Battle of the Saintes

The Battle of the Saintes (known to the French as the Bataille de la Dominique), also known as the Battle of Dominica, was an important naval battle in the Caribbean between the British and the French that took place 9–12 April 1782. The British victory was considered their greatest over the French during the American Revolutionary War.
The British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney defeated a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse, forcing the French and Spanish to abandon a planned invasion of Jamaica.
The battle is named after the Saintes (or Saints), a group of islands between Guadeloupe and Dominica in the West Indies. The French had blockaded the British Army at Chesapeake Bay the year before, during the Siege of Yorktown, and supported the eventual American victory in their revolution. The battle, however, had a significant effect on peace negotiations to end the American Revolution.
The French suffered heavy casualties at the Saintes and many were taken prisoner, including de Grasse. Four French ships of the line were captured (including the flagship) and one was destroyed. Rodney was credited with pioneering the tactic of "breaking the line" in the battle, though this is disputed.
Background.
In October 1781 Admiral Comte de Grasse, commander of the French fleet in the West Indies; Francisco Saavedra de Sangronis, General Bureau for the Spanish Indies; and Bernardo de Gálvez, court representative and aide to the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, developed a plan against British forces. The strategic objectives of the Franco-Spanish military forces in the West Indies in this plan were:
This plan became known as the "De Grasse–Saavedra Convention." The first objective had been essentially met by the surrender of the British army under General Cornwallis at the Siege of Yorktown in September 1781. De Grasse and his fleet had played a decisive part in that victory, after which they returned to the Caribbean. On arrival in Saint Domingue in November 1781, the admiral was notified to proceed with a plan for the conquest of Jamaica.
Jamaica was the largest and most profitable British island in the Caribbean, mainly because of sugar: it was more valuable to the British economy than all of the 13 American colonies. King George III wrote to Lord Sandwich, saying that he would protect Britain's important Caribbean islands at the risk of Britain herself, and this was the strategy implemented in 1779. Sugar made up 20% of all British imports and was worth five times as much as tobacco. The French and Spanish were fighting to take over Jamaica in order to expel the British from the West Indies, and to strike a massive blow against the British economy. The courts at Paris and Madrid perceived the invasion of Jamaica as an alternative to the Spanish and French attempts to take Gibraltar, which for two years had been a costly disaster.
Whilst de Grasse waited for reinforcements to undertake the Jamaica campaign, he captured St. Kitts in February 1782. The rest of the Windward Islands—Antigua, St. Lucia, and Barbados—still remained under British control. Admiral George Rodney arrived in the Caribbean theatre the following month, bringing reinforcements. These included 17 ships of the line and gave the British a slight numerical advantage.
On 7 April 1782, de Grasse set out from Martinique with 35 ships of the line, including two 50-gun ships and a large convoy of more than 100 cargo ships, to meet with a Spanish fleet of 12 ships of the line. In addition de Grasse was to rendezvous with 15,000 troops at Saint Domingue, who were earmarked for the conquest and intended to land on Jamaica's north coast. Rodney, on learning of this, sailed from St. Lucia in pursuit with 36 ships of the line the following day.
The British ships' hulls by this time had been given copper sheathing to protect them from marine growth, fouling, and saltwater corrosion, dramatically improving speed and overall sailing performance in good wind.
Opposing fleets and officers.
The British flagship was HMS "Formidable" under Admiral Rodney. Second in command was Admiral Samuel Hood. and third was Vice Admiral Francis Samuel Drake. As was the convention of the day, the fleet was split into three sections: Rodney had individual control as Admiral of the White of 12 ships flying the White Ensign; Drake had command of 12 ships as Admiral of the Blue flying the Blue Ensign; and Hood was Admiral of the Red with 12 ships flying the Red Ensign.
"Formidable" was accompanied by three 98-gun ships: HMS "Barfleur" (commanded by Hood), HMS "Prince George", and HMS "Duke", plus the 90-gun HMS "Namur". The remaining 31 ships were equipped with 64 to 74 guns. In total the British fleet had 2,620 guns compared to the French total of 2,526. Most of the British fleet was equipped with carronades on the upper decks, which had a major advantage in flexibility and were a great advantage at close quarters.
In March 1782 "Formidable" was stationed at Gros Islet Bay between the island of St. Lucia and Pigeon Island. She was under the command of Admiral Rodney, serving as his flagship at the head of 36 ships of the line. Meanwhile, French Admiral de Grasse headed 34 ships of the line at Fort Royal Bay in Martinique. Rodney had been dispatched from Britain with 12 well-fitted ships to rescue the West Indies from a series of attacks from the French, which had already resulted in the loss of several islands. They joined 24 ships on St. Lucia who had already seen action against the French and were undergoing repairs.
The French had allies in the Spanish, who had 13 ships of the line at Cap‑Français on the island of San Domingo (Hispaniola). Together with transport ships, the Spanish had a considerable force of 24,000 men. They awaited the arrival of a further 10,000 French troops dispatched from Brest, under escort of five men-of-war, to further boost their strength. The plan was for de Grasse's fleet, with at least 5,000 further troops, to unite with the Spanish at Cap‑Français, and from there to attack and capture the island of Jamaica with their conjoined armada of some 60 ships and 40,000 troops.
Rodney had been in communication with de Grasse during March, organising the exchange of prisoners, who were conveyed by HMS "Alert" under Captain Vashon. The two officers had much mutual respect. Rodney's task was to intercept the French fleet en route to Cap‑Français.
De Grasse's vice admiral at the time was Louis-Philippe de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil. Third in command was Louis Antoine de Bougainville. The French flagship was the huge 104-gun "Ville de Paris". The troops were under the command of the Marquis de Bouillé. The French fleet was also split into three squadrons: de Grasse led the "Cornette Blanche;" Bougainville led the "Escadre Bleue;" and de Vaudreuil as a second-in-command flew the mixed white and blue colours of the "Blanche et Bleue."
Other British commanders included Lord Robert Manners of HMS "Resolution", Admiral William Cornwallis in command of HMS "Canada", and HMS "Monarch" under the command of Captain Reynolds. Other aristocrats present included Captain Lord Cranstoun on "Formidable". Sir Charles Douglas, a nephew of Charles Douglas, 3rd Duke of Queensberry, was Captain of the Fleet. Sir James Wallace was also present. Other commanders included Captains Blair, Buckner, Burnett, Charrington, Cornish, Dumaresq, Graves, Inglefield, Inglis, Knight, Parry, Saumarez, Savage, Symons, Truscott, Wilkinson, Williams, and Wilson.
A lookout squadron, a line of frigates headed by Captain George Anson Byron on HMS "Andromache", reported all of de Grasse's movements at Fort Royal. This squadron included the speedy HMS "Agamemnon" and also HMS "Magnificent".
Pre-battle movements.
On 3 April it was signalled that the repairs on the French fleet were complete. On 5 April it was reported that the French troops were boarding the ships. At 8:00 am on Sunday 8 April, it was reported that the French fleet were leaving Fort Royal. Rodney's fleet called all men to join their ships and they began leaving Gros Islet Bay at 10:30 am.
The total French armada comprised 35 ships of the line, 10 frigates, and over 100 smaller ships. The smaller ships moved in advance of the men-of-war, heading for St. Pierre.
Just past 4:00 pm Hood's "Barfleur", at the head of the British fleet, espied five sails ahead that she presumed to be part of the French fleet. These came into view of "Formidable" around two hours later, just before sunset. They pursued the French through the night. At 2:00 am on 9 April, HMS "St Albans" dropped alongside "Formidable", reporting that along with HMS "Valiant", she had located the French fleet in the darkness. Rodney rested for the remainder of the night.
The sun rose at 5:30 am. The French fleet extended from six to 12 miles distant, navigating the waters between Dominica and Guadeloupe. The majority of the warships lay off Prince Rupert's Bay.
Due to a dead calm from 3:00 until 7:00 am, neither fleet could move. The initial wind only reached "Barfleur" and its eight support ships, causing them to detach ahead of the main fleet, which lay in the lee of Dominica. De Grasse saw the opportunity to cripple this advanced section and wheeled to begin the first attack.
Battle.
On 9 April 1782 the copper-sheathed British fleet caught up with the French, who were surprised by their speed. Admiral de Grasse ordered the French convoy to head into Guadeloupe for repair, forcing him to escort two 50-gun ships ("Fier" and "Experiment"), and placing his fleet in line of battle in order to cover the retreat.
First encounters.
Hood's section of the fleet, headed by "Barfleur", braced for the first attack. As the first action, HMS "Alfred" taunted the 18 approaching French ships under de Vaudreuil by exposing her broadside to the approaching French, but without consequence. The British patiently awaited the formal signal from Rodney on "Formidable", some six miles behind, and eventually received a red flag signal telling them to "engage the enemy." As the wind rose around noon, it enabled most of the French fleet and part of the British fleet (including Rodney in "Formidable") to join the melee. At this point the French outnumbered the British two to one. Captain William Bayne on "Alfred" was killed during this action.
After an inconclusive encounter during which both sides suffered damage, de Grasse realised that the remainder of the British fleet would soon be upon them and broke off the engagement to withdraw a safe distance. De Grasse moved his ships to the Saintes Islands to the north (south of Guadeloupe). Meanwhile, Rodney reversed the order of his line to bring Drake's hitherto undamaged ships to the front, and allow Hood to undertake repairs in the rear lines.
On 10 April the French began 10 miles distant but did not turn to engage, instead continuing on their original course, and by nightfall had increased their separation to 15 miles. This appears to be partly due to the incorrect presumption on Rodney's part that the French were going to turn to engage.
On Wednesday 11 April two French ships, and "Magnanime", who had accidentally collided and fallen behind the main French fleet, came into view around noon. Rodney decided that attacking these two ships would cause de Grasse to return to protect them, which worked: a large section of the French fleet turned to protect the pair. These movements were executed without any physical attacks.
Main engagement.
On 12 April the French were ranged from six to 12 miles distant and were not in formation, as the two fleets manoeuvred between the northern end of Dominica and the Saintes in the Saintes Passage. The unfortunate "Zélé" had had a second collision during the night with one of its rescuers, "Ville de Paris", and was now being towed to Basse-Terre in Guadeloupe by "Astrée" with General de Bouillé on board. They were chased by four British ships: "Monarch", "Valiant", HMS "Centaur" and HMS "Belliqueux". De Grasse made for Guadeloupe and bore up with his fleet to protect the ship. At the same time, Rodney recalled his chasing ships and made the signal for line of battle.
