title: Amphibious warfare

text: In 1762 British Royal Navy sailors and marines succeed in taking the capitals of the Spanish West and East Indies: Havana in Cuba and Manila in the Philippines respectively. In 1776 Samuel Nicholas and the Continental Marines, the "progenitor" of the United States Marine Corps, made a first successful landing in the Raid of Nassau in the Bahamas.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: In 1782 The British rebuffed a long Franco-Spanish attempt to seize Gibraltar by water-borne forces. In 1783 a Franco-Spanish force invaded the British-held island of Minorca. In 1798 Minorca experienced yet another of its many changes of sovereignty when captured by a British landing.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: As the British Empire expanded worldwide, four colonies (Halifax, in Nova Scotia; Bermuda; Gibraltar; and Malta) were designated Imperial fortresses, from which Britain's domination of the oceans and the Mediterranean and Caribbean seas was maintained, including its ability to deny safe passage to enemy naval and merchant vessels while protecting its own merchant trade, as well as to its ability to project superior naval and military force anywhere on the planet. This was demonstrated during the American War of 1812, when the ships of the North America Station of the Royal Navy and military forces of the British Army, Board of Ordnance, and Royal Marines, maintained a blockade of much of the Atlantic seaboard of the United States of America, carried out amphibious raids such as the 22 June 1813 Battle of Craney Island, and then launched the Chesapeake Campaign (defeating American forces in the Battle of Bladensburg, capturing and burning Washington, DC, and raiding Alexandria, Virginia), from Bermuda.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: In the Mexican-American War, US forces under Winfield Scott launched the first major amphibious assault in US history in the 1847 Siege of Veracruz. During the Crimean War of 1853-1856 the anti-Russian alliance launched an Anglo-French amphibious operation against Russia at Bomarsund, Finland on 8 August 1854. During the American Civil War of 1861-1865 the United States made several amphibious assaults along the coastlines of the Confederate States. Actions at Hatteras Inlet (August 1861) and at Port Royal, South Carolina were the first of many attacks, others occurring on Roanoke Island, NC; Galveston, TX; Fort Sumter, Morris Island and James Island, SC; and several more. The largest such clash happened in January 1865 at Fort Fisher - the largest and most powerful fort in the world at the time - which protected the entrance of Wilmington, North Carolina. The assaulting force consisted of over 15,000 men and 70 warships with over 600 guns.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: During the American Civil War, the Mississippi Marine Brigade was established to act swiftly against Confederate forces operating near the Mississippi River and its tributaries. The unit consisted of artillery, cavalry and infantry with the United States Ram Fleet used as transportation.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: Amphibious warfare during the War of the Pacific of 1879 to 1883 saw coordination of army, navy and specialized units. The first amphibious assault of this war took place during the Battle of Pisagua when 2,100 Chilean troops successfully took Pisagua from 1,200 Peruvian and Bolivian defenders on 2 November 1879. Chilean Navy ships bombarded beach defenses for several hours at dawn, followed by open, oared boats landing army infantry and sapper units into waist-deep water, under enemy fire. An outnumbered first landing-wave fought at the beach; the second and third waves in the following hours succeeded in overcoming resistance and moving inland. By the end of the day, an expeditionary army of 10,000 had disembarked at the captured port.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: In 1881 Chilean ships transported approximately 30,000 men, along with their mounts and equipment, in order to attack Lima. Chilean commanders commissioned purpose-built, flat-bottomed landing craft that would deliver troops in shallow water closer to the beach, possibly the first purpose-built amphibious landing-craft in history: "These [36 shallow draft, flat-bottomed] boats would be able to land three thousand men and twelve guns in a single wave".


title: Amphibious warfare

text: Neutral military observers closely studied landing tactics and operations during the War of the Pacific: two Royal Navy ships monitored the Battle of Pisagua; United States Navy observer Lt. Theodorus B. M. Mason included an account in his report "The War on the Pacific Coast of South America". The with Alfred Thayer Mahan in command, was stationed at Callao, Peru, protecting American interests during the final stages of the War of the Pacific. He formulated his concept of sea power while reading a history book in an English gentleman's club in Lima, Peru. This concept became the foundation for his celebrated "The Influence of Sea Power upon History" (1890).


title: Amphibious warfare

text: An amphibious assault took place on the beaches of Veracruz, Mexico in 1914, when the United States Navy attacked and occupied the city as result of the Tampico Affair.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: World War I marked the beginning of the first modern amphibious warfare operations. However, tactics and equipment were still rudimentary and required much improvisation.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: At the time, British Royal Marine Light Infantry (merged with the Royal Marine Artillery in the 1920s to form the Royal Marines) were used primarily as naval parties onboard Royal Navy warships to maintain discipline and man ships' guns. The RMLI joined a new Royal Navy division, the Royal Naval Division, formed in 1914 (out of those not needed on ships) to fight on land; however, throughout the conflict, army units were depended upon to provide the bulk, if not all, of troops used in amphibious landings.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The first amphibious assault of the war was the Battle of Bita Paka (11 September 1914) was fought south of Kabakaul, on the island of New Britain, and was a part of the invasion and subsequent occupation of German New Guinea by the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. The first British amphibious assault of the war ended in disaster in November 1914. A large British Indian Army force was directed to launch an amphibious assault on Tanga, German East Africa. British actions prior to the assault, however, alerted the Germans to prepare to repel an invasion. The Indian forces suffered heavy casualties when they advanced on the city, forcing them to withdraw back to their boats, leaving much of their equipment behind.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The Russian army and navy also grew adept to amphibious warfare in the Black Sea, conducting many raids and bombardments on Ottoman positions.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: On the 11 October 1917, German land and naval forces launched an amphibious assault, code named Operation Albion, on the islands of Saaremaa (Ösel), Hiiumaa (Dagö) and Muhu (Moon); they controlled the entrance to the Gulf of Riga. By the end of the month German forces had successfully overrun the islands forcing the Russians to abandon them with the loss of some 20,000 troops, 100 guns and the pre-dreadnought battleship "Slava". The capture of the islands opened a route for German naval forces into the Gulf of Finland threatening the city of Petrograd, a fact that contributed to the cessation of hostilities on the Eastern front.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The first large scale amphibious operations, ones that were to heavily influence theorists in the decades to come, were conducted as part of the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915 against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The Gallipoli peninsula forms the northern bank of the Dardanelles, a strait that provided a sea route to what was then the Russian Empire, one of the Allied powers during the war. Intending to secure it, Russia's allies Britain and France launched a naval attack followed by an amphibious landing on the peninsula with the eventual aim of capturing the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul). Although the naval attack was repelled and the land campaign failed, the campaign was the first modern amphibious landing, and featured air support, specialized landing craft and a naval bombardment.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The seaplane tender supported the landings under the command of Commander Robert Clark-Hall. Seaplanes were used for aerial reconnaissance, ground support for the troops landing at Anzac Cove and the bombing of fortifications. "Ark Royal" was augmented by a squadron from the No. 3 Squadron of the Royal Naval Air Service, operating from a nearby island.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: Initial landings took place in unmodified rowing boats that were extremely vulnerable to attack from the shore defences. The first purpose-built landing craft were built for the campaign. SS "River Clyde", built as a collier, was adapted to be a landing ship for the Landing at Cape Helles. Openings were cut in her steel hull as sally ports from which troops would emerge onto gangways and then to a bridge of smaller boats from the ship to the beach. Boiler plate and sandbags were mounted on her bow, and behind them a battery of 11 machine guns was installed. The machine gun battery was manned by Royal Naval Air Service men. Work began on painting "River Clyde"s hull sandy yellow as camouflage, but this was incomplete by the time of the landing.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: It was soon clear that the Turkish defence was equipped with rapid-fire weapons, which meant that ordinary landing boats were inadequate for the task. In February 1915, orders were placed for the design of purpose built landing craft. A design was created in four days resulting in an order for 200 'X' "Lighters" with a spoon-shaped bow to take shelving beaches and a drop down frontal ramp.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The first use took place after they had been towed to the Aegean and performed successfully in the 6 August landing at Suvla Bay of IX Corps, commanded by Commander Edward Unwin.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: 'X' "Lighters", known to the soldiers as 'Beetles', carried about 500 men, displaced 135 tons and were based on London barges being 105 feet, 6 inches long, 21 feet wide, and 7 feet, 6 inches deep. The engines mainly ran on heavy oil and ran at a speed of approximately 5 knots. The sides of the ships were bullet proof, and was designed with a ramp on the bow for disembarkation. A plan was devised to land British heavy tanks from pontoons in support of the Third Battle of Ypres, but this was abandoned.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The lessons of the Gallipoli campaign had a significant impact upon the development of amphibious operational planning, and have since been studied by military planners prior to operations such as the Normandy Landings in 1944 and during the Falklands War in 1982. The campaign also influenced US Marine Corps amphibious operations during the Pacific War, and continues to influence US amphibious doctrine.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: During the interwar period the campaign "became a focal point for the study of amphibious warfare" in the United Kingdom and United States, because it involved the four types of amphibious operations: the raid, demonstration, assault and withdrawal. Analysis of the campaign before World War II led to a belief among many armed forces that amphibious assaults could not succeed against modern defences. The perception continued until the Normandy Landings in June 1944, despite some successful examples of amphibious operations earlier in the war, such as those in Italy, and at Tarawa and in the Gilbert Islands in the Pacific. Although the negative perception prevailed among Allied planners in the interwar years, the war situation after 1940 meant that such operations had to be considered. However, despite early successes in North Africa and Italy, it was not until Normandy that the belief that opposed landings could not succeed was completely excised.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: One of the first amphibious landings involving armour was conducted by the Irish National Army in 1922, during the Irish Civil War. Landings against Republican rebels at Westport, Fenit and Cork all involved armour cars. The Westport and Fenit landings involved light armoured cars and 18-pounder artillery guns being hoisted off the ships by crane. Heavier armoured cars were used at Cork, resulting in some difficulty. While Irish troops could reach the coast in small boats from naval vessels offshore, the ships had to dock to unload the heavy vehicles and artillery guns. These operations were a major success for the Irish government forces, mainly due to the element of surprise and the use of armoured vehicles and artillery. Government forces were able to capture all the major towns and cities in southern Ireland.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The Alhucemas landing on 8 September 1925, performed by a Spanish-French coalition against rebel Berber tribesmen in the north of Morocco, was an amphibious landing where tanks were used for the first time and massive aerial and naval gunfire support was employed by the landing forces, directed by spotting personnel with communication devices.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: Floating depots were organized with medical, water, ammunition and food supplies, to be dispatched ashore when needed. The barges used in this landing were the surviving "K" boats from Gallipoli, upgraded in Spanish shipyards.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: In 1938, Japanese forces attacked Chinese defenders over the Yangtze River at the Battle of Wuhan. Soon, the Japanese would later further improve its techniques upon seaborne assaults by the Second Sino-Japanese War. By World War II, marines such as the Special Naval Landing Force, used amphibious landings to attack and sweep across territories in South East Asia. Their technique of surprise landings in continuous success and the support from the Navy, inspired the British and American landings in World War II such as D-Day and the Pacific Campaign.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: During the inter-war period, the combination of the negative experience at Gallipoli and economic stringency contributed to the delay in procuring equipment and adopting a universal doctrine for amphibious operations in the Royal Navy.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The costly failure of the Gallipoli campaign coupled with the emerging potential of airpower satisfied many in naval and military circles that the age of amphibious operations had come to a close. Still, throughout the 1920s and 1930s, animated discussion in Staff Colleges in Britain and the Indian Army Staff College at Quetta surrounded the strategic potential of the Dardanelles campaign compared with the strategic stalemate of the Western Front. The economic austerity of the worldwide economic depression and the government's adoption of the Ten Year Rule assured that such theoretical talk would not result in the procurement of any large scale equipment.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: Despite this outlook, the British produced the "Motor Landing Craft" in 1920, based on their experience with the early 'Beetle' armoured transport. The craft could put a medium tank directly onto a beach. From 1924, it was used with landing boats in annual exercises in amphibious landings. It was later called "Landing Craft, Mechanized" ("LCM") and was the predecessor of all Allied landing craft mechanised (LCM).


