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Preußen

Preußen or Preussen is the German word for Prussia.

It also refers to:

Ships

 * Preußen (ship), windjammer built in 1902
 * SMS Preußen (1873), armored frigate
 * SMS Preußen (1903), pre-dreadnought Battleship
 * GERMAN TRAWLER V 1101 Preußen, vorpostenboot

Football

 * BFC Preussen, football club in Berlin
 * SC Preußen Münster, football club in Münster
 * SV Viktoria Preußen 07, football club in Frankfurt
 * Preußen Danzig, former football club in Danzig (Gdańsk)

Other

 * 5628 Preussen, asteroid

title: Preußen


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Prusy

Prusy may refer to:

 * Prusy, Aube, France
 * Prusy, Bánovce nad Bebravou, Slovakia
 * Prusy, Greater Poland Voivodeship (west-central Poland)
 * Prusy, Lesser Poland Voivodeship (south Poland)
 * Prusy, Łódź Voivodeship (central Poland)
 * Prusy, Lower Silesian Voivodeship (south-west Poland)
 * Prusy, Grójec County in Masovian Voivodeship (east-central Poland)
 * Prusy, Łosice County in Masovian Voivodeship (east-central Poland)
 * Prusy, Mińsk County in Masovian Voivodeship (east-central Poland)
 * Prusy, Warsaw West County in Masovian Voivodeship (east-central Poland)
 * Prusy, Busko County in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (south-central Poland)
 * Prusy, Opatów County in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (south-central Poland)
 * Prusy, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship (north Poland)
 * Prusy, the Polish name for Prussia

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

title: Prusy


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User:JogiBear

Member of the Bear community living in Europe...

title: User:JogiBear


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Pollokshaws

Pollokshaws (Powkshaws) is an area on the South side of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is bordered by the residential neighbourhoods of Auldhouse to the east, Eastwood and Hillpark to the south and Shawlands to the north, with the Glasgow South Western Line railway and the open lands of Pollok Country Park to the west. The White Cart Water flows through the area.

The housing stock consists of some sandstone tenement housing, modern brick tenement-style buildings, low-rise social housing and high rise/multi-storey tower blocks. Previously eight tower blocks stood in an area known as the Shawbridge Corridor; the last of these blocks was demolished in March 2016. Four other tower blocks remain, near Pollokshaws East railway station.

According to the 2001 Census, Pollokshaws had a population of 4,295. Its residents are a mixture of working class and middle class social groups, and the area also had a large South Asian community.

History
Pollokshaws was originally a village predominantly dedicated to weaving in the 17th century. A group of Flemish weavers were brought to the area in the 19th century by the landowners, the Maxwells of Pollok, on account of their exceptional weaving skills.

Pollokshaws was granted a charter to become a Burgh of Barony in 1812. It became a police burgh in 1858 and remained a burgh of Renfrewshire until 1912 when it was annexed to the City of Glasgow. Though it had been an industrial area, this changed in 1957 when it was proposed as the second Comprehensive Development Area in Glasgow (the first was Hutchesontown). The area was demolished and rebuilt anew.

Several residential tower blocks were built as part of the CDA plan in the 1960s. Most of these were later demolished between 2008 and 2016 in the Shawbridge Corridor regeneration. The blowdowns of the first two towers in July 2008 was filmed in detail by an American company and can be seen as part of the documentary series "The Detonators". Low-rise, mainly private housing has replaced the blocks. A group of four towers at Shawhill remain standing going into the 2020s, along with a single block at Cartcraigs on the southern periphery of the district.

Landmarks
Pollokshaws Burgh Hall on Pollokshaws Road, built in 1895–98 by architect Robert Rowand Anderson in the Scots renaissance style, was originally the municipal headquarters of the independent burgh before passing into the ownership of Glasgow Corporation following annexation. Now a Category A listed building, it was closed by the council in the 1990s but subsequently reopened for community use by a charitable trust.

Sir John Stirling Maxwell Primary School, located on Bengal Street / Christian Street, was a standalone red sandstone building by architect John H Hamilton, completed in 1907. The site of the school was previously donated by local philanthropic landowner Sir John Stirling Maxwell, after whom it was named. The school was closed in June 2011 and despite local pressure and campaigns the building was allowed to rot and stood derelict for some years. It was demolished in 2023 after being deemed structurally unsafe beyond repair, with the council promising to save and re-use some of its features in a future project.

Pollokshaws Clock Tower, located on Pleasance Street, is the surviving part of the old Town House, built in 1803. There was a ground-floor school with a court-room and a police cell above it. From 1818, the Town House building also housed a library. The Pollokshaws Burgh Charter empowered the council to hold courts for the trial both of civil actions and criminal offences. A jail to incarcerate local wrongdoers was built in 1845. After the 1912 annexation of Pollokshaws Burgh to the City of Glasgow, most of the Town House was demolished and only a public campaign managed to save the remaining Clock Tower.

The Round Toll is a circular building now located on the central island of the roundabout of the same name (junction of B762 Barrhead Road / Nether Auldhouse Road and B769 Pollokshaws Road / Thornliebank Road). Built around 1820 as a tollbooth, it is the only surviving example of this type of building in the area, others having been lost to road development, and a rare example of an older building in Pollokshaws following 20th century slum clearance and redevelopment. It is now Category B listed. Following the abolition of road tolls in the 1880s it served as a carriage hire premises, a pub, and latterly as a private house up until the 1950s. It was subsequently used for council storage but is now vacant and isolated on the roundabout.

Sport
Pollokshaws Bowling Club was formed in 1854 and was originally across from Pollokshaws West railway station. On the club's centenary, the clubhouse and greens moved into Pollok Park rent free thanks to Sir John Stirling Maxwell.

The Pollokshaws Races, an informal horse racing event staged annually from around 1750 until 1883, took place on a racecourse to the southwest of the village, on land now occupied by Kennishead Road and Cowglen Golf Club. The races initially developed in conjunction with the local holiday, the Pollokshaws Fair, and were viewed more as an excuse for drinking and socialising rather than a serious sporting event.

Pollok F.C.'s Newlandsfield Park is in the area, adjacent to Pollokshaws East railway station.

Notable people

 * Frankie Boyle - comedian
 * Elizabeth 'Betty' Burns - Illegitimate daughter of Robert Burns is buried in the Kirk Lane Cemetery.
 * Jack McLean, Glasgow columnist
 * John MacLean - early 20th century socialist
 * Alex Norton - actor
 * James Maxton - political activist
 * James Tassie - 18th century gem engraver

title: Pollokshaws


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Agusta

Agusta was an Italian helicopter manufacturer. It was based in Samarate, Northern Italy. The company was founded by Count Giovanni Agusta in 1923, who flew his first airplane in 1907. The MV Agusta motorcycle manufacturer began as an offshoot of the Agusta aviation company at the end of the Second World War, as a means to save the jobs of employees of the Agusta firm.

In July 2000, Agusta merged with Westland Helicopters to form AgustaWestland S.p.A., a multinational helicopter design and manufacturing company, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Leonardo S.p.A.

History
From 1952, the company became involved in helicopter manufacturing, first building Bell helicopters under licence, but later Sikorsky, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas products as well. The company also had ambitions to design and build its own helicopters. The Agusta A.101 and the Agusta A.106 can be considered the best of its earlier attempts. Others included the AB.102, A.103, A.104, and A.115. It also produced a small line of aero engines such as the GA.70 and GA.140.

Developed in the 1970s, the Agusta A109 is a commercial and military twin-turbine helicopter, of which the latest variants are still in production.

In 1983, the Agusta A129 Mangusta anti-tank helicopter partook in its first official flight engagement. It was the first attack helicopter to be designed and produced in Western Europe. However, this helicopter has been a limited commercial success so far, seeing service with the Italian Army, and has also been a modernized variant being developed for the Turkish Army.

The 1980s saw the start of several collaborative projects for Agusta. In 1981 Agusta and Westland of Britain started the EH101 medium-lift naval helicopter project in order to satisfy the requirements of the Royal Navy and the Italian Navy. In 1985 the company started a collaborative programme with the aeronautic industries of France, Germany and the Netherlands in order to develop and produce the NHIndustries NH90, a nine-ton twin-engine multi-role medium helicopter in order to satisfy the requirements of their respective countries’ armed forces.

1990s projects include the Agusta A109 Power, an improved version of the A109C series (1994) and the Agusta A119 Koala (1997), a single-engine design based on the A109.

Agusta became involved in the Belgian bribery scandal when it was revealed that the company had paid the two Belgian socialist parties who were then (1988/1989) in the government to assist the company in getting the contract for attack helicopters for the Belgian Army.

In 1998, Agusta formed a joint venture with Bell Helicopter Textron called the Bell/Agusta Aerospace Company. Its aim was to develop the Bell/Agusta AB139 helicopter and the Bell/Agusta BA609 tiltrotor aircraft. Bell later withdrew from the BA609 project, which is now known as the AgustaWestland AW609.

In July 2000, Finmeccanica and GKN plc agreed to merge their respective helicopter subsidiaries (Agusta and GKN-Westland Helicopters), forming AgustaWestland.

It was reported on 12 February 2013 that the chief executive, Giuseppe Orsi, was arrested on corruption charges. Prosecutors allege he paid bribes to ensure the sale of 12 helicopters to the Indian government, when he was head of the group's AgustaWestland unit.

On 13 February 2013, Finmeccanica's Board of Directors named Alessandro Pansa as chief executive officer and resolved to confer the role of vice chairman to Admiral Guido Venturoni.

Shortly after Pansa's appointment, Italian investigators discovered a case of bribery by Finmeccanica in its deal with India following which the government of India issued a show cause notice to the company.

A complaint was filed seeking an investigation into the sale of 21 civil helicopters worth over Rs 7,000 crore (US$1.6 billion) by AgustaWestland between 2005 and 2013 in India. As per the complaint Agusta Westland has been selling civil helicopters in India through. Tax authorities in India have been asked to probe the possibility of tax evasion by Sharp Ocean on the commission received for the sale of helicopters and foreign exchange deprivation to the country by off-shoring payments for the sale of helicopters in India.

Separately, the comptroller and auditor general, in its latest report, has indicted the Chhattisgarh government for overpaying Rs.65 lakh (US$120,000) for the purchase of a VVIP helicopter -an Agusta A-109 Power helicopter. Both companies are promoted by twin brothers Nayan Jagjivan and Nakul Jagjivan.

