text:
Talk:Monkey's Audio

Conversion
This article badly needs links to tools to convert this nonsense to a proper format. A single track for a whole CD? Seriously? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.153.81.32 (talk) 16:01, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Edit: these worked for me: http://www.medieval.it/cuesplitter-pc/menu-id-71.html (split if you have a .cue) http://www.dbpoweramp.com/ (convert) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.153.81.32 (talk) 16:11, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Extension
We need something here about the .APE extension, so people wondering what this extension is can find it. --Weyoun6 01:29, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Lossless
This was developed by Kenny `jones.
 * Therefore, a file compressed with Monkey's Audio always sounds the same as the source file, no matter how many times the resulting file is burnt to a CD, ripped and re-encoded.

Surely, the process of burning, ripping and re-encoding introduces the possibility of read/write errors, and thus this would be a bad example(as using a lossless codec would obviously prevent only conversion inaccuracies). Proposed replacement:
 * Therefore, a file compressed with Monkey's Audio always sounds the same as the original file, no matter how many times it is is uncompressed and reencoded. In contrast, if a file is repeatedly reencoded in a lossy codec, the unavoidable inaccuracies will accumulate, and the errors will eventually become noticeable. The ability to decode and reencode sound without losing accuracy is important in sound processing. 85.166.69.122 19:52, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * Partially incorporated. Detailed elaboration on lossy errors is probably better placed in the lossy/lossless article. Shawnc 10:04, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
 * On that subject, both times the article mentions that the codec is lossless, it goes on to explain what this means in more detail than is probably necessary, and also the way it is worded makes it sound like Monkey audio is unique in this. All that needs to be said is that it means the compressed audio will be identical to the original. Aninhumer (talk) 16:55, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

Inaccurate statements?
In the article it says that Monkey's Audio is not free or open source, but it's web site seems to disagree with both those counts.--Frenchman113 on wheels! 23:47, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

 * Monkey's Audio is not under a free license, and unfortunately the author thinks that all the people who care about the licenseare are trolls. Looks like FLAC is it. Terrible Tim 22:57, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I got mislead by the phrase "not free software". I thought it meant that a user would have to pay to use it. Really confusing, it took me days of reading around to get my head around what was meant. I believe that as far as an ordinary user is concerned, it's free. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.189.230.42 (talk • contribs)

What about this: http://www.monkeysaudio.com/license.html ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.198.143.71 (talk • contribs)

 * It should be quite obvious that this license would in no way qualify as a free software license. Not to mention that it's written in a legally unprofessional manner and leaves a lot of ambiguities, such as the "All rights not expressly granted here are reserved by Matthew T. Ashland" bit. -- intgr 13:30, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

 * If this is worth anything, I personally find it nauseating that the Monkey's Audio web site claims "Freely available source code, simple SDK and non-restrictive licensing" -- intgr 13:30, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Add Link Back?
I would like to see if anyone would object to me adding the link back to our site, The Lossless Audio Blog? Our site tries to bridge the gap between the forums and the various EAC Guides by providing information on getting started with lossless audio formats as well as current news and information. Because the Wiki pages for lossless audio formats are such a great place for those learning about the various formats I feel that our site compliments this and have heard from a lot of users voicing the same opinion.

No $ is generated from The Lossless Audio Blog. We are also in the process of moving to our own domain, links are below. So take a look at the site and see if you think its apprpriate. We will be adding and moving alot of the content/links, etc from the old site to the new as well as adding alot of new features to the new site. Thanks for the consideration! Windmiller 15:56, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Old Site The Lossless Audio Blog New Site The Lossless Audio Blog

Link added back. This was discussed on the talk page.Windmiller 17:37, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

 * Hold on a sec... Discussed on which talk page? -- intgr 18:11, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I believe this user is fairly inexperienced. Between that and the advice they were given, I think what they mean by "discussion" is that it's been suggested here since a while and nobody has objected. (For the record, I'm neutral on this link: I don't think we should link blogs, but it is a particularly good blog-style site.) — Saxifrage ✎ 23:37, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm impartial as well, I just found it strange that he said it was discussed while no discussion really happened. :) -- intgr 11:52, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I think that's just from the official-sounding usage of "discussion" in the advice given, so the word is being invoked. Yes, it sounds strange. :) — Saxifrage ✎ 18:55, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
 * While this may or may not be a good resource, is it really necessary on the Monkey's Audio article, rather than the Lossless article. There is no specific information on the site about Monkey Audio, other than links to other sites with information (that I can see), which it would be more appropriate to link to directly.

A question
I have a collection of the Rolling Stones and I'd like to make a back up using EAC and Monkey's Audio. Now, there are several mono songs on most of the compilations so I wonder what happens when I make one big .wav file and then compress it into .ape. Do they translate into stereo with two exact channels somewhere along the road? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.105.61.189 (talk)

 * Wikipedia talk pages are not meant for getting advice or help about the subject, but rather discussing the article. Please refer to other resources, such as Hydrogenaudio forums: . -- intgr 21:16, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

 * The sole reason why I wrote it here is because I believe it should've been explained in the article in the first place. I do have over hundred posts on Hydrogenaudio, but on the other have I have contributed with over 100 articles on Wikipedia. I knew where I could've gotten the explanation just for me, but I figuered other people should be able to know this right here on Wikipedia. --77.105.60.165 23:44, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

 * Just for the reference - if you're going to make 'one big wav file', it obviously has to use one single number of channels and one single bit rate. So most likely you'd have to somehow resample the mono audio tracks to 44khz stereo before combining and processing. The MAC docs say that various sampling rates and both mono and stereo are supported though. But how you got an audio CD (since you mentioned EAC) with mono tracks on it is beyond me, since that's impossible...

Error robustness
I believe this statement is incorrect:

 * "It [..] has no error robustness, so if the file is damaged, any audio data after that point will be lost."

In my original research (oh my! oh my!) I have found that the decoder compares CRC checksum of each block with the one stored in the stream, reports a mismatch, and continues decoding the next block. The size of one block is proportional to the chosen compression level.

Here are quotes from the official changelog: Version 3.70

+ Can now "ignore" bitstream errors during playback... you'll just get a little silence

Version 1.61

slightly better compression and more error resistant
 * improved file format,

-- 83.99.184.75 16:25, 22 March 2007 (UTC) (User: J7n)

 * It's not "original research" if you've published it somewhere else, and WP:COI does not seem to apply here, as it's a matter of factual accuracy. -- intgr 01:07, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

ffmpeg implementation
Some code was committed to ffmpeg (and mplayer) today that allows playback of .ape files, listening to some right now. It was based on rockbox code and is under the GPL. --Mikachu42 17:15, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

 * That's great! But hold on changes to the article until it's part of a released version. -- intgr [talk] 18:45, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

 * MPlayer 1.0rc2
 * Monkey Audio audio decoding via lavc
 * Mikachu42 22:38, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

Non-Win32 ports by SuperMMX
The port by SuperMMX works perfectly on native Win32 (MingW) with some very minor adjustments to the makefiles. From the article, I get the impression that the port does not work on Windows at all. The Sourceforge summary page doesn't mention Windows being supported either. Can someone add it to the article? -- 60.48.116.95 04:04, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Article Obsolete
Monkey's audio is now open-source. This article should be updated to reflect this development. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.65.27.20 (talk) 04:14, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

 * Monkey's Audio is not open source, as the license is ambiguous and not legally rigorous. If the license is not legally binding then the "fallback" is the author retaining all rights. It won't be listed as open source until there is a reliable source describing it as such. -- intgr [talk] 05:25, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

 * outdated, not obsolete, if ;) --84.159.152.166 (talk) 10:41, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

ape vrs flac on filesharing
Ape is much more widespread than flac on filesharing networks, but i guess its impossible to source that --84.159.152.166 (talk) 10:41, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

 * From my personal tests, no matter what insane commandline options you feed to FLAC, MAC default will still beat it. Compression time is roughly the same and the decoding cpu usage is negligible on today's machines. In the world of data-transfer, size matters, so MAC is the better choice. Theultramage (talk) 08:21, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

 * The above comment about APE being more widespread on file sharing networks was made in 2008 (and as I type this it's April 2011) and I have to say that I see far more FLAC files on fire-sharing (file-locker) download links vs APE. I've always wondered who uses APE - seems to me it's more commonly used by eastern europeans / russians as a format for music file distribution.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.231.87.252 (talk) 01:34, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

One big file, like a 250MB .ape file, can the songs be listened separately?
I have a 250MB .ape file. I can use VLC Player, Windows Media Player, KMPlayer, Media Jukebox to play it, but it must be played as "1 big song" of 48 minutes. Can i listen to them by choosing which song to listen to? thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Winterheat (talk • contribs) 21:30, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

 * You need to index the individual parts. I know the foobar2000 player supports CUE sheets for compressed audio files (instead of just .wav), for more info you could try googling. Theultramage (talk) 08:25, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Supported platforms - request to reformat into "hardware" and "software" subsections
This would be my first legitimate edit to a WP article, which is why I'm starting here first. I'm not sure what the predominate wisdom is for subsections, so I'd like a second opinion.

One minor thing that tweaks me about this article is the misplaced statement "As of version 4.02 (19 January 2009) a directshow filter is distributed with the installer, allowing for compatibility with most mp3 players." Because of where it's at in context, this makes the reader believe that DirectShow somehow enables "most" hardware MP3 players to play Monkey's Audio (which we know to be patently false). I propose moving this text up around the discussion of ffmpeg, and clarifying the statement with something like "enabling playback (of Monkey's Audio files) with most software MP3 players on the Windows platform." --Ernstkm (talk) 22:01, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Origin of the name - "Monkey's Audio" ?
Seems to me that something missing from the mail article is an explanation as to the origin of the .APE file extension, as well as the naming of this compression format as "Monkey's Audio". Why "Monkey" ? What is the significance or meaning of Monkey in this context? What is it meant to denote or identify? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.231.87.252 (talk) 01:39, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

Comparisons - FLAC's active development community
In the "Comparisons" section, it is stated that "FLAC has an active development community that continues to refine the format." This being read in the context of the comparison of alternative formats, being preceded by mentioning the inactivity of Shorten's development, and followed by stating that "FLAC has largely eclipsed it as the preferred format for commercial distribution of lossless audio," will leave the reader wondering about the activity status of the Monkey's Audio project. Looking at FLAC's CVS repository, I think that this statement should be revised and made more clear.

