title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: The B-17 began operations in World War II with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1941, and in the Southwest Pacific with the U.S. Army. The 19th Bombardment Group had deployed to Clark Field in the Philippines a few weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor as the first of a planned heavy bomber buildup in the Pacific. Half of the group's B-17s were wiped out on 8 December 1941 when they were caught on the ground during refueling and rearming for a planned attack on Japanese airfields on Formosa. The small force of B-17s operated against the Japanese invasion force until they were withdrawn to Darwin, in Australia's Northern Territory. In early 1942, the 7th Bombardment Group began arriving in Java with a mixed force of B-17s and LB-30/B-24s. A squadron of B-17s from this force detached to the Middle East to join the First Provisional Bombardment Group, thus becoming the first American B-17 squadron to go to war against the Germans. After the defeat in Java, the 19th withdrew to Australia, where it continued in combat until it was sent home by General George C. Kenney when he arrived in Australia in mid-1942. In July 1942, the first USAAF B-17s were sent to England to join the Eighth Air Force. Later that year, two groups moved to Algeria to join Twelfth Air Force for operations in North Africa. The B-17s were primarily involved in the daylight precision strategic bombing campaign against German targets ranging from U-boat pens, docks, warehouses, and airfields to industrial targets such as aircraft factories. In the campaign against German aircraft forces in preparation for the invasion of France, B-17 and B-24 raids were directed against German aircraft production while their presence drew the Luftwaffe fighters into battle with Allied fighters.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: During World War II, the B-17 equipped 32 overseas combat groups, inventory peaking in August 1944 at 4,574 USAAF aircraft worldwide. The British heavy bombers, the Avro Lancaster and Handley Page Halifax, dropped 608,612 long tons (681,645 short tons) and 224,207 long tons (251,112 short tons) respectively.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: The RAF entered World War II with no heavy bomber of its own in service; the biggest available were long-range medium bombers such as the Vickers Wellington, which could carry up to of bombs. While the Short Stirling and Handley Page Halifax became its primary bombers by 1941, in early 1940, the RAF entered into an agreement with the U.S. Army Air Corps to acquire 20 B-17Cs, which were given the service name Fortress I. Their first operation, against Wilhelmshaven on 1941 was unsuccessful. On three B-17s of 90 Squadron took part in a raid on the German capital ship Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen anchored in Brest from 30,000 ft (9,100 m), with the objective of drawing German fighters away from 18 Handley Page Hampdens attacking at lower altitudes, and in time for 79 Vickers Wellingtons to attack later with the German fighters refuelling. The operation did not work as expected, with 90 Squadron's Fortresses being unopposed.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: By September, the RAF had lost eight B-17Cs in combat and had experienced numerous mechanical problems, and Bomber Command abandoned daylight bombing raids using the Fortress I because of the aircraft's poor performance. The experience showed both the RAF and USAAF that the B-17C was not ready for combat, and that improved defenses, larger bomb loads and more accurate bombing methods were required. However, the USAAF continued using the B-17 as a day bomber, despite misgivings by the RAF that attempts at daylight bombing would be ineffective.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: As use by Bomber Command had been curtailed, the RAF transferred its remaining Fortress I aircraft to Coastal Command for use as a long-range maritime patrol aircraft. These were augmented starting in July 1942 by 45 Fortress Mk IIA (B-17E) followed by 19 Fortress Mk II (B-17F) and three Fortress Mk III (B-17G). A Fortress IIA from No. 206 Squadron RAF sank U-627 on 1942, the first of 11 U-boat kills credited to RAF Fortress bombers during the war.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: As sufficient Consolidated Liberators finally became available, Coastal Command withdrew the Fortress from the Azores, transferring the type to the meteorological reconnaissance role. Three squadrons undertook Met profiles from airfields in Iceland, Scotland and England, gathering data for vital weather forecasting purposes.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: The RAF's No. 223 Squadron, as part of 100 Group, operated a number of Fortresses equipped with an electronic warfare system known as "Airborne Cigar" (ABC). This was operated by German-speaking radio operators who were to identify and jam German ground controllers' broadcasts to their nightfighters. They could also pose as ground controllers themselves with the intention of steering nightfighters away from the bomber streams.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: The air corps – renamed United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) on 20 June 1941 – used the B-17 and other bombers to bomb from high altitudes with the aid of the then-secret Norden bombsight, known as the "Blue Ox", which was an optical electromechanical gyrostabilized analog computer. The device was able to determine, from variables put in by the bombardier, the point at which the aircraft's bombs should be released to hit the target. The bombardier essentially took over flight control of the aircraft during the bomb run, maintaining a level altitude during the final moments before release.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: The USAAF began building up its air forces in Europe using B-17Es soon after entering the war. The first Eighth Air Force units arrived in High Wycombe, England, on 1942, to form the 97th Bomb Group. On 1942, 12 B-17Es of the 97th, with the lead aircraft piloted by Major Paul Tibbets and carrying Brigadier General Ira Eaker as an observer, were close escorted by four squadrons of RAF Spitfire IXs (and a further five squadrons of Spitfire Vs to cover the withdrawal) on the first USAAF heavy bomber raid over Europe, against the large railroad marshalling yards at Rouen-Sotteville in France, while a further six aircraft flew a diversionary raid along the French coast. The operation, carried out in good visibility, was a success, with only minor damage to one aircraft, unrelated to enemy action, and half the bombs landing in the target area. The raid helped allay British doubts about the capabilities of American heavy bombers in operations over Europe.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: Two additional groups arrived in Britain at the same time, bringing with them the first B-17Fs, which served as the primary AAF heavy bomber fighting the Germans until September 1943. As the raids of the American bombing campaign grew in numbers and frequency, German interception efforts grew in strength (such as during the attempted bombing of Kiel on 13 June 1943), such that unescorted bombing missions came to be discouraged.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: The two different strategies of the American and British bomber commands were organized at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. The resulting "Combined Bomber Offensive" weakened the Wehrmacht, destroyed German morale, and established air superiority through Operation Pointblank's destruction of German fighter strength in preparation for a ground offensive. The USAAF bombers attacked by day, with British operations – chiefly against industrial cities – by night.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: Operation Pointblank opened with attacks on targets in Western Europe. General Ira C. Eaker and the Eighth Air Force placed highest priority on attacks on the German aircraft industry, especially fighter assembly plants, engine factories, and ball-bearing manufacturers. Attacks began in April 1943 on heavily fortified key industrial plants in Bremen and Recklinghausen.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: Since the airfield bombings were not appreciably reducing German fighter strength, additional B-17 groups were formed, and Eaker ordered major missions deeper into Germany against important industrial targets. The 8th Air Force then targeted the ball-bearing factories in Schweinfurt, hoping to cripple the war effort there. The first raid on 1943 did not result in critical damage to the factories, with the 230 attacking B-17s being intercepted by an estimated 300 Luftwaffe fighters. The Germans shot down 36 aircraft with the loss of 200 men, and coupled with a raid earlier in the day against Regensburg, a total of 60 B-17s were lost that day.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: A second attempt on Schweinfurt on 14 October 1943 later came to be known as "Black Thursday". While the attack was successful at disrupting the entire works, severely curtailing work there for the remainder of the war, it was at an extreme cost. Of the 291 attacking Fortresses, 60 were shot down over Germany, five crashed on approach to Britain, and 12 more were scrapped due to damage – a loss of 77 B-17s. Additionally, 122 bombers were damaged and needed repairs before their next flights. Of 2,900 men in the crews, about 650 did not return, although some survived as prisoners of war. Only 33 bombers landed without damage. These losses were a result of concentrated attacks by over 300 German fighters.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: Such high losses of aircrews could not be sustained, and the USAAF, recognizing the vulnerability of heavy bombers to interceptors when operating alone, suspended daylight bomber raids deep into Germany until the development of an escort fighter that could protect the bombers all the way from the United Kingdom to Germany and back. At the same time, the German nightfighting ability noticeably improved to counter the nighttime strikes, challenging the conventional faith in the cover of darkness. The 8th Air Force alone lost 176 bombers in October 1943, and was to suffer similar casualties on 1944 on missions to Oschersleben, Halberstadt, and Brunswick. Lieutenant General James Doolittle, commander of the 8th, had ordered the second Schweinfurt mission to be cancelled as the weather deteriorated, but the lead units had already entered hostile air space and continued with the mission. Most of the escorts turned back or missed the rendezvous, and as a result, 60 B-17s were destroyed.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: A third raid on Schweinfurt on 1944 highlighted what came to be known as "Big Week", during which the bombing missions were directed against German aircraft production. German fighters needed to respond, and the North American P-51 Mustang and Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighters (equipped with improved drop tanks to extend their range) accompanying the American heavies all the way to and from the targets engaged them. The escort fighters reduced the loss rate to below 7%, with a total of 247 B-17s lost in 3,500 sorties while taking part in the Big Week raids.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: By September 1944, 27 of the 42 bomb groups of the 8th Air Force and six of the 21 groups of the 15th Air Force used B-17s. Losses to flak continued to take a high toll of heavy bombers through 1944, but the war in Europe was being won by the Allies. And by 1945, 2 days after the last heavy bombing mission in Europe, the rate of aircraft loss was so low that replacement aircraft were no longer arriving and the number of bombers per bomb group was reduced. The Combined Bomber Offensive was effectively complete.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: On 7 December 1941, a group of 12 B-17s of the 38th (four B-17C) and 88th (eight B-17E) Reconnaissance Squadrons, en route to reinforce the Philippines, was flown into Pearl Harbor from Hamilton Field, California, arriving while the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was going on. Leonard "Smitty" Smith Humiston, co-pilot on First Lieutenant Robert H. Richards' B-17C, AAF S/N "40-2049", reported that he thought the U.S. Navy was giving the flight a 21-gun salute to celebrate the arrival of the bombers, after which he realized that Pearl Harbor was under attack. The Fortress came under fire from Japanese fighter aircraft, though the crew was unharmed with the exception of one member who suffered an abrasion on his hand. Japanese activity forced them to divert from Hickam Field to Bellows Field. On landing, the aircraft overran the runway and ran into a ditch, where it was then strafed. Although initially deemed repairable, "40-2049" (11th BG / 38th RS) received more than 200 bullet holes and never flew again. Ten of the 12 Fortresses survived the attack.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: By 1941, the Far East Air Force (FEAF) based at Clark Field in the Philippines had 35 B-17s, with the War Department eventually planning to raise that to 165. When the FEAF received word of the attack on Pearl Harbor, General Lewis H. Brereton sent his bombers and fighters on various patrol missions to prevent them from being caught on the ground. Brereton planned B-17 raids on Japanese air fields in Formosa, in accordance with Rainbow 5 war plan directives, but this was overruled by General Douglas MacArthur. A series of disputed discussions and decisions, followed by several confusing and false reports of air attacks, delayed the authorization of the sortie. By the time the B-17s and escorting Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters were about to get airborne, they were destroyed by Japanese bombers of the 11th Air Fleet. The FEAF lost half its aircraft during the first strike, and was all but destroyed over the next few days.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: Another early World War II Pacific engagement, on 1941, involved Colin Kelly, who reportedly crashed his B-17 into the Japanese battleship "Haruna", which was later acknowledged as a near bomb miss on the heavy cruiser "Ashigara". Nonetheless, this deed made him a celebrated war hero. Kelly's B-17C AAF S/N "40-2045" (19th BG / 30th BS) crashed about from Clark Field after he held the burning Fortress steady long enough for the surviving crew to bail out. Kelly was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: Noted Japanese ace Saburō Sakai is credited with this kill, and in the process, came to respect the ability of the Fortress to absorb punishment.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: B-17s were used in early battles of the Pacific with little success, notably the Battle of Coral Sea and Battle of Midway. While there, the Fifth Air Force B-17s were tasked with disrupting the Japanese sea lanes. Air Corps doctrine dictated bombing runs from high altitude, but they soon found only 1% of their bombs hit targets. However, B-17s were operating at heights too great for most A6M Zero fighters to reach.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: The B-17's greatest success in the Pacific was in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, in which aircraft of this type were responsible for damaging and sinking several Japanese transport ships. On 2 March 1943, six B-17s of the 64th Squadron flying at attacked a major Japanese troop convoy off New Guinea, using skip bombing to sink , which carried 1,200 army troops, and damage two other transports, "Teiyo Maru" and "Nojima". On 3 March 1943, 13 B-17s flying at bombed the convoy, forcing the convoy to disperse and reducing the concentration of their anti-aircraft defenses. The B-17s attracted a number of Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters, which were in turn attacked by the P-38 Lightning escorts. One B-17 broke up in the air, and its crew was forced to take to their parachutes. Japanese fighter pilots machine-gunned some of the B-17 crew members as they descended and attacked others in the water after they landed. Five of the Japanese fighters strafing the B-17 aircrew were promptly engaged and shot down by three Lightnings, though these were also then lost. The allied fighter pilots claimed 15 Zeros destroyed, while the B-17 crews claimed five more. Actual Japanese fighter losses for the day were seven destroyed and three damaged. The remaining seven transports and three of the eight destroyers were then sunk by a combination of low level strafing runs by Royal Australian Air Force Beaufighters, and skip bombing by USAAF North American B-25 Mitchells at , while B-17s claimed five hits from higher altitudes. On the morning of 4 March 1943, a B-17 sank the destroyer "Asashio" with a bomb while she was picking up survivors from "Arashio".


