Battle of the Punchbowl

The Battle of the Punchbowl, was one of the last battles of the movement phase of the Korean War. Following the breakdown of armistice negotiations in August 1951, the United Nations Command decided to launch a limited offensive in the late summer/early autumn to shorten and straighten sections of their lines, acquire better defensive terrain, and deny the enemy key vantage points from which they could observe and target UN positions. The Battle of Bloody Ridge took place west of the Punchbowl from August–September 1951 and this was followed by the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge northwest of the Punchbowl from September–October 1951. At the end of the UN offensive in October 1951, UN Forces controlled the line of hills north of the Punchbowl.

Prelude

The second impulse of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army (PVA) Fifth Phase Offensive was stopped by 20 May 1951 and UN forces counterattacked forcing the PVA back to Line Kansas along the southern edge of the Punchbowl by 20 June. The first armistice negotiations began at Kaesong on 10 July. The armistice negotiations broke down in August, and the Eighth Army Commander, General James Van Fleet decided to launch a limited offensive to shorten and straighten sections of the lines, acquire better defensive terrain, and deny the enemy key vantage points from which they could observe and target UN positions and coerce the Chinese and North Koreans back to the negotiating table. With the defenses of the Kansas Line largely completed, General Van Fleet decided to convert the combat outpost line, known as the Wyoming Line into an advanced main line of resistance, where the terrain allowed. The Wyoming Line varied between 2 miles (3.2 km) and 10 miles (16 km) forward of the Kansas Line.

Battle

Generally, a battle "is a conceptual component in the hierarchy of combat in warfare between two or more armed forces, or combatants. A war sometimes consists of many battles. Battles generally are well defined in duration, area, and force commitment.

Wars and military campaigns are guided by strategy, whereas battles take place on a level of planning and execution known as operational mobility. German strategist Carl von Clausewitz stated that "the employment of battles ... to achieve the object of war" was the essence of strategy.

Etymology

The definition of a battle cannot be arrived at solely through the names of historical battles, many of which are misnomers. The word battle is a loanword in English from the Old French bataille, first attested in 1297, from Late Latin battualia, meaning "exercise of soldiers and gladiators in fighting and fencing", from Late Latin (taken from Germanic) battuere "beat", from which the English word battery is also derived via Middle English batri, and comes from the staged battles in the Colosseum in Rome that may have numbered 10,000 individuals.

Battle (UK band)

Battle were a UK indie rock band. They came to some prominence with a sound consisting largely of post-punk, spacious guitar hooks and dance-orientated beats, and have been compared to The Cure, and New Order/Joy Division. Later recordings have grown increasingly organic and atmospheric and reveal a kinship with The Smiths, Remain in Light era Talking Heads and Arcade Fire. The name Battle can be seen as an incitement for the individual to fight for their passions. Many of the band's lyrics revolve around this central theme. However, the band were actually named after the small Sussex town of Battle, where they formed. The band broke up around October 2007.

Band members

History

Formation

Singer Jason Bavanandan and guitarist Jamie Ellis met at school in Lewisham, South East London in the mid-nineties. Having completed school, they both enrolled at the University of Kent at Canterbury, with the intention of forming a band. The resulting band was Casper Jack. The music of Casper Jack was heavily informed by artists such as Oasis and the Small Faces. When the group's original bassist left, Ellis was introduced to Tim Scudder, at which point the band's sound began to change. Influences such as The Strokes, Joy Division and Pixies began to inform the songwriting process. During this period, the band's keyboardist was dismissed, and the drummer left. The next academic year saw drummer, Oliver Davies join the band. The band changed their name first to Morphic Fields, and later to Killing Moon, the opening song in the film Donnie Darko. The band later dropped the moniker when people increasingly (and mistakenly) assumed the influence of Echo & the Bunnymen.

Battle (formation)

A battle or battaile was a medieval military formation, analogous and ancestral to the modern term battalion. In late medieval warfare, field armies were often drawn up into three main battles, also called guards: the vanguard, the middle guard, and the rearguard, often abbreviated to simply the van, middle, and rear. These terms imply, correctly, that the van preceded the middle, which in turn preceded the rear, into battle if the battles were arranged sequentially as a column. If arranged abreast, the van was on the right and the rear the left.