Camp Reynolds

Camp Reynolds, formerly known as Camp Shenango, was a World War II Military Personnel Replacement Depot located on what is now Transfer, Pennsylvania in Northwestern Pennsylvania. In 1994, the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission placed a historical marker there to note the historic importance of the location.
History.
On June 24, 1942 the United States Department of War announced the authorization and award of contracts totaling more than $3,000,000 for construction of a military installation near Shenango, Pennsylvania to receive, process, and forward both officers and enlisted men for service during World War II. Acquisition of land in Pymatuning Township, Mercer County, Pennsylvania began almost immediately with cooperative landowners from a total of 26 farms paid an average of $70 per acre for their potato fields. The first parcel of 57 acres was purchased for $40,500 and included space for warehouses. An additional 114 acres were then acquired at a cost of $10,252. By the time land procurement ended in November 1942, 3,300 acres had been acquired at a total cost of $182,000.
Initially, military leaders determined that time spent at the camp by individual members of the military would depend on the demand for replacements and each serviceman's branch of operations. Ultimately, more than a million troops passed through the camp on their way to East Coast ports of embarkation and the war's European theater of operations.
Construction phase.
Upon receiving their contract awards, Gannett, Eastman, Fleming of Harrisburg, and Mellon-Stuart Construction Co. of Pittsburgh designed and built the encampment to last just three years, but also to be unlike any other military depot at the time. Upon completion, it would include barracks for 30,000 troops, chapels, dayrooms, fire stations and hundreds of fire hydrants, guest quarters, gymnasiums and three obstacle courses, a 100-bed hospital, latrines, libraries, mess halls, motor pool, post exchanges, rifle range, service clubs, theaters, and warehouses. The base would also be equipped with its own infrastructure, including more than 100 miles of electric lines, 25 miles of paved roads, 22 miles of water lines, two 250,000-gallon water tanks (painted in a large red-and white checker pattern and situated at the southern end of the encampment), a sewage treatment plant, 18 miles of sewer lines, and a waste disposal facility.
Civil Service examiners began taking applications for immediate employment hires. The project then ramped up quickly as thousands of engineers and construction workers arrived and 4,200 men employed by the main contractors and 24 subcontractors began working 10-hour days and six-day weeks after ground for the first supply building was broken near the overhead highway bridge on Route 18 on July 8. In short order, the War Department ordered the expansion of the camp's battalion area to accommodate an additional 30,000 troops, followed by a subsequent expansion of the camp's housing capacity to 90,000 troops.
Although trailer camps were established to handle the sudden influx of workers and their families, housing facilities were limited. As a result, Greenville's population increased by 60 percent - from 8,149 in 1940 to 13,015 in 1943 (or higher, according to Mellon-Stuart records which showed a workforce high of 16,500 at one point).
Although the final project cost for construction of the entire camp complex was never officially announced, one figure revealed that just one segment of the project (10 dormitory units erected on the west side of Route 18 to provide housing for 180 families) cost $624,466. The cost for the entire camp complex was reported to have topped $19,000,000. Post-war, the ten dormitory units to the west of Route 18 were converted into a county-owned housing project (known today as Fay Terrace) while the 250,000-gallon, red and white water tanks continued to supply water to the area for many years, and helped contribute to the area's housing growth during the 1950s.
Life at and beyond the camp.
During its heyday, the camp had its own post office and published its own weekly newspaper. Printed at the "Record-Argus", the "Victory News" was distributed between April 15, 1943 and November 30, 1944. Servicemen also made their own fun, organizing baseball, boxing and track and field events, a drum and bugle corps, several dance bands, stage productions, and bowling, handball and basketball leagues with one cage tournament attracting roughly 23 GI teams. Allegheny, Westminster, Geneva, and Bethany Colleges also made exhibition basketball appearances.
Stage, screen and radio headliners also offered troops a break from military life. Among those making appearances at the camp were: Louis Armstrong, Bonnie Baker, Blue Barron, Major Bowes and his Amateur Hour, the Camel Caravan, Stu Erwin and the cast of "Goodnight Ladies", Judy Garland, Benny Goodman, the Harmonic Rascals, Andy Kerr, Wayne King, the Mills Brothers, Olsen and Johnson's "Helzapoppin", June Preisser, Art Rooney, contralto Alice Stewart, Bob Strong, the cast of the "Truth or Consequences" radio show, and Virginia Weidler. Boxers Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Two-Ton Tony Galento, and Fritzie Zivic also made appearances, as did billiard experts Irving Crane and Charles Peterson, members of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cleveland Indians, Governor Edward Martin, and a number of touring OSO shows and amateur theatrical groups from Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Ohio, Youngstown, Ohio, and Sharon, Pennsylvania.
In addition, attractive bus and rail fares enabled many soldiers to travel to Sharon, New Castle, Farrell, Youngstown, and other nearby cities to seek rest and relaxation before their departure overseas, and the United Service Organization (USO) also helped ensure that men were kept busy during their off-duty hours away from camp. With help from the War Department, the organization built an $86,000 recreation center in Greenville's Riverside Park, where 812,530 servicemen were entertained over an 18-month period; 475,000 men also visited the USO's Buhl Club in Sharon.
Commanders.
Camps Shenango and Reynolds had six commanders. First to arrive during the very early construction days was Lt. Col. G.H. Sunderman, who came Oct. 1, 1942, and was followed by a quartermaster detachment of seven men from Fort Monroe, VA. On Nov. 4, Lt. Col. George H. Cherrington arrived and was followed by the first components of the headquarters company from New Cumberland, PA. Colonel Zim E. Lawhon took over on May 27, 1943, coming from the general staff of the War Department.
It was during Colonel Lawhon's command that the name of the camp was changed from Shenango on September 21, 1943, to Reynolds in honor of General John F. Reynolds, who was a hero of the Civil War and had been felled by a Confederate sharpshooter on the opening day of the Battle of Gettysburg.
After Lawhon's death came Col. George E. Couper, who commanded until Dec. 23 when Brig. Gen. Jesse A. Ladd was designated commander. He served in that capacity until the replacement depot was deactivated to the Indiantown Gap Military Reservation on Dec. 11, 1944. After his departure Camp Reynolds assumed a ghost town appearance.
The last commander was Lt. Co. George Blaney. He took over after the post became the army's first full-time canvas and webbing repair facility. At that time it had a complement of about 300 to man the hospital and to guard the more than 1,000 German prisoners of war. Repatriation of the last prisoners was completed in mid-January 1946.
After the camp's final deactivation the Trimble Company of Pittsburgh was awarded the general contract for razing the hundreds of barracks. The city of Erie acquired 200, Cleveland more than 100, Jamestown, NY 50, Johnstown 50, Connellsville 30, etc. The city of Pittsburgh and several area colleges, among them Thiel, Allegheny, and Westminster, bought additional dozens, as did many individuals seeking to convert them to garages, hunting camps, and other uses. How the many other structures and facilities and the campsite itself were acquired by the Greenville Business Men's Association for future industrial and residential development.
The community, now known as Reynolds, had not one but three names during its wartime history. In 1942 Reynolds came into being as the Shenango Personnel Replacement Depot and was originally named for the nearby village of Shenango. On railroad timetables it bore the Victory, PA designation. Possibly because the original name was somewhat unwieldy, the War Department decreed in July 1943 that the military depot should bear the name of Camp Reynolds in honor of one of the Keystone State's military heroes of the American Civil War. The new designation paid tribute to the memory of Major General John Fulton Reynolds, one of the 51 Union generals ‘who died in battle during the Civil War’. He was killed by a 16-year-old Confederate sharpshooter on July 1, 1863, the first day of the bloody action at Gettysburg. John F. Reynolds was one of the most universally admired officers of the Army of the Potomac. A compassionate man, he was said to be genuinely concerned for the wellbeing of the soldiers under his command.
German prisoners.
When World War II began to wind down there were still more than 1,800 German prisoners of war housed in Camp Reynolds barracks.
They were among the 15,000-plus German POWS under army control in the Maryland-Pennsylvania-West Virginia area near the war's end.
Most of these men had been put to work in area industries and logging camps to relieve the manpower shortage even though this practice stirred public criticism in some areas. They were assigned to factories and plants in the Shenango Valley, Meadville, Youngstown, and Warren, OH. There is no record of any German soldiers assigned to Greenville shops or plants.
Under terms of the Geneva Convention all of the prisoners with the exception of officers could be made to work as the U.S. Army saw fit. Some worked at logging camps in the area of North East, Kane, Sheffield, and Marienville.
According to John Gessner, who was an Army captain at the time and worked with the Germans on frequent occasions, still other prisoners worked at the Reynolds sewing center after the civilian employees had left for the day.
Now an attorney living in Cortland, OH, Gessner recalled that for the most part the Germans were a docile lot. There was one occasion in November 1945 when it became necessary to place 280 of the POWs on a bread-and-water diet after they staged a sit-down strike because their Nazi spokesman had been shipped out of camp. The strike was short-lived.
A few of the prisoners did attempt to escape from Reynolds but in all instances except one the escapees were caught and returned to camp. One man who got away never was captured.
Perhaps the most notorious of the Reynolds' escapees was a young man named Heinz Golz. He attempted three escapes. He was recaptured the first time near Oil City and on another occasion had to be rescued by police from atop a suburban Pittsburgh dwelling where he had been chased by two dogs. In October 1945 a total of 450 German war prisoners were brought to Reynolds after a detainee camp at North East had been closed. About the same time others held at Kane, Marienville and Sheffield arrived at Reynolds to await repatriation.
Some 500 more were moved out on the 25th day of November, with several hundred more awaiting their turn to depart for their homeland. The army's Center for Military History reported that the total number of prisoners based at Reynolds at the end of the conflict totaled 1,868, including 1,839 enlisted men and 29 non-commissioned officers.
Not long before the last of the prisoners departed several hundred of their number was ushered into a post theater and shown motion picture footage they probably never will forget during the balance of their lives. This first area showing of the U.S. Signal Corps films depicting the Nazi atrocities at Adolph Hitler's death camps visibly disturbed the POWs. Many reportedly insisted that the horror scenes taken at Dacha and elsewhere were fakes turned out by U.S. propagandists. The German people were incapable of such atrocities, they said.
The prisoner of war camp, which had been established April 4, 1944, was discontinued Jan, 15, 1946, approximately one month after the closing of the military camp itself.
The race riot.
The manner in which many black soldiers were treated during the early days and months of the Shenango Personnel Replacement Depot (SPRD) operation is a blot the War Department has never been proud of and has always been reluctant to talk about.
When the SPRD was conceived during the early phase of World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's military units were strictly segregated. At the local depot there were separate barracks, post exchanges, theaters and other facilities for white and black troops. Southern officers and GIs especially did not mix well with the Negroes and consequently the treatment of the blacks probably was what was considered to be about normal for that period in history. There was no civil rights movement at the time, nor were there marches or demonstrations to advance the cause of the minorities.
