Research Results For 'Cruiser'

A9

The A9 or Cruiser Tank Mk I was a British medium-tank developed in the 1930s and used by the British in France during the Second World War until the Dunkirk withdrawl and in North Africa until 1941. The A9 carried a crew of six, was armed with one 2 pdr gun or one 3.7 inch howitzer in the close support variant, and three .303 calibre Vickers machine-guns. The A9 had a top speed of 25 mph and a range of 240 km. It was protected by armour up to 14 mm thick, which was soon found to be too thin to offer protection against German guns.
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ARMY

An army is a collection or body of men and or women armed for war, and organized in companies, battalions, regiments, brigades, or similar divisions, under proper officers.

Ancient armies from the time of Rameses II (Sesostris) of Egypt downwards, underwent a series of progressive improvements under the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and Carthaginians, until they reached a high degree of perfection under the Romans. In Rome every citizen from the age of seventeen to forty-six was bound to serve in the army. Under the republic a levy took place every year soon after the election of the Consuls. It was superintended by the military tribunes, who at once formed the new levies into legions. Under the empire a standing army was required for maintenance of order in the interior and the defence of the frontiers. In the reign of Augustus the strength of this army reached 450,000 men.

The earliest military system of the Teutonic races consisted of the armed freemen, ruled by elected leaders, but even then there was a personal following or bodyguard of the king or leader. Among the countries of modern Europe the foundation of a standing army was first laid in France. Charles VII of France issued an ordinance for the creation of a number of troops of horse, and a corresponding body of infantry, the whole force amounting to 25,000 men. The superiority of such a body over an assemblage of feudal troops was soon proved, and other states imitated the example of France. By the beginning of the sixteenth century France, Germany, and Spain were all in possession of considerable standing armies. From the middle of the eighteenth century a great change took place in the composition of armies through the reintroduction of the principle of the universal liability of all men capable of bearing arms to military service, or, in other words, through the raising of armies by a general conscription, which was done in every European country except Britain during the 19th century.

Before the Norman conquest the armed force of England consisted essentially of a national militia (called fyrd), in which every landholder was bound to serve when called upon; but the king and some of the great earls maintained bodies of troops out of their private means. Under William The Conqueror and his immediate successors the whole kingdom was divided into upwards of 60,000 knights' fees, every tenant of a fee being bound to attend his lord with horse and arms (or provide a substitute) at his own cost for forty days in each year. When one man held many fees he was bound to furnish the king with one fully equipped horseman for every knight's fee. In course of time it became customary for the king, when the holder of a fee was unable or unwilling to render the service required by his tenure, to accept instead a pecuniary fine (scutage); and these fines enabled the king either to maintain additional troops or to pay the feudal troops to prolong their service. The feudal army thus created almost entirely superseded the national levies of the Anglo-Saxon period, yet these were not altogether given up, and survived to the end of the 19th century in two institutions, the posse comitatus and the militia. The armies with which the English carried on their early wars with France were mostly made up of paid troops, the king usually contracting with some of his most wealthy subjects to levy the number required. At first foreign mercenaries were sometimes included in the troops so raised, but in later times the armies of England were always national. The chief strength of the feudal armies lay in the men-at-arms, who were all mounted, heavily armed, and protected by shields and defensive armour. On the other hand, the paid levies usually consisted of men educated from infancy in the use of the long-bow. The introduction of firearms closed the career of the man-at-arms, and caused the long-bow to be laid aside.

