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These are among the prettiest birds in Colorado. The red marking on the head is only visible while the males are in breeding season.
Almost there. This dharma stone marks the way into Garchen Buddhist Institute near Chino Valley and Prescott, Arizona. This is the Tibetan sacred syllable "hung " (hum). Hung or hum is the heart chakra syllable of the Chenrezig mantra "Om mani payme hung" (or Om mani padme hum in Sanskrit).
Garchen Buddhist Institute: www.garchen.net/
New Flyer XN40 Xcelsior CNG bus outbound on Columbia Pike at S Glebe Road. People are aboard, but there are no apparent markings beyond those of the manufacturer on this side. No lug nut protection, so it's not Wmata. [α900-11487]
Marking on the ground for blind people. Hamburg, Elbphilharmonie.
Hasselblad XPan, 30mm, Agfa Scala, scanned with the Minolta Scan Elite 5400II, stitched with Autopano Giga.
The Churchill had a difficult birth in 1940, followed by a troubled development and nearly suffered a premature death in 1942 before maturing into a useful tank. Some specialised versions remained in service with the British Army until 1965.
The Churchill had its origins in the A20, designed by the shipbuilders, Harland & Wolff. This tank was intended to support infantry on a battlefield dominated by trench warfare. The prototype proved to be unsatisfactory when it appeared in February 1940.
The first production tanks, (Churchill Mark I), were delivered in June 1941. In some respects the design was old-fashioned with its wrap-round tracks and hull-mounted 3-inch gun. A small turret carried the British 2-pdr tank gun. More seriously, the new tank was very unreliable. However it carried very thick armour on the front of the hull. The new tanks were the first to be fitted with the Merritt-Brown gear box that provided controlled differential steering.
By 1942 the War Office had decided to abandon the Churchill because of its unreliability. A major effort by the manufacturers and the Army improved its reliability and the tank was reprieved after demonstrating its usefulness during the fighting in the hills of Tunisia in 1942-43. The first German Tiger I to be captured by the Allies was disabled in combat with Churchill tanks of 48th Royal Tank Regiment. This Tiger is now owned by the Tank Museum.
The Churchill design was extensively modified in 1942-43 and a new turret was fitted mounting the British 75mm tank gun. Although this gun was inferior to the German long 75mm and 88mm guns, with its thick armour the Churchill Mark VII, introduced in November 1943, became a useful tank. It served with British troops in North West Europe and Italy.
The Churchill was designed to fit within the British rail loading gauge. As a result the hull was too narrow to accommodate the larger turret needed to mount the British 17-pdr tank gun. Thus the Churchill VII was inadequately armed when compared to other late war tanks.
One of the Churchill’s strengths was its adaptability to specialised roles such as flame-throwing, bridge-laying and mine-clearing. It was especially useful as the basis of an armoured engineer vehicle, the Churchill AVRE, (Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers). Many of the specialised vehicles were developed by the 79th Armoured Division and were known as ‘Hobart’s funnies’, after the Division’s commander, Major General P C S Hobart.
Churchill gun tanks disappeared from the British Army quite quickly after World War II, but a small number of gun tanks and Crocodiles served with 7 RTR in Korea in 1950-51. Post-war developments of the AVRE and bridge-laying tanks remained in service with the British Army until the 1960s. A few Churchill gun tanks lingered in service with the Indian, Irish and Jordanian armies until the late 1960s.
In all, 5,640 Churchill tanks were manufactured. Small numbers of 6-pdr armed Churchills were supplied to the Soviet Union in 1941-42. Churchills also served with the Canadian Army, taking part in the disastrous Dieppe raid in 1942.
The Tank Museum’s Churchill above is the last Mark VII to be built and came to the Museum straight from the factory, so it is effectively brand-new, with almost no mileage on the clock. It is modified as a Crocodile flame-thrower and is displayed in the markings of the 34th Armoured Brigade in Normandy in the summer of 1944.
Just playing around. The mountains and ground are from a crop of about 4 pano shots out of about 6 shots taken and stitched together. The two arrows are from a photograph of the Twin Arrows Trading Post. The clouds are a pano of two stitched together. I am still thinking on what direction I want to go with this image. Perhaps it will never be seen past my Flickr page.
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"Dynamic spine brace in development for children with scoliosis"
Copyright © John G. Lidstone, all rights reserved.
I hope you enjoy my work and thanks for viewing.
Enjoy my video of this bus here:
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Old crosses and mysterious standing stones are dotted around the North York Moors, often to be found beside ancient moorland tracks which criss-cross over the high, exposed ridges. This one indicates a track to Pickering and Malton. Underneath, a hand is inscribed pointing the way.
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- with Canada 5 cents Registered Letter Stamp / REGISTERED - straight line marking...
Broad Cove is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in Lunenburg County. The community thrives on tourism, especially in the peak summer months. The community is served by a town hall where regular community events are held. It is about four miles north-east of Medway Harbour. This name is desriptive since the cove is roughly triangular in shape with a wide mouth. The population in 1956 was 206.
- from "Lovell's Gazetteer of the Dominion of Canada (1908)" - BROAD COVE, a post settlement in Lunenburg County, N.S., on the Atlantic Coast, 8 miles from County Line on the Halifax and South Western Ry. (MacKenzie & Mann System). It contains 2 churches, 2 stores, 1 hotel, and 1 lumber mill. The population in 1908 was about 250.
A Postal Way Office was established in Broad Cove (Lunenburg) in 1854 - it became a Post Office - c. October 1876 and closed - 30 July 1970.
/ BROAD • COVE • (LUNENBURG) / DE 26 / 89 / N.S / - split ring cancel - this split ring hammer was proofed - 20 August 1878 - (#422).
- sent to - / HALIFAX • N.S. / DE 27 / 89 / CANADA. / - cds cancel - this cds hammer was proofed - (#3506).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter sent to: Geo. A. Pyke Esq / Head Central Wharf / Halifax, Nova Scotia
Name: George Augustus Pyke
Birth Date: abt 1840 in Halifax, N.S.
Death Date: 24 Oct 1900
Cemetery: Christ Church Cemetery
Burial or Cremation Place: Dartmouth, Halifax County, Nova Scotia, Canada
Spouse's Name: Jane Young (Jane Amelia Pyke) (1839–1932)
Event Date (Marriage): 12 Aug 1868
Event Place: Dartmouth, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Father's Name: William Pyke
Mother's Name: Emily Pyke
Spouse's Father's Name: Francis Young
Spouse's Mother's Name: Amelia Young
Children: (6)
1. George Francis Pyke (b. 28 Jun 1869 in Dartmouth, Halifax, Nova Scotia - d. 1931)
2. William Pyke (b. 26 Dec 1871 in Dartmouth, N.S. - d. 1871)
3. Arthur Charles Pyke (b. 23 Feb 1873 in Dartmouth, Halifax, Nova Scotia - d. 1933)
4. Harry E. Pyke (twin) (b. 1 Mar 1877 in Dartmouth, Halifax, Nova Scotia - d. 16 February 1938 in Halifax, N.S.)
5. Mabel Rose Pyke (twin) (b. 01 Mar 1877 in Dartmouth, Halifax, Nova Scotia) - Spouce - George Melville Howard
6. Edith Emilie Pyke (b. 22 Aug 1880 in Dartmouth, Halifax, Nova Scotia - d. 1944)
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Tarmac Painting in Leeholme | Playground Painting #Tarmac #Play #Area #Painting #Leeholme bit.ly/1N5wlgI
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"FDA approves Promacta to treat pediatric patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura"
Markings of natural history #1
Some of you might know of my small obsession with dragonflies... this is the first in a series of tattoos and images that I've been planning for quite a while.
Skin by Tres Blah
Hair by Skinthesis
Texture by Playingwithbrushes
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Just Pinned to Cycle Lane Line Marking: Anti Slip Step Paint in...
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Mandy was rubbing her face on the dining room chair--marking it as her own or maybe just scratching her face....but she looked adorable as always. Hope you have a wonderful Monday!
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in the festivities marking the 9th anniversary of the National Guard of Ukraine and the graduation of officers of the National Academy of the National Guard of Ukraine and the Kyiv Institute of the National Guard of Ukraine.
On Friday, 334 officers graduated, including 263 graduates of the NGU National Academy and 71 graduates of the NGU Kyiv Institute. 11 officers graduated from universities with a gold medal, 22 have the status of combatants.
