This is coolbert:
Let it not be thought that the German alone during the Second World War [WW2] was the ONLY combatant to salvage guns from sunken warships for use as coastal artillery.
In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor and the sinking of the USS Arizona, the two aft [rearward] turrets and guns [3 large-bore guns per turret] were salvaged from the stricken warship and converted into coastal artillery.
One firing unit per turret, these positions referred to as: Battery Pennsylvania and Battery Arizona.
Turrets and guns both salvaged, em placed into firing positions, the commanding positions per turret a small fort unto itself. Large-bore naval guns turned over to the U.S. Army coastal artillery branch and put to good use.
Replete with powder room, projectile room, power room, tracking and control room, etc.
A massive enterprise the bulk of which was underground the guns and turret the only element of which was above ground and visible.
"The aft main gun turrets [two of them] were removed and reinstalled as United States Army Coast Artillery Corps Battery Arizona at Kahe Point on the west coast of Oahu and Battery Pennsylvania on the Mokapu Peninsula, covering Kaneohe Bay . . . Battery Pennsylvania, fired its guns for the first and last time on V-J Day in August 1945 while training, while the nearby Battery Arizona was never completed.
"Constructed between 1943 and 1945, this underground coastal battery is located in the sea cliffs at Ulupa’u. During World War II, the battery housed a 14-inch gun turret salvaged from the rear of the USS Arizona"
One hundred years ago big-bore naval guns were an excellent means by which to judge the engineering expertise and technological capability of a nation. Those countries able to manufacture and mount on their warships big-bore guns of significant caliber considered world-class, all other nations NOT!!
"General - - Naval Guns are usually classified by 'caliber' (diameter of the bore), 'calibers' (length of the barrel described in multiples of the diameter of the bore)"
Those turrets and guns at that stage of the war more of a symbolic gesture than having real military value?
Coastal artillery once an important branch of the military now an anachronism gone forever?
coolbert.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Big Willie!
This is coolbert:
This observation was made with regard originally to ground warfare, armies pitted against armies in the Napoleonic style.
Defense generally as a rule easier to do, you can accomplish more with less!
From the Second World War [WW2] we have another instance of where this particular observation of Clausewitz is demonstrably seen to be so!
From that web site dealing with the scuttling of the French fleet at Toulon:
"Two of the turrets from the scuttled battleship Provence were later removed and used in a fortification at Saint-Mandrier-sur-Mer, guarding the approaches to Toulon. Mounting four 340mm [13 inch] guns, in 1944 this fortification duelled with numerous Allied battleships for over a week before being silenced."
This sounds like "Guns of Navarone" type stuff!
Large bore naval guns taken off a scuttled and sunk battleship and used as coastal artillery. Formidable and difficult targets to eliminate!
"In World War II, Saint-Mandrier was fortified with two turrets, each mounting a pair of 340mm naval guns taken the French battleship Provence. This fortress controlled the approaches to Toulon, and the range and power of these guns was such that a considerable Allied naval force was required to destroy them . . .The Allies termed the battery 'Big Willie', and dedicated a battleship or heavy cruiser to shelling it every day."
Clausewitz was correct "defense is the stronger form of combat" and "Willie" proves that this is so?
"It was long held as a general rule of thumb, that one shore-based gun equalled three naval guns of the same caliber, due to the steadiness of the coastal gun which allowed for significantly higher accuracy than their sea-mounted counterparts. Land-based guns also benefited in most cases from the additional protection of walls or earth mounds."
It would be interesting to know if those recovered and salvaged guns were removed guns and turret both or merely the guns. That turret [if present] mounted to a concrete emplacement the bulk of which was underground. Perhaps even sections of unused railroad track cut to size and welded to the turret as additional reinforcement!
coolbert.
"defense is the stronger form of combat" - - Clausewitz.
This observation was made with regard originally to ground warfare, armies pitted against armies in the Napoleonic style.
Defense generally as a rule easier to do, you can accomplish more with less!
From the Second World War [WW2] we have another instance of where this particular observation of Clausewitz is demonstrably seen to be so!
