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Operation Barclay
Operation Barclay was a World War II deception by the Allies in support of Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943. The goal was to deceive the Axis powers as to the location of the Allies' assault across the Mediterranean and to divert the Axis military command's attention and resources. Operation Barclay used bogus troop movements, radio traffic, recruitment of Greek interpreters, and acquisition of Greek maps to indicate an invasion through the Balkans. Operation Barclay created a sham army in the eastern Mediterranean: the Twelfth Army consisting of 12 fictitious divisions. Adolf Hitler suspected that the Allies would invade Europe through the Balkans, and ''Barclay'' served to reinforce this. As part of Barclay the British also launched Operation Mincemeat, where faked documents were planted via Spain, and Operation Waterfall, in which a decoy invasion force was assembled in Cyrenaica. To reinforce the impression that an Allied invasion was imminent ... [...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, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its purpose was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe (and later, also in occupied Southeast Asia) against the Axis powers, and to aid local resistance movements. Few people were aware of SOE's existence. Those who were part of it or liaised with it were sometimes referred to as the "Baker Street Irregulars", after the location of its London headquarters. It was also known as "Churchill's Secret Army" or the "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare". Its various branches, and sometimes the organisation as a whole, were concealed for security purposes behind names such as the "Joint Technical Board" or the "Inter-Service Research Bureau", or fictitious branches of the Air Ministry, Admiralty or War Office. SOE operated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II Deception Operations
In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique while others talk of a "plurality of worlds". Some treat the world as one simple object while others analyze the world as a complex made up of many parts. In ''scientific cosmology'' the world or universe is commonly defined as " e totality of all space and time; all that is, has been, and will be". '' Theories of modality'', on the other hand, talk of possible worlds as complete and consistent ways how things could have been. ''Phenomenology'', starting from the horizon of co-given objects present in the periphery of every experience, defines the world as the biggest horizon or the "horizon of all horizons". In ''philosophy of mind'', the world is commonly contrasted with the mind as that which is represented by the mind. ''Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jon Latimer
Jonathan David Latimer (1964 – 4 January 2009) was an historian and writer based in Wales. His books include ''Operation Compass 1940'' (Osprey, 2000), ''Tobruk 1941'' (Osprey, 2001), ''Deception in War'' (John Murray, 2001), ''Alamein'' (John Murray, 2002), ''Burma: The Forgotten War'' (John Murray, 2004) and ''1812: War with America'' (Harvard University Press, 2007) which won a Distinguished Book Award from the Society for Military History and was shortlisted for the George Washington Book Prize.Donald R. Hickey/ref> Born in Prestatyn, Wales, Latimer was educated at Christleton County High School, Chester. He studied for a geography degree at University College, Swansea but switched course to graduate in oceanography. He worked as an oceanographer until becoming a full-time writer in 1997. In 2003, he became an honorary research fellow at his ''alma mater'' (by this time Swansea University) and was appointed as a part-time lecturer in history on the BA (Hons) degree sc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Distomo Massacre
The Distomo massacre ( el, Σφαγή του Διστόμου; german: Massaker von Distomo or ''Distomo-Massaker'') was a Nazi war crime perpetrated by members of the Waffen-SS in the village of Distomo, Greece, in 1944, during the German occupation of Greece during World War II. Background The 2nd company of the 4th Waffen-SS ''Polizei Panzergrendier'' Division as serving in Greece in 1944 was made up mostly of ''volksdeutsche'' (ethnic German) teenagers from Hungary and Romania commanded by zealous SS officers. The heavy losses taken on the Eastern Front had caused the SS to lower its standards as the war went on and many of the teenagers in the company were underaged with some as young as 14 or 15. The British historian Mark Mazower described the 2nd Company as being made up of a "lethal combination" of ill-trained ''volksdeutsche'' teenagers determined to prove their sense of ''deutschtum'' (Germanness) with fanatical SS officers. This was especially the case as almost all o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Massacre Of Kalavryta
