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torpedo , in naval warfare

(Encyclopedia)torpedo, in naval warfare, a self-propelled submarine projectile loaded with explosives, used for the destruction of enemy ships. Although there were attempts at subsurface warfare in the 16th and 17t...

zaibatsu

(Encyclopedia)zaibatsu zīˈbätso͞o [key] [Jap.,=money clique], the great family-controlled banking and industrial combines of modern Japan. The leading zaibatsu (called keiretsu after World War II) are Mitsui, M...

McCrae, John

(Encyclopedia)McCrae, John məkrāˈ [key], 1872–1918, Canadian physician and poet. His famous poem “In Flanders Fields,” written under fire during World War I, was published anonymously in Punch in 1915 and ...

Jagow, Gottlieb von

(Encyclopedia)Jagow, Gottlieb von gôtˈlēp fən yäˈgō [key], 1863–1935, German diplomat and foreign minister (1913–16). In the negotiations preceding World War I he sought to give the impression that Germa...

Ribbentrop, Joachim von

(Encyclopedia)Ribbentrop, Joachim von yōˈaäkhĭm fən rĭbˈəntrôp [key], 1893–1946, German foreign minister (1938–45). After World War I he became a wealthy champagne merchant. He joined the National Soci...

George VI, king of Great Britain and Ireland

(Encyclopedia)George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George), 1895–1952, king of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1936–52), second son of George V; successor of his elder brother, Edward VIII. He attended the ro...

Fort George G. Meade

(Encyclopedia)Fort George G. Meade, U.S. army post, 13,500 acres (5,460 hectares), central Md., between Baltimore and Washington, D.C.; est. 1917 as a World War I induction center. ...

Potsdam

(Encyclopedia)Potsdam pŏtsˈdăm [key], city (1994 pop. 139,262), capital of Brandenburg, E Germany, on the Havel River, near Berlin. It is an industrial center and rail junction. Manufactures include processed fo...

Hašek, Jaroslav

(Encyclopedia)Hašek, Jaroslav yäˈrōsläf häˈshĕk [key], 1883–1923, Czech writer, b. Prague. His experiences as a soldier in World War I inspired his famous novel The Good Soldier Schweik (4 vol., 1920–23...

Kiel

(Encyclopedia)Kiel kēl [key], city (1994 pop. 248,930), capital of Schleswig-Holstein, N central Germany, on Kiel Bay, an arm of the Baltic Sea. Situated at the head of the Kiel Canal, the city was Germany's chief...