From that web site dealing with the scuttling of the French fleet at Toulon:
"Two of the turrets from the scuttled battleship Provence were later removed and used in a fortification at Saint-Mandrier-sur-Mer, guarding the approaches to Toulon. Mounting four 340mm [13 inch] guns, in 1944 this fortification duelled with numerous Allied battleships for over a week before being silenced."
This sounds like "Guns of Navarone" type stuff!
Large bore naval guns taken off a scuttled and sunk battleship and used as coastal artillery. Formidable and difficult targets to eliminate!
"In World War II, Saint-Mandrier was fortified with two turrets, each mounting a pair of 340mm naval guns taken the French battleship Provence. This fortress controlled the approaches to Toulon, and the range and power of these guns was such that a considerable Allied naval force was required to destroy them . . .The Allies termed the battery 'Big Willie', and dedicated a battleship or heavy cruiser to shelling it every day."
Clausewitz was correct "defense is the stronger form of combat" and "Willie" proves that this is so?
"It was long held as a general rule of thumb, that one shore-based gun equalled three naval guns of the same caliber, due to the steadiness of the coastal gun which allowed for significantly higher accuracy than their sea-mounted counterparts. Land-based guns also benefited in most cases from the additional protection of walls or earth mounds."
It would be interesting to know if those recovered and salvaged guns were removed guns and turret both or merely the guns. That turret [if present] mounted to a concrete emplacement the bulk of which was underground. Perhaps even sections of unused railroad track cut to size and welded to the turret as additional reinforcement!
coolbert.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Scuttle!
This is coolbert:
From the core.com headlines of today we have this item regarding the capsized [only partially so] cruise ship:
"Up to 10 months to remove capsized cruise ship"
"GIGLIO, Italy (AP) — The cruise ship that capsized off Italy's coast will take up to 10 months to remove"
"Removed" meaning either righted and re floated or broken into bits for scrap. There is a well-worked out methodology for all this? First plug the holes in the hull of the ship, pump out the water, inject air into those compartments still flooded and the ship can be "righted' and made sea-worthy, towed away to a more secure and convenient location!
[this is all predicated on that cruise ship not slipping into deeper waters. The cruise ship as we speak slowly but surely sliding into deeper waters! Someone has to act fast here!]
A methodology as worked out in detail from two previous incidents, scuttled warships in both cases raised from the bottom in a similar manner, sold for scrap.
1. The raising from the bottom and selling for scrap the German High Seas fleet as scuttled at Scapa Flow, in the aftermath of World War One.
"Cox's [Ernest Cox entrepreneur] company eventually raised 26 destroyers, two battlecruisers and five battleships."
2. The French fleet as scuttled at Toulon [World War Two] to some extent a number of ships raised from the bottom and made seaworthy again in some cases or sold for scrap!
"Most of the cruisers were salvaged by the Italians, either to restore them as fighting ships or for scrap."
The Marseillaise after scuttling.
The intuitive reaction is that such a ponderously large steel vessels such as they cruise liners and warships when sunk are irreparably gone but this is not the case. NOT ONLY NOT the case but there existing for some time now the means and methods to "right", make sea-worthy and bring back into business a sunken ship of such size. YES!
coolbert.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Codebooks!
This is coolbert:
"Washington, July 15, 1863."
"To W. G. Fuller Memphis, Tenn.:
Clara McClellan applause query spare safe occupied for present sufficiently your forces prentiss if the world valley the render have caught bear line you to he hard chorus to all in zebras run if the can operate wafers lean towards on send wiley blubber up.
T. T. Eckert."
Code books have been found! After one hundred and fifty years!
This is noteworthy. Has a historical significance that cannot be denied.
From a recent edition of the Chicago Tribune:
"Union code books surface, bit too late for Johnny Reb"
"California institution acquires secret messages from Lincoln"
NOT ONLY the secret messages as sent by President Lincoln SECURE to his subordinates but the basic code book[s] used to encrypt/decrypt the messages!
From the family collection of Thomas Eckert: "a pioneering telegraph operator who ran the U.S. military's telegraph office at the War Department in Washington D.C. from 1863 to 1867."
"LOS ANGELES - - A long-unknown, 150-year-old trove of handwritten ledgers and calfskin-covered code books, which give a potentially revelatory glimpse in . . . the day-to-day exchanges between Abraham Lincoln and his generals . . . now belongs to a California research institution."
