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December 12, about 50 to 60 RMP's lining both sides of 42nd St. between 5th Ave. & Ave. of the Americas. (6th)
At the time of the mobilization in August 1914 there were the following active naval infantry units:
•I. See-Bataillon with 4 companies based in Kiel
•II. See-Bataillon with 4 companies based in Wilhelmshaven
•III. Stamm-See-Bataillon with 2 companies based in Cuxhaven
•III. See-Bataillon with 5 companies based in Tsingtau, China
•Ostasiatisches Marine-Detachment in Tientsin (Tianjin) and Peking (Beijing)
•Marine-Infanterie-Detachment in Skutari (Shkodër).
The III. See-Bataillon and the Ostasiatisches Marine-Detachment were basically stranded. They fell to the Japanese in November 1914. The Skutari-Detachment made its way back to Germany through Austria-Hungary in August 1914.
When the reservists were called up, but couldn't be deployed overseas to their units, I. and II. See-Bataillon and III. Stamm-See-Bataillon were overstrength, and were reorganized into eight battalions. 1. Marine-Infanterie-Regiment was formed in Kiel from the original I. See-Bataillon and the V. and VIII. See-Bataillonen. 2. Marine-Infanterie-Regiment was formed in Wilhelmshavenfrom the original II. See-Bataillon and the IV. and VI. See-Bataillonen. VII. See-Bataillonen, formed by the III. Stamm-See-Bataillon in Cuxhaven, was originally also part of 2. Marine-Infanterie-Regiment, but its companies were soon divided up between the 1. and 2. Matrosen-Artillerie-Regimenter.
3. Marine-Infanterie-Regiment was formed in Flanders at the end of 1914 from VII. See-Battalion (formed again by the III. Stamm-See-Bataillon), the X. See-Bataillon, based on the Skutari-Detachment and complemented with additional reservists, and the IX. See-Bataillon (formed from more reservists). The XI. See-Bataillon was formed in Wilhelmshaven for local security duties, and the XII. See-Bataillon was formed in Wilhelmshaven but divided up among the 1. and 2. Marine-Infanterie-Regimenter
SOLD
USAID hosted a Signature Event —Shared Progress: Modernizing Development Finance on September 22, 2016 in New York City, NY. Running concurrently to the United Nations General Asembly, the event highlighted the challenges and opportunities for financing current and future development goals.
During the event, UAID Administrator Gayle Smith and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, discussed how to foster an enabling environment for private investment and increasing domestic resource mobilization. A panel of speakers also offered recommendations on how to make better use of the three streams of finance in order to improve development outcomes.
Photo by Ellie Van Houtte/USAID
USAID hosted a Signature Event —Shared Progress: Modernizing Development Finance on September 22, 2016 in New York City, NY. Running concurrently to the United Nations General Asembly, the event highlighted the challenges and opportunities for financing current and future development goals.
During the event, UAID Administrator Gayle Smith and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, discussed how to foster an enabling environment for private investment and increasing domestic resource mobilization. A panel of speakers also offered recommendations on how to make better use of the three streams of finance in order to improve development outcomes.
Photo by Ellie Van Houtte/USAID
Josephine Butler, a long-time D.C. Statehood Party and antiwar activist, speaks at a press conference called by the People’s Antiwar Mobilization March 17, 1981 at the National Press Building at 13th and F Streets NW calling for a national march on the Pentagon protesting U.S. aid to right-wing forces in El Salvador and against President Ronald Reagan’s domestic policies.
The May 3rd march on drew about 25,000 people to the Lincoln Memorial for a rally. The group then marched past the State Department before crossing Memorial Bridge to the Pentagon where the rally continued.
Former U.S. Representative Bella Abzug told the crowd that, “The same gang of crazies in the Pentagon and at the White House that brough us that war in Vietnam are now trying to get us into a war in El Salvador. The time to stop a war is before it begins.”
At the time, President Reagan dispatched military advisors and sent $25 million in military aid to the military junta in El Salvador that was battling left-wing insurgents seeking to establish a popular civilian government.
Josephine Butler’s Washington Post obituary published March 30, 1997:
Josephine Dorothy Butler, 77, a founder and former chairman of the D.C. Statehood Party and a community activist whose interests included the conditions of the District's parks, world peace, the union movement and the welfare of children, died March 29 at Medlink Hospital in Washington. She had heart ailments and diabetes.
Mrs. Butler was a former member of the Mayor's Health Planning Advisory Committee, the D.C. Human Rights Commission and the D.C. Coordinating Committee for the International Women's Year. In the 1970s, she twice ran for the D.C. Council as a candidate of the Statehood Party.
Among the many positions she held was that of co-chairman of Friends of Meridian Hill, a group dedicated to turning Meridian Hill Park in Northwest Washington, once a crime-ridden eyesore, into a place of beauty and serenity.
In 1994, she introduced President Clinton when he gave an Earth Day speech at the park, and she took the opportunity to tell about the role of earthworms in the health of plants and all living things. It was a story she often told to children.
The president responded by praising the Friends of Meridian Hill as a "shining example for the nation" of what community activism can accomplish. At a White House ceremony, he gave Mrs. Butler the National Partnership-Leadership Award.
In 1995, Mrs. Butler organized a parade of 4,000 people from her Adams-Morgan neighborhood to the Capitol, where she addressed a crowd estimated at 250,000 people who had gathered to mark the 25th anniversary of Earth Day.
As a young woman just arrived in the District from the Brandywine area of Prince George's County, Mrs. Butler went to work for a laundry. She became interested in the union movement and took the lead in organizing laundry employees in the Washington area.
In the 1950s, when she worked in a government cafeteria, she opposed a move by union officials to raise dues of part-time workers, whose hours were as long as those of full-time workers but whose pay and benefits were less.
In the 1960s and 1970s, when she was an educational program director for the D.C. Lung Association, Mrs. Butler organized the association's workers for the Office and Professional Employees International Union. She was elected a delegate to the Greater Washington Central Labor Council AFL-CIO.
Mrs. Butler was a founder of the D.C. chapter of the Paul Robeson Friendship Society, named after the African American singer and peace activist, and the World Council of Peace. In 1978, she helped organize the council's first meeting in the United States in its 30-year existence. In connection with the peace movement, she visited the former Soviet Union, Greece and Grenada.
In the 1950s, Mrs. Butler took a leading role in combining the Adams and Morgan public elementary schools in Washington. Although she had no children, she was chairman of a residents group at Morgan, which served African American children in the days of school segregation. Adams was a school for white children. After the U.S. Supreme Court's desegregation decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, Morgan and Adams were joined. The new school -- and the neighborhood around it -- were called Adams-Morgan.
In 1971, Mrs. Butler was a founder of the D.C. Statehood Party. Formerly a Democrat, she was appalled by the police violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. She was ready for a change when the idea for a new party in the District first came under discussion.
She was a close associate of the late Julius Hobson Sr., a noted activist of the period, when he was elected to the D.C. Council on the Statehood ticket.
Mrs. Butler was born Jan. 24, 1920, in what was known as the Poplar Hill section of Brandywine. She was raised on a tobacco farm, where her father was a sharecropper. She attended Frederick Douglass High School in Upper Marlboro. She later received a high school equivalency diploma and attended Strayer College.
She moved to Washington in 1934, lied about her age and went to work for a laundry.
In an interview in 1978 with the Rock Creek Monitor, she said one of the important events of her life was attending a meeting in the late 1930s that was addressed by Robeson and Henry A. Wallace, a secretary of agriculture and vice president under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
On hearing them speak of peace and justice, she said, she "realized that was my whole world. It was like an awakening of something that was dormant."
During World War II, Mrs. Butler was a clerk in the Veterans Administration. In 1949, she said, she was blacklisted from government employment, apparently because of what were regarded as her leftist associations. She later worked in government cafeterias and as a bartender.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Mrs. Butler was incapacitated with tuberculosis. When she recovered, she became a volunteer with the D.C. Lung Association. She was soon hired to design programs to teach schoolchildren about air pollution and related matters. She retired about 1980.
Her marriage to Jack Brown ended in divorce, and she later took the name of Butler.
Survivors include her mother, Helen Arabelle Jenifer of Silver Spring; four sisters, Lucy Ellen Cardwell of Washington, Helen Antoinette Birchmore of Waldorf, Lelia Ernestine Taylor of Bethesda and Emma Louise Dodson of Brandywine; and a brother, Robert Calvin Jenifer of Fort Washington.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsk4kmB99
Photo by Ray Lustig. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.
This is my 1st part of my entry to the Global Challenge 3 at LCC.
Paul von Brickenstein is preparing his fleet to beat the wizards. The Magic Islands are far away so they probably need a lot of food and rum. And some weapons would be also helpful. But what will happen at the Magic Islands ? Are weapons out of steel and wood powerful enough to beat these mighty wizards ?
USAID hosted a Signature Event —Shared Progress: Modernizing Development Finance on September 22, 2016 in New York City, NY. Running concurrently to the United Nations General Asembly, the event highlighted the challenges and opportunities for financing current and future development goals.
During the event, UAID Administrator Gayle Smith and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, discussed how to foster an enabling environment for private investment and increasing domestic resource mobilization. A panel of speakers also offered recommendations on how to make better use of the three streams of finance in order to improve development outcomes.
Photo by Ellie Van Houtte/USAID
The potato is an underground stem. The "eyes" that form on potatoes occur at the nodes. New growths are extensions of the stem that form when potatoes are exposed to light, or when hormonal signals initiate growth. The growth of these extensions is enabled by the breakdown of starch, which is stored in the potato, and its transformation into cellulose and other compounds that are used in cell growth.
You can cut a potato into pieces and each piece will sprout a new clonal body. This is the way many potato crops (and others, like bananas and pineapples) are grown.
Translocation (movement) of nutrients is common in potatoes and in many other plant species. Often, it is associated with transformative processes such as the change from one kind of tissue to another. Here storage tissue is being transformed into elongating tissue.
The potato performs many tasks, for example storage and sprouting. How can we design our built environments to accommodate a variety of functions?
Please join me in my blog “Botany Without Borders: Where Design Meets Science”
USAID hosted a Signature Event —Shared Progress: Modernizing Development Finance on September 22, 2016 in New York City, NY. Running concurrently to the United Nations General Asembly, the event highlighted the challenges and opportunities for financing current and future development goals.
During the event, UAID Administrator Gayle Smith and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, discussed how to foster an enabling environment for private investment and increasing domestic resource mobilization. A panel of speakers also offered recommendations on how to make better use of the three streams of finance in order to improve development outcomes.
Photo by Ellie Van Houtte/USAID
Mobilization of a piling rig onto a temporary access platform on BC Highway 1, the Malahat at the Tunnel Hill washout location. For more information on the work happening at the site, visit the project recovery site: www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/transportation-projects/bc-hig...
USAID hosted a Signature Event —Shared Progress: Modernizing Development Finance on September 22, 2016 in New York City, NY. Running concurrently to the United Nations General Asembly, the event highlighted the challenges and opportunities for financing current and future development goals.
During the event, UAID Administrator Gayle Smith and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, discussed how to foster an enabling environment for private investment and increasing domestic resource mobilization. A panel of speakers also offered recommendations on how to make better use of the three streams of finance in order to improve development outcomes.
Photo by Ellie Van Houtte/USAID
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
Immediately after the 1989 Velvet Revolution, the Czech president Václav Havel declared a de-mobilization of the Czech defense industry. Nevertheless, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Czech company Aero Vodochody continued developing the basic L-39 Albatros design with a view toward greater export. The resulting L-39MS, later re-designed as L-59 Super Albatros, featured a more powerful turbofan engine, advanced avionics, and has been bought in quantity by Egypt and Tunisia. In 1993, a group of Czech military experts launched a project of production of a modern domestic fighter to replace the obsolete Soviet aircraft. Since the proposed Aero L-X supersonic fighter development proved to be financially demanding (up to US$2 billion), the less costly L-159 subsonic attack aircraft was approved for procurement instead.
Conducted between the years 1994 and 1997, the technical development of L-159 ALCA (Advanced Light Combat Aircraft) in Aero Vodochody consisted primarily of building one L-159 two-seat prototype based on the L-59 airframe, utilizing western engine, avionics and weapon systems, with Rockwell Collins (eventually Boeing) as the avionics integrator.
The L-159 ALCA was designed for the principal role of light combat aircraft (single-seat L-159A variant) or light attack jet and advanced/lead-in fighter trainer (two-seat L-159B and T variants). The design of the L-159 was derived from the L-39/59 in terms of aerodynamic configuration, but a number of changes were made to improve its combat capabilities. These included strengthening of the airframe, reinforcing of the cockpit with composite and ceramic ballistic armor and enlargement of the aircraft's nose to accommodate a radar. Compared to the L-59, number of underwing pylons was increased from four to six, and a new hardpoint under the fuselage was added instead of a fixed GSh-23L cannon in an external fairing. The aircraft was capable of carrying external loads up to 2,340 kg, ranging from unguided bombs and rocket pods to air-to-ground and air-to-air guided missiles or special devices to conduct aerial reconnaissance or electronic warfare. Guided precision ordnance like laser-guided glide bombs could be carried, too, thanks to the aircraft’s ability to carry respective targeting equipment, for example the AN/AAQ-28(V) LITENING pod.
The L-159 was powered by the non-afterburning Honeywell/ITEC F124-GA-100 turbofan engine with a maximum thrust of 28 kN. Almost 2,000 litres of fuel was stored in eight internal tanks (six in the fuselage, two at the wingtips) with up to four external drop tanks (two 500 L and two 350 L tanks) carried under the inner wings.
The lightly armored cockpit was equipped with a VS-2B ejection seat, capable of catapulting the pilot at a zero flight level and at zero speed. The aircraft's avionics based on the MIL-STD-1553 databus include a Selex Navigation and Attack Suite, Ring Laser Gyro based Inertial Navigation System (INS) and Global Positioning System (GPS). Flight data was displayed both at the FV-3000 head-up display (HUD) and on two multi-function displays (MFD). Communications were provided by a pair of Collins ARC-182 transceivers. Self-protection of the L-159 was ensured by a Sky Guardian 200 radar warning receiver (RWR) and Vinten Vicon 78 Series 455 chaff and flare dispensers. L-159A and T2 variants were equipped with the lightweight Italian FIAR Grifo L multi-mode Doppler radar for all-weather, day and night operations.
The maiden flight of the first L-159 prototype occurred on 2 August 1997 with a two-seat version. On 18 August 1998, the single-seat L-159A prototype first flew; it was completed to Czech customer specifications. 10 April 2000 marked the first delivery of L-159A to the Czech Air Force and the type was marketed for export.
One of the type’s foreign operators became the young Republic of Catalonia, which had declared independence from Spain in 2017. The Catalan independence movement already began in 1922, when Francesc Macià founded the political party Estat Català (Catalan State), but the modern independence movement began and gained serious momentum in 2010, when the Constitutional Court of Spain ruled that some of the articles of the 2006 Statute of Autonomy - which had been agreed with the Spanish government and passed by a referendum in Catalonia - were unconstitutional, and others were to be interpreted restrictively. Popular protest against this decision quickly turned into demands for independence. Starting with the town of Arenys de Munt, over 550 municipalities in Catalonia held symbolic referendums on independence between 2009 and 2011. All of the towns returned a high "yes" vote, with a turnout of around 30% of those eligible to vote. A 2010 protest demonstration against the court's decision, organized by the cultural organization Òmnium Cultural, was attended by over a million people. The popular movement fed upwards to the politicians; a second mass protest on 11 September 2012 (the National Day of Catalonia) explicitly called on the Catalan government to begin the process towards independence. Catalan president Artur Mas called a snap general election, which resulted in a pro-independence majority for the first time in the region's history. The new parliament adopted the Catalan Sovereignty Declaration in early 2013, asserting that the Catalan people had the right to decide their own political future.
After three more troublesome years and constant strife for independence from Spain, the Catalonian president Carles Puigdemont eventually announced a binding referendum on the topic. Although deemed illegal by the Spanish government and the Constitutional Court, the referendum was held on 1 October 2017. In a vote where the anti-independence parties called for non-participation, results showed a 90% vote in favor of independence, with a turnout of 43%. Based on this result, on 27 October 2017 the Parliament of Catalonia approved a resolution unilaterally creating an independent Republic.
This event was also the rather sudden birth of the Catalonian armed forces. Esp. the nascent air force, called Guàrdies Aèries de la República Catalana (GARC, Republic of Catalonia Air Guard), faced serious trouble, since Spain refused any assistance. Furthermore, there were no former Spanish military air bases in the region that could be taken, and any equipment and infrastructure had to be procured from scratch and on short notice.
In the wake of this hasted start, the L-159s became part of the GARC’s initial mixed bag of flying low-budget equipment. They were 2nd hand machines, bought from EADS-CASA of Spain and mothballed since 2012 after a barter deal with the Czech Republic: In 2009, EADS had exchanged with the CzAF four CASA C-295 transporters for three L-159As, two L-159T1s and 130 million Euros. These aircraft were still in EADS inventory in late 2017, even though grounded and taken out of service since 2012, because the operations of this small fleet as chasing aircraft were expensive and no buyer could be found in the meantime.
However, in 2018 the company sold them, under indirect pressure from NATO, to the Catalonian government at a “symbolic”, yet unspecified, price. This small fleet was soon augmented by five more L-159As and ten L-159T1s which were directly procured from the Czech Republic in 2019. These aircraft formed the initial, small backbone of the young country’s air defense, armed with AIM-9 Sidewinders (AIM-120 AMRAAM was possible, to, but not procured due to severe budget restraints) and Mauser BK-27 cannon in conformal pods. Since no military airfields with a suitable infrastructure for jet aircraft were available for the GARC at the time of their purchase and introduction, the L-159s were initially based at two public regional airports: at Reus, in the proximity of Tarragona at the Mediterranean coast, and at Girona in the country’s north, where airfield sections were separated of the military operations.
General characteristics:
Crew: one
Length: 12.72 m (41 ft 8¾ in)
Wingspan: 9.54 m (31 ft 3½ in)
Height: 4.87 m (16 ft)
Wing area: 18.80 m² (202.4 ft²)
Airfoil: NACA 64A-012
Aspect ratio: 4.8:1
Empty weight: 4,350 kg (9,590 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 8,000 kg (17,637 lb)
Powerplant:
1× Honeywell F124-GA-100 turbofan, delivering 28.2 kN (6,330 lbf) thrust
Performance:
Never exceed speed: 960 km/h (518 knots, 596 mph)
Maximum speed: 936 km/h (505 knots, 581 mph) at sea level, clean
Stall speed: 185 km/h (100 knots, 115 mph)
Range: 1,570 km (848 nmi, 975 mi) max internal fuel
Combat radius: 565 km (305 nmi, 351 mi) lo-lo-lo, with a gun pod, 2× Mark 82 bombs, 2× AIM-9
Sidewinder and 2× 500 L drop tanks
Service ceiling: 13,200 m (43,300 ft)
Rate of climb: 62 m/s (12,220 ft/min)
Armament:
7Í hardpoints in total, 3 under each wing (outer pylons only for AAMs) and 1 under the fuselage,
holding up to 2,340 kg (5,159 lb) of ordnance
The kit and its assembly:
This model was spawned by a grain of truth: as mentioned in the background, EADS Spain had actually bought a few L-159s in 2009 from the CzAF in exchange for transporters, and together with the ongoing plans of an independent Catalonia I merged both into this ALCA single seater for the fictional Republic of Catalonia Air Guard.