From the accession of Charles I until the reign of William III the army was a constant cause of dispute between the king and the Parliament, the latter fearing that a standing army would be used, as it was elsewhere, as an instrument of tyranny. Under the Commonwealth the first standing army was maintained, but after the Restoration it was reduced to the royal guards, besides what was necessary for two or three garrisons. During the reign of Charles II the forces of England were increased by the addition of a few other regiments, among which was the 1st or Royal Scots, originally the Scottish guard of the kings of France, transferred to England shortly after the Restoration. After Monmouth's rebellion in the reign of James II there was maintained in England a force of 20,000 men, but at the Revolution this army was to a great extent disbanded. The Bill of Bights declared the keeping of a standing army within the kingdom except with the consent of Parliament to be unlawful; but it was found necessary to grant that consent in order to subdue the adherents of James in Ireland, and in the first year of William's reign the army was formally recognized on the basis on which it still exists, that its pay, and hence its strength, remain entirely under the control of the House of Commons. By the so-called Mutiny Act, passed annually from 1689 to 1879, the Parliament formally retained control over the army, as it still does, though the old act is no longer passed. For a long time regiments were raised by contract, the government making an arrangement with some gentleman to raise the men on terms of receiving a certain amount of bounty-money per man, or of being paid by the sale of the regimental commissions, he having the right of nominating the officers. The colonel used to receive a certain sum of money annually for the men's pay and clothing, the expenses of recruiting, etc; and the men might agree to serve for life, for a term of years, or for the duration of the war.
dinary enlistment was for life. During the 18th century the strength of the army fluctuated greatly; then came the long struggle with France, which brought into existence a large army continually under arms, besides an immense body of volunteers and local militia. After the Peninsular war the army was cut down, and was long greatly neglected, while the volunteer force ceased to exist. Only after the Crimean War was reform taken up, the Indian army being taken over, a fresh body of volunteers created, reserves established, etc.

The largest permanent divisions into which modern armies are organized are the army corps. According to the system of localization commenced in 1872, the United Kingdom was divided into regimental districts, in each of which an officer has command of all the forces, including the militia and volunteers. These districts were regarded as the special recruiting areas of the corresponding territorial regiments. The terms of enlistment were for nine years' army service and three years' reserve service. After twelve years service a soldier may be permitted to re-engage for other nine years, and after the completion of twenty-one years' service was entitled to be discharged with a pension. The old system of conferring commissions by purchase was abolished by royal warrant of July the 20th, 1871. First commissions were then given to successful candidates at the Civil Service Commissioners' open examinations, candidates being selected by competition, and entering the cavalry and infantry through the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, the artillery and engineers through the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; to university students who pass certain examinations; to non-commissioned officers specially recommended ; etc; while promotion was regulated by seniority principally, but partly by selection.

The most important division of the British forces consists of the regular army, which around 1900 numbered about 200,000 men-more or less-exclusive of the British troops serving in India (about 74,000) and paid by the Indian government. Of the component parts of the regular army the infantry of the line was the most numerous. In 1900 it comprised 69 regiments, each with its own special designation, and each attached to some particular district. A few of the regiments had more than four battalions of regulars (apart from militia and volunteers attached), but the majority had only two, each representing one of the old regiments that used to be commonly known by a special number. The regimental titles are generally territorial: Bedfordshire Regiment, City of London Regiment, etc, but some are not, such as the Gordon Highlanders, etc. One of the regular battalions was always in garrison or serving outside the kingdom, the other within it. The latter trained the recruits and made good the losses suffered by the battalion serving abroad. In 1900 the full complement of private soldiers in a battalion at home was 760, in the colonies 880, in India 900; the sergeants numbering from 24 to 32, the officers from 24 to 29. In war the full complement of a battalion (904 men armed with rifles) was rather greater than in peace, drivers and others being required in connection with the baggage, ammunition, etc. The battalions in war were not linked together in regiments, but were under the direct orders of the officer commanding the brigade to which they were attached. Mounted infantry were a force embodied and employed only as occasion required, suitable men for the purpose being selected from different infantry regiments. Besides the line regiments, the infantry forces also comprised three regiments of guards: the Grenadier Guards, the Coldstream Guards, and the Scots Guards, each of three battalions, with the Irish Guards of one. The guards, or household troops, had various
leges, and served outside the United Kingdom only in time of war; otherwise being usually stationed in barracks at London, Aldershot, and Windsor.