"Today we add 334 more reasons to our victory, which the Ukrainians are bringing closer with all their might - 334 warriors of the National Guard of Ukraine who have completed their training and are joining the Defense and Security Forces of Ukraine. 334 officers who, under any circumstances, have to increase the glory of Ukraine, protect the freedom of Ukraine, take care of Ukrainian men and women," the Head of State said in his speech.
The President emphasized that Ukraine's victory will be the sum of the resilience, courage and efficiency of all those fighting for our country.
"Protecting the honor of Ukraine, our Defense and Security Forces, the National Guard of Ukraine everywhere is your path, the path of Ukrainian officers. I believe that you will be able to walk this path with dignity," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
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From the Classical Era through the 20th century, before the invention of the interwebs, people communicated with each other over long distances and even greater spaces of time by making markings on convenient flat surfaces such as clay tablets, animal skins, or a forest product called "paper." Because these markings could be arranged to represent words, and those words could be organized into ideas, they were thought very useful and versatile. For example, they were sometimes composed in such a way as to communicate a personal message (called a "letter"), transfer money via a third party to a named person or entity (called "paying the bills," done by "writing checks"), or even tell a story (sometimes called "literature," if the story was a good one).
Depending on the era, a remarkable proportion of the population was able to communicate via such markings (or "literate"), and since one of governments' chief functions was to organize their movement (called "the mail"), they often built large and ornate buildings (called "post offices") to facilitate this activity. Today some people contend that the work that was done in these buildings was carried out by snails, but that is only a whimsical urban legend. It instead seems that in the period of transition during which the use of these markings was becoming obsolete, their movement was increasingly viewed as cumbersome and slow, giving rise to the term "snail mail."
Above, the Socialist Modernist Central Post Office in Plovdiv (1970s). During construction of the massive building the 1st century Roman Forum (foreground) was discovered and partially excavated. The building is still in use but is decaying and much of it is empty or repurposed. When we arrived the whole area seemed to have been taken over temporarily by Coca Cola, since it was lined with banners and youths passing out free cokes. Central Post Office, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Cart Marking showcases a truly unique collection of transport dating back from the horse and cart, to the latest, cleanest, greenest, and safest in use today.
The regulation of carts dates back over 750 years to the early days of The City with the ceremony of cart Marking evolving over time.
Today we bring all that history back to life with a modern twist. You will see vehicles ranging from handcarts and horse-drawn carts and carriages to steam engines, military vehicles and motorcycles. With historic, vintage and specialist vehicles – new and old – including the latest sustainably-powered vehicles on display.
The vehicles enter Guildhall Yard through the arch to be branded as part of this unique ceremony. As each one is presented, a commentator tells visitors about its history and relevance today. Once in position the Sheriffs, Master Carman, his two Wardens and the Master Glover, dressed in traditional robes will brand each vehicle with a red-hot iron, a ritual known as Cart Marking. It takes about two hours for all the vehicles (carts) to pass though Guildhall Yard, get marked and then process through again on a celebratory drive-past.
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The Postcard
A postally unused postcard that was published by The South African Garrison Institutes. The card was printed by Whitehead, Morris & Co. Ltd. of Cape Town. The card has a divided back.
Windhoek
Windhoek is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around 1,700 metres (5,600 ft) above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre.
The population of Windhoek in 2020 was 431,000 which is growing continuously due to an influx from all over Namibia.
Windhoek is the social, economic, political, and cultural centre of the country. Nearly every Namibian national enterprise, governmental body, educational and cultural institution is headquartered there.
The city developed at the site of a permanent hot spring known to the indigenous pastoral communities. It developed rapidly after Jonker Afrikaner, Captain of the Orlam, settled here in 1840 and built a stone church for his community.
In the decades following, multiple wars and armed hostilities resulted in the neglect and destruction of the new settlement. Windhoek was founded a second time in 1890 by Imperial German Army Major Curt von François, when the territory was colonised by the German Empire.
Herero and Nama Genocide
The Herero and Nama genocide was a campaign of ethnic extermination and collective punishment waged by the German Empire against the Herero and the Nama in German South West Africa.
It was the first genocide of the 20th. century, occurring between 1904 and 1908.
In January 1904, the Herero and Nama people rebelled against German colonial rule. On the 12th. January they killed more than 100 German settlers in the area of Okahandja, although women, children, missionaries and non-German Europeans were spared.
In August, German General Lothar von Trotha defeated the Hereros in the Battle of Waterberg and drove them into the desert of Omaheke, where most of them died of dehydration. In October, the Nama people also rebelled against the Germans, only to suffer a similar fate.
Between 24,000 and 100,000 Hereros and 10,000 Nama died in the genocide. The first phase of the genocide was characterised by widespread death from starvation and dehydration, due to the prevention of the Herero from leaving the Namib desert by German forces.
Once defeated, thousands of Hereros and Namas were imprisoned in concentration camps, where the majority died of diseases, abuse, and exhaustion.
In 1985, the United Nations' Whitaker Report classified the aftermath as an attempt to exterminate the Herero and Nama peoples of South West Africa.
In 2004, the German government recognised and apologised for the events, but ruled out financial compensation for the victims' descendants.
In July 2015, the German government and the speaker of the Bundestag officially called the events a "genocide". However, it still refused to consider reparations. Despite this, the last batch of skulls and other remains of slaughtered tribesmen which were taken to Germany to promote racial superiority were taken back to Namibia in 2018.
In May 2021, the German government agreed to pay €1.1 billion over 30 years to fund projects in communities that were impacted by the genocide.
Background to the Genocide
The Herero, who speak a Bantu language, were originally a group of cattle herders who migrated into what is now Namibia during the mid-18th. century. The Herero seized vast swaths of the arable upper plateaus which were ideal for cattle grazing.
Agricultural duties, which were minimal, were assigned to enslaved Khoisan and Bushmen. Over the rest of the 18th. century, the Herero slowly drove the Khoisan into the dry, rugged hills to the south and east.
The Hereros were a pastoral people whose entire way of life centred on their cattle. The Herero language, while limited in its vocabulary for most areas, contains more than a thousand words for the colours and markings of cattle. The Hereros were content to live in peace as long as their cattle were safe and well-pastured, but became formidable warriors when their cattle were threatened.
According to Robert Gaudi:
"The newcomers, much taller and more fiercely warlike
than the indigenous Khoisan people, were possessed
of the fierceness that comes from basing one's way of
life on a single source: everything they valued, all wealth
and personal happiness, had to do with cattle.
Regarding the care and protection of their herds, the
Herero showed themselves utterly merciless, and far
more 'savage' than the Khoisan had ever been.
Because of their dominant ways and elegant bearing,
the few Europeans who encountered Herero tribesmen
in the early days regarded them as the region's 'natural
aristocrats.'"
By the time of the Scramble for Africa, the area which was occupied by the Herero was known as Damaraland.
The Nama were pastorals and traders, and lived to the south of the Herero.
In 1883, Adolf Lüderitz, a German merchant, purchased a stretch of coast near Lüderitz Bay (Angra Pequena) from the reigning chief. The terms of the purchase were fraudulent, but the German government nonetheless established a protectorate over it. At that time, it was the only overseas German territory deemed suitable for European settlement.
Chief of the neighbouring Herero, Maherero rose to power by uniting all the Herero. Faced with repeated attacks by the Khowesin, a clan of the Khoekhoe under Hendrik Witbooi, he signed a protection treaty on the 21st. October 1885 with Imperial Germany's colonial governor Heinrich Ernst Göring (father of World War I flying ace and World War II convicted war criminal Hermann Göring), but did not cede the land of the Herero.
This treaty was renounced in 1888 due to lack of German support against Witbooi, but it was reinstated in 1890.
The Herero leaders repeatedly complained about violation of this treaty, as Herero women and girls were raped by Germans, a crime that the German judges and prosecutors were reluctant to punish.
In 1890 Maherero's son, Samuel, signed a great deal of land over to the Germans in return for helping him to ascend to the Herero throne, and to subsequently be established as paramount chief.
German involvement in ethnic fighting ended in tenuous peace in 1894. In that year, Theodor Leutwein became governor of the territory, which underwent a period of rapid development, while the German government sent the Schutztruppe (imperial colonial troops) to pacify the region.
