Arkangi

It had been a close-run affair for the Israelis, who had almost exhausted their ammunition reserves. Their opponents had shown hitherto unsuspected military skills and there had been notable shortcomings in the idf’s performance, leading to much soulsearching and reassessment. Israel lost 2,412 killed in action and more than 5,000 wounded whilst their opponents suffered more than

18,000 dead and 51,000 wounded The financial cost of the war almost bankrupted the state and it was logical that a rapprochement with Egypt took place in 1974 when Premier Begin met President Sadat in Cairo. Agreement was reached whereby Israel withdrew from the line of the Canal and, later, from the strategic passes in Sinai over which so much heavy fighting had taken place in 1967. Egypt’s severance of the Moscow connection eased the strategic tensions and the establishment of a de facto border on the Golan took pressure off the Northern Israeli settlements. However, subsequent events in Lebanon, and the relentless enmity of the Arab world have shown that Israel is still beset by implacable foes. MH.

Arado Ar 234 Blitz (Lightning) (German, WWII). World’s first operational jet-propelled bomber; crew 1. Prototype flew June 15 1943; first production order for Ar 234B series. Deliveries from June 1944; relatively few of 210 completed Ar 234Bs used operationally. Night-fighter and multi-purpose versions existed by war’s end. Two 1,9801b (890kg) s. t. Junkers Jumo 004B engines; max. speed 457mph (730kph); 3,3081b (1,500kg) bombs, two rearward firing 20mm cannon.

Aragon offensive (March-July 1938), Spanish Civil War. Following Teruel, the Nationalists’ Army of Manoeuvre was rapidly reorganized. A multiphased attack began on March 9 with Yagiie’s Moroccan Corps advancing rapidly along the south bank of the Ebro. With massive artillery and air superiority, including the Stuka in action for the first time, the Nationalists shattered the Republican forces, still exhausted and lacking ammunition. Then they advanced on the sector between Saragossa and Huesca as far as the Segre river. On March 30 the Nationalist forces south of the Ebro pushed the International Brigades back in disorder and reached the sea at Vinaroz on April 15 thus splitting Republican Spain in two. Phase four occupied the Pyrenean border region up to Catalonia. (Franco’s German advisers persuaded him not to advance on Barcelona. They feared French intervention and a British reaction following the Anschluss.) Phase five in May and June pushed the southern side of the Vinaroz corridor down towards Valencia. But here in the Sierras stretching to the coast north of Viver and Segorbe, the Nationalists were stopped by the defences. There, the Republicans fought their most effective battle of the war, inflicting 20,000 casualties at a cost of only 5,000. AB.

Arakan see burma campaign.

Archangel. North Russian port: a supply point for Allied aid to Russia during World War I. Following the Bolshevik Revolution and Russia’s withdrawal from the war, a British-French-US force was sent to Archangel (August 2 1918) to retrieve material and to encourage anti-Bolshevik forces establishing a regime that would bring Russia back into the war. Initially 1,500 strong. Allied strength rose to 30,000: still far too few to control such a vast, inhospitable area. The desired White Russian victory failed to materialize and, despite skilful defensive actions, the Allied position became increasingly untenable. Evacuation was ordered, the last units leaving on September 27 1919. MS.

Ardennes (1914, 1940, 1944-45). French Third and Fourth Armies lost heavily in a poorly-coordinated offensive against German Fourth and Fifth Armies in the rugged, heavily-forested Ardennes, southeast Belgium August 21-24 1914. The French believed that armoured forces could not swiftly negotiate the region, but in 1940 German panzers did so, reaching the Meuse on May 12.

Germany’s surprise Ardennes counteroffensive (“Battle of the Bulge”) from December 16 1944, expended irreplaceable men and equipment in an attempt to bi. sect the Allied armies and capture Antwerp. Sixth Panzer Army was held at Elsenborn Ridge, but Fifth Panzer Army captured 8,000 US troops in the Schnee Eifel and encircled Bastogne, December 20. By December 24 the panzers were short of fuel; the Allies (c80,000 casualties) reinforced and, with improved weather, increased air operations. Bastogne was relieved, December 26, and German withdrawal began as US First and Third Armies counterattacked. By February 7 1945 the “Bulge” in the Allied line was liquidated. MS.

Argus. British aircraft carrier. The first aircraft carrier with a full flight deck, Argus was converted from the incomplete hull of the Italian liner Conte Rosso in a Scottish shipyard just too late to see service in World War I. Initially used for experiments in aircraft operation, including being fitted with a mock-up “island” superstructure (she was flush-decked). During 1939—45, she was mostly used for training and transport, although also for flying off fighters for Malta and supporting the “Torch” landings.

Arima, Rear Adm Masafumi

(1895-1944). Jap. On October 15 1944, Arima, commanding the Manila-based 26th Air Flotilla, led an air strike against US warships off Luzon, reportedly crash-diving his Mitsubishi A6M onto the carrier uss Franklin. Franklin was not, in fact, damaged by kamikaze that day - but Arima’s sacrifice prepared the way for Onishi’s “official” initiation of kamikaze tactics four days later.

Arizona. US battleship. Sunk at Pearl Harbor, December 7 1941, with the loss of 1,103 officers and men. Never refloated, she is now a memorial.

Arkansas. US battleship. Served with the British Grand Fleet in 1918. During World War II she escorted Atlantic and Mediterranean troop convoys, 1942-43; provided fire support for the Allied invasions of Normandy and southern France, 1944; and also supported operations on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, 1945. She was sunk in a nuclear test at Bikini Atoll, 1946.