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xtruss · 2 years

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How India’s New Bridge to Kashmir Divided a Region

An expensive infrastructure project will bring economic benefits, but Kashmiris fear it will mean more military domination and demographic change.

— January 29, 2023 | By Junaid Kathju, A Kashmir-based Freelance Journalist.

Clouds fill the Chenab Valley beneath the world’s highest railway bridge in northern Jammu and Kashmir on Aug. 30, 2022. Aakash Hassan For Foreign Policy

REASI, Occupied Jammu and Kashmir — Soon the world’s highest railway bridge will open in India’s northernmost state, connecting the Himalayan region of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the country—75 years after independence.

Until now, there was only one treacherous road, National Highway 44, that connected the isolated Kashmir Valley with the rest of India. The railway link, however, is considered a game-changer that will bring economic prosperity to the region and give Indian troops year-round overland access to the valley as well as the Chinese border region beyond it—areas that otherwise remain cut off for most of the winter.

In the absence of reliable surface transport, crossing the rugged terrain of Kashmir in winter was a daunting task for Indian troops. On many occasions, convoys of Indian soldiers have been stranded on the highway after inclement weather caused landslides. Moreover, the opening of a rail link would reduce the government’s expenditures, as transporting logistics to the Indian Army would be much cheaper in comparison to the aerial route, which is currently the only option available in winter.

However, rather than being a “symbol of prosperity”—as envisioned by the Indian government—many Kashmiris are skeptical about the purpose of the bridge’s construction given the disputed status of Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

Kashmir, which is one of the most militarized places in the world, is the focus of a United Nations-recognized territorial dispute between India and Pakistan. In 1947, when India was divided along religious lines after the British withdrew from the country, Kashmir was separated into two parts, with India controlling approximately 55 percent of the total land while Pakistan held 30 percent and China controlled the remaining 15 percent from the northeast side of the Ladakh region.

An Indian engineer gives instructions to a cable crane operator at the construction site for the Chenab railway bridge in northern Jammu and Kashmir on March 4, 2015. Rakesh Bakshi/AFP Via Getty Images

The project, announced in 2002 by then-Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was declared a matter of “national importance,” aimed at accelerating the region’s socioeconomic development, promoting national integration, and (more importantly) strengthening India’s “security infrastructure.”

Constructed at the whopping cost of 14.86 billion Indian rupees (around $182.4 million), the rail bridge is a part of the 69-mile Banihal-Katra railway link in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir. The nearly 1-mile-long bridge, which is being built at a height of almost 1,200 feet, is around 114 feet taller than the Eiffel Tower. Once completed, it will be the tallest rail bridge in the world.

The bridge is being built by Mumbai-based infrastructure firm Afcons Infrastructure and Konkan Railway Corporation.

Rashmi Ranjan Mallick, deputy chief engineer of the project, told Foreign Policy that building the bridge was the toughest job Konkan Railway has ever carried out, and it took around 2,200 people to complete the task.

“Building the bridge was the most difficult mission. We had to face a lot of hurdles in terms of the harsh climate and topography,” Mallick said.

Mallick said the bridge weighs about 30,000 metric tons (or around 66 million pounds).

“The hardest part is done. Currently, we are laying the railway tracks to connect the bridge with the nearest stations,” he added.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the completion of the final arch of the bridge last year. On Twitter, Modi wrote: “Indians’ capability and confidence are today presenting an example to the world. This construction work not only shows India’s increasing strength in modern engineering and technology but also is an example of the country’s changed work culture.”

Top: Indian laborers work inside a tunnel in northern Jammu and Kashmir on March 4, 2015, to link the existing railway tracks with the new railway bridge over the Chenab River. Rakesh Bakshi/AFP Via Getty Images Bottom: Trucks dot a mountainside in the Himalayas as they work to construct the Chenab bridge in northern Jammu and Kashmir on July 5, 2014. Prakash Singh/AFP Via Getty Images

For the Indian state, the bridge is an engineering marvel; for the majority of Kashmiris, it is a pathway for India to cement its grip over the Himalayan region.

The apprehension of Kashmiris increased after August 2019, when the Modi government unilaterally stripped the state of Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomous status and brought it directly under the central government’s control. In the past three-and-a-half years, New Delhi has implemented several proposals, including the settlement of non-Kashmiris in the valley, which many people see as an effort to transform India’s only Muslim-dominated region into one with a Hindu majority.

According to one of the new laws, anyone who has resided in Kashmir for 15 years or has studied in the territory for seven years and has passed certain examinations will get residency rights and become eligible for government jobs.

Since the new laws came into effect, some Kashmiris are now drawing parallels between Kashmir and Palestine, fearing that India is replicating what they call the “Israeli model of occupation” by bringing Hindus from other states of India to settle in the valley.

Anuradha Bhasin, executive editor of a local English newspaper in Kashmir and author of A Dismantled State: The Untold Story of Kashmir After Article 370, argues that the new laws implemented in Kashmir provide “a pathway … for replicating the Israeli model of occupation and colonisation of the West Bank in Kashmir towards disempowerment and dispossession of the locals, particularly Kashmiri Muslims, to exercise hegemonic control through new settlers.”

Fearful of losing their homeland, Kashmiris tend not to see the railway link in isolation. There is a general perception that instead of bringing economic prosperity to the region, India is prioritizing the railway link so it will be easy for its army to have all-weather connectivity with Kashmir, which, Kashmiris believe, is part of a larger effort to permanently transform the region’s demographics.

For the Indian military, facing an ongoing border dispute with China that has flared recently in eastern Ladakh, seeking efficient land connectivity with the region is essential to supply arms and ammunition to both Ladakh—near the Chinese border—and the valley.

Retired Maj. Gen. S.P. Sinha told Foreign Policy that the bridge holds “great strategic significance” for the mobility of Indian troops and artillery from the rest of India to Kashmir and the Ladakh region.

“Road connectivity has always been an issue for the army to travel to Kashmir during winters. Once the railway starts, it will be more convenient for the Indian troops to commute to Kashmir and Ladakh,” Sinha said.

Apart from taking all the safety measures common to bridges, such as building for earthquake-proofing and wind resistance, the construction companies have also prepared for militant attacks, ensuring that the pillars of the bridge are not vulnerable to explosions. The pillars are made of special thick, blast-proof steel and can absorb TNT blasts. “Given the significance of this bridge, we are leaving no loose ends. We have built the bridge keeping in mind all the aspects, including its strength to withstand any blast,” Mallick said.

Sinha added that having all-weather connectivity to the northern region would prove detrimental for what he called “Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism in Kashmir,” adding, “Having 365 days of connectivity with the valley will be a big advantage for us to face any threat from the neighboring country.”

China is also becoming a major concern. In addition to working on the railway project, the Indian government is also rushing to complete another important project—the Zoji La tunnel near snowbound Sonmarg in central Kashmir. The roughly 8-mile-long, two-lane tunnel would provide all-weather connectivity between Kashmir and Ladakh near India’s border with China.

Sinha, who served in Ladakh during his tenure in the army, said the Zoji La tunnel is as important as the railway project because of China’s presence on the disputed border.

“The railway will connect Jammu with Kashmir, and the tunnel will connect Kashmir with Ladakh. So both the projects have tremendous significance to see defense forces moving up to China in the north,” he said.

A goat is seen at a viewpoint overlooking the new Chenab bridge in northern Jammu and Kashmir on Aug. 30, 2022. Aakash Hassan For Foreign Policy

Sinha said apart from having more travel options, railway connectivity would also cut costs for the military.

“During my service, we were using an IL-76 airplane for transporting logistics for the army in winters,” Sinha said. “It was costlier than the supply we used to receive via road during summer season. So the railway connection will also save a lot of money to the government as well.”

Contrary to Sinha’s assertions, Sheikh Showkat Hussain, a political analyst and prominent scholar of human rights and international law, said the new rail bridge is akin to the Banihal Qazigund Road Tunnel (the current national highway) that India constructed for year-round surface transport between 1954 and 1956 to get easy access into Kashmir from the rest of India.

“Before the construction of the tunnel, India adopted a very mild approach towards the Kashmir dispute,” Hussain noted, explaining that India initially sought “to resolve the issue through U.N.-passed resolutions. But once the tunnel was constructed and they were able to move their army and artillery freely, their behavior changed.”

Hussain contends that after strengthening its grip over Kashmir and Ladakh after the opening of the Banihal Qazigund Road Tunnel, India violated all international norms and declared Kashmir an “integral part” of its territory.

