title: TX Network

text: On October 1, 1985, a fourth station covering Okayama and Kagawa (the Setouchi quasi-Wide Area), named TV Setouchi (TSC), started broadcasting. Because of the expansion, the network changed names on April 1, 1989 to TXN Network (TXN). At the same time, TV Tokyo gained the TX abbreviation from the station's calls. Television Hokkaido in Hokkaido and TVQ Kyushu Broadcasting in Fukuoka began broadcasting in 1989 and 1991, respectively. The network gained their current shape of six stations.


title: TX Network

text: TV Tokyo has and always been by far the largest station in the TXN network and one of the major Tokyo television stations. As such, like the Tokyo television stations themselves and its (former) Canadian counterpart Télé-Métropole (now Groupe TVA), TV Tokyo dominates the network via parent company Nikkei's ownership of shares outstanding in every member station.


title: Advanced Combat Helmet

text: The Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH) is the United States Army's current combat helmet, used since the early 2000s. It was developed by the United States Army Soldier Systems Center, the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory to be the next generation of protective combat helmets for use by the American ground forces. The ACH is derived from the Modular Integrated Communications Helmet.


title: Advanced Combat Helmet

text: The ACH is currently in the process of being phased out and replaced by the Enhanced Combat Helmet (ECH), an improvement upon the ACH derived from its design; however, both the ACH and the newer ECH are being replaced by the Integrated Head Protection System.


title: Advanced Combat Helmet

text: The Advanced Combat Helmet was first fielded beginning in 2003 in limited numbers to eventually replace the PASGT helmet. In 2006, 102,000 helmets were ordered from ArmorSource, of which 99,000 were delivered when the contract was fulfilled and properly closed. In 2007, the Army introduced a ballistic "nape pad" that attaches to the ACH's rear suspension system. Of these, 430,000 were to be issued in the Rapid Fielding Initiative (RFI). Beginning in 2008, the Army's Program Executive Office Soldier outfitted soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division and 4th Infantry Division bound for Iraq with helmet-mounted sensors designed to gather data on head injuries (or traumatic brain injuries) caused during IED detonations. The data collected will help with the design of improvements to the ACH's suspension and chin strap systems. In May 2009, 55,000 of these were in storage and 44,000 were in use by U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force personnel. The 44,000 helmets in use by service members were recalled by the U.S. Army in May 2010 due to potentially defective materials being used. No proof of defective materials was ever established nor evidence of any wrongdoing by the contractor.


title: Advanced Combat Helmet

text: In May 2009, 34,218 ACHs made by the Gentex Corporation were recalled. Certain screws attaching the chinstrap and other parts to the helmet did not conform to specifications in the contract. The screws failed ballistics tests at extreme temperatures. Gentex alleges its subcontractor had fabricated compliance certificates for the screws. A MultiCam cover for the Advanced Combat Helmet began fielding in late 2009 for soldiers deployed in Afghanistan.


title: Advanced Combat Helmet

text: On March 7, 2016, Armorsource LLC agreed to pay $3 million to settle False Claims Act allegations. Revision was awarded a contract for the ACH II contract. The ACH and Lightweight Helmets will eventually be replaced by the Enhanced Combat Helmet and Integrated Head Protection System.


title: Advanced Combat Helmet

text: The shape of the ACH is virtually identical to the MICH TC-2000. Compared to the PASGT helmet, the front brow is eliminated to improve upwards visibility and allow easier mounting of night-vision goggle brackets. The side brim has been raised to the point that the entire lower brim of the helmet is "flat" compared to the PASGT which curves upwards at the back. This is to allow greater compatibility with communications headsets and improve hearing when headsets are not used.


title: Advanced Combat Helmet

text: The ACH uses ballistic fiber such as kevlar and twaron. In 2007, the Army developed and introduced a ballistic "nape pad" that attaches to the ACH's rear suspension system and coincided with the introduction of the Improved Outer Tactical Vest (IOTV).


title: Advanced Combat Helmet

text: The Lightweight Advanced Combat Helmet Generation II (LW-ACH Gen II) weighs one pound less than the original ACH while offering the same ballistic protection. This is being used for the basis of the Lightweight Helmet.


title: Saw (2003 film)

text: Saw (retroactively referred to as Saw 0.5) is an Australian short horror film, released in 2003. It was directed by James Wan and written by Wan and Leigh Whannell, the latter also starring in it. It was originally used to pitch their script for a full-length feature film of the same name to various studios and actors. The full-length film was eventually made in 2004. The short film later became a scene in the feature itself, with Shawnee Smith as Amanda Young wearing the reverse bear trap device instead of David. The original short can be viewed on the second disc of "Saw: Uncut Edition". The song "Happiness in Slavery (remix)" by Nine Inch Nails is featured in the first scene and end credits of the film. The song "Die Eier von Satan" by Tool is featured in various cutscenes of the film.


title: Saw (2003 film)

text: A young and dazed hospital orderly named David sits in a room and is interrogated by an unnamed unsympathetic police officer. David is in handcuffs, his shirt and face are smeared with blood. He tells the officer that after he finished his work as an orderly at the hospital, he was knocked unconscious and taken to a large room.


title: Saw (2003 film)

text: Inside the room, David is strapped to a chair with a large, rusty metal device locked onto his head. To his left is a small television, which begins playing a video showing a frightening puppet that tells him that the device on his head is a "reverse bear trap", which is hooked into his jaws and will wrench his jaws apart with great force if he does not unlock it in time. The puppet tells David that the only key to unlock the device is in the stomach of his dead cellmate.


title: Saw (2003 film)

text: David manages to break free of his bonds, but accidentally activates the trap's timer upon standing up. Across the room, David finds his cellmate that the puppet mentioned, but also finds that he is actually alive but under paralysis. Nonetheless, a panicked David cuts him open, and after finding the key, unlocks the device and throws it to the ground, just as it snaps open. David begins to scream and weep in horror.


title: Saw (2003 film)

text: At the entrance to the room, the puppet from the video appears on a tricycle and congratulates David for his survival, telling him that he has proven to be no longer ungrateful for being alive.


title: Saw (2003 film)

text: When David finishes his story, the police asks him if he is grateful for his survival, prompting the former to burst out crying again before he can answer. In the final scene, a dilapidated bathroom is seen with an eye looking through a hole in the tiled wall.


title: Saw (2003 film)

text: Prior to 2003, colleagues James Wan and Leigh Whannell had begun writing a script based for a horror film, citing inspiration from their dreams and fears. Upon completing the script, Whannell and Wan had wanted to select an excerpt from their script, later to be known as "Saw", and film it to pitch their film to studios. With the help of Charlie Clouser, who had composed the score for the film, and a few stand-in actors, Whannell and Wan shot the film with relatively no budget. Whannell had decided to star in the film as well.


title: Saw (2003 film)

text: During filming, it was said that the trap used on Whannell was revealed to be fully functional and very rusted, making it very dangerous. The version of the trap used in the full film was made safer and had artificial rust. Wan later revealed that the film was shot in just over eight days. Upon completing the film, the pair traveled to Lions Gate Studios to screen the film. Lions Gate immediately accepted the deal and got approved for a budget to make their script into a full feature film. Instead of being paid in advance, Wan and Whannell agreed to take a percentage of the profits from the film's release, which turned out to be much more than initially expected.


title: Saw (2003 film)

text: This allowed for the creation of "Saw", a film that was intended to be a direct-to-DVD release that was later released into theaters worldwide after it received a positive reaction at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2004. The film retained the scene from the short, which was reshot with different actors. Leigh Whannell would also return to star in the full-length film, and in "Saw III".


title: Saw (2003 film)

text: The "reverse bear trap" was also featured in "Saw", "Saw VI," and "Saw 3D" on fictional characters Amanda Young, Mark Hoffman, and Jill Tuck, respectively. Hoffman wore a modernized, cleaner, and less bulky version, while Amanda and Jill got the trap modeled after the original used in this film. "Saw 3D" is the only film to depict a victim being killed by the trap, as Jill had been provided with no means of escape. The "reverse bear trap" has since become an iconic symbol of the series.


title: Saw (2003 film)

text: After the release of the full-length "Saw", the film was met with overwhelming success in the box office both domestically and internationally. The film ended up grossing in America, and in other countries, totaling over worldwide. This was over profit, over 80 times the production budget. This greenlit the sequel "Saw II", and later the rest of the "Saw" franchise based on the yearly success of the previous installment. Since its inception, "Saw" has become one of the highest-grossing horror franchises of all time worldwide in unadjusted dollars. In the United States only, "Saw" is the second-highest-grossing horror franchise, behind only the "Friday the 13th" films by a margin of .


title: Thin client

text: In computer networking, a thin client is a simple (low-performance) computer that has been optimized for establishing a remote connection with a server-based computing environment. They are sometimes known as "network computers", or in their simplest form as "zero clients". The server does most of the work, which can include launching software programs, performing calculations, and storing data. This contrasts with a rich client or a conventional personal computer; the former is also intended for working in a client–server model but has significant local processing power, while the latter aims to perform its function mostly locally.


title: Thin client

text: Thin clients occur as components of a broader computing infrastructure, where many clients share their computations with a server or server farm. The server-side infrastructure uses cloud computing software such as application virtualization, hosted shared desktop (HSD) or desktop virtualization (VDI). This combination forms what is known as a cloud-based system, where desktop resources are centralized at one or more data centers. The benefits of centralization are hardware resource optimization, reduced software maintenance, and improved security.


title: Thin client

text: Thin client hardware generally supports common peripherals, such as keyboards, mice, monitors, jacks for sound peripherals, and open ports for USB devices (e.g., printer, flash drive, webcam). Some thin clients include (legacy) serial or parallel ports to support older devices, such as receipt printers, scales or time clocks. Thin client software typically consists of a graphical user interface (GUI), cloud access agents (e.g., RDP, ICA, PCoIP), a local web browser, terminal emulators (in some cases), and a basic set of local utilities.


