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Battle of Korsun–Cherkassy

The Battle of Korsun–Cherkassy (Корсунь-Шевченковская операция; Корсунь-Шевченківська операція), also known as the Battle of the Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket, was a World War II battle fought from 24 January to 16 February 1944 in the course of the Soviet Dnieper–Carpathian offensive in Ukraine following the Korsun–Shevchenkovsky offensive.

In the battle, the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts, commanded, respectively, by Nikolai Vatutin and Ivan Konev, encircled German forces of Army Group South in a pocket near the Dnieper River. During weeks of fighting, the two Red Army Fronts tried to eradicate the pocket. The encircled German units attempted a breakout in coordination with a relief attempt by other German forces, resulting in heavy casualties, estimates of which vary.

The Soviet victory in the Korsun–Cherkassy offensive marked the successful implementation of Soviet deep operations. Soviet deep battle doctrine envisaged the breaking of the enemy's forward defences to allow fresh operational reserves to exploit the breakthrough by driving into the strategic depth of the enemy front. The arrival of large numbers of American- and British-built trucks and halftracks gave the Soviet forces much greater mobility than they had had before. This, coupled with the Soviet capacity to hold large formations in reserve gave the Red Army the ability to drive deep behind German defenses again and again.

Though the Soviet operation at Korsun did not result in the collapse in the German front that the Soviet command had hoped for, it marked a significant deterioration in the strength available to the German army on that front, especially in heavy weaponry, nearly all of which was lost during the breakout. Through the rest of the war the Red Army would place large German forces in jeopardy, while the Germans were stretched thin and constantly attempting to extract themselves from one crisis to the next. Mobile Soviet offensives were the hallmark of the Eastern front for the remainder of the war.

January 1944
In the autumn of 1943, the German forces of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein's Army Group South including General Otto Wöhler's 8th Army had fallen back to the Panther–Wotan line, a defensive position that in Ukraine followed the Dnieper river. However, when the German forces arrived, construction had only just been started, so the defensive positions essentially did not exist.

By 1 December 1943, the line had been broken and the Soviet Army had crossed the Dnieper in force. Only two corps, the XI under General Wilhelm Stemmermann, the XLII Army Corps under Lieutenant General Theobald Lieb and the attached Corps Detachment B from the 8th Army were holding a salient in the new Soviet line. The salient to the west of Cherkassy extended some 100 kilometers to the Dnieper river settlement of Kanev, with the town of Korsun roughly in the center of the salient, with the 1st Ukrainian Front to its left and the 2nd Ukrainian Front to its right.

Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov realized the potential for destroying Wöhler's 8th Army, using tactics similar to those used to encircle and destroy Paulus's 6th Army in the Battle of Stalingrad. Zhukov recommended to the Soviet Supreme Command (Stavka) deploying the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts to form two armored rings of encirclement: an inner ring around the pocket, followed by the destruction of the forces it contained, and an external ring to prevent relief formations from reaching the surrounded units. Despite repeated warnings from Manstein and others, Hitler refused to allow the exposed units to be pulled back.

General Konev held a conference at his headquarters at Boltushki on 15 January with his commanders and their political commissars to pass on the orders received from Stavka. The initial attack was to be conducted by Konev's own 2nd Ukrainian Front from the southeast by the 53rd Army and 4th Guards Army, with the 5th Guards Tank Army to exploit penetrations, supported by the 5th Air Army, to be joined in progress by the 52nd Army, 5th Guards Cavalry Corps and 2nd Tank Army. Additionally, from Vatutin's 1st Ukrainian Front, the 27th and 40th Armies were to be deployed from the northwest, with the 6th Tank Army to exploit penetrations, supported by the 2nd Air Army. Many of these formations had received an inflow of new personnel. Red Army planning further included extensive deception operations that the Soviets claimed were successful; however, the German 8th Army war diary shows clearly that the German staffs were concerned about the threat at hand.

Encirclement

The Soviet attack started on 24 January when Konev's 2nd Ukrainian Front attacked the salient from the southeast. A breakthrough was quickly achieved, and the penetration was exploited by the 5th Guards Tank Army and the 5th Guards Cavalry Corps the following day. Despite the awareness of the German 8th Army's staff that an attack was imminent, they were surprised by the appearance of the 1st Ukrainian Front's newly formed 6th Tank Army. The 6th Tank Army, with 160 tanks and 50 self-propelled guns, was inexperienced and took longer than expected to penetrate the western flank of the salient. A "mobile group" from the 5th Mechanized Corps' 233rd Tank Brigade, under the command of General Savelev, with 50 tanks and 200 sub-machine gun armed infantrymen, occupied Lysyanka and moved into the outskirts of Zvenyhorodka by 28 January. Here, these troops of the 6th Tank Army met the 2nd Ukrainian Front's 20th Tank Corps. Over the next three days, the two tank armies formed a thinly manned outer ring around what was now the Korsun Pocket while another, inner, ring was formed by the Soviet 27th, 52nd, and 4th Guard Armies.

The Soviet commanders were optimistic about the progress of the operation. Stalin was promised a second Stalingrad, and he expected it. Konev wired: "There is no need to worry, Comrade Stalin. The encircled enemy will not escape." Inside the pocket were nearly 60,000 men from six German divisions, at about 55% of their authorized strength, along with a number of smaller combat units. Among the trapped German forces were the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking, with the attached 5th SS Infantry Brigade Wallonien, the Estonian SS infantry battalion Narwa, and "several thousand" Russian auxiliaries. General Wilhelm Stemmermann, the commander of the XI Corps, was placed in command of the forces in the pocket. These forces were designated Gruppe Stemmermann. The 5th SS Panzer Division, with some 11,400 personnel, had 30 operational Panzer III/IV tanks and assault guns left, and six more under repair. The division further had 47 artillery pieces, of which 12 were self-propelled guns.

German relief attacks
Manstein moved quickly, and by early February the III and XLVII Panzer Corps were assembled for a relief effort. Hitler intervened, however, and ordered the attack be transformed into an effort to counter-encircle the two Soviet army groups.

General Hermann Breith, commander of the III Panzer Corps, requested the relief formations be united to attempt to force a corridor to the encircled Gruppe Stemmermann. This request was refused, and the counter-encirclement of the Soviet forces was attempted. The attack by the XLVII Panzer Corps' 11th Panzer Division on the southeastern flank of the pocket quickly stalled, as it had only 27 tanks and 34 assault guns operational. The III Panzer Corps' attempt continued until 8 February, when it became undeniable that the effort had failed. Manstein ordered the corps to instead drive directly to the relief of Gruppe Stemmermann. Pulling the III Panzer Corps back and reorganizing for the new attack 15 kilometers south of Boyarka took three days.

On 11 February, Breith began a push with the 16th and 17th Panzer Divisions driving toward the Gniloy Tikich River. They initially made good progress. The 1st Panzer Division and 1st SS Panzer Division LSSAH covered the northern flank of the drive. As they drove deeper into the Soviet positions, Zhukov ordered Vatutin to assemble four tank corps with the goal of cutting off the attacking German spearhead. The weather warmed, turning the roads to a soft mud and bogging down German progress. Here the liabilities of Germany's wheeled vehicles became evident. The Soviet forces had been provided lend-lease U.S. built four-wheel and six-wheel drive trucks. These were largely able to get through, whereas German two-wheel-drive vehicles were not.

Konev issued orders for the 4th Guards Army and 5th Guards Cavalry Corps to attempt to split the pocket on the night of 5–6 February. The strike was to fall on the boundary between the two German corps. As fighting progressed, the Soviet goal became clear to Stemmermann and Lieb. Stemmermann ordered the 5th SS Division's armor to the scene. Together with the 72nd Infantry Division, it brought the Soviet attack to a halt, buying the Germans time. Red Army efforts were renewed between 7–10 February. This effort was hobbled by supply shortages. The III Panzer Corps' penetrations toward the Gniloy Tikich River made the supply lines for Soviet formations such as Vatutin's 6th Tank Army much longer. The Red Air Force attempted to resupply some units using Polikarpov Po-2 aircraft. Despite logistical difficulties, units from the 2nd Ukrainian Front were able to close in on Korsun by 10 February, collapsing the pocket to an area of six by seven miles.