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: At their peak, 168 B-17 bombers were in the Pacific theater in September 1942, but already in mid-1942 Gen. Arnold had decided that the B-17 was unsuitable for the kind of operations required in the Pacific and made plans to replace all of the B-17s in the theater with B-24s (and later, B-29s) as soon as they became available. Although the conversion was not complete until mid-1943, B-17 combat operations in the Pacific theater came to an end after a little over a year. Surviving aircraft were reassigned to the 54th Troop Carrier Wing's special airdrop section, and were used to drop supplies to ground forces operating in close contact with the enemy. Special airdrop B-17s supported Australian commandos operating near the Japanese stronghold at Rabaul, which had been the primary B-17 target in 1942 and early 1943.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: B-17s were still used in the Pacific later in the war, however, mainly in the combat search and rescue role. A number of B-17Gs, redesignated B-17Hs and later SB-17Gs, were used in the Pacific during the final year of the war to carry and drop lifeboats to stranded bomber crews who had been shot down or crashed at sea. These aircraft were nicknamed Dumbos, and remained in service for many years after the end of World War II.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: Before the advent of long-range fighter escorts, B-17s had only their .50 caliber M2 Browning machine guns to rely on for defense during the bombing runs over Europe. As the war intensified, Boeing used feedback from aircrews to improve each new variant with increased armament and armor. Defensive armament increased from four machine guns and one nose machine gun in the B-17C, to thirteen machine guns in the B-17G. But because the bombers could not maneuver when attacked by fighters, and needed to be flown straight and level during their final bomb run, individual aircraft struggled to fend off a direct attack.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: A 1943 survey by the USAAF found that over half the bombers shot down by the Germans had left the protection of the main formation. To address this problem, the United States developed the bomb-group formation, which evolved into the staggered combat box formation in which all the B-17s could safely cover any others in their formation with their machine guns. This made a formation of bombers a dangerous target to engage by enemy fighters. In order to more quickly form these formations, assembly ships, planes with distinctive paint schemes, were utilized to guide bombers into formation, saving assembly time. "Luftwaffe" fighter pilots likened attacking a B-17 combat box formation to encountering a "fliegendes Stachelschwein", "flying porcupine", with dozens of machine guns in a combat box aimed at them from almost every direction. However, the use of this rigid formation meant that individual aircraft could not engage in evasive maneuvers: they had to fly constantly in a straight line, which made them vulnerable to German flak. Moreover, German fighter aircraft later developed the tactic of high-speed strafing passes rather than engaging with individual aircraft to inflict damage with minimum risk. As a result, the B-17s' loss rate was up to 25% on some early missions. It was not until the advent of long-range fighter escorts (particularly the North American P-51 Mustang) and the resulting degradation of the "Luftwaffe" as an effective interceptor force between February and June 1944, that the B-17 became strategically potent.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: The B-17 was noted for its ability to absorb battle damage, still reach its target and bring its crew home safely. Wally Hoffman, a B-17 pilot with the Eighth Air Force during World War II, said, "The plane can be cut and slashed almost to pieces by enemy fire and bring its crew home." Martin Caidin reported one instance in which a B-17 suffered a midair collision with a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, losing an engine and suffering serious damage to both the starboard horizontal stabilizer and the vertical stabilizer, and being knocked out of formation by the impact. The B-17 was reported as shot down by observers, but it survived and brought its crew home without injury. Its toughness was compensation for its shorter range and lighter bomb load compared to the B-24 and British Avro Lancaster heavy bombers. Stories circulated of B-17s returning to base with tails shredded, engines destroyed and large portions of their wings destroyed by flak. This durability, together with the large operational numbers in the Eighth Air Force and the fame achieved by the "Memphis Belle", made the B-17 a key bomber aircraft of the war. Other factors such as combat effectiveness and political issues also contributed to the B-17's success.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: After examining wrecked B-17s and B-24s, Luftwaffe officers discovered that on average it took about 20 hits with 20 mm shells fired from the rear to bring them down. Pilots of average ability hit the bombers with only about two percent of the rounds they fired, so to obtain 20 hits, the average pilot had to fire one thousand rounds at a bomber. Early versions of the Fw 190, one of the best German interceptor fighters, were equipped with two MG FF cannons, which carried only 500 rounds when belt-fed (normally using 60-round drum magazines in earlier installations), and later with the better Mauser MG 151/20 cannons, which had a longer effective range than the MG FF weapon. Later versions carried four or even six MG 151/20 cannon and twin 13 mm machine guns. The German fighters found that when attacking from the front, where fewer defensive guns were mounted (and where the pilot was exposed and not protected by armor as he was from the rear), it took only four or five hits to bring a bomber down.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: To rectify the Fw 190's shortcomings, the number of cannons fitted was doubled to four, with a corresponding increase in the amount of ammunition carried, creating the "Sturmbock" bomber destroyer version. This type replaced the vulnerable twin-engine "Zerstörer" heavy fighters which could not survive interception by P-51 Mustangs flying well ahead of the combat boxes in an air supremacy role starting very early in 1944 to clear any Luftwaffe defensive fighters from the skies. By 1944, a further upgrade to Rheinmetall-Borsig's MK 108 cannons mounted either in the wing, or in underwing, conformal mount gun pods, was made for the "Sturmbock" Focke-Wulfs as either the /R2 or /R8 field modification kits, enabling aircraft to bring a bomber down with just a few hits.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: The adoption of the 21 cm Nebelwerfer-derived "Werfer-Granate 21" (Wfr. Gr. 21) rocket mortar by the Luftwaffe in mid-August 1943 promised the introduction of a major "stand-off" style of offensive weapon – one strut-mounted tubular launcher was fixed under each wing panel on the Luftwaffe's single-engine fighters, and two under each wing panel of a few twin-engine Bf 110 daylight "Zerstörer" aircraft. However, due to the slow 715 mph velocity and characteristic ballistic drop of the fired rocket (despite the usual mounting of the launcher at about 15° upward orientation), and the small number of fighters fitted with the weapons, the Wfr. Gr. 21 never had a major effect on the combat box formations of Fortresses. The Luftwaffe also fitted heavy-caliber "Bordkanone"-series 37, 50 and even cannon as anti-bomber weapons on twin-engine aircraft such as the special Ju 88P fighters, as well as one model of the Me 410 "Hornisse" but these measures did not have much effect on the American strategic bomber offensive. The Me 262, however, had moderate success against the B-17 late in the war. With its usual nose-mounted armament of four MK 108 cannons, and with some examples later equipped with the R4M rocket, launched from underwing racks, it could fire from outside the range of the bombers' defensive guns and bring an aircraft down with one hit, as both the MK 108's shells and the R4M's warheads were filled with the "shattering" force of the strongly brisant Hexogen military explosive.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: During World War II approximately 40 B-17s were captured and refurbished by Germany after crash-landing or being forced down, with about a dozen put back into the air. Given German "Balkenkreuz" national markings on their wings and fuselage sides, and ""Hakenkreuz"" swastika tail fin-flashes, the captured B-17s were used to determine the B-17's vulnerabilities and to train German interceptor pilots in attack tactics. Others, with the cover designations Dornier Do 200 and Do 288, were used as long-range transports by the "Kampfgeschwader" 200 special duties unit, carrying out agent drops and supplying secret airstrips in the Middle East and North Africa. They were chosen specifically for these missions as being more suitable for this role than other available German aircraft; they never attempted to deceive the Allies and always wore full "Luftwaffe" markings. One B-17 of KG200, bearing the "Luftwaffe's" KG 200 "Geschwaderkennung" (combat wing code) markings "A3+FB", was interned by Spain when it landed at Valencia airfield, 1944, remaining there for the rest of the war. It has been alleged that some B-17s kept their Allied markings and were used by the "Luftwaffe" in attempts to infiltrate B-17 bombing formations and report on their positions and altitudes. According to these allegations, the practice was initially successful, but Army Air Force combat aircrews quickly developed and established standard procedures to first warn off, and then fire upon any "stranger" trying to join a group's formation.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: The U.S. did not offer B-17s to the Soviet Union as part of its war materiel assistance program, but at least 73 aircraft were acquired by the Soviet Air Force. These aircraft had landed with mechanical trouble during the shuttle bombing raids over Germany or had been damaged by a "Luftwaffe" raid in Poltava. The Soviets restored 23 to flying condition and concentrated them in the 890th bomber regiment of the 45th Bomber Aviation Division, but they never saw combat. In 1946 (or 1947, according to Holm) the regiment was assigned to the Kazan factory (moving from Baranovichi) to aid in the Soviet effort to reproduce the more advanced Boeing B-29 as the Tupolev Tu-4.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: During the Allied bomber offensive, U.S. and British bombers sometimes flew into Swiss airspace, either because they were damaged or, on rare occasions, accidentally bombing Swiss cities. Swiss aircraft attempted to intercept and force individual aircraft to land, interning their crews; one Swiss pilot was killed, shot down by a U.S. bomber crew in September 1944. From then on, red and white neutrality bands were added to the wings of Swiss aircraft to stop accidental attacks by Allied aircraft.