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Frederick Browning

Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Arthur Montague "Boy" Browning, (20 December 1896 – 14 March 1965) was a senior officer of the British Army who has been called the "father of the British airborne forces". He was also an Olympic bobsleigh competitor, and the husband of author Daphne du Maurier.

Educated at Eton College and then at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Browning was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Grenadier Guards in 1915. During the First World War, he fought on the Western Front, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for conspicuous gallantry during the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917. In September 1918, he became aide de camp to General Sir Henry Rawlinson.

During the Second World War, Browning commanded the 1st Airborne Division and I Airborne Corps and was also the deputy commander of First Allied Airborne Army during Operation Market Garden in September 1944. During the planning for this operation, he was alleged to have said: "I think we might be going a bridge too far." In December 1944 he became Chief of Staff of Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten's South East Asia Command. From September 1946 to January 1948, he was Military Secretary of the War Office.

In January 1948, Browning became Comptroller and Treasurer to Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh. After she ascended to the throne to become Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, he became treasurer in the Office of the Duke of Edinburgh. He suffered a severe nervous breakdown in 1957 and retired in 1959. He died at Menabilly, the mansion that inspired his wife's novel Rebecca, on 14 March 1965.

Early life
Frederick Arthur Montague Browning was born on 20 December 1896 at his family home in Kensington, London. The house was later demolished to make way for an expansion of Harrods, allowing him to claim in later life that he had been born in its piano department. He was the first son of Frederick Henry Browning, a wine merchant, and his wife Anne "Nancy" née Alt. He had one sibling, an older sister, Helen Grace. From an early age, he was known to his family as "Tommy". He was educated at West Downs School and Eton College, which his grandfather had attended. While at Eton, he joined the Officer Training Corps.

First World War
Browning sat the entrance examinations for the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, on 24 November 1914. Although he did not achieve the necessary scores in all the required subjects, the headmasters of some schools, including Eton, were in a position to recommend students for nomination by the Army Council. The headmaster of Eton, Edward Lyttelton, put Browning's name forward and in this way he entered Sandhurst on 27 December 1914. He graduated on 16 June 1915, and was commissioned a second lieutenant into the Grenadier Guards. Joining such an exclusive regiment, even in wartime, required a personal introduction and an interview by the regimental commander, Colonel Sir Henry Streatfeild.

Initially, Browning, promoted to lieutenant on 15 July, joined the 4th Battalion, Grenadier Guards, which was training at Bovington Camp. When it departed for the Western Front in August 1915, he was transferred to the 5th (Reserve) Battalion. In October 1915 he left it to join the 2nd Battalion at the front. The battalion formed part of the 1st Guards Brigade of the Guards Division. Around this time he acquired the nickname "Boy". For a time he served in the same company of 2nd Battalion as Major Winston Churchill. Upon Churchill's arrival, Browning was given the job of showing him the company's trenches. When Browning discovered that Churchill had no greatcoat, Browning gave Churchill his own.

Browning was invalided back to England with trench fever in January 1916, and, although only hospitalised for four weeks, did not rejoin the 2nd Battalion at the front until 6 October 1916. After being released from hospital, he went on leave for two months. In April he was posted to the 5th (Reserve) Battalion, and then to the Guards Depot at Caterham Barracks. He was assessed each month by a medical board at Caxton Hall, and was not passed as fit for service at the front until 20 September. Browning fought in the Battle of Pilckem Ridge on 31 July 1917, the Battle of Poelcappelle on 9 October and the Battle of Cambrai in November. He distinguished himself in this battle, for which he later received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). The order was generally given to officers in command, above the rank of lieutenant-colonel. When a junior officer like Browning, who was still only a lieutenant was awarded the DSO, this was often regarded as an acknowledgement that the officer had only just missed out on being awarded the Victoria Cross (VC). His citation read:

"For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He took command of three companies whose officers had all become casualties, reorganised them, and proceeded to consolidate. Exposing himself to very heavy machine-gun and rifle fire, in two hours he had placed the front line in a strong state of defence. The conduct of this officer, both in the assault and more especially afterwards, was beyond all praise, and the successful handing over of the front to the relieving unit as an entrenched and strongly fortified position was entirely due to his energy and skill."

He was awarded the French Croix de Guerre on 14 December 1917,, the same month he was made an acting captain in (a rank he held until December 1920), and was mentioned in despatches on 23 May 1918. In September 1918, during the Hundred Days Offensive which saw the tide of the war turn in favour of the Allies, Browning temporarily became aide de camp to General Sir Henry Rawlinson, commander of the British Fourth Army. The appointment only lasted a few weeks, however, before Browning returned to his regiment in early November. He was promoted to the temporary rank of captain, and appointed adjutant of the 1st Grenadier Guards, then part of the 3rd Guards Brigade of the Guards Division, in November 1918.

Inter-war period
Browning was granted the substantive (permanent) rank of captain on 24 November 1920. He retained his post as adjutant until November 1921, when he was posted to the Guards' Depot at Caterham Barracks. In 1924 he was posted to Sandhurst as adjutant. He was the first adjutant, during the Sovereign's Parade of 1926, to ride his horse (named "The Vicar") up the steps of Old College and to dismount in the Grand Entrance. There is no satisfactory explanation as to why he did it. After the Second World War this became an enduring tradition, but since horses have great difficulty going down steps, a ramp is now provided for the horse to return.

Other members of staff at Sandhurst at the time included Richard O'Connor, Miles Dempsey, Douglas Gracey, Ronald Brittain and Eric Dorman-Smith. Dorman-Smith and Browning became close friends. Browning relinquished the appointment of adjutant at Sandhurst on 28 April 1928, and was promoted to major on 22 May 1928. Following a pattern whereby tours of duty away from the regiment alternated with those in it, he was sent for a refresher course at the Small Arms School before being posted to the 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards, at Pirbright.

His workload was very light, allowing plenty of time for sport. Browning competed in the Amateur Athletic Association of England championships in hurdling but failed to make Olympic selection. He did however make the Olympic five-man bobsleigh team as brake-man. An injury incurred during a training accident prevented his participation in the bobsleigh at the 1924 Winter Olympics, but he competed in the bobsleigh at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in which his team finished tenth. Browning was also a keen sailor, competing in the Household Cavalry Sailing Regatta at Chichester Harbour in 1930. He purchased his own motor boat, a 20 ft cabin cruiser that he named Ygdrasil.

In 1931, Browning read Daphne du Maurier's novel The Loving Spirit and, impressed by its graphic depictions of the Cornish coastline, set out to see it for himself on Ygdrasil. Afterwards, he left the boat moored in the River Fowey for the winter, and returned in April 1932 to collect it. He heard that the author of the book that had impressed him so much was convalescing from an appendix operation, and invited her out on his boat. After a short romance, he proposed to her but she rejected this, as she did not believe in marriage. Dorman-Smith visited her and explained that it would be disastrous for Browning's career for him to live with Du Maurier without marriage. Du Maurier then proposed to Browning, who accepted. They were married in a simple ceremony at the Church of St Willow, Lanteglos-by-Fowey on 19 July 1932, and honeymooned on Ygdrasil. Their marriage produced three children: two daughters, Tessa (later second wife of David Montgomery, 2nd Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, son and heir of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery) and Flavia (later wife of General Sir Peter Leng), and a son, Christian, known as Kits.

Browning was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 1 February 1936, and was appointed commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards. The battalion was deployed to Egypt in 1936 and returned in December 1937. His term as commander ended on 1 August 1939; he was removed from the Grenadier Guards' regimental list but remained on full pay. On 1 September, he was promoted to colonel, with his seniority backdated to 1 February 1939, and became assistant commandant of the Small Arms School.

Establishment
Browning remained in this position for a month before becoming the school's commandant, which saw him promoted to the acting rank of brigadier. Despite being an important job he was not altogether pleased with the assignment: his wish was to be with one of the three regular Grenadier battalions out in France.

