title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The immediate reason for Russia's involvement in the First World War was a direct result of the decisions made by the statesmen and generals during July 1914. The July crisis was the culmination of a series of diplomatic conflicts that took place in the decades prior to 1914, and this is fundamental to an understanding of Russia's position immediately prior to the War. According to D. C. Lieven, Russia was formidable and was able to back up her diplomatic policies with force. One of the most significant factors in bringing Russia to the brink of war was the downfall of her economy. The 20 percent jump in defense expenditure during 1866–77 and in 1871-5 forced them to change their position within Europe and shift the balance of power out of her favour. At the time, Russian infrastructure was backward and the Russian government had to invest far more than its European rivals in structural changes. In addition there were overwhelming burdens of defense, which would ultimately result in an economic downfall for the Russians. This was a major strain on the Russian population, but also served as a direct threat to military expenditure. Thus the only way the Russians could sustain the strains of European war would be to place more emphasis on foreign investment from the French who essentially came to Russia's aid for industrial change. The Franco-Russian Alliance allowed for the Russian defense to grow and aid the European balance of power during the growth of the German Empire's might. Nevertheless, one of the key factors was that of the Russian foreign policy between 1890 and 1914. The Russian army was large, but had poor leadership and poor equipment, and increasingly poor morale until by 1917 it turned against the government.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: In order for the Russians to legitimize their war efforts, the government constructed an image of the enemy through state-instituted propaganda. Their main aim was to help overcome the legend of the "invincible" German war machine, in order to boost the morale of civilians and soldiers. Russian propaganda often took the form of showing the Germans as a civilized nation, with barbaric "inhuman" traits. Russian propaganda also exploited the image of the Russian POWs who were in the German camps, again in order to boost the morale of their troops, serving as encouragement to defeat the enemy and to get their fellow soldiers out of German POW camps that were perceived as inhumane.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: An element of the Russian propaganda was the Investigate Commission formed in April 1915. It was led by Aleksei Krivtsov, and the study was tasked with the job of studying the legal violations committed by of the Central Powers and then getting this information to the Russian public. This commission published photographs of letters that were allegedly found on fallen German soldiers. These letters document the German correspondents saying to "take no prisoners." A museum was also set up in Petrograd, which displayed pictures that showed how "inhumanly" the Germans were treating prisoners of war.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: Also, the Russians chose to discard the name Saint Petersburg to remove the German-sounding "Saint" and "-burg", favouring the more Russian-sounding Petrograd.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: Austria-Hungary's participation in the outbreak of World War I has been neglected by historians, as emphasis has traditionally been placed on Germany's role as the prime instigator. However, the "spark" that ignited the First World War is attributed to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip, which took place on 28 June 1914. Approximately a month later, on 28 July 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. This act led to a series of events that would quickly expand into the First World War; thus, the Habsburg government in Vienna initiated the pivotal decision that would begin the conflict.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The causes of the Great War have generally been defined in diplomatic terms, but certain deep-seated issues in Austria-Hungary undoubtedly contributed to the beginnings of the First World War. The Austro-Hungarian situation in the Balkans pre-1914 is a primary factor in its involvement in the war. The movement towards South Slav unity was a major problem for the Habsburg Empire, which was facing increasing nationalist pressure from its multinational populace. As Europe's third largest state, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was hardly homogeneous; comprising over fifty million people and eleven nationalities, the Empire was a conglomeration of a number of diverse cultures, languages, and peoples.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: Specifically, the South Slavic people of Austria-Hungary desired to amalgamate with Serbia in an effort to officially solidify their shared cultural heritage. Over seven million South Slavs lived inside the Empire, while three million lived outside it. With the growing emergence of nationalism in the twentieth century, unity of all South Slavs looked promising. This tension is exemplified by Conrad von Hötzendorf's letter to Franz Ferdinand:


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The unification of the South Slav race is one of the powerful national movements which can neither be ignored nor kept down. The question can only be, whether unification will take place within the boundaries of the Monarchy – that is at the expense of Serbia's independence – or under Serbia's leadership at the expense of the Monarchy. The cost to the Monarchy would be the loss of its South Slav provinces and thus of almost its entire coastline. The loss of territory and prestige would relegate the Monarchy to the status of a small power.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1908 by Austrian foreign minister Baron von Aehrenthal in an effort to assert domination over the Balkans inflamed Slavic nationalism and angered Serbia. Bosnia-Herzegovina became a "rallying cry" for South Slavs, with hostilities between Austria-Hungary and Serbia steadily increasing. The situation was ripe for conflict, and when the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated Austrian imperial heir, Franz Ferdinand, these longstanding hostilities culminated into an all-out war.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The Allied Powers wholeheartedly supported the Slavs' nationalistic fight. George Macaulay Trevelyan, a British historian, saw Serbia's war against Austria-Hungary as a "war of liberation" that would "free South Slavs from tyranny." In his own words: "If ever there was a battle for freedom, there is such a battle now going on in Southeastern Europe against Austrian and Magyar. If this war ends in the overthrow of the Magyar tyranny, an immense step forward will have been taken toward racial liberty and European peace."