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: Official Swiss records identify 6,501 airspace violations during the course of the war, with 198 foreign aircraft landing on Swiss territory and 56 aircraft crashing there. In October 1943 the Swiss interned Boeing B-17F-25-VE, tail number 25841, and its U.S. flight crew after the Flying Fortress developed engine trouble after a raid over Germany and was forced to land. The aircraft was turned over to the Swiss Air Force, who then flew the bomber until the end of the war, using other interned but non-airworthy B-17s for spare parts. The bomber's topside surfaces were repainted a dark olive drab, but retained its light gray under wing and lower fuselage surfaces. It carried Swiss national white cross insignia in red squares on both sides of its rudder, fuselage sides, and on the topside and underside wings. The B-17F also carried light gray flash letters "RD" and "I" on either side of the fuselage's Swiss national insignia.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: Three damaged B-17s, one "D" and two "E" series, were rebuilt during 1942 to flying status by Japanese technicians and mechanics, using parts salvaged from abandoned B-17 wrecks in the Philippines and the Java East Indies. The three bombers, which still contained their top secret Norden bombsights, were ferried to Japan where they underwent extensive technical evaluation by the "Giken", the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force's Air Technical Research Institute (Koku Gijutsu Kenkyujo) at Tachikawa's air field. The "D" model, later deemed an obsolescent design, was used in Japanese training and propaganda films. The two "E"s were used to develop B-17 air combat counter-tactics and also used as enemy aircraft in pilot and crew training films. One of the two "E" Flying Fortresses was photographed late in the war by U. S. aerial recon. It was code-named "Tachikawa 105" after the mystery aircraft's wingspan was measured (104-ft.) but never identified. Photo-recon analysts never made the connection to it being a captured B-17 until after the war. No traces of the 3 captured Flying Fortresses were ever found in Japan by Allied occupation forces. The bombers were assumed either lost by various means or scrapped late in the war for their vital war materials.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: Following the end of World War II, the B-17 was quickly phased out of use as a bomber and the Army Air Forces retired most of its fleet. Flight crews ferried the bombers back across the Atlantic to the United States where the majority were sold for scrap and melted down, although significant numbers remained in use in second-line roles such as VIP transports, air-sea rescue and photo-reconnaissance. Strategic Air Command (SAC), established in 1946, used reconnaissance B-17s (at first called F-9 ["F" for "Fotorecon"], later RB-17) until 1949.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: The USAF Air Rescue Service of the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) operated B-17s as so-called "Dumbo" air-sea rescue aircraft. Work on using B-17s to carry airborne lifeboats had begun in 1943, but they entered service in the European theater only in February 1945. They were also used to provide search and rescue support for B-29 raids against Japan. About 130 B-17s were converted to the air-sea rescue role, at first designated B-17H and later SB-17G. Some SB-17s had their defensive guns removed, while others retained their guns to allow use close to combat areas. The SB-17 served through the Korean War, remaining in service with USAF until the mid-1950s.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: In 1946, surplus B-17s were chosen as drone aircraft for atmospheric sampling during the Operation Crossroads atomic bomb tests, being able to fly close to or even through the mushroom clouds without endangering a crew. This led to more widespread conversion of B-17s as drones and drone control aircraft, both for further use in atomic testing and as targets for testing surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles. were converted to drones. The last operational mission flown by a USAF Fortress was conducted on 1959, when a DB-17P, serial " 44-83684 ", directed a QB-17G, out of Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, as a target for an AIM-4 Falcon air-to-air missile fired from a McDonnell F-101 Voodoo. A retirement ceremony was held several days later at Holloman AFB, after which "44-83684" was retired. It was subsequently used in various films and in the 1960s television show "12 O'Clock High" before being retired to the Planes of Fame aviation museum in Chino, California. Perhaps the most famous B-17, the "Memphis Belle", has been restored – with the B-17D "The Swoose" under way – to her World War II wartime appearance by the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: During the last year of World War II and shortly thereafter, the United States Navy (USN) acquired 48 ex-USAAF B-17s for patrol and air-sea rescue work. The first two ex-USAAF B-17s, a B-17F (later modified to B-17G standard) and a B-17G were obtained by the Navy for various development programs. At first, these aircraft operated under their original USAAF designations, but on 31 July 1945 they were assigned the naval aircraft designation PB-1, a designation which had originally been used in 1925 for the Boeing Model 50 experimental flying boat.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: Thirty-two B-17Gs were used by the Navy under the designation PB-1W, the suffix -W indicating an airborne early warning role. A large radome for an S-band AN/APS-20 search radar was fitted underneath the fuselage and additional internal fuel tanks were added for longer range, with the provision for additional underwing fuel tanks. Originally, the B-17 was also chosen because of its heavy defensive armament, but this was later removed. These aircraft were painted dark blue, the standard Navy paint scheme which had been adopted in late 1944. PB-1Ws continued in USN service until 1955, gradually being phased out in favor of the Lockheed WV-2 (known in the USAF as the EC-121, a designation adopted by the USN in 1962), a military version of the Lockheed 1049 Constellation commercial airliner.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: In July 1945, 16 B-17s were transferred to the Coast Guard via the Navy; these aircraft were initially assigned U.S. Navy Bureau Numbers (BuNo), but were delivered to the Coast Guard designated as PB-1Gs beginning in July 1946. Coast Guard PB-1Gs were stationed at a number of bases in the U.S. and Newfoundland, with five at Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, two at CGAS San Francisco, two at NAS Argentia, Newfoundland, one at CGAS Kodiak, Alaska, and one in Washington state. They were used primarily in the "Dumbo" air-sea rescue role, but were also used for iceberg patrol duties and for photo mapping. The Coast Guard PB-1Gs served throughout the 1950s, the last example not being withdrawn from service until 14 October 1959.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: B-17s were used by the CIA front companies Civil Air Transport, Air America and Intermountain Aviation for special missions. These included B-17G "44-85531", registered as N809Z. These aircraft were primarily used for agent drop missions over the People's Republic of China, flying from Taiwan, with Taiwanese crews. Four B-17s were shot down in these operations.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: In 1957 the surviving B-17s had been stripped of all weapons and painted black. One of these Taiwan-based B-17s was flown to Clark Air Base in the Philippines in mid-September, assigned for covert missions into Tibet.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: On 28 May 1962, N809Z, piloted by Connie Seigrist and Douglas Price, flew Major James Smith, USAF and Lieutenant Leonard A. LeSchack, USNR to the abandoned Soviet arctic ice station NP 8, as Operation Coldfeet. Smith and LeSchack parachuted from the B-17 and searched the station for several days. On 1 June, Seigrist and Price returned and picked up Smith and LeSchack using a Fulton Skyhook system installed on the B-17. N809Z was used to perform a Skyhook pick up in the James Bond movie "Thunderball" in 1965. This aircraft, now restored to its original B-17G configuration, was on display in the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon until it was sold to the Collings Foundation in 2015.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: The B-17, a versatile aircraft, served in dozens of USAAF units in theaters of combat throughout World War II, and in other roles for the RAF. Its main use was in Europe, where its shorter range and smaller bombload relative to other aircraft did not hamper it as much as in the Pacific Theater. Peak USAAF inventory (in August 1944) was 4,574 worldwide.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: The B-17 Flying Fortress became symbolic of the United States of America's air power. In a 1943 Consolidated Aircraft poll of 2,500 men in cities where Consolidated advertisements had been run in newspapers, 73% had heard of the B-24 and 90% knew of the B-17.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: After the first Y1B-17s were delivered to the Army Air Corps 2nd Bombardment Group, they were used on flights to promote their long range and navigational capabilities. In January 1938, group commander Colonel Robert Olds flew a Y1B-17 from the U.S. east coast to the west coast, setting a transcontinental record of 13 hours 27 minutes. He also broke the west-to-east coast record on the return trip, averaging in 11 hours 1 minute. Six bombers of the 2nd Bombardment Group took off from Langley Field on 1938 as part of a goodwill flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Covering they returned on , with seven aircraft setting off on a flight to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, three days later. In a well-publicized mission on 12 May of the same year, three Y1B-17s "intercepted" and took photographs of the Italian ocean liner SS "Rex" off the Atlantic coast.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: Many pilots who flew both the B-17 and the B-24 preferred the B-17 for its greater stability and ease in formation flying. The electrical systems were less vulnerable to damage than the B-24's hydraulics, and the B-17 was easier to fly than a B-24 when missing an engine. During the war, the largest offensive bombing force, the Eighth Air Force, had an open preference for the B-17. Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle wrote about his preference for equipping the Eighth with B-17s, citing the logistical advantage in keeping field forces down to a minimum number of aircraft types with their individual servicing and spares. For this reason, he wanted B-17 bombers and P-51 fighters for the Eighth. His views were supported by Eighth Air Force statisticians, whose mission studies showed that the Flying Fortress's utility and survivability was much greater than those of the B-24 Liberator. Making it back to base on numerous occasions, despite extensive battle damage, the B-17's durability became legendary; stories and photos of B-17s surviving battle damage were widely circulated during the war. Despite an inferior performance and smaller bombload than the more numerous B-24 Liberators, a survey of Eighth Air Force crews showed a much higher rate of satisfaction with the B-17.


