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Deadman (character)

Deadman (Boston Brand) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He first appeared in Strange Adventures #205 (October 1967), and was created by writer Arnold Drake and artist Carmine Infantino.

The character is depicted as an acrobat who was murdered by an unknown assailant, and then granted power by a Hindu deity to remain a disembodied spirit who can temporarily take possession of any living being in order to fight evil forces.

Creation
Arnold Drake spoke on the development of Deadman and revealed the 1966 original concept sketch of the character, which was initially a muscular skeleton. Drake further stated, "They were looking for something to bolster a magazine that was about to die, and I came up with Deadman, and they were going to turn it down, [but] then they bought the idea, but decided to turn down the title, because they were afraid, that the board would not permit them to title [the comic Deadman], because of the comics code of authority, so I said you fight for that, its a good title, they did and Deadman succeeded.

Drake later recalled in an interview, "So here I was in the middle of a Zen-Buddhist movement and I thought, "Maybe I can use that for my main character."

Publication history
Deadman's first appearance in Strange Adventures #205, written by Arnold Drake and drawn by Carmine Infantino, included the first known depiction of narcotics in a story approved by the Comics Code Authority. The series is most associated with the art and writing of Neal Adams and the writing of Jack Miller, who took over from Infantino and Drake after the first story. The first story and all of the Adams stories were reprinted in 1985 as a seven-issue series.

Although he appeared from time to time in the 1970s and 1980s as a supporting character in various comics, including Jack Kirby's Forever People, Deadman did not get his own series again until 1986, in a four-issue limited series written by Andrew Helfer and drawn by José Luis García-López, which picked up the story where Adams left off. Deadman's next major storyline was in Action Comics Weekly, in 1988–1989. After this, he starred in the two-issue series Deadman: Love After Death, drawn by Kelley Jones and written by Mike Baron. This was followed by the limited series Deadman: Exorcism in 1992, also written by Mike Baron and drawn by Kelley Jones. Jones' gaunt, zombie-like rendition of the character would later appear in the pages of Batman. There was a Deadman ongoing series in 2002, which lasted nine issues, as well as a couple of standalone issues. His cameo appearances also continued, including several issues of Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing, and Neil Gaiman's The Books of Magic. He had a cameo in books two and three of Batman: Gotham County Line, which was released in November 2005. In 2009, Deadman was a featured title in the Wednesday Comics.

The character and self-titled series have won several awards, including the 1967 Alley Award for Best New Strip (by Arnold Drake and Carmine Infantino in Strange Adventures), and the 1968 Alley Award Hall of Fame (for Neal Adams). DC Comics published a slipcased hardcover edition collecting the original Deadman stories in December 2001. Deadman's retconned origin is revealed in Brightest Day #14 (2010), written by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi. Deadman has a 3-part mini-series called Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love written by Sarah Vaughn with art by Lan Medina.

Fictional character biography
Circus trapeze artist Boston Brand performs under the name Deadman, a stage persona that includes a red costume and white corpse makeup. When Brand is murdered during a trapeze performance by a mysterious assailant known only as the Hook, his spirit is given the power to possess any living being by the Hindu god Rama Kushna to search for his murderer and obtain justice. It is established in Green Arrow (vol. 4) #4, that Deadman believes Rama is the supreme being of the universe.

At the end of the Neal Adams story line, Deadman seems to discover the truth behind his murder and the ultimate fate of Hook, who killed him as part of an initiation into a society of contract killers. However, the real Hook is one among many one-handed men who work for an organization known as "The Scavengers". This group steals advanced technology for a profit. Fighting the Scavengers also led to Deadman gaining an artificial body for some time, thanks to the influence of the Forever People. This group had rented rooms from Trixie Magruder, an old circus companion of Deadman.

Various missions
Rama also maintained a city for some time, called Nanda Parbat, where she rehabilitated criminals with her power. One of the worst was Darius Caldera, who almost destroyed the world when he left the city. Nanda later fell due to a combined military and mystical force. All the evil people are now back in the real world, still a danger. Brand's twin brother, Cleveland, is killed while possessed by Boston, while doing Boston's circus act. The killer was out to kill Boston Brand. His "benefactor", Rama Kushna, also dies to defeat Jonah, a spirit similar to Deadman. Around this time, Deadman assists the Spectre in battling a demon before being forced to fuse with him after the demon injures him.

Later, Deadman receives a birthday present from his diminutive friend, Max Loomis. Max places himself in a trance so he could "meet" Deadman and the two take a pleasant journey down "memory lane", mainly Deadman's more pleasant memories of Nanda Parbat. Soon after, Loomis meets with old circus friends and Deadman involves himself in a case of suspected murder. Deadman wants to go after the escapees of Nanda Parbat, but Max thinks pursuing the murder is a better course. Over several years, a mysterious stranger has Deadman travel through time to try to save the souls of deceased heroes from the menace of Caldera. Due to the mental influence of various forces, Deadman is unable to use the knowledge of the timestream to benefit humanity. With the assistance of the spirits of the deceased heroes, Deadman defeats Caldera and the powers behind him. Max Loomis provides vital help on the material plane. After that, Boston and Loomis decide to hunt down the other Parbat escapees.

Youth and Hell
In the Sins of Youth incident, Deadman is one of the dozens of heroes reduced to a preteen age by Klarion the Witch Boy and an alien machine owned by Doiby Dickles. He assists Secret in confronting Teekl, Klarion's cat familiar, in an effort to restore everyone. He also joins in the fight against mystically created and mystically altered villains. During Day of Judgment, Boston Brand travels with a group of heroes to the frozen wastelands of Hell. Their goal is to restart the demonic fires, thus recalling all the demons from the earthly plane. An accident strands Brand and the others under the frozen waters of the River Styx, forcing them to live out what would be, to them, Hell. For Brand, it is that the sharpshooter hits him in the shoulder, thus he survives. Brand feels he needs to die to learn "how to live". His battles against the demons would come back to haunt him. In the four-part Black Baptism miniseries, Deadman and several other "Sentinels of Magic", the magical group formed after the Day of Judgment incident, are hunted by the Diablos. Partly fueled by revenge, they subdue many of the Sentinels and drain their magic. The JLA eventually rescue them all and destroy all the Diablos.

Blackest Night
Boston Brand begins to hear the voices of the dead and his own remains calling for him to protect them. Being a spirit, he is unable to stop his body from being raised as a Black Lantern. He attempts to possess his own body but is ejected after experiencing extreme physical and emotional pain during the attempt. He assists Batman, Robin, and Red Robin in repelling the Black Lantern invasion. Deadman manages to save Commissioner Gordon from the Black Lanterns by possessing the body of his daughter, spiriting them both to safety.

Deadman is later sent by Batman to possess the body of Jason Blood, invoking the power of Etrigan. Deadman uses Etrigan's demon flame to hold back the Black Lanterns, but struggles to maintain control over the demon's body, finally being forced out. Deadman then frees Batman and Red Robin, who had frozen themselves to escape the Black Lanterns' onslaught. He is later seen inside the Black Lantern Damage's ring, apparently having followed Jean Loring, Mera and the Atom when they shrank down into it. He frees Mera and the Atom from Loring by briefly possessing her, allowing them time to return to normal size. During this incident he says he believes possessing the Black Lanterns causes him damage. He is later seen at Nanda Parbat, attempting to stop the Black Lanterns attempting to pass through the spiritual barrier by taking over their bodies and ripping them apart. He briefly loses himself to a Black Lantern's personality, but is saved by the Phantom Stranger. The Stranger convinces Deadman to enter his body again, telling them it is his destiny to bring it within Nanda Parbat. With the Stranger's help, Deadman is able to force the black ring off his body, bringing it through the gate of Nanda Parbat. The body, which the Stranger states is of "singular importance", is placed under the gatekeeper and Blue Devil's protection, and Deadman heads out, intent on sharing the information he gleaned while inside the Black Lanterns with Hal Jordan. In the aftermath of the final battle, Deadman is restored to life by a White Lantern ring.

Brightest Day
In the 2010–11 miniseries Brightest Day, Deadman discovers that his white ring can restore the dead to life, and begins to acclimate to living again, including exercising self-preservational habits, though he expresses reservations about being alive again. As he attempts to learn what his mission on Earth is, he teams up with Hawk and Dove. Deadman learns that he will cross paths with the person the Entities chose to guard the Earth. The Entity also instructs Deadman to embrace life and those around him, as he led a selfish life in his previous one, realizing the value of others only after he died. In learning to appreciate his new life, Deadman realizes that he and Dove have fallen in love, and reconnects with his grandfather.

The Entity also tells Deadman that when Nekron attacked Earth, the contamination of his presence on the planet manifested as a "dark avatar" who will try to destroy the Star City forest, which is the key to saving Earth's soul. The Entity reveals that Earth's savior is Alec Holland, and the "dark avatar" is a corrupted Swamp Thing, which once thought that it was Holland, but now believes itself to be Nekron. In the forest, Captain Boomerang throws a boomerang at Dove, but it impacts Deadman instead. As his dying act, he gives his white power ring to Holland, transforming him into a new Swamp Thing who kills the original. Unable to return to life, Deadman and Dove, heartbroken at being denied a happy life now that he can never again be resurrected, share an emotional farewell.

The New 52
In The New 52, Deadman's origins are rebooted in the initial run of the anthology series DC Universe Presents. After living a selfish life as Boston Brand, he is forced to possess people as Deadman following his assassination to solve their problems and avoid being sent to Hell. He also features as a member of the supernatural team, Justice League Dark. Deadman uses his possession talents to help take down various supernatural threats, such as Dr. Mist and Faust Sr. Despite their earlier claim, he and Dove try to rekindle their love. However, their attempt fails miserably as Deadman insists on carrying on their relationship forward using borrowed bodies, while Dove shows disdain and repulsion to the idea. Furthermore, by helping out June Moone, they both gain the enmity of a crazed Enchantress.

DC Rebirth
As part of the DC Rebirth relaunch, a three-part miniseries, Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love was released in October 2016. The story featured the creative team of writer Sarah Vaughn and artist Lan Medina. Deadman also appears in the Trinity book, focused on Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, along with his fellow Justice League Dark teammates Zatanna and John Constantine.

