title: Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4

text: The Countach LPI 800-4 shares its underpinnings and mechanicals with the Sián FKP 37 which was unveiled in 2019. It utilizes the same carbon-fiber monocoque along with the same mild hybrid powertrain with a slightly decreased combined output of powering all four wheels. It is a combination of the longitudinally positioned (LP) naturally-aspirated 6.5-liter V12 engine which in this case produces , along with a 48-volt electric motor producing an additional which is located inside the 7-speed automated manual transmission. Energy from the regenerative braking system is stored in a supercapacitor which is lighter than a traditional lithium-ion battery. The dry weight is , with the percentage split 43-57 front-to-rear.


title: Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4

text: Lamborghini claimed the car is capable of acceleration in 2.8 seconds, in 8.6 seconds and a top speed of .


title: North (1994 film)

text: North is a 1994 American comedy-drama adventure film directed by Rob Reiner. The story is based on the 1984 novel, "North: The Tale of a 9-Year-Old Boy Who Becomes a Free Agent and Travels the World in Search of the Perfect Parents" by Alan Zweibel, who wrote the screenplay and has a minor role in the film. The cast includes Elijah Wood in the title role, with Jon Lovitz, Jason Alexander, Alan Arkin, Dan Aykroyd, Kathy Bates, Faith Ford, Graham Greene, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Reba McEntire, John Ritter, and Abe Vigoda. Bruce Willis narrates and plays several different roles throughout the film, and a 9-year-old Scarlett Johansson appears briefly in her film debut. This was the final theatrical film for Alexander Godunov before his death the following year. The film was shot in Hawaii, Alaska, California, South Dakota, New Jersey, and New York. It was a box office bomb, grossing just $12 million against its $40 million budget, and received largely negative reviews from critics, many of whom called it one of the worst films ever made.


title: North (1994 film)

text: Skilled in academics, sports, and drama, and praised for his good work and obedience, North feels unvalued by his own parents. One day, while finding solace in a living room display at a mall, he complains to the Easter Bunny—a man in a pink bunny suit—who recommends that North simply explain his feelings to them, but North says their neglect makes them undeserving. Aided and encouraged by his best friend Winchell, who works on the school paper, North plots to "divorce" his parents, hiring ambulance-chasing lawyer Arthur Belt to file the papers. The announcement greatly shocks his parents, leaving them unresponsive when Judge Buckle grants his petition, giving him one summer to find new parents or go to an orphanage.


title: North (1994 film)

text: North's first stop is Texas, where his parental candidates, Ma and Pa Tex, promise to use their wealth to fulfill North's desires. In a musical number (set to the Bonanza theme), they explain that their first son, Buck, died in a stampede and they plan to use North to replace Buck, planning out his entire life in advance, including his future wife. They also place massive quantities of food on his dinner plate, hoping that he will eat as much as Buck did (as Pa Tex had earlier mentioned Buck's obesity to North, saying "he could eat more in one day than anyone else could eat in a whole month"). Gabby, a sharpshooting cowboy (also the man in the Easter Bunny suit), presents North with a souvenir from his act—a silver dollar with a bullet hole shot through its center—and notes that North is unhappy with the Texes because he wishes to be appreciated for who he is, not made into someone else, advising him to move on.


title: North (1994 film)

text: His next stop is Hawaii, where Governor and Mrs. Ho, who cannot have biological children, are eager to adopt him. Believing that North's presence in Hawaii will attract mainlanders, the governor unveils a tourism campaign that references the classic Coppertone ad by showcasing North's bare buttocks, horrifying him. On the beach, a tourist with a metal detector (also the man in the bunny suit) explains to North that parents should not use children for personal gain.


title: North (1994 film)

text: In an Inuit village in Alaska, North's prospective parents calmly send their elderly grandfather out to sea on an ice floe to die with dignity, disturbing him. As the long, dark winter arrives, he realizes that his summer is almost up. Meanwhile, his now-catatonic real parents are put in a museum display. His quest has inspired children worldwide to leave their parents and hire Belt and Winchell, both now rich and powerful. North's next family is Amish, but the lack of conveniences quickly disappoints him. His experiences in Zaire, China, and Paris are equally fruitless. Finally, he finds the Nelsons, an ideal family who give him attention and appreciation, but he still is unsatisfied.


title: North (1994 film)

text: In despair, North escapes to New York City, where Winchell and Belt, fearing their lucrative business will fail, plot to assassinate him. On the run, he receives a videotape from his newly revived parents begging for his forgiveness and his return home. Standup comedian Joey Fingers (the same man in the bunny suit) encourages him. At the airport, a mob of kids who have followed his example confront him, angry about his returning to his parents, forcing him to ship himself home in a FedEx box. Recognizing the delivery driver from his other appearances, North asks if he is his guardian angel. The man denies meeting North, but as a FedEx representative, he resembles a guardian of important items.


title: North (1994 film)

text: North is delivered to his house prior to the deadline, but as he runs toward his parents, an assassin takes aim. As he squeezes the trigger, North awakens in the now-empty mall. The Easter Bunny takes him home, where his parents, who have been worried during his absence, greet him warmly. It has all been a dream, but in his pocket, North discovers Gabby's silver dollar. North says he has always had it, "for good luck", and goes inside as his parents agree to bring him dinner in bed.


title: North (1994 film)

text: Elijah Wood was cast as the lead in 1993. The movie was shot in New York with additional shooting in Los Angeles, Hawaii, and Alaska (Prince William Sound and several glaciers). John Candy was initially cast as Pa Tex before dropping out and being replaced by Dan Aykroyd.


title: North (1994 film)

text: "North" has been called one of the worst films ever made. On review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, "North" received a rating of 14% based on 35 reviews, with an average rating of 3.8/10. The site's critics' consensus reads, "Laden with schmaltz and largely bereft of evident narrative purpose, "North" represents an early major disappointment from previously sure-handed director Rob Reiner." Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B−" on scale of A to F.


title: North (1994 film)

text: Kenneth Turan stated in his review "The problem overall is not so much that the humor, especially in the parent-tryout situations, is forced, but that it simply is not there at all. So little is going on in this mildest of fantasies that it is hard to even guess what kinds of emotional effects were aimed at in the first place." Turan also asked "How could director Rob Reiner, whose touch for what pleases a mass audience is usually unfailing, have strayed this far?" Leonard Klady of "Variety" described the film as a "noble misfire" and "that unique breed of misconceived entertainment that only a filmmaker of talent is capable of making." Joe Brown of "The Washington Post" called the film "a gentle, harmless and rather pedestrian fantasy." Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" was somewhat more positive, writing that the film "doesn't always work, but much of it is clever in amusingly unpredictable ways."


title: North (1994 film)

text: "North" was a multiple nominee at the 15th Golden Raspberry Awards in six categories including Worst Picture and Worst Director for Rob Reiner.


title: North (1994 film)

text: Film critic Roger Ebert seemed especially baffled by "North", noting that Wood and especially Reiner had both previously made much better films. He suggested that the film was so poorly written that even the best child actor would look bad in it, and viewed it as "some sort of lapse" on Reiner's part. Ebert awarded "North" a rare zero-star rating.


title: North (1994 film)

text: Comedian Richard Belzer, who appeared in "North", goaded Reiner into reading aloud some of the review at Reiner's roast; Reiner jokingly insisted that "if you read between the lines, [the review] isn't really that bad." An abridged version of the remark quoted above became the title of a 2000 book by Ebert, "I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie", a compilation of reviews of films most disliked by Ebert.


title: North (1994 film)

text: Writer Alan Zweibel described the review as "[E]mbarrassing. And hurtful", and stated it was repeatedly quoted to him, his wife, and his son (who had inspired the book "North"). In an encounter with Ebert years later, Zweibel jokingly said "And I just have to tell you, Roger, that that sweater you're wearing? I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate that sweater." He also keeps a clipping of it in his wallet, which he reads at public events.


title: North (1994 film)

text: Ebert and his co-host on "Siskel and Ebert", Gene Siskel, both pronounced it the worst film of 1994, an opinion they each came to independently. In their original review, Ebert called it "one of the most thoroughly hateful movies in recent years. A movie that makes me cringe even when I'm sitting here thinking about it." He later added, "I hated this movie as much as any movie we have ever reviewed in the 19 years we've been doing this show. I hated it because of the premise, which seems shockingly cold-hearted, and because this premise is being suggested to "kids" as children's entertainment and because everybody in the movie was vulgar and stupid, and because the jokes weren't funny and because most of the characters were obnoxious and because of the phony attempt to add a little pseudo-hip philosophy with a Bruce Willis character." Siskel added, "I think you gotta hold Rob Reiner's feet to the fire here. I mean, he's the guy in charge . . . he's saying this is entertainment . . . it's deplorable. There isn't a gag that works. You couldn't "write" worse jokes if I "told" you to write worse jokes. The ethnic stereotyping is appalling . . . it's embarrassing . . . you feel unclean as you're sitting there. It's junk. First-class junk!" and finished his statement with "Any subject could be done well; this is just trash, Roger." Ebert's future co-host on "Ebert and Roeper", Richard Roeper, would later go on to list "North" as one of the 40 worst movies he's ever seen, stating: "Of all the films on this list, "North" may be the most difficult to watch from start to finish. I've tried twice and failed. Do yourself a favor and don't even bother. Life is too short."


title: North (1994 film)

text: The film grossed only $7 million in the United States and Canada and $12.2 million worldwide, making it one of the worst-performing films of the year given its large budget.


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: The 42-centimetre 14 L/12 (short naval cannon), or Minenwerfer-Gerät (M-Gerät), popularly known by the nickname Big Bertha, was a German siege howitzer built by Krupp AG in Essen, Germany and fielded by the Imperial German Army from 1914 to 1918. The had a calibre barrel, making it one of the largest artillery pieces ever fielded.


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: The designed in 1911 as an iteration of earlier super-heavy German siege guns intended to break modern fortresses in France and Belgium and entered production in 1912. Test firing began in early 1914 and the gun was estimated to be finished by October 1914. When the First World War broke out, the two guns, still prototypes, were sent to Liège, Belgium, and destroyed Forts Pontisse and Loncin. German soldiers bestowed the gun with the nickname "Big Bertha", which then spread through German newspapers to the Allies, who used it as a nickname for all super-heavy German artillery. The Paris Gun, a railway gun used to bomb Paris in 1918, has historically been confused for the M-Gerät.