Aircraft

 * A.101 prototype transport helicopter
 * A.103 prototype single-seat light helicopter
 * A.104 Helicar prototype light helicopter
 * A.105 prototype light helicopter
 * A.106 light ASW helicopter
 * A109/AW109 multi-purpose helicopter
 * A.115 prototype light helicopter
 * AW119 Koala utility helicopter
 * A129 Mangusta attack helicopter
 * AZ8-L prototype propliner/airliner
 * EMA 124 prototype light utility helicopter
 * CP-110 prototype light propeller aircraft

 * Joint ventures:
 * AgustaBell AB139
 * Bell/Agusta BA609 (50% share)
 * EHI Industries EH101
 * NH90 (32% share)

 * Licensed production:
 * AB 47
 * AB102
 * AB204
 * AB205
 * AB206 Jet Ranger
 * AB212
 * AB412
 * AS-61
 * AS-61R

Aircraft engines

 * Agusta GA.40
 * Agusta GA.70

title: Agusta


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Boeing 314 Clipper

The Boeing 314 Clipper was an American long-range flying boat produced by Boeing from 1938 to 1941. One of the largest aircraft of its time, it had the range to cross the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. For its wing, Boeing re-used the design from the earlier XB-15 bomber prototype. Twelve Clippers were built, nine of which served with Pan Am.

Design and development

Pan American had requested a truly trans-Pacific flying boat with unprecedented range and double the passenger payload of the airline's Martin M-130. Boeing's bid was successful and on July 21, 1936, Pan American signed a contract for six. Boeing engineers adapted the cancelled XB-15's 149 ft wing, and replaced the 850 hp Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp radial engines with the 1,600 hp Wright Twin Cyclone. Pan Am ordered six more aircraft with increased engine power and capacity for 77 daytime passengers as the Boeing 314A.

The huge flying boat was assembled at Boeing's Plant 1 on the Duwamish River in Seattle, and towed to Elliott Bay for taxi and flight tests. The first flight was on June 7, 1938, piloted by Edmund T. "Eddie" Allen. At first the aircraft had a single vertical tail, and Allen found he had inadequate directional control. The aircraft returned to the factory and was fitted with the endplates on the ends of the horizontal tail in place of the single vertical fin. This too was found to be insufficient and finally the centerline vertical fin was restored, after which the aircraft flew satisfactorily.

The 314 used a series of heavy ribs and spars to create a robust fuselage and cantilevered wing, eliminating the need for external drag-inducing struts to brace the wings. Boeing also incorporated Dornier-style sponsons into the hull structure. The sponsons, broad lateral extensions at the waterline on both sides of the hull, served several purposes: They provided a wide platform to stabilize the craft while floating, they acted as a gangway for boarding and exiting, and they possessed intentional shaping to contribute additional aerodynamic lift in flight.

To fly the long ranges needed for trans-Pacific service, the 314 carried 4,246 USgal of gasoline. The later 314A model carried a further 1200 USgal. A capacity of 300 USgal of oil was required for operation of the radial engines.

Pan Am's "Clippers" were built for "one-class" luxury air travel, a necessity given the long duration of transoceanic flights. In 1940, Pan Am's scheduled time from San Francisco to Honolulu was 19 hours, with a cruising speed of 188 mph, although flights at maximum gross weight were typically flown at 155 mph. Clipper service catered to elite businessmen and the wealthy traveler. The 314s had a lounge and dining area, and the galleys were crewed by chefs from four-star hotels. Men and women were provided with separate dressing rooms, and white-coated stewards served five and six-course meals with gleaming silver service. The seats could be converted into 36 bunks for overnight accommodation. The standard of luxury on Pan American's Boeing 314s has rarely been matched on heavier-than-air transport since then. A round trip from New York to Southampton was $675, while a one-way ticket from San Francisco to Hong Kong via the "stepping-stone" islands cost $760. The Pan Am Boeing 314 Clippers brought exotic destinations like the Far East within reach of air travelers and came to represent the romance of flight. Most of the flights were transpacific, while transatlantic flights to neutral Lisbon and Ireland continued after war broke out in Europe in September 1939 (and until 1945), but military passengers and cargoes necessarily got priority, and the service was more spartan.

Equally critical to the 314's success was the proficiency of its Pan Am flight crews, who were extremely skilled at long-distance, over-water flight operations and navigation. For training, many of the transpacific flights carried a second crew. Only the very best and most experienced flight crews were assigned Boeing 314 flying boat duty. Before coming aboard, all Pan Am captains as well as first and second officers had thousands of hours of flight time in other seaplanes and flying boats. Rigorous training in dead reckoning, timed turns, judging drift from sea current, celestial navigation, and radio navigation were conducted. In conditions of poor or no visibility, pilots sometimes made successful landings at fogged-in harbors by landing out to sea, then taxiing the 314 into port.

Operational history
The first 314 flight on the San Francisco-Hong Kong route left Alameda on February 23, 1939 with regular passenger and Foreign Air Mail Route #14 service beginning on March 29. A one-way trip on this route took over six days to complete. Commercial passenger service lasted less than three years, ending when the United States entered World War II in December 1941. Passengers and their baggage were weighed, with each passenger allowed up to 77 lb free baggage allowance (in the later 314 series) but then charged 3.25 $/lb for exceeding the limit.

The Yankee Clipper flew across the Atlantic on a route from Southampton to Port Washington, New York with intermediate stops at Foynes in Ireland, Botwood in Newfoundland, and Shediac, New Brunswick. The inaugural trip occurred on June 24, 1939.

The success of the six initial Clippers had led Pan Am to place an order for six improved 314A models to be delivered in 1941, with the goal of doubling the service on both Atlantic and Pacific routes. However, the fall of France in 1940 caused some doubt about whether the Atlantic service could continue; passenger numbers were already reduced by the war, and if Spain or Portugal were to join the Axis, then the flights to Lisbon would be forced to stop. Pan Am began to consider reducing its order and, in August 1940, reached an agreement to sell three of the six under construction to the United Kingdom. The aircraft were to be operated by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and were primarily intended for the UK – West Africa route, as existing flying boats could not travel this route without stopping in Lisbon. The sale made a small net profit for Pan Am – priced at cost plus 5% – and provided a vital communications link for Britain, but was politically controversial. In order to arrange the sale, the junior minister Harold Balfour had to agree to the contract with no government approval, leading to stern disapproval from Winston Churchill and lengthy debate by the Cabinet over the propriety of the purchase. Churchill later flew on the Bristol and Berwick in January 1942 from Washington, D.C. to England, and he praised the plane intensely, adding to the Clippers' fame during the war.

At the outbreak of the war in the Pacific in December 1941, the Pacific Clipper was en route to New Zealand from San Francisco. Rather than risk flying back to Honolulu and being shot down by Japanese fighters, it was directed to fly west to New York. Starting on December 8, 1941 at Auckland, New Zealand, the Pacific Clipper covered over 31,500 mi via locations including Surabaya, Karachi, Bahrain, Khartoum and Leopoldville. The Pacific Clipper landed at Pan American's LaGuardia Field seaplane base at 7:12 on the morning of January 6, 1942.

Pan Am's Clipper fleet was pressed into US military service during World War II, and the flying boats were used for ferrying personnel and equipment to the European and Pacific fronts. The aircraft were purchased by the War and Navy Departments and leased back to Pan Am for a dollar, with the understanding that all would be operated by the Navy once four-engined replacements for the Army's four Clippers were in service. Only the markings on the aircraft changed: The Clippers continued to be flown by their experienced Pan Am civilian crews. American military cargo was carried via Natal, Brazil to Liberia, to supply the British forces at Cairo and even the Russians, via the Persian Corridor. The Model 314 was then the only aircraft in the world that could make the 2150 smi crossing over water. The Army gave the aircraft the designation C-98, but the Navy—which used a different designation system at the time—disregarded this designation and operated the aircraft under the company designation B-314. In February 1942, forty women were hired by Pan Am to replace male mechanics in the hangars at LaGuardia to perform service, repair and overhaul of the Clippers for the European service. Maintenance demands were such that it took "141 mechanics, working three 8-hour shifts, to perform in two days the complete inspection of servicing routine which must be carried out before a Clipper just in from Europe can be sent on the return trip." Since the Pan Am pilots and crews had extensive expertise in using flying boats for extreme long-distance over-water flights, the company's pilots and navigators continued to serve as flight crew. In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt traveled to the Casablanca Conference in a Pan-Am crewed Boeing 314 Dixie Clipper.

After the war, several Clippers were returned to Pan American hands. However, even before hostilities had ended, the Clipper had become obsolete. The flying boat's advantage had been that it did not require long concrete runways, but during the war many such runways had been built for heavy bombers. New long-range airliners such as the Lockheed Constellation and Douglas DC-4 were relatively easy to fly, and did not require the extensive pilot training programs mandated for seaplane operations. One of the 314's most experienced pilots said, "We were indeed glad to change to DC-4s, and I argued daily for eliminating all flying boats. The landplanes were much safer. No one in the operations department... had any idea of the hazards of flying boat operations. The main problem now was lack of the very high level of experience and competence required of seaplane pilots."

Retirement

The last Pan Am 314 to be retired, the California Clipper NC18602, in 1946, had accumulated more than a million flight miles. Of the 12 Boeing 314 Clippers built, three were lost to accidents, although only one of those resulted in fatalities: 24 passengers and crew aboard the Yankee Clipper NC18603 lost their lives in a landing accident at Cabo Ruivo Seaplane Base, in Lisbon, Portugal on February 22, 1943. Among that flight's passengers were prominent American author and war correspondent Benjamin Robertson, who was killed, and the American singer and actress Jane Froman, who was seriously injured.

Pan-Am's 314 was removed from scheduled service in 1946 and the seven serviceable B-314s were purchased by the start-up airline New World Airways. These sat at San Diego's Lindbergh Field for a long time before all were eventually sold for scrap in 1950. The last of the fleet, the Anzac Clipper NC18611(A), was resold and scrapped at Baltimore, Maryland in late 1951.

BOAC's 314As were withdrawn from the Baltimore-to-Bermuda route in January 1948, replaced by Lockheed Constellations flying from New York and Baltimore to Bermuda.

Variants

 * Model 314
 * Initial production version with 1,500 hp Twin Cyclone engines, six built for Pan Am.

 * Model 314A
 * Improved version with 1,600 hp Twin Cyclones with larger-diameter propellers, additional 1200 USgal fuel capacity, and revised interior. Still air range approx 4,700 miles. Six built, three for Pan Am and three sold to BOAC.