Knight Terrors
In the Dawn of DC relaunch, Deadman becomes a central character in the "Knight Terrors" crossover event. While possessing Batman, Deadman engages in a battle with the villain Insomnia and reads his mind, seeing glimpses of Wesley Dodds, Doctor Destiny's fate, and a ritualistic cult sacrifice that creates a Nightmare Stone. Seeking answers, Deadman escapes Insomnia's attack and goes to Dodd's grave with a canister of Lazarus Rain, which resurrects him as a zombie. Despite being in zombie form, Dodds quickly realizes Deadman's presence, and inquires the reason for his resurrection and who Insomnia is. Upon questioning, Dodds remembers the Nightmare Stone, and recalls to Deadman an unfinished case from the younger years of his past life, where encountered a strange death cult that believed in "some god of nightmares."

His attempt to stop the cult's sacrifice was somewhat successful, for he was able to put all of the members to sleep - except for the determined leader who fatally stabbed himself. That one lone sacrifice was only enough to make the Nightmare Stone briefly appear for a very brief moment before vanishing. Upon being asked by Dodds, various Justice Society members stated that they never encountered anything like the Nightmare Stone. However, Doctor Fate once told Dodds that an "item that bridged dream and the waking world was dangerous... and should never fall into the wrong hands..." Giving thanks for what was revealed to him, Deadman offers to return Dodds to his grave. Determined to resume his still-unfinished case, Dodds insists on joining Deadman to find the Nightmare Stone and defeat Insomnia.

The New Golden Age
In "The New Golden Age", Deadman helps Doctor Fate and Detective Chimp fight Per Degaton and learn more about Hauhet, who is the new guiding force behind the Helmet of Fate.

Powers and abilities
As a disembodied spirit, Deadman could not be seen or heard by most others (certain mystics could still perceive him), was able to pass through objects, and could fly or float. He was able to possess any living being (human or animal), control their actions, and could communicate with people through another's body. Furthermore, the possession process is nearly instant in transition, enabling Deadman to possess different bodies in rapid succession for tactical advantage in combat. In one storyline, however, he could not control certain criminal henchmen he possessed due to their minds being under post-hypnotic suggestion (since their minds were not truly theirs in that instance). The people he possessed retained no memory of the experience. He has issues possessing those with stronger minds like Batman and is often forced out in a short amount of time. Deadman also has problems with magic as his spiritual form can be manipulated by it to some degree. In the Justice League Dark animated movie, Batman needed to remain in contact with all teammates, but couldn't because of Deadman, and Batman didn't want Deadman to possess him, so Batman asked Constantine to relay Deadman's words to him, but Constantine refused and instead cast a spell to allow Batman to see Deadman. It is implied that Deadman can make his host stronger if the possession is willing, as shown when Batman allowed Deadman to possess him during the "Knight Terrors" event.

As a living human, he is an Olympic-level athlete well-trained in acrobatics. As a wearer of a White power ring he possesses whatever powers the ring confers upon its wielder. These powers, so far, include flight, invisibility (or the ability to cloak his presence), teleportation, healing severe wounds, making solid energy constructs, and the power to bring beings back to life. He had no control over these new powers and the scope and limitations on those powers are as yet undefined. The Black Lantern power ring gave his reanimated corpse similar abilities, but it reanimates the dead instead of fully resurrecting them.

Other versions

 * A skeletal, alternate universe incarnation of Deadman appears in Kingdom Come.
 * An alternate universe incarnation of Deadman appears in The Books of Magic.
 * Deadman makes a minor appearance in Bizarro World.
 * An alternate universe incarnation of Deadman appears in Superman & Batman: Generations II.
 * An alternate universe incarnation of Deadman appears in Superman/Batman.
 * An alternate universe incarnation of Deadman appears in Flashpoint. This version is a performer at Haly's Circus who was killed in an Amazon attack and became a guardian to Dick Grayson.

Television

 * Following the success of X-Men (2000), Warner Bros. Television announced that a Deadman television film for TNT was in development, which was also being considered as a pilot for a potential television series. The project was in development until 2003, but was later shelved.
 * Deadman appears in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Dead Reckoning", voiced by Raphael Sbarge. This version previously worked with Batman to solve his murder before coming to reside in a temple at Nanda Parbat.
 * Deadman appears in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Dawn of the Dead Man!", voiced by Michael Rosenbaum. This version is a former performer at Haly's Circus with no explicit connection to Rama Kushna. Additionally, he suffers from melancholic self-pity over not knowing how or why he is unable to "cross over" until he joins forces with Batman, Green Arrow, and Speedy to defeat Gentleman Ghost and becomes a hero. Afterwards, he is offered the chance to ascend to the afterlife, but refuses.
 * In 2011, WBTV hired Supernatural creator Eric Kripke to helm a Deadman television series for The CW, as the network was looking to commission a new superhero series. However, the series never materialized and Kripke has since moved on to other projects.
 * Deadman makes non-speaking cameo appearances in Teen Titans Go!.
 * Deadman appears in a self-titled segment of DC Nation Shorts, voiced by Matt L. Jones.

Film

 * Guillermo del Toro has taken interest in producing a film about Deadman, with Variety reporting that Nikolaj Arcel was set to direct.
 * Deadman appears in Justice League Dark, voiced by Nicholas Turturro. This version is a founding member of the eponymous team and friends with Black Orchid.
 * Deadman appears in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies.
 * The Dick Grayson incarnation of Deadman, dubbed "Deadwing", appears in Injustice, voiced by Derek Phillips.

Video games

 * Deadman appears as a character summon in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure.
 * Deadman makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in Raiden's ending for Injustice 2 as a founding member of Justice League Dark.
 * Deadman appears as a playable character in Lego DC Super-Villains, voiced by Steve Blum. He is available as part of the "Justice League Dark DLC Character Pack".

Miscellaneous

 * Boston Brand / Deadman appears in The Batman Adventures as a performer for Haly's Circus and the champion of a male Rama Kushna.
 * Boston Brand appears in Batman and Robin Adventures #15 as a performer for Haly's Circus who took over for the Flying Graysons.
 * Boston Brand / Deadman appears in Batman: Gotham Adventures #6.
 * Boston Brand / Deadman appears in the Justice League Unlimited tie-in comic.
 * Boston Brand / Deadman appears in Batman Beyond Unlimited #16 as a member of the New Terrific Trio.
 * Boston Brand / Deadman appears in the Injustice: Gods Among Us prequel comic. After being mortally wounded by Mister Mxyzptlk disguised as the Spectre, Brand passes on his powers to the recently deceased Dick Grayson before moving on to the afterlife.
 * Boston Brand / Deadman appears in Batman: The Adventures Continue.

title: Deadman (character)


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Gothic Line

The Gothic Line (Gotenstellung; Linea Gotica) was a German and Italian defensive line of the Italian Campaign of World War II. It formed Field Marshal Albert Kesselring's last major line of defence along the summits of the northern part of the Apennine Mountains during the fighting retreat of the German forces in Italy against the Allied Armies in Italy, commanded by General Sir Harold Alexander.

Adolf Hitler had concerns about the state of preparation of the Gothic Line: he feared the Allies would use amphibious landings to outflank its defences. To downgrade its importance in the eyes of both friend and foe, he ordered the name, with its historic connotations, changed, reasoning that if the Allies managed to break through they would not be able to use the more impressive name to magnify their victory claims. In response to this order, Kesselring renamed it the "Green Line" (Grüne Linie) in June 1944.

Using more than 15,000 slave labourers, the Germans created more than 2,000 well-fortified machine gun nests, casemates, bunkers, observation posts and artillery fighting positions to repel any attempt to breach the Gothic Line. Initially, this line was breached during Operation Olive (also sometimes known as the Battle of Rimini), but Kesselring's forces were consistently able to retire in good order. This continued to be the case up to March 1945, with the Gothic Line being breached but with no decisive breakthrough; this would not take place until April 1945 during the final Allied offensive of the Italian Campaign.

Operation Olive has been described as the biggest battle of materials ever fought in Italy. Over 1,200,000 men participated in the battle. The battle took the form of a pincer manoeuvre, carried out by the British Eighth Army and the U.S. Fifth Army against the German 10th Army (10. Armee) and German 14th Army (14. Armee). Rimini, a city which had been hit by previous air raids, had 1,470,000 rounds fired against it by allied land forces. According to Lieutenant-General Oliver Leese, commander of the British Eighth Army: "The battle of Rimini was one of the hardest battles of Eighth Army. The fighting was comparable to El Alamein, Mareth, and the Gustav Line (Monte-Cassino)."

Background
After the nearly concurrent breakthroughs at Cassino and Anzio in spring 1944, the 11 nations representing the Allies in Italy finally had a chance to trap the Germans in a pincer movement and to realize some of the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's strategic goals for the long, costly campaign against the Axis "underbelly". This would have required the U.S. Fifth Army under Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark to commit most of his Anzio forces to the drive east from Cisterna, and to execute the envelopment envisioned in the original planning for the Anzio landing (i.e., flank the German 10th Army, and sever its northbound line of retreat from Cassino). Instead, fearing that the British Eighth Army, under Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver Leese, might beat him to the Italian capital of Rome, Clark diverted a large part of his Anzio force in that direction in an attempt to ensure that he and the Fifth Army would have the honour of liberating the city.

As a result, most of Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring's forces slipped the noose and fell back north fighting delaying actions, notably in late June on the Trasimene Line (running from just south of Ancona on the east coast, past the southern shores of Lake Trasimeno near Perugia and on to the west coast south of Grosseto) and in July on the Arno Line (running from the west coast along the line of the Arno River and into the Apennine Mountains north of Arezzo). This gave time to consolidate the Gothic Line, a 10 mi deep belt of fortifications extending from south of La Spezia (on the west coast) to the Foglia Valley, through the natural defensive wall of the Apennines (which ran unbroken nearly from coast to coast, 50 mi deep and with high crests and peaks rising to 7000 ft), to the Adriatic Sea between Pesaro and Ravenna, on the east coast. The emplacements included numerous concrete-reinforced gun pits and trenches and 2,376 machine-gun nests with interlocking fire, 479 anti-tank, mortar and assault gun positions, 120000 m of barbed wire and many miles of anti-tank ditches. This last redoubt proved the Germans' determination to continue fighting.

