title: Easter Offensive

text: The campaign can be divided into three phases: April was a month of PAVN advances; May became a period of equilibrium; in June and July the South Vietnamese forces counter-attacked, culminating in the recapture of Quảng Trị City in September. On all three fronts, initial North Vietnamese successes were hampered by high casualties, inept tactics and the increasing application of U.S. and South Vietnamese air power. One result of the offensive was the launching of Operation Linebacker, the first sustained bombing of North Vietnam by the U.S. since November 1968. Although South Vietnamese forces withstood their greatest trial thus far in the conflict, the North Vietnamese accomplished two important goals: they had gained valuable territory within South Vietnam from which to launch future offensives and they had obtained a better bargaining position at the peace negotiations being conducted in Paris.


title: Easter Offensive

text: In the wake of the failed South Vietnamese Operation Lam Son 719, the Hanoi leadership began discussing a possible offensive during the 19th Plenum of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Workers' Party in early 1971. Convinced that they had destroyed South Vietnam's best units during Lam Son 719, by December, the Politburo had decided to launch a major offensive early in the following year. 1972 would be a U.S. presidential election year, and the possibility of affecting the outcome was enticing and there was increasing anti-war sentiment among the population and government of the U.S. With American troop withdrawals, South Vietnamese forces were stretched to breaking point along a border of more than and the poor performance of ARVN troops in the offensive into Laos promised an easy victory.


title: Easter Offensive

text: This decision marked the end of three years of political infighting between two factions within the Politburo: those members grouped around Trường Chinh, who favored following the Chinese model of continued low-intensity guerrilla warfare and rebuilding the north, and the "southern firsters" around Defense Minister Võ Nguyên Giáp, supported by First Party Secretary Lê Duẩn (both of whom supported the Soviet model of big offensives). The failure of the Tet Offensive of 1968 had led to a downgrading of Giap's influence, but the victory achieved over South Vietnamese forces during the Laotian incursion brought Giap's strategy back into the ascendant. Lê Duẩn was given responsibility for planning the operation but Giap never rose to his former prominence, dealing chiefly with logistical matters and the approval of operational planning. The officer entrusted with the conduct of the offensive was the PAVN chief of staff, General Văn Tiến Dũng.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The central questions then became where and with what forces the offensive would be launched and what its goals were to be. North Vietnam had used the border regions of Laos and Cambodia as supply and manpower conduits for a decade and a demilitarized zone that separated the two Vietnams. There, the line of communication would be shortest and forces could be concentrated where "the enemy is weakest...violent attacks will disintegrate enemy forces...making it impossible for him to have enough troops to deploy elsewhere." This was an important consideration, since the northern thrust would serve to divert South Vietnamese attention and resources, while two other attacks were to be launched: one into the central highlands, to cut the country in two and another eastwards from Cambodia to threaten Saigon.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The offensive was given a title steeped in Vietnamese history. In 1773, the three Tây Sơn brothers (so-called because of the place of their origin) united a Vietnam divided by civil war and social unrest. The youngest brother, Nguyễn Huệ, then defeated an invading Chinese army on the outskirts of Hanoi in 1788.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The campaign eventually employed the equivalent of 14 divisions. There was the distinct possibility of destroying or at least crippling large elements of the ARVN; possibly deposing of South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu; convincing the U.S. as to the hopelessness of continued support to the South and demonstrating the failure of Vietnamization. The prospect of seizing a South Vietnamese provincial capital, which could then be proclaimed as the seat of the Provisional Revolutionary Government, was also enticing. The attitude of the North Vietnamese leadership was illustrated in an article in a 1972 party journal: "It doesn't matter whether the war is promptly ended or prolonged...Both are opportunities to sow the seeds; all we have to do is to wait for the time to harvest the crop."


title: Easter Offensive

text: The northern leadership was taken aback during the summer of 1971, when an announcement was made that U.S. President Richard Nixon would visit the People's Republic of China, on a diplomatic mission before May 1972. The Chinese placated the suspicions of their ally, by reassuring North Vietnam that even more military and economic aid would be forthcoming in 1972. The Soviet Union, perceiving the growing antagonism between the People's Republic and North Vietnam, sought to widen the rift by also agreeing to "additional aid without reimbursement", for North Vietnam's military forces.


title: Easter Offensive

text: These agreements led to a flood of equipment and supplies necessary for a modern, conventional army. This included 400 T-34, T-54 and Type 59 (a Chinese version of the T-54) medium and 200 PT-76 light amphibious tanks, hundreds of anti-aircraft missiles, including the shoulder-fired, heat-seeking SA-7 Strela (called the Grail in the West), anti-tank missiles, including the wire-guided AT-3 Sagger and heavy-caliber, long-range artillery. To man the new equipment, 25,000 North Vietnamese troops received specialized training abroad, 80 percent of them in the Soviet Union or Eastern Europe. A contingent of high-level Soviet military personnel also arrived in Vietnam and stayed until March 1972 in preparation for the offensive.


title: Easter Offensive

text: During late 1971, U.S. and South Vietnamese intelligence estimates of communist intentions were mixed. An offensive was expected, but intelligence as to its timing, location, and size were confusing. The communists had mounted the Tet Offensive in 1968, but it had been conducted mainly by Vietcong (VC) in the initial phase, which had been destroyed in the process. Without VC support, a large-scale PAVN offensive was considered highly unlikely. A PAVN thrust across the DMZ was also considered unlikely. Past infiltration and offensive operations had been conducted through and from Laotian and Cambodian territory and a DMZ offensive would be a blatant violation of the Geneva Agreement, which North Vietnam was adamant in defending.


title: Easter Offensive

text: In December, intelligence became conclusive that PAVN units supporting Khmer Rouge operations in Cambodia began returning to the border areas. In Laos and Cambodia, there was also an unusual expansion of infiltration. In North Vietnam, there was a noticeable increase in military recruitment. In January, Defense Intelligence Agency officers briefed Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird to state that PAVN would attack after the Tết holidays and that the offensive would involve the widespread use of armored forces. Laird was unconvinced and told the U.S. Congress in late January that a large communist offensive "was not a serious possibility"


title: Easter Offensive

text: U.S. and South Vietnamese intelligence services had no consensus as to communist intentions, but Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), was suspicious and sent several reconnaissance teams into the Mụ Giạ and Ban Karai Pass areas and discovered a buildup of PAVN forces and equipment. MACV then decided that the North Vietnamese were preparing for an offensive in the central highlands and the northern provinces of South Vietnam. The brunt of an attack would be borne by South Vietnamese forces since the U.S. strength had been reduced to 69,000 troops, most of whom were in support roles and the number was to be reduced to 27,000 by 30 November.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The U.S. commander, General Creighton W. Abrams, was convinced an offensive was likely but was also convinced that the attack would begin during or near the Tết holidays, at the beginning of the year. He notified Admiral Thomas Moorer, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that the North Vietnamese might attempt to "duplicate the effects of the 1968 offensive, perhaps by a limited operation aimed less at inflicting defeat on the battlefield than in influencing American public opinion." The consensus at MACV was that such an offensive would be launched against II Corps, in the Central Highlands. When the offensive did not occur, he and his headquarters were ridiculed in the American press for crying wolf. The moment of crisis seemed to have passed, and by the end of March, allied forces that had been standing by had returned to pacification efforts. U.S. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker left for Nepal, and General Abrams went to Thailand to spend the Easter holiday with his family.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The ARVN units upon which the initial North Vietnamese attack was to fall included the 1st and 3rd Divisions in Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên Provinces and the 2nd Division, further south. The force was supplemented by two brigades of Marines (the 147th and 258th), the 51st Infantry Regiment, the 1st Ranger Group and Regional and Popular Forces, approximately 30,000 men. The units were in static defensive positions and lacked adequate mobile reserves.


title: Easter Offensive

text: Bearing the initial brunt of the attack would be the 3rd Division, which had been created in October 1971 and was located in an arc of outposts near the DMZ, to replace departing American troops. To create the new unit, the 1st Division (arguably ARVN's best unit) was stripped of its 2nd Regiment and the 11th Armored Cavalry was brought up from the I Corps reserve. Both units were experienced, well-trained, well-equipped, and well-led. The 3rd Division's other two regiments, the 56th and 57th were made up of recaptured deserters, men released from jail, and regional and provincial forces. It was led by cast-off officers and sergeants from other units. Like other ARVN units at this stage of the conflict, the division suffered from a dearth of American advisors, who then served only at regimental, brigade, and divisional headquarters.


title: Easter Offensive

text: Because of the general belief that the North Vietnamese would not violate the sacrosanct boundary, the unit was stationed in the relatively "safe" area directly below the DMZ. The division was commanded by newly-promoted Brigadier General Vũ Văn Giai, the former deputy commander of the 1st Division. The I Corps commander, Lieutenant General Hoàng Xuân Lãm, was an officer who epitomized the indecision and the ineffectiveness of Saigon's command structure, as had been discovered all too blatantly during Operation Lam Son 719. Lam concentrated on administrative matters and left tactical decisions to his subordinate commanders. Considering the circumstances, that was a workable solution only as long as his division commanders encountered no major difficulties.


title: Easter Offensive

text: U.S. intelligence had been squabbling over a possible PAVN attack across the DMZ attack during the months preceding the offensive. DIA analysts "cautiously" predicted such a contingency, but the CIA downplayed the possibility. General Lam's American advisors agreed with his assessment that a blatant North Vietnamese violation of the Geneva Accord was unlikely.


title: Easter Offensive

text: When the weekend of Easter 1972 arrived, General Giai had planned to rotate the operational areas of his 56th Regiment (along the central DMZ) with the 2nd Regiment (around the artillery base at Camp Carroll in the west). Because of a truck shortage, the units were moved simultaneously and became hopelessly intermixed and disorganized. At 11:30 on 30 March, both unit headquarters shut down their radios, for the exchange of operational areas. With communications fragmented, its units entangled, and the weather bad enough to prevent aerial operations, the 3rd Division offered the massed PAVN forces to the north an irresistible target.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The offensive began at noon on 30 March 1972, when an intense artillery barrage rained down on the northernmost ARVN outposts in Quảng Trị Province.


