Airtel Super Singer 2, the second season of the music competition reality show Airtel Super Singer, premiered on 7 July 2008. Episodes were telecasted on Star Vijay between Monday and Wednesday. Judges for the show were Sujatha Mohan, P. Unnikrishnan and Srinivas. Chinmayi was the host of the show until January 2009 and was followed by Malini Yugendran (Hayma Malini) and Yugendran Vasudevan Nair. The voice trainer was Ananth Vaidyanathan.

The Grand Finale was held on 3 June 2009 at YMCA Royapettah, Chennai. At the finals, Ajeesh won the competition. Ravi and Renu took the second and third positions respectively. Ajeesh was chosen by Yuvan Shankar Raja to sing the song Idhu Varai for the Tamil movie, Goa. The audio for the movie for released in December 2009.

Grand Finale 3 June 2009
  Ravi
 "Kanmuney" (film: Thulluvadho Ilamai, singer: Yuvan Shankar Raja)
 "Kallai Mattum" (film: Dasavathaaram, singer: Hariharan)

  Renu
 "Hai rama oru vaarama" (Swarnalatha)(film: Rangeela)
 "Nenjodu Kalanthidu" (Sujatha)(film: 7G Rainbow Colony)

  Ajeesh
 "Sangeetha Jaathi Mullai Kanavillai" (singer:S.P.B)(film: Kadhal Oviyam)
 "Ninaithu Ninaithu" (singer: KK)(film: 7G Rainbow Colony)

Finalists
 Ravi
"Oru naal podhuma" (M. Balamuralikrishna, K. V. Mahadevan)
"Ooh Mama" (Shankar Mahadevan, Tippu, Harris Jayaraj from Minnale)
"In the End" (Linkin Park)
"Unakkenna Mele Nindrai" (from Simla Special)
 Ranjani
"Porale ponnuthaayi" Swarnalatha
"Kannodu Kaanbathellam" (Nithyashree, A. R. Rahman from Jeans)
"Paalvadiyum Mugam" (Maharajapuram Santhanam, Oothukkadu Venkata Subbaier)
"Jill Endru Oru Kaadhal" (Tanvi, A. R. Rahman from Sillunu Oru Kaadhal)
"The Winner Takes It All" (ABBA)
 Ajesh
"Adal Kalaye" (K. J. Yesudas, Illayaraja from Sri Raghavendra)
"Muralidara Gopala" (M. L. Vasanthakumari)
"Girlfriend" (Karthik, Tippu and Timmy, A. R. Rahman from Boys)
"One Love" (Blue)
"Kaatukuyile" (from Thalapathi)
 Renu
"Kanda Naal Mudhalai" (Subhiksha and Pooja, Yuvan Shankar Raja from Kanda Naal Mudhal)
"Mudhal Naal" (K. K. Mahalakshmi and Shalini, Harris Jayaraj from Unnale Unnale)
"Unfaithful" (Rihanna)
 Prasanna
"Sangeetha Jaathimullai Kaanavillai" (S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Illayaraja from Kadhal Oviyam)
"Venkatachala Nilayam" (Purandara Dasa)
"Something Something" (Tippu, Devi Sri Prasad from Something Something... Unnakum Ennakum)
"Bailamos" (Enrique Iglesias)

Semi finals
 Ajeesh
 "Thoongatha Vizhigal" (K. J. Yesudas, from Agni Nakshatram)
 "Elangaathu Veesudhey" (Sriram Parthasarathy, from Pithamagan)
 Ravi
"Rasathi Unna" (Jayachandran, from Vaidehi Kaathirundaal)
"Kalaivaniye" (K. J. Yesudas, from Sindhu Bhairavi)
 Renu
 "Edhedho Ennam Valarthen" (K. S. Chithra, from Punnagai Mannan)
 "Anandha raagam" (Uma Ramanan)
 "Unna Vida" (Shreya Ghoshal, from Virumaandi)
 Vijay Narayan
"Isayil Thodanguthamma" (Ajay Chakraborthy, Illayaraja from Hey Ram)
"Sadho Sadho" (Hindustani)
"Uyirin Uyirae" (Kay Kay, Suchitra, Harris Jayaraj from Kaakha Kaakha)
"Hotel California" (Eagles)
 Raginisri
"Ellam Enbamayam" (M. L. Vasanthakumari and P. Leela from Manamagal)
"Unakkena Naan" (Ramya NSK, Vijay Antony from Kadhalil Vizhundhen)
"I attempt from love's sickness to fly" (Henry Purcell)
"Vegam Vegam" (Usha Uthup from Anjali)

Elimination chart

References

External links

Star Vijay original programming
2008 Tamil-language television series debuts
2008 Tamil-language television seasons
Tamil-language singing talent shows
Tamil-language reality television series
Tamil-language television shows
2009 Tamil-language television series endings
Television shows set in Tamil Nadu
Airtel Super Singer seasons


The Barryville–Shohola Bridge is the fifth generation of bridges constructed over the Delaware River at the communities of Shohola Township, Pennsylvania and Barryville, New York. The bridge serves both communities, with two major state legislative highways, Pennsylvania Traffic Route 434 and New York State Touring Route 55 (along with the co-designation of Sullivan County Route 11). The bridge itself is  long and is  wide, using four total spans across the river. It is maintained by the NY–PA Joint Interstate Bridge Commission, which is jointly owned by the states of New York and Pennsylvania.

The area of the bridge itself dates as a ford for Native Americans, mostly the Lenni Lenapi, traveling between from the Wyoming valley and Delaware Valley and present-day Connecticut in the early 18th century; archaeologists date human habitation and use of the area to 10,900 BCE. The river at Shohola, which means "place of peace," widens perceptibly above the falls, allowing for a natural, shallow crossing.  By the early 19th century, a ferry facilitated crossing the river.  Due to the construction of the nearby Delaware and Hudson Canal in 1827, commerce and business boomed in the area.  In 1856, a bridge company, under the leadership of Chauncey Thomas, constructed a span between the two communities, but it was poorly designed and collapsed during a windstorm in 1859.  Thomas then constructed a suspension bridge, but its cables snapped in 1865.

In 1866, the bridge was reconstructed as a two-lane, single span wooden suspension structure and remained in use for over seventy years. Ownership changed several times, eventually ending with the bridge in the control of the Joint Delaware River Bridge Commission. The bridge was replaced again in 1941 for $174,300 (1941 USD ($ in )), with a steel truss span. This structure lasted another sixty-five years, finally deteriorating until the demolition of the structure in 2007, upon completion of the new bridge.

Early history
Originally the site of a ford, the area was used by the Lenni Lenape and Delawares on their way to and from the shores of present-day Long Island Sound. The original trail followed the Shohola Creek, where it enters the Delaware, to a location along the eastern bank of the river near Shohola. By the end of the 18th century, European settlers operated a ferry near the current span, crossing between Shohola to a settlement on the opposite bank, that later became Barryville.  The 1827 construction of the Delaware and Hudson Canal and the subsequent construction of the  Erie Railroad in 1849) accentuated the need for a bridge to accommodate the increase in population and business in the area.

First two spans (1856–1865)

As the need for a bridge from Shohola to Barryville grew, the Shohola and Barryville Bridge Company, formed in 1854, planned the construction of the first bridge. The company's president, Chauncey Thomas, attempted to hire John Augustus Robeling, a bridge expert, who was building a bridge in the Niagara region of New York and Canada (which came to be known as the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge), which was to be built as an  two-deck span over the Niagara River, and who had completed successful spans over the rivers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Roebling declined the offer but gave Thomas verbal and written instructions on its construction during a visit to the Niagara construction site. Thomas returned to Shohola and supervised the construction himself, using some inexperienced local men he hired.  A respected historian, John Willard Johnston, who knew Chauncey Thomas personally, visited the bridge and told the owner at the time that Thomas was very inexperienced in bridge construction. The result of the construction was a  wide, double-span bridge that was  long but which had no underlying span support. The bridge stood  above the waters of the Delaware to avoid flooding, and cost a total of $9,000 (1856 USD ($ in ).  The rapid growth of the area due to the construction of the Canal and the Erie Railroad meant the bridge was immediately in heavy use.

Thomas' wire-rope span bridge was damaged by a severe wind storm on July 2, 1859, exactly three years after it opened. The storm, which destroyed almost the entire bridge, was not a singular experience.  Wind storms often build in the river valley, bring strong winds down the valley against weaker pressure systems to the south and east. A man and a woman who were crossing the bridge were injured when it collapsed. The local ferry, which had been out of commission for only three years, was still in good condition and re-fitted for use in 1859, to operate along the remaining abutments and piers that survived the storm.

The bridge was rebuilt quickly, again under the supervision of Thomas, who was still company president. Thomas was able to complete the bridge, and ended up raising a total cost for construction of $4,000 (1859 USD ($ in ))), an expedient necessitated by the lack of funds in the company treasury. Shortly after the new construction, Thomas was replaced by James E. Gardner as company president; Gardner died soon after his election, and was succeeded by Napoleon B. Johnson. Johnson ran the bridge company well, and remained as president of the corporation for several years. However, on January 1, 1865, the cables snapped under the weight of mules and wagons, and the entire bridge fell into the river, injuring the wagoners, and drowning three of the mules. Once again, ferries filled the needs that were previously fulfilled by the suspension bridge.

Third span (1866–1939)
With the second span of the Barryville–Shohola Suspension Bridge having fallen into the Delaware River in 1865, the bridge company that maintained the span fell into a financial depression. After the destruction of the second span, company president Johnson had borrowed money for the company itself that he was unable to pay back. In 1865, company had no funds to repair the partially collapsed bridge, nor credit to borrow any. The former president Chauncey Thomas bought the bankrupt company in a sheriff's sale for $1,979 (1865 USD ($ in )). Thomas was now the sole owner of the wrecked bridge.

To repair the bridge, Thomas would need to receive and pay more money, and he did. Along with the complete repair in 1866, another pier was added to increase the stability of the weak structure.
The 1866 construction was considerably stronger, compared to the two previous spans, due to major renovations. The old cables that snapped had been replaced by newer, stronger ones. Thomas also gave the span a new deck floor, a bridge railing and new stringers. The bridge was much better cared for this time around, as it also survived a local flood in 1903 and an icestorm in the early months of spring 1904.