Nevertheless, it was fortunate for the Allies that at this stage of the war the Italian partisan forces had become highly effective in disrupting the German preparations in the high mountains. On 2 April 1944, partisans belonging to the Eighth Garibaldi Brigade managed to occupy Sant'Agata Feltria; their ambush of a German detachment sent to round up partisans led to the Fragheto massacre on 7 April. By September 1944, German generals were no longer able to move freely in the area behind their main lines because of partisan activity. Generalleutnant Frido von Senger und Etterlin—commanding XIV Panzer Corps (XIV Panzerkorps)—later wrote that he had taken to travelling in a little Volkswagen "(displaying) no general's insignia of rank—no peaked cap, no gold or red flags...". One of his colleagues who ignored this caution—Wilhelm Crisolli (commanding the 20th Luftwaffe Field Division)—was caught and killed by partisans as he returned from a conference at corps headquarters.

Construction of the defences was also hampered by the deliberately poor quality concrete provided by local Italian mills whilst captured partisans forced into the construction gangs supplemented the natural lethargy of forced labour with clever sabotage. Nevertheless, prior to the Allies' attack, Kesselring had declared himself satisfied with the work done, especially on the Adriatic side where he "...contemplated an assault on the left wing....with a certain confidence".

Allied strategy
The Italian Front was seen by the Allies to be of secondary importance to the offensives through France, and this was underlined by the withdrawal during the summer of 1944 of seven divisions from the U.S. Fifth Army to take part in the landings in southern France, Operation Dragoon. By 5 August, the strength of the Fifth Army had fallen from 249,000 to 153,000, and they had only 18 divisions to confront the combined German 10th and 14th Armies′ strength of 14 divisions plus four to seven reserve divisions.

Nevertheless, Winston Churchill and the British Chiefs of Staff were keen to break through the German defences to open up the route to the northeast through the "Ljubljana Gap" into Austria and Hungary. Whilst this would threaten Germany from the rear, Churchill was more concerned to forestall the Russians advancing into central Europe. The U.S. Chiefs of Staff had strongly opposed this strategy as diluting the Allied focus in France. However, following the Allied successes in France during the summer, the U.S. Chiefs relented, and there was complete agreement amongst the Combined Chiefs of Staff at the Second Quebec Conference on 12 September.

Allied plan of attack
The original plan of General Sir Harold Alexander, the Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the Allied Armies in Italy (AAI)—as formulated by his Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General Sir John Harding—was to storm the Gothic Line in the centre, where most of his forces were already concentrated. It was the shortest route to his objective, the plains of Lombardy, and could be mounted quickly. He mounted a deception operation to convince the Germans that the main blow would come on the Adriatic front.

On 4 August, Alexander met Lieutenant-General Leese, the British Eighth Army commander, to find that Leese did not favour the plan. He argued that the Allies had lost their specialist French mountain troops to Operation Dragoon and that the Eighth Army's strength lay in tactics combining infantry, armour and guns which could not be employed in the high mountains of the central Apennines.

It has also been suggested that Leese disliked working in league with Clark after the Fifth Army's controversial move on Rome at the end of May and early June and wished for the Eighth Army to win the battle on its own. He suggested a surprise attack along the Adriatic coast. Although Harding did not share Leese's view and Eighth Army planning staff had already rejected the idea of an Adriatic offensive (because it would be difficult to bring the necessary concentration of forces to bear), General Alexander was not prepared to force Leese to adopt a plan which was against his inclination and judgement and Harding was persuaded to change his mind.

Operation Olive—as the new offensive was christened—called for Leese's Eighth Army to attack up the Adriatic coast toward Pesaro and Rimini and draw in the German reserves from the centre of the country. Clark's Fifth Army would then attack in the weakened central Apennines north of Florence toward Bologna with British XIII Corps on the right wing of the attack fanning toward the coast to create a pincer with the Eighth Army advance. This meant that as a preparatory move, the bulk of the Eighth Army had to be transferred from the centre of Italy to the Adriatic coast, taking two valuable weeks, while a new intelligence deception plan (Operation Ulster) was commenced to convince Kesselring that the main attack would be in the centre.

Eighth Army dispositions for Operation Olive

On the coast, Leese had Polish II Corps with 5th Kresowa Division in the front line and the 3rd Carpathian Division in reserve. To the left of the Poles was Canadian I Corps which had the Canadian 1st Infantry Division (with the British 21st Tank Brigade under command) in the front line and the Canadian 5th Armoured Division in reserve.

For the opening phase the corps artillery was strengthened with the addition of the British 4th Infantry Division's artillery. West of the Canadians was British V Corps with the British 46th Infantry Division manning the right of the corps front line and 4th Indian Infantry Division its left. In reserve were the British 56th Infantry and 1st Armoured Divisions and the British 7th Armoured and 25th Tank Brigades.

Further to the rear was the British 4th Division, waiting to be called forward to join the corps. The left flank of the Eighth Army front was guarded by British X Corps employing the 10th Indian Infantry Division and two armoured car regiments, 12th and 27th Lancers. Prior to the attack the I Canadian Corps' front was covered by patrolling Polish cavalry units and V Corps by patrolling elements of the Italian Liberation Corps. In army reserve, also waiting to be called forward, was the 2nd New Zealand Division.

German 10th Army dispositions
Facing the Eighth Army was the German 10th Army's LXXVI Panzer Corps (LXXVI Panzerkorps). Initially, this had only three divisions: 1st Parachute Division facing the Poles, 71st Infantry Division (71. Infanterie-Division) inland on the parachute division's right and 278th Division (278. Infanterie-Division) on the Corps right flank in the hills which was in the process of relieving 5th Mountain Division. The 10th Army had a further five divisions in 51st Mountain Corps covering 80 mi of front line on the right of LXVI Panzer Corps and a further two divisions—162nd Infantry Division (162. (Turkoman) Infanterie-Division) and 98th Infantry Division (98. Infanterie-Division) (replaced by 29th Panzer Grenadier Division (''29. Panzergrenadierdivision'') from 25 August)—covering the Adriatic coast behind LXVI Corps. In addition, Kesselring had in his Army Group Reserve the 90th Panzer Grenadier Division (90. Panzergrenadierdivision) and 26th Panzer Division (26. Panzerdivision).

Eighth Army attack

The British Eighth Army crossed the Metauro river and launched its attack against the Gothic Line outposts on 25 August. As Polish II Corps, on the coast and I Canadian Corps, on the coastal plain on the Poles' left, advanced towards Pesaro the coastal plain narrowed and it was planned that the Polish Corps, weakened by losses and lack of replacements, would go into Army reserve and the front on the coastal plain would become the responsibility of the Canadian Corps alone. The Germans were taken by surprise, to the extent that both von Vietinghoff, and the parachute division's commander—Generalmajor  Richard Heidrich—were away on leave.

They were in the process of pulling back their forward units to the Green I fortifications of the Gothic Line proper and Kesselring was uncertain whether this was the start of a major offensive or just Eighth Army advancing to occupy vacated ground whilst the main Allied attack would come on the U.S. Fifth Army front towards Bologna. On 27 August, he was still expressing the view that the attack was a diversion and so would not commit reserves to the front. It was not until 28 August—when he saw a captured copy of Leese's order of the day to his army prior to the attack—that Kesselring realised that a major offensive was in progress, and three divisions of reinforcements were ordered from Bologna to the Adriatic front, still needing at least two days to get into position.

By 30 August, the Canadian and British Corps had reached the Green I main defensive positions running along the ridges on the far side of the Foglia river. Taking advantage of the Germans' lack of manpower, the Canadians punched through and by 3 September had advanced a further 15 mi to the Green II line of defences running from the coast near Riccione. The Allies were close to breaking through to Rimini and the Romagna plain. However, LXXVI Panzer Corps on the German 10th Army's left wing had withdrawn in good order behind the line of the Conca river. Fierce resistance from the Corps′ 1st Parachute Division—commanded by Heidrich (supported by intense artillery fire from the Coriano ridge in the hills on the Canadians' left)—brought their advance to a halt.

Meanwhile, British V Corps was finding progress in the more difficult hill terrain with its poor roads tough going. On 3–4 September, while the Canadians once again attacked along the coastal plain, V Corps made an armoured thrust to dislodge the Coriano Ridge defences and reach the Marano river. This was to open the gate to the plain beyond which could be rapidly exploited by the tanks of British 1st Armoured Division, poised for this purpose. However, after two days of gruesome fighting with heavy losses on both sides, the Allies were obliged to call off their assault and reassess their strategy. Leese decided to outflank the Coriano ridge positions by driving westwards toward Croce and Gemmano to reach the Marano valley which curved behind the Coriano positions to the coast some 2 mi north of Riccione.

Battles for Gemmano and Croce
The Battle of Gemmano has been nicknamed by some historians as the "Cassino of the Adriatic". After 11 assaults between 4 and 13 September (first by British 56th Division and then British 46th Division), it was the turn of Indian 4th Division who after a heavy bombardment made the 12th attack at 03:00 on 15 September and finally carried and secured the German defensive positions. In the meantime, to the north, on the other side of the Conca valley a similarly bloody engagement was being ground out at Croce. The German 98th Division held their positions with great tenacity, and it took five days of constant fighting, often door to door and hand to hand before the British 56th Division captured Croce.

Coriano taken and the advance to Rimini and San Marino
With progress slow at Gemmano, Leese decided to renew the attack on Coriano. After a paralyzing bombardment from 700 artillery pieces and bombers, the Canadian 5th Armoured Division and the British 1st Armoured Division launched their attack on the night of 12 September. The Coriano positions were finally taken on 14 September.

Once again, the way was open to Rimini. Kesselring's forces had taken heavy losses, and three divisions of reinforcements ordered to the Adriatic front would not be available for at least a day. Now, the weather intervened: torrential rain turned the rivers into torrents and halted air support operations. Once again movement ground to a crawl, and the German defenders had the opportunity to reorganise and reinforce their positions on the Marano river, and the salient to the Lombardy plain closed. Once more, the Eighth Army was confronted by an organised line of defence, the Rimini Line.