title: Easter Offensive

text: Two PAVN divisions (the 304th and 308th – approximately 30,000 troops) supported by more than 100 tanks (in 2 Regiments) then rolled over the Demilitarized Zone to attack I Corps, the five northernmost provinces of South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese 308th Division and two independent regiments assaulted the "ring of steel", the arc of ARVN firebases just south of the DMZ.


title: Easter Offensive

text: From the west, the 312th, including an armoured regiment, moved out of Laos along Route 9, past Khe Sanh, and into the Quảng Trị River Valley. Significantly, allied intelligence had failed to predict both the scale of the offensive and the method of attack, giving PAVN "the inestimable benefit of shock effect, a crucial psychological edge over defenders who had expected something quite different."


title: Easter Offensive

text: On 1 April, South Vietnamese General Giai, ordered a withdrawal of the 3rd Division south of the Cửa Việt/Thach Han River in order for his troops to reorganize. The following morning, ARVN armoured elements held off a PAVN offensive briefly when the crucial Highway QL-1 bridge over the Cửa Việt River at Đông Hà was blown up by Capt. John Ripley, adviser to the 3rd Vietnamese Marine Battalion. The initial PAVN units were then joined by the 320B and 325C Divisions.


title: Easter Offensive

text: Simultaneously, the 324B Division moved out of the A Sầu Valley and advanced directly eastward toward Fire Bases Bastogne and Checkmate, which protected the old imperial capital of Huế from the west.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The North Vietnamese advance had been timed to coincide with the seasonal monsoon, whose cloud ceilings negated many U.S. airstrikes. PAVN advance elements were soon followed by anti-aircraft units armed with new ZSU-57-2 tracked weapon platforms and man-portable, shoulder-fired Grail missiles, which made low-level bombing attacks hazardous.


title: Easter Offensive

text: Camp Carroll, an artillery firebase halfway between the Laotian border and the coast, was the linchpin of the South Vietnamese northern and western defense line and was the strongest obstacle to the North Vietnamese before Quảng Trị City. The camp was cut off and surrounded. On 2 April, Colonel Pham Van Dinh, commander of the 56th ARVN Regiment, surrendered the camp and his 1,500 troops. Later in the day, ARVN troops abandoned Mai Loc, the last western base. This allowed North Vietnamese forces to cross the Cam Lộ bridge, 11 kilometers to the west of Đông Hà. PAVN then had almost unrestricted access to western Quảng Trị Province north of the Thạch Hãn River.


title: Easter Offensive

text: In summary...the pressure is mounting and the battle has become brutal...the senior military leadership has begun to bend and in some cases to break. In adversity, it is losing its will and cannot be depended upon to take the measures necessary to stand and fight.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The PAVN advance was slowed by delaying actions for three weeks, and the South Vietnamese launched several counterattacks, but on the morning of 27 April, the North Vietnamese came on again, launching multi-pronged attacks against Đông Hà (which fell on the following day) and advancing to within 1.5 kilometers of Quảng Trị City. General Giai had planned a staged withdrawal from the city to consolidate south of the Thạch Hãn, but bewildered by conflicting orders from Lãm and Giai, most ARVN formations splintered and then collapsed, conceding most of the province north of the city.


title: Easter Offensive

text: On 29 April, Giai ordered a general retreat to the Mỹ Chánh River, thirteen kilometers to the south. U.S. military advisors in Quảng Trị called for emergency helicopter extraction and, on 1 May 132 survivors were evacuated from Quảng Trị, including 80 U.S. soldiers.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The exodus of ARVN forces was joined by tens of thousands of South Vietnamese civilians fleeing from the fighting. As the mass of humanity jostled and shoved its way south on Highway 1, it presented an inviting target for North Vietnamese artillerists. They were soon joined by PAVN infantry, who moved by the flank to attack the column. ARVN units, with no leadership and all unit cohesion gone, could muster no defense. Meanwhile, to the west, Fire Support Bases Bastogne and Checkmate had fallen after staunch ARVN defense and massive B-52 bomber strikes, which inflicted heavy casualties.


title: Easter Offensive

text: Giai evacuated the last of his forces from Quảng Trị City, which fell to PAVN forces on 2 May. That same day General Lam was summoned to Saigon for a meeting with President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu. He was relieved of command of I Corps and replaced by Lieutenant General Ngô Quang Trưởng, commander of IV Corps. Trưởng's mission was to defend Huế, minimize further losses, and retake captured territory. Although saddled with raw troops and constantly countermanded by his superiors, General Giai had conducted a reasonably good defense. Even Trưởng pleaded his case with Thiệu, wanting to keep Giai in command of the 3rd Division. It was in vain. Giai, who was to be made the scapegoat for the collapse, was tried for "desertion in the face of the enemy", and sentenced to five years in prison.


title: Easter Offensive

text: Hoping to break the stalemate that was developing on the northern front, Lieutenant General Trần Văn Quang, commander of the B-4 Front, attacked on 1 April west from the A Shau Valley toward Huế with the 324B Division. Spoiling attacks by the ARVN 1st Division, however, threw off the timetable.


title: Easter Offensive

text: On 28 April 29 and 803rd PAVN Regiments seized Firebase Bastogne, the strongest anchor on Huế's western flank. This made Firebase Checkmate untenable, and it too was evacuated that night. This exposed Huế to a direct thrust along Route 547. On 2 May PAVN forces south of Huế tried to surround the city.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The PAVN also attempted to press their attack southward down Highway 1 and across the Mỹ Chánh River to Huế, but, fortunately for the South Vietnamese, after Trưởng took command, the 1st and Marine Divisions were reinforced by the 2nd and 3rd Brigades of the Airborne Division (which now totaled three brigades), and the reorganized 1st Ranger Group, raising the ARVN manpower total to 35,000. Also fortuitous was a one-week clearing of the weather, which allowed the application of massive U.S. bombing.


title: Easter Offensive

text: By mid-May, Trưởng felt strong enough to go on the offensive in a series of limited attacks, feints, and raids codenamed "Song Than" (Tsunami) that were planned to throw the North Vietnamese off balance, enlarge the defensive perimeter around Huế, and deny the enemy time and space to maneuver. Between 15 and 20 May, Firebases Bastogne and Checkmate were recaptured.


title: Easter Offensive

text: PAVN forces then launched another attempt to take the city on 21 May, losing 18 tanks and approximately 800 men in the process.


title: Easter Offensive

text: On 25 May a second North Vietnamese assault managed to cross the My Chanh River, but ARVN defenders put up ferocious resistance, forcing their enemy back across on 29 May. This was the last serious assault on the defenses of Huế. Major General Frederick J. Kroesen, senior U.S. advisor in I Corps, believed that the fall of Quảng Trị should have heralded the fall of Huế, but the North Vietnamese did not exploit their opportunity quickly enough. "That he failed completely to take advantage of the moment must be classed as another great blunder of the Quảng Trị campaign."


title: Easter Offensive

text: By mid-June, clearing weather allowed more accurate aerial bombardment and shelling from U.S. warships offshore. On the 14th, Trưởng briefed President Thiệu and MACV on his planned counterattack to retake Quảng Trị Province. Thiệu was not convinced, preferring a smaller-scale operation. The persistent Trưởng finally convinced the president, emphasizing that such an effort would be possible "employing the superior firepower of our American ally." Thiệu finally approved the concept.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The 1st Division continued its westward push toward Laos while the Airborne and Marine Divisions, the 1st Ranger Group, and the 7th Armored Cavalry moved north to retake Quảng Trị. The Airborne Division led the way and, utilizing airmobile end-runs and the North Vietnamese were slowly levered out of their defensive positions. The division then advanced to the outskirts of Quảng Trị City within ten days, but then President Thieu intervened in the operation. Trưởng had planned to bypass the city and push on quickly to the Cua Viet River, thereby isolating any PAVN defenders. Thiệu, however, now demanded that Quảng Trị be taken immediately, seeing the city as "a symbol and a challenge" to his authority.


title: Easter Offensive

text: It was not going to be an easy task for General Trưởng. The ARVN assault bogged down in the outskirts and the North Vietnamese, apprised of the plans for the offensive, moved the 304th and 308th Divisions to the west to avoid the U.S. airpower that was about to be unleashed upon Quảng Trị.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The defense of the city and its walled citadel was left to PAVN replacement units and militia. One participant recalled : "The new recruits came in at dusk. They were dead by dawn... No one had time to check where they were from, or who was their commander." Others described the defense as a "senseless sacrifice" and referred to Quảng Trị as "Hamburger City". Nevertheless, the PAVN units stationed within the citadel were well dug in, had the advantage of terrain and mass artillery support. An ARVN early victory was denied, and the fighting continued unabated.


title: Easter Offensive

text: On 11 July, the ARVN Airborne Division and South Vietnamese Marines launched a heli-borne assault supported by U.S. Marine helicopter squadrons HMM-164, HMM-165 and U.S. Army's Troop F, 4th Cavalry north and east of the city which would cut the last remaining road and force the PAVN to reinforce and resupply across the Thach Han River, making them vulnerable to air strikes. After a vicious, three-day battle against the 48th Regiment of the 320B PAVN Division broke and withdrew.


title: Easter Offensive

text: On 27 July, the ARVN Marine Division was ordered to relieve the Airborne units as the lead element in the battle. But progress was slow, consisting of vicious house-to-house fighting and incessant artillery barrages by both sides. In September, the final assault to capture the heavily defended citadel was launched; it was finally taken on 16 September. Trưởng's forces then advanced to the southern bank of the Thach Han River, where they halted, exhausted and depleted by heavy casualties and unable to push on to Đông Hà.


title: Easter Offensive

text: During July, American aircraft flew 5,461 tactical sorties and 2,054 B-52 strikes and operated 5 aircraft carriers to support the counteroffensive.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The initial wave of the offensive was followed on 5 April by a PAVN advance out of Cambodia into Bình Long Province, northeast of Saigon. Its targets were the towns and airfields at Lộc Ninh, Quần Lợi, and An Lộc. The possible initial goals of the offensive in III Corps remain unclear, but probably began as probes that, if successful, could be easily reinforced.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The invasion was launched from Cambodian Base Area 708 by the B-2 Front's 5th PAVN/VC Division and 203rd Armoured Regiment, which advanced down Highway 9 toward the border outpost of Loc Ninh. There, the 2,000 men of the ARVN 9th Regiment and a battalion of Rangers beat back five separate infantry/armor assaults before collapsing under the attack on 7 April. The North Vietnamese then isolated the 25th Division in neighboring Tây Ninh Province by sending two regiments to attack its forward outposts.


