The em (em-quad) is a unit of horizontal length used in printing, based upon the width of the capital letter 'M' - hence the name. The 12-point em is a standard unit in typography, equal to 1/6 of an inch. An em rule is a horizontal line one em long (a hyphen or dash). In computing, an em is a length as wide as the font size is wide. The em is so named on account of it being equivalent to the width of the body of the letter 'M'. Research Em
The Barbados Blackbelly is a breed of sheep, African in origin and developed on the island of Barbados. The Barbados Blackbelly has a variety of colour phases varying from basic black and tan colour through black, yellow, and variegated pinto patterns. The black colour covers the under parts completely in the basal pattern and extends up the neck with black extending down the inside of the legs, on the plank and back of the thighs. The inside hair of the ears is black with a small dash at the rear of the eye. The chin and poll are black. The black under parts and black lines medial to the eye contrasting with the normal tan to reddish coat in most other areas, gives an exotic contrasting appearance. Yellow ewes (pale to reddish yellow) have a white abdomen. The yellow colour phase may have been originally derived from a different breed of hair sheep.
There has also been noted a reddish, and also a white, hair sheep in northeastBrazil and light brown colours characteristic of hair sheep from Tobago. Further north there is a light to pale brown sheep in the Bahamas, the long island sheep in Cuba called the Pelibuey. All of these sheep are thought to be at least partially related to the Barbados Blackbelly. The mature rams have a neckpiece of long hair, up to six inches, which extends down the neck to the brisket. The cape reaches full development in the fall of the year. In some rams this is a full cape which extends over the sides and top of the neck and shoulders as a showy blanket. Rams and ewes on the island of Barbados are polled or with short scurs. Research Barbados Blackbelly
Richard (Dick) Turpin was a notorious English highwayman. He was born in 1706 at Hempstead, Essex and died in 1739 when he was hanged at York. The son of the landlord of the Bell Inn, he started his career as a butcher's apprentice before becoming an associate of Tom King, whom he accidentally shot. A smuggler, cattle-thief, housebreaker, highwayman and horse-thief, he was finally caught and executed for the murder of an Epping keeper.
As a young man, Dick Turpin was reputedly allowed more money than he needed, and developed extravagant tastes, and was it was said of him that he 'cut a dash round the town among the blades of the road and turf, whose company he affected to keep.' His family thought that marriage would settle the roguish Dick, and he was betrothed to a Miss Palmer whom he married. However, Miss Palmer was of a similar nefarious nature and remained a loyal and faithful partner to Dick throughout his subsequent criminal life.
As a child, Dick Turpin had taught himself poaching, and later he joined a gang of small-time villains who showed him the profit to be made from stealing the occasional sheep. Leaving them, Dick Turpin started stealing deer from Epping Forest, which he sold to contacts in London he had made while training as a butcher. Suspicions of his activities abound, but it was not until he stole a local cow and sold its beef locally did he have to leave home and went to Plaistow where he stole two cows, butchered them and sold the beef locally, only to be discovered by the investigations of two farm workers who had been charged with looking after the cattle he stole.
Pursued by Bow Street Runners, Dick Turpin left for Essex where he noticed furtive figures both solitary and gangs roaming the roads at dusk. Enquiries revealed these figures were smugglers, and Dick Turpin took to confronting them at night and demanding money in the name of the king.
Becoming lonely he joined a gang of deer-stealers until they attracted too much attention, at which point he left the gang and became a house-breaker before joining Gregory's gang and within a few weeks leading the gang. While leading the Gregory gang Dick Turpin realised that it was in his own interests to be lenient with his victims, and courted public sympathy by insisting the gang were never unruly or ill treated their robbery victims.
