John Laffin
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John Laffin
John Laffin (21 September 1922 – 23 September 2000) was an Australian 20th century military historian. Early life John Alfred Charles Laffin was born on 21 September 1922 at Mosman, Sydney, Australia. Both of his parents had served with the British Imperial military forces in World War I, his father as a commissioned infantry officer, and his mother as a nurse. In the late 1930s Laffin was employed as a trainee journalist on the staff of ''Smith's Weekly'', one of Australia's most patriotic newspaper-style magazines, and the ''Wagga Wagga Advertiser''. In 1941 he enlisted as a Private into the 2nd Australian Imperial Force, subsequently being commissioned as an officer and going on to see active service in the New Guinea campaign in World War II. Journalism, education and writing career After the war, Laffin worked for a number of newspapers and magazines and began his own feature service and editing unit. In the mid-1950s he relocated with his family to the United Kingdom, ...
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Mosman, Sydney
Mosman is a suburb on the Lower North Shore region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mosman is located 8 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the Municipality of Mosman. Localities In February 1997, a notice was published in the Government Gazette by Mosman Council advising that they had assigned ''Mosman'' as the only suburb in the Mosman Local Government Area. However, Mosman Council decided that residents should continue to be allowed to use the following traditional locality names if they wished: * Balmoral * Beauty Point * Clifton Gardens * Georges Heights * Spit Junction * The Spit History Mosman is named after Archibald Mosman (1799–1863) and his twin brother George, who moved onto a land grant in the area in 1831. They were involved in shipping, and founded a whaling station on a bay in the harbour, which became known as Mosman's Bay. George ...
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Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (European part of Turkey), Egypt, Iran, the Levant (including Syria (region), Ash-Shām and Cyprus), Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), and the Socotra Governorate, Socotra Archipelago (a part of Yemen). The term came into widespread usage as a replacement of the term Near East (as opposed to the Far East) beginning in the early 20th century. The term "Middle East" has led to some confusion over its changing definitions, and has been viewed by some to be discriminatory or too Eurocentrism, Eurocentric. The region includes the vast majority of the territories included in the closely associated definition of Western Asia (including Iran), but without the South Caucasus, and additionally includes all of Egypt (not just the Sina ...
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Sphere Books
Sphere Books is the name of two British paperback publishers. History The original Sphere Books was launched in 1966 by Thomson Corporation. Sphere was sold to Pearson PLC in 1985 and became part of Penguin. The name was retired in 1990. In 1976, Sphere paid $225,000 for the British publishing rights from Ballantine Books for the novelisation of a forthcoming science fiction film, '' Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker'' by George Lucas (ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster). The book, like the film ''Star Wars'' released the following year, was an enormous success and sold out its initial print run. Sphere also published the UK editions of Conan fantasy series by Robert E. Howard. The occult writer Dennis Wheatley edited a series of books published under the umbrella title of ''The Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult'', which included titles such as '' Dracula'' by Bram Stoker, '' Moonchild'' by Aleister Crowley, ''Frankenstein'' by Mary Shelley and ''Faust'' by ...
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Cassell (publisher)
Cassell & Co is a British book publishing house, founded in 1848 by John Cassell (1817–1865), which became in the 1890s an international publishing group company. In 1995, Cassell & Co acquired Pinter Publishers. In December 1998, Cassell & Co was bought by the Orion Publishing Group. In January 2002, Cassell imprints, including the Cassell Reference and Cassell Military were joined with the Weidenfeld imprints to form a new division under the name of Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd. Cassell Illustrated survives as an imprint of the Octopus Publishing Group. History John Cassell (1817–1865), who was in turn a carpenter, temperance preacher, tea and coffee merchant, finally turned to publishing. His first publication was on 1 July 1848, a weekly newspaper called ''The Standard of Freedom'' advocating religious, political, and commercial freedom. '' The Working Man's Friend'' became another popular publication. In 1849 Cassell was dividing his time between his publishing and his gr ...
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Fedayeen
Fedayeen ( ar, فِدائيّين ''fidāʼīyīn'' "self-sacrificers") is an Arabic term used to refer to various military groups willing to sacrifice themselves for a larger campaign. Etymology The term ''fedayi'' is derived from Arabic: ''fidā'īyūn'' , literally meaning: "those who sacrifice themselves". Per country Armenia Armenian fedayi groups acted as irregular militia troops to defend their lands during the Hamidian massacres and the CUP's genocidal policies. Egypt During the 1940s, groups of Egyptian civilians formed ''fedayeen'' groups to contest the British occupation of Egypt, which by then was limited to the region against the Suez Canal. The British Army had established numerous military outposts around the canal zone, which many Egyptians viewed as a violation of their national sovereignty. This opposition was not supported by the Egyptian government, though these ''fedayeen'' groups held broad support among the general public in Egypt. In 1951 "mobs o ...