Despised (talk) 15:29, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Also - "Monkey's Audio's advantages are better compression rates compared to FLAC…" Comparison re better "compression" isn't meaningful. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 27.253.56.6 (talk) 10:21, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

External links modified (February 2018)
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title: Talk:Monkey's Audio


text:
Gotse Delchev

Georgi Nikolov Delchev (Bulgarian: Георги Николов Делчев; Macedonian: Ѓорѓи Николов Делчев; 4 February 1872 – 4 May 1903), known as Gotse Delchev or Goce Delčev (Гоце Делчев), was an important Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary (komitadji), active in the Ottoman-ruled Macedonia and Adrianople regions at the turn of the 20th century. He was the most prominent leader of what is known today as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), a secret revolutionary society that was active in Ottoman territories in the Balkans at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Delchev was its representative in Sofia, the capital of the Principality of Bulgaria. As such, he was also a member of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC), participating in the work of its governing body. He was killed in a skirmish with an Ottoman unit on the eve of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie uprising.

Born into a Bulgarian family in Kilkis, then in the Salonika vilayet of the Ottoman Empire, in his youth he was inspired by the ideals of earlier Bulgarian revolutionaries such as Vasil Levski and Hristo Botev, who envisioned the creation of a Bulgarian republic of ethnic and religious equality, as part of an imagined Balkan Federation. Delchev completed his secondary education in the Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki and entered the Military School of His Princely Highness in Sofia, but he was dismissed from there, only a month before his graduation, because of his leftist political persuasions. Then he returned to Ottoman Macedonia as a Bulgarian teacher, and immediately became an activist of the newly-found revolutionary movement in 1894.

Although considering himself to be an inheritor of the Bulgarian revolutionary traditions, he opted for Macedonian autonomy. Also for him, like for many Macedonian Bulgarians, originating from an area with mixed population, the idea of being ‘Macedonian’ acquired the importance of a certain native loyalty, that constructed a specific spirit of "local patriotism" and "multi-ethnic regionalism". He maintained the slogan promoted by William Ewart Gladstone, "Macedonia for the Macedonians", including all different nationalities inhabiting the area. In this way, his outlook included a wide range of such disparate ideas like Bulgarian patriotism, Macedonian regionalism, anti-nationalism, and incipient socialism. As a result, his political agenda became the establishment through revolution of an autonomous Macedono-Adrianople supranational state into the framework of the Ottoman Empire, as a prelude to its incorporation within a future Balkan Federation. Despite having been educated in the spirit of Bulgarian nationalism, he revised the Organization's statute, where the membership was allowed only for Bulgarians. In this way he emphasized the importance of cooperation among all ethnic groups in the territories concerned in order to obtain political autonomy.

Today Gotse Delchev is considered a national hero in Bulgaria and North Macedonia. Because his autonomist ideas have stimulated the subsequent development of Macedonian nationalism, in the latter it is claimed he was an ethnic Macedonian revolutionary. Thus, Delchev's legacy remains disputed between both countries. Nevertheless, some researchers think, that behind IMRO's idea of autonomy was hidden a reserve plan for eventual incorporation into Bulgaria. Per some of his contemporaries and some Bulgarian sources, Delchev supported Macedonia's incorporation into Bulgaria too. However, other researchers find the identity of Delchev and other IMRO figures to be "open to different interpretations", that are incompatible with the views of modern Balkan nationalisms.

Early life
He was born to a large family on 4 February 1872 (23 January according to the Julian calendar) in Kılkış (Kukush), then in the Ottoman Empire (today in Greece). By the mid-19th century, Kılkış was populated predominantly with Macedonian Bulgarians  and became one of the centres of the Bulgarian national revival. During the 1860s and 1870s it was under the jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Uniate Church, but after 1884 most of its population gradually joined the Bulgarian Exarchate. As a student, Delchev studied first at the Bulgarian Uniate primary school and then at the Bulgarian Exarchate junior high school. He also read widely in the town's chitalishte (community cultural center), where he was impressed with revolutionary books, and was especially imbued with thoughts of the liberation of Bulgaria. In 1888 his family sent him to the Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki, where he organized and led a secret revolutionary brotherhood. Delchev also distributed revolutionary literature, which he acquired from the school's graduates who studied in Bulgaria. Graduation from high school was faced with few career prospects and Delchev decided to follow the path of his former schoolmate Boris Sarafov, entering the military school in Sofia in 1891. He at first encountered the newly independent Bulgaria full of idealism and dedication, but he later became disappointed with the commercialized life of the society and with the authoritarian politics of the prime minister Stefan Stambolov, accused of being a dictator.

Delchev spent his leaves in the company of emigrants from Macedonia. Most of them belonged to the Young Macedonian Literary Society. One of his friends was Vasil Glavinov, a leader of the Macedonian-Adrianople faction of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers Party. Through Glavinov and his comrades, he came into contact with different people, who offered a new form of social struggle. In June 1892, Delchev and the journalist Kosta Shahov, a chairman of the Young Macedonian Literary Society, met in Sofia with the bookseller from Thessaloniki, Ivan Hadzhinikolov. Hadzhinikolov disclosed at this meeting his plans to create a revolutionary organization in Ottoman Macedonia. They discussed together its basic principles and agreed fully on all scores. Delchev explained, he had no intention of remaining an officer and promised after graduating from the Military School, he would return to Macedonia to join the organization. In September 1894, only a month before graduation, he was expelled because of his political activity as a member of an illegal socialist circle. He was given the possibility to enter the Army again by re-applying for a commission, but he refused. Afterwards he returned to European Turkey to work there as a Bulgarian teacher, aiming to get involved in the new liberation movement. At that time, the revolutionary organization commonly known as Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) was in its early stages of development, forming its committees around the Bulgarian Exarchate schools.

Teacher and revolutionary
In Ottoman Thessaloniki, IMRO was founded in 1893, by a small band of anti-Ottoman Macedono-Bulgarian revolutionaries, including Hadzhinikolov. The first name of the organization is disputed, but among its early names were Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees (BMARC) and Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (SMARO). It was decided at a meeting in Resen in August 1894 to preferably recruit teachers from the Bulgarian schools as committee members. In the autumn of 1894 Delchev became a teacher in an Exarchate school in Štip, where he met another teacher, Dame Gruev, who was also a leader of the newly established local committee of the IMRO. As a result of the close friendship between the two, Delchev joined the organization immediately and gradually became one of its main leaders. After this, both he and Gruev worked together in Štip and its environs. The expansion of the IMRO at the time was considerable, particularly after Gruev settled in Thessaloniki during the years 1895–1897, in the quality of a Bulgarian school inspector. Under his direction, Delchev travelled during the vacations throughout Macedonia and established and organized committees in villages and cities. Delchev also established contacts with some of the leaders of the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee (SMAC). Its official declaration was a struggle for the autonomy of Macedonia and Thrace. However, as a rule, most of SMAC's leaders were officers with stronger connections with the governments, waging terrorist struggle against the Ottomans in the hope of provoking a war and thus Bulgarian annexation of both areas. In the late 1895 he arrived illegally in Bulgaria's capital and tried to get support from the SMAC's leadership from the name of the "Bulgarian Central Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Committee". Delchev had a number of meetings with Danail Nikolaev, Yosif Kovachev, Toma Karayovov, Andrey Lyapchev and others, but he was often frustrated by their views. As a whole, Delchev had a negative attitude towards their activities. After spending the next school year (1895/1896) as a teacher in the town of Bansko, in May 1896 he was arrested by the Ottoman authorities as a person suspected of revolutionary activity and spent about a month in jail. Later Delchev participated in the Thessaloniki Congress of the IMRO in the Summer. Afterwards, Delchev gave his resignation as a teacher and, in the Autumn of 1896, he moved back to Bulgaria, where he, together with Gyorche Petrov, served as foreign representatives of the organization in Sofia. At that time the organization was largely dependent on the Bulgarian state and army assistance, that was mediated by the foreign representatives.

Revolutionary activity as part of the leadership of the Organization
In the period 1897–1902, he was a representative of the Foreign Committee of the IMRO in Sofia. Again in Sofia, negotiating with suspicious politicians and arms merchants, Delchev saw more of the unpleasant face of the Principality and became even more disillusioned with its political system. In 1897 he, along with Petrov, wrote the new organization's statute, which divided Macedonia and Adrianople areas into seven regions, each with a regional structure and secret police, following the Internal Revolutionary Organization's example. Below the regional committees were districts. The Central Committee was placed in Thessaloniki. In 1898 the Organization decided to create permanent acting armed bands (chetas) in every district, with Delchev as their leader. Delchev ensured the functioning of the underground border crossings of the organization and the arms depots added to them, alongside the then Bulgarian-Ottoman border.

