title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: On 5 August, Joffre ordered an offensive by the VII Corps, on the right flank of the First Army, to begin on 7 August towards Mulhouse. The capture of the 2nd Army order of battle on 7 August, convinced Joffre that the strength of the German forces on the flanks had left the centre weak and vulnerable to an offensive towards Neufchâteau and Arlon. On 8 August, Joffre issued General Instruction No. 1, containing his strategic intent, which was to destroy the German army rather than capture ground. The offensive into Alsace and that by the First and Second armies into Lorraine, would pin down German forces and attract reinforcements, as the main offensive further north drove in the German centre and outflanked the German forces in Belgium from the south. Joffre expected that the attack into the German centre would meet little resistance. The First and Second armies would advance south of the German fortified area from Metz–Thionville, with the Fourth Reserve Group guarding the northern flank near Hirson, to watch the Chimay Gap and deflect a German attack from the north or east. The strategy assumed that the main German force would be deployed around Luxembourg and from Metz–Thionville, with smaller forces in Belgium. On 9 August, an intelligence report had one German active corps near Freiburg close to the Swiss border, three near Strasbourg, four in Luxembourg to the north of Thionville and six from Liège in Belgium, towards the north end of Luxembourg, which left five corps un-located. The French general staff inferred that they were between Metz-Thionville and Luxembourg, ready to advance towards Sedan or Mézières.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: Joffre set 14 August as the date when the First and Second armies were to invade Lorraine between Toul and Épinal, south of the German fortified area of Metz-Thionville. The First Army was to attack in the south with four corps, towards Sarrebourg east of Nancy and Donon, south of Sarrebourg. Passes in the Vosges to the south of Donon were to be captured before the main advance began. The Second Army was to attack towards Morhange north-east of Nancy, with two corps north of the First Army and three advancing successively behind the left flank of the corps to the south, to counter a German attack from Metz. The French offensive was complicated by the two armies diverging as they advanced, on difficult terrain particularly in the south, the combined fronts eventually being wide. The advances of the First and Second armies were to attract German forces towards the south, while a French manoeuvre took place in Belgium and Luxembourg, to pierce a weak point in the German deployment and then destroy the main German armies.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: News that German forces were attacking towards the Meuse bridges south of Namur, led Joffre to expect a German attack from Mézières to Givet, further north, intended to envelop the French northern flank and another force to try to cross the Meuse from Montmédy to Sedan. On 12 August, Joffre allowed Lanrezac to move the I Corps west to Dinant on the Meuse and on 15 August, Joffre ordered the bulk of the Fifth Army to move north-west behind the Sambre. No large German force was expected to cross to the north of the Meuse, which made the French general staff certain that the German centre was weaker than expected. On 18 August, Joffre directed the Third, Fourth and Fifth armies, together with the Belgians and British, to attack the German armies around Thionville and Luxembourg, where corps were thought to have assembled. The Third and Fourth armies were to defeat German forces between Thionville and Bastogne, as they attacked westwards towards Montmédy and Sedan. The Fifth Army was to intercept German forces advancing towards Givet and then the Fourth Army was to swing north and attack the southern flank of the German armies. The Third and Fourth armies would defeat decisively the main German armies in the west and for this, two more corps were added to the four in the Fourth Army, taken from the flanking armies.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: The first French offensive of the war, known as the Battle of Mulhouse, began on 7 August. Joffre had directed the First and Second armies to engage as many German divisions as possible to assist French forces operating further north. The French VII Corps with the 14th and 41st divisions, under the command of General Bonneau, advanced from Belfort to Mulhouse and Colmar to the north-east. The French quickly seized the border town of Altkirch south of Mulhouse with a bayonet charge. On 8 August, Bonneau cautiously continued the advance and occupied Mulhouse, shortly after its German garrison had left the town. The First Army commander General Auguste Dubail preferred to dig in and complete the army mobilisation but Joffre ordered the advance to continue. With the arrival of two corps of the German 7th Army from Strasbourg, the Germans mounted a counter-attack on the morning of 9 August, at nearby Cernay. Mulhouse was recaptured on 10 August and Bonneau withdrew towards Belfort to escape a German encirclement.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: General Paul Pau was put in command of a new Army of Alsace and Bonneau, the VII Corps commander, was (dismissed) by Joffre. VII Corps was reinforced with the 44th Division, the 55th Reserve Division, the 8th Cavalry Division and the 1st Group of Reserve Divisions (58th, 63rd and 66th Reserve divisions) to re-invade Alsace on 14 August, as part of the bigger offensive by the First and Second armies into Lorraine, which drew most of the German 7th Army northwards. The Army of Alsace began a new offensive against four "Landwehr" brigades, the VII Corps advancing from Belfort with two divisions on the right passing through Dannemarie, at the head of the valley of the Ill. On the left flank, two divisions advanced in co-operation with Chasseur battalions, which had moved into the Fecht valley on 12 August. On the evening of 14 August, Thann was captured and the most advanced troops had passed beyond the suburbs of Thann, Cernay and Dannemarie on the western outskirts of the city by 16 August. On 18 August, the VII Corps attacked Mulhouse and captured Altkirch on the south-eastern flank as the northern flank advanced towards Colmar and Neuf-Breisach.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: The German defenders were forced back from high ground to the west of Mulhouse on both banks of the Doller and into the Mulhouse suburbs, where a house-to-house battle took place. The streets and houses of Dornach were captured systematically and by the evening of 19 August the French had recaptured the city. After being overrun, the Germans withdrew hastily through the Hardt forest to avoid being cut off and crossed the Rhine pursued by the French, retreating to Ensisheim, to the north. The French captured and considerable amounts of equipment. With the capture of the Rhine bridges and valleys leading into the plain, the Army of Alsace had gained control of upper-Alsace. The French consolidated the captured ground and prepared to continue the offensive but on 23 August preparations were suspended, as news arrived of the defeats in Lorraine and Belgium; instead the French withdrew and consolidated the ridge beyond the Fortified region of Belfort. On 26 August the French withdrew from Mulhouse to a more defensible line near Altkirch, to provide reinforcements for the French armies closer to Paris. The Army of Alsace was disbanded and the VII Corps was transferred to the Somme. The 8th Cavalry Division was attached to the First Army and two more divisions were sent later.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: The Battle of Haelen (Halen in Dutch) was a cavalry battle at the beginning of the First World War. Haelen was a small market town along the principal axis of advance of the German imperial army and provided a good crossing point over the River Gete. The battle took place on 12 August between German forces, led by Georg von der Marwitz and the Belgian troops commanded by Léon de Witte. Belgian engineers had blown the bridge over the Gete but the structure only partly collapsed and the Germans got troops over it into the centre of Haelen. The main Belgian defence line was west of Haelen in terrain which gave only an obstructed view to the attacker. The 17th and 3rd Cavalry brigades assisted the in and south of Haelen, which enabled artillery to be brought to the fringe of the village but attacks into cornfields beyond were repulsed with many casualties, some cavalry becoming trapped by wire fences. The were also repulsed despite support from the 2nd Guards Machine-gun Detachment and dismounted cavalry sharpshooters.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: Towards the end of the day Marwitz broke off the engagement; the 2nd Cavalry Division retired towards Hasselt and the 4th Cavalry Division withdrew to Alken. De Witte had repulsed the German cavalry attacks by ordering the cavalry, which included a company of cyclists and one of pioneers to fight dismounted and meet the attack with massed rifle fire, which inflicted significant casualties upon the Germans. The German cavalry had managed to obscure the operations on the German right flank and established a front parallel with Liège and discovered the positions of the Belgian field army but had not been able to penetrate beyond the Belgian front line and discover Belgian dispositions beyond. Although a Belgian victory, the battle had little strategic effect: the German armies besieged and captured the fortified regions of Namur, Liège and Antwerp, on which Belgian strategy depended.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: The main French offensive in the south began on 14 August when the First Army advanced with two corps into the Vosges and two corps north-east towards Sarrebourg and the two right-hand corps of the Second Army of General de Castelnau advanced on the left of the First Army. One corps and the Second Group of Reserve Divisions advanced slowly towards Morhange in echelon, as a flank guard against a German attack from Metz. The First Army had captured several passes further south since 8 August, to protect the southern flank as the army advanced to Donon and Sarrebourg. Despite warnings from Joffre against divergence, the army was required to advance towards the Vosges passes to the south-east, eastwards towards Donon and north-east towards Sarrebourg. German troops withdrew during the day, Donon was captured and on the left flank an advance of was made. At dusk, the 26th Division of the XIII Corps attacked Cirey but was repulsed by massed artillery and machine-gun fire and suffered a costly repulse. On 15 August, the Second Army reported that German long-range artillery had been able to bombard the French artillery and infantry undisturbed and that dug-in German infantry had inflicted many casualties on the French as they attacked.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: The Second Army had to attack methodically after artillery preparation but managed to push back the German defenders. Intelligence reports identified a main line of resistance of the German 6th Army and 7th Army, which had been combined under the command of Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, close to the advanced French troops and that a counter-offensive was imminent. On 16 August, the Germans opposed the advance with long-range artillery fire and on 17 August, the First Army reinforced the advance on Sarrebourg. When the Germans were found to have left the city Joffre ordered the Second Army to incline further to the north, which had the effect of increasing the divergence of the French armies. A German counter-attack on 20 August forced separate battles on the French armies, which were defeated and forced to retreat in disorder. The German pursuit was slow and Castelnau was able to occupy positions east of Nancy and extend the right wing towards the south, to regain touch with the First Army. During 22 August, the right flank was attacked and driven back from the position where the offensive had begun on 14 August. The First Army withdrew but managed to maintain contact with the Second Army and on 24 August, both armies began a counter-offensive at the Battle of the Trouée de Charmes and regained the line of 14 August, by early September.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: Joffre issued instructions on 18 August but held back the Third and Fourth armies because air and cavalry reconnaissance found few German troops opposite the two armies, only a large force moving north-west away. On 19 August, the Fourth army of General Fernand de Langle de Cary, was ordered to occupy the bridges over the Semois but not to advance into Belgium until the German offensive began. A premature attack would advance into a trap, rather than give time for the Germans to empty Luxembourg of troops before the French advanced. On 20 August the German armies in the south attacked the French first and Second armies and next day the Third and Fourth armies began their offensive. The Fourth Army crossed the Semois and advanced towards Neufchâteau and the Third Army of General Pierre Ruffey attacked towards Arlon, as a right flank guard for the Fourth army.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: South of Verdun, the Third Army was renamed Army of Lorraine and was to watch for a German offensive from Metz, which left the remainder of the Third Army free to concentrate on the offensive into Belgium. The French armies invaded Belgium with nine infantry corps but ten German corps and six reserve brigades of the 4th and 5th armies lay between Metz and the north of Luxembourg. The German 4th Army under Albrecht, Duke of Württemberg and 5th Army of Crown Prince Wilhelm had moved slower than the 1st, 2nd and 3rd armies and the French offensive towards them was reported on 21 August. The French armies had few maps and were unaware of the size of the German force opposite, as the Third Army brushed aside small German detachments. On 22 August in the Third army area, the V Corps attacked dug-in German troops at Longwy at in thick fog and heavy rain, with no artillery support.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: As the fog lifted, German artillery caught the French guns in the open and silenced them. A German counter-attack routed a French division and the corps was not rallied until the evening. To the north the IV Corps also advanced in fog and encountered German troops dug in near Virton and was forced back also with a division routed. On the southern flank, the VI Corps was pushed back a short distance. In the Fourth Army area, the II Corps on the right flank managed to keep level with the Third Army to the south but was not able to advance further. The Colonial Corps on the left was defeated at the Battle of Rossignol, south of Neufchâteau and had but the 5th Colonial Brigade on the left easily reached Neufchâteau, before it too was repulsed with many casualties. Further north, XII Corps advanced steadily but the XVII Corps beyond was outflanked and the 33rd Division lost most of its artillery. On the northern flank the XI and IX corps were not seriously engaged.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: The French commanders were ordered by Joffre to continue the offensive on 23 August, as early as possible since his strategy depended on the success of the Third and Fourth armies. Ruffey replied in the morning that the attack could not begin until his divisions had reorganised and in the early afternoon, found that the Germans had forestalled another advance, by pushing the V Corps in the centre back for , which led to the rest of the army falling back level. In the Fourth Army area, the 33rd Division of XVII Corps had been routed and the rest of the corps had withdrawn during the night of The 5th Colonial Brigade withdrew from Neufchâteau before dawn on 23 August, exposing the right flank of XII Corps, which also fell back. By the end of 23 August the survivors of the Third and Fourth armies were back to their jumping-off positions except for the XI and IX corps on the northern flank.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: On 19 August the Fifth Army began to move into the angle of the Meuse and Sambre rivers close to Namur, which required a march of up to and took the army far beyond the left flank of the Fourth Army. Opposite the French were the 2nd and 3rd armies, with against the divisions. The I Corps held the west bank of the Meuse from Givet to Namur, X Corps faced north-west along the Sambre, with the III Corps to the west opposite Charleroi and the XVIII Corps further to the left. French cavalry on the left flank skirmished with German cavalry on 20 August and next day Joffre ordered the Fifth Army to advance, with the BEF on the left to find and attack the German forces west of the Meuse.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: Before the French could cross the Sambre a German attack began between Namur and Charleroi and captured the Sambre bridges. On 22 August the French attacked to retake them but were repulsed in the centre. The I Corps was ordered to move north to Namur, which left of the Meuse defended by one reserve division and the 3rd Army was able to cross north of Givet. The I Corps drove part of the 3rd Army back across the river on 23 August but was not able to recapture Dinant. At the same time the BEF was attacked by the 1st Army at Mons. With the evacuation of Namur and news of the French Fourth Army retreating from the Ardennes, Lanrezac ordered a withdrawal around midnight towards Givet, which was the final French manoeuvre of the Battle of the Frontiers.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: On 23 August, The German IX Corps advanced and part of the 35th Brigade got across the Mons–Condé Canal east of Nimy; reached the railway beyond in the early afternoon but was repulsed from the town. The 36th Brigade captured bridges at Obourg against determined resistance, after which the defenders at Nimy gradually withdrew; the bridges to the north were captured at and the village captured. Mons was occupied unopposed but on higher ground to the east, the defence continued. The 17th Division advanced to the road from St Symphorien to St Ghislain. At the divisional commander ordered an enveloping attack on the British east of Mons, who were pushed back after a stand on the Mons-Givry road. By reports to Kluck revealed that the British were in St Ghislain and at the canal crossings to the west as far as the bridge at Pommeroeuil, with no troops east of Condé. With reports indicating that the right flank was clear of Allied troops, Kluck ordered the III Corps to advance through St Ghislain and Jemappes on the right of IX Corps and the IV Corps to continue towards Hensis and Thulies; the IV Corps was already attacking at the Canal du Centre and the II Corps and the IV Reserve Corps were following on behind the main part of the army.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: Kluck ordered the attack to continue on 24 August, past the west of Maubeuge and that II Corps was to catch up behind the right flank of the army. IX Corps was to advance to the east of Bavai, III Corps was to advance to the west of the village, IV Corps was to advance towards Warnies-le-Grand further to the west and the II Cavalry Corps was to head towards Denain to cut off the British retreat. At dawn the IX Corps resumed its advance and pushed forwards against rearguards until the afternoon when the corps stopped the advance due to uncertainty about the situation on its left flank and the proximity of Maubeuge. At cavalry reports led Quast to resume the advance, which was slowed by the obstacles of Maubeuge and III Corps. The staff at Kluck's headquarters, claimed that the two day's fighting had failed to envelop the British due to the subordination of the army to Bülow and the 2nd Army headquarters, which had insisted that the 1st Army keep closer to the western flank, rather than attack to the west of Mons. It was believed that only part of the BEF had been engaged and that there was a main line of defence from Valenciennes to Bavai and Kluck ordered it to be enveloped on 25 August.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: The French offensive was defeated in a few days; on the right the First and Second armies advanced on 14 August and were back at their jumping-off points on 20 August. The offensive of the Third and Fourth armies was defeated from and the Fifth Army was defeated on the Sambre and forced to retreat during the same period. Joffre's strategy had failed due to an underestimation of the German armies and the dispersion of the French offensive effort. With a large German force operating in Belgium, the German centre had appeared to be vulnerable to the Third and Fourth armies. The mistaken impression of the size of the German force in Belgium or its approach route was not as significant as the faulty information about the strength of the German armies opposite the Third and Fourth armies. Joffre blamed others and claimed that the French infantry had failed to show offensive qualities, despite outnumbering the German armies at their most vulnerable point, a claim that Robert A. Doughty in 2005 called "pure balderdash".