German Colonial Policy
Both German colonial authorities and European settlers envisioned a predominately white "new African Germany," wherein the native populations would be put onto reservations and their land distributed among settlers and companies.
Under German colonial rule, colonists were encouraged to seize land and cattle from the native Herero and Nama peoples and to subjugate them as slave laborers.
Resentment understandably brewed among the native populations over their loss of status and property to German ranchers arriving in South West Africa, and the dismantling of traditional political hierarchies. Previously ruling tribes were reduced to the same status as the other tribes they had previously ruled over and enslaved. This resentment contributed to the Herero Wars that began in 1904.
Major Theodor Leutwein, the Governor of German South West Africa, was well aware of the effect of the German colonial rule on the Hereros. He later wrote :
"The Hereros from early years were a freedom-loving
people, courageous and proud beyond measure. On
the one hand, there was the progressive extension of
German rule over them, and on the other their own
sufferings increasing from year to year."
The Dietrich Case
In January 1903, a German trader named Dietrich was walking from his homestead to the nearby town of Omaruru to buy a new horse. Halfway to Dietrich's destination, a wagon carrying the son of a Herero chief, his wife, and their son stopped by. As a common courtesy in Hereroland, the chief's son offered Dietrich a ride.
That night, however, Dietrich got very drunk and after everyone was asleep, he attempted to rape the wife of the chief's son. When she resisted, Dietrich shot her dead.
When he was tried for murder in Windhoek, Dietrich denied attempting to rape his victim. He alleged that he awoke thinking the camp was under attack, and had fired blindly into the darkness. The killing of the Herero woman, he claimed, was an unfortunate accident. The court acquitted him, alleging that Dietrich was suffering from "tropical fever" and temporary insanity.
The murder aroused extraordinary interest in Hereroland, especially since the murdered woman had been the wife of the son of a Chief and the daughter of another. Everywhere the question was asked:
"Have white people the right
to shoot native women?"
Governor Leutwein intervened. He made the Public Prosecutor appeal Dietrich's acquittal. A second trial took place (before the colony's supreme court), and this time Dietrich was found guilty of manslaughter and imprisoned.
The move prompted violent objections of German settlers who considered Leutwein a "race traitor".
Rising Tension
In 1903, some of the Nama clans rose in revolt under the leadership of Hendrik Witbooi. A number of factors led the Herero to join them in January 1904.
(a) Land Rights
One of the major issues was land rights. In 1903 the Herero learned of a plan to divide their territory with a railway line and to set up reservations where they would be concentrated.
The Herero had already ceded more than a quarter of their 130,000 km2 (50,000 sq mi) territory to German colonists by 1903, before the Otavi railway line running from the African coast to inland German settlements was completed.
Completion of this line would have made the German colonies much more accessible, and would have ushered in a new wave of Europeans into the area.
Historian Horst Drechsler states that there was discussion of establishing and placing the Herero in native reserves, and that this was further proof of the German colonists' sense of ownership over the land.
Drechsler illustrates the gap between the rights of a European and an African; the Reichskolonialbund (German Colonial League) held that, in regards to legal matters, the testimony of seven Africans was equivalent to that of one colonist.
(b) Racial Tensions
There were also racial tensions underlying these developments; the average German colonist viewed native Africans as a lowly source of cheap labour, and others welcomed their extermination. The German settlers often referred to black Africans as "baboons" and treated them with contempt.
One missionary reported:
"The real cause of the bitterness among the Hereros
toward the Germans is without question the fact that
the average German looks down upon the natives as
being about on the same level as the higher primates
('baboon' being their favourite term for the natives),
and treat them like animals.
The settler holds that the native has a right to exist only
in so far as he is useful to the white man. This sense of
contempt led the settlers to commit violence against
the Hereros."
The contempt manifested itself particularly in the concubinage of native women. In a practice referred to in Südwesterdeutsch as Verkafferung, native women were taken by male European traders and ranchers both willingly and by force.
(c) Debt Collection
A new policy on debt collection, enforced in November 1903, also played a role in the uprising. For many years, the Herero population had fallen in the habit of borrowing money from colonist moneylenders at extremely high interest rates.
For a long time, much of this debt went uncollected, and it accumulated, as most Herero had no means to pay. In order to correct this growing problem, Governor Leutwein decreed with good intentions that all debts not paid within the following year would be voided.
In the absence of hard cash, traders often seized cattle, or whatever objects of value they could get their hands on, as collateral. This fostered a feeling of resentment towards the Germans on the part of the Herero people. Resentment escalated to hopelessness when they saw that German officials were sympathetic to the moneylenders who were about to lose what they were owed.
Revolts
In 1903, the Hereros saw an opportunity to revolt. At that time, there was a distant Khoisan tribe in the south called the Bondelzwarts, who resisted German demands to register their guns. The Bondelzwarts engaged in a firefight with the German authorities which led to three Germans being killed and a fourth wounded.
The situation deteriorated further, and the governor of the Herero colony, Major Theodor Leutwein, went south to take personal command, leaving almost no troops in the north.
The Herero revolted in early 1904, killing between 123 and 150 German settlers, as well as seven Boers and three women, in what Nils Ole Oermann calls a "desperate surprise attack".
The timing of their attack was carefully planned. After successfully asking a large Herero clan to surrender their weapons, Governor Leutwein was convinced that they and the rest of the native population were essentially pacified, and so withdrew half of the German troops stationed in the colony.
Led by Chief Samuel Maherero, the Herero surrounded Okahandja and cut railroad and telegraph links to Windhoek, the colonial capital.
Maharero then issued a manifesto in which he forbade his troops to kill any Englishmen, Boers, uninvolved peoples, women and children in general, or German missionaries.
The Herero revolts catalysed a separate revolt and attack on Fort Namutoni in the north of the country a few weeks later by the Ondonga.
A Herero warrior interviewed by German authorities in 1895 had described his people's traditional way of dealing with suspected cattle rustlers, a treatment which, during the uprising, was regularly extended to German soldiers and civilians:
"We came across a few Khoisan whom of course
we killed. I myself helped to kill one of them.
-- First we cut off his ears, saying, 'You will never
hear Herero cattle lowing.'
-- Then we cut off his nose, saying, 'Never again
shall you smell Herero cattle.'
-- And then we cut off his lips, saying, 'You shall
never again taste Herero cattle.'
And finally we cut his throat."
According to Robert Gaudi:
"Leutwein knew that the wrath of the German Empire
was about to fall on them and hoped to soften the
blow. He sent desperate messages to Chief Samuel
Maherero in hopes of negotiating an end to the war.
In this, Leutwein acted on his own, heedless of the
prevailing mood in Germany, which called for bloody
revenge."
The Hereros, however, were emboldened by their success and had come to believe that the Germans were too cowardly to fight in the open. They rejected Leutwein's offers of peace.
One missionary wrote:
"The Germans are filled with fearful hate. I must really
call it a blood thirst against the Hereros. One hears
nothing but talk of 'cleaning up,' 'executing,' 'shooting
down to the last man,' 'no pardon,' etc."
According to Robert Gaudi:
"The Germans suffered more than defeat in the early
months of 1904; they suffered humiliation, their brilliant
modern army unable to defeat a rabble of 'half-naked
savages.'
Cries in the Reichstag, and from the Kaiser himself, for
total eradication of the Hereros grew strident. When a
leading member of the Social Democratic Party pointed
out that the Hereros were as human as any German and
possessed immortal souls, he was howled down by the
entire conservative side of the legislature."
Leutwein was forced to request reinforcements and an experienced officer from the German government in Berlin. Lieutenant-General Lothar von Trotha was appointed commander-in-chief (German: Oberbefehlshaber) of South West Africa, arriving with an expeditionary force of 10,000 troops on the 11th. June 1904.
Leutwein was subordinate to the civilian Colonial Department of the Prussian Foreign Office, which was supported by Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow, while General Trotha reported to the military German General Staff, which was supported by Emperor Wilhelm II.
Leutwein wanted to defeat the most determined Herero rebels and negotiate a surrender with the remainder in order to achieve a political settlement. Trotha, however, planned to crush the native resistance through military force. He stated that:
"My intimate knowledge of many central African
nations (Bantu and others) has everywhere
convinced me of the necessity that the Negro
does not respect treaties, but only brute force."