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: Due to losses from faulty ammunition and Allied counter-battery artillery, a smaller-calibre () gun called the was built and fielded from 1916 until the end of the war. It had a longer and heavier barrel that was mated to the 's carriage but was found to be less effective than the base gun.


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: The quick advancement of artillery technology beginning in the 1850s provoked an arms race between artillery and military architecture. Rifled artillery could now fire out of range of fortress guns, so military architects began placing forts in rings around cities or in barriers to block approaching armies. These forts were vulnerable to new artillery shells, which could penetrate earth to destroy masonry underground. In response, star forts evolved into polygonal forts, mostly underground and made of concrete with guns mounted in armoured, rotating casemates. Combining rings and barriers, France created a vast fortified zone on its border with Germany, while Belgium began construction of the National Redoubt in 1888.


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: The German Empire also fortified its borders, but Chief of the General Staff Helmuth von Moltke the Elder desired the ability to break through Franco-Belgian fortifications. Although German artillery had been effective during the Franco-Prussian War, it had been allowed to stagnate. By the 1880s the barrel diameter of the German Army's most powerful gun, the field howitzer, was no longer adequate against fortresses. Moltke began requesting more powerful guns that same decade. More powerful artillery became essential to his successor, Alfred von Schlieffen, who planned quickly to defeat France by sweeping through Belgium (the Schlieffen Plan) in response to the 1893 Franco-Russian Alliance. To be able to reduce French and Belgian fortresses, the (Artillery Test Commission, APK) formed a partnership with Krupp AG in 1893. The first result of this partnership was a mortar, accepted into service four years later as the L/8, but known as the (Beta Apparatus) to disguise its purpose as a siege gun. Tests in the mid-1890s showed that the could not destroy French or Belgian forts, even with improved shells. Interest in a more powerful siege gun waned until the Russo-Japanese War, during which the Japanese Army used 28 cm howitzer L/10 ( coastal guns) brought from Japan to end the 11-month long Siege of Port Arthur.


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: In 1906, Helmuth von Moltke the Younger became Chief of the General Staff and instructed the APK to study and improve the performance of the . The APK recommended a more powerful gun, with a diameter as large as , but the German Army opted for a 30.5-centimetre howitzer, the 09 and a gun. Design and testing for the began in 1906 and lasted until 1911. Although the had the destructive power the General Staff required and could outrange French and Belgian fort guns, it could only be emplaced near rail lines and took 24 hours to prepare. As early as 1907, Krupp began development of siege artillery transported by gun carriage. Testing resulted in a howitzer transportable over road and countryside but it was rejected by the APK, as was Krupp's 30.5-centimetre model. Finally, in late 1911, Krupp and the APK developed a wheeled 42-centimetre howitzer, the "42-centimetre 14 L/12" or (). The APK ordered its first in July 1912 and another in February 1913. Tests of the gun's mobility began in December 1913 and found that gas-powered tractors were best for pulling it. Test firing, at one point observed by Kaiser Wilhelm II, began in February 1914, and Krupp estimated that the would be complete by October 1914.


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: Assembled and emplaced, the weighed , was tall, long and wide, and sat on a steel base with a spade for bracing. This spade could be lifted out of the ground while the was emplaced to move it, giving it a traverse of 360°. The gun was breech loaded, using a horizontally-sliding breech block and had a barrel that could be elevated to a maximum of 65°. The had a muzzle velocity of about and a maximum range of . Post-prototype guns had a crew platform in front of the blast shield, a detachable breech, and solid wheels. The APK ordered the first in July 1912, delivered the following December, and a second in February 1913. Another two guns were ordered before the First World War on 31 July 1914, and then two more on 28 August and another pair on 11 November. Krupp eventually built 12 howitzers.


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: The had to be assembled for firing and for transport was dismantled and towed in five wagons. These wagons, weighing each, were designed to hold a specific portion of the M-Gerät, sans the gun carriage, which was its own wagon. These were towed by purpose-built, gas-powered tractors as the wagons were too heavy to be pulled by horses. To move across open country, the wagon wheels were fitted with articulated feet called to reduce their ground pressure. Under optimal circumstances, the tractors and wagons could move at .


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: The 30.5-centimetre , called the L/30, was developed in late 1917 to replace guns that had been rendered inoperable by premature detonation of shells. To increase the range of the and lower the likelihood of premature detonation, the APK selected a -long, naval barrel to be mounted onto the chassis of the . Two large spring cylinders were added to the front of the gun to counterbalance the new barrel, which had to be carried in a new carriage weighing . Fully assembled, the weighed and had a maximum range of . The propellant used to achieve that range caused three of the four guns to explode, forcing their crews to limit its range by , defeating the purpose of the longer L/30 barrel. Only four Beta-M-Gerät guns were modified from two M-Gerät guns and two guns (a one- to two-month-long process per gun), but 12 L/30 barrels were built.


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: German siege artillery had three types of projectiles: armour-piercing, high-explosive and intermediate. The armour-piercing shell was designed to smash through concrete and metal armour but was largely ineffective against reinforced concrete. High-explosive shells were fitted with two charges and could be set to have no delay, a short delay or a long delay. If set to "no delay" the shell burst on impact. If set to a delayed detonation, it could penetrate up to of earth. Finally, the intermediate, or "short shell", weighed half as much as the high-explosive shell and was fitted with a ballistic tip for range and accuracy. Shells for the 42-centimetre guns were generally long, weighed between , and were propelled via primer loaded into the gun with a brass casing. Siege artillery shells were produced in limited runs of varying quality. Beginning in early 1916, German siege guns began to suffer internal explosions due to faulty ammunition. Crews were required to disembark from the gun before firing via a lanyard.


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: The (KMK) batteries that formed with M-Gerät guns were 3 (2 August 1914), 5 (June 1915), 6 (Summer 1915) and 7 (early 1916). Battery 3 was split in half in April 1916 to form 10 with a single M-Gerät each. The four Beta-M-Gerät guns produced were fielded by KMK Batteries 8 and 10 after their M-Gerät gun barrels had been destroyed by premature detonation. When the German Army was reorganised in late 1918, only Battery 5 had M-Gerät guns, and (SKM) Battery 3 was assigned the remaining two Beta-M-Gerät guns.


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: By June 1914, the prototype M-Gerät howitzers had returned to Essen for final adjustments and would have been formed into a reserve artillery battery on completion in October. On 2 August 1914, they were organised into KMK Battery 3 and sent to the Western Front with 240 men. On 4 August, the 1st Army arrived near Liège, Belgium, the first objective of the Schlieffen Plan and began the Battle of Liège. Although German troops entered the city on 7 August, its forts were firing upon the road to be taken by the 2nd Army and had to be reduced. Heavy artillery began their attack on 8 August. KMK Battery 3 was the first siege battery sent into battle to bombard the Fort de Pontisse on 12 August, which surrendered after two days. The battery next moved to the Fort de Liers but the fort surrendered as the battery was being emplaced. KMK Battery 3 relocated to the Fort de Loncin, where Gérard Leman directed the defence of Liège. Firing commenced on 15 August and lasted two hours, as the 25th shot fired struck a magazine and caused an explosion that destroyed the fort. The Germans carried Leman, unconscious, out of Loncin, and the last two forts, Hollogne and Flémalle, capitulated on 16 August.


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: With Liège captured, the 1st Army continued north-west while the 2nd and 3rd Armies marched to Namur, whose forts were undermanned, unmaintained, and poorly stocked with ammunition. The 2nd Army arrived on 20 August 1914 to open the Siege of Namur, but began their main attacks the following day with 400 pieces of artillery. KMK Battery 3 fired upon the Fort de Marchovelette, which was destroyed on 23 August by a magazine explosion. The battery shifted its fire to the Fort de Maizeret, already under bombardment by four Austro-Hungarian Skoda 30.5-centimetre guns, and compelled its surrender. With the eastern forts occupied, the Germans entered Namur and the remaining Belgian forces evacuated from the city.


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: Following the defeat of the Western Allies at Charleroi and at Mons, the British Expeditionary Force withdrew past Maubeuge, their base of operations after arriving in France. On 24 August 1914, the advancing Germans arrived at the fortresses of Maubeuge and began the Siege of Maubeuge and its garrison of 45,000 soldiers. The next day, the VII Reserve Corps were left behind the main German armies to take the city. Bombardment of the forts began on 30 August, with KMK Battery 3 tasked with reducing (Fort Sarts) but it mistakenly shelled an interval fortification in front of Sarts. By 5 September, a hole in the fortress ring had been opened by German 21-centimetre guns, but they had by now exhausted their ammunition. To widen that gap, the siege guns then expended their remaining ammunition against Forts Leveau, Héronfontaine, and Cerfontaine on 7 September, and destroyed them in quick succession. The two remaining French forts surrendered that same day and the Germans occupied Maubeuge on 8 September.


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: With Maubeuge taken, German siege guns were available for an attack on Paris, but Germany's defeat at the Battle of the Marne blocked the advance of the 1st and 2nd Armies, and the guns were instead sent to Antwerp. King Albert I had ordered a general retreat to Antwerp on 18 August, and his army arrived in the city two days later. From Antwerp, Albert made attacks on the German flank on 24–25 August and 9 September, prompting General Alexander von Kluck of the 1st Army to send the III Reserve Corps to seize Antwerp. It arrived and partially surrounded Antwerp from the south-west on September 27, and bombardment began the next day. KMK Battery 3 arrived on 30 September and opened fire on the , whose artillery narrowly missed the battery. The fort was abandoned by its garrison on 2 October, allowing KMK Battery 3 to attack and destroy the in a day. The battery then moved to attack the , which was also destroyed within two days. From 7 to 9 October, the Belgian army fled from Antwerp and the city surrendered on 10 October.


