#East Kent Regiment

[herprivateswe]

1/5th Buffs (East Kent Regiment) passing over the Jebel Hamlin, December 1917. The Battle of Jebel Hamlin allowed the British to control the train station at Samarrah which today is in Iraq, on the east Bank of the Tigris.

[stephensmithuk]

The Sign of Four: The Strange Story of Jonathan Small (Part One of Two)

I will split this in two parts as I've got a lot to cover here.

CW for discussions of nasty prison conditions.

The depth of the Thames is about 6.5 metres at low tide in Woolwich, near to the Plumstead Marshes as they were then. However, the river has strong currents and very little visibility, so it would be a risky operation even with 2024 diving technology for some rather small objects.

The rupee originally was a silver coin dating back to ancient times in India, becoming something of a standard currency during the Mughal period. The East India Company introduced paper rupees and while there was an attempt by the British to move their territory to the pound sterling, they soon gave up, minting their own rupees with the British monarch's head on. The currency was also non-decimal. India retained the currency post-independence and went decimal as well.

Mangrove trees are very common in equatorial coastline regions - they can remove salt from the water, which would kill many other trees.

Prisoners set to the Andaman Islands penal colony were forced to work nine to ten hours a day to construct the new settlement, while in chains. Cuts from poisonous plants and friction ulcers from the chains would often get infected, resulting in death.

The convict huts on Ross Island were two-storey affairs, with the bottom as a kitchen and took area, the prisoners sleeping on the upper floor. Designed this way as an anti-malaria measure, they however leaked and the prisoners themselves were constantly damp from the rainfall, offering them little protection from the mosquitoes in any event.

Ague is an obsolete term for malaria; adults experience chills and fever in cycles.

The British would conduct experiments with quinine as a malaria treatment by force-feeding it to the prisoners. This caused severe side effects.

The British would make use of locals as warders, who wore sashes and carried canes. I'd imagine they could probably be quite brutal.

Pershoe is a small town on the River Avon near Worcester. It has a railway station with an hourly service to London, taking just under two hours today.

"Chapel-going" in this context means that the people attended a non-conformist church i.e. not one part of the Church of England.

"Taking the Queen's/King's shilling" was a historical term for joining the armed forces - for the army this was officially voluntary, but sailors could be forcibly recruited, being known as "press-ganged" until 1815. You would be given the shilling upon initial enlistment or tricked into taking it via it being slipped into your opaque beer. You would return the shilling on your formal attestation and then receive a bounty which could be pretty substantial in terms of the average wage, although a good amount of that would then be spent on your uniform. Some enlisted, deserted and then reenlisted multiple times to get multiple payments. The practice officially stopped in 1879, but the slang term remains.

The 3rd Buffs refers to the latter 3rd Battalion, Buffs (East Kent Regiment), a militia battalion that existed from 1760 to 1953, although it effectively was finished in 1919. However, in reality, they did not go to India to deal with the rebellion, instead staying in Great Britain to cover for the regular regiments who did.

The British never formally adopted the Prussian "goose step" instead going for the similar, but less high-kicking, slow march.

The musket would possibly have been the muzzle-loaded Enfield P53, a mass-produced weapon developed at the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield. It was itself was the trigger of the Indian Rebellion in 1857 due to the grease used in the cartridges. They would also be heavily used in the American Civil War on both sides, especially the Confederate one as they smuggled a lot of them, with only the Springfield Model 1861 being more widely used. As a result, they are highly sought after by re-enactors. The British used them until 1867, when they switched to the breech-loading Snider-Enfield, many of the P53s being converted.

The crocodile would likely have been a gharial, which mainly eat fish. Hunting and loss of habitat has reduced their numbers massively, with the species considered "Critically Endangered" by the IUCN.

"Coolie" is a term today considered offensive that was used to describe low-wage Indian or Chinese labourers who were sent around the world, basically to replace emancipated slaves. Indentured labourers, basically - something the US banned (except as a riminal punishment) along with slavery in 1865. In theory they were volunteers on a contract with rights and wages, however abuses were rife. Indentured labour would finally be banned in British colonies in 1917.

Indigo is a natural dark blue dye extracted from plants of the Indigofera genus; India produced a lot of it. Today, the dye (which makes blue jeans blue) is mostly produced synthetically.

I have covered the "Indian Mutiny" as the British called it here in my post on "The Crooked Man".

The Agra Fort dates back to 1530 and at 94 acres, it was pretty huge by any standards. Today, much of it is open to tourists (foreigners pay 650 rupees, Indians 50), although there are parts that remain in use by the Indian Army and are not for public access.

"Rajah" meaning king, referred to the many local Hindu monarchs in the Indian subcontinent; there were also Maharajahs or "great kings", who the British promoted loyal rajahs to the rank of. The Muslim equivalent was Nawab. However, a variety of other terms existed. The East India Company and the Raj that succeeded them used these local rulers to rule about a half their territory and a third of the population indirectly, albeit under quite a bit of influence from colonial officials. These rulers were vassals to the British monarch; they would collect taxes and enforce justice locally, although many of the states were pretty small (a handful of towns in some cases) and so they contracted this out to the British. As long as they remained loyal, they could get away with nearly anything.

562 of these rulers were present at the time of Indian independence in 1947. Effectively abandoned by the British (Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy, sending out contradictory messages), nearly all of them were persuaded to accede to the new India, where the nationalists were not keen on them, with promises they could keep their autonomy if they joined, but if not, India would not help them with any rebellions. Hyderabad, the wealthiest of the states, resisted and was annexed by force. The ruler of Jammu and Kashmir joined India in exchange for support against invading Pakistani forces, resulting in a war. A ceasefire agreement was reached at the beginning of 1949, with India controlling about two-thirds of the territory; the ceasefire line, with minor adjustments after two further wars in 1965 and 1971, would become known as the Line of Control, a dotted line on the map that is the de facto border and one of the tensest disputed frontiers on the planet.

India and Pakistan initially allowed the princely rulers to retain their autonomy, but this ended in 1956. In 1971 and 1972 respectively, their remaining powers and government funding were abolished.

Many of the former rulers ended up in a much humbler position, others retained strong local influence and a lot of wealth. The Nizam of Hyderbad, Mir Osman Ali Khan was allowed to keep his personal wealth and title after the annexation in 1948 - he had been the richest man in the world during his rule and used a 184-carat diamond as a paperweight, at least until he realised its actual value. The current "pretender", Azhmet Jah, has worked as a cameraman and filmmaker in Hollywood, including with Steven Spielberg.