That American Civil War being considered to be the FIRST modern war, replete with the use of technology, including Morse telegraphy, allowing for the simultaneous and coordinated maneuver of troops at distance from one another. Messages secured on the Union side with an ad hoc system a route transposition cipher with embedded code, entire words transposed as opposed to the common practice of transposing ONLY individual letters. [thanks in all instances for the message traffic to the W.G. Barker and his editing of the book: "The History of Codes and Ciphers in the United States Prior to World War One"
See my prior blog entry regarding other long-lost secret messages from the American Civil War and their recent decryption.
And as for the secret message as sent by Eckert to Fuller the decryption reads:
"Washington, 10:30 A.M., July 15, 1863."
"For General S.A. Hurlbut, Memphis, Tenn.:
If General W. T. Sherman's movements have sufficiently occupied the enemy to render your line safe, send all the forces you can spare to Brig. General Prentiss to operate on Price's rear if he advances toward Missouri.
H. W. Halleck Major General"
Sophistication and security adequate for the purpose AS IT WAS AT THE TIME. Those Union cryptographers of the period able to frustrate and flummox adversaries totally impervious to the efforts of Confederate eavesdroppers!
coolbert.
"Washington, July 15, 1863."
"To W. G. Fuller Memphis, Tenn.:
Clara McClellan applause query spare safe occupied for present sufficiently your forces prentiss if the world valley the render have caught bear line you to he hard chorus to all in zebras run if the can operate wafers lean towards on send wiley blubber up.
T. T. Eckert."
Code books have been found! After one hundred and fifty years!
This is noteworthy. Has a historical significance that cannot be denied.
From a recent edition of the Chicago Tribune:
"Union code books surface, bit too late for Johnny Reb"
"California institution acquires secret messages from Lincoln"
NOT ONLY the secret messages as sent by President Lincoln SECURE to his subordinates but the basic code book[s] used to encrypt/decrypt the messages!
From the family collection of Thomas Eckert: "a pioneering telegraph operator who ran the U.S. military's telegraph office at the War Department in Washington D.C. from 1863 to 1867."
"LOS ANGELES - - A long-unknown, 150-year-old trove of handwritten ledgers and calfskin-covered code books, which give a potentially revelatory glimpse in . . . the day-to-day exchanges between Abraham Lincoln and his generals . . . now belongs to a California research institution."
That American Civil War being considered to be the FIRST modern war, replete with the use of technology, including Morse telegraphy, allowing for the simultaneous and coordinated maneuver of troops at distance from one another. Messages secured on the Union side with an ad hoc system a route transposition cipher with embedded code, entire words transposed as opposed to the common practice of transposing ONLY individual letters. [thanks in all instances for the message traffic to the W.G. Barker and his editing of the book: "The History of Codes and Ciphers in the United States Prior to World War One"
See my prior blog entry regarding other long-lost secret messages from the American Civil War and their recent decryption.
And as for the secret message as sent by Eckert to Fuller the decryption reads:
"Washington, 10:30 A.M., July 15, 1863."
"For General S.A. Hurlbut, Memphis, Tenn.:
If General W. T. Sherman's movements have sufficiently occupied the enemy to render your line safe, send all the forces you can spare to Brig. General Prentiss to operate on Price's rear if he advances toward Missouri.
H. W. Halleck Major General"
Sophistication and security adequate for the purpose AS IT WAS AT THE TIME. Those Union cryptographers of the period able to frustrate and flummox adversaries totally impervious to the efforts of Confederate eavesdroppers!
coolbert.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Probability?
This is coolbert:
Thanks to Mike through Colonel Craig I have some extracts from a recent briefing as given by retired American general officer Barry McCaffrey to "NBC Executives and Producers".
"IRAN, NUKES, & OIL: THE GULF CONFRONTATION"
That confrontation a result of embargoes and restrictive practices placed on the Iranian hoping to coerce the government in Tehran to abandon nuclear weapon ambitions. Confrontation resulting in tenseness with the threat of escalating violence and WAR a prospect!
With KEY points:
* "15% probability of major military action in the coming 90 days."
That Strait of Hormuz and key choke point, a very big percentage of world-wide exported oil passing though that exit/entrance to the Persian Gulf narrow BUT even more so the two main shipping channels as used by those super-tankers more congested and constricted in a way that is extremely hazardous.
