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55th (kent) Heavy Anti-aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery
55th (Kent) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery was a volunteer air defence unit of Britain's Territorial Army from 1925 until 1955. In World War II it defended the Thames Estuary, Medway Towns and Dover during The Blitz and later served in Iraq and North Africa. It then supported British Eighth Army and US Fifth Army during the Sicily and Italian campaigns until the end of the war. Origin German air raids by Zeppelin airships and Gotha bombers on British cities during World War I had shown the need for strong anti-aircraft (AA) defences in any future war. When the Territorial Army (TA) was reformed in the 1920s it began raising five dedicated AA units of the Royal Artillery (RA). The last of these was 55th (Kent) Anti-Aircraft Brigade, raised in January 1925 at Tonbridge, Kent (later at Tunbridge Wells) with headquarters at Fort Clarence in Rochester. For a number of years the regiment consisted of this single battery (which was redesignated 163 (Kent) Bty in April 1 ... [...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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting occurring throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions more died in genocides within the Ottoman Empire and in the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war. Prior to 1914, the European great powers were divided between the Triple Entente (comprising France, Russia, and Britain) and the Triple Alliance (containing Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy). Tensions in the Balkans came to a head on 28 June 1914, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Munich Crisis
The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany of the Sudeten German territory" of Czechoslovakia, despite the existence of a 1924 alliance agreement and 1925 military pact between France and the Czechoslovak Republic, for which it is also known as the Munich Betrayal (; ). Most of Europe celebrated the Munich agreement, which was presented as a way to prevent a major war on the continent. The four powers agreed to the German annexation of the Czechoslovak borderland areas named the Sudetenland, where more than three million people, mainly ethnic Germans, lived. Adolf Hitler announced that it was his last territorial claim in Northern Europe. Germany had started a low-intensity undeclared war on Czechoslovakia on 17 September 1938. In reaction, the United Kingdom and France on 20 Sep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kitchener Barracks
Chatham Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the River Medway in Kent. Established in Chatham in the mid-16th century, the dockyard subsequently expanded into neighbouring Gillingham (at its most extensive, in the early 20th century, two-thirds of the dockyard lay in Gillingham, one-third in Chatham). It came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional defences. Over 414 years Chatham Royal Dockyard provided more than 500 ships for the Royal Navy, and was at the forefront of shipbuilding, industrial and architectural technology. At its height, it employed over 10,000 skilled artisans and covered . Chatham dockyard closed in 1984, and of the Georgian dockyard is now managed as the Chatham Historic Dockyard visitor attraction by the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust. Overview Joseph Farington (1747-1821) was commissioned by the Navy Board to paint a pano ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Home Counties
The home counties are the counties of England that surround London. The counties are not precisely defined but Buckinghamshire and Surrey are usually included in definitions and Berkshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Kent are also often included."Home Counties" in ''Oxford Dictionary of English'', Oxford University Press, 2010. www.oxfordreference.com Retrieved 4 December 2013. Other counties further from London — such as Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, East Sussex and West Sussex — are not normally regarded as home counties, although on occasion may be thought of as such due to their proximity to London and their connection to the London regional economy. Etymology The origin of the term "home counties" is uncertain. Marcus Crouch, writing in 1975, thought that it derived from the Home Counties Circuit of courts that since at least the 18th century had surrounded London. Looking further back, he suggested that it included the counties in which, s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1st Anti-Aircraft Division (United Kingdom)
The 1st Anti-Aircraft Division (1st AA Division) was an Air Defence formation of the British Army before and during the early years of the Second World War. It defended London during the Battle of Britain and The Blitz. Origin The 1st AA Division was organised on 15 December 1935 at Hillingdon House, RAF Uxbridge (at that time the headquarters of the Royal Observer Corps).Frederick, p. 1047. Responsible to London District but under the operational control of RAF Fighter Command, the Division's role was to command the growing number of Territorial Army (TA) anti-aircraft gun and searchlight units around London (the 2nd AA Division was formed in 1936 to cover the rest of the country). The headquarters of the division was formed by converting the headquarters of the 47th (2nd London) Infantry Division, whose General Officer Commanding, Major-General R.H.D. Thomson, continued as GOC of the new formation. Thomson had been Commander TA Air Defence Brigades and Inspector of Regular ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
4th Home Counties Brigade, Royal Field Artillery
