Foreign relations of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi

The foreign relations of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (1969–2011) underwent much fluctuation and change. They were marked by severe tension with the West (especially the United States, although relations were normalised in the early 21st century prior to the Libyan Civil War) and by other national policies in the Middle East and Africa, including the Libyan government's financial and military support for numerous paramilitary and rebel groups.
Timeline.
Beginning in 1969, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi determined Libya's foreign policy. His principal foreign policy goals were Arab unity, elimination of Israel, advancement of Islam, support for Palestinians, elimination of outside influence in the Middle East and Africa, and support for a range of "revolutionary" causes.
After the 1969 coup d'état, U.S.-Libyan relations became increasingly strained.
Gaddafi closed American and British bases on Libyan territory and partially nationalized all foreign oil and commercial interests in Libya.
1970s.
Export controls on military equipment and civil aircraft were imposed during the 1970s.
On 11 June 1972, Gaddafi announced that any Arab wishing to volunteer for Palestinian armed groups "can register his name at any Libyan embassy will be given adequate training for combat". He also promised financial support for attacks. In response, the United States withdrew its ambassador.
Gaddafi played a key role in promoting the use of oil embargoes as a political weapon for challenging the West, hoping that an oil price rise and embargo in 1973 would persuade the West—especially the United States—to end support for Israel. Gaddafi rejected both Soviet communism and Western capitalism because he believed that communism was a violation against religion and capitalism was a violation against humanity.
In 1973 the Irish Naval Service intercepted the vessel "Claudia" in Irish territorial waters, which carried Soviet arms from Libya to the Provisional IRA.
In 1976 after a series of terror attacks by the Provisional IRA, Gaddafi announced that "the bombs which are convulsing Britain and breaking its spirit are the bombs of Libyan people. We have sent them to the Irish revolutionaries so that the British will pay the price for their past deeds".
Together with Fidel Castro and other Communist leaders, Gaddafi supported Soviet protege Haile Mariam Mengistu, the military ruler of Ethiopia, who was later convicted for a genocide that killed hundreds of thousands.
Gaddafi funded many national liberation, communist and Maoist, including but not limited to; the Palestine Liberation Organization, the African National Congress, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Black Panther Party, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, the New People's Army of the Philippines, the FRETILIN, the Red Brigades, the Sandinista National Liberation Front, the Tupamaros and the Red Army Faction.
In October 1978, Gaddafi sent Libyan troops to aid Idi Amin in the Uganda–Tanzania War when Amin tried to annex the northern Tanzanian province of Kagera, and Tanzania counterattacked. Amin lost the battle and later fled to exile in Libya, where he remained for almost a year.
Libya also was one of the main supporters of the Polisario Front in the former Spanish Sahara – a nationalist group dedicated to ending Spanish colonialism in the region. The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) was proclaimed by Polisario on 28 February 1976, and Libya began to recognize the SADR as the legitimate government of Western Sahara starting 15 April 1980. It is still common for Sahrawi students to attend their schooling in Libya.
Gaddafi also aided Jean-Bédel Bokassa, the self-proclaimed Emperor of the short-lived Central African Empire, until the latter struck an agreement with French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing by which the French would fund his coronation in exchange for severing ties with Gaddafi.
U.S. embassy staff members were withdrawn from Tripoli after a mob attacked and set fire to the embassy in December 1979. The U.S. government declared Libya a "state sponsor of terrorism" on 29 December 1979.
1980s.
In May 1981, the U.S. government closed the Libyan "people's bureau" (embassy) in Washington, D.C. and expelled the Libyan staff in response their conduct generally violating internationally accepted standards of diplomatic behavior.
In August 1981, in the first incident of the Gulf of Sidra, two Libyan jets fired on U.S. aircraft participating in a routine naval exercise over international waters of the Mediterranean Sea claimed by Libya. The U.S. planes returned fire and shot down the attacking Libyan aircraft. On 11 December 1981, the State Department invalidated U.S. passports for travel to Libya (a "de facto" travel ban) and, for purposes of safety, advised all U.S. citizens in Libya to leave. In March 1982, the U.S. government prohibited imports of Libyan crude oil into the United States and expanded the controls on U.S.-origin goods intended for export to Libya. Licenses were required for all transactions, except food and medicine. In March 1984, U.S. export controls were expanded to prohibit future exports to the Ra's Lanuf petrochemical complex. In April 1985, all Export-Import Bank financing was prohibited.
In October 1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated. Gaddafi applauded the murder and remarked that it was a "punishment" for Sadat's signing of the Camp David Accords with the United States and Israel.
In April 1984, Libyan refugees in London protested against the execution of two dissidents. Libyan diplomats shot at 11 people and killed Yvonne Fletcher, a British policewoman. The incident led to the breaking off of diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and Libya for over a decade. Two months later, Gaddafi asserted that he wanted his agents to assassinate dissident refugees, even if they were just on pilgrimage in the holy city of Mecca—in August 1984, a Libyan plot in Mecca was thwarted by Saudi Arabian police.
After the December 1985 Rome and Vienna airport attacks, which killed 19 and wounded around 140, Gaddafi indicated that he would continue to support the Red Army Faction, the Red Brigades, and the Irish Republican Army as long as European countries support anti-Gaddafi Libyans. The Foreign Minister of Libya also called the massacres "heroic acts".
In 1986 Libyan state television announced that Libya was training suicide squads to attack American and European interests.
Gaddafi claimed the Gulf of Sidra as his territorial water and his navy was involved in a conflict from January to March 1986.
On 5 April 1986, Libyan agents bombed "La Belle" nightclub in West Berlin, killing three people and injuring 229 people who were spending the evening there. Gaddafi's plan was intercepted by Western intelligence. More detailed information was retrieved years later when Stasi archives were investigated by the reunited Germany. Libyan agents who had carried out the operation from the Libyan embassy in East Germany were prosecuted by reunited Germany in the 1990s.
Germany and the United States learned that the bombing in West Berlin had been ordered from Tripoli. On 14 April 1986, the United States carried out Operation El Dorado Canyon against Gaddafi and members of his regime. Air defenses, three army bases, and two airfields in Tripoli and Benghazi were bombed. The surgical strikes failed to kill Gaddafi but he lost a few dozen military officers. There were around 30 military deaths, and around 15 civilian deaths, including Gaddafi's 6-month-old adopted daughter, allegedly.
Gaddafi announced that he had won a spectacular military victory over the United States and the country was officially renamed the "Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah". However, his speech appeared devoid of passion and even the "victory" celebrations appeared unusual. Criticism of Gaddafi by ordinary Libyan citizens became more bold, such as defacing of Gaddafi posters. The raids against Gaddafi had brought the regime to its weakest point in 17 years.
The Chadian–Libyan conflict (1978–1987) ended in disaster for Libya in 1987 with the Toyota War. France supported Chad in this conflict and two years later on 19 September 1989, a French airliner, UTA Flight 772, was destroyed by an in-flight explosion for which Libyan agents were convicted "in absentia". The incident bore close similarities to the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 (the "Lockerbie Bombing") a year earlier. The downing of these two airliners along with the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing seemed to establish a pattern of reprisal attacks—in the form of terrorist bombings—by Libya or at least Libyan agents. The United Nations imposed sanctions on Libya for these two acts (with UN Security Council Resolutions 731, 748 and 883). The UN eventually lifted these sanctions (with Resolution 1506) in 2003 when Libya "accepted responsibility for the actions of its officials, renounced terrorism and arranged for payment of appropriate compensation for the families of the victims." In 2008 Libya established a fund to compensate victims of these three terrorist acts (and the 1986 US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi).
Gaddafi fueled a number of Islamist and communist terrorist groups in the Philippines, as well as paramilitaries in Oceania. He attempted to radicalize New Zealand's Māori people in a failed effort to destabilise the U.S. ally. In Australia, he financed trade unions and some politicians who opposed the ANZUS alliance with the United States. In May 1987, Australia deported diplomats and broke off relations with Libya because of its activities in Oceania.
In late 1987 French authorities stopped a merchant vessel, the "MV Eksund", which was delivering a 150-ton Libyan arms shipment to European terrorist groups.
In 1988, Libya was found to be in the process of constructing a chemical weapons plant at Rabta; former CIA Director Webster has called the Libyan facility "the largest chemical plant that I know for chemical warfare."
Libya's relationship with the Soviet Union involved massive Libyan arms purchases from the Soviet bloc and the presence of thousands of east bloc advisers. Libya's use—and heavy loss—of Soviet-supplied weaponry in its war with Chad was a notable breach of an apparent Soviet-Libyan understanding not to use the weapons for activities inconsistent with Soviet objectives. As a result, Soviet-Libyan relations reached a nadir in mid-1987.
In January 1989, there was another encounter over the Gulf of Sidra between U.S. and Libyan aircraft which resulted in the downing of two Libyan jets.
1990s.
In 1991, two Libyan intelligence agents were indicted by prosecutors in the United States and United Kingdom for their involvement in the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Six other Libyans were put on trial in absentia for the 1989 bombing of UTA Flight 772 over Chad and Niger. The UN Security Council demanded that Libya surrender the suspects, cooperate with the Pan Am 103 and UTA 772 investigations, pay compensation to the victims' families, and cease all support for terrorism. Libya's refusal to comply led to the approval of Security Council Resolution 748 on 31 March 1992, imposing international sanctions on the state designed to bring about Libyan compliance. Continued Libyan defiance led to further sanctions by the UN against Libya in November 1993.
After the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union, Libya concentrated on expanding diplomatic ties with Third World countries and increasing its commercial links with Europe and East Asia. Following the imposition of U.N. sanctions in 1992, these ties significantly diminished. Following a 1998 Arab League meeting in which fellow Arab states decided not to challenge U.N. sanctions, Gaddafi announced that he was turning his back on pan-Arab ideas, one of the fundamental tenets of his philosophy.
Instead, Libya pursued closer bilateral ties, particularly with Egypt and Northwest African nations Tunisia and Morocco. It also has sought to develop its relations with Sub-Saharan Africa, leading to Libyan involvement in several internal African disputes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Central African Republic, Eritrea, and Ethiopia. Libya also has sought to expand its influence in Africa through financial assistance, ranging from aid donations to impoverished neighbors such as Niger to oil subsidies to Zimbabwe. Gaddafi has proposed a borderless "United States of Africa" to transform the continent into a single nation-state ruled by a single government. This plan has been moderately well received, although more powerful would-be participants such as Nigeria and South Africa are skeptical.
Gaddafi also trained and supported Charles Taylor, who was indicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the conflict in Sierra Leone.
Libya had close ties with Slobodan Milošević's regime in Yugoslavia. Gaddafi aligned himself with the Orthodox Serbs against Bosnia and Herzegovina's Muslims and Kosovo's Albanians. Gaddafi supported Milošević even when Milošević was charged with large-scale ethnic cleansing against Albanians in Kosovo. In 2011, former Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nadezhda Mihaylova (Neynsky) revealed in a TV documentary that the Bulgarian government had turned over to Germany an unverified report compiled by its military agency which "made clear" the existence of the plan, even though the military intelligence warned that the information could not be verified.
Gaddafi continued the denunciation of the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia. Intimating that the allegations against the state were deliberate efforts by the "imperialist axis" to falsely image armed ARBiH death squads in Srebrenica and elsewhere.
In 1996, the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA) was enacted, seeking to penalize non-U.S. companies which invest more than $40 million in Libya's oil and gasoline sector in any one year. ILSA was renewed in 2001, and the investment cap lowered to $20 million.