The cavalry also consisted of guards and of troops of the line. The former comprised three regiments of cuirassiers, the 1st and 2nd Life Guards and the Royal Horse Guards (or Blues), permanently garrisoned in London and Windsor. The cavalry of the line consisted of 28 regiments, designated as dragoons, dragoon guards, hussars, and lancers; the 12 regiments of hussars being also known as light cavalry, the others as heavy. On the war footing a cavalry regiment consisted of three squadrons, and numbers a total of 531 officers and men. The cavalry generally were armed with carbines and sabres, the lancers carried lances in addition. While service in the infantry was for nine years with the colours and three in the reserve, men were enlisted in the cavalry of the line for eight years with the colours and four in the reserve.

The artillery was not divided into regiments like the cavalry and infantry, but the field, horse, and garrison artillery formed together a single body (about 55,000 strong), called the Royal Regiment of Artillery, the field and horse artillery being divided into a large number of 'batteries', the garrison artillery into companies. Of these batteries a certain number were mountain-batteries (for special service). On the war footing, a battery of horse artillery had 165 men, a battery of field artillery 157, the great majority consisting of gunners and drivers. Every battery had 6 guns, those of the field artillery being heavier than those of the horse artillery. The field artillery acted with the infantry, and the gunners were not mounted but carried on the gun-carriages; the horse artillery went with the cavalry, the gunners being mounted for rapid movement. The garrison artillery was distributed over the various fortresses and garrisons.

To a special corps, the Royal Engineers, belong the construction and maintenance of military works and fortifications, military telegraphs and railways, pontoons, military balloons, etc. Another branch of the regular army was the Army Service Corps, which had to attend to transport, the purchase and issue of provisions, forage, light, fuel, the appointments of barracks, etc. It was organized in companies, which were allotted to the several brigades or other units of the army, and it comprised bakers, butchers, saddlers, farriers, clerks, etc.

The medical services called for by the army are rendered by the Royal Army Medical Corps, under the director-general and staff of the army medical service. The officers are divided into ranks corresponding to those of the rest of the army, from surgeon - generals, surgeon - colonels, etc, downwards. The privates largely consist of men that have to attend to the ambulances and other means of conveyance. Other departments of the regular army are the ordnance corps, army pay department, veterinary department, military police, etc. What were generally designated as the auxiliary forces consisted of the army reserves, militia and militia reserve, imperial yeomanry, and volunteers. The army reserve of infantry consisted of men who had served with the colours during the period for which they enlisted for active service, and were liable in case of war to be again called up for service with the particular branch of the army to which they still belonged (receiving meanwhile a small pension). The militia was a force of old standing that had repeatedly rendered valuable services to the country. The force was intended to provide a number of trained men by which, on important emergencies, the regular troops might be supplemented or relieved. It consisted chiefly of a large number of battalions of infantry of the line, linked with those belonging to the territorial regiments, the men being enlisted for a period of six years, and being called up annually for a short period of drill and training. During the 19th century measures were taken for increasing the efficiency of the militia, and a militia reserve was formed. The volunteer force was formed in 1859, and was largely self-supporting, though it also received certain grants from government. Like the militia, it formed a number of battalions attached to the line regiments in their respective districts. The force proved very popular, but some authorities maintained that its efficiency was not equal to its numbers, and
e changes were proposed early on. The Imperial Yeomanry, or Yeomanry Cavalry, were a force that came into existence as a volunteer force in the beginning of the 19th century, being intended to furnish mounted troops for home defence. The force was reorganized at the end of the 19th century, and formed a body of more than fifty regiments, in which were absorbed certain volunteer companies of light horse and mounted infantry. The members provided themselves with horses, and receive a certain sum as daily pay during their period of training, with an allowance also for a horse.

Army administration and reorganization underwent major changes during the 20th century. The strength of the British army by the scheme of March, 1905, was: regulars, 192,697; reserve, 80,000; militia, 148,000;
yeomanry, 28,000; volunteers, 250,000; besides over 78,000 men for India and the colonies.