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The Army and Royal Navy formed a landing craft committee to "recommend... the design of landing craft". A prototype motor landing craft, designed by J. Samuel White of Cowes, was built and first sailed in 1926. It weighed 16 tons and had a box-like appearance, having a square bow and stern. To prevent fouling of the propellers in a craft destined to spend time in surf and possibly be beached, a crude waterjet propulsion system was devised by White's designers. A Hotchkiss petrol engine drove a centrifugal pump which produced a jet of water, pushing the craft ahead or astern, and steering it, according to how the jet was directed. Speed was 5-6 knots and its beaching capacity was good. By 1930, three MLC were operated by the Royal Navy.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: For a short journey, from shore to shore, the cargo could be rolled or carried into the boat over its ramp. On longer journeys, ship to shore, a derrick would lower the MLC into the sea from the transporting vessel. The derrick would then lower the vehicle or cargo load. Upon touching down on shore, soldiers or vehicles exited by the bow ramp.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: Although there was much official apathy toward amphibious operations, this began to change in the late 1930s. The Royal Naval Staff College at Greenwich, drafted a document detailing combined operations requirements and submitted it to the Chiefs of Staff in 1936. The document recommended the establishment of an inter-service 'Training and Development Centre', with a permanent force of Royal Marines attached to it. Its functions were to "train in all methods for the seizure of defended beaches; develop the materiel necessary for such methods, with special regard to protection of troops, speed of landing, and the attainment of surprise; and develop methods and materiel for the destruction or neutralization of enemy defenses, including bombardment and aircraft co-operation.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The Inter-Service Training and Development Centre was established at Fort Cumberland, near Portsmouth in 1938, and brought together representatives from the Royal Navy, Army, and Royal Air Force convened with the portfolio of developing methods and equipment to use in Combined Operations.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The Centre examined certain specific problems, including craft for landing tanks, beach organisation, floating piers, headquarters ships, amphibian tanks, underwater obstacles, the landing of water and petrol and the use of small craft in amphibious raids By the end of 1939 the ISTDC had codified a policy for landings, and defended it at Staff College discussions. Operational experience during the Second World War introduced modifications to this landing policy, but it was essentially the policy used in the Torch and Husky landings four years later.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: Among the many tactical innovations introduced by the centre, codified in the "Manual on Combined Operations" and the "Standard Naval Bombardment Code", was the use of Floating Piers (pontoons) to bridge the water gap, the creation of Smoke Generating devices to obscure the assault and the use of infra-red directional beacons for landing accuracy. The centre also played a role in the development of the first specialized landing crafts, including the Assault Landing Craft, the Mechanized Landing Craft (LCM(1)), the Landing Craft Tank (Mk. 1), Support Landing Craft LCS(1), LCS(2) and Landing Ship Infantry.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: In contrast to the British attitude, the U.S. military, especially the Marine Corps remained enthusiastic at the possibilities of amphibious warfare. The Marine Corps was searching for an expanded mission after World War I, during which it had merely been used as a junior version of the Army infantry. During the 1920s, it found a new mission — to be a fast-reacting, light infantry fighting force carried rapidly to far off locations by the US Navy. Its special role would be amphibious landings on enemy-held islands, but it took years to figure out how to do that. The Mahanian notion of a decisive fleet battle required forward bases for the Navy close to the enemy. After the Spanish–American War the Marines gained the mission of occupying and defending those forward bases, and began a training program on Culebra Island, Puerto Rico.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: As early as 1900 the General Board of the United States Navy considered building advance bases for naval operations in the Pacific and the Caribbean. The Marine Corps was given this mission in 1920, but the challenge was to avoid another disaster like Gallipoli. The conceptual breakthrough came in 1921 when Major "Pete" Ellis wrote "Advanced Base Operations in Micronesia" a secret 30,000-word manifesto that proved inspirational to Marine strategists and highly prophetic. To win a war in the Pacific, the Navy would have to fight its way through thousands of miles of ocean controlled by the Japanese—including the Marshall, Caroline, Marianas and Ryukyu island chains. If the Navy could land Marines to seize selected islands, they could become forward bases.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: Ellis argued that with an enemy prepared to defend the beaches, success depended on high-speed movement of waves of assault craft, covered by heavy naval gunfire and attack from the air. He predicted that the decisive action would take place on the beach itself, so the assault teams would need not just infantry but also machine gun units, light artillery, light tanks, and combat engineers to defeat beach obstacles and defenses. Assuming the enemy had its own artillery, the landing craft would have to be specially built to protect the landing force. The failure at Gallipoli came because the Turks could easily reinforce the specific landing sites. The Japanese would be unable to land new forces on the islands under attack.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: Not knowing which of the many islands would be the American target, the Japanese would have to disperse their strength by garrisoning many islands that would never be attacked. An island like Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands, would, Ellis estimated, require two regiments, or 4,000 Marines. Guided by Marine observer aircraft, and supplemented by Marine light bombers, warships would provide enough firepower so that Marines would not need any heavy artillery (in contrast to the Army, which relied heavily on its artillery). Shelling defended islands was a new mission for warships. The Ellis model was officially endorsed in 1927 by the Joint Board of the Army and Navy (a forerunner of the Joint Chiefs of Staff).


title: Amphibious warfare

text: However, actual implementation of the new mission took another decade because the Marine Corps was preoccupied in Central America and the Navy was slow to start training in how to support the landings. The prototype advanced base force officially evolved into the Fleet Marine Force (FMF) in 1933. In 1939, during the annual Fleet Landing Exercises, the FMF became interested in the military potential of Andrew Higgins's design of a powered, shallow-draught boat. These LCVPs, dubbed the 'Higgins Boats', were reviewed and passed by the U.S. Naval Bureau of Construction and Repair. Soon, the Higgins boats were developed to a final design with a ramp, and were produced in large numbers.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: By the Second World War tactics and equipment had moved on. The first use of British landing craft in an opposed landing in the Second World War, saw the disembarkation of French Foreign Legionnaires of the 13th Demi-Brigade and supporting French Hotchkiss H39 tanks on the beach at Bjerkvik, eight miles (13 km) above Narvik, on 13 May during the Norwegian campaign.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The first major and successful amphibious operation was Operation Ironclad, a British campaign to capture Vichy French-controlled Madagascar. The naval contingent consisted of over 50 vessels, drawn from Force H, the British Home Fleet and the British Eastern Fleet, commanded by Rear Admiral Edward Neville Syfret.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The fleet included the aircraft carrier "Illustrious", her sister ship "Indomitable" and the aging battleship "Ramillies" to cover the landings. The first wave of the British 29th Infantry Brigade and No. 5 Commando landed in assault craft on 5 May 1942, follow-up waves were by two brigades of the 5th Infantry Division and Royal Marines. Air cover was provided mainly by Fairey Albacore and Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers which attacked Vichy shipping.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: Purpose-built landing craft were among the vessels used at the evacuation from Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo) and an amphibious operation was tried out at Dieppe in 1942. The operation proved a costly failure, but the lessons, hard learned, were used later. Many small-scale operations were conducted by the Allies on the Axis-held coast of Europe, including raids on the Lofoten Islands, St Nazaire and Bruneval.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: In the run up to World War II, many specialized landing craft, both for infantry and vehicles, were developed. In November 1938, the Inter-Service Training and Development Centre proposed a new type of landing craft. Its specifications were to weigh less than ten long tons, to be able to carry the thirty-one men of a British Army platoon and five assault engineers or signallers, and to be so shallow drafted as to be able to land them, wet only up to their knees, in eighteen inches of water. All of these specifications made the Landing Craft Assault; a separate set of requirements were laid down for a vehicle and supplies carrier, although previously the two roles had been combined in the Motor Landing Craft.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: J. S. White of Cowes built a prototype to the Fleming design. Eight weeks later the craft was doing trials on the Clyde. All landing craft designs must find a compromise between two divergent priorities; the qualities that make a good sea boat are opposite those that make a craft suitable for beaching.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The craft had a hull built of double-diagonal mahogany planking. The sides were plated with "10lb. DHT" armour, a heat treated steel based on D1 steel, in this case Hadfield's Resista ".