In 1999, less than a decade after the UN sanctions were put in place, Libya began to make dramatic policy changes in regard to the Western world, including turning over the Lockerbie suspects for trial. This diplomatic breakthrough followed years of negotiation, including a visit by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to Libya in December 1998, and personal appeals by Nelson Mandela. Eventually UK Foreign Secretary Robin Cook persuaded the Americans to accept a trial of the suspects in the Netherlands under Scottish law, with the UN Security Council agreeing to suspend sanctions as soon as the suspects arrived in the Netherlands for trial. Libya also paid compensation in 1999 for the death of British policewoman Yvonne Fletcher, a move that preceded the reopening of the British embassy in Tripoli and the appointment of ambassador Sir Richard Dalton, after a 17-year break in diplomatic relations.
2000s.
As of January 2002, Libya was constructing another chemical weapons production facility at Tarhuna. Citing Libya's support for terrorism and its past regional aggressions the United States voiced concern over this development. In cooperation with like-minded countries, the United States has since sought to bring a halt to the foreign technical assistance deemed essential to the completion of this facility. See Chemical weapon proliferation#Libya.
Following the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, Gaddafi decided to abandon his weapons of mass destruction programs and pay almost 3 billion euros in compensation to the families of Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772. The decision was welcomed by many western nations and was seen as an important step toward Libya rejoining the international community. Since 2003 the country has made efforts to normalize its ties with the European Union and the United States and has even coined the catchphrase, 'The Libya Model', an example intended to show the world what can be achieved through negotiation, rather than force, when there is goodwill on both sides. By 2004 George W. Bush had lifted the economic sanctions and official relations resumed with the United States. Libya opened a liaison office in Washington, and the United States opened an office in Tripoli. In January 2004, Congressman Tom Lantos led the first official Congressional delegation visit to Libya.
Libya has supported Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir despite charges of a genocide in Darfur.
The release, in 2007, of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who had been held since 1999, charged with conspiring to deliberately infect over 400 children with HIV, was seen as marking a new stage in Libyan-Western relations.
The United States removed Gaddafi's regime, after 27 years, from its list of states sponsoring terrorism.
On 16 October 2007, Libya was elected to serve on the United Nations Security Council for two years starting in January 2008.
In August 2008 Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi signed an agreement to pay Libya $5 billion over 25 years – this was a "complete and moral acknowledgement of the damage inflicted on Libya by Italy during the colonial era", the Italian prime minister said. In September 2008, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Gaddafi and announced that US-Libya relations have entered a 'new phase'.
Libyan-Swiss relations strongly suffered after the arrest of Hannibal Gaddafi for beating up his domestic servants in Geneva in 2008. In response, Gaddafi removed all his money held in Swiss banks and asked the United Nations to vote to abolish Switzerland as a sovereign nation.
In February 2009, Gaddafi was selected to be chairman of the African Union for one year. The same year, the United Kingdom and Libya signed a prisoner-exchange agreement and then Libya requested the transfer of the convicted Lockerbie bomber, who finally returned home in August 2009.
On 23 September 2009, Colonel Gaddafi addressed the 64th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, his first visit to the United States.
As of 25 October 2009, Canadian visa requests were being denied and Canadian travelers were told they were not welcome in Libya. Specifically, Harper's government was planning to publicly criticize Gaddafi for praising the convicted Lockerbie bomber.
The sincerity of the good faith efforts of the Libyan government may be questionable since Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri, told a U.S. diplomat in 2009 that the Libyans were willing to host wounded Guinean junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara after a failed assassination attempt in 2009. Libya also still provided bounties for heads of refugees who criticized Gaddafi, including 1 million dollars for Ashur Shamis, a Libyan-British journalist.
Despite this brief rapprochement with the West, Libya and Gaddafi retained their anti-imperialist stances. In 2009, Gaddafi, along with Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, signed a declaration rejecting "intentions to link the legitimate struggle of the people for liberty and self-determination with terrorism." At the meeting, Gaddafi suggested a "South Atlantic Treaty Organization", an anti-imperialist alternative to NATO for the Third World.
Gaddafi and Libya always retained its staunch anti-Zionist stance. Throughout the 2000s, Gaddafi and Libya provided support to Palestinian group Hamas, and developed a close relationship with its leader, Khaled Mashal. During the 2008 Gaza War, Libya was the first country to send a shipment of aid to Gaza, Gaddafi also called for Arab volunteers to be sent to Gaza.
Whilst it was presented that Gaddafi had "renounced terrorism", he maintained contact and support for many insurgent groups, namely, the FARC and the ELN in Colombia, the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the Kurdistan National Congress, as well as the Free Papua Movement. Gaddafi also maintained strong links with groups that had previously received support from Libya as armed groups, but had since laid down arms, such as the African National Congress in South Africa, the URNG in Guatemala, SWAPO in Namibia, the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, and the Communist Party of Chile, who's erstwhile paramilitary wing, the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, received support from Libya.
Gaddafi strongly supported and forged close ties with pink tide-era Latin American socialist leaders, such as Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, Evo Morales in Bolivia, José Mujica in Uruguay and Rafael Correa in Ecuador.
2010s.
During the start of the Arab Spring, Gaddafi condemned the Tunisian revolution in January 2011, saying protesters were misled by WikiLeaks and voicing solidarity with ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
The progress made by Gaddafi's government in improving relations with the Western world was swiftly set back by the regime's authoritarian crackdown on protests that began the following month. Many Western countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, and eventually Italy condemned Libya for the brutal crackdown on the dissidents. Peru became the first of several countries to sever diplomatic relations with Tripoli on 22 February 2011, followed closely by African Union member state Botswana the following day.
Libya was suspended from Arab League proceedings on 22 February 2011, the same day Peru terminated bilateral relations. In response, Gaddafi declared that in the view of his government, "The Arab League is finished. There is no such thing as the Arab League."
On 10 March 2011, France became the first country to not just break off relations with the "jamahiriya", but transfer diplomatic recognition to the rebel National Transitional Council established in Benghazi, declaring it to be "the sole legitimate representative of the Libyan people". As of 20 September 2011, a total of 98 countries have taken this step.
On 19 March 2011, a coalition of United Nations member states led by France, the United Kingdom, and the United States began military operations in Libyan airspace and territorial waters after the United Nations Security Council approved UNSCR 1973, ostensibly to prevent further attacks on civilians as loyalist forces closed in on Benghazi, the rebel headquarters. In response, Gaddafi declared that a state of "war with no limits" existed between Libya and the members of the coalition. Despite this, he sent a three-page letter to US President Barack Obama imploring him to "annul a wrong and mistaken action" and stop striking Libyan targets, repeatedly referring to him as "our son" and blaming the uprising on the terrorist group al Qaeda.
Relations with the West.
In 2003 Libya began to make policy changes with the open intention of pursuing a Western-Libyan détente. The Libyan government announced its decision to abandon its weapons of mass destruction programs and pay almost $3 billion in compensation to the families of Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772.
Starting in 2003, the Libyan government restored normal diplomatic ties with the European Union and the United States and has even coined the catchphrase, "The Libya Model", an example intended to show the world what can be achieved through negotiation rather than force when there is goodwill on both sides.
On 30 August 2008, Gaddafi and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi signed a historic cooperation treaty in Benghazi. Under its terms, Italy will pay $5 billion to Libya as compensation for its former military occupation. In exchange, Libya will take measures to combat illegal immigration coming from its shores and boost investments in Italian companies. The treaty was ratified by Italy on 6 February 2009, and by Libya on 2 March, during a visit to Tripoli by Berlusconi.
On 31 October 2008, Libya paid $1.5 billion, sought through donations from private businesses, to a fund that would be used to compensate both US victims of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 and the 1986 bombing of the La Belle disco in Germany. In addition, Libyan victims of US airstrikes that followed the Berlin attack will also be compensated with $300 million from the fund. US state department spokesman, Sean McCormack called the move a "laudable milestone ... clearing the way for continued and expanding US-Libyan partnership." This final payment under the US-Libya Claims Settlement Agreement was seen as a major step towards improving ties between the two, which had begun easing after Tripoli halted its arms programmes. George Bush also signed an executive order restoring Libya's immunity from terror-related lawsuits and dismissing pending compensation cases.
On 17 November 2008, FCO minister Bill Rammell signed five agreements with Libya. Rammell said: "I will today sign four bilateral agreements with my Libyan counterpart, Abdulatti al-Obidi, which will strengthen our judicial ties, as agreed during Tony Blair's visit to Libya in May last year. In addition, we are signing today a Double Taxation Convention which will bring benefits to British business in Libya and Libyan investors in the UK – benefits in terms of certainty, clarity and transparency and reducing tax compliance burdens. We are also in the final stages of negotiating an agreement to protect and promote investment."
"UK/Libya relations have significantly improved in recent years, following Libya's voluntary renunciation of WMD. Today we are partners in the UN Security Council. We also wish to assist Libya to establish closer relations with the European Union to continue and strengthen the reintegration of Libya within the international community. We therefore support the commencement of negotiations between Libya and the EU on a framework agreement which should cover a range of issues including political, social, economic, commercial and cultural relations between the EU and Libya."
On 21 November 2008, the US Senate confirmed the appointment of Gene Cretz to be the first US ambassador to Libya since 1972.
In June 2009, Gaddafi made his first visit to Rome, where he met Prime Minister Berlusconi, President Giorgio Napolitano, Senate President Renato Schifani, and Chamber President Gianfranco Fini, among others. The Democratic Party and Italy of Values opposed the visit, and many protests were staged throughout Italy by human rights organizations and the Radical Party. Gaddafi also took part in the G8 summit in L'Aquila in July as Chairman of the African Union.
In the 2005–2009 period, Italy has been the first EU arms exporter towards Libya, with a total value of €276.7m, of which one third only in the last 2008–2009 years. Italian exports cover one third of total EU arms exports towards Libya, and include mainly military aircraft but also missiles and electronic equipment.
In the late 2000s, Libyan-US relations soured due to the establishment of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM), of which Gaddafi and the Libyan government were highly critical.
During the Libyan Civil War, Italy terminated relations with Tripoli and recognized the rebel authority in Benghazi as Libya's legitimate representative, effectively starting relations with the anti-Gaddafi government. The Italian government has urged the international community to follow suit.
During the Libyan Civil War, all European Union and NATO member states withdrew diplomatic staff from Tripoli and shut their embassies in the Libyan capital. Several foreign embassies and UN offices were badly damaged by vandals on 1 May 2011, drawing condemnation from the United Kingdom and Italy. The UK also expelled the Libyan ambassador in London from the country.
On 1 July 2011, Gaddafi threatened to sponsor attacks against civilians and businesses in Europe in what would be a resumption of his policies of the 1970s and 1980s.
International incidents.
1986 West Berlin discotheque bombing.
On 13 November 2001, a German court found four persons, including a former employee of the Libyan embassy in East Berlin, guilty in connection with the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing, in which 229 people were injured and two U.S. servicemen were killed. The court also established a connection to the Libyan government.
Lockerbie bombing.
