BC HISTORY
Saved by @Mollyycolllinss

Everything is appalling, so here are some stories about the Navy's Coastal Forces (Motor Gun Boats and Motor Torpedo Boats) in WW2.

 These small vessels had very powerful engines which were complex and hard to maintain.

As a result, base engineering staff sometimes had to remain on board to continue their work during operations.
On one occasion, an Engineering Officer was labouring in the machinery space when the boat went into battle.

Not having seen one before, he opened the hatch to look around. Every gun was in action, and enemy tracer zipped past his head. The noise was appalling.
The officer (unnamed in the story, but perhaps a nautical Wooster) took in the scene for a moment, then turned to the CO and remarked, 'Oh I say! Madly *war*, isn't it?', before returning to his tinkering.
During the raid on Dieppe an MGB picked up a German airman, who was sent below under armed guard.
Some time later, the CO found the German sitting in a gangway playing with the ship's kitten, and keeping very still because the 'guard' had fallen asleep with his head on the German's shoulder.
The German had, unbeknownst to him, already been very lucky that day.

One of the MGB's crew, incensed by the Blitz, vowed to throw overboard any German he came across.
However, this prisoner began helping with the wounded as soon as he was picked up, causing the rating to shelve his homicidal plan.

When the CO asked why, the rating replied 'He's a gentleman, sir.'
On another occasion, MGBs came in with prisoners and lined them up on the jetty for collection by a detachment of guards.

One of the Germans was drenched, so an MGB officer told the guard commander that he needed dry clothes.
Misunderstanding this instruction, the Petty Officer thought the German was simply a wet RN rating and ordered him over to the stores shed to get a new uniform.
No doubt rather baffled by this turn of events, the German jogged off, unescorted, to join the stores queue, from which he was retrieved some time later.
Prisoners again, this time in the Mediterranean.

On 13 May 1943 MTBs attacked ferries evacuating German troops from North Africa, sinking them and taking numerous prisoners.

These included a number of paratroopers, notoriously tough and resourceful soldiers.
Ratings were instructed to guard them, but due to a shortage of small arms on the tiny MTBs, some of the guards had to borrow German weapons.
Just after they set out for home, the CO of one MTB was considerably alarmed to hear a long burst of submachine gun fire behind him.

He was all the more alarmed to discover that it emanated from a German paratrooper, with a smoking MP40 still in his hands.
Turning to the RN guard for an explanation, the CO was cheerily reassured that 'It's all right, sir! He was just showing me how it worked.'

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A tale of valor, deception and decimation.

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This decisive battle was fought between the Vijayanagara empire and the Deccan sultanates resulting in a rout of Vijayanagara and ending the last major medieval era Hindu kingdom in south India.(1)

The seeds of 1565 encounter were sown more than 250 years earlier when the forces of the Delhi Sultanate, during the time of Alauddin Khilji and later Md Bin Tughlaq swept through southern India in an expansion spree.(2)

By middle of the 14th century, facing rebellions, Tughlaq withdrew to Delhi, leaving behind 2 empires, Bahmani, which ruled the Deccan from Kalaburagi, and Vijayanagara, which ruled most south India with its capital at Vijayanagar.(3)

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A challenge with society in general is a facile understanding of the word “coup.” When the population at large thinks of a coup, they imagine a violent military (Chile, 1973) or paramilitary (Cuba, 1959) overthrow of the government.
Coups are often far more complex and nuanced.

So, let’s talk about the autogolpe—the “self coup” (a perfect example of how some words in Spanish are objectively better than their English equivalents). An autogolpe is, at its simplest, when a duly elected leader revolts against his *own* government to consolidate power.

He (it’s always been a “he”) usurps powers that traditionally reside with the legislative and judiciary bodies, and of course, maintains that power beyond his elected term.

This kind of coup requires a lot of prep work. Generally speaking, you can’t just up and announce your takeover overnight. Instead, you have to spend a few years undermining federal institutions so that, when the time comes, they are powerless and/or unwilling to stop you.

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Smith's most famous illustrations in the tarot deck appear everywhere, and are synonymous with tarot. But there was much more to this artist, illustrator, writer and occultist than her tarot deck.

Early in her career, Smith illustrated works of WB Yeats, and travelled with the Lyceum theatre group. She also wrote and illustrated her own books, including books about Jamaican folklore.

While juggling all this, Smith also found the time to hold open houses for artists, and be active in the Suffrage Atelier, a collective of illustrators contributing work to further the cause of women's suffrage - this is an illustration she made for the cause.


In 1907, Smith became the first painter to exhibit at Alfred Stieglitz's Gallery 291, becoming the first painter to show at a gallery which had previously been devoted to photography. Her show was successful, and she showed twice more.
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Ancient Egyptians didn't have one name for their country... They only had one name for cities like Memphis or Thebes. Ancient civilizations in general lived only in cities.

Ancient Egyptians named different parts different names:

North land
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- North land: the North or lower Egypt.

- Sedge land: the South or Upper Egypt.

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