 * B-314
 * Five Model 314s pressed into military service with the U.S. Navy

 * C-98
 * Four Model 314s pressed into military service with the U.S. Army Air Forces

Operators

 * Pan American World Airways
 * United States Army Air Forces
 * United States Navy
 * World Airways
 * British Overseas Airways Corporation
 * Chad Airways
 * British Overseas Airways Corporation
 * Chad Airways
 * Chad Airways

Surviving aircraft

None of the dozen 314s built between 1939 and 1941 survived beyond 1951, with all 12 being cannibalized for parts, scuttled, scrapped, or otherwise written off. Underwater Admiralty Sciences, a non-profit oceanographic exploration and science research organization based in Kirkland, Washington, announced in 2005, at the 70th Anniversary of the first China Clipper flight in San Francisco, its plans to survey, photograph, and possibly recover the remains of the hulls of two sunken 314s: NC18601 (Honolulu Clipper), scuttled in the Pacific Ocean in 1945; and NC18612 (Bermuda Sky Queen, formerly Cape Town Clipper), sunk in the Atlantic by the Coast Guard in 1947. UAS has also spent significant time at Pan Am reunions and with individual crewmembers and employees of Pan Am conducting videotaped interviews for the mission's companion documentary. However, as of 2014, no search or recovery had been attempted, with the most recent news from 2011 suggesting that the company was still in need of at least US$8 million to get the plan under way.

There is a life-size 314 mockup at the Foynes Flying Boat Museum, Foynes, County Limerick, Ireland, located on the site of the original transatlantic flying-boat terminus.

Cultural influence
Inspired by the airplane, Smith Corona designed, manufactured, and marketed a typewriter model they called the Clipper from 1945–1960. The typewriter model's logo prominently featured the Boeing 314 Clipper on the typewriter's body which served as a reminder of the luxury and design of the original airplane.

title: Boeing 314 Clipper


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Lutsk

Lutsk (Луцьк, ; see below for other names) is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Volyn Oblast and the administrative center of Lutsk Raion within the oblast. Lutsk has a population of Historically it was a cultural and religious center in Volhynia.

Names and etymology
Lutsk is an ancient Slavic town, mentioned in the Hypatian Chronicle as Luchesk in the records of 1085. The etymology of the name is unclear. There are three hypotheses: the name may have been derived from the Old Slavic word luka (an arc or bend in a river), or the name may have originated from Luka (the chieftain of the Dulebs), an ancient Slavic tribe living in this area. The name may also have been created after Luchanii (Luchans), an ancient branch of the tribe mentioned above. Its historical name in Ukrainian is "Луцьк".

The city of Lutsk is also historically known by different names in other languages – Łuck, ; לוצק ,לויצק; as well as a number of other names.

History
According to the legend, Luchesk dates from the 7th century. The first known documentary reference dates were from the year 1085. The town served as the capital of the Principality of Halych-Volynia (founded in 1199) until the rise of Volodymyr. The town grew around a wooden stronghold built by a local branch of the Rurik Dynasty. At certain times the location functioned as the capital of the principality, but the town did not become an important centre of commerce or culture.

Grand Duchy of Lithuania
In 1240, Tatars seized and looted the nearby town but left the castle unharmed. In 1321, George, son of Lev, the last prospective heir of Halych-Volynia, died in a battle with the forces of Gediminas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Lithuanian forces seized the castle. In 1349, the forces of King Casimir III of Poland captured the town, but Lithuania soon retook it.

The town began to prosper during the period of Lithuanian rule. Prince Lubart (died 1384), son of Gediminas, erected Lubart's Castle as part of his fortification programme. Vytautas the Great, Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1392 to 1430, founded the town itself by importing colonists (mostly Jews, Tatars, and Karaims). In 1427 he transferred the Catholic bishopric from Volodymyr to Luchesk. Vytautas was the last monarch to use the title of "Duke of Volhynia" and to reside in Lubart's Castle.

The town grew rapidly, and by the end of the 15th century, there were 19 Orthodox and two Catholic churches. It was the seat of two Christian bishops, one Catholic and one Orthodox. Because of that, the town was sometimes nicknamed "the Volhynian Rome." The cross symbol of Lutsk features the highest Lithuanian Presidential award, the Order of Vytautas the Great.

In 1429 Lutsk was the meeting place selected for a conference of monarchs hosted by Jogaila and Sophia of Halshany to deal with the Tatar threat. Those invited to attend included Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor; Vasili II of Russia, the king of Denmark; Eric of Pomerania, the Grand Master of the Livonian Order; Zisse von Rutenberg, the Duke of Szczecin Kazimierz V; Dan II, the Hospodar of Wallachia; and Prince-electors of most of the countries of Germany.

Crown of the Kingdom of Poland
In 1432, Volhynia became a fief of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and Lutsk became the seat of the governors, and later the Marshalls of the Land of Volhynia. That same year, the city was granted Magdeburg rights. In 1569, Volhynia was fully incorporated into the Polish kingdom and the town became the capital of the Volhynian Voivodeship and the Łuck powiat (Polish administrative unit). After the Union of Lublin, the local Orthodox bishop converted to Eastern Catholicism.

The town continued to prosper as an important economic centre of the region. By the mid-17th century, Łuck had approximately 50,000 inhabitants and was one of the largest towns in the area. During the Khmelnytsky Uprising, the town was seized by the forces of Colonel Kolodko. Up to 4,000 people were slaughtered, approximately 35,000 fled, and the town was looted and partially burnt. It never fully recovered. In 1781, the city was struck by a fire which destroyed 440 houses, both cathedrals, and several other churches.

Russian Empire
In 1795, as a result of the Partitions of Poland, the Russian Empire annexed Lutsk. The Voivodeship was liquidated and the town lost its significance as the capital of the province (which was moved to Zhytomyr). After the November Uprising (1830–1831), efforts increased to remove Polish influence. Russian became the dominant language in official circles. Though, the population continued to speak Ukrainian; the Polish population spoke Polish; and the Jewish population spoke Yiddish (only in private circles). The Greek Catholic churches was turned into Orthodox Christian ones, which led to the self-liquidation of the Uniates here. In 1845, another great fire struck the city, resulting in further depopulation.

In 1850, three major forts were built around Lutsk, and the town became a small fortress called Mikhailogorod. During the First World War, the town was seized by Austria-Hungary on 29 August 1915. The town sustained a small amount of damage. During more than a year of Austro-Hungarian occupation, Lutsk became an important military centre with the headquarters of the IV Army under Archduke Josef Ferdinand stationed there. A plague of epidemic typhus decimated the city's inhabitants.

On 4 June 1916, four Russian armies under general Aleksei Brusilov started what later became known as the Brusilov Offensive. After up to three days of heavy artillery barrage, the Battle of Lutsk began. On 7 June 1916 the Russian forces reconquered the city. After the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1917, the city was seized by Germany on 7 February 1918. On 22 February 1918 the town was transferred by the withdrawing German army to the forces loyal to Symon Petlura.

Second Polish Republic
During the Polish-Bolshevik War, on 16 May 1919, Lutsk was taken over by the forces of Poland's Blue Army after a heavy battle with the Red Army. The city was devastated and largely depopulated. It witnessed the Soviet counter-offensive of 1920 and was taken on 12 July 1920. It was recaptured by Poland's 45th Rifles regiment and field artillery on 15 September 1920. According to American sociologist Alexander Gella "the Polish victory [over the Red Army] had gained twenty years of independence not only for Poland but at least for an entire central part of Europe. Łuck was designated by the newly-reborn nation of Poland as the capital of the Wołyń Voivodeship.

The city was connected by railroad to Lviv (then Lwów) and Przemyśl. Several brand new factories were built both in Łuck and on its outskirts producing farming equipment, wood, and leather products among other consumer goods. New mills and breweries opened. An orphanage was built, and a big new bursary. The first high school was soon inaugurated. In 1937, an airport was established in Łuck with an area of 69 ha.

The 13th Kresowy Light Artillery Regiment was stationed in the city, together with a Łuck National Defense (Poland) Battalion. In 1938, construction of a large modern radio transmitter began in the city (see Polish Radio Łuck). As of 1 January 1939 Łuck had 39,000 inhabitants (approximately 17,500 Jews and 13,500 Poles). The powiat formed around the town had 316,970 inhabitants, including 59% Ukrainians, 19.5% Poles, 14% Jews and approximately 23,000 Czechs and Germans.

World War II
On Thursday 7 September 1939, at about 5 p.m., the Polish government, which had left Warsaw the day before, arrived at Łuck. German intelligence quickly found out about it, and the city was twice bombed by the Luftwaffe, on 11 and 14 September. After panzer units of the Wehrmacht had crossed the Bug river, on 14 September the government of Poland left Łuck and headed southwards, to Kosow Huculski, which at that time was located near the Polish–Romanian border.

As a result of the invasion of Poland from both sides and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Łuck, along with the rest of western Volyn, was annexed by the Soviet Union. Most of the factories (including the almost-finished radio station) were dismantled and sent east to Russia. Approximately 10,000 of the city's Polish inhabitants (chiefly ethnic Poles, but also Polish Jews) were deported in cattle trucks to Kazakhstan and 1,550 were arrested by the NKVD.

After the start of Operation Barbarossa the city was captured by the Wehrmacht on 25 June 1941. Thousands of Polish and Ukrainian prisoners were shot by the retreating NKVD responsible for political prisons. The inmates were offered amnesty and in the morning of June 23 1941 ordered to exit the building en masse. They were gunned down by Soviet tanks. Some 4,000 captives including Poles, Jews and Ukrainians were massacred.

Upon Nazi occupation, most of the Jewish inhabitants of the city were forced into a new Łuck Ghetto (Ghetto Luzk) and then murdered at the execution site on Górka Połonka hill not far from the city. In total, more than 25,000 Jews were executed there at point-blank range, men, women and children. The Łuck Ghetto was liquidated entirely through the Holocaust by bullets. During the massacres of Poles in Volhynia approximately 10,000 Poles were murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the area. It was captured by the Red Army on 2 February 1944.

Postwar
After the end of the war, the remaining Polish inhabitants of the city were expelled, mostly to the areas that are sometimes referred to as the Polish Regained Territories. The city became an industrial centre in the Ukrainian SSR. The major changes in the city's demographics had the final result that by the end of the war, the city was almost entirely Ukrainian. During the Cold War, the city hosted the Lutsk air base.