Before the Second World War and the upheavals that followed, a large number of men raised in the United Kingdom were always serving abroad, in India and the colonies, but some of the British colonies had bodies of troops raised and maintained by themselves. The Indian army alone constantly absorbed drafts of men from the home countries, since there were always about 74,000 British regulars in it, besides native troops raised in India more than twice that number. The Indian army as a whole stood quite apart from the British army proper. This army had its own commander-in-chief and its own organization, and was paid from the revenues raised in India itself. Under the commander-in-chief were three great commands, those of the northern (Punjab), the western (Bombay), and the eastern (Bengal) army corps, besides the commands or districts of Madras and Burma. Both the British and the Indian regular forces comprised infantry, cavalry, and artillery; and there were volunteers, army reserves, and a body known as 'imperial service troops', kept up by native states, besides a frontier militia for the north-west frontier, and a military police, also serving on frontier duty. The native regiments were partly under British officers.

After the Great War the British Regular Army was a reproduction of the pre-war army and its reserves, established mainly on the basis of reforms instituted during the War Secretaryship of Haldane, with the improvements suggested by the Great War. The previous reforms had established a spirit of co-ordination and professional dignity. The militia had been replaced by a Special Reserve; the efficient Territorial Force replaced the old Volunteers; the General Staff was brought into being, and later the Imperial General Staff. The O.T.C. system began in 1909, and the creation of a small expeditionary force, to serve in emergency, was an innovation that splendidly proved its utility. The establishment of the pre-war regular army in the financial year 1914-15 was as follows: British troops - regimental establishments, 168,500 all ranks; British army in India, 75,896 all ranks; total, 244,396. The immense armies raised during the Great War having in the course of 1919 been almost entirely demobilized, Parliament was asked in the opening session of 1920 to sanction an establishment of approximately 220,000 men, exclusive of the army in India, which then consisted of 68,000 British troops and 164,000 Indian troops.
The British army after the Great War was distributed in general accordance with the Cardwellian system i.e., half abroad and half at home. The home units were to supply the units abroad in time of peace with drafts. The units abroad would absorb the reserves, who on mobilization would raise the units at home to full war strength. The home units would be organized so as to form, on mobilization, a force consisting of infantry, artillery, and mechanized units, and this force was the central reserve of the British Empire, available to be sent in time of trouble to any part of the world. Behind each linked battalion of the regular army there was a militia battalion. This militia battalion discharged the function hitherto discharged by the special reserve and the extra special reserve of supplying drafts for the regular battalions which were sent out of the country in time of war. There were 74 militia battalions, and it was assumed that they were capable, when the country was engaged in a war of no more than a few months' probable duration, of taking the field for the extension of the regular army - an assumption proved incorrect when the Second World War broke out a few years later. These forces - the regulars and militia battalions - constituted the first line of the British army, the second line being constituted by the 14 territorial infantry divisions and the cavalry division of the territorial army (yeomanry).

The improvements suggested by experience in the Great War were many and varied, but the rigid economy required in the national life after the armistice reduced the realization of these improvements to the lowest limits.

(1) Tanks. The big surprise of the Great War was the tank, or armoured land cruiser, for breaking through defensive organizations. Since 1919 progress was made in the evolution of this formidable weapon and a separate tank corps was revived, and mechanization of the army further proceeded by the conversion of certain cavalry units.

(2) Education A striking feature of the post-Great War army was the introduction, as a permanent and integral feature of the new army, of a system of compulsory education, both academic and technical, in unit schools, such as will ensure that any soldier on leaving the army would find employment in civil life instead of being, as in past times, shut out through a lack of appropriate skills.

