Axis order of battle for the invasion of Yugoslavia

The Axis order of battle for the invasion of Yugoslavia was made up of the various operational formations of the German "Wehrmacht" and "Waffen-SS", Italian Armed Forces and Hungarian Armed Forces that participated in the invasion of Yugoslavia during World War II, commencing on 6 April 1941. It involved the German 2nd Army, with elements of the 12th Army and a panzer group combined with overwhelming "Luftwaffe" (German Air Force) support. The eighteen German divisions included five panzer divisions, two motorised infantry divisions and two mountain divisions. The German force also included two well-equipped independent motorised regiments and was supported by over 800 aircraft. The Italian 2nd Army and 9th Army committed a total of 22 divisions, and the Royal Italian Air Force () had over 650 aircraft available to support the invasion. The Hungarian 3rd Army also participated, with support from the Royal Hungarian Air Force (, MKHL).
The Axis ground forces had effectively surrounded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia before the invasion began. The German 2nd Army, consisting of one motorised, one mountain, and two infantry corps was concentrated in southwestern Hungary and southeastern Austria, poised to drive south and east. One motorised corps of the German 12th Army was assembled near Sofia, Bulgaria, along with one motorised corps of the First Panzer Group, and these formations were assigned the task of striking the strongest Yugoslav formations stationed along the eastern border of the country. A further motorised corps was deployed near Timișoara in western Romania, ready to thrust south into the Banat region. The Italian 2nd Army, consisting of one fast () corps, one motorised corps and three infantry corps was assembled in northeastern Italy, with the task of driving southeast down the Dalmatian coast. The Italian 9th Army, comprising two corps and a sector defence command, was stationed in occupied northern Albania, and its stance was largely defensive. The Hungarian 3rd Army was concentrated along the Yugoslav border largely between the Danube and the Tisza, with the objective of seizing the Bačka and Baranja regions.
German, Italian and Hungarian air support was concentrated in Austria, Italy, southern Hungary, southern Romania, western Bulgaria and Albania. In total, over 1,500 Axis aircraft were available to support the invasion. Naval forces were limited to a few destroyers of the Royal Italian Navy () operating in the Adriatic Sea.
German.
German land forces.
The German formations committed to the invasion of Yugoslavia included over 337,000 men, and more than 2,000 mortars, 1,500 artillery pieces, 1,100 anti-tank guns, 875 tanks, and 740 other armoured fighting vehicles. The German land forces were under the overall direction of the commander of the German Army "Generalfeldmarschall" (Field Marshal) Walther von Brauchitsch.
2nd Army.
The German 2nd Army was commanded by "Generaloberst" (General) Maximilian von Weichs, consisted of one motorised, one mountain, and two infantry corps, and was assembled in southwestern Hungary and southeastern Austria. The LII Infantry Corps suffered significant delays in deploying to its assembly area and was initially held in reserve. According to Schreiber, Stegemann and Vogel, three panzer divisions, four infantry divisions and one motorised infantry division were planned as reserves for the 2nd Army, but they did not participate in the fighting in Yugoslavia. According to Niehorster, these divisions were held as theatre reserves or were allocated to various formations. 2nd Army was supported by three bridging battalions and a road construction battalion.
XXXXVI Motorised Corps was supported by three motorised heavy artillery battalions, a motorised pioneer battalion, a road construction battalion, six bridging columns, and two "Luftwaffe" anti-aircraft battalions. XXXXIX Mountain Corps included two motorised heavy artillery battalions and a road construction battalion. LI Infantry Corps included seven motorised heavy artillery battalions, two assault gun battalions, two motorised pioneer battalions, two bridging battalions, two road construction battalions, and twelve bridging columns.
12th Army.
The German 12th Army was commanded by "Generalfeldmarschall" Wilhelm List, and consisted of one mountain, three infantry and two motorised corps. Most of the 12th Army was deployed along the Bulgarian-Greek border in preparation for the invasion of Greece, and of the corps commanded by List, only the two motorised corps were committed to the invasion of Yugoslavia. For the first phase of the invasion of Yugoslavia, the First Panzer Group was also assigned to the 12th Army.
XXXX Motorised Corps was supported by one motorised anti-tank battalion, three motorised heavy artillery battalions, two motorised pioneer battalions, two bridging battalions, and three motorised bridging columns. XXXXI Motorised Corps included two motorised heavy artillery battalions and a motorised pioneer battalion.
First Panzer Group.
The First Panzer Group was commanded by "Generaloberst" Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist, and according to Schreiber, Stegemann and Vogel, it consisted of XIV Motorised Corps with two panzer divisions, one mountain, one motorised infantry and one infantry division. According to Niehorster, the XXXXI Motorised Corps was also assigned to First Panzer Group. It assembled northwest of Sofia, Bulgaria.
The First Panzer Group was supported by one motorised heavy artillery battalion, one motorised pioneer battalion, one pioneer battalion, two bridging battalions, and two bridging columns. Supporting units of XIV Motorised Corps included two motorised heavy artillery battalions, a motorised pioneer battalion, two bridging columns and one "Luftwaffe" motorised anti-aircraft battalion.
German Air Force.
The "Luftwaffe" operated out of bases in Austria, Romania and Bulgaria during the invasion of Yugoslavia. In total, the Germans had over 809 aircraft available to support the invasion of Yugoslavia, more than half of which were positioned in Bulgaria to support the simultaneous invasion of Greece. In total, the Germans fielded 296 fighter aircraft, 89 light bombers, 26 medium bombers and 23 reconnaissance aircraft, and more than 318 dive bombers and 57 heavy fighters. In addition, a reconnaissance squadron equipped with Henschel Hs 126 two-seater reconnaissance aircraft was attached to most of the corps headquarters and every panzer division of the German ground forces. "Luftwaffe" anti-aircraft units were also attached to the German land forces.
4th Air Fleet.
The "Luftwaffe" 4th Air Fleet ( IV) was commanded by "General der Flieger" (Lieutenant General) Alexander Löhr, had its headquarters in Vienna, and direct command units based on airfields in western Austria. These units included one squadron () of the 121st Reconnaissance Group ( 121), the entire 51st Bomber Wing ( 51, KG 51), and four bomber groups () drawn from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Bomber Wings (KG 2, KG 3 and KG 4). In total, the 4th Air Fleet had 25 medium bombers, 89 light bombers, 55 dive bombers, 6 reconnaissance aircraft and 1 heavy fighter available in Austria to support the invasion of Yugoslavia.
"Fliegerführer Graz".
"Fliegerführer Graz" was commanded by "Oberstleutnant" (Lieutenant Colonel) Karl Christ, commander of the 3rd Dive Bomber Wing ( 3, StG 3). It was located in Graz, Austria, and consisted of the headquarters and II Group of StG 3, the headquarters and II Group () of the 54th Fighter Wing ( 54, JG 54) (less one squadron), and I Group of the 27th Fighter Wing (JG 27). In total, "Fliegerführer Graz" had 54 fighters, 1 medium bomber and 35 dive bombers available to support the invasion of Yugoslavia.
"Fliegerführer Arad".
"Fliegerführer Arad" was commanded by "Oberstleutnant" Clemens Graf von Schönborn-Wiesentheid, commander of the 77th Dive Bomber Wing (StG 77). With its headquarters in Arad, Romania, it consisted of the headquarters, I and III Groups of StG 77, headquarters, II and III Groups of the 77th Fighter Wing (JG 77), one squadron of II Group of JG 54, III Group of JG 54 and I Group of the 26th Heavy Fighter Wing ( 26, ZG 26). In total, "Fliegerführer Arad" had 116 fighters, 31 heavy fighters and 68 dive bombers available to support the invasion of Yugoslavia.
