HISTORIC EVENTS & ARTICLES

LAUDA FIGHTS FOR LIFE AFTER GRAND PRIX CRASH - 32 years ago this month

Formula One racing driver Niki Lauda ended up in a critical condition in hospital after a horrific accident at the Nurburgring Grand Prix in Germany on 1 August 1976.

The Austrian-born driver was trapped inside his Ferrari after it swerved off the track before bouncing back into the path of oncoming cars and catching fire.  Fellow driver Guy Edwards managed to avoid the blazing wreckage but Harald Ertl and Brett Lunger both hit it.  All three drivers raced to the burning Ferrari and, with the help of the Italian driver Arturo Merzario, who also stopped, eventually managed to pull 27-year-old Lauda from his vehicle.

Lauda, who had led the drivers’ championship since the beginning of the season, started the race second on the grid behind James Hunt in pole position.  Guy Edwards said they had had problems getting Lauda out of his Ferrari.  He said “Lauda was basically sitting in the middle of a fire and I would guess it would be about a minute before we managed to get the belts undone.  In the meantime, Ertl had got a fire extinguisher from somewhere and was aiming it towards the central cockpit area so he was able to keep the fire under some sort of control.  Lauda was conscious most of the time and was saying ‘get me out’”.  Although Lauda was conscious and able to stand immediately after the accident, he later lapsed into a coma and a priest administered the last rites.

Lauda was taken to nearby Adenau hospital suffering with serious burns.  From there he was flown to the University Hospital in Mannheim and his condition was, at the time, described as critical.

He fought for his life for several days following the accident and suffered horrendous burns to his head and face.  Part of one of his ears was burnt off and his tear duct mechanism was severely damaged which affected his vision in subsequent races.  He only had enough reconstructive surgery to get his eyelids to work property, but never felt a need to do any more.  Since the accident he is almost never seen in public without a red cap to cover the scars on his head.

Within six weeks of the Nurburgring accident, Niki Lauda was back behind the wheel.  He won the World Championship a total of three times - in 1975, 1977 and 1984.  He retired from Formula One in 1985.  Before the 1976 accident he had been well on course to win it again - but eventually lost by just one point to James Hunt.

At the end of the 1970s, he launched his own airline Lauda Air, which was later sold to Austrian Airlines.  He managed the Jaguar Formula One racing team from 2001-2002.  In late 2003 he launched another airline, Niki.  Lauda owns a commercial pilot’s licence and from time to time acts as a captain on the flights of his airline.

Following the crash at Nurburgring, Guy Edwards was awarded a Queen’s Gallantry Medal for his bravery.

OPERATION FELIX

“Felix” was the proposed name for a German/Spanish seizure of Gibraltar.  It was scheduled for 10 January 1941 but never executed.  This plan was discussed at a meeting held between Franco and Adolf Hitler in late October 1940, in Hitler’s railroad car at Hendaye at the border of German-occupied France with Spain.

Franco’s material demands for joining the Axis powers included:-

400,000-700,000 tons of grain

All the fuel required for the Spanish Army

All lacking equipment for the Spanish Army

Artillery, aircraft and special troops for the conquest of Gibraltar

In addition, Franco wanted Germany to hand over the French African territories of Morocco and Oran and to “help (Spain) get a border revision in the west of Rio de Oro” (in Spanish Sahara).

In The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L Shirer quotes Ciano’s Diplomatic Papers as reporting that Hitler later said he would rather have three teeth extracted than meet with Franco again.  It is a subject of historical debate whether Franco overplayed his hand, demanding too much from Hitler for Spanish entry into the war, or whether he deliberately stymied the German dictator by setting the price unrealistically high.  Also, Wilhelm Canaris, who secretly relayed information to Franco about the German plans, might have convinced Franco not to agree to Hitler’s demands.

In any case, the operation itself would not have been straightforward.  German estimates were for as many as 30,000 troops to be involved in the assault.  Use of airborne forces was not an option due to the small amount of level ground around the Rock and the perilous air currents.  Supporting the assault with heavy siege artillery would have been difficult as the Spanish railway system would not support the movement of such large guns within range of Gibraltar.  In addition, the actual assault would have to have gone across the exposed runway of the airfield, which runs parallel to the entire land border with Spain.  Recognising this fact, the British defenders had mounted rapid fire Bofors 40mm guns in tunnel openings facing north and downwards onto the airfield to specifically deal with this threat.

Given free passage through Spain for their ground troops and air forces, German planners were confident an assault in January 1941 would yield victory.  However, Franco’s consent was not forthcoming and the operation was postponed, transformed and ultimately abandoned.

With Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of the Soviet Union) looming and units being transferred to the east, by 10 March 1941 Operation Felix had been amended to become Operation Felix-Heinrich, for which German troops would be withdrawn from the USSR to capture Gibraltar when the approximate line Kiev-Smolensk-Opotschka was reached.  Because the campaign in the Soviet Union did not succeed as planned, nor did Franco alter his position, even this amended version of the operation was not implemented and as already stated, the Operation was eventually abandoned completely.

INTERBREEDING OF ROYALTY & NOBILITY

The royal and noble families of Europe have close blood ties which are strengthened by royal intermarriage; the most discussed instances of interbreeding relate to European monarchies.  Examples abound in every royal family, in particular, the ruling dynasties of Spain and Portugal where in the past very inbred.

Several Hasburgs, Bourbons and Wittelsbachs married aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews.  Even in the British royal family, which is very moderate in comparison, there has scarcely been a monarch in 300 years who has not married a (near or distant) relative.  Indeed, Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh are second cousins once removed, both being descended from King Christian IX of Denmark.  They are also third cousins as great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria.  European monarchies did avoid brother-sister marriages, though Jean V of Armagnac was an exception.

It is not necessarily the case that there was a greater amount of inbreeding within royalty than there is in the population as a whole; it may simply be better documented.  Among genetic populations that are isolated, opportunities for exogamy are reduced.  Isolation may be geographical, leading to inbreeding among peasants in remote mountain valleys.  Or isolation may be social, induced by the lack of appropriate partners, such as Protestant princesses for Protestant royal heirs.

It has long been debated on whether inbreeding caused some of the problems among some of the family members of some royal lines, most notably centred around Charles II of Spain, who was mentally handicapped and could not properly chew food.  As there was no genetic testing back then, it will remain unclear whether these defects were naturally occurring or were due to the inbreeding.

