As Leyland Nationals got replaced by influxes of new vehicles into The Shires fleet in the mid-1990's the best remaining examples were shunted around to other garages to get a few more months out of them. MNH 574V was one of the last batch of MK1 Nationals purchased by United Counties and had been a long term Luton Garage vehicle, but was moved over to Stevenage in it's final months as can be seen here from this shot which was taken in 1997. The vehicle carries it's new 1997 fleet number on the offside front panel but still carries 'Luton Bus' fleetnames on the cove panel. According to DVLA Vehicle Check, the vehicle was last on the road in July 1997 which would likely be only a month or two after this shot.

 

Scanned from an acquired negative.

One of the 11 new 2015 CE's replacing the '03s. A 2015 IC CE with a MaxxForce DT, this bus is replacing bus 03-39.

Replacing an earlier photo from 2017 with a better version 02-Oct-20.

 

Operated on behalf of TAP Express by Portugalia Airlines.

 

Named: "Faro".

 

Embraer don't allocate test registrations when the aircraft is being delivered to a Brazilian airline. This aircraft was delivered to Air Lease Corporation and leased to TRiP Linhas Aereas as PP-PJO in Aug-11. TRiP was merged into Azul Linhas Aereas Brazileiras in May-12. The aircraft was stored in Apr-15. It was sub-leased to Portugalia Airlines as CS-TPQ and is operated on behalf of TAP Express. Current, updated (Oct-20).

Replacing a RapidRide bus on the E Line

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 24-Feb-25.

 

-Phantasia- Germany World Tail.

 

First flown with the Boeing test registration N1795B, this aircraft was delivered to Deutsche BA as D-ADBT in Sep-98. It was sold to a lessor on delivery and leased back to Deutsche BA.

 

Deutsche BA was a wholly owned subsidiary of British Airways, they bought 49% of what was Delta Air, Germany in 1992 when it was renamed Deutsche BA. It became a wholly owned subsidiary when they acquired the other 51% in 1997.

 

British Airways sold it to a private equity company in mid 2003. The name was changed to 'FlyDBA.com' in Nov-03. This aircraft was returned to the lessor in Feb-04 and was leased to Aegean Airlines, Greece as SX-BGW in Apr-04.

 

The aircraft returned to the lessor in Mar-08 when it was initially stored at Brussels, Belgium and later at Dinard, France. It was leased to Norwegian Air Shuttle as LN-KHB in Sep-08. It was retro-fitted with blended winglets in Feb-09.

 

In Nov-14 the aircraft was stored at Stavanger, Norway for the 2014/15 winter and returned to service in Mar-15. In Sep-15 it was stored at Lasham, UK before moving to Stavanger again in Oct-15. In Nov-15 it ferried to Budapest, Hungary for a 'C' check and was stored there in Dec-15.

 

It must have been a long winter because it stayed at Budapest until it ferried to Sofia, Bulgaria in Mar-17 where it was returned to the lessor. It was leased to Bul Air, Bulgaria as LZ-BVN in Apr-17 but never entered service. It remained stored at Sofia and was eventually permanently retired.

 

It shows in most databases as 'stored' but it's not likely to return to service, The aircraft is now 27 years old and has been stored for 8 years. Updated 23-Feb-25.

Garden City

Replacing a photo taken 26-Jun-11 with a better version.

 

First flown with the Boeing test registration N1786B, this aircraft was delivered to Boullioun Aviation Services and leased to City Bird Airlines (Belgium) as OO-CYI. City Bird ceased operations in Oct-01 and the aircraft was returned to the lessor as N91CD. It was leased to Virgin Blue Airlines (Australia) as VH-VOF in Dec-01 and was fitted with blended winglets in Mar-02. It was returned to the lessor in Feb-05 and leased to SunExpress Airlines in Apr-05. The registration D-ASXE was assigned in Apr-11 for transfer to SunExpress Airlines Germany but the transfer didn't happen. Current (May-18).

Replacing an earlier scanned slide with a better version 13-Dec-15.

 

Delivered to Continental Airlines in Feb-67 as N17328, the aircraft was sold to the joint company Malaysia-Singapore Airlines in Jun-72 as 9V-BEW. Singapore Airlines retained it when the two companies split up in Sep-72. In Dec-80 it was sold to Eagle Air (Iceland) as TF-VLJ. Transafrica Senegal wet-leased it from Feb/Apr-81. It was wet-leased to Libyan Arab Airlines between Jun-81 & Mar-84. The aircraft was sold to the Boeing Military Airplane Company in Jun-86 as N419B. Parts of it were used in the US Air Force KC-135E conversion programme and the rest of it was stored at Davis-Monthan AFB in 1987 and it was subsequently broken up.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 09-Oct-18.

 

First flown with the ATR test registration F-WWEV, this aircraft was delivered to GPA Propjet Ltd and leased to Resort Air (USA) as N425TE in Feb-89. Resort Air was renamed Trans States Airlines in Oct-89. It was sold to the Boeing Capital Corporation in Feb-99 while the lease to Trans States continued for another two months. The aircraft returned to Boeing Capital and was stored at Exeter UK in Apr-99. It was returned to GPA ATR Ltd and leased to Muk Air Taxi (Denmark) as OY-MUH in Aug-99. Muk Air ceased operations in Jun-01. The aircraft was returned to the lessor and initially stored at Dinard (France) at the end of Jun-01. It was later moved to Toulouse for further storage. It was due to be leased to Danish Air Transport in Nov-01 but the lease was cancelled and it remained stored until it was sold to Bradley Air Services (Canada), trading as First Air, as C-GSRR in Aug-04. Current (Oct-18).

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 31-Oct-19.

 

First flown in Jan-94 with the Airbus test registration F-WWIP, this aircraft was due to become G-MALE with Monarch Airlines, but they obviously gave it a bit more thought. That registration wasn't used and it was delivered to ILFC International Lease Finance Corporation and leased to Monarch Airlines as G-OZBA ('ZB' was Monarch's flight code) in Mar-94. It was returned to ILFC in Apr-99. It was leased to Air Jamaica as 6Y-JMB the following month. The aircraft was returned to ILFC in May-08 and in Jul-08 it was leased to Vladivostok Avia as VP-BEQ. It returned to ILFC in Jan-14 and was permanently retired at St. Athan, Wales, UK in Feb-14.

 

Note: The registration 6Y-JMB was previously used on an Air Jamaica Boeing 727-200 between Jan-75/Oct-85.

I'm back with another repair tutorial. Today we're going to replace the steel band on this uncommon Mercury Grand Marquis cap. It may look good in the photo, but that's just some silver paint that I sprayed over it years ago. The steel is so rusty that I could punch a screwdriver through it. You can see a couple rust holes in the band if you look closely.

 

This is the only cap of this type that I have right now, and the face is in very good condition, so I decided to repair it. I'll be using an identical backing band that I salvaged from a common Crown Vic hubcap that had a nasty face but a good band. Both of these caps fit the same wheel and were made by the same supplier, so the backing will interchange. You do have to be careful, because sometimes backings that look similar are not actually the same.

 

Due to a second problem that I discovered (we'll see that later), I wasn't able to totally finish this repair yet, but you can still see the technique from these photos...

I've been half tempted to replace the Getz with a new car. Not that I particularly want to spend the money on one, I'd rather keep the Getz however in the past year it has suffered:

 

- Power Steering failure

- Rust holes in both arches

- Being broken into

- PS failure again

- Clutch failure (as of last week)

 

I recently tried an Aygo, which my friend happened to be renting from Enterprise - I liked the looks but little else. Today, I popped into my local Renault dealership and asked if I could sit inside one of these.

 

Advertised at £6,495, an ex. demo with 900 miles. The slightly rough idle of the 3 cyclinder engine, I disliked the most. The quality of the interior, I liked the most. I'm still undecided... I'd rather invest the money in bricks and mortar.

 

www.bristolstreet.co.uk/used-car/1822517/renault-twingo-1...

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version 01-Jun-20.

 

Repainted all white with just MyTravel titles and logo after winter lease to Skyservice Canada.

 

This aircraft was delivered to Airtours International Airways as G-WJAN in Mar-97. Airtours was renamed MyTravel Airways in May-02.

 

It was leased to Skyservice Airlines Canada as C-FFAN between Nov-03/May-04, returning to MyTravel Airways as G-WJAN. It was leased to Skyservice as C-FFAN again in Nov-04, but this time it didn't return to MyTravel as G-WJAN until Oct-05.

 

The aircraft was leased to Skyservice again, as C-FFAN, in Nov-06. This time it stayed away even longer. MyTravel was merged into Thomas Cook Airlines UK at the end of Mar-08 and the aircraft returned to Thomas Cook as G-WJAN in Apr-09.

 

It was leased to Skyservice again as C-FFAN in Nov-09. Skyservice Airlines ceased operations at the end of Mar-10 and the aircraft was returned to Thomas Cook as G-WJAN at the beginning of Apr-10.

 

In Nov-10 the aircraft was leased to Jazz Air (Canada) as C-GJZS and operated on behalf of Thomas Cook Travel Canada, returning to Thomas Cook UK as G-WJAN in Mar-11. For the next four winters, between Dec-11/Apr-12, Dec-12/Apr-13, Dec-13/Apr-14 and Dec-14/Apr-15 the aircraft was wet-leased to WestJet Airlines (Canada) and operated on behalf of Thomas Cook Travel Canada.

 

After the return from Canada the aircraft continued to operate for Thomas Cook Airlines UK until it was sold to Wells Fargo Bank Northwest (as trustee for SF Airlines, China) as N553CC in May-16.

 

It was stored at Prestwick, Scotland, UK until it was converted to freighter configuration with a main deck cargo door at Xiamen, China in Mar-17. The aircraft was sold to SF Airlines as B-1432 in Apr-17 and continues in service. Current, updated (Jun-20).

 

Note: The aircraft suffered a severe tail strike at Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic after a flight from the UK with a fuel stop at Bangor, Maine, USA on 01-Jan-1998. It had made two failed ILS approaches in bad weather when the Captain decided to do a visual circuit. The aircraft touched down heavily to the right of the runway on the third attempt, successfully carried out a go-around and diverted to Santo Domingo where it landed safely. There were no injuries. The aircraft was repaired and returned to service.

Replaced the original with this cropped one :)

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 05-Aug-17.

 

KLM UK was renamed from Air UK and operated ATR.72's and Fokker 100's until it was absorbed into KLM Cityhopper in Holland. The ATR's were disposed of and the Fokker 100's were re-registered in Holland

 

First flown in Sep-96 with the ATR test registration F-WWLT, this aircraft was stored at Toulouse, France until it was delivered to ATRiam Capital and leased to Air UK as G-UKTN in Jun-98.

 

It was repainted and renamed KLM uk in Apr-99. The aircraft was withdrawn from service abd stored to Norwich, UK in Nov-99. It ferried to Jersey, Channel Islands, UK in basic KLM livery in Dec-99 and was used as a back-up aircraft by British Regional Airlines operating for British Airways Express.

 

The aircraft was stored at Norwich again in Oct-01 and returned to service with KLM uk in Feb-02 for the summer season and was stored at Norwich again in Sep-02. In Nov-02 KLM uk became KLM cityhopper UK while G-UKTN remained stored.

 

It was returned to ATRiam Capital as F-WQNL in Jun-03 and was stored at Toulouse until it was leased to Cimber Air, Denmark as OY-RTF in Nov-04. Cimber Air was renamed Cimber Sterling in Dec-08 after it bought parts of Sterling Airways after it ceased operations two months earlier.

 

It was wet-leased to AeroSvit Ukrainian Airlines in Oct-11 and returned to Cimber Sterling in May-12 when they ceased operations. The aircraft was stored at Soenderborg, Denmark.

 

It was sold to Danish Air Transport Leasing as OY-LHB in Apr-13 and operated as Danish Air Transport A/S. In Jul-13 the aircraft was wet-leased to Aer Arran and operated flights on behalf of Aer Lingus Regional for one month, it returned to Danish Air Transport in Aug-13.

 

In Jul-18 it was wet leased to an Italian subsidiary, DAT Volidisicilla and operates local flights within southern Italy. On 27-Mar-19 Danish Air Transport became known as DAT A/S, the services for DAT Volidiscilla continued. Current, updated 22-Feb-25.

still quite new at HDR.. replaced the image...

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

 

The F-112 started life as a privately funded light fighter program by Republic under the handle AP-95 in the mid-1950s, aiming at export markets which were about to replace their 1st generation jet fighters like the F-86 or F-84 and air forces which could not afford or simply want the heavy supersonic fighters under development at that time. In the USA, it was also aimed at the replacement of these Korean War era types in the Air National Guards.

 

The AP-95 was inspired by both Lockheed's CL-246 (the later F-104 Starfighter) and Northrop's N-156 Light Fighter concept (which eventually developed into the highly successful F-5 fighter family, aiming at the same niches. In size and performance the aircraft fell more or less in between these two design – it was heavier and larger than Northrop’s project, and a less radical alternative to the CL-246. Republic's design team started the development in 1955 and relied heavily on the huge F-105 fighter bomber that had been under development at the time, but the AP-95 was to be a pure interceptor. The basic idea was "to build a relatively small and highly aerodynamic fighter around the same engine that drives the F-100, but focusing on high performance and low cost of maintenance, as well as good field performance."

 

Actually, the AP-95, called "Thunderdart",was revealed to USAF officials for the first time as a full-sized mock-up in early 1957, and it looked much like a scaled-down F-105. It combined a slender, area-ruled fuselage with highly swept wings and a conventional, low tail.

The nose offered space for a relatively large radar dish. The air intakes were placed in the wing roots, with Ferri-style, forward-swept leading edges that had also been used on the F-105 and other Republic designs like the AP-75 interceptor.

From the F-105 the landing gear concept had been borrowed, too. The long main legs retracted inwards into the wings, leaving only the outer wings free for ordnance loads, but allowed much space in the fuselage for fuel and avionics. The aircraft was to be powered by a Pratt & Whitney J57-P-21 turbojet, with a dry thrust of 10,200 lbf (45 kN) and 16,000 lbf (71 kN) with afterburner.

 

The basic armament of the AP-95 was an internal 20 mm (.79 in) M61 Vulcan Gatling gun, which had a rate of fire of 6,000 rounds per minute. The cannon, mounted in the lower part of the port fuselage, was fed by a 725-round drum behind the pilot's seat. Additionally, the AP-95 was able to carry up to four AIM-9 Sidewinder AAMs under its wings. Total external payload was 6.000 lb (2.727 kg) on five hardpoints, a centerline pylon under the fuselage was "wet" in order to take a single drop tank. Alternatively, iron bombs or napalm tanks could be carried in a secondary ground support role.

 

The AP-95 was an attractive design but faced a strong competition, if not opposition. Among USAF officials it was not popular, because it was - despite its basically good performance and low development risks - regarded as an inferior aircraft. It did not reach Mach 2 (what the F-104 promised, despite many other weaknesses), and adding a complex radar system (which would have allowed longer range AAMs like the AIM-7 Sparrow) with an additional operator would further reduce performance.

The aircraft shared a "bad image" fate with the later F-5, which became nevertheless very popular in oversea markets due to its simplicity, versatility and efficacy. On the other side, Europe was already in Lockheed's strong grip, as the F-104G had been selected as NATO's standard fighter bomber - under dubious circumstances, though, but it successfully blocked the market.

 

Anyway, the AP-95 was nevertheless a capable aircraft which was more cost-effective than the thirsty and short-legged F-104, or the larger F-102 and F-106 which formed the air defense backbone at that era. While the US Air Force did not want another type in its arsenal, it was decided to buy and build the aircraft as a state-of-the-art replacement for the ageing ANG Sabres and Thunderstreaks, with the prospect of delivery of the type to NATO partners all over the world, too.

 

The original design was quickly approved and the AP-95 prototype made its maiden flight on October 10th, 1960, only equipped with a basic AN/ASG-14T ranging radar. After completing trials and further development with two further YF-112 pre-production aircraft, the Thunderdart was officially introduced as F-112A in March 1962 to the USAF. These production aircraft now featured an AN/APQ-83 radar for night and all-weather interceptions. Additionally, one of the YF-112 was modified in late 1962 to carry a second crew member under a lengthened canopy and with reduced internal fuel - it was planned as a F-112B trainer, but did not find interest since the T-38 already offered supersonic performance at much lower cost, and the Thunderdart's range suffered considerably. The F-112B remained a one-off.

 

In 1964 the F-112A was also introduced to the US ANG forces and attained some interest from other countries, including Spain, Italy, Turkey, Greece, South Korea and Japan. Most of these foreign countries settled for the Starfighter in the 60ies, and the door for the F-112 was closing: As a result of winning the International Fighter Aircraft competition in 1970, a program aimed at providing effective low cost fighters to American allies, Northrop introduced the second-generation F-5E Tiger II in 1972. This upgrade included more powerful engines, higher fuel capacity, greater wing area and improved leading edge extensions for better turn rate, optional air to air refueling, and improved avionics including air-to-air radar. It became a great success and made the F-112 obsolete, which lacked further development potential and was too limited to its interceptor role to be a versatile option for smaller air forces.

 

From 1962 until 1965, a total of 145 F-112As were built. Compared with the 1.400 Tiger II versions until 1987 only a very small number, and further orders from the USA did not materialize, even though the Thunderdart showed good flight characteristics.

 

As a final attempt to improve the Thunderdart's potential, 80 F-112A aircraft were modernized from 1969 on, all of them ANG aircraft. These machines received a more powerful J57-P-20 engine, rated at 18.040lbf (8.200kN) thrust at full afterburner – which finally allowed to break the Mach 2 barrier.

