title: Trench warfare

text: Artillery dominated the battlefields of trench warfare. An infantry attack was rarely successful if it advanced beyond the range of its supporting artillery. In addition to bombarding the enemy infantry in the trenches, the artillery could be used to precede infantry advances with a creeping barrage, or engage in counter-battery duels to try to destroy the enemy's guns. Artillery mainly fired fragmentation, high-explosive, shrapnel or, later in the war, gas shells. The British experimented with firing thermite incendiary shells, to set trees and ruins alight. However, all armies experienced shell shortages during the first year or two of World War I, due to underestimating their usage in intensive combat. This knowledge had been gained by the combatant nations in the Russo-Japanese War, when daily artillery fire consumed ten times more than daily factory output, but had not been applied.


title: Trench warfare

text: Artillery pieces were of two types: infantry support guns and howitzers. Guns fired high-velocity shells over a flat trajectory and were often used to deliver fragmentation and to cut barbed wire. Howitzers lofted the shell over a high trajectory so it plunged into the ground. The largest calibers were usually howitzers. The German howitzer weighed 20 tons and could fire a one-ton shell over . A critical feature of period artillery pieces was the hydraulic recoil mechanism, which meant the gun did not need to be re-aimed after each shot, permitting a tremendous increase in rate of fire.


title: Trench warfare

text: Initially each gun would need to register its aim on a known target, in view of an observer, in order to fire with precision during a battle. The process of gun registration would often alert the enemy an attack was being planned. Towards the end of 1917, artillery techniques were developed enabling fire to be delivered accurately without registration on the battlefield—the gun registration was done behind the lines then the pre-registered guns were brought up to the front for a surprise attack.


title: Trench warfare

text: Mortars, which lobbed a shell in a high arc over a relatively short distance, were widely used in trench fighting for harassing the forward trenches, for cutting wire in preparation for a raid or attack, and for destroying dugouts, saps and other entrenchments. In 1914, the British fired a total of 545 mortar shells; in 1916, they fired over 6,500,000. Similarly, howitzers, which fire on a more direct arc than mortars, raised in number from over 1,000 shells in 1914, to over 4,500,000 in 1916. The smaller numerical difference in mortar rounds, as opposed to howitzer rounds, is presumed by many to be related to the expanded costs of manufacturing the larger and more resource intensive howitzer rounds.


title: Trench warfare

text: The main British mortar was the Stokes, a precursor of the modern mortar. It was a light mortar, simple in operation, and capable of a rapid rate of fire by virtue of the propellant cartridge being attached to the base shell. To fire the Stokes mortar, the round was simply dropped into the tube, where the percussion cartridge was detonated when it struck the firing pin at the bottom of the barrel, thus being launched. The Germans used a range of mortars. The smallest were grenade-throwers ('Granatenwerfer') which fired the stick grenades which were commonly used. Their medium trench-mortars were called mine-throwers ('Minenwerfer'). The heavy mortar was called the 'Ladungswerfer', which threw "aerial torpedoes", containing a charge to a range of . The flight of the missile was so slow and leisurely that men on the receiving end could make some attempt to seek shelter.


title: Trench warfare

text: Mortars had certain advantages over artillery such as being much more portable and the ability to fire without leaving the relative safety of trenches. Moreover, mortars were able to fire directly into the trenches, which was hard to do with artillery.


title: Trench warfare

text: The fundamental strategy of trench warfare in World War I was to defend one's own position strongly while trying to achieve a breakthrough into the enemy's rear. The effect was to end up in attrition; the process of progressively grinding down the opposition's resources until, ultimately, they are no longer able to wage war. This did not prevent the ambitious commander from pursuing the strategy of annihilation—the ideal of an offensive battle which produces victory in one decisive engagement.


title: Trench warfare

text: The Commander in Chief of the British forces during most of World War I, General Douglas Haig, was constantly seeking a "breakthrough" which could then be exploited with cavalry divisions. His major trench offensives—the Somme in 1916 and Flanders in 1917—were conceived as breakthrough battles but both degenerated into costly attrition. The Germans actively pursued a strategy of attrition in the Battle of Verdun, the sole purpose of which was to "bleed the French Army white". At the same time the Allies needed to mount offensives in order to draw attention away from other hard-pressed areas of the line.


title: Trench warfare

text: The popular image of a trench assault is of a wave of soldiers, bayonets fixed, going "over the top" and marching in a line across no man's land into a hail of enemy fire. This was the standard method early in the war; it was rarely successful. More common was an attack at night from an advanced post in no man's land, having cut the barbed wire beforehand. In 1915, the Germans innovated with infiltration tactics where small groups of highly trained and well-equipped troops would attack vulnerable points and bypass strong points, driving deep into the rear areas. The distance they could advance was still limited by their ability to supply and communicate.


title: Trench warfare

text: The role of artillery in an infantry attack was twofold. The first aim of a bombardment was to prepare the ground for an infantry assault, killing or demoralising the enemy garrison and destroying their defences. The duration of these initial bombardments varied, from seconds to days. Artillery bombardments prior to infantry assaults were often ineffective at destroying enemy defences, only serving to provide advance notice of an attack. The British bombardment that began the Battle of the Somme lasted eight days but did little damage to either the German barbed wire or their deep dug-outs, where defenders were able to wait out the bombardment in relative safety.


title: Trench warfare

text: Once the guns stopped, the defenders had time to emerge and were usually ready for the attacking infantry. The second aim was to protect the attacking infantry by providing an impenetrable "barrage" or curtain of shells to prevent an enemy counter-attack. The first attempt at sophistication was the "lifting barrage" where the first objective of an attack was intensely bombarded for a period before the entire barrage "lifted" to fall on a second objective farther back. However, this usually expected too much of the infantry, and the usual outcome was that the barrage would outpace the attackers, leaving them without protection.


title: Trench warfare

text: This resulted in the use of the "creeping barrage" which would lift more frequently but in smaller steps, sweeping the ground ahead and moving so slowly that the attackers could usually follow closely behind it. This became the standard method of attack from late 1916 onward. The main benefit of the barrage was suppression of the enemy rather than to cause casualties or material damage.


title: Trench warfare

text: Capturing the objective was half the battle, but the battle was won only if the objective was held. The attacking force would have to advance with not only the weapons required to capture a trench but also the tools—sandbags, picks and shovels, barbed wire—to fortify and defend from counter-attack. A successful advance would take the attackers beyond the range of their own field artillery, making them vulnerable, and it took time to move guns up over broken ground. The Germans placed great emphasis on immediately counter-attacking to regain lost ground. This strategy cost them dearly in 1917 when the British started to limit their advances so as to be able to meet the anticipated counter-attack from a position of strength. Part of the British artillery was positioned close behind the original start line and took no part in the initial bombardment, so as to be ready to support later phases of the operation while other guns were moved up.


title: Trench warfare

text: The Germans were the first to apply the concept of "defence in depth", where the front-line zone was hundreds of metres deep and contained a series of redoubts rather than a continuous trench. Each redoubt could provide supporting fire to its neighbours, and while the attackers had freedom of movement between the redoubts, they would be subjected to withering enfilade fire. They were also more willing than their opponents to make a strategic withdrawal to a superior prepared defensive position. The British eventually adopted a similar approach, but it was incompletely implemented when the Germans launched the 1918 Spring Offensive and proved disastrously ineffective. France, by contrast, relied on artillery and reserves, not entrenchment.


title: Trench warfare

text: An individual unit's time in a front-line trench was usually brief; from as little as one day to as much as two weeks at a time before being relieved. The 31st Australian Battalion once spent 53 days in the line at Villers-Bretonneux, but such a duration was a rare exception. The 10th Battalion, CEF, averaged front line tours of six days in 1915 and 1916.


title: Trench warfare

text: The units who manned the front line trenches the longest were the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps from Portugal stationed in Northern France; unlike the other allies the Portuguese couldn't rotate units from the front lines due to lack of reinforcements sent from Portugal, nor could they replace the depleted units that lost manpower due to the war of attrition. With this rate of casualties and no reinforcements forthcoming, most of the men were denied leave and had to serve long periods in the trenches with some units spending up to six consecutive months in the front line with little to no leave during that time.


title: Trench warfare

text: Even when in the front line, the typical battalion would be called upon to engage in fighting only a handful of times a year; making an attack, defending against an attack or participating in a raid. The frequency of combat would increase for the units of the "elite" fighting divisions; on the Allied side, these were the British regular divisions, the Canadian Corps, the French XX Corps, and the Anzacs.


title: Trench warfare

text: Some sectors of the front saw little activity throughout the war, making life in the trenches comparatively easy. When the I Anzac Corps first arrived in France in April 1916 after the evacuation of Gallipoli, they were sent to a relatively peaceful sector south of Armentières to "acclimatise". In contrast, some other sectors were in a perpetual state of violent activity. On the Western Front, Ypres was invariably hellish, especially for the British in the exposed, overlooked salient. However, even quiet sectors amassed daily casualties through sniper fire, artillery, disease, and poison gas. In the first six months of 1916, before the launch of the Somme Offensive, the British did not engage in any significant battles on their sector of the Western Front and yet suffered 107,776 casualties. Only 1 in 2 men would return alive and unwounded from the trenches.


title: Trench warfare

text: A sector of the front would be allocated to an army corps, usually comprising three divisions. Two divisions would occupy adjacent sections of the front, and the third would be in rest to the rear. This breakdown of duty would continue down through the army structure, so that within each front-line division, typically comprising three infantry brigades (regiments for the Germans), two brigades would occupy the front and the third would be in reserve. Within each front-line brigade, typically comprising four battalions, two battalions would occupy the front with two in reserve, and so on for companies and platoons. The lower down the structure this division of duty proceeded, the more frequently the units would rotate from front-line duty to support or reserve.


title: Trench warfare

text: During the day, snipers and artillery observers in balloons made movement perilous, so the trenches were mostly quiet. It was during these daytime hours that the soldiers would amuse themselves with trench magazines. Because of the peril associated with daytime activities, trenches were busiest at night when the cover of darkness allowed movement of troops and supplies, the maintenance and expansion of the barbed wire and trench system, and reconnaissance of the enemy's defenses. Sentries in listening posts out in no man's land would try to detect enemy patrols and working parties, or indications that an attack was being prepared.