His correspondence with other IMRO members covers extensive data on supplies, transport and storage of weapons and ammunition in Macedonia. Delchev envisioned independent production of weapons and traveled in 1897 to Odessa, where he met with Armenian revolutionaries Stepan Zorian and Christapor Mikaelian to exchange terrorist skills and especially bomb-making. That resulted in the establishment of a bomb manufacturing plant in the village of Sabler near Kyustendil in Bulgaria. The bombs were later smuggled across the Ottoman border into Macedonia. He was the first to organize and lead a band into Macedonia with the purpose of robbing or kidnapping rich Turks. His experiences demonstrate the weaknesses and difficulties which the Organization faced in its early years. Later he was one of the organizers of the Miss Stone Affair. In the winter of 1900, he resided for a while in Burgas, where Delchev organized another bomb manufacturing plant, which dynamite was used later by the Thessaloniki bombings. In 1900 he inspected also IMRO's detachments in Eastern Thrace again, aiming for better coordination between Macedonian and Thracian revolutionary committees. After the assassination in July of the Romanian newspaper editor Ștefan Mihăileanu, who had published unflattering remarks about the Macedonian affairs, Bulgaria and Romania were brought to the brink of war. At that time Delchev was preparing to organize a detachment which, in a possible war to support the Bulgarian army by its actions in Northern Dobruja, where a compact Bulgarian population was available. From the Autumn of 1901 till the early Spring of 1902, he made an important inspection in Macedonia, touring all revolutionary districts there. He also led the congress of the Adrianople revolutionary district held in Plovdiv in April 1902. Afterwards Delchev inspected the IMRO's structures in the Central Rhodopes. The inclusion of the rural areas into the organizational districts contributed to the expansion of the organization and the increase in its membership, while providing the essential prerequisites for the formation of the military power of the organization, at the same time having Delchev as its military advisor (inspector) and chief of all internal revolutionary bands. After 1897 there was a rapid growth of secret officers' brotherhoods, whose members by 1900 numbered about a thousand. Much of the brotherhoods' activists were involved in the revolutionary activity of the IMRO. He was among the main supporters of their activities. Delchev aimed also for better coordination between IMRO and the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee. For a short time in the late 1890s lieutenant Boris Sarafov, who was a former schoolmate of Delchev became its leader. During that period the foreign representatives Delchev and Petrov became by rights members of the leadership of the Supreme Committee and so the IMRO even managed to gain de facto control of the SMAC. Nevertheless, it soon split into two factions: one loyal to the IMRO and one led by some officers close to the Bulgarian prince. Delchev opposed these officers' insistent attempts to gain control over the activity of the IMRO. Sometimes SMAC even clashed militarily with local SMARO bands as in the autumn of 1902. Then the Supreme Macedonian-Adrianople Committee organized a failed uprising in Pirin Macedonia (Gorna Dzhumaya), which merely served to provoke Ottoman repressions and hampered the work of the underground network of SMARO.

The primary question regarding the timing of the uprising in Macedonia and Thrace implicated an apparent discordance not only among the SMAC and the SMARO, but also among the SMARO's leadership. At the Thessaloniki Congress of January 1903, where Delchev did not participate, an early uprising was debated and it was decided to stage one in the Spring of 1903. This led to fierce debates among the representatives at the Sofia SMARO's Conference in March 1903. By that time two strong tendencies had crystallized within the SMARO. The right-wing majority was convinced that if the Organization would unleash a general uprising, Bulgaria would be provoked to declare war on the Ottomans and after the subsequent intervention of the Great Powers the Empire would collapse. Delchev also launched the establishment of a secret revolutionary network, that would prepare the population for an armed uprising against the Ottoman rule. Delchev, who was under the influence of the leading Bulgarian anarchists like Mihail Gerdzhikov and Varban Kilifarski personally opposed the IMRO Central Committee's plan for a mass uprising in the summer of 1903, instead supporting terrorist tactics and guerilla tactics such as the Thessaloniki bombings of 1903. Finally, he had no choice but to agree to that course of action, at least managing to delay its start from May to August. Delchev also convinced the SMARO leadership to transform its idea of a mass rising involving the civil population into a rising based on guerrilla warfare. Towards the end of March 1903, Delchev with his detachment destroyed the railway bridge over the Angista river, aiming to test the new guerrilla tactics. Following that he set out for Thessaloniki to meet with Dame Gruev after his release from prison in March 1903. Delchev met with Gruev in late April and they discussed the decision of starting the uprising. After the meeting, he left for Serres, with the intention of holding a regional congress to lay out his plans for the uprising.

Death and aftermath
On 28 April, members of the Gemidzii circle started terrorist attacks in Thessaloniki. As a consequence martial law was declared in the city and many Turkish soldiers and "bashibozouks" were concentrated in the Salonika vilayet. This increased tension led eventually to the tracking of Delchev's cheta and his subsequent death. He was killed on 4 May 1903, in a skirmish with the Turkish police in the village of Banitsa, probably after betrayal by local villagers, as rumors asserted, while preparing the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising. Thus the liberation movement lost its most important organizer, on the eve of the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising. After being identified by the local authorities in Serres, the bodies of Delchev and his comrade, Dimitar Gushtanov, were buried in a common grave in Banitsa. Following the skirmish, more than 500 arrests were made in various districts of Serres and 1,700 households petitioned to return to the Patriarchate. Soon afterwards SMARO, aided by SMAC organized the uprising against the Ottomans, which after initial successes, was crushed with much loss of life. Two of his brothers, Mitso Delchev and Milan Delchev were also killed fighting against the Ottomans as militants in the SMARO chetas of the Bulgarian voivodas Hristo Chernopeev and Krstjo Asenov in 1901 and 1903, respectively. The Bulgarian government later granted a pension to their father Nikola Delchev, because of the contribution of his sons to the freedom of Macedonia. During the Second Balkan War of 1913, Kilkis, which had been annexed by Bulgaria in the First Balkan War, was taken by the Greeks. Virtually all of its pre-war 7,000 Bulgarian inhabitants, including Delchev's family, were expelled to Bulgaria by the Greek Army. During Balkan Wars, when Bulgaria was temporarily in control of the area, Delchev's remains were transferred to Xanthi, then in Bulgaria. After Western Thrace was ceded to Greece in 1919, the relic was brought to Plovdiv and in 1923 to Sofia, where it rested until after World War II. During World War II, the area was taken by the Bulgarians again and Delchev's grave near Banitsa was restored. In May 1943, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of his death, a memorial plaque was set in Banitsa, in the presence of his sisters and other public figures. Until the end of WWII Delchev was considered one of the greatest Bulgarians in the region of Macedonia.

The first biographical book about Delchev was issued in 1904 by his friend and comrade in arms, the Bulgarian poet Peyo Yavorov. The most detailed biography of Delchev in English was written by English historian Mercia MacDermott: Freedom or Death: The Life of Gotse Delchev.

Views
The international, cosmopolitan views of Delchev could be summarized in his proverbial sentence: "I understand the world solely as a field for cultural competition among the peoples". In the late 19th century the anarchists and socialists from Bulgaria linked their struggle closely with the revolutionary movements in Macedonia and Thrace. Thus, as a young cadet in Sofia Delchev became a member of a left-wing circle, where he was strongly influenced by the modern Marxist and Bakunin's ideas. His views were formed also under the influence of the ideas of earlier anti-Ottoman fighters as Levski, Botev, and Stoyanov, who were among the founders of the Bulgarian Internal Revolutionary Organization, the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee and the Bulgarian Secret Central Revolutionary Committee, respectively. Later he participated in the Internal organization's struggle as a well-educated leader. According to Mercia MacDermott, he was the co-author of BMARC's statute. Developing his ideas further in 1902 he took the step, together with other left-wing functionaries, of changing its nationalistic character, which determined that members of the organization could be only Bulgarians. The new supra-nationalistic statute renamed it to Secret Macedono-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Organization (SMARO), which was to be an insurgent organization, open to all Macedonians and Thracians regardless of nationality, who wished to participate in the movement for their autonomy. This scenario was partially facilitated by the Treaty of Berlin (1878), according to which Macedonia and Adrianople areas were given back from Bulgaria to the Ottomans, but especially by its unrealized 23rd. article, which promised future autonomy for unspecified territories in European Turkey, settled with Christian population. His main goal, along with the other revolutionaries, was the implementation of Article 23 of the treaty, aimed at acquiring full autonomy of Macedonia and the Adrianople. Delchev, like other left-wing activists, vaguely determined the bonds in the future common Macedonian-Adrianople autonomous region on the one hand, and on the other between it, the Principality of Bulgaria, and de facto annexed Eastern Rumelia. Even the possibility that Bulgaria could be absorbed into a future autonomous Macedonia, rather than the reverse, was discussed. Per some Bulgarian sources and his contemporaries, Delchev supported Macedonia's eventual incorporation into Bulgaria, Yordan Badev recalls in his memoirs that Gotse Delchev, Boris Sarafov, Efrem Chuchkov, and Boris Drangov had organized a group of Bulgarians born in Macedonia to propagate for the future unification of Macedonia and Bulgaria among the cadets of the military school in Sofia. For more see: Katrin Bozeva-Abazi, The Shaping of Bulgarian and Serbian National Identities, 1800s-1900s, thesis, McGill University Department of History, 2003, p. 189; Kosta Tsipushev recalls how, when he and some friends asked Gotsé why they were fighting for the autonomy of Macedonia and Thrace instead of their liberation and reunification with the motherland, he replied: ''Comrades, can't you see that we are now the slaves not of the Turkish state, which is in the process of disintegration, but of the Great Powers in Europe, before whom Turkey signed her total capitulation in Berlin. That is why we have to struggle for the autonomy of Macedonia and Thrace, in order to preserve them in their entirety, as a stage towards their reunification with our common Bulgarian fatherland...'' For more see: (MacDermott 1978:322); Pavlos Kyrou (Pavel Kirov) from Zhelevo claims in his memoirs that once, when Delchev came from Bulgaria, he met him in Konomladi. Delchev insisted there that Greek priests and schoolmasters are obstacles. He maintained also that all the local Slavophones are Bulgarians and they must work for Bulgarian cause, because its army will come and help them to throw off the Turkish yoke. For more see: Allen Upward, The East End of Europe, 1908: The Report of an Unofficial Mission to the European Provinces of Turkey on the Eve of the Revolution (Classic Reprint), BiblioBazaar, 2015, ISBN 1340987104, p. 326; In the memories of Andon Kyoseto, it is alleged that Delchev explained him that SMARO cannot win full freedom for Macedonia, but it will fight at least for autonomy. The ultimate goal of the Organization, according to Delchev, is a secrecy, but one day, sooner or later, Macedonia will unite itself with Bulgaria, and Greece and Serbia should not doubt in that. For more see: Б. Мирчев, Из спомените на Андон Лазов - Кьосето, сп. Родина, г. VІ, бр. 1, октомври 1931, стр. 12-14.; On 12 January 1903 his fellow Peyo Yavorov recorded one of Delchev's last messages in his shorthand notes, when they crossеd the misty border of Bulgaria to the Ottoman Empire entering Macedonia, namely: "I pointed out the misty area on Delchev, who was close to me and I said: Look, Macedonia welcomes us mourning!" But he answered: “We will tear away this veil and the sun of freedom will arise, but it will be a Bulgarian sun”. For more see: Милкана Бошнакова, Личните бележници на П. К. Яворов, Издателство: Захарий Стоянов, ISBN 9789540901374, 2008. or its inclusion into a future Balkan Confederative Republic. According to American historian Dennis P. Hupchick, he firmly opposed Macedonia's incorporation into Bulgaria. Despite his Bulgarian loyalty, he was against any chauvinistic propaganda and nationalism. For militants such as Delchev and other leftists that participated in the national movement retaining a political outlook, national liberation meant "radical political liberation through shaking off the social shackles". According to him, no outside force could or would help the Organization and it ought to rely only upon itself and only upon its own will and strength. He thought that any intervention by Bulgaria would provoke intervention by the neighboring states as well, and could result in Macedonia and Thrace being torn apart. That is why the peoples of these two regions had to win their own freedom, within the frontiers of an autonomous Macedonian-Adrianople state.