On the avionics side, a new AN/APQ-124 radar was fitted – which still did not allow the guidance of medium range missiles, though, the AIM-9 remained the Thunderdart’s primary weapon. Further enhancements included a more modern firing system and an AAS-15 infrared sensor. These updated aircraft received the designation F-112C, and the MLU phase lasted until 1972. Externally these modified aircraft could easily be identified by the bigger radome and the added IR sensor pod under the nose.

 

No F-112 was ever used in combat, despite the raging Vietnam War. The original F-112As remained with the USAF, but these were only used for training purposes or as instructional airframes on the ground. These F-112As were quickly phased out during the 70ies, the last one in September 1977. The modernized F-112C soldiered on with several ANG forces until 1985, being replaced by F-4 and F-16 as interceptors and multi-role combat aircraft.

  

F-112A general characteristics

Crew: 1

Length: 56 ft 9 ¼ in (17.02 m)

Wingspan: 25 ft 7 in (7.81 m)

Height: 15 ft 9 ¼ in (4.82 m)

Wing area: 277 ft² (25.75 m²)

Empty weight: 14.000 lb (6.350 kg)

Loaded weight: 20.640 lb (9.365 kg)

Max. take-off weight: 29.027 lb (13.170 kg)

 

Powerplant

1× Pratt & Whitney J57-P-21 turbojet with 10.200 lbf (45 kN) dry thrust and 16.000 lbf (71 kN) with afterburner:

 

Performance

Maximum speed: Mach 1.86 (1.225 mph, 1.975 km/h) at 36,000 ft (11.000 m)

Combat radius: 450 mi (730 km)

Ferry range: 1.735 mi (2.795 km) with external fuel

Service ceiling: 58.000 ft (17.700 m)

Rate of climb: 31.950 ft/min (162.3 m/s)

 

Armament

1× 20 mm (0.787 in) M61 Vulcan gatling cannon with 725 RPG

5 hardpoints for 6.000 lb of ordnance (2.727 kg); typically 2× or 4× AIM-9 Sidewinder under the wings, plus an optional drop tank under the fuselage.

  

The kit and its assembly:

This is a totally fictional aircraft with no real paradigm. The initial idea was that I wondered if one could not make something from an early MiG-21F with its small diameter air intake, when this would be replaced by a radome?

 

That the project eventually evolved into a kind of anti-Starfighter came through the wings: there was the problem of placing the air intakes somewhere. To solve that problem I remembered the Tamiya 1:100 F-105 kit, I built one years ago and it’s still available, even though I had to import a NIB kit from Hong Kong for this occasion. Calculations had indicated that the wing size and span would match a 1:72 MiG-21 well, and so the F-112 was born*. The Thunderchief’s air intakes are SO characteristic that anything else than a Republic design was out of question, the rest was spun around this basic idea.

 

But back to the model itself: the whole thing is a true Frankenstein job, puzzled together from a lot of bits and pieces. The most important ingredients:

 

● Fuselage from a 1:72 Academy MiG-21F, incl. canopy

● Radome from a 1:72 Hasegawa F-4E

● Wings, pylons and main landing gear from a 1:100 Tamiya F-105

● Stabilizer fins from a 1:72 Revell F-16, shortened

● Main wheels from a 1:72 Hobby Boss F-86F

● Fin from a 1:100 Il-28(!)

● Horizontal stabilizers from a 1:72 Matchbox A-7E w. reduced span

● Front wheel from an 1:72 Italeri A-4M

● Engine nozzle from a 1:72 Matchbox F-104G

● The afterburner inside is actually a sprocket wheel from an 1:72 ESCI M1A1 Abrams

● Cockpit tub and dashboard come from a 1:72 Heller Alpha Jet

● Seat and pilot from Matchbox (unknown origin)

 

The MiG-21 lost any characteristic detail (blow-in doors, 30mm cannons, slots for wings and stabilizers, even its fin and spine), and the landing gear wells were covered. The F-105 wings were placed slightly lower on the fuselage side. The fin was simply replaced, the tail a bit shortened and the new/bigger nozzle attached. The new nose had almost the same diameter as the original air intake piece from the Academy MiG-21F. For the Corsair II stabilizers, ‘consoles’ were added on the lower rear fuselage, so that they could also be placed in a lower position.

 

My plan/wish was to make the thing look as little MiG-21ish as possible, and IMHO I succeeded well. Actually, the Thunderdart reminds a LOT of the much bigger F-105, and there is also a lot of F-101 in it, too, despite its ADC livery? You take at least two looks, since proportions are different from the F-105, yet the thing looks VERY familiar… “Could it have been…?”

 

External loads were limited to just two AIM-9 training rounds with launch rails under the outer pylons, even though all wing pylons were fitted (the Tamiya kit has large slots to hold them, I was too lazy to fill them).

 

The cannon bulges, the IR sensor as well as some air scoops and antennae were sculpted from simple pieces of sprue or styrene.

  

Painting and markings:

As an USAF/ADC interceptor, an overall Aircraft Grey (FS 36473, used ModelMaster 1731) was clear from the start – and it’s actually a fine option, as the F-105 as lookalike benchmark was basically only operated in bare metal or SEA camouflage. An ADC aircraft would be deceiving, too, and provoke third looks.

 

The cockpit interior was painted medium grey, the landing gear wells in interior green and the air intakes in white with red trim.

 

Anyway, making an ANG aircraft from this base was more tricky. At first I wanted to create an Oklahoma ANG aircraft (had some nice markings for the fin, but they turned out to me too large since they belong to a modern F-16…), but finally settled on a D.C. Air Guard aircraft since I had such fuselage markings from a F-86H at hand.

 

Basic tone is an overall FS 16473 ADC Grey (Testors 1731), some panels on the upper side and the flanks were highlighted with a slightly lighter grey (FS 16515). The cockpit front area received a flat black anti-glare panel, to which a black trim was added - F-106 style, and this turned out to be VERY characteristic, if not deceiving! Around the rear fuselage some heat marks – reminiscent of the F-100 – were added through metallizer (Steel and Titanium, partly mixed with Humbrol 113, Rust) and some dry-painting. The kit was then lightly weathered through a thin wash with black ink and very light dry-painting with pale grey.

 

The colorful fin markings were designed by myself – inspired by a 2008 postal stamp from the ‘Flags of our Nation’series. My fin decoration is purely fictional, though, and incorporates the D.C. flag (two red horizontal bars on a white ground, with three red stars above) as well as some iconic cherry blossoms, as these seem to be a local identity symbol? Additionally the fin features on one side the District of Columbia Sign, on the other side the Eastern Air Defence Sector badge. The fin decoration was created on a PC with Corel Draw and printed on Experts' Choice white decal paper with an inkjet printer at 600dpi - even though the touchy decals suffered under the soaking process... A lot of cosmetic correction had to be done by hand/brush, it's far from perfect, just the result of my first large scale self-.made decal experiment. The rest of the markings were puzzled together from the scrap box.

 

After painting and decals, the kit received an overall coat of semi-gloss Humbrol varnish, since I wanted a slight shine but not a hi-gloss finish. The anti-glare panel was covered with matt varnish - which did not dry up properly, leaving a milky film. Nevertheless, it looks like sun-bleached black paint, so I kept it. Undesired side effect... The radome was painted with gloss varnish, so that three shades of black meet at the Thunderdart's nose.

  

A major kitbash. The Thunderdart looks unspectacular, but it is IMHO very deceiving. It combines characteristic elements of various Century fighters in shape and color, and it should keep some folks wondering what's actually wrong about it... Sleek aircraft - behold what's in a simple 1st generation MiG-21!

*As a side note: This what-if kit originally bore the designation “F-109”, which was originally allocated to a Bell VTOL aircraft that never made it beyond a mock-up stage. “F-109”, however, has recently found a common use for a fictional fighter which is more or less a crossbreed of an F-104 with F-100 wings and a low tail, so I switched to “F-112” for my own Thunderdart creation. “F-112” had NEVER been used, even though Douglas had used the F-112 code for an F-101 development, but only for internal purposes. Offially it has AFAIK never been used.

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version 05-Nov-23.

 

Operated by Germania on behalf of TUIfly,com. With the 'Bach - Leipzig Airport promo tail livery.

 

Delivered to Germania as D-AGEE in Oct-88, this aircraft was sold to Pembroke Capital in Oct-97 and leased back to Germania. It was returned to the lessor in Apr-98.

 

It was leased to Ukraine International Airways as UR-GAG a few days later. In Jun-99 it was wet-leased to Blue Panorama Airlines (Italy) and returned to Ukraine International at the end of Oct-99. It was immediately leased to Princess Airlines (Greece) as SX-BFY, returning to Ukraine International in Feb-00.

 

In Apr-00 the aircraft was leased to Aerosweet Airlines (Ukraine), they became Aerosvit Airlines in Oct-00 and it was returned to Ukraine International in Jan-02.

 

It was wet-leased to Blue Panorama again in Jun-02 and returned to Ukraine International in early Nov-02. The aircraft was returned to the lessor in May-03.

 

It was leased to Germania again as D-AGEE the following day. It was operated on behalf of DBA,com (formerly Deutsche BA) between Feb-04 / Jan-07. DBA,com was taken over by Air-Berlin in 2006 but continued to operate as DBA.

 

In Feb-07 the aircraft was wet-leased to TUIfly and operated in their full livery with the Leipzig tail. It returned to Germania in Nov-09. The aircraft was returned to the lessor in Dec-11 and permanently retired at Kemble, UK. It was broken up there in Aug/Sep-12.

Caernarfon Castle is a medieval fortress in Caernarfon, Gwynedd, north-west Wales cared for by Cadw, the Welsh Government's historic environment service. It was a motte-and-bailey castle from the late 11th century until 1283 when King Edward I of England began to replace it with the current stone structure. The Edwardian town and castle acted as the administrative centre of north Wales, and as a result the defences were built on a grand scale. There was a deliberate link with Caernarfon's Roman past, and the Roman fort of Segontium is nearby.

 

While the castle was under construction, town walls were built around Caernarfon. The work cost between £20,000 and £25,000 from the start until the work ended in 1330. Although the castle appears mostly complete from the outside, the interior buildings no longer survive and many of the building plans were never finished. The town and castle were sacked in 1294 when Madog ap Llywelyn led a rebellion against the English. Caernarfon was recaptured the following year. During the Glyndŵr Rising of 1400–1415, the castle was besieged. When the Tudor dynasty ascended to the English throne in 1485, tensions between the Welsh and English began to diminish and castles were considered less important. As a result, Caernarfon Castle was allowed to fall into a state of disrepair. Despite its dilapidated condition, during the English Civil War Caernarfon Castle was held by Royalists, and was besieged three times by Parliamentarian forces. This was the last time the castle was used in war. The castle was neglected until the 19th century when the state funded repairs. The castle was used for the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1911 and again in 1969. It is part of the World Heritage Site "Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd".

 

The first fortifications at Caernarfon were built by the Romans. Their fort, which they named Segontium, is on the outskirts of the modern town. The fort sat near the bank of the River Seiont; the fort was probably built here due to the sheltered position and because it could be resupplied via the river Seiont. Caernarfon derives its name from the Roman fortifications. In Welsh, the place was called y gaer (lenition of caer) yn Arfon, meaning "the stronghold in the land over against Môn"; Môn is the Welsh name for Anglesey. Little is known about the fate of Segontium and its associated civilian settlement after the Romans departed from Britain in the early 5th century.

 

Following the Norman Conquest of England, William the Conqueror turned his attention to Wales. According to the Domesday Survey of 1086, the Norman Robert of Rhuddlan was nominally in command of the whole of northern Wales. He was killed by the Welsh in 1088. His cousin Hugh d'Avranches, Earl of Chester, reasserted Norman control of north Wales by building three castles: one at an unknown location somewhere in Meirionnydd, one at Aberlleiniog on Anglesey, and another at Caernarfon. This early castle was built on a peninsula, bounded by the River Seiont and the Menai Strait; it would have been a motte and bailey, defended by a timber palisade and earthworks. The motte, or mound, was integrated into the later Edwardian castle, but the location of the original bailey is uncertain, although it may have been to the north-east of the motte. Excavations on top of the motte in 1969 revealed no traces of medieval occupation, suggesting any evidence had been removed. It is likely that the motte was surmounted by a wooden tower known as a keep. The Welsh recaptured Gwynedd in 1115, and Caernarfon Castle came into the possession of the Welsh princes. From contemporary documents written at the castle, it is known that Llywelyn the Great and later Llywelyn ap Gruffudd occasionally stayed at Caernarfon.

 

War broke out again between England and Wales on 22 March 1282. The Welsh leader, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, died later that year on 11 December. His brother Dafydd ap Gruffydd continued to fight against the English, but in 1283 Edward I was victorious. Edward marched through northern Wales, capturing castles such as that at Dolwyddelan, and establishing his own at Conwy. War finally drew to a close in May 1283 when Dolbadarn Castle, Dafydd ap Gruffudd's last castle, was captured. Shortly afterwards, Edward began building castles at Harlech and Caernarfon. The castles of Caernarfon, Conwy and Harlech were the most impressive of their time in Wales, and their construction—along with other Edwardian castles in the country—helped establish English rule. The master mason responsible for the design and construction of the castle was probably James of Saint George, an experienced architect and military engineer who played an important role in building the Edwardian castles in Wales. According to the Flores Historiarum, during the construction of the castle and planned town, the body of the Roman emperor Magnus Maximus was discovered, and Edward I ordered its reburial in a local church.

 

The construction of the new stone castle was part of a programme of building which transformed Caernarfon; town walls were added, connected to the castle, and a new quay was built. The earliest reference to building at Caernarfon dates from 24 June 1283, when a ditch had been dug separating the site of the castle from the town to the north. A bretagium, a type of stockade, was created around the site to protect it while the permanent defences were under construction. Timber was shipped from as far away as Liverpool. Stone was quarried from nearby places, such as from Anglesey and around the town. A force of hundreds worked on the excavation of the moat and digging the foundations for the castle. As the site expanded, it began to encroach on the town; houses were cleared to allow the construction. Residents were not paid compensation until three years later. While the foundations for the stone walls were being created, timber-framed apartments were built for Edward I and Eleanor of Castile, his queen. They arrived at Caernarfon on either 11 or 12 July 1283 and stayed for over a month.

 

Construction at Caernarfon Castle continued over the winter of 1283–84. The extent of completion is uncertain, although architectural historian Arnold Taylor speculated that when Edward and Eleanor visited again in Easter 1284 the Eagle Tower may have been complete. The Statute of Rhuddlan, enacted on 3 March 1284, made Caernarfon a borough and the administrative centre of the county of Gwynedd.[Gwynedd was not a county.] According to tradition, Edward II was born at Caernarfon on 25 April 1284. Edward was created Prince of Wales in 1301, with control over Wales and its incomes. Since then the title has traditionally been held by the eldest son of the monarch. According to a famous legend, the king had promised the Welsh that he would name "a prince born in Wales, who did not speak a word of English" and then produced his infant son to their surprise; but the story may well be apocryphal, as it can only be traced to the 16th century. In 1284, Caernarfon was defended by a garrison of forty men, more than the thirty-strong garrisons at Conwy and Harlech. Even in peace time, when most castles would have a guard of only a few men, Caernarfon was defended by between twenty and forty people due to its importance.

 

By 1285, Caernarfon's town walls were mostly complete. At the same time work continued on the castle. Spending on construction was negligible from 1289 and accounts end in 1292. Edward I's campaign of castle-building in Wales cost £80,000 between 1277 and 1304, and £95,000 between 1277 and 1329; by 1292 £12,000 had been spent on the construction of Caernarfon's castle—of which the southern façade was furthest along—and town walls. As the southern wall and town walls completed a defensive circuit around Caernarfon, the plan was to build the castle's northern façade last.

 

In 1294, Wales broke out in rebellion led by Madog ap Llywelyn, Prince of Wales. As Caernarfon was the centre of administration in Gwynedd and a symbol of English power, it was targeted by the Welsh. Madog's forces captured the town in September, and in the process heavily damaged the town walls. The castle was defended by just a ditch and a temporary barricade. It was quickly taken and anything flammable was set alight. Fire raged across Caernarfon, leaving destruction in its wake. In the summer of 1295, the English moved to retake Caernarfon. By November the same year, the English began refortifying the town. Rebuilding the town walls was a high priority, and £1,195 (nearly half the sum initially spent on the walls) was spent on completing the job two months ahead of schedule. Attention then shifted to the castle and on finishing the work that had halted in 1292. Once the rebellion was put down, Edward began building Beaumaris Castle on the Isle of Anglesey. The work was overseen by James of Saint George; as a result, Walter of Hereford took over as master mason for the new phase of construction. By the end of 1301, a further £4,500 had been spent on the work; the focus of the work was on the northern wall and towers. The accounts between November 1301 and September 1304 are missing, possibly because there was a hiatus in work while labour moved north to help out with England's war against Scotland. Records show that Walter of Hereford had left Caernarfon and was in Carlisle in October 1300; he remained occupied with the Scottish wars until the autumn of 1304 when building at Caernarfon resumed. Walter died in 1309 and his immediate subordinate, Henry of Ellerton, took over the position of master mason. Construction continued at a steady rate until 1330.

 

From 1284 to 1330, when accounts end, between £20,000 and £25,000 was spent on Caernarfon's castle and town walls. Such a sum was enormous and dwarfed the spending on castles such as Dover and Château Gaillard, which were amongst the most expensive and impressive fortifications of the later 12th and early 13th centuries. Subsequent additions to Caernarfon were not major, and what remains of the castle is substantially from the Edwardian period. Despite the expense, much of what was planned for the castle was never carried out. The rears of the King's Gate (the entrance from the town) and the Queen's Gate (the entrance from the south-east) were left unfinished, and foundations in the castle's interior mark where buildings would have stood had work continued.