Chauncey Thomas died at his home in Shohola on October 5, 1882, sixteen years after the new bridge was repaired. Since Thomas had never written a will, estate and property were divided between his children and his grandchildren. A friend to the Thomas family, Stephen St. John Gardiner, became the administrator of the estate. With the job, Gardiner was able to buy the bridge. He became controller and majority of the bridge's stock.

By the start of the 20th century, regional economic conditions changed. The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company had closed, as had local logging and mining companies. Shohola and Barryville had become summer resorts and the now-aging antique bridge had become a local picturesque attraction for out-of-town visitors. On June 26, 1920, the suspension bridge was bought by the Joint Bridge Commission of Pennsylvania and New York for $22,600.00 (1923 USD ($ in )). Half of the $22,600.00 was to be paid for by the state of New York, the other by Pennsylvania. The toll that was used on the span was removed. The single-lane, aging structure, now owned by the commission, served the local residents well into the new century. However, the old age of the bridge showed on the bridge itself. In 1939, the commission closed off the structurally deficient bridge to traffic, and began looking into ways to build a new bridge in the area. In 1940, the bridge was reopened for light, local car traffic. but demolished in 1941, when the fourth and then-newest span of the bridge was opened.

Fourth span (1941–2007)

The Joint Bridge Commission of Pennsylvania and New York hired the Whittaker and Diehl Company in early of 1941 to construct a $174,300 (1941 USD ($ in )) steel, two-lane truss bridge to replace the aging structure.

With the construction, there was a tunnel built on the Pennsylvania side for the Erie Railroad line that went nearby. This helped end the constant traffic jams and accidents caused by the railroad crossing.   This bridge was slightly downriver from the former spans. The bridge itself was  long, consisted of three spans, and was  wide. It had an average daily traffic rate of 1,635 people in 2004. Replacing the fourth bridge, according to the United States Department of Transportation, would cost about $5,628,000 (2006 USD$,  in )).

The fourth span went into commission just days before Attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. After the United States entered World War II, construction and reconstruction in the area had ended, while the nation transformed into a war economy. and the residents had received their new bridge span just in time. The bridge structure lasted through World War II and several river floods. The bridge lasted for several decades, until the start of the 21st century, when plans were made to replace the deteriorating truss structure.

Fifth span (2007–present)

With the deterioration of the fourth span, the bridge commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation started construction on a $9.38 million (2007 USD ($ in )) concrete bridge with steel beams connecting Traffic Route 434 on the Pennsylvania side (assigned in 1967) and Touring Route 55/Sullivan County Route 11 (assigned in 1930). The construction began in February 2004, and since there was no place to perform a groundbreaking ceremony, the construction company hired, Fahs Construction Group of Binghamton, New York performed a "bridge-breaking" ceremony on March 25, 2004, taking sledgehammers to the bridge. The bridge was expected to have resemble the Roebling Aqueduct, which lay to the north in Minisink Ford, New York. The bridge was proposed to be  with twin  travel lanes and an  shoulder. It was to also have three balconies facing upstream of the Delaware River, to offer travelers scenic views.

A number of difficulties and unforeseen circumstances delayed construction.  First, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission had been conducting archaeological digs in the area since 1996, and had found a variety of artifacts dating from the Clovis period, with radio carbon age dating around 10,900 BCE, making them one of the oldest sites in the eastern United States; the sites also includes evidence of food, making it one of the rarer paleolithic finds. The next circumstance was that there was worry that the construction of the bridge might affect the river ecosystem, particularly some of the river water organisms. After some regulations were added and problems were sorted out, the construction continued. The third issue was that the bridge may run into problems with boaters, and therefore, the bridge was given the same regulations as bridges upstream. Finally, the Delaware's low water level meant that barges could not be used in the construction. When Hurricane Ivan struck in 2004, the water level rose, allowing for the use of the barges, but destroying several construction items used for the bridge in the process.

The bridge, which had an estimated completion in the autumn of 2006 according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, was opened on-time on October 26, 2006. This closed the old 1940 structure from use, coned off from Route 434 and Route 55. Once abutment work was finished, the now Fahs-Rolson Construction Company began demolishing the old structure. However, unfinished paving work was completed in October 2007. The total cost for the replacement project came out in 2009 at $11.62 million (2007 USD ($ in )).

The bridge had temporary fencing and new walkways along a six-lane span, with locals saying that the stone structure fitting into the looks of the scenic Delaware River Valley. The old bridge was demolished after construction completed.

See also

 List of crossings of the Delaware River
 New York–Pennsylvania Joint Interstate Bridge Commission

References

External links
Bridgemeister's page on the 1855 bridge

Bridges over the Delaware River
Bridges in Sullivan County, New York
Bridges in Pike County, Pennsylvania
Road bridges in New York (state)
Road bridges in Pennsylvania
Former toll bridges in New York (state)
Former toll bridges in Pennsylvania
Concrete bridges in the United States
New York–Pennsylvania Joint Interstate Bridge Commission


The Greifensteine is a rock tower in the Ore Mountains, Germany, between the towns of Geyer, Ehrenfriedersdorf and Jahnsbach. The highest of the seven granite rocks reaches 731 m. Another six rock towers were demolished by quarrying, which ended in 1923.

Geology
Geologically, the Greifensteine is the top of a pluton. During the Variscan orogeny, magma intruded along structural zones, but cooled and solidified before reaching the Earth surface. When the Erzgebirge block raised, the resulting granite formation raised with it. The surrounding softer material eroded and the harder granite remained, creating the tors of the rock formation. The deposition of ores associated with the intrusion gave the area its name (Ore Mountains).

Mineral finds

Due to the productiveness of its ore deposits, the Greifensteine are also a well-known site of many different minerals and their varieties. As of 2014, a total of around 50 minerals and 10 varieties have been discovered here, including inter alia the well-known minerals andalusite, beryl, gypsum, haematite, muscovite, sphalerite, pyrite, topaz, wavellite and zircon, as well as various garnets, tourmalines, (dravite, elbaite, schorl) and wolframites. There are also rare minerals such as childrenite and natrodufrénite, as well as the radioactive minerals autunite and torbernite.

The Greifensteine is also a type locality for the following minerals: fluorapatite, greifensteinite, lacroixite and roscherite.

History
The first indications of a settlement on the Greifensteine are from around 1180, and in 1349 the von Waldenburg family are seignory to the "Grifenstein" castle. The castle is documented in 1372 as "Slosz Cryfenstein". The castle was destroyed in the 14th century by fire, and was rebuilt afterwards. It was abandoned in the 15th century, the area was used as a quarry and all traces of the former castle are removed. Of the originally 13 rock towers, six have been demolished and used for their granite over the years. This activity was stopped in 1928, and the area has become a nature reserve.

Tourism
Today, the Greifensteine is a nature reserve and a popular tourist attraction. The areal has a restaurant, a small museum and an outdoor theater that uses the rock towers as a dramatic backdrop. Stairs lead up to the tallest rock, which offers a nice view of the surrounding Ore Mountains. There are several rock climbing paths. In the surrounding area are the Greifenbachstauweiher and the Röhrgraben.

Stülpner-Höhle
Karl Stülpner (1762–1842), a local renegade and folk hero (the Robin Hood of the Ore Mountains) had a hiding place in one of the numerous caverns of the Greifensteine area. This Stülpner-Höhle (engl.: Stülpner's cavern) can still be visited today.

References

Rock formations of Saxony
Mountains of the Ore Mountains
Ehrenfriedersdorf
Geological type localities


The Comité International du Ski-Alpinisme de Compétition (CISAC) was the international committee of competition ski mountaineering and was founded in 1991.

Founding members were France, Italy, Spain, Andorra, Slovakia and Switzerland. The organization organized the first European Cup and the first European Championship of Skimountaineering in 1992. In 1999 the CISAC was merged into the  International Council for Ski Mountaineering Competitions (ISMC) of the Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme (UIAA).

In 1988, there started the negotiations which gave place, a few years later, to the creation of an independent committee: CISAC (International Committee of Ski Mountaineering of Competition). Its aim was to agglutinate those countries interested in Ski Mountaineering of competition, being its first president  Mr. Sasanyani.

In its origins, CISAC’s presence was significant since during many years it made possible the spread of Ski Mountaineering of competition, assembling the best mountain skiers, and also potentiating the European Cup, a prestigious competition whose final result was the sum of many races done at the winter season in different alpine zones.

Defunct sports governing bodies
Ski mountaineering
Sports organizations established in 1991
Organizations disestablished in 1999
1991 establishments in Europe


The Primacy of the Spains (; , ) is the primacy of the Iberian Peninsula, historically known as Hispania or in the plural as the Spains. The Archbishop of Braga, in Portugal, has claimed this primacy over the whole Iberian Peninsula since the middle ages, however today his primacy is only recognized in Portugal. The Archbishop of Toledo in Spain has claimed the Primacy of Spain, as the primate above all other episcopal sees in  Spain.  In addition, the Archbishop of Tarragona in Catalonia also makes use of the title. The Archbishops in Braga, Toledo and Tarragona, if raised to the rank of cardinal, are known as Cardinal-Primates.

Primacy of Braga

The Archbishop of Braga has claimed the title of Primate of the Spains () as the oldest diocese on the Iberian Peninsula. For the newly created Kingdom of Portugal, Braga, capital of the former Kingdom of the Suebi and of the County of Portucale (that more immediately preceded the Kingdom) was the biggest religious site and fundamentally resisted by its jurisdiction over the dioceses of Coimbra and Zamora. Bishops such as João Peculiar and Estêvão Soares da Silva protest before the Pope, and Honorius III left the matter unresolved (papal bulls of January 19, 1218).

