title: Pandita Ramabai

text: In 1886, she traveled from Britain to the United States at the invitation of Dr. Rachel Bodley, Dean of the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, to attend the graduation of her relative and the first female Indian doctor, Anandibai Joshi, staying for two years. During this time she also translated textbooks and gave lectures throughout the United States and Canada. She also published one of her most important books, "The High-Caste Hindu Woman". Her first book written in English, Ramabai dedicated it to her cousin, Dr. Joshi. "The High-Caste Hindu Woman" showed the darkest aspects of the life of Hindu women, including child brides and child widows, and sought to expose the oppression of women in Hindu-dominated British India. Through speaking engagements and the development of a wide network of supporters, Ramabai raised the equivalent of 60,000 rupees to launch a school in India for the child widows whose difficult lives her book exposed.


title: Pandita Ramabai

text: While giving presentations in the U.S. to seek support for her work in India, Ramabai met American Suffragette and Women's rights activist, Frances Willard in July 1887. Willard invited Ramabai to speak at the national Woman's Christian Temperance Union convention in November 1887 where she gained the support of this large women's organization. She returned to India in June 1888 as a National Lecturer for the WCTU. Mary Greenleaf Clement Leavitt, the first World Missionary of the WCTU, was already there when Ramabai returned, but they did not meet. Ramabai worked however with the WCTU of India once it was officially organized in 1893.


title: Pandita Ramabai

text: in 1889, she returned to India, and founded a school for child widows in Pune called Sharada Sadan, which had the support of many Hindu reformers, including M.G. Ranade. Although Ramabai did not engage in overt evangelism, she did not hide her Christian faith either, and when several students converted to Christianity, she lost the backing of Pune's Hindu reform circles. She moved the school 60 kilometers east to the much quieter village of Kedgaon, and changed its name to the Mukti Mission. In 1896, during a severe famine, Ramabai toured the villages of Maharashtra with a caravan of bullock carts and rescued thousands of outcast children, child widows, orphans, and other destitute women and brought them to the shelter of the Mukti Mission. By 1900 there were 1,500 residents and over a hundred cattle in the Mukti mission. A learned woman knowing seven languages, she also translated the Bible into her mother tongue—Marathi—from the original Hebrew and Greek. The Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission is still active today, providing housing, education, vocational training, etc. for many needy groups including widows, orphans, and the blind.


title: Pandita Ramabai

text: Scholars of Pentecostalism have begun to explore the possibility that rather than having originated in a singular event at the famous Asuza Street Church in Los Angeles in 1906, the origins of Pentecostalism can be traced to religious revivals around the world, which were interpreted by participants as signs of a new era in Christian history. The extraordinary psycho-physical states that accompanied the emotionally intense revivals took different shape in different places. Minnie Abrams, Ramabai's American assistant and a veteran missionary with close associations with the Holiness movement, reported that in June 1905, ten months before the Azusa Street revival, a matron came upon a dormitory of girls weeping, praying, and confessing their sins. Then, one girl testified that she had been startled from sleep by the sensation of being bathed in fire. As Michael Bergunder has argued, the Mukti Mission was part of a network of Protestant missionary institutions that by the early twentieth century spanned the globe. This network was constituted by a vast system of newsletters, pamphlets, books and other kinds of print media, along with conferences that brought missionaries into conversation with each other, and travel that took missionaries and supporters from one mission station to the next. Thus, news about the "holy fire" at the Mukti Mission, along with revivals happening with apparent simultaneity around the world led many to believe a global "outpouring of the Holy Spirit" was underway. Many missionaries came personally to Kedgaon to visit and volunteer, in response to the news of the outbreak of the Holy Spirit among the students.


title: Pandita Ramabai

text: In many ways, Pandita Ramabai's family life departed from the norms expected of women in her day. Her childhood was full of hardships and she lost her parents early. Her marriage to Bipin Bihari Medhvi crossed caste lines. Moreover, when her husband died after just two years a marriage, she was left a widow. Under ordinary circumstances, such a tragedy put nineteenth century Indian women in a vulnerable condition, dependent upon their deceased husband's family for support. Pandita Ramabai, however, persevered as an independent woman, and a single mother to Manorama Bai. She ensured that Manorama Bai was educated, both in Wantage by the sisters of the CSMV, and later at Bombay University, where Manorama earned her BA. After going to the United States for higher studies, she returned to India where she worked side-by-side with Ramabai. Serving first as Principal of Sharada Sadan, she also assisted her mother in establishing Christian High school at Gulbarga (now in Karnataka), a backward district of south India, during 1912. In 1920 Ramabai's health began to flag and she designated her daughter as the one who would take over the ministry of Mukti Mission. However, Manorama died in 1921. Her death was a shock to Ramabai. Nine months later, on 5 April 1922, Ramabai herself died from septic bronchitis, a few weeks before her 64th birthday.


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: Eat Drink Man Woman () is a 1994 Taiwanese comedy-drama film directed by Ang Lee, from a script co-written with James Schamus and Hui-Ling Wang. It stars Sihung Lung, Wang Yu-wen, Wu Chien-lien, and Yang Kuei-mei. as members of the Zhu family navigate the challenges of love, life, tradition and family. Part of Lee's "Father Knows Best" trilogy and similar to Lee's other works, this film deals with the transition from tradition to modernity. It is Lee's only film, to date, to be shot entirely in his native Taiwan.


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: The film premiered in Taiwan on July 2, 1994, and it was both a critical and box office success. It won several accolades including an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. It was also nominated for both a Golden Globe and BAFTA Award, as well as three Golden Horse Awards and six Independent Spirit Awards. It would inspire films like "Tortilla Soup" and "Joyful Reunion" and has an eponymous musical rendition. A BBC Culture poll of film critics ranked the film at number 54 of the 100 Greatest Non-English Language Films.


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: The title is a quote from the "Book of Rites", one of the Confucian classics, referring to the basic human desires and accepting them as natural. The beginning of the quote reads as follows: “The things which men greatly desire are comprehended in food and drink and sexual pleasure.”


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: On a Sunday evening in Taipei, semi-retired chef and widower Zhu prepares a feast for his three daughters. Jia-Jen, the eldest, is a chemistry teacher who devotes herself to Christianity after facing heartbreak from her college ex-boyfriend. The second daughter, Jia-Chien, is an executive at an airline company. She wanted to become a head chef like her father but he claimed that it was not for a woman. Jia-Ning, the youngest, is a college student who works part-time at a Wendy's fast food restaurant.


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: At dinner, Jia-Chien announces that she has invested in a new apartment and will be moving out once construction is complete. Surprisingly, Mr. Zhu approves. Jia-Chien criticizes the flavor, claiming Mr. Zhu's taste is deteriorating. Mr. Zhu dismisses the idea before suddenly rushing off to help his (and Jia-Chien's) long-time friend and "taster", Old Wen, at a banquet. Afterwards, Mr. Zhu wonders with Old Wen if there is anything more to life than eating, drinking, man, and woman. Meanwhile, family friend Jin-Rong stops by the Zhu residence with her daughter Shan-Shan. Jin-Rong vocalizes her difficulties with a messy divorce while being responsible for work, Shan-Shan, and her opinionated mother, Madame Liang, as she returns to Taipei from America. Jia-Jen comforts her while Shan-Shan colors a caricature of Mr. Zhu.


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: The next morning, Mr. Zhu meets Shan-Shan, learns that the lunches Jin-Rong provides her are suboptimal, and decides to cook for her. Shan-Shan agrees, giving Mr. Zhu the lunches her mom made to prevent her from discovering their secret. At school, Jia-Jen meets the new volleyball coach Ming-Dao and they take interest in one another. Jia-Chien meets the chief negotiator Li Kai during a meeting at work and they flirt with one another. She has a chance to relocate to Amsterdam due to a potential promotion. Jia-Ning meets up with Guo-Lun, her friend Rachel's on-and-off boyfriend. As Guo-Lun mopes about his unrequited love, Jia-Ning comforts him, telling him that true love is being with someone you can express your feelings to comfortably, leading Guo-Lun to realize his feelings for Jia-Ning.


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: Meanwhile, Old Wen becomes hospitalized. Jia-Jen is fooled by love letters she believes are from Ming-Dao, falling for a prank by her students. Jia-Chien's apartment investment falls through as she discovers that the apartment company went bankrupt and ran away with her savings. She also learns that it was Li Kai who broke Jia-Jen's heart in college and avoids romance with him. Jia-Ning faces a dilemma when she begins dating Guo-Lun even after Rachel confesses that she loves him. Mr. Zhu's health deteriorates and secretly visits the hospital, unaware that Jia-Chien saw him while visiting Old Wen. Eventually, Old Wen passes away and Mr. Zhu concludes that his sense of taste has officially departed.


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: At another Sunday feast, Jia-Chien announces that she will no longer be moving out; Mr. Zhu tells her not to worry. Later, Jia-Ning reveals her relationship with Guo-Lun and her pregnancy. The next dinner, Jia-Jen divulges that she and Ming-Dao have eloped. Jia-Jen and Jia-Ning move out of the residence, leaving Mr. Zhu with Jia-Chien. Troubled, Mr. Zhu begins to confide in and meet Madame Liang, leading the daughters to believe that the two are romantically involved.


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: Worried about her father's health, Jia-Chien rejects her promotion. Soon, the sisters, their partners, and Jin-Rong's family gather for a large Sunday feast. Mr. Zhu announces his engagement, not to Madame Liang, but to Jin-Rong, abruptly ending the dinner. Later, Jia-Ning and Guo-Lun have their baby, Jia-Jen converts Ming-Dao to Christianity, and Mr. Zhu sells the family home and buys a condo with Jin-Rong and Shan-Shan. Jia-Chien, no longer needing to take care of her father, accepts the job in Amsterdam. Before she leaves she prepares a final feast for the family in the family home, but only Mr. Zhu arrives. When Mr. Zhu criticizes her cooking, he suddenly realizes that his sense of taste has returned. The two hold each other’s hands in the dining room, and call each other “Father” and “Daughter”.