In mid-May 1940, Browning, his rank of brigadier having by now been made temporary, was given command of the 128th (Hampshire) Infantry Brigade (consisting of the 1/4th, 2/4th and 5th Battalions of the Hampshire Regiment). Part of the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division, which was then commanded by Major-General Robert Pollok, the brigade was a Territorial Army unit that was preparing to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France. This was pre-empted by the Dunkirk evacuation and the subsequent fall of France in June, and the division instead assumed a defensive posture.

The next few months were spent in numerous activities, the most important of which was training to repel a German invasion of Britain. The severe shortage of equipment that plagued the army during this time made Browning's already formidable task even more difficult. Despite this, he managed to impress his superiors, including his immediate superior, Pollok, who was inspired by the way in which Browning's brigade responded to his command. He recommended Browning for the command of a division, as did Lieutenant-General Francis Nosworthy, commanding IV Corps (the 43rd Division's parent formation), and Lieutenant-General Guy Williams, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Command, although all three believed that Browning needed more time and experience.

In late February 1941, after handing over the brigade to Brigadier Manley James, Browning succeeded Brigadier The Hon. William Fraser, a fellow Grenadier Guardsman and an old friend, in command of the 24th Guards Brigade Group. Such was his popularity by now within the 128th Brigade, that when Browning left his old command many members of the brigade turned out to cheer him on and wish him well. While the 24th Brigade was not a division, it was perhaps the next best thing to one. The brigade group's objective was to defend London from an attack from the south.

On 3 November 1941, Browning was promoted to the acting rank of major-general, and appointed as the first General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the newly created 1st Airborne Division. The division initially comprised the 1st Parachute Brigade, under Brigadier Richard Gale, and the 1st Airlanding Brigade, under Brigadier George Hopkinson. In this new role he was instrumental in parachutists adopting the maroon beret, and assigned an artist, Major Edward Seago, to design the Parachute Regiment's emblem of the mythical Greek hero Bellerophon riding the winged horse Pegasus. Because of this he has been called the "father of the British airborne forces". Browning designed his own uniform. He qualified as a pilot in 1942, and henceforth wore the Army Air Corps wings, which he also designed.

Training
Browning supervised the newly formed division as it underwent a prolonged period of expansion and intensive training, with new brigades raised and assigned to the division, and new equipment tested. Though not considered an airborne warfare visionary, he proved adept at dealing with the War Office and Air Ministry, and demonstrated a knack for overcoming bureaucratic obstacles. As the airborne forces expanded in size, the major difficulty in getting the 1st Airborne Division ready for operations was a shortage of aircraft. The Royal Air Force (RAF) had neglected air transport before the war, and the only available aircraft for airborne troops were conversions of obsolete bombers like the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley.

When Churchill, who was now the Prime Minister, and General George C. Marshall, the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, visited the 1st Airborne Division on 16 April 1942, they were treated to a demonstration involving every available aircraft of No. 38 Wing RAF—12 Whitleys and nine Hawker Hector target-tug biplanes towing General Aircraft Hotspur gliders. At a meeting on 6 May chaired by Churchill, Browning was asked what he required. He stated that he needed 96 aircraft to get the 1st Airborne Division battle-ready. Churchill directed Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal to find the required aircraft, and Portal "grudgingly" agreed to supply 83 Whitleys, along with 10 Halifax bombers to tow the new, larger General Aircraft Hamilcar gliders. Air Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, Commander-in-Chief RAF Bomber Command, in particular, felt that the 1st Airborne Division was not worth the drain on Bomber Command's resources.

In July 1942, Browning travelled to the United States, where he toured airborne training facilities with his American counterpart, Major-General William C. Lee, who soon took command of the US 101st Airborne Division. Browning's tendency to lecture the Americans on airborne warfare made him few friends among the Americans, who felt that the British were still novices themselves. Browning was envious of the Americans' equipment, particularly the Douglas C-47 (known in British service as "Dakota") transport aircrafts. On returning to the United Kingdom in early August, he arranged for a joint exercise to be conducted with the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment (2/503) and the 1st Airlanding Brigade, with the 1st Parachute Brigade and the 2nd (Armoured) Battalion of the Irish Guards.

Operation Torch
In mid–September, as the 1st Airborne Division was coming close to reaching full strength, Browning was informed that Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of French North Africa, would take place in November. When he found that the 2/503 was to take part, Browning argued that a larger airborne force should be utilised, as the vast distances and comparatively light opposition would provide opportunities for airborne operations. The War Office and the Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces, General Sir Bernard Paget, were won over by Browning's arguments, and agreed to detach the 1st Parachute Brigade, now under Brigadier Edwin Flavell, from 1st Airborne Division and place it under the command of US Lieutenant-General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who would command all Allied troops participating in the invasion. After it had been brought to full operational strength, partly by cross-posting personnel from the newly formed 2nd Parachute Brigade, and had been provided with sufficient equipment and resources, the brigade departed for North Africa at the beginning of November.

The results of British airborne operations in North Africa were mixed, and the subject of a detailed report by Browning. The airborne troops had operated under several handicaps, including shortages of aerial photographs and maps of the target area. All the troop carrier aircrew were American, who lacked familiarity with airborne operations and in dealing with British troops and equipment. Browning felt that the inexperience with handling airborne operations extended to Eisenhower's Allied Force Headquarters (AFHQ) and that of the British First Army, resulting in the paratroops being misused. He felt that had they been employed more aggressively and in greater strength they might have shortened the Tunisian campaign by some months. The 1st Parachute Brigade was called the "Rote Teufel" ("Red Devils") by the German troops they had fought. Browning pointed out to the brigade that this was an honour, as "distinctions given by the enemy are seldom won in battle except by the finest fighting troops." The title was officially confirmed by General Sir Harold Alexander, commander of the Allied 18th Army Group, formed from British Eighth Army (advancing from the east into Tunisia) and First Army. Henceforth, it applied to all British airborne troops.

Allied Force Headquarters posting

On 1 January 1943, Browning was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath. He relinquished command of the 1st Airborne Division to Hopkinson in March 1943 to take up a new post as Major-General, Airborne Forces at Eisenhower's AFHQ. He soon clashed with the commander of the American 82nd Airborne Division, Major-General Matthew Ridgway. When Browning asked to see the plans for Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, Ridgway replied that they would not be available for scrutiny until after they had been approved by the US Seventh Army commander, Lieutenant-General George S. Patton. When Browning protested, Patton backed Ridgway, but Eisenhower and his chief of staff, Major-General Walter Bedell Smith, supported Browning and forced them to back down.

Browning's dealings with the British Army were no smoother. Hopkinson sold the British Eighth Army commander, General Sir Bernard Montgomery, on Operation Ladbroke, a glider landing to seize the Ponte Grande road bridge south of Syracuse. Browning's objections to the operation were ignored, and attempts to discuss airborne operations with the corps commanders elicited a directive from Montgomery that all such discussion had to go through him. The operation was a disaster, as Browning had predicted. Inexperienced aircrew released the gliders too early, and many crashed into the sea; 252 soldiers were drowned. Those that made it to land were scattered over a wide area. The troops captured their objective, but were driven off by an Italian counterattack. Browning concluded that to be effective, the airborne advisor had to have equal rank with the army commanders.

In September 1943, Browning travelled to India, where he inspected the 50th Parachute Brigade, and met with Major-General Orde Wingate, the commander of the Chindits. Browning held a series of meetings with General Sir Claude Auchinleck, the Commander-in-Chief, India; Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Peirse, the Air Officer Commander-in-Chief; and Lieutenant-General Sir George Giffard, the GOC Eastern Army. They discussed plans for improving the airborne establishment in India and expanding the airborne force there to a division. As a result of these discussions, and Browning's subsequent report to the War Office, the 44th Indian Airborne Division was formed in October 1944. Browning sent his most experienced airborne commander, Major-General Ernest Down, to India as GOC of the 44th Division. Formerly the commander of the 2nd Parachute Brigade, Down had succeeded Hopkinson as GOC 1st Airborne Division after Hopkinson had been killed in Italy. Down's replacement as GOC 1st Airborne Division was Montgomery's selection, Major-General Roy Urquhart, an officer with no airborne experience, rather than Browning's choice, Brigadier Gerald Lathbury of the 1st Parachute Brigade. The decision was to become controversial.