[captain-price-unofficially]

Men of the 1/5th Battalion of the Buffs (East Kent Regiment) passing over the Jebel Hamrin, Mesopotamia. December 1917.

[fantastictyphoonpeanut]

The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), 1913-14. Became Royal in 1935. Technically the oldest regular regiment in the British Army since 1572 Raised as Capt. Morgan's Company from volunteers in the Elizabethan London Trained Bands, to fight in the Dutch Army, but as it only came into British service in 1685, its seniority dates from then. Amalgamated several times since 1961 it now forms part of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regt. (FTP)

[grandmaster-anne]

Court Circular | 1st February 2023

Buckingham Palace

Major General Christopher Ghika (General Officer Commanding London District and Major General Commanding the Household Division) was received by The King this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort this evening held a Reception at Buckingham Palace for British East and South-East Asian Communities in the United Kingdom. The Earl of Wessex, The Princess Royal, The Duchess of Gloucester, The Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra, the Hon Lady Ogilvy were present. The Queen Consort, Colonel-in-Chief, The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada, this morning received Ms Manjit Minhas upon assuming her appointment as Honorary Lieutenant Colonel. Lieutenant Colonel Scott Moody (Commanding Officer) and Chief Warrant Officer Jeff Johnston (Regimental Sergeant Major) were present. Her Majesty was subsequently presented with the Canadian Forces’ Decoration. The Prince of Wales, on behalf of The King, held an Investiture at Windsor Castle this morning.

St James’s Palace

The Earl of Wessex, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award, today held Meetings. The Countess of Wessex this afternoon departed from London City Airport, London, for the Netherlands and was received this evening upon arrival at Rotterdam the Hague Airport by His Majesty’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Her Excellency Mrs Joanna Roper). Mr Alexander Stonor and Mrs Angus Galletley are in attendance.

[sageglobalresponse]

Meet 4 British-Nigerians who won UK parliament seats

The British citizens on Thursday, July 4, 2024, trooped out to the polling units to elect members of parliament that will form a new government.

In the election, the Labour Party won overwhelmingly to secure 412 seats out of 650 to end the 14-year rule of the Conservatives, reports Saturday PUNCH.

Consequently, the Labour leader, Keir Starmer has been officially appointed as the British Prime Minister, after Rishi Sunak conceded defeat and resigned as Tory leader.

Presenting, four prominent British-Nigerians were victorious at the polls:

Kemi Badenoch returns as Tory MP despite Conservatives’ ouster

Renowned British-Nigerian in the United Kingdom Parliament, Kemi Badenoch, won her seat in North West Essex in the July 4 Parliamentary elections.

Badenoch was re-elected as a Conservative Party member of Parliament despite a landslide loss of the Tories to the Labour Party.

She won with 19,360 votes defeating her main challenger, Labour’s Issy Waiter, who garnered 16,750 votes.

Speaking shortly after her victory at the polls, Badenoch said, “Many of my friends and colleagues have lost their seats. They have served their country with distinction. Their service will never be in vain. But the public have spoken and they have said loud and clear that the Conservatives have lost their trust.”

Born on January 2, 1980, Badenoch served as Britain’s Secretary of State for Business and Trade from 2023 to 2024. She also served as the President of the Board of Trade and Minister for Women and Equalities from 2022 to 2024.

Resilient, bold and diligent, Badenoch was tipped to succeed the immediate past UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, as she showed interest after Liz Truss resigned in October 2022.

The 44-year-old British politician has been in the UK Parliament representing Saffron Walden as an MP from 2017.

Badenoch studied Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Sussex and got a Master’s degree in 2003. She also studied Law at Birkbeck, University of London.

She got married to Hamish Badenoch in 2012 and is blessed with three children.

Businessman Bayo Alaba wins Newcastle for Labour Party

British-Nigerian businessman, Bayo Alaba, won the Southend East and Rochford for Labour Party.

Alaba won with 15,395 votes against the Conservative Party’s candidate, Gavin Haran with 11,368 votes.

Widely known as a successful former Parachute Regiment soldier, and youth mentor, Alaba is currently serving as the first black councillor for the London Borough of Redbridge.

Born and raised in Forest Gate, east London, Alaba is a Board Trustee for Phoenix Resource Centre, a sustainable charity with operations in the UK and abroad.

Commenting on his victory, Alaba said, “The people of Southend East Rochford have put their trust in our changed Labour Party. Now is the time to deliver.

“This will be the greatest thing of my life. I will work every day to repay the trust you put in me,” he added.

Former Shadow Minister, Taiwo Owatemi who staged comeback

A former Member of Parliament of Nigerian descent, Taiwo Owatemi, also won the UK Parliament election in Coventry North West for the Labour Party.

Owatemi polled 19,696 votes to defeat her main rival, Tom Mercer from the Tories, who secured 8,522 votes.

She served as the Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities from September 2021 to September 2022.

Born on July 22, 1992, Owatemi who grew up in Plumstead was first elected into the UK Parliament in 2019.

The 31-year-old politician got a Master’s degree in Pharmacy from the University of Kent. She worked at a cancer unit in Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust before venturing into politics.

Owatemi was a member of Labour Friends of Israel and part of the delegation that travelled to the country in February 2023.

After her victory in the election, Owatemi, who was a spokesperson for the Medical Research Council, said, “Words cannot express my gratitude to the people of Coventry North West. Your trust in me, in our shared vision, for a brighter future, is truly humbling.”

“It is the honour of my life to represent you and I will continue to work tirelessly to ensure your voices are represented,” she added.

Chi Onwurah continues winning streak

Chi Onwurah has been re-elected as an MP to represent Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West for the Labour Party in the UK Parliament election.

Onwurah came victorious with 18,875 votes on July 4 as the Labour Party recorded a landslide win that unseated the Tories.

Before the election, Onwurah born on April 12, 1965 was the Shadow Minister for Industrial Strategy.

The 59-year-old born in Wallsend, who was first elected into the UK Parliament in 2010, defeated her closest opponent Ashton Muncaster of the Reform Party who had 7,815 votes.

She attended Kenton School, Newcastle and got a degree in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College London.

In her remarks after the secured victory, Onwurah said, “Thank you from the Labour team to everyone in Newcastle Central and West for putting your confidence in Labour and electing me as your Member of Parliament. We will not let you down!”

