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110-505: Fort Manoel ( Maltese : Forti Manoel or Fortizza Manoel ) is a star fort on Manoel Island in Gżira , Malta . It was built in the 18th century by the Order of Saint John , during the reign of Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena , after whom it is named. Fort Manoel is located to the north west of Valletta , and commands Marsamxett Harbour and the anchorage of Sliema Creek . The fort

220-400: A ravelin , surrounded by a ditch , covertway and faussebraye . Other proposals were made in 1715, this time by the knight René Jacob de Tigné and a team of French engineers. There were several different plans, including building a coastal battery and a redoubt . Other plans included building a four-bastioned fort, or combining all three (fort, battery and redoubt) for the defence of

330-631: A Japanese invasion of Australia . There are other military fortifications in coastal Sydney that feature a tunnel warfare system, such as the Georges Head Battery (which was constructed in 1801 and was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register in 1999), Lower Georges Heights Commanding Position (which was built in 1877 and became part of the Sydney Harbour defences , where

440-779: A Japanese submarine in June 1942. This is the only place on the mainland of Australia known to have returned fire. The batteries at Shepherds Hill formed an integrated system with the batteries at Fort Scratchley, Fort Wallace at Stockton and at Tomaree on Port Stephens . During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines , the Ilagan Japanese Tunnel was part of a military base built by the Japanese government as headquarters for its soldiers during World War II. In

550-423: A breach is made, the ditch or moat makes exploiting the breach difficult. Defenders could also dig counter mines. From these they could then dig into the attackers' tunnels and sortie into them to either kill the miners or to set fire to the pit-props to collapse the attackers' tunnel. Alternatively they could under-mine the attackers' tunnels and create a camouflet to collapse the attackers' tunnels. Finally if

660-428: A considerable number of days the besieged did not discover them carrying the earth away through the shaft; but when the heap of earth thus brought out became too high to be concealed from those inside the city, the commanders of the besieged garrison set to work vigorously digging a trench inside, parallel to the wall and to the stoa which faced the towers. When the trench was made to the required depth, they next placed in

770-572: A crater that afterwards measured 130 metres (430 ft) from rim to rim. Now known as the Pool of Peace, it is large enough to house a 12 m (40 ft) deep lake. On May 10, 1933, Paraguayan troops used a tunnel to attack in the rear of the Bolivian troops. They were victorious. The term tunnel war or tunnel warfare (地道战) was first used for the guerrilla tactic employed by the Chinese in

880-547: A degree of cover and allowed better logistics support . In addition to building underground shelters and covered supply routes for their soldiers, both sides also attempted to break the stalemate of trench warfare by tunneling under no man's land and placing explosive charges beneath the enemy's positions. Their efforts in high mountain peaks such as Col di Lana , Lagazuoi and Marmolada were portrayed in fiction in Luis Trenker 's Mountains on Fire film of 1931. On

990-509: A distance of about fifty yards they could be used to detect tunneling. The Kremlin had such tunnels. Since the 16th century, during assault on enemy positions, saps began to be used. The Austrian general of Italian origin Raimondo Montecuccoli (1609–1680) in his classic work on military affairs described methods of destruction and countering of enemy saps. In his paper on "the assaulting of fortresses" Vauban (1633–1707)

1100-637: A fortification on the island was made by the Italian military engineer Antonio Maurizio Valperga in 1670. He proposed a roughly hexagonal fort with a hornwork , in the Dutch style of fortification. The proposal was criticized by the Order's engineers, and a third proposal was drawn up by the Flemish military engineer Carlos de Grunenbergh in 1687. Grunenburgh's proposal consisted of a fort with four bastions and

1210-416: A large number of borrowings from Romance sources ( Sicilian , Italian , and French ) and, more recently, Germanic ones (from English ). The historical source of modern Maltese vocabulary is 52% Italian/Sicilian, 32% Arabic/Siculo-Arabic, and 6% English, with some of the remainder being French. Today, most function words are Arabic, so despite only making up about a third of the vocabulary, they are

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1320-704: A mine threatening their fortifications. Since tunnels are commonplace in urban areas, tunnel warfare is often a feature, though usually a minor one, of urban warfare. A good example of this was seen in the Syrian Civil War in Aleppo , where in March 2015 rebels planted a large amount of explosives under the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate headquarters. Tunnels are narrow and restrict fields of fire; thus, troops in

1430-438: A row along the side of the trench nearest the wall a number of brazen vessels made very thin; and, as they walked along the bottom of the trench past these, they listened for the noise of the digging outside. Having marked the spot indicated by any of these brazen vessels, which were extraordinarily sensitive and vibrated to the sound outside, they began digging from within, at right angles to the trench, another tunnel leading under

1540-1169: A sample of 1,821 Quranic Arabic roots were found in Maltese, considerably lower than that found in Moroccan (58%) and Lebanese (72%) varieties of Arabic. An analysis of the etymology of the 41,000 words in Aquilina's Maltese–English Dictionary shows that 32% of the Maltese vocabulary is of Arabic origin, although another source claims 40%. Usually, words expressing basic concepts and ideas, such as raġel (man), mara (woman), tifel (boy), dar (house), xemx (sun), sajf (summer), are of Arabic origin. Moreover, belles-lettres in Maltese aim to maximise their use of vocabulary belonging to this group. Notes: * from Arabic استقصى ( istaqṣā ) "to investigate", ** from Arabic اشتاق ( ištāqa ) "to yearn for ". Countermine Since antiquity, sappers have used mining against walled cites, fortresses, castles or other strongly held and fortified military positions. Defenders have dug counter-mines to attack miners or destroy