Other examples of royal family intermarriage include:-

The House of Habsburg inmarried particularly often.  Famous in this case is the Habsburger Lippe (Habsburg Lip), typical for many Habsburg relatives over a period of six centuries.  The condition progressed through the generations to the point that the last of the Spanish Habsburgs, Charles II of Spain, could not properly chew his food

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Spain and Infanta Isabella of Portugal were first cousins

John, Crown Prince of Portugal and Joan of Habsburg were double first cousins

King William III and Queen Mary II of England were first cousins

King George V and Princess Mary of Teck were second cousins once removed

King Philip V of Spain and Princess Maria Luisa of Savoy were double second cousin

Intermarriage in European royal families is no longer practiced as often as in the past.  This is likely due to changes in the importance of marriage as a method of forming political alliances through kinship ties between nobility, as well as an awareness of modern medical science.  These ties were often sealed only upon the birth of progeny within the arranged marriage.  Marriage was seen as a union of lines of nobility, not of a contract between individuals as it is seen today.  More marry for “love”, best illustrated by the second marriage of Prince Charles to Camilla.  During the tumult of the removal, sometimes by revolution, of most lines of nobility from state government, it became less important to marry for the good of the respective monarchies and the states they governed.

BRITISH AIRWAYS SIKORSKY S61 CRASH - 25 years ago this month

On 16 July 1983, British Airways’ commercial Sikorsky S-61 helicopter Oscar November (G-BEON) crashed in the southern Celtic Sea, in the Atlantic Ocean when en-route from Penzance to St Mary’s. Isles of Scilly, in thick fog.  Only 6 of the 26 on board survived.  It sparked a review of helicopter safety and was the worst civilian helicopter disaster in the UK until 1986, when a Chinook helicopter crashed in the North Sea.

Owned by British Airways, the helicopter operated between Aberdeen and the oil platforms of the North Sea.  On 22 June 1983, the helicopter received its last annual certificate of airworthiness.  On 24 June, it was being used as a replacement helicopter, operating the British Airways service between Penzance and the Isles of Scilly.  The helicopter, which would normally run the service, was in for repairs.

Oscar November left Penzance on its scheduled 12:40pm service to the Isles of Scilly.  It was flying at 250 feet (76m) over the Celtic Sea, due to poor visibility.  Then, at 12:58pm, air traffic control on St Mary\s lost contact with the helicopter, before it had a chance to send a Mayday signal or to ditch under power.  It had crashed nose-first into the sea and sank immediately, only two and a half miles from St Mary’s Airport.  The six survivors were unable to don lifejackets in time, but were able to float for 30 minutes before St Mary’s Lifeboat RNLB Robert Edgar attended the scene.

The survivors were: two children, both of whom were orphaned by the incident; the two pilots, Dominic Lawlor and Neil Charleton; and the only two Scillonians onboard, Mrs Lucille Langley-Williams and Mrs Megan Smith.  The other twenty passengers were killed.

The helicopter did not carry a black box, as it had been found that the vibrations from helicopter flight render black box recordings unreliable.  The only record of the flight was from the pilot\s log, documents carried in a pouch in the cabin.  Rescue helicopters from RNAS Culdrose could not see the survivors through the thick mist but did eventually see them and rescue them.

The fuselage of Oscar November was recovered 200ft (61m) below the surface by the RMAS salvage vessel Seaforth Clansman at 1pm on 19 July.  The Seaforth Clansman, along with Penlee Lifeboat RNLB Mabel Alice, had the duty of returning the bodies to shore.  The helicopter was located by her locator beacon.  Some of the passengers found inside still had their seatbelts on, indicating the lack of fore-warning of the crash.

The fuselage was taken to the government’s accident investigation branch, the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, Hampshire.  Initially there was speculation that the helicopter could have flown into a flock of seagulls after mutilated bird corpses were found near the scene.  However, Islanders found more dead seabirds on the shore, without mutilations.  To add to the evidence against, the grille that prevents seabirds entering the engine was found intact.  A report investigating the incident was concluded twenty months later, in February 1985, finding the cause to be ‘pilot error’.  The pilot was flying within BA regulations.  He misjudged the altitude because of a fog bank and crashed into the sea, bouncing along the water, removing the floor and sponsons.  The report investigating the incident is held at the National Archives and is protected under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 until 1 January 2016.

The main recommendation from the report was for an audible height warning on passenger helicopters operating off-shore and for the altimeter to be moved nearer to the pilot’s ‘head-up field of vision’.  Ground proximity warning systems were made compulsory on passenger planes in 1977.

THREE ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ - 46 years ago this month

Three prisoners made their way out of California’s Alcatraz prison using spoons and a homemade raft.  Frank Lee Morris and two brothers, Clarence and John Anglin, all convicted of bank robbery, escaped on 11 June 1962 from the notorious island prison in San Francisco Bay renowned for its high level of security.  Behind the prisoners’ cells in Cell Block B where they were interned, was an unguarded 3 foot wide utility corridor.  The prisoners chiselled away the moisture damaged concrete from around an air vent leading to this corridor.

The acting warden said they put dummy heads - made of a mixture of soap, toilet paper and real hair - in their beds to fool prison officers making night-time inspections.  They then cut through the back of their cells with sharpened spoons, crawled out and onto the roof through a ventilation duct, climbed down a pipe to the ground then made their way to the shore of the island.

Prison officials said they used a makeshift raft of driftwood and raincoats sewn together to make pontoons in order to float away from Alcatraz, also known as The Rock.

At least 100 armed troops joined the military police in the hunt for the three convicts who were wearing blue prison uniform.  Police warned members of the public not to approach the men.

Alcatraz island is only a mile from the mainland but the waters of San Francisco Bay are treacherous and very cold and if the escapees had fallen in, there would have been very little chance of survival.  Alcatraz housed around 270 hardened criminals and was famous for its high level of security thanks to the structure of the buildings, their isolation from the mainland and the frequent head counts - 12 a day.

The prison boasted gangster Al Capone, George ‘Machine Gun’ Kelly and murderer and bird expert Robert Stroud among its most infamous inmates.

The three escapees were never recaptured and opinion is divided as to whether they succeeded in their escape, were drowned or eaten by sharks.  The FBI spent years investigating the case and finally concluded that the men had failed.  The film Escape from Alcatraz starring Clint Eastwood was based on their story.  Articles belonging to the prisoners (including plywood paddles and parts of the raincoat raft) were found on nearby Angel Island and the official report on the escape says the prisoners drowned.

On 21 March 1963 after 13 escape attempts, Alcatraz was closed by the Kennedy administration after it was deemed too expensive to run.  It then became a home for Native Americans from 1969 to 1971.  It has been part of the Golden Gate Recreation Area and a museum since 1972.