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: The reality was that many of the French casualties were said to have come from an excess of offensive spirit and on 23 August, Ruffey concluded that the infantry had attacked without artillery preparation or support during the attack. Early on 24 August, Joffre ordered a withdrawal to a line from Verdun to Mézières and Maubeuge and began to transfer troops from the east opposite the German border, to the western flank. The French armies were to destroy railway facilities and inflict as many casualties as possible on the German armies, preparatory to resuming the offensive. Two strategic alternatives were possible, to attack the eastern flank of the 1st Army or to envelop the western flank of all the German armies. On 25 August, Joffre issued General Instruction No. 2, for a withdrawal to a line from Verdun to Reims and Amiens and the assembly of two corps and four reserve divisions near Amiens, for the envelopment operation. Joffre called for much greater integration of the infantry and artillery and for more tactical dispersal of infantry to nullify German fire power.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: In "The World Crisis", Winston Churchill used figures from French parliamentary records of 1920 to give French casualties from 5 August to 5 September 1914 of wounded and missing, German casualties from August to November of and British casualties in August and September of By the end of August, the French Army had suffered of whom killed on 22 August. French casualties for the first month of the war were which during the last four days of the Battle of the Frontiers. In 2009, Herwig recorded that the casualties in the 6th Army in August were killed and September with killed. The 7th Army had in August, with killed and in September with killed. In the 1st Army in August there were including killed and in the 2nd Army In the last ten days of August, the 1st Army had and the 2nd Army had losses of Herwig wrote that the French army did not publish formal casualty lists but that the Official History "Les armées françaises dans la grande guerre" gave losses of for August and September. During the battle, French casualties were of whom were killed.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: The French Fifth Army fell back about from the Sambre during the Battle of Charleroi (22 August) and began a greater withdrawal from the area south of the Sambre on 23 August. The BEF fought the Battle of Mons on 24 August, by when the French First and Second armies had been pushed back by attacks of the German 7th and 6th armies between St Dié and Nancy, the Third Army held positions east of Verdun against attacks by the 5th Army, the Fourth Army held positions from the junction with the Third Army south of Montmédy, westwards to Sedan, Mezières and Fumay, facing the 4th Army and the Fifth Army was between Fumay and Maubeuge, with the 3rd Army advancing up the Meuse valley from Dinant and Givet into a gap between the Fourth and Fifth armies and the 2nd Army pressed forward into the angle between the Meuse and Sambre directly against the Fifth Army. On the far west flank of the French, the BEF prolonged the line from Maubeuge to Valenciennes against the 1st Army and Army Detachment von Beseler masked the Belgian army at Antwerp.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: On 26 August, German forces captured Valenciennes and began the Siege of Maubeuge Leuven (Louvain) was sacked by German troops and the Battle of Le Cateau was fought by the BEF and the 1st Army. Longwy was surrendered by its garrison and next day British Marines and a party of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) landed at Ostend; Lille and Mezières were occupied by German troops. Arras was occupied on 27 August and a French counter-offensive began at the Battle of St Quentin (1914) (Battle of Guise On 29 August the Fifth Army counter-attacked the 2nd Army south of the Oise, from Vervins to Mont Dorigny and west of the river from Mont Dorigny to Moy towards St Quentin on the Somme, while the British held the line of the Oise west of La Fère. Laon, La Fère, and Roye were captured by German troops on 30 August and Amiens the next day. On 1 September Craonne and Soissons were captured and on 5 September the BEF ended its retreat from Mons, German troops reached Claye, from Paris, Reims was captured, German forces withdrew from Lille and the First Battle of the Marne (Battle of the Ourcq) began, marking the end of the Great Retreat of the western flank of the Franco-British armies.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: By 4 September the First and Second armies had slowed the advance of the 7th and 6th armies west of St Dié and east of Nancy, from where the Second Army had withdrawn its left flank, to face north between Nancy and Toul. A gap between the left of the Second Army and the right of the Third Army at Verdun, which faced north-west, on a line towards Revigny against the 5th Army advance, west of the Meuse between Varennes and St Ménéhould. The Fourth Army had withdrawn to Sermaize, west to the Marne at Vitry le François and then across the river to Sompons, against the 4th Army, which had advanced from Rethel, to Suippes and the west of Chalons. The new Ninth Army held a line from Mailly against the 3rd Army, which had advanced from Mézières, over the Vesle and the Marne west of Chalons. The 2nd Army had advanced from Marle on the Serre, across the Aisne and the Vesle, between Reims and Fismes to Montmort, north of the junction of the Ninth and Fifth armies at Sezanne. The Fifth Army and the BEF had withdrawn south of the Oise, Serre, Aisne and Ourq, pursued by the 2nd Army on a line from Guise to Laon, Vailly and Dormans and by the 1st Army from Montdidier, towards Compiègne and then south-east towards Montmirail. The new French Sixth Army, linked with the left of the BEF, west of the Marne at Meaux, to Pontiose north of Paris. French garrisons were besieged at Strasbourg, Metz, Thionville, Longwy, Montmédy and Maubeuge. The Belgian army was invested at Antwerp in the National redoubt and at fortress troops continued the defence of the Liège forts.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: The German offensive began during the night of 3 September against the fortifications of the Grand Couronné, either side of Nancy, which pushed back the 2nd Group of Reserve Divisions, comprising the 59th, 68th and 70th Reserve Divisions under General Léon Durand, to the north and the XX Corps of General Balfourier to the south, by the evening of 4 September. In the afternoon of 5 September Castelnau telegraphed to Joffre that he proposed to evacuate Nancy, to preserve the fighting power of the army. Next day Joffre replied that the Second Army was to hold the area east of Nancy if at all possible and only then retire to a line from the Forest of Haye to Saffais, Belchamp and Borville.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: The civilian authorities in the city had begun preparations for an evacuation but the troops on the Grand Couronné repulsed German attacks on the right flank, during 5 September. The Reserve divisions were only pushed back a short distance on the front to the east and north of Nancy. An attempt by Moltke to withdraw troops from the 6th Army, to join a new 7th Army being formed for operations on the Oise failed when Rupprecht and Dellmensingen were backed by the Emperor who was at the 6th Army headquarters. German attacks continued on 6 September and XX Corps conducted a counter-attack which gave the defenders a short period to recuperate but the troops of the 2nd Group of Reserve Divisions, east and north of Nancy, began to give way.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: On 7 September German attacks further north drove a salient into the French defences south of Verdun at St Mihiel, which could force apart the Second and Third armies. At Nancy, part of the 59th Reserve Division retreated from the height of St Geneviève, which overlooked the Grand Couronné north-west of Nancy, exposing the left flank of the Second Army and Nancy to envelopment. Castelnau ordered a withdrawal from Nancy but the move was circumvented by his staff; Castelnau was ordered by Joffre to maintain the defence of the Grand Couronné for another The Germans had retired during the afternoon and the French reoccupied the height. German attacks continued until the morning of 8 September but then diminished as Moltke began to withdraw troops to the right flank of the German armies. Moltke sent Major Roeder to the 6th Army with orders to end the offensive and prepare to retire to the frontier; only now did Rupprecht find out that the armies near Paris were under severe pressure. The attacks by the 6th Army diminished and on 10 September it began to withdraw towards the frontier. On 13 September, Pont-à-Mousson and Lunéville were re-occupied by the French unopposed who then closed up to the Seille river, where the front stabilised until 1918.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: Joffre used the railways which had transported French troops to the German frontier to move troops back from Lorraine and Alsace to form a new Sixth Army under General Michel-Joseph Maunoury with nine divisions and two cavalry divisions. By 10 September twenty divisions and three cavalry divisions had been moved west from the German border to the French centre and left and the balance of force between the German and the Third, Fourth, Ninth, Fifth armies, the BEF and Sixth Army had changed to Late on 4 September Joffre ordered the Sixth Army to attack eastwards over the Ourcq towards Château Thierry as the BEF advanced towards Montmirail and the Fifth Army attacked northwards, with its right flank protected by the Ninth Army along the St Gond marshes. The French First–Fourth armies to the east were to resist the attacks of the German between Verdun and Toul and repulse an enveloping attack on the defences south of Nancy from the north. The 6th and 7th armies were reinforced by heavy artillery from Metz and attacked again on 4 September along the Moselle.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: On 5 September the Sixth Army advanced eastwards from Paris and met the German IV Reserve Corps, which had moved into the area that morning and stopped the French short of high ground north of Meaux. Overnight the IV Reserve Corps withdrew to a better position east and French air reconnaissance observed German forces moving north to face the Sixth Army. General Alexander von Kluck the 1st Army commander, ordered the II Corps to move back to the north bank of the Marne, which began a redeployment of all four 1st Army corps to the north bank by 8 September. The swift move to the north bank prevented the Sixth Army from crossing the Ourcq but created a gap between the 1st and 2nd Armies. The BEF advanced from 6 to 8 September, crossed the Petit Morin, captured bridges over the Marne and established a bridgehead deep. The Fifth Army also advanced into the gap and by 8 September crossed the Petit Morin, which forced Bülow to withdraw the right flank of the 2nd Army. Next day the Fifth Army re-crossed the Marne and the German 1st and 2nd armies began to retire as the French Ninth, Fourth and Third armies fought defensive battles with the 3rd Army which was forced to retreat with the 1st and 2nd armies on 9 September.


