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Q. Was Napoleon clever at school?A. Napoleon was quite clever at school. While others knew their native Italian, Napoleon spoke fluent French although he never lost his Corsican accent. His French writing was atrocious.He was good in geometry and arithmetic, handy for later training as an artillery officer. He detested learning dead languages, reading translated Greek and Latin. He enjoyed geography, but his favorite was history. He read about and copied Alexander and Hannibal’s exploits.He built forts and played war games, always the leader whose orders were obeyed. He loved being a soldier. He attended the elite Ecole Militaire (the French military academy). He earned a coveted commission as a lieutenant after graduation at age 16.The Story of Napoleon by Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall15 Epic Facts About Napoleon Bonaparte (mentalfloss.com)Napoleon's Lifelong Interest in Science (smithsonianmag.com)Napoleon Bonaparte (Sparknotes)10 Facts About NapoleonHow Did Napoleon Come To Power In FranceNapoleon Bonaparte’s Prelude to the Battle of WaterlooThe Story of Napoleon by Henrietta Elizabeth MarshallNAPOLEON AT SCHOOLTo the south of Europe there is a sunny blue sea called the Mediterranean.In this sunny, blue sea about fifty miles from the coast of Italy lies the island of Corsica, a rugged and beautiful little island, full of mountains. Its people are hardy and brave, and, like all mountain peoples, they love liberty. But for hundreds of years, the island belonged to the Republic of Genoa. The people hated to be ruled by Genoa, and at last, under a leader called Paoli, they rebelled and fought for freedom—fought indeed so well that they nearly drove the Genoese out. Then the Genoese asked the French to help them, and at last, tired of the struggle, they sold the island to France.At that the Corsicans were very angry. What right had the Genoese to sell them like cattle to a new master? they asked. So they went on fighting the French, as they had fought the Genoese.Among those who fought were Charles-Marie Bonaparte and his brave wife, Letizia. Bonaparte was an Italian, but for many years his family had lived in Corsica. He was a noble; but in Corsica, there was little difference between nobles and shepherds—they were all poor and proud alike. Letizia was young and beautiful, yet she bore all the hardships of war bravely. She followed her husband even to the battle-field. She was often in danger from flying bullets, yet she feared nothing, and thought only of the safety of her husband and the freedom of her country. By mountain paths, steep and narrow; through trackless forests, called in Corsica, "maquis"; over streams where there were no bridges, Letizia followed her husband. She was only a girl, but she had the heart of a hero, and not until the struggle proved hopeless did she give in.For France was great and Corsica little, and brave though the people were, they were at last forced to yield; their island became part of the French dominion, and their leader Paoli fled over the seas.And here, in this little isle, almost before the roar of battle had ceased, among a people full of sullen anger and bitterness against their conquerors, one blazing August day in 1769 a little son was born to Charles and Letizia Bonaparte. They gave him the name of Napoleon, a name which he was to make famous all the world over, and for all time to come.Napoleon had several brothers and sisters, and their mother, having only one servant, had little time to look after the children. So she gave them a big, empty room in which to play. The walls and floor of this room were bare, and there was nothing in it except the children's toys. Here they were allowed to do as they liked. They scribbled and drew pictures on the walls, and played at all sorts of games. Napoleon always drew soldiers marching to battle, and he played with nothing but a drum and a wooden sword. He used to set up battles, too, amongst the boys of the neighborhood. The wars would last for months at a time, during which there would be many fierce fights, surprises, and assaults. Napoleon was always the leader, and made the others obey him. He was afraid of no one, and he bit, scratched, and slapped anyone, big or little, as he chose. He was often noisy and quarrelsome, and bullied his brothers and sisters, especially Joseph, who was older than he.But at times, even when he was a very small boy, he would be moody and, thoughtful, and would walk about by himself, refusing to speak or play with the others. He was an untidy little boy, not caring in the least how he was dressed. Straight dark hair straggled over his brown face, his stockings hung down over his shoe-tops, and altogether he must have looked a wild little harum-scarum.When Napoleon was about five years old he was sent to a school for little girls kept by nuns. But he did not stay long there and was soon sent to a boys' school, with his brother Joseph. Here the boys in class were set opposite each other in two rows, each under a large flag. One was the flag of Carthage, the other the flag of Rome, with S.P.Q.R. upon it, which means "Senatus Populusque Romanus." That is Latin for "The Senate and People of Rome."The boys were arranged like this so that each side might try to learn better than the other, and fight and conquer in lessons, as the Romans and Carthaginians fought in war.Napoleon (biography.com)As Napoleon was the younger of the two brothers, he was put on the side of Carthage. But he did not like that at all, for in history he knew the Romans had always been the conquerors, and he liked to be on the winning side. So Joseph, who did not mind so much, changed with Napoleon, and allowed him to be a Roman.Napoleon loved soldiers better than anything else and he longed to be one. Every morning, before he went to school, he was given a piece of white bread. This he used to give to a soldier in exchange for a piece of coarse brown bread. His mother was not very pleased with this. "Why do you give away your good white bread for a piece of brown?" she asked him one day."Because," replied Napoleon, "if I am going to be a soldier I must get used to eating soldiers' bread. Besides, I like it."As he loved soldiers so much, his father and mother decided that he should be one. And one December day a little ship sailed away from Corsica, carrying Charles Bonaparte and his two sons, Joseph and Napoleon, over the sea to France. Napoleon was not yet ten, and Joseph scarcely a year older. He was going to learn to be a priest, and Napoleon to be a soldier.The boys were sent to school at a town called Autun. With his fellows, Joseph soon became a favorite. He was a little shy at first, but he was lively and gay, and joined in games with the other boys.Napoleon, on the other hand, was silent and sad. His dark face looked sulky, and instead of joining in the games, he liked best to go about by himself. So the boys teased him. They called him "cowardly Corsican," and reminded him that his island had been conquered by the French. At first, Napoleon paid no attention. Then suddenly, one day, flashing around on his tormentors, he cried, "If the French had been four against one only, they would never have had Corsica: but they were ten to one."NAPOLEON AS A BOY.But if Joseph was the greater favorite, Napoleon was far the more clever. He soon learned to read and speak in French. For to the boys, French was a foreign language; at home, in Corsica, they spoke Italian. But although Napoleon learned to speak French very well, all his life long he made mistakes in it, especially in writing. He wrote very badly too—to hide his bad spelling, some people say.The little, sulky, lonely boy did not stay long at Autun. In about three months his father came to take him away to the military school at Brienne. But Joseph was to be left at Autun. The two brothers had never before been parted, and although Napoleon bullied Joseph they were very fond of each other. Now that they were in a strange land, far from their home, among people speaking a strange language, they seemed to love each other more. When they knew that they must part, Joseph burst into tears. But Napoleon tried hard to pretend that he did not care. His dark face only looked sulkier than before. But although he tried hard, he could not quite keep back the tears, and one slowly trickled down his cheek.At first, Napoleon was not happy at his new school, even though he was dressed in a uniform and was going to be a soldier. He was dreadfully home-sick. He was told that he would have to stay at school for six years, and to a little boy of nine, it seemed as if six years would never end.As Napoleon was shy, moody, and silent, his schoolfellows teased him here too. They nicknamed him "Straw on Nose," because they thought that he held his nose in the air, and that Napoleon sounded like the French words for straw on nose—"la paille au nez." They teased him, also, about his country. "You are a conquered nation, a people of slaves," they said.PORTRAIT OF YOUNG NAPOLEON BONAPARTE SOLDIER POLITICAL LEADER EMPEROR OF FRANCE BY PAINTER JEAN BAPTISTE GREUZEBut one winter, when Napoleon had been about four years at school, the boys had lessons about the building of ramparts and fortifications. They were taught the names of the different kinds of forts, their uses, and how best to attack and defend them. While these lessons were going on, there came a heavy fall of snow. This gave Napoleon a grand idea. He proposed that they should build a fortress of snow, and attack and defend it like soldiers.All the boys were delighted with the idea. Napoleon drew out the lines of the fort, and soon everyone was hard at work with spade and wheel-barrow, eagerly building under Napoleon's directions.When the fort was finished, the boys took sides and fought with snowballs. Napoleon was general, and he commanded both sides, giving orders sometimes to the besiegers, sometimes to the defenders. The masters