Dick Turpin's demise was ridiculous. While in Yorkshire under an assumed name, that of Palmer, he worked as a legitimate horse dealer until one day while returning from a shooting party he deliberately shot a cockerel. The event was witnessed by a friend of the cock's owner who upon asking the reason for the killing was jokingly offered to be shot also by Dick Turpin. A warrant was subsequently issued and while in custody his true identity was recognised and he was tried, and condemned to be hanged for horse stealing. Research Dick Turpin
A battle is a combat between two armies. In ancient times and the middle ages the battle-ground was often chosen by agreement, and the battle was a mere trial of strength, a duelengros; and as the armies of the ancients were imperfectly organized, and the combatants fought very little at a distance, after the battle had begun manoeuvres were much more difficult, and troops almost entirely beyond the control of the general. Under these circumstances the battle depended almost wholly upon the previous arrangements and the valour of the troops.
In the 19th century, however, the finest combinations, the most ingenious manoeuvres, were rendered possible by the better organization of the armies, and it was the skill of the general rather than the courage of the soldier that determined the event of a battle. By the Great War of 1914 tactics had changed with the advent of rapid firing weapons, long range artillery and armoured warfare.
Traditionally battles were distinguished as offensive or defensive on either side, but there was a natural and ready transition from one method to the other. As a rule the purely defensive attitude was condemned by tacticians except in cases where the only object desirable was to maintain a position of vital consequence, the weight of precedent being in favour of the dash and momentum of an attacking force even where opposed to superior forces. Where the greatest generals have acted upon the defensive, it has almost always been with the desire to develop an opportunity to pass to the offensive, and having discovered their opponent's hand, to marshal against the enemy, exhausted with attack, the whole strength of their resources. Napoleon won more than one great victory by this method, and Wellington's reputation was largely based upon his skill in defensive-offensive operations. Tacticians have divided a battle into three periods: those of disposition, combat, and the decisive moment. In some measure they require distinct qualities in a commander, the intellect which can plot a disposition being by no means always of the prompt judgment passing to instant action which avails itself of the crucial moment to crush an enemy.
The Battle of Aegospotami was a Spartan naval victory over the Athenians at the end of the Peloponnesian War 405 BC off Aegospotami. Lysander's decisive victory over the Athenian fleet broke the, until then unchallenged Athenian naval superiority and effectively ended the war. An Athenian fleet of some 180 triremes lay at Aegospotami and 170 Peloponnesian ships, under Lysander, lay at Lampsacus on the southern shore. On four successive days the Athenian fleet rowed across the strait, hoping to draw Lysander's force out to give battle, but without success. On the fifth day Lysander waited until the Athenians made their usual sortie and returned to their base; once they had anchored, Lysander's fleet made a sudden dash across the water, pounced on the anchored Athenians, captured 160 ships, and killed the crews. Research Battle of Aegospotami
There were two Battles of Cambrai during the Great War. The first was a British victory in November 1917, the second Battle of Cambrai was part of the great Allied attack of September and October 1918.
During the retreat of the British and French armies from Belgium after the battles of Mons and Charleroi (August 23rd-24th, 1914), efforts were made by the French forces in Flanders to strike the flank of the advancing German army and facilitate the retirement of the British. The 61st and 62nd French reserve divisions and 84th Territorial division under General d'Amade, with General Sordet's cavalry corps, took part in these operations.
On August the 26th 1914, they were heavily engaged near Cambrai with the 2nd German Infantry Corps (forming part of Kluck's 1st Army), while the British were fighting at Le Cateau. The French divisions were newly mobilised, wanting in coherence, and were exposed to the attack of some of the best troops in the German army. Inferior in numbers, and greatly inferior in artillery and equipment, they were rapidly driven back; Cambrai was seized by the Germans on August the 26th, and d'Amade's infantry were so greatly shaken that Joffre in a message of September the 3rd expressed the hope that they might be 'able to recover some steadiness'. But by their sacrifice they covered the withdrawal of the British from Le Cateau, and thus actually rendered important services.
From this time until the end of 1917 there was no fighting around Cambrai, as, the Germans' line being well to the west of it, the city was outside the actual battle zone. The battle of the Somme, in the autumn of 1916, had Bapaume and Peronne as its immediate objectives, and Cambrai and St Quentin as the ultimate goal.