VIII Air Corps.
The VIII Air Corps ( VIII) was commanded by "General der Flieger" Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen, who had operational control of all air operations for the invasion. With its headquarters in Gorna Dzhumaya, Bulgaria, it was based at various airfields in western Bulgaria, and consisted of one squadron of the 11th Reconnaissance Group, the headquarters, I and II Groups of the 2nd Dive Bomber Wing (StG 2), I Group of StG 3, the headquarters, II and III Groups of the 27th Fighter Wing, a fighter group and a ground attack group from the 1st Demonstration Wing ( 1, LG 1), and a reinforced dive bomber group from the 2nd Demonstration Wing. In total, the VIII Air Corps had 126 fighters and 17 reconnaissance aircraft, and more than 25 heavy fighters and 160 dive bombers available to support the invasions of both Yugoslavia and Greece.
X Air Corps.
The X Air Corps ( X) was based in Sicily, and consisted of four bomber groups, one heavy fighter group and one fighter squadron with a total of 168 aircraft. It was available to provide on-call support to the 4th Air Fleet as required, but only a few units played any part in supporting the invasion because the primary task of X Air Corps was interdicting Allied supply convoys to Malta. Units earmarked for support to the invasion included 7th Squadron of 26th Fighter Wing (JG 26) equipped with Messerschmitt Bf 109E fighters, and III Group of ZG 26, flying Messerschmitt Bf 110C/D heavy fighters.
Italian.
Italian ground forces.
The Italian 2nd Army and 9th Army committed a total of 22 divisions to the operation, comprising around 300,000 troops. The Italian ground forces included the Italian garrison of Zara, which was an Italian enclave on the Dalmatian coast.
2nd Army.
The Italian 2nd Army () was commanded by "Generale designato d’Armata" (acting General) Vittorio Ambrosio, and consisted of one fast () corps, one motorised corps and three infantry corps, and was assembled in northeastern Italy. The 2nd Army was supported by a motorised engineer regiment including three bridging battalions, a chemical battalion, fifteen territorial battalions, and two garrison battalions.
V Corps support units included three motorised artillery regiments comprising thirteen battalions, four machine gun battalions (two motorised and two pack animal), three Blackshirt legions of battalion size, a motorised anti-aircraft battalion, a sapper assault battalion and a road construction battalion. VI Corps included four motorised artillery regiments with a total of sixteen battalions, two machine gun battalions (one motorised, one pack animal) and a motorised anti-aircraft regiment. XI Corps included one motorised artillery regiment comprising four battalions, three machine gun battalions (one motorised, one pack animal and one static), and six Blackshirt legions of battalion size. The Motorised Corps was supported by a motorised artillery regiment consisting of three battalions, and an motorised engineer battalion.
9th Army.
The elements of the Italian 9th Army () that were involved in the campaign were commanded by "Generale d’Armata" (General) Alessandro Pirzio Biroli, and consisted of two infantry corps and some sector troops assembled in northern Albania.
XIV Corps was supported by a cavalry regiment, three Border Guard battalions, a Finance Guard battalion and two military police () battalions. The XVII Corps included the "Diamanti" Blackshirt group which incorporated six Blackshirt regiments comprising two battalions each, the Albanian-raised "Skanderbeg" Blackshirt regiment of two battalions, another Blackshirt regiment of two battalions, a cavalry regiment, a "Bersaglieri" motorcycle battalion, three Border Guard battalions, one Finance Guard battalion, a motorised artillery regiment of three battalions, a military police battalion, and a tank company equipped with Fiat M13/40 light tanks. The "Librazhd" Sector included a motorised artillery regiment of four battalions, a bicycle-mounted "Bersaglieri" regiment, a cavalry regiment, the "Biscaccianti" Blackshirt group which incorporated two Blackshirt regiments with a total of five battalions, the regimental-sized "Agostini" Blackshirt Forest Militia, and the "Briscotto" group, a regimental-sized formation consisting of one "Alpini" battalion and two Finance Guard battalions.
Zara garrison.
The Zara garrison numbered about 9,000 men under the overall command of "Generale di Brigata" (Brigadier) Emilio Giglioli. The garrison consisted of two main groupings and an assortment of supporting units. The two main groupings were the regimental-sized "Fronte a Terra" (Land Front), which comprised three static machine gun battalions and a bicycle-mounted "Bersaglieri" battalion, and the battalion-strength "Fronte a Mare" (Sea Front), which consisted of two machine gun companies, an anti-aircraft battery, a coastal artillery battery and a naval artillery battery. Supporting units consisted of an artillery regiment of three battalions, two independent artillery battalions, a machine gun battalion, a motorised anti-aircraft battalion (less one battery), an engineer battalion, a company of Blackshirts, and a company of L3/35 tankettes.
Royal Italian Air Force.
The Royal Italian Air Force () operated out of bases in southeastern and northeastern Italy and Albania during the invasion of Yugoslavia. In total, the Italians had 658 aircraft available to support the invasion, 222 of which were positioned in Albania to also support the German invasion of Greece. These aircraft comprised 296 fighter aircraft, 40 dive bombers, 192 medium bombers, 12 bomber floatplanes and 118 reconnaissance aircraft.
2nd Air Force.
The headquarters of the 2nd Air Force () was at Padua, in northeastern Italy under the command of "Generale di Squadra Aerea" (Lieutenant General) Tullio Toccolini. It comprised two fighter wings, one bomber wing, two independent bomber groups, three reconnaissance groups and one independent reconnaissance squadron. In total, the 2nd Air Force had 90 fighters, 61 medium bombers and 49 reconnaissance aircraft available to support the invasion of Yugoslavia.
4th Air Force.
The headquarters of the 4th Air Force () was at Bari, in southern Italy under the command of "Generale di Squadra Aerea" Augusto Bonola. It comprised two independent fighter groups and one independent fighter squadron, four bomber wings, one combined bomber and naval bomber wing, two independent bomber groups and one independent dive bomber equipped with German Junkers Ju 87B "Stuka" aircraft. In total, the 4th Air Force had 73 fighters, 20 dive bombers, 131 medium bombers and 12 bomber floatplanes available to support the invasion of Yugoslavia.
Air Command Albania.
The headquarters of Air Command Albania () was located at Tirana, Albania under the command of "Generale di Squadra Aerea" Ferruccio Ranza. It comprised five fighter groups, one dive bomber group equipped with German Junkers Ju 87B "Stuka" aircraft, three independent reconnaissance groups and two independent reconnaissance squadrons. In total, the Italians had 133 fighters, 20 dive bombers and 69 reconnaissance aircraft available in Albania to support the invasions of Yugoslavia and Greece.
Royal Italian Navy.
Three destroyers of the Royal Italian Navy () were deployed into the Adriatic in direct support of the invasion, and other units were tasked to suppress the Royal Yugoslav Navy.
Hungarian.
Royal Hungarian Army.
The Hungarian Army () committed the Mobile, I, IV and V Corps of "Vezérezredes" (Lieutenant General) Elemér Gorondy-Novák's 3rd Army to the invasion. The 1st Parachute Battalion was earmarked for airborne operations. The Hungarian invasion force was deployed along the Yugoslav border largely between the Danube and the Tisza.
Royal Hungarian Air Force.
The Royal Hungarian Air Force (, MKHL) committed its 1st Air Brigade to the invasion, consisting of four fighter groups of the 1st and 2nd Air Regiments flying Fiat CR.42 biplane fighters, one reinforced bomber group from the 3rd and 4th Air Regiments with Junkers Ju 86 and Caproni Ca.135bis twin-engined bombers, and one reconnaissance group from the 5th Air Regiment operating Heinkel He 170A reconnaissance aircraft. Savoia-Marchetti SM.75 transports were used to transport the 1st Parachute Battalion.