title: Battle of the Frontiers

text: Further east the Third Army was forced back to the west of Verdun as German attacks were made on the Meuse Heights to the south-east but managed to maintain contact with Verdun and the Fourth Army to the west. German attacks against the Second Army south of Verdun from 5 September almost forced the French to retreat but on 8 September the crisis eased. By 10 September the German armies west of Verdun were retreating towards the Aisne and the Franco-British were following up, collecting stragglers and equipment. On 12 September Joffre ordered an outflanking move to the west and an attack northwards by the Third Army to cut off the German retreat. The pursuit was too slow and on 14 September, the German armies dug in north of the Aisne and the Allies met trench lines rather than rearguards. Frontal attacks by the Ninth, Fifth and Sixth armies were repulsed on which led Joffre to begin the transfer of the Second Army west to the left flank of the Sixth Army, the first phase of the Race to the Sea, reciprocal attempts by the contending armies to outflank their opponent, which from 17 September to moved the opposing armies through Picardy and Flanders to the North Sea coast.


title: Royal Mint

text: Operating under the legal name The Royal Mint Limited, it is a limited company that is wholly owned by His Majesty's Treasury and is under an exclusive contract to supply the nation's coinage. As well as minting circulating coins for the UK and international markets, The Royal Mint is a leading provider of precious metal products.


title: Royal Mint

text: The Royal Mint was historically part of a series of mints that became centralised to produce coins for the Kingdom of England, all of Great Britain, the United Kingdom, and nations across the Commonwealth.


title: Royal Mint

text: The Royal Mint operated within the Tower of London for several hundred years before moving to what is now called Royal Mint Court, where it remained until the 1960s. As Britain followed the rest of the world in decimalising its currency, the Mint moved from London to a new 38-acre (15 ha) plant in Llantrisant, Glamorgan, Wales, where it has remained since.


title: Royal Mint

text: Since 2018 The Royal Mint has been evolving its business to help offset declining cash use. It has expanded into precious metals investment, historic coins, and luxury collectibles, which saw it deliver an operating profit of £12.7 million in 2020–2021.


title: Royal Mint

text: In 2022 The Royal Mint announced it was building a new plant in South Wales to recover precious metals from electronic waste. The first of this sustainably sourced gold is already being used in a new jewellery division – 886 by The Royal Mint – named in celebration of its symbolic founding date.


title: Royal Mint

text: The history of coins in Great Britain can be traced back to the second century BC when they were introduced by Celtic tribes from across the English Channel. The first record of coins being minted in Britain is attributed to Kentish tribes such as the Cantii who around 80–60 BC imitated those of Marseille through casting instead of hammering. After the Romans began their invasion of Britain in AD 43, they set up mints across the land, which produced Roman coins for some 40 years before closing. A mint in London reopened briefly in 383 AD until closing swiftly as Roman rule in Britain came to an end. For the next 200 years, no coins appear to have been minted in Britain until the emergence of English kingdoms in the sixth and seventh centuries. By 650 AD, as many as 30 mints are recorded across Britain.


title: Royal Mint

text: In 1279, the country's numerous mints were unified under a single system whereby control was centralised to the mint within the Tower of London. Mints outside London were reduced, with only a few local and episcopal mints continuing to operate. Pipe rolls containing the financial records of the London mint show an expenditure of £729 17s 8½d and records of timber bought for workshops.


title: Royal Mint

text: Individual roles at the mint were well established by 1464. The master worker was charged with hiring engravers and managing moneyers, while the Warden was responsible for witnessing the delivery of dies. A specialist mint board was set up in 1472 to enact a 23 February indenture that vested the mint's responsibilities into three main roles: a warden, a master and comptroller.


