ANNIVERSARIES

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Re: ANNIVERSARIES

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HAPPY ST. GEORGE'S DAY!

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Re: ANNIVERSARIES

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and happy birthday to William Shakespeare, even though he didn't write the plays!
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Re: ANNIVERSARIES

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^^ it's certainly questionable as to did he or didn't he write them. As far as I know there is no creditable proof that he didn't. There is however a lot of speculation and theories.

The only fact that I know, (100%) was that Shakespear was my most dreaded lessons in school :D
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Re: ANNIVERSARIES

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Write them or not, I agree with the following:

Henry VI, Part2, Act IV, Scene 2

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers". :thumb:
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Re: ANNIVERSARIES

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Nereus wrote: Sun Apr 23, 2017 3:20 pm Write them or not, I agree with the following:

Henry VI, Part2, Act IV, Scene 2

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers". :thumb:
Gotta agree with that! Whoever wrote it!

Maybe not kill them but torture would be acceptable, to me, and of course extraction of the cash that was blatantly charged, for no good reason or value of service.
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Re: ANNIVERSARIES

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Re: ANNIVERSARIES

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05-04
ROYAL NAVY
1982-05-04: HMS SHEFFIELD STRUCK BY EXOCET MISSILE LAUNCHED FROM ARGENTINE NAVY ‘SUPER ETENDARD’ SETTING HER ON FIRE & KILLING 20 CREW MEMBERS
1982-05-10: HMS SHEFFIELD IN TOW FOUNDERS & SINKS
HMS SHEFFIELD was the second ROYAL NAVY ship to be named after the city of Sheffield in Yorkshire. She was a Type 42 Guided Missile Destroyer laid down by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering at Barrow-in-Furness on 15 January 1970.
The ship was part of the Task Force sent to the Falkland Islands during the FALKLANDS WAR.
She was STRUCK by an Exocet air-launched anti-ship missile from a Super Etendard aircraft belonging to the Argentine Navy on 4 MAY 1982 and FOUNDERED on 10 MAY 1982.
SINKING
SHEFFIELD was first detected by an Argentine Naval Aviation patrol aircraft Lockheed SP-2H Neptune (2-P-112) at 7:50 AM on 4 May 1982. The Neptune kept the British ships under surveillance, verifying Sheffield's position again at 8:14 and 8:43. Two Argentine Navy Super Étendards (3-A-202 and 3-A-203) both armed with Exocets took off from Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego at 9:45.
[…] Both pilots loaded the coordinates in their weapons systems, returned to low level, and after last minute checks, launched their AM39 Exocets at 11:04 from 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 km) away from their targets.
At approximately 10 a.m. on 4 MAY, SHEFFIELD was at defence watches, second degree readiness, as part of the British Task Force dispatched to the Falkland Islands during the Falklands War. SHEFFIELD had relieved her sister COVENTRY as the latter was having technical trouble with her Type 965 radar.
SHEFFIELD picked up the incoming missiles on her Type 965 radar (an interim fitting until the Type 1022 set was available), and the operations officer informed the missile director, who queried the contacts in the ADAWS 4 fire control system.