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: Many B-17 crew members received military honors and 17 received the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration awarded by the United States:


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: Hollywood featured the B-17 in its period films, such as director Howard Hawks' "Air Force" starring John Garfield and "Twelve O'Clock High" starring Gregory Peck. Both films were made with the full cooperation of the United States Army Air Forces and used USAAF aircraft and (for "Twelve O'Clock High") combat footage. In 1964, the latter film was made into a television show of the same name and ran for three years on ABC TV. Footage from "Twelve O' Clock High" was also used, along with three restored B-17s, in the 1962 film "The War Lover". An early model YB-17 also appeared in the 1938 film "Test Pilot" with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, and later with Clark Gable in "Command Decision" in 1948, in "Tora! Tora! Tora!" in 1970, and in "Memphis Belle" with Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, Billy Zane, and Harry Connick Jr. in 1990. The most famous B-17, the "Memphis Belle", toured the U. S. with her crew to reinforce national morale (and to sell war bonds). She was featured in a USAAF documentary, "".


title: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

text: The Flying Fortress has also been featured in artistic works expressing the physical and psychological stress of the combat conditions and the high casualty rates that crews suffered. Works such as "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" by Randall Jarrell and "Heavy Metal"s section "B-17" depict the nature of these missions. The Ball turret itself has inspired works like Steven Spielberg's "The Mission". Artists who served on the bomber units also created paintings and drawings depicting the combat conditions in World War II.


title: Raul Julia

text: Raúl Rafael Carlos Juliá y Arcelay (March 9, 1940 – October 24, 1994) was a Puerto Rican actor. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he took an interest in acting while still in school and pursued the career upon completion of his studies. After performing locally for some time, he was convinced by actor and entertainment personality Orson Bean to move and work in New York City. Juliá, who had been bilingual since his childhood, soon gained interest in Broadway and Off-Broadway plays. He took over the role of Orson in the Off-Broadway hit "Your Own Thing", a rock musical update of "Twelfth Night". He performed in mobile projects, including the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater.


title: Raul Julia

text: Juliá was eventually noticed by producer Joseph Papp, who offered him work in the New York Shakespeare Festival. After gaining visibility, he received roles in two television series, "Love of Life" and "Sesame Street". In 1978, he famously starred alongside Meryl Streep in an electric revival of Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew" at the Delacorte Theater. In 1979, Juliá starred in the original Broadway production of Harold Pinter's "Betrayal" alongside Roy Scheider and Blythe Danner. For his performance in "Two Gentlemen of Verona", he received a nomination for the Tony Award and won a Drama Desk Award. Between 1974 and 1982, Juliá received Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical nominations for "Where's Charley?", "The Threepenny Opera" and "Nine". In 1991, Juliá acted alongside Christopher Walken in a revival of "Othello" and in 1984, he starred in "Design for Living" with Frank Langella and Jill Clayburgh.


title: Raul Julia

text: He is also known for his performances in films; his film debut came in 1971 acting alongside Al Pacino in "The Panic in Needle Park". During the 1980s, he worked in several films; he received two nominations for the Golden Globe Awards, for his performances in "Tempest" and "Kiss of the Spider Woman"; he won the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor for the latter. He also appeared in Francis Ford Coppola's "One from the Heart" (1982), Sidney Lumet's "The Morning After" (1986), "Romero" (1989) and Clint Eastwood's "The Rookie" (1990). In 1991 and 1993, Julia portrayed Gomez Addams in two film adaptations of "The Addams Family". In 1994, he filmed "The Burning Season" and a film adaptation of the "Street Fighter" video games. The same year Juliá suffered several health afflictions, eventually dying after suffering a stroke. His funeral was held in Puerto Rico, attended by thousands. For his work in "The Burning Season", Juliá won a posthumous Golden Globe Award, Primetime Emmy Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award.


title: Raul Julia

text: In 2017, "The Daily Telegraph" named him one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.


title: Raul Julia

text: Juliá was born March 9, 1940, in Floral Park (Hato Rey), a suburb of San Juan, to Olga Arcelay and Raúl Juliá. He was the oldest of four brothers, and sisters Maria Eugenia Juliá and Olga Maria Juliá. His mother was a mezzo-soprano who sang in a church choir before marrying Juliá's father, who was an electrical engineer graduated from Trine University.


title: Raul Julia

text: Juliá's brother, Rafa, died in a car accident when Juliá was 19 years old. Some relatives were also musicians, including his great aunt María González, whom he credited as the inspiration behind his artistic career. The family was Catholic.


title: Raul Julia

text: Raúl's father was the founder of La Cueva del Chicken Inn, a restaurant in San Juan. The building was originally a gas station and body shop before being remodeled after a similar restaurant in Madrid, Spain, called Las Cuevas de Luis Candelas, which is intended to mimic the structure of a gypsum cave. Juliá's father claimed that he brought pizza to Puerto Rico, after he hired an Italian cook in New York City who could prepare pizza. The restaurant is also supposed to be the first to distribute chicken-in-a-basket within the archipelago, which Miriam Fitts helped him think of.


title: Raul Julia

text: Juliá was enrolled in the Colegio Espíritu Santo in Hato Rey, a Catholic private school, where most of the personnel spoke exclusively English. There, he participated in his first play in first grade, interpreting the devil, with his performance earning him participation in all subsequent school plays. After witnessing Errol Flynn's performance in "The Adventures of Robin Hood", he decided to pursue an acting career.


title: Raul Julia

text: During his childhood, Juliá's family followed a strict Jesuit practice, often taking homeless children into their household. His mother received recognition from the Catholic University of Ponce for these efforts.


title: Raul Julia

text: By the seventh grade, Juliá was able to speak English fluently and had gained interest in the works of William Shakespeare. Juliá concluded his secondary education at Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola, where he would organize plays of "Julius Caesar", "Hamlet", "King Lear", and "The Tempest". Seeking to please his parents, he continued his education with a year at Fordham University, the well known private Jesuit university in New York City, before returning home to enroll at the University of Puerto Rico, where he joined the Phi Sigma Alpha fraternity.


title: Raul Julia

text: Juliá continued acting in local plays and nightclubs as he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. Juliá eventually realized that he had no interest in pursuing the law career favored by his parents, choosing to act full-time despite having doubts that he could sustain himself working as an actor.


title: Raul Julia

text: Consequently, Juliá began performing in several plays that were held in San Juan. He performed in a re-staging of "Macbeth", which was held in one of the municipality's colonial castles in order to simulate the setting of the work. Other works included playing the role of Roderigo in "Othello" at a local drama production. Parallel to this, Juliá began making presentations at the Ted Mack Amateur Hour. After joining a musical group named the Lamplighters, despite receiving opposition from his parents, he was recruited by Lillian Hurst to perform alongside her, eventually receiving work at a hotel named El Convento.


title: Raul Julia

text: During this time, he began considering the possibility of moving to Europe to take acting classes. During one of their acts, Juliá was approached by Orson Bean, who was on vacation in Puerto Rico and provided him with contact information, wanting him to travel to New York and work there. His parents were shocked by the proposal, but ultimately agreed to support his decision. Juliá's departure was postponed after his younger brother, Rafael, died in a traffic collision. During this time, he became engaged to Magda Vasallo Molinelli.


title: Raul Julia

text: In 1964, when he was 24 years old, he traveled to New York, arriving in the middle of a winter storm. After establishing residence in Manhattan, Juliá worked at a variety of odd jobs to pay his expenses, going so far as to attend sales training (provided by a distributor) in the proper way to sell pens. When Hurst visited him, they attended a Broadway play, which prompted a discovery that surprised him—that it was possible to work as an actor full-time. As a result, Juliá began seeking employment in both Broadway and Off-Broadway plays. Seeking to further improve his acting, he took lessons from Wynn Handman, who was recommended by Bean; his class included future fellow star Christopher Walken.


title: Raul Julia

text: His first work was in a production of Pedro Calderón de la Barca's "Life Is a Dream", where he played Astolfo, thereby making himself eligible to receive his Actors Equity card from Actors' Equity Association. Initially, Juliá received an allowance from his parents, but after hiring manager Jeff Hunter, he landed a role in a production of "Bye Bye Birdie", thereafter declining further financial assistance. He began performing with Phoebe Brand's mobile theatre, presenting plays in low-income neighborhoods of New York. In 1965, he married Vasallo Molinelli.


title: Raul Julia

text: In 1966, Juliá was cast in the role of Macduff in a Spanish-language version of "Macbeth," and also performed in "The Ox Cart (La Carreta)", a stage play written by Puerto Rican playwright René Marqués. Miriam Colón Valle, who also participated in "La Carreta", established the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, where he performed. In 1967, the founder of the New York Shakespeare Festival (NYSF), Joseph Papp, attended a performance at Delacorte Theater, where Juliá was reading patriotic Puerto Rican poetry. Subsequently, Papp offered him the role of Demetrius in a staging of "Titus Andronicus". After this play concluded, he contacted Papp who offered him the job of stage manager in NYSF's "Hamlet". While performing this task, Juliá also performed in some of the plays.


