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Special Service Battalion
The Special Service Battalion (SSB) is a South African military unit formed on 1 May 1933 under the patronage of Oswald Pirow, Minister of Defence. The object was to give training to youths, between the ages of 17 and 23, who, in the wake of the 1929 depression, could find no suitable employment on leaving school. History Lt Col George E Brink was given the responsibility for establishing the battalion at Roberts Heights and was the first commanding officer. The SSB was established to save the youth from physical and moral degeneration caused by massive unemployment due to the Great Depression. The SSB was to teach the young men military discipline, fitness and various trades to enable them to be employed by the Department of Labour and Welfare. The SSB men received a salary of a shilling a day causing the SSB soon to be known as the "Bob a Day Battalion" In 1934 detachments were also established for 100 trainees at Durban and 150 at Cape Town. Training included elementary mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Union Of South Africa
The Union of South Africa ( nl, Unie van Zuid-Afrika; af, Unie van Suid-Afrika; ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal, and Orange River colonies. It included the territories that were formerly a part of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. Following World War I, the Union of South Africa was a signatory of the Treaty of Versailles and became one of the founding members of the League of Nations. It was conferred the administration of South West Africa (now known as Namibia) as a League of Nations mandate. It became treated in most respects as another province of the Union, but it never was formally annexed. Like Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the Union of South Africa was a self-governing dominion of the British Empire. Its full sovereignty was confirmed with the Balfour Declaration of 1926 and the Statute of Westminster 1931. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South African Air Force
"Through hardships to the stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = * World War I * World War II East African campaign (World War II), East African Campaign North African campaign, North African Campaign Battle of Madagascar, Madagascar Italian campaign (World War II), Italy Balkans campaign (World War II), Balkans * Korean War * South African Border War * Angolan Civil War, Angolan Bush War , decorations = , battle_honours = , battle_honours_label = , flying_hours = , website = , commander1 = President of South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa , commander1_label = Commander-in-chief#South Africa, Comman ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The Sea has played a central role in the history of Western civilization. Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago, the Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was partly or completely desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years during the Messinian salinity crisis before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago. The Mediterranean Sea covers an area of about , representing 0.7% of the global ocean surface, but its connection to the Atlantic via the Strait of Gibraltar—the narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates the Iberian Peninsula in Europe from Morocco in Africa—is only wide. The Mediterranean Sea e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Veterans
A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military. A military veteran that has served directly in combat in a war is further defined as a war veteran (although not all military conflicts, or areas in which armed combat took place, are necessarily referred to as ''wars''). Military veterans are unique as a group as their lived experience is so strongly connected to the conduct of war in general and application of professional violence in particular. Therefore, there are a large body of knowledge developed through centuries of scholarly studies that seek to describe, understand and explain their lived experience in and out of service. Griffith with colleagues provides an overview of this research field that addresses veterans general health, transition from military service to civilian life, homelessness, veteran empl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Officer (armed Forces)
An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent contextual qualification, the term typically refers only to a force's ''commissioned officers'', the more senior members who derive their authority from a commission from the head of state. Numbers The proportion of officers varies greatly. Commissioned officers typically make up between an eighth and a fifth of modern armed forces personnel. In 2013, officers were the senior 17% of the British armed forces, and the senior 13.7% of the French armed forces. In 2012, officers made up about 18% of the German armed forces, and about 17.2% of the United States armed forces. Historically, however, armed forces have generally had much lower proportions of officers. During the First World War, fewer than 5% of British soldiers were officers (partly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Other Ranks (UK)
Other ranks (ORs) in the Royal Marines, British Army, Royal Air Force, and in the armies and air forces of many other Commonwealth countries and the Republic of Ireland, are those personnel who are not commissioned officers, usually including non-commissioned officers (NCOs). In the Royal Navy, these personnel are called " ratings" rather than "other ranks". Non-commissioned member is the equivalent term for the Canadian Armed Forces. Colloquially, members of the other ranks are known as "rankers". The term is often considered to exclude warrant officers, and occasionally also excludes NCOs. Formally, a regiment consists of the "officers, warrant officers, non-commissioned officers and men" or the "officers, warrant officers and other ranks". British other ranks Notes See also * British Army other ranks rank insignia * Royal Navy ratings rank insignia * RAF other ranks The term used in the Royal Air Force (RAF) to refer to all ranks below commissioned officer l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Armoured Brigade
