadding, James Caldwell, the Continental Army chaplain, who had lost his wife during the Battle of Connecticut Farms, brought up a load of hymn books published by English clergyman Isaac Watts to use instead. “Give ‘em Watts, boys!”, he advised. After heavy exchanges of fire and two unsuccessful attempts to charge the bridge, the British 37th and 38th regiments and the Hessian Jägers forded the Rahway and, in twenty-five minutes of tree-to-tree fighting in the woods, drove the Rhode Islanders back to the bridge over the west branch of the Rahway defended by Shreve and his 2nd New Jersey Regiment. The British quickly followed up the retreat, driving back Shreve and Angell, who only narrowly foiled an attempt to outflank them by the British 38th Regiment and the Jägers. Recognizing the danger of Shreve and Angell being encircled, Greene recalled them to Bryant's Tavern, abandoning Springfield to the enemy.
The Vauxhall Road.
As directed by Knyphausen, Major General Edward Mathew had left the Galloping Hill Road and crossed northward to the Vauxhall Road. Halting on a height above the Vauxhall Bridge, he bombarded its defenders with his artillery until 11 a.m., when he attacked, with the Queen's Rangers and New Jersey Volunteers fording the Rahway on either side of the bridge. Major Lee and his detachment made a fighting retreat of almost two miles to the upper west branch of the Rahway and positioned his men in echelons, so that they could fire out of the woods onto the road. They were soon joined by the advancing Loyalist troops, who assailed them from front and flank, driving them back again; this time all the way to the slopes of the Short Hills. Here, they were reinforced by the 400 men of General Stark's two Continental regiments and a cannon. This, and the presence of an increasing number of militia gathering on the slopes of Newark Mountain, persuaded General Mathew to halt his advance. As the militiamen began to engage Colonel Barton's New Jersey Volunteers, Mathew became concerned about the possibility of a counter-attack on his flank by Washington's main army, and he turned his column back southward to the Galloping Hill Road to rejoin Knyphausen.
British withdrawal.
When Mathew's column reached the Galloping Hill Road, they joined Knyphausen in Springfield. Knyphausen ordered Mathew to capture the Heights of Springfield to the northwest of the town. Mathew sent forward Lieutenant Colonel Edward Thomas with the Guards Battalion, who stormed the heights, routing the militia defenders. This was as far as the British advance was ever to get. Having failed to clear his path to Hobart Gap, Knyphausen was disheartened by the numbers of New Jersey Militia who were gathering on the Short Hills and he decided to call off the attack and return to Elizabethtown Point. Knyphausen ordered the New Jersey Volunteers to burn down Springfield. Only four
houses were spared; every other building was burned to the ground. It has been claimed the four buildings spared were Loyalist houses but this is disputed by local historians.
The British withdrew in two columns, one taking the Galloping Hill Road, the other the Vauxhall Road. The column that took the Galloping Hill Road came under constant sniping fire from New Jersey militiamen in the woods and incurred substantial casualties. The Hessian Jägers were detailed for the rear guard but found themselves low on ammunition. They suffered five men killed and another five captured during the withdrawal. They were relieved as rearguard by the 37th Regiment, who had more success in fending off the militia. The column on the Vauxhall Road had their flanks and rear guarded by the Queen's Rangers, who foiled most of the militia's attempts at ambush.
At midnight on June 23, Knyphausen led his division back over a bridge of boats from Elizabethtown Point to Staten Island.
Casualties.
The British loss for the expedition that included the Battle of Connecticut Farms on June 7 as well as the engagement of June 23 was 25 killed, 234 wounded and 48 missing.
85 of these casualties were Hessian Jaegers.
The Continental troops lost thirteen killed, 49 wounded and nine missing on June 23; of whom six killed, 31 wounded and three missing were from Angell's Rhode Island Regiment. Thomas Fleming says that the "Pennsylvania Packet" of July 8, 1780 reported that the militia casualties for the whole period of June 7–23 were ten killed, forty wounded and ten prisoners. Including the Continental Army losses on June 7, which were twelve killed, fifty wounded and thirteen missing, the combined American casualties for June 7 and June 23 were 35 killed, 139 wounded, ten prisoners and 22 missing.
Aftermath.
This was one of the last major engagements of the Revolutionary War in the north and effectively put an end to British ambitions in New Jersey. Because the decisive battles of the war moved farther south, Springfield became known as the "forgotten victory." Washington praised the role of the New Jersey Militia in the battle, writing, “They flew to arms universally and acted with a spirit equal to anything I have seen in the course of the war”. A little less than a month later, the minor Battle of Bull's Ferry was fought.
The river crossings where American forces put up their defense were near today's intersection between Vauxhall Road and Millburn Avenue; and Morris Avenue near Washington Avenue.
External links.