The first battle of Cambrai began on November the 20th, 1917, when Sir Douglas Haig, as the best means of assisting the Italians, who were then being heavily attacked, determined to deliver a sudden blow on the British front. The intended battle was of a revolutionary type, the first of a new order in war; it was to be marked by two new features, both of which had been planned by the staff of the Tank Corps in the summer of 1917. They were the employment of tanks in masses to break through the German line where it was strongest, and the abandonment of the long, preliminary artillerybombardment which up to that date had been usual before a battle, to cut the wire, shake the opposing infantry, and prepare the way for the final assault.
The point selected was on the front of the 3rd army (Byng), west of Cambrai, where the ground was suitable for tank movements. It had the defect, which was pointed out by the Tank Staff that a break-through there, if successful, would bring the British up against the German system of water and canal defence, from near Cantaing to Marcoing, Masnieres, Crevecoeur, and Banteux. The scheme of operations provided for the employment of 350 tanks and 2 corps of infantry;
these were to be thrown suddenly upon the Germans, who formed part of Marwitz's 2nd army. All the tanks were to be put in at the outset; there was to be no reserve to exploit any victory, and this decision was taken against the advice of the tank leaders. The Hindenburg line would have to be crossed; it consisted of three lines of trenches, each 12 feet (3.6 meters) or more wide, with wide belts of strong wire in front. Provision was made for bridging the trenches with special fascines carried by the tanks.
The attack opened at 6.20a.m. on the 20th of November 1917, in mist, when the whole line of tanks swept forward, led in the centre by Major-General H. Elles, commander of the Tank Corps, and followed by the infantry, who had not had previous experience of working with tanks. The front of attack was 6 miles from Havrincourt to La Vacquerie. As the tanks advanced, 1,000 British guns suddenly opened and maintained a creeping barrage. When the Germans saw that the tanks were able to cross the Hindenburg trenches, many of them fled in panic, but at the villages there was severe fighting, due in some cases to the fact that the infantry had not been able to keep pace with the tanks. Havrincourt and Ribecourt were carried, but at Flesquieres many tanks were put out of action by field guns, and the German resistance was stubborn.
At Marcoing an important bridge was captured by a tank before the Germans could destroy it; but at Masnieres, the bridge, vital for an enveloping advance against Cambrai, was so damaged that when a tank officer gallantly tried to cross it, it gave way slowly under him and finally collapsed; and other tanks which arrived could not cross the Schelde Canal. None the less, they enabled the infantry to force a passage, covering them with their fire. At nightfall the British had penetrated at points 10,000 yards, taking all three trenches of the Hindenburg line, and captured Graincourt, Marcoing, and Masnieres; they had isolated Flesquieres; tanks had also pushed into Bourlon Wood, but the infantry, from exhaustion, were unable to follow and support them.
On November the 21st the battle was resumed by Sir J. Byng with tired infantry, and tanks which had been through one great engagement already. Cantaing was taken, as also Fontaine-Notre-Dame, bringing the British close up to Cambrai on the west, but Fontaine-Notre-Dame was lost the next day to a furious German counter-attack.
Nearly all Bourlon Wood was secured on November the 23rd. German reserves were now arriving and efforts to storm Bourlon village and to recover Fontaine-Notre-Dame failed, though they were renewed on November the 25th, 26th, and 27th. The tank crews had been fought to a standstill, and the infantry were worn out. The position of Cambrai as a great railway junction enabled the Germans to bring up fresh troops from every direction.
On November the 27th the battle was broken off. The British had taken 10,500 prisoners and 142 guns; the German losses in prisoners were double the British casualties in the first two days of the battle. The effect on the German army was serious, and was intensified by the German reports, which frightened their men by stating that the victory had been snatched by the British use of tanks in masses. Most important was the influence on the French command, which had hitherto been doubtful of the value of tanks, but from the date of the battle entertained no more doubts. General Franchet d'Esperey's comment on it, that it was a great victory, was fully justified in the light of subsequent events. The tactics first tested at Cambrai were those which led to the far-reaching successes gained by Foch on July the 18th, 1918, and by the British in the battle of Amiens on August the 8th 1918. This battle marks a turning point in military history - the vindication of mechanical war.