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: Wei Ming Dariotis and Eileen Fung, authors of "Breaking the Soy Sauce Jar: Diaspora and Displacement in the Films of Ang Lee", wrote that Jia-Jen's story is that of a "spinster turned sensual woman". They wrote that her Christianity was there "perhaps to match her role as a mother-figure". She suspects Jia-Chien of disapproving of her moral system. Dariotis and Fung wrote that after Jia-Chien states that she needs not a mother but sister, Jia-Jen "is able to become who she really is with all the complexity that entails" rather than being someone she believed her family needed, with "who she really is" being "a modern, conservative, Christian, sexually aggressive Taiwanese woman". Desson Howe of "The Washington Post" wrote that of the actresses, Yang was the "most memorable".


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: Dariotis and Fung wrote that Jia-Ning's story is of "naïveté and immature love" and that the love triangle involving her, Guo Lun, and Rachel "is in many ways a parody of comic book romance." Dariotis and Fung argue that Jia-Ning's story, along with Jia-Jen's, is "not only flat but also dangerously uncomplicated." They further state that "[t]he lack of inquiry is endemic of this storyline" and that its "superficial treatment" is "quite disturbing."


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: “Due to love and traditional matters, they have to obey, they have to care well. They’re not really level with each other. I think that’s the biggest problem in that family, so the food and that banquet in the movie has become a ritual,” said Ang Lee. The banquet becomes a burden on the family.


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: The authors Hong Zhao and Haixin Jin argue in their article "破坏中的重建与传承——《饮食男女》解读" that in the film "Eat Drink Man Woman", Zhu’s family first maintains a semblance of calm when everyone represses their desires, then, the family is destructed when members throw off the shackles of their family roles to pursue their own desires. The family structure is eventually reconstructed when everyone’s desire for eat, drink and sex is well balanced. At the beginning of the film, Zhu’s family struggles between maintaining the banquet (eat and drink) and their sexual desire (man and woman). Food is the bond that holds the family together. However, though they dine together every week, they are afraid to confide in each other. When they focus on “eat drink” but suppress sexual desire, the family is unhappy. No one enjoys the meal and Zhu even loses his sense of taste. When Zhu, Jia Jen, and Jia Ning chase after their sexual desires (man and woman), the original family structure disintegrates, but the family becomes happier since everyone gets what they want. The desire for food and sex eventually reach a balance and Zhu’s sense of taste is back at this moment.


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: Each character in this film has their own desire but at the beginning of the film, due to the concern with their family roles, they cannot express themselves.


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: "Eat Drink Man Woman" was filmed on-location in director Ang Lee's hometown Taipei. As of 2022, it is Lee's only film to be shot entirely in Taiwan.


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: The opening sequence - in which a Sunday lunch is lovingly prepared - took over a week to film and was accomplished with the use of an actual master chef, who doubled for actor Sihung Lung.


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: The musical score was composed by French musician Thierry Schollhammer, credited under the mononym "Mader", and arranged by Sarah Plant. The soundtrack was released by Varèse Sarabande.


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: Included in the film but not on the soundtrack, are several Mandopop tracks and classical excerpts from "Israel in Egypt", "All Creatures of Our God and King", and "Quattro pezzi sacri."


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: The film grossed $24.2 million worldwide generating the third biggest percentage return on cost of films released in the year, behind "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "The Lion King". It was the highest-grossing foreign-language film in the United States and Canada for the year with a gross of $7.3 million.


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: In her review in "The New York Times", Janet Maslin praised Ang Lee as "a warmly engaging storyteller". She wrote, "Wonderfully seductive, and nicely knowing about all of its characters' appetites, "Eat Drink Man Woman" makes for an uncomplicatedly pleasant experience".


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: In his review in "The Washington Post", Hal Hinson called the film a "beautiful balance of elements ... mellow, harmonious and poignantly funny". Hinson concluded:


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: According to the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 46 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "A richly layered look at the complex interactions between a widowed chef and his daughters, Ang Lee's generational comedy "Eat Drink Man Woman" offers filmgoers a tasty cinematic treat."


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: "Tortilla Soup", a 2001 American comedy-drama film directed by Maria Ripoll, is based on "Eat Drink Man Woman". A semi-sequel, "Eat Drink Man Woman 2012" [饮食男女2012] (billed as "Joyful Reunion" in English) was released, with Jui-Yuan Tsao, producer for the original film, serving as director, and a new set of characters exploring similar themes.


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: The film was adapted off-screen as well. In 2019, produced by PerfectMatch Theatre co., LTD, the National Kaohsiung Centre for the Arts put on a musical production titled, "Eat Drink Man Woman: The Musical". The musical is a direct adaptation of the film. With a total runtime of 160 minutes, the production strived to showcase as many iconic aspects from Ang Lee's film, such as the character's unique qualities and the beauty of food, through song and dance as possible. Unfortunately, the musical only ran for a recorded three days in September 2019; the production had a total of one night showing and two matinees.


title: Eat Drink Man Woman

text: "Eat Drink Man Woman" is Ang Lee’s third feature film and forms the final part of his ‘Father Knows Best’ Trilogy, following "Pushing Hands" (1991) and "The Wedding Banquet" (1993). All three films depict a clash between cultures like youth and old age, tradition and progress, east and west, and investigate the freedoms and constraints inherent in family structures particularly those between fathers, daughters and sons. Si-hung Lung takes the place of a father in all three films - here as Mr. Zhu, a retired master chef - and He had used it as the motif (idealization of the household's head) to resolve all the contradictions and conflict that happened within the family members. The trilogy also takes the repression of individual desire in the face of social pressure as one of its central themes.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: The Roman historian and senator Tacitus referred to Jesus, his execution by Pontius Pilate, and the existence of early Christians in Rome in his final work, "Annals" (written "ca." AD 116), .


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: The context of the passage is the six-day Great Fire of Rome that burned much of the city in AD 64 during the reign of Roman Emperor Nero. The passage is one of the earliest non-Christian references to the origins of Christianity, the execution of Christ described in the canonical gospels, and the presence and persecution of Christians in 1st-century Rome.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: The scholarly consensus is that Tacitus' reference to the execution of Jesus by Pontius Pilate is both authentic, and of historical value as an independent Roman source. Paul Eddy and Gregory Boyd argue that it is "firmly established" that Tacitus provides a non-Christian confirmation of the crucifixion of Jesus. Scholars view it as establishing three separate facts about Rome around AD 60: (i) that there were a sizable number of Christians in Rome at the time, (ii) that it was possible to distinguish between Christians and Jews in Rome, and (iii) that at the time pagans made a connection between Christianity in Rome and its origin in Roman Judea.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: The "Annals" passage (), which has been subjected to much scholarly analysis, follows a description of the six-day Great Fire of Rome that burned much of Rome in July 64 AD. The key part of the passage (translation from Latin by A. J. Church and W. J. Brodribb, 1876):


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: The exact cause of the fire remains uncertain, but much of the population of Rome suspected that Emperor Nero had started the fire himself. To divert attention from himself, Nero accused the Christians of starting the fire and persecuted them, making this the first documented confrontation between Christians and the authorities in Rome. Tacitus never accused Nero of playing the lyre while Rome burned—that statement came from Cassius Dio, who died in the 3rd century. But Tacitus did suggest that Nero used the Christians as scapegoats.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: No original manuscripts of the "Annals" exist and the surviving copies of Tacitus' works derive from two principal manuscripts, known as the "Medicean manuscripts", written in Latin, which are held in the Laurentian Library in Florence, Italy. It is the "second Medicean manuscript", 11th century and from the Benedictine abbey at Monte Cassino, which is the oldest surviving copy of the passage describing Christians. Scholars generally agree that these copies were written at Monte Cassino and the end of the document refers to "Abbas Raynaldus cu..." who was most probably one of the two abbots of that name at the abbey during that period.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: In 1902 Georg Andresen commented on the appearance of the first 'i' and subsequent gap in the earliest extant, 11th century, copy of the "Annals" in Florence, suggesting that the text had been altered, and an 'e' had originally been in the text, rather than this 'i'. "With ultra-violet examination of the MS the alteration was conclusively shown. It is impossible today to say who altered the letter "e" into an "i". In Suetonius' "Nero 16.2", ", however, seems to be the original reading". Since the alteration became known it has given rise to debates among scholars as to whether Tacitus deliberately used the term "Chrestians", or if a scribe made an error during the Middle Ages. It has been stated that both the terms Christians and Chrestians had at times been used by the general population in Rome to refer to early Christians. Robert E. Van Voorst states that many sources indicate that the term Chrestians was also used among the early followers of Jesus by the second century. The term Christians appears only three times in the New Testament, the first usage () giving the origin of the term. In all three cases the uncorrected Codex Sinaiticus in Greek reads "Chrestianoi". In Phrygia a number of funerary stone inscriptions use the term Chrestians, with one stone inscription using both terms together, reading: ""Chrestians for Christians"".


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: Adolf von Harnack argued that Chrestians was the original wording, and that Tacitus deliberately used "Christus" immediately after it to show his own superior knowledge compared to the population at large. Robert Renehan has stated that it was natural for a Roman to mix the two words that sounded the same, that Chrestianos was the original word in the Annals and not an error by a scribe. Van Voorst has stated that it was unlikely for Tacitus himself to refer to Christians as Chrestianos i.e. "useful ones" given that he also referred to them as "hated for their shameful acts". Eddy and Boyd see no major impact on the authenticity of the passage or its meaning regardless of the use of either term by Tacitus.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: Pilate's rank while he was governor of Judaea appeared in a Latin inscription on the Pilate Stone which called him a prefect, while this Tacitean passage calls him a procurator. Josephus refers to Pilate with the generic Greek term (), or governor. Tacitus records that Claudius was the ruler who gave procurators governing power. After Herod Agrippa's death in AD 44, when Judea reverted to direct Roman rule, Claudius gave procurators control over Judea.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: Various theories have been put forward to explain why Tacitus should use the term "procurator" when the archaeological evidence indicates that Pilate was a prefect. Jerry Vardaman theorizes that Pilate's title was changed during his stay in Judea and that the Pilate Stone dates from the early years of his administration. Baruch Lifshitz postulates that the inscription would originally have mentioned the title of "procurator" along with "prefect". L.A. Yelnitsky argues that the use of "procurator" in Annals 15.44.3 is a Christian interpolation. S.G.F. Brandon suggests that there is no real difference between the two ranks. John Dominic Crossan states that Tacitus "retrojected" the title procurator which was in use at the time of Claudius back onto Pilate who was called prefect in his own time. Bruce Chilton and Craig Evans as well as Van Voorst state that Tacitus apparently used the title "procurator" because it was more common at the time of his writing and that this variation in the use of the title should not be taken as evidence to doubt the correctness of the information Tacitus provides. Warren Carter states that, as the term "prefect" has a military connotation, while "procurator" is civilian, the use of either term may be appropriate for governors who have a range of military, administrative and fiscal responsibilities.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: Louis Feldman says that Philo (who died AD 50) and Josephus also use the term "procurator" for Pilate. As both Philo and Josephus wrote in Greek, neither of them actually used the term "procurator", but the Greek word (), which is regularly translated as "procurator". Philo also uses this Greek term for the governors of Egypt (a prefect), of Asia (a proconsul) and Syria (a legate). Werner Eck, in his list of terms for governors of Judea found in the works of Josephus, shows that, while in the early work, "The Jewish War", Josephus uses "epitropos" less consistently, the first governor to be referred to by the term in "Antiquities of the Jews" was Cuspius Fadus, (who was in office AD 44–46). Feldman notes that Philo, Josephus and Tacitus may have anachronistically confused the timing of the titles—prefect later changing to procurator. Feldman also notes that the use of the titles may not have been rigid, for Josephus refers to Cuspius Fadus both as "prefect" and "procurator".