Some excesses in the treatment of blacks during the early days of the camp were evident, however. For example, the late Joseph G. Magargee of Greenville, a civilian employee at the camp who later became a Reynolds High School teacher and something of an authority on camp history, once recalled how the first contingent of blacks were not fed at the base but were placed in leg chains and trucked to the nearby Blue Sky Inn for their meals. Magargee wrote that according to the Blue Sky owner the black troops were not permitted to enter the inn when Southern soldiers were inside. Under military guard, the blacks were served their meals outdoors on the parking lot.
Before he died a few years back Magargee also mentioned that in the camp's early days there was but a single theater for Negroes although they were permitted to occupy the back row seats in a theater for whites. The only other entertainment originally afforded the black troops consisted of card games, pick-up baseball and other diversions of their own making.
It came as no great surprise, then, that the ill feelings harbored by some blacks and whites alike eventually flared into an ugly race riot that ended up with a deadly exchange of gunfire lasting several hours.
Area newspapers and radio stations (there was no television in those days) did their level best to get a line on what transpired that mid-July day in 1943. The camp's public relations officials would say only that one black soldier had been killed and six others wounded in a racial flare-up. This was later described as a "spoon-fed" accounting of the rioting.
The Department of the Army's Center of Military History, in response to communication from this writer and Congressman Tom Ridge, supplied one version of the flare-up by providing a single page copied from Ulysses Lee's publication titled The Employment of Negro Troops. Lee wrote that not all of the violence and disorder in which Negro troops became involved resulted from racial friction or mass grievances. Much of it was purely indigenous in nature, sometimes growing out of cultural traits and patterns of behavior brought into the Army from Civilian life.
In the Camp Shenango instance an altercation between Negro and white soldiers in the post exchange area expanded until it involved a large number of troops in the exchange area. This first instance, brought under control by white and Negro military police using tear gas, was followed by another when two new prisoners, picked up for a pass violation, spread news of the earlier fracas to men in the guardhouse. Negro prisoners broke out of the guardhouse and joined by other soldiers, seized firearms and munitions from supply rooms.
Military police, again white and Negro, killed one and wounded five other soldiers in quelling the second disturbance.
John W. Kerpan, now a Greenville funeral director, was a first lieutenant and second in command of the camp's military police forces at that time of the rioting. He recalls that after several white soldiers went into the 10th Street post exchange for blacks a number of the Negroes retaliated by attempting to enter the white PX on Seventh Street. The blacks met with stiff resistance. Tempers flared and the resulting melee soon got out of hand.
Kerpan's recollection is that at least two Negro soldiers were killed and several others probably were wounded in the resulting gunfire which lasted from about 5 o'clock in the afternoon until long after dark. Some of the black troops disappeared under the cover of darkness but were later picked up in various communities throughout Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio. The rioters were immediately sent to overseas destinations.
William F. Kerfoot, Sr., now of the Vernon, OH area, was a military police sergeant who said that he had a "front row seat" during the gunfire display in which not a single military policeman was wounded.
After the rioting, Kerfoot said, he was working in the provost marshal's office and heard that 30 to 35 black soldiers were killed that day and many more were wounded.
Studs Terkel, the Chicago author who won a general non-fiction Pulitzer prize for his The Good War, an Oral History of World War II, presented still another version of the Camp Shenango rioting after interviewing Dempsey Travis, now a Chicago realtor.
Travis was 21 and black and an Army private when he arrived at Shenango aboard a "Jim Crow train." He told Terkel that on the day of the flare-up he and a friend he knew only as "Kansas" had just emerged from a theater to find a group of blacks engaged in what he described as a "big discussion." He claimed that a caravan of six trucks loaded with white soldiers arrived at the scene and began shooting at the blacks. "Kansas" was killed on the spot, Travis said, and he himself fell with three gunshot wounds in the hip and legs which resulted in several months of hospitalization.
While in the base hospital, Travis claimed he "saw 14 or 15 wounded blacks within a radius of 40 feet." He recalled a Red Cross worker saying that "I don't know how may died and how many were wounded."
He maintained that the hostilities were not completely quelled for 48 to 72 hours. The public may never know for certain how many Negro soldiers were killed or wounded that day in July.
At least some of the facts about this unsavory chapter of the camp's history are finally in the public realm and may help to put many rumors at rest at long last.
The Conversion.
How Camp Reynolds was converted to its present stature as an industrial-residential community after the war. When the war ended and plans were under way for abandonment of the camp a wide variety of ideas for its post-war use sprang up. Many concerned people wanted to see the land developed rather than watch it revert to potato farms..
The idea of developing an air express terminal was advanced by more than half a dozen Mercer County communities. The site was approved by the Pennsylvania Aeronautics Commission, but the project never got off the ground.
Community leaders from Greenville and Sharon, together with other interests from throughout the county, then came up with another idea and attempted to conclude arrangements for the building of a 1,800-bed veteran's hospital. Test borings were made but this effort also came to naught when word came from President Harry S. Truman that the Reynolds site was "unsuitable." The White House directed the Veterans Administration to proceed with plans for development of the veterans’ hospital at Deshon, near Butler.
By this time the War Assets Administration controlled the area for disposition. In 1946 Silas Moss was elected president of the Greenville Business Men's Association (GBMA) and work began in earnest to acquire Camp Reynolds to be developed industrially for the benefit of the entire area. With behind-the-scenes help from Congressman Carroll D. Kearns, many months of work ensued until finally, in the summer of 1947, fifty-seven acres of the camp, including the warehouse area with buildings totaling 251,164 square feet of floor space and some two miles of railroad sidings, were purchased by the GBMA.
The original price the government was asking for the 57 acres was $200,000 but the trustees managed to have the figure reduced to $40,500.
The businessmen sold the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, located in Sharon, the idea of leasing three of the warehouses. They also entered into an agreement whereby lessor would pay the first year's rent in advance and, as a result, the association could be certain of eventually having an additional $30,643 added to the GBMA funds on a three-year lease-purchase agreement.
Gamble paid off.
One troublesome problem remained. The association could not charge Westinghouse rent for property it did not own. In order to expedite the collection of the rental from Westinghouse Electric Corporation, three members of the association, Luther Kuder, Norman Mortensen, and Jess Dart, supplied $38,000 from their own resources and $2,500 was allocated and borrowed from the GBMA's post-war fund. The total amount was paid to the War Assets Administration and after a lapse of five months the deed for the property arrived on Oct. 27, 1947. The loans were repaid without interest.
After having rented the balance of the warehouse area to three other firms on three-year lease-purchase arrangements, the trustees turned their attention to additional lands. Another problem was encountered. William Templeton, who owned 258 acres of land in the center of the area, induced many of the former landowners to exercise their priority to re-purchase their land. Then he attempted to buy their land from them.
After months of negotiations the trustees were able to purchase all of the land in the area with the exception of that owned by Mr. Templeton. Negotiations with an engineering firm for development of the site already had begun and the land belonging to the association completely surrounded Mr. Templeton's 258 acres with the exception of his property's east boundary. After several more conferences Mr. Templeton offered to sell his property. His offer was accepted and the purchase was made.
After purchasing the area the association trustees
and acquired five additional structures with floor space of over 300,000 square feet, over two miles of railroad sidings, about eight miles of paved roads, 639,000 square yards of walks, parking areas and water-bound roads. The purchase price for the land and buildings was $76,629. By the end of 1950 the association had received about $170,000 from rentals and lease-purchase agreements.
There were enough surpluses to allow the trustees to make loans to under-capitalized firms that were attracted to the area. In 1949 there were 10 new industries at Reynolds. During 1950 a total of 61 one-family homes were built and sold within the limits of the area
The following year the size of the project and the volume of transactions made it impossible for committee members to handle the project on their own. At that time they hired Robert B. Parker, Jr., a graduate engineer who had previously represented an engineering consulting firm not only in the building of Camp Reynolds but as a professional consultant to the committee.
In addition to serving as managing engineer for Reynolds Development, Parker became general manager of the water company, the sewage disposal company and the Pymatuning Independent Telephone Company.
Prior to Parker's arrival operation of the development corporation was under the control of a board of trustees appointed by officers and directors of the Business Men's Association.
Industrial parks.
Today there are three industrial parks totaling over 1,200 acres. They are the largest planned and managed industrial developments in the Tri-State area and are located in a metropolitan area of approximately 130,000 persons.
The parks are owned and operated by Greenville-Reynolds Development Corporation. The original park consisted of a 430-acre portion of the one-time army training center now occupied by numerous industrial, warehouse, and service-related operations. An additional 40-acre site called the Reynolds North Industrial Park was opened in the late 1980s to meet a demand for smaller, fully developed business sites.
In the early 1990s the corporation acquired and began the development of a new 750-acre tract located east of the Shenango River, known as Reynolds East. The United States Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration contributed $990,000 to help get the park project off the ground. Overer 45 industrial, warehouse, and servicerelated operations are located at Reynolds.
Still other Reynolds firms provided a wide variety of design and building services, warehouse distribution, auto repair and detailing, upholstering, miscellaneous storage, aluminum smelting, structural steel and building erection, metal recovery, hydrous ammonia distribution and technical engineering service to a 30-state area, paving contracting, auction services, telecommunication products and services, general construction, tin mill processing, retail building products, distribution of vinyl and aluminum siding, warehousing, general contracting, and warehouse operations.
Also operating under the Reynolds Development umbrella are the Reynolds Water Company and the Reynolds Disposal Company. The original water company had a supply of five million gallons available daily, which was enough to supply a small city.
Reynolds schools.
Only one elementary school building was located on the land selected by the government for what eventually was to become Camp Reynolds. It was known as the Rocky View School and was said to be a perfect example of the "little red schoolhouse" type. All but two of the families sending children to Rocky View resided within the confines of the camp area. In the late 1950s Reynolds High School was constructed and graduated its first class in 1961. The Reynolds school system area embraces 98 square miles. In addition to the junior-senior high building the system includes one elementary building located beside the high school.