The kit is the relatively new KP L-159. This is basically a nice model, but the kit has some severe flaws (see below). The model was basically built OOB, I just added AIM-9L Sidewinders and their respective launch rails as external ordnance on the outermost underwing hardpoints. Since I did not find the standard gun pod (a ZVI PL-20 Plamen pod with 2×20 mm guns) suitable, I decided to give the GARC aircraft a heavier, Western weapon in the form of a Mauser BK-27 (the same weapon used onboard of the Panavia Tornado or the Saab Gripen) in a conformal cannon pod under the fuselage. This piece was taken and adapted from a Heller Alpha Jet. Its shape perfectly fitted between the two ventral air brakes.
Concerning the kit itself, the build turned out to be a medium nightmare. The kit looked promising in the box, with fine engravings, but nothing fits well. There are no locator pins, you have (massive) ejection marks almost everywhere, and the parts’ attachment points to the sprues protrude into the parts themselves, so there’s a lot to clean up. At least there are no sinkholes.
Upon assembly, the cockpit tub – nicely detailed – would not fit into the fuselage at all and ended up in an oblique position (hidden through a pilot figure from the scrap box and a re-mounted avionics fairing in the rear cockpit). The air intakes left me guessing, too: while the edges are crisp and thin, the overall fit with the fuselage and the orientation of the parts had to be guesstimated, plus a mediocre fit, too. The instructions are not very helpful, either. I am quite disappointed and tried to make the best of the situation.
Painting and markings:
Much more thought was put into the model’s looks. What camouflage should such an aircraft carry? And I had to invent roundels/markings for a Catalonian air force aircraft, too.
Since the Catalonian L-159s were multi-purpose aircraft, yet primarily tasked with air space defense, I opted for an subdued air superiority scheme instead of a tactical low-level camouflage. Furthermore, the camouflage was supposed to be suited for a mountainous landscape (Pyrenees), relatively flat and dry land and also to open sea. This was a good opportunity to give a model the Greek “Ghost” scheme: a three-tone wraparound scheme consisting of FS 36307 (Light Sea Grey), 36251 (Aggressor Grey) and 35237 (Medium Grey, but actually a rather greyish blue). The pattern was adapted from Hellenic F-16s. I think it’s a good compromise, and it suits the ALCA well.
The national markings caused more headaches. I was looking for something that would not look like the Spanish roundel, but still reflect the Catalonian indpendence flag and – most important – I wanted to be able to create it from stock material (not printing them at home), with the option to replicate it on potential future builds.
In the end and after long safaris through my spare decal repository, I came up with a round marking. It consists of an Ukrainian roundel with a relatively thin outer yellow ring (from a Begemot MiG-29 sheet), placed on top of a Hinomaru, so that a thin, red outer ring was added. Onto the central, blue disc a white star (from a TL Modellbau sheet with US Army markings) was added. I think that this looks original enough?
There was a problem, though… In my first attempt to apply this construction, the roundels turned out to be VERY large overall. While the design itself looked O.K. (despite reminding of Captain America somehow), this looked ridiculous, esp. on an aircraft with a wraparound low-viz paint scheme. I was not satisfied, so I heavy-heartedly ripped the decals off again (using adhesive tape, works like a charm) and tried it again, in a smaller version.
Hinomaru became the basis once more, even though smaller, and then die-punched discs in yellow and blue (from generic decal sheet) were added, and finally small white stars again, one size smaller than during the first attempt. While this is still colorful and stands out from the grey background, the second attempt looked much more balanced now, and I stuck with it.
In order to add more flavor, I added Catalonian fin flashes and squadron emblems on the nose, depicting the “burro”, the Catalonian donkey which has become a kind of unofficial regional symbol as a kind of anti-mascot to the Spanish bull. These markings/decals were printed at home on white sheet.
The tactical codes were based on the Spanish system. The Spanish Air Force has its own alphanumeric system for identifying aircraft: This forms a prefix to the airframe serial number, usually marked on the tail. C means cazabombardero (fighter bomber); A, ataque (attack); P, patrulla (patrol); T, transporte (transport); E, enseñanza (training); D, search and rescue; H, helicopter; K, tanker; V, Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL); and U, utility. An example would be that the F-18 with "C.15-08" on the tail is the fifteenth type of fighter that arrived in the Spanish Air Force (the Eurofighter is the C.16) and is the eighth example of this type to enter the SAF. On the nose or fuselage, the aircraft has a numeral specific to the unit in which it is based.
Variants of planes in service, for example two-seater versions or tanker versions of transports planes, add another letter to differentiate their function, and have their own sequence of serial numbers separate from the primary versions. Example: "CE.15-02" will be the second F-18 two-seater (Fighter Trainer) delivered to the SAF. In addition, the aircraft used by the Spanish Air Force usually carry a code consisting of one or two digits followed by a dash and two numbers, painted on the nose or fuselage. The first number corresponds to the unit to which they belong, and the second the order in which they entered service. Example: the fourth F-18 arriving at Ala 12 will have on the nose the code "12-04". Those codes do change when the aircraft is re-allocated to a different unit. Quite complicated…
This led to the tactical code “2-03”, for the 3rd aircraft allocated to the 2nd fighter squadron, and “C.1-03” as individual registration as the 3rd aircraft of the 1st fighter type in Catalonian service. All codes were puzzled together with single black letters and numbers from TL Modellbau in 3 and 5mm size.
Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
Due to the restrictions of the Versailles treaties, the Reichswehr was already dealing with the increasing mobilization and motorization of the army after the end of the First World War. The realization that the speed of the troop units required appropriate equipment was available early on. However, the Reichswehr suffered from financial constraints and during the Weimar Republic the industry only had limited capacity for series production of larger, armored vehicles.
Nevertheless, at that time the Sd.Kfz. 3 (unarmored half-track transport vehicle/1927), the ARW (eight-wheel car/1928) and the ZRW (ten-wheel car/1928) provided fundamental experience. The findings of these tests and the troop testing with the Sd.Kfz. 3 enabled a more precise specification of the new vehicles to be developed. The "heavy" armored cars were primarily intended for the reconnaissance units of the new armored forces.
The incipient rearmament could only start with a "cheap" solution, though. A three-part armored structure for the chassis of commercially available off-road trucks was developed by the Army Weapons Office, Dept. WaTest 6, in cooperation with the company Deutsche Eisenwerke AG. The typical truck chassis featured front-wheel steering and a driven bogie at the rear (4x6 layout). In June 1929, the companies Magirus, Daimler-Benz and Büssing-NAG were commissioned to develop the desired armored car from it. If you consider that this truck class was developed for a payload of 1.5t, you can already conclude from this that the vehicles, which are now equipped with a significantly heavy armored structure, had little off-road mobility. Even if the appearance of the vehicles supplied by the different manufacturers was similar, there were external distinguishing features by which the manufacturer could be identified. The vehicles were tested in the Reichswehr from 1932 and introduced later.
One of the four crew members (driver, commander, gunner, radio-operator) was used as a reverse driver: with the narrow streets of the time and a turning circle of between 13 and 16m, this function was essential for a truck-sized heavy reconnaissance vehicle. The chassis had the excellent ladder-type configuration, able to withstand the stress of rough rides at high speed. The scout car was 5570 mm long, 1820 mm wide, 2250 mm high and weighed 5.35, 5.7 or 6 tons, depending on the manufacturer. The hull was made of welded steel armor, 5 to 14.5 mm (0.2-0.57 in) thick depending on the angle (bottom to front) with well-sloped plates. The armament consisted of a 2 cm KwK 30 with 200 rounds and a MG 13 with 1300 rounds in a manually operated turret. The fuel supply was 90, 105 or 110 liters, but with a consumption of about 35 or 40 liters per 100 km, this resulted in a completely inadequate range for a scout car.
Having no true alternatives at hand, the armored 4x6 car was accepted and became known as the Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-wheel), and it was subsequently developed into two more vehicles. Up until 1937, 123 vehicles were built as Sd.Kfz. 231 reconnaissance cars and Sd.Kfz. 232 radio trucks. A further 28 were manufactured as Sd.Kfz. 263 (Panzerfunkwagen) command vehicles.
As early as 1932, after testing the pilot series, it was clear that the interim solution of "cheap" 6-wheel vehicles would not meet the future requirements of the armored divisions now planned. It was planned that from 1935/36 at least 18 vehicles of a new type that would meet the requirements for off-road mobility and high road speeds should be produced annually. Büssing-NAG had obviously made a good impression with the ARW and was now commissioned to make the revised vehicle ready for series production, which would become the SdKfz. 231 (8-Rad). The overall concept was completed between 1934 and 1935 and already showed all the features of the future type: all 8 wheels driven and steered, the same speed forwards and backwards, ability to change direction in less than 10 seconds, and a turning circle of "only" 10.5m. The vehicle layout was changed, too: the engine bay was relocated to the rear, the crew compartment was placed at the front end. This improved weight distribution, handling, and the field of view for the main forward driver.
The purpose of the new vehicles was identical to that of the earlier heavy 6-wheel vehicles, they were used on the same sites and so the same ordnance inventory designation was adopted, despite the vehicle’s many modifications. The so-called Sd.Kfz. 231 (8-Rad) was armed, corresponding to its 6-Rad counterpart, with a 2cm KwK 30 and the MG 13 (later MG 34) in a rotating turret. Likewise, the Sd.Kfz. 232 (8-Rad) carried a large, curved bow antenna, and there was a Sd.Kfz. 263 (8-Rad) command vehicle, too.
Nevertheless, the Army Weapons Office demanded a short-term solution for a vehicle based on the 4x6 chassis that offered better off-road performance and armament, namely a 37 mm anti-tank gun, with at least comparable range and armor protection. This interim vehicle was supposed to be ready for service in early 1934. Magirus accepted the challenge and proposed the Sd.Kfz. 241, a 4x8 vehicle. It retained the old overall 6-Rad layout with the front engine under a long bonnet, but it had a fourth steered axle added to lower ground pressure and improve the vehicle’s trench bridging capabilities. The powered two rear axles retained the 6-Rad’s twin wheels, so that the vehicle stood on a total of twelve tires with a relatively large footprint. The armored hull was very similar to the Sd.Kfz. 231 6-Rad, but carried a new, bigger turret with a 3.7 cm KwK 30 L/45 gun and an axis-parallel 7.92 mm MG 34 light machine gun.
The box-shaped turret exploited the hull’s width to the maximum and had a maximum armor of 15 mm, no base and the seat of the commander was attached to the tower wall. The commander sat elevated under a raised cupola in the rear section of the turret, just behind the main gun. He had five viewing slits protected by glass blocks and steel slides for all-round visibility. The gunner/loader, standing to the left of the main gun, had to constantly follow the movement of the turret, which was done by hand. In order to support the gunner when slewing the turret, the commander had an additional handle on the right side. The two crew members also had a turret position indicator.
The cannon was fired electrically via a trigger, the machine gun was operated mechanically with a pedal. To aim and view the outside, the gunner had a gun sight to the left of the gun with an opening in the gun mantlet. Standard access to the vehicle was through low double-doors in the vehicle’ flank, but side exit openings in the turret with two flaps each were also frequently used to board it. Another entry was through the commander cupola’s lid.
With all this extra hardware, the Sd.Kfz. 241’s overall weight rose considerably from the late Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad) nearly 6 tons to 7.5 tons. As a consequence, the chassis had to be reinforced and a more powerful engine was used, a 6-cylinder Maybach HL 42 TRKM w carburetor gasoline engine with 4170 cc capacity and 100 hp (74 kW) output at 3000 rpm.
As expected, the Sd.Kfz. 241 was not a success. Even though the first vehicles were delivered in time in mid-1934, its operational value was rather limited. Off-road capability was, due to the extra weight, the raised center of gravity and the lack of all-wheel drive, just as bad as the 6-Rad vehicles, and the more powerful engine’s higher fuel consumption allowed neither higher range, despite bigger fuel tanks, nor a better street performance. The only real progress was the new 3.7 cm KwK 30’s firepower, which was appreciated by the crews, even though the weapon was only effective against armored targets at close range. At 100 m, 64 mm of vertical armor could be penetrated, but at 500 m this already dropped to 31 mm, any angle in the armor weakened its hitting power even further. The weapon’s maximum range was 5.000m, though, and with HE rounds the Sd.Kfz. 241 could provide indirect fire support. Another factor that limited the vehicle’s effectiveness was that the gun had to be operated by a single crew member who had to load and aim at the same time – there was simply not enough space for a separate loader who would also have increased the gun’s rate of fire from six to maybe twelve rounds per minute. The vehicle’s armor was also inadequate and only gave protection against light firearms, but not against machine guns or heavier weapons. On the other side, the cupola on top of the turret offered the commander in his elevated position a very good all-round field of view, even when under full protection – but this progressive detail was not adopted for the following armored reconnaissance vehicles and remained exclusive to German battle tanks.
Only a total of fifty-five Sd.Kfz. 241s were completed by Magirus in Cologne until 1936, when production of the Sd.Kfz. 231 (8-Rad) vehicle family started and soon replaced the Sd.Kfz. 241, which was primarily operated at the Eastern Front in Poland and Czechoslovakia. By 1940, no Sd.Kfz. 241 was left in any frontline army unit, but a few survivors were grouped together and handed over to police units. Their main gun was either completely deleted or sometimes replaced with a second machine gun, and they were used for urban patrols and riot control duties. However, by 1942, no Sd.Kfz. 241 was left over.
Specifications:
Crew: Four (commander, gunner, driver, radio operator/rear driver)
Weight: 7.5 tons (11.450 lb)
Length: 5,85 metres (19 ft 2 in)
Width: 2,20 metres (7 ft 2 ½ in)
Height: 2,78 metres (9 ft 1 in)
Ground clearance: 28.5 cm (10 in)
Suspension: Torsion bar and leaf springs
Fuel capacity: 150 litres (33 imp gal; 40 US gal)
Armor:
8–15 mm (0.31 – 0.6 in)
Performance:
Maximum road speed: 70 km/h (43.5 mph)
52 km/h (32.3 mph) backwards
Operational range: 250 km (155 miles)
Power/weight: 13 PS/ton
Engine:
Maybach HL42 TRKM water-cooled straight 6-cylinder petrol engine with 100 hp (74 kW),
driving the rear pair of axles
Transmission:
Maybach gearbox with 5-speed forward and 4-speed reverse
Armament:
1× 37 mm KwK 30 L/45 cannon with 70 rounds
1× 7.92 mm MG 34 machine gun mounted co-axially with 1.300 rounds
The kit and its assembly:
This fictional armored car was inspired by a leftover rear axles from an Italeri Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad) model that I converted into a fictional half-track variant some time ago. I wondered if the set could be transplanted under an 8-Rad chassis, to create a kind of missing link to the 8x8 successors of the Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad) with a total of twelve tires on four axles.
The basis became a First to Fight 1:72 Sd.Kfz. 231 (8-Rad) kit – a rather simple and robust affair, apparently primarily intended for tabletop purposes. But the overall impression is good, and it would be modified, anyway, even though the plastic turned out to be rather soft/waxy and the parts’ sprue attachment points a bit wacky.
The hull was “turned around” to drive backwards, so that its rear engine ended up in the front. I eventually only used the rear twin wheels from the Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad), but not its single axles and laminated springs. Instead, I first cut the OOB mudguards in two halves, removed their side skirts and glued them onto the lower hull in reversed order, so that the exhausts and their muffler boxes would end up at the rear of the front fenders. With these in place I checked the axles’ position from the OOB ladder chassis, which is a single, integral part, and found that the rear axles’ position had to be moved by 2mm backwards. Cutting the original piece and re-arranging it was easier to scratch a new rear suspension, and the rocker bars had to be shortened to accept the wider twin wheels.
The original small turret with the 20 mm autocannon was deleted and replaced with core elements from a Panzer III turret, left over from previous conversion projects. Wider than any original turret of the Sd.Kfz. 231/232 family, it had to be narrowed by roughly 5mm – I had to cut a respective plug from the turret’s and the mantlet’s middle section, the deformed hatch was covered under a Panzer III commander cupola. To mate the re-arranged turret with the OOB adapter plate to mount it onto the hull, and to add overall stability to the construction, I filled the interior with 2C putty.
The typical storage bin at the turret’s rear was omitted, though, it would have made it too large for the compact truck chassis. The shape was a perfect stylistic match, even though, with the longer gun barrel, the vehicle reminds a lot of the Soviet BA-10 heavy armored car?
Most small details like the bumpers and the headlights were taken OOB, I added a whip antenna base at the rear and mounted two spare wheels at the back, one of them covered with a tarpaulin (made from paper tissue drenched with white glue, this was also used to create the gun mantlet seals).
Painting and markings:
Typical for German vehicles from the early WWII stages the Sd.Kfz. 241 was painted Panzergrau (RAL 7021; I used Humbrol 67, which is authentic, but mixed it with some 125 to create a slightly lighter shade of grey) overall - quite dull, but realistic. To make the vehicle look more interesting, though, I added authentic contemporary camouflage in the form of low-contrast blotches with RAL 8017, a very dark reddish brown, mixed from Humbrol 160 and some 98. Better, but IMHO still not enough.
After the model received a washing with highly thinned red-brown acrylic artist paint I applied the few decals and gave the parts an overall dry-brushing treatment with grey and dark earth. Everything was sealed with matt acrylic varnish. For even more “excitement”, I decided to add a coat of snow.
For the simulated “frosting” I used white tile grout – which has the benefits of being water-soluble, quite sturdy to touch and the material does not yellow over time like gypsum.
First, the wheels, the chassis and the inside of the wheel arches received a separate treatment with relatively dryly mixed tile grout, simulating snow and dirt clusters. Once thoroughly dried, the wheels were mounted. Then the model was sprayed with low surface tension water and loose tile grout was drizzled over hull and turret, creating a flaky coat of fake snow. Once dry again, everything received another coat of matt acrylic varnish to protect and fixate everything further.
A relatively quick build, done in a few days. The First to Fight kit is very simple and went together well, but I’d use something else the next time due to the odd material it was molded with. The outcome of an 4x8 scout car looks quite plausible, though, like the missing link between the Sd.Kfz. 231 and 232 – the unintended similarity with the Soviet BA-10 heavy armored car was a bit surprising, though. And the snow on the model eventually makes it look a bit more interesting, the stunt was worth the effort.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
Immediately after the 1989 Velvet Revolution, the Czech president Václav Havel declared a de-mobilization of the Czech defense industry. Nevertheless, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Czech company Aero Vodochody continued developing the basic L-39 Albatros design with a view toward greater export. The resulting L-39MS, later re-designed as L-59 Super Albatros, featured a more powerful turbofan engine, advanced avionics, and has been bought in quantity by Egypt and Tunisia. In 1993, a group of Czech military experts launched a project of production of a modern domestic fighter to replace the obsolete Soviet aircraft. Since the proposed Aero L-X supersonic fighter development proved to be financially demanding (up to US$2 billion), the less costly L-159 subsonic attack aircraft was approved for procurement instead.
Conducted between the years 1994 and 1997, the technical development of L-159 ALCA (Advanced Light Combat Aircraft) in Aero Vodochody consisted primarily of building one L-159 two-seat prototype based on the L-59 airframe, utilizing western engine, avionics and weapon systems, with Rockwell Collins (eventually Boeing) as the avionics integrator.
The L-159 ALCA was designed for the principal role of light combat aircraft (single-seat L-159A variant) or light attack jet and advanced/lead-in fighter trainer (two-seat L-159B and T variants). The design of the L-159 was derived from the L-39/59 in terms of aerodynamic configuration, but a number of changes were made to improve its combat capabilities. These included strengthening of the airframe, reinforcing of the cockpit with composite and ceramic ballistic armor and enlargement of the aircraft's nose to accommodate a radar. Compared to the L-59, number of underwing pylons was increased from four to six, and a new hardpoint under the fuselage was added instead of a fixed GSh-23L cannon in an external fairing. The aircraft was capable of carrying external loads up to 2,340 kg, ranging from unguided bombs and rocket pods to air-to-ground and air-to-air guided missiles or special devices to conduct aerial reconnaissance or electronic warfare. Guided precision ordnance like laser-guided glide bombs could be carried, too, thanks to the aircraft’s ability to carry respective targeting equipment, for example the AN/AAQ-28(V) LITENING pod.