German maneuver within the pocket
On 11 February, the III Panzer Corps continued its drive east. The force reached the Gniloy Tikich River and established a small bridgehead on the eastern bank. It was unable to advance further, meaning that Group Stemmermann had to fight its way out.

Both sides realized that the Wehrmacht relief efforts had reached a critical stage. Despite heavy Soviet propaganda inducements, very few German soldiers and no Waffen-SS men in the cauldron had surrendered. Zhukov thus decided to send parlementaires under a white flag with surrender demands. Red Army emissaries presented letters for both Stemmermann and Lieb signed by Marshal Zhukov and Generals Konev and Vatutin. After cordial talks, refreshments and a handshake, the Soviet delegation departed without a positive answer.

The German air force mounted an aerial resupply operation to both the encircled forces and the German relief columns. On 28 January, the VIII Aviation Corps deployed 832 transport aircraft, 478 bombers (from which supplies were dropped at low altitude), 58 fighter bombers, and 168 fighters. Over the course of the operation, 32 transport aircraft, 13 bombers, and five fighters were lost. After the Korsun airfield was abandoned on 12 February, deliveries were dropped in by parachute.

The Luftwaffe delivered 82,948 gallons of fuel, 868 tons of ammunition and four tons of medical supplies to the encircled forces and 325 tons of ammunition, 74,289 gallons of fuel and 24 tons of food to spearheads of the relief formations, as well as evacuating 4,161 wounded while the Korsun airfield remained operational. The operation had only met about half (78 tons) of the daily requirements (150 tons) of the encircled troops as estimated by the German 8th Army headquarters.

Stemmermann began withdrawing troops from the north side of the pocket, reorienting the thrust of the escape direction, and attacking south to move toward the relief forces on the north bank of the Gniloy Tikich. The encircled forces aimed to capture the villages of Novo-Buda, Komarovka, Khilki and Shanderovka at the southwestern perimeter of the pocket to reach a favorable jump-off line for the breakout. On 11 and 12 February, elements of the 72nd Infantry Division captured Novo-Buda and Komarovka, respectively. On the evening of 15 February, Khilki was secured, against a Soviet counterattack. However, of all the German divisions in the pocket, the 5th SS Panzer Division contributed the most to continued operations. Since the SS Division Wiking was the only truly mobile force inside the pocket, the division's tracked units were repeatedly shifted from one end of the pocket to the other to shore up crumbling lines.

The pocket had "wandered" south and half-way toward the relief force and rested on the village of Shanderovka. The settlement was heavily defended by the Soviets; it was captured by 72nd Infantry troops, retaken by units of the Soviet 27th Army and recaptured by the Germania regiment of 5th SS Panzer Division. By nightfall on 16 February, the III Panzer Corps fought its way closer to the encircled formations, with spearheads now seven kilometers from Group Stemmermann.

Appeal from captured German officers
The pocket led to an attempt by the Soviet Union to enlist the National Committee for a Free Germany (NKFD) and the League of German Officers (BDO) in order to convince the German troops to surrender. The prisoners of war and BDO members Generals Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach, Alexander Edler von Daniels and Otto Korfes visited the front on 10 February and made a personal appeal to the German commanders. Appeals were also made on the radio. Despite their failure, this operation raised the profile of the NKFD and BDO among both the Allies and Axis. Von Seydlitz was dismissed from the army and sentenced to death in absentia and Hitler personally authorized Sippenhaft against his family.

Breakout attempt
The northward thrust toward the pocket by the III Panzer Corps had been halted by Red Army determination, terrain and fuel shortages. After several failed attempts by German armored formations to seize and hold Hill 239 (49.257°N, 30.823°W Lysyanka, Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine) and advance on Shanderovka, Soviet counterattacks by the 5th Guards Tank Army forced the III Panzer Corps into costly defensive fighting. The 8th Army radioed Stemmermann: "Capacity for action by III Panzer Corps limited by weather and supply situation. Gruppe Stemmermann must perform breakthrough as far as the line Zhurzintsy–Hill 239 by its own effort. There link up with III Panzer Corps."

The message did not specify that Zhurzintsy and the hill were still firmly in Soviet hands—a failure that caused Group Stemmermann severe casualties during the German breakout of the pocket. General Lieutenant Lieb was appointed by the 8th Army to lead the breakout. In the seven kilometers that separated Group Stemmermann and the III Panzer Corps, Konev was positioning his forces for an attack slated for 17 February. His three armies – the 4th Guards, 27th, 52nd and 5th Guards Cavalry Corps – surrounded the encircled German forces. The Red Army force also included elements of the 5th Guards Tank Army, with its armor placed in the area that separated Group Stemmermann and the III Panzer Corps.

Stemmermann elected to stay behind with a rearguard of 6,500 men, the remaining combined strength of the 57th and 88th Infantry Divisions. The pocket was at this point just five kilometers in diameter, with no room to maneuver. Shanderovka, once seen as a viable escape route, became known as "Hell's Gate". The Red Army subjected the area to intense artillery and rocket fire, while the Red Air Force ground attack aircraft bombed and strafed the encircled troops, only infrequently challenged by the Luftwaffe. Various unit diaries described a scene of gloom, with fires caused by Soviet night bombing with incendiaries, destroyed or abandoned vehicles everywhere and wounded men and disorganized units on muddy roads. Konev ordered Cossack cavalry units to perform sabre attacks on the disorganised German units. Ukrainian civilians were caught between the combatants. On 16 February 1944, Manstein, without waiting for a decision by Hitler, sent a radio message to Stemmermann to authorize the breakout: "Password Freedom, objective Lysyanka, 2300 hours."

With extreme reluctance, Stemmermann and Lieb decided to leave 1,450 non-ambulatory wounded at Shanderovka, attended by doctors and orderlies. The troops then began to assemble at dusk into three assault columns, with Division Group 112 to the north, the 5th SS Panzer Division to the south and the 72nd Division in the center, with the reinforced 105th Regiment in the first echelon to provide assault power. Several battalions and regiments reached the German lines at Oktyabr by 0410. The 105th entered Lysyanka at 0630.

At the left flank column, a reconnaissance patrol returned with the news that Hill 239 was occupied by Soviet T-34 tanks of the 5th Guards Tank Army. The high ground had to be bypassed. The direction of the German retreat had to veer off to the south toward the Gniloy Tikich River. When daylight arrived, the German breakout plan began to unravel. Very few armored vehicles and other heavy equipment could climb the slippery, thawing hillsides and the weapons had to be destroyed and abandoned.

General Konev, now aware of the German breakout, resolved to keep his promise to Stalin not to let the German forces escape. Soviet intelligence, however, at this stage vastly overestimated the armored strength of the III Panzer Corps, and Konev therefore proceeded in force. At this time, the 20th Tank Corps brought its brigade of the new Joseph Stalin-2s to the Korsun battlefield. Konev ordered all available armor and artillery to attack the escaping units, cut them into isolated groups and then destroy them piecemeal. The two blocking Soviet rifle divisions, the 206th Rifle and 5th Guards Airborne, had been smashed by the German assault forces; without infantry support Soviet tanks then fired into the German formations from a distance. With no anti-tank weapons in the field, T-34s commenced to wade into support troops, headquarters units, stragglers and Red-Cross identified medical columns.

"Under the yellow sky of early morning and over ground covered with wet snow Soviet tanks made straight for the thick of the column, ploughing up and down, killing and crushing with their tracks. Almost simultaneously massed Cossack cavalry wheeled away from the tanks to hunt down and massacre men fleeing for the refuge of the hills: hands held high in surrender the Cossacks sliced off with their sabres. The killing in this human hunt went on for several hours and a new round opened on the banks of the river Gniloy Tikich, where the survivors of the first collision of the German column with Soviet troops dragged and fought their way."

By mid-day, the majority of the now intermingled divisions had reached the Gniloy Tikich stream, 15 meter wide and two meters deep due to melting snow. Despite the fact that the 1st Panzer Division had captured a bridge and engineers had erected another, the panicking men saw the river as their only escape. Since the main body was away and south of the bridgeheads, the last tanks, trucks and wagons were driven into the water, trees were felled to form makeshift bridges and the troops floundered across, with hundreds of men drowning, being swept downstream with horses and military debris. Many others succumbed to shock or hypothermia. Toward the end phase of the breakout, engineers had built several more bridges and rear guard units of the 57th and 88th Infantry Divisions crossed the river "dry", including 20 horse-drawn wagons with about 600 wounded.

