SMS Markgraf was the third
battleship of the four-ship
König class. She served in the
German Imperial Navy during
World War I. Laid down in November 1911 and launched on 4 June 1913, she was formally commissioned into the Imperial Navy on 1 October 1914, just over two months after the outbreak of war in Europe. Along with her three
sister ships, Markgraf took part in most of the fleet actions during the war, including the
Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916. At Jutland, Markgraf was the third ship in the German
line of battle and heavily engaged by the opposing British
Grand Fleet; Markgraf also participated in
Operation Albion, the conquest of the
Gulf of Riga, in late 1917. In 1919 Markgraf was
scuttled at Scapa Flow along with the rest of the interned German High Seas Fleet. She was never scrapped and the wreck remains at the bottom of the bay.
GeneralSir Michael David "Mike" Jackson is a retired
British Army officer and one of its most high-profile generals since the Second World War. Originally commissioned into the
Intelligence Corps in 1963, he transferred to the
Parachute Regiment, with whom he served in three tours of
Northern Ireland. He was present at the events of
Bloody Sunday (1972) as well as the aftermath of the
Warrenpoint ambush (1979). He also served in the
Balkans, where in the
Kosovo War he famously refused to obey an order from American General
Wesley Clark earning him the nickname "Macho Jacko" in the British tabloid press. In 2003, Jackson was appointed
Chief of the General Staff (CGS), the professional head of the British Army. He took up the post a month before the start of the
Iraq War, leaving the post in 2006 ending a career spanning 45 years.
Sir John Alexander Macdonald was the
firstPrime Minister of
Canada. The dominant figure of
Canadian Confederation, his political career spanned almost half a century. Macdonald served almost nineteen years as Canadian Prime Minister; he is surpassed in tenure only by
William Lyon Mackenzie King.
In the late 19th century, the
German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) experimented with a variety of
cruiser types, including small
avisos and larger
protected cruisers. Due to budget constraints, the navy was unable to build cruisers designed solely for fleet service or for overseas duties. As a result, the naval construction department attempted to design vessels that could fulfill both roles. The protected cruisers, the first of which were the two
Irene-class vessels, were laid down starting in 1886. The protected cruisers evolved into more powerful vessels, culminating in
Fürst Bismarck, Germany's first
armored cruiser. Fürst Bismarck was laid down in 1896, a decade after the first German protected cruiser. Fürst Bismarck proved to be "ideally suited" to overseas duties and formed the basis for subsequent armored cruiser designs. Following this eight more armored cruisers were built, culminating in the
Blücher, which was laid down in 1907.
Otto Ernst Lindemann (1894–1941) was a
Germannaval captain and the only commander of the
battleshipBismarck during its eight months of service in
World War II. Born in 1894, he was the first of three sons of a bank president. Lindemann joined the German Imperial Navy in 1913 and served on a number of warships during
World War I. On board
SMS Bayern, he participated in
Operation Albion in 1917. After World War I, he served in various staff and naval gunnery training positions. One year after the outbreak of World War II, he was appointed commander of the battleship Bismarck, at the time the largest warship in the world and pride of the German Navy. In May 1941, Lindemann commanded Bismarck during Operation Rheinübung. Bismarck and the
heavy cruiserPrinz Eugen, under the command of
AdmiralGünther Lütjens, were to break out of their base in
German occupied Norway and attack British merchant shipping in the
Atlantic. Their first major engagement was the
Battle of the Denmark Strait which resulted in the sinking of
HMS Hood. Less than a week later, on 27 May, Lindemann and most of his crew lost their lives during Bismarck's
last battle. He was posthumously awarded the
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
Frank Woodruff Buckles (born Wood Buckles; 1901 – 2011) was one of the last three surviving
World War I veterans, and the last American veteran of that conflict. Buckles enlisted in the
US Army in 1917 and went through
basic training at
Fort Riley in
Kansas. Serving in the Army's 1st Fort Riley Casual Detachment, he drove ambulances and motorcycles near the front lines. Given an honorable discharge in 1919, Buckles continued to serve with the
New York National Guard from 1922 to 1923. During
World War II, he spent the majority of the conflict as a civilian
prisoner of war after being captured by the
Japanese while working in the shipping business. Following the war, Buckles married in
San Francisco in 1946 and moved to
Gap View Farm near
Charles Town, West Virginia. His wife, Audrey, gave birth to their daughter Susannah in 1955. A widower at age 98, he worked on his farm until the age of 105. In his last years, he was Honorary Chairman of the World War I Memorial Foundation, campaigning to have the
District of Columbia War Memorial renamed the National World War I Memorial, including meeting with President
George W. Bush and testifying to
Congress. He was awarded the
World War I Victory Medal in 1918, and the
Army of Occupation of Germany Medal retroactively after the medal was created in 1941, as well as the
French Legion of Honor in his later years. At the time of his death, Buckles was the oldest World War I veteran in the world and the last
field veteran of the war. He was buried on March 15, 2011 at
Arlington National Cemetery, with
full military honors and President
Barack Obama in attendance.