Battle of Noordhorn

The Battle of Noordhorn, fought on 30 September 1581, was a pitched battle of the Dutch Revolt, fought between a Spanish army commanded by Colonel Francisco Verdugo – consisting of Walloon, German, Spanish, and Albanian soldiers – and a Dutch States rebel army under the Englishman John Norreys – comprising English, Scottish, Dutch, and Walloon troops – in the province of Groningen. In 1580, the Dutch stadtholder of Groningen, George van Lalaing, Count of Rennenberg, had shifted its allegiance from the Dutch to the Spanish side. This opened a new front at the back door of the Dutch Republic, forcing the States-General to dispatch forces to the north. That year the Dutch, under the leadership of John Norreys, succeeded in relieving the town of Steenwijk. In July 1581, Rennenberg died and was replaced by the Spaniard Francisco Verdugo, whose arrival in Groningen with reinforcements changed the situation. On 30 September Verdugo forced Norreys to give battle using a strategy of attrition.
The battle was fought on a rough, marshy ground very favorable to the Spanish army. Norrey's initial assault on the Spanish right wing was successful, but the Spanish cavalry, led by Verdugo, routed the Dutch cavalry under William Louis, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg and broke the States' infantry. The English left was then cut off from the rest of the States' army and destroyed. During the pursuit of the States' troops Verdugo was nearly captured, but left unharmed in the end. Both Norreys and Count William Louis were wounded, and their army suffered a heavy death toll, losing many flags and all five of its guns. Verdugo could not capitalize on his victory because of a mutiny the following day by his German regiments and heavy flooding. The military situation in Friesland, however, had reached a turning point, and in 1582 the Spanish made great advances, even taking Steenwijk on 17 November 1582.
Background.
In 1580, during the Eighty Years' War, the Dutch stadtholder of Groningen, George van Lalaing, Count of Rennenberg, though having been appointed by the rebellious States-General, shifted his allegiance to the Spanish government, held at that time by Don Alexander Farnese, Prince of Parma. In July 1581 after being defeated by John Norreys and Diederik Sonoy at Kollum, Lalaing fell ill and died in the city of Groningen. Parma sent one of his most accomplished officers, the Spaniard Francisco Verdugo, to take the place of the deceased stadtholder. Verdugo, born in Talavera but raised amongst the Flemish and married to a daughter of the later governor-general of the Netherlands, Peter Ernst von Mansfeld, began his career as a simple soldier, but rose through the ranks to become a colonel. He was considered by the historian Charles Maurice Davies "a leader of eminent skill and ability", and was promoted to the post over other candidates such as Colonel Maarten Schenck van Nydeggen, whom Farnese had earlier sent to relieve Rennenberg and had dealt a serious defeat to a Dutch army at the Battle of Hardenberg, on 17 June 1580.
Verdugo, having been forced by the Union of Arras – formed by the Dutch provinces loyal to Spanish King Philip II, who wanted the foreign troops out of the Netherlands – to hand over his regiment to his brother-in-law Charles von Mansfeld, recruited a regiment of 2,000 Walloon arquebusiers and made his way to Friesland. While mustering his infantry in the village of Kerpen, Verdugo learned that the Dutch rebels were leaving a company of German reiters – a type of armoured cavalry armed with pistols – in Cologne under a rittmeister called Adam von Langen. As he lacked cavalry or pikemen and it was reported by Spanish agents that von Langen was angry because he had been paid by the Dutch with false coins, Verdugo managed to convince the rittmeister to escort his arquebusiers to Groningen. Passing through Bredevoort and Coevorden, Verdugo and his regiment reached Groningen. There, Verdugo was met with a mutiny, which he ended by distributing 40,000 escudos amongst the mutineers, disbanding an undisciplined German regiment, and giving license to two companies of men-at-arms to join Farnese's army in Hainault. With the loyal troops, meanwhile, he took two Dutch forts, one at the mouth of the Emden and another near Groningen.
Verdugo's arrival quickly altered the situation in Friesland, which had until then been favourable to the Dutch. During 1580, the Dutch forces fighting Rennenberg in Friesland had failed to prevent him from taking the towns of Oldenzaal and Coevorden, but in December, under the leadership of the English Colonel John Norreys, a veteran soldier with experience in the Netherlands and Ireland, they had succeeded in relieving Steenwijk from a Spanish siege. Norreys, appointed "Master of the Camp" by the Dutch States-General, harassed the Spanish army during the winter of 1580–1581, forcing Rennenberg to lift the siege and withdrew in February. The most effective force of the Dutch army in Friesland was Norreys' English regiment. Though England was not officially at war against Spain, Queen Elizabeth I was playing a complex diplomatic role to keep the Dutch revolt alive, and this included sending troops to the Netherlands under the guise of "volunteers", but factually maintained by the English crown.
In June 1581, the States-General appointed Norreys General of all the States' troops beyond the Meuse. In August, the Dutch local council, assembled in Leeuwarden, tasked Norreys with preventing Verdugo from penetrating further into the country, for which his 30 companies of infantry were reinforced by five cavalry companies under William Louis, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg. He was expected to besiege the Spanish forts around Groningen, but he lacked the artillery to do so, having been given only four small guns. Moreover, Norreys' Dutch and Walloon soldiers were unhappy with being under the command of a foreigner. Norreys spent the summer months attempting in vain to blockade Groningen, while Verdugo, who was aware of the dissent amongst the Dutch army, patiently waited in his fortified posts despite being urged by the local authorities to confront Norreys. In early September, after a failed raid on his camp, Verdugo was sure of Norreys' intentions of giving battle, and thus he advanced his army to near Norreys' camp near the village of Noordhorn. Shortly thereafter, determined to fight, Norreys' Anglo-Dutch army was deployed over the dike of Niezijl.
Order of battle.
The Spanish army, led by Francisco Verdugo, with Lieutenant-Colonel Johann Baptista von Taxis as second in command, was deployed before the village of Noordhorn and behind broken ground with only one access point that was covered by a wide ravine and flanked on its left by a series of muddy ditches. Aiming to create a trap for Norreys' army, the Spanish had smoothed the ground on their right in order to funnel English units and draw Norrey's troops into an engagement area where a crossfire effect could be created. Verdugo himself drove two stakes into the ground to mark the point that his cavalry was to charge upon the English vanguard.
The Spanish army was organized into three infantry battalions with two cavalry companies at each wing: the right wing was taken by the Walloon mounted harquebusiers under Monsieur de Villers and Verdugo's Spanish lances under Corporal Alonso Mendo, plus a battalion formed by half of Verdugo's Walloon foot regiment. 200 arquebusiers were detached later in a house nearby. The centre was made up by one battalion formed by the German foot regiments of Rennenberg, under Lieutenant Colonel Guillaume de Monceau, and of Caspar de Robles, who was serving Farnese and had left the command to Lieutenant Colonel Johann Baptista von Taxis. The left consisted of two cavalry companies (Famiano Strada names German reiters under Wolfgang Prengier, while Alonso Vázquez mentions Albanian horse under Captain Tomas Frate and Walloons under Baron de Bievres) plus a battalion formed by the second half of Verdugo's foot regiment. Verdugo also deployed a forlorn hope of 200 musketeers and arquebusiers into a ditch covering the way, 300 steps ahead of his battalions.
The Anglo-Dutch army under John Norreys and Count William Louis of Nassau-Dillenburg was formed by 30 companies of foot – 11 English and Scottish flags from the regiments of Norreys and Colonel Thomas Morgan, and 19 Dutch, Frisian and Walloon flags – plus four cavalry companies under Captains Hendrik van Eck, Goor, Elleborn and Roger Williams, the latter of English cuirassiers. There existed a certain hostility between Norreys and Morgan, as Prince William of Orange favored Norreys despite Morgan's longer experience in the Netherlands, having served since 1572. When Queen Elizabeth's secretary and advisor Francis Walsingham requested Orange appoint Morgan as a colonel, he refused, and Morgan attributed this to Norreys' "hard dealings".
Battle.
Having instructed his troops to hold their positions until he ordered them to attack, Verdugo sent 200 musketeers to occupy a house on his right flank, near the Villers' position and that of his own companies of horse, to cut off the Anglo-Dutch vanguard with musketry fire as they advanced towards the Spanish positions. After that, Spanish and English armies began to skirmish. Verdugo aimed to take over a hill in the middle of both armies in order to force Norreys to order a general advance. The Englishman fired over the Spanish battalions with his five guns, but the fire was ineffective because of the broken ground: Spanish sources state that only Verdugo's drummer was killed. Seeing the ineffectiveness of the bombardment, Norreys ordered a general advance. As the way was narrow, the Dutch cavalry went in advance, flanked by the English infantry. Monsieur de Villers' harquebusiers and Verdugo's lances under Corporal Mendo ignored their general's orders, and charged against the Dutch cavalry, which drove back them "broken and disrupted". The English infantry, upon Norreys' order, charged the Spanish foot on the right, gaining more ground despite the difficult advance, and pushing back Verdugo's Walloons to Noordhorn.
On the left, on the other hand, Count William Louis of Nassau advanced with the remaining Dutch cavalry but was halted by the musketry fire of the 200 men standing on the advanced ditch. Aiming to disrupt the Dutch right, Verdugo then charged ahead of Frate's Albanian company and that of Baron de Bievres. The Dutch horse, disorganized by the musketry fire, could not resist Verdugo's rush and turned back, breaking the order, in turn, of the English foot standing behind. To capitalize on this success, Verdugo ordered his foot to follow up the victory. Unaware of the Spanish success on the other side of the field, the English infantry continued pressing back the Spanish right flank until they reached the Spanish camp. When they realized what had happened, however, the Englishmen turned back in a vain attempt to escape. The Spanish centre and left were blocking the way, and thus the English attempted to save themselves fleeing across the bogged ditches, only to be killed in large numbers.
In the meantime, Verdugo aimed to block Niezijl's dike with Frate's and Bievres' companies, but as these troops lagged behind, he found himself alone on the dike when Norreys and his officers attempted to retreat back to their camp. Alone, Verdugo fought desperately against them. Twice the Spanish commander was taken prisoner, but in the end, as he killed or wounded many of his foes, Norreys preferred to let him go free rather than risk allowing the pursuing Spanish troops to capture himself or his remaining men. Once he had recovered, Verdugo massed some cavalry and completed the Anglo-Dutch defeat by destroying an English troop which, trying to save the flags, fled across a field towards the Niezijl canal. Most of the English flags and all of their artillery were lost. As the night was falling, Verdugo collected his troops and returned to Noordhorn, where they formed into squadron formation and, kneeling down, prayed to thank God for their victory.
Aftermath.
The battle was "a very greate overthrowe" for the English, as noted by the affluent English trader in a letter written in Antwerp on 15 October. The Frenchman Gillaume Baudart noted that half of the States' infantry and a large number of cavalry were lost. Verdugo claimed between 2,000 and 3,000 casualties in Norrey's army, asserting that ""Few times is true the number of dead that in such cases is said, but the common [number] for those who saw it was this". Many English and Dutch officers were killed, mostly of foot: Charles van Wijngaerden, George Robert, Schul, Wynaert van Ommeren, Rets, Gerard Entens, Corneille Loevesschen and, for the English, captains Cotton, Bishop, Fitzwilliams, and Nisbeth, who died of a wound on the head. Amongst the cavalry Hendrik van Eck and Lieutenant Bellewijn of Elleborn's company were killed. Both States' commanders were wounded: Norreys on one hand and Count William Louis in a leg. The Spanish army's exact losses are unknown. Alonso Vázquez, a contemporaneous chronicler and soldier with direct access to the Spanish, wrote that "of the Catholics died no more than Verdugo's drummer, but there were some wounded". Charles Maurice Davies noted that "Scarcely any one of note fell on the side of the royalists".
The day after the battle, the Spanish army's German regiments, induced by Captain Jean van der Cloester, mutinied again in their quarters, claiming that they had not received their monthly pay. Verdugo sent Captain Pedrosa to take news of the Spanish victory to Farnese and, having refreshed his troops, aimed to capture the Niezijl fort with his Walloon regiment, his four cavalry companies and a few volunteers from among the German mutineers. As the season changed and a furious rain started, Verdugo was forced to abandon the project of seizing the fort and returned to Noordhorn. The autumnal floods made the Frisian land impassable for the armies, and thus Verdugo moved with his troops to the dry and gritty land of Drenthe, while Norreys kept the remains of his army behind the IJssel river. A group of 400 Dutchmen in Norreys' army lodged themselves in the town of Keppel, in Gelderland. In January 1582, Verdugo destroyed them and seized Keppel and the castle of Bronckhorst, achieving great success in Gelderland.
Over the following months many English soldiers, who were unpaid and decimated by disease and disappointed by the progress of the war, amongst them Captain Roger Williams, deserted the States-General army and went to serve in Francis, Duke of Anjou's French army. By the Treaty of Plessis-les-Tours, Francis had been recognized by the States-General as the sovereign of the Netherlands instead of Philip II of Spain. Even Norreys, in the end, left the States' service and put himself under Anjou's command. Thus, in command of the English infantry, he found himself at the Battle of Steenbergen in 1583, when he covered the rearguard of the defeated French army.