* "21 miles wide through [the] narrowest part of Strait of Hormuz."
* "Two parallel shipping lanes each 2 miles wide in the Strait."
General McCaffrey of the opinion that the Iranian threat more potent and capable that generally thought.
* "Bottom Line: This Naval Force [Iranian] can close the Gulf. They could sink a US carrier in the Gulf narrow waterway."
* "Bottom Line: [American forces] Capable of destroying Iranian air and naval power and nuclear facilities in a six month campaign."
"The Gulf Confrontation: Conclusions"
* "Iran will not for any reason forsake its nuclear ambitions."
* "There is a significant chance of Iranian miscalculation resulting in major military confrontation in the Gulf in the coming 12 months."
And also:
"2012 National Security Challenges to America"
"#1 RISK -- WITHDRAWAL FROM AFGHANISTAN"
* 150,000 US/NATO forces 870 miles from the open sea.
* Pakistan transit essential to logistics survival of the force.
[at one time 70 % of all U.S./NATO logistics passing through the Karachi/Khyber Pass route. Dependence on that route by now has been ameliorated?]
Comments:
* Once you have told the Iranian they cannot have nuclear weapons you must be ready to act forcefully and with resolve if needed. And the more you tell the Iranian they CANNOT HAVE NUCLEAR WEAPONS YOU MAKE THEM EVEN MORE DESIROUS TO POSSESS SAME?
* A good general always plans for a line of retreat? And where exactly is that line of retreat in Afghan? American/NATO forces would have to fight their way out if the situation goes from bad to worse and doing so in the proverbial heartbeat. Recall the infamous retreat of the British army Christmas 1842. 18,000 English troops and camp followers attempting to make the ninety mile trek from Kabul to the Khyber Pass and safety - - ONLY ONE TROOP TOTAL ABLE TO SUCCESSFULLY EXTRICATE FROM PERIL!!
And thank you General McCaffrey!
coolbert.
Thanks to Mike through Colonel Craig I have some extracts from a recent briefing as given by retired American general officer Barry McCaffrey to "NBC Executives and Producers".
"IRAN, NUKES, & OIL: THE GULF CONFRONTATION"
That confrontation a result of embargoes and restrictive practices placed on the Iranian hoping to coerce the government in Tehran to abandon nuclear weapon ambitions. Confrontation resulting in tenseness with the threat of escalating violence and WAR a prospect!
With KEY points:
* "15% probability of major military action in the coming 90 days."
That Strait of Hormuz and key choke point, a very big percentage of world-wide exported oil passing though that exit/entrance to the Persian Gulf narrow BUT even more so the two main shipping channels as used by those super-tankers more congested and constricted in a way that is extremely hazardous.
* "21 miles wide through [the] narrowest part of Strait of Hormuz."
* "Two parallel shipping lanes each 2 miles wide in the Strait."
General McCaffrey of the opinion that the Iranian threat more potent and capable that generally thought.
* "Bottom Line: This Naval Force [Iranian] can close the Gulf. They could sink a US carrier in the Gulf narrow waterway."
* "Bottom Line: [American forces] Capable of destroying Iranian air and naval power and nuclear facilities in a six month campaign."
"The Gulf Confrontation: Conclusions"
* "Iran will not for any reason forsake its nuclear ambitions."
* "There is a significant chance of Iranian miscalculation resulting in major military confrontation in the Gulf in the coming 12 months."
And also:
"2012 National Security Challenges to America"
"#1 RISK -- WITHDRAWAL FROM AFGHANISTAN"
* 150,000 US/NATO forces 870 miles from the open sea.
* Pakistan transit essential to logistics survival of the force.
[at one time 70 % of all U.S./NATO logistics passing through the Karachi/Khyber Pass route. Dependence on that route by now has been ameliorated?]
Comments:
* Once you have told the Iranian they cannot have nuclear weapons you must be ready to act forcefully and with resolve if needed. And the more you tell the Iranian they CANNOT HAVE NUCLEAR WEAPONS YOU MAKE THEM EVEN MORE DESIROUS TO POSSESS SAME?