In November 1991, two Libyan intelligence agents, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, were charged with the December 1988 Lockerbie bombing. Libya refused to extradite the two accused to the U.S. or to Scotland. As a result, United Nations Security Council Resolution 748 was approved on 31 March 1992, requiring Libya to surrender the suspects, cooperate with the Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772 investigations, pay compensation to the victims' families, and cease all support for terrorism. The UN imposed further sanctions with Resolution 883, a limited assets freeze and an embargo on selected oil equipment, in November 1993. In 1999, six other Libyans who had been accused of the September 1989 bombing of Union Air Transport Flight 772 were put on trial in their absence by a Paris court. They were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The Libyan government eventually surrendered the two Lockerbie bombing suspects in 1999 for trial at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands and UN sanctions were suspended. On 31 January 2001, at the end of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial, Megrahi was convicted of murder and sentenced to 27 years in prison. Fhimah was found not guilty and was freed to return to Libya. Megrahi appealed against his conviction but this was rejected in February 2002. In 2003, Libya wrote to the UN Security Council admitting "responsibility for the actions of its officials" in relation to the Lockerbie bombing, renouncing terrorism and agreeing to pay compensation to the relatives of the 270 victims. The previously suspended UN sanctions were then cancelled.
In June 2007, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission decided that there may have been a miscarriage of justice and referred Megrahi's case back to Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh for a second appeal. Expected to last for a year, the appeal began in April 2009 and was adjourned in May 2009. Having been diagnosed with terminal cancer, Megrahi dropped the appeal and on 20 August 2009, was granted compassionate release from jail and repatriated to Libya. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on 24 September 2009, the day after his address to the UN General Assembly in New York, Colonel Gaddafi said: "As a case, the Lockerbie question: I would say it's come to an end, legally, politically, financially, it is all over."
Benghazi hospital affair.
In the late 1990s, a Benghazi children's hospital was the site of an outbreak of HIV infection that spread to over 400 patients. Libya blamed the outbreak on five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who were arrested and eventually sentenced to death (eventually overturned and a new trial ordered). The international view is that Libya has used the medics as scapegoats for poor hygiene conditions, and Bulgaria and other countries including the European Union and the United States repeatedly called on Tripoli to release them. A new trial began 11 May 2006, in Tripoli. On 6 December a study was released showing that some children had been infected before the six arrived in Libya, but it was too late for inclusion as evidence. On 19 December 2006, the six were again convicted and sentenced to death. They were finally released in June 2007, after mediation of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, in exchange for a variety of agreements with the EU, and they were returned to Bulgaria safely.
Dispute with Switzerland.
On 15 July 2008 the fifth eldest son of Muammar Gaddafi, Hannibal Gaddafi, and his wife were held for two days and charged with assaulting two of their staff in Geneva, Switzerland and then released on bail on 17 July. Hannibal Gaddafi has a history of violent and aggressive behaviour having been charged with battery by his later wife and having attacked Italian police officers.
The government of Libya subsequently put a boycott on Swiss imports, reduced flights between Libya and Switzerland, stopped issuing visas to Swiss citizens, recalled diplomats from Bern, and forced all Swiss companies such as ABB and Nestlé to close offices. General National Maritime Transport Company, which owns a large refinery in Switzerland, also halted oil shipments to Switzerland.
Two Swiss businessmen, Rachid Hamdani and Max Göldi, Libya head of ABB, who were in Libya at the time were denied permission to leave the country and were forced to take shelter at the Swiss embassy in Tripoli. Both were initially sentenced to 6 months in prison for immigration offenses, but Hamdani was cleared on appeal and Göldi's sentence was reduced to four months. Göldi surrendered to Libyan authorities on 22 February 2010, while Hamdani returned to Switzerland on 24 February.
At the 35th G8 summit in July 2009, Muammar Gaddafi called Switzerland a "world mafia" and called for the country to be split between France, Germany and Italy.
In August 2009 Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz visited Tripoli and issued a public apology to Libya for the arrest of Hannibal Gaddafi and his wife. Geneva's prosecutor dropped the case against the Gaddafis when the employees withdrew their formal complaint after reaching an undisclosed settlement.
Schengen Area visa ban.
In February 2010, the dispute with Switzerland spread, with Libya refusing to issue entry visas to nationals of any of the countries within the Schengen Area, of which Switzerland is a part. This action was apparently taken in retaliation for Switzerland blacklisting 188 high-ranking officials from Libya.
As a result of the ban, foreign nationals from certain countries were not permitted entry into Libya at Tripoli airport, including 22 Italians and eight Maltese citizens, one of whom was forced to wait for 20 hours before he was able to return home. Three Italians, nine Portuguese nationals, a Frenchman and a European citizen who arrived from Cairo were repatriated. In addition to citizens of Schengen Area countries being refused entry, it has been reported that several Irish citizens have been turned away, despite Republic of Ireland not being a member of the Schengen agreement. An unnamed Libyan official at the airport asked to confirm the ban told Reuters: "This is right. This decision has been taken. No visas for Europeans, except Britain."
In response, the European Commission criticised the actions, describing them as "unilateral and disproportionate", although no immediate 'tit-for-tat' response was announced.
Support for rebel and paramilitary groups.
The government of Libya had in the past received criticism and trade restrictions from Western countries and organisations for allegedly providing several armed rebel groups with weapons, explosives and combat training.
Paramilitaries supported by Libya past and present include:
Africa.
Libya has in the past claimed a strip along their border of about in northern Niger and part of southeastern Algeria. In addition, it is involved in a maritime boundary dispute with Tunisia.
As with all other African countries, Libya is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement. As with most international organizations to which Tripoli is a party, NAM recognizes it under the name Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
Algeria.
Algeria–Libya relations have generally been amicable. Libyan support for the Polisario Front in the Western Sahara facilitated early post independence Algerian relations with Libya. Libyan inclinations for full-scale political union, however, have obstructed formal political collaboration because Algeria has consistently backed away from such cooperation with its unpredictable neighbour.
Chad.
Libya long claimed the Aouzou Strip, a strip of land in northern Chad rich with uranium deposits that was intensely involved in Chad's civil war in the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1973, Libya engaged in military operations in the Aouzou Strip to gain access to minerals and to use it as a base of influence in Chadian politics. Libya argued that the territory was inhabited by indigenous people who owed allegiance to the Senussi Order and subsequently to the Ottoman Empire, and that this title had been inherited by Libya. It also supported its claim with an unratified 1935 treaty between France and Italy, the colonial powers of Chad and Libya, respectively. After consolidating its hold on the strip, Libya annexed it in 1976. Chadian forces were able to force the Libyans to retreat from the Aouzou Strip in 1987.
A cease-fire between Chad and Libya held from 1987 to 1988, followed by unsuccessful negotiations over the next several years, leading finally to the 1994 International Court of Justice decision granting Chad sovereignty over the Aouzou Strip, which ended Libyan occupation.
Chadian-Libyan relations were ameliorated when Libyan-supported Idriss Déby unseated Habré on 2 December. Gaddafi was the first head of state to recognize the new regime, and he also signed treaties of friendship and cooperation on various levels; but regarding the Aouzou Strip Déby followed his predecessor, declaring that if necessary he would fight to keep the strip out of Libya's hands.
The Aouzou dispute was concluded for good on 3 February 1994, when the judges of the ICJ by a majority of 16 to 1 decided that the Aouzou Strip belonged to Chad. The court's judgement was implemented without delay, the two parties signing as early as 4 April an agreement concerning the practical modalities for the implementation of the judgement. Monitored by international observers, the withdrawal of Libyan troops from the Strip began on 15 April and was completed by 10 May. The formal and final transfer of the Strip from Libya to Chad took place on 30 May, when the sides signed a joint declaration stating that the Libyan withdrawal had been effected.
During the Libyan Civil War, after meeting with high-level representatives of the Chadian government, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that N'Djamena opposes Gaddafi and has reached out to the rival National Transitional Council in rebel-held Benghazi. This claim was disputed by at least one foreign policy analyst, who brought up previous remarks made by Ambassador Daoussa Déby, the Chadian president's half-brother, and said, "Déby's words seem to echo Gaddafi's claims that the terrorist group al-Qaeda masterminded the national uprising in Libya."
Egypt.
After the neighboring countries of Egypt and Libya both gained independence in the early 1950s, relations were initially cooperative. Libya assisted Egypt in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Later, tensions arose due to Egypt's rapprochement with the west. Following the 1977 Libyan–Egyptian War, relations were suspended for twelve years. However, since 1989 relations have steadily improved. With the progressive lifting of UN and US sanctions from 2003 to 2008, the two countries have been working together to jointly develop their oil and natural gas industries.
United States.
In early 2004, the U.S. State Department ended its ban on U.S. citizens using their passports for travel to Libya or spending money there. U.S. citizens began legally heading back to Libya for the first time since 1981.
On 15 May 2006 David Welch, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, announced that the U.S. had decided, after a 45-day comment period, to renew full diplomatic relations with Libya and remove Libya from the U.S. list of countries that foster terrorism. During this announcement, it was also said that the U.S. has the intention of upgrading the U.S. liaison office in Tripoli into an embassy. The U.S. embassy in Tripoli opened in May, a product of gradual normalization of international relations after Libya accepted responsibility for the Pan Am 103 bombing. Libya's dismantling of its weapons of mass destruction was a major step towards this announcement.
The United States suspended its relations with Gaddafi's government indefinitely on 10 March 2011, when it announced it would begin treating the National Transitional Council in Benghazi as legitimate negotiating parties for the country's future.
On 15 July 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that America would now recognize the National Transitional Council as the legitimate government of Libya, thus severing any and all recognition of Gaddafi's government as legitimate.
Asia and Oceania.
China.
Gaddafi was in many ways critical of China on international issues. He also said that China had betrayed socialism. Despite this, Chinese companies engaged in talks to sell weapons to the Libyan government during the First Libyan Civil War, however the Chinese government stated it was unaware of these negotiations, and that weapons were never sold.
Indonesia.
Beginning in 1989, Libya supported the Free Aceh Movement through GAM's second wave with troops and aid. This led to the second GAM wave being better trained than the previous wave.
Iraq.
Relations between Gaddafist Libya and Iraq were strained both during the regime of Saddam Hussein and after it. In 1985, Iraq broke all ties with Libya due to the fact that Libya supported Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. Despite this and a brief rapprochement with the West, Gaddafi was a lifelong critic of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, sharply criticising the war and the execution of Saddam Hussein at a 2008 Arab League summit, and going so far as to suspend all relations with the post-Ba'athist authorities in 2003, until Iraq's "freedom, independence and sovereignty" was restored.
Pakistan.
Since gaining independence from their respective colonial powers, both nations have had a strong relationship, partially due to their historic religious similarities.
Vanuatu.
Vanuatu and Libya established official diplomatic relations in 1986, at the initiative of the former. The aim, for Vanuatu, was to obtain access to favourable economic relations with a major oil-producing country, and to strengthen its policy of non-alignment by establishing relations with a notable country not aligned with the Western Bloc.
International recognition.
As of 18 October 2011, at least 100 UN member states have explicitly recognised the National Transitional Council, as have all international organisations to which Libya is a member. Only the 8 countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas and the African countries of Namibia and Zimbabwe have explicitly continued to denounce the NTC and insist on Gaddafi's legitimacy.