US Brigadier-General James M. Gavin, recalled that when he travelled to England in November 1943 to assume command of the 82nd Airborne Division, Ridgway "cautioned me against the machinations and scheming of General F. M. Browning, who was the senior British airborne officer, and well he should have." Gavin was taken aback by Browning's criticism of Ridgway on the grounds that he had not parachuted into Sicily with his troops. US Major-General Ray Barker, who worked in Eisenhower's Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), warned him that Browning was "an empire builder", an assessment with which Gavin came to agree.

Operation Market Garden

Browning assumed a new command on 4 December 1943. His Directive No. 1 announced that "the title of the force is Headquarters, Airborne Troops (21st Army Group). All correspondence will bear the official title, but verbally it will be known as the Airborne Corps and I will be referred to as the Corps Commander." He was promoted to lieutenant-general on 7 January 1944, with his seniority backdated to 9 December 1943. He officially became commander of I Airborne Corps on 16 April 1944.

I Airborne Corps became part of the First Allied Airborne Army, commanded by Lieutenant-General Lewis H. Brereton, in August 1944. While retaining command of the corps, Browning also became Deputy Commander of the First Allied Airborne Army, despite a poor relationship with Brereton and being disliked by many American officers. During preparations for one of many cancelled operations, Linnete II, his disagreement with Brereton over a risky operation caused him to threaten resignation, which, due to differences in military culture, Brereton regarded as tantamount to disobeying an order. Browning was forced to back down.

When I Airborne Corps was committed to action in Operation Market Garden in September 1944, Browning's rift with Brereton had severe repercussions. Browning was concerned about the timetable put forward by Major-General Paul L. Williams of the IX Troop Carrier Command, under which the drop was staggered over several days, with only one drop on the first day. This restricted the number of combat troops that would be available on the first day. He also disagreed with the British drop zones proposed by Air Vice Marshal Leslie Hollinghurst of No. 38 Group, which he felt were too distant from the bridge at Arnhem, but Browning felt unable to challenge the airmen.

Browning downplayed Ultra evidence brought to him by his intelligence officer, Major Brian Urquhart, that the 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen and the 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg were in the Arnhem area, but was not as confident as he led his subordinates to believe. When informed that his airborne troops would have to hold the bridge for two days, Browning is said to have responded that they could hold it for four, but later claimed that he had added: "But I think we might be going a bridge too far."

Browning landed by gliders with a tactical headquarters near Nijmegen with Gavin's 82nd Airborne Division. His use of 38 aircraft to move his corps headquarters on the first lift has been criticised. Half of these gliders carried signal equipment but for much of the operation he had no contact with either the British 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem or Major-General Maxwell D. Taylor's US 101st Airborne Division at Eindhoven. His headquarters had not been envisaged as a frontline unit, and the signals section that had been hastily assembled just weeks before lacked training and experience. In his pack, Browning carried three teddy bears and a framed print of Albrecht Dürer's The Praying Hands.

After the war, Gavin was criticised for the decision to secure the high ground around Groesbeek before attempting the capture of the road and the Nijmegen railway bridge. Browning took responsibility for this, noting that he "personally gave an order to Jim Gavin that, although every effort should be made to effect the capture of the Grave and Nijmegen bridges as soon as possible, it was essential that he should capture the Groesbeek Ridge and hold it". Gavin's opinion of Browning was uncomplimentary: "There is no doubt that in our system he would have been summarily relieved and sent home in disgrace."

Browning was awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta (II class) by the Polish government-in-exile, but his critical evaluation of the contribution of Polish forces led to the removal of Major-General Stanisław Sosabowski as commanding officer of the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade. Some writers later claimed that Sosabowski had been made a scapegoat for the failure of Market Garden. Montgomery attached no blame to Browning or any of his subordinates, or indeed acknowledged failure at all. He told Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), the professional head of the British Army, that he would like Browning to take over VIII Corps in the event that Sir Richard O'Connor, the GOC, was transferred to another theatre.

South East Asia Command

Events took a different course. Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, the Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command (SEAC), had need of a new chief of staff owing to the poor health of Lieutenant-General Henry Pownall. Brooke turned down Mountbatten's initial request for either Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Nye or Lieutenant-General Sir John Swayne. He then offered Browning for the post, and Mountbatten accepted. Pownall considered that Browning was "excellently qualified" for the post, although Browning had no staff college training and had never held a staff job before. Pownall noted that his "only reservation is that I believe [Browning] is rather nervy and highly strung". For his services as a corps commander, Browning was mentioned in despatches a second time, and was awarded the Legion of Merit in the degree of Commander by the United States government.

Browning served in South East Asia from December 1944 until July 1946; Mountbatten soon came to regard him as indispensable. Browning had an American deputy, Major-General Horace H. Fuller, and brought staff with him from Europe to SEAC headquarters in Kandy, Ceylon. For his services at SEAC, Browning was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 1 January 1946. His last major military post was as Military Secretary of the War Office from 16 September 1946 to January 1948, although he did not formally retire from the Army until 5 April 1948.

Later life
In January 1948, Browning became Comptroller and Treasurer to Her Royal Highness the Princess Elizabeth. This appointment was made on the recommendation of Lord Mountbatten, whose nephew Philip Mountbatten was the Duke of Edinburgh. As such, Browning became the head of the Princess' personal staff. Browning also juggled other duties. In 1948 he was involved with the 1948 Summer Olympics as Deputy Chairman of the British Olympic Association, and commandant of the British team. From 1944 to 1962 he was Commodore of the Royal Fowey Yacht Club; on stepping down in 1962, he was elected its first admiral.

Upon the death of King George VI in 1952, the Princess Elizabeth came to the throne as Queen Elizabeth II, and Browning and his staff became redundant, as the Queen was served by the large staff of the monarch. The domestic staff remained at Clarence House, where they continued to serve the Queen Mother; the remainder were reorganised as the Office of the Duke of Edinburgh, with Browning as treasurer, the head of the office, and moved into a new and larger office at Buckingham Palace. Like the Duke they served, the office had no constitutional role, but supported his sporting, cultural and scientific interests. Browning became involved with the Cutty Sark Trust, set up to preserve the famous ship, and the administration of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award. In June 1953, Browning and du Maurier attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Browning had been drinking since the war, but it now became chronic. This led to a severe nervous breakdown in July 1957, forcing his resignation from his position at the Palace in 1959. Du Maurier had known he had a mistress in Fowey, but his breakdown brought to light two other girlfriends in London. For her part, du Maurier confessed to her own wartime affair. For his services to the Royal Household, Browning was made a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1953, and was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the order in 1959. He retreated to Menabilly, the mansion that had inspired du Maurier's novel Rebecca, which she had leased and restored in 1943. He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Cornwall in March 1960. Browning caused a scandal in 1963 when, under the influence of prescription drugs and alcohol, he was involved in an automobile accident in which two people were injured. He was fined £50 and forced to pay court and medical costs. He died from a heart attack at Menabilly on 14 March 1965.

Legacy
Browning was portrayed by Dirk Bogarde in the film A Bridge Too Far, which was based on the events of Operation Market Garden. A copy of Browning's uniform was made to Bogarde's measurements from the original in the Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces Museum. Du Maurier responded angrily to early reports of how Browning was portrayed, and wrote to Mountbatten, urging him to boycott the premiere. He did not do so, explaining that proceeds were going to a charity that he supported. After seeing the film he wrote back that he could find nothing detrimental to Browning in it, and did not think that Browning's reputation had been tarnished. He pointed out that Operation Market Garden was a disaster, and blame had to be shared by those in charge, which included Browning. The Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces Museum, which opened in 1969, was for many years located in Browning Barracks at Aldershot, which had been built in 1964 and named after him. It remained the depot of the Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces until 1993. The museum moved to the Imperial War Museum Duxford in 2008, and Browning Barracks was sold for housing development.

title: Frederick Browning


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Helen Gahagan Douglas

Helen Gahagan Douglas (born Helen Mary Gahagan; November 25, 1900 – June 28, 1980) was an American actress and politician.

