document_title: Bangladesh Liberation War

question_text: who led the indian army during the bangladesh liberation war of 1971

question_tokens: who led the indian army during the bangladesh liberation war of 1971

text: Bangladesh Liberation War

text: Background[edit]

text: Prior to the Partition of British India, the Lahore Resolution initially envisaged separate Muslim-majority states in the eastern and northwestern zones of British India. A proposal for an independent United Bengal was mooted by Prime Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy in 1946, but was opposed by the colonial authorities. The East Pakistan Renaissance Society advocated the creation of a sovereign state in eastern British India. Eventually, political negotiations led, in August 1947, to the official birth of two states, Pakistan and India,[20] giving presumably permanent homes for Muslims and Hindus respectively following the departure of the British. The Dominion of Pakistan comprised two geographically and culturally separate areas to the east and the west with India in between.[21] The western zone was popularly (and for a period, also officially) termed West Pakistan and the eastern zone (modern-day Bangladesh) was initially termed East Bengal and later, East Pakistan. Although the population of the two zones was close to equal, political power was concentrated in West Pakistan and it was widely perceived that East Pakistan was being exploited economically, leading to many grievances. Administration of two discontinuous territories was also seen as a challenge.[22] On 25 March 1971, after an election won by an East Pakistani political party (the Awami League) was ignored by the ruling (West Pakistani) establishment, rising political discontent and cultural nationalism in East Pakistan was met by brutal[23] suppressive force from the ruling elite of the West Pakistan establishment,[24] in what came to be termed Operation Searchlight.[25] The violent crackdown by Pakistan Army[26] led to Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declaring East Pakistan's independence as the state of Bangladesh on 26 March 1971.[27] Most Bengalis threw their support behind this move although Islamists and Biharis opposed this and sided with the Pakistan Army instead.[28] Pakistani President Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan ordered the Pakistani military to restore the Pakistani government's authority, beginning the civil war.[27] The war led to a sea of refugees (estimated at the time to be about 10 million)[29][30] flooding into the eastern provinces of India.[31] Facing a mounting humanitarian and economic crisis, India started actively aiding and organising the Bangladeshi resistance army known as the Mukti Bahini.

text: Language controversy[edit]

text: In 1948, Governor-General Muhammad Ali Jinnah declared that "Urdu, and only Urdu" would be the federal language of Pakistan.[32][33] However, Urdu was historically prevalent only in the north, central, and western region of the subcontinent; whereas in East Bengal, the native language was Bengali, one of the two most easterly branches of the Indo-European languages.[34] The Bengali-speaking people of Pakistan constituted over 30% of the country's population. The government stand was widely viewed as an attempt to suppress the culture of the eastern wing. The people of East Bengal demanded that their language be given federal status alongside Urdu and English. The Language Movement began in 1948, as civil society protested the removal of the Bengali script from currency and stamps, which were in place since the British Raj. The movement reached its climax in 1952, when on 21 February, the police fired on protesting students and civilians, causing several deaths. The day is revered in Bangladesh as the Language Movement Day. Later, in memory of the deaths in 1952, UNESCO declared 21 February as International Mother Language Day in November 1999.[35]

text: Disparities[edit]

text: Although East Pakistan had a larger population, West Pakistan dominated the divided country politically and received more money from the common budget.

text:
Year
Spending on West Pakistan (in millions of Pakistani rupees)
Spending on East Pakistan (in millions of Pakistani rupees)
Amount spent on East as percentage of West

1950–55
11,290
5,240
46.4

1955–60
16,550
5,240
31.7

1960–65
33,550
14,040
41.8

1965–70
51,950
21,410
41.2

Total
113,340
45,930
40.5

Source: Reports of the Advisory Panels for the Fourth Five Year Plan 1970–75, Vol. I,
published by the planning commission of Pakistan.

text: Bengalis were under-represented in the Pakistan military. Officers of Bengali origin in the different wings of the armed forces made up just 5% of overall force by 1965; of these, only a few were in command positions, with the majority in technical or administrative posts.[36] West Pakistanis believed that Bengalis were not "martially inclined" unlike Pashtuns and Punjabis; the "Martial races" notion was dismissed as ridiculous and humiliating by Bengalis.[36] Moreover, despite huge defence spending, East Pakistan received none of the benefits, such as contracts, purchasing and military support jobs. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 over Kashmir also highlighted the sense of military insecurity among Bengalis, as only an under-strength infantry division and 15 combat aircraft without tank support were in East Pakistan to thwart any Indian retaliations during the conflict.[37][38]

text: Religious and cultural differences[edit]

text: The only common bond between the two Pakistani wings was religion. But there were differences even in religious practices. Bengali Muslims tended to be less conservative in religious zeal, and had come to accept their Hindu minority and neighbours despite some communal clashes.[39] Many Bengali Muslims strongly objected to the Islamist paradigm imposed by the Pakistani state.[40] Most members of West Pakistan's ruling elite also belonged to a liberal society, yet understood a common faith as the mobilising factor behind Pakistan's creation and the subsuming of Pakistan's multiple identities into one.[40]

text: Cultural and linguistic differences between the two wings outweighed any religious unity. The Bengalis were very proud of their culture and language which with its Devnagari script and Sanskrit vocabulary was unacceptable to the West Pakistani elite who considered it to smack of Hindu culture.[41]

text: The Bangladeshi liberation struggle against Pakistan was led by secular leaders.[42] With this reality and the feeling of Islamic solidarity in the background, Islamists in East Pakistan viewed Bengali nationalism as unacceptable and instead sided with the Pakistani Army's efforts to crush the Bengali independence movement.[43] Secularists hailed the Bangladeshi victory as the triumph of secular Bengali nationalism over religion-centred Pakistani nationalism.[44]

text: Most of the politically-active ulama of East Pakistan either remained neutral or sided with the Pakistani state, since they perceived the break-up of Pakistan as a loss for Islam.[45]

text: Political differences[edit]

text: Although East Pakistan accounted for a slight majority of the country's population,[46] political power remained in the hands of West Pakistanis. Since a straightforward system of representation based on population would have concentrated political power in East Pakistan, the West Pakistani establishment came up with the "One Unit" scheme, where all of West Pakistan was considered one province. This was solely to counterbalance the East wing's votes.

text: After the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan, Pakistan's first prime minister, in 1951, political power began to devolve to the new President of Pakistan, which replaced the office of Governor General when Pakistan became a republic, and, eventually, the military. The nominal elected chief executive, the Prime Minister, was frequently sacked by the establishment, acting through the President.

text: The East Pakistanis observed that the West Pakistani establishment would swiftly depose any East Pakistanis elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, such as Khawaja Nazimuddin, Mohammad Ali Bogra, or Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. Their suspicions were further aggravated by the military dictatorships of Ayub Khan (27 October 1958 – 25 March 1969) and Yahya Khan (25 March 1969 – 20 December 1971), both West Pakistanis. The situation reached a climax in 1970, when the Bangladesh Awami League, the largest East Pakistani political party, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won a landslide victory in the national elections. The party won 167 of the 169 seats allotted to East Pakistan, and thus a majority of the 313 seats in the National Assembly. This gave the Awami League the constitutional right to form a government. However, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (a former Foreign Minister), the leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party, refused to allow Rahman to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan.[47] Instead, he proposed the idea of having two Prime Ministers, one for each wing. The proposal elicited outrage in the east wing, already chafing under the other constitutional innovation, the "One Unit scheme". Bhutto also refused to accept Rahman's Six Points. On 3 March 1971, the two leaders of the two wings along with the President General Yahya Khan met in Dacca to decide the fate of the country. After their discussions yielded no satisfactory results, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman called for a nationwide strike. Bhutto feared a civil war, therefore, he sent his trusted companion, Mubashir Hassan.[47] A message was conveyed, and Rahman decided to meet Bhutto.[47] Upon his arrival, Rahman met with Bhutto and both agreed to form a coalition government with Rahman as Premier and Bhutto as President.[47] However, the military was unaware of these developments, and Bhutto increased his pressure on Rahman to reach a decision.[47]

text: On 7 March 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (soon to be the prime minister) delivered a speech at the Racecourse Ground (now called the Suhrawardy Udyan). In this speech he mentioned a further four-point condition to consider at the National Assembly Meeting on 25 March:

text:
The immediate lifting of martial law.
Immediate withdrawal of all military personnel to their barracks.
An inquiry into the loss of life.
Immediate transfer of power to the elected representative of the people before the assembly meeting 25 March.

text: He urged his people to turn every house into a fort of resistance. He closed his speech saying, "Our struggle is for our freedom. Our struggle is for our independence." This speech is considered the main event that inspired the nation to fight for its independence. General Tikka Khan was flown into Dacca to become Governor of East Bengal. East-Pakistani judges, including Justice Siddique, refused to swear him in.

text: Between 10 and 13 March, Pakistan International Airlines cancelled all their international routes to urgently fly "government passengers" to Dacca. These "government passengers" were almost all Pakistani soldiers in civilian dress. MV Swat, a ship of the Pakistan Navy carrying ammunition and soldiers, was harboured in Chittagong Port, but the Bengali workers and sailors at the port refused to unload the ship. A unit of East Pakistan Rifles refused to obey commands to fire on the Bengali demonstrators, beginning a mutiny among the Bengali soldiers.

text: Response to the 1970 cyclone[edit]

text: The 1970 Bhola cyclone made landfall on the East Pakistan coastline during the evening of 12 November, around the same time as a local high tide,[48] killing an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people. Though the exact death toll is not known, it is considered the deadliest tropical cyclone on record.[49] A week after the landfall, President Khan conceded that his government had made "slips" and "mistakes" in its handling of the relief efforts due to a lack of understanding of the magnitude of the disaster.[50]

text: A statement released by eleven political leaders in East Pakistan ten days after the cyclone hit charged the government with "gross neglect, callous and utter indifference". They also accused the president of playing down the magnitude of the problem in news coverage.[51] On 19 November, students held a march in Dacca protesting the slowness of the government's response.[52] Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani addressed a rally of 50,000 people on 24 November, where he accused the president of inefficiency and demanded his resignation.

text: As the conflict between East and West Pakistan developed in March, the Dacca offices of the two government organisations directly involved in relief efforts were closed for at least two weeks, first by a general strike and then by a ban on government work in East Pakistan by the Awami League. With this increase in tension, foreign personnel were evacuated over fears of violence. Relief work continued in the field, but long-term planning was curtailed.[53] This conflict widened into the Bangladesh Liberation War in December and concluded with the creation of Bangladesh. This was one of the first times that a natural event helped trigger a civil war.[54]

text: Operation Searchlight[edit]

text: A planned military pacification carried out by the Pakistan Army – codenamed Operation Searchlight – started on 25 March to curb the Bengali independence movement[25] by taking control of the major cities on 26 March, and then eliminating all opposition, political or military,[55] within one month. The Pakistani state claimed to justify starting Operation Searchlight on the basis of anti-Bihari violence by Bengalis in early March.[56]

text: Before the beginning of the operation, all foreign journalists were systematically deported from East Pakistan.[57]

text: The main phase of Operation Searchlight ended with the fall of the last major town in Bengali hands in mid-May. The operation also began the 1971 Bangladesh genocide. These systematic killings served only to enrage the Bengalis, which ultimately resulted in the secession of East Pakistan later in the same year. Bangladeshi media and reference books in English have published casualty figures which vary greatly, from 5,000–35,000 in Dacca, and 200,000–3,000,000 for Bangladesh as a whole[58], although independent researchers, including the British Medical Journal, have put forward the figure ranging from between 125,000 and 505,000.[59] American political scientist Rudolph Rummel puts total deaths at 1.5 million.[60] The atrocities have been referred to as acts of genocide.[61]

text: According to the Asia Times,[62]

text: At a meeting of the military top brass, Yahya Khan declared: "Kill 3 million of them and the rest will eat out of our hands." Accordingly, on the night of 25 March, the Pakistani Army launched Operation Searchlight to "crush" Bengali resistance in which Bengali members of military services were disarmed and killed, students and the intelligentsia systematically liquidated and able-bodied Bengali males just picked up and gunned down.

text: Although the violence focused on the provincial capital, Dacca, it also affected all parts of East Pakistan. Residential halls of the University of Dacca were particularly targeted. The only Hindu residential hall – Jagannath Hall – was destroyed by the Pakistani armed forces, and an estimated 600 to 700 of its residents were murdered. The Pakistani army denied any cold blooded killings at the university, though the Hamoodur Rahman Commission in Pakistan concluded that overwhelming force was used at the university. This fact, and the massacre at Jagannath Hall and nearby student dormitories of Dacca University, are corroborated by a videotape secretly filmed by Professor Nurul Ula of the East Pakistan University of Engineering and Technology, whose residence was directly opposite the student dormitories.[63]

text: The scale of the atrocities was first made clear in the West when Anthony Mascarenhas, a Pakistani journalist who had been sent to the province by the military authorities to write a story favourable to Pakistan's actions, instead fled to the United Kingdom and, on 13 June 1971, published an article in The Sunday Times describing the systematic killings by the military. The BBC wrote: "There is little doubt that Mascarenhas' reportage played its part in ending the war. It helped turn world opinion against Pakistan and encouraged India to play a decisive role", with Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi herself stating that Mascarenhas' article has led her "to prepare the ground for India's armed intervention".[64]

text: Hindu areas suffered particularly heavy blows. By midnight, Dacca was burning, especially the Hindu-dominated eastern part of the city. Time magazine reported on 2 August 1971, "The Hindus, who account for three-fourths of the refugees and a majority of the dead, have borne the brunt of the Pakistani military hatred."[65]

text: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested by the Pakistani Army. Yahya Khan appointed Brigadier (later General) Rahimuddin Khan to preside over a special tribunal prosecuting Rahman with multiple charges. The tribunal's sentence was never made public, but Yahya caused the verdict to be held in abeyance in any case. Other Awami League leaders were arrested as well, while a few fled Dacca to avoid arrest. The Awami League was banned by General Yahya Khan.[66]

text: Declaration of independence[edit]

text: The violence unleashed by the Pakistani forces on 25 March 1971 proved the last straw to the efforts to negotiate a settlement. Following these outrages, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman signed an official declaration that read:

text: Today Bangladesh is a sovereign and independent country. On Thursday night, West Pakistani armed forces suddenly attacked the police barracks at Razarbagh and the EPR headquarters at Pilkhana in Dacca. Many innocent and unarmed have been killed in Dhaka city and other places of Bangladesh. Violent clashes between E.P.R. and Police on the one hand and the armed forces of Pakistan on the other, are going on. The Bengalis are fighting the enemy with great courage for an independent Bangladesh. May Allah aid us in our fight for freedom. Joy Bangla [May Bangladesh be victorious].

text: Sheikh Mujib also called upon the people to resist the occupation forces through a radio message. Rahman was arrested on the night of 25–26 March 1971 at about 1:30 am (as per Radio Pakistan's news on 29 March 1971).

text: A telegram containing the text of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's declaration reached some students in Chittagong. The message was translated to Bengali by Dr. Manjula Anwar. The students failed to secure permission from higher authorities to broadcast the message from the nearby Agrabad Station of Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation. However, the message was read several times by the independent Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendro Radio established by some rebel Bangali Radio workers in Kalurghat. Major Ziaur Rahman was requested to provide security of the station and he also read the Declaration on 27 March 1971.[68] Major Ziaur Rahman broadcast announcement of the declaration of independence on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

text: This is Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra. I, Major Ziaur Rahman, at the direction of Bangobondhu Mujibur Rahman, hereby declare that Independent People's Republic of Bangladesh has been established. At his direction, I have taken the command as the temporary Head of the Republic. In the name of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, I call upon all Bengalees to rise against the attack by the West Pakistani Army. We shall fight to the last to free our motherland. Victory is, by the Grace of Allah, ours. Joy Bangla.[69]

text: The Kalurghat Radio Station's transmission capability was limited, but the message was picked up by a Japanese ship in the Bay of Bengal. It was then re-transmitted by Radio Australia[70] and later by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

text: M. A. Hannan, an Awami League leader from Chittagong, is said to have made the first announcement of the declaration of independence over the radio on 26 March 1971.[71]

text: 26 March 1971 is considered the official Independence Day of Bangladesh, and the name Bangladesh was in effect henceforth. In July 1971, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi openly referred to the former East Pakistan as Bangladesh.[72] Some Pakistani and Indian officials continued to use the name "East Pakistan" until 16 December 1971.

text: Liberation war[edit]

text: March–June[edit]

text: At first, resistance was spontaneous and disorganised, and was not expected to be prolonged.[73] However, when the Pakistani Army cracked down upon the population, resistance grew. The Mukti Bahini became increasingly active. The Pakistani military sought to quell them, but increasing numbers of Bengali soldiers defected to this underground "Bangladesh army". These Bengali units slowly merged into the Mukti Bahini and bolstered their weaponry with supplies from India. Pakistan responded by airlifting in two infantry divisions and reorganising their forces. They also raised paramilitary forces of Razakars, Al-Badrs and Al-Shams (who were mostly members of the Muslim League and other Islamist groups), as well as other Bengalis who opposed independence, and Bihari Muslims who had settled during the time of partition.

text: On 17 April 1971, a provisional government was formed in Meherpur District in western Bangladesh bordering India with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was in prison in Pakistan, as President, Syed Nazrul Islam as Acting President, Tajuddin Ahmad as Prime Minister, and General Muhammad Ataul Ghani Osmani as Commander-in-Chief, Bangladesh Forces. As fighting grew between the occupation army and the Bengali Mukti Bahini, an estimated 10 million Bengalis sought refuge in the Indian states of Assam and West Bengal.[74]

text: June–September[edit]

text: Bangladesh forces command was set up on 11 July, with Col. M. A. G. Osmani as commander-in-chief (C-in-C) with the status of Cabinet Minister, Lt. Col., Abdur Rabb as chief of Staff (COS), Group Captain A K Khandker as Deputy Chief of Staff (DCOS) and Major A R Chowdhury as Assistant Chief of Staff (ACOS).

text: General Osmani had differences of opinion with the Indian leadership regarding the role of the Mukti Bahini in the conflict. Indian leadership initially envisioned Bengali forces to be trained into a small elite guerrilla force of 8,000 members, led by the surviving East Bengal Regiment soldiers operating in small cells around Bangladesh to facilitate the eventual Indian intervention,[75] but with the Bangladesh government in exile, General Osmani favoured a different strategy:[76][77]

text:
Bengali conventional forces would occupy lodgment areas inside Bangladesh and then the Bangladesh government would request international diplomatic recognition and intervention. Initially Mymensingh was picked for this operation, but Gen. Osmani later settled on Sylhet.
Sending the maximum number to guerrillas inside Bangladesh as soon as possible with the following objectives:[78][79]

Increasing Pakistani casualties through raids and ambush.
Cripple economic activity by hitting power stations, railway lines, storage depots and communication networks.
Destroy Pakistan army mobility by blowing up bridges/culverts, fuel depots, trains and river crafts.
The strategic objective was to make the Pakistanis spread their forces inside the province, so attacks could be made on isolated Pakistani detachments.

text: Bangladesh was divided into eleven sectors in July,[80] each with a commander chosen from defected officers of the Pakistani army who joined the Mukti Bahini to conduct guerrilla operations and train fighters. Most of their training camps were situated near the border area and were operated with assistance from India. The 10th Sector was directly placed under the Commander in Chief (C-in-C) General M. A. G. Osmani and included the Naval Commandos and C-in-C's special force.[81] Three brigades (11 Battalions) were raised for conventional warfare; a large guerrilla force (estimated at 100,000) was trained.[82]

text: Three brigades (eight infantry battalions and three artillery batteries) were put into action between July and September.[83] During June and July, Mukti Bahini had regrouped across the border with Indian aid through Operation Jackpot and began sending 2000–5000 guerrillas across the border,[84] the so-called Monsoon Offensive, which for various reasons (lack of proper training, supply shortage, lack of a proper support network inside Bangladesh) failed to achieve its objectives.[85][86][87] Bengali regular forces also attacked BOPs in Mymensingh, Comilla and Sylhet, but the results were mixed. Pakistani authorities concluded that they had successfully contained the Monsoon Offensive, which proved a near-accurate observation.[88][89]

text: Guerrilla operations, which slackened during the training phase, picked up after August. Economic and military targets in Dacca were attacked. The major success story was Operation Jackpot, in which naval commandos mined and blew up berthed ships in Chittagong, Mongla, Narayanganj and Chandpur on 15 August 1971.[90][91]

text: October–December[edit]

text: Bangladeshi conventional forces attacked border outposts. Kamalpur, Belonia and the Battle of Boyra are a few examples. 90 out of 370 BOPs fell to Bengali forces. Guerrilla attacks intensified, as did Pakistani and Razakar reprisals on civilian populations. Pakistani forces were reinforced by eight battalions from West Pakistan. The Bangladeshi independence fighters even managed to temporarily capture airstrips at Lalmonirhat and Shalutikar.[2] Both of these were used for flying in supplies and arms from India. Pakistan sent another five battalions from West Pakistan as reinforcements.

text: Indian involvement[edit]

text: Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had concluded that instead of taking in millions of refugees, it was economical to go to war against Pakistan.[92] As early as 28 April 1971, the Indian Cabinet had asked General Manekshaw (Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee) to “Go into East Pakistan”.[93] Hostile relations in the past between India and Pakistan added to India's decision to intervene in Pakistan's civil war. Resultantly, the Indian government decided to support the creation of a separate state for ethnic Bengalis by supporting the Mukti Bahini. For this, RAW, helped to organise, train and arm these insurgents. Consequently, the Mukti Bahini succeeded in harassing Pakistani military in East Pakistan, thus creating conditions conducive for a full-scale Indian military intervention in early December.[92] Thus, wary of the growing involvement of India[why?], the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) launched a pre-emptive strike on Indian Air Force bases on 3 December 1971. The attack was modelled on the Israeli Air Force's Operation Focus during the Six-Day War, and intended to neutralise the Indian Air Force planes on the ground. The strike was seen by India as an open act of unprovoked aggression. This marked the official start of the Indo-Pakistani War.

text: As a response to the attack, both India and Pakistan formally acknowledged the "existence of a state of war between the two countries", even though neither government had formally issued a declaration of war.[94]

text: Three Indian corps were involved in the liberation of East Pakistan. They were supported by nearly three brigades of Mukti Bahini fighting alongside them, and many more fighting irregularly. This was far superior to the Pakistani army of three divisions.[95] The Indians quickly overran the country, selectively engaging or bypassing heavily defended strongholds. Pakistani forces were unable to effectively counter the Indian attack, as they had been deployed in small units around the border to counter guerrilla attacks by the Mukti Bahini.[96] Unable to defend Dacca, the Pakistanis surrendered on 16 December 1971.

text: Indian Involvement cont'd: The debate[edit]

text: The debate of Indian involvement in this war has been a source of tension and underlying conflict between India and Bangladesh since the emergence of the war itself. This section examines the role of India in this war by exploring the ways in which India largely contributed to the war and to what extent this aided the Bangladeshis. In exploring the latter, one can see that there are several ways in which India aided Bangladesh. For one, India was largely responsible for building the Mukti Bahini from a group of inexperienced rebel fighters to an army formidable enough to fight against the Pakistani army. When the war first broke out it in 1971, the initial state of the Bengali rebels can be understood from the remark of one Bengali rebel officer, who complained that "No one in the Bangladesh cabinet knows anything about war". [97] This construed the dire situation of the army before India’s intervention. The Mukti Bahini was recounted as being “Without any supplies or assistance”. If a weapon became unserviceable the soldier carrying that weapon became useless, since he could not be given another weapon. There was a complete dearth of a “Modern communication system to be in constant touch with troops in different battle locations”. This is evidenced in that the Mukti Bahini’s position was threatened at Kumira, but the army had received the message three hours late because of the poor communication system. [98] Indira Gandhi’s government escalated its backing for the Bengali uprising from July 1970 onwards. Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India at the time, when asked if India stimulated the Liberation War, had candidly said that “If you want to go way back, we helped the Mukti Bahini. So, if you consider it all as beginning with that aid and from that moment, yes- we were the ones to start it.” [99] As the war progressed, the involvement of the Indian Army in this war intensified and with each stage improved Mukti Bahini. Initially, the Indian army was directly ordered to help the Mukti Bahini, involving India’s top generals This is evident in the Indian army’s training and sponsoring of the Bengali rebels who comprised Mukti Bahini, which was badly outnumbered, many bearing only knives and hand grenades, reluctant to attack Pakistani army units. Even the better-armed insurgents were outmatched by Pakistan’s artillery and air force. Durga Prasad Dhar, confidant of Indira Gandhi who was a chief architect of the Indian intervention in the war, aided Bengali exiles in London to purchase weapons in Belgium and ship them to the guerrillas in East Pakistan. [100] The Indian Army was thoroughly enmeshed in the guerilla warfare, as shown by a report to Indira Gandhi's government from an Indian team touring the border states of Assam and Tripura in the early 1970s. Furthermore, India's Border Security Force provided cover when the Bengali rebels attacked towns of Pakistan army positions. Under fire, the guerrillas relied on India's force to provide support or re-supply them with ammunition. The Bengalis, in desperation, used children as soldiers- these children were untrained and inexperienced. However, under the eye of the Indian army, these child soldiers were taken for special and regular military training, and the Indian government planned youth training, consisting of political indoctrination and guerilla warfare. Many of the youth camps were run by India's Border Security Force, with the military training given by the Indian army. To fight an effective riverine campaign, the rebels – accustomed to their homeland of marshes and water-wars, needed to be taught about camouflage and crawling. [101]

text: This is where the debate comes in. On the other side of the argument there is evidence that shows this aid may have not been as adequate as many historians believe. The rebels were simply not getting enough. Furthermore, the guerillas, often fighting with weapons captured from Pakistan desperately wanted more arms and ammunition from India. The rebel officers pleaded for heavy artillery, anti-aircraft rounds, and anti-tank grenades. They required Rifles, mortars, walkie-talkies, field telephone sets, maps, medical kits, binoculars, etc. However, ‘India seemed more worried about the embarrassment that would inevitably follow when Indian weapons were captured during the fighting and thus was hesitant in expediting the deployment of arms to the rebels. [102]

text: The Bengali rebels also questioned Indian supervision. India was unaware and unprepared of the Bangladeshi situation. [103]

text: In a Bangladeshi assessment of the war, a top Awami League leader, MR Chowdhury, lambasted the performance of the Indian army. Chowdhury argued that “Never was such a heroic force neglected so much as the Mukti Fouz. The rebels got only ten rounds of ammunition a day, and this was far from adequate. Officers waited for days to get ammunition for a raid. Senior officers lacked weapons, and most of the rebels were short on rations, uniforms, Pakistani cash (necessary for missions inside East Pakistan), tents, soaps, and shoes." Mr Chowdhury further said: “I have seen our (Mukti Bahini) sector commanders have to roam like beggars to procure medicine from various sources for their ailing men. We were assured that the ‘Friends’ (the Indian army) promised to look after the basic necessities of our (Bengali) men, but the bare truth is that our men never get what they require.” [104]

text: Air and naval war[edit]

text: The Indian Air Force carried out several sorties against Pakistan, and within a week, IAF aircraft dominated the skies of East Pakistan. It achieved near-total air supremacy by the end of the first week as the entire Pakistani air contingent in the east, PAF No.14 Squadron, was grounded because of Indian and Bangladesh airstrikes at Tejgaon, Kurmitolla, Lal Munir Hat and Shamsher Nagar. Sea Hawks from the carrier INS Vikrant also struck Chittagong, Barisal and Cox's Bazar, destroying the eastern wing of the Pakistan Navy and effectively blockading the East Pakistan ports, thereby cutting off any escape routes for the stranded Pakistani soldiers. The nascent Bangladesh Navy (comprising officers and sailors who defected from the Pakistani Navy) aided the Indians in the marine warfare, carrying out attacks, most notably Operation Jackpot.[105]

text: Surrender and aftermath[edit]

text: On 16 December 1971, Lt. Gen Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi, CO of Pakistan Army forces located in East Pakistan signed the Instrument of Surrender. At the time of surrender only a few countries had provided diplomatic recognition to the new nation. Over 93,000 Pakistani troops surrendered to the Indian forces & Bangladesh Liberation forces, making it the largest surrender since World War II,[8][106] although the Pakistani Army had fought gallantly according to Indian Army Chief Sam Manekshaw.[107] Bangladesh sought admission in the UN with most voting in its favour, but China vetoed this as Pakistan was its key ally.[108] The United States, also a key ally of Pakistan, was one of the last nations to accord Bangladesh recognition.[109] To ensure a smooth transition, in 1972 the Simla Agreement was signed between India and Pakistan. The treaty ensured that Pakistan recognised the independence of Bangladesh in exchange for the return of the Pakistani PoWs. India treated all the PoWs in strict accordance with the Geneva Convention, rule 1925.[110] It released more than 93,000 Pakistani PoWs in five months.[8] Further, as a gesture of goodwill, nearly 200 soldiers who were sought for war crimes by Bengalis were also pardoned by India. The accord also gave back 13,000 km2 (5,019 sq mi) of land that Indian troops had seized in West Pakistan during the war, though India retained a few strategic areas;[111] most notably Kargil (which would in turn again be the focal point for a war between the two nations in 1999). This was done as a measure of promoting "lasting peace" and was acknowledged by many observers as a sign of maturity by India. However, some in India[112] felt that the treaty had been too lenient to Bhutto, who had pleaded for leniency, arguing that the fragile democracy in Pakistan would crumble if the accord was perceived as being overly harsh by Pakistanis.

text: Reaction in West Pakistan to the war[edit]

text: Reaction to the defeat and dismemberment of half the nation was a shocking loss to top military and civilians alike. Few had expected that they would lose the formal war in under a fortnight, and there was also unsettlement over what was perceived as a meek surrender of the army in East Pakistan. Yahya Khan's dictatorship collapsed and gave way to Bhutto, who took the opportunity to rise to power. General Niazi, who surrendered along with 93,000 troops, was viewed with suspicion and contempt upon his return to Pakistan. He was shunned and branded a traitor. The war also exposed the shortcomings of Pakistan's declared strategic doctrine that the "defence of East Pakistan lay in West Pakistan".[113][114]

text: Atrocities[edit]

text: During the war there were widespread killings and other atrocities – including the displacement of civilians in Bangladesh (East Pakistan at the time) and widespread violations of human rights began with the start of Operation Searchlight on 25 March 1971. Members of the Pakistani military and supporting Islamist militias from Jamaat e Islami killed an estimated 300,000[64] to 3,000,000 people and raped between 200,000 and 400,000 Bangladeshi women in a systematic campaign of genocidal rape.[115][116][117] Some Islamic clerics issued fatwas in support of raping Bengali women, especially Hindu women, as they considered the conflict a holy war.[118] During the war, a fatwa in Pakistan declared that the Bengali freedom fighters were Hindus and that their women could be taken as "the booty of war".[119]

text: A large section of the intellectual community of Bangladesh were murdered, mostly by the Al-Shams and Al-Badr forces,[120] at the instruction of the Pakistani Army.[121] Just two days before the surrender, on 14 December 1971, Pakistan Army and Razakar militia (local collaborators) picked up at least 100 physicians, professors, writers and engineers in Dacca, and murdered them, leaving the dead bodies in a mass grave.[122]

text: Many mass graves have been discovered in Bangladesh.[123] The first night of war on Bengalis, which is documented in telegrams from the American Consulate in Dacca to the United States State Department, saw indiscriminate killings of students of Dacca University and other civilians.[124] Numerous women were tortured, raped and killed during the war; the exact numbers are not known and are a subject of debate. The widespread rape of Bangladeshi women led to birth of thousands of war babies.[125][126][127] The Pakistan Army also kept numerous Bengali women as sex-slaves inside the Dacca Cantonment. Most of the girls were captured from Dacca University and private homes.[128] There was significant sectarian violence not only perpetrated and encouraged by the Pakistani army,[129] but also by Bengali nationalists against non-Bengali minorities, especially Biharis.[130] In June 1971, Bihari representatives stated that 500,000 Biharis were killed by Bengalis.[131] R.J. Rummel gives a prudent estimate of 150,000 killed.[132]

text: On 16 December 2002, the George Washington University's National Security Archive published a collection of declassified documents, consisting mostly of communications between US embassy officials and United States Information Service centres in Dacca and India, and officials in Washington, D.C.[124] These documents show that US officials working in diplomatic institutions within Bangladesh used the terms "selective genocide"[133] and "genocide" (see The Blood Telegram) for information on events they had knowledge of at the time. Genocide is the term that is still used to describe the event in almost every major publication and newspaper in Bangladesh,[134][135] although in Pakistan, the accusations against Pakistani forces continue to be disputed.

text: Foreign reaction[edit]

text: Following Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's declaration of independence in March 1971, a worldwide campaign was undertaken by the Provisional Government of Bangladesh to drum up political support for the independence of East Pakistan as well as humanitarian support for the Bengali people.

text: Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi provided extensive diplomatic and political support to the Bangladesh movement. She toured many countries in a bid to create awareness of the Pakistani atrocities against Bengalis. This effort was to prove vital later during the war, in framing the world's context of the war and to justify military action by India.[138] Also, following Pakistan's defeat, it ensured prompt recognition of the newly independent state of Bangladesh.

text: United Nations[edit]

text: Though the United Nations condemned the human rights violations during and following Operation Searchlight, it failed to defuse the situation politically before the start of the war.

text: Following India's entry into the war, Pakistan, fearing certain defeat, made urgent appeals to the United Nations to intervene and force India to agree to a ceasefire. The UN Security Council assembled on 4 December 1971 to discuss the hostilities in South Asia. After lengthy discussions on 7 December, the United States made a resolution for "immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of troops". While supported by the majority, the USSR vetoed the resolution twice. In light of the Pakistani atrocities against Bengalis, the United Kingdom and France abstained on the resolution.[94][139]

text: On 12 December, with Pakistan facing imminent defeat, the United States requested that the Security Council be reconvened. Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was rushed to New York City to make the case for a resolution on the cease fire. The council continued deliberations for four days. By the time proposals were finalised, Pakistan's forces in the East had surrendered and the war had ended, making the measures merely academic. Bhutto, frustrated by the failure of the resolution and the inaction of the United Nations, ripped up his speech and left the council.[139]

text: Most UN member nations were quick to recognise Bangladesh within months of its independence.[138]

text: Bhutan[edit]

text: As the Bangladesh Liberation War approached the defeat of the Pakistan Army, the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan became the first state in the world to recognise the newly independent country on 6 December 1971.[140] Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first President of Bangladesh visited Bhutan to attend the coronation of Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the fourth King of Bhutan in June 1974.

text: US and USSR[edit]

text: The US government stood by its old ally Pakistan[141] both politically and materially. US President Richard Nixon and his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger feared Soviet expansion into South and Southeast Asia. Pakistan was a close ally of the People's Republic of China, with whom Nixon had been negotiating a rapprochement and which he intended to visit in February 1972. Nixon feared that an Indian invasion of West Pakistan would mean total Soviet domination of the region, and that it would seriously undermine the global position of the United States and the regional position of America's new tacit ally, China. To demonstrate to China the bona fides of the United States as an ally, and in direct violation of the US Congress-imposed sanctions on Pakistan, Nixon sent military supplies to Pakistan and routed them through Jordan and Iran,[142] while also encouraging China to increase its arms supplies to Pakistan. The Nixon administration also ignored reports it received of the genocidal activities of the Pakistani Army in East Pakistan, most notably the Blood telegram.[143]

text: Nixon denied getting involved in the situation, saying that it was an internal matter of Pakistan, but when Pakistan's defeat seemed certain, Nixon sent the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise to the Bay of Bengal,[144] a move deemed by the Indians as a nuclear threat. Enterprise arrived on station on 11 December 1971. On 6 and 13 December, the Soviet Navy dispatched two groups of ships, armed with nuclear missiles, from Vladivostok; they trailed US Task Force 74 in the Indian Ocean from 18 December until 7 January 1972.[145] [146][147]

text: The Soviet Union supported Bangladesh and Indian armies, as well as the Mukti Bahini during the war, recognising that the independence of Bangladesh would weaken the position of its rivals – the United States and China. It gave assurances to India that if a confrontation with the United States or China developed, the USSR would take countermeasures. This was enshrined in the Indo-Soviet friendship treaty signed in August 1971. The Soviets also sent a nuclear submarine to ward off the threat posed by USS Enterprise in the Indian Ocean.[148][149]

text: At the end of the war, the Warsaw Pact countries were among the first to recognise Bangladesh. The Soviet Union accorded recognition to Bangladesh on 25 January 1972.[150] The United States delayed recognition for some months, before according it on 8 April 1972.[151]

text: China[edit]

text: As a long-standing ally of Pakistan, the People's Republic of China reacted with alarm to the evolving situation in East Pakistan and the prospect of India invading West Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. Believing that just such an Indian attack was imminent, Nixon encouraged China to mobilise its armed forces along its border with India to discourage it. The Chinese did not, however, respond to this encouragement, because unlike the 1962 Sino-Indian War when India was caught entirely unaware, this time the Indian Army was prepared and had deployed eight mountain divisions to the Sino-Indian border to guard against such an eventuality.[94] China instead threw its weight behind demands for an immediate ceasefire.

text: When Bangladesh applied for membership to the United Nations in 1972, China vetoed their application[152] because two United Nations resolutions regarding the repatriation of Pakistani prisoners of war and civilians had not yet been implemented.[153] China was also among the last countries to recognise independent Bangladesh, refusing to do so until 31 August 1975.[138][152]

text: In popular culture[edit]


document_title: Azazel (Supernatural)

question_text: supernatural what killed sam and dean's mother

question_tokens: supernatural what killed sam and dean 's mother

root

text: Azazel (Supernatural)

text: Plot[edit]

text: The tyrannical leader of an army of demons,[1][2] Azazel first appears in the pilot episode of the series, but plot devices such as flashbacks and time travel detail his background in later seasons. He is one of the four Princes of Hell, along with Ramiel, Asmodeus and Dagon, and the most devoted to Lucifer[3]. His earliest chronological depiction occurs in the fourth season finale, "Lucifer Rising". Having spent years searching, Azazel (Rob LaBelle) finally located the doorway to Lucifer's prison in 1972. The fallen angel tasked him with freeing the demon Lilith from Hell—she is needed to break the 66 seals holding Lucifer captive—and to find him a "special child".[4]

tag: p

text: By the following year, Azazel began making demonic pacts with young individuals; in exchange for a wish, he would be allowed to enter their homes ten years later. Azazel eventually comes across Mary Campbell, the future mother of series protagonists Sam and Dean Winchester. After taking possession of her father (Mitch Pileggi), he kills her mother and stabs himself to kill his host. Mary's fiance, John Winchester, is the demon's next victim. Azazel makes his usual offer, giving her the chance to resurrect John, to produce a child he can use; now orphaned and alone, she reluctantly agrees without knowing his true intentions.[5]

text: In 1983, Mary discovers Azazel standing over baby Sam's crib; he had been feeding his blood to the infant.[6] Upon being interrupted, the demon pins her to the ceiling, slashes her stomach and causes her to burst into flames. Her death inspires John to dedicate his life to hunting down Azazel, at the same time training Sam and Dean to hunt supernatural creatures.[7]

text: As revealed in the fifth season finale, "Swan Song", Azazel sent demons to possess important people in Sam's life, secretly manipulating him as he grew up.[8] However, Sam eventually leaves the life of hunting to attend college. Azazel orders the assassination of Sam's girlfriend Jessica Moore, who was a distraction. Her death prompts Sam to return to hunting.[7]

text: Demons cannot be killed by conventional means so the Winchesters track down the Colt—a mystic gun capable of killing anything—in "Dead Man's Blood". In the following episode, "Salvation", they trace the omens caused by the demon's presence to Salvation, Iowa. As he did with Sam and countless others, Azazel plans to visit a six-month-old and feed her his blood so she will later develop demonic abilities. Although Sam interrupts the demon's plans and saves the family, Azazel escapes. Meanwhile, the demonic Meg Masters and her "brother" Tom kidnap John, and then set their sights on Sam and Dean.[9]

text: The brothers exorcise Meg in the season finale "Devil's Trap", and her host discloses John's location. Sam and Dean rescue him and kill Tom. After being taken to a secluded location, however, John is revealed to be possessed. An angry Azazel (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) chastises them for killing Meg and Tom—he deems them his "children"—and begins to torture the brothers. John temporarily retakes control, giving Sam the opportunity to grab the Colt. Unable to kill his father, Sam shoots John in the leg, and the demon flees from his host. As the Winchesters make their escape, a demonically-possessed truck driver crashes into their car.[10] Dean is left dying in a coma, forcing John to sell his soul and the Colt to Azazel (Fredric Lehne) to save him. Azazel demon possesses a reaper (Lindsey McKeon) to save Dean from death and fulfill his part of the deal.[11]

text: Azazel's last appearance chronologically is in the second season finale "All Hell Breaks Loose", where he kidnaps Sam and the other young adults that he had infected. He visits Sam in a dream, and reveals that his "special children" must fight to the death to determine who will lead his army. Although Sam is the demon's favorite, the super-strong Jake Talley becomes the winner.[6] As Dean sells his soul to another demon in exchange for Sam's resurrection, Azazel gives Jake the Colt and coerces him to travel to a cemetery in the middle of a giant devil's trap. Though Sam and Dean, along with other hunters, attempt to stop him, Jake uses the Colt as a key to unlock a mausoleum there. This action briefly opens a gateway to Hell, releasing Lilith and hundreds of other demons. With the devil's trap around the cemetery now broken, Azazel confronts the Winchesters and easily overpowers them. However, John's soul escapes through the Gate, and distracts Azazel long enough for Dean to shoot him dead with the Colt.[12]

text: Characterization[edit]

text: Deeming Azazel to be "an angry soul", actor Fredric Lehne believed that the character having been "denied Heaven and everything else that's good in the universe" has "[translated] into anger and vengeance".[13] A demon with a sense of humor, Azazel takes pleasure in seeing people suffer. "The more pain—mostly psychological pain—he causes, the happier he is ... He gets off on the power of turning people to his will", Lehne explained. This quality suggests to the actor why the demon favored Sam as the potential leader of his army. Being the "most ripe for picking" because he had the "sweetest" heart, Sam was "most desirable for corrupting" of all the children; Lehne described Azazel's thought process as, "If I could turn him, then I had truly won."[14] The character's ultimate motivation, however, is to free Lucifer from his imprisonment in Hell. On this, Supernatural co-executive producer Ben Edlund mentioned his view of Azazel as one of "a little cult of demonic true believers" that encompasses many of the important demon characters in the series.[15]

text: Development[edit]

text: For Azazel's first full appearance on the series in "Devil's Trap", the writers initially could not decide which Winchester—Sam, Dean, or John—to have the demon possess. However, actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan's busy schedule made them realize that having John kidnapped and possessed, and therefore absent from much of the episode, would be the only practical choice.[17] Noting that the first season focuses on Sam and Dean trying to find both their father and Azazel, series creator Eric Kripke noted that from a storytelling perspective "it had to be" that "they'd find both of them at the same time...in the same body".[18] Though the writers modeled Azazel's personality after Al Pacino's demonic sense of humor in the film The Devil's Advocate,[19] they gave Morgan free rein over the character's mannerisms. Only directed to "be different from John", Morgan changed his voice and mimicked Jack Nicholson's "freaky" speech pattern from The Shining.[20]

text: Morgan's "Nicholson-esque quality" continues with actor Fredric Lehne.[21] Though uncertain of why he was specifically sought out—Lehne chalks it up to his previous working experience with executive producers Kim Manners and Robert Singer—the role was offered to him without an audition.[13] The actor avoided copying Morgan's portrayal, but noted that the writing "lends itself to doing it in a certain way".[14]

text: Since Azazel changes human hosts periodically, Lehne's initial appearance in the second season premiere, "In My Time of Dying", was intended to be a one-time deal. Thoroughly impressed, however, the show runners kept him for the season finale.[22] Despite the character's death, Lehne returned to the role in the sixth season premiere as a hallucination.[23]

text: A dream sequence in "All Hell Breaks Loose" hints at Mary Winchester's connection to Azazel. Although the writers intended to address this in the third season, it was pushed back to the fourth season episode "In the Beginning" due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike.[24]

text: Kripke asked Mitch Pileggi to enact this revelation—the two had previously worked together on the series Tarzan—and the actor accepted because Kim Manners and much of the Supernatural crew had also worked on The X-Files.[25] While Pileggi emulated Lehne's performance, he tried to "put his own spin on it".[26]

text: Morgan, Lehne, and actress Lindsey McKeon wore hard, colored contact lenses during their portrayals of Azazel. The lenses eventually became painful, and would greatly obscure their vision.[14] The production crew placed sandbags on the floor to help Morgan and Lehne locate their marks,[20][27] and a grip held Lehne's hand as he walked around a campfire in "All Hell Breaks Loose".[14] McKeon's brief scene in "In My Time of Dying"—she touches actor Jensen Ackles' forehead—took nine takes to film because she kept missing.[20][27] Although Pileggi was fitted for the lenses, production ultimately added the effect digitally at "appropriate moments".[26]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Azazel has been met with universal praise from critics and fans alike, with the latter voting him as the best villain of the series in a poll conducted by BuddyTV. "[You] have to realize that without [Azazel] there would be no reason for the boys to hunt in the first place," viewers wrote, also calling him the "oldest arch nemesis" and a "classic supernatural badass". The results of the poll revealed that Azazel had won with 75% of the votes, with the second-highest percentage of votes for another character (Alastair) being only 9%.[28]

text: Both Karla Peterson of The San Diego Union-Tribune and Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune felt that Morgan gave "his best and most believable performance of the season" in "Devil's Trap",[29][30] with the latter adding, "He was really on fire in that scene, and it brought a whole new intensity to his performance."[30] Diana Steenbergen of IGN found him "menacing, with his low voice and the cruel words ... trying to tear them apart emotionally before tearing Dean apart literally", and enjoyed the sadistic and "vicious humor" that makes the character "more sinister". However, she believed that Azazel having a family was an unnecessary parallel with the Winchesters that "doesn't quite make sense".[31] After viewing the episode, Brian Tallerico of UGO gave his opinion that the series should follow Buffy the Vampire Slayer's format of having a different recurring villain each season. "If the firestarting demon is the Big Bad for the first two seasons, that's fine", he commented, "but don't drag it out longer than that. Fans will get bored. And there's nothing scarier than that.[32]

text: Tina Charles of TV Guide was happy to see the "appropriately creepy" Lehne return to the role in "All Hell Breaks Loose". "The second he popped in at ghost town central ... the scare factor went up", she wrote.[33] Likewise, Tom Burns of UGO deemed all of Lehne's scenes "damn near riveting",[34] while Brett Love of TV Squad described him as "a perfect evil menace".[35] Diana Steenbergen of IGN deemed Lehne's performance "charismatic and quietly sadistic without being overdone".[36] Despite this praise, she was happy to see the character die because "it frees the show from bogging down by having the Winchesters chasing after the same villain endlessly" and "opens up the opportunity to explore new plots".[37]

text: Pileggi's casting in "In the Beginning" was "a cool move" for Charles, who found his performance "scary".[38] Similarly, Steenbergen called Pileggi "a force to be reckoned" who "has a chance to be both funny and disturbing".[39] According to publicists of Warner Bros., the fans "were very happy with what [they] did" in the episode.[26]


document_title: Steve Dalkowski

question_text: who is the hardest throwing pitcher in baseball

text: Steve Dalkowski

text: Baseball career[edit]

text: Dalkowski began playing baseball in high school, and also played football as a quarterback for New Britain High School. During his time with the football team, they won the division championship twice, in 1955 and 1956. However, he excelled the most in baseball, and still holds a Connecticut state record for striking out 24 batters in a single game.[9]

text: After graduating from high school in 1957, Dalkowski was immediately signed by the Baltimore Orioles for a $4,000 bonus, and initially played for their class-D minor league affiliate in Kingsport, Tennessee. He spent his entire career in the minor leagues, playing in nine different leagues during his nine-year career. His only appearance at the Orioles' Memorial Stadium was during an exhibition game in 1959, when he struck out the opposing side.[4]

text: Dalkowski's claim to fame was the high velocity of his fastball. Accurate measurements at the time were difficult to make, but the consensus is that Dalkowski regularly threw well above 100 miles per hour. Dalkowski's raw speed was aided by his highly flexible left (pitching) arm,[10] and by his unusual "buggy-whip" pitching motion, which ended in a cross-body arm swing. "I hit my left elbow on my right knee so often, they finally made me a pad to wear", recalled Dalkowski.[citation needed]

text: But Dalkowski also often had extreme difficulty controlling his pitches. He often walked more batters than he struck out, and many times his pitches would go wild — sometimes so wild that they ended up in the stands. Batters found the combination of extreme velocity and lack of control intimidating. Oriole Paul Blair stated that "He threw the hardest I ever saw. He was the wildest I ever saw".[11][12]

text: During a typical season in 1960, while pitching in the California League, Dalkowski struck out 262 batters and walked 262 in 170 innings.[3] Dalkowski for 1960 thus figures at both 13.81 K/9IP and 13.81 BB/9IP (see lifetime statistics below). In comparison, Randy Johnson currently holds the major league record for strikeouts per nine innings in a season with 13.41.[13] In separate games, Dalkowski struck out 21 batters, and walked 21 batters.

text: Because a pitcher is generally considered wild if he averages four walks per nine innings, a pitcher of average repertoire who consistently walked as many as nine men per nine innings would not normally be considered a prospect. But such was the allure of Dalkowski's explosive arm that the Orioles gave him chance after chance to harness his "stuff", knowing that if he ever managed to control it, he would be a great weapon.

text: Pitching for the Kingsport (Tennessee) Orioles on August 31, 1957 in Bluefield, West Virginia, Dalkowski struck out 24 Bluefield hitters in a single minor league game, yet issued 18 walks, and threw six wild pitches.[14] Dalkowski pitched a total of 62 innings in 1957, struck out 121 (averaging 18 strikeouts per game), but won only once because he walked 129 and threw 39 wild pitches.[4] Moving to the Northern League in 1958–59, he threw a one-hitter but lost 9–8 on the strength of 17 walks. In 1957–58, Dalkowski either struck out or walked almost three out of every four batters he faced.

text: During the 1960s under Earl Weaver, then the manager for the Orioles' double-A affiliate in Elmira, New York, Dalkowski's game began to show improvement. Weaver had given all of the players an IQ test and discovered that Dalkowski had a lower than normal IQ.[15] Weaver believed that Dalkowski had had such difficulty keeping his game under control because he did not have the mental capacity. Weaver kept things simple for Dalkowski, telling him to only throw the fastball and a slider, and to just aim the fastball down the middle of the plate. This allowed Dalkowski to concentrate on just throwing the ball for strikes. Weaver knew that Dalkowski's fastball was practically unhittable no matter where it was in the strike zone, and if Dalkowski missed his target, he might end up throwing it on the corners for a strike anyway.[10] Under Weaver's stewardship, Dalkowski had his best season in 1962, posting personal bests in complete games and ERA, and walking less than a batter an inning for the first time in his career. In an extra-inning game, Dalkowski recorded 27 strikeouts (while walking 16 and throwing 283 pitches).

text: Dalkowski was invited to major league spring training in 1963, and the Orioles expected to call him up to the majors. On March 23, Dalkowski was used as a relief pitcher during a game against the New York Yankees. Most sources say that while throwing a slider to Phil Linz, he felt something pop in his left elbow, which turned out to be a severe muscle strain. Some uncertainty over the cause of his injury exists, however, with other sources contending that he damaged his elbow while throwing to first after fielding a bunt from Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton.[16] Either way, his arm never fully recovered.

text: When he returned in 1964, Dalkowski's fastball had dropped to 90 mph (145 km/h), and midway through the season he was released by the Orioles.[17] He played for two more seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Angels organizations before returning briefly to the Orioles farm system but was unable to regain his form before retiring in 1966.[17]

text: Dalkowski had a lifetime win-loss record of 46–80 and an ERA of 5.57 in nine minor league seasons, striking out 1,396 and walking 1,354 in 995 innings.[17]

text: Pitching speed[edit]

text: Dalkowski's wildness frightened even the bravest of hitters. Ted Williams faced Dalkowski once in a spring training game. "Fastest ever", said Williams. "I never want to face him again."[18] Longtime umpire Doug Harvey also cited Dalkowski as the fastest pitcher he had seen: "Nobody could bring it like he could."[19]

text: Estimates of Dalkowski's top pitching speed abound. Cal Ripken Sr. guessed that he threw up to 115 miles per hour (185 km/h).[20] Most observers agree that he routinely threw well over 110 miles an hour (177 km/h), and sometimes reached 115 mph (180 km/h).[21] Radar guns, which were used for many years in professional baseball, did not exist when Dalkowski was playing, so the only evidence supporting this level of velocity is anecdotal. It is certain that with his high speed and penchant for throwing wild pitches, he would have been an intimidating opponent for any batter who faced him. Andy Etchebarren, a catcher for Dalkowski at Elmira, described his fastball as "light" and fairly easy to catch. According to Etchebarren his wilder pitches usually went high, sometimes low; "Dalkowski would throw a fastball that looked like it was coming in at knee level, only to see it sail past the batter's eyes".[19]

text: Dalkowski's greatest legacy may be the number of anecdotes (some more believable than others) surrounding his pitching ability. He was said to have thrown a pitch that tore off part of a batter's ear. Some observers believed that this incident made Dalkowski even more nervous and contributed further to his wildness. Another story says that in 1960 at Stockton, California, he threw a pitch that broke umpire Doug Harvey's mask in three places, knocking him 18 feet (5 m) back and sending him to a hospital for three days with a concussion. Dalkowski once won a $5 bet with teammate Herm Starrette who said that he could not throw a baseball through a wall. Dalkowski warmed up and then moved 15 feet (5 m) away from the wooden outfield fence. His first pitch went right through the boards.[4] On another bet, Dalkowski threw a ball over a fence 440 feet (134 m) away.

text: The only recorded evidence of his pitching speed stems from 1958, when Dalkowski was sent by the Orioles to Aberdeen Proving Ground, a military installation. Here, using a radar machine, he was clocked at 93.5 miles per hour (150.5 km/h), a fast but not outstanding speed for a professional pitcher. However, several factors worked against Dalkowski: he had pitched a game the day before, he was throwing from a flat surface instead of from a pitcher's mound, and he had to throw pitches for 40 minutes at a small target before the machine could capture an accurate measurement. Further, the device measured speed from a few feet away from the plate, instead of 10 feet from release as in modern times. This cost Dalkowski approximately 9 MPH, not even considering the other factors.[22]

text: According to the Guinness Book of Records, the current record holder for fastest pitch is Nolan Ryan, with a pitch clocked at 100.9 mph (162.4 km/h) in 1974, though the record has not been updated in many years and several pitchers have recorded faster pitches since then. That seems to be because Ryan's speed was recorded 10' from the plate, unlike 10' from release as today, costing him up to 10 MPH. http://www.efastball.com/baseball/stats/fastest-pitch-speed-in-major-leagues/ Earl Weaver, who had years of exposure to both pitchers, said, "[Dalkowski] threw a lot faster than Ryan."[23] The hardest thrower in baseball currently is recognized as Aroldis Chapman, who has been clocked with the fastest pitch on record at 105.1 mph (169 km/h).

text: Scientists contend that the theoretical maximum speed that a pitcher can throw is slightly above 100 mph (161 km/h). Beyond that the pitcher would cause himself a serious injury.[24] There is no doubt that a pitcher who can throw at 100 mph+ is rare, with only a small handful of pitchers every generation being capable of this feat.

text: Life after baseball[edit]

text: In 1965 he married schoolteacher Linda Moore in Bakersfield, but they divorced two years later. Unable to find any gainful employment, he became a migrant worker. Dalkowski experienced problems with alcohol abuse.[25] He drank heavily as a player and his drinking escalated after the end of his career. He received help from the Association of Professional Ball Players of America (APBPA) periodically from 1974 to 1992 and went through rehabilitation. He was able to find a job and stay sober for several months but soon went back to drinking. The APBPA stopped providing financial assistance to him because he was using the funds to purchase alcohol.[26]

text: Poor health in the 1980s prevented him from working altogether, and by the end of the decade he was living in a small apartment in California, penniless and suffering from alcohol-induced dementia. At some point during this time he married a motel clerk named Virginia, who moved him to Oklahoma City in 1993. She died of a brain aneurysm in 1994. Dalkowski has lived at a long-term care facility in New Britain for several years.[27] In a 2003 interview, Dalkowski said that he was unable to remember life events that occurred from 1964 to 1994.[26]

text: For his contributions to baseball lore, he was inducted into the Shrine of the Eternals on July 19, 2009.[28] Sports Illustrated's 1970 profile of Dalkowski concluded, "His failure was not one of deficiency, but rather of excess. He was too fast. His ball moved too much. His talent was too superhuman... It mattered only that once, just once, Steve Dalkowski threw a fastball so hard that Ted Williams never even saw it. No one else could claim that."[29]

text: Notes[edit]

text:
Jump up ^ Johnson, Lloyd (ed.) (1994). The Minor League Register. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America. p. 363. ISBN 0-9637189-3-2. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link)
Jump up ^ Shelton, Ron (July 19, 2009). "Steve Dalkowski had the stuff of legends". "Los Angeles Times". Retrieved May 24, 2010.
^ Jump up to: a b Hoffman, Jerrod (August 24, 1999). "Minor League Legends: Steve Dalkowski". The Sporting News. Retrieved August 3, 2007.
^ Jump up to: a b c d Hause, Jeff. "Steve 'White Lightning' Dalkowski". Sports Hollywood. Retrieved August 3, 2007.
^ Jump up to: a b "The Wildest Fastball Ever". Sports Illustrated. October 12, 1970.
Jump up ^ Shelton, Ron (July 19, 2009). "Steve Dalkowski had the stuff of legends". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 19, 2009.
Jump up ^ McEntegart, Pete. "Where Are They Now? Steve Dalkowski". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved August 28, 2007.
Jump up ^ ""The Scout" trivia". IMDB.
Jump up ^ Levy, Hal (May 8, 2007). "Connecticut: Two Games, 40 K's For Janinga". Shore Line Newspapers. Retrieved August 3, 2007.
^ Jump up to: a b Ganis, Mike (April 21, 2005). "Sportspages WebLog". US Sports Pages.com. Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved August 3, 2007.
Jump up ^ Seaman, James. "Baseball Is Far More Than a Sport". Retrieved August 28, 2007.
Jump up ^ Hoffman, Jared. "Minor League Legends:Steve Dalkowski". The Sporting News. Retrieved August 28, 2007.
Jump up ^ "Single-Season Leaders & Records for Strikeouts per 9 IP". Baseball-Reference.com.com. Retrieved January 2, 2010.
Jump up ^ Kingsport Times News, Sept 1, 1957, page 9
Jump up ^ Treder, Steve (May 29, 2007). "Delving into the Dalkowski depths". Hardball Times. Retrieved August 3, 2007.
Jump up ^ Wright, Sylas (October 21, 2005). "Digging up a wild tale". Sierra Sun. Retrieved August 3, 2007.
^ Jump up to: a b c "Steve Dalkowski Minor League Statistics & History – Baseball-Reference.com". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved February 1, 2015.
Jump up ^ Wright, Sylas (October 21, 2005). "Digging up a wild tale". Sierra Sun. Retrieved August 28, 2007.
^ Jump up to: a b https://books.google.com/books?id=Jy4DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=dalkowski+etchebarren&source=bl&ots=sl6qHyVDAs&sig=UH7sCvqRfxi3pIMrmC7tQ54rS-k&hl=en&ei=ikCETZe3DtKN0QHwwZzPCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=dalkowski%20etchebarren&f=false[dead link]
Jump up ^ "Pitching Secrets of the Pros". google.com. Retrieved February 1, 2015.
Jump up ^ "Fastest Pitcher in Baseball by Baseball Almanac". baseball-almanac.com. Retrieved February 1, 2015.
Jump up ^ Holtz, Sean (February 2003). "The Fastest Pitcher in Baseball History". Baseball Almanac. Retrieved August 3, 2007.
Jump up ^ Steve Treder. "Delving into the Dalkowski depths". The Hardball Times. Retrieved February 1, 2015.
Jump up ^ Scheiber, Noam (April 8, 2005). "Why can't pitchers throw harder?". Slate. Retrieved August 3, 2007.
Jump up ^ Shelton, Ron (July 21, 2009). "Legend Of The Fall". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved December 24, 2013.
^ Jump up to: a b Wright, Sylas (October 21, 2005). "Digging up a wild tale". Tahoe Daily Tribune. Retrieved December 24, 2013.
Jump up ^ Mandelaro, Jim (May 18, 2013). "The Legend of Steve Dalkowski". Democrat and Chronicle. Retrieved December 24, 2013.
Jump up ^ Lipshez, Ken. "New Britain legend Dalkowski now truly a baseball immortal". New Britain Herald. Retrieved July 13, 2009.
Jump up ^ Jordan, Pat (October 12, 1970). "The Wildest Fastball Ever". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved December 24, 2013.

tag: ol


document_title: Central Pacific Railroad

question_text: who made up the labor force of the central pacific railroad while it was being built

text: Central Pacific Railroad

text: Authorization and construction[edit]

text: Planned by Theodore Judah, the Central Pacific Railroad was authorized by Congress in 1862. It was financed and built through "The Big Four" (who called themselves "The Associates"): Sacramento, California businessmen Leland Stanford, Collis Huntington, Charles Crocker, and Mark Hopkins. Crocker was in charge of construction. Construction crews comprised 12,000 Chinese emigrant workers by 1868, when they constituted eighty percent of the entire work force.[5][6] They laid the first rails in 1863. The "Golden spike", connecting the western railroad to the Union Pacific Railroad at Promontory, Utah, was hammered on May 10, 1869.[7] Coast-to-coast train travel in eight days became possible, replacing months-long sea voyages and lengthy, hazardous travel by wagon trains.

text: In 1885 the Central Pacific Railroad was leased by the Southern Pacific Company. Technically the CPRR remained a corporate entity until 1959, when it was formally merged into Southern Pacific. (It was reorganized in 1899 as the Central Pacific "Railway".) The original right-of-way is now controlled by the Union Pacific, which bought Southern Pacific in 1996.

text: The Union Pacific-Central Pacific (Southern Pacific) mainline followed the historic Overland Route from Omaha, Nebraska to San Francisco Bay.

text: Chinese labor was the most vital source for constructing the railroad. Fifty Chinese laborers were hired by the Central Pacific Railroad in February 1865, and soon more and more Chinese men were hired. Working conditions were harsh, and Chinese men were compensated less than their white counterparts. Chinese men were paid thirty-one dollars each month, and while white workers were paid the same, they were also given room and board.[8]

text: Financing[edit]

text: Construction of the road was financed primarily by 30-year, 6% U.S. government bonds authorized by Sec. 5 of the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. They were issued at the rate of $16,000 per mile of tracked grade completed west of the designated base of the Sierra Nevada range near Roseville, CA where California state geologist Josiah Whitney had determined were the geologic start of the Sierras' foothills.[9] Sec. 11 of the Act also provided that the issuance of bonds "shall be treble the number per mile" (to $48,000) for tracked grade completed over and within the two mountain ranges (but limited to a total of 300 miles (480 km) at this rate), and "doubled" (to $32,000) per mile of completed grade laid between the two mountain ranges.[10] The U.S. Government Bonds, which constituted a lien upon the railroads and all their fixtures, were repaid in full (and with interest) by the company as and when they became due.

text: Sec. 10 of the 1864 amending Pacific Railroad Act (13 Statutes at Large, 356) additionally authorized the company to issue its own "First Mortgage Bonds"[11] in total amounts up to (but not exceeding) that of the bonds issued by the United States. Such company-issued securities had priority over the original Government Bonds.[12] (Local and state governments also aided the financing, although the City and County of San Francisco did not do so willingly. This materially slowed early construction efforts.) Sec. 3 of the 1862 Act granted the railroads 10 square miles (26 km2) of public land for every mile laid, except where railroads ran through cities and crossed rivers. This grant was apportioned in 5 sections on alternating sides of the railroad, with each section measuring 0.2 miles (320 m) by 10 miles (16 km).[13] These grants were later doubled to 20 square miles (52 km2) per mile of grade by the 1864 Act.

text: Although the Pacific Railroad eventually benefited the Bay Area, the City and County of San Francisco obstructed financing it during the early years of 1863-1865. When Stanford was Governor of California, the Legislature passed on April 22, 1863, "An Act to Authorize the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco to take and subscribe One Million Dollars to the Capital Stock of the Western Pacific Rail Road Company and the Central Pacific Rail Road Company of California and to provide for the payment of the same and other matters relating thereto" (which was later amended by Section Five of the "Compromise Act" of April 4, 1864). On May 19, 1863, the electors of the City and County of San Francisco passed this bond by a vote of 6,329 to 3,116, in a highly controversial Special Election.

text: The City and County's financing of the investment through the issuance and delivery of Bonds was delayed for two years, when Mayor Henry P. Coon, and the County Clerk, Wilhelm Loewy, each refused to countersign the Bonds. It took legal actions to force them to do so: in 1864 the Supreme Court of the State of California ordered them under Writs of Mandamus (The People of the State of California ex rel the Central Pacific Railroad Company vs. Henry P. Coon, Mayor; Henry M. Hale, Auditor; and Joseph S. Paxson, Treasurer, of the City and County of San Francisco. 25 Cal. 635) and in 1865, a legal judgment against Loewy (The People ex rel The Central Pacific Railroad Company of California vs. The Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco, and Wilhelm Lowey, Clerk 27 Cal. 655) directing that the Bonds be countersigned and delivered. In 1863 the legislature's forcing of City and County action became known as the "Dutch Flat Swindle". Critics claimed the CPRR intended to build a railroad only as far as Dutch Flat, to connect to the Dutch Flat Wagon Road which they already controlled.

text: Museums and archives[edit]

text: A replica of the Sacramento, California Central Pacific Railroad passenger station is part of the California State Railroad Museum, located in the Old Sacramento State Historic Park.

text: Nearly all the company's early correspondence is preserved at Syracuse University, as part of the Collis Huntington Papers collection. It has been released on microfilm (133 reels). The following libraries have the microfilm: University of Arizona at Tucson; and Virginia Commonwealth University at Richmond. Additional collections of manuscript letters are held at Stanford University and the Mariners' Museum at Newport News, Virginia. Alfred A. Hart was the official photographer of the CPRR construction.

text: Locomotives[edit]

text: The Central Pacific's first three locomotives were of the then common 4-4-0 type, although with the American Civil War raging in the east, they had difficulty acquiring engines from eastern builders, who at times only had smaller 4-2-4 or 4-2-2 types available. Until the completion of the Transcontinental rail link and the railroad's opening of its own shops, all locomotives had to be purchased by builders in the northeastern U.S. The engines had to be dismantled, loaded on a ship, which would embark on a four-month journey that went around South America's Cape Horn until arriving in Sacramento where the locomotives would be unloaded, re-assembled, and placed in service.

text: Locomotives at the time came from many manufacturers, such as Cooke, Schenectady, Mason, Rogers, Danforth, Norris, Booth, and McKay & Aldus, among others. Interestingly, the railroad had been on rather unfriendly terms with the Baldwin Locomotive Works, one of the more well-known firms. It is not clear as to the cause of this dispute, though some attribute it to the builder insisting on cash payment (though this has yet to be verified). Consequently, the railroad refused to buy engines from Baldwin, and three former Western Pacific Railroad (which the CP had absorbed in 1870) engines were the only Baldwin engines owned by the Central Pacific. The Central Pacific's dispute with Baldwin remained unresolved until well after the road had been acquired by the Southern Pacific.

text: In the 1870s, the road opened up its own locomotive construction facilities in Sacramento. Central Pacific's 173 was rebuilt by these shops and served as the basis for CP's engine construction. The locomotives built before the 1870s were given names as well as numbers. By the 1870s, it was decided to eliminate the names and as each engine was sent to the shops for service, their names would be removed. However, one engine that was built in the 1880s did receive a name: the El Gobernador.

text: Construction of the rails was often dangerous work. Towards the end of construction, almost all workers were Chinese immigrants. The ethnicity of workers depended largely on the "gang" of workers/specific area on the rails they were working.

text: Preserved locomotives[edit]

text: The following CP engines have been preserved:

text:
Central Pacific 1, Gov. Stanford
CP 233, a 2-6-2T the railroad had built, is stored at the California State Railroad Museum.
Central Pacific 3, C. P. Huntington
Former Western Pacific Mariposa, Central Pacific's second number 31. Was sold to Stockton Terminal and Eastern in 1914 and renumbered 1. Currently at the Travel Town Museum in Los Angeles.
Virginia and Truckee Railroad, though The Dayton was not built for, nor served on the Central Pacific, the engine was one of two locomotives built by the CP's Sacramento shops in preservation (the other being CP 233). Moreover, its specifications were derived from CP 173, and thus is the only surviving example of that engine's design.
Central Pacific's numbers 60, Jupiter, and 63 Leviathan. Although both engines have been scrapped, and therefore technically do not count as having been preserved, there were exact, full size operating replicas built in recent years. The Jupiter was built for the National Park Service along with a replica of Union Pacific's 119 for use at their Golden Spike National Historic Site. Leviathan was finished in 2009, is privately owned, and travels to various railroads to operate.

tag: ul

text: Timeline[edit]

text: June 28, 1861: "Central Pacific Rail Road of California" incorporated; name changed to "Central Pacific Railroad of California" on October 8, 1864, after the Pacific Railway Act amendment passes that summer.[15]

text: July 1, 1862: President Lincoln signs the Pacific Railway Act, which authorized the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific to build a railroad to the Pacific Ocean.[16]

text:
January 8, 1863: Ground-breaking ceremonies take place at Sacramento, California, at the foot of "K" Street at the waterfront of the Sacramento River.[17]
October 26, 1863: First rail laid at Sacramento.

text:
April 26, 1864: Central Pacific opened to Roseville, 18 miles (29 km), where it makes a junction with the California Central Railroad, operating from Folsom north to Lincoln.
June 3, 1864: The first revenue train on the Central Pacific operates between Sacramento and Newcastle, California
October 8, 1864: Following passage of the amendment to the Pacific Railroad Act, the company's name is changed to "Central Pacific Railroad of California," a new corporation.

text:
May 13, 1865: Central Pacific opened 36 miles (58 km) to Auburn, California.
September 1, 1865: Central Pacific opened 54 miles (87 km) to Colfax, California (formerly known as "Illinoistown.")

text: December 3, 1866: Central Pacific opened 92 miles (148 km) to Cisco, California.

text:
August 28, 1867: The Sierra Nevadas were finally "conquered" by the Central Pacific Railroad, after almost five years of sustained construction effort, with the successful completion at Donner Pass of its 1,659-foot (506 m) Tunnel #6 (a.k.a. the "Summit Tunnel").[18]
December 1, 1867: Central Pacific opened to Summit of the Sierra Nevada, 105 miles (169 km).

text: June 18, 1868: The first passenger train crosses the Sierra Nevada to Lake's Crossing (modern day Reno, Nevada) at the eastern foot of the Sierra in Nevada Territory.

text:
April 28, 1869: Track crews on the Central Pacific lay 10 miles (16 km) of track in one day. This is the longest stretch of track that has been built in one day to date.
May 10, 1869: The Central Pacific and Union Pacific tracks meet in Promontory, Utah.
May 15, 1869: The first transcontinental trains are run over the new line to Sacramento.
November 8, 1869: Central Pacific subsidiaries Western Pacific Railroad (1862-1870) and San Francisco Bay Railroad complete the final leg of the route, connecting Sacramento to Oakland.

text:
June 23, 1870: Central Pacific is consolidated with the Western Pacific Railroad (1862-1870) and San Francisco Bay Railroad Co. to form the "Central Pacific Railroad Co." (of June 1870).
August 22, 1870: Central Pacific Railroad Co. is consolidated with the California & Oregon; San Francisco, Oakland & Alameda; and San Joaquin Valley Railroad; to form the "Central Pacific Railroad Co.", a new corporation.

text: April 30, 1876: Operates the California Pacific Railroad between South Vallejo and Sacramento, Calistoga and Marysville until April 1, 1885 (see below).

text: July 16, 1877: Start of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 when railroad workers on strike in Martinsburg, West Virginia, derail and loot a train; United States President Rutherford B. Hayes calls in Federal troops to break the strike.

text: November 18, 1883: A system of one-hour standard time zones for American railroads was first implemented. The zones were named Intercolonial, Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific. Within one year, 85% of all cities having populations over 10,000, about 200 cities, were using standard time.

text: April 1, 1885: Central Pacific is leased to Southern Pacific.

text: June 30, 1888: Listed by ICC as a "non-operating" subsidiary of Southern Pacific.

text: July 29, 1899: Central Pacific is reorganized as the "Central Pacific Railway".

text: June 30, 1959: Central Pacific is formally merged into the Southern Pacific.

text: Acquisitions[edit]

text: This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2010)

tag: table

text:
Stockton and Copperopolis Railroad[19]
Stockton and Visalia Railroad[20]
Western Pacific Railroad (1862-1870)


document_title: List of Olympic medalists in ski jumping

question_text: who has won the most gold medals in ski jumping

text: Men[edit]

text: Large hill individual[edit]

text:
Edition
Place
Date
Hill
Gold
Silver
Bronze

1924
 Chamonix
4 February
K71
 Jacob Tullin Thams
 Narve Bonna
 Anders Haugen

1928
 St. Moritz
18 February
K66
 Alf Andersen
 Sigmund Ruud
 Rudolf Burkert

1932
 Lake Placid
12 February
K61
 Birger Ruud
 Hans Beck
 Kaare Wahlberg

1936
 Garmisch-Partenkirchen
16 February
K80
 Birger Ruud
 Sven Eriksson
 Reidar Andersen

1948
 St. Moritz
7 February
K68
 Petter Hugsted
 Birger Ruud
 Thorleif Schjelderup

1952
 Oslo
24 February
K72
 Arnfinn Bergmann
 Torbjørn Falkanger
 Karl Holmström

1956
 Cortina d'Ampezzo
5 February
K80
 Antti Hyvärinen
 Aulis Kallakorpi
 Harry Glaß

1960
 Squaw Valley
28 February
K80
 Helmut Recknagel
 Niilo Halonen
 Otto Leodolter

1964
 Innsbruck
9 February
K91
 Toralf Engan
 Veikko Kankkonen
 Torgeir Brandtzæg

1968
 Grenoble
18 February
K90
 Vladimir Belousov
 Jiří Raška
 Lars Grini

1972
 Sapporo
11 February
K110
 Wojciech Fortuna
 Walter Steiner
 Rainer Schmidt

1976
 Innsbruck
15 February
K104
 Karl Schnabl
 Toni Innauer
 Henry Glaß

1980
 Lake Placid
23 February
K114
 Jouko Törmänen
 Hubert Neuper
 Jari Puikkonen

1984
 Sarajevo
18 February
K112
 Matti Nykänen
 Jens Weißflog
 Pavel Ploc

1988
 Calgary
23 February
K114
 Matti Nykänen
 Erik Johnsen
 Matjaž Debelak

1992
 Albertville
16 February
K120
 Toni Nieminen
 Martin Höllwarth
 Heinz Kuttin

1994
 Lillehammer
20 February
K120
 Jens Weißflog
 Espen Bredesen
 Andreas Goldberger

1998
 Nagano
15 February
K120
 Kazuyoshi Funaki
 Jani Soininen
 Masahiko Harada

2002
 Salt Lake City
13 February
K120
 Simon Ammann
 Adam Małysz
 Matti Hautamäki

2006
 Turin
18 February
HS140
 Thomas Morgenstern
 Andreas Kofler
 Lars Bystøl

2010
 Vancouver
20 February
HS140
 Simon Ammann
 Adam Małysz
 Gregor Schlierenzauer

2014
 Sochi
15 February
HS140
 Kamil Stoch
 Noriaki Kasai
 Peter Prevc

2018
 Pyeongchang
17 February
HS142
 Kamil Stoch
 Andreas Wellinger
 Robert Johansson

text: Medals:

text:
[show]Rank
Nation
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Total

1
 Norway
7
7
7
21

2
 Finland
5
4
2
11

3
 Poland
3
2
0
5

4
 Germany
2
1
1
4

5
 Austria
1
4
3
8

6
 Japan
1
1
1
3

7
  Switzerland
1
1
0
2

8
 Soviet Union
1
0
0
1

9
 East Germany
0
1
2
3

11
 Czechoslovakia. Sweden
0
1
1
2

14
 Slovenia. United States. Yugoslavia
0
0
1
1

text: The individual large hill event is one of ten events that has been in every Winter Olympic Games.

text: Normal hill individual[edit]

text:
Edition
Place
Date
Hill
Gold
Silver
Bronzee

1964
 Innsbruck
31 January
K72.5
 Veikko Kankkonen
 Toralf Engan
 Torgeir Brandtzæg

1968
 Grenoble
11 February
K70
 Jiří Raška
 Reinhold Bachler
 Baldur Preiml

1972
 Sapporo
6 February
K86
 Yukio Kasaya
 Akitsugu Konno
 Seiji Aochi

1976
 Innsbruck
7 February
K84
 Hans-Georg Aschenbach
 Jochen Danneberg
 Karl Schnabl

1980
 Lake Placid
17 February
K86
 Toni Innauer
 Manfred Deckert
 Hirokazu Yagi

1984
 Sarajevo
12 February
K90
 Jens Weißflog
 Matti Nykänen
 Jari Puikkonen

1988
 Calgary
14 February
K89
 Matti Nykänen
 Pavel Ploc
 Jiří Malec

1992
 Albertville
9 February
K90
 Ernst Vettori
 Martin Höllwarth
 Toni Nieminen

1994
 Lillehammer
25 February
K90
 Espen Bredesen
 Lasse Ottesen
 Dieter Thoma

1998
 Nagano
11 February
K90
 Jani Soininen
 Kazuyoshi Funaki
 Andreas Widhölzl

2002
 Salt Lake City
10 February
K90
 Simon Ammann
 Sven Hannawald
 Adam Małysz

2006
 Turin
11 February
HS106
 Lars Bystøl
 Matti Hautamäki
 Roar Ljøkelsøy

2010
 Vancouver
13 February
HS106
 Simon Ammann
 Adam Małysz
 Gregor Schlierenzauer

2014
 Sochi
9 February
HS105
 Kamil Stoch
 Peter Prevc
 Anders Bardal

2018
 Pyeongchang
10 February
HS109
 Andreas Wellinger
 Johann André Forfang
 Robert Johansson

text: Medals:

text:
[show]Rank
Nation
Gold
Silver
Bronze

1
 Finland
3
2
2

2
 Norway
2
3
4

3
 Austria
2
2
4

4
 East Germany
2
2
0

5
  Switzerland
2
0
0

8
 Japan
1
3
1

11
 Czech Republic. Germany. Poland
1
1
1

12
 Slovakia
0
1
0

text: Large hill team[edit]

text:
Edition
Place
Date
Hill
Gold
Silver
Bronze

1988
 Calgary
24 February
K114
 Finland

Ari-Pekka Nikkola
Matti Nykänen
Tuomo Ylipulli
>Jari Puikkonen

 Yugoslavia

Primož Ulaga
Matjaž Zupan
Matjaž Debelak
Miran Tepeš

 Norway

Ole Christian Eidhammer
Jon Inge Kjørum
Ole Gunnar Fidjestøl
Erik Johnsen

1992
 Albertville
14 February
K120
 Finland

Ari-Pekka Nikkola
Mika Laitinen
Risto Laakkonen
Toni Nieminen

 Austria

Heinz Kuttin
Ernst Vettori
Martin Höllwarth
Andreas Felder

 Czechoslovakia

František Jež
Tomáš Goder
Jaroslav Sakala
Jiří Parma

1994
 Lillehammer
22 February
K120
 Germany

Hansjörg Jäkle
Christof Duffner
Dieter Thoma
Jens Weißflog

 Japan

Jin'ya Nishikata
Takanobu Okabe
Noriaki Kasai
Masahiko Harada

 Austria

Heinz Kuttin
Christian Moser
Stefan Horngacher
Andreas Goldberger

1998
 Nagano
17 February
K120
 Japan

Takanobu Okabe
Hiroya Saitō
Masahiko Harada
Kazuyoshi Funaki

 Germany

Sven Hannawald
Martin Schmitt
Hansjörg Jäkle
Dieter Thoma

 Austria

Reinhard Schwarzenberger
Martin Höllwarth
Stefan Horngacher
Andreas Widhölzl

2002
 Salt Lake City
18 February
K120
 Germany

Michael Uhrmann
Stephan Hocke
Sven Hannawald
Martin Schmitt

 Finland

Matti Hautamäki
Veli-Matti Lindström
Risto Jussilainen
Janne Ahonen

 Slovenia

Damjan Fras
Primož Peterka
Robert Kranjec
Peter Žonta

2006
 Turin
20 February
HS140
 Austria

Andreas Widhölzl
Andreas Kofler
Martin Koch
Thomas Morgenstern

 Finland

Tami Kiuru
Janne Happonen
Janne Ahonen
Matti Hautamäki

 Norway

Lars Bystøl
Bjørn Einar Romøren
Tommy Ingebrigtsen
Roar Ljøkelsøy

2010
 Vancouver
22 February
HS140
 Austria

Wolfgang Loitzl
Andreas Kofler
Thomas Morgenstern
Gregor Schlierenzauer

 Germany

Michael Neumayer
Andreas Wank
Martin Schmitt
Michael Uhrmann

 Norway

Anders Bardal
Tom Hilde
Johan Remen Evensen
Anders Jacobsen

2014
 Sochi
17 February
HS140
 Germany

Andreas Wank
Marinus Kraus
Andreas Wellinger
Severin Freund

 Austria

Michael Hayböck
Thomas Morgenstern
Thomas Diethart
Gregor Schlierenzauer

 Japan

Reruhi Shimizu
Taku Takeuchi
Daiki Ito
Noriaki Kasai

2018
 Pyeongchang
19 February
HS142
 Norway

Daniel-André Tande
Andreas Stjernen
Johann André Forfang
Robert Johansson

 Germany

Karl Geiger
Stephan Leyhe
Richard Freitag
Andreas Wellinger

 Poland

Maciej Kot
Stefan Hula
Dawid Kubacki
Kamil Stoch

text: Ladies[edit]

text: Normal hill individual[edit]

text:
Edition
Place
Date
Hill
Gold
Silver
Bronze

2014
 Sochi
11 February
HS105
 Carina Vogt
 Daniela Iraschko-Stolz
 Coline Mattel

2018
 Pyeongchang
12 February
HS109
 Maren Lundby
 Katharina Althaus
 Sara Takanashi

text: Statistics[edit]

text: Athlete medal leaders[edit]

text: Four or more Olympic medals in ski jumping:[1]

text:
Athlete
Nation
Medal years
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Total

Nykänen, MattiMatti Nykänen
 Finland (FIN)
1984–1988
4
1
0
5

Ammann, SimonSimon Ammann
 Switzerland (SUI)
2002, 2010
4
0
0
4

Weißflog, JensJens Weißflog
 East Germany (GDR)
 Germany (GER)
1984, 1994
3
1
0
4

Morgenstern, ThomasThomas Morgenstern
 Austria (AUT)
2006–2014
3
1
0
4

Stoch, KamilKamil Stoch
 Poland (POL)
2014–2018
3
0
1
4

Wellinger, AndreasAndreas Wellinger
 Germany (GER)
2014–2018
2
2
0
4

Schlierenzauer, GregorGregor Schlierenzauer
 Austria (AUT)
2010–2014
1
1
2
4

Höllwarth, MartinMartin Höllwarth
 Austria (AUT)
1992, 1998
0
3
1
4

Małysz, AdamAdam Małysz
 Poland (POL)
2002, 2010
0
3
1
4

Hautamäki, MattiMatti Hautamäki
 Finland (FIN)
2002–2006
0
3
1
4

text: Medals per year[edit]

text:
×
NOC did not exist or did not participate
#
Number of medals won by the NOC
–
NOC did not win any medals

text:
NOC
24
28
32
36
48
52
56
60
64
68
72
76
80
84
88
92
94
98
02
06
10
14
18
Total

 Austria (AUT)
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
1
0 !–
2
0 !–
3
2
0 !–
0 !–
5
2
2
0 !–
3
3
2
0 !–
25

 Czechoslovakia (TCH)
0 !–
1
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
2
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
1
2
1
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
7

 Finland (FIN)
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
2
1
2
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
2
3
3
3
0 !–
2
2
2
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
22

 France (FRA)
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
1
0 !–
1

 Germany (GER)
×
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
×
0 !–
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
0 !–
3
1
2
0 !–
1
2
4
13

 United Team of Germany (EUA)
×
×
×
×
×
×
1
1
0 !–
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
2

 East Germany (GDR)
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
1
3
1
2
0 !–
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
7

 Japan (JPN)
×
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
×
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
3
0 !–
1
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
1
4
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
2
1
12

 Norway (NOR)
2
2
3
2
3
2
0 !–
0 !–
4
1
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
2
0 !–
3
0 !–
0 !–
4
1
1
5
35

 Poland (POL)
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
1
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
2
0 !–
2
2
2
9

 Slovenia (SLO)
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
1
0 !–
0 !–
2
0 !–
3

 Soviet Union (URS)
×
×
×
×
×
×
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
1
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
1

 Sweden (SWE)
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
1
0 !–
1
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
2

 Switzerland (SUI)
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
1
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
2
0 !–
2
0 !–
0 !–
5

 United States (USA)
1
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
1

 Yugoslavia (YUG)
0 !–
0 !–
×
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
×
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
0 !–
2
0 !–
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
2

text: Medal sweep events[edit]

text: These are events in which athletes from one NOC won all three medals.

text:
Games
Event
NOC
Gold
Silver
Bronze

1932 Lake Placid
Large Hill
 Norway (NOR)
Birger Ruud
Hans Beck
Kaare Wahlberg

1948 St. Moritz
Large Hill
Petter Hugsted
Birger Ruud
Thorleif Schjelderup

1972 Sapporo
Normal Hill
 Japan (JPN)
Yukio Kasaya
Akitsugu Konno
Seiji Aochi