In 1364, the bishop of Braga João de Cardaillac decided to bear the title of Primate of the Spains. The prelation conflicts that took place during the Council of Trent (with Bishop Friar Bartolomeu dos Martyrs) produced a papal resolution to take into account the date of elevation of each bishop, with only protocolary consequences. In the brief «Reddite nobis» (January 10, 1562) he insists the maintenance of the traditional rights of Braga.

However, during the 14th century, the dioceses of Galicia and Leon ceased giving precedence to the Archbishop-Primate of Braga.

Despite this, the Archbishop-Primate of Braga still holds rank above all other archbishops in Portugal, except for the Patriarch of Lisbon ever since the latter was created in 1716.

Primacy of Toledo

Originally, after the provincial division by Diocletian in the 3rd century, the city of Toletum (now Toledo) was within the Roman province of Carthaginensis, whose capital was Carthago Nova (now Cartagena). Hispania's division into ecclesiastical dioceses was based on the Roman provincial divisions, so that the episcopal seat at Toledo was originally a dependent of the seat at Cartagena.

The problem arose in the mid 6th century when the Byzantine emperor Justinian seized control of an important strip of Hispania, including diocesan seats as important as Cartagena (renamed Carthago Spartaria by Justinian), Corduba, Begastri and Illici. The metropolitan seat and provincial capital were in the territory occupied by the Byzantines and so, shortly after taking the throne, the Visigoth king Gundemar promoted the holding of a synod in Toledo. That synod agreed that Toledo was the metropolitan of the whole province, seizing that title from the episcopal seat at Cartagena - that agreement was then endorsed by the king in a decree of 23 October 610.

The Islamic invasion in 711 left Toledo as a city under Islamic rule for the next 350 years, first way away from the frontier by the geographic boulder of the Duero river in the northern high plains, and later by the Central Sierras, as the frontier itself Taifa realm for another 80 years where contacts with the Christian kingdoms north would resume closer. That position left the See under Islamic suzerainty, tolerated as a heretic church of Allah but subject as Dhimmi or client as Jews were too, what would make it be respected but seen by Christian kings and their bishops with suspicion on its policies, influenced by the policies of Cordoba. After the re-conquest Toledo was held or contested by the Kingdom of Castille and the Kingdom of León and sometimes as Infantazgo by semi-independent queens of the royal house. During the Reconquista, the alliance between the monarchs and the church concentrated on the distinct privileges that one offered the other. Soon after Alfonso VI's conquest of Toledo, the pope issued the bulla Cunctis Sanctorum in 1088/1089, recognising the holders of the diocese of Toledo as "primates" and "metropolitans" as they had been during the Visigothic era, and dubiously and unofficially under Islamic rule.

See also
Council of Toledo
Archdiocese of Toledo
Cathedral of Toledo

External links
 GER.asp?id=11456&cat=religioncristiana Archdiocese of Toledo on Canal Social, Gran Enciclopedia Rialp

References
 Izquierdo Benito, Ricardo. Privilegios reales otorgados a Toledo durante la Edad Media (1101-1494), Toledo, 1990.
 Nieto Siria, José Manuel. Iglesia y génesis del Estado Moderno en Castilla (1369–1480), Madrid, 1993.

Catholic Church in Spain


Joy Spring is a live album by jazz guitarist Joe Pass that was recorded in 1964 for Pacific Jazz Records, but not released until 1981 under the Blue Note label by Liberty records.

Reception

Writing for Allmusic, music critic Scott Yanow wrote of the album, "The group stretches out on five standards (the renditions are 6 1/2-10 1/2 minutes apiece) but never runs out of inventive ideas. Easily recommended."

Track listing
"Joy Spring" (Clifford Brown) – 8:39
"Sometime Ago" (Sergio Mihanovich) – 6:34
"The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" (Buddy Bernier, Jerry Brainin) – 6:58
"Relaxin' at Camarillo" (Charlie Parker) – 10:29
"There Is No Greater Love" (Isham Jones, Marty Symes) – 9:02

Personnel
 Joe Pass – guitar
 Mike Wofford – piano
 Jim Hughart – bass
 Colin Bailey – drums

References

Joe Pass albums
1964 live albums
Pacific Jazz Records live albums
Live bebop albums


The Battle of Hengyang () 23 June – 8 August, 1944 was fought between Chinese and Japanese forces in mainland China during World War II. Although the city fell, Japanese casualties far exceeded the total number of Chinese troops defending the city. It has been described as "the most savage battle ever fought in the smallest battlefield with the greatest casualties in the military history of the world."  Japanese military historians equate it to the most arduous battle in the Russo-Japanese War, calling it a "Battle of Ryojun in South China."  A Chinese major newspaper of the day compared it to the Battle of Stalingrad.

Strategic importance
Hengyang in Hunan Province lies in an oval basin surrounded by mountains and hills, with Guangdong and Guangxi to the south, Guizhou and Yunnan to the west, and Jiangxi and Shanghai to the east.  The city proper sits where two rivers merge into the Xiang River, a major tributary of the Yangtze.  Such a unique geographical position destined Hengyang to be a strategic crossroads throughout China’s history, a must for industrial and commercial enterprises to use as a home base and for military forces to control.

In the 1930s, the Japanese occupation of major East Coast cities such as Shanghai, Nanjing, and Wuhan forced China’s industries to relocate inland.  The Chiang Kai-shek government chose Hengyang to be a light industry center.  By the beginning of 1944, both banks of the Xiang River for ten miles had been built up with mills and factories.  The bustling commercial activities brought the city the nickname "Little Shanghai".

That same decade, two major railway lines, Wuhan-Guangzhou and Hunan-Guangxi, were built that met in Hengyang, further elevating the strategic importance of the city as a gateway to Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan and Sichuan.  A Chinese failure to hold the city could result in the Japanese crossing into Guilin and driving west towards Guizhou, from where they could directly attack Chongqing, thus placing the Chinese wartime capital and military headquarters in imminent danger.

Ichigo plan
By the summer of 1943, American military forces on the Pacific front had won a great victory against Japan in the Guadalcanal campaign and continued to advance into the western Pacific.  On November 25, the US Air Force, from a base in eastern China, bombed a Japanese naval base in Taiwan.  All this caused great anxiety in the upper echelon of the Japanese Military Forces.  They realized that Japan must now set up an overland transport route through central China and destroy the American air bases there.  In January 1944, the Japanese military plan "Ichigo" was drawn up and approved by the emperor.  Two phases were projected: Henan Campaign aiming at the control of Beijing-Wuhan Railway, and Hunan-Guangxi Campaign to take over Wuhan-Guangzhou and Hunan-Guangxi Railways.

Ichigo was formally put into action on 17 April. Japanese troops met with hardly any effective Chinese resistance during the subsequent six weeks, and on 26 May Japan launched the offensive on Hunan with forces growing to "80,000 to 90,000".  Changsha fell on June 18, and two days later, when the order came to take Hengyang, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama (橫山 勇) expected the battle to last no more than a day.

Allied leadership
As Japan was launching its daring Ichigo Operation in China, Chinese supreme commander Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek was mired in struggles on almost every front.  A memorandum by the Office of Strategic Services on April 4, 1944 describes Chiang as being “under great strain", and even "half crazy”.

Even before Pearl Harbor, the US government had started quietly helping China by sending the American Volunteer Group (AVG) of aviators and technicians, led by Claire Chennault and popularly known as the Flying Tigers.  Once the U.S. had entered the war, American General Joseph Stilwell became Chief of Staff to Chiang Kai-shek and U.S. Commander of the China-Burma-India Theater (CBI).  Tensions soon began to rise.  A defeat of the Allied troops in Burma, including the Chinese 5th and 6th Armies, said by Chiang to be China’s crack troops, made Stilwell obsessed with avenging his failure.  In most of his tenure in the CBI, only Burma was his priority.

In the months leading up to the epic Hengyang Battle, Americans stepped up their pressure on the Chiang government for two things: sending his Yunnan forces to Burma and allowing American observers to go to Yanan to make contact with Chinese Communist leaders.  Roosevelt’s April 3 letter was quickly followed by General Marshall’s instruction to Stilwell that air supplies over "The Hump" from British India would cease if Chiang did not order his Yunnan forces to move into Burma.   The pressure finally became unbearable, and on April 15, 1944, two days before Ichigo began, the Yunnan forces, one of Chiang’s best-equipped and best-trained armies, left China.

Chiang Kai-shek's only consolation and trust lay in Chennault, who by now had become the head of the newly-established U.S. 14th Air Force in China.   Chennault’s antagonism towards Stilwell was fully displayed in his letter to Roosevelt on 26 January, 1944, urging that Stilwell be replaced.  As the 14th Air Force exerted every bit of its strength but failed to halt the aggressively advancing Japanese troops, Chennault blamed Stilwell for not allocating enough materials to his forces.

The total collapse of Chinese armies in the Henan Campaign and rapid fell of Changsha exposed Chiang Kai-shek's perilous state on the home front.  The military was rife with corruption, low morale, disobedience, lack of discipline, top officers deserting their command posts, and even high-ranking commanders disobeying his orders.  While losing control of his own armies, the Generalissimo also was losing the trust of the U.S.  On 6 July, with Hengyang Battle raging, President Roosevelt telegraphed Chiang Kai-shek, requesting him to make Stilwell the commander of all Chinese and American forces.

In the meantime, the supreme commanders of China’s Ninth, Seventh, and Fourth War Areas, together with high-ranking politician Li Jishen, were also plotting to seize power from Chiang Kai-shek.  The idea of setting up a sort of separate government was thrown out early in 1944 and fermented through spring and summer.  Those initiators informed Stilwell and asked him for American equipment, to which Stilwell agreed.

It was in the midst of this tough, complicated wrangling among the leadership that Hengyang Battle was fought.

American involvement
By the Lei River on the east side of Hengyang lay an airfield, first built in 1934.  It became a base for the "Flying Tigers" and was significantly upgraded for heavy bombers in March 1943 when the American 14th Air Force was formally established.  At its peak, Hengyang Airfield held 400 planes including bombers, fighters, and photo reconnaissance, with more than 2,000 pilots and ground personnel.