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The Landing Craft Assault remained the most common British and Commonwealth landing craft of World War II, and the humblest vessel admitted to the books of the Royal Navy on D-Day. Prior to July 1942, these craft were referred to as "Assault Landing Craft" (ALC), but "Landing Craft; Assault" (LCA) was used thereafter to conform with the joint US-UK nomenclature system.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The Landing Craft Infantry was a stepped up amphibious assault ship, developed in response to a British request for a vessel capable of carrying and landing substantially more troops than the smaller Landing Craft Assault (LCA). The result was a small steel ship that could land 200 troops, traveling from rear bases on its own bottom at a speed of up to 15 knots. The original British design was envisioned as being a "one time use" vessel which would simply ferry the troops across the English Channel, and were considered an expendable vessel. As such, no troop sleeping accommodations were placed in the original design. This was changed shortly after initial use of these ships, when it was discovered that many missions would require overnight accommodations.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The first LCI(L)s entered service in 1943 chiefly with the Royal Navy (RN) and United States Navy. Some 923 LCI were built in ten American shipyards and 211 provided under lend-lease to the Royal Navy.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: Following the Inter-Service Training and Development Centre's (ISTDC) successful development of the infantry carrying LCA, attention turned to the means of efficiently delivering a tank to a beach in 1938. Inquires were made of the army as to the heaviest tank that might be employed in a landing operation. The army wanted to be able to land a 12-ton tank, but the ISTDC, anticipating weight increases in future tank models specified 16 tons burthen for Mechanised Landing Craft designs. Another governor on any design was the need to land tanks and other vehicles in less than approximately feet of water.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: Design work began at John I. Thornycroft Ltd. in May 1938 with trials completing in February 1940. Although early LCM(1)s were powered by two Thornycroft 60 bhp petrol engines, the majority were powered by Chrysler, in-line, 6-cylinder Crown petrol engines. Constructed of steel and selectively clad with armour plate, this shallow-draft, barge-like boat with a crew of 6, could ferry a tank of 16 long tons to shore at 7 knots (13 km/h). Depending on the weight of the tank to be transported the craft might be lowered into the water by its davits already loaded or could have the tank placed in it after being lowered into the water.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: Although the Royal Navy had the Landing Craft Mechanised at its disposal, in 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill demanded an amphibious vessel capable of landing at least three 36-ton heavy tanks directly onto a beach, able to sustain itself at sea for at least a week, and inexpensive and easy to build. Admiral Maund, Director of the Inter-Service Training and Development Centre (which had developed the Landing Craft Assault), gave the job to naval architect Sir Roland Baker, who within three days completed initial drawings for a landing craft with a beam and a shallow draft. Ship builders Fairfields and John Brown agreed to work out details for the design under the guidance of the Admiralty Experimental Works at Haslar. Tank tests with models soon determined the characteristics of the craft, indicating that it would make on engines delivering about . Designated the LCT Mark 1, 20 were ordered in July 1940 and a further 10 in October 1940.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The first LCT Mark 1 was launched by Hawthorn Leslie in November 1940. It was an all-welded 372-ton steel-hulled vessel that drew only of water at the bow. Sea trials soon proved the Mark 1 to be difficult to handle and almost unmanageable in some sea conditions. The designers set about correcting the faults of the Mark 1 in the LCT Mark 2. Longer and wider, three Paxman diesel or Napier Lion petrol engines replaced the Hall-Scotts, and 15 and 20 lb. armoured shielding was added to the wheelhouse and gun tubs.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The Mark 3 had an additional midsection that gave it a length of and a displacement of 640 tons. Even with this extra weight, the vessel was slightly faster than the Mark 1. The Mk.3 was accepted on 8 April 1941, and was prefabricated in five sections. The Mark 4 was slightly shorter and lighter than the Mk.3, but had a much wider beam () and was intended for cross channel operations as opposed to seagoing use. When tested in early assault operations, like the ill-fated Canadian commando raid on Dieppe in 1942, the lack of manoeuvring ability led to the preference for a shorter overall length in future variants, most of which were built in the United States.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: When the United States entered the war in December 1941, the U.S. Navy had no amphibious vessels at all, and found itself obliged to consider British designs already in existence. One of these, advanced by K.C. Barnaby of Thornycroft, was for a double-ended LCT to work with landing ships. The Bureau of Ships quickly set about drawing up plans for landing craft based on Barnaby's suggestions, although with only one ramp. The result, in early 1942, was the LCT Mark 5, a 117-foot craft with a beam of 32 feet that could accommodate five 30-ton or four 40-ton tanks or 150 tons of cargo. With a crew of twelve men and one officer, this 286 ton landing craft had the merit of being able to be shipped to combat areas in three separate water-tight sections aboard a cargo ship or carried pre-assembled on the flat deck of an LST. The Mk.5 would be launched by heeling the LST on its beam to let the craft slide off its chocks into the sea, or cargo ships could lower each of the three sections into the sea where they were joined.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: A further development was the Landing Ship, Tank designation, built to support amphibious operations by carrying significant quantities of vehicles, cargo, and landing troops directly onto an unimproved shore. The British evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940 demonstrated to the Admiralty that the Allies needed relatively large, ocean-going ships capable of shore-to-shore delivery of tanks and other vehicles in amphibious assaults upon the continent of Europe. The first purpose-built LST design was . To carry 13 Churchill infantry tanks, 27 vehicles and nearly 200 men (in addition to the crew) at a speed of 18 knots, it could not have the shallow draught that would have made for easy unloading. As a result, each of the three ("Boxer", "Bruiser", and "Thruster") ordered in March 1941 had a very long ramp stowed behind the bow doors.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: In November 1941, a small delegation from the British Admiralty arrived in the United States to pool ideas with the United States Navy's Bureau of Ships with regard to development of ships and also including the possibility of building further "Boxer"s in the US. During this meeting, it was decided that the Bureau of Ships would design these vessels. The LST(2) design incorporated elements of the first British LCTs from their designer, Sir Rowland Baker, who was part of the British delegation. This included sufficient buoyancy in the ships' sidewalls that they would float even with the tank deck flooded. The LST(2) gave up the speed of HMS "Boxer" at only 10 knots but had a similar load while drawing only 3 feet forward when beaching.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: In three separate acts dated 6 February 1942, 26 May 1943, and 17 December 1943, Congress provided the authority for the construction of LSTs along with a host of other auxiliaries, destroyer escorts, and assorted landing craft. The enormous building program quickly gathered momentum. Such a high priority was assigned to the construction of LSTs that the previously laid keel of an aircraft carrier was hastily removed to make room for several LSTs to be built in her place. The keel of the first LST was laid down on 10 June 1942 at Newport News, Va., and the first standardized LSTs were floated out of their building dock in October. Twenty-three were in commission by the end of 1942. Lightly armored, they could steam cross the ocean with a full load on their own power, carrying infantry, tanks and supplies directly onto the beaches. Together with 2,000 other landing craft, the LSTs gave the troops a protected, quick way to make combat landings, beginning in summer 1943.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The most famous amphibious assaults of the war, and of all time, were the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, in which British, Canadian, and US forces landed at Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword beaches in the largest amphibious operation in history.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The organizational planning of the landings (Operation Neptune) was in the hands of Admiral Bertram Ramsay. It covered the landing of the troops and their re-supply. Many innovative elements were included in the operation to ensure its success.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: Operation Pluto was a scheme developed by Arthur Hartley, chief engineer with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, to construct an undersea oil pipeline under the English Channel between England and France to provide logistical support to the landed armies. Allied forces on the European continent required a tremendous amount of fuel. Pipelines were considered necessary to relieve dependence on oil tankers, which could be slowed by bad weather, were susceptible to German submarines, and were also needed in the Pacific War. Geoffrey William Lloyd, the Minister for Petroleum gained the support of Admiral Mountbatten, Chief of Combined Operations for the operation.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: Two types of pipeline were developed. The first type was the flexible "HAIS" pipe with a () diameter lead core, weighing around 55 long tons per nautical mile (), was essentially a development by Siemens Brothers (in conjunction with the National Physical Laboratory) of their existing undersea telegraph cables, and known as HAIS (from Hartley-Anglo-Iranian-Siemens). The second type was a less flexible steel pipe of similar diameter, developed by engineers from the Iraq Petroleum Company and the Burmah Oil Company.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: In June 1942 the Post Office cable ship "Iris" laid lengths of both Siemens' and Henleys' cable in the Clyde. The pipeline was completely successful and PLUTO was formally brought into the plans for the invasion of Europe. The project was deemed "strategically important, tactically adventurous, and, from the industrial point of view, strenuous". After full-scale testing of an 83 km (45 nautical mile) HAIS pipe across the Bristol Channel between Swansea in Wales and Watermouth in North Devon, the first line to France was laid on 12 August 1944, over the 130 km (70 nautical miles) from Shanklin Chine on the Isle of Wight across the English Channel to Cherbourg Naval Base. A further HAIS pipe and two HAMELs followed. As the fighting moved closer to Germany, 17 other lines (11 HAIS and 6 HAMEL) were laid from Dungeness to Ambleteuse in the Pas-de-Calais.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: In January 1945, 305 tonnes (300 long tons) of fuel was pumped to France per day, which increased tenfold to 3,048 tonnes (3,000 long tons) per day in March, and eventually to 4,000 tons (almost 1,000,000 Imperial gallons) per day. In total, over 781 000 m³ (equal to a cube with 92 metre long sides or over 172 million imperial gallons) of gasoline had been pumped to the Allied forces in Europe by VE day, providing a critical supply of fuel until a more permanent arrangement was made, although the pipeline remained in operation for some time after.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: Portable harbours were also prefabricated as temporary facilities to allow rapid offloading of cargo onto the beaches during the Allied invasion of Normandy. The Dieppe Raid of 1942 had shown that the Allies could not rely on being able to penetrate the Atlantic Wall to capture a port on the north French coast. The problem was that large ocean-going ships of the type needed to transport heavy and bulky cargoes and stores needed sufficient depth of water under their keels, together with dockside cranes, to off-load their cargo and this was not available except at the already heavily defended French harbours. Thus, the Mulberries were created to provide the port facilities necessary to offload the thousands of men and vehicles, and tons of supplies necessary to sustain Operation Overlord and the Battle of Normandy. The harbours were made up of all the elements one would expect of any harbour: breakwater, piers, roadways etc.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: At a meeting following the Dieppe Raid, Vice-Admiral John Hughes-Hallett declared that if a port could not be captured, then one should be taken across the Channel. The concept of Mulberry harbours began to take shape when Hughes-Hallett moved to be Naval Chief of Staff to the Overlord planners.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The proposed harbours called for many huge caissons of various sorts to build breakwaters and piers and connecting structures to provide the roadways. The caissons were built at a number of locations, mainly existing ship building facilities or large beaches like Conwy Morfa around the British coast. The works were let out to commercial construction firms including Balfour Beatty, Costain, Nuttall, Henry Boot, Sir Robert McAlpine and Peter Lind & Company, who all still operate today, and Cubitts, Holloway Brothers, Mowlem and Taylor Woodrow, who all have since been absorbed into other businesses that are still operating. On completion they were towed across the English Channel by tugs to the Normandy coast at only 4.3 Knots (8 km/h or 5 mph), built, operated and maintained by the Corps of Royal Engineers, under the guidance of Reginald D. Gwyther, who was appointed CBE for his efforts.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: By 9 June, just 3 days after D-Day, two harbours codenamed Mulberry "A" and "B" were constructed at Omaha Beach and Arromanches, respectively. However, a large storm on 19 June destroyed the American harbour at Omaha, leaving only the British harbour still intact but damaged, which included damage to the 'Swiss Roll' which had been deployed as the most western floating roadway had to be taken out of service. The surviving Mulberry "B" came to be known as Port Winston at Arromanches. While the harbour at Omaha was destroyed sooner than expected, Port Winston saw heavy use for 8 months—despite being designed to last only 3 months. In the 10 months after D-Day, it was used to land over 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tonnes of supplies providing much needed reinforcements in France.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: Other large amphibious operations in the European theatre of World War II and the war in the Pacific include:


title: Amphibious warfare

text: During the Korean War the U.S. X Corps, consisting of the 1st Marine Division and 7th Infantry Division landed at Inchon. Conceived of and commanded by U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, this landing is considered by many military historians to have been a tactical jewel, one of the most brilliant amphibious maneuvers in history (See analysis in main article).


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The success of this battle eventually resulted in link up with U.S. Army forces that broke out of the Pusan perimeter, and led by the 1st Cavalry Division and its Task Force Lynch, cleared much of South Korea. A second landing by the Tenth Corps on the east coast approached the Chosin Reservoir and hydroelectric plants that powered much of Communist China's heavy industry, and led to intervention by Chinese forces on behalf of North Korea. Amphibious landings also took place during the First Indochina War, notably during Operation Camargue, one of the largest of the conflict.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The British Royal Marines made their first post-World War II amphibious assault during the Suez Crisis of 1956 when they successfully landed at Suez on 6 November as part of a joint seaborne/airborne operation code-named MUSKETEER.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: Despite all the progress that was seen during World War II, there were still fundamental limitations in the types of coastline that were suitable for assault. Beaches had to be relatively free of obstacles, and have the right tidal conditions and the correct slope. However, the development of the helicopter fundamentally changed the equation.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The first use of helicopters in an amphibious assault came during the Anglo-French-Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956 (the Suez War). Two British light fleet carriers were pressed into service to carry helicopters, and a battalion-sized airborne assault was made. Two of the other carriers involved, and , were converted in the late 1950s into dedicated "commando carriers."


title: Amphibious warfare

text: Nearly 30 years later in the Falklands War, the 1st Marines Brigade of the Argentine Marine Corps along with Navy's Special Forces performed Operation Rosario landing at Mullet Creek near Stanley on 2 April 1982, while later the Royal Marines' 3 Commando Brigade, (augmented by the British Army's Parachute Regiment) landed at Port San Carlos on 21 May 1982 during Operation Sutton.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: The Turkish Armed Forces launched an amphibious assault on 20 July 1974, on Kyrenia, following the 1974 Cypriot coup d'état. The Turkish naval force provided naval gunfire support during the landing operation and transported the amphibious forces from the port of Mersin to the island. The Turkish landing forces consisted of around 3,000 troops, tanks, armoured personnel carriers and artillery pieces.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: During the Iran–Iraq War, the Iranians launched Operation Dawn 8 (Persian: عملیات والفجر ۸), in which 100,000 troops comprising 5 Army divisions and 50,000 men from the IRGC and the Basij advanced in a two-pronged offensive into southern Iraq. Taking place between 9 and 25 February, the assault across the Shatt al-Arab achieved significant tactical and operational surprise. The Iranians launched their assault on the peninsula at night, their men arriving on rubber boats. Iranian Navy SEALs spearheaded the offensive despite a shortage of gear. Prior to this action Iranian Naval Commandos performed reconnaissance of the Faw Peninsula. The Iranian SEALs penetrated an obstacle belt and isolated Iraqi bunkers whose troops had taken cover from the heavy rains inside or were sleeping. Iranian demolition teams detonated charges on the obstacles to create a path for the Iranian infantry waiting to begin their assault.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: Not only did the amphibious landings provide a significant lodgement behind Iraq's tactical front, but they also created a psychological shock wave throughout the Persian Gulf region. Soon after the initial landings, Iranian combat engineers were able to construct bridges to improve the flow of ground troops into the lodgement area. Iran managed to maintain their foothold in Al-Faw against several Iraqi counter-offensives and chemical attacks for another month despite heavy casualties until a stalemate was reached. The Faw Peninsula was later recaptured by Iraqi forces, by the massive and illegal use of chemical weapons, the same day as the US launched Operation Praying Mantis on Iran, destroying their navy.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: During the Persian Gulf War, Assault Craft Unit 5 was able to position U.S. Marine and naval support off the coast of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. This force was composed of 40 amphibious assault ships, the largest such force to be assembled since the Battle of Inchon. The objective was to fix the six Iraqi divisions deployed along the Kuwaiti coast. The purpose behind this amphibious maneuver (known as an amphibious demonstration) was to prevent 6 Iraqi divisions poised for the defense of the littorals from being able to actively engage in combat at the real front. The operation was extremely successful in keeping more than 41,000 Iraqi forces from repositioning to the main battlefield. As a result, the Marines maneuvered through the Iraq defense of southern Kuwait and outflanked the Iraqi coastal defense forces.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: An amphibious assault was carried out by Royal Marines, U.S. Marines and units of the Polish special forces when they landed at the Al-Faw Peninsula on 20 March 2003 during the Iraq War.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: On March 25, 2008, Operation Democracy in Comoros was launched in the Comoros by government and African Union troops. The amphibious assault led to the ousting of Colonel Bacar's government, which had taken over the autonomous state of Adjouan.


title: Amphibious warfare

text: From September 28 to October 1, 2012, the Somali National Army led an assault in conjuncture with allied militia and Kenyan troops to liberate the city of Kismayo from insurgent control. The operation, known as Operation Sledge Hammer, started with the landing of Somali and Kenyan troops outside the city of Kismayo. By October 1, the coalition forces were able to push Al-Shabaab out of the city.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: Guy Damien Lafleur (September 20, 1951 – April 22, 2022), nicknamed "the Flower" and "Le Démon Blond", was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. He was the first player in National Hockey League (NHL) history to score 50 goals in six consecutive seasons as well as 50 goals and 100 points in six consecutive seasons. Between 1971 and 1991, Lafleur played right wing for the Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and Quebec Nordiques in an NHL career spanning 17 seasons, and five Stanley Cup championships in 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979 (all with the Canadiens). Lafleur was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in history in 2017, and was named to the Order of Hockey in Canada in 2022.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: Lafleur was born on September 20, 1951, in Thurso, Quebec. He started playing hockey at the age of five after receiving his first hockey stick as a Christmas present.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: As a youth, he played at the Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament three consecutive years from 1962 to 1964, and scored a tournament record of 64 points. In his teens, Lafleur gained considerable recognition for his play as a member of the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, where he led his team to the Memorial Cup in 1971, scoring 130 regular season goals. At the time, Lafleur idolized Jean Béliveau and Bobby Orr. He gained the nickname "Le Turbo de Thurso" while playing with the Remparts, coined by Radio Canada broadcaster Jean-Bernard Rainville.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: With Lafleur and fellow Quebecer Marcel Dionne among the top prospects in the 1971 NHL Amateur Draft, the Habs' general manager, Sam Pollock, was keen to find a way to trade to obtain one of the top two picks. He persuaded California Golden Seals owner Charlie Finley to trade the Seals' 1971 first-round pick and François Lacombe in return for Montreal's 1970 first-round pick and veteran Ernie Hicke. Oakland finished last, leaving Montreal with the first overall pick. Pollock hesitated between Lafleur and Dionne, but chose Lafleur with the first draft choice.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: Lafleur wore No. 10, as Beliveau originally asked Lafleur to take his No. 4, then had second thoughts, saying, "Don't try to be a second Jean Beliveau. Be the first Guy Lafleur. Take a number and make it your own." Lafleur received little ice time in his rookie season, as the Canadiens were deep in veteran players. During his first three seasons, Lafleur struggled to live up to expectations in the league as he posted average statistics—the more so in that Dionne became an immediate star in Detroit who led his team in scoring over his first three seasons.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: By his fourth season, 1974–75, Lafleur had developed his trademark smooth skating style and scoring touch, making him one of the most popular players on a very popular team; fans chanted "Guy, Guy, Guy!" whenever he touched the puck. Lafleur was described as a "Jackson Pollock painting on ice, a frenetic innovator who pushed the boundaries of his art beyond what had ever been conceived, a singularly dynamic force that turned an everyday sight as simple as a man on skates with a puck on his stick into a masterpiece — something you had seen before, perhaps, but never quite like that". Opposing players often hooked and slashed Lafleur, but he never retaliated.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: Former teammate Réjean Houle said that “Guy lived 100 miles an hour. One hundred miles an hour everywhere. One hundred miles an hour when he went to Quebec in his car. One hundred miles an hour on the rink. One hundred miles an hour on Crescent St. Besides his on-ice artistry, Lafleur was also known for his charisma as he was frequently in demand with the press and fans, with former Montreal Gazette sports columnist Michael Farber saying “Jean Béliveau was magisterial. Jean Béliveau was our father — and Guy Lafleur was our cool older brother. Lafleur wasn’t a quiet guy and if you look at his era, that was not a quiet time. Lafleur was a product of the ’70s. There were loud colours, loud clothing — we’ve seen pictures of the sideburns". Those who encountered Lafleur personally lauded his down-to-earth persona and humility. Lafleur became known among English fans as "Flower" due to his literal translation of his surname, while among French fans he was dubbed "le Démon Blond" (the Blond Demon). He was one of several players nicknamed "The Flying Frenchman".