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: Prior to 1914, the Russian's lack of success in war and diplomacy in the six decades before 1914 sapped the country's moral strength. The triumphs of Britain and Germany in the martial, diplomatic and economic spheres put these countries in the front rank of the world's leading nations. This was a source of national pride, self-confidence and unity. It helped reconcile the worker to the state and the Bavarian or Scotsman to rule from Berlin or London.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: In the years prior to 1914, Austro-Russian co-operation was both crucial for European peace and difficult to maintain. Old suspicions exacerbated by the Bosnian crisis stood in the way of agreement between the two empires, as did ethnic sensitivities. Russia's historical role as liberator of the Balkans was difficult to square with Austria's determination to control adjacent territories. In 1913–1914 Saint Petersburg was too concerned with its own weakness and what it saw as threats to vital Russian interests, to spare much thought for Vienna's feelings. The Russians were, with some justice, indignant that the concessions they had made after the First Balkan War in the interest of European peace had not been reciprocated by the Central Powers.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: This was doubly dangerous given the growing evidence flowing into Petersburg about Germany's aggressive intentions. Both Bazarov and the agents of the Russian secret political police in Germany reported the concern aroused in public opinion by the press war against Russia, which raged in the spring of 1914.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The Russian military was the largest in the world consisting of 1.4 million men on duty just prior to the war. They could also mobilize up to 5 million men, but only had 4.6 million rifles to give them. It also had poor leadership.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The war in the east began with the Russian invasion of East Prussia on 17 August 1914 and the Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia. The Russian offensive in the Battle of Stallupönen, which was the opening battle of the Eastern Front, quickly turned to a disastrous defeat followed by the Battle of Tannenberg in August 1914. Later, the German troops under the command of Hindenburg inflicted a crushing defeat on the numerically superior Russian army in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes. A second Russian incursion into Galicia was completely successful, with the Russians controlling almost all of that region by the end of 1914, routing four Austrian armies in the process. Under the command of Nikolai Ivanov, Nikolai Ruzsky and Aleksei Brusilov, the Russians won the Battle of Galicia in September and began the Siege of Przemyśl, the next fortress on the road towards Kraków.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: This early Russian success in 1914 on the Austro-Russian border was a reason for concern to the Central Powers and caused considerable German forces to be transferred to the East to take pressure off the Austrians, leading to the creation of the new German Ninth Army. The Austro-Hungarian government accepted the Polish proposal of establishing the Supreme National Committee as the Polish central authority within the Empire, responsible for the formation of the Polish Legions, an auxiliary military formation within the Austro-Hungarian army. At the end of 1914, the main focus of the fighting shifted to central part of Russian Poland, west of the river Vistula. The October Battle of the Vistula River and the November Battle of Łódź brought little advancement for the Germans, but at least kept the Russians at a safe distance.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The Russian and Austro-Hungarian armies continued to clash along the Carpathian Front throughout the winter of 1914–1915. Przemysl fortress managed to hold out deep behind enemy lines throughout this period, with the Russians bypassing it in order to attack the Austro-Hungarian troops further to the west. They made some progress, crossing the Carpathian Mountains in February and March 1915, but then the German relief helped the Austrians stop further Russian advances. In the meantime, Przemysl was almost entirely destroyed and the Siege of Przemysl ended in a defeat for the Austrians.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: In 1915 the Chief of German Great General Staff, General of Infantry Erich von Falkenhayn decided to make its main effort on the Eastern Front, and accordingly transferred considerable forces there. The year began with a successful German offensive in the area of the Masurian lakes. At the same time, a large battle for the city of Przasnysz took place on the Polish front. The city changed hands several times but eventually remained in Russian hands. As a result of the battle, the Germans lost 38 000 soldiers and Russian losses amounted to about 70 000 men. In May 1915, to eliminate the Russian threat the Central Powers began the successful Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive in Galicia.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: After the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes, the German and Austro-Hungarian troops on the Eastern Front functioned under a unified command. The offensive soon turned into a general advance and a corresponding strategic retreat by the Russian Army. The cause of the reverses suffered by the Russian Army, despite a significant numerical superiority over the German enemy, was not so many errors in the tactical sphere, as the deficiency in technical equipment, particularly in artillery and ammunition as well as the corruption and incompetence of the Russian officers. Only by 1916 did the buildup of Russian war industries increase the production of war material and improve the supply situation.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: By mid-1915, the Russians had been expelled from Russian Poland and hence pushed hundreds of kilometersaway from the borders of the Central Powers, removing the threat of Russian invasion of Germany, although there was still slight Russian penetration into Austria-Hungary. At the end of 1915 the German-Austrian advance was stopped on the line Riga–Jakobstadt–Dünaburg–Baranovichi–Pinsk–Dubno–Tarnopol. The general outline of this front line did not change until the Russian collapse in 1917.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: During the campaign of 1915, the Russian Empire lost the entire line of western fortresses, and more than 4,000 guns. The causes of heavy defeats and losses of personnel, weapons, and as a result - vast territories (the entire Kingdom of Poland, part of the Baltic states, Grodno, partly Volhynia and Podolia provinces - up to 300,000 square kilometers) were to a large extent systemic shortcomings in the management of the armed forces and the defense industry. The multi-stage placement of military orders, their slow passage in the depths of the War Ministry, the disunity of the front and rear played a negative role. Thus, until the autumn of 1915, the Russian Supreme Commander-in-Chief only coordinated the actions of the commanders-in-chief of the armies of the fronts, distributed reinforcements, requesting them from the War Ministry. The Minister of War was responsible for organizing the production of weapons and ammunition, the implementation of the replenishment of troop personnel, military transportation outside the provinces declared a theater of military operations. The military districts in the theater of operations were subordinate to the commanders-in-chief of the armies of the fronts, but not to the Headquarters. Military production also lagged behind: until the end of autumn, the active army suffered from a shortage of rifles and ammunition, the consumption of which turned out to be incommensurable with the volume of production.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: Contemporaries also noted the isolation of the Russian commanding staff from the soldiers, the lack of practical warfare skills among the top-level commanders. “We did have courage to send people to mass slaughter, hiding behind the difficulty of tactical responsibility, to slaughter often without purpose. We sent them, being ourselves far away, not seeing either our own or the enemy, and therefore not conforming to reality. Instead of punishment, we reward such leaders, because as far as the leaders were far away, the same, but still more, the higher leaders kept even more distant. People ceased to be people, but turned into pawns. We went to the fight in a state of some kind of oblivion and stunnedness, ”wrote the representative of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Infantry General Fyodor Palitzin, in his diary.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: Failures in the Russian system of command and control of troops and the organization of hostilities occurred at other levels. Thus, serious shortcomings in reconnaissance led to the absence of any analysis of the enemy's plans and actions. With a general superiority in forces, almost every Central Powers's operation in 1915 was "unexpected" for the command from the front to the regimental level. Passion for undercover intelligence in the highest headquarters did not justify itself, and tactical intelligence was still based on little reliable testimony of prisoners, in the absence of which the command up to the army, inclusive, was simply “blind”. The separation of artillery from infantry with subordination to the inspectors of the corps and ammunition supply units (park brigades and divisions) created difficulties in the operational replenishment of ammunition and shells in the combat units. At the same time, huge stockpiles of ammunition were created in the fortresses, which were then delivered to the enemy during the retreat or destroyed due to the impossibility of evacuation. Special units were not created for the construction of fortifications in the rear of the troops. Most often, such work was hastily carried out by militia squads and the mobilized local population, sometimes including women, and then brought to the necessary defensive state by the combat units retreating on them, already exhausted by battles and night marches.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The country’s geographic expanses and a large population again became the salvation of the Russia from complete military defeat, however, by the end of the 1915 campaign, it became obvious that without a radical restructuring of the war strategy, methods of managing military potential, victory becomes unattainable, and new defeats can cause another collapse of transport ( as in the case of mass exodus and the hasty "evacuation" of the western provinces), supplies, public administration and, as a result, the aggravation of the struggle for power in the country. Nevertheless, as before, for the military leadership of the Russian Empire, there was only one way to victory - the creation of multiple numerical superiority over the Germans. To some extent, the Russian side in the autumn played along with E. von Falkenhayn, who, not considering the Russian direction to have at least some strategic prospect for achieving victory in the war, made it impossible to develop the offensive of the Eastern Front.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: After the Battle of Sarikamish, the Russo-Turkish front quickly turned in favor of Russian forces. The Turks were concerned with reorganizing their army and also fighting the massive Allied armada that landed in Galipoli. Meanwhile, Russia was preoccupied with other armies on the Eastern Front. However, the appointment of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich as Viceroy and Commander in the Caucasus in September 1915 revived the situation of the Russo-Turkish front.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: When the Allies withdrew from Gallipoli in December, the Caucasus Army's Chief of Staff General Nikolai Yudenich believed Turkish forces would take action against his army. This concern was legitimate: Bulgaria's entry into the war as Germany's ally in October caused serious alarm, as a land route from Germany to Turkey was now open and would allow for an unrestricted flow of German weapons to the Turks. A "window of opportunity" appeared that would allow the Russians to destroy the Turkish Third Army, as the British required assistance in Mesopotamia (now modern day Iraq). Britain's efforts to besiege Baghdad had been halted at Ctesiphon, and they were forced to retreat. This led to an increasing number of attacks by Turkish forces. The British requested the Russians to attack in an attempt to distract the Turks, and Yudenich agreed. The resulting offensive began on 10 January 1916.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: This offensive was unanticipated by the Turks, as it was in the middle of winter. The Turkish situation was exacerbated by the absences of Third Army's commander Kamil Pasha and Chief of Staff Major Guse. Coupled with an imbalance of forces – the Russians had 325 000 troops, while the Turks only 78 000 – the situation appeared grim for the Central Powers. After three months of fighting, the Russians captured the city of Trabzon on 18 April 1916.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: Allied operations in 1916 were dictated by an urgent need to force Germany to transfer forces from its Western to Eastern fronts, to relieve the pressure on the French at the Battle of Verdun. This was to be accomplished by a series of Russian offensives which would force the Germans to deploy additional forces to counter them. The first such operation was the Lake Naroch Offensive in March–April 1916, which ended in failure.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The Italian operations during 1916 had one extraordinary result: Austrian divisions were pulled away from the Russian southern front. This allowed the Russian forces to organize a counter-offensive. The Brusilov offensive was a large tactical assault carried out by Russian forces against Austro-Hungarian forces in Galicia. General Aleksei Brusilov believed victory against the Central Powers was possible if close attention was paid to preparation. Brusilov suggested that the Russians should attack on a wide front, and to position their trenches a mere away from Austrian trenches.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: Brusilov's plan worked impeccably. The Russians outnumbered the Austrians 200,000 to 150,000, and held a considerable advantage in guns, with 904 large guns to 600. Most importantly innovative new tactics similar to those independently invented by Erwin Rommel were used to perform quick and effective close-range surprise attacks that allowed a steady advance. The Russian Eighth Army overwhelmed the Austrian Fourth and pushed on to Lutsk, advancing beyond the starting position. Over a million Austrians were lost, with over 500,000 men killed or taken prisoner by mid-June.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: Although the Brusilov offensive was initially successful, it slowed down considerably. An inadequate number of troops and poorly maintained supply lines hindered Brusilov's ability to follow up on the initial victories in June. The Brusilov offensive is considered to be the greatest Russian victory of the First World War. Although it cost the Russians half a million casualties only during the first two months offensive, the offensive successfully diverted substantial forces of the Central Powers from the Western front, and persuaded Romania to join the war, diverting even more Central Powers forces to the East.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The development of the Russian armament industry was mainly supported by French investors before the war. The Russian High Command saw the reason for the losses of the war in the lack of munitions. Most of these supplies were lost when advancing German troops occupied the fortifications. The production of munitions in the Tsarist empire was difficult, confidence in private enterprise among army personnel was low, and little capital was invested in the industry until 1916. About fifty percent of Russian ammunition requirements were supplied by Britain and the USA. As the Western companies were also responsible for supplying the needs of the Western Front, only a small proportion of the required quantity could be transported to Russia. In the following year, the Russian armaments industry was able to increase its production figures by a factor of two and a half and, despite the insufficient help of the Allies to cover the needs of the Russian army.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: Up until 1916, the Romanians followed the tides of war with interest, while attempting to situate themselves in the most advantageous position. French and Russian diplomats had begun courting the Romanians early on, but persuasion tactics gradually intensified. For King Ferdinand to commit his force of half a million men, he expected the Allies to offer a substantial incentive. Playing on Romanian anti-Hungarian sentiment the Allies promised the Austria-Hungarian territory of Ardeal (Transylvania) to Romania. Transylvanian demographics strongly favoured the Romanians. Romania succumbed to Allied enticement on 18 August 1916. Nine days later, on 27 August, Romanian troops marched into Transylvania.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: Romania's entry into the war provoked major strategic changes for the Germans. In September 1916, German troops were mobilized to the Eastern Front. Additionally, the German Chief of the General Staff, General Erich Von Falkenhayn was forced to resign from office though his successor appointed him to command the combined Central Powers forces against Romania, along with General August von Mackensen. Kaiser Wilhelm II immediately replaced Falkenhayn with Paul von Hindenburg. Von Hindenburg's deputy, the more adept Erich Ludendorff, was given effective control of the army and ordered to advance on Romania. On 3 September, the first troops of the Central Powers marched into Romanian territory. Simultaneously, the Bulgarian Air Force commenced an incessant bombing of Bucharest. In an attempt to relieve some pressure, French and British forces launched a new offensive known as the Battle of the Somme, while the Brusilov offensive continued in the East.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The entrance of Romania into the war was disconcerting for von Hindenburg. On 15 September, Paul von Hindenburg issued the following order, stating that: "The main task of the Armies is now to hold fast all positions on the Western, Eastern, Italian and Macedonian Fronts, and to employ all other available forces against Rumania." Fortunately for the Central Powers, the quantity and quality of the Romanian Army was overestimated. Although numbering half a million men, the Romanian Army suffered from poor training and a lack of appropriate equipment.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The initial success of the Romanian Army in Austria-Hungarian territory was quickly undermined by the Central Powers. German and Austro-Hungarian troops advanced from the north, while Bulgarian-Turkish-German forces marched into Romania from the south. Although thought to be a tactical blunder by contemporaries, the Romanians opted to mount operations in both directions. By the middle of November the German force passed through the Carpathians, suffering significant casualties due to determined Romanian resistance. By 5 December, Bulgarian troops had crossed the Danube and were approaching the capital, Bucharest. At the same time as the Austro-Hungarian troops moved east, and as the Bulgarians marched north, the Turks had sent in two army divisions by sea to the Dobruja from the east. Eventually, the Romanian forces were pushed back behind the Siret in northern Moldavia. They received help from the Allies, notably from France which sent a military mission of more than a thousand officers, health and support staff.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The Act of 5 November 1916 was proclaimed then to the Poles jointly by the Emperors Wilhelm II of Germany and Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary. This act promised the creation of the Kingdom of Poland out of territory of Congress Poland, envisioned by its authors as a puppet state controlled by the Central Powers. The origin of that document was the dire need to draft new recruits from German-occupied Poland for the war with Russia. Following the Armistice of 11 November 1918 ending the World War I, in spite of the previous initial total dependence of the kingdom on its sponsors, it ultimately served against their intentions as the cornerstone proto state of the nascent Second Polish Republic, the latter conposed also of territories never intended by the Central Powers to be ceded to Poland.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: By January 1917, the ranks of the Romanian army had been significantly thinned. Roughly 150,000 Romanian soldiers had been taken prisoner, 200,000 men were dead or wounded, and lost two thirds of their country, including the capital. Importantly, the Ploiești oilfields, the only significant source of oil in Europe west of the Black Sea, had been destroyed before they were abandoned to the Central Powers.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The Russian February Revolution aimed to topple the Russian monarchy and resulted in the creation of the Provisional Government. The revolution was a turning point in Russian history, and its significance and influence can still be felt in many countries today. Although many Russians wanted a revolution, no one had expected it to happen when it did – let alone how it did.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: On International Women's Day, Thursday, 23 February 1917/8 March 1917, as many as 90,000 female workers in the city of Petrograd left their factory jobs and marched through the streets, shouting "Bread", "Down with the autocracy!" and "Stop the War!" These women were tired, hungry, and angry, after working long hours in miserable conditions to feed their families because their menfolk were fighting at the front. They were not alone in demanding change; more than 150,000 men and women took to the streets to protest the next day.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: By Saturday, 25 February, the city of Petrograd was essentially shut down. No one was allowed to work or wanted to work. Even though there were a few incidents of police and soldiers firing into the crowds, those groups soon mutinied and joined the protesters. Tsar Nicholas II, who was not in Petrograd during the revolution, heard reports of the protests but chose not to take them seriously. By 1 March, it was obvious to everyone except the czar himself, that his rule was over. On 2 March it was made official.From this point onwards Russia was administrated by the Russian Provisional Government until the October Revolution.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: In early July 1917, on the Romanian front, a relatively small area, there was one of the largest concentrations of combat forces and means known during the conflagration: nine armies, 80 infantry divisions with 974 battalions, 19 cavalry divisions with 550 squadrons and 923 artillery batteries, whose effectives numbered some 800,000 men, with about one million in their immediate reserve. The three great battles, decisive for the Romanian nation's destiny, delivered at Mărăști, Mărășești and Oituz represented a turning point in the world war on the Eastern front. These battles, named by the localities and zones where they took place, were fought approximately on the front alignment stabilized in early 1917, which the conflicting sides had thoroughly consolidated for half a year.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: Between late July and early September, the Romanian Army fought the battles of Mărăști, Mărășești and Oituz, managing to stop the German-Austro-Hungarian advance, inflicting heavy losses in the process and winning the most important Allied victories on the Eastern Front in 1917.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: As a result of these operations, the remaining Romanian territories remained unoccupied, tying down nearly 1,000,000 Central Powers troops and prompting "The Times" to describe the Romanian front as "The only point of light in the East".