title: Raul Julia

text: In September 1968, after auditioning four times for the role, Juliá debuted in his first Broadway play, performing as Chan in a staging of "The Cuban Thing". The following year, he was cast in a production of Arthur Kopit's "Indians". During this timeframe, he and Vasallo Molinelli were divorced. In 1970, Juliá, in the role of Paco Montoya in "The Castro Complex", received notably favorable reviews. While rehearsing for an Off-Broadway play, he met Merel Poloway and began a relationship with her.


title: Raul Julia

text: As he gained prominence on Broadway, Juliá was cast in two television series, "Love of Life" and "Sesame Street". He disliked his role in "Love of Life," only appearing on the show for a brief time. On "Sesame Street", he was Rafael the Fix-It Man, a recurring character during the show's third season. Raphael the Fix-It Man’s partner at the Fix-It Shop was Emilio Delgado's character Luis, who, after debuting with Juliá, went on to a long tenure on the show. During 1971–1972, Juliá earned roles in three films: "The Organization", "The Panic in Needle Park", and a film adaptation of "Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me".


title: Raul Julia

text: While working on "Sesame Street", Julia was contacted by Papp, who offered him the role of Proteus in "Two Gentlemen of Verona". For his performance in this play, Juliá received his first nomination for a Tony Award and won the 1972 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance. In 1973, he interpreted Edmund in "King Lear," followed by the role of Orlando in "As You Like It". Juliá noted that he cherished the roles he played in these Shakespeare plays, particularly the rhythm, music, and poetry present in them. He also acted in "Via Galactica"s limited presentation on Broadway and, on television, played Dr. Greg Robinson, Jerry's brother, in the "Oh, Brother" episode of "The Bob Newhart Show".


title: Raul Julia

text: In 1974, Juliá was cast as the titular role of Charley Wykeham in the comedy, "Where's Charley?", receiving his second Tony Award nomination for his performance. He subsequently joined Werner Erhard's Erhard Seminars Training or "est", an organization that promotes self-motivation, by participating in its seminars. In 1976, Juliá played Mack the Knife in "The Threepenny Opera", interpreting the dialogue with a marked British accent. The performance earned him a third Tony Award nomination. He then returned to film as Italian car racer Franco Bertollini in "The Gumball Rally".


title: Raul Julia

text: That same year, Juliá married Poloway in the Catskill Mountains. The ceremony was led by Swami Muktananda as part of a spiritual retreat. The couple had met the Swami through Erhard. After this retreat, Erhard founded The Hunger Project, claiming that after traveling to India, he felt motivated to found a non-profit organization to eliminate world hunger through philanthropic galas. Juliá joined the initiative at its conception, establishing a personal goal of raising one million dollars for the organization. In 1978, his interpretation of the lead role in the 1924 theatrical version of "Dracula" was well received.


title: Raul Julia

text: While performing as Dracula, Juliá also played Petruchio in "The Taming of the Shrew". His interaction with co-star Meryl Streep was tense at first, before developing into a friendship as the production advanced. Juliá followed up his double-duty stage work with a role in a film adaptation of "The Tempest", spending several months in Italy while exploring its culture. During this time, he received the script for "Nine," the play which would garner him a fourth Tony Award nomination. In preparation for his role in Harold Pinter’s "Betrayal", Juliá moved temporarily to London, hiring a dialect coach to train him in British pronunciation. Juliá would subsequently use a British or Trans-Atlantic accent for most of his film work, including "Presumed Innocent", "The Addams Family" films, and "Street Fighter".


title: Raul Julia

text: In 1982, Juliá played Calibanos in Mazursky's "Tempest" and Ray in the musical "One from the Heart". In 1983, his first son with Poloway, Raúl Sigmund Juliá, was born. That year, he also starred in the public television film "Overdrawn at the Memory Bank", which received a weak reception and was satirized on "Mystery Science Theater 3000". After not appearing in a film for two years, Juliá played a political prisoner named Valentín in an adaptation of the Manuel Puig work "Kiss of the Spider Woman". Valentín’s cellmate is a flamboyant homosexual (William Hurt), jailed for immoral behavior in Brazil, who passes the time by describing scenes from his favorite romantic movie to Valentín; slowly, the two form a bond based on mutual understanding and respect. In view of the uniqueness of the script, Juliá agreed to begin filming before receiving his salary and traveled to South America, where he interviewed rebels and ex-prisoners to familiarize himself with their experiences and ideology. Upon its release, "Kiss of the Spider Woman" was a commercial and critical success. For his performance, Juliá received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award and won the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures award for best actor, along with co-lead actor William Hurt.


title: Raul Julia

text: The following year, he appeared in his first Puerto Rican film, "La Gran Fiesta", offering a monologue near the end of the film. In 1985, he starred as Major Sergius Saranoff in an adaptation of "Arms and the Man". This was followed by the role of David Suárez in the romantic comedy "Compromising Positions". In 1986, Juliá played a hairdresser named Joaquin Manero in "The Morning After". Following his usual procedure of practical preparation for a role, he took cosmetology lessons and worked at a hair salon for some time.


title: Raul Julia

text: In 1987, Juliá had the lead role in "The Penitent". Later on that year, his second son with Poloway, Benjamín Rafael Juliá, was born. In 1988, Juliá played a corrupt official in Paul Mazursky's comedy, "Moon over Parador", which received negative reviews from critics. The following year, he co-starred with Anthony Quinn in "", a biographic film covering the life of Aristotle Onassis. In 1989, Juliá was cast as San Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero in the biographical movie, "Romero". During his life, Romero had been a staunch advocate of human rights, often publicly denouncing violations of these rights, which prompted his assassination during a mass. Juliá accepted the role based on its political nature, seeking to draw attention to the issues in that region of Central America. To prepare for the role, he read Romero's diary and autobiography as well as listening to or watching recordings of his messages and masses, which prompted him to rejoin the Catholic Church. He and Poloway, who is Jewish, decided not to raise their children in a particular religion, believing that they should make their own decisions after reaching adulthood. The government of El Salvador refused to allow distribution of the film because of its content, so the film received only clandestine circulation. Due to his activity between 1987 and 1989, Juliá was ranked first in the "Variety" article "List of Busiest Hollywood Actors". Juliá then starred in the 1989 film adaptation of "The Threepenny Opera", recreating the role of Macheath for the movie, which was renamed "Mack the Knife" for its American release.


title: Raul Julia

text: In 1990, he was cast to as a lawyer in "Presumed Innocent", receiving solid reviews for his performance. Prior to the filming, Juliá spent time in courtrooms and studied the court system. Also in 1990, he appeared opposite Robert Redford in "Havana", but chose to remain uncredited because the director, Sydney Pollack, refused to give him above-the-line credit. In 1991, when Joseph Papp died, Juliá commented that the director was directly responsible for finding him roles besides that of "stereotypical Latinos", such as the "Latin lover". Juliá was cast to play Gomez Addams in an adaptation of "The Addams Family". He was attracted to the role because of the character's irreverent portrayal, noting that "even his depressions are wonderful". Since his earlier recollections of the role were of the Spanish-dubbed version of the first television series, he had to adapt the role directly from the original cartoons drawn by Charles Addams, receiving a nomination for a Saturn Award. It is interesting to note that Juliá appeared in 1982's "The Escape Artist" with Jackie Coogan, who portrayed Fester Addams in the 1964-1966 television series "The Addams Family".


title: Raul Julia

text: In 1992, Juliá played the title role in a revival of "Man of La Mancha" with Sheena Easton, a Broadway musical adaptation of the Miguel de Cervantes novel, "Don Quixote". The play originated in 1965, with the main character played by Richard Kiley; one of his favorite actors, José Ferrer, had been considered for the title role at the time. Juliá performed this role eight times per week. Subsequently, he reprised his role as Gomez Addams in "Addams Family Values". In 1994, Juliá played Chico Mendes in "The Burning Season" for HBO, for which he received solid reviews. He familiarized himself with the role by analyzing interviews and footage from Mendes' Xapuri Rubber Tappers Union.


title: Raul Julia

text: Despite his poor health, which began three years prior to his death, he completed "The Burning Season" and was eager to play M. Bison in "Street Fighter", which was to be filmed in Australia in the autumn. Juliá felt that this film would allow him to spend more time with his children, who were fans of the video game franchise and helped him prepare for the role. He received his second Saturn Award nomination for his performance, which was considered the high point of the otherwise poorly received motion picture. This would be his final role in a major film, with his last work being a supporting role in the television drama "Down Came a Blackbird", which was filmed in Toronto, Ontario during September and October 1994. His poor health was apparent in these last three films because of his substantial weight loss.


title: Raul Julia

text: Unknown to the public, Juliá had suffered from stomach cancer for three years prior to his death and had undergone surgery for it. In early 1994, during the filming of "The Burning Season" in Mexico, he contracted food poisoning after consuming sushi. Juliá was airlifted to a hospital in Los Angeles to receive medical attention. After recovering, he returned to Mexico to finish the film, although he had lost some weight and was physically weakened by his condition. On October 16, 1994, Juliá and Poloway attended the Metropolitan Opera in New York; afterwards, Juliá began feeling intense abdominal pain and was taken by ambulance to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, Long Island. At first, he did not appear worried about his condition and was seen in his hospital bed reviewing the script for his upcoming role in "Desperado", but his condition gradually worsened. On the night of October 20, 1994, Juliá suffered a stroke, fell into a coma, and was put on life support. Four days later, on October 24, 1994, Juliá died at the age of 54 from complications of the stroke, never having regained consciousness.


title: Raul Julia

text: In accordance with Juliá's instructions, his body was transported to Puerto Rico. A state funeral was held in San Juan on October 27, 1994, with Juliá’s body being escorted to the building of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, where a funeral ceremony was held. The service was attended by thousands of Puerto Ricans, with native plena music being played in the background. The burial ceremony was also attended by thousands, with "La Borinqueña" being sung by Lucecita Benítez prior to the procession. After stopping at San Ignacio de Loyola Church, the procession advanced to Buxeda Cemetery, where politician and activist Rubén Berríos offered the final words. As Juliá's coffin was lowered, a load of carnations was dropped from a helicopter while the crowd shouted "¡Viva Puerto Rico Libre!" Juliá was a lifelong supporter of the Puerto Rican independence movement; on one occasion, he convinced his agent to allow him to do an advertising campaign on behalf of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company.


