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1st Newcastle Engineers
The 1st Newcastle Engineer Volunteers, later Northumbrian Divisional Engineers, was a Royal Engineer (RE) unit of Britain's Volunteer Force and Territorial Army founded in 1860. Its companies saw action in both World Wars, particularly at the Battle of Rosières and the assault crossing of the River Selle in 1918, and on D-Day in 1944. Its successors continue to serve in today's Army Reserve. Early history The 1st Newcastle Engineer Volunteers (EV) was raised at company strength in Newcastle upon Tyne during the enthusiasm for the Volunteer movement engendered by the invasion scare of 1859; its first officers' commissions were dated 1 September 1860.Beckett, Appendix IX.''Army List''. Many early volunteers came from Armstrong's engineering works at Elswick. The company was attached for administrative purposes to the 1st Newcastle upon Tyne Rifle Volunteer Corps.Westlake, p. 13. In 1874 the Newcastle company was united with the larger (8 companies) 1st Durham EV at Jarrow o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flag Of The British Army
A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design employed, and flags have evolved into a general tool for rudimentary signalling and identification, especially in environments where communication is challenging (such as the maritime environment, where semaphore is used). Many flags fall into groups of similar designs called flag families. The study of flags is known as "vexillology" from the Latin , meaning "flag" or "banner". National flags are patriotic symbols with widely varied interpretations that often include strong military associations because of their original and ongoing use for that purpose. Flags are also used in messaging, advertising, or for decorative purposes. Some military units are called "flags" after their use of flags. A ''flag'' (Arabic: ) is equivalent to a brigade i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Michael
Operation Michael was a major German military offensive during the First World War that began the German Spring Offensive on 21 March 1918. It was launched from the Hindenburg Line, in the vicinity of Saint-Quentin, France. Its goal was to break through the Allied (Entente) lines and advance in a north-westerly direction to seize the Channel Ports, which supplied the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and to drive the BEF into the sea. Two days later General Erich Ludendorff, the chief of the German General Staff, adjusted his plan and pushed for an offensive due west, along the whole of the British front north of the River Somme. This was designed to first separate the French and British Armies before continuing with the original concept of pushing the BEF into the sea. The offensive ended at Villers-Bretonneux, to the east of the Allied communications centre at Amiens, where the Allies managed to halt the German advance; the German Army had suffered many casualties a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Battle Of El Alamein
The First Battle of El Alamein (1–27 July 1942) was a battle of the Western Desert campaign of the Second World War, fought in Egypt between Axis (German and Italian) forces of the Panzer Army Africa—which included the under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel—and Allied ( British Imperial and Commonwealth) forces of the Eighth Army under General Claude Auchinleck. The British prevented a second advance by the Axis forces into Egypt. Axis positions near El Alamein, only from Alexandria, were dangerously close to the ports and cities of Egypt, the base facilities of the Commonwealth forces and the Suez Canal. However, the Axis forces were too far from their base at Tripoli in Libya to remain at El Alamein indefinitely, which led both sides to accumulate supplies for more offensives, against the constraints of time and distance. The battle and the Second Battle of El Alamein three months later remain important to some of the countries that took part. In New Zealand, this is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Gazala
The Battle of Gazala (near the village of ) was fought during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, west of the port of Tobruk in Libya, from 26 May to 21 June 1942. Axis troops of the ( Erwin Rommel) consisting of German and Italian units fought the British Eighth Army ( General Sir Claude Auchinleck, also Commander-in-Chief Middle East) composed mainly of British Commonwealth, Indian and Free French troops. The Axis troops made a decoy attack in the north as the main attack moved round the southern flank of the Gazala position. Unexpected resistance at the south end of the line around the Bir Hakeim box by the Free French garrison, left with a long and vulnerable supply route around the Gazala Line. Rommel retired to a defensive position backing onto Allied minefields (the Cauldron), forming a base in the midst of the British defences. Italian engineers lifted mines from the west side of the minefields to create a supply route through to the Axis side. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dunkirk Evacuation
The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, was the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allies of World War II, Allied soldiers during the World War II, Second World War from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the north of French Third Republic, France, between 26 May and 4 June 1940. The operation commenced after large numbers of Belgian Armed Forces, Belgian, British Army, British, and French Army, French troops were cut off and surrounded by German Army (1935–1945), German troops during the six-week Battle of France. In a speech to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called this "a colossal military disaster", saying "the whole root and core and brain of the British Army" had been stranded at Dunkirk and seemed about to perish or be captured. In his "We shall fight on the beaches" speech on 4 June, he hailed their rescue as a "miracle of delive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Arras (1940)