As one of the largest cities in Western Ukraine, Lutsk became the seat of the General Consulate of Poland in 2003.

On 21 July 2020, a hostage crisis took place, involving a man armed with a firearm and explosives who stormed a bus and took 16 people hostage at about 9:25 a.m. Police said that they had identified the hostage-taker and that he had expressed dissatisfaction with "Ukraine's system" on social media. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that shots gas had been heard and that the bus had been damaged. The incident led to police blocking off the city centre. The standoff was eventually resolved after several hours, with all of the hostages being freed and the hostage taker being arrested.

Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 11 March 2022, as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian army fired four missiles at Lutsk military airfield killing two Ukrainian servicemen and wounding six. On 28 March, Lutsk was struck by another Russian missile.

Population
As of 1 January 2022, the population of the Lutsk city territorial community was 244,678 people, and 215,986 people in the city of Lutsk.

Language
Distribution of the population by native language according to the 2001 census:

According to a survey conducted by the International Republican Institute in April-May 2023, 98% of the city's population spoke Ukrainian at home, and 1% spoke Russian.

Climate
Lutsk has a humid continental climate (Dfb in the Köppen climate classification).

Industry and commerce
Lutsk is an important centre of industry. Factories producing cars, shoes, bearings, furniture, machines and electronics, as well as weaveries, steel mills and a chemical plant are located in the area.
 * VGP JSC – manufacture of sanitary and hygienic products
 * LuAZ – automobile-manufacturing plant, part of Bogdan group
 * SKF – manufacture of bearings, seals, lubrication and lubrication systems, maintenance products, mechatronics products, power transmission products and related services globally
 * Modern-Expo Group – one of the largest manufacturers and suppliers of equipment (metal shelving, high racks systems, checkouts, catering equipment, refrigeration equipment, POS-equipment and guidance systems) for retail and warehouse use in Central and Eastern Europe.
 * Lutsk is the capital of the Drupal web development

Places of interest

 * Lubart's Castle. The Upper Castle from the 13th century and the Lower Castle from the 14th century
 * Saint Peter and Paul Cathedral. A Catholic cathedral built 1610 as a Jesuit church, reconstructed in 1781
 * Great Synagogue built in 1626–1629
 * Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral built 1755 as a church and monastery of Bernardines
 * Lutheran Church
 * Complex of Lutsk Orthodox Fellowship
 * Market square
 * Lesya Ukrainka street
 * Monasteries, both Catholic and Orthodox: Basilians (17th century), Dominicans (17th century), Trinitarians (18th century) and Charites (18th century)
 * Two 16th century Greek-Catholic churches
 * Lutsk compact overhead powerline, a powerline of an unusual type.
 * One of the longest buildings in the world: Apartment house on Sobornosti av. and Molodi st. (50.761219°N, 25.368719°E)  Length: 1750 m.

Theatres and museums

 * Drama Theatre, built in 1939 (uk)
 * Children's Puppet Theater
 * Museum of Regional Studies. Address: Shopena St. 20
 * Museum of Ukrainian army and ammunition opened in 1999. Address: Lutsk, vul. Taborishi 4
 * Museum of Volyn Icon was opened in August 1993. A relatively small museum in the centre of the town. Has some interesting and very old icons. Address: vul. Yaroshchuka 5. (behind the Lesia Ukrainka Volyn State University)
 * THE KORSAKS’ MUSEUM OF THE CONTEMPORARY UKRAINIAN ART". Address: vul. Karbysheva 1

Religion
The city was the episcopal seat of the Eparchy of Lutsk–Ostroh in the Ruthenian Uniate Church. The city was also the centre of the short-lived Ukrainian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Volhynia, Polesia and Pidliashia. Currently, it is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lutsk and of the Exarchate of Lutsk in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. In the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the former Catholic cathedral of the Holy Trinity is the seat of the Eparchy of Volhynia.

Notable people

 * Shlomo Ben-Yosef (1913–1938) a member of Revisionist Zionist underground group Irgun.
 * Volodymyr Bondar (born 1968), politician, Governor of Volyn Oblast 2005-2007
 * Benedykt Chmielowski (1700–1763), a Polish priest, author of the encyclopedia, Nowe Ateny
 * Count Włodzimierz Czacki (1834–1888) a Polish Cardinal (Catholic Church) from 1882
 * Alojzy Feliński (1771–1820), Polish scientist and writer
 * Abraham Firkovich (1786–1874) a Karaite writer and Hakham and collector of ancient manuscripts
 * Shlomo Flam (died 1813), Hasidic rabbi and maggid in Lutsk
 * Kateryna Gornostai (born 1989) is a Ukrainian film director, screenwriter and film editor.
 * Bolesław Kontrym (1898–1953), a Polish Army officer, a participant in the Warsaw Uprising
 * Mikołaj Kruszewski (1851–1887), a Polish linguist, co-inventor of the concept of phonemes
 * Dinora Pines (1918–2002), British physician and psychoanalyst, especially feminine psychology
 * Oleksandr Polozhynskyi (born 1972), a Ukrainian singer and presenter
 * Volodymyr Runchak (born 1960) a Ukrainian accordionist, conductor and composer
 * Shmuel Shilo (1929–2011), an Israeli actor, director and producer
 * Florian Siwicki (1925–2013), a Polish military officer, diplomat and communist politician.
 * Zalman Sorotzkin (1881–1966), an Orthodox rabbi who served as the rabbi of Lutsk and author
 * Mordecai Sultansky (ca. 1772–1862), Karaite Jewish hakham and scholar
 * Tartak (founded 1994), music band; all members were born in Lutsk
 * Shimshon Unichman (1907–1961), Israeli politician and member of the Knesset
 * Svitlana Winnikow (1919–1981), engineer, first woman professor of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics at Michigan Technological University
 * Oksana Zabuzhko (born 1960), contemporary Ukrainian poet, writer and essayist
 * Svetlana Zakharova (born 1979), a Ukrainian prima ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet
 * Joseph Zinker (born 1934), Gestalt psychology therapist, painter and sculptor.

Sport

 * Peter Bondra (born 1968), Ukrainian-born Slovak ice hockey player
 * Oleksandr Chyzhevskyi (born 1971) football coach and former player with 513 club caps.
 * Iurii Kostiuk (born 1977) a Ukrainian biathlete and gold medallist at the Cross-country skiing at the 2006 Winter Paralympics
 * Volodymyr Mozolyuk (born 1964) is a Ukrainian retired footballer with over 540 club caps.
 * Anzhelika Savrayuk (born 1989), Italian rhythmic gymnast, team bronze medallist at the 2012 Summer Olympics
 * Vyacheslav Shevchuk (born 1979) is a retired footballer with 34 club caps and 56 with Ukraine
 * Anatoliy Tymoshchuk (born 1979), a footballer with 533 club caps and 144 for Ukraine

In popular culture
The NKVD and Nazi massacres are mentioned in the Prix Goncourt awarded novel The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell.

Lutsk is a location taken over by post-apocalyptic slavers in the sci-fi/adventure novel The Crisis Pendant by Charlie Patterson.

Twin towns – sister cities
Lutsk is twinned with:

 * 🇹🇷 Bandırma, Turkey
 * 🇵🇱 Białystok, Poland
 * 🇧🇾 Brest, Belarus
 * 🇵🇱 Chełm, Poland
 * 🇱🇹 Kaunas, Lithuania
 * 🇨🇿 Kyjov, Czech Republic
 * 🇩🇪 Lippe (district), Germany
 * 🇵🇱 Lublin, Poland
 * 🇵🇱 Olsztyn, Poland
 * 🇵🇱 Rzeszów, Poland
 * 🇵🇱 Toruń, Poland
 * 🇱🇹 Trakai, Lithuania
 * 🇨🇳 Xiangtan, China
 * 🇵🇱 Zamość, Poland

title: Lutsk


text:
Port Melbourne

Port Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south-west of the Melbourne central business district, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Port Phillip local government areas. Port Melbourne recorded a population of 17,633 at the 2021 census.

The area to the north of the West Gate Freeway is located within the City of Melbourne, with The area to the south located within the City of Port Phillip. The suburb is bordered by the shores of Hobsons Bay and the lower reaches of the Yarra River. Port Melbourne covers a large area, which includes the distinct localities of Fishermans Bend, Garden City and Beacon Cove.

Historically it was known as Sandridge and developed as the city's second port, linked to the nearby Melbourne CBD.

The formerly industrial Port Melbourne has been subject to intense urban renewal over the past three decades. As a result, Port Melbourne is a diverse and historic area, featuring industrial and port areas along the Yarra, to open parklands, bayside beaches, exclusive apartments and Bay Street's restaurants and cafes. The suburb also forms a major transport link from east to west, home to one end of the West Gate Bridge.

History

The most prominent early resident of the area now known as Port Melbourne was Captain Wilbraham Frederick Evelyn Liardet, who arrived in 1839 and established a hotel, jetty, and mail service. Liardet later stated that before his arrival the surveyor William Wedge Darke and his family had camped on the beach in their two roomed, carpeted wooden caravan known as 'Darke's Ark'. Liardet credited Wedge with cutting the first track to the beach through the tea tree scrub and hoisting a barrel on a pole, on a high section of ground, to point the way back to the Melbourne settlement. From this signpost its first official name, 'Sandridge', was said to have originated. The area also became commonly known as 'Liardet's Beach' but Liardet himself was said to have preferred 'Brighton'. It became Port Melbourne in 1884.

The area came into prominence during the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s. With an increasing number of ships looking to berth, Sandridge became a thriving transport hub. To alleviate the high costs of shipping goods via small vessels up the Yarra River to Melbourne the Port Melbourne railway line was built in 1854 to connect Sandridge to Melbourne. The disused Sandridge Bridge takes its name from this historic railway line.

In 1860, Port Melbourne was an early area of Victoria to gain Municipal status with the Sandridge Borough, which later became the City of Port Melbourne.

In the early years of Port Melbourne, the suburb was separated from neighbouring Albert Park by a large shallow lagoon. This was gradually filled in over the years, with the last of it completed in 1929. Today the area is largely covered by the eponymous Lagoon Reserve, a public park to the east of the Esplanade between Liardet Street and Graham Street, although the original extent of the lagoon was much greater.

As a transport hub, Port Melbourne had numerous hotels. Early industries included a sugar refining, soap production, candle works, chemical works, rice and flour mills, gasworks, a distillery and a boot factory. Station and Princes Piers were major places of arrival to Australia for immigrants prior to the availability of affordable air travel.