title: Trench warfare

text: Pioneered by the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in February 1915, trench raids were carried out in order to capture prisoners and "booty"—letters and other documents to provide intelligence about the unit occupying the opposing trenches. As the war progressed, raiding became part of the general British policy, the intention being to maintain the fighting spirit of the troops and to deny no man's land to the Germans. As well, they were intended to compel the enemy to reinforce, which exposed their troops to artillery fire.


title: Trench warfare

text: Such dominance was achieved at a high cost when the enemy replied with their own artillery, and a post-war British analysis concluded the benefits were probably not worth the cost. Early in the war, surprise raids would be mounted, particularly by the Canadians, but increased vigilance made achieving surprise difficult as the war progressed. By 1916, raids were carefully planned exercises in combined arms and involved close co-operation between infantry and artillery.


title: Trench warfare

text: A raid would begin with an intense artillery bombardment designed to drive off or kill the front-trench garrison and cut the barbed wire. Then the bombardment would shift to form a "box barrage", or cordon, around a section of the front line to prevent a counter-attack intercepting the raid. However, the bombardment also had the effect of notifying the enemy of the location of the planned attack, thus allowing reinforcements to be called in from wider sectors.


title: Trench warfare

text: While the main cause of death in the trenches came from shelling and gunfire, diseases and infections were always present, and became prevalent for all sides as the war progressed. Medical procedures, while considerably more effective than at any previous time in history, were still not very helpful; antibiotics had not yet been discovered or invented. As a result, an infection caught in a trench often went untreated and could fester until the soldier died.


title: Trench warfare

text: The main killer in the trenches was artillery fire; around 75 percent of known casualties. Even if a soldier was not hit directly by the artillery, shell fragments and debris had a high chance of wounding those in close proximity to the blast. Artillery use increased tremendously during the war; for example, the percentage of the French army that was artillerymen grew from 20 percent in 1914 to 38 percent by 1918. The second largest contributor to death was gunfire (bullets from rifles and machine-guns), which was responsible for 34 percent of French military casualties.


title: Trench warfare

text: Once the war entered the static phase of trench warfare, the number of lethal head wounds that troops were receiving from fragmentation increased dramatically. The French were the first to see a need for greater protection and began to introduce steel helmets in the summer of 1915. The Adrian helmet replaced the traditional French kepi and was later adopted by the Belgian, Italian and many other armies. At about the same time the British were developing their own helmets. The French design was rejected as not strong enough and too difficult to mass-produce. The design that was eventually approved by the British was the Brodie helmet. This had a wide brim to protect the wearer from falling objects, but offered less protection to the wearer's neck. When the Americans entered the war, this was the helmet they chose, though some units used the French Adrian helmet.


title: Trench warfare

text: The predominant disease in the trenches of the Western Front was trench fever. Trench fever was a common disease spread through the faeces of body lice, which were rampant in trenches. Trench fever caused headaches, shin pain, splenomegaly, rashes and relapsing fevers – resulting in lethargy for months. First reported on the Western Front in 1915 by a British medical officer, additional cases of trench fever became increasingly common mostly in the front line troops. In 1921, microbiologist Sir David Bruce reported that over one million Allied soldiers were infected by trench fever throughout the war. Even after the Great War had ended, disabled veterans in Britain attributed their decreasing quality of life to trench fever they had sustained during wartime.


title: Trench warfare

text: Early in the war, gas gangrene commonly developed in major wounds, in part because the "Clostridium" bacteria responsible are ubiquitous in manure-fertilized soil (common in western European agriculture, such as France and Belgium), and dirt would often get into a wound (or be rammed in by shrapnel, explosion, or bullet). In 1914, 12% of wounded British soldiers developed gas gangrene, and at least 100,000 German soldiers died directly from the infection. After rapid advances in medical procedures and practices, the incidence of gas gangrene fell to 1% by 1918.


title: Trench warfare

text: Entrenched soldiers also carried many intestinal parasites, such as ascariasis, trichuriasis and tapeworm. These parasites were common amongst soldiers, and spread amongst them, due to the unhygienic environment created by the common trench, where there were no true sewage management procedures. This ensured that parasites (and diseases) would spread onto rations and food sources that would then be eaten by other soldiers.


title: Trench warfare

text: Trench foot was a common environmental ailment affecting many soldiers, especially during the winter. It is one of several immersion foot syndromes. It was characterized by numbness and pain in the feet, but in bad cases could result in necrosis of the lower limbs. Trench foot was a large problem for the Allied forces, resulting in 2000 American and 75,000 British casualties. Mandatory routine (daily or more often) foot inspections by fellow soldiers, along with systematic use of soap, foot powder, and changing socks, greatly reduced cases of trench foot. In 1918, US infantry were issued with an improved and more waterproof 'Pershing boot' in an attempt to reduce casualties from trench foot.


title: Trench warfare

text: To the surprise of medical professionals at the time, there was no outbreak of typhus in the trenches of the Western Front, despite the cold and harsh conditions being perfect for the reproduction of body lice that transmit the disease. However, on the Eastern Front an epidemic of typhus claimed between 150,000 – 200,000 lives in Serbia. Russia also suffered a globally unprecedented typhus epidemic during the last two years of the conflict that was exacerbated by harsh winters. This outbreak resulted in approximately 2.5 million recorded deaths, 100,000 of them being Red Army soldiers. Symptoms of typhus include a characteristic spotted rash (which was not always present), severe headache, sustained high fever of 39 °C (102 °F), cough, severe muscle pain, chills, falling blood pressure, stupor, sensitivity to light, and delirium; 10% to 60% die. Typhus is spread by body lice.


title: Trench warfare

text: Millions of rats called the trenches home, and these rats were often responsible for the spread of diseases. Soldiers' attempts to cull hordes of trench rats with rifle bayonets were common early in the war, but the rats reproduced faster than they could be slaughtered. However, soldiers still partook in rat hunts as a form of entertainment. Rats would feed on half-eaten or uneaten rations as well as corpses. Many soldiers were more afraid of rats than other horrors found in the trenches.


title: Trench warfare

text: Nervous and mental breakdowns amongst soldiers were common, due to unrelenting shellfire and the claustrophobic trench environment. Men who suffered such intense breakdowns were often rendered completely immobile, and were often seen cowering low in the trenches, unable even to perform instinctive human responses such as running away or fighting back. This condition came to be known as "shell shock", "war neurosis" or "battle hypnosis". Although trenches provided cover from shelling and small-arms fire, they also amplified the psychological effects of shell shock, as there was no way to escape a trench if shellfire was coming. If a soldier became too debilitated from shell shock, they were evacuated from the trench and hospitalized if possible. In some cases, shell shocked soldiers were executed for "cowardice" by their commanders as they became a liability. This was often done by a firing squad composed of their fellow soldiers – often from the same unit. Only years later would it be understood that such men were suffering from shell shock. During the war, 306 British soldiers were officially executed by their own side.


title: Trench warfare

text: Throughout World War I, the major combatants slowly developed different ways of breaking the stalemate of trench warfare; the Germans focused more on new tactics while the British and French focused on tanks.


title: Trench warfare

text: As far back as the 18th century, Prussian military doctrine ("Vernichtungsgedanke") stressed maneuver and force concentration to achieve a decisive battle. The German military searched for ways to apply this in the face of trench warfare. Experiments with new tactics by Willy Rohr, a Prussian captain serving in the Vosges mountains in 1915, got the attention of the Minister of War. These tactics carried Prussian military doctrine down to smallest units — specially trained troops maneuvered and massed to assault positions they chose on their own. During the next two years the German army tried to establish special stormtrooper detachments in all its units by sending selected men to Rohr and have those men then train their comrades in their original units.


title: Trench warfare

text: Similar tactics were developed independently in other countries, such as French Army captain in 1915 and Russian general Aleksei Brusilov in 1916, but these failed to be adopted as any military doctrine.


title: Trench warfare

text: The German stormtrooper methods involved men rushing forward in small groups using whatever cover was available and laying down covering fire for other groups in the same unit as they moved forward. The new tactics, intended to achieve surprise by disrupting entrenched enemy positions, aimed to bypass strongpoints and to attack the weakest parts of an enemy's line. Additionally, they acknowledged the futility of managing a grand detailed plan of operations from afar, opting instead for junior officers on the spot to exercise initiative.


title: Trench warfare

text: The Germans employed and improved infiltration tactics in a series of smaller to larger battles, each increasingly successful, leading up to the Battle of Caporetto against the Italians in 1917, and finally the massive German spring offensive in 1918 against the British and French. German infiltration tactics are sometimes called "Hutier tactics" by others, after Oskar von Hutier, the general leading the German 18th Army, which had the farthest advance in that offensive. After a stunningly rapid advance, the offensive failed to achieve a breakthrough; German forces stalled after outrunning their supply, artillery, and reinforcements, which could not catch up over the shell-torn ground left ruined by Allied attacks in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The exhausted German forces were soon pushed back in the Allied Hundred Days Offensive, and the Germans were unable to organise another major offensive before the war's end. In post-war years, other nations did not fully appreciate these German tactical innovations amidst the overall German defeat.


title: Trench warfare

text: Mines – tunnels under enemy lines packed with explosives and detonated – were widely used in WWI to destroy or disrupt enemy's trench lines. Mining and counter-mining became a major part of trench warfare.


title: Trench warfare

text: The dry chalk of the Somme was especially suited to mining, but with the aid of pumps, it was also possible to mine in the sodden clay of Flanders. Specialist tunneling companies, usually made up of men who had been miners in civilian life, would dig tunnels under no man's land and beneath the enemy's trenches. These mines would then be packed with explosives and detonated, producing a large crater. The crater served two purposes: it could destroy or breach the enemy's trench and, by virtue of the raised lip that they produced, could provide a ready-made "trench" closer to the enemy's line. When a mine was detonated, both sides would race to occupy and fortify the crater.