BATTLE OF CAPE MATAPAN

The Battle of Cape Matapan was a British naval victory on the 28th of March 1941 over an Italian force sent to disrupt Allied shipping in the Mediterranean during the Second World War. The Italians were intercepted just south of Crete by a British fleet under Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham which sank the Italian cruiser Pola, along with six ships left to escort it after it had been crippled in an earlier attack.
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BATTLE OF DOGGER BANK

The Battle of Dogger Bank was a naval action of the Great War. It took place on January 24th 1915 off the Dogger Bank between a German force of four battle cruisers, four light cruisers, and 22 destroyers which had left Germany to attack the English coast and the British Grand Fleet of six battle cruisers, eight light cruisers, and 28 destroyers which had left Scapa Flow on the same day to carry out a sweep of the North Sea. The British put on speed to overhaul the German line, the first shots were fired at about 9 am., and the two fleets exchanged shots for about three hours. The German battle cruiser Blucher was sunk by gun and torpedo fire, while the British flagship HMS Lion was hit in the engine-room and halted. Admiral David Beatty transferred his flag to a destroyer, but when the German fleet approached Heligoland the British disengaged due to the danger of attack by submarines and minefields.
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BATTLE OF FALKLAND ISLANDS

The Battle of Falkland Islands was a naval battle of the Great War. It occurred on December 8th 1914 between the English and German squadrons. The Germans were lured to the Falkland Islands by a bogus cable sent to Berlin by a British spy, and there were ambushed and almost completely wiped out, only the light cruiser Dresden escaping.
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BATTLE OF HELIGOLAND

The Battle of Heligoland was a naval engagement between the British and the Germans, on August the 28th, 1914, during the Great War. On the outbreak of war, British submarines were sent to watch German naval movements in the bight of Heligoland, and acting on the information they supplied, the British Admiralty determined to carry out a sweep. The original intention was to operate mainly with light cruisers, destroyers, and submarines, supporting them only with the two battle cruisers, HMS Invincible and HMS New Zealand, against attack by the heavy German ships.

Fortunately Sir John Jellicoe, on learning of this plan, made 'urgent representations as to the necessity of supporting the force with battle cruisers' of Sir D. Beatty's battle-cruiser squadron; and on August the 27th, 1914, on his own responsibility he ordered Sir D. Beatty with the three other available battle cruisers and Commodore Goodenough's 1st light cruiser squadron to take part in the operation. Of this aid most of the other British vessels engaged were not aware, and thus at first they took Beatty's and Goodenough's ships for enemies.

Early in the morning of August the 28th, Commodore Tyrwhitt with the light cruisers HMS Arethusa and HMS Fearless, and 33 destroyers, and Commodore R. Keyes with eight submarines, searched the bight, manoeuvring to cut off the German light craft from their bases. The Germans were completely surprised, and it was low water, so that their heavy ships in port could not put to sea. Nine destroyers of the 1st German flotilla were on guard, disposed in a semicircle about 20 miles from the Elbe mouth, with the light cruisers Hela, Stettin, Frauenlob, and Ariadne supporting them.

The British broke into the destroyer cordon and engaged Frauenlob and Stettin, which came up to the destroyers' aid. The German destroyer V 187 was disabled by the British fire, and had to be sunk by her crew to avoid capture. Two British destroyers were damaged, and HMS Arethusa was hit 35 times by Frauenlob, with a loss of 12 killed and 20 wounded, before she drove the German cruisers back.

About 8.30 a.m. Commodore Goodenough's light cruisers arrived and attacked further to the west, but had to fall back owing to danger from the British submarines. Observing that the British light craft were apparently unsupported, the Germans made an effort to cut them off. The German light cruisers Ariadne, Frauenlob, Strassburg, Stralsund, Mainz, and Coin closed on the vessels under the command of Tyrwhitt and Keyes, and the position became so serious that Tyrwhitt signalled by wireless to Beatty that he was hard pressed.

At this moment ships of the 1st British light cruiser squadron re-entered the fight and checked the Germans. HMS Birmingham and HMS Nottingham concentrated a superior fire on Mainz, which stopped her attack. At 11 a.m. the battle cruisers HMS Lion, HMS Queen Mary, HMS Princess Royal, HMS Invincible, and HMS New Zealand avoided a submarine attack (probably British submarines were mistaken for German ones, as all the U-boats in the area of operations are stated by the German official history to have been-in port), and, steaming at full speed, sighted Mainz at 12.30 and opened fire on her with crushing effect, leaving her helpless and sinking.