title: Thin client

text: In using cloud-based architecture, the server takes on the processing load of several client sessions, acting as a host for each endpoint device. The client software is narrowly purposed and lightweight; therefore, only the host server or server farm needs to be secured, rather than securing software installed on every endpoint device (although thin clients may still require basic security and strong authentication to prevent unauthorized access). One of the combined benefits of using cloud architecture with thin client desktops is that critical IT assets are centralized for better utilization of resources. Unused memory, bussing lanes, and processor cores within an individual user session, for example, can be leveraged for other active user sessions.


title: Thin client

text: The simplicity of thin client hardware and software results in a very low total cost of ownership, but some of these initial savings can be offset by the need for a more robust cloud infrastructure required on the server side.


title: Thin client

text: An alternative to traditional server deployment which spreads out infrastructure costs over time is a cloud-based subscription model known as desktop as a service, which allows IT organizations to outsource the cloud infrastructure to a third party.


title: Thin client

text: Thin client computing is known to simplify the desktop endpoints by reducing the client-side software footprint. With a lightweight, read-only operating system (OS), client-side setup and administration is greatly reduced. Cloud access is the primary role of a thin client which eliminates the need for a large suite of local user applications, data storage, and utilities. This architecture shifts most of the software execution burden from the endpoint to the data center. User assets are centralized for greater visibility. Data recovery and desktop repurposing tasks are also centralized for faster service and greater scalability.


title: Thin client

text: While the server must be robust enough to handle several client sessions at once, thin client hardware requirements are minimal compared to that of a traditional PC laptop or desktop. Most thin clients have low-energy processors, flash storage, memory, and no moving parts. This reduces the cost and power consumption, making them affordable to own and easy to replace or deploy. Numerous thin clients also use Raspberry Pis. Since thin clients consist of fewer hardware components than a traditional desktop PC, they can operate in more hostile environments. And because they typically don't store critical data locally, risk of theft is minimized because there is little or no user data to be compromised.


title: Thin client

text: Modern thin clients have come a long way to meet the demands of today's graphical computing needs. New generations of low energy chipset and CPU (Central Processing Unit) combinations improve processing power and graphical capabilities. To minimize latency of high resolution video sent across the network, some host software stacks leverage multimedia redirection (MMR) techniques to offload video rendering to the desktop device. Video codecs are often embedded on the thin client to support these various multimedia formats. Other host software stacks makes use of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) in order to accelerate fast changing pixel updates required by modern video content. Thin clients typically support local software agents capable of accepting and decoding UDP.


title: Thin client

text: Some of the more graphically intense use cases remain a challenge for thin clients. These use cases might include applications like photo editors, 3D drawing programs, and animation tools. This can be addressed at the host server using dedicated GPU cards, allocation of vGPUs (virtual GPU), workstation cards, and hardware acceleration cards. These solutions allow IT administrators to provide power-user performance where it is needed to a relatively generic endpoint device such as a thin client.


title: Thin client

text: To achieve such simplicity, thin clients sometimes lag behind desktop PCs in terms of extensibility. For example, if a local software utility or set of device drivers are needed in order to support a locally attached peripheral device (e.g. printer, scanner, biometric security device), the thin client operating system may lack the resources needed to fully integrate the required dependencies (although dependencies can sometimes be added if they can be identified). Modern thin clients address this limitation via port mapping or USB redirection software. However, these methods cannot address all scenarios. Therefore, it is good practice to perform validation tests of locally attached peripherals in advance to ensure compatibility. Further, in large distributed desktop environments, printers are often networked, negating the need for device drivers on every desktop.


title: Thin client

text: While running local productivity applications goes beyond the normal scope of a thin client, it is sometimes needed in rare use cases. License restrictions that apply to thin clients can sometimes prevent them from supporting these applications. Local storage constraints may also limit the space required to install large applications or application suites.


title: Thin client

text: It is also important to acknowledge that network bandwidth and performance is more critical in any type of cloud-based computing model. IT organizations must ensure that their network can accommodate the number of users that they need to serve. If demand for bandwidth exceeds network limits, it could result in a major loss of end user productivity.


title: Thin client

text: A similar risk exists inside the data center. Servers must be sized correctly in order to deliver adequate performance to end users. In a cloud-based computing model, the servers can also represent a single point of failure risk. If a server fails, end users lose access to all of the resources supported by that server. This risk can be mitigated by building redundancies, fail-over processes, backups, and load balancing utilities into the system. Redundancy provides reliable host availability but it can add cost to smaller user populations that lack scale.


title: Thin client

text: Popular providers of thin clients include Chip PC Technologies, Dell (acquired Wyse Technology in 2012), HP, ClearCube, IGEL Technology, LG, NComputing, Stratodesk, Samsung Electronics, and ZeeTim.


title: Thin client

text: Thin clients have their roots in multi-user systems, traditionally mainframes accessed by some sort of computer terminal. As computer graphics matured, these terminals transitioned from providing a command-line interface to a full graphical user interface, as is common on modern advanced thin clients. The prototypical multi-user environment along these lines, Unix, began to support fully graphical X terminals, i.e., devices running display server software, from about 1984. X terminals remained relatively popular even after the arrival of other thin clients in the mid-late 1990s. Modern Unix derivatives like BSD and Linux continue the tradition of the multi-user, remote display/input session. Typically, X software is not made available on non-X-based thin clients, although no technical reason for this exclusion would prevent it.


title: Thin client

text: Windows NT became capable of multi-user operations primarily through the efforts of Citrix Systems, which repackaged Windows NT 3.51 as the multi-user operating system WinFrame in 1995, launched in coordination with Wyse Technology's Winterm thin client. Microsoft licensed this technology back from Citrix and implemented it into Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition, under a project codenamed 'Hydra'. Windows NT then became the basis of Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Microsoft Windows systems support graphical terminals via the Remote Desktop Services component. The Wyse Winterm was the first Windows-display-focused thin client (AKA Windows Terminal) to access this environment.


title: Thin client

text: The term "thin client" was coined in 1993 by Tim Negris, VP of Server Marketing at Oracle Corporation, while working with company founder Larry Ellison on the launch of Oracle 7. At the time, Oracle wished to differentiate their server-oriented software from Microsoft's desktop-oriented products. Ellison subsequently popularized Negris' buzzword with frequent use in his speeches and interviews about Oracle products. Ellison would go on to be a founding board member of thin client maker Network Computer, Inc (NCI), later renamed Liberate.


title: Thin client

text: The term stuck for several reasons. The earlier term 'graphical terminal' had been chosen to distinguish such terminals from text-based terminals, and thus put the emphasis heavily on "graphics" – which became obsolete as a distinguishing characteristic in the 1990s as text-only physical terminals themselves became obsolete, and text-only computer systems (a few of which existed in the 1980s) were no longer manufactured. The term 'thin client' also conveys better what was then viewed as the fundamental difference: thin clients can be designed with less expensive hardware, because they have reduced computational workloads.


title: Thin client

text: By the 2010s, thin clients were not the only desktop devices for general purpose computing that were 'thin' – in the sense of having a small form factor and being relatively inexpensive. The nettop form factor for desktop PCs was introduced, and nettops could run full feature Windows or Linux; tablets, tablet-laptop hybrids had also entered the market. However, while there was now little size difference, thin clients retained some key advantages over these competitors, such as not needing a local drive. However, 'thin client' can be a misnomer for slim form-factor computers using flash memory such as compactflash, SD card, or permanent flash memory as a hard disk substitute. In 2013, a Citrix employee experimented with a Raspberry Pi as a thin client. Since then, several manufacturers have introduced their version of Raspberry Pi thin clients.


title: Yellow Ledbetter

text: "Yellow Ledbetter" is a song by the American band Pearl Jam. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music co-written by bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Mike McCready, "Yellow Ledbetter" was an outtake from the band's debut album, "Ten" (1991). "Yellow Ledbetter" was selected by the band to be on the B-side of the 1992 single "Jeremy", where it was first released. The song eventually found its way onto radio, peaking at number 21 on the "Billboard" Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The song was also included on Pearl Jam's 2003 B-sides and rarities album "Lost Dogs", and on their 2004 greatest hits album "Rearviewmirror (Greatest Hits 1991–2003)".


title: Yellow Ledbetter

text: "Yellow Ledbetter" was a "Ten" outtake and one of the first songs Pearl Jam wrote as a group. The song features lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music co-written by bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Mike McCready. The version of "Yellow Ledbetter" that was eventually released was the second take of the song. McCready says of the song:


title: Yellow Ledbetter

text: That was written around the time of the first record ["Ten"]. I think that was the second thing Ed and I wrote together. It came out of a jam in the studio and Ed didn't really have any lyrics. He came up with some ideas right there on the spot, and that's what we recorded. For some reason, it didn't make it on "Ten". I was kind of bummed at the time. I really wanted it to be on our first record. But at the time, I was really young and just happy to be around this situation, so I did whatever.


title: Yellow Ledbetter

text: The song title "Yellow Ledbetter" is derived from the actual name of an old friend of Vedder's from Chicago, named Tim Ledbetter. Although many fans have made their own interpretations of the song's meaning, a common theory has been that the song is about someone receiving a letter saying that his or her brother had died overseas in war, as cited from the lyrics in the "Live at the Garden" version "I don't know whether my brother will be coming home in a box or a bag." On the official bootleg release of "5/3/03 – State College, Pennsylvania", Vedder sings "I'd like to wish this war away, and I tried, but it just, just don't happen, don't happen that way/And my brother...they sent him off to fight for the flag. I just, I don't hope he comes home in a box or a bag", and "And I know that he's just following his path. As long, as long as it's not a box or a bag." On the official bootleg release of "7/11/03 – Mansfield, Massachusetts", Vedder sings in the first verse "I think of him when I go to bed, and he's coming home in a box or a bag."


title: Yellow Ledbetter

text: Vedder has been known to change the lyrics of the song when singing it live, so it is difficult to know if what he is singing at the time are the original lyrics from 1991. In the liner notes for "Lost Dogs", McCready said:"A riff loosely based on something...I had during the 'Ten' sessions. I thought it was pretty. Eddie started making up words on the spot and we kept them. I still don't know what it's about and I don't want to! I love it. Fans like it too!"