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: Although its authenticity has sometimes been questioned, most scholars hold the passage to be authentic. William L. Portier has stated that the consistency in the references by Tacitus, Josephus and the letters to Emperor Trajan by Pliny the Younger reaffirm the validity of all three accounts. Scholars generally consider Tacitus's reference to be of historical value as an independent Roman source about early Christianity that is in unison with other historical records.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: Tacitus was a patriotic Roman senator. His writings show no sympathy towards Christians, or knowledge of who their leader was. His characterization of "Christian abominations" may have been based on the rumors in Rome that during the Eucharist rituals Christians ate the body and drank the blood of their God, interpreting the ritual as cannibalism. Andreas Köstenberger states that the tone of the passage towards Christians is far too negative to have been authored by a Christian scribe. Van Voorst also states that the passage is unlikely to be a Christian forgery because of the pejorative language used to describe Christianity.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: Tacitus was about seven years old at the time of the Great Fire of Rome, and like other Romans as he grew up he would have most likely heard about the fire that destroyed most of the city, and Nero's accusations against Christians. When Tacitus wrote his account, he was the governor of the province of Asia, and as a member of the inner circle in Rome he would have known of the official position with respect to the fire and the Christians.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: In 1885 P. Hochart had proposed that the passage was a pious fraud, but the editor of the 1907 Oxford edition dismissed his suggestion and treated the passage as genuine. Scholars such as Bruce Chilton, Craig Evans, Paul Eddy and Gregory Boyd agree with John Meier's statement that "Despite some feeble attempts to show that this text is a Christian interpolation in Tacitus, the passage is obviously genuine.”


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: Suggestions that the whole of "Annals" may have been a forgery have also been generally rejected by scholars. John P. Meier states that there is no historical or archaeological evidence to support the argument that a scribe may have introduced the passage into the text.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: Van Voorst states that "of all Roman writers, Tacitus gives us the most precise information about Christ". Crossan considers the passage important in establishing that Jesus existed and was crucified, and states: "That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be, since both Josephus and Tacitus... agree with the Christian accounts on at least that basic fact." Eddy and Boyd state that it is now "firmly established" that Tacitus provides a non-Christian confirmation of the crucifixion of Jesus. Biblical scholar Bart D. Ehrman wrote: "Tacitus's report confirms what we know from other sources, that Jesus was executed by order of the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, sometime during Tiberius's reign."


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: James D. G. Dunn considers the passage as useful in establishing facts about early Christians, e.g. that there was a sizable number of Christians in Rome around AD 60. Dunn states that Tacitus seems to be under the impression that Christians were some form of Judaism, although distinguished from them. Raymond E. Brown and John P. Meier state that in addition to establishing that there was a large body of Christians in Rome, the Tacitus passage provides two other important pieces of historical information, namely that by around AD 60 it was possible to distinguish between Christians and Jews in Rome and that even pagans made a connection between Christianity in Rome and its origin in Judea.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: Although the majority of scholars consider it to be genuine, some scholars question the value of the passage given that Tacitus was born 25 years after Jesus' death.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: Some scholars have debated the historical value of the passage given that Tacitus does not reveal the source of his information. Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz argue that Tacitus at times had drawn on earlier historical works now lost to us, and he may have used official sources from a Roman archive in this case; however, if Tacitus had been copying from an official source, some scholars would expect him to have labelled Pilate correctly as a "prefect" rather than a "procurator". Theissen and Merz state that Tacitus gives us a description of widespread prejudices about Christianity and a few precise details about "Christus" and Christianity, the source of which remains unclear. However, Paul Eddy has stated that given his position as a senator, Tacitus was also likely to have had access to official Roman documents of the time and did not need other sources.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: Michael Martin states that the authenticity of this passage of the "Annals" has also been disputed on the grounds that Tacitus would not have used the name "Christos", derived from "messiah", while others have questioned if the passage represents "some modernizing or updating of the facts" to reflect the Christian world at the time the text was written.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: Weaver notes that Tacitus spoke of the persecution of Christians, but no other Christian author wrote of this persecution for a hundred years. Brent Shaw has argued that Tacitus was relying on Christian and Jewish legendary sources that portrayed Nero as the Antichrist for the information that Nero persecuted Christians and that in fact, no persecution under Nero took place.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: Shaw's views have received strong criticism and have generally not been accepted by the scholarly consensus: writing on "New Testament Studies", Christopher P. Jones (Harvard University) answered to Shaw and refuted his arguments, noting that the Tacitus's anti-Christian stance makes it unlikely that he was using Christian sources; he also noted that the Epistle to the Romans of Paul the Apostle clearly points to the fact that there was indeed a clear and distinct Christian community in Rome in the 50s and that the persecution is also mentioned by Suetonius in "The Twelve Caesars". Larry Hurtado was also critical of Shaw's argument, dismissing it as "vague and hazy".


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: Writing on "Eirene: Studia Graeca et Latina", Brigit van der Lans and Jan N. Bremmer also dismissed Shaw's argument, noting that the Neronian persecution is recorded in many 1st-century Christian writings, such as the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Book of Revelation, the apocryphal Ascension of Isaiah, the First Epistle of Peter, the Gospel of John and the First Epistle of Clement; they also argued that "Chrestianus, Christianus", and "Χριστιανός" were probably terms invented by the Romans in the 50s and then adopted by Christians themselves.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: In an article for "Vigiliae Christianae", John Granger Cook also rebuked Shaw's thesis, arguing that "Chrestianus, Christianus", and "Χριστιανός" are not creations of the second century and that Roman officials were probably aware of the "Chrestiani" in the 60s.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: In his book "Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine", Barry S. Strauss rejects Shaw's argument.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: Scholars have also debated the issue of hearsay in the reference by Tacitus. Charles Guignebert argued that "So long as there is that possibility [that Tacitus is merely echoing what Christians themselves were saying], the passage remains quite worthless". R. T. France states that the Tacitus passage is at best just Tacitus repeating what he had heard through Christians. However, Paul Eddy has stated that as Rome's preeminent historian, Tacitus was generally known for checking his sources and was not in the habit of reporting gossip. Tacitus was a member of the "Quindecimviri sacris faciundis", a council of priests whose duty it was to supervise foreign religious cults in Rome, which as Van Voorst points out, makes it reasonable to suppose that he would have acquired knowledge of Christian origins through his work with that body.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: The earliest known references to Christianity are found in "Antiquities of the Jews", a 20-volume work written by the Jewish historian Titus Flavius Josephus around 93–94 AD, during the reign of emperor Domitian. This work includes two references to Jesus and Christians (in and ), and also a reference to John the Baptist (in ).


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: The next known reference to Christianity was written by Pliny the Younger, who was the Roman governor of Bithynia and Pontus during the reign of emperor Trajan. Around 111 AD, Pliny wrote a letter to emperor Trajan, requesting guidance on how to deal with suspected Christians who appeared before him in trials he was holding at that time. Tacitus' references to Nero's persecution of Christians in the Annals were written around 115 AD, a few years after Pliny's letter but also during the reign of emperor Trajan.


title: Tacitus on Jesus

text: Another notable early author was Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, who wrote the "Lives of the Twelve Caesars" around 122 AD, during the reign of emperor Hadrian. In this work, Suetonius described why Jewish Christians were by emperor Claudius, and also the by Nero, who was the heir and successor of Claudius.


title: V bomber

text: The "V bombers" were the Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft during the 1950s and 1960s that comprised the United Kingdom's strategic nuclear strike force known officially as the V force or Bomber Command Main Force. The three models of strategic bomber, known collectively as the "V class", were the Vickers Valiant, which first flew in 1951 and entered service in 1955; the Avro Vulcan, which first flew in 1952 and entered service in 1956; and the Handley Page Victor, which first flew in 1952 and entered service in 1957. The V Bomber force reached its peak in June 1964 with 50 Valiants, 70 Vulcans and 39 Victors in service.


title: V bomber

text: When it became clear that the Soviet Union's surface-to-air missiles like the S-75 Dvina could bring down high-flying aircraft, the V bomber force changed to low-level attack methods. Additionally the Blue Steel missile profile was changed to one of low level penetration and release. This reduced its range significantly. It was then planned to move to the much longer-ranged Skybolt air-launched ballistic missile. When the US cancelled Skybolt, the survivability of the V force was highly questionable. This led to the Royal Navy taking over the nuclear deterrent role from 1968, using UGM-27 Polaris submarine launched ballistic missiles launched from nuclear submarines. The tactical role passed to smaller aircraft like the SEPECAT Jaguar and Panavia Tornado.


title: V bomber

text: The V bombers were also capable of dropping conventional weapons, supported by a complex analogue computer system known as the Navigation and Bombing System that allowed accurate bombing even over very long ranges. The Valiants were used during the Suez Crisis as conventional bombers. Victors and Vulcans were deployed to the Malay Archipelago as a deterrent during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation but were not used in missions. The Vulcan is well-remembered for its conventional Black Buck bombing raids during the 1982 Falklands War. To support such missions, tanker aircraft versions of all three designs were developed. Reconnaissance versions were produced, and other modifications were also made during their lifetime.