That many escaped back to the German lines at Lysyanka was due in great measure to the exertions of the III Panzer Corps as it drove in relief of Group Stemmermann. The unit was equipped with Tigers and Panthers and an engineer battalion with specialist bridging skills.

Outcome
The Red Army encirclement of Cherkassy–Korsun inflicted serious damage on six German divisions, including the 5th SS Panzer Division. Though most of the trapped men escaped, they had to leave nearly all of their heavy equipment behind. These units had to be withdrawn for rest and near complete re-equipping. The escaped wounded were transported from collection points near Uman to rehabilitation areas and hospitals in Poland, and were then sent on leave to their home towns.

In a U.S. Army brief written following the war, Lieb commented that when he assumed command of Force Stemmermann:

The 72nd and Wiking Divisions were completely intermingled. No longer did they have any tanks, artillery, vehicles or rations. Many soldiers were entirely without weapons, quite a few even without footgear. Neither division could be considered in any way able to fight. One regiment of Task Force B was intact and still had some artillery support. However, this regiment also had no vehicles and no rations left. All wounded, estimated at about 2,000, (...) were evacuated by air." He also stated: "For lack of vehicles and fuel, III Panzer Corps was unable to reinforce its units in the area of Lisyanka and Oktyabr. [It] had no extra supplies of any kind, and his forward elements were unable to provide rations for the troops emerging from the pocket.

With German armored reserves drawn to the Korsun Pocket, the Soviets struck Army Group South in two other sectors. The 13th and 60th Armies (General Vatutin's 1st Ukrainian Front) advanced south of the Pripiat' Marshes, capturing the remnants of the German XIII Corps at the Battle of Rovno and advancing to Lutsk. To the south, the 3rd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts (Generals Malinovsky and Tolbukhin) attacked along the bend of Dnepr River, capturing Kryvyi Rih.

General Stemmermann was killed during the breakout when his command car was hit by a Soviet antitank gun. General Lieb survived the war. General Vatutin was shot by Ukrainian Nationalist UPA insurgents on 29 February 1944 and died on 15 April. The commander of 2nd Ukrainian Front, General Konev, was made a Marshal of the Soviet Union for his victory at Korsun. Konev also survived the war.

Assessment
The battle around Korsun was a major Soviet victory that enabled later advances the next spring into Romania. An entire German army became trapped, and as the pocket collapsed the forces inside were forced to retreat through gaps in the Soviet forces surrounding them, resulting in significant losses in men and tremendous losses in equipment.

Hitler's insistence on holding the exposed salient strongly limited the options of German field commanders. Once the Soviets had encircled the German forces, relief efforts produced mixed results. The effectiveness of the German counterattack was limited by Hitler's plan for splitting his strength to attempt a counter envelopment. The XLVII Panzer Corps' attacks were ineffective due to the weakness of its divisions. Though the III Panzer Corps was far more effective, the corps wasted a week on a failed attempt to encircle the Soviet forces. When it was finally given the mission of relieving Gruppe Stemmermann, the Germans were unable to provide Bäke's heavy tank regiment with adequate fuel supplies, leading Bäke to stop his advance on Hill 239 because one group of his tanks had run out of fuel. This logistical failure was compounded by the vagueness of the radio message to General Stemmermann ordering the breakout attempt. Hill 239 remained under Soviet control, resulting in significant casualties among Stemmermann's retreating force.

The Soviet performance was also beset by errors. Soviet intelligence on German forces in the pocket was faulty in overestimating their strength. At the same time, the Soviets underestimated German capability for a counterattack and hurriedly moved more forces forward to bolster the strength of their encircling rings. The Soviet air force was unable to significantly hinder the German aerial resupply effort. Ultimately, the encircling forces were unable to prevent a German breakout, allowing a significant portion of the trapped Germans to escape. Given the initial circumstances of the battle, the degree of Soviet losses makes it clear that while the Soviets won at Korsun, it was a victory that came at a high price.

Soviet sources and testimonials from the front line assert that the total loss in German men was catastrophic, with estimates collected from mass graves and the battlefield accounting for roughly 55,000 dead and 18,000 German prisoners from the encircled formations alone. German sources differ on total losses, holding that of the 60,000 men originally inside the pocket, the number had shrunk to less than 50,000 by 16 February. 45,000 of these took part in the breakout, resulting in 27,703 German soldiers and 1,063 Russian auxiliaries breaking out unscathed. Total casualties killed, wounded or missing, were claimed at 31,000, yet these numbers do not count losses from the rescuing forces. German official documents listed total escapees as 40,423, including the wounded flown out of the pocket and evacuated from Lysyanka. While there were claims that "roughly two out of three" encircled men succeeding in escaping the pocket, "almost one third of their men [were either] dead or wounded."

Soviet sources tally losses of 80,188 casualties for the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts, with 24,286 killed and missing, and 55,902 wounded. These losses were incurred over the period of 24 January – 17 February 1944 during both the encirclements and the breakout attempts.

Use in propaganda
Both sides hailed the events at Korsun as a victory. Marshal Konev claimed to have inflicted 130,000 German casualties, an assertion that German official history dismissed. Soviet historian Sergey Smirnov described the victory at Korsun as a "Stalingrad on the Dnieper," and the victory was hailed as a culmination of Soviet armored strength against the ailing Wehrmacht. Marshal Zhukov disliked being overshadowed by his rival, noting that on 18 February 1944, official honors were given in Moscow to the 2nd Ukrainian Front—but not the 1st Ukrainian Front—"an unforgivable error of the part of the supreme commander [Stalin]".

On the part of the Germans, the counterattack was depicted as a glorious success in which one group of brave German soldiers freed their equally heroic comrades who had been trapped in the pocket. However, General von Vormann, who commanded the relief attempt of the XLVII Panzer Corps, bitterly noted that "the troops who took part were astonished and unbelieving when they were told they had won a great victory at Cherkassy in the Ukraine in 1944." The German high command was relieved that many troops were able to escape. Adolf Hitler supposedly only complained briefly about the amount of equipment that had to be left behind.

Historiography
One of the initial historiographical works on the fighting at Korsun was a 1952 U.S. Army publication, DA Pamphlet 20–234, Operations of Encircled Forces: German Experiences in Russia. This work was written in the context of NATO's Cold War confrontation with the Soviet Union, and the authors highlighted the historical experience of the Wehrmacht which might prove useful to NATO forces had a war between the Soviet Union and the NATO countries broken out. Like most of the English-language works on the Eastern Front of this era, it was written from the German point of view and without the benefit of wartime records.

John Erickson's 1983 The Road to Berlin and David Glantz's 1995 (2015) When Titans Clashed covered events on the entire Eastern Front from a German and Soviet perspective, and devoted several pages to the fighting in the Korsun Pocket. Erickson did not question Soviet claims regarding German casualties, and Glantz questioned the veracity of German claims regarding the total of escapees from the pocket. Glantz has also translated the Soviet General Staff Study on the Korsun Operation into English as The Battle for the Ukraine: The Red Army's Korsun'-Shevchenkovkii Operation, 1944.

More recently, the 2002 work by U.S. Army historian Douglas Nash, Hell's Gate: The Battle of the Cherkassy Pocket, January–February 1944, took issue with Soviet claims that Korsun was another Stalingrad. Similarly, the Swedish historians Niklas Zetterling and Anders Frankson disputed the assertions of the Soviet General Staff Study of the Korsun Operation in their 2008 work, ''The Korsun Pocket. The Encirclement and Breakout of a German Army in the East, 1944'', describing the staff study as "anything but accurate" and "completely unreliable." Both Nash and Zetterling/Frankson conclude that Korsun was a Soviet victory.