1650-492: A semicircle in and around the fort. The fort suffered considerable damage to its ramparts, barracks and chapel as a result of aerial bombing during the war. The fort was eventually decommissioned in 1964. After being decommissioned, Fort Manoel was abandoned and fell into a state of disrepair. Parts of it were also vandalized. In 1970, the Royal Malta Yacht Club acquired part of the fort as its club house, and

1760-631: A total of 227 mine explosions in one month – one detonation every three hours. Large battles, like the Battle of the Somme in 1916 (see mines on the Somme ) and the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917, were also supported by mine explosions. Well known examples are the mines on the Italian Front laid by Austro-Hungarian and Italian miners, where the largest individual mine contained a charge of 50,000 kilograms (110,000 lb) of blasting gelatin , and

1870-594: A tunnel and place a mine. As well as digging their own tunnels, the military engineers had to listen out for enemy tunnellers. On occasions miners accidentally dug into the opposing side's tunnel and an underground fight took place. When an enemy's tunnel was found it was usually destroyed by placing an explosive charge inside. During the height of the underground war on the Western Front in June 1916, British tunnellers fired 101 mines or camouflets, while German tunnellers fired 126 mines or camouflets. This amounts to

1980-471: A tunnel usually have only a few areas exposed to fire or sight at any one time. They can be part of an extensive labyrinth and have cul-de-sacs and reduced lighting, typically creating a closed-in night combat environment. The Greek historian Polybius , in his Histories , gives a graphic account of mining and counter mining at the Roman siege of Ambracia : The Aetolians ... offered a gallant resistance to

2090-469: A ḡ fir lanā ḏ unūbanā , kamā na ḡ firu na ḥ nu ʔ ay ḍ an lil-muḏnibīn ʔ ilaynā. wa lā tud ḵ ilna fī tajāriba , lākin najjinā min a š-š irrīr. ʔā mīn hab lan lahmo d-sunqonan yowmono washbuq lan hawbayn wahtohayn aykano doph hnan shbaqan l-hayobayn lo ta`lan l-nesyuno elo paso lan men bisho Amin Although the original vocabulary of Maltese was Siculo-Arabic , it has incorporated

2200-599: Is an example of Baroque architecture , and was designed with both functionality and aesthetics in mind. After a brief French occupation which began in 1798, the British military took over the fort in 1800, and it remained in their use until 1964. The fort was severely damaged in World War II , but it was restored in the early 21st century and is now in good condition. Fort Manoel has been on Malta's tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1998, as part of

2310-587: Is descended from Siculo-Arabic, a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family . In the course of its history , Maltese has been influenced by Sicilian, Italian, to a lesser extent by French , and more recently by English. Today, the core vocabulary (including both the most commonly used vocabulary and function words ) is Semitic, with a large number of loanwords . Due to the Sicilian influence on Siculo-Arabic, Maltese has many language contact features and

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2420-849: Is distinctive word-medially and word-finally in Maltese. The distinction is most rigid intervocalically after a stressed vowel. Stressed, word-final closed syllables with short vowels end in a long consonant, and those with a long vowel in a single consonant; the only exception is where historic *ʕ and *ɣ meant the compensatory lengthening of the succeeding vowel. Some speakers have lost length distinction in clusters. The two nasals /m/ and /n/ assimilate for place of articulation in clusters. /t/ and /d/ are usually dental , whereas /t͡s d͡z s z n r l/ are all alveolar. /t͡s d͡z/ are found mostly in words of Italian origin, retaining length (if not word-initial). /d͡z/ and /ʒ/ are only found in loanwords, e.g. /ɡad͡zd͡zɛtta/ "newspaper" and /tɛlɛˈviʒin/ "television". The pharyngeal fricative /ħ/

2530-654: Is less distant from its Siculo-Arabic ancestor than is Standard Maltese. Voiceless stops are only lightly aspirated and voiced stops are fully voiced. Voicing is carried over from the last segment in obstruent clusters ; thus, two- and three-obstruent clusters are either voiceless or voiced throughout, e.g. /niktbu/ is realised [ˈniɡdbu] "we write" (similar assimilation phenomena occur in languages like French or Czech). Maltese has final-obstruent devoicing of voiced obstruents and word-final voiceless stops have no audible release , making voiceless–voiced pairs phonetically indistinguishable in word-final position. Gemination

2640-747: Is most commonly described as a language with a large number of loanwords. Maltese has historically been classified in various ways, with some claiming that it was derived from ancient Punic (another Semitic language) instead of Siculo-Arabic, and others claiming it is one of the Berber languages (another language family within Afroasiatic). Less plausibly, Fascist Italy classified it as regional Italian . Urban varieties of Maltese are closer to Standard Maltese than rural varieties, which have some characteristics that distinguish them from Standard Maltese. They tend to show some archaic features such as

2750-404: Is part of the supercontinent of Eurasia'), while not understanding a single word of a basic sentence such as Ir-raġel qiegħed fid-dar ('The man is in the house'), which would be easily understood by any Arabic speaker. At that time Malta was thoroughly Arabized. The conquerors brought to the island the vulgar (colloquial) variation of Arabic, not the classical one (Classical Arabic), Therefore