The IV Home Counties (Howitzer) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery was a new volunteer unit formed in Kent as part of the Territorial Force (TF) in 1908. It saw active service on the Western Front during World War I and was reconstituted as medium artillery in the interwar years. Later it converted to anti-aircraft artillery, in which role it served in The Blitz, North Africa and Italy during World War II and continued under various designations until its disbandment in 1969. Origin IV Home Counties Brigade was a volunteer unit of the Royal Field Artillery raised at Erith to provide Howitzer support to the TF's Home Counties Division. It had the following composition:Litchfield, pp. 107–8.Frederick, p. 676.Becke, Pt 2a, pp. 49–54. * 4th Kent (Howitzer) Battery * 5th Kent (Howitzer) Battery * 4th Home Counties (Howitzer) Ammunition Column World War I On the outbreak of World War I, most of the Home Counties Division was sent to Gibraltar and India to relieve Regular troops for se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Faversham
Faversham is a market town in Kent, England, from London and from Canterbury, next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2, which follows an ancient British trackway which was used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons, and known as Watling Street. The name is of Old English origin, meaning "the metal-worker's village". There has been a settlement at Faversham since pre-Roman times, next to the ancient sea port on Faversham Creek. It was inhabited by the Saxons and mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ''Favreshant''. The town was favoured by King Stephen who established Faversham Abbey, which survived until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538. Subsequently, the town became an important seaport and established itself as a centre for brewing, and the Shepherd Neame Brewery, founded in 1698, remains a significant major employer. The town was also the centre of the explosives industry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chatham, Kent
Chatham ( ) is a town located within the Medway unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Gillingham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham. The town developed around Chatham Dockyard and several Army barracks, together with 19th-century forts which provided a defensive shield for the dockyard. The Corps of Royal Engineers is still based in Chatham at Brompton Barracks. The Dockyard closed in 1984, but the remaining major naval buildings are an attraction for a flourishing tourist industry. Following closure, part of the site was developed as a commercial port, other parts were redeveloped for business and residential use, and part was used as the Chatham Historic Dockyard museum. Its attractions include the submarine . The town has important road links and the railway and bus stations are the main interchanges for the area. It is the administrative headquarters of Medway unitary authority, as well as its pri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1st Kent Artillery Volunteers
The 1st Kent Artillery Volunteers was a part-time unit of the British Army's Royal Artillery from 1860 to 1956. Primarily serving as coastal artillery defending the Port of Dover and other harbours in South-East England, the unit's successors also served in the heavy artillery role on the Western Front during World War I and as anti-aircraft artillery during the Blitz and later in the North African and Italian campaigns of World War II. Volunteer Force Many Volunteer units were raised in Great Britain as a result of an invasion scare in 1859. These small independent units were quickly organised into larger groupings, and the 1st Administrative Brigade of Kent Artillery Volunteers was formed on 15 August 1860. It comprised the following Artillery Volunteer Corps (AVCs):Frederick, pp. 660–1.Litchfield and Westlake, pp. 98–102. * 1st Kent AVC formed at Gravesend on 20 October 1859; second battery formed 5 March 1860 * 2nd Kent AVC formed at Faversham on 15 November 1859 ; second ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
28th (Thames And Medway) Anti-Aircraft Brigade
28th (Thames and Medway) Anti-Aircraft Brigade (28 AA Bde) was an air defence formation of the British Territorial Army created in 1925 to command anti-aircraft units in Kent and around the militarily important Medway Towns, which it defended during the Second World War. In 1940 the brigade was responsible for the defences on the south side of the Thames Estuary including the Royal Naval Dockyard at Chatham and the Port of Dover. The brigade was heavily engaged throughout the Battle of Britain, in the summer of 1940, and The Blitz, from autumn 1940 to spring 1941, operating a total of 70 heavy anti-aircraft (HAA) guns controlled from a gun operations room (GOR) at Chatham. During 1942 many of the brigade's experienced units were transferred to active theatres overseas. Increasingly the brigade included women of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS). From mid-1944 the German ''Luftwaffe'' began launching V-1 flying bombs against southeast England, whose speed and maneuverabili ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rochester, Kent
Rochester ( ) is a town in the unitary authority of Medway, in Kent, England. It is at the lowest bridging point of the River Medway, about from London. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Chatham, Rainham, Strood and Gillingham. Rochester was a city until losing its status as one in 1998 following the forming of Medway and failing to protect its status as a city. There have been ongoing campaigns to reinstate the city status for Rochester. Rochester was for many years a favourite of Charles Dickens, who owned nearby Gads Hill Place, Higham, basing many of his novels on the area. The Diocese of Rochester, the second oldest in England, is centred on Rochester Cathedral and was responsible for founding a school, now ''The King's School'', in 604 AD, which is recognised as the second oldest continuously running school in the world. Rochester Castle, built by Bishop Gundulf of Rochester, has one of the best-preserved keeps in either England or France. During ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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