The L-159 was powered by the non-afterburning Honeywell/ITEC F124-GA-100 turbofan engine with a maximum thrust of 28 kN. Almost 2,000 litres of fuel was stored in eight internal tanks (six in the fuselage, two at the wingtips) with up to four external drop tanks (two 500 L and two 350 L tanks) carried under the inner wings.
The lightly armored cockpit was equipped with a VS-2B ejection seat, capable of catapulting the pilot at a zero flight level and at zero speed. The aircraft's avionics based on the MIL-STD-1553 databus include a Selex Navigation and Attack Suite, Ring Laser Gyro based Inertial Navigation System (INS) and Global Positioning System (GPS). Flight data was displayed both at the FV-3000 head-up display (HUD) and on two multi-function displays (MFD). Communications were provided by a pair of Collins ARC-182 transceivers. Self-protection of the L-159 was ensured by a Sky Guardian 200 radar warning receiver (RWR) and Vinten Vicon 78 Series 455 chaff and flare dispensers. L-159A and T2 variants were equipped with the lightweight Italian FIAR Grifo L multi-mode Doppler radar for all-weather, day and night operations.
The maiden flight of the first L-159 prototype occurred on 2 August 1997 with a two-seat version. On 18 August 1998, the single-seat L-159A prototype first flew; it was completed to Czech customer specifications. 10 April 2000 marked the first delivery of L-159A to the Czech Air Force and the type was marketed for export.
One of the type’s foreign operators became the young Republic of Catalonia, which had declared independence from Spain in 2017. The Catalan independence movement already began in 1922, when Francesc Macià founded the political party Estat Català (Catalan State), but the modern independence movement began and gained serious momentum in 2010, when the Constitutional Court of Spain ruled that some of the articles of the 2006 Statute of Autonomy - which had been agreed with the Spanish government and passed by a referendum in Catalonia - were unconstitutional, and others were to be interpreted restrictively. Popular protest against this decision quickly turned into demands for independence. Starting with the town of Arenys de Munt, over 550 municipalities in Catalonia held symbolic referendums on independence between 2009 and 2011. All of the towns returned a high "yes" vote, with a turnout of around 30% of those eligible to vote. A 2010 protest demonstration against the court's decision, organized by the cultural organization Òmnium Cultural, was attended by over a million people. The popular movement fed upwards to the politicians; a second mass protest on 11 September 2012 (the National Day of Catalonia) explicitly called on the Catalan government to begin the process towards independence. Catalan president Artur Mas called a snap general election, which resulted in a pro-independence majority for the first time in the region's history. The new parliament adopted the Catalan Sovereignty Declaration in early 2013, asserting that the Catalan people had the right to decide their own political future.
After three more troublesome years and constant strife for independence from Spain, the Catalonian president Carles Puigdemont eventually announced a binding referendum on the topic. Although deemed illegal by the Spanish government and the Constitutional Court, the referendum was held on 1 October 2017. In a vote where the anti-independence parties called for non-participation, results showed a 90% vote in favor of independence, with a turnout of 43%. Based on this result, on 27 October 2017 the Parliament of Catalonia approved a resolution unilaterally creating an independent Republic.
This event was also the rather sudden birth of the Catalonian armed forces. Esp. the nascent air force, called Guàrdies Aèries de la República Catalana (GARC, Republic of Catalonia Air Guard), faced serious trouble, since Spain refused any assistance. Furthermore, there were no former Spanish military air bases in the region that could be taken, and any equipment and infrastructure had to be procured from scratch and on short notice.
In the wake of this hasted start, the L-159s became part of the GARC’s initial mixed bag of flying low-budget equipment. They were 2nd hand machines, bought from EADS-CASA of Spain and mothballed since 2012 after a barter deal with the Czech Republic: In 2009, EADS had exchanged with the CzAF four CASA C-295 transporters for three L-159As, two L-159T1s and 130 million Euros. These aircraft were still in EADS inventory in late 2017, even though grounded and taken out of service since 2012, because the operations of this small fleet as chasing aircraft were expensive and no buyer could be found in the meantime.
However, in 2018 the company sold them, under indirect pressure from NATO, to the Catalonian government at a “symbolic”, yet unspecified, price. This small fleet was soon augmented by five more L-159As and ten L-159T1s which were directly procured from the Czech Republic in 2019. These aircraft formed the initial, small backbone of the young country’s air defense, armed with AIM-9 Sidewinders (AIM-120 AMRAAM was possible, to, but not procured due to severe budget restraints) and Mauser BK-27 cannon in conformal pods. Since no military airfields with a suitable infrastructure for jet aircraft were available for the GARC at the time of their purchase and introduction, the L-159s were initially based at two public regional airports: at Reus, in the proximity of Tarragona at the Mediterranean coast, and at Girona in the country’s north, where airfield sections were separated of the military operations.
General characteristics:
Crew: one
Length: 12.72 m (41 ft 8¾ in)
Wingspan: 9.54 m (31 ft 3½ in)
Height: 4.87 m (16 ft)
Wing area: 18.80 m² (202.4 ft²)
Airfoil: NACA 64A-012
Aspect ratio: 4.8:1
Empty weight: 4,350 kg (9,590 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 8,000 kg (17,637 lb)
Powerplant:
1× Honeywell F124-GA-100 turbofan, delivering 28.2 kN (6,330 lbf) thrust
Performance:
Never exceed speed: 960 km/h (518 knots, 596 mph)
Maximum speed: 936 km/h (505 knots, 581 mph) at sea level, clean
Stall speed: 185 km/h (100 knots, 115 mph)
Range: 1,570 km (848 nmi, 975 mi) max internal fuel
Combat radius: 565 km (305 nmi, 351 mi) lo-lo-lo, with a gun pod, 2× Mark 82 bombs, 2× AIM-9
Sidewinder and 2× 500 L drop tanks
Service ceiling: 13,200 m (43,300 ft)
Rate of climb: 62 m/s (12,220 ft/min)
Armament:
7Í hardpoints in total, 3 under each wing (outer pylons only for AAMs) and 1 under the fuselage,
holding up to 2,340 kg (5,159 lb) of ordnance
The kit and its assembly:
This model was spawned by a grain of truth: as mentioned in the background, EADS Spain had actually bought a few L-159s in 2009 from the CzAF in exchange for transporters, and together with the ongoing plans of an independent Catalonia I merged both into this ALCA single seater for the fictional Republic of Catalonia Air Guard.
The kit is the relatively new KP L-159. This is basically a nice model, but the kit has some severe flaws (see below). The model was basically built OOB, I just added AIM-9L Sidewinders and their respective launch rails as external ordnance on the outermost underwing hardpoints. Since I did not find the standard gun pod (a ZVI PL-20 Plamen pod with 2×20 mm guns) suitable, I decided to give the GARC aircraft a heavier, Western weapon in the form of a Mauser BK-27 (the same weapon used onboard of the Panavia Tornado or the Saab Gripen) in a conformal cannon pod under the fuselage. This piece was taken and adapted from a Heller Alpha Jet. Its shape perfectly fitted between the two ventral air brakes.
Concerning the kit itself, the build turned out to be a medium nightmare. The kit looked promising in the box, with fine engravings, but nothing fits well. There are no locator pins, you have (massive) ejection marks almost everywhere, and the parts’ attachment points to the sprues protrude into the parts themselves, so there’s a lot to clean up. At least there are no sinkholes.
Upon assembly, the cockpit tub – nicely detailed – would not fit into the fuselage at all and ended up in an oblique position (hidden through a pilot figure from the scrap box and a re-mounted avionics fairing in the rear cockpit). The air intakes left me guessing, too: while the edges are crisp and thin, the overall fit with the fuselage and the orientation of the parts had to be guesstimated, plus a mediocre fit, too. The instructions are not very helpful, either. I am quite disappointed and tried to make the best of the situation.
Painting and markings:
Much more thought was put into the model’s looks. What camouflage should such an aircraft carry? And I had to invent roundels/markings for a Catalonian air force aircraft, too.
Since the Catalonian L-159s were multi-purpose aircraft, yet primarily tasked with air space defense, I opted for an subdued air superiority scheme instead of a tactical low-level camouflage. Furthermore, the camouflage was supposed to be suited for a mountainous landscape (Pyrenees), relatively flat and dry land and also to open sea. This was a good opportunity to give a model the Greek “Ghost” scheme: a three-tone wraparound scheme consisting of FS 36307 (Light Sea Grey), 36251 (Aggressor Grey) and 35237 (Medium Grey, but actually a rather greyish blue). The pattern was adapted from Hellenic F-16s. I think it’s a good compromise, and it suits the ALCA well.
The national markings caused more headaches. I was looking for something that would not look like the Spanish roundel, but still reflect the Catalonian indpendence flag and – most important – I wanted to be able to create it from stock material (not printing them at home), with the option to replicate it on potential future builds.
In the end and after long safaris through my spare decal repository, I came up with a round marking. It consists of an Ukrainian roundel with a relatively thin outer yellow ring (from a Begemot MiG-29 sheet), placed on top of a Hinomaru, so that a thin, red outer ring was added. Onto the central, blue disc a white star (from a TL Modellbau sheet with US Army markings) was added. I think that this looks original enough?
There was a problem, though… In my first attempt to apply this construction, the roundels turned out to be VERY large overall. While the design itself looked O.K. (despite reminding of Captain America somehow), this looked ridiculous, esp. on an aircraft with a wraparound low-viz paint scheme. I was not satisfied, so I heavy-heartedly ripped the decals off again (using adhesive tape, works like a charm) and tried it again, in a smaller version.
Hinomaru became the basis once more, even though smaller, and then die-punched discs in yellow and blue (from generic decal sheet) were added, and finally small white stars again, one size smaller than during the first attempt. While this is still colorful and stands out from the grey background, the second attempt looked much more balanced now, and I stuck with it.
In order to add more flavor, I added Catalonian fin flashes and squadron emblems on the nose, depicting the “burro”, the Catalonian donkey which has become a kind of unofficial regional symbol as a kind of anti-mascot to the Spanish bull. These markings/decals were printed at home on white sheet.
The tactical codes were based on the Spanish system. The Spanish Air Force has its own alphanumeric system for identifying aircraft: This forms a prefix to the airframe serial number, usually marked on the tail. C means cazabombardero (fighter bomber); A, ataque (attack); P, patrulla (patrol); T, transporte (transport); E, enseñanza (training); D, search and rescue; H, helicopter; K, tanker; V, Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL); and U, utility. An example would be that the F-18 with "C.15-08" on the tail is the fifteenth type of fighter that arrived in the Spanish Air Force (the Eurofighter is the C.16) and is the eighth example of this type to enter the SAF. On the nose or fuselage, the aircraft has a numeral specific to the unit in which it is based.
Variants of planes in service, for example two-seater versions or tanker versions of transports planes, add another letter to differentiate their function, and have their own sequence of serial numbers separate from the primary versions. Example: "CE.15-02" will be the second F-18 two-seater (Fighter Trainer) delivered to the SAF. In addition, the aircraft used by the Spanish Air Force usually carry a code consisting of one or two digits followed by a dash and two numbers, painted on the nose or fuselage. The first number corresponds to the unit to which they belong, and the second the order in which they entered service. Example: the fourth F-18 arriving at Ala 12 will have on the nose the code "12-04". Those codes do change when the aircraft is re-allocated to a different unit. Quite complicated…
This led to the tactical code “2-03”, for the 3rd aircraft allocated to the 2nd fighter squadron, and “C.1-03” as individual registration as the 3rd aircraft of the 1st fighter type in Catalonian service. All codes were puzzled together with single black letters and numbers from TL Modellbau in 3 and 5mm size.
Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.
A flyer from the New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, a nationwide broad coalition of anti-Viet War groups, calling for immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops and a mass demonstration to be held in the nation’s capital November 15, 1969.
Demands were also made under three broad categories of “Stop the War,” “Stop the War Machine,” and “Stop the Death Machine and included self-determination for black America, an end to racism and poverty, free speech for GIs, self-government for the District of Columbia, the freeing of political prisoners and an end to the draft.
A feature of the demonstration was a two-day procession preceding the main march where individuals paraded single-file from Arlington National Cemetery, past the White House where each individual stopped and called out the name of a slain U.S. soldier, and then continued on to the U.S. Capitol.
A two-day nationwide work stoppage was called for Nov. 14-15 by the Vietnam Moratorium Committee. A previous Moratorium in October had an estimated two million people participate across the country.
Upwards of 500,000 attended the Nov. 15th march—the largest of the Vietnam War era up to that point in time.
While the March Against Death and the main march were mostly devoid of drama, some of the fiercest street fighting with police of that era occurred the evening of Nov. 14th around Dupont Circle during an attempted march on the South Vietnamese Embassy and on Nov. 15th at the Justice Department following the main march.
President Richard Nixon began a slow withdrawal of troops while the antiwar movement kept up pressure culminating in the 1973 Paris Peace Agreement that effectively ended the U.S. combat role in that country.
Forces of the Democratic Republic of (North) Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of (South) Vietnam overran the forces of the Republic of (South) Vietnam in 1975 gaining independence from foreign powers and unifying the country.
For a PDF of this 2-sided, 8 ½ x 11 flyer, see washingtonareaspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/1969-1...
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsk9riRMa
Original held in the Bonnie Atwood papers, 1965-2005, Collection, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.
Lt. Col. James McNair, of the Georgia Army National Guard, hugs his son, Spc. Mason McNair, a member of the Georgia Detachments, 1-111th General Support Aviation Battalion, following the departure ceremony for the 1-111th GSAB on June 2, 2016 at the Clay National Guard Center. Spc. McNair and the rest of the 1-111 departed June 4, 2016 for pre-mobilization training before deploying to Southwest Asia. (Photo by Capt. William Carraway)
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
Immediately after the 1989 Velvet Revolution, the Czech president Václav Havel declared a de-mobilization of the Czech defense industry. Nevertheless, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Czech company Aero Vodochody continued developing the basic L-39 Albatros design with a view toward greater export. The resulting L-39MS, later re-designed as L-59 Super Albatros, featured a more powerful turbofan engine, advanced avionics, and has been bought in quantity by Egypt and Tunisia. In 1993, a group of Czech military experts launched a project of production of a modern domestic fighter to replace the obsolete Soviet aircraft. Since the proposed Aero L-X supersonic fighter development proved to be financially demanding (up to US$2 billion), the less costly L-159 subsonic attack aircraft was approved for procurement instead.
Conducted between the years 1994 and 1997, the technical development of L-159 ALCA (Advanced Light Combat Aircraft) in Aero Vodochody consisted primarily of building one L-159 two-seat prototype based on the L-59 airframe, utilizing western engine, avionics and weapon systems, with Rockwell Collins (eventually Boeing) as the avionics integrator.
The L-159 ALCA was designed for the principal role of light combat aircraft (single-seat L-159A variant) or light attack jet and advanced/lead-in fighter trainer (two-seat L-159B and T variants). The design of the L-159 was derived from the L-39/59 in terms of aerodynamic configuration, but a number of changes were made to improve its combat capabilities. These included strengthening of the airframe, reinforcing of the cockpit with composite and ceramic ballistic armor and enlargement of the aircraft's nose to accommodate a radar. Compared to the L-59, number of underwing pylons was increased from four to six, and a new hardpoint under the fuselage was added instead of a fixed GSh-23L cannon in an external fairing. The aircraft was capable of carrying external loads up to 2,340 kg, ranging from unguided bombs and rocket pods to air-to-ground and air-to-air guided missiles or special devices to conduct aerial reconnaissance or electronic warfare. Guided precision ordnance like laser-guided glide bombs could be carried, too, thanks to the aircraft’s ability to carry respective targeting equipment, for example the AN/AAQ-28(V) LITENING pod.
The L-159 was powered by the non-afterburning Honeywell/ITEC F124-GA-100 turbofan engine with a maximum thrust of 28 kN. Almost 2,000 litres of fuel was stored in eight internal tanks (six in the fuselage, two at the wingtips) with up to four external drop tanks (two 500 L and two 350 L tanks) carried under the inner wings.
The lightly armored cockpit was equipped with a VS-2B ejection seat, capable of catapulting the pilot at a zero flight level and at zero speed. The aircraft's avionics based on the MIL-STD-1553 databus include a Selex Navigation and Attack Suite, Ring Laser Gyro based Inertial Navigation System (INS) and Global Positioning System (GPS). Flight data was displayed both at the FV-3000 head-up display (HUD) and on two multi-function displays (MFD). Communications were provided by a pair of Collins ARC-182 transceivers. Self-protection of the L-159 was ensured by a Sky Guardian 200 radar warning receiver (RWR) and Vinten Vicon 78 Series 455 chaff and flare dispensers. L-159A and T2 variants were equipped with the lightweight Italian FIAR Grifo L multi-mode Doppler radar for all-weather, day and night operations.
The maiden flight of the first L-159 prototype occurred on 2 August 1997 with a two-seat version. On 18 August 1998, the single-seat L-159A prototype first flew; it was completed to Czech customer specifications. 10 April 2000 marked the first delivery of L-159A to the Czech Air Force and the type was marketed for export.
One of the type’s foreign operators became the young Republic of Catalonia, which had declared independence from Spain in 2017. The Catalan independence movement already began in 1922, when Francesc Macià founded the political party Estat Català (Catalan State), but the modern independence movement began and gained serious momentum in 2010, when the Constitutional Court of Spain ruled that some of the articles of the 2006 Statute of Autonomy - which had been agreed with the Spanish government and passed by a referendum in Catalonia - were unconstitutional, and others were to be interpreted restrictively. Popular protest against this decision quickly turned into demands for independence. Starting with the town of Arenys de Munt, over 550 municipalities in Catalonia held symbolic referendums on independence between 2009 and 2011. All of the towns returned a high "yes" vote, with a turnout of around 30% of those eligible to vote. A 2010 protest demonstration against the court's decision, organized by the cultural organization Òmnium Cultural, was attended by over a million people. The popular movement fed upwards to the politicians; a second mass protest on 11 September 2012 (the National Day of Catalonia) explicitly called on the Catalan government to begin the process towards independence. Catalan president Artur Mas called a snap general election, which resulted in a pro-independence majority for the first time in the region's history. The new parliament adopted the Catalan Sovereignty Declaration in early 2013, asserting that the Catalan people had the right to decide their own political future.
After three more troublesome years and constant strife for independence from Spain, the Catalonian president Carles Puigdemont eventually announced a binding referendum on the topic. Although deemed illegal by the Spanish government and the Constitutional Court, the referendum was held on 1 October 2017. In a vote where the anti-independence parties called for non-participation, results showed a 90% vote in favor of independence, with a turnout of 43%. Based on this result, on 27 October 2017 the Parliament of Catalonia approved a resolution unilaterally creating an independent Republic.
This event was also the rather sudden birth of the Catalonian armed forces. Esp. the nascent air force, called Guàrdies Aèries de la República Catalana (GARC, Republic of Catalonia Air Guard), faced serious trouble, since Spain refused any assistance. Furthermore, there were no former Spanish military air bases in the region that could be taken, and any equipment and infrastructure had to be procured from scratch and on short notice.