The launch aircraft had not been detected as the British had expected, and it was not until smoke was sighted that the target was confirmed as sea skimming missiles.
Five seconds later, an EXOCET HIT SHEFFIELD amidships, approximately 8 feet above the waterline on deck 2, tearing a gash in the hull.The other missile splashed into the sea half a mile off her port beam.
The Exocet missile which hit SHEFFIELD did not detonate, but the missile severed the high-pressure fire main on board. The resultant fire caused by burning propellant ignited diesel oil from the ready-use tanks in the engine room, and other inflammable materials used in the ship's construction. These fires burned unchecked for a number of days after the ship was abandoned.
The Exocets were fired from two Super Étendards launched from Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego, Naval Air Base. The aircraft were piloted by Teniente (Lieutenant) Armando Mayora and Capitán de Fragata (Lt Commander) Augusto Bedacarratz, who commanded the mission.
The MOD report into the sinking of the SHEFFIELD concluded that: "Evidence indicates that the warhead did not detonate". Some of the crew and members of the Task Force believe that the missile's 165 kilogram warhead had detonated, upon impact. This would not have been the case, as Exocets are fitted with delay fuses, and do not detonate immediately on impact.
Irrespective of this, the impact of the missile and the burning rocket motor set SHEFFIELD ablaze. Some accounts suggest that the initial impact of the missile immediately crippled the ship's onboard electricity generating systems, but this only affected certain parts of the ship, which caused ventilation problems. The missile strike fractured the water main, preventing the anti-fire mechanisms from operating effectively, and thereby dooming the ship to be consumed by the raging fire.
After the ship was struck and her crew waiting to be rescued, Sub Lieutenant Carrington-Wood led the crew in singing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from Monty Python’s 'Life of Brian'.
Over the six days from 4 May 1982, five inspections were made to see if any equipment was worth salvaging.
The burnt-out hulk had already been taken in tow by the Rothesay-class Frigate Yarmouth. The high seas that the ship was towed through caused slow flooding through the hole in the ship's side. This was the cause which eventually took her to the bottom.
The ship sank at 53°04′S, 56°56′W on 10 MAY 1982, the FIRST ROYAL NAVY VESSEL SUNK IN ACTION SINCE WORLD WAR 2.
TWENTY OF HER CREW (mainly on duty in the galley area and in the computer room) DIED as a result of the attack. The Wreck is a War Grave and designated as a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.
The fires on SHEFFIELD and other ships damaged by fire caused a later shift by the ROYAL NAVY from the nylon and synthetic fabrics then worn by British sailors. The synthetics had a tendency to melt on to the skin causing more severe burns than if the crew had been wearing non-synthetic clothing.
The Official Report into the sinking of the SHEFFIELD, disclosed in 2006 under UK Freedom of Information laws after an extensive campaign by ex-RN personnel, severely criticised the ship's fire-fighting equipment, training and procedures and certain members of the crew.(?)
HMS SHEFFIELD CREW MEMBERS KILLED IN THE ATTACK ON MAY 4:
LT CDR D I BALFOUR
POMEM(M) D R BRIGGS
CA D COPE
WEAl A C EGGINGTON
S/LT R C EMLY
POCK R FAGAN
CK N A GOODALL
LMEM(M) A J KNOWLES
LCK A MARSHALL
POWEM A R NORMAN
CK D E OSBORNE
WEA1 K R F SULLIVAN
CK A C SWALLOW
ACWEMN M TILL
WEMN2 B J WALLIS
LCK A K WELLSTEAD
MAA B WELSH
CK K J WILLIAMS
LT CDR J S WOODHEAD