were quite pleased, and looked on, cheering those boys who showed most courage and cleverness.Soon the fame of the fort spread far, and people came from all round about to see it and watch the fights. These went on as long as the snow lay upon the ground. But at last March came, the sun began to grow warm, the snow melted, and the storming and snowballing came to an end. The masters were not sorry when this happened, as many of the boys had caught bad colds from playing so much in the snow. As for Napoleon, he was surer than ever that the life of a soldier was the grandest possible, and he felt that he was born to make others obey him.As to his lessons, Napoleon learned no Greek, and never did his Latin well. He loved the tales of the Greek and Roman heroes, but he read them in translations. It seemed to him waste of time to try to read them in a dead or foreign language. At arithmetic and geometry, he was good. He liked his geography lessons too, but above all he loved history. Whenever he had a spare moment he might be found reading, and it was history and the lives of great men that he read. Indeed he often read when he ought to have been playing games. So he never grew tall; and although his shoulders were broad, he was thin and delicate-looking.Napoleon BonaparteLecture about Napoleon - Oxford High School15 Epic Facts About Napoleon BonaparteGETTY IMAGES1. HE HAD A FORMAL MILITARY TRAINING.Napoleon was born into a family of minor nobility on Corsica­—a large island off the coast of Italy—a year after it became a French territory. His parents were well off enough to send him to school in France, although he never lost his Corsican accent and claimed to have been teased for it throughout his life. As a teen, he attended the prestigious École Militaire in Paris, but when his father died in his first year there, the younger Bonaparte (whose name was actually “Napoleone di Buonaparte” before he changed it as a young adult to sound more French) was forced to graduate early to help his family financially. Cutting his studies short caused Napoleon’s grades to suffer and he ended up graduating 42nd in a class of 58 students. He did, however, earn the distinction of being the first Corsican to graduate from École Militaire. At 16 years old, Napoleon became an officer in the French army.2. HE WAS ORIGINALLY A CORSICAN NATIONALIST.Although Napoleon was single-handedly responsible for and synonymous with the first French Empire, as a young man, he longed to see his homeland overthrow French rule. His parents had opposed French rule since before he was born, and during his youth, Napoleon wrote a series of treatises on the history and government of Corsica in which he calls the French “monsters” “who are said to be the enemies of free men.” (His plans for a full book on the island country never came to fruition.) In the late 1780s and early 1790s, Napoleon returned to Corsica for long stretches, avoiding the early stages of the French Revolution. But during these visits home, he was struck by how provincial the island was and how much bigger the world at large seemed in comparison. His mannerisms and preoccupations were becoming more French. Meanwhile, Corsican governor and former idol to young Napoleon Pasquale Paoli became increasingly Anglicized. Ultimately, it was a clash between the Buonaparte family and Paoli that inspired Napoleon to leave Corsica once and for all.3. HIS FIRST WIFE, JOSÉPHINE DE BEAUHARNAIS, BARELY ESCAPED EXECUTION.Born into a plantation family in Martinique, Joséphine married into French aristocracy when she wed Alexandre de Beauharnais at the age of 16. Although her husband wanted nothing to do with her, she seduced and charmed other high society men, but that didn’t save her from imprisonment in Les Carmes as the Revolution swept through Paris. Her estranged husband was sent to the guillotine, but the day before her trial, the government was deposed and the executions halted. Having just barely escaped with her life, Joséphine quickly became a popular socialite, eventually meeting Napoleon at a party in 1795. She was 32, widowed, and established in French society; he was just 26, shy and inexperienced. At their wedding six months later, she reportedly knocked four years off her age on the marriage certificate and he added 18 months to his, which made them roughly the same age (at least on paper).4. HE LIKELY NEVER SAID “NOT TONIGHT, JOSÉPHINE.”Napoleon, Josephine and a giant bill for Cologne - The Perfume SocietyOf course, we can’t know everything the couple said to one another in private, but judging from letters between the two, Napoleon was desperately infatuated with his wife and expressed an insecure neediness that, if anything, put her off intimacy. The young general embarked on his Italian campaign just a few days into the couple’s marriage, writing to her almost constantly from the battlefield. For her part, Joséphine seems to have struck up affairs back in France in her husband’s absence and her silence drove him to send increasingly pleading missives.5. HE WASN’T ACTUALLY SHORT.The rumor about Napoleon’s height—or lack thereof—started during his lifetime. English propagandists depicted the general as comically diminutive in critical cartoons during the Napoleonic Wars. The belief became so deeply established that in the 20th century, a psychological complex specific to short men was named after him. But how tall was he really? Probably around five-foot-six—which was actually just about average for the era. That height comes from what was written at the time of his death. A physician’s note that accompanied Napoleon’s coffin says that he was five-foot-two “from the top of the head to the heels”—but an additional note specifies that this is French measurements and that it is equal to five-foot-six in English terms.6. HE ONCE WROTE A ROMANCE NOVEL.That’s right, Napoleon Bonaparte was a general, a revolutionary, an emperor and—on at least one occasion—a romance novelist. Written just before he met and married Joséphine in 1795, Clisson et Eugénie tells a fictionalized account of the young soldier’s relationship with Bernardine Eugénie Désirée Clary, whose sister married his brother Joseph. The novella was never published during his lifetime and following his death, the manuscript was divided into segments that sold as souvenirs at auction houses in the centuries after. Although the various segments were published at one time or another, a complete English translation wasn’t reconstructed until 2009. If you’re interested in reading the tale of passionate lovers separated by war and ultimately death, you can find Clisson et Eugénie on Amazon.7. HE PROBABLY WASN'T AFRAID OF CATS.There are a lot of claims swirling about that Napoleon—and many other famous generals-turned-dictators—suffered from “ailurophobia,” or fear of cats. But Katharine MacDonogh, author of Reigning Cats And Dogs: A History Of Pets At Court Since The Renaissance, says that “No record exists of Napoleon either liking or hating cats."8. NAPOLEON’S ARMY DISCOVERED THE ROSETTA STONE.Napoleon is best remembered for his political and military prowess, but during his early life, he also considered himself a scientist and was elected membership to the National Institute, the foremost scientific society in post-Revolutionary France, in 1797. For his expedition to seize Egypt and thus cut off Britain’s trade route, Napoleon brought along 150 savants—scientists, engineers, and scholars to survey the topography, environment, culture, and history of Egypt—in addition to his troops. The 23-volume Description de l'Égypte contained unprecedented knowledge of the country, but perhaps the greatest find was the Rosetta Stone. Captain Pierre François-Xavier Bouchard discovered the inscribed slab during the demolition of an ancient wall in the city of Rosetta. He immediately recognized the potential significance and had the stone shipped to Cairo. Written in hieroglyphics, demotic, and Greek, the Stone eventually proved to be the cipher that cracked ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.9. BEETHOVEN ORIGINALLY PLANNED TO DEDICATE HIS THIRD SYMPHONY TO NAPOLEON.Ludwig van Beethoven greatly admired the general, even into Napoleon’s early years as First Consul after overthrowing the existing government. When he began working on Symphony 3, Beethoven professed to be inspired by Napoleon’s heroic exploits and ostensibly democratic ideals. But then, in 1804, even after declaring himself First Consul for life, Napoleon had himself crowned Emperor of France and Beethoven lost all respect for him. According to Ferdinand Ries, a student and early biographer of the composer, Beethoven “flew into a rage and cried out: 'Is he too, then, nothing more than an ordinary human being? Now he, too, will trample on the rights of man, and indulge only his ambition!’ Beethoven went to the table, took hold of the title page by the top, tore it in two, and threw it on the floor.”He seems to have remained conflicted about his former idol, however. In a later letter, he admitted that "the title of the symphony really is 'Bonaparte’,” and when it was published in 1806 the title page read, "Sinfonia Eroica ... composed to celebrate the memory of a great man."Fledermaus 1990 Published on May 31, 2011Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in E flat major (Op. 55), also known as the Eroica (Italian for "heroic"), is a landmark musical work marking the full arrival of the composer's "middle-period", a series of unprecedented large scale works of emotional depth and structural rigor. The Third was begun immediately after the Second, completed in August 1804, and first performed April 7, 1805. Beethoven had originally conceived of dedicating the symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte, but when Napoleon proclaimed himself Emperor of the French in May 1804, Beethoven became disgusted and dedicated the symphony to Prince Franz Joseph Maximillian Lobkowitz.10. NAPOLEON’S EMPIRE ATTEMPTED TO SPREAD RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE.As a child, Napoleon was baptized Catholic, but his own writings indicate that he began to question Catholicism—and, indeed, the existence of any god—early in his life. But while Napoleon lacked a strong personal faith, he admired the tactical power of organized religion. Following his initial ascent to power in France, he set about reestablishing the Catholic Church that had been all but dismantled during the Revolution. In doing so, however, he recognized Catholicism only as, “the religion of the vast majority of French citizens” and brought the Church under the authority of the state.As emperor, Napoleon emancipated the Jews in areas of Europe under his control, insisting that they be free to own property and worship freely (a proclamation which earned him condemnation as the "Antichrist and the Enemy of God" by the Russian Orthodox Church). Of course, he did so not out of pure benevolence but because he believed religious freedom would attract Jewish populations to the French-controlled territories. Following his Egyptian expedition, some scholars believe that Napoleon was particularly fascinated by Muhammad and the Muslim religion. Although this, too, appears to be largely situational, as he once wrote, "I am nothing. In Egypt I was a Mussulman; here I shall be a Catholic." Whether or not Napoleon ever truly believed in Islam, he wrote tolerantly about even some of the more controversial practices, saying that polygamy was a way for different races to remain blended and equal.11. NAPOLEON ATTEMPTED SUICIDE BEFORE EXILE IN ELBA.Following a disastrous campaign in Russia and pressures from the Sixth Coalition, Napoleon was forced to abdicate as part of the Treaty of Fontainebleau on April 11, 1814. Although he would at first be sentenced to live out a comfortable life as sovereign of the island of Elba, Napoleon’s first reaction to his exile was a suicide attempt while still at Fontainebleau. He had been carrying a poisonous pill with him ever since the failure in Russia and finally took it on April 12th. But the pill must have lost its potency with age; while it made Napoleon violently ill, it did not kill him.12. BRITISH SOVEREIGNS WORRIED THAT EVEN THE ENGLISH PEOPLE WOULD RALLY AROUND NAPOLEON.The strategic situation in Western Europe in 1815: 250,000 Frenchmen faced a coalition of about 850,000 soldiers on four fronts. Napoleon was forced to leave 20,000 men in Western France to reduce a royalist insurrection.Battle of Waterloo - WikipediaFollowing his escape from Elba and his brief return to power, Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo and forced to surrender to the British captain of the HMS Bellerophon. Initially, he drafted a letter to the Prince Regent and future King George IV requesting asylum and "a small estate" outside of London—a bold request considering his years of plotting to conquer Britain. The letter was never delivered, but it likely wouldn’t have mattered. Parliament was concerned that Napoleon—a foreign dictator—would be so popular with the British common people that they refused to even let him disembark. Instead, he remained on board the anchored Bellerophon while crowds flocked to catch a glimpse of him until he was banished to St. Helena.MetroPostcard Guide to depictions of Waterloo and Napoleons exile and legacy on postcardsMetroPostcard Guide to depictions of Waterloo and Napoleon's exile and legacy on postcards13. ATTEMPTS TO RESCUE NAPOLEON FROM ST. HELENA INCLUDED AN ELABORATE SUBMARINE PLAN.The insane plan to rescue Napoleon from St. Helena by submarineThe British took extreme caution in securing Napoleon’s final exile location. St. Helena is isolated, ringed with steep cliff faces, and was guarded by some 2800 men armed with 500 cannons. The seas around the tiny island were constantly patrolled by an entire Royal Navy squadron consisting of 11 ships and even a separate island—1200 miles further out in the Atlantic—was stocked with further garrisons to prevent a rescue attempt from South America. They were right to be concerned. During Napoleon’s last six years of life on St. Helena, escape plans included boats, balloons, and even a pair of primitive submarines. Notorious British smuggler Tom Johnson later claimed that in 1820 he was offered £40,000 to rescue the emperor. He hatched a scheme to do so that included a pair of ships with collapsible masts that could sneak up to the island fully submerged and a bosun’s chair to scale the cliffs. It’s unclear how far this plan ever got—or, indeed, if Johnson ever accepted such an assignment—but had it succeeded it would have made for one of the most fantastic prison breaks in all of history.NAPOLEON’S ST. HELENA SUBMARINE14. A HOUSE WAS BUILT FOR NAPOLEON IN NEW ORLEANS.Wikimedia Commons // Public DomainNicholas Girod, the fifth mayor of New Orleans, was a Frenchmen and avid supporter of Napoleon. Following the abdication at Waterloo, Girod helped members of Napoleon’s Imperial Guard escape to the New World. But he also had plans for the emperor himself to move to NOLA. In 1821, Girod, who had retired from the mayoral office, began renovating a home on the corner of Chartres and St. Louis Streets, which he claimed would be Napoleon’s residence after an intended escape expedition by Dominique You (also called Dominique Youx). When Napoleon died later that same year, Girod moved his own family into the building, but even today it is still known as Napoleon House.15. NAPOLEON LIKELY DIED OF STOMACH CANCER—DESPITE 200 YEARS OF ARSENIC SPECULATION.Napoleon died on May 5, 1821, at the age of 51, while still in exile on St. Helena. At the time, his personal physician reported on the death certificate that the emperor had died of stomach cancer, consistent with reports that he suffered from abdominal pain and nausea in the last weeks of his life. But his body remained remarkably well preserved, a common side effect of arsenic poisoning, inspiring centuries of suspicion about foul play. In 1961, elevated levels of arsenic were detected in surviving samples of Napoleon’s hair, fueling these rumors further. Even if he wasn’t assassinated in that way, some theories suggested, perhaps he was accidentally poisoned by the fumes created by the arsenic in his bedroom wallpaper and the damp humidity on St. Helena.Napoleon's Death - napoleon.orgA 2008 study conducted by a team of scientists at Italy’s National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Milan-Bicocca and Pavia, however, disproved the poison suspicions. A detailed analysis of hairs taken from Napoleon’s head at four times in his life—as a boy in Corsica, during his exile on the island of Elba, the day he died on St. Helena, at age 51, and the day after his death—showed that while the levels of arsenic present were astronomical compared to modern standards (about 100 times what is present in the hair of people living today), there was no significant change throughout his life. What’s more, hairs from his son, Napoleon II, and his wife, Empress Joséphine, showed similar—albeit elevated—levels of arsenic. Chronic exposure, in paints and even as a medicine, throughout Napoleon’s life seems to be responsible for the inflammatory 1961 findings. Of course, all that arsenic—not to mention the myriad other toxic chemicals believed to be tonics at the time—likely hastened the emperor’s demise.All images courtesy of Getty Images unless otherwise noted.Who was a better man, Napoleon or Wellington? | CatholicHerald.co.ukNapoleon's Lifelong Interest in ScienceNapoleon Bonaparte was born on this day in 1769 in Corsica. As a young man at school, one instructor said that he “has always been distinguished for his application in mathematics.” (Wikimedia Commons)By Kat EschnerSmithsonian.com | Smithsonian Magazine | SmithsonianNapoleon Bonaparte: General, emperor....science nerd? While the two-time Emperor of the French is, of course, more remembered for his military prowess today than his scientific exploits, he, like many French Revolution figures, was fascinated by science’s potential.As author Steve Jones writes in Revolutionary Science: Transformation and Turmoil in the Age of the Guillotine, revolutionary Paris was “saturated in science.”“Many stellar names in physics and the rest were participants in the great [revolution], while several of those remembered as statesmen and grandees spent a good part of their time at the laboratory bench,” he writes. “Together they built a new world.”Napoleon was a huge part of that new world. Here are three things he did that contributed to post-Revolutionary France’s scientific development:Encouraged inventorsThe revolutionary government, pre-Bonaparte, had already made significant changes in France’s scientific infrastructure, such as modernizing the patent system, abolishing guild control over who could practice a profession and funding a public program to encourage and reward scientific innovation. This system led to, among other things, the creation of French ultramarine, one of the first affordable blue pigments on a painter’s palette.After Napoleon took the reins as Emperor in 1804, writes Jones, “the system expanded and became the Société d’Encouragement pour l’Industrie Nationale, itself provided with a substantial subsidy and run by a consortium of scientists and bankers.” The Société encouraged French innovation both commercial and scientific–among the interesting turns this took was an exploration of the first chess-playing robot.Led a scientific mission to EgyptA few years earlier, in 1798, Napoleon and 54,000 other men landed in Egypt and proceeded to invade the country. However, as the Linda Hall Library writes, this invasion had a distinctly scientific edge. “In addition to soldiers and sailors, Napoleon brought along 150 savants–scientists, engineers, and scholars whose responsibility was to capture, not Egyptian soil, but Egyptian culture and history.”Napoleon didn’t succeed in conquering Egypt as he had recently succeeded in