title: Raul Julia

text: Subsequent memorial ceremonies were held at Joseph Papp Public Theater in New York and in Los Angeles, where several actors and personalities, including Rubén Blades and Edward James Olmos, expressed their grief. A mass in Miami and numerous private ceremonies were also held. The staff of Universal Pictures paid homage to him by dedicating "Street Fighter" to his memory, adding the phrase "For Raúl. Vaya con Dios." in the film's ending credits. Juliá had been set to reprise his role as M. Bison in the , having already met with the production staff. The New York Shakespeare Festival bought an obituary notice in "Variety", where his birth and death dates were accompanied by a quote from Shakespeare. The Puerto Rican Traveling Theater established The Raúl Juliá Training Unit, giving free acting classes to young actors.


title: Raul Julia

text: For his performance in "The Burning Season", Juliá was posthumously awarded a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a CableACE Award, and an Emmy Award. Although he did not make his screen debut before 1950, Juliá was a nominee for the American Film Institute's AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars. Actors such as Helen Hunt and Jimmy Smits have cited him as a source of inspiration. On November 21, 1994, Rudy Giuliani declared that date Raul Juliá Day. In 1996, he was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame on Broadway. The Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce created the Raúl Juliá Scholarship Fund in 1997, intended to provide college education for teenagers.


title: Raul Julia

text: During his lifetime, Juliá continued the charitable work done by his parents during his childhood, engaging in social and educational activities. His contributions were acknowledged with an invitation to join the New York Council for the Humanities. Much of Juliá's charity work was focused on at-risk youth, the Latin American community, and the arts. Concerned about rising levels of violence among teenagers, he sponsored scriptwriting programs in high schools and supported young actors. To promote other Latin American artists, Juliá actively lent his support to the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA) and co-founded Visiones Luminosas, an initiative to foster screenwriters. He continued to work in the NYSF, electing to donate his time.


title: Raul Julia

text: In a similar fashion, Juliá cooperated with independent filmmakers in Puerto Rico by acting in their productions for free or receiving a reduced salary. This constant involvement with the Latin American community earned him a posthumous Hispanic Heritage Award. Juliá also promoted interracial acceptance and cooperation as a member of Racial Harmony and served as the chairman of the Joseph Papp Celebrity Coalition for Racial Harmony.


title: Raul Julia

text: As part of his work for The Hunger Project, Juliá made monthly donations to a food bank. He also promoted the program on television and radio and served as the narrator of bilingual videos about the Hunger Project. Juliá somehow found time in his notoriously busy schedule to participate in multiple benefit galas on behalf of the organization as well. Due to this work, the project gave him their Global Citizen Award. His involvement was also recognized in "Ending Hunger: An Idea Whose Time Has Come". On March 24, 1992, Juliá received the Courage of Conscience Award. In 1994, the government of El Salvador recognized him for his human rights activism, selecting him to serve as overseer of their general elections in representation of Freedom House. During his visit to the country, he visited the tomb of Romero, subsequently describing his experience in a piece published in "Freedom Review".


title: Raul Julia

text: In recognition of his wide-ranging impact, the National Endowment for the Hispanic Arts offers the Raul Juliá Award for Excellence annually. In 2002, actress Sandra Bullock was presented with the award. She received it for her work as the executive producer of the "George Lopez" TV series, which offered work and exposition for Hispanic talent. In 2003, Daniel Rodríguez won the first Raúl Juliá Global Citizen Award from the New York-based Puerto Rico Family Institute, receiving the recognition for his charitable work.


title: Scythians

text: The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people who had migrated from Central Asia to the Pontic Steppe in modern-day Ukraine and Southern Russia from approximately the 7th century BC until the 3rd century BC.


title: Scythians

text: Skilled in mounted warfare, the Scythians replaced the Cimmerians as the dominant power on the Pontic Steppe in the 8th century BC. In the 7th century BC, the Scythians crossed the Caucasus Mountains and frequently raided West Asia along with the Cimmerians. After being expelled from West Asia by the Medes, the Scythians retreated back into the Pontic Steppe and were gradually conquered by the Sarmatians. In the late 2nd century BC, the capital of the largely Hellenized Scythians at Scythian Neapolis in the Crimea was captured by Mithridates VI and their territories incorporated into the Bosporan Kingdom. By the 3rd century AD, the Sarmatians and last remnants of the Scythians were overwhelmed by the Goths, and by the early Middle Ages, the Scythians and the Sarmatians had been largely assimilated and absorbed by early Slavs. The Scythians were instrumental in the ethnogenesis of the Ossetians, who are believed to be descended from the Alans.


title: Scythians

text: After the Scythians' disappearance, authors of the ancient, mediaeval, and early modern periods used the name "Scythian" to refer to various populations of the steppes unrelated to them.


title: Scythians

text: The Scythians played an important part in the Silk Road, a vast trade network connecting Greece, Persia, India and China, perhaps contributing to the prosperity of those civilisations. Settled metalworkers made portable decorative objects for the Scythians, forming a history of Scythian metalworking. These objects survive mainly in metal, forming a distinctive Scythian art.


title: Scythians

text: The English name or is derived from the Ancient Greek name () and (), derived from the Scythian endonym , which, due to a sound change from /δ/ to /l/ in the Scythian, evolved into the form . This designation was recorded in Greek as (), which, according to Herodotus of Halicarnassus, was the self-designation of the tribe of the Royal Scythians.


title: Scythians

text: The ancient Persians meanwhile called the Scythians " who live beyond the Sea" (, ) in Old Persian and simply (, ; , ) in Ancient Egyptian, from which was derived the Graeco-Roman name (; Latin: ).


title: Scythians

text: The Scythians were part of the wider Scytho-Siberian world, stretching across the Eurasian Steppes of Kazakhstan, the Russian steppes of the Siberian, Ural, Volga and Southern regions, and eastern Ukraine. In a broader sense, Scythians has also been used to designate all early Eurasian nomads, although the validity of such terminology is controversial, and other terms such as "Early nomadic" have been deemed preferable.


title: Scythians

text: Although the Scythians, Saka and Cimmerians were closely related nomadic Iranian peoples, and the ancient Babylonians, ancient Persians and ancient Greeks respectively used the names "Cimmerian," "Saka," and "Scythian" for all the steppe nomads, and early modern historians such as Edward Gibbon used the term Scythian to refer to a variety of nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples across the Eurasian Steppe, the name "Scythian" in contemporary modern scholarship generally refers to the nomadic Iranian people who dominated the Pontic Steppe from the 7th century BC to the 3rd century BC, while the name "Saka" is used specifically for their eastern members who inhabited the northern and eastern Eurasian Steppe and the Tarim Basin; and while the Cimmerians were often described by contemporaries as culturally Scythian, they formed a different tribe from the Scythians proper, to whom the Cimmerians were related, and who also displaced and replaced the Cimmerians in the Pontic Steppe.


title: Scythians

text: The Scythians share several cultural similarities with other populations living to their east, in particular similar weapons, horse gear and Scythian art, which has been referred to as the "Scythian triad". Cultures sharing these characteristics have often been referred to as Scythian cultures, and its peoples called "Scythians". Peoples associated with Scythian cultures include not only the Scythians themselves, who were a distinct ethnic group, but also Cimmerians, Massagetae, Saka, Sarmatians and various obscure peoples of the East European Forest Steppe, such as early Slavs, Balts and Finnic peoples. Within this broad definition of the term "Scythian", the actual Scythians have often been distinguished from other groups through the terms "Classical Scythians", "Western Scythians", "European Scythians" or "Pontic Scythians".


title: Scythians

text: Scythologist Askold Ivantchik notes with dismay that the term "Scythian" has been used within both a broad and a narrow context, leading to a good deal of confusion. He reserves the term "Scythian" for the Iranian people dominating the Pontic Steppe from the 7th century BC to the 3rd century BC. Nicola Di Cosmo writes that the broad concept of "Scythian" to describe the early nomadic populations of the Eurasian Steppe is "too broad to be viable," and that the term "early nomadic" is preferable.


title: Scythians

text: The Scythians originated in the region of the Volga-Ural steppes of Central Asia, possibly around the 9th century BC, as a section of the population of the Srubnaya culture, to which the Scythians themselves belonged, and continuity between the Scythians and the Srubnaya culture is suggested by both archaeological, genetic and anthropological evidence.


title: Scythians

text: During the 9th to 8th centuries BC, some Scythian tribes had migrated westwards into the steppe adjacent to the northern shore of the Black Sea, which they occupied along with the Cimmerians, who were also a nomadic Iranian people closely related to the Scythians; and over the course of the 8th and 7th centuries BC, the Scythians migrated in several waves became the dominant population of the Caucasian Steppe as part of a significant movement of the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppe which started when another nomadic Iranian tribe closely related to the Scythians from eastern Central Asia, either the Massagetae or the Issedones, migrated westwards, forcing the early Scythians of the to the west across the Araxes river, following which the Scythians moved into the Caspian Steppe, where they conquered the territory of the Cimmerians and assimilated most of this latter people and displaced the rest, before settling in the area between the Araxes, the Caucasus and the Lake Maeotis.


title: Scythians

text: The Scythian migration destroyed earlier cultures, with the settlements of the in the Dnipro valley being largely destroyed and the centre of Cimmerian bronze production stopping existing at the time, and the Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk being disturbed during the 8th to 7th centuries BC. The migration of the Scythians also displaced other populations, including some North Caucasian groups who retreated to the west and settled in Transylvania and the Hungarian Plain where they introduced Novocherkassk culture type swords, daggers, horse harnesses, and other objects: among these displaced populations from the Caucasus were the Sigynnae, who were displaced westward into the eastern part of the Pannonian Basin.


title: Scythians

text: During this early migratory period, some groups of Scythians settled in Ciscaucasia and the Caucasus Mountains' foothills to the east of the Kuban river, where they settled among the native populations of this region, and did not migrate to the south into West Asia.