LAI CHI KEUNG
R.I.P
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Re: ANNIVERSARIES

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05-05
S A S
1980-05-05: ‘IRANIAN EMBASSY SIEGE’ – OPERATION ‘NIMROD’
The IRANIAN EMBASSY SIEGE took place from 30 April to 5 May 1980, after a group of six armed men stormed the iranian embassy in South Kensington, London. The gunmen took 26 people hostage—mostly embassy staff, but several visitors and a police officer, who had been guarding the embassy, were also held. The hostage-takers, members of an iranian arab group campaigning for arab national sovereignty in the southern region of Khūzestān Province, demanded the release of arab prisoners from jails in Khūzestān and their own safe passage out of the United Kingdom.
The British government quickly resolved that safe passage would not be granted, and a siege ensued. Over the following days, police negotiators secured the release of five hostages in exchange for minor concessions, such as the broadcasting of the hostage-takers' demands on British television.
By the sixth day of the siege the gunmen had become increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress in meeting their demands. That evening, they killed one of the hostages and threw his body out of the embassy.
As a result, the British government ordered the Special Air Service (SAS), a Special Forces Regiment of the British Army, to conduct an assault to rescue the remaining hostages. Shortly afterwards, soldiers abseiled from the roof of the building and forced entry through the windows. During the 17-minute raid, the SAS rescued all but one of the remaining hostages, and killed five of the six terrorists. The soldiers subsequently faced accusations that they unnecessarily killed two of the terrorists, but an inquest into the deaths eventually cleared the SAS of any wrongdoing(!) The remaining terrorist was prosecuted and served 27 years in British prisons.
The hostage-takers and their cause were largely forgotten after the Iran–Iraq War broke out later that year and the hostage crisis in Tehran continued until January 1981.
Nonetheless, the operation brought the SAS to the public eye for the first time and bolstered the reputation of Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister. The SAS was quickly overwhelmed by the number of applications it received from people inspired by the operation and, at the same time, experienced greater demand for its expertise from foreign governments. The building, having suffered major damage from a fire that broke out during the assault, was not reopened as the iranian embassy until 1993.
‘OPERATION NIMROD - SAS ASSAULT’
The two SAS Teams on-scene—Red Team and Blue Team—were ordered to begin their simultaneous assaults, under the codename OPERATION NIMROD, at 19:23. One group of four men from Red Team abseiled from the roof down the rear of the building, while another four-man team lowered a stun grenade through the skylight. The detonation of the stun grenade was supposed to coincide with the abseiling teams detonating explosives to gain entry to the building through the second-floor windows. Their descent had not gone according to plan and the staff sergeant leading the abseilers became entangled in his rope. While trying to assist him, one of the other soldiers had accidentally smashed a window with his foot. The noise of the breaking window alerted oan, who was on the first floor communicating with the police negotiators, and he went to investigate. The soldiers were unable to use explosives for fear of injuring their stranded staff sergeant, but managed to smash their way into the embassy.
After the first three soldiers entered, a fire started and travelled up the curtains and out of the second-floor window, severely burning the staff sergeant. A second wave of abseilers cut him free, and he fell to the balcony below before entering the embassy behind the rest of his team. Slightly behind Red Team, Blue Team detonated explosives on a first-floor window—forcing Sim Harris, who had just run into the room, to take cover. Much of the operation at the front of the embassy took place in full view of the assembled journalists and was broadcast on live television, thus Harris's escape across the parapet of a first-floor balcony was famously captured on video. As the soldiers emerged onto the first-floor landing, Lock tackled oan to prevent him attacking the SAS men. Oan, still armed, was subsequently shot dead by one of the soldiers. Meanwhile, further teams entered the embassy through the back door and cleared the ground floor and cellar. The SAS then began evacuating hostages, manhandling them down the stairs towards the back door of the embassy. Two of the terrorists were hiding amongst the hostages—one of them produced a hand grenade when he was identified. An SAS soldier, who was unable to shoot for fear of hitting a hostage or another soldier, pushed the grenade-wielding terrorist to the bottom of the stairs, where two other soldiers shot him dead.