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 5.27 (before 1960)

1096 – Count Emicho enters Mainz, where his followers massacre Jewish citizens. At least 600 Jews are killed. 1120 – Richard III of Capua is anointed as Prince two weeks before his untimely death. 1153 – Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland. 1199 – John is crowned King of England. 1257 – Richard of Cornwall, and his wife, Sanchia of Provence, are crowned King and Queen of the Germans at Aachen Cathedral. 1644 – Manchu regent Dorgon defeats rebel leader Li Zicheng of the Shun dynasty at the Battle of Shanhai Pass, allowing the Manchus to enter and conquer the capital city of Beijing. 1703 – Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg. 1798 – The Battle of Oulart Hill takes place in Wexford, Ireland; Irish rebel leaders defeat and kill a detachment of militia. 1799 – War of the Second Coalition: Austrian forces defeat the French at Winterthur, Switzerland. 1813 – War of 1812: In Canada, American forces capture Fort George. 1860 – Giuseppe Garibaldi begins the Siege of Palermo, part of the wars of Italian unification. 1863 – American Civil War: The first Union infantry assault of the Siege of Port Hudson occurs. 1874 – The first group of Dorsland trekkers under the leadership of Gert Alberts leaves Pretoria. 1883 – Alexander III is crowned Tsar of Russia. 1896 – The F4-strength St. Louis��East St. Louis tornado hits in St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois, killing at least 255 people and causing over $10 million in damage. 1905 – Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima begins. 1915 – HMS Princess Irene explodes and sinks off Sheerness, Kent, with the loss of 352 lives. 1917 – Pope Benedict XV promulgates the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the first comprehensive codification of Catholic canon law in the legal history of the Catholic Church. 1919 – The NC-4 aircraft arrives in Lisbon after completing the first transatlantic flight. 1927 – The Ford Motor Company ceases manufacture of the Ford Model T and begins to retool plants to make the Ford Model A. 1930 – The 1,046 feet (319 m) Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opens to the public. 1933 – New Deal: The U.S. Federal Securities Act is signed into law requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission. 1935 – New Deal: The Supreme Court of the United States declares the National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional in A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, (295 U.S. 495). 1937 – In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County, California. 1940 – World War II: In the Le Paradis massacre, 99 soldiers from a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are shot after surrendering to German troops; two survive. 1941 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaims an "unlimited national emergency". 1941 – World War II: The German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic, killing almost 2,100 men. 1942 – World War II: In Operation Anthropoid, Reinhard Heydrich is fatally wounded in Prague; he dies of his injuries eight days later. 1950 – The Linnanmäki amusement park is opened for the first time in Helsinki. 1958 – First flight of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II.

[lboogie1906]

Lieutenant Walter Tull (April 28, 1888 - March 25, 1918) was an English soccer player and the first Black British Army infantry officer to die on the battlefield. He was one of the earliest professional colored players. He was born in Folkestone, Kent, England the son of a carpenter, Daniel, from Barbados and his English wife, Elizabeth.

By 1897 his parents had passed away and he and his brother Edward were sent to live in an orphanage in Bethnal Green in the heart of London’s impoverished East End. He was signed to play for Tottenham Hotspur, a first-division professional soccer team. He made twenty appearances for the side before the racist chants from both the opposing and supporting fans drove the managers of the Tottenham Hotspur side to offer him to the Northampton Town soccer team. For Northampton, he made one hundred and eleven appearances until the outbreak of the WWI.

In December 1914 he enlisted in the 17th Battalion of the Middlesex regiment. He had agreed to return to soccer at the end of the war and play for Glasgow Rangers. He rose from private to sergeant. In November 1916 he took part in the Battle of Ancre, the last futile Allied effort of the 1st Battle of the Somme. In May 1917 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Middlesex Regiment. He took part in the Battle of Messines in June 1917 on the Western Front, a prelude to the 3rd Battle of Ypres in which he took a front-line role. His division was transferred along with five other divisions to the Italian Front in December 1917 where, at the Battle of the River Piave in northern Italy, he was mentioned in dispatches and recommended for the Military Cross for a successful raid into enemy territory. The award was never given to him. He and his men were transferred back to the Western Front for the German Spring Offensive of 1918. He fought at the 2nd Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Bapaume. He was killed in action.

On July 11, 1999, Northampton Town F.C. unveiled a memorial to him. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[cromwellrex2]

The Second English Civil War, April-August 1648: ‘The more is the pity, some of those parts are miserably bent to oppose the Parliament and the Army,’

Royalist Rebellions in Wales and England

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica

THE INCREASING unpopularity of the New Model Army and the Army Council first manifested itself in what was essentially a military mutiny by unpaid troops, threatened with having their regiments disbanded by order of Parliament, in Pembrokeshire in late March 1648. The leader of what quickly became a Royalist revolt, was an unlikely enough figure. Colonel John Poyer, governor of Pembroke, had been a loyal and effective Parliamentary commander during the war, but, along with Colonel Richard Laugharne, strongly resented moves to disband the southern Welsh forces and barred the gates of Pembroke to the Parliamentary adjutant-general, Colonel Fleming, sent to execute the order. Some fighting then took place leading to the death of Fleming, possibly by suicide. With pro-Royal commoner uprisings taking place in the south of England and East Anglia, and Fairfax mobilising forces to bring the Welsh mutineers to heel, Poyer and Laugharne, perhaps feeling they had little left to lose, declared for the King. On 9th April Poyer mustered a force of 4,000 men, all wearing blue and white ribbons to demonstrate their new Royalist sympathies. Crystallising the deep dislike now felt for the New Model Army and the Independents Parliamentary faction in the country, Poyer and Laugharne soon found themselves leading a full blooded popular Royalist revolt in Wales: by the end of April, Brecon, Radnor and Monmouth were in open rebellion and Laugharne was soon in command of 8,000 men and began to march on Cardiff. The threat to south Wales galvanised Fairfax into action and he sent Cromwell to put down the rebellion with force.

The Second English Civil War differed markedly from its predecessor. The conflict of 1643-45 was characterised by regular armies facing off against each other, vying for territory and maintaining negotiations between themselves throughout. Even at its most fierce, there still remained a sincere belief amongst both Cavaliers and Roundheads that once the fighting was over, a settlement would be reached and that peace would return, albeit with new constitutional and religious arrangements in place. However, following Naseby, the complete collapse of the Royalist cause and the rise of a radicalised New Model Army to pre-eminence over Parliament, positions became entrenched. The disparate rebels now declaring for the King had come to regard Parliament and the Army as dominated by incomprehensible Puritan fanatics intent on destroying the very fabric of the Kingdom, whereas the Army were of the view that their victory over the King indicated divine favour, and those who sought to plunge the realm into war again were very literally, fighting against God. This made the second civil war a much more merciless affair, with quarter frequently not given by sides who viewed each other as morally repugnant.