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: On 7 May 1918, in light of the existing politico-military situation, Romania was forced to conclude the Treaty of Bucharest with the Central Powers, imposing harsh conditions on the country but recognizing its union with Bessarabia. Alexandru Marghiloman became the new German-sponsored Prime Minister. King Ferdinand, however, refused to sign the treaty.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The Germans were able to repair the oil fields around Ploiești and by the end of the war had pumped a million tons of oil. They also requisitioned two million tons of grain from Romanian farmers. These materials were vital in keeping Germany in the war to the end of 1918.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: On 29 June, Alexander Kerensky, the Minister of War in the Russian Provisional Government, launched the Kerensky offensive to end Austria-Hungary once and for all. The Russians made only 6 miles (9.7 km) of progress but the Austrians counterattacked and drove them almost entirely out of Austria-Hungary, and they retreated 150 miles (240 km), losing Tarnopol, Stanislau and Czernowitz. This defeat was accompanied by 60,000 casualties and contributed greatly to the collapse of the Russian Army during the October Revolution.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: By September 1917, just months after the February Revolution, Lenin believed the Russian people were ready for another revolution, this time on Marxist principles. On 10 October, at a secret meeting of the Bolshevik party leaders, Lenin used all his power to convince the others that it was time for armed insurrection. Troops who were loyal to the Bolsheviks took control of the telegraph stations, power stations, strategic bridges, post offices, train stations, and state banks.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: Petrograd was officially in the hands of the Bolsheviks, who greatly increased their organization in factory groups and in many barracks throughout Petrograd. They concentrated on devising a plan for overturning the Provisional Government, with a coup d'état. On 24 October, Lenin emerged from hiding in a suburb, entered the city, set up his headquarters at the Smolny Institute and worked to complete his three-phase plan. With the main bridges and the main railways secured, only the Winter Palace, and with it the Provisional Government, remained to be taken. On the evening of 7 November, the troops that were loyal to the Bolsheviks infiltrated the Winter Palace. After an almost bloodless coup, the Bolsheviks were the new leaders of Russia. Lenin announced that the new regime would end the war, abolish all private land ownership, and create a system for workers' control over the factories.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: On 7 November 1917, the Communist Bolsheviks took power under their leader Vladimir Lenin. Lenin's new Bolshevik government tried to end the war, with a ceasefire being declared on 15 December 1917 along lines agreed in November. At the same time, the Bolsheviks launched a full-scale military offensive against its opponents: Ukraine and separatist governments in the Don region. During the peace negotiations between the Soviets and the Central Powers, the Germans demanded enormous concessions, eventually resulting in the failure of the long-drawn-out peace negotiations on 17 February 1918. At the same time, the Central Powers concluded a military treaty with Ukraine which was losing ground in the fight with invading Bolshevik forces. The Russian Civil War, which started just after November 1917, would tear apart Russia for three years. As a result of the events in 1917, many groups opposed to Lenin's Bolsheviks had formed. With the fall of Nicholas II, many parts of the Russian Empire took the opportunity to declare their independence, one of which was Finland, which did so in December 1917; however, Finland too collapsed into a civil war. Finland declared itself independent on 6 December 1917, and this was accepted by Lenin a month later.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The Finnish Parliament elected a German prince as King of Finland. However, the Socialists (The Reds) and the Whites in Finland fell into war with each other in January 1918. The Reds wanted Finland to be a Soviet republic and were aided by Russian forces still in Finland.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The Whites of Finland were led by General C.G.E.Mannerheim, a Finnish baron who had been in the Tsar's service since he was 15 years old.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The Whites were also offered help by a German Expeditionary Corps led by German General Goltz. Though Mannerheim never accepted the offer, the German corps landed in Finland in April 1918.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: After the disintegration of the Russian imperial army and navy in 1917, the Council of People's Commissars headed by Leon Trotsky set about creating a new army. By a decree on 28 January 1918, the council created the Workers' and Peoples' Red Army; it began recruitment on a voluntary basis, but on 22 April, the Soviet government made serving in the army compulsory for anyone who did not employ hired labor. While the majority of the army was made up of workers and peasants, many of the Red Army's officers had served a similar function in the imperial army before its collapse.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: With the German Army just from the Russian capital Petrograd (St. Petersburg) on 3 March 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed and the Eastern Front ceased to be a war zone. While the treaty was practically obsolete before the end of the year, it did provide some relief to the Bolsheviks, who were embroiled in a civil war, and affirmed the independence of Ukraine. However, Estonia and Latvia were intended to become a United Baltic Duchy to be ruled by German princes and German nobility as fiefdoms under the German Kaiser. A rump Polish state was also foreseen on the formerly Russian territories. Finland's sovereignty had already been declared in December 1917, and accepted by most nations, including France and Russia, but not by the United Kingdom and the United States. In October it also turned into a German puppet state.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: With the end of major combat on the Eastern Front, the Germans were able to transfer substantial forces to the west in order to mount an offensive in France in the spring of 1918.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: This offensive on the Western Front failed to achieve a decisive breakthrough, and the arrival of more and more American units in Europe was sufficient to offset the German advantage. Even after the Russian collapse, about a million German soldiers remained tied up in the east until the end of the war, attempting to run a short-lived addition to the German Empire in Europe. In the end, the Central Powers had to relinquish all of their captured lands on the eastern front, with Germany even being forced to cede territory they held before the war, under various treaties (such as the Treaty of Versailles) signed after the armistice in 1918. Although the Allied Powers' victory led to the Central Powers being forced to cancel the treaty signed with Russia, the victors were at the time intervening in the Russian Civil War, causing bad relations between Russia and the Allied Powers.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: In comparison to the attention directed to the role played by women on the Western Front during the First World War, the role of women in the east has garnered limited scholarly focus. It is estimated that 20 percent of the Russian industrial working class was conscripted into the army; therefore, women's share of industrial jobs increased dramatically. There were percentage increases in every industry, but the most noticeable increase happened in industrial labour, which increased from 31.4 percent in 1913 to 45 percent in 1918.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: Women also fought on the Eastern Front. In the later stages of Russia's participation in the war, Russia began forming all-woman combat units, the Women's Battalions, in part to fight plummeting morale among male soldiers by demonstrating Russian women's willingness to fight. In Romania, Ecaterina Teodoroiu actively fought in the Romanian Army and is remembered today as a national hero.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: British nursing efforts were not limited to the Western Front. Nicknamed the "Gray partridges" in reference to their dark gray overcoats, Scottish volunteer nurses arrived in Romania in 1916 under the leadership of Elsie Inglis. In addition to nursing injured personnel, Scottish nurses manned transport vehicles and acted as regimental cooks. The "Gray Partridges" were well respected by Romanian, Serbian and Russian troops and as a result, the Romanian press went as far as to characterize them as "healthy, masculine, and tanned women." As a testament to her abilities, Elsie Inglis and her volunteers were entrusted to turn an abandoned building in the city of Galați into an operational hospital, which they did in a little more than a day. Yvonne Fitzroy's published journal, "With the Scottish Nurses in Roumania," provides an excellent first hand account of Scottish nursing activities in the Eastern Front.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: During World War I, approximately 200,000 German soldiers and 2.5 million soldiers from the Austro-Hungarian army entered Russian captivity. During the 1914 Russian campaign the Russians began taking thousands of Austrian prisoners. As a result, the Russian authorities made emergency facilities in Kyiv, Penza, Kazan, and later Turkestan to hold the Austrian prisoners of war. As the war continued Russia began to detain soldiers from Germany as well as a growing number from the Austro-Hungarian army. The Tsarist state saw the large population of POWs as a workforce that could benefit the war economy in Russia. Many POWs were employed as farm laborers and miners in Donbas and Krivoi Rog. However, the majority of POWs were employed as laborers constructing canals and building railroads. The living and working environments for these POWs was bleak. There was a shortage of food, clean drinking water and proper medical care. During the summer months malaria was a major problem, and the malnutrition among the POWs led to many cases of scurvy. While working on the Murmansk rail building project over 25,000 POWs died. Information about the bleak conditions of the labor camps reached the German and Austro-Hungarian governments. They began to complain about the treatment of POWs. The Tsarist authorities initially refused to acknowledge the German and Habsburg governments. They rejected their claims because Russian POWs were working on railway construction in Serbia. However, they slowly agreed to stop using prison labor. Life in the camps was extremely rough for the men who resided in them. The Tsarist government could not provide adequate supplies for the men living in their POW camps. The Russian government's inability to supply the POWs in their camps with supplies was due to inadequate resources and bureaucratic rivalries. However, the conditions in the POW camps varied; some were more bearable than others.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: Disease played a critical role in the loss of life on the Eastern Front. In the East, disease accounted for approximately four times the number of deaths caused by direct combat, in contrast to the three to one ratio in the West. Malaria, cholera, and dysentery contributed to the epidemiological crisis on the Eastern Front; however, typhus fever, transmitted by pathogenic lice and previously unknown to German medical officers before the outbreak of the war, was the most deadly. There was a direct correlation between the environmental conditions of the East and the prevalence of disease. With cities excessively crowded by refugees fleeing their native countries, unsanitary medical conditions created a suitable environment for diseases to spread. Primitive hygienic conditions, along with general lack of knowledge about proper medical care was evident in the German-occupied Ober Ost.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: Ultimately, a large scale sanitation program was put into effect. This program, named "Sanititätswesen" (Medical Affairs), was responsible for ensuring proper hygienic procedures were being carried out in Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. Quarantine centers were built, and diseased neighbourhoods were isolated from the rest of the population. Delousing stations were prevalent in the countryside and in cities to prevent the spread of typhus fever, with mass numbers of natives being forced to take part in this process at military bathhouses. A "sanitary police" was also introduced to confirm the cleanliness of homes, and any home deemed unfit would be boarded up with a warning sign. Dogs and cats were also killed for fear of possible infection.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: To avoid the spread of disease, prostitution became regulated. Prostitutes were required to register for a permit, and authorities demanded mandatory medical examinations for all prostitutes, estimating that seventy percent of prostitutes carried a venereal disease. Military brothels were introduced to combat disease; the city of Kowno emphasized proper educational use of contraceptives such as condoms, encouraged proper cleansing of the genital area after intercourse, and gave instructions on treatment in the case of infection.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The Russian casualties in the First World War are difficult to estimate, due to the poor quality of available statistics.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: Cornish gives a total of 2,006,000 military dead (700,000 killed in action, 970,000 died of wounds, 155,000 died of disease and 181,000 died while POWs). This measure of Russian losses is similar to that of the British Empire, 5% of the male population in the 15 to 49 age group. He says civilian casualties were five to six hundred thousand in the first two years, and were then not kept, so a total of "over 1,500,000" is not unlikely. He has over five million men "passing into captivity", the majority during 1915.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: When Russia withdrew from the war, 2,500,000 Russian POWs were in German and Austrian hands. This by far exceeded the total number of prisoners of war (1,880,000) lost by the armies of Britain, France and Germany combined. Only the Austro-Hungarian Army, with 2,200,000 POWs, came even close.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The empire of Austria lost approximately 60% of its territory as a result of the war, and evolved into a smaller state with a small homogeneous population of 6.5 million people. With the loss, Vienna was now an imperial capital without an empire to support it. The states that were formed around Austria feared the return of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and put measures into place to prevent it from re-forming.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: Czechoslovakia was created through the merging of the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, previously under Austrian rule, united with Slovakia and Ruthenia, which were part of Hungary. Although these groups had many differences between them, they believed that together they would create a stronger state.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The new country was a multi-ethnic state. The population consisted of Czechs (51%), Slovaks (16%), Germans (22%), Hungarians (5%) and Rusyns (4%), with other ethnic groups making up 2%. Many of the Germans, Hungarians, Ruthenians and Poles and some Slovaks, felt oppressed because the political elite did not generally allow political autonomy for minority ethnic groups.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The state proclaimed the official ideology that there are no Czechs and Slovaks, but only one nation of Czechoslovaks (see Czechoslovakism), to the disagreement of Slovaks and other ethnic groups. Once a unified Czechoslovakia was restored after World War II the conflict between the Czechs and the Slovaks surfaced again.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: After the war Hungary was severely disrupted by the loss of 72% of its territory, 64% of its population and most of its natural resources. The loss of territory was similar to that of Austria after the breaking up the Austria-Hungary territory. They lost the territories of Transylvania, Slovakia, Croatia, Slavonia, Syrmia, and Banat.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The creation of a free and Independent Poland was one of Wilson's fourteen points. At the end of the 18th century the state of Poland was broken apart by Prussia, Russia, and Austria. During the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, the Commission on Polish Affairs was created which recommended there be a passageway across West Prussia and Posen, in order to give Poland access to the Baltic through the port of Danzig at the mouth of the Vistula River. The creation of the state of Poland would separate East Prussia from the rest of Germany, as it was before the Partitions of Poland. Poland also received Upper Silesia. British Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon proposed Poland's eastern border with Russia. Neither the Soviet Russians nor the Polish were happy with the demarcation of the border.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: The state of Romania was enlarged greatly after the war. As a result of the Paris peace conference Romania kept the Dobrudja and Transylvania. Between the states of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Romania an alliance named the Little Entente was formed. They worked together on matters of foreign policy in order to prevent a Habsburg restoration.