2860-627: Is protected by a lunette known as the Couvre Porte. St. John and Notre Dame Bastions are located along the landward side of the fort. Each bastion is protected by a low cavalier . The curtain wall between the two bastions is further protected by a pentagonal ravelin , which is largely rock hewn. A piazza is located inside the fort, and it contains the rebuilt Chapel of St Anthony of Padua , several barrack blocks, an armoury and other buildings. A bronze statue of Grand Master Vilhena , possibly designed by Pietro Paolo Troisi , once stood in

2970-510: Is said to them in Maltese. This reported level of asymmetric intelligibility is considerably lower than the mutual intelligibility found between other varieties of Arabic. Maltese has always been written in the Latin script , the earliest surviving example dating from the late Middle Ages . It is the only standardised Semitic language written exclusively in the Latin script. The origins of

3080-506: Is sapping the wall, where engineers would dig at the base of a wall with crowbars and picks. Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay recounts how at the battle of Carcassonne, during the Albigensian Crusade, "after the top of the wall had been somewhat weakened by bombardment from petraries, our engineers succeeded with great difficulty in bringing a four-wheeled wagon, covered in oxhides, close to the wall, from which they set to work to sap

3190-860: Is the Lord's Prayer in Maltese compared to other Semitic languages ( Arabic and Syriac ) with cognates highlighted: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen Ħobżna ta' kuljum agħtina llum . Aħfrilna dnubietna , bħal ma naħfru lil min hu ħati għalina . U la ddaħħalniex fit-tiġrib , iżda eħlisna mid-deni. Ammen ʔabāna , alla ḏ i fī as-samāwāt , li- yataqaddas ismuka , li- yaʔti malakūtuka, li-takun ma šī ʔatuka, kamā fī as-samāʔi ka ḏ ālika ʕa lā al-ar ḍ . ḵ ubzana kafāfanā ʔaʕṭi nā alyawm , wa

3300-558: Is the national language of Malta , and the only official Semitic and Afroasiatic language of the European Union . Maltese is considered a North African dialect of Colloquial Arabic that was brought to Malta by Arab and Berber ( Aghlabids ), who in 869/870 CE seized control of the island from the Byzantine Empire. It is also said that it descents from Siculo-Arabic, which developed as a Maghrebi Arabic dialect in

3410-425: Is velar ( [ x ] ), uvular ( [ χ ] ), or glottal ( [ h ] ) for some speakers. Maltese has five short vowels, /ɐ ɛ ɪ ɔ ʊ/ , written a e i o u; six long vowels, /ɐː ɛː ɪː iː ɔː ʊː/ , written a, e, ie, i, o, u, all of which (with the exception of ie /ɪː/ ) can be known to represent long vowels in writing only if they are followed by an orthographic għ or h (otherwise, one needs to know

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3520-635: The Battle of Corregidor , the third lateral on the north side from the Malinta Tunnel's east entrance served as the headquarters of General Douglas MacArthur and the USAFFE . Malinta Tunnel also served as the seat of government of the Commonwealth of the Philippines . At the vicinity of the tunnel's west entrance in the afternoon of 30 December 1941, Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmeña took their oaths of office as President and Vice-president of

3630-536: The Emirate of Sicily between 831 and 1091. As a result of the Norman invasion of Malta and the subsequent re-Christianization of the islands , Maltese evolved independently of Classical Arabic in a gradual process of latinisation. It is therefore exceptional as a variety of historical Arabic that has no diglossic relationship with Classical or Modern Standard Arabic . Maltese is thus classified separately from

3740-775: The Illowra Battery and Drummond Battery . To the north of Sydney, in Newcastle , the Shepherds Hill military installations , a NSW state heritage-listed site , was built from 1890 to 1940 and consists of a former military gun battery emplacement, a 100 metres (330 ft) long tunnel and an observation post. As part of the strengthening of Newcastle's defense system, various new projects were undertaken at Shepherds Hill during WWII, such as accommodation for troops stationed. Fort Scratchley , which had close ties to Shepherds Hill, responded to an attack on Newcastle by

3850-666: The Italo-Normans ended Arab rule of the islands, a written form of the language was not developed for a long time after the Arabs' expulsion in the middle of the thirteenth century. Under the rule of the Knights Hospitaller , both French and Italian were used for official documents and correspondence. During the British colonial period , the use of English was encouraged through education, with Italian being regarded as

3960-494: The Malta Environment and Planning Authority in 2012. The restoration of Fort Manoel together with that of the nearby Fort Tigné cost a total of €30 million. Fort Manoel is built in the shape of a square, with a pentagonal bastion on each corner, giving it the shape of a star fort. The four bastions are called St. Helen, St. Anthony, St. John and Notre Dame Bastions. St. Helen and St. Anthony Bastions are located on

4070-545: The Philippines campaign (1941–1942) , Philippines President Manuel L. Quezon , General MacArthur, other high-ranking military officers and diplomats and families escaped the bombardment of Manila and were housed in Corregidor 's Malinta Tunnel . Prior to their arrival, Malinta's laterals had served as high command headquarters, hospital and storage of food and arms. In March 1942, several U.S. Navy submarines arrived on

4180-594: The Second Sino-Japanese War . The tunnel systems were fast and easy to construct and enabled a small force to successfully fight superior enemies. One particular tunnel network called the "Ranzhuang tunnel" evolved in the course of resisting Japanese counterinsurgency operations in Hebei . Particularly, the Chinese Communist forces or local peasant resistance used tunnel war tactics against