“I think the opening of the railway link is an extension of that grip that India holds over Kashmir and Ladakh,” he added. “And with the China-India faceoff at the Ladakh border at the pinnacle, the opening of the railway link will provide some relief for the Indian Army in terms of mobility.”

Other residents were blunter: “[Kashmiris] know why the government of India has put so much effort and money into this railway project,” said Irfan, a University of Kashmir student studying political science, who wished to use only his first name, fearing reprisals. “They only want to provide a safe corridor for its army and people to come to Kashmir and ascertain its power over us.”

Indian workers clear a path at the bridge construction site overlooking the Chenab Valley in northern Jammu and Kashmir on July 5, 2014. Prakash Singh/AFP Via Getty Images

Near the construction site, locals in the Reasi district—which is predominantly Hindu—told Foreign Policy that the rail link is going to bring prosperity and better connectivity for their hilly region.

Rajinder Kumar—an assistant professor of psychology in Government General Zorawar Singh Memorial Degree College, Reasi—said the bridge will contribute to the region’s economic development and help provide better transportation accessibility.

“The railway project has given employment opportunities to many youth in the district while many people have opened shops near the site to earn their livelihood,” Kumar said. “However, that being a hilly area, the construction of railway has disturbed the ecological balance in the district.”

Sunil Kumar, a local resident who works with Afcons Infrastructure as a designer on the project, said the area is already turning into a tourist spot since the completion of the bridge.

“People from across the country are visiting the place to see the highest railway bridge in the world. It has given a real boost to the tourism sector of Reasi,” said Kumar, who has been associated with the project since 2015.

As the opening of the bridge approaches, the Jammu and Kashmir region remains divided. Although much of the population in Jammu sees the project as a pathway to prosperity and there is no doubt that the railway line will also provide easier transport links for the people of Kashmir to travel outside the valley—especially for apple growers to ferry their produce to big Indian markets on time—decades of distrust between Kashmir and New Delhi have left Kashmiris cynical about the real purpose of this railway line. Rather than an engine of economic growth, they see the development as yet another method for India to strengthen its control over the disputed region.

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aurora-dioramas · 2 years

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Colonial Era French and Indian War Fort William Henry (10mm Resin Model)

Colonial Era French and Indian War Fort William Henry (10mm Resin Model) Era: The Colonial Era History: Fort William Henry was a British fort at the southern end of Lake George, in the province of New York. The fort's construction was ordered by Sir William Johnson in September 1755, during the French and Indian War, as a staging ground for attacks against the French position at Fort St. Frédéric. It was part of a chain of British and French forts along the important inland waterway from New York City to Montreal, and occupied a key forward location on the frontier between New York and New France. In 1757, the French general Louis-Joseph de Montcalm conducted a successful siege that forced the British to surrender. The Huron warriors who accompanied the French army subsequently killed many of the British prisoners. The siege and massacre were famously portrayed in James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Last of the Mohicans. The fort was named for both Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, the younger son of King George II, and Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, a grandson of King George II and a younger brother of the future King George III. After the 1757 siege, the French destroyed the fort and withdrew. While other forts were built nearby in later years, the site of Fort William Henry lay abandoned for two centuries. In the 19th century, the ruins of the fort became a destination for tourists. Interest in the history of the site revived in the 1950s, and a replica of the fort was constructed. It is now operated as a living museum and a popular tourist attraction in the village of Lake George. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_William_Henry Description: This 3D Printed model represents an historically accurate facsimile at a scale that one can use for diorama making, model train railroad scenery, war gaming terrain, or creative projects. Quality: Before selling a 3D print, we make a series of test prints at different model scales to ensure quality, and print reliability. In addition, we print each 3D model using the same resin or PLA plastic brand every time for consistent and repeatable results. Scale: 10mm figure height (1:160 scale) Product Type: This is an Assembled 3D Printed Model. This Assembled 3D Printed model comes unpainted for you to customize and integrate into your wargame tables, model railroad displays or other artistic and creative projects. License: This 3D Printed Model was designed by 3D-Print-Terrain (www.3dprintterrain.de) all rights reserved. Read the full article

#3Dprintedmodels #dioramamodels #wargamemodels

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toursandjourneyworld · 2 years

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Gangtok- Capital City of Sikkim - Tours And Journeys

Gangtok- Capital City of Sikkim:

Gangtok- the capital city of Sikkim, is one of India’s most attractive hill destinations, being incredibly appealing, refreshingly lively, and cloud-wrapped. The city, which is at a height of 1650 meters above sea level, offers amazing views of Mt. Kanchenjunga on clear days. Gangtok is in East Sikkim. It is without a doubt one of the most picturesque hill stations in the country. Gangtok is a living and active slice of northeast beauty, with just the perfect mix of everything from a fusion of ethnic identities to urbanization.

Sikkim arose as a sovereign state against the backdrop of Tibetan and Bhutanese assaults, during which time the kingdom had varied degrees of freedom. Sikkim was an autonomous country until 1975, when it united with India following a decisive poll.

During the peak season, temperatures range between 11-24°C. This takes place between March and April. With bright sky and weather allowing you to see the snow-covered mountains, this time of year is ideal for sightseeing and adventure sports.

Sikkim is a unique mix of many cultures’ customs, religions, and traditions. Sikkim has been occupied by three tribes from ancient times: the Lepchas, the Bhutias, and the Nepalese. Even now, they continue to shape the people’s community and culture in Sikkim.

MG Road, Gangtok’s major street, is a fantastic spot to hang out during the day and a main market area. Festivals are an important aspect of Gangtok’s culture and heritage because it is the capital city of Sikkim. Popular celebratrions of Gangtok includes Saga Dawa, Phang Lhabsol, Dashain, Flower Festival, Gangtok- the capital city of Sikkim Food and Culture Festival, Diwali, Losar, and Makar Sankranti.

Gangtok has an aura of mystique, with its twinkling and starry lights as dusk comes to dawn.The charm of this small hamlet is only amplified by abundant rainfalls and hazy mornings. Gangtok is a popular destination for hikers and campers heading to the Himalayan mountain ranges. People have begun to visit the North-Eastern states in search of thrills, adventure, serenity, and other things. Gangtok Tourism is significant for the Northeast area because of its natural beauty, cuisines, gastronomy, and cultural variety.

How to Reach Gangtok Capital City of Sikkim:

By Air

The nearest airport to Gangtok is Bagdogra Airport, West Bengal. Bagdogra and Gangtok- the capital city of Sikkim are approximately 124 km apart. One can also use the Sikkim Tourism Development Corporation’s helicopter services, which fly daily from Bagdogra to Gangtok and take around 20 minutes to reach.

By Rail

The nearest railways are at New Jalpaiguri, which is 117 km away from Gangtok. The railway station is well connected to both big and minor cities in the nation. One can hire private taxis from here.

By Road

Gangtok is well connected by road to Siliguri, Darjeeling, and Kalimpong through National Highway 31A. There are several frequent Sikkim state transport buses that run between Gangtok and Siliguri. Private buses, jeeps, and taxis are also available from Siliguri and Bagdogra.

Places to visit in Gangtok

Nathu La

Nathu La, one of the world’s highest motorable routes over a mountain pass in the Himalayan ranges. It is 56 km from Gangtok- the capital city of Sikkim and 14450 feet above sea level on the Indo-Tibetan border. Nathu La Pass, located on the Old Silk Route, connects Sikkim to China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. Only Indian nationals are granted a valid permission to access Nathu La Pass. The permission is obtained by submitting an application to the Tourism and Civil Aviation Department. This is possible with the assistance of a licensed travel agent.

Baba Mandir

Baba Mandir is a shrine established near Harbhajan Singh’s Samadhi, located 64 km from Nathu La and Jelepla Pass at an elevation of 4000 m. The old one was constructed on the location of the bunker where Baba Harbhajan served in the Indian Army. The new one was erected in close proximity to Changu Lake. Though the temple is located on the side of a road, it is surrounded by stunning mountains, providing travelers with a spectacular sight.

Lake Tsmogo

It is locally known as the Changu Lake. Tsomgo Lake in East Sikkim is the most visited lake in Sikkim. Tsomgo Lake, located 35 km from Gangtok- the capital city of Sikkim and at an elevation of 12,000 feet, is a must-see for any visitor. The lake is surrounded by high and rough mountain terrain and is covered with snow from early winter until late April. Tsomgo, associated with several tales and mythology, is treasured as a sacred lake by the people of Sikkim. The lake location also offers a variety of food stalls providing snacks and beverages, as well as rides on colorfully adorned yaks and mules.

