2017 Portland train attack

On May 26, 2017, Jeremy Joseph Christian fatally stabbed two men and injured a third after he was confronted for shouting racist and anti-Muslim slurs at two black teenagers, Destinee Mangum and Walia Mohamed, on a MAX Light Rail train in Portland, Oregon. Two of the victims, Ricky John Best of Happy Valley and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche of Portland, were killed; the third victim, Micah David-Cole Fletcher, survived serious wounds.

Christian, a white supremacist and self-described white nationalist, was arrested and indicted soon after the attack on charges of murder, attempted murder, and other crimes, including a separate hate-crime assault the day before the fatal attack. In February 2020, following a jury trial, Christian was found guilty on all counts. Christian was sentenced on June 24, 2020, to two life terms without parole.

The attack was widely condemned by the Portland community, politicians, and civil rights groups, some of which said it represented a rise in hate speech, racism, and Islamophobic incidents in the United States.

## Attack

At about 4:30 p.m. PDT on May 26, 2017, Jeremy Joseph Christian fatally stabbed two people and injured a third on a MAX Light Rail train after he was confronted for directing what the Portland Police Bureau's report later said "would best be characterized as hate speech toward a variety of ethnicities and religions" at two girls on a Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) light-rail train. A witness reported that Christian used anti-Muslim slurs and "was screaming that he was a taxpayer, that colored people were ruining the city, and he had First Amendment rights". Portland police described Christian "as yelling and ranting and raving a lot of different things, including what we characterized as hate speech or biased language".

At the time, although not at its rush-hour peak, the train car was crowded, with all the seats filled and some passengers standing. As the man continued ranting, the train operator was heard on the loudspeaker, saying "Whoever is creating the disturbance needs to exit the train immediately." The man continued, however, directing his tirade at a 17-year-old Muslim Somali girl, who was wearing a hijab, and her non-Muslim friend, a black girl, age 16. The man told the girls to "go back to Saudi Arabia", to get out of "his country", and "said they were nothing and they should kill themselves". He also reportedly said that "Muslims should die." Fearful, the pair moved to the back of the train as Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, and Micah David-Cole Fletcher—stepped in to intervene in an attempt to de-escalate the situation. According to a witness, Namkai-Meche told Christian in an angry voice: "You need to get off this train. Please, get off this train." The witness said that the men attempted to form a barrier between Christian and the girls. Then Micah David-Cole Fletcher gave him "a slight push or shove" in an attempt to move him away. Christian fell backward and Fletcher pushed him again. Christian said: "Touch me again, and I'm going to kill you." Namkai-Meche was filming with his phone and appeared to be smiling in a video of the event. According to police, Christian then stabbed Ricky Best, who was nearby, and Namkai-Meche and Fletcher by slashing them with a knife. The stabbings happened within less than 12 seconds. At the Hollywood/Northeast 42nd Avenue Transit Center, passengers fled the car, as did Christian. He ran into the Hollywood neighborhood, chased by other passengers who had called 9-1-1.

After Fletcher was stabbed, a man rushed to him and rendered first aid. Three other men gave first aid to Best until EMS personnel arrived. Medics were unable to revive Best and he was declared dead at the scene; Namkai-Meche died later at a local hospital. The two girls also fled the train following the incident, leaving their belongings behind. After the attack, the station and MAX Light Rail trains were shut down in both directions for several hours.

Following their arrival at the station, police were able to locate Christian. A group of at least eight officers arrested him "on the north side of Providence Portland Medical Center on an access road running along Interstate 84, just east of 47th Avenue, at 4:48 p.m.". According to a police affidavit filed subsequently in court, during the arrest Christian threw a folding knife with a 3.75-inch (95 mm) blade that hit a police car and bounced off of it. The police affidavit also states that patrol car video footage shows Christian saying after his arrest, "I just stabbed a bunch of motherfuckers in the neck ... I can die in prison a happy man", and about one of the men on the train who had confronted him, he said, "That's what liberalism gets you."

## Investigation

Christian was booked into the Multnomah County jail. The FBI assisted Portland police in the investigation. Renn Cannon, of the Portland FBI field office, said at the time, "It's too early to say whether last night's violence was an act of domestic terrorism or a federal hate crime."

## Theft from a victim

In the early morning of June 2, 2017, police arrested 51-year-old George Elwood Tschaggeny, who lived in a small homeless camp near the platform where the train stopped after the attack. According to police and prosecutors, Tschaggeny removed the wedding band from Best's finger and stole Best's backpack and wallet. He was arrested after police viewed surveillance video showing the theft and obtained a community tip on the thief's identity. According to police, he was wearing Best's ring when he was arrested and had the backpack and contents of Best's wallet. Tschaggeny was a heroin addict. He was arraigned on charges of identity theft, second-degree abuse of a corpse, first-degree theft and tampering with physical evidence. After a guilty plea on November 14, 2017, he was sentenced to 13 months in jail followed by five years of probation and court-supervised drug treatment.

## Prosecution of Jeremy Joseph Christian

### Indictment and pretrial proceedings

Christian was charged with two counts of aggravated murder and one count of attempted murder, as well as three misdemeanors: two counts of second-degree intimidation and one count of being a felon possessing a restricted weapon. At his arraignment on May 30, 2017, Christian began yelling a variety of slogans as soon as he entered the courtroom, shouting: "Get out if you don't like free speech. You call it terrorism, I call it patriotism. You hear me? Die." He also yelled: "Leave this country if you hate our freedom—death to antifa!"

On June 6 the Multnomah County grand jury indicted Christian on 15 counts. Of these, 11 related to the May 26 stabbings (two counts of aggravated murder, one count of attempted aggravated murder, one count of first-degree assault, one count of second-degree assault, five counts of unlawful use of a weapon, three counts of second-degree intimidation and two counts of menacing) and four related to conduct the day before the stabbing, when Christian threw a plastic bottle at a black woman at the Interstate/Rose Quarter MAX Station. Another outburst occurred at a brief, 85-second court appearance on June 7. Christian shouted that he was not guilty and that he acted in self-defense against the "violent aggression by Micah Fletcher". Christian pleaded not guilty to all charges.

A Portland television station sought the release of warrants and affidavits related to the investigation; in October 2017, a federal judge denied the motion due to concerns that the release could prejudice potential jurors. In November 2017, a bail hearing was held; Christian was denied bail.

On November 1, 2019, pursuant to a new state law, Christian's aggravated murder charges were downgraded to first-degree murder, eliminating the possibility of the death penalty.

### Trial, conviction, and sentencing

The trial was initially scheduled to begin in June 2019 but was delayed for an additional six months to allow time for further pretrial proceedings. The judge denied Christian's request for a change of venue. Opening arguments for Christian's trial began January 28, 2020. In February 2019, Christian's attorneys filed a notice indicating that, at trial, the defense planned to raise mental health defenses. The defense team indicated that it might argue three such defenses: a "guilty except for insanity" defense, asserting that Christian was so mentally disturbed as to be incapable of forming criminal intent; a defense that Christian's mental illness made him only "partially responsible" for the offenses; and a defense that Christian was acting under extreme emotional disturbance.

At trial, prosecutors presented the testimony of 40 witnesses against Christian, including Micah Fletcher, who was wounded in the stabbing. A Portland homicide detective who interviewed Fletcher also testified and showed the jury the folding knife that was used. Cell phone videos and TriMet surveillance videos showing Christian stabbing the victims were introduced into evidence. Extensive video and audiorecordings of Christian's post-arrest rantings were also played to the jury. Christian did not testify in his own defense. The attorneys made their closing arguments on February 19; after 11 hours of deliberation over two days, on February 21 the jury announced they unanimously found Christian guilty on all counts. On June 24, 2020, Christian was sentenced to two consecutive life terms—one for each count of first-degree murder—with no possibility of parole. Christian was given an additional 51.5 years for related charges. During the sentencing hearing, Christian was removed from the courtroom after a furious outburst directed at one of his surviving victims.

## Perpetrator's prior history

Jeremy Joseph Christian had been convicted previously of kidnapping and the robbery of a convenience store in May 2002, and he was sentenced to 90 months in prison for that offense. During the robbery, he wore a ski mask, wielded a .38-caliber revolver, and handcuffed the store owner to a pole in the store; he was apprehended several blocks away from the store. Christian was also arrested in 2010 on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and theft, but those charges were later dropped. Christian "told officials he is a transient and doesn’t know the last time he had a permanent address." He held extremist views, posting neo-Nazi, antisemitic, and far-right material on social media, as well as material indicating an affinity for political violence. Christian described himself as a white nationalist. The Oregonian noted that Christian made many contradictory Facebook posts, but that such contradictions are typical of extremists. It said his posts "reveal a comic book collector with nebulous political affiliations who above all else seemed to hate circumcision and Hillary Clinton". At times he expressed support for Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, although he wrote that he did not vote. According to friends and acquaintances, Christian's actions were becoming increasingly unstable, and he was in need of mental help, but he had not been given a formal diagnosis.

In April 2017, Christian wrote, "I just Challenged Ben Ferencz (Last Living Nuremberg Persecutor [sic]) to a Debate in the Hague with Putin as our judge. I will defend the Nazis and he will defend the AshkeNAZIs [a reference to European Jews]." He praised Timothy McVeigh in an online posting on April 19, the anniversary of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. He also "posted conspiracy theory memes from the right-wing Alex Jones Channel".

According to The Portland Mercury, Christian was a "known right-wing extremist and white supremacist". He had participated in various alt-right rallies in Portland. One month before the stabbing, Christian appeared at the right-wing March for Free Speech in Portland's Montavilla Park, which was organized by Patriot Prayer. He wore a Revolutionary War-era flag of the United States and carried a baseball bat, which police confiscated. He gave Nazi salutes and used a racial slur at least once. At the event, Christian was videotaped shouting "Die, Muslims!" The day before the killings, Christian had made racial threats on another train, threatened a conductor, and hurled a bottle at a black woman who then maced him, as seen on cell phone videos. Christian told police that he had dropped out of high school but later earned his high school equivalency and took classes at Portland Community College for a year. He identified himself to police as a transient who did "not know the last time he had a permanent address" and lived with friends and family.

## Victims

Ricky John Best, 53, of Happy Valley, died at the scene. He was a technician for the City of Portland's Bureau of Development Services, a U.S. Army veteran, and a father of four children. In 2012, he retired from the Army after more than twenty years of service.

Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, of Ashland, died at a hospital shortly after the attack. He had recently graduated from Reed College with a degree in economics and worked for the Cadmus Group consulting firm. A passenger who helped him reported his last words: "Tell everyone on this train I love them."

Micah David-Cole Fletcher, 21, survived and was treated at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center for serious but not life-threatening wounds, specifically a knife injury to his throat. The attacker severed Micah's left jugular vein, while narrowly missing his carotid artery by one millimetre (0.039 in). Fletcher was released from the hospital in time to attend Christian's arraignment on May 30, 2017. Fletcher, a student at Portland State University, won a poetry contest in 2013 while he was a junior in high school with a poem about Islamophobia in the United States.

Christian and Fletcher had both attended a "free speech" rally in Montavilla about a month prior to the attack. Christian was with a right-wing group, while Fletcher was a counter-protester.

Destinee Mangum, one of the two girls harassed by the assailant, expressed her gratitude to the three men who stepped in to help her.

## Reactions

### Community

Hundreds of people gathered near the Hollywood Transit Center on the evening of May 27 for a candlelight vigil to honor the victims. Three crowdfunding campaigns set up to help the victims' families raised \$1 million by May 29. Muslims in Portland said they were thankful for the support of the community after the attack. Wadji Said of the Interfaith Council of Portland compared the attack to the 1988 murder of Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian immigrant who was slain by a group of racist skinheads in Portland.

### Politicians and officials

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler called the victims of the attack "heroes" in a statement released on May 27. He continued saying, "Their actions were brave and selfless, and should serve as an example and inspiration to us all." Governor of Oregon Kate Brown echoed this sentiment, calling on all Oregonians to come together: "Let's not let hate and fear divide us. Instead let's take the example of the good Samaritans who sacrificed their lives for the safety of others and unite for a kinder, gentler Oregon." In the wake of the stabbings, the mayor called on the federal government to withhold a permit for a "Trump Free Speech Rally" at Terry Schrunk Plaza, a federal enclave adjacent to city hall. The mayor said on Twitter that the rally "can only exacerbate an already difficult situation" in the city. He also called for withholding a permit for an ACT! for America rally at the same location. The ACLU of Oregon criticized the mayor's remarks. ACT! for America subsequently cancelled its planned anti-Muslim march in Portland, moving it to Seattle.

Former candidate for the 2016 presidential election Hillary Clinton called the incident "heartbreaking" and said that "No one should have to endure this racist abuse. No one should have to give their life to stop it." Oregon's U.S. Senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, expressed their grief and condolences for the victims. Merkley urged President Trump to "speak out personally against the rising tide of Islamophobia and other forms of bigotry and racism in our nation that he has provoked through his numerous statements, policies and appointments". U.S. Representatives Suzanne Bonamici and Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, and other officials also gave their condolences. U.S. Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim elected to Congress, said that the three men "exhibited the best qualities of American heroes". President Trump delayed commenting on the stabbing attack, leading to public pressure on him to do so. Later, a message was posted on Trump's presidential Twitter account, stating "The violent attacks in Portland on Friday are unacceptable. The victims were standing up to hate and intolerance. Our prayers are w/ them." The Portland police contacted the Muslim community to discuss increased patrolling during Ramadan. The bureau's spokesperson said, "Our thoughts are with the Muslim community. As something like this happens, this only instills fear in that community."

### Organizations

The Anti-Defamation League, in a statement by its CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, offered its condolences to the victims, praised the heroism of bystanders who intervened, and said: "The deadly attack in Portland is not a rare or isolated event. Rather, this is the latest in a long string of violent incidents connected to right-wing extremists in the United States... This consistent threat requires consistent resources and we call on our leaders to condemn this brutal act of terror and craft policy to counter all forms of violent extremism, including white supremacy."

The Council on American–Islamic Relations asked President Trump to denounce "rising bigotry" and violence against Muslims. The organization's executive director said, "President Trump must speak out personally against the rising tide of Islamophobia and other forms of bigotry and racism in our nation that he has provoked through his numerous statements, policies and appointments that have negatively impacted minority communities." Imtiaz Khan, who serves as president of the Islamic Center of Portland, said: "We are very sad. Ramadan started just a couple of hours ago. We are very sorry for the two men who tried to do the right thing.... Of course people from the Muslim community are concerned. And, unfortunately, the easy targets are women because of the headscarf." Khan also praised the two men who were slain, saying they "really sacrificed everything. They really stood up for the values of the Constitution."

Harris Zafar with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Portland said the actions of the men who stepped in to defend the Muslim women inspired him. The Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon expressed grief for the tragedy and hoped it would "draw Muslim communities together".

## See also

- List of homicides in Oregon
- 2016 Minneapolis shooting
- 2017 Olathe, Kansas shooting
- Stabbing of Timothy Caughman
- We Choose Love

Racially-motivated harassment and stabbing on a train in Portland, Oregon

African-American history in Portland, Oregon

Anti-Muslim violence in the United States

Neo-fascist terrorist incidents in the United States

Racially motivated violence in the United States


57th Rifle Division

The 57th Rifle Division (Russian: 57-я стрелковая дивизия) was an infantry division of the Red Army and the Soviet Army.

The division was originally formed in late 1920 as the 24th Rifle Division of the Internal Service Troops (VNUS) in the closing stages of the Russian Civil War. It was transferred to the Red Army in early 1921 as the 57th Rifle Division. The division served in the Urals as a territorial division during the 1920s and early 1930s. Transferred to the Transbaikal in 1932, it fought in the Battles of Khalkhin Gol in mid-1939 and was reorganized as the 57th Motor Rifle Division in 1940. Having spent much of World War II on garrison duty in the Mongolian People's Republic, the division participated in the August 1945 Soviet invasion of Manchuria, but did not see combat. It was converted into a rifle division again in 1946, before being reduced to the 55th Separate Rifle Regiment in early 1947.

## Russian Civil War and Interwar period

The 24th Rifle Division of the Internal Service Troops (VNUS) was formed in accordance with an order of the Ural Military District VNUS on 25 October 1920 from VNUS units deployed in Vyatka, Yekaterinburg, and Perm Governorates. It was subordinated to the Ural Military District VNUS, and included the 69th, 70th, and 71st VNUS Brigades. Between February and April 1921, separate units of the division fought in the suppression of the West Siberian revolt, a series of anti-Soviet peasant uprisings in the area of Tyumen, Ishim, and Petropavlovsk.

Following the transfer of VNUS troops to the Red Army on 4 March, the division was redesignated as the 57th Rifle Division of Field Troops by an 18 March order of the Ural Military District. This subordinated it to the Ural Military District. On 30 November, the division became the 57th Yekaterinburg Rifle Division. The division included the 112th, 113th and 114th Rifle Regiments, which were later renumbered as the 169th, 170th, and 171st. In June 1922, the division transferred to the West Siberian Military District when the Ural Military District was disbanded. Between 1922 and August 1923 the 57th was commanded by Ivan Onufriyev. It became part of the Volga Military District in February 1923. On 12 June 1924, its Yekaterinburg honorific was replaced by the Ural honorific. Between 1924 and March 1932, the division was a reduced strength territorial division. It was commanded by Nikolay Uvarov between October 1924 and 1928, Viktor Dobrovolsky between July 1928 and July 1930, and by Yevgeny Danenberg from February 1931 to August 1935. In June 1931, the division provided a cadre for the formation of the 85th Rifle Division.

In early March 1932, the division was transferred to the Soviet Far East and became part of the Transbaikal Group of Forces, part of the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army. A cadre from the 169th Regiment was left behind to form the replacement 82nd Territorial Rifle Division. It was stationed at Olovyannaya, except for the 170th Regiment at Sretensk. In June 1935, the Transbaikal Group of Forces was split from the army to become the Transbaikal Military District. In the late 1930s, its regiments were renumbered in an attempt to confuse foreign intelligence: the 169th Perm became the 80th, the 170th Sverdlovsk the 127th, the 171st Chelyabinsk the 293rd, and the 57th Ural Artillery the 105th. Komdiv Vyacheslav Tsvetayev took command of the division in February 1937. He was arrested in July 1938 during the Great Purge, charged with "counter-revolutionary activities" after the wounding of eleven soldiers by the explosion of an artillery shell during the division's 1938 May Day parade. In August, Colonel Ivan Galanin took command of the division.

## Khalkhin Gol

As a result of a series of border clashes with Japanese troops at Khalkhin Gol, the division was alerted for combat on 29 June 1939. Simultaneously, a large number of its officers and vehicles were taken from its units to reinforce units already involved in the fighting. The division was loaded into echelons to be sent to the front, ostensibly for a training exercise, arriving in the second echelon on 5 August. From then until 18 August the 57th spent between 10 and 12 hours a day in intense training, preparing for combat. The 57th became part of the 1st Army Group, commanded by Komkor Georgy Zhukov. Under Zhukov's plan, the division formed part of the southern group of the 1st Army Group, which was to encircle the Japanese troops in tandem with the northern group by destroying the Japanese troops north of the Holsten River, then attack towards Nomonhan. The southern group also included the entire 6th Light Tank Brigade and the majority of the 8th Armored Motor and 11th Light Tank Brigades. On the 57th's left was the 82nd Rifle Division of the central group. For the attack, the division was supported by an anti-tank battalion in addition to its organic field artillery and howitzer regiments.

By 20 August, it fielded 11,861 men, 10,310 rifles, 115 DP machine guns, 179 Maxim guns, 21 anti-aircraft machine guns, seven 12.7 mm DShK heavy machine guns, eight mortars, 86 grenade launchers, 36 76 mm regimental guns, 40 guns with calibers between 76 mm and 152 mm, four 76 mm anti-aircraft guns, 33 45 mm anti-tank guns, 14 tanks, and 15 armored cars. On 20 August, the division attacked from positions south and southeast of Noro Heights with the 293rd Regiment on the left and the 127th Regiment on the right. The 127th broke through the defenses of the Japanese 23rd Division's 71st Infantry Regiment to the northeast towards Height 757, while the 293rd destroyed the Japanese covering units and advanced to the forward line of the main Japanese position, but was unsuccessful in its attempts to capture it. The 80th Regiment advanced in the second wave on the 127th's right, reaching the fringe of its objective, the sector of Heights 780 and 791 (known in Russian as the Great Sands) by 19:00. Negligible Japanese forces were left in the gap between the 80th and 127th Regiments. The 57th advanced about 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) during the day, the largest advance of any Soviet unit for 20 August.

On 21 August, the division's reconnaissance battalion was used to fill the 4-kilometer (2.5 mi) gap that had opened between the 80th and 127th Regiments, advancing to the left of the group's armored units. On the next day, the troops of the division isolated and eliminated Japanese strongpoints, destroying bunkers with the aid of flamethrower tanks. Exceptionally strong resistance was encountered at two positions about 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) south of the Holsten, which was suppressed with the assistance of the flamethrower tanks. By the end of the 23 August, the entire Japanese line had been unhinged in the group's sector.

On 24 August, two Japanese infantry regiments with air support launched a counterattack to divert Soviet troops away from the encirclement southeast of Nomonhan. The division's 80th Rifle Regiment, along with the 6th Tank Brigade and an additional rifle regiment, was tasked with stopping the counterattack. They succeeded, while suffering casualties of 285 killed and wounded, as well as losing four tanks during the day. On 26 August it was ordered to attack the Japanese force in the flank. After the northern group reduced the Japanese strongpoints in its sector, the division's 127th and 293rd Regiments were tasked with mopping up the last major Japanese resistance, concentrated in fortified heights in the center. At 11:00 on 27 August, a battalion-sized Japanese group, with 75-millimeter (3.0 in) cannon and heavy machine guns, attempted to escape the encirclement, but was destroyed by the division. By the end of the day, the 57th had eliminated Japanese resistance south of the Holsten and secured the area, with the 127th Regiment crossing to the river's northern bank. On 28 August, the commander of the 127th Regiment, Major Nikolay Grukhin, was killed in action; he was posthumously made a Hero of the Soviet Union on 17 November. The mopping up was completed by 31 August, when the last Japanese troops were pushed back over the border claimed by Mongolia.

After organizing the defense of the claimed border, the 80th Regiment repulsed a 4 September attack by a Japanese force numbering up to a battalion in strength against its positions on the height of Eris-Ulin-Obo, killing six and capturing two. Two Japanese battalions surrounded and encircled a company of the 82nd Division's 603rd Rifle Regiment on 8 September; a counterattack launched by the latter and supported by artillery and the 57th's reconnaissance and tank battalions surrounded and destroyed the Japanese force by the morning of 9 September. The battle was officially ended by a Soviet-Mongolian-Japanese agreement signed in Moscow on 15 September, which declared a ceasefire that took effect on 16 September. The division suffered 836 casualties during the battle. After the end of the battle, the division was stationed at Khamar-Daba, then at Tamsagbulag in the Mongolian People's Republic. On 17 November, the division and its 127th and 293rd Rifle Regiments were awarded the Order of the Red Banner for their actions at Khalkhin Gol.

## World War II

### Garrison duty in Mongolia

By an order of 19 March 1940, the division was reorganized as the 57th Motor Rifle Division. Around the same time, the 234th Howitzer Artillery Regiment was disbanded. As a motor rifle division, it included the 80th, 127th, and 293rd Motor Rifle Regiments, and the 105th Artillery Regiment. After Galanin was sent west to command a rifle corps in June, Colonel Dmitry Samarsky took command in July. In July, the 57th became part of the Transbaikal District's newly formed 17th Army. On 1 November, it fielded 11,957 men with 19 anti-aircraft machine guns, seventy-one 45 mm guns, thirty-four 76 mm guns, twenty-four 122 mm guns, twelve 152 mm guns, two BT tanks, five T-26 tanks, nine other tanks, and 753 trucks, among other equipment.

Following the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, on 22 June 1941, the division remained with the 17th Army in Mongolia. It sent reinforcements to the front during the war. Samarsky was sent to the Eastern Front to become chief of staff of a field army in February 1942. He was replaced by the chief of the 17th Army cadre department, Colonel Ivan Khokhlov. Colonel Viktor Nikiforov (promoted to Major General 16 October 1943) took command of the division in July 1943, after Khokhlov was sent to study at the Higher Military Academy. In September, the 57th was subordinated to the newly formed 85th Rifle Corps of the army. Nikiforov was promoted to command the corps in April 1944, and was replaced by division deputy commander Lieutenant Colonel Nurey Zakirov, who was promoted to colonel on 10 August 1944.

### Soviet invasion of Manchuria

For the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, the division became part of the newly arrived 6th Guards Tank Army on 17 July 1945. The 127th Regiment handed over its border positions in the Khamar-Daba area to troops from the 39th Army on 19 July and camped on the eastern outskirts of Tamsagbulag. Three companies from the regiment were detached to protect airfields. On 21 July, it was subordinated to the commander of the army's 9th Guards Mechanized Corps. During this period, the division conducted training and was brought up to full readiness in weapons, ammunition, equipment, and vehicles. Officers surveyed the jumping off positions for the attack, while the division's units were alerted for combat. On 28 July, the corps ordered the division to move to new positions near wells 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) northeast of Lake Khala-Gaita-nur. At 15:00 on 28 July the division began the 45-kilometer (28 mi) march via two routes and by 8:00 on 30 July had reached the new positions. There, the 1st and 2nd Separate Tank Battalions with BT-7 light tanks were operationally subordinated to the division.

On 5 August, to prepare the jumping off positions, the advanced battalions of the three motor rifle regiments were withdrawn from Heights 935 and 941.1 on the Manchurian border. On the night of 7 to 8 August, elements of the division made a night march from the area of Height 752, 2.5 kilometers (1.6 mi) north of the jumping off positions, and by the morning of 8 August had reached the jumping off positions.

The invasion began on 9 August; the operations that the division participated in became known in Soviet historiography as the Khingan–Mukden Offensive. The division took two routes across the border, led by a reinforced forward detachment on each route. The first forward detachment, advancing along the rightward route from Heights 938 and 952, Ikhe-Sume, Toyromo-Pomunur, and the western outskirts of Bayan-Khoshun-Sume, included the 80th Regiment, supported by the 3rd Battalion of the 105th Artillery. By the end of the first day of the invasion, the first detachment was to reach a line on the south coast of Lake Surin-nur and Tametyamuso while covering the advance of the main forces of the division at Bayan-Khoshun-Sume. The second forward detachment, advancing along the leftward route from Heights 951, 877, 781, and 776, Senpokandzieru, and Pakasunur, included the 127th Regiment, supported by the 2nd Battalion of the 105th. By the end of the day, it was to advance to the line of Tametyamuso and Arakhorutok, covering the advance of the division's main forces. The advance detachments crossed the border at 00:05 on 9 August.

The main force consisted of the 293rd Regiment, the 1st Battalion of the 105th, the division headquarters, and support units. It advanced on the leftward route and was tasked with capturing Bayan-Khoshun-Sume by the end of the day, crossing the border at 04:30. By the end of 9 August, the division's advance detachments and main force units had entered Bayan-Khoshun-Sume after a 145-kilometer (90 mi) march, although the 293rd took two more days to reach the settlement. On 10 August, units of the division continued their march into the foothills of the Greater Khingan mountains, in difficult conditions via 50–60 kilometers (31–37 mi) of sandy roads with no water sources. On 12 August, units of the division, crossing the Greater Khingan via the Karakhon Pass, halted in the pass, where they put themselves in order and allowed time for slower-moving units to catch up. The units of the division also received supplies of fuel and rations. US supplied Studebaker and Ford trucks arrived to help speed the advance.

On 13 August, in accordance with a verbal order from the division commander, the units of the division took the route from Jarud to Lupei at 03:00. Despite rain and mud, the division marched to Lupei by the end of 14 August, where it concentrated. At Lupei the units turned over their trucks. On 15 August the division commander ordered elements of the division to continue on foot until more trucks could be received. The 57th continued the march from Lupei to Kailu and Tongliao. Due to a shortage of fuel, the 542nd Separate Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, the 76th Separate Medical-Sanitary Battalion, and a repair company were left behind at Lupei. By the end of the day, the units of the division were concentrated 45 kilometers (28 mi) south of Lupei at the village of Khoroail.

On 17 August, the 105th Artillery Regiment and the other artillery units were left behind with their transport due to a shortage of fuel. The motor rifle regiments and the 15th Separate Reconnaissance and 24th Separate Sapper Battalions continued to march towards Tongliao, following the route of Suburrga-Sume, Khorgot, and Ere Modo. The division's motor transport followed the route of Khroail, Kailu, and Tongliao.

At 12:00 on 22 August elements of the division reached Tongliao, where they rested for three hours. By an order of the 6th Guards Tank Army commander on 20 August, the division was to have two of its motor rifle regiments, with reinforcements, concentrate in Mukden by the end of the day on 28 August, leaving a regiment behind in Tongliao for garrison duty. The 293rd Regiment and 180th Anti-Tank (Tank Destroyer) Artillery Battalion were left behind in Tongliao, while the 80th and 127th Regiments, the 24th Separate Sapper Battalion, and the motorcycle company of the 15th Separate Reconnaissance Battalion were ordered to reach Mukden by the end of 28 August. These units formed an operational group of the division.

By the morning of 29 August, the operational group arrived in Mukden and was quartered in a gymnasium, where the Japanese units forming the city garrison were disarmed. Additionally, these elements of the division were ordered to identify depots, relocate prisoners of war to camps near Mukden, guard key locations, and maintain public order. Elements of the division remained in the city until 23 September; 36 detachments of the division were allocated for the escort of Japanese prisoners of war to Soviet territory. The division encountered no Japanese troops during its 950–1,000-kilometer (590–620 mi) march through the Greater Khingan to Mukden. For its march through the Greater Khingan, the division was awarded the honorific Khingan after the end of the campaign.

## Postwar

On 10 September, the division was ordered to march back to Tamsagbulag. The units in Tongliao (the 293rd Motor Rifle Regiment, 105th Artillery Regiment, 180th Anti-Tank (Tank Destroyer) Artillery Battalion, 542nd Separate Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, 486th Separate Self-Propelled Artillery Battalion, 76th Separate Medical-Sanitary Battalion, and 32nd Separate Communications Battalion) were ordered to take the route of Tongliao–Kailu–Lupei–Taoan–Wanemiao–Khalun-Arshan–Khandagai–Tamsagbulag on 18 September. On 23 September, the units in Mukden were transported back to Khalun-Arshan by railway echelon. Between 6 and 10 October the 57th's units returned to Tamsagbulag, where they engaged in the refurbishment of barracks and the preparation of peacetime training schedules.

Zakirov was replaced by Colonel Konstantin Lazarev in November 1945. In June 1946, the division was converted into a rifle division. By 1 August the 57th transferred to the 36th Army, part of the Transbaikal–Amur Military District. The division was reduced to the 55th Separate Rifle Regiment in January 1947 as the Soviet Army reduced the size of its infantry forces, before being disbanded in January 1953.

## Commanders

The following officers are known to have commanded the division:

- Ivan Onufriyev (1922 – August 1923)
- Nikolay Uvarov (October 1924 – 1928)
- Viktor Dobrovolsky (July 1928 – July 1930)
- Yevgeny Danenberg (February 1931 – August 1935)
- Komdiv Vyacheslav Tsvetayev (February 1937 – July 1938)
- Colonel Ivan Galanin (August 1938 – June 1940)
- Colonel Dmitry Samarsky (17 July 1940 – 20 January 1942)
- Colonel Ivan Khokhlov (21 January 1942 – 1 June 1943)
- Lieutenant Colonel Konstantin Lazarev (assigned but never actually took command; 19 June – 15 July 1943)
- Colonel Viktor Nikiforov (promoted to Major General 16 October 1943; 16 July 1943 – 3 April 1944)
- Lieutenant Colonel Nurey Zakirov (promoted to Colonel 10 August 1944; 4 April 1944 – after 3 September 1945)
- Colonel Konstantin Lazarev (November 1945 – January 1947)

Military units and formations awarded the Order of the Red Banner

Military units and formations disestablished in 1947

Military units and formations established in 1921


Ira Roe Foster

Ira Roe Foster (January 9, 1811 – November 19, 1885) was a teacher, medical doctor, attorney, soldier, businessman, and politician from South Carolina. During the 1840s, Foster served as brigadier general in the Georgia Militia.

With the outbreak of the American Civil War, he was appointed Quartermaster General of the state of Georgia, a position he continued to hold after the war's end. He remained active in Georgia state politics into the Reconstruction period. Foster was also elected first mayor of Eastman, Georgia. He served in the Georgia House of Representatives, and was elected to the state senates of both Georgia and Alabama.

## Early political life and careers

Ira Roe Foster was born on January 9, 1811, on the Tyger River, Spartanburg County, South Carolina, to Ransom and Nancy Foster. He became a school teacher at an early age, then studied medicine and practiced in South Carolina.

He moved to Georgia, likely in the later 1830s after Indian Removal, settling in Forsyth County. He was elected as a Democrat to the state senate, representing Forsyth County for one term, from 1838 to 1839. In 1841, Foster became a licensed lawyer in Cherokee County, Georgia. He was elected as that county's State Representative to the legislature. On September 2, 1845, U.S. Representative John H. Lumpkin wrote to President James K. Polk, urging President Polk to appoint Foster to a consular position in the West Indies. Lumpkin reminded the President that the whole of the Georgia delegation supported Foster's application. Foster did not receive the appointment.

In addition to being a merchant and attorney, Foster maintained extensive business interests in land and flour and saw mills in north-central Georgia and Alabama. In early 1850, he also invested in the Dahlonega and Marietta Turnpike and Plank Road Company.

## Military service

During the Seminole Indian War in 1836 in Florida, Foster served as a colonel of a mounted infantry. He was seriously wounded and carried on a litter for 50 miles. He recovered and joined the Georgia Militia in 1842, becoming aide-de-camp for the Commander-in-Chief. Foster was subsequently commissioned brigadier general of the 2nd Brigade of the 7th Division in 1845.

## Quartermaster General of Georgia

On May 18, 1861, during the early months of the American Civil War, Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown, to whom Foster had been both friend and political confidant, appointed Foster as Quartermaster General for the state of Georgia. His assistant was Edward M.B. Galt, whose title was Chief of Ordnance, charged with supervising the forging and turning of gun barrels. On May 21, 1861, within days of his appointment, Foster appealed to the women of Atlanta to meet at City Hall and "prepare one hundred uniforms for soldiers preparing to leave for Virginia." In the fall of 1861, the need to obtain clothing for the Confederate Army was (temporarily) satisfied by the establishment of Quartermaster's depots. Garment shops were set up and shoe shops built to manufacture needed military supplies. Georgia companies fighting in Virginia sent men back to their state to collect clothing and blankets for the troops. Adjutant-General Henry C. Wayne instructed Foster to "proceed personally, or by duly accredited agents, into all parts of the state, and buy 25,000 suits of clothes and 25,000 pairs of shoes for the destitute Ga. troops in the Confederate service."

Apart from that brief period in 1861 when supplies were adequate, Georgia soldiers were chronically in need of basic essentials. In December 1862, the Georgia Legislature appropriated \$1,500,000 for the purchase of military clothing and blankets. Anticipating the inadequacy of that measure, it also authorized Governor Brown to seize factories and supplies, as needed. The Governor executed the order, but authorized Foster to pay sellers 10% and manufacturers 25% of the value of their seized goods. Foster, in the course of his duty, appealed to the people's "love of liberty" in meeting the demands placed upon them. While Foster's actions benefited the troops, the effect on civilians was harsh. According to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, "The Quartermaster Department's persistent purchases (or impressments) of the bulk of the state's textile and shoe manufactures left civilians facing intense scarcity and exorbitant prices. These conditions often led to accusations of profiteering." While civilians may have faced scarcities and high prices, conditions for many Georgia soldiers were far worse. In late August 1863, following the Battle of Gettysburg, one Georgia colonel forwarded a requisition to Foster "in which he reported his command as destitute of everything". Men in his unit had worn out two pairs of shoes on the Northern march, and "all faced the prospect of frostbite, pleurisy, or pneumonia in the coming winter." By this period of the war, Gettysburg historian John Heiser observes:

> Georgia... had clothing depots in Atlanta, Columbus and Athens where uniforms based on a state-adopted pattern were manufactured, gathered for inspection and shipment to Richmond where these items were then distributed to Georgia units serving in Lee’s army.

Foster's level of organization in Georgia did not, however, result in the smooth flow of supplies, once they left the state. Heiser notes that

> the logistical nightmare of getting clothing to Richmond warehouses followed by transport to the army caused countless shortages and more often than not, soldiers were forced to improvise by acquiring clothing through other means.

By 1864, the situation had become even more desperate. Writing to Foster on January 24, 1864, General James Longstreet noted:

> There are five Georgia Brigades in this Army – Wofford's, G.T. Anderson's, Bryan's, Benning's, and Crews' cavalry brigade. They are all alike in excessive need of shoes, clothing of all kinds, and blankets. All that you can send will be thankfully received.

The duties of the Quartermaster General required, on occasion, a degree of clandestine activity, both to ensure the security of textile mills, and to prevent mill owners from shipping their goods to out-of-state buyers. According to Dr. Harold S. Wilson:

> The sources of dangers to the mills was not always clear. In June 1864, Enoch Steadman's Lawrenceville factory in Georgia inexplicably burned. This company worked exclusively [supplying finished goods for Georgia soldiers] for Governor Joseph E. Brown, but Georgia quartermaster Ira Foster was forced to keep it under surveillance to ensure that the state received its goods. One of Steadman's employees [warned him] that Quartermaster Foster had 'parties watching your concern and he has expressed the belief that you are sneaking and that he says he will have goods or blood.'

The Quartermaster General did not limit his efforts to supplying material to Georgia troops. On July 31, 1863, in an effort to thwart Union recruitment of foreigners, Foster wrote to President Jefferson Davis, proposing that the Confederacy send foreign-born "men of talent" to their native lands, especially to Ireland "to write, speak, and in every way labor to disabuse the minds of these deluded Europeans" about inducements made by Union recruiting agents.

Foster worked to maintain supplies and clothes for Georgia soldiers throughout the war, and continuing in his office even after the collapse of the Confederacy.

### Appealing for socks

As Quartermaster, Foster attempted to secure supplies from every source. In December 1862, according to University of Georgia professor and historian Kenneth Coleman, Foster "appealed to every woman in the state of Georgia to send him a pair of socks for the army." Another notable effort was the campaign to secure 50,000 socks from organizations such as the "Young Ladies' Patriotic Society" (pledging one garment a week from each member) as well as from individual girls and women of Georgia. In October 1863, Foster placed announcements in newspapers throughout the state, asking for contributions. He pledged to make available an ample supply of yarn for those knitters willing to undertake the task, but lacking in material. Foster also asked them to attach their names to their work, so that a complete and detailed record could be maintained of each contribution and contributor. In his request, he expressed hope that the socks would:

> Cheer our soldiers, discourage desertions, hurry off able bodied furloughed men to the front and stimulate them to prefer honorable deaths in the face of the enemy, to dishonest lives prolonged by shrinking from duty.

On December 24, 1863, a notice was placed in the Savannah Republican by one Carrie Bell Sinclair, president of the local Ladies' Knitting Society, stating:

> Having received from the Quartermaster General a large supply of knitting thread, members of the Society, or any one interested in the soldiers, can be supplied by calling on me any time during the week. We have been unable to supply all who have come forward and entered their names as members of the Society, having been entirely out of thread for the last two or three weeks. But we have now on hand enough for eighty or ninety pair of socks, and we hope those interested in the matter will come forward now and assist us in getting them done as early as possible. With the beginning of the New Year, let us renew our efforts in behalf of the suffering soldiers, and do all that we can for their comfort.

Foster's sock campaign stimulated the supply of the much needed item, but may have also met with a certain amount of suspicion and backlash. Rumors of profiteering by the Quartermaster's office had circulated earlier, when Foster's purchases and impressments of textiles and shoes had driven up the price of goods. Foster claimed that new rumors, which he denied as a "malicious falsehood!", had spread that he and his department were profiteering from the socks. It was alleged that contributed socks were being sold, rather than given freely to the troops. The charge would not have been without precedent. The historian Jeanie Attie notes that in 1861, an "especially damaging rumor" (later found to be true) had circulated in the North, alleging that the Union Army had purchased 5000 pairs of socks which had been donated, and intended for the troops, from a private relief agency, the United States Sanitary Commission. As the Sanitary Commission had done in the North, Foster undertook a propaganda campaign in Georgia newspapers to combat the alleged rumors and to encourage the continued contribution of socks. He offered \$1,000.00 to any "citizen or soldier who will come forward and prove that he ever bought a sock from this Department that was either knit by the ladies or purchased for issue to said troops."

### The Battle of Atlanta

Leading up to the Battle of Peachtree Creek during the Atlanta campaign, Foster's home was occupied by General A.P. Stewart (CSA), who made it his headquarters. Georgia Historical Commission marker 060-90, erected at that location, states:

> Site of the Ira R. Foster house which was occupied as headquarters by Gen. A. P. Stewart, [CSA] during military operations N. of Atlanta, July 16–21, 1864. From here were issued the orders directing his troops in the Battle of Peachtree Creek, July 20.

After Atlanta's capture by Union forces, a refugee settlement was established in Terrell County for civilians forced to flee the city. The Fosterville settlement, named after the Quartermaster General, was according to author Mary Elizabeth Massey, the "most ambitious refugee project approved by the Georgia General Assembly" [during that period]. On March 11, 1865, the Georgia General Assembly authorized General Foster to "continue to provide for maintenance of said exiles, or such of them as are unable by their labor to support themselves, or their families for the balance of the present year."

### The capture of Milledgeville

After the fall of Atlanta, General William Tecumseh Sherman began his March to the Sea. The route, from Atlanta to Savannah took the left wing of Sherman's army to the city of Milledgeville, Georgia's state capital. With the fall of Milledgeville imminent, Governor Brown ordered Foster to remove state records from the city. The task proved to be difficult, undertaken in the midst of chaos as Federal troops closed in on the city. The records were stored at a "lunatic asylum" three miles outside of town. A train was held at the depot to facilitate their removal. But in the bedlam of panicked citizens fleeing the city, labor was difficult to find.

### Arrest and Union commission

In 1865, Foster traveled to Virginia, where he was imprisoned by the Union Army for his service to the Confederacy. However, in recognition of his abilities, he was subsequently released and commissioned by the Union army to distribute livestock and supplies throughout Georgia. In his History of the State of Georgia from 1850 to 1881, the historian I.W. Avery remarks:

> In many particulars the Federal soldiers acted very cleverly. Gen. [James H.] Wilson turned over to Gen. Ira Foster the Confederate mules, horses, wagons, and harness, for distribution to the poor, and Col. J.H.R. Washington of Macon, was associated with Gen. Foster to aid in the distribution.

On June 24, 1865, in General Order \#31, General Wilson expressed appreciation to Foster and Washington, and relieved them of their authority, placing the task with Capt. R. Carter, A.Q.M., Cavalry Corps Military Division of the Mississippi.

## Personal life and later years

Foster married Mildred Arthur Creighton Crooks in 1842. They had four children: Amalthea Camilla, Erycenia Penthecelia, Nancy Lucinda Creighton, and Marcus Lucuius. In 1867, Foster moved his family to Georgia Mountain, Alabama, where he owned six miles of Tennessee River front farming land, a large portion of the mountain and a saw mill, purchased before the war. Simultaneously, Foster operated a saw mill in Dodge County, Georgia, building a residence there in 1869. Foster participated in the area's saw mill boom, which was said to average one mill every two miles, along the industrial corridor created by the Macon and Brunswick Railroad. In his book The New South Comes to Wiregrass Georgia 1860–1910 author Mark V. Wetherington states: "Ira R. Foster shipped lumber to Brunswick, where it was loaded onto timber schooners and transported to international markets like Liverpool, Rio de Janeiro, and Havana." When the city of Eastman was incorporated in 1872, Foster served as its first mayor. Foster was also elected to the position of state senator in Alabama. He moved to Gadsden in 1883 when his wife died. There he built a two-story colonial home on the stage coach route, in an area which became known as Foster's Cross Roads. In the Alabama Senate, Foster was regarded as a reformer, supporting efficiency in state operations such as the consolidation of county poor farms into regional centers. His efforts, however, were largely thwarted by "localist sentiment" and the indifference of his fellow legislators. Foster continued to serve in the Alabama Senate until his death on November 19, 1885.

## See also

- Atlanta in the American Civil War
- Blockade runners of the Civil War - Supplying the Confederacy
- Confederate States Army - Supply and Logistics
- General James H. Wilson
- Georgia during Reconstruction
- Georgia in the American Civil War
- Irish Americans in the American Civil War
- Uniforms of the Confederate States military forces

## Correspondence collections

- Ira Roe Foster Papers, 1862–1865, finding aid created by Rob S. Cox, May 1996, and Philip Heslip, October 2009 (Manuscripts Division, William L. Clements Library: The University of Michigan - James S. Schoff Civil War Collection) – a collection of 105 war-time letters (1862 to 1865).
- Ira R. Foster papers 1844-1873 (Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library: The University of Georgia) – the collection consists of correspondence of Ira R. Foster from 1844-1873. Correspondence deals with his duties as Quartermaster-General of Georgia during the Civil War, The Georgia lumber industry (Terrell County, Georgia) and personal and family matters. Correspondents include C.R. Armstrong, Joseph E. Brown, Howell Cobb, D.H. Mason, William H. Stiles, and The Southerner and Commercial Advertisers.
- Joseph Emmerson Brown Letters (AlabamaMosaic: The University of Alabama) - the collection contains twenty-three letters from Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown to Ira R. Foster,

American general, politician and businessman

Businesspeople from Georgia (U.S. state)

Mayors of places in Georgia (U.S. state)

Members of the Georgia House of Representatives

People from Spartanburg County, South Carolina

People of South Carolina in the American Civil War


1996 Manchester bombing

The 1996 Manchester bombing was an attack carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on Saturday, 15 June 1996. The IRA detonated a 1,500-kilogram (3,300 lb) lorry bomb on Corporation Street in the centre of Manchester, England. It was the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain since the Second World War. It targeted the city's infrastructure and economy and caused significant damage, estimated by insurers at £700 million (equivalent to £ in ), a sum surpassed only by the 1993 Bishopsgate bombing, also by the IRA.

At the time, England was hosting the Euro '96 football championships and a Russia vs. Germany match was scheduled to take place in Manchester the following day. The IRA sent telephoned warnings about 90 minutes before the bomb detonated. At least 75,000 people were evacuated, but the bomb squad were unable to defuse the bomb in time. More than 200 people were injured, but there were no fatalities despite the strength of the bomb, which has been largely credited to the rapid response of emergency services in evacuating the city centre.

Although Manchester had been targeted by the IRA before, it had not been subjected to an attack on this scale. In February 1996, the IRA had ended its seventeen-month ceasefire with a large truck bomb attack on London's Canary Wharf financial district, though the 3,300-pound bomb of Manchester was three times the size of the Canary Wharf bomb. The Manchester bombing was condemned by the British and Irish governments and U.S. President Bill Clinton. Five days after the blast, the IRA issued a statement from Dublin in which it claimed responsibility but regretted causing injury to civilians.

Several buildings were damaged beyond repair and had to be demolished, while many more were closed for months for structural repairs. Most of the rebuilding work was completed by the end of 1999, at a cost of £1.2 billion, although redevelopment continued until 2005. The perpetrators have not been caught, and although Greater Manchester Police (GMP) had suggested it was unlikely that anyone will be charged in connection with the bombing, a suspect was arrested on 8 September 2022. The bombing has, however, been viewed by some as a "catalyst" for Manchester's mass regeneration, turning it into a modern "powerhouse" city with above-national average economic growth in the 20 years following the bombing.

## Background

From 1970, the Provisional Irish Republican Army was carrying out an armed campaign with the ultimate objective of bringing about a united Ireland. As well as attacking military and political targets, it also bombed infrastructure and commercial targets in Northern Ireland and England. It believed that by damaging the economy and causing severe disruption, it could pressure the British government to negotiate a withdrawal from Northern Ireland. Manchester had been the target of earlier IRA bombs. As part of the IRA's sabotage campaign in 1939-40 (the S-Plan) multiple bombings took place in Manchester and other English cities. In 1973 and 1974, firebombs damaged city centre businesses for which one man was later imprisoned. In April 1974, a bomb exploded at Manchester Magistrates' Court, injuring twelve. In 1975, IRA bomb factories were found in Greater Manchester and five men were imprisoned for planning attacks in North West England. On 3 December 1992, the IRA detonated two small bombs in Manchester city centre, forcing police to evacuate thousands of shoppers. More than 60 were hurt by shattered glass and the blasts cost an estimated £10 million in damage and business losses.

The Downing Street Declaration of 1993 allowed Sinn Féin, a political party associated with the IRA, to participate in all-party peace negotiations on condition that the IRA called a ceasefire. The IRA called a ceasefire on 31 August 1994. John Major's government, dependent on Ulster Unionist Party votes, then began insisting that the IRA must fully disarm before there could be any all-party negotiations. The IRA saw this as a demand for total surrender and believed the British were unwilling to hold negotiations. It ended its ceasefire on 9 February 1996 when it detonated a powerful truck bomb in Canary Wharf, one of the two financial districts of London. The blast killed two people and caused an estimated £150 million worth of damage. The IRA then planted five other devices in London within the space of 10 weeks.

The IRA planned to carry out a similar bombing in Manchester. The city may have been chosen because it was one of the host cities of the Euro '96 football tournament, attended by visitors and media organisations from all over Europe, guaranteeing the IRA what Margaret Thatcher called the "oxygen of publicity". A Russia vs Germany match was to take place at Old Trafford in Manchester a day after the bombing. The year before, Manchester had also won its bid to host the 2002 Commonwealth Games, at the time the biggest multi-sport event ever to be staged in Britain.

On 10 June 1996, multi-party negotiations began in Belfast. Sinn Féin had been elected to take part but were barred because the IRA had not resumed its ceasefire or agreed to disarm.

## Details of the bombing

The IRA's South Armagh Brigade was tasked with planning and carrying out the attack. It had also been responsible for the Canary Wharf bombing in February, and the Bishopsgate bombing in 1993. Its members mixed the explosives in the Republic of Ireland and shipped them by freight from Dublin to England (see Provisional Irish Republican Army arms importation). In London, the bomb was assembled and loaded into the back of a red and white Ford Cargo van. On 14 June it was driven north towards Manchester, accompanied by a burgundy Ford Granada which served as a "scout car".

### Discovery

At about 9:20 am on Saturday 15 June 1996, the Ford van was parked on Corporation Street, outside the Marks & Spencer store, near the Arndale Centre. After setting the bomb's timer, two men—wearing hooded jackets, baseball caps and sunglasses—left the vehicle and walked to Cathedral Street, where a third man picked them up in the Ford Granada, which was later abandoned in Preston. The truck had been parked on double yellow lines with its hazard lights flashing. Within three minutes a traffic warden had issued the vehicle with a parking ticket and called for its removal. At about 9:40 am, Granada Studios on Quay Street received a telephone call claiming that there was a bomb at the corner of Corporation Street and Cannon Street and that it would explode in one hour. The caller had an Irish accent and gave an IRA codeword so that police would know the threat was genuine. Four other telephoned warnings were sent to television/radio stations, newspapers and a hospital.

The first policeman to arrive on the scene noticed wires running from the van's dashboard through a hole into the back and reported that he had found the bomb. Forensic experts later estimated that the bomb weighed 1,500–1,600 kg (3,300–3,500 lb) and was a mixture of semtex, a military-grade plastic explosive, and ammonium nitrate fertiliser, a cheap and easily obtainable explosive used extensively by the IRA. Components of what may have been a tremble trigger were also found later, designed to detonate the bomb if it was tampered with.

### Evacuation

At 10:00 am, there were an estimated 75,000–80,000 people shopping and working in the vicinity. An evacuation of the area was undertaken by police officers from Bootle Street police station, supplemented by officers drafted into Manchester to control the football crowds. The police were helped by security guards from local shops.

One group worked to move people away from the bomb while another, assisted by firefighters and security guards, established a continuously expanding cordon around the area to prevent entry. By 11:10 am the cordon was at the greatest extent that available manpower would permit, about a quarter of a mile (400 m) from the truck and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) in circumference.

### Explosion

The bomb squad arrived from their Liverpool base at 10:46 am and attempted to defuse the bomb using a remote-controlled device, but they were unable to defuse the bomb, resulting in the timer expiring and functioning the device. The bomb exploded at 11:17 am, causing an estimated £700 million (£ as of ) of damage and affecting a third of the city centre's retail space. The Marks & Spencer's and the sky bridge connecting it to the Arndale Centre were destroyed, along with neighbouring buildings. It was the largest peacetime bomb ever detonated in Great Britain, and the blast created a mushroom cloud which rose 300 metres (1,000 feet) from the ground. The explosion could be heard up to 15 miles (24 km) away and left a crater 15 metres wide. Glass and masonry were thrown into the air, and behind the police cordon – up to 1⁄2 mi (800 m) away, people were showered by falling debris. There were no fatalities, but 212 people were injured. A search of the area for casualties involved a brief confusion when mannequins blasted out of shop windows were mistaken for bodies. Hospitals across Greater Manchester were made ready to receive those injured in the blast. The police commandeered a Metrolink tram to take 50 of the casualties to North Manchester General Hospital, which treated 79 in total; a further 80 were cared for at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, and many others were treated in the streets by ambulance crews assisted by doctors and nurses who happened to be in the city centre that morning.

## Reaction

The bombing was condemned by British Prime Minister John Major and his government, by the opposition, and by individual members of parliament (MPs) as a "sickening", "callous" and "barbaric" terrorist attack. Early on, Major stated that, "This explosion looks like the work of the IRA. It is the work of a few fanatics and ... causes absolute revulsion in Ireland as it does here". Sinn Féin was criticised by Taoiseach John Bruton for being "struck mute" on the attack in the immediate aftermath. Bruton described the bombing as "a slap in the face to people who've been trying, against perhaps their better instincts, to give Sinn Féin a chance to show that they could persuade the IRA to reinstate the ceasefire". The President of the United States, Bill Clinton, stated he was "deeply outraged by the bomb explosion" and joined Bruton and Major in "utterly condemning this brutal and cowardly act of terrorism". Sinn Féin President, Gerry Adams, stated that he was "shocked and saddened" by the bombing. He insisted that his party was committed to achieving a peace settlement and argued "it is sheer folly to return to the old agenda of excluding Sinn Féin and seeking to isolate republicans". On 20 June 1996, the IRA claimed responsibility for the bombing, and stated that it "sincerely regretted" causing injury to civilians. The IRA statement continued:

> The British Government has spent the last 22 months since August '94 trying to force the surrender of IRA weapons and the defeat of the republican struggle. We are still prepared to enhance the democratic peace process ... but if there is to be a lasting peace ... then the British Government must put the democratic rights of all of the people of Ireland before its own party political self interest.

The bombing came five days after the beginning of the peace talks in Belfast, and represented the IRA's opposition to talks which excluded republicans. The attack was part of a political strategy by the IRA to be included in negotiations on the IRA's own terms. According to historian Richard English: "What they were doing with their return to bombings like the Manchester bomb was saying, 'We can still return to war if we want to. We can still put off a huge bomb in your cities and devastate them and therefore you have to deal with us'".

In an effort to allay fears that Manchester's considerable Irish community might be subjected to reprisal attacks, Councillors Richard Leese and Martin Pagel – leader and deputy leader of Manchester City Council respectively – made a public visit to the Irish World Heritage Centre in Cheetham Hill. There were ultimately only a few incidents, the most serious of which occurred on the evening of the bombing, when a gang of ten men rampaged through an Irish-themed bar in the centre of Middleton, shouting the Ulster loyalist slogan "No surrender" and smashing furniture and windows. Seven days after the bombing, Manchester Council held a 'family fun day' in front of the Town Hall in Albert Square to encourage shoppers and visitors back into the city centre, the first of a "series of events and entertainments". The Euro '96 football match between Russia and Germany at Old Trafford went ahead as planned the day following the bombing, after the stadium had been heavily guarded overnight and carefully searched; the game, which Germany won 3–0, was watched by a capacity crowd of 50,700.

## Investigation

In an effort to trace the route of the Ford van, police examined CCTV footage from every major road and motorway taken in England within two days of the bombing. Footage revealed that the van was driven south along the M1 motorway into London on the Friday afternoon before the attack. It was seen again heading north along the motorway at 7:40 pm, accompanied by the Ford Granada. Detectives surmised that the van had been loaded with explosives in London and that the Granada was intended to be the getaway vehicle. The van was last recorded travelling east along the M62 motorway towards Manchester at 8:31 am on the morning of the explosion.

Police in Manchester were aware that their Metropolitan Police colleagues in London were investigating a suspected IRA unit based in the capital, and wondered whether the London unit was responsible for the Manchester bombing. On 15 July, Metropolitan police arrested six men suspected of IRA membership: Donal Gannon, John Crawley, Gerard Hanratty, Robert Morrow, Patrick Martin, and Francis Rafferty. Each was tried and convicted of "conspiracy to cause explosions at National Grid electricity stations", and sentenced to 35 years in jail. Police in Manchester meanwhile worked to establish if the men were also responsible for the Manchester bomb.

Their investigation was led by Detective Chief Inspector Gordon Mutch of the GMP. The van's last registered owner told police that he had sold it to a dealer in Peterborough, who had in turn sold the van on to a man calling himself Tom Fox, two weeks before the bombing. After the purchase price was delivered in cash by a taxi driver, the dealer was instructed to take the van to a nearby lorry park, and leave it there with the keys and documents hidden inside.

On checking records of telephone calls made to the dealer, the police found that some had been made from a mobile phone registered in Ireland, and on further checking the records of that phone it appeared that the calls were made from locations consistent with the known whereabouts of the Ford van. One call was to a known IRA member. The phone was last used at 9:23 am on the morning of the bombing, just three minutes after the bombers had parked their van in Corporation Street. On 27 June, the phone's registered owner reported that it had been stolen 17 days earlier, but the police felt they had gathered enough evidence to bring a prosecution against the six IRA men held in London.

At a meeting attended by the commander of Special Branch in Manchester, a GMP assistant chief constable and a "senior officer" from the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), it was decided, for reasons never made public, not to present the findings of the investigation to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the body responsible for undertaking criminal prosecutions in England. The three may have felt that as the IRA suspects were already in police custody they were no longer a threat, or that to pursue the case against them may have jeopardised ongoing undercover operations. It was not until 1998 that the police finally sent their file to the CPS, who decided not to prosecute.

In September 2022, a man was arrested in connection with the bombing. According to GMP, the suspect was held at Birmingham Airport on 8 September on suspicion of terrorism offences and will be interviewed by officers from Counter Terrorism Policing for the North West (CTPNW).

### Leak

Early in 1999, Steve Panter, chief crime reporter for the Manchester Evening News, leaked classified Special Branch documents naming those suspected of the bombing. The documents also revealed that the man suspected of organising the attack had visited Manchester shortly after the bombing and been under covert police surveillance as he toured the devastated city centre before returning to his home in South Armagh. Suspicion fell on Mutch as the source of the leaked documents after an analysis of mobile phone records placed both him and Panter at the same hotel in Skipton, North Yorkshire, about 40 miles (64 km) from Manchester on the same evening.

On 21 April 1999, the Manchester Evening News named a man it described as "a prime suspect in the 1996 Manchester bomb plot". The newspaper reported that the file sent by GMP to the Crown Prosecution Service contained the sentence: "It is the opinion of the investigating officers of GMP that there is sufficient evidence to charge [him] with being a party in a conspiracy to cause explosions in the United Kingdom." The man denied any involvement. The Attorney General wrote in a letter to a local MP that the advice given to the CPS by an independent lawyer was that "there was not a case to answer on the evidence available ... a judge would stop the case": the Attorney General further wrote that the decision not to prosecute was not influenced by the government. The newspaper also identified the six men arrested in London on 15 July as having planned the attack. By July 2000, all six had been released under the terms of the 1998 Belfast Agreement.

Up until September 2022, Panter and Mutch were the only people to have been arrested in connection with the bombing. Mutch was tried for "misconduct in a public office" during an 11-day trial held in January 2002 but was acquitted. During the trial, Panter was found in contempt of court for refusing to reveal his source, an offence punishable by a term of imprisonment without the right of appeal. GMP announced in 2006 that there was no realistic chance of convicting those responsible for the bombing.

## Reconstruction

About twelve buildings in the immediate vicinity of the explosion were severely damaged. Overall, 530,000 square feet (49,000 m2) of retail space and 610,000 square feet (57,000 m2) of office space were put out of use. Insurers paid out £411 million (£ as of ) in damages for what was at the time one of the most expensive man-made disasters ever, and there was considerable under-insurance. Victims of the bombing received a total of £1,145,971 in compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority; one individual received £146,524, the largest amount awarded as a result of this incident.

According to Home Office statistics, an estimated 400 businesses within half a mile (0.8 km) of the blast were affected, 40% of which did not recover. The heaviest damage was sustained by the three buildings nearest the bomb: Michael House, comprising a Marks & Spencer store and a six-storey office block; Longridge House, offices for Royal and Sun Alliance, an insurance company; and the Arndale Centre, a shopping mall. Michael House was deemed beyond economic repair and demolished. Marks & Spencer took the opportunity to acquire and demolish the adjacent Longridge House, using the enlarged site for the world's biggest branch of the store. The company's fortunes changed during construction, and Selfridges subsequently co-occupied the building; Marks & Spencer leased part of the Lewis's store in the interim. The frontage of the Arndale was badly damaged and was remodelled when this area of the city centre was redeveloped.

The glass domes of the Corn Exchange and the Royal Exchange were blown in. The landlord of the Corn Exchange invoked a force majeure condition in the lease to evict all tenants, and the building was converted into a shopping centre. The dome of the Royal Exchange shifted in the blast; its reconstruction took two and a half years and cost £32 million, paid for by the National Lottery.

The possibility of rebuilding parts of the city centre was raised within days of the bomb. On 26 June 1996, Michael Heseltine, the Deputy Prime Minister, announced an international competition for designs of the redevelopment of the bomb-affected area. Bids were received from 27 entrants, five of whom were invited to submit designs in a second round. It was announced on 5 November 1996 that the winning design was by a consortium headed by EDAW.

### Subsequent redevelopment

Much of the 1960s redevelopment of Manchester's city centre was unpopular with residents. Market Street, near the explosion and at that time the second-busiest shopping street in the UK, was considered by some commentators a "fearful" place, to be "avoided like the plague". Until Margaret Thatcher's third consecutive election victory in 1987, the staunchly Labour-controlled Manchester Council believed that Manchester's regeneration should be funded solely by public money, despite the government's insistence on only funding schemes with a significant element of private investment. Graham Stringer, leader of Manchester City Council, later admitted that after the 1987 General Election result "there was no get out of jail card. We had gambled on Labour winning the General Election and we lost." Thatcher's victory effectively put paid to Manchester's "socialist experiment", and Stringer shortly afterwards wrote a letter of capitulation to Nicholas Ridley, then Secretary of State for the Environment, saying, "in a nutshell; OK, you win, we'd like to work together with you".

Efforts at improvement before the bombing had in some respects made matters worse, cutting off the area north of the Arndale Centre – the exterior of which was widely unloved – from the rest of the city centre. A large building nearby, now redeveloped as The Printworks and formerly occupied by the Daily Mirror newspaper, had been unoccupied since 1987. Many locals therefore considered that "the bomb was the best thing that ever happened to Manchester", as it cleared the way for redevelopment of the dysfunctional city centre, a view also expressed in 2007 by Terry Rooney, MP for Bradford North. The leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition on Manchester City Council, Simon Ashley, responded that "I take exception to his [Rooney's] comments about the IRA bomb. No one who was in the city on that day, who lost their jobs or was scared witless or injured by the blast, would say the bomb was the best thing to happen to Manchester". Sir Gerald Kaufman, MP for Manchester Gorton, stated that the bomb provided the opportunity for redeveloping Manchester city centre, although it was not fully exploited. "The bomb was obviously bad but from a redevelopment point of view, it was a lost opportunity. While the area around St Ann's Square and Deansgate is not disagreeable, if you compare it with Birmingham and its exciting development, we've got nothing to touch that in Manchester". Howard Bernstein, chief executive of Manchester City Council, has been quoted as saying "people say the bomb turned out to be a great thing for Manchester. That's rubbish." There was already substantial regeneration and redevelopment taking place in the city centre before the bombing, in support of the Manchester bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics, its second Olympic bid. Tom Bloxham, chairman of property development group Urban Splash and of the Arts Council England (North West), agreed with Bernstein that the bomb attack was not the trigger for the large-scale redevelopment that has taken place in Manchester since the early 1990s:

> For me the turning point for Manchester came before the bomb ... it was the second Olympic Games bid [in 1992] when we lost but the city suddenly had a realisation. There was a huge party in Castlefield and people grasped the idea that Manchester should no longer consider itself in competition with the likes of Barnsley and Stockport. It was now up against Barcelona, Los Angeles and Sydney and its aspirations increased accordingly.

## Memorials and legacy

A pillar box that survived the blast, despite being yards from the explosion, now carries a small brass plaque recording the bombing. It was removed during construction and redevelopment work, and returned to its original spot when Corporation Street reopened. The plaque reads:

A Thanksgiving service for the "Miracle of Manchester" was held at Manchester Cathedral on 24 July 2002, to coincide with the arrival of the Commonwealth Games baton, attended by Queen Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh. At 11:17 am on 15 June 2006, a candle was lit at a memorial held at Manchester Cathedral to mark the tenth anniversary of the bombing.

### In popular culture

"One Man's Fool", the closing track on Genesis' 1997 album Calling All Stations, was inspired by the bombing. Tony Banks stated in a SongFacts interview:

> I remember I wrote the song "One Man's Fool", which was on the Calling All Stations album [1997]. If anybody hears it now, they would assume that that lyric was referring to the bombing of the Twin Towers, but it wasn't. It was written four years before, and yet it sounds like we were recalling that. I was actually writing about a bomb attack in Manchester, in England, which was done by the IRA at the time, and the idea that people carry out these attacks and did they really believe that, all the destruction, that it really is worth it? But, it still works, unfortunately, because we have this kind of terrorism still out there.

## See also

- List of terrorist incidents in 1996
- Baltic Exchange bombing
- Manchester Arena bombing
- Oklahoma City bombing
- Timeline of Provisional IRA actions (1990s)
- Timeline of the Northern Ireland Troubles

Provisional IRA attack in England

Battles and conflicts without fatalities

Filmed improvised explosive device bombings

Terrorist incidents in the United Kingdom in 1996