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: Early in 1916, all 42-centimetre guns were assigned to the 5th Army, which amassed a total of 24 siege guns, the highest concentration of them during the war. The Battle of Verdun was opened on 21 February 1916 with an intense, nine-hour long artillery bombardment. The 42-centimetre guns had to suppress the artillery of Forts Vaux, Douaumont, Souville and but were unable to penetrate the concrete of the modern fortresses. On the second day of the battle, both of KMK Battery 7's M-Gerät guns were destroyed by premature detonations and KMK Batteries 5 and 6 both lost an M-Gerät each to the same cause. Most of the siege guns at Verdun were moved north in July to participate in the Battle of the Somme, and by September the only M-Gerät units left in Verdun were KMK Batteries 3 and 6.


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: In the last two years of the war, KMK batteries that suffered losses of their big guns had them replaced with smaller–calibre weapons. Those that remained primarily shelled field works and often had low survivability due to malfunctions or Allied counter-battery artillery. KMK Battery 10 lost one M-Gerät to a premature detonation and the other to British warships near Ostend in August 1917 and was rearmed with captured Russian howitzers. It and KMK Battery 10 were given the four Beta-M-Geräts made during the war in early 1918. For the German spring offensive, KMK Battery 8 was assigned to the 6th Army, Battery 6 to the 2nd Army, and Battery 3 to the 18th Army. The effect of the siege guns was negligible. For Germany's final offensive in July 1918, KMK Batteries 5 and 6 were reassigned to the 7th Army at the Marne, while Batteries 3, 8 and 10 went to the 1st Army at Reims. The batteries again had little to no effect, and Battery 10 became the last German siege battery to fire on a fort, the Fort de la Pompelle. In November 1918, KMK Battery 5 surrendered its guns, the remaining two M-Gerät howitzers, to the American Expeditionary Force.


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: On 2 May 1915, August von Mackensen launched the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive. By the end of the month, his forces neared Przemyśl, which had been captured by the Russians from Austria-Hungary on 22 March 1915. KMK Battery 6 took part in the bombardment of forts X, Xa, XI and XIa, opened on 30 March. Two days later, the Germans took and held forts X, Xa and XI against counter-attack, compelling the Russians to abandon Przemyśl. German troops entered the city on 3 June, then took the remaining forts two days later. From 8 August, KMK Battery 6 supported the XXXX Reserve Corps in its attack on Kaunas Fortress by bombarding Kaunas's three westernmost forts. Although the German siege artillery's shelling of Kaunas was slow, the fortifications were outdated and were easily destroyed. The city fell on 18 August.


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: To the south, KMK Batteries 3 and 5 participated in the siege of Novogeorgievsk, which the Germans had surrounded on 10 August. On 13 August, KMK Batteries 3 and 5 attacked with the siege guns from the north, shelling forts XIV, XV and XVI. On 16 August, German infantry stormed forts XV and XVI as the artillery bombarded them. A 42-centimetre shell struck German troops attacking Fort XV, resulting in heavy casualties but the Germans took the forts. The Russians abandoned the outer ring on 18 August, allowing the Germans to open a hole in the inner ring and capture Novogeorgievsk the next day. The Russians abandoned fortresses wholesale during the Great Retreat. At Grodno, KMK Batteries 3, 5, and 6 were not even fully emplaced when the fortress was evacuated on 3 September. The last deployment of M-Gerät guns on the Eastern Front was in October 1915, when KMK Battery 6 was attached to the German 11th Army as it invaded Serbia.


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: The nickname "Big Bertha" appeared early in the war, when German soldiers named the guns at the Battle of Liège, a reference to Bertha Krupp, who had inherited the Krupp works from her father. The name spread to German newspapers and then to Allied troops as "Big Bertha" and became slang for all heavy German artillery, but especially the 42-centimetre guns. The name has since entered the public consciousness, for example being applied as a moniker to a line of Callaway golf clubs and a satirical French-language magazine and a bond-buying policy by Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank.


title: Big Bertha (howitzer)

text: Two M-Gerät guns were surrendered to the US Army at Spincourt in November 1918. One was taken to the United States, evaluated and then put on display at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, while the other was left unassembled in its transport configuration. Both were scrapped in 1943 and the early 1950s. World War I veteran Emil Cherubin built a replica of an M-Gerät, which toured Germany and appeared on a few postage stamps. The Paris Gun, a railway gun developed during the war and used to bomb Paris in 1918, has historically been confused with the M-Gerät since World War I.


title: Kid Harpoon

text: Thomas Edward Percy Hull (born 20 April 1982), known professionally as Kid Harpoon, is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer.


title: Kid Harpoon

text: Already a fixture at local venues in his hometown of Chatham, Kid Harpoon first emerged on the London live music scene in early 2006 as a resident singer-songwriter at Nambucca. His first single, "The River, The Ocean, The Pearl" was released by independent label Brikabrak in 2006 to critical acclaim, earning an instant following from tastemakers "NME" and Drowned in Sound. Two EPs followed, "The First EP", in October 2007, and "The Second EP" in February 2008.


title: Kid Harpoon

text: Upon signing to influential label Young Turks, Kid Harpoon's debut album "Once" was released in September 2009. The album was recorded in Los Angeles by Grammy winning producer Trevor Horn and received an 8/10 from "NME".


title: Kid Harpoon

text: Kid Harpoon has also worked with an array of artists. He co-wrote "Shake It Out", "Never Let Me Go", and "Leave My Body" on the Florence + the Machine album "Ceremonials" with Paul Epworth and Florence Welch. He also co-wrote Calvin Harris' number one single Sweet Nothing with Florence Welch and Harris. Additional writing credits include "The Devil in Me" for Jamie N Commons and three songs on Jessie Ware's debut album "Devotion" including the single "Wildest Moments".


title: Kid Harpoon

text: In 2012, Kid Harpoon received an Ivor Novello nomination for Florence + the Machine's "Shake It Out".