Cost of Living Allowance (U.S. Military)

Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) is an entitlement given to military servicemen and women United States military living in high-cost areas or stationed overseas. It is intended to compensate service members for the high cost of living at certain duty stations. COLA is also given to other US government employees living abroad, dependent upon agency.
Operation.
The fundamental goal of COLA is to compensate service members for the high cost of living at certain duty stations. COLA rates are based on a service member's pay grade, years of service, and number of dependents.
An area is considered high cost if the cost of living for that area exceeds 108% of that national average of non-housing costs. COLA takes into account the availability of commissary, exchange, and hospital facilities at a specific duty station, because servicemembers without this infrastructure tend to have a higher cost of living. However, not having this infrastructure is not enough in and of itself to qualify an area for COLA. COLA also factors in local taxes, including taxes on such things as privately owned vehicles for a specific duty location in calculating the cost of living in a particular area.
Members will only receive COLA, whether stationed in the United States or abroad, if they are assigned to an area where the cost of living is higher than it would be in an average area in the United States. If the cost of living at the duty station is the same as or lower than the average in the US, they will not receive any COLA.
COLA rates vary from station to station, even within a specific country.
Calculation.
The Defense Finance and Accounting Service calculates the cost of living in a particular area by using two surveys: the Living Pattern Survey and a Retail Price Schedule.
The Living Pattern Survey indicates how much service members purchase at on post facilities, and how much they spend off post at local stores. The survey produces an average for a specific area. For example, in a specific area the survey may show that members buy half of their products on post, and half on the local economy. This is only an average and may not apply to all service members within that area.
Using this information and the Retail Price Schedule, shoppers will price 120 goods and services, everything from auto repair to zucchini, to compare their prices with equivalent goods and services in the US. If the overseas costs are higher than in the US, a COLA equal to the difference is paid.
When changes in spending patterns occur because of changes in the exchange rate, the Living Pattern Survey will be updated. The opening/closing of a commissary or an exchange may also prompt an update to the Living Pattern Survey.
Updating overseas rates.
The Per Diem Committee in the Defense Finance Accounting Service monitors the exchange rates between local currency and US currency throughout the year. Changes to an area's COLA are made along with changes to the exchange rate to maintain your purchasing power overseas.
The committee adjusts the COLA rate as often as possible and can even adjust it every day. These changes, however, will not have an immediate impact on your paycheck. It takes time for the Department and Defense Finance and Accounting Service to chart currency movements, set the COLA, and then distribute the money via payrolls.
In other words, the COLA rate is always playing catch up with the dollar's movement in value against other currencies. On the reverse side of it, if the dollar rebounds, it will again take some time for service members to see a reduction in their COLA.
In the short term, members may see big fluctuations in the US dollar's buying power. But over time, COLA adjustments will offset those changes and a member's purchasing power will remain steady.
Updating stateside rates.
COLA rates for the Continental United States are updated once a year, and changes go into effect January 1 of each year. At that time, an area's COLA may increase or even decrease, based on the changes in the cost of living in the area.
On-post vs. off-post housing.
A military serviceperson will receive less COLA if they live on post than they would if they lived off post. This reduction in COLA reflects the lower living expenses. Overseas Housing Allowance, however, is completely independent from COLA and the amount one receives in COLA will not affect one's Overseas Housing Allowance.
Taxation.
Overseas COLA is a non-taxable allowance. Stateside COLA, however, is taxed. To offset these taxes, these COLA rates incorporate an 18% increase to cover the average income tax.


Matshobana KaMangete

Mashobane KaMangethe (c. late 18th century – c. 1820s) was a South African and Mthwakazian traditional and ancestral leader.
Mashobane, son of chief Mangethe (Zikode), was the chief of the Khumalo tribe: a clan of Nguni people living near the Black Umfolozi river in kwaZulu, in South Africa, and was the father of Mzilikazi the founder of the Ndebele (Matabele) kingdom in Zimbabwe. Matshobana married his first wife, Nompethu KaZwide, who gave birth to Mzilikazi in 1790. It is said that when Mashobane was in charge of a regiment invading a neighbouring tribe he was caught and had his arm amputated and was later set free.
In the early 19th century the Khumalo came under pressure to join the Ndwandwe nation due to the expanding power of the Ndwandwe chief, Mashobane's father-in-law, Zwide kaLanga. The alliance was uneasy, and the Khumalos sought help from the leader of the Mthethwa kingdom, Dingiswayo, and his protégé Shaka Zulu.
In the course of an attempted invasion of Zwide's territory, Dingiswayo was captured and put to death by Zwide. Shaka Zulu escaped capture only through the help of Chief Donda Khumalo, as a result of which Zwide ordered the deaths of all three Khumalo chiefs, Beje, Donda and Mashobane.
Beje was the only one to escape, Donda was killed and Mashobane was taken captive along with his son, Mzilikazi. In the end Zwide ordered Mashobane to be executed, while Mzilikazi became a lieutenant of Shaka Zulu before leaving him to form the Ndebele kingdom in what is now Zimbabwe.
In the 1986 South African TV series, "Shaka Zulu", Mashobane was beheaded by Ndwandwe soldiers and his head given to the Sangoma Queen Ntombazi of the Ndwandwe who was Zwide's mother. Ntombazi was a feared wizard. Ntombazi had warned her son, Zwide about keeping Mashobane's head as that will bring misfortune into the Ndwandwe Kingdom. Indeed misfortune befell the kingdom as she had warned. The Ndwandwe kingdom was attacked, destroyed and Ntombazi was killed. Zwide's sons were killed, and his generals fled.


Kung Ling-i

Kung Ling-i (; September 19, 1915 – August 22, 2008), born in Taigu County, Shanxi, was the eldest daughter of Kung Hsiang-hsi and Soong Ai-ling.
Life.
In 1928, 13-year-old Kong Ling-i went to Nanjing Jinling Girls' High School to study, and lived in the official residence of her uncle Chiang Kai-shek. At the end of the civil war, she moved to New York with her parents.
In 1943, Kung Ling-i went to the United States in the name of studying abroad, and announced her marriage to Chen Jien in the United States. But the engagement ended in a breakup.
On August 22, 2008, Kong Ling-i died at the age of 93 at the Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan, New York, USA. On August 26, the funeral ceremony was held in Manhattan, New York, where she was buried in New York state.


Mukhabarat el-Jamahiriya

Mukhabarat el-Jamahiriya () (Intelligence of the Jamahiriya) was the national intelligence service of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi. During the Libyan Civil War, agency director Abuzed Omar Dorda was captured by anti-Gaddafi forces, the agency ceased to exist when the Jamahiriya was toppled in August 2011.
Successor.
The Intelligence Community under Interim Government:


Roy Orrock

Air Commodore Roy Kenneth Orrock DFC (18 January 1921 – 11 July 2002) was a British pilot during the Second World War and a senior Royal Air Force officer in the post-war years. He served as the fourteenth Commandant Royal Observer Corps from 1973 to 1975. He was Aide-de-camp to Queen Elizabeth II.
During the Second World War, Orrock flew with No. 22 Squadron RAF flying the Bristol Beaufighter moving to the Mediterranean in 1942 after which the unit was posted to North Africa and then the far east and later as Commanding officer of No. 248 Squadron RAF flying the de Havilland Mosquito. On 17 March 1945 whilst leading a strike force over Ålesund, Norway, Orrock's aircraft was hit by flak but made a successfully ditching but became a POW until the end of the war.