SPANISH ROAD

The “Spanish Road” was a military supply/trade route used from 1567-1620, which stretched from Northern Italy to the Low Countries.  It crossed through relatively neutral territory and was therefore Europe’s most preferred military route.  In the days of its use it was also known as “le chemin des espagnols”.

The conflict between the Spanish King Philip II and Spain’s rebels of the Low Countries symbolised the prominent European power struggle of the 16th century.  In 1550, the wars had stretched Spain’s finances thin.  1566 was known as the “Year of Hunger” or “Year of Wonders” when the people of the Lower Countries revolted against their king because they were not given a say in their government.  Spanish troops occupied their country and religious persecution was prominent.  When this revolt occurred, Philip realised he would need a route to get to the Netherlands and crush the opposition.  The Spanish Road was observed and mapped out and Philip sent the Duke of Alva and a ruthless army to wage war in 1567 using Brussels as his headquarters.  When the Emperor of the Netherlands pleaded for peace in 1569, Philip rejected the plea and continued to use the Spanish Road to try and meet his military goals.

To get to the Netherlands, the armies and travellers of the 16th century had to surpass many obstacles including extremely high mountain passes, large rivers, deep forests and roadways filled with criminals.  Therefore it was necessary to find a route that would go around these barriers, for safer and easier travelling and the Spanish Road proved to be the answer.  Contrary to its name, Spain was not the primary discoverer or user of the Spanish Road.  Parts of it were devised by Philip II in 1565, when he realised he was going to have to travel to the Netherlands, and wanted to use his own land and neutral territory.  Merchants regularly used parts of the road between France and Italy to trade goods with neighbouring countries.  Despite this fact, it was fully mapped out by European militaries to go through neutral countries, the main ones being Franche Comté, Burgundy, Luxemburg, Metz, Lorraine and Savoy.  The way in which the Spanish Road was organised showed a large improvement in the previous system of moving troops through neutral territory.  Any maps used for Spanish expeditions had only the information that pertained directly to the military, excluding any other details.  However, this caused the armies to use guides and scouts when they crossed unfamiliar terrain, since their extremely generalised maps would not be able to guide them.  Travelling along the road took an average of 12 miles a day.  Although in 1577, Spanish veterans left the Netherlands and marched 15 miles a day because of the heat and, in 1578 they made the trip in 23 miles a day during the cold month of February.  For military purposes, the Spanish Road was first used by the Duke of Alba in 1567, and the last army passed through it in 1620.  Traders also used the route and both were in need of food and shelter to complete their journey.  Shelter was rarely given to those who travelled on the road, especially soldiers.  Officers would sometimes be able to stay in a nearby town, but their armies had to sleep under bushes or flimsy huts that they would make themselves.  Residents of towns along the “road” were rightfully fearful of the armies that passed through because they would often find themselves victims of a robbery if they offered up their generosity.  The Spanish Road was only used once or twice per year by the military and the rest of the time by merchants.

Along with the Spanish Road having the obvious effects of faster military movement and a convenient route to the Netherlands, there was one effect which helped to alter the course of history.  This was the Spanish Road’s effect on the spread of the plague or Black Death.  This large transport of people played a huge role in the circulation of the disease and affected civilians in many of the surrounding towns of the Spanish Road.  In addition, the Spanish Road established permanent diplomatic agreements such as permanent embassies in Savoy and the Swiss Cantons, which were under the supervision of the Spanish government in Lombardy.  The Spanish Road also enflamed the religious aspect of Europe because the nation saw it as a threat.  When France broke out into its religious wars, the Spanish Road brought people and money to help out the French Catholics.

The Treaty of Lyon (17 January 1601) forced the Spanish Road to be reduced to a narrow valley and a bridge over the Rhône.  This loss of territory made Spanish passage on the road dependent on the approval of France.  The final Spanish and Italian army was allowed to cross the Spanish Road in 1620.  Savoy’s anti-Spanish Treaty in 1622 ended Spanish travel on the Spanish Road forever.

SPANISH AIR FORCE

The Spanish Air Force is one of three branches of the Spanish Armed Forces and has the mission of defending the sovereignty and independence of Spain, its territorial integrity and constitutional freedoms, basically in its air space.

Although Spanish Military Aviation started with a balloon force in 1896, 10 April 1910 is the date when the Spanish military aviation was formally formed by means of a Royal Decree.  On 5 November 1913, during the war with Morocco, a Spanish expeditionary squadron became the first organised military air unit to see real combat during the first organised bombing in history.

During the Spanish Civil War, the Spanish Military Aviation was divided in two: The Spanish Republic Air Forces (FARE) created by the republican government and the National Aviation created by the army in revolt.  At first, the republican air forces had the control of the majority of the territory using the Soviet Polikarpov I-16, but the help received by Franco from Nazi Germany (Condor Legion) and Fascist Italy (Aviazione Legionaria), changed this.  In July 1936, the first German Junkers Ju-52 and Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM-81 arrived.  In August the Fiat CR-32 and Heinkel He-51 fighters were deployed.  Those planes helped the army in revolt to gain full control of the air.

The current Ejército del Aire (EdA) was not formed until 7 October 1939, at the end of the Spanish Civil War, as a successor to the Nationalist and Republican Air Forces.  During World War II one air section, the “Blue Squadron”, operated into the Division Azul, a Spanish volunteer group who fought alongside the Axis Powers on the Eastern Front.  On 18 March 1946, the first Spanish paratroop unit was created.  It participated in the Ifni War during 1957 and 1958.

Links were established in the 1950s with the US.  Spain received its first jets, like the F-86 Sabre and Lockheed T-33 together with training and transport planes like the T-6 Texan, DC-3 and DC-4.  This first age of jets was replaced in the 1960s by newer fighters like the F-4C Phantom and F-5 Freedom Fighter.

The organisation and equipment of the Spanish Air Force was again modernised in the 1970s to prepare Spain’s membership of NATO in 1982.  Planes like the Mirage III and Mirage F1 were bought from France and became the backbone of the Air Force during the 70s and part of the 80s until the arrival of the American F/A-18 which participated in the Kosovo War under NATO command, based in Aviano, Italy.

The Spanish Air Force is currently replacing older aircraft in the inventory with newer ones including the recently introduced Eurofighter Typhoon and the Airbuss A400M airlifter manufactured with Spanish participation.  Its Aerobatic display team is the Patrulla Aguila, which flies the CASA C-101 Aviojet: while its helicopter display team flies the Eurocopter EC-120 Colibri and it is called Patrulla Aspa.