title: Kid Harpoon

text: Along with the likes of Harry Styles, Shawn Mendes, and John Lennon, Kid Harpoon joined the invitation-only U.S. PRO, Global Music Rights (GMR). Since joining the GMR, Kid Harpoon co-wrote and produced Harry Styles' 2022 album, "Harry's House", including the number 9x Billboard Hot 100 single, "As It Was". Harpoon has also written hit songs for Ed Sheeran, Maggie Rogers, and many more.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: "Balan Wonderworld" is the debut project of Balan Company, a subsidiary brand of Square Enix led by Yuji Naka, the co-creator of "Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Nights into Dreams". Development began in 2018; it was Naka's first collaboration with artist Naoto Ohshima since "Sonic Adventure" (1998). The aesthetic was based on musical theater, and Naka studied the hero's journey when creating the story draft. The scenario was written by novelist Soushi Kawasaki. The music, composed by Ryo Yamazaki and Hironori Anazawa, emulates musical scores and includes vocals from West End performers such as Laura Pitt-Pulford. The cutscenes were created by Visual Works. There were subsequent claims from Naka and other employees regarding internal conflict around the game's quality and marketing.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: "Balan Wonderworld" was released worldwide for Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on 26 March. Square Enix also published a novelization by Kawasaki. The game received generally negative reviews and underperformed commercially. Critics panned its gameplay and design, although some praised its graphics and music.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: "Balan Wonderworld" is a platform game where players take on the role of either Leo Craig or Emma Cole, two children drawn into the magical realm of Wonderworld by a being called Balan. The game plays out across twelve multi-level areas called Chapters. In the beginning, only the first chapter is available, collecting items called Balan Statues in each area will unlock Chapters. Within each chapter, Leo or Emma must navigate through a sandbox environment, searching areas for collectables and solving puzzles to progress to the end of the level. Collectables include Balan Statues and crystalline objects called Drops. A simple control scheme is used, with two buttons used to change between costumes, and other actions aside from character and camera movement mapped to all other buttons. During exploration, enemies called Negati will appear and attack the player character. Each chapter ends with a boss battle themed after the Chapter's environment and narrative. The game uses adaptive difficulty, adjusting the number and types of enemies based on player performance both on the initial playthrough and return playthroughs of stages.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: While exploring, Leo or Emma find costumes from the cast of each chapter; these are unlocked using collectable keys. Costumes grant abilities such as hovering, navigating particular hazards and paths, or fighting enemies. When not wearing a costume, Leo and Emma's only available actions are jumping and basic movement. 80 costumes are spread through the stages, some of them in secret locations. Only three costumes can be held at a time; when players acquire a fourth, the costume it replaces is sent into a costume bank which can be accessed at checkpoints. Receiving damage, or falling off the edge of the environment, causes the equipped costume to disappear. If the character is hit without a costume, they are ejected from the Chapter.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: Minigames can be unlocked and played within each chapter using special costumes, such as a football-themed challenge. A recurring minigame activated by finding a top hat in levels is Balan's Bout. Taking on the role of Balan, players engage in a series of quick time events, matching Balan's poses with button presses. Performance is ranked, with the best performance rewarding a Balan Statue upon first completion, and multiplying the current Drop total. Chapters can also be played in two-player local co-op multiplayer. Taking on the roles of Leo and Emma respectively, the players can combine costume abilities to simplify puzzles and open potential new pathways through levels.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: Chapters are accessed through the hub world, the Isle of Tims—a floating island inhabited by the titular creatures. In the hub, players can feed Tims with Drops collected in levels, changing their color and consequently their abilities; for example, red Tims aid in fights, while pink Tims recover hidden items. Tim eggs can be found in Chapters, growing the number of Tims in the hub. By picking up a Tim, the player can take it onto a stage. A special construction is the Tower of Tims, which is grown using mechanisms powered by the Tims. After completing the game, a new third stage is unlocked for each chapter, featuring more difficult environments and new costumes.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: "Balan Wonderworld" mostly takes place in the Balan Theater, a magical realm overseen by a mysterious being called Balan. The Balan Theater appears when one's heart loses its balance, and connects to Wonderworld, a realm merging reality and fantasy created from memories and hearts. The protagonists are two troubled children called Leo and Emma. Leo isolates himself from social contact due to an argument with a friend years before, while Emma suffers from anxiety about what others might be saying behind her back. Both are drawn into the Balan Theater, and travel through twelve worlds born from the hearts of troubled adults and children alike. Leo and Emma are opposed by Lance, a counterpart to Balan who commands the Negati, monsters born from the darkness of Wonderworld's visitors.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: After completing all twelve worlds and freeing their inhabitants of their burdens, Balan opens a portal for the chosen character to fight Lance. Upon his defeat, Lance is briefly shown in his true less menacing form before the Negati drag him into their realm. Balan then bids farewell to all of Wonderworld's visitors, though Leo and Emma's farewell is touching enough that he sheds a tear and shows them his real form; a human-like being similar to Lance in appearance. Leo and Emma are returned to the real world and face their problems; Leo connects with a dancing group he had previously shunned, while Emma learns of a birthday party thrown for her that her servants were keeping secret. The ending credits show stills of Wonderworld's visitors reuniting in the real world watched over by Balan.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: "Balan Wonderworld" is the debut project from Balan Company, a Square Enix subsidiary brand founded in 2018 by "Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Nights into Dreams" creator Yuji Naka to bring together internal and external production staff. Naka described Balan Company as a collective of designers and artists focusing on genres outside the norms of Square Enix. It was developed by Arzest, a company which had previously co-developed multiple projects for Nintendo and Mistwalker. A key staff member at Arzest was Naoto Ohshima, known for his work as a Sega artist who created the designs for Sonic the Hedgehog and Doctor Eggman. When Naka joined Square Enix in January 2018, he considered making social mobile games but was encouraged by Shinji Hashimoto to make action games for the new market, which was seeing a resurgence in classic action and platform games. Naka approached Ohshima and Arzest about a collaboration. It was the first collaboration between Naka and Ohshima since "Sonic Adventure" in 1998.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: Naka was given the go-ahead for the project by Square Enix due to his experience with platforming and action games but was told it was his "one chance" at the genre with them. The game was described as a fusion of multiple popular styles of platform games aimed at as wide an audience as possible. Describing their approach to production, Ohshima compared it to an earlier less structured style, where features and adjustments continued past the halfway point of production. Development began in July 2018. The game was co-produced by Ohshima and Square Enix's Noriyoshi Fujimoto. Late in development, the team shifted to working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: Naka said that he was removed as director six months before the game's release after complaining over its state, and that Arzest had submitted it with unaddressed bugs. He said the decision to remove him was made by the producer and other senior product staff. Naka felt "Balan Wonderworld" was released in an unfinished state. In a report following Naka's 2022 arrest for insider trading, an anonymous employee said Naka made unreasonable work demands, wanted Arzest to work an additional two months for free to address his problems, and treated staff abusively during the conflicts prior to his removal.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: "Balan Wonderworld" was produced for Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. Fujimoto said the team was "carried away" by the power of next-generation consoles, wanting to add more features as production advanced. It was made available on a wide range of platforms, allowing for the largest possible audience. It also notably targeted a wide audience including children when other producers for next-generation hardware were mostly aimed at an adult audience. The design proposal included the 80 costume count as a hook, and Naka was sure he would need to halve the number as production went on. In the end and to his surprise, he was able to create all 80. During the concept stages, Ohshima created 120 concept costumes, narrowing it down to 80. He later commented that as the 80 costumes were a core pillar of the game, reducing the number would have shifted its design. The team tied a single action to each costume to give them relevance, with only one button command so the younger players the team was targeting as part of their audience would not get confused. Later in development, the team incorporated the DualSense controller's haptic feedback.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: The process of creating the different costume's single actions was difficult for the team, especially as they wanted to leave players the freedom of challenging themselves to complete levels with a particular costume or set of costumes. The character models of each level's "cast" vanished when approached so players would not mistake them for enemies, while also playing into the themes of each world. The penalty for taking damage was made minimal so players would not be discouraged from experimentation. Balancing the different costumes and fitting them into each stage to preserve challenge was one of the hardest aspects of development. In the middle of development, the co-op mode was suggested as an entertaining addition, further complicating production. The difficulty scaling, which adjusted both combat difficulty and item placement based on player actions, was handled by a meta AI designed by Yoichiro Miyake, a Square Enix employee specialising in game AI. Bug testing caused trouble as it was unclear whether the game code, the engine development kit, or the platform-specific version was the one in need of attention. Ohshima attributed their successes with finding bugs to Square Enix's resources.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: The game was built using Unreal Engine 4, chosen due to its wide multiplatform support, with a dedicated version of the game being created for each platform. The game's technical director Koichi Watanabe made adjustments to the engine, replacing most of its original Blueprint Visual Scripting with C++ to speed up processing, though this caused problems getting the reworked engine working across its platforms. They also needed to cope with updates to the engine software, with Watanabe collaborating with Epic Games to incorporate his customization alongside the updates. The Steam version caused its own issues due to needing a keyboard option, and the wider variety of graphical options compared to home consoles. After transitioning to remote working during 2020, the team cooperated with Epic Games to have access to the Unreal development environment, having separate environments for the Windows and next-generation console versions.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: The cinematics were created by Square Enix's CGI subsidiary Visual Works, directed by Kazuyuki Ikumori. Ohshima revealed the original plan did not include CGI scenes, but Visual Works wanted to be part of the project, and Ohshima created rough storyboards from which the studio designed the cinematics. When creating the cinematics, they combined the "cool" style of "Final Fantasy" with more cartoonish "Dragon Quest" aesthetics. This allowed for both emotional depth in expressions and an aesthetic that would appeal to younger audiences. Due to its musical elements, special attention was paid to synchronizing the movements and lighting with the musical score. Due to the ability to choose the ethnicity of Leo and Emma, which were reflected in all cutscenes, Square Enix partnered with CRI Middleware to provide graphical software. CRI Middleware customized one of their software tools to adjust each character's hair and skin tones based on choice within both real-time and CGI scenes without taking up space with tailored cutscenes for each choice.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: Naka had never considered narrative important, but story held an important place in Square Enix's brand identity. To help create the scenario, he read up on the hero's journey and created a narrative told without dialogue. The script was written by Soushi Kawasaki, a novelist known in Japan for his work on the "Long Arm" detective series. Brought in by Ohshima, he was asked to create between thirty and forty different scenarios, from which Ohshima picked twelve, commenting that many of the rejected ones had darker tones. Once the twelve were decided, Kawasaki elaborated on each scenario, then Ohshima worked to portray them visually through the game's environmental design and cutscenes. While considering the setting and scenario, Naka decided on a similar design approach to "Nights into Dreams", though otherwise "Balan Wonderworld" was an original work. The world of "Balan Wonderworld" used a constructed language based on English; dialogue and song lyrics were first written in English, then the sounds and syllables were changed and pronunciation adjusted to make it sound odd. The voice cast was Japanese; Balan was voiced by Kenichi Suzumura, Leo by Shimba Tsuchiya, Emma by Lynn, and Lance by Takahiro Sakurai.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: The world design was themed after musical theatre. This theme was chosen to better fit the game within Square Enix's catalogue. The style drew heavy inspiration from the Cirque du Soleil. For Balan's design, Ohshima began with the concepts of theatrical troupe leader and a grin showing under a large hat, emphasising his theatrical and mysterious elements. The use of a theater as the main location followed the game's musical theater theme. A recurring visual and narrative element was the balance between positive and negative emotions in the mind. The costumes were created by Ohshima and other artists at Arzest. One of those artists was Yono Endo, who created stylized poster artwork used for promotion. Under Ohshima's oversight, Endo created the designs for Leo, Emma, most of the Tims, and Lance. Ohshima wanted Endo on board as she would give an additional Japanese aesthetic to the game, as his own art had received feedback for lacking a distinct regional style. The art director was Masamichi Harada. When creating his designs, Ohshima decided to deliberately evoke his earlier work with Naka, with their design intended to look pleasing both on the cast and when worn by the protagonists. Each chapter's main character and story were designed first, followed by the character's cast, which represents their positive emotions.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: The music was primarily composed by Ryo Yamazaki, whose previous work includes the "Front Mission" and "Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles" series. Naka came to Yamazaki with the key theme of a "mysterious and fantastical musical." Unsure of Naka's meaning, Yamazaki went through a trial-and-error period to finalize the musical style. Early demos were heavily influenced by the music of Cirque du Soleil, in addition to musical-inspired soundtracks including "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Greatest Showman". Following the early positive reception by staff, he was allowed creative freedom with the score. His goal with the score was to make it easy to understand and catchy, while also including the game's theme of understanding and balancing emotions. His recurring design perspective was of the audience of a musical show enjoying the spectacle on stage. The mysterious elements were inspired by reading stories by the Brothers Grimm, and each stage theme was directly inspired by the concept art and playing early builds.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: The musical numbers concluding levels were written first, going through the most trial and error due to their context and the need to synchronize the motion capture performances to them. The stage themes proved challenging to create, using themes and motifs drawn from production artwork for them. Yamazaki's favorite track was for the ninth chapter, "The Lady Too Scared to Love." Due to its ice motif and sad narrative theme, the original concept was for dark music. After seeing the level, which reminded him of winter sports, the music was rewritten from scratch to be upbeat. In keeping with the game's visuals and themes, the music included vocal contributions from West End singers. On the recommendation of composer Youki Yamamoto, singer Laura Pitt-Pulford was brought on board along with many associated singers. Yamazaki described Pitt-Pulford as "the perfect match" due to her style and previous experience recording vocals for the anime adaptation of "Dr. Stone". Lead vocals were performed by Pitt-Pulford and George Blagden. The vocals used the game's made-up language to maintain the mysterious atmosphere. English versions were recorded and included as a bonus for players who collected all Balan Statues in a level. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Yamazaki had to work remotely during the entire recording process.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: A soundtrack album was released on 31 March 2021. Covering 93 tracks across three CDs of music, the album was released physically and digitally in Japan, and digitally worldwide. While uncredited in-game, the album credits Hironori Anazawa on multiple cutscene-specific tracks. A digital mini-album, featuring the opening tracks and additional collaboration tracks with online musician Marasy, was released for free on 15 March.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: "Balan Wonderworld" was revealed in July 2020. It was released worldwide on 26 March 2021. The PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch versions saw physical and digital releases, while the PC version was a digital exclusive through Steam; the Xbox version was only available digitally in Japan. Bug testing was a high priority and troubling, as when a bug was found it had to be individually corrected for each platform version. The game was accompanied by a novelization by Kawasaki, "Balan Wonderworld: Maestro of Mystery, Theater of Wonder", released digitally on 26 March through Square Enix's publishing imprints. The novelization adds context to some events and characters. Lance was the former master of Wonderworld before being overwhelmed by negative human emotion, creating Balan as a replacement. Visitors to Wonderworld are drawn from various time periods and locations around the world, and normally lose their memories upon leaving. The novel ends with Balan allowing the visitors to retain their memories, vowing not to become like Lance.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: A demo, including the entire first chapter and the first levels of Chapters 4 and 6, was released on 27 January. Naka's later comments revealed the demo was delayed at Fujimoto's request, though Naka was critical of this as he claimed Fujimoto initially decided the "tight" development schedule initially. While progress did not carry over into the main game, save data from the demo unlocked a special costume themed after each platform. The demo was taken down on 14 April for consoles, and the following day on Steam. Reception of the demo was generally mixed; while many praised the art style and music, several faulted the control and camera. While the game was too close to release for major adjustments, Square Enix created a day-one patch to address camera and character movement problems, and alter the difficulty to make later bosses more challenging. The patch also fixed a bug involving flashes of light in the final boss which raised concerns about epileptic seizures, causing Square Enix to warn players to install the patch before playing. According to "IGN" reviewer Tom Marks, Square Enix did not provide advance copies to reviewers.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: Shortly after the game's release, Naka resigned from Square Enix and contemplated retirement; he later announced that his next game would be an independent mobile project under Prope. In late April 2022, he said that the "Balan Wonderworld" producer had removed him from the project six months before its release, due to the state of development and the use of a fan cover of "Balan" music without due credit to the composer during marketing. He had sued Square Enix after his firing and accused Square Enix and Arzest of not caring about consumers. In July, Naka posted a photo of the "Nights" development team with Ohshima erased, and aired further grievances about his treatment on "Balan Wonderworld". It was later alleged that the lawsuit was dismissed following information regarding Naka's behavior.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: "Balan Wonderworld" received "generally unfavorable" reviews for most platforms, according to review aggregator Metacritic; the PlayStation 5 version received "mixed or average" reviews. Attention was drawn to suspicious positive review bombing on the Metacritic user pages.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: The Japanese magazine "Famitsu" praised the aesthetics and music, but found the gameplay mechanics tedious. "Eurogamer"s Martin Robinson felt it was too faithful to older platformers from the period of "Nights into Dreams", carrying over problems unacceptable to modern gamers. CJ Andriessen of "Destructoid" said "Balan Wonderworld" had nostalgic appeal for fans of early experimental 3D platformers, but its gameplay and minigames lowered its quality for a modern audience. Bradley Ellis of "Easy Allies" described it as "bizarre and disappointing" despite some heart and the high-profile team members behind the game. "GameSpot"s David Wildgoose echoed other reviewers by saying the game seemed out of its time, faulting its archaic design despite providing some platforming challenges.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: Tom Marks of "IGN" cited "Balan Wonderworld" as an example of an underwhelming spiritual successor, calling it boring rather than actually broken. Both Mitch Vogel of "Nintendo Life" and John Rairdin of "Nintendo World Report" were highly negative; Vogel called it "a waste of [player's] time", while Rairdin was extremely disappointed with its poor use of genre mechanics. Chris Scullion of "Video Games Chronicle" were also mixed on the usefulness of the costumes, likening it to a PlayStation 2 platformer.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: The one-button gameplay was generally seen as a disappointment, though Bradley and Marks praised the boss battles. Andriessen and Wildgoose noted later levels were of a higher quality. The costume system met with extensive criticism due to the number of repeated abilities and the restriction of jumping to particular costumes given the genre, though Wildgoose praised their variety. The minigames, particularly Balan's Bout, were universally panned. Several writers criticized the lack of a clear narrative or solid gameplay explanations. The Tims were also faulted as a useless addition. The Switch version was noted for noticeable technical problems. By comparison, the graphics were cited as a positive for their design and aesthetics, and the CGI cutscenes and music met with general praise.