title: V bomber

text: The Valiants were removed from service in 1964 after problems with metal fatigue of their wings became apparent; a planned low-level variant did not progress beyond the prototype. Usage of all V bombers as weapons platforms, nuclear or conventional, ended in 1982.


title: V bomber

text: The Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber Command ended the Second World War with a policy of using heavy four-piston-engined bombers for massed raids, and remained committed to this policy in the immediate post-war period. The RAF adopted the Avro Lincoln, an updated version of the wartime Avro Lancaster, as its standard bomber for this purpose. Production of the Lincoln continued after the war, and eventually 450 were built. Although touted as a mighty bomber in 1945, it lacked the range to reach targets in the Soviet Union, and would be vulnerable to the new jet fighters that were then under development.


title: V bomber

text: Elements within the RAF and the government sought to adopt the new nuclear weaponry and advances in aviation technology to introduce more potent and effective means of conducting warfare. In November 1944, the UK Chiefs of Staff had requested a report from Sir Henry Tizard on potential future means of warfare. Reporting without knowledge of the progress of Allied efforts to produce an atomic bomb, in July 1945 the Tizard Committee urged the encouragement of large-scale atomic energy research. It foresaw the devastating effects of atomic weapons and envisaged high-flying jet bombers cruising at at . It was thought that potential aggressors might be deterred by the knowledge that Britain would retaliate with atomic weapons if attacked.


title: V bomber

text: Even at the time, there were those who could see that guided missiles would eventually make such aircraft vulnerable, but development of such missiles was proving difficult, and fast and high-flying jet bombers were likely to serve for years before there was a need for something better. Massed bombers were unnecessary if a single bomber could destroy an entire city or military installation with a nuclear weapon. It would have to be a large bomber, since the first generation of nuclear weapons were big and heavy. Such a large and advanced bomber would be expensive on a per-unit basis, as it would be produced in small quantities.


title: V bomber

text: During the early part of the Second World War, Britain had a nuclear weapons project, codenamed Tube Alloys, which the 1943 Quebec Agreement merged with the American Manhattan Project. The British government trusted that the United States would continue to share nuclear technology, which it regarded as a joint discovery, after the war, but the United States Atomic Energy Act of 1946 (McMahon Act) ended technical co-operation. The British government saw this as a resurgence of United States isolationism, as had occurred after the First World War, and dreaded the possibility that Britain might have to fight an aggressor alone. It also feared that Britain might lose its great power status and its influence in world affairs. It therefore restarted its own nuclear weapons development effort, which was now codenamed High Explosive Research. The first British atomic bomb was tested in Operation Hurricane on 3 October 1952.


title: V bomber

text: In November 1946, the Air Ministry issued an operational requirement (OR230) for an advanced jet bomber capable of carrying a bomb to a target from a base anywhere in the world with a cruising speed of and at an altitude of between . The bomb weight arose from an earlier operational requirement for an atomic bomb (OR1001), which specified a maximum weight of . The speed and altitude requirements were based on what was thought necessary to penetrate enemy air defences. The aircraft itself was to weigh no more than . The Ministry of Supply baulked, and initially refused to accept OR230. Calculations showed that such an aircraft would require a runway long. Bomber Command's runways were built to handle the Lancaster, and extending them would be an expensive undertaking, involving not only additional construction, but land acquisition and demolition works. OR230 would never be fulfilled, and was ultimately cancelled on 17 September 1952.


title: V bomber

text: The Operational Requirements Committee met to discuss OR230 on 17 December 1946. This committee was chaired by the Vice-Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sir William Dickson, with Stuart Scott-Hall, the Principal Director of Technical Development (Air) representing the Ministry of Supply. The result was a new Operational Requirement (OR229) on 7 January 1947. This was much the same as OR230, but the range was cut to , and the weight reduced to . OR229 formed the basis of an Air Ministry specification, B.35/46. A request for designs went to most of the United Kingdom's major aircraft manufacturers: Handley Page, Armstrong Whitworth, Avro, Bristol, Short Brothers and English Electric.


title: V bomber

text: On 30 April 1947, Armstrong Whitworth, Avro, English Electric and Handley Page were invited to submit formal design tenders. A tender design conference was held on 28 July 1947, and decided to order the design submitted by Avro, along with a small flying model to test its delta wing design. The conference also decided to investigate the crescent wing concept as insurance against the favoured delta wing design being a failure. The Handley Page and Armstrong Whitworth designs were both considered. The Ministry of Supply gave financial cover in the form of an Intention to Proceed (ITP) order to Avro in November 1947. An advisory committee selected the Handley Page design on 23 December 1947, and it too was given an ITP.


title: V bomber

text: The 17 December 1946 meeting that came up with OR230 also decided to solicit bids for a more conservative design that could be put into service more quickly, and could act as further insurance against the failure of both of the more advanced designs. This was expressed in another operational requirement (OR239), from which an Air Ministry specification, B.14/46, was generated, which was issued on 11 August 1947. This had lower cruising altitude and speed requirements than B.35/46, but was otherwise identical. A design was put forward by Shorts, which was given an ITP in November 1947. The result was an extremely conservative design with straight wings, the Short Sperrin, which was in practice little more than a jet-powered Lincoln.


title: V bomber

text: Meanwhile, Vickers-Armstrong had produced a swept wing design, the Vickers 660. This had been rejected because it did not meet the B.35/46 specification; but the estimated performance of the Sperrin caused officials at the Air Ministry to take another look. A new specification, B.9/48, was drawn up, based on the Vickers-Armstrong design, which was issued on 19 July 1948. An ITP was given to Vickers-Armstrong in April 1948, followed by a contract for two prototypes in February 1949, whereas Shorts was only awarded a contract for two prototypes in February 1949. The first prototype Vickers 660 flew on 18 May 1951, three months before the first prototype Sperrin, which first flew on 10 August 1951. No longer required, the Sperrin was cancelled; only the two prototypes were built.


title: V bomber

text: Vickers-Armstrong named its aircraft the Vickers Valiant. Hitherto, bombers had been named after British or Commonwealth cities, but in October 1952 the Air Ministry decided to adopt alliterate names, with the other designs becoming the Avro Vulcan and the Handley-Page Victor. Henceforth, the three would be known as the V bombers. While more expensive than the approach of building one bomber design per category, the RAF insisted on having choice. Air Chief Marshal Sir John Slessor believed that had the air force been forced to choose among the three British bombers under development in the late 1930s—the Avro Manchester, Short Stirling, and Handley Page Halifax—it would have chosen the wrong one.


title: V bomber

text: As a stop gap, the British announced on 27 January 1950 that it had agreed to acquire Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers from the United States free under the recently passed American Mutual Defense Assistance Act. This allowed the Air Ministry to drop the development of the Sperrin. The B-29 served in the RAF under the name of the Washington B1. The RAF received its first Washington on 22 March 1950, and the eighty-seventh was delivered in June 1952. Like the Lincoln, it was a piston-engine aircraft, and while it did have the range to reach the Soviet Union from British bases, it was not nuclear-capable. The RAF planned to use them against Soviet bomber bases. The Washingtons suffered from maintenance problems due to a lack of spare parts, and most were returned to the US between July 1953 and July 1954; four remained in service until 1958. Their role was assumed by the new jet-propelled English Electric Canberra bomber.


title: V bomber

text: When the first Blue Danube atomic bombs were delivered to the Bomber Command Armaments School at RAF Wittering on 7 and 11 November 1953, the RAF had no bombers capable of carrying them. Sir William Penney noted that "the RAF has handled aircraft for a long time and can fly Valiants as soon as they come off the production line. But the Royal Air Force has not yet handled atomic weapons, therefore, we must get some bombs to the RAF at the earliest possible moment, so that the handling and servicing can be practised and fully worked out." The Canberra and Valiant were accorded "super priority" status on 13 March 1952, and in December the Vulcan and Victor also received it.


title: V bomber

text: The Valiant went into production as the first V bomber in 1955. The Valiant entered service in February 1955, the Vulcan in May 1956 and the Victor in November 1957. No. 232 Operational Conversion Unit was formed at RAF Gaydon in June 1955 and aircrew training commenced. The first Valiant squadron, No. 138 Squadron, formed at RAF Gaydon in January 1955, followed by No. 543 Squadron, which was formed at RAF Gaydon on 1 June 1955 before moving to RAF Wyton. Two more Valiant bases were established at RAF Marham and RAF Honington in 1956, and six more squadrons were formed in quick succession: No. 214 Squadron at RAF Marham in March, No. 207 Squadron at RAF Marham and No. 49 Squadron at RAF Wittering in May, No. 148 Squadron at RAF Marham in July, No. 7 Squadron at RAF Honington in November and finally No. 90 Squadron at RAF Honington in January 1957.


title: V bomber

text: Vulcan XA895 was allocated to No. 230 Operational Conversion Unit at RAF Waddington in January 1957, and Vulcan aircrew training commenced. The first Vulcan squadron, No. 83 Squadron, was formed at RAF Waddington in May 1957. It initially used aircraft borrowed from No. 230 Operational Conversion Unit until it received its first Vulcan, XA905, on 11 July 1957. It was followed by No. 101 Squadron, which was formed at RAF Finningley on 15 October 1957. A third Vulcan squadron, No. 617 Squadron, was formed on 1 May 1958 at RAF Scampton, the same base from which it carried out the Dambuster Raids in May 1943. No. 232 Operational Conversion Unit took delivery of its first Victor on 29 November 1957. The first operational Victor squadron was No. 10 Squadron RAF, which received its first Victor on 9 April 1958 and was formed on 15 April. This was followed by No. 15 Squadron, which was formed on 1 September 1958, and No. 57 Squadron, which was formed on 1 January 1959.