Rear Admiral Hood's van division were still making repairs from the action three days earlier, so he directed his rear division, under Rear Admiral Drake, to take the lead. At 7:40, under Captain Taylor Penny led the British line and opened battle when she approached the centre of the French line. Having remained parallel with the French, the ships of Drake's division passed the remaining length of de Grasse's line and the two sides exchanged broadsides, a typical naval engagement of the time.
Initial attack.
"Marlborough" headed the British attack. As the battle progressed, the strong winds of the previous day and night began to temper and became more variable. As the French line passed down the British line, the sudden shift of wind let Rodney's flagship "Formidable" and several other ships, including "Duke" and , sail toward the French line.
At 8:00 am "Formidable" raised the red flag to permit "Marlborough" to open fire and engage the French. At this point "Marlborough" was opposite "Dauphin Royal", who received her full broadside. Sixteen ships in line separated "Marlborough" from "Formidable" and each stood 200 metres apart. As each circled past the French, they fired a broadside against them. Second, behind "Marlborough", was HMS "Arrogant", who had been recently re-equipped and managed three broadsides against one from the French as they passed. Third in line was HMS "Alcide" under Captain Charles Thomson. Then followed HMS "Nonsuch" under Captain Truscott, and then HMS "Conqueror" under Captain George Balfour.
Next in line was Admiral Drake on HMS "Princessa", who was in command of the first 12 vessels, and was followed by "Prince George" under Captain Williams. Then came the 100-year-old HMS "Torbay" under Captain Keppel and the year-old HMS "Anson" under Captain William Blair on the main deck, who was struck by round shot at waist level and sliced in two. The blue squadron was then completed by HMS "Fame" and HMS "Russell" under Captain James Saumarez.
The white squadron under Rodney followed in exact formation after the blue. This was headed by HMS "America" under Captain Thompson. HMS "Hercules" under Captain Henry Savage followed. Then came HMS "Prothee" under Captain Buckner and "Resolution" under Captain Robert Manners. The 24-year-old Manners was the first casualty on his ship and was severely injured in both legs and right arm, dying later of these wounds. "Resolution" was followed by "Duke" under Captain Alan Gardner.
As "Formidable" was in the centre of the British line, it took her almost an hour to reach the centre of the action. All ships had to maintain a steady speed, and as she passed de Grasse's flagship, the 104-gun "Ville de Paris", the two met for the first time. "Ville de Paris" was already damaged by the 15 ships ahead of "Formidable" in the line. Although it was a sunny day, the smoke of the battle was like a dense fog. "Formidable" entered the smoke and approached "Ville de Paris" at 8:40 am.
The countermovement of the fleets brought a series of ships opposite "Formidable" in sequence behind "Ville de Paris", movements that brought about a different pairing of enemies every five minutes. Next was "Couronne", followed by "Éveillé" under Le Gardeur de Tilly, and then "Sceptre" under the command of de Vaudreuil.
Breaking the line.
Within an hour, the wind had shifted to the south, forcing the French line to separate and bear to the west, as it could not hold its course into the wind. This allowed the British to use guns on both sides of their ships without fear of return fire from the front and rear of the French ships, between which they were passing. The effect was greater using the carronades, with which the British had just equipped nearly half their fleet. This relatively new short-range weapon was quicker to reload and more of them could be carried. , under command of Captain des Cars, moving in the wake of "Ville de Paris", was the next victim. Virtually a sitting duck due to damage in the previous 10 minutes from "Duke", she was quickly pounded and dismasted by intense fire.
In the confusion four French ships beginning with "Diadem" broke out of sequence, partly due to the uncontrollable speed of the mastless "Glorieux". "Formidable" turned to starboard and brought her port guns to bear on them. As a result "Formidable" sailed through the gap, breaking the French line. This breach was further followed through by five other British ships. The breach was later recorded by Charles Dashwood, who was a midshipman on "Formidable" on that day.
Although the concept of "breaking the line" was born here, it is logically of mixed blessings, since in breaking the enemy line, one breaks one's own line. Whilst the movement has the advantage that guns can be fired on both port and starboard sides, it also exposes the ship to attack on both sides. The advantage in this instance was that many of the French gunners left their post, in fear of "Formidable"s three tiers of guns bearing down on them.
"Diadem" appears to have fully withdrawn from the battle at this stage, and many presumed her to be sunk. "Formidable" was followed by "Namur" under Captain Fanshawe and then "St Albans" under Captain Inglis. These were followed by the deadly "Canada" under Captain William Cornwallis, HMS "Repulse" under Captain Thomas Dumaresq, and HMS "Ajax" under Captain Nicholas Charrington. Each of these fired further upon the hapless and already crippled "Glorieux".
Simultaneously, and because of the smoke, Commodore Edmund Affleck on "Bedford", the hindmost ship of the central white squadron, accidentally sailed through the confused French line, between "César" and "Hector", only to discover this error when no enemy lay on his starboard side in the clearing smoke.
"Bedford" was followed by Hood's red squadron and this broke the French line into three sections. In the confusion the two leading ships of the rear red squadron, HMS "Prince William" and "Magnificent", had somehow passed "Bedford", who was now third in line within the red squadron and completely detached from her own white squadron. The whole red squadron then passed between "César" and "Hector", causing each to be crippled. The final ship of the red squadron, HMS "Royal Oak", passed the stern of "César" and delivered a final blow a few minutes after 11:00 am. Both fleets then drifted apart for some time and became temporarily becalmed.
Around noon, both fleets observed that the waters were teeming with sharks attracted by the noise and blood. French casualties were greatly increased due to the high number of troops packed onto the lower decks: a minimum of 900 per ship and no fewer than 1,300 on "Ville de Paris". In order to lessen the confusion, the French had been throwing the dead (and perhaps the near-dead) overboard, a rich feast for the sharks.
French retreat.
The French now lay totally to the leeward of the British fleet, which stood between them and their destination. They had little option on the re-emergence of the wind but to sail west with it and attempt escape. At 1:00 pm the frigate "Richemont", under the command of Captain De Mortemart, but with Denis Decrès in charge of the marines, was sent to join a towing cable to the heavily crippled "Glorieux". "Souverain" moved alongside to provide covering fire. However, the British, with both wind and cannon-power in their favour, moved a number of ships up to block this movement.
The captain of "Glorieux" was already dead, and the ship was now under command of the senior officer remaining, Lieutenant Trogoff de Kerlessi. "Souverain" and "Richmond" retreated under heavy fire, and Kerlessi had little choice but to tear the flag from the mast and surrender, which was done to "Royal Oak". Captain Burnett used this opportunity to restock his depleted powder supplies. Meanwhile, "Monarch" stood alongside "Andromache", who was acting as a supply ship to the British fleet; 40 barrels of powder were exchanged.
In the next action, around 1:30 pm, "Centaur" and "Bedford" attacked the stricken "César", captained by Bernard de Marigny, who refused to surrender and was seriously wounded in the first five minutes. Command then fell to his Captain Paul.
With their formation shattered and many of their ships severely damaged, the French fell away to the southwest in small groups. Rodney attempted to redeploy and make repairs before pursuing the French. By 2:00 pm the wind had freshened and a general chase ensued. As the British pressed south, "Ardent". After taking possession of "Glorieux", they caught up with the French rear at around 3:00 pm. Admiral de Grasse signalled other ships to protect "Ville de Paris", but this was only partially fulfilled. Nine ships from de Vaudreuil's squadron came to his aid.
The British fleet bore down on this small group. In succession Rodney's ships isolated the other three ships. "César", which was soon totally dismasted and in flames, was captured by "Centaur". Soon after 5:00 pm, "Hector", having been flanked by "Canada" and "Alcide", soon became a completely dismasted wreck. Following the mortal wounding of his captain, De la Vicomte, his first lieutenant De Beaumanoir, lowered the ship's flag and surrendered to "Alcide".
Bougainville, who commanded , had ordered eight ships of his own division to aid "Ville de Paris", but only "Ardent" had proceeded. Her isolation caused her to be flanked by "Belliqueux" and "Prince William", soon leading to her capture.
At 5:30 pm de Grasse's "Ville de Paris" stood practically alone and had "Barfleur" in close pursuit, with "Formidable" close behind. Five ships from de Vaudreuil's squadron were trying to protect her, but none in close formation. These were "Triomphant" (de Vaudreuil's flagship), "Bourgogne" (under De La Charette), "Magnifique" (Macarty Macteigue), "Pluton" (De Rions), and "Marseillais" (De Castellane-Majastre). Three ships from de Grasse's squadron also still remained: "Languedoc", "Couronne" and "Sceptre".
De Grasse's closest protector, "Couronne", moved away at the approach of "Canada", who began the final attack on "Ville de Paris". With little support and suffering huge losses in men, de Grasse made another attempt to signal the fleet and gave the order "to build the line on the starboard tack," but again this was not done. By this time, most of the French fleet, apart from those ships that were surrounded, had retreated.
End of the battle.
"Canada" swept past "Ville de Paris", doing damage to the spars and slowing her further. HMS "Russell" under Captain Saumarez then moved diagonally along the stern of the flagship and fired a broadside that ripped the entire length of the ship. "Russell" then moved to the leeward side to hamper the ship's retreat, whilst "Barfleur" moved onto the opposite side. "Languedoc" attempted to approach and give aid but was beaten back by "Duke".
"Ville de Paris" was in desperate condition, with all masts damaged, the rudder shot away, and at least 300 men dead or injured in the cockpit. Around 6:00 pm, overwhelmed and suffering terrible losses, "Ville de Paris" eventually struck her colours, signaling surrender. Hood approached on "Barfleur", which de Grasse had indicated was his preferred method of surrender. In an ungentlemanly act, Hood ordered one final broadside at close quarters, when de Grasse had already indicated surrender.