Meanwhile, with Croce and beyond it Montescudo secured, the left wing of the Eighth Army advanced to the Marano river and the frontier of San Marino. The Germans had occupied neutral San Marino over a week previously to take advantage of the heights on which the city-state stood. By 19 September, the city was isolated and fell to the Allies with relatively little cost. 3 mi beyond San Marino lay the Marecchia valley running across the Eighth Army line of advance and running to the sea at Rimini.

During the night of 19/20 September, Brigadier Richard W. Goodbody, commanding the 2nd Armoured Brigade, ordered (with many doubts) the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays) to attack Pt 153 at 10.50. The German antitank gunners, using the renowned 88mm guns, had a field day. All but three Sherman tanks of the two squadrons that took part in the attack were destroyed. The Bays lost 24 tanks and, more important, 64 highly skilled tank crewmen. Fortunately for the 9th Queen's Royal Lancers, who had been ordered to pass through the Bays, their attack was postponed after strong representations had been made to higher HQ.

On the right the I Canadian Corps on 20 September broke the German positions on the Ausa river and into the Lombardy Plain and 3rd Greek Mountain Brigade entered Rimini on the morning of 21 September as the Germans withdrew from their positions on the Rimini Line behind the Ausa to new positions on the Marecchia. However, Kesselring's defence had won him time until the onset of the autumn rains. Progress for the Eighth Army became very slow with mud slides caused by the torrential rain making it difficult to keep roads and tracks open, creating a logistical nightmare. Although they were out of the hills, the plains were waterlogged and the Eighth Army found themselves confronted, as they had the previous autumn, by a succession of swollen rivers running across their line of advance. Once again, the conditions prevented Eighth Army's armour from exploiting the breakthrough, and the infantry of British V Corps and I Canadian Corps (joined by the 2nd New Zealand Division) had to grind their way forward while von Vietinghoff withdrew his forces behind the next river beyond the Marecchia, the Uso, a few miles beyond Rimini. The positions on the Uso were forced on 26 September, and Eighth Army reached the next river, the Fiumicino, on 29 September. Four days of heavy rain forced a halt, and by this time V Corps was fought out and required major reorganization.

Since the start of Operation Olive, Eighth Army had suffered 14,000 casualties. As a result, British battalions had to be reduced from four to three rifle companies due to a severe shortage of manpower. Facing the Eighth Army LXXVI Panzer Corps had suffered 16,000 casualties. As the Eighth Army paused at the end of September to reorganise Leese was reassigned to command the Allied land forces in South-East Asia and Lieutenant-General Richard L. McCreery was moved from commanding British X Corps to take over the army command.

U.S. Fifth Army formation
Clark's U.S. Fifth Army comprised three corps: U.S. IV Corps, under Major General Willis D. Crittenberger, on the left formed by the U.S. 1st Armored Division, the 6th South African Armoured Division and two Regimental Combat Teams (RCTs), one of the U.S. 92nd Infantry Division the other the Brazilian 6th RCT (the first land forces contingent of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force); in the centre was U.S. II Corps, under Major General Geoffrey Keyes, (with the U.S. 34th, 85th, 88th and 91st Infantry Divisions supported by three tank battalions under command); and on the right British XIII Corps, under Lieutenant-General Sidney Kirkman, (composed of the British 1st Infantry and 6th Armoured Divisions, the 8th Indian Infantry Division and the 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade). Like the Eighth Army, the Fifth Army was considered to be strong in armour and short on infantry considering the terrain they were attacking.

German formation in the central Apennines
In the front line facing Clark's forces were five divisions of Joachim Lemelsen's German 14th Army (20th Luftwaffe Field Division, 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division (16. Panzergrenadierdivision), 65th and 362nd Infantry Divisions and the 4th Parachute Division) and two divisions on the western end of von Vietinghoff's German 10th Army (356th and 715th Infantry Divisions). By the end of the first week in September, the Luftwaffe Field Division and the 356th Infantry Division had been moved to the Adriatic front along with (from army reserve) the 29th Panzer Grenadier Division and the armoured reserve of 26th Panzer Division. The 14th Army was not of the same quality as the 10th Army: it had been badly mauled in the retreat from Anzio and some of its replacements had been hastily and inadequately trained.

Allied plan
Clark's plan was for II Corps to strike along the road from Florence to Firenzuola and Imola through the Il Giogo pass to outflank the formidable defences of the Futa pass (on the main Florence–Bologna road) while on their right British XIII Corps would advance through the Gothic Line to cut Route 9 (and therefore Kesselring's lateral communications) at Faenza. The transfer of 356th Infantry Division to the Adriatic weakened the defences around the Il Giogo pass which was already potentially an area of weakness, being on the boundary between 10th and 14th Armies.

Battle
During the last week in August, U.S. II Corps and British XIII Corps started to move into the mountains to take up positions for the main assault on the main Gothic Line defences. Some fierce resistance was met from outposts but at the end of the first week in September, once reorganisation had taken place following the withdrawal of three divisions to reinforce the pressured Adriatic front, the Germans withdrew to the main Gothic Line defences. After an artillery bombardment, the Fifth Army's main assault began at dusk on 12 September. Keyes tried to flank the II Giogo Pass by attacking both the peaks of Monticello and Monte Altuzzo using the 91st Infantry Division in a bold attempt to bounce the Germans off the positions, but this failed.

Progress at the II Giogo Pass was slow, but on II Corps' right British XIII Corps were making better progress. Clark grasped this opportunity to divert part of II Corps reserve (the 337th Infantry Regiment, part of the 85th Infantry Division) to exploit XIII Corps success. Attacking on 17 September, supported by both American and British artillery, the infantry fought their way onto Monte Pratone, some 2 - 3 mi east of the Il Giogo pass and a key position on the Gothic Line. Meanwhile, U.S. II Corps renewed their assault on Monte Altuzzo, dominating the east side of the Il Giogo Pass. The Altuzzo positions fell on the morning of 17 September, after five days of fighting. The capture of Altuzzo and Pratone as well as Monte Verruca between them caused the formidable Futa Pass defences to be outflanked, and Lemelsen was forced to pull back, leaving the pass to be taken after only light fighting on 22 September.

On the left, IV Corps had fought their way to the main Gothic Line: notably the 370th Infantry Regiment, which pushed the Axis troops on its sector to the north beyond the Highway 12 towards Gallicano; and the Brazilian 6th RCT, which took Massarosa, Camaiore and other small towns on its own way north. By the end of the month, the Brazilian unit had conquered Monte Prano and controlled the Serchio valley region without suffering any major casualties. In October, it also took Fornaci with its munitions factory, and Barga; while the 370th received reinforcements from other units (365th and 371st), to ensure the Fifth Army left wing sector at the Ligurian Sea.

On Fifth Army's far right wing, on the right of the British XIII Corps front, 8th Indian Infantry Division fighting across trackless ground had captured the heights of Femina Morta and British 6th Armoured Division had taken the San Godenzo Pass on Route 67 to Forlì, both on 18 September.

At this stage, with the slow progress on the Adriatic front, Clark decided that Bologna would be too far west along Route 9 to trap the German 10th Army. He decided therefore to make the main II Corps thrust further east towards Imola whilst XIII Corps would continue to push on the right toward Faenza. Although they were through the Gothic Line, Fifth Army—just like the Eighth Army before them—found the terrain beyond and its defenders even more difficult. Between 21 September and 3 October, U.S. 88th Division had fought its way to a standstill on the route to Imola suffering 2,105 men killed and wounded — roughly the same as the whole of the rest of II Corps during the actual breaching of the Gothic Line.

The fighting toward Imola had drawn German troops from the defence of Bologna, and Clark decided to switch his main thrust back toward the Bologna axis. U.S. II Corps pushed steadily through the Raticosa Pass and by 2 October, it had reached Monghidoro some 20 mi from Bologna. However, as it had on the Adriatic coast, the weather had broken and rain and low cloud prevented air support while the roads back to the ever more distant supply dumps near Florence became morasses.

On 5 October, U.S. II Corps renewed its offensive along a 14 mi front straddling Route 65 to Bologna. They were supported on their right flank by British XIII Corps including British 78th Infantry Division, newly returned to Italy after a three-month re-fit in Egypt. Gradual progress was made against stiffening opposition as German 14th Army moved troops from the quieter sector opposite U.S. IV Corps. By 9 October, they were attacking the massive 1,500 ft high sheer escarpment behind Livergnano which appeared insuperable. However, the weather cleared on the morning of 10 October to allow artillery and air support to be brought to bear. Nevertheless, it took until the end of 15 October before the escarpment was secured. On the right of U.S. II Corps British XIII Corps was experiencing equally determined fighting on terrain just as difficult.

Time runs out for the Allied offensive
By the second half of October, it was becoming increasingly clear to Alexander that despite the dogged fighting in the waterlogged plain of Romagna and the streaming mountains of the central Apennines, with the autumn well advanced and exhaustion and combat losses increasingly affecting his forces' capabilities, no breakthrough was going to occur before the winter weather returned.

On the Adriatic front, the British Eighth Army's advance resumed on its left wing through the Apennine foothills toward Forlì on Route 9. On 5 October the 10th Indian Infantry Division—switched from British X Corps to British V Corps—had crossed the Fiumicino river high in the hills and turned the German defensive line on the river forcing the German 10th Army units downstream to pull back towards Bologna. Paradoxically, in one sense, this helped Kesselring because it shortened the front he had to defend and shortened the distance between his two armies, providing him with greater flexibility to switch units between the two fronts. Continuing their push up Route 9, on 21 October British V Corps crossed the Savio river which runs north eastward through Cesena to the Adriatic and by 25 October were closing on the Ronco river, some 10 mi beyond the Savio, behind which the Germans had withdrawn. By the end of the month, the advance had reached Forlì, halfway between Rimini and Bologna.

Cutting the German Armies' lateral communications remained a key objective. Indeed, later Kesselring was to say that if in mid-October the front south of Bologna could not be held, then all the German positions east of Bologna "were automatically gone." Alexander and Clark had decided therefore to make a last push for Bologna before winter gripped the front.