title: Easter Offensive

text: Sensing that the provincial capital of An Lộc would be the next target, the III Corps commander, Lieutenant General Nguyễn Văn Minh dispatched the 5th Division to hold the town. They were reinforced by two battalions of the Ranger Group (on 7 April) and by two additional infantry battalions (on 10 and 11 April). The 21st Division, which had been stationed in the Mekong Delta, was rushed to Chơn Thành Camp to join a regiment of the 9th Division as a relief force. All forces in the area were placed under the command of Brigadier General Lê Văn Hưng, commander of the 5th Division.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The move was fortuitous for the South Vietnamese, since PAVN forces were indeed proceeding eastward toward An Lộc. Simultaneously, the PAVN 7th Division bypassed the town and moved south along Highway 13 to block any relief effort launched from Chơn Thành. The North Vietnamese had decided that An Lộc, with its close proximity to Saigon, would be proclaimed as the capital of the Provisional Revolutionary Government, but even if they had been able to seize the town, they would never have been able to hold it. American air power would have made such an eventuality impossible.


title: Easter Offensive

text: By 13 April, An Lộc was surrounded and under a combined artillery, armored, and infantry attack by the 9th PAVN/VC Division. PAVN forces advanced on the town through a deluge of rockets, bombs, and napalm delivered by U.S. and South Vietnamese aircraft supported by massed artillery, tank, and small arms fire. Inside the town, the contingent of U.S. advisors became essential to the defense, serving as a separate staff organizing fire and air support, logistics, and intelligence. Colonel William Miller, the senior U.S. advisor, was not happy with General Hung's continuous reluctance to launch counterattacks and his reliance on U.S. air power to defeat the North Vietnamese. His hesitation and lack of motivation prompted Miller to report that: "He is tired – unstable – irrational – irritable – inadvisable – and unapproachable."


title: Easter Offensive

text: The attacks persisted and PAVN forces eventually battered their way into the town, seizing the airfield and reducing the ARVN perimeter to about a square kilometer. During another assault on the 21st, PAVN tanks actually forced their way through the defense perimeter but were held at bay and then destroyed by anti-tank weapons and helicopter gunships. PAVN infantry did, however, manage to seize most of the northern sector of the town, where they began digging in (often right across the street from the ARVN defenders). The initial shock of ARVN troops instilled by North Vietnamese armor was soon abated when they discovered that, because the supporting infantry failed to advance with the tanks, they became easy prey for anti-tank weapons. On other occasions, the opposite would occur, with massed infantry assaults moving forward without armored support. This failure of tactical coordination was one of PAVN's prime weaknesses during the offensive, and one that the allies were quick to exploit.


title: Easter Offensive

text: As a result of his failure to seize the town quickly, the commander of the 9th Division was officially reprimanded and local command was handed over the senior officer of the 5th PAVN/VC Division. Besides the lack of coordination, the major difficulty for the PAVN was the rain of ordnance delivered upon them by incessant air strikes, which further reduced manpower and made resupply difficult.


title: Easter Offensive

text: After the failure of the assault on 21 April, the battle devolved into a siege, with the North Vietnamese pounding An Lộc and its defenders with 1,200 to 2,000 mortar, rocket, and artillery rounds per day. An Lộc was completely surrounded and could only be resupplied by air, a situation made more difficult by the loss of the airfield. Resupply was accomplished, however, by 448 aerial missions which managed to deliver 2,693 tons of air-dropped food, medical supplies, and ammunition, supported by the US Army's "549th QM (AD/Airborne)" (QuarterMaster, Air Delivery/Airborne) Rigger Company, which had been rapid-deployed from Okinawa in early April.


title: Easter Offensive

text: From 22 April to 10 May, the tactical situation remained stable at what the "Paris Match" was calling "a Verdun or a Stalingrad" in III Corps.


title: Easter Offensive

text: On the morning of 11 May, another PAVN assault was launched after being preceded by an artillery bombardment that fired over 8,300 shells into a defense perimeter that had shrunk to a mere by before the day was over. PAVN forces again forced their way into An Lộc, but the effort collapsed in the face of tremendous aerial attack, which cost the North Vietnamese 40 tanks and over 800 men. The reasons for the failure were not hard to discern. Beginning at 05:30 that morning and continuing for the next 25 hours, the U.S. Air Force delivered a B-52 strike every 55 minutes to support the defense. For the next three days, each time PAVN troops assembled to resume the attack, they were bombed in their assembly areas.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The climactic attack on An Lộc was launched on 14 May, when the North Vietnamese attacked directly into the teeth of the ARVN defense. The failed assault was described by Colonel Walt Ulmer, the 5th Division's senior advisor: "they were simply trying to pile on and pile on and pile on. They frittered away an awful lot of manpower."


title: Easter Offensive

text: A relief effort had been launched by the 21st ARVN Division, but it never arrived at An Lộc. For three weeks the division crept northward along Highway 13 but it was held up by constant delaying actions by smaller PAVN forces. Although the division never reached its goal, it inadvertently supported the beleaguered city by eventually diverting almost all of the elements of the 7th PAVN Division from the fighting.


title: Easter Offensive

text: Although North Vietnamese forces remained in the area and continued to shell An Lộc heavily, the impetus of their offensive was over. By 12 June, the last PAVN forces were driven from the city and its environs and over 1,000 ARVN wounded were evacuated. Slowly, the decimated North Vietnamese units faded away to the north and west as others covered their withdrawal. On 18 June, the headquarters of III Corps declared the siege to be over. The Saigon government claimed that 12,500 South Vietnamese soldiers had been killed or wounded at An Lộc. American sources claimed that 25,000 PAVN or NLF troops had been killed or wounded during the action, although those numbers could never be confirmed.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The objective of PAVN forces during the third phase of the "Nguyen Hue Offensive" was to seize the cities of Kon Tum and Pleiku, thereby overrunning the Central Highlands. This would then open the possibility of proceeding east to the coastal plains, splitting South Vietnam in two. The highlands offensive was preceded by VC diversionary operations that opened on 5 April in coastal Bình Định Province, which aimed at closing Highway 1, seizing several ARVN firebases, and diverting South Vietnamese forces from operations further west. North Vietnamese forces, under the command of Lieutenant General Hoang Minh Thao, commander of the B-3 Front, included the 320th and 2nd PAVN Divisions in the highlands and the 3rd PAVN Division in the lowlands – approximately 50,000 men.


title: Easter Offensive

text: Arrayed against them in II Corps were the ARVN 22nd and 23rd Divisions, two armored cavalry squadrons, and the 2nd Airborne Brigade, all under the command of Lieutenant General Ngô Du. It had become evident as early as January that the North Vietnamese were building up for offensive operations in the tri-border region and numerous B-52 strikes had been conducted in the area in hopes of slowing the build-up. ARVN forces had also been deployed forward toward the border in order to slow the PAVN advance and allow the application of airpower to deplete North Vietnamese manpower and logistics. The Bình Định offensive, however, threw General Du into a panic and almost convinced him to fall for the North Vietnamese ploy and divert his forces from the highlands.


title: Easter Offensive

text: John Paul Vann, director of the U.S. Second Regional Assistance Group, reassured Du that it was only a ruse and to remain ready for the main blow, which he was convinced would come from western Laos. Vann, although a civilian, had been granted the unique authority to command all U.S. military advisors within his region. Vann worked day and night, using his extensive civilian and military contacts to channel U.S. support (especially air support) to the region. Major General John G. Hill Jr., Du's senior military advisor, described Vann's extraordinary actions: "The rest of us organized around Vann's personal efforts and concentrated on getting the resources marshalled to take advantage of the leadership he was exerting with the Vietnamese."


title: Easter Offensive

text: To counter the possible threat from the west, Du had deployed two regiments of the 22nd Division to Tân Cảnh and Đắk Tô Base Camp and two armored squadrons to Ben Het.


title: Easter Offensive

text: On 12 April, the 2nd PAVN Division, elements of the 203rd Tank Regiment, and several independent regiments of the B-3 Front attacked the outpost at Tan Canh and the nearby Đắk Tô base. When the ARVN armor moved out of Ben Het toward Đắk Tô, it was ambushed and destroyed. The overwhelmed South Vietnamese defense northwest of Kon Tum quickly disintegrated, placing the command of III Corps in a quandary. With the remainder of the 22nd Division covering the coast there were few forces left to defend the provincial capital of Kon Tum.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The North Vietnamese southern advance inexplicably halted for three crucial weeks. While the northern crisis waned, however, General Du began to unravel, finding it increasingly difficult to make decisions. Vann gave up all pretext of South Vietnamese command, took over himself, and openly issued orders. He placed responsibility for the defense of the city of Kon Tum on the shoulders of Colonel Ly Tong Ba, commander of the 23rd Division. Vann then used massive B-52 strikes to hold the North Vietnamese at arm's length and reduce their numbers while he managed to find additional troops with which to stabilize the situation.


title: Easter Offensive

text: By 14 May, North Vietnamese forces had reached Kon Tum and launched their main assault. The 320th PAVN Division, the 1st and 141st Regiments of the 2nd PAVN Division, and elements of the 203rd Tank Regiment attacked the city from the north, south, and west. By the time of the assault, the city mustered a defensive force that consisted of the 23rd Division and several Ranger groups. Their three-week delay cost the North Vietnamese dearly. By 14 May, the worst of the fighting in I and II Corps was over and a majority of the B-52s were free to concentrate on the Central Highlands. During the North Vietnamese attack, the positions of the 44th and 45th ARVN Regiments crumbled and were overrun, but a well-placed B-52 strike landed directly on the PAVN attackers at the point of the breakthrough. The next morning, when the South Vietnamese returned to their former positions unopposed, 400 bodies were discovered, along with seven destroyed tanks.