* A good general always plans for a line of retreat? And where exactly is that line of retreat in Afghan? American/NATO forces would have to fight their way out if the situation goes from bad to worse and doing so in the proverbial heartbeat. Recall the infamous retreat of the British army Christmas 1842. 18,000 English troops and camp followers attempting to make the ninety mile trek from Kabul to the Khyber Pass and safety - - ONLY ONE TROOP TOTAL ABLE TO SUCCESSFULLY EXTRICATE FROM PERIL!!
And thank you General McCaffrey!
coolbert.
Prophylaxis!
This is coolbert:
The American military administering medical prophylactics to the troops. As is lawful, medical treatment that a soldier cannot legally refused.
From the Chicago Tribune today:
"Against war's backdrop, Army aims to strengthen minds"
Medical treatment, preventative care prior to combat and post-combat, given to prevent post traumatic stress syndrome. PTSD and prevent same.
This is the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program [CSF].
"The $125 million comprehensive Soldier Fitness program requires soldiers to undergo the kind of mental predeployment tests and training that they have always have had to undergo physically.
Medical fitness now not limited merely to physical aches and pain but mental as well!!
A program most interestingly so being administered by a troop who we have last heard of from over twenty years ago now during the First Gulf War.
Brigadier General office Rhonda Cornum! A medical doctor, a physician by trade badly wounded and captured by the Iraqi, RAPED! Two broken arms, an injured eye, and then RAPE!
Continuing with her military career most successfully so, a soldier, a medical officer or repute and now accomplishment of which she can be most proud.
"Cornum has been deployed to lead the military's new mental fitness program. it is a designed to prepare soldiers for the psychic trauma of war and its aftermath"
Perhaps no person in the military is better qualified and suited to administer and head the CSF program? General Connum has my utmost respect and admiration. Good going Rhonda!
coolbert.
The American military administering medical prophylactics to the troops. As is lawful, medical treatment that a soldier cannot legally refused.
From the Chicago Tribune today:
"Against war's backdrop, Army aims to strengthen minds"
Medical treatment, preventative care prior to combat and post-combat, given to prevent post traumatic stress syndrome. PTSD and prevent same.
This is the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program [CSF].
"The $125 million comprehensive Soldier Fitness program requires soldiers to undergo the kind of mental predeployment tests and training that they have always have had to undergo physically.
Medical fitness now not limited merely to physical aches and pain but mental as well!!
A program most interestingly so being administered by a troop who we have last heard of from over twenty years ago now during the First Gulf War.
Brigadier General office Rhonda Cornum! A medical doctor, a physician by trade badly wounded and captured by the Iraqi, RAPED! Two broken arms, an injured eye, and then RAPE!
Continuing with her military career most successfully so, a soldier, a medical officer or repute and now accomplishment of which she can be most proud.
"Cornum has been deployed to lead the military's new mental fitness program. it is a designed to prepare soldiers for the psychic trauma of war and its aftermath"
Perhaps no person in the military is better qualified and suited to administer and head the CSF program? General Connum has my utmost respect and admiration. Good going Rhonda!
coolbert.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
De-Housing!
This is coolbert:
That strategic allied bombing offensive of the Second World War [WW2], controversial as it has become in hindsight, thought to have been NOT as effective as desired.
Area bombardment of the Royal Air Force [RAF], the obliteration by firestorm of significant portions of German cities, the intent with almost a malicious intent to deprive the German worker housing. De-housing disruptive to the industrial output and war munitions production vital to the Nazi war effort.
"Lord Cherwell's [Professor Frederick Lindemann] . . advocated attacking major industrial centers in order to destroy as many homes and houses as possible (de-housing). Working-class housing areas were to be targeted because they had a higher density and firestorms were more likely. This would displace the German workforce and disrupt and reduce their ability to work."
Indeed, such was the effort to destroy housing and the quarters of the German worker, special protocols and a malevolently wicked methodology was worked out to exacerbate the bombing, create conditions most conductive to the firestorm, escalating destruction to an unprecedented scale!!
"The bombers tried out what became the standard pattern for attacking a city: flares were dropped to mark the target, then 4,000 pound high-explosive 'cookies' were used to blast open doors and windows, accompanied by incendiaries to create huge fires."