title: Yellow Ledbetter

text: Vedder said in an online chat that the song was written around the time of the Gulf War and added that "it's an anti-patriotic song, actually." On August 7, 2008, at a solo performance at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey, Vedder took a question from the audience requesting that he explain the meaning of "Yellow Ledbetter". At first, Vedder joked, "Wait...you mean there's lyrics?" He went on to talk about how the song took as its subject a friend of his from Seattle whose brother served in the first Gulf War. His friend received a "yellow letter" in the mail informing him that his brother had died in the war. Vedder and his friend then went for a walk. On this walk, the friend, whom Vedder described as "alternative looking", happened by a house with an American flag flying and people on the porch. He stopped and gestured to the flag, as if to salute it, but the people on the porch glared at him disapprovingly due to his appearance.


title: Yellow Ledbetter

text: Without being released as a single, "Yellow Ledbetter" peaked at number 21 on the "Billboard" Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and number 26 on the "Billboard" Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1994. The song has become a favorite among fans of the band. Although the song was not released on any of Pearl Jam's studio albums, it remains one of their most popular songs.


title: Yellow Ledbetter

text: Steve Huey of Allmusic said that McCready's "airy Hendrix imitations provide the essential meat of the song." He added, "Eddie Vedder's vocal is alternately intense and achingly wistful, with the latter particularly suiting the song's mood." He proclaimed "Yellow Ledbetter" as "the sound of a band overflowing with prime material." Will Hermes of "Spin" said, "The Hendrix-indebted power ballad "Yellow Ledbetter" is some of the best Pearl Jam music ever recorded."


title: Yellow Ledbetter

text: "Yellow Ledbetter" has since been regarded as one of the band's best songs. In 2021, "American Songwriter" ranked the song number seven on their list of the 10 greatest Pearl Jam songs, and "Kerrang" ranked the song number three on their list of the 20 greatest Pearl Jam songs.


title: Yellow Ledbetter

text: The first full live performance of "Yellow Ledbetter" occurred at the band's February 15, 1992, concert in Madrid, Spain. "Yellow Ledbetter" is frequently performed at Pearl Jam concerts, often as the last song of the concert. The freeform nature of the song allows the band to improvise and change the song around when performing it live. During performances, McCready often plays the main riff quite differently than on the record and uses overdrive as opposed to the previous clean channel. He also lengthens the outro, sometimes incorporating various songs which have influenced his playing style, such as Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" or "The Star-Spangled Banner", which bears many similarities to the song. Similarly, Vedder almost always changes the lyrics around, though he sticks with the same rhythm as the original recording.


title: Yellow Ledbetter

text: Live performances of "Yellow Ledbetter" can be found on the "Daughter" single, the "Tibetan Freedom Concert" compilation box set, various official bootlegs, the live album "Live at Benaroya Hall", and the "Live at the Gorge 05/06" box set. Performances of the song are also included on the DVDs "Live at the Showbox", "Live at the Garden", and "Immagine in Cornice" as one of the special features. The version of the song on "Tibetan Freedom Concert" is a performance by Vedder and McCready that was recorded live at the Tibetan Freedom Concert.


title: Yellow Ledbetter

text: A brief snippet of the song appears in the series finale of the television series "Friends" after Rachel boards the plane. This marked the first time that Pearl Jam licensed a song for usage in a television show. According to a spokesperson for the group, it was, "simply a matter of the show's producers asking permission." The song also played over the end credits of the 2011 film "50/50". The song was used in Season 1, Episode 8 of "Stumptown". It was also used in the closing credits of the final episode of the Showtime epic ensemble “Super Pumped: The Story of Uber” following CEO Travis Kalanick’s demise about what he may do next and the aftermath of the Uber behemoth.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: A loader is a heavy equipment machine used in construction to move or load materials such as soil, rock, sand, demolition debris, etc. into or onto another type of machinery (such as a dump truck, conveyor belt, feed-hopper, or railroad car).


title: Loader (equipment)

text: There are many types of loader, which, depending on design and application, are variously called a bucket loader, front loader, front-end loader, payloader, high lift, scoop, shovel, skip loader, wheel loader, or skid-steer.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: A loader is a type of tractor, usually wheeled, sometimes on tracks, that has a front-mounted wide bucket connected to the end of two booms (arms) to scoop up loose material from the ground, such as dirt, sand or gravel, and move it from one place to another without pushing the material across the ground. A loader is commonly used to move a stockpiled material from ground level and deposit it into an awaiting dump truck or into an open trench excavation.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: The loader assembly may be a removable attachment or permanently mounted. Often the bucket can be replaced with other devices or tools—for example, many can mount forks to lift heavy pallets or shipping containers, and a hydraulically opening "clamshell" bucket allows a loader to act as a light dozer or scraper. The bucket can also be augmented with devices like a bale grappler for handling large bales of hay or straw.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: Large loaders, such as the Kawasaki 95ZV-2, John Deere 844K, ACR 700K Compact Wheel Loader, Caterpillar 950H, Volvo L120E, Case 921E, or Hitachi ZW310 usually have only a front bucket and are called front loaders, whereas small loader tractors are often also equipped with a small backhoe and are called backhoe loaders or loader backhoes or JCBs, after the company that first claimed to have invented them. Other companies like CASE in America and Whitlock in the UK had been manufacturing excavator loaders well before JCB.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: The largest loader in the world is LeTourneau L-2350. Currently these large loaders are in production in the Longview, Texas facility. The L-2350 uses a diesel-electric propulsion system similar to that used in a locomotive. Each rubber tired wheel is driven by its own independent electric motor.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: Loaders are used mainly for loading materials into trucks, laying pipe, clearing rubble, and digging. A loader is not the most efficient machine for digging as it cannot dig very deep below the level of its wheels, like a backhoe or an excavator can. The capacity of a loader bucket can be anywhere from 0.5 to 36 m depending upon the size of the machine and its application. The front loader's bucket capacity is generally much bigger than a bucket capacity of a backhoe loader.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: Unlike most bulldozers, most loaders are wheeled and not tracked, although track loaders are common. They are successful where sharp-edged materials in construction debris would damage rubber wheels, or where the ground is soft and muddy. Wheels provide better mobility and speed and do not damage paved roads as much as tracks, but provide less traction.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: In construction areas loaders are also used to transport building materials such as bricks, pipe, metal bars, and digging tools over short distances.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: Front-loaders are commonly used to remove snow especially from sidewalks, parking lots, and other areas too small for using snowplows and other heavy equipment. They are sometimes used as snowplows with a snowplow attachment but commonly have a bucket or snow basket, which can also be used to load snow into the rear compartment of a snowplow or dump truck.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: High-tip buckets are suitable for light materials such as chip, peat and light gravel and when the bucket is emptied from a height.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: Unlike backhoes or standard tractors fitted with a front bucket, many large loaders do not use automotive steering mechanisms. Instead, they steer by a hydraulically actuated pivot point set exactly between the front and rear axles. This is referred to as "articulated steering" and allows the front axle to be solid, allowing it to carry greater weight. Articulated steering provides better maneuverability for a given wheelbase. Since the front wheels and attachment rotate on the same axis, the operator is able to "steer" his load in an arc after positioning the machine, which can be useful. The tradeoff is that when the machine is "twisted" to one side and a heavy load is lifted high, it has a greater risk of turning over to the "wide" side.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: Front loaders gained popularity during the last two decades, especially in urban engineering projects and small earthmoving works. Heavy equipment manufacturers offer a wide range of loader sizes and duties.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: The major components included in a loader are the engine (diesel in almost all cases), the hydraulic components (such as pumps, motors and valves) and the transmission components (gearbox, axles, wheels/tracks, pumps, motors, etc.). The engine runs both the hydraulics and the transmission, and these in turn move the front attachment (a bucket, forks, sweeper, etc.) to manipulate the material being handled, and the wheels or tracks to move the machine around the jobsite.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: The first wheel loader was invented by Volvo Construction Equipment in 1954, it was called H10. Back then it was based on a tractor and had a rear wheel drive. Today wheel loaders are articulated and the rear and front wheels are the same dimensions.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: The Israeli Combat Engineering Corps uses armored Caterpillar 966 wheel loaders for construction and combat engineering missions in militarily occupied territories such as the West Bank. They are often seen building or removing road blocks and building bases and fortifications. Since 2005, they have also been used to demolish small houses. The Israel Defense Forces added armor plating to the loader to protect it against rocks, stones, molotov cocktails, and light gunfire.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: Rio de Janeiro's police elite squad Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais (BOPE) has acquired one wheel loader designed for military use to open routes and make way for the police in Rio de Janeiro's slums, which are controlled, and blocked, by drug dealers.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: Several if not most countries have similar equipment. The Dutch armed forces for instance use models like the Werklust WG18Edef, which weighs 15 tons, 2 more than the corresponding unarmored civilian model. In addition, the Dutch military previously used extra armor modules covering most of the window surface with steel for extra protection. These were however not popular with the crews due to low visibility.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: The Turkish Army and Turkish Police use remote controlled armored wheel loader Tosun during the building of the Syria–Turkey barrier, the Operation Euphrates Shield, Operation Idlib Shield) and Operation Olive Branch.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: These loaders are a popular addition to tractors from 50 to 200 hp. Its current 'drive-in' form was originally designed and developed in 1958 by a Swedish company named Ålö when they launched their Quicke loader. Tractor loaders were developed to perform a multitude of farming tasks, and are popular due to their relatively low cost (compared to Telehandler) and high versatility. Tractor loaders can be fitted with many attachments such as hydraulic grabs and spikes to assist with bale and silage handling, forks for pallet work, and buckets for more general farm activities. Industrial tractor loaders equipped with box graders are marketed to contractors as skip loaders.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: Abram Dietrich Thiessen of Eyebrow Saskatchewan in the 1940s built the first quick attach front end loader.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: Front-end loaders (FELs) are popular additions to compact utility tractors and farm tractors. Compact utility tractors, also called CUTs, are small tractors, typically with 18 to and used primarily for grounds maintenance and landscape chores. There are 2 primary designs of compact tractor FELs, the traditional dogleg designed style and the curved arm style.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: John Deere manufactures a semi-curved loader design that does not feature the one piece curved arm, but also is not of the traditional two piece design. New Holland introduced a compact loader with a one piece curved arm on its compact utility tractors, similar one piece curved arm loaders are now available on compact tractors on many brands including Case IH/Farmall, and some Montana and Kioti tractors. Kubota markets traditional loader designs on most of its compact tractors but now features a semi-curved loader design similar to the John Deere loader design on several of its small tractors.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: While the front-end loaders on CUT size tractors are capable of many tasks, given their relatively small size and low capacities when compared to commercial loaders, the compact loaders can be made more useful with some simple options. A "toothbar" is commonly added to the front edge of a loader bucket to aid with digging. Some loaders are equipped with a quick coupler, otherwise known as a "quick attach" "(QA)" system. The "QA" system allows the bucket to be removed easily and other tools to be added in its place. Common additions include a set of "pallet forks" for lifting pallets of goods or a "bale spear" for lifting hay bales.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: LHD (Load, Haul, Dump machine) is also a front end loader but meant to be used for mine compact conditions, can handle various range of loads with varying size of buckets, and can be driven with electric motors as well as diesel engines.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: A skid loader is a small loader utilizing four wheels with hydraulic drive that directs power to either, or both, sides of the vehicle. Very similar in appearance and design is the track loader, which utilizes a continuous track on either side of the vehicle instead of the wheels. Since the expiration of Bobcat's patent on its quick-connect system, newer tractor models are standardizing that popular format for front end attachments.