The Kalavryta massacre ( el, Σφαγή των Καλαβρύτων), or the Holocaust of Kalavryta (), was the near-extermination of the male population and the total destruction of the town of Kalavryta, Axis-occupied Greece, by the 117th Jäger Division (Wehrmacht) during World War II, on 13 December 1943. History In early December 1943, the German Army's 117th Jäger Division began a mission named ''Unternehmen Kalavryta'' (Operation Kalavryta), intending to encircle Greek Resistance guerilla fighters in the mountainous area surrounding Kalavryta. During the operation, 78 German soldiers, who had been taken prisoner by the guerrillas in October, were executed by their captors. In response, the commander of the German division, General Karl von Le Suire personally ordered the "severest measures" – the killing of the male population of Kalavryta – on 10 December 1943. Operation Kalavryta was mounted from six cities: Patras, Aigion, and Corinth on the Gulf of Cori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Counterguerrilla
Counterinsurgency (COIN) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionaries" and can be considered war by a state against a non-state adversary. Insurgency and counterinsurgency campaigns have been waged since ancient history. However, modern thinking on counterinsurgency was developed during decolonization. Within the military sciences, counterinsurgency is one of the main operational approaches of irregular warfare. During insurgency and counterinsurgency, the distinction between civilians and combatants is often blurred. Counterinsurgency may involve attempting to win the hearts and minds of populations supporting the insurgency. Alternatively, it may be waged in an attempt to intimidate or eliminate civilian populations suspected of loyalty to the insurgency through indiscriminate violence. Models Cou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to the northwest and the Po Valley. The countries with coasts on the Adriatic are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Montenegro, and Slovenia. The Adriatic contains more than 1,300 islands, mostly located along the Croatian part of its eastern coast. It is divided into three basins, the northern being the shallowest and the southern being the deepest, with a maximum depth of . The Otranto Sill, an underwater ridge, is located at the border between the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. The prevailing currents flow counterclockwise from the Strait of Otranto, along the eastern coast and back to the strait along the western (Italian) coast. Tidal movements in the Adriatic are slight, although larger amplitudes are known to occur occasi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regia Marina
The ''Regia Marina'' (; ) was the navy of the Kingdom of Italy (''Regno d'Italia'') from 1861 to 1946. In 1946, with the Italian constitutional referendum, 1946, birth of the Italian Republic (''Repubblica Italiana''), the ''Regia Marina'' changed its name to ''Marina Militare'' ("Military Navy"). Origins The ''Regia Marina'' was established on 17 March 1861 following the proclamation of the formation of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946), Kingdom of Italy. Just as the Kingdom was a unification of various states in the Italian Peninsula, Italian peninsula, so the ''Regia Marina'' was formed from the navies of those states, though the main constituents were the Real Marina (Kingdom of the Two Sicilies), navies of the former kingdoms of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia and Kingdom of Naples, Naples. The new Navy inherited a substantial number of ships, both sail- and steam-powered, and the long naval traditions of its constituents, especially those of Sardinia and Naples, but also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Animals
Operation Animals was a World War II mission by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), in cooperation with the Greek Resistance groups ELAS, Zeus, EDES, PAO and the United States Army Air Force. The operation took place between 21 June and 11 July 1943 and included an organized campaign of sabotage in Greece, to deceive the Axis Powers into believing that Greece was the target of an Allied amphibious landing, instead of Sicily. Despite the mission's success, the Greek civilian population suffered from mass reprisals and British intervention into the internal affairs of the Greek resistance exacerbated the tensions between its various components. Background On 28 October 1940, Italy began the Italo-Greek War, expecting a swift victory but the invasion failed and the Italians were pushed back into Albania. As the war dragged on into its sixth month, Germany was forced to intervene to support its struggling ally. The small Greek force defending the Greco–Bulgarian borde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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