As early as 6 May 1944, when the Allies became better aware of the Japanese military goals, the Hengyang squadron pilots started extensive and intensive bombing and strafing missions.   For six weeks, they bombed Japanese military storage areas, supply barges and gunboats; strafed Japanese troops; and engaged in dogfights.  On June 17, the Japanese bombed the Hengyang air base heavily, and the squadron was ordered to evacuate.  They flew back to bomb the base on June 22, the day before Hengyang Battle formally began, so it could not be used by the advancing Japanese troops.

The 14th Air Force continued to fly missions all through the Battle of Hengyang, attacking Japanese supply lines along the Yangtze and Xiang rivers and supporting Chinese defensive positions around Hengyang, taking a heavy toll of Japanese.  Japanese air strength had to be dedicated to defensive activity, denying air cover to front line Japanese forces.  The Chinese defenders agreed: "The American-Chinese Air Force dominance in the air during the daytime gave Japanese troops no choice but to attack at night, which made offensives more difficult. … Hengyang would not have held out for 47 days without Chennault and his Flying Tigers."

The ground troops defending Hengyang especially credited Brigadier General Earl Hoag, who commanded the India-China Wing of Air Transport Command.  Visiting Hengyang a week before the battle on a supply inspection tour, Hoag put the Chinese in direct radio communication with Zhijiang Chinese Air Force Headquarters, which could relay their messages to Chongqing.

Also active and contributing to the city before the battle were American missionaries and medical staff working at Ren Ji Hospital, run by the Presbyterian church.  The hospital evacuated at the beginning of June 1944, when Hunan Campaign had already begun and roads and transportation facilities were extremely congested.  The equipment and medicines left behind, particularly sulfa drugs, greatly helped wounded soldiers to recover fast, an indirect factor in Hengyang holding out for so long.

Tenth Corps, Chinese National Revolutionary Army
Ordered to defend Hengyang was the 10th Corps of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army, formally established in 1940.  The Corps was built on the foundation of the 190th Division that had won the title “Division of Bravery and Loyalty” in the Battle of Wuhan in 1938.  Having played a decisive role in the victory at the Third Battle of Changsha at the end of 1941, the 10th Corps was awarded the honorary title “Mt. Tai Army.”  Mt. Tai, one of the Five Sacred mountains in China, symbolizes reverence and respect.

Lieutenant General Fang Xianjue, commander of the 10th Corps, was also well-known to Hunan people.  In the fiercest life-and-death moment during the Third Battle of Changsha, Fang, then a major general commanding the 10th Division, wrote his “last” letter to his wife after promising the Supreme Commander of the Ninth War Area, General Xue, to hold his battle lines for a week.  The letter was published under the heading “Determined to Defend Changsha to his Death, Commander Fang Made his Will” on the first page of Changsha Daily on 2 January 1942.

Fang’s promotion in 1942 was resented by 190th Division Deputy Commander Zhu, a General Xue confidante.  This sowed seeds of trouble for Fang.  In the Battle of Changde the following year, the 10th Corps failed in a rescue mission mainly because Zhu delayed carrying out Fang’s orders.  Flying into a rage, Fang threatened to execute Zhu.  This offended Xue, who then convinced Chiang Kai-shek to remove Fang from his command.  But when Japan launched the Hunan Campaign, Fang’s replacement changed his mind and declined the new appointment.  Xue had to ask Fang to resume his post, but Fang refused.  On the night of 29 May 1944, Chiang Kai-shek called Fang directly from Chongqing, ordering him to resume his command and deploy to Hengyang immediately.  He should prepare to defend the city for ten days to two weeks.

At the time of its deployment, the 10th Corps was still undergoing the process of replenishment.  It had suffered immense losses, including the death of the commander of its 10th Division, in the Changde battle.  The 190th Division was being reorganized, with only one regiment complete and the other two waiting for new recruits.  One regiment of the 54th Division that happened to be stationed in Hengyang was ordered to take part in the defense under Fang’s command.  However, the commander, said to be close to General Xue, allowed two battalions to leave after Hengyang airfield was lost on the third day of the battle, leaving only a single battalion in Hengyang.

Including in the combat strength of the 10th Corps were also one field artillery battalion, one mountain artillery battalion, and one anti-tank company.	 On paper, the corps had 4 divisions, but in reality it only had the strength of 7 regiments.  Not included in the specific number of “16,275 men” provided by Hengyang historian Pei Xiao was a battalion of 700 troops from the 46th Corps deployed to nearby Hengshan on 14 June as a force under Fang’s command to deter advancing Japanese.

Defenses

An official order to defend Hengyang reached the 10th Corps from the National Military Council on May 31, and troops started marching to the city that night.  The mayor of Hengyang organized a hearty welcome as the 10th Corps entered the city.  Immediately afterwards, General Fang took his Chief of Staff and division commanders to reconnoiter the surrounding terrain.

Formally becoming a municipality in 1942, Hengyang occupied an area of 23 square kilometers, but the city proper measured only .5 kilometers east to west and 1.6 kilometers north to south.  Rivers lie to the east and north of the city.  On the north and west sides were vast flooded rice fields and marshlands full of fish and covered with lotuses.  At the southern end of the western boundary, the topography changed to hills stretching for about a kilometer up to the Xiang River that formed the eastern boundary.

After two days' terrain reconnaissance, the senior officers of the 10th Corps concluded that Japanese forces might attack Hengyang from either the northwest or south and southwest.  General Fang was sure of the latter, which became the rationale for his troop deployment and defense preparations.  The two understrength divisions, the 190th and 54th, were deployed to the east of the Xiang River, with the 54th still defending the airfield.  The two full-strength divisions, the 10th and 3rd, were posted to the west of the Xiang.  With a long-term strategy in mind, Fang deployed the 10th Division, the weaker of the two, to the major frontline on the south and southwest; and the stronger 3rd Division to the secondary battleline on the north and west, ready to provide relief and support.

General Fang set strict standards for defense works: For the rice fields and marshlands on the north and west, dig through and connect ponds and rice fields to make large, flooded areas, and build pillboxes on all in-between footpaths.  For the rolling hills on the south and south-west, build bunkers linked by trenches, with machine guns deployed on summits flanking saddles so as to create tight killing zones over open grounds.  The sides of all the hills facing the enemy should be cut to sheer cliffs, with trenches on top for soldiers to throw grenades from.  Ditches five meters deep and five meters wide, dearly called "Fang's Moats" by his men, should be dug further out all along the south and southwest, with pillboxes at the edge to deny the enemy any chance to hide inside.  Fill them with water or place spikes at the bottom.  On the enemy side of the moats, build two or three layers of barbed wire and abatises.  In most outside areas, lay mines.   The video "Discussions of War"  below has more information.

Around mid-June, Chang Kai-shek sent Mr. Yu, his head of Logistics, to Hengyang to help with supplies.  With Chang's order in hand, Mr. Yu had all the nearby military warehouses to send whatever 10th Corps wanted.  As a result, the 10th Corps received 5.3 million machine gun bullets, 3,200 mortar shells, and 28,000 hand grenades which were going to play an enormous role in the battle.

Civilian evacuation

On 18 June, Changsha fell.  War was now imminent for Hengyang.  General Fang decided to evacuate all Hengyang residents.  This would avoid civilian casualties, allowing military forces to completely focus on combat fighting, and prevent traitors and spies from hiding amongst the civilian population.  The 10th Corps requested the railways to provide free rides, and staff members and companies directly under the Headquarters were sent to the railway stations to help the old and young to board.  Within four days and nights, the 300,000 Hengyang population was evacuated.

Reuters journalist Graham Barrow witnessed the evacuation of Hengyang in person: "I was lying asleep by the railway station one night in the rain, then I woke up because there was a train going by.  They were stuffed on roofs and in boxcars.  They had lashed themselves to couplings between cars.  There were refugees on the cowcatcher in front; underneath the trains they had laid some boards across the rods between the wheels.  They stretched their mattresses on the boards and there they were, lying one on top of the other between the rods and trains."

Before the mass evacuation, the mayor of Hengyang called for volunteers to assist the 10th Corps in their fighting.  32,000 Hengyang citizens signed up and stayed behind.   The mayor organized them into six teams: transporting munitions, fixing damaged defense works, extinguishing fires, carrying stretchers, attending to wounded soldiers, and collecting corpses.

Battle

On 20 June 1944, the Japanese commander, Lieutenant General Yokoyama of the 11th Imperial Army, issued the operational deployment for Hengyang: his troops should take the city rapidly, annihilating any Chinese reinforcements on their way.  The 116th Division was to attack the city from the southwest, and the 68th Division from the east to take Wuhan-Guangzhou railway and Hengyang Airfield.  The 218th Regiment was to occupy the east end of the railway bridge to assist the 68th Division with crossing the Xiang River.

According to Japanese military historians, a Japanese regiment had the fighting strength equivalent to a Chinese division.  Therefore, the Japanese forces initially deployed to attack Hengyang already outgunned the Chinese defenders by a ratio of almost two and a half to one.  Knowing that his 116th and 68th divisions were among his strongest forces, Lieutenant General Yokoyama believed that Hengyang would be taken within one day.

On 22 June, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service dropped incendiary bombs on the city, burning many houses to the ground.  At eight that evening, the advance troops of the Japanese 68th Division arrived at the eastern outskirts of the city.  Early next morning, on 23 June, 68th Division was trying to cross the Lei River when a Chinese battalion from the 190th Division fired at them and their boats.  The Battle of Hengyang had begun.

The next four days, the Japanese Air Service continued bombing Hengyang, and its infantry deployed poison gas repeatedly.   Once they crossed the Lei River, the 68th Division moved in two prongs: one northwest to attack the Airfield, and the other toward the west and southwest to cross the Xiang River and take the city from the south.