title: Loader (equipment)

text: A swingloader is a rigid frame loader with a swinging boom. The boom can swing 180 degrees or more. Swingloaders are primarily used by the railroad industry to lay rail. Like other loaders many attachments can be attached to the boom such as magnets, forks, and buckets. Smaller swingloaders are used in farming applications for loading out. A swinging boom is advantageous where space is limited. The loader is able to lift on all sides and dump off on all sides.


title: Magic circle

text: A magic circle is a circle of space marked out by practitioners of some branches of ritual magic, which they generally believe will contain energy and form a sacred space, or will provide them a form of magical protection, or both. It may be marked physically, drawn in a material like salt, flour, or chalk, or merely visualised.


title: Magic circle

text: Traditionally, circles are believed by ritual magicians to form a protective barrier between themselves and what they summon. One text known as the Heptameron says of the circle, 'But because the greatest power is attributed to the circles; (for they are certain fortresses to defend the operators safe from the evil spirits); in the first place we will treat concerning the composition of a circle.'


title: Magic circle

text: Moreover, as magician and historian Jake Stratton-Kent writes, 'In short a circle is not an obsolete symbol of a superstitious fear of spirits, but an intentionally created ritual space for various purposes. It is not always required for all kinds of ritual work, but neither is it of no value, quite the contrary. Making sacred space is among the most primal of rituals, such intentional actions are as worthy of the term psychoactive as any substance.'


title: Magic circle

text: Circles may or may not be physically marked out on the ground, and a variety of elaborate patterns for circle markings can be found in grimoires and magical manuals, often involving angelic and divine names. Such markings, or a simple unadorned circle, may be drawn in chalk or salt, or indicated by other means such as with a cord. Some traditions include tracing or circumambulation.


title: Magic circle

text: Examples of Jewish customs showing the use of the magic circle can be found in the birth protection rituals of Alsace and the surrounding area. As early as 1560, a text by the rabbi Naphtali Hirsch ben Elieser Treves notes a custom in which a circle is drawn around the birthing woman to protect her from Lilith and demons. This was done using a Krasmesser (circle knife) which would be wielded by the midwife or the father of the child. Paul Christian Kirchner’s description of Jewish birthing customs from 1734 includes an illustration showing a knife or a sword near the bed, and likewise Johann Christian Georg Bodenschatz describes a sword placed near the pregnant woman in the eighteenth century, indicating the likelihood that this custom continued through the centuries. Oral accounts from 20th century Baden-Württemberg in a publication by the Jewish Museum of Switzerland also reference circling movements with a knife in order to protect a woman in childbirth.


title: Magic circle

text: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which has had one of the largest influences on contemporary Western esotericism, introduced the practices of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram and the Opening by Watchtower. The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (LBRP) is typically used as a daily practice and is also performed before any magical working, while the Watchtower ritual is much more involved. Both rituals are now used by a wide array of practitioners, including ceremonial magicians, Hermetic Qabalists, Neopagans, and Thelemites.


title: Magic circle

text: In Wicca, as also in traditional European grimoires, a magic circle is typically nine feet in diameter, though the size can vary depending on the purpose of the circle, and the preference of the caster.


title: Magic circle

text: Some varieties of Wicca use the common ceremonial colour attributions for 'quarter candles': yellow for air in the east, red for fire in the south, blue for water in the west and green for earth in the north (though these attributions differ according to geographical location and individual philosophy).


title: Magic circle

text: The barrier is believed to be fragile, so that leaving or passing through the circle would weaken or dispel it. This is referred to as "breaking the circle". It is generally advised that practitioners do not leave the circle unless absolutely necessary.


title: Magic circle

text: In order to leave a circle and keep it intact, Wiccans believe a door must be cut in the energy of the circle, normally on the east side. Whatever was used to cast the circle is used to cut the doorway, such as a sword, staff or knife (athame), a doorway is cut in the circle, at which point anything may pass through without harming the circle. This opening must be closed afterwards by reconnecting the lines of the circle.


title: Magic circle

text: The circle is usually closed by the practitioner after they have finished by drawing in the energy with the athame or whatever was used to make the circle including their hand (usually in a widdershins: that is, counter-clockwise fashion). This is called 'closing the circle' or 'releasing the circle'.


title: Marv Levy

text: Marvin Daniel Levy (; born August 3, 1925) is an American former football coach and executive who was a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for seventeen seasons. He spent most of his head coaching career with the Buffalo Bills, leading them from 1986 to 1997. Levy's first head coaching position was with the Montreal Alouettes of Canadian Football League (CFL) from 1973 to 1977, where he won two Grey Cup titles.


title: Marv Levy

text: After five seasons coaching the Kansas City Chiefs, Levy helped the Bills become one of the most dominant American Football Conference (AFC) teams during the 1990s. His greatest success occurred between 1990 and 1993 when he led Buffalo to a record four consecutive Super Bowls, although each game ended in defeat. Levy concluded his head coaching career with 11 playoff victories and four Super Bowl appearances, both of which are the most of head coaches to not win an NFL championship. After retiring from coaching in 1997, Levy served as the general manager of the Bills from 2006 to 2007. He was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2021.


title: Marv Levy

text: Levy was born to a Jewish family in Chicago on August 3, 1925. In 1943, the day after graduation from South Shore High School in Chicago, Levy enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces. He served as a meteorologist at Apalachicola Army Airfield in Florida, but the war ended before his unit deployed to the Pacific.


title: Marv Levy

text: Though he was known to use historical examples to inspire his teams, Levy corrected those who used war and combat metaphors to describe football games by telling them that he actually fought in a war and that football and war were in no way comparable. Referring to the Super Bowl, he said "This is not a must-win; World War II was a must-win". Steve Tasker, who played for Levy on the Bills, said


title: Marv Levy

text: In later years, Levy became a supporter of the World War II Memorial and pushed for World War II veterans to be honored at Super Bowl LIV to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Allied victory in the war, noting that fewer than 3% of those who served in the war were still alive in 2020.


title: Marv Levy

text: Levy was initially recruited to the Wyoming Cowboys football team as a defensive back. After the coach who recruited Levy left Wyoming, and Levy was displeased and exhausted by the following coach's round-the-clock training regimen, Levy transferred to Coe College in Iowa following a single semester. There he earned varsity letters in football, track, and basketball. He obtained a degree in English literature, was granted membership in the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and was twice voted student council president. He was also a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He was admitted to Harvard University for graduate studies in 1951, earning a master's degree in English history.


title: Marv Levy

text: Levy's first coaching job was at St. Louis Country Day School, coaching football and basketball, the latter of which he coached to a championship. Two years later, Levy returned to Coe College as an assistant football coach (1953–1954) and in his second stint as a head coach, he also won a championship—this time in basketball with future NBA Coach Bill Fitch as one of his players. In 1954, he joined the coaching staff at the University of New Mexico and was named head coach in 1958. In two seasons as head coach, he guided the Lobos to a 14–6 record and earned Skyline Conference Coach of the Year honors in 1958. He interviewed with the University of California, Berkeley on February 2, 1960, and was announced as the new head coach of the Cal Bears on February 5, 1960. Despite selecting a young Bill Walsh as a coaching assistant, Levy's best record during his four-season tenure as head coach at Cal from 1960 to 1963 was 4–5–1. He finished his college coaching career with a five-year stint as head coach at the College of William & Mary where he twice earned Southern Conference Coach of the Year honors.


title: Marv Levy

text: Levy began his professional football coaching career in 1969 as kicking teams coach for the Philadelphia Eagles before joining George Allen's staff as a special teams coach for the Los Angeles Rams in 1970. He followed Allen to Washington, D.C. in 1971, where he served as the Washington Redskins' special teams coach for two seasons. Levy then served as the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League for five seasons. He coached Montreal to three CFL Grey Cup appearances and two championships, and won the Annis Stukus Trophy (Coach of the Year) in 1974. Levy returned to the NFL in 1978 as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. He coached the Chiefs for five seasons with steady improvement each year, but was fired at the end of the strike-shortened 1982 season with a 3–6 record.