Gonjang Gumpa

Gonjang Monastery is around km far from the city of Gangtok. It is located at an elevation of 6066 feet. Monastic education, Tibetan language, and English are all taught to monk pupils here. The monastery educates its students via close and comparative study of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy focused on moral ideals. The Dalai Lama blessed the monastery, and its proximity to Gangtok makes it a popular destination for those looking to visit a monastery close to town.

Bakthang Falls

Bakthang is a beautiful waterfall on the North Sikkim Highway in Gangtok, about 5 km from the Gangtok SNT Bus Station. It is one of the most beautiful spots to visit in Gangtok and one of the most popular waterfalls in Gangtok, located near Tashi View Point. A tranquil waterfall runs down the rock, creating a tiny pool below. It is situated on the 31A National Highway, which connects to North Sikkim. Some adventurers can even try rappelling down the cliff on a fixed rope, which is organized by the area’s tourist committee.

Lhasa Falls

Lhasa Falls is 1 km from Tashi Point, one of Gangtok’s most popular tourist attractions in Sikkim. Lhasa Falls is a tiny waterfall that runs down the mountain and may be seen on the side of the road when travelling from Tashi View Point. There are large rocks which visitors generally climb in order to take beautiful shots and enjoy the environment. It is a must-see attraction for anybody travelling with family or friends.

Rumtek Monastary

Rumtek Monastery is a wonderful Tibetan Buddhist monastery located 24 km from Gangtok. It was constructed to aid in the spreading of Buddha’s teachings throughout the world. The Dharma Chakra Centre monastery is surrounded by verdant, quiet, and serene hills. After Dharamshala and Tawang, it is one of India’s most respected monasteries. Monks assemble at the Rumtek Monastery’s courtyard. The Sanctum within it houses the Golden Stupa as well as portraits and sculptures of Lord Buddha.

Tashi View Point

Tashi Viewpoint, located 8 km from centre Gangtok, is a beautiful wonder from where visitors may obtain a glimpse of the spectacular Mount Sinilochu and Mount Kanchenjunga. Tashi Namgyal, the ruler of Sikkim from 1914 until 1963, erected it, and it is named after him. Tashi Viewpoint is located in an ideal location and offers a stunning view of the snow-capped Himalayas. You may also enjoy breathtaking views of Labrang Monastery and Phodong Monastery, both of which are located close the Tashi View Point.

Kupup Lake

Kupup Lake, a high-altitude lake shaped like an elephant, is one of Gangtok’s highlights and a Silk Route stop. It is also known as the Elephant Lake and is located at a height of 13,066 feet on the way to the Jelep la Pass, which connects India and China. The right side of the lake resembles an elephant’s trunk, while the left mimics the animal’s tail. Locals refer to the lake as Bitan Cho. A beautiful valley surrounds the lake, and the little settlement of Kupup is the closest feature to the lake.

Ganesh Tok

Ganesh Tok is a tiny Ganesh Temple located 7 km from Gangtok at an elevation of 6500 metres. A panoramic view of Gangtok, the Raj Bhavan complex, and Mount Kanchenjunga can be viewed from here, and it is a stunning sight. Ganesh Tok is surrounded by hills, terrain, and stunning mountains. It is so congested that worshippers are forced to worship Lord Ganesha on all fours. However, the temple (dedicated to Lord Ganesh) is so small that it can only accommodate one person at a time. With its exotic surroundings and soothing atmosphere, the exquisite location brings you closer to nature.

Namgyal Institute of Tibetology

Namgyal Institute of Tibetology is a significant Tibetan institute dedicated to the promotion and advancement of Tibetan language, art, religion, and culture. Its structure has traditional Tibetan architecture set among lush greenery, making it a spectacular sight for tourists. The Tibetan library on the first level houses one of the world’s greatest collections of Tibetan documents and literature. On the ground level, there is a museum with a rare collection of sculptures, coins, masks, thangkas, Tibetan art work & items, and antique texts donated by renowned monks and monarchs.

Gangtok Ropeway

Gangtok Ropeway offers a stunning bird’s eye view of the valley below and is regarded as one of the most fascinating things to do in Gangtok. The twin cable zig zag ropeway, which opened in 2003, can carry up to 24 passengers and spans a distance of 2 km back and forth. The ropeway’s starting location is Deorali Bazar, which is located in the middle of the city and is easily accessible to most people. It was built in 2003 and links to the Tashiling Secretariat via the Sikkim Legislative Assembly.

Do-drul Chorten

Trulshik Rinpoche, a disciple of the 14th Dalai Lama, erected the Do Drul Chorten, a massive stupa near Gangtok, in 1946. The stupa is surrounded by 108 prayer wheels with sacred mantras inscribed on them. Inside, some precious religious Kangyur writings and artifacts related with Dorje Phurba have been meticulously preserved. Do Drul Chorten is home to a dharma preaching centre founded by Dodhrubchen Rinpoche. Chorten Lakhang, which houses two massive sculptures of Guru Padmasambhava, surrounds the stupa. This is a charming small spot for anyone looking for peace and quiet among the hills.

Himalayan Zoological Park

Himalayan Zoological Park, Sikkim’s first zoo, allows visitors to learn about the region’s biodiversity. The zoo, which is home to Snow Leopards, Himalayan Palm Civets, Red Pandas, and Himalayan Black Bears, is unlike others in the country. Animals are maintained in open enclosures in natural habitats rather than cages, making the entire experience more enjoyable. The zoo, which is located at an elevation of 1,780 metres, also provides spectacular views of Mount Kanchenjunga.

Flower Exhibition Center

The Flower Exhibition Center is a short walk from MG Road and features a wide range of flowers from all across Sikkim. The exposition centre is a haven for nature enthusiasts all year, mainly during the annual flower show, which takes place from April to May. The exhibition centre, which is home to many rare and uncommon plant species, provides a nice diversion from the hustle-bustle of the busy town.

Gangtok is a living and vibrant piece of northeast beauty, with just the perfect mix of everything from a fusion of ethnic identities to urbanization. With a plethora of tourist activities and attractions, your Gangtok vacation will provide a whole bundle of energy and enjoyment.

#best offbeat destinations in sikkim #best time to visit west sikkim #east sikkim #gangtok #lakes in sikkim #sikkim tourism

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anuragsinghs-blog · 4 years

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India-China standoff: core commander-level talks to be held in Chinese on Monday: sources

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India-China Standoff: China admitted to the Galvan Valley that Chinese soldiers were also killed. India-China Border tension: The talks are expected to focus on the implementation of the agreement between the foreign ministers of India and China in…

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mankujatt · 4 years

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Indian Army Occupies More Heights Around Ladakh Lake

#Indian Army Occupies More Heights Around Ladakh Lake Indian Army occupies more heights around Ladakh

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sachwlang · 4 years

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Ladakh standoff: Indian army beats China in occupying strategic height near Pangong lake southern bank

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Ladakh standoff: Indian army beats China in occupying strategic height near Pangong lake southern bank

Indian Army on Monday occupied the height on the southern bank of Pangong Tso, which can give advantage to the side which holds it for controlling the areas around. Sources told news agency ANI that a special operations battalion was recently inducted into the…

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#Army #Bank #Beats #China #height #Indian #Ladakh #Lake #occupying #Pangong #southern #standoff #strategic

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greatworldwar2 · 3 years

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• IJN Aircraft Carrier Hiryū

Hiryū (飛龍, "Flying Dragon") was an aircraft carrier built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the 1930s. Generally regarded as the only ship of her class, she was built to a modified Sōryū design.

Hiryū was one of two large carriers approved for construction under the 1931–32 Supplementary Program. Originally designed as the sister ship of Sōryū, her design was enlarged and modified in light of the Tomozuru and Fourth Fleet Incidents in 1934–1935 that revealed many IJN ships were top-heavy, unstable and structurally weak. Her forecastle was raised and her hull strengthened. Other changes involved increasing her beam, displacement, and armor protection. The ship had a length of 227.4 meters (746 ft 1 in) overall, a beam of 22.3 meters (73 ft 2 in) and a draft of 7.8 meters (25 ft 7 in). She displaced 17,600 metric tons (17,300 long tons) at standard load and 20,570 metric tons (20,250 long tons) at normal load. Her crew consisted of 1,100 officers and enlisted men. Hiryū was fitted with four geared steam turbine sets with a total of 153,000 shaft horsepower (114,000 kW). Hiryū carried 4,500 metric tons (4,400 long tons) of fuel oil which gave her a range of 10,330 nautical miles (19,130 km; 11,890 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). The boiler uptakes were trunked to the ship's starboard side amidships and exhausted just below flight deck level through two funnels curved downward.