Zimbabwean bonds

Zimbabwean Bonds are a form of legal tender near money released by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe which attempts to resolve Zimbabwe's lack of currency. Bonds are pegged against the U.S. dollar at a 1:1 fixed exchange rate and backed by the country's reserve. Since abandoning the Zimbabwean dollar in 2009 after it went into hyperinflation the country began using a number of foreign currencies including the U.S. dollar, South African rand, British pound and Chinese yuan as a means of exchange. The inability to print these currencies led to a shortage of money with banks issuing limits on withdrawals.
Coins.
On 18 December 2014 the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe began issuing so-called 'bond coins' which were supported by a US$50 million facility extended to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe by Afreximbank (the African Export–Import Bank). Pegged against the U.S. dollar coins were denominated at 1, 5, 10, and 25 cents and later followed by a 50-cent coin in 2015. A bi-metallic one-dollar bond coin was released on 28 November 2016.
Notes.
In November 2016 backed by a US$200 million Afreximbank loan the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe began issuing $2 bond notes. Two months later US$15 million worth of new $5 bond notes were also released. Further plans for $10 and $20 bond notes were ruled out by the central bank's governor, John Mangudya.


Pingdu Campaign

The Pingdu Campaign (平度战役) was a 1945 campaign fought between the communists and the former nationalists turned Japanese puppet regime force who rejoined the nationalists after World War II. The battle was one of the Chinese Civil War in the immediate post World War II era, and resulted in victory for the Communist Party of China.
Prelude.
Like other similar clashes immediately after the end of World War II between the communists and the nationalists in China, this conflict also was rooted in the fact that Chiang Kai-shek had realized that his nationalist regime simply had neither sufficient troops nor enough transportation assets to deploy his troops into the Japanese-occupied regions of China. Unwilling to let the communists who had already dominated most of the rural regions in China to further expand their territories by accepting the Japanese surrender and thus would consequently control the Japanese occupied regions, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the Japanese and their turncoat Chinese puppet regime not to surrender to the communists and kept their fighting capabilities to "maintain order" in the Japanese occupied regions, fighting off the communists as necessary, until the final arrivals and completion of the deployment of the nationalist troops. As a result, most members of the Japanese puppet regimes and their military forces rejoined the nationalists.
However, most of these former nationalists turned Japanese puppet regime forces were not from Chiang Kai-shek's own clique, but instead, they mainly consisted of troops of warlords who were only nominally serving under Chiang Kai-shek before World War II, since they were nationalists in name only and mostly maintained their independent and semi-independent status. These warlords were only interested in keeping their own power and defected to the Japanese side when Japanese invaders offered to let them keep their power in exchange for their collaboration. After World War II, these forces of former Japanese puppet regimes once again returned to the nationalist camp for the same reason they defected to the Japanese invaders. Obviously, it was difficult for Chiang to immediately get rid of these warlords for good as soon as they surrendered to Chiang and rejoined nationalists, because such a move would alienate other factions within the nationalist ranks, and these former Japanese puppet regime's warlords could still help the nationalists gain more territories by holding on to what was under their control until Chiang completed the deployment of his own troops to take over. Chiang Kai-shek's objective was to simultaneously solve the warlord problem that had plagued China for so long and the problem of the extermination of communism together, which proved to be an extremely fatal mistake for him and his nationalist regime later on, as shown in this conflict.
Nationalist strategy.
In accordance with his strategy to simultaneously solve the warlord problem that had plagued China for so long and the problem of the extermination of communism together, Chiang Kai-shek and his followers had hoped that these former Japanese puppet regime's warlords who rejoined the nationalists would be able to hold on to the regions long enough for Chiang to deploy his own troops by holding off communists. If the communists were victorious in such conflicts, however, the result would still benefit to Chiang and China because the power of these warlords would be reduced as their military forces were smashed by the communists, and the warlord problem plagued China for so long could thus be greatly reduced, while at the same time, communists would be weakened by the fights and Chiang's own troops would have easier time to take control.
For the former nationalist turned Japanese puppet regime forces, these warlords and their troops had no problem of following Chiang Kai-shek's orders, and they were eager to prove themselves. These warlords and their troops were well aware that due to the collaboration with the Japanese invaders during the Second Sino-Japanese War, they were well hated by the general population in China, including those nationalists who refused to surrender to the enemy and fought the enemy until the eventual victory. Therefore, in the impending demilitarization after World War II, they were certainly be disarmed and discharged, which would probably be the best outcome and the power of these warlord would be reduced or even completely eliminated as a result. Chiang Kai-shek's ordering them not surrendering to the communists and fighting off the communists was a savior for them because by carrying out such orders, these warlords and their troops could legitimize themselves and thus retain their power by fighting the communists who were targeted as rebels by Chiang Kai-shek and his nationalist regime.
Communist Strategy.
The communist strategy was much simpler than that of the nationalists because there was not any huge division within the communist rank like that of the nationalist. The communists already earned considerable popular support by being the only Chinese force left in the region fighting the Japanese invaders and their puppet regime after the nationalist withdrew, and after successfully establishing communist bases in the rural regions where better life was provided to the general populace in comparison to that of Japanese occupied regions, the general Chinese populace agreed that the communists were well deserved to represent the China to accept the invaders' surrender in the region and takeover the regions occupied by the invaders.
Campaign.
In, 1945, the communists decided to take Pingdu City by force after the local defenders consisted of former nationalists turned Japanese puppet regime force who rejoined the nationalists after World War II refused to surrender. In early September 1945, communists gathered in the region of Seven Miles River (Qilihezi, 七里河子) to the north of the city, and 13th Regiment of 5th Division of the communist Shandong Military Region, a battalion of the communist 6th Division, and the communist 5th Garrison Brigade were grouped into two attack waves for the upcoming assault on the city. The numerical superior nationalist defending force totaling over six thousands with an additional six hundred Japanese troops were not worried, which consequently cost them the battle.
At 8:30 PM on 7 September 1945, the battle begun when the communists launched a pincer assault from both the east and the west, and soon the eastern and western passes fell into the enemy hands. In the early morning of 8 September 1945, Japanese troops fled the city to Gaomi (高密), and the nationalists fought on until 7:00 AM when the city finally fell. The communists succeeded in capturing over four thousand rifles, nearly a hundred machine guns, six mortars, sixteen infantry artilleries, over a hundred twelve thousand rounds of ammunitions and over a hundred fifty war horses.
Outcome.
Like other similar clashes immediately after the end of World War II between the communists and the nationalists in China, this conflict also showed that Chiang Kai-shek's attempt to simultaneously solve the warlord problem that had plagued China for so long and the problem of the extermination of communism together proved to be a fatal mistake. Although the result of the campaign turned out exactly like Chiang Kai-shek and his subordinates had predicted, and consequently the power of the warlords in this region was indeed reduced as their military forces were smashed by the communists, so that the warlord problem plagued China for so long was thus reduced for this particular region, and Chiang Kai-shek's secondary objective was achieved here, any positive gains obtained by the nationalists were negated by the politic fallout. The reason was that this success of achieving the secondary objective came at a huge cost in nationalists' loss of popular support in this region formerly dominated by the Japanese, because the local population had already blamed nationalists for losing the regions to the Japanese invaders, while reassigning these former Japanese puppet regime forces as the nationalist forces to fight the communists, the only Chinese force left in the regions, only further alienated the local populace and strengthened the popular resentment to Chiang Kai-shek and his nationalist regime.
The communists did not have the dilemmas faced by the nationalists and enjoyed popular support, and thus was able to easily overwhelm their nationalist adversary, and thus achieving victory without much difficulty. Like other similar clashes immediately after the end of World War II between the communists and the nationalists in China, the political gain was much greater than the military one for the communists as result of this battle.


Mei Yi (translator)

Mei Yi (; 2 January 1913 – 13 September 2003) was a Chinese translator, journalist and politician. In 1938 he translated the English version of "How the Steel Was Tempered", which was the earliest Chinese version.
Biography.
ROC era.
Mei was born Chen Shaoqing in Xiangqiao District of Chaozhou, Guangdong, on January 2, 1913, to Chen Yansheng (), a boatman. He primarily studied at Chengnan Primary School and secondary studied at Shantou Jinshan Middle School. In the summer of 1932, Mei went to Peiping alone, looking for revolutionary organizations and studying English by himself in the Beijing Library. He started to publish works in 1934. At the beginning of 1935, Mei joined the Chinese League of Left-Wing Writers and went to Shanghai in the autumn of the same year to teach at a private high school, but he was expelled from the school soon because he let the students in his class take part in the demonstration. Mei joined the Communist Party of China in 1937. After Shanghai was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army, he served as editor-in-chief of the "Daily Translation". In September 1940 he was accepted to Hangchow University. From 1942 to 1945, he served in the Propaganda Department of the East China Bureau of the Communist Party of China. From 1945 to 1946, he served as Secretary of the Shanghai Cultural Committee of the Communist Party of China and spokesman of the delegation of the Communist Party of China in Nanjing in 1946. From 1947 to 1949, he served as deputy editor-in-chief of Yan'an and Taihang Branch Office of the Xinhua News Agency.
PRC era.
After the establishment of the Communist State in 1949, he became deputy director-general and then director-general and secretary of the Party Group of the Central Broadcasting Bureau. In 1957, he was elected vice-president of the All-China Journalists Association.
In 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution, he was brought to be persecuted and then was sent to the May Seventh Cadre Schools to do farm works in Suiyang District of Shangqiu, Henan.
Since 1978, he had been secretary-general, vice-president and first secretary of the Party Group of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and vice-director of the Editorial Committee of Encyclopedia of China. From 1986 to 1996 he served as chief editor of China Encyclopedia Publishing House.
He was a member of the 1st and 5th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He was a delegate to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd National People's Congress. He was a member of the 1st and 2nd Advisory Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
He died on September 13, 2003 in Beijing, aged 90.
Personal life.
Mei married Yin Qihua ().