 

For around two centuries after the conquest of Wales, the arrangements established by Edward I for the governance of the country remained in place. During this time the castle was constantly garrisoned, and Caernarfon was effectively the capital of north Wales.[30] There was a degree of discrimination, with the most important administrative jobs in Wales usually closed to Welsh people. Tension between the Welsh and their English conquerors spilled over at the start of the 15th century with the outbreak of the Glyndŵr Rising (1400–1415). During the revolt, Caernarfon was one of the targets of Owain Glyndŵr's army. The town and castle were besieged in 1401, and in November that year the Battle of Tuthill was fought nearby between Caernarfon's defenders and the besieging force. In 1403 and 1404, Caernarfon was besieged by Welsh troops with support from French forces;[30] the garrison at the time was around thirty. The accession of the Tudor dynasty to the English throne in 1485 heralded a change in the way Wales was administered. The Tudors were Welsh in origin, and their rule eased hostilities between the Welsh and English. As a result, castles such as Caernarfon, which provided secure centres from which the country could be administered, became less important. They were neglected, and in 1538 it was reported that many castles in Wales were "moche ruynous and ferre in decaye for lakke of tymely reparations".

 

In Caernarfon's case the walls of the town and castle remained in good condition, while features which required maintenance—such as roofs—were in a state of decay and much timber was rotten. Conditions were so poor that of the castle's seven towers and two gatehouses, only the Eagle Tower and the King's Gate had roofs by 1620. The domestic buildings inside the castle had been stripped of anything valuable, such as glass and iron. Despite the disrepair of the domestic buildings, the castle's defences were in a good enough state that during the English Civil War in the mid-17th century it was garrisoned by Royalists. Caernarfon Castle was besieged three times during the war. The constable was John Byron, 1st Baron Byron, who surrendered Caernarfon to Parliamentarian forces in 1646. It was the last time Caernarfon Castle saw fighting. Although it was ordered in 1660 that the castle and town walls should be dismantled, the work was aborted early on and may never have started.

 

Despite avoiding slighting, the castle was neglected until the late 19th century. From the 1870s onwards, the government funded repairs to Caernarfon Castle. The deputy-constable Llewellyn Turner oversaw the work, in many cases controversially restoring and rebuilding the castle, rather than simply conserving the existing stonework. Steps, battlements, and roofs were repaired, and the moat to the north of the castle was cleared of post-medieval buildings that were considered to spoil the view, despite the protest of locals. Under the auspices of the Office of Works and its successors since 1908, the castle was preserved due to its historic significance. In 1911, Caernarfon was used for the investiture of the Prince of Wales for the first time for Prince Edward (later Edward VIII), eldest son of the newly crowned King George V; the ceremony was held there at the insistence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George, a Welshman raised in Caernarfonshire. In 1969, the precedent was repeated with the investiture of Charles, Prince of Wales. Although Caernarfon Castle has been the property of the Crown since it was built, it is currently cared for by Cadw (English: to keep), the Welsh Government's historic environment division, responsible for the maintenance and care of Wales' historic buildings. In 1986, Caernarfon was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites as part of the "Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd" in recognition of its global importance and to help conserve and protect the site. The castle houses the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum. During 2015 a new "entrance pavilion" was built, designed by architects Donald Insall Associates.

 

Caernarfon Castle is now a major tourist attraction, with over 205,000 people visiting the attraction in 2018.

 

Caernarfon is a royal town, community and port in Gwynedd, Wales. It has a population of 9,852 (with Caeathro). It lies along the A487 road, on the eastern shore of the Menai Strait, opposite the island of Anglesey. The city of Bangor is 8.6 miles (13.8 km) to the north-east, while Snowdonia (Eryri) fringes Caernarfon to the east and south-east.

 

Abundant natural resources in and around the Menai Strait enabled human habitation in prehistoric Britain. The Ordovices, a Celtic tribe, lived in the region during the period known as Roman Britain. The Roman fort Segontium was established around AD 80 to subjugate the Ordovices during the Roman conquest of Britain. The Romans occupied the region until the end of Roman rule in Britain in 382, after which Caernarfon became part of the Kingdom of Gwynedd. In the late 11th century, William the Conqueror ordered the construction of a motte-and-bailey castle at Caernarfon as part of the Norman invasion of Wales. He was unsuccessful, and Wales remained independent until around 1283.

 

In the 13th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, ruler of Gwynedd, refused to pay homage to Edward I of England, prompting the English conquest of Gwynedd. This was followed by the construction of Caernarfon Castle, one of the largest and most imposing fortifications built by the English in Wales. In 1284, the English-style county of Caernarfonshire was established by the Statute of Rhuddlan; the same year, Caernarfon was made a borough, a county and market town, and the seat of English government in north Wales.

 

The ascent of the House of Tudor to the throne of England eased hostilities with the English and resulted in Caernarfon Castle falling into a state of disrepair. The town has flourished,[when?] leading to its status as a major tourist centre and seat of Gwynedd Council, with a thriving harbour and marina. Caernarfon has expanded beyond its medieval walls and experienced heavy suburbanisation. The community of Caernarfon's population includes the highest percentage of Welsh-speaking citizens anywhere in Wales. The status of Royal Borough was granted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1963 and amended to Royal Town in 1974. The castle and town walls are part of a World Heritage Site described as the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd.

 

The town's name consists of three elements: caer , yn, and arfon. "Caer' means 'fortress", in this case either the Roman fort of Segontium, which lies on the outskirts of the modern town, or the Norman castle erected near the mouth of the Afon Seiont. "Arfon" means "opposite Môn (Anglesey)", and the full name therefore means "the fortress in the land opposite Anglesey".

 

The earlier British and Romano-British settlement at Segontium was named Cair Segeint ("Fort Seiont") after the river. It was also known as Cair Custoient ("Fortress of Constantine"), after a belief that it was the capital of Gwynedd under Constantine, a supposed son of Saint Elen and the Emperor Magnus Maximus. Both names appear in the Historia Brittonum traditionally ascribed to Nennius. A medieval romance about Maximus and Elen, Macsen's Dream, calls her home Caer Aber Sein ("Fort Seiontmouth" or "the fortress at the mouth of the Seiont") and other pre-conquest poets such as Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd used the name Caer Gystennin. A 1221 charter by Llywelyn the Great to the canons of Penmon priory on Anglesey mentions Kaerinarfon, and the Welsh chronicle Brut y Tywysogion mentions both Kaerenarvon and Caerenarvon.

 

The town and the county named after it were officially spelled "Carnarvon" until 1926. At a meeting on 10 November 1925 the borough council resolved to ask the county council to change the spelling to "Caernarvon". The county council gave permission for the change of spelling for the name of the borough with effect from 14 January 1926, and at the same time decided to ask the government to also change the spelling of the county's name to Caernarvon. The government confirmed the change in the spelling of the county's name with effect from 1 July 1926.

 

The municipal borough was designated a royal borough in 1963. When the borough was abolished in 1974 the status of "royal town" was granted to the new community which succeeded it. The spelling of both borough and county remained "Caernarvon" until they were abolished in 1974. The spelling of the community's name was changed from "Caernarvon" to "Caernarfon" with effect from 2 June 1975 by order of Arfon Borough Council.

 

Caernarfon contains a Roman fort, Segontium, and a Norman motte-and-bailey castle was built at the mouth of the River Seiont.

 

In 1283, King Edward I completed his conquest of Wales which he secured by a chain of castles and walled towns. The construction of a new stone Caernarfon Castle seems to have started as soon as the campaign had finished. Edward's architect, James of St. George, may well have modelled the castle on the walls of Constantinople, possibly being aware of the town's legendary associations. Edward's fourth son, Edward of Caernarfon, later Edward II of England, was born at the castle in April 1284 and made Prince of Wales in 1301. A story recorded in the 16th century suggests that the new prince was offered to the native Welsh on the premise "that [he] was borne in Wales and could speake never a word of English", however, there is no contemporary evidence to support this.

 

Caernarfon was constituted a borough in 1284 by a charter of Edward I. The charter, which was confirmed on a number of occasions, appointed the mayor of the borough Constable of the Castle ex officio.

 

On 2 November 1401, 'Y Ddraig Aur' (The golden dragon) of Owain Glyndŵr was attested to have been flown during the Battle of Tuthill at Caernarfon, it is also likely that it was also flown throughout the Welsh independence campaign.

In 1911, David Lloyd George, then Member of Parliament (MP) for Caernarfon boroughs, which included various towns from Llŷn to Conwy, agreed to the British Royal Family's idea of holding the investiture of the Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle. The ceremony took place on 13 July, with the royal family visiting Wales, and the future Edward VIII was duly invested.

 

In 1955, Caernarfon was in the running for the title of Capital of Wales on historical grounds but the town's campaign was heavily defeated in a ballot of Welsh local authorities, with 11 votes compared to Cardiff's 136. Cardiff therefore became the Welsh capital.

 

On 1 July 1969, the investiture ceremony for Charles, Prince of Wales was again held at Caernarfon Castle. The ceremony went ahead without incident despite terrorist threats and protests, which culminated in the death of two members of Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (Welsh Defence Movement), Alwyn Jones and George Taylor, who were killed when their bomb – intended for the railway line at Abergele in order to stop the British Royal Train – exploded prematurely. The bombing campaign (one in Abergele, two in Caernarfon and finally one on Llandudno Pier) was organised by the movement's leader, John Jenkins. He was later arrested after a tip-off and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment.

 

In July 2019, Caernarfon hosted a rally for Welsh independence. The event, organised by AUOB (All Under One Banner) Cymru, included a march through the town centre. Organisers estimated that roughly 8,000 people joined the march on the town square; local authorities confirmed at least 5,000 attendees. The event featured a number of speakers including Hardeep Singh Kohli, Evra Rose, Dafydd Iwan, Lleuwen Steffan, Siôn Jobbins, Beth Angell, Gwion Hallam, Meleri Davies and Elfed Wyn Jones. Talks covered criticism of Brexit and Westminster with advocating Welsh Independence.

 

The history of Caernarfon, as an example where the rise and fall of different civilizations can be seen from one hilltop, is discussed in John Michael Greer's book The Long Descent. He writes of Caernarfon:

Spread out below us in an unexpected glory of sunlight was the whole recorded history of that little corner of the world. The ground beneath us still rippled with earthworks from the Celtic hill fort that guarded the Menai Strait more than two and a half millennia ago. The Roman fort that replaced it was now the dim brown mark of an old archaeological site on low hills off to the left. Edward I’s great grey castle rose up in the middle foreground, and the high contrails of RAF jets on a training exercise out over the Irish Sea showed that the town’s current overlords still maintained the old watch. Houses and shops from more than half a dozen centuries spread eastward as they rose through the waters of time, from the cramped medieval buildings of the old castle town straight ahead to the gaudy sign and sprawling parking lot of the supermarket back behind us.

 

Caernarfon is situated on the southern bank of the Menai Strait facing the Isle of Anglesey. It is situated 8.6 miles (13.8 km) south-west of Bangor, 19.4 miles (31.2 km) north of Porthmadog and approximately 8.0 miles (12.9 km) west of Llanberis and Snowdonia National Park. The mouth of the River Seiont is in the town, creating a natural harbour where it flows into the Menai Strait. Caernarfon Castle stands at the mouth of the river. The A487 passes directly through Caernarfon, with Bangor to the north and Porthmadog to the south.

 

As the crow flies, the summit of Snowdon lies a little over 9.6 miles (15.4 km) to the southeast of the town centre.

 

Caernarfon's historical prominence and landmarks have made it a major tourist centre. As a result, many of the local businesses cater for the tourist trade. Caernarfon has numerous guest houses, inns and pubs, hotels, restaurants and shops. The majority of shops in the town are located either in the centre of town around Pool Street and Castle Square (Y Maes), on Doc Fictoria (Victoria Dock) or in Cei Llechi (Slate Quay). A number of shops are also located within the Town Walls.

 

The majority of the retail and residential section of Doc Fictoria was opened in 2008. The retail and residential section of Doc Fictoria is built directly beside a Blue Flag beach marina. It contains numerous homes, bars and bistros, cafés and restaurants, an award-winning arts centre, a maritime museum and a range of shops and stores.

 

Pool Street and Castle Square contain a number of large, national retail shops and smaller independent stores. Pool Street is pedestrianised and serves as the town's main shopping street. Castle Square, commonly referred to as the 'Maes' by both Welsh and English speakers, is the market square of the town. A market is held every Saturday throughout the year and also on Mondays in the summer. The square was revamped at a cost of £2.4 million in 2009. However, since its revamp the square has caused controversy due to traffic and parking difficulties. During the revamp, it was decided to remove barriers between traffic and pedestrians creating a 'shared space', to force drivers to be more considerate of pedestrians and other vehicles. This is the first use of this kind of arrangement in Wales, but it has been described by councillor Bob Anderson as being 'too ambiguous' for road users. Another controversy caused by the revamp of the Maes was that a historic old oak tree was taken down from outside the HSBC bank. When the Maes was re-opened in July 2009 by the local politician and Heritage Minister of Wales, Alun Ffred Jones AM, he said, "the use of beautiful local slate is very prominent in the new Maes."

 

There are many old public houses serving the town, including The Four Alls, The Anglesey Arms Hotel, The Castle Hotel, The Crown, Morgan Lloyd, Pen Deitch and The Twthill Vaults. The oldest public house in Caernarfon is the Black Boy Inn, which remained in the same family for over 40 years until sold in 2003 to a local independent family business. The pub has stood inside Caernarfon's Town Walls since the 16th century, and many people claim to have seen ghosts within the building.

 

In and around the Town Walls are numerous restaurants, public houses and inns, and guest houses and hostels.

 

Gwynedd Council's head offices are situated in the town. The Caernarfon parliamentary constituency was a former electoral area centred on Caernarfon. Caernarfon is now part of the Arfon constituency for both the UK Parliament and the Senedd. The town is twinned with Landerneau in Brittany. Caernarfon was the county town of the historic county of Caernarfonshire.

 

At the local level, Caernarfon Royal Town Council consists of 17 town councillors, elected from the wards of Cadnant (3), Canol Tref Caernarfon (3), Hendre (3), Menai (4) and Peblig (4). The current Mayor is Councillor Maria Veronica Sarnacki.

 

The population in 1841 was 8,001.

 

The population of Caernarfon Community Parish in 2001 was 9,611. Caernarfon residents are known colloquially as "Cofis". The word "Cofi" /ˈkɒvi/ is also used locally in Caernarfon to describe the local Welsh dialect, notable for a number of words, not in use elsewhere.

 

Within Wales, Gwynedd has the highest proportion of speakers of the Welsh language. The greatest concentration of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd is found in and around Caernarfon.

 

According to the 2011 census, 85.8% of residents were born in Wales, one of the highest proportions in Gwynedd, and 77.0% reported a 'Welsh only' national identity.

 

The present castle building was constructed between 1283 and 1330 by the order of King Edward I. The banded stonework and polygonal towers are thought to have been in imitation of the Walls of Constantinople. The impressive curtain wall with nine towers and two gatehouses survive largely intact. Caernarfon Castle is now under the care of Cadw and is open to the public. The castle includes the regimental museum of the Royal Welch Fusiliers.

 

The medieval town walls, including eight towers and two twin-towered gateways, form a complete circuit of 800 yards (730 m) around the old town and were built between 1283 and 1285. The walls are in the care of Cadw but only a small section is accessible to the public. The town walls and castle at Caernarfon were declared part of a World Heritage Site in 1986. According to UNESCO, the castle and walls together with other royal castles in Gwynedd "are the finest examples of late 13th century and early 14th century military architecture in Europe".

 

Dedicated to Saint Peblig, the son of Saint Elen and Macsen Wledig (Magnus Maximus), the church is built on an important early Christian site, itself built on a Roman Mithraeum or temple of Mithras, close to the Segontium Roman Fort (200m away, in the care of Cadw). A Roman altar was found in one of the walls during 19th-century restoration work. The present church dates mainly from the 14th century and is a Grade I listed building.

 

The statue in Castle Square was sculpted by W. Goscombe John and was erected in 1921 when Lloyd George was Prime Minister. David Lloyd George was the Member of Parliament for the area from 1890 to 1945.

 

The Old Market Hall in Hole-in-the-Wall Street and Crown Street was built in 1832, but the interior and roof were rebuilt later in that century. It is a Grade II listed building. It now acts as a pub and music venue.

 

A small Victorian urban park, Morfa was laid out in 1888. It stands to the south of the town, bordered by the 'Ysbyty Eryri' hospital [see below] at its southern edge. It is listed at Grade II on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.

 

The old County Hall, which went on to become a courthouse, is situated inside the castle walls, next door to the Anglesey Arms Hotel. The old courthouse was built in the Neo-classical style. The courthouse was replaced by the new Caernarfon Criminal Justice Centre on the former Segontium School site in Llanberis Road in 2009. The old courthouse adjoins what used to be Caernarfon Gaol, which has been closed since the early 20th century and was subsequently converted into council offices.

 

There is a small hospital in the town, 'Ysbyty Eryri' (i.e. "Snowdonia Hospital"). The nearest large regional hospital is Ysbyty Gwynedd, in Bangor.

 

Caernarfon Barracks was commissioned by John Lloyd, County Surveyor of Caernarfonshire, as a military headquarters and completed in 1855.

 

Caernarfon was at one time an important port, exporting slate from the Dyffryn Nantlle quarries. This traffic was facilitated from 1828 by the Nantlle Railway which predated far more widely known ventures such as the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and the Ffestiniog Railway.