The carrier's 216.9-meter (711 ft 7 in) flight deck was 27 meters (88 ft 6 in) wide and overhung her superstructure at both ends, supported by pairs of pillars. Hiryū was one of only two carriers ever built whose island was on the port side of the ship (Akagi was the other). It was also positioned further to the rear and encroached on the width of the flight deck, unlike Sōryū. The flight deck was only 12.8 meters (42 ft) above the waterline and the ship's designers kept this figure low by reducing the height of the hangars. The upper hangar was 171.3 by 18.3 meters (562 by 60 ft) and had an approximate height of 4.6 meters (15 ft); the lower was 142.3 by 18.3 meters (467 by 60 ft) and had an approximate height of 4.3 meters (14 ft). Together they had an approximate total area of 5,736 square meters (61,740 sq ft). This caused problems in handling aircraft because the wings of a Nakajima B5N "Kate" torpedo bomber could neither be spread nor folded in the upper hangar. Aircraft were transported between the hangars and the flight deck by three elevators, the forward one abreast the island on the centerline and the other two offset to starboard.

Hiryū's primary anti-aircraft (AA) armament consisted of six twin-gun mounts equipped with 12.7-centimeter Type 89 dual-purpose guns mounted on projecting sponsons, three on either side of the carrier's hull. When firing at surface targets, the guns had a range of 14,700 meters (16,100 yd); they had a maximum ceiling of 9,440 meters (30,970 ft) at their maximum elevation of +90 degrees. Their maximum rate of fire was 14 rounds a minute, but their sustained rate of fire was approximately eight rounds per minute. The ship was equipped with two Type 94 fire-control directors to control the 12.7-centimeter (5.0 in) guns, one for each side of the ship; the starboard-side director was on top of the island and the other director was positioned below flight deck level on the port side. The ship's light AA armament consisted of seven triple and five twin-gun mounts for license-built Hotchkiss 25 mm Type 96 AA guns. Two of the triple mounts were sited on a platform just below the forward end of the flight deck. Hiryū had a waterline belt with a maximum thickness of 150 millimeters (5.9 in) over the magazines that reduced to 90 millimeters (3.5 in) over the machinery spaces and the gas storage tanks. It was backed by an internal anti-splinter bulkhead. The ship's deck was 25 millimeters (0.98 in) thick over the machinery spaces and 55 millimeters (2.2 in) thick over the magazines and gas storage tanks.

Following the Japanese ship-naming conventions for aircraft carriers, Hiryū was named "Flying Dragon". The ship was laid down at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on July 8th, 1936, launched on November 16th, 1937 and commissioned on July 5th, 1939. She was assigned to the Second Carrier Division on November 15th. In September 1940, the ship's air group was transferred to Hainan Island to support the Japanese invasion of French Indochina. In February 1941, Hiryū supported the blockade of Southern China. Two months later, the 2nd Carrier Division, commanded by Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi, was assigned to the First Air Fleet, or Kido Butai, on April 10th. Hiryū returned to Japan on August 7th and began a short refit that was completed on September 15th. She became flagship of the Second Division from September 22nd to October 26th while Sōryū was refitting. In November 1941, the IJN's Combined Fleet, commanded by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, prepared to participate in Japan's initiation of a formal war with the United States by conducting a preemptive strike against the United States Navy's Pacific Fleet base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On November 22nd, Hiryū, commanded by Captain Tomeo Kaku, and the rest of the Kido Butai, under Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo and including six fleet carriers from the First, Second, and Fifth Carrier Divisions, assembled in Hitokappu Bay at Etorofu Island. The fleet departed Etorofu, and followed a course across the north-central Pacific to avoid commercial shipping lanes. Now the flagship of the Second Carrier Division, the ship embarked 21 Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters, 18 Aichi D3A "Val" dive bombers, and 18 Nakajima B5N "Kate" torpedo bombers. From a position 230 nmi (430 km; 260 mi) north of Oahu, Hiryū and the other five carriers launched two waves of aircraft on the morning of December 7th, 1941 Hawaiian time. In the first wave, 8 B5N torpedo bombers were supposed to attack the aircraft carriers that normally berthed on the northwest side of Ford Island, but none were in Pearl Harbor that day; 4 of the B5N pilots diverted to their secondary target, ships berthed alongside "1010 Pier" where the fleet flagship was usually moored. That ship, the battleship Pennsylvania, was in drydock and its position was occupied by the light cruiser Helena and the minelayer Oglala; all four torpedoes missed. The other four pilots attacked the battleships West Virginia and Oklahoma. The remaining 10 B5Ns were tasked to drop 800-kilogram (1,800 lb) armor-piercing bombs on the battleships berthed on the southeast side of Ford Island ("Battleship Row") and may have scored one or two hits on them, in addition to causing a magazine explosion aboard the battleship Arizona that sank her with heavy loss of life. The second wave consisted of 9 Zeros and 18 D3As, They strafed the airfield, and shot down two Curtiss P-40 fighters attempting to take off when the Zeros arrived and a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber that had earlier diverted from Hickam Army Airfield, and also destroyed a Stinson O-49 observation aircraft on the ground for the loss of one of their own. The D3As attacked various ships in Pearl Harbor, but it is not possible to identify which aircraft attacked which ship.

While returning to Japan after the attack, Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo, commander of the First Air Fleet, ordered that Sōryū and Hiryū be detached on December 16th to attack the defenders of Wake Island who had already defeated the first Japanese attack on the island. The two carriers reached the vicinity of the island on December 21st and launched 29 D3As and 2 B5Ns, escorted by 18 Zeros, to attack ground targets. They encountered no aerial opposition and launched 35 B5Ns and 6 A6M Zeros the following day. The carriers arrived at Kure on 29 December. They were assigned to the Southern Force on January 8th, 1942 and departed four days later for the Dutch East Indies. The ships supported the invasion of the Palau Islands and the Battle of Ambon, attacking Allied positions on the island on January 23rd with 54 aircraft. Four days later the carriers detached 18 Zeros and 9 D3As to operate from land bases in support of Japanese operations in the Battle of Borneo. Hiryū and Sōryū arrived at Palau on January 28th and waited for the arrival of the carriers Kaga and Akagi. All four carriers departed Palau on February 15th and launched air strikes against Darwin, Australia, four days later. Hiryū contributed 18 B5Ns, 18 D3As, and 9 Zeros to the attack. Her aircraft attacked the ships in port and its facilities, sinking or setting on fire three ships and damaging two others. Hiryū and the other carriers arrived at Staring Bay on Celebes Island on February 21st to resupply and rest before departing four days later to support the invasion of Java. On March 1st, 1942, the ship's D3As damaged the destroyer USS Edsall badly enough for her to be caught and sunk by Japanese cruisers. Later that day the dive bombers sank the oil tanker USS Pecos. Two days later, they attacked Christmas Island and Hiryū's aircraft sank the Dutch freighter Poelau Bras before returning to Staring Bay on March 11th to resupply and train for the impending Indian Ocean raid.

On March 26th, the five carriers of the First Air Fleet departed from Staring Bay; they were spotted by a Catalina about 350 nautical miles (650 km; 400 mi) southeast of Ceylon on the morning of April 4th. Six of Hiryū's Zeros were on Combat Air Patrol (CAP) and helped to shoot it down. Hiryū contributed 18 B5Ns and 9 Zeros to the force; the latter encountered a flight of 6 Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers from 788 Naval Air Squadron en route and shot them all down without loss. The Japanese aircraft encountered defending Hawker Hurricane fighters from Nos. 30 and 258 Squadrons RAF over Ratmalana airfield and Hiryū's fighters claimed to have shot down 11 with 3 Zeros damaged, although the fighters from the other carriers also made claims. On the morning of April 9th, Hiryū's CAP shot down another Catalina attempting to locate the fleet and, later that morning, contributed 18 B5Ns, escorted by 6 Zeros, to the attack on Trincomalee. The fighters engaged 261 Squadron RAF, claiming to have shot down two with two more shared with fighters from the other carriers. On April 19th, while transiting the Bashi Straits between Taiwan and Luzon en route to Japan, Hiryū, Sōryū, and Akagi were sent in pursuit of the American carriers Hornet and Enterprise, which had launched the Doolittle Raid against Tokyo. They found only empty ocean, as the American carriers had immediately departed the area to return to Hawaii. The carriers quickly abandoned the chase and dropped anchor at Hashirajima anchorage on April 22nd. Having been engaged in constant operations for four and a half months, the ship, along with the other three carriers of the First and Second Carrier Divisions, was hurriedly refitted and replenished in preparation for the Combined Fleet's next major operation, scheduled to begin one month hence. While at Hashirajima, Hiryū's air group was based ashore at Tomitaka Airfield, near Saiki, Ōita, and conducted flight and weapons training with the other First Air Fleet carrier units.