title: Balan Wonderworld

text: "Balan Wonderworld" sold poorly in Japan; it sold fewer than 2,100 physical copies in its opening week, and failed to make multiple sales charts. In the United Kingdom, it failed to break into the top 40 bestselling games for March. It failed to appear among the top-selling games in the United States in March, though another Square Enix-published game, "Outriders", had strong sales. It was not mentioned in Square Enix's fiscal report.


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: Michael Joseph Stephen Dudikoff Jr. (born October 8, 1954) is an American actor and martial artist. Born in New York City, his family later moved to Los Angeles. Dudikoff did different jobs to pay for his education, during this time he became a model. This led him to do acting auditions. He played supporting roles in films and television shows, until he got his break as the lead in the martial arts action film "American Ninja" (1985).


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: Dudikoff became an action film leading man and followed up with "" (1986), "Avenging Force" (1986), "Platoon Leader" (1988), "River of Death" (1989), "Soldier Boyz" (1996), "Bounty Hunters" (1996), "" (1997), etc.


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: Dudikoff's father, Michael Joseph Stephen Dudikoff Sr., was Eastern Orthodox Christian. Born in New York to Russian immigrants Mary Bogdanova and John Dudikoff, Michael Sr. served in the Army before marrying Dudikoff's mother, Rita T. Girardin, a French-Canadian piano player from Quebec. The couple moved to California and had five children; the fourth, Michael Jr., was diagnosed with dyslexia.


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: Dudikoff graduated from West High School in Torrance, California, and went on to study child psychology at Harbor College.


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: To pay for his education, Dudikoff worked at a rehabilitation center for abused youth called Cedar House and waited tables at Beachbum Burt's in Redondo Beach, California. He was eventually approached to do some modelling, and did a catwalk at a shopping mall.


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: During lunch one day, Dudikoff served Max Evans, a fashion editor with "Esquire" magazine, who had come in with some models. Evans asked Dudikoff to walk in a Newport Beach fashion show, and his mother encouraged him to try it out.


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: After a couple of successful runways, Dudikoff retained an agent at the Mary Webb Davis Agency in Los Angeles. Dudikoff soon entered the high fashion world and counted Calvin Klein and "GQ" among his clients. He moved quickly to international print modeling and traveled between New York, Los Angeles, and Milan by his late 20s.


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: Dudikoff soon began acting, and he starred in several commercials for companies, including Coppertone, Coca-Cola for Japan, Army Reserve and Stridex.


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: Dudikoff's first television role took place after a meeting with theatrical agent Sid Craig. He went for some readings, and in 1978 he landed a supporting role in one episode of the hit TV show "Dallas", and shortly after the part as Joanie's first boyfriend in the American sitcom "Happy Days". Dudikoff said the president of Paramount Studio happened to be sitting in the audience while they were filming and gave him a contract.


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: In 1982, Dudikoff acted in "Neil Simon's I Ought to Be in Pictures", "Making Love", and "Tron." Also that year he was one of the leads in the sitcom "Star of the Family."


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: In 1983, he acted in "Uncommon Valor," one episode of "Gimme a Break!," and played Huckleberry Finn in a Columbia Pictures movie-of-the-week called "Sawyer & Finn" directed by Peter H. Hunt.


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: In 1985, The Cannon Group, an independent film company with a streak of successful action films, were looking to produce an action film starring Chuck Norris called "American Ninja", which Norris turned down. Shortly after, Cannon went on a worldwide search to find who would play Private Joe Armstrong, the American ninja. Over 400 candidates went on to audition for the part. The producer and owner of Cannon, Menahem Golan, and director Sam Firstenberg thought Dudikoff was the obvious choice for the part. Golan even went on to say that he would be the next James Dean. It was a surprise for Dudikoff, who at the time was mostly known for supporting roles in comedies. It was Dudikoff's first collaboration with actor Steve James, who was hired to play the partner of the American ninja, a role he maintained for the first three installments. On a $1 million budget, it went on to gross over $10 million domestically in the US and did extremely well in foreign markets. This success would establish the start of the "American Ninja" film franchise, with Dudikoff becoming a regular action star for The Cannon Group. That same year, Dudikoff and John Stockwell were co-leads in Albert Pyun's post-apocalyptic film "Radioactive Dreams".


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: In 1986, Dudikoff returned to the title role of Joe Armstrong in "", with Firstenberg directing. The film grossed $4 million domestically in the U.S. That same year, Dudikoff starred as retired secret service agent in "Avenging Force", with Steve James, directed by Sam Firstenberg. Also, Dudikoff played the role of Lt. Rudy Bodford in the mini-series "North and South, Book II".


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: In 1989, Dudikoff turned down "" because he didn't want to get type cast in martial arts movies and didn't want to go back to South Africa as he was firmly against the Apartheid movement.


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: In 1991, Dudikoff acted in the television film "The Woman Who Sinned". That year in "American Ninja"'s fourth instalment ", "he returned to the role of Joe Armstrong.


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: In 1993, Dudikoff co-starred with Stephen Dorff in Arthur Allan Seidelman's "Rescue Me". Also that year, Dudikoff was the lead role in the action TV series "Cobra." The hour-long show ran for 22 episodes from 1993–1994.


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: In 1994, Dudikoff did his final film with The Cannon Group, called "Chain of Command" directed by David Worth.


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: In 1998, Dudikoff starred in "Black Thunder", "Freedom Strike", "Musketeers Forever" , and "Counter Measures" a sequel to "Crash Dive". He also played acted in the "Ringmaster" starring Jerry Springer.


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: In 1999, Dudikoff acted in Sidney J. Furie's "In Her Defense", Fred Olen Ray's "Fugitive Mind," and "The Silencer".


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: In 2002, Dudikoff played the main villain in "Gale Force," starring Treat Williams. He also starred in Sam Firstenberg's "Quicksand", and Fred Olen Ray's "Stranded".


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: In 2014, Dudikoff was interviewed for "" and "", both highly publicized dueling documentaries about The Cannon Group.


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: In 2015, Dudikoff played a supporting role in "Navy Seals vs. Zombies", released by Anchor Bay Entertainment.


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: Dudikoff had no martial arts training before making the first "American Ninja" movie, but he was already very athletic. Fight choreographer Mike Stone, an accomplished martial arts expert, assured the producers that Dudikoff would pick up the moves.