The boarding crew, which included the British fleet surgeon Gilbert Blane, were horrified at the carnage. Admiral de Grasse appeared not to have a scratch on him, whilst every one of his officers had either been killed or wounded; only three men were unwounded. Rodney boarded soon after, and Hood presented de Grasse to him. With his surrender, the battle had effectively ended, except for a few long-range desultory shots and the retreat of many of the French ships in disorder. The gallantry of William Cornwallis of "Canada" (younger brother of Charles Cornwallis) gained the admiration of the whole fleet. One officer noted that he was "like Hector, as if emulous to revenge his brothers cause."
The Comte de Vaudreuil in "Sceptre", seeing de Grasse's fate through his telescope, took command of the remaining scattered French naval fleet. On 13 April he had 10 ships with him and sailed toward Cap-Français. Rodney signaled his fleet not to pursue the remaining ships. The battle was thus over.
Later that night around 9:00 pm, fire broke out on "César", begun by the entrapped French crew on the lower decks, who had broken into the liquor stores. By 10:30 pm the fire was out of control and the magazine exploded, killing more than 400 French and 58 British sailors, plus the lieutenant in charge, all from "Centaur". Many men jumped overboard trying to avoid the conflagration, only to fall victim to the sharks below. Captain Marigny, who had been confined to his cabin, was one of the many killed, and none of the British prize crew survived.
Casualties.
The British lost 243 killed and 816 wounded, and two captains out of 36 were killed, whilst no ships were lost. The highest casualties were on "Duke", with 73 killed or wounded, including the death of Lieutenant Rowland de Cerjat. The total French casualties have never been stated, but six captains out of 30 were killed. In terms of soldiers and sailors, estimates range from 3,000 killed or wounded and 5,000 captured, to as many as around 3,000 dead, 6,000 wounded, and 6,000 captured. In addition to several French ships captured, others were severely damaged. The high number of casualties demonstrates the considerable force the French committed to achieve the invasion of Jamaica. Of "Ville de Paris"s crew alone, over 400 were killed and more than 700 were wounded—more than the casualties of the entire British fleet. De Grasse—the first French admiral in history to be captured by an enemy—was sent to England, where he was paroled .
Aftermath.
Rodney's failure to follow up the victory by a pursuit was criticised. Samuel Hood said that the 20 French ships would have been captured had Rodney maintained the chase. In 1899 the Navy Records Society published the "Dispatches and Letters Relating to the Blockading of Brest". In the introduction, they include a small biography of William Cornwallis. A poem purportedly written by him includes the lines:
Had a chief worthy Britain commanded our fleet,Twenty-five good French ships had been laid at our feet.
On 17 April Hood was sent in pursuit of the French, and promptly captured two 64-gun ships of the line ("Jason" and ) and two smaller warships in the Battle of the Mona Passage on 19 April. Following this victory, Hood rendezvoused with Rodney at Port Royal on 29 April. As a result of the damage the fleet had sustained in battle, repairs took nine weeks.
Soon after the defeat, the French fleet reached Cap-François in several waves. The main contingent, under de Vaudreuil, arrived on 25 April. "Marseillais", along with "Hercule", and "Éveillé", arrived on 11 May. In May all 26 French ships from the battle arrived from Martinique and were soon joined by 12 Spanish ships. Disease struck the French forces, in particular the soldiers, of whom thousands died. The allies' hesitation and indecision soon led to the abandonment of the attack on Jamaica. Instead the French and Spanish focused on protecting their own territories. Jamaica remained a British colony, as indeed did Barbados, St. Lucia and Antigua.
Disaster struck months after the battle when Admiral Graves was leading a fleet back to England that included the French prizes from the battle. The fleet encountered the 1782 Central Atlantic hurricane in September, which hit off Newfoundland. "Glorieux", "Hector" and "Ville de Paris", along with other ships, foundered or sank with heavy loss of life.
Reactions.
News of the battle reached France in June and was met with despair. The defeat along with the loss of "Ville de Paris" was a devastating blow to French king Louis XVI. The navy minister, the Marquis de Castries, greeted the news as "a grim disaster." The Comte de Vergennes felt undermined in the confidence of the French navy. All blame lay on the Comte de Grasse, whilst he himself sought long to clear his name. He blamed his subordinates de Vaudreuil and Bougainville for the defeat, but an infuriated Louis bluntly told de Grasse to retire.
The battle had repercussions for France's finances: the monetary loss was huge. On " Ville de Paris" alone, 36 chests of money worth at least £500,000 were found, this being payment for the troops. During the first four years of the war, the French navy had lost four ships of the line (three of them to accidents), whereas during 1782 it would lose 15 ships of the line, nearly half of these in April alone. The losses of these ships were significant. Nevertheless, Louis promised to build more ships after new taxes were levied. The French finance minister, Jean-François Joly de Fleury, successfully secured the addition of a Vingtième income tax, the third and last one of its kind in the ancien regime.
There was widespread celebration in Britain upon news of the victory. In the newspaper "Cumberland Pacquet" it was noted, "A joy unknown for years past seemed to spread itself amongst all ranks of people." On his return Rodney was feted as a hero, and a number of cartoons and caricatures were created to commemorate the victory. He presented the Comte de Grasse personally to King George III as a prisoner, and was created a peer with £2,000 a year settled on the title in perpetuity. A number of paintings were commissioned to celebrate his victory, notably by Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds. Hood was also elevated to the peerage, whilst Drake and Affleck were made baronets.
Impact on peace negotiations.
Following the Franco-American victory at Yorktown six months earlier and the change of Government in England, peace negotiations in Paris had begun among Britain, the American colonies, France, and Spain in early 1782. The battle had a significant effect on those talks when news arrived of its outcome in June. The result of the Battle of the Saintes transferred the strategic initiative to the British, whose dominance at sea was reasserted. News of the defeat reached the Americans, who soon realised they were unlikely to have much French support in the future. American General Nathanael Greene had high hopes of French assistance in the recapture of Charleston, but the defeat led to its abandonment.
No longer humbled, the British stiffened their resolve: they objected to American claims on the Newfoundland fisheries and Canada. As a result the American negotiators led by John Jay became more amenable. Not only did they drop their minimum demands and insist on the single precondition of recognition of their independence, they also put forward America's abandonment of its commitment to make no separate peace treaty without the French. The victory at the Saintes thus signaled a collapse in the Franco-American alliance. Despite this the battle did not affect the overall outcome of the American Revolution.
De Castries urged Spain to join the French to send another armada against the British West Indies. On the theory of this victory, it would win bargaining power to force Britain's acceptance of American independence. Vergennes, however, was desperate for peace, and time was running out: France was approaching the limits of its ability to borrow money. France had also promised not to make peace with England until Spain had conquered their main war aim, Gibraltar. By October this attempt had been defeated: a huge Spanish attempt in September was repelled with heavy losses, following which Richard Howe, with a large naval convoy, then relieved the garrison. As a result Vergennes demanded that Spain give up its claim on Gibraltar to make peace, to which the latter acquiesced.
The Comte de Grasse, who was a high-profile prisoner in Britain, was used to exchange messages of peace between Great Britain and France. A preliminary peace treaty between Great Britain and America was signed on 30 November 1782. Thus, with the Americans split from their allies, peace was signed with France and Spain in January 1783. Initial articles of peace were signed in July, with a full treaty following in September 1783. Owing to the military successes in 1782, the peace treaties that brought the war to an end were less disadvantageous for Britain than had been anticipated.
Impact on naval tactics.
Superior British seamanship and gunnery ruled the day in what was considered the greatest naval victory at sea for the British over the French during the American Revolutionary War. Their victory enabled the British to retain all their West Indian islands in the Treaty of Paris, helping to end the war.
The battle is famous for the innovative British tactic of "breaking the line," in which the British ships passed through a gap in the French line, engaging the enemy from leeward and throwing them into disorder. Arguably the battle was not the first time a line had been broken: Dano–Norwegian admiral Niels Juel had done this in the Battle of Køge Bay more than a 100 years earlier; and even earlier the Dutch admiral Michiel de Ruyter had used it for the first time in the last day of the Four Days' Battle in 1666 (and again in the Battle of Schooneveld and the Battle of Texel of 1673). Historians disagree about whether the tactic was intentional or made possible by weather. If intentional, who should receive credit is ambiguous: Rodney, his Scottish Captain-of-the-Fleet and aide-de-camp, Sir Charles Douglas, or John Clerk of Eldin
As a result of the battle, British naval tactics changed. The old method had involved the attacking fleet spreading itself along the entire enemy line. In the five formal fleet actions involving the Royal Navy between the Battle of the Saintes and the Battle of Trafalgar, all were victories for the British and achieved by the creation of localised numerical superiority.
Monuments.
A huge ornate monument to the three captains lost in the battle—William Blair, William Bayne and Robert Manners—was erected to their memory in Westminster Abbey.
A monument in Spanish Town, Jamaica, was created to honour Admiral Rodney's role in the battle. It was created by the sculptor John Bacon in 1801. Two of the "Ville de Paris" guns flank Rodney's statue.
Order of battle.
France.
Not in line: Frigates "Richemont" (Mortemart); "Amazone" (Ensign Bourgarel de Martignan, acting captain replacing Montguyot); "Aimable" (Lieutenant de Suzannet); "Galathée" (Lieutenant de Roquart); corvette "Cérès" (Lieutenant de Paroy); and cutter "Clairvoyant" (Ensign de Daché); cutter "Pandour" (Grasse-Limermont).
In popular culture.
The battle is the subject of the title track on "No Grave But the Sea," the 2017 album by the Scottish "pirate metal" band Alestorm. The lyrics mention de Grasse, the British ships "Duke" and "Bedford", and the tactic of "breaking the line."
The battle was the climax of the first written Richard Bolitho novel by Alexander Kent.
The battle is featured in "Le Dernier Panache", a show in the Puy du Fou, wherein the show's main character, François de Charette, fights in the Battle of the Saintes. In the show and in reality he fought the battle as a lieutenant de vaisseau.
In the verse epic Omeros, by Nobel-prize-winning poet Derek Walcott, which is set largely on St. Lucia, the retired British officer Major Plunkett is researching the battle. Two chapters tell the story of his namesake Midshipman Plunkett, who dies in the battle.