title: Eastern Front (World War I)

text: Initially Yugoslavia began as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The name was changed to Yugoslavia in 1929. The State secured its territory at the Paris peace talks after the end of the war. The state suffered from many internal problems because of the many diverse cultures and languages within the state. Yugoslavia was divided on national, linguistic, economic, and religious lines.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The 2014 UEFA Champions League Final was the final match of the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League, the 59th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 22nd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The match took place on Saturday, 24 May 2014, at the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon, Portugal, between Spanish sides Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid. It was the fifth tournament final to feature two teams from the same association, the second all-Spanish final and the first between teams from the same city. Real Madrid won the match 4–1 after extra time, with goals from Gareth Bale, Marcelo and Cristiano Ronaldo following a 93rd-minute header by Sergio Ramos, which cancelled out Diego Godín's first-half goal. In doing so, Real Madrid secured a record 10th title in the competition, 12 years after their ninth victory.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: As the winners, Real Madrid earned the right to play against 2013–14 UEFA Europa League winners Sevilla in the 2014 UEFA Super Cup. They also qualified to enter the semi-finals of the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup as the UEFA representative, ultimately triumphing in both competitions.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The Estádio da Luz (officially known as the Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica) in Lisbon, Portugal, was chosen as the venue of the 2014 UEFA Champions League Final at a UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, on 20 March 2012.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The home stadium of Portuguese Primeira Liga side Benfica since 2003, it was newly built to host five matches of UEFA Euro 2004, including the final. Before the old stadium's demolition in 2003, to make way for the new 65,000-capacity ground, the original Estádio da Luz hosted the 1992 European Cup Winners' Cup Final, where Werder Bremen beat AS Monaco 2–0, and the second leg of the 1983 UEFA Cup Final, where Anderlecht secured a 1–1 draw with Benfica to lift the trophy.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The last time the European Cup final was played in Lisbon was in 1967, when Scottish side Celtic beat Inter Milan of Italy 2–1 at the Estádio Nacional. The Portuguese capital also hosted the 2005 UEFA Cup Final at the Estádio José Alvalade, home of Benfica's local rivals and finalists Sporting CP, who lost 3–1 to CSKA Moscow.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: This was the first final in the history of the competition to be disputed by two teams from the same city. It was also the second all-Spanish final, after the 2000 final between Real Madrid and Valencia, and the fifth final between teams from the same country, the others being 2003 (Italy), 2008 (England), and 2013 (Germany).