On 16 October, the U.S. Fifth Army had gathered itself for one last effort to take Bologna. The Allies were short of artillery ammunition because of a global reduction in Allied ammunition production in anticipation of the final defeat of Germany. The Fifth Army's batteries were rationed to such an extent that the total rounds fired in the last week of October were less than the amount fired during one eight-hour period on 2 October. Nevertheless, U.S. II Corps and British XIII Corps pounded away for the next 11 days. Little progress was made in the centre along the main road to Bologna. On the right, there was better progress, and on 20 October the U.S. 88th Division seized Monte Grande, only 4 mi from Route 9, and three days later British 78th Division stormed Monte Spaduro. However, the remaining 4 mi were over difficult terrain and were reinforced by three of the best German divisions in Italy—the 29th Panzergrenadier Division, 90th Panzergrenadier Division and the 1st Parachute Division—which Kesselring had been able to withdraw from the Romagna as a result of his shortened front. By late October, the Brazilian 6th RCT had pushed the Axis forces through province of Lucca to Barga, where its advance was halted.

Later operations
In early November, the buildup to full strength of the 1st Brazilian Division and some reinforcement of the U.S. 92nd Division had not nearly compensated the U.S. Fifth Army for the formations diverted to France. The situation in the British Eighth Army was even worse: Replacement cadres were being diverted to northern Europe and I Canadian Corps was ordered to prepare to ship to the Netherlands in February of the following year. Also, while they remained held in the mountains, the armies continued to have an over-preponderance of armour relative to infantry.

During November and December, Fifth Army concentrated on dislodging the Germans from their well-placed artillery positions which had been key in preventing the Allied advance towards Bologna and the Po Valley. Using small and medium Brazilian and American forces, the U.S. Fifth Army attacked these points one by one but with no positive outcome. By the end of the year, the defence compound formed by the Germans around Monte Castello, (Lizano in) Belvedere, Della Toraccia, Castelnuovo (di Vergato), Torre di Nerone, La Serra, Soprassasso and Castel D'Aiano had proved extremely resilient.

Meanwhile, the British Eighth Army—held on Route 9 at Forlì—continued a subsidiary drive up the Adriatic coast and captured Ravenna on 5 November. In early November, the push up Route 9 resumed, and the river Montone, just beyond Forlì, was crossed on 9 November. However, the going continued to be very tough with the river Cosina, some 3 mi further along Route 9 being crossed only on 23 November. By 17 December, the river Lamone had been assaulted and Faenza cleared. The German 10th Army established itself on the raised banks of the river Senio (rising at least 20 ft above the surrounding plain) which ran across the line of the Eighth Army advance just beyond Faenza down to the Adriatic north of Ravenna. With snows falling and winter firmly established, any attempt to cross the Senio was out of the question and the Eighth Army's 1944 campaign came to an end.

In late December, in a final flourish to the year's fighting, the Germans used a predominantly Italian force of units from the Italian Monterosa Division to attack the left wing of the U.S. Fifth Army in the Serchio valley in front of Lucca to pin Allied units there which might otherwise have been switched to the central front. Two brigades of the 8th Indian Infantry Division were rapidly switched across the Apennines to reinforce the U.S. 92nd Infantry Division. By the time the reinforcements had arrived, the Axis forces had broken through to capture Barga, but decisive action by the 8th Indian Division's Major-General Dudley Russell halted further advance and the situation was stabilised and Barga recaptured by the New Year.

In mid-December Alexander became supreme commander of the Mediterranean Theatre. Clark took his place as commander of the Allied Armies in Italy (re-designated 15th Army Group) and command of U.S. Fifth Army was given to Lucian K. Truscott. In mid-February, as the winter weather improved, Fifth Army resumed its attacks on German artillery positions (Operation Encore). This time the IV Corps used two full infantry divisions to accomplish the mission: the Brazilian division, tasked with taking Monte Castello, Soprassasso and Castelnuovo di Vergato; and the newly arrived U.S. 10th Mountain Division, tasked to take Belvedere, Della Torraccia and Castel D'Aiano. Operation Encore began on 18 February and was completed on 5 March, preparatory to the final offensive in Italy.

title: Gothic Line


text:
David Cay Johnston

David Cay Boyle Johnston (born December 24, 1948) is an American investigative journalist and author, a specialist in economics and tax issues, and winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting.

From July 2011 until September 2012 he was a columnist for Reuters, writing, and producing video commentaries, on worldwide issues of tax, accounting, economics, public finance and business. Johnston is the board president of Investigative Reporters and Editors. He has also written for Al Jazeera English and America in recent years. Johnston is a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at College of Law and the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University.

Reporting
Johnston covered "student radicals, black politics and development" at the San Jose Mercury News from 1968 to 1973. Although he "earned enough credits for at least one master’s degree," his formal educational credentials are limited to a "night high school diploma" as he "skipped most general education requirements in favor of upper division and graduate study at seven schools," including San Francisco State University (1972), the University of Chicago (where he studied under a five-month fellowship in 1973) and Michigan State University (1973-1975). At Michigan State, he wrote an internal textbook (A Guide to Public Records) for the university's journalism department. From 1973 to 1976, he was an investigative reporter at the Detroit Free Press in its Lansing bureau. In 1976, he joined the Los Angeles Times, where he remained until 1988. Johnston subsequently worked as a reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer from 1988 to 1995. He joined The New York Times in February 1995.

As a reporter Johnston investigated Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) political spying and other abuses, the hotelier Barron Hilton, misuse of charitable funds at United Way, news manipulation at WJIM-TV in Lansing, Michigan, and Donald Trump's financial dealings. In 1983, Johnston's reporting of newer information regarding a problematic murder investigation helped a man who had been previously tried four times to win an acquittal during his fifth trial, and was judged "the best news story of the year by the California-Nevada editors of United Press International."

From February 1995 to April 2008, he was the tax reporter with The New York Times. For the next three years, until joining Reuters, he wrote "Johnston's Take", a column on tax policy for the nonprofit journal Tax Notes and its sister website tax.com, published by Tax Analysts. In 2009 he briefly wrote a column titled "By the Numbers" for The Nation.

Johnston received the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting "for his penetrating and enterprising reporting that exposed loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code, which was instrumental in bringing about reforms. "Johnston described how corporations were paying less in taxes, even as individuals were paying more, with even well-known companies like Colgate-Palmolive, Compaq Computer, and United Parcel Service (UPS) engaging in "what the courts called shams." A court found that Merrill Lynch saved AlliedSignal (now Honeywell) $180 million in "sham" money transfers among foreign companies. However, the IRS is, since 1999, more likely to audit the poor than the rich, Johnston reported.

In 2001 Johnston investigated the claim that estate taxes were so high that farm families were being forced to sell their family farms in order to pay the taxes. This claim was presented to prove the need to eliminate the inheritance tax. Johnston challenged those who made that claim, such as the American Farm Bureau Federation, to cite an example of a farm that was lost because of estate taxes, and they were unable to do so. Economists told Johnston that it was a myth. An IRS analysis of 1999 returns found that almost no working farmers owe estate taxes. Estate taxes are not assessed on the first $1.35 million net worth, and then rise from 43 to 55 percent above $3 million. Additionally, most wealthy people use legal maneuvers to reduce their estate taxes significantly, to as little as zero in some cases.

He was a Pulitzer finalist in 2003 "for his stories that displayed exquisite command of complicated U.S. tax laws and of how corporations and individuals twist them to their advantage." He was also a finalist in 2000 "for his lucid coverage of problems resulting from the reorganization of the Internal Revenue Service."

Like columnist Steven Pearlstein, Johnston has won praise for his writing even though he has no degree in economics. Johnston studied economics at the University of Chicago graduate school and six other colleges, earning the equivalent of six years of college credits but no awarded degree, because he took upper level and graduate level courses almost exclusively, and did not remain at any one school long enough.

Johnston has been critical of news coverage of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, a nearly $700 billion bailout of Wall Street in 2008. In a letter to American journalist and blogger Jim Romenesko, Johnston wrote, "In covering the proposed $700 billion bailout of Wall Street don't repeat the failed lapdog practices that so damaged our reputations in the rush to war in Iraq and the adoption of the Patriot Act. Don't assume that Congress must act instantly, as so many news stories state as if it was an immutable fact. Don't assume there is a case just because officials say there is." Johnston has been cited favorably by Glenn Greenwald as well as other bailout critics. On September 26, 2008, Johnston said: "If you look around, you'll notice that banks are still making ordinary loans to ordinary businesses. Your mailbox is still full of proposals to sell you credit cards and extend you debt. The Internet still has ads for these very toxic mortgages that are at the heart of this. They're being advertised all over the Internet....And my point is not to argue that there is or is not a crisis, but that journalists need to begin not by questioning around the edges but by going to the core question. Is this the least expensive way to do this? Are there market solutions that might be applied?"

In 2011, in his debut article for Reuters, Johnson mistook a positive number for a negative one in News Corp's annual report, and as a result, his article said that News Corp had received a large tax refund, when in reality, it had paid taxes. This error led to a retraction of the article.

On March 14, 2017, Johnston released a portion of Donald Trump's 2005 Form 1040 tax return which, he states, he received anonymously in the mail.

DCReport
In 2016, David Cay Johnston co-founded DCReport with David Crook, a veteran journalist who was founder and editor of The Wall Street Journal Sunday. DCReport is an online nonprofit news service that covers the US President and Congress. Johnston is Editor-in-Chief and David Crook is Managing Editor.

From 2019 to 2021, DCReport partnered with Raw Story providing original investigative reporting for Raw Story's subscribers on financial regulation, taxes, energy, the environment, worker safety and corruption.

In December 2022, Johnston announced he would be stepping down as editor-in-chief, though continuing as an advisor and occasional contributor, and the Next Echo Foundation would be taking charge.

Works
Johnston is the author of best-selling books on tax and economic policy. Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense and Stick You With The Bill, is about hidden subsidies, rigged markets, and corporate socialism. It follows his earlier book Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich—and Cheat Everybody Else, a New York Times bestseller on the U.S. tax system that won the Investigative Reporters and Editors 2003 Book of the Year award.

Johnston's first book, the 1992 Temples of Chance: How America Inc. Bought Out Murder Inc. to Win Control of the Casino Business is an account of how the junk-bond kings usurped mob control of the casino industry in the 1980s. The book discusses corruption in the industry and the role of the federal and state governments in that corruption.