title: Trench warfare

text: If the miners detected an enemy tunnel in progress, they would often counter-mine and try to drive a tunnel under the enemy's tunnel in which they would detonate explosives to create a camouflet to destroy the enemy's tunnel. Night raids were also conducted with the sole purpose of destroying the enemy's mine workings. On occasion, mines would cross and fighting would occur underground. The mining skills could also be used to move troops unseen. On one occasion a whole British division was moved through interconnected workings and sewers without German observation. The British detonated 19 mines of varying sizes on July 1, 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The largest mines—the Y Sap Mine and the Lochnagar Mine—each containing 24 tons of explosives, were blown near La Boiselle, throwing earth 4,000 feet into the air.


title: Trench warfare

text: At 3.10 on June 7, 1917, a series of mines was detonated by the British to launch the Battle of Messines. The average mine contained 21 tons of explosive and the largest, 125 feet beneath Saint-Eloi, was twice the average at 42 tons. As remarked by General Plumer to his staff the evening before the attack:


title: Trench warfare

text: The craters from these and many other mines on the Western Front are still visible today. Two undetonated mines remained in the ground near Messines, with their location mislaid after the war. One blew during a thunderstorm in 1955; the other remains in the ground. Significant mining operations were also carried out on the Italian Front.


title: Trench warfare

text: World War I saw large-scale use of poison gases. At the start of the war, the gas agents used were relatively weak and delivery unreliable, but by mid-war advances in this chemical warfare reached horrifying levels.


title: Trench warfare

text: The first methods of employing gas was by releasing it from a cylinder when the wind was favourable. This was prone to miscarry if the direction of the wind was misjudged. Also, the cylinders needed to be positioned in the front trenches where they were likely to be ruptured by enemy bombardment. Later, gas was delivered directly to enemy trenches by artillery or mortar shell, reducing friendly casualties significantly. Lingering agents could still affect friendly troops that advanced to enemy trenches following its use.


title: Trench warfare

text: Early on, soldiers made improvised gas masks by urinating on a handkerchief and putting it over their nose and mouth so the urea would disable the poison. Armies rushed to issue regulation gas masks as regular equipment for front line troops. Anti-gas equipment and procedures improved significantly during the war, to the point that gas attacks had become less devastating at the war's end.


title: Trench warfare

text: Several different gas agents were used. Tear gas was first employed in August 1914 by the French, but this could only temporarily disable the enemy. In April 1915, chlorine gas was first used by Germany at the Second Battle of Ypres. Exposure to a large dose could kill, and those not killed could suffer permanent lung damage. But the gas was easy to detect by scent and sight. Phosgene, first used in December 1915, was the most lethal killing gas of World War I; it was 18 times more powerful than chlorine and much more difficult to detect.


title: Trench warfare

text: However, the most effective gas was mustard gas, introduced by Germany in July 1917. Mustard gas was not as fatal as phosgene, but it was hard to detect and lingered on the surface of the battlefield, so could inflict casualties over a long period. Even if not inhaled, it could slowly burn the skin, but quickly burned via the eyes or any wounds, causing blindness and intense suffering. Mustard gas also had the property of being heavier than air, causing it to sink down hills and therefore down into trenches. Casualties from mustard gas were unlikely to be fit to fight again, yet only 2% of mustard gas casualties died. The added burden of long term care of casualties from mustard gas actually increased its overall effectiveness compared to more immediately lethal gas agents.


title: Trench warfare

text: Tanks were developed by the British and French as a means to attack enemy trenches, by combining heavy firepower (machine guns or light artillery guns), protection from small-arms fire (armour), and battlefield mobility (tracks). The British tanks were designed with a rhomboid shape, to easily surmount barbed wire and other obstacles. They were first deployed in 1916 at the Battle of the Somme in limited numbers, proving unreliable and ineffective at first, as mechanical and logistical issues overshadowed implementing a coherent tank doctrine, with the additional challenge of traversing ground torn apart by years of shell fire. At the First Battle of Cambrai in 1917, improved tanks in larger numbers demonstrated the potential of tank warfare, though German improvised anti-tank tactics, including using direct fire from field artillery, also proved effective.


title: Trench warfare

text: By 1918, tank capabilities and tactics improved, their numbers increased and, combined with French tanks, finally helped break the stalemate. During the last 100 days of the war, Allied forces harried the Germans back using infantry supported by tanks and by close air support. By the war's end, tanks become a significant element of warfare; the proposed British Plan 1919 would have employed tanks as a primary factor in military strategy. However, the impact of tanks in World War I was less than it could have been, due to their late introduction and the inherent issues that plague implementing revolutionary technology.


title: Trench warfare

text: Between the two world wars many nations developed their own unique tanks and divergent theories of tank tactics, including the UK, France, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Japan, the US, and Italy. Though German tank development was restricted by the terms of the treaty ending World War I, Germany successfully combined their own tanks (plus Czech tanks from occupied Czechoslovakia) with infiltration tactics to produce blitzkrieg during World War II.


title: Trench warfare

text: Trenches were often used in both sides particularly the Nationalists whose military ground doctrine employs static defense. The Republicans also employ the use of trenches, but also human wave attacks most notably during their defense of Casa de Campo in the Siege of Madrid.


title: Trench warfare

text: In the decade leading up to World War II, the French built the Maginot Line, based on their experience with trench warfare in World War I. The Maginot Line was an extensive state-of-the-art defensive system far superior to any previous trench system: a chain of massive constructions of concrete, iron, and steel fortresses, bunkers, retractable turrets, outposts, obstacles, and sunken artillery emplacements, linked by tunnel networks. It covered the length of the Franco-German border and was wide. It was supported by numerous underground barracks, shelters, ammunition dumps and depots, with its own telephone network and narrow gauge railways with armoured locomotives, backed up with heavy rail artillery. French military experts placed high value on the line, saying it would curb German aggression, as any invasion force would be halted long enough for French forces to mobilize and counterattack. Furthermore, French military planning during the inter-war period believed that the line would force the Germans to invade Belgium. This would allow any future conflict to take place off of French soil. By bypassing the Maginot Line and fighting the Belgian Army, it would allow the French military to move its best formations to counter. In the Battle of France, Germany invaded Belgium and the best Anglo-French forces moved to meet them as planned. However, the Germans had only recently changed their plans from what the French had anticipated would happen. Instead of an attack through central Belgium, the main German attack was delivered through the Ardennes forest. Inter-war French planning believed it would take the Germans 9 days to move forces through this area, and that it could be held by small forces. The German forces outpaced expectations and soon crossed into France between the main French forces and the Maginot Line. They then advanced towards the English Channel, and surrounded the Anglo-French armies. Small secondary German attacks concentrated at a few points in the Line had mixed success. The bulk of the Maginot Line was untouched, its garrisons withdrawn, and flanked. Due to the lack of combat, much of it has survived.


title: Trench warfare

text: The return of mobile warfare in World War II reduced the emphasis of trench warfare, as defenders commonly lacked the time to build up such battlefield defenses before they were forced to redeploy, due to the more rapidly-changing strategic situation. But trench systems were still effective, wherever mobility was limited, the front lines were static, or around known critical objectives that could not be bypassed. More quickly improvised defensive fighting positions, using "scrapes" or "foxholes", that can be supplemented by sand bags, local materials, debris, or rubble, remain in common use. These are typically improved and expanded by the defenders, eventually becoming full trench systems, if given enough time and resources.


title: Trench warfare

text: In the Winter War, the Mannerheim Line was a system of flexible field fortification for the defending Finns. While having very few bunkers and artillery compared to heavy defense lines like the Maginot Line, it allowed defensive platoons to regroup between field fortifications (wood-earth firing posts, dugouts and pillboxes) instead of locking them into bunkers, while forcing the invaders to attack trenches as in World War I without armor and direct fire support. It caused heavy losses to the Soviets and repelled them for two months.


title: Trench warfare

text: At the Battle of Sevastopol, Red Army forces successfully held trench systems on the narrow peninsula for several months against intense German bombardment. The Western Allies in 1944 broke through the incomplete Atlantic Wall with relative ease through a combination of amphibious landings, naval gunfire, air attack, and airborne landings. Combined arms tactics where infantry, artillery, armour and aircraft cooperate closely greatly reduced the importance of trench warfare. It was, however, still a valuable method for reinforcing natural boundaries and creating a line of defence. For example, at the Battle of Stalingrad, soldiers on both sides dug trenches within the ruins; as well in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest, both American and German soldiers also dug trenches and fox holes in the rugged woods of the forest which led to continuous stalemates and failed offensives that lasted for months, which was reminiscent of the trench warfare of World War I. In addition, before the start of the Battle of Kursk, the Soviets constructed a system of defence more elaborate than any they built during World War I. These defences succeeded in stopping the German armoured pincers from meeting and enveloping the salient.


title: Trench warfare

text: The Italian Campaign fought from 1943 until the end of the war in Europe largely consisted of the Allies storming strongly fortified German lines which stretched from one coast, over the mountains to the other coast. When the Allies broke through one line, the Germans would retreat up the peninsula to yet another freshly prepared fortified line.


title: Trench warfare

text: At the start of the Battle of Berlin, the last major assault on Germany, the Soviets attacked over the river Oder against German troops dug in on the Seelow Heights, about east of Berlin. Entrenchment allowed the Germans, who were massively outnumbered, to survive a bombardment from the largest concentration of artillery in history; as the Red Army attempted to cross the marshy riverside terrain they lost tens of thousands of casualties to the entrenched Germans before breaking through.