 

Five passenger stations have served the town. Caernarvon railway station opened in 1852 as the western terminus of the Bangor and Carnarvon Railway. This connected the town with the North Wales coast and the expanding national network. Carnarvon Castle railway station opened in 1856 as the northern passenger terminus of the 3ft 6in narrow gauge Nantlle Railway. This service ended in 1865 when the line being built from the south by the standard gauge Carnarvonshire Railway took over most of its trackbed. The Carnarvonshire Railway's temporary northern terminus was at Pant to the south of the town. Pant station opened in 1867. At the same time, the Carnarvon and Llanberis Railway built its line from Llanberis to Caernarfon. Its temporary western terminus was called Carnarvon (Morfa). It opened in 1869 near the modern road bridges over the Afon Seiont. For a short period, therefore, Caernarfon had three terminating stations on its edges. Records are contradictory, but this ended in either 1870 or 1871 when they were connected by a line through the town using the tunnel which survives, having been converted in 1995 for road traffic. When the through route was opened Pant and Morfa stations closed and the original station became the town's only station. The London and North Western Railway also took over all the lines mentioned leaving one station and one service provider by 1871.

 

The services to Llanberis and south to Afon Wen closed progressively from the 1930s, with tracks being lifted in the mid-1960s, but Caernarvon station survived until 1970, with Bangor to Caernarvon one of the last passenger services to be closed under the Beeching Axe; it is now the site of a Morrisons supermarket. In November 2020 the Welsh Government stated 'further consideration' should be given to reopening the line. The fifth station was opened in 1997 on the old trackbed in St. Helen's Road. It is the northern terminus of the 2ft narrow gauge Rheilffordd Eryri / Welsh Highland Railway. Work began on a permanent station for the town in February 2017. The new station opened to passengers in the Spring of 2019. Heritage steam services provide links to Porthmadog, where passengers can change for services on the Ffestiniog Railway to Blaenau Ffestiniog.

 

Bus services in the town are provided by Arriva Buses Wales, and a number of smaller, local operators. Longer distance, cross-country services are operated by Lloyds Coaches, and connect the town with Bangor to the north, and Aberystwyth via Porthmadog, Dolgellau and Machynlleth to the south. These services are part of the Welsh Government funded TrawsCymru network.

 

The A487 trunk road bisects the town, providing access to major urban areas along the North Wales coast and the Port of Holyhead, via the A55 expressway. Llanberis at the foot of Snowdon can be reached via the A4086, which heads east out of the town towards Capel Curig.

 

Heading north out of the town is the Lôn Las Menai cycle path to nearby Y Felinheli. Heading south out of the town is the Lôn Eifion cycle path, which leads to Bryncir, near Criccieth. The route provides views into the Snowdonia mountains, down along the Llŷn Peninsula and across to the Isle of Anglesey.

 

Caernarfon Airport is 4.5 miles (7.2 km) to the southwest, and offers pleasure flights and an aviation museum.

 

The Aber Swing Bridge is a pedestrian swing bridge that crosses over the Afon Seiont to connect pedestrians from the foreshore to the Watergate entrance in the centre of Caernarfon by the Caernarfon Castle.

 

There are four primary schools in Caernarfon, Ysgol yr Hendre being the largest. The others are Ysgol y Gelli, Ysgol Santes Helen and Ysgol Maesincla. Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen is the single secondary school serving Caernarfon and the surrounding areas and currently has between 900 and 1000 pupils from ages 11 to 18. Ysgol Pendalar is a school for children with special needs. Coleg Menai is a further education college for adult learners.

 

Notable people

Lewis Jones, 1898

Saint Elen, late 4th-century founder of churches in Wales.

Edward II of England (1284–1327), King of England from 1307 to 1327.

Morris Williams (1809–1874), clergyman and writer, known by his bardic name Nicander

William Henry Preece (1834–1913), an electrical engineer and inventor.

Lewis Jones (1837-1904), one of the founders of the Welsh settlement in Patagonia.

David Lloyd George (1863–1945), Prime Minister of the UK from 1916 to 1922.

Gwilym Edwards (1881–1963), Presbyterian minister, writer and academic

Lionel Rees (1884–1955), aviator, flying ace and recipient of the Victoria Cross

Maureen Peters (1935–2008), an historical novelist

Dafydd Wigley (born 1943), politician, MP for Caernarfon from 1974 until 2001

Sian Eleri, BBC Radio 1 presenter

Sport

Bryan Orritt (1937–2014), a professional footballer with over 370 club caps

Barry Hughes (1937–2019), a professional footballer and manager, active primarily in the Netherlands

Wyn Davies (born 1942), a footballer with 611 club caps and 34 for Wales

Tom Walley (born 1945) footballer with over 410 club caps

Catrin Thomas (born 1964), ski mountaineer and mountain climber.

Waynne Phillips (born 1970), a professional footballer with over 470 club caps

Nathan Craig (born 1991), a professional footballer.

Osian Dwyfor Jones Wales Commonwealth Hammer Thrower

 

Caernarfon Town F.C. (Welsh: Clwb Pêl Droed Tref Caernarfon) is a Welsh football club based in the town, which currently plays in the Cymru Premier, the top level for football in Wales. The club is nicknamed "the Canaries" because of its yellow and green strip. Caernarfon Town plays at The Oval which has a capacity of 3000 people and 250 seated people.

 

Caernarfon hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1862, 1894, 1906, 1921, 1935, 1959 and 1979. Unofficial National Eisteddfod events were also held there in 1877 and 1880. Caernarfon also hosted the 30th annual Celtic Media Festival in March 2009. Cultural destinations include Galeri and Oriel Pendeitsh. Galeri is a creative enterprise centre that houses a gallery, a concert hall, a cinema, a number of companies, and a range of other creative and cultural spaces. Oriel Pendeitsh is a ground-floor exhibition space adjoining the Tourist Information Centre opposite Caernarfon Castle. The gallery has a varied and changing programme of exhibitions throughout the year.

 

The Caernarfon Food Festival takes place in the town's streets including The Slate Quay (Cei Llechi) and Castle Square (the Maes), which is pedestrianised for the event. Stalls are also located along the promenade next to the Menai Strait towards the marina and Doc Fictoria.

 

The festival was formed in 2015 as a result of public consultation within the town. The first festival was held in 2016. It is organised by the Caernarfon Food Festival Group which is made up of local volunteers who hold regular meetings to plan each festival. The festival has a number of support groups, including a content group, sponsorship group, technical group, communication group and volunteer group. These groups feed into the main group's monthly meetings. The festival logo was inspired by contributions from pupils at Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen and designed by Iestyn Lloyd of Cwmni Da. The festival has been supported by Welsh Government through the Food Festival Grant Scheme and was highly commended by Food Awards Wales in 2019, Car parking is provided at the Slate Quay (Cei Llechi) and at other car parks around the town while the Welsh Highland Railway provides transport from Porthmadog. Cycle access is by the cycle tracks along the disused railway lines which include Lôn Las Eifion, which runs from Porthmadog, by-passing Penygroes and on to Caernarfon, Lôn Las Menai from Y Felinheli to Caernarfon and Lôn Las Peris from Llanberis to Caernarfon.

 

Gwynedd is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The city of Bangor is the largest settlement, and the administrative centre is Caernarfon. The preserved county of Gwynedd, which is used for ceremonial purposes, includes the Isle of Anglesey.

 

Gwynedd is the second largest county in Wales but sparsely populated, with an area of 979 square miles (2,540 km2) and a population of 117,400. After Bangor (18,322), the largest settlements are Caernarfon (9,852), Bethesda (4,735), and Pwllheli (4,076). The county has the highest percentage of Welsh speakers in Wales, at 64.4%, and is considered a heartland of the language.

 

The geography of Gwynedd is mountainous, with a long coastline to the west. Much of the county is covered by Snowdonia National Park (Eryri), which contains Wales's highest mountain, Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa; 3,560 feet, 1,090 m). To the west, the Llŷn Peninsula is flatter and renowned for its scenic coastline, part of which is protected by the Llŷn AONB. Gwynedd also contains several of Wales's largest lakes and reservoirs, including the largest, Bala Lake (Llyn Tegid).

 

The area which is now the county has played a prominent part in the history of Wales. It formed part of the core of the Kingdom of Gwynedd and the native Principality of Wales, which under the House of Aberffraw remained independent from the Kingdom of England until Edward I's conquest between 1277 and 1283. Edward built the castles at Caernarfon and Harlech, which form part of the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd World Heritage Site. During the Industrial Revolution the slate industry rapidly developed; in the late nineteenth century the neighbouring Penrhyn and Dinorwic quarries were the largest in the world, and the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales is now a World Heritage Site. Gwynedd covers the majority of the historic counties of Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire.

 

In the past, historians such as J. E. Lloyd assumed that the Celtic source of the word Gwynedd meant 'collection of tribes' – the same root as the Irish fine, meaning 'tribe'. Further, a connection is recognised between the name and the Irish Féni, an early ethnonym for the Irish themselves, related to fían, 'company of hunting and fighting men, company of warriors under a leader'. Perhaps *u̯en-, u̯enə ('strive, hope, wish') is the Indo-European stem. The Irish settled in NW Wales, and in Dyfed, at the end of the Roman era. Venedotia was the Latin form, and in Penmachno there is a memorial stone from c. AD 500 which reads: Cantiori Hic Iacit Venedotis ('Here lies Cantiorix, citizen of Gwynedd'). The name was retained by the Brythons when the kingdom of Gwynedd was formed in the 5th century, and it remained until the invasion of Edward I. This historical name was revived when the new county was formed in 1974.

 

Gwynedd was an independent kingdom from the end of the Roman period until the 13th century, when it was conquered by England. The modern Gwynedd was one of eight Welsh counties created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. It covered the entirety of the historic counties of Anglesey and Caernarfonshire, and all of Merionethshire apart from Edeirnion Rural District (which went to Clwyd); and also a few parishes of Denbighshire: Llanrwst, Llansanffraid Glan Conwy, Eglwysbach, Llanddoged, Llanrwst and Tir Ifan.

 

The county was divided into five districts: Aberconwy, Arfon, Dwyfor, Meirionnydd and Anglesey.

 

The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 abolished the 1974 county (and the five districts) on 1 April 1996, and its area was divided: the Isle of Anglesey became an independent unitary authority, and Aberconwy (which included the former Denbighshire parishes) passed to the new Conwy County Borough. The remainder of the county was constituted as a principal area, with the name Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire, as it covers most of the areas of those two historic counties. As one of its first actions, the Council renamed itself Gwynedd on 2 April 1996. The present Gwynedd local government area is governed by Gwynedd Council. As a unitary authority, the modern entity no longer has any districts, but Arfon, Dwyfor and Meirionnydd remain as area committees.

 

The pre-1996 boundaries were retained as a preserved county for a few purposes such as the Lieutenancy. In 2003, the boundary with Clwyd was adjusted to match the modern local government boundary, so that the preserved county now covers the two local government areas of Gwynedd and Anglesey. Conwy county borough is now entirely within Clwyd.

 

A Gwynedd Constabulary was formed in 1950 by the merger of the Anglesey, Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire forces. A further amalgamation took place in the 1960s when Gwynedd Constabulary was merged with the Flintshire and Denbighshire county forces, retaining the name Gwynedd. In one proposal for local government reform in Wales, Gwynedd had been proposed as a name for a local authority covering all of north Wales, but the scheme as enacted divided this area between Gwynedd and Clwyd. To prevent confusion, the Gwynedd Constabulary was therefore renamed the North Wales Police.

 

The Snowdonia National Park was formed in 1951. After the 1974 local authority reorganisation, the park fell entirely within the boundaries of Gwynedd, and was run as a department of Gwynedd County Council. After the 1996 local government reorganisation, part of the park fell under Conwy County Borough, and the park's administration separated from the Gwynedd council. Gwynedd Council still appoints nine of the eighteen members of the Snowdonia National Park Authority; Conwy County Borough Council appoints three; and the Welsh Government appoints the remaining six.

 

There has been considerable inwards migration to Gwynedd, particularly from England. According to the 2021 census, 66.6% of residents had been born in Wales whilst 27.1% were born in England.

 

The county has a mixed economy. An important part of the economy is based on tourism: many visitors are attracted by the many beaches and the mountains. A significant part of the county lies within the Snowdonia National Park, which extends from the north coast down to the district of Meirionnydd in the south. But tourism provides seasonal employment and thus there is a shortage of jobs in the winter.

 

Agriculture is less important than in the past, especially in terms of the number of people who earn their living on the land, but it remains an important element of the economy.

 

The most important of the traditional industries is the slate industry, but these days only a small percentage of workers earn their living in the slate quarries.

 

Industries which have developed more recently include TV and sound studios: the record company Sain has its HQ in the county.

 

The education sector is also very important for the local economy, including Bangor University and Further Education colleges, Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor and Coleg Menai, both now part of Grŵp Llandrillo Menai.

 

The proportion of respondents in the 2011 census who said they could speak Welsh.

Gwynedd has the highest proportion of people in Wales who can speak Welsh. According to the 2021 census, 64.4% of the population aged three and over stated that they could speak Welsh,[7] while 64.4% noted that they could speak Welsh in the 2011 census.

 

It is estimated that 83% of the county's Welsh-speakers are fluent, the highest percentage of all counties in Wales.[9] The age group with the highest proportion of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd were those between ages 5–15, of whom 92.3% stated that they could speak Welsh in 2011.

 

The proportion of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd declined between 1991 and 2001,[10] from 72.1% to 68.7%, even though the proportion of Welsh speakers in Wales as a whole increased during that decade to 20.5%.

 

The Annual Population Survey estimated that as of March 2023, 77.0% of those in Gwynedd aged three years and above could speak Welsh.

 

Notable people

Leslie Bonnet (1902–1985), RAF officer, writer; originated the Welsh Harlequin duck in Criccieth

Sir Dave Brailsford (born 1964), cycling coach; grew up in Deiniolen, near Caernarfon

Duffy (born 1984), singer, songwriter and actress; born in Bangor, Gwynedd

Edward II of England (1284–1327), born in Caernarfon Castle

Elin Fflur (born 1984), singer-songwriter, TV and radio presenter; went to Bangor University

Bryn Fôn (born 1954), actor and singer-songwriter; born in Llanllyfni, Caernarfonshire.

Wayne Hennessey (born 1987), football goalkeeper with 108 caps for Wales; born in Bangor, Gwynedd

John Jones (c. 1530 – 1598), a Franciscan friar, Roman Catholic priest and martyr; born at Clynnog

Sir Love Jones-Parry, 1st Baronet (1832–1891), landowner and politician, co-founder of the Y Wladfa settlement in Patagonia

T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935), archaeologist, army officer and inspiration for Lawrence of Arabia, born in Tremadog

David Lloyd George (1863–1945), statesman and Prime Minister; lived in Llanystumdwy from infancy

Sasha (born 1969), disc jockey, born in Bangor, Gwynedd

Sir Bryn Terfel (born 1965), bass-baritone opera and concert singer from Pant Glas

Sir Clough Williams-Ellis (1883–1978), architect of Portmeirion

Owain Fôn Williams, (born 1987), footballer with 443 club caps; born and raised in Penygroes, Gwynedd.

Hedd Wyn (1887–1917), poet from the village of Trawsfynydd; killed in WWI

Pirellis’ 2016 Calendar Replaces Sexy Stars With Influential Women

 

jh-siesta.com/photography/pirellis-2016-calendar-replaces...

A transmission lineman disconnects insulators on a 115kV overhead line.

Replacing an earlier scanned print with a better version 29-Jan-19, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 29-Jul-24.

 

A rather long history... This aircraft was delivered to Irish Aerospace Ltd as G-RJER in Sep-91 and stored until it was leased to Airtours International Airways in Mar-92 for the airline's start-up in May-92. It was returned to Irish Aerospace in Apr-96 and sold to Aero USA Inc as N882RA the following month.

 

It was leased to Reno Air (USA) at the end of May-96. Reno Air was merged into American Airlines in Aug-99 and the aircraft continued in service until it was returned to the lessor in Aug-01 when it was stored at Roswell, NM, USA.

 

It was leased to Freebird Airlines (Turkey) as TC-FBT in Jun-02 and returned to the lessor in Mar-05. The aircraft was due to be leased to SkyWings Airlines (Greece) later that month but the lease was cancelled.

 

It was leased to Viking Airlines AB (Sweden) as SE-RDH in May-05 and immediately wet-leased to Air Scandic (UK) for the summer season, returning to Viking Airlines in Sep-05. It was wet-leased to SkyWings (Greece) in Nov-05.

 

In Feb-06 it changed from a wet-lease to a dry-lease (see below) and was re-registered SX-BSW. The aircraft was wet-leased to UK Jet for the summer season between Apr/Oct-06. In May-07, operated by SkyWings, the aircraft was based at Prestwick, Scotland for the summer season operating for a Scottish Tour Operator.

 

However the operation was plagued by flight delays, mostly due to technical reasons, which eventually appeared in the UK press and the Tour Operator terminated the contract in Aug-07. The aircraft returned to Greece and was wet-leased to Hellas Jet until Dec-07 when it was returned to SkyWings who returned it to Viking Airlines who returned it to the lessor.

 

In Jan-08 the aircraft was leased to Khors Aircompany (Ukraine) as UR-CDR. In Feb-08 the aircraft was noted operating services from Tehran, Iran, possibly for Zagros Air. It was stored at Jakarta-CGK for the 2008/09 winter and was wet-leased to Zagros Air (Iran) in May-09.

 

The wet-lease to Zagros Air became a dry-lease (or, more likely, sale) in Feb-12 and it was re-registered EP-ZAC. The aircraft continued in service until 23-Nov-18 (according to FR24). After 27 years in service I think it's probably stored although there's always the possiblity it's on a major maintenance check. Updated (Jan-19).

 

Note: People sometimes ask me "what's the difference between a wet-lease and a dry-lease?", so here it is...

 

DRY LEASE. Usually used in long-term leases when the aircraft owner (or operator) leases the aircraft to an airline which then operates it as if it was their own, providing crew and accepting all DOC's (direct operating costs).