United Kingdom home front during World War II

The United Kingdom home front during World War II covers the political, social and economic history during 1939–1945.
The war was very expensive. It was paid for by high taxes, by selling off assets, and by accepting large amounts of Lend Lease from the U.S. and Canada. The US gave $30 billion in munitions; Canada also gave aid. The American and Canadian aid did not have to be repaid, but there were also American loans that were repaid.
Britain's total mobilisation during this period proved to be successful in winning the war, by maintaining strong support from public opinion. The war was a "people's war" that enlarged democratic aspirations and produced promises of a better Britain after the war. The media called it a "people's war"—a term that caught on and signified the popular demand for planning and an expanded welfare state. Indeed by 1945 the Post-war consensus emerged that did deliver a welfare state.
The Royal family played major symbolic roles in the war. They refused to leave London during the Blitz and were indefatigable in visiting troops, munition factories, dockyards, and hospitals all over the country. All social classes appreciated how the royals shared the hopes, fears and hardships of the people.
The British relied successfully on voluntarism. Munitions production rose dramatically, and the quality remained high. Food production was emphasised, in large part to free shipping for munitions. Farmers increased the area under cultivation from 12,000,000 to 18,000,000 acres (from about 50,000 to 75,000 km2), and the farm labour force was expanded by a fifth, thanks especially to the Women's Land Army.
See also Timeline of the United Kingdom home front during World War II, Military history of the United Kingdom during World War II and Diplomatic history of World War II.
Politics.
Planning the welfare state.
The common experience of suffering wartime hardships placed on the political agenda a new consensus regarding the need for a post-war welfare state: universal social security, a free national health service, improved secondary education, expanded housing, and family allowances. The success of the wartime government in providing new services, such as hospitals and school lunches, as well as the prevailing egalitarian spirit, contributed to widespread support for an enlarged welfare state. It was supported by the coalition government and all major parties. Welfare conditions, especially regarding food, improved during the war as the government imposed rationing and subsidized food prices. Conditions for housing worsened of course with the bombing, and clothing was in short supply. Equality increased dramatically, as incomes declined sharply for the wealthy and for white collar workers, as their taxes soared, while blue collar workers benefited from rationing and price controls.
People demanded an expansion of the welfare state as a reward to the people for their wartime sacrifices. The Labour Party took the initiative but the Conservatives took the lead in the Education Act of 1944. It made major improvements in the provision and governance of secondary schools in England and Wales. Historians consider it a "triumph for progressive reform," and it became a core element of the Post-war consensus supported by all major parties.
The goal of a welfare state was operationalized in a famous report by William Beveridge, of the Liberal Party. Beveridge declared war on the five 'giant evils' of Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness. He recommended that the various income maintenance services that had grown-up piecemeal since 1911 be systematized and made universal. Unemployment benefits and sickness benefits were to be universal. There would be new benefits for maternity. The old-age pension system would be revised and expanded, and require that a person retired. A full-scale National Health Service would provide free medical care for everyone. All the major parties endorsed the principles and they were largely put into effect when peace returned.
Planning for postwar housing began in 1941, with Conservatives arguing that more property-owning would give people a real economic stake in society; promises to expand ownership became the signature Conservative issue after 1945, while Labour still deprecated private ownership. All parties wanted to stimulate the construction industry. The consensus policy was that local authorities would lead in the transitional period but that, in the longer run, the majority of new building would be left to the private sector. Local government would then revert to the prewar role, concentrating on slum clearance and provision for the least well-off. Financial stringencies in the late 1940s postponed the ideal plan into the 1950s. –
Economics.
Britain had a highly successful record of mobilizing the home front for the war effort, in terms of mobilizing the greatest proportion of potential workers, maximizing output, assigning the right skills to the right task, and maintaining the morale and spirit of the people. By 1941 GDP was 21 per cent greater than in 1938, In Britain was the most fully mobilized nation, economically, in the entire war and remains so throughout. Much of this success was due to the systematic planned mobilization of women, as workers, soldiers, and housewives, enforced after December 1941 by conscription. The women supported the war effort, and made the rationing of consumer goods a success.
Finance.
In 6 years of war, there was a net inflow of £10 billion. Of this £1.1 billion came from the sale of investments; £3.5 billion was made up of new borrowing, of which £2.7 billion was contributed by the Empire's Sterling Area. Canada made C$3 billion in gifts and loans on easy terms. Above all came the American money, and loans and Lend Lease grants of £5.4 billion. This funded heavy purchases of munitions, food, oil, machinery and raw materials. There was no charge for Lend Lease supplies delivered during the war. There was a charge for supplies delivered after September 2, 1945. Britain's borrowing from India and other countries measured by "sterling balances" amounted to £3.4 billion in 1945. Britain treated this as a long-term loan with no interest and no specified repayment date. The British treasury was nearly empty by 1945.
When the war began Britain imposed exchange controls. The British Government used its gold reserves and dollar reserves to pay for munitions, oil, raw materials and machinery, mostly from the U.S. By the third quarter of 1940 the volume of British exports was down 37% compared to 1935. Although the British Government had committed itself to nearly $10,000 million of orders from America, Britain's gold and dollar reserves were near exhaustion. The Roosevelt Administration was committed to large-scale economic support of Britain and in March 1941 began Lend-Lease, whereby America would give Britain supplies totalling $31.4 billion which did not have to be repaid.
Industry.
As an island nation, when war broke out in 1939, Great Britain was dependent for so many of its supplies on imports by sea. The days of significant air cargo traffic had yet to arrive but would have been equally vulnerable to enemy attack. Although the term was not used in those days, there was an immediate recourse to recycling to conserve scarce resources. Garden railings were removed for their scrap metal and aluminium kitchen saucepans were collected for their potential in the aircraft industry. Whilst there may have been undue optimism of some of the benefits, nevertheless, the whole population was involved in a practical way in helping the war effort.
David Edgerton has emphasized the success story in producing munitions at home and using the Empire and the U.S. to build a very large high quality stock of weapons. Industrial production was reoriented toward munitions, and output soared. In steel, for example, the Materials Committee of the government tried to balance the needs of civilian departments and the War Department, but strategic considerations received precedence over any other need. Highest priority went to aircraft production as the RAF was under continuous heavy German pressure. The government decided to concentrate on only five types of aircraft in order to optimize output. They received extraordinary priority. Covering the supply of materials and equipment and even made it possible to divert from other types the necessary parts, equipment, materials and manufacturing resources. Labour was moved from other aircraft work to factories engaged on the specified types. Cost was not an object. The delivery of new fighters rose from 256 in April to 467 in September 1940—more than enough to cover the losses—and Fighter Command emerged triumphantly from the Battle of Britain in October with more aircraft than it had possessed at the beginning. Starting in 1941 the U.S. provided munitions through Lend lease that totalled $15.5 billion
Rural economies.
Before the war Britain imported 70% of its food. Home agricultural production increased 35% during the war. In terms of calories, domestic output nearly doubled. Together with imports and rationing, this meant the British were well fed—they ate less meat (down 36% by 1943) and more wheat (up 81%) and potatoes (up 96%).
Farmers increased the number of acres under cultivation from 12,000,000 to 18,000,000 (from about 50,000 to 75,000 km2), and the farm labour force was expanded by a fifth, thanks especially to the Women's Land Army. Farm women had expanded duties, with the young men absent at war. They were helped by prisoners of war from Italy and Germany. The Women's Land Army brought in tens of thousands of young women from urban areas for paid labour on farms that needed them, at about 30 shillings a week. Wages for available male farmworkers tripled during the war to £3 a week.
One new specialty was harvesting timber, for which the government set up the Women's Timber Corps, a branch of the Women's Land Army that operated 1942-46.
For townspeople and even city folk, the government promoted Victory Gardens that grew vegetables, fruits, and herbs. About 1.4 million allotments were made; they took some of the pressure off the food rationing system and boosted civilian morale. Franklin Ginn peels away complex layers of meaning beyond growing some food. Participants were not randomly digging; they were promoting self-sufficiency, imposing control over the domestic sphere, and exhibiting patriotism in working for the common good of winning the war. There were sharply different gender roles and class experiences—gardening had been a favourite elite hobby and the upper class women helping out knew what they were doing. The much touted statistics of additional food production were designed to foster general confidence in the progress of the war, not just the progress of plants.
Rationing.
Rationing was designed to provide minimum standards of essential consumption for all members of society, to reduce waste, reduce trans-Atlantic shipping usage, and make possible the production of more war supplies with less variety. The theme of equality of sacrifice was paramount.
Just before the war began Britain was importing 20,000,000 long tons of food per year, including about 70% of its cheese and sugar, nearly 80% of fruits and about 70% of cereals and fats. The UK also imported more than half of its meat, and relied on imported feed to support its domestic meat production. The civilian population of the country was about 50 million. It was one of the principal strategies of the Germans in the Battle of the Atlantic to attack shipping bound for Britain, restricting British industry and potentially starving the nation into submission.
To deal with sometimes extreme shortages, the Ministry of Food instituted a system of rationing. To buy most rationed items, each person had to register at chosen shops, and was provided with a ration book containing coupons that were only good at that shop. The shopkeeper was provided with enough food for registered customers. Purchasers had to take ration books with them when shopping, so that the relevant coupon or coupons could be cancelled.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Scotland.