title: Trench warfare

text: During the Pacific War, the Japanese used a labyrinth of underground fixed positions to slow down the Allied advances on many Pacific Islands. The Japanese built fixed fortifications on Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and Peleliu using a system of tunnels to interconnect their fortified positions. Many of these were former mine shafts that were turned into defense positions. Engineers added sliding armored steel doors with multiple openings to serve both artillery and machine guns. Cave entrances were built slanted as a defense against grenade and flamethrower attacks. The caves and bunkers were connected to a vast system throughout the defenses, which allowed the Japanese to evacuate or reoccupy positions as needed, and to take advantage of shrinking interior lines. This network of bunkers, tunnels, and pillboxes favored the defense. For instance, the Japanese on Iwo Jima had several levels of honeycombed fortifications. The Nanpo Bunker (Southern Area Islands Naval Air HQ), which was located east of Airfield Number 2, had enough food, water and ammo for the Japanese to hold out for three months. The bunker was 90 feet deep and had tunnels running in various directions. Approximately 500 55-gallon drums filled with water, kerosene, and fuel oil for generators were located inside the complex. Gasoline powered generators allowed for radios and lighting to be operated underground. The Japanese caused the American advance to slow down and caused massive casualties with these underground fixed positions. The Americans eventually used flamethrowers and systematic hand-to-hand fighting to oust the defenders. The American ground forces were supported by extensive naval artillery, and had complete air supremacy provided by U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aviators throughout the entire battle.


title: Trench warfare

text: Trench warfare has been infrequent in recent wars. When two large armoured armies meet, the result has generally been mobile warfare of the type which developed in World War II. However, trench warfare re-emerged in the latter stages of the Chinese Civil War (Huaihai Campaign) and the Korean War (from July 1951 to its end).


title: Trench warfare

text: During the Cold War, NATO forces routinely trained to fight through extensive works called "Soviet-style trench systems", named after the Warsaw Pact's complex systems of field fortifications, an extension of Soviet field entrenching practices for which they were famous in their Great Patriotic War (the Eastern Front of World War II).


title: Trench warfare

text: In the Iran–Iraq War, both armies lacked training in combined arms operations. Both countries often prepared entrenched defensive positions and tunnels to protect and supply the cities and bases throughout the regions. Military mobility was drastically reduced; hidden land mines, and unstable footing made it easy to slide into or get buried in a camouflaged anti-tank trench. Tactics used included trench warfare, machine gun posts, bayonet charges, booby traps, use of barbed wire across trenches and on no-man's land, Iranian human wave attacks, and Iraq's extensive use of chemical weapons such as mustard gas against Iranian troops.


title: Trench warfare

text: Iraq again attempted to use again trenches during the 1991 Gulf War. After the Invasion of Kuwait, Saddam Hussein with the objective of forcing the coalition to engange in World War I-era trench warfare, ordered the construction of a massive fortification line in the Saudi-Kuwait border, consisting of regular trenchlines, "flame trenches" (ditches filled with oil to be ignited in case of attack), sand berms, trench works, tank ditches, barbed wire and minefields, which became known as the Saddam Line. However, at the start of the Liberation of Kuwait, the US forces charged the Iraqi lines with M1 Abrams tanks modified with minesweeping plows and M728 Combat Engineer Vehicles which buried the trenchlines, and in many cases, buried Iraqi troops alive, the number of which has been estimated to be "in the thousands". In less then three hours after the initial assault, US and coalition forces had already broken through and bypassed the Saddam line and the rest of war was composed by highly mobile Maneuver warfare focusing on overwhelming power against the Iraqis.


title: Trench warfare

text: There was an extensive trench system inside and outside the city during the 1992–1996 Siege of Sarajevo. It was used mainly for transportation to the front-line or to avoid snipers inside the city. Any pre-existing structures were used as trenches; the best known example is the bobsleigh course at Trebević, which was used by both Serb and Bosniak forces during the siege.


title: Trench warfare

text: In the Eritrean-Ethiopian War of 1998–2000, the widespread use of trenches raised comparisons to the trench warfare of World War I. According to some reports, trench warfare led to the loss of "thousands of young lives in human-wave assaults on Eritrea's positions". The Eritrean defences were eventually overtaken by a surprise Ethiopian pincer movement on the Western front, attacking a mined, but lightly defended mountain (without trenches), resulting in the capture of Barentu and an Eritrean retreat. The element of surprise in the attack involved the use of donkeys as pack animals as well as being a solely infantry affair, with tanks coming in afterwards only to secure the area.


title: Trench warfare

text: The front line in Korea and the Kashmir conflict between Pakistan and India are two examples of demarcation lines which could become hot at any time. They consist of kilometres of trenches linking fortified strongpoints and in Korea surrounded by millions of land mines. The borders between Armenia, Republic of Artsakh and Azerbaijan amid the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are also heavily fortified with trenches and barbed wire, with the two sides regularly trading fire.


title: Trench warfare

text: In the War in Donbas (2014–2022), to consolidate and defend their territory, government and rebel forces dug trenches and initiated warfare reminiscent of World War I, with troops staying in and fighting from trenches for months at a time using cement mixers and excavators at their lines for digging network tunnels and deep bunkers for protection. After the Minsk peace agreements the front lines did not move significantly until the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the two sides mostly fired mortars and sniper shots at each other. As a result, both sides dug elaborate networks of trenches and deep bunkers for protection.


title: Trench warfare

text: The 2022 invasion also saw the construction of major trenchlines and similar defensive structures by both sides, especially after the end of the initial Russian offensive, resulting in a static war of attrition with slow advances and artillery duels. Pictures of muddy trenches, stumps of churned trees in a shell-pocked landscape made the Battle of Bakhmut emblematic for its trench warfare conditions, with neither side making any significant breakthroughs amid hundreds of casualties reported daily.


title: Trench warfare

text: Trench warfare has become a powerful symbol of the futility of war. Its image is of young men going "over the top" (over the parapet of the trench, to attack the enemy trench line) into a maelstrom of fire leading to near-certain death, typified by the first day of the Battle of the Somme (on which the British Army suffered nearly 60,000 casualties) or the grinding slaughter in the mud of Passchendaele. To the French, the equivalent is the attrition of the Battle of Verdun in which the French Army suffered 380,000 casualties.


title: Trench warfare

text: Trench warfare is associated with mass slaughter in appalling conditions. Many critics have argued that brave men went to their deaths because of incompetent and narrow-minded commanders who failed to adapt to the new conditions of trench warfare: class-ridden and backward-looking generals put their faith in the attack, believing superior morale and dash would overcome the weapons and moral inferiority of the defender. British public opinion often repeated the theme that their soldiers were "lions led by donkeys".


title: Trench warfare

text: World War I generals are often portrayed as callously persisting in repeated hopeless attacks against trenches. There were failures such as Passchendaele, and Sir Douglas Haig has often been criticised for allowing his battles to continue long after they had lost any purpose other than attrition. Haig's defenders counter that the attrition was necessary in order to cause attrition in the German army.


title: Trench warfare

text: The problems of trench warfare were recognised, and attempts were made to address them. These included improvements in artillery, infantry tactics, and the development of tanks. By 1918, taking advantage of failing German morale, Allied attacks were generally more successful and suffered fewer casualties; in the Hundred Days Offensive, there was a return to mobile warfare.


title: Hells Angels

text: The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is a worldwide outlaw motorcycle club whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation. Common nicknames for the club are the "H.A.", "Red & White", "HAMC", and "81". With a membership between 3,000 and 3,600 and 467 chapters in 59 countries, the HAMC is one of the largest motorcycle clubs in the world.


title: Hells Angels

text: Many police and international intelligence agencies, including the United States Department of Justice and Europol, consider the club an organized crime syndicate.


title: Hells Angels

text: The Hells Angels originated on March 17, 1948, in Fontana, California, when several small motorcycle clubs agreed to merge. Otto Friedli, a World War II veteran, is credited with starting the club after breaking from the Pissed Off Bastards motorcycle club over a feud with a rival gang.


title: Hells Angels

text: According to its website, the club's name was first suggested by Arvid Olsen, an associate of the founders who had served in the "Hell's Angels" squadron of the Flying Tigers in China during World War II. It is at least clear that the name was inspired by the tradition from World Wars I and II whereby the Americans gave their squadrons fierce, death-defying titles; an example of this lies in one of the three P-40 squadrons of Flying Tigers fielded in Burma and China, which was dubbed "Hell's Angels". In 1930, the Howard Hughes film "Hell's Angels" showcased extraordinary and dangerous feats of aviation, and it is believed that World War II groups that used that name based it on the film. According to the Hells Angels' website, they are aware that there is an apostrophe missing in "Hell's", but "... it is you who miss it. We don't".


title: Hells Angels

text: Some of the HAMC's early history is not clear, and accounts differ. Various autonomous Hells Angels chapters were formed throughout California in the decade following the club's foundation, by nomadic members who moved from one city to another. The San Francisco ("Frisco") chapter was reportedly founded by former members of the Market Street Commandos in 1954. A North Sacramento chapter was established in 1956, followed by another chapter in Sacramento the following year, which was formed by two brothers, James "Mother" Miles and Pat Miles, who were former members of the Hell Bent for Glory biker club. The Sacramento charter later disbanded and relocated to Richmond as a Nomads chapter in 1965. According to Ralph "Sonny" Barger, founder of the Oakland charter in 1957, other early charters of the club were founded in Gardena, and elsewhere, with the members usually unaware that there were other clubs. One of the lesser-known clubs was in North Chino/South Pomona in the late 1960s. Barger has been credited with helping to unify these various disparate chapters under common club bylaws.


title: Hells Angels

text: Other sources claim that the San Francisco Hells Angels were organized in 1953 by Rocky Graves, a Hells Angel member from San Bernardino ("Berdoo"), implying that the "Frisco" Hells Angels were very much aware of their forebears. The "Frisco" Hells Angels were reorganized in 1955 with 13 charter members, Frank Sadilek serving as president, and the smaller, original logo. The Oakland charter, at the time headed by Barger, used a larger version of the "Death's Head" patch nicknamed the "Barger Larger", which was first used in 1959. It later became the club standard. The first chapter to open outside California was established in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1961.


title: Hells Angels

text: The Hells Angels are often depicted in semi-mythical romantic fashion like the 19th-century James–Younger Gang: free-spirited, iconic, bound by brotherhood and loyalty. At other times, such as in the 1966 Roger Corman film "The Wild Angels", they are depicted as violent and nihilistic, little more than a violent criminal gang and a scourge on society.