By late spring of 1904, German troops were pouring into the colony. In August 1904, the main Herero forces were surrounded and crushed at the Battle of Waterberg.
Genocide
In 1900, Kaiser Wilhelm II had been enraged by the killing of Baron Clemens von Ketteler, the Imperial German minister plenipotentiary in Beijing, during the Boxer Rebellion. The Kaiser took it as a personal insult from a people he viewed as racially inferior, all the more because of his obsession with the "Yellow Peril".
On the 27th. July 1900, the Kaiser gave the infamous Hunnenrede (Hun speech) in Bremerhaven to German soldiers being sent to Imperial China, ordering them to show the Boxers no mercy, and to behave like Attila's Huns.
General von Trotha had served in China, and was chosen in 1904 to command the expedition to German South West Africa precisely because of his record in China.
In 1904, the Kaiser was made furious by the latest revolt in his colonial empire by a people whom he also viewed as inferior, and took the Herero rebellion as a personal insult, just as he had viewed the Boxers' assassination of Baron von Ketteler.
The tactless and bloodthirsty language that Wilhelm II used about the Herero people in 1904 is strikingly similar to the language he had used about the Chinese Boxers in 1900. Nevertheless, the Kaiser denied, together with Chancellor von Bülow, von Trotha's request to quickly quell the rebellion.
No written order by Wilhelm II ordering or authorising genocide has survived. In February 1945 an Allied bombing raid destroyed the building housing all of the documents of the Prussian Army from the Imperial period.
Despite this fact, surviving documents indicate that Trotha used the same tactics in Namibia that he had used in China, only on a much vaster scale. It is also known that throughout the genocide, Trotha sent regular reports to both the General Staff and to the Kaiser.
Historian Jeremy-Sarkin Hughes believes that regardless of whether or not a written order was given, the Kaiser must have given General von Trotha verbal orders. According to Hughes, the fact that Trotha was decorated and not court-martialed after the genocide had become public knowledge lends support to the thesis that he was acting under orders.
General von Trotha stated his proposed solution to end the resistance of the Herero people in a letter, before the Battle of Waterberg:
"I believe that the nation as such should be annihilated,
or, if this is not possible by tactical measures, have to be
expelled from the country. This will be possible if the water-
holes from Grootfontein to Gobabis are occupied.
The constant movement of our troops will enable us to
find the small groups of this nation who have moved
backwards, and destroy them gradually."
Trotha's troops defeated 3,000–5,000 Herero combatants at the Battle of Waterberg on 11th. and 12th. August 1904, but were unable to encircle and annihilate the retreating survivors.
The pursuing German forces prevented groups of Herero from breaking from the main body of the fleeing force, and pushed them further into the desert. As exhausted Herero fell to the ground, unable to go on, German soldiers killed men, women, and children. Jan Cloete, acting as a guide for the Germans, witnessed the atrocities committed by the German troops, and deposed the following statement:
"I was present when the Herero were defeated in a
battle in the vicinity of Waterberg. After the battle all
men, women, and children who fell into German hands,
wounded or otherwise, were mercilessly put to death.
Then the Germans set off in pursuit of the rest, and all
those found by the wayside and in the sandveld were
shot down and bayoneted to death.
The mass of the Herero men were unarmed and thus
unable to offer resistance. They were just trying to get
away with their cattle."
A portion of the Herero escaped the Germans and went to the Omaheke Desert, hoping to reach British Bechuanaland; fewer than 1,000 Herero managed to get there, where they were granted asylum by the British authorities.
To prevent them from returning, Trotha ordered the desert to be sealed off. German patrols later found skeletons around holes 13 m (43 ft) deep that had been dug in a vain attempt to find water. Some sources also state that the German colonial army systematically poisoned desert water wells.
Maherero and 500–1,500 men crossed the Kalahari into Bechuanaland where he was accepted as a vassal of the Batswana chief Sekgoma.
On the 2nd. October 1904, Trotha issued a warning to the Herero:
"I, the great general of the German soldiers, send this
letter to the Herero. The Herero are German subjects
no longer. They have killed, stolen, cut off the ears
and other parts of the body of wounded soldiers, and
now are too cowardly to want to fight any longer.
I announce to the people that whoever hands me one
of the chiefs shall receive 1,000 marks, and 5,000
marks for Samuel Maherero.
The Herero nation must now leave the country. If it
refuses, I shall compel it to do so with the 'long tube'
[cannon].
Any Herero found inside the German frontier, with or
without a gun or cattle, will be executed. I shall spare
neither women nor children. I shall give the order to
drive them away and fire on them. Such are my words
to the Herero people."
Trotha further gave orders that:
"This proclamation is to be read to the troops at roll-call,
with the addition that the unit that catches a captain will
also receive the appropriate reward, and that the shooting
at women and children is to be understood as shooting
above their heads, so as to force them to run away.
I assume absolutely that this proclamation will result in
taking no more male prisoners, but will not degenerate
into atrocities against women and children. The latter will
run away if one shoots at them a couple of times. The
troops will remain conscious of the good reputation of
the German soldier."
Trotha gave orders that captured Herero males were to be executed, while women and children were to be driven into the desert where their death from starvation and thirst was to be certain.
Trotha argued that there was no need to make exceptions for Herero women and children, since these would "infect German troops with their diseases."
Trotha explained that:
"The insurrection is and remains
the beginning of a racial struggle."
After the war, Trotha argued that his orders were necessary, writing in 1909 that:
"If I had made the small water holes accessible
to the womenfolk, I would run the risk of an African
catastrophe comparable to the Battle of Beresonia."
The German general staff were aware of the atrocities that were taking place; its official publication, named Der Kampf, noted that:
"This bold enterprise shows up in the most brilliant
light the ruthless energy of the German command
in pursuing their beaten enemy.
No pains, no sacrifices were spared in eliminating
the last remnants of enemy resistance. Like a
wounded beast the enemy was tracked down from
one water-hole to the next, until finally he became
the victim of his own environment.
The arid Omaheke Desert was to complete what
the German army had begun: the extermination of
the Herero nation."
Alfred von Schlieffen (Chief of the Imperial German General Staff and architect of the Great War Schlieffen Plan) approved of Trotha's intentions in terms of a "racial struggle" and the need to wipe out the entire nation or to drive them out of the country, but had doubts about his strategy, preferring their surrender.
Governor Leutwein, later relieved of his duties, complained to Chancellor von Bülow about Trotha's actions, seeing the general's orders as intruding upon the civilian colonial jurisdiction, and ruining any chance of a political settlement.
According to Professor Mahmood Mamdani of Columbia University, opposition to the policy of annihilation was largely due to the fact that colonial officials looked at the Herero people as a potential source of labour, and thus economically important. For instance, Governor Leutwein wrote that:
"I do not concur with those fanatics who want to
see the Herero destroyed altogether. I would
consider such a move a grave mistake from an
economic point of view. We need the Herero as
cattle breeders, and especially as labourers.
Having no authority over the military, Chancellor Bülow could only advise Emperor Wilhelm II that:
"Trotha's actions are contrary to Christian and
humanitarian principle, economically devastating
and damaging to Germany's international
reputation".
Upon the arrival of new orders at the end of 1904, prisoners were herded into labor camps, where they were given to private companies as slave labourers, or exploited as human guinea pigs in medical experiments.
Concentration Camps
Survivors of the massacre, the majority of whom were women and children, were eventually put in places like Shark Island concentration camp, where the German authorities forced them to work as slave labour for the German military and settlers.
All prisoners were categorised into groups fit and unfit for work, and pre-printed death certificates indicating "death by exhaustion following privation" were issued. The British government published their well-known account of the German genocide of the Nama and Herero peoples in 1918.
Many Herero and Nama died of disease, exhaustion, starvation and malnutrition. Estimates of the mortality rate at the camps are between 45% and 74%.
Food in the camps was extremely scarce, consisting of rice with no additions. As the prisoners lacked pots and the rice they received was uncooked, it was indigestible. Horses and oxen that died in the camp were later distributed to the inmates as food.
Dysentery and lung diseases were common. Despite the living conditions, the prisoners were taken outside the camp every day for labour under harsh treatment by the German guards, while the sick were left without any medical assistance or nursing care. Many Herero and Nama were worked to death.
Shootings, hangings, beatings, and other harsh treatment of the forced labourers (including use of sjamboks) were common. A sjambok is a long, stiff whip, originally made from rhinoceros hide.