In 2014 Johnston released Divided: The Perils of Our Growing Inequality. Cay Johnston shows most Americans, in inflation-adjusted terms, are now back to the average income of 1966. Post-recession (from 2009 to 2011) the top one percent of households took in 121 percent of the income gains while the bottom 99 percent saw their incomes fall.

In 2016, Johnston released The Making of Donald Trump, a journalistic account of the rise of businessperson-turned-presidential candidate Donald Trump. At the time he wrote the book, Johnston had known Trump for 28 years. The book was on the New York Times bestseller list.

Published in 2018 is It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration is Doing to America, an investigative piece that details actions taken by Trump and his appointees at the departmental level, and how these actions affect Americans' rights and civil protections.
 * Temples of Chance: How America Inc. Bought Out Murder Inc. to Win Control of the Casino Business (1992) ISBN 978-0-385-41920-8
 * Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich—and Cheat Everybody Else (2003) ISBN 1-59184-019-8
 * Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense and Stick You With The Bill (2007) ISBN 978-1-59184-191-3
 * The Fine Print: How Big Companies Use "Plain English" to Rob You Blind (2012) ISBN 978-1-591-84358-0
 * Divided: The Perils of Our Growing Inequality (2014) ISBN 9781620970850
 * The Making of Donald Trump (2016) ISBN 978-1612196329
 * It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration is Doing to America (2018) ISBN 9781501174162
 * The Enforcers : How little-known trade reporters exposed the Keating Five and advanced business journalism (2019) ISBN 9780252042942
 * Social security works for everyone! : protecting and expanding the insurance Americans love and count on (2021) ISBN 9781620976227
 * The Big Cheat : How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family (2022) ISBN 9781982187903

Personal life
Johnston was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Gretchen E. and Leslie Jules Johnston, a chef. Johnston is married to Jennifer Leonard. They live in Brighton, New York, a suburb of Rochester. They have eight children and five grandchildren.

title: David Cay Johnston


text:
Kathleen Robertson

Kathleen Robertson (born July 8, 1973) is a Canadian actress. She has starred in a number of films, and from 2011 to 2012 played the role of Kitty O'Neill in the Starz political drama series Boss. From 2014 to 2016, Robertson starred as homicide detective Hildy Mulligan in the TNT series Murder in the First. She also played Tina Edison in the Canadian sitcom Maniac Mansion (1990–1993) and Clare Arnold in the Fox teen drama series Beverly Hills, 90210 (1994–1997). In 2019, she played a main character in the series Northern Rescue.

Early life
Robertson was born in Hamilton, Ontario and attended Sherwood Secondary School and Hillfield Strathallan College, a local private school. She started taking acting classes when she was ten and had roles in local theatre productions. Her first television appearances were in The Campbells, My Secret Identity and E.N.G.

Acting
From 1990 to 1993, Robertson starred as Tina Edison, the eldest of three children of Dr. Fred Edison (Joe Flaherty), on the Canadian sitcom Maniac Mansion. This role earned her two nominations for Young Artist Awards. She appeared in several small films and television shows, and did not debut on the big screen until her small role in the 1992 thriller film Blown Away, opposite Corey Haim and Nicole Eggert. She also made her American debut in the 1992 made-for-television movie, Quiet Killer, co-starring Kate Jackson.

In 1994, Robertson was cast in the series regular role of Clare Arnold in the Fox teen drama Beverly Hills, 90210. She starred in the show from 1994 to 1997, during seasons four to seven. In 1997, her ex-boyfriend, director Gregg Araki cast her as Lucifer, one of a group of bored, alienated, and very horny Los Angeles teens in the black comedy drama film Nowhere. She later had a role in his other film, called Splendor (1999). Robertson also has appeared in several films during her career. She appeared opposite Luke Wilson in romantic comedy Dog Park (1998), in Sally Field's directed comedy-drama Beautiful (2000), and the parody movie Scary Movie 2 (2001). She later had more serious roles with the 2002 acclaimed independent drama film XX/XY, opposite Mark Ruffalo. In the same year, Robertson played the role of Evelyn Dick, a Canadian convicted murderer, whose trial remains the most sensationalized event in Canadian criminal history, in the made-for-television movie, Torso: The Evelyn Dick Story. Robertson was nominated for a Gemini Award for her performance in the film.

In 2002, Robertson starred as one of the leads in the short-lived Fox legal drama series Girls Club created by David E. Kelley. She later appeared in a number of independent films, and had guest-starring roles on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Medium, CSI: Miami, and Rookie Blue. In 2006, she appeared in Hollywoodland opposite Adrien Brody. From 2006 to 2007, she Executive Produced and had the leading role in the IFC comedy series, The Business. In 2007, she starred in the EMMY winning Syfy miniseries Tin Man as the primary antagonist of the story.

In 2011, she was cast as Kitty O'Neill, Tom Kane's personal aide alongside Kelsey Grammer in the Starz original drama series Boss. The series was cancelled after two seasons in late 2012. Robertson also starred in a number of made-for-television movies in recent years, primarily for Lifetime network, including Last Exit (2006), and Time of Death (2013). In 2013, Robertson portrayed the wife of hockey legend Gordie Howe in the made-for-television movie, Mr. Hockey: The Gordie Howe Story. The biopic first aired in late April on CBC, and then made its US debut the first week in May. Robertson won a Best Actress Leo Award for her role in the film.

In 2013, Robertson was cast as the lead in the TNT detective drama series Murder in the First co-created by Steven Bochco which debuted on June 9, 2014. She plays the role of Hildy Mulligan, a homicide detective and single mother. In the same year she starred in the thriller film The Vatican Tapes that was released on February 27, 2015, and was cast in recurring role as Jodi Morgan for the second season of A&E drama series Bates Motel. In 2015, Robertson had the leading role alongside Eric Dane in the four-hour miniseries The Fixer.

In 2018, Robertson was cast in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Netflix co-production drama series Northern Rescue. It was released on Netflix and CBC GEM on March 1, 2019. In 2021, Robertson had a pivotal role in the final season of The Expanse as the right hand of Marcos Inaros.

Writing
In 2010s, Robertson added producing and screenwriting to her resume. In 2015, Robertson completed the Writers Guild's Showrunners Training Program, where she was mentored by former WGA West president John Wells. In 2017 she began adapting The Possibilities, Kaui Hart Hemmings' follow up novel to The Descendants about a grieving Colorado mother whose son was killed in a skiing avalanche and then starts a friendship with a mysterious young girl. She is writing a feature drama film based on Chris Cleave's novel, Little Bee starring Julia Roberts. In 2017, she began developing Swimming with Sharks, a series based on the 1994 Hollywood satire film. The series was set to debut in 2020 on the former Quibi platform. The series was later picked up by The Roku Channel and premiered at South by Southwest in March 2022. She also created comedy-drama pilot Your Time Is Up for Lifetime with Christina Applegate attached to star. As of 2022 Robertson was writing a film for Paramount and Akiva Goldsman for director Johannes Roberts. She also sold a new series to CBC called APRES SKI as well as a show to Lionsgate with Academy Award nominated doc filmmaker Joe Berlinger attached to direct.

Personal life
Robertson dated acclaimed independent filmmaker Gregg Araki from 1997 to 2000.

Robertson has been married to film producer Chris Cowles since 2004. They run a production company together called DEBUT CONTENT and have several films and television series in various stages of development. She gave birth to her first child, a son named William Robertson Cowles, on July 9, 2008, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. In October 2016, Robertson gave birth to her second son, Bennett.

Writing and producing

 * 2007 – The Business, Executive Producer
 * 2022 – Swimming with Sharks, (TV Series), Producer, Executive Producer
 * 2022 – Swimming with Sharks, (TV Series), Episode 1.1, Writer
 * TBA – Your Time Is Up, (TV Movie), Writer
 * TBA – Little Bee, (Screen Play), Writer

title: Kathleen Robertson


text:
Homotopy lifting property

In mathematics, in particular in homotopy theory within algebraic topology, the homotopy lifting property (also known as an instance of the right lifting property or the covering homotopy axiom) is a technical condition on a continuous function from a topological space E to another one, B. It is designed to support the picture of E "above" B by allowing a homotopy taking place in B to be moved "upstairs" to E.

For example, a covering map has a property of unique local lifting of paths to a given sheet; the uniqueness is because the fibers of a covering map are discrete spaces. The homotopy lifting property will hold in many situations, such as the projection in a vector bundle, fiber bundle or fibration, where there need be no unique way of lifting.

Formal definition
Assume all maps are continuous functions between topological spaces. Given a map $$\pi\colon E \to B$$, and a space $$Y\,$$, one says that $$(Y, \pi)$$ has the homotopy lifting property, or that $$\pi\,$$ has the homotopy lifting property with respect to $$Y$$, if:

 * for any homotopy $$f_\bullet \colon Y \times I \to B$$, and
 * for any map $$\tilde{f}_0 \colon Y \to E$$ lifting $$f_0 = f_\bullet|_{Y\times\{0\}}$$ (i.e., so that $$f_\bullet\circ \iota_0 = f_0 = \pi\circ\tilde{f}_0$$),

there exists a homotopy $$\tilde{f}_\bullet \colon Y \times I \to E$$ lifting $$f_\bullet$$ (i.e., so that $$f_\bullet = \pi\circ\tilde{f}_\bullet$$) which also satisfies $$\tilde{f}_0 = \left.\tilde{f}\right|_{Y\times\{0\}}$$.

The following diagram depicts this situation:

The outer square (without the dotted arrow) commutes if and only if the hypotheses of the lifting property are true. A lifting $$\tilde{f}_\bullet$$ corresponds to a dotted arrow making the diagram commute. This diagram is dual to that of the homotopy extension property; this duality is loosely referred to as Eckmann–Hilton duality.

If the map $$\pi$$ satisfies the homotopy lifting property with respect to all spaces $$Y$$, then $$\pi$$ is called a fibration, or one sometimes simply says that $$\pi$$ has the homotopy lifting property.

A weaker notion of fibration is Serre fibration, for which homotopy lifting is only required for all CW complexes $$Y$$.