De-housing without killing the workers evidently an effective technique, German workers, presumably highly skilled and important to industry, fleeing the cities for the countryside and relative safety in numbers!!
From the book: "The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War By Andrew Roberts"
"De-housing certainly had an effect on Germany's industrial production because, as one study has concluded in many cases after a raid workers did not turn up for work as they were either looking after their families, or physically could not reach their workplaces. many left the devastated city for the countryside where food was more available and stayed with relatives."
"In the BMW factory in Munich, for example, some 20 % of the workforce were absent in the summer of 1944, and in the same years absenteeism rose to 25 % in the Ford plant in Cologne and the Ruhr."
One person instrumental in developing the various techniques for night-time area bombing the much decorated and very brave RAF pilot and commander Leonard Cheshire VC. Leonard post-war noted for his philanthropic and charitable endeavors, Cheshire VOTED ONE OF THE FIFTY MOST ADMIRED ENGLISH OF ALL TIME!!
"Leonard Cheshire VC is one of the most outstanding of all RAF Bomber Pilots. He devised the master bomber technique - flying low over the target marking with flares, allowing the main force to pinpoint the target in the darkness."
That work force reduction of skilled labor being reduced by such percentages [20 % % 25 %] undoubtedly very damaging to war production! Factories even if unscathed not able to function as normal your laborers having taken "to their heels" and with good reason.
The Second World War [WW2] was the first instance of where civilian casualties outnumbered the number of battlefield dead and this being so in a conscious and overt effort carefully and coolly calculated !
The "Storm of War" is better entitled "The Fire-storm of War"?
coolbert.
That strategic allied bombing offensive of the Second World War [WW2], controversial as it has become in hindsight, thought to have been NOT as effective as desired.
Area bombardment of the Royal Air Force [RAF], the obliteration by firestorm of significant portions of German cities, the intent with almost a malicious intent to deprive the German worker housing. De-housing disruptive to the industrial output and war munitions production vital to the Nazi war effort.
"Lord Cherwell's [Professor Frederick Lindemann] . . advocated attacking major industrial centers in order to destroy as many homes and houses as possible (de-housing). Working-class housing areas were to be targeted because they had a higher density and firestorms were more likely. This would displace the German workforce and disrupt and reduce their ability to work."
Indeed, such was the effort to destroy housing and the quarters of the German worker, special protocols and a malevolently wicked methodology was worked out to exacerbate the bombing, create conditions most conductive to the firestorm, escalating destruction to an unprecedented scale!!
"The bombers tried out what became the standard pattern for attacking a city: flares were dropped to mark the target, then 4,000 pound high-explosive 'cookies' were used to blast open doors and windows, accompanied by incendiaries to create huge fires."
De-housing without killing the workers evidently an effective technique, German workers, presumably highly skilled and important to industry, fleeing the cities for the countryside and relative safety in numbers!!
From the book: "The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War By Andrew Roberts"
"De-housing certainly had an effect on Germany's industrial production because, as one study has concluded in many cases after a raid workers did not turn up for work as they were either looking after their families, or physically could not reach their workplaces. many left the devastated city for the countryside where food was more available and stayed with relatives."
"In the BMW factory in Munich, for example, some 20 % of the workforce were absent in the summer of 1944, and in the same years absenteeism rose to 25 % in the Ford plant in Cologne and the Ruhr."
One person instrumental in developing the various techniques for night-time area bombing the much decorated and very brave RAF pilot and commander Leonard Cheshire VC. Leonard post-war noted for his philanthropic and charitable endeavors, Cheshire VOTED ONE OF THE FIFTY MOST ADMIRED ENGLISH OF ALL TIME!!
"Leonard Cheshire VC is one of the most outstanding of all RAF Bomber Pilots. He devised the master bomber technique - flying low over the target marking with flares, allowing the main force to pinpoint the target in the darkness."
That work force reduction of skilled labor being reduced by such percentages [20 % % 25 %] undoubtedly very damaging to war production! Factories even if unscathed not able to function as normal your laborers having taken "to their heels" and with good reason.
The Second World War [WW2] was the first instance of where civilian casualties outnumbered the number of battlefield dead and this being so in a conscious and overt effort carefully and coolly calculated !
The "Storm of War" is better entitled "The Fire-storm of War"?
coolbert.
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