title: Scythians

text: Under Scythian pressure, the Cimmerians migrated to the south along the coast of the Black Sea and reached Anatolia, and the Scythians in turn later expanded to the south, following the coast of the Caspian Sea and arrived in the Ciscaucasian steppes, from where they expanded into the region of present-day Azerbaijan, where they settled and turned eastern Transcaucasia into their centre of operations in West Asia until the early 6th century BC, with this presence in West Asia being an extension of the Scythian kingdom of the steppes. During this period, the Scythian kings' headquarters were located in the Ciscaucasian steppes, and contact with the civilisation of West Asia would have an important influence on the formation of Scythian culture. This presence in Transcaucasia influenced Scythian culture: the sword and socketed bronze arrowheads with three edges, which are considered as typically "Scythian weapons," were of Transcaucasian origin and had been adopted by the Scythians during their stay in the Caucasus.


title: Scythians

text: From their base in the Caucasian Steppe, during the period of the 8th to 7th centuries BC itself, the Scythians conquered the Pontic Steppe to the north of the Black Sea up to the Danube river, which formed the western boundary of Scythian territory onwards, although the Scythians may also have had access to the Wallachian and Moldavian plains. This expansion displaced another nomadic Iranian people related to the Scythians, the Agathyrsi, who were the oldest Iranian population to have dominated the Pontic Steppe, and who were pushed westwards by the Scythians, away from the steppes and from their original home around Lake Maeotis, after which the relations between the two populations remained hostile. In the Pontic Steppe, the Scythians spread throughout the territory of the Early Iranian populations of the Catacomb culture and intermarried with them.


title: Scythians

text: The westward migration of the Scythians was accompanied by the introduction into the north Pontic region of articles originating in the Siberian Karasuk culture and which were characteristic of Early Scythian archaeological culture, consisting of cast bronze cauldrons, daggers, swords, and horse harnesses. Several smaller groups were likely also displaced by the Scythian expansion.


title: Scythians

text: Beginning in this period, remains associated with the early Scythians started appearing within interior Europe, especially in the Thracian and Hungarian plains, although it is yet unclear whether these represent any actual Scythian migration into these regions or whether these arrived there through trade or raids.


title: Scythians

text: During the earliest phase of their presence in West Asia, the Scythians under their king Išpakaia were allied with the Cimmerians, and the two groups, in alliance with the Medes, who were an Iranian people of West Asia to whom the Scythians and Cimmerians were distantly related, as well as the Mannaeans, were threatening the eastern frontier of the kingdom of Urartu and the then superpower of West Asia, the Neo-Assyrian Empire. These allied forces were defeated by the Assyrian king Esarhaddon, and Išpakaia was later killed in a retaliatory military campaign by Esarhaddon.


title: Scythians

text: Išpakaia was succeeded by Bartatua, who sought a rapprochement with the Assyrians and married Esarhaddon's daughter Serua-eterat. Bartatua's marriage to Serua-eterat required that he would pledge allegiance to Assyria as a vassal, with the territories ruled by him would be his fief granted by the Assyrian king, thus making the Scythian presence in West Asia an extension of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and henceforth, the Scythians remained allies of the Assyrian Empire, with Bartatua helping the Assyrians by defeating the state of Mannai and imposing Scythian hegemony over it.


title: Scythians

text: The marital alliance between the Scythian king and the Assyrian ruling dynasty, as well as the proximity of the Scythians with the Assyrian-influenced Mannai and Urartu, placed the Scythians under the strong influence of Assyrian culture.


title: Scythians

text: Bartatua was succeeded by his son with Serua-eterat, Madyes, who in 653 BC invaded the Medes who were engaged in a war against Assyria, thus starting a period which Herodotus of Halicarnassus called the "Scythian rule over Asia." Madyes soon expanded the Scythian hegemony to the state of Urartu, and, soon after 635 BC, with Assyrian approval and in alliance with the Lydians, the Scythians under Madyes entered Anatolia and defeated the Cimmerians. Scythian power in West Asia thus reached its peak under Madyes, with the territories ruled by the Scythians extending from the Halys river in Anatolia in the west to the Caspian Sea and the eastern borders of Media in the east, and from Transcaucasia in the north to the northern borders of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the south.


title: Scythians

text: By the 620s BC, the Assyrian Empire began unravelling after the death of Esarhaddon's son and successor, Ashurbanipal: in addition to internal instability within Assyria itself, Babylon revolted against the Assyrians in 626 BC under the leadership of Nabopolassar, and in 625 BC the Median king Cyaxares overthrew the Scythian yoke over the Medes by assassinating the Scythian leaders, including Madyes. The Scythians soon took advantage of the power vacuum created by the crumbling of the power of their former Assyrian allies to overrun the Levant and Palestine until the borders of Egypt, from where they turned back after their advance was stopped by the marshes of the Nile Delta and the pharaoh Psamtik I met them and convinced them to turn back by offering them gifts; they retreated through Askalōn largely without any incident, although some stragglers looted the temple of Astarte in the city; the perpetrators of this sacrilege and their descendants were allegedly afflicted by the goddess with a "female disease," due to which they became a class of transvestite diviners called the (meaning "unmanly" in Scythian). Starting around 615 BC, the Scythians were operating as allies of Cyaxares and the Medes in their war against Assyria.


title: Scythians

text: The Scythians were finally expelled from West Asia by the Medes in the 600s BC, after which they retreated to the Pontic Steppe. Some splinter Scythian groups nevertheless remained in West Asia and settled in Transcaucasia, and one group formed a kingdom in the area corresponding to modern-day Azerbaijan in eastern Transcaucasia. By the middle of the 6th century BC, the Scythians who had remained in West Asia had completely assimilated culturally and politically into Median society and no longer existed as a distinct group.


title: Scythians

text: After their expulsion from West Asia, and beginning in the later 7th and lasting throughout much of the 6th century BC, the majority of the Scythians, including the Royal Scythians, migrated into the Kuban Steppe around 600 BC, and from Ciscaucasia into the Pontic Steppe, which became the centre of Scythian power, and in the western Ciscaucasia, from where the Scythians, not large in number enough to spread throughout Ciscaucasia, instead took over the steppe to the south of the Kuban river's middle course; the northwards migration of the Scythians continued throughout the 6th century BC. Using the Pontic Steppe as their base, the Scythians often raided into the adjacent regions, with Central Europe being a frequent target of their raids. In many parts of their north Pontic kingdom, the Scythians established themselves as a ruling class over already present sedentary populations, including Thracians in the western regions, Maeotians on the eastern shore of Lake Maeotis, and later the Greeks on the north coast of the Black Sea.


title: Scythians

text: Outside of the Pontic Scythian kingdom itself, some splinter Scythian groups formed the Vorskla and Sula-Donets groups of the Scythian Culture in the East European Forest Steppe.


title: Scythians

text: Between 650 and 625 BC, the Scythians of the northern Pontic region came into contact with the Greeks, who were starting to create colonies in the areas under Scythian rule; the Greeks carried out thriving commercial ties with the sedentary peoples of the East European Forest Steppe who lived to the north of the Scythians, with the large rivers of eastern Europe which flowed into the Black Sea forming the main access routes to these northern markets. This process put the Scythians into permanent contact with the Greeks, and the relations between the latter and the Greek colonies remained peaceful.


title: Scythians

text: In 513 BC, the king Darius I of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, which had succeeded the Median, Lydian, Egyptian, and Neo-Babylonian empires which the Scythians had once interacted with, carried out a campaign against the Pontic Scythians, with the reasons for this campaign being unclear. Darius's invasion was resisted by the Scythian king Idanthyrsus, and the results of this campaign were also unclear, with the Persian inscriptions themselves referring to the Pontic Scythians as having been conquered by Darius, while Greek authors instead claimed that Darius's campaign failed and from then onwards developed a tradition of idealising the Scythians as being invincible thanks to their nomadic lifestyle.


title: Scythians

text: In the 5th century BC, the Scythians embarked on expansionist ventures, including in the west, where they raided south of the Danube into Thrace until the formation of the Thracian Odrysian kingdom blocked their advances, after which the Scythians formed an alliance with the Odrysians; as well as in the north, where they imposed their rule on the peoples of the forest steppe; and in the south, where they brought the Greek colonies on the northern shores of the Black Sea under their power.


title: Scythians

text: The peak of the Scythian kingdom of the Pontic Steppe happened in the 4th century BC, at the same time when the Greek cities of the coast were prospering, and the relations between the two were mostly peaceful; the rule of the Spartocid dynasty in the Bosporan Kingdom was also favourable for the Scythians, and the Bosporan aristocracy had contacts with the Scythians. This period saw Scythian culture not only thriving, with most known Scythian monuments date from then, but also rapidly undergoing significant Hellenisation.


title: Scythians

text: The most famous Scythian king of the 4th century BC was Ateas, whose rule started around the 360s BC, and under whom the Greek cities to the south of the Danube were brought under Scythian hegemony; Ateas's main activities in Thrace and south-west Scythia, such as his wars against the Triballi and the Histriani, attest of the power that the Scythians held to the south of the Danube in his time. Ateas initially allied with Philip II of Macedonia, but eventually this alliance fell apart and Ateas was killed during a war with the Macedonians in 339 BC.


title: Scythians

text: In the 3rd century BC, the expansion in the northern Pontic region of the Sarmatians, who were another nomadic Iranian people related to the Scythians, as well as of the Thracian Getae, the Germanic Bastarnae and Sciri, and of the Celts, the Scythian kingdom disappeared from the Pontic Steppe and the Sarmatians replaced the Scythians as the dominant power of the Pontic Steppe, due to which the appellation of "Scythia" for the region became replaced by that of "" (European Sarmatia).


title: Scythians

text: The Scythians fled to the in Crimea, where they were able to securely establish themselves against the Sarmatian invasion despite tensions with the Greeks, and to the in Dobrugea, as well as in nearby regions, where they became limited in enclaves. The remnants of the Scythians on the Pontic Steppe settled down in a series of fortified settlements located along the main rivers of the region. By then, these Scythians were no longer nomadic: they had become sedentary farmers and were Hellenised, and the only places where the Scythians could still be found by the 2nd century BC were in the s of Crimea and Dobrugea, as well as in the lower reaches of the Dnipro river.