Fairfax faced a war on several fronts. In addition to the Welsh revolt, rebellion also flared in Kent, where men newly converted to the Royalist cause, formed themselves into an army 10,000 strong and threatened to march on London. Meanwhile in Scotland, Hamilton’s Engager force was mustering to invade England from the north as part of its mission to rescue the King. Fairfax therefore broke up the New Model Army further, sending Colonel John Lambert into Yorkshire to defend against the Scots, while he himself remained in the capital to deal with the southern English rebellions. Meanwhile one of Cromwell’s officers, Colonel Thomas Horton, headed off Laugharne’s force at the village of St Fagans on 8th May. In a battle typical of the second civil war, Royalist enthusiasm and bravery on the part of the inexperienced volunteers was no match for the discipline and equipment of the Ironsides, and Laugharne’s men eventually broke. With the defeat of their sole field army, Royalist Welsh hopes centred on Poyer, fortified in Pembroke. Cromwell placed Pembroke under siege, and by early July, realising that Cromwell intended to storm the town, Poyer surrendered. The rebel garrison were treated leniently by the Parliamentary commander and he allowed the defeated troops to return to their homes, but Laugharne and Poyer were put on trial for their lives. Poyer was executed by firing squad and Laugharne was sent into exile. With the suppression of its leadership, the Welsh rebellion was over.

Meanwhile Henrietta Maria’s court in exile in France despatched the Earl of Norwich, a former member of the King’s household, to England to take command of Royalist insurrection there. Norwich was no great military man, but he was a charismatic individual and by 21st May, he had assumed command of the popular forces in Kent and prepared to march on London. Norwich’s strategy was to keep Fairfax distracted to enable the Scottish army to advance south and possibly to free the King from Carisbrooke. This latter aspiration was stimulated by an unexpected mutiny of the Parliamentary navy who had strongly objected to appointment of the Leveller commander Thomas Rainsborough as Vice-Admiral of the fleet. The sailors at Deal, Walmer and Sandwich rejected Rainsborough and declared for the King, placing Dover under siege and forcing the Vice-Admiral himself to seek refuge ashore. Recalling the former Lord High Admiral, the Earl of Warwick to his post, Parliament tasked him with stabilising the situation and ending the risk of the government losing control of the Channel. Warwick succeeded in persuading the key squadron at Portsmouth not to join the rebelllion on 4th June, thus preventing further spread of the naval mutiny.

Fairfax now turned his attention to the English Royalists, who, under former Royal commanders, had now occupied Maidstone, Rochester and Gravesend. After a skirmish with Norwich’s troops at Penenden Heath, Fairfax stormed Maidstone. The fighting was characterised by a street by street running battle that lasted five hours. The Royalists fought well, but ultimately Fairfax’s troops prevailed and the rebels eventually surrendered and were allowed to return to their farms. Norwich led a quixotic assault on London with 3,000 of his remaining men, perhaps hoping the citizens would rise in support, given the anti Parliamentary riots that had taken place in the capital the previous year. However, when the Earl reached Blackheath, he found the city gates closed to him. Many of his followers had deserted by now or refused to leave the familiarity of Kent. Norwich therefore slipped away with a small force of about 500 men and linked up with another Royalist commander, Sir Charles Lucas. The two combined their troops and planned to enter East Anglia where they hoped to stir up further rebellion in support of the King. However, Fairfax’s rapid pursuing march alarmed the Royalists and Lucas and Norwich occupied and fortified Colchester.

Fairfax commenced what turned out to be a brutal eleven week siege, characterised by blockade, sortie and savage fighting with no quarter given. Food ran short for the defenders and the besiegers were emiserated by constant rain and flooding in what was one of the coldest, wettest summers in English history. Lucas also turned out to be a tyrannical garrison commander. By the time the siege ended, the population of Colchester, formerly very opposed to the New Model Army who they viewed as ‘schematics’, longed for liberation from the oppressive military rule of Lucas by the very Roundhead soldiers they had professed to despise. Lucas nonetheless held firm and in the July of 1648 there were some grounds for Royalist optimism. The long awaited Scottish invasion had at last commenced; Royalists were rallying to the Earl of Holland who had raised the King’s standard in Kingston-upon-Thames, and most dramatically of all, Charles Prince of Wales had been collected by the rebellious fleet and was on his way to England.

However Holland’s attempts to raise another Royalist field army failed. He managed to recruit a mounted troop of experienced and motivated men, but they never numbered more than 500. An attempt to take Reigate Castle was unsuccessful and Holland’s force was eventually brought to battle at Surbiton Moor by the Parliamentarians and defeated and Holland was captured. At the same time the Kentish revolt had effectively fizzled out. As the summer reached its end, the situation in Colchester became desperate as hunger became starvation. Ultimately Lucas agreed to terms and the Army occupied the city on 27th August. Norwich was imprisoned, but Lucas, a veteran of Marston Moor and two other non-aristocratic Royalist officers, were sentenced to death and shot. It was a sign of how bitter and vengeful the war had become and how even the normally lenient Fairfax wished to demonstrate by example, the wrongness of the Royalist cause, that enemy commanders should be executed simply for fighting. Fairfax clearly sought to indicate that the civil war was over: any further resistance was the work of rebels resisting divine will, not enemy combatants.

The renegade fleet reached the Thames estuary but Charles Prince of Wales elected not to land. By now the Royalist cause seemed defeated everywhere once more and the hope his father’s subjects would rally now, after the failure of the uprisings was a folorn one. On 30th August a storm scattered the fleet and Charles retreated to Holland. The King meanwhile had distanced himself from the rebellions, perhaps sensing their lack of co-ordination and integrated strategy would doom them to failure. However, Charles’ faith in the Engagement remained strong. With the New Model Army now spread across the country, the King entertained high hopes that Hamilton’s forces, advancing south, could yet transform his fortunes.

[cannasue]

The Buffs on Portland; Authors and Convicts

The Buffs on Portland; Authors and Convicts

While doing my research I sometimes stumble across some real gems. I was in the midst of seeing what I could find out about the 2nd Battalion Buffs (East Kent Regiment) based at the Nothe and Verne from 1923-1926, when I came across to a link for back copies of The Dragon, the Buffs Newspaper that had been placed online and what a resource! Because they were stationed there during this period,…

[herprivateswe]

Group photograph featuring Pte. Walter Cudmore. G/26183.  7th Battalion East Kent Regiment (Buffs). 

[theworldofwars]

Men of the 1/5th Battalion of the Buffs (East Kent Regiment) passing over the Jebel Hamrin, Mesopotamia. December 1917. (Photo source - IWM Q24374)

[greatworldwar2]

• Battle of Kohima

The Battle of Kohima proved the turning point of the Japanese U-Go offensive into India in 1944 during the Second World War. The battle took place in three stages from April to June 1944 around the town of Kohima.