In the fighting at the airfield, two of the three battalions of the Chinese 54th Division fled, leaving only one battalion in position.  General Fang sent the 570th Regiment of 190th Division to reinforce, but intelligence smuggled out by a spy hidden in the regiment helped the Japanese take the airfield quickly.  In the south, the small Chinese reconnaissance forces retreated from outposts to their main positions after brief skirmishes.  On the night of the 25th, Lieutenant General Sakuma Tamehito (佐久间为人), commander of the 68th Division, moved his headquarters to Huangcha Hill (), the southernmost hill in Hengyang.  Early the next morning, he began an offensive, with air bombing and artillery shelling paving the way for infantry charges.  The 30th Regiment of the 10th Division deployed at the frontline in the southern hills, especially the two forward positions, Mt. Gao () and Mt. Tingbing (), fought back hard.  The two officers commanding the defense of Mt. Gao and Mt. Tingbing swore to "live and die with the stronghold."  At the end of the day, about 600 Japanese soldiers lay dead at the foot of the two hills, and casualties for the Chinese company reached 50%.

By 1am, 27 June, the whole Chinese platoon fighting at Mt. Gao had died, and immediately the 68th Division launched large scale attacks at the Chinese 30th Regiment's positions at Jiangxi Hall (), Wugui Hill (), and Mt. Fengshu ().  Seeing Japanese soldiers organized in groups of thirty rushing in wave upon wave and knowing his own forces were stretched thin with limited ammunition, the regiment commander ordered a "Three Don't-shoot" policy: Don't shoot when you cannot see clearly, don’t shoot when you cannot aim accurately, and don't shoot when you are unsure of killing.  He insisted on allowing the enemy to sabotage barricades and enter the moat before shooting at them.  When the surviving Japanese started climbing the cliff, he ordered his men to throw hand grenades.  His strategy worked.  At dawn, about a thousand Japanese corpses were seen at the foot of each hill.

On the afternoon of that day, all the Japanese deployed to take Hengyang had arrived:  the 68th Division on the south, 116th southwest, and the 57th brigade of the 68th Division on northwest.  The two division commanders, Lieutenant General Sakuma Tamehito of the 68th Division and Lieutenant General O Iwanaga of the 116th Division, agreed to launch a general attack the following day and expected to take Hengyang within three days.

First Japanese offensive 28 June  – 2 July

Before dawn on 28 June, the 117th battalion of the Japanese 68th Division charged the second forward position at Mt. Tingbing, held fast for the previous two days by the 7th company of the 30th Regiment.  After an artillery barrage destroyed most of the barricades, Japanese infantry rushed onto the battlefield.  Hand-to-hand combat ensued until the last four Chinese, including the company commander, died.  Japanese casualties for that stronghold were about ten times as many as Chinese.

At 10:30am, Lieutenant General Sakuma Tamehito took his chief of staff Colonel Saburo Harada (原田贞三郎) and a few other senior officers to Oujiating Heights () near their headquarters to reconnoiter Chinese southern hill positions for their next move.  Shortly, rounds of mortar shells from the Chinese positions landed on them, critically wounding all the Japanese officers.  The command system of the 68th Division collapsed instantly before Lieutenant General Yokoyama urgently appointed Commander O Iwanaga of the 116th Division to oversee both divisions.  Already fully occupied with his own division and unfamiliar with the 68th, O Iwanaga could only appoint various deputies and order them to go ahead with their original plan.

The Japanese assaults typically followed their textbook principles and training drills: air bombing, heavy artillery, incendiary bombs and poison gas until Chinese troops should have become half paralyzed, then infantry charges onto the Chinese positions.  The Chinese would usually stay in bunkers and trenches first to avoid bombs and shells and wait until Japanese artillery shells began to fall behind their positions.  Then, they would get into position to shoot or throw hand grenades, or even leap out of trenches to conduct hand-to-hand combat.  Because of the presence of the 14th Air Force during the day, Japanese attacks were often launched either at dusk or before dawn.

On the evening of 29 June, after employing flamethrowers and poison gas, Japanese combat troops implemented a novel "shock and awe" tactic: To the sound of bugles, conchs, bull horns, porcelain pipes, gongs, drums, and shouts of “Kill! Kill!”, herds of bulls and horses with daggers bound to their heads were set on fire and stampeded toward the Chinese lines.  The 2nd battalion of the 30th Regiment was overwhelmed and routed for a while, but commanders quickly calmed down, deployed reserve troops, and organized countercharges.  Hand-to-hand combat ensued.

By the morning of 30 June, the battalion was decimated and was relieved at noon by the 3rd battalion of the 28th Regiment.  Late that afternoon, a southernly wind prevailing, the Japanese seized the chance to utilize poison gas together with relentless bombing and shelling.  All 80 men of the 7th company waiting out the bombardment in trenches were poisoned to death.   The New York Times  on July 7, 1944 reported Japanese use of gas.

More savage onslaughts followed at Mt. Zhangjia (), which consisted of three hills – 227.7 on southeast, 221 on northwest, and Zhangjia northeast – forming a triangle.  Japan did capture the three hills several times, but each time the Chinese 10th Division managed to take it back. First, the 29th Regiment drove back Japanese troops three times, though half its forces died or were wounded. Division headquarters sent the 2nd Battalion of the 30th Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Shengxian Xu ()to reinforce them. After the 29th Regiment was relieved, Lieutenant Colonel Xu's battalion had to tackle Japanese breakthroughs twice more and lost 70% of its combat forces. The 1st Battalion was subsequently sent in.

On the afternoon of 30 June, Colonel Kurose Heiichi (黑濑平一）of the 133rd Regiment of the Japanese 68th Division ordered preparations to start after sunset for a powerful attack the next morning.  The artillery must start shelling at 5AM, then infantry troops to charge at six.  The Colonel's deployment plan was detailed and perfect with a reminder that every battalion must bring bamboo ladders for climbing cliffs.

That night, with the help of darkness, some Japanese troops made it to the top of 227.7 and 221.  It was overcast, and by the time the Chinese discovered the situation, hand-to-hand combat was the only option.  Everyone kept quiet in order not to reveal his position.  Chinese figured out they could tell friend from foe by feeling the texture of the uniform: coarse cotton, a comrade; smooth khaki, enemy.  Thus, in the deadly silence, a most ferocious game of hide-and-seek was played.  Only the clash of bayonets and dreadful screams of those stabbed interrupted the feigned tranquility.  The scene dumbfounded the reinforcements from both sides, who did not dare to enter until the first light of dawn.

The two heights were taken and retaken over the next two days.  On 2 July, after Japan charged to the top, the commander of the 1st Battalion found most of his men unable to fight any more.  When a regimental adjutant came to try to boost morale, the two Majors, ready to die, exchanged their names and home addresses.  It was in the end General Ge, commander of the 10th Division, who rushed to the Chinese positions to regroup and repel the Japanese.

1am 3 July, Lieutenant General Yokoyama of the 11th Imperial Army halted the first offensive.  The reasons listed in his report were: a. topography (numerous ponds everywhere) and strong positions (fierce flanking fire and stubborn enemy resistance)  b. short of munitions  c. enemy air force at an advantage.

The overall casualty figures for the five days favored the Chinese side:  16,000 for Japanese 11th Army vs. 4,000 for the Chinese 10th Corps.  Hengyang defenders had lost two forward positions, Mt. Gao and Mt. Tingbing in the south, and four frontline positions in the north and west.

Second Japanese offensive 11 - 16 July

While replenishing its forces and supplies during the week of 3 – 10 July, Japan changed from an overall offensive to nightly attacks at key Chinese positions, mainly in the hilly south and southwest.  In addition to deploying the 34th and 117th divisions to Hengyang, the headquarters of the 11th Army sent extra artillery: ten mortars, five mountain guns, eight 100mm cannons, three 150mm howitzers.

For the Chinese 10th Corps, the only thing General Fang could do was to recall the 8th Regiment of the 3rd Division that had been deployed outside the city to deter advancing Japanese troops.  On 8 July, the Chinese Composite Wing of the 14th Air Force airdropped articles of consolation and appreciation such as towels, soap, and tiger balm.  What inspired the 10th Corps most was that day's Ta Kung Pao (), the major newspaper of the day.  It carried the story of General Ge, commander of the 10th Division, being awarded a Medal of Blue Sky and White Sun.

On 8 July, the Japanese 11th Army headquarters ordered its 116th Division to take all the frontline positions in southwest Hengyang on 11 July and from there conquer the city.

At the same time, the 44th Air Squadron from the Japanese Army Air Service was deployed to the Changsha – Hengyang area to assist their ground troops.  From Hengyang Airfield, and despite attacks from the American 14th Air Force, it continuously bombed artillery positions and defense works of the Chinese 10th Corps in the southeast, southwest, and west of the city.

Early in the morning on 11 July, Japan started its second offensive.  That same day, Lieutenant General Tsutsumi Mikio(), newly-appointed Commander of the 68th Division, assumed his command.  Entrusted to oversee the whole offensive was Commander O Iwanaga of the 116th Division, with a total force of 15 infantry battalions and 12 artillery battalions, plus the 5th Air Group.

The positions at the eastern end in the southern hills, Jiangxi Hall, Wugui Hill, 141 Heights, and Mt. Fengshu, were now defended by the 28th Regiment of the 10th Division.  A whole platoon from 9th Company died after a fierce all-night struggle on 11 July at Jiangxi Hall.  At other positions, battles raged on ceaselessly with each side driving the other back several times.  Casualties for both Japanese and Chinese mounted rapidly.  At Waixin Street (), early on 15 July, over a hundred Japanese troops broke through, and the Chinese 8th Company fought back house by house.  Around noon, all but two soldiers and one squad leader of the 8th Company died.  Xiaoxia Zang () , company commander from the 10th Corps Reconnaissance Battalion, was sent with a special assault group to the rear of the Japanese line to set fire to their command post that night.  Synchronizing with him, the reinforcements launched a counterattack from the front.  By the next morning, all the Japanese, including their battalion commander and other field officers, had died.  The story at 141 Heights and Mt. Fengshu was the same:  Japanese forces, a hundred at a time, charged repeatedly, and again and again the 28th Regiment lost and regained their positions.  Hundreds of troops died on each side, with 28th Regiment losing one battalion and three company commanders.

The major targets for the Japanese were however Mt. Zhangjia and Huxingchao Heights () in the southwest, regarded to be the two gates into the city, a must for Japan to conquer.