Red River Campaign Union order of battle

The following is the organization of the Union forces engaged in the Red River Campaign, during the American Civil War in 1864. Order of battle compiled from the army organization during the campaign. The Confederate order of battle is listed separately.
Union forces, March 31.
Army of the Gulf (Department of the Gulf).
MG Nathaniel P. Banks, Commanding
XIII Corps.
BG Thomas E. G. Ransom "(until Apr 8")

BG Robert A. Cameron
XIX Corps.
MG William B. Franklin
Army of the Tennessee (detachment).
BG Andrew J. Smith
Union forces, April 30.
Army of the Gulf (Department of the Gulf).
MG Nathaniel P. Banks, Commanding
XIII Corps (detachment).
MG John A. McClernand
XIX Corps.
MG William B. Franklin "(until May 2)"

BG William H. Emory
Army of the Tennessee (detachment).
BG Andrew J. Smith


Massacre of Kommeno

The Massacre of Kommeno (; ) was a Nazi war crime perpetrated by members of the Wehrmacht in the village of Kommeno, Greece, in 1943, during the German occupation of Greece in World War II.
Background.
Geography.
Kommeno is a village in western Greece near Arta. It is located on the east bank of the Arachthos river, north of the Gulf of Ambracia. According to the 1940 census, it had 776 inhabitants engaged in agriculture and fishing.
1943 in Kommeno.
By the summer of 1943, Greek partisan organizations such as ELAS and EDES had assembled strong armed bands which frequently attacked the Axis occupation forces. As the partisans relied upon civilians for food and intelligence, the Wehrmacht applied collective responsibility to entire communities and systematically used mass reprisals to intimidate the population. The massacre of Kommeno is a typical example of this policy.
On 12 August 1943 a small food requisitioning detachment of partisans reached Kommeno. While collecting food, a two-man Wehrmacht reconnaissance team drove into the village and upon seeing the partisans, made a U-turn and drove away. Fearing reprisals, the locals spent the night in the fields and sent a delegation to the Italian commander in Arta to explain the situation. Being reassured that there wouldn't be any consequences, they returned to their homes and prepared to celebrate the Assumption on the 15th.
On the evening of 15 August, a marriage had taken place in Kommeno and many people from the village and the surrounding area stayed up late celebrating.
The massacre.
At dawn on 16 August, 120 men of the 12th Company of the 98th Regiment of the 1st Mountain Division under the command of "Leutnant" Willibald Röser drove to Kommeno on lorries. On the previous night, the regiment commander "Oberst" had given them a short, fierce speech alleging that they were going to wipe out a partisan nest and ordering them to spare no one. Most of the men had been fighting in the Eastern Front and they were accustomed to carrying out similar reprisals against the local population.
The soldiers surrounded the village from three directions, leaving unattended only the access to the Arachthos river. Houses were first attacked with grenades and as villagers awoke and tried to flee, they were indiscriminately shot at. Many women, children and elderly fell victims.
Among the first casualties was the village priest, who was killed by Röser as he begged him to spare his church fold. Several eyewitness reports described women being raped, people beaten and corpses humiliated. Around forty of the marriage guests that were still awake celebrating were also murdered.
The only escape route lay across the river and many villagers managed to cross it, either swimming or onboard small boats. After seizing livestock and looting valuables, the Germans set the village ablaze.
Aftermath.
The official list of casualties includes 317 victims, among which 73 children aged under ten, 20 entire families and the newlyweds. A monument commemorating the massacre has been erected in the main square.
The official Wehrmacht reports about the events in Kommeno falsely claimed that the village was in partisan hands who opened heavy fire against the Germans. It also claimed that 150 "partisans" were killed as a result.
Salminger was killed in an ambush by partisans on 1 October 1943. In reprisal, German forces of the 1st Mountain Division perpetrated the Lyngiades massacre on 3 October 1943.
Röser was killed in November 1944 in Freiburg during an airstrike.
The divisional commander, "Generalleutnant" Walter Stettner went missing after mid-October 1944 near Belgrade, and was never brought to justice for the atrocities in Kommeno.
No reparations were paid to the families of the victims.


308th Brigade Support Battalion

The 308th Brigade Support Battalion is a U.S. Army battalion was formed 23 February as the 308th Quartermaster Sterilization Battalion at Vancouver Barracks, Washington. The battalion was broken up 1 August 1943 and reorganized and Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment was redesignated as the 308th Quartermaster Fumigation and Bath Battalion. The other companies became the 855th, 856th, 857th, and 858th Quartermaster Fumigation and Bath Companies. On 1 November 1943, the 308th was once again reorganized and redesignated as the Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 308th Quartermaster Battalion. The battalion took part in World War II in the Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe campaigns, and was inactivated 25 November 1945 in Austria.
The 308th Quartermaster Battalion was reformed on 14 September 1961 as part of the Regular Army and activated 25 September 1961 in Germany. The battalion was reorganized and redesignated 2 August 1965 as the 308th Supply and Service Battalion, and inactivated 26 July 1971 in Germany.
On 15 June 2005 the 308th Support Battalion was again organised and activated 18 July 2007 at Fort Lewis, Washington in support of the 17th Fires Brigade.


OB West

Oberbefehlshaber West (German: initials OB West), German for "high commander in the West") was the overall commander of the "Westheer", the German armed forces on the Western Front during World War II. It was directly subordinate to the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (the German armed forces High Command). The area under the command of the OB West varied as the war progressed. At its farthest extent it reached the French Atlantic coast. By the end of World War II in Europe it was reduced to commanding troops in Bavaria.


Mastermind (audio drama)

Mastermind is an audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series "Doctor Who". This audio drama was produced by Big Finish Productions.
Plot.
The Vault – an archive of alien artefacts securely stored deep beneath the Angel of the North.

There's also a prisoner in the Vault. An extraterrestrial known as the Master. He has been on Earth for some time, but now he's under lock and key.

This is his story.

Or, as Captain Ruth Matheson and Warrant Officer Charlie Sato discover… perhaps it is theirs.