The Armoured Brigade ( fi, Panssariprikaati) is a Finnish Army training unit located in Parolannummi, near Hämeenlinna, in southern Finland. The brigade specialises in training armoured and anti-aircraft troops. In case of mobilization, the Finnish Defence Forces would field one armoured brigade. The war-time armoured brigade has a strength of around 5,700 men, and fields 63 main battle tanks, 110 infantry fighting vehicles, circa 100 armoured personnel carriers, mainly of Soviet origin, and roughly 70 other armoured vehicles. However, the remaining war-time armoured brigade is being phased out and replaced by smaller mechanized battle groups. The new mechanized battle groups will field the Leopard 2 MBTs that are not included in the organization of the contemporary war-time armoured brigades. Organisation Since Finnish Defence Forces reform in 2015, the structure of the Armoured Brigade is the following: * Häme Armoured Battalion (HämPsP, ''Hämeen Panssaripataljoona'') ** M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commando
Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin">40_Commando.html" ;"title="Royal Marines from 40 Commando">Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin area of Afghanistan are pictured A commando is a combatant, or operative of an elite light infantry or special operations force, specially trained for carrying out raids and operating in small teams behind enemy lines. Originally "a commando" was a type of combat unit, as opposed to an individual in that unit. In other languages, ''commando'' and ''kommando'' denote a "command", including the sense of a military or an elite special operations unit. In the militaries and governments of most countries, commandos are distinctive in that they specialize in unconventional assault on high-value targets. In English, to distinguish between an individual commando and a commando unit, the unit is occasionally capitalized. Etymology From an ancient lingual perspective the term commando derives from Latin ''commen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Armored Car (military)
A military armored (or armoured) car is a lightweight wheeled armored fighting vehicle, historically employed for reconnaissance, internal security, armed escort, and other subordinate battlefield tasks. With the gradual decline of mounted cavalry, armored cars were developed for carrying out duties used to be assigned to light cavalry. Following the invention of the tank, the armored car remained popular due to its faster speed, comparatively simplified maintenance and low production cost. It also found favor with several colonial armies as a cheaper weapon for use in underdeveloped regions. During World War II, most armored cars were engineered for reconnaissance and passive observation, while others were devoted to communications tasks. Some equipped with heavier armament could even substitute for tracked combat vehicles in favorable conditions—such as pursuit or flanking maneuvers during the North African Campaign. Since World War II the traditional functions of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Infantry Battalion
A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are exclusively infantry, while in others battalions are unit-level organizations. The word battalion came into the English language in the 16th century from the French language ( French: ''bataillon'' meaning "battle squadron"; Italian: ''battaglione'' meaning the same thing; derived from the Vulgar Latin word ''battalia'' meaning "battle" and from the Latin word ''bauttere'' meaning "to beat" or "to strike"). The first use of the word in English was in the 1580s. Description A battalion comprises two or more primary mission companies which are often of a common type (e.g., infantry, tank, or maintenance), although there are exceptions such as combined arms battalions in the U.S. Army. In addition to the primary mission companies, a battalio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1 SSB Commemorative Letter
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. In conventions of sign where zero is considered neither positive nor negative, 1 is the first and smallest positive integer. It is also sometimes considered the first of the infinite sequence of natural numbers, followed by 2, although by other definitions 1 is the second natural number, following 0. The fundamental mathematical property of 1 is to be a multiplicative identity, meaning that any number multiplied by 1 equals the same number. Most if not all properties of 1 can be deduced from this. In advanced mathematics, a multiplicative identity is often denoted 1, even if it is not a number. 1 is by convention not considered a prime number; this was not universally accepted until the mid-20th century. Additionally, 1 is th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1st South African Division
The 1st South African Infantry Division was an infantry Division (military), division of the South African Army, army of the Union of South Africa. During World War II the division served in East Africa from 1940 to 1941 and in the Western Desert Campaign from 1941 to 1942. The division was disbanded on 1 January 1943, for conversion into what would become the 6th Armoured Division (South Africa), 6th South African Armoured Division. The division was also briefly active after the war from 1 July 1948 to 1 November 1949.South African Defence Review via http://www.rhodesia.nl/sadfhist.htm Outbreak of war When Neville Chamberlain declared war on 3 September 1939, the South African Army, Union Defence Force consisted of 5,385 Permanent Force members, 14,631 Citizen Force members and 122,000 Commandos of which only 39,000 were considered suited for field deployment. The Defence Act also prohibited the deployment of its members beyond the confines of southern Africa. On 4 Septemb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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