For many years Port Melbourne was a focus of Melbourne's criminal underworld, which operated smuggling syndicates on the docks. The old Ships Painters and Dockers Union was notorious for being controlled by gangsters. The Waterside Workers Federation, on the other hand, was a stronghold of the Communist Party of Australia.

With the amalgamation of the local Council into the City of Port Phillip in 1994, many of Port Melbourne's civic institutions were adaptively reused. As a result, the Port Melbourne Town Hall is now a public library.

As the importance of the Port has declined, and as manufacturing industries have moved out of the inner city area, Port Melbourne has increasingly become a residential suburb. The area where Port Melbourne originally developed, around Station Pier and Princes Pier, has been redeveloped with a mixture of apartment complexes and medium-density housing, the best known of which is the Beacon Cove development.

Demographics
In the 2016 census, there were 16,175 people in Port Melbourne. 63.2% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were England 5.4%, New Zealand 2.6%, Greece 2.0%, United States of America 1.0% and Italy 1.0%. 72.3% of people spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Greek 4.8%, Italian 1.7%, Mandarin 1.3%, French 0.8% and Russian 0.8%. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 38.3% and Catholic 21.8%.

Road
Two major freeways run through Port Melbourne; the West Gate Freeway, which runs east–west from the West Gate Bridge and CityLink, which runs north toward the Bolte Bridge. Other main roads include Bay Street, Williamstown Road, Lorimer Street (which runs along the Yarra River), Graham Street, Salmon Street, Inglis Street and Beach Street (which runs toward Beaconsfield Parade and St Kilda). Port Melbourne's roads are a mix of planning styles and as a result can be difficult to navigate.

Port Melbourne is serviced by an extensive bus network operated by CDC Melbourne which connects it to Melbourne CBD and surrounding suburbs.

Rail
Port Melbourne is serviced by Melbourne tram route 109, which has been run as a high patronage high frequency light rail service since the heavy rail line was converted to light rail in 1987. While there are several disused freight rail links, the light rail is the only used rail connection to Port Melbourne. There have been a number of proposals for tram and light rail extension in Port Melbourne. St Kilda-Port Melbourne link

A five kilometre tram link between St Kilda and Port Melbourne along Beaconsfield Parade was first raised by the City of Port Phillip in 2005. The City of Port Phillip's 2007 feasibility study into the route found that the high density population could sustain around 200,000 annual commuter trips and that the link would be financially viable if tourists were charged $6 per one-way trip.

To address residents concerns over possible loss of beachfront views, the Council investigated the possibility of a new high-tech line, involving wire-free operation. Critics argued that it would be duplicating the route 12 tram route, with the two routes running in parallel just 200 metres apart for about 2 kilometres along Beaconsfield Parade. However, a direct tram journey between St Kilda and Port Melbourne is not possible and currently requires a change of routes at Southbank, which is a 10-kilometre round trip.

Port
Today, Port Melbourne still serves as a transport hub for passenger and cargo vessels. Many luxury liners, naval vessels and ferries arrive at Station Pier. Cargo traffic takes place further west, near the mouth of the Yarra River, principally at Webb Dock.

Housing
Houses in Port Melbourne range from single-fronted Victorian timber worker's cottages to new apartments and housing developments. Port Melbourne has undergone a major demographic shift in the past twenty years, from one of the cheapest and poorest suburbs in the city to one of the most expensive and wealthiest. Many large apartment developments in Port Melbourne occupy large blocks of land, taking over large factories and warehouses, such as HM@S project in Beach Street, ID Apartments in Pickles and Rouse Streets, and Bayshore and Bayview Apartments in Bay Street. Each of these developments comprise multiple buildings, and many of the redevelopments have preserved the heritage buildings. The Port Melbourne population now combines significant numbers of wealthy people, with those who live in public housing and other "old Port" locales. The area has many residents whose families came from Greece in the 1940s and 1950s, as well as more recent arrivals from Africa and Asia.

Commerce

Bay Street is Port Melbourne's main and historic commercial area.

Toyota Australia's Head Office is in Port Melbourne.

The Maritime Union of Australia maintains a strong presence in the area.

Crime
In May 2002 the underworld figure Victor Peirce was shot dead in Bay St, Port Melbourne.

Australian rules football
The Port Melbourne Football Club, known as "the Borough" is one of Melbourne's oldest Australian rules football sides, and plays in the Victorian Football League. The club's home games are played at North Port Oval. Another local team is the Port Melbourne Colts Football Club which plays in the Southern Football Netball League.

Cricket
The Port Melbourne Cricket Club founded in 1874, is one of the oldest sporting clubs in Australia, and one of the twelve founding cricket clubs of the Melbourne District Cricket competition. Known as "the Borough", the club's long and proud history includes 2 Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association Championship Titles and 29 Premierships (including 10 in the 1st Grade). The club fields 5 senior teams across a number of grades and 10 junior teams in under 12's, under 14's and under 16's, as well as T20 Blast and the Milo in2CRICKET Program. The five senior sides now play in the Southern Bayside Cricket Competition administered by Cricket Victoria and the club plays its home games at North Port Oval.

Association football (soccer)
Port Melbourne is represented by the Port Melbourne Sharks, an association football team, who has produced names such as Daniel Allsopp and Rodrigo Vargas. The team currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria (second-tier in Australia, behind the A-League). The Sharks play their home games at SS Anderson Reserve.

Baseball
The Port Melbourne Baseball Club known as the "Mariners" established in 1929 plays in the Victoria Baseball Summer League, fielding 4 Senior Teams & 4 Junior Teams.

Tennis
The Port Melbourne Tennis Club was established in 1885 and is located in Morris Reserve, Swallow St, Port Melbourne.

Shooting sport
The Melbourne International Shooting Club (MISC), formed in 1955 and moved to the present site in the late 1970s, is an ISSF-approved shooting complex for target pistol and small-bore rifle shooting disciplines and was the venue of choice for the 2005 Summer Deaflympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games events, and is affiliated with several umbrella bodies including the Victorian Amateur Pistol Association (VAPA), Target Rifle Victoria (TRV) and IPSC Australia. The facility is located at Fishermans Bend north of the West Gate Freeway on Todd Road (the last exit east of the Yarra River before starting the West Gate Bridge), west of the Westgate Park and between Gate 7 of the old Holden plant and the Melbourne International Kart Raceway.

Kart racing
The Go Kart Club of Victoria (GKCV), initially based at the western suburb of Brooklyn and relocated to Fishermans Bend in 1995, is amongst the oldest of established kart racing clubs in Australia and is the oldest in Victoria. It operates the 966 m Melbourne International Kart Raceway, located at the corner of Todd Road and Cook Street north of the West Gate Freeway Today it is the largest go-kart club in Victoria and the second largest within Australia, having hosted rounds of the Australian Kart Championship and Rotax Pro Tour as well as the popular annual City of Melbourne Titles and Monthly Club Days, and once held the CIK/FIA Oceania Championships in 1997.

Trugo
There are two clubs for the indigenous casual game of trugo in Melbourne: the Port Melbourne Trugo Club and the Sandridge Trugo Club.

Localities within Port Melbourne
Port Melbourne features three distinctive localities, with identities separated from the main section of the neighbourhood.

Garden City
Garden City is a locality within Port Melbourne and the City of Port Phillip. It started in the 1920s as a planned "garden suburb", similar to those built in Britain a few years earlier during the Garden City Movement. The early development was built as low-cost housing by the State Bank, with later additions of public housing by the Housing Commission of Victoria. It comprises semi-attached single and double-storey houses arranged around a series of public open spaces, in a distorted Beaux-Arts layout. Contrary to popular belief, the "Bank Houses" were never public housing and have always been in private hands. The "Bank Houses" area later became known as "nobs hill", a reference to relative wealth of their occupants compared to the residents of the clinker brick public housing that was added later. The Housing Commission area was known as 'Little Baghdad'.

The Garden City post office in Centre Avenue has been open since 1945. (-37.8362°N, 144.9199°W)

Beacon Cove
Beacon Cove is a locality within Port Melbourne and the City of Port Phillip. It comprises approximately 1100 dwellings in a mixture of low-rise medium density and high-rise housing, with a small supermarket, some commercial space, a small number of cafes and restaurants and a leisure complex including a gym, swimming pool and tennis courts. It was developed over the decade from 1996 by Australian developer Mirvac, following the collapse of the "Sandridge City" scheme for a gated community featuring canalside housing. The site was formerly an industrial facility. Beacon Cove features a waterfront promenade, palm-lined boulevards and a layout that allows the retention of two operational shipping beacons. Most of the low-rise housing is arranged around a series of small parks, in a postmodern scaled-down Beaux-Arts plan, similar in layout to nearby St Vincent Gardens in Albert Park. Along the foreshore is a series of 11–14-storey high-rise apartment towers with a small amount of very upmarket low-rise housing at the western end, directly fronting Sandridge Beach. The layout re-routed Beach Street away from the foreshore and the apartments along the waterfront have direct access to the promenade. The development was completed in stages, working west from Princes Street, and this is reflected in the different styles of architecture. As of 2013 the owner of the leisure complex has proposed replacing it with a 19-storey apartment complex, and the City of Port Phillip has instead proposed rezoning the site for mixed use with a 10-storey height limit. A number of community groups oppose both proposals.

Fishermans Bend
Fishermans Bend (formerly Fishermen's Bend) is a locality within Port Melbourne and the City of Melbourne. It is positioned immediately to the east of the West Gate Bridge, on the south bank of the Yarra River, adjacent to the suburb of Port Melbourne and opposite Coode Island, on the north shore of the Yarra River.

Fishermans Bend originally included the area now known as Garden City, which was renamed in 1929.

From the 1850s, the site was a location for Bay fishermen of European descent. Some thirty families lived on the Bend, frequently finding additional work in the docks and cargo ships; ballast was loaded onto ships returning to Europe. Habitation was in rough shacks along the Bend, made from corrugated iron, flattened kerosene tins or wood. There were no roads, shops, or sewerage. Water was collected from hanging out sail canvases, and stored in iron tanks or casks milk came from a nearby farm. Fishing continues on the Bay, but today only two fishing licences belong to descendants of these early pioneer settlers. The last remaining shack on the Bend was demolished in 1970, to make way for Webb Dock. The new Surf Life Saving Club headquarters stand on the site (Meiers 2006).

