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Arkforce (1940)
Arkforce was an ad hoc formation of the British Expeditionary Force during the Battle of France in 1940. Background At the start of the Battle of France, the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division was on detachment from the rest of the BEF, having been reinforced, to man part of the Maginot Line under French command. After being withdrawn and sent west, the division was attached to IX Corps of the French Tenth Army in Normandy along the lower reaches of the river Somme. Command of the corps was given to Major-General Victor Fortune of the Highland Division, who was under the command of General Robert Altmayer the Tenth Army commander. After almost continuous fighting against a German bridgehead on the south bank at Abbeville, the division was ordered to retreat on 7 June, to a defensive line along the river Bresle. When the second German offensive (Case Red) reached the area the next day, the 5th Panzer Division outflanked the Bresle position at Rouen, leaving the Highlande ...
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The British Army In France 1940 F4733
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of pronoun ''thee'') when followed by a ...
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War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from this source, which is available under th Open Government Licence v3.0 © Crown copyright It was equivalent to the Admiralty, responsible for the Royal Navy (RN), and (much later) the Air Ministry, which oversaw the Royal Air Force (RAF). The name 'War Office' is also given to the former home of the department, located at the junction of Horse Guards Avenue Horse Guards Avenue is a road in the City of Westminster, London, linking the major thoroughfares of Whitehall and Victoria Embankment, to the east of the Horse Guards building and parade area. The entrance of the Main Building of the Minist ... and Whitehall in central London. The landmark building was sold on 1 March 2016 by HM Government for more than British pound, £3 ...
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154th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)
The 154th Infantry Brigade (part of the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division) was an infantry brigade of the British Army division that fought during both the First and Second world wars. The brigade was raised in 1908, upon the creation of the Territorial Force, as the Argyll and Sutherland Brigade and was later redesignated as the 154th (3rd Highland) Brigade. The division was referred to as the "''Highway Decorators''" by other divisions who became used to discovering the 'HD' insignia painted wherever the Highlanders had passed through. 154th Brigade was luckier than its sister brigades of the 51st Division ( 152nd and 153rd). It was detached in June 1940 to form the mobile battlegroup " Arkforce" and was able to escape from Northern France while the rest of the division was forced to surrender at St Valery-en-Caux. However, the brigade was severely understrength by the time it returned to Britain, and in August 1940 it was reorganised and merged with the 28th Infantry Briga ...
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Blockships
A blockship is a ship deliberately sunk to prevent a river, channel, or canal from being used. It may either be sunk by a navy defending the waterway to prevent the ingress of attacking enemy forces, as in the case of at Portland Harbour in 1914; or it may be brought by enemy raiders and used to prevent the waterway from being used by the defending forces, as in the case of the three old cruisers , and scuttled during the Zeebrugge raid in 1918 to prevent the port from being used by the German navy. An early use was in 1667, during the Dutch Raid on the Medway and their attempts to do likewise in the Thames during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, when a number of warships and merchant ships commandeered by the Royal Navy were sunk in those rivers to attempt to stop the attacking forces. An even earlier use are the six 11th century Skuldelev ships in Roskilde Fjord, sunk to protect Roskilde from northern Vikings. They are now on display in the Viking Ship Museum. The above is the ...
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Dieppe
Dieppe (; Norman: ''Dgieppe'') is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to Newhaven in England. Famous for its scallops, Dieppe also has a popular pebbled beach, a 15th-century castle and the churches of Saint-Jacques and Saint-Remi. The mouth of the river Scie lies at Hautot-sur-Mer, directly to the west of Dieppe. The inhabitants of the town of Dieppe are called ''Dieppois'' (m) and ''Dieppoise'' (f) in French. History First recorded as a small fishing settlement in 1030, Dieppe was an important prize fought over during the Hundred Years' War. Dieppe housed the most advanced French school of cartography in the 16th century. Two of France's best navigators, Michel le Vasseur and his brother Thomas le Vasseur, lived in Dieppe when they were recruited to join the expedition of René Goulaine de Laudonn ...
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Schuyt
A Dutch barge is a traditional flat-bottomed shoal-draught barge, originally used to carry cargo in the shallow '' Zuyder Zee'' and the waterways of Netherlands. There are very many types of Dutch barge, with characteristics determined by regional conditions and traditions. Originally, Dutch barges were sailing craft with wooden hulls. Today, while few wooden examples remain, there are many steel barges that are 100 years old or more. Although most Dutch barges have been converted to motor-propulsion, ''schuyt'' sailing contests are still held on the IJsselmeer and on the Wadden Sea (Waddenzee). Dutch barges have become popular live-aboard leisure craft, and brand-new "Dutch-style" examples continue to be built. The Dutch barge A typical traditional Dutch barge would have gaff rig, a bluff bow and stern, a pair of leeboards and a large rudder. The leeboards and rudder would be raised by an arrangement of blocks and tackles. Schuyts engaged in eel fishing were said to have be ...
