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Neil Ritchie
General Sir Neil Methuen Ritchie, (29 July 1897 – 11 December 1983) was a British Army officer who saw service during both the world wars. He is most notable during the Second World War for commanding the British Eighth Army in the North African campaign from November 1941 until being dismissed in June 1942. Despite this, his career did not end. Ritchie later commanded XII Corps throughout the campaign in Northwest Europe, from June 1944 until Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) in May 1945. Origins Born near the Essequibo River in British Guiana on 29 July 1897, he was the second son of a Scottish planter, Dugald MacDougall Ritchie (1861-1925), and his wife Anna Catherine Leggatt (1860-1946), daughter of an English farmer. His elder brother was Alan MacDougall Ritchie, later a brigadier in the British Army, and he had two sisters. Early life and First World War After growing up in Malaya, he went to England and was educated at Lancing College and the Royal Military College, S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Guiana
British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first European to encounter Guiana was Sir Walter Raleigh, an English explorer. The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle there, starting in the early 17th century, when they founded the colonies of Essequibo and Berbice, adding Demerara in the mid-18th century. In 1796, Great Britain took over these three colonies during hostilities with the French, who had occupied the Netherlands. Britain returned control to the Batavian Republic in 1802 but captured the colonies a year later during the Napoleonic Wars. The colonies were officially ceded to the United Kingdom in 1815 and consolidated into a single colony in 1831. The colony's capital was at Georgetown (known as Stabroek prior to 1812). The economy has become more diversified since the late 19th century but has relied on r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knight Commander Of The Order Of The Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval and early-modern Europe, bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as "Knights of the Bath". George I "erected the Knights of the Bath into a regular Order (honour), Military Order". He did not (as is commonly believed) revive the Order of the Bath, since it had never previously existed as an Order, in the sense of a body of knights who were governed by a set of Statute, statutes and whose numbers were replenished when vacancies occurred. The Order consists of the Sovereign (currently Charles III, King Charles III), the :Great Masters of the Order of the Bath, Great Master (currently vacant) and three Classes of members: *Knight Grand Cross (:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victory In Europe Day
Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the official end of World War II in Europe in the Eastern Front, with the last shots fired on the 11th. Russia and some former Soviet countries celebrate on 9 May. Several countries observe public holidays on the day each year, also called Victory Over Fascism Day, Liberation Day or Victory Day. In the UK it is often abbreviated to VE Day, or V-E Day in the US, a term which existed as early as September 1944, in anticipation of victory. The end of all combat actions was specified as 23:01 Central European Time, which was already 9 May in eastern Europe, and thus several former Soviet bloc countries including Russia and Belarus, as well as some former Yugoslav countries like Serbia, celebrate Victory Day on 9 May. History Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader, had committed suicide on 30 April dur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Front (World War II)
The Western Front was a European theatre of World War II, military theatre of World War II encompassing Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. The Italian campaign (World War II), Italian front is considered a separate but related theater. The Western Front's 1944-1945 phase was officially deemed the European Theater of Operations, United States Army, European Theater by the United States, whereas Italy fell under the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, United States Army, Mediterranean Theater along with North Africa. The Western Front was marked by two phases of large-scale combat operations. The first phase saw the capitulation of Luxembourg, Netherlands, Belgium, and France during May and June 1940 after their defeat in the Low Countries and the northern half of France, and continued into an air war between Germany and Britain that climaxed with the Battle of Britain. The second phase consisted of large- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War
A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World WarI (1914–1918) and World WarII (1939–1945), although historians have also described other global conflicts as world wars, such as the Seven Years' War and the Cold War. Etymology The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' cited the first known usage in the English language to a Scottish newspaper, ''The People's Journal'', in 1848: "A war among the great powers is now necessarily a world-war." The term "world war" is used by Karl Marx and his associate, Friedrich Engels, in a series of articles published around 1850 called ''The Class Struggles in France''. Rasmus B. Anderson in 1889 described an episode in Teutonic mythology as a "world war" (Swedish: ''världskrig''), justifying this description by a line in an Old Norse epic poem, "Völuspá: fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colonel (United Kingdom)