The outbreak of the world war in 1939 temporarily arrested the ongoing decline in heavy industry, with the city's shipyards and heavy industries working. To slow arms production down, the Luftwaffe bombed the Clydeside. The worst was the Clydebank Blitz in March 1941 that left tens of thousands of Glaswegians homeless and destruction of housing caused by the war would leave a lasting legacy for the city decades later.
Wales.
Wales had been hard hit by deindustrialisation and high unemployment in the 1920s and 1930s. The war turned the economy around. Because much of Wales was too distant for German bombers and it had a large pool of unemployed men immediately available for work, it suddenly became an attractive relocation destination for war industries and ordinance factories. The historic basic industries of coal and steel saw a very heavy new demand. The best coal seams had long been depleted. It was more and more expensive to get to the remaining coal, but coal was urgently needed, and shipping it in from North America would overburden the limited supply system.
Belfast.
Belfast is a representative British city that has been well studied by historians. It was a key industrial city producing ships, tanks, aircraft, engineering works, arms, uniforms, parachutes and a host of other industrial goods. The unemployment that had been so persistent in the 1930s disappeared, and labour shortages appeared. There was a major munitions strike in 1944. As a key industrial city, Belfast became a target for German bombing missions, but it was thinly defended; there were only 24 anti-aircraft guns in the city for example. The Northern Ireland government under Richard Dawson Bates (Minister for Home Affairs) had prepared too late, assuming that Belfast was far enough away to be safe. When Germany conquered France in Spring 1940 it gained closer airfields. The city's fire brigade was inadequate; there were no public air raid shelters as the Northern Ireland government was reluctant to spend money on them; and there were no searchlights in the city, which made shooting down enemy bombers all the more difficult. After seeing the Blitz in London in the autumn of 1940, the government began to build air raid shelters. In early 1941, the Luftwaffe flew reconnaissance missions that identified the docks and industrial areas to be targeted. Especially hard hit were the working class areas in the north and east of the city, where over 1000 were killed and hundreds were seriously injured. Many people left the city in fear of future attacks. The bombing revealed the terrible slum conditions. In May 1941, the Luftwaffe hit the docks and the Harland and Wolff shipyard, closing it for six months. Apart from the numbers of dead, the Belfast Blitz saw half of the city's houses destroyed. About £20 million worth of damage was caused. The Northern Ireland government was criticised heavily for its lack of preparation, and Northern Ireland's Prime Minister J. M. Andrews resigned. The bombing raids continued until the Operation Barbarossa in June 1941. From January 1942, United States soldiers began to arrive in Northern Ireland, in preparation for the Invasion of Normandy in June 1944.
Civilian casualties.
Figures produced by the Ministry of Home Security give a total of 60,595 civilians killed and 86,182 seriously wounded, directly due to enemy action.
Of these, 51,509 were killed by bombing, 8,398 by V-1 flying bombs or V-2 rockets, and 148 by artillery bombardment. These figures do not include 1,200 killed while on duty with the Home Guard, or 32,000 civilian merchant seamen lost at sea. The total civilian deaths represent 0.1 percent of the United Kingdom population, or about 15 percent of Britain's war dead.
Society and culture.
Evacuations.
Public opinion in the 1930s was horrified at this prospect of massive bombing of major cities. The government planned to evacuate schoolchildren and others to towns and rural areas where they would be safe. Operation Pied Piper began on 1 September 1939, and relocated more than 3.5 million children and teachers - about half from London. The average evacuee traveled about 40 miles, but some traveled longer distances. There was no bombing in 1939, so they soon returned home. After a German invasion was possible and the Blitz began in September 1940, there was a second major wave of evacuation in June 1940 from targeted cities. There were also small-scale evacuations of children to Canada. Many families relocated to safer areas on their own. The host families worked well with most children, however there was a minority from poor, undernourished, unhygienic and uncooperative environments who brought along a strong distrust of authority. The confrontation was an eye-opener to both sides, and played a role in convincing the British middle-class to support expanded welfare programs. For the first time it became clear that middle class and rich people needed help too - they were bombed out of their homes and schools as well. Sociologist Richard Titmuss argues, "Reports in 1939 about the condition of evacuated mothers and children aroused the conscience of the nation in the opening phase of the war." He states that the national government:
Fear.
Historian Amy Bell interprets private diaries, psychologists' notes, and fiction written by Londoners during the war "to reveal the hidden landscapes of fear in a city at war." They feared loss of property, loss of their homes and those of family and friends, destruction of their churches and shops, and their own injury and death. Many saw London as a "potential canker in the heart of Imperial Britain," with British civilization highly vulnerable to internal weaknesses stemming from an "enemy within," specifically, the cowardice among those who remained in London during the war. Worried Londoners often identified as especially susceptible to this weakness the working classes, Jews, and children.
Education.
The quality of elementary education in major cities declined because of poor leadership in handling crises, confusion and inconsistency in evacuation and school closings, the destruction of some buildings in air raids, and the military requisition of others. Students were emotionally upset by the bombings; there were endemic shortages of supplies and teachers. The 1944 Education Act had a major impact on improving secondary schools after 1945, but did little for elementary schools. A lesser level of disruption took place in smaller places that were not bombing targets.
Religion.
All the churches gave enthusiastic support for the war, using their facilities to assist the displaced and comfort the fearful. At the local level, popular religiosity remained a vibrant force. Prayer and Sunday services helped many people handle the horrors and the unknowns of warfare. City people reflected on the reality of sudden death as they huddled in air raid shelters. Some sang:
<poem>God is our refuge, be not afraid,
He will be with you all through the raid.</poem>
They told each other how miracles were protecting Britain, pointing to the Miracle of Dunkirk, and how this church and that cathedral miraculously survived the blitz. Not all prayers were answered: over 15,000 church buildings were damaged; the Methodists had 9000 churches, of which 800 were totally destroyed. Many laymen who had volunteered for church work before the war, now turned their attention to civil defence.
The Church of England saw its role as the moral conscience of the state. George Bell, Bishop of Chichester and a few clergymen spoke out that the aerial bombing of German cities was immoral. They were grudgingly tolerated. Bishop Bell was chastised by fellow clergy members and passed over for promotion. The Archbishop of York replied, "it is a lesser evil to bomb the war-loving Germans than to sacrifice the lives of our fellow countrymen..., or to delay the delivery of many now held in slavery". Diplomat Harold Nicolson was on the BBC Board when it discussed whether clergy should broadcast forgiveness of our enemies. He told the Board, "I prefer that to the clergy who seek to pretend that the bombing of Cologne was a Christian act. I wish the clergy would keep their mouths shut about the war. It is none of their business."
Standards of morality in Britain changed dramatically after the world wars, in the direction of more personal freedom, especially in sexual matters. The Church of England and the Catholic Church tried to hold the line and stop the rapid trend toward divorce, while the Dissenters were coming to terms with the new reality of divorced members.
While the Church of England was historically identified with the upper classes, and with the rural gentry, Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple (1881 – 1944) was both a prolific theologian and a social activist, preaching Christian socialism and taking an active role in the Labour Party until 1921. He advocated a broad and inclusive membership in the Church of England as a means of continuing and expanding the church's position as the established church. He became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1942, and the same year he published "Christianity and Social Order." The best-seller attempted to marry faith and socialism—by "socialism" he meant a deep concern for the poor. The book helped solidify Anglican support for the emerging welfare state. Temple was troubled by the high degree of animosity inside, and between the leading religious groups in Britain. He promoted ecumenicism, working to establish better relationships with the Nonconformists, Jews and Catholics, managing in the process to overcome his anti-Catholic bias.
Gambling.
The experience of total war 1939 to 1945 meant much less leisure and highly restricted transportation, So attendance fell at gambling venues such as racing tracks for horses and dogs. However the amount of betting stayed high. Anti-gambling organizations other opportunity to use the national emergency to shut down many legitimate gambling activities, but the early successes in curtailing horse racing, dog racing and football—which were the main topics of gambling—were soon reversed as the government saw gambling as a necessary psychological outlet in a time of highly restricted leisure opportunities. The renewed opportunities as well, such as 'unity' football pools and a larger number of illegal neighborhood bookmakers. For the first time there was heavy gambling on Irish horse races, which were not interrupted during the war. The government provided extra petrol needed for the movement of racing horses and dogs.
Women.
Mobilisation.
Historians credit Britain with a highly successful record of mobilising the home front for the war effort, in terms of mobilising the greatest proportion of potential workers, maximising output, assigning the right skills to the right task, and maintaining the morale and spirit of the people. Much of this success was due to the systematic planned mobilisation of women, as workers, soldiers and housewives, enforced after December 1941 by conscription. The women supported the war effort, and made the rationing of consumer goods a success. In some ways, the government over-responded, evacuating too many children in the first days of the war, closing cinemas as frivolous then reopening them when the need for cheap entertainment was clear, sacrificing cats and dogs to save a little space on shipping pet food, only to discover an urgent need to keep the rats and mice under control. In the balance between compulsion and voluntarism, the British relied successfully on voluntarism. The success of the government in providing new services, such as hospitals and school lunches, as well as egalitarian spirit, contributed to widespread support for an enlarged welfare state. Munitions production rose dramatically, and the quality remained high. Food production was emphasised, in large part to free shipping for munitions.
Parents had much less time to supervise their children, and there were fears of juvenile delinquency, especially as older teenagers took jobs and emulated their older siblings in the service. The government responded by requiring all young people over 16 to register, and expanded the number of clubs and organisations available to them.