Concerned by the US carrier strikes in the Marshall Islands, Lae-Salamaua, and the Doolittle raids, Yamamoto was determined to force the US Navy into a showdown to eliminate the American carrier threat. He decided to invade and occupy Midway Atoll, which he was sure would draw out the American carriers to defend it. The Japanese codenamed the Midway invasion Operation MI. Unknown to the Japanese, the US Navy had divined the Japanese plan by breaking its JN-25 code and had prepared an ambush using its three available carriers, positioned northeast of Midway. On May 25th, 1942, Hiryū set out with the Combined Fleet's carrier striking force in the company of Kaga, Akagi, and Sōryū, which constituted the First and Second Carrier Divisions, for the attack on Midway. Her aircraft complement consisted of 18 Zeros, 18 D3As, and 18 B5Ns. on June 4th, 1942, Hiryū's portion of the 108-plane airstrike was an attack on the facilities on Sand Island with 18 torpedo bombers, one of which aborted with mechanical problems, escorted by nine Zeros. The air group suffered heavily during the attack: two B5Ns were shot down by fighters, with a third falling victim to AA fire. The carrier also contributed 3 Zeros to the total of 11 assigned to the initial CAP over the four carriers. By 07:05, the carrier had 6 fighters with the CAP which helped to defend the Kido Butai from the first US attackers from Midway Island at 07:10. Hiryū reinforced the CAP with launches of 3 more Zeros at 08:25. These fresh Zeros helped defeat the next American air strike from Midway. Although all the American air strikes had thus far caused negligible damage, they kept the Japanese carrier forces off-balance as Nagumo endeavored to prepare a response to news, received at 08:20, of the sighting of American carrier forces to his northeast.

Hiryū began recovering her Midway strike force at around 09:00 and finished shortly by 09:10. The landed aircraft were quickly struck below, while the carriers' crews began preparations to spot aircraft for the strike against the American carrier forces. The preparations were interrupted at 09:18, when the first attacking American carrier aircraft were sighted. Hiryū launched another trio of CAP Zeros at 10:13 after Torpedo Squadron 3 (VT-3) from Yorktown was spotted. Two of her Zeros were shot down by Wildcats escorting VT-3 and another was forced to ditch. While VT-3 was still attacking Hiryū, American dive bombers arrived over the Japanese carriers almost undetected and began their dives. It was at this time, around 10:20, that in the words of Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully, the "Japanese air defenses would finally and catastrophically fail." Three American dive bomber squadrons now attacked the three other carriers and set each of them on fire. Hiryū was untouched and proceeded to launch 18 D3As, escorted by six Zeros, at 10:54. Yamaguchi radioed his intention to Nagumo at 16:30 to launch a third strike against the American carriers at dusk (approximately 18:00), but Nagumo ordered the fleet to withdraw to the west. At this point in the battle, Hiryū had only 4 air-worthy dive-bombers and 5 torpedo-planes left. She also retained 19 of her own fighters on board as well as a further 13 Zeros on CAP (a composite force of survivors from the other carriers). At 16:45, Enterprise's dive bombers spotted the Japanese carrier and began to maneuver for good attacking position while reducing altitude. Hiryū was struck by four 1,000-pound (450 kg) bombs, three on the forward flight deck and one on the forward elevator. The explosions started fires among the aircraft on the hangar deck. The forward half of the flight deck collapsed into the hangar while part of the elevator was hurled against the ship's bridge. The fires were severe enough that the remaining American aircraft attacked the other ships escorting Hiryū, albeit without effect, deeming further attacks on the carrier as a waste of time because she was aflame from stem to stern. Beginning at 17:42, two groups of B-17s attempted to attack the Japanese ships without success, although one bomber strafed Hiryū's flight deck, killing several anti-aircraft gunners. Although Hiryū's propulsion was not affected, the fires could not be brought under control. At 21:23, her engines stopped, and at 23:58 a major explosion rocked the ship. The order to abandon ship was given at 03:15, and the survivors were taken off by the destroyers Kazagumo and Makigumo. Yamaguchi and Kaku decided to remain on board as Hiryū was torpedoed at 05:10 by Makigumo as the ship could not be salvaged. Around 07:00, one of Hōshō's Yokosuka B4Y aircraft discovered Hiryū still afloat and not in any visible danger of sinking. The aviators could also see crewmen aboard the carrier, men who had not received word to abandon ship. They finally launched some of the carrier's boats and abandoned ship themselves around 09:00. Thirty-nine men made it into the ship's cutter only moments before Hiryū sank around 09:12, taking the bodies of 389 men with her. The loss of Hiryū and the three other IJN carriers at Midway, comprising two thirds of Japan's total number of fleet carriers and the experienced core of the First Air Fleet, was a strategic defeat for Japan and contributed significantly to Japan's ultimate defeat in the war. In an effort to conceal the defeat, the ship was not immediately removed from the Navy's registry of ships, instead being listed as "unmanned" before finally being struck from the registry on 25 September 1942. The IJN selected a modified version of the Hiryū design for mass production to replace the carriers lost at Midway. Of a planned program of 16 ships of the Unryū class, only 6 were laid down and 3 were commissioned before the end of the war.

#second world war #world war 2 #world war ii #wwii #military history #history #long post #naval history #imperial japan #japanese navy #japanese history #aircraft carrier #ships #midway

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brookstonalmanac · 1 year

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Events 6.9

411 BC – The Athenian coup succeeds, forming a short-lived oligarchy. 53 – The Roman emperor Nero marries Claudia Octavia. 68 – Nero dies by suicide after quoting Vergil's Aeneid, thus ending the Julio-Claudian dynasty and starting the civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors. 721 – Odo of Aquitaine defeats the Moors in the Battle of Toulouse. 747 – Abbasid Revolution: Abu Muslim Khorasani begins an open revolt against Umayyad rule, which is carried out under the sign of the Black Standard. 1311 – Duccio's Maestà, a seminal artwork of the early Italian Renaissance, is unveiled and installed in Siena Cathedral in Siena, Italy. 1523 – The Parisian Faculty of Theology fines Simon de Colines for publishing the Biblical commentary Commentarii initiatorii in quatuor Evangelia by Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples. 1534 – Jacques Cartier is the first European to describe and map the Saint Lawrence River. 1732 – James Oglethorpe is granted a royal charter for the colony of the future U.S. state of Georgia. 1772 – The British schooner Gaspee is burned in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. 1798 – Irish Rebellion of 1798: Battles of Arklow and Saintfield. 1815 – End of the Congress of Vienna: The new European political situation is set. 1856 – Five hundred Mormons leave Iowa City, Iowa for the Mormon Trail. 1862 – American Civil War: Stonewall Jackson concludes his successful Shenandoah Valley Campaign with a victory in the Battle of Port Republic; his tactics during the campaign are now studied by militaries around the world. 1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Brandy Station in Virginia, the largest cavalry battle on American soil, ends Confederate cavalry dominance in the eastern theater. 1885 – Treaty of Tientsin is signed to end the Sino-French War, with China eventually giving up Tonkin and Annam – most of present-day Vietnam – to France. 1900 – Indian nationalist Birsa Munda dies of cholera in a British prison. 1915 – William Jennings Bryan resigns as Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of State over a disagreement regarding the United States' handling of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. 1922 – Åland's Regional Assembly convened for its first plenary session in Mariehamn, Åland; today, the day is celebrated as Self-Government Day of Åland. 1923 – Bulgaria's military takes over the government in a coup. 1928 – Charles Kingsford Smith completes the first trans-Pacific flight in a Fokker Trimotor monoplane, the Southern Cross. 1930 – A Chicago Tribune reporter, Jake Lingle, is killed during rush hour at the Illinois Central train station by Leo Vincent Brothers, allegedly over a $100,000 gambling debt owed to Al Capone. 1944 – World War II: Ninety-nine civilians are hanged from lampposts and balconies by German troops in Tulle, France, in reprisal for maquisards attacks. 1944 – World War II: The Soviet Union invades East Karelia and the previously Finnish part of Karelia, occupied by Finland since 1941. 1948 – Foundation of the International Council on Archives under the auspices of the UNESCO. 1953 – The Flint–Worcester tornado outbreak sequence kills 94 people in Massachusetts. 1954 – Joseph N. Welch, special counsel for the United States Army, lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Army–McCarthy hearings, giving McCarthy the famous rebuke, "You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" 1957 – First ascent of Broad Peak by Fritz Wintersteller, Marcus Schmuck, Kurt Diemberger, and Hermann Buhl. 1959 – The USS George Washington is launched. It is the first nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine. 1965 – The civilian Prime Minister of South Vietnam, Phan Huy Quát, resigns after being unable to work with a junta led by Nguyễn Cao Kỳ. 1965 – Vietnam War: The Viet Cong commences combat with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam in the Battle of Đồng Xoài, one of the largest battles in the war. 1967 – Six-Day War: Israel captures the Golan Heights from Syria. 1968 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a national day of mourning following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. 1972 – Severe rainfall causes a dam in the Black Hills of South Dakota to burst, creating a flood that kills 238 people and causes $160 million in damage. 1973 – In horse racing, Secretariat wins the U.S. Triple Crown. 1978 – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opens its priesthood to "all worthy men", ending a 148-year-old policy of excluding black men. 1979 – The Ghost Train fire at Luna Park Sydney, Australia, kills seven. 1995 – Ansett New Zealand Flight 703 crashes into the Tararua Range during approach to Palmerston North Airport on the North Island of New Zealand, killing four. 1999 – Kosovo War: The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and NATO sign a peace treaty. 2008 – Two bombs explode at a train station near Algiers, Algeria, killing at least 13 people. 2009 – An explosion kills 17 people and injures at least 46 at a hotel in Peshawar, Pakistan. 2010 – At least 40 people are killed and more than 70 wounded in a suicide bombing at a wedding party in Arghandab, Kandahar.