A Woman in Berlin

A Woman in Berlin () (1959/2003) is an anonymous memoir by a German woman, revealed in 2003 to be journalist Marta Hillers. It covers the weeks from 20 April to 22 June 1945, during the capture of Berlin and its occupation by the Red Army. The writer describes the widespread rapes by Soviet soldiers, including her own, and the women's pragmatic approach to survival, often taking Soviet officers for protection.
The first English edition appeared 1954 in the United States, where it was very successful, and was followed rapidly by translations into Dutch, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Spanish and Japanese. When finally published in German in 1959, the book was either "ignored or reviled" in Germany. The author refused to have another edition published in her lifetime.
In 2003, two years after Hiller's death, a new edition of the book was published in Germany, again anonymously. It met with wide critical acclaim and was on bestseller lists for more than 19 weeks. Jens Bisky, a German literary editor, identified the anonymous author that year as German journalist Marta Hillers, who had died in 2001.
This revelation caused a literary controversy, and questions of the book's authenticity were explored. The book was published again in English in 2005 in editions in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has been translated into seven other languages.
The book was adapted as a 2008 German feature film, directed by Max Färberböck and starring Nina Hoss. It was released in the United States as "A Woman in Berlin" in 2008.
Overview.
The memoir describes a journalist's personal experiences during the occupation of Berlin by the Soviets at the end of World War II. She describes being gang-raped by Russian soldiers and deciding to seek protection by forming a relationship with a Soviet officer; other women made similar decisions. The author described it as "sleeping for food." Conditions in the city were cruel, as women had no other protection against assaults by soldiers. "...when the Woman and her neighbours go to a Soviet commander to complain about the rapes and to seek his aid in stopping them, he merely laughs."
The book is known for its "unsentimental" tone in describing sexual assault but, as a New York Times critic pointed out, "the rapes are by no means all of [the book]. We are also given the feeling inside a bomb shelter, the breakdown of city life and civil society, the often surreal behavior of the enemy, soldiers' arms lined with looted wristwatches, the forced labor clearing out the rubble piles that marks the beginning of the road back."
Plot Summary.
The "chronicle" of the unnamed narrator begins with the end of the war reaching Berlin. There is constant artillery and the narrator lives in an attic apartment that belongs to a former colleague that let her stay since he is on leave. Her original apartment was bombed and destroyed. While she lives off meagre food coupons, all of her thoughts are of food and her gnawing hunger. All of the Berliners spend their time either in the basement air raid shelters, their apartments, standing in lines for food, or raiding food stocks when the rations don't suffice. Spending time in the basement shelter, the narrator gets to know her fellow "cave dwellers" and a kind of camaraderie forms. When a series of bombing destroys her apartment, a pharmacist's widow "the widow" allows the narrator to live at her place.
All of a sudden there is silence when the Russian army reaches their street. The Russians set camp outside and spend their first days comparing stolen watches and bicycles. Eventually the soldiers enter the buildings and basement air raid shelters asking for alcohol and choosing women to rape. The narrator works as a sort of translator and mediator for women in the basement who are pursued for rape. She tries to convince the men to not rape women and seeks a commander to plead to stop the rapes but minimal effort is offered to the women. Two men outside of the basement rape the narrator after her fellow Germans close and lock the door behind her. Many families desperately hide their young daughters to preserve their virginity. Four Russian soldiers barge into the widow's apartment and eventually one named Petka, rapes the narrator. After raping the narrator Petka begins his "Romeo babble" where he expresses a liking for the narrator and how he hopes to return later that day. That same day the widow's tenant Herr Pauli arrives and settles in his bed. His male presence offers some but very limited protection against the Russian sexual predators. Another Russian soldier, described as old, enters the apartment and rapes the narrator in an exceptionally demeaning manner as he opens up her mouth to spit in it and then throws a half opened pack of cigarettes on the bed as payment.
This rape experience creates some sort of turning point for the narrator, who decides after vomiting and crying that she has to use her brains to help her situation. She decides that she needs to “find a single wolf to keep away the pack” and heads outside to find some higher ranked Russian to have an exclusive sexual relationship with so that she doesn't get viciously and randomly raped every day by different men. Out in the street she meets Anatol, a lieutenant from Ukraine. She flirts with him briefly and they agree to meet at her place at 7 pm. That night Petka arrives with some of his friends and makes himself at home. Petka and his friends shock the widow and the narrator as they place their food straight on the table, throw bones to the floor, and spit casually. Despite the narrator's worries that Petka and Anatol might clash over her, when Anatol comes he is at ease in her apartment and she discovers that his rank means very little to the Russians. Over the next days, Anatol comes to have sex with the narrator and a "taboo" is formed in that the Russians know that she is claimed. Anatol and his men come and go as they please and the widow's apartment is considered "Anatol's men's restaurant" but a restaurant where they bring the food. The narrator and the widow get food that the Russians bring and they benefit from the protection of Anatol's men against other Russian soldiers. The narrator also meets educated Russian soldiers, such as Andrei, and has many conversations about politics, fascism, and such. Petka shows up completely drunk in a fit of rage against the narrator and tries to hurt her but due to his drunkenness the widow and the narrator manage to push him out of the apartment. Among the many Russian visitors of the apartment, a pale blond lieutenant who has a lame leg and a clear dislike of the narrator rapes her one night, completely ignoring the "taboo" with Anatol. He arrives another day with a major and after conversing and drinking champagne; he asks the narrator if the major pleases her. The narrator realizes she has little choice considering Anatol has left and eventually decides to have sex with the major. She accepts the relationship with the major and does not call it rape since it is consensual. The major is very pleasant, shares his life with her, and brings her food and supplies such as candles. The narrator contemplates her status as she agrees to have sexual relationships in return for goods and protection.
Eventually, Berlin completely surrenders and the Russians soldiers leave the street. The city begins to undergo reconstruction and the German women are rallied to work under Russian and some German orders to clear the rubble and to search for Zinc. The narrator gets pulled off to do laundry and for the last days of work she works tirelessly with other women while being teased by Russian soldiers. Once the job ends, the narrator finds out through a friend called Ilse that a Hungarian plans to start a press. The narrator works with the Hungarian and others to start planning the products. Gerd, the narrator's boyfriend from before the war shows up and clashes with her on her change in mindset after the war and her discussion of her rapes. Gerd believes that she has lost her mind and has changed immensely from before. The chronicle ends with the narrator brooding on her relationship with Gerd.
Characters.
Narrator
The unnamed narrator is a woman who recounts her life through eight weeks in Berlin at the end of the war. She describes herself as a thirty year old “pale faced blonde always dressed in the same winter coat”. The narrator lives alone at first in an abandoned apartment but then moves in with the widow when the Russians arrive. She was a journalist before the war that traveled to numerous countries and speaks different languages, including a bit of Russian and French. During the stay of the Russians she is subject to numerous horrific rape attacks which leads her to seek a sexual relationship with lieutenant Anatol and then the Major in order get some sort of “protection” from all other Russian soldiers. These relationships also give her access to food. After the Russians leave, she works with German women to clear the rubble, clean clothes, and eventually finds a job with a Hungarian starting a press.
Widow
The widow lives with the narrator and Herr Pauli throughout the occupation of the Russians. She is a fifty-year-old widow who lived a more bourgeois proper life before the war. During the occupation she shares house tasks and worries with the narrator and understands the sexual relationships the narrator has. The widow looks up to Herr Pauli and eventually asks the narrator to move out when Herr Pauli is frustrated of sharing food with the narrator.
Anatol
Anatol is the originally Ukrainian lieutenant that the narrator seeks a sexual relationship with in order to avoid constant attacks by random Russian soldiers. He is kind and very large and strong. He works in a dairy farm in Russia and is overall very uneducated and unrefined.
Herr Pauli
Herr Pauli is the widow's tenant. From when he arrives from the war he mostly stays in bed and socializes with Russians that come in. He enjoys the goods that the Russians bring but gets increasingly bothered by the narrator's presence after her relationships with the Russians end and she eats the potatoes that belong to the widow. He eventually asks the widow to tell the narrator to leave, which she does. Herr Pauli expresses his strong optimistic or pessimistic view on the recovery of Germany, which the widow generally endorses.
Petka
Petka is a Russian soldier that rapes the narrator. After raping the narrator he commences his “Romeo babble” as he expresses how he likes her and insists on coming back often. He makes himself and his friends at home in the widow's apartment where they eat and drink plenty, and do not exhibit any manners.
The Major
The Major is introduced to the narrator by the pale blond lieutenant with the lame leg. The Major is very pleasant and courteous to the narrator and the widow and Herr Pauli. While he wanted a sexual relationship with the narrator, he made it a point for her to know that if his presence did not please her he would leave immediately. He shares plenty of his life to the narrator and has a consensual sexual relationship with her for the last days before the Russians left. He supplies the narrator, the Widow, and Herr Pauli with plenty of supplies.
Themes.
Rape
The narrator explores the significance and impact of rape on her life throughout “A Woman in Berlin”. Throughout all of her rapes, she clearly describes suffering and numbness and anger. However, she “laugh[s] at the face of lamentation” and says that she's alive and that life goes on when the widow apologises for not intervening enough. She contemplates after and realises that her previous fear of the word “rape” has disappeared. After being raped she comes to the realisation that it is not the worst thing in the world despite typical beliefs. Nevertheless, the narrator reveals a feeling of uncleanliness and repulsion at her own skin after being raped by so many men. The narrator also broods on her consensual sexual relationships that she has with Anatol and then the Major. She mentions that “By no means could it be said that the major is raping me” and that she is “placing [herself] at his service of [her] own accord”. She definitely does not think that she is doing it for love, and she scorns at the way the term has become a weak and empty term. She agrees that to some extent she does it for the “bacon, butter, sugar, candles, canned meat” that the major supplies and she considers the idea that she is a whore. While she does not have any objections towards prostitution, she acknowledges that she would never be in this situation in peacetime and concludes that this consensual sexual relationship is one that while it resembles prostitution, it is only morally acceptable for herself in the circumstance of war.
Deutsche Welle noted that the book shows "for many women the end of the war did not bring peace as the physical and mental scars remained fresh was something the author realized when her boyfriend returned from the war. 'For him I've been spoiled once and for all,' she stated soberly, when despite all the joy of reunion, she remained 'ice cold' in bed." The different experiences of women and men created a postwar divide.
Harvard Law professor Janet Halley wrote, "Not surprisingly, it is typical to read "A Woman in Berlin" as a story about rape. However, there is another way to read this text: as a book about the complete destruction of the Woman’s social world and its gradual, halting, and, by the end, only partial replacement by a new one. On this reading, rape is immersed into the fact of national collapse, wartime defeat; rape is an element of her world but not its metonym and certainly not its totality."
Publication history.
Hillers showed her manuscript to friends, and author Kurt Marek (C. W. Ceram) arranged for the book's translation into English (by James Stern) and publication in the United States in 1954. He also wrote an introduction, dated August 1954. Hillers married and moved from Germany to Geneva, Switzerland in the 1950s. She first had her book published in German in 1959 by the Swiss firm, Helmut Kossodo. Both editions were published anonymously, at her request.
Her memoir was the only book she published.
Critical reception.
Hillers' work was either "ignored or reviled" in Germany in 1959. It was too early to examine German suffering, and some readers were horrified at the pragmatism of German women taking Soviet officers for protection. "Accused of besmirching the honour of German women," Hillers refused to have the book republished in her lifetime.
After Hillers died in 2001, the book was republished in 2003, again anonymously, by Hans Magnus Enzensberger, a noted poet and essayist. The book won wide critical acclaim that year. It was noted for "its dry, laconic tone and lack of self-pity. 'The writer is too reflective, too candid, too worldly for that,' one reviewer said." Harding noted that the author wrote: "I laugh right in the middle of all this awfulness. What should I do? After all, I am alive, everything will pass!"
The memoir was a bestseller for more than 19 weeks in Germany. Since the late 20th century, German writers and historians have explored the people's suffering during World War II. Gunter Grass published "Crabwalk," about thousands of fatalities when a refugee ship was sunk by a Russian submarine, and W.G. Sebald published "On the Natural History of Destruction," reflecting on the estimated 600,000 civilian deaths due to Allied bombing of German cities.
"A Woman in Berlin" was published again in English in 2005, with an introduction by Antony Beevor, a prominent British historian who has published on the Battle of Berlin. He has described it as "the most powerful personal account to come out of World War II."
Identity and authenticity.
In September 2003, Jens Bisky (a German literary editor) identified the anonymous author as journalist Marta Hillers, who had died in 2001. Revelation of Hillers' identity brought controversy in the literary world. Her publisher Enzensberger was angry that her privacy had been invaded. He did not accede to requests by journalists to review the writer's original diary materials. Writing in the "Berliner Zeitung," Christian Esch said that if the work were to be fully accepted as authentic, people had to be able to examine the diaries. He said the book's text indicated that changes were made between the initial handwritten diaries and the typed manuscript. It had been translated into English and published for the first time nearly a decade after the events, in 1954 in English and in 1959 in German. He noted there were minor discrepancies between editions.
Prior to republication of the diary in 2003, Enzensberger had hired Walter Kempowski, an expert on diaries of the period, to examine Hillers' "original notes and typescript"; he declared them authentic. After questions from journalists, Enzensberger released Kempowski's report in January 2004. Kempowski had noted that the author's version of events was supported by numerous other sources. He noted that Hillers had added material to the typescript and the published book that were not found in the diary, but editors and critics agree this is a normal part of the revision and editing process.
Antony Beevor, a British historian who wrote a 2002 work on the Battle of Berlin, affirmed his belief in the book's authenticity when it was published in English in 2005. He said it conformed to his detailed knowledge of the period and other primary sources he has used. Beevor wrote the introduction to the new 2005 English edition of the book.
Adaptations.
A film adaptation of the book was made in 2008, directed by Max Färberböck and starring Nina Hoss as the anonymous Woman. Its title in Germany was "Anonyma - Eine Frau in Berlin." It was released in the US as "A Woman in Berlin."