title: Guy Lafleur

text: Lafleur was a cornerstone of the Canadiens' four straight Stanley Cup championships from 1976 to 1979, including being named playoff MVP in 1977. During the 1978 Stanley Cup finals, Boston Bruins head coach Don Cherry ordered his players to put their sticks up and hit Lafleur whenever they encountered him. At the end of the series, Lafleur's head was swathed in bandages after numerous slashes from Bruin players. After Montreal won the Stanley Cup, he borrowed it for the weekend without telling anyone to show his friends back home in Thurso, where he set it out on his front lawn for all his neighbours to see.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: In 1979, Lafleur released the album "Lafleur!", consisting of Guy Lafleur reciting hockey instructions, accompanied by disco music.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: With Ken Dryden, Jacques Lemaire, and several other key players retiring after the conclusion of the 1979 season, the Canadiens' dynasty came to an end with the team losing in the second round of the 1980 playoffs to the Minnesota North Stars in seven games. Injuries shortened Lafleur's 1980–81 season and his production dropped significantly (during the previous six seasons, Lafleur had reached or exceeded 100 points and 50 goals). In the following seasons, he was overshadowed by Mike Bossy and Wayne Gretzky.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: While driving home on March 24, 1981, Lafleur fell asleep at the wheel of his Cadillac and crashed into a highway fence. A metal post pierced the windshield, missing his head by an inch while grazing his right ear. During the 1980–81 season, Lafleur appeared in only 51 games and scored 27 goals. It was the first time since the 1973–74 season that he failed to score 50 goals or more in a season.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: The 1983–84 season produced Montreal's first losing record of the expansion era, and resulted in coach Bob Berry being replaced 63 games into the season by Lafleur's former teammate Jacques Lemaire. At first, Lemaire's hiring was seen as a success as he guided the Canadiens to their first playoff series victories since 1980 and reached the Wales Conference Final. Though the Habs' new coach had been Lafleur's centreman during many of the glory years of the 1970s, the former linemates quickly struggled to transform their relationship to an amicable one between coach and player. In time, Lemaire became renowned as one of the NHL's finest defensively-minded coaches. Lafleur was always an offensive-minded player who believed his productivity overshadowed any defensive weaknesses. Lemaire's insistence that everyone on his teams contribute defensively promptly caused a rift between him and Lafleur that never healed. By 1985, due to a rocky relationship with Lemaire, Lafleur felt this had become intolerable and requested a trade. General manager Serge Savard refused Lafleur's request, as trading one of the most popular players in Canadiens history would have incurred a severe backlash from fans and the media. With no other options, Lafleur decided to retire, and his departure from the Canadiens was considered acrimonious.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: After being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, Lafleur came out of retirement to return to the NHL for three more seasons, from 1988 through 1991, with the New York Rangers and the Quebec Nordiques. Lafleur remained one of the few players who did not wear protective helmets due to a grandfather clause. According to Wayne Gretzky, Lafleur "was quicker and faster without wearing full shoulder pads".


title: Guy Lafleur

text: Against the Edmonton Oilers in a 1988 exhibition game, Lafleur played well enough to earn praise from the Oilers' Mark Messier and convince Rangers general manager Phil Esposito to sign Lafleur to a one-year contract. During his first game back in the Montreal Forum, he received a standing ovation when he came on the ice, and as in his heyday with the Habs, the crowd chanted "Guy! Guy! Guy!" every time he touched the puck. Lafleur scored twice against Patrick Roy, to heavy applause, during the Rangers' 7–5 loss to the Canadiens, and was awarded the first star of the game. Although his high-scoring days were well behind him, his stint with the Rangers was moderately successful, and he helped the team to first place in the Patrick Division until being knocked out by a knee injury.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: Lafleur then followed dismissed Rangers head coach and close friend Michel Bergeron to the Nordiques for his final seasons. Intending to finish his hockey career in Quebec where he had started, Lafleur reportedly turned down a $1 million offer from the Los Angeles Kings which would have allowed him to play alongside Wayne Gretzky. Lafleur managed 24 goals in 98 games with the Nordiques over two seasons, while also mentoring emerging star center Joe Sakic, Despite Lafleur's presence, the Nordiques owned the NHL's worst record in both seasons Lafleur played with them. During Lafleur's final NHL game he was cheered every time he touched the puck and leapt over the boards and received a long standing ovation; the referee for that contest was Paul Stewart (coincidentally Stewart's final NHL game as a player was when his Nordiques played against Lafleur's Canadiens on April 6, 1980).


title: Guy Lafleur

text: The Minnesota North Stars selected Lafleur with the final pick in the 1991 Expansion Draft. Lafleur had decided to retire for a second and last time as a player, and he had already agreed to an off-ice job with the Nordiques. The league's bylaws prevented him from accepting a job with a team that did not own his playing rights. The North Stars solved Lafleur's quandary by trading him back to Quebec. In exchange, they received the rights to a former Nordique who had been playing in Switzerland for two years, Alan Haworth. Haworth played just one more year of professional hockey, and never returned to the NHL.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: Lafleur was a licensed helicopter pilot. He was part owner of a helicopter transportation company. He was the copilot when the Tampa Bay Lightning's André Roy proposed to his fiancée, the Stanley Cup serving as the engagement ring bearer.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: Lafleur also owned a restaurant in Berthierville, Quebec, "Guy Lafleur Mikes Signature", which opened in 2002. He opened a new restaurant, called "Bleu, Blanc, Rouge!" in Rosemère, Quebec, in 2008. Lafleur sold the "Bleu, Blanc Rouge" in December 2012. The restaurant closed on December 22, 2012.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: From 2005 to 2008 Lafleur was appointed honorary colonel of 12 Radar Squadron, an air force unit in Bagotville, Quebec. In February 2013 he was appointed honorary colonel of 3 Wing Bagotville, the parent formation of 12 Radar Squadron. Honorary colonels generally serve for three years.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: In 2007 Lafleur's son Mark was arrested for assault, forcible confinement, and other charges, and remained at his father's house as part of his bail conditions. In 2009, Lafleur was charged with giving contradictory testimony about whether Mark had respected his curfew. Lafleur was convicted in 2009, but in August 2010, he was unanimously acquitted of all charges by the Quebec Court of Appeal. He filed a $2.8 million civil suit against police and prosecutors, claiming that his rights were violated and his reputation damaged but did not win his case.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: In 2019, Lafleur began having health issues. In September, he had open heart surgery with five bypasses. In November, he had a cancerous lobe removed from his left lung. In October 2020, cancer was diagnosed in his right lung.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: Lafleur died on April 22, 2022, at age 70, exactly one week after Mike Bossy, who also succumbed to lung cancer (as both smoked heavily during their playing days); both were Quebec natives whose contemporary careers as star right-wingers were often compared.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: Lafleur is the all-time leading scorer in Canadiens history, notching 1,246 points, made up of the club's second highest (behind Maurice "Rocket" Richard) all-time goals, with 518, and the most all-time assists, with 728, in his 14 years with the Habs. He led the NHL in points in 1976, 1977, and 1978. He tied for a Montreal club record with Steve Shutt for goals in a season with 60 in 1977–78 and holds the franchise record for points in a season with 136 in 1976–77. Lafleur became the first player in NHL history to score at least 50 goals and 100 points in six consecutive seasons, all as a Hab. Lafleur was also the fastest player (at the time) to reach 1,000 points, doing so in only 720 games. That record has since been broken by Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and a few others.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: He was a member of the Canadian team in the 1976 and 1981 Canada Cup tournaments, winning the Cup in 1976. He was the recipient of the Lou Marsh Trophy in 1977.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: On February 16, 1985, Lafleur became the fifth player from the Montreal Canadiens to have his sweater number retired. Lafleur was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 1996. Along with Gordie Howe before him and Mario Lemieux after him, Lafleur is one of only three players to have returned to the NHL after being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: In April 2001, Lafleur sold most of his personal hockey memorabilia in a silent auction. 122 items were sold, including miniature replicas of NHL trophies, jerseys, pucks, sticks, and skates. Included in the sale were his 1977 Conn Smythe Trophy, 1977 Hart Trophy, the puck for his first goal, and four of his five Stanley Cup rings. The items' selling prices totalled approximately US$400,000, with Lafleur donating $20,000 to $25,000 to the Montreal Canadiens Foundation.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: Besides the honours received during his playing career, in 1980 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in 2005, he was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec.