Siege of Corinth Confederate order of battle

The following units and commanders of the Confederate Army fought at the Siege of Corinth (29 Apr-30 May 1862) of the American Civil War. The Union order of battle is shown separately. Order of battle compiled from the Official Records of the American Civil War as they appeared on June 30, 1862.
Department Number Two.
Gen Pierre G. T. Beauregard
Army of Tennessee.
Gen Braxton Bragg
I Corps.
MG Leonidas Polk
II Corps.
MG Thomas C. Hindman <br>
MG Samuel Jones
III Corps.
MG William J. Hardee
Reserve Corps.
MG John C. Breckinridge
Army of the West.
MG Earl Van Dorn


8th U-boat Flotilla

The 8th U-boat Flotilla (German "8. Unterseebootsflottille") was formed in June 1941 in Königsberg under the command of "Kapitänleutnant" Georg-Wilhelm Schulz, who also at this time commanded the 6th U-boat Flotilla in Danzig. It was primarily a training flotilla but in the last months of the war some flotilla boats were in combat against the Soviet Navy in the Baltic Sea. The flotilla was disbanded in January 1945.


John F. Baker Jr.

John Franklin Baker Jr. (October 30, 1945 – January 20, 2012) was a United States Army Master Sergeant who served in the Vietnam War and a recipient of the Medal of Honor.
Personal life.
Baker was born in Davenport, Iowa, and attended Moline High School from 1963 to 1966. At 5' 1", he was a gymnast before joining the army. He became a "tunnel rat" in Vietnam, a soldier who entered Viet Cong tunnels searching out the enemy and destroying their caches of war material. Baker made the military his career, retiring in 1989. He then began working as a computer analyst at a Veterans Hospital in South Carolina. In addition to serving as the Vice-President of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, he served as a member on the Nation's Monuments and Cemeteries Committee.
In 2008, the I-280 Bridge, connecting Davenport, Iowa with Rock Island, Illinois, was renamed the Sergeant John F. Baker Jr. Bridge in his honor.
In 2018, the Rock Island Arsenal in Rock Island, Illinois put his name on a street in its new Eagle Point Housing Area.
Baker suffered from heart problems in the last years of his life and began using oxygen in 2010. He died aged 66 on January 20, 2012, after collapsing at his Northeast Richland home.
Career.
Baker entered the U.S. Army in Moline, Illinois, serving as a private in A Company, 2nd Battalion of the 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Division. In Vietnam, he took part in Operation Attleboro which began in September 1966. On November 5, 1966, Baker and his unit were called to assist another squad who were taking enemy fire. En route, A Company began to take fire and lost their lead soldier. Together with two other soldiers, Baker took over the head of the column and assisted in destroying two enemy positions. They were moving to take two others when a hand grenade knocked Baker off his feet.
With the two other soldiers wounded, Baker "single handedly" destroyed another bunker before recovering his comrades. Despite taking further fire from enemy bunkers and snipers, he continually fell back to replenish ammunition and take back several wounded. For these actions, he was awarded the Medal of Honor along with Captain Robert F. Foley, who also received the Medal of Honor for his actions in the battle. When awarding the medal, President Lyndon B Johnson stated:
Medal of Honor citation.
Rank and organization: Sergeant (then Pfc.), U.S. Army, Company A, 2d Battalion, 27th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division. Place and date: Republic of Vietnam, November 5, 1966. Entered service at: Moline, Ill. Born: October 30, 1945, Davenport, Iowa.
Citation:


Darva Conger

Darva Conger (born September 21, 1965) is a former emergency department nurse who in 2000 was selected as the winner of the reality television show "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?"
Conger previously served in the U.S. Air Force, and at one time was stationed at Hill AFB in Utah, and then at Scott Air Force Base, near St. Louis.
She studied nursing at Southern Illinois University at the Edwardsville and Carbondale campuses, graduating "magna cum laude".
Conger's mother was American actress Susan Harrison.
"Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?" and aftermath.
In the show, which aired as a single two-hour broadcast on February 15, 2000, 50 women competed to be the bride of an unknown millionaire they did not see during the show, except in silhouette. At the end of the show, "millionaire" Rick Rockwell chose Conger to be his wife and married her on the spot. In addition to being wed to Rockwell, Conger also won a 3-carat (600 mg) diamond ring and more than $100,000 in prizes. After the honeymoon, it was announced that Conger was seeking an annulment, saying Rockwell had misrepresented himself. The annulment was finalized on April 5, 2000. Conger was the focus of media attention for not only winning the "contest" but also for getting an annulment so quickly after the marriage.
After the show aired, Conger made numerous public comments about how she was offended by Rockwell's forcibly kissing her on stage, that they never consummated their marriage, and how the entire episode went against her morals. She then posed nude for "Playboy" magazine in August 2000. In February 2001, Conger and Rockwell appeared on "The Larry King Show" and sparred over comments each of them had made about the other, but Conger also said that she should not have appeared on the program at all and was harsh in her statements about Rockwell.
Later life.
Conger faced Olga Korbut on an episode of "Celebrity Boxing" which aired on May 22, 2002. Conger won by unanimous decision.
She later married physician assistant Jim Arellano in 2003, with whom she had one son, Cassius. They divorced in 2009 and she and her son live in Northern California while she works as a nurse anesthetist.


24th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment

24th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union army during the American Civil War. It was organized around September-December 1861 at Camp Massasoit in Readville, under Col. Thomas G. Stevenson. The regiment served with the Coast Division commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside. The Coast Division was deployed in January 1862 for operations on the coast of North Carolina, and participated in the Battle of Roanoke Island and the Battle of New Bern among other engagements.
Service.
On December 9, the regiment left Massachusetts for Annapolis, Maryland and was part of Foster's Brigade, itself a part of Burnside's Expeditionary Corps. The regiment took part in the Battle of Roanoke Island on February 8, 1862, and the Battle of New Bern on March 14.


42nd Royal Tank Regiment

The 42nd Royal Tank Regiment (42 RTR) was an armoured regiment of the British Army from 1938 until 1956. It was part of the Royal Tank Regiment, itself part of the Royal Armoured Corps.
Mobilisation.
The unit was formed on 1 November 1938 by converting the 7th (23rd London) Battalion, East Surrey Regiment, a Territorial Army (TA) infantry battalion, into a tank unit. For a short while it was 42nd (7th (23rd London) Battalion, East Surrey Regiment) Battalion of the Royal Tank Corps before the corps was redesignated the Royal Tank Regiment in 1939.
World War II.
The regiment was mobilised on the outbreak of war on 3 September 1939 as part of 21st Army Tank Brigade, composed of three TA battalions of the Royal Tank Regiment.
The unit formed part of 1st Army Tank Brigade in 1941–42, serving with it in the Western Desert Campaign including the Second Battle of El Alamein.
For the invasion of Northern Europe in 1944, it was equipped with Canal Defence Light Grant tanks. These were not used in battle.
Postwar.
From 1947, when the TA was reconstituted, the regiment was in 22nd Armoured Brigade under the 56th (London) Infantry Division.
In 1956, the regiment was converted back to infantry, becoming the 23rd London again.


Prairie Grove Confederate order of battle

The following Confederate Army units and commanders fought in the Battle of Prairie Grove of the American Civil War on December 7, 1862, in Washington County, Arkansas. The Union order of battle is listed separately.
Trans-Mississippi Army.
MG Thomas C. Hindman (12,059 men on the battlefield)