The neighbourhood of Fishermans Bend also has a significant place in Australian aviation history, being the home of several prominent historical Australian aircraft design and manufacturing companies, including the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation, Holden, Smorgon Steel, Government Aircraft Factories, the Aeronautical Research Laboratory and regional facilities for Boeing. Fishermen's Bend Aerodrome remained in use until 1957.

Fishermans Bend is a primary industrial centre at the foot of the West Gate Bridge and contains major establishments for the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Holden, Hawker de Havilland, GKN Aerospace Engineering Services, the Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced Composite Structures, Kraft Foods, Toyota Australia, port security and a campus of RMIT University.

It also has a marina, known as d'Albora Marinas Pier 35, and several container ship ports.

Fishermans Bend has a single large reserve known as Westgate Park, a large artificial wetland established in 1985.

Notable people
Notable people who lived or worked in or represented Sandridge, later Port Melbourne;
 * James Boyd (1867–1941), businessman and politician
 * Charles Gordon Campbell (1840–1905), businessman and pastoralist
 * William Darke (1810–1890), surveyor and colonist
 * Gloria Dawn (1929–1978), actor
 * Frederick Derham (1844–1922), businessman and politician
 * William Howe (1864–1952), mayor and newspaperman
 * Elwyn King (1894–1941), pilot and engineer
 * Wilbraham Liardet (1799–1879), hotelier and artist
 * John Madden (1844–1918), judge and politician
 * Jack Murray (1907–1983), racing driver
 * Leslie Newman, (1878–1938), entomologist
 * William Nicholson (1816–1865), businessman and politician
 * James O’Collins (1892–1983), bishop
 * William Reay (1858–1929), journalist and politician
 * Edward Russell (1867–1944), trade unionist
 * Hall Thorpe (1874–1947), artist
 * J. L. Treloar (1894–1952), public servant
 * Olive Zakharov, (1925–1995), politician

title: Port Melbourne


text:
Parts of Lindsey

The Parts of Lindsey are a traditional division of Lincolnshire, England, covering the northern part of the county. The Isle of Axholme, which is on the west side of the River Trent, has normally formed part of it. The district's name originated from the Kingdom of Lindsey of Anglo-Saxon times, whose territories were merged with that of Stamford to form Lincolnshire.

As with the other historic divisions of Lincolnshire, Lindsey is no longer a local government unit, although its name survives in that of two districts of the county council area Lincolnshire (East and West Lindsey), and it is still recognised as a geographical area.

Local government
When the English shires were established, Lindsey became part of Lincolnshire. It, and each of Kesteven and Holland, acquired the formal designation of Parts of Lincolnshire. Thus it became the Parts of Lindsey.

Lindsey was itself divided into three ridings: the North, West and South Ridings, which in turn were divided into wapentakes. The West Riding covered the western part, including Gainsborough, Scunthorpe and Spital. The North Riding covered the north-east, including Barton upon Humber, Caistor, Cleethorpes, Brigg, Grimsby and Market Rasen. The South Riding covered the rest, in the south-east, including Louth, Mablethorpe and Skegness. The point at which the Ridings all touched was somewhere near Lissington.

Lindsey, like the other parts of Lincolnshire, had long had a separate county administration (Quarter Sessions). In 1889, this division was followed in the establishment of the administrative county of Lincolnshire, Parts of Lindsey, which had an elected county council. Lincoln and Grimsby were independent county boroughs.

Within the rest of Lindsey there were various urban districts and rural districts, established by the Local Government Act 1894. The rural districts were Caistor, Gainsborough, Glanford Brigg, Grimsby, Horncastle, Isle of Axholme, Louth, Spilsby, Welton. A rural district of Sibsey also existed until 1936, when it was merged into Spilsby.

The administrative county of Parts of Lindsey was abolished on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972. Its area was divided between two new non-metropolitan counties: the northern area of Lindsey was placed in Humberside while the remainder passed to Lincolnshire. In 1996 the unpopular decision was all but reversed, in that Lincolnshire status was reinstated for the areas that had become South Humberside, however the Lindsey name was not.

Lindsey was divided between six non-metropolitan districts, as follows

Present authorities
In 1996 the Humberside districts were re-grouped into unitary authorities; units which performed the duties of both county and administrative district. One is North Lincolnshire (centred on Scunthorpe). This comprises the former districts of Glanford and Scunthorpe, as well as the Isle of Axholme which formed the southern part of Boothferry district. The second is North East Lincolnshire, comprising the former districts of Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes. The two unitary authorities represent the most urbanised part of traditional Lincolnshire.

The remaining parts of Lindsey largely correspond to the 1974 Lincolnshire County Council districts of West Lindsey and East Lindsey.

title: Parts of Lindsey


text:
Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset

Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset (August 29, 1709 – June 16, 1777) was a French poet and dramatist, best known for his poem Vert-Vert.

Life
Gresset was born at Amiens. During the last twenty-five years of his life, he regretted the frivolity of his youth, which enabled him to produce his most famous poem. He was brought up by the Jesuits of Amiens. Accepted as a novice at the age of seventeen, he was sent to study at the Collège Louis le Grand in Paris. After completing his course he was appointed, at the age of nineteen, to a post as assistant master in a college at Rouen.

Gresset published Vert-Vert at Rouen in 1734. It is the humorous story of a parrot, the delight of a convent whose talk was all of prayers and pious ambitions, and how it was conveyed to another convent as a visitor to please the nuns. On the way it falls among bad companions, forgets its convent language, and shocks the sisters on arrival by profane swearing. It is sent back in disgrace, punished by solitude and plain bread, repents, reforms and is finally killed by kindness. The treatment of the subject, the atmosphere which surrounds it, and the delicacy with which the little prattling ways of the nuns, their jealousies and trifling concerns, are presented, takes the reader entirely by surprise. The poem stands absolutely unrivalled, even among French contes en vers.

Gresset, now famous, left Rouen for Paris, where he found refuge in the same garret which had sheltered him when a boy at the Collège Louis le Grand, and there wrote his second poem, La Chartreuse. It was followed by the Carême impromptu, the Lutrin vivant and Les Ombres. Soon, complaints were made to the fathers of the alleged licentiousness of his verses, the real cause of complaint being the ridicule which Vert-Vert seemed to throw upon the religious community and the anti-clerical tendency of the other poems. Gresset was transferred to the Jesuit school of La Flèche, and soon after (30 September 1735) left the Order, without having been ordained priest. Gresset, who had never been taught to stand alone, was devastated: he wrote a moving Adieux aux Jésuites.

He went to Paris in 1740 and there produced Edouard III, a tragedy (1740) and Sidnei (1745), a comedy. These were followed by Le Méchant which was qualified by Ferdinand Brunetière as the best verse comedy of the French 18th century theatre, even surpassing the Métromanie of Alexis Piron. Gresset was admitted to the Académie française in 1748. After his marriage, in 1751, to the daughter of a former mayor of Amiens, he withdrew to that city, where he carried on his literary activities through the 'Académie d'Amiens' which he had founded. However, going through a moral crisis and religious awakening he disowned the more frivolous writings of the past.

He died at Amiens on the 16 June 1777.

Works

 * 1734: Vert-Vert, histoire d’un perroquet de Nevers
 * 1734: Le Carème impromptu
 * 1734: Le Lutrin vivant
 * 1734: La Chartreuse
 * 1734: Ombres
 * 1740: Édouard III, tragedy, 22 January
 * 1745: Sidney, drame en vers, 3 May
 * 1747: Le Méchant, comédie en 5 actes, en vers, 15 April
 * 1810: Le Parrain magnifique, poème en dix chants
 * Correspondance avec Frédéric le Grand

title: Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset


text:
Ulster Special Constabulary

The Ulster Special Constabulary (USC; commonly called the "B-Specials" or "B Men") was a quasi-military reserve special constable police force in what would later become Northern Ireland. It was set up in October 1920, shortly before the partition of Ireland. The USC was an armed corps, organised partially on military lines and called out in times of emergency, such as war or insurgency. It performed this role most notably in the early 1920s during the Irish War of Independence and the 1956–1962 IRA Border Campaign.

During its existence, 95 USC members were killed in the line of duty. Most of these (72) were killed in conflict with the IRA in 1921 and 1922. Another 8 died during the Second World War, in air raids or IRA attacks. Of the remainder, most died in accidents but two former officers were killed during the Troubles in the 1980s.

The force was almost exclusively Ulster Protestant and as a result was viewed with great mistrust by Catholics. It carried out several revenge killings and reprisals against Catholic civilians in the 1920–22 conflict. See The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922) and Timeline of the Irish War of Independence. Unionists generally supported the USC as contributing to the defence of Northern Ireland from subversion and outside aggression.

The Special Constabulary was disbanded in May 1970, after the Hunt Report, which advised re-shaping Northern Ireland's security forces to attract more Catholic recruits and demilitarizing the police. Its functions and membership were largely taken over by the Ulster Defence Regiment and the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Formation
The Ulster Special Constabulary was formed against the background of conflict over Irish independence and the partition of Ireland.

The 1919–21 Irish War of Independence, saw the Irish Republican Army (IRA) launch a guerrilla campaign in pursuit of Irish independence. Unionists in Ireland's northeast were vehemently against this campaign and against Irish independence. However, once it became apparent that the British government was committed to implementing Dominion Status for all of Ireland outside Ulster in response to Sinn Féin's demands, which were far more radical than those of the defunct Irish Parliamentary Party, Unionists in most of the province of Ulster directed their energies into the partition of Ireland by the creation of Northern Ireland as an autonomous region in the United Kingdom. The new region would consist of two thirds of Ulster, the six counties that Unionists could control. The other three counties (Donegal, Monaghan, and Cavan) had disproportionately Catholic and nationalist majorities and would become part of the Irish Free State. Partition was enacted by the British Parliament in the Government of Ireland Act 1920.

Two main factors were behind the formation of the Ulster Special Constabulary. One was the desire of Unionists, led by Sir James Craig (then a junior minister in the British Government, and later the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland), that the apparatus of government and security should be placed in their hands long before Northern Ireland was formally established.

A second reason was that violence in the north was increasing after the summer of 1920. The IRA began extending attacks to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), RIC barracks, and revenue offices in Northern Ireland. There had been serious rioting between Catholics and Protestants in Derry in May and June and in Belfast in July, which had left up to 40 people dead. See The Troubles in Northern Ireland (1920–1922) and Timeline of the Irish War of Independence.