It was unfortunate for the British army that the great success won in the first part of this battle was followed by a counter-stroke in which much of the fruit of the earlier victory was lost, because this led in that army to a belief that tanks were, after all, a doubtful weapon. It undoubtedly delayed their rapid construction on the largest possible scale. Immediately after their reverse, the Germans decided at all cost to attack, in order to clear Cambrai, a point of extreme importance to them because of its railway facilities.
The plan worked out by the Germans provided for a surprise assault at two points, on each side of the salient in which lay Bourlon Wood, from the south-east by a group of 12 divisions advancing between Cantaing and Vendhuile, and from the north-west by a group of five divisions, advancing three hours after the first attack had begun, between Moeuvres and Bourlon. Yet another division was to attack Bourlon Wood frontally, while the salient was being pinched out. The British force holding the front was only six divisions strong, so that the Germans had a strength of three to one, 18 divisions to 6.
The German tactics were skilful. The bombardment which preceded the first attack was sufficiently strong to keep the British troops under cover without at first seriously alarming them ; it was followed by a series of aeroplane attacks, the machines flying low in squadrons, and machine-gunning and bombing the British trenches, after which the German trench mortars opened, and the German infantry, about 8 a.m. on November the 30th, swept into the British position on the south-eastern section of attack. They advanced rapidly with great bravery and penetrated deep, taking Villers-Guislain, Gonnelieu, and Gouzeaucourt, but not without fierce fighting. At noon the Guards came into action and recaptured Gouzeaucourt, attacking with the greatest gallantry and promptitude. Tanks of three battalions, which had been opened up for overhaul and repair, were able to assist the infantry in the afternoon. The recovery of much of the lost ground was assisted by the determination with which detachments of British troops had held their positions even when outflanked and surrounded ; the 29th division specially distinguished itself in this way.
The north-western German attack followed, as had been arranged, after the south-eastern attack had already made great progress. The German infantry advanced in dense waves against the 47th, 2nd, and 56th British divisions, which offered a most stubborn and determined resistance and inflicted on the Germans very heavy losses, enfilading their advancing waves of infantry with machine-gun fire and mowing them down. The German accounts speak of their 'desperate and most strenuous defence'. Some ground was gained by the Germans but at a bitter price. A company of the 13th Essex here fought to the very last, -deciding after a council of war to have no surrender, and its heroism was not in vain. In Bourlon Wood the Germans, made a little progress despite an equally gallant resistance offered by the 1st Berkshire.
British reserves were brought up and a force of French artillery came into action during the afternoon of November the 30th. On December the 1st the battle was renewed, the Germans attempting on the north to hold the British at Bourlon Wood, while their southern attack penetrated deep and cut them. off. The Guards fought their way into Gonnelieu on the southern front with the aid of tanks; GaucheWood was recovered with the cooperation of tanks; and a great effort was made to recapture Villers-Guislain, but it failed owing to the violence of the German machine-gun fire and the small number of tanks available. Masnieres had to be abandoned owing to the loss of commanding ground south of it; and the troops were successfully withdrawn during the night of December 1st to 2nd.
On December the 2nd and 3rd there was heavy fighting between Gonnelieu and Bourlon, and the Germans captured La Vacquerie and forced the evacuation of the ground held beyond the Schelde Canal near Marcoing. December the 4th passed quietly with nothing but local fighting, but on the 5th and 6th fresh efforts were made by the Germans to capture Welsh Ridge, north of Gonnelieu; and though these were repulsed, the British command decided to abandon Bourlon Wood and the ground north of the Flesquieres ridge, as this could not be held unless the British army was prepared for prolonged and severe fighting.
The line to which it fell back left it in possession of an important section of the Hindenburg Line, but gave Gonnelieu and Villers-Guislain to the Germans. The Germans claimed the capture of 9,000 British prisoners and 148 British guns with large quantities of material, but these claims were probably exaggerated. The total British loss in this battle was given by the British authorities as 45,000. The German loss was probably heavier from the close formations employed and the absence of tanks on their side.