63rd Brigade Support Battalion

The 63rd Brigade Support Battalion (63rd BSB) was a unit in the United States Army Reserve. The unit was activated on October 1, 2012, and the activation ceremony took place on October 21, 2012, at Nellis Air Force Base. The 63rd BSB was headquartered in Sloan, Nevada, southwest of Las Vegas, in the George W. Dunaway United States Army Reserve Center (named for George W. Dunaway, the 2nd Sergeant Major of the Army.)
The 63rd BSB planned, coordinated, synchronized, and executed replenishment operations in support of brigade operations. Some of the 63rd BSB's key supply operations included providing food service, basic levels of health care, and field maintenance.
An inactivation ceremony was held for the battalion on August 6, 2017, with an effective date of September 15, 2017.
Heraldry.
The unit's insignia was approved on 9 July 1964 during a previous period of service when the unit was designated as the 63rd Supply and Transport Battalion. The battalion carries the lineage of the 63d Quartermaster Company, 63d Infantry Division of the World War II era.


Stones River Confederate order of battle

The following Confederate States Army units and commanders fought in the Battle of Stones River of the American Civil War. The Union order of battle is listed separately. Order of battle compiled from the army organization during the campaign, the casualty returns and the reports.
Army of Tennessee.
Gen Braxton Bragg, Commanding
Polk's Corps.
LTG Leonidas Polk
Hardee's Corps.
LTG William J. Hardee


Order of battle for Operation Epsom

This is the order of battle for Operation Epsom, a Second World War battle between British and German forces in Normandy, France between 26 June and 30 June 1944.
British Order of Battle.
Second Army
General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey
German Order of Battle.
Seventh Army / Panzer Group West.
General Friedrich Dollmann (until 1700 hours 28 June)
General der Panzertruppe (General of Armoured Troops) Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg (from 1700 hours 28 June)
I SS Panzer Corps.
SS-Obergruppenführer Sepp Dietrich
II SS Panzer Corps.
SS-Obergruppenführer Paul Hausser (until morning of 29 June)
SS-Obergruppenführer Willi Bittrich (from morning of 29 June)
III Anti-Aircraft Corps.
 General der Flakartillerie Wolfgang Pickert


Gaston de Raousset-Boulbon

Charles René Gaston Gustave de Raousset-Boulbon (May 5, 1817 - August 13, 1854) was a French adventurer, filibuster and entrepreneur and, by some accounts a pirate, and a theoretician of colonialism.
Early life.
Gaston de Raousset-Boulbon was born in Avignon, Vaucluse, Kingdom of France. He inherited the title of count.
Career.
In 1845, following the death of his father, Raousset-Boulbon moved to Algeria and served under the command of General Thomas Robert Bugeaud in the campaign in Kabylia. It was there where his first theories about colonialism were born; the French Revolution of 1848 killed his hopes of making a new fortune on Africa and he returned to Paris, where he failed to integrate into a society where aristocrats were fading and giving way to a new bourgeoisie.
Unable to survive in France, he boarded a ship sailing to the Americas as a third-class passenger, disembarking in a Colombian port. His impressions are typical of a 19th-century aristocrat: A letter to a friend describes Colombia as:
Raousset-Boulbon arrived in San Francisco and felt deeply disillusioned after not receiving the treatment he thought was deserved for a Count.
After a series of failed enterprises as a gold prospector he became involved in a conflict in the Mexican state of Sonora.
A group of mercenaries under the command of the Count Raousset-Boulbon sailed from the port of San Francisco, California, attempting two separate filibuster expeditions, in 1852 and 1854, against the government of Sonora, Mexico. During this time he became a close friend of the painter Leonardo Barbieri, with whom he eventually accompanied from California to Mexico City.
The main objective of the invaders was to attain independence for the State of Sonora, forming a new country separate from Mexico, following the example of Texas, which had achieved its independence in 1836. The first expedition was under the guise of a mining company known as La Compania Restauradora de la Mina de la Arizona. Raousset-Boulbon and his forces captured Hermosillo, Sonora, the capital of the state, in 1852. A retreat to Guaymas resulted in his surrender to General Miguel Blanco. In 1854 Raousset-Boulbon returned to Sonora, but his forces did not get the popular support they needed. They were defeated in Guaymas by a small army led by Jose Maria Yanez, in the Battle of Guaymas, on July 13, 1854.
Death.
On August 13, 1854 the Count Raousset-Boulbon was executed by a firing squad in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico. He refused to wear a blindfold. Don José Márquez, an eye-witness to the execution, stated that Raousset-Boulbon's remains were buried in Guaymas until 1866, when, while Mexico was under the rule of Maximilian, they were exhumed by French naval officers and taken to France for final burial.


The General Died at Dawn

The General Died at Dawn is a 1936 American drama film that tells the story of a mercenary who meets a beautiful girl while trying to keep arms from getting to a vicious warlord in war-torn China. The movie was written by Charles G. Booth and Clifford Odets, and directed by Lewis Milestone.
It stars Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll, Akim Tamiroff, and Dudley Digges. Director Milestone has a cameo role.
The movie was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Akim Tamiroff), Best Cinematography, and Best Music, Score. There are several scenes in the film that show startling originality at the time. At one point, the camera focuses on a white door knob, and then dissolves to a white billiard ball to connect disparate scenes. In another scene, two characters have a conversation in which they speculate about the fates of other characters in the drama. The answers to their questions appear in screen segments in the corners of the screen, marking an unusual use of split screen to join narrative.
The main character, O'Hara, is based on the real-life Anglo-Canadian Jewish adventurer Morris Abraham "Two-Gun" Cohen. During the early 1930s, Cohen ran guns for various warlords in mainland China.
This is reported to be the first film to use foam latex prosthetics. Makeup artist Charles Gemora applied sponge rubber eyelids for one of the actors.
John Howard Reid called it one of the fifty finest films Hollywood ever made.
Reception.
Writing for "The Spectator" in 1936, Graham Greene gave the film a mildly good review, calling it "as good as anything to be seen on the screen in London". Greene noted that it was "a melodrama of more than usual skill", however he criticized the end of the film and suggested that but-for the "rather ludicrous ending, this would have been one of the best 'thrillers' for some years".
In popular culture.
In 1938 an animated cartoon, called "The Major Lied Till Dawn", was produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions. In it, a major tells tall tales about his hunting adventures to a boy who resembles Freddie Bartholomew. The character of the major may have been influenced by Colonel Heeza Liar.
A third-season episode of the TV show "M*A*S*H" was entitled "The General Flipped at Dawn" (broadcast September 10, 1974). In the episode, Harry Morgan appears as Major General Bartford Hamilton Steele, a batty general who is convinced that the 4077th needs to move closer to the front lines, to be near the action. (Morgan formally joined the cast of "M*A*S*H" in Season Four as the much-saner Colonel Sherman T. Potter.)
The General Danced at Dawn is a collection of short stories by George MacDonald Fraser first published in 1970.


Unteroffiziere ohne Portepee

Unteroffizier(e) ohne Portepee (en: NCO without portepee / ), is the designation for German junior non-commissioned officers (NCOs) in the German Armed Forces. The category was a division of the NCO class, separating junior NCOs from Unteroffiziere mit Portepee, or senior NCOs (who wore the sword knot). The name is derived from earlier traditions in which German senior NCOs ("Feldwebel") would carry the officer's sidearms (sword, sabre) with the officer's swordknot (made from silver or gold lace).
Ranks in this category:


9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen

The 9th SS Panzer Division "Hohenstaufen" () was a Waffen-SS armoured division of Nazi Germany during World War II. It participated in battles on both the Eastern and Western Fronts. The division was activated in December 1942. Many of the men of the division were young German conscripts, with a cadre of NCOs and staff from the SS Division Leibstandarte and other Waffen SS divisions. Hohenstaufen took part in the relief of German forces in the Kamenets-Podolsky pocket, the Normandy battles, Operation Market Garden, the Ardennes Offensive and Operation Spring Awakening. The division surrendered to the United States Army on 8 May 1945, at Steyr.
Formation and Eastern Front.
The SS Division Hohenstaufen was formed, along with its sister formation 10th SS Division Frundsberg, in France in February 1943. The division was mainly formed from Reich Labour Service conscripts. Originally, Hohenstaufen was designated as a Panzergrenadier division, but in October 1943 it was upgraded to Panzer division status, with an estimated manpower of about 19,000. At its formation, Hohenstaufen was commanded by SS-Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Bittrich. The title Hohenstaufen came from the Hohenstaufen dynasty, a German noble family who produced a number of kings and emperors in the 12th and 13th centuries AD.
After the encirclement of General Hans-Valentin Hube's 1st Panzer Army in the Kamenets-Podolsky pocket in Ukraine, Field Marshal Erich von Manstein requested that the Hohenstaufen and Frundsberg divisions be sent to attempt to link up with the encircled force. Arriving in late March 1944, the divisions were formed into the II SS Panzer Corps and were sent into the attack near the town of Tarnopol. In three days of combat, the Hohenstaufen destroyed 74 Soviet tanks, 84 self propelled assault guns, 21 anti tank guns, and 12 mortars. After heavy fighting in the season of "rasputitsa" ("roadlessness"), the division effected a link-up with Hube's forces near the town of Buchach. The division's actions helped prevent the encirclement of the 1st Panzer Army. During these battles, Hohenstaufen had suffered 1,011 casualties. The II SS Panzer Corps was to act as reserve for Army Group North Ukraine. After the Allied invasion of northern France on 6 June 1944, the II SS Panzer Corps, including Hohenstaufen, was sent west on 12 June, to defend Caen in Normandy.
Western Front.
Normandy.
Hohenstaufen suffered losses from Allied fighter bombers during its move to Normandy, delaying its arrival until 26 June 1944. Approximately 50% of the division's tanks broke down during its movement to Normandy. The division's armored forces would be reinforced by the newly attached 102nd SS Heavy Panzer Battalion. This would provide Hohenstaufen with 127 additional combat vehicles including 79 Panther tanks. The original plan for Hohenstaufen to attack towards the Allied beachhead was made impossible by a British offensive to take Caen. The II SS Panzer Corps was instead put into the line to support the weakened forces defending Caen, where Hohenstaufen suffered 1,891 casualties. On 10 July, the division was pulled back into reserve, to be replaced by the 277th Infantry Division. The division's depleted Panzergrenadier regiments were eventually merged to form Panzergrenadier Regiment Hohenstaufen. The division saw much action defending against British armour during Operation Goodwood. During Operation Jupiter Hohenstaufen destroyed 58 British tanks with many of them being Churchill tanks.
After the launch of the Canadian Operation Totalize, Hohenstaufen avoided encirclement in the Falaise pocket and kept the narrow escape route from this pocket open. By 21 August, the Battle of Normandy was over, and the German forces were in full retreat. Obersturmbannführer Walter Harzer was placed in command of the division. It fought several rearguard actions during the retreat through France and Belgium and in early September 1944, the exhausted formation was pulled out of the line for rest and refit near the Dutch city of Arnhem. By this time, Hohenstaufen was down to approximately 7,000 men, from 15,900 at the end of June.
Arnhem.
Upon arriving in the Arnhem area, the majority of the remaining armoured vehicles were loaded onto trains in preparation for transport to repair depots in Germany. On Sunday, 17 September 1944, the Allies launched Operation Market-Garden, and the division fought in the Battle of Arnhem. The British 1st Airborne Division was dropped in Oosterbeek, to the west of Arnhem. Only the division's reconnaissance battalion, equipped mostly with wheeled and half tracked vehicles, was ready for action.
Bittrich ordered Hohenstaufen to occupy Arnhem and secure a vital metal girder bridge (later torn down, rebuilt in concrete and named John Frost Bridge). The division encountered stiff resistance from the British "Rote Teufeln" (Eng. "Red Devils") 1st Airborne Division. The Reconnaissance Battalion, a 40-vehicle unit commanded by Hauptsturmführer Viktor Eberhard Gräbner, was sent south over the bridge to scout the area around Nijmegen. The bridge had already been captured by the Germans. Meanwhile, Colonel John Frost's 2nd Battalion of the British 1st Airborne Division had advanced into Arnhem and prepared defensive positions at the northern end of the bridge. They destroyed Gräbner's unit, which lost 12 vehicles out of 22 in the assault and around 70 men killed, including Gräbner. In all, the British 1st Airborne Division suffered 7,167 casualties out of 10,095 men. This action is depicted in the film "A Bridge Too Far".
Ardennes Offensive.
After the battle of Arnhem, Hohenstaufen moved to Paderborn for a much-needed rest and refit. On 12 December 1944, the division moved south to the Munstereifel. It was to act as a reserve for Sepp Dietrich's 6th SS Panzer Army, a part of the Ardennes offensive (""). The 6th Panzer Army was to attack in the north, along the line St. Vith–Vielsalm. Initially, only the divisional reconnaissance and artillery units were involved in the fighting but on 21 December, the entire division was committed. The 9th SS Division tried to breakthrough defensive positions of the 82nd Airborne Division but failed.
When the attack in the north stalled, the division was sent south to assist in the attacks on Bastogne, where it took heavy casualties from the American defenders and lost much of its equipment to Allied ground attack aircraft. On 7 January 1945, Hitler called off the operation and ordered all forces to concentrate around Longchamps, Belgium.
Hungary and surrender.
Throughout the rest of January 1945, Hohenstaufen retreated to the German border. At the end of the month, the division was transferred to the Kaifenheim-Mayen area to be refitted. At the end of February, the division was sent east to Hungary as a part of the reformed 6th SS Panzer Army under Sepp Dietrich. The division, along with the majority of the SS Panzer units available, was to take part in Operation Spring Awakening, the offensive near Lake Balaton, which was aimed at relieving the forces encircled in Budapest by the Red Army.
The attack got under way on 6 March 1945. Due to the condition of the roads, the division had not reached its jump-off position when the attack began. A combination of mud and stiff Soviet resistance brought the offensive to a halt and on 16 March a Soviet counter-offensive threatened to cut off the 6th SS Panzer Army. Hohenstaufen was involved in the fighting to escape the Soviet encirclement. During these actions, Hohenstaufen destroyed 80 Soviet T-34 and IS tanks. On 1 May, the greatly depleted division was moved west to the Steyr–Amstetten area. On 8 May 1945, Hohenstaufen surrendered to the Americans.
Organisation.
Structure of the division:


Chancellorsville Union order of battle

The following Union Army units and commanders fought in the Battle of Chancellorsville of the American Civil War. The Confederate order of battle is listed separately. Order of battle compiled from the army organization during the battle, the casualty returns and the reports.
Army of the Potomac.
MG Joseph Hooker
General Staff and Headquarters.
General Staff:
General Headquarters:
Command of the Provost-Marshal-General: BG Marsena R. Patrick
Patrick's Brigade: Col William F. Rogers
Engineer Brigade: BG Henry W. Benham
Signal Corps: Cpt Samuel T. Cushing
Ordnance Detachment: Lt John R. Edie, Jr.
Guards and Orderlies:
I Corps.
MG John F. Reynolds
Chief of Artillery: Col Charles S. Wainwright
Escort:
II Corps.
MG Darius N. Couch
Chief of Artillery and Assistant Inspector-General: Ltc Charles H. Morgan
Escort:
III Corps.
MG Daniel Sickles
Chief of Artillery: Cpt George E. Randolph
V Corps.
MG George Meade
Chief of Artillery: Cpt Stephen H. Weed
Escort:
VI Corps.
MG John Sedgwick
Chief of Artillery: Col Charles H. Tompkins
Escort: Maj Hugh H. Janeway
XI Corps.
MG Oliver O. Howard
Chief of Artillery: Ltc Louis Schirmer
Escort:
XII Corps.
MG Henry W. Slocum
Chief of Artillery: Cpt Clermont L. Best
Provost Guard:
Cavalry Corps.
BG George Stoneman
Artillery.
BG Henry J. Hunt


General der Flakartillerie

General der Flakartillerie (en: "General of anti-aircraft artillery") was a General of the branch rank of the Luftwaffe (en: German Air Force) in Nazi Germany. Until the end of World War II in 1945, this particular general officer rank was on three-star level (OF-8), equivalent to a US Lieutenant general.
The "General of the branch" ranks of the Luftwaffe were in 1945:
The rank was equivalent to the General of the branch ranks of the "Heer" (army) as follows:
The rank was also equivalent to the German three-star ranks:


Papal Army


Battle of Kursk order of battle

The Battle of Kursk order of battle is a list of the significant units that fought in the Battle of Kursk between July and August 1943.
Units smaller than division size and Soviet aviation divisions are not shown in this order of battle.
Soviet.
Western Front.
The following units were included in the Western Front, commanded by Colonel General Vasily Sokolovsky.
50th Army.
The 50th Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Ivan Boldin and included the following units.
11th Guards Army.
The 11th Guards Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Ivan Bagramyan, and included the following units.
1st Air Army.
The 1st Air Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Mikhail Gromov, included the following units.
Front assets.
The following units were directly subordinated to the front.
Bryansk Front.
The Bryansk Front was commanded by Colonel General Markian Popov, and consisted of the following units.
3rd Army.
The 3rd Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Alexander Gorbatov, and included the following units.
61st Army.
The 61st Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Pavel Belov and included the following units.
63rd Army.
The 63rd Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Vladimir Kolpakchi, and included the following units.
15th Air Army.
The 15th Air Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Nikolai Naumenko, and included the following units.
Front Assets.
The following units were directly subordinated to the front.
Central Front.
The Central Front was commanded by Army General Konstantin Rokossovsky, and consisted of the following units:
13th Army.
The 13th Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Nikolai Pukhov, and included the following units:
48th Army.
The 48th Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Prokofy Romanenko, and including the following units:
60th Army.
The 60th Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Ivan Chernyakhovsky and included the following units:
65th Army.
The 65th Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Pavel Batov, and was composed of the following units:
70th Army.
The 70th Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Ivan Galanin, and included the following units:
2nd Tank Army.
The 2nd Tank Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Alexey Rodin, who was replaced by Lieutenant General Semyon Bogdanov on 2 August. It consisted of the following units:
16th Air Army.
The 16th Air Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Sergei Rudenko, and included the following units:
Front Assets.
The following units were directly subordinated to the front:
Steppe Front.
The following units were part of the Steppe Front, commanded by Ivan Konev. The front was formed from the Steppe Military District on 9 July, to serve as a reserve if the German attack broke through and to provide fresh troops for a counterattack to begin as soon as the German attack was halted. This order of battle does not show the complete composition of the Steppe Front. In addition to the units listed below, there were also the 4th Guards, 27th, 47th and 53rd Armies. The 4th Guards, 27th, 47th, and the 53rd Armies were held in reserve during the battle and thus did not participate. The 5th Guards Army and the 5th Guards Tank Army were both committed to the counterattack in the Battle of Prokhorovka, where they fought as part of the Voronezh Front.
5th Guards Army.
The following units were part of the 5th Guards Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Alexey Zhadov. The 10th Tank Corps was directly subordinated to the front on 7 July and became part of the 1st Tank Army on 8 July. Also on 8 July, the 5th Guards Army was transferred to the Voronezh Front.
5th Guards Tank Army.
The 5th Guards Tank Army consisted of the following units, under the command of Lieutenant General Pavel Rotmistrov. The 18th Tank Corps joined the army from the Reserve of the High Command on 7 July. The army was transferred to the Voronezh Front on 11 July.
5th Air Army.
The 5th Air Army included the following units, and was commanded by Lieutenant General Sergei Goryunov. It entered combat in mid-July.