The Battle of Arras took place on 21 May 1940, during the Battle of France in the Second World War. Following the German invasion of the Low Countries on 10 May, French and British forces advanced into Belgium. The German campaign plan (Case Yellow) had evolved into a decoy operation in the Netherlands and Belgium, with the main effort through the Ardennes. German units crossed the Meuse without waiting for reinforcements at the Battle of Sedan. Instead of consolidating bridgeheads on the west bank of the Meuse, the Germans began an advance down the Somme river valley towards the English Channel. The Allies were thrown into confusion and their attempts to cut off the panzer spearheads degenerated into sporadic, un-coordinated counter-attacks which never achieved sufficient concentration to succeed as the main Allied armies were in Belgium. The offensive at Arras was planned by the British and French to relieve the pressure on the British garrison in the town of Arras and was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, massa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesopotamian Campaign
The Mesopotamian campaign was a campaign in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I fought between the Allies represented by the British Empire, troops from Britain, Australia and the vast majority from British India, against the Central Powers, mostly the Ottoman Empire. Background The Ottoman Empire had conquered the region in the early 16th century, but never gained complete control. Regional pockets of Ottoman control through local proxy rulers maintained the Ottomans' reach throughout Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). With the turn of the 19th century came reforms. Work began on a Baghdad Railway in 1888; by 1915 it had only four gaps, and travel time from Istanbul to Baghdad had fallen to 21 days. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) had obtained exclusive rights to petroleum deposits throughout the Persian Empire, except in the provinces of Azerbaijan, Ghilan, Mazendaran, Asdrabad, and Khorasan.The Encyclopedia Americana, 1920, v.28, p.403 In 1914, months before the war b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macedonian Front
The Macedonian front, also known as the Salonica front (after Thessaloniki), was a military theatre of World War I formed as a result of an attempt by the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers to aid Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, in the autumn of 1915, against the Serbian Campaign (World War I)#1915, combined attack of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria during World War I, Bulgaria. The expedition came too late and in insufficient force to prevent the fall of Serbia, and was complicated by the internal political crisis in Kingdom of Greece, Greece (the "National Schism"). Eventually, a stable front was established, running from the Albanian Adriatic Sea, Adriatic coast to the Struma River, pitting a Allied Army of the Orient, multinational Allied force against the Bulgarian Army, which was at various times bolstered with smaller units from the other Central Powers. The Macedonian front remained quite stable, despite local actions, Vardar offensive, until the great Allied offensive i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of The Sambre (1918)
The Second Battle of the Sambre (4 November 1918) (which included the Second Battle of Guise (french: 2ème Bataille de Guise) and the Battle of Thiérache (french: Bataille de Thiérache) was part of the final European Allied offensives of World War I. Background At the front, German resistance was falling away. Unprecedented numbers of prisoners were taken in the Battle of the Selle, and a new attack was quickly prepared. The French First Army and the British First, Third, and Fourth Armies were tasked with advancing from south of the Condé Canal along a front toward Maubeuge- Mons, threatening Namur. Together with the American forces breaking out of the forests of Argonne, this would, if successful, disrupt the German efforts to reform a shortened defensive line along the Meuse. At dawn on 4 November, 17 British divisions (including the 3rd and 4th Canadian Divisions of the Canadian Corps assigned to the British First Army) and 11 French divisions headed the attack. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of The Selle
The Battle of the Selle (17–25 October 1918) was a battle between Allied forces and the German Army, fought during the Hundred Days Offensive of World War I. Prelude After the Second Battle of Cambrai, the Allies advanced almost and liberated the French towns of Naves and Thun-Saint-Martin. Although the capture of Cambrai was achieved much sooner than expected and with moderately low casualties, German resistance northeast of the town stiffened along the German Army's final organized defensive structure, the 'Hermann Line'. By 11 October, the Fourth Army had closed up on the retreating Germans near Le Cateau, with the Germans taking up a new position, immediately to the east of the Selle River. General Henry Rawlinson was faced with three problems: crossing the river, the railway embankment on the far side and the ridge above the embankment. The decision was made to commence the assault at night, and as the river was not very wide at this point, planks would be used f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Cambrai (1918)
The Battle of Cambrai, 1918 (also known as the Second Battle of Cambrai) was a battle between troops of the British First, Third and Fourth Armies and German Empire forces during the Hundred Days Offensive of the First World War. The battle took place in and around the French city of Cambrai, between 8 and 10 October 1918. The battle incorporated many of the newer tactics of 1918, in particular tanks. The battle witnessed over 300 tanks taking part. Gaining considerable ground in less than 36 hours. With about 2,000 more British casualties than German, which was light relative to earlier phases of the war. Battle There were three German lines, spanning some ; held by the 20th ''Landwehr'' and the 54th Reserve divisions, supported by no more than 150 guns. The weak defence was due to the Allied general offensive across the Western Front, and specifically in this sector, the rapid approach of the Canadian Corps, who had overwhelmed much stronger defences in the previous days. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