In the wake of this hasted start, the L-159s became part of the GARC’s initial mixed bag of flying low-budget equipment. They were 2nd hand machines, bought from EADS-CASA of Spain and mothballed since 2012 after a barter deal with the Czech Republic: In 2009, EADS had exchanged with the CzAF four CASA C-295 transporters for three L-159As, two L-159T1s and 130 million Euros. These aircraft were still in EADS inventory in late 2017, even though grounded and taken out of service since 2012, because the operations of this small fleet as chasing aircraft were expensive and no buyer could be found in the meantime.
However, in 2018 the company sold them, under indirect pressure from NATO, to the Catalonian government at a “symbolic”, yet unspecified, price. This small fleet was soon augmented by five more L-159As and ten L-159T1s which were directly procured from the Czech Republic in 2019. These aircraft formed the initial, small backbone of the young country’s air defense, armed with AIM-9 Sidewinders (AIM-120 AMRAAM was possible, to, but not procured due to severe budget restraints) and Mauser BK-27 cannon in conformal pods. Since no military airfields with a suitable infrastructure for jet aircraft were available for the GARC at the time of their purchase and introduction, the L-159s were initially based at two public regional airports: at Reus, in the proximity of Tarragona at the Mediterranean coast, and at Girona in the country’s north, where airfield sections were separated of the military operations.
General characteristics:
Crew: one
Length: 12.72 m (41 ft 8¾ in)
Wingspan: 9.54 m (31 ft 3½ in)
Height: 4.87 m (16 ft)
Wing area: 18.80 m² (202.4 ft²)
Airfoil: NACA 64A-012
Aspect ratio: 4.8:1
Empty weight: 4,350 kg (9,590 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 8,000 kg (17,637 lb)
Powerplant:
1× Honeywell F124-GA-100 turbofan, delivering 28.2 kN (6,330 lbf) thrust
Performance:
Never exceed speed: 960 km/h (518 knots, 596 mph)
Maximum speed: 936 km/h (505 knots, 581 mph) at sea level, clean
Stall speed: 185 km/h (100 knots, 115 mph)
Range: 1,570 km (848 nmi, 975 mi) max internal fuel
Combat radius: 565 km (305 nmi, 351 mi) lo-lo-lo, with a gun pod, 2× Mark 82 bombs, 2× AIM-9
Sidewinder and 2× 500 L drop tanks
Service ceiling: 13,200 m (43,300 ft)
Rate of climb: 62 m/s (12,220 ft/min)
Armament:
7Í hardpoints in total, 3 under each wing (outer pylons only for AAMs) and 1 under the fuselage,
holding up to 2,340 kg (5,159 lb) of ordnance
The kit and its assembly:
This model was spawned by a grain of truth: as mentioned in the background, EADS Spain had actually bought a few L-159s in 2009 from the CzAF in exchange for transporters, and together with the ongoing plans of an independent Catalonia I merged both into this ALCA single seater for the fictional Republic of Catalonia Air Guard.
The kit is the relatively new KP L-159. This is basically a nice model, but the kit has some severe flaws (see below). The model was basically built OOB, I just added AIM-9L Sidewinders and their respective launch rails as external ordnance on the outermost underwing hardpoints. Since I did not find the standard gun pod (a ZVI PL-20 Plamen pod with 2×20 mm guns) suitable, I decided to give the GARC aircraft a heavier, Western weapon in the form of a Mauser BK-27 (the same weapon used onboard of the Panavia Tornado or the Saab Gripen) in a conformal cannon pod under the fuselage. This piece was taken and adapted from a Heller Alpha Jet. Its shape perfectly fitted between the two ventral air brakes.
Concerning the kit itself, the build turned out to be a medium nightmare. The kit looked promising in the box, with fine engravings, but nothing fits well. There are no locator pins, you have (massive) ejection marks almost everywhere, and the parts’ attachment points to the sprues protrude into the parts themselves, so there’s a lot to clean up. At least there are no sinkholes.
Upon assembly, the cockpit tub – nicely detailed – would not fit into the fuselage at all and ended up in an oblique position (hidden through a pilot figure from the scrap box and a re-mounted avionics fairing in the rear cockpit). The air intakes left me guessing, too: while the edges are crisp and thin, the overall fit with the fuselage and the orientation of the parts had to be guesstimated, plus a mediocre fit, too. The instructions are not very helpful, either. I am quite disappointed and tried to make the best of the situation.
Painting and markings:
Much more thought was put into the model’s looks. What camouflage should such an aircraft carry? And I had to invent roundels/markings for a Catalonian air force aircraft, too.
Since the Catalonian L-159s were multi-purpose aircraft, yet primarily tasked with air space defense, I opted for an subdued air superiority scheme instead of a tactical low-level camouflage. Furthermore, the camouflage was supposed to be suited for a mountainous landscape (Pyrenees), relatively flat and dry land and also to open sea. This was a good opportunity to give a model the Greek “Ghost” scheme: a three-tone wraparound scheme consisting of FS 36307 (Light Sea Grey), 36251 (Aggressor Grey) and 35237 (Medium Grey, but actually a rather greyish blue). The pattern was adapted from Hellenic F-16s. I think it’s a good compromise, and it suits the ALCA well.
The national markings caused more headaches. I was looking for something that would not look like the Spanish roundel, but still reflect the Catalonian indpendence flag and – most important – I wanted to be able to create it from stock material (not printing them at home), with the option to replicate it on potential future builds.
In the end and after long safaris through my spare decal repository, I came up with a round marking. It consists of an Ukrainian roundel with a relatively thin outer yellow ring (from a Begemot MiG-29 sheet), placed on top of a Hinomaru, so that a thin, red outer ring was added. Onto the central, blue disc a white star (from a TL Modellbau sheet with US Army markings) was added. I think that this looks original enough?
There was a problem, though… In my first attempt to apply this construction, the roundels turned out to be VERY large overall. While the design itself looked O.K. (despite reminding of Captain America somehow), this looked ridiculous, esp. on an aircraft with a wraparound low-viz paint scheme. I was not satisfied, so I heavy-heartedly ripped the decals off again (using adhesive tape, works like a charm) and tried it again, in a smaller version.
Hinomaru became the basis once more, even though smaller, and then die-punched discs in yellow and blue (from generic decal sheet) were added, and finally small white stars again, one size smaller than during the first attempt. While this is still colorful and stands out from the grey background, the second attempt looked much more balanced now, and I stuck with it.
In order to add more flavor, I added Catalonian fin flashes and squadron emblems on the nose, depicting the “burro”, the Catalonian donkey which has become a kind of unofficial regional symbol as a kind of anti-mascot to the Spanish bull. These markings/decals were printed at home on white sheet.
The tactical codes were based on the Spanish system. The Spanish Air Force has its own alphanumeric system for identifying aircraft: This forms a prefix to the airframe serial number, usually marked on the tail. C means cazabombardero (fighter bomber); A, ataque (attack); P, patrulla (patrol); T, transporte (transport); E, enseñanza (training); D, search and rescue; H, helicopter; K, tanker; V, Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL); and U, utility. An example would be that the F-18 with "C.15-08" on the tail is the fifteenth type of fighter that arrived in the Spanish Air Force (the Eurofighter is the C.16) and is the eighth example of this type to enter the SAF. On the nose or fuselage, the aircraft has a numeral specific to the unit in which it is based.
Variants of planes in service, for example two-seater versions or tanker versions of transports planes, add another letter to differentiate their function, and have their own sequence of serial numbers separate from the primary versions. Example: "CE.15-02" will be the second F-18 two-seater (Fighter Trainer) delivered to the SAF. In addition, the aircraft used by the Spanish Air Force usually carry a code consisting of one or two digits followed by a dash and two numbers, painted on the nose or fuselage. The first number corresponds to the unit to which they belong, and the second the order in which they entered service. Example: the fourth F-18 arriving at Ala 12 will have on the nose the code "12-04". Those codes do change when the aircraft is re-allocated to a different unit. Quite complicated…
This led to the tactical code “2-03”, for the 3rd aircraft allocated to the 2nd fighter squadron, and “C.1-03” as individual registration as the 3rd aircraft of the 1st fighter type in Catalonian service. All codes were puzzled together with single black letters and numbers from TL Modellbau in 3 and 5mm size.
Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
Immediately after the 1989 Velvet Revolution, the Czech president Václav Havel declared a de-mobilization of the Czech defense industry. Nevertheless, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Czech company Aero Vodochody continued developing the basic L-39 Albatros design with a view toward greater export. The resulting L-39MS, later re-designed as L-59 Super Albatros, featured a more powerful turbofan engine, advanced avionics, and has been bought in quantity by Egypt and Tunisia. In 1993, a group of Czech military experts launched a project of production of a modern domestic fighter to replace the obsolete Soviet aircraft. Since the proposed Aero L-X supersonic fighter development proved to be financially demanding (up to US$2 billion), the less costly L-159 subsonic attack aircraft was approved for procurement instead.
Conducted between the years 1994 and 1997, the technical development of L-159 ALCA (Advanced Light Combat Aircraft) in Aero Vodochody consisted primarily of building one L-159 two-seat prototype based on the L-59 airframe, utilizing western engine, avionics and weapon systems, with Rockwell Collins (eventually Boeing) as the avionics integrator.
The L-159 ALCA was designed for the principal role of light combat aircraft (single-seat L-159A variant) or light attack jet and advanced/lead-in fighter trainer (two-seat L-159B and T variants). The design of the L-159 was derived from the L-39/59 in terms of aerodynamic configuration, but a number of changes were made to improve its combat capabilities. These included strengthening of the airframe, reinforcing of the cockpit with composite and ceramic ballistic armor and enlargement of the aircraft's nose to accommodate a radar. Compared to the L-59, number of underwing pylons was increased from four to six, and a new hardpoint under the fuselage was added instead of a fixed GSh-23L cannon in an external fairing. The aircraft was capable of carrying external loads up to 2,340 kg, ranging from unguided bombs and rocket pods to air-to-ground and air-to-air guided missiles or special devices to conduct aerial reconnaissance or electronic warfare. Guided precision ordnance like laser-guided glide bombs could be carried, too, thanks to the aircraft’s ability to carry respective targeting equipment, for example the AN/AAQ-28(V) LITENING pod.
The L-159 was powered by the non-afterburning Honeywell/ITEC F124-GA-100 turbofan engine with a maximum thrust of 28 kN. Almost 2,000 litres of fuel was stored in eight internal tanks (six in the fuselage, two at the wingtips) with up to four external drop tanks (two 500 L and two 350 L tanks) carried under the inner wings.
The lightly armored cockpit was equipped with a VS-2B ejection seat, capable of catapulting the pilot at a zero flight level and at zero speed. The aircraft's avionics based on the MIL-STD-1553 databus include a Selex Navigation and Attack Suite, Ring Laser Gyro based Inertial Navigation System (INS) and Global Positioning System (GPS). Flight data was displayed both at the FV-3000 head-up display (HUD) and on two multi-function displays (MFD). Communications were provided by a pair of Collins ARC-182 transceivers. Self-protection of the L-159 was ensured by a Sky Guardian 200 radar warning receiver (RWR) and Vinten Vicon 78 Series 455 chaff and flare dispensers. L-159A and T2 variants were equipped with the lightweight Italian FIAR Grifo L multi-mode Doppler radar for all-weather, day and night operations.
The maiden flight of the first L-159 prototype occurred on 2 August 1997 with a two-seat version. On 18 August 1998, the single-seat L-159A prototype first flew; it was completed to Czech customer specifications. 10 April 2000 marked the first delivery of L-159A to the Czech Air Force and the type was marketed for export.
One of the type’s foreign operators became the young Republic of Catalonia, which had declared independence from Spain in 2017. The Catalan independence movement already began in 1922, when Francesc Macià founded the political party Estat Català (Catalan State), but the modern independence movement began and gained serious momentum in 2010, when the Constitutional Court of Spain ruled that some of the articles of the 2006 Statute of Autonomy - which had been agreed with the Spanish government and passed by a referendum in Catalonia - were unconstitutional, and others were to be interpreted restrictively. Popular protest against this decision quickly turned into demands for independence. Starting with the town of Arenys de Munt, over 550 municipalities in Catalonia held symbolic referendums on independence between 2009 and 2011. All of the towns returned a high "yes" vote, with a turnout of around 30% of those eligible to vote. A 2010 protest demonstration against the court's decision, organized by the cultural organization Òmnium Cultural, was attended by over a million people. The popular movement fed upwards to the politicians; a second mass protest on 11 September 2012 (the National Day of Catalonia) explicitly called on the Catalan government to begin the process towards independence. Catalan president Artur Mas called a snap general election, which resulted in a pro-independence majority for the first time in the region's history. The new parliament adopted the Catalan Sovereignty Declaration in early 2013, asserting that the Catalan people had the right to decide their own political future.
After three more troublesome years and constant strife for independence from Spain, the Catalonian president Carles Puigdemont eventually announced a binding referendum on the topic. Although deemed illegal by the Spanish government and the Constitutional Court, the referendum was held on 1 October 2017. In a vote where the anti-independence parties called for non-participation, results showed a 90% vote in favor of independence, with a turnout of 43%. Based on this result, on 27 October 2017 the Parliament of Catalonia approved a resolution unilaterally creating an independent Republic.
This event was also the rather sudden birth of the Catalonian armed forces. Esp. the nascent air force, called Guàrdies Aèries de la República Catalana (GARC, Republic of Catalonia Air Guard), faced serious trouble, since Spain refused any assistance. Furthermore, there were no former Spanish military air bases in the region that could be taken, and any equipment and infrastructure had to be procured from scratch and on short notice.
In the wake of this hasted start, the L-159s became part of the GARC’s initial mixed bag of flying low-budget equipment. They were 2nd hand machines, bought from EADS-CASA of Spain and mothballed since 2012 after a barter deal with the Czech Republic: In 2009, EADS had exchanged with the CzAF four CASA C-295 transporters for three L-159As, two L-159T1s and 130 million Euros. These aircraft were still in EADS inventory in late 2017, even though grounded and taken out of service since 2012, because the operations of this small fleet as chasing aircraft were expensive and no buyer could be found in the meantime.
However, in 2018 the company sold them, under indirect pressure from NATO, to the Catalonian government at a “symbolic”, yet unspecified, price. This small fleet was soon augmented by five more L-159As and ten L-159T1s which were directly procured from the Czech Republic in 2019. These aircraft formed the initial, small backbone of the young country’s air defense, armed with AIM-9 Sidewinders (AIM-120 AMRAAM was possible, to, but not procured due to severe budget restraints) and Mauser BK-27 cannon in conformal pods. Since no military airfields with a suitable infrastructure for jet aircraft were available for the GARC at the time of their purchase and introduction, the L-159s were initially based at two public regional airports: at Reus, in the proximity of Tarragona at the Mediterranean coast, and at Girona in the country’s north, where airfield sections were separated of the military operations.
General characteristics:
Crew: one
Length: 12.72 m (41 ft 8¾ in)
Wingspan: 9.54 m (31 ft 3½ in)
Height: 4.87 m (16 ft)
Wing area: 18.80 m² (202.4 ft²)
Airfoil: NACA 64A-012
Aspect ratio: 4.8:1
Empty weight: 4,350 kg (9,590 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 8,000 kg (17,637 lb)
Powerplant:
1× Honeywell F124-GA-100 turbofan, delivering 28.2 kN (6,330 lbf) thrust
Performance:
Never exceed speed: 960 km/h (518 knots, 596 mph)
Maximum speed: 936 km/h (505 knots, 581 mph) at sea level, clean
Stall speed: 185 km/h (100 knots, 115 mph)
Range: 1,570 km (848 nmi, 975 mi) max internal fuel
Combat radius: 565 km (305 nmi, 351 mi) lo-lo-lo, with a gun pod, 2× Mark 82 bombs, 2× AIM-9
Sidewinder and 2× 500 L drop tanks
Service ceiling: 13,200 m (43,300 ft)
Rate of climb: 62 m/s (12,220 ft/min)
Armament:
7Í hardpoints in total, 3 under each wing (outer pylons only for AAMs) and 1 under the fuselage,
holding up to 2,340 kg (5,159 lb) of ordnance
The kit and its assembly:
This model was spawned by a grain of truth: as mentioned in the background, EADS Spain had actually bought a few L-159s in 2009 from the CzAF in exchange for transporters, and together with the ongoing plans of an independent Catalonia I merged both into this ALCA single seater for the fictional Republic of Catalonia Air Guard.
The kit is the relatively new KP L-159. This is basically a nice model, but the kit has some severe flaws (see below). The model was basically built OOB, I just added AIM-9L Sidewinders and their respective launch rails as external ordnance on the outermost underwing hardpoints. Since I did not find the standard gun pod (a ZVI PL-20 Plamen pod with 2×20 mm guns) suitable, I decided to give the GARC aircraft a heavier, Western weapon in the form of a Mauser BK-27 (the same weapon used onboard of the Panavia Tornado or the Saab Gripen) in a conformal cannon pod under the fuselage. This piece was taken and adapted from a Heller Alpha Jet. Its shape perfectly fitted between the two ventral air brakes.
Concerning the kit itself, the build turned out to be a medium nightmare. The kit looked promising in the box, with fine engravings, but nothing fits well. There are no locator pins, you have (massive) ejection marks almost everywhere, and the parts’ attachment points to the sprues protrude into the parts themselves, so there’s a lot to clean up. At least there are no sinkholes.
Upon assembly, the cockpit tub – nicely detailed – would not fit into the fuselage at all and ended up in an oblique position (hidden through a pilot figure from the scrap box and a re-mounted avionics fairing in the rear cockpit). The air intakes left me guessing, too: while the edges are crisp and thin, the overall fit with the fuselage and the orientation of the parts had to be guesstimated, plus a mediocre fit, too. The instructions are not very helpful, either. I am quite disappointed and tried to make the best of the situation.
Painting and markings:
Much more thought was put into the model’s looks. What camouflage should such an aircraft carry? And I had to invent roundels/markings for a Catalonian air force aircraft, too.
Since the Catalonian L-159s were multi-purpose aircraft, yet primarily tasked with air space defense, I opted for an subdued air superiority scheme instead of a tactical low-level camouflage. Furthermore, the camouflage was supposed to be suited for a mountainous landscape (Pyrenees), relatively flat and dry land and also to open sea. This was a good opportunity to give a model the Greek “Ghost” scheme: a three-tone wraparound scheme consisting of FS 36307 (Light Sea Grey), 36251 (Aggressor Grey) and 35237 (Medium Grey, but actually a rather greyish blue). The pattern was adapted from Hellenic F-16s. I think it’s a good compromise, and it suits the ALCA well.
The national markings caused more headaches. I was looking for something that would not look like the Spanish roundel, but still reflect the Catalonian indpendence flag and – most important – I wanted to be able to create it from stock material (not printing them at home), with the option to replicate it on potential future builds.
In the end and after long safaris through my spare decal repository, I came up with a round marking. It consists of an Ukrainian roundel with a relatively thin outer yellow ring (from a Begemot MiG-29 sheet), placed on top of a Hinomaru, so that a thin, red outer ring was added. Onto the central, blue disc a white star (from a TL Modellbau sheet with US Army markings) was added. I think that this looks original enough?
There was a problem, though… In my first attempt to apply this construction, the roundels turned out to be VERY large overall. While the design itself looked O.K. (despite reminding of Captain America somehow), this looked ridiculous, esp. on an aircraft with a wraparound low-viz paint scheme. I was not satisfied, so I heavy-heartedly ripped the decals off again (using adhesive tape, works like a charm) and tried it again, in a smaller version.
Hinomaru became the basis once more, even though smaller, and then die-punched discs in yellow and blue (from generic decal sheet) were added, and finally small white stars again, one size smaller than during the first attempt. While this is still colorful and stands out from the grey background, the second attempt looked much more balanced now, and I stuck with it.