The Japanese plan to invade India, codenamed U-Go, was originally intended as a spoiling attack against the British IV Corps at Imphal in Manipur, to disrupt the Allied offensive plans for that year. The commander of the Japanese Fifteenth Army, Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi, enlarged the plan to invade India itself and perhaps even overthrow the British Raj. If the Japanese were able to gain a strong foothold in India they would demonstrate the weakness of the British Empire and provide encouragement to Indian nationalists in their decolonization efforts. Moreover, occupation of the area around Imphal would severely impact American efforts to supply Chiang Kai-shek's army in China. The objections of the staffs of various headquarters were eventually overcome, and the offensive was approved by Imperial General Headquarters on January 7th, 1944. Part of the plan involved sending the Japanese 31st Division (which was composed of the 58th, 124th and 138th Infantry Regiments and the 31st Mountain Artillery Regiment) to capture Kohima and thus cut off Imphal. Mutaguchi wished to exploit the capture of Kohima by pushing the 31st Division on to Dimapur, the vital railhead and logistic base in the Brahmaputra River valley. The 31st Division's commander, Lieutenant General Kotoku Sato, was unhappy with his role. He had not been involved in the planning of the offensive, and had grave misgivings about its chances. He had already told his staff that they might all starve to death. He and Mutaguchi had also been on opposite sides during the split between the Toseiha and Kodoha factions within the Japanese Army during the early 1930s, and Sato believed he had reason to distrust Mutaguchi's motives.

Starting on March 15th, 1944, the Japanese 31st Division crossed the Chindwin River near Homalin and moved north-west along jungle trails on a front almost 60 miles (97 km) wide. Because of a shortage of transport, half the artillery regiment's mountain guns and the infantry regiments' heavy weapons were left behind. Only three week's supply of food and ammunition was carried. Although the march was arduous, good progress was made. The Indian troops were the 50th Indian Parachute Brigade under Brigadier Maxwell Hope-Thompson, at Sangshak. Although they were not Miyazaki's objective, he decided to clear them from his line of advance. The Battle of Sangshak continued for six days. The parachute brigade's troops were desperately short of drinking water, but Miyazaki was handicapped by lack of artillery until near the end of the battle. Eventually, as some of the Japanese 15th Division's troops joined the battle, Hope-Thompson withdrew. The 50th Parachute Brigade lost 600 men, while the Japanese had suffered over 400 casualties. Meanwhile, the commander of the British Fourteenth Army, Lieutenant General William Slim, belatedly realised (partly from Japanese documents that had been captured at Sangshak) that a whole Japanese division was moving towards Kohima. He and his staff had originally believed that, because of the forbidding terrain in the area, the Japanese would only be able to send a regiment to take Kohima.

Kohima's strategic importance in the wider 1944 Japanese Chindwin offensive lay in that it was the summit of a pass that offered the Japanese the best route from Burma into India. Through it ran the road which was the main supply route between the base at Dimapur in the Brahmaputra River valley and Imphal, where the British and Indian troops of IV Corps (consisting of the 17th, 20th and 23rd Indian Infantry Divisions) faced the main Japanese offensive. Kohima Ridge itself runs roughly north and south. The road from Dimapur to Imphal climbs to its northern end and runs along its eastern face. In 1944, Kohima was the administrative centre of Nagaland. North of the ridge lay the densely inhabited area of Naga Village, crowned by Treasury Hill, and Church Knoll. South and west of Kohima Ridge were GPT Ridge and the jungle-covered Aradura Spur. The various British and Indian service troop encampments in the area gave their names to the features which were to be important in the battle e.g. "Field Supply Depot" became FSD Hill or merely FSD.

Before the 161st Indian Brigade arrived, the only fighting troops in the Kohima area were the newly raised 1st Battalion, the Assam Regiment and a few platoons from the 3rd (Naga Hills) Battalion of the paramilitary Assam Rifles. Late in March 161st Brigade deployed in Kohima, but Major-General Ranking ordered them back to Dimapur, as it was felt initially that Dimapur had more strategic importance. Kohima was regarded as a roadblock, while Dimapur was the railhead where the majority of Allied supplies were stored. As the right wing and centre of the Japanese 31st Division approached Jessami, 30 miles (48 km) to the east of Kohima, elements of the Assam Regiment fought delaying actions against them commencing on April 1st. Nevertheless, the men in the forward positions were soon overrun and the Assam regiment was ordered to withdraw. By the night of April 3rd, Miyazaki's troops reached the outskirts of the Naga village and began probing Kohima from the south. The next day, Ranking ordered the 161st Indian Brigade to move forward to Kohima again, but only one battalion, 4th Battalion Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Laverty, and a company of the 4th Battalion, 7th Rajput Regiment arrived in Kohima before the Japanese cut the road west of the ridge. Besides these troops from 161st Brigade, the garrison consisted of a raw battalion (the Shere Regiment) from the Royal Nepalese Army, some companies from the Burma Regiment, some of the Assam Regiment which had retired to Kohima and various detachments of convalescents and line-of-communication troops. The garrison numbered about 2,500, of which about 1,000 were non-combatants.

The siege began on April 6th. The garrison was continually shelled and mortared, in many instances by Japanese using weapons and ammunition captured at Sangshak and from other depots, and was slowly driven into a small perimeter on Garrison Hill. They had artillery support from the main body of 161st Brigade, who were themselves cut off 2 miles (3.2 km) away at Jotsoma, but, as at Sangshak, they were very short of drinking water. The water supply point was on GPT Ridge, which was captured by the Japanese on the first day of the siege. Some of its defenders were unable to retreat to other positions on the ridge and instead withdrew towards Dimapur. Some of the heaviest fighting took place at the north end of Kohima Ridge, around the Deputy Commissioner's bungalow and tennis court, in what became known as the Battle of the Tennis Court. The tennis court became a no man's land, with the Japanese and the defenders of Kohima dug in on opposite sides, so close to each other that grenades were thrown between the trenches. On the night of the 17/18th of April, the Japanese finally captured the DC's bungalow area. Other Japanese captured Kuki Picquet, cutting the garrison in two. The defenders' situation was desperate, but the Japanese did not follow up by attacking Garrison Hill as by now they were exhausted by hunger and by the fighting, and when daylight broke, troops of 161st Indian Brigade arrived to relieve the garrison. The British 2nd Division, commanded by Major General John M. L. Grover, had begun to arrive at Dimapur in early April. By April 11th, the Fourteenth Army had about the same number of troops in the area as the Japanese. The British 5th Brigade of the 2nd Division broke through Japanese roadblocks to relieve 161st Brigade in Jotsoma on April 15th. After a day's heavy fighting, the leading troops of the Brigade (1st Battalion, 1st Punjab Regiment) broke through and started to relieve the Kohima garrison. By this point, Kohima resembled a battlefield from the First World War, with smashed trees, ruined buildings and the ground covered in craters.