Gahagan Douglas's acting career included success on Broadway, as a touring opera singer, and in Hollywood films. Her portrayal of the villain in She (1935) inspired the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

In 1944, Gahagan Douglas was first elected to the United States Congress. In the 1950 U.S. Senate election in California, she lost to Republican nominee Richard M. Nixon. The campaign became symbolic of modern political vitriol, as both Gahagan Douglas's Democratic primary opponent Manchester Boddy and Nixon referred to her as "pink right down to her underwear", suggesting Communist sympathies.

Early life
Helen Mary Gahagan was born in Boonton, New Jersey, of Scotch-Irish descent. She was the eldest daughter of Lillian Rose (Mussen) and Walter H. Gahagan, an engineer who owned a construction business in Brooklyn and a shipyard in Arverne, Queens; her mother had been a schoolteacher. She was reared Episcopalian. Gahagan was raised at 231 Lincoln Place in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn, an upper-middle-class neighborhood. She attended the prestigious Berkeley Carroll School, where she "attracted the favorable attention of Brooklyn critics through her performance in school plays". Following an argument with her father, who did not believe becoming an actress was a suitable occupation for a woman, she was sent to study at the Capen School for Girls in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Gahagan gained admittance to Barnard College of Columbia University, class of 1924. To the dismay and shock of her father she left after two years, without finishing her degree, to pursue an acting career.

Acting career
Gahagan found great success and became a well known star on Broadway in the 1920s, appearing in popular plays such as Young Woodley and Trelawney of the Wells.

In 1927, at the age of 26, Gahagan set out to forge a new career as an opera singer, and, after two years of voice lessons, she found herself touring across Europe and receiving critical praise, unusual for an American at the time. In 1930, she returned to Broadway to star in a production of Tonight or Never, where she co-starred with actor Melvyn Douglas. The two married in 1931, Gahagan keeping her maiden name. They had two children, Peter and Mary.

Gahagan Douglas went to Los Angeles in 1935, starring in the Hollywood movie She, playing Hash-a-Motep, queen of a lost city. The movie, based on H. Rider Haggard's novel of the same name, is perhaps best known for popularizing a phrase from the novel, "She who must be obeyed". Gahagan's depiction of the "ageless ice goddess" served as inspiration for the Evil Queen in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

While in Vienna in 1938, performing in opera (which was a dream come true for Gahagan Douglas), she found herself having coffee with a Nazi sympathizer. The experience sickened her to such a degree that she immediately flew back to Los Angeles, determined to fight Nazism publicly.

Political career
Introduced to politics by her husband, Gahagan Douglas joined the Democratic Party shortly after the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. The Roosevelts and the Douglases would develop a close friendship, with Eleanor Roosevelt serving as a political mentor to Gahagan Douglas.

She largely disliked the atmosphere of Hollywood; following the birth of her daughter, Mary Helen, in 1938, Gahagan Douglas took to learning about the plight of migrant workers and grew increasingly politically aware. She soon became the director of the John Steinbeck Committee, named for the author of The Grapes of Wrath, and by 1940 she was the national spokesperson for migrants.

Appointments and activities
The Douglases joined the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League; in 1939, they joined others in calling for a United States boycott against goods produced in Nazi Germany.

Gahagan Douglas was a member of the national advisory committee of the Works Progress Administration and of the State committee of the National Youth Administration in 1939 and 1940. She then served as Democratic national committeewoman for California and vice chairwoman of the Democratic state central committee and chairman of the women's division from 1940 to 1944. She was also a member of the board of governors of the California Housing and Planning Association in 1942 and 1943, and was appointed by Roosevelt as a member of the Voluntary Participation Committee, Office of Civilian Defense. She was later appointed by President Harry S. Truman as an alternate United States delegate to the United Nations Assembly.

In 1946, she was among those honored by the National Association of Colored Women for her role in interracial cooperation for advancing race and gender equality. Gahagan Douglas had been a colleague of the organization's founder, Mary McLeod Bethune, on the National Youth Administration.

House of Representatives
In 1943, Democratic leaders, including FDR, persuaded Gahagan Douglas to run in the 1944 election for the 14th Congressional District seat opened by the retirement of Congressman Thomas F. Ford. To try to appeal to conservative voters, she started using her husband's last name. As the California Democratic committee chairwoman, she spoke at the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Her impressive speech raised her profile, with some imagining a VP spot in her future, if not a presidential candidacy. In the fall elections, Gahagan Douglas won the House race and subsequently ran for — and won — two more terms, serving in the 79th, 80th and 81st Congresses (January 1945 – January 1951). During her three terms in the House, she championed various issues, such as civil rights, migrant worker welfare, women's issues, affordable housing, progressive taxation, and nuclear disarmament; "she was the first to sponsor an anti-lynching bill". She also championed a controversial Franklin Delano Roosevelt National Forest House bill to protect California redwoods from Sonoma County to Oregon. The forest bill was opposed locally by business interests fearing the loss of taxable properties. The State Senate yesterday passed with only one opposing vote a resolution asking Congress to refuse passage of a bill to create a Franklin Delano Roosevelt National Forest in the Northern California redwood country. The congressional bill, by Rep. Helen Gahagan Douglas, would set up the forest in sections of Del Notre, Humboldt and Mendocino counties.

Her love affair with Lyndon B. Johnson was an open secret on Capitol Hill.

1950 U.S. Senate campaign
In 1950, Gahagan Douglas ran for the United States Senate, although incumbent Democrat Sheridan Downey was seeking a third term. California Democratic state chairman William M. Malone had advised Gahagan Douglas to wait until 1952 to run for the Senate, rather than split the party in a fight with Downey. Gahagan Douglas, however, told Malone that Downey had neglected veterans and small growers and had to be unseated. Downey withdrew from the race in the primary campaign and supported a third candidate, Manchester Boddy, the owner and publisher of the Los Angeles Daily News. When Gahagan Douglas defeated Boddy for the nomination, Downey endorsed the Republican nominee, U.S. Representative Richard M. Nixon.

Fellow Representative John F. Kennedy quietly donated money to Nixon's campaign against Gahagan Douglas, Kennedy and Nixon sharing similar views on the threat of communism.

In the primary race, Boddy had referred to Gahagan Douglas as "the Pink Lady" and said that she was "pink right down to her underwear", a suggestion that she sympathized with the Soviet Union. During the general election, Nixon reprised Boddy's line of attack. Nixon's campaign manager, Murray Chotiner, had 500,000 flyers printed on sheets of pink paper. Chotiner explained, "The purpose of an election is not to defeat your opponent, but to destroy him."

In a race that was remembered as one of the most vicious in California political history, Nixon's charges were intentionally directed towards the assassination of Gahagan Douglas's character. He implied that she was a Communist "fellow traveler" by comparing her votes to those of Representative Vito Marcantonio of New York (a pro-Soviet member of the American Labor Party), and deployed anti-Semitic surrogates to call on voters to reject her because her husband, Melvyn, was Jewish. Gahagan Douglas, in return, popularized a nickname for Nixon (apparently coined by Manchester Boddy) which became one of the most enduring nicknames in American politics: "Tricky Dick".

Nixon won the election with more than 59% of the vote, and Gahagan Douglas's political career came to an end, but she remained an activist, continuing to advocate for the regulation of nuclear weapons for several decades. In the 1950 election, conservative Democrat Samuel W. Yorty (later a Republican convert) succeeded her in Congress.

Gahagan Douglas would later say that Nixon's harsh campaign tactics were "completely unnecessary" and that she was probably going to lose the election anyway. Young, Republican-inclined voters in the state could feel a closer personal connection to Nixon, a thirty-something man with a young family much like themselves. They perceived Gahagan Douglas as too liberal and stuck in the New Deal era. Further, money from oil companies was pouring into the state to tilt the balance in favor of Nixon.

Later life
It was rumored that Gahagan Douglas would have been given a political appointment in the Truman administration, but that the Nixon–Douglas race had made such an appointment too controversial for Truman. Democratic National Committee vice-chair India Edwards, a Gahagan Douglas supporter, remarked that Gahagan Douglas could not have been appointed dogcatcher.

