British Tallboy bombs capsized the Nazi battleship Tirpitz in 1944

historyWikipedia1941 · Norway

British Tallboy bombs capsized the Nazi battleship Tirpitz in 1944

the gist

Tirpitz was the second of two Bismarck-class battleships built for Nazi Germany's navy in the late 1930s. She was commissioned in February 1941 and was about 2,000 tonnes heavier than her sister ship, making her the heaviest battleship ever built by a European navy. Based in Norway, she tied down large British naval forces simply by existing, acting as a fleet in being. In September 1943 she bombarded Allied positions on Spitzbergen, the only time she used her main guns offensively. On 12 November 1944, Lancaster bombers carrying 12,000-pound Tallboy bombs hit her twice and near-missed once, and she capsized rapidly. Between 950 and 1,204 men died.

so what

Tirpitz shows how air power and new bombs could destroy the largest warships that had once dominated naval strategy. Her wreck was later broken up by a joint Norwegian and German salvage operation between 1948 and 1957.

fun fact

Tirpitz was named after Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the architect of the Imperial German Navy.

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