title: Hells Angels

text: The club became prominent within, and established its notoriety as part of, the 1960s counterculture movement in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury District, playing a part at many of the movement's seminal events. Members were directly connected to many of the counterculture's primary leaders, such as Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, Allen Ginsberg, Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, Timothy Leary, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Mick Farren, and Tom Wolfe. "Gonzo" journalist Hunter S. Thompson's book about the club launched his career. From 1968 to 1969 the Hells Angels of San Francisco headquarters was at 715 Ashbury (across from the Grateful Dead house at 710 Ashbury).


title: Hells Angels

text: In 1973, members from several branches of the organization protested at an Environmental Protection Agency hearing about a proposed transportation plan that included restrictions on motorcycle use and sales to get California to meet the new Clean Air Act standards.


title: Hells Angels

text: The Hells Angels' official website attributes the official "death's head" insignia design to Frank Sadilek, past president of the San Francisco charter. The colors and shape of the early-style jacket emblem (before 1953) were copied from the insignias of the 85th Fighter Squadron and the 552nd Medium Bomber Squadron.


title: Hells Angels

text: The Hells Angels have a system of patches similar to military medals. The specific meaning of each patch is not publicly known, but the patches identify each biker's specific or significant actions or beliefs. The official colors of the Hells Angels are red lettering displayed on a white background—hence the club's nickname "The Red and White". The patches are worn on leather or denim jackets and vests.


title: Hells Angels

text: Red and white are also used to display the number 81 on many patches, as in "Support 81", "Route 81". The 8 and 1 stand for the respective positions in the alphabet of "H" and "A". Friends and supporters of the club use these in deference to club rules, which purport to restrict the wearing of Hells Angels imagery to club members. The diamond-shaped one-percenter patch is also used, displaying "1%" in red on a white background with a red merrowed border. The term "one-percenter" is said to be a response to the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) comment on the Hollister incident to the effect that 99% of motorcyclists were law-abiding citizens and 1% were outlaws. The AMA has no record of such a statement and calls this story apocryphal.


title: Hells Angels

text: Most members wear a rectangular patch (again, white background with red letters and a red merrowed border) identifying their respective charter locations. Another similarly designed patch reads "Hells Angels". When applicable, members of the club wear a patch denoting their position or rank within the organization. The patch is rectangular and, like those described above, displays a white background with red letters and a red merrowed border. Some examples of the titles used are President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Sergeant at Arms. This patch is usually worn above the chapter location patch. Some members also wear an "AFFA" patch, which stands for "Angels Forever; Forever Angels", referring to their lifelong membership in the club (i.e., "once a member, always a member").


title: Hells Angels

text: An additional patch worn by select club members consists of two Nazi-style SS lightning bolts below the words "Filthy Few". Some law enforcement officials claim that the "Filthy Few" patch is awarded only to those who have committed or are prepared to commit murder on the club's behalf. Hells Angels have refuted this interpretation, however, comparing it instead to a merit badge awarded to those who are "the first to arrive at a party and the last to leave". According to a reports from law enforcement and prosecutors, another patch similar to the "Filthy Few" patch is the "Dequiallo" patch. "Dequiallo" is a reference to "El Degüello", a bugle call played by the regimental band of Antonio López de Santa Anna's army at the Battle of the Alamo. This patch allegedly "signifies that the wearer has fought law enforcement on arrest." There is no common convention as to where the patches are placed on members' jackets/vests.


title: Hells Angels

text: "Angels Forever, Forever Angels" is also the club's traditional motto. Other Hells Angels slogans include "When we do right, nobody remembers. When we do wrong, nobody forgets"; "Three can keep a secret if two are dead"; and "When in doubt, knock 'em out", which was coined by New York City chapter member Vincent "Big Vinny" Girolamo.


title: Hells Angels

text: The Hells Angels incorporated in 1966, trademarking the club's name and four symbols. The club filed a trademark infringement lawsuit for the first time on October 26, 1989, when the Hells Angels lodged a federal lawsuit in Los Angeles against Concorde-New Horizons, which produced the film "Nam Angels", and against Media Home Entertainment, which distributed the film on video, over infringements on the club's registered trademarks. The suit was settled out of court.


title: Hells Angels

text: According to "The Globe and Mail", the Hells Angels considered seeking an injunction to block the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from broadcasting the miniseries "The Last Chapter", because of how closely the biker gang at the center of the series resembled the Hells Angels.


title: Hells Angels

text: In March 2007 the Hells Angels filed suit against the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group alleging that its film "Wild Hogs" used both the name and distinctive logo of the HAMC without permission. The suit was eventually voluntarily dismissed after the Angels received assurances from Disney that the references would not appear in the film.


title: Hells Angels

text: On October 7, 2009, Fritz Clapp, attorney at law for the HAMC, contacted online games community FOCO, demanding the removal of all membership marks and club trademarks from the Los Santos Roleplay Forum. While members of the community were skeptical at first, Clapp posted a tweet confirming his identity.


title: Hells Angels

text: In October 2010 the Hells Angels filed a lawsuit against Alexander McQueen for "misusing its trademark winged death heads symbol" in several items from its Autumn/Winter 2010 collection. The lawsuit also aimed at Saks Fifth Avenue and Zappos.com, which stock the jacquard box dress and knuckle duster ring that bear the symbol, which has been used since at least 1948 and is protected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. A handbag and scarf were also named in the lawsuit. The lawyer representing Hells Angels claimed: "This isn't just about money, it's about membership. If you've got one of these rings on, a member might get really upset that you're an impostor." Saks refused to comment, Zappos had no immediate comment and the company's parent company, PPR, could not be reached for comment. The company settled the case with the Hells Angels after agreeing to remove all of the merchandise featuring the logo from sale on their website, stores and concessions and recalling any goods that had already been sold and destroying them.


title: Hells Angels

text: In fall 2012 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, Hells Angels sued Toys "R" Us for trademark infringement, unfair competition, and dilution in relation to the sale of yo-yos manufactured by Yomega Corporation, a co-defendant, which allegedly bear the "Death Head" logo. In its complaint, Hells Angels asserted that the mark on the yo-yos would likely lead people to mistakenly believe that the toys originate with Hells Angels. Yomega filed counterclaims against Hells Angels for cancellation of the "Death Head" registrations on grounds of alleged fraud in the procurement of the registrations. The case settled and the lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice.


title: Hells Angels

text: In 2019, the Hells Angels sued Redbubble in the Federal Court of Australia for infringing on its trademark, launching another suit in 2021 after providing evidence that Redbubble had continued to breach the trademark.


title: Hells Angels

text: To become a Hells Angels "prospect", candidates must have a valid driver's license, a motorcycle over 750cc, and the right combination of personal qualities. It is said the club excludes child molesters and people who have applied to become police or prison officers. Intravenous drug use is also forbidden among club members.


title: Hells Angels

text: After a lengthy, phased process, a prospective member is first deemed a "hang-around", indicating that he is invited to some club events or to meet club members at known gathering places. If the "hang-around" is interested, he may be asked to become an "associate", a status that usually lasts a year or two. At the end of that stage, he is reclassified as "prospect", participating in some club activities, but not having voting privileges while he is evaluated for suitability as a full member. The last phase, and highest membership status, is full membership or "full-patch". The term "full-patch" refers to the complete four-piece insignia, including the "Death Head" logo, two rockers (top rocker: "Hells Angels"; bottom rocker: state or territory claimed) and the rectangular "MC" patch below the wing of the Death's Head. Prospects are allowed to wear only a bottom rocker with the state, province or territory name along with the rectangular "MC" patch.


title: Hells Angels

text: To become a full member, a "prospect" must be unanimously confirmed by the rest of the full club members. Before votes are cast, a "prospect" usually travels to every charter in the sponsoring charter's geographic jurisdiction (state, province, or territory) and introduces himself to every "full-patch" member. This allows each voting member to become familiar with the "prospect" and ask any questions of concern before voting. Some form of formal induction follows, wherein the "prospect" affirms his loyalty to the club and its members. The final logo patch (top "Hells Angels" rocker) is then awarded at the initiation ceremony. The step of attaining full membership can be called "being patched".


title: Hells Angels

text: Even after a member is patched in, the patches remain the property of HAMC, not the member. On leaving the Hells Angels or being ejected, a member must return his patches to the club. Members must pay dues, and are required to attend mandatory club meetings and motorcycle runs.


title: Hells Angels

text: The club is not officially a racially segregated organization. In the U.S., at least one charter allegedly requires that a candidate be a white male, and Sonny Barger said in a 2000 BBC interview, "The club, as a whole, is not racist but we probably have enough racist members that no black guy is going to get in it." At that time the club had no black members.


title: Hells Angels

text: A few nonwhite members have been noted in the United States. In 1967, Hunter S. Thompson remarked upon a "Chinese Mel from [San Francisco] and Charley, a young Negro from Oakland". Steven Wayne Yee, a Chinese-American member of the Hells Angels' Cleveland chapter, was convicted of murder in 1990. The Satan's Angels MC in Vancouver had a black member when it merged with the Hells Angels in 1983. The San Francisco and Anchorage chapters threatened to have the Vancouver chapter expelled from the club when they learned of the situation; the matter was ultimately solved when the man changed his nationality to "Hawaiian". An unsanctioned Hells Angels chapter in Windsor, England was granted official status in 1985 shortly after its only black member, John Mikkelsen, had died in police custody. Another notable is Gregory Woolley, a high-ranking member of the Rockers MC in Montreal who was the protégé and bodyguard of Hells Angel boss Maurice Boucher (who spent five years in a notoriously white-supremacist motorcycle gang, the SS). Woolley became an associate of the Hells Angels Montreal charter in the 1990s and later tried uniting street gangs in Quebec after Boucher was imprisoned.