After their defeat in the battle of Epehy, the Germans fell back on the vast fortified system of the Hindenburg Line which protected the whole centre of their front, at its most important point, near Cambrai. This had been strengthened and improved by the labour of prisoners since the earlier battle of Cambrai, and was now a most formidable obstacle. From Arleux to Havrincourt it ran along the Canal du Nord, which could not be thoroughly reconnoitred by the British because both banks were in German hands. Near Havrincourt the British had a bridge-head. From Havrincourt southwards the fortified system was carried well to the west of the Schelde Canal, which at various points .passed through deep cuttings, and, between Vendhuile and Bellicourt, through a long tunnel. Some short distance to the south of Bellicourt the canal was dry. The tunnel was connected by shafts with the German trench systems; the sides of the canal in the cuttings were utilised for the construction of dug-outs; and where the canal was dry it served as a covered way.
The Hindenburg system was nowhere less than 7,000 yards wide, and in places it was from 10,000 to 17,000 yards wide. It consisted of two sets of continuous trenches, dug very deep and broad, so as, the Germans hoped, to be proof against tankattack. The first set of trenches had two trench lines, about 1,000 yards apart. They were each provided with concrete and steel emplacements for machine guns and were wired with belts about 50 feet wide; sometimes there were eight or ten belts to each trench. There was also a maze of machine-gun pits, tunnels, large subterranean shelters and trenches independent of the two main lines. The other set, also of two continuous trenches, was sited two miles or more back from the outer line, and each trench in this was very heavily wired and provided with deep and large dug-outs. The second set of trenches had an interval of about 1,000 yards between its two lines.
The German intention was to hold this vast system through the winter, exhaust the Allies, and after beating off their attacks to induce them to enter into peace negotiations, as it was realized by Ludendorff that after the failure of the German offensives, a German victory was out of the question. The belief in the impregnability of the Hindenburg Line was complete in Germany. The British Government seems to have shared the belief that the storming of the line was an enterprise too dangerous to be attempted until the arrival of American troops and American artillery in masses. It had grave misgivings, knowing that the British armies in France, after their desperate exertions during the German offensives of March, April, and May, had been for six weeks continuously fighting and had suffered considerably.
Special tanks had been built in the winter of 1917-18 for the attack on the line - Mark V star - which were increased in length from 23.5 feet to 32 feet 5 inches, so as to be able to stride across the wide Hindenburg trenches without using fascines or the heavy bridgingtackle which smaller tanks required. In cooperation with the British armies, which were to break the German centre and attack the Germans where they were strongest, the Belgian and Allied forces were to advance in Flanders, the French were to attack west of the Argonne, and the Americans, with some 500,000 men, were to advance in the Argonne itself.
The British armies which were to be engaged were the 1st (Home), 3rd (Byng), and 4th (Rawlinson), in order from north to south; it was decided that the 1st and 3rd armies should open the battle before Cambrai, attacking on a front of 13 miles from south of Arleux to Gouzeaucourt, with the Canadians, 17th, 6th, and 4th corps in the order named. On the northern section of attack the troops would have before them the Canal du Nord, which thereabouts was dry, but was wide, deep, and difficult to cross. They were, therefore, to force a passage near Moeuvres, where the canal seemed, from aeroplane reconnaissance, to be practicable for tanks, and then deploy fanwise. They were also to advance from the bridge-head over the canal south-west of Flesquieres.