4290-670: The Siege of Petersburg by the Union Army of the Potomac, a mine made of 3,600 kilograms (8,000 lb) of gunpowder was set off approximately 6 metres (20 ft) under Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside's IX Corps sector. The explosion blew a gap in the Confederate defenses of Petersburg, Virginia , creating a crater 52 metres (170 ft) long, 30 to 37 metres (100 to 120 ft) wide, and at least 9 metres (30 ft) deep. The combat

4400-430: The Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855) underground fighting became immense. At first the allies began digging saps without any precautions. After a series of explosions caused by counter mine action the allies increased the depth of the tunnels but began to meet rocky ground and the underground war had to return to higher levels. During the siege Russian sappers dug 6.8 kilometres (4.2 mi) of saps and counter mines. During

4510-572: The battles of the Western Pacific , they would maximize their capabilities by establishing a strong point defense, using cave warfare. The first encounter of the US Marines with this new tactic was the island of Peleliu . The invading marines suffered twice as many casualties as on Tarawa , where the old Japanese tactic of defending the beach had been employed. The pinnacle of this form of defense, however, can be found on Iwo Jima , where

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4620-527: The diaspora . Most speakers also use English. The largest diaspora community of Maltese speakers is in Australia , with 36,000 speakers reported in 2006 (down from 45,000 in 1996, and expected to decline further). The Maltese linguistic community in Tunisia originated in the 18th century. Numbering several thousand in the 19th century, it was reported to be only 100 to 200 people as of 2017. Maltese

4730-532: The tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers concentrated on constructing deep dugouts for troop accommodation. The largest single mines at Messines were at St Eloi , which was charged with 43,400 kilograms (95,600 lb) of ammonal , at Maedelstede Farm, which was charged with 43,000 kg (94,000 lb), and beneath German lines at Spanbroekmolen, which was charged with 41,000 kg (91,000 lb) of ammonal. The Spanbroekmolen mine created

4840-502: The 1980s, together with a grammar, the Regole per la Lingua Maltese , attributed to a French knight named Thezan. The first systematic lexicon is that of Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis , who also wrote the first systematic grammar of the language and proposed a standard orthography . Ethnologue reports a total of 530,000 Maltese speakers: 450,000 in Malta and 79,000 in

4950-409: The 30 varieties constituting the modern Arabic macrolanguage . Maltese is also distinguished from Arabic and other Semitic languages since its morphology has been deeply influenced by Romance languages , namely Italian and Sicilian . The original Arabic base comprises around one-third of the Maltese vocabulary, especially words that denote basic ideas and the function words , but about half of

5060-517: The Black Knight stopped appearing. In 1980, the crypt was vandalized for a second time, and the Black Knight reportedly began to appear again. Notes Maltese language Maltese (Maltese: Malti , also L-Ilsien Malti or Lingwa Maltija ) is a Semitic language derived from late medieval Sicilian Arabic with Romance superstrata . It is spoken by the Maltese people and

5170-457: The Japanese (and later the Kuomintang during Chinese Civil War ). The tunnels were dug beneath the earth to cover the battlefield with numerous hidden gun holes to make a surprise attack. Entrances usually were hidden beneath a straw mat inside a house, or down a well. This allowed for flexible manoeuvers or exits. The main disadvantage of tunnel war was that usually the Japanese could fill

5280-417: The Japanese engineered the whole Mount Suribachi with many tunnels leading to defensive emplacements, or exits for quick counterattacks. Tunnel warfare by the Japanese forced the US Marines to adopt the "blowtorch and corkscrew" tactics to systematically flush out the Japanese defenders, one cave at a time. In Australia, the demand for protection from air attack became more serious in the early 1940s when there

5390-585: The Knights' Fortifications around the Harbours of Malta. In the 16th century, the Marsamxett Harbour was one of the two major harbours in the Maltese city of Valletta . In the centre of the harbour was an island, originally known as l'Isolotto and now known as Manoel Island after the fort, which overlooked the city. Shortly after Valletta's construction, the Order of Saint John realised this

5500-604: The Levant. The Norman conquest in 1091 , followed by the expulsion of the Muslims , complete by 1249, permanently isolated the vernacular from its Arabic source, creating the conditions for its evolution into a distinct language. In contrast to Sicily, where Siculo-Arabic became extinct and was replaced by Sicilian , the vernacular in Malta continued to develop alongside Italian, eventually replacing it as official language in 1934, alongside English. The first written reference to

5610-508: The Maltese language are attributed to the arrival, early in the 11th century, of settlers from neighbouring Sicily, where Siculo-Arabic was spoken, reversing the Fatimid Caliphate 's conquest of the island at the end of the 9th century. This claim has been corroborated by genetic studies, which show that contemporary Maltese people share common ancestry with Sicilians and Calabrians , with little genetic input from North Africa and

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5720-508: The Maltese language differs from Classical Arabic in the same way as the Arabic dialects differ from Classical Arabic. the Maltese language also comprises a considerable number of Maghrebi features, in other ways it can be closer to other Arabic dialects, or closer to Classical Arabic than to the other dialects as in the word ra ('to see'). Arabic supplies between 32% and 40% of the language's vocabulary. Żammit (2000) found that 40% of

5830-485: The Maltese language is in a will of 1436, where it is called lingua maltensi . The oldest known document in Maltese, Il-Kantilena ( Xidew il-Qada ) by Pietru Caxaro , dates from the 15th century. The earliest known Maltese dictionary was a 16th-century manuscript entitled "Maltese-Italiano"; it was included in the Biblioteca Maltese of Mifsud in 1764, but is now lost. A list of Maltese words

5940-660: The Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail. L-Unjoni hija bbażata fuq il-valuri tar-rispett għad-dinjità tal-bniedem, il-libertà, id-demokrazija, l-ugwaljanza, l-istat tad-dritt u r-rispett għad-drittijiet tal-bniedem, inklużi d-drittijiet ta' persuni li jagħmlu parti minn minoranzi. Dawn il-valuri huma komuni għall-Istati Membri f'soċjetà fejn jipprevalu l-pluraliżmu, in-non-diskriminazzjoni, it-tolleranza, il-ġustizzja, is-solidarjetà u l-ugwaljanza bejn in-nisa u l-irġiel. Below

6050-705: The Philippine Commonwealth in simple ceremonies attended by members of the garrison. On the Korean Peninsula , the underground war reached a massive scale. From experience in the Second World War, the US relied upon aviation. North Korean forces suffered heavy losses from air strikes which obliged them to construct underground shelters. Initially underground fortifications were built independently by individual units and their placement

6160-722: The Romans were themselves on the defensive the large underground aqueduct system was used in the defense of Rome , as well as to evacuate fleeing leaders. The use of tunnels as a means of guerrilla-like warfare against the Roman Empire was also a common practice of the Jewish rebels in Judea during the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 AD). With time the Romans understood that efforts should be made to expose these tunnels. Once an entrance

6270-407: The Western Front, the main objective of tunnel warfare was to place large quantities of explosives beneath enemy defensive positions. When it was detonated, the explosion would destroy that section of the trench. The infantry would then advance towards the enemy front-line hoping to take advantage of the confusion that followed the explosion of an underground mine. It could take as long as a year to dig

6380-542: The activities of the Tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers on the Western Front. At the beginning of the Somme offensive , the British simultaneously detonated 19 mines of varying sizes beneath the German positions, including two mines that contained 18,000 kilograms (40,000 lb) of explosives. In January 1917, General Plumer gave orders for over 20 mines to be placed under German lines at Messines . Over

6490-486: The assault of the siege artillery and [the Romans], therefore, in despair had recourse to mines and tunnels. Having safely secured the central one of their three works, and carefully concealed the shaft with wattle screens, they erected in front of it a covered walk or stoa about two hundred feet long, parallel with the wall; and beginning digging from that, they carried it on unceasingly day and night, working in relays. For

6600-490: The battle, and four were outside the area of the offensive. On 17 July 1955, a lightning strike set off one of these four latter mines. There were no human casualties, but one cow was killed. Another of the unused mines is believed to have been found in a location beneath a farmhouse, but no attempt has been made to remove it. The last mine fired by the British in World War I was near Givenchy on 10 August 1917, after which

6710-451: The city, the defenders used large bellows to pump smoke into the tunnels in order to suffocate the intruders. In warfare during the Middle Ages , a "mine" was a tunnel dug to bring down castles and other fortifications. Attackers used this technique when the fortification was not built on solid rock, developing it as a response to stone-built castles that could not be burned like earlier-style wooden forts. A tunnel would be excavated under

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6820-424: The crater was formed, but the attackers were eventually forced to withdraw. The increased firepower that came with the use of smokeless powder , cordite and dynamite by the end of the 19th century made it very expensive to build above-ground fortifications that could withstand any attack. As a result, fortifications were covered with earth and eventually were built entirely underground to maximize protection. For

6930-426: The creator of the French School of Fortification gave a theory of mine attack and how to calculate various saps and the amount of gunpowder needed for explosions. As early as 1840 Eduard Totleben and Schilder-Schuldner had been engaged on questions of organisation and conduct of underground attacks. They began to use electric current to disrupt charges. Special boring instruments of complex design were developed. In

7040-436: The fort on a number of occasions, and the French retaliated with their own bombardment at least once. On 12 September 1799, a company of French troops from Fort Manoel attempted to silence an insurgent gun position in San Ġwann , but were repelled by the Maltese insurgents. When Malta became a British protectorate in 1800, Fort Manoel was officially taken over by the British military that September. The piazza of Fort Manoel

7150-463: The higher inner walls. A major change took place in the art of tunnel warfare in the 15th century in Italy with the development of gunpowder , since its use reduced the effort required to undermine a wall while also increasing lethality. Ivan the Terrible took Kazan with the use of gunpowder explosions to undermine its walls. Many fortresses built counter mine galleries, "hearing tunnels" which were used to listen for enemy mines being built. At

7260-470: The holes or pour water in to suffocate the soldiers inside the tunnels. This proved to be a major problem but was later solved by installing filters that would consume the water and poisonous gases. It is said that there were even women and children who voluntarily fought in the tunnels. The movie Tunnel War , which is based on the stories about fighting Japanese in tunnels, made tunnel warfare well known in China. More films were soon produced and adapted in

7370-409: The increasing influence of Romance and English words. In 1992 the academy issued the Aġġornament tat-Tagħrif fuq il-Kitba Maltija , which updated the previous works. The National Council for the Maltese Language (KNM) is the main regulator of the Maltese language (see Maltese Language Act, below). However, the academy's orthography rules are still valid and official. Since Maltese evolved after

7480-576: The insurgent tribes soon started to change defensive practices, from only local strongholds to using the advantage of wider terrain. Hidden trenches to assemble for surprise attacks were dug, connected via tunnels for secure fallback. In action, often barriers were used to prevent the enemy from pursuing. Roman legions entering the country soon learned to fear this warfare, as the ambushing of marching columns caused high casualties. Therefore, they approached possibly fortified areas very carefully, giving time to evaluate, assemble troops and organize them. When

7590-418: The island. Eventually, the final design was agreed in 1723, and it incorporated the work of de Tigné as well as Charles François de Mondion , the Order's military engineer. The new fort was to be square in shape, with four bastions and two cavaliers. The fort was financed by, and named after, the Portuguese Grand Master , António Manoel de Vilhena . He also set up the Manoel Foundation, a fund responsible for

7700-428: The maintenance and garrison of Fort Manoel and its outworks. The first stone was laid by de Vilhena on 14 September 1723, and work progressed rapidly. By 1727, the enceinte, cavaliers and gateway were complete. The ditch had been excavated by 1732, while the chapel , barracks, magazines and countermines were completed in around 1733. The fort was an active military establishment by 1734. When Mondion died in 1733, he

7810-466: The most used when speaking the language. In this way, Maltese is similar to English , a Germanic language that has been strongly influenced by Norman French and Latin (58% of English vocabulary). As a result of this, Romance language-speakers (and to a lesser extent English speakers) can often easily understand more technical ideas expressed in Maltese, such as Ġeografikament, l-Ewropa hi parti tas-superkontinent ta' l-Ewrasja ('Geographically, Europe

7920-555: The next five months more than 8,000 m (26,000 ft) of tunnel were dug and 450–600 tons of explosive were placed in position. Simultaneous explosion of the mines took place at 3:10 a.m. on 7 June 1917. The blast killed an estimated 10,000 soldiers and was so loud it was heard in London. The near simultaneous explosions created 19 large craters and ranks among the largest non-nuclear explosions of all time. Two mines were not ignited in 1917 because they had been abandoned before

8030-405: The next-most important language. In the late 18th century and throughout the 19th century, philologists and academics such as Mikiel Anton Vassalli made a concerted effort to standardise written Maltese. Many examples of written Maltese exist from before this period, always in the Latin alphabet, Il-Kantilena from the 15th century being the earliest example of written Maltese. In 1934, Maltese

8140-486: The north side of Corregidor. The Navy brought in mail, orders, and weaponry. During the re-taking of the island by U.S. forces in 1945, Japanese soldiers who had been trapped in the tunnel after the entrance was blocked as a result of gunfire from USS  Converse  (DD-509) began committing suicide by detonating explosives within the tunnel complex the night of 23 February 1945. The collapsed laterals resulting from these explosions have never been excavated. During

8250-477: The outer defenses either to provide access into the fortification or to collapse the walls. These tunnels would normally be supported by temporary wooden props as the digging progressed. Once the excavation was complete, the attackers would collapse the wall or tower being undermined by filling the excavation with combustible material that, when lit, would burn away the props leaving the structure above unsupported and thus liable to collapse. A tactic related to mining

8360-486: The pronunciation; e.g. nar (fire) is pronounced /nɐːr/ ); and seven diphthongs , /ɐɪ ɐʊ ɛɪ ɛʊ ɪʊ ɔɪ ɔʊ/ , written aj or għi, aw or għu, ej or għi, ew, iw, oj, and ow or għu. The original Arabic consonant system has undergone partial collapse under European influence, with many Classical Arabic consonants having undergone mergers and modifications in Maltese: The modern system of Maltese orthography

8470-473: The purpose of firing artillery and machine guns , emplacements had loopholes . Mining saw a particular resurgence as a military tactic during the First World War , when army engineers attempted to break the stalemate of trench warfare by tunneling under no man's land and laying large quantities of explosives beneath the enemy's trenches. As in siege warfare, tunnel warfare was possible due to

8580-570: The realisation of ⟨kh⟩ and ⟨gh⟩ and the imāla of Arabic ā into ē (or ī especially in Gozo), considered archaic because they are reminiscent of 15th-century transcriptions of this sound. Another archaic feature is the realisation of Standard Maltese ā as ō in rural dialects. There is also a tendency to diphthongise simple vowels, e.g., ū becomes eo or eu. Rural dialects also tend to employ more Semitic roots and broken plurals than Standard Maltese. In general, rural Maltese

8690-463: The same period the allies dug 1.3 kilometres (0.81 mi). The Russians expended 12 tons of gunpowder in the underground war while the allies used 64 tons. These figures show that the Russians tried to create a more extensive network of tunnels and carried out better targeted attacks with only minimal use of gunpowder. The allies used outdated fuses so that many charges failed to go off. Conditions in

8800-536: The same setting. After the war, the Ranzhuang tunnel site became a key heritage preservation unit promoting patriotism and national defense education. Being a famous war tourism site in China, it attracted tens of thousands of visitors each year. Most of the villagers were working in tourism service industry, an industry worth US$ 700,000 each year. The first to copy tunnel warfare were the Japanese themselves. In

8910-405: The seaward side, facing Valletta. They originally had echaugettes and gunpowder magazines , but the echaugettes on both bastions were dismantled in the 19th century, and the magazine on St. Anthony Bastion was demolished to make way for three QF 12-pounder gun emplacements. The magazine on St. Helen Bastion is still intact. The curtain wall linking these two bastions contains the main gate, which

9020-401: The siting of a castle could make mining difficult. The walls of a castle could be constructed either on solid rock or on sandy or water-logged land, making it difficult to dig mines. A very deep ditch or moat could be constructed in front of the walls, as was done at Pembroke Castle, or even artificial lakes, as was done at Kenilworth Castle. This makes it more difficult to dig a mine, and even if

9130-562: The square but it was removed in the 19th century and relocated to Valletta. It was later relocated again and is now in Floriana . The fort is supposedly haunted by the Black Knight, who wears the armour and regalia of the Order of St. John, and resembles Grand Master de Vilhena. In the 1940s, the knight began to appear out of thin air near the ruins of the Chapel of St Anthony of Padua, which had just been bombed in World War II . The apparition

9240-582: The static nature of the fighting. On the Western and Italian Front during the First World War , the military employed specialist miners to dig tunnels. On the Italian Front, the high peaks of the Dolomites range were an area of fierce mountain warfare and mining operations . In order to protect their soldiers from enemy fire and the hostile alpine environment, both Austro-Hungarian and Italian military engineers constructed fighting tunnels which offered

9350-479: The structure of the Maltese language are recorded in the official guidebook Tagħrif fuq il-Kitba Maltija (English: Knowledge on Writing in Maltese ) issued by the Akkademja tal-Malti (Academy of the Maltese language). The first edition of this book was printed in 1924 by the Maltese government's printing press. The rules were further expanded in the 1984 book, iż-Żieda mat-Tagħrif , which focused mainly on

9460-404: The tunnels were severe: wax candles often went out, sappers fainted due to stale air, ground water flooded tunnels and counter mines. The Russians repulsed the siege and started to dig tunnels under the allies fortifications. The Russian success in the underground war was recognised by the allies. The Times noted that the laurels for this kind of warfare must go to the Russians. In 1864, during

9570-566: The tunnels. Eventually, when Philip V announced that large parts of the town-walls were undermined, the citizens surrendered without delay." Polybius also describes the Seleucids and Parthians employing tunnels and counter-tunnels during the siege of Sirynx. The oldest known sources about employing tunnels and trenches for guerrilla-like warfare are Roman . After the Revolt of the Batavi ,

9680-508: The underground rooms and tunnels were used to store ammunition), Henry Head Battery (which was constructed in 1892 and was re-employed during World War II to defend the approaches to Botany Bay ), the Middle Head Fortifications (a heritage-listed fort built in 1801), Malabar Battery (a coastal defense battery built in 1943) and the smaller Steel Point Battery . In Wollongong , just south of Sydney, there exists

9790-540: The using Romance loanwords (from the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe Archived 2015-12-29 at the Wayback Machine , see p. 17 Archived 2020-08-04 at the Wayback Machine ): The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to

9900-535: The vocabulary is derived from standard Italian and Sicilian; and English words make up between 6% and 20% of the vocabulary. A 2016 study shows that, in terms of basic everyday language, speakers of Maltese are able to understand around a third of what is said to them in Tunisian Arabic and Libyan Arabic , which are Maghrebi Arabic dialects related to Siculo-Arabic, whereas speakers of Tunisian Arabic and Libyan Arabic are able to understand about 40% of what

10010-444: The wall". As in the siege of Carcassonne, defenders worked to prevent sapping by dumping anything they had down on attackers who tried to dig under the wall. Successful sapping usually ended the battle, since the defenders would no longer be able to defend their position and would surrender, or the attackers could enter the fortification and engage the defenders in close combat. Several methods resisted or countered undermining. Often

10120-497: The wall, so calculated as to exactly hit the enemy's tunnel. This was soon accomplished, for the Romans had not only brought their mine up to the wall, but had under-pinned a considerable length of it on either side of their mine; and thus the two parties found themselves face to face. The Aetolians then countered the Roman mine with smoke from burning feathers with charcoal. - In essence an early form of chemical warfare . Another extraordinary use of siege-mining in ancient Greece

10230-423: The walls were breached, they could either place obstacles in the breach, for example a cheval de frise to hinder a forlorn hope , or construct a coupure . The great concentric ringed fortresses, like Beaumaris Castle on Anglesey , were designed so that the inner walls were ready-built coupures: if an attacker succeeded in breaching the outer walls, he would enter a killing field between the lower outer walls and

10340-457: The yacht club remained there until it acquired new premises in Ta' Xbiex in 2008. In August 2001, the development company MIDI plc began restoration work on the fort. Phase One of the project, which included the restoration of the piazza and the reconstruction of the ruined chapel, was completed in 2009. The second phase, including the restoration of the outer fortifications and glacis, was approved by

10450-544: Was a potential vulnerability in the city's defences. As early as 1569, it was proposed that a small fort with a cavalier be built on the Isolotto to prevent the enemy from taking the island and building batteries on it. This proposal was presented by Francesco Collignon . The threat was again highlighted by the Spanish military engineer Scipione Campi in 1577, and by Giovanni Battista in 1582. The next proposal to build

10560-553: Was accordingly known as the Battle of the Crater . From this propitious beginning, everything deteriorated rapidly for the Union attackers. Unit after unit charged into and around the crater, where soldiers milled in confusion. The Confederates quickly recovered and launched several counterattacks led by Brig. Gen. William Mahone . The breach was sealed off, and Union forces were repulsed with severe casualties. The horror of this engagement