List of wars between Russia and Sweden

Wars between Russia and Sweden have been recorded since as early as the 12th century. These conflicts include:


Battle of the Bagradas River (255 BC)

The Battle of the Bagradas River (the ancient name of the Medjerda), also known as the Battle of Tunis, was a victory by a Carthaginian army led by Xanthippus over a Roman army led by Marcus Atilius Regulus in the spring of 255 BC, nine years into the First Punic War. The previous year, the newly constructed Roman navy established naval superiority over Carthage. The Romans used this advantage to invade Carthage's homeland, which roughly aligned with modern-day Tunisia in North Africa. After landing on the Cape Bon Peninsula and conducting a successful campaign, the fleet returned to Sicily, leaving Regulus with 15,500 men to hold the lodgement in Africa over the winter.
Instead of holding his position, Regulus advanced towards the city of Carthage and defeated the Carthaginian army at the Battle of Adys. The Romans followed up and captured Tunis, only from Carthage. Despairing, the Carthaginians sued for peace, but Regulus's proposed terms were so harsh the Carthaginians decided to fight on. They gave charge of the training of their army, and eventually operational control, to the Spartan mercenary general Xanthippus.
In the spring of 255 BC, Xanthippus led an army strong in cavalry and elephants against the Romans' infantry-based force. The Romans had no effective answer to the elephants, their outnumbered cavalry were chased from the field and the Carthaginian cavalry then surrounded most of the Romans and wiped them out; 500 survived and were captured, including Regulus. A force of 2,000 Romans avoided being surrounded and retreated to Aspis. The war continued for another 14 years, mostly on Sicily or in nearby waters, before ending with a Roman victory; the terms offered to Carthage were more generous than those proposed by Regulus.
Primary sources.
The main source for almost every aspect of the First Punic War is the historian Polybius ( – BC), a Greek sent to Rome in 167 BC as a hostage. His works include a now lost manual on military tactics, but he is best known for his "The Histories", written sometime after 167 BC, or about a century after the Battle of the Bagradas River. Polybius's work is considered broadly objective and largely neutral as between Carthaginian and Roman points of view.
Carthaginian written records were destroyed along with their capital, Carthage, in 146 BC and so Polybius's account of the First Punic War is based on several, now-lost, Greek and Latin sources. Polybius was an analytical historian and wherever possible personally interviewed participants in the events he wrote about. Only the first book of the forty comprising "The Histories" deals with the First Punic War. The accuracy of Polybius's account has been much debated over the past 150 years, but the modern consensus is to accept it largely at face value, and the details of the battle in modern sources are almost entirely based on interpretations of Polybius's account. He was on the staff of Scipio Aemilianus when Scipio led a Roman army during the Third Punic War on a campaign through many of the locations which featured in the events of 256–255 BC. The modern historian Andrew Curry considers that "Polybius turns out to [be] fairly reliable"; while the classicist Dexter Hoyos describes him as "a remarkably well-informed, industrious, and insightful historian". Other, later, histories of the war exist, but in fragmentary or summary form, and they usually cover military operations on land in more detail than those at sea. Modern historians usually also take into account the later histories of Diodorus Siculus and Dio Cassius, although the classicist Adrian Goldsworthy states that "Polybius' account is usually to be preferred when it differs with any of our other accounts." Other sources include inscriptions, coins, archaeological evidence and empirical evidence from reconstructions such as the trireme "Olympias".
Background.
In 264 BC the states of Carthage and Rome went to war, starting the First Punic War. Carthage was a well-established maritime power in the Western Mediterranean; Rome had recently unified mainland Italy south of the Arno River under its control. Rome's expansion into southern Italy probably made it inevitable that it would eventually clash with Carthage over Sicily on some pretext. The immediate cause of the war was the issue of control of the Sicilian town of Messana (modern Messina).
By 256 BC the war had grown into a struggle in which the Romans were attempting to decisively defeat the Carthaginians and, at a minimum, control the whole of Sicily. The Carthaginians were engaging in their traditional policy of waiting for their opponents to wear themselves out, in the expectation of then regaining some or all of their possessions and negotiating a mutually satisfactory peace treaty. The Romans were essentially a land-based power and had gained control of most of Sicily. The war there had reached a stalemate, as the Carthaginians focused on defending their well-fortified towns and cities; these were mostly on the coast and so could be supplied and reinforced without the Romans being able to use their superior army to interfere.
The focus of the war shifted to the sea, where the Romans had little experience; on the few occasions they had previously felt the need for a naval presence they relied on small squadrons provided by their allies. In 260 BC Romans set out to construct a fleet using a shipwrecked Carthaginian quinquereme as a blueprint for their own ships. Frustration at the continuing stalemate in the land war on Sicily, combined with naval victories at Mylae (260 BC) and Sulci (258 BC), led the Romans to develop a plan to invade the Carthaginian heartland in North Africa and threaten their capital (close to what is now Tunis). Both sides were determined to establish naval supremacy and invested large amounts of money and manpower in maintaining and increasing the size of their navies.
It was the long-standing Roman procedure to appoint two men each year, known as consuls, to each lead an army. The Roman fleet of 330 warships plus an unknown number of transports sailed from Ostia, the port of Rome, in early 256 BC, jointly commanded by both consuls for the year, Marcus Atilius Regulus and Lucius Manlius Vulso Longus. They embarked approximately 26,000 legionaries from the Roman forces on Sicily. The Carthaginians were aware of the Romans' intentions and mustered all available warships, 350, under Hanno and Hamilcar, off the south coast of Sicily to intercept them. With a combined total of about 680 warships carrying as many as 290,000 crew and marines, the battle was possibly the largest naval battle in history by the number of combatants involved. When they met at the Battle of Cape Ecnomus, the Carthaginians took the initiative, hoping their superior ship-handling skills would be decisive. After a prolonged and confused day of fighting the Carthaginians were defeated, losing 30 ships sunk and 64 captured to Roman losses of 24 ships sunk.
Prelude.
As a result of the battle, the Roman army, commanded by Regulus and Longus, landed in Africa near Aspis (modern Kelibia) on the Cape Bon Peninsula and began ravaging the Carthaginian countryside for supplies to feed their 90,000 rowers and crew, and 26,000 legionaries. They captured 20,000 slaves, vast herds of cattle, and after a brief siege the city of Aspis. The Roman Senate sent orders for most of the Roman ships and a large part of the army to return to Sicily under Longus, probably due to the logistical difficulties of supplying more than 100,000 men over the winter. Regulus was left with 40 ships, 15,000 infantry and 500 cavalry to overwinter in Africa. Regulus was an experienced military commander, having been consul in 267 BC, when he was awarded a triumph for his victory against the Salentini. His orders were to weaken the Carthaginian army pending reinforcement in the spring. It was expected he would achieve this by raids and by fomenting rebellion among Carthage's subject territories, but consuls had wide discretion. Regulus chose to take his relatively small force and strike inland. He advanced on the city of Adys, south-east of Carthage, and besieged it. The Carthaginians, meanwhile, had recalled Hamilcar from Sicily with 5,000 infantry and 500 cavalry. Hamilcar and two previously unknown generals named Hasdrubal and Bostar were placed in joint command of an army which was strong in cavalry and elephants and was approximately the same size as the Roman force.