Yanks

Yanks is a 1979 drama film directed by John Schlesinger and starring Richard Gere, Vanessa Redgrave, William Devane, Lisa Eichhorn and Tony Melody. The film is set during the Second World War in Northern England and features no combat scenes.
The film depicts the relationships between American soldiers stationed in semi-rural England and the local population during the build-up to Operation Overlord in 1944. In particular, three romances between US service personnel and local women are shown, in order to explore the effects of the cultural differences between the brash GIs or "Yanks" and the more reserved British population.
The World Premier was held June 1, 1979 at a theater in Bournemouth, England. Lisa Eichhorn was present at the premier which had invited returning D-Day veterans from many American divisions - most notably the American 29th Division. Leader of the returning 29ers was Sgt Curtis C. Williams who was 19 on D-Day.
Plot.
A small northern town soon finds out that a large U.S. Army base is being established for the build-up to the Normandy landings. Soon thousands of rambunctious American troops, or "Yanks" as they are known to the British, descend upon the area. On leave in the town, Technical Sergeant Matt Dyson, encounters Jean Moreton while out to the cinema. She is the fiancée of Ken, a British soldier fighting overseas, and initially rebuffs Matt's advances. He is quite persistent, and she, doubtful about her relationship with Ken, eventually accepts him. The handsome, brash American is in stark contrast to the restrained Englishmen she has known. Soon, she is keeping company with Matt, though it is largely platonic at first.
For her part, Helen is a bit more worldly in her affairs. Captain John comes to her estate often, and a relationship develops. They are both married, but her husband is away at sea, and his wife is thousands of miles distant.
Eventually, the kind-hearted Matt Dyson is accepted by the Moreton family, notwithstanding Jean's engagement. They welcome his visits, when he, as an army cook, often brings hard-to-find foods normally on wartime rationing and other presents. But when news of Ken's death in action arrives, Jean's ailing mother condemns their relationship as a kind of betrayal.
Jean and Matt travel together to a Welsh seaside resort, where they make love but without completion when Jean calls out Ken's name. Jean is crushed, although Matt says "not like this." She feels spurned, and that her willingness to risk everything has not been matched by him, concluding that he is "not ready" for her.
Shortly afterwards, the Americans ship out by troop train to Southern England to prepare for D-Day. A characteristic last-minute gift and message from Matt prompt Jean into racing to the railway station. With the town and station a hive of activity, hundreds of the townswomen, some of them pregnant from liaisons with men they may never see again, scramble to catch one last glimpse of their American boyfriends before the train leaves. Matt shouts from the departing train that he will return.
Production.
Schlesinger was able to obtain the finance to make "Yanks" - which was a personal project - because of the financial success of his 1976 suspense film "Marathon Man".
Much of the filming took place on location in Northern England between April and August 1978. Scenes were shot on location in Oldham, Glossop, Stalybridge, Stockport, Salford and other surrounding areas. The opening shot of the film is the war memorial in Stalybridge town centre. Other scenes were filmed at the town hall in Hyde and outside a pillbox attached to a former Royal Ordnance Factory in Steeton, West Yorkshire. The main street procession was filmed in the Ordsall area of Salford, where the entire length of Regent Road was redressed to period appearance. All the shop fronts were replaced or covered over and the road-lines were covered by gravel. The cinema sequences, however, were shot at the Davenport Theatre / Cinema, in Stockport. This was chosen because of its authentic, period Art Deco interior, as well as the presence, in the orchestra pit, of a Compton 3 Manual/6 Rank theatre organ on a lift to the left of the stage. This was used in the film for scenes involving an audience sing-along, to such songs as "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" and "Deep in the Heart of Texas," Exterior shots of the unnamed Welsh resort were filmed along Happy Valley Road, Llandudno, North Wales.
The ending, where the troops board their train to head to the front, were filmed at Keighley railway station on the line belonging to the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. An authentic Second World War locomotive, which is preserved by the heritage railway, was used for the scene.
Reception.
The film was a box office flop in the US only making $1.6 million in rentals.
The film received mixed reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 57% based on reviews from 21 critics.


Azizabad airstrike

The Azizabad airstrike was carried out by the United States Air Force on Friday 22 August 2008 in the village of Azizabad which is located in Shindand district, Herat Province, Afghanistan. The airstrike killed an estimated 78 to 92 civilians, mostly children, and a number of structures in the village including homes were damaged or destroyed, although there remains some dispute about the accuracy of these figures. A Taliban commander was the intended target of the airstrike.
Summary of events.
 officials stated that Afghan soldiers were ambushed while in pursuit of a Taliban commander named Mullah Siddiq, and further stated that the Taliban attackers then fled to Azizabad. The retaliatory airstrike killed approximately 90 people and destroyed eight homes, according to accounts from the American troops, aid workers, local villagers, and a report made by the Afghanistan government. This was later confirmed by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) which also undertook an investigation. The attack was carried out at night through by a US AC-130 ground attack aircraft, called in by US Special Forces.
Reaction.
Azizabad residents.
The day after the attack, Saturday 23 August 2008, villagers organised a demonstration against Afghan troops which had been deployed to Azizabad to distribute food and other assistance. Several people were injured during a confrontation between villagers and army personnel.
Government of Afghanistan.
The President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, described the attack as "tragic" and "irresponsible". Karzai dismissed two senior Afghan military personnel, a general and a major, for "negligence and concealing facts". After a cabinet meeting the government announced that it would seek to renegotiate the terms of the international presence in the country. Some analysts suggested that this announcement was a direct response to the Azizabad event. A government statement called for an end to "airstrikes on civilian targets, unilateral searches of homes and illegal detentions" by international forces.
In February 2009, a primary court in Herat sentenced Mohammad Nader to death for giving "wrong information" to coalition forces which resulted in the Azizabad airstrike. The presiding judge, Qazi Mukaram, told Nader that, "You, Mohammad Nader, are sentenced to capital punishment for spying for foreign forces and giving wrong information that caused the death of civilians." Nader denied the charges, saying, "My information was accurate and I did it for the well-being and security of my village."
Government of United States.
The Pentagon described the attack as "a legitimate strike against the Taliban" and questioned the casualty estimates given by the government of Afghanistan and reported by the media. The US military originally denied that any civilian casualties had occurred, but later acknowledged that some civilians may have been killed and announced its intention to conduct an investigation. Preliminary findings of the investigation acknowledged that five civilians had been killed. On 2 September 2008, a further report was announced in which the US stated that up to seven civilians had been killed and reasserted that the majority of those killed were members of the Taliban. On 1 October 2008 the Department of Defense published the summary of a report by Brig. Gen. Michael Callan which accepted that 33 civilians were killed.
United Nations.
In a statement on the attack, the United Nations reports that "An investigation by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has found that some 90 civilians, including 60 children, were among those killed during military operations in the strife-torn nation's western Herat province last week." The investigation found "'convincing evidence, based on the testimony of eyewitnesses, and others,' that some 90 civilians were killed – including 60 children, 15 women and 15 men – and another 15 villagers wounded."
Other international reaction.
Russia circulated a draft United Nations Security Council statement on Tuesday 26 August which expressed serious concern about the numerous civilian casualties reportedly caused by the airstrike. It stated that member nations "strongly deplore the fact that this is not the first incident of this kind."
Video emerges that show more than 40 bodies.
On 8 September 2008, a video recorded on a mobile phone emerged, showing around 40 bodies. Following the emergence of this new evidence, the United States announced the need for an independent enquiry into the matter. An Afghan government commission stated that 90 civilians, including 60 children and 15 women, died in the bombing. General David D. McKiernan, the senior U.S. officer in Afghanistan and NATO commander, said in a statement "In light of emerging evidence pertaining to civilian casualties in the August 22 counter-insurgency operation in the Shindand District, Herat province, I feel it is prudent to request that U.S. Central Command send a general officer to review the U.S. investigation and its findings with respect to this new evidence".
Possible deaths of coalition contractors.
The New York Times reported on October 7, 2010, that eight coalition security contractors were killed in the attack. The contractors were alleged to be headed by a 'Mr. White II' whose men included former Taliban fighters.