title: Guy Lafleur

text: In 1998, he was ranked number 11 on "The Hockey News" list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players. In 2017, he was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players by the NHL as part of its centennial celebration.


title: Bajrakitiyabha

text: Princess Bajrakitiyabha Narendira Debyavati, the Princess Rajasarini Siribajra (, , also known as Princess Pa or Patty, born 7 December 1978) is a Thai diplomat and princess of Thailand, the first grandchild of King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit of Thailand, and the only one of the seven children of King Maha Vajiralongkorn born to his first wife Princess Soamsawali.


title: Bajrakitiyabha

text: Princess Bajrakitiyabha was born on 7 December 1978 at Amphorn Sathan Residential Hall, Dusit Palace in Bangkok, She is eldest child and first daughter of Vajiralongkorn and his first wife princess Soamsawali, She studied at the all-girls Rajini School when she was in elementary and junior high school. She moved to England and began her secondary education first at Heathfield School in Ascot, finishing at the Chitralada School.


title: Bajrakitiyabha

text: Princess Bajrakitiyabha received a LL.B. degree from Thammasat University, as well a B.A. degree in International Relations from Sukhothai Thammatirat University, both in 2000. She subsequently obtained a LL.M. degree from Cornell Law School in 2002 and a J.S.D. degree from Cornell University in 2005.


title: Bajrakitiyabha

text: On completion of her doctorate Princess Bajrakitiyabha worked briefly at the Thai Permanent Mission to the United Nations, in New York, before returning to Thailand. In September 2006, she was appointed Attorney in the Office of the Attorney General in Bangkok, and is then appointed to Office of the Attorney General of Udon Thani Province.


title: Bajrakitiyabha

text: From 2012 to 2014, she was the Thai ambassador to Austria, until she returned to a post at the Office of the Attorney General.


title: Bajrakitiyabha

text: On 3 February 2021, the princess was transferred from her position as an attorney in the Office of the Attorney General to the Royal Security Command in the position of Chief of Staff of The King's Close Bodyguard Command and bestowed the rank of general.


title: Bajrakitiyabha

text: The princess was instrumental in prodding the Thai government to submit a resolution to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council, that detailed the vulnerability of women incarcerated in a system built principally for men. Her efforts were to lead to the UN adoption of the "Bangkok Rules", the first set of universal guidelines addressing the treatment of women in the justice system.


title: Bajrakitiyabha

text: Bajrakitiyabha runs the "Kamlangjai" or "Inspire" project, which reached out to incarcerated Thai women including pregnant inmates and their babies, and intends to assure those female and pregnant inmates are given adequate assistance to prepare them to reenter society upon release. She is also working on "Enhancing lives of Female Inmates" (ELFI), a project which proposes new rules for the treatment of women prisoners and non-custodial measures for women offenders as a supplement to the 1955 Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners


title: Bajrakitiyabha

text: In December 2022, the Bureau of the Royal Household announced that the Princess had been hospitalised following a collapse while out walking her dogs on 14 December. The palace confirmed that it was due to a heart condition. The princess was initially taken to Pak Chong Nana Hospital and then transferred to the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital. She was reportedly training her dogs for the Thailand Working Dog Championship 2022 organised by the Royal Thai Army.


title: Liam Aiken

text: Liam Pádraic Aiken (born January 7, 1990) is an American actor. He has starred in films such as "Stepmom" (1998), "Road to Perdition" (2002), and "Good Boy!" (2003), and played Klaus Baudelaire in "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" (2004), based on the series of books. He also starred in the films "Nor'easter" (2012), "Ned Rifle" (2014), "The Bloodhound" (2020), and "Bashira" (2021).


title: Liam Aiken

text: Aiken was born in New York City, the only child of Moya Aiken, an Irish-born artist; and Bill Aiken, an MTV producer, who is of Scots-Irish descent. Bill died of esophageal cancer in September 1992, at age 34, when Liam was two years old. Aiken grew up in New Jersey and attended Dwight-Englewood School, graduating in 2008. He then went on to major in film at New York University. , Aiken resides in Los Angeles.


title: Liam Aiken

text: Aiken made his professional acting debut in a Ford Motor Company commercial by Ford Aerostar. He made his stage debut in the Broadway play "A Doll's House" at the age of seven, and his film debut in "Henry Fool" (1997). His first major film role came when he starred in "Stepmom" (1998). He appeared in "Road to Perdition" (2002) and the family film "Good Boy!" (2003). He was considered to play Cole Sear in "The Sixth Sense" (1999), but the role went to Haley Joel Osment. The following year, he was also considered for the role of Harry Potter due to his Irish heritage and Scottish ancestry, as well as his previous work with director Chris Columbus on "Stepmom", but Daniel Radcliffe ultimately won the role, due to J. K. Rowling's insistence that the part should go to a British actor.


title: Liam Aiken

text: Aiken went on to play intelligent 12-year-old orphan Klaus Baudelaire in "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" (2004). He also appeared in "The Killer Inside Me" (2010). In September 2011, he appeared in the CBS series "A Gifted Man". From 2012 to 2015, he narrated the audiobook versions of "All the Wrong Questions", a prequel series to "A Series of Unfortunate Events".


title: Liam Aiken

text: In 2012, he portrayed a boy who returns home after being missing for years in "Nor'easter", directed by Andrew Brotzman. In 2014, he played the title role in "Ned Rifle", the third film in a trilogy that began with "Henry Fool" and continued with "Fay Grim" (2006). In 2020, he co-starred "The Bloodhound", a mystery film inspired by the Edgar Allan Poe short story "The Fall of the House of Usher."


title: Liam Aiken

text: In 2021, he portrayed an electronic musician who suffering a series of nightmares with bizarre and mysterious appearances in "Bashira", directed by Nickson Fong. He also played J.R. in "Montauk", directed by Sean Nalaboff.


title: Marc Lépine

text: Marc Lépine (; born October 26, 1964 – December 6, 1989) was a Canadian antifeminist mass murderer from Montreal, Quebec, who, in 1989, murdered fourteen women, and wounded ten women and four men at the École Polytechnique de Montréal, an engineering school affiliated with the Université de Montréal, in the École Polytechnique massacre.


title: Marc Lépine

text: Lépine was born in Montreal, the son of Canadian nurse Monique Lépine and Algerian businessman Rachid Gharbi. Gharbi was abusive towards and contemptuous of women, and left the relationship after Monique returned to nursing to support her children; Lépine was seven at the time. Lépine and his younger sister lived with other families, seeing their mother on weekends. Lépine was considered bright but withdrawn, and had difficulties with peer and family relationships. He legally changed his name at the age of 14 giving "hatred of his father" as the reason.


title: Marc Lépine

text: Lépine's application to the Canadian Forces was rejected, and in 1982 he began a science program at a college, switching to a more technical program after one year. In 1986 he dropped out of the course in his final term, and was subsequently fired from his job at a hospital due to his poor attitude. Lépine began a computer programming course in 1988, and again abandoned it before completion. He twice applied for admission to the École Polytechnique, but lacked two required compulsory courses.


title: Marc Lépine

text: Lépine had long complained about women working in "non-traditional" jobs. After several months of planning, including the purchase of a semi-automatic rifle, he entered the École Polytechnique on the afternoon of December 6, 1989, separated the men from the women in a classroom, and shot the women, while yelling, "I hate feminists", claiming that he was "fighting feminism". He then moved into other parts of the building, targeting only the women, before killing himself. His suicide note blamed feminists for ruining his life.


title: Marc Lépine

text: Lépine's actions have been variously ascribed from a psychiatry perspective with diagnoses such as personality disorder, psychosis, or attachment disorder, noting societal factors such as poverty, isolation, powerlessness, and violence in the media. The massacre is regarded by criminologists as an example of a hate crime against women, and by feminists and government officials as a misogynist attack and an example of the larger issue of violence against women. December 6 is now observed in Canada as a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.


title: Marc Lépine

text: Marc Lépine was born Gamil Rodrigue Liass Gharbi on October 26, 1964, in Montreal, Quebec, the son of Algerian immigrant Rachid Liass Gharbi and Canadian nurse Monique Lépine. Gamil's sister, Nadia, was born in 1967. Rachid was a mutual funds salesman and was travelling in the Caribbean at the time of his son's birth. During his absence, Monique discovered evidence that her husband had been having an affair. Rachid was a non-practising Muslim, and Monique a former Catholic nun who had rejected organized religion after she left the convent. Their son was baptized a Catholic as an infant, but received no religious instruction during his childhood; his mother described her son as "a confirmed atheist all his life".


title: Marc Lépine

text: Instability and violence marked the family: they moved frequently, and much of young Lépine's early childhood was spent in Costa Rica and Puerto Rico, where his father worked for a Swiss mutual funds company. The family returned to Montreal permanently in 1968, shortly before a stock market crash led to the loss of much of the family's assets. Rachid was an authoritarian, possessive and jealous man, frequently violent towards his wife and children. He had contempt for women and believed that they were intended only to serve men. He required his wife to act as his personal secretary, slapping her if she made any errors in typing, and forcing her to retype documents in spite of the cries of their toddler. He was also neglectful and abusive towards his children, particularly his son, and discouraged any tenderness as he considered it spoiling.


title: Marc Lépine

text: In 1970, following an incident in which Rachid struck Gamil so hard that the marks on his face were visible a week later, Monique decided to leave. The legal separation was finalized in 1971, and the divorce in 1976. Following the separation, Gamil lived with his mother and younger sister Nadia; soon after, their home and possessions were seized when Rachid defaulted on mortgage payments. Gamil was afraid of his father, and at first saw him on weekly supervised visits. The visits ended quickly, as Rachid ceased contact with his children soon after the separation. Gamil never saw his father again, and in the future refused to discuss him with others.