In order to add more flavor, I added Catalonian fin flashes and squadron emblems on the nose, depicting the “burro”, the Catalonian donkey which has become a kind of unofficial regional symbol as a kind of anti-mascot to the Spanish bull. These markings/decals were printed at home on white sheet.
The tactical codes were based on the Spanish system. The Spanish Air Force has its own alphanumeric system for identifying aircraft: This forms a prefix to the airframe serial number, usually marked on the tail. C means cazabombardero (fighter bomber); A, ataque (attack); P, patrulla (patrol); T, transporte (transport); E, enseñanza (training); D, search and rescue; H, helicopter; K, tanker; V, Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL); and U, utility. An example would be that the F-18 with "C.15-08" on the tail is the fifteenth type of fighter that arrived in the Spanish Air Force (the Eurofighter is the C.16) and is the eighth example of this type to enter the SAF. On the nose or fuselage, the aircraft has a numeral specific to the unit in which it is based.
Variants of planes in service, for example two-seater versions or tanker versions of transports planes, add another letter to differentiate their function, and have their own sequence of serial numbers separate from the primary versions. Example: "CE.15-02" will be the second F-18 two-seater (Fighter Trainer) delivered to the SAF. In addition, the aircraft used by the Spanish Air Force usually carry a code consisting of one or two digits followed by a dash and two numbers, painted on the nose or fuselage. The first number corresponds to the unit to which they belong, and the second the order in which they entered service. Example: the fourth F-18 arriving at Ala 12 will have on the nose the code "12-04". Those codes do change when the aircraft is re-allocated to a different unit. Quite complicated…
This led to the tactical code “2-03”, for the 3rd aircraft allocated to the 2nd fighter squadron, and “C.1-03” as individual registration as the 3rd aircraft of the 1st fighter type in Catalonian service. All codes were puzzled together with single black letters and numbers from TL Modellbau in 3 and 5mm size.
Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.
USAID hosted a Signature Event —Shared Progress: Modernizing Development Finance on September 22, 2016 in New York City, NY. Running concurrently to the United Nations General Asembly, the event highlighted the challenges and opportunities for financing current and future development goals.
During the event, UAID Administrator Gayle Smith and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, discussed how to foster an enabling environment for private investment and increasing domestic resource mobilization. A panel of speakers also offered recommendations on how to make better use of the three streams of finance in order to improve development outcomes.
Photo by Ellie Van Houtte/USAID
Domestic resource
mobilization is crucial
to financing largescale
infrastructure projects (John Hogg/World Bank).
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
Due to the restrictions of the Versailles treaties, the Reichswehr was already dealing with the increasing mobilization and motorization of the army after the end of the First World War. The realization that the speed of the troop units required appropriate equipment was available early on. However, the Reichswehr suffered from financial constraints and during the Weimar Republic the industry only had limited capacity for series production of larger, armored vehicles.
Nevertheless, at that time the Sd.Kfz. 3 (unarmored half-track transport vehicle/1927), the ARW (eight-wheel car/1928) and the ZRW (ten-wheel car/1928) provided fundamental experience. The findings of these tests and the troop testing with the Sd.Kfz. 3 enabled a more precise specification of the new vehicles to be developed. The "heavy" armored cars were primarily intended for the reconnaissance units of the new armored forces.
The incipient rearmament could only start with a "cheap" solution, though. A three-part armored structure for the chassis of commercially available off-road trucks was developed by the Army Weapons Office, Dept. WaTest 6, in cooperation with the company Deutsche Eisenwerke AG. The typical truck chassis featured front-wheel steering and a driven bogie at the rear (4x6 layout). In June 1929, the companies Magirus, Daimler-Benz and Büssing-NAG were commissioned to develop the desired armored car from it. If you consider that this truck class was developed for a payload of 1.5t, you can already conclude from this that the vehicles, which are now equipped with a significantly heavy armored structure, had little off-road mobility. Even if the appearance of the vehicles supplied by the different manufacturers was similar, there were external distinguishing features by which the manufacturer could be identified. The vehicles were tested in the Reichswehr from 1932 and introduced later.
One of the four crew members (driver, commander, gunner, radio-operator) was used as a reverse driver: with the narrow streets of the time and a turning circle of between 13 and 16m, this function was essential for a truck-sized heavy reconnaissance vehicle. The chassis had the excellent ladder-type configuration, able to withstand the stress of rough rides at high speed. The scout car was 5570 mm long, 1820 mm wide, 2250 mm high and weighed 5.35, 5.7 or 6 tons, depending on the manufacturer. The hull was made of welded steel armor, 5 to 14.5 mm (0.2-0.57 in) thick depending on the angle (bottom to front) with well-sloped plates. The armament consisted of a 2 cm KwK 30 with 200 rounds and a MG 13 with 1300 rounds in a manually operated turret. The fuel supply was 90, 105 or 110 liters, but with a consumption of about 35 or 40 liters per 100 km, this resulted in a completely inadequate range for a scout car.
Having no true alternatives at hand, the armored 4x6 car was accepted and became known as the Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-wheel), and it was subsequently developed into two more vehicles. Up until 1937, 123 vehicles were built as Sd.Kfz. 231 reconnaissance cars and Sd.Kfz. 232 radio trucks. A further 28 were manufactured as Sd.Kfz. 263 (Panzerfunkwagen) command vehicles.
As early as 1932, after testing the pilot series, it was clear that the interim solution of "cheap" 6-wheel vehicles would not meet the future requirements of the armored divisions now planned. It was planned that from 1935/36 at least 18 vehicles of a new type that would meet the requirements for off-road mobility and high road speeds should be produced annually. Büssing-NAG had obviously made a good impression with the ARW and was now commissioned to make the revised vehicle ready for series production, which would become the SdKfz. 231 (8-Rad). The overall concept was completed between 1934 and 1935 and already showed all the features of the future type: all 8 wheels driven and steered, the same speed forwards and backwards, ability to change direction in less than 10 seconds, and a turning circle of "only" 10.5m. The vehicle layout was changed, too: the engine bay was relocated to the rear, the crew compartment was placed at the front end. This improved weight distribution, handling, and the field of view for the main forward driver.
The purpose of the new vehicles was identical to that of the earlier heavy 6-wheel vehicles, they were used on the same sites and so the same ordnance inventory designation was adopted, despite the vehicle’s many modifications. The so-called Sd.Kfz. 231 (8-Rad) was armed, corresponding to its 6-Rad counterpart, with a 2cm KwK 30 and the MG 13 (later MG 34) in a rotating turret. Likewise, the Sd.Kfz. 232 (8-Rad) carried a large, curved bow antenna, and there was a Sd.Kfz. 263 (8-Rad) command vehicle, too.
Nevertheless, the Army Weapons Office demanded a short-term solution for a vehicle based on the 4x6 chassis that offered better off-road performance and armament, namely a 37 mm anti-tank gun, with at least comparable range and armor protection. This interim vehicle was supposed to be ready for service in early 1934. Magirus accepted the challenge and proposed the Sd.Kfz. 241, a 4x8 vehicle. It retained the old overall 6-Rad layout with the front engine under a long bonnet, but it had a fourth steered axle added to lower ground pressure and improve the vehicle’s trench bridging capabilities. The powered two rear axles retained the 6-Rad’s twin wheels, so that the vehicle stood on a total of twelve tires with a relatively large footprint. The armored hull was very similar to the Sd.Kfz. 231 6-Rad, but carried a new, bigger turret with a 3.7 cm KwK 30 L/45 gun and an axis-parallel 7.92 mm MG 34 light machine gun.
The box-shaped turret exploited the hull’s width to the maximum and had a maximum armor of 15 mm, no base and the seat of the commander was attached to the tower wall. The commander sat elevated under a raised cupola in the rear section of the turret, just behind the main gun. He had five viewing slits protected by glass blocks and steel slides for all-round visibility. The gunner/loader, standing to the left of the main gun, had to constantly follow the movement of the turret, which was done by hand. In order to support the gunner when slewing the turret, the commander had an additional handle on the right side. The two crew members also had a turret position indicator.
The cannon was fired electrically via a trigger, the machine gun was operated mechanically with a pedal. To aim and view the outside, the gunner had a gun sight to the left of the gun with an opening in the gun mantlet. Standard access to the vehicle was through low double-doors in the vehicle’ flank, but side exit openings in the turret with two flaps each were also frequently used to board it. Another entry was through the commander cupola’s lid.
With all this extra hardware, the Sd.Kfz. 241’s overall weight rose considerably from the late Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad) nearly 6 tons to 7.5 tons. As a consequence, the chassis had to be reinforced and a more powerful engine was used, a 6-cylinder Maybach HL 42 TRKM w carburetor gasoline engine with 4170 cc capacity and 100 hp (74 kW) output at 3000 rpm.
As expected, the Sd.Kfz. 241 was not a success. Even though the first vehicles were delivered in time in mid-1934, its operational value was rather limited. Off-road capability was, due to the extra weight, the raised center of gravity and the lack of all-wheel drive, just as bad as the 6-Rad vehicles, and the more powerful engine’s higher fuel consumption allowed neither higher range, despite bigger fuel tanks, nor a better street performance. The only real progress was the new 3.7 cm KwK 30’s firepower, which was appreciated by the crews, even though the weapon was only effective against armored targets at close range. At 100 m, 64 mm of vertical armor could be penetrated, but at 500 m this already dropped to 31 mm, any angle in the armor weakened its hitting power even further. The weapon’s maximum range was 5.000m, though, and with HE rounds the Sd.Kfz. 241 could provide indirect fire support. Another factor that limited the vehicle’s effectiveness was that the gun had to be operated by a single crew member who had to load and aim at the same time – there was simply not enough space for a separate loader who would also have increased the gun’s rate of fire from six to maybe twelve rounds per minute. The vehicle’s armor was also inadequate and only gave protection against light firearms, but not against machine guns or heavier weapons. On the other side, the cupola on top of the turret offered the commander in his elevated position a very good all-round field of view, even when under full protection – but this progressive detail was not adopted for the following armored reconnaissance vehicles and remained exclusive to German battle tanks.
Only a total of fifty-five Sd.Kfz. 241s were completed by Magirus in Cologne until 1936, when production of the Sd.Kfz. 231 (8-Rad) vehicle family started and soon replaced the Sd.Kfz. 241, which was primarily operated at the Eastern Front in Poland and Czechoslovakia. By 1940, no Sd.Kfz. 241 was left in any frontline army unit, but a few survivors were grouped together and handed over to police units. Their main gun was either completely deleted or sometimes replaced with a second machine gun, and they were used for urban patrols and riot control duties. However, by 1942, no Sd.Kfz. 241 was left over.
Specifications:
Crew: Four (commander, gunner, driver, radio operator/rear driver)
Weight: 7.5 tons (11.450 lb)
Length: 5,85 metres (19 ft 2 in)
Width: 2,20 metres (7 ft 2 ½ in)
Height: 2,78 metres (9 ft 1 in)
Ground clearance: 28.5 cm (10 in)
Suspension: Torsion bar and leaf springs
Fuel capacity: 150 litres (33 imp gal; 40 US gal)
Armor:
8–15 mm (0.31 – 0.6 in)
Performance:
Maximum road speed: 70 km/h (43.5 mph)
52 km/h (32.3 mph) backwards
Operational range: 250 km (155 miles)
Power/weight: 13 PS/ton
Engine:
Maybach HL42 TRKM water-cooled straight 6-cylinder petrol engine with 100 hp (74 kW),
driving the rear pair of axles
Transmission:
Maybach gearbox with 5-speed forward and 4-speed reverse
Armament:
1× 37 mm KwK 30 L/45 cannon with 70 rounds
1× 7.92 mm MG 34 machine gun mounted co-axially with 1.300 rounds
The kit and its assembly:
This fictional armored car was inspired by a leftover rear axles from an Italeri Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad) model that I converted into a fictional half-track variant some time ago. I wondered if the set could be transplanted under an 8-Rad chassis, to create a kind of missing link to the 8x8 successors of the Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad) with a total of twelve tires on four axles.
The basis became a First to Fight 1:72 Sd.Kfz. 231 (8-Rad) kit – a rather simple and robust affair, apparently primarily intended for tabletop purposes. But the overall impression is good, and it would be modified, anyway, even though the plastic turned out to be rather soft/waxy and the parts’ sprue attachment points a bit wacky.
The hull was “turned around” to drive backwards, so that its rear engine ended up in the front. I eventually only used the rear twin wheels from the Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad), but not its single axles and laminated springs. Instead, I first cut the OOB mudguards in two halves, removed their side skirts and glued them onto the lower hull in reversed order, so that the exhausts and their muffler boxes would end up at the rear of the front fenders. With these in place I checked the axles’ position from the OOB ladder chassis, which is a single, integral part, and found that the rear axles’ position had to be moved by 2mm backwards. Cutting the original piece and re-arranging it was easier to scratch a new rear suspension, and the rocker bars had to be shortened to accept the wider twin wheels.
The original small turret with the 20 mm autocannon was deleted and replaced with core elements from a Panzer III turret, left over from previous conversion projects. Wider than any original turret of the Sd.Kfz. 231/232 family, it had to be narrowed by roughly 5mm – I had to cut a respective plug from the turret’s and the mantlet’s middle section, the deformed hatch was covered under a Panzer III commander cupola. To mate the re-arranged turret with the OOB adapter plate to mount it onto the hull, and to add overall stability to the construction, I filled the interior with 2C putty.
The typical storage bin at the turret’s rear was omitted, though, it would have made it too large for the compact truck chassis. The shape was a perfect stylistic match, even though, with the longer gun barrel, the vehicle reminds a lot of the Soviet BA-10 heavy armored car?
Most small details like the bumpers and the headlights were taken OOB, I added a whip antenna base at the rear and mounted two spare wheels at the back, one of them covered with a tarpaulin (made from paper tissue drenched with white glue, this was also used to create the gun mantlet seals).
Painting and markings:
Typical for German vehicles from the early WWII stages the Sd.Kfz. 241 was painted Panzergrau (RAL 7021; I used Humbrol 67, which is authentic, but mixed it with some 125 to create a slightly lighter shade of grey) overall - quite dull, but realistic. To make the vehicle look more interesting, though, I added authentic contemporary camouflage in the form of low-contrast blotches with RAL 8017, a very dark reddish brown, mixed from Humbrol 160 and some 98. Better, but IMHO still not enough.
After the model received a washing with highly thinned red-brown acrylic artist paint I applied the few decals and gave the parts an overall dry-brushing treatment with grey and dark earth. Everything was sealed with matt acrylic varnish. For even more “excitement”, I decided to add a coat of snow.
For the simulated “frosting” I used white tile grout – which has the benefits of being water-soluble, quite sturdy to touch and the material does not yellow over time like gypsum.
First, the wheels, the chassis and the inside of the wheel arches received a separate treatment with relatively dryly mixed tile grout, simulating snow and dirt clusters. Once thoroughly dried, the wheels were mounted. Then the model was sprayed with low surface tension water and loose tile grout was drizzled over hull and turret, creating a flaky coat of fake snow. Once dry again, everything received another coat of matt acrylic varnish to protect and fixate everything further.
A relatively quick build, done in a few days. The First to Fight kit is very simple and went together well, but I’d use something else the next time due to the odd material it was molded with. The outcome of an 4x8 scout car looks quite plausible, though, like the missing link between the Sd.Kfz. 231 and 232 – the unintended similarity with the Soviet BA-10 heavy armored car was a bit surprising, though. And the snow on the model eventually makes it look a bit more interesting, the stunt was worth the effort.
Mobilization of a piling rig onto a temporary access platform on BC Highway 1, the Malahat at the Tunnel Hill washout location. For more information on the work happening at the site, visit the project recovery site: www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/transportation-projects/bc-hig...
The Chena Hotshots arrive at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho to assist with wildfire suppression efforts in the Lower 48. (DOI/Neal Herbert)
~*Photography Originally Taken By: www.CrossTrips.Com Under God*~
World War II (1941-1945)
World War II, or the Second World War,[1] was a global military conflict, the joining of what had initially been two separate conflicts. The first began in Asia in 1937 as the Second Sino-Japanese War; the other began in Europe in 1939 with the German invasion of Poland.
This global conflict split the majority of the world's nations into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. It involved the mobilization of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread war in history, and placed the participants in a state of "total war", erasing the distinction between civil and military resources. This resulted in the complete activation of a nation's economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities for the purposes of the war effort. Over 60 million people, the majority of them civilians, were killed, making it the deadliest conflict in human history.[2] The financial cost of the war is estimated at about a trillion 1944 U.S. dollars worldwide,[3][4] making it the most costly war in capital as well as lives.
The Allies were victorious, and, as a result, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as the world's leading superpowers. This set the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 45 years. The United Nations was formed in hopes of preventing another such conflict. The self determination spawned by the war accelerated decolonization movements in Asia and Africa, while Europe itself began moving toward integration.[5]
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Background
* 2 Course of the war
o 2.1 War breaks out
o 2.2 Axis advances
o 2.3 The war becomes global
o 2.4 The tide turns
o 2.5 Allies gain momentum
o 2.6 Allies close in
o 2.7 Axis collapse, Allied victory
* 3 Aftermath
* 4 Casualties, civilian impact, and atrocities
o 4.1 Concentration camps and slave work
o 4.2 Chemical and bacteriological weapons
o 4.3 Bombings
o 4.4 War trials
* 5 See also
* 6 References
* 7 External links
Background
In the aftermath of World War I, the defeated German Empire signed the Treaty of Versailles.[6] This restricted German military and territorial growth and required the payment of massive war reparations. Civil war in Russia led to the creation of the communist Soviet Union which soon was under the control of Joseph Stalin. In Italy, Benito Mussolini seized power as a fascist dictator promising to create a "New Roman Empire".[7] The ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against rebelling warlords in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its former Chinese communist allies. In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Japanese Empire, which had long sought influence in China[8] as the first step of its right to rule Asia, used the Mukden Incident as justification to invade Manchuria; the two nations then fought several small conflicts until the Tanggu Truce in 1933.
German troops at the 1935 Nuremberg Rally
German troops at the 1935 Nuremberg Rally
In 1933, National Socialist Adolf Hitler became the leader of Germany and began a massive rearming campaign.[9] This worried France and the United Kingdom, who had lost much in the previous war, as well as Italy, which saw its territorial ambitions threatened by those of Germany.[10] To secure its alliance, the French allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia, which Italy desired to conquer. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the Saarland was legally reunited with Germany and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, speeding up remilitarization and introducing conscription. Hoping to contain Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy formed the Stresa Front. The Soviet Union, also concerned due to Germany's goals of capturing vast areas of eastern Europe, concluded a treaty of mutual assistance with France.
