Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: When was the US Army base in Naples built?
On October 3, 1951, the naval ashore unit Headquarters, Support Activities was created to support Allied Forces Southern Europe, and later the Sixth Fleet. In August, 1953, the support unit became Commander, Subordinate command, U.S. Naval Forces Eastern Atlantic / Commander, Headquarters Support Activities, and re-designated U.S. Naval Activities, Italy / U.S. Naval Support Activity, Naples in November 1957. U.S. Naval Activities, Italy was consolidated with U.S. Naval Support Activity, Naples on August 8, 1966.[3]
The Poggio Reale villa or Villa Poggio Reale was an Italian Renaissance villa commissioned in 1487 by Alfonso II of Naples as a royal summer residence. The Italian phrase "poggio reale" translates to "royal hill" in English. The villa was designed and built by Giuliano da Maiano and located in the city of Naples, in the district now known as Poggioreale, between the present Via del Campo, Via Santa Maria del Pianto and the new and old Via Poggioreale. At the time it was built, a period when the capitol city of the Kingdom of Naples was renowned for elegant homes with expansive vistas of the surrounding landscape and Mount Vesuvius, the villa was outside the city walls of Naples and was one of the most important architectural achievements of the Neapolitan Renaissance. Imitated, admired, robbed of its treasures by another king, left in ruins and partially destroyed, the summer palace of the King of Naples lives on in name as a style.
When the base closed it was converted to civilian uses. The airfield was redeveloped into the civil Laurinburg–Maxton Airport. From time to time, Army airborne units based at Fort Bragg use the airfield just like their predecessors did in the 1940s. Several wartime buildings remain at the airport, including the large hangars built in 1944. Lee Mills Pond remains, as many of the revetments around the airfield where C-47s were parked.
In mid-November 1503, the French and Spanish armies were separated by the Garigliano river, some 60 km north of Naples. Both armies camped in a marshy and unhealthy area. The Spanish had tried several times to cross the river using a makeshift bridge, but always in vain. The French, based at the river's mouth near the ruins of Minturnae (Traetto), enjoyed the advantage of an accessible supply-base in the nearby port of Gaeta.
When the Canadian Army was looking for a European base, the British Army offered them Bordon and Longmoor sub-camp, which they took over entirely from September 1939 under a British officer commanding the local service and civilian personnel. The Canadians built two new sub-camps, using Canadian built and shipped prefabricated wooden huts:
Many of the statues he created in Naples were removed to Spain by the viceroys then in charge of the Kingdom of Naples on behalf of the Spanish crown. When the viceroy Ramón de Cardona died in Naples in 1522, da Nola built his tomb in Naples, but it was then transported piece by piece to Bellpuig where da Cardona was buried. It remains one of the main examples of Italian renaissance art in Catalonia.
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they again brought the citadel into military use. They built gun casemates, and from 1935 divisional army units, reserve army units and the district army recruitment office were based there.
Once the VIII Army was secured on mainland Italy Base APOs were established, to handle their mails, at Bari on the heel of Italy then at Naples, which became the main Base APO.
The airport has a diverse international history and has been known by a variety of names. It was originally built in 1923 as an Italian air force base called aeroporto militare di Mellaha. It became a German air base during World War II. The airbase was captured by the British 8th Army in January 1943 and transferred to the control of the US Army Air Forces, who called it Mellaha AAF until 1945, when they renamed it Wheelus Air Base for a US airman killed that year. American use continued until the 1969 Libyan coup d'état. The Americans were expelled and the base was renamed Okba Ben Nafi Air Base (قاعدة عقبة بن نافع الجوية) after the Islamic general who conquered north Africa. It was used by both Libyan and Soviet air forces. The United States bombed the base in 1986 during Operation El Dorado Canyon. In 1995, the air base was converted to a second civilian airport for Tripoli, and was given its current name.
Meanwhile some troops of the "tercios" of Lombardy and Naples, that were the most experienced soldiers in Charles' army, followed a plan set by Don Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba and commander-in-chief of the Imperial troops in Germany and with the help of a local farmer, they managed to spot a ford to use that would allow all the army to cross the Elbe. In addition to this, some veteran soldiers were able to prevent the demolition of a pontoon bridge built by the Saxons, that was immediately used by the Imperial cavalry to pass safely to the other shore.
The depot was constructed in 1927 when the Seaboard Air Line constructed its All Florida Railway to Naples. It was designed in the same Mediterranean Revival style the Seaboard Air Line used with its stations in Delray Beach, Deerfield Beach, Hialeah, and Homestead on the southeast coast of Florida (which were built around the same time), and is virtually identical to the Hialeah depot. The station only briefly saw Seaboard Air Line passenger service in the late 1920s before the railroad reduced its Arcadia to Naples Branch to freight service only. Seaboard ended freight service in the 1930s. During World War II, the depot was home to USO shows for troops stationed at the nearby Naples airfield.
Ludovico Sforza of Milan, seeking an ally against the Republic of Venice, encouraged Charles VIII of France to invade Italy, using the Angevin claim to the throne of Naples as a pretext. When Ferdinand I of Naples died in 1494, Charles VIII invaded the peninsula with a French Army of twenty-five thousand men (including 8,000 Swiss mercenaries), possibly hoping to use Naples as a base for a crusade against the Ottoman Turks. For several months, French forces moved through Italy virtually unopposed, since the "condottieri" armies of the Italian city-states were unable to resist them. Charles VIII made triumphant entries into Pisa on November 8, 1494, Florence on November 17, 1494, and Rome on December 31, 1494. Upon reaching the city of Monte San Giovanni in the Kingdom of Naples, Charles VIII sent envoys to the town and the castle located there to seek a surrender of the Neapolitan garrison. The garrison killed and mutilated the envoys and sent the bodies back to the French lines. This enraged the French army so that they reduced the castle in the town with blistering artillery fire on February 9, 1495 and stormed the fort, killing everyone inside. This event was then called the "sack of Naples". News of the French Army's sack of Naples provoked a reaction among the city-states of Northern Italy and the League of Venice was formed on March 31, 1495.
The city of Naples was founded during the late 1880s by former Confederate general and Kentucky U.S. Senator John Stuart Williams and his partner, Louisville businessman Walter N. Haldeman, the publisher of the "Louisville Courier-Journal". Throughout the 1870s and '80s, magazine and newspaper stories telling of the area's mild climate and abundant fish and game likened it to the sunny Italian peninsula. The name Naples caught on when promoters described the bay as "surpassing the bay in Naples, Italy". Major development was anticipated after the railroad reaching Naples on January 7, 1927, and the Tamiami Trail linking Naples to Miami was completed in 1928, but did not begin until after the Great Depression and World War II. During the war the U.S. Army Air Forces built a small airfield and used it for training purposes; it is now the Naples Municipal Airport.
The Imperial Army transformed Misawa into an air base in 1938 when it was used as a base for long-range bombers. By early 1941, the Gensan Flying Corps trained at Misawa. The base was taken over by the Imperial Navy Air Corps in 1942 when the 22d Imperial Naval Air Wg assumed control of the base and the mission was changed to research and development. In 1944, facilities were built for Kamikaze Special Attack forces.
The Naples Sabot is an sailing dinghy. The Naples Sabot was designed by Roy McCullough and R.A. Violette and the first two were built in Violette's garage during WW II, although official designs were not made available until 1946. The Naples Sabot is based on the Balboa Dinghy and on Charles MacGregor's Sabot as published in Rudder magazine, April 1939. It takes its name from Naples in Long Beach, California, where it was developed.
The Siege of Naples was a successful siege of Naples by the Ostrogothic leader Totila in 542–543 AD. After crushing the Byzantine armies at Faventia and Mucellium, Totila marched south towards Naples, held by the general Conon with 1,000 men. A large-scale relief effort by the newly appointed "magister militum" Demetrius from Sicily was intercepted and almost entirely destroyed by Gothic warships. A second effort, again under Demetrius, likewise failed when strong winds forced the fleet's vessels to beach, where they were attacked and overrun by the Gothic army. Knowing the dire situation of the city's defenders, Totila promised the garrison safe passage if they surrendered. Pressed by famine and demoralized by the failure of the relief efforts, Conon accepted, and in late March or early April 543, Naples surrendered. The defenders were well treated by Totila, and the Byzantine garrison was allowed safe departure, but the city walls were partly razed.
The airport was opened in October 1943. It was built by the United States Army Air Force, and known as Hartsville Army Airfield. It was used as an auxiliary training base for Florence Army Airfield, located 18 miles southeast. It was built as a bomber airfield, and supported A-20 Havocs, and later A-26 Invaders which were based at Florence. Its base unit was the 82nd Station Complement Squadron, which maintained the airfield and provided service to the aircraft.
Though unable to stand in face to face fighting with trained troops (a contemporary drawing shows Lazzaroni being mowed down by a volley from French guns), their resistance ensured that the Parthenopaean Republic which was established in Naples had no popular base of support and could only rely on the repressive power of the French Army. Thus, it collapsed when the French needed to shift much of their troops elsewhere in Italy—whereupon the Lazzaroni exacted acts of retribution upon that republic's adherents.
The facility was established in 1942 as Naples Army Airfield by the United States Army Air Forces. It was initially assigned to the Southeast Training Center (later Eastern Flying Training Command). Provided basic (level 1) flight training to flight cadets by Embry-Riddle Co; Fairchild PT-19s were the primary trainer used. Along with the flight training, was a sub-base to Buckingham Army Airfield for flexible gunnery training, which the 75th Flying Training Wing supervised. Inactivated on November 1, 1945, being turned over to the War Assets Administration for conveyance to civil control as a public airport.
In 1952 - at the same time that the Military Aeronautics was becoming independent, ending its links to the Army - the Army Minister Abranches Pinto boosted the activation of this light aviation service, with the acquisition of 22 Piper L-21 Super Cub observation and liaison aircraft and the sending of artillery officers to be trained as pilot-observers at the US Army aviation schools. At the same time, an airfield was built in the grounds of the Army Artillery School at Vendas Novas, to serve as the base for this unit. Eight of the L-21 became permanently based at Vendas Novas, being piloted by the few available pilot-observers of the artillery arm and used in the observation and direction of artillery fire against targets beyond the visual range of the ground observers. The remaining aircraft were only used in large Army maneuvers, when they were piloted by Air Force pilots. By the influence of the US Army aviation doctrine, the concept of Army light aviation evolved and it was anticipated that it would also be equipped with helicopters and it would have other missions beyond the artillery observation.
Being a stern disciplinarian, Lord Stuart held the troops of his army to strict decorum during most of the march to Naples. However, discipline fell apart when the army passed through Capua. The French army plundered and raped Capua mercilessly. However, when news of the rape of Capua spread throughout southern Italy, resistance to the French vanished. Frederick fled and the French Army entered Naples unopposed. Louis XII claimed the throne of Naples and pursuant to the sharing agreement with Ferdinand II shared half the income of Naples with Spain. However, as Machiavelli had said, the agreement could not last and in early 1502 relations between France and Spain had gone sour. Negotiations were started between France and Spain over their disagreements about Naples. However, in April 1502, without waiting for the conclusion of these negotiations, Louis sent an army under the command of Louis d' Armagnac, Duke of Nemours against the Spanish in Apulia.
The base was originally built by the Luftwaffe in 1935 and used as "Fliegerhorst Klützow" until early 1945 when it was overrun by the Red Army. Soviet air units were based there from 1948 to 1992. Over the years the base was expanded, and a number of hardened aircraft shelters built. A small military town housing the airmen and their families was built nearby. The 239th Fighter Aviation Division was headquartered at the base from 1945 to 1992. The last flying unit stationed there was the 159th 'Novorossiysk' Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment flying Su-27 Flankers. After the Soviet forces left, the base was abandoned, and has fallen into ruin. In 1993 the airfield together with Kluczewo was included within the city limits of Stargard Szczeciński. In subsequent years the runway was used for auto shows from time to time.
For gunnery training there were 2 oval tracks of the Ground Moving Target Range, located to the west of the airfield, as well as nearby skeet ranges & trap ranges. In addition to the main base, Buckingham also operated Naples Army Airfield (Now Naples Municipal Airport) as an auxiliary landing field. In addition, two crash boat bases; one at Marco Island and the other on the Caloosahatchee River near the Gulf of Mexico were construed.
Four support bases were each named for its army post (Camp Atterbury Army Airfield, Camp Breckenridge Army Airfield, Camp Campbell Army Airfield, & Camp Davis Army Airfield), one base supported two army posts (Camps Claiborne & Beauregard), and at least three army posts each had two support bases (e.g., Camp Blanding, Camp Shelby, and Indiantown Gap Military Reservation). Each airfield was either constructed or the "air support field" was leased from an existing owner (e.g., municipal airfields built by the Civil Aeronautics Administration). Air support bases were generally adjacent to the army post using additional federally-acquired land (e.g., Santa Maria Army Airfield at Camp Cooke), but airfields were built on some of the large Army reservations (e.g., Fort Dix Army Airfield). Most of the existing airfields that were selected were away from the post, e.g., the 1926 Colorado Springs Municipal Airfield ~ from Camp Carson), and the airbase was subsequently built adjacent (Army Air Base, Colorado Springs, was next to the airfield later named Peterson Field.) Although planned as support bases, many of the bases were assigned other primary missions, e.g., for reconnaissance, bombardment, or other training (Esler Field remained only a support base), and a few of the airbases and posts became a single military facility, e.g., the post-war Cooke Air Force Base included both the former army airfield and the former army camp (Biggs Air Force Base was incorporated as part of Fort Bliss in 1966.)
The French lost 600 men in the fight for Naples. Neapolitan losses were also substantial. Taking Naples, the French captured 60 cannons, 6 flags, and 4,000 Albanese and Swiss troops who had remained in Naples after the dispersion of the Neapolitan army. The French army received the title Army of Naples from its general in a ceremony on January 25. A "Te Deum" was sung in all the churches and the general in chief gave a proclamation calling all Neapolitans to freedom and reassuring them of the benevolence of the French government.