Assaulting Huxingchao was the 120th Regiment of the 116th Division and defending it the 2nd Battalion of the 29th Regiment from the 10th Division.  The big open field in front of the cliff defense works posed extreme difficulties for the 120th Regiment to get across.  After failing the first two days, they pushed their heavy artillery forward, and the infantry feigned an attack to expose the six Chinese machine-gun positions, which were then destroyed.  With barrages of heavy weapons at close distance, the Japanese finally overcame all the barriers and cliffs and were able to storm up the hill.  Colonel Wanimoto Taka ( わに もとたか), the regimental commander, took the lead.  Halfway up, Chinese soldiers suddenly jumped out of hidden foxholes and threw hand grenades at the Japanese.  Wanimoto Taka was mortally wounded and later posthumously promoted to major general according to Japanese military practice.

Zero Hour, 14 July, the 120th Regiment, commanded by a new colonel, charged again.  Three quarters of the 2nd Chinese Battalion having died or been wounded, Battalion Commander Zhenwu Li () and a few dozen soldiers were cornered on the top of the hill.  They each tied hand grenades to their bodies and blew themselves up together with the Japanese swarming around them.  The 1st Battalion then moved up to continue the fight until the next day.

More savage was the combat at Mt. Zhangjia, the 133rd  Regiment of the Japanese 116th Division attacking the Chinese 30th Regiment of the 10th Division.  Colonel Kurose Heiichi (）had the regimental banner unfurled and declared: "So long as one of us lives, this banner must be planted on Mt. Zhangjia!"

For three days and nights from 11 to 13 July, waves of Japanese troops, a hundred at a time, continuously assaulted 227.7 and 221 heights under cover of air and artillery bombardment.  The battles seesawed on a field covered with corpses, both sides engaged in the cruelest stabbing, slashing, and bayoneting. After the position was lost to the Japanese on the first night, two leftover depleted companies of the 2nd Battalion waged a counterattack.  At noon on 12 July, with that battalion almost wiped out, Japanese seized the position again.  The division Antigas Company joined with regimental troops and took it back, only to lose it again after the whole company with its commander died.  The third counterstrike was by two engineering companies from the headquarters of the 10th Corps.  On the morning of 13 July, the surviving Chinese piled up dead bodies and covered them with dirt, turning those heaps into parapets.  In the early afternoon, the Japanese 133rd Regiment assailed the battered heights even more ferociously than before.  The two Chinese engineering companies fought to the last man, and towards dusk both 227.7 and 221 were conquered by the Japanese.  Immediately Colonel Kurose Heiichi turned to the third hill named after the site itself, Mt. Zhangjia, and General Fang also deployed the 1st Battalion of the 8th Regiment from the 3rd Division there.  Brutal combat continued all night through, the small hill taken and retaken three times.  Surviving veterans recalled the scene on the morning of 14 July affirming that the corpses of both Chinese and Japanese soldiers were piled high.

By then, the Chinese 10th Division existed in name only, having sustained immense losses for a month.  A large fraction of both logistics and combat soldiers had died.  Seeing the division no longer able to continue, General Fang had to order General Ge to fall back to the second line of defense.  On the night of 16 July, the 10th Division, with many men deployed from other divisions, withdrew from the southern end of Wugui Hill, 141 Heights, Mt. Fengshu, Mt. Zhangjia, Huxingchao Heights and all other first line defensive positions in the southwest.

The Japanese were just as frustrated by their lack of significant progress at the cost of heavy casualties, including the deaths of many senior officers.  Their Military History recorded "the prospect of the battle did not appear to be any more optimistic, and therefore, the offensive stopped again."

Very early on the morning of 17 July, ferocious battles unfolded on Nameless Heights behind the Municipal Hospital () defended by the 2nd Battalion of the 30th Regiment.  Incessant bombardment was followed by infantry charges and then hand-to-hand combat.  At 8am, Battalion Commander Shengxian Xu () was struck in the head by an artillery shell and died minutes later.  Major Wei Xiao () took over, and was himself seriously wounded at noon.  Major Wo Gan () stepped in as the third battalion commander of the day.  At 2pm, Gan's right hand was wounded, and at 5:30pm, he was hit again in the thigh, the bullet remaining there until after the battle.

The headquarters of the Japanese China Expeditionary Army, dissatisfied with progress in Hengyang, sent their operations director to Changsha on the same day, formally requesting Lieutenant General Yokoyama to mass his forces around Hengyang right away.  Facing the reality of 8,000 Japanese casualties in exchange for only small advances in the south and southwest of the city, Yokoyama knew he must comply.  At 5pm on 20 July, he suspended the 2nd offensive and actively prepared for a more powerful 3rd offensive.

Japan however did not completely cease their nightly assaults.  From 21 July to 3 August, they attacked all the Chinese positions in the west, southwest, and south, and even attempted crossing the Xiang River to take Hengyang from east.  Both sides incurred heavy casualties as a result.  On the Japanese side, in just the crossing of the Xiang River on 21 July, over 5,000 troops were shot and drowned.  On the morning of 28 July, at a small height between Wuxian Temple () and Suxian Well (), over 600 Japanese soldiers became entangled in barbwire laid in a deep V-shaped moat and became easy targets for machineguns.  According to the memoir by Company Commander Yoshiharu Izaki, in taking a small mound south of the city hospital the 133rd Regiment of the 116th Division paid the price of 2,750 lives, leaving only 250 survivors.  As for the Chinese, the situation was even more dire.  By the end of July, only 3,000 combat troops had remained, with fewer than 500 from the 10th Division, fewer than 2,000 from the 3rd Division, 400 from the 190 Division, and a few from the one battalion of the 54th Division, plus around 100 artillery troops.

Despite airdrops from the 14th Airforce, food, medicine, and munitions dwindled day by day in the besieged city.  Rice buried underground before the war was mostly burnt by the Japanese use of napalm, so the burnt rice cooked in salt was the only food available.  Cats, rats, fish, and shrimp had long been completely devoured, and an occasional old saddle was regarded as a delicious treat.

Field hospitals and clinics were filled with wounded soldiers.   Nurses only had salt water to clean wounds.  When gauze and bandages ran out, they boiled cotton quilts and tore up sheets and blankets for dressing.  Gradually, lightly wounded soldiers did not bother to seek medical treatment, and some of the severely wounded either committed suicide or remained in battle to blow themselves up together with as many enemy soldiers as possible.  A surviving doctor from the battle Hongchuan Zhou () recalled a scene he would never forget: His fellow doctor Captain Xingsan Jia () was hit in the abdomen, the intestines oozing out from a gaping wound.  On their way to the field hospital, Captain Jia asked to be taken to the Xiang River for a drink of water.  With his own eyes, Zhou witnessed Jia deliberately falling into the river to drown.

Company Commander Xiaoxia Zang's story testifies to a severe shortage of ammunition on the Chinese side: "At dusk 28 July, dozens of enemy soldiers appeared in the gully about a hundred meters away from our position.  I requested mortar fire but it stopped after only a few rounds.  Later, I found out they had long run out of 81mm bombs.  We now only have 82mm ones, and the non-combatant staff from headquarters have been using bricks and rocks to grind them down by 1mm.  They've been working hard, their hands blistered and bleeding, but could never keep up with the demand.  They've tried everything they could think of but failed.  This is really crazy, never heard of such a thing."

The Japanese also experienced ammunition shortages.  The moment the Changsha-Hengshan Motor Road was opened to traffic on 25 July, Japan had thirty-six tons of munitions trucked to Hengshan, then carried to the Hengyang frontlines using horses.

Third Japanese offensive 4 - 8 August

By 1 August, five Japanese divisions totaling 110,000 troops, five heavy artillery, and fifty mountain artillery, with 40,000 shells, had assembled outside Hengyang.  Lieutenant General Yokoyama, wearing a hierogram of the grand shrine for the celestial sun goddess, flew to Hengyang, ready to command the third offensive himself the next day.  On 3 August, he instructed: "Preparations for capturing Hengyang with 116th, 68th, 58th, and 13th Divisions have been done.  There will never be a better opportunity to take the city if we miss this moment.  This army is expecting certain success, eagerly looking to conquer Hengyang with one strike."

Zero hour on 3 August, three squadrons, 6th, 16th, and 44th, of the Japanese Army Air Service started bombing the city, including the location of the 10th Corps headquarters inside the city and battle positions in the suburbs.  The artillery troops joined the air bombardment at noon, carpet-bombing everything, with some mountain artillery pieces pushed to within a hundred meters from Chinese positions to fire directly at the front line.

The next day, 4 August, Japan launched a formal, all-round assault, with 40th Division in the northwest, 58th north, 116th west, 68th assisted by the 13th to the south, and the 3rd Division ready to partake any moment.  All the Chinese troops put up a resistance as tough as ever.  At North Wugui Hill, soldiers of the 2nd Battalion of the 8th Regiment from the 3rd Division kept fighting from trenches filled with waist-deep water, and their battalion commander died.  They took back their position in the end.  Short of shells and bullets, the Chinese mainly relied on hand grenades bound together to increase the power of killing.  The 6th Company of the 9th Regiment at the 141 Heights between Mt. Tianma () and Xichan Temple () kept their stronghold for the whole day using the bound hand grenades, an invention by the 10th Corps.

On 5 August, ferocious attacks and counterattacks continued.  Commander of the Japanese 133rd Regiment of the 116th Division, Kurose Heiichi (黑濑平一), just promoted to major general four days before, decided to lead in person the handful of two hundred men left in his regiment on a suicidal charge that night.  The division commander prevented him, commenting that the plan would only result in more Japanese casualties.  The commander of the 120th Regiment of the 116th Division that were attempting to occupy Mt. Tianma and Xichan Temple watched with horror as his soldiers climbing up the cliffs were hit by hand grenades and fell to their deaths one after another: "The battle at Xichan was a savage and heroic scene rarely seen in modern day fighting."  By the end of the day, the Chinese reconnaissance company of the 3rd Division defending Xichan had only a dozen men surviving.  The 58th Division had luck grabbing some Chinese outposts in the north, but not without all-night fighting and casualties.