These alliances did not amount to much. The Franco-Soviet pact, required to go through the League of Nations bureaucracy before taking effect, was essentially toothless[11][12] and in June of 1935, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany easing prior restrictions. The isolationist United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August.[13] In October Italy invaded Ethiopia, but was soon politically isolated, with Germany the only major European nation supporting its aggression. Alliances shifted, with Italy revoking its objections to Germany's goal of making Austria a satellite state.[14]
In March of 1936, Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland in direct violation of the Versailles and Locarno treaties, receiving little response from other European powers.[15] This strategy of giving an aggressor what they supposedly need in order to maintain peace is called appeasement. When the Spanish Civil War broke out in July, Hitler and Mussolini supported fascist Generalísimo Francisco Franco in his civil war against the Soviet-supported Spanish Republic. Both sides used the conflict to test new weapons and methods of warfare.[16]
With tensions mounting, efforts to strengthen or consolidate power were made. In October, Germany and Italy formed the Rome-Berlin Axis and a month later Germany and Japan, each believing communism–and the Soviet Union in particular–to be a threat, signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Italy would join in the following year. In China, the Kuomintang and communist forces agreed on a ceasefire to present a united front to oppose Japan.[17]
Course of the war
See also: Timeline of World War II
War breaks out
Japanese forces during the Battle of Wuhan
Japanese forces during the Battle of Wuhan
In mid-1937, following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Japan began a full invasion of China. The Soviets quickly lent support to China, effectively ending China's prior cooperation with Germany. Starting at Shanghai, the Japanese pushed Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanjing in December. In June of 1938 Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding the Yellow River. Though this bought time to prepare their defenses at Wuhan, the city was still taken by October.[18] During this time, Japanese and Soviet forces engaged in a minor skirmish at Lake Khasan; in May of 1939, they became involved in a more serious border war.[19]
In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming bolder. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, again provoking little response from other European powers.[20] Encouraged, Hitler began making claims on the Sudetenland; France and Britain conceded these for a promise of no further territorial demands.[21] Germany soon reneged, and in March 1939 fully occupied Czechoslovakia.
Soviet and German officers in Poland
Soviet and German officers in Poland
Alarmed, and with Hitler making further demands on Danzig, France and Britain guaranteed their support for Polish independence; when Italy conquered Albania in April, the same guarantee was extended to Romania and Greece.[22] The Soviet Union also attempted to ally with France and Britain, but was rebuffed due to western suspicions about Soviet motives and capability.[23] Shortly after the Franco-British pledges to Poland, Germany and Italy formalized their own alliance with the Pact of Steel; following this, in a move that shocked all other major powers, Germany and the Soviet Union concluded a non-aggression pact, including a secret agreement to split Poland and eastern Europe between them.[24]
By the start of September 1939, the Soviets had routed Japanese forces and the Germans invaded Poland. France, Britain, and the countries of the Commonwealth declared war on Germany but lent little support other than a small French attack into the Saarland.[25] In mid-September, after signing an armistice with Japan, the Soviets launched their own invasion of Poland.[26] By early October, Poland had been divided between Germany and the Soviet Union. During the battle in Poland, Japan launched its first attack against Changsha, a strategically important Chinese city, but was repulsed by early October.[27]
Axis advances
British and French soldiers taken prisoner in Northern France
British and French soldiers taken prisoner in Northern France
Following the invasion of Poland, the Soviets began moving troops into the Baltic region. Finnish resistance in late November led to a four-month war, ending with Finnish concessions.[28] France and the United Kingdom, treating the Soviet attack on Finland as tantamount to entering the war on the side of the Germans[29] responded to the Soviet invasion by supporting its expulsion from the League of Nations.[29] Though China had the authority to veto such an action, it was unwilling to alienate itself from either the Western powers or the Soviet Union and instead abstained.[29] The Soviet Union was displeased by this course of action and as a result suspended all military aid to China.[29] By mid-1940, the Soviet Union's occupation of the Baltics was completed with the installation of pro-Soviet governments.[30]
In Western Europe, British troops deployed to the Continent, but neither Germany nor the Allies launched direct attacks on the other. In April, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to secure shipments of iron-ore from Sweden which the allies would try to disrupt. Denmark immediately capitulated, and despite Allied support Norway was conquered within two months.[31] British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the replacement of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain by Winston Churchill on May 10, 1940.[32]
On that same day, Germany invaded France and the Low Countries, making rapid progress using blitzkrieg tactics. By the end of the month the Netherlands and Belgium had been overrun and British troops were forced to evacuate the continent, abandoning their heavy equipment.[33] On June 10th, Italy invaded, declaring war on both France and the United Kingdom;[33] twelve days later France surrendered and was soon divided into German and Italian occupation zones,[34] and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime. In early July, the British attacked the French fleet in Algeria to prevent their seizure by Germany.[35]
German bombers during the Battle of Britain
German bombers during the Battle of Britain
With France neutralized, the Axis was emboldened. Germany began an air superiority campaign over Britain to prepare for an invasion[36] and enjoyed success against an over-extended Royal Navy, using U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic.[37] Italy began operations in the Mediterranean, initiating a siege of Malta in June, conquering British Somaliland in August, and making an incursion into British-held Egypt in early September. Japan increased its blockade of China in September by seizing several bases in the northern part of the now-isolated French Indochina.[38]
Throughout this period, the neutral United States took measures to assist China and the Western Allies. In November 1939, the American Neutrality Act was amended to allow Cash and carry purchases by the Allies.[39] During 1940, the United States implemented a series of embargos, including oil, iron, steel and mechanical parts, against Japan;[40] in September it agreed to a trade of American destroyers for British bases.[41]
At the end of September the Tripartite Pact between Japan, Italy and Germany formalized the Axis Powers. As a warning to the United States, the pact stipulated that, with the exception of the Soviet Union, any country not currently in the war which attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three.[42] The Soviet Union expressed interest in joining the Tripartite Pact, sending a modified draft to Germany in November and offering a very German-favourable economic deal;[43] while Germany remained silent on the former, they accepted the latter.[44] Regardless of the pact, the United States continued to support the United Kingdom and China by introducing the Lend-Lease policy[45] and creating a security zone spanning roughly half of the Atlantic Ocean where the United States Navy protected British convoys.[46]
Soon after the pact, Italy's fortunes changed. In October, Italy invaded Greece but within days were repulsed and pushed back into Albania, where a stalemate soon occurred.[47] Shortly after this, in Africa, Commonwealth forces launched offensives against Libya and Italian East Africa. By early 1941, with Italian forces having been pushed back into Libya by the Commonwealth, Churchill ordered a dispatch of troops from Africa to bolster the Greeks. The Italian Navy also suffered significant defeats, with the Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission via carrier attack at Taranto, and several more warships neutralized at Cape Matapan.[48]
German paratroopers invading Crete
German paratroopers invading Crete
The Germans soon intervened to assist Italy. Hitler sent German forces to Libya in February and by the end of March they had launched an offensive against the diminished Commonwealth forces. In under a month, Commonwealth forces were pushed back into Egypt with the exception of the besieged port of Tobruk. The Commonwealth attempted to dislodge Axis forces in May and again in June, but failed on both occasions. In early April the Germans similarly intervened in the Balkans, invading Greece and Yugoslavia; here too they made rapid progress, eventually forcing the Allies to evacuate after Germany conquered the Greek island of Crete by the end of May.[49]
The Allies did have some successes during this time though. In the Middle East, Commonwealth forces first quashed a coup in Iraq which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled Syria,[50] then, with the assistance of the Free French, invaded Syria and Lebanon to prevent further such occurrences.[51] In the Atlantic, the British scored a much needed public morale boost by sinking the German flagship Bismarck.[52] Perhaps most importantly, the Royal Air Force had successfully resisted the Luftwaffe's assault, and on May 11, 1941, Hitler called off the bombing campaign over Britain.[53]
In Asia, in spite of several offensives by both sides, the war between China and Japan was stalemated by 1940. In August of that year, Chinese communists launched an offensive in Central China; in retaliation, Japan instituted harsh measures in occupied areas to reduce human and material resources for the communists.[54] Mounting tensions between Chinese communist and nationalist forces culminated in January 1941, effectively ending their co-operation.[55]
With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan and the Soviet Union made preparations. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing resource-rich European possessions in Southeast Asia the two powers signed a neutrality agreement in April, 1941.[56] By contrast the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, amassing forces on the Soviet border, particularly in Finland and Romania.[57]
The war becomes global
German soldiers in the Soviet Union, 1941
German soldiers in the Soviet Union, 1941
In late June, Germany, along with other European Axis members and Finland, invaded the Soviet Union. They made significant gains into Soviet territory, inflicting a large numbers of casualties, and by the start of December had almost reached Moscow, with only the besieged cities of Leningrad and Sevastopol behind their front-lines left unconquered.[58] With the onset of a fierce Soviet winter though, the Axis offensive was ground to a halt[59] and the Soviets launched a counter-offensive using reserve troops brought up from the border near Japanese Manchukuo.[60]
Following the German attack on the Soviets, the United Kingdom began to regroup. In July, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance against Germany[61] and shortly after jointly invaded Iran to secure the Persian Corridor and Iran's oilfields.[62] In August, the United Kingdom and United States jointly issued the Atlantic Charter, a vision for a post-war world which included "the right of all peoples to choose their form of government".[63] In November, Commonwealth forces launched a counter-offensive in the desert, reclaiming all gains the Germans and Italians had made.[64]
In Asia, Japan was preparing for war. The Imperial General Headquarters plan was to create a large perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific in order to facilitate a defensive war while exploiting the resources of Southeast Asia; to prevent intervention while securing the perimeter it was further planned to neutralize the United States Pacific Fleet on the outset.[65] In preparation, Japan seized military control of southern Indochina in July, 1941; an action the United States, United Kingdom and other western governments responded to by freezing all Japanese assets.[66] On December 7th Japan attacked British, Dutch and American holdings with near simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific, including an attack on the American naval base of Pearl Harbor.[67]
These actions prompted the United States, United Kingdom, China, and other Western Allies to declare war on Japan. Italy, Germany, and the other members of the Tripartite Pact responded by declaring war on the United States. In January, the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union and China, along with twenty-two smaller or exiled governments, issued the Declaration by United Nations, affirming the Atlantic Charter[68] and formalizing their alliance against the Axis Powers. The Soviet Union did not adhere fully to the declaration though, as they maintained their neutrality agreement with Japan[69] and exempted themselves from the principle of self-determination.[63]
British soldiers surrendering from the Battle of Singapore
British soldiers surrendering from the Battle of Singapore
The Axis Powers, however, were able to continue their offensives. Japan had almost fully conquered Southeast Asia with minimal losses by the end of April, 1942, chasing the Allies out of Burma and taking large numbers of prisoners in the Philippines, Malaya, Dutch East Indies and Singapore.[70] They further bombed the Allied naval base at Darwin, Australia and sunk significant Allied warships not only at Pearl Harbor, but also in the South China Sea, Java Sea and Indian Ocean.[71] The only real successes against Japan were a repulsion of their renewed attack on Changsha in early January, 1942,[72] and a psychological strike from a bombing raid on Japan's capital Tokyo in April.[73]
Germany was able to regain the initiative as well. Exploiting American inexperience with submarine warfare, the German Navy sunk significant resources near the American Atlantic coast.[74] In the desert, they launched an offensive in January, pushing the British back to positions at the Gazala Line by early February.[75] In the Soviet Union, the Soviet's winter counter-offensive had ended by March.[76] In both the desert and the Soviet Union, there followed a temporary lull in combat which Germany used to prepare for their upcoming offensives.[77][78]
The tide turns
American aircraft attacking a Japanese cruiser at Midway
American aircraft attacking a Japanese cruiser at Midway
In early May, Japan initiated operations to capture Port Moresby via amphibious assault and thus sever the line of communications between the United States and Australia. The Allies, however, intercepted and turned back Japanese naval forces, preventing the invasion.[79] Japan's next plan, motivated by the earlier bombing on Tokyo, was to seize the Midway Atoll as this would seal a gap in their perimeter defenses, provide a forward base for further operations, and lure American carriers into battle to be eliminated; as a diversion, Japan would also send forces to occupy the Aleutian Islands.[80] In early June, Japan put their operations into action but the Americans, having broken Japanese naval codes in late May, were fully aware of the Japanese plans and force dispositions and used this knowledge to achieve a decisive victory over the Imperial Japanese Navy.[81] With their capacity for amphibious assault greatly diminished as a result of the Midway battle, Japan chose to focus on an overland campaign on the Territory of Papua in another attempt to capture Port Moresby.[82] For the Americans, they planned their next move against Japanese positions in the southern Solomon Islands, primarily against the island of Guadalcanal, as a first step towards capturing Rabaul, the primary Japanese base in Southeast Asia.[83] Both plans started in July, but by mid-September the battle for Guadalcanal took priority for the Japanese, and troops in New Guinea were ordered to withdraw from the Port Moresby area to the northern part of the island.[84] Guadalcanal soon became a focal point for both sides with heavy commitments of troops and ships in a battle of attrition. By the start of 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the island and withdrew their troops.[85]
In Burma, Commonwealth forces mounted two operations. The first, an offensive into the Arakan region in late 1942 went disastrously, forcing a retreat back to India by May of 1943.[86] The second was the insertion of irregular forces behind Japanese front-lines in February which, by the end of April, had achieved dubious results.[87]
Soviet soldiers in the Battle of Stalingrad
Soviet soldiers in the Battle of Stalingrad
On the German's eastern front, they defeated Soviet offensives in the Kerch Peninsula and at Kharkov[88] and then launched their main summer offensive against southern Russia in June, 1942, to seize the oil fields of the Caucasus. The Soviets decided to make their stand at Stalingrad which was in the path of the advancing German armies and by mid-November the Germans had nearly taken Stalingrad in bitter street fighting when the Soviets began their second winter counter-offensive, starting with an encirclement of German forces at Stalingrad[89] and an assault on the Rzhev salient near Moscow, though the latter failed disastrously.[90] By early February, the German Army had taken tremendous losses; their troops at Stalingrad had been forced to surrender and the front-line had been pushed back beyond its position prior to their summer offensive. In mid-February, after the Soviet push had tapered off, the Germans launched another attack on Kharkov, creating a salient in their front-line around the Russian city of Kursk.[91]
In the west, concerns that the Japanese might utilize bases in Vichy-held Madagascar caused the British to invade the island in early May, 1942.[92] This success was off set soon after by an Axis offensive in Libya which pushed the Allies back into Egypt until Axis forces were stopped at El Alamein.[93] On the Continent, Allied commandos had conducted a series of increasingly ambitious raids on strategic targets, culminating in the a disastrous amphibious raid on the German held port of Dieppe.[94] In August the Allies succeeded in repelling a second attack against El Alamein and, at a high cost, managed to get desperately needed supplies to the besieged Malta.[95] A few months later the Allies commenced an attack of their own in Egypt, dislodging the Axis forces and beginning a drive west across Libya.[96] This was followed up shortly after by an Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa which resulted in the region joining the Allies.[97] Hitler responded to the defection by ordering the occupation of Vichy France,[97] though the Vichy Admiralty managed to scuttle their fleet to prevent its capture by German forces.[98] The now pincered Axis forces in Africa withdrew into Tunisia, which was conquered by the Allies by May, 1943.[99]
Allies gain momentum
U.S. soldiers in the Solomon Islands
U.S. soldiers in the Solomon Islands
Following the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Allies initiated several operations against Japan. In May, 1943, American forces were sent to eliminate Japanese forces from the Aleutians,[100] and soon after began major operations to isolate Rabaul by capturing surrounding islands, and to breach the Japanese Central Pacific perimeter at the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.[101] By the end of March, 1944, the Allies had completed both of these objectives, and additionally neutralized another major Japanese base in the Caroline Islands. In April, the Allies then launched an operation to retake Western New Guinea.[102]
In mainland Asia, the Japanese launched two major offensives. The first, started in March, 1944, was against British positions in Assam, India[103] and soon led to Japanese forces besieging Commonwealth positions at Imphal and Kohima;[104] by May however, other Japanese forces were being besieged in Myitkyina by Chinese forces which had invaded Northern Burma in late 1943.[105] The second was in China, with the goal of destroying China's main fighting forces, securing railways between Japanese-held territory, and capturing Allied airfields.[106] By June the Japanese had conquered the province of Henan and begun a renewed attack against Changsha in the Hunan province.[107]
In the Mediterranean, Allied forces launched an invasion of Sicily in early July, 1943. The attack on Italian soil, compounded with previous failures, resulted in the ousting and arrest of Mussolini later that month.[108] The Allies soon followed up with an invasion of the Italian mainland in early September, following an armistice with the Allies.[109] When this armistice was made public on September 8th, Germany responded by disarming Italian forces, seizing military control of Italian areas,[110] and setting up a series of defensive lines.[111] On September 12th, German special forces further rescued Mussolini who then soon established a new client state in German occupied Italy.[112] The Allies fought through several lines until reaching the main German defensive line in mid-November.[113] In January, 1944, the Allies launched a series of attacks against the line at Monte Cassino and attempted to outflank it with landings at Anzio. By late May both of these offensives had succeeded and, at the expense of allowing several German divisions to retreat, on June 4th Rome was captured.[114]
A Soviet tank during the Battle of Kursk
A Soviet tank during the Battle of Kursk
German operations in the Atlantic also suffered. By May 1943, German submarine losses were so high that the naval campaign was temporarily called to a halt as Allied counter-measures became increasingly effective.[115]
In the Soviet Union, the Germans spent the spring and early summer of 1943 making preparations for a large offensive in the region of Kursk; the Soviets anticipated such an action though and spent their time fortifying the area.[116] On July 4th, the Germans launched their attack, though only about a week later Hitler cancelled the operation.[117] The Soviets were then able to mount a massive counter-offensive and, by June 1944, had largely expelled Axis forces from the Soviet Union and made incursions into Romania.[118]
In November, 1943, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met with Chiang Kai-shek in Cairo and then with Joseph Stalin in Tehran. At the former conference, the post-war return of Japanese territory was determined and in the latter, it was agreed that the Western Allies would invade Europe in 1944 and that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan within three months of Germany's defeat.
Allies close in
Assault landing at Omaha Beach in Normandy
Assault landing at Omaha Beach in Normandy
In June, 1944, the Western Allies invaded northern France and in August, after reassigning several Allied divisions in Italy, then invaded southern France;[119] by 25 August the Allies had liberated Paris.[120] During the latter part of the year, the Western Allies continued to push back German forces in western Europe, and in Italy ran into the last major defensive line.
On the Germans eastern front, the Soviets launched a series of powerful offensives. Starting in early June the Soviets launched massive assaults against Finland, Belarus, Ukraine and Eastern Poland, Romania, and Hungary.[121] These operations resulted in great successes, with Bulgaria, Romania and Finland signing armistices with the Soviet Union,[122] and prompted Polish resistance forces to initiate several uprisings in Poland, though the largest of these, in Warsaw, was conducted without Soviet assistance and put down by German forces.[123]
By the start of July, Commonwealth forces in Southeast Asia had repelled the Japanese sieges in Assam, pushing the Japanese back to the Chindwin River[124] while the Chinese captured Myitkyina. In China, the Japanese were having greater successes, having finally captured Changsha in mid-June and the city of Hengyang by early August.[125] Soon after, they further invaded the province of Guangxi, winning major engagements against Chinese forces at Guilin and Liuzhou by the end of November[126] and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by the middle of December.[127]
In the Pacific, American forces continued to press back the Japanese perimeter. In the middle of June, 1944, they began their offensive against the Mariana and Palau islands, scoring a decisive victory against Japanese forces in the Philippine Sea within a few days. In late October, American forces invaded the Filipino island of Leyte; soon after, Allied naval forces scored another large victory against the Japanese in the Leyte Gulf.[128]
Axis collapse, Allied victory
Soviet Victory Banner being raised over the German Reichstag building
Soviet Victory Banner being raised over the German Reichstag building
On December 16, 1944, German forces counterattacked in the Ardennes against the Western Allies. It took six weeks for the Allies to repulse the attack. The Soviets attacked through Hungary, while the Germans abandoned Greece and Yugoslavia. In Italy, the Western Allies remained stalemated at the German defensive line.