#Events

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advacademy · 2 years

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Happy Kargil Vijay Diwas | Advanced Academy

Kargil Vijay Diwas is celebrated every year on July 26 to celebrate the pride and bravery of the soldiers who participated in Operation Vijay. The day was the victory of Indian soldiers to capture the mountain heights occupied by the Pakistan Army on July 26, 1999, which is known as the Kargil War.

#Happy Kargil Vijay Diwas #Kargil Vijay Diwas #Kargil Vijay Diwas 2022 #Best CBSE school in India #List of CBSE schools in India #top schools in Indore #CBSE boarding schools in India #best schools in Indore

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an-apocalypse-of-magpies · 4 years

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On the world of Mortal Engines, class, and the metaphors of consumption

This is less an essay and more a collection of thoughts. Basically I just saw a video on the Mortal Engines film and its being a civilisation too stupid to exist. I got fed up, mainly because so many of the criticisms amounted to ‘the book did it better’ with little elaboration but also the arrogantly grating voice of the presenter got on my nerves, but I cannot deny the points made and in fact wanted to elaborate further on the worldbuilding of this series and, while unrealistic, look at why the books were so engaging.

Some background to start off - Mortal Engines is a four-book series (and three-book prequel sub-series) written by English author Phillip Reeve, and depicts a bleak post-apocalyptic world. North America is uninhabitable and lost to the sands of time, irradiated, poisoned, and flattened by war. Eurasia is mostly barren plains. And, of course, the central premise - towns and cities have raised themselves onto mobile platforms and trundle about. Well, mostly. A major antagonist to this system is the Anti-Traction League, a collective of nations hiding out in old east China, the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia and some of Africa. They are seen as barbarians and heathens by much of the world for refusing to mobilise, instead hiding in stationary citadels behind their mountains. The Traction Cities near-universally engage in a philosophy of Municipal Darwinism, a savage system of bastardised pseudo-biology where cities literally predate each other and ‘consume’ each other for resources. Cities eat towns, towns eat smaller towns. Some towns and cities deliberately adapt to cheat the system and make themselves a less appetising target, or for that matter a more aggressive and efficient hunter.

THE TRACTION CITIES

The first three books tend to focus their action on one or two cities, whereas the last is a bit more of a road trip. The other consistent thread is multiple characters’ stories running concurrently, usually reconnecting near the end. This allows the books maintain an open, almost global scale - you’ll nearly never not be moving, even sitting still on a city, which reinforces the theme of unnatural life. The first book focuses on London, which has been sulking in what was once Britain (by sheer happenstance on their part and pure irony on ours), and is suddenly running at full pelt back into Europe and eastward as fast as her engines can carry her. Why? London’s not the biggest city around, and the vast expanse of Eurasia is now the Great Hunting Ground - it’s where the big boys play, and by play I mean ‘savagely predate each other’. It’s dangerous territory for a little city. But over the first book, it becomes increasingly apparent that Traction Cities are increasingly non-viable option for existence. Fuel is scarce, prey moreso, and what morsels London can confidently snap up will not sustain it for long. There is an ecosystem at play here - static settlements can farm resources, but are universally seen as food, either by small bandit settlements to raid for supplies or for larger towns to just straight-up eat. Small towns too small to hunt tend to be miners or gatherers, either mining minerals to use or trade, or gathering resources like wood from natural deposits or sifting through the waste heaps left by bigger cities. Most cities bigger than that are ‘urbivores’, or hunter towns, that hunt and eat smaller prey or opportunistically scavenge the ‘carcasses’ of dead cities. I mentioned specialisation earlier, and like in nature, species and cities can occupy a niche that gives them an advantage and thus increased chance at survival. Airhaven, for example, is a politically-neutral city in the air that floats around Eurasia seasonally and serves as a rest stop, fuelling station and trading exchange for airship pilots the world over, Tractionist or no. Tunbridge Wheels is a pirate-run town that has a lightweight wooden chassis and flotation devices to hunt amphibiously in a world where many small towns escape threat by setting up on islands. Panzerstadt-Bayreuth is a conurbation of four massive cities, too big to survive long without prey, they banded together to take down the biggest of prey (it’s unclear whether they achieve this through sheer size or whether they decouple and become a pack hunter). Anchorage, the last American city, neutered its own jaws to increase mobility, skating around the frozen north too fast for threats to catch up with, and survives on trade. Brighton is a pleasure city that paddles around the warm Mediterranean, technically still a predator but with no real agenda and about the only city left that can be called a tourist city (it’s run on the back of brutal slave labour). And these are just the major ones. Throughout the books, cities are treated like living things ... like mortal engines.

And like living things, they need resources to survive.

A DYING WAY OF LIFE

The books are inconsistent on the origins of Traction Cities, as it turns out deliberately - history is written by the winners, after all. But it’s all closely tied to the ‘apocalypse’ part of the post-apocalytic I mentioned earlier. Long ago in-universe, long into our future, was a terrible event known as the Sixty Minute War. This war tore the world asunder with nuclear and quantum energy weaponry. America, the epicentre, is simply no more (it turns out there are some fertile areas in Nova Scotia, but for the most part America is dead). Entire new mountain ranges were born, notably the Tannhäusers in East Asia that shield the heartland of the Anti-Traction League. There was a long period of geological and tectonic instability. According to legend, Traction Cities arose to escape these instabilities. In other words, like animals will flee a volcanic eruption, cities first became mobile to escape and survive. Trade was likely facilitated by towns literally being able to park next to each other. Ironically, London was also where everything changed. After Nikola Quercus conquered (static) London with his mobile fortresses, he decided to upgrade and raise London onto wheels to become the first fully-mobile city. And he did it for war. After all, there’s no better comeback to ‘you and what army’ then literally rolling up with your entire city. By the series present, the idea had caught on and grown into the ideology described above. But herein lies the problem. Early Traction London was a tiny little thing. Now it’s not even the biggest fish in the pond, but it’s still HUGE. And, as we all know, big things need lots of energy to go. London is described as having a top speed of about sixty miles per hour at the height of a hunt. So, you need fuel. There is still oil in this world, mainly because they now have no qualms about mining Antarctica, but if you think there’s nearly enough crude oil to run a world full of cities like London you are sorely mistaken. Wood’s not much better off. And, of course, Traction Cities tend to run on some form of internal combustion engine - it’s only at the very end of the traction era that science has advanced enough for a town to experiment with magnetic levitation. So what do they burn? Well, bits of other prey towns. Do you see the problem? Use fuel to hunt towns, burn those towns for fuel. What next? And it’s not just fuel. London captures a little salt-mining town called Salthook at the beginning of the first book to introduce us to the concepts at play, and we see what goes on in the Dismantling Yards - part of a system literally called the Gut, in case the metaphor wasn’t clear yet. Everything is recycled. Bricks, mortar, steel, wood, everything. Because the state of technology is so weird in this world, Old-Tech (technology from before the SMW) can be incredibly valuable to history and/or science, and London is keen to snaffle that up too. The people are interred into refugee camps, though if you know anything about how real-life Britain treats refugees you can probably see where that is going. And it’s not enough. It’s never enough. Food is an even more pressing concern. Unless you’re very rich (more on that in a mo), food is mostly algae-based, then hardy vegetables that grow quickly like cabbage. And it’s running out fast. And London’s a big city with a lot of resources at its disposal. Most cities don’t even have that. A lot of cities are starving on the wheels, city and populace alike. A lot of cities run on slave labour, and feed those slaves as little as they can get away with. Shan Guo, home of the Anti-Traction League, is a green and vibrant land only because it doesn’t have cities running over or eating its farmlands every other day (and, again, city folk generally don’t know this - they’re given endless propaganda that Anti-Tractionists are barbarian warbands a la Mad Max). A lot of the A story is told from the point of view of Tom Natsworthy, who until the events of the book had never left London. He’s never seen bare earth or walked on mud before. He’s never seen a horse. The idea that you can survive, much less thrive, outside of a Traction City is alien to him. But on the city he came from, everything is rapidly running out, and some cities are turning to desperate measures to survive, including Arkangel openly bribing pilots to sell out the locations and courses of nearby cities. A chilling scene in the first book even has Tom see, from the safety of the air, the corpse of Motoropolis, a city not unlike London that literally just starved to death, running out of fuel and helpless as the scavengers closed in. It’s been weeks since the city stopped, and the narrative description evokes the grotesqueness and sadness of a whale carcass. Sheer Jingoism is about the only thing keeping Municipal Darwinism alive - Traction good, stationary bad.