The Carthaginians established a camp on a hill near Adys. The Romans carried out a night march and launched a surprise dawn attack on the camp from two directions. After confused fighting the Carthaginians broke and fled. Their losses are unknown, although their elephants and cavalry escaped with few casualties. The Romans followed up and captured numerous towns, including Tunis, only from Carthage. From Tunis the Romans raided and devastated the immediate area around Carthage. Many of Carthage's African possessions took the opportunity to rise in revolt. The city of Carthage was packed with refugees fleeing Regulus or the rebels, and food ran out. In despair, according to most ancient sources, the Carthaginians sued for peace. Polybius differs in stating that Regulus initiated the negotiations, hoping to receive the glory of ending the war before his successors arrived to replace him. In either case Regulus, within sight of what he took to be a thoroughly defeated Carthage, demanded harsh terms: Carthage was to hand over Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica; pay all of Rome's war expenses; pay tribute to Rome each year; be prohibited from declaring war or making peace without Roman permission; have its navy limited to a single warship; but provide 50 large warships to the Romans on their request. Finding these completely unacceptable, the Carthaginians decided to fight on.
Armies.
Most male Roman citizens were eligible for military service and would serve as infantry, a better-off minority providing a cavalry component. Traditionally, when at war the Romans would raise two legions, each of 4,200 infantry and 300 cavalry. A few infantry served as javelin-armed skirmishers. The balance were equipped as heavy infantry, with body armour, a large shield and short thrusting swords. They were divided into three ranks, of which the front rank also carried two javelins, while the second and third ranks had a thrusting spear instead. Both legionary sub-units and individual legionaries fought in relatively open order. An army was usually formed by combining a Roman legion with a similarly sized and equipped legion provided by their Latin allies. It is not clear how the 15,000 infantry at the Bagradas River were constituted, but they possibly represented four slightly under-strength legions: two Roman and two allied. Regulus did not attract any troops from the towns and cities rebelling against Carthage. In this he differed from other generals, including Roman ones, leading armies against Carthage in Africa. The reasons for this are not known. In particular, the difficulty in transporting horses had restricted his cavalry force to only 500, and his failure to make up this deficiency is puzzling.
Carthaginian citizens served in their army only if there was a direct threat to the city. When they did they fought as well-armoured heavy infantry armed with long thrusting spears, although they were notoriously ill-trained and ill-disciplined. In most circumstances Carthage recruited foreigners to make up its army. Many would be from North Africa which provided several types of fighters including: close-order infantry equipped with large shields, helmets, short swords and long thrusting spears; javelin-armed light infantry skirmishers; close-order shock cavalry carrying spears; and light cavalry skirmishers who threw javelins from a distance and avoided close combat. Both Spain and Gaul provided small numbers of experienced infantry; unarmoured troops who would charge ferociously, but had a reputation for breaking off if a combat was protracted. The close order Libyan infantry and the citizen-militia would fight in a tightly packed formation known as a phalanx. Slingers were frequently recruited from the Balearic Islands, although it is not clear if any were present at Tunis. The Carthaginians also employed war elephants; North Africa had indigenous African forest elephants at the time.
Xanthippus.
The Carthaginians were recruiting fighting men from all over the Mediterranean region, and at around this time a large group of recruits from Greece arrived in Carthage. Among them was a Spartan mercenary commander, Xanthippus. Polybius states he had taken part in Spartan training methods and that he knew both how to deploy and how to manoeuvre an army. He made a good impression with the troops of the Carthaginian army, and was able to persuade the Carthaginian Senate that the strongest elements of their army were their cavalry and elephants and that to be deployed to best effect they needed to fight on open level ground. The historian John Lazenby speculates he may have previously faced elephants when Pyrrhus of Epirus attacked Sparta in the 270s BC. Xanthippus was put in charge of training over the winter, although a committee of Carthaginian generals retained operational control. As the prospect of a decisive battle drew nearer, and as Xanthippus's skill at manoeuvring the army became more evident, full control was given to him. Whether this was a decision of the Senate, the generals, or was forced on them by the wishes of the troops, who included many Carthaginian citizens, is not clear.
Battle.
Xanthippus led the army of 100 elephants, 4,000 cavalry and 12,000 infantrythe latter included the 5,000 veterans from Sicily and many citizen-militiaout of Carthage and set up camp close to the Romans in an area of open plain. The precise site is not known, but it is assumed to be close to Tunis. The Roman army of about 15,000 infantry and 500 cavalry advanced to meet them, and set up camp about away. The next morning both sides deployed for battle. Xanthippus placed the Carthaginian citizen-militia in the centre of his formation; with the Sicilian veterans and the freshly hired infantry divided on either side of them; and with the cavalry equally divided on either side of these. The elephants were deployed in a single line in front of the centre of the infantry. The Romans placed their legionary infantry in their centre, arranged in a deeper and denser formation than usual. Polybius considered this to be an effective anti-elephant formation, but points out that it shortened the frontage of the Roman infantry and made them liable to being out-flanked. Light infantry skirmishers were positioned in front of the legions, and the 500 cavalry were divided between the flanks. Regulus apparently hoped to punch through the elephants with his massed infantry, overcome the Carthaginian phalanx in their centre and so win the battle before he needed to worry about being attacked on the flanks.
The battle opened with attacks by the Carthaginian cavalry and elephants. The Roman cavalry, hopelessly outnumbered, were soon swept away. The Roman legionaries advanced, shouting and banging their sword hilts on their shields in an attempt to deter the elephants. Part of the Roman left overlapped the line of elephants, and they charged the infantry of the Carthaginian right, who broke and fled back to their camp, pursued by the Romans. This part of the Roman force probably consisted of Latin allies. The rest of the Roman infantry had difficulties with the elephants, who were not deterred by their noise but charged home, inflicting casualties and considerable confusion. At least some of the legionaries fought their way through the line of elephants, and attacked the Carthaginian phalanx. But they were too disordered to fight effectively and the phalanx held firm. Some units of the Carthaginian cavalry were now returning from their pursuit and started to attack or feint against the Roman rear and flanks. The Romans attempted to fight on all sides which brought their forward momentum to a halt.
The Romans held firm, possibly partly because of the way their dense formation jammed them close together, but the elephants continued to rampage through their ranks, and the Carthaginian cavalry pinned them in place by hurling missiles into their rear and flanks. Then Xanthippus ordered the phalanx to attack. Most of the Romans were packed into a space where they could not resist effectively and were slaughtered. Regulus and a small force fought their way out of the encirclement, but were pursued and shortly he and 500 survivors were forced to surrender. A total of about 13,000 Romans were killed. The Carthaginians lost 800 men from the force on their right which was routed; the losses of the rest of their army are not known. A force of 2,000 Romans survived, from the left wing who had broken through into the Carthaginian camp; they escaped the battlefield and retreated to Aspis. This was Carthage's only victory in a major land battle during the war.
Aftermath.
Xanthippus, fearful of the envy of the Carthaginian generals he had outdone, took his pay and returned to Greece. Regulus died in Carthaginian captivity; later Roman authors invented a tale of him displaying heroic virtue while a prisoner. The Romans sent a fleet to evacuate their survivors and the Carthaginians attempted to oppose it. In the resulting Battle of Cape Hermaeum off Africa the Carthaginians were heavily defeated, losing 114 ships captured and 16 sunk. The Roman fleet, in turn, was devastated by a storm while returning to Italy, 384 ships having been sunk from their total of 464 and 100,000 men lost,the majority non-Roman Latin allies. The war continued for a further 14 years, mostly on Sicily or the nearby waters, before ending with a Roman victory; the terms offered to Carthage were more generous than those proposed by Regulus. The question of which state was to control the western Mediterranean remained open, and their relationship was tense. When Carthage besieged the Roman-protected town of Saguntum in eastern Iberia in 218 BC, it ignited the Second Punic War with Rome.