A 28th. September 1905 article in the South African newspaper Cape Argus detailed some of the abuse with the heading:
"In German S. W. Africa: Further Startling
Allegations: Horrible Cruelty".
In an interview with Percival Griffith, "an accountant of profession, who owing to hard times, took up on transport work at Angra Pequena, Lüderitz", related his experiences:
"There are hundreds of them, mostly women and
children and a few old men. When they fall they are
sjamboked by the soldiers in charge of the gang,
with full force, until they get up.
On one occasion I saw a woman carrying a child
of under a year old slung at her back, and with a
heavy sack of grain on her head - she fell.
The corporal sjamboked her for certainly more
than four minutes and sjamboked the baby as well.
The woman struggled slowly to her feet, and went
on with her load.
She did not utter a sound the whole time, but the
baby cried very hard."
During the war, a number of people from the Cape (in modern-day South Africa) sought employment as transport riders for German troops in Namibia. Upon their return to the Cape, some of these people recounted their stories, including those of the imprisonment and genocide of the Herero and Nama people. Fred Cornell, an aspiring British diamond prospector, was in Lüderitz when the Shark Island concentration camp was being used. Cornell wrote of the camp:
"Cold – for the nights are often bitterly cold there –
hunger, thirst, exposure, disease and madness
claimed scores of victims every day, and cartloads
of their bodies were every day carted over to the
back beach, buried in a few inches of sand at low
tide, and as the tide came in the bodies went out,
food for the sharks."
Shark Island was the worst of the German South West African camps. Lüderitz lies in southern Namibia, flanked by desert and ocean. In the harbour lies Shark Island, which then was connected to the mainland by only a small causeway.
The island is now, as it was then, barren and characterised by solid rock carved into surreal formations by the ocean winds. The camp was placed on the far end of the relatively small island, where the prisoners would have suffered complete exposure to the strong winds that sweep Lüderitz for most of the year.
German Commander Ludwig von Estorff wrote in a report that approximately 1,700 prisoners (including 1,203 Nama) had died by April 1907.
In December 1906, four months after their arrival, 291 Nama died (a rate of more than nine people per day). Missionary reports put the death rate at 12–18 per day; as many as 80% of the prisoners sent to Shark Island eventually died there.
There are accusations of Herero women being coerced into sex slavery as a means of survival.
Trotha was opposed to contact between natives and settlers, believing that the insurrection was "the beginning of a racial struggle," and fearing that the colonists would be infected by native diseases.
Benjamin Madley has concluded that although Shark Island is referred to as a concentration camp, it in fact functioned as an extermination camp or death camp.
Medical Experiments and Scientific Racism
Prisoners were used for medical experiments, and their illnesses or their recoveries from them were used for research.
Experiments on live prisoners were performed by Dr. Bofinger, who injected Herero who were suffering from scurvy with various substances including arsenic and opium; afterwards he researched the effects of these substances via autopsy.
Experimentation with the dead body parts of the prisoners was rife. Zoologist Leonhard Schultze (1872–1955) noted taking "body parts from fresh native corpses" which according to him, was "a welcome addition." He also noted that he could use prisoners for that purpose.
An estimated 300 skulls were sent to Germany for experimentation, in part from concentration camp prisoners. In October 2011, after three years of talks, the first 20 of an estimated 300 skulls stored in the museum of the Charité were returned to Namibia for burial. In 2014, 14 additional skulls were repatriated by the University of Freiburg.
The Number of Victims
A census conducted in 1905 revealed that 25,000 Herero remained in German South West Africa.
According to the Whitaker Report, the population of 80,000 Herero had been reduced to 15,000 "starving refugees" by 1907. In 'Colonial Genocide and Reparations Claims in the 21st. Century: The Socio-Legal Context of Claims under International Law by the Herero against Germany for Genocide in Namibia' by Jeremy Sarkin-Hughes, the number of 100,000 victims is given. Up to 80% of the indigenous population were killed.
A political cartoon on German South West Africa was run in 1906 with the following caption:
"Even if it hasn't brought in much profit and
there are no better quality goods on offer,
at least we can use it to set up a bone-
grinding plant."
Newspapers in 2004 reported 65,000 victims when announcing that Germany officially recognized the genocide.
Aftermath of the Genocide
With the closure of the concentration camps, all surviving Herero were distributed as labourers for settlers in the German colony. From that time on, all Herero over the age of seven were forced to wear a metal disc with their labour registration number. They were also banned from owning land or cattle, a necessity for pastoral society.
About 19,000 German troops were engaged in the conflict, of which 3,000 saw combat. The rest were used for upkeep and administration.
The German losses were 676 soldiers killed in combat, 76 missing, and 689 dead from disease. The Reiterdenkmal (English: Equestrian Monument) in Windhoek was erected in 1912 to celebrate the victory and to remember the fallen German soldiers and civilians. Until after Independence, no monument was built to the killed indigenous population. It remains a bone of contention in independent Namibia.
The campaign cost Germany 600 million marks. The normal annual subsidy to the colony was 14.5 million marks. In 1908, diamonds were discovered in the territory, and this did much to boost its prosperity, though it was short-lived.
In 1915, during the Great War, the German colony was taken over and occupied by the Union of South Africa, which was victorious in the South West Africa campaign. South Africa received a League of Nations mandate over South West Africa on the 17th. December 1920.
Link Between the Herero Genocide and the Holocaust
The Herero genocide has commanded the attention of historians who study issues of continuity between the Herero genocide and The Holocaust of WWII. It is argued that the Herero genocide set a precedent in Imperial Germany that would later be followed by Nazi Germany's establishment of death camps.
According to Benjamin Madley, the German experience in South West Africa was a crucial precursor to Nazi colonialism and genocide. He argues that personal connections, literature, and public debates served as conduits for communicating colonialist and genocidal ideas and methods from the colony to Germany.
Tony Barta, a research associate at La Trobe University, argues that the Herero genocide was an inspiration for Hitler in his war against the Jews, Slavs, Romani, and others whom he described as "non-Aryans".
According to Clarence Lusane, Eugen Fischer's medical experiments can be seen as a testing ground for medical procedures which were later followed during the Nazi Holocaust.
Fischer later became chancellor of the University of Berlin, where he taught medicine to Nazi physicians. Otmar von Verschuer was a student of Fischer; Verschuer himself had a prominent pupil, Josef Mengele.
Franz Ritter von Epp, who was later responsible for the liquidation of virtually all Bavarian Jews and Roma as governor of Bavaria, took part in the Herero and Nama genocide.
Mahmood Mamdani argues that the links between the Herero genocide and the Holocaust are beyond the execution of an annihilation policy and the establishment of concentration camps as there are also ideological similarities in the conduct of both genocides. He focuses on a written statement by General Trotha:
"I destroy the African tribes with streams
of blood. Only following this cleansing can
something new emerge, which will remain."
Mamdani takes note of the similarity between the aims of the General and of the Nazis. According to Mamdani, in both cases there was a Social Darwinist notion of "cleansing", after which "something new" would "emerge".
Reconciliation
In 1985, the United Nations' Whitaker Report classified the massacres as an attempt to exterminate the Herero and Nama peoples of South West Africa, and therefore one of the earliest cases of genocide in the 20th. century.
In 1998, German President Roman Herzog visited Namibia and met Herero leaders. Chief Munjuku Nguvauva demanded a public apology and compensation. Herzog expressed regret but stopped short of an apology. He pointed out that international law requiring reparation did not exist in 1907, but he undertook to take the Herero petition back to the German government.
On the 16th. August 2004, on the 100th, anniversary of the start of the genocide, a member of the German government, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's Federal Minister for Economic Development and Cooperation, officially apologised and expressed grief about the genocide, declaring in a speech that:
"We Germans accept our historical and
moral responsibility and the guilt incurred
by Germans at that time.
She ruled out paying special compensation, but promised continued economic aid for Namibia which in 2004 amounted to $14M a year. This amount has been significantly increased since then, with the budget for the years 2016–17 allocating a sum total of €138M in monetary support payments.
The Trotha family travelled to Omaruru in October 2007 by invitation of the royal Herero chiefs and publicly apologised for the actions of their relative. Wolf-Thilo von Trotha said,
"We, the von Trotha family, are deeply ashamed
of the terrible events that took place 100 years
ago. Human rights were grossly abused that time."