A little later Coin was sighted and shelled until she burst into flame. At this point Ariadne intervened, and was left in shattered and sinking condition after two salvoes from HMS Lion. Coin was sighted a second time and sunk at 1.35 by two more salvoes from the same ship, the whole of her crew being killed except one stoker. From Mainz the British rescued 350 men, 60 of them badly wounded. The Germans saved most of Ariadne's crew. The German loss was thus 3 light cruisers and 1 destroyer, with 712 killed, 149 wounded, and 379 captured. The British casualties were 31 killed and 52 wounded, while HMS Arethusa was much damaged but was quickly repaired.

The German official history blames the defensive tactics of the German main fleet for this severe reverse, which, it states, produced a bad moral effect in the German navy; it also criticises the British dispositions.
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BATTLE OF JUTLAND

The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle of the Great War. On May the 30th 1916, in response to low morale in Germany, the newly appointed commander-in- chief of the navy, Admiral von Scheer, ordered the High Seas Fleet to leave the Kiel canal in force with the objective of attacking British cruisers and merchant ships in and outside the Skager-Rack. The German fleet sailed in two divisions: in the van was von Hipper's battle-cruiser squadron of five ships with attendant cruisers and destroyers; and some sixty miles astern, the battle fleet of some nineteen or twenty battleships, twenty light cruisers. The British were alerted by unusual radio traffic over the North Sea and Jellicoe's Grand Fleet and Beatty's battle-cruiser squadron sailed on the night of the 30th of May and took up position the next morning and engaged the enemy. Although the British losses were greater than the German, the German fleet retreated back to its harbours.
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BATTLE OF KOLOMBANGARA

The Battle of Kolombangara was an inconclusive naval engagement between American and Japanese forces in July 1943 off Kolombangara, one of the Solomon Islands. Four Japanese transports escorted by a cruiser and four destroyers were attempting to resupply the Japanese garrison on Kolombangara when they were intercepted by three American cruisers and nine destroyers. The American vessels opened fire, sinking the Japanese cruiser; in reply the Japanese destroyers launched a torpedo attack which crippled one American cruiser. About two hours later the two forces met once more and the Japanese torpedoes crippled the two remaining American cruisers and sank one destroyer. By this time the Japanese had landed their troops and supplies and so they withdrew.
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BATTLE OF SAVE ISLAND

The Battle of Save Island was a Second World War naval battle between a Japanese cruiser force and a joint US and Australian force protecting US transports reinforcing Guadalcanal in August 1942. The Japanese achieved complete surprise, and in two engagements sank three American and one Australian cruiser and damaged two others. The Japanese commander, fearful of air strikes as dawn broke, then withdrew without attacking the transports which were at his mercy, for which he was reprimanded for his temerity.
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BATTLE OF THE FALKLANDS

The Battle of the Falklands was a number of separate, but concurrent naval engagements on the 8th of December 1914, during the Great War, between the British and Germans and occured when a German squadron under von Spee was sighted, attacked and destroyed, by a British force under Vice-Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee based at Port Stanley.
The British force comprised the battle cruisers Invincible and Inflexible and the cruisers Bristol, Carnavon, Glasgow, Cornwall and Kent, the armed merchant cruiser Macedonia (who sighted the enemy squadron approaching whilst on guard outside Port Stanley Harbour) and the slow pre-dreadnought HMS Canopus, who ambushed the approaching ships from her hidden position.

The German force was comprised of the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Dresden, Leipzig, and the Nurnberg. HMS Invincible and HMS Inflexible engaged and sank the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The fastest German ship, Dresden escaped; HMS Cornwall and HMS Glasgow engaged and sank the Leipzig, while HMS Kent pursued and sank the Nurnberg.
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