Victor Mature

Victor John Mature (January 29, 1913 – August 4, 1999) was an American stage, film, and television actor who starred most notably in several movies during the 1950s, and was known for his dark hair and smile. His best known film roles include "One Million B.C." (1940), "My Darling Clementine" (1946), "Kiss of Death" (1947), "Samson and Delilah" (1949), and "The Robe" (1953). He also appeared in many musicals opposite such stars as Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable.
Early life.
Mature was born in Louisville, Kentucky. His father, Marcello Gelindo Maturi, later Marcellus George Mature, was a cutler from Pinzolo, in the Italian part of the former County of Tyrol (now Trentino in Italy, but at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). His mother, Clara P. (Ackley), was Kentucky-born and of Swiss heritage. An older brother, Marcellus Paul Mature, died of osteomyelitis in 1918 at age 11. Victor attended St. Xavier High School in Louisville, Kentucky, the Kentucky Military Institute, and the Spencerian Business School. He briefly sold candy and operated a restaurant before moving to California.
Career.
Pasadena Playhouse.
Mature studied and acted at the Pasadena Community Playhouse. For three years, he lived in a tent in the back yard of Mrs Willigan, the mother of a fellow student, Catherine Lewis. He was spotted by Charles R. Rogers, an agent for Hal Roach, while acting in a production of "To Quito and Back". Rogers called him "a rival to Clark Gable, Robert Taylor and Errol Flynn." Mature signed a seven-year contract with Roach in September 1939.
Hal Roach.
Roach cast Mature in a small role in "The Housekeeper's Daughter" (1939), for which one reviewer called him "a handsome Tarzan type".
Roach gave Mature his first leading role, as a fur-clad caveman in "One Million B.C." (1940). The film was highly publicized and it raised Mature's profile; Hedda Hopper called him "a sort of miniature Johnny Weissmuller".
Roach then put him in a swashbuckler set during the War of 1812, "Captain Caution" (1940).
As Hal Roach only made a handful of movies every year, he loaned out Mature's services to RKO, who used him as a leading man in the Anna Neagle–Herbert Wilcox musical, "No, No, Nanette". The studio people were so pleased with his performance, they bought an option to take over half of Mature's contract with Hal Roach, enabling them to draw on his services for two films a year over three years. Wilcox wanted to reunite Mature with Neagle in "Sunny". Roach announced Mature would support Victor McLaglen in "Broadway Limited", but Mature was not cast in the final film.
"Lady in the Dark".
Mature was worried about the direction of his career at this stage, claiming, "nobody was going to believe I could do anything except grunt and groan." So he went to New York City to try the theatre. He signed to appear in a play with the Group Theatre, "Retreat to Pleasure" by Irwin Shaw. Shortly afterwards it was announced he would appear instead in the musical "Lady in the Dark" with a book by Moss Hart and songs from Ira Gershwin and Kurt Weill; Mature played Randy Curtis, a film star boyfriend of the show's protagonist, magazine editor Liza Elliott (Gertrude Lawrence). Mature later described his role:
First, this secretary came out saying 'What a beautiful hunk of man!' Then Danny Kaye topped that with a long, long introductory number. Finally, I made my entrance. John Barrymore told me I was the only person who could have followed up all that.
The musical debuted on Broadway in January 1941 and was a smash hit, making a star of Danny Kaye and Macdonald Carey, and causing fresh appreciation for Mature's talents. His performance was well received, Brooks Atkinson of "The New York Times" calling him "unobjectionably handsome and affable". The description of Randy Curtis in the musical – "Beautiful Hunk of Man" – would be frequently used to describe Mature throughout his career. Mature missed some of the run due to an emergency appendectomy, but ended up playing the role until June.
20th Century Fox.
When Mature left "Lady in the Dark", he announced that 20th Century Fox had bought out half of Mature's contract with Hal Roach. His first film under the contract was to be "Bowery Nightingale" with Alice Faye. He was going to follow this with "The Shanghai Gesture" for Arnold Pressburger and Josef von Sternberg at United Artists.
"Bowery Nightingale" was not made, so Fox instead assigned Mature to appear in a thriller with Faye, "I Wake Up Screaming" (which had a working title of "Hot Spot"); Faye ended up being replaced with Betty Grable. Filming of "The Shanghai Gesture" was postponed to enable Mature to finish "Screaming", which was a popular success. "The Shanghai Gesture" also proved popular.
Mature was announced for a Fox musical, "Highway to Hell", which ended up being postponed; instead, he replaced John Payne in a Betty Grable musical, "Song of the Islands" (Mature was replaced in turn on "Highway" by Cesar Romero).
Mature was paid $450 a week under his contract with Roach for "Shanghai Gesture", but Roach received $3750 a week for Mature's services. Roach received $22,000 for Mature in "Song of the Islands", but Mature was paid $4,000. He asked for a pay increase of $1,250 a week.
RKO wanted Mature for "Passage to Bordeaux" and Josef Von Sternberg wanted him for "Lady Paname". Instead, Mature made another musical for Fox, supporting Rita Hayworth in "My Gal Sal" (a role originally meant for Don Ameche).
In November 1941, Fox bought out the four years remaining on Mature's contract with Hal Roach for $80,000. (This included loan out provisions to RKO.) Roach had not wanted to sell, but he was in financial difficulties and his backers insisted. Mature would be paid $1,500 a week. He had also had six commitments with RKO. "The studio [Fox] will have to make a success of me," said Mature.
"I wasn't pampered the way a Tyrone Power was," Mature recalled later of his time at Fox. "Zanuck would say, 'If you're not careful, I'll give you Mature for your next picture'."
Fox talked of reuniting Hayworth and Mature in a Russian set war film "Ski Patrol". Instead, Mature was lent to RKO for a musical with Lucille Ball, "Seven Days' Leave". This was followed by "Footlight Serenade" with Grable and Payne. All these films were very popular at the box office.
World War II.
In July 1942, Mature attempted to enlist in the U.S. Navy, but was rejected for color blindness. He enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard after taking a different eye test the same day. He was assigned to the , which was part of the Greenland Patrol. This meant that when Paramount filmed "Lady in the Dark", Mature was unable to reprise his stage role.
After 14 months aboard the "Storis", Mature was promoted to the rank of chief boatswain's mate.
In 1944, he did a series of War Bond tours and acted in morale shows. He assisted Coast Guard recruiting efforts by being a featured player in the musical revue "Tars and Spars", which opened in Miami, Florida, in April 1944 and toured the United States for the next year. In May 1945, Mature was reassigned to the Coast Guard manned troop transport , which was involved in transferring troops to the Pacific Theater. Mature was honorably discharged from the Coast Guard in November 1945 and he resumed his acting career.
Resumption of career.
Fox assigned Mature to "Three Little Girls in Blue". He was pulled off that film to play Philip Marlowe in an adaptation of "The High Window". In December 1945 he signed a new two year contract with Fox. However Mature ended up withdrawing from that film and instead was cast by John Ford in "My Darling Clementine", playing Doc Holliday opposite Henry Fonda's Wyatt Earp. The film was produced by 20th Century Fox, whose head of production Darryl F. Zanuck was delighted that Ford wanted to use Mature, telling the director:
Zanuck promised Mature he would keep him away from musicals and stuck to that, casting him in the period thriller "Moss Rose"; Mature received a $50,000 bonus after shooting completed. His next film was the film noir, "Kiss of Death", which had been developed specifically as a vehicle for him. The movie, shot mostly on location in New York, was not a particularly big hit, but was popular, earned Mature some of his best reviews and turned Richard Widmark into a star.
Still at Fox, Mature made his second Western, "Fury at Furnace Creek", replacing John Payne. That film co-starred Coleen Gray, who had been in "Kiss of Death" and Fox announced plans to team them for a third time in a remake of "Seventh Heaven". However, the film was not made. Instead, he co-starred with Richard Conte in a thriller directed by Robert Siodmak, "Cry of the City".
Mature still had an obligation to make a movie at RKO which dated from before the war. He was announced for "Battleground" and "Mr Whiskers" before eventually being cast in a serious drama about football, "Interference", which became "Easy Living", with Lucille Ball.
"Samson and Delilah".
Mature's career received a massive lift when he was borrowed by Cecil B. DeMille at Paramount to play the lead in the $3.5 million biblical spectacular "Samson and Delilah". De Mille described the role of Samson as “a combination Tarzan, Robin Hood, and Superman.” Mature was reluctant to take the role at first out of fear of risking his new postwar reputation as a serious actor, but he changed his mind.
During filming, Mature was frightened by a number of the animals and mechanical props used in the production, including the lions, the wind machine, the swords and even the water. This infuriated the director, DeMille, who bellowed through his megaphone at the assembled cast and crew: “I have met a few men in my time. Some have been afraid of heights, some have been afraid of water, some have been afraid of fire, some have been afraid of closed spaces. Some have even been afraid of open spaces – or themselves. But in all my 35 years of picture-making experience, Mr. Mature, I have not until now met a man who was 100 percent yellow.”
While "Samson" was in postproduction, Paramount used Mature in another film, co-starring with Betty Hutton in "Red, Hot and Blue", his first musical in a number of years. It was not particularly popular, and "Easy Living" was a flop, but "Samson and Delilah" earned over $12 million during its original run, making it the most popular movie of the 1940s, and responsible for ushering in a cycle of spectacles set in the Ancient World.
He returned to Fox and was put in a popular musical with Betty Grable, "Wabash Avenue". It was directed by Henry Koster who recalled Mature was "nice to work with, amusing. He very much looked out for his money always."