CLASS, CLASSISM, AND OTHER SOCIAL OPPRESSIONS

In a world so starved as this, compassion is hard to come by. Cities still exist mainly by virtue of rigid social stratification, and often that stratification is literal - most medium-to-large cities have tiers, and will generally arrange those tiers based on social class. London, for example, has seven tiers. The bottom two tiers are dominated by the Gut, the engines, and homes and communities of the workers who keep them running. Tiers 4 and 3 are miscellaneous proles of increasing social standing. Tier 2 is mostly what I’d call ‘tourist London’ - lots of the nice bits and the establishments that London likes to be proud of. Because of his work at the London Museum, this is the quality of life Tom Natsworthy was most used to. Tier 1 is High London, where all the rich live and have their amenities and nice parks (and even that doesn’t last - London’s food shortage means even the High London parks are eventually, begrudgingly, turned over for food production). Katherine Valentine, the hero of the first book’s B plot, lives here. Finally there’s Top Tier, which is purely administrative. The only buildings are the Guildhall (the seat of government), St Paul’s Cathedral (which the Engineers’ Guild have secretly been installing a deadly superweapon in under the guise of ‘restoration’ work) and the headquarters of the Guild of Engineers, the most powerful of London’s Guilds. Social stratification is nearly non-existant, and people are shown to get very uncomfortable when out of ‘their space’. Tom is sent to work in the Gut during the capture of Salthook as a punishment before the plot ejects him from London, and he notes being actively intimidated by the claustrophobia, the dirt, the rough and burly labourers, and the noise. But despite Tom’s relatively privileged life - he lives near High London, above the heat and noise and smoke of the engines, in the care of one of the top four Guilds of London - he is of very low social status. Tom Natsworthy is an orphan; his parents were Historians, but were killed when an accident occurred and part of Tier 3 collapsed, crushing anything on Tier 4 beneath. Even before that, the Natsworthys were middle class at best, but being orphaned meant being left to the care of an orphanage run by the Guild of his parents, the Historians. The Historians were Tom’s only source of education, and eventually they would employ him, but with no parents or money, Tom can only afford a Third-Class apprenticeship. He has no upwards mobility within the Guild, and with no money he can’t leave and train with another. His dream of being a pilot trader, or better yet adventurer, will never come true under normal circumstances. The rich live in a completely different world yet. Katherine Valentine, daughter of the Head Historian and the Lord Mayor’s ‘right-hand man’ Thaddeus Valentine, has a positively bougie lifestyle with not a care in the world. Ironically, though, it is through Katherine’s eyes that the horrors of London’s class system are revealed. Trying to find information about her father’s would-be killer, Katherine finds herself regularly travelling to the Gut, eventually befriending an apprentice Engineer who witnessed the attack. But in the Gut, life is very different. It’s not just a life of hard labour and smoke - petty criminals and the aforementioned ‘refugees’ are tasked with working dangerous and sickening jobs like managing the city’s sewage. And by that, I mean ‘harvesting literal faeces to be converted into food and fuel’. The foreman overseeing their work admits they feed such criminals nothing else. And he has the gall to be annoyed that they keep dying of diseases like cholera and typhoid! These people are denied medical care, denied treatment, denied even basic food other than being told to literally eat sh*t. And when they inevitably die? They get sent to the Engineerium to be turned into robotic zombies that can never get sick, tired or unhappy. And, eventually, they’ll be put right back to work. The crimes these criminals did to deserve this, remember, include petty theft, criticising the Lord Mayor, and living aboard a town that got eaten. The foreman literally cannot fathom why Katherine would care about these people’s wellbeing - after all, they’re just criminals. The Engineerium’s end goal in all this is, again, to staff the entire lower tiers with robot zombie workers who will never grow tired, get sick, complain or protest their lot in life, and will never disobey orders, and just enough human overseers to keep things running smoothly ... because that’s what these people are worth to London, cheap, unending labour. Katherine can’t even bring herself to tell her high-class peers about what she learned down there, because it’s such a different world that they would never empathise, much less care. Again, slave labour is common in this world, especially child slavery - Brighton runs on it to maintain its image as a floating Caligula’s Palace, and in Arkangel slavery is so normal that we watch a rich man beat a slave nearly to death for the crime of bumping into him. In the second book, we see the logical end-point of this. Anchorage’s social structure has completely fallen apart due to a plague in recent years that turned to once-proud ice city into a ghost town manned only by a skeleton crew. The margravine, Freya, is only 14, but with her parents dead, she finds herself in charge of the whole city. She has no household staff, apart from Smew, who finds himself constantly juggling outfits to adopts the roles of steward, chamberlain and so on. His official role before the plague was ... erm ... the Dwarf. He was there in a manner similar to a court jester, for the amusement of the margrave due to being a little person. But the head navigator is just ... the woman who kept the maps. The head engineer is going half-mad, seeing his dead son staring at him from the shadows, and the only reason the town’s still going is because his systems are the best on the ice and can mostly run on automatic. They have no doctor. The only other people of consequence in Anchorage are the Aakiuqs, the Inuit couple who run the air-harbour. The common workers of Anchorage number in the mere dozens. And yet, because they’re so fixated on their traditions, nobody will drop the formalities and just admits that they’re trying to uphold a class system that doesn’t work anymore. No, that’s not quite right - everybody realises it’s pointless to maintain the artifice of Anchorage’s social heirarchy, but nobody wants to be the first one to say it out loud. Much like Municipal Darwinism, nobody want to address the elephant in the room, that the system is broken and that people hold onto it because it’s comfortable in the face of uncertainty. Only in Anchorage’s darkest hour, when everything has been turned upside down and the conquerors are on their doorsteps, do the agree to drop the formalities, drop the artifice of class, and address each other as people, say what they think, and work to save what they have left. And of course, there’s the racism in the world. Life on mobile cities has made cultures smaller and more insular, considering we mainly see this series from the point of view of culturally-English towns. Throughout the first book there is a clear west vs east divide - the Traction Cities are generally English-speaking or multicultural enough that English will get you by. The Anti-Tractionist League, meanwhile, are south or east Asian, or else African, and are commonly understood to be ‘those brown people’. The only ethnically white Anti-Tractionists are from ‘Spitzbergen’ (likely Scandinavia/Finland and northwest Russia) and Hester Shaw’s family, and the latter lived on a town that floated out to an island and gave up running from predators forever. The way Tom reacts to this attitude calls to mind the way racists might refer to ‘race traitors’. There’s even an in-universe slur for people who live in static settlements; ‘Mossies’, because ‘a rolling town gathers no moss’. However, when Tom is taken to Shan Guo itself, he realises that all the propaganda he’d been fed his whole like is exactly that - propaganda. Shan Guo is described as beautiful - an endless patchwork of rolling fields and farms, colourful, bright, vibrant, heaving with life and energy. The Anti-Tractionists aren’t vicious savages, they’re just ... people. Tom can’t understand it at first. He wonders how people can live without the hum of engines or the vibrations of deckplates - he subconsciously equates city life with, well, life, and the absence of that makes him uneasy. But he can also see this culture before him, thousands of years old, outlasting even the end of the world, and he realises there is another way. The next time he sees London, he sees it from outside, from the side of the hunted, and he realises it’s not beautiful or efficient, just dirty, and huge, wrapped in its own waste smoke and driven only by destruction. For the rest of the series, even with the rise of the radicalised Green Storm (Anti-Tractionists Lv2), large Traction Cities are consistently the enemy. Tractionism as a culture is understood to only represent imperialism, destruction, and consumption, literally and figuratively.