title: Scythians

text: By 50 to 150 AD, most of the Scythians had been assimilated by the Sarmatians. The remaining Scythians of Crimea, who had mixed with the Tauri and the Sarmatians, were conquered in the 3rd century AD by the Goths and other Germanic tribes who were then migrating from the north into the Pontic Steppe.


title: Scythians

text: In subsequent centuries, remaining Scythians and Sarmatians were largely assimilated by early Slavs. The Scythians and Sarmatians played an instrumental role in the ethnogenesis of the Ossetians, who are considered direct descendants of the Alans.


title: Scythians

text: In Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the name "Scythians" was used in Greco-Roman and Byzantine literature for various groups of nomadic "barbarians" living on the Pontic-Caspian Steppe who were not related to the actual Scythians, such as the Huns, Goths, Ostrogoths, Turkic peoples, Pannonian Avars, Slavs, and Khazars. For example, Byzantine sources referred to the Rus' raiders who attacked Constantinople in 860 AD in contemporary accounts as "Tauroscythians" because of their geographical origin, and despite their lack of any ethnic relation to Scythians. Scythian descent claims have been frequent throughout history.


title: Scythians

text: Since the Scythians did not have a written language, their non-material culture can only be pieced together through writings by non-Scythian authors, parallels found among other Iranian peoples, and archaeological evidence.


title: Scythians

text: In a fragment from the comic writer Euphron quoted in "Deipnosophistae" poppy seeds are mentioned as a "food which the Scythians love."


title: Scythians

text: The Scythians spoke a language belonging to the Scythian languages, most probably a branch of the Eastern Iranian languages. Whether all the peoples included in the "Scytho-Siberian" archaeological culture spoke languages from this family is uncertain.


title: Scythians

text: The Scythian languages may have formed a dialect continuum: "Scytho-Sarmatian" in the west and "Scytho-Khotanese" or Saka in the east. The Scythian languages were mostly marginalised and assimilated as a consequence of the late antiquity and early Middle Ages Slavic and Turkic expansion. The western (Sarmatian) group of ancient Scythian survived as the medieval language of the Alans and eventually gave rise to the modern Ossetian language.


title: Scythians

text: The early Scythians tribes were nomadic pastoralists, and their lifestyle and customs were inextricably linked to their nomadic way of life; the Scythians were able to raise large herds of horses, cattle and sheep thanks to the abundance of grass growing in the steppe, while hunting was primarily done for sport and entertainment; among the more nomadic Scythian tribes, the women and children spent their time in wagons where they lived, while the men spent their lives on horseback and were trained as fighters and in archery since an early age. But by the time the Scythians were living in the Pontic Steppe, beginning in the 7th century BC, they had become semi-nomadic and practised both nomadism and farming, although the Scythian tribes living in the steppe zone remained primarily nomadic.


title: Scythians

text: The Scythians did not use saddles or stirrups, which were a later Sarmatian invention, and they rode their horses sitting only on a piece of cloth.


title: Scythians

text: Unlike the other Scythic peoples such as the Sarmatians, where women were allowed to go hunting, ride horses, learn archery and fight with spears just like the men, the society of the Scythians proper was patriarchal and Scythian women possessed little freedom. Due to the Scythians' nomadic pastoralist lifestyle, Scythian women nevertheless learnt to use weapons because they were in charge of the herds and the home when the men were away fighting in wars.


title: Scythians

text: The tribe of the , who were a population of either Scythian or mixed Thracian and Scythian origin, were sedentary farmers who cultivated wheat, onions, garlic, lentils and millet.


title: Scythians

text: Wine was primarily consumed by the Scythian aristocracy during the earlier phase of their kingdom in the Pontic Steppe, and its consumption became more prevalent among the wealthier members of the populace in the Late Scythian period.


title: Scythians

text: The Scythians wore clothing typical of the steppe nomads: the clothing of Scythian men included trousers and belts, they wore pointed caps during earlier periods, but they went bareheaded in later times; Scythian women wore long dresses and mantles decorated with triangular or round metallic plates, which were made of gold for wealthier women and of bronze for poorer women, and women belonging to the upper classes wore cloaks over their dresses and a veil over their head.


title: Scythians

text: Scythian men and women both wore golden and brazen jewellery: both wore bracelets made of silver or bronze wire and neckrings and torcs made of gold and whose terminals were shaped like animal figures or animal heads; necklaces worn by the Scythians were made of gold and semi-precious stone beads; men wore only one earring. Scythian men also grew their hair long and their beards to significant sizes.


title: Scythians

text: Costume has been regarded as one of the main identifying criteria for Scythians. Women wore a variety of different headdresses, some conical in shape others more like flattened cylinders, also adorned with metal (golden) plaques.


title: Scythians

text: Men and women wore long trousers, often adorned with metal plaques and often embroidered or adorned with felt appliqués; trousers could have been wider or tight fitting depending on the area. Materials used depended on the wealth, climate and necessity.


title: Scythians

text: Men and women wore belts. Warrior belts were made of leather, often with gold or other metal adornments and had many attached leather thongs for fastening of the owner's gorytos, sword, whet stone, whip etc. Belts were fastened with metal or horn belt-hooks, leather thongs and metal (often golden) or horn belt-plates.


title: Scythians

text: Scythian women used mirrors, and many Scythian women's burials contained Greek-made bronze mirrors. Bronze mirrors made in Pontic Olbia and whose handles were decorated with animal figures such as those of stags, panthers, and rams, were popular during the early Scythian periods.


title: Scythians

text: Scythian society was stratified along class lines, and was composed of a tribal aristocracy and freemen. A rudimentary form of slavery existed in Scythia, and slaves were only used domestically by the Scythians.


title: Scythians

text: The Scythians were monarchical, and the Scythians were ruled by tribal kings who held power over their respective tribes and who in turn owed allegiance to the king of the Royal Scythians, with the subject tribes paying tribute to the Royal Scythians and provided servants to the king and the Scythian tribal aristocracy. The power of the king among the Scythians was passed on hereditarily, although it was limited by an assembly of warriors. Royal power among the Scythians was considered as having been divinely ordained: this conception of royal power, which is well documented in the ritual symbols depicted on Late Scythian toreutics, was initially foreign to Scythian culture and originated in West Asia during the period of Scythian presence there in the 7th century BC. According to the Scythologists Askold Ivantchik and Mikhail Bukharin, the Scythians had been ruled by at least three dynasties, including that of Bartatua, that of Spargapeithes, and that of Ariapeithes. The historian and anthropologist Anatoly Khazanov instead suggested that the Scythians had been ruled by the same dynasty from the time of their stay in West Asia until the end of their kingdom in the Pontic Steppe.


title: Scythians

text: By the 4th century BC, the Scythians had become organised into a rudimentary state after the king Ateas united all the Scythian tribes. This early state was itself based on the exploitation of the freemen within its social community.


title: Scythians

text: The tribe of the Aroteres consisted of a large sedentary populace of Thracian origin over which ruled an Iranic Scythian ruling class. These Aroteres were a war-like people who were organised into small territorial units settled in who lived in open undefended settlements and strongholds covering between sixteen and twenty-four hectares, each possessing a large industrial centre, and which each functioned as industrial centres, attesting of the complexity of the Tiasmyn group's society. The earthworks of the Aroteres contained within them kurgan cemeteries, lasting from the 6th to 3rd centuries, that each included up to 400 kurgans where their inhabitants were buried, showing that these sites had dense populations. Among the Aroteres, the sedentary Thracians were cremated or buried, usually laid on their backs or sometimes crouched, in poorly furnished shaft tombs, while the Scythian ruling class were buried in large, almost square, underground burial chambers with timber sepulchres and wooden posts in each corner and in the centre supporting their rooves, with some having a corridor and steps cut from the ground, and whose grave goods included Greek pottery, weapons, and jewellery. During the Early Scythian period, the country of the Scythian Husbandsmen had close connections to the Greek colony of Pontic Olbia which ended during the late 5th century BC, when the Scythians imposed their rule over the Greek cities on the Black Sea shore.


title: Scythians

text: The Callipidae also consisted of a large settled Thracian population with a Scythian ruling class who were considerably Hellenised. The Callipidae lived in open settlements and earthworks, and cultivated crops including wheat and millet, and also engaged in animal husbandry and fishing at sea. The Callipidae lived in rammed earth houses built on stone foundations, and they buried their dead in flat graves while their Scythian ruling class were buried in kurgans.


title: Scythians

text: The class and social differences among the Scythians were reflected in Scythian art, which primarily represented concepts of importance for the aristocracy, but not for the commoner population.


title: Scythians

text: The Scythians were a warlike people. When engaged at war, almost the entire adult population, including a large number of women, participated in battle. The Athenian historian Thucydides noted that no people in either Europe or Asia could resist the Scythians without outside aid.


title: Scythians

text: The main Scythian weapon was the short composite recurve bow; presently so-called "Scythian type" arrows were not a Scythian invention but had been borrowed during the Scythian period in West Asia from the peoples of Transcaucasia, were made either of reed or of wood, and their arrowheads were typically socketed and had three edges; the combination of arrowheads shape and short recurve bow used by the Scythians constituted the most powerful firing weapon of their time, due to which these were borrowed from the Scythians by ancient West Asian armies in the late 2nd century BC, and soon after by most of the ancient world. When not used, Scythian bows were carried in a combined quiver-bowcase, made of bark or leather and decorated with golden or bronze plaque, called a , of which each could contain up to 300 arrows. The sword, which was a 50 to 70 centimetres short iron dagger, which whose haft was richly decorated, and shaft-hole war axes, which are also considered to be "typically Scythian" weapons, were also adopted by the Scythians from the Transcaucasian populations, and more specifically were derived from Georgian Bronze Age weapons. The Scythians also used long swords during their earlier history, and both the and the Scythian long swords had heart- or similarly "butterfly"- or "kidney"-shaped cross-guards and bar-shaped terminals. The battle-pickaxes, which had bronze sockets and iron blades, were among the many types of war axes used by the Scythians. Other Scythian weapons included spears which were between 1.70 and 2.20 metres in length and had a bay leaf-shaped spearhead and sometimes a ferrule at the bottom, as well as lances, darts, lassoes, and slings.