A heavy bombardment was opened by the British artillery in the night of September the 26th and 27th; the Germans replying with violence. At 5.20 a.m. the infantry went over the top, led by 53 tanks, among them several Mark V star. When the tanks took the wide German trenches the German infantry for the most part were seized with panic and gave way. But there was heavy fighting at many points. Ribecourt and Flesquieres were both carried early in the day, as also was Bourlon. The whole of Bourlon Wood was captured by the Canadians with but little loss; and Fontaine-Notre-Dame, which had resisted repeated British attacks in that year, was reached. At the close of the day the Hindenburg system north of Gouzeaucourt was in ruins. British troops reached the outskirts of Sailly, some six miles from the starting point of the attack, and could thence bring the railway junction at Cambrai under effective fire. Over 10,000 prisoners and 200 guns had been taken, and one of the most stupendous victories of the war had been won. No more terrible blow had been struck, and none had a more profound effect on German opinion, because the collapse of the Hindenburg system came to the German people as a warning that the war would be carried into Germany, and that no defensive plans could stop the Allied armies and their tanks.
During this great and triumphant assault on the northern section of the Hindenburg system, American troops attached to Sir Douglas Haig's armies were delivering a most gallant attack on the outworks of that system, along the 6,000 yards of front between Vendhuile and Bellicourt, where the Schelde Canal passes through the tunnel. They were of the 27th division and were supported by twelve British tanks; but they encountered so desperate a resistance that, though they reached their objectives, they could not maintain themselves and were driven back.
On September the 28th, on the northern section of attack, the British troops continued their advance and secured the villages which they had entered, completing their capture of Sailly, Marcoing, and Fontaine-Notre-Dame, and crossing the Schelde Canal at Marcoing, where they broke through another great series of German entrenchments. The Germans, hard pressed for reinforcements, were compelled to draw troops from Flanders, as Cambrai was a pivotal point; and this withdrawal opened the way for an Allied advance in Belgium.
On September the 29th Sir Douglas Haig concentrated his strength in an attack on the southern section of the Hindenburg Line, in which, on a front of twelve miles from Vendhuile to south of Bellenglise, three corps - the Australians, the Americans, and the 9th - advanced, supported by 175 tanks, among them being an American battalion equipped with British tanks. The American troops of the 27th division had great difficulties to overcome. The strength of the German works in their front was immense; the mist on the morning of attack was so dense that the movements of the infantry and tanks were hampered; and by a great misfortune the 301st battalion of American tanks, which was cooperating, was caught in an old British minefield, laid in March, 1918, the existence of which had not been notified to the Tank Corps staff. Many tanks were destroyed, and the 27th division could not advance as far as had been intended. The American 30th division, however, stormed Bellicourt and occupied Nauroy, penetrating the centre of the German position.
To the north of it two Australian divisions passed through the 27th division and made some advance; while farther north, again, the 12th and 18th British divisions pushed in near Vendhuile. But the greatest fighting of the day was done by the 46th division, which stormed Bellenglise. Equipped with lifebelts, mats, and rafts, it crossed the Schelde Canal, and many of its men had to swim the water. In this famous feat the 5th and 6th South Staffords and 6th North Staffords covered themselves with glory. They captured an important bridge before it could be destroyed, and in 2.5 hours from the start had secured the German system east of the canal, which from its strength was reputed impregnable. On the northern front of attack Masnieres was stormed, and the Schelde Canal crossings near it were secured, while the Canadians pushed in towards the northern outskirts of Cambrai.
On September the 30th the attack was renewed all along the line and important progress was made. The Germans, threatened with envelopment, everywhere fell back behind the Schelde Canal north of Vendhuile. Le Tronquoy with a smaller tunnel on the canal was captured. On October the 1st New Zealand and Canadian troops continued the envelopment of Cambrai from the north, reaching Ramillies, but only at the price of great efforts, as the German resistance here was particularly strenuous, and no fewer than 11 German divisions were engaged on this section of the front from first to last. The Canadians suffered severely, but their stubborn gallantry brought great results. To the south Joncourt and Bony were stormed by the Australians and tanks. Between October the 3rd and 5th, Montbrehain, Estrees, and Beaurevoir were taken by them with great dash, enabling the British forces to advance to the east of the Schelde Canal from Montbrehain northwards. On October the 1st, the French 1st army occupied St Quentin.