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Real Madrid reached a record 13th final after a 5–0 aggregate win against defending champions Bayern Munich, making it the first time the club had reached the final since they won their record ninth title in 2002. Previously they won finals in 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1966, 1998, 2000, and 2002, and lost in 1962, 1964, and 1981. This was also their 17th final in all UEFA club competitions, having also played in two Cup Winners' Cup finals (losing in 1971 and 1983) and two UEFA Cup finals (winning in 1985 and 1986). It was the fourth Champions League final for their current coach Carlo Ancelotti, who previously coached A.C. Milan to victories in 2003 and 2007 and defeat in 2005, equalling the record shared by Miguel Muñoz, Marcello Lippi and Alex Ferguson. He joined Bob Paisley as the only manager to have won three titles, and also became the fifth manager to win titles with two clubs, after Ernst Happel, Ottmar Hitzfeld, José Mourinho and Jupp Heynckes.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Atlético Madrid, who a week earlier had won their first La Liga title since 1996, reached their second European Cup final, 40 years after their first, after defeating 2012 champions Chelsea 3–1 on aggregate. This is the longest wait between finals, eclipsing the 38-year wait by Inter Milan (1972–2010). Atlético Madrid's only previous European Cup final in 1974 ended in defeat to Bayern Munich after a replay. Atlético Madrid have also played in three Cup Winners' Cup finals (winning in 1962, and losing in 1963 and 1986) and two Europa League finals (winning in 2010 and 2012), with their most recent Europa League triumph in 2012 led by current coach Diego Simeone. He had the chance to join fellow Argentinians Luis Carniglia and Helenio Herrera as the only non-European coaches to win the European Cup/Champions League. Had they won the final, they would have become the first Spanish club and the fifth club overall to have won all three pre-1999 major European trophies (European Cup/Champions League, UEFA Cup/Europa League and the now-defunct Cup Winners' Cup).


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The only previous Madrid derby matches in European competitions were in the 1958–59 European Cup semi-finals, where Real Madrid defeated Atlético Madrid 2–1 in a replay, after a 2–2 aggregate draw. In the 2013–14 season, Atlético Madrid defeated Real Madrid 1–0 away and drew 2–2 at home in La Liga, while Real Madrid eliminated Atlético Madrid in the Copa del Rey semi-finals, winning 3–0 at home and 2–0 away.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Former Portugal international player Luís Figo, who won the Champions League with Real Madrid in 2002, was named as the ambassador for the final.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: UEFA unveiled the visual identity of the final on 29 August 2013, the same day as the group stage draw. The design concept was inspired by elements from the Portuguese discoveries, namely the armillary sphere and the windrose, which were important instruments used by Portuguese sea explorers to measure the position of stars.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The international ticket sales phase for the general public ran from 10 to 21 March 2014. Tickets were available in four price categories: €390, €280, €160, and €70.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The two finalist clubs were each allocated 16,970 tickets by UEFA. Atlético made 14,000 tickets available to club members, with a limit of one ticket per member. Real Madrid received 24,103 requests from 73,314 club members for a total of 13,134 tickets; due to the high demand, the tickets were awarded by means of a draw.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Dutch referee Björn Kuipers was named by UEFA on 7 May 2014 as the referee for the final. He has previously taken charge of the 2011 UEFA Super Cup, the 2013 UEFA Europa League Final, and the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup Final. He became the fourth Dutch referee in a European Cup/Champions League final, after Leo Horn (1957, 1962), Charles Corver (1978), and Dick Jol (2001). The rest of the refereeing team are fellow countrymen Sander van Roekel and Erwin Zeinstra as assistant referees, Pol van Boekel and Richard Liesveld as additional assistant referees, Angelo Boonman as reserve assistant referee, and Turkey's Cüneyt Çakır as the fourth official.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The UEFA Champions League and UEFA Women's Champions League trophies were handed over to the host city of Lisbon at a ceremony held at the City Hall, on 17 April 2014. The Mayor of Lisbon António Costa received the silverware from the hands of UEFA President Michel Platini, who justified the decision to stage the 2014 UEFA Champions League showpiece match in Lisbon with the fact that it had "been too long since the final had been in Portugal" and for "the passion and love of football the Portuguese have." The title holders of both competitions were represented at the event by Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri, and Wolfsburg defender Lina Magull. Also in attendance were Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) President Fernando Gomes and final ambassador Luís Figo. Upon their arrival to Lisbon and before the ceremony, the trophies were paraded by old tram through the city in the hands of trophy tour ambassadors Vítor Baía, former Portuguese international and Porto goalkeeper, and Mónica Jorge, former coach of the women's national team.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The annual UEFA Champions Festival took place from 22 to 25 May 2014 at Praça do Comércio in the city centre.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The 2014 UEFA Women's Champions League Final was held on 22 May 2014 at Estádio do Restelo, featuring Swedish side Tyresö and defending champions Wolfsburg. Losing 2–0 at half-time, Wolfsburg made a comeback to win the match 4–3. Martina Müller, who scored the winner in the previous final, repeated the feat to secure the German team's second consecutive title.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The ceremony preceding the kick-off was organised by Canadian company Circo de Bakuza, with artistic direction by London-based choreographer Wanda Rokicki. She was responsible for the artistic segments of large international sporting events, such as the 2004 Summer Olympics, the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Conceived "to honor Portuguese tradition, including naval history or the art of tiling", the show required six months of preparation and involved a total of 400 volunteers, 90 singers and 84 large-sized banners.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The only player suspended from the final was Real Madrid's Xabi Alonso, who picked up his third booking of the competition in the second leg of the semi-final. In his place, Carlo Ancelotti selected German midfielder Sami Khedira, who himself had only recently returned from injury. Pepe was also left out of the starting XI, with 21-year-old French centre-back Raphaël Varane playing instead. Real Madrid's front three of Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema were originally doubtful for the match, but all three overcame injuries to start the match.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Atlético captain Gabi returned from a one-match European suspension, while striker Diego Costa was included in the starting line-up, having undergone horse placenta treatment for a hamstring injury suffered in the last league match the previous Saturday. However, despite initial optimism, midfielder Arda Turan did not recover in time after suffering an injury in the same game.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Atlético Madrid wore shirts with the name of their former player and manager Luis Aragonés inside the collar following his death in February 2014, with the symbolism approved by UEFA President Michel Platini. Both teams wore their home kits for the final, as they do in domestic meetings.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Within eight minutes, Atlético striker Diego Costa was forced to come off because of his previous injury. Gareth Bale had Real's best chance just after the half-hour mark and it was only a few minutes later when Atlético punished this miss. When Atlético received a corner, it was routinely cleared by the Real Madrid defence, but only as far as the head of Juanfran, who headed the ball back into the penalty area and onto the head of Diego Godín, who caught Iker Casillas off his line with a looping header to make it 1–0 to Atlético on 36 minutes.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The second half saw Real pushing forward as they went in search of an equaliser to deny Atlético's first Champions League title, with manager Carlo Ancelotti making a double substitution to replace Fábio Coentrão and Khedira with Marcelo and Isco. Atlético defended with all players and Real missed several chances. Atletico's defence was finally breached in the third minute of stoppage time, after the regulation 90 minutes, by a pinpoint Sergio Ramos header into the left of the net from Luka Modrić's corner from the right. The match went on to extra time with no substitutions left for either team.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Real Madrid became even more dominant in extra time, which proved decisive after Ángel Di María's run on the left flank saw him dribble past three Atlético defenders and shoot at goal. Thibaut Courtois attempted to block the Argentine's shot but only managed to deflect the ball to Bale, who headed the rebound in from two yards out to put Real ahead for the first time, in the 110th minute. Real then added two late goals to the scoreline, starting with Marcelo's low left foot strike from just inside the penalty area in the 118th minute. At the end of extra time, Cristiano Ronaldo was fouled by Gabi for a penalty, which he converted into the left corner of the net for a record 17th goal in the tournament. During the celebration for Ronaldo's goal, Varane kicked the ball towards Atlético manager Diego Simeone, who then ran onto the pitch in anger. Simeone was sent off and Varane booked for the incident.


title: 2014 UEFA Champions League Final

text: This was the seventh UEFA Champions League final (not including the finals up to 1992, when it was known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup) to go into extra time and the first to be solved during this period, without the need for a penalty shoot-out. It was also the second highest-scoring final in the tournament's history as the Champions League, after the 3–3 draw between Milan and Liverpool in 2005, and provided the second biggest winning margin, behind Milan's 4–0 win over Barcelona in 1994.


title: Pat Garrett

text: Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett (June 5, 1850February 29, 1908) was an American Old West lawman, bartender and customs agent known for killing Billy the Kid. He was the sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico, as well as Doña Ana County, New Mexico.


title: Pat Garrett

text: Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett was born on June 5, 1850, in Chambers County, Alabama. He was the second of five children born to John Lumpkin Garrett and wife Elizabeth Ann Jarvis. Garrett's four siblings were Margaret, Elizabeth, John, and Alfred. Garrett was of English ancestry, his ancestors migrated to America from the English counties of Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Lincolnshire and Buckinghamshire. When Pat was three years old his father purchased the John Greer plantation in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana. The Civil War, however, destroyed the Garrett family's finances. Their mother died on March 25, 1867, at the age of 37. Then the following year, on February 5, 1868, his father died at age 45. The children were left with a plantation that was more than $30,000 in debt. The children were taken in by relatives. The 18-year-old Garrett headed west from Louisiana on January 25, 1869.


title: Pat Garrett

text: Garrett's whereabouts over the next seven years are obscure. By 1876 he was in Texas hunting buffalo. During this period Garrett killed his first man, another buffalo hunter named Joe Briscoe. Garrett surrendered to the authorities at Fort Griffin, Texas, but they declined to prosecute. When the buffalo hunting declined, Garrett left Texas and rode to the New Mexico Territory. When Garrett arrived at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, he found work as a cowboy for Pedro Menard "Pete" Maxwell.