WET LEASE. Usually for seasonal and short-term leases, also known as an ACMI lease where the leasing airline provides the Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance. The lessee airline provides fuel, catering and ground handling and sometimes supply their own cabin staff.

There is also a DAMP LEASE, which as you might imagine, is somewhere between a DRY and a WET lease. It doesn't happen often though and involves an aircraft leased with flight crew (and sometimes cabin crew) where the lessee airline pays for maintenance, insurance and everything else.

light field reflective lighting and a strip box camera right to light the plant.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 09-Oct-20.

 

'Blomsterang (Flower Field)' Sweden World Tail livery.

 

This aircraft was delivered to British Airways as G-BDXG in Jun-78. It was withdrawn from British Airways service in Oct-01 and stored at Cardiff, Wales, UK. The aircraft was sold to European Skybus Ltd and leased to their associate company, European Aviation Air Charter in Feb-02 with a 'Pink' fuselage band. It was wet-leased to Saudia Saudi Arabian Airlines for a Haj Pilgrimage operation between Jan/Apr-03. The aircraft was permanently retired at Bournemouth, UK in Jun-04. It was noted at Bournemouth in Feb-06 without engines and with the wings cut off. However the fuselage wasn't broken up until May-08.

Replaced the plastic OEM skid plate with the beefy one from JNS Engineering. Just handling it, you know it is quality kit. In contrast, the stocker already had a crack in one of the mount point.

 

Now I don't need to fear driving off curbs any more. :-)

This conceptual diptych (which replaces an earlier version I have removed) was created from a recent self-portrait. The title is taken from the Bob Dylan's wonderful 'Ballad of a Thin Man' song poem.

 

The 'something' that is happening here is that the monotonal face is in an entirely coloured composition and the coloured face is in an entirely monotonal composition. In addition, the left hand portrait consists of the left hand side of my face mirrored and the right hand portrait consists of the right hand side mirrored, so neither is actually 'me' and yet both are 'me' too!

 

I have also long believed that diptych and triptych formats can reveal more that a single image.

 

Chuck Close is an inspiration for many of my recent self-portraits.

 

Ballad of a Thin Man, Bob Dylan, 1965

 

You walk into the room

With your pencil in your hand

You see somebody naked

And you say, "Who is that man?"

You try so hard

But you don't understand

Just what you'll say

When you get home

 

Because something is happening here

But you don't know what it is

Do you, Mister Jones?

 

You raise up your head

And you ask, "Is this where it is?"

And somebody points to you and says

"It's his"

And you say, "What's mine?"

And somebody else says, "Where what is?"

And you say, "Oh my God

Am I here all alone?"

 

Because something is happening here

But you don't know what it is

Do you, Mister Jones?

 

You hand in your ticket

And you go watch the geek

Who immediately walks up to you

When he hears you speak

And says, "How does it feel

To be such a freak?"

And you say, "Impossible"

As he hands you a bone

 

Because something is happening here

But you don't know what it is

Do you, Mister Jones?

 

You have many contacts

Among the lumberjacks

To get you facts

When someone attacks your imagination

But nobody has any respect

Anyway they already expect you

To just give a check

To tax-deductible charity organizations

 

You've been with the professors

And they've all liked your looks

With great lawyers you have

Discussed lepers and crooks

You've been through all of

F. Scott Fitzgerald's books

You're very well read

It's well known

 

Because something is happening here

But you don't know what it is

Do you, Mister Jones?

 

Well, the sword swallower, he comes up to you

And then he kneels

He crosses himself

And then he clicks his high heels

And without further notice

He asks you how it feels

And he says, "Here is your throat back

Thanks for the loan"

 

Because something is happening here

But you don't know what it is

Do you, Mister Jones?

 

Now you see this one-eyed midget

Shouting the word "NOW"

And you say, "For what reason?"

And he says, "How?"

And you say, "What does this mean?"

And he screams back, "You're a cow

Give me some milk

Or else go home"

 

Because something is happening here

But you don't know what it is

Do you, Mister Jones?

 

Well, you walk into the room

Like a camel and then you frown

You put your eyes in your pocket

And your nose on the ground

There ought to be a law

Against you comin' around

You should be made

To wear earphones

 

Because something is happening here

But you don't know what it is

Do you, Mister Jones?

 

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version 18-Jan-20.

 

With Aerolineas Argentinas tail logo (for a while both Air Plus Comet and Aerolineas Argentinas were owned by Grupo Marsans).

 

First flown with the test registration F-WWCU, this aircraft was delivered to Pan Am, Pan American World Airways as N818PA in Apr-88. It was sold to Wilmington Trust Company and leased back to Pan Am. As part of a rationalisation plan, some routes and the A310's were transferred to Delta Air Lines in Nov-91 (Pan Am ceased operations on 04-Dec-91). It was returned to the lessor in Mar-94. In Jun-94 the aircraft was leased to Globe Azur Airline Inc (Canada), trading as Air Club International, as C-GCIT. It was converted to an A310-324ER at Hamburg, Germany in Dec-94 with an additional fuel tank. The aircraft was returned to Airbus Industrie A300 Leasing in Oct-96 and stored at Marana, Az, USA. It was re-registered N572SW in Feb-97 and remained stored until it was leased to Air Plus Comet as EC-GOT in Jun-97. The 'Plus' was dropped in Jan-07 when it became just 'Air Comet'. The aircraft was wet-leased, short term, to RAM Royal Air Maroc in Nov/Dec-07. It was permanently retired at Lourdes, France in May-09 and was broken up in Oct-09. Updated (Jan-20)

replaced isle coaches 646/647 college service.

Once the hub of the farm family, this house now plays an unheard second fiddle to the new house on the property.

Drinking station first test days...

Comerica Park is an open-air ballpark located in Downtown Detroit. It serves as the home of the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball, replacing Tiger Stadium in 2000.

 

The park is named after Comerica Bank, which was founded in Detroit and was based there when the park opened. Comerica's headquarters have since been moved to Dallas, though the bank still retains a large presence in Detroit. The stadium's seating capacity is 41,297. There is a Detroit People Mover station about a block from the stadium (at Grand Circus Park). Comerica Park sits on the original site of the Detroit College of Law.

 

Since their founding in 1901, the Tigers had played at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull Avenues in Detroit's Corktown section. For the last 88 of those years, they played at what eventually became Tiger Stadium. By the mid-1990s, it had become apparent that the much-beloved park could not be renovated any further.

 

Groundbreaking for a new ballpark to replace Tiger Stadium for the Tigers was held on October 29, 1997 and the new stadium was opened to the public in 2000. At the time of construction, the scoreboard in left field was the largest in Major League Baseball. The first game was held on April 11, 2000, against the Seattle Mariners. The new stadium is part of a downtown revitalization plan for the city of Detroit, which included the construction of Ford Field, adjacent to the park. In December 1998, Comerica Bank agreed to pay $66 million over 30 years for the naming rights for the new ballpark. Upon its opening, there was some effort to try to find a nickname for the park, with the abbreviation CoPa suggested by many. It is often referred to simply as Comerica. The first playoff game at Comerica was played on October 6, 2006 against the New York Yankees. It hosted its first World Series later that month.

 

In contrast to Tiger Stadium, which had long been considered one of the most hitter-friendly parks in baseball, Comerica Park is considered to be extremely friendly to pitchers. Except for dead center—420 feet (130 m) versus Tiger Stadium's 440 feet (130 m)—the outfield dimensions were more expansive than those at Tiger Stadium. This led to complaints from players and fans alike, most famously from Bobby Higginson who sarcastically called the venue Comerica National Park. After Minute Maid Park reduces its center field fence from 436 feet (133 m) to 409 feet (125 m) in 2017, 420 feet will be the longest in baseball.

 

Although a few public figures—notably radio announcer Ernie Harwell—supported the dimensions, most agreed that the left-field wall, in particular, needed to be brought closer to home plate. Before the 2003 MLB season the club did so, moving the distance from left-center field from 395 to 370 feet (120 to 113 m). This also removed the flagpole from the field of play, originally incorporated as an homage to Tiger Stadium. Two years later, the bullpens were moved from right field to an empty area in left field created when the fence was moved in. In place of the old bullpens in right field, 950 seats were added for a new capacity of 41,070. This made one of the most pitcher-friendly ballparks transform into the third most batter-friendly (with extra bases also taken into account).

 

Also of note, the current layout of the playing field at Comerica Park means that when a player is at bat, the direction he is facing looks farther to the south than at any other Major League Baseball park.

 

The stadium also includes many baseball-themed features, including a "Monument Park" in the deep center field stands, complete with statues of former Tigers Ty Cobb, Hal Newhouser, Charlie Gehringer, Hank Greenberg, Al Kaline, and Willie Horton.

 

Entrance to the ballpark is located across from the Fox Theatre and between two historic downtown churches, St. John Episcopal Church and Central United Methodist Church. Outside of the main entrance to the stadium there is a tiger statue that is approximately 15 feet (4.6 m) in height. There are 8 other heroic-sized tiger statues throughout the park, including two prowling on top of the scoreboard in left field. These tigers' eyes light up after a Tigers home run or a victory and the sound of a growling tiger plays as well. The tigers were originally created by sculptor Michael Keropian and fabricated by ShowMotion Inc. in Norwalk, Connecticut. Along the brick walls outside of the park are 33 tiger heads with lighted baseballs in their mouths.

 

The field itself features a distinctive dirt strip between home plate and the pitcher's mound. This strip, sometimes known as the "keyhole", was common in early ballparks, yet very rare in modern facilities (the only other current major-league park to feature one is Chase Field in Phoenix).

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comerica_Park

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...

Replaced 1990s Pony kiddie ride "Kiddie's Pony" (Yellow) At Angels World New York in 5502 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY. It played Take Me Out To The Ballgame. Manufactured by Paul W. Hawkins Mfg Co in 1970s. Replaced into 1980s Horse kiddie ride "Carnival Horse" (Bright pink)

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, also known as Mustafa Kemal Pasha until 1921, and Ghazi Mustafa Kemal from 1921 until the Surname Law of 1934 (c. 1881 – 10 November 1938), was a Turkish field marshal, revolutionary statesman, author, and the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first president from 1923 until his death in 1938. He undertook sweeping progressive reforms, which modernized Turkey into a secular, industrializing nation. Ideologically a secularist and nationalist, his policies and socio-political theories became known as Kemalism.

 

Atatürk came to prominence for his role in securing the Ottoman Turkish victory at the Battle of Gallipoli (1915) during World War I. During this time, the Ottoman Empire perpetrated genocides against its Greek, Armenian and Assyrian subjects; while not directly involved, Atatürk's role in their aftermath has been controversial. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, he led the Turkish National Movement, which resisted mainland Turkey's partition among the victorious Allied powers. Establishing a provisional government in the present-day Turkish capital Ankara (known in English at the time as Angora), he defeated the forces sent by the Allies, thus emerging victorious from what was later referred to as the Turkish War of Independence. He subsequently proceeded to abolish the sultanate in 1922 and proclaimed the foundation of the Turkish Republic in its place the following year.

 

As the president of the newly formed Turkish Republic, Atatürk initiated a rigorous program of political, economic, and cultural reforms with the ultimate aim of building a republican and secular nation-state. He made primary education free and compulsory, opening thousands of new schools all over the country. He also introduced the Latin-based Turkish alphabet, replacing the old Ottoman Turkish alphabet. Turkish women received equal civil and political rights during Atatürk's presidency. In particular, women were given voting rights in local elections by Act no. 1580 on 3 April 1930 and a few years later, in 1934, full universal suffrage. His government carried out a policy of Turkification, trying to create a homogeneous, unified and above all secular nation under the Turkish banner. Under Atatürk, the minorities in Turkey were ordered to speak Turkish in public, but were allowed to maintain their own languages in private and within their own communities; non-Turkish toponyms were replaced and non-Turkish families were ordered to adopt a Turkish surname. The Turkish Parliament granted him the surname Atatürk in 1934, which means "Father of the Turks", in recognition of the role he played in building the modern Turkish Republic. He died on 10 November 1938 at Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, at the age of 57; he was succeeded as president by his long-time prime minister İsmet İnönü and was honored with a state funeral.

 

In 1981, the centennial of Atatürk's birth, his memory was honoured by the United Nations and UNESCO, which declared it The Atatürk Year in the World and adopted the Resolution on the Atatürk Centennial, describing him as "the leader of the first struggle given against colonialism and imperialism" and a "remarkable promoter of the sense of understanding between peoples and durable peace between the nations of the world and that he worked all his life for the development of harmony and cooperation between peoples without distinction". Atatürk was also credited for his peace-in-the-world oriented foreign policy and friendship with neighboring countries such as Iran, Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Greece, as well as the creation of the Balkan Pact that resisted the expansionist aggressions of Fascist Italy and Tsarist Bulgaria.

 

The Turkish War of Independence (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923) was a series of military campaigns and a revolution waged by the Turkish National Movement, after parts of the Ottoman Empire were occupied and partitioned following its defeat in World War I. The conflict was between the Turkish Nationalists against Allied and separatist forces over the application of Wilsonian principles, especially national self-determination, in post-World War I Anatolia and Eastern Thrace. The revolution concluded the collapse of the Ottoman Empire; the Ottoman monarchy and the Islamic caliphate were abolished, and the Republic of Turkey was declared in Anatolia and Eastern Thrace. This resulted in a transfer of vested sovereignty from the sultan-caliph to the nation, setting the stage for Republican Turkey's period of nationalist revolutionary reform.

 

While World War I ended for the Ottoman Empire with the Armistice of Mudros, the Allied Powers continued occupying and securing land per the Sykes–Picot Agreement, as well as to facilitate the prosecution of former members of the Committee of Union and Progress and those involved in the Armenian genocide. Ottoman military commanders therefore refused orders from both the Allies and the Ottoman government to surrender and disband their forces. In an atmosphere of turmoil throughout the remainder of the empire, sultan Mehmed VI dispatched Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk), a well-respected and high-ranking general, to Anatolia to restore order; however, Mustafa Kemal became an enabler and eventually leader of Turkish Nationalist resistance against the Ottoman government, Allied powers, and separatists.

 

In an attempt to establish control over the power vacuum in Anatolia, the Allies agreed to launch a Greek peacekeeping force into Anatolia and occupy Smyrna (İzmir), inflaming sectarian tensions and beginning the Turkish War of Independence. A nationalist counter government led by Mustafa Kemal was established in Ankara when it became clear the Ottoman government was appeasing the Allied powers. The Allies soon pressured the Ottoman government in Constantinople to suspend the Constitution, shutter Parliament, and sign the Treaty of Sèvres, a treaty unfavorable to Turkish interests that the "Ankara government" declared illegal.

 

In the ensuing war, Turkish and Syrian forces defeated the French in the south, and remobilized army units went on to partition Armenia with the Bolsheviks, resulting in the Treaty of Kars (October 1921). The Western Front of the independence war is known as the Greco-Turkish War, in which Greek forces at first encountered unorganized resistance. However, İsmet Pasha (İnönü)'s organization of militia into a regular army paid off when Ankara forces fought the Greeks in the First and Second Battle of İnönü. The Greek army emerged victorious in the Battle of Kütahya-Eskişehir and decided to drive on the Nationalist capital of Ankara, stretching their supply lines. The Turks checked their advance in the Battle of Sakarya and eventually counter-attacked in the Great Offensive, which expelled Greek forces from Anatolia in the span of three weeks. The war effectively ended with the recapture of İzmir and the Chanak Crisis, prompting the signing of another armistice in Mudanya.

 

The Grand National Assembly in Ankara was recognized as the legitimate Turkish government, which signed the Treaty of Lausanne (July 1923), a treaty more favorable to Turkey than the Sèvres Treaty. The Allies evacuated Anatolia and Eastern Thrace, the Ottoman government was overthrown and the monarchy abolished, and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (which remains Turkey's primary legislative body today) declared the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923. With the war, a population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, and the abolition of the sultanate, the Ottoman era came to an end, and with Atatürk's reforms, the Turks created the modern, secular nation-state of Turkey. On 3 March 1924, the Ottoman caliphate was also abolished.

 

The ethnic demographics of the modern Turkish Republic were significantly impacted by the earlier Armenian genocide and the deportations of Greek-speaking, Orthodox Christian Rum people. The Turkish Nationalist Movement carried out massacres and deportations to eliminate native Christian populations—a continuation of the Armenian genocide and other ethnic cleansing operations during World War I. Following these campaigns of ethnic cleansing, the historic Christian presence in Anatolia was destroyed, in large part, and the Muslim demographic had increased from 80% to 98%.

 

Following the chaotic politics of the Second Constitutional Era, the Ottoman Empire came under the control of the Committee of Union and Progress in a coup in 1913, and then further consolidated its control after the assassination of Mahmud Shevket Pasha.[citation needed] Founded as a radical revolutionary group seeking to prevent a collapse of the Ottoman Empire, by the eve of World War I it decided that the solution was to implement nationalist and centralizing policies. The CUP reacted to the losses of land and the expulsion of Muslims from the Balkan Wars by turning even more nationalistic. Part of its effort to consolidate power was to proscribe and exile opposition politicians from the Freedom and Accord Party to remote Sinop.

 

The Unionists brought the Ottoman Empire into World War I on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary, during which a genocidal campaign was waged against Ottoman Christians, namely Armenians, Pontic Greeks, and Assyrians. It was based on an alleged conspiracy that the three groups would rebel on the side of the Allies, so collective punishment was applied. A similar suspicion and suppression from the Turkish nationalist government was directed towards the Arab and Kurdish populations, leading to localized rebellions. The Entente powers reacted to these developments by charging the CUP leaders, commonly known as the Three Pashas, with "Crimes against humanity" and threatened accountability. They also had imperialist ambitions on Ottoman territory, with a major correspondence over a post-war settlement in the Ottoman Empire being leaked to the press as the Sykes–Picot Agreement. With Saint Petersburg's exit from World War I and descent into civil war, driven in part from the Ottomans' closure of the Turkish straits of goods bound to Russia, a new imperative was given to the Entente powers to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war to restart the Eastern Front.