At 3pm that day, Chinese 10th Corps Commander General Fang called his four division commanders together for a summit meeting.  All agreed that they could at most hold on for three more days unless reinforcements arrived.  Commander of the 3rd Division, Qingxiang Zhou (), suggested that they should try to break through.  One senior staff member objected.  He reminded the others of a Division Commander, Chengwan Yu (), who broke through  at the end of the Battle of Changde () leaving wounded soldiers behind and was scolded by Chiang Kai-shek and court marshalled.  All cried, realizing that it would be wrong to leave more than 6,000 wounded comrades-in-arms behind.  The only choice was to soldier on and die with the city.

3am on 6 August.  Japanese 58th Division took Yanwuping () in the north, killing all three dozen Chinese combat soldiers left of the 5th Company of the 568th Regiment from the 190th Division.  Noon at North Wugui Hill, the Mortar Company commander of the 8th Regiment from the 3rd Division saw a Japanese commander waving his sword ordering his troops to charge.  The Chinese company commander determined to fire his last eight rounds to eliminate what his gut told him must be a high-ranking officer.  In this way Japan lost the commander of the 57th Brigade, Major General Shima Genkichi (志摩源吉).  A little after 3pm, Japanese 68th Division broke through North of Wugui Hill and Mt Yueping ({{zh|c=岳屏山), and after dark both Xichan Temple in the west and Waixin Street in the southeast were lost to Japanese attackers.

Noon that day.  Chinese division commanders gathered at the 10th Corps headquarters expressing their dismal view of the battle that they had been fighting for 45 days.  They were now facing an army a hundred times as strong as theirs.  Hengyang would fall at any time.  General Fang ordered Chief of Staff Mingyu Sun () to draft a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek, now renowned as "the last telegram": “Enemy broke through North Gate this morning and started street fighting.  We are practically wiped out and have no more soldiers to stop them now.  We are swearing to perform a soldier's duty and die for the country so as to live up to your expectations.  This can be our last telegram.  See you in the next life."  The signatories were General Fang, Chief of Staff Sun, and the four division commanders.  The telegram was delivered to Chongqing via two channels: Zhijiang Chinese Air Force Headquarters and the south of Yangtse radiotelegraph network.

That afternoon, the 10th Corps learned from a Japanese captive speaking some Chinese that Japanese were anxious to end the battle because almost 30% of their troops were suspected to have cholera.  That evening, Chief of Staff Sun ordered that the saline drips be stopped for the two Japanese prisoners dying of cholera.  Forty-one other prisoners going on hunger strike were shot and sank to the bottom of the Xiang River.  Shortly before, thirty-two seriously wounded Chinese soldiers infected with cholera were euthanized.  Another 1,000 wounded, suffering from diarrhea, were quarantined in an isolated area at Big West Gate () and later died in a bombing raid on 8 August.

General Fang, Chief of Staff Sun, and Qingxiang Zhou had a long discussion late into the night.  Seeing the thousands of wounded men waiting to die simply because of no medicine available and a rapid spread of cholera, they realized that it was time to arrange a ceasefire.

Dawn 7 August.  Three Japanese 100mm cannons and 150mm howitzers kept firing at Mt Yueping, Suxian Well, and remaining buildings in the city proper for two hours.  Three squadrons from the air service also went all out as Yokoyama watched the battle himself at a south observation post.  Soon the 68th Division pushed through to Qingshan Avenue () in the northwest where all the Chinese soldiers with their battalion and regiment commanders from the 7th Regiment of the 3rd Division died.  At that stage, the surviving Chinese combat troops were no longer enough to guard every stronghold yet unoccupied by Japan, allowing Japanese troops to rush through the western outskirts of the city all the way to Yanglin Temple ().  There, they broke into the 69th Field Hospital and killed over 1,000 severely wounded Chinese.

That afternoon, half a dozen soldiers with dozens of the wounded received permission to retreat from Mt. Tianma.  To prevent Japanese troops from pursuing them, Chief of Staff Sun advised that the last group to withdraw should put up a white flag to fool the enemy.  By the time Japan realized the trick, the Chinese had all left the position.

That day, according to a Japanese history book, a captive Chinese officer released by the 120 Regiment of the 116th Division the previous night contacted the regiment commander, hinting at the Chinese willingness to surrender.  Memoirs by the surviving Chinese veterans claim that General Fang sent a senior staff member who spoke Japanese, Guangkuan Zhang (), to negotiate a ceasefire as well as raise a protest against Japanese killing of wounded soldiers.

11pm.  Chief of Staff Sun accompanied by G. Zhang and a few other senior officers arrived at the 68th Division command post, where Lieutenant General Tsutsumi Mikio (堤三树男) agreed to have a formal negotiation for ceasefire at nine o'clock the next morning.

3am 8 August.  All three Japanese divisions pushed in: 68th northward to North of Yueping, 116th northeastward to North of Xichan Temple and Mt. Tianma, and 58th southward to downtown Hengyang, where the 10th Corps had their headquarters in the basement of the Central Bank.  All the telephone lines were cut.  Hearing the Japanese gunshots getting closer, General Fang took out his pistol, ready to kill himself.  The Baggage Regiment Commander and his aide-de-camp, who had been watching Fang, knocked the pistol from his hand just as the shot was fired.

5am.  Japanese broke into the 10th Corps headquarters.  General Fang, four division commanders, a few of their bodyguards, and remaining staff members were all captured, and later escorted to the Catholic church in the south of the city.

10:30am.  Lieutenant General Tsutsumi Mikio (堤三树男) arrived at the church for an official meeting.  The Japanese record adopts the wording "measures of ceasefire are adopted after a formal confirmation of surrender" for that occasion.  The Chinese survivors however always insisted that they never agreed to "surrender", but only to stop fighting.

Sporadic fighting continued throughout the day.  Some Chinese soldiers were so isolated that the notice of ceasefire never reached them, others just did not want to put down their weapons.  Finally, at sunset, the shooting died down.

Aftermath
Although the Japanese army suffered huge losses, they held the Chinese commanders in high regard. Japanese Emperor Hirohito personally appointed General Fang Xianjue as commander of a puppet unit, made up of his remaining garrison and some Chinese turncoats. But the local Japanese commanders never trusted him or his officers; they were eventually placed under house arrest.  Later studies showed that on 7 August 1944, the day before the Japanese army broke into the city, Chiang Kai-shek had sent a telegram to General Fang, saying: "Reinforcements are on the way. They will arrive at your position tomorrow with no delay." However, Fang never received the message. Chinese special forces under General Dai Li(:zh:戴笠), head of China's wartime intelligence service "Military-Statistics Bureau" of National Military Council, carried out a daring rescue mission and freed General Fang and his officers in December 1944. They returned to Chongqing to a hero's welcome and were decorated with the Order of Blue Sky and White Sun, the highest honor for a Chinese commander.

The delay at Hengyang cost the Imperial Japanese Army considerable time and the Tojo cabinet collapsed as the war was not in Japan's favor anymore. Lieutenant General Yokoyama was later relieved of his command due to his refusal to obey orders from General Yasuji Okamura (:zh:岡村寧次), commander-in-chief of the Japanese China Expeditionary Forces.  The Japanese operation in Hunan did manage to push Chinese troops out of the area, but they could not secure the territory around the railroad or safely transfer war materials to different regions. Because of increased activity of Chinese troops and nationalist guerrillas, they could take no more Chinese land.

References

Sources

External links
 "Discussions of War" (谭兵读武）Episode 130: , program by Xiangdong Tan

Hengyang
History of Hengyang
1944 in China
1944 in Japan


Bichhar pass (el. ) is a high mountain pass at the boundary of the Ghizer and Gilgit districts in Gilgit–Baltistan of Pakistan. To the north of the pass is Bichhari village in the Naltar valley in Gilgit district. To the south of the pass is the village Sherqila on the Gilgit river in the Ghizer district.

Mountain passes of Gilgit-Baltistan


Bromelton is a rural locality in the Scenic Rim Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Bromelton had a population of 155 people.

Geography
The Beaudesert–Boonah Road (State Route 90) runs through from east to north.

History

Bromelton Post Office opened on 1 July 1927 (a receiving office had been open by 1883) and closed in 1938. In 1842, Hugh Henry Robertson settled a run at Bromelton, becoming the first European to reside in the Logan River valley.

Bromelton Provisional School opened on 25 October 1880. On 1 January 1909 it became Bromelton State School. It closed on 1953.

Allen's Creek Provisional School opened on 4 October 1927 and closed on 18 September 1929. It was a railway camp school and provided schooling for children of workers building the Sydney–Brisbane rail corridor. Allan's Creek (as it is currently spelled) crosses the railway line at the intersection of three present-day localities: Allenview, Bromelton and Gleneagle.

Bromelton railway station was served by a northbound XPT service to Roma Street and a southbound service to Sydney until it closed in 1994.

Bromelton State Development Area (SDA) was declared in 2008, covering 15,000 hectares of land approximately  west of Beaudesert. About  was earmarked for industrial development of regional, state and national significance, maximising the use of the area's existing standard gauge railway line which connects Bromelton to the Port of Brisbane, to other parts of Queensland, and to other states of Australia. Mirvac has commenced work on a site bordered by Sandy Creek Road and Beaudesert Boonah Road. The Bromelton SDA applications are reviewed by the Co-ordinator General for approval. The Scenic Rim Regional Council is responsible for operational works, clearing of vegetation, plumbing and Reconfiguration of Lots (ROLs) applications after the MCUs have been approved by the Queensland Government.

In 2016, SCT Logistics commenced building a transport hub adjacent to the Sydney-Brisbane railway line. It opened in January 2017.

In the , Bromelton had a population of 155 people. The locality contains 58 households, in which 51.6% of the population are males and 48.4% of the population are females with a median age of 40, 2 years above the national average. The average weekly household income is $1,771, $333 below the national average. 4.0% of Bromelton's population is either of Aborigional or Torres Strait Islander descent. 66.4% of the population aged 15 or over is either registered or de facto married, while 33.6% of the population is not married. 28.8% of the population is currently attending some form of a compulsory education. The most common nominated ancestries were Australian (48.2%), English (25.6%) and Irish (13.1%), while the most common country of birth was Australia (90.3%), and the most commonly spoken language at home was English (94.7%). The most common nominated religions were Catholin (37.4%), Anglican (23.9%) and No Religion (16.6%). The most common occupation was a manager (21.8%) and the majority/plurality of residents worked 40 or more hours per week (39.7%).

