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Ration boxes at Dieppe
Ration boxes at Dieppe

British logistics in the Normandy campaign played a key role in the success of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of France in June 1944. The Allies had to land sufficient assaulting forces to overcome the initial opposition, and build them up faster than the Germans could respond. The British Second Army and Canadian First Army included six armoured divisions (including the Polish 1st Armoured Division), ten infantry divisions, two airborne divisions, nine independent armoured brigades and two commando brigades. Logistical units included 6 supply unit headquarters, 25 base supply depots, 83 detail issue depots, 25 field bakeries, 14 field butcheries and 18 port detachments. During the first seven weeks after the Normandy landings on D-Day, 6 June 1944, the advance was much slower than anticipated, but by 26 July, 675,000 personnel, 150,000 vehicles, 690,000 tonnes of stores and 69,000 tonnes of bulk petrol had been landed. (Full article...)

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General Dynamics F-16XL
General Dynamics F-16XL

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Simplified diagram of the collision
Simplified diagram of the collision

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June 6: National Day of Sweden

Shivaji
Shivaji
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The Interior of the Palm House on the Pfaueninsel Near Potsdam

The Interior of the Palm House on the Pfaueninsel Near Potsdam is the title of two oil-on-canvas paintings by Carl Blechen, completed between 1832 and 1834. Both depict four odalisques as they relax in a palm house (which was destroyed by fire in 1880) at the royal retreat of Pfaueninsel near Berlin, but have different angles of view and compositions. The works were commissioned by King Frederick William III of Prussia and are now in the Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Art Institute of Chicago, with an 1832 color study for the work found in the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin. This picture shows the Chicago version of the painting, which was gifted by Frederick William to his daughter Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia. It remained in the Russian imperial collection until around 1917, became part of a Swiss collection around 1920, and was owned by private collectors prior to its purchase by the Art Institute of Chicago in 1996.

Painting credit: Carl Blechen

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