Cold war period
In 1934 the Comintern gave its support to the idea that the Macedonian Slavs constituted a separate nation. Prior to World War II, this view on the Macedonian issue had been of little practical importance. However, during the war these ideas were supported by the pro-Yugoslav Macedonian communist partisans, who strengthened their positions in 1943, referring to the ideals of Gotse Delchev. After the Red Army entered the Balkans in late 1944, new communist regimes came into power in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. In this way their policy on the Macedonian Question was committed to the Comintern policy of supporting the development of a distinct ethnic Macedonian consciousness. The region of Macedonia was proclaimed as the connecting link for the establishment of a future Balkan Communist Federation. The newly established Yugoslav People's Republic of Macedonia, was characterized as the natural result of Delchev's aspirations for autonomous Macedonia.

Initially, the Macedonian communists questioned the extent of Delchev's alleged Macedonian national consciousness. Macedonian communist leader Lazar Koliševski proclaimed him as "...one Bulgarian of no significance for the liberation struggles...". In 1946, Vasil Ivanovski acknowledged that Delchev did not have a clear view of "a Macedonian national character", but stated that his struggle made the free and autonomous Macedonia a possibility. On 7 October 1946, under pressure from Moscow, as part of the policy to foster the development of Macedonian national consciousness, Delchev's remains were transported to Skopje. On 10 October, the bones were enshrined in a marble sarcophagus in the yard of the church "Sveti Spas", where they have remained since. Delchev's name became part of the anthem of SR Macedonia - Today over Macedonia. According to Mishe Karev, a nephew of Nikola Karev, after the Tito–Stalin split in 1948, the Macedonian communist elite discussed the idea of scrapping Delchev's name from the anthem of the country and proclaiming him a Bulgarian, but this idea was declined.

After realizing that the Balkan collective memory had already accepted the heroes of the Macedonian revolutionary movement as Bulgarians, Macedonian authorities exerted efforts to claim Delchev for the Macedonian national cause. Aiming to enforce the belief that Delchev was an ethnic Macedonian, all documents written by him in standard Bulgarian were translated into standard Macedonian, and presented as originals. As a result, Delchev was declared an ethnic Macedonian hero and Macedonian school textbooks began even to hint at Bulgarian complicity in his death. In the People's Republic of Bulgaria, before 1960, Delchev was given mostly regional recognition in Pirin Macedonia. Afterwards, orders from the highest political level were given to reincorporate the Macedonian revolutionary movement as part of the Bulgarian historiography and to prove the Bulgarian credentials of its historical leaders. Since 1960, there have been long unproductive debates between the ruling Communist parties in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia about the ethnic affiliation of Delchev. Delchev was described in SR Macedonia not only as an anti-Ottoman freedom fighter, but also as a hero, who had opposed the aggressive aspirations of the pro-Bulgarian factions in the liberation movement. The claims on Delchev's Bulgarian self-identification, thus were portrayed as a recent Bulgarian chauvinist attitude of long provenance. Nonetheless, the Bulgarian side made in 1978 for the first time the proposal that some historical personalities (e.g. Gotse Delchev) could be regarded as belonging to the shared historical heritage of the two peoples, but that proposal did not appeal to the Yugoslavs.

Post-communism
Delchev is today regarded both in Bulgaria and North Macedonia as an important national hero, and both nations see him as part of their own national history. His ethnic identity has continued to be disputed in North Macedonia, serving as a point of contention with Bulgaria. Some attempts were made for the joint celebration of Delchev between both countries. Bulgarian diplomats were also attacked when honoring Delchev by Macedonian nationalists. However, on 2 August 2017, the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and his Macedonian colleague Zoran Zaev placed wreaths at the grave of Gotse Delchev on the occasion of the 114th anniversary of the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising. The Macedonian side has recently been interested to negotiate about Delchev. A joint commission on historical issues was also formed in 2018 to resolve controversial historical readings, including the dispute about Delchev's ethnic identity, which remains unresolved. The Association of Historians in North Macedonia came out against the calls for a joint celebration of Delchev, seeing them as a threat to Macedonian national identity. Macedonian historians insist that the myth of Delchev there is so significant that it is more important than all of the historical research and documents, and therefore his Bulgarian self-identification should not be discussed.

His memory is honored especially in the Bulgarian part of Macedonia and among the descendants of Bulgarian refugees from other parts of the region, where he is regarded as the most important revolutionary from the second generation of freedom fighters. His name appears also in the national anthem of North Macedonia: "Denes nad Makedonija" (Today over Macedonia). There are two towns named in his honor: Gotse Delchev in Bulgaria and Delčevo in North Macedonia. There are also two peaks named after Delchev: Gotsev Vrah, the summit of Slavyanka Mountain, and Delchev Vrah or Delchev Peak on Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands in Antarctica, which was named after him by the scientists from the Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition. The Goce Delčev University of Štip in North Macedonia carries his name too. Today many artifacts related to Delchev's activity are stored in different museums across Bulgaria and North Macedonia.

During the time of SFR Yugoslavia, a street in Belgrade was named after Delchev. In 2015, Serbian nationalists covered the signs with the street's name and affixed new ones with the name of the Chetniks' activist Kosta Pećanac. They claimed that Delchev was a Bulgarian and his name has no place there. Though in 2016 the street's name was changed officially by the municipal authorities to "Maršal Tolbuhin". Their motivation was that Delchev was not an ethnic Macedonian revolutionary, but a leader of an anti-Serbian organization with a pro-Bulgarian orientation.

In Greece the official appeals from the Bulgarian side to the authorities to install a memorial plaque on his place of death are not answered. The memorial plaques set periodically by Bulgarians afterwards are removed. Bulgarian tourists are restrained occasionally to visit the place.

On February 4, 2023, on the 151st anniversary of the birth of the revolutionary, both the Macedonian and Bulgarian side paid their respects at the St. Spas Church in Skopje separately, while the delegation of North Macedonia declined the offer to jointly lay wreaths proposed by the Bulgarian delegation. Many Bulgarian citizens who wanted to attend the event were held for hours at the border due to a malfunction of the border system. However, problems with the admission of the Bulgarians continued even after the processing of their documents. As a result, many Bulgarian citizens and journalists were prevented from crossing. Three citizens were detained, fined and banned from entering the country for 3 years, due to attempting to physically assault policemen. According to their lawyer, two of them were apparently beaten. Bulgaria officially reacted sharply to these events.

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

title: Gotse Delchev


text:
British Army officer rank insignia

Listed in the table below are the insignia—emblems of authority—of the British Army. Badges for field officers were introduced in 1810 and the insignia was moved to the epaulettes in 1880. On ceremonial or parade uniforms these ranks continue to be worn on the epaulettes, either as cloth slides or as metal clips, although on the modern 'working dress' (daily uniform) they are usually worn as a cloth slide on the chest. Although these insignia apply across the British Army there is variation in the precise design and colours used and it can take some time to become familiar with them all.

Officers in the ranks of lieutenant and second lieutenant are often referred to as subalterns and these and captains are also referred to as company officers. Brigadiers, colonels, lieutenant colonels and majors are field officers. All above these are considered to be of general officer rank.

General officers
Before 1767, there were no definite badges for Field Marshals and general officers. In 1767, the British Army issued an order to distinguish Field Marshals (once the rank was established in 1813) and different graded General officers by the combination of chevron-shaped ess pattern laces on the sleeve.
 * Field Marshal: Evenly spaced six laces.
 * General: Evenly spaced four laces.
 * Lieutenant General: Six laces in threes.
 * Major General: Four laces in twos.
 * Brigadier General: Three laces. Upper twos were in pair.

During the Napoleonic wars, field marshals wore oak-leaf embroidered collar and cuff; and shoulder cord instead of previous pattern. It was continued until the end of 1830.

At the beginning of 1831, new rank distinction was ordered for field marshals and general officers.
 * Field Marshal: Cross baton and wreath designed device was on epaulettes and buttons were evenly spaced.
 * General: Cross baton and sword with crown designed device on the epaulettes and buttons were evenly spaced.
 * Lieutenant General: Cross baton and sword with crown designed device on the epaulettes and buttons were in threes.
 * Major General: Cross baton and sword with crown designed device on the epaulettes and buttons were in twos.
 * Brigadier General: No device on the epaulettes and buttons were in two.

After the Crimean War (30 January 1855), the War Office ordered different rank badges for British general, staff officers and regimental officers. It was the first complete set of rank badges to be used by the British Army.
 * Field Marshal: Two rows of one inch wide oak-leaf designed lace on the collar with crossed baton above the wreath in silver.
 * General: Two rows of one inch wide oak-leaf designed lace on the collar with Crown and star in silver.
 * Lieutenant General: Two rows of one inch wide oak-leaf designed lace on the collar with Crown in silver.
 * Major General: Two rows of one inch wide oak-leaf designed lace on the collar with Star in silver.
 * Brigadier-general: Two rows of half inch wide staff pattern lace on the collar with Crown and star in silver.