Jo Grant

Jo Grant is a fictional character played by Katy Manning in the long-running British science fiction television series "Doctor Who". Jo was introduced by Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks in the first episode of "Doctor Who"s eighth season (1971) as a new companion of series protagonist the Doctor, in his third incarnation (Jon Pertwee). After the Doctor's previous companion Liz Shaw (Caroline John), a scientist and intellectual, the production team looked to introduce a less experienced companion to act as an audience surrogate. Jo appeared in 15 stories (77 episodes).
Within the series narrative, Jo is a junior civilian operative for United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, an international organisation that defends the Earth from alien threats, assigned as an assistant to the Doctor, who is initially stranded on earth. Once he regains use of his time machine, the TARDIS, she accompanies him in travels across time and space. Jo departs the Doctor's company in the 1973 television serial "The Green Death" having fallen in love with a human professor. On television, she next encounters the Doctor over thirty-seven years later in the 2010 "Sarah Jane Adventures" serial "Death of the Doctor".
Manning and Pertwee enjoyed a close working relationship; Manning felt this added to the success of the partnership between Jo and the Third Doctor. Though her character was criticised for not being a progressive interpretation of a woman, Manning felt both that feminism was not a contemporary concern and Jo had her virtues aside from her intelligence, such as her loyalty. The character's exit is generally considered one of the emotional high points of "Doctor Who"s 1963–89 run; Russell T Davies felt pressure to remain true to this exit when re-introducing the character in 2010.
Appearances.
Television.
Jo first appears in the 1971 serial "Terror of the Autons", having been assigned to the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) as a replacement for Liz Shaw (Caroline John). Apparently, she gained the assignment to UNIT because her uncle, a high ranking civil servant, had "pulled some strings". Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) assigns her to the Doctor, who is initially dismayed when he finds out that she is not a scientist, but accepts her because he does not have the heart to tell her otherwise. An enthusiastic, bubbly and sometimes scatter-brained blonde, Jo soon endears herself to the other members of UNIT, especially Captain Mike Yates (Richard Franklin) and Sergeant Benton (John Levene). The Third Doctor is also particularly attached to her, and she is devoted to him, refusing to leave his side even where mortal danger is involved.
There is plenty of danger to go around as well, especially after the Time Lords restore the Third Doctor's ability to travel through time and space. Jo faces the hazards and wonders of travel with the Doctor with courage and plucky determination. Together with the Doctor and UNIT, she encounters such perils as killer daffodils, time-eating monsters, and renegade Time Lord the Master (Roger Delgado). She is miniaturised, hypnotised, flung through time, nearly aged to death, and menaced by giant maggots and ancient dæmons. Over time, Jo also grows more confident and mature, until she is independent enough to stand up to the Doctor, which she does in her last serial, "The Green Death" in May–June 1973. During the events of that story, Jo falls in love with Professor Clifford Jones (Stewart Bevan), a young, Nobel Prize-winning scientist leading an environmentalist group. At the end, she agrees to marry Jones and go with him to the Amazon to study its vegetation, the news of which the Doctor greets with a mixture of pride and sadness.
Jo Grant (now Jo Jones) returned in two episodes of the fourth series of "The Sarah Jane Adventures" in "Death of the Doctor" (2010), meeting her replacement companion Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) for the first time, and subsequently the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith). The two attend a memorial service for the Doctor, but later learn aliens faked his death in order to steal the TARDIS using Jo and Sarah Jane's memories. Jo is still married, has seven children and twelve grandchildren, and travels with her grandson Santiago (Finn Jones); she is envious of Sarah Jane for having had several Doctor encounters since her departure, but has herself led a fulfilling life travelling the world promoting humanitarian and ecological causes. Ultimately, Jo and Sarah Jane's memories of their time with the Doctor are what defeat an alien plot to steal the TARDIS. After returning her to London, the Doctor discloses to Jo that he secretly visited her during the events of "The End of Time," having checked on all of his previous companions before regenerating into the Eleventh Doctor.
Other media.
The Seventh Doctor encounters an alternate version of Jo in the Virgin New Adventures novel "Blood Heat" in an alternate timeline where the Third Doctor was killed and the Silurians have conquered Earth ("Doctor Who and the Silurians"). A middle-aged Jo is featured in the spin-off novel "Genocide", by Paul Leonard, where she and Jones have a son named Matthew and are divorced, Jo collaborating with the Eighth Doctor and his current companion Samantha Jones to avert a plot to erase the human race from history. Alternatively, text stories in a UNIT-orientated special issue of "Doctor Who Magazine", written as in-universe articles, state that Jo, her husband Clifford and their eight-year-old daughter Katy "now" live in North Wales and she is standing for Parliament as a Green Party candidate. Jo's appearance in "Genocide" was highlighted in a trailer for the re-launched "Doctor Who" range which was included on a number of BBC videos in 1997–78. The trailer used a clip from "Frontier in Space" to illustrate Jo. She briefly appears in the novel "Sometime Never..." as one of several companions abducted by current villains the Council of Eight, who sustain themselves by draining energy from the potential timelines of the Doctor's friends, the novel depicting her abduction and return to Earth after the Doctor defeats the Council.
Conceptual history.
"Doctor Who" (1971–73).
For his first series, producer Barry Letts had primarily worked on stories inherited from the previous production team. When it came to assessing his and script editor Terrance Dicks' approach to the next series, they identified a need to replace the Doctor's assistant, for the purposes of exposition and audience identification. Previous companion Liz Shaw had been conceived of as a brilliant scientist who could discuss matters with the Doctor on an equal footing; the replacement would be younger and more naive, someone who could ask, "Doctor, what's all this about?" An early memo described Grant as "Not a scientist, though with enough basic background to understand what's going on. Other sources, including Barry Letts, have said there was an initial idea to make the character more 'exotic' with a tougher, sexier edge, but not academically brilliant, so as to give the Doctor the much-wanted (by Pertwee) chance to play the father figure. Along with the Brigadier's new second in command, Captain Mike Yates, the character of Jo Grant was inspired by the male-female companion pairing of Jamie McCrimmon and Victoria Waterfield, whom Letts had previously directed, with the intention of a possible romantic subplot for the two. Manning stated in a 1998 interview with "SFX" however, that "With Jon and I there was no need to put any love interests into the show because there was this closeness between Jo and the Doctor, and there was no room for them to have anything else going."
Letts and Dicks also intended that Jo Grant would be cast so as to go beyond the stereotype of a "pretty doll... who can just stand there and scream." They settled on young actress Katy Manning, whose personality had impressed in an otherwise shambolic audition. Others shortlisted for the part included Yutte Stensgaard, Shakira Baksh, Jenny McCracken, Cheryl Hall, and Gabrielle Drake. According to the commentary provided by Letts for the DVD release of "Terror of the Autons", Rula Lenska and Anouska Hempel also auditioned for the role. The same DVD notes that Pertwee himself had spotted Manning in the lobby of the BBC TV Centre, but had not known who she was. He told Letts he had seen the "perfect actress" for the role, but Letts was unaware of who he was extolling. When Letts cast Manning and introduced her to the show's star, Pertwee was delighted and said "I told you she was the girl for the part". Both Jenny McCracken and Cheryl Hall explain on the DVD commentary for the "Special Edition" of "Carnival of Monsters", that they were on the final shortlist of six actresses for the part of Jo, losing out to Manning. Barry Letts cast them both in "Carnival of Monsters" as a direct consequence of their auditions.
Like previous companions, Manning's character was clothed in contemporaneous fashions and attitudes, providing reference points for the audience of a science fiction series that could not incorporate events of the day. Similar to Pertwee's Doctor, Jo Grant was an "action-style" character, with the actress performing some of her own stunts — understandably so, given that her diminutive stature could not easily be doubled by a male stunt performer — though it is debatable whether the character fully broke any stereotypes. Reflecting on her appearances, Manning stated that feminism "wouldn’t have been discussed around my era" and was not a concern in the depiction of Jo. She felt Jo provided a good contrast to the Doctor's intellectual confidence; she is able to handle a situation one moment before acting irrational the next, this made it "exciting for everybody". Manning felt that though "academia was not her strong point...loyalty was" stating that the character would "go through hell and high water for any of the UNIT group". Piers D. Britton, a writer of reference works of "Doctor Who" felt that Jo's characterisation posited her as subordinate to the Doctor; for example she encourages "the assumption that she is his ward". Jo's romantic interest, Clifford Jones, in "The Green Death" is posited both as "a younger counterpart to the Doctor" and "his 'appropriate' replacement within the heteronormative order".
"The Sarah Jane Adventures" (2010).
In April 2010, it was announced in a press release that the character would return in an episode of the fourth series of the "Doctor Who" spin-off "The Sarah Jane Adventures", also guest-starring Matt Smith (the Eleventh Doctor). Elisabeth Sladen, who portrayed the lead role of Sarah Jane Smith in the spin-off, indicated that she was "delighted to be working with [Manning]", having known the actress for a very long time. Manning was surprised but very pleased to be asked to appear in the "Doctor Who" spin-off; playing Jo again was something she had "never really considered". "Doctor Who" 2005–2010 executive producer and creator of "The Sarah Jane Adventures" Russell T Davies later indicated in an interview with "Doctor Who Magazine" that Jo's return would be more than a "cameo", and a "full-blooded" appearance.
Davies felt pressure to remain true to the original character of Jo. In an interview with "SFX" he stated that he watched old episodes of the show "for the first time ever" in planning a story within the "Doctor Who" universe. He wanted to "preserve the absolute beauty of what Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks did" with Manning's last "Doctor Who" story, "The Green Death". Manning was "surprised at how it all came back" and felt that Davies had "done a wonderful job of showing how Jo has developed over the years". She felt that Jo was still "the young and awestruck girl she was" but "tempered by experience and maturity." Davies expressed his contention that the character had been left "with the promise of happiness, of adventure, of love and joy" and it would be wrong to interfere with that. At the official "Doctor Who" Convention 'Panopticon' organized by the Doctor Who Appreciation Society to celebrate the show's 30th anniversary in 1993, Manning was interviewed on stage with Jon Pertwee and insisted that Jo would have divorced Dr Jones, stating "I tell you what, she's left him! The one she went.. no way! She definitely left him. She got half way up the Amazon and said 'this is not going to work'. So I would only come back if she wasn't still married". However, in the commentary for the DVD releases of both "The Green Death" (revised edition) and "Death Of The Doctor", Manning contradicted this statement, stressing that Jo would never have divorced and would have remained with Jones.
Media impact and reception.
In his 2005 book, "Inside the Tardis: The Worlds of Doctor Who", James Chapman described Jo as a reversion to "the screaming bimbo type" as a "well-meaning but accident prone dolly bird". He claims however, that Manning's "engaging personality and 'kooky' sex appeal... made her one of the most popular Doctor Who companions". The character remains remembered for this sex appeal, particularly in light of a naked photoshoot in the magazine "Girl Illustrated" with a Dalek prop which Chapman states "gave her an extra-diegetic significance in the popular history of "Doctor Who"". Lester Haines from the British technology news and opinion website, "The Register", stated in light of a similar (clothed) photoshoot Kylie Minogue did in 2007 to promote her role as Astrid Peth that she was "unlikely to replace Katy Manning in veteran fans' affections".
In an online poll conducted by the "Radio Times" in 2010, with over 3,000 participants, Jo was voted the ninth most popular companion out of forty-eight options. Gavin Fuller of "The Daily Telegraph" listed Jo as the eighth best companion in "Doctor Who" history, describing her as a "perfect foil" and "insanely loyal". He additionally felt that she and the Third Doctor had "one of the warmest Doctor-companion pairings of the original series, as clearly seen in her leaving scene". In 2011, Mark Harrison of Den of Geek listed the character's exit as the third greatest companion farewell scene, stating it to be "the most emotional in Jon Pertwee's era" and "a bittersweet exit for one of the most popular companions." Will Salmon of "SFX" similarly listed Jo's departure as the fourth greatest farewell, noting how it was the first time the Doctor was "truly upset" since leaving Susan. Russell T. Davies believed that emotional moments such as Jo's departure were strongly defined in "Doctor Who" original 1963–89 run; being "so memorable [to fans] simply because they are the only tiny emotional moments in the entire output".
Fraser McAlpine, reviewing Jo's appearances as companion for BBC America's Anglophenia blog felt to succeed as a foil to the "aloof" Third Doctor, having "the charm of nowadays on her side". He felt that Manning portrayed Jo's "mixed up innocence beautifully" and felt that her departure illustrated the Doctor's innate loneliness. "The A.V. Club" Christopher Bahn stated that Jo was "one of [his] favorites", but that, despite her "sweet and daffy charm", she was "a big step backwards" from her predecessor Liz Shaw in terms of pairing the Doctor with someone equal. Discussing Jo's return in "The Sarah Jane Adventures" serial "Death of the Doctor", Ian Berriman of "SFX" magazine thought that "Davies nails the character the moment she walks through the door – clumsy, babbling, sweet-natured". He felt that "It’s really good to have her back" and stated the interaction between Jo and Sarah Jane to be "a treat".