The raid lasted 17 minutes and involved 30–35 soldiers. The terrorists killed one hostage and seriously wounded two others during the raid while the SAS killed all but one of the terrorists. The rescued hostages and the remaining terrorist, who was still concealed amongst them, were taken into the embassy's back garden and restrained on the ground while they were identified. The last terrorist was identified by Sim Harris and led away by the SAS.
Aftermath
After the end of the siege, PC Trevor Lock was widely considered a hero. He was awarded the George Medal, the United Kingdom's second-highest civil honour, for his conduct during the siege and for tackling oan during the SAS raid—the only time during the siege that he drew his concealed side arm. In addition, he was honoured with the Freedom of the City of London and in a motion in the House of Commons
Sergeant Tommy Palmer was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal for his part in the assault, in which he shot dead a terrorist who was apparently about to throw a grenade amongst the hostages. After the operation concluded, the staff sergeant who was caught in his abseil rope was treated at St Stephen's Hospital in Fulham. He suffered serious burns to his legs, but went on to make a full recovery.
After the assault concluded, the police conducted an investigation into the siege and the deaths of the two hostages and five terrorists, including the actions of the SAS. The soldiers' weapons were taken away for examination and, the following day, the soldiers themselves were interviewed at length by the police at the Regiment's base in Hereford. There was controversy(?!) over the deaths of two terrorists in the telex room, where the male hostages were held. Hostages later said in interviews that they had persuaded their captors to surrender and television footage appeared to show them throwing weapons out of the window and holding a white flag. The two SAS soldiers who killed the men both stated at the inquest into the terrorists' deaths that they believed the men had been reaching for weapons before they were shot. The inquest jury reached the verdict that the soldiers' actions were justifiable homicide (later known as "lawful killing")!
Long-term Impact
The SAS raid, codenamed "Operation Nimrod", was broadcast live at peak time on a bank holiday Monday evening and was viewed by millions of people, mostly in the UK, making it a defining moment in British history
The success of the operation, combined with the high profile it was given by the media, invoked a sense of national pride compared to Victory in Europe Day—the end of the Second World War in Europe. The operation was declared "an almost unqualified success". Margaret Thatcher recalled that she was congratulated wherever she went over the following days, and received messages of support and congratulation from other world leaders.
Operation Nimrod brought the SAS, a Regiment that was largely unknown at the time owing to the covert nature of its operations, into the public eye. The Regiment was not pleased with its new high profile, having enjoyed its previous obscurity. Nonetheless, the operation vindicated the SAS, which had been threatened with disbandment and whose use of resources had previously been considered a waste. The Regiment was quickly overwhelmed by new applicants. Membership of 22 SAS is open only to individuals currently serving in the Armed Forces (allowing applications from any individual in any service), but the unit also has two regiments from the volunteer Territorial Army (TA)—21 SAS and 23 SAS. Both the TA Regiments received hundreds more applications than in previous years, prompting de la Billière to remark that the applicants seemed "convinced that a balaclava helmet and a Heckler & Koch sub-machine gun would be handed to them over the counter, so that they could go off and conduct embassy-style sieges of their own". All three units were forced to introduce additional fitness tests at the start of the application process. The SAS also experienced an increased demand for their expertise in training the forces of friendly countries and those whose collapse was considered not to be in Britain's interest.
The British Government's response to the crisis, and the successful use of force to end it, strengthened the Conservative government of the day and boosted Thatcher's personal credibility. McNee believed that the conclusion of siege exemplified the British government's policy of refusing to give in to terrorist demands, "nowhere was the effectiveness of this response to terrorism more effectively demonstrated".
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Re: ANNIVERSARIES