Military Service Tribunals

Military Service Tribunals were bodies formed by borough, urban district and rural district councils to hear applications for exemption from conscription into the British Army during the First World War. Although not strictly recruiting bodies, they played an important part in the process of conscription. Tribunals were published as part of the Derby Scheme in 1915, but were continued on a statutory basis by the Military Service Act 1916, which brought in conscription.
There were 2,086 local Military Service Tribunals, with 83 County Appeal Tribunals (formed by county councils) to hear appeals by applicants not happy with the local tribunal decision. A Central Tribunal at Westminster in London served, solely at the discretion of the Appeals Tribunal, as the final court of appeal; it largely dealt with difficult cases that would stand as precedent for local tribunals.
Although they are best known for their often heavy-handed attitude towards cases of conscientious objection, most of the tribunals' work dealt with domestic and business matters. Men could apply on the grounds of their doing work of national importance, business or domestic hardship, medical unfitness, or conscientious objection. Only around two per cent of applicants were conscientious objectors. The image of the tribunals at the time was that they were soft on these cases and harsh on those relating to domestic hardship; after the war conscience cases became more prominent and tribunals are known for their (genuinely) harsh treatment of objectors.
A very large number of men applied: by the end of June 1916, 748,587 men had applied to tribunals. Over the same period around 770,000 men joined the army. Most men were given some kind of exemption, usually temporary (between a few weeks and six months) or conditional on their situation at work or home remaining serious enough to warrant their retention at home. In October 1.12 million men nationally held tribunal exemption or had cases pending, by May 1917 this had fallen to 780,000 exempt and 110,000 pending. At this point there were also 1.8 million men with exemptions granted by the government (for example, those working in war industries); combined these exemptions covered more men than were serving overseas with the British Army. Some men were exempted on the condition that they joined the Volunteer Training Corps for part-time training and home defence duties; by February 1918, 101,000 men had been directed to the Corps by the tribunals.


Abschwangen massacre

Abschwangen (now Tishino, in Bagrationovsky District) was a small village near Preussisch Eylau in East Prussia some 30 km south of Königsberg, today Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia and the scene of a massacre of German civilians on 29 August 1914.
Prelude.
After Russian troops started their first World War I offensive in East Prussia in August 1914, they reached the small village of Abschwangen on August 27, 1914, without struggle, and marched through. On August 29, 1914, a German Cavalry reconnaissance unit of four soldiers came to the unoccupied village, confronted a Russian car crossing through and opened fire on this automobile. One Russian officer, a member of the Trubetskoy family, was killed, and the car returned to the village of Almenhausen (now Kashtanovo), some 5 km east of Abschwangen.
The massacre.
After the return of the car to Almenhausen, the Russian troops executed nine civilians (Mayor Prang, Farmer Stadie, Hermann Marienberg and six unknown refugees), who were by chance standing next to them and burned down 70 buildings out of 81 existing houses.
At the same time some other troops marched to Abschwangen, where they started to execute the male inhabitants and burned down houses and farm buildings. In Abschwangen 78 buildings out of 101 existing were destroyed.
During the massacre, 65 people (28 locals, 37 refugees from southern East Prussia) were killed:
Aftermath.
Due to the German success at the Battle of Tannenberg, Russian troops retreated from the Abschwangen region, and the village was recaptured without a struggle by German troops on September 3, 1914. A memorial was built to the 74 killed civilians in 1924, but it, like the whole village, was destroyed during World War II in 1945.