 

World War I would be the nail in the coffin of Ottomanism, a monarchist and multicultural nationalism. Mistreatment of non-Turk groups after 1913, and the general context of great socio-political upheaval that occurred in the aftermath of World War I, meant many minorities now wished to divorce their future from imperialism to form futures of their own by separating into (often republican) nation-states.

 

In the summer months of 1918, the leaders of the Central Powers realized that the Great War was lost, including the Ottomans'. Almost simultaneously the Palestinian Front and then the Macedonian Front collapsed. The sudden decision by Bulgaria to sign an armistice cut communications from Constantinople (İstanbul) to Vienna and Berlin, and opened the undefended Ottoman capital to Entente attack. With the major fronts crumbling, Unionist Grand Vizier Talât Pasha intended to sign an armistice, and resigned on 8 October 1918 so that a new government would receive less harsh armistice terms. The Armistice of Mudros was signed on 30 October 1918, ending World War I for the Ottoman Empire. Three days later, the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP)—which governed the Ottoman Empire as a one-party state since 1913—held its last congress, where it was decided the party would be dissolved. Talât, Enver Pasha, Cemal Pasha, and five other high-ranking members of the CUP escaped the Ottoman Empire on a German torpedo boat later that night, plunging the country into a power vacuum.

 

The armistice was signed because the Ottoman Empire had been defeated in important fronts, but the military was intact and retreated in good order. Unlike other Central Powers, the Allies did not mandate an abdication of the imperial family as a condition for peace, nor did they request the Ottoman Army to dissolve its general staff. Though the army suffered from mass desertion throughout the war which led to banditry, there was no threat of mutiny or revolutions like in Germany, Austria-Hungary, or Russia. This is despite famine and economic collapse that was brought on by the extreme levels of mobilization, destruction from the war, disease, and mass murder since 1914.

 

Due to the Turkish nationalist policies pursued by the CUP against Ottoman Christians by 1918 the Ottoman Empire held control over a mostly homogeneous land of Muslims from Eastern Thrace to the Persian border. These included mostly Turks, as well as Kurds, Circassians, and Muhacir groups from Rumeli. Most Muslim Arabs were now outside of the Ottoman Empire and under Allied occupation, with some "imperialists" still loyal to the Ottoman Sultanate-Caliphate, and others wishing for independence or Allied protection under a League of Nations mandate. Sizable Greek and Armenian minorities remained within its borders, and most of these communities no longer wished to remain under the Empire.

 

On 30 October 1918, the Armistice of Mudros was signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies of World War I, bringing hostilities in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I to an end. The Ottoman Army was to demobilize, its navy and air force handed to the Allies, and occupied territory in the Caucasus and Persia to be evacuated. Critically, Article VII granted the Allies the right to occupy forts controlling the Turkish Straits and the vague right to occupy "in case of disorder" any territory if there were a threat to security. The clause relating to the occupation of the straits was meant to secure a Southern Russian intervention force, while the rest of the article was used to allow for Allied controlled peace-keeping forces. There was also a hope to follow through punishing local actors that carried out exterminatory orders from the CUP government against Armenian Ottomans. For now, the House of Osman escaped the fates of the Hohenzollerns, Habsburgs, and Romanovs to continue ruling their empire, though at the cost of its remaining sovereignty.

 

On 13 November 1918, a French brigade entered Constantinople to begin a de facto occupation of the Ottoman capital and its immediate dependencies. This was followed by a fleet consisting of British, French, Italian and Greek ships deploying soldiers on the ground the next day, totaling 50,000 troops in Constantinople. The Allied Powers stated that the occupation was temporary and its purpose was to protect the monarchy, the caliphate and the minorities. Somerset Arthur Gough-Calthorpe—the British signatory of the Mudros Armistice—stated the Triple Entente's public position that they had no intention to dismantle the Ottoman government or place it under military occupation by "occupying Constantinople". However, dismantling the government and partitioning the Ottoman Empire among the Allied nations had been an objective of the Entente since the start of WWI.

 

A wave of seizures took place in the rest of the country in the following months. Citing Article VII, British forces demanded that Turkish troops evacuate Mosul, claiming that Christian civilians in Mosul and Zakho were killed en masse. In the Caucasus, Britain established a presence in Menshevik Georgia and the Lori and Aras valleys as peace-keepers. On 14 November, joint Franco-Greek occupation was established in the town of Uzunköprü in Eastern Thrace as well as the railway axis until the train station of Hadımköy on the outskirts of Constantinople. On 1 December, British troops based in Syria occupied Kilis, Marash, Urfa and Birecik. Beginning in December, French troops began successive seizures of the province of Adana, including the towns of Antioch, Mersin, Tarsus, Ceyhan, Adana, Osmaniye, and İslâhiye, incorporating the area into the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration North while French forces embarked by gunboats and sent troops to the Black Sea ports of Zonguldak and Karadeniz Ereğli commanding Turkey's coal mining region. These continued seizures of land prompted Ottoman commanders to refuse demobilization and prepare for the resumption of war.

 

The British similarly asked Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) to turn over the port of Alexandretta (İskenderun), which he reluctantly did, following which he was recalled to Constantinople. He made sure to distribute weapons to the population to prevent them from falling into the hands of Allied forces. Some of these weapons were smuggled to the east by members of Karakol, a successor to the CUP's Special Organization, to be used in case resistance was necessary in Anatolia. Many Ottoman officials participated in efforts to conceal from the occupying authorities details of the burgeoning independence movement spreading throughout Anatolia.

 

Other commanders began refusing orders from the Ottoman government and the Allied powers. After Mustafa Kemal Pasha returned to Constantinople, Ali Fuat Pasha (Cebesoy) brought XX Corps under his command. He marched first to Konya and then to Ankara to organise resistance groups, such as the Circassian çetes he assembled with guerilla leader Çerkes Ethem. Meanwhile, Kazım Karabekir Pasha refused to surrender his intact and powerful XV Corps in Erzurum. Evacuation from the Caucusus, puppet republics and Muslim militia groups were established in the army's wake to hamper with the consolidation of the new Armenian state. Elsewhere in the country, regional nationalist resistance organizations known as Şuras –meaning "councils", not unlike soviets in revolutionary Russia– were founded, most pledging allegiance to the Defence of National Rights movement that protested continued Allied occupation and appeasement by the Sublime Porte.

 

Following the occupation of Constantinople, Mehmed VI Vahdettin dissolved the Chamber of Deputies which was dominated by Unionists elected back in 1914, promising elections for the next year. Vahdettin just ascended to the throne only months earlier with the death of Mehmed V Reşad. He was disgusted with the policies of the CUP, and wished to be a more assertive sovereign than his diseased half brother. Greek and Armenian Ottomans declared the termination of their relationship with the Ottoman Empire through their respective patriarchates, and refused to partake in any future election. With the collapse of the CUP and its censorship regime, an outpouring of condemnation against the party came from all parts of Ottoman media.

 

A general amnesty was soon issued, allowing the exiled and imprisoned dissidents persecuted by the CUP to return to Constantinople. Vahdettin invited the pro-Palace politician Damat Ferid Pasha, leader of the reconstituted Freedom and Accord Party, to form a government, whose members quickly set out to purge the Unionists from the Ottoman government. Ferid Pasha hoped that his Anglophilia and an attitude of appeasement would induce less harsh peace terms from the Allied powers. However, his appointment was problematic for nationalists, many being members of the liquidated committee that were surely to face trial. Years of corruption, unconstitutional acts, war profiteering, and enrichment from ethnic cleansing and genocide by the Unionists soon became basis of war crimes trials and courts martial trials held in Constantinople.[citation needed] While many leading Unionists were sentenced lengthy prison sentences, many made sure to escape the country before Allied occupation or to regions that the government now had minimal control over; thus most were sentenced in absentia. The Allies encouragement of the proceedings and the use of British Malta as their holding ground made the trials unpopular. The partisan nature of the trials was not lost on observers either. The hanging of the Kaymakam of Boğazlıyan district Mehmed Kemal resulted in a demonstration against the courts martials trials.

 

With all the chaotic politics in the capital and uncertainty of the severity of the incoming peace treaty, many Ottomans looked to Washington with the hope that the application of Wilsonian principles would mean Constantinople would stay Turkish, as Muslims outnumbered Christians 2:1. The United States never declared war on the Ottoman Empire, so many imperial elite believed Washington could be a neutral arbiter that could fix the empire's problems. Halide Edip (Adıvar) and her Wilsonian Principles Society led the movement that advocated for the empire to be governed by an American League of Nations Mandate (see United States during the Turkish War of Independence). American diplomats attempted to ascertain a role they could play in the area with the Harbord and King–Crane Commissions. However, with the collapse of Woodrow Wilson's health, the United States diplomatically withdrew from the Middle East to focus on Europe, leaving the Entente powers to construct a post-Ottoman order.

 

The Entente would have arrived at Constantinople to discover an administration attempting to deal with decades of accumulated refugee crisis. The new government issued a proclamation allowing for deportees to return to their homes, but many Greeks and Armenians found their old homes occupied by desperate Rumelian and Caucasian Muslim refugees which were settled in their properties during the First World War. Ethnic conflict restarted in Anatolia; government officials responsible for resettling Christian refugees often assisted Muslim refugees in these disputes, prompting European powers to continue bringing Ottoman territory under their control. Of the 800,000 Ottoman Christian refugees, approximately over half returned to their homes by 1920. Meanwhile 1.4 million refugees from the Russian Civil War would pass through the Turkish straits and Anatolia, with 150,000 White émigrés choosing to settle in Istanbul for short or long term (see Evacuation of the Crimea). Many provinces were simply depopulated from years of fighting, conscription, and ethnic cleansing (see Ottoman casualties of World War I). The province of Yozgat lost 50% of its Muslim population from conscription, while according to the governor of Van, almost 95% of its prewar residents were dead or internally displaced.

 

Administration in much of the Anatolian and Thracian countryside would soon all but collapse by 1919. Army deserters who turned to banditry essentially controlled fiefdoms with tacit approval from bureaucrats and local elites. An amnesty issued in late 1918 saw these bandits strengthen their positions and fight amongst each other instead of returning to civilian life. Albanian and Circassian muhacirs resettled by the government in northwestern Anatolia and Kurds in southeastern Anatolia were engaged in blood feuds that intensified during the war and were hesitant to pledge allegiance to the Defence of Rights movement, and only would if officials could facilitate truces. Various Muhacir groups were suspicious of the continued Ittihadist ideology in the Defence of Rights movement, and the potential for themselves to meet fates 'like the Armenians' especially as warlords hailing from those communities assisted the deportations of the Christians even though as many commanders in the Nationalist movement also had Caucasian and Balkan Muslim ancestry.

 

With Anatolia in practical anarchy and the Ottoman army being questionably loyal in reaction to Allied land seizures, Mehmed VI established the military inspectorate system to reestablish authority over the remaining empire. Encouraged by Karabekir and Edmund Allenby, he assigned Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) as the inspector of the Ninth Army Troops Inspectorate –based in Erzurum– to restore order to Ottoman military units and to improve internal security on 30 April 1919, with his first assignment to suppress a rebellion by Greek rebels around the city of Samsun.

 

Mustafa Kemal was a well known, well respected, and well connected army commander, with much prestige coming from his status as the "Hero of Anafartalar"—for his role in the Gallipoli Campaign—and his title of "Honorary Aide-de-camp to His Majesty Sultan" gained in the last months of WWI. This choice would seem curious, as he was a nationalist and a fierce critic of the government's accommodating policy to the Entente powers. He was also an early member of the CUP. However Kemal Pasha did not associate himself with the fanatical faction of the CUP, many knew that he frequently clashed with the radicals of the Central Committee like Enver. He was therefore sidelined to the periphery of power throughout the Great War; after the CUP's dissolution he vocally aligned himself with moderates that formed the Liberal People's Party instead of the rump radical faction which formed the Renewal Party (both parties would be banned in May 1919 for being successors of the CUP). All these reasons allowed him to be the most legitimate nationalist for the sultan to placate. In this new political climate, he sought to capitalize on his war exploits to attain a better job, indeed several times he unsuccessfully lobbied for his inclusion in cabinet as War Minister. His new assignment gave him effective plenipotentiary powers over all of Anatolia which was meant to accommodate him and other nationalists to keep them loyal to the government.

 

Mustafa Kemal had earlier declined to become the leader of the Sixth Army headquartered in Nusaybin. But according to Patrick Balfour, through manipulation and the help of friends and sympathizers, he became the inspector of virtually all of the Ottoman forces in Anatolia, tasked with overseeing the disbanding process of remaining Ottoman forces. Kemal had an abundance of connections and personal friends concentrated in the post-armistice War Ministry, a powerful tool that would help him accomplish his secret goal: to lead a nationalist movement to safeguard Turkish interests against the Allied powers and a collaborative Ottoman government.

 

The day before his departure to Samsun on the remote Black Sea coast, Kemal had one last audience with Sultan Vahdettin, where he affirmed his loyalty to the sultan-caliph. It was in this meeting that they were informed of the botched occupation ceremony of Smyrna (İzmir) by the Greeks. He and his carefully selected staff left Constantinople aboard the old steamer SS Bandırma on the evening of 16 May 1919.

 

On 19 January 1919, the Paris Peace Conference was first held, at which Allied nations set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers, including the Ottoman Empire. As a special body of the Paris Conference, "The Inter-Allied Commission on Mandates in Turkey", was established to pursue the secret treaties they had signed between 1915 and 1917. Italy sought control over the southern part of Anatolia under the Agreement of St.-Jean-de-Maurienne. France expected to exercise control over Hatay, Lebanon, Syria, and a portion of southeastern Anatolia based on the Sykes–Picot Agreement.

 

Greece justified their territorial claims of Ottoman land through the Megali Idea as well as international sympathy from the suffering of Ottoman Greeks in 1914 and 1917–1918. Privately, Greek prime minister Eleftherios Venizelos had British prime minister David Lloyd George's backing not least from Greece's entrance to WWI on the Allied side, but also from his charisma and charming personality. Greece's participation in the Allies' Southern Russian intervention also earned it favors in Paris. His demands included parts of Eastern Thrace, the islands of Imbros (Gökçeada), Tenedos (Bozcaada), and parts of Western Anatolia around the city of Smyrna (İzmir), all of which had large Greek populations. Venizelos also advocated a large Armenian state to check a post-war Ottoman Empire. Greece wanted to incorporate Constantinople, but Entente powers did not give permission. Damat Ferid Pasha went to Paris on behalf of the Ottoman Empire hoping to minimize territorial losses using Fourteen Points rhetoric, wishing for a return to status quo ante bellum, on the basis that every province of the Empire holds Muslim majorities. This plea was met with ridicule.

 

At the Paris Peace Conference, competing claims over Western Anatolia by Greek and Italian delegations led Greece to land the flagship of the Greek Navy at Smyrna, resulting in the Italian delegation walking out of the peace talks. On 30 April, Italy responded to the possible idea of Greek incorporation of Western Anatolia by sending a warship to Smyrna as a show of force against the Greek campaign. A large Italian force also landed in Antalya. Faced with Italian annexation of parts of Asia Minor with a significant ethnic Greek population, Venizelos secured Allied permission for Greek troops to land in Smyrna per Article VII, ostensibly as a peacekeeping force to keep stability in the region. Venizelos's rhetoric was more directed against the CUP regime than the Turks as a whole, an attitude not always shared in the Greek military: "Greece is not making war against Islam, but against the anachronistic [İttihadist] Government, and its corrupt, ignominious, and bloody administration, with a view to the expelling it from those territories where the majority of the population consists of Greeks." It was decided by the Triple Entente that Greece would control a zone around Smyrna and Ayvalık in western Asia Minor.

 

Most historians mark the Greek landing at Smyrna on 15 May 1919 as the start date of the Turkish War of Independence as well as the start of the "Kuva-yi Milliye Phase". The occupation ceremony from the outset was tense from nationalist fervor, with Ottoman Greeks greeting the soldiers with an ecstatic welcome, and Ottoman Muslims protesting the landing. A miscommunication in Greek high command led to an Evzone column marching by the municipal Turkish barracks. The nationalist journalist Hasan Tahsin fired the "first bullet"[note 4] at the Greek standard bearer at the head of the troops, turning the city into a warzone. Süleyman Fethi Bey was murdered by bayonet for refusing to shout "Zito Venizelos" (meaning "long live Venizelos"), and 300–400 unarmed Turkish soldiers and civilians and 100 Greek soldiers and civilians were killed or wounded.

 

Greek troops moved from Smyrna outwards to towns on the Karaburun peninsula; to Selçuk, situated a hundred kilometres south of the city at a key location that commands the fertile Küçük Menderes River valley; and to Menemen towards the north. Guerilla warfare commenced in the countryside, as Turks began to organize themselves into irregular guerilla groups known as Kuva-yi Milliye (national forces), which were soon joined by Ottoman soldiers, bandits, and disaffected farmers. Most Kuva-yi Milliye bands were led by rogue military commanders and members of the Special Organization. The Greek troops based in cosmopolitan Smyrna soon found themselves conducting counterinsurgency operations in a hostile, dominantly Muslim hinterland. Groups of Ottoman Greeks also formed contingents that cooperated with the Greek Army to combat Kuva-yi Milliye within the zone of control. A massacre of Turks at Menemen was followed up with a battle for the town of Aydın, which saw intense intercommunal violence and the razing of the city. What was supposed to be a peacekeeping mission of Western Anatolia instead inflamed ethnic tensions and became a counterinsurgency.