Natori Masatake

Natori Sanjurō Masatake was a samurai and an exponent of ninjutsu. He is most noted for having written the "Shōninki", a ninja training manual, and for founding the Kishū-Ryū school of martial arts.
Natori was a samurai of the Kii branch of the Tokugawa clan, a house which was directly related to the "shōgun". His family joined the clan in 1654, and his father, Natori Masatomi, served under Tokugawa Yorinobu as the head of undercover military operations. Masatake was originally employed as a page, but on reaching adulthood became a foot soldier for the clan. His elder brother inherited his father's position, but despite this Masatake rose through the ranks to the position of "ogaban", a senior retainer. He published the "Shōninki" in 1681. In this work, he set down his thoughts on the role and techniques of the ninja, and the teachings of his family's military arts, focusing primarily on moral character.
Natori went by a number of names during his life, including Natori Masazumi, Fujinosshuishi Masatake and Fujibayashi Masatake.
His date of death is uncertain, but has been given in some sources as 1708.


2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich

The 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" () was one of 38 divisions of the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II. "Das Reich" served during the invasion of France and took part in several major battles on the Eastern Front, including in the Battle of Prokhorovka against the 5th Guards Tank Army at the Battle of Kursk. It was then transferred to the West and took part in the fighting in Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge, ending the war in Hungary and Austria. "Das Reich" committed the Oradour-sur-Glane and Tulle massacres.
Operational history.
In August 1939 Adolf Hitler placed the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) and the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT) under the operational command of the OKH, (Supreme High Command of the German Army). Events during the Invasion of Poland raised doubts over the combat effectiveness of the SS-VT. Himmler insisted that the SS-VT should be allowed to fight in its own formations under its own commanders, while the OKW tried to have the SS-VT disbanded altogether. Hitler was unwilling to upset either the army or Himmler, and chose a third path. He ordered that the SS-VT form its own divisions but that the divisions would be under army command.
In October 1939 the SS-Verfügungstruppe regiments "Deutschland", "Germania" and "Der Führer" were organized into the SS-Verfügungs-Division with Paul Hausser as commander. Thereafter, the SS-VT and the LSSAH took part in combat training while under army commands in preparation for Fall Gelb against the Low Countries and France in 1940.
In May 1940, the "Der Führer" Regiment was detached from the SS-VT Division and relocated near the Dutch border, with the remainder of the division behind the line in Münster, awaiting the order to invade the Netherlands. "Der Führer" Regiment and LSSAH participated in the ground invasion of the Netherlands which began on 10 May. On the following day the rest of the SS-VT Division crossed into the Netherlands, participating in the drive for the Dutch central front and Rotterdam, which they reached on 12 May. After that city had been captured, the SS-VT Division, along with other German formations, were sent to "mop up" the remaining French-Dutch force holding out in the area of Zeeland and the islands of Walcheren and South Beveland.
After the fighting in the Netherlands ended, the SS-VT Division was ordered to make for France. On 24 May the LSSAH, along with the SS-VT Division were positioned to hold the perimeter around Dunkirk and reduce the size of the pocket containing the encircled British Expeditionary Force and French forces. A patrol from the SS-VT Division crossed the canal at Saint-Venant, but was destroyed by British armor. A larger force from the SS-VT Division then crossed the canal and formed a bridgehead at Saint-Venant; 30 miles from Dunkirk. On the following day, British forces attacked Saint-Venant, forcing the SS-VT Division to retreat and relinquish ground. On 26 May the German advance resumed. On 27 May the "Deutschland" regiment of the SS-VT Division reached the allied defensive line on the Leie River at Merville. They forced a bridgehead across the river and waited for the SS Division "Totenkopf" to arrive to cover their flank. What arrived first was a unit of British tanks, which penetrated their position. The SS-VT managed to hold on against the British tank force, which got to within 15 feet of commander Felix Steiner's position. Only the arrival of the "Totenkopf" Panzerjäger platoon saved the "Deutschland" from being destroyed and their bridgehead lost. By 30 May, most of the remaining Allied forces had been pushed back into Dunkirk where they were evacuated by sea to England. The SS-VT Division next took part in the drive towards Paris.
After the close of the Battle of France, the SS-VT was officially renamed the Waffen-SS in July 1940. In December 1940 the "Germania" Regiment was removed from the "Verfügungs-Division" and used to form the cadre of a new division, SS Division Germania. It was made up of mostly Danes, Norwegians, Dutch and Flemish volunteers from the occupied territories. By the start of 1941, the division was renamed "Reich" (in 1942 "Das Reich"), and "Germania" was renamed 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking.
In April 1941, Germany invaded Yugoslavia and Greece. The LSSAH and "Das Reich" were attached to separate army Panzer Corps. Fritz Klingenberg, a company commander in the "Das Reich", led his men across Yugoslavia to the capital, Belgrade, where a small group in the vanguard accepted the surrender of the city on 13 April. A few days later Yugoslavia surrendered.
For the invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa), "Das Reich" fought with Army Group Center, taking part in the Battle of Yelnya near Smolensk; it was then in the spearhead of Operation Typhoon aimed at the capture of the Soviet capital. By the time "Das Reich" took part in the Battle of Moscow, it had lost 60 percent of its combat strength. It was further reduced in the Soviet Winter Counter-Offensive: for example, the "Der Führer" Regiment was down to 35 men out of the 2,000 that had started the campaign in June. The division was "mauled". By February 1942, it had lost 10,690 men. By mid-1942, the division now known as "Das Reich" was pulled out of the fighting line and sent to the west to refit as a "Panzer-Grenadier Division".
In 1943, "Das Reich" was transferred back from France to the Eastern Front. There it participated in the fighting around Kharkov. Thereafter, it was one of three SS divisions which made up the II SS Panzer Corps, which took part in the Battle of Kursk that summer. "Das Reich" operated in the southern sector of the Kursk bulge. It was pulled out of the battle along with the other SS divisions when the offensive was discontinued, giving the strategic initiative to the Red Army. The Battle of Kursk was the first time that a German strategic offensive was halted before it could break through enemy defences and penetrate to its strategic depths. In October, "Das Reich" was redesignated, this time as "SS Panzer Division "Das Reich"" to reflect its complement of tanks.
March of Das Reich.
In April 1944, Das Reich took up a new base near the city of Montauban in southern France. The location was chosen so that Das Reich could respond quickly to the anticipated Allied invasion of France on either the Atlantic Coast or the Mediterranean Sea. In May the division received 37 Panzer IV and 55 Panzer V tanks, well below the official complement of 62 of each, but a full complement of 30 Sturmgeschütz III assault guns. Fuel and truck shortages hampered training and movement and many of the more than 15,000 men in the division were recent recruits and inadequately trained.
The allied invasion of Normandy took place on 6 June 1944. On 7 June Das Reich was ordered to move to Normandy to reinforce the German units contesting the allied invasion. It would be a journey of approximately and an unopposed movement of men and equipment by railroad would have taken three or four days. However, the option to move by rail had been preempted by the French Resistance. The rail cars to be used for transporting the tanks and equipment were unguarded. In the days before 6 June French operatives of the Special Operations Executive's Pimento network, headed by Anthony Brooks, sabotaged the rail cars by draining the axle oil and replacing it with an abrasive powder that caused the axles of the cars to seize up. The powder had been parachuted in by SOE. The perpetrators of the sabotage were a 16 year old girl named Tetty, her boyfriend, her 14-year old sister, and several of their friends.
As a consequence of the sabotage of the rail cars, Das Reich left Montauban on 8 June with 1,400 vehicles and proceeded northward by road. Travel by road caused the steel tracks of the tanks and assault guns to wear out; vehicles broke down frequently; and fuel was in short supply. Pinprick attacks by groups of resistors, called Maquis, killed 15 Germans on the first two days of the movement. More than 100 French were killed, many of them unarmed civilians. Das Reich had been given the additional task of suppressing the Maquis during its journey, ordered "to break the spirit of the population by making examples." This the Division attempted to do with massacres of hundreds of civilians on 9 and 10 June in Tulle and Oradour-sur-Glane.(see below) Attacks by resistance forces mostly ended on 12 June as Das Reich moved into less favorable territory for ambushes.