Under cover of darkness, the wounded (numbering 300) were brought out under fire. Although contact had been established, it took a further 24 hours to fully secure the road between Jotsoma and Kohima. During April 19th and into the early hours of April 20th, the British 6th Brigade replaced the original garrison. 6th Brigade observers were taken aback by the condition of the garrison; one battle hardened officer commentated: "They looked like aged, bloodstained scarecrows, dropping with fatigue; the only clean thing about them was their weapons, and they smelt of blood, sweat and death." Miyazaki continued to try to capture Garrison Hill, and there was heavy fighting for this position for several more nights, with high casualties on both sides. The Japanese positions on Kuki Picquet were only 50 yards (46 m) from Garrison Hill, and fighting was often hand-to-hand. On the other flank of Garrison Hill, on the night of April 26th, a British attack recaptured the clubhouse above the Deputy Commissioner's bungalow, which overlooked most of the Japanese centre. The Japanese reorganised their forces for defence. Their Left Force under Miyazaki held Kohima Ridge with four battalions. The divisional HQ under Sato himself and the Centre Force under Colonel Shiraishi held Naga Village with another four battalions. To support their attack against the Japanese position, the British had amassed thirty-eight 3.7 Inch Mountain Howitzers, forty-eight 25-pounder field guns and two 5.5-inch medium guns. The Japanese could oppose them with only seventeen light mountain guns, with very little ammunition. Nevertheless, the progress of the British counter-attack was slow. Tanks could not easily be used, and the Japanese occupied bunkers which were very deeply dug in, well-concealed and mutually supporting.

While the British 6th Brigade defended Garrison Hill, the other two brigades of 2nd Division tried to outflank both ends of the Japanese position, in Naga Village to the north and on GPT Ridge to the south. The monsoon had broken by this time and the steep slopes were covered in mud, making movement and supply very difficult. In places the British 4th Brigade had to cut steps up hillsides and build handrails in order to make progress. On May 4th, the British 5th Brigade secured a foothold in the outskirts of Naga Village but was counter-attacked and driven back. On the same day, the British 4th Brigade, having made a long flank march around Mount Pulebadze to approach Kohima Ridge from the south-west, attacked GPT Ridge in driving rain and captured part of the ridge by surprise but were unable to secure the entire ridge. Both outflanking moves having failed because of the terrain and the weather, the British 2nd Division concentrated on attacking the Japanese positions along Kohima Ridge from May 4th onwards. Fire from Japanese posts on the reverse slope of GPT Ridge repeatedly caught British troops attacking Jail Hill in the flank, inflicting heavy casualties and preventing them from capturing the hill for a week. However, the various positions were slowly taken. Jail Hill, together with Kuki Picquet, FSD and DIS, was finally captured by 33rd Indian Infantry Brigade on May 11th, after a barrage of smoke shells blinded the Japanese machine-gunners and allowed the troops to secure the hill and dig in. The last Japanese positions on the ridge to be captured were the tennis court and gardens above the Deputy Commissioner's bungalow. On May 13th, after several failed attempts to outflank or storm the position, the British finally bulldozed a track to the summit above the position, up which a tank could be dragged. A Lee tank crashed down onto the tennis court and destroyed the Japanese trenches and bunkers there. The terrain had been reduced to a fly and rat-infested wilderness, with half-buried human remains everywhere. The conditions under which the Japanese troops had lived and fought have been described by several sources, as "unspeakable".

The situation worsened for the Japanese as yet more Allied reinforcements arrived. Nevertheless, when the Allies launched another attack on May 16th, the Japanese continued to defend Naga Village and Aradura Spur tenaciously. An attack on Naga Hill on the night of May 24th gained no ground. Another attack, mounted against both ends of Aradura Spur on the night of May 28th, was even more decisively repulsed. The repeated setbacks, with exhaustion and the effects of the climate began to affect the morale of the British 2nd Division especially. The decisive factor was the Japanese lack of supplies. The Japanese 31st Division had begun the operation with only three weeks' supply of food. Once these supplies were exhausted, the Japanese had to exist on meagre captured stocks and what they could forage in increasingly hostile local villages. The Japanese had mounted two resupply missions, using captured jeeps to carry supplies forward from the Chindwin to 31st Division, but they brought mainly artillery and anti-tank ammunition, rather than food. By the middle of May, Sato's troops were starving. He considered that Mutaguchi and the HQ of Japanese Fifteenth Army were taking little notice of his situation, as they had issued several confusing and contradictory orders to him during April. On 25 May, Sato notified Fifteenth Army HQ that he would withdraw on June 1st, unless his division received supplies. Finally on the 31st of May, he abandoned Naga Village and other positions north of the road, in spite of orders from Mutaguchi to hang on to his position. Miyazaki's detachment continued to fight rearguard actions and demolish bridges along the road to Imphal, but was eventually driven off the road and forced to retreat eastwards. The remainder of the Japanese division retreated painfully south but found very little to eat, as most of what few supplies had been brought forward across the Chindwin had been consumed by other Japanese units, who were as desperately hungry as Sato's men. Many of the 31st Division were too enfeebled to drag themselves further south. During the Battle of Kohima, the British and Indian forces had lost 4,064 men, dead, missing and wounded. Against this the Japanese had lost 5,764 battle casualties in the Kohima area, and many of the 31st Division subsequently died of disease or starvation, or took their own lives. After ignoring army orders for several weeks, Sato was removed from command of Japanese 31st Division early in July. The entire Japanese offensive was broken off at the same time. After Sato was removed from command, he refused an invitation to commit seppuku and demanded a court martial to clear his name and make his complaints about Fifteenth Army HQ public. At Kawabe's prompting, Sato was declared to have suffered a mental breakdown and was unfit to stand trial. The huge losses the Japanese suffered in the Battles of Imphal and Kohima (mainly through starvation and disease) crippled their defence of Burma against Allied attacks during the following year.