title: Marc Lépine

text: Rachid stopped making child support payments after paying them twice, and to make ends meet Monique returned to nursing. She subsequently started taking further courses to advance her career. During this time the children lived with other families during the week, seeing their mother only on weekends. Concerned about her children and parenting skills, she sought help for the family from a psychiatrist at St. Justine's Hospital in 1976; the assessment concluded there was nothing wrong with the shy and withdrawn Gamil, but recommended therapy for his sister Nadia, who was challenging Monique's authority. Nadia died in 1996 at the age of 28 from a drug overdose of cocaine.


title: Marc Lépine

text: After the divorce became final in 1976, the Lépine children, then aged 12 and 9, returned to live with their mother, who was director of nursing at a Montreal hospital. In 1977 the family moved to a house purchased in the middle-class Montreal suburb of Pierrefonds. Gamil attended junior high and high school, where he was described as a quiet student who obtained average to above average marks. He developed a close friendship with another boy, but he did not fit in with other students. Taunted as an Arab because of his name, at the age of 14 he legally changed it to "Marc Lépine", citing his hatred of his father as the reason for taking his mother's surname. Lépine was uncommunicative and showed little emotion. He suffered from low self-esteem, exacerbated by his chronic acne. Family relations remained difficult; his younger sister Nadia publicly humiliated him about his acne and his lack of girlfriends. Lépine fantasized about her death, and on one occasion made a mock grave for her. He was overjoyed when in 1981 she was placed in a group home because of her delinquent behaviour and drug abuse.


title: Marc Lépine

text: Seeking a good male role model for Lépine, his mother arranged for a Big Brother. For two years, the experience proved positive as Lépine, often with his best friend, enjoyed the time with photography and moto-cross motorcycles. However, in 1979, the meetings ceased abruptly when the Big Brother was detained on suspicion of molesting young boys. Both Lépine and his Big Brother denied that any molestation had occurred. Lépine owned an air rifle as a teenager, which he used to shoot pigeons near his home with his friend. They also enjoyed designing and building electronic gadgets. Lépine developed an interest in World War II and an admiration of Adolf Hitler, and enjoyed action and horror movies. He also took considerable responsibility at home, including cleaning and doing repairs while his mother worked.


title: Marc Lépine

text: Lépine applied to join the Canadian Forces as an officer cadet in September 1981 at the age of 17, but was rejected during the interview process. He later told his friend it was because of difficulties accepting authority, and in his suicide letter noted that he had been found to be "anti-social". An official statement from the military after the massacre stated that he had been "interviewed, assessed and determined to be unsuitable".


title: Marc Lépine

text: In 1982, at the age of 18, the Lépine family moved to Saint-Laurent, closer to his mother's work and to Lépine's new CEGEP. He lost contact with his school friend soon after the move. This period marks the beginning of the seven years which he described in his suicide note as having "brought [him] no joy".


title: Marc Lépine

text: In August 1982 Lépine began a two-year pre-university course in pure sciences at Cégep de Saint-Laurent, failing two courses in the first semester but improving his grades considerably in the second semester. He worked part-time at the hospital where his mother worked, serving food and doing custodial duties. Lépine was seen as nervous, hyperactive, and immature by his colleagues. He developed an attraction to another employee, but he was too shy to act on his feelings. After a year at college, he switched from the university-destined science program into electronics technology, a three-year technical program geared more towards immediate employment. His teachers remembered him as being a model student, quiet, hardworking, and generally doing well in his classes, particularly those related to electrotechnology. There was an unexplained drop in his marks in the fall 1985 term and in February 1986, during the last term of the program, he suddenly and without explanation stopped attending classes, as a result failing to complete his diploma.


title: Marc Lépine

text: Lépine moved out of his mother's home into his own apartment, and in 1986 he applied to study engineering at École Polytechnique de Montréal. He was admitted on the condition that he complete two compulsory courses, including one in solution chemistry. In 1987, Lépine was fired from his job at the hospital for aggressive behaviour, as well as disrespect of his superiors and carelessness in his work. He was enraged at his dismissal, and at the time described a plan to commit a murderous rampage and then commit suicide. Lépine's friends noted that he became unpredictable, flying into rages when frustrated.


title: Marc Lépine

text: In the fall of 1987, in order to complete his college diploma, Lépine took three courses, obtaining good marks in all of them, and in February 1988 began a course in computer programming at a private college in downtown Montreal, funding his studies with government student loans. He moved into a downtown apartment with his old high school friend, and in the winter of 1989 took a CEGEP night course in solution chemistry, a prerequisite course for the École Polytechnique. Lépine wanted a girlfriend, but was generally ill at ease around women. He tended to boss women around and show off his knowledge in front of them. He spoke out to men about his dislike of feminists, career women and women in traditionally male occupations, such as the police force, stating that women should remain in the home caring for their families. Lépine applied again to the École Polytechnique in 1989; however his application was rejected as he lacked required courses. In March 1989 he abandoned the course in computer programming, though he performed well in the CEGEP course, obtaining 100% in his final exam. In April 1989 he met with a university admissions officer and complained about how women were taking over the job market from men.


title: Marc Lépine

text: The massacre appeared to have been planned for several months. In August 1989 Lépine picked up an application for a firearms-acquisition certificate, and in mid-October he received his permit. On November 21, 1989, he purchased a Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle at a local sporting goods store. Between October and December 1989 he was seen at least seven times at the École Polytechnique. Four days before the shooting, Lépine brought his mother a present, though it was several weeks before her birthday; he also brought a note and two bags of belongings, which she did not discover until long after the shooting. Lépine had previously always been very punctual paying his rent, but had not done so in December 1989.


title: Marc Lépine

text: On December 6, 1989, Lépine walked into the École Polytechnique. There, he entered a second-floor classroom where he separated the men and women and then ordered the approximately fifty men to leave. Claiming that he was fighting feminism, he shot the nine women who remained, killing six and injuring the rest. After this, Lépine moved to other areas of the building, including the cafeteria, corridors and another classroom. A total of fourteen women (twelve engineering students, one nursing student, and one university employee) were killed, and four men and ten women injured before Lépine turned the gun on himself. The event was later described as a "pseudo-community" type of "pseudo-commando" murder-suicide, in which the perpetrator targets a specific group, usually in a public place and intending to die in "a blaze of glory".


title: Marc Lépine

text: A three-page suicide letter was found in the pocket of Lépine's jacket. The letter was never officially made public, but was leaked in November 1990 to Francine Pelletier and published in the newspaper "La Presse". In his letter, Lépine claimed political motives, blamed feminists for ruining his life, and expressed admiration for Denis Lortie, who had mounted an attack on the Quebec National Assembly in 1984 for political reasons, killing three Quebec government employees. The letter also contained a list of nineteen Quebec women whom Lépine apparently wished to kill because of their feminism. Another letter, written to a friend, promised the explanation to the massacre lay by following clues left in Lépine's apartment. The hunt led only to a suitcase of computer games and hardware.


title: Marc Lépine

text: Lépine was buried in the Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges in Montreal, a few blocks from where he committed the massacre.


title: Marc Lépine

text: A police psychiatrist who interviewed Lépine's family and entourage, and who had access to his letters, suggested that he may have had a serious personality disorder, as he chose the multiple homicide/suicide strategy (killing oneself after killing others) that is a characteristic of this disorder. The psychiatrist noted "extreme narcissistic vulnerability" as shown by fantasies of power and success combined with high levels of self-criticism and difficulties dealing with rejection and failure. Feelings of powerlessness and incompetence were compensated for by a violent and grandiose imaginary life. Other psychiatrists suggested that Lépine was psychotic, having lost touch with reality as he tried to erase the memories of a brutal and absent father, while at the same time unconsciously identifying with a violent manhood that dominates women. Other theories were that Lépine's experiences of abuse as a child had caused brain damage or led him to feel victimized as he faced losses and rejections in his later life.


title: Marc Lépine

text: Lépine's mother speculated that he may have suffered from attachment disorder due to the abuse and sense of abandonment he had experienced in his childhood. She also wondered whether Lépine viewed her as a feminist, and that the massacre might have been an unconscious attempt to get revenge for her neglect while she pursued her career and for his sister's taunts. Others take a less individualistic approach. Many feminists and governmental officials view it as an illustration of misogynistic violence against women. Criminologists consider the massacre as an example of a hate or bias crime against women. A few antifeminists have sought to rehabilitate Lépine as hero of the antifeminist cause. Others wondered if Lépine's actions were the result of societal changes that had led to increased poverty, powerlessness, individual isolation or increased violence in the media and in society.


title: Marc Lépine

text: Canadians mark the day of the killings with a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. In 2008, Monique Lépine published "Aftermath", a memoir of her own journey through the grief and pain of the incident. She had stayed silent until 2006, when she decided to speak out for the first time in the wake of that year's Dawson College shooting.


title: Marc Lépine

text: Lépine was portrayed by Maxim Gaudette in the 2009 film "Polytechnique", although the film never refers to Lépine by name. Gaudette won a Genie Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Lépine.


title: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (film)

text: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly () is a 2007 biographical drama film directed by Julian Schnabel and written by Ronald Harwood. Based on Jean-Dominique Bauby's 1997 memoir of the same name, the film depicts Bauby's life after suffering a massive stroke that left him with a condition known as locked-in syndrome. Bauby is played by Mathieu Amalric.


text: "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" won awards at the Cannes Film Festival, the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs, and the César Awards, and received four Oscar nominations. Several critics later listed it as one of the best films of its decade. It ranks in BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century.


text: The first third of the film is told from the main character's, Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), or Jean-Do as his friends call him, first person perspective. The film opens as Bauby wakes from his three-week coma in a hospital in Berck-sur-Mer, France. After an initial rather over-optimistic analysis from one doctor, a neurologist explains that he has locked-in syndrome, an extremely rare condition in which the patient is almost completely physically paralyzed, but remains mentally normal. At first, the viewer primarily hears Bauby's "thoughts" (he thinks that he is speaking but no one hears him), which are inaccessible to the other characters (who are seen through his one functioning eye).