title: Pat Garrett

text: Garrett's first wife was Juanita Martinez, who died 15 days after their marriage. The reference Leon C. Metz made about Juanita being the older sister of Pat's second wife Apolonia is unfounded. Apolonia only had a sister by the name of Celsa Gutierrez. On January 14, 1880, Garrett married Apolinaria Gutierrez. Between 1881 and 1905 Apolinaria Garrett gave birth to eight children: Ida, Dudley, Elizabeth, Annie, Patrick, Pauline, Oscar, and Jarvis.


title: Pat Garrett

text: Billy the Kid, born Henry McCarty, and also known as William H. Bonney, was wanted for murder in the aftermath of the Lincoln County War. On November 2, 1880, Garrett was elected sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico, having defeated the incumbent, Sheriff George Kimball, by a vote of 320 to 179. Although Garrett's term would not begin until January 1, 1881, Sheriff Kimball appointed him a deputy sheriff for the remainder of Kimball's term. Garrett also obtained a deputy U.S. Marshal's commission, which allowed him to pursue the Kid across state lines. Garrett and his posse stormed the Dedrick ranch at Bosque Grande on November 30, 1880. They expected to find the Kid there, but only succeeded in capturing John Joshua Webb, who had been charged with murder, along with an accused horse thief named George Davis. Garrett turned Webb and Davis over to the sheriff of San Miguel County a few days later, and moved on to the settlement of Puerto de Luna. There a local tough named Mariano Leiva picked a fight with Garrett and was shot in the shoulder.


title: Pat Garrett

text: On December 19, 1880, Billy the Kid, Charlie Bowdre, Tom Pickett, Billy Wilson, Dave Rudabaugh, and Tom O'Folliard rode into Fort Sumner. Lying in wait were deputy Garrett and his posse. Mistaking O'Folliard for the Kid, Garrett's men opened fire and killed O'Folliard. Billy and the others escaped unharmed. Three days later, Garrett's posse cornered Billy and his companions at a spot called Stinking Springs. They killed Bowdre and captured the others. On April 15, 1881, Billy the Kid was sentenced to hang by Judge Warren Bristol, but escaped thirteen days later, killing two deputies.


title: Pat Garrett

text: On July 14, 1881, Garrett visited Fort Sumner to question a friend of the Kid's about his whereabouts and learned he was staying with a mutual friend, Pedro Menard "Pete" Maxwell. Around midnight, Garrett went to Maxwell's house. The Kid was asleep in another part of the house, but woke up in the middle of the night and entered Maxwell's bedroom, where Garrett was standing in the shadows. The Kid did not recognize the man standing in the dark. He asked him, repeatedly, ""¿Quién es?"" (""Who is it?""), and Garrett replied by shooting at him twice. The first shot hit the Kid in the chest just above the heart, while the second missed. Garrett’s account leaves it unclear whether Billy was killed instantly or took some time to die.


title: Pat Garrett

text: He coauthored "The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid" with Ash Upson, and for decades his book was deemed authoritative.


title: Pat Garrett

text: Following Billy the Kid's death, writers quickly went to work producing books and articles that made a folk hero out of Billy the Kid, while making Garrett seem like an assassin. Although filled with many errors of fact, "The Authentic Life" served afterward as the main source for most books written about the Kid until the 1960s. A failure when originally released, an original copy of the Pat Garrett-Ash Upson book became a rare commodity; in 1969 the original 1882 edition of the Garrett-Upson book was described by Ramon F. Adams as being "exceedingly rare." Twentieth-century editions of Garrett's "Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid" (with alterations to the original title) appeared in 1927, 1946 and 1964.


title: Pat Garrett

text: Garrett did not seek re-election as sheriff of Lincoln County in 1882. He moved to Texas, where he ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the state senate. Garrett became a captain with the Texas Rangers for less than a month, then returned to Roswell, New Mexico.


title: Pat Garrett

text: Garrett discovered a large reservoir of artesian water in the Roswell region and went into partnership with two men to organize the "Pecos Valley Irrigation and Investment Company" on July 18, 1885. Garrett kept his irrigation schemes alive for several years, and on January 15, 1887, he purchased a one-third interest in the "Texas Irrigation Ditch Company", but the partners got rid of him. On August 15, 1887, he formed a partnership with William L. Holloman in the "Holloman and Garrett Ditch Company." All of Garrett's forays into the irrigation field, however, resulted in failure. By 1892, Garrett had moved his large family to Uvalde, Texas, where he became close friends with John Nance Garner (1868–1967), a future vice president of the United States. Garrett might have lived out the remainder of his life in Uvalde, had it not been for a headline-making event back in New Mexico.


title: Pat Garrett

text: On January 31, 1896, Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain and his eight-year-old son Henry disappeared at the edge of the White Sands area of southern New Mexico. Neither of the Fountains was ever seen again. The mystery was never officially solved, even with the efforts of Apache scouts, the Pinkertons, and an all-out push by the Republican Party. In April 1896, Garrett was appointed sheriff of Doña Ana County, and two years later had gathered sufficient evidence to make arrests, asking a judge in Las Cruces for warrants to arrest Oliver M. Lee, William McNew, Bill Carr and James Gililland. Within hours, he had arrested McNew and Carr.


title: Pat Garrett

text: During the early morning hours of July 12, 1898 Garrett and his posse confronted Oliver M. Lee and James Gililland at a spot called "Wildy Well" near Orogrande, New Mexico. Garrett had hoped to capture the fugitives while they were sleeping, but Lee and Gililland expected trouble and took their bedrolls up to the roof of the bunkhouse to avoid being taken by surprise. One of Garrett's deputies named Kearney heard footsteps on the roof, scaled a ladder, and was mortally wounded by the fugitives. A stray shot nicked Garrett. Due to his concern for his dying deputy, Garrett arranged a truce with the fugitives and withdrew while Kearney was lifted into a wagon. Kearney, however, died on the road to Las Cruces, and Lee and Gililland remained at large for another eight months, before they finally surrendered to Sheriff George Curry. They were found not guilty in the Fountain killings, and the indictments for killing the deputy were also dismissed.


title: Pat Garrett

text: Garrett killed his last offender in 1899, a fugitive named Norman Newman, who was wanted for murder in Greer County, Oklahoma. Newman was hiding out at the San Augustin Ranch in New Mexico. Sheriff George Blalock of Greer County went to New Mexico and asked Garrett for his assistance. The lawmen and Jose Espalin, one of Garrett's deputies, rode to the ranch, and on October 7, 1899, Newman was killed in a gunfight.


title: Pat Garrett

text: On December 16, 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt nominated Garrett to the post of collector of customs in El Paso. He also became one of President Roosevelt's three "White House Gunfighters" (Bat Masterson and Ben Daniels being the others). Despite public outcry over his appointment, Garrett was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 2, 1902. Garrett's tenure as El Paso's collector of customs was stormy from the start. On May 8, 1903, he got into a public fistfight with an employee named George Gaither. The following morning, both Garrett and Gaither paid five dollar fines for disturbing the peace. Continued complaints about Garrett's alleged incompetence were sent to Washington. Through it all, President Roosevelt stood by Garrett. As a show of his support, Roosevelt invited Garrett to attend a Rough Riders reunion being held in San Antonio during April 1905. Since Garrett had not been a member of that regiment, Roosevelt's invitation was taken as a snub at those critics who wanted Garrett replaced from his post. Garrett brought a guest of his own to the event named Tom Powers. Garrett introduced Powers to the president as "a prominent Texas cattleman." Garrett and Powers posed for two photographs with Roosevelt, first standing with him in a group and later seated with Roosevelt at dinner. Garrett's enemies obtained copies of the photos and sent them to Roosevelt, informing the president that instead of being the "cattleman" that Garrett claimed, Powers was, in fact, the owner of a "notorious dive" in El Paso called the Coney Island Saloon. That was the final straw for Roosevelt, who replaced Garrett with a new collector of customs on January 2, 1906.


title: Pat Garrett

text: Following his dismissal, Garrett returned with his family to New Mexico. Garrett was in deep financial difficulty. His ranch had been heavily mortgaged, and when he was unable to make payments, the county auctioned off all of Garrett's personal possessions to satisfy judgments against him. The total from the auction came to $650. President Roosevelt had appointed Pat's friend George Curry as the territorial governor of New Mexico. Garrett met with Curry, who promised him the position of superintendent of the territorial prison at Santa Fe, once he was inaugurated. Since Curry's inauguration was still months away, the destitute Garrett left his family in New Mexico and returned to El Paso, where he found employment with the real estate firm of H.M. Maple and Company. During this period Garrett moved in with a woman known as "Mrs. Brown", who was described as an El Paso prostitute. When Governor-elect Curry learned of his involvement with Brown, the promised appointment of prison superintendent was withdrawn.


title: Pat Garrett

text: Dudley Poe Garrett, Pat's son, had signed a five-year lease for his Bear Canyon Ranch with Jesse Wayne Brazel. Garrett and his son objected when Brazel began bringing in large herds of goats, which were anathema to cattlemen like Garrett. Garrett tried to break the lease when he learned that the money for Brazel's operation had been put up by his neighbor, W. W. "Bill" Cox. He was further angered when he learned that Archie Prentice "Print" Rhode was Brazel's partner in the huge goat herd. When Brazel refused, the matter went to court. At this point James B. Miller met with Garrett to try to solve the problem. Miller met with Brazel, who agreed to cancel his lease with Garrett – provided a buyer could be found for his herd of 1,200 goats. Carl Adamson, who was related to Miller by marriage, agreed to buy the 1,200 goats. Just when the matter seemed resolved, Brazel claimed that he had "miscounted" his goat herd, claiming there were actually 1,800 – rather than his previous estimate of 1,200. Adamson refused to buy that many goats, but agreed to meet with Garrett and Brazel to see if they could reach some sort of agreement.