She returned to acting in 1952, and later campaigned for John F. Kennedy, who ran successfully against Nixon in the 1960 presidential race.

Gahagan Douglas was mentioned in the 1965 song "George Murphy" by satirist Tom Lehrer. The song begins, "Hollywood's often tried to mix / show business with politics / from Helen Gahagan / to Ronald Reagan ..."

Kennedy's successor Lyndon Johnson appointed Gahagan Douglas as "Special Ambassador" to the inauguration of Liberian President William Tubman. However, Gahagan Douglas's subsequent opposition to the Vietnam War angered Johnson, estranging him from her. She also campaigned for George McGovern in his unsuccessful bid to prevent Nixon's 1972 re-election, and she called for Nixon's removal from office during the Watergate scandal.

During and after the Watergate scandal, bumper stickers featuring the legend "Don't blame me, I voted for Helen Gahagan Douglas" cropped up on cars in California. In October 1973, Gahagan Douglas was among the first women featured on the cover of Ms. magazine. At its 1979 commencement ceremonies, Barnard College awarded Gahagan Douglas its highest honor, the Barnard Medal of Distinction. She died the following year from breast and lung cancer, with her husband Melvyn by her side.

Legacy
Senator Alan Cranston of California eulogized her on the floor of the Senate on August 5, 1980, saying, "I believe Helen Gahagan Douglas was one of the grandest, most eloquent, deepest-thinking people we have had in American politics. She stands among the best of our 20th-century leaders, rivaling even Eleanor Roosevelt in stature, compassion and simple greatness."

A collection of Helen Gahagan Douglas's papers spanning her life and career are held by the Carl Albert Center.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Helen Gahagan Douglas


text:
Battle of Dos Ríos

The Battle of Dos Ríos was fought in Cuba during its war of independence from Spain.

History
José Martí died fighting in the battle of Dos Ríos (near Palma Soriano). He was leading a group of rebels against the Spanish royalist army in the first skirmish in Cuba's struggle for independence from Spain (see History of Cuba). An attempt to recover Martí's body was made by the rebels but the Spanish forces were too strong. Spanish forces buried José Martí; the body was subsequently exhumed and reburied with an elaborate funeral in Santiago de Cuba in 1951.

title: Battle of Dos Ríos


text:
Talk:Michael McKevitt

Comments
It's great that there is a source of the printed word such as an encyclopedia on the Web, that is free.However,it is not free if the information it imparts is one sided and presents only the view of special interest groups such as the American FBI,CIA, MI5,and so on. It has not been proven that Michael McKevitt did anything.His trial has been influenced by the sources I mentioned, and the news media in this country, occupied Ireland, and Britain.As to the irish Republican Army,they killed only 70 people(proven) whereas the amount of people killed by loyalist terror groups at the behest of the British government has been staggering.

Why now have your pages been protected, when not long ago anyone could edit or insert material;do you really not want to hear other,and perhaps more realistic discussions of the same material? It is interesting,considering all the current frenzy about "terrorists" in the world today, that anyone acting for a military organ- ization not in uniform and unrecognized is a terrorist;that also includes the Palestinians,who have been forced into a corner and threatened with extermination merely because the Zionists in Israel(notice that I did not say all Israelis,or all Jews) want them out of the picture. The loyalists in occupied Ireland have been allowed to do as they please by the British government,so that ireland will remain unfree. You may remember,the Irish Republican Army has been working for peace for some time.One hopes the rest of the world does not expect them to submit themselves to extermination merely because others want them dead or in prison.

The attempts, reflected by the rather ludicrously simplistic analysis of Irish history above (which is to history what Mickey Mouse is to the study of mice), to turn this article into poorly written, factually inaccurate propaganda, was the reason for the edit war which led to the page being protected. Various users were involved in reverting the rubbish, which seemed intent on turning an encyclopædic article into a Real IRA polemical press release. Among the anonymous user's attempts at the propagandisation of the article are

 * using such encyclopædic language as FBI stooge in place of the NPOV reference "FBI agent",
 * adding in this means very little,considering that Gerry Adams is known to have been paid off by special interest groups,including the American CIA and British MI5.. about Gerry Adams,
 * to the sentence "which has been regarded as responsible for the Omagh bombing in the late 1990s, which killed 29 people;" the anonymous user inserted however,it should be noted that this is the view of the British media and MI5,not reality.
 * the insertion of a pro-Real IRA poem that not merely breaches NPOV but also breaches copyright.

The user has repeatedly returned to this page (and others) to propagandise them, using various IPs. As there was no one IP that could be blocked, and blocking the range would have been unfair to others using them, it was decided to protect the page until there was some evidence that the anonymous user stopped POVing it and breaching copyright. As the comments he wrote earlier show, he still wants to agendaise the page, add in slanderous comment and introduce gross factual inaccuracies that even members of the Real IRA privately would roll their eyes over. FearÉIREANN 20:25, 29 Nov 2003 (UTC)

I removed reference to Bobby Sands being a Sinn Fein MP as he didnt stand for Sinn Fein. AlanMc

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one article was rated and this bot brought all the other ratings up to at least that level. BetacommandBot 23:51, 27 August 2007 (UTC) Birthplace.It's my understanding that Michael was born and raised in Dundalk,yet the article just states Co.Louth.Wjeanne (talk) 16:28, 15 April 2008 (UTC)hy is this?

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Criminal cats
No policy or guideline says that people convicted of serious crimes shouldn't be in criminal cats. A little-seen discussion, with few contributors, on the talk page of a bio of a convicted criminal of the same ideology, doesn't create a consensus to omit such cats from bios based on their motivation for committing their crimes. Including such cats is correct & relevant & is certainly not tendentious. Rarely does anyone remove criminal cats from bios of terrorists of other ideologies. Jim Michael (talk) 12:10, 3 January 2021 (UTC)
 * The policy called consensus says they shouldn't. Consensus at Talk:Bobby Sands and the previous discussions linked to in that discussion (which were far more than A little-seen discussion, with few contributors). This article is already in two relevant categories, Category:Irish republicans imprisoned by non-jury courts and Category:Irish republicans imprisoned on charges of terrorism. FDW777 (talk) 13:33, 3 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia talk:Categories for discussion/Archive 9, since you seek to deny the existence of said discussion. FDW777 (talk) 13:36, 3 January 2021 (UTC)
 * A few editors on a few articles in a few discussions don't create a WP-wide consensus. That 2007 discussion didn't reach a conclusion to not put people convicted of any type of crime in criminal cats. McKevitt should be in Category:21st-century Irish criminals, Category:Criminals from County Louth (if created) & Category:Irish male criminals. None of those are subcats of cats currently on the article, nor vice versa. His convictions were for serious crimes & he was imprisoned for many years for them. Furthermore, those crimes were central to his notability - it's nothing like someone having been an occasional petty thief when they were a teenager which had nothing to do with their subsequent notable career. You insist that Edward O'Brien - who is known solely for having been the Aldwych bus bomber - not be categorised as a criminal. If a few editors tried to push for ISIL members to no longer be classified as criminals, there's no chance they'd succeed. We obviously shouldn't exclude one type of criminal from criminal cats on the basis of their ideology, location or conflict. To do so would be to be strongly biased in their favour, thereby violating our neutrality policy as well as implying that their crimes were justified. Jim Michael (talk) 09:53, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
 * I refer you to 's comment of Agreed. Jim Michael is fond of saying there is no policy or guideline to prevent him from adding the cat. Well, WP:Consensus is a policy. A consensus was arrived at many years ago not to categorise these people as criminals, and Jim Michael has failed to achieve a consensus for doing so now. I also refer you to my suggestion that you start with the poster boy for people with convictions for politically motivated offences, Nelson Mandela. Why don't you see if you can gain consensus to categorise him as a criminal? FDW777 (talk) 19:30, 4 January 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Michael McKevitt


text:
Contamination

Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that renders something unsuitable, unfit or harmful for physical body, natural environment, workplace, etc.