Italy. However, the savants had a great time. They headed back to France in 1801 with an extensive set of notes and drawings about Egyptian culture, history, antiquities, and natural history. The result of their studies was ultimately a 23-volume encyclopedia, Description de l’Égypte. Among their many finds: the Rosetta Stone.Rosetta Stone - WikipediaRosetta Stone - WikipediaChemistry and MathAs his encouragement of the Société shows, the French leader wasn’t just interested in science abroad. After coming back from Egypt, he “showered titles and well-paying positions on many of the scientists who had been participants in Egypt–and on many who had not,” wrote chemist Sol W. Weller. Like many of his revolutionary fellows, Napoleon thought science and technology could “improve the quality of life and to increase the economic status of the French people.”As the result of this general belief, a number of scientific advances happened in the Napoleonic era. Among them: Napoleon’s theorem, which he probably didn’t write. He’s also remembered for encouraging physicist Alessandro Volta, the inventor of one of the first batteries, with one of those cushy positions. And Claude-Louis Berthollet, a scientist who he took with him to Egypt, “introduced the use of chlorine as a bleach,” writes the library, as well as determining the composition of ammonia.Not bad for a hobby.Napoleon: Hero or Tyrant?Napoleón Bonaparte, el emperador de EspañaNapoleon Bonaparte As A ChildNapoleon BonaparteNapoleon Bonaparte was born on the Mediterranean island of Corsica on August 15, 1769. Although the Bonaparte family had maintained its nobility status even after the French takeover of the Island from the Italian Republic of Genoa in 1768, it was not as financially strong as it once was. For that reason, Charles immediately set out to curry favor with the new French regime. France rewarded his services graciously and financed a scholarship for the young Napoleon to the military college of Brienne in France. Napoleon left to begin his education there in 1777, at the age of eight. In 1784, he moved on to the Ecole Militaire (the French military academy) to spend a year studying more advanced tactics and strategy. Although remarkably intelligent, Napoleon graduated 42nd in his class of 52.In 1785, at the age of 16, Napoleon graduated from the Ecole Militaire and became a Second Lieutenant in the Army for artillery, confident and ambitious. To be commissioned as an officer immediately after graduation was a high honor. However, Napoleon's happiness was diminished when his father Charles died on February 24, 1785.In November of 1875, Napoleon set out for Valence, where he was to be stationed. It was peacetime, and the post was very boring. If Napoleon could not win honor in battle, however, he determined to improve himself otherwise: he spent his time in Valence furthering his education through a rigorous reading program, with a particular emphasis on history and geography.In 1789, Revolution was brewing in France. The traditional monarchy (the Ancien Regime) was in trouble. Running out of money, Louis XVI called a meeting of the French Parliament (the "Estates-General") to consider a tax raise. On June 21, however, the Estates-General declared itself a National Assembly, and the French Revolution was underway. On July 14, a Paris mob stormed the Bastille, and on August 28, the new French Republic issued the Declaration of Human and Citizen Rights.Napoleon, on leave from his post during these tumultuous times, returned to Valence in 1791. In the summer of 1792, he decided to head to Paris. On April 2 of that year, France declared war on Austria, and on February 1 it declared war on England. As revolution swept France, an international coalition formed to stop the revolutionary forces from extending across Europe. This coalition included Austria, Britain, Spain, Russia, and the loose confederation of German states and principalities.On August 10, 1792, a Paris mob overran the royal family's residence at the Tuileries, massacring the Swiss Guard that protected the royalty; Napoleon witnessed it all. This event would have a major impact on young Napoleon, and taught him how powerful the people could be, once mobilized. Napoleon would seek to channel that power in his own conquest of Europe.Soon after the mob's storming of the Tuileries, the revolutionaries overthrew the monarchy and guillotined Louis XVI, proclaiming a French Republic on September 25, 1792.Napoleon and IronCommentaryHistorians often emphasize Napoleon's Corsican background, perhaps to explain his egomaniacal attempt to take over the world; Corsica had fallen to a series of conquering nations for years. However, the young Napoleon was shipped off to France for schooling quite early, and his upbringing, philosophy, and mentality were ultimately much more French than they were Corsican. Every bit a rationalist, Napoleon was a true child of the French Enlightenment.Like so many significant historical figures, Napoleon was largely self-taught. Napoleon's future ambitions were certainly apparent in his choice of reading: he read history and geography, obsessing over the stories of kings and generals like Alexander the Great and Hannibal. Indeed, he would later take these men as his examples, using their tactics as models for his own: Alexander the Great of Macedonia built a huge empire, as Napoleon would eventually do, and Hannibal (of Carthage) was famous for crossing the Alps with a huge army (another surprise tactic Napoleon would recreate during his own campaigns). Furthermore, even at this early stage in his career, Napoleon read everything he could about England. He was fascinated by England's strategies and spent considerable time studying England's resources. From his reading at this time, it seems reasonable to suppose that Napoleon may already have been dreaming of his future exploits in some form.Although Napoleon spent hours with his books, Napoleon did not fail to garner important lessons from the events happening around him. Part of the reason for the fall of the Ancien Regime was that it had spent considerable resources supporting the American colonists' revolution against the British. By the 1780s, the royal coffers were drained and the monarchy had few resources. Napoleon would note this, and would stay out of entanglements in the New World that might have diverted resources from his efforts in Europe. (For that reason, he would sell the Louisiana Territory to the U.S.)What was Napoleon doing during the events of 1789? Actually, he was at home in Corsica with his family, on leave from the Army. News of revolution had not yet reached Corsica. However, while in Corsica, Napoleon wrote a letter on behalf of the entire island to the French Royalty complaining about French neglect of Corsica. After this letter, Corsica was considered pro-Revolution.Napoleon Bonaparte and the Poles | Exhibition10 Facts About Napoleon

Britain had purchased US small arms in the summer of 1940, but needed an alternative to cash transactions. The Roosevelt administration came up with the straight trade concept, and in September 1940, Roosevelt signed the Destroyers-for-bases Agreement.This gave 50 US naval destroyers - generally referred to as the 1,200-ton type - to Britain in exchange for the use of naval and air bases in eight British possessions: on the Avalon Peninsula, the coast of Newfoundland and on the Great Bay of Bermuda.During negotiations, US access to bases was extended to include several locations in the Caribbean. A letter from the US Secretary of State to the British Ambassador, dated 2 September 1940, stated:'His Majesty's Government will make available to the United States… naval and air bases and facilities for entrance thereto and the operation and protection thereof, on the eastern side of the Bahamas, the southern coast of Jamaica, the western coast of St Lucia, the west coast of Trinidad in the Gulf of Paria, in the island of Antigua and in British Guiana within 50 miles of Georgetown...'The agreement had been negotiated in correspondence between the US Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, and the British Ambassador in America. The lease was guaranteed for the duration of 99 years 'free from all rent and charges other than such compensation to be mutually agreed on to be paid by the United States'.Britain had fended off the threat of German invasion in the Battle of Britain and America appreciated that the country was willing and able to fight alone - but Churchill understood that an alliance with the US was essential if Britain was to continue the war effort.BBC - WW2 People's War - TimelineWWIITrade of 50 American Destroyers for British Bases in World War IIDuring World War II, the controversial destroyers-for-bases deal helped save the British from Nazi domination.by William H. LangenbergIn early September 1940, the world was in turmoil. The battle of Britain was nearing its climax, and elsewhere global tensions ran high. Election year strife was just beginning to augment the furor of clashes between isolationists and interventionists in the United States.The many plots to assassinate the madman responsible for the death of millions... Get your copy of Warfare History Network’s FREE Special Report, Killing Adolf HitlerThis world stage provided a fitting backdrop for the transmission of the following message to Congress by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on September 3: “I transmit herewith for the information of the Congress notes exchanged between the British Ambassador at Washington and the Secretary of State on September 2, 1940, under which this Government has acquired the right to lease naval and air bases in Newfoundland, and in the islands of Bermuda, the Bahamas, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Trinidad, and Antigua, and in British Guiana; also a copy of an opinion of the Attorney General dated August 27, 1940, regarding my authority to consummate this arrangement.