Roland Scholl

Roland Heinrich Scholl (30 September 1865 – 22 August 1945) was a Swiss chemist who taught at various European universities. Among his most notable achievements are the synthesis of coronene, the co-development of the Bally-Scholl synthesis, and various discoveries about polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Early life and education.
Roland Heinrich Scholl was born on 30 September 1865 in Zurich, Switzerland, the son of a Badensian merchant. After primary education by a private teacher and secondary education at a Gymnasium in Zurich, he studied chemistry and physics at the University of Würzburg in 1883. One of his teachers there was Johannes Wislicenus, his mother's brother. After military service in a Bavarian regiment, he continued his studies in 1885 at the "Eidgenössisches Polytechnikum" in Zurich. In 1890 he received a Dr. phil. degree from the University of Basel.
Life and career.
In 1893, Roland Scholl became "Privatdozent" in chemistry at the "Polytechnikum" as well as at the University of Zurich. In 1897, he became the assistant director of the chemical laboratory of the "Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe" (today the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology). After being promoted to associate professor in 1904, he moved to the University of Graz, where he became full professor in 1907. In 1914, Scholl volunteered for service in World War I, and after the end of his service he moved to the "Technische Universität Dresden", where he worked as the director of the institute for organic chemistry until his retirement in 1934.
Suffering from injuries sustained in the Allied bombing of Dresden, Roland Scholl died on 22 August 1945 in a refugee camp on the site of a former military airfield near Mörtitz, a small village in Saxony.
Research.
Scholl made a name for himself in the scientific community at a young age through publications on the chemistry of fulminic acid, disproving the structures of this molecule proposed by August Kekulé and Edward Divers. He did some research for the "Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik (BASF)" in the early 1900s, and began doing research on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, especially vat dyes such as indanthrene and flavanthrene, in 1903. Among other things, Scholl developed a method for the synthesis of pyranthrone, the first nitrogen- and sulfur-free vat dye.
Scholl was one of the first persons to use the microbalance developed by Fritz Pregl, the father of microanalysis, who was a close collaborator of Scholl. In 1911, Roland Scholl and Oscar Bally published an article on the synthesis of benzanthrone by condensation of anthraquinone with glycerol, a process that would later be called the Bally-Scholl synthesis. In 1932, Scholl was the first person to synthesise coronene.
Over the course of his career, Scholl published about 180 scientific articles. He became a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 1916, of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in 1920, and of the German Chemical Society as well as the "Chemische Gesellschaft Karlsruhe" in 1930. In 1944 he was awarded the "Goethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft".