title: Hells Angels

text: In another interview with Barger in 2000, he said, "if you're a motorcycle rider and you're white, you want to join the Hells Angels. If you're black, you want to join the Dragons. That's how it is whether anyone likes it or not. We don't have no blacks and they don't have no whites." When asked whether that could change, Barger replied, "Anything can change. I can't predict the future." Tobie Levingston, who formed the black motorcycle club East Bay Dragons MC, wrote in his book that he and Barger have a long-lasting friendship and that the Hells Angels and Dragons have a mutual friendship and hang out and ride together.


title: Hells Angels

text: In a 1966 "Ebony" article about motorcycle rebels in the African-American community, the Chosen Few Motorcycle Club said that they see no racial animosity in the Hells Angels and that when they come into Chosen Few territory they all get together and party. A Hells Angel member interviewed for the magazine insisted there was no racial prejudice in any of their clubs. He said, "we don't have any Negro members", but maintained that no blacks have sought membership. At one point in the 1970s, the Hells Angels sought to consolidate the different motorcycle clubs and offered every member of the Chosen Few a Hells Angels patch, an offer that was declined.


title: Hells Angels

text: In contrast to other prominent motorcycle clubs in the United States, the Hells Angels organization is not headed by a national or international president; it is instead governed by regional officers, who are each chosen to represent a collective of localized chapters at monthly regional meetings. Regional officers are divided into two groups: those who attend meetings to conduct the policy, actions, and affairs of the Hells Angels' chapters in the Western United States, and those who attend meetings to govern the chapters in the Eastern United States. In states with multiple chapters, weekly state meetings are also held in addition to chapter meetings. Although the club has no official "mother chapter", the Oakland, California, faction has traditionally been able to maintain a preeminent position as "first among equals" because it has the largest membership of any U.S. chapter and because of former Oakland chapter president Sonny Barger's esteem among club members internationally. The Hells Angels' prior "de facto" "mother chapter" was the original San Bernardino chapter, which was led by Otto Friedli until the late 1950s. In 1958, Barger assumed leadership and moved the club's headquarters to Oakland.


title: Hells Angels

text: The officer corps that governs each chapter consists of a president, vice president, secretary/treasurer, sergeant-at-arms and road captain. Each chapter has autonomy regarding member discipline and minor policy changes.


title: Hells Angels

text: In New York state, the HAMC is incorporated as the Church of Angels, a nonprofit religious organization.


title: Hells Angels

text: The HAMC acknowledges more than 100 chapters in over 29 countries. New Zealand had the first charter of the Hells Angels outside the United States; the club founded a charter in Auckland in 1961, and has since taken over gangs in Whanganui. Europe did not become widely home to the Hells Angels until 1969 when two London charters were formed. The Beatles' George Harrison invited some members of the HAMC San Francisco to stay at Apple Records in London in 1968. According to Chris O'Dell, only two members showed up, Frisco Pete and Bill "Sweet William" Fritsch. Two people from London visited California, "prospected", and ultimately joined. Two charters were issued on July 30, 1969; one for "South London"—the reimagined charter renewing the already existing 1950 South London charter—and the other for "East London", but by 1973 the two charters came together as one, called "London". The London Angels provided security at a number of UK Underground festivals, including Phun City in 1970, organized by Mick Farren. They awarded Farren an "approval patch" in 1970 for use on his first solo album "Mona", which also featured Steve Peregrin Took (credited as "Shagrat the Vagrant").


title: Hells Angels

text: In 1977, the Hells Angels arrived in Canada with the Popeye Moto Club patching over to form the Hells Angels' Montreal chapter. During the 1980s and 1990s, there was a major expansion of the club into the rest of Canada. The Quebec Biker War was a violent turf war that began in 1994 and continued until late 2002 in Quebec. The war began when the Hells Angels in Quebec began to try to establish a monopoly on street-level drug sales in Quebec. Many drug dealers and crime families resisted and established groups such as the "Alliance to fight the Angels", led by the Rock Machine. The war resulted in the bombings of many establishments and murders on both sides. More than 160 people died, over 300 were injured, and over 100 bikers were incarcerated.


title: Hells Angels

text: Over the years, the Hells Angels have amalgamated a number of smaller outlaw motorcycle clubs in a process known as a "patch-over".


title: Hells Angels

text: Various U.S. law enforcement agencies classify the Hells Angels as one of the "big four" motorcycle gangs, along with the Pagans, Outlaws, and Bandidos, and contend that members carry out widespread violent crime and organized crime, including drug dealing, trafficking in stolen goods, extortion, and prostitution operations. Members of the organization have continuously asserted that they are only a group of motorcycle enthusiasts who have joined to ride motorcycles together, to organize social events such as group road trips, fundraisers, parties, and motorcycle rallies, and that any crimes are the responsibility of the people who carried them out, not the club as a whole.


title: Hells Angels

text: In May 2019, a court in Utrecht issued a verdict that made the Netherlands the first country to completely ban the Hells Angels. The presiding judge called it "a danger to public order and the rule of law". Other countries such as Germany had banned local chapters, but never the entire club. On July 15, 2022 the Supreme Court of the Netherlands reaffirmed the ban, making it permanent.


title: Arctic

text: The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia (Murmansk, Siberia, Nenets Okrug, Novaya Zemlya), Sweden and the United States (Alaska). Land within the Arctic region has seasonally varying snow and ice cover, with predominantly treeless permafrost (permanently frozen underground ice) containing tundra. Arctic seas contain seasonal sea ice in many places.


title: Arctic

text: The Arctic region is a unique area among Earth's ecosystems. The cultures in the region and the Arctic indigenous peoples have adapted to its cold and extreme conditions. Life in the Arctic includes zooplankton and phytoplankton, fish and marine mammals, birds, land animals, plants and human societies. Arctic land is bordered by the subarctic.


title: Arctic

text: The word Arctic comes from the Greek word ("arktikos"), "near the Bear, northern" and from the word ("arktos"), meaning bear. The name refers either to the constellation Ursa Major, the "Great Bear", which is prominent in the northern portion of the celestial sphere, or to the constellation Ursa Minor, the "Little Bear", which contains the celestial north pole (currently very near Polaris, the current north Pole Star, or North Star).


title: Arctic

text: There are a number of definitions of what area is contained within the Arctic. The area can be defined as north of the Arctic Circle (about 66° 34'N), the approximate southern limit of the midnight sun and the polar night. Another definition of the Arctic, which is popular with ecologists, is the region in the Northern Hemisphere where the average temperature for the warmest month (July) is below ; the northernmost tree line roughly follows the isotherm at the boundary of this region.


title: Arctic

text: The Arctic is characterized by cold winters and cool summers. Its precipitation mostly comes in the form of snow and is low, with most of the area receiving less than . High winds often stir up snow, creating the illusion of continuous snowfall. Average winter temperatures can go as low as , and the coldest recorded temperature is approximately . Coastal Arctic climates are moderated by oceanic influences, having generally warmer temperatures and heavier snowfalls than the colder and drier interior areas. The Arctic is affected by current global warming, leading to Arctic sea ice shrinkage, diminished ice in the Greenland ice sheet, and Arctic methane release as the permafrost thaws. The melting of Greenland's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification.


title: Arctic

text: Due to the poleward migration of the planet's isotherms (about per decade during the past 30 years as a consequence of global warming), the Arctic region (as defined by tree line and temperature) is currently shrinking. Perhaps the most alarming result of this is Arctic sea ice shrinkage. There is a large variance in predictions of Arctic sea ice loss, with models showing near-complete to complete loss in September from 2035 to some time around 2067.


title: Arctic

text: Arctic life is characterized by adaptation to short growing seasons with long periods of sunlight, and cold, dark, snow-covered winter conditions.


title: Arctic

text: Arctic vegetation is composed of plants such as dwarf shrubs, graminoids, herbs, lichens, and mosses, which all grow relatively close to the ground, forming tundra. An example of a dwarf shrub is the bearberry. As one moves northward, the amount of warmth available for plant growth decreases considerably. In the northernmost areas, plants are at their metabolic limits, and small differences in the total amount of summer warmth make large differences in the amount of energy available for maintenance, growth and reproduction. Colder summer temperatures cause the size, abundance, productivity and variety of plants to decrease. Trees cannot grow in the Arctic, but in its warmest parts, shrubs are common and can reach in height; sedges, mosses and lichens can form thick layers. In the coldest parts of the Arctic, much of the ground is bare; non-vascular plants such as lichens and mosses predominate, along with a few scattered grasses and forbs (like the Arctic poppy).


title: Arctic

text: Herbivores on the tundra include the Arctic hare, lemming, muskox, and caribou. They are preyed on by the snowy owl, Arctic fox, Grizzly bear, and Arctic wolf. The polar bear is also a predator, though it prefers to hunt for marine life from the ice. There are also many and marine species endemic to the colder regions. Other terrestrial animals include wolverines, moose, Dall sheep, ermines, and Arctic ground squirrels. Marine mammals include seals, walrus, and several species of cetacean—baleen whales and also narwhals, orcas, and belugas. An excellent and famous example of a ring species exists and has been described around the Arctic Circle in the form of the "Larus" gulls.


title: Arctic

text: The Arctic includes copious natural resources (oil, gas, minerals, fresh water, fish and, if the subarctic is included, forest) to which modern technology and the economic opening up of Russia have given significant new opportunities. The interest of the tourism industry is also on the increase.


title: Arctic

text: The Arctic contains some of the last and most extensive continuous wilderness areas in the world, and its significance in preserving biodiversity and genotypes is considerable. The increasing presence of humans fragments vital habitats. The Arctic is particularly susceptible to the abrasion of groundcover and to the disturbance of the rare breeding grounds of the animals that are characteristic to the region. The Arctic also holds 1/5 of the Earth's water supply.


title: Arctic

text: During the Cretaceous time period, the Arctic still had seasonal snows, though only a light dusting and not enough to permanently hinder plant growth. Animals such as the "Chasmosaurus", "Hypacrosaurus", "Troodon", and "Edmontosaurus" may have all migrated north to take advantage of the summer growing season, and migrated south to warmer climes when winter came. A similar situation may also have been found amongst dinosaurs that lived in Antarctic regions, such as the "Muttaburrasaurus" of Australia.