In 1868, brigadier-generals were ordered to wear the same collar as other General officers, but no device in the collar.

In 1880, the War Office ordered to move rank badges from collar to shoulder.
 * Field Marshal: Crossed batons above the wreath of oak-leaf. On the top of the wreath a crown.
 * General: Crossed baton and sword with Crown and star.
 * Lieutenant General: Crossed baton and sword with Crown.
 * Major General: Crossed baton and sword with Star.
 * Brigadier General: Crossed baton and sword.

Due to the expansion of the Army during World War I, there were a very large number of general officers, whose numbers were very disproportionate to the other Allied Armies, and had the effect of reducing the status of all British Generals. There were talks and proposal to address the number of general officers without abolishing the rank, but it was found that this would produce a number of issues and was considered impracticable. In 1920 it was promulgated in Army Order 545 of 1920 to abolish the rank of Brigadier General and substitute in its place the ranks Colonel Commandant (commander of a brigade or training school) and Colonel-on-the-Staff (staff officer, usually appointed Directors, Deputy Director etc. at the War Officer and in India), effective from 1 January 1921. The rank badges of Colonel Commandant and Colonel on the staff were identical to each other, consisting of a crown and three stars. After difficulties arose for those who previously held the rank of brigadier-general; Earl Curzon stated that: "…British Military Attaches at foreign capitals who at present hold the rank of Brigadier-General…will lose precedence and prestige and will have to yield in both respects to foreign officers…". The Secretary of State refused to make an exception for Military Attaches, on the advice of the Army Council. However, following this, difficulties arose in India, as in the minds of the Indian personnel commanders of brigades had lost prestige, as the term Colonel conveys the command of battalions. In 1926 Formal consent by the King to substitute Colonel Commandant with Brigadier was given, however after further issues were raised, the matter was reopened and on reconsideration it was decided to abolish the title of Colonel-on-the-Staff also. Accordingly, on 1 June 1928, the temporary rank of brigadier was reinstated, and the titles of Colonel Commandant and Colonel-on-the-Staff were abolished. The Army Order stated,"'Officers holding the temporary rank of brigadier will have precedence of, and command over all other colonels. Among them- selves they will take precedence according to their permanent rank. They will wear the same dress (including rank badges) as at present prescribed for colonels commandant and colonels on the staff.'"Brigadiers have held the same rank insignia, of the Colonel Commandant and Colonels-on-the-Staff since 1928.

Regimental officers
Initially company and field rank insignia did not appear on officers' uniforms. In 1791 the War Office ordered officers to wear different graded epaulettes and wings to distinguish regimental officer ranks (Colonel to Ensign/ Cornet). This was ordered only for line infantry officers. According to the Army Order,
 * Field officers (Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel and Major) wore rich epaulettes with rich bullions on both shoulders.
 * Captains of Battalion company wore epaulettes with smaller bullions,
 * Subalterns (Lieutenant and Ensign/ Sub Lieutenant) of similar company wore same epaulette strap with fringes on right shoulder only.
 * Grenadier and Light companies Captain and Subalterns wore wings on both shoulders.

In 1795, a special pattern of epaulettes was ordered for Fusiliers and Light Infantry officers. Field officers of those regiments wore epaulettes over wings. Company officers wore wings.

In February 1810, an order was issued by the War Office to distinguish Field officer ranks. The following devices were introduced in the epaulettes:
 * Colonel: Crown and Garter star
 * Lieutenant Colonel: Crown
 * Major: Garter star

These badges were issued for all infantry regiments except the Foot Guards. In 1815, badges for Foot Guards were ordered. In Foot Guards regiments, all Field Officers were equivalent to the Colonels of line infantry regiments. Captains were equivalent to Lieutenant Colonels, Lieutenants were equivalent to Majors and Ensigns were equivalent to Captains of Battalion companies.
 * Field Officers: Crown and star (Grenadier Guards and Coldstream Guards used the Garter star, and Scots Fusilier Guards used the Thistle star).
 * Captain: Crown
 * Lieutenant: Star
 * Ensign: No device. (Ensigns of the Grenadier Guards wore epaulettes on both shoulders, but the Ensigns of the other two regiments wore a single epaulette on the right shoulder.)

In 1829, epaulettes and wings were standardised by maintaining the badges of rank issued in 1810 and 1815. According to the order, epaulettes of all regular infantry regiments and foot guards regiments would be in gold and other regiments were in silver. All officers including field and company officers wore epaulettes and wings on both shoulders. The epaulettes over wings system was abolished. Different graded officer wore different sized bullion to distinguish themselves from other.
 * Colonel: Epaulette bullions were three and half inches in length. Insignia was a Crown and a Bath star.
 * Lieutenant Colonel: Epaulette bullions were three and half inches in length. Insignia was a Crown.
 * Major: Epaulette bullions were three inches in length. Insignia was a Bath star.
 * Captain of Battalion company: Epaulette bullion were two and half inches in length. No insignia device.
 * Subaltern of Battalion company: Epaulette bullion were two inches in length. No insignia device.
 * Captain of Flank companies: Wings bullions were one and quarter inches in length and half inches in wide.
 * Subalterns of Flank companies: Wings bullions were one and quarter inches in length and quarter inches in wide.

In January 1855, at the end of the Crimean War, the War Office abolished all epaulette and wing rank badges. New rank badges were introduced in the collar. It was first time that a complete set of rank badges was used by the British Army.
 * Colonel: Two rows of half inch laces in collar with Crown and Bath star.
 * Lieutenant Colonel: Two rows of half inch laces in collar with Crown.
 * Major: Two rows of half inch laces in collar with Bath star.
 * Captain: One row of half inch lace on the top of collar with Crown and Bath star.
 * Lieutenant: One row of half inch lace on the top of collar with Crown.
 * Ensign/Sub Lieutenant: One row of half inch lace on the top of collar with Bath star.

In April 1880, rank badges were moved from collar to shoulder and officers of all regiments wore the following rank badges.
 * Colonel: Crown and two Bath stars.
 * Lieutenant Colonel: Crown and one Bath star.
 * Major: Crown.
 * Captain: Two Bath stars.
 * Lieutenant: One Bath star.
 * Second Lieutenant: No device.

In May 1902, rank badges were moved to sleeve's cuff and company-grade officer badges were slightly modified:
 * Captain: Three Bath stars.
 * Lieutenant: Two Bath stars.
 * Second Lieutenant: One Bath star.

In 1919, a new order was issued by the Horse Guards office—all Guards officers would wear special star badges.
 * Grenadier Guards: Garter star.
 * Coldstream Guards: Garter star.
 * Scots Guards: Thistle star.
 * Irish Guards: Shamrock star
 * Welsh Guards: Garter star.

During World War I, some officers took to wearing tunics with the rank badges on the shoulder, as the cuff badges made them too conspicuous to snipers. This practice was frowned on outside the trenches but was given official sanction in 1917 as an optional alternative, being made permanent in 1920, when the cuff badges were abolished.

Historical ranks

 * Captain-general (c. 17th century): a full general.
 * Sergeant-major-general (c. 17th century): shortened to major general.
 * Captain-lieutenant (c. 17th & 18th century): the lieutenant of the first company in a regiment, whose captaincy was held by the regimental colonel. On promotion to full captain, the period in this rank was treated as having been a full captain for pay and pension purposes, since he effectively commanded the company.
 * Ensign: lowest subaltern rank in infantry regiments; replaced in 1871 by second lieutenant, but still used to refer to second lieutenants in some Guards regiments.
 * Cornet: cavalry equivalent of ensign replaced in 1871 by second lieutenant, but still used to refer to second lieutenants in some cavalry regiments, including the Blues and Royals and The Queen's Royal Hussars.

title: British Army officer rank insignia


text:
Talk:Buu Saga

I wouldn't call this a disambiguation page-- check out Freeza Saga for how it was handled in that case. JRP 01:31, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Buu Saga


text:
British Army other ranks rank insignia

"Other ranks" (abbreviated "ORs") is the term used to refer to all ranks below officers in the British Army and the Royal Marines. It includes warrant officers, non-commissioned officers ("NCOs") and ordinary soldiers with the rank of private or regimental equivalent. Officers may, in speaking, distinguish themselves from those "in the ranks".

History
During the 18th century corporals might indicate their ranks with a knot with cord loops on their right shoulder and, from 1768, an epaulette instead. Sergeants had clothing that was of slightly better quality and wore lace trim on their hats and uniforms. Infantry sergeants were armed with fusils (grenadier companies, from 1769), halberds or, from 1792 until 1830, with spontoons. They, as well as their counterparts in cavalry and artillery, were also permitted sashes of crimson wool, with a single stripe of facing colour following the clothing regulations of 1727. Whereas it remained vague as to whether the sash was to be worn over the shoulder or around the waist, it was clarified in 1747 that sergeants had to wear their sashes around the waist. From 1768, the sergeant's waist sash had stripes of facing colour – one (until 1825) resp. three (until 1845); in regiments with red or purple facings the sergeant's sash had white stripes or remained plain crimson. Sergeants of highland regiments wore their sashes over the left shoulder and tied at the right hip in the same manner as the officers. Beginning from the same year, sergeants wore a pair of silk epaulettes with fringe while sergeant-majors had a pair of gold or silver laced epaulettes with bullion fringe.