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Flotilla Leader
A flotilla leader was a warship of late 19th century and early 20th century navies suitable for commanding a flotilla of destroyers or other small warships, typically a small cruiser or a large destroyer (known as a destroyer leader). The flotilla leader provided space, equipment and staff for the flotilla commodore (who typically held the rank of captain), including a wireless room, senior engineering and gunnery officers, and administrative staff to support the officers. Originally, older light or scout cruisers were often used, but in the early 1900s, the rapidly increasing speed of new destroyer designs meant that such vessels could no longer keep pace with their charges. Accordingly, large destroyer designs were produced for use as leaders. As destroyers changed from specialized anti-torpedo boat vessels that operated in squadrons to larger multi-purpose ships that operated alone or as leaders of groups of smaller vessels, and as command and control techniques improved (and ...
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Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth
The Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, was a senior commander of the Royal Navy for hundreds of years. The commanders-in-chief were based at premises in High Street, Portsmouth from the 1790s until the end of Sir Thomas Williams's tenure, his successor, Sir Philip Durham, being the first to move into Admiralty House at the Royal Navy Dockyard, where subsequent holders of the office were based until 1969. Prior to World War I the officer holder was sometimes referred to in official dispatches as the Commander-in-Chief, Spithead. The Command extended along the south coast from Newhaven in East Sussex to Portland in Dorset. In 1889 the Commander-in-Chief took as his flagship. History In the late 18th century port admirals began to reside ashore, rather than on board their flagships; the Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth was provided with a large house at 111 High Street, which was renamed Admiralty House (and which had formerly been home to the Mayor of Portsmouth). In the 1830s Ad ...
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William James (Royal Navy Officer, Born 1881)
Admiral Sir William Milbourne James, (22 December 1881 – 17 August 1973) was a British naval commander, politician and author. He served in the Royal Navy from the early 20th century to the Second World War. During the First World War, he was an integral part of the Naval Intelligence Division in its early years. Family James was the son of Major W. C. James of the 16th Lancers and his wife Effie, daughter of the painter John Everett Millais. He was educated at Trinity College, Glenalmond, and HMS ''Britannia''. Bubbles As a child, James sat as a subject for several paintings by his grandfather, Millais. The most well-known of these is '' Bubbles'', in which the five-year-old William is shown gazing enraptured at a soap bubble he has just blown. When the painting was used in an advertisement for Pears soap, it became famous. The image dogged James throughout his life, and he was regularly nicknamed "Bubbles". Naval career James pursued a career in the Royal Navy, rising ...
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7th Panzer Division (Wehrmacht)
The 7th Panzer Division was an armored formation of the German Army in World War II. It participated in the Battle of France, the invasion of the Soviet Union, the occupation of Vichy France, and on the Eastern Front until the end of the war. The 7th Panzer Division is also known by its nickname, Ghost Division. The division met with great success in France in 1940 and then again in the Soviet Union in 1941. In May 1942, the division was withdrawn from the Soviet Union and sent back to France to replace losses and refit. It returned to Southern Russia following the defeat at Stalingrad, and helped to check a general collapse of the front in a series of defensive battles as part of Army Group Don, and participated in General Erich von Manstein's counterattack at Kharkov. The division fought in the unsuccessful offensive at Kursk in the summer of 1943, suffering heavy losses in men and equipment and was further degraded in the subsequent Soviet counteroffensive. Through ...
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Bolbec
Bolbec () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France. Its inhabitants are called ''Bolbécais'' or ''Bolbécaises''. Geography A farming, quarrying and light industrial town situated at the heart of three valleys in the Pays de Caux, some northeast of Le Havre. It is the source of the river Commerce, though here it is known as the river Bolbec. The town has many small lanes (''ruelles'') with some pretty houses. History The first written record of the town dates from the end of the 11th century, as ''Bolebec''. Archeological discoveries indicate that the site has been inhabited since ancient times. The first lord of Bolbec was Osbern de Bolbec (around 992) and the last was the Duc de Charost who was executed during the French revolution. Through the Norman family of de Bolbec, the town gives its name to the village of Swaffham Bulbeck in Cambridgeshire, England. Bolbec developed thanks to the numerous mills which lined the river ...
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Fécamp
Fécamp () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in north-western France. Geography Fécamp is situated in the valley of the river Valmont, at the heart of the Pays de Caux, on the Alabaster Coast. It is around 35 km northeast of Le Havre, and around 60 km northwest of Rouen. History Origin of the name According to its late medieval founding legend, the trunk of a fig tree (''ficus'') carrying the Precious Blood of Christ collected by Joseph of Arimathea was washed ashore on the riverbank at Fécamp in the 1st century. Immediately, a fountain of holy blood gushed from the site; the relic attracted many medieval pilgrims, enhancing the reputation of the city. The monks' legend justified the artificial etymology of the name to ''Fici-campus'', the camp of the fig tree. Fécamp, however, is mentioned in 875 as ''Fiscannum'' and in 990 as ''Fiscannus'' and as late as 1496 which stem from the Germanic root ''fisc'' (English "fish") wi ...
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