title: Pat Garrett

text: Garrett and Carl Adamson rode together, heading from Las Cruces, New Mexico, in Adamson's wagon. Brazel appeared on horseback along the way. Garrett was shot and killed, but exactly by whom remains the subject of controversy. Brazel and Adamson left the body by the side of the road and returned to Las Cruces, where Brazel surrendered to Deputy Sheriff Felipe Lucero. More than thirty years later, Lucero claimed that Brazel exclaimed, "Lock me up. I've just killed Pat Garrett!" Brazel then pointed to Adamson and said, "He saw the whole thing and knows that I shot in self-defense." Lucero incarcerated Brazel, summoned a coroner's jury, and rode to Garrett's death site. Brazel's trial for Garrett's murder concluded on May 4, 1909. Brazel was represented at his trial by attorney and future Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall. The only eyewitness to Garrett's murder, Adamson, never appeared at the trial, which lasted only one day and ended with an acquittal.


title: Pat Garrett

text: The coroner's report on Garrett's death states that Brazel shot Garrett. Brazel reportedly confessed, but was acquitted at trial. Four other suspects have been proposed: Adamson, Cox, Rhode, and Miller. In a book published in 1970, Glenn Shirley gave his reasons for naming Miller as the killer of Pat Garrett. Leon C. Metz in his 1974 biography of Garrett related the claim of W.T. Moyers that "his investigations led him to believe that "[W. W.]" Cox himself ambushed and killed Garrett.", but also wrote that ""[t]"he Garrett family believes that Carl Adamson pulled the trigger." In his 2010 book on Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett, Mark Lee Gardner suggests that Archie Prentice "Print" Rhode killed Garrett.


title: Pat Garrett

text: The site of Garrett's death is now commemorated by a historical marker south of U.S. Route 70, between Las Cruces, New Mexico and the San Augustin Pass. The historical marker is located about 1.2 miles from where Garrett was murdered. In 1940 his son, Jarvis Garrett, marked the spot with a monument consisting of concrete laid around a stone with a cross carved in it. The cross is believed to be the work of Garrett's mother. Scratched in the concrete is "P. Garrett" and the date of his killing. The marker is located in the desert. In 2020, the city of Las Cruces revealed plans for a development that would destroy the site. An organization called Friends of Pat Garrett has been formed to ensure that the city preserves the site and marker.


title: Pat Garrett

text: At six feet five inches, Garrett's body was too tall for any finished coffins available, so a special one had to be shipped in from El Paso. His funeral service was held March 5, 1908, and he was laid to rest next to his daughter, Ida, who had died in 1896 at the age of fifteen. Garrett's grave and the graves of his descendants are in the Masonic Cemetery, Las Cruces.


title: Thales Group

text: Thales Group () is a French multinational company that designs, develops and manufactures electrical systems as well as devices and equipment for the aerospace, defence, transportation and security sectors. The company is headquartered in Paris' business district, La Défense, and its stock is listed on the Euronext Paris.


title: Thales Group

text: Having been known as Thomson-CSF since its foundation in 1968, the company was rebranded "Thales" (named after the Greek philosopher Thales and pronounced , reflecting its pronunciation in French) in December 2000. A communication audit, launched in spring that year, highlighted Thomson-CSF's image deficit, particularly among the young French graduates it was seeking to recruit. The wish to liven up its image as well as the expansion of its business worldwide were cited among the reasons for the change. Thales is partially owned by the French State and operates in more than 56 countries. It had 80,000 employees and generated €18.4 billion in revenues in 2019. As of 2017, it is also the 8th largest defence contractor in the world with 55% of its total sales being military sales.


title: Thales Group

text: Patrice Caine was appointed Chairman and CEO of Thales in December 2014. Caine remains Chairman as of August 2022.


title: Thales Group

text: Thales' predecessor, Thomson-CSF, evolved from "Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston" (CFTH), which was established in 1893. However, Thomson-CSF itself was established in 1968 when Thomson-Brandt (then renamed CFTH) merged its electronics arm with that of Compagnie générale de la télégraphie sans fil (CSF).


title: Thales Group

text: On 28 October 1999, Samsung Electronics and Thomson-CSF agreed to create a joint venture with each company investing and holding 50% of the shares. Thomson-CSF will receive technology transfer of Samsung's defense products such as communication equipment, satellite communication systems and terminals, fire control system, detection and tracking devices, radar guidance equipment, and gunner's sight (KGPS), while Samsung will gain access to Thomson-CSF's network for overseas exports.


title: Thales Group

text: Thales formed a joint venture with Raytheon in June 2001 to combine their radar and communications systems divisions. Named ThalesRaytheonSystems, the firm is 50% owned by both parent companies. The joint venture was restructured in 2016 to switch focus exclusively on NATO agencies and NATO member states.


title: Thales Group

text: In 2002, Thales set up the joint venture company Armaris with the French shipbuilder DCN to offer a total "bottom up" shipbuilding capability. Also in 2002, Thales Broadcast Multimedia, a former subsidiary of Thales, provided China with standard short-wave radio-broadcasting equipment designed for general public radio broadcasting. Although the contract was not at all for the purpose of jamming foreign radio stations broadcasting to China, it now appears that this is what the ALLISS antennas are being used for.


title: Thales Group

text: In 2003, Thales UK's design won the competition for the Royal Navy Future Carrier (CVF) and the company now participates in an alliance company with BAE Systems and the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence.


title: Thales Group

text: Thales Navigation, a division that produced satellite navigation units, was sold to private equity group Shah Capital Partners in 2006 for $170 million and renamed Magellan.


title: Thales Group

text: In 2006, Thales acquired Australian Defence Industries, a major manufacturer of military equipment such as smokeless gunpowder and the Bushmaster IMV.


title: Thales Group

text: In April 2006, Thales announced it would be acquiring Alcatel's space business (67% of Alcatel Alenia Space and 33% of Telespazio), and Alcatel's Rail Signalling Solutions division in a deal which also raised Alcatel's ownership of Thales to 21.66 percent. The French government would also decrease its ownership in Thales to 27.1 percent from 31.3 percent as part of the acquisition. The deal would also include the Systems Integration activities (those not dedicated to telecoms operators, and covering mainly the transport and energy sectors). In January 2007, the 1.7 billion Euro deal ($2.24 billion) was approved.


title: Thales Group

text: In December 2008, Alcatel agreed to sell a 20.8% stake in French engineering group Thales SA to Dassault Aviation SA for €1.57 billion ($2.27 billion).


title: Thales Group

text: In 2014, Alcatel-Lucent initiated talks to sell its cybersecurity unit to Thales. The deal was signed in October that year.


title: Thales Group

text: In 2018, Thales committed to divesting nCipher as condition for its acquisition of Gemalto; in June 2019 it divested nCipher to Entrust.


title: Thales Group

text: Thales Group supplies electronic devices and equipment used by the French Armed Forces from its past as Thomson-CSF, including the SPECTRA helmet for the army and the "gendarmerie". It has worked with Dassault Aviation on the Dassault Rafale aircraft and made its SPECTRA defensive aids. Thales often worked with DCNS and designed the electronics used on French ships, and it is involved in the construction of both the and FREMM programs. Thales, as Thomson-CSF, was involved in the Taiwan frigates scandal, relating to the sale of s to Taiwan.


title: Thales Group

text: It is also present in Eurosam as Thomson-CSF was a founder of the consortium along Aérospatiale and Alenia Aeronautica. In February 2004, Thales was awarded a contract for a new command and control system for the French Navy, the SIC 21, that will be fitted on the Charles de Gaulle, many vessels and shore locations.


title: Thales Group

text: Additionally, the initially planned French aircraft carrier PA2 involved Thales as the main designer of the ship. However, the project was cancelled in 2013.


title: Thales Group

text: By 2012, the company is mainly composed of five branches: Defense, Security, Space, Aerospace and Ground transportation.


title: Thales Group

text: The company's design won the competition for the Royal Navy Future Carrier (CVF). It is part of the AirTanker consortium, the winning bid for the RAF's Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft. Thales UK won the contract for the British Army UAV programme, Watchkeeper. It also produces the SWARM remote weapon station. Thales simulators include full motion devices as well as flat panel and other training facilities.


title: Thales Group

text: Thales Air Defence produces a range of short-range missile systems such as the Starstreak surface-to-air missile or Lightweight Multi-role Missile (LMM).


title: Thales Group

text: The Thales ATM (Air Traffic Management) solution is marketed under the name "TopSky", previously named "EuroCat". Thales supplies avionics to civil aircraft manufacturers, including Fly-By-Wire systems, cockpit systems, navigation computers, satellite communication, inflight entertainment and electrical systems. The coordination of Thales parts' servicing and maintenance is coordinated by its MRO division; OEMServices, which handles the repair flow for component maintenance support.


title: Thales Group

text: In November 2017, Thales acquired a UK radar provider called Aveillant who produces software-defined holographic radar technology, which is able to detect small targets such as drones.


title: Thales Group

text: In February 2018, Thales won on a A$1.2 billion ($946 million) contract with Airservices Australia and the Australian Department of Defence to unify Australia's civil and military airspace under a single air traffic control system, named "OneSKY".


title: Thales Group

text: Thales has major involvement in the UK rail industry as a result of the Racal merger and the 2006 acquisition of Alcatel's Rail Signalling Solutions division and transport business. Thales is to modernize 40 per cent of London Tube network London Underground.


title: Thales Group

text: In Denmark, Thales now owns 100% of the "East-west Consortium" contracted for a nationwide travel card (Danish: "Rejsekort").


title: Thales Group

text: In India, Thales was selected in December 2014 by the New Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to deliver a completely automatic fare collection system, as well as ticketing equipment. Thales has also been contracted by Hyderabad Metro Rail since 2017 to provide train control automation and communication services for the metro in Hyderabad.