title: V bomber

text: The UK nuclear strike force became known officially as the V force or Main Force. V force assets at the end of 1958 were:


title: V bomber

text: The development of effective jet fighters and anti-aircraft missile defences promised to make the nuclear deterrent delivered from bombers flying at high altitudes increasingly ineffective. While making the V bombers fast enough to avoid them was problematic, improved engines offered the possibility of allowing them to fly higher. Since the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 fighters coming into service in the Soviet Union had a ceiling of , a V bomber could avoid them by flying at over . Two dozen of a new model of the Vulcan, the B.2, with Bristol Olympus 201 engines, a slightly larger wingspan and new electrical and electronic systems were ordered on 25 February 1956. The last 17 aircraft outstanding from the September 1954 order and 8 from the March 1955 order were switched to the B.2, making a total of 49 on order. Another 40 were ordered on 22 January 1958. A pre-production model, XH533, first flew on 19 August 1958, and in a trial on 4 Match 1959 it reached . The wings and new engines also increased the range by . The second production B.2, XH558, was delivered to No. 230 Operational Conversion Unit on 1 July 1960. As Vulcan B.2s were received, the B.1s were withdrawn from service and upgraded to B.1A standard through the installation of more electronics. Most of this work was carried out by Armstrong Whitworth.


title: V bomber

text: Modifications were made to the Victor B.1 in 1959. These included the addition of an in-flight refuelling probe, new electronic countermeasures (ECM) equipment, tail-warning radar, drooped leading edges and a strengthened pressure cabin. This modified version was known as the Victor B.1A. An improved version of the Victor was also programmed with the Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire 9 engine, an improved version of the Sapphire 7 in the Victor B.1. However, development of the Sapphire 9 was cancelled by the Ministry of Supply in February 1956, and a minor improvement to the Sapphire 7 in March 1956 increased its thrust to , so it was decided to ship 25 of the next production batch of 33 Victors ordered in May 1955 with the Sapphire 7. The remaining eight, along with 18 more Victors ordered in January 1956, were built as Victor B.2s, with the Rolls-Royce Conway RCo.11 engines providing . The new Conway engines required redesigned enlarged intakes to provide the greater airflow required, and the wingspan was extended from . As in the Vulcan, the DC electrical system was replaced with an AC one. The prototype Victor B.2, XH668, first flew on 20 February 1959, but was lost over the Irish Sea on 20 August. The first production B.2, XL188, was delivered on 2 November 1961, and No. 139 Squadron became the first Victor B.2 squadron on 1 February 1962.


title: V bomber

text: The V Bomber force reached its peak in June 1964, when 50 Valiants, 70 Vulcans and 39 Victors were in service. In retrospect, the decision to proceed with three V bombers was questionable. As it turned out, all the roles could have been performed by the Valiant, and its B.2 model was specifically designed for the low-level operations that the V bombers would employ in their later years. Moreover, the rationale for producing both the Vulcan and the Victor disappeared early on. That for producing the Victor B.2 instead of concentrating on the Vulcan B.2 was especially dubious, and Air Chief Marshal Sir Harry Broadhurst attributed it to lobbying by Sir Frederick Handley Page, a desire to retain jobs in the aviation industry, and because the government wanted the Rolls-Royce Conway engine produced for the Vickers VC10 airliner.


title: V bomber

text: The British government was well aware of the devastation that a nuclear war would bring. A 1953 report estimated that an attack on the UK with 132 fission weapons would generate 2 million casualties. A follow-on study, which considered the possible effect of hydrogen bombs, estimated that as few as ten could reduce the entire UK to a radioactive ruin. Given that defence was impractical, the UK turned to a policy of deterrence, by targeting the population and administrative centres of the Soviet Union. In 1957, the Air Ministry drew up a list of 131 Soviet cities with populations of 100,000 or more. Of these, 98 were within of the UK. Of these, 44 were selected. It was estimated that their destruction would kill about thirty percent of the urban population of the Soviet Union, about 38 million people.


title: V bomber

text: It was almost inconceivable that a war with the Soviet Union would not involve the United States, and as early as 1946, American defence planning envisaged using the UK as a base for nuclear strikes on the Soviet Union, as the United States Air Force (USAF) had not yet developed long-range bombers that could attack key targets in the Soviet Union from bases in the United States. But the United States strategy was that attacks on population centres would have little value once a war had actually begun, and prioritised military targets, particularly those from which nuclear weapons could be launched or deployed.


title: V bomber

text: Coordination of war plans between RAF Bomber Command and the USAF Strategic Air Command (SAC) was clearly desirable, and a joint war plan was negotiated between 1954 and 1958. The RAF's nuclear force was capable of destroying key targets before bomber aircraft from the United States had entered Soviet airspace, "taking into account Bomber Command’s ability to be on target in the first wave several hours in advance of the main SAC force operating from bases in the United States." Based on the assumption that RAF Bomber Command would have about 100 V bombers in operations by 1959, the SAC/RAF agreement assigned 106 targets to the UK: 69 cities, 17 long-range aviation bases, and 20 air-defence sites. Attacks on the air-defence installations would clear the way for waves of SAC bombers to follow. The plan was updated annually; as Soviet capabilities improved, more emphasis was placed on attacking airfields and missile bases.


title: V bomber

text: Special Valiant unit No. 1321 Flight was formed at RAF Wittering on 3 August 1954 which conducted ballistic test trials with Blue Danube practice bombs. It became C Flight of No. 138 Squadron in March 1956, and No. 49 Squadron on 1 May 1956.


title: V bomber

text: Valiants WZ366 and WZ367 were then flown to Maralinga, South Australia for Operation Buffalo. Valiant B.1 WZ366 of No. 49 Squadron became the first RAF aircraft to drop an operational atomic bomb when it performed a test drop of a down-rated 3-kt Blue Danube at Maralinga on 11 October 1956. The bomb landed about left and short of the target. The pilot was Squadron Leader Edwin Flavell, and the bomb aimer was Flight Lieutenant Eric Stacey, and both were awarded the Air Force Cross in the 1957 New Year Honours.


title: V bomber

text: On 15 May 1957, Valiant B.1 XD818 flown by Wing Commander Kenneth Hubbard dropped the first British hydrogen bomb over the Pacific, the "Short Granite", as part of Operation Grapple. No. 49 Squadron was selected to perform the live weapon drop and was equipped with specially modified Valiants to conform with the scientific requirements of the tests and other precautionary measures to protect against heat and radiation. The test was largely a failure, as the measured yield was less than a third of the maximum expected and the device failed to achieve a thermonuclear explosion as intended. The first British hydrogen bomb that detonated as planned was Grapple X Round A, dropped on 8 November 1957. The Grapple series of tests continued into 1958, and the Grapple Y bomb exploded in April 1958 with ten times the yield of the original "Short Granite". Testing was finally terminated in November 1958 when the British government decided to cease atmospheric testing.


title: V bomber

text: As V bomber production picked up, the number of bombers exceeded the number of available British nuclear weapons. Britain had only ten nuclear bombs in 1955, and just 14 in 1956. To make up the difference, American nuclear weapons were obtained through Project E. Since they were in American custody, they were not available for the RAF to use as part of the UK's independent national nuclear deterrent; only British-owned weapons could be used for that purpose. The Vulcan and Victor were armed with British-built bombs Blue Danube, Red Beard, Violet Club, and Yellow Sun of both the Mk 1 and Mk 2 versions. Project E modifications to Valiants commenced at RAE Farnborough in February 1956. Crew training was carried out with American instructors at RAF Boscombe Down.


title: V bomber

text: The planned V bomber force was reduced to 144 aircraft, and it was planned to equip half of them with Project E weapons. The first 28 Valiants were modified by October 1957; the remaining 20 Valiants, along with 24 Vulcans, were ready by January 1959. Under the Project E Memorandum of Understanding, US personnel had custody of the weapons. That meant they performed all the tasks related to their storage, maintenance and readiness. While the bombs were at the same bases as the bombers, they were stored in Secure Storage Areas (SSAs) that British staff were not permitted to enter. It was therefore impossible to store British and American bombs together in the same SSA. Bomber Command designated RAF Marham, RAF Waddington and RAF Honington as bases with US SSAs. Another three sites had British SSAs. US custody created operational problems. The procedure for handing over the bombs added an extra ten minutes to the bombers' reaction time, and the requirement that US personnel had guardianship of the weapons at all times meant that neither they nor the bombers could be relocated to dispersal airfields as the RAF desired.


title: V bomber

text: Initially, 72 Mark 5 nuclear bombs were supplied for the V bombers. They had a yield of up to . The successful British development of the hydrogen bomb, and a favourable international relations climate caused by the Sputnik crisis, led to the United States Atomic Energy Act being amended again in 1958, resulting in the long-sought resumption of the nuclear Special Relationship between Britain and the United States in the form of the 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement. The United States now agreed to supply the V bombers with megaton weapons in place of the Mark 5, in the form of Mark 15 and Mark 39 nuclear bombs. The Treasury immediately inquired as to whether this meant that the British megaton bomb programme could be terminated. The answer was no; the operational restrictions imposed by Project E "effectively handed the US government a veto over the use of half of Britain's nuclear deterrent". With sufficient British bombs on hand, operational issues, and the concept of an independent nuclear deterrent came to the fore.


title: V bomber

text: The Air Council decided on 7 July 1960 that Project E weapons would be phased out by December 1962, by which time it was anticipated that there would be sufficient British megaton weapons to equip the entire strategic bomber force. Project E weapons were replaced by British Yellow Sun bombs at RAF Honington on 1 July 1961 and Waddington on 30 March 1962. Problems encountered in the development of the Red Beard bomb meant that the replacement of kiloton weapons took longer. The UK-based Valiants at Honington and Wittering were withdrawn in April and October 1962, and the last Valiants were retired from the V bomber force in July 1965. The final practice loading at RAF Marham—with the Mark 43s—was in January 1965, and the last US personnel left the base in July.


title: V bomber

text: The prospect of bombers being able to avoid the Soviet air defences dimmed with the appearance of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21, which Nigel Birch, the Secretary of State for Air and senior RAF officers saw at Tushino Airfield on 24 June 1956. There was no immediate concern as Soviet designs often took several years to deploy; but its ceiling of posed a clear threat to the V bombers. So too did the new SA-2 surface-to-air missiles, which appeared in 1957. One of them shot down an American Lockheed U-2 piloted by Francis Gary Powers over the Soviet Union on 1 May 1960. In 1957, the supersonic Avro 730 bomber was cancelled. This freed up funds for the Blue Streak missile programme, but it too was cancelled, on 24 February 1960. To extend the effectiveness and operational life of the V bombers, an Operational Requirement (OR1132), was issued on 3 September 1954 for an air-launched, rocket-propelled standoff missile with a range of that could be launched from a V bomber. This became Blue Steel. The Ministry of Supply placed a development contract with Avro in March 1956, and it entered service in December 1962.