title: Marv Levy

text: Midway through the 1986 season, following a two-year hiatus from coaching and one season as the head coach of the Chicago Blitz of the USFL, Levy returned to the NFL with the Buffalo Bills. Initially hired as a television analyst, Levy replaced Hank Bullough seven games into the regular season as head coach. He finished the season with a 2–5 record. In 1987, his first full season with the Bills, the team returned to respectability with a 7–8 record and were in the playoff hunt throughout most of the season. The following season the team posted a 12–4 record and won the first of six AFC Eastern Division titles. With his high-powered "no-huddle" offense, Levy's Bills went on to lead his AFC championship team to four consecutive Super Bowl appearances, the most in league history. Each game ended in defeat, however, tying Levy with Bud Grant and Dan Reeves for the most Super Bowl appearances without a victory.


title: Marv Levy

text: From 1988 through 1997, the Bills were first in the AFC in winning percentage and second only to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL. Levy, the winningest coach in Bills' history, recorded a 112–70 regular season record and was 11–8 in the playoffs during his eleven seasons with the Bills. He was named NFL Coach of the Year in 1988 and AFC Coach of the Year in 1988, 1993, and 1995.


title: Marv Levy

text: Levy's coaching tree is among the largest of any NFL head coach; however, this is largely due to the fact that he once had Bill Walsh as an assistant and most of Walsh's assistants never worked under Levy. Among notable non-Walsh coaches are Wade Phillips, who succeeded Levy as the Bills' head coach and also served as head coach of the Denver Broncos and Dallas Cowboys (along with interim coaching stints for the New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons, and Houston Texans), as well as former Baltimore Ravens and Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts coach Ted Marchibroda, and former New York Sentinels head coach Ted Cottrell. Wally Buono played under Levy in Montreal and went on to become one of the CFL's most successful coaches.


title: Marv Levy

text: Levy retired in 1997 and became an analyst for NFL.com. In 2001 Levy was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Along with former Bills' special-teamer Steve Tasker, Levy did local broadcasts for the Bills' pre-season games from 1998 until being appointed the Bills' general manager in 2006. During the regular season he was a part of the Chicago Bears pregame show on ESPN Radio 1000 (WMVP-AM), as well as a Bears postgame show on Comcast SportsNet.


title: Marv Levy

text: On January 5, 2006, Bills owner Ralph Wilson enlisted Levy, at the age of 80, to act as general manager and vice president of football operations for the Buffalo Bills. Following the resignation of Mike Mularkey, there was initial speculation (created by Levy's own comments at a team press conference) that Levy would resume a coaching role with the team. To eliminate this speculation, and to minimize any future tension between Levy and the Bills' new head coach, team owner Wilson said: "He was hired to be the GM and would never coach the team."


title: Marv Levy

text: Levy's first order of business was to hire a new coach as a replacement for Mularkey, who resigned within days of Levy's appointment. After a strenuous interview process Levy and team owner Wilson hired Detroit Lions interim head coach Dick Jauron as coach. Jauron had been head coach of the Chicago Bears.


title: Marv Levy

text: Following the Bills' last game of the 2007 season, Levy decided to step down as GM of the Bills (his two-year contract had expired). He has returned to live in his native Chicago, although he also spent some time in Montreal mentoring then-Alouettes head coach Marc Trestman. Levy stated he would be open to returning to coaching if asked. He has also admittedly not paid much attention to professional football in the past several years as of 2017.


title: Marv Levy

text: In 2009, Levy collaborated with Buffalo football historian Jeffrey J. Miller to write a book entitled "Game Changers: The Greatest Plays in Buffalo Bills Football History". In August 2011, Levy published a second book, "Between the Lies", featuring a team based loosely on the Bills (including a quarterback named "Kelly James") progressing to the Super Bowl against a Los Angeles-based team and its take-no-prisoners head coach, while a scandal erupts, placing the integrity of the game at risk.


title: Marv Levy

text: A lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, Levy was among a select few people in attendance at both the 1945 World Series (which he attended while on furlough from the Army Air Forces) and the 2016 World Series. Levy's fourth book, the children's book "Go Cubs Go", is about the 2016 series.


title: Marv Levy

text: In 2020, Levy assisted The Friends of the National World War II Memorial to convince NFL teams — and the league itself — to recognize the 75th anniversary of the war, honoring veterans at Super Bowl LIV in Miami.


title: Marv Levy

text: Levy made an in-person appearance at the Bills' 2022 home opener, participating in the pregame crowd warm-up alongside his former quarterback, Jim Kelly.


title: Marv Levy

text: He currently has a wife, Mary, a daughter, Kim. He also has two grandchildren Angela (oldest) and Gregory (youngest).


title: Romain Gary

text: Romain Gary (; 2 December 1980), born Roman Kacew (, and also known by the pen name Émile Ajar), was a French novelist, diplomat, film director, and World War II aviator. He is the only author to have won the Prix Goncourt under two names. He is considered a major writer of French literature of the second half of the 20th century. He was married to Lesley Blanch, then Jean Seberg.


title: Romain Gary

text: Gary was born Roman Kacew ( "Roman Katsev", , "Roman Leibovich Katsev") in Vilnius (at that time in the Russian Empire). In his books and interviews, he presented many different versions of his parents' origins, ancestry, occupation and his own childhood. His mother, Mina Owczyńska (1879—1941), was a Jewish actress from Švenčionys (Svintsyán) and his father was a businessman named Arieh-Leib Kacew (1883—1942) from Trakai (Trok), also a Lithuanian Jew. The couple broke in 1925 and Arieh-Leib remarried. Gary later claimed that his actual father was the celebrated actor and film star Ivan Mosjoukine, with whom his actress mother had worked and to whom he bore a striking resemblance. Mosjoukine appears in his memoir "Promise at Dawn". Deported to central Russia in 1915, they stayed in Moscow until 1920. They later returned to Vilnius, then moved on to Warsaw. When Gary was fourteen, he and his mother emigrated illegally to Nice, France. Converted to Catholicism by his mother, Gary studied law, first in Aix-en-Provence and then in Paris. He learned to pilot an aircraft in the French Air Force in Salon-de-Provence and in Avord Air Base, near Bourges.


title: Romain Gary

text: Of almost 300 cadets in his class, and despite completing all parts of his course successfully, Gary was the only one not to be commissioned as an officer. He believed that the military establishment was distrustful of what they saw as a foreigner and a Jew. Training on Potez 25 and Goëland Léo-20 aircraft, and with 250 hours flying time, only after three months' delay was he made a sergeant on 1 February 1940. Lightly wounded on 13 June 1940 in a Bloch MB.210, he was disappointed with the armistice; after hearing General de Gaulle's radio appeal, he decided to go to England. After failed attempts, he flew to Algiers from Saint-Laurent-de-la-Salanque in a Potez. Made adjutant upon joining the Free French and serving on Bristol Blenheims, he saw action across Africa and was promoted to second lieutenant. He returned to England to train on Boston IIIs. On 25 January 1944, his pilot was blinded, albeit temporarily, and Gary talked him to the bombing target and back home, the third landing being successful. This and the subsequent BBC interview and "Evening Standard" newspaper article were an important part of his career. He finished the war as a captain in the London offices of the Free French Air Forces. As a bombardier-observer in the "Groupe de bombardement Lorraine" (No. 342 Squadron RAF), he took part in over 25 successful sorties, logging over 65 hours of air time. During this time, he changed his name to Romain Gary. He was decorated for his bravery in the war, receiving many medals and honours, including Compagnon de la Libération and commander of the Légion d'honneur. In 1945 he published his first novel, "Éducation européenne". Immediately following his service in the war, he worked in the French diplomatic service in Bulgaria and Switzerland. In 1952 he became the secretary of the French Delegation to the United Nations. In 1956, he became Consul General in Los Angeles and became acquainted with Hollywood.


title: Romain Gary

text: In a memoir published in 1981, Gary's nephew Paul Pavlowitch claimed that Gary also produced several works under the pseudonym Émile Ajar. Gary recruited Pavlowitch to portray Ajar in public appearances, allowing Gary to remain unknown as the true producer of the Ajar works, and thus enabling him to win the 1975 Goncourt Prize, a second win in violation of the prize's usual rules.


title: Romain Gary

text: Gary became one of France's most popular and prolific writers, writing more than 30 novels, essays and memoirs, some of which he wrote under a pseudonym.


title: Romain Gary

text: He is the only person to win the Prix Goncourt twice. This prize for French language literature is awarded only once to an author. Gary, who had already received the prize in 1956 for "Les racines du ciel", published "La vie devant soi" under the pseudonym Émile Ajar in 1975. The Académie Goncourt awarded the prize to the author of that book without knowing his identity. Gary's cousin's son Paul Pavlowitch posed as the author for a time. Gary later revealed the truth in his posthumous book "Vie et mort d'Émile Ajar". Gary also published as Shatan Bogat, René Deville and Fosco Sinibaldi, as well under his birth name Roman Kacew.


title: Romain Gary

text: In addition to his success as a novelist, he wrote the screenplay for the motion picture "The Longest Day" and co-wrote and directed the film "Kill!" (1971), which starred his wife at the time, Jean Seberg. In 1979, he was a member of the jury at the 29th Berlin International Film Festival.


title: Romain Gary

text: After the end of the hostilities, Gary began a career as a diplomat in the service of France, in consideration of the services rendered for his release. In this capacity, he held positions in Bulgaria (1946–1947), Paris (1948–1949), Switzerland (1950–1951), New York (1951–1954) — at the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations, where he regularly rubs shoulders with the Jesuit Teilhard de Chardin, whose personality deeply marked him and inspired him, particularly for the character of Father Tassin in "Les Racines du ciel"—in London (1955), then as Consul General of France in Los Angeles (1956–1960). Back in Paris, he remained unassigned until he was laid off from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1961).


title: Romain Gary

text: Gary's first wife was the British writer, journalist, and "Vogue" editor Lesley Blanch, author of "The Wilder Shores of Love". They married in 1944 and divorced in 1961. From 1962 to 1970, Gary was married to American actress Jean Seberg, with whom he had a son, Alexandre Diego Gary. According to Diego Gary, he was a distant presence as a father: "Even when he was around, my father wasn't there. Obsessed with his work, he used to greet me, but he was elsewhere."


