Christophe

"In grateful, admiring and eternal memory. Charles and Camilla." Ch. Pic : ? Christophe ? ChR Collection

Prince of Wales' funeral wreath. Ch. Pic : ? Christophe ? ChR Collection

The crowd. 7,000 persons attended the ceremony. Ch. Pic : ? Christophe ? ChR Collection

Flags parade. Ch. Pic : ? Christophe ? ChR Collection

Flags parade. Ch. Pic : ? Christophe ? ChR Collection

End of ceremony. Ch. Pic : ? Christophe ? ChR Collection

Britain's oldest known World War I veteran, Henry Allingham, 109. He has been made Knight of the L?gion d'Honneur in 2003. Ch. Pic : ? Christophe ? ChR Collection

The representations of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Ireland and Germany. Ch. Pic : ? Christophe ? ChR Collection

French Minister of Defence. Ch. Pic : ? Christophe ? ChR Collection

Prince of Wales. Ch. Pic : ? Christophe ? ChR Collection

Prince Charles's address. Ch. Pic : ? Christophe ? ChR Collection

The Thiepval memorial. Ch. Pic : ? Christophe ? ChR Collection

Last Saturday, 1st July 2006, I attended the commemorations of the 90th Anniversary of the First Day of the Battle of the Somme. This 1st July 1916 has been the costliest day of battle in British history, resulting in the death of 20,000 men, with more than another 30,000 wounded. This ceremony took place in the vicinity of the joint Franco-British Thiepval memorial, in the Somme. Many VIP attended, including HRH Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, the British Secretary of State for Defence, John Reid, and the French Ministry of Defence, Michelle Alliot-Marie... I will post some pics. Here is the beginning of the ceremony. Ch. Pic : ? Christophe ? ChR Collection

Bryan, That's not what I mean . MLRS are not used to replace Air Forces' bombers. Their missions are not the same, but complementary. The MLRS provides the Army (I say the Army) an all-weather, indirect, area fire weapon system to strike counterfire, air defense, armored formations, and others, at all depths of the tactical battlefield. Primary missions of MLRS include the suppression, neutralization and destruction of threat fire support and forward area air defense targets. It supplements traditional cannon artillery fires by delivering large volumes of firepower in a short time against critical, time-sensitive targets. These targets often include enemy artillery, air defense systems, mechanized units... MLRS is not intended to replace cannon artillery, but has been designed to complement it. Cheers. Ch.

Ed is the winner !!!! Congrats!!! Here is a pic of this medal : Ch. Pic : Yuri Yashnev.

Rick, I agree, that's good definitions. Ch.

Some statistics... This small game has been launched more than 8 months ago now, and since : * 34 questions asked, * with 438 answers, * This quiz has been viewed more than 4630 times. * 20 Members of the Forum played, and 15 correctly answered at least 1 question : Nb of good answers : * 5 : Bryan (Soviet) and Christophe. * 2 : Andreas (Alfred), Chuck (in Oregon), Ed (Haynes), Gerd (Becker), Jan (vatjan) Kim (Kimj) and Wild Card. * 1 : Darrell, Dave (Navy FCO), Dudeman, Order of Victory, Rick (Stogieman) and Steen (Ammentorp). Thanks to all for your participation . Now, let's have fun again with the 35th question... mine!!! Cheers. Ch.

Ed, I think I will do it before... Otherwise, depending on the result, it might be a very easy or a very obscure one... I'll see... maybe I'll do it before, just to be fair . Cheers. Ch.

Thanks guys for the compliments!!! And thanks to Wild Card for a good and informative question . I have been quite lucky on this one... and helped by the fact I was quite sure our man was the driver of a Soviet personality during the war. But, which one ? A small pic of Alexander Buchin convinced me... So, it will be my turn now... I have to think about a good question... Ch.

Could our man be Zhukov's driver ? Ch.

Hi Wild Card, You're right : an estafette is a courier who conveys messages to another courier; a military courier sent from one part of an army to another. But he is not only on horseback, and this includes the use of motorcycles... So, I thought our man could have been a courier with motorcycle... Ch.

Bryan, All depend of what one understands by "modern warfare"... If is is the way we, as "occidental" countries, understand it, I can only agree with you. But a number of countries still don't know what means NEC / NCW, C4ISR or digitised battlespace... and practice a "traditional" warfare... What is sure is that the Grad MRLS system has been in service since 1963, has been adopted for use by 50 countries, and as of 1997 was still in production in 11. It has been sold to over 39 countries, including Afghanistan, Cambodia, China, India, Mongolia, North Korea, Pakistan, and Vietnam... To illustrate this, let's keep in mind the Grad MRLS has been used extensively in the Chechen conflict. Ch.

Thanks for the pic. I'm really intrigated by this monument that does not exist anymore... and of which no one seems to have good pics... If you have more pics (that you can post), please, don't hesit to open a new thread about it... Cheers. Ch. And, now, back to Wild Card question : would our man be a kind of "estafette" ?

Another one. Ch. Pic : Rosoboronexport

Another pic. Ch. Pic : www.rusarm.ru