“The right to bases in Newfoundland and Bermuda are gifts—generously given and gladly received. The other bases mentioned have been acquired in exchange for fifty of our old destroyers.”President Roosevelt’s Message Stirs Up ControversyThis unilateral action by the president created a heated controversy. Its legality and neutrality were openly questioned, and the sub rosa nature of the associated negotiations was severely criticized. However, as dramatic events in Europe and activities of a national election began to dominate newspaper space, the controversy gradually subsided.President Roosevelt’s trade of 50 American destroyers for British air and naval bases has frequently been described in academic articles, popular periodicals, and books. Often the complex, secret negotiations leading to the exchange have been the principal focus of attention. The consummation of the trade via presidential executive agreement rather than congressional action remains controversial to this day. And the transfer of war materiel to a belligerent nation by a neutral country is still categorized by critics as an act of war.From the time of the defeat of Poland in 1939 until April of the following year, the European conflict was in a state of relative inactivity. On April 9, 1940, however, this temporary stalemate ended. Germany launched a blitzkrieg attack on Norway and Denmark that astounded the world with its startling success. One month later, on May 10, the invasions of Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, and France began. On the day the Germans marched into the Low Countries, Neville Chamberlain resigned as Great Britain’s prime minister. He was succeeded by Winston Churchill, who immediately formed a new coalition cabinet and prepared to lead his nation through its gravest crisis.Dutch Army Surrenders, Nazis Advance WestwardMeanwhile, the Nazi offensive made rapid advances. On May 14, the Dutch Army surrendered, and the German assault turned westward toward the classic battlefields of northern France. Armored columns broke through north of the Somme River to the English Channel. From there they proceeded northeastward to the Channel ports—within sight of Britain itself.In just 11 days the Germans had accomplished what they had failed to do in four years of bitter fighting during World War I. This was a brilliantly executed military campaign, creating panic and demoralization among Allied forces. On May 28, King Leopold of Belgium surrendered. The French commander in chief, General Maxime Weygand, attempted to form a line of defense at the Somme, but this tactic was unsuccessful.On June 4, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was evacuated from Dunkirk, and the Germans then turned south toward Paris. The French armed forces could not stem the Nazi onslaught. Paris fell on June 14, and three days later the French government sued for an armistice. Britain now stood alone in opposition to the Nazi enemy.Given this historical background, how important were the 50 American destroyers to the British cause? The ships involved in the exchange were all Clemson-class destroyers built circa 1917-1922. Both the U.S. and the British Royal navies had begun preparations for their transfer in mid-August 1940. The destroyers were rehabilitated, provisioned, and sent to the transfer port at Halifax, Nova Scotia. Royal Navy crews to man the ships sailed for that port from England.Exemplifying the alacrity of these proceedings, the first six ships to be transferred sailed for England manned by British crews on September 6, only three days after President Roosevelt announced the trade, and 40 of the 50 vessels arrived there before the end of 1940.The transfer of the American destroyers came at a propitious time for Britain. Royal Navy destroyer losses had been severe during the Norwegian campaign and the subsequent evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk, with scant chance of their replacements joining the Royal Navy until mid-1941. Even more serious, the Battle of Britain raged in full swing during September 1940, with the outcome still undecided.Looming Threats for the BritishPerhaps most ominous for Britain was the ongoing threat posed by the U-boat menace to Britain’s lifeline of transatlantic shipping. The possibility of an all-out German cross-channel invasion was also very real. These looming threats required constant destroyer patrols in the English Channel.The 50 U.S. destroyers transferred to Britain were commissioned as Town-class destroyers in the Royal Navy. Forty-four were manned by Royal Navy crews, while six were crewed by the Royal Canadian Navy. All Royal Navy vessels initially steamed to Britain, where they were refitted to rectify defects, standardized with British equipment, and fitted with Royal Navy antisubmarine detection and weapons systems. This process required several months, thus the majority of Town-class ships did not become operational until early 1941. After refit, the Royal Navy destroyers were assigned to East coast escort duties, participation in the northern mine barrage, and North Atlantic convoy operations. Ships assigned to the Royal Canadian Navy principally engaged in convoy escort activities in the western Atlantic.Most of the destroyers remained on frontline service until late 1943, when they were gradually replaced by more modern warships. As a group, the Town-class destroyers performed yeoman, sometimes spectacular, service. For example, between 1941 and 1943 Town-class ships participated in the sinking of 10 German U-boats and one Italian submarine while on patrol or as convoy escorts. One also unfortunately sank a Polish-manned Allied submarine that had wandered out of her assigned patrol area.At least two specific actions by Town-class ships are worthy of special note. HMS Broadway, while serving on mid-Atlantic convoy-escort duties during May 1941, participated in one of the most important events of the war. On May 9, Broadway and other escorts of convoy OB318 depth-charged the German submarine U-110 to the surface, where the boat was abandoned by her crew.Royal Navy Strips U-110 of Its Top-Secret DeviceRoyal Navy personnel boarded the crippled U-110, temporarily stemmed flooding that endangered its staying afloat, and removed intact the submarine’s top-secret Enigma machine, which was used to decipher coded messages. U-110 later sank while under tow toward Iceland, and the captured German crewmen were unaware that their boat had been boarded and stripped of its secret device.Thus, the German High Command had no knowledge of this event, which aided efforts to decipher the Enigma code and led to the gathering of vital intelligence known to the Allies as Ultra. HMS Broadwayreceived serious hull damage from one of U-110’s hydroplanes during this action, requiring two months of repairs in Britain. Thereafter, she continued convoy escort duties in the Atlantic with no further successes against submarines for nearly two years. On May 14, 1943, however, Broadway again achieved notoriety when she attacked and sank U-89. The destroyer remained active throughout the war.The most highly publicized and dramatic action by a Town-class destroyer was the destruction of the Normandie Lock at the French port of St. Nazaire on March 29, 1942, via a nearly suicidal mission led by HMS Campbeltown. The former USS Buchanan, Campbeltown was refitted in England, then served as a convoy escort until being declared expendable in January 1942. She was prepared at the Devonport dockyard for the St. Nazaire raid. Modified to resemble a German torpedo boat, the destroyer was loaded with explosives and rammed into the Normandie Lock on March 29, 1942. Hours later, the ship blew up, rendering the lock inoperable in the process.Not all of the 50 Town-class destroyers proved to be as effective as Broadway and Campbeltown. For example, HMS Cameron was being refitted in drydock at Portsmouth during December 1940 when she was blown off her blocks by a German bombing attack. Although the ship was subsequently salvaged, she was never recommissioned and was scrapped in December 1944. HMCS Columbia suffered an even more ignominious fate. After serving mostly as an convoy escort in Canadian waters, Columbia somehow steamed into a rock cliff at Moreton Bay in Newfoundland on February 25, 1944, crushing her bow. Towed to St. John’s, she lay as a bowless hulk until scrapped in August 1945.“50 Ships That Saved the World”?While some historians have asserted that these destroyers were “50 ships that saved the world,” that seems to be unwarranted hyperbole. The Town-class vessels as a whole were not refitted and ready for combat until early 1941. By that time, the Battle of Britain had been won and the German invasion threat toward England abandoned, while Hitler devoted his army’s attention to the invasion of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, German U-boats continued to threaten crucial supplies reaching Britain by sea, and the Town-class vessels provided great service in antisubmarine operations throughout the war.The 1940 trade of the 50 U.S. destroyers for six British naval and air bases also had lasting political effects. It set a new precedent for bold executive actions by U.S. presidents, and thus remains controversial to this day. And it pioneered the acquisition by a neutral country of property rights in a belligerent nation’s territory. In the long run, perhaps the latter two geopolitical issues should be perceived as even more important than the strategic and tactical impact of the 50 Town-class destroyers upon the outcome of World War II.Trade of 50 American Destroyers for British Bases in World War IIDestroyers For Bases Agreement, September 2, 1940“In May of 1940 the public, the editors, the officials of the United States were thrown into utmost confusion by developments in Europe. Hitler had overrun quickly most of Western Europe. He had demonstrated furious and unanticipated striking power. The other countries had demonstrated weakness that was unexpected and unaccountable. Men lost their confidence in everything from seeing the nations of Europe go down so fast before Hitler’s armies.”