Negotiations and Agreement
The Herero filed a lawsuit in the United States in 2001 demanding reparations from the German government and Deutsche Bank, which financed the German government and companies in Southern Africa.
With a complaint filed with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in January 2017, descendants of the Herero and Nama people sued Germany for damages in the United States. The plaintiffs sued under the Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 U.S. law often invoked in human rights cases. Their proposed class-action lawsuit sought unspecified sums for thousands of descendants of the victims, for the "incalculable damages" that were caused.
Germany seeks to rely on its state immunity as implemented in US law as the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, arguing that, as a sovereign nation, it cannot be sued in US courts in relation to its acts outside the United States. In March 2019, the judge dismissed the claims due to the exceptions to sovereign immunity being too narrow for the case.
In September 2020, the Second Circuit stated that the claimants did not prove that money used to buy property in New York could be traced back to wealth resulting from the seized property, and therefore the lawsuit could not overcome Germany's immunity. In June 2021, the Supreme Court declined to hear a petition to revive the case.
Germany, while admitting brutality in Namibia, at first refused to call it a "genocide", claiming that the term only became international law in 1945.
However, in July 2015, then foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier issued a political guideline stating that the massacre should be referred to as a "war crime and a genocide". Bundestag president Norbert Lammert wrote an article in Die Zeit that same month referring to the events as a genocide. These events paved the way for negotiations with Namibia.
In 2015, the German government began negotiations with Namibia over a possible apology, and by 2016, Germany committed itself to apologizing for the genocide, as well as to refer to the event as a genocide; but the actual declaration was postponed while negotiations stalled over questions of compensation.
On the 11th. August 2020, following negotiations over a potential compensation agreement between Germany and Namibia, President Hage Geingob of Namibia stated that the German government's offer was "not acceptable", while German envoy Ruprecht Polenz said:
"I am still optimistic that a
solution can be found."
On the 28th. May 2021, the German government announced that it was formally recognizing the atrocities committed as a genocide, following five years of negotiations. The declaration was made by foreign minister Heiko Maas, who also stated that Germany was asking Namibia and the descendants of the genocide victims for forgiveness.
In addition to recognizing the events as a genocide, Germany agreed to give as a "gesture of recognition of the immeasurable suffering" €1.1 billion in aid to the communities impacted by the genocide.
Following the announcement, the agreement needs to be ratified by both countries' parliaments, after which Germany will send its president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to officially apologize for the genocide. The nations agreed not to use the term "reparation" to describe the financial aid package.
The agreement was criticized by the chairman of the Namibian Genocide Association, Laidlaw Peringanda, who insisted that Germany should purchase their ancestral lands back from the descendants of the German settlers and return it to the Herero and Nama people.
The agreement was also criticized because negotiations were held solely between the German and Namibian governments, and did not include representatives of the Herero and Nama people.
Repatriation of the Skulls
Peter Katjavivi, a former Namibian ambassador to Germany, demanded in August 2008 that the skulls of Herero and Nama prisoners of the 1904–1908 uprising, which were taken to Germany for scientific research to claim the superiority of white Europeans over Africans, be returned to Namibia.
Katjavivi was reacting to a German television documentary which reported that its investigators had found more than 40 of these skulls at two German universities, among them probably the skull of a Nama chief who had died on Shark Island.
In September 2011 the skulls were returned to Namibia. In August 2018, Germany returned all of the remaining skulls and other human remains which were examined in Germany to scientifically promote white supremacy. This was the third such transfer, and shortly before it occurred, German Protestant bishop Petra Bosse-Huber stated:
"Today, we want to do what should have been
done many years ago – to give back to their
descendants the remains of people who
became victims of the first genocide of the
20th. century."
As part of the repatriation process, the German government announced on the 17th. May 2019 that it would return a stone symbol it took from Namibia in the 1900's.
The Genocide in the Media
-- A BBC documentary, 'Namibia – Genocide and the Second Reich' (2005), explores the Herero and Nama genocide and the circumstances surrounding it.
-- In the documentary '100 Years of Silence', filmmakers Halfdan Muurholm and Casper Erichsen portray a 23-year-old Herero woman, whose great-grandmother was raped by a German soldier. The documentary explores the past and the way Namibia deals with it now.
-- Mama Namibia, a historical novel by Mari Serebrov, provides two perspectives of the 1904 genocide in German South West Africa. The first is that of Jahohora, a 12-year-old Herero girl who survives on her own in the veld for two years after her family is killed by German soldiers. The second story is that of Kov, a Jewish doctor who volunteered to serve in the German military to prove his patriotism. As he witnesses the atrocities of the genocide, he rethinks his loyalty to the Fatherland.
-- Thomas Pynchon's novel 'V'. (1963) has a chapter that included recollections of the genocide; there are memories of events that took place in 1904 in various locations, including the Shark Island concentration camp.
-- Jackie Sibblies Drury's play, 'We Are Proud To Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia Between the Years 1884–1915', is about a group of actors developing a play about the Herero and Nama genocide.
Copyright © John G. Lidstone, all rights reserved.
It is an offence under law if you remove my copyright marking, or post this image anywhere else without my express written permission.
Some background:
]The VF-4 Lightning III began development in 2005 under the initial designation of the VF-X-4. Developed as a successor craft to the VF-1 Valkyrie, the VF-4 Lightning III was designed as a variable fighter that emphasized mobility in outer space.
The VF-4's development began with the prototype VF-X-4 and the VF-X-3. However, when Earth was devastated in Space War I the loss of military facilities also resulted in loss of the VF-X-3. Amongst the airframes under development exist prototype No. 1 craft, VF-X-4V1 and the trial manufactured VF-4A-0 and thus the surviving VF-X-4 was developed and completed as the VF-4 Lightning III. A trial-produced variable fighter, designated the VF-4A-0, was also built using 25% VF-1 Valkyrie parts.
VF-X-4 underwent flight tests, including being test piloted by Space War I veteran Hikaru Ichijo. Once successful operational models were ready, the VF-4 began mass production on February 2012. Initial deployment began on the SDF-2 Megaroad-01 in VF-1 Skull and SVF-184 Iron Chiefs Squadrons on September 2012. When the SDF-2 Megaroad launched in the same month, Hikaru Ichijō flew a VF-4 alongside the new colonization vessel as the ship lifted from Earth and began exploration outside of the Sol system.
As a result of integrating existing Overtechnology and Zentradi-series technology, the VF-4 had a characteristic three-hulled-type airframe structure remarkably different from the conservative VF-1 Valkyrie design. The three-hulled style of the VF-4 increased fuselage volume, propellant capacity and armament load capability that all resulted in a 40% improved combat ability over the VF-1. Fully transformable, the VF-4 could shift into Battroid and Gerwalk modes like previous variable fighters.
However, the VF-4 did suffer minor mobility problems within an atmosphere and the new type was primarily deployed to the Space Air Corps of emigrant fleets to serve as the main fighter craft of the UN Forces in the 2020s. It was because flight performance within the atmosphere was not as good as the VF-1 that the VF-5000 Star Mirage became the main combat craft within atmosphere, while the VF-4 operated mainly in outer space.
Built as a space fighter, the VF-4 primary weapons became two large beam cannons, though the craft was capable of carrying a GU-11 gun pod in Gerwalk and Battroid modes. In addition to the powerful primary beam guns, the Lightning III also featured twelve semi-recessed long-range missiles, as well as underwing pylons for additional missiles and other stores.
The VF-4 was only slightly heavier than the VF-1, but featured considerably more powerful engines, making the craft ideal for operations deeper out in space. The Lightning III was also much faster in the atmosphere than the older VF-1, although the VF-4’s flight mobility performance was not as great.
The VF-4 was also notable as the first production variable fighter to utilize a HOTAS system (Hands On Throttle And Stick) for the cockpit HMI (Human-Machine Interface). Furthermore, the VF-4's cockpit was laid out as a single hexagonal MFD (Multi-Function Display) that proved so successful that it was retrofitted into "Block 6" VF-1 fighters, as well as providing the template for all future variable fighter cockpits.
By the end of 2015, mass production of the VF-1 series at last had come to an end. From 2020 onward, the VF-4 Lightning III officially replaced the VF-1 to become the main variable fighter of U.N. Forces. Production of the VF-4 continued for a decade and ceased in 2022, with a total of 8,245 Lightning III variable fighters produced.