Mutual Defense Assistance Act

The Mutual Defense Assistance Act was a United States Act of Congress signed by President Harry S. Truman on 6 October 1949. For US Foreign policy, it was the first U.S. military foreign aid legislation of the Cold War era, and initially to Europe. The Act followed Truman's signing of the Economic Cooperation Act (the Marshall Plan), on April 3, 1948, which provided non-military, economic reconstruction and development aid to Europe.
The 1949 Act was amended and reauthorized on July 26, 1950. In 1951, the Economic Cooperation Act and Mutual Defense Assistance Act were succeeded by the Mutual Security Act, and its newly created independent agency, the Mutual Security Administration, to supervise all foreign aid programs, including both military assistance programs and non-military, economic assistance programs that bolstered the defense capability of U.S. allies.
About the same time, the Mutual Defense Assistance Control Act of 1951, also known or referred to as the Battle Act, (65 Stat. 644; 22 U.S.C. 1611 et seq.) was also passed; it banned U.S. assistance to countries doing business with the Soviet Union and was so-named after its sponsor, Representative Laurie C. Battle of Alabama. Strong motivation for this 'control' act also came from export control concerns, following their tightening by the Export control Act of 1949 over Soviet advances; export controls were used for both domestic policy and later as an instrument of foreign policy. This is exemplified by the restrictions on export of certain strategic or military items to the Soviet bloc or to other countries which it felt, if permitted, would be detrimental to the foreign policy program of the US. This latter motive became so strong that it brought legislation directing the President to enlist the cooperation of other nations in enacting controls on trade with the Soviet block to parallel those of the United States. The benefits of the various economic and military aid programs were to be withheld from non-cooperating nations. The act covered a wide range of materials needed for the production of weapons, and was especially focused on anything that could aid atomic weapons research and construction.
As the Cold War developed, these acts were part of the American policy of containment of Communism. They importantly provided defense assistance to any ally that might be attacked by the Soviet Union or one of its allies, while other programs provided non-military economic assistance. In Asia the programs expanded with the newly established Maoist People's Republic of China, and other areas, with the development of specific country missions, including ones in Austria (1947–50), China (1946–48), Ireland (1948–51), and Trieste (1947–52).
Historical background : the World War II aftermath and the Cold War.
In the euphoria of the end of World War II, western arsenals dropped down to a dangerous level of weakness and being worn-out. Public funds were, by priority, allocated to reconstruction. Even the US arsenal showed obvious signs of shortages and decay.
Military officials began calling for the introduction of a new defense legislation in 1947, arguing that depleted inventories of surplus World War II-vintage armaments, piecemeal planning of new armaments and restrictions on presidential authority threatened current and future efforts to arm allied nations. New legislation became a necessity by mid-1948 with the negotiation of the North Atlantic Treaty and the necessity to provide military aid to strengthen the connectional defenses, having in mind a global resistance to Communist expansion of the signatories.
Truman sent a first bill to Congress on 25 July 1949, the day he ratified the North Atlantic Treaty but congressional opposition forced submission of a new legislation, which specified the recipients and the amounts of assistance. Administration planners believed the MDAA's immediate effects would be to raise the morale of friendly nations and prove US reliability and resolve to meet Communist worldwide threats. The MDAA also institutionalized the concept of specific military aid programs, a result ensured by adoption of similar legislation in 1950 and an increase in annual spending on military aid to $5.222 billion after the outbreak of the Korean War - the very first large scale test of the validity and practicability of the concept, if excepting the logistical support allowed to France during the Indochina War.
Mutual Assistance Program.
The Mutual Defense Assistance Act created the "Mutual Assistance Program," which became an integral component in the federal government's policy of containment of Soviet expansion. This program differed from the World War II-era Lend-Lease program in that it never needed refunding from the country that benefits any military assistance. Between 1950 and 1967, $33.4 billion in arms and services and $3.3 billion worth of surplus weaponry were provided under the program.
Europe: NATO.
On 4 April 1949, the foreign ministers from 12 countries signed the North Atlantic Treaty at the Departmental Auditorium in Washington D.C.: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. Provision for enlargement was however given by Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which states that membership is open to any "European State in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area".
Non aligned countries.
The MDAA caused both a great deal of friction with the non-aligned countries and opportunities to tighten geopolitical relations with the western free world and especially the United States.
Controversy.
After disagreements with General Charles de Gaulle regarding the US leadership role within the NATO Alliance and following the support given by successive US Governments to right-wing military regimes in accordance with the stated Communist Containment policy - such as the Spain's Francoist State and Portugal's New Order or the Greek Regime of the Colonels, in the wake of the Vietnam War protests, left-wing public opinion in the US and in Europe raised the question of the MAPs being used as instruments of some form of "political US imperialism".


List of governors of the Isle of Wight

Below is a list of those who have held the office of Governor of the Isle of Wight in England. Lord Mottistone was the last lord lieutenant to hold the title governor, from 1992 to 1995; since then there has been no governor appointed.


Qalaat al-Madiq

Qalaat al-Madiq ( also spelled Kal'at al-Mudik or Qal'at al-Mudiq; also known as Afamiyya or Famiyyah) is a town and medieval fortress in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located northeast of Hama. It is situated in the al-Ghab plain, on the eastern bank of the Orontes River. Nearby localities include the district center al-Suqaylabiyah to the south, Bureij and Karnaz to the southeast, Kafr Nabudah to the east, al-Huwash to the north, Huwayjah al-Sallah and Shathah to the northwest and Al-Tuwayni and Ennab to the west. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Qalaat al-Madiq had a population of 12,925 in the 2004 census. It is the administrative center and second largest locality in the Qalaat al-Madiq "nahiyah" ("subdistrict") which consisted of 40 localities with a collective population of 85,597 in 2004. The town's inhabitants are predominantly Sunni Muslims.
Qalaat al-Madiq is the site of the ancient city of Apamea, the ruins of which are located just east of the town. The modern fortress, after which the town was named, was built during Muslim rule in the 12th century. It is still inhabited by townspeople. The Syrian Armed Forces retook this town from rebels during the May 2019 Hama offensive.
History.
Ancient period.
Apamea was founded by the Seleucids in the 3rd-century BCE and was later conquered by the Romans who significantly built up the city. During the Byzantine-Sassanid War in the early 7th century, Apamea was entirely destroyed by the Sassanid forces of Khosrau II. Heraclius defeated the Persians and in a negotiation between him and Sassanid general Shahrvaraz, Syria reverted to Byzantine control.
Islamic era.
In 634, during the Caliphate of Abu Bakr, Muslim forces began their conquest of the Levant, besieging and capturing Emesa by 636. With this major Byzantine stronghold captured, along with a number of other towns in the vicinity, Apamea surrendered to the army of Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah in 638, during the Caliphate of Umar ibn al-Khattab. According to the 9th-century Muslim chronicler al-Baladhuri, Apamea's inhabitants greeted the Muslim army festively, and accepted the imposition of "jizya" and land taxes. By the end of the year, the entire Levant came under Muslim rule. Apamea became known as "Afamiyya" or "Famiyyah" by the Muslims during the medieval era. In 891 Arab geographer al-Yaqubi visited Afamiyya, noting that it consisted of the ruins of an "ancient Greek city ... situated on a large lake." In 998 the Byzantines besieged Afamiyya, then held by the Fatimids, but Egyptian reinforcements relieved the citadel and decisively defeated the Byzantine forces on 19 July.
In 1106 the citadel of Afamiyya ("Qal'at al-Madiq"), which overlooked the ancient ruins, was purchased by the Nizari Isma'ilis (also known as the Assassins) under the leadership of Abu Tahir al-Sa'igh, making it the first castle to be acquired by the group in the Levant. The place had been mostly inhabited by Isma'ilis prior to its purchase from the Fatimid-appointed Egyptian lord who governed it. Abu Tahir was encouraged by Ridwan, the Seljuk ruler of Aleppo, to take the fortress, believing the Ismailis would be more ambitious in strengthening its defenses against the Crusaders of Antioch. However, they were ousted a few months later by the Crusaders under the leadership of Tancred of Antioch in what was likely the first military confrontation between the Ismailis and the Crusaders. Initially, Tancred besieged the fortress and subsequently made terms with the Ismailis in return for tribute, but later captured it in a second assault. The Isma'ilis and Abu Tahir fled to Aleppo for refuge, but were later executed by Alp Arslān al-Akhras, Ridwan's son and successor, on orders from the Seljuk sultan and amid public resentment of the Isma'ilis.
According to his own memoirs, Usama ibn Munqidh led a small force from Shaizar, together with several Bedouin raiders, to launch an attack against the Crusader garrison in Afamiya and to plunder its cultivable lands, in 1119. By 1149, Afamiyya was once again under Muslim control. In 1154 an earthquake severely damaged Afamiyya along with Shaizar and Kafr Tab. During the reign of the Zengid ruler Nur ad-Din (1146–1174), the modern Qalaat al-Madiq fortress was constructed.
In the 1220s, Syrian geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi wrote that Afamiyya was the center of a district that was part of the larger Hims Province. In the early 14th century, Abu'l Fida noted that Afamiyya was part of the district of Shaizar.
Ottoman era.
Qalaat al-Madiq was part of Eyalet Aleppo ("Province of Aleppo") in the early 19th century. In 1811 the fortified town, which virtually guarded the entrance to the al-Ghab plain, was commandeered by Mulla Isma'il, an autonomous Kurdish warlord who rebelled against the Ottoman authorities in Syria after falling from their grace. The imperial jannisary contingent in Qalaat al-Madiq had evacuated the fortress after its takeover by Mulla Isma'il. Together with Ariha and Jisr al-Shughur, both of which were also controlled by autonomous lords, the three towns formed a triangle where rebellious tribes, particularly the Mawali, and "aghawat" ("lords") could find safe haven from the authorities.
In the late 19th century the village was located within the walls of the fortress and its inhabitants were impoverished Bedouins.
Modern era.
In the early 20th century the citadel was the only part of Qalaat al-Madiq that was inhabited. However, currently the area of town has expanded significantly, occupying the hillside areas west and south of the citadel, along the main road towards al-Suqaylabiyah.
During the ongoing Syrian Civil War, anti-government rebels gained control over much of the town, but the Syrian Army has maintained its position in the fortress, which overlooks the town. In September 2011 the police were evicted from the town by the rebels there. Services are provided to Qalaat al-Madiq's residents by rebel groups in the town, the largest of which is Suqour al-Ghab faction which fights under the banner of the Free Syrian Army. In March 2012 Qalaat al-Madiq was shelled and targeted by heavy fire for a successive 17 days by the Syrian Army in an attempt to oust rebel forces. On 28 March the army entered the town, but were unable to take full control of it. Clashes resulted in the deaths of five rebels, four army soldiers and four civilians according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Since the March clashes, there has been a relative ceasefire between the two sides, with a few incidents where the army has allegedly attacked demonstrations, which have continued in Qalaat al-Madiq, as of late November 2012. The protests are not solely against the government, and are sometimes directed against the rebels, mostly to demand better services. A small number of people from the nearby Christian city of al-Suqaylabiyah have occasionally participated in demonstrations in Qalaat al-Madiq.
The fortress was under control of the Free Syrian Army, mostly composed of Syrian Sunni Muslims, by 2012. As of early 2016, the al-Nusra Front controlled the fortress. It was retaken by the Syrian Government in May 2019, during the 2019 Northwestern Syria offensive.