SMS Friedrich der Grosse was the second vessel of the
Kaiser class of
battleships of the
GermanImperial Navy. Friedrich der Grosse's keel was laid on 26 January 1910 at the
AG Vulcan dockyard in
Hamburg, her hull was launched on 10 June 1911, and she was commissioned into the fleet on 15 October 1912. Assigned to the III Squadron of the
High Seas Fleet for the majority of
World War I, she served as fleet
flagship from her commissioning until 1917. She participated in all the major fleet operations of World War I, including the
Battle of Jutland, from which she emerged completely unscathed. After the
Armistice in November 1918, Friedrich der Grosse was interned by the
British Royal Navy in
Scapa Flow and was subsequently scuttled by her crew. In 1936, the ship was raised and broken up for scrap metal. Her bell was returned to Germany in 1965 and is in the Fleet Headquarters in
Glücksburg.
HMS Queen Mary was a battlecruiser built by the
BritishRoyal Navy before
World War I, the sole member of her
class. She was similar to the
Lion-classbattlecruisers, though she differed in details from her half-sisters. She was the last battlecruiser completed before the war and participated in the
Battle of Heligoland Bight shortly after the war began. As part of the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron, she attempted to intercept a German force that bombarded the North Sea coast of England in December 1914, but was unsuccessful. She was refitting during the
Battle of Dogger Bank in early 1915, but participated in the next major fleet action of the war, the
Battle of Jutland in mid-1916. She was hit twice by the German battlecruiser
Derfflinger during the "Run to the South" and exploded shortly afterwards. Her wreck was discovered in 1991 and rests partly upside-down, on sand, 60 metres (197 ft) down. Queen Mary is designated as a protected place under the
Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.
William Brill was a senior officer and bomber pilot in the
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Born in the
Riverina district of New South Wales, he was a farmer and a member of the Australian
Militia before joining the RAAF as an air cadet in 1940.
Training in Australia and Canada, he was posted to Britain in 1941 to take part in the
air war over Europe. Brill first saw combat as a member of
No. 460 Squadron RAAF, flying
Vickers Wellington medium bombers. Following a spell as an
instructor with the
Royal Air Force (RAF), he returned to the bombing campaign in January 1944 as a
flight commander with
No. 463 Squadron RAAF, operating
Avro Lancaster heavy bombers. Returning to Australia, he remained in the Air Force after the war and commanded
No. 10 Squadron in 1949–50. He went on to lead air bases at
Rathmines,
Canberra and
Townsville during the 1950s and 60s. Brill served two terms as RAAF Director of Personnel Services, in 1956–59 and 1960–63, by which time he had been promoted to
Group Captain. His final posting was at the Department of Air in Canberra, where he died of a
heart attack in October 1964.
York Castle, England, is a fortified complex comprising, over the last nine centuries, a sequence of castles,
prisons,
law courts and other buildings on the south side of the
River Foss. The now-ruinous
keep of the
medievalNormancastle is sometimes referred to as Clifford's Tower. Built originally on the orders of
William I to dominate the former
Viking city of York, the castle suffered a tumultuous early history before developing into a major fortification with extensive water defences. It fell into disrepair by the 15th and 16th centuries, becoming used increasingly as a jail for both local felons and political prisoners. By the time of
Elizabeth I the castle had lost all of its military value but was maintained as a centre of royal authority in York. The outbreak of the
English Civil War in 1642 saw York Castle being repaired and refortified, playing a part in the
Royalist defence of York in 1644 against
Parliamentary forces. York Castle continued to be garrisoned until 1684, when an explosion destroyed the interior of Clifford's Tower. The castle
bailey was redeveloped in a
neoclassical style in the 18th century as a centre for
county administration in Yorkshire. By the 20th century the ruin of Clifford's Tower had become a well-known tourist destination and national monument; today the site is owned by
English Heritage and open to the public.