Types of contamination
Within the sciences, the word "contamination" can take on a variety of subtle differences in meaning, whether the contaminant is a solid or a liquid, as well as the variance of environment the contaminant is found to be in. A contaminant may even be more abstract, as in the case of an unwanted energy source that may interfere with a process. The following represent examples of different types of contamination based on these and other variances.

Chemical contamination
In chemistry, the term "contamination" usually describes a single constituent, but in specialized fields the term can also mean chemical mixtures, even up to the level of cellular materials. All chemicals contain some level of impurity. Contamination may be recognized or not and may become an issue if the impure chemical causes additional chemical reactions when mixed with other chemicals or mixtures. Chemical reactions resulting from the presence of an impurity may at times be beneficial, in which case the label "contaminant" may be replaced with "reactant" or "catalyst." (This may be true even in physical chemistry, where, for example, the introduction of an impurity in an intrinsic semiconductor positively increases conductivity. ) If the additional reactions are detrimental, other terms are often applied such as "toxin", "poison", or pollutant, depending on the type of molecule involved. Chemical decontamination of substance can be achieved through decomposition, neutralization, and physical processes, though a clear understanding of the underlying chemistry is required. Contamination of pharmaceutics and therapeutics is notoriously dangerous and creates both perceptual and technical challenges.

Environmental contamination
In environmental chemistry, the term "contamination" is in some cases virtually equivalent to pollution, where the main interest is the harm done on a large scale to humans, organisms, or environments. An environmental contaminant may be chemical in nature, though it may also be a biological (pathogenic bacteria, virus, invasive species) or physical (energy) agent. Environmental monitoring is one mechanism available to scientists to detect contamination activities early before they become too detrimental.

Agricultural contamination
Another type of environmental contaminant can be found in the form of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), specifically when they come in contact with organic agriculture. This sort of contamination can result in the decertification of a farm. This sort of contamination can at times be difficult to control, necessitating mechanisms for compensating farmers where there has been contamination by GMOs. A Parliamentary Inquiry in Western Australia considered a range of options for compensating farmers whose farms had been contaminated by GMOs but ultimately settled on recommending no action.

Food, beverage, and pharmaceutical contamination
In food chemistry and medicinal chemistry, the term "contamination" is used to describe harmful intrusions, such as the presence of toxins or pathogens in food or pharmaceutical drugs.

Radioactive contamination
In environments where nuclear safety and radiation protection are required, radioactive contamination is a concern. Radioactive substances can appear on surfaces, or within solids, liquids, or gases (including the human body), where their presence is unintended or undesirable, and processes can give rise to their presence in such places. Several examples of radioactive contamination include:

 * residual radioactive material remaining at a site after the completion of decommissioning of a site where there was a nuclear reactor, such as a power plant, experimental reactor, isotope reactor, or a nuclear powered ship or submarine
 * ingested or absorbed radioactive material that contaminates a biological entity, whether unintentionally or intentionally (such as with radiopharmaceuticals
 * escape of elements after nuclear accident, such as the contamination of Iodine-131 and Caesium-137 after the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine.

Note that the term "radioactive contamination" may have a connotation that is not intended. The term refers only to the presence of radioactivity and gives no indication itself of the magnitude of the hazard involved. However, radioactivity can be measured as a quantity in a given location or on a surface, or on a unit area of a surface, such as a square meter or centimeter.

Like environmental monitoring, radiation monitoring can be employed to catch contamination-causing activities before much harm.

Interplanetary contamination
Interplanetary contamination occurs when a planetary body is biologically contaminated by a space probe or spacecraft, either deliberately or unintentionally. This can work both on arrival to the foreign planetary body and upon return to Earth.

Contaminated evidence
In forensic science, evidence can become contaminated. Contamination of fingerprints, hair, skin, or DNA—from first responders or from sources not related to the ongoing investigation, such as family members or friends of the victim who are not suspects—can lead to wrongful convictions, mistrials, or dismissal of evidence.

Contaminated samples
In the biological sciences, accidental introduction of "foreign" material can seriously distort the results of experiments where small samples are used. In cases where the contaminant is a living microorganism, it can often multiply to dominate the sample and render it useless, as in contaminated cell culture lines. A similar affect can be seen in geology, geochemistry, and archaeology, where even a few grains of a material can distort results of sophisticated experiments.

Food contaminant detection method
The conventional food contaminant test methods may be limited by complicated/tedious sample preparing procedure, long testing time, sumptuous instrument, and professional operator. However, some rapid, novel, sensitive, and easy to use and affordable methods were developed including:

 * Cyanidin quantification by naphthalimide-based azo dye colorimetric probe.
 * Lead quantification by modified immunoassay test strip based on a heterogeneously sized gold amplified probe.
 * Microbial toxin by HPLC with UV-Vis or fluorescence detection and competitive immunoassays with ELISA configuration.
 * Bacterial virulence genes detection reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and DNA colony hybridization.
 * Pesticide detection and quantification by strip-based immunoassay, a test strip based on functionalized AuNPs, and test strip, surface-enhanced raman spectroscopy (SERS).
 * Enrofloxacin (chickens antibiotic) quantification by a Ru(phen)3 2+- doped silica fluorescent nanoparticle (NP) based immunochromatographic test strip and a portable fluorescent strip reader.
 * Nitrite quantification by The PRhB-based electrochemical sensors and Ion selective electrodes (ISEs).

title: Contamination


text:
Roy Urquhart

Major General Robert Elliot "Roy" Urquhart, (28 November 1901 – 13 December 1988) was a British Army officer who saw service during the Second World War and Malayan Emergency. He became prominent for his role as General Officer Commanding the 1st Airborne Division, which fought with great distinction, although suffering very severe casualties, in the Battle of Arnhem during Operation Market Garden in September 1944.

Early life and military career
Roy Urquhart was born in Shepperton, Middlesex, England, on 28 November 1901, and was the son of a Scottish doctor. He was educated at St Paul's School, London, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Urquhart was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the 1st Battalion, Highland Light Infantry on 24 December 1920.

On 24 December 1922, he was promoted to lieutenant, and captain on 26 March 1929. Urquhart was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, when he was stationed in Malta from 1933 to 1936. He also served as an adjutant, and befriended David Niven during this time. Niven recalled Urquhart, in his autobiography The Moon's a Balloon, as "a serious soldier of great charm and warmth".

Urquhart attended the Staff College, Camberley, from 1936 to 1937, and then returned to the 2nd Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Horatio Berney-Ficklin. At that time, it was based in Palestine and served during the Arab revolt.

On 1 August 1938, Urquhart was promoted to major. He was then dispatched to India as a staff officer, and in May 1939 became the Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General to Army HQ, India.

Second World War

When the Second World War broke out in September 1939, Urquhart was still serving in India. He remained there until 1941, when he was posted to North Africa. He was then sent back to the United Kingdom, as a staff officer in the 3rd Infantry Division. Thereafter, his career accelerated. Between 1941 and 1942 he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and commanded the 2nd Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry until 1942. Then he was appointed as a staff officer in the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division, which was then stationed in the United Kingdom before moving to North Africa in mid-1942. For a short time, after being promoted to brigadier, he commanded the 231st Infantry Brigade, which saw action during the Allied invasion of Sicily and in the early stages of the Italian Campaign. He then returned to England.

Arnhem
On return, he was assigned to XII Corps as a staff officer. In 1944, he was given command of the 1st Airborne Division. Urquhart was prone to airsickness, and had not commanded or been a member of an airborne formation. Although a newcomer, Urquhart commanded his division during Operation Market Garden in September 1944. The division was dropped into Arnhem, Netherlands, in an attempt to secure a crossing over the River Rhine. For nine days Urquhart's division fought unsupported against armoured units of II SS Panzer Corps and suffered increasingly heavy casualties during the Battle of Arnhem. On 25 September, the remnants of the division withdrew across the Rhine. During the battle, the 1st Airborne Division had lost over three-quarters of its strength. Shattered as a fighting formation, the division was withdrawn to the United Kingdom and saw no further action in the war. Urquhart was awarded the Dutch Bronze Lion.