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: Dudikoff has since trained in karate, aikido, judo, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He began his training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu with Rorion Gracie and stays connected with the Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighting circuit, including Rigan Machado, an eighth degree red and black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and former world champion.


title: Michael Dudikoff

text: In a 2012 Q&A, Dudikoff said that he doesn't lift weights, but is a swimmer and does isometric and dance exercises.


title: Mohra

text: Mohra () is a 1994 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film co-written, edited and directed by Rajiv Rai and produced by his father Gulshan Rai. It stars Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Raveena Tandon in the lead roles, along with Naseeruddin Shah, Raza Murad, Gulshan Grover, Paresh Rawal, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Kulbhushan Kharbanda in supporting roles. The film was also the first collaboration between the trio of Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty and Paresh Rawal, who went on to collaborate several times later on.


title: Mohra

text: Originally, Divya Bharti was cast as the female lead but she died very early in the production. Raveena Tandon was cast as her replacement. The film was reported to be inspired by the 1987 film "". while the climax was inspired by the 1992 Hong Kong film, "Hard Boiled".


title: Mohra

text: The film was major box office success, went on to become the second highest-grossing Indian film of that year only behind "Hum Aapke Hain Koun". It received nine Filmfare nominations in 1995 including Best film, Best director and Best Music director. Songs of the film also became huge chartbusters in that year. The popularity of the song "Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast", which was picturised on Raveena Tandon, led to her being nicknamed 'the mast mast girl'. The song was an adaptation of the popular Qawwali song "Dam Mast Qalandar Mast Mast" by Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The film's soundtrack album sold more than 8million units, making it the second highest-selling Bollywood soundtrack album of 1994, behind only "Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!".


title: Mohra

text: In 1987, a convict named Vishal Agnihotri is imprisoned for killing four criminals who brutally raped and killed his sister-in-law Pooja. He initially tries to get justice for his sister-in-law in court but fails, and the men are freed from prison with the help of a corrupt public prosecutor. Then, the criminals visit Vishal's home because he tried to file a case against them. Driven by vengeance, they try to rape Vishal's wife, Priya, but she kills herself with a knife. Angered at all this, Vishal decides to take the matter into his own hands and murders the four criminals and the public prosecutor himself. He is sentenced to life in prison for the crimes, confined to a maximum-security prison.


title: Mohra

text: 7 years later, in 1994, when journalist Roma Singh visits the same maximum-security prison for a report that she's writing, a few of the convicts try to rape her. The attempted rape reminds Vishal of his misfortune, and he intervenes to save Roma. Roma hears Vishal's story and decides to help free him. She is heard by her boss, Mr Sandeep Jindal, (a blind businessman and owner of "Samadhan Newspaper" where Roma works) who reopens Vishal's case and convinces legal authorities to allow Vishal his freedom so that he can start living a normal life once again.


title: Mohra

text: Once Vishal is freed, Jindal tries to recruit him as a hitman. His responsibility is to kill some anti-social elements in the city, mainly the two powerful drug lords Jibran and Tyson and all the people who work for them. Jindal tells Vishal that these drug lords are responsible for creating people like the group of four men he killed in the first place, by bringing drugs to the streets and corrupting the locals with them. Vishal refuses at first as he has just got out of prison and now wants to live a normal life. However, the memories of his murdered family come back to haunt him as he spends a day alone and empty-feeling in his now-dusty estate, and he agrees to work for Jindal. Jindal convinces Vishal to kill Kamdev Kulkarni, the Commissioner of Police, at the end, pointing him to be the main culprit and protector of drug lords in the city. Vishal starts killing each of the drug suspects, one from Jibran's gang and the next from Tyson's gang, to ignite their rivalry.


title: Mohra

text: At the same time, a young and sincere Police Inspector named Amar Saxena is trying to catch the drug-trading suspects. He is unhappy about the release of Vishal, who he believes deserves to be in prison because of the murders he committed. Things become even more complicated when Amar finds Vishal at most of the murder scenes of criminals involved in drug trading. Meanwhile, Roma and Amar fall in love with each other and officially start a relationship. Amar's colleague, Sub Inspector Kashinath Sahoo, is very greedy and becomes an informer for Jibran, one of the targeted drug lords. He discloses all internal matters of the police department to Jibran in return for money, that too as per the duration of his conversation throughout.


title: Mohra

text: Jibran, upon getting informed by Kashinath Sahoo that the hitman who is eliminating his gang members is none other than Vishal, calls Tyson to meet and ease out the misunderstanding. Vishal surreptitiously shoots Tyson at the meeting, making two gangs fall upon each other and get killed incidentally. Jibran gets wounded as Tyson shoots him but pretends to be dead, thereby saving himself from Vishal and watches Vishal shooting Tyson at point-blank range. Finally, Vishal approaches to kill commissioner Kamdev but overhears the conversation between a drunk Kamdev and Constable Kranti Kumar, where Kamdev thinks that the unknown murderer is actually helping society to get rid of dirty elements, which the police could never do because of legal flaws and lack of proofs, and that innocent convicts like Vishal (whose career is virtually destroyed) should be recruited in the police force. Vishal has a change of heart and refuses to kill Kamdev.


title: Mohra

text: Upon meeting his boss the next day at one of his lodges, Vishal informs that while most of the anti-social elements have been eliminated, Kamdev will be spared. Jindal is enraged upon hearing Vishal's decision and reminds Vishal to only follow orders and not succumb to his feelings. However, Vishal confronts Jindal and demands to know the truth about why he has been forced to become a killer and who Jindal really is. Jindal strikes Vishal violently. Vishal attacks Jindal with a paperweight, but Jindal dodges it. A stunned Vishal then realizes that Jindal is not blind and is the real antagonist pulling the strings the whole time. Vishal wants to kill Jindal instantly, but suddenly Jibran shows up and saves Jindal. Vishal is captured and imprisoned by Jindal and Jibran, the latter revealing himself to be in cahoots with Jindal.


title: Mohra

text: Jindal reveals his past to Vishal. He idolized Jibran and Tyson in his youth but wanted to become bigger than them, thus he made them his rivals. He also confesses that he murdered his wife Pooja and Inspector Karan Saxena (who happens to be Amar's father) to cover up the truth of his corruption and faked his blindness to throw the police off his trail. Over the years, Jindal becomes wealthy and powerful through his underworld drug kingdom while maintaining his façade as a good-natured blind businessman and owner of Samadhan. Jindal and Jibran leave Vishal to die by rigging the lodge with bombs.


title: Mohra

text: However, Vishal narrowly escapes death and reaches Roma's house, asking for help. A few minutes later, Amar arrives and misunderstands the situation. He blames Roma to be in an illicit relationship with Vishal and refuses to listen to her. Vishal, upon being confronted by Amar, tries to tell the truth, but Amar is not ready to believe him. Finally, both start fighting each other recklessly and Amar knocks Vishal unconscious, throwing him in jail.


title: Mohra

text: Sub Inspector Sahoo, who is brought to Jindal by Jibran to give him important information about Vishal, tells him that Vishal is alive and will notify the entire truth to Amar and the Commissioner by the following day. In the night, Jindal reveals his long-time attraction for Roma, thus unmasking his blindfold to Roma's utmost surprise and kidnaps her. The sub-editor Siddiqui, who tries to save her, is killed by Jindal. Jindal then drugs Roma to dance for him as he lusts over her beauty.


title: Mohra

text: Kamdev, arriving by the next morning, releases Vishal of his free will. Seeing this, Amar bursts out in a fury and accuses Kamdev to be an equally responsible culprit who helps gangsters all the time and protects them from being punished. Vishal confronts Amar and tells the truth about Jindal and everything that transpired in detail. Amar, who has been searching for his father's murderer for a long time, promises to take revenge on Jindal.


title: Mohra

text: Amar, Vishal and Kamdev go to Jindal's office to arrest him, but they find that Jindal has escaped. Jindal, at that instant, calls his office and upon receiving the call, the trio discovers that Jindal has kidnapped Roma in order to forcefully marry her and he taunts them to save her. Amar suspects an insider informing Jindal about their every single move, and that person is present among them. He blindly arrests Kranti Kumar, thereby letting Kashinath reveal his other side and getting caught red-handed. Now, being cornered, Kashinath has to reveal Jindal's location and helps Vishal and Amar trace Jindal to an abandoned fort where drug lords from all over the country have been assembled to trigger a vicious and aggressive drug cartel from the next morning, thereby partnering with Jindal, who will become the undisputed leader.


title: Mohra

text: After a melee, Amar and Vishal kill most of the drug lords, and Sahoo kills Jibran to save himself. Cornered, Jindal forces Roma to go with him but is confronted by Vishal. He tricks and shoots Vishal, and grabs him at gunpoint, thus compelling Roma to stay back and make Amar surrender his weapon. Deciding to sacrifice his life, Vishal forcefully takes control of Jindal's gun and makes Jindal mortally wound him, shocking Jindal. Amar, who is holding his weapon till then, kills Jindal immediately and avenges the death of his father just as Vishal dies in Amar's lap, saluting him for one last time.


title: Mohra

text: The film ends with Amar getting rewarded by the government for his bravery and Roma's father, the jailor, announcing Amar's engagement to Roma. Just then, Kashinath Sahoo, who nearly escaped suspension for corruption, enters the scene and mimics himself blindfolded, similar to Jindal. While the others laugh at him and tell him to mend his ways, Kashinath replies by saying that he is trying to convince the government to pay more salary to police officers in the wake of rising inflation, so that they do not have to blindly accept bribes and put their fellow colleagues' lives at risk just to make ends meet.


title: Mohra

text: The music for the film was composed by Viju Shah, with lyrics by Indeevar and Anand Bakshi. "Mohra" was one of the most successful soundtrack albums of 1994, especially the song "Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast". The track is set to Raag "Bhimpalasi" (known as "Abheri" in Carnatic Music), and is based on the popular Qawwali song "Dam Mast Qalandar Mast Mast" by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Initially, Viju Shah wanted Sapna Mukherjee to render "Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast" but, upon Rajiv Rai's insistence, opted for Kavita Krishnamurthy instead. The song "Na Kajre Ki Dhaar" was actually composed in the 1970s by Kalyanji-Anandji, the father and uncle of Viju Shah, and sung by Mukesh, for a shelved film, meaning that the song was unreleased. Viju Shah added the song to this film, and got singers Pankaj Udhas and Sadhana Sargam to sing it.