SCIENCES SANS FRONTIERES

It should be noted that science and technology are not universally reviled by the series. As a dieselpunk series, a certain degree of technology is fundamental to the series existence. But this is a very different world than the one we know. On the one hand, engines exist that can drive entire cities. On the other, computers basically do not exist. The rare few that still exist are not in working condition, and nobody knows how to restore them. Heavier-than-aircraft don’t really exist - the third book introduces some, but they’re small, experimental ... barely more than short-range toys designed for flashy air shows but not real travel. The main form of personal locomotion in this world is by airship, and this world’s airships are far beyond anything we’ve made in our time. But lost technologies are heavily associated with the hubris and destructiveness of the Ancients. Until now. Like I said, the most powerful Guild in London is the Engineers’ Guild. And they got that way under the leadership of now-Lord Mayor Magnus Crome. It should be noted that Crome genuinely loves his city and wants it to survive no matter the cost. But under Crome, the Engineers began to dabble in sciences considered unethical to downright taboo. Most notable is the MEDUSA Project. Through Thaddeus Valentine, London came into possession of an energy weapon from the SMW ... and, more importantly, the working computer that runs the thing. In terms of Darwinist Evolution, this is like giving a monkey a gun and teaching it how to use it. MEDUSA exhibits a level of power no other force on Earth can match, and London is forced to deploy it early in a crisis. Originally, the plan was to march up to Batmunkh Gompa, the Shield-Wall that represents the only break in the mountains around Shan Guo big enough to permit a city, and blast it to cinders. Unfortunately, London attracts the attention of a bigger, hungrier city about halfway there, and is forced to fire MEDUSA at it to save its own skin. The sheer terror of what that weapon represents is revealed then. Panzerstadt-Bayreuth was the fusion of four massive cities, each one bigger and more powerful than London. MEDUSA killed it dead in one stroke - the energy beam set the entire city ablaze and ignited its fuel stores. Her engines nearly immediately exploded. When the fires go down enough for an Engineer scout ship to investigate, the people had been almost flashed into glass. The flash of light from the attack is so bright that, hundreds of miles to the south, Tom and Hester see the sky light up like a new dawn. The people of London are relieved, of course, that they didn’t all die that night, but more than that the entire city become suffused with the excitement of just how easy it would be to kill ... well, anyone they like, really. London doesn’t even stop to devour Panzerstadt-Bayreuth, as the Engineers can’t afford for the Shield-Wall to prepare for their arrival. Appropriately, and karmically, the finale has an accident lock down the computer lock down, with MEDUSA unable to fire but unable to stop gathering energy, and London melts under the heat of MEDUSA’s glare. But that wasn’t the only scientific sin committed by London’s engineers. I’ve already mentioned London trying to repurpose faeces as food, but we need to talk more about the Stalkers. Stalkers are kinda like discount Cybermen from Doctor Who - dead bodies, threaded with weird old machines and coated in armour, their brains hooked up to simple computers. Originally conceived as soldiers, they were believed long dead. However, one survived to the modern by sheer survivor instinct - Shrike. Through negotiations that are not the purview of this essay, he allowed the Engineers of London to take him apart and figure out how he worked, and hoo boy they did. The Engineers figured out how to manufacture their own Stalkers. The first batch are used as law enforcement like the Worst Robocops, but, again, the plan was to have Stalker workers all over Low London. Katherine, learning this, likens it to London ‘being a city of the dead’ (Apprentice Engineer Pod, to whom she is talking, grimly notes that the Deep Gut Prison is so awful, so callous with human life, that it already feels like that). Logically, the end-point of this idea is to have all workers in London be the resurrected dead, with just enough living to keep things in order ... oh, and they’d all be loyal to the Engineers, because remember, no Freedom of Speech here, and you can be sent to do the worst form of prison labour for dissenting against the Lord Mayor. With Crome being both Lord Mayor and Head Engineer at once, the Engineers’ creed is as good as law - traditionally, London Lord Mayors forsook their former Guild allegiances to show their representation of all of London, and Crome’s refusal to do that caused a bit of a stir. The Engineers are also keen to arm their security teams with some form of energy pistols, despite guns being outlawed in London and the police are only allowed crossbows. Crome’s rationale is the same as every two-bit mad scientist villain, of course - that science should not be held back by moral restrictions, and that progress for progress’ sake is essential for London’s survival. Really, it’s the Engineer’s survival, as they’re rather loathe to share these advancements except to exert power on those around. London isn’t the only example of technology being used to leverage control and benefit the ruling classes. Grimsby is a sunken wreck of a city somewhere in the north Atlantic, yet due to a complex series of airlocks the interior of the city is a secret hideaway of the Lost Boys, a society of children stolen from aquatic towns and trained to be thieves under the watchful eye of the mysterious Uncle. They will then take submarine walkers, attach to passing towns, steal whatever tools, fuel, food and riches they can carry, and vanish back into the depths. Uncle, naturally, takes the lion’s share of the haul. But Uncle maintains his power by careful access to technology, only letting the Boys have what they need and juggling the power structure by choosing team leaders, and punishing insubordination harshly and publicly. Uncle sees and hears everything in Grimsby with his surveillance network, and can address any give Boy in a heartbeat, training the Boys to never expect privacy from him, so that when he demands a progress update from a mission, they never question him. He rewards Boys who do well on burglaries, but more importantly than that, he chooses team leaders according to apparently inscrutable whims. The Boys believe it’s a mark of favour from Uncle, and thus social status, to be trusted with the limpet command and all the tech that comes with. Really, Uncle carefully give command to people he can trust to remain loyal to him, even if that means passing over a more talented Boy who might get a bit uppity. Even in a more mundane way, higher status in the Lost Boys means you can move closer to the heart of Grimsby, where you’re less likely to wake up and find your bedroom wasn’t as watertight as you thought and flooded in the night. Uncle, naturally, doesn’t care if a few Boys drown, so long as he doesn’t lose anything useful. Technology, and in particular access to unusual technology, is the dimension on which power is really decided.

THE END OF AN ERA

We’ve already established that this world is not a sustainable one. There are only so many cities. The inherent entropy of Municipal Darwinism is really showing. Once upon a time, big cities could ‘reproduce’, creating little satellite towns that could grow and become independent - even London had some - but those are no more. In a greedy desperation to keep moving, the predators are not reproducing, and static settlements can’t spread and grow fast enough to count there. The attack of London, and MEDUSA, turned staunch opposition into outright war, with the Green Storm being willing to doublethink their way into using the weapons of the Traction Cities in their fight to stop the Traction Cities, even recruiting ex-London Engineers to make weapons and stalkers for them, and eventually even seeking out another ancient superweapon - an orbital laser called ODIN - without a hint of irony. The Green Storm eventually face internal resistance, from Anti-Tractionists who disagree with the outright terrorism angle, and eventually crumbles. The last great Traction Cities stop. The last mobile city is New London, no longer a hunter but a trade platform, and even that probably stopped hovering about at some point. The ending is told by the great survivor, Shrike, who has cheated Death again and again, who outlived Tom Natsworthy and Hester Shaw, Valentine, Magnus Crome, and a thousand other heroes and villains. When he awakes, long in the future, Traction Cities are not even ancient history. They’re a dream, a fantasy, too incredible to be true. But Shrike remembers, and he teaches people the story of London and Anchorage, Arkangel and Airhaven, Brighton and Harrowbarrow. Did they learn the right message from Shrike’s story? Did they learn that ruthless imperialism is like hunting faster than the food can come back, and that you will starve before you have everything you ever wanted? Did they learn that hoarding resources, gatekeeping knowledge, will lead to ruin? Did they learn, or will the repeat the same mistakes of the greed and gluttony of the Traction Era? Well, who knows.

#mortal engines #wow that was a ramble and a half

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