Transport
The town has a crossing loop on the Sydney to Brisbane standard gauge line.

SCT Logistics operates a rail-road transport hub at 2603 Beaudesert Boonah Road ().

The Australian Rail Track Corporation has also purchased land in Bromleton.

Notable people
Thomas de Montmorency Murray-Prior, born in Bromelton, Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
Rosa Campbell Praed, born in Bromelton, Australian novelist

See also

List of rail yards

References

Further reading

External links

Scenic Rim Region
Localities in Queensland


Dollosuchoides, colloquially known as the Crocodile of Maransart, is an extinct monospecific genus of gavialoid crocodilian, traditionally regarded as a member of the subfamily Tomistominae. Fossils have been found in the Brussel Formation of Maransart, Belgium and date back to the middle Eocene.

The holotype, IRScNB 482, was discovered in 1915 and it was prepared during 1926–1927 by M. Hubert, J. Mehschaert and M. Jean de Kleermaeker, and also in 1927, Louis Dollo had the holotype put on display in the Museum of Natural Sciences and he intended to describe the specimen but he died in 1931 before he was able to describe it and the specimen was eventually referred to Dollosuchus by Swinton (1937) until it was moved to its own genus by Brochu (2007). It is currently housed in the Gand Museum in Belgium.

Phylogeny
Below is a cladogram based morphological studies comparing skeletal features that shows Dollosuchoides as a member of Tomistominae, related to the false gharial:

Based on morphological studies of extinct taxa, the tomistomines (including the living false gharial) were long thought to be classified as crocodiles and not closely related to gavialoids. However, recent molecular studies using DNA sequencing have consistently indicated that the false gharial (Tomistoma) (and by inference other related extinct forms in Tomistominae) actually belong to Gavialoidea (and Gavialidae).

Below is a cladogram from a 2018 tip dating study by Lee & Yates simultaneously using morphological, molecular (DNA sequencing), and stratigraphic (fossil age) data that shows Dollosuchoides as a gavialoid, more basal than the last common ancestor to both the gharial and the false gharial:

References

Crocodilians
Eocene crocodylomorphs
Eocene reptiles of Europe
Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera
Fossil taxa described in 2007


The Subanen languages (also Subanon and Subanun) are a group of closely related Austronesian languages belonging to the Greater Central Philippine subgroup. Often described as a single language, they are considered by linguists as a dialect cluster more than a monolithic language. Subanen languages are spoken in various areas of Zamboanga Peninsula, namely the provinces of Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur, and in Misamis Occidental of Northern Mindanao. There is also a sizeable Subanen community in Misamis Oriental. Most speakers of Subanen languages go by the name of Subanen, Subanon or Subanun, while those who adhere to Islam refer to themselves as Kalibugan.

Internal classification
Jason Lobel (2013:308) classifies the Subanen varieties as follows.

Subanen
Western
Western Subanon
Western Kolibugan
Nuclear
West Nuclear
Tawlet-Kalibugan Subanen
Salug-Godod Subanen
East Nuclear
Southern Subanen
Central Subanen
Northern Subanen
Eastern Subanen

Lobel (2013:308) lists the following innovations among each of the following subgroups.
Nuclear Subanen: *k > Ø
Western Subanen: *k > /k/
East Nuclear Subanen: *r > /l/
West Nuclear Subanen: *r > /r/
Western Subanen: *r > /l/ (independently took place, likely due to contact with Tausug, Maguindanaon, Butuanon, Cebuano, and/or Ilonggo, which have also undergone the *r > /l/ shift independently of one another)

Proto-Subanen

The following phoneme inventory can be reconstructed for Proto-Subanen:

According to Jason Lobel (2013:304-305), the innovations defining Proto-Subanen from Proto-Greater Central Philippine are:

1. *h was lost in all positions in Proto-Subanen.

2. *ʔ was lost word-initially and word-medially, only being retained in word-final position.

3. Reduction of *a to *ə in prepenultimate syllables, as well as in closed penultimate syllables.

4. Addition of a word-initial *g- to all vowel-initlal words following the operation of the previous innovations.

5. Assimilation of consonant clusters into a sequence of either *kC, *gC, or a nasal cluster.

References

External links
 "Subanon" at Ethnologue (23rd ed, 2020).
 Audio recordings of Subanon are archived with Kaipuleohone, including a word list, sentences, and a traditional song

Greater Central Philippine languages
Languages of Zamboanga del Sur
Languages of Zamboanga del Norte
Languages of Zamboanga Sibugay
Languages of Misamis Occidental


Kaynarca may refer to:

Places
 Kaynarca, Biga
 Kaynarca, Bor, a village in Bor district of Niğde Province, Turkey
 Kaynarca, Horasan
 Kaynarca, İznik
 Kaynarca, Pınarhisar, a town in Pınarhisar district, Kırklareli Province in Turkey
 Kaynarca, Sakarya, a town and district of Sakarya Province in Turkey
 Kaynarca, Pendik, a town in Pendik district of Istanbul, Turkey
 Kaynardzha, a village in northeastern Bulgaria, part of Silistra Province
 Kaynardzha Municipality, a municipality in Silistra Province, northeastern Bulgaria

People with the surname
 Oktay Kaynarca (born 1965), Turkish actor

Turkish-language surnames


A partial list of the some 250 islands of the Republic of Palau, located in the western Caroline Islands Archipelago. The islands are within the Micronesia region of Oceania, in the western Pacific Ocean.

Inhabited

Uninhabited

Chomedokl
Chouwid
Eil Malk
Kuabeserrai
Mchochaeo
Merir
Ngelsibel
Ngkesill
Ongael
Ongetkatel
Rock Islands
Bablomekang
Ngeanges
Ngerukewid
Ngeruktabel
Oilouch

See also

List of islands of the Federated States of Micronesia — of the central and western Caroline Islands Archipelago.
:Category:Caroline Islands
Micronesia

Islands
Islands
Palau
Geography of Micronesia


Ranjit Debbarma is a Tiprasa politician who is a Member of the Tripura Legislative Assembly from Ramchandraghat constituency.

Political career
Ranjit Debbarma became one of the early member of The TipraHa Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) when it was started it 2019.

Tripuri Nationalism Movement

Upon the surrender of Mantu Koloi, second in command of one of the National Liberation Front of Tripura's factions, he requested that Ranjit Debbarma engage in talks with the Government of India to resolve the crisis, but Debbarma vowed to fight on.

References

Tripuri nationalism
1959 births
Living people
Tipra Motha Party politicians
Tripura MLAs 2023–2028


John William Davis was a footballer who played as a forward for Port Vale and Macclesfield in the 1920s.

Career
Davis played for Bredbury United, before joining Second Division side Port Vale as an amateur in January 1920. His single appearance came at inside-right in a goalless draw with Fulham at The Old Recreation Ground on 16 April 1921. He was released, probably in 1922, and moved on to Macclesfield.

Career statistics
Source:

References

English men's footballers
Men's association football forwards
Port Vale F.C. players
Macclesfield Town F.C. players
English Football League players
Year of birth missing
Year of death missing
Place of birth missing


The Danao languages are a group of Austronesian languages spoken in the Philippines. They are the Maguindanaon and Maranao, each with approximately a million speakers; and Iranun with approximately 250,000 speakers.

Numerals

Sample texts

Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Maguindanaon:    .
Maranao:    .
Iranun:   .
English:    .

Noun phrases

Time and Space

Verbs and Time

Negatives

Manga, A, Aden, Da

Object-focus Sentences

Notes

References

Allison, E.J. 1979. "Proto-Danaw: A Comparative Study of Maranaw, Magindanaw and Iranun". In Gallman, A., Allison, E., Harmon, C. and Witucki, J. editors, Papers in Philippine Linguistics No. 10. A-55:53-112. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University.

Greater Central Philippine languages
Languages of Maguindanao del Norte
Languages of Maguindanao del Sur
Languages of Lanao del Sur


Parkview School is an elementary junior high school located in the Parkview neighbourhood of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Attendance

Parkview School is a district site for a variety of programs in the West end of Edmonton. It has several designated feeder schools, but students attend from many parts of the city and surrounding areas. It currently has an attendance of approximately 590 students.

Programs

Parkview School offers a variety of programs, including:

 Pre AP
 Secondary Languages: French, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish
 Special Needs: Interactions, Community Mental Health Classrooms, ESL
 Innovate
 Foods & Fashion
 Computer studies
 Drama
 Art
 Music
 Outdoor education
 Sports performance

Academics

Parkview School is known to have a reputation for academic excellence; the school is constantly placed in the top 10 standings of the city. The school's Provincial Achievement Test results have consistently placed above the provincial average. The school participates in a variety of Mathematic contests (Gauss, Atlantic-Pacific, CNML, Pascal, AMC 8, Edmonton Junior High Math Contest).

Extracurricular
Parkview School not only prides itself as an academic, but also athletic school. The school also has many different clubs offered. The clubs are extra-curricular and are often on during lunches and after school. The school team's mascot is a panther, so the school teams are often dubbed "The Panthers". There are a wide range of extracurricular activities in the school, including:

School teams

Boys Junior and Senior Basketball team
Girls Junior and Senior Basketball team
Boys Junior and Senior Volleyball team
Girls Junior and Senior Volleyball team
Boys Junior and Senior Badminton team
Girls Junior and Senior Badminton team
Boys & girls Soccer team
Co-ed Indoor Soccer team
Flag rugby team
Cross country running team
Track and Field team

School clubs

Ski and Snowboard Club
Concert Band
Jazz Band

External links and references
Parkview School Website
Official website of Edmonton Public Schools

Middle schools in Edmonton
Educational institutions established in 1957
1957 establishments in Alberta