The planes used by the Spanish Air Force are identified with one or two letters followed by two numbers that appear painted on the fuselages.  The first number corresponds to the unit to which they belong, and the second, to the order in which they were incorporated.  The letter or letters, correspond to the use given.  Thus C means cazabombardero (fighter bomber); A, ataque (attack); P, patrulla (patrol); T, transporte (transport); E, enseñanza (training); D, search and rescue; H, helicopter; K, cistern; V, Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL); and U, utilitarian.  Example: The F-19 with the C 15-08 numeral on the tail is the fifteenth type of fighter that arrived in the Spanish Air Force and is the eighth apparatus of this type to enter the SAF.  On the nose or fuselage they have a numeral specific to the unit in which they are based.

Some versions of planes in service as two-seater versions or cistern versions of transport planes do add another letter to differentiate their function and have an order of arrival to the Air Force different from other versions.  For example, the CE15-02 will be the second F-19 two-seater (Fighter and Training) delivered to the SAF.

LOD AIRPORT MASSACRE.. 36 years ago this month

On 30 May 1972, three members of the Japanese Red Army undertook a terrorist attack on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine at Tel Aviv’s Lod Airport (now Ben Gurion International Airport).  The Japanese Red Army is a terrorist group founded by Fusako Shigenobu in February 1971 after she broke away from the Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction.  The group claimed to have about 40 members at its height and was at one time one of the best-known armed leftist groups in the world.  The JRA’s stated goals are to overthrow the Japanese government and monarchy and to start a world revolution.

Because airport security was focused on the possibility of a Palestinian attack, the use of Japanese terrorists took the guards by surprise and their commitment to a suicide mission simplified the planning.  Kozo Okamoto, Tsuyoshi Okudaira and Yasuyuki Yasuda had been trained in Baalbek, Lebanon.

The terrorists arrived at the airport aboard an Air France flight from Paris.  Dressed conservatively and carrying slim violin cases, they attracted little attention.  Entering the waiting area, they opened up their violin cases and produced Czech VZ 58 assault rifles with the butt stocks removed.  Immediately afterwards, they began to fire indiscriminately at airport staff and visitors, killing twenty-four people and injuring seventy-eight others.  The victims included sixteen Christian pilgrims from Puerto Rico, and professor Aharon Katzir, an internationally renowned protein biophysicist, whose brother, Ephraim Katzir, would be elected President of Israel the following year.  Yasuda and Okudaira died at the scene, Yasuda from Israeli fir and Okudaira by his own hand - he had moved from the airport building onto the landing area, after firing at passengers disembarking from an El Al aircraft - and committed suicide using a grenade.  Okamoto was severely injured by survived to be tried and sentenced to life imprisonment in June 1972.

In the letter claiming official responsibility for the attack carried out by the Japanese Red Army, the PFLP referred to it as Operation Deir Yassin.  This was to portray it as revenge for the 1948 Deir Yassin massacre by Jewish Irgun members on Palestinian civilians in the Deir Yassin village.  The letter also stated that the operation was carried out by the Squad of the Martyr Patrick Arguello.  Patrick Arguello had been shot and killed two years earlier, on 6 September 1970, on an Israeli El Al jet he had attempted to hijack together with PFLP member Leila Khaled.

Okamoto was released in 1985 with over a thousand other prisoners in exchange for captured Israeli soldiers.  He settled in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.  He was arrested in 1997 but in 2000 was granted political refugee status in Lebanon, where he is regarded as a hero and converted to Islam.  Four other JRA members arrested at the same time were extradited to Japan.

In June 2006, a legislative initiative by Senator José Garriga Picó, Senate Project (PS) 1535, was approved by unanimous vote of both houses of the Puerto Rico State Legislative Assembly, making every 30 May “Lod Massacre Remembrance Day”.  On 2 August 2006, the Governor of Puerto Rico, the Hon. Anibal Acevedo Vilá, signed it into Law 144 August 2, 2006.  The purpose of “Lod Remembrance Day” is to commemorate those events, to honour both those murdered and those who survived and to educate the Puerto Rican public against terrorism.

On 30 May 2007, the event was officially memorialised after 35 years.

Lod Airport has since been renamed Ben Gurion Airport and has some of the strictest airport security in the world.

THE BATTLE OF DJERBA

The naval Battle of Djerba took place in May 1560 near the island of Djerba, Tunisia, in which the Ottomans under Piyale Pasha’s command overwhelmed a large joint European fleet, chiefly Spanish forces, sinking half its ships.

Since losing against Barbarossa Hayreddin’s Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Preveza in 1538 and the disastrous expedition of Emperor Charles V against Barbarossa in Algiers in 1541, the major European sea powers in the Mediterranean, Spain and Venice, felt more and more threatened by the Ottomans and their corsair allies.  Indeed, by 1558 Piyale Pasha had captured the Balearic Islands and together with Turgut Reis raided the Mediterranean coasts of Spain.  King Philip II of Spain appealed to Pope Paul IV and his allies in Europe to organize an expedition to retake Tripoli from Turgut Reis, who had captured the city from the Maltese Knights in August 1551 and had subsequently been made Bey (Governor) of Tripoli by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.

The historian William H Prescott reportedly wrote that the sources describing the Djerba campaign were so contradictory that he defied the reader to reconcile them.  Anyone attempting to piece together the campaign will be forced to the same conclusion.  Most reputable historians before that believe that the fleet assembled by the allied Christian powers in 1560 consisted of between 50 and 60 galleys and between 40 and 60 smaller craft.  For example, Giacomo Bosio, the official historian of the Knights of St John, writes that there were 54 galley s.  Fernand Braudel also gives 54 warships plus 36 supply vessels.  One of the most detailed accounts is by Carmel Testa who evidently has access to the archives of the Knights of St John.  He lists precisely 54 galleys, 7 brigs, 17 frigates, 2 galleons, 28 merchant vessels and 12 smaller ships.  These were supplied by a coalition that consisted of Genoa, Naples, Sicily, Florence the Papal States and the Knights of St John.  The joint fleet was assembled at Messina under the command of Giovanni Andrea Doria, nephew of the Genoese admiral Andrea Doria.  It first sailed to Malta, where bad weather forced it to remain for 2 months.  During this time, some 2,000 men were lost to sickness.

On 10 February 1560, the fleet set sail for Tripoli.  The precise numbers of soldiers aboard are not known.  Braudel gives 10,000-12,000; Testa 14,000; older figures in excess of 20,000 are clearly exaggerations considering the number of men a 16th century galley could carry.