title: Easter Offensive

text: At Vann's insistence, a personnel shake-up took place in III Corps when President Thieu replaced Du with Major General Nguyễn Văn Toàn, whose outwardly confident and assertive nature was the complete opposite of Du's. The actions at Kon Tum for the following two weeks became characterized by massed PAVN assaults that were lashed by B-52, tactical air, and helicopter gunship attacks. ARVN troops then counterattacked over the remains of the attacking wave. On 26 May, four North Vietnamese regiments supported by armored forces managed to punch a hole in the defense, but their advance was halted by U.S. helicopters firing the new TOW missiles. During the following three days of fighting, 24 North Vietnamese T-54 tanks were destroyed by TOWs and the breach was sealed.


title: Easter Offensive

text: With the aid of the U.S. and Republic of Vietnam Air Forces and despite severe losses, ARVN managed to hold Kon Tum during the remainder of the battle. Aerial resupply was supported by the US Army's "549th QM (AD)" (QuarterMaster, Air Delivery) Rigger Company, which had been rapid-deployed from Okinawa in early April. By early June, the PAVN faded back to the west, leaving behind over 4,000 dead on the battlefield. It was estimated by U.S. intelligence that total PAVN casualties in the Central Highlands during the offensive totaled between 20,000 and 40,000 troops. John Vann did not have time to savor his victory. While returning to Kon Tum from a briefing in Saigon on 9 June, he was killed in a helicopter crash.


title: Easter Offensive

text: In late July the ARVN 22nd Division, now commanded by Brigadier General Phan Dinh Niem, in cooperation with Bình Định Province RF/PF forces, retook Hoài Nhơn and Tam Quan district towns and reestablished communications on Highway 1 north to the southern boundary of Quảng Ngãi Province.


title: Easter Offensive

text: On 22 March the PAVN 101D Regiment, 1st Division attacked the ARVN 42nd Ranger Group outpost at Kompong Trach 15 km north of the Cambodia-South Vietnam border. Fighting continued until the end of April as each side reinforced. The PAVN 1st Division eventually seized Kompong Trach but had suffered heavy losses which impacted its later operations in IV Corps.


title: Easter Offensive

text: On 7 April PAVN/VC local main force units, the 18B, 95B, D1 and D2 Regiments began attacks in the Mekong Delta, initially in Chương Thiện Province. As the ARVN 21st Division and the 15th Regiment, 9th Division had been deployed to III Corps to reinforce the fighting at An Lộc, the PAVN/VC were initially able to have some success against isolated RF/PF outposts.


title: Easter Offensive

text: On 18 May elements of the PAVN 52D and 101D Regiments, 1st Division attacked Kiên Lương, the fighting continued for ten days before ARVN Rangers and armored forces succeeded in forcing the PAVN to withdraw towards the Cambodian border.


title: Easter Offensive

text: On 23 May following fighting between the PAVN 207th Regiment and ARVN Ranger and armored forces in Cambodia, 15 km north of Cai Cai, the ARVN captured documents indicating plans for PAVN infiltration into northern Kiến Tường Province and subsequent attacks against Mộc Hóa. Subsequent intelligence showed that the PAVN 5th Division which had been beaten at An Lộc was moving into the Elephant's Foot () area of Cambodia and would then move into Base Area 470 in the Plain of Reeds. The ARVN 7th Division deployed to the Elephant's Foot area to engage PAVN forces and with strong U.S. air support inflicted severe losses on the PAVN units there. However despite their losses two regiments from the PAVN 5th Division and the 24th and Z18 Regiments pushed towards Base Area 470 and by early July six PAVN regiments were located in northern Định Tường Province.


title: Easter Offensive

text: In late June after 22 days of fighting the ARVN 7th Division recaptured Kompong Trabek and cleared Route QL-1 (Cambodia) to Neak Loeung, however the PAVN recaptured the area when the 7th Division was withdrawn back into IV Corps in July to counter the PAVN/VC threat to Route QL-4, the vital supply line between the Delta's ricebowl and Saigon. With the return of the ARVN 21st Division and 15th Regiment, 9th Division to IV Corps and continuous pounding from the air by U.S. tactical air and B-52's, the ARVN was able to mount a series of operations in Định Tường Province and Base Area 470 that forced the PAVN/VC to reduce their operations and disperse into smaller units or withdraw into Cambodia.


title: Easter Offensive

text: While not as dramatic as the fighting on the other fronts of the Easter Offensive, IV Corps had managed to prevent the PAVN/VC from cutting Route QL-4 or seriously disrupting pacification efforts in the Mekong Delta while sharing nearly half of its forces with III Corps and I Corps.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The North Vietnamese had timed their offensive well by having it coincide with the end of the annual winter monsoon when low cloud cover and rain provided a blanket under which the offensive could proceed without interference by allied aerial attack. Air strikes were possible only by all-weather fighters or bombers, which could deliver their ordnance accurately through the cloud cover by radar direction or LORAN.


title: Easter Offensive

text: These missions were conducted by aircraft assigned to the U.S. Seventh Air Force and Seventh/Thirteenth Air Force in South Vietnam and Thailand or by the U.S. Navy's Task Force 77, offshore in the South China Sea. Besides the weather the most serious problem facing the Americans was that the drawdown of U.S. forces during the previous four years had included valuable ground support aircraft and their maintenance crews. By the spring of 1972, the U.S. Air Force had only three squadrons of F-4 Phantoms and one of A-37 Dragonflys available in the Republic of Vietnam, a total of 76 aircraft. Another 114 fighter-bombers were stationed at various bases in Thailand, while 83 B-52 Stratofortress heavy bombers were located at U-Tapao RTAFB and at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. Task Force 77 had four carriers assigned to it, but only two, and , were on station at the onset of the offensive. Their air wings totaled 140 strike aircraft.


title: Easter Offensive

text: To rectify the aircraft shortage, from 7 April to 13 May 176 F-4s and 12 F-105 Thunderchiefs were transferred from air bases in the Republic of Korea and the continental U.S. to Thailand during Operation "Constant Guard" I-IV. Between 5 February and 23 May, the Strategic Air Command (SAC) reinforced Guam during Operation "Bullet Shot" with a further 124 bombers, bringing the total available in-theater to 209. The Seventh Fleet was also beefed up by the addition of five aircraft carrier groups, including those of the , , , , and . This made five carriers available at any one time to conduct aerial operations. The Republic of Vietnam Air Force (VNAF) at this time consisted of nine squadrons of A-1 Skyraiders, A-37s, and F-5 Freedom Fighters, a total of 119 strike aircraft. There were also two squadrons of AC-47 or AC-119 fixed-wing gunships, totaling of 28 aircraft.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The weather conditions made early ground support haphazard, and these difficulties were compounded by North Vietnamese anti-aircraft units, which advanced behind the front line elements. PAVN moved 85 and 100 mm radar-directed batteries south of the DMZ and, on 17 February 81 SA-2 Guideline missiles were launched from the DMZ area, downing three F-4s. This heralded the farthest southern advance of SA-2 units thus far during the conflict. This classic high-low anti-aircraft coverage made aerial attacks extremely hazardous, especially when it was enhanced by the new shoulder-fired Grail.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The loss of the northern firebases early in the offensive in I Corps made U.S. naval gunfire the primary source of artillery support in that area. U.S. Marine Corps gunfire observers were then assigned to fly with forward air controllers, providing coordinates for shore targets. At the height of the offensive three U.S. cruisers and 38 destroyers were providing naval gunfire support.


title: Easter Offensive

text: With clearing weather the number of aircraft sorties soared. Between April and June there were 18,000 combat sorties flown to support the ARVN defense, 45 percent by the U.S. Air Force, 30 percent by the Navy and Marine Corps, and 25 percent by the VNAF. B-52s flew an additional 2,724 sorties. Ten U.S. and six VNAF aircraft were lost to SAM or anti-aircraft fire.


title: Easter Offensive

text: On 4 April, reacting to the fierceness of the offensive, President Nixon authorized tactical airstrikes from the DMZ north to the 18th parallel, the southern panhandle of North Vietnam. This supply interdiction effort was the first systematic bombing carried out in North Vietnam proper since the end of Operation Rolling Thunder in November 1968. Airstrikes north of the 20th parallel were authorized on 5 April under the cover name Operation "Freedom Train". The first B-52 strike of the new operation was conducted on 10 April. President Nixon then decided to up the ante by targeting Hanoi and Haiphong. Between 1 May and 30 June, B-52s, fighter-bombers, and fixed-wing gunships had carried out 18,000 sorties over North Vietnam and suffered 29 aircraft losses.


title: Easter Offensive

text: On 8 May Nixon authorized the launching of Operation Pocket Money, the aerial mining of Haiphong and other North Vietnamese ports. Nixon had taken a gamble that the Soviet Union, with which he was conducting negotiations for a strategic arms limitation treaty (SALT I), would withhold a negative reaction in return for improved relations with the West. He was correct. The People's Republic of China also muted any overt response to the escalatory measures for the same reason. Emboldened, Nixon decided to launch Operation "Linebacker" a systematic aerial assault on North Vietnam's transportation, storage, and air defense systems on 10 May. During "Linebacker", the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps lost 104 aircraft in combat while their North Vietnamese opponents lost 63.


title: Easter Offensive

text: At the conclusion of the ARVN counteroffensive, both sides were exhausted but considered their efforts to have been successful. The South Vietnamese and the Americans believed the policy of Vietnamization to have been validated, the internal weaknesses of the South Vietnamese command structure, which had been rectified somewhat during the emergency, reappeared once it had passed. During the Easter offensive, more than 25,000 South Vietnamese civilians had been killed and almost a million became refugees, 600,000 of whom were living in camps under government care. American casualties in combat for all of 1972 totaled only 300 killed, most during the offensive.