title: V bomber

text: By this time, it was anticipated that even with Blue Steel, the air defences of the Soviet Union would soon improve to the extent that V bombers might find it difficult to attack their targets, and there were calls for the development of the Blue Steel Mark II with a range of at least . Despite the name, this was a whole new missile, and not a development of the Mark I. The Minister of Aviation, Duncan Sandys, insisted that priority be accorded to getting the Mark I into service, and the Mark II was cancelled at the end of 1959. Considerable modification was required to enable the Victors to carry Blue Steel. These included structural changes to the bomb bay. New Conway RCo.17 engines were installed, along with a combuster ignition system to allow all four engines to be started simultaneously and reduce scramble time to minutes per aircraft. A total of 23 Victor B.2 aircraft were upgraded to the new standard, known as B.2R (for retrofit), and two more were built as such.


title: V bomber

text: The British government then turned to Skybolt, an American missile that combined the range of Blue Streak with the mobile basing of the Blue Steel, and was small enough that two could be carried on the Vulcan bomber. Armed with a British Red Snow warhead, this would improve the capability of the UK's V bomber force, and extend its useful life into the late 1960s and early 1970s. Cabinet Defence Committee approved the acquisition of Skybolt in February 1960. The Vulcan B.2s were modified to carry a pair of Skybolt missiles. They were fitted with Bristol Olympus 301 engines, strengthened wings and two special attachment points. A British warhead was designed to fit in Skybolt's nose cone, and dummy test firings were carried out at RAF West Freugh commencing on 9 December 1961. It did not prove possible to modify the Victors. The project came to an abrupt halt when the US government cancelled Skybolt on 31 December 1962, but the vestigial attachment points were used for AN/ALQ-101 electronic countermeasure pods during the Falklands War. To replace Skybolt, the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, negotiated the Nassau Agreement with the President of the United States John F. Kennedy on 3 January 1963, under which the US agreed to supply the UK with Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missiles instead. This spelt the beginning of the end of the V bombers' nuclear deterrent, but six more years passed before the submarines were built and the Royal Navy was able to take over responsibility.


title: V bomber

text: Although originally part of the V force, three squadrons of Valiants were assigned to SACEUR as part of the TBF (Tactical Bomber Force), while remaining part of Bomber Command for training and administration. As the new Victors and Vulcans became available, Valiants became surplus to the planned V force of 144 aircraft. It was proposed that 24 Valiants could replace 64 Canberra bombers. This represented a numerical reduction in the force available to SACEUR, but an improvement in capability due to the Valiants' all-weather strike capacity. The decision was taken by the Air Council on 15 May 1958. The first squadron to be assigned was No. 207 Squadron, on 1 January 1960. It was followed by No. 49 Squadron on 1 July, and No. 148 on 13 July. No. 49 Squadron moved to RAF Marham so that all three squadrons were concentrated there. They were each equipped with two Mark 28 nuclear bombs provided by Project E. The three TBF squadrons eventually became the only Valiant bomber squadrons as all the others were disbanded or converted to tanker or strategic reconnaissance roles. They adopted SACEUR's Quick Reaction Alert, under which arrangements were made so that three armed aircraft were always ready to scramble within 15 minutes. They were also the first V bombers to adopt a low-level strike role, with their white paintwork replaced by green camouflage. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, each V force squadron kept one fully armed aircraft and crew at 15 minutes' readiness.


title: V bomber

text: By 1963, the RAF was convinced that, to have any chance of survival, the V bombers would have to attack at low level. At altitudes below , radar was less effective due to ground-generated clutter. The three Vulcan B.1A squadrons at RAF Waddington and the four Victor B.1A squadrons at RAF Honington and RAF Cottesmore were ordered to switch to low-level operations in March 1963. The Vulcan B.2 and Victor B.2 squadrons followed on 1 May 1964. A sign of the new doctrine was the replacement of their white paintwork with green camouflage on their upper surfaces, starting with Vulcan XH505 on 24 March 1964. They were also outfitted with new ECMs, ground positioning equipment and terrain-following radar. Tests performed in the UK and at Woomera demonstrated that Blue Steel could be launched from low level. The Yellow Sun Mark 2 free-fall bomb was a different story, and V bombers equipped with it would have had to climb to medium altitude to release it. A new bomb, the WE.177 was developed. Deliveries of the WE.177B commenced in September 1966. Through Project E and the introduction of the smaller, lighter Red Beard bomb, which entered service in 1960, by the mid-1960s Canberras and the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm were able to deliver nuclear weapons, but their power was insignificant compared with that of the 109 Victor and Vulcan bombers.


title: V bomber

text: The V bombers were formally relieved of their role as the deliverer of the UK strategic nuclear deterrent, which officially passed to the Polaris ballistic missile submarines of the Royal Navy on 1 July 1969. The last Blue Steel mission was flown on 21 December 1970. Five Vulcan squadrons continued to serve with the WE.177B weapon in a tactical role in Europe with SACEUR. Nos 9 and 35 Squadrons moved to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, where they replaced Canberra bombers in support of CENTO and operations on NATO's southern flank. They were withdrawn in 1975 in the wake of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Six squadrons of Vulcans were still assigned this role with the WE.177 weapon in 1981. The last four remaining squadrons were about to disband in 1982 when called upon to assist in the Falklands War.


title: V bomber

text: The first V bomber to see combat use with conventional bombs was the Valiant in Operation Musketeer, the Anglo-French military response in the Suez Crisis in 1956. It was the first and only time the Valiants dropped bombs in combat operations. RAF units began deploying to Malta in September 1956, and when Israel attacked Egypt on 29 October 1956, four Valiant squadrons—Nos 138, 148, 207 and 214 Squadrons—were based at RAF Luqa. No. 138 Squadron was the only one with a full complement of eight Valiants; Nos 148 and 207 each had six, and No. 214 had only four. The initial objective was to neutralise the Egyptian Air Force, which was believed to have about 100 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 jet fighters and 30 Ilyushin Il-28 twin-engine jet bombers. The Egyptian early-warning radar system was known to be non-operational due to lack of maintenance and spare parts, so the bombers were ordered to operate at night when the visually-controlled defences would be least effective. This meant a reversion to the tactics used by Bomber Command in the Second World War. The Valiants were neither trained nor equipped for such a mission. Not all of the Valiants were equipped with the Navigation and Bombing System (NBS) and it was not serviceable in all of those that were. This forced a reversion to the older, visual bomb sight. The Valiants and Canberras were equipped with the Gee-H radio navigation system, but it could not be used as there were no beacons in the Middle East. However, the Valiants were also equipped with Green Satin radar, which could still be used.


title: V bomber

text: The first mission was flown on 31 October, in co-operation with Canberra bombers from Malta and Cyprus. The target was five Egyptian airbases in the Cairo area, including Cairo West Air Base. At the last minute, it was discovered that fifteen US transport aircraft were at Cairo West evacuating civilians, and the target had to be altered while the bombers were already in the air. The Valiants dropped target markers, and then Canberras dropped flares to illuminate the target area. This allowed other Canberras to drop bombs on the runways. This pattern was repeated in attacks on four airfields in the Nile Delta and eight in the Suez Canal area over the next two nights. The Valiant's final mission was flown on 3 November against El Agami Island, which was believed to be a submarine repair depot. By the time operations ended, of bombs had been dropped, half of which had fallen within of their targets. The results were unimpressive. Three of the seven main Egyptian airbases remained fully operational, one had its runway shortened, and one had three craters that needed filling. The only airbase that was completely out of commission was Cairo West, and then only because of Egyptian demolitions.


title: V bomber

text: On 29 October 1957, three Valiants from No. 214 Squadron flew to RAF Changi in Singapore for a fortnight to gain experience operating in the Far East. This was known as Exercise Profiteer. Subsequently, small detachments of Valiants and Vulcans deployed to the Far East for a fortnight every three months until June 1960. Although the Malayan Emergency was ongoing at this time, none of the Exercise Profiteer aircraft participated in combat operations. When the Valiants were assigned to SACEUR for operations in Europe, the conventional mission in the Middle East was assigned to the Vulcans at RAF Waddington, while that in the Far East was given to the Victors based at RAF Cottesmore and RAF Honington. When the Indonesian Confrontation heated up in December 1963, eight Victors from Nos 10 and 15 Squadrons were sent to the Far East, where they were based at RAF Tengah and RAAF Butterworth. The crews normally served 3-month tours. No. 10 Squadron was disbanded in March 1964, and No. 15 Squadron in October. No. 12(B) Squadron replaced them at RAAF Butterworth from October. The Vulcans were recalled to UK in December 1964 whilst the responsibility for the Far East fell on temporary detachments of Vulcans of Nos 9, 12 and 35 Squadrons with up to 16 aircraft for short periods. Tensions decreased after March 1965, and the size of the detachment was cut to four aircraft. As the Waddington Wing converted to the Mk2 Vulcan the responsibility was transferred to Nos 44, 50 and 101 Squadrons. Annual deployments in support of SEATO continued for some years.


title: V bomber

text: During the 1982 Falklands War, Vulcan bombers from Nos 44, 50 and 101 Squadrons, supported by Victor tankers from Nos 55 and 57 Squadrons, carried out a series of seven extremely long-range ground attack missions against Argentine positions in the Falkland Islands. The operation was codenamed Black Buck. The objectives of the missions were to attack Port Stanley Airport and its associated defences. While the Vulcans were capable of carrying conventional munitions, this had not been done for a long time. To carry twenty-one bombs, the Vulcan required three sets of bomb carriers, each of which held seven bombs. Their release was controlled by a panel at the navigator's station known as a 90-way that monitored the electrical connections to each bomb, and was said to provide 90 different sequences for releasing the bombs. None of the Vulcans at RAF Waddington were fitted with the bomb racks or the 90-way. A search of the supply dumps at Waddington and RAF Scampton located the 90-way panels, which were fitted and tested, but finding enough septuple bomb carriers proved harder, and at least nine were required. Someone remembered that some had been sold to a scrapyard in Newark-on-Trent, and they were retrieved from there. Locating sufficient bombs also proved difficult, and only 167 could be found, and some had cast bomb cases instead of the preferable machined ones. Training of crews in conventional bombing and in-flight refuelling was carried out from 14 to 17 April 1982.


