Varuna was a merchant ship under constructed when the US military bought it in December 1861 for use on the blockade during the American Civil War. At the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip in April 1862, Varuna got ahead of the other Union ships and was involved in a bloody fight with Governor Moore, a gunboat operated by the state of Louisiana. Governor Moore rammed Varuna twice, and a third blow from another Confederate vessel (sources disagree as to which one) was enough to sink her. Clive Cussler found her remains in the 1980s, by then mostly under the riverbank.
Mosaic was a series of two British nuclear tests conducted in the Monte Bello Islands in Western Australia on 16 May and 19 June 1956. These tests followed the Operation Totem series and preceded the Operation Buffalo series. The second test in the series was the largest ever conducted in Australia. The purpose of the tests was to explore increasing the yield of British nuclear weapons through boosting with lithium-6 and deuterium, and the use of a natural uranium tamper. Not until the 1980s had radioactivity from the tests decayed to the point where it was no longer hazardous to casual visitors to the area.
From the team that brought George Washington to FA comes another US president, often regarded as the greatest of them all. Lincoln, the backwoods lawyer, became the first Republican to win the White House, and led the Union through the American Civil War, emancipating the slaves along the way. On April 14, 1865, five days after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, Lincoln was attending a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC when he was assassinated by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth.
This action took place between 204 and 201 BC when a Roman army under Publius Cornelius Scipio landed near Utica, North Africa, to try and end the 14-year-old Second Punic War against Carthage. Utica held out against the siege but in the ensuing campaign the Carthaginians lost four battles in two years and were forced to capitulate; in effect they won this battle but lost the war.
In the nominator's words... "England: A boy king who wants to be his daddy. An invading army that starts fighting itself before it even reaches the border. Stays two weeks, then goes home. Hungry and broke. Scotland: French allies who are hated. The French plunder their ally's land and moan about being ripped off. The Scottish continue to rip off the French. The Scottish then hold the French leader to ransom. Just another day in Anglo-Scottish/French politics..."
The second and final ship of the Roon class of armored cruisers built for the German Kaiserliche Marine, Yorck was commissioned in November 1905. Quickly rendered obsolescent by the advent of the battlecruiser, her peacetime career was limited and she was placed in reserve until the outbreak of World War I. In early November 1914, she formed part of the screen for the High Seas Fleet as it sailed to support a German raid on Yarmouth; on the return of the fleet to Wilhelmshaven, the ships encountered heavy fog and anchored in the Schillig Roads to await better visibility. Believing the fog to have cleared sufficiently, the ship's commander ordered Yorck to get underway; she entered a German minefield, struck two mines, and sank with heavy loss of life.
HNLMS Kortenaer was a destroyer operated by the Royal Netherlands Navy between 1928 and 1942. Equipped to also operate as a minelayer, she was built to defend the Dutch East Indies and to safeguard Dutch colonial possessions throughout the world. The first decade of her service was largely routine, with alternating periods in the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and Europe. By 1938, she operated in Asia and protected colonial waters. Following Japanese attacks throughout Asia, Kortenaer joined the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command fleet to aid in the defense of the East Indies. She was torpedoed and sunk during the Battle of the Java Sea on 27 February 1942.
Ben Roberts-Smith is one of the most decorated Australian soldiers, and was awarded the Victoria Cross for Australia for an action in Afghanistan during 2010. He joined the Australian Army in 1996 and entered the elite Special Air Service Regiment during 2003. Roberts-Smith was deployed to Afghanistan six times and also served in Iraq twice. While at one stage considered a national hero, Roberts Smith has faced accusations of war crimes. In 2023 he was found in a civil defamation trial to have committed murder and other war crimes in Afghanistan, with the judge stating that his conduct had brought disgrace on Australia and the Army. Roberts-Smith lost an appeal to this finding and is currently seeking leave for a further appeal.
About The Bugle
First published in 2006, the Bugle is the monthly newsletter of the English Wikipedia's Military history WikiProject.
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Wilhelm II in 1902