 

The reaction of Greek landing at Smyrna and continued Allied seizures of land served to destabilize Turkish civil society. Ottoman bureaucrats, military, and bourgeoisie trusted the Allies to bring peace, and thought the terms offered at Mudros were considerably more lenient than they actually were. Pushback was potent in the capital, with 23 May 1919 being largest of the Sultanahmet Square demonstrations organized by the Turkish Hearths against the Greek occupation of Smyrna, the largest act of civil disobedience in Turkish history at that point. The Ottoman government condemned the landing, but could do little about it. Ferid Pasha tried to resign, but was urged by the sultan to stay in his office.

 

Mustafa Kemal Pasha and his colleagues stepped ashore in Samsun on 19 May and set up their first quarters in the Mıntıka Palace Hotel. British troops were present in Samsun, and he initially maintained cordial contact. He had assured Damat Ferid about the army's loyalty towards the new government in Constantinople. However, behind the government's back, Kemal made the people of Samsun aware of the Greek and Italian landings, staged discreet mass meetings, made fast connections via telegraph with the army units in Anatolia, and began to form links with various Nationalist groups. He sent telegrams of protest to foreign embassies and the War Ministry about British reinforcements in the area and about British aid to Greek brigand gangs. After a week in Samsun, Kemal and his staff moved to Havza. It was there that he first showed the flag of the resistance.

 

Mustafa Kemal wrote in his memoir that he needed nationwide support to justify armed resistance against the Allied occupation. His credentials and the importance of his position were not enough to inspire everyone. While officially occupied with the disarming of the army, he met with various contacts in order to build his movement's momentum. He met with Rauf Pasha, Karabekir Pasha, Ali Fuat Pasha, and Refet Pasha and issued the Amasya Circular (22 June 1919). Ottoman provincial authorities were notified via telegraph that the unity and independence of the nation was at risk, and that the government in Constantinople was compromised. To remedy this, a congress was to take place in Erzurum between delegates of the Six Vilayets to decide on a response, and another congress would take place in Sivas where every Vilayet should send delegates. Sympathy and an lack of coordination from the capital gave Mustafa Kemal freedom of movement and telegraph use despite his implied anti-government tone.

 

On 23 June, High Commissioner Admiral Calthorpe, realising the significance of Mustafa Kemal's discreet activities in Anatolia, sent a report about the Pasha to the Foreign Office. His remarks were downplayed by George Kidson of the Eastern Department. Captain Hurst of the British occupation force in Samsun warned Admiral Calthorpe one more time, but Hurst's units were replaced with the Brigade of Gurkhas. When the British landed in Alexandretta, Admiral Calthorpe resigned on the basis that this was against the armistice that he had signed and was assigned to another position on 5 August 1919. The movement of British units alarmed the population of the region and convinced them that Mustafa Kemal was right.

 

By early July, Mustafa Kemal Pasha received telegrams from the sultan and Calthorpe, asking him and Refet to cease his activities in Anatolia and return to the capital. Kemal was in Erzincan and did not want to return to Constantinople, concerned that the foreign authorities might have designs for him beyond the sultan's plans. Before resigning from his position, he dispatched a circular to all nationalist organizations and military commanders to not disband or surrender unless for the latter if they could be replaced by cooperative nationalist commanders. Now only a civilian stripped of his command, Mustafa Kemal was at the mercy of the new inspector of Third Army (renamed from Ninth Army) Karabekir Pasha, indeed the War Ministry ordered him to arrest Kemal, an order which Karabekir refused. The Erzurum Congress was a meeting of delegates and governors from the six Eastern Vilayets. They drafted the National Pact (Misak-ı Millî), which envisioned new borders for the Ottoman Empire by applying principles of national self-determination per Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points and the abolition of the capitulations. The Erzurum Congress concluded with a circular that was effectively a declaration of independence: All regions within Ottoman borders upon the signing of the Mudros Armistice were indivisible from the Ottoman state –Greek and Armenian claims on Thrace and Anatolia were moot– and assistance from any country not coveting Ottoman territory was welcome. If the government in Constantinople was not able to attain this after electing a new parliament, they insisted a provisional government should be promulgated to defend Turkish sovereignty. The Committee of Representation was established as a provisional executive body based in Anatolia, with Mustafa Kemal Pasha as its chairman.

 

Following the congress, the Committee of Representation relocated to Sivas. As announced in the Amasya Circular, a new congress was held there in September with delegates from all Anatolian and Thracian provinces. The Sivas Congress repeated the points of the National Pact agreed to in Erzurum, and united the various regional Defence of National Rights Associations organizations, into a united political organisation: Anatolia and Rumeli Defence of Rights Association (A-RMHC), with Mustafa Kemal as its chairman. In an effort show his movement was in fact a new and unifying movement, the delegates had to swear an oath to discontinue their relations with the CUP and to never revive the party (despite most present in Sivas being previous members).[120] It was also decided there that the Ottoman Empire should not be a League of Nations mandate under the United States, especially after the U.S Senate failed to ratify American membership in the League.

 

Momentum was now on the Nationalists' side. A plot by a loyalist Ottoman governor and a British intelligence officer to arrest Kemal before the Sivas Congress led to the cutting of all ties with the Ottoman government until a new election would be held in the lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies. In October 1919, the last Ottoman governor loyal to Constantinople fled his province. Fearing the outbreak of hostilities, all British troops stationed in the Black Sea coast and Kütahya were evacuated. Damat Ferid Pasha resigned, and the sultan replaced him with a general with nationalist credentials: Ali Rıza Pasha. On 16 October 1919, Ali Rıza and the Nationalists held negotiations in Amasya. They agreed in the Amasya Protocol that an election would be called for the Ottoman Parliament to establish national unity by upholding the resolutions made in the Sivas Congress, including the National Pact.

 

By October 1919, the Ottoman government only held de facto control over Constantinople; the rest of the Ottoman Empire was loyal to Kemal's movement to resist a partition of Anatolia and Thrace. Within a few months Mustafa Kemal went from General Inspector of the Ninth Army to a renegade military commander discharged for insubordination to leading a homegrown anti-Entente movement that overthrew a government and driven it into resistance.

 

In December 1919, an election was held for the Ottoman parliament, with polls only open in unoccupied Anatolia and Thrace. It was boycotted by Ottoman Greeks, Ottoman Armenians and the Freedom and Accord Party, resulting in groups associated with the Turkish Nationalist Movement winning, including the A-RMHC. The Nationalists' obvious links to the CUP made the election especially polarizing and voter intimidation and ballot box stuffing in favor of the Kemalists were regular occurrences in rural provinces. This controversy led to many of the nationalist MPs organizing the National Salvation Group separate from Kemal's movement, which risked the nationalist movement splitting in two.

 

Mustafa Kemal was elected an MP from Erzurum, but he expected the Allies neither to accept the Harbord report nor to respect his parliamentary immunity if he went to the Ottoman capital, hence he remained in Anatolia. Mustafa Kemal and the Committee of Representation moved from Sivas to Ankara so that he could keep in touch with as many deputies as possible as they traveled to Constantinople to attend the parliament.

 

Though Ali Rıza Pasha called the election as per the Amasya Protocol to keep unity between the "Istanbul government" and "Ankara government", he was wrong to think the election could bring him any legitimacy. The Ottoman parliament was under the de facto control of the British battalion stationed at Constantinople and any decisions by the parliament had to have the signatures of both Ali Rıza Pasha and the battalion's commanding officer. The only laws that passed were those acceptable to, or specifically ordered by the British.

 

On 12 January 1920, the last session of the Chamber of Deputies met in the capital. First the sultan's speech was presented, and then a telegram from Mustafa Kemal, manifesting the claim that the rightful government of Turkey was in Ankara in the name of the Committee of Representation. On 28 January the MPs from both sides of the isle secretly met to endorse the National Pact as a peace settlement. They added to the points passed in Sivas, calling for plebiscites to be held in West Thrace; Batum, Kars, and Ardahan, and Arab lands on whether to stay in the Empire or not. Proposals were also made to elect Kemal president of the Chamber;[clarification needed] however, this was deferred in the certain knowledge that the British would prorogue the Chamber. The Chamber of Deputies would be forcefully dissolved for passing the National Pact anyway. The National Pact solidified Nationalist interests, which were in conflict with the Allied plans.

 

From February to April, leaders of Britain, France, and Italy met in London to discuss the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire and the crisis in Anatolia. The British began to sense that the elected Ottoman government was under Kemalist influence and if left unchecked, the Entente could once again find themselves at war with the Empire. The Ottoman government was not doing all that it could to suppress the Nationalists.

 

Mustafa Kemal manufactured a crisis to pressure the Istanbul government to pick a side by deploying Kuva-yi Milliye towards İzmit. The British, concerned about the security of the Bosporus Strait, demanded Ali Rıza Pasha to reassert control over the area, to which he responded with his resignation to the sultan.

 

As they were negotiating the partition of the Ottoman Empire, the Allies were growing increasingly concerned about the Turkish National Movement. To this end, the Allied occupational authorities in Istanbul began to plan a raid to arrest nationalist politicians and journalists along with occupying military and police installations and government buildings. On 16 March 1920, the coup was carried out; several Royal Navy warships were anchored in the Galata Bridge to support British forces, including the Indian Army, while they carried out the arrests and occupied several government buildings in the early hours of the morning.

 

An Indian Army operation, the Şehzadebaşı raid, resulted in 5 Ottoman soldiers from the 10th Infantry Division being killed when troops raided their barracks. Among those arrested were the senior leadership of the Turkish National Movement and former members of the CUP. 150 arrested Turkish politicians accused of war crimes were interned in Malta and became known as the Malta exiles.

 

Mustafa Kemal was ready for this move. He warned all the Nationalist organisations that there would be misleading declarations from the capital. He warned that the only way to counter Allied movements was to organise protests. He declared "Today the Turkish nation is called to defend its capacity for civilization, its right to life and independence – its entire future".

 

On 18 March, the Chamber of Deputies declared that it was unacceptable to arrest five of its members, and dissolved itself. Mehmed VI confirmed this and declared the end of Constitutional Monarchy and a return to absolutism. University students were forbidden from joining political associations inside and outside the classroom. With the lower elected Chamber of Deputies shuttered, the Constitution terminated, and the capital occupied; Sultan Vahdettin, his cabinet, and the appointed Senate were all that remained of the Ottoman government, and were basically a puppet regime of the Allied powers. Grand Vizier Salih Hulusi Pasha declared Mustafa Kemal's struggle legitimate, and resigned after less than a month in office. In his place, Damat Ferid Pasha returned to the premiership. The Sublime Porte's decapitation by the Entente allowed Mustafa Kemal to consolidate his position as the sole leader of Turkish resistance against the Allies, and to that end made him the legitimate representative of the Turkish people.

 

The strong measures taken against the Nationalists by the Allies in March 1920 began a distinct new phase of the conflict. Mustafa Kemal sent a note to the governors and force commanders, asking them to conduct elections to provide delegates for a new parliament to represent the Ottoman (Turkish) people, which would convene in Ankara. With the proclamation of the counter-government, Kemal would then ask the sultan to accept its authority. Mustafa Kemal appealed to the Islamic world, asking for help to make sure that everyone knew he was still fighting in the name of the sultan who was also the caliph. He stated he wanted to free the caliph from the Allies. He found an ally in the Khilafat movement of British India, where Indians protested Britain's planned dismemberment of Turkey. A committee was also started for sending funds to help the soon to be proclaimed Ankara government of Mustafa Kemal. A flood of supporters moved to Ankara just ahead of the Allied dragnets. Included among them were Halide Edip and Abdülhak Adnan (Adıvar), Mustafa İsmet Pasha (İnönü), Mustafa Fevzi Pasha (Çakmak), many of Kemal's allies in the Ministry of War, and Celalettin Arif, the president of the now shuttered Chamber of Deputies. Celaleddin Arif's desertion of the capital was of great significance, as he declared that the Ottoman Parliament had been dissolved illegally.

 

Some 100 members of the Chamber of Deputies were able to escape the Allied roundup and joined 190 deputies elected. In March 1920, Turkish revolutionaries announced the establishment of a new parliament in Ankara known as the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (GNA) that was dominated by the A-RMHC.[citation needed] The parliament included Turks, Circassians, Kurds, and one Jew. They met in a building that used to serve as the provincial headquarters of the local CUP chapter. The inclusion of "Turkey" in its name reflected a increasing trend of new ways Ottoman citizens thought of their country, and was the first time it was formally used as the name of the country. On 23 April, the assembly, assuming full governmental powers, gathered for the first time, electing Mustafa Kemal its first Speaker and Prime Minister.

 

Hoping to undermine the Nationalist Movement, Mehmed VI issued a fatwa to qualify the Turkish revolutionaries as infidels, calling for the death of its leaders. The fatwa stated that true believers should not go along with the Nationalist Movement as they committed apostasy. The mufti of Ankara Rifat Börekçi issued a simultaneous fatwa, declaring that the caliphate was under the control of the Entente and the Ferid Pasha government. In this text, the Nationalist Movement's goal was stated as freeing the sultanate and the caliphate from its enemies. In reaction to the desertion of several prominent figures to the Nationalist Movement, Ferid Pasha ordered Halide Edip, Ali Fuat and Mustafa Kemal to be sentenced to death in absentia for treason.

 

On 28 April the sultan raised 4,000 soldiers known as the Kuva-yi İnzibatiye (Caliphate Army) to combat the Nationalists. Then using money from the Allies, another force about 2,000 strong from non-Muslim inhabitants were initially deployed in İznik. The sultan's government sent the forces under the name of the Caliphate Army to the revolutionaries to arouse counterrevolutionary sympathy. The British, being skeptical of how formidable these insurgents were, decided to use irregular power to counteract the revolutionaries. The Nationalist forces were distributed all around Turkey, so many smaller units were dispatched to face them. In İzmit there were two battalions of the British army. These units were to be used to rout the partisans under the command of Ali Fuat and Refet Pasha.

 

Anatolia had many competing forces on its soil: British troops, Nationalist militia (Kuva-yi Milliye), the sultan's army (Kuva-yi İnzibatiye), and Anzavur's bands. On 13 April 1920, an uprising supported by Anzavur against the GNA occurred at Düzce as a direct consequence of the fatwa. Within days the rebellion spread to Bolu and Gerede. The movement engulfed northwestern Anatolia for about a month. On 14 June, Nationalist militia fought a pitched battle near İzmit against the Kuva-yi İnzibatiye, Anzavur's bands, and British units. Yet under heavy attack some of the Kuva-yi İnzibatiye deserted and joined the Nationalist militia. Anzavur was not so lucky, as the Nationalists tasked Ethem the Circassian with crushing Anzavur's revolt. This revealed the sultan did not have the unwavering support of his own men and allies. Meanwhile, the rest of these forces withdrew behind the British lines which held their position. For now, Istanbul was out of Ankara's grasp.

 

The clash outside İzmit brought serious consequences. British forces conducted combat operations on the Nationalists and the Royal Air Force carried out aerial bombardments against the positions, which forced Nationalist forces to temporarily retreat to more secure missions. The British commander in Turkey, General George Milne—, asked for reinforcements. This led to a study to determine what would be required to defeat the Turkish Nationalists. The report, signed by French Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch, concluded that 27 divisions were necessary, but the British army did not have 27 divisions to spare. Also, a deployment of this size could have disastrous political consequences back home. World War I had just ended, and the British public would not support another lengthy and costly expedition.

 

The British accepted the fact that a nationalist movement could not be defeated without deployment of consistent and well-trained forces. On 25 June, the forces originating from Kuva-i İnzibatiye were dismantled under British supervision. The British realised that the best option to overcome these Turkish Nationalists was to use a force that was battle-tested and fierce enough to fight the Turks on their own soil. The British had to look no further than Turkey's neighbor already occupying its territory: Greece.

 

Eleftherios Venizelos, pessimistic of the rapidly deteriorating situation in Anatolia, requested to the Allies that a peace treaty be drawn up with the hope that fighting would stop. The subsequent treaty of Sèvres in August 1920 confirmed the Arab provinces of the empire would be reorganized into new nations given to Britain and France in the form of Mandates by the League of Nations, while the rest of the Empire would be partitioned between Greece, Italy, France (via Syrian mandate), Britain (via Iraqi mandate), Armenia (potentially under an American mandate), and Georgia. Smyrna would hold a plebiscite on whether to stay with Greece or Turkey, and the Kurdistan region would hold one on the question of independence. British, French, and Italian spheres of influence would also extend into Anatolia beyond the land concessions. The old capital of Constantinople as well as the Dardanelles would be under international League of Nations control.

 

However, the treaty could never come into effect. The treaty was extremely unpopular, with protests against the final document held even before its release in Sultanahmet square. Though Mehmed VI and Ferid Pasha loathed the treaty, they did not want Istanbul to join Ankara in nationalist struggle. The Ottoman government and Greece never ratified it. Though Ferid Pasha signed the treaty, the Ottoman Senate, the upper house with seats appointed by the sultan, refused to ratify the treaty. Greece disagreed on the borders drawn. The other allies began to fracture their support of the settlement immediately. Italy started openly supporting the Nationalists with arms by the end of 1920, and the French signed another separate peace treaty with Ankara only months later.

 

Kemal's GNA Government responded to the Treaty of Sèvres by promulgating a new constitution in January 1921. The resulting constitution consecrated the principle of popular sovereignty; authority not deriving from the unelected sultan, but from the Turkish people who elect governments representative of their interests. This document became the legal basis for the war of independence by the GNA, as the sultan's signature of the Treaty of Sèvres would be unconstitutional as his position was not elected. While the constitution did not specify a future role of the sultan, the document gave Kemal ever more legitimacy in the eyes of Turks for justified resistance against Istanbul.