The chevrons worn by many non-commissioned officers are based on heraldic devices and their current use originates from 1802. As today, sergeants wore three chevrons, point downwards, on the upper arm, and corporals wore two, with sergeant-majors and quarter-master-sergeants then having four. Whereas corporals and sergeants discarded their silk epaulettes by now, sergeant-majors continued to wear their metal epaulettes along with their new chevrons for a while. Lance corporal, at the time, not a rank but an appointment is historically known as chosen man and carrying extra pay for privates holding it, were given a single chevron a few years later, and later in the century, the lance-sergeant appeared, wearing three chevrons. The infantry rank of colour sergeant was created in 1813 as a reward for senior sergeants with one allowed per company. He was allowed to wear a badge consisting of a regimental colour supported by two crossed swords. All insignia were worn on the right sleeve. The Royal Artillery had the special rank of bombardier below the corporal, and both he and the acting bombardier wore one chevron. The Royal Engineers and Army Ordnance Corps also had an additional rank of second corporal, who wore one chevron. On full-dress tunics, badges in white or gold lace were worn only on the right arm, but on service dress jackets, badges in worsted embroidery were worn on both arms. In February 1918 the acting bombardier was renamed lance-bombardier, and the full bombardier gained a second chevron in 1920 replacing the rank of corporal in the RA. Second corporals also disappeared at that time (the second corporal had been an actual rank, whereas lance-corporal was private acting in the rank of corporal).

The pre-war infantry rank of colour sergeant had generally given way to the ranks of company sergeant-major and quartermaster-sergeant in 1914 when the four-company organization was introduced. Both of these ranks, their squadron, and battery equivalents, and staff-sergeants in other arms, wore three chevrons and a crown, although, in 1915 company, battery, squadron, and troop sergeant-majors became warrant officers class II (by Army Order 70) and thereafter wore a single large crown, without any chevrons, on each forearm. The designation of warrant officer classes was in Roman rather than Arabic numerals until the latter half of the 20th century.

Regimental quartermaster-sergeants wore four chevrons on the lower sleeve, point upwards, with an eight-pointed star above, but adopted the crown when they too became warrant officers class II in 1915. In their case, however, the crown was surrounded by a wreath. Regimental sergeant-majors, who before the Boer War had worn four chevrons with a crown, were given in 1902 the badge of a single large crown on the lower arm but adopted a small version of the Royal arms in its place in 1915 when they became warrant officers class I.

Certain senior grades of warrant officer were also peculiar to the specialist branches, which ranked above regimental sergeant-majors. These were the conductors of the Army Ordnance Corps and the first-class staff sergeant-majors of the Army Service Corps and the Army Pay Corps. They also wore a large crown, surrounded by a wreath, on the lower arm, although in 1918 this was replaced by the Royal Arms within a wreath. The RA also had its master gunners in three classes, but these were technical specialists and not normally seen in the field. The Royal Arms within a wreath is the badge of rank for a conductor, the most senior of all WO1 appointments, confined to the Royal Logistic Corps and held by fewer than twenty people as of 2004.

From 1938, there was also a rank of warrant officer class III. The only appointments held by this rank were platoon sergeant major, troop sergeant major, and section sergeant major. The WOIII wore a crown on his lower sleeve. The rank was placed in suspension in 1940 and no new appointments were made, but it was never officially abolished. From 1938 to 1947 all WOII ranks wore the crown in wreath rank now worn by regimental quartermaster sergeants.

The grades of lance-sergeant and lance-corporal were not strictly ranks but were appointments, held by selected corporals and privates, and usually carrying extra pay. The appointment was made by the man's commanding officer and could be taken away by him for disciplinary reasons, unlike full sergeants and corporals who could only be demoted by order of a court-martial. It is only since 1961 that lance-corporal has been a separate rank in its own right, and the appointment of lance-sergeant was discontinued in 1946, except in the Foot Guards and Honourable Artillery Company (and its equivalent, lance-corporal of the horse, in the Household Cavalry).

Variants
As most units in the British Army have long traditions (some dating as far back as the 1600s) some variation has developed in the terminology and insignia used for non-commissioned ranks, most notably in the Foot Guards and Household Cavalry. Many units do not use the rank "Private", using instead:

 * "Trooper" in many regiments with a cavalry tradition and in the Special Air Service
 * "Airtrooper" in the Army Air Corps
 * "Sapper" in the Royal Engineers
 * "Craftsman" in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
 * "Guardsman" in the Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards, Scots Guards, Irish Guards, Welsh Guards and the London Guards
 * "Gunner" in the Royal Artillery and Royal Horse Artillery
 * "Fusilier" in the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, Royal Welsh and The Royal Highland Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland
 * "Rifleman" in The Rifles and the Royal Gurkha Rifles
 * "Kingsman" in the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment
 * "Signaller” in the Royal Signals
 * “Ranger” in the Royal Irish Regiment, London Irish Rifles and the Ranger Regiment
 * "Highlander" in The Highlanders, 4th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland
 * "Drummer", "Trumpeter", "Bugler", "Piper" and "Musician" in various military bands and musicians in other units

The Royal Artillery and RHA also use the ranks Lance Bombardier and Bombardier instead of Lance Corporal and Corporal, while The Rifles use the spelling "Serjeant" in place of "Sergeant".

Household Cavalry
The Household Cavalry maintains the old cavalry tradition of having no rank of sergeant, which was originally an infantry rank only. It has its own peculiar set of insignia and ranks with the following equivalents:

Similarly, warrant officer appointments are different, with, for example, "regimental corporal major" being used in place of regimental sergeant major. Uniquely, NCOs and warrant officers of the Household Cavalry do not wear any insignia on their full dress uniforms (although officers do). Rank is indicated by a system of aiguillettes.

Cavalry regiments
In several cavalry regiments including the 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards and the Queen's Royal Hussars, NCOs holding the rank of lance corporal wear two stripes. Full corporals are distinguished by the addition of a cypher above their two stripes in dress uniforms.

Staff sergeants in an appointment as squadron quartermaster sergeant in the cavalry, sometimes wear four stripes with a crown and are referred to as "sergeant major". The term "mister" is confined to WO2s.

Spelling
The spelling serjeant is sometimes seen. This was the official spelling in the British Army and Royal Marines, although not the Royal Air Force, until the 1930s and appeared in such publications as King's Regulations and the Pay Warrant, which defined the various ranks. In common usage, the modern spelling sergeant was already more usual, as in the volumes of the Official History which began to appear in the 1920s. Serjeant-at-Arms is a title still held by members of the security staff in the Houses of Parliament. The old spelling is also retained by The Rifles, as successor to the Royal Green Jackets and The Light Infantry, which also used it.

Historical ranks

 * Sergeant-major: equivalent to the current regimental sergeant major, a warrant officer class 1
 * Company sergeant-major: now an appointment of warrant officer class 2
 * Quartermaster sergeant: can now be a regimental quartermaster sergeant (warrant officer class 2) or a company quartermaster sergeant (staff sergeant). In the technical corps, a WO2 can also be an AQMS (Artificer Quartermaster Sergeant), TQMS (Technical .....), or SQMS (Squadron ... )
 * Warrant officer class III: a short-lived rank used between 1938 and 1940, holding the appointment of platoon sergeant major, troop sergeant major, or section sergeant major.
 * Colour sergeant: gave way to staff sergeant over the years before the First World War although colour sergeant exists today in the Royal Marines, equivalent to a staff sergeant in the Army, and is still used to refer to all staff sergeants in infantry regiments and the Honourable Artillery Company.
 * Lance sergeant: appointment originally given to corporals acting in the rank of sergeant, discontinued in 1946 except in the Foot Guards, Honourable Artillery Company, and some cadet units.
 * Second corporal: Royal Engineers and Army Ordnance Corps rank until 1920, equivalent to lance-corporal but a substantive instead of an acting rank.
 * Bombardier: until 1920, when it became equivalent to corporal, a rank in the Royal Artillery equivalent to a second corporal.
 * Acting bombardier: appointment originally given to a Royal Artillery gunner acting in the rank of bombardier, discontinued in 1918 and replaced by lance-bombardier.
 * Chosen man: was a rank primarily found in the Rifle Brigade denoting a marksman and/or leadership material. Became lance corporal in the early 19th century.

title: British Army other ranks rank insignia


text: User:Dwindrim~enwiki/Wildflowers of the Canadian Rocky Mountains


text:
WMS Industries

WMS Industries, Inc. was an American electronic gaming and amusement manufacturer in Enterprise, Nevada. It was merged into Scientific Games in 2016. WMS's predecessor was the Williams Manufacturing Company, founded in 1943 by Harry E. Williams. However, the company that became WMS Industries was formally founded in 1974 as Williams Electronics, Inc.

Williams initially was a manufacturer of pinball machines. In 1964, Williams was acquired by jukebox manufacturer Seeburg Corp. and reorganized as Williams Electronics Manufacturing Division. In 1973, the company branched out into the coin-operated arcade video game market with its Pong clone Paddle Ball, eventually creating a number of video game classics, including Defender, Joust, and Robotron: 2084. In 1974, Williams Electronics, Inc. was incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Seeburg, which changed its name to Xcor International in 1977. Williams Electronics was spun out as an independent company in 1981.

In 1987, the company went public as WMS Industries, Inc. using a shortened version of its name which it also selected for its stock ticker symbol. In 1988, it acquired Bally/Midway, the amusement games division of Bally Manufacturing, which had decided to focus on its casino operating and manufacturing businesses. The video game operations were consolidated under the Midway name, while pinball machines continued to use the Williams and Bally names. After a string of arcade successes by Midway, WMS acquired Tradewest in 1994 to allow the company to publish its own home ports of arcade games directly, instead of licensing them to other publishers. Midway Games was taken public in 1996, and fully spun-off in 1998.

WMS created a subsidiary, WMS Gaming, for manufacturing gambling equipment in 1991. Beginning with video lottery terminals, the division introduced its first slot machines in 1994 and became a major player in the business.

It closed its pinball division on October 25, 1999 after high losses with the Pinball 2000 concept that integrated a PC screen into the pinball game via a semi-reflective glass.

In 2013, WMS became a wholly owned subsidiary of Scientific Games. In 2016, WMS was merged into Scientific Games, which renamed itself Light & Wonder in 2022.