title: Royal Mint

text: In the early 16th century, mainland Europe was in the middle of an economic expansion, but England was suffering from financial difficulties brought on by excessive government spending. By the 1540s, wars with France and Scotland led Henry VIII to enact The Great Debasement, which saw the amount of precious metal in coins significantly reduced. In order to strengthen control of the country's currency, monasteries were dissolved, which effectively ended major coin production outside London.


title: Royal Mint

text: In 1603, the Union of Crowns of England and Scotland under King James I led to a partial union of the two kingdoms' currencies, the pound Scots and the pound sterling. Because Scotland had heavily debased its silver coins, a Scots mark was worth just 13½d while an English mark was worth 6s 8d (80d). To bridge the difference between the values, unofficial supplementary token coins, often made from lead, were made by unauthorised minters across the country. By 1612, there were 3,000 such unlicensed mints producing these tokens, none of them paying anything to the government. The Royal Mint, not wanting to divert manpower from minting more profitable gold and silver coins, hired outside agent Lord Harington who, under license, started issuing copper farthings in 1613. Private licenses to mint these coins were revoked in 1644, which led traders to resume minting their own supplementary tokens. In 1672, the Royal Mint finally took over the production of copper coinage.


title: Royal Mint

text: In 1630, sometime before the outbreak of the English Civil War, England signed a treaty with Spain that ensured a steady supply of silver bullion to the Tower mint. Additional branch mints to aid the one in London were set up, including one at Aberystwyth Castle in Wales. In 1642, parliament seized control of the Tower mint. After Charles I tried to arrest the Five Members, he was forced to flee London and established at least 16 emergency mints across the British Isles in Carlisle, Chester, Colchester, Cork, Dublin, Edinburgh, Exeter, Newark, Pontefract, Salisbury, Scarborough, parts of Cornwall including Truro, Weymouth, Worcester, and York (see also siege money).


title: Royal Mint

text: After raising the royal standard in Nottingham, marking the beginning of the civil war, Charles called on loyalist mining engineer Thomas Bushell, the owner of a mint and silver mine in Aberystwyth, to move his operations to the royalist-held Shrewsbury, possibly within in the grounds of Shrewsbury Castle. However, this mint was short-lived, operating for no more than three months before Charles ordered Bushell to relocate the mint to his headquarters in the royal capital of Oxford. The new Oxford mint was established on 15 December 1642 in New Inn Hall, the present site of St Peter's College. There, silver plates and foreign coins were melted down and, in some cases, just hammered into shape to produce coins quickly. Bushell was appointed the mint's warden and master-worker, and he laboured alongside notable engravers Nicholas Briot, Thomas Rawlins and Nicholas Burghers, the last of whom was appointed Graver of Seals, Stamps, and Medals in 1643. When Prince Rupert took control of Oxford that same year, Bushell was ordered to move to Bristol Castle, where he continued minting coins until it fell to parliamentary control on 11 September 1645, effectively ending Bushell's involvement in the civil war mints.


title: Royal Mint

text: In November 1642, the king ordered royalist MP Richard Vyvyan to build one or more mints in Cornwall, where he was instructed to mint coins from whatever bullion could be obtained and deliver it to Ralph Hopton, a commander of royalist troops in the region. Vyvyan built a mint in Truro and was its Master until 1646, when it was captured by parliamentarians. In December 1642, the parliamentarians set up a mint in nearby Exeter, which had been under parliamentary control since the beginning of the war and was under constant threat of attack by loyalist troops. In September 1643, the town was captured by the Cornish Royalist Army led by Prince Maurice, leading Vyvyan to move his nearby mint in Truro to the captured town. The exact location of the mint in Exeter is unknown; however, maps from the time show a street named Old Mint Lane near Friernhay, which was to be the site of a 1696 Recoinage mint. Much less is known about the mint's employees, with only Richard Vyvyan and clerk Thomas Hawkes recorded.


title: Royal Mint

text: Following Charles I's execution in 1649, the newly formed Commonwealth of England established its own set of coins, which for the first time used English rather than Latin and were more plainly designed than those issued under the monarchy. The government invited French engineer Peter Blondeau, who worked at the Paris Mint, to come to London in 1649 in the hope of modernising the country's minting process. In France, hammer-stuck coins had been banned from the Paris Mint since 1639 and replaced with milled coinage. Blondeau began his testing in May 1651 in Drury House. He initially produced milled silver pattern pieces of half-crowns, shillings and sixpences; however rival moneyers continued using the old hammering method. In 1656, Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell ordered engraver Thomas Simon to cut a series of dies featuring his bust and for them to be minted using the new milled method. Few of Cromwell's coins entered circulation; Cromwell died in 1658 and the Commonwealth collapsed two years later. Without Cromwell's backing of milled coinage, Blondeau returned to France, leaving England to continue minting hammer-struck coins.


title: Royal Mint

text: In 1662, after previous attempts to introduce milled coinage into Britain had failed, the restored monarch Charles II recalled Peter Blondeau to establish a permanent machine-made coinage. Despite the introduction of the newer, milled coins, like the old hammered coins they suffered heavily from counterfeiting and clipping. To combat this the text "Decus et tutamen" ("An ornament and a safeguard") was added to some coin rims.


title: Royal Mint

text: After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, when James II was ousted from power, parliament took over control of the mint from the Crown, which had until then allowed the mint to act as an independent body producing coins on behalf of the government.


title: Royal Mint

text: Under the patronage of Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, Isaac Newton became the mint's warden in 1696. His role, intended to be a sinecure, was taken seriously by Newton, who went about trying to combat the country's growing problems with counterfeiting. By this time, forgeries accounted for 10% of the country's coinage, clipping was commonplace and the value of the silver in coins had surpassed their face value. King William III initiated the Great Recoinage of 1696 whereby all coins were removed from circulation, and enacted the Coin Act 1696, making it high treason to own or possess counterfeiting equipment. Satellite mints to aid in the recoinage were established in Bristol, Chester, Exeter, Norwich, and York, with returned coins being valued by weight, not face value.


title: Royal Mint

text: The Acts of Union 1707 united England and Scotland into one country, leading London to take over production of Scotland's currency and thus replacing Scotland's Pound Scots with the English Pound sterling. As a result, the Edinburgh mint closed on 4 August 1710. As Britain's empire continued to expand, so too did the need to supply its coinage. This, along with the need for new mint machinery and cramped conditions within the Tower of London, led to plans for the mint to move to nearby East Smithfield.


title: Royal Mint

text: Construction started in 1805 on the new purpose-built mint on Tower Hill, opposite the Tower of London, and it was completed by 1809. In 1812, the move became official: the keys of the old mint were ceremoniously delivered to the Constable of the Tower. Facing the front of the site, stood the Johnson Smirke Building, named for its designer James Johnson and builder Robert Smirke. Construction was supervised by the architect John Lidbury Poole (father of the famous singer, Elizabeth Poole). This building was flanked on both sides by gatehouses behind which another building housed the mint's new machinery. Several other smaller buildings were erected, which housed mint officers and staff members. The entire site was protected by a boundary wall patrolled by the Royal Mint's military guard.


title: Royal Mint

text: By 1856, the mint was beginning to prove inefficient: there were irregularities in minted coins' fineness and weight. Instructed by Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, the Master of the Mint Thomas Graham was informed that unless the mint could raise its standards and become more economical, it would be broken up and placed under management by contractors. Graham sought advice from German chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann, who in turn recommended his student George Frederick Ansell to resolve the mint's issues. In a letter to the Treasury dated 29 October 1856, Ansell was put forward as a candidate. He was appointed as a temporary clerk on 12 November 1856, with a £120 a year salary.


title: Royal Mint

text: Upon taking office, Ansell discovered that the weighing of metals at the mint was extremely loose. At the mint, it had been the custom to weigh silver to within 0.5 troy ounces (oz.) (15.5 g) and gold to a pennyweight (0.05 oz.); however, these standards meant losses were being made from overvalued metals. In one such case, Ansell delivered 7920.00 oz. of gold to the mint, where it was weighed by an official at 7918.15 oz., a difference of 1.83 oz. Requesting a second weighing on a more accurate scale, the bullion was certified to weigh 7919.98 oz., far closer to the previous measurement, which was off by 960 grains. To increase the accuracy of weights, more precise weighing equipment was ordered, and the tolerance was revised to 0.10 oz. for silver and 0.01 oz. for gold. Between 1856 and 1866, the old scales were gradually removed and replaced with scales made by Messrs. De Grave, Short, and Fanner; winners of an 1862 International Exhibition prize award for work relating to balances.


title: Royal Mint

text: Ansell also noticed a loss of gold during the manufacturing process. He found that 15 to 20 oz. could be recovered from the sweep, that is, the leftover burnt rubbish from the minting process, which was often left in open boxes for many months before being removed. Wanting to account for every particle and knowing that it was physically impossible for gold just to disappear, he put down the lost weight to a combination of oil, dust, and different types of foreign matter amongst the gold.


title: Royal Mint

text: In 1859, the Royal Mint rejected a batch of gold found to be too brittle for the minting of gold sovereigns. Analysis revealed the presence of small amounts of antimony, arsenic and lead. With Ansell's background in chemistry, he persuaded the Royal Mint to allow him to experiment with the alloy, and was ultimately able to produce 167,539 gold sovereigns. On a second occasion in 1868, it was again discovered that gold coins, this time totalling £500,000 worth, were being produced with inferior gold. Although the standard practice at the mint was for rejected coins (known as brockages) to be melted down, many entered general circulation, and the mint was forced to return thousands of ounces of gold to the Bank of England. Although Ansell offered to re-melt the substandard coins, his offer was rejected, causing a row between him and senior mint chiefs, which ultimately led to him being removed from his position at the mint.