Ill Met by Moonlight

Ill Met by Moonlight: The Abduction of General Kreipe is a non-fiction partly-autobiographical book written by W. Stanley Moss, a British soldier, writer and traveller. It describes an operation in Crete during the Second World War to capture German general Heinrich Kreipe. Moss kept a diary during the war years and based his book on it. The 2014 edition includes an introduction by one of Moss's children and an afterword by Patrick Leigh Fermor.
The story was made into a 1957 film with the same title starring Dirk Bogarde by the British writer-director-producer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
Development & publication.
The book recounts Moss's service, alongside Patrick Leigh Fermor, as an agent of Special Operations Executive (SOE), including their kidnapping of Heinrich Kreipe, commander of "22. Luftlande-Division" (22nd Air Landing Division) on German-occupied Crete, and Kreipe's removal to Cairo for intelligence and propaganda purposes.
While the manuscript was completed in early 1945, its publication was initially blocked by the head of SOE, Major-General Sir Colin Gubbins, an instruction relayed by Colin Mackenzie (BB100), commander of Force 136.
It was first published in 1950, when it was selected by W. Somerset Maugham as one of the best three books of that year: "more thrilling than any detective story I can remember, and written in a modest and most engaging manner". The book was chosen to lead the BBC radio series "Now it can be told" of 1950. It has been republished many times since and remains in print. The book has been translated into Spanish, Italian and Greek.
The title is a quotation from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (Act 2, Scene 1, Line 60).
Moss's second book, "A War of Shadows", describes the aftermath of "Ill Met by Moonlight", a subsequent raid on Crete and operations in mainland Greece and Thailand (against Japanese forces).
Summary.
In May 1941, German forces attacked and occupied Crete. Allied forces were driven back and evacuated to North Africa by June. The Special Operations Executive (SOE) inserted agents on Crete in order to work with the local resistance in harrying German occupying forces.
On 4 February 1944, Major Patrick Leigh Fermor and Captain William Stanley Moss and two Cretan SOE agents left Egypt by plane for Crete. Their intention was to parachute into Crete but after arriving at the drop zone, only Leigh Fermor was able to parachute successfully. The others had to abandon the attempt due to bad weather and were returned to Egypt. On landing Leigh Fermor was met by a group from the Cretan resistance, with whom he remained until the arrival of the rest of the SOE team. After three more attempts at a parachute jump over a two-month period, Moss and the other two arrived by Motor Launch ML 842 on 4 April 1944. They were met on the beach by Leigh Fermor and another SOE agent, Sandy Rendel.
Their target General Müller was replaced by General Kreipe just before they arrived. The team decided to proceed with the plan to abduct the German commanding officer. The SOE team included a number of Cretans; 'Anthony' (Antonis Papaleonidas), 'Micky' (Michalis Akoumianakis) and Grigorios Chnarakis. Micky was especially welcome as his house was opposite Kreipe's residence, the Villa Ariadne, in the village of Knossos. The team reconnoitred the area and planned the abduction. Dressed as a Cretan shepherd, Leigh Fermor travelled on the local bus to check Knossos and the area around the German headquarters. He decided that the German headquarters would be too difficult to penetrate. After a few days of alternately observing the actions of the General, they finalized the details of the abduction. The plan was for the two British officers, dressed as corporals in the "Feldgendarmerie" (German military police), to stop the general's car on his way home at what was supposed to be a routine check point.
On the night of 26 April 1944, the two British officers stopped the General's car before the Villa Ariadne. When the car stopped, Leigh Fermor took care of Kreipe and Moss knocked the driver out with his cosh. Moss drove the team and the General in the General's car for an hour and a half through 22 controlled road blocks in Heraklion before leaving Leigh Fermor to abandon the car. When Leigh Fermor left the car, he also left documents revealing that the kidnapping had been done by British Commandos so that no reprisals should be taken against the local population.
With his Cretan escorts, Moss set off with the General across country to a rendezvous where they would be joined by Leigh Fermor. Hunted by German patrols, the group moved across the mountains to reach the southern side of the island, where a British motor launch (ML 842 commanded by Brian Coleman) was to pick them up. On 14 May 1944, the SOE team and the general were finally picked up from a beach near Rodakino, possibly Peristeres beach, on the southern side of the island. They were transported to safety, landing at Mersa Matruh in Egypt.
After the war, a member of Kreipe’s staff reported how, on hearing the news of the kidnapping, an uneasy silence in the officers' mess in Heraklion was followed by, “Well gentlemen, I think this calls for champagne all round.” Post War correspondence explains that Kreipe was disliked by his soldiers because, amongst other things, he objected to the stopping of his own vehicle for checking in compliance with his commands concerning approved travel orders. This tension between the General and his troops, in part, explains the caution of sentries in considering stopping the General’s car as Moss drove it through Heraklion.
The book was due to be published in Germany in 1950. Kreipe alleged that he had never given his parole not to shout or to try to escape to Moss and Leigh Fermor as described by Moss in the book. Kreipe secured an injunction preventing publication of the book in Germany on the grounds that the statement in the book was untrue. Leigh Fermor's report after the operation and the publication of his account of the abduction published in 2015 both corroborated Moss's version of events.
References.
Notes