Cotton Hill

Cotton Lyndal Hill (born December 7, 1927) is a fictional character in the Fox animated series "King of the Hill" voiced by Toby Huss. He is the father of Hank Hill, Good Hank Hill (or "G.H."), Junichiro (his illegitimate half-Japanese son), and, according to him, 270 possible others. He is also a World War II veteran, who had his shins "blowed off by a Japanman's machine gun" in combat and later had his feet attached to his knees. This made him a foot shorter than his relatives and caused a characteristic waddle. According to Hank, Cotton was 6 ft. 4 in. (1.93 m) with his shins and was 5 ft. (1.5 m) without them. Despite his disability, he eventually reached the rank of Colonel in the Texas State Defense Forces and was addressed as such by his friends. Cotton Hill dies in the 12th season of "King of the Hill" at age 71.
Early life and military service.
If Cotton's story is to be believed, he was born around 1927, making him about 70 in the first season of the show. In a third-season episode Hank says Cotton is 70, and in the Season 4 episode "Cotton Comes Marching Home", he states himself to be 71. Little is known about Cotton's childhood other than that he started out with a gun at an early age according to Hank in the episode "How to Fire A Rifle Without Really Trying", that he attended Fort Birk when he was very young and spent much of his childhood there as he revealed in "An Officer and A Gentle Boy", that he apparently joined the army when he was only 14 years old as revealed in "Shins of the Father", and that Cotton's mother apparently died giving birth to him, as he exaggerates in "Death Picks Cotton". Almost nothing is known about Cotton's father, except that he may have been German, as Peggy tells Bobby in the episode "Tears of an Inflatable Clown" and the only time Cotton ever himself refers to his father during the entire series is when he shouts at Hank: "You ain't my daddy, I'm your daddy!". Cotton also has an unnamed brother (Dusty's father).
Cotton was zealously proud of his military service record and his status as a war hero, although he tended to exaggerate his exploits. He often claims to anyone who will listen that he killed "fitty [50] men" during the war. He consistently reminded everyone within earshot about how he lost his shins during World War II:
"I was 14, just a little older than Bobby. But I knew Uncle Sam needed me, so I lied and signed up. We had beat the Nazzys in Italy, and they shipped me to the Pacific theater. A Tojo torpedo sent our troop ship to the bottom. I could only save three of my buddies: Fatty, Stinky, and Brooklyn. They were kind of like you fellas [to Bill, Dale, and Boomhauer], only one of them was from Brooklyn. Out of the sun came a Tojo Zero and put fitty bullets in my back. The blood attracted sharks. I had to give 'em Fatty. Then things took a turn for the worse. I made it to an island, but it was full of Tojos! They were spitting on the U.S. flag! So I rushed 'em, but it was a trap. They opened fire and blew my shins off. Last thing I remember, I beat 'em all to death with a big piece of Fatty. I woke up in a field hospital, and they were sewing my feet to my knees."
He refers to the Japanese as "Tojos," a slur not unlike Jap and deriving from war-time Japanese Prime Minister and General Hideki Tojo. He would also refer to the Nazis as "Nazzys".
Based upon Cotton's uniform in the episode "Returning Japanese", he was awarded the following military decorations: Medal of Honor, Purple Heart, and American Campaign Medal. Cotton left Japan wearing the rank of Private in his own flashback while reminiscing to Hank how he had met Michiko. He was referred to as a colonel repeatedly during the series, reflecting his rank in the Texas State Guard after the war. In the episode "When Cotton Comes Marching Home", his Silver Star is displayed in a case at the VFW. In the 12th episode of season 11, he is wearing the third class of the Legion of Honor, the highest award given by the French government, who gave it to a select handful of American troops for their service in World War II.
Cotton states in a sixth-season episode that he served with the U.S. Army's 77th Infantry Division.
He has a number of war trophies that can be seen in various episodes, including a Prussian Pickelhaube which he sometimes used to cut Hank's hair in an even bowl cut during Hank's youth, and a Nazi canoe which he claimed was "Hitler's canoe", though given his propensity to exaggerate his war stories, the actual origin of the canoe is uncertain.
The pride he has in his military service often colors his opinions of others; he has often expressed disdain for Hank's lack of service, and enjoys making fun of his son for being excluded due to his narrow urethra. Cotton also has a tendency to exaggerate his service in the war. For example, in the episode "Cotton's Plot" he stated he killed Nazis ("Nazzys") in Munich on April 30 and Japanese ("Tojos") on May 2 in Okinawa.
He also has expressed dislike for veterans of the Vietnam War, as he blames them to some degree for losing it - though he eventually accords them a measure of respect for trying their best.
Aside from some confirmation from his war buddies, it is unknown if Cotton actually ever served in Europe, considering the 77th served in the Pacific Theater and the majority of his war flashbacks are shown to take place in the Pacific fighting the Japanese.
Solomon Islands:
Cotton was ordered to retake an airfield on the Solomon Islands. His unit was pinned down by a Japanese machine gun nest high up in a hill, so he sneaked into a fifty-five gallon barrel of sake. He held his breath until the Japanese got good and drunk, and then he jumped out and spit it all out into his Zippo (lighter). He "hibachi'd" the whole squad. ("Cotton's Plot")
Guadalcanal:
In the episode "Yankee Hanky", Cotton references that he and Stinky were on Guadalcanal, and it rained for 17 days.
Anzio:
On January 30, 1944, Cotton's unit attacked Anzio. They had "caught the Krauts with their pants down and their schnitzel exposed." They had taken the beach by noon, and the town by nightfall.
Normandy:
Cotton said that he climbed the cliffs of Normandy with a fifty-pound ice cream maker on his back. ("Cotton's Plot")
Saipan:
Cotton said that he led a platoon of men through the jungles of Sai Pan. ("When Cotton Comes Marching Home")
Guam:
In 1944, in Guam, Cotton crawled through a minefield to retrieve General MacArthur's corn cob pipe. ("Cotton's Plot")
Philippines:
Cotton said that he served in the Philippines. ("Unfortunate Son")
Iwo Jima:
Cotton spent two weeks under a pile of bodies on Iwo Jima. ("Revenge of the Lutefisk") He and Topsy show a bayonet technique Topsy used to gut a kamikaze. ("Unfortunate Son")
Munich:
Cotton claimed to have fought in Munich on April 30, 1945, and probably longer, but later realized he didn't. ("Cotton's Plot")
Okinawa:
On May 2, 1945, on Okinawa, Cotton invented a bayonet technique that is still used by the army today. ("Cotton's Plot")
P.O.W. Camp:
Cotton was captured at an unknown time by the Japanese, and put in a bamboo rat cage. He had to eat rats, but let the last one live so he could eat its droppings. He called it "Jungle Rice", and said it "tasted fine". By September, he was skinny enough to slip through the bars, and strangled the guard with a string made of braided rat tails, and ran to safety. ("Cotton's Plot") He had also learned to stop his heartbeat, so the Japanese would stop torturing him for a moment, probably at the P.O.W. camp ("Death Picks Cotton"), and claimed that he only cried when the Japanese tore off his fingernails. ("Returning Japanese")
Miscellaneous:
Cotton severed the windpipe of a German corporal with a two-foot strand of dental floss he kept in his boot. ("The Final Shinsuit") He survived on a life raft by trapping rain water in his upturned eyelid. ("Cotton's Plot")
Relationships.
Before leaving Japan, Cotton had an affair with a Japanese nurse, Michiko, which resulted in the birth of his eldest son (and Hank's older half-brother), Junichiro (voiced by David Carradine); he left suddenly despite trying to stay, and knew nothing of his child until years later (a flashback clip shows him being clubbed and dragged onto the troopship leaving Japan). Michiko is one of the few women he treats respectfully at any time and the only woman he treats respectfully all the time.
After the war, Cotton supervised the installation of asbestos in eleven bowling alleys and every public school in Heimlich County. Cotton eventually traveled back to Japan to reconcile with his long-lost lover, and soon learned of his illegitimate son. Junichiro initially rejected Cotton's attempt to make peace, and formally renounced his Hill family heritage. This enraged Cotton, who re-declared war on Japan and planned to spit in the face of Emperor Akihito out of spite. ("Returning Japanese") When Cotton saw that Hank and Junichiro had mended fences and even become friends, and Junichiro said that he was not ashamed to be a Hill any more, Cotton ditched his plan and accepted the Emperor's kind words. He also made peace with Junichiro's mother, who tore a picture taken of them as young adults after World War II in half—and gave the half with her picture to Cotton, while keeping his picture for herself.
Cotton claimed he divorced from Hank's mother, Tilly, because he "outgrew" her after she lost her large rear end, though it had been stated earlier in the show - such as in the season 1 episode "Shins of a Father" - that Tilly divorced him after years of verbal abuse. His second wife was a hospital volunteer, Deirdre "Didi" Hill, who is implied to be the same age as Hank as Hank claims that the two went to kindergarten together (according to episode 1-08, "Shins of the Father"). At age 71, Cotton fathered a third son from his second wife Didi, whom he named Good-Hank "G.H." Hill to differentiate from, and possibly spite, Hank (who was temporarily called "B.H. - Bad Hank").
Cotton's relationship with Hank was strained; while Hank seemed to have a deep reverence (and fear) of his father, he stood up to Cotton on several occasions. Cotton also became depressed (and enraged) by the fact that he and Hank did not have a good relationship, once going homicidally insane when Hank said that he hates him. In spite of all this, however, Cotton never hesitated to refer to Hank as "My Boy," and on several occasions tried to help him (such as when Kahn and Minh were befouling his house). Throughout the series, Cotton has also shown several times that he may actually care for Hank, such as calling him a good son in "Returning Japanese", saving him from being shot in the episode "Yankee Hankee", and leaving and trusting Hank with his last requests and personal possessions in "Serving Me Right for giving George S. Patton the Bathroom Key". It is likely Cotton treats Hank horribly simply because he hates various aspects of Hank's life, such as his job as a propane salesman, his place of birth (New York), his personality, how he chooses to raise Bobby, his marriage to Peggy, how he is different from his cousin Dusty, how Hank thwarted his plan to assassinate Fidel Castro (Tilly had went into labor just as Cotton was about to kill the communist leader), and - most importantly - how Hank did not follow in his father's footsteps and become a war hero.
Cotton had an antagonistic relationship with Peggy, whom he addressed as "Hank's wife" among other epithets. On rare occasions though, Cotton evinced a grudging respect for Peggy, as in "To Spank With Love" and "Cotton's Plot."
Cotton appears to have a good relationship with Bobby. He once conceded that Hank was a better father than himself, stating, "You made Bobby. All I made was you." Cotton shows that he is proud of Bobby and supports him. Once contemplating suicide, Cotton confides in Bobby and gives him a letter of recommendation for the army, irking Hank. Cotton often tries to pass on his misogynistic views to Bobby, even going so far as to try to buy him a hooker once, although Hank and Peggy are always able to reverse the damage. Cotton demonstrates his affection for Bobby in numerous instances. In "How to Fire a Rifle Without Really Trying", he comes to watch Bobby and Hank shoot in a father-son shooting competition, stating, "I'm always here to support my Bobby." In "Revenge of the Lutefisk", Cotton even goes so far as to take the blame for Bobby after Bobby confesses he was the one who burned down the church (Claiming "I'm an old man, everyone already hates me!" whereas Bobby is just a child and has his whole life ahead of him.) and Didi reveals to Bobby that Cotton told her that if their unborn child turned out as good as Bobby, he wouldn't abandon it. Reflecting on Cotton's relationship with his grandson in "Death Picks Cotton," Hank states, "Even though he hates most things, he does love Bobby." It could be inferred that his love for Bobby is mixed also with a deep pride and respect for him, viewing him as actually tougher than Hank. Although Cotton respects Bobby more than anyone in the family, on his deathbed in "Death Picks Cotton", Cotton claims he does not love anyone, though this could be him just trying to sound tough.
Personality.
Cotton is a consistently misogynistic, chauvinistic, violent, abusive, and intolerant character. He talks down to women, berates his son, is prone to violent outbursts, and on more than one occasion has exhibited homicidal tendencies. His abrasive manner is consistently embarrassing for Hank and usually infuriating for Hank's wife, Peggy. Throughout his history on the series, Cotton never once addressed Peggy by name, but he instead called her "Hank's wife", which was used as a running gag, including on the very rare occasion he's trying to be nice to her (the only other name Cotton had ever addressed Peggy by was "Hillary" in the episode "Shins of the Father"; Peggy also didn't seem to care being called "Hank's Wife" beyond visible annoyance, and never once told Cotton not to call her that). He even attempts to pass on some of his sexist traits to Bobby at one point, teaching him that women should be made to cook and clean for their husbands all day long.
On rare occasions, Cotton shows a vulnerable side that he normally keeps hidden: he realizes that he was a terrible father and person, hates himself for growing old and becoming disabled, and readily admits that he would die to protect his grandson, Bobby ("Revenge of the Lutefisk").
Cotton also demonstrates a rough, demanding, and often abusive, but at times inspirational leadership. He admits to Hank that he always wanted to win in battle but accepted defeat when his men did their best. Through tough love and intense physical therapy, Cotton also helped Peggy walk again after a debilitating skydiving accident crippled her. Hank was initially wary of this, because he feared that Cotton was simply taking advantage of Peggy's brief disability in order to humiliate her.
It was never revealed throughout the series how Cotton became such a nasty and rude character, or if he ever was a different person. It is most likely his military upbringing during his childhood and his eventual military service. Cotton has also shown in multiple episodes that he suffers from mild to severe post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) ("Returning Japanese" & "Death Picks Cotton"), which can explain the majority of his "violent outbursts". Whatever the reason is, Cotton never sought forgiveness for how he treated Hank, Peggy, Tilly, and many others throughout the series. In the episode "Hank gets Dusted" Hank says straight up to his cousin Dusty that Cotton is in fact a jack-ass.
Death.
In the season 12 episode "Death Picks Cotton," Cotton suffers severe injuries while at a Japanese restaurant in Arlen. Climbing onto a grill table, he chokes on a piece of shrimp (to which he is extremely allergic), then slips and falls on the hot surface. He is taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a hip fracture, severe burns on his arms, torn ligaments in his ankle/knee joints, and an infection of his esophagus due to swallowing the shrimp. X-rays reveal that he has four rusty bullets lodged in his back and one in his heart from old war wounds. In spite of his injuries and a heart attack suffered while in the hospital, Cotton survives long enough to torment both Hank and Peggy, even slowing his heartbeat down to feign death (a trick he learned while confined to a Japanese POW camp).
The last person to see him alive is Peggy, who tells him that despite Cotton's constant torture of his son, Hank has always loved him and that she hopes he will live forever in the friendless, spiteful existence he has made for himself as the unhappy, unpleasant person he is. Cotton replies "Oh, do ya, now?," laughs, and then dies. Peggy does not tell Hank of this exchange; instead, she lies that Cotton's last words were kind ones meant for Hank. In the final scene of the episode, Dale Gribble fulfills a request from Cotton to blow up a storage shed Hank has built. Hank initially plans to honor a separate wish, to have Cotton's head detached from his body and sent to the Emperor of Japan, but Peggy stops him by (falsely) claiming that Cotton withdrew the request just before his death. Neither Didi nor G.H. appear in "Death Picks Cotton," nor is his funeral shown. He was to have been buried at the Texas State Cemetery, a grave which he earned in recognition of his military service, as explained by the episode "Cotton's Plot", although he ended up being cremated instead.
In the season 13 episode "Serves Me Right for Giving General George S. Patton the Bathroom Key," Hank receives from Didi a box containing Cotton's personal possessions and a list of embarrassing last requests. Cotton also left Hank a rude message on his tape recorder telling Hank that he wanted all the embarrassing requests completed by him. Peggy did not want Hank to fulfill Cotton's wishes, but Hank said that fulfilling Cotton's last requests was the best gift he had ever received from his father. Hank completed every single one of the humiliating requests, which Hank felt was Cotton's way of humiliating Hank one last time. The last request Cotton left was to have his cremated remains flushed down a bar toilet that General George S. Patton once used; such practice was also a tradition in Cotton's platoon, and all of Cotton's deceased war buddies were also flushed down the toilet. Hank and his friends respectively honored the request and flushed Cotton's remains down the toilet, resulting in the toilet being plugged and the bar owner demanding Hank pay for the damage. As a result of this, Peggy claims at the end of the episode that even though Cotton is dead, he will always find a way to disrupt their lives.
Fox published the following obituary for Cotton:
Cotton Hill, age 84, World War II veteran, died Sunday in a Texas VA hospital. Hill suffered from several injuries ranging from four rusty bullets lodged in his back (one in his heart) from his military service, a broken hip and torn ligaments in his ankle-knees, to an infection in his esophagus and severe burns caused by a freak shrimp accident that occurred earlier this week at Tokyaki's Japanese restaurant. Hill leaves behind sons Hank Hill and G.H. (short for "Good Hank"); daughter-in-law Peggy Hill; grandson Bobby Hill; ex-wife Tilly; second wife Didi; first love and former Japanese lover Michiko; an illegitimate Japanese son, Junichiro; and nephew Dusty Hill (of band ZZ Top).