 

In contrast to the Eastern and Western fronts, it was mostly unorganized Kuva-yi Milliye which were fighting in the Southern Front against France. They had help from the Syrians, who were fighting their own war with the French.

 

The British troops which occupied coastal Syria by the end of World War I were replaced by French troops over 1919, with the Syrian interior going to Faisal bin Al-Hussein's self-proclaimed Arab Kingdom of Syria. France which wanted to take control of all of Syria and Cilicia. There was also a desire facilitate the return of Armenian refugees in the region to their homes, and the occupation force consisted of the French Armenian Legion as well as various Armenian militia groups. 150,000 Armenians were repatriated to their homes within months of French occupation. On 21 January 1920, a Turkish Nationalist uprising and siege occurred against the French garrison in Marash. The French position untenable they retreated to Islahiye, resulting in a massacre of many Armenians by Turkish militia. A grueling siege followed in Antep which featured intense sectarian violence between Turks and Armenians. After a failed uprising by the Nationalists in Adana, by 1921, the French and Turks signed an armistice and eventually a treaty was brokered demarcating the border between the Ankara government and French controlled Syria. In the end, there was a mass exodus of Cilician Armenians to French controlled Syria, Previous Armenian survivors of deportation found themselves again as refugees and families which avoided the worst of the six years violence were forced from their homes, ending thousands of years of Christian presence in Southern Anatolia.[146] With France being the first Allied power to recognize and negotiate with the Ankara government only months after signing the Treaty of Sèvres, it was the first to break from the coordinated Allied approach to the Eastern question. In 1923 the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon under French authority would be proclaimed in former Ottoman territory.

 

Some efforts to coordinate between Turkish Nationalists and the Syrian rebels persisted from 1920 to 1921, with the Nationalists supporting the Faisal's kingdom through Ibrahim Hanunu and Alawite groups which were also fighting the French. While the French conquered Syria, Cilicia had to be abandoned.

 

Kuva-yi Milliye also engaged with British forces in the "Al-Jazira Front," primarily in Mosul. Ali İhsan Pasha (Sabis) and his forces defending Mosul would surrender to the British in October 1918, but the British ignored the armistice and seized the city, following which the pasha also ignored the armistice and distributed weapons to the locals. Even before Mustafa Kemal's movement was fully organized, rogue commanders found allies in Kurdish tribes. The Kurds detested the taxes and centralization the British demanded, including Shaykh Mahmud of the Barzani family. Having previously supported the British invasion of Mesopotamia to become the governor of South Kurdistan, Mahmud revolted but was apprehended by 1919. Without legitimacy to govern the region, he was released from captivity to Sulaymaniyah, where he again declared an uprising against the British as the King of Kurdistan. Though an alliance existed with the Turks, little material support came to him from Ankara, and by 1923 there was a desire to cease hostilities between the Turks and British at Barzanji's expense. Mahmud was overthrown in 1924, and after a 1926 plebiscite, Mosul was awarded to British-controlled Iraq.

 

Since 1917, the Caucasus was in a chaotic state. The border of newly independent Armenia and the Ottoman Empire was defined in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (3 March 1918) after the Bolshevik revolution, and later by the Treaty of Batum (4 June 1918). To the east, Armenia was at war with the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic after the breakup of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, and received support from Anton Denikin's White Russian Army. It was obvious that after the Armistice of Mudros (30 October 1918) the eastern border was not going to stay as it was drawn, which mandated the evacuation of the Ottoman army back to its 1914 borders. Right after the Armistice of Mudros was signed, pro-Ottoman provisional republics were proclaimed in Kars and Aras which were subsequently invaded by Armenia. Ottoman soldiers were convinced not to demobilize lest the area become a 'second Macedonia'.[149] Both sides of the new borders had massive refugee populations and famine, which were compounded by the renewed and more symmetric sectarian violence (See Massacres of Azerbaijanis in Armenia (1917–1921) and Muslim uprisings in Kars and Sharur–Nakhichevan). There were talks going on with the Armenian Diaspora and Allied Powers on reshaping the border. Woodrow Wilson agreed to transfer territories to Armenia based on the principles of national self-determination. The results of these talks were to be reflected on the Treaty of Sèvres (10 August 1920).

 

Kâzım Karabekir Pasha, commander of the XV corps, encountered Muslim refugees fleeing from the Armenian army, but did not have the authority to cross the border. Karabekir's two reports (30 May and 4 June 1920) outlined the situation in the region. He recommended redrawing the eastern borders, especially around Erzurum. The Russian government was receptive to this and demanded that Van and Bitlis be transferred to Armenia. This was unacceptable to the Turkish revolutionaries. However, Soviet support was absolutely vital for the Turkish Nationalist movement, as Turkey was underdeveloped and had no domestic armaments industry. Bakir Sami (Kunduh) was assigned to negotiate with the Bolsheviks.

 

On 24 September 1920, Karabekir's XV corps and Kurdish militia advance on Kars, blowing through Armenian opposition, and then Alexandropol. With an advance on Yerevan imminent, on 28 November 1920, the 11th Red Army under the command of Anatoliy Gekker crossed over into Armenia from Soviet Azerbaijan, and the Armenian government surrendered to Bolshevik forces, ending the conflict.

 

The Treaty of Alexandropol (2—3 December 1920) was the first treaty (although illegitimate) signed by the Turkish revolutionaries. The 10th article in the Treaty of Alexandropol stated that Armenia renounced the Treaty of Sèvres and its allotted partition of Anatolia. The agreement was signed with representatives of the former government of Armenia, which by that time had no de jure or de facto power in Armenia, since Soviet rule was already established in the country. On 16 March 1921, the Bolsheviks and Turkey signed a more comprehensive agreement, the Treaty of Kars, which involved representatives of Soviet Armenia, Soviet Azerbaijan, and Soviet Georgia.

 

Throughout most of his life, Atatürk was a moderate-to-heavy drinker, often consuming half a litre of rakı a day; he also smoked tobacco, predominantly in the form of cigarettes. During 1937, indications that Atatürk's health was worsening started to appear. In early 1938, while on a trip to Yalova, he suffered from a serious illness. He went to Istanbul for treatment, where he was diagnosed with cirrhosis. During his stay in Istanbul, he made an effort to keep up with his regular lifestyle, but eventually succumbed to his illness. He died on 10 November 1938, at the age of 57, in the Dolmabahçe Palace.

 

Atatürk's funeral called forth both sorrow and pride in Turkey, and 17 countries sent special representatives, while nine contributed armed detachments to the cortège. Atatürk's remains were originally laid to rest in the Ethnography Museum of Ankara, but they were transferred on 10 November 1953 (15 years after his death) in a 42-ton sarcophagus to a mausoleum overlooking Ankara, Anıtkabir.

 

In his will, Atatürk donated all of his possessions to the Republican People's Party, provided that the yearly interest of his funds would be used to look after his sister Makbule and his adopted children, and fund the higher education of İsmet İnönü's children. The remainder was willed to the Turkish Language Association and the Turkish Historical Society.

Replaced Mercerville Acme around a mile away

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version 05-Jun-25.

 

Named: "Dufourspitze 4634m" later "Zurich" (Apr-07)

 

First flown in Jul-03 with the Airbus test registration F-WWJL, this aircraft was delivered to Swiss International Airlines as HB-JMB in Sep-03. It was withdrawn from service and stored at Amman, Jordan in Mar-21, returning to service in Aug-21. Current.

The Volvo 200 Series replaced the 140 Series, which were introduced in 1966. The 200 series were based on its direct predecessor. Both series were designed by In-house car designer Jan Wilsgaard (N, 1930-2016).

Available as a 2 and 4-door saloon and as a 5-door estate car.

The Volvo 200 series cars were very reliable, with an emphasis on safety aspects.

For 1979 the 244 received a new front with rectangular head lamps for the GLE, and wrap around rear lamp units.

 

2127 cc L4 B21A Petrol engine runs on LPG.

1338 kg.

Production Volvo 245 in Europe: Autumn 1974-May 1993.

Production Volvo 245 this version: Autumn 1974-1978.

Original old Dutch reg. number: June 18, 1975 (still valid, Sept. 2024).

Sold at July 10, 2017.

At current owner since July 19, 2024.

 

Amsterdam-N., Banne Buiksloot, Schoenerstraat, Febr. 26, 2016.

 

© 2016 Sander Toonen Amsterdam | All Rights Reserved

Replacing an earlier photo from Jul-17 with a better version

 

Operated on behalf of Thomas Cook Airlines UK by Avion Express.

 

First flown as an A321-211 with the Airbus test registration D-AVXG, this aircraft was delivered to Iberia as EC-ITN in Jan-04. It was modified to A321-212 standard in May-13. It was sold to a lessor in Apr-17 and leased to Avion Express as LY-VEG the following day. It was sub-leased to Thomas Cook Airlines later that month and sub-leased to Condor Flugdienst (by Thomas Cook UK, operated by Avion Express) between 27/30-Apr-17, returning to Thomas Cook UK in May-17 for the summer season. It was returned to Avion Express in Nov-17. The aircraft was wet-leased to Condor Flugdienst again between Nov/Dec-17 and again between Jan/Apr-18. It was transferred to Thomas Cook Airlines UK in Apr-18 and returned to Avion Express in Jan-19. The aircraft was wet-leased to Onur Air (Turkey) between Feb/Apr-19 and then went back on wet-lease to Thomas Cook Airlines UK. Sadly, Thomas Cook UK ceased operations on 23-Sep-19. It was returned to Avion Express and was leased to Titan Airways (UK) for two weeks, participating in the Thomas Cook repatriation flights on behalf of the UK Civil Aviation Authority. It returned to Avion Express in early Oct-19 and was parked at Hahn, Germany. The aircraft was wet-leased to VietJet Air (Vietnam) in mid Nov-19 for the winter season. Current, updated (Nov-19).

 

I also have a shot of this aircraft with Iberia at ...

www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding/17248187996

“Replacing the Daedalus-Class of Ships in 2196, for the next three decades these ships were crewed with Starfleet's best and brightest." (Federation: The First 150 Years)

 

Instructions are available at Rebrickable: Einstein Class

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version 17-Jul-19, plus DeNoise AI 24-Dec-22.

 

First flown with the Boeing test registration N1786B, the aircraft also used N1782B before being delivered to Pembroke Capital and leased to Azzurra Air (Malta) as EI-CRQ in Apr-99.

 

It was returned to the lessor in Apr-02 and immediately leased to Hamburg International Airlines as D-AHID. It returned to the lessor in Apr-08 and was stored at Istanbul, Turkey. It ferried to Maastricht, Netherlands in Dec-08 where it was fitted with blended winglets before being leased to Aires Colombia in Jan-09 as HX-4608-X.

 

The '-X' suffix was dropped later that year when it became HX-4608. The aircraft was re-registered EI-EEV in Apr-10 while the lease to Aires Colombia continued. In Dec-11 Aires Colombia was renamed LAN Airlines Colombia. The aircraft was returned to the lessor in Jan-14.

 

In Mar-14 it was leased to Europe Airpost as F-GZTG [Note: up to that point Europe Airpost had been primarily a cargo and French Postal Service operator but branched out into passenger service, initially with 2 B737-700's].

 

In Nov-14 the aircraft was leased to Air Transat as C-GTQI for the winter season, returning to Europe Airpost in Apr-15 as F-GZTG. In Jun-15, Europe Airpost was merged to the ASL Airlines Group, becoming ASL Airlines France.

 

The aircraft was again leased to Air Transat as C-GTQI in Nov-15, returning to ASL France in Apr-16, this time as F-GZTN. The winter sub-lease to Air Transat as C-GTQI was repeated between Nov-16 / Mar-17 (returning as F-GZTQ), Nov-17 / Apr-18 and Oct-18 / Apr-19.

 

The aircraft was removed from service in Apr-22 and ferried to Blytheville, AR, USA for storage. It was returned to Fortress Transportation (FTAI) in Sep-22 and permanently retired at Blytheville. Updated 24-Dec-22.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 16-Jun-23.

 

Skyservice USA was an Airtours Group Company which operated tour charter flights from west coast USA to Hawaii. The aircraft was operated on behalf of Skyservice USA by Ryan International Airlines. It was in Manchester on maintenance.

 

This aircraft was delivered to Western Airlines as N912WA in Jul-79. Western was merged into Delta Air Lines in Apr-87. Delta was primarily a Lockheed Tristar operator and so the Aircraft was sold to UAS United Aviation Services and leased to SAS Scandinavian Airlines charter subsidiary Scanair in May-88, retaining it's US registration.

 

Scanair sub-leased it to American Airlines the following month. The aircraft returned to Scanair in Mar-89 and was sub-leased to World Airways in Jun-89. In Dec-89 it was re-registered SE-DHX. The lease to World Airways continued although it was now flown by Scanair crews.

 

World Airways sub-leased the aircraft to Malaysia Airlines in Jun-90 for a Haj Pilgrimage operation. It returned to World in Aug-90 and was returned to Scanair. In Jul-91 the aircraft was sub-leased to Sun Country Airlines, it was re-registered N571SC in Mar-94.

 

The aircraft is seen here being reversed into the engine test bay at Manchester. I'm assuming they had been working on the No:2 (centre) engine as the integral work platform is open under the engine.

 

[Confusing bit, part 1]. In Jan-94, Scanair had merged with Conair Scandinavia to form Premiair (Denmark). In 1996 Premiair was taken over by Airtours International Airways UK. The aircraft was returned to Airtours in Jun-98 and was repainted in basic Airtours livery. In Sep-98 it was leased to Ryan International and operated with Skyservice USA titles.

 

[Confusing bit, part 2]. Ryan International were operating services for California based holiday operator 'Sun Trips' between the US west coast and Hawaii. Sun Trips was owned by... yes, you guessed it, Airtours International.

 

In Jul-00 the aircraft was re-registered N571RY and continued to be operated by Ryan International. The titles were changed to 'Sun Trips' in Jan-01 and it continued in service until Apr-03 when it was returned to Airtours (who had now been renamed MyTravel Airways) and the lessor. The aircraft was permanently retired at Kemble, UK and was broken up there in Jul-03.

Well, I finally replaced my chewed up Diana F+. But I failed to realize that I didn't have any film for it on hand, so I am settling for photographing it with my Polaroid SX-70 for now (while i try to sort out some issues with the SX-70 and its film.)

 

This photo is trashed because the first photo I took brought the neutral density filter out with it and generally was just jacked up. The chemicals were everywhere. This photo was taken to see if I'd fixed the issue, but I guess the rollers were still messed up from the chemicals the prior photo left on them, but at least the filter didn't come out (though it doesn't seem to be covering the top of the photo)

 

(Instead of scanning these, I just quickly photographed them with my Sony A6000 and hoped they'd look decent that way.)

(Replaced a 1990s Thomas Built International 3800 that disappeared around 2010)

Replaced the BAe-146 that carried this registration.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 13-Mar-25.

 

This aircraft was delivered to ILFC International Lease Finance Corporation and leased to Air Europa, Spain as EC-HKS in May-00. It was returned to ILFC in Apr-07 and leased to Zoom Airlines UK in May-07.

 

Zoom Airlines UK ceased operations on 28-Aug-08, the aircraft was returned to the lessor and stored at Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA and later at Dothan, AL, USA. It was re-registered N201LF in Oct-08.

 

In Feb-09 the aircraft was leased to RAM Royal Air Maroc as CN-ROV and returned to the lessor in Jan-19 when it was stored at Shannon, Ireland. In Feb-19 it was sold to DHL Holdings as N276DH and ferried to Mexico City for freighter conversion.

 

It was converted to full freighter standard with a main deck cargo door in Nov-19. It was leased to Kalitta Air in Dec-19 and operated on behalf of DHL Airways. In May-22 it was transferred to DHL Air UK as G-DHLN. The operation for DHL Airways continued.

 

In Oct-23 the aircraft was transferred to DHL Air Austria as OE-LYA and operated for DHL Airways. Current, updated 13-Mar-25.

Replaced , edited with cleaner edges. Thanks for the Fave on the original, David Nice!

Replacing the Echo in Toyota’s U.S. product lineup and making its debut at the LA Auto Show, the 2007 Yaris is the second generation of a car that was Toyota’s best-selling model in Europe. With 3-door hatchback and 4-door sedan body styles with modern styling and upscale interiors, Yaris is aimed at youthful buyers. Powering the Yaris will be a 1.5-liter, 106 horsepower 4-cylinder engine mated to either a 5-speed manual or 4-speed automatic transmission.

Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham. Replacing the Highfields Park Pavilion in 2001 was the D H Lawrence Pavilion, designed by March:Grochowski Archiects, and completing the Lakeside Arts Complex at the University of Nottingham. This now comprises, across three locations, a theatre, recital hall, museum, several galleries, together with bars and cafes. The Djanogly Theatre has 213 seats, permanently fixed on the upper level and retractable on the lower level. It is designed (although rarely applied) to also operate as a ballroom / function room, with retractable side walls opening out to allow views across the lake. It has come to specialise in productions for children and families.

 

www.lakesidearts.org.uk/

 

City of Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England - Djanogly Theatre, Lakeside Arts Centre, University of Nottingham Campus

January 2025

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 17-Jun-21.

 

This aircraft was delivered to ILFC International Lease Finance Corporation and leased to Britannia Airways as G-BYAU in May-94. The marketing name was changed to Thomson,co.uk (the tour operator) in Apr-04 with additional small 'Operated by Britannia' titles. It was changed again in Nov-04 and became Thomsonfly,com, then to Thomson Airways in Nov-08. The aircraft was returned to the lessor in May-12 and immediately sold to FedEx Federal Express as N927FD. It was stored at Victorville, CA, USA until May-13 when it was converted to freighter configuration with a main deck cargo door. It's based in Europe and occasionally visits it's old hometown in Manchester. Current, updated 17-Jun-21.