text: A speech therapist and physical therapist try to help Bauby become as functional as possible. Bauby cannot speak, but he develops a system of communication with his speech and language therapist by blinking his left eye as she reads a list of letters to laboriously spell out his messages, letter by letter.


text: Gradually, the film's restricted point of view broadens out, and the viewer begins to see Bauby from "outside", in addition to experiencing incidents from his past, including a visit to Lourdes. He also fantasizes, imagining beaches, mountains, the Empress Eugénie and an erotic feast with one of his transcriptionists. It is revealed that Bauby had been editor of the popular French fashion magazine "Elle", and that he had a deal to write a book (which was originally going to be based on "The Count of Monte Cristo" but from a female perspective). He decides that he will still write a book, using his slow and exhausting communication technique. A woman from the publishing house with which Bauby had the original book contract is brought in to take dictation.


text: The new book explains what it is like to now be him, trapped in his body, which he sees as being within an old-fashioned deep-sea diving suit with a brass helmet, which is called a "scaphandre" in French, as in the original title. Others around see his spirit, still alive, as a "Butterfly".


text: The story of Bauby's writing is juxtaposed with his recollections and regrets until his stroke. We see his three children, their mother (whom he never married), his mistress, his friends, and his father. He encounters people from his past whose lives bear similarities to his own "entrapment": a friend who was kidnapped in Beirut and held in solitary confinement for four years, and his own 92-year-old father, who is confined to his own apartment, because he is too frail to descend four flights of stairs.


text: Bauby eventually completes his memoir and hears the critics' responses. He dies of pneumonia two days after its publication. The closing credits are accentuated by reversed shootings of breaking glacier ice (the forward versions are used in the opening credits), accompanied by the Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros song "Ramshackle Day Parade".


text: The film was originally to be produced by American company Universal Studios and the screenplay was originally in English, with Johnny Depp slated to star as Bauby. According to the screenwriter, Ronald Harwood, the choice of Julian Schnabel as director was recommended by Depp. Universal subsequently withdrew, and Pathé took up the project two years later. Depp dropped the project due to scheduling conflicts with "". Schnabel remained as director. The film was eventually produced by Pathé and France 3 Cinéma in association with Banque Populaire Images 7 and the American Kennedy/Marshall Company and in participation with Canal+ and CinéCinéma.


text: According to the "New York Sun", Schnabel insisted that the movie should be in French, resisting pressure by the production company to make it in English, believing that the rich language of the book would work better in the original French, and even went so far as to learn French to make the film. Harwood tells a slightly different story: Pathé wanted "to make the movie in both English and French, which is why bilingual actors were cast"; he continues that "Everyone secretly knew that two versions would be impossibly expensive", and that "Schnabel decided it should be made in French".


text: Several key aspects of Bauby's personal life were fictionalized in the film, most notably his relationships with the mother of his children and his girlfriend. In reality, it was not Bauby's estranged wife who stayed by the patient's bedside while he lay almost inanimate on a hospital bed, it was his girlfriend of several years.


text: The film received universal acclaim from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 94%, based on reviews from 176 critics, and an average rating of 8.30/10, with the general consensus stated as, "Breathtaking visuals and dynamic performances make "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" a powerful biopic." Metacritic gave the film an average score of 92/100, based on 36 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".


text: It was nominated for four Academy Awards, but because the film was produced by an American company, it was ineligible for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.


title: No Prayer for the Dying

text: No Prayer for the Dying is the eighth studio album by English heavy metal band Iron Maiden. It is their first album to feature Janick Gers on guitar, who replaced Adrian Smith. Smith left the band during the pre-production phase, unhappy with the musical direction it was taking, and only having contributed to one song, "Hooks in You". Gers previously worked with singer Bruce Dickinson on his first solo album, "Tattooed Millionaire", and had also worked with Ian Gillan, former Marillion singer Fish, and new wave of British heavy metal band, White Spirit.


title: No Prayer for the Dying

text: Although it received generally mixed to negative reviews, the album peaked at No. 2 in the UK Albums Chart and contains the band's only UK Singles Chart No. 1, "Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter".


title: No Prayer for the Dying

text: The album departed from the keyboard- and synthesiser-saturated progressive rock direction of the band's two previous studio outings (1986's "Somewhere in Time" and 1988's "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son") in favour of a more "stripped down," straightforward style, reminiscent of the band's earlier material, which ushered in a change of vocal style for Bruce Dickinson from the operatic sound of the 1980s to a raspier way of singing. In addition, Michael Kenney, who had played keyboards on tour for the band, played keyboards on the album, replacing Harris and Adrian Smith from previous albums. The idea to make a more "street level" release also inspired the band to record in a barn on bassist Steve Harris's property in Essex, using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. This means it is the first Iron Maiden album to be recorded in their home country since 1982's "The Number of the Beast." Dickinson states that this idea was a mistake, commenting that "It was shit! It was a shit-sounding record, and I wished we hadn't done it that way. At the time, I was as guilty as anyone else in going, 'Oh great! Look, we're all covered in straw! What a larf!'"


title: No Prayer for the Dying

text: The album also departed from literary and historical lyrical themes in favour of more political content, with songs focusing on religious exploitation (such as in the record's first single, "Holy Smoke") and social concerns ("Public Enema Number One"). "No Prayer for the Dying" is the only Iron Maiden studio album to date without a song exceeding six minutes in length and the second one to contain profanity in the lyrics, the debut album being the first to do so. It was also the band's first release with Epic Records in the US, after the band left Capitol Records, but was sold through EMI for all territories outside the US. Despite charting well in most countries, particularly in the UK where it debuted at No. 2, it would be the band's last album to receive gold certification in the US.


title: No Prayer for the Dying

text: "No Prayer for the Dying" includes the hit song "Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter", which, in spite of a ban by the BBC, remains Iron Maiden's only UK No. 1 single to date. A tongue-in-cheek song written by Dickinson and originally recorded with his solo band for the "" film soundtrack, Harris decided that the song would be "great for Maiden" and had the band re-record it.


title: No Prayer for the Dying

text: Following Dickinson's departure from Iron Maiden in 1993, songs from "No Prayer for the Dying" have been largely ignored at live performances. "Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter" was the only song played on a post-1993 setlist, appearing on the band's 2003 summer tour.


title: No Prayer for the Dying

text: "No Prayer for the Dying" does not follow the continuity of previous album covers, as Eddie no longer exhibits either his lobotomy or cyborg enhancements.


title: No Prayer for the Dying

text: Three versions of the cover exist. The original 1990 version has Eddie bursting from his grave and grabbing a gravedigger (with the likeness of the band's manager, Rod Smallwood) by the neck. However, Smallwood disliked the figure and asked artist Derek Riggs to remove him from the cover for the 1998 re-release, although the original artwork is used on the disc itself. Additionally an inscription was added to the plaque on the tomb, which Riggs had initially left blank to allow the band to add their own words, and reads "After the Daylight, The Night of Pain, That is not Dead, Which Can Rise Again." The picture disc LP shows Eddie firing a weapon made of four machine guns (a reference to the album's opening track, "Tailgunner"). It has the original cover on side two.


title: No Prayer for the Dying

text: The album received generally mixed to negative reviews, with AllMusic commenting that "the songwriting wasn't up to snuff when compared to such classics as "Killers" or "Number of the Beast"" and "as a whole doesn't measure up to the hits." Sputnikmusic were equally negative, stating that ""No Prayer for the Dying" is a plain, listless record that never really gets itself going."


title: Edward Gorey

text: Edward St. John Gorey (February 22, 1925 – April 15, 2000) was an American writer, Tony Award-winning costume designer, and artist, noted for his own illustrated books as well as cover art and illustration for books by other writers. His characteristic pen-and-ink drawings often depict vaguely unsettling narrative scenes in Victorian and Edwardian settings.


title: Edward Gorey

text: Edward St. John Gorey was born in Chicago. His parents, Helen Dunham (née Garvey) and Edward Leo Gorey, divorced in 1936 when he was 11. His father remarried in 1952 when he was 27. His stepmother was Corinna Mura (1910–1965), a cabaret singer who had a small role in "Casablanca" as the woman playing the guitar while singing "La Marseillaise" at Rick's Café Américain. His father was briefly a journalist. Gorey's maternal great-grandmother, Helen St. John Garvey, was a nineteenth-century greeting card illustrator, from whom he claimed to have inherited his talents.


title: Edward Gorey

text: From 1934 to 1937, Gorey attended public school in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette, Illinois, where his classmates included Charlton Heston, Warren MacKenzie, and Joan Mitchell. Some of his earliest preserved work appears in the Stolp School yearbook for 1937. After that, he attended the Francis W. Parker School in Chicago. He spent 1944 to 1946 in the Army at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. He then attended Harvard University, beginning in 1946 and graduating in the class of 1950; he studied French and roomed with poet Frank O'Hara.


title: Edward Gorey

text: In the early 1950s, Gorey, with a group of recent Harvard alumni including Alison Lurie (1947), John Ashbery (1949), Donald Hall (1951) and O'Hara (1950), amongst others, founded the Poets' Theatre in Cambridge, which was supported by Harvard faculty members John Ciardi and Thornton Wilder.


title: Edward Gorey

text: He frequently stated that his formal art training was "negligible"; Gorey studied art for one semester at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1943.


title: Edward Gorey

text: From 1953 to 1960, he lived in Manhattan and worked for the Art Department of Doubleday Anchor, where he illustrated book covers, added illustrations to text, and provided typographic design. He illustrated works as diverse as Bram Stoker's "Dracula", H. G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds", and T. S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats". Throughout his career, he illustrated over 200 book covers for Doubleday Anchor, Random House's Looking Glass Library, Bobbs-Merrill, and as a freelance artist. In later years he produced cover illustrations and interior artwork for many children's books by John Bellairs, as well as books begun by Bellairs and continued by Brad Strickland after Bellairs' death.