Norway

In May 1945, following the German surrender, Urquhart led the 1st Airborne Division, as the advanced guard of Force 134, during Operation Doomsday, the Allied reoccupation of Norway. He was charged with supervising the surrender of the German forces, as well as preventing the sabotage of vital military and civilian facilities. Due to delays in troop arrivals, Urquhart ended up driving into Oslo in a captured German staff car, accompanied only by four military policemen and two infantry platoons. Until the arrival of the Headquarters of Allied Forces, Norway, Urquhart had complete control over all Norwegian activities. As a result, Urquhart welcomed Crown Prince Olaf of Norway, and three ministers representing the Norwegian Government, when they arrived on a Royal Navy cruiser. General Sir Andrew Thorne arrived on 13 May, and assumed command of Allied forces. At the end of August, the 1st Airborne Division and Urquhart returned to the United Kingdom where his division was disbanded in November. Urquhart was awarded the Norwegian Order of St. Olav, for his role in the liberation of the country.

Post-war service
Following the end of the war, Urquhart became Director of the Territorial Army and Army Cadet Force at the War Office. He was then made General Officer Commanding, of the newly raised Territorial Army 16th Airborne Division in 1947. This was followed by command of the 51st/52nd Scottish Division until 1950. He was subsequently appointed as the General Officer Commanding Malaya Command during the Malayan Emergency and GOC-in-C British Troops in Austria. He retired from the army in 1955.

Later life
After leaving the army, Urquhart became an executive in the heavy engineering industry, and retired in 1970. Urquhart was portrayed by Sean Connery in the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far, for which he himself served as a military consultant.

Urquhart and his wife Pamela had four children, among them Elspeth Campbell (wife of the former leader of the Liberal Democrat party Menzies Campbell) and Suki Urquhart, author of The Scottish Gardener, third wife of Keith Schellenberg. In his memoirs, Campbell wrote that Urquhart told Elspeth's first husband, Philip Grant-Suttie, "there's no need to be formal; just call me General", and that he also insisted on tasting all the food and champagne for Elspeth and Menzies' wedding before paying for it.

Urquhart died on 13 December 1988, aged 87.

title: Roy Urquhart


text:
Vinča culture

The Vinča culture (ʋîːntʃa), also known as Turdaș culture, Turdaș–Vinča culture or Vinča-Turdaș culture, is a Neolithic archaeological culture of Southeast Europe, dated to the period 5400–4500 BC. Named for its type site, Vinča-Belo Brdo, a large tell settlement discovered by Serbian archaeologist Miloje Vasić in 1908, it represents the material remains of a prehistoric society mainly distinguished by its settlement pattern and ritual behaviour.

Farming technology first introduced to the region during the First Temperate Neolithic was developed further by the Vinča culture. It was noted for dark-burnished pottery, and fuelling a population boom and producing some of the largest settlements in prehistoric Europe. These settlements maintained a high degree of cultural uniformity through the long-distance exchange of ritual items, but were probably not politically unified. Various styles of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figurines are hallmarks of the culture, as are the Vinča symbols, which some conjecture to be the earliest form of proto-writing. Although not conventionally considered part of the Chalcolithic or "Copper Age", the Vinča culture provides the earliest known example of copper smelting in the Old World.

Geography and demographics
The Vinča culture occupied a region of Southeastern Europe (i.e. the Balkans) corresponding mainly to modern-day Serbia and Kosovo, but also parts of Southernmost Hungary, Western-Central Romania (Oltenia, Transylvania), Western Bulgaria, Eastern Croatia, Eastern Bosnia, Northern Montenegro and North Macedonia. John Chapman (1981) previously included Greece and excluded Hungary and Croatia (as new findings and conclusions were not known at the time).

This region had already been settled by farming societies of the First Temperate Neolithic (like Starčevo culture) and during the Neolithic demographic transition population sizes started to grow. However, during the Vinča period happened changes in technology and style of pottery, and the sustained population growth led to an unprecedented level of settlement size and density along with the population of areas that were bypassed by earlier settlers. Vinča settlements were considerably larger than almost all other contemporary European culture (with the exception of Cucuteni–Trypillia culture), in some instances surpassing the cities of the Aegean and early Near Eastern Bronze Age a millennium later. Considering their size can be grouped into 1-1.9 ha, 4-4.9 ha and 20-29 ha. One of the largest sites was Vinča-Belo Brdo (a suburb of Belgrade, Serbia), it covered 29 ha and had up to 2,500 people.

Early Vinča settlement population density was 50–200 people per hectare, in later phases an average of 50–100 people per hectare was common. The Divostin site was occupied twice between 4900 and 4650 B.C. and an estimate based on 17 houses suggests that given a lifespan per house of 56 years. 1028 houses were built on the site during that period with a final population size estimated to be between 868 and 2864. Another large site was Crkvine-Stubline from 4850/4800 BC. it may have contained a maximum population of 4,000. The settlement of Parţa maybe had 1,575 people living there at the same time. It is considered that alike the Neolithic-Chalcolithic Age "there is no evidence for any proto-urbanism nor specialised military, religious or administrative centres", but their settlements did have defensive formations.

Origin
The origins of the Vinča culture are still debated and there exist two mainstream theories, as stated by Marko Porčić (2016), "currently there is no sufficient evidence to accept or to reject out any of the hypotheses proposed for the issue of Vinča culture origins". It is also debatable whether it can be conceptually considered as a "culture" or a "phenomenon".

The first hypothesis is that the Vinča culture developed locally from the preceding Neolithic Starčevo culture—first proposed by Colin Renfrew (1969) and Ruth Tringham (1971)—and it became accepted by many scholars, showing "strong links with the contemporaneous Karanovo (phases III to Kodžadermen-Gumelnita-Karanovo VI) in Bulgaria, Precucuteni-Tripolye A in Moldavia and Ukraine, Dimini in Greece, and the late manifestations of the Starčevo culture and early Sopot culture in eastern Croatia". However, the evidence is not conclusive, and according to recent research "the earliest Vinča sites in the south seem to be as early as those in the north" and have lack of local continuity.

According to the second hypothesis—first proposed by V. Gordon Childe (1929) and Milutin Garašanin (1982)—on the basis of typological similarities, paleodemography and archaeogenetics, the Vinča culture and those of 'Dark Burnished Ware' developed by a second wave population movement from Anatolia to the Balkans after happened demographic-cultural decline and discontinuity between Early-Late Neolithic in the Central Balkans. Recent studies suggest possibility of both local and migration origin, also related to the emergence of Dudești and Boian culture in Romania, or a combination of both origins.

Archaeogenetics
The 2017 and 2018 archaeogenetic studies on 15 samples show that all except one belonged to the paternal Y-DNA haplogroup G-M201 (G2a2a; G2a2a1; 2x G2a2a1a; G2a2b2a1a-PF3346), while the remaining sample belonged to haplogroup H-P96. Their maternal mtDNA haplogroups belonged to H, H3h2, H26, HV, K1a1, K1a4, K2a, T2b, T2c1, and U2 respectively. According to ADMIXTURE analysis they had approximately 90-97% Early European Farmers, 0-12% Western Hunter-Gatherer and 0-8% Western Steppe Herders-related ancestry, and were closest "to the samples from Neolithic Anatolia and to those of Transdanubia LBK and Starčevo, and from the Early Neolithic period from Germany ... consistent with the presumed direction of Neolithic demic movement from Anatolia through the Balkans to central Europe".

A 2021 study found that Neolithic farmers, including those of the Vinča culture, produced much less cytokine levels for inflammation than earlier hunter-gatherers, which evolutionary introduction to the European genomic heritage helps the immune system of modern Europeans.

Chronology

There exist several divisions of the culture, according to J. Chapman (1981) it can be divided into two main phases divided into four sub-phases (A-D), closely linked with those of its type site Vinča-Belo Brdo and dated between 5700 and 4200 BC. According to the most recent radiocarbon dating based on 76 dates (1996) Vinča-Belo Brdo spanned between 5200 and 4500 BC; on 155 dates (2009) it was dated between 5400/5300-4650/4600 BC; and on 600 dates (2016) it was concluded that the culture existed between 5400/5300 and 4500 BC.