title: Mohra

text: The film's soundtrack album sold more than 8million units, making it the second highest-selling Bollywood soundtrack album of 1994, behind only "Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!" The song "Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast" was remade as "Cheez Badi" for the 2017 film "Machine". The song "Tip Tip Barsa Pani" was remade as "Tip Tip" for the 2021 film "Sooryavanshi". The background score consisted of plagiarized versions of "The Terminator theme" and "I feel you (Babylon Mix)" by Depeche Mode.


title: Yashpal Sharma (cricketer)

text: Yashpal Sharma (; 11 August 1954 – 13 July 2021) was an Indian international cricketer. He was an explosive middle order batsman who played during the 1970s and 80s. He was a member of the India team that won the 1983 Cricket World Cup. He represented India in 37 Tests and 42 One Day Internationals (ODIs) between 1978 and 1985. His nephew Chetan Sharma was also a cricketer. He was fondly nicknamed the "Crisis Man for India".


title: Yashpal Sharma (cricketer)

text: Yashpal Sharma first drew attention when he scored 260 for Punjab schools against Jammu & Kashmir schools in 1972. Within two years, he was in the state team, and a member of the North Zone team that won the Vizzy Trophy. His first major innings in first class cricket was a 173 in the Duleep Trophy for the North, against the South Zone which had Chandrasekhar, Erapalli Prasanna and Venkataraghavan.


title: Yashpal Sharma (cricketer)

text: His knock of 99 in the Irani Trophy helped secure a place for him in the Indian team in a tour of Pakistan a few weeks later. He subsequently made his ODI debut during the tour of Pakistan on 13 October 1978. He went to England in 1979 as a part of the team that played in the World Cup. He did not play in any of the matches during the 1979 World Cup but he appeared in three Test series that followed. He scored 884 runs at an average of 58 in the tour matches. He made his Test debut on 2 August 1979 against England at Lord's. His form in England assured him of a Test place in the next few games. After scoring a pair against Australia in the Kanpur Test, Sharma scored his first Test hundred in the very next match. He nearly missed out on another century as he scored unbeaten 85 runs off 117 balls in the next Test at Calcutta, but with 3.4 overs still left before the end of the Test, he appealed against light.


title: Yashpal Sharma (cricketer)

text: He made his highest first class score against Victoria in 1980–81, a 465-minute 201*. In the Adelaide Test of that series, Sharma hit 47 in a 147 run partnership with Sandeep Patil. This was his only innings of some consequence in the tour and he was soon dropped. On his comeback, at Madras in 1981–82, he hit 140 against England. He batted through the full second day of the match with Gundappa Viswanath and their third wicket partnership contributed 316 runs. At Port of Spain next year, he was struck on the head by Malcolm Marshall and forced to retire. However, he came back to bat in the same innings and scored a fifty.


title: Yashpal Sharma (cricketer)

text: After a few ordinary performances, Sharma was picked for the Indian team for the 1983 World Cup. In the opening match of the tournament, he top scored with 89 as India caused West Indies their first defeat in a World Cup match. The West Indies had been favourites to win at odds of 66–1. Sharma very much won the day for them, and he recounted that he had a volley of marks on his chest from Malcolm Marshall's short-pitched bowling. A Bollywood film, "83," was made about this World Cup triumph. The part of Marshall was played by Marshall's son, Mali.


title: Yashpal Sharma (cricketer)

text: In the semifinal against England he again top scored with 61 – a flick over square leg for six off a near yorker from Bob Willis being a memorable shot. He was part of the Indian team which won its maiden World Cup tournament which eventually came during the 1983 campaign. He was also the second leading run scorer for India during the 1983 World Cup with 240 runs in eight matches.


title: Yashpal Sharma (cricketer)

text: Back home, he failed completely against the touring Pakistanis. In the three-day match for North Zone against the West Indians at Amritsar, he hit Viv Richards for four consecutive sixes. But two more failures in the international matches against them ended his career. He appeared in four one day matches against England the next year and scored more than ten in one of these matches. Sharma left Punjab and joined Haryana in 1987–88. He spent another two years with Railways. At the age of 37, he was still good enough to score hundreds in consecutive matches in 1991–92. After he retired from the game, he became an umpire for a time, and was also a selector for the Indian national team.


title: Yashpal Sharma (cricketer)

text: He served as India's national cricket selector from 2003 to 2006. During the tumultuous period of Indian cricket between 2005 and 2007, he supported Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly over the coach Greg Chappell and was also ousted from the selection committee in 2005. After being removed from national selection committee prior to the home series against Sri Lanka in 2005, he accused Chappell of questioning his integrity and interfering with selection of the team. However, Chappell remarked that his spat with Ganguly was "blown out of proportion" and went on to say, "He [Yashpal] was frustrated that he lost a job which he obviously wanted to keep. I had no part in him losing his job, but he had to take it out on someone.".


title: Yashpal Sharma (cricketer)

text: He again became selector for the national team in 2008 and served until 2011. During his second tenure as selector, India won the 2011 Cricket World Cup. He later served as the coach for Uttar Pradesh Ranji Team. In 2014, he was appointed as the head of Delhi's cricket advisory committee.


title: Yashpal Sharma (cricketer)

text: In 2021, the Board of Control for Cricket in India conducted a day/night benefit cricket match in honour of Yashpal Sharma.


title: Yashpal Sharma (cricketer)

text: A Bollywood film titled "83" released in 2021 about the event of India's first world cup win at Lords. The film features Jatin Sarna as Sharma and is directed and produced by Kabir Khan and Anurag Kashyap respectively.


title: Battle of the Nile

text: The Battle of the Nile (also known as the Battle of Aboukir Bay; ) was a major naval battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the Navy of the French Republic at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast off the Nile Delta of Egypt from the 1st to the 3rd of August 1798. The battle was the climax of a naval campaign that had raged across the Mediterranean during the previous three months, as a large French convoy sailed from Toulon to Alexandria carrying an expeditionary force under General Napoleon Bonaparte. The British fleet was led in the battle by Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson; they decisively defeated the French under Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers.


title: Battle of the Nile

text: Bonaparte sought to invade Egypt as the first step in a campaign against British India, as part of a greater effort to drive Britain out of the French Revolutionary Wars. As Bonaparte's fleet crossed the Mediterranean, it was pursued by a British force under Nelson who had been sent from the British fleet in the Tagus to learn the purpose of the French expedition and to defeat it. He chased the French for more than two months, on several occasions missing them only by a matter of hours. Bonaparte was aware of Nelson's pursuit and enforced absolute secrecy about his destination. He was able to capture Malta and then land in Egypt without interception by the British naval forces.


title: Battle of the Nile

text: With the French army ashore, the French fleet anchored in Aboukir Bay, northeast of Alexandria. Commander Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers believed that he had established a formidable defensive position. The British fleet arrived off Egypt on 1 August and discovered Brueys's dispositions, and Nelson ordered an immediate attack. His ships advanced on the French line and split into two divisions as they approached. One cut across the head of the line and passed between the anchored French and the shore, while the other engaged the seaward side of the French fleet.


title: Battle of the Nile

text: Trapped in a crossfire, the leading French warships were battered into surrender during a fierce three-hour battle, although the centre of the line held out for a while until more British ships were able to join the attack. At 22:00, the French flagship exploded which prompted the rear division of the French fleet to attempt to break out of the bay. With Brueys dead and his vanguard and centre defeated, only two ships of the line and two frigates escaped from a total of 17 ships engaged.


title: Battle of the Nile

text: The battle reversed the strategic situation between the two nations' forces in the Mediterranean and entrenched the Royal Navy in the dominant position that it retained for the rest of the war. It also encouraged other European countries to turn against France, and was a factor in the outbreak of the War of the Second Coalition. Bonaparte's army was trapped in Egypt, and Royal Navy dominance off the Syrian coast contributed significantly to the French defeat at the siege of Acre in 1799 which preceded Bonaparte's abandonment of Egypt and return to Europe. Nelson had been wounded in the battle, and he was proclaimed a hero across Europe and was subsequently made Baron Nelson—although he was privately dissatisfied with his rewards. His captains were also highly praised and went on to form the nucleus of the legendary Nelson's Band of Brothers. The legend of the battle has remained prominent in the popular consciousness, with perhaps the best-known representation being Felicia Hemans' 1826 poem "Casabianca".


title: Battle of the Nile

text: Napoleon Bonaparte's victories in northern Italy over the Austrian Empire helped secure victory for the French in the War of the First Coalition in 1797, and Great Britain remained the only major European power still at war with the French Republic. The French Directory investigated a number of strategic options to counter British opposition, including projected invasions of Ireland and Britain and the expansion of the French Navy to challenge the Royal Navy at sea. Despite significant efforts, British control of Northern European waters rendered these ambitions impractical in the short term, and the Royal Navy remained firmly in control of the Atlantic Ocean. However, the French navy was dominant in the Mediterranean, following the withdrawal of the British fleet after the outbreak of war between Britain and Spain in 1796. This allowed Bonaparte to propose an invasion of Egypt as an alternative to confronting Britain directly, believing that the British would be too distracted by an imminent Irish uprising to intervene in the Mediterranean.


title: Battle of the Nile

text: Bonaparte believed that, by establishing a permanent presence in Egypt (nominally part of the neutral Ottoman Empire), the French would obtain a staging point for future operations against British India, possibly by means of an alliance with the Tipu Sultan of Seringapatam, that might successfully drive the British out of the war. The campaign would sever the chain of communication that connected Britain with India, an essential part of the British Empire whose trade generated the wealth that Britain required to prosecute the war successfully. The French Directory agreed with Bonaparte's plans, although a major factor in their decision was a desire to see the politically ambitious Bonaparte and the fiercely loyal veterans of his Italian campaigns travel as far from France as possible. During the spring of 1798, Bonaparte assembled more than 35,000 soldiers in Mediterranean France and Italy and developed a powerful fleet at Toulon. He also formed the "Commission des Sciences et des Arts", a body of scientists and engineers intended to establish a French colony in Egypt. Napoleon kept the destination of the expedition top secret—most of the army's officers did not know of its target, and Bonaparte did not publicly reveal his goal until the first stage of the expedition was complete.