In this battle, between September the 27th and October the 5th, the Hindenburg system was shattered for a distance of 40 miles from north to south and Cambrai itself was reached. The total advance was from 11 to 15 miles. Not only this, but a wide gap was made in the rearward German defences, so that only incomplete German trench systems now remained before the British armies in this sector; they were in sight of open country and on the eve of the war of movement. The German centre on the Western front had been penetrated. In all, 30 British and 2 American divisions were engaged against 39 German divisions. The number of prisoners taken was 36,500, greater than in any other single Allied victory in the war on the Western front, and the guns captured numbered 380. It was the decisive battle of the war, leading the German Staff to urge the immediate opening of peace negotiations.
The effect of the loss of the Hindenburg system upon the moral of the German troops was very marked, and they did not thereafter on the British front fight with the determination which they showed before Cambrai. In tactics, the chief features of the victory were the skilful employment of tanks, and the 'leap-frogging' of fresh divisions through the exhausted British troops, by which the vigour of the attack was steadily maintained. Research Battle of Cambrai
The Battle of Valverde, New Mexico was an engagement that occurred on February the 21st, 1861 during the American Civil War between 1500 Unionists, chiefly volunteers, under Canby, and 2000 Texan rangers commanded by Sibley and Green. ColonelRoberts, Federal, first routed Major Pryon, but the latter, falling back, was supported by Green. The Texans made a spirited dash upon the Federal lines, heedless of the volley of grape shot and canister. The Federal troops fled in the utmost confusion. Research Battle of Valverde
The Battle of Zama was fought in 202 BC in Numidia (now Algeria), in which the Carthaginians under Hannibal were defeated by the Romans under the younger Scipio, so ending the Second Punic War. The Carthaginians were forced to give up Spain and were also subject to harsh peace terms. The Carthaginians had 80 elephants as their shock arm, but these got out of control, some turning back and throwing their own cavalry into disorder. The Romans, simply parted their ranks to allow the elephants to dash past, then closed up and attacked the Carthaginians, killing 20,000 according to legend although Hannibal himself escaped. Research Battle of Zama
The Welsh Guards was raised on the 26th of February 1915 by order of King George V, in order to include Wales in the National Complement of Regiments of Foot Guards identified with the countries of the United Kingdom. Two days after their formation the Battalion mounted its first King's Guard at Buckingham Palace on the 1st of March 1915 - St David's Day. On the 17th of March 1915 the 1st Battalion sailed for France and formed part of the Guards Division. Its first battle was fought at Loos on the 27th of September 1915 and the Regiment's first Victoria Cross was won by Sergeant Robert Bye at Pilckem in July 1917. Between the wars, the 1st Battalion was stationed in Cologne, Egypt and Gibraltar, where it was at the outbreak of war in 1939. The Regiment was expanded to three Battalions during the Second World War. The 1st Battalion fought in all the campaigns of North West Europe. The 2nd Battalion was formed in 1939 and fought in Boulogne in 1940, whilst the 1st Battalion was in Belgium as part of the British Expeditionary Force.
In May 1940, at the Battle of Arras, the Regiment's second Victoria Cross was won by Lieutenant The Hon Christopher Furness, who was killed in action. In 1941, a 3rd Battalion was raised and fought throughout the Tunisian and Italian Campaigns. Meanwhile, the 1st and 2nd Battalions formed part of the Guards Armoured Division - the 1st Battalion as Infantry and the 2nd Battalion as an Armoured Battalion. The two Battalions, working together, were the first troops to re-enter Brussels on the 3rd of September 1944 after an advance of 100 miles in one day, in what was described as 'an armoured dash unequalled for speed in this or any other war'. Shortly after the war, the 3rd Battalion was disbanded and the 2nd Battalion was placed in suspended animation.
Since 1945, the 1st Battalion has served in the United Kingdom, Palestine, Egypt, Germany, Aden and Cyprus and has exercised in many other parts of the world including Canada, Greece, Norway, Kenya and Belize. In more recent years the 1st Battalion has carried out five six-month and one two-year operational tours in Northern Ireland and in 1982 formed part of the Task Force in the Falklands Campaign, the Battle Honour for which is now borne on the Colours. Research Welsh Guards
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
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