title: Arctic

text: However, others claim that dinosaurs lived year-round at very high latitudes, such as near the Colville River, which is now at about 70° N but at the time (70 million years ago) was 10° further north.


title: Arctic

text: The earliest inhabitants of North America's central and eastern Arctic are referred to as the Arctic small tool tradition (AST) and existed c. 2500 BCE. AST consisted of several Paleo-Eskimo cultures, including the Independence cultures and Pre-Dorset culture. The Dorset culture (Inuktitut: "Tuniit" or "Tunit") refers to the next inhabitants of central and eastern Arctic. The Dorset culture evolved because of technological and economic changes during the period of 1050–550 BCE. With the exception of the Quebec/Labrador peninsula, the Dorset culture vanished around 1500 CE. Supported by genetic testing, evidence shows that descendants of the Dorset culture, known as the Sadlermiut, survived in Aivilik, Southampton and Coats Islands, until the beginning of the 20th century.


title: Arctic

text: The Dorset/Thule culture transition dates around the ninth–10th centuries CE. Scientists theorize that there may have been cross-contact of the two cultures with sharing of technology, such as fashioning harpoon heads, or the Thule may have found Dorset remnants and adapted their ways with the predecessor culture. Others believe the Thule displaced the Dorset.


title: Arctic

text: By 1300 CE, the Inuit, present-day Arctic inhabitants and descendants of Thule culture, had settled in west Greenland, and moved into east Greenland over the following century (Inughuit, Kalaallit and Tunumiit are modern Greenlandic Inuit groups descended from Thule). Over time, the Inuit have migrated throughout the Arctic regions of Eastern Russia, the United States, Canada, and Greenland.


title: Arctic

text: Other Circumpolar North indigenous peoples include the Chukchi, Evenks, Iñupiat, Khanty, Koryaks, Nenets, Sami, Yukaghir, Gwich'in, and Yupik.


title: Arctic

text: The eight Arctic nations (Canada, Kingdom of Denmark [Greenland & The Faroe Islands], Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Russia, and USA) are all members of the Arctic Council, as are organizations representing six indigenous populations. The council operates on consensus basis, mostly dealing with environmental treaties and not addressing boundary or resource disputes.


title: Arctic

text: Though Arctic policy priorities differ, every Arctic nation is concerned about sovereignty/defense, resource development, shipping routes, and environmental protection. Much work remains on regulatory agreements regarding shipping, tourism, and resource development in Arctic waters. Arctic shipping is subject to some regulatory control through the International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters, adopted by the International Maritime Organization on 1 January 2017 and applies to all ships in Arctic waters over 500 tonnes.


title: Arctic

text: Research in the Arctic has long been a collaborative international effort, evidenced by the International Polar Year. The International Arctic Science Committee, hundreds of scientists and specialists of the Arctic Council, and the Barents Euro-Arctic Council are more examples of collaborative international Arctic research.


title: Arctic

text: No country owns the geographic North Pole or the region of the Arctic Ocean surrounding it. The surrounding six Arctic states that border the Arctic Ocean—Canada, Kingdom of Denmark (with Greenland), Iceland, Norway, Russia, and the United States—are limited to a exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off their coasts. Two Arctic states (Finland and Sweden) do not have direct access to the Arctic Ocean.


title: Arctic

text: Upon ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a country has ten years to make claims to an extended continental shelf beyond its 200 nautical mile zone. Due to this, Norway (which ratified the convention in 1996), Russia (ratified in 1997), Canada (ratified in 2003) and the Kingdom of Denmark (ratified in 2004) launched projects to establish claims that certain sectors of the Arctic seabed should belong to their territories.


title: Arctic

text: On 2 August 2007, two Russian bathyscaphes, MIR-1 and MIR-2, for the first time in history descended to the Arctic seabed beneath the North Pole and placed there a Russian flag made of rust-proof titanium alloy. The flag-placing during Arktika 2007 generated commentary on and concern for a race for control of the Arctic's vast hydrocarbon resources.


title: Arctic

text: Foreign ministers and other officials representing Canada, the Kingdom of Denmark, Norway, Russia, and the United States met in Ilulissat, Greenland on 28 May 2008 at the Arctic Ocean Conference and announced the Ilulissat Declaration, blocking any "new comprehensive international legal regime to govern the Arctic Ocean," and pledging "the orderly settlement of any possible overlapping claims."


title: Arctic

text: As of 2012, the Kingdom of Denmark is claiming the continental shelf based on the Lomonosov Ridge between Greenland and over the North Pole to the northern limit of the Russian EEZ.


title: Arctic

text: The Russian Federation is also claiming a large swath of seabed along the Lomonosov Ridge but, unlike Denmark, confined its claim to its side of the Arctic. In August 2015, Russia made a supplementary submission for the expansion of the external borders of its continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean, asserting that the eastern part of the Lomonosov Ridge and the Mendeleyev Ridge are an extension of the Eurasian continent. In August 2016, the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf began to consider Russia's submission.


title: Arctic

text: Canada claims the Northwest Passage as part of its internal waters belonging to Canada, while the United States and most maritime nations regards it as an international strait, which means that foreign vessels have right of transit passage.


title: Arctic

text: Since 1937, the larger portion of the Asian-side Arctic region has been extensively explored by Soviet and Russian crewed drifting ice stations. Between 1937 and 1991, 88 international polar crews established and occupied scientific settlements on the drift ice and were carried thousands of kilometres by the ice flow.


title: Arctic

text: The Arctic is comparatively clean, although there are certain ecologically difficult localized pollution problems that present a serious threat to people's health living around these pollution sources. Due to the prevailing worldwide sea and air currents, the Arctic area is the fallout region for long-range transport pollutants, and in some places the concentrations exceed the levels of densely populated urban areas. An example of this is the phenomenon of Arctic haze, which is commonly blamed on long-range pollutants. Another example is with the bioaccumulation of PCB's (polychlorinated biphenyls) in Arctic wildlife and people.


title: Arctic

text: There have been many proposals to preserve the Arctic over the years. Most recently a group of stars at the Rio Earth Summit, on 21 June 2012, proposed protecting the Arctic, similar to the Antarctic protection. The initial focus of the campaign will be a UN resolution creating a global sanctuary around the pole, and a ban on oil drilling and unsustainable fishing in the Arctic.


title: Arctic

text: The Arctic has climate change rates that are amongst the highest in the world. Due to the major impacts to the region from climate change the near climate future of the region will be extremely different under all scenarios of warming.


title: Arctic

text: The effects of global warming in the Arctic include rising temperatures, loss of sea ice, and melting of the Greenland ice sheet. Potential methane release from the region, especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates, is also a concern. Because of the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming, it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming. The melting of Greenland's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification.


title: Arctic

text: The Arctic is especially vulnerable to the effects of any climate change, as has become apparent with the reduction of sea ice in recent years. Climate models predict much greater warming in the Arctic than the global average, resulting in significant international attention to the region. In particular, there are concerns that Arctic shrinkage, a consequence of melting glaciers and other ice in Greenland, could soon contribute to a substantial rise in sea levels worldwide.


title: Arctic

text: The current Arctic warming is leading to ancient carbon being released from thawing permafrost, leading to methane and carbon dioxide production by micro-organisms. Release of methane and carbon dioxide stored in permafrost could cause abrupt and severe global warming, as they are potent greenhouse gases.


title: Arctic

text: Climate change is also predicted to have a large impact on tundra vegetation, causing an increase of shrubs, and having a negative impact on bryophytes and lichens.


title: Arctic

text: Apart from concerns regarding the detrimental effects of warming in the Arctic, some potential opportunities have gained attention. The melting of the ice is making the Northwest Passage, the shipping routes through the northernmost latitudes, more navigable, raising the possibility that the Arctic region will become a prime trade route. One harbinger of the opening navigability of the Arctic took place in the summer of 2016 when the Crystal Serenity successfully navigated the Northwest Passage, a first for a large cruise ship.


title: Arctic

text: In addition, it is believed that the Arctic seabed may contain substantial oil fields which may become accessible if the ice covering them melts. These factors have led to recent international debates as to which nations can claim sovereignty or ownership over the waters of the Arctic.


title: Rebecca (2020 film)

text: Rebecca is a 2020 British romantic thriller film directed by Ben Wheatley from a screenplay by Jane Goldman, Joe Shrapnel, and Anna Waterhouse. Based on the 1938 novel "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier, the film stars Lily James, Armie Hammer, Kristin Scott Thomas, Keeley Hawes, Ann Dowd, and Sam Riley. The film is about the intrigues that arise after a young woman marries a wealthy widower whose first wife, Rebecca, died in a mysterious boating accident.


title: Rebecca (2020 film)

text: The film was released in select theatres on 16 October 2020, and digitally on Netflix five days later. It received mixed reviews from critics, who compared the film unfavourably to the 1940 version directed by Alfred Hitchcock.


title: Rebecca (2020 film)

text: While working for Mrs. Van Hopper, in Monte Carlo, a young woman becomes acquainted with Maxim de Winter, a recent widower. After a brief courtship, they become engaged. They marry and then head to his mansion in England, Manderley. She meets Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper, who was devoted to his first wife, Rebecca, who died in a boating accident. The staff and Maxim's friends also were fond of Rebecca. Mrs. Danvers emphasizes the new Mrs. de Winter's inferiority by comparison. Jack Favell, Rebecca's cousin, comes to visit, saying that Mrs. Danvers invited him. Learning of this infuriates Maxim, who banned Favell from the grounds, and accuses Mrs. de Winter of infidelity, which she denies. She confronts Mrs. Danvers for conspiring against her by inviting Favell, demanding her resignation. Mrs. Danvers insists Favell was lying.