title: Battle of the Nile

text: Bonaparte's armada sailed from Toulon on 19 May, making rapid progress through the Ligurian Sea and collecting more ships at Genoa, before sailing southwards along the Sardinian coast and passing Sicily on 7 June. On 9 June, the fleet arrived off Malta, then under the ownership of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, ruled by Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim. Bonaparte demanded that his fleet be permitted entry to the fortified harbour of Valletta. When the Knights refused, the French general responded by ordering a large scale invasion of the Maltese Islands, overrunning the defenders after 24 hours of skirmishing. The Knights formally surrendered on 12 June and, in exchange for substantial financial compensation, handed the islands and all of their resources over to Bonaparte, including the extensive property of the Roman Catholic Church on Malta. Within a week, Bonaparte had resupplied his ships, and on 19 June, his fleet departed for Alexandria in the direction of Crete, leaving 4,000 men at Valletta under General Claude-Henri Vaubois to ensure French control of the islands.


title: Battle of the Nile

text: While Bonaparte was sailing to Malta, the Royal Navy re-entered the Mediterranean for the first time in more than a year. Alarmed by reports of French preparations on the Mediterranean coast, Lord Spencer at the Admiralty sent a message to Vice-Admiral Earl St. Vincent, commander of the Mediterranean Fleet based in the Tagus, to despatch a squadron to investigate. This squadron, consisting of three ships of the line and three frigates, was entrusted to Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson.


title: Battle of the Nile

text: Nelson was a highly experienced officer who had been blinded in one eye during fighting in Corsica in 1794 and subsequently commended for his capture of two Spanish ships of the line at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in February 1797. In July 1797, he lost an arm at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and had been forced to return to Britain to recuperate. Returning to the fleet at the Tagus in late April 1798, he was ordered to collect the squadron stationed at Gibraltar and sail for the Ligurian Sea. On 21 May, as Nelson's squadron approached Toulon, it was struck by a fierce gale and Nelson's flagship, , lost its topmasts and was almost wrecked on the Corsican coast. The remainder of the squadron was scattered. The ships of the line sheltered at San Pietro Island off Sardinia; the frigates were blown to the west and failed to return.


title: Battle of the Nile

text: On 7 June, following hasty repairs to his flagship, a fleet consisting of ten ships of the line and a fourth-rate joined Nelson off Toulon. The fleet, under the command of Captain Thomas Troubridge, had been sent by Earl St. Vincent to reinforce Nelson, with orders that he was to pursue and intercept the Toulon convoy. Although he now had enough ships to challenge the French fleet, Nelson suffered two great disadvantages: He had no intelligence regarding the destination of the French, and no frigates to scout ahead of his force. Striking southwards in the hope of collecting information about French movements, Nelson's ships stopped at Elba and Naples, where the British ambassador, Sir William Hamilton, reported that the French fleet had passed Sicily headed in the direction of Malta. Despite pleas from Nelson and Hamilton, King Ferdinand of Naples refused to lend his frigates to the British fleet, fearing French reprisals. On 22 June, a brig sailing from Ragusa brought Nelson the news that the French had sailed eastwards from Malta on 16 June. After conferring with his captains, the admiral decided that the French target must be Egypt and set off in pursuit. Incorrectly believing the French to be five days ahead rather than two, Nelson insisted on a direct route to Alexandria without deviation.


title: Battle of the Nile

text: On the evening of 22 June, Nelson's fleet passed the French in the darkness, overtaking the slow invasion convoy without realising how close they were to their target. Making rapid time on a direct route, Nelson reached Alexandria on 28 June and discovered that the French were not there. After a meeting with the suspicious Ottoman commander, Sayyid Muhammad Kurayyim, Nelson ordered the British fleet northwards, reaching the coast of Anatolia on 4 July and turning westwards back towards Sicily. Nelson had missed the French by less than a day—the scouts of the French fleet arrived off Alexandria in the evening of 29 June.


title: Battle of the Nile

text: Concerned by his near encounter with Nelson, Bonaparte ordered an immediate invasion, his troops coming ashore in a poorly managed amphibious operation in which at least 20 drowned. Marching along the coast, the French army stormed Alexandria and captured the city, after which Bonaparte led the main force of his army inland. He instructed his naval commander, Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys D'Aigalliers, to anchor in Alexandria harbour, but naval surveyors reported that the channel into the harbour was too shallow and narrow for the larger ships of the French fleet. As a result, the French selected an alternative anchorage at Aboukir Bay, northeast of Alexandria.


title: Battle of the Nile

text: Nelson's fleet reached Syracuse in Sicily on 19 July and took on essential supplies. There the admiral wrote letters describing the events of the previous months: "It is an old saying, 'the Devil's children have the Devil's luck.' I cannot find, or at this moment learn, beyond vague conjecture where the French fleet are gone to. All my ill fortune, hitherto, has proceeded from want of frigates." Meanwhile, the French were securing Egypt by the Battle of the Pyramids. By 24 July, the British fleet was resupplied and, having determined that the French must be somewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean, Nelson sailed again in the direction of the Morea. On 28 July, at Coron, Nelson finally obtained intelligence describing the French attack on Egypt and turned south across the Mediterranean. His scouts, and , sighted the French transport fleet at Alexandria on the afternoon of 1 August.


title: Battle of the Nile

text: When Alexandria harbour had proved inadequate for his fleet, Brueys had gathered his captains and discussed their options. Bonaparte had ordered the fleet to anchor in Aboukir Bay, a shallow and exposed anchorage, but had supplemented the orders with the suggestion that, if Aboukir Bay was too dangerous, Brueys could sail north to Corfu, leaving only the transports and a handful of lighter warships at Alexandria. Brueys refused, in the belief that his squadron could provide essential support to the French army on shore, and called his captains aboard his 120-gun flagship to discuss their response should Nelson discover the fleet in its anchorage. Despite vocal opposition from Contre-amiral Armand Blanquet, who insisted that the fleet would be best able to respond in open water, the rest of the captains agreed that anchoring in a line of battle inside the bay presented the strongest tactic for confronting Nelson. It is possible that Bonaparte envisaged Aboukir Bay as a temporary anchorage: on 27 July, he expressed the expectation that Brueys had already transferred his ships to Alexandria, and three days later, he issued orders for the fleet to make for Corfu in preparation for naval operations against the Ottoman territories in the Balkans, although Bedouin partisans intercepted and killed the courier carrying the instructions.


title: Battle of the Nile

text: Aboukir Bay is a coastal indentation across, stretching from the village of Abu Qir in the west to the town of Rosetta to the east, where one of the mouths of the River Nile empties into the Mediterranean. In 1798, the bay was protected at its western end by extensive rocky shoals which ran into the bay from a promontory guarded by Aboukir Castle. A small fort situated on an island among the rocks protected the shoals. The fort was garrisoned by French soldiers and armed with at least four cannon and two heavy mortars. Brueys had augmented the fort with his bomb vessels and gunboats, anchored among the rocks to the west of the island in a position to give support to the head of the French line. Further shoals ran unevenly to the south of the island and extended across the bay in a rough semicircle approximately from the shore. These shoals were too shallow to permit the passage of larger warships, and so Brueys ordered his thirteen ships of the line to form up in a line of battle following the northeastern edge of the shoals to the south of the island, a position that allowed the ships to disembark supplies from their port sides while covering the landings with their starboard batteries. Orders were issued for each ship to attach strong cables to the bow and stern of their neighbours, which would effectively turn the line into a long battery forming a theoretically impregnable barrier. Brueys positioned a second, inner line of four frigates approximately west of the main line, roughly halfway between the line and the shoal. The van of the French line was led by , positioned southeast of Aboukir Island and about from the edge of the shoals that surrounded the island. The line stretched southeast, with the centre bowed seawards away from the shoal. The French ships were spaced at intervals of and the whole line was long, with the flagship "Orient" at the centre and two large 80-gun ships anchored on either side. The rear division of the line was under the command of Contre-amiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve in .


title: Battle of the Nile

text: In deploying his ships in this way, Brueys hoped that the British would be forced by the shoals to attack his strong centre and rear, allowing his van to use the prevailing northeasterly wind to counterattack the British once they were engaged. However, he had made a serious misjudgement: he had left enough room between "Guerrier" and the shoals for an enemy ship to cut across the head of the French line and proceed between the shoals and the French ships, allowing the unsupported vanguard to be caught in a crossfire by two divisions of enemy ships. Compounding this error, the French only prepared their ships for battle on their starboard (seaward) sides, from which they expected the attack would have to come; their landward port sides were unprepared.


title: Battle of the Nile

text: The port side gun ports were closed, and the decks on that side were uncleared, with various stored items blocking access to the guns. Brueys' dispositions had a second significant flaw: The 160-yard gaps between ships were large enough for a British ship to push through and break the French line. Furthermore, not all of the French captains had followed Brueys' orders to attach cables to their neighbours' bow and stern, which would have prevented such a manoeuvre. The problem was exacerbated by orders to only anchor at the bow, which allowed the ships to swing with the wind and widened the gaps. It also created areas within the French line not covered by the broadside of any ship. British vessels could anchor in those spaces and engage the French without reply. In addition, the deployment of Brueys' fleet prevented the rear from effectively supporting the van due to the prevailing winds.


title: Battle of the Nile

text: A more pressing problem for Brueys was a lack of food and water for the fleet: Bonaparte had unloaded almost all of the provisions carried aboard and no supplies were reaching the ships from the shore. To remedy this, Brueys sent foraging parties of 25 men from each ship along the coast to requisition food, dig wells, and collect water. Constant attacks by Bedouin partisans, however, required escorts of heavily armed guards for each party. Hence, up to a third of the fleet's sailors were away from their ships at any one time. Brueys wrote a letter describing the situation to Minister of Marine Étienne Eustache Bruix, reporting that "Our crews are weak, both in number and quality. Our rigging, in general, out of repair, and I am sure it requires no little courage to undertake the management of a fleet furnished with such tools."