RKO.
In late 1949, Mature was meant to fulfill another commitment at RKO, "Alias Mike Fury" (the new title for "Mr Whiskers"). Mature refused to make the movie and was put on suspension by Fox. The script was rewritten and Mature ended up making the film, which was retitled "Gambling House".
Back at Fox, he supported Ann Sheridan in a comedy, "Stella". In 1949, he was directed by Jacques Tourneur in "Easy Living".
In September 1950, he was making a film in Montana about fire fighters, "Wild Winds", for Fox with John Lund. Mature injured himself in a motorcycle accident . After Lund was stung by a wasp and the location was snowed in, it was decided to abandon the film. (It was later filmed with new stars as "Red Skies of Montana".)
Mature took a number of months off, before returning to filmmaking with "The Las Vegas Story", with Jane Russell at RKO. RKO released – but did not produce – Mature's next film, "Androcles and the Lion", an adaptation of the play by George Bernard Shaw with Mature as a Roman centurion. Like "Las Vegas Story", it was a box-office failure.
Far more popular was a musical he made at MGM, "Million Dollar Mermaid" with Esther Williams, a biopic of Annette Kellermann, playing Kellermann's promoter husband. According to Williams's autobiography, she and Mature had a romantic relationship.
Back at Fox, Mature was meant to be reteamed with Betty Grable in a musical, "The Farmer Takes a Wife", but the studio instead reassigned him to a comedy with Patricia Neal, "Something for the Birds".
Back at RKO, Mature was meant to star in "Split Second", but instead was reteamed with Jean Simmons in the romantic drama "Affair with a Stranger". RKO still wanted him for "Split Second", but instead Fox put him in a Korean war film, "The Glory Brigade".
He followed this with a movie at Universal, "The Veils of Bagdad". The release of this was held up until after that of Mature's next film, "The Robe".
"The Robe".
"The Robe" had been in development in Hollywood for over a decade. In December 1952, Mature signed to play Demetrius in two movies, "The Robe" and a sequel, "Demetrius and the Gladiators". The films were shot consecutively.
"The Robe", the first CinemaScope movie to be released (ahead of "How to Marry a Millionaire", which was actually the first film shot in the new process), was an enormous success, one of the most popular movies of all time. "Veils of Bagdad" was not as popular, but "Demetrius and the Gladiators" was another hit.
Back at RKO, Mature made "Dangerous Mission" for producer Irwin Allen. He travelled to Holland in September 1953 to support Clark Gable and Lana Turner in a World War Two film made at MGM, "Betrayed", another popular success.
Fox put Mature into another ancient history spectacle, "The Egyptian". He was originally meant to co-star with Marlon Brando and Kirk Douglas. Mature renewed his contract with Fox for another year, his 12th at that studio. "The Egyptian" ended up starring Mature with Edmund Purdom and Michael Wilding, plus Bella Darvi; it was a box-office disappointment.
Mature went over to Universal to play the title role in "Chief Crazy Horse", in exchange for a fee and a percentage of the profits.
End of contract with Fox.
Fox wanted Mature to support Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward in "Untamed" (1955), but Mature refused, claiming he had worked for two years and wanted a vacation. The studio replaced him with Richard Egan and put him under what they called a "friendly" suspension.
In 1954, Mature signed a two-picture deal with Columbia Pictures, giving him script and co-star approval, at $200,000 a film. The first movie he made under this contract was "The Last Frontier" (1955).
Before he started making that, however, he was called back to Fox to appear in the heist thriller, "Violent Saturday". This was the last movie he made at Fox.
United Artists and Warwick Productions.
In March 1955, while making "Last Frontier", Mature announced he had also signed a contract with United Artists for them to finance and distribute six films over five years for Mature's own company.
In May 1955, Mature signed a two-picture contract with Warwick Productions. Warwick was an English company which had success making films aimed at the international market with American stars; they released their films in the USA through Columbia Pictures. The first of Mature's films for Warwick was to be "Zarak". He ended up making "Safari" beforehand, a tale of the Mau Mau with location filming in Kenya. Both "Safari" and "Zarak" were successful.
Sam Goldwyn, Jr, hired him to make "The Sharkfighters", released through United Artists and shot on location in Cuba. He was back with Warwick for "Interpol", reteaming him with his "Zarak" co-star, Anita Ekberg, filmed throughout Europe. In London, he made "The Long Haul", a truck-driving drama with Diana Dors, the second film under his deal with Columbia.
Mature finally made a movie for his own production company, Romina Productions, in conjunction with United Artists and Batjac Productions: "China Doll", directed by Frank Borzage, with whom Mature co-produced. Mature and Borzage announced they would also make "The Incorrigibles" and "Vaults of Heaven".
Mature signed to make two more films with Warwick Productions, "No Time to Die" (Tank Force) and "The Man Inside". He ended up only making the first, a World War Two film with Libyan locations; Jack Palance took his role in "The Man Inside".
Mature made another movie for Romina and Batjac, a Western, "Escort West". It was released by United Artists, which also distributed "Timbuktu", a French Foreign Legion adventure tale that Mature made for producer Edward Small and the director Jacques Tourneur.
Mature was reunited with producer Irwin Allen for "The Big Circus", shot in early 1959. Mature then made his second film for Warwick under his two-picture contract with them, "The Bandit of Zhobe". He followed this with an Italian peplum, "Hannibal", with Mature in the title role. It was shot in Italy, as was "The Tartars" with Orson Welles. Mature then retired from acting.
In a 1978 interview, Mature said of his decision to retire from acting at age 46: "It wasn't fun anymore. "I was OK financially so I thought what the hell – I'll become a professional loafer."
Retirement.
After five years of retirement, he was lured back into acting by the opportunity to parody himself in "After the Fox" (1966), co-written by Neil Simon. Mature played "Tony Powell", an aging American actor who is living off his reputation from his earlier body of work. In a similar vein in 1968, he played a giant, The Big Victor, in "Head", a movie starring The Monkees. The character poked fun at both his screen image and, reportedly, RCA Victor, which distributed Colgems Records, The Monkees's label. Mature enjoyed the script while admitting it made no sense to him, saying "All I know is it makes me laugh."
Mature was famously self-deprecatory about his acting skills. Once, after being rejected for membership in a country club because he was an actor, he cracked, "I'm not an actor — and I've got 64 films to prove it!" He was quoted in 1968 on his acting career: "Actually, I am a golfer. That is my real occupation. I never was an actor. Ask anybody, particularly the critics."
He came out of retirement again in 1971 to star in "Every Little Crook and Nanny" and again in 1976 along with many other former Hollywood stars in "Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood". His last feature film appearance was a cameo as a millionaire in "Firepower" in 1979, while his final acting role was that of Samson's father Manoah in the TV movie "Samson and Delilah" in 1984. In a 1971 interview, Mature quipped about his decision to retire:
I was never that crazy about acting. I had a compulsion to earn money, not to act. So, I worked as an actor until I could afford to retire. I wanted to quit while I could still enjoy life ... I like to loaf. Everyone told me I would go crazy or die if I quit working. Yeah? Well, what a lovely way to die.
In 1980, he said he was "pretty proud of about 50% of my motion pictures. "Demetrius and the Gladiators" wasn't bad. "The Robe" and "Samson and Delilah" weren't bad. I made 72 of them and I made close to $18 million. So what the hell." He said in the same interview his favourite actors were Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, and especially Burt Reynolds.
George Clooney played a caricature of Victor Mature in the 2016 Coen brothers movie" Hail Caesar!".
Personal life.
Mature was married five times.
He had also been engaged to Rita Hayworth (before she married Orson Welles) and Anne Shirley.
Death.
Mature died of leukemia in 1999 at his Rancho Santa Fe, California, home, at the age of 86. He was buried in the family plot, marked by a replica of the Angel of Grief, at St. Michael's Cemetery in his hometown of Louisville.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Mature has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6780 Hollywood Boulevard.
Critical appraisal.
David Thomson wrote a critical appraisal of Mature in his book "The New Biographical Dictionary of Film":
Mature is an uninhibited creature of the naive. Simple, crude, and heady – like ketchup or treacle – he is a diet scorned by the knowing, but obsessive if succumbed to in error. It is too easy to dismiss Mature, for he surpasses badness. He is a strong man in a land of hundred pound weaklings, an incredible concoction of beef steak, husky voice, and brilliantine – a barely concealed sexual advertisement for soiled goods. Remarkably, he is as much himself in the cheerfully meretricious and the pretentiously serious. Such a career has no more pattern than a large ham; it slices consistently forever. The more lurid or distasteful the art the better Mature comes across.
References in popular culture.
In 1985, at the Uptown Lounge in Athens, Georgia, R.E.M. performed under the pseudonym Hornets Attack Victor Mature. "We sent a press release that said it was a combination of Jerry Lee Lewis and Joy Division," explained Peter Buck. "God knows how we got a date, but we did." The name was used after Buck spotted it in a 'Name Your Band' article in "Trouser Press". It told of a Los Angeles band who had taken their name from a newspaper headline describing an incident where furious wasps had ganged up on the actor during a round of golf. The band had since opted for something a little more West Coast, so Buck considered Hornets Attack Victor Mature to be fair game. "I figured anyone who'd pay money to see a band with a name that silly is our kind of person."