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Jack Tar
Jack Tar (also Jacktar, Jack-tar or Tar) is a common English language, English term originally used to refer to Sailor, seamen of the British Merchant Navy, Merchant or Royal Navy, particularly during the period of the British Empire. By World War I the term was used as a nickname for those in the U.S. Navy. Members of the public and seafarers alike made use of the name in identifying those who went to sea. It was not used as a pejorative and sailors were happy to use the term to label themselves. Etymology There is some dispute among historians about the origin of "Jack", but it was a frequently used generic that identified the mass of common people. There are several plausible etymologies for the reference to "tar": * In the Age of sail, age of wooden sailing vessels, a ship's rigging was rope made of hemp, which would rot quickly in such a damp environment. To avoid this, the ropes and cables of the standing rigging, rig were soaked in tar, which had to be replenished by Ta ...
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Red Cross
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human suffering. Within it there are three distinct organisations that are legally independent from each other, but are united within the movement through common basic principles, objectives, symbols, statutes and governing organisations. History Foundation Until the middle of the nineteenth century, there were no organized or well-established army nursing systems for casualties, nor safe or protected institutions, to accommodate and treat those who were wounded on the battlefield. A devout Calvinism, Calvinist, the Swiss businessman Jean-Henri Dunant traveled to Italy to meet then-French emperor Napoleon III in June 1859 with the intention of discussing difficulties in conducting ...
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First Australian Imperial Force
The First Australian Imperial Force (1st AIF) was the main expeditionary force of the Australian Army during the First World War. It was formed as the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) following Britain's declaration of war on Germany on 15 August 1914, with an initial strength of one infantry division and one light horse brigade. The infantry division subsequently fought at Gallipoli between April and December 1915, with a newly raised second division, as well as three light horse brigades, reinforcing the committed units. After being evacuated to Egypt, the AIF was expanded to five infantry divisions, which were committed to the fighting in France and Belgium along the Western Front in March 1916. A sixth infantry division was partially raised in 1917 in the United Kingdom, but was broken up and used as reinforcements following heavy casualties on the Western Front. Meanwhile, two mounted divisions remained in the Middle East to fight against Turkish forces in the Sinai an ...
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Le Hamel, Somme
Le Hamel () is a commune in the Somme department and Hauts-de-France region of northern France. Geography Le Hamel is situated some 20 km east of Amiens in the valley of the Somme. The surrounding district is the historical Santerre, a lightly wooded and agricultural plateau. History The settlement is first documented in 1184 as belonging to the powerful abbey of Corbie. The name has the same root as ''hameau'' ("hamlet"), a small rural settlement. The town and surrounding countryside was the scene of the Battle of Hamel on 4 July 1918, during World War I. The battle, despite being small in scale, is notable for being the first instance in which combined arms tactics were used in warfare. Places of interest * A park commemorating the 1000+ Australian troops who died in the Battle of Hamel was inaugurated on 4 July 1998, exactly 80 years after the date of the event. The site symbolises the friendship between France and Australia. * The lakes of the Somme valley. Image: ...
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IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, plot summaries, trivia, ratings, and fan and critical reviews. IMDb began as a fan-operated movie database on the Usenet group "rec.arts.movies" in 1990, and moved to the Web in 1993. It is now owned and operated by IMDb.com, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon. the database contained some million titles (including television episodes) and million person records. Additionally, the site had 83 million registered users. The site's message boards were disabled in February 2017. Features The title and talent ''pages'' of IMDb are accessible to all users, but only registered and logged-in users can submit new material and suggest edits to existing entries. Most of the site's data has been provided by these volunteers. Registered users with a prov ...
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Douglas Haig
Field marshal (United Kingdom), Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, (; 19 June 1861 – 29 January 1928) was a senior Officer (armed forces), officer of the British Army. During the First World War, he commanded the British Expeditionary Force (World War I), British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front from late 1915 until the end of the war. He was commander during the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Arras (1917), Battle of Arras, the Battle of Passchendaele, Third Battle of Ypres, the German Spring Offensive, and the Hundred Days Offensive.Sheffield 2002, p. 21.Sheffield 2002, p. 263.Hart 2008, p. 2. His military career included service in the War Office, where he was instrumental in the creation of the Territorial Force in 1908. In January 1917 he was raised up to the rank of Field Marshal, subsequently leading the BEF during the final Hundred Days Offensive, when it crossed the Canal du Nord and broke through the Hindenburg l ...
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Timewatch
''Timewatch'' is a long-running British television series showing documentaries on historical subjects, spanning all human history. It was first broadcast on 29 September 1982 and is produced by the BBC. The ''Timewatch'' brandname is used as a banner title in the UK, but many of the individual documentaries are unbranded with BBC continuity outside the domestic British market. Episodes Viewer figures are taken from the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board Ltd. website for the day that the episode was first aired. 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 See also * ''Time Team ''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television producer Tim ...'' - a British Channel 4 programme focusing on archaeology References External links Official ''Timewatch'' Homepa ...
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