In 2007, Volume 8 of the German semiofficial history of the war (Germany and the Second World War) was published, and part of the work authored by Karl-Heinz Frieser addressed the events at Korsun. This work also doubts Soviet claims regarding the German casualties while discussing the situation of the German forces in detail, using available data from the German archives. However, while German casualties in this work are taken from German archives, it bases its assessment of Soviet AFV and gun losses (uncritically) on German wartime claims. In 2011 author and historian Jean Lopez published, on Economica Edition (ISBN 978-2717860290 ) a book named "Le chaudron de Tcherkassy-Korsun ", covering the battle.

title: Battle of Korsun–Cherkassy


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Direct Subsidy Scheme

The Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) is instituted by the Education Bureau of Hong Kong to enhance the quality of private schools at the primary and secondary levels. The Hong Kong government has been encouraging non-government secondary schools which have attained a sufficiently high educational standard to join the DSS by providing subsidies to enhance the quality of private school education since the 1991–92 school year. In the 2000–01 school year, the DSS was extended to primary schools. In the 2001–02 school year, the terms of the DSS were significantly improved to attract more schools to join the scheme. Under the scheme, schools are free to decide on their curriculum, fees, and entrance requirements.

Standard
Non-government schools must satisfy stipulated standards to be eligible to join the scheme. The standards include requirements regarding the mode of operation (unisessional), class size, teacher's qualifications and facilities etc. For example, schools need a permanent school premises, more than 70 per cent of teachers had to be degree-holders, and they had to have sufficient facilities such as computer, music and language labs.

Curricula
DSS schools are free to design their own curriculum. They are not subject to the guidelines issued by the Education Department. Although DSS schools are required to offer principally a curriculum targeting local students and prepare its students to sit for local examinations, certain DSS schools are currently offering or are set to offer the International Baccalaureate Programme.

Admission
DSS schools are generally free to select their own students, subject to special arrangements with the government in case of shortage of places in government/aided schools. However, DSS schools are not allowed to select their students by conducting written entrance tests.

Financing
DSS schools are free to charge school fees. In the 2009–10 school year, their schools fees range from $3,000 to $110,000 per year.

A DSS school will receive full recurrent subsidy until its fee level reaches 2 1/3 times the average unit cost of an aided school place. Beyond this level, no recurrent subsidy is available. The average unit cost of an aided school place is calculated based on a two-age based system to address the needs of schools with longer development background. In short, a higher level of subsidy would be available to DSS schools that have been operating for 16 years or above. The level of recurrent subsidy received by a DSS school is hence dependent on the number of students enrolled in that particular school.

Also, to help ex-aided DSS schools adapt to new financing methods, ex-aided DSS schools that receive less recurrent subsidy after joining the DSS will continue to receive recurrent subsidy as if they were aided schools for 5 years.

To cater for students from less well-off families, DSS schools are required to set aside at least 10% of their income for fee / scholarship schemes. In addition, for every dollar charged over two-thirds of the average unit cost of an aided school place, the school should set aside 50 cents for scholarship and financial assistance schemes.

Administration
DSS schools are required by the government to issue annual prospectuses, which must contain stipulated classes of information such as vision, mission and objectives of the school, class structure, curriculum, achievements in public exams, extra curricula activities, school fees etc. DSS schools are free to spend their grants for educational purposes, subject to inspection of their audited accounts. Ex-aided DSS schools will be given an option to revert to aided status only if the government changes the formula for calculating DSS subsidy such that the school financial viability is adversely affected.

Controversy
Pegasus Philip Wong Kin Hang Christian Primary School, a DSS school, sparked controversy when the sponsoring body pulled out, and irregularities in its accounts were revealed. The school management committee agreed to pay an advance payment of two to three weeks to Pegasus Social Service Christian Organization, the sponsoring body, which is also the school's service provider and chaired by school supervisor Carmen Leung Suk-ching. The government's monitoring mechanism over Direct Subsidy Scheme schools has therefore been criticised by legislators.

Some DSS schools have also come under criticism for raising school fees despite the economic downturn.

The Scheme has also been criticised as benefiting the private education sector and the well-off students at the expense of the public sector.

Examples

 * Diocesan Boys' School
 * Diocesan Girls' School
 * HKMA David Li Kwok Po College
 * Good Hope School
 * Heep Yunn School
 * St. Paul's Convent School
 * St. Paul's Co-educational College
 * St. Paul's College
 * Li Po Chun United World College, a member of the United World College movement.
 * Ying Wa College
 * YMCA of Hong Kong Christian College

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

title: Direct Subsidy Scheme


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Darcy Thompson

Darcy Thompson may refer to:

 * D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860–1948), Scottish biologist, mathematician and classics scholar
 * Darcy Thompson (cyclist), Australian Paralympic cyclist

title: Darcy Thompson


text: User talk:213.169.128.51

title: User talk:213.169.128.51


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Orbec

Orbec is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France.

International relations
Orbec is twinned with:
 * Kingsteignton UK since 1979
 * Frammersbach (Germany) since 1987

title: Orbec


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Talk:History of North America

This can't be right..
Or it is trying to advance something other than the idea the Amerindians came from Asia, in which case it requires rephrasing...

"Factors supporting Asiatic migration are discoveries in Cassiar, British Columbia of Chinese coins identified as circulating in China in 2000 BC, in Telegraph Creek, British Columbia of large Buddhist charms of a type not manufactured for 1500 years, in Nanaimo, British Columbia of a Japanese sword eleven feet underground. Linguist Father Jean Marie Le Jeune recorded that he found evidence of Hebraic words in native languages in British Columbia, possibly stemming from early Jewish influence in China. Anthropological models of migration to the New World also provide insight into the earliest history of North American indigenous people."

Christopher Columbus = Catalan?
Does anybody have any evidence in support of that statement? To my knowledge, as well as that of those who wrote the article on Columbus, he was from Genoa. 208.65.64.18 (talk) 17:35, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

Revamped taskforce
I am reviving the North American History taskforce. This article is directly related to the taskforce, so I'm wondering if anybody wants to join. Please feel free to add your name. Ghinga7 (talk) 22:23, 6 August 2020 (UTC)

Citation Needed in First Paragraph
I added a "citation needed" mark to the last sentence in the first paragraph. I seriously doubt the sentence is accurate. As admirable as the indigenous cultures are/were, there was a lot of conflict among them. Sometimes one group even wiped out or absorbed another. UnvoicedConsonant (talk) 02:50, 17 August 2020 (UTC)

 * I removed the statement that early North American cultures were "based on peaceful trade" moreso than were the cultures of other continents. The statement may be true, but there was no supporting research cited.UnvoicedConsonant (talk) 02:39, 28 August 2020 (UTC)

Proposed Article Merge
Should Prehistory of the United States be merged with this article? The United States didn't exist in prehistory, so I think we should use the geographical location and combine the rest of the area in North America as well. Mrytzkalmyr (talk) 01:17, 21 November 2020 (UTC)

Do not support. This article is mostly human history while that article is geological periods. This article is long enough. Extending the time period would be too long. Also see WP:MERGEPROP on how to start a discussion that will include interested editors. Fettlemap (talk) 22:34, 30 November 2020 (UTC)

title: Talk:History of North America


text:
The Eagle Has Landed (novel)

The Eagle Has Landed is a book by British writer Jack Higgins, set during World War II and first published in 1975. It was quickly adapted into a British film of the same name, released in 1976.

Plot
The book makes use of the false document technique, and opens with Higgins describing his discovery of the concealed grave of thirteen German paratroopers in an English graveyard. The characters discuss the historic rescue of Hitler's ally Benito Mussolini in September 1943. After Mussolini was deposed and imprisoned by the Italian government, Otto Skorzeny led a German team and achieved his release and escape from Italy.

Adolf Hitler, with the strong support of Heinrich Himmler, considered a similar plan to kidnap the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr (German military intelligence), is ordered to make a feasibility study of capturing Churchill and taking him to the Reich. Canaris realises that although Hitler will soon forget the matter, Himmler will not. Fearing Himmler may try to discredit him, Canaris orders one of his officers, Oberst Radl, to undertake the study, despite feeling that it is all a waste of effort.

An Unteroffizier on Radl's staff finds that one of their spies, codenamed Starling, has provided a tantalising piece of intelligence. "At any other time, in any other place, this information would be useless," Radl said. "And then synchronicity rears its disturbing head." Churchill is scheduled to spend a relaxing weekend at a country house near the village of Studley Constable, Norfolk, where Joanna Grey, an Afrikaner woman and longtime Abwehr agent, lives. She detests England because she was abused and raped by British soldiers, and her husband, daughter, and parents were killed during the Second Boer War. As a result of her reports, Radl devises a detailed plan to intercept Churchill and transport him to Germany. Although Radl is certain the plan has real possibilities, Admiral Canaris orders him to abandon it.

Himmler, however, has already learned of the scheme and summons Radl. He orders him to proceed, but without informing Canaris. In response, Radl arranges for Liam Devlin, a member of the Irish Republican Army who served as an officer in the Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War, to be smuggled to Norfolk by way of Northern Ireland. Posing as a wounded veteran of the British Army, he contacts Mrs. Grey, who arranges a position for him as gamekeeper to the estate of Studley Grange. While awaiting further developments, Devlin becomes romantically involved with Molly Prior, a girl from the village.

Meanwhile, Radl selects the members of the "commando style" unit, to be led by disgraced Fallschirmjäger commander Lieutenant Colonel Kurt Steiner, which is supposed to carry out the operation. While returning from the Eastern Front, Steiner had intervened when SS soldiers were rounding up Jews at a railway station in Poland. To the outrage of the SS and Polizei, he took one of their men hostage and helped a teenage Jewish girl to escape on a passing freight train. For this he was court-martialled, along with his men, who backed his actions. Too highly decorated to face a firing squad, Steiner and his men were allowed to transfer to a penal unit in the Channel Islands. There they are forced to make high-risk attacks with human torpedoes against Allied ships in the English Channel.

Radl travels to Alderney and recruits Steiner and his surviving men. Steiner's father, General Steiner, is being tortured by the Gestapo for his alleged ties to the German Resistance. This serves as an additional incentive for the Colonel to accept the mission. Radl relocates Steiner and his men to an airfield on the north western coast of Holland, where they familiarise themselves with the British weapons and equipment they will be using. The team will be air-dropped into Norfolk from a captured C-47 Dakota with Allied markings. The commandos outfit themselves as Free Polish paratroopers, as few of them speak English; the plan is to infiltrate Studley Constable, capture Churchill, rendezvous with an E-boat at the nearby coast, and make their escape. As part of the ruse, they arm themselves with Sten guns, M1 Garands, Bren guns and revolvers, as well as Browning Hi-Powers, instead of German weaponry.

At first, the plan seems to go off without a hitch. But one of Steiner's NCOs rescues a young girl who fell into a mill race. He is killed by the water wheel and his German uniform (worn under the Polish uniforms, as protection against being executed as spies) is seen by several of the villagers. Determined to continue the mission, Steiner arranges for the locals to be rounded up, but the sister of Father Vereker, the local priest, escapes and alerts a nearby unit of US Army Rangers. Colonel Robert Shafto, an inexperienced but glory-seeking officer, rallies his forces to retake the hostages. Without notifying headquarters, he orders a foolhardy assault in which many Americans are killed. After the Colonel is shot in the head by Mrs. Grey, Major Harry Kane, Shafto's Executive officer in the Rangers, organises a second, successful attack.

Steiner, his second-in-command Ritter von Neumann, and Devlin escape with Molly's aid. Determined to finish the mission, Steiner allows Devlin and Neumann to escape without him and decides to make one last attempt at Churchill. He succeeds in reaching Churchill, but hesitates, is shot and supposedly killed. (However, Steiner reappears alive in The Eagle Has Flown, a quasi-sequel.) In Germany, Radl has had a heart attack, implied to be fatal. At about the same time, Himmler, upon discovering that the mission has failed, orders Radl's arrest for high treason.

This account is surrounded by a frame story with a prologue and epilogue, a technique that Higgins uses in other of his novels. The author, whilst doing historical research in Norfolk, supposedly meets various surviving characters.The final revelation comes from an aged and terminally ill Father Vereker: at the time of his supposed visit to Norfolk, Churchill was en route to the Tehran Conference. The "Churchill" whom Steiner nearly killed was an impersonator, meaning that even if Steiner had fatally shot the man, the government would not have been affected.

Characters

 * Lt. Colonel Kurt Steiner – Steiner is a veteran of the Invasion of Norway, Albert Canal, the Battle of Crete, Leningrad, Stalingrad and the Ukraine.
 * Liam Devlin – Based on IRA man Frank Ryan, who during the Second World War liaised with Germany to get money and weapons for the IRA.
 * Joanna Grey – A Boer South African Nazi sympathiser and Abwehr agent living in Studley Constable. Motivated to spy against Britain because her mother and sister died in a British Concentration Camp during the Boer War. Killed by American Ranger Jerzy Krukowski in November 1943.
 * Molly Prior – A local girl who falls in love with Devlin with whom she later sleeps. (The film adaptation omits much of this romance.)
 * Harvey Preston – A SS British Free Corps officer attached to Steiner's unit to add credibility. A convinced Nazi, and a convicted con-man prior to his enlistment, Preston is viewed with disgust by Steiner, Devlin, and their fellow commandos. After Steiner, Neumannn, and Devlin escape, Preston is lynched inside the village's Roman Catholic Church by a mentally-ill resident of Studley Constable.
 * Leutnant Ritter von Neumann – Steiner's second-in-command.
 * Stabsfeldwebel Otto Brandt – Killed in action in Studley Constable in November, 1943.
 * Feldwebel Hans Altmann – Killed in action in Studley Constable in November, 1943.
 * Gefreiter Werner Briegel – Killed in action in Studley Constable in November, 1943.
 * Paul Koenig – Commander of the German E-boat.
 * Captain Peter Gericke – Pilot of the Douglas DC-3 that drops Steiner and his men over Norfolk.
 * Major Harry Kane – Shafto's Executive officer in the US Army Rangers.

Publication details

 * 1975, US, Bantam Books ISBN 0-553-02500-7
 * 1975, US, Holt, Rinehart and Winston ISBN 0-03-013746- 2

Reception
This book rapidly became a bestseller. As of 2010, it has sold more than 50 million copies.

Adaptation
The film rights were purchased and an adaptation was quickly prepared. In 1976, a British film of the same name was released, the last film directed by John Sturges. It starred Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Jenny Agutter, and Robert Duvall. Its success also stimulated more book sales.

Sequel
Higgins wrote a sequel called The Eagle Has Flown, which was published in 1991. It was also set during World War II.

Higgins featured his character of Liam Devlin in several later thrillers. He is older and acts as a mentor to Sean Dillon and Martin Brosnan. In Higgins' novel Confessional (1985), Devlin allies with MI6 to prevent a rogue KGB assassin from murdering Pope John Paul II.

title: The Eagle Has Landed (novel)


text:
Talk:Fallacy of the accident

I don't understand this fallacy. Isn't calling this point of view a fallacy POV? Martijn faassen 18:56, 22 May 2004 (UTC)

It looks like a philosophical point of view to me, so an encyclopedia shouldn't be declaring this a fallacy. Can someone motivate this article here? Martijn faassen 11:59, 23 May 2004 (UTC)

Since the article was completely incomprehensible and seemed to gain incomprehensibility with further edits, I've replaced this with a description of the logical fallacy that I could find with some research on google. This replaces completely the original article. Martijn faassen 19:21, 26 May 2004 (UTC)

I have read the version by KingGeekoid, and I think it makes MUCH more sense than this one does. However, I don't know anything about philosophy. Jaberwocky6669 01:15, Aug 2, 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Fallacy of the accident


text:
E postcode area

The E (Eastern) postcode area, also known as the London E postcode area, is the part of the London post town covering much of east London, England. It borders the N postcode area to the west, both north of the tidal Thames. Since closure of the East London mail centre, its mail is sorted at Romford Mail Centre together with IG and RM postcode areas.

Postal administration
The current E postcode area was originally formed in 1866 as a merger of the E and NE areas, which had been created in 1858. In 1917, the postal districts were numbered alphabetically by their most important parish, chapelry, topographical or built environment feature. As of 2004, the district names do not form part of the postal address. High demand caused sector 9 of the E1 postcode district to be split and recoded in 1999 to create an E1W postcode district around Wapping, but the rest of the district did not gain an additional character. When districts are used for purposes other than the sorting of mail, such as use as a geographic reference and on street signs, E1 and E1W continue to be commonly classed as one 'district'. The E postcode area contains two non-geographic postcode districts for high-volume business users, E77 and E98.

The Eastern District Office is on Whitechapel Road and was the eastern terminus for the former London Post Office Railway, which has been mothballed since 2003. The railway ran 10.5 km to the Paddington Head District Sorting Office.

The E20 postcode has been used fictionally in television soap-opera EastEnders since 1985. It has been a real postcode since 2011 carved from and only bordered by the E15 postcode, its buildings marketed as and often self-identifying as Olympic Park and Queen Elizabeth Park. It includes landmark sports venues built for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

List of postcode districts
The approximate coverage of the postcode districts, with the historic postal district names in italics, is as follows:

! E1 ! E1W ! E2 ! E3 ! E4 ! E5 ! E6 ! E7 ! E8 ! E9 ! E10 ! E11 ! E12 ! E13 ! E14 ! E15 ! E16 ! E17
 * LONDON
 * Eastern head district: Aldgate (part), Bishopsgate (part), Whitechapel, Shoreditch (part), Spitalfields, Shadwell, Limehouse, Stepney, Mile End (part), Portsoken
 * Tower Hamlets, Hackney, City of London
 * LONDON
 * Wapping district: Wapping, St Katharine Docks, Shadwell (part)
 * Tower Hamlets
 * LONDON
 * Bethnal Green district: Bethnal Green, Haggerston, Hoxton (part), Shoreditch (part), Cambridge Heath
 * Tower Hamlets, Hackney
 * LONDON
 * Bow district: Bow, Bow Common, Bromley-by-Bow, Old Ford, Mile End, Fish Island, Mill Meads (part)
 * Tower Hamlets, Newham
 * LONDON
 * Chingford district: Chingford, Waltham Abbey (part), Highams Park, Woodford Green (part)
 * Waltham Forest, Epping Forest
 * LONDON
 * Clapton district: Leyton (Part), Upper Clapton, Lower Clapton
 * Hackney, Waltham Forest
 * LONDON
 * East Ham district: East Ham, Beckton, Upton Park (part), Barking (part)
 * Newham, Barking and Dagenham
 * LONDON
 * Forest Gate district: Forest Gate, Leytonstone (Part), Stratford (part)
 * Newham, Waltham Forest
 * LONDON
 * Hackney district: Hackney Central, Dalston, London Fields, Haggerston (part)
 * Hackney
 * LONDON
 * Homerton district: Homerton, Hackney Wick, South Hackney, Hackney Marshes, Victoria Park
 * Hackney, Tower Hamlets
 * LONDON
 * Leyton district: Leyton, Temple Mills, Hackney Marshes (part) Upper Clapton (part), Walthamstow Marshes
 * Waltham Forest, Hackney
 * LONDON
 * Leytonstone district: Leytonstone, Wanstead, Aldersbrook (part), Snaresbrook, Cann Hall
 * Waltham Forest, Redbridge
 * LONDON
 * Manor Park district: Manor Park, Little Ilford, Aldersbrook (part)
 * Newham, Redbridge
 * LONDON
 * Plaistow district: Plaistow, West Ham (part), Upton Park (part)
 * Newham
 * LONDON
 * Poplar district: Poplar, Isle of Dogs, Limehouse, Canary Wharf, Millwall, Blackwall, Cubitt Town, South Bromley, North Greenwich, Leamouth
 * Tower Hamlets
 * LONDON
 * Stratford district: Stratford, West Ham (part), Maryland, Leyton (part), Leytonstone (part) Temple Mills (part), Hackney Wick (part), Bow (part)
 * Newham, Waltham Forest, Hackney, Tower Hamlets
 * LONDON
 * Victoria Docks and North Woolwich district: Canning Town, Silvertown, Royal Docks, North Woolwich, Beckton (part), Custom House, London City Airport
 * Newham
 * LONDON
 * Walthamstow district: Walthamstow, Upper Walthamstow, Leyton (part)

! E18 ! E20 ! E77 ! E98 The E17 postcode district is one of four to have a population above 100,000.
 * Waltham Forest
 * LONDON
 * Woodford and South Woodford district: Woodford, South Woodford
 * Redbridge
 * LONDON
 * Olympic Park district: Olympic Park, and parts of Stratford, Homerton, Leyton, Bow
 * Newham, Waltham Forest, Hackney, Tower Hamlets
 * LONDON
 * Non-geographic postcode district (NatWest, delivers to E1)
 * Tower Hamlets
 * LONDON
 * Non-geographic postcode district (News International, delivers to E1W)
 * Tower Hamlets
 * }

Boundaries
The E postcode district is bounded by the River Thames to the south. Postcode districts E6, E14 and E16 also have river frontages in the south. The River Roding and the North Circular Road form part of the boundary in the east. The postcode area is roughly the combined area of the London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Newham and Waltham Forest. Also, the eastern part of the London Borough of Hackney, the western sections of the London Boroughs of Redbridge (E11, E12, E18) and Barking and Dagenham (E6) and a small part of the Epping Forest District (E4), are within the postcode area.

In popular culture

 * The 1990s pop band East 17, formed in Walthamstow, whose postcode district is E17.
 * BBC soap EastEnders uses E20 (which did not actually exist until 2011) as the postcode district for the borough of Walford.
 * The track "Bow E3" by grime musician Wiley refers to the E3 postcode, which is centred on the area of Bow where Wiley grew up.
 * The album E3 AF by Dizzee Rascal also refers to the E3 postcode and the Bow area, where he grew up.

Map
The postcode area excludes parts of East London like the following:
 * Central areas covered by central London EC postcodes.
 * Hoxton in Shoreditch is part of the N postcode area but is usually seen as being part of the East End.
 * The eastern suburbs built after the introduction of the E postcode area are now mainly in the IG and RM postal areas.

title: E postcode area


text:
Alan Ashman

George Alan Ashman (30 May 1928 – 30 November 2002) was an English association footballer, best remembered for some notable managerial successes.

Playing career
Born in Rotherham, West Riding of Yorkshire, Ashman had an undistinguished amateur playing career with Sheffield United and Nottingham Forest during the ad hoc competitions of the Second World War.

In 1951, he signed for Carlisle United for whom he made 214 appearances, scoring 98 goals. In 1958, suffering from cartilage damage, he retired from playing to manage the poultry farm of one of the club's directors. As a recreation, he managed amateur team Penrith and when Third Division Carlisle found themselves in need of a manager in February 1963, the club offered Ashman the job. During his playing career he played cricket for Cumberland in the 1956 Minor Counties Championship.

In 2009 Ashman was named at 18th in a list of Carlisle United's top 100 players, compiled by local newspaper the News and Star.

Management career
Ashman was too late to prevent that season's relegation but the following season saw a bounce back, and the season after that, the Third Division championship. Leading Division Two for much of the 1965–66 season, the club was disappointed to miss out on promotion by finishing third.

Ashman's exploits had not gone unnoticed and, in 1967, he joined West Bromwich Albion, leading them in a series of exciting cup runs, crowned by victory in the 1968 FA Cup. His new club was, however, impatient for further trophies and he was dismissed in 1971, hearing of the news from a waiter while on holiday in Greece.

Somewhat ironically, he went on to manage Olympiakos before returning to Carlisle in August 1972, leading the club to the First Division and a brief spell at the top of the entire English league.

The heights were short-lived and Ashman left the club to manage Workington from 1975 to 1977 and Walsall before settling for junior coaching and scouting roles at Derby County, Hereford United and Swallows of Walsall. He died in 2002 in Walsall. A minute's silence was held in his honour prior to West Bromwich Albion's home match against Sunderland.

Managerial

 * Carlisle United (1963–1967) & (1972–1975)
 * Football League 2nd Tier (Currently Football League Championship):
 * 2nd Runners-up: 1973–74
 * Football League 3rd Tier (Currently Football League One):
 * Winners: 1964–65
 * Football League 4th Tier (Currently Football League Two):
 * Runners-up: 1963–64

 * West Bromwich Albion (1967–1971)
 * FA Cup:
 * Winners: 1968

 * Olympiacos (1971–1972)
 * Greek League:
 * Runners-up: 1972
 * Greater Greece Cup:
 * Winners: 1972

title: Alan Ashman


text:
2004 Hong Kong legislative election

The 2004 Hong Kong Legislative Council election was held on 12 September 2004 for members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo). The election returned 30 members from directly elected geographical constituencies and 30 members from functional constituencies, of which 11 were unopposed.

An unprecedented number of 3.2 million people registered to vote in the election. The turnout rate was an unprecedented 55.6% with 1,784,406 voters casting ballots, beating the previous record set in 1998 by 200,000 votes. While pro-democratic opposition candidates gained new seats in the legislature, their gains fell short of their expectations.