title: Royal Mint

text: After the high-level practice as deputy engraver in the Royal Mint, Charles Wiener went then to Lisbon in 1864 as chief engraver to the Mint of Portugal. In 1863 he made a commemorative medal for Prince Albert (1819-1861), consort of Queen Victoria. (Victoria and Albert Museum).


title: Royal Mint

text: After relocating to its new home on Tower Hill, the Mint came under increased scrutiny of how it dealt with unrefined gold that had entered the country. The Master of the Mint had been responsible for overseeing the practice since the position's inception in the 1300s. However, the refinery process proved too costly and suffered from a lack of accountability from the master. A Royal Commission was set up in 1848 to address these issues; it recommended that the refinery process be outsourced to an external agency, thereby removing the refining process from the mint's responsibilities. The opportunity to oversee the Mint's refinery was taken up by Anthony de Rothschild, a descendant of the Rothschild family and heir to the multinational investment banking company N M Rothschild & Sons. Rothschild secured a lease from the government in January 1852, purchasing equipment and premises adjacent to the Royal Mint on 19 Royal Mint Street under the name of "Royal Mint Refinery".


title: Royal Mint

text: As Britain's influence as a world power expanded, with colonies being established abroad, a greater need for currency led to the Royal Mint opening satellite branches overseas. This need first arose in the then-Colony of New South Wales, as the black-market trade in gold during and following the threatened to undermine the colony's economy. In 1851 the colony's Legislative Council sent Queen Victoria a petition seeking a local mint for Sydney, and in 1853 the Queen issued an Order in Council providing for the establishment of the Sydney Branch of the Royal Mint. The Royal Mint's Superintendent of Coining travelled to Australia to oversee its establishment on Macquarie Street within the southern wing of Sydney Hospital, where it opened in 1855. Production increased quickly: assayer's notes from 29 October 1855 indicate that the mint's Bullion Office had purchased of unrefined gold in the preceding week alone, and the mint's overall coin output averaged over £1,000,000 yearly in its first five years of operation. In 1868, gold sovereigns minted in Sydney were made legal tender in all British colonies, and in February 1886 they were given equal status in the UK itself.


title: Royal Mint

text: The success of the Sydney branch led to the opening of similar branches in Melbourne and Perth, on 2 June 1872 and 20 June 1899 respectively. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901 and the establishment of a separate Australian pound in 1910, all three branches were used by the Commonwealth government to mint circulating coins for Australia. The Melbourne and Perth branches had capabilities superior to those in Sydney, and they took over production responsibilities for Australia when the Sydney branch closed after 72 years of operation at the end of 1926. Following the establishment of the Royal Australian Mint as a central mint for Australian coinage, the Melbourne and Perth mints were divested by the Royal Mint on 1 July 1970.


title: Royal Mint

text: In Canada, which had been under British rule since 1763, British coins circulated alongside those of other nations until 1858, when London started producing coins for the newly established Canadian dollar. As Canada developed in 1890, calls were made for a mint to be built in Ottawa to facilitate the country's gold mines. The new mint was opened on 2 January 1908 by Lord Grey, producing coins for circulation, including Ottawa Mint sovereigns. In 1931, under the Statute of Westminster, the mint came under the control of the Government of Canada and was subsequently renamed the Royal Canadian Mint.A fifth branch of the Royal Mint was established in Mumbai (Bombay), India on 21 December 1917 as part of a wartime effort. It struck sovereigns from 15 August 1918 until 22 April 1919 but closed in May 1919. A sixth and final overseas mint was established in the Union of South Africa in Pretoria on 1 January 1923, producing £83,114,575 worth of sovereigns in its lifetime. As South Africa began cutting ties with Britain, the mint closed on 30 June 1941 but was later reopened as the South African Mint.


title: Royal Mint

text: Although London's Royal Mint officially controlled just six mints, many more independent mints were set up in parts of the British Empire. In New Westminster, British Columbia the British Columbia gold rushes led to a mint being established in 1862, by Francis George Claudet, under Governor James Douglas. It produced a few gold and silver coins before being shut down in 1862 to aid the city of Victoria in becoming the region's provincial capital. On 26 February 1864, an Order in Council requested the founding of an independent mint (Hong Kong Mint) in British Hong Kong to issue silver and bronze coins. But this mint was short-lived, due to its coins being heavily debased, causing significant losses. The site was sold to Jardine Matheson in 1868, and the mint machinery was sold to the Japanese Mint in Osaka.


title: Royal Mint

text: In 1914, as war broke out in Europe, Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George instructed that gold coins be removed from circulation to help pay for the war effort. The government started to issue £1, and 10 shilling Treasury notes as replacements, paving the way for Britain to leave the gold standard in 1931.


title: Royal Mint

text: From 1928, the Irish Free State (later the Republic of Ireland) issued its own coins. The Royal Mint produced these until Ireland established its own Currency Centre in Dublin in 1978.


title: Royal Mint

text: During World War II, the Mint was important in ensuring people were paid for their services with hard currency rather than banknotes. Under Operation Bernhard, the Nazis planned to collapse the British economy by flooding the country with forged notes, leading the Bank of England to stop issuing banknotes of £10 and above. To meet these demands, the Mint doubled its output so that by 1943 it was minting around 700 million coins a year despite the constant threat of being bombed. The Deputy Master of the Mint, John Craig, recognised the dangers to the Mint and introduced several measures to ensure the Mint could continue to operate in the event of a disaster. Craig added emergency water supplies, reinforced the Mint's basement to act as an air-raid shelter and even accepted employment of women for the first time. For most of the war, the mint managed to escape most of the destruction of the Blitz, but in December 1940 three members of staff were killed in an air raid. Around the same time, an auxiliary mint was set up at Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire, which had been requisitioned for the war effort. Staff and machinery from Tower Hill were moved to the site, which started production in June 1941 and operated for the duration of the war. Over the course of the war, the Royal Mint was hit on several occasions, and at one point was put out of commission for three weeks. As technology changed with the introduction of electricity and demand continued to grow, the rebuilding process continued so that by the 1960s, little of the original mint remained, apart from Smirke's 1809 building and its gatehouses at the front.


title: Royal Mint

text: On 1 March 1966, the government announced plans to decimalise the nation's currency, thereby requiring the withdrawal and re-minting of many millions of new coins. At its current site on Tower Hill, the mint had suffered from lack of space for many years, and it would be inadequate to meet the anticipated high demand a recoinage would entail. A possible move to a more suitable site had been discussed as far back as 1870 when Deputy Master of the Mint Charles Fremantle had recommended it in his first annual report. At the time, it had been suggested that the valuable land at Tower Hill could be sold to finance the purchase of land nearby Whitefriars, London and pay for a new mint building. However, after many years of subsequent debate by parliament it had been decided that improvements could be made to the existing site at Tower Hill. With Decimal Day set for 1971, the government quickly decided where to establish the new mint.


title: Royal Mint

text: Over twenty sites were considered, including suggestions for Scotland and Northern Ireland; however, the small Welsh town of Llantrisant, ten miles (16 km) northwest of Cardiff, was eventually chosen. Work on the new mint began in August 1967 with the construction of a blank treatment plant and a plant for striking. This first phase of the mint was formally opened on 17 December 1968 in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, and Prince Charles. There had been fears that the Royal family would face protests because of the Investiture of Prince Charles as the Prince of Wales; however, no such protests materialised. The second phase of construction began in 1973 and included the addition of a means to mint coins from raw metals; thus completing the full minting process. Upon completion the final cost for the land, buildings and plant came to £8 million. Coin minting gradually shifted to the new site over the next seven years, and the last coin, a gold sovereign, was struck in London in November 1975.


title: Royal Mint

text: After moving to Wales, the mint struggled to be profitable as the Western world fell into a deep recession during the early 1970s. To combat a rising national debt, the mint was established as a trading fund on 1 April 1975, which required it to become self-financing. This measure proved successful, and the mint became more profitable through heavy exports. In April 1990, the mint became an Executive Agency; however, by 2001, the mint had reported its first annual loss: a result attributed to only securing 5% of new Euro coin production rather than the projected 20%. Despite this, the mint began diversifying its product range by offering items outside its usual coin-related merchandise. Around this time, the mint was selling different types of jewellery, commemorative plates and figurines, eventually creating its own "Royal Mint Classics" range of collectible goods. This part of the business proved popular in attracting new customers, but it suffered from poor product development. Its products included a hip flask with an embedded £2 coin, an Edinburgh Crystal clock combined with a millennium Crown, and a Wedgwood plate featuring Britannia. In 2007, the Mint decided to resume its focus on coins, downsizing non-coin related business and discontinuing its Classics range.


title: Royal Mint

text: The 2008 global financial crisis was another financial blow: a rescue package costing £500 billion was announced to help stabilise Britain's banking system. This led to fears that the government would attempt to finance the cost by selling off state-owned organizations. In his 2009, pre-budget report the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling stated that the Treasury would "explore the potential benefits of alternative future models for the Royal Mint". A month later in his 2009 United Kingdom budget, he recommended that the mint be made a company with a view to it being sold.


title: Royal Mint

text: The recommendation was met with outrage by unions and opposition parties in parliament, who called it the "selling off the family silver" and said it would result in job losses. In contrast, the chief executive of the mint, Andrew Stafford, welcomed the proposal, saying that it would lead to further growth and secure the future of the business. On 31 December 2009, rather than being fully privatised, the mint ceased to be an executive agency and its assets were vested in a limited company, "Royal Mint Ltd". The owner of the new company became The Royal Mint trading fund, which itself continued to be owned by HM Treasury. As its sole shareholder, the mint pays an annual dividend of £4 million to the Treasury, with the remaining profits being reinvested into the mint. In 2015, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced a £20 billion privatisation drive to raise funds, with the Royal Mint being up for sale alongside other institutions including the Met Office and Companies House.