Although the expedition landed not far from Tripoli, the lack of water, sickness and a freak storm caused the commanders to abandon their original objective and on 7 March they returned to the island of Djerba, which they quickly overran.  The Viceroy of Sicily, Don Juan de la Cerda, Duke of Medina Coeli, ordered a fort to be built on the island and construction was started.  By that time a Turkish fleet of about 86 galleys and galliots under the command of the Ottoman admiral Piyale Pasha was already underway from Istanbul.  Riyale’s fleet arrived at Djerba on 11 May 1560, much to the surprise of the Christian forces.

The battle was over in a matter of hours, with about half the Christian galleys captured or sunk.  The surviving soldiers took refuge in the fort they had completed just days earlier, which was soon attacked by the combined forces of Piyale Pasha and Turgut Reis (who had joined Pasha on the third day), but not before Giovanni Andrea Doria managed to escape in a small vessel.  After a siege of 3 months, the garrison surrendered and, according to Bosio, Piyale carried about 5,000 prisoners back to Istanbul, including the Spanish commander D Alvaro de Sande, who had taken command of the Christian forces after Doria had fled.

The victory in the Battle of Djerba represented the apex of Ottoman naval domination in the Mediterranean, which had been growing since the victory at the Battle of Preveza 22 years earlier.  The Ottomans soon assaulted the new base of the Knights of St John in Malta in 1565, but did not succeed this time.  It wasn’t until the destruction of a large Ottoman fleet by a combined Christian fleet at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 that the myth of the seeming invincibility of the Turkish naval forces finally ended.

THE THIRD CARLIST WAR

The Third Carlist War (1872-1876) was the last Carlist War in Spain.

During this conflict, Carlist forces managed to occupy several cities in the interior of Spain, the most important ones being La Seu d’Urgell and Estella in Navarre.  Isabel II was in exile and King Amadeo I of Spain, crowned in 1871, was not very popular.  The Carlist pretender, “Carlos VII”, grandson of Carlos V, proclaimed the restoration of Catalonian, Valencian and Aragonese fueros (charters) which Philip V had previously abolished.

The Carlist forces did not succeed, and the promises were never fulfilled.  After four years of war, on 27 February 1876, the Carlist pretender went into exile in France.

On the same day, King Alfonso XII of Spain landed at Pamplona.

The war caused between 7,000 and 50,000 casualties.

Part of the film Vacas (1992) is set during the Third Carlist War.

THE SECOND CARLIST WAR

The Second Carlist War, or the War of the Matiners or Madrugadores (Catalan and Spanish for “early risers”, so-called from the harassing action that took place at the earliest hours of the morning), was a short civil war fought primarily in Catalonia by the Carlists under General Ramón Cabrera against the forces of the government of Isabella II.  The uprising began in September 1846 and continued until May 1849, spreading to Galicia.

Theoretically, the war was fought to facilitate the marriage of Isabella with the Carlist pretender, Carlos, Count of Montemolin, which was supported by the moderate party and by the Carlists.  The marriage never took place, as Isabella was wed to Francis of Assisa and Bourbon.

The conflict was minor, leading some historians to question even the label “war”.  It coincided with the democratic Revolutions of 1848, when Maria Cristina revoked the constitution of Ramón Maria Narváez.  Narváez himself led the counterattack against the revolt in Galicia while Fernando Fernández de Córdova, captain-general of Catalonia, put down the isolated rebel cells in that region by early 1849.  In June of that year, amnesty was granted to the Carlists and those who had fled returned.  The war caused between 3,000 and 10,000 casualties.

THE FIRST CARLIST WAR

The First Carlist War was a civil war in Spain from 1833 to 1839.  At the beginning of the 18th century, King Philip V of Spain promulgated the Salic Law which declared illegal the inheritance of the Spanish crown by women.  His purpose was to thwart the Habsburgs regaining the throne by way of the female dynastic line.

A century later, King Ferdinand VII of Spain had no male descendant, but only two daughters, Isabella (later known as Isabella II of Spain) and Luisa Fernanda.  So he promulgated the Pragmática Sanción to allow Isabella to become Queen after his death.

The Infante Carlos, the king’s brother, would have normally become king without the Pragmática.  He and his followers, such as Secretary of Justice Francisco Tadeo Calomarde, pressed Ferdinand to change his mind.  But the ill Ferdinand kept his decision and when he died on 29 September, 1833, Isabella became the legitimate queen.  As she was only a child, a regent was needed, her mother, Queen Consort María Cristina.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the political situation in Spain was extremely problematic.  During the war of independence against Napoleon, the Cortes met in Cádiz in 1812 and elaborated the first Spanish constitution, possibly the most modern and most liberal in the world.  After the war, when Ferdinand VII returned to Spain, he annulled the constitution in the Manifest of Valencia and thus became an absolute king, governing by decrees and restoring the Spanish Inquisition, abolished by Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon.

Towards the end of his life, Ferdinand made some concessions to the liberals, giving them hopes of a liberal rule.  But there was a strong absolutist party which did not want to lose its position.  Its members knew that María Cristina and Isabella would make liberal reforms, so they looked for another candidate for the throne, and their natural choice, with the background of the Salic Law, was Ferdinand’s brother Carlos.

Meanwhile, there was a continued movement to suppress the Basque Fueros (charter) and to move the customs borders to the Pyrenees.  Since the 1700s a new emergent class had an interest in weakening the powerful Basque nobles and their influence and commerce, including that extending throughout the world with the help of the Jesuit order.

The newly appointed Spanish courtiers supported some of the great powers against the Basques at least since the abolition of the Jesuit order and the Godoy regime.  First they sided with the French Bourbons to suppress the Jesuits, with the formidable changes in America and the subsequent loss of Spanish influence.  Then Godoy sided with the English against the Basques in the Convention War of 1793 and immediately afterwards with the French of Napoleon also against the Basques.  The English interest was to destroy, for as long as possible, Spanish commercial routes and power, which was mainly sustained by the Basque ports, commercial navy and companies.  The Spaniards only helped in such a destructive effort, bringing the Spanish empire to total annihilation..

The Church, a privileged class, was as ambiguous as ever, but many priests fought for Carlos.  The people of the Basque Provinces and Navarre sided with Carlos because of traditionalism and historical respect for the Catholic Church.  Ideologically, Carlos was clearly close to them.  There have been many authors who believed that the Carlist cause in the Basque Country was a formalist cause.  But this point of view is largely subjective.  Many supporters of the Carlist cause believed a traditionalist rule would respect the ancient Foral institutions better.