title: Rebecca (2020 film)

text: The two begin working amicably together, with Mrs. Danvers assisting Mrs. de Winter in reviving the Manderley Costume Ball. Mrs. Danvers suggests that Mrs. de Winter choose a dress of a de Winter ancestor. When she wears the dress, guests are shocked and Maxim is furious. Mrs. de Winter learns that Rebecca wore the dress the previous year. Realizing that Mrs. Danvers had manipulated her and believing that Maxim now regrets their marriage, she flees. Mrs. Danvers reveals her contempt for the new Mrs. de Winter, believing she is trying to replace Rebecca. She tries to convince Mrs. de Winter to jump to her death from the window. However, she is thwarted by a nearby shipwreck brought from the storm. The ship is Rebecca's and her decomposed body is discovered on board.


title: Rebecca (2020 film)

text: This reopens the investigation into Rebecca's death. Maxim confesses to his wife that his marriage to Rebecca was a sham and that he always hated her. He states she was cruel, selfish, adulterous, and manipulative. On the night of her death, she told Maxim that she was pregnant with another man's child, which she would raise under the pretense that it was Maxim's. She placed his gun to her chest and stated that the only way to be free of her was to kill her. Enraged, Maxim pulled the trigger, then disposed of her body by placing it in her boat and sinking it. Despite his confession, Mrs. de Winter is relieved to know that Maxim loves her and resolves to support him during the investigation. Favell attempts to blackmail Maxim, claiming to have proof that Rebecca did not intend suicide, in a note she had written.


title: Rebecca (2020 film)

text: The trial shows Rebecca's boat to have been deliberately sunk. Testimony from Mrs. Danvers implies Rebecca's visit to a London doctor shortly before her death had to do with the pregnancy. The prosecutor produces Maxim's cheque written to Favell for the note, and Favell accuses Maxim of murdering Rebecca. Maxim is placed under arrest. At Manderley, Mrs. Danvers reveals that Rebecca hated all the men in her life. Mrs. de Winter fires Danvers and locates Rebecca's doctor and reads Rebecca's file, which reveals that she could not have been pregnant due to advanced uterine cancer and would have died within a few months. An investigator concludes Rebecca committed suicide by scuttling her boat, while Mrs. de Winter privately concludes that Rebecca had wanted Maxim to kill her.


title: Rebecca (2020 film)

text: Absolved, Maxim and his new wife drive home to find the mansion ablaze. A maid reveals that Mrs. Danvers started the fire and fled. Mrs. de Winter races to the cliffs, and finds Mrs. Danvers standing on a precipice. She pleads with her not to jump, but the older woman curses the de Winters to never know happiness and jumps into the sea and drowns. Awakening from a dream years later, Mrs. de Winter is with her husband in Cairo, as they search for their dream home. She says that out of the wreck of Manderley she had saved the only thing worth saving - love.


title: Rebecca (2020 film)

text: It was announced in November 2018 that Lily James and Armie Hammer were set to star in the film, to be directed by Ben Wheatley, which Netflix would distribute. In May 2019, Kristin Scott Thomas, Keeley Hawes, Ann Dowd, Sam Riley, and Ben Crompton joined the cast of the film.


title: Rebecca (2020 film)

text: Filming began on 3 June 2019. Cranborne Manor in Dorset and Hartland Quay in Devon were used for filming in July 2019. In total, "Rebecca" was filmed at six different manors or estates. Along with Cranborne, Hatfield House was used for the interior hallways, Mapperton for Manderley's back garden (which is open for the public sometimes unlike the actual manor), Loseley Park for Manderley's staircases, Petworth House for one of the corridors full of marble statues and paintings, and lastly Osterley Park for Manderley's kitchen. The bedrooms of the former and the new Mrs. De Winter were both sets.


title: Rebecca (2020 film)

text: "Rebecca" was released into select British cinemas on 16 October 2020, and digitally on Netflix worldwide on 21 October 2020.


title: Rebecca (2020 film)

text: The film was the most-watched on the site in its first two days of release, before finishing second over the weekend. It was out of the top 10 by the following weekend. In November, "Variety" reported the film was the 11th most-watched straight-to-streaming title of 2020 up to that point.


title: Rebecca (2020 film)

text: Peter Debruge of Variety wrote: "For about three-quarters of the running time, Rebecca does a respectable job of navigating between respect for the source and establishing its own distinct identity. And then, at precisely the moment where it stands to make a few enlightened improvements . . . this Rolls-Royce of an adaptation veers off the road." Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and wrote, "You can feel Wheatley... wanting to submit to the full bacchanalian horror of [the dress ball] sequence, and yet the story itself won't let him. This "Rebecca" leaves us with a secondary mystery – why precisely Wheatley wanted to do it." Constance Grady from "Vox" gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and went even further, "Ben Wheatley has no business making a gothic romantic horror movie if he is not interested in gothic romantic horror, and on the evidence of this film, he is not." She concludes "Wheatley’s "Rebecca" is a horror film that is resolutely sure there is nothing horrifying going on here at all, actually."


title: Bobby Deol

text: Vijay Singh Deol (born 27 January 1967) popularly known as Bobby Deol, is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema and web series. A member of the Deol family, he is the younger son of veteran actor Dharmendra. His accolades include a Filmfare Award.


title: Bobby Deol

text: After appearing as a child artist in "Dharam Veer" (1977), Deol made his acting debut with the highly successful romance "Barsaat" (1995) that won him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut. He established himself as a lead in successful films like "Gupt" (1997), "Soldier" (1998), "Badal" (2000), "Bichhoo" (2000), "Ajnabee" (2001) and "Humraaz" (2002). Since then, a major setback caused in his career during which his only rarely successful films were those where he did parallel roles like "Apne" (2007), "Yamla Pagla Deewana" (2011), "Race 3" (2018) and "Housefull 4" (2019). He earned critical acclaim for the OTT films "Class of '83" (2020) and "Love Hostel" (2022) and the notable web series "Aashram" (2020–present).


title: Bobby Deol

text: Deol was born on 27 January 1969 into a Punjabi Jat family in Bombay. He is the second son of Bollywood star Dharmendra and Parkash Kaur. He is the younger brother of Sunny Deol and also has two sisters Vijayta and Ajeeta who live in California. His step-mother is Hema Malini, through whom he has two paternal half-sisters, actress Esha Deol and Ahana Deol. His cousin Abhay Deol is also an actor.


title: Bobby Deol

text: Deol first briefly appeared as a child actor at the age of ten in "Dharam Veer" (1977). Deol then made his adult debut in Bollywood alongside Twinkle Khanna in "Barsaat" (1995) directed by Rajkumar Santoshi. Deol plays the character of Badal, a naive but intelligent young man who moves from a small village to the big city and gets caught up with corrupt police and criminal gangs amidst falling in love. Partly shot in Scotland, Deol broke his leg in an equestrian accident while filming and had to be flown to London to recuperate and had to call off several publicity shoots which documented his debut. The film was a moderate success at the box office and garnered him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut.


title: Bobby Deol

text: In 1997, Deol starred in "", a suspense thriller directed by Rajiv Rai, which is widely considered his breakthrough role. Cast alongside Manisha Koirala, Kajol, Paresh Rawal, Om Puri and Raj Babbar, Deol played the role of Sahil, a young man accused of murdering his stepfather over an engagement proposal and wrongly imprisoned. He escapes and tracks down the real killer. "Gupt: The Hidden Truth" was highly acclaimed for its storyline and soundtrack and was a commercial success. In the same year, Deol appeared in "Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya", alongside Aishwarya Rai in her debut Bollywood role. The film failed to do well at the box office.


title: Bobby Deol

text: In 1998, Deol starred opposite Neha in the Vidhu Vinod Chopra film, "Kareeb". Deol played the character of Birju, an irresponsible young man from an upper-middle-class family in Himachal Pradesh with a love of petty thievery and deceit. Later in 1998, he appeared in Abbas Mustan's military thriller "Soldier", alongside Raakhee and Preity Zinta. Deol played the mysterious character of Vicky, later revealed as Raju, son of Vijay Malhotra who was convicted of arms smuggling. Soldier was a big hit and was a huge commercial success.


title: Bobby Deol

text: In 1999, Deol starred in "Dillagi", directed by and co-starring his brother Sunny Deol. The film is noted for being the first time Sunny Deol directed a film and also the first time he acted alongside Bobby Deol. This pairing was repeated in "" (2002), "Apne" (2007) and "Yamla Pagla Deewana" (2011) among others. "Dillagi" features the two as the brothers Ranvir and Rajvir, fighting for the affection of Shalini (Urmila Matondkar).


title: Bobby Deol

text: In 2000, Deol appeared in the action drama "Badal" alongside Rani Mukerji, under the director's helm of Raj Kanwar. The film is set in 1984 when riots were engulfing parts of Punjab and Delhi. Deol plays the character of Badal, a boy who witnesses the massacre of his family and villagers by the corrupt Police Inspector Jai Singh Rana (Ashutosh Rana) and grows up to be a dreaded terrorist, fuelled by the anger and hatred of the authorities who wrongly deprived him of his family and friends. The film is inspired by "The Devil's Own" (1997), starring Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford. Badal was a commercial success. Following this, he starred alongside Karisma Kapoor in "Hum To Mohabbat Karega" (2000), and reunited with Rani Mukerji in "Bichhoo" (2000), a blatant remake of Luc Besson's 1994 film "Leon", starring Jean Reno and Natalie Portman. In "Bichhoo", Deol plays Reno's role, Jeeva, a young man from a struggling middle-class family who has the misfortune of falling in love with the wealthy Kiran (Malaika Arora). Her cruel, disapproving father in rage at their relationship, has Jeeva's mother and two sisters publicly arrested for prostitution, and eventually all three kill themselves. Jeeva becomes a professional killer and later exacts vengeance against Kiran's father and his henchmen. He and his neighbour Kiran Bali (Mukerji) soon witness the entire Bali family get murdered. Jeeva now decides to help Kiran seek revenge on the men who killed her family. The film and Deol's performance was panned by the critics, with "Sakanya Verna" of "Rediff.com" citing the film as "one of the most painful of the year" and commenting, "Deol's performance is quite, well, robotic. He religiously hangs on to a brooding expression right through the film. Why-o-why doesn't someone insist he goes to an acting school?"