title: V bomber

text: The raids, at almost and 15 hours for the return journey, were the longest-ranged bombing raids in history at the time. The Black Buck raids were staged from RAF Ascension Island, close to the equator. The Vulcans lacked the range to fly to the Falklands without refuelling several times, as did the converted Victor tankers, so they too had to be refuelled in flight. Eleven tankers were required for two Vulcans, a huge logistical effort as all aircraft had to use the same runway. The aircraft carried either twenty-one bombs internally or two or four Shrike anti-radar missiles externally. Of the five Black Buck raids flown to completion, three were against Stanley Airfield's runway and operational facilities, and the other two were anti-radar missions using Shrike missiles against a Westinghouse AN/TPS-43 long-range 3D radar in the Port Stanley area. Shrikes hit two of the less valuable and rapidly replaced secondary fire control radars, causing minor damage.


title: V bomber

text: In July 1964, a Valiant of No. 543 Squadron (WZ394) on a deployment to Rhodesia was found to have cracks in the rear wing spar and was ferried back to the UK for repairs. The following month, a Valiant from No. 232 Operational Conversion Unit (WP217) suffered a wing spar failure during a training exercise over Wales. The whole Valiant fleet was checked, and many were found to have significant cracks in the wing spars. Those that were considered to have little or no damage were cleared to fly, but with a temporary restriction to a maximum speed of , maximum load of , and a maximum bank angle of 30 degrees. When Vickers commenced repairs, it was found that the damage was more severe than first thought, and the entire fleet was grounded on 9 December 1964, and withdrawn from service. At first it was thought that the switch to low-level flying was the cause, but cracks were also found in Valiants that were in service as tanker and strategic reconnaissance aircraft, and had not been flown at low level. Suspicion then fell on the aluminium alloy that had been used, DTD683. One Valiant (XD816) remained in service as a test aircraft, having been re-sparred.


title: V bomber

text: Valiants served in a photo-reconnaissance role with No. 543 Squadron, commencing in the second half of 1955. At least seven Valiants were configured to the ECM role, serving with No. 199 Squadron from 30 September 1957. These aircraft were ultimately fitted with APT-16A and ALT-7 jamming transmitters, Airborne Cigar and Carpet jammers, APR-4 and APR-9 "sniffing" receivers, and chaff dispensers. After the Valiants were grounded, the timetable for the development of a photo-reconnaissance version of the Victor, known as the SR.2, was accelerated. A prototype (XL165) was flown for the first time on 23 February 1965, and the first aircraft (XL230) was delivered to No. 543 Squadron on 18 May 1965. The Victor SR.2s carried out extensive photographic survey work, which assumed increased importance after the bombers switched to low-level operations. No. 543 Squadron was disbanded on 31 May 1974, but a flight of four remained until 30 March 1975 to participate in French nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific. Responsibility for the reconnaissance role passed to No. 27 Squadron, which had been re-formed in November 1973, and operated the Vulcan SR.2. No. 27 Squadron was disbanded in March 1982.


title: V bomber

text: In addition to the roles for which they were designed, all three V bombers served as aerial refuelling tankers at one time or another. The Valiant was the RAF's first large-scale tanker. The probe and drogue system for aerial refuelling was developed by Sir Alan Cobham, but the Air Ministry doubted its value so long as Britain maintained bases around the world. However, on 8 January 1954, the Air Staff decided that the V bombers should be capable of both aerial refuelling and acting as tankers, and an Operational Requirement (OR3580) was issued in 1956 for an electronic positioning system to facilitate aerial refuelling. Initially, there were no aircraft to perform the role, but two new types of Valiant were ordered. Fourteen B(PR)K.1 versions were produced. These were a tanker variant of the photo-reconnaissance model, with a hose drum unit (HDU) in the bomb bay. The final production model of the Valiant was the BK.1 version, which had a fuel tank in the front of the bomb bay and an HDU in the rear. Some 44 were built. No. 214 Squadron was selected to carry out tanker trials, while retaining its bombing role, in February 1958. The trials were successful. In August 1961, a second Valiant squadron, No. 90 Squadron, was ordered to begin training in the aerial refuelling role. Nos 90 and 214 Squadrons became full-time tanker squadrons on 1 April 1962. In a demonstration on 20/21 June 1962, a Vulcan B.1A from No. 617 Squadron flew non-stop from RAF Scampton to Sydney in 20 hours and 5 minutes, refuelled four times by tankers from No. 214 Squadron. They served in the role until the Valiants were abruptly withdrawn from service.


title: V bomber

text: Work was already under way to replace the Valiants with Victors. A proposal to convert Victor B.1s and B.1As was first considered by the Air Staff on 25 May 1961 and was endorsed by the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Defence, Sir Solly Zuckerman, and the Chiefs of Staff in 1963. The Defence Research Policy Committee (DRPC) estimated that converting 27 aircraft would cost £7 million. This would provide sufficient aircraft for three tanker squadrons. The price tag soon increased to £8 million for 24 aircraft, and the Treasury was reluctant to spend that much money pending a review of Britain's overseas defence commitments, which would establish whether a third squadron was required. There were also doubts about the financial viability of Handley Page. Approval was given for the conversion of twelve aircraft on 12 June, three more on 9 July, and another nine on 15 September. The second production Victor B.1 (XA918) was converted into a prototype tanker. This involved the installation of Flight Refuelling Mark 20B pods on each wing to refuel fighter aircraft, two fuel tanks in the bomb bay, and a Flight Refuelling Mark 17 HDU in the bomb bay for bombers and transport aircraft. The grounding of the Valiant tankers injected some urgency into the situation, as the RAF lost its refuelling capability. Six Victor K.1A tankers were delivered to No. 55 Squadron at RAF Marham in May and June 1965, but these were not full conversions, as they had only the underwing refuelling pods, and retained their bombing capability.


title: V bomber

text: As Victor tankers became available, a second tanker squadron, No. 57 Squadron, was formed at RAF Marham on 14 February 1966, and a third was added on 1 July 1966 when No. 214 Squadron was re-formed. The last Victor bomber squadrons, Nos 100 and 139 Squadrons, were disbanded on 1 October and 31 December 1968 respectively. It was decided to convert their Victor B.2s into tankers. However, while the Vulcans' rigid delta wing coped well with low-altitude flight, it subjected the Victors' slender wings to considerable flexing, and they suffered badly from fatigue cracks. Repairing them became a major cost of the tanker conversion programme, and some Victors were determined to be beyond economical repair. The Victor SR.2s were withdrawn from service to make up the numbers, and were replaced by Vulcans. Due to the increased costs, none of the SR.2s were modified, and only 21 Victor K.2 tankers were converted. Handley Page went into liquidation in August 1969, and the subsequent work was undertaken by Hawker Siddeley. The first Victor K.2 tanker made its maiden flight on 1 March 1972. No. 55 Squadron began re-equipping with the Victor K.2 on 1 July 1975, followed by No. 57 Squadron on 7 June 1976. No. 214 Squadron retained its K.1As until it was disbanded on 28 February 1977, reducing the RAF's tanker fleet to just two squadrons.


title: V bomber

text: During the Falklands War, the commitments of the Victor tanker fleet became overwhelming. All available tankers were deployed to support operations there. Only the Victor tanker fleet made it possible for the transport aircraft to reach Ascension Island with vital supplies, and for the Vulcan bombers to reach the Falkland Islands for Operation Black Buck. In the meantime, the RAF forces in the UK were serviced by USAF Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers. Work was in progress to convert VC-10s into tankers, but as an interim measure it was decided to convert some Lockheed C-130 Hercules and Vulcan bombers. The equipment in the ECM bay was removed and a Mark 17 HDU installed there. The first of six converted Vulcan tankers (XH561 - the others being XH558, XH560, XJ825, XL445 and XM571) flew on 18 June 1982, just seven weeks after the conversion work began, and the first Vulcan K.2 tanker was delivered to the RAF five days later. The HDUs used were those earmarked for the VC-10 conversion programme, so as these were completed, the HDUs were removed from the Vulcans, starting with Vulcan XJ825 on 4 May 1983.


title: V bomber

text: No. 617 Squadron was disbanded on 31 December 1981, followed by No. 35 Squadron on 1 March 1982, and No. 9 Squadron on 1 May 1982. This left only Nos 44, 50 and 101 Squadrons at RAF Waddington, which were all scheduled to disband by 1 July 1982, with their tactical nuclear mission passing to the Panavia Tornado. The Falklands War intervened, providing a temporary reprieve. No. 101 Squadron was disbanded on 4 August 1982, and No. 44 Squadron on 21 December 1982. The last Vulcan unit, No. 50 Squadron at RAF Waddington, was disbanded on 13 March 1984, leaving behind six K.2s and three B.2s. The Ministry of Defence decided to retain a Vulcan in service for air shows. This role was filled by XL426, and then by XH558.In 1992, XH558 was sold to a private owner, and it made its last RAF flight on 23 March 1993.


title: V bomber

text: The Victor tankers saw active service again in the Gulf War, with eight deploying to Muharraq in Bahrain between December 1990 and March 1991. Victor tankers subsequently deployed to Akrotiri in support of Operation Warden, the operations to protect Kurdish communities in the northern part of Iraq, and to Muharraq in support of Operation Jural in southern Iraq. The tankers returned to RAF Marham in September 1993, where No. 55 Squadron, the last Victor unit, was disbanded on 15 October 1993.


title: V bomber

text: On 8 February 2007, the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford opened the National Cold War Exhibition at RAF Cosford in Shropshire to tell the story of the Cold War. This exhibition brought together static displays of all three types of V bomber in one location for the first time. The museum's director general, Dr Michael A. Fopp, stated the goal was "people will leave feeling better informed about what happened in the second half of the 20th Century."


title: V bomber

text: Vulcan XH558 (Civil Registration G-VLCN), flew until October 2015, funded by public donations. It was displayed at airshows and events. It will be used as a centrepiece for engineering excellence, showing what an advanced design it was for the period.


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: The Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN; ) is the maritime arm of the New Zealand Defence Force. The fleet currently consists of nine ships. The Navy had its origins in the Naval Defence Act 1913, and the subsequent purchase of the cruiser , which by 1921 had been moored in Auckland as a training ship. A slow buildup occurred during the Interwar period, and then perhaps the infant Navy's finest hour occurred soon after the beginning of World War II when fought alongside two other Royal Navy cruisers at the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939.