Another important reason for the massive mobilisation of the Basque Provinces and Navarre for the Carlist cause was the tremendous influence of the Basque clergy in the society.  Salvador de Madariaga, in his book “Memories of a Federalist”, accused the Basque clergy of being “the heart, the brain and the root of the intolerance and the hard line” of the Spanish Catholic Church; there are also other social and economic causes, which have not been properly studied.  In fact, there are more narrative books about the Carlist War in the Basque Provinces than historical works.  This means a “romantic” vision of the Basque people fighting for their rights against the foreign rule of Castile.

Meanwhile, in Catalonia and Aragón, the people saw the chance of recovering their foral rights, which were lost after the Spanish Succession War when Philip V defeated the armies that fought for Archduke Karl of Austria, the other candidate to the throne after the death of Charles II of Spain.  Carlos, however, never said anything about the foral rights.

On the other side, the liberals and moderates united to defend the “new order” represented by María Cristina and her three-year-old daughter, Isabella.  They controlled the institutions, almost the whole army and the cities; the Carlist movement was stronger in the country.  The liberals had the crucial support of the UK, France and Portugal, support that was shown in the important credits to Cristina’s treasury and the military help from the British (British Legion or Westminster Legion under General Lacy Evans), the French (the French Foreign Legion) and the Portuguese (a part of the regular army, under General Baron Das Antas).  The liberals were strong enough to win the war in two months, but an inefficient government and the dispersion of the Carlist forces gave Carlos time to consolidate his forces and hold out for almost seven years in the northern and eastern provinces.

The war was long and hard, and the Carlist forces achieved important victories in the north under the direction of the brilliant general Tomás de Zumalacárregui.  Opposing his advisers, Carlos V decided to conquer a Bilbao defended by the British navy.  With such an important city in his power, the Prussian or Russian Tsarist banks would give him credit to win the war; one of the most important problems for Carlos was a lack of funds.  In the siege of Bilbao, Zumalacárregui was wounded in the leg by a stray bullet.  The wound was not serious, but it did not heal properly and finally General Zumalacárregui lost his life on 25 June, 1835.  Many historians believe the circumstances of his death were suspicious and have pointed out that the general had many enemies in the Carlist court; however, nothing has been proven.

In the European theatre all the great powers backed the Isabeline army, as many British observers wrote in their reports.  Meanwhile, in the east, Carlist general Ramón Cabrera held the initiative in the war but his forces were too few to achieve a decisive victory over the liberal forces.  In 1837 the Carlist effort culminated in the Royal Expedition, which reached the walls of Madrid, but subsequently retreated after the Battle of Aranzueque.

After the death of Zumalacárregui, the liberals slowly regained the initiative but were not able to win the war until 1839.  The war ended with the “Abrazo de Vergara” (the embrace in Vergara) on 31 August, 1839, between the liberal general Baldomero Espartero, Count of Luchana and the Carlist General Rafael Maroto.  Some authors have written that General Maroto was a traitor who forced Carlos to accept the peace, but it is clear that the Carlists were too tired to continue with the war against the liberal government.  In the east, General Cabrera continued fighting but he was alone and finally had to flee to France.  However, Cabrera was considered a hero and returned for the Third Carlist War.

SIR ALEXANDER FLEMING DIES (53 years ago this month)

Sir Alexander Fleming, the man who first discovered the life-saving drug penicillin, died of a heart attack aged 73.

He was born on 6 August 1881 at Lochfield farm near Darvel in East Ayrshire.  He was the third of four children to Hugh and Grace.  Fleming went to Loudoun Moor School and Darvel School and then for two years to Kilmarnock Academy.  After working in a shipping office for four years, the 20-year-old Fleming inherited some money from an uncle.  His older brother, Tom, was already a physician and suggested to his younger brother that he follow the same career and so in 1901, the younger Alexander enrolled at St Mary’s Hospital, London.  He qualified for the school with distinction in 1906 and had the option of becoming a surgeon.  By chance, however, he had been a member of the rifle club.  The captain of the club, wishing to retain Fleming in the team, suggested that he join the research department at St Mary’s, where he became assistant bacteriologist to Sir Almroth Wright, a pioneer in vaccine therapy and immunology.  He gained M.B. and then B.Sc with Gold Medal in 1908, and became a lecturer at St Mary’s until 1914.  On 23 December 1915, Fleming married a trained nurse, Sarah Marion McElroy of Killala, Ireland, who died in 1949.  Their only child, Robert, became a general medical practitioner.  Fleming served throughout World War I as a captain in the Army Medical Corps and was mentioned in dispatches.  In 1918 he returned to St Mary’s, which was a teaching hospital, and he was elected Professor of Bacteriology in 1928.

By 1928, Fleming was investigating the properties of staphylococci.  He was already well-known for his earlier work and had developed a reputation as a brilliant researcher, but quite careless as a lab technician - he often forgot cultures that he worked on and his lab in general was usually in chaos.  After returning from a long holiday, Fleming noticed that many of his culture dishes were contaminated with a fungus and he threw the dishes in disinfectant.  But on one occasion, he had to show a visitor what he had been researching and so he retrieved some of the unsubmerged dishes that he would have otherwise discarded, when he then noticed a zone around an invading fungus where the bacteria could not seem to grow.  Fleming proceeded to isolate an extract from the mould, correctly identified it as being from the Penicillum genus and therefore named the agent penicillin.  Fleming would later write “When I woke up just after dawn on 28 September, 1928, I certainly didn’t plan to revolutionise all medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic, or bacteria killer.  But I guess that’s exactly what I did”.

After the team had developed a method of purifying penicillin to an effective first stable form in 1940, several clinical trials ensued, and their amazing success inspired the team to learn to develop methods for mass production and mass distribution in 1945.  Feming was modest about his part in the development of penicillin, describing his fame as the “Fleming Myth” and he praised others in the team for transforming the laboratory curiosity into a practical drug.  Fleming also discovered very early that bacteria developed antibiotic resistance whenever too little penicillin was used or when it was used for too short a period.

In 1955, Fleming died suddenly at his home in London of a heart attack.  He was cremated and his ashes interred in St Paul’s Cathedral a week later.  His discovery of penicillin had changed the world of modern medicine by introducing the age of useful antibiotics - penicillin has saved, and is still saving, millions of people.

The laboratory at St Mary’s Hospital, London where Fleming discovered penicillin is home to the Fleming Museum.