In the geographical constituencies, candidates from the pro-democratic camp secured 60 percent of the seats in the geographical sectors of the election, taking 18 seats (up from 17) in this category, and 62 percent of the popular vote. On the other hand, the pro-Beijing and pro-business candidates made greater gains, winning 12 directly elected seats (up from 7). In the functional constituencies which the pro-democratic camp sought to abolish, the camp made more gains (from 5 to 7 seats).

Overall, the democrats took 25 seats and the pro-government camp 35 seats. Bills initiated by the government can still be passed on pro-government support alone, but bills originated by members cannot be passed without democratic support, since these bills require absolute majorities in each sector (geographical and functional) of the legislature. Constitutional amendments require a two-thirds vote and thereby also require support from the democratic camp.

Despite the increase in the number of seats returned by geographical constituencies and the record turnout, the Democratic Party lost the status of being the largest political party in the Legislative Council to the pro-government Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong, DAB, who secured 12 seats if including the two members who ran under the banner of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, and pro-business Liberal Party who secured 10 seats, thereby becoming only the third-largest party. Some attributed the poor performance of the pro-democratic camp to tactical miscalculation in vote allocation. This was not helped by some of the democratic parties' personal scandals.

The pro-Beijing and pro-business parties succeeded in retaining the majority in the legislature. However, pro-democracy candidates have maintained the threshold to block changes, if necessary, to the Basic Law of Hong Kong, since a two-thirds vote is required for amendment. The current Legislative Council also saw the entry of more radical members of the democratic camp.

Change in composition
According to the Annex II of the Basic Law of Hong Kong, the 6-seat Election Committee constituency indirectly elected by the 800-member Election Committee would be abolished, while the directly elected geographical constituency seats would increase from 24 to 30, same number of the indirectly elected functional constituencies. As a result, Hong Kong Island and Kowloon East was added one extra seat each, from five to six and four to five respectively, and the New Territories West and New Territories East was added two extra seats each, from six to eight and five to seven respectively, while the number of seats in Kowloon West remained four.

Background
The election came amidst the deteriorating governance and intense debates over constitutional reforms in Hong Kong. The Tung Chee-hwa administration had been embattling with economic recession brought by the 1997 financial crisis and the more prominent SARS outbreak in 2003. Nevertheless, the Tung administration pushed forward the controversial Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23 legislation which outlawed "treason" and "subversive activities" and raised concerns on its potential threats against Hong Kong people's civil liberties. A group of barristers formed the Basic Law Article 23 Concern Group and rallied against the national security legislation. Over 500,000 people to protested on 1 July 2003, the sixth anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR, against the legislation, the largest demonstration since the handover. The Article 23 legislation further crippled the Tung administration as the government saw its popularity dropped to a new low. The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), the largest pro-Beijing party saw its largest defeat in the District Council elections in November 2003, which alarmed the Beijing and the Hong Kong government.

The Annex I and Annex II of the Basic Law state that the method for selecting the Chief Executive and for forming the Legislative Council could be amended after 2007. The pro-democracy camp argued that the third term of Chief Executive and fourth term of Legislative Council should be elected on the basis of universal suffrage in 2007 and 2008 as stipulated in the Article 45 and 68 of the Basic Law respectively. In 2004, the Article 23 Concern Group transformed into the Article 45 Concern Group calling for the early implementation of the universal suffrage. Facing the pro-democracy pressure for full democratisation, in April 2004, the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) ruled out the 2007/08 universal suffrage.

Retiring incumbents
With the cancellation of the Election Committee constituency, there were total of twelve incumbents chose not to run for re-election. Ip Kwok-him lost his seat in the Central and Western District Council therefore was not qualified for running in the District Council functional constituency.

Results
Before election: Change in composition:

! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" rowspan=2 colspan=3|Parties and allegiances ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" colspan=4 |Geographical constituencies ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" colspan=4 |Functional constituencies ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" rowspan=2 |Total seats ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" rowspan=2 |± ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" |Votes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" |% ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" |±pp ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" |Seats ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" |Votes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" |% ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" |±pp ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" |Seats
 * rowspan=6 style="text-align:left;background-color:Pink;border-bottom-style:hidden;"|
 * style="background-color:"|
 * style="text-align:left;" |Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong
 * 402,420
 * 22.73
 * 5.67
 * 8
 * 2
 * 10
 * 0
 * style="background-color:"|
 * style="text-align:left;" |Liberal Party
 * 118,997
 * 6.72
 * 4.84
 * 2
 * 6,126
 * 4.71
 * 0.25
 * 8
 * 10
 * 2
 * style="background-color:"|
 * style="text-align:left;" |Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions
 * 52,564
 * 2.97
 * N/A
 * 1
 * 566
 * 0.44
 * N/A
 * 2
 * 3
 * 2
 * style="background-color:"|
 * style="text-align:left;" |Hong Kong Progressive Alliance
 * 14,174
 * 0.80
 * 1.15
 * 0
 * 17
 * 0.01
 * 0.14
 * 0
 * 0
 * 4
 * style="background-color:"|
 * style="text-align:left;" |New Century Forum
 * 4,511
 * 0.25
 * 1.35
 * 0
 * 0
 * 1
 * style="background-color:"|
 * style="text-align:left;" |Pro-government individuals and others
 * 69,306
 * 3.92
 * 1
 * 36,313
 * 27.91
 * 11
 * 12
 * -style="background-color:Pink"
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan=3 |Total for pro-Beijing camp
 * 661,972
 * 37.40
 * 2.46
 * 12
 * 43,022
 * 33.07
 * 6.78
 * 23
 * 35
 * 4
 * rowspan=9 style="text-align:left;background-color:LightGreen;width:1px;border-bottom-style:hidden;"|
 * style="background-color:;width:1px"|
 * style="text-align:left;" |Democratic Party
 * 445,988
 * 25.19
 * 6.47
 * 7
 * 48,323
 * 37.15
 * 8.48
 * 2
 * 9
 * 2
 * style="background-color:"|
 * style="text-align:left;" |Article 45 Concern Group
 * 117,216
 * 6.62
 * N/A
 * 3
 * 2,597
 * 2.00
 * N/A
 * 1
 * 4
 * 2
 * style="background-color:"|
 * style="text-align:left;" |The Frontier
 * 121,900
 * 6.89
 * 0.11
 * 1
 * 1
 * 1
 * style="background-color:"|
 * style="text-align:left;" |Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood
 * 74,671
 * 4.22
 * 0.53
 * 1
 * 1
 * 0
 * style="background-color:"|
 * style="text-align:left;" |Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions
 * 69,844
 * 3.95
 * 3.38
 * 1
 * 1
 * 0
 * style="background-color:"|
 * style="text-align:left;" |April Fifth Action
 * 60,925
 * 3.44
 * 2.06
 * 1
 * 1
 * 1
 * style="background-color:"|
 * style="text-align:left;" |Neighbourhood and Worker's Service Centre
 * 59,033
 * 3.33
 * 1.17
 * 1
 * 1
 * 0
 * style="background-color:"|
 * style="text-align:left;" |Hong Kong Social Workers' General Union
 * 3,199
 * 2.46
 * N/A
 * 0
 * 0
 * 0
 * style="background-color:"|
 * style="text-align:left;" |Pro democracy individuals and others
 * 155,812
 * 8.80
 * 3
 * 27,594
 * 21.21
 * 4
 * 7
 * -style="background-color:LightGreen"
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan=3 |Total for pro-democracy camp
 * 1,105,388
 * 62.44
 * 1.88
 * 18
 * 81,713
 * 62.81
 * 7.00
 * 7
 * 25
 * 4
 * style="background-color:" |
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan=2 |Non-partisan individuals and others
 * 2,830
 * 0.16
 * 0
 * 5,351
 * 4.11
 * 0
 * 0
 * style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3"|Total
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|1,770,190
 * width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00
 * width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|
 * style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|30
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|130,086
 * width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00
 * width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|
 * style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|30
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|60
 * style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|0
 * style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan=13|
 * style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3"| Valid votes
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 1,770,190
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 99.22
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 0.08
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9" rowspan="4" |
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 130,086
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 96.41
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 0.25
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3" rowspan="4" |
 * style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3"| Invalid votes
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 13,941
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 0.78
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 0.08
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 4,849
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 3.59
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 0.25
 * style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3"|Votes cast / turnout
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|1,784,131
 * width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|55.63
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|12.06
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|134,935
 * width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|70.14
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|13.64
 * style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3"|Registered voters
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|3,207,227
 * width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|4.97
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|192,374
 * width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|18.00
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan=13 |Source turnout: Electoral Affairs Commission. 11 candidates in 11 functional constituencies were elected unopposed to the Legislative Council.
 * } Note: For the joint list of pro-democrats in Hong Kong Island, Kowloon East and New Territories East, the votes are divided equally to each candidate.
 * style="background-color:" |
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan=2 |Non-partisan individuals and others
 * 2,830
 * 0.16
 * 0
 * 5,351
 * 4.11
 * 0
 * 0
 * style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3"|Total
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|1,770,190
 * width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00
 * width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|
 * style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|30
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|130,086
 * width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00
 * width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|
 * style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|30
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|60
 * style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|0
 * style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan=13|
 * style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3"| Valid votes
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 1,770,190
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 99.22
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 0.08
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9" rowspan="4" |
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 130,086
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 96.41
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 0.25
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3" rowspan="4" |
 * style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3"| Invalid votes
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 13,941
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 0.78
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 0.08
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 4,849
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 3.59
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"| 0.25
 * style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3"|Votes cast / turnout
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|1,784,131
 * width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|55.63
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|12.06
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|134,935
 * width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|70.14
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|13.64
 * style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3"|Registered voters
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|3,207,227
 * width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|4.97
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|192,374
 * width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|18.00
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan=13 |Source turnout: Electoral Affairs Commission. 11 candidates in 11 functional constituencies were elected unopposed to the Legislative Council.
 * } Note: For the joint list of pro-democrats in Hong Kong Island, Kowloon East and New Territories East, the votes are divided equally to each candidate.
 * style="text-align:left;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3"|Registered voters
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|3,207,227
 * width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|4.97
 * width="75" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|192,374
 * width="40" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|100.00
 * width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9"|18.00
 * style="text-align:left;" colspan=13 |Source turnout: Electoral Affairs Commission. 11 candidates in 11 functional constituencies were elected unopposed to the Legislative Council.
 * } Note: For the joint list of pro-democrats in Hong Kong Island, Kowloon East and New Territories East, the votes are divided equally to each candidate.
 * } Note: For the joint list of pro-democrats in Hong Kong Island, Kowloon East and New Territories East, the votes are divided equally to each candidate.