Colonel (Col) is a rank of the British Army and Royal Marines, ranking below brigadier, and above lieutenant colonel. British colonels are not usually field commanders; typically they serve as staff officers between field commands at battalion and brigade level. The insignia is two diamond-shaped pips (properly called "Bath Stars") below a crown. The crown has varied in the past with different monarchs; Elizabeth II's reign used St Edward's Crown. The rank is equivalent to captain in the Royal Navy and group captain in the Royal Air Force. Etymology The rank of colonel was popularized by the tercios that were employed in the Spanish Army during the 16th and 17th centuries. General Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba divided his troops in to ''coronelías'' (meaning "column of soldiers" from the Latin, ''columnella'' or "small column"). These units were led by a ''coronel''. This command structure and its titles were soon adopted as ''colonello'' in early modern Italian and in Mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Croix De Guerre 1939–1945 (France)
Croix (French for "cross") may refer to: Belgium * Croix-lez-Rouveroy, a village in municipality of Estinnes in the province of Hainaut France * Croix, Nord, in the Nord department * Croix, Territoire de Belfort, in the Territoire de Belfort department * Croix-Caluyau, in the Nord department * Croix-Chapeau, in the Charente-Maritime department * Croix-en-Ternois, in the Pas-de-Calais department * Croix-Fonsomme, in the Aisne department * Croix-Mare, in the Seine-Maritime department * Croix-Moligneaux, in the Somme department * Canton of Croix, administrative division of the Nord department, northern France See also * Croix Scaille, a hill plateau in the Ardennes, Belgium * La Croix (other), including places called "La Croix" * St. Croix (other) St. Croix or Saint Croix (from the french: Sainte-Croix, " holy cross") may refer to: Places * Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands **St. Croix School District *** St. Croix Educational Complex ** St. Croix sheep ** St. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commander Of The Legion Of Honour
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, it has been retained (with occasional slight alterations) by all later French governments and regimes. The order's motto is ' ("Honour and Fatherland"); its seat is the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur next to the Musée d'Orsay, on the left bank of the Seine in Paris. The order is divided into five degrees of increasing distinction: ' (Knight), ' (Officer), ' ( Commander), ' (Grand Officer) and ' (Grand Cross). History Consulate During the French Revolution, all of the French orders of chivalry were abolished and replaced with Weapons of Honour. It was the wish of Napoleon Bonaparte, the First Consul, to create a reward to commend civilians and soldiers. From this wish was instituted a , a body of men that was not an orde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virtuti Militari
The War Order of Virtuti Militari (Latin: ''"For Military Virtue"'', pl, Order Wojenny Virtuti Militari) is Poland's highest military decoration for heroism and courage in the face of the enemy at war. It was created in 1792 by Polish King Stanislaus II Augustus and is the oldest military decoration in the world still in use. It is awarded in five classes either for personal heroism or, to commanders, for leadership. Some of the heroic actions recognized by an award of the Virtuti Militari are equivalent to those meriting the British Victoria Cross, the German Iron Cross, and the American Medal of Honor. Soon after its introduction, however, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was destroyed in the partitions of Poland (1795), and the partitioning powers abolished the decoration and prohibited its wearing. Since then, the award has been reintroduced, renamed and banned several times, with its fate closely reflecting the vicissitudes of the Polish people. Throughout the decorat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Order Of Orange-Nassau
The Order of Orange-Nassau ( nl, Orde van Oranje-Nassau, links=no) is a civil and military Dutch order of chivalry founded on 4 April 1892 by the queen regent, Emma of the Netherlands. The order is a chivalric order open to "everyone who has performed acts of special merits for society.” These are people who deserve appreciation and recognition from society for the special way in which they have carried out their activities. Titles, prefixes, or post-nominals are not used in the Netherlands – the only exception being the Military William Order. History In 1841 William II of the Netherlands, as Grand Duke of Luxembourg, created the Order of the Oak Crown. Although this was officially not a Dutch order, honours were regularly conferred on Dutch people. After the death of William III, Luxembourg, according to the Nassau Family Pact, became the domain of the other branch of the House of Nassau. In the Netherlands the need for a third order, beside the Military William O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legion Of Merit
The Legion of Merit (LOM) is a military award of the United States Armed Forces that is given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements. The decoration is issued to members of the eight uniformed services of the United States Note: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps Amendments Act of 2012 amended the Legion of Merit to be awarded to any uniformed service. as well as to military and political figures of foreign governments. The Legion of Merit (Commander degree) is one of only two United States military decorations to be issued as a (the other being the |