title: Romain Gary

text: After learning that Jean Seberg had had an affair with Clint Eastwood, Gary challenged him to a duel, but Eastwood declined.


title: Romain Gary

text: Gary died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on 2 December 1980 in Paris. He left a note which said that his death had no relation to Seberg's suicide the previous year. He also stated in his note that he was Émile Ajar.


title: Romain Gary

text: Gary was cremated in Père Lachaise Cemetery and his ashes were scattered in the Mediterranean Sea near Roquebrune-Cap-Martin.


title: Romain Gary

text: The name of Romain Gary was given to a promotion of the École nationale d'administration (2003–2005), the Institut d'études politiques de Lille (2013), the Institut régional d'administration de Lille (2021–2022) and the Institut d'études politiques de Strasbourg (2001–2002), in 2006 at Place Romain-Gary in the 15th arrondissement of Paris and at the Nice Heritage Library. The French Institute in Jerusalem also bears the name of Romain Gary.


title: Romain Gary

text: On 16 May 2019, his work appeared in two volumes in the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade under the direction of Mireille Sacotte.


title: Romain Gary

text: In 2007, a statue of Romualdas Kvintas, «The Boy with a Galoche», was unveiled, depicting the 9-year-old little hero of the Promise of Dawn, preparing to eat a shoe to seduce his little neighbor, Valentina. It is placed in Vilnius, in front of the Basanavičius, where the novelist lived.


title: Romain Gary

text: A plaque to his name is affixed in the Pouillon building of the Faculty of Law and Political Science of Aix-Marseille where he studied.


title: Romain Gary

text: In 2022, Denis Ménochet portrayed Gary in "White Dog (Chien blanc)", a film adaptation by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette of Gary's 1970 book.


title: Gatcombe Park

text: Gatcombe Park is the country residence of Anne, Princess Royal, between the villages of Minchinhampton (to which it belongs) and Avening in Gloucestershire, England. Built in the late 18th century to the designs of George Basevi, it is a Grade II* listed building. It is a royal residence as it is home to the Princess Royal, and is privately owned. Parts of the grounds open for events, including horse trials and craft fairs.


title: Gatcombe Park

text: Gatcombe Park is between the villages of Minchinhampton and Avening in Gloucestershire in South West England. Highgrove House, the country residence of Anne's brother, King Charles III, is located away in the parish of Doughton, near Tetbury. The first cousin of their mother, the late Queen, Prince Michael of Kent, owned nearby Nether Lypiatt Manor for 26 years from 1980.


title: Gatcombe Park

text: The manors of Minchinhampton and Avening formed the basis of the later Gatcombe Park estate. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries they were granted to Lord Windsor, whose family sold mostly undeveloped land by that date comprising them to Philip Sheppard in 1656.


title: Gatcombe Park

text: The core hillside land of the former estates, which was chiefly within the parish bounds of Gatcombe, was left in the will of Samuel Sheppard, who died in 1770, to his brother Edward.


title: Gatcombe Park

text: Accordingly, a new manor house was built from 1771 to 1774 for Edward Sheppard, a local clothier. The house and estate were purchased in 1814 by the successful speculator and theoretical economist David Ricardo, MP, and altered to the designs of George Basevi (a relation), c.1820. It features Bath stone construction, and comprises five main bedrooms, four secondary bedrooms, four reception rooms, a library, a billiard room and a conservatory; staff accommodation and its steep-sloping grounds are a separately listed (Grade II) parkland.


title: Gatcombe Park

text: The house and home farm were bought by Queen Elizabeth II in 1976 for Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips; the price was not disclosed but is believed to have been between £500,000 and £750,000 (). The previous owner was Lord Butler of Saffron Walden, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and a former Home Secretary, who had inherited the house from his father-in-law, the art collector Samuel Courtauld. Courtauld had acquired it from the Ricardo family in 1940.


title: Gatcombe Park

text: The Crown paid for the renovation and redecoration of the house for Princess Anne and Captain Phillips, who moved into it in November 1977. In 1978 the owners' land was increased by the purchase of Aston Farm to the east. While Princess Anne's first marriage subsisted, the property thus covered approximately , of which the bulk of its of woodland was part of the park land, including a lake containing brown trout. These properties had extensive stabling for horses, including a new stable block, and the underlying land of an airstrip is within the ownership of Aston Farm.


title: Gatcombe Park

text: The estate was divided when the Princess Royal and Mark Phillips were divorced, and today the princess lives at Gatcombe Park with her second husband, Sir Timothy Laurence. After the divorce, for some years Mark Phillips lived at Aston Farm with his second wife, but he later moved to the United States. Their children Peter and Zara Phillips each had a cottage on the estate until they married. Peter and his wife, Autumn, then moved to London; they separated in 2019, and in 2020 announced they would divorce. Zara and her husband, Mike Tindall, at first lived in Cheltenham after they were married in 2011, but in January 2013 they sold their house and came to live on the Gatcombe estate.


title: Gatcombe Park

text: The grounds of Gatcombe Park are known in the eventing world for hosting the Festival of British Eventing every year, over the first weekend in August. Organised by Mark Phillips, with considerable input from Princess Anne, the event attracts the world's top equestrian Olympians and over 40,000 paying spectators, as well as BBC Television coverage. Two smaller horse trials, in the spring and autumn, also take place on the estate, with courses designed by Princess Anne, and there is a biannual craft fair, with around 160 exhibitors, in May and October.


title: History of the tank

text: The history of the tank begins with World War I, when armoured all-terrain fighting vehicles were introduced as a response to the problems of trench warfare, ushering in a new era of mechanized warfare. Though initially crude and unreliable, tanks eventually became a mainstay of ground armies. By World War II, tank design had advanced significantly, and tanks were used in quantity in all land theatres of the war. The Cold War saw the rise of modern tank doctrine and the rise of the general-purpose main battle tank. The tank still provides the backbone to land combat operations in the 21st century.


title: History of the tank

text: World War I generated new demands for armoured self-propelled weapons which could navigate any kind of terrain, and this led to the development of the tank. The great weakness of the tank's predecessor, the armoured car, was that it required smooth terrain to move upon, and new developments were needed for cross-country capability.


title: History of the tank

text: The tank was originally designed as a special weapon to solve an unusual tactical situation: the stalemate of the trenches on the Western Front. "It was a weapon designed for one simple task: crossing the killing zone between trench lines and breaking into enemy [defences]." The armoured tank was intended to be able to protect against bullets and shell splinters, and pass through barbed wire in a way infantry units could not hope to, thus allowing the stalemate to be broken.


title: History of the tank

text: Few recognised during World War I that the means for returning mobility and shock action to combat was already present in a device destined to revolutionise warfare on the ground and in the air. This was the internal combustion engine, which had made possible the development of the tank and eventually would lead to the mechanised forces that were to assume the old roles of horse cavalry and to loosen the grip of the machine-gun on the battlefield.


title: History of the tank

text: With increased firepower and protection, these mechanised forces would, only some 20 years later, become the armour of World War II. When self-propelled artillery, the armoured personnel carrier, the wheeled cargo vehicle, and supporting aviation — all with adequate communications — were combined to constitute the modern armoured division, commanders regained the capability of manoeuvre.


title: History of the tank

text: Numerous concepts of armoured all-terrain vehicles had been imagined for a long time. With the advent of trench warfare in World War I, the Allied French and British developments of the tank were largely parallel and coincided in time.


title: History of the tank

text: In the 15th century, a Hussite called Jan Žižka won several battles using armoured wagons containing cannon that could be fired through holes in their sides. But his invention was not used after his lifetime until the 20th century.


title: History of the tank

text: In 1903, a French artillery captain named Léon Levavasseur proposed the Levavasseur project, a "canon autopropulseur" ("self-propelled cannon"), moved by a caterpillar system and fully armoured for protection. Powered by an 80 hp petrol engine, "the Levavasseur machine would have had a crew of three, storage for ammunition, and a cross-country ability", but the viability of the project was disputed by the Artillery Technical Committee, until it was formally abandoned in 1908 when it was known that a caterpillar tractor had been developed, the "Hornsby" of engineer David Roberts.


title: History of the tank

text: H. G. Wells, in his short story "The Land Ironclads", published in "The Strand Magazine" in December 1903, had described the use of large, armed, armoured cross-country vehicles equipped with pedrail wheels (an invention which he acknowledged as the source for his inspiration), to break through a system of fortified trenches, disrupting the defence and clearing the way for an infantry advance:


title: History of the tank

text: In the years before the Great War, two practical tank-like designs were proposed but not developed. In 1911, the Austrian engineering officer Günther Burstyn submitted a proposal for a fighting vehicle that had a gun in a rotating turret, known as the Motorgeschütz. In 1912, the Australian civil engineer Lancelot de Mole's proposal included a scale model of a functional fully tracked vehicle. Both of these were rejected by their respective governmental administrations.


title: History of the tank

text: Benjamin Holt of the Holt Manufacturing Company of Stockton, California was the first to file a US patent for a workable crawler type tractor in 1907. The centre of such innovation was in England, and in 1903 he travelled to England to learn more about ongoing development, though all those he saw failed their field tests. Holt paid Alvin Orlando Lombard for the right to produce vehicles under Lombard's patent for the Lombard Steam Log Hauler.


title: History of the tank

text: Holt returned to Stockton and, utilizing his knowledge and his company's metallurgical capabilities, he became the first to design and manufacture practical continuous tracks for use in tractors. In England, David Roberts of Hornsby & Sons, Grantham, obtained a patent for a design in July 1904. In the United States, Holt replaced the wheels on a Holt steamer, No. 77, with a set of wooden tracks bolted to chains. On November 24, 1904, he successfully tested the updated machine ploughing the soggy delta land of Roberts Island.


title: History of the tank

text: When World War I broke out, with the problem of trench warfare and the difficulty of transporting supplies to the front, the pulling power of crawling-type tractors drew the attention of the military. Holt tractors were used to replace horses to haul artillery and other supplies. The Royal Army Service Corps also used them to haul long trains of freight wagons over the unimproved dirt tracks behind the front. Holt tractors were, ultimately, the inspiration for the development of the British and French tanks.


title: History of the tank

text: By 1916, about 1,000 of Holt's Caterpillar tractors were used by the British in World War I. Speaking to the press, in claiming the British tanks in use in 1916 were Holt-built, Holt vice president Murray M. Baker said that these tractors weighed about and had . By the end of the war, 10,000 Holt vehicles had been used in the Allied war effort.


title: History of the tank

text: The French colonel Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne articulated the vision of a cross-country armoured vehicle on 24 August 1914:


title: History of the tank

text: Some privately owned Holt tractors were used by the French Army soon after the start of World War I to pull heavy artillery pieces in difficult terrain, but the French did not purchase Holts in large numbers. It was the sight of them in use by the British that later inspired Estienne to have plans drawn up for an armoured body on caterpillar tracks. In the meantime, several attempts were made to design vehicles that could overcome the German barbed wire and trenches.


title: History of the tank

text: From 1914 to 1915, an early experiment was made with the Boirault machine, with the objective of flattening barbed wire defences and riding over gaps in a battlefield. The machine was made of huge parallel tracks, formed by 4×3 metre metallic frames, rotating around a triangular motorized centre. This device proved too fragile and slow, as well as incapable of changing direction easily, and was abandoned.


title: History of the tank

text: In France, on 1 December 1914, Paul Frot, an engineer constructing canals for the "Compagnie Nationale du Nord", proposed to the French Ministry a design for a "landship" with armour and armament based on the motorisation of a compactor with heavy wheels or rollers. The Frot-Laffly was tested on 18 March 1915, and effectively destroyed barbed wire lines, but was deemed lacking in mobility. The project was abandoned in favour of General Estienne's development using a tractor base, codenamed "Tracteur Estienne".


title: History of the tank

text: In 1915, attempts were also made to develop vehicles with powerful armour and armament, mounted on the cross-country chassis of agricultural tractors, with large wheels having coarse treads, such as the Aubriot-Gabet "Fortress" ("Fortin Aubriot-Gabet"). The vehicle was powered by electricity (complete with a supply cable), and armed with a Navy cannon of 37mm, but it too proved impractical.


title: History of the tank

text: In January 1915, the French arms manufacturer Schneider & Co. sent out its chief designer, Eugène Brillié, to investigate tracked tractors from the American Holt Manufacturing Company, at that time participating in a test programme in England, for a project of mechanical wire-cutting machines. On his return Brillié, who had earlier been involved in designing armoured cars for Spain, convinced the company management to initiate studies on the development of a "Tracteur blindé et armé" (armoured and armed tractor), based on the "Baby Holt" chassis, two of which were ordered.


title: History of the tank

text: Experiments on the Holt caterpillar tracks started in May 1915 at the Schneider plant with a 75-hp wheel-directed model and the 45-hp integral caterpillar Baby Holt, showing the superiority of the latter. On 16 June, new experiments followed, which were witnessed by the President of the Republic, and on 10 September, by Commander Ferrus. The first complete chassis with armour was demonstrated at Souain on 9 December 1915, to the French Army, with the participation of Colonel Estienne.


title: History of the tank

text: On 12 December, unaware of the Schneider experiments, Estienne presented to the High Command a plan to form an armoured force, equipped with tracked vehicles. He was put in touch with Schneider, and in a letter dated 31 January 1916 Commander-in-chief Joffre ordered the production of 400 tanks of the type designed by Brillié and Estienne, although the actual production order of 400 Schneider CA1 was made a bit later on 25 February 1916. Soon after, on 8 April 1916, another order for 400 Saint-Chamond tanks was also placed. Schneider had trouble with meeting production schedules, and the tank deliveries were spread over several months from 8 September 1916. The Saint-Chamond tank would start being delivered from 27 April 1917.


title: History of the tank

text: In 1914, the British War Office ordered a Holt tractor and put it through trials at Aldershot. Although it was not as powerful as the Foster-Daimler tractor, the Holt was better suited to haul heavy loads over uneven ground. Without a load, the Holt tractor managed a walking pace of . Towing a load, it could manage . Most importantly, Holt tractors were readily available in quantity. The War Office was suitably impressed and chose it as a gun-tractor.


title: History of the tank

text: In July 1914, Lt. Col. Ernest Swinton, a British Royal Engineer officer, learned about Holt tractors and their transportation capabilities in rough terrain from a friend who had seen one in Antwerp, but passed the information on to the transport department. When the First World War broke out, Swinton was sent to France as the Army's war correspondent and in October 1914 identified the need for what he described as a "machine-gun destroyer" - a cross-country, armed vehicle. He remembered the Holt tractor, and decided that it could be the basis for an armoured vehicle.


title: History of the tank

text: Swinton proposed in a letter to Sir Maurice Hankey, Secretary of the British Committee of Imperial Defence, that the Committee build a power-driven, bullet-proof, tracked vehicle that could destroy enemy guns. Hankey persuaded the War Office - which was lukewarm to the idea - to make a trial on 17 February 1915 with a Holt tractor, but the caterpillar bogged down in the mud, the project was abandoned, and the War Office gave up investigations.


title: History of the tank

text: In May 1915, the War Office made new tests on a trench-crossing machine: the Tritton Trench-Crosser. The machine was equipped with large tractor wheels, in diameter, and carried girders on an endless chain which were lowered above a trench so that the back wheels could roll over it. The machine would then drag the girder behind until on flat terrain, so that it could reverse over them and set them back in place in front of the vehicle. The machine proved much too cumbersome and was abandoned.


title: History of the tank

text: When Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, learned of the armoured tractor idea, he reignited investigation of the idea of using the Holt tractor. The Royal Navy and the Landship Committee (established on 20 February 1915), at last agreed to sponsor experiments and tests of armoured tractors as a type of "land ship". In March, Churchill ordered the building of 18 experimental landships: 12 using Diplock pedrails (an idea promoted by Murray Sueter), and six using large wheels (the idea of Thomas Gerard Hetherington). Construction however failed to move forward, as the wheels seemed impractical after a wooden mock-up was realized: the wheels were initially planned to be 40-feet in diameter, but turned out to be still too big and too fragile at 15-feet. The pedrails also met with industrial problems, and the system was deemed too large, too complicated and under-powered.


title: History of the tank

text: Instead of choosing to use the Holt tractor, the British government chose to involve a British agricultural machinery firm, Foster and Sons, whose managing director and designer was Sir William Tritton.


title: History of the tank

text: After all these projects failed by June 1915, ideas of grandiose landships were abandoned, and a decision was taken to make an attempt with US "Bullock Creeping Grip" caterpillar tracks, by connecting two of them together to obtain an articulated chassis deemed necessary for manoeuvring. Experiments failed in tests made in July 1915.


title: History of the tank

text: Another experiment was conducted with an American Killen-Strait tracked tractor. A wire-cutting mechanism was successfully fitted, but the trench-crossing capability of the vehicle proved insufficient. A Delaunay-Belleville armoured car body was fitted, making the Killen-Strait Armoured Tractor the first armoured tracked vehicle, but the project was abandoned as it turned out to be a blind alley, unable to fulfil all-terrain warfare requirements.


title: History of the tank

text: After these experiments, the Committee decided to build a smaller experimental landship, equivalent to one half the articulated version, and using lengthened US-made "Bullock Creeping Grip" caterpillar tracks. This new experimental machine was called the "No1 Lincoln Machine": construction started on 11 August 1915, with the first trials starting on 10 September 1915. These trials failed however because of unsatisfactory tracks.


title: History of the tank

text: Development continued with new, re-engineered tracks designed by William Tritton, and the machine, now renamed "Little Willie", was completed in December 1915 and tested on 3 December 1915. Trench-crossing ability was deemed insufficient however, and Walter Gordon Wilson developed a rhomboidal design, which became known as "His Majesty's Landship "Centipede"" and later "Mother", the first of the "Big Willie" types of true tanks. After completion on 29 January 1916 very successful trials were made, and an order was placed by the War Office for 100 units to be used on the Western front in France, on 12 February 1916, and a second order for 50 additional units was placed in April 1916.


title: History of the tank

text: France started studying caterpillar continuous tracks from January 1915, and actual tests started in May 1915, two months earlier than the "Little Willie" experiments. At the Souain experiment, France tested an armoured tracked tank prototype, the same month "Little Willie" was completed.Ultimately however, the British were the first to put tanks on the battlefield, at the battle of the Somme in September 1916.


title: History of the tank

text: The name "tank" was introduced in December, 1915 as a security measure and has been adopted in many languages. William Tritton, stated that when the prototypes were under construction from August, 1915 they were deliberately falsely described in order to conceal their true purpose. In the workshop the paperwork described them as "water carriers," supposedly for use on the Mesopotamian Front. In conversation the workers referred to them as "water tanks" or, simply, "tanks." In October the Landships Committee decided, for security purposes, to change its own name to something less descriptive.


title: History of the tank

text: One of the members, Ernest Swinton suggested "tank," and the committee agreed. The name "tank" was used in official documents and common parlance from then on, and the Landships Committee was renamed the Tank Supply Committee. This is sometimes confused with the labelling of the first production tanks (ordered in February, 1916) with a caption in Russian. It translated as "With Care to Petrograd," probably again inspired by the workers at Foster's, some of whom believed the machines to be snowploughs meant for Russia, and was introduced from May 15, 1916. The Committee was happy to perpetuate this misconception since it might also mislead the Germans.


title: History of the tank

text: The naval background of the tank's development also explains such nautical tank terms as hatch, hull, bow, and ports. The great secrecy surrounding tank development, coupled with the scepticism of infantry commanders, often meant that infantry at first had little training to cooperate with tanks.


title: History of the tank

text: Vasily Mendeleev, an engineer in a shipyard, worked privately on a design of a super-heavy tank from 1911 to 1915. It was a heavily armoured 170 ton tracked vehicle armed with one 120 mm naval gun. The design envisioned many innovations that became standard features of a modern battle tank – protection of the vehicle was well-thought out, the gun included automatic loading mechanism, pneumatic suspension allowed adjusting of clearance, some critical systems were duplicated, transportation by railroad was possible by a locomotive or with adapter wheels. However, the cost would have been almost as much as that of a submarine, and it was never built.


title: History of the tank

text: The Vezdekhod was a small cross-country vehicle designed by aero-engineer Aleksandr Porokhovschikov that ran on a single wide rubber track propelled by a 10 hp engine. Two small wheels either side were provided for steering but while the vehicles could cross ground well its steering was ineffectual. In post-revolution Russia, the Vezdekhod was portrayed in propaganda as the first tank.


title: History of the tank

text: The Tsar Tank, also known as the Lebedenko tank after its designer – was a tricycle design vehicle on 9 m high front wheels. It was expected that such large wheels would be able to cross any obstacle but because of a flawed design most of the weight was forced through the smaller rear wheel, which became stuck when tested in 1915. The designers were prepared to fit larger engines but the project – and the vehicle – was abandoned.


title: History of the tank

text: The A7V was the only German tank of World War I that saw actual combat. A prototype was built in early 1917 for trials, with production of the vehicles beginning in October of the same year. They were used on about six occasions from March 1918. Only twenty were produced. Germany also had several other projects on paper as well as other prototype tanks in development.


title: History of the tank

text: The first offensive using tanks took place on 15 September 1916, during the Battle of the Somme. Forty-nine of the Mark I type were committed, of which thirty-two were mechanically fit to take part in the advance and achieved some small, local successes. In July 1917, 216 British tanks were employed in the Third Battle of Ypres but found it almost impossible to operate in the muddy conditions and achieved little. Not until 20 November 1917, at Cambrai, did the British Tank Corps get the conditions it needed for success. Over 400 tanks penetrated almost 6 miles on a 7-mile wide front.


title: History of the tank

text: However, success was not complete because the infantry failed to exploit and secure the tanks' gains, and almost all the territory gained was recaptured by the Germans. The Australian, Canadian, and British forces then scored a far more significant victory the following year, on 8 August 1918, with 600 tanks in the Battle of Amiens. General Erich Ludendorff referred to that date as the "Black Day" of the German Army.


title: History of the tank

text: Parallel to the British development, France designed its own tanks. The first two, the medium Schneider CA and heavy Saint-Chamond, were not well-conceived, though produced in large numbers and showing technical innovations, the latter using an electro-mechanical transmission and a long 75 mm gun. Both types saw action on numerous occasions but suffered consistently high losses. In 1918, the Renault FT light tank was the first tank in history with a "modern" configuration: a revolving turret on top and an engine compartment at the rear; it would be the most numerous tank of the war. A last development was the superheavy Char 2C, the largest tank ever to see service, some years after the armistice.


title: History of the tank

text: The German response to the Cambrai assault was to develop its own armoured program. Soon the massive A7V appeared. The A7V was a clumsy monster, weighing 30 tons and with a crew of eighteen. By the end of the war, only twenty had been built. Although other tanks were on the drawing board, material shortages limited the German tank corps to these A7Vs and about 36 captured Mark IVs. The A7V would be involved in the first tank "vs". tank battle of the war on April 24, 1918 at the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux—a battle in which there was no clear winner.


title: History of the tank

text: Numerous mechanical failures and the inability of the British and French to mount any sustained drives in the early tank actions cast doubt on their usefulness—and by 1918, tanks were extremely vulnerable unless accompanied by infantry and ground-attack aircraft, both of which worked to locate and suppress anti-tank defences.


title: History of the tank

text: But Gen. John J. Pershing, Commander in Chief, American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), requested in September 1917 that 600 heavy and 1,200 light tanks be produced in the United States. When General Pershing assumed command of the American Expeditionary Force and went to France, he took Lt. Col. George Patton, who became interested in tanks. They were then unwieldy, unreliable, and unproved instruments of warfare, and there was much doubt whether they had any function and value at all on the battlefield. Against the advice of most of his friends, Patton chose to go into the newly formed US Tank Corps. He was the first officer so assigned.


title: History of the tank

text: The first American-produced heavy tank was the 43.5-ton Mark VIII (sometimes known as the "Liberty"), a US–British development of the successful British heavy tank design, intended to equip the Allied forces. Armed with two 6-pounder cannons and five rifle-caliber machine guns, it was operated by an 11-man crew, and had a maximum speed of 6.5 miles per hour and a range of 50 miles. Because of production difficulties, only test vehicles were completed before the War ended.


title: History of the tank

text: The American-built 6.5-ton M1917 light tank was a close copy of the French Renault FT. It had a maximum speed of 5.5 miles per hour and could travel 30 miles on its 30-gallon fuel capacity. Again, because of production delays, none were completed in time to see action. In the summer of 1918 a 3-ton, 2-man tank, (Ford 3-Ton M1918) originated by the Ford Motor Company was designed. It was powered by two Ford Model T, 4-cylinder engines, armed with a .30 inch machine gun, and had a maximum speed of 8 miles per hour. It was considered unsatisfactory as a fighting vehicle but to have possible value in other battlefield roles. An order was placed for 15,000, but only 15 were completed, and none saw service in the War.


title: History of the tank

text: American tank units first entered combat on 12 September 1918 against the Saint-Mihiel salient with the First Army. They belonged to the 344th and 345th Light Tank Battalions, elements of the 304th Tank Brigade, commanded by Lt. Col. Patton, under whom they had trained at the tank center in Bourg, France, and were equipped with the Renault FT, supplied by France. Although mud, lack of fuel, and mechanical failure caused many tanks to stall in the German trenches, the attack succeeded and much valuable experience was gained. By the armistice of 11 November 1918, the AEF was critically short of tanks, as no American-made ones were completed in time for use in combat.


title: History of the tank

text: After World War I, General Erich Ludendorff of the German High Command praised the Allied tanks as being a principal factor in Germany's defeat. The Germans had been too late in recognizing their value to consider them in their own plans. Even if their already hard-pressed industry could have produced them in quantity, fuel was in very short supply. Of the total of 90 tanks fielded by the Germans during 1918, 75 had been captured from the Allies.


title: History of the tank

text: The U.S. tank units fought so briefly and were so fragmented during the war, and the number of tanks available to them was so limited, that there was practically no opportunity to develop tactics for their large-scale employment. Nonetheless, their work was sufficiently impressive to imbue at least a few military leaders with the idea that the use of tanks in mass was the most likely principal role of armour in the future.


title: History of the tank

text: Highlights of U.S. Army appraisal for the development and use of tanks, developed from combat experience, were: (1) the need for a tank with more power, fewer mechanical failures, heavier armour, longer operating range, and better ventilation; (2) the need for combined training of tanks with other combat arms, especially the infantry; (3) the need for improved means of communication and of methods for determining and maintaining directions; and (4) the need for an improved supply system, especially for petrol and ammunition.


title: History of the tank

text: At the war's end, the main role of the tank was considered to be that of close support for the infantry. Although the tank of World War I was slow, clumsy, unwieldy, difficult to control, and mechanically unreliable, its value as a combat weapon had been clearly proven. But, despite the lessons of World War I, the combat arms were most reluctant to accept a separate and independent role for armor and continued to struggle among themselves over the proper use of tanks. At the outset, thought of the tank as an auxiliary to and a part of the infantry was the predominant opinion, although a few leaders contended that an independent tank arm should be retained.


title: History of the tank

text: In addition to the light and heavy categories of American-produced tanks of World War I, a third classification, the medium, began receiving attention in 1919. It was hoped that this in-between type would incorporate the best features of the 6-ton light and the Mark VIII heavy and would replace both. The meaning of the terms light, medium, and heavy tanks changed between the wars. During World War I and immediately thereafter, the light tank was considered to be up to 10 tons, the medium (produced by the British) was roughly between 10 and 25 tons, and the heavy was over 25 tons. For World War II, increased weights resulted in the light tank being over 20 tons, the medium over 30, and the heavy, developed toward the end of the war, over 60 tons. During the period between the world wars, the weights of the classifications varied generally within these extremes.


title: History of the tank

text: The U.S. National Defense Act of 1920 placed the Tank Corps under the Infantry. The Act's stipulation that "hereafter all tank units shall form a part of the Infantry" left little doubt as to the tank role for the immediate future. George Patton had argued for an independent Tank Corps. But if, in the interest of economy, the tanks had to go under one of the traditional arms, he preferred the cavalry, for Patton intuitively understood that tanks operating with cavalry would stress mobility, while tanks tied to the infantry would emphasize firepower. Tanks in peacetime, he feared, as he said, "would be very much like coast artillery with a lot of machinery which never works."


title: History of the tank

text: At a time when most soldiers regarded the tank as a specialized infantry-support weapon for crossing trenches, a significant number of officers in the Royal Tank Corps had gone on to envision much broader roles for mechanized organizations. In May 1918, Col. J.F.C. Fuller, the acknowledged father of tank doctrine, had used the example of German infiltration tactics to refine what he called "Plan 1919". This was an elaborate concept for a large-scale armoured offensive in 1919.


title: History of the tank

text: The Royal Tank Corps had to make do with the same basic tanks from 1922 until 1938. British armoured theorists did not always agree with each other. B. H. Liddell Hart, a noted publicist of armoured warfare, wanted a true combined arms force with a major role for mechanized infantry. Fuller, Broad, and other officers were more interested in a pure-tank role.


title: History of the tank

text: The Experimental Mechanized Force formed by the British under Percy Hobart to investigate and develop techniques was a mobile force with its own self-propelled guns, supporting infantry and engineers in motor vehicles and armoured cars.


title: History of the tank

text: Both advocates and opponents of mechanization often used the term "tank" loosely to mean not only an armored, tracked, turreted, gun-carrying fighting vehicle, but also any form of armored vehicle or mechanized unit. Such usage made it difficult for contemporaries or historians to determine whether a particular speaker was discussing pure tank forces, mechanized combined arms forces, or mechanization of infantry forces.