Overview
The election was largely seen as a contest between the pro-democracy coalition and the pro-business and pro-Beijing coalitions. There were 162 candidates for 60 seats in the LegCo. Before the election, the pro-democratic camp was widely expected to gain the most votes and increase its representation from 22 seats in the LegCo. Some members of the pro-democratic camp aimed at securing an absolute majority of the seats in the legislature so that they would have the power to veto all government proposals.

The democratic camp called for direct elections for the Chief Executive of Hong Kong in 2007 and for LegCo in 2008, as well as rapid political reform. In contrast, the pro-Beijing and pro-business candidates placed more emphasis on economic growth and social stability. Most of the political parties are now setting 2012 as the ideal time for electoral reform.

While the democratic camp hoped to play up the issue of universal suffrage as a prominent issue in the election, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress ruled out universal suffrage for the Chief Executive election in 2007 and for LegCo elections in 2008 in April 2004 before the election. Despite this, the pro-democratic camp insisted on promoting their agenda, which seemed to backfire when the campaign lost its original momentum. This was not helped by various sex and financial scandals of a few pro-democracy candidates. There were some allegations by the pro-democracy camp of Mainland Chinese influence behind this.

Some of the developments include:
 * Some reports in phone-in radio programmes that some officials in the Mainland requested businessmen to take photographs of their completed ballots with their mobile phones to prove that they have voted for pro-Beijing candidates. In response, the government removed curtains from polling booths to deter such activities.
 * The entry into the election race of popular radio show host Albert Cheng, who had accused Beijing of pressuring him to leave his radio program.
 * The arrest and sentence (by re-education through labour) of the Democratic Party candidate Alex Ho in Guangdong province of China for (allegedly) being caught and pictured in a hotel bedroom having relations with a prostitute. Although there were some initial predictions that Ho's arrest would help the Democratic Party by highlighting deficiencies in the PRC's judicial system, it is generally agreed that his arrest greatly hurt the party among women voter support in Hong Kong.
 * The involvement of Democratic Party James To and The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions Chan Yuen-han in scandals relating to the use of public funds for the benefit of their respective political groups.
 * Human Rights Watch issued a report a few days before the election, accusing the PRC government of creating a "climate of fear" to influence the election. In response, the Hong Kong government claimed that the report was distorted.
 * The assault of a candidate of the Democratic Party in the New Territories East, Wong Sing-chi. The suspect was arrested and reportedly found to be mentally ill.
 * The election of radical activist "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung, who ran as an independent but who is expected to side with pro-democracy representatives despite his revolutionary leanings.

Irregularities
There were a few reports of irregularities. Some polling stations ran out of ballot boxes, causing long delays in voting. To fit more ballots into the ballot boxes, some election workers forcefully stuffed ballots into the box using objects such as barbecue forks and metal rulers. Some stations also used random cardboard boxes without official seals. Some ballot boxes were opened before the close of polling.

The polling station operating manual had mistakes in it, so some candidate representatives were kicked out after the closing of the poll and were prevented from witnessing the counting, as required by law.

Some candidates have tried to challenge the election results, but have remained unsuccessful thus far.

A report on the election process was published shortly after the election. Another report was commissioned by the government to suggest future improvements.

Incumbents defeated
Eight incumbents lost re-election

Geographical Constituencies (30 seats)
Voting system: Party-list proportional representation with largest remainder method and Hare quota.

Functional Constituencies (30 seats)
Voting systems: Different voting systems apply to different functional constituencies, namely for the Heung Yee Kuk, Agriculture and Fisheries, Insurance and Transport, the preferential elimination system of voting; and for the remaining 24 FCs used the first-past-the-post voting system.

title: 2004 Hong Kong legislative election


text:
Understatement

Understatement is an expression of lesser strength than what the speaker or writer actually means or than what is normally expected. It is the opposite of embellishment or exaggeration, and is used for emphasis, irony, hedging, or humor. A particular form of understatement using negative syntax is called litotes. This is not to be confused with euphemism, where a polite phrase is used in place of a harsher or more offensive expression.

Understatement may also be called underexaggeration to denote lesser enthusiasm. Understatement also merges the comic with the ironic, as in Mark Twain’s comment, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

Use by the English
Understatement often leads to litotes, rhetorical constructs in which understatement is used to emphasize a point. It is a staple of humour in English-speaking cultures. For example, in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, an Army officer has just lost his leg. When asked how he feels, he looks down at his bloody stump and responds, "Stings a bit."

The well-known Victorian critique of Cleopatra's behaviour as exemplified in Sarah Bernhardt's performance in Antony and Cleopatra: "How different, how very different, from the home life of our own dear Queen!".

In April 1951, during the Battle of the Imjin River of the Korean War, 650 British fighting men – soldiers and officers from the 1st Battalion, the Gloucestershire Regiment – were deployed on the most important crossing on the river to block the traditional invasion route to Seoul. The Chinese had sent an entire division – 10,000 men – to smash the isolated Glosters aside in a major offensive to take the whole Korean peninsula, and the small force was gradually surrounded and overwhelmed. After two days' fighting, an American, Major General Robert H Soule, asked the British brigadier, Thomas Brodie: "How are the Glosters doing?" The brigadier, schooled in Britain and thus British humour, replied: "A bit sticky, things are pretty sticky down there." To American ears, this did not sound desperate, and so he ordered them to stand fast. Only 40 Glosters managed to escape.

During the Kuala-Lumpur-to-Perth leg of British Airways Flight 9 on 24 June 1982, volcanic ash caused all four engines of the Boeing 747 aircraft to fail. Although pressed for time as the aircraft rapidly lost altitude, Captain Eric Moody still managed to make an announcement to the passengers: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress."

title: Understatement


text:
Osmanville

Osmanville is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France.

title: Osmanville


text:
Les Oubeaux

Les Oubeaux is a former commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the commune Isigny-sur-Mer.

title: Les Oubeaux