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05-15
BRITISH ARMY / GRENADIER GUARDS
1977-05-15: MURDER Of TORTURED CAPTAIN ROBERT L. NAIRAC GEORGE CROSS (POSTHUMOUS), GRENADIER GUARDS BY Members of the so-called ‘pira’
CAPTAIN ROBERT LAURENCE NAIRAC GC, GRENADIER GUARDS
<1948-08-31/1977-05-15>
was a British Army officer who was abducted from a pub in Dromintee, south County Armagh, during an undercover operation and murdered by the so-called ‘provisional irish republican army (ira)’ on his fourth tour of duty in Northern Ireland as a Military Intelligence Liaison Officer. He was posthumously awarded the GEORGE CROSS in 1979. Whilst several men have been imprisoned for his killing, the whereabouts of his body remains unknown.
MURDER
On his fourth tour of Northern Ireland, Nairac was a liaison officer to the units based at Bessbrook Mill. It was during this time that he was abducted and killed.
On the evening of 14 May 1977, Nairac drove alone to The Three Steps pub in Dromintee, South Armagh. He is said to have told regulars of the pub that he was Danny McErlaine, a motor mechanic and member of the ‘official ira’ from the republican Ardoyne area in North Belfast. The real McErlaine, on the run since 1974, was killed by the ‘provisional ira’ in June 1978 after stealing arms from the organisation. Witnesses say that Nairac got up and sang a republican folk song, ‘The Broad Black Brimmer’, with the band who were playing that night. At around 11.45 p.m., he was abducted following a struggle in the pub's car park and taken across the border into the Republic of Ireland to a field in the Ravensdale Woods in County Louth.
Following a violent interrogation during which Nairac was allegedly punched, kicked, pistol-whipped and hit with a wooden post, he was shot dead. He did not admit to his true identity. Terry McCormick, one of Nairac's abductors, posed as a priest in order to try to elicit information by way of Nairac's confession. Nairac's last words according to McCormick were: "Bless me Father, for I have sinned".
His disappearance sparked a huge search effort throughout Ireland. The hunt in Northern Ireland was led by Major H. Jones, who as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Parachute Regiment was to be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross in the Falklands War. Jones was Brigade Major at HQ 3rd Infantry Brigade. Nairac and Jones had become friends and Nairac would sometimes eat supper at the Jones household. After a four-day search, the Garda Síochána confirmed to the Royal Ulster Constabulary that they had reliable evidence of Nairac's killing.
An edition of Spotlight broadcast on 19 June 2007 claimed that his body was not destroyed in a meat grinder, as alleged by an unnamed IRA source. McCormick, who has been on the run in the United States for thirty years because of his involvement in the killing (including being the first to attack Nairac in the car park), was told by a senior ira commander that it was buried on farmland, unearthed by animals, and reburied elsewhere. The location of the body's resting place remains a mystery. Nairac is one of nine ira victims whose graves have never been revealed and who are collectively known as 'The Disappeared'. The cases are under review by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains.
GEORGE CROSS

On 13 February 1979 NAIRAC WAS POSTHUMOUSLY AWARDED The GEORGE CROSS.
CAPTAIN NAIRAC’s POSTHUMOUS GEORGE CROSS CITATION reads in part:
[...] On his fourth tour Captain Nairac was a Liaison Officer at Headquarters 3 Infantry Brigade. His task was connected with surveillance operations.
On the night of 14/15 May 1977 Captain Nairac was abducted from a village in South Armagh by at least seven men. Despite his fierce resistance he was overpowered and taken across the border into the nearby Republic of Ireland where he was subjected to a succession of exceptionally savage assaults in an attempt to extract information which would have put other lives and future operations at serious risk. These efforts to break Captain Nairac's will failed entirely. Weakened as he was in strength – though not in spirit – by the brutality, he yet made repeated and spirited attempts to escape, but on each occasion was eventually overpowered by the weight of the numbers against him.
After several hours in the hands of his captors Captain Nairac was callously murdered by a gunman of the ‘provisional irish republican army’ who had been summoned to the scene. His assassin subsequently said 'He never told us anything'.
Captain Nairac's exceptional courage and acts of the greatest heroism in circumstances of extreme peril showed devotion to duty and personal courage second to none.
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Re: ANNIVERSARIES

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05-21/22
ROYAL NAVY
1982-05-21: HMS ARDENT HIT & SET ABLAZE BY ARGENTINE BOMBS (Photo) ;
1982-05-22: HMS ARDENT SINKS
HMS ARDENT was a ROYAL NAVY Type 21 frigate.
Built by Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd, Glasgow, Scotland. She was completed with Exocet launchers in 'B' position. ARDENT took part in the FALKLANDS WAR, where she was SUNK by Argentine aircraft in the Falkland Sound on 22 MAY 1982.
FALKLANDS WAR
On 19 April 1982 ARDENT sailed from HMNB Devonport near Plymouth for the Falkland Islands.
On 21 MAY 1982, whilst lying in Falkland Sound and supporting Operation Sutton by bombarding the Argentine airstrip at Goose Green, ARDENT was attacked by at least three waves of Argentine aircraft. The air strikes caused the sinking of ARDENT the next day.
The first attack took place when a lone A-4 Skyhawk dropped two bombs at 16:00 Z (UTC), which straddled the Frigate but both failed to explode.
The bulk of the air strikes began at 17:40 Z. ARDENT was ordered to proceed west of North West Island along with Yarmouth to "split air attacks from the south".
A group of three aircraft, either Skyhawks or IAI Daggers crossed the Falklands Sound from the west and then turned to their left in order to attack from the north east. Cannon fire and three bombs struck home as the Argentine aircraft pressed their attack from the port side. The only weapons which reacted properly were the 20 mm AA cannons. The Sea Cat anti-aircraft missile system failed to lock onto the attackers, who also outmanoeuvred the 4.5" gun by carrying out their run out of its arc of fire.
Two bombs exploded in the hangar area, destroying the Westland Lynx helicopter and blowing the Sea Cat launcher 80 ft (24 m) into the air before it crashed back down onto the flight deck, and the third crashed through the aft auxiliary machinery room but failed to explode. The aft switchboard was severely damaged, causing loss of power for some key assets, such as the main gun.
The hangar was left in flames, and the CREW SUFFERED A NUMBER OF CASUALTIES..
Still in full control of her engines and steering, but virtually defenceless, ARDENT was told to head north, toward Port San Carlos.
But at 18:00 Z five Skyhawks approached the Frigate and dropped numerous free-fall and retard bombs. A pattern of two to four bombs exploded in the port quarter (aft), while an undetermined number of others which failed to explode penetrated into the ship. Some of the remaining bombs exploded in the water nearby, battering the ship and causing minor flooding in the forward auxiliary machine room.
The dining hall was shattered, communications between the bridge and the ship control centre were cut off, and the ship lost steering.
This attack CAUSED MANY CASUALTIES, ESPECIALLY AMONG THE DAMAGE-CONTROL TEAMS WORKING IN THE HANGAR.
ARDENT stopped in the shallow waters of Grantham Sound, the fires in her stern now out of control. With the ship listing heavily, Commander ALAN WEST decided to abandon the ship. YARMOUTH came alongside to take off survivors, and the crew was transferred to CANBERRA. The last man to leave was her Captain, Commander ALAN WEST, who was subsequently awarded the DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS, and served as FIRST SEA LORD from 2002–2006.
At that time it was known that 22 MEN HAD LOST THEIR LIVES.
ARDENT continued to burn throughout the night, accompanied by the occasional explosion, until she SANK at 6:30 Z the NEXT DAY, with only her foremast remaining above the water.
Able Seaman JOHN DILLON was able to remove debris from an injured sailor and, despite his own burns, got the man topside and into the water where they were both rescued. For his heroism he received a GEORGE MEDAL.
Within days naval divers removed her light AA guns for fitting to other ships and her foremast was used as a navigational warning and datum by her sister ship Arrow whilst she bombarded Goose Green The wreck is designated as a Prohibited Area under the Falkland Islands Protection of Wrecks Act.
HMS ARDENT CREW MEMBERS KILLED IN THE ATTACK ON MAY 21:
AB(S) D D ARMSTRONG
LT CDR R W BANFIELD
AB(S) A R BARR
POAEM(M) P BROUARD
CK R J S DUNKERLEY
ALCK M P FOOTE
MEM(M)2 S H FORD
ASTD S HANSON
AB(S) S K HAYWARD
AB(EW) S HEYES
WEM(R)1 S J LAWSON
MEM(M)2 A R LEIGHTON
AEMN(I) A McAULEY
ALS(R) M S MULLEN
LT B MURPHY
LPT G T NELSON
APOWEM(R) A K PALMER
CK J R ROBERTS
LT CDR J M SEPHTON
ALMEM(M) S J WHITE
ALMEM(L) G WHITFORD
MEM(M)1 G S WILLIAMS
R.I.P.
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05-22
BRITISH ARMY
2013-05-22: Drummer LEE RIGBY of the 2nd Battalion, ROYAL REGIMENT of FUSILIERS, was killed in Woolwich on 22 May 2013.
He was murdered in broad daylight by Nigerian MUSLIMS Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, after first being hit by a car, then attacked with knives.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Lee_Rigby
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Re: ANNIVERSARIES

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Tomorrow, Monday is VICTORIA DAY in Canada. The ONLY country to celebrate the Old Queen's Birthday (Actually on the 24th) Its a nice holiday just as spring is arriving in Canada and is one thing to remind us that Canada is NOT American.
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05-24
ROYAL NAVY
1941-05-24: BATTLECRUISER HMS HOOD, ‘The MIGHTY HOOD’, SUNK IN BATTLE WITH THE LOSS Of 1,418 CREW – R.I.P.
HMS HOOD (Pennant Number 51) was the last battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy.
Commissioned in 1920, she was named after the 18th-century Admiral Samuel Hood. One of four Admiral-Class battlecruisers ordered in mid-1916, Hood had serious design limitations, though her design was drastically revised after the Battle of Jutland and improved while she was under construction. For this reason she was the only ship of her class to be completed.
As one of the largest and, ostensibly, the most powerful warships in the world, Hood was the pride of the Royal Navy and, carrying immense prestige, was known as ‘The Mighty Hood’. Hood was involved in several showing the flag exercises between her commissioning in 1920 and the outbreak of war in 1939, including training exercises in the Mediterranean Sea and a circumnavigation of the globe with the Special Service Squadron in 1923 and 1924. She was attached to the Mediterranean Fleet following the outbreak of the Second Italo her class to be completed.
As one of the largest and, ostensibly, the most powerful warships in the world, Hood was the pride of the Royal Navy and, carrying immense prestige -Abyssinian War. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, Hood was officially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet until she had to return to Britain in 1939 for an overhaul. By this time, advances in naval gunnery had reduced Hood's usefulness. She was scheduled to undergo a major rebuild in 1941 to correct these issues, but the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 forced the ship into service without the upgrades.
In May 1941, she and the battleship PRINCE of WALES were ordered to intercept the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which were en route to the Atlantic where they were to attack convoys.
On May 24, 1941 the British squadron spotted the Germans at 05:37 (ship's clocks were set four hours ahead of local time – the engagement commenced shortly after dawn), but the Germans were already aware of their presence, Prinz Eugen's hydrophones having previously detected the sounds of high-speed propellers to their south-east. The British opened fire at 05:52 with Hood engaging Prinz Eugen, the lead ship in the German formation, and the Germans returned fire at 05:55, both ships concentrating on Hood. Prinz Eugen was probably the first ship to score when a shell hit Hood's boat deck, between her funnels, and started a large fire among the ready-use ammunition for the anti-aircraft guns and rockets of the UP mounts.
Just before 06:00, while Hood was turning 20° to port to unmask her rear turrets, she was hit again on the boat deck by one or more shells from Bismarck's fifth salvo, fired from a range of approximately 16,650 metres (18,210 yd). A shell from this salvo appears to have hit the spotting top, as the boat deck was showered with body parts and debris. A huge jet of flame burst out of Hood from the vicinity of the mainmast, followed by a devastating magazine explosion that destroyed the aft part of the ship. This explosion broke the back of Hood and the last sight of the ship, which sank in only three minutes, was her bow, nearly vertical in the water. A note on a survivor's sketch in the British RN Historical Branch Archives gives 63°20′N 31°50′W as the position of the sinking.
Hood sank with 1418 men aboard. Only three survived: Ordinary Signalman Ted Briggs, Able Seaman Robert Tilburn, and Midshipman William John Dundas. The three were rescued about two hours after the sinking by the destroyer Electra, which spotted substantial debris but no bodies
Ted Briggs died in the Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, on 4 October 2008 at the age of 85.
Due to her perceived invincibility, the loss had a profound effect on the British people.
The Royal Navy conducted two inquiries into the reasons for the ship's quick demise. The first, held very quickly after the ship's loss, concluded that Hood's aft magazine had exploded after one of Bismarck's shells penetrated the ship's armour. A second inquiry was held after complaints that the first board had failed to consider alternative explanations, such as an explosion of the ship's torpedoes. It was more thorough than the first board and concurred with the first board's conclusion.
Despite the official explanation, some historians continued to believe that the torpedoes caused the ship's loss, while others proposed an accidental explosion inside one of the ship's gun turrets that reached down into the magazine. Other historians have concentrated on the cause of the magazine explosion. The discovery of the ship's wreck in 2001 confirmed the conclusion of both boards, although the exact reason the magazines detonated will always be a mystery since that area of the ship was entirely destroyed in the explosion.
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05-24 E (1a) 1941 LOSS Of HMS HOOD.png (158.95 KiB) Viewed 754 times
05-24 E (1a) 1941 LOSS Of HMS HOOD.png
05-24 E (1a) 1941 LOSS Of HMS HOOD.png (158.95 KiB) Viewed 754 times
A GRATEFUL GUEST OF THE KINGDOM OF THAILAND & HER PEOPLE
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