Reactron

Reactron is a fictional supervillain who appears in comic books published by DC Comics, usually as an adversary of Supergirl.
Publication history.
Reactron first appears in "The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl" #8 (June 1983), in a story written by Paul Kupperberg and drawn by Carmine Infantino.
Fictional character biography.
Pre-Crisis.
Ben Krullen was a sergeant serving in the US Army during the Vietnam War, alongside Joshua Clay, the future Doom Patrol member who would be known as Tempest. When Krullen massacred the inhabitants of a Vietnamese village, the shock triggered the activation of Clay's metahuman powers. Clay seemingly destroyed Krullen with his energy blasts, then went AWOL.
Krullen, instead of being killed, is transformed into a being capable of generating radioactive energy and concussive blasts. Calling himself Reactron, the Living Reactor, he surfaces years later and attacks the Doom Patrol, then later fights Supergirl.
Post-Crisis.
Reactron's origin and background were changed for his appearances after the 1985 "Crisis on Infinite Earths" storylines. Now known as Benjamin Martin Krull, he faces the Doom Patrol and Power Girl in his first appearance. Most of his pre-"Crisis" continuity seems intact, but it is now said that his previous battles involved Power Girl instead of Supergirl.
Seemingly destroyed after overloading on Negative Woman's energy, he resurfaces unharmed and as a member of the Suicide Squad. Reactron is once again seemingly destroyed when Deadshot shoots holes in his containment suit, causing him to go critical.
Reactron, Mister Nitro, Geiger, Nuclear, Professor Radium, and Neutron formed the Nuclear Legion in the 2006 miniseries "The Battle for Blüdhaven", working for the Society, and came into conflict with Freedom's Ring, which apparently kills Reactron.
Reactron reappears during the "" storyline with a new costume and a new ability. Recruited by General Sam Lane as part of his Project 7734, Reactron is equipped with a heart made of gold kryptonite and partnered with Metallo (who has a heart of green kryptonite). Reactron and Metallo attack the city of New Krypton, where Reactron kills Zor-El, the father of Supergirl. As part of his participation in Project 7734, Lex Luthor sends a robot double of himself with Brainiac on a mission to attack New Krypton, a new planet in Earth's solar system populated by the survivors of the Kryptonian city of Kandor. While there, the Luthor robot tampers with the body chemistry of the previously-captured Reactron. Shortly thereafter, Reactron kills himself, initiating a chain reaction which ultimately destroys New Krypton and all but a handful of its 100,000 inhabitants. Supergirl's mother Alura (who had assumed leadership of the planet) is among the casualties.
During the 2009–2010 "Blackest Night" storyline, Scarecrow drugs Supergirl with his fear toxin, which causes her to believe she is fighting Reactron, reanimated as a Black Lantern.
Powers and abilities.
In both Pre-and Post-Crisis continuities, Reactron has the ability to generate radiation from his body. He can focus this into concussive blasts. Reactron is also equipped with a heart made of a gold Kryptonite variant, which allows him to render a Kryptonian powerless for 15 seconds.
In other media.
Reactron appears in the 2015 television series "Supergirl", portrayed by Chris Browning. First appearing in the series' third episode "Fight or Flight", this version is a former reactor engineer named Ben Krull who became Reactron when he was exposed to radiation after a terrorist attack which was stopped by Superman. Ben survived the radiation, but his wife Alyssa did not. Ben blames Superman for his wife's death and swore vengeance on him. He then built an advanced bio-medical exo-suit capable of firing highly concentrated bursts of energy while also giving him super strength and the ability to fly. Cat Grant leaks evidence of Supergirl being Superman's cousin, which causes Reactron to starts targeting Supergirl. He is eventually defeated by Supergirl and arrested.


Sam Wolstenholme

Samuel Wolstenholme (1878 in Little Lever – 28 January 1933 in Wigan) was an English footballer who played for, among others Everton, Blackburn Rovers, Norwich City and England. He played alongside Steve Bloomer and Vivian Woodward in the England teams that won the British Home Championship in 1904 and 1905. He also played twice for "The North XI" against "The South XI" and played for the English League XI against the Scottish League XI.
After retiring as a player in 1913, Wolstenholme accepted a coaching position in Germany. In the spring of 1914, he was appointed by the "Norddeutscher Fußball-Verband (North German Football Association)" as team coach/manager of their representative XI. However while there, the First World War broke out and he was subsequently interned at Ruhleben, a civilian detention camp near Berlin. The camp contained between 4,000 and 5,500 prisoners. Gradually a mini-society evolved and football became a popular activity. Wolstenholme was one of several former professional footballers in the camp. Others included fellow former England internationals Fred Pentland and Steve Bloomer, a German international Edwin Dutton and two fellow former Evertonians, John Cameron and John Brearley.
Wolstenholme was a prominent member of the Ruhleben Football Association. Cup and league competitions were organised and as many as 1,000 attended the bigger games. The teams adopted the names of established teams and November 1914 Wolstenholme refereed a cup final between "Tottenham Hotspur" and "Oldham Athletic". Among the players participating were Bloomer and Dutton. On 2 May 1915 an "England XI" featuring Wolstenholme, Pentland, Brearley and Bloomer played a "World XI" captained by Cameron. Wolstenholme also played cricket at Rubleben and in July 1916 played for a "Yorkshire XI" that lost to a "Lancashire XI", featuring Bloomer.
Honours.
England


Andong Province

Andong / Antung (Wade-Giles) (), or Liaodong () was a former province in Northeast China, located in what is now part of Liaoning and Jilin provinces. It was bordered on the southeast by the Yalu River, which separated it from Korea.
History.
The name of the province "Antung" in Chinese means "pacify the east" and was likely inspired by the Protectorate General to Pacify the East established during the Tang Dynasty.
Antung Province was first created in 1934 as an "anto" (province) of the Japanese-controlled Empire of Manchukuo, when the former Fengtian Province was divided into three parts: Antung Province, Fengtian Province and Jinzhou Province. Antung was further sub-divided in 1939 into Antung Province and Tonghua Province.
After the annexation of Manchukuo by the Republic of China after the end of World War II, the Kuomintang reunited Antung and Tonghua, and continued to recognize the area as Antung Province. However, under the administration of the People's Republic of China, Antung Province was renamed as Liaodong Province and it was abolished in 1954, and its area was divided between Liaoning Province and Jilin Province.
Administration division.
The capital of Antung Province from 1934–1939 was Tonghua, in modern-day Jilin. However, after the 1939 administrative reorganization of the province, the capital moved to Antung, an important border town between Manchukuo and Korea, and a major center on the railroad from Korea to Mukden.
The area of the province (from 1934–1939 and 1945–1954) was .


Slades Hill army camp

Slades Hill army camp was a Second World War British Army camp and anti-aircraft battery in Slades Hill, Enfield, London, that formed part of London's defences against attack by German bombers.
Establishment.
The camp and gun emplacement was established at the start of the Second World War in Slades Hill, Enfield. A half-battery of 3.7 inch mobile guns had previously been temporarily sited nearby during the Munich Crisis of 1938. The road to the camp from Enfield Road, previously a track, was made into a permanent way and is now known locally as Camp Road. The Merryhills Brook crosses Camp Road and Salmon's Brook runs along the eastern side of the site. To the south of the camp was the 26th Enfield Rifle and Pistol Club, which still exists, and which dates from the Boer War.
Anti-aircraft battery.
The anti-aircraft battery was located on adjacent Hog Hill just north of the camp. It featured four QF 4.5-inch Mark II anti-aircraft guns that were adapted from the naval gun of the same gauge and approved for land use in 1938. They were set in concrete emplacements and formed part of the defences of London against attack by German bombers. The report from the guns was said to be so loud that when they were in action the main doors of nearby Chase Farm Hospital were blasted open.
In 1941, Winston Churchill's daughter Mary, who had enlisted in the Auxiliary Territorial Service of the British Army, was posted to the battery before moving to a different one in Hyde Park.
Closure.
After the war, the camp was converted to an army records centre and closed by the early 1960s.


Salvage for Victory

The Salvage for Victory campaign was a program launched by the US Federal Government in 1942 to salvage materials for the American war effort in World War II.
On January 10, 1942, the US Office of Production Management sent pledge cards to retail stores asking them to participate in the effort by saving things like waste paper, scrap metal, old rags, and rubber. Later that month, the Bureau of Industrial Conservation of the War Production Board asked all American mayors to salvage the same kinds of materials from municipal dumps and incinerators.
In New York City, the Department of Sanitation began picking up materials collected for the drive outside of homes and apartment buildings at 11:00 am Sunday mornings.