[cambridge-sussex]

The Funeral of The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh took place in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, this afternoon.   The Queen, accompanied by The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, The Duke of Sussex, The Duke of York, Princess Beatrice, Mrs Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Mr Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, Princess Eugenie, Mrs Jack Brooksbank and Mr Jack Brooksbank, The Earl and Countess of Wessex, accompanied by the Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor and Viscount Severn, The Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, Mr Peter Phillips, Mr and Mrs Michael Tindall, the Earl of Snowdon, Mr Daniel and the Lady Sarah Chatto, The Duke of Gloucester, The Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra, the Hon Lady Ogilvy were present.   The Hereditary Prince of Baden, The Landgrave of Hesse, The Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and the Countess Mountbatten of Burma attended.   The Dean of Windsor conducted the Service and offered the Commendatory Prayer.   The Archbishop of Canterbury pronounced the Blessing.   Garter Principal King of Arms proclaimed The Duke of Edinburgh’s Styles and Titles.   Detachments of Her Majesty’s Body Guard of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, The Queen’s Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard, the Military Knights of Windsor, a Dismounted Detachment of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, the Royal Navy Piping Party, a Guard of Honour, found by The Rifles, and Defence Advisers from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Trinidad and Tobago were on duty outside the Chapel.   Representatives from the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Royal Fleet Auxiliary, Army and Royal Air Force lined the processional route.   Minute Guns were fired for the duration of the Procession from the East Lawn of the Castle by The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, under the command of Major Victoria Flood.

Court Circular | 17 April, 2021

[princessanneftw]

Princess Anne: the best queen we’ll never have

Discreet and dependable, she is a royal cast in her mother’s mould. No wonder many long for her to reign over us, write Roya Nikkhah and Tony Allen-Mills

Roya Nikkhah and Tony Allen-Mills for The Sunday Times

When the Princess Royal turned up at one of the charities she supports to meet a gathering of disabled and autistic children, a young girl boldly informed her: “You don’t look much like a princess.” Anne didn’t miss a beat. “Good,” she replied. “That’s very reassuring.”

There have been moments over the past half-century when the Queen’s second child didn’t behave much like a princess either. She acquired a criminal conviction after her bull terrier, Dotty, bit two children. She tried to wriggle out of a speeding fine. She once owned a Reliant Robin.

Anne was unprincesslike in other ways too. As president of Save the Children, she has toured remote corners of Africa, Asia and the Middle East. She slept on camp beds and shared a bathroom with up to eight people. She visited parts not many British royals have reached: Madagascar; Peru; Wuhan, in China. In London she travels to some engagements by Tube. In 1971 she was the BBC’s sports personality of the year.

Today, as she approaches her 70th birthday, Anne has in many ways emerged as the royal family’s most valuable member after the Queen.

Captain Sir Nick Wright, a former naval officer, was Anne’s longest-serving private secretary, retiring last year after 17 years. He has never previously spoken about the princess. Now he says her sense of humour is “marvellously wicked” and her stamina endless: “The day starts early and ends at 11pm, day in, day out. Like the Duke of Edinburgh, she’ll just go on and on.

“She is totally consistent. If I’d done something wrong, I’d get a look, which can be disarming at times, but then she would immediately move on. Now, more than ever she will be a great stabilising influence for the monarchy, and when the Prince of Wales accedes to the throne, I don’t see her role being diminished, because she is such a valued and committed member of the family.”

Amid the chaos that has engulfed the dukedoms of York and Sussex, Anne has appeared a pillar of probity, devoted to her royal duties, impervious to the fallout from successive family scandals.

Although she is now 14th in the line of succession, it is tempting to reflect, as the nation braces for a whirlwind of birthday tributes — including a fly-on-the-wall ITV documentary promising to tell the story of “a royal mould-breaker, a princess who refused to follow the script” — that Anne may come to be remembered as the best queen Britain never had.

It has been quite a turnaround for a distant, largely unknowable princess routinely described as “no-nonsense”, “brusque” or “as stiff as her hairdo”. She was the first daughter of a monarch to be sent to boarding school. One of her contemporaries at Benenden in Kent was the royal biographer Penny Junor, who later described her as “one of the rudest people I have ever come across”. Anne inherited her father’s fondness for swearing at photographers and brushing off unwanted attention, earning her the tabloid title “Princess Sourpuss”. A Sunday Times profile in 2001 mockingly described her as an “enemy of the people”, after her lawyers explained that the reason why she didn’t slow down her speeding Bentley when flashing blue lights appeared behind her was because she thought it was a royal police escort.

She was never mistaken for a “people’s princess” and her relations with her former sisters-in-law Diana, Princess of Wales and Sarah, Duchess of York were by most accounts somewhere between chilly and arctic. She was reported to have shouted during a royal Christmas party at which Diana was present: “I will not be pushed around by that brainless woman.”

Her 1973 marriage to fellow equestrian Captain Mark Phillips produced two children; long before Harry and Meghan shunned a title for their son Archie, Anne insisted that her son Peter and daughter Zara remain Mr and Miss.

“I think it was probably easier for them,” she told Vanity Fair earlier this year. “I think most people would argue there are downsides to having titles.”

Over the years there have been occasional upsets, notably in 1974 when Anne survived a kidnap attempt in central London. Some years later she was linked romantically to her Scotland Yard protection officer, who was removed from royal service in 1982 amid newspaper reports of “overfamiliarity”.

Several more rumoured romances were reported but shortly after divorcing Phillips in 1992, Anne married Commander Timothy Laurence (now a retired vice-admiral and a knight). There has been speculation in recent years that the couple have grown apart and live separate lives, but people who know them say the partnership remains watertight.

“I’ve seen them together often and they seem to me a very good team,” said the lyricist Sir Tim Rice, a long-standing friend of Anne’s. She and Laurence attended a revival of the musical Chess at the London Coliseum. “She rang me up and wanted it to be very downmarket,” said Rice. “They sat at the back, we had a sandwich at half-time and when some of the producers found out they said, ‘Why didn’t you tell us? We could have made more of a fuss.’ But that’s exactly what she doesn’t want.”

Indeed, it has been precisely the avoidance of fuss that has turned Anne into such a discreet, dependable and desirable patron for so many of the more than 300 charities, military organisations and associations that she supports.

Unlike Prince Charles, Anne rarely courts public displeasure by pronouncing on government, family or any other policy matter. At her many public engagements — she has often topped the list of busiest royals — she tends to dodge the top brass and head straight for the lower ranks, military or civilian.

As she told Vanity Fair: “It’s not just about ‘Can I get a tick in the box for doing this?’ No, it’s about serving. It comes from an example from both my parents’ way of working and where they saw their role being.”

Gareth Howells, chief executive of the Carers Trust, of which Anne is also patron, said: “At every event she goes straight to talk to the unpaid carers first. They are her priority. She doesn’t just rock up to shake hands.”