The VF-4 variable fighter remained in active service into the late 2040's but was complemented or substituted in many branches of the UN Forces by the cheaper and more atmospherically maneuverable VF-5000 Star Mirage. The VF-4 Lightning III was eventually replaced as the main variable fighter of U.N. Spacy in the later half of the 2030s by the VF-11 Thunderbolt.
General characteristics:
Manufacturer: Stonewell/Bellcom
Equipment Type: Variable fighter
Government: U.N. Spacy, U.N. Space Marines
Introduction: 2012
Operational Deployment: September 2012
Dimensions:
Accommodation: pilot only
Fighter Mode: wingspan 12.65 meters; height 5.31 meters; length 16.8 meters
Mass: empty 13.95 metric tons
Structure: space metal frame, SWAG energy conversion armor
Powerplant:
2x Shinnakasu/P&W/Roice FF-2011 thermonuclear turbine engines,
rated at 14,000 kg (137.34 kN) each
2x dorsal rocket engines (mounted on top of the main thermonuclear turbine engines)
2x ramjet engines (embedded into the inner wing sections)
P&W HMM-1A high-maneuverability vernier thrusters
Performance:
Fighter Mode: Mach 3.02 at 10,000 m
Mach 5.15 at 30,000+ m
Thrust-to-weight ratio: (empty) 2.01 (rating for turbine engine thrust ONLY)
g limit: unknown
[Armament:
2 x large beam cannons in forward engine nacelles
12x semi-recessed long range missiles (mounted on engine nacelles and ventral fuselage)
8x underwing pylons for missiles, gun pods an/or drop tanks
The kit and its assembly:
Well, this build has been lingering for almost 25 years in the back of my mind. It just took so long that a suitable IP kit (with a reasonable price tag) would materialize!
The original inspiration struck me with a VF-4 profile in the source book "This is animation special: Macross PLUS" from 1994, which accidently fell into my hands in a local Japanese book store. Among others, a side and top view profile of an aggressor VF-4 in an all-brown, Soviet-style paint scheme was featured. At that time I found the idea and the scheme pretty cool, so much that I even built a modified 1:100 VF-1 as a ground attack aircraft in this paint scheme.
However, the original VF-4 profile from the source book had always been present, but for years there had been no affordable kit. There have been garage/resin kits, but prices would start at EUR 250,-, and these things were and are extraordinarily rare.
Things changed for the better when WAVE announced an 1:72 VF-4 kit in late 2016, and it eventually materialized in late 2017. I immediately pre-ordered one from Japan (in a smart move, this even saved money) and it eventually turned up here in Germany in early 2018. Patience pays out, it seems...
I had preferred a 1:100 kit, though, due to space issues and since almost any other Macross variable fighter model in my collection is in this small scale, but I am happy that a decent VF-4 kit at all appeared after so many years!
Concerning the WAVE kit, there’s light and shadow. First of all, you have to know that you get a VF-4A. This is mentioned nowhere on the box, but might be a vital information for hardcore modelers. The early VF-4A is a rather different aircraft than the later VF-4G, with so fundamental differences that it would warrant a completely new kit! On the other side, with a look at the kit’s parts, I could imagine that a VF-4B two-seater could be easily realized in the future, too.
The kit is a solid construction, a snap-fit kit molded in different colors so that it can be built without painting. This sounds toy-like, but - like many small scale Bandai Valkyrie kits - anything you ask for is actually there. When you use glue and put some effort into the kit and some donor parts, you can make a very good model from it.
The kit's box is pretty oversized, though (any sprue is shrink-wrapped, horrendous garbage pile and wasted space!), and the kit offers just a single decal (water-slide decals, not stickers) option for a Skull Squadron VF-4A – AFAIK it’s Hikaru Ichijoe’s machine that appears in one of the Macross Flash Back 2012 music videos, as it escorts the SDF-02 “Megaroad” colonial ship after launch from Earth towards the center of our Galaxy.
The parts are crisply molded, and I actually like the fact that the kit is not as uber-engineered as the Hasegawa Valkyries. You can actually call the WAVE kit simple - but in a positive sense, because the parts number is reduced to a minimum, material strength is solid and the kit's construction is straightforward. Fit is excellent – I just used some putty along the engine gondolas due to their complex shape, but almost anything else would either fit almost perfectly or just call for some sanding. Impressive!
Surface details etc. are rather basic, but very crisp and emphasized enough that anything remains visible after adding some paint. However, after all, this aircraft is just a fictional animation mecha, and from this perspective the kit is really O.K..
After building the kit I most say that it's nothing that leaves you in awe, and for a retail price of currently roundabout EUR 50-70,- (I was lucky to get it for an early bird deal at EUR 40,-, but still pricey for what I got) the kit is pretty expensive and has some weaknesses:
The model comes with a decent (= simple) cockpit and a very nice and large pilot figure, but with no ordnance except for the semi-recessed long-range missiles (see below). The cockpit lacks any side consoles, floor or side wall details. If you put the pilot into the cockpit as intended, this is not a big issue, since the figure blocks any sight into the cockpit’s lower regions. However, the side sticks are molded into the pilot’s hands, so that you have to scratch a lot if you want to present the cockpit open and with an empty seat.
The landing gear is simple, too, and the wells are very shallow (even though they feature interior details). As a special feature, you can switch with some extra parts between an extended or retracted landing gear, and there are extra parts that allow the air intakes and some vectoring nozzles to be closed/extended for orbital operations. However, detail fetishists might replace the OOB parts with the landing gear from an 1:72 F-18 for an overall better look.
Provisions for underwing hardpoints are actually molded into the lower fuselage part (and could be punched/drilled open - another indication that more VF-4 boxings with extra sprues might follow?), but the kit does not come with any pylons or other ordnance than the dozen fuselage-mounted AAMs. Furthermore, the semi-recessed missiles are just that: you only get the visible halves of the only provided ordnance, which are simply stuck into slits on the model’s surface. As a consequence, you have to mount them at any rate – building a VF-4 for a diorama in which the missiles are about to be loaded would require massive scratch-building efforts and modifications.
Another problem indirectly arises when you put some effort into the kit and want to clean and pre-paint the missiles before assembly: every missile is different and has its allocated place on the VF-4 hull. The missiles are numbered – but only on the sprue! Once you cut them out, you either have to keep them painstakingly in order, or you will spend a long evening figuring out where which missile belongs! This could be easily avoided if the part number would be engraved on the missiles’ back sides – and that’s what I actually did (with a water-proof pen, though) in order to avoid trouble.
The clear canopy is another issue. The two parts are crystal-clear, but, being a snap-fit kit, the canopy parts have to be clipped into the fuselage (rear part) and onto a separate canopy frame (front part). In order to fit, the clear parts have cramps molded into their bases – and due to the excellent transparency and a magnifier effect, you can see them easily from the outside – and on the inside, when you leave the cockpit open. It’s not a pretty solution, despite the perfect fit of the parts.
One option I can think of is to carefully sand the cramps and the attachment points away, but I deem this a hazardous stunt. I eventually hid the cramps behind a thin line of paint, which simulates a yellow-ish canopy seal. The extra windscreen framing is not accurate, but the simplest solution that hides this weak point.
The kit itself was built OOB, because it goes together so well. I also refrained from adding pylons and ordnance – even though you can easily hang anything from Hasegawa’s VF-1 weapon set under the VF-4’s wings and fuselage. A final, small addition was a scratched, ventral adapter for a 3.5 mm steel rod, as a display for the flight scene beauty pic.
Painting and markings:
As mentioned above, the livery is based on an official profile which I deem authentic and canonical. My aircraft depicts a different machine from VFT-127, though, since I could not (and did not really want to) 100% replicate the profile's machine from the Macross PLUS source book, "13 Red". Especially the squadron’s emblem on the fin would create massive problems.
For the two-tone wrap-around scheme I used Humbrol 72 (Khaki Drill) and 98 (Chocolate Brown), based on the printed colors in the source book where I found the scheme. The pattern is kept close to the benchmark profile, and, lacking an underside view, I just mirrored the upper scheme. The starboard side pattern was guesstimated.
As a second-line aggressor aircraft, I weathered the VF-4 with a black ink wash, some post-shading with various lighter tones (including Humbrol 160, 168, 170 and 187) and did some wet-sanding treatment for an uneven and worn look.