10670-682: Was also partially funded by the Manoel Foundation. By 1761, Fort Manoel was considered to be as one of the best completed fortifications, and Comte de Bourlamaque has commented that the fort is a "modèle de fortification fait avec soin." The fort first saw use during the French invasion of Malta in June 1798, in the French Revolutionary Wars . At the time, it was commanded by the Portuguese knight Gourgeau, and it

10780-413: Was buried in the crypt under the fort's chapel. In 1757, Lembi Battery was added near Tigné Point , Sliema . The battery was funded by the Manoel Foundation and it was considered to be an outwork of Fort Manoel, since it was intended to prevent an enemy from bombarding the fort's northern flank. It was decommissioned following the construction of Fort Tigné in 1795. The construction of the latter fort

10890-565: Was chaotic. Subsequently, underground fortifications were united into a single large system. The length of the front was 250 kilometres (160 mi) while the length of tunnels was 500 kilometres (310 mi); for every kilometre of front, there were two kilometres of tunnels. A total of 2,000,000 cubic metres (71,000,000 cu ft) of rocks were extracted. North Korea developed a theory of underground warfare. Manpower, warehouses and small calibre guns were completely housed underground making them less vulnerable to air strikes and artillery. On

11000-492: Was demolished to make way for a battery of three QF 12-pounder guns . The British military finally decommissioned the fort's guns in 1906, although it remained a military establishment. It was included on the Antiquities List of 1925. The fort saw use again during World War II , when a battery of 3.7-inch heavy anti-aircraft guns was deployed there. The guns were mounted in concrete gun emplacements and deployed in

11110-596: Was discovered fire was lit, either smoking out the rebels or suffocating them to death. Well-preserved evidence of mining and counter-mining operations has been unearthed at the fortress of Dura-Europos , which fell to the Sassanians in 256/7 AD during Roman–Persian wars . Mining was a siege method used in ancient China from at least the Warring States (481–221 BC) period forward. When enemies attempted to dig tunnels under walls for mining or entry into

11220-478: Was during Philip V of Macedon 's siege of the little town of Prinassos , according to Polybius , "the ground around the town were extremely rocky and hard, making any siege-mining virtually impossible. However, Philip ordered his soldiers during the cover of night collect earth from elsewhere and throw it all down at the fake tunnel's entrance, making it look like the Macedonians were almost finished completing

11330-666: Was garrisoned by the Cacciatori , who were a volunteer chasseur light infantry regiment, as well as a few men from the Birchircara militia. The fort surrendered after Grand Master Hompesch officially capitulated to Napoleon . A French garrison of a few hundred men took over the fort on 12 June. During the subsequent Maltese uprising and insurrection against the French, Maltese insurgents built Għargħar and Sqaq Cappara batteries to bombard Fort Manoel. The Maltese attacked

11440-606: Was included in both the Thesaurus Polyglottus (1603) and Propugnaculum Europae (1606) of Hieronymus Megiser , who had visited Malta in 1588–1589; Domenico Magri gave the etymologies of some Maltese words in his Hierolexicon, sive sacrum dictionarium (1677). An early manuscript dictionary, Dizionario Italiano e Maltese , was discovered in the Biblioteca Vallicelliana in Rome in

11550-404: Was introduced in 1924. Below is the Maltese alphabet, with IPA symbols and approximate English pronunciation: Final vowels with grave accents (à, è, ì, ò, ù) are also found in some Maltese words of Italian origin, such as libertà ' freedom ' , sigurtà (old Italian: sicurtà ' security ' ), or soċjetà (Italian: società ' society ' ). The official rules governing

11660-476: Was portrayed in the Charles Frazier novel, and subsequent Anthony Minghella movie, Cold Mountain . During the Siege of Vicksburg , in 1863, Union troops led by General Ulysses S. Grant tunnelled under the Confederate trenches and detonated a mine beneath the 3rd Louisiana Redan on June 25, 1863. The subsequent assault, led by General John A. Logan, gained a foothold in the Confederate trenches where

11770-500: Was recognised as an official language. Maltese has both Semitic vocabulary and words derived from Romance languages , primarily Italian . Words such as tweġiba (Arabic origin) and risposta (Italian origin) have the same meaning ('answer') but are both used in Maltese (rather like 'answer' and 'response' in English. Below are two versions of the same translations, one with vocabulary mostly derived from Semitic root words and

11880-412: Was reportedly seen by Maltese and English men within the fort. When the rubble from the ruined chapel began to be cleared, the workmen reported that the knight was supervising their work. When the crypt beneath the chapel was opened, it was found that it had been vandalized, and the remains of knights which had been buried there were scattered around. After the crypt was restored and the bones were reburied,

11990-556: Was significant axis naval activity in Australian waters and when three Japanese midget submarines entered and attacked the Sydney Harbour in 1942. In Sydney in 1941, the Royal Australian Navy excavated a series of tunnels to shelter over 2,500 men working at the naval base from air raids , and as well as to transport guns and ammunition within the tunnels after the Australian government and people expected

12100-464: Was the subject of the earliest known photographs of Malta, which were taken in 1840 by Horace Vernet while he was quarantined at the Lazzaretto, but are now believed to be lost . In the late 19th century, the echaugettes on the bastions facing Valletta were dismantled to make way for gun emplacements. Later on, significant alterations were made to St. Anthony Bastion, when its gunpowder magazine

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