Siege of Hof

The Siege of Hof was an event of the Second Margrave War. The city of Hof was successfully besieged in 1553 by the opponents of the Margrave Albert II Alcibiades of Brandenburg-Kulmbach.
Background.
In the wake of the Second Margrave War and the Princes' uprising, Albert Alcibiades was feuding not only with his neighbors, including Würzburg, Bamberg, and Nuremberg, but also with distant prince-bishops and princes. After the questions of faith, which had played a crucial role in the Prince's rebellion, had been resolved in the negotiations which resulted in the Peace of Passau, Albert II Alcibiades continued his military operations unabated, thereby isolated himself from his former allies. He could not keep the advantages he had gained over his neighbors permanently. The war gradually moved into his own country, the margraviate of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (for example, the Siege of Kulmbach and the Plassenburg), and this eventually led to the Margrave's defeat. Despite losing the war, the House of Hohenzollern succeeded in keeping the war-torn Margraviate and Albert Alcibiades was succeeded as Margrave by his cousin George Frederick.
The siege of the city of Hof had been documented in extraordinary detail by the historian Jacob Schlemmer. The key events are summarized in a woodcut by the Nuremberg artist Hans Glaser. Among the leaders of the attackers were Henry IV of Plauen and Georg Wolf of Kotzau, who remained after the siege as the governor of Hof.
Hof Castle was part of the city's defensive system, along with the city wall.
The nuns of the Monastery Hof, led by Abbess Amalie of Hirschberg, had escaped to Cheb (). The Church of St. Lorenz was looted and burned during the siege. The Watch Tower, although of little strategic importance, also burned out. The Hospital Church was used as a war camp by the attackers, and was therefore attacked and destroyed by the city's defenders.
Exhibition.
In the Bavarian Vogtland Museum in Hof, a scale model of the city at the time of the siege, is on display. Prominent buildings, streets, the fortifications and the city limits at the time, are reproduced very accurately. In coöperation with the German Figurine Museum at the Plassenburg in Kulmbach, a Diorama of the assailants has been put on display, and also some equipment of the soldiers. Stone cannonballs are embedded into the walls of several buildings within the walled city, including the St. Michael's Church.


Arab Ahwaz Brigade

The Arab Ahwaz Brigade was a Free Syrian Army rebel group from Syria's eastern Deir ez-Zor Governorate that also held a presence in other parts of northern Syria including in the Idlib and Aleppo Governorates. Although the group name was chosen to show solidarity with Iran's Ahwazi Arabs (an ethnic group in conflict with Iran), the Arab Ahwaz Brigade claimed to consist only of native Syrians with no foreign fighters.
Background.
The group was originally founded in March 2011 by a defector from the Syrian Army named Ayesh Al-Abdullah, who was from the town of Briyha (which is near the city of al-Busayrah), along with 7 local tribesmen. It eventually grew to 58 fighters, a majority of whom had military experience and training with Syria's armed forces, who were divided into 8 battalions.
The group financed itself by stealing cars and capturing equipment from government forces. Later, it also distributed aid to locals, winning public support. One of the group's founding members claimed the group received support from Kuwait, Qatar, Turkey, and Germany as well as Deir ez-Zor natives living abroad, and built ties with smuggling networks in neighboring Iraq to sustain itself. The Turkish government also reportedly gave medical care to fighters wounded from the group; one fighter from the group was treated in Turkey after sustaining near-fatal injuries in combat and later joined ISIL.
The group also contained Kurdish members, thought it clashed with the Kurdish People's Protection Units in the Hasakah Governorate. It also reportedly held meetings with local Kurdish factions to convince them to join the opposition against the Syrian government, but were rejected and treated with suspicion.
300 fighters from the group later defected to another group known as the Islamic group fighting for truth, due to internal tensions in the Ahwaz Brigade, including claims that the leadership was giving better salaries to his relatives and friends in the group.
Naming.
The group was named in solidarity after the Ahwazi Arabs in Iran, since they viewed the Ahwazi Arab conflict with Iran's government as being related to the conflict in Syria.
Composition.
The group was made up of native Syrians and contained fighters associated with the Al-Bkayyer tribe in Deir ez-Zor. It also contained a strong presence in Markada in the Hasakah Governorate.
History.
The group was formed in March 2011, after several armed individuals clashed with government forces in Deir ez-Zor and ran them out of villages, seizing their equipment.
On 18 November 2012, a fighter from the group was killed fighting government forces in the Idlib Governorate.
In January 2019, the group's founder was killed by an IED planted by ISIL in Deir ez-Zor, after he reportedly joined the Syrian Democratic Forces and became involved with its Deir ez-Zor Military Council, serving as a leader in the council.