Early history
Stanford engineering graduate Harry Williams entered the coin-operated amusement industry in 1933 and helped popularize several important pinball innovations such as the tilt mechanism, electrically-powered scoring holes, and the ability to win a free play by achieving a certain score. After working for a succession of companies including Pacific Amusement Manufacturing, Rock-Ola, and Exhibit Supply, he went into business with Lyndon Durant in 1942 under the name United Manufacturing. After a break with Durant, Williams founded the Williams Manufacturing Company in 1943 at 161 West Huron Street in Chicago, Illinois. The first seven products were a fortune-telling machine called Selector Scope (1944), two electro-mechanical (EM) games, Periscope (1944) and Liberator (1944), a novelty called Zingo (1944), a pinball conversion called Flat-Top (1945), another EM arcade game, Circus Romance (1945) and a second pinball conversion called Laura (1945). The two pinball conversions (Flat-Top & Laura) were built by purchasing older pinball machines made by other companies and changing artwork and other elements on the playfield. The lack of raw materials during World War II made the manufacture of new machines difficult and expensive. The first all original amusement device made by Williams was a flipperless pinball machine called Suspense (1946). During the late 1940s and early 1950s, Williams continued to make pinball machines and the occasional bat-and-ball game. In 1950, Williams produced Lucky Inning, their first pinball machine to have its bottom flippers facing inward in the modern manner.

In 1948, Williams sold 49% of his company to a Philadelphia distributor named Sam Stern, who became a vice president and took over much of the day-to-day running of the company. In 1959, Stern orchestrated a buyout of Williams by Consolidated Sun Ray, a New York retail conglomerate that operated drug stores and discount houses, which renamed the company the Williams Electronic Manufacturing Corporation. Harry Williams left after the buyout, though did occasional work for the company. The last game he designed for Williams was also one of the last electromechanical games, Rancho (1977).

In 1961, Stern bought Williams back from Consolidated Sun Ray. Three years later, the company was acquired by the Seeburg Corporation, which also purchased United Manufacturing. The two amusement companies were consolidated under the Williams name, but moved into the United factory. Sam Stern continued to run the amusement business, which was renamed Williams Electronics in 1967.

In 1962, 3 Coin became the best selling Williams machine with 1,100 units sold. One year later, Skill Pool sold 2,250 units. In 1964 Williams was purchased by the Seeburg Corporation. Its 1966 pinball machine A-Go-Go, with its avant-garde 60s theme, sold a record 5,100 units. Early Williams pinball machines often included innovative features and pinball firsts, such as mechanical reel scoring and the "add-a-ball" feature for locations that didn't allow game replays. By 1967, pinball was in the middle of its so-called "golden age", and the number of pinball units that sold began to increase dramatically. Popular Williams pinballs included Shangri-La (1967), Apollo (1967), Beat Time (1967), Smart Set (1969), Gold Rush (1971), and Space Mission (1976).

Golden age of arcade games
Taking note of Atari, Inc.'s success with Pong in 1972, Williams decided to enter the fledgling coin-operated arcade video game industry. After preliminary negotiations with Magnavox, it subcontracted the Magnetic Corporation of America to create its first arcade video game Paddle-Ball. In 1974, the company was reincorporated as Williams Electronics, Inc. In 1980, Seeburg, facing bankruptcy, sold Williams to Louis Nicastro, who, with his son Neil, would take the company public and run it for over two decades.

Williams developed its own breakthrough hit with the release of 1981's Defender, whose gameplay, horizontal scrolling, and dynamic color influenced many subsequent games. It was followed by a sequel in the same year, Stargate, and a group of popular and influential titles: Joust, Robotron: 2084, Sinistar, and the licensed Moon Patrol. With the exception of Sinistar, these were widely ported to home systems by external developers and publishers including Atari.

After Dragon's Lair popularized LaserDisc video games in 1983, Williams created the LaserDisc/computer graphics hybrid racing game Star Rider which lost, or contributed to a loss of, $50 million for the company.

In 1988, Williams acquired Bally/Midway, the consolidated amusement games subsidiary of longtime competitor Bally Manufacturing, which left the business to concentrate on casinos. Midway saw strong sales in the early 1990s with a number of successful arcade games, including Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam. In 1994, the company acquired Tradewest, which it renamed Williams Entertainment, to publish home ports of Midway arcade games. Two years later, WMS acquired Atari Games from Time Warner. That same year, all video game operations were consolidated under Midway, with Atari Games becoming Midway Games West and Williams Entertainment becoming Midway Home Entertainment, while all pinball rights remained with WMS under the Williams brand.

Solid state pinball
Williams' first solid-state machines produced in 1976 were prototype runs based on electromechanical games; Aztec (1976) and Grand Prix. Williams continued to release new electromechanical pinball machines through October 1977, when they released their last, Wild Card. From November 1977, Williams released solid-state pinball games exclusively, beginning with their first solid state production model Hot Tip (1977), which sold 4,903 units (the electromechanical version previously released in June sold 1,300 units). From the late 1970s through the 1980s, Williams released numerous innovative pinball games, such as Gorgar (1979, the first pinball featuring a synthetic voice), Firepower (1980), Black Knight (1980, the first featuring multiple levels), Jungle Lord (1981), Space Shuttle (1984), Comet (1985), High Speed (1986), Pin*Bot (1986), F-14 Tomcat (1987), Cyclone (1988), and Taxi (1988).

From 1989 through the mid 1990s, a resurgence of pinball during which machines transitioned to dot-matrix displays, Williams had a string of hits including Black Knight 2000, FunHouse, The Machine: Bride of Pin-Bot, Terminator 2, Fish Tales, and The Getaway: High Speed II.

In 1992, the company produced the licensed The Addams Family pinball game based on The Addams Family movie (1991) under the Bally label. The Addams Family sold 20,270 units, a record that still stands today. In 1993, the company produced Twilight Zone, which sold 15,235 units. After 1993, though still the market leader, Williams never came close to matching these sales numbers. Williams won the American Amusement Machine Association's 1995 Manufacturer of the Year award. Medieval Madness, produced in 1997, often tops the list as the greatest pinball machine of all time.

In 1999, Williams made one last attempt to revitalize pinball sales with its Pinball 2000 machines that integrated pinball with computer graphics on embedded raster-scan displays. The innovation did not pay off, as the manufacturing expenses exceeded the prices that the market would bear, and that same year, WMS left pinball to focus on slot machine development.

Focus on gambling machines
As the pinball industry declined, WMS invested in the hotel industry, successfully taking public and then spinning off its hotel subsidiary, WHG Resorts, in 1996 (which was later taken private and acquired by Wyndham International).

First slot machines
WMS entered the reel-spinning slot machine market in 1994, and its products have helped to move the industry trend away from generic mechanical slot machines and toward games that incorporate familiar intellectual properties. For more than a century beginning in the late 1800s, mechanical slot machine reels employed limited themes: card suits, horseshoes, bells and stars, varieties of fruit, black bars and the Liberty Bell. WMS's video gaming roots would prove to be its strength when, in 1996, it introduced its first hit casino slot machine, Reel 'em In, a "multi-line, multi-coin secondary bonus" video slot machine. WMS followed this with a number of similar successful games like Jackpot Party, Boom and Filthy Rich. Meanwhile, by 1996, WMS had transferred all of the copyrights and trademarks in its video game library to Midway, including Defender, Stargate, Robotron: 2084, Joust and Smash TV, as it took Midway public and finally spun it off in 1998. With the closing of its pinball division in 1999, WMS focused entirely on the gaming machine industry. During the 1990s, that industry grew as additional states permitted casino gambling and video lottery games and as Native American tribes built gaming casinos.

By 2001, WMS introduced its very successful Monopoly-themed series of "participation" slots, which the company licenses or leases to casinos, instead of selling the games to the casinos. The company's participation games have included machines based on such well-known entertainment-related brands as Men in Black, The Price Is Right, Match Game, Hollywood Squares, Clint Eastwood, Powerball, Green Acres, The Dukes of Hazzard, Top Gun, The Wizard of Oz, Star Trek, The Lord of the Rings and Clue. Some of these games are networked within casinos and even between multiple casinos so that players have a chance to win large jackpots based on the total amount of play received by all of the machines in the network. These branded games proved popular with players and profitable for WMS, as the net licensing revenues and lease fees generated by each game have exceeded the profit margins of its games for sale. Other recent games include Brazilian Beauty and Hot Hot Super Jackpot. WMS Industries acquired a second subsidiary, Netherlands-based gaming company Orion Financement Company B.V., in July 2006.

From fiscal year 2006 to 2011 the company's revenues grew from $451 million to $783 million, respectively, and its net income reached $113 million in 2010. The company's revenues decreased to $690 million in 2012.

Later products, technology, business
WMS continued to produce video gaming machines and, to a smaller extent, reel-spinning slots, for sale and for lease to casinos in the U.S., selected foreign markets and state lotteries. Some of WMS's product designs reflected the changing demographics of its industry. Younger players raised on video games often seek more challenging experiences, both physical and mental, than do women age 55 to 65 – the traditional audience for slot machines. Accordingly, some of the company's machines incorporate surround sound, flat-panel display screens and animated, full-color images.

WMS also manufactured the G+ series of video reel slots, the Community Gaming family of interconnected slots, as well as mechanical reels, poker games, and video lottery terminals. WMS began to offer online gaming in 2010 to persons over 18 years old in the UK and in 2011 in the US at www.jackpotparty.com. In 2012, WMS partnered with Large Animal Games to incorporate several of WMS's slot machine games into a cruise ship-themed Facebook game application titled "Lucky Cruise". By playing games and enlisting Facebook friends' help, players can accumulate "lucky charms" (instead of money). The game play is similar to playing a slot machine but includes a "light strategy component". In 2012, the company introduced gaming on mobile devices and focused its efforts on expanding its online game offerings. For casinos, it introduced My Poker video poker games.

WMS technologies included:
 * Transmissive Reels gaming platform, which employs video animation that is displayed around, over and seemingly interactively with mechanical reels. The technology is based on the CPU-NXT2 operating platform.
 * Operating Platforms: CPU-NXT2 incorporates an Intel Pentium IV class processor, up to 2 gigabytes of random-access memory, an ATI 3-D graphics chip-set, and a 40 gigabyte hard disk drive. The CPU-NXT3 operating platform was introduced in 2012 for participation games and new cabinets.
 * Cabinets: The Bluebird2 gaming cabinet, which includes a dual 22-inch widescreen, high-definition displays, Bose speakers, and an illuminated printer and bill acceptor, was introduced in 2008. The Blade and Gamefield xD cabinets were introduced in 2013.