title: Easter Offensive

text: Hanoi had committed 14 divisions and 26 independent regiments to the offensive and had suffered approximately 100,000 casualties and lost almost all of its armored forces committed (134 T-54s, 56 PT-76s and 60 T-34s). In return, much of the territory gained in the initial months of fighting was lost back to South Vietnam (the battle for Quang Tri city lasted 81 days with South Vietnam eventually gaining control of the city in September as well as the majority of Quang Tri province). However the PAVN did hold territory at the end of the offensive as well as the western fringes of the II and III Corps sectors. In total around 10% of the country. It is believed that the North Vietnamese leadership had both underestimated the fighting ability of the ARVN, which, by 1972, had become one of the best-equipped armies in the world, and failed to grasp the destructiveness of American air power against an enemy fighting a conventional battle. Combined with these strategic errors, PAVN commanders had also thrown away their local numerical superiority by making frontal attacks into heavy defensive fire and suffered massive casualties as a consequence. However, by its own estimate, the PAVN had also dealt the most severe blow in the entire war, with over 200,000 ARVN casualties, a third of the South's entire armed forces. This claim is disputed & countered by US and South Vietnamese numbers. The North Vietnamese lost much of their armor and equipment and as many as 100,000 troops. That also allowed Viet Cong irregulars and political agents to make a return through the gaps in the defensive lines, which had been torn open during the offensive. Hanoi wasted no time in making use of what little ground it had gained. The North Vietnamese immediately began to extend their supply corridors from Laos and Cambodia into South Vietnam. The PAVN rapidly expanded port facilities at the captured town of Đông Hà, and within a year, over 20 percent of the materiel destined for the southern battlefield was flowing across its docks.


title: Easter Offensive

text: The ARVN suffered 39,587 dead in the same period, while American military deaths that year were 759, per U.S. military records. For the PAVN, the offensive was very costly. General Tran Van Tra, writing about the offensive ten years after the fact, stated, "Our troops were exhausted and their units in disarray. We had not been able to make up losses. We were short of manpower as well as food and ammunition."


title: Easter Offensive

text: In Paris, the peace negotiations continued, but this time, both sides were willing to make concessions. The chief American negotiator, Henry Kissinger, offered a ceasefire, recognition of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam by the Saigon government, and the total American withdrawal from South Vietnam as incentives. For the United States, getting North Vietnam to finally recognize South Vietnam's government as a legitimate body was crucial to any deal in Paris. For North Vietnam, the terms were enough to meet the criteria for victory that Hanoi's leaders had established before the offensive. The only obstacle to a settlement was Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, whose government would have to assent to any agreement. The intransigence of Thiệu and his demand for the U.S. not to abandon his nation after any agreement, as well as new demands by Hanoi, caused the stalling of peace talks in December. That led Nixon to launch Operation Linebacker II, a bombing campaign aimed at North Vietnam's transport network, especially around Hanoi and Haiphong. The Paris Peace Accords, signed in January 1973, confirmed that North Vietnamese troops and support would remain in South Vietnam in the areas that they occupied.


title: Hulusi Akar

text: Hulusi Akar (born 12 March 1952) is the current Turkish minister of defense and a former four-star Turkish Armed Forces general who served as the 29th chief of the Turkish General Staff. Akar also served as a brigade commander in various NATO engagements including the International Security Assistance Force against the Taliban insurgency, Operation Deliberate Force during the Bosnian War, the Kosovo Force during the Kosovo War, as well as overseeing much of the Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War.


title: Hulusi Akar

text: Akar was born in 1952 in Kayseri, Turkey. He graduated from the Turkish Military Academy in 1972 and the Turkish Infantry School in 1973. In 1975 he attended Queen's University Belfast for postgraduate studies in International Diplomacy.


title: Hulusi Akar

text: He attended academic programs in Computer Programming at Middle East Technical University and International Relations at Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences, and completed his doctorate at Boğaziçi University. His doctoral thesis, which included the political and military developments in 1919 on the Turkish-American relations to the fore through American archive documents, was published as a book by the Turkish Historical Society under the title of "Harbord Military Mission Report: Studies an American Fact-Finding Mission Conducted and Their Impacts on Turkish-American Relations".


title: Hulusi Akar

text: Akar served as a company commander, section chief and branch chief at various units and headquarters including the Turkish General Staff. He also served as an instructor at the Army Command and Staff College and was posted abroad as a staff officer in the intelligence division at Allied Forces Southern Europe (AFSOUTH) from 1990-1993. From 1993 until 1994, he was the Military Assistant to the Land Forces Commander, and also served as the Chief Public Information Officer. Later on, he continued this assignment for the Commander of the Turkish Armed Forces from 1994–1997. He was subsequently posted as the Commander of the Turkish Brigade - Zenica/Bosnia from 1997 until 1998.


title: Hulusi Akar

text: Upon his promotion to brigadier general in 1998, he commanded the Internal Security Brigade for two years, and then served as the Chief of Plans and Policy in AFSOUTH from 2000-2002. Following his promotion to major general in 2002, he assumed the command of the Military Academy for three years and was subsequently the Commander of the Army Command and Staff College for two years until 2007.


title: Hulusi Akar

text: After his promotion to lieutenant general, he was the commander of Land Forces Logistics and then the Commander of the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps-Turkey and the 3rd Corps from 2009-2011. Subsequent to his promotion to the rank of general in 2011, he served as the Deputy Chief of the Turkish General Staff from 2011 until 2013, and the Commander of the Turkish Land Forces from 2013 until 2015.


title: Hulusi Akar

text: On 2 August 2015, General Akar was appointed as the 29th chief of the General Staff and took up the position on 18 August 2015.


title: Hulusi Akar

text: Akar was taken hostage on 15 July 2016 during the Turkish Armed Forces' 2016 attempted coup d'état against the Turkish government, by those responsible for leading the attempted coup. According to "The Economist", Akar "was told by his aides to sign a declaration of martial law ("sıkıyönetim"). When he refused, they tightened a belt around his neck, but he would not yield." He was held hostage at Akıncı Air Base (now Mürted Airfield Command) in Ankara before pro-government forces retook control of the air base and rescued him in the early hours of 16 July 2016.


title: Hulusi Akar

text: The rescue was announced at 02:45 EEST on 16 July 2016 by Anadolu Agency, although CNN Türk placed the time of rescue attempt around 07:45 EEST. First Army commander General Ümit Dündar served as Acting Chief of General Staff during Akar's capture. After his release he testified that one of his captors offered to put him on the phone with alleged coup figurehead Fethullah Gülen.


title: Hulusi Akar

text: In 2016 Akar led Operation Euphrates Shield, the Turkish military intervention in Syria against the jihadist group ISIL, the Syrian Democratic Forces, and various other armed militant-Kurdish groups (the SDF and other armed militant-Kurdish groups are also fighting ISIL).


title: Hulusi Akar

text: On July 9, 2018 Akar was appointed by Turkey's president Erdogan as the Minister for National Defense. This was the first time in Turkey's history that a civilian government appointed an active duty military officer to this position.


title: Hulusi Akar

text: In July 2020, reacting to the 2020 Armenian–Azerbaijani clashes, Akar said: "We will continue to stand with the Azerbaijani armed forces and provide support to our Azerbaijani brothers against Armenia, which continues its aggressive approach." During the Turkish invasion in Northern Iraq against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, he visited a Turkish military base in Iraq. He supports the installation of the Russian S-400 missile system despite the opposition of Turkeys NATO allies. In November 2021, he has denied an existence of Kurdistan, be it in Turkey or Iraq in a trilateral discussion with Tulay Hatimogullari Oruç and Garo Paylan in the Turkish Parliament over the use of chemical weapons in Iraqi Kurdistan.


title: Hulusi Akar

text: On 17 April 2022, Turkey launched Operation Claw-Lock against militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has also been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union.


title: Hulusi Akar

text: Akar is married to Şule, with whom he has two children. In addition to Turkish, he is also fluent in English and Italian.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe. The cemetery is listed a Grade I site in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: Brookwood Cemetery was conceived by the London Necropolis Company (LNC) in 1849 to house London's deceased, at a time when the capital was finding it difficult to accommodate its increasing population, of living and dead. The cemetery is said to have been landscaped by architect William Tite, but this is disputed.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: In 1854, Brookwood was the largest cemetery in the world but it is no longer. Its initial owner being incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1852, Brookwood Cemetery (apart from its northern section, reserved for Nonconformists) was consecrated by Charles Sumner, Bishop of Winchester, on 7 November 1854. It was opened to the public on 13 November 1854 when the first burials took place.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: In 1858 the London Necropolis Company sold 64 acres of the extra land to the government for the building of Woking Convict Invalid Prison.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: Brookwood originally was accessible by rail from a special station – the London Necropolis railway station – next to Waterloo station in Central London. Trains had passenger carriages reserved for different classes and other carriages for coffins (also for different classes), and ran into the cemetery on a dedicated branch from the adjoining South West Main Line – there was a junction just to the west of Brookwood station. From there, passengers and coffins were transported by horse-drawn vehicles. The original London Necropolis station was relocated in 1902 but its successor was demolished after suffering bomb damage during World War II. Return tickets were issued for mourners and single tickets for the dead.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: There were two stations in the cemetery: "North" for non-conformists and "South" for Anglicans. Their platforms still exist along the path called Railway Avenue. For visitors wishing to use the South West Main Line, Brookwood station has provided direct access since June 1864. A very short piece of commemorative track, with signpost and plaque, purposefully gives way to a grass field and recollects the old final stage of the journey of the deceased.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: It was the cholera epidemic of 1848 that led two industrialists to develop this high burial site. It was at first a controversial project. The Bishop of London condemned the "offensive" despatch of first-, second- and third-class corpses in the same carriages, so this had to be modified.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: Brookwood was one of the few cemeteries to permit burials on Sundays, which made it a popular choice with the poor as it allowed people to attend funerals without the need to take a day off work. As theatrical performances were banned on Sundays at this time, it also made Brookwood a popular choice for the burial of actors for the same reason, to the extent that actors were provided with a dedicated section of the cemetery near the station entrance.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: While the majority of burials conducted by the LNC (around 80%) were pauper funerals on behalf of London parishes and prisons, the LNC also reached agreement with a number of societies, guilds, religious bodies and similar organisations (such as Woking Convict Invalid Prison and Tothill). The LNC provided dedicated sections of the cemetery for these groups, on the basis that those who had lived or worked together in life could remain together after death. Although the LNC was never able to gain the domination of London's funeral industry for which its founders had hoped, it was very successful at targeting specialist groups of artisans and trades, to the extent that it became nicknamed "the Westminster Abbey of the middle classes". The Royal Hospital Chelsea, which previously buried their inmate pensioners at Brompton Cemetery in Chelsea, have used Brookwood Cemetery, where they have two plots, since 1893.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: A large number of these dedicated plots were established, ranging from Chelsea Pensioners and the Ancient Order of Foresters to the Corps of Commissionaires and the LSWR. The Nonconformist cemetery also includes a Parsee burial ground established in 1862, which remained the only Zoroastrian burial ground in Europe. Dedicated sections in the Anglican cemetery were also reserved for burials from those parishes which had made burial arrangements with the LNC.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: The first burial was of the stillborn twins of a Mr and Mrs Hore of Ewer Street, The Borough. The Hore twins, along with the other burials on the first day, were pauper funerals and buried in unmarked graves. The first burial at Brookwood with a permanent memorial was that of Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Goldfinch, buried on 25 November 1854, the 26th person to be buried in the cemetery. The first permanent memorial erected in the Nonconformist section of the cemetery was that of Charles Milligan Hogg, son of botanist Robert Hogg, buried on 12 December 1854. Goldfinch and Hogg's graves are not the oldest monuments in the cemetery, as on occasion gravestones were relocated and re-erected during the relocation of existing burial grounds to Brookwood.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: The massive London civil engineering projects of the mid-19th century—the railways, the sewer system and from the 1860s the precursors to the London Underground—often necessitated the demolition of existing churchyards. The first major relocation took place in 1862, when the construction of Charing Cross railway station and the routes into it necessitated the demolition of the burial ground of Cure's College in Southwark, which uncovered at least 7,950 bodies. These were packed into 220 large containers, each containing 26 adults plus children, and shipped on the London Necropolis Railway to Brookwood for reburial, along with at least some of the existing headstones from the cemetery.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: At least 21 London burial grounds were relocated to Brookwood via the railway, along with numerous others relocated by road following the railway's closure. Churches whose graves were relocated included:


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: In 1878, the LNC sold an isolated piece of its land at Brookwood, close to St John's village, to the Cremation Society of Great Britain, on which they built Woking Crematorium, the first in Britain, in 1879. While the LNC never built its own crematorium, in 1910, Lord Cadogan decided he no longer wanted to be interred in the mausoleum he had commissioned at Brookwood. This building, the largest mausoleum in the cemetery, was bought by the LNC, fitted with shelves and niches to hold urns, and used as a dedicated columbarium from then on.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: After 1945 cremation, up to that time an uncommon practice, became increasingly popular in Britain. In 1946, the LNC obtained consent to build their own crematorium on a section of the Nonconformist cemetery which had been set aside for pauper burials, but chose not to proceed. Instead, in 1945, the LNC began the construction of the Glades of Remembrance, a wooded area dedicated to the burial of cremated remains. These were dedicated by Henry Montgomery Campbell, Bishop of Guildford in 1950. Intentionally designed for informality, traditional gravestones and memorials were prohibited, and burials were marked only by small stones.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: In the next decade the cemetery came closest to having its own crematorium. Following the closure of the two Brookwood railway stations, the land surrounding the site of South station and the station's two Anglican chapels was redundant. As part of the London Necropolis Act 1956 the LNC obtained Parliamentary consent to convert the disused original Anglican chapel into a crematorium, using the newer chapel for funeral services and the station building for coffin storage and as a refreshment room for those attending cremations. Suffering cash flow problems and distracted by a succession of hostile takeover bids, the LNC management never proceeded with the scheme and the buildings fell into disuse. The station building was demolished after being damaged by a fire in 1972, although the platform remained intact.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: With the ambition for it to become London's sole burial site in perpetuity, the LNC were aware that if their plans were successful, their Necropolis would become a site of major national importance. As a consequence, the cemetery was designed with attractiveness in mind, in contrast to the squalid and congested London burial grounds and the newer suburban cemeteries which were already becoming crowded.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: The LNC aimed to create an atmosphere of perpetual spring in the cemetery, and chose the plants for the cemetery accordingly. It had already been noted that evergreen plants from North America thrived in the local soil. Robert Donald, the owner of an arboretum near Woking, was contracted to supply the trees and shrubs for the cemetery. The railway line through the cemetery and the major roads and paths within the cemetery were lined with giant sequoia trees, the first significant planting of these trees (only introduced to Europe in 1853) in Britain. As well as the giant sequoias (also known as "Wellingtonia" after the recently deceased Duke of Wellington), the grounds were heavily planted with magnolia, rhododendron, coastal redwood, azalea, andromeda and monkeypuzzle, with the intention of creating perpetual greenery with large numbers of flowers and a strong floral scent throughout the cemetery.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: In later years the original planting of the cemetery was supplemented by numerous other tree species planted by the LNC, as well as many plants planted by mourners at burial sites and around mausolea. Between the end of LNC independence in 1959 and the cemetery's purchase by Ramadan Güney in 1985 cemetery maintenance was drastically reduced, and the spread of various plant types caused many of the non-military sections of the cemetery to revert to wilderness in this period.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: In August 1914, on the outbreak of the First World War, the LNC offered to donate to the War Office of land "for the free interment of soldiers and sailors who have returned from the front wounded and may subsequently die". The offer was not taken up until 1917, when a section of the cemetery was set aside as Brookwood Military Cemetery, used for the burials of service personnel who died in the London District. This purpose built cemetery came to accommodate further dead from World War II.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: In the meantime, 141 Commonwealth service personnel were buried from London in scattered graves throughout the cemetery, apart from a small Nurses' Plot in St Peter's Avenue in the Westminster field (where are buried nurses from Millbank Military Hospital) and an Indian plot (including one unidentified soldier) in the North-West corner.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: In World War II 51 Commonwealth service personnel were buried in the civilian cemetery, where there are also buried five foreign national servicemen whose graves the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) additionally care for. A military memorial to the missing from that war was built in 1958 by the CWGC.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: Memorialised here too came to be Edward the Martyr, King of England, whose relics are kept nearby in St Edward the Martyr Orthodox Church.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: The London Necropolis Company was taken over by Alliance Property in 1959 and the company was gradually divested of land and investments until by 1973, the cemetery was an independent entity. The cemetery changed hands between various development companies in the 1970s, during which time the cemetery maintenance was neglected: 1970 Cornwall Property (Holdings) Ltd, 1971 Great Southern Group, 1973 Maximillian Investments. Maximillian investments secured the passing of the Brookwood Cemetery Act 1975 which authorised them to sell unused parts of the cemetery and a few areas were sold for development.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: In 1985, Ramadan Güney acquired Brookwood Cemetery from the owner Mr D. J. T. Dally, who was previously the cemetery manager . The purchase evolved from Güney's role as Chairman of the UK Turkish Islamic Trust, which wanted suitable burial facilities for its members. The Brookwood Cemetery Society was founded in 1992 to organise events, promote the site's history and support restoration work. After Güney's death in 2006 he was buried in the cemetery and ownership passed to his children (by his late wife) and operated by his son Erkin, a director at the cemetery for almost 30 years. Diane Holliday, Güney's partner of 6 years, was "frozen out" from the operating company and then dismissed. In 2011, the inheritance of the cemetery was successfully challenged by Diane Holliday and her adult son Kevin. This decision was upheld by the High Court on appeal in 2012. In 2014, Diane Holliday sold the cemetery to Woking Council.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: In 2017, work began on exhumation of the remains of approximately 40,000 to 50,000 people who were interred at the former burial ground of St. James's Church due to construction of the new HS2 terminal at Euston Station in London. The former burial ground had been in use between 1790 and 1853 before the cemetery became St James's Gardens in 1878. The grounds had been utilised as public park space until they were closed in 2017 at the outset of construction. A large part of the exhumation project consisted of a multi-year cataloguing and study of the remains by osteo-archaeologists, part of which was documented by the BBC. In 2020 it was announced that it had been agreed by the Woking Council and HS2 that the remains were to be re-interred in a new grassland plot on the south side of Brookwood Cemetery. The exhumations and study began in October 2018 and the re-interment at Brookwood took place sometime around August 2020 to November 2020. At around 50,000 individual remains, it is thought to be the largest single reburial project in the history of Brookwood.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: Brookwood Military Cemetery covers about and is the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the United Kingdom. The land was set aside during World War I to provide a burial site for men and women of Commonwealth and American armed forces who died in the United Kingdom of wounds and other causes. It now contains 1,601 Commonwealth burials from World War I and 3,476 from World War II (the latter including 3 unidentified British and 2 unidentified Canadian airmen).


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: Within this, there is a particularly large Canadian section, which includes 43 men who died of wounds following the Dieppe Raid in August 1942. Two dozen Muslim dead were also later transferred here in 1968 from the Muslim Burial Ground at Horsell Common. There is a large Royal Air Force section in the southeast corner of the cemetery which includes graves of Czech and United States nationals who died serving in the RAF.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: The cemetery also has 786 non-Commonwealth war graves, including 28 unidentified French, besides eight German dead from World War I and 46 from World War II. It also contains Polish (84 graves), Czech, Belgian (46 graves), Dutch (seven graves) and Italian (over 300 graves) sections. Except for Christmas Day and New Year's Day, this cemetery is open to the public from 8am to sunset Monday to Friday, and 9am to sunset Saturdays and Sundays.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: The United Kingdom 1914–1918 Memorial originally stood at the northeastern end of the 1914–1918 Plot. The new memorial that replaced it was created in 2004, and currently (9 February 2022) commemorates 338 Commonwealth service personnel who died in the First World War in the United Kingdom but have no known grave. The majority of the casualties commemorated on the Brookwood 1914–1918 Memorial are servicemen and women identified by the In From The Cold Project as having died while in care of their families and were not commemorated by the Commission at the time. (Those whose graves are subsequently discovered become commemorated under the respective cemetery.)


