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Bangalore (Bengaluru; 77.593E
12.982N) is the capital of Mysore State in southern India, with a population in 1941 of 406,760 persons. It was
founded in 1537 but captured by the British in
1791. In the winter of 1831-32 a group of deserters from the army of
the Raja of Mysore joined with fifty disaffected Indian Army soldiers
and other discontented persons in a conspiracy to overthrow the British
Raj. The revolution was to be triggered by placing a pig's head under a
cross in front of a mosque, then blaming this sacrilege on the British.
However, informers revealed the plot and the ringleaders were executed
in front of a huge crowd by hanging, firing squad, or being blown from
cannon.
Located on the Deccan
Plateau at an altitude of 3000 feet (900 meters), the climate of Bangalore is relatively cool and
dry,
with
average temperatures of 69 F in the winter and 80 F in the summer, with
precipitation of 35 inches per year. This made it a desirable
site for
British Army facilities, which contributed greatly to the development
of the
area.
Bangalore was an important cotton center, and at the outbreak of the Pacific War, it was the site of the Hindustani aircraft factory, which was struggling to begin production of Hawk fighters. Only five would be produced before the factory was converted to an aircraft repair center. The airfield was an important link in the air bridge from east Africa.
A Bangalore torpedo was a explosive
charge packed in a metal tube that could be pushed ahead by assembling
additional lengths of metal tube to its end. Bangalore torpedoes were
used to place explosives for neutralizing barbed wire, minefields, or
other obstacles that were
dangerous to approach directly. They were invented at Bangalore in 1912
and were still in widespread use at the time of the Pacific War.
References
Frank and Shaw (1968; accessed 2012-8-4)
IndiaOnlinePages.com (accessed 2014-6-8)
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