Approximately 70% of WMS's revenues in 2010 were derived from U.S. customers. Its design facilities at the time were in Chicago, Illinois. It had other facilities and offices across the United States and international development and distribution facilities located in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, China, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain and the United Kingdom and an online gaming center in Belgium.

Williams Interactive
In 2012, WMS acquired Sweden-based Jadestone Group AB and then Iowa-based Phantom EFX, which, later that year, became part of a new subsidiary, Williams Interactive. The subsidiary was formed to serve the online gaming industry. At the same time, the company launched its Facebook social casino game Jackpot Party Casino. Later that year, Betsson and Unibet online casinos entered multi-year agreements with Williams Interactive to provide "premium video slot games as Jackpot Party, Zeus or Reel 'Em In ... to their registered players (more than 12 million customers)". In 2014, EveryMatrix, partnered with Williams Interactive to offer online slot content from Williams Interactive.

Acquisition by Scientific Games
WMS merged with Scientific Games in October 2013, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Scientific Games. Scientific Games paid $1.5 billion for WMS, and WMS shareholders received $26.00 per share. The following year, Scientific Games also acquired Bally Technologies, the successor to the original Bally Manufacturing's slot machine operations. In 2016, WMS was reorganized and fully merged into Scientific Games. In 2022, Scientific Games spun off its namesake lottery terminal operations and took the name Light & Wonder. WMS is retained as a brand of L&W, along with Bally and Shuffle Master.

title: WMS Industries


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Collins River

The Collins River is a 67 mi stream in the east-central portion of Middle Tennessee in the United States. It is a tributary of the Caney Fork, and is part of the Cumberland, Ohio and Mississippi watersheds. The river drains the scenic Savage Gulf area, located just below the river's source, and empties into Great Falls Lake at Rock Island State Park.

The Collins River passes through Grundy and Warren counties. McMinnville, Altamont, Gruetli-Laager and Beersheba Springs are among the communities located within its watershed. The Savage Gulf section of the Collins River has been designated a "scenic river" by the State of Tennessee.

Course
The Collins River rises near the town of Palmer atop the Cumberland Plateau, where the Middle Prong Collins River (which descends from a nearby ridge) joins Mill Creek (which flows northward from Palmer). Flowing northwestwardly, the Collins passes under State Route 399 (Barkertown Road) before entering Savage Gulf, a scenic gorge where the river gradually descends 800 feet to the Highland Rim. The town of Beersheba Springs straddles the edge of the Plateau overlooking the river valley. State Route 56 crosses the Collins twice as it follows the river's valley out of the gorge.

Crossing into Warren County, the river veers northward along a meandering route, passing under State Route 8 (Harrison Ferry Road) and State Route 127 (Shellsford Road). Just east of McMinnville, the river absorbs its key tributary, Barren Fork, and passes under U.S. Route 70S. After winding its way northward for several miles, the river eventually turns eastward, passing under State Route 288 (Hennessee Bridge Road) as it enters the slack waters of Great Falls Lake.

At Rock Island State Park, the river enters an oxbow bend, nearly joining the Caney Fork before abruptly turning southward, then eastward, then northward again before finally emptying into the Caney Fork just upstream from Great Falls Dam. The oxbow creates a peninsula that contains much of the state park. Two bridges — an older truss bridge no longer in use, and a newer bridge that carries State Route 287 — cross the mouth of the Collins River.

Watershed
The Collins River watershed covers 811 mi2, and drains parts of Warren, Grundy, Van Buren, Sequatchie, Coffee, and Cannon counties. The watershed contains 1003 mi of streams and 69 lake acres. Over half the watershed is forested, and just over a third is used for either pastures or row crops.

The upper parts of the river along the Cumberland Plateau flow along Pennsylvanian-era siltstone, shale and sandstone. Along the river's Highland Rim portion, Mississippian-era limestone is more common. Karst features such as sinkholes and caves are not uncommon in this area. One of the state's largest caves, Cumberland Caverns, is located within the Collins watershed.

The 23 mi Barren Fork empties into the Collins east of McMinnville. Other tributaries include Big Creek and Savage Creek, which join the river at Savage Gulf, Hills Creek and Scott Creek, which empty into the Collins just north of the Warren-Grundy line, and Charles Creek, which empties into the river downstream from McMinnville.

History

During the late 18th century, the Old Kentucky Road, which roughly followed an old Indian path, crossed the Collins River at Shells Ford, near modern McMinnville. A string of other commonly used fords were located just above the mouth of the river, including Flat Shoals Ford, near modern Campaign. Reed's Ferry, later known as Black's Ferry, operated near the modern U.S. Highway 70S crossing throughout much of the 19th century.

In the late 19th century, businessman Asa Faulkner constructed a wooden bridge across the mouth of the river as part of his Falls City development. Around 1900, Warren County built four bridges over the river: the Hennessee Bridge (approximately 8 miles above the river's mouth), the Lusk Bridge (near McMinnville), and Martin's Ferry Bridge and Harrison's Ferry Bridge, both located on the upper part of the river. A flood in late March 1902 destroyed Faulkner's bridge and two of the county's bridges– the Hennessee and the Lusk– along with bridges over Barren Fork and Charles Creek.

The Tennessee Electric Power Company built the truss bridge which still spans the mouth of the river as part of its Great Falls Dam project in 1916, and rebuilt and raised the bridge in the mid-1920s. The current vehicle bridge, which runs adjacent to the truss bridge, was built by the Tennessee Department of Transportation in the 1980s.

Recreation
Most of the Collins River was designated a "scenic river" as part of the state's Scenic Rivers Program. The lower 42 mi of the river were removed from this designation in 1983, however, and the scenic designation now applies only to the upper parts of the river at Savage Gulf.

A 15590 acre scientific state natural area now protects the Savage Gulf area. This area is also part of South Cumberland State Park. The Collins Gulf Trail at Savage Gulf follows a portion of the river as it descends from the Cumberland Plateau.

The lower portion of the Collins River is part of Great Falls Lake, the reservoir created by Great Falls Dam near the river's confluence with the Caney Fork. The oxbow peninsula between the Collins and Caney Fork is part of Rock Island State Park. Part of the Collins River Trail, maintained by the park, passes along the wooded embankment above the shore of the river along this peninsula.

The Collins River is one of the few rivers in Tennessee with a good population of muskie (muskellunge). Muskie were stocked in various watersheds throughout Tennessee, including the Collins River from 1982 through 2006.

title: Collins River


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USS La Vallette (DD-448)

USS La Vallette (DD-448) was a World War II-era Fletcher-class destroyer in the service of the United States Navy. She was the second Navy ship named after Rear Admiral Elie A. F. La Vallette.

La Vallette was laid down 27 November 1941 by Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Kearny, New Jersey; launched 21 June 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Lucy La Vallette Littel, great-granddaughter of Rear Admiral LaVallette; and commissioned 12 August 1942.

History
After training and escort duty in the Caribbean and Atlantic, La Vallette departed New York 16 December 1942 for the Panama Canal and Pacific duty.

Battle of Rennell Island
Her first contact with the enemy came on 29 January 1943, at about 19:00 when she sighted a formation of 11 to 13 Japanese bombers, in three close formation sections 12 miles west of her position. The aircraft were identified as “Bettys” carrying out strafing and torpedo runs. One torpedo was reported as passing astern and the USS USS Chicago (CA-29) was hit by two torpedoes, causing heavy damage and bringing her to a dead stop, necessitating her being taken in tow. La Vallette claimed to have shot down three aircraft using her 5-inch guns.

The following day, the damaged Chicago, was attacked again, 34 miles south of Rennell Island by a group of 11 Bettys at an altitude of 500 feet, from the ship's port beam. The starboard section of aircraft attacked La Vallette, two aircraft were claimed shot-down and her 20mm and 40mm guns had three aircraft approaching from the starboard section under fire, two of which passed over the ship in flames. Five others passed about 600 yards from her port side, with two more reported to be on fire. Five torpedoes were dropped and as the ship swung left, a torpedo hit the destroyer in her forward engine room, killing 22 of her crew and causing heavy damage. The USS Chicago was sunk, as a result of four more torpedo hits.

Following this action, La Vallette was towed to Espiritu Santo by the USS Navajo (AT-64), arriving on 3 February 1943.

Once repaired, La Vallette left 6 August for Pearl Harbor, where she joined a carrier force for a strike on Marcus Island 31 August before returning to patrol duty in the Solomon Islands. On the nights of 1 and 2 October, she spotted Japanese barges off Kolombangara, of which she claimed four sunk and two damaged. La Vallette carried out escort and screening assignments during the Gilbert landings, and strikes against Kwajalein and Wotje atolls. Brief repairs at San Francisco followed, after which she returned to the South Pacific.

Later actions
On 1 February 1944, she took part in the preinvasion bombardment of Roi, part of the Kwajalein complex, in April she shelled Aitape, and on 2 July supported the landings on Noemfoor, off New Guinea. Constant patrol and escort duties were performed between these actions.

Assigned to escort convoys during the first assaults on the Philippines, La Vallette had already left Leyte Gulf with a convoy to replenish her stores at Hollandia before the Battle of Leyte Gulf, returning to the Philippines by 5 December. She covered five more landings in the Philippines during December and January 1945, then joined the screen for minesweepers clearing Manila Bay. On 14 February in Mariveles Bay.

La Vallette was badly damaged by a mine, leaving six dead and 23 wounded, she was towed to drydock at Subic Bay, then sailed for Hunters Point Navy Yard where she was fully repaired. On 7 August she sailed for San Diego, California, decommissioned 16 April 1946 and entered the Reserve Fleet, where she remained until 1969. In 1974 she was sold to Peru, cannibalized for spare parts for the other Fletcher Class destroyers of the Peruvian Navy and her hull sold for scrap.

Honors
La Vallette received 10 battle stars for World War II service.

title: USS La Vallette (DD-448)