In mid-January 1945, the Soviets attacked in Poland, pushing from the Vistula to the Oder river in Germany, and overran East Prussia.[129]
On February 4, U.S., British, and Soviet leaders met in Yalta. They agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany,[130] and when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.[131]
In February, Western Allied forces entered Germany and closed to the Rhine river, while the Soviets invaded Pomerania and Silesia. In March, the Western Allies crossed the Rhine north and south of the Ruhr, encircling a large number of German troops, while the Soviets advanced to Vienna. In early April the Western Allies finally pushed forward in Italy and swept across western Germany, while in late April Soviet forces stormed Berlin; the two forces linked up in Germany on April 26.[citation needed]
On April 12, U.S. President Roosevelt died; he was succeeded by Harry Truman. Mussolini was killed by Italian partisans on April 28th[132] and two days later Hitler shot himself.[133]
German forces surrendered in Italy on April 29th and Germany itself surrendered on May 7.[134]
In the Pacific theater, American forces advanced in the Philippines, clearing Leyte by the end of 1944. They landed on Luzon in January 1945 and Mindanao in March.[135] British and Chinese forces defeated the Japanese in northern Burma from October to March, then the British pushed on to Rangoon by May 3.[136]
Nuclear explosion at Nagasaki
Nuclear explosion at Nagasaki
American forces also moved toward Japan, taking Iwo Jima by March, and Okinawa by June.[137] American bombers destroyed Japanese cities, and American submarines cut off Japanese imports.[138] But Japanese leaders decided to fight on, hoping for a bloody defeat of Allied invasion and then a negotiated peace.[citation needed]
On July 11, the Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany. They confirmed earlier agreements about Germany,[139] and reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender by Japan, specifically stating that "the alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction".[140] During this conference the United Kingdom held its general election and Clement Attlee replaced Churchill as Prime Minister.
Japan rejected the Potsdam terms; the United States then dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9). On August 8, the Soviets invaded Japanese-held Manchuria, as agreed at Yalta. On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered, ending the war.[134]
Aftermath
Main article: Aftermath of World War II
In an effort to maintain international peace,[141] the Allies formed the United Nations, which officially came into existence on 24 October, 1945.[142]
Regardless of this though, the alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over,[143] and the two powers each quickly established their own spheres of influence.[144] In Europe, the continent was essentially divided between Western and Soviet spheres by the so-called Iron Curtain which ran through and partitioned Allied occupied Germany and occupied Austria. In Asia, the United States occupied Japan and administrated Japan's former islands in the Western Pacific while the Soviets annexed Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands; the former Japanese governed Korea was divided and occupied between the two powers. Mounting tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union soon evolved into the formation of the American-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact military alliances and the start of the Cold War between them.[145]
In many parts of the world, conflict picked up again within a short time of World War II ending. In China, nationalist and communist forces quickly resumed their civil war. Communist forces were eventually victorious and established the People's Republic of China on the mainland while nationalist forces ended up retreating to the reclaimed island of Taiwan. In Greece, civil war broke out between Anglo-American supported royalist forces and communist forces, with the royalist forces victorious. Soon after these conflicts ended, war broke out in Korea between South Korea, which was backed by the western powers, and North Korea, which was backed by the Soviet Union and China; the war resulted in essentially a stalemate and ceasefire.
Following the end of the war, a rapid period of decolonization also took place within the holdings of the various European colonial powers. These primarily occurred due to shifts in ideology, the economic exhaustion from the war and increased demand by indigenous people for self-determination. For the most part, these transitions happened relatively peacefully, though notable exceptions occurred in countries such as Indochina, Madagascar, Indonesia and Algeria.[146] In many regions, divisions, usually for ethnic or religious reasons, occurred following European withdrawal; this was seen prominently in the Mandate of Palestine, leading to the creation of Israel and Palestine, and in India, resulting in the creation of the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan.
Economic recovery following the war was varied in differing parts of the world, though in general it was quite positive. In Europe, West Germany recovered quickly and doubled production from its pre-war levels by the 1950s.[147] Italy came out of the war in poor economic condition,[148] but by 1950s, the Italian economy was marked by stability and high growth.[149] The United Kingdom was in a state of economic ruin after the war,[150] and continued to experience relative economic decline for decades to follow.[151] France rebounded quite quickly, and enjoyed rapid economic growth and modernization.[152] The Soviet Union also experienced a rapid increase in production in the immediate post-war era.[153] In Asia, Japan experienced incredibly rapid economic growth, and led to Japan becoming one of the most powerful economies in the world by the 1980s.[154] China, following the conclusion of its civil war, was essentially a bankrupt nation.[155] By 1953, economic restoration seemed fairly successful as production had resumed pre-war levels.[156] This growth rate mostly persisted, though it was briefly interrupted by the disastrous Great Leap Forward economic experiment. At the end of the war, the United States produced roughly half of the worlds industrial output; by the 1970s though, this dominance had lessened significantly.[157]
Casualties, civilian impact, and atrocities
Chart showing World War II deaths by country in millions as well as by percentage of population, and piechart with percentage of military and civilian deaths for the Allied and the Axis Powers.
Chart showing World War II deaths by country in millions as well as by percentage of population, and piechart with percentage of military and civilian deaths for the Allied and the Axis Powers.
See also: World War II casualties, War crimes during World War II, and Consequences of German Nazism
Estimates for the total casualties of the war vary, but most suggest that some 60 million people died in the war, including about 20 million soldiers and 40 million civilians.[158][159][160] Many civilians died because of disease, starvation, massacres, genocide. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the war, about half of all World War II casualties.[161] Of the total deaths in World War II, approximately 85% were on the Allied side (mostly Soviet and Chinese) and 15% on the Axis side. One estimate is that 12 million civilians died in Holocaust camps, 1.5 million by bombs, 7 million in Europe from other causes, and 7.5 million in China from other causes.[162] Figures on the amount of total casualties vary to a wide extent because the majority of deaths were not documented.
From 9 to 11 million of these civilian casualties, including around six million Jews, were systematically killed in the Holocaust.[163] Likewise, Japanese military murdered from nearly 3,000,000 to over 10,000,000 civilians, mostly Chinese during the war.[164]
Concentration camps and slave work
Victims of the Holocaust.
Victims of the Holocaust.
The Holocaust was the killing of approximately six million European Jews, as well as six million others who were deemed "unworthy of life" (including the disabled and mentally ill, Soviet POWs, homosexuals, Freemasons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Roma) as part of a program of deliberate extermination planned and executed by the National Socialist government in Germany led by Adolf Hitler. About 12 million forced laborers, most of whom were Eastern Europeans, were employed in the German war economy inside the Nazi Germany.[165]
In addition to the Nazi concentration camps, the Soviet Gulag, or labor camps, led to the death of citizens of occupied countries such as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, as well as German prisoners of war (POW) and even Soviet citizens themselves who had been or were thought to be supporters of the Nazis.[166] Sixty percent of Soviet POWs died during the war.[167] Vadim Erlikman estimates the number at 2.6 million Soviet POWs that died in German Captivity.[168] Richard Overy gives the number of 5.7 million Soviet POWs. Of those, 57% died or were killed, a total of 3.6 million.[169] The survivors on their return to the USSR were treated as traitors (see Order No. 270).[170]
Body disposal at Unit 731, the infamous Japanese biological warfare research unit.
Body disposal at Unit 731, the infamous Japanese biological warfare research unit.
Japanese POW camps also had high death rates, many were used as labour camps. According to the findings of the Tokyo tribunal, the death rate of Western prisoners was 27.1% (American POWs died at a rate of 37%),[171] seven times that of POW's under the Germans and Italians[172] The death rate of Chinese was much larger as, according to the directive ratified on 5 August 1937 by Hirohito, the constraints of international law were removed on those prisoners.[173] Thus, if 37,583 prisoners from the UK, 28,500 from Netherlands and 14,473 from USA were released after the surrender of Japan, the number for the Chinese was only 56.[174]
According to a joint study of historians featuring Zhifen Ju, Mark Peattie, Toru Kubo, and Mitsuyoshi Himeta, more than 10 million Chinese were mobilized by the Japanese army and enslaved by the Kōa-in for slave labor in Manchukuo and north China.[175] The U.S. Library of Congress estimates that in Java, between 4 and 10 million romusha (Japanese: "manual laborer"), were forced to work by the Japanese military. About 270,000 of these Javanese laborers were sent to other Japanese-held areas in South East Asia. Only 52,000 were repatriated to Java, meaning that there was a death rate of 80%.[176] According to Mitsuyoshi Himeta, at least 2.7 million died during the Sankō Sakusen implemented in Heipei and Shantung by General Yasuji Okamura.
Mistreated and starved prisoners in the Mauthausen camp, Austria, 1945.
Mistreated and starved prisoners in the Mauthausen camp, Austria, 1945.
On February 19, 1942, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, interning thousands of Japanese, Italians, German Americans, and some emigrants from Hawaii who fled after the bombing of Pearl Harbor for the duration of the war. 150,000 Japanese-Americans were interned by the U.S. and Canadian governments, as well as nearly 11,000 German and Italian residents of the U.S.
Allied use of slave labor occurred mainly in the east, such as in Poland[2], but more than a million was also put to work in the west. By December 1945 it was estimated by French authorities that 2,000 German prisoners were being killed or maimed each month in mine-clearing accidents.[177]
Chemical and bacteriological weapons
Despite the international treaties and a resolution adopted by the League of Nations on 14 May 1938 condemning the use of toxic gas by Japan, the Imperial Japanese Army frequently used chemical weapons. Because of fears of retaliation, however, those weapons were never used against Westerners but only against other Asians judged "inferior" by the imperial propaganda. According to historians Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Seiya Matsuno, the authorization for the use of chemical weapons was given by specific orders (rinsanmei) issued by Hirohito himself. For example, the Emperor authorized the use of toxic gas on 375 separate occasions during the invasion of Wuhan, from August to October 1938.[178]
The biological weapons were experimented on human beings by many units incorporated in the Japanese army, such as the infamous Unit 731, integrated by Imperial decree in the Kwantung army in 1936. Those weapons were mainly used in China and, according to some Japanese veterans, against Mongolians and Soviet soldiers in 1939 during the Nomonhan incident.[179] According to documents found in the Australian national archives in 2004 by Yoshimi and Yuki Tanaka, cyanide gas was tested on Australian and Dutch prisoners in November 1944 in the Kai islands.[180]
Bombings
Massive aerial bombing by both Axis and Allied air forces took the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians. Anglo-American bombing of German cities claimed up to 600,000 civilian lives,[181] most notably, the bombing of Dresden. The city of London was heavily bombed by the German Luftwaffe from September, 1940 to May, 1941 during their blitz of Britain; at one point the city was bombed for 57 straight nights. For the first, and so far only, time, nuclear weapons were used in combat: two atomic bombs released by the United States over Japan devastated Hiroshima and, three days later, Nagasaki. The number of total casualties in these bombings has been estimated at 200,000.[182]
War trials
From 1945 to 1951, German and Japanese officials and personnel were prosecuted for war crimes. Charges included crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, waging wars of aggression, and other crimes. The most senior German officials were tried at the Nuremberg Trials, and many Japanese officials at the Tokyo War Crime Trial and other war crimes trials in the Asia-Pacific region. Many other minor officials were convicted in minor trials, including subsequent trials by the Nuremberg Tribunal, the Dachau Trials, and the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials. No significant trials were held against Allied violations of international law (notably the Soviet Invasion of Poland in 1939), or against Allied war crimes, such as the Allied terror bombings of Axis cities or Soviet atrocities in Eastern Europe.
USAID hosted a Signature Event —Shared Progress: Modernizing Development Finance on September 22, 2016 in New York City, NY. Running concurrently to the United Nations General Asembly, the event highlighted the challenges and opportunities for financing current and future development goals.
During the event, UAID Administrator Gayle Smith and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, discussed how to foster an enabling environment for private investment and increasing domestic resource mobilization. A panel of speakers also offered recommendations on how to make better use of the three streams of finance in order to improve development outcomes.
Photo by Ellie Van Houtte/USAID
Mobilization of a piling rig onto a temporary access platform on BC Highway 1, the Malahat at the Tunnel Hill washout location. For more information on the work happening at the site, visit the project recovery site: www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/transportation-projects/bc-hig...
Urbex Benelux -
The Werk aan de Groeneweg is a Dutch position along the Lek on the Eiland van Schalkwijk , near the village of Schalkwijk . The position is part of the New Dutch Waterline and built during the mobilization of the First World War .
The Werk aan de Groeneweg is located 1700 meters to the east of Fort Honswijk and had to withstand a possible direct attack from the east. The position consisted of an earthen wall with trenches and moats. This position ran from the Achterdijk to the flood plains of the Lek. Shelters were also built of reinforced concrete.
In 1936 ten shelters were converted into casemates . During the mobilization of the Second World War in 1939 and 1940 , the Werk was expanded with tank barriers, machine gun positions and new shelters.
USAID hosted a Signature Event —Shared Progress: Modernizing Development Finance on September 22, 2016 in New York City, NY. Running concurrently to the United Nations General Asembly, the event highlighted the challenges and opportunities for financing current and future development goals.
During the event, UAID Administrator Gayle Smith and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, discussed how to foster an enabling environment for private investment and increasing domestic resource mobilization. A panel of speakers also offered recommendations on how to make better use of the three streams of finance in order to improve development outcomes.
Photo by Ellie Van Houtte/USAID
The U.S. Army Soldiers are trained by the BLM California Folsom Lake Veterans handcrew at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) near Tacoma, Washington. The Soldiers will be on the fireline to provide support in early September. Photo by Joe Bradshaw, BLM
USAID hosted a Signature Event —Shared Progress: Modernizing Development Finance on September 22, 2016 in New York City, NY. Running concurrently to the United Nations General Asembly, the event highlighted the challenges and opportunities for financing current and future development goals.
During the event, UAID Administrator Gayle Smith and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, discussed how to foster an enabling environment for private investment and increasing domestic resource mobilization. A panel of speakers also offered recommendations on how to make better use of the three streams of finance in order to improve development outcomes.
Photo by Ellie Van Houtte/USAID
A U.S. Army Soldier with the 328th Military Police Company, New Jersey Army National Guard, picks up her bag at the National Guard Armory at Cherry Hill, N.J., May 6, 2020. More than 100 Citizen-Soldiers with the 328th have been mobilized by U.S. Southern Command in support of security operations. Because of the Coronavirus, the traditional farewell ceremony was cancelled. Instead, family members and friends dropped off their Soldiers at the Armory and waited outside to watch them depart. (New Jersey National Guard photo by Mark C. Olsen)
Urbex Benelux -
This position is located on the Honswijk river ridge . During the flooding, this part of the New Dutch Waterline would not be flooded and would be a possible route to Fort Honswijk. As a forward post, the Werk aan de Groeneweg provided extra defense. The work is located near Fort Everdingen along the Lek.
Fort Honswijk and Fort Everdingen were strategically important. The Lek was defended from these forts. To protect Fort Honswijk against a direct attack by infantry along the Noorderlekdike, the Werk aan de Groeneweg was built 1800 meters away during the mobilization of the First World War. It was completed in 1918.
In May 2014, Inclusive Security—in partnership with UNDP’s N-Peace Network—led an advocacy and mobilization workshop in Thailand for 19 women from Indonesia, Myanmar, and Nepal. The workshop, customized for women involved in peace processes, prepared the participants to organize and train others to advocate for women’s inclusion. Each country delegation was represented by diverse women from a variety of sectors, including members of Myanmar’s parliament, Nepalese police officers, and Indonesian leaders working to bridge the divide between Muslims and Christians. Upon their return home, the UNDP Country Office will support participants to implement their high-impact advocacy plans to advance inclusion in their countries. For more information on our training services, see: www.inclusivesecurity.org/explore-resources/training-serv...
USAID hosted a Signature Event —Shared Progress: Modernizing Development Finance on September 22, 2016 in New York City, NY. Running concurrently to the United Nations General Asembly, the event highlighted the challenges and opportunities for financing current and future development goals.
During the event, UAID Administrator Gayle Smith and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, discussed how to foster an enabling environment for private investment and increasing domestic resource mobilization. A panel of speakers also offered recommendations on how to make better use of the three streams of finance in order to improve development outcomes.
Photo by Ellie Van Houtte/USAID
A extensive reenactment of the 1938 situation between Czechoslovakia and Nazi Germany - how it was and how it should to be.
Due to the increasing hostilities between the countries of Geo and Volsci, the government has decided to begin a general mobilization of some of its troops.
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This is the 21st Mechanized Infantry Division on their way to being deployed to border city of New Brick City, as deterrent to a possible armed conflict.
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Instead of showing you a simple picture of my current Modern Army, I wanted to make it a big more elaborate. So my Army consists of 1 Cheiftain MBT, 1 FV432, 2 Land Rover Snatch, 1 Land Rover Wolf, 1 MWMIK Jackal, 1 FV102 Striker, 2 General Utility Trucks, 1 Rapier Missile Launcher, and 1 V-150 Commando. Most vehicles are form Brickmania.
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I plan to increase it substantially to include a couple more Chieftains and to expand on the CVRT collection by a lot! And I also might changed the trucks in the future. (Which are based on the Armorbrick GAZ-66 truck!
Let me know what you guys think!
Oregon Army National Guard Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 168th Aviation Regiment, Task Force Long Knife, 40th Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB), based out of Pendleton, Oregon, conducted aerial gunnery training in their CH-47 Chinook helicopters, during their mobilization training at Fort Hood, Texas, Oct. 26, 2015. The CAB was training for their upcoming deployment to Kuwait. (U.S. Army National Guard Photo/Spc. Kevin Palomera)
This is my 1st part of my entry to the Global Challenge 3 at LCC.
Paul von Brickenstein is preparing his fleet to beat the wizards. The Magic Islands are far away so they probably need a lot of food and rum. And some weapons would be also helpful. But what will happen at the Magic Islands ? Are weapons out of steel and wood powerful enough to beat these mighty wizards ?
USAID hosted a Signature Event —Shared Progress: Modernizing Development Finance on September 22, 2016 in New York City, NY. Running concurrently to the United Nations General Asembly, the event highlighted the challenges and opportunities for financing current and future development goals.
During the event, UAID Administrator Gayle Smith and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, discussed how to foster an enabling environment for private investment and increasing domestic resource mobilization. A panel of speakers also offered recommendations on how to make better use of the three streams of finance in order to improve development outcomes.
Photo by Ellie Van Houtte/USAID
The Student Mobilization Committee publishes a flyer as a co-sponsor of anti-draft actions taking place the week of March 15-19, 1970.
Upwards of 500 people rallied March 19th at the Sylvan Theater and at the national draft board of F Street NW. Several people burned draft cards and a coffin filled with draft cards was left at the door.
Other organizations sponsoring the protest included the Vietnam Moratorium Committee in one of their last acts before the group was dissolved, Episcopal Peace Fellowship, New Mobilization Committee, Young Socialist Alliance, D.C. Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, Washington Peace Center, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and Women’s Strike for Peace.
The Student Mobilization Committee began as the student arm of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, but became a separate organization where the Socialist Workers Party, the dominate Trotskyist organization at the time, and it’s youth arm the Young Socialist Alliance had considerable influence.
For a PDF of this 8 ½ x 11, two-sided flyer, see washingtonspark.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/1970-03-smc-e...
For more information and related images, see www.flickr.com/gp/washington_area_spark/C77CQc
Donated by Robert “Bob” Simpson
Built in 1929, this 17-story Art Deco-style former passenger railroad station was designed by Fellheimer & Wagner to replace the multiple previous train stations and termini in Buffalo, which were scattered throughout the city and belonged to different railroads. The structure stands on the site of the old Union Depot built in 1874, which closed in the early 1920s. The station began construction in 1925 when the New York Central Railroad settled on building their new union terminal in Buffalo at the site, with the station being built to accommodate the expected growth of Buffalo from a city of about 550,000 people to one with 1.5 million people, and to accommodate continued growth in passenger numbers. However, both of these projections never materialized, with the city’s population growth and the railroad’s passenger numbers growth, already slowing in the 1920s, slowing further due to the Great Depression during the 1930s, and then beginning a long, steady decline, only being briefly buoyed by World War II before falling out of favor as automobile travel proved more flexible and air travel more swift than train travel. Due to these circumstances, the terminal was overbuilt and never reached its full capacity during its operations, only coming close during World War II due to resource shortages and mass mobilization of the United States during wartime. The terminal was offered for sale by the New York Central Railroad for one million dollars in 1956, but found no buyers, with continuing declines in passenger numbers, coupled with the decline in the population of Buffalo itself, leading to several services being ended during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1966, the railroad, in an effort to save costs and downsize their facilities, demolished several outbuildings in the complex, and in 1968, the once powerful New York Central Railroad, a husk of its former self, merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad in an attempt to consolidate their expenses and save both companies, but this merger proved unsuccessful, leading to their bankruptcy in 1976, with both railroads absorbed into the public-private partnership known as Conrail.
In the meantime, Amtrak was formed in 1971 to provide passenger rail service in the United States, operating out of the terminal until 1979, with the agency facing budgetary limitations that did not allow them to renovate the aging structure, which, when coupled with the massive expenses of keeping the building comfortable, dry, and well-lit, led to the agency building two smaller stations in Buffalo during the 1970s to replace it. The terminal was subsequently purchased by Anthony T. Fedele, whom managed to maintain the building in decent condition, but was unable to find any interested developers to reuse the building, and eventually fell behind on taxes, leading to the building being seized at foreclosure so the taxes could be recouped by the government. During the time it was owned by Fedele, the building was vacated by Conrail’s offices between 1980 and 1984, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, with the final operations at the terminal, the interlocking towers that once signaled trains arriving at the station, being shut down in 1985. In 1986, the building was purchased at auction by Thomas Telesco, whom did not maintain the building, selling off many artifacts and fixtures from its interior, and proposing grandiose and unrealistic schemes of what he would do with the building, including being a stop on a high-speed rail line between New York and Toronto. The building was then sold to Bernie Tuchman and Samuel Tuchman, with the building seeing further elements removed and sold, and the building continuing to decay.
In 1997, the terminal, then in poor condition, was purchased by Scott Field of the Preservation Coalition of Erie County, whom paid for the building’s back taxes, and shortly thereafter, formed the Central Terminal Restoration Corporation, transferring ownership of the building to the organization. The building was stabilized and secured under the stewardship of the Central Terminal Restoration Corporation, which opened the building for public tours in 2003, and holds many fundraising events at the station every year. The building has been preserved, but a restoration or adaptive reuse of the structure has so far remained elusive.
The building features a brown brick exterior with an octagonal corner tower, with a large barrel-roofed main concourse structure wrapping around the tower to the south and east. The facade of the tower features multiple setbacks, chamfered corners, corner clock faces at the roofline above the twelfth floor, a rotunda with large archways and buttresses atop the tower with a decorative trim crown at the parapet, vertical window bays that stretch from the building’s base to the roofline, large entrances with metal canopies, large transoms, and stone surrounds, pilasters, and stone trim and caps atop the parapets. The main concourse portion of the building features large arched curtain walls at the ends of its barrel vaulted roof, a cavernous barrel vaulted interior, large metal canopies over the entrances, and a tunnel underneath that once allowed traffic on Curtiss Street to run beneath the building, though this has been closed since the 1980s due to the building’s decay, with a light court between the waiting room and a low-rise office block in the front, which sits just east of the tower and presents a similar facade treatment to that of the tower, with vertically accentuated window bays and pilasters. The rear of the building is more spartan in appearance, with a scar from the former location of the entrance to the train concourse to the rear, with the connecting structure having been removed following the discontinuation of railroad services at the building in 1979. The train concourse features multiple platforms with Art Deco-style aluminum canopies with sleek columns, thin-profile roofs, and rounded ends, with the train concourse featuring arched clerestory windows and a gabled roof, and being in a rather advanced state of deterioration with vegetation having grown throughout the structure and the surrounding abandoned tracks between the platforms. Attached to the southwest corner of the main building is the baggage building, a simpler six-story Art Deco-style structure with a buff brick exterior, a penthouse above the main entrance to the building, pilasters, vertically accentuated window bays, steel windows, stone spandrel panels, stone trim, and stone parapet caps, with long canopies along the base of the front and rear of the building that protected incoming and outgoing mail and baggage from inclement weather. To the west of the baggage building is the one-story mail processing building, which features a similar facade treatment, with the main difference besides height being the rooftop monitor windows in the middle of the building’s roof. Southwest of the baggage and mail processing building, sitting close to Memorial Drive, is a structure that formerly housed the Railway Express Agency, which is more utilitarian than the rest of the surviving complex, and is in an advanced state of decay, with the demolition of the structure being planned to take place sometime this decade. The structure features large window bays with steel windows, stucco cladding on the brick structure, and the remnants of canopies on the north and south facades of the first floor, with a long and low one-story wing to the rear.
The complex is one of the largest designed by Fellheimer & Wagner, and has maintained a remarkable state of preservation in its original form with few changes since its construction, besides some damage from the years of decay and neglect in the 1980s and 1990s. Another notable structure by the firm, and one of the most well-known railroad stations in the world, is Grand Central Terminal in New York City, which was also built for the New York Central Railroad. In addition to Grand Central Terminal, the firm also designed terminals that are more similar in appearance to the Buffalo Central Terminal, including Union Station in South Bend, Indiana, and Cincinnati Union Terminal, with Grand Central Terminal, Buffalo Central Terminal, and Cincinnati Union Terminal being among the largest, most impressive, and most significant railroad stations ever built in the United States. The station, though unrestored, is still impressive, and hopefully will be eventually adaptively reused for an economically sustainable function.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
Immediately after the 1989 Velvet Revolution, the Czech president Václav Havel declared a de-mobilization of the Czech defense industry. Nevertheless, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Czech company Aero Vodochody continued developing the basic L-39 Albatros design with a view toward greater export. The resulting L-39MS, later re-designed as L-59 Super Albatros, featured a more powerful turbofan engine, advanced avionics, and has been bought in quantity by Egypt and Tunisia. In 1993, a group of Czech military experts launched a project of production of a modern domestic fighter to replace the obsolete Soviet aircraft. Since the proposed Aero L-X supersonic fighter development proved to be financially demanding (up to US$2 billion), the less costly L-159 subsonic attack aircraft was approved for procurement instead.
Conducted between the years 1994 and 1997, the technical development of L-159 ALCA (Advanced Light Combat Aircraft) in Aero Vodochody consisted primarily of building one L-159 two-seat prototype based on the L-59 airframe, utilizing western engine, avionics and weapon systems, with Rockwell Collins (eventually Boeing) as the avionics integrator.
The L-159 ALCA was designed for the principal role of light combat aircraft (single-seat L-159A variant) or light attack jet and advanced/lead-in fighter trainer (two-seat L-159B and T variants). The design of the L-159 was derived from the L-39/59 in terms of aerodynamic configuration, but a number of changes were made to improve its combat capabilities. These included strengthening of the airframe, reinforcing of the cockpit with composite and ceramic ballistic armor and enlargement of the aircraft's nose to accommodate a radar. Compared to the L-59, number of underwing pylons was increased from four to six, and a new hardpoint under the fuselage was added instead of a fixed GSh-23L cannon in an external fairing. The aircraft was capable of carrying external loads up to 2,340 kg, ranging from unguided bombs and rocket pods to air-to-ground and air-to-air guided missiles or special devices to conduct aerial reconnaissance or electronic warfare. Guided precision ordnance like laser-guided glide bombs could be carried, too, thanks to the aircraft’s ability to carry respective targeting equipment, for example the AN/AAQ-28(V) LITENING pod.
The L-159 was powered by the non-afterburning Honeywell/ITEC F124-GA-100 turbofan engine with a maximum thrust of 28 kN. Almost 2,000 litres of fuel was stored in eight internal tanks (six in the fuselage, two at the wingtips) with up to four external drop tanks (two 500 L and two 350 L tanks) carried under the inner wings.
The lightly armored cockpit was equipped with a VS-2B ejection seat, capable of catapulting the pilot at a zero flight level and at zero speed. The aircraft's avionics based on the MIL-STD-1553 databus include a Selex Navigation and Attack Suite, Ring Laser Gyro based Inertial Navigation System (INS) and Global Positioning System (GPS). Flight data was displayed both at the FV-3000 head-up display (HUD) and on two multi-function displays (MFD). Communications were provided by a pair of Collins ARC-182 transceivers. Self-protection of the L-159 was ensured by a Sky Guardian 200 radar warning receiver (RWR) and Vinten Vicon 78 Series 455 chaff and flare dispensers. L-159A and T2 variants were equipped with the lightweight Italian FIAR Grifo L multi-mode Doppler radar for all-weather, day and night operations.
The maiden flight of the first L-159 prototype occurred on 2 August 1997 with a two-seat version. On 18 August 1998, the single-seat L-159A prototype first flew; it was completed to Czech customer specifications. 10 April 2000 marked the first delivery of L-159A to the Czech Air Force and the type was marketed for export.
One of the type’s foreign operators became the young Republic of Catalonia, which had declared independence from Spain in 2017. The Catalan independence movement already began in 1922, when Francesc Macià founded the political party Estat Català (Catalan State), but the modern independence movement began and gained serious momentum in 2010, when the Constitutional Court of Spain ruled that some of the articles of the 2006 Statute of Autonomy - which had been agreed with the Spanish government and passed by a referendum in Catalonia - were unconstitutional, and others were to be interpreted restrictively. Popular protest against this decision quickly turned into demands for independence. Starting with the town of Arenys de Munt, over 550 municipalities in Catalonia held symbolic referendums on independence between 2009 and 2011. All of the towns returned a high "yes" vote, with a turnout of around 30% of those eligible to vote. A 2010 protest demonstration against the court's decision, organized by the cultural organization Òmnium Cultural, was attended by over a million people. The popular movement fed upwards to the politicians; a second mass protest on 11 September 2012 (the National Day of Catalonia) explicitly called on the Catalan government to begin the process towards independence. Catalan president Artur Mas called a snap general election, which resulted in a pro-independence majority for the first time in the region's history. The new parliament adopted the Catalan Sovereignty Declaration in early 2013, asserting that the Catalan people had the right to decide their own political future.
After three more troublesome years and constant strife for independence from Spain, the Catalonian president Carles Puigdemont eventually announced a binding referendum on the topic. Although deemed illegal by the Spanish government and the Constitutional Court, the referendum was held on 1 October 2017. In a vote where the anti-independence parties called for non-participation, results showed a 90% vote in favor of independence, with a turnout of 43%. Based on this result, on 27 October 2017 the Parliament of Catalonia approved a resolution unilaterally creating an independent Republic.
This event was also the rather sudden birth of the Catalonian armed forces. Esp. the nascent air force, called Guàrdies Aèries de la República Catalana (GARC, Republic of Catalonia Air Guard), faced serious trouble, since Spain refused any assistance. Furthermore, there were no former Spanish military air bases in the region that could be taken, and any equipment and infrastructure had to be procured from scratch and on short notice.
In the wake of this hasted start, the L-159s became part of the GARC’s initial mixed bag of flying low-budget equipment. They were 2nd hand machines, bought from EADS-CASA of Spain and mothballed since 2012 after a barter deal with the Czech Republic: In 2009, EADS had exchanged with the CzAF four CASA C-295 transporters for three L-159As, two L-159T1s and 130 million Euros. These aircraft were still in EADS inventory in late 2017, even though grounded and taken out of service since 2012, because the operations of this small fleet as chasing aircraft were expensive and no buyer could be found in the meantime.
However, in 2018 the company sold them, under indirect pressure from NATO, to the Catalonian government at a “symbolic”, yet unspecified, price. This small fleet was soon augmented by five more L-159As and ten L-159T1s which were directly procured from the Czech Republic in 2019. These aircraft formed the initial, small backbone of the young country’s air defense, armed with AIM-9 Sidewinders (AIM-120 AMRAAM was possible, to, but not procured due to severe budget restraints) and Mauser BK-27 cannon in conformal pods. Since no military airfields with a suitable infrastructure for jet aircraft were available for the GARC at the time of their purchase and introduction, the L-159s were initially based at two public regional airports: at Reus, in the proximity of Tarragona at the Mediterranean coast, and at Girona in the country’s north, where airfield sections were separated of the military operations.
General characteristics:
Crew: one
Length: 12.72 m (41 ft 8¾ in)
Wingspan: 9.54 m (31 ft 3½ in)
Height: 4.87 m (16 ft)
Wing area: 18.80 m² (202.4 ft²)
Airfoil: NACA 64A-012
Aspect ratio: 4.8:1
Empty weight: 4,350 kg (9,590 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 8,000 kg (17,637 lb)
Powerplant:
1× Honeywell F124-GA-100 turbofan, delivering 28.2 kN (6,330 lbf) thrust
Performance:
Never exceed speed: 960 km/h (518 knots, 596 mph)
Maximum speed: 936 km/h (505 knots, 581 mph) at sea level, clean
Stall speed: 185 km/h (100 knots, 115 mph)
Range: 1,570 km (848 nmi, 975 mi) max internal fuel
Combat radius: 565 km (305 nmi, 351 mi) lo-lo-lo, with a gun pod, 2× Mark 82 bombs, 2× AIM-9
Sidewinder and 2× 500 L drop tanks
Service ceiling: 13,200 m (43,300 ft)
Rate of climb: 62 m/s (12,220 ft/min)
Armament:
7Í hardpoints in total, 3 under each wing (outer pylons only for AAMs) and 1 under the fuselage,
holding up to 2,340 kg (5,159 lb) of ordnance
The kit and its assembly:
This model was spawned by a grain of truth: as mentioned in the background, EADS Spain had actually bought a few L-159s in 2009 from the CzAF in exchange for transporters, and together with the ongoing plans of an independent Catalonia I merged both into this ALCA single seater for the fictional Republic of Catalonia Air Guard.
The kit is the relatively new KP L-159. This is basically a nice model, but the kit has some severe flaws (see below). The model was basically built OOB, I just added AIM-9L Sidewinders and their respective launch rails as external ordnance on the outermost underwing hardpoints. Since I did not find the standard gun pod (a ZVI PL-20 Plamen pod with 2×20 mm guns) suitable, I decided to give the GARC aircraft a heavier, Western weapon in the form of a Mauser BK-27 (the same weapon used onboard of the Panavia Tornado or the Saab Gripen) in a conformal cannon pod under the fuselage. This piece was taken and adapted from a Heller Alpha Jet. Its shape perfectly fitted between the two ventral air brakes.
Concerning the kit itself, the build turned out to be a medium nightmare. The kit looked promising in the box, with fine engravings, but nothing fits well. There are no locator pins, you have (massive) ejection marks almost everywhere, and the parts’ attachment points to the sprues protrude into the parts themselves, so there’s a lot to clean up. At least there are no sinkholes.
Upon assembly, the cockpit tub – nicely detailed – would not fit into the fuselage at all and ended up in an oblique position (hidden through a pilot figure from the scrap box and a re-mounted avionics fairing in the rear cockpit). The air intakes left me guessing, too: while the edges are crisp and thin, the overall fit with the fuselage and the orientation of the parts had to be guesstimated, plus a mediocre fit, too. The instructions are not very helpful, either. I am quite disappointed and tried to make the best of the situation.
Painting and markings:
Much more thought was put into the model’s looks. What camouflage should such an aircraft carry? And I had to invent roundels/markings for a Catalonian air force aircraft, too.
Since the Catalonian L-159s were multi-purpose aircraft, yet primarily tasked with air space defense, I opted for an subdued air superiority scheme instead of a tactical low-level camouflage. Furthermore, the camouflage was supposed to be suited for a mountainous landscape (Pyrenees), relatively flat and dry land and also to open sea. This was a good opportunity to give a model the Greek “Ghost” scheme: a three-tone wraparound scheme consisting of FS 36307 (Light Sea Grey), 36251 (Aggressor Grey) and 35237 (Medium Grey, but actually a rather greyish blue). The pattern was adapted from Hellenic F-16s. I think it’s a good compromise, and it suits the ALCA well.
The national markings caused more headaches. I was looking for something that would not look like the Spanish roundel, but still reflect the Catalonian indpendence flag and – most important – I wanted to be able to create it from stock material (not printing them at home), with the option to replicate it on potential future builds.
In the end and after long safaris through my spare decal repository, I came up with a round marking. It consists of an Ukrainian roundel with a relatively thin outer yellow ring (from a Begemot MiG-29 sheet), placed on top of a Hinomaru, so that a thin, red outer ring was added. Onto the central, blue disc a white star (from a TL Modellbau sheet with US Army markings) was added. I think that this looks original enough?
There was a problem, though… In my first attempt to apply this construction, the roundels turned out to be VERY large overall. While the design itself looked O.K. (despite reminding of Captain America somehow), this looked ridiculous, esp. on an aircraft with a wraparound low-viz paint scheme. I was not satisfied, so I heavy-heartedly ripped the decals off again (using adhesive tape, works like a charm) and tried it again, in a smaller version.
Hinomaru became the basis once more, even though smaller, and then die-punched discs in yellow and blue (from generic decal sheet) were added, and finally small white stars again, one size smaller than during the first attempt. While this is still colorful and stands out from the grey background, the second attempt looked much more balanced now, and I stuck with it.
In order to add more flavor, I added Catalonian fin flashes and squadron emblems on the nose, depicting the “burro”, the Catalonian donkey which has become a kind of unofficial regional symbol as a kind of anti-mascot to the Spanish bull. These markings/decals were printed at home on white sheet.
The tactical codes were based on the Spanish system. The Spanish Air Force has its own alphanumeric system for identifying aircraft: This forms a prefix to the airframe serial number, usually marked on the tail. C means cazabombardero (fighter bomber); A, ataque (attack); P, patrulla (patrol); T, transporte (transport); E, enseñanza (training); D, search and rescue; H, helicopter; K, tanker; V, Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL); and U, utility. An example would be that the F-18 with "C.15-08" on the tail is the fifteenth type of fighter that arrived in the Spanish Air Force (the Eurofighter is the C.16) and is the eighth example of this type to enter the SAF. On the nose or fuselage, the aircraft has a numeral specific to the unit in which it is based.
Variants of planes in service, for example two-seater versions or tanker versions of transports planes, add another letter to differentiate their function, and have their own sequence of serial numbers separate from the primary versions. Example: "CE.15-02" will be the second F-18 two-seater (Fighter Trainer) delivered to the SAF. In addition, the aircraft used by the Spanish Air Force usually carry a code consisting of one or two digits followed by a dash and two numbers, painted on the nose or fuselage. The first number corresponds to the unit to which they belong, and the second the order in which they entered service. Example: the fourth F-18 arriving at Ala 12 will have on the nose the code "12-04". Those codes do change when the aircraft is re-allocated to a different unit. Quite complicated…
This led to the tactical code “2-03”, for the 3rd aircraft allocated to the 2nd fighter squadron, and “C.1-03” as individual registration as the 3rd aircraft of the 1st fighter type in Catalonian service. All codes were puzzled together with single black letters and numbers from TL Modellbau in 3 and 5mm size.
Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.
Designer unknown (佚名)
ca. 1937
Step up general mobilization, for total militarization
Jiajin zong dongyuan, yiqie junshihua (加紧总动员，一切军事化)
Call number: BG D25/199 (Landsberger collection)
More? See chineseposters.net/themes/second-sino-japanese-war