Andrew Blodgett Mayfair


Richard Moth

Charles Phillip Richard Moth (born 8 July 1958) is a British Roman Catholic prelate. Since May 2015, he has served as the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton. Previously, he was Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Southwark from 2001 to 2009, and the Bishop of the Forces from 2009 to 2015.
Early life.
Charles Phillip Richard Moth was born in 1958 in Chingola, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), and immigrated to the United Kingdom at the age of two. He was educated at The Judd School in Tonbridge, Kent. He trained for the priesthood at St John's Seminary, Wonersh.
Ordained ministry.
Priesthood.
Moth was ordained to the priesthood (Catholic Church) on 3 July 1982. He served as Curate at St Bede's, Clapham Park and as a judge at the Southwark Metropolitan Tribunal before being sent to do further study in Ottawa, gaining a Licentiate and then a Master's in Canon Law. In 1987 he returned to Southwark and was curate at St Saviour's, Lewisham, during which appointment he was also a Territorial Army chaplain, serving with 217 General Hospital RAMC (V).
In 1992, Archbishop Michael Bowen named him as his Private Secretary, serving concurrently as Vocations Director and Vice-Chancellor of the Diocese. Moth was named a Monsignor to the degree of Papal Chaplain in 1998. In 2001, upon the elevation of the Vicar General, Mgr Canon John Hine, to be an Auxiliary Bishop of Southwark, Moth was named Vicar General and Chancellor of the Archdiocese, with the new post he was promoted to be a Prelate of Honour.
Episcopate.
In July 2009, Moth was appointed Bishop of the Forces by Pope Benedict XVI. He stepped down as Vicar General of Southwark and was succeeded by Mgr. Matthew Dickens in September 2009. He was consecrated bishop on 29 September 2009, the Feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, in Westminster Cathedral. Archbishop Kevin McDonald was principal consecrator, with Archbishop Michael Bowen and Bishop Tom Burns as principal co-consecrators. Archbishop Vincent Nichols and Cardinals Cormac Murphy-O'Connor and Keith O'Brien were present in choir. His time as Bishop of the Forces ended in 2015 when he was translated to a different see.
On 21 March 2015, Moth was announced as the next Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, having been appointed by Pope Francis. He was installed on 28 May 2015.


Broken Sun

Broken Sun is a 2008 Australian film set in 1944 about a World War II veteran who meets an escaped Japanese POW. The story is partly based on the Cowra breakout of 1944. The film was the debut feature from Brad Haynes.
Reception.
Reviewing the film for "The Sydney Morning Herald", critic Sandra Hall, while admiring the efforts of first-time director Brad Haynes, concluded that it "suffers at times under the weight of its anti-war theme".


Military Vicariate of Dominican Republic


Song to the Auspicious Cloud

The Song to the Auspicious Cloud (, literally "Auspicious Cloud Song") was the title of two historical national anthems of the Republic of China. The first version was composed in 1896 by Jean Hautstont, a Belgian composer and esperantist, and was in use from 1913 to 1915 as a provisional anthem. The second version, composed by Xiao Youmei, was in use from 1921 to 1928 as an official national anthem. The lyrics of both songs were based on "Commentary of Shang Shu" (尚書大傳) written by Fu Sheng in 200–100 BCE.
Auspicious Cloud represents heaven and good luck in Chinese culture.
History.
The lyrics of the two versions of the Song to the Auspicious Cloud were based on a song written in Commentary of Shang Shu, which was said to have been sung by the ancient Chinese Emperor Shun, when he passed on the throne to Yu the Great. Its original lyrics in classical Chinese were:
The image of the song symbolized transfer and changing, which referred to the noble demise system of Chinese emperor relinquishing seats to others in Yao and Shun's era before the hereditary system of monarchy in ancient Chinese legends. After the end of the monarchy and the establishment of the republic, the lyrics of the classical song was favored by many to become the national anthem by the new government.
First version (1913–15).
A national anthem committee was established in July 1912 by Cai Yuanpei, the Minister of Education of the Republic of China. Representative Wang Rongbao (汪荣宝), added another quotation from Emperor Shun: "时哉夫，天下非一人之天下也" (Time has changed, the whole nation is no longer owned by one person.) in the last line of "Song to the Auspicious Cloud" and invited Jean Hautstont, a Belgian composer and esperantist, to compose an anthem. On April 8, 1913, the national anthem was used in opening ceremony of the first regular council. It was a provisional anthem until "China Heroically Stands in the Universe" became the national anthem of the Republic of China on May 23, 1915.
Second version (1921–28).
In November 1919, Duan Qirui established the National Anthem Research Committee (國歌研究會), which adopted the second version of the "Song to the Auspicious Cloud". Lyrics (1920) by Zhang Taiyan from the classic "the Song to the Auspicious Cloud" (卿雲歌) from "the Commentary of Shangshu". Music (1921) by Xiao Youmei.
It was selected to be the official anthem on March 31, 1921, by No.759 presidential decree, and was released in July 1921 by the Department of National Affairs (國務院).
It was replaced by the current national anthem of the Republic of China, which is also the Kuomintang party anthem, in 1928, as a result of the Northern Expedition from 1926 to 1928 and the overthrow of the government. However, during the Second Sino-Japanese war, several collaborationist governments established by the Japanese army, such as Provisional Government of the Republic of China and the Reformed Government of the Republic of China, also used this anthem, as these governments recommissioned all the old republican national symbols before the Kuomintang came to power in 1928.


Edward Sismore

Air Commodore Edward Barnes Sismore DSO, DFC & Two Bars, AFC, AE (23 June 1921 – 22 March 2012) was a British air navigator and fighter pilot during the Second World War, and a senior Royal Air Force officer in the post-war years. Sismore served as the thirteenth Commandant Royal Observer Corps between 1971 and 1973.
During his time as Commandant ROC, Sismore travelled overseas to France, Germany and Scandinavian countries, visiting similar defence warning organisations. He established a close relationship with the "Luftmeldekorpset" Danish Air Reporting Corps, a unit of the country's Home Guard.
Military career.
Second World War.
Educated at Kettering County School, on the outbreak of the Second World War Sismore started his service as an airman in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR). However, on 29 August 1942 Flight Sergeant Sismore was given an emergency commission as a General Duties Branch pilot officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. Towards the end of the war, on 1 February 1945, he was awarded a permanent commission as a flying officer.
Sismore trained as a U/T Observer, joining No. 110 Squadron as a navigator when they were operating the Bristol Blenheim, and mainly involved in anti-shipping strikes. He then transferred squadrons, continuing to operate as a navigator on a Blenheim squadron.
Reynolds/Sismore.
Immediately after being commissioned, in December 1942 he joined No. 105 Squadron, navigating a De Havilland Mosquito alongside pilot Squadron Leader Reginald Reynolds. Over the following 20 months, the pair would see little rest and make some of the most daring targeted raids of the war, which came in retrospect to recognise Sismore as the RAF's finest low-level navigator of World War II.
On 30 January 1943, the pair led the first of two Mosquito raids on Berlin timed to disrupt speeches being delivered by Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring and Joseph Goebbels, the Third Reich's Propaganda Minister. The pair led three Mosquito B Mk. IVs from 105 Squadron, which attacked Berlin's main broadcasting station of Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft on Wilhelmstrasse at 11:00, when Göring was due to address a parade commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Nazis' being voted into power. The mission gave the lie to Göring's claim that such a mission was impossible, and kept Göring off the air for more than an hour. Goering himself was not amused; six weeks later he harangued aircraft manufacturers that he could "go berserk" when faced with the Mosquito, which made him "green and yellow with envy."
For the rest of the spring, the pair mostly led strategic daylight raids against key targets, including power stations, steelworks and factories, and railway assets. Sismore remained Reynolds navigator after he was appointed Commanding Officer of No. 139 Squadron. In this new group, the pair led six Mosquitos on what became the RAF's deepest ever daylight low-level penetration of Germany from Britain, attacking the Schott AG glass works and Carl Zeiss AG optical works at Jena, near Leipzig. Despite heavy damage to their aircraft and with Reynolds wounded, the pair returned to base, with Reynolds awarded a Bar to his earlier Distinguished Service Order (DSO), and Sismore also receiving a DSO.
Later war.
In March 1943, Sismore was appointed a Gee-H instructor at RAF Swanton Morley. Returning to operational duties later that year, Sismore was appointed Navigation Leader of No. 21 Squadron.
In February 1944 Sismore was involved in the planning of Operation Jericho but was prevented from flying with Air Chief Marshal Basil Embry because of their knowledge of the plans. Operation Jericho was a low-level bombing raid on Amiens Prison in German-occupied France. The object of the raid was to free French Resistance and political prisoners who were facing imminent execution. He also participated in the successful raid in late October 1944 against the Gestapo HQ in Århus, Denmark as navigator to Reynolds.
Notably in March 1945, whilst serving on No. 140 Wing, Sismore, by then an acting squadron leader took part in Operation Carthage, a precision raid on the Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. Sismore was the lead navigator in the Mosquito Mk.VI flown by the raid leader, Group Captain Robert Bateson. The raid, while not being completely successful with a large number of civilian casualties, succeeded in destroying the Gestapo HQ allowing some prisoners to escape. Sismore was awarded a Bar to his DFC and was also honoured with the Danish Order of Dannebrog, Degree of Knight.
Post-war.
Sismore remained in the RAF after the war, qualifying as a fighter pilot and occupying several senior officer posts. In 1947 Squadron Leader Sismore and former Dambuster pilot, Squadron Leader 'Mick' Martin, broke the London to Cape Town flying record, covering the 6,717 miles in only 21 hours and 31 minutes. They were subsequently awarded the Royal Aero Club's Britannia Trophy for 1947. From 1953 to '56 he commanded No. 29 (Fighter) Squadron. Sismore was promoted to group captain in 1962, and from 1964 to 1966 he served as the Station Commander of RAF Bruggen in Germany. From 1966 to 1970 he was the Senior Air Staff Officer of the RAF's Central Reconnaissance Establishment at RAF Brampton.
Royal Observer Corps.
On 4 January 1971, on promotion to air commodore, Sismore was appointed as Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps taking over from Air Commodore Denis Rixson. Sismore handed command of the ROC to Air Commodore Roy Orrock on 24 May 1973, and was appointed the Director of the Air Defence Team, planning a new UK air defence environment system.
Retirement.
Sismore retired from the Royal Air Force on 23 June 1976, and became an advisor to the Marconi Company.
Honours and awards.
On 30 January 1943, two forces of bombers were detailed to attack Berlin to prevent a radio broadcast by Goering. To reach the German capital necessitated a flight of more than 500 miles, mostly over heavily defended territory.
Personal life.
Sismore married his wife Rita in 1946, and the couple had a son and daughter.
Following a stroke, Sismore died on 22 March 2012 in Chelmsford, Essex, survived by his son and daughter.


Legion Thoria

The Legion Thoria, also known as the Elejan El-Thoria, were reported to be an element of Muammar Gaddafi's secret police.
In September 2011, in the Battle of Bani Walid during the Libyan Civil War, members of the Legion Thoria were reported to be part of the pro-Gaddafi defending force in the Battle of Bani Walid.