In the Vinča C phase happened many significant changes to pottery style, settlement and pyrometallurgical activities and increase in ritual figurines among others because of which it is also called as "Vinča C shock" and "Gradac Phase" (Vinča B2-C1). The phenomenon was particularly strong in the South-Moravian and Kosovian variation of the culture.

Decline
In its late Vinča D phase the centre of the Vinča network shifted from Vinča-Belo Brdo to Vršac, and the long-distance exchange of obsidian and Spondylus artefacts from modern-day Hungary and the Aegean respectively became more important than that of Vinča figurines. Eventually the network lost its cohesion altogether and fell into decline. It is likely that, after two millennia of intensive farming, economic stresses caused by decreasing soil fertility were partly responsible for this decline.

According to Marija Gimbutas, the Vinča culture was part of Old Europe – a relatively homogeneous, peaceful and matrifocal culture that occupied Europe during the Neolithic. According to this hypothesis its period of decline was followed by an invasion of warlike, horse-riding Proto-Indo-European tribes from the Pontic–Caspian steppe. However, this "New Age sentiment" viewpoint was prevalent until 1990s when started to emerge evidences of violent massacres and defensively-enclosed fortified settlements in Neolithic period.

Subsistence

Most people in Vinča settlements would have been occupied with the provision of food. They practised a mixed subsistence economy where agriculture, animal husbandry and hunting and foraging all contributed to the diet of the growing Vinča population. Compared to earlier cultures of the First Temperate Neolithic (FTN) these practices were intensified, with increasing specialisation on high-yield cereal crops and the secondary products of domesticated animals, consistent with the increased population density. In the late Vinča period (Vinča D; c. 4850-4500 cal BC) appeared first toggling harpoon.

Vinča agriculture introduced common wheat, oat and flax to temperate Europe, and made greater use of barley than the cultures of the FTN. These innovations increased crop yields and allowed the manufacture of clothes made from plant textiles as well as animal products (i.e. leather and wool). There is indirect evidence that Vinča farmers made use of the cattle-driven plough, which would have had a major effect on the amount of human labour required for agriculture as well as opening up new area of land for farming. Many of the largest Vinča sites occupy regions dominated by soil types that would have required ploughing.

Areas with less arable potential were exploited through transhumant pastoralism, where groups from the lowland villages moved their livestock to nearby upland areas on a seasonal basis. Cattle were more important than sheep and goats in Vinča herds and, in comparison to the cultures of the FTN, livestock was increasingly kept for milk, leather and as draft animals, rather than solely for meat. Seasonal movement to upland areas was also motivated by the exploitation of stone and mineral resources. Where these were especially rich permanent upland settlements were established, which would have relied more heavily on pastoralism for subsistence.

Although increasingly focused on domesticated plants and animals, the Vinča subsistence economy still made use of wild food resources. The hunting of deer, boar and aurochs, fishing of carp and catfish, shell-collecting, fowling and foraging of wild cereals, forest fruits and nuts made up a significant part of the diet at some Vinča sites. These, however, were in the minority; settlements were invariably located with agricultural rather than wild food potential in mind, and wild resources were usually underexploited unless the area was low in arable productivity.

Industry
Generally speaking craft production within the Vinča network was carried out at the household level; there is little evidence for individual economic specialisation. Nevertheless, some Vinča artefacts were made with considerable levels of technical skill. A two-stage method was used to produce pottery with a polished, multi-coloured finish, known as 'Black-topped' and 'Rainbow Ware'. Sometimes powdered cinnabar and limonite were applied to the fired clay for decoration. The style of Vinča clothing can be inferred from figurines depicted with open-necked tunics and decorated skirts. Cloth was woven from both flax and wool (with flax becoming more important in the later Vinča period), and buttons made from shell or stone were also used.

The Vinča site of Pločnik has produced the earliest example of copper tools in the world. However, the people of the Vinča network practised only an early and limited form of metallurgy. Copper ores were mined on a large scale at sites like Rudna Glava, but only a fraction were smelted and cast into metal artefacts – and these were ornaments and trinkets rather than functional tools, which continued to be made from chipped stone, bone and antler. It is likely that the primary use of mined ores was in their powdered form, in the production of pottery or as bodily decoration.

Major Vinča sites

 * Belogradchik
 * Crkvine
 * Drenovac
 * Gomolava
 * Gornja Tuzla
 * Pločnik
 * Rudna Glava
 * Selevac
 * Tărtăria
 * Turdaş
 * Vinča-Belo Brdo, the type site
 * Vratsa
 * Vršac

title: Vinča culture


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Solnhofen Limestone

The Solnhofen Limestone or Solnhofen Plattenkalk, formally known as the Altmühltal Formation, is a Jurassic Konservat-Lagerstätte that preserves a rare assemblage of fossilized organisms, including highly detailed imprints of soft bodied organisms such as sea jellies. The most familiar fossils of the Solnhofen Plattenkalk include the early feathered theropod dinosaur Archaeopteryx preserved in such detail that they are among the most famous and most beautiful fossils in the world. The Solnhofen beds lie in the German state of Bavaria (Bayern), halfway between Nuremberg (Nürnberg) and Munich (München) and were originally quarried as a source of lithographic limestone. The Jura Museum situated in Eichstätt, Germany has an extensive exhibit of Jurassic fossils from the quarries of Solnhofen and surroundings, including marine reptiles, pterosaurs, and one specimen of the early bird Archaeopteryx.

Paleoenvironment and preservation
During the Late Jurassic, this area was an archipelago at the edge of the Tethys Sea. This included placid lagoons that had limited access to the open sea and where salinity rose high enough that the resulting brine could not support life. Since the lowest water was devoid of oxygen, many ordinary scavengers were absent. Any organism that fell, drifted, or was washed into the lagoons from the ocean or the land became buried in soft carbonate mud. Thus, many delicate creatures avoided consumption by scavengers or being torn apart by currents. The wings of dragonflies, the imprints of stray feathers, and terrestrial plants that washed into the lagoons were all preserved. The fossils are not numerous, but some of them are spectacular, and their range gives a comprehensive picture of a local Jurassic ecosystem.

At times, the lagoons almost dried out, exposing sticky carbonate muds that trapped insects and a few small dinosaurs. Over 600 species have been identified, including twenty-nine kinds of pterosaur ranging from the size of a sparrow to 1.2 m (4 ft) in length.

The fine-grained texture of the mud silt forming the limestone from the Solnhofen area (which is composed mainly of the towns of Solnhofen and Eichstätt) is ideal for making lithographic plates, and extensive quarrying in the 19th century revealed many fossil finds, as commemorated in the name Archaeopteryx lithographica, all the specimens of which come from these deposits. The closest modern analogue to the Solnhofen conditions is said to be Orca Basin in the northern Gulf of Mexico, though that area is much deeper than the Solnhofen lagoons.

IUGS geological heritage site
In respect of the locality being a 'first-class paleontological site displaying high-quality reference material for scientists worldwide, including all known specimens of Archaeopteryx ', the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) included the 'Jurassic Solnhofen-Eichstätt Archaeopteryx Serial Site' in its assemblage of 100 'geological heritage sites' around the world in a listing published in October 2022. The organisation defines an IUGS Geological Heritage Site as 'a key place with geological elements and/or processes of international scientific relevance, used as a reference, and/or with a substantial contribution to the development of geological sciences through history.'

Paleobiota
Significant members of the Solnhofen paleofauna include Archaeopteryx, pterosaurs, and marine invertebrates.

Psilomelane dendrites

Dendrites, branched dark brown to black fractal tree-structure, are quite common in the limestone. Such formations are not plant fossil remains, but iron and manganese oxides (psilomelane, (Ba,H2O)2Mn5O10) that crystallized out of solutions on bedding planes of the Solnhofen limestone. Dendrites have a chemical-mineralogical origin and are formed by a diffusion process.

title: Solnhofen Limestone