Generalization: homotopy lifting extension property
There is a common generalization of the homotopy lifting property and the homotopy extension property. Given a pair of spaces $$X \supseteq Y$$, for simplicity we denote $$T \mathrel{:=} (X \times \{0\}) \cup (Y \times [0, 1]) \subseteq X\times [0, 1]$$. Given additionally a map $$\pi \colon E \to B$$, one says that $$(X, Y, \pi)$$ has the homotopy lifting extension property if:
 * For any homotopy $$f \colon X \times [0, 1] \to B$$, and
 * For any lifting $$\tilde g \colon T \to E$$ of $$g = f|_T$$, there exists a homotopy $$\tilde f \colon X \times [0, 1] \to E$$ which covers $$f$$ (i.e., such that $$\pi\tilde f = f$$) and extends $$\tilde g$$ (i.e., such that $$\left.\tilde f\right|_T = \tilde g$$).

The homotopy lifting property of $$(X, \pi)$$ is obtained by taking $$Y = \emptyset$$, so that $$T$$ above is simply $$X \times \{0\}$$.

The homotopy extension property of $$(X, Y)$$ is obtained by taking $$\pi$$ to be a constant map, so that $$\pi$$ is irrelevant in that every map to E is trivially the lift of a constant map to the image point of $$\pi$$.

title: Homotopy lifting property


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USS Bismarck Sea

USS Bismarck Sea (CVE-95) was the fortieth of fifty Casablanca-class escort carriers built to serve the United States Navy during World War II; she was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. Completed in May 1944, she served in support of the Philippines campaign, and the landings on Iwo Jima. On 21 February 1945, she sank off of Iwo Jima due to two Japanese kamikaze attacks, killing 318 crewmen. Notably, she was the last aircraft carrier in U.S. service to sink due to enemy action.

Design and description

Bismarck Sea was a Casablanca-class escort carrier, the most numerous type of aircraft carriers ever built, and designed specifically to be mass-produced using prefabricated sections, in order to replace heavy early war losses. Standardized with her sister ships, she was 512 ft long overall, had a beam of 65 ft, and a draft of 20 ft. She displaced 8188 LT standard, 10902 LT with a full load. She had a 257 ft long hangar deck, a 477 ft long flight deck. She was powered with two Uniflow reciprocating steam engines, which provided a force of 9000 hp, driving two shafts, enabling her to make. The ship had a cruising range of 10240 nmi, assuming that she traveled at a constant speed of 15 kn. Her compact size necessitated the installment of an aircraft catapult at her bow end, and there were two aircraft elevators to facilitate movement of aircraft between the flight and hangar deck: one on the fore, another on the aft.

One 5 in /38 caliber dual-purpose gun was mounted on the stern, and she was equipped with 16 Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns in twin mounts, as well as 12 Oerlikon 20 mm cannons, which were used in an anti-aircraft capability. By the end of the war, Casablanca-class carriers had been modified to carry 30 20 mm cannons, as a response to increasing casualties due to kamikaze attacks. Anti-aircraft guns were mounted around the perimeter of the deck. Casablanca-class escort carriers were designed to carry 27 aircraft, but she sometimes went over or under this number. For example, during the Philippines campaign, she carried 16 Wildcat FM-2 fighters and 12 Avenger TBM-3 torpedo bombers, for a total of 28 aircraft. During the Iwo Jima campaign, she carried 19 FM-2 fighters, and 12 TBM-3 torpedo bombers, for a total of 31 aircraft. She was designed to accommodate 764 crew, but in wartime, her complement inevitably crept over that number. A reasonable estimate puts the number of crew typically on board a Casablanca-class escort carrier at around 910 to 916 men.

Construction and service history
Her construction was awarded to Kaiser Shipbuilding Company, Vancouver, Washington under a Maritime Commission contract, on 18 June 1942, under the name Alikula Bay, as part of a tradition which named escort carriers after bays or sounds in Alaska. She was laid down on 31 January 1944, and was assigned the designation MC hull 1132. She was launched on 17 April 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Mabel C. Wallgren, wife of Senator Monrad Wallgren, under the name Alikula Bay. She was renamed Bismarck Sea on 16 May 1944, as part of a new naval policy which named subsequent Casablanca-class carriers after naval or land engagements, and she was transferred to the United States Navy and commissioned on 20 May, with Captain John L. Pratt in command.

After being commissioned, Bismarck Sea engaged in training exercises off the West Coast throughout June. On 1 July, she left San Pedro ferrying aircraft and pilots to Pearl Harbor. After unloading her aircraft, she loaded more aircraft and ferried them to the Marshall Islands, arriving at Majuro Atoll on 16 July. She then proceeded back to Pearl Harbor, carrying damaged aircraft, arriving on 29 July, along with her sister ship USS Saginaw Bay (CVE-82). Throughout August, she was stationed at San Diego for a four-week overhaul, where she received her combat air contingent, Composite Squadron (VC) 86. Between 7 September, and 16 October, she engaged in additional training exercises. She then steamed to Ulithi, Caroline Islands, to join Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid's 7th Fleet on 1 November. Between 14 and 23 November, she operated off Leyte and Mindanao in support of operations onboard Leyte. On 21 November, a Japanese aircraft made a strafing run along the carrier, but without inflicting any damage, and escaped to the northwest before it could be engaged. On 27 November, she arrived at Seeadler Harbor, New Guinea, to join Task Group 77.4, commanded by Rear Admiral Calvin T. Durgin. Throughout December, she conducted additional flight training and gunnery exercises. On 27 December, she left for Palau, to support the invasion of Luzon. On 5 January 1945, her task group sighted the Japanese destroyers JAPANESE DESTROYER Hinoki and JAPANESE DESTROYER Momi. USS Bennion (DD-662) engaged in a brief and inconclusive firefight with the destroyers, before disengaging to provide a screen.

Twenty-four fighters and sixteen torpedo bombers were sent against the destroyers, which Bismarck Sea supplemented the strike group with four Avengers and the same amount of Wildcats. The aerial strike force inflicted serious damage on both of the destroyers, sinking Momi. Hinoki, albeit damaged, was able to escape into Manila harbor, but she was subsequently sunk on 7 January by aircraft from Task Force 78. However, that same day, the escort carrier USS Ommaney Bay (CVE-79) was sunk by a kamikaze aircraft. The task group then participated in the Invasion of Lingayen Gulf and supported air operations over Luzon until 17 January, when the task group proceeded towards Ulithi in preparation for the invasion of Iwo Jima. She departed Ulithi on 10 February, reorganized into Task Unit 52.2, still under the command of Durgin, and consisting of ten escort carriers and their destroyer screens, along with two escort carriers loosely tied into the task group on anti-submarine duties. On 16 February, she arrived off Iwo Jima to support the landings. The task group's aircraft conducted anti-submarine patrols, anti-aircraft patrols, and supported the first wave of troops on 19 February. Close air support, almost all of it derived from carriers, played a major role throughout the invasion.

Sinking
On 16 February, Vice-Admiral Kimpei Teroaka authorized the formation of a kamikaze special attack unit to counter the imminent landings on Iwo Jima. The kamikaze force consisted of thirty-two aircraft in total, and on the early morning of 21 February, they departed from Katori Naval Air Base, in Asahi, Chiba. They refueled at Hachijō-jima, and proceeded towards the U.S. naval contingent surrounding Iwo Jima, arriving near sunset.

When the kamikazes arrived, Bismarck Sea was performing routine close air support with the rest of Task Group 52.2. At the time, the escort carrier task group, having split in two, consisted of Bismarck Sea, her sister ships USS Makin Island (CVE-93), USS Lunga Point (CVE-94), Saginaw Bay, USS Rudyerd Bay (CVE-81), and USS Anzio (CVE-57), along with a destroyer contingent. The task group was steaming approximately 21 mi east of Iwo Jima. At 17:30, the aircraft on Bismarck Sea were scrambled to deal with incoming planes, which turned out to be friendly. After recovering her planes, she found it necessary to take on three planes from other carriers and, due to the lack of deck space, to shelter four of her fighters below-decks without emptying their fuel tanks, a decision which would later prove disastrous. This brought the number of aircraft aboard the carrier to thirty-seven aircraft: 19 FM-2 fighters, 15 TBM-3 torpedo bombers, 2 OY-1 reconnaissance aircraft, and a F6F Hellcat fighter. At 18:45, the task group spotted the Japanese planes headed for them, when a Mitsubishi G4M made a dive towards Lunga Point. Gunners from Bismarck Sea shot it down. At 18:46, five Nakajima B6Ns dove towards Lunga Point. All four of the kamikazes missed with their torpedoes, and none of them made successful contact with Lunga Point, albeit the third kamikaze's wreckage skidded across the carrier's deck, sparking a brief gasoline fire. Damage to Lunga Point was minimal, and eleven of her crew were wounded. There were no fatalities, and she was able to continue operating in support of troops on Iwo Jima.

The fifth plane, however, switched targets, and proceeded towards Bismarck Sea. At 1000 yd, it was spotted by, and engaged by gunners aboard Bismarck Sea. However, despite the heavy gunfire, which damaged the plane, it quickly approached Bismarck Sea from the starboard side at a low angle, which the anti-aircraft guns could not depress sufficiently to fire at. The plane plowed in under the first 40 mm gun (aft), crashing through the hangar deck and striking the ship's magazines. At the time of the crash, the aircraft elevator was in operation, and nearly up to the flight deck, when its cables were cut by the kamikaze, causing the platform to drop onto the hangar deck with a tremendous amount of force. The force of the explosion distributed munitions, including torpedoes, across the deck, and started a fire. The ship's steering was also rendered dysfunctional by the blast. The sprinkler system and the water curtains were inoperative, but the fire was nearly under control when about two minutes later, a second plane, likely attracted by the ship's glow against the darkness, approaching from the port side, struck the aft elevator shaft, exploding on impact, killing the majority of the fire-fighting party and destroying the fire fighting salt-water distribution system, thus preventing any further damage control. The second plane detonated amongst the four fighters which were sheltered belowdecks, and the fighters, with full gasoline tanks, quickly turned the fire into a conflagration, enveloping the entire aft side of the ship.