Battle of Tel Hai

The Battle of Tel Hai was fought on 1 March 1920 between Arab irregulars and a Jewish defensive paramilitary force protecting the village of Tel Hai in Northern Galilee. In the course of the event, a Shiite Arab militia, accompanied by Bedouin from a nearby village, attacked the Jewish agricultural locality of Tel Hai. In the aftermath of the battle eight Jews and five Arabs were killed. Joseph Trumpeldor, the commander of Jewish defenders of Tel Hai, was shot in the hand and stomach, and died while being evacuated to Kfar Giladi that evening. Tel Hai was eventually abandoned by the Jews and burned by the Arab militia.
The event is perceived by some scholars as part of the Franco-Syrian War and by some as an outbreak of violence, in the Arab–Israeli conflict.
Background.
Tel Hai had been intermittently inhabited since 1905 and was permanently settled as a border outpost in 1918, following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I.
The area was subsequently subject to intermittent border adjustments between the British and the French. The Franco-Syrian War took place in early 1920 between Syrian Arab nationalists, under the Hashemite King, and France. Gangs "('isabat)" of clan-based border peasants, combining politics and banditry, were active in the area of the loosely defined border between the soon to be established Mandatory Palestine, French Mandate of Lebanon and Syria.
Joseph Trumpeldor had served as an officer in the Russian Army during the Russian-Japanese War of 1905, being one of the few Russian Jews to gain a commission under the Tsar. He had also commanded a Jewish auxiliary unit fighting together with the British Army during the Gallipoli Campaign of the First World War. As such, he was a well experienced military man, whom the Zionist movement could send to command the threatened outpost.
History.
At the beginning of the Franco-Syrian War, the Upper Galilee was populated by several semi-nomadic Bedouin Arab tribes, the largest residing in Halasa, and four tiny Jewish settlements, including Metula, Kfar Giladi, Tel Hai and Hamra. While the Arab villages and Bedouin allied with the Arab Kingdom of Syria, the Jewish residents chose to remain neutral during the Arab conflict with the French.
Early in the war, a Kfar Giladi resident was killed by armed Bedouin, greatly increasing tension in the region. Jewish villages were regularly pillaged by the pro-Syrian Bedouin on the pretext of searching for French spies and soldiers. In one incident, Trumpeldor and other Jews were stripped of their clothes as a public insult by an Arab Bedouin militia.
Battle.
On March 1, 1920, several hundred Shiite Arabs from the village of Jabal Amil in southern Lebanon marched to the gates of Tel Hai together with Bedouin from Halasa and their Mukhtar, Kamal Affendi. They demanded to search Tel Hai for French soldiers. One of the farmers fired a shot into the air, a signal for reinforcements from nearby Kfar Giladi, which brought ten men led by Trumpeldor, who had been posted by Hashomer to organize defense. Joseph Trumpeldor and his ten men attempted to influence the Shiites and roving village militias to go away through negotiation.
Kamal Affendi was allowed to enter the village to search for French soldiers. He encountered one of the female Jewish residents named Deborah who pointed a pistol at Kamal, apparently surprised to see an armed Bedouin in the village. A shot was discharged during the struggle (unclear whether from the pistol or by another weapon) and a major firefight erupted. Trumpeldor was shot and seriously wounded, while the sides barricaded themselves in the village. Kamal Affendi asked to leave, saying it was all a misunderstanding, and the Jewish force approved the cease-fire. During the Arab retreat, one of the Jewish defenders, unaware of the agreements by his comrades and hearing-impaired by the previous firefight, shot at the Arab party, and the exchange of fire recommenced.
Six Jews and five Arabs were killed in the fighting. Trumpeldor was shot in the hand and stomach and died while being evacuated to Kfar Giladi that evening. The survivors of Tel Hai found their position untenable and had no choice but to withdraw, whereupon the Arabs set fire to the village.
Aftermath.
The eight Jews killed at Tel Hai (this number including two killed in a previous probing attack in January 1920) were buried in two common graves in Kfar Giladi, and both locations were abandoned for a time.
On 3 March, Kfar Giladi was also attacked by a large group of Bedouin. The defenders abandoned the position and retreated to the Shia village of Taibe where they were given shelter and an escort to Ayelet Hashahar which was under British control.
The Franco-Syrian War entered its last stages in July 1920, with the defeat of Hashemites in the Battle of Maysalun. The border in the area of Upper Galilee was finally agreed between the British and the French, and this area was to be included in Mandatory Palestine. It was thus possible for Tel Hai to be resettled in 1921, though it did not become a viable independent community and in 1926 was absorbed into the kibbutz of Kfar Giladi.
With a national monument in Upper Galilee, Israel commemorates the deaths of eight Jews, six men and two women, including Joseph Trumpeldor. The memorial is best known for an emblematic statue of a defiant lion representing Trumpeldor and his comrades. The city of Kiryat Shemona, literally "Town of the Eight" was named after them.
The man who had led the attack, Kemal Hussein, represented the Jewish National Fund which in 1939 purchased land for Kibbutz Dafna.
Significance.
Idith Zertal has written that it marked 'the dramatic initiation of the violent conflict over Palestine.'
Trumpeldor's heritage.
Trumpeldor was severely wounded and died after several hours. He is traditionally credited with having said before dying "No matter, it is good to die ("tov lamut") for our country" ("אין דבר, טוב למות בעד ארצנו") words which in Zionist and Israeli collective memory remain closely associated with the names "Trumpeldor" and "Tel Hai". A recent theory has argued that Trumpeldor's last words were, in fact, a pungent curse in his mother-tongue Russian, reflecting frustration with his bad luck, namely 'Fuck your mother' ((Yob tvoyú mat'),:ёб твою мать!" ).
The words attributed to Trumpeldor, moreover, are clearly a variant of the well known saying "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" ("It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country"), derived from the "Odes" of the Roman poet Horace – lines with which Trumpeldor, like other educated Europeans of the time, may have been familiar.


Asturias Offensive

The Asturias Offensive () was an offensive in Asturias during the Spanish Civil War which lasted from 1 September to 21 October 1937. 45,000 men of the Spanish Republican Army met 90,000 men of the Nationalist forces.
Background.
After the failed Republican offensive against Zaragoza, the Nationalists decided to redeploy their forces and continued their offensive against the last piece of Republican-held territory in the North, Asturias. On 29 August, the Sovereign Council of Asturias, led by Belarmino Tomas, assumed all military and civil powers and appointed Colonel Prada as commander of the Republican Army of the North.
Opposing forces.
The Nationalist offensive was launched by General Dávila's Army of the North, with 80,000 men. This force included José Solchaga's four Navarrese brigades, Aranda's three divisions and the Italian "CTV". The Nationalists also had 250 cannons and 250 aircraft.
Opposing them, the Republicans had the Army of the North, led by Colonel Prada, with the XIV Army Corps led by Francisco Galán (8,000–10,000 men) and Colonel Linares's XVII Army corps (35,000). Prada's chief of staff was Francisco Ciutat. The Republicans had 180 cannons, one squadron of "Chatos" and two flights of "Moscas", around 35 aircraft.
The Nationalist Offensive.
The Nationalist offensive started on 1 September, with Solchaga advancing from the East and Aranda from the southwest, but despite their crushing numerical and air superiority their advance was painfully slow (less than a kilometre a day). The Republicans fought fiercely, and the difficult terrain of the "Cordillera Cantabrica" provided excellent defensive positions. Solchaga's troops (33,000 men) occupied Llanes on September 5 and in the Battle of El Mazuco attacked the heights, held by the "CNT" workers from "La Felguera" (5,000 men). The Navarrese eventually took the valley and surrounding mountains, but only after 33 days of bloody combat. On September 18, the Nationalists occupied Ribadesella, and on 1 October Covadonga, but by 14 October the Republicans still held several high passes of the Leonese Mountains.
The main goal of the Republicans was to delay the Nationalist advance until winter came. Nevertheless, the "Legion Condor" returned from the Aragon front and started to bomb the Republican positions. The German squadrons used cans of petrol attached to incendiary bombs and tested the idea of carpet bombing. On 14 October Arriondas fell, and Colonel Muñoz Grandes managed to break the Republican front, entering Tama and advancing to Campo de Caso. The Republican troops retreated to Gijón, and on 15 October Solchaga's troops joined up with Aranda's troops.
The Republican government then ordered a general evacuation. On 17 October the Sovereign Council of Asturias decided to start the evacuation, but the "Legion Condor" sank the Republican destroyer "Ciscar", and the Nationalist fleet blocked the Asturian harbours. Only the senior officers managed to escape on gunboats and fishing vessels (Prada, Galán, Segundo Blanco, Belarmino Tomas). On 20 October, twenty-two Republican battalions surrendered, and Colonel José Franco handed over the town of Trubia to the Nationalists. On October 21, the Nationalists entered Gijón, ending the occupation of Asturias. Nevertheless, thousands of Republican soldiers fled to the nearby mountains and started a guerrilla campaign against the Nationalist troops.
Aftermath.
The Nationalist reprisals were harsh. In Oviedo alone, 1,000 republican prisoners were shot. The Republican prisoners were sent to labour battalions or were forced to join the Nationalist army (around 100,000). Furthermore, with the conquest of the North, the Nationalists now controlled 36 per cent of Spanish industrial production, 60 per cent of the coal, and all of the steel-production.