title: Thales Group

text: In 2014, the company was tasked with equipping the public transport system of Bordeaux, France, with a contactless ticketing and revenue collection system, to be installed by February 2017. However, due to delays, the system is not expected to be operational until 2019.


title: Thales Group

text: In Singapore, Thales was involved in a train collision resulting from a compatibility issue between the old signalling system's interface, and the new one. The accident resulted in 38 minor injuries. A similar incident would occur in March 2019 in Hong Kong on the Tsuen Wan line.


title: Thales Group

text: In Vietnam, the company was awarded a €265 million contract in 2017 to deliver the telecommunications system for the currently constructed Line 3 of the Hanoi metro. Running behind schedule by one year, the metro line is stated to be launched in 2023.


title: Thales Group

text: In Turkey, the Thales team has delivered the first High Speed Line in the country in 2009, and has completed more than of the Ankara Istanbul High Speed Line.


title: Thales Group

text: Thales is also a major manufacturer of in-flight entertainment systems on board airliners. Thales' primary competitors in this area of business include Panasonic Avionics Corporation, Rockwell Collins, and LiveTV (originally owned by JetBlue, now owned by Thales).


title: Thales Group

text: Thales also produces and installs ticketing and communications systems for public transportation via its ticketing and revenue collection division. In November 2016, Thales announced its intention to divest from its transport ticketing, revenue collection, road toll and car park management business. The company entered into negotiations with Paris-based Latour Capital, but the negotiations ended in 2017 after Latour Capital announced this business was "not aligned closely enough with its investment priorities." After subsequent talks with Chinese investors failed, Thales abandoned the divestment.


title: Thales Group

text: Thales' international subsidiaries generated 52% of the company's revenue in 2008, with Thales UK being the largest of these accounting for 13% of group revenue. Its large presence in the UK (largely as a result of the Racal acquisition) has resulted in several high-profile contracts.


title: Thales Group

text: As of December 2020, Thales' major shareholders are the French state (25.68%) and Dassault Aviation (24.62%).


title: Thales Group

text: A High Court case decided in 2012 between Thales (supplier of Greater Manchester's tram management system) and Transport for Greater Manchester (TGM) considered the operation of an audit clause in a contract, and the extent to which a supplier must comply with this. Thales had submitted claims for increased costs and for extensions to the time allowed for delivery of the system. TGM made various requests for documents intended to better help assess their claims. The Court instructed Thales to supply the requested documents.


title: Thales Group

text: Although the ticketing system in Bordeaux was originally due for launch in summer 2017, multiple delays pushed the new launch date back by 20 months to 2019. The project's many setbacks are considered to reflect negatively on the city's reputation, with Bordeaux's city's mayor and former French prime minister Alain Juppé, calling Thales' inability to meet its commitments "unacceptable behaviour."


title: Thales Group

text: Michel Josserand, former head of THEC, a subsidiary of Thales, and Dominique Monleau, alleged that Thales has a centralised slush fund that it uses to bribe officials.


title: Thales Group

text: On 30 May 2005 Schabir Shaik, the financial advisor to Jacob Zuma, the former president of the African National Congress party, was found guilty by the High Court in Durban of organising a bribe on behalf of Thomson-CSF.


title: Thales Group

text: On 22 January 2020 the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg ruled that both the Thales Group and Zuma could be criminally tried for alleged illegal arms dealings which Thales was allowed to undergo in South Africa. Zuma is said to have allowed these illegal Thales arms dealings when he was the nation's president and is also believed to have partaken in them as well.


title: Thales Group

text: Around 1991–1993, French state owned Elf Aquitaine was involved (with other companies and countries) in selling frigates to Taiwan. On 10 June 2011 Thales Group and the French government were ordered to pay 630 million euros (almost a billion US dollars) in fines after the courts heard that bribes had been paid to the Taiwanese government to win this large naval contract. Part (about 27%) of the responsibility was transferred to Thales Group because it held the legacy from Thomson-CSF. , this is the largest corruption case in French history.


title: Elephant bird

text: Elephant birds are members of the extinct ratite family Aepyornithidae, made up of flightless birds that once lived on the island of Madagascar. They are thought to have become extinct around 1000-1200 CE, probably as a result of human activity. Elephant birds comprised the genera "Mullerornis", "Vorombe" and "Aepyornis". While they were in close geographical proximity to the ostrich, their closest living relatives are kiwi (found only in New Zealand), suggesting that ratites did not diversify by vicariance during the breakup of Gondwana but instead evolved from ancestors that dispersed more recently by flying.


title: Elephant bird

text: In September 2018, scientists determined that "Vorombe titan" reached weights of and stood tall, making it the world's largest and heaviest bird, slightly larger than the much older "Dromornis stirtoni". Other members of the family were also very large, exhibiting the phenomenon of island gigantism.


title: Elephant bird

text: Elephant birds have been extinct since at least the 17th century. Étienne de Flacourt, a French governor of Madagascar during the 1640s and 1650s, mentioned an ostrich-like bird, said to inhabit unpopulated regions, although it is unclear whether he was repeating folk tales from generations earlier. In 1659, Flacourt wrote of the "vouropatra – a large bird which haunts the Ampatres and lays eggs like the ostriches; so that the people of these places may not take it, it seeks the most lonely places." Marco Polo also mentioned hearing stories of very large birds during his journey to the East during the late 13th century. These accounts are today believed to describe elephant birds.


title: Elephant bird

text: Between 1830 and 1840 European travelers in Madagascar saw giant eggs and egg shells. English observers were more willing to believe the accounts of giant birds and eggs because they knew of the moa in New Zealand. In 1851 the French Academy of Sciences received three eggs and some bone fragments. In some cases the eggs have a length up to , the largest type of bird egg ever found. The egg weighed about . The egg volume is about 160 times greater than that of a chicken egg.


title: Elephant bird

text: "Aepyornis" is believed to have been more than tall and weighed perhaps in the range of . In September 2018, scientists reported that "Vorombe titan" reached weights of , and based on a fragmentary femur, possibly up to , making it the world's largest bird. Only the much older species "Dromornis stirtoni" from Australia rivals it in size among known fossil birds. In the same report, the upper weight limits for "A. maximus" and "D. stirtoni" were revised to 540 and 730 kg, respectively.


title: Elephant bird

text: Up to ten or eleven species in the genus "Aepyornis" have been described, but the validity of many have been disputed, with numerous authors treating them all in just one species, "A. maximus". Up to three species have been described in "Mullerornis". But recent work by Hansford & Turvey 2018 has restricted the number of aepyornithid species to four, with two in "Aepyornis", one in "Mullerornis", and one in "Vorombe".


title: Elephant bird

text: Several ratites outside of Madagascar have been posited as "aepyornithid"-like and could potentially make this clade considerably more speciose. These include "Eremopezus" from the Eocene of North Africa, unnamed Canary Island remains and several Neogene taxa in Eurasia.


title: Elephant bird

text: "Aepyornis maximus" is commonly known as the 'elephant bird', a term that apparently originated from Marco Polo's account of the rukh in 1298, although he was apparently referring to an eagle-like bird strong enough to "seize an elephant with its talons". Sightings of eggs of elephant birds by sailors (e.g. text on the Fra Mauro map of 1467–69, if not attributable to ostriches) could also have been erroneously attributed to a giant raptor from Madagascar. The legend of the roc could also have originated from sightings of such a giant subfossil eagle related to the African crowned eagle, which has been described in the genus "Stephanoaetus" from Madagascar, being large enough to carry off large primates; today, lemurs still retain a fear of aerial predators such as these. Another might be the perception of ratites retaining neotenic features and thus being mistaken for enormous chicks of a presumably more massive bird.


title: Elephant bird

text: The ancient Malagasy name for the bird is vorompatra, meaning "bird of the Ampatres". The Ampatres are today known as the Androy region of southern Madagascar.


title: Elephant bird

text: Like the ostrich, rhea, cassowary, emu, kiwi and extinct moa, "Mullerornis" and "Aepyornis" were ratites; they could not fly, and their breast bones had no keel. Because Madagascar and Africa separated before the ratite lineage arose, "Aepyornis" has been thought to have dispersed and become flightless and gigantic "in situ".


title: Elephant bird

text: More recently, it has been deduced from DNA sequence comparisons that the closest living relatives of elephant birds are New Zealand kiwi, though they are not particularly closely related, being estimated to have diverged from each other 54 million years ago. Elephant birds are actually part of the mid-Cenozoic Australian ratite radiation; their ancestors flew across the Indian Ocean well after Gondwana broke apart. The existence of possible flying palaeognaths in the Miocene such as "Proapteryx" further supports the view that ratites did not diversify in response to vicariance. Gondwana broke apart in the Cretaceous and their phylogenetic tree does not match the process of continental drift. Madagascar has a notoriously poor Cenozoic terrestrial fossil record, with essentially no fossils between the end of the Cretaceous (Maevarano Formation) and the Late Pleistocene. Molecular clock estimates from complete mitochondrial genomes obtained from "Aepyornis" eggshells suggest that "Aepyornis" and "Mullerornis" diverged from each other during the mid Oligocene around 27 million years ago, suggesting elephant birds must have been present on Madagascar before this time.


title: Elephant bird

text: Claims of findings of "aepyornithid" egg remains on the eastern Canary Islands, if valid, would represent a major biogeographical enigma. These islands are not thought to have been connected to mainland Africa when elephant birds were alive. There is no indication that elephant birds evolved outside Madagascar, and today, the Canary Island eggshells are considered to belong to extinct North African birds that may not have been ratites (possibly "Eremopezus"/"Psammornis", or even Pelagornithidae, prehistoric seabirds of immense size). Various "aepyornithid-like" eggs and bones occur in Paleogene and Miocene deposits in Africa and Europe.