– The Reminiscences of Robert H. Jackson. Harlan B. Phillips ed.,1955. Columbia University, Oral History Research Office. pg. 881Winston Churchill had recently assumed the premiership of Great Britain when, on May 15, 1940, he sought assistance from the United States. Churchill’s May 15 cable to President Roosevelt described the dire situation that England was in.“The scene has darkened swiftly. The enemy have a marked preponderance in the air, and their new technique is making a deep impression upon the French. I think myself the battle on land has only just begun…The small countries are simply smashed up, one by one, like matchwood. We must expect, though it is not yet certain, that Mussolini will hurry in to share the loot of civilization. We expect to be attacked here ourselves, both from the air and by parachute and air borne troops in the near future, and are getting ready from them. If necessary, we shall continue the war alone and we are not afraid of that. But I trust you realize, Mr. President, that the voice and force of the United States may count for nothing if they are withheld too long. You may have completely subjugated, Nazified Europe established with astonishing swiftness, and the weight may be more than we can bear.”Churchill, Winston, and Warren F. Kimball. Churchill and Roosevelt – the Complete Correspondence. First ed. Vol. 1. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Pr., 1984. 37-38.Churchill asked the United States for the loan of “forty or fifty of your older destroyers,” and warned that without them Britain would be unable to fight the “Battle of the Atlantic” against Germany and Italy. The defeat of Britain would be a catastrophe for the United States, leaving it at risk for war on two fronts.What followed was three-and-a-half months of negotiations. There were significant issues to sort out. President Roosevelt’s initial response was not what Churchill hoped for. Roosevelt responded, “a step of that kind could not be taken except with the specific authorization of Congress and I am not certain that it would be wise for that suggestion to be made to the Congress at this moment.”WINSTON CHURCHILL WEARS A STEEL HELMET DURING HIS VISIT TO DOVER AND RAMSGATE AIR RAID DAMAGED AREA, JULY 1940CREDIT: ASSOCIATED PRESS. “CHURCHILL DONS HELMET.” PHOTOGRAPH. NEW YORK: WORLD-TELEGRAM AND THE SUN NEWSPAPER PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION C1940. FROM LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: CHURCHILL AND THE GREAT REPUBLIC. http://HTTP://WWW.LOC.GOV/ITEM/2004666450/ (ACCESSED SEPTEMBER 2, 2015).Throughout the rest of May, and into June, Churchill continued to reach out to the United States for assistance. On July 3, 1940, the British Navy bombed the French Navy at its base in northwestern Algeria. Jackson writes about this event in That Man: An Insider Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Pg 85.“The specter of overwhelming German naval power, added to her seemingly irresistible air and land forces, deeply troubled the President. If the Germans should capture the French fleet, it – with Germany’s own and that of Italy, and with probable cooperation from Japan – would leave the United States to face alone a most formidable naval and air power. But in the early days of July, Britain, defying what seemed to be forces as inexorable as fate and risking alienation of the French people, boldly attacked and largely disabled the French fleet so that it could no longer be of substantial service to Hitler. Britain won not only our admiration for her courage and audacity but our gratitude as well.”During the month of August, discussions between Britain and the United States shifted from a loan or sale of the destroyers to an exchange of the destroyers for bases on British territories in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean. Jackson discussed in length the “Destroyer-Bases Exchange” in the oral history he gave to Harlan B. Phillips from Columbia University in 1952-1953. Below is a quote from pages 892-893.“On the 13th of August, Stimson recites that he, with Knox, Sumner Welles and Henry Morgenthau, met with the President and formulated a proposed agreement — that is, outlined the essential points of an agreement. Sometime before that the President had discussed with me the legal situation as to whether he had authority to make a disposition of these destroyers without further authorization from Congress. On the 15th of August, I had advised him that we, in the Department of Justice, definitely believed that we did have authority to act without the consent of Congress.”ROOSEVELT HOLDS DESTROYER CONFERENCE, AUGUST 22, 1940 - LEFT TO RIGHT, ATTORNEY GENERAL ROBERT H. JACKSON, SECRETARY OF WAR HENRY STIMSON, ACTING SECRETARY OF STATE SUMNER WELLES, AND SECRETARY OF THE NAVY FRANK KNOX.CREDIT: THE ROBERT H. JACKSON CENTER, INTERNATIONAL NEWS PHOTO COLLECTIONJackson states in his Oral History that, “the opinion contained a simple, statutory interpretation, which if it hadn’t been in the context of war, would not have been even a very important one. It approved the transfer of the destroyers, because they fell in the classification of obsolescent materials, provided the naval and military authorities certified that they were not needful for the defense of the United States. The opinion refused to approve the transfer of the mosquito boats, since they fell in a different classification, and it made no discussion of international law aspects of the transaction.”The opinion resolved that:“Accordingly, you are respectfully advised:(a) That the proposed arrangement may be concluded as an executive agreement, effective without awaiting ratification.(b) That there is Presidential power to transfer title and possession of the proposed considerations upon certification by appropriate staff officers.(c) That the dispatch of the so-called “mosquito boats” would constitute a violation of the statute law of the United States, but with that exception there is no legal obstacle to the consummation of the transaction, in accordance, of course, with the applicable provisions of the Neutrality Act as to delivery.”Opinion on Exchange of Over-Age Destroyers for Naval and Air Bases, Office of the Attorney General, Washington D.C., August 27, 1940Jackson’s opinion did not deal with aspects of international law. Later, he would write about his views on international law and the right of neutral countries to extend aid to countries at war in a speech he was scheduled to make at the Inter-America Bar Association in Havana Cuba, March 27, 1941. He was prevented from giving this speech due to a violent storm. The Honorable George S. Messersmith, American Ambassador to Cuba, delivered the speech in his absence.“Present aggressive wars are civil wars against the international community. Accordingly, as responsible members of that community, we can treat victims of aggression in the same way we treat legitimate governments when there is civil strife and a state of insurgency – that is to say, we are permitted to give to defending governments all the aid we choose.”On September 2, 1940, President Roosevelt signed the Destroyers for Bases Agreement. Today, 75 years later, we remember the significant events that happened during the summer of 1940. September 2, 1945, Japan formally surrenders to the Allies, bringing an end to World War II. A few months later, on November 21, 1945, Robert H. Jackson steps to the podium in the Palace of Justice in Germany to give his powerful Opening Statement before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg.ROYAL NAVY AND U.S. NAVY SAILORS INSPECT DEPTH CHARGES ABOARD WICKES-CLASS DESTROYERS, IN 1940. IN THE BACKGROUND ARE USS BUCHANAN (DD-131), AND USS CROWNINSHIELD (DD-134). ON 9 SEPTEMBER 1940 BOTH WERE TRANSFERRED TO THE ROYAL NAVY. BUCHANAN BECAME HMS CAMPBELTOWN (I42), WHICH WAS EXPENDED AS A DEMOLITION SHIP DURING ST. NAZAIRE RAID ON 29 MARCH 1942. CROWNINSHIELD BECAME HMS CHELSEA (I35) WHICH WAS TRANSFERRED TO RUSSIA ON 16 JULY 1944 AND RENAMED DERZKIY. SHE WAS FINALLY RETURNED TO THE UK FOR SCRAPPING ON 23 JUNE 1949.CREDIT: UNITED STATES OFFICE OF WAR INFORMATION. OVERSEAS PICTURE DIVISION, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.Destroyers For Bases Agreement, September 2, 1940 - Robert H Jackson CenterLend-Lease and Military Aid to the Allies in the Early Years of World War IIDuring World War II, the United States began to provide significant military supplies and other assistance to the Allies in September 1940, even though the United States did not enter the war until December 1941. Much of this aid flowed to the United Kingdom and other nations already at war with Germany and Japan through an innovative program known as Lend-Lease.FDR Signing the Lend-Lease BillWhen war broke out in Europe in September 1939, President Franklin D. Rooseveltdeclared that while the United States would remain neutral in law, he could “not ask that every American remain neutral in thought as well.” Roosevelt himself made significant efforts to help nations engaged in the struggle against Nazi Germany and wanted to extend a helping hand to those countries that lacked the supplies necessary to fight against the Germans. The United Kingdom, in particular, desperately needed help, as it was short of hard currency to pay for the military goods, food, and raw materials it needed from the United States.Though President Roosevelt wanted to provide assistance to the British, both American law and public fears that the United States would be drawn into the conflict blocked his plans. The Neutrality Act of 1939 allowed belligerents to purchase war materiel from the United States, but only on a “cash and carry” basis. The Johnson Act of 1934 also prohibited the extension of credit to countries that had not repaid U.S. loans made to them during World War I—which included Great Britain. The American military opposed the diversion of military supplies to the United Kingdom. The Army’s Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall, anticipated that Britain would surrender following the collapse of France, and thus American supplies sent to the British would fall into German hands. Marshall and others therefore argued that U.S. national security would be better served by reserving military supplies for the defense of the Western Hemisphere. American public opinion also limited Roosevelt’s options. Many Americans opposed involving the United States in another war. Even though American public opinion generally supported the British rather than the Germans, President Roosevelt had to develop an initiative that was consistent with the legal prohibition against the granting of credit, satisfactory to military leadership, and acceptable to an American public that generally resisted involving the United States in the European conflict.British Prime Minister Winston ChurchillOn September 2, 1940, President Roosevelt signed a “Destroyers for Bases” agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, the United States gave the British more than 50 obsolete destroyers, in exchange for 99-year leases to territory in Newfoundland and the Caribbean, which would be used as U.S. air and naval bases. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had originally requested that Roosevelt provide the destroyers as a gift, but the President knew that the American public and Congress would oppose such a deal. He therefore decided that a deal that gave the United States long-term access to British bases could be justified as essential to the security of the Western Hemisphere—thereby assuaging the concerns of the public and the U.S. militaryIn December 1940, Churchill warned Roosevelt that the British were no longer able to pay for supplies. On December 17, President Roosevelt proposed a new initiative that would be known as Lend-Lease. The United States would provide Great Britain with the supplies it needed to fight Germany, but would not insist upon being paid immediatelyInstead, the United States would “lend” the supplies to the British, deferring payment. When payment eventually did take place, the emphasis would not be on payment in dollars. The tensions and instability engendered by inter-allied war debts in the 1920s and 1930s had demonstrated that it was unreasonable to expect that virtually bankrupt European nations would be able to pay for every item they had purchased from the United States. Instead, payment would primarily take the form of a “consideration” granted by Britain to the United States. After many months of negotiation, the United States and Britain agreed, in Article VII of the Lend-Lease agreement they signed, that this consideration would primarily consist of joint action directed towards the creation of a liberalized international economic order in the postwar world.Lend-Lease MemorialThe United Kingdom was not the only nation to strike such a deal with the United States. Over the course of the war, the United States contracted Lend-Lease agreements with more than 30 countries, dispensing some $50 billion in assistance. Although British Prime Minister Winston Churchill later referred to the initiative as “the most unsordid act” one nation had ever done for another, Roosevelt’s primary motivation was not altruism or disinterested generosity. Rather, Lend-Lease was designed to serve America’s interest in defeating Nazi Germany without entering the war until the American military and public was prepared to fight. At a time when the majority of Americans opposed direct participation in the war, Lend-Lease represented a vital U.S. contribution to the fight against Nazi Germany. Moreover, the joint action called for under Article VII of the Lend-Lease agreements signed by the United States and the recipient nations laid the foundation for the creation of a new international economic order in the postwar world.Milestones: 1937-1945The Town-class destroyers were a group of destroyers transferred from the United States Navy to the Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy in exchange for military bases in the Bahamas and elsewhere, as outlined in the Destroyers for Bases Agreement between Britain and United States, signed on 2 September 1940. They were known as "four-pipers" or "four-stackers" because they had four smokestacks (funnels). Later classes of destroyers typically had one or two.Some went to the Royal Canadian Navy at the outset. Others went on to the Royal Norwegian Navy, the Royal Netherlands Navy, and the Soviet Navy after serving with the Royal Navy. Although given a set of names by the Commonwealth navies that suggested they were one class they actually came from three classes of destroyer: Caldwell, Wickes, and Clemson. "Town class" refers to the Admiralty's practice of renaming these ships after towns common to the United States and the British Commonwealth.[3]Ships initially commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy, however, followed the Canadian practice of giving destroyers the names of Canadian rivers. The rivers selected for the Town class were on the border between Canada and the United States, with the exception of the Nova Scotia river sharing the name of the United States Naval Academy location.[4]One of the Towns achieved lasting fame: HMS Campbeltown (ex-USS Buchanan). In the Commando raid Operation Chariot, Campbeltown, fitted with a large demolition charge, rammed the Normandie Lock at Saint-Nazaire, France. The charge detonated on 29 March 1942, breaching the drydock and destroying Campbeltown, thus destroying the only drydock on the Atlantic coast capable of accepting the German battleship Tirpitz. This exploit was depicted in the 1950 Trevor Howard film The Gift Horse, which starred HMS Leamington (ex-USS Twiggs) after her return from service in Russia.Contents1Characteristics2Ships by United States Navy class2.1Caldwell-class destroyers2.2Wickes-class destroyers2.3Clemson-class destroyers3Ships by World War II navy4Notes5References6External linksRoughly contemporaneous to the British V and W-class destroyers they were not much liked by their new crews. They were uncomfortable and wet, working badly in a seaway. Their hull lines were rather narrow and 'herring-gutted' which gave them a vicious roll. The officers didn't like the way they handled either, since they had been built with propellers that turned the same way (2-screw ships normally have the shafts turning in opposite directions as the direction of rotation has effects on the rudder and the whole ship when manoeuvring, especially when coming alongside), so these were as awkward to handle as single-screw ships. Their turning circle was enormous, as big as most Royal Navy battleships, making them difficult to use in a submarine hunt which demanded tight manoeuvres, compounded by unreliable "chain and cog" steering gear laid across the main deck. They also had fully enclosed bridges which caused problems with reflections in the glass at night. Despite their disadvantages they performed vital duties escorting convoys in the Atlantic at a time when the U-boats, operating from newly acquired bases on the Atlantic coast of France were becoming an increasingly serious threat to British shipping.[citation needed]However, one Royal Canadian Navy corvette captain described them as "the most dubious gift since the Trojan Horse".[5]The original armament was four 4-inch (102 mm) guns,[6]one 3-inch (76 mm) anti-aircraft gun, and twelve torpedo tubes.[7]On the Wickes class, the 4-inch gun placement was one gun in a shield on the forecastle, one on the quarterdeck and one each side on a platform between the number 2 and number 3 funnels. The Admiralty promptly removed one of the 4-inch guns and six torpedo tubes to improve stability.[8]Twenty-three of the class had further armament reductions for anti-submarine escort of trade convoys.[9]Two of the remaining 4-inch guns and three of the remaining torpedo tubes were removed to allow increased depth chargestowage and installation of Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar system.[9]USS Conner became HMS Leeds on 23 October 1940. She was scrapped on 19 January 1949.USS Conway became HMS Lewes on 23 October 1940. She outlived all of her sisters in British service and was stripped of valuable scrap and scuttled off Sydney, Australia on 25 May 1946.USS Stockton became HMS Ludlow on 23 October 1940; stripped and beached as a target for rocket firing aircraft off Fidra Island, United Kingdom.USS Aaron Ward became HMS Castleton on 9 September 1940. She was scrapped on 2 January 1948.USS Abbot became HMS Charlestown on 23 September 1940. She was scrapped on 3 December 1948.USS Buchanan became HMS Campbeltown on 9 September 1940. She was destroyed in Operation Chariot on 29 March 1942.USS Claxton became HMS Salisbury on 5 December 1940; she was employed as a special escort for specific convoys, including escorting Wasp during the supply of Spitfires to Malta. She was scrapped in the US in April 1945.USS Cowell became HMS Brighton on 23 Sep 1940; transferred to the Soviet Union as Zharki on 16 July 1944; returned to the Royal Navy on 4 March 1949. She was scrapped on 18 May 1949.USS Crowninshield became HMS Chelsea on 9 September 1940; transferred to the Soviet Union as Derzkiy on 16 July 1944; returned to the Royal Navy on 24 June 1949. She was scrapped on 27 July 1949.USS Doran became HMS St. Marys on 23 September 1940. She was scrapped in December 1945.USS Evans became HMS Mansfield on 23 October 1940; heavily involved in the critical convoy actions of March 1943 with convoy HX-229, landing survivors in the United Kingdom; sold on 24 October 1944 for scrapping.USS Fairfax became HMS Richmond on 26 November 1940; transferred to the Soviet Union as Zhivuchi on 16 June 1944; returned to the Royal Navy on 26 June 1949. She was scrapped on 29 June 1949.USS