THE IFNI WAR part 2

Siege of Sidi Ifni

Initial Moroccan attacks had been generally successful.  In the space of two weeks, the Moroccans and their tribal allies had asserted control over most of Ifni, isolating inland Spanish units from the capital.  Simultaneous attacks had been launched throughout Spanish Sahara, overrunning garrisons and ambushing convoys and patrols.  Consequently, Moroccan units, re-supplied and greatly reinforced, endeavoured to surround and besiege Sidi Ifni, hoping to incite popular uprising.  But the Moroccans underestimated the strength of the Spanish defences.  Supplied from the sea by the Spanish Navy and invested with kilometres of trenches and forward outposts, Sidi Ifni, boasting 7,500 defenders by December 9, proved impregnable.  The siege, lasting into June 1958, was uneventful and relatively bloodless, as Spain and Morocco both concentrated resources on Saharan theatres.

Battle of Edchera

In January 1958, Morocco redoubled its commitment to the Spanish campaign, re-organising all army units in Spanish territory as the “Saharan Liberation Army”.  On January 12, a division of the Saharan Liberation Army attacked the Spanish garrison at El Aaiún.  Beaten back and forced into retreat by the Spaniards, the army turned its efforts to the southeast.  Another opportunity presented itself the next day at Edchera, where two companies of the 13th Legionary battalion were conducting a reconnaissance mission.  Slipping unseen into the large dunes near the Spanish positions, the Moroccans opened fire.  Ambushed, the Legionaries fought to maintain cohesion, driving off attacks with mortar and small arms fire.  Notable fighting was seen by the 1st platoon, which stubbornly denied ground to the Moroccans until grievous casualties forced it to withdraw.  Bloody attacks continued until nightfall, when the Moroccan forces, too scattered and depleted of men to continue their assault, fled into the darkness.

Reconquest of Spanish Sahara

In February 1958, Franco-Spanish corps launched a major offensive that successively dismantled the Moroccan Liberation Army.  For the first time, massively superior European air power was brought to bear as France and Spain deployed a joint air fleet of 150 planes.  First to fall were the Moroccan mountain strongholds at Tan-Tan.  Bombed from above and rocketed from below, the Liberation Army suffered 150 dead and abandoned its war caches.  On February 10, the 4th, 9th and 13th Legion battalions, organised a motorised group, drove the Moroccans from Edchera and swept through to Tafurdat and Smara.  The Spanish army at El Aaiún, in conjunction with French forces from Fort Gouraud, struck the Moroccans on February 21, destroying Saharan Liberation Army concentrations between Bir Nazaran and Ausert.

Consequences

On April 2, the governments of Spain and Morocco signed the Treaty of Angra de Cintra.  Morocco obtained the region of Tarfays (colony of Cabo Juby), between the river Draa and the parallel 27° 40’, excluding Sidi Ifni and the Spanish Sahara.  Spain retained possession of Ifni until 1969, when, while under some international pressure (resolution 2072 of the United Nations from 1965), it returned the territory to Morocco.  Spanish kept control of Western Sahara until the 1975 Green March prompted a withdrawal.  The future of the former Spanish colony remains uncertain.

THE IFNI WAR part 1

The Ifni War, sometimes called the Forgotten War in Spain, was a series of armed incursions into Spanish West Africa by Moroccan insurgents and indigenous Sahrawi rebels that began in October 1957 and culminated with the abortive siege of Sidi Ifni.

The war, which may be seen as part of the general movement of de-colonisation that swept Africa throughout the latter half of the 20th century, was conducted primarily by elements of the Moroccan Army of Liberation which, no longer tied down in conflicts with the French, committed a significant portion of its resources and manpower to the capture of Spanish possessions.

The city of Sidi Ifni was incorporated into the Spanish colonial empire in 1860.  The following decades of Franco-Spanish collaboration resulted in the establishment and extension of Spanish protectorates south of the city and Spanish influence obtained international recognition in the Berlin Conference of 1884.  In 1946, the region’s various coastal and inland colonies were consolidated as Spanish West Africa.  Immediately following its independence from France in 1956.  Morocco began expressing interest in the Spanish possessions, claiming it was historically and geographically part of the Moroccan territory.  Moroccan Sultan (then King) Mohammed V, encouraged efforts to reclaim the land and personally funded anti-Spanish conspirators in Ifni.

Violent demonstrations against foreign rule erupted in Ifni on 10 April, followed by civil strife and the widespread murder of those loyal to Spain.  In response, Generalissimo Franco dispatched two battalions of the Spanish Legion, Spain’s elite fighting force, to El Aaiún in June.  Spanish military mobilisation resulted in the Moroccan army converging near Ifni.  On October 23, two villages on the outskirts of Sidi Ifni, Goulimine and Bou Izarguen, were occupied by 1,500 Moroccan soldiers (Moukhahidine).  The encirclement of Ifni had begun.  Two more Legionary battalions reached Spanish Sahara before the opening of hostilities.

On 21 November, Spanish intelligence in Ifni reported that attacks were imminent by Moroccans operating out of Tafraut.  Two days later, Spanish lines of communication were cut, and a force of 2,000 Moroccans stormed Spanish garrisons and armouries in and around Ifni.  Although the Moroccan drive into Sidi Ifni was easily repulsed, two nearby Spanish outposts were abandoned in the face of enemy attacks and many others remained under heavy siege.

At Tiluin, 60 triadores, mixed Spanish and indigenous militiamen, struggled to stave off a force of hundreds of Moroccans.  On 25 November, a relief attempt was authorised.  A fleet of five C.A.S.A. 2.111 bombers (Spanish-built versions of the Junkers Ju-523M) dropped a force of 75 paratroopers into the outpost.  On 3 December, soldiers of the Spanish Legion 6th battalion arrived, breaking the siege and re-taking the airfield.  All military and civilian personnel were then evacuated overland to Sidi Ifni.

The relief of Teleta was decidedly less successful.  Leaving Sidi Ifni on 24 November aboard several old trucks, a platoon of the Spanish Legion paratroop battalion under Captain Ortiz made poor ground through difficult terrain.  This problem was compounded by frequent Moroccan ambushes, which by the next day had left several men wounded and forced the Spaniards off the road.  On 26 November, food ran out.  The Spanish, low on ammunition, resumed the march, only to dig in again in the face of repeated enemy attacks.  Rations were dropped from an airplane but casualties continued to mount; among the dead was Captain Ortiz.  On 2 December, a column of infantry, among them the erstwhile defenders of Telata, broke through the Moroccan lines and drove the enemy off.  The survivors of the paratroop battalion set foot in Sidi Ifni once more on 5 December.  The company had suffered two dead and fourteen wounded.