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: The first recorded maritime combat activity in New Zealand occurred when Māori in war waka attacked Dutch explorer Abel Tasman off the northern tip of the South Island in December 1642.


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: The New Zealand Navy did not exist as a separate military force until 1941. The association of the Royal Navy with New Zealand began with the arrival of Lieutenant (later Captain) James Cook in 1769, who completed two subsequent journeys to New Zealand in 1773 and 1777. Occasional visits by Royal Navy ships were made from the late 18th century until the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. William Hobson, a crucial player in the drafting of the treaty, was in New Zealand as a captain in the Royal Navy. The signing of the Treaty of Waitangi made New Zealand a colony in the British Empire, so the defence of the coastline became the responsibility of the Royal Navy. That role was fulfilled until World War I, and the Royal Navy also played a part in the New Zealand Wars: for example, a gunboat shelled fortified Māori pā from the Waikato River in order to defeat the Māori King Movement.


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: In 1909, the New Zealand government decided to fund the purchase of the battlecruiser for the Royal Navy, which saw action throughout World War I in Europe. The passing of the Naval Defence Act 1913 created the New Zealand Naval Forces, still as a part of the Royal Navy. The first purchase by the New Zealand government for the New Zealand Naval Forces was the cruiser , which escorted New Zealand land forces to occupy the German colony of Samoa in 1914. "Philomel" saw further action under the command of the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf. By 1917, she was worn out and was sent back to New Zealand where she served as a depot ship in Wellington Harbour for minesweepers. In 1921 she was transferred to Auckland for use as a training ship.


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: The New Zealand Naval Forces passed to the control of Commander-in-Chief, China, after the Royal Navy forces in Australia came under Canberra's control in 1911. From 1921 to 1941 the force was known as the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy. The cruiser "Chatham" along with the sloop "Veronica" arrived in 1920, "Philomel" was transferred to the Division in 1921, as was the sloop "Torch", arrived in 1922 and then in 1924. and the minesweeper HMS "Wakakura" arrived in 1926. Between World War I and World War II, the New Zealand Division operated a total of 14 ships, including the cruisers HMS "Achilles" (joined 31 March 1937) and HMS "Leander", which replaced "Diomede" and "Dunedin" (replaced by "Leander" in 1937).


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: When Britain went to war against Germany in 1939, New Zealand officially declared war at the same time, backdated to 9.30 pm on 3 September local time. But the gathering in Parliament in Carl Berendsen's room (including Peter Fraser) could not follow Chamberlain's words because of static on the shortwave and waited until the Admiralty notified the fleet that war had broken out before Cabinet approved the declaration of war (the official telegram from Britain was delayed and arrived just before midnight).


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: "Achilles" moved to the Pacific, and was working with the United States Navy (USN) when damaged by a Japanese bomb off New Georgia. Following repair, she served alongside the British Pacific Fleet until the war's end.


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: The New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy became the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) from 1 October 1941, in recognition of the fact that the naval force was now largely self-sufficient and independent of the Royal Navy. The Prime Minister Peter Fraser reluctantly agreed, though saying "now was not the time to break away from the old country". Ships thereafter were prefixed HMNZS (His/Her Majesty's New Zealand Ship).


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: As the war progressed, the size of the RNZN greatly increased, and by the end of the war, there were over 60 ships in commission. These ships participated as part of the British and Commonwealth effort against the Axis in Europe, and against the Japanese in the Pacific. They also played an important role in the defence of New Zealand, from German raiders, especially when the threat of invasion from Japan appeared imminent in 1942. Many merchant ships were requisitioned and armed for help in defence. One of these was , which saw action against the off Fiji in 1942. In 1941–1942, it was decided in an agreement between the New Zealand and United States governments that the best role for the RNZN in the Pacific was as part of the United States Navy, so operational control of the RNZN was transferred to the South West Pacific Area command, and its ships joined United States 7th Fleet taskforces.


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: In 1943, the light cruiser was transferred to the RNZN as HMNZS "Gambia". In November 1944, the British Pacific Fleet, a joint British Commonwealth military formation, was formed, based in Sydney, Australia. Most RNZN ships were transferred to the BPF, including "Gambia" and "Achilles". They took part in the Battle of Okinawa and operations in the Sakishima Islands, near Japan. In August 1945, HMNZS "Gambia" was New Zealand's representative at the surrender of Japan.


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: During April 1947 a series of non-violent mutinies occurred amongst the sailors and non-commissioned officers of four RNZN ships and two shore bases. Overall, up to 20% of the sailors in the RNZN were involved in the mutinies. The resulting manpower shortage forced the RNZN to remove the light cruiser , one of their most powerful warships, from service and set the navy's development and expansion back by a decade. Despite this impact, the size and scope of the events have been downplayed over time.


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: RNZN ships participated in the Korean War. On 29 June, just four days after 135,000 North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel in Korea, the New Zealand government ordered two frigates – and to prepare to make for Korean waters, and for the whole of the war, at least two NZ vessels would be on station in the theater.


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: On 3 July, these two first ships left Devonport Naval Base, Auckland and joined other Commonwealth forces at Sasebo, Japan, on 2 August. These vessels served under the command of a British flag officer (seemingly Flag Officer Second in Command Far East Fleet) and formed part of the US Navy screening force during the Battle of Inchon, performing shore raids and inland bombardment. Further RNZN "Loch"-class frigates joined these later – , , and , as well as a number of smaller craft. Only one RNZN sailor was killed during the conflict – during the Inchon bombardments.


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: The Navy later participated in the Malayan Emergency. In 1954 a New Zealand frigate, HMNZS "Pukaki", carried out a bombardment of a suspected guerilla camp, while operating with the Royal Navy's Far East Fleet – the first of a number of bombardments by RNZN ships over the next five years. Jack Welch, later to become Chief of Naval Staff decades later, wrote that in 1959, the RNZN "was still very much part of the Royal Navy supported by New Zealand tax-payers. The officer corps and senior specialist ratings were very dependent on loan and exchange RN personnel, while our own [New Zealand] officers and senior ratings were almost exclusively trained in the UK. We simply borrowed the RN's administrative regulations and amended them to local conditions. The Empire was alive and well. Operationally we were still very strongly tied to the UK."


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: Later the Navy return to Malayan waters during the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation. These operations were the RNZN's last large-scale operation with the Royal Navy. In a security crisis and threat to Malaysia and Sarawak and Brunei, two-thirds of the Royal Navy's operational warships were deployed from 1963 to the end of 1966 with , , and , heavily involved in boarding ships, shore patrols, presence, maintaining the use of seaways and support of the RN's amphibious carriers. The commitment, wrote Welch, "involved the whole fleet, as ships rotated though Pearl Harbor for workup with the USN before deploying on to the Far East to relieve ships on station."


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: Until the 1960s, the RNZN had, in common with other Dominion navies, flown the White Ensign as a common ensign. After 1945, the foreign policies of the now-independent states had become more distinctive. There was a growing wish and a need for separate identities, particularly if one Dominion was engaged in hostilities where another was not. Thus, in 1968, the RNZN adopted its own ensign, which retained the Union Flag in a top quarter but replaces the St George's Cross with the Southern Cross constellation that is displayed on the national flag.


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: Since 1946, the Navy has policed New Zealand's territorial waters and exclusive economic zone for fisheries protection. It also aids New Zealand's scientific activities in Antarctica, at Scott Base.


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: One of the best-known roles that the RNZN played on the world stage was when the frigates and were sent by the Labour Government of Norman Kirk to Moruroa Atoll in 1973 to protest against French nuclear testing there. The frigates were sent into the potential blast zone of the weapons, where both ships witnessed one airburst test each which forced France to then change to underground testing.


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: In May 1982 Prime Minister Rob Muldoon seconded the frigate "Canterbury" to the Royal Navy for the duration of the Falklands War. "Canterbury" was deployed to the Armilla Patrol in the Persian Gulf, to relieve a British frigate for duty in the South Atlantic. "Canterbury" was herself relieved by in August.


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: At the close of the Cold War the RNZN operated a surface combatant force of four frigates (HMNZS Waikato (F55), HMNZS Wellington (F69), HMNZS Canterbury (F421), and HMNZS Southland). Due to the post-Cold War restructuring of the RNZN the frigate fleet was downsized to two frigates, although there was considerable political debate at times during the mid-1990s about whether a third and fourth Anzac-class frigate should be procured.


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: In the past three decades, the RNZN has operated in the Middle East a number of times. RNZN ships played a role in the Iran–Iraq War, aiding the Royal Navy in protecting neutral shipping in the Indian Ocean. Frigates were also sent to participate in the first Gulf War, and more recently Operation Enduring Freedom. The RNZN has played an important part in conflicts in the Pacific as well. Naval forces were utilised in the Bougainville, Solomon Islands and East Timor conflicts of the 1990s. The RNZN often participates in United Nations peacekeeping operations.


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: The hydrographic survey ship of the RNZN until 2012 was , succeeding the long-serving . "Resolution" was used to survey and chart the sea around New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. A small motor boat, SMB "Adventure", was operated from "Resolution". "Resolution" carried some of the most advanced survey technology available. HMNZS Resolution was decommissioned at Devonport Naval Base on 27 April 2012.


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: The "Combat Force" consists of two "Anzac-class" frigates: HMNZS "Te Kaha" and HMNZS "Te Mana". Initially, two more frigates were planned, but this was cancelled due to the political pressure surrounding defence expenditure following the New Zealand breakup of military relations with ANZUS. Both ships are based at the Devonport Naval Base in Auckland. HMNZS "Te Kaha" was commissioned on 26 July 1997 and HMNZS "Te Mana" on 10 December 1999. The specifications and armaments of the two ships are identical. Both ships completed refits in 2020 and 2022 respectively.


title: Royal New Zealand Navy

text: The Patrol Force consists of two offshore and two inshore patrol vessels. The Patrol Force is responsible for policing New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone, one of the largest in the world. In addition, the Patrol Force provides assistance to a range of civilian government agencies, including the Department of Conservation, New Zealand Customs and Police, Ministry of Fisheries and others. The Patrol Force consists of: