History Challenge & Journal

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pharvey
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Re: History Challenge

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Well, something I discovered today...... Without doing the usual "Googling", what was President Mandela's first name (originally, i.e. NOT Nelson) and how did he come to be known as Nelson?

:cheers: :cheers:
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Re: History Challenge

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had to web surf for it. interesting.
(trying not to use the "G" word or their search engine.)
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Re: History Challenge

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Ok this is a history not tourism question?
Which countries did Japan once attack within 24 hours, and in what order?
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Re: History Challenge

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Pearl Harbor USA, Guam and the Philippines on December 7, 1941. Guam and the Philippines where US possessions at the time though.
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Re: History Challenge

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but wait, theres more
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Re: History Challenge

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OK, PeteC, Japan also did multiple landings in Thailand, Malaya and Hong Kong in the same period. The Dutch declared war on Japan on Dec 8 in support of the USA before Japan attacked the East Indies on dec 17.
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Re: History Challenge

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No challenge, just a good place to put a tragic historical story. One of thousands no doubt that most never know anything about or study in any school. Good drawings and a short video at link. Pete :cheers:

Princess Alice disaster: The Thames' 650 forgotten dead

The Princess Alice sank in the River Thames on 3 September 1878, killing hundreds of ordinary Londoners returning home from a day trip to the seaside. The tragedy, now largely forgotten, dominated newspaper headlines and led to changes to the shipping industry.

A boatman hooks another body out of the foul-smelling Thames, a grisly prize that will earn him five shillings.

A few days before, the Princess Alice had been smashed in two as it returned to London packed with men, women and children who had been on a trip to Kent.

About 650 lives were lost and for weeks bodies decayed in the polluted water or washed up on the riverbank........ (continued at link)


https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-44800309
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Re: History Challenge

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pharvey wrote: Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:48 pm Well, something I discovered today...... Without doing the usual "Googling", what was President Mandela's first name (originally, i.e. NOT Nelson) and how did he come to be known as Nelson?

:cheers: :cheers:
I've waited patiently for weeks and didn't google. My patience just ran out. :thumb:

I was going to guess Tata or Mandiba, obviously I'd have been wrong on both counts :neener:
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Re: History Challenge

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PeteC wrote: Thu Sep 06, 2018 2:57 am No challenge, just a good place to put a tragic historical story. One of thousands no doubt that most never know anything about or study in any school. Good drawings and a short video at link. Pete :cheers:

Princess Alice disaster: The Thames' 650 forgotten dead
Thanks for posting this Pete. I can't recall hearing of this before, although I might have forgotten, but what a sad and tragic tale.

I think the lady in the film was unfair in saying it had been forgotten as those that died were working class, as from the report, it seems the matter was investigated thoroughly and changes introduced that have helped promote safety across the World. There have beeen many tragedies in the UK and elsewhere that have been simply forgotten in the mists of time.
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Re: History Challenge

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No challenge, just story once again......
_____________________

'Have you news of my boy?': Kipling's vain search for lost son

Paris - The British poet and writer Rudyard Kipling, an ardent supporter of his country's entry into World War I, did everything he could to make sure his only son would join the fight.

Yet just a few weeks after John Kipling touched French soil on the day of his 18th birthday, he was reported missing during the devastating Battle of Loos on September 27, 1915.

His father and mother Carrie would spend the next several years desperately searching for him, hoping against all odds that he might have survived.

It was not until 1919 that Kipling publicly acknowledged his son was probably dead, one of the 1.1 million soldiers lost by the British Empire in the war.

The author of "The Jungle Book", the first Briton to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, fiercely defended the war as a patriotic duty for all able-bodied men.

He threw himself into the government's propaganda efforts, and is believed to have popularised the slur "Hun" in reference to the German foe.

But John, who hoped to enlist in the Royal Navy, was rejected because of poor eyesight.

"As his wife said: How could their son not go to war when all the other sons were?" said David A. Richards, who has published a bibliography of the author's work and letters.

It was only thanks to his father's connections as one of the country's most popular writers that he finally got a commission in the Irish Guards, and shipped out to France in August 1915.

- War Office telegram -

Shortly afterwards came the Battle of Loos, which proved a disaster for Britain as waves of soldiers were cut down by German machine guns or choked on their own poison gas being blown back into their lines.

An estimated 15,000 British soldiers were killed and 35,000 wounded in a matter of days.

It was John's first combat experience, and he disappeared after "going over the top", leaving the trenches to attack enemy lines.

"A telegram from the War Office to say John is 'missing'", reads an entry in Carrie's diary from October 2, 1915.

From that day on, Kipling moved heaven and earth to find out what happened to his son.

Hoping he might just be wounded or captured, Kipling spent months tracking down members of his regiment to try to learn where John was last seen.

He even managed to have leaflets dropped over enemy lines asking for news of his son.

"He begged the War Office not to declare the boy dead, only missing, to spare his wife's feelings," Richards said.

Kipling would return repeatedly to the French battlefields hoping to learn his son's fate until his death in 1936.

But it was only in 1992 that John's grave was finally identified thanks to archival research, at St Mary's cemetery in Haisnes, near the battlefield where he disappeared.

His name has since replaced the inscription "Known unto God", a phrase suggested by Kipling himself to the Imperial War Graves Commission, which he joined after his son's disappearance.

"After the war, Kipling's writing took on a generally more serious tone, including several stories about soldiers suffering from what we would now call post-traumatic stress disorder," according to Mike Kipling, one of the author's descendants and chairman of the Kipling Society.

In 1916 he would write the haunting lines of "My Boy Jack": "Have you news of my boy... What comfort can I find?"

Whether a sign of his own regrets or criticism of those responsible for the carnage, Kipling would later write in his "Epitaphs of the War": "If any question why we died, Tell them, because our fathers lied."

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/ ... s/30357350
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Re: History Challenge & Journal

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Jogged by another recent thread I though the following may be of interest. (viewtopic.php?f=35&t=37725)
HHTel I was based in Singapore in the mid-60's. Some of the best days.
Cripes, you must be older than me!

In another life during the 1970's I worked in the old dockyard. In fact, the small ship that I was involved with was in the graving dock along with the original "Oriana" passenger liner! At that time the dock was the only one in Asia big enough.

Also, during the 1980's I stayed in the old Admiralty House while dry docking an oil rig.

Some of the old "Colonial" houses are still standing. Although they must have been considered very "posh" when they were built, some of them were more like mausoleums, cold and functional! The British Army had their last commanding officer in such a house at Changi just before the withdrawal, I think around 1975.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Naval_Base

http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/ ... 01-05.html

https://thelongnwindingroad.wordpress.c ... lty-house/
Not the Oriana but another old well know ship
Not the Oriana but another old well know ship
Queen_Mary_in_Singapore_Gaving_Dock_Aug_1940.jpg (70.57 KiB) Viewed 116 times
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Re: History Challenge & Journal

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British withdrawal from Singapore

http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/ ... 02-10.html

On 18 July 1967, Britain announced its plans to withdraw its troops from Singapore by the mid-1970s.1 Six months later, the deadline was brought forward to 1971.2 The sudden pull-out of British forces presented serious problems to Singapore’s defence and economic security. At the time, the Singapore Armed Forces was in its infancy, and the British military bases were contributing over 20 percent to Singapore’s gross national product.3 To counter these problems, Singapore embarked on a rapid industrialisation programme, tightened its labour laws to attract foreign investments, strengthened its defence through military cooperation with other countries, and tripled its military spending.4 By the deadline, Singapore had achieved strong economic growth and nearly full employment.5 Most of the British troops had moved out of Singapore by October 1971, leaving a token number behind. It was five years later when the last of the British troops left Singapore.6
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Re: History Challenge & Journal

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Got the nostalgia bug this morning! I met the last British Army commander in Singapore because of one British Air Force pilot, the late David Lockspeiser(RIP, you were the best). He was test flying the Hawker Hunter while attached to the Singapore Airforce. I still remember him remarking: "I let one loose this morning". The Airforce had a gunnery range out in the South China Sea, but I do not know if the firing was intentional or not!
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‘A world of difference’: How RSAF’s first fighter jet compares to its current warplanes

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/si ... 16-9914578

As the RSAF marks its 50th anniversary, a comparison between its first and most recent fighter jets highlights its development as a lethal force.

SINGAPORE: Back in the day, a bombing run with the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s (RSAF) earliest fighter jet, the Hawker Hunter, meant first completing a math exercise.
Before setting off, pilots would bury themselves in charts and tables, manually calculating the perfect trajectory for the bomb drop.


The RSAF has come a long way since 1970, when it bought its first British-made Hawker Hunter. As it turns 50 this year, it boasts a fleet of fourth-generation fighters, the F-16 and F-15SG.
rsaf-fighter-comparison-1.jpg
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Re: History Challenge & Journal

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The small, highly urbanized southeast Asian island nation of Singapore lacks the land and airspace to conduct its military training and has several training detachments of aircraft based overseas including in the United States and Australia. It also frequently sends military personnel overseas for training, with a recently expanded training agreement with Australia allowing the annual deployment of up to 14,000 Singaporean troops there for training exercises.
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Re: History Challenge & Journal

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History on film: Queen Victoria’s funeral

https://www.historyextra.com/period/vic ... procession



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