Major Tom Gibbs, the officer commanding C Squadron, King’s Royal Hussars, recalled Anne ripping up the programme when she arrived at the unit’s base in Germany shortly after it was mobilised for the Gulf War in 1991: “Instead she spent hours talking to the [soldiers’] wives to understand the impact it was going to have on them. She gives the unit what it needs, rather than what is expected.”

Colonel Jason Gunning, of the Royal Signals, another of Anne’s regiments, added: “She doesn’t seek the limelight, but she’s very good in it.”

A month after Harry and Meghan announced their departure for a new role across the pond, Anne told Vanity Fair: “I don’t think this younger generation probably understands what I was doing in the past. Nowadays, they’re much more looking for, ‘Oh, let’s do it a new way’. And I’m already at the stage [of], ‘Please do not reinvent that particular wheel. We’ve been there, done that. Some of these things don’t work. You may need to go back to basics.’ ”

All this suggests that Anne, in radically different circumstances, might have become the worthiest of successors to her mother. The Queen and her daughter are said to have become much closer of late and one royal source noted: “The feeling is that if the Duke of Edinburgh isn’t around any more, it will be the princess who is giving her mother more support and not the Duke of York, who was trying to insert himself into that role.”

Andrew is now more concerned with extracting himself from trouble. “With everything that’s been going on recently, the members of the royal family you have left are the really hard-working ones, like Anne, who just get it; who knuckle down and know ‘it’s not about us, it’s about them, the public’,” the source added.

The Princess Royal may have been a mould-breaker once, but today she has reshaped and remade herself very much in her mother’s image. All hail not-to-be Queen Anne II, the monarch Britain never knew it might need.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 5.27

1096 – Count Emicho enters Mainz, where his followers massacre Jewish citizens. At least 600 Jews are killed. 1120 – Richard III of Capua is anointed as Prince two weeks before his untimely death. 1153 – Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland. 1199 – John is crowned King of England. 1257 – Richard of Cornwall, and his wife, Sanchia of Provence, are crowned King and Queen of the Germans at Aachen Cathedral. 1644 – Manchu regent Dorgon defeats rebel leader Li Zicheng of the Shun dynasty at the Battle of Shanhai Pass, allowing the Manchus to enter and conquer the capital city of Beijing. 1703 – Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg. 1798 – The Battle of Oulart Hill takes place in Wexford, Ireland; Irish rebel leaders defeat and kill a detachment of militia. 1799 – War of the Second Coalition: Austrian forces defeat the French at Winterthur, Switzerland. 1813 – War of 1812: In Canada, American forces capture Fort George. 1860 – Giuseppe Garibaldi begins his attack on Palermo, Sicily, as part of the Italian unification. 1863 – American Civil War: First Assault on the Confederate works at the Siege of Port Hudson. 1874 – The first group of Dorsland trekkers under the leadership of Gert Alberts leaves Pretoria. 1883 – Alexander III is crowned Tsar of Russia. 1896 – The F4-strength St. Louis–East St. Louis tornado hits in St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois, killing at least 255 people and causing over $10 million in damage. 1905 – Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima begins. 1915 – HMS Princess Irene explodes and sinks off Sheerness, Kent, with the loss of 352 lives. 1917 – Pope Benedict XV promulgates the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the first comprehensive codification of Catholic canon law in the legal history of the Catholic Church. 1919 – The NC-4 aircraft arrives in Lisbon after completing the first transatlantic flight. 1927 – The Ford Motor Company ceases manufacture of the Ford Model T and begins to retool plants to make the Ford Model A. 1930 – The 1,046 feet (319 m) Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opens to the public. 1933 – New Deal: The U.S. Federal Securities Act is signed into law requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission. 1935 – New Deal: The Supreme Court of the United States declares the National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional in A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, (295 U.S. 495). 1937 – In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County, California. 1940 – World War II: In the Le Paradis massacre, 99 soldiers from a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are shot after surrendering to German troops; two survive. 1941 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaims an "unlimited national emergency". 1941 – World War II: The German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic, killing almost 2,100 men. 1942 – World War II: In Operation Anthropoid, Reinhard Heydrich is fatally wounded in Prague; he dies of his injuries eight days later. 1950 – The Linnanmäki amusement park is opened for the first time in Helsinki. 1958 – First flight of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. 1960 – In Turkey, a military coup removes President Celâl Bayar and the rest of the democratic government from office. 1962 – The Centralia mine fire is ignited in the town's landfill above a coal mine. 1965 – Vietnam War: American warships begin the first bombardment of National Liberation Front targets within South Vietnam. 1967 – Australians vote in favor of a constitutional referendum granting the Australian government the power to make laws to benefit Indigenous Australians and to count them in the national census. 1967 – The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy is launched by Jacqueline Kennedy and her daughter Caroline. 1971 – The Dahlerau train disaster, the worst railway accident in West Germany, kills 46 people and injures 25 near Wuppertal. 1977 – A plane crash at José Martí International Airport in Havana, Cuba, kills 67. 1971 – Pakistani forces massacre over 200 civilians, mostly Bengali Hindus, in the Bagbati massacre. 1975 – Dibbles Bridge coach crash near Grassington, in North Yorkshire, England, kills 33 – the highest ever death toll in a road accident in the United Kingdom. 1980 – The Gwangju Massacre: Airborne and army troops of South Korea retake the city of Gwangju from civil militias, killing at least 207 and possibly many more. 1984 – The Danube–Black Sea Canal is opened, in a ceremony attended by the Ceaușescus. It had been under construction since the 1950s. 1988 – Somaliland War of Independence: Somali National Movement launches a major offensive against Somali government forces in Hargeisa and Burao, then second and third largest cities of Somalia. 1996 – First Chechen War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire. 1997 – The 1997 Central Texas tornado outbreak occurs, spawning multiple tornadoes in Central Texas, including the F5 that killed 27 in Jarrell. 1998 – Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier is sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot. 2001 – Members of the Islamist separatist group Abu Sayyaf seize twenty hostages from an affluent island resort on Palawan in the Philippines; the hostage crisis would not be resolved until June 2002. 2006 – The 6.4 Mw  Yogyakarta earthquake shakes central Java with an MSK intensity of VIII (Damaging), leaving more than 5,700 dead and 37,000 injured. 2016 – Barack Obama is the first president of United States to visit Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and meet Hibakusha. 2017 – Andrew Scheer takes over after Rona Ambrose as the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. 2018 – Maryland Flood Event: A flood occurs throughout the Patapsco Valley, causing one death, destroying the entire first floors of buildings on Main Street in Ellicott City, and causing cars to overturn.