Henry of Castile the Senator

Henry of Castile (March 1230 – 8 August 1303), called the Senator ("el Senador"), was a Castilian "infante", the fourth son of Ferdinand III of Castile by his first wife, Beatrice of Swabia.
Youth and rebellion.
Henry spent his childhood at Burgos, where among his tutors was the future cardinal Giles of Torres. He received the typical education of a royal prince in both arms and letters.
In 1246, Henry accompanied his father on the expedition to Jaén. His father granted him in fief the first of the new conquests: Morón de la Frontera and Cote. After the fall of Seville, he was enfeoffed with more conquered towns: Jérez de la Frontera, Lebrija, Arcos and Medina Sidonia. In the "repartimiento" (division) of Seville itself, Henry and his retinue received a part. He spent the next few years mostly at Seville, often at the court of his father's second wife, Joan of Ponthieu. The troubadouric allusions to their illicit relationship are, however, of no evidentiary value.
As early as 1246, Henry had refused his father's request that he pay homage ("homagium") to his elder brother, the future Alfonso X. After their father's death in 1252, Henry and his brother Frederick chafed under the rule of Alfonso. In March 1253, Alfonso withdrew the privileges which Ferdinand had granted Henry on his vast southern estates. He also interfered to prevent Henry from contracting an advantageous marriage. At Calatayud, according to the "Libro de las armas" of Juan Manuel, Henry's nephew, he asked for the hand in marriage of king of Aragon's daughter, Constance of Aragon, but Alfonso prevented it.
These insults induced Henry plot against Alfonso. In a meeting at Maluenda in 1255, Henry temporarily brought James I of Aragon over to his side. Finally, in October, leagued with Diego López IV de Haro, lord of Biscay, and drawing support from Galicia as well, he went into open rebellion. Despite an initial victory over troops of the royal party, he was defeated near Morón and forced to flee the country. He took ship at Cádiz and sailed through the Mediterranean, stopping at Valencia, and passed through France, initially seeking refuge with his stepmother in Ponthieu. She may have suggested he visit his half-sister Eleanor, who was married to Edward, the son and heir of King Henry III of England.
English exile.
Henry arrived at the English court in towards the middle of 1256. He lived comfortably there for three years entirely on King Henry's good graces, but the English offered him no political support. In the spring of 1257, Giovanni Colonna, archbishop of Messina and an ambassador from Pope Alexander IV, arrived in England to negotiate with the king the investiture of his second son, Edmund, with the Kingdom of Sicily. Henry offered to lead troops to Italy to conquer the kingdom for Edmund, but a rebellion in Wales diverted attention from these projects.
After several sojourns in France proved fruitless, Henry decided to seek his fortune in Africa, where the Hafsid emir of Tunis, Muhammad al-Mustansir, had carved out a large empire. After securing a vow that he would not attack Castile, the king of England let Henry leave for Tunisia in July 1259, even granting him a safeconduct through the Gascon ports under his control.
Tunisian expedition.
Henry sailed to Catalonia, but King James refused to allow any of his vassals to accompany Henry to Tunisia. In 1260, Henry arrived in Tunis, where his brother Frederick soon joined him. Henry took command of a contingent of Spanish knights in the service of al-Mustansir. In 1261, with the emir's brother, Abou Hafs, he led an attack on the desert city of Miliana. These campaigns strengthened Hafsid independence in the face of the Almohads, the Moroccan dynasty which had also ruled much of Spain the previous century.
In Tunis, Henry adopted the customs and dress of the Hafsid court, much to the shock of the local Christian community. He used the money he earned in the emir's service to finance commercial ventures originating out of the Genoese merchant colony in Tunis. From funds accrued through this trade, the king of France, Louis IX, was later able to make a loan to Henry of England.
Italian campaigns.
Henry later made his way to Italy, where he joined his cousin Charles of Anjou's campaign in 1266 to become King of Sicily (Battle of Benevento) and lent him large sums of money. It was here that Henry earned his title of "El Senador" when Charles had him made Senator of Rome (at the time, the ancient Senate of Rome evolved into an institution where a single "Senator" was entrusted with civil power in the city of Rome). However, he was never repaid by Charles; and Henry had aspired to the Kingship of Sardinia or some other high title, and found the senatorship poor compensation.
As a result, when his cousin Conradin invaded Italy in 1268, Henry changed sides and joined him. He was one of Conradin's generals at the Battle of Tagliacozzo; he was in command of a host of three hundred Spanish knights sent by his brother Afonso X of Castille. He won the first encounter against the French, but was defeated by a surprise attack of a hidden reinforcement of one thousand French knights under Charles of Anjou. After the loss of the battle, he fled to the Convent of San Salvatore, Monte Cassino, where he was captured by the Angevins.
Imprisonment.
According to Ferdinand Gregorovius he spent the next twenty-three years in captivity—in the castle of Canosa from 1268 to 1277, and in Castel del Monte from 1277 to 1291.
In 1272, his half-sister Eleanor and her husband King Edward I of England came to Sicily on return from the Crusades. Eleanor's attempts to get him released from prison were unsuccessful, but she kept in touch with him until her own death.
On 8 March 1286, Pope Honorius IV absolved him from the excommunication he had incurred when he had ravaged the city of Rome with Conradin, and committed insults and harm to Cardinal Giordano Orsini (the future Pope Nicholas III), his nephew Matteo Rosso Orsini, and Giordano Savelli. His absolution was conditional upon sacramental confession and restitution for all the damages done to interested parties, or, if he had insufficient means, a solemn promise to make full restitution when he was able.
Both Eleanor and Charles were dead before Henry was finally released in 1291. He returned to Castile in 1298, where he was appointed regent for his grandnephew, King Ferdinand IV. He married Juana Núñez de Lara, but had no known legitimate children before his death in 1304.
Traditions.
According to tradition he had a son out of wedlock with a lady called Mayor Rodríguez Pecha, daughter of the lord (Alcaide) of the castle of Zamora. This son was called Enrique Enriquez de Sevilla, who became Justicia Mayor or Chief Judge of Castile under King Alfonso XI.
A recent study attributes the cavalry novel "Amadis de Gaula" to Henry of Castile.