Foote became HMS Roxborough on 23 September 1940; while with convoy HX-222 Roxborough met with such heavy weather that the entire bridge structure was crushed, with eleven dead, including the Commanding Officer and 1st Lieutenant; the sole surviving executive officer managed to regain control of the ship, and under hand steering from aft, she made St. John's, Newfoundland; was transferred to the Soviet Union as Doblestnyi on 10 August 1944; returned to the Royal Navy on 7 February 1949. She was scrapped on 14 May 1949.USS Hale became HMS Caldwell on 9 September 1940. She was scrapped on 7 June 1945.USS Haraden became HMCS Columbia on 24 September 1940. She was scrapped on 7 August 1945.USS Hopewell became HMS Bath on 23 September 1940; while escorting convoy OG 71 between Liverpool and Gibraltar, Bath was torpedoed by U-204 on 19 August 1941 and sank rapidly.USS Kalk became HMCS Hamilton on 23 September 1940; lost while being towed to Boston for scrapping in 1945.USS MacKenzie became HMCS Annapolis on 29 September 1940; towed to Boston for scrapping on 22 June 1945.USS Maddox became HMS Georgetown on 23 September 1940; transferred to the Soviet Union as Zhostki in August 1944; returned to the Royal Navy on 9 September 1952. She was scrapped on 16 September 1952.USS Philip became HMS Lancaster on 23 October 1940. She was scrapped on 30 May 1947.USS Ringgold became HMS Newark on 5 December 1940; consigned for scrapping on 18 February 1947.USS Robinson became HMS Newmarket on 5 December 1940. She was scrapped on 21 September 1945.USS Sigourney became HMS Newport on 5 December 1940. She was scrapped on 18 February 1947.USS Thatcher became HMCS Niagara on 26 September 1940; on 28 August 1941 Niagara was involved in the capture of U-570, which had surrendered to an RAF Hudson the previous day. She was scrapped by the end of 1947.USS Thomas became HMS St. Albans on 23 September 1940; while with convoy SL 81, St Albans took part in the sinking of U-401 on 3 August 1941; encountered the Polish submarine Jastrzab, and in company with the minesweeper Seagull, attacked and sank it in early 1942; transferred to the Soviet Union as Dostoinyi on 16 July 1944; returned to the Royal Navy on 28 February 1949; towed for scrapping on 18 May 1949.USS Tillman became HMS Wells on 5 December 1940. She was scrapped February 1946.USS Twiggs became HMS Leamington on 23 October 1940; during the fighting around convoy SC 42 in the North Atlantic she shared in the sinking of U-207 on 11 September 1941; while covering convoy WS-17 in the UK approaches, sank U-587 on 27 March 1942; transferred to the Soviet Union as Zhguchi on 17 July 1944; returned on 15 November 1950; hired for the film The Gift Horse, the last Town-class destroyer at sea under her own power. She was scrapped on 3 December 1951.USS Wickes became HMS Montgomery on 25 October 1940; on convoy escort Montgomery rescued the survivors of Scottish Standard on 21 February 1941 and sank the Italian submarine Marcello the next day. She was scrapped on 10 April 1945.USS Williams became HMCS St. Clair on 29 September 1940. She was scrapped on 5 March 1946.USS Yarnall became HMS Lincoln on 23 October 1940; transferred to the Soviet Union as Druzhny on 26 August 1944; returned to the Royal Navy on 24 August 1952. She was scrapped on 3 September 1952.USS Abel P. Upshur became HMS Clare on 9 September 1940. She was scrapped on 18 February 1947.USS Aulick became HMS Burnham on 8 October 1940. She was scrapped on 2 December 1948.USS Bailey became HMS Reading on 26 November 1940. She was scrapped on 24 July 1945.USS Bancroft became HMCS St. Francis on 24 September 1940. She was wrecked while being towed for scrapping on 14 July 1945.USS Branch became HMS Beverley on 8 October 1940; she attacked and sank U-187 on 4 February 1942. Beverley was torpedoed by U-188 on 11 April 1943 and was sunk with the loss of all but four of the ship's company of 152.USS Edwards became HMS Buxton on 8 October 1940. She was scrapped on 21 March 1946.USS Herndon became HMS Churchill on 9 September 1940; transferred to the Soviet Union as Dyatelnyi on 30 May 1944; torpedoed and sunk by U-956 on 16 January 1945 while escorting a White Sea convoy; the last war loss of the class and the only one of the destroyers transferred to the Soviet Union to be lost.USS Hunt became HMS Broadway on 8 October 1940; while escorting convoy OB 318, Broadway took part in the attack on U-110 on 9 May 1941; abandoned by its crew, U-110 was boarded and taken in tow. Escorting convoy HX 237, Broadway located and sank U-89 in the North Atlantic on 14 May 1943; allocated for scrapping in March 1948.USS Laub became HMS Burwell on 8 October 1940; one of the ships involved in the recovery of U-570 after its surrender to an RAF aircraft; consigned for scrapping in March 1947.USS Mason became HMS Broadwater on 2 October 1940; escorting convoy SC 48 between St. John's, Newfoundland and Iceland, Broadwater was torpedoed by U-101 and sunk on 19 October 1941.USS McCalla became HMS Stanley on 23 October 1940; escorting convoy HG 76 from Gibraltar, Stanley and accompanying vessels sank U-131 on 17 December 1941 and U-434 on the following day; Stanley was sunk by U-574 on 19 December 1941 with the loss of all but 25 of her crew.USS McCook became HMCS St. Croix on 24 September 1940; escorting convoy ON 113 she attacked and sank U-90 on 27 July 1942; escorting convoy KMS-10, St Croix and HMCS Shediac sank U-87; while escorting the combined convoys ONS 18/ON 202, St Croix was twice torpedoed by U-305 and sunk on 20 September 1943; survivors were taken aboard the frigate HMS Itchen, which was sunk on 22 September with very heavy loss of life; only one of St Croix's crew of 147 survived.USS McLanahan became HMS Bradford on 8 October 1940; consigned for scrapping in August 1946.USS Meade became HMS Ramsey on 26 November 1940. She was scrapped July 1947.USS Rodgers became HMS Sherwood on 23 October 1940; stripped of usable parts, Sherwood was beached on 3 October 1943 as a target for RAF rocket-equipped Beaufighters.USS Satterlee became HMS Belmont on 8 October 1940; while escorting troop convoy NA-2 from St. John's, Newfoundland, Belmont was torpedoed by U-82 on 31 January 1942 and sank with the loss of her entire ship's company.USS Shubrick became HMS Ripley on 26 November 1940; consigned for scrapping on 10 March 1945.USS Swasey became HMS Rockingham on 26 November 1940; while returning to Aberdeen on 27 September 1944, poor navigation brought her into the defensive minefields off the east coast of the United Kingdom, and after striking a mine Rockingham was abandoned and sank with the loss of one life.USS Welborn C. Wood became HMS Chesterfield on 9 September 1940. She was scrapped on 3 December 1948.USS Welles became HMS Cameron on 9 September 1940; Cameron never reached operational service; hit and set on fire by an air raid in Portsmouth on 5 December 1940, she was considered by the U.S. Navy as the worst damaged but surviving destroyer available and was extensively studied for explosive effects and damage control; consigned for scrapping on 1 December 1944.Royal Canadian NavyAnnapolis (ex-USS MacKenzie)Buxton (ex-HMS Buxton)Columbia (ex-USS Haraden)Hamilton (ex-USS Kalk)Niagara (ex-USS Thatcher)St. Clair (ex-USS Williams)St. Croix (ex-USS McCook; lost on 20 September 1943)St. Francis (ex-USS Bancroft)(RCN: loaned from the Royal Navy)Chelsea (ex-HMS Chelsea)Georgetown (ex-HMS Georgetown)Leamington (ex-HMS Leamington)Lincoln (ex-HMS Lincoln)Mansfield (ex-HMS Mansfield)Montgomery (ex-HMS Montgomery)Richmond (ex-HMS Richmond)Salisbury (ex-HMS Salisbury)Royal NavyBath (ex-USS Hopewell; to Norway as Bath)Belmont (ex-USS Satterlee; lost on 31 January 1942)Beverley (ex-USS Branch; lost on 11 April 1943)Bradford (ex-USS McLanahan)Brighton (ex-USS Cowell; to the Soviet Union as Zarkij)Broadwater (ex-USS Mason; lost on 18 October 1941)Broadway (ex-USS Hunt)Burnham (ex-USS Aulick)Burwell (ex-USS Laub)Buxton (ex-USS Edwards; to Canada as Buxton)Caldwell (ex-USS Hale)Cameron (ex-USS Welles; lost on 5 December 1940)Campbeltown (ex-USS Buchanan; lost on 28 March 1942)Castleton (ex-USS Aaron Ward)Charlestown (ex-USS Abbot)Chelsea (ex-USS Crowninshield; to the Soviet Union as Derzki)Chesterfield (ex-USS Welborn C. Wood)Churchill (ex-USS Herndon; to the Soviet Union as Dejatelny)Clare (ex-USS Abel P. Upshur)Georgetown (ex-USS Maddox; to the Soviet Union as Zostki)Hamilton (ex-USS Kalk; to Canada as Hamilton)Lancaster (ex-USS Philip)Leamington (ex-USS Twiggs; to the Soviet Union as Zguchi) (starred in 1950 film The Gift Horse, which depicted the St. Nazaire Raid)Leeds (ex-USS Conner)Lewes (ex-USS Conway)Lincoln (ex-USS Yarnall; to the Soviet Union as Druzny)Ludlow (ex-USS Stockton)Mansfield (ex-USS Evans; to Canada as Mansfield; to Norway as Mansfield)Montgomery (ex-USS Wickes; to Canada as Montgomery)Newark (ex-USS Ringgold)Newmarket (ex-USS Robinson)Newport (ex-USS Sigourney)Ramsey (ex-USS Meade)Reading (ex-USS Bailey)Richmond (ex-USS Fairfax; to the Soviet Union as Zivuchi)Ripley (ex-USS Shubrick)Rockingham (ex-USS Swasey; lost on 27 September 1944)Roxborough (ex-USS Foote; to the Soviet Union as Doblestnyj)Salisbury (ex-USS Claxton; to Canada as Salisbury)Sherwood (ex-USS Rodgers)St. Albans (ex-USS Thomas; to Norway as St. Albans; to the Soviet Union as Dostojny)St. Mary's (ex-USS Doran)Stanley (ex-USS McCalla; lost on 19 December 1941)Wells (ex-USS Tillman)Royal Netherlands NavyCampbeltown (March to August 1941. Returned to RN service in Sept 1941 as HMS Campbeltown)Royal Norwegian NavyBath (ex-HMS Bath) (lost on 19 August 1941)Lincoln (ex-HMS Lincoln)Mansfield (ex-HMS Mansfield)Newport (ex-HMS Newport)St. Albans (ex-HMS St. Albans)Soviet NavyDejatelnyj (ex-HMS Churchill; lost on 16 January 1945)Derzkij (ex-HMS Chelsea)Doblestnyj (ex-HMS Roxborough)Dostojnyj (ex-HMS St. Albans)Druznyj (ex-HMS Lincoln)Zarkij (ex-HMS Brighton)Zguchij (ex-HMS Leamington)Zivuchij (ex-HMS Richmond)Zostkij (ex-HMS Georgetown)Town-class destroyer - Wikipedia