With police and troops being drawn towards combating insurgency in the south and west, Unionists wanted a force that would be dedicated to taking on the IRA. At a 2 September 1920 meeting of government Ministers in London Craig said that the loyal population was losing faith in the government's ability to protect them and that loyalist paramilitary groups threatened, in the words of Craig, "a recourse to arms, which would precipitate civil war". Craig proposed to the British cabinet a new "volunteer constabulary" which "must be raised from the loyal population" and organised, "on military lines" and "armed for duty within the six county area only". On 23 July 1920 Craig informed the British cabinet that the "Specials" would "prevent mob law and the Protestants from running amok." He recommended that "the organisation of the Ulster Volunteers (UVF), (the unionist militia formed in 1912) should be used for this purpose". Wilfrid Spender, the former UVF quartermaster in 1913–14, and by now a decorated war veteran, was appointed by Craig to form and run the USC. UVF units were "incorporated en masse" into the new USC.

The idea of a volunteer police force in the north appealed to British Prime Minister David Lloyd George for several practical reasons; it freed up the RIC and military for use elsewhere in Ireland, it was cheap, and it did not need new legislation. Special Constabulary Acts had been enacted in 1832 and 1914, meaning that the administration in Dublin Castle only had to use existing laws to create it. The formation of the Ulster Special Constabulary was therefore announced on 22 October 1920.

On 1 November 1920, the scheme was officially announced by the British government.

Composition
The composition of the USC was overwhelmingly Protestant and Unionist, for a number of reasons. Several informal "constabulary" groups had already been created, for example, in Belfast, Fermanagh and Antrim. The Ulster Unionist Labour Association had established an "unofficial special constabulary," with members drawn chiefly from the shipyards, tasked with 'policing' Protestant areas.

In April 1920, Captain Sir Basil Brooke (future Prime Minister of Northern Ireland), had set up "Fermanagh Vigilance", a vigilante group to provide defence against incursions by the IRA. Brooke himself had been personally affected by the organisation, as his son had been a victim of kidnapping. In Ballymacarrett, a Protestant rector named John Redmond had helped form a unit of ex-servicemen to keep the peace after the July riots.

There was a willingness to arm or recognise existing Protestant militias. Wilfrid Spender, head of the Ulster Volunteer Force, encouraged his members to join. For these groups, was an immediate and illicit supply of arms available, especially from the Ulster Volunteers. Charles Wickham, Chief of Police for the north of Ireland, favoured incorporation of the Ulster Volunteers into "regular military units" instead of having to "face them down". A number of these groups were absorbed into the new Ulster Special Constabulary.

Nationalists pointed out that the composition of the USC was overwhelmingly Protestant and loyal, claiming the government was arming Protestants to attack Catholics. In addition, a number of Special Constables, newly appointed by the Lisburn Urban Council, had been charged with rioting and looting committed over three days and nights following the assassination of RIC Inspector Oswald Swanzy. During that same time period, members of the Dromore UVF were said to have supervised the expulsion of Catholic families from Dromore. A further detail was that many UVF units joined the new Constabulary, with their commanders being appointed to senior positions. Unsuccessful efforts were made to attract more Catholics into the force, but these largely failed. One reason for this was that Catholic members were more easily targeted by the IRA for intimidation and assassination. The government suggested that, with enough Catholic recruits, special constabulary patrols made up of Catholics only could be extended into Catholic areas. However, the Nationalist Party and Ancient Order of Hibernians discouraged their members from joining.

The IRA issued a statement which said that any Catholics who joined the Specials would be treated as traitors and would be dealt with accordingly.

Organisation
The USC was initially financed and equipped by the British government and placed under the control of the RIC. The USC consisted of 32,000 men divided into four sections, all of whom were armed:
 * A Specials – full-time and paid, worked alongside regular RIC men, but could not be posted outside their home areas (regular RIC officers could be posted anywhere in the country); usually served at static checkpoints (originally 5,500 members)
 * B Specials – part-time, usually on duty for one evening per week and serving under their own command structure, and unpaid, although they had a generous system of allowances (which were reduced following the reorganisation of the USC a few years later), served wherever the RIC served and manned Mobile Groups of platoon size; (originally 19,000 members)
 * C Specials – unpaid, non-uniformed reservists, usually rather elderly and used for static guard duties near their homes (originally 7,500 members)
 * C1 Specials – non-active C class specials who could be called out in emergencies. The C1 category was formed in late 1921, incorporating the various local unionist militias such as the Ulster Volunteers into a new special class of the USC, thus placing them under the control and discipline of the Stormont Government.

The units were organised on military lines up to company level. Platoons had two officers, a Head Constable, four sergeants and sixty special constables. The Belfast units were constructed differently from those in the counties. The districts were based on the existing RIC divisions. The constables drew pistols and truncheons before going on patrol and considerable efforts were made to use them only in Protestant areas. This did free up regular policemen who were generally more acceptable to most Ulster Catholics.

By July 1921, more than 3,500 'A' Specials had been enrolled, and almost 16,000 'B' Specials. By 1922 recruiting had swelled the numbers to: 5,500 A Specials, 19,000 B Specials and 7,500 C1 Specials. Their duties would include combatting the urban guerrilla operations of the IRA, and the suppression of the local IRA in rural areas. In addition they were to prevent border incursion, smuggling of arms and escape of fugitives.

Opposition
From the outset, the formation of the USC came in for widespread criticism, mostly from Irish nationalists and the Dublin government but also from some elements of the British military and administrative establishment in Ireland and in the British press, which saw the USC as a potentially divisive and sectarian force.

In the British House of Commons, the leader of the Nationalist Party of Northern Ireland, Joseph Devlin, formerly a leading member of the now defunct Irish Parliamentary Party, made his feelings on the creation of the USC clear: "The Chief Secretary is going to arm pogromists to murder Catholics...we would not touch your special constabulary with a 40 foot pole. Their pogrom is to be made less difficult. Instead of paving stones and sticks they are to be given rifles."

Sir Nevil Macready, General Officer Commanding-in-chief of the British Army in Ireland, along with his supporters in the Irish administration, refused to approve the new force but were overridden; Lloyd George approved of it from the beginning. Macready and Henry Hughes Wilson argued that the concept of a special constabulary was a dangerous one.

Wilson warned the formation of a partisan constabulary "would mean; taking sides, civil war and savage reprisals." John Anderson, the Under Secretary for Ireland (head of the British Administration in Dublin) shared his fears, "you cannot, in the middle of a faction fight, recognise one of the contending parties and expect it to deal with disorder in the spirit of impartiality and fairness essential in those who have to carry out the order of the Government."

The Irish nationalist press was less reserved. The Fermanagh Herald noted the opposition of Irish nationalists: "These 'Special Constables' will be nothing more and nothing less than the dregs of the Orange lodges, armed and equipped to overawe Nationalists and Catholics, and with a special object and special facilities and special inclination to invent 'crimes' against Nationalists and Catholics... they are the very classes whom an upright Government would try to keep powerless..."

Vice Admiral Sir Arthur Hezlet in the official History of the Ulster Special Constabulary, contended that "Sinn Fein regarded the Specials as an excuse for arming the Orangemen and an act even more atrocious than the creation of the 'Black and Tans'! Their fury was natural as they saw that the Specials might well mean that they would be unable to intimidate and subdue the North by Force. Their skilful propaganda set about blackening the image of Special Constables, trying to identify them with the worst elements of the Protestant mobs in Belfast. They sought to magnify and distort every incident and to stir up hatred of the force even before it started to function."

Training, uniform, weaponry and equipment

The standard of training was varied. In Belfast, the Specials were trained in much the same way as the regular police whereas in rural areas the USC was focused on counter-guerilla operations. In 1922, B Specials received two weeks training and A Specials were initially given six weeks training. The amount of training was clearly inadequate for a conflict that warranted the deployment of professionally trained soldiers.

Uniforms were not available at the outset so the men of the B Specials went on duty in their civilian clothes wearing an armband to signify they were Specials. Uniforms did not become available until 1922. Uniforms took the same pattern as RIC/RUC dress with high collared tunics. Badges of rank were displayed on the right forearm of the jacket.

The Special Constables were armed with Webley .38 revolvers and also Lee–Enfield rifles and bayonets. By the 1960s Sten and Sterling submachine guns were also used. In most cases these weapons were retained at home by the constables along with a quantity of ammunition. One of the reasons for this was to enable rapid call out of platoons, via a runner from the local RUC station, without the need to issue arms from a central armoury.

'A Special' platoons were fully mobile using a Ford car for the officer in charge, two armoured cars and four Crossley Tenders (one for each of the sections).

B Specials generally deployed on foot but could be supplied with vehicles from the police pool.

Irish War of Independence (1920–22)
Deployment of the USC during the Anglo-Irish War provided the Northern Ireland government with its own territorial militia to fight the IRA. The use of Specials to reinforce the RIC also allowed for the re-opening of over 20 barracks in rural areas which had previously been abandoned because of IRA attacks. The cost of maintaining the USC in 1921–22 was £1,500,000.

Their conduct towards the Catholic population was criticised on a number of occasions. In February 1921, Specials and UVF men burned down ten Catholic houses in the County Fermanagh village of Roslea after a Special who lived in the village was shot and wounded. Following the death of a Special Constable near Newry on 8 June 1921, it was alleged that Specials and an armed mob were involved in the burning of 161 Catholic homes and the death of 10 Catholics. An inquest advised that the Special Constabulary "should not be allowed into any locality occupied by people of an opposite denomination." The government suggested the recruitment of more Catholics to form "Catholic only" patrols to cover Catholic areas, but this was not acted upon.

After the Truce between the IRA and the British on 11 July 1921, the USC was demobilised by the British and the IRA was given official recognition while peace talks were ongoing. However, the force was remobilised in November 1921, after security powers were transferred from London to the Northern Ireland Government.

Michael Collins planned a clandestine guerilla campaign against Northern Ireland using the IRA. In early 1922, he sent IRA units to the border areas and arms to northern units. On 6 December the Northern authorities ordered an end to the Truce with the IRA. The Special Constabulary was, as well as an auxiliary to the police, effectively an army under the control of the Northern Ireland administration. By incorporating the former UVF into the USC as the C1 Specials, the Belfast government had created a mobile reserve of at least two brigades of experienced troops in addition to the A and B Classes who, between them, made up at least another operational infantry brigade, which could be used in the event of further hostilities, and were in early 1922.

1922: Border conflict and reprisals
The USC's most intense period of deployment was in the first half of 1922, when conditions of a low-intensity war existed along the new Irish border between the Free State and Northern Ireland.

