distilroberta-dis-01

SentenceTransformer based on distilbert/distilroberta-base

This is a sentence-transformers model finetuned from distilbert/distilroberta-base. It maps sentences & paragraphs to a 768-dimensional dense vector space and can be used for semantic textual similarity, semantic search, paraphrase mining, text classification, clustering, and more.

Model Details

Model Description

• Model Type: Sentence Transformer
• Base model: distilbert/distilroberta-base <!-- at revision fb53ab8802853c8e4fbdbcd0529f21fc6f459b2b -->
• Maximum Sequence Length: 512 tokens
• Output Dimensionality: 768 tokens
• Similarity Function: Cosine Similarity

<!-- - **Training Dataset:** Unknown --> <!-- - **Language:** Unknown --> <!-- - **License:** Unknown -->

Model Sources

• Documentation: Sentence Transformers Documentation
• Repository: Sentence Transformers on GitHub
• Hugging Face: Sentence Transformers on Hugging Face

Full Model Architecture

SentenceTransformer(
  (0): Transformer({'max_seq_length': 512, 'do_lower_case': False}) with Transformer model: RobertaModel 
  (1): Pooling({'word_embedding_dimension': 768, 'pooling_mode_cls_token': False, 'pooling_mode_mean_tokens': True, 'pooling_mode_max_tokens': False, 'pooling_mode_mean_sqrt_len_tokens': False, 'pooling_mode