Batroc the Leaper

Batroc (Georges Batroc) () is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in "Tales of Suspense" #75, 1966. He is a mercenary and a master of the French form of kick-boxing known as savate. Writer Mark Waid described the character as ahead of his time, saying that he "was a Jean-Claude Van Damme, but he was in the 1960s."
The character was played by Georges St-Pierre in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film "" (2014) and television series "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" (2021).
Publication history.
Batroc, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, first appeared in "Tales of Suspense" #75 in March 1966. He has reappeared in various Marvel titles ever since.
Sporting a new costume designed by John Romita Jr., Batroc served as Klaw's top lieutenant in the first arc of Reginald Hudlin's 2005 re-launch of "Black Panther".
Fictional character biography.
Georges Batroc was born in Marseille, France, and served in the French Foreign Legion. He is a French costumed mercenary who specializes in savate (also known as "La Boxe Française"), a form of kickboxing, with acrobatic skills and unusual articulate flexibility. Although he has primarily appeared in the pages of "Captain America", he has also faced off against the Punisher, Spider-Man, Deadpool, Hawkeye, Iron Fist and Gambit. Batroc has occasionally led his own team, "Batroc's Brigade", although the membership has changed over time. The group has primarily fought Captain America.
In the character's first appearance, he was hired by Them to steal the Inferno-42 cylinder. He first battled Captain America during this mission. When Batroc introduced himself with typical bluster, Cap revealed, to Batroc's delight, that he had already heard of the mercenary: "Batroc the Leaper, eh? A master of la savate, the French art of boxing with the feet!" Later, he was again hired by HYDRA and abducted Sharon Carter for them. He lured Captain America into a rematch, in which he insisted HYDRA not intervene, and again lost; however, when HYDRA agents prepared to kill both Cap and himself, Batroc, incensed at such "men wizout honair", switched sides to help Cap against HYDRA. In both of these stories, Batroc was regarded as a deadly combatant, his skill respected by enemies and employers alike.
Batroc was then hired by a foreign power to locate a "seismo-bomb" with the first known Batroc's Brigade (consisting of the original Swordsman and the Living Laser). Batroc battled Captain America again. The Machinesmith's Baron Strucker android known as "the Hood" then hired a new Batroc's Brigade (consisting of the Porcupine and Whirlwind) to battle Captain America.
Batroc then formed a third Batroc's Brigade, which consisted of various unnamed henchmen, rather than known supervillains, since supervillains had failed Batroc in the past. The alien Jakar, concealing his true nature and intent, hired this group to abduct children from New York and to battle Captain America and the Falcon. Although Batroc felt no compunction about abducting children, upon learning Jakar's true nature and his intent to use the children's souls to revive his comatose race, he felt his "sense of honair" had been violated by the deception, and he again switched sides, aiding Captain America and the Falcon to rescue the children. Ward Meachum then hired Batroc's Brigade, who battled Iron Fist and a ninja warrior, several Brigade members dying in the process.
For a while after that, Batroc operated without a Brigade. Alongside an extra-dimensional demon ally, Batroc attempted a theft of transuranium, but was stopped by Captain America and Spider-Man. Batroc was also a member of the ersatz "Defenders", a group of villains who were impersonating the actual Defenders. They committed robberies while posing as members of the Defenders, until stopped by a Defenders contingent. Alongside Mister Hyde, Batroc attempted an extortion scheme against Manhattan. He battled Captain America, but when Mister Hyde decided to carry out the threat, which would kill thousands, Batroc, again showing that there were some lines he would not cross, aided Captain America against Hyde, saving the city.
Batroc then formed a new, longer-lasting lineup of Batroc's Brigade - this one consisting of Zaran the Weapons Master and Machete. This team was first seen when Obadiah Stane contracted them to steal Captain America's shield and Batroc finally succeeded. Trick Shot then hired Batroc's Brigade to battle Hawkeye. Baron Helmut Zemo then hired Batroc's Brigade to acquire the fragments of the Bloodstone. They battled Captain America and Diamondback. The Brigade was later hired by Maelstrom to help him build a device that could destroy the universe and battled the Great Lakes Avengers. Alongside Snakebite, Batroc also battled the Punisher.
Later, Batroc the Leaper showed up as a member of a small army of villains organized by Klaw to invade Wakanda, which included the Rhino, the Radioactive Man, the Cannibal, and the Vatican Black Knight. He was defeated by Black Panther's royal bodyguards.
During the crossover "JLA/Avengers", Batroc briefly confronted Batman when he was one of the villains recruited by Krona for his army. The Dark Knight defeated him (off-panel). Batroc's Brigade then face Batman, but he is assisted by the Black Panther, the Huntress and the Black Widow, in defeating the Brigade.
Batroc has a daughter who is teamed in villainy with the daughter of similar B-list supervillain the Tarantula. Both daughters take their fathers' respective costumes and titles. The Taskmaster expresses his shock that the Tarantula and Batroc are heterosexual before soundly beating the two villains' offspring, tossing them effortlessly off of a building, noting that he also "hates ethnic stereotypes."
Batroc briefly served among the group of villains forcibly drafted into Baron Helmut Zemo's Thunderbolts army. But after returning to federal custody, Batroc registered with the Superhuman Registration Act, and was sent to a superhuman training facility located at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia to train recruits in the martial arts before being transferred over to Camp Hammond.
Ultimately, however, Batroc found government work unsatisfactory and returned to his mercenary life, confronting the new Captain America while on a job to steal an item from the United Nations. Also, he was working with The Man with No Face, a mysterious being from Captain America's past. It is soon revealed that Batroc was stealing the original Human Torch's remains for reverse engineering.
Batroc and a handful of other super individuals were corralled into working for MODOK against their wishes. He was fine with it, figuring on earning some money until MODOK killed him. There he met Gwen Poole a.k.a. Gwenpool who killed their team's assassin and took credit for his kills, earning her an unwanted place on the team. Finding out that she has no powers and only killed the assassin through luck, he was going to turn her in, until she convinced him that she really might be from another universe and know useful information. He then decided to make her less of a liability by teaching her actual combat moves and the use of weapons. She subsequently defeated MODOK when he found out her secret and took over the team briefly. After a fight with some aliens in which they did not get paid, the group broke up.
During the "Secret Empire" storyline, Batroc the Leaper alongside the Living Laser and Whirlwind, attack a haggard, bearded man in a torn World War II army uniform who identifies himself as Steve Rogers. He is assisted by people that appear to be Sam Wilson and a Bucky Barnes with both his arms.
During the "King in Black" storyline, Batroc the Leaper is among the villains recruited by Mayor Wilson Fisk to be part of his Thunderbolts at the time of Knull's invasion.
Powers and abilities.
Batroc the Leaper has no superhuman abilities, but is in peak physical condition in every respect. He is an Olympic-level weightlifter and has extraordinary agility and reflexes. His leg muscles are particularly well developed, enabling him to leap great distances equal to an Olympic athlete. He is an expert martial artist and hand-to-hand combatant who specializes in savate, and he is also adept at other martial arts such as Krav Maga. He is also skilled in parkour. He is also a skilled military tactician, having formerly been in the French Foreign Legion.
Batroc is also an experienced thief and smuggler who can speak both French and English.
Other versions.
Ultimate Marvel.
The Ultimate Marvel incarnation of Batroc the Leaper is a French jewelry thief. This version's martial arts skills are also present. When he and his thugs were robbing a jewelry store, they're stopped by the new Spider-Man's "venom strike".
MC2.
In the MC2 continuity, Batroc the Leaper still operates his own criminal syndicate, until stopped by American Dream.
"Marvel Zombies".
A zombiefied version of Batroc the Leaper appears in the third installment of the "Marvel Zombies" series, where he is killed by Absorbing Man's trademark concrete ball and chain.
House of M.
In the alternate continuity of the 2005 "House of M" storyline, Batroc the Leaper is a member of the Hood's extensive-criminal empire. He participated in the takeover of Santo Rico and stayed to fight when the Red Guard came, to protect the "sapiens" population. He was the first of them to die, attacked by Agent Toad and terminated by two of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s soldiers.
Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Again.
In "Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Again", Batroc appears alongside Bullseye as one of two mercenaries sent by Red Skull to kill Deadpool after he starts killing off villains. They are ambushed by Deadpool however and Batroc ends up killed by him.
In other media.
Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Georges Batroc appears in live-action media set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, portrayed by Georges St-Pierre. This version is an Algerian mercenary and pirate.
Motion comics.
Batroc the Leaper appears in "Marvel Video Comics: Training Day", voiced by Mark Oliver.
Toys.
A six-inch Batroc action figure was released as part of Hasbro's Marvel Legends toy line in 2015.


920th Field Artillery Battalion (United States)

The 920th Field Artillery Battalion was a U.S. Army artillery unit that fought in World War II. The battalion was attached to the U.S. 95th Infantry Division when activated, in June 1942.