When munitions on board the ship began to detonate, and with no firefighting equipment operational, the situation quickly deteriorated. At 19:00, the crew assembled at their "abandon ship" locations, and the engines were cut. Captain John L. Pratt issued the order to abandon ship at 19:05. As the crew abandoned ship, a large explosion, likely from the detonation of the torpedoes within the hangar deck, rocked the ship. This explosion tore much of the aft-end of the ship to shreds, and she quickly acquired a list to the starboard. Twenty Wildcats and eleven Avengers went down with Bismarck Sea. The majority of the crew made it off the ship in the next 30 minutes. At 20:07, the ship's island detached from the hull and slid into the water. Two hours after the dual kamikaze attacks, at 21:15, Bismarck Sea sank with the loss of 318 men, and was the last US Navy aircraft carrier to be lost during World War II. Many casualties were inflicted once the crew abandoned ship, through hypothermia, choppy seas, and Japanese aircraft strafing the survivors. Three destroyers and three destroyer escorts rescued survivors over the next 12 hours, between them saving a total of 605 officers and men from her crew of 923. The destroyer escort USS Edmonds (DE-406) directed the rescue operations of the remaining hands, in spite of darkness, heavy seas and continuing air attacks, rescuing a majority of the surviving crew. Thirty of Edmonds' own crew went over the side to bring the wounded and exhausted carrier men to safety. Edmonds hauled up 378 men, the destroyer escort USS Lawrence C. Taylor (DE-415) retrieved 136 men, and the destroyer USS Helm (DD-388) recovered 39 survivors. Survivors were then transferred to the attack transports USS Dickens (APA-161) and USS Highlands (APA-119).

The special attack unit which struck on 21 February, in addition to sinking Bismarck Sea, also heavily damaged USS Saratoga (CV-3), USS Keokuk (CMc-6), and slightly damaged Lunga Point, USS LST-477, and USS LST-809. Bismarck Sea was the only ship to sink as a result of the attacks and was struck from the Navy List on 30 March; to date, she is the last US aircraft carrier lost due to enemy action. The kamikaze attacks killed 43 Japanese in total.

title: USS Bismarck Sea


text:
USS Kwajalein

USS Kwajalein (CVE-98) was the forty-fourth of fifty Casablanca-class escort carriers built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was named after the Battle of Kwajalein, in which American forces captured Kwajalein Atoll. The ship was launched in May 1944, commissioned in June, and served in support of the Philippines campaign. Later in the war, she served as a replenishment carrier, during which she was damaged by Typhoon Cobra. Postwar, she participated in Operation Magic Carpet, repatriating U.S. servicemen from throughout the Pacific. She was decommissioned in May 1946, when she was mothballed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet. Ultimately, she was sold for scrapping in January 1961.

Design and description

Kwajalein was a Casablanca-class escort carrier, the most numerous type of aircraft carriers ever built, and designed specifically to be mass-produced using prefabricated sections, in order to replace heavy early war losses. Standardized with her sister ships, she was 512 ft long overall, at the waterline, she was 490 ft long, she had a beam of 65 ft, at her widest point, this was 108 ft, and a draft of 20 ft. She displaced 8188 LT standard, 10902 LT with a full load. She had a 257 ft long hangar deck and a 477 ft long flight deck. She was powered with two Skinner Unaflow reciprocating steam engines, which drove two shafts, providing 9000 shp, thus enabling her to make. The ship had a cruising range of 10240 nmi at a speed of 15 kn. Her compact size necessitated the installation of an aircraft catapult at her bow, and there were two aircraft elevators to facilitate movement of aircraft between the flight and hangar deck: one each fore and aft.

One 5 in/38 caliber dual-purpose gun was mounted on the stern. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by eight Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns in single mounts, as well as 12 Oerlikon 20 mm cannons, which were mounted around the perimeter of the deck. By the end of the war, Casablanca-class carriers had been modified to carry thirty 20 mm cannons, and the amount of 40 mm guns had been doubled to sixteen, by putting them into twin mounts. These modifications were in response to increasing casualties due to kamikaze attacks. Although Casablanca-class escort carriers were designed to function with a crew of 860 and an embarked squadron of 50 to 56, the exigencies of wartime often necessitated the inflation of the crew count. In a combat situation, Casablanca-class escort carriers were designed to carry 27 aircraft, but an additional number could be accommodated on the hangar deck.

Construction
Her construction was awarded to Kaiser Shipbuilding Company, Vancouver, Washington, under a Maritime Commission contract, on 18 June 1942. The escort carrier was laid down on 19 February 1944 under the name Bucareli Bay, as part of a tradition which named escort carriers after bays or sounds in Alaska. She was later renamed Kwajalein, as part of a new naval policy which named subsequent Casablanca-class carriers after naval or land engagements. The escort carrier was laid down as MC hull 1135, the forty-fourth of a series of fifty Casablanca-class escort carriers. She was launched on 4 May 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Rudolf L. Johnson; transferred to the United States Navy and commissioned on 7 June 1944.

Service history
After commissioning, Kwajalein underwent a shakedown cruise down the West Coast to San Pedro. She then underwent a transport mission on 19 July to Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides, ferrying military passengers and aircraft. She arrived on 3 August, and proceeded westwards on 7 August for Guam in the Mariana Islands, transporting additional aircraft. There, she took on a load of salvaged Japanese equipment, which she carried back to the United States for analysis.

Arriving at the West Coast, she underwent repairs and overhaul at San Diego. She was then assigned to replenishment carrier duties, departing on 7 October to support the Third Fleet's frontline Fast Carrier Task Force as part of Task Group 30.8, the Fleet Oiler and Transport Carrier Group. Replenishment escort carriers such as Kwajalein enabled the frontline carriers to replace battle losses and to stay at sea for longer durations of time. She took on a load of replacement aircraft at Manus Island in the Admiralty Islands, and sailed for Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands on 5 November, where she rendezvoused with the replenishment carrier fleet. She was stationed off Manus and Ulithi in the Caroline Islands, where she received supplies and replacement aircraft. Her aircraft were sent to support U.S. forces in the Philippines campaign. During these duties, on 18 December, as part of Task Group 30.8.14, she weathered Typhoon Cobra.

The Third Fleet had been operating against positions on Luzon since 14 December, but its escorting destroyers ran low on fuel. As a result, the fleet retired to the east to refuel and to receive replacement aircraft from Task Group 30.8. She rendezvoused with the Third Fleet about 300 mi east of Luzon early on 17 December. The location had been chosen because it lay out of range of Japanese fighters, but it also happened to lie within Typhoon Alley, where many Pacific tropical cyclones transited. As the escort carriers and the Third Fleet met, Typhoon Cobra began to bear down. At 01:00 on 18 December, fueling operations were attempted with the destroyers, although heavy winds and listing seas complicated the matter. At the same time, barometers on-board the ships began to drop, and tropical storm force winds were recorded. Some preparations were made onboard Kwajalein, with the aircraft on her flight deck being lashed down to prevent their loss.

As the weather continued to deteriorate, Admiral William Halsey Jr. ordered fueling operations suspended at 13:10. In a clumsy attempt to evade the cyclone, and misled by sketchy data, Halsey ordered several conflicting orders in quick succession, which ultimately brought Kwajalein and the rest of the escort carriers into the quadrant of the typhoon with the strongest winds.

At 07:00, the fleet was inescapably trapped in the typhoon's path. Conflicting orders meant that some of the destroyers attempted to do some fueling during the morning, even as waves with an estimated height of 60 ft pounded the task force. At 07:22, Kwajalein came to course at 60°, along with her sisters USS Nehenta Bay (CVE-74) and USS Rudyerd Bay (CVE-81). At 09:40, she lost most steering control, but careful manipulation of the rudder meant that Kwajalein only faced rolls of about 10°, and at the time, she fared much better than many of her fellow replenishment carriers. However, with visibility down to only 1000 yds, each ship moving independently of each other, and the ship's lack of steering control, the ship's officers were gravely concerned about potential collisions.

Eventually, as she proceeded deeper into the typhoon's eyewall, her roll began to increase drastically. At one point, Warrick reported that she had rolled 39° to port, a very dangerous angle. At 13:00, a Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter broke free of its restraints, and rolled across the flight deck into a gun mount. Several crewmen, at great personal risk, shoved the plane overboard before it could wreak any more damage. During the height of the storm, two more planes were jettisoned off her flight deck, with two more damaged and rendered inoperational. However, the majority of her aircraft remained intact and usable, in stark contrast to some of the other escort carriers who went through the typhoon, which had almost their entire aircraft contingent ejected or damaged beyond repair. Only minor damage was dealt to Kwajalein, and she was able to continue operating as a replenishment carrier.

Later, in January 1945, she transitioned northwards, providing replacement aircraft in support of the Fast Carrier Task Force, which was operating against Japanese bases along the Formosan and Chinese coasts. Upon completing her duties, she was discharged from the replenishment carrier fleet, steaming back to the United States. She returned on San Diego on 23 February, where she underwent overhaul, and received a load of aircraft.

After completing her overhaul, she proceeded to Pearl Harbor with her load of aircraft. There, she served as a transport carrier until the cession of hostilities with Japan. She conducted three transport runs from Hawaii to bases in the West Pacific, ferrying aircraft, supplies, and munitions. The aircraft she transported helped replace losses sustained in raids against the Japanese home islands. During these transport runs, Captain Charles Murray Heberton took over command of the vessel on 15 July 1945.

After news of the Japanese surrender broke, she joined the Operation Magic Carpet fleet, which repatriated U.S. servicemen from around the Pacific. In total, she made four Magic Carpet runs, making stops throughout the Pacific. She arrived at San Pedro on 2 February 1946, whereupon she was discharged from the Magic Carpet fleet. On 23 April, she departed San Pedro, and sailed north for Mukilteo, Washington, arriving there on 5 February. She then proceeded to Pacific Reserve Fleet, Tacoma in Tacoma, Washington, where inactivation work was conducted. She was decommissioned on 16 August, and mothballed as part of the Pacific Reserve Fleet. She was redesignated as a utility aircraft carrier, CVU-98, on 12 June 1955. She was once again redesignated, this time as an aircraft transport, AKV-34, on 7 May 1959. She was struck from the Navy list on 1 April 1960, and sold for scrapping. She was ultimately broken up in Japan sometime in 1961. She received two battle stars for her World War II service.

title: USS Kwajalein