Interior surfaces were painted according to visual references from various sources: the landing gear and the air intakes became white, while the cockpit was painted in RAF Dark Sea Grey.
In order to add some color to the overall brown aircraft I decided to paint the missiles all around the hull in white with tan tips – in the profile, the appear to be integrated into the camouflage, what I found dubious.
Most stencils come from the OOB sheet, but I added some more from the scrap box. The grey "kite" roundels come from an 1:72 Hasegawa Macross F-14 Tomcat kit sheet, which I acquired separately for a reasonable price. Even though it took four weeks to be delivered from Asia, the investment was worthwhile, since the sheet also provided some useful low-viz stencils.
The VAT-127 “Zentraedi Busters” unique tail insignia was more complicated, because these had to be printed at home. As a side note, concerning the fin marking, I recently found a translation of the benchmark profile's text on mahq.net, which is interesting: "The Regult within the targeting reticle on the tail met with disapproval from micronized Zentraedi pilots, and so was only used for a short time." The comment also reveals that the original aircraft's modex is "713", not just "13" as depicted, so I tried to reflect these details on my build, too.
I eventually settled for a solution that was partly inspired by the kit’s OOB fin marking and the wish for more contrast for the motif: I scanned the original Regult pod illustration from the source book and printed it on white decal sheet. This was sealed with two layers of glossy acrylic varnish (applied with a rattle can) and then cut into a white field that fills the fixed part of the fin (using the WAVE kit’s OOB fin markings as reference). Once in place and dry, two black outlines were added separately (generic decal material) which help blend the decal and the surroundings. Finally, thin strips of silver decal sheet were used for the fins’ leading edges.
This design variation, compared with the original “13 Red” illustration, led to the idea of a flight leader’s machine with slightly more prominent markings. In order to take this concept further I also gave the aircraft a white stripe around the front fuselage, placed under the kite roundel and again with black outlines for a consistent look. It’s not much different from “13 Red”, but I think that it looks conclusive and, together with the white fin markings and the missiles, livens up the VF-4’s look.
The appropriate flight leader tactical code “01 Red” was puzzled together from single digits from a Begemot Su-27 sheet, the rest of the bort numbers were taken from the OOB sheet (which incidentally feature a “01” code, too).
Concerning the OOB decal sheet, there’s much light but also some deep shadow. While the register is excellent and the carrier film flexible enough to lay down smoothly, the instructions lack information where to place the zillion of stencils (“No step” and “Beware of Blast” stuff) are to be placed! You only get references for the major markings – the rest has either to be guessed, OR you are in possession of the VF-4 source book from Softbank Publishing which was (incidentally?) released in parallel with the WAVE kit. This mecha porn offers an overview of all(!) relevant stencils on the VF-4A’s hull, and ONLY with this information the exhaustive decal sheet makes some sense…
As final steps, the VF-4 received some dry-brushing with light grey around the leading edges, some chipped paint was simulated with dry-brushed aluminum and, finally, light soot stains around the vectoring nozzles all around the hull and the weapon bays were created with graphite. Then the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).
Well, in the end, it’s not a carbon copy of the inspiring illustration, but rather another machine from the same squadron, with more creative freedom. I stayed as true to the benchmark as possible, though, and I like the result. Finally, after almost 25 years, I can tick this project off of my long ideas and inspiration list.
Considering the kit itself, I am really torn. I am happy that there finally is a VF-4 IP kit at all after so many years, but to me it’s a contradictive offer. I am not certain about the target group, because for a toy-like snap-fit kit it’s too detailed and expensive, but for the serious modeler it has some major flaws.
The biggest issue is the kit’s horrendous price – even if it would be more detailed or contained some fine resin or PE parts (which I would not want, just a “good” plastic kit). Sure, you can put some effort into the kit and improve it, e .g. in the cockpit or with a donor landing gear, but weak points like the “flat” missiles and the lack of proper bays for them are IMHO poor. For the relatively huge price tag I’d hoped for a “better” OOB offer. However, the kit is easy to build and a good representation of the Lightning III, and I am curious if there are kit variants in WAVE’s pipeline?
Hand-held at f/2.8
Point of focus just below centre.
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The kit and its assembly:
A simple and rather subtle what-if build – or that was what I thought it to be. When I read the Hawker Hurricane book from the “Planes and Pilots” series, I came across several aircraft in early SEAC markings and wondered about a Buffalo with blue 18” roundels – the RAF machines could have carried these markings in early 1942, and that became the model’s simple concept.
The kit is the Matchbox Buffalo. It is rather simple but has the benefit of being a de-navalized export version with a different cowling and tail. On the other side it also features some (IMHO wrong) details from the USN version like the cuffed Curtiss Electric propeller, which should rather be slightly smaller uncuffed Hamilton Standard propeller, the life raft behind the pilot and the open sight. However, I did not want to invest a fortune into a Hasegawa kit (which has the different tail as an optional part). The Hobby Boss F2A is another cheap alternative, but it is an American carrier aircraft, just like the Airfix kit that even comes with rivets galore as an unwelcome bonus. The vintage Aoshima kit is also there, but no option anymore. Special Hobby also does an F2A – but it’s again the American Navy aircraft, and quite expensive.
The Matchbox Buffalo was basically built OOB, I just drilled up the gun ports and tried to make the engine louvres edges a little crisper, so that they rather look like outlets and not like un-PSRed seams. The flaps were lowered for a lively look. A British reflector sight was added to the cockpit as well as a retrofitted rear-view mirror to the canopy, and struts for the roll bar were mounted behind the pilot seat instead of the OOB life raft from the US Navy F2A. The propeller was replaced, too, because the Matchbox kit’s cuffed version also belongs onto an USN aircraft and not an export B-239/339. A scratched pitot was added to the port wing.
Real trouble struck the project when the plastic turned out to be brittle of age – and this showed in inconvenient places. A major issue became the landing gear: the delicate struts broke off just as I tried to carefully release the parts from the sprues. And the rather massive canopy suddenly “silvered” from many vertical micro-cracks after I had glued it into place – before that it just had a slightly milky tint, so that I still used it but left the cockpit closed. However, once in place the front section almost went blind (at first, I thought this was humidity from ink washings!), and I considered a vacu canopy replacement – but this turned out to be prohibitively expensive, and I retained the flaw. The landing gear had to be modified to work. The struts were glued back together with plastic and super glue, while the covers were replaced with thinner styrene sheet and the supporting struts were replaced with thinner material, too.
Painting and markings:
Straightforward choice, even though with detail twists. The Buffalo received the contemporary RAF Temperate Land Scheme, with upper camouflage in Dark Green and Dark Earth. Since the aircraft was supposed to be relatively freshly re-painted, I used stronger shades for the green and the brown, namely IJA Green from Modelmaster and Humbrol 26 (khaki matt, which is less reddish than Dark Earth but slightly darker). The underside was painted in a non-regular Sky Blue, a color that was used instead of Sky or Medium Sea Grey on some SEAC fighter aircraft. I used Humbrol 47 (Sea Blue).
The model received a light black ink washing and some dry-brushed post-panel shading – even though it was not supposed to look too weathered or worn, since it would be a freshly revamped Singapore survivor in a new unit.
The small all-blue SEAC roundels and the fin flash came from an Academy P-47D, and they look odd on the Buffalo, making it look bigger as it actually is – but they could have been used on them, had the type “survived” some more months into 1942. White ID markings, e. g. bands on wings and tail surfaces, were not common at the model’s intended time frame yet, so I just gave it a propeller tip in Sky (Tamiya XF-21) and a fuselage band in the same color – the latter taken from the Matchbox OOB decal sheet and the color on the spinner adapted to the decal (with Humbrol 23).
The tactical code was created from single white 6 mm letters (from TL Modellbau). AFAIK, some SEAC units rather used such smaller letters in a non-regular font for their machines, you frequently find Spitfires and Hurricanes with similar codes, and it works well on the short Buffalo. The aircraft’s serial number is fictional (but close to the RAF Buffalos’ range) and was created with single black 2mm “W”s and numbers from a re-boxed Matchbox Gloster Gladiator (Revell).
After some soot stains around the guns and the exhausts with graphite, the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish and a wire antenna made from heated black sprue material was added between the mast and the fin.