BUDDY HOLLY KILLED IN AIR CRASH 49 years ago this month

Buddy Holly was killed in a plane crash, aged just 22, on 3 February, 1959.  He was on a flight along with two other rock ‘n’ roll stars - Jiles P Richardson (known as the Big Bopper) and Ritchie Valens.  The plane they were travelling in crashed shortly after take-off from Clear Lake, Iowa in the early hours of the morning.  The pilot of the single-engined Beechcraft Bonanza plane was also killed.

Early reports suggested that the aircraft had spun out of control during a light snowstorm.  Only the pilot’s body was found inside the plane wreckage as the performers were thrown clear on impact.  The plane was hired by Holly after heating problems developed on his tourbus.  All three performers were travelling to Moorhead, Minnesota, the next venue in their Winter Dance Party Tour.  Holly had set up the gruelling schedule of concerts - covering 24 cities in three weeks - to make money after the break-up of his band, The Crickets, the previous year.

Waylon Jennings gave his seat on the plane to Richardson, who was running a fever and had trouble fitting his stocky frame comfortably into the bus sears.  When Holly learned that Jennings wasn’t going to fly, he said “Well, I hope your old bus freezes up”.  Jennings responded “Well, I hope your plane crashes”.  This friendly banter of friends would haunt Jennings for years.  Valens had flipped a coin for his seat on the plane with one of the backup musicians, Tommy Allsup.  On the toss of the coin, Valens won the seat and Allsup won the rest of his life.

Born Charles Hardin Holley - changed to Holly after a misspelling on a contract - he had several hit records including a number one, in the US and the UK with That’ll be the Day in 1957.  A singer and guitarist, he was inspired by Elvis Presley after seeing him at an early concert in his home town of Lubbock, Texas.  With Presley serving in the Army, some critics expected Holly to take over his crown.  The other two performers - Richard Valenzuela and the Big Bopper - had also had great success.  Richard Valenzuela was the first Mexican American to break into mainstream music, after being discovered by record producer Bob Keane, who changed his name to Ritchie Valens.  He had made three albums and achieved a number two chart position in the US with his composition Donna - about his girlfriend - in 1958.  His rock ‘n’ roll re-working of the traditional Mexican song La Bamba also received great acclaim.  The Big Bopper had been a record-breaking radio DJ with a 122 hour marathon sting and reached number six in the American charts with his record Chantily Lace.

Following the crash, Buddy Holly and, to a lesser extent, Ritchie Valens, became musical legends.  Don McLean immortalised the tragedy with his 1972 hit American Pie.

Holly is often described as the most influential of the early rock ‘n’ roll musicians and has been cited as such by John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles.

The conclusion of the investigation into the crash by the Civil Aeronautics Board was that the probable cause of the crash was the pilot’s unwise decision to embark on a flight which would necessitate flying solely by instruments when he was not properly certificated or qualified to do so.  Contributing factors were serious deficiencies in the weather briefing and the pilot’s unfamiliarity with the instrument which determines the altitude of the aircraft.

THE BATTLE OF BRIHUEGA

The Battle of Brihuega took place on December 8, 1710 in the War of the Spanish Succession.  A British rearguard under Lord Stanhope was outfought and overwhelmed by the duc de Vendôme on the road to Barcelona.  Stanhope surrendered and was taken prisoner.  Only a small British detachment made it to Barcelona and the Habsburg alliance in Spain, already weakened by defeat, began to crumble.

After the victories in the Battle of Almenara (July 27) and the Battle of Saragossa (August 20), the allies supporting Archduke Charles conquered Madrid for the second time.  On the 21st September the Archduke entered Madrid.  But the invasion of 1710 was a repetition of the invasion of 1706.  The 23,000 men of the allies, reduced by a loss of 2,000 in the actions at Almenara and Saragossa, by casualties in constant skirmishes with the guerrilleros and by disease, were absolutely incapable of occupying the two Castiles.  The Portuguese gave no help.

The Spaniards were re-organized by the duc de Vandôme, who was lent to Philip V by his grandfather, and were joined by soldiers of the Irish brigade and by some Frenchmen who were allowed, or secretly directed, to enter the Spanish service.

The position of the allies at Madrid, which was deserted by all except the poorest of its inhabitants, became untenable.  On the 9th November, they evacuated the town and began their retreat to Catalonia.  The Archduke left the army with 2,000 cavalry and hurried back to Barcelona.  The rest of the army marched in two detachments, the division being imposed on them by difficulty of finding food.  General Guido Starhemberg with the main body of 12,000 men, was a day’s march ahead of the British troops, 5,000 men under Lord Stanhope.  Such a disposition invited disaster in the presence of so capable a general as Vendôme.

In this situation, Vendôme set out from Talavera with his troops and pursued the retreating army of the allies with a speed perhaps never equalled, in such a season, and in such a country.  He marched night and day.  He swam, at the head of his cavalry, the flooded stream of Henares and in a few days overtook Stanhope, who was at Brihuega with the left wing of the allied army.

“Nobody ith me”, says the English general “imagined that they had any foot within some days’ march of us and our misfortune is owing to the incredible diligence which their army made”.  Stanhope had but just time to send off a messenger to the centre of the army, which was some leagues from Brihuega, before Vendôme was upon him on the evening of December 8th.

The next morning the town was invested on every side.  The walls were battered with cannons.  A mine was sprung under one of the gates.  The English kept up the firing until all their powder was used.  They then fought desperately with bayonets against overwhelming odds.  They burned the houses which the assailants had taken, but it was all in vain.  The British general concluded a capitulation and his gallant little army became prisoners of war on honourable terms.

Scarcely had Vendôme signed the capitulation, when he learned that Staremberg was marching to the relief of Stanhope.  The bloody battle of Villaviciosa was fought on December 10th.

The British troops did not remain in captivity for long before they were exchanged and sent to England in October 1711.

HEIRESS LESLIE WHITTLE KIDNAPPED (32 years ago this month)

On 14 January 1975, 17-year-old heiress Lesley Whittle was kidnapped from her home in Shropshire whilst her mother slept.  Lesley, left £82,000 in her father’s will (almost £500,000 in 2007 figures), was snatched from her bed at the family home in Highley.  Her mother arrived at the house at 12:45am and found Lesley asleep in bed.  She took her usual sleeping tablet and slept heavily, waking at 7:00am and making breakfast for Lesley.  She was surprised to find that Lesley was not in bed and the clothes that she was to wear that day were still neatly folded on the chair.  In a panic, she then picked up the phone to ring Lesley’s brother, Ronald.  The phone was dead.  She rushed in her dressing gown to the car to find the door was open from the lounge to the garage.  The door was rarely used and was supposed to be locked.  After her arrival at Ronald’s home, Ronald and his wife Gaynor accompanied Mrs Wh