Air attacks hindered the progress of Das Reich in the last phases of its northward journey. On 11 June British bombers attacked and destroyed several railcars full of much-needed gasoline at Châtellerault. The air strike was directed by the Special Air Service (SAS) group called Operation Bulbasket. After the advance elements of Das Reich crossed the Loire River on 13 June, the division was under constant air attacks during the day. As a result, Das Reich arrived only piecemeal to the Normandy battlefield between 15 and 30 June, its arrival delayed at least several days by the resistance attacks and air strikes. Rather than going on the offensive to try to push the Allies back into the sea, Das Reich initially found itself mostly plugging gaps in the German defenses. The division was not reunited until 10 July.
Later actions.
On 4 August Hitler ordered a counter-offensive (Operation Lüttich) from Vire towards Avranches; the operation included "Das Reich". However, the Allied forces were prepared for this offensive, and an air assault on the combined German units proved devastating. Paris was liberated on 25 August, and the last of the German forces withdrew over the Seine by the end of August, ending the Normandy campaign. The U.S. 2nd Armored Division had encircled "Das Reich" and the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen around Roncey. In the process "Das Reich" and 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division had lost most of their armored equipment. Around Roncey P-47 Thunderbolts of the 405th Fighter group destroyed a German column of 122 tanks, 259 other vehicles, and 11 artillery pieces. A separate attack by British Typhoons close to La Baleine destroyed 9 tanks, 8 other armored vehicles, and 20 other vehicles. A column around La Chapelle was attacked at point blank range by 2nd Armored Division artillery. Over the course of two hours American artillery fired over 700 rounds into the column. The division suffered the loss of 50 dead, 60 wounded and 197 taken prisoner. Material losses were over 260 German combat vehicles destroyed. Beyond the town another 1,150 German soldiers were killed in combat. The division also lost an additional 96 armored combat vehicles and trucks. On 13 September 1944, "Das Reich" reported having 12,357 officers and men, down from 17,283 on 1 July.
The division surrendered to the U.S. Army in May 1945.
War crimes.
Murder of civilians in Yugoslavia.
During the invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, members of "Das Reich" committed crimes against the civilian population as well as Yugoslav prisoners of war in the area of Alibunar (Vojvodina, Serbia) where an estimated 200 people were murdered. 51 corpses were found in a mass grave in Alibunar's Serbian Orthodox Church's yard, as well as 54 others in the nearby settlement of Selište. The crimes were committed as a retaliation for the involvement of armed civilians during the fighting in the area and the murder of the regimental adjutant.
Murder of Jews in Minsk.
A support unit of the "Das Reich" division aided an SS extermination group in the slaughter of 920 Jews near Minsk in September 1941.
Tulle massacre.
After the Allied second front opened on 6 June 1944, all resistance groups joined "into the uprising". Part of "Das Reich" was ordered to attack strongholds of the rural guerrilla bands of French Resistance fighters as it moved to Normandy. After a successful FTP offensive on 7 and 8 June 1944, "Das Reich" was ordered to the Tulle-Limoges area. The arrival of "Das Reich" troops "rescued the beleaguered" army troops and ended the fighting in the city of Tulle. On 9 June, in reprisal for the German losses, the SS hanged 99 men from the town and another 149 were deported back to Germany.
Oradour-sur-Glane.
The division massacred 642 French civilians in the village of Oradour-sur-Glane on 10 June 1944 in the Limousin region. SS-"Sturmbannführer" Adolf Diekmann, commander of the I Battalion, 4th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment ("Der Führer") that committed the massacre, claimed that it was a just retaliation due to partisan activity in nearby Tulle and the kidnapping of "Sturmbannführer" Helmut Kämpfe, commander of the III Battalion, although the German authorities had already executed ninety-nine people in the Tulle massacre, following the killing of some forty German soldiers in Tulle by the Maquis resistance movement.
On 10 June, Diekmann's battalion sealed off Oradour-sur-Glane, and ordered all the townspeople to assemble in the village square, ostensibly to have their identity papers examined. All the women and children were locked in the church. The men were led to six barns and sheds. One of the six survivors of the massacre, Robert Hebras, described the killings as a deliberate act of mass murder. In 2013, he told the U.K. newspaper "The Mirror" that the SS intentionally burned men, women, and children after locking them in the church and spraying it with machine gun fire:
It was simply an execution. There were a handful of Nazis in front of us, in their uniforms. They just raised their machine guns and started firing across us, at our legs to stop us getting out. They were strafing, not aiming. Men in front of me just started falling. I got caught by several bullets, but I survived because those in front of me got the full impact. I was so lucky. Four of us in the barn managed to get away because we remained completely still under piles of bodies. One man tried to get away before they had gone – he was shot dead. The SS were walking around and shooting anything that moved. They poured petrol on bodies and then set them alight."
Marcel Darthout's experience was similar. His testimony appears in historian Sara Farmer's 2000 book "Martyred Village: Commemorating the 1944 Massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane":
We felt the bullets, which brought me down. I dove... everyone was on top of me. And they were still firing. And there was shouting. And crying. I had a friend who was lying on top of me and who was moaning. And then it was over. No more shots. And they came at us, stepping on us. And with a rifle they finished us off. They finished off my friend who was on top of me. I felt it when he died.
Darthout and Hebras' eyewitness testimony was corroborated by other survivors of the massacre. One other survivor, Roger Godfrin, escaped from the school for refugees despite being shot at by SS soldiers. Only one woman, Marguerite Rouffanche, survived from the church. She later testified that at about five in the afternoon, two German soldiers placed a crate of explosives on the altar and attached a fuse to it. She and another women and her baby hid behind the sacristy; after the explosion they climbed on a stool and jumped out of a window three meters from the ground. A burst of machine gun fire hit all of them, but Rouffanche was able to crawl into the presbytery garden. The woman and infant were killed.
Diekmann was later killed in the battle of Normandy in 1944. On 12 January 1953, a military tribunal in Bordeaux, heard the case against the surviving sixty-five of the approximately two hundred SS soldiers who had been involved. Only twenty-one of them were present. Seven of them were Germans, but fourteen were Alsatians, (French nationals of Germanic culture). On 11 February, twenty defendants were found guilty, but were released after only a few months for lack of evidence. In December 2011 German police raided the homes of six former members of the division, all aged 85 or 86, to determine exactly what role the men had played that day. SS-"Brigadeführer" Heinz Lammerding, who had given the orders for retaliation against the Resistance, died in 1971, following a successful business career in West Germany. The French government never obtained his extradition from the German authorities.
Post-war apologia.
Following the war, one of the regimental commanders of the division, Otto Weidinger, wrote an apologia of the division under the auspices of HIAG, the denialist organization and a lobby group of former Waffen-SS members. The unit narrative was extensive and strived for a so-called official representation of their history, backed by maps and operational orders. "No less than 5 volumes and well over 2,000 pages were devoted to the doings of the 2nd Panzer Division "Das Reich"", points out the military historian S.P. MacKenzie.
The "Das Reich" history was published by HIAG's publishing house Munin Verlag. Its express aim was to publish the "war narratives" of former Waffen-SS member, and the titles did not go through the rigorous processes of historicial research or assessment common in the traditional historical works; they were revisionist accounts unedited by professional historians and presented the former Waffen-SS members' version of events. The "Das Reich" divisional history, like other HIAG publications, focused on the positive, "heroic" side of National Socialism. The French author Jean-Paul Picaper, who studied the Oradour massacre, notes the tendentious nature of Weidinger's narrative: it provided a sanitized version of history without any references to war crimes.
Organisation.
Structure of the division in 1943:


Santiago order of battle

The following units and commanders of the U.S. and Spanish armies fought at the Siege of Santiago during the Spanish–American War from July 3 to July 17, 1898.
U.S..
Commanding General of the United States Army - MG Nelson A. Miles
V Corps.
MG William R. Shafter
General Staff
Headquarters
Cuban.
Army of Liberation.
Lieutenant General Calixto García
"(further composition unknown)"
Spanish.
IV Corps.
Gen José Toral y Velázquez