title: Royal Mint

text: In 2012 The Royal Mint had a network of hundreds of UK sellers of their products. This ensured competitive pricing and availability to the UK public. By 2014 The Royal Mint refused to supply coins to smaller independent coin dealers, and instead, their focus was on using larger outlets and fixing the prices of their products - some would say a "cartel-based model". Not good for the collectors market, but clearly something that worked for The Royal Mint.


title: Royal Mint

text: After London was selected to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, the Royal Mint put in a successful bid to manufacture the Games' Olympic and Paralympic medals. 4,700 gold, silver and bronze medals were produced by the Mint; each medal was struck 15 times with 900 tonnes of force.


title: Royal Mint

text: In addition to securing the medal product contract, the Mint held a competition to design a series of commemorative 50p coins that would enter general circulation before the event. The Mint received over 30,000 entries, with a further 17,000 from a children's competition on Blue Peter. In all, a total of 29 designs featuring a sport were selected by the Mint; the youngest designer was just 9 years old. A £2 coin commemorating London's handover to Rio was also released in 2012.


title: Royal Mint

text: In April 2014, the Mint announced plans for developing a visitor centre in Llantrisant where members of the public could go on a guided tour of the facility and learn about the mint's history. The development contract, estimated to be worth £7.7 million, was awarded to construction firm ISG and design consultant Mather & Co., who had previously designed the Norwegian Olympic Museum, as well as a handful of visitor attractions for sports clubs including Chelsea F.C., Manchester City F.C., FC Porto, and the Springboks. To fund the development, a grant of £2.3 million was provided by the Welsh Government towards the attraction which aimed to attract 200,000 visitors a year to the area. By May 2016, two years after its announcement, the attraction, now named "Royal Mint Experience", opened to the public at a final cost of £9 million. The visitor centre includes an interactive museum, a view of the factory floor, an education centre, and a press where visitors can strike their own souvenir 50 pence coin. On display at the centre are more than 80,000 artefacts, including Olympic medals, a pattern coin of Edward VIII, a Janvier reducing machine and a selection of trial plates.


title: Royal Mint

text: In the same month, the mint took in 48 tonnes of silver  recovered from the shipwreck of the SS "Gairsoppa" (torpedoed in 1941), which was used to produce limited edition coins.


title: Royal Mint

text: In 2015, after nearly 50 years, the mint began producing its own line of bullion bars and coins under its revived "Royal Mint Refinery" brand. Then in 2016, the mint announced plans for Royal Mint Gold (RMG), a digital gold currency that uses blockchain to trade and invest in gold. Operated by CME Group, the technology is to be created by technology companies AlphaPoint and BitGo.


title: Royal Mint

text: The Royal Mint, in February 2020, listed its first financial product: the Royal Mint Physical Gold Commodity Exchange-traded fund (ETF): RMAU. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse. RMAU is the first gold ETF backed 100% by the London Bullion Market Association responsible sourcing programme. Investors can also convert RMAU into coins and gold bars. The Royal Mint partnered with white label ETF firm HANetf.


title: Royal Mint

text: As the sole body responsible for minting legal tender coins in the United Kingdom under contract from HM Treasury, the mint produces all of the country's physical currency apart from banknotes which are printed by the Bank of England. On average, it produces two billion pound sterling coins struck for general circulation every year, with an estimated 28 billion pieces circulating altogether. Outside the UK, the mint provides services to over 60 countries, including New Zealand and many Caribbean nations, by producing national currencies or supplying ready-to-strike planchets. In 2015, it was estimated that 2.4  billion coins were minted for overseas countries, exceeding domestic coinage production and providing over 60% of the mint's revenue from circulating currencies. The Mint also regularly produces commemorative coins for the collector's market, with a range of varying quality and made of different precious metals.


title: Royal Mint

text: Another important operation of the mint, which contributes half the mint's revenue, is the sale of bullion to investors and the general public in the form of bars and coins. Historically, the mint refined its own metal; but following the advice of an 1848 Royal Commission, the process was separated, with the independent "Royal Mint Refinery" being purchased and operated by Anthony de Rothschild in 1852. The Rothschild family continued the refinery's management until it was sold to Engelhard in 1967. A year later, the Royal Mint relocated to Wales and ceased its bullion bar interests, but the brand was revived in 2015. Bullion bars produced by the mint are stamped with the original Royal Mint Refinery emblem and come in a range of sizes.


title: Royal Mint

text: Minting of bullion coins began in 1957 to meet a demand for authentic sovereign coins, which suffered from heavy counterfeiting. Coins were released almost every year alongside proof versions up to 1982 when production of uncirculated sovereigns was discontinued, though proof examples continued to be minted. In 1987, the mint started to produce a new type of bullion coin: the gold 1 oz. Britannia coin with a face value of £100. A silver version valued at £2 was also released in 1997. Production of the previously discontinued uncirculated sovereigns and half sovereigns resumed in 2000. From 2014, a lunar coin series was minted annually in celebration of the Lunar New Year; and in 2016, a series featuring The Queen's Beasts began.


title: Royal Mint

text: On occasion, the mint produces medals for government departments and under private contracts for clients such as royal societies, colleges, and universities. Most notably, the mint has made OBE medals as well as many military honours, including the Defence Medal and the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for the British Armed Forces. For the 2012 Summer Olympics, the mint won a contract to produce 4,700 gold, silver and bronze medals for competitors.


title: Royal Mint

text: Before 1851, the making of medals at the mint was at the discretion of engravers who could undertake the work independently and receive an additional wage. A royal patent issued in 1669 granted the mint the sole right to produce medals of any metal that bore a monarch's portrait. Engravers would use the facilities at the mint to make commemorative medals of their own design for sale. A key date in the mint's history of producing medals for the military is 1815, when the Battle of Waterloo marked the beginning of awarding military campaign medals. By 1874, the mint was responsible for making all bars and clasps for war medals in the country and was making campaign medals such as the New Zealand Medal, the Abyssinian War Medal, and the Ashantee Medal.


title: Royal Mint

text: At the start of the First World War, military medals were manufactured by the Woolwich Arsenal and private contractors. However, in 1922, a new medal unit created by the mint became the sole manufacturer of all Royal and State medals and decorations in metal, except the Victoria Cross, which is made by Hancocks & Co. Before 2010, all British military medals were made by the mint; however, they now must compete with other manufacturers.


title: Royal Mint

text: The Trial of the Pyx is a traditional procedure to test newly minted coins for conformity to required standards. The trials have been held since the 12th century, normally once per calendar year, and continue to the present day. The form of the ceremony has been essentially the same since 1282. They are trials in the full judicial sense, presided over by a judge with an expert jury of assayers. Since 1871, the trials have taken place at the livery hall of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, having previously taken place at the Palace of Westminster. Given modern production methods, it is unlikely that coins would not conform, although this has been a problem in the past as it would have been tempting for the Master of the Mint to steal precious metals.


title: Royal Mint

text: The term "pyx" refers to the boxwood chest (in Greek, πυξίς, "pyxis") in which coins were placed for presentation to the jury. There is also a Pyx Chapel (or Pyx Chamber) in Westminster Abbey, which was once used for secure storage of the Pyx and related articles.


title: Royal Mint

text: Coins to be tested are drawn from the regular production of the Royal Mint. The Deputy Master of the Mint must, throughout the year, randomly select several thousand sample coins and place them aside for the trial. These must be a certain fixed proportion to the number of coins produced. For example, for every 5,000 bimetallic coins issued, one must be set aside, but for silver Maundy money, the proportion is one in 150.


title: Royal Mint

text: The jury is composed of freemen of the Company of Goldsmiths, who assay the coins provided to decide whether they have been minted within the criteria determined by the relevant Coinage Acts.


title: Demographics of Georgia (country)

text: The demographic features of the population of Georgia include population growth, population density, ethnicity, education level, health, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects of the population.


title: Demographics of Georgia (country)

text: The demographic situation in Georgia, like that of some other former Soviet republics (especially Estonia and Latvia), has been characterized by two prominent features since independence: decline in total population and significant "Georgianization" of the ethnic composition. The proportion of ethnic Georgians increased by full 10 percentage points between 1989 and 2002, rising from 73.7% to 83.7% of the population. This occurred due to two migratory movements: Georgians living and working in other Soviet republics returned to their homeland, while other nationalities left Georgia.


title: Demographics of Georgia (country)

text: While Georgia was part of the Soviet Union the population grew steadily, rising from less than 4 million in the 1950s to a peak of 5.5 million in 1992. From 1992 the population began to decline sharply due to civil war and economic crisis driven mass migration throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s. By 2013, the population has stabilized around 3.7 million (excluding Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region). The 2002 population census in Georgia revealed a net migration loss of more than one million persons, or 20% of the population, since the early 1990s, confirmed by other studies. Other factors of the population decline include nett birth-death deficits in the period 1995-2010 and the exclusion of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region from the statistics since 1994, which population was estimated in 2005 at 178,000 and 49,200, respectively.


title: Demographics of Georgia (country)

text: Georgia was named among the highest-emigration countries in the world (relative to its population size) in a 2007 World Bank report. Russia received by far most migrants from Georgia. According to United Nations data this totalled to 625 thousand by 2000, which has declined to 450 thousand by 2019. Initially the out-migration was driven by non-Georgian ethnicities, but due to the war and crisis ridden 1990s, and the subsequent bad economic outlook, increasing numbers of Georgians emigrated as well. The 1989 census recorded 341,000 ethnic Russians, or 6.3 per cent of the population, which declined to 26,453 (0,7%) by 2014. The 2010 Russian census recorded about 158,000 ethnic Georgians living in Russia,


title: Demographics of Georgia (country)

text: The 2014 census, executed in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), found a population gap of approximately 700,000 compared to the 2014 data from the National Statistical Office of Georgia, Geostat, which was cumulatively built on the 2002 census. Consecutive research estimated the 2002 census to be inflated by 8 to 9 percent, which affected the annually updated population estimates in subsequent years. One explanation put forward by UNFPA is that families of emigrants continued to list them in 2002 as residents for fear of losing certain rights or benefits. Other factors that distorted the demographic data included a lack of quality in the registration system of migration, births, deaths and marriages. It was not until around 2010 that parts of the system became reliable again. With the support of the UNFPA, the demographic data of the period 1994–2014 has been retro-projected. The results of the project were presented and published in 2018. Based on this back-projection Geostat has corrected its data for these years, both in its annual publications starting from 2018, and its public access database.


title: Demographics of Georgia (country)

text: Total population from 1994: excluding Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region. Corrected as per retro-projection and as published in public access database.


title: Demographics of Georgia (country)

text: Georgians are the predominant ethnic group in Georgia, according to the 2014 census 86.83% of the population. The proportion in 2014 was much higher than in preceding censuses as in 2014 Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region were not under government control and therefore not included. As a result of this the proportion of Ossetians and Abkhazians was very low (0.39% and 0.02%, respectively).


title: Demographics of Georgia (country)

text: The most widespread language group is the Kartvelian family, which includes Georgian, Svan, Mingrelian and Laz. The official languages of Georgia are Georgian, with Abkhaz having official status within the autonomous region of Abkhazia. Georgian is the primary language of 87.7 percent of the population, followed by 6.2 percent speaking Azerbaijani, 3.9 percent Armenian, 1.2 percent Russian, and 1 percent other languages.


title: Burhan Wani

text: Burhan Wani (19 September 1994 – 8 July 2016) was a commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, an Islamist militant organization and insurgent group of the Kashmir conflict. He had become a popular figure amongst the local Kashmiri populace, having done so primarily through a strong social media presence, and was responsible for moulding the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir into a youth-oriented movement. Wani was a militant leader and had reportedly recruited numerous foot-soldiers through his personal efforts.


title: Burhan Wani

text: As a popular militant, Wani was actively sought by Indian security forces, who had imposed a bounty for his capture. He was located in a remote village in the Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir and subsequently killed in a firefight with Indian forces on 8 July 2016. Wani's killing sparked massive protests across the entire Kashmir Valley in what became the worst span of unrest in the region since the 2010 unrest. As a result, Indian-administered Kashmir was placed under 53 consecutive days of curfew, which was fully lifted by 31 August 2016. The protests that followed Wani's killing resulted in the deaths of more than 96 people and injuries to over 15,000 civilians and 4,000 Indian security personnel.


title: Burhan Wani

text: Wani was born in 1994 in Dadasara, a village situated on the outskirts of the town of Tral in the Pulwama district of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, to Muzaffar Ahmad Wani, the principal of a public higher-secondary school, and Maimoona Muzaffar, a postgraduate of science who taught Quran classes in her village. He had four siblings. The town of TraI has been a perpetual militant hotbed of hardline separatism.


title: Burhan Wani

text: Wani planned to be a doctor and had obtained more than 90% marks in his Class 8 exam but left his home on 16 October 2010, ten days before his secondary exam and enrolled for the militant cause at about an age of 15, joining Hizbul Mujahideen. His family claims that the root of his disillusion with Indian state apparatus laid in an incident in the last summer, whence state police allegedly beat him up, along with his brother Khalid and a friend for no fault of theirs, after asking them to purchase cigarettes for them. Burhan's cousins were already involved with the militant movement since about 2008, and had joined Hizbul Mujahideen in 2010.


title: Burhan Wani

text: Burhan Wani used social-media as a tool of potent information-warfare leveraging "a clever mix of ideology, religion and a deep sense of persecution" in chaste Kashmiri to romanticize the militant movement and wielded unforeseen influence in the local populace as a poster-boy, attracting numerous young adults into the cause. He oft-elaborated about the idea of India being entirely incompatible with Islam thus mandating a destruction at any cost, and aimed of unfurling the flag of Islam on Delhi's Red Fort. In 2013 Burhan's notability as a "mujahid" was further boosted, after he was erroneously described as being killed, across social media.


title: Burhan Wani

text: There was a remarkable increase in the anti-India rhetoric of Burhan's speeches, after his brother Khalid was killed by the Indian Army on 13 April 2015 when he went to meet him (Burhan), along with three friends. The army claimed that Khalid was a militant sympathizer who had taken his friends to get them recruited and was subsequently killed in an encounter. The family of Khalid however alleged that he died in custody, claiming that his body showed no bullet wounds but clinical signs of physical torture. The three friends of Khalid meanwhile escaped but ran into an army cordon, where they alleged being tortured before being rescued by the state police.


title: Burhan Wani

text: In August 2015, the state government imposed a bounty of ₹10,00,000 on Burhan's head. In another report, The Diplomat claimed that Burhan had $1500 bounty on him. A Facebook post about a month back showing Burhan along with 10 other militants in militant attire with heavy arms had gone viral in Kashmir. The videos however continued, with him urging people to take up arms against the state and refusing to collaborate with Indian elements. Police have often approached the judiciary, for enacting bans on social networking pages that disseminated Burhan's messages. In a video released in June 2016, he assured the Amarnath pilgrims of a safe passage but had threatened to attack proposed resettlement colonies for Kashmiri Pandits, in opposition to an Israel-like solution, and colonies for armed forces. He also urged the state-police to stay out of their way, threatening to attack all security forces. Although no attack has ever been traced back to him, he is believed to have masterminded several of them.


title: Burhan Wani

text: Burhan Wani was killed in an anti insurgency operation on 8 July 2016 along with two other militants, later identified as Sartaj Ahmad Sheikh and Pervaiz Ahmad Lashkari. He and his companions were killed in Bumdoora village in Kokernag area by a joint team of the special operations group of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and 19 Rashtriya Rifles. Security forces later stated that the operation had actually begun on 7 June when Burhan, along with his companions, had come to Kokernag in order to procure weapons. Some army and police officials later said that the security forces had received intelligence regarding the presence of Sheikh but did not know Wani too was present along with him. The state's Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and the Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Kumar Singh also stated that the security forces were unaware of his presence and would have given him a chance had they known about his presence there.


title: Burhan Wani

text: According to police officials, the security forces faced resistance from locals who resorted to stone-pelting. The encounter began at 16:30 and ended at 18:15. The militants were hiding in a house during the operation and started firing on the troops conducting search operations. All three were killed in the ensuing encounter. Jammu and Kashmir Police's Director General K. Rajendra confirmed that Wani was killed in an exchange of fire between security personnel and the militants.


title: Burhan Wani

text: The local residents denied awareness of Wani's presence in the village. According to them, the police arrived around noon and said that they were combing the area in preparation for an inauguration by the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. They cordoned off the area by 16:00 and took positions around the house where Burhan and his associates were present. When the militants tried to come out and escape, they were shot down. After their death, hundreds of villagers came out mourning the death and clashed with the police, CRPF and attacked army camps in the area. He is believed to have been succeeded by Sabzar Bhat, who was also killed by Indian security forces shortly afterwards.


title: Burhan Wani

text: A large crowd attended his funeral on 9 July. The crowd was estimated to number 200,000 and was described by reporters as the largest ever gathering. The last rite prayers were also performed in absentia in all major towns of Kashmir. His body wrapped in the flag of Pakistan was buried next to that of his brother Khalid in Tral. Militants were also present at his funeral and offered him a three-volley salute.


title: Burhan Wani

text: After the news of his death spread, violent protests erupted in some areas of Kashmir Valley. Separatist leaders called for shutdown in Kashmir which was repeatedly extended before being called off in February 2017. Police stations and security forces were attacked by mobs. Stone pelting was reported from many parts in Kashmir, including upon transit camps of Kashmiri Pandits. Internet services along with train services were suspended and the national highway was shut down. The Amarnath pilgrimage was repeatedly resumed and suspended due to the unrest. More than 200 Kashmiri Pandit employees fled the transit camps during night time on 12 July due to the attacks by protesters on the camps. The house where Burhan was killed was set ablaze by a mob on suspicion that its residents had tipped-off the security forces about Burhan. Curfew was imposed in all districts of Kashmir on 15 July and mobile phone networks were suspended. The curfew was lifted from all parts on 31 August 2016. More than 90 people died in the unrest and over 15,000 civilians were injured. Indian security forces reportedly used assault rifles to open fire on protestors. Over 4,000 security personnel were also injured during the unrest.


title: Burhan Wani

text: Peoples Democratic Party leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig alleged that the standard operating procedure had not been followed during the encounter involving Wani and his accomplices. Baig demanded that a commission be appointed to probe Wani's killing. Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh refused, stating that it was an anti-terrorist operation and there was no need for an inquiry.


title: Burhan Wani

text: A day after Wani's death former Chief Minister of state Omar Abdullah said that his killing had made him the new icon of the disaffected section of the Kashmiri society and further warned that more Kashmiris will join the militancy after his death. On 12 July, Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a statement expressed "shock" over the killing of Burhan Wani which was criticised by the Indian government. Sharif called Wani a "martyr" on 15 July. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs in response criticized Pakistan for "glorifying" terrorists belonging to proscribed terrorist organisations. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticised the media alleging it was portraying the slain Wani as a hero. Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi during meeting with UN officials raised the killing of Wani describing it as an "assassination of a Kashmiri youth leader". During his speech at the United Nations General Assembly on 21 September, Sharif described Burhan Wani as a "young leader" who had emerged as a symbol of the latest "Kashmiri Intifada".


title: Burhan Wani

text: His family was allowed to be given ex-gratia compensation of ₹4,00,000 by the Jammu and Kashmir government in December 2016 for the controversial killing of his older brother Khalid. This led to protest by opposition parties as well as Bharatiya Janta Party. Chief Minister Mufti denied on 18 January 2017 that any compensation had been paid.


title: Burhan Wani

text: In July 2017, "Pakistan Today" praised Wani and compared his death to the death of Che Guevara, stating "History repeats itself".


title: Burhan Wani

text: On the Pakistani independence day in August 2017, Wani was featured on a special train named "Azadi Train" which was organised by Pakistan Railways in the memory of the country's national heroes.


title: Burhan Wani

text: The journalist Asif Sultan was arrested in August 2019, after having written a piece titled "The Rise of Burhan Wani".


title: Burhan Wani

text: Wani had released a group photo on 1 July 2015 of himself seated with ten other militants, all armed and dressed in army fatigues, which went viral. The militants in the photo were Sabzar Ahmad Bhat, Waseem Malla, Naseer Ahmad Pandit, Ishfaq Hameed, Tariq Ahmad Pandit, Afaaquallah Bhat, Adil Ahmad Khanday, Saddam Padder, Waseem Ahmad Shah and Anees. They have all since been killed, apart from Tariq, who surrendered in May 2016.


title: Short Stirling

text: The Short Stirling was a British four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It has the distinction of being the first four-engined bomber to be introduced into service with the Royal Air Force (RAF).


title: Short Stirling

text: The Stirling was designed during the late 1930s by Short Brothers to conform with the requirements laid out in Air Ministry Specification B.12/36. Prior to this, the RAF had been primarily interested in developing increasingly capable twin-engined bombers, but had been persuaded to investigate a prospective four-engined bomber as a result of promising foreign developments in the field. Out of the submissions made to the specification, Supermarine proposed the Type 317, which was viewed as the favourite, whereas Short's submission, named the S.29, was selected as an alternative. When the preferred Type 317 had to be abandoned, the S.29, which later received the name Stirling, proceeded to production.


title: Short Stirling

text: In early 1941, the Stirling entered squadron service. During its use as a bomber, pilots praised the type for its ability to out-turn enemy night fighters and its favourable handling characteristics, whereas the altitude ceiling was often a subject of criticism. The Stirling had a relatively brief operational career as a bomber before being relegated to second-line duties from late 1943, due to the increasing availability of the more capable Handley Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster, which took over the strategic bombing of Germany. Decisions by the Air Ministry on certain performance requirements (most significantly to restrict the wingspan of the aircraft to ) had played a role in limiting the Stirling's performance; the 100 ft limit also affected earlier models of the Halifax (MkI and MkII) though the Lancaster never adhered to it.


title: Short Stirling

text: During its later service, the Stirling was used for mining German ports; new and converted aircraft also flew as glider tugs and supply aircraft during the Allied invasion of Europe in 1944–1945. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the type was rapidly withdrawn from RAF service, having been replaced in the transport role by the Avro York, a derivative of the Lancaster that had previously displaced it from the bomber role. Several ex-military Stirlings were rebuilt for the civilian market.


title: Short Stirling

text: In the 1930s, the Royal Air Force (RAF) was interested primarily in twin-engined bombers. These designs put limited demands on engine production and maintenance, both of which were already stretched with the introduction of so many new types into service. Power limitations were so serious that the British invested in the development of huge engines in the 2,000-horsepower (1,500 kW) class to improve performance. During the late 1930s, none of these were ready for production. The United States and the Soviet Union were pursuing the development of bombers powered by arrangements of four smaller engines; the results of these projects proved to possess favourable characteristics such as excellent range and fair lifting capacity, and in 1936, the RAF also decided to investigate the feasibility of the four-engined bomber.


title: Short Stirling

text: The Air Ministry published Specification B.12/36, for a high-speed, long-range, four-engined strategic bomber aircraft that would be capable of being designed and constructed at speed. The bomb load was to be a maximum of 14,000 lb (6,350 kg) carried to a range of 2,000 miles (3218 km) or a lesser payload of 8,000 lb (3,629 kg) to 3,000 miles (4,800 km) (very demanding for the era). It was to have a crew of six and was to have a normal all-up weight of 48,000 lb, while a maximum overload weight of 65,000 lb was also envisioned. The aircraft would have to be capable of cruising at speeds of 230 mph or greater while flying at , carrying three gun turrets (located in the nose, amidships, and rear positions) for defence.


title: Short Stirling

text: The aircraft should also be able to be used as a troop transport for 24 soldiers and be able to use catapult assistance for takeoff when heavily laden. The concept was that the aircraft would fly troops to far corners of the British Empire and then support them with bombing. To help with this task, as well as ease production, it needed to be able to be broken down into parts, for transport by train. Since it could be operating from limited "back country" airfields, it needed to lift off from a 500 ft (150 m) runway and be able to clear 50 ft (15 m) trees at the end, a specification with which most small aircraft would have a problem today. Aviation author Geoffrey Norris observed that the stringent requirements given in the specification for the prospective aircraft to be able to make use of existing infrastructure, specifically the specified maximum wingspan of 100 feet, adversely affected the Stirling's performance, such as its relatively low ceiling and its inability to carry anything larger than 500 lb bombs.


title: Short Stirling

text: In mid-1936, Specification B.12/36 was sent out to Supermarine, Boulton Paul, Handley Page, and Armstrong Whitworth. In August, the specification was issued to the rest of British industry. Left out of those asked to tender designs, Shorts were later included because the company already had similar designs in hand while possessing ample design staff and production facilities to fulfil production commitments. Shorts were producing several four-engined flying boat designs of the required size and created their S.29 proposal by removing the lower deck and boat hull of the S.25 Sunderland. The new S.29 design was similar to the Sunderland; the wings and controls were the same, construction was identical, and it even retained the slight upward bend at the rear of the fuselage, which had originally been intended to keep the Sunderland's tail clear of sea spray. As originally designed, the S.29 was considered to be capable of favourable high-altitude performance.


title: Short Stirling

text: Following a Tender Design Conference in October 1936, the S.29 was low down on the short list of designs considered. Vickers Type 293 submission was first followed by the Boulton Paul P.90, Armstrong Whitworth's AW.42, the Supermarine Type 316, and then the Short S.29. The Supermarine was ordered in prototype (two aircraft) form as the revised Supermarine Type 317 in January 1937. An alternative design to the Supermarine was needed for insurance, and Shorts should build it, as they had experience with four-engined aircraft. The original design had been criticised when considered, and in February 1937, the Air Ministry suggested modifications to the design, including considering the use of the Bristol Hercules radial engine as an alternative to the Napier Dagger inline, increasing service ceiling to 28,000 ft (carrying a 2000 lb of bombs) and reducing the wingspan. Shorts accepted this large amount of redesign work. The project had added importance due to the death of Supermarine's designer, Reginald Mitchell, which had generated doubt within the Air Ministry about the ability of Supermarine to deliver. Two prototypes were ordered from Shorts.


title: Short Stirling

text: The S.29 used the Sunderland's 114 ft (35 m) wing and it had to be reduced to less than 100 ft (30 m) To get the needed lift from a shorter span and excess weight, the redesigned wing was thickened and reshaped. The wingspan was often said to be limited to 100 ft so the aircraft would fit into existing hangars, but the maximum hangar opening was and the specification required outdoor servicing. "The wing span was limited by the Air Ministry to 100 ft" The wingspan limit was a method of stopping aircraft from being too large. In June 1937, the S.29 was accepted as the second string for the Supermarine Type 317 and formally ordered in October; Shorts and Supermarine were issued with instructions to proceed.


title: Short Stirling

text: The Air Ministry issued Shorts with contract number 672299/37, under which a pair of prototype S.29s was ordered. However, prior to this, Shorts had decided to undertake a successful practice, which had been performed with the earlier Empire flying boat, in producing a half-scale version of the aircraft, known as the S.31 (also known internally as the M4 – as per the title on the tailfin), to prove the aerodynamic characteristics of the design. The S.31, which was largely composed of wood, was powered by an arrangement of four Pobjoy Niagara engines and featured a retractable undercarriage, operable bomb-bay doors, and other measures to realistically represent the larger production aircraft. It was constructed at Short's Rochester facility.


title: Short Stirling

text: On 19 September 1938, the S.31 conducted its maiden flight, piloted by Shorts' Chief Test Pilot J. Lankester Parker. Impressed with its performance, on 21 October 1938, Parker flew the S.31 to the RAF Martlesham Heath, Suffolk, where it was evaluated by the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment and received mostly favourable reviews. There was one notable criticism amongst the feedback from pilots, being that the length of the takeoff run was considered to be excessive and that improvements would be desirable. Fixing this required that the angle of the wing to be increased for takeoff; however, if the wing itself were modified, the aircraft would fly with a nose-down attitude while cruising (as in the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley); making this change was also complicated by the fact that work on the production line had already reached an advanced stage. Thus, Shorts lengthened the undercarriage struts to tilt the nose up on take-off, leading to its spindly gear, which, in turn, contributed to many takeoff and landing accidents.


title: Short Stirling

text: The S.31 also received the lengthened undercarriage to test this; subsequent trials found no need for further modification in this respect. Other modifications made included the adoption of a larger tailplane with conventional elevators to improve aft controllability. The sole S.31 was scrapped after a takeoff accident at RAF Stradishall, Suffolk, in February 1944. Meanwhile, before either of the prototypes had flown, the Air Ministry had decided to order the S.29 into production "off the drawing board" in response to reports of further increases in strength on the part of the German Luftwaffe.


title: Short Stirling

text: On 14 May 1939, the first S.29, which had by this point received the service name "Stirling" after the Scottish city, performed its first flight. The first prototype was outfitted with four Bristol Hercules II radial engines, and was reported as having satisfactory handling in its two months of flying. However, the entire programme suffered a setback when the first prototype suffered severe damage and was written off as a result of a landing accident, in which one of the brakes locked, causing the aircraft to slew off the runway and the landing gear to collapse. A resulting redesign of the undercarriage led to substantially stronger and heavier struts being installed upon the second prototype. On 3 December 1939, the second prototype made its maiden flight. During its first sortie, one of the engines failed on takeoff, but the second prototype managed to land with relative ease.