Question of the Hour

[armyvern]

How about this one: Which UN sanctioned "peacekeeping missions" has Canada not participated in?

"Peacekeeping" missions we have not participated in:

"UN PEACE SUPPORT MISSIONS IN WHICH CANADA HAS NOT PARTICIPATED
Canada did not participate, or is not participating in the following UN peace support operations:

Consular Commission for Indonesia (CCI) and UN Commission for Indonesia (UNCI) (Aug 47-Apr 51);
United Nations Commission for the Balkans (UNSCOB) (October 1947-February 1952);
United Nations Angola Verification Mission I (UNAVEM) (January 1989-May 1991);
United Nations Angola Verification Mission III (UNAVEM III) (February 1995-June 1997);
United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL) (September 1993-September 1997). Brigadier General (Ret'd) Douglas participated in the UN Technical Reconnaissance of Liberia in 1993. Canada did not, however, participate further in UNOMIL;
United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) (April 1993 to the present);
United Nations Aouzou Strip Observer Mission (UNASOG) (May-June1994);
United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT) (December 1994 to the present);
United Nations Transitional Administration of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) (January 1996 to the present);
United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) (July 1997 to the present); and
United Nations Civilian Police Support Group (UNPSG) in Croatia (January 1998 â “ October 1998).
United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) (July 1998-October 1999). UNOMSIL was terminated when the Security Council authorized the larger, United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL). Canada participates in UNAMSIL."

http://www.forces.gc.ca/admpol/eng/defence/peace_pastsupops_e.htm

 

[redleafjumper]

Wow, Armyvern, that's a pretty good list of UN peacekeeping missions that Canada did not participate in.  It did take a bit longer for you to answer than the Bogside question!  One that I believe is missing from your list is the mission to South Africa UNOSMA of 1992.  I thought this would be a good question as on Remembrance Day in my city it was proclaimed to the crowd that Canada had participated in every UN mission, and I was sitting in the audience knowing that not to be so. (sigh)

 

[armyvern]

Wow, Armyvern, that's a pretty good list of UN peacekeeping missions that Canada did not participate in.   It did take a bit longer for you to answer than the Bogside question!   One that I believe is missing from your list is the mission to South Africa UNOSMA of 1992.   I thought this would be a good question as on Remembrance Day in my city it was proclaimed to the crowd that Canada had participated in every UN mission, and I was sitting in the audience knowing that not to be so. (sigh)

RLJ,

It has always been my understanding that Canada has had uniformed soldiers supporting every UN sanctioned Operation, sometimes not as an actual part of the mission but as support staff to the Op working out of posns at UNHQNY. Thus those few folks you see walking around with the UN Medal with the solid blue ribbon. Perhaps this may be what causes the misconceptions.

http://www.forces.ca/hr/dhh/honours_awards/engraph/honour_awards_e.asp?cat=3&Q_ID=75

Edited to add: I can not seem to find a listing for any UN Sanctioned peacekeeping to South Africa in the 90's nor a mention of UNOSMA on the UN Web-site for either past or present missions?? Perhaps it was a UN Political Mission vice a "Peacekeeping" Mission??

http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/index.asp#

 

[redleafjumper]

RLJ,

It has always been my understanding that Canada has had uniformed soldiers supporting every UN sanctioned Operation, sometimes not as an actual part of the mission but as support staff to the Op working out of posns at UNHQNY. Thus those few folks you see walking around with the UN Medal with the solid blue ribbon. Perhaps this may be what causes the misconceptions.

http://www.forces.ca/hr/dhh/honours_awards/engraph/honour_awards_e.asp?cat=3&Q_ID=75

That may well be the case.  Here is some info that includes that South African Observer Mission:

http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/peacekeeping/missions-en.asp

Missions
Peacekeeping Operations over the Years and Canada's Contribution


South Africa UNOMSA 1992 60 0 UN Observer Mission in South Africa. Observe pre-election period. (Staffed by UN personnel only)




Who was the officer that came up with the pre-war (WW2) plan to wipe out the Italian fleet at its main base?  What was that base and what happened with that plan?

(edited to add the reference to UNOMSA 1992)

 

[armyvern]

Who was the officer that came up with the pre-war (WW2) plan to wipe out the Italian fleet at its main base?   What was that base and what happened with that plan?

Admiral Cunningham (Commander of the Mediterranean Fleet) proposed OP Judgement:
(technically, he had no other viable options, he knew his fleet could not complete the task on it's own.)

"Though the actual idea of the attack was very simple, just fly into Taranto and torpedo the Italian fleet, the plan behind its execution was complex indeed. Six groups of British warships and four convoys of merchantmen were to have their movements co-ordinated in an operation that stretched from Gibraltar to the coasts of Greece and Turkey. There were five main tasks to be accomplished; the Mediterranean Fleet was to be reinforced by warships from England, a convoy would be pushed through to Malta, other convoys would take supplies to Greece and Crete, empty merchantmen would be brought back to Alexandria and Taranto would be attacked. A total of two aircraft-carriers, five battleships, ten cruisers, thirty destroyers, four armed trawlers and a large number of merchantmen would take part."