The Anglo-Irish Treaty had agreed the partition of Ireland, between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. The IRA, although now split over the Treaty, continued offensive operations in Northern Ireland, with the co-operation of Michael Collins, leader of the Free State, and Liam Lynch, leader of the Anti-Treaty IRA faction. This was despite the Craig-Collins Agreement which was signed by the leaders of Northern Ireland and the Free State on 30 March, and envisaged the end of IRA activity and a reduced role for the USC.

The renewed IRA campaign involved attacking barracks, burning commercial buildings and making a large-scale incursion into Northern Ireland, occupying Belleek and Pettigo in May–June, which was repulsed after heavy fighting, including British use of artillery on 8 June.

The British Army was only used in the Pettigo and Belleek actions. Therefore, the main job of counter-insurgency in this border conflict fell to the Special Constabulary while the RIC/RUC patrolled the interior. Forty-nine Special Constables were killed during the period of the "Border War", out of a total of eighty-one British forces killed in Northern Ireland. Their biggest single loss of life came at Clones in February 1922, when a patrol which entered the Free State refused to surrender to the local IRA garrison and took four dead and eight wounded in a firefight.

In addition to action against the IRA, the USC may have been involved in a number of attacks on Catholic civilians in reprisal for IRA actions, for example, in Belfast, the McMahon Murders of March 1922, in which six Catholics were killed, and the Arnon Street killings a week later which killed another six. On 2 May 1922, in revenge for the IRA killing of six policemen in counties Londonderry and Tyrone, Special Constables killed nine Catholic civilians in the area.

The conflict never formally ended but petered out in June 1922, with the outbreak of the Irish Civil War in the Free State and the wholesale arrest and internment of IRA activists in the North. Collins continued to arrange the supply of arms covertly to the Northern IRA until shortly before his death in August 1922.

Assessments of the USC's role in this conflict vary. Unionists have written that the Special Constabulary, "saved Northern Ireland from anarchy" and "subdued the IRA", while nationalist authors have judged that their treatment of the Catholic community, including, "widespread harassment and a significant number of reprisal killings" permanently alienated nationalists from the USC itself and more broadly, from the Northern Irish state.

1920s to 1940s
After the end of the 1920–22 conflict, the Special Constabulary was re-organised. The regular Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) took over normal policing duties.

The 'A' and 'C' categories of the USC were dispensed with, leaving only the B-Specials, who functioned as a permanent reserve force, and armed and uniformed in the same manner as the RUC.

The Special Constabulary were called out during the 12 July period in Belfast in 1931 after sectarian rioting broke out. The B Specials were tasked to relieve the RUC from normal duties, to allow them and the British Army to deal with the disturbances.

In 1936 the British advocacy group - the National Council for Civil Liberties characterized the USC as "nothing but the organised army of the Unionist party".

During the Second World War, the USC was mobilised to serve in Britain's Home Guard, which unusually, was put under the command of the police rather than the British Army.

1950s – IRA Border Campaign
Between 1956 and 1962, the Special Constabulary was again mobilised to combat a guerilla campaign launched by the IRA.

Damage to property during this period was £1 million and the overall cost of the campaign was £10 million to the UK exchequer. Historian Tim Pat Coogan said of the USC, "The B Specials were the rock on which any mass movement by the IRA in the North has inevitably floundered." Six RUC and eleven IRA men (but no Special Constables) were killed in this campaign.

The IRA called off their campaign in February 1962.

1969 deployment
The USC were deployed in 1969 to support the RUC in the 1969 Northern Ireland riots. The B Specials' role in these events led to its disbandment the following year.

Northern Ireland had been destabilised by disturbances arising out of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association's agitation for equal rights for Catholics. The USC were mobilised when the regular RUC were overstretched by riots in Derry (known as the Battle of the Bogside). The NICRA called for protests elsewhere to support those in Derry, leading to the violence spreading throughout Northern Ireland, especially in Belfast.

The USC were largely held in reserve in July and only hesitantly committed in August. The General Officer Commanding of the British Army in Northern Ireland refused to allow the Army to become involved until the Belfast administration has used "all the forces at its disposal". This meant that the B Specials had to be deployed, although they were not trained or equipped for public order situations. The unsuitability of the use of the B Specials in such situations was clear: "The 'Specials', untrained for such a job, contained no Catholic members, were inevitably regarded as sectarian, and their presence tended to heighten rather than lower tension in Catholic areas." In August 1969 the IRA Chief of Staff Cathal Goulding issued a statement saying that his men were deployed in Belfast in a defensive capacity protecting Catholics who had been "terrorized by mobs backed by armed B-Specials." Goulding also stated that British troops would be in a "very perilous situation" until the B-Specials were disarmed and disbanded.

The two main centres of disturbance were in Belfast and Derry. A total of 300 Special Constables were also mobilised into the RUC during the disturbances. Some Constables were used to restrain a Protestant crowd in Derry, but others in this area joined in an exchange of petrol bombs and missiles with a Catholic crowd while another group led an attack on the Rossville Street area of the Catholic Bogside on 12 August.

In Belfast, the USC were successful in restoring order in the predominantly Protestant Shankill area, where they performed their patrol duties unarmed. On one occasion, the Comber Platoon was petrol-bombed by a hostile Protestant crowd at Inglis's bakery as it tried to protect Catholics who were going to work. They also successfully protected Catholic owned public houses in the area, many of which were looted after they were withdrawn. However, on 14 August they did not hold back Protestants who attacked the Catholic Dover and Percy streets in the Falls/Divis district, and instead "fought back" Catholics there.

USC shootings
The USC's most controversial conduct in the 1969 riots came in provincial towns, where the Special Constabulary formed the main response to the rioting. The Specials, who were armed and not trained for riot duty, used deadly force on a number of occasions.

The USC shot and wounded a number of people in Dungiven and Coalisland. In Dungannon, they killed one and wounded two. In the following Scarman Tribunal, the findings said "...the Tribunal has been at a loss to find any explanation for the shooting, which it is satisfied was a reckless and irresponsible thing to do."

When Jack Lynch, the Taoiseach of Ireland, moved Irish Army troops up to the border in response to the rioting, platoons of Specials were deployed to guard border police stations.

Arising out the disturbances, the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson announced that the B Specials would be "phased out of their current role". The British Government commissioned three reports into the policing response to the 1969 riots. These ultimately led to the disbanding of the Ulster Special Constabulary.

The Cameron Report
Sir John Cameron was requested to submit a report on the disturbances in Northern Ireland.

He found some evidence of cross-membership of the USC and loyalist paramilitary organisations. He reported that in Major Ronald Bunting's Ulster Protestant Volunteers (UPV), there was definite evidence of dual membership by Special Constables, of which he said "we consider highly undesirable and not in the public interest". He also remarked that although "recruitment is open to both Protestant and Roman Catholic: in practice we are in no doubt that it is almost if not wholly impossible for a Roman Catholic recruit to be accepted." The Cameron Report described the B-Specials as "a partisan and paramilitary force recruited exclusively from Protestants."

Cameron recommended that the purposes of the USC as a reserve civilian police force, as well as a counter-insurgency reserve, be properly made known in recruitment and training so that it would be more attractive to Catholics.

The Scarman Report
The Hon Justice Scarman, in his report on the rioting, was critical of the RUC's senior officers and of the way the B Specials were deployed into areas of civil disturbance which they had no training to deal with, which in some occasions led to a worsening of the situation. He also pointed out that the B Specials were the only reserve available to the RUC and that he could see no other way of quickly reinforcing the over-stretched RUC in the circumstances. He praised the Specials where he felt it was due.

Scarman concluded in his report on the civil disturbance in the region in 1969 that: "Undoubtedly mistakes were made and certain individual officers acted wrongly on occasions. But the general case of a partisan force co-operating with Protestant mobs to attack Catholic people is devoid of substance, and we reject it utterly."

Scarman went on to criticise the Command and Control of the RUC for deploying armed Special Constables in areas where their very presence would "heighten tension", as he was in no doubt that they were "Totally distrusted by the Catholics, who saw them as the strong arm of the Protestant ascendancy".

Scarman concluded that it would have been very difficult for Catholics to gain membership in 1969, even if they had applied to join.

The Hunt Report
The abolition of the B Specials was a central demand of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement in the late 1960s.

On 30 April 1970, the USC was finally stood down, as a result of the Hunt Committee Report. Hunt concluded that the perceived bias of the Special Constabulary, whether true or not, had to be addressed. One of his other major concerns was the use of the police force for carrying out military style operations. His recommendations included:
 * (47) A locally recruited part-time force, under the control of the G.O.C., Northern Ireland, should be raised as soon as possible for such duties as may be laid upon it. The force, together with the police volunteer reserve, should replace the Ulster Special Constabulary (paragraph 171).

Disbandment
The Ulster Special Constabulary was disbanded in May 1970. It has been argued that their failure to deal with the 1969 disturbances was due to a failure on behalf of the Northern Ireland government to modernise their equipment, weaponry, training and approach to the job.

On the disbandment of the USC, many of its members joined the newly established Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), the part-time security force which replaced the B Specials. Unlike the Special Constabulary, the UDR was placed under military control. Other B Specials joined the new Part Time Reserve of the RUC. The USC continued to do duties for a month after the formation of the UDR and RUC Reserve to give both of the new forces time to consolidate.

In the final handover to the Ulster Defence Regiment, the B Specials had to surrender their weapons and uniforms. Despite the government's concerns about the handover of weapons and equipment, every single uniform and every single weapon was handed in.

After implementation of the Hunt report, the last night of duties for most B Men was 31 March 1970. On 1 April 1970 the Ulster Defence Regiment began duties. Initially, the Regiment had 4,000 members who worked part-time while the new special constabulary, the RUC Reserve which replaced the B-Specials, initially consisted of 1,500 members.

Continuing influence

Since disbandment the USC has assumed a place of "almost mythic proportions" within unionist folklore, whereas in the Nationalist community they are still reviled as the Protestant only, armed wing of the unionist government "associated with the worst examples of unfair treatment of Catholics in Northern Ireland by the police force". An Orange lodge was formed to commemorate the disbandment of the force called "Ulster Special Constabulary LOL No 1970". An Ulster Special Constabulary Association was also set up soon after the disbandment.

Notable members

 * Major Kenneth Wiggins Maginnis, Baron Maginnis of Drumglass

title: Ulster Special Constabulary


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title: User:MysticalCow