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: The Brookwood Memorial stands at the southern end of the Canadian section of the cemetery and commemorates 3,428 Commonwealth men and women who died during the Second World War and have no known grave. This includes commandos killed in the Dieppe and St Nazaire Raids; and Special Operations Executive personnel who died in occupied Europe. The Brookwood Memorial also honours 199 Canadian servicemen and women. The memorial was placed within a military cemetery near the theatre of operations.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: The Brookwood (Russia) Memorial was erected in 1983 and dismantled in 2015. It commemorated forces of the British Commonwealth who died in Russia in World War I and World War II and were buried there. The memorial was erected originally because during the Cold War those graves were inaccessible.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: This site lies to the west of the civilian cemetery. It contains the graves, from World War I of 468 American military dead and a further 563 with no known grave are commemorated.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: After the entry of the United States into the Second World War the American cemetery was enlarged, with burials of US servicemen beginning in April 1942. With large numbers of American personnel based in the west of England, a dedicated rail service for the transport of bodies operated from Devonport to Brookwood. By August 1944, over 3,600 bodies had been buried in the American Military Cemetery. At this time burials were discontinued, and US casualties were from then on buried at Cambridge American Cemetery.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: On the authority of the Quartermaster General of the United States Army, the US servicemen buried at Brookwood during the Second World War were exhumed in January–May 1948. Those whose next of kin requested it were shipped to the United States for reburial, and the remaining bodies were transferred to the new cemetery outside Cambridge.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: Brookwood American Cemetery had also been the burial site for those US servicemen executed while serving in the United Kingdom, whose bodies had been carried to Brookwood by rail from the American execution facilities at Shepton Mallet. They were not transferred to Cambridge in 1948, but instead reburied in unmarked graves at Oise-Aisne American Cemetery Plot E, a dedicated site for US servicemen executed during the Second World War. (One of those executed, David Cobb, was not transferred to Plot E but was repatriated to the US and reburied in Dothan, Alabama in 1949.) Following the removal of the US war graves, the site in which they had been buried was divided into cemeteries for the Free French forces and Italian prisoners of war.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: It is administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission. Close by are military cemeteries and monuments of the British Commonwealth and other allied nations.


title: Brookwood Cemetery

text: Brookwood Cemetery is served by Brookwood railway station, and is located on both sides of Cemetery Pales in Woking. The Cemetery office is located in Glades House.


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (also known as Peter Jackson's King Kong, or simply King Kong) is a 2005 action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montpellier and published by Ubisoft, based on the 2005 film "King Kong". The game was created in collaboration between the film's director Peter Jackson and the game's director Michel Ancel. The game follows New York scriptwriter Jack Driscoll through Skull Island, as he attempts to save love interest Ann Darrow who has been sacrificed by the island's natives to the giant gorilla Kong.


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: The game allows players to play as both Jack Driscoll and King Kong. Players use firearms and spears as Jack; and punch, grab and use objects/corpses as Kong, to defend against and fight creatures on Skull Island. The King Kong segments are played from a third-person perspective, while the Jack levels are played from a first-person perspective. The game de-emphasizes the role of a heads-up display, with the developers explaining that this conceivably would help players to get further immersed into the game (although the HUD can be turned on in the settings).


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: It was released on PC and sixth generation platforms and a Nintendo DS version on November 21, 2005, while it was released on November 22, 2005, on the Xbox 360 as a launch title, as well as a Game Boy Advance version titled "Kong: The 8th Wonder of the World"; also, a PlayStation Portable version was released December 20, 2005. The film's cast members reprise their roles.


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: Upon release, the console and PC versions received critical acclaim, with critics praising the game's immersive environments and audio, ability to play as both Driscoll and Kong throughout the game, the voice acting (particularly Jack Black's performance), and is often considered one of the best movie based video games of all time. However, the DS version received negative reception due to bugs, poor AI and technical issues, while the PSP version received mixed reviews, with critics liking the inclusion of a multiplayer mode, but criticizing the shorter campaign length.


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: In the game, the player assumes the roles of both New York scriptwriter Jack Driscoll and the giant gorilla, King Kong, as they struggle to survive the threats of Skull Island in 1933.


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: Human levels are controlled from a first person perspective. The game de-emphasizes the role of a heads-up display: it lacks a life bar, aiming reticle, and ammunition readout (the ammo readout and aiming reticle can be turned on and off at the player's will, but is disabled by default), further adding to the challenge and encouraging the player to find alternate weapons and techniques.


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: Interspersed with human adventure are levels in which the player controls Kong himself, traversing Skull Island's unique geography, battling various giant monsters while defending Ann. The Kong levels take place in a third-person view, as the player directs Kong to punch, grab and use objects/corpses as weapons. He can also bite, climb, charge, hurl enemies and even pound his chest to go into fury mode. When Kong is sent into fury mode, the sky becomes tinted with a golden hue and Kong becomes more powerful and less vulnerable to attack. Many of the Kong sequences fulfill the role of boss fights, as the giant ape is able to effectively battle the gigantic creatures that Jack's weapons cannot harm.


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: The game features an alternate ending where Kong can be saved during the Empire State Building shootout and safely returned to Skull Island. The ending was approved by Peter Jackson. To unlock the alternate ending, players must complete the entire game and then go back and play through various maps and earn a total of 250,000 points. It can also be accessed by using the cheat codes.


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: In 1933, film director Carl Denham (Jack Black), has acquired a mysterious map, which reveals the secret location of a large island known as Skull Island, located in the far reaches of the Pacific Ocean. Carl hires playwright Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) to write his script and plucks a starving, out-of-work actress Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) to play the part of leading lady and a tramp steamer called the "Venture" to take them to the island. The ship, controlled by Captain Englehorn (Thomas Kretschmann) arrives at the island on October 12. Three lifeboats containing the cast, crew and sailors are dispatched to the island. Due to stormy seas and large rocks, the lifeboat containing Jack, Carl, Ann, Hayes (Evan Parke), and Briggs smashes into a chunk of rocks, killing Briggs.


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: Hayes shoots out a distress signal, causing Englehorn to come looking for them via the ship's plane and drop ammo supplies for them. The group, after fighting off giant crabs, head onto a rocky outcrop. Carl suggests shooting some test shots for his movie, asking Ann to scream. Her classic damsel-in-distress style wailing is answered by a loud roar. The party progresses forward, meeting up with the second lifeboat containing Preston (Colin Hanks), Jimmy (Jamie Bell) and Lumpy (Andy Serkis), although it cannot land because of the strong current of the sea. The team continue traversing the island, battling many vicious predators such as giant megapedes, scorpio-pedes, and "Terapusmordax" and are eventually forced to split up as they make their way to a massive wall looming in the distance. Navigating through a seemingly abandoned village, Jack and Ann are captured by the island natives.


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: Jack is tied to a stake, and watches helplessly as the natives offer Ann to Kong, a gorilla, as a sacrifice. Carl unties Jack and the two give chase. During the dangerous journey through the jungle, they have an encounter with pack-hunting Venatosaurus, and at one point Jack has to rescue Carl when he gets abducted by a Terapusmordax matriarch. Jack and Carl reunite with Hayes after defeating a pack of Venatosaurus with a .45 caliber Thompson submachine gun. Soon after, they find Preston, Lumpy, Jimmy and Baxter, who are crossing a bridge, but they are attacked by a Vastatosaurus rex. Lumpy is torn apart, Jimmy and Baxter fall down into the ravine, but Preston gets to the other side. Jack is separated from Carl and Hayes, who tell him to continue looking for Ann. Jack eventually finds Ann, but she is kidnapped by a Terapusmordax. Kong comes to the rescue and saves Ann. Jack continues on into the canyon, where he sees a migrating herd of Brontosaurus, and also battles Megapedes and Scorpio-pedes in the surrounding caverns. Jack skillfully navigates around the Brontosaurus herd to acquire a fire to clear their path forward, being chased by Venatosaurs the whole way through. A V. rex attacks the sauropods just as Jack returns with the fire and the trio escape just in time. In the jungle, they save Jimmy, who is being attacked by the Venatosaurs. They eventually get on a raft, where Jimmy tells the group that everyone else is dead. After escaping the Skull Islanders, the team are pursued by two V. rexes down the rapids. Their weapons cannot hurt the predators, and as the rapids give way to slow open rivers, the team is certainly doomed. However Kong arrives just in time with Ann in hand, letting the team know that she's alive. Kong battles and kills the V-rexes. As the team continue their journey, they enter a swamp, and fight against Udusaurs. After leaving the swamp, Kong interrupts their log crossing and tips them into a gorge. Carl's camera is broken and he gives up, heading downstream towards the Venture. Jack, Jimmy and Hayes continue their pursuit of Ann.


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: Jack eventually saves Ann from a V. rex, and the party attempt to find a long stretch of water of which Englehorn's seaplane can land on. After fighting off some Venatosaurus and a juvenile V. rex in a cave, and leaving another swamp, they finally come across a long stretch of water. Englehorn lands on the water, but is forced to take flight as a V. rex arrives on the scene and chases the group. Ann signals for Kong to come while Jack shoots some Terapusmordax to distract the carnivore. When Kong arrives, Hayes fires his gun on the ape, but the V. rex charges at Kong and inadvertently steps on Hayes, fatally injuring him. Jack and Jimmy stand over Hayes, who tells Jimmy before he dies to get back to the ship. Jack and Jimmy fight many raptors and head back to the stretch of water and find the seaplane. Jimmy leaves with Englehorn and Jack climbs up into the mountains to save Ann.


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: Jack ascends the mountain, harangued by scavenging Skin-birds roosting among the cliffs. Finally he makes it into Kong's lair and rescues Ann while Kong fights several cave serpents. Kong gives chase to the fleeing pair, who make their way back to the native village. After leaving the jungle, Ann is captured by the natives once again but Kong saves her. He then heads for the shore where he gets gassed by sailors. He eventually passes out and is taken to New York City, where he is put on display on Broadway. Kong escapes and rampages New York destroying many police cars and army trucks. He eventually finds Ann and takes her up the Empire State Building. He tries to destroy a swarm of biplanes but is eventually shot down. Carl stands beside Kong's body and says "It wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty that killed the Beast."


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: An alternate ending is possible. This ending can be unlocked when players replay through various maps and earn a total of 250,000 points. If the player defeats enough biplanes as Kong, the army will light up searchlights on the building so that the biplanes can get clearer shots at Kong, causing Jack and Englehorn to appear in the Venture's seaplane. The player will switch to Jack piloting the seaplane and destroying the searchlights, and shooting down the remaining biplanes to save Kong. Although emergency searchlights are set up, Kong climbs down the Empire State Building. Kong is taken back aboard the Venture and is safely returned to Skull Island. Onboard Englehorn's seaplane, Ann flies around Kong's lair to see Kong one last time to bid farewell to him, as Kong roars triumphantly. The seaplane returns to the departing Venture.


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: The Xbox 360 release features improved graphics and audio over the sixth-generation console releases. The second PC version, known as the "Gamer's Edition", (originally only available with select graphics cards and later offered on game download services) also includes these improved features.


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: The "Special Edition" version of the game was available for a limited time. Along with the two standard game discs, included are a bonus disc, containing concept art and a screensaver, and a making-of disc, containing a featurette with Peter Jackson. There was an error in the printing of the discs and the disc labelled "Making of" was actually the "Bonus" disc and vice versa. The signature edition also comes with a Topps trading card of King Kong, a code for a downloadable ringtone, and a cover signed by Peter Jackson.


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: Symptomatic of early seventh generation console games, the Xbox 360 version is only set up for HDTV, leaving the image on standard-definition TVs very dark and unsatisfactory for gameplay. As a result, Ubisoft recommended fans buy the Xbox version until a fix for the problem was produced. The patch was eventually released. The Xbox version is not backwards compatible with the Xbox 360. In June 2019, Microsoft added the Xbox 360 version to the Xbox One backwards compatible library.


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: The retail PC version utilizes the StarForce copy protection system, which may cause unforeseen difficulties for players, especially those using Microsoft Windows 7. No patch has been released by the publisher to remedy this problem. The Gamer's Edition of the game is playable on Windows 7 and in Windows 10 with no issues.


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: The Xbox 360 version of the game has poorly coded shaders, allowing homebrew and unsigned code to run on the Xbox 360 through modified disc images of the game, which exploited the aforementioned shader engine.


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: "Peter Jackson's King Kong" was a commercial success, selling more than 4.5 million copies by the end of March 2006. The PlayStation 2 version received a "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom.


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: The PC and console versions received positive reviews, with critics praising the game's immersive environments, action sequences, and ability to play as two protagonists throughout the game. However, the Nintendo DS version was widely panned by reviewers because of bugs and glitches, poor level design and enemy AI. The DS version was listed in the 'Flat-Out Worst Game' list of GameSpot's Best & Worst of 2005. The PSP version received mixed reception, mainly for a shorter length, as well as cut down features from the console and PC versions.


title: King Kong (2005 video game)

text: Non-video game publications gave the game generally positive reviews as well. "The New York Times" gave it a favorable review and stated, "The sense of immersion is increased by the game's first-person perspective and an absence of on-screen clutter. There is no health gauge blocking your view; if a dinosaur bites you, your vision blurs, indicating that one more bite will kill you." "The A.V. Club" gave it a B+ and called it "an instant classic." "The Sydney Morning Herald" gave it three-and-a-half stars out of five and said of the game, "With a rather abrupt final sequence it does seem to rush to its climax, but despite its brevity, this is an unforgettable trip through the realm of Kong." "Detroit Free Press" gave the Xbox 360 version three stars out of four and called it "A decent effort. And if you're a gamer who likes movies, this one's got all the cinematic feel and production value of a big-budget film." "Maxim", however, gave the PSP version a score of four out of ten and stated that "while the PSP version adds a two-player Co-op mode, it also has wonkier controls than its console cousin, which weren't great to begin with."


title: Twisted Metal: Black

text: Twisted Metal: Black is a vehicular combat video game developed by Incognito Entertainment and published by Sony Computer Entertainment America for the PlayStation 2 video game console. Santa Monica Studio assisted on development. It is a reboot of the "Twisted Metal" series and was released on June 18, 2001. An online enabled multiplayer-only variant, "Twisted Metal: Black Online", was released later as a free send-away.


title: Twisted Metal: Black

text: Both "Twisted Metal: Black" and "Twisted Metal: Black Online" were reissued as part of Sony Greatest Hits program. A standard downloadable version of "Twisted Metal: Black" is included in the first batch of copies of "Twisted Metal" for PlayStation 3, discernible by the "Limited Edition" tab near the top of the cover art. In December 2015, the game was made available for the PlayStation 4 through the PlayStation Network.


title: Twisted Metal: Black

text: In concept, "Twisted Metal: Black" is a demolition derby that permits the usage of ballistic projectiles. Players choose a vehicle and an arena—or a series of arenas in the story mode—to engage in battle with opposing drivers. A variety of weapons and upgrades are obtainable by pick-ups scattered throughout the stage. The objective of the game is to be the last one standing.


title: Twisted Metal: Black

text: The basis of the plot follows the same structure as in all the previous games: Calypso runs a car-based contest called "Twisted Metal" (though in the game the contest is never called that), in which the various characters compete risking their lives to claim the tournament's prize - any single wish they desire, no matter the difficulty, rarity or even reality of such wish. Although Calypso is indeed malevolent, characters who have malevolent wishes (which make most of the cast) have their wishes granted without him tricking them on the wishes, while those seeking more noble ends (such as Outlaw's driver Agent Stone) find that Calypso usually has the last laugh.


title: Twisted Metal: Black

text: In a somewhat different take from previous games, each character has their own story, which they narrate from their own point of view. Each of them starts with them being visited by Calypso, who knows what they desire and offers them in his contest. More of the characters' background is revealed in their midpoint cutscene, presented as a dream experienced when they briefly pass out after the sub-boss Minion is defeated. The characters' ending movie showing their wish being granted is presented after defeating the final boss Warhawk.


title: Twisted Metal: Black

text: The game instead takes place within a single city known as "Midtown", with most competitors coming from the city's mental asylum, "Blackfield".


title: Twisted Metal: Black

text: "Twisted Metal: Black" has a diverse cast made up from both new and returning characters, some of which have changed drastically from their previous appearances. There are a total of fifteen selectable characters, in which ten of them are selectable from the very beginning and the other five must be found and unlocked.


title: Twisted Metal: Black

text: By July 2006, "Twisted Metal: Black" had sold 950,000 copies and earned $31 million in the United States. "Next Generation" ranked it as the 61st highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in the States.


title: Twisted Metal: Black

text: "Twisted Metal: Black" garnered critical acclaim. It received a rating of 9.5 out of 10 from GameSpot and a rating of 9.6 out of 10 from IGN. In GameSpot's Best and Worst of 2001, the game was nominated for Best Shooting Game, and came in ninth in their Game of the Year category. It was also nominated in the "Best Graphics, Artistic" category.


title: Twisted Metal: Black

text: Many critics praised its dark and outstanding storylines for each character and its variety of weapons and unlockables, but its hover style controls for not changing much from the previous installments and its unbalanced difficulty were noted criticisms. "Maxim" gave the game all five stars and called it "a road rager's dream come true". "Playboy" gave it 90% and called it "fun for the whole family!" "The Cincinnati Enquirer" gave it four stars out of five and called it "a fight to the finish, so it's important to keep moving and to quickly learn how and when to use each of the weapons".


title: Twisted Metal: Black

text: Daniel Erickson reviewed the PlayStation 2 version of the game for "Next Generation", rating it five stars out of five, and stated that "the best car combat game in history is also the most creative. Go get it".


title: Twisted Metal: Black

text: "Twisted Metal: Black Online" was a runner-up "GameSpot"s 2002 "Best Online Game on PlayStation 2" award.


title: Twisted Metal: Black

text: A sequel project is "Twisted Metal: Harbor City", though it was never officially announced and the project was later scrapped.


title: Twisted Metal: Black

text: Details on the game were revealed in the PlayStation 2 port of "", "Twisted Metal Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition". It was originally planned the levels of "Harbor City" to be greatly expanded and inter-connected with one another, giving a greater feeling of a single, complete world rather than stand-alone levels.


title: Twisted Metal: Black

text: The four completed levels were included in the game as a bonus feature entitled "Twisted Metal: Lost".


title: Twisted Metal: Black

text: Animation S4, a producer of 3D and Flash animations, created a series of six original Flash "Webisodes" to promote the release of "Twisted Metal: Black", beginning with No-Face, and including Billy Ray Stillwell, Dollface, Bloody Mary and Mr. Grimm.


title: Aaron McCusker

text: Aaron McCusker is a Northern Irish actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Jamie Maguire in the Channel 4's television series "Shameless" and Jim Hutton, Freddie Mercury's boyfriend, in the 2018 feature film "Bohemian Rhapsody".


title: Aaron McCusker

text: McCusker was born in Portadown, County Armagh. He was a member of the local drama group called The Phoenix Players.


title: Aaron McCusker

text: From 2007-2013, McCusker starred as Jamie Maguire in 108 episodes of "Shameless". He appeared in "Ultimate Force", "The Bill" and a TV adaptation of Jonathan Coe's novel "The Rotters' Club".


title: Aaron McCusker

text: McCusker starred in the video for the song "Making Money" by Microlip. He played serial killer AJ Yates in season eight of "Dexter". He portrayed astronaut Wally Schirra in the ABC series "The Astronaut Wives Club". He played Jason Donnelly in the psychological thriller "Fortitude". On 18 April 2016, he appeared as Wesley, an MI6 agent, on the American police drama "Castle" (episode: "Backstabber"). McCusker played Freddie Mercury's boyfriend Jim Hutton in the biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody" (2018).


title: Aaron McCusker

text: In 2020, McCusker starred as Finn Maguire in the third series of British Nordic noir detective series "Marcella".


title: Aaron McCusker

text: In April 2009 McCusker married his long-term girlfriend, Jennie Sutton at Beamish Hall, a country house hotel.


title: Valenciennes FC

text: Valenciennes Football Club (; commonly known as Valenciennes or USVA) is a French association football club based in Valenciennes. The club was founded in 1913 and currently play in Ligue 2, the second tier of French football. Valenciennes plays its home matches at the recently built Stade du Hainaut located within the city.