"11 November 1940 - 21 aged British planes destroyed the Italian fleet, including 3 battleships, at their homeport in the harbor of Taranto in Southern Italy by using technically innovative shallow-draft torpedoes."

http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Alley/5443/tar2.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Alley/5443/tar3b.htm

 

[redleafjumper]

Armyvern, Taranto is the right action as described, but Cunningham is not the originator of the plan, though he did approve it.  Who is that planner of the daring attack on Taranto?

 

[armyvern]

Armyvern, Taranto is the right action as described, but Cunningham is not the originator of the plan, though he did approve it.   Who is that planner of the daring attack on Taranto?

"The British had drawn up plans to carry out such an operation if war had broken out during the Munich Crisis of 1938. These were reactivated when the author, Rear Admiral Lumley Lyster, arrived in September 1940 aboard the new fleet carrier Illustrious to reinforce Cunningham's existing carrier, Eagle."

http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/static/pages/5802.html

 

[redleafjumper]

Ah ha, now that's better, Captain Arthur Lumley St. George Lyster,( later Rear Admiral) originally wrote the plans in 1935 for this raid that was to prove the power of air force in Naval operations.  The raid took place on the evening of November 10th  1940, and concluded near midnight that night. 

 

[Ammogod]

Well done Redleafjumper here is where I found the answer. to the Aircraft carrier and plane's question

http://www.afa.org/magazine/aug2004/0804dien.asp

Next Question

Who was BOADICEA and how many romans did she kill?

 

[redleafjumper]

From: http://travesti.geophys.mcgill.ca/~olivia/BOUDICA/

"Between AD 61 and AD 63 Boadicea led her Iceni people to a glorious but bloody war against the Romans. The Iceni Celts had submitted their kingdom in East Anglia to the conquering Romans and the rule of Emperor Claudius in AD 43. In AD 61, Prasutagus, Boadicea's husband and King of the Iceni died. A dispute followed during which Boadicea, was publicly beaten by the soldiers of the emperor, and her two daughters raped. The Iceni were insulted and rose in revolt led by their queen Boadicea. So successful was the uprising that the Romans were almost defeated. Unfortunately for the Iceni and their allies, the military skill of the Roman army finally led to the crushing of the rebellion.After the revolt, Roman rule was re-established. For almost two glorious years, Boadicea pillaged the Roman settlements; she remains to this day, the greatest of the heroines of Britain."

According to Cary and Scullard in A History of Rome, Boudicca Queen of Iceni was the widow of the King of East Anglia and was the Vercingetorix of the revolt.   She attacked and destroyed the Roman settlement at Camulodunum, engulfed the garrison and drove back a Legion under Q. Petillius Cerialis. She captured Londinium and Veralamium and massacred all the Roman or Romanized inhabitants of those three cities.   She was defeated and was wounded and then killed herself in a battle believed near Lichfield by a well-disciplined Roman army under Suetonius.   As to how many she killed, according to P. Cornelius Tacitus in The Annals - See- http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/t/tacitus/t1a/annals11.html., about 70,000 would have been killed in the revolt and about 400 Romans in the battle in which she was wounded and took poison.

(edited to add the numbers!)

 

[Kat Stevens]

As a footnote, it also suspected that Boudicca was the inspiration for Britania on her Throne, God bless her little cotton socks!

 

[redleafjumper]

Who was the victorious commander in the "Battle of the White Mountain", and what was the significance of this battle?

 

[Fishbone Jones]

The Battle of White Mountain, November 8, 1620  was an early battle in the Thirty Years' War in which an army of 20,000 Bohemians and mercenaries under Christian of Anhalt were routed by 25,000 men of the combined armies of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor under Karel Bonaventura Buquoy and of the Catholic League under Johan Tzerclaes, Count of Tilly at Czech Bílá Hora, near Prague. The battle marked the end of the Bohemian period of the Thirty Years' War.

 

[RiflemanPhil]

In the later years of his life, Johann Sebastien Bach met what famous military tactician?

 

[stukirkpatrick]

Frederick the Great?

 

[RiflemanPhil]

You are quite correct (if you are anything of a music history buff or know how to research on the net it was a pretty simple question). Heres a more complicated one -- When Peter the Great was a young boy, where did he play "army"? How did he play this "game"

 

[Ammogod]

he had lived in Germany and had spent time living with soldiers learning about fortifications and ballistics. When back in Russia he formed a small army out of his servants and used them in live ammunition firing war games


http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/peter_the_great.htm

 

[SHELLDRAKE!!]

During the reign of Mackenzie King, who did the term "zombies" apply to and why?

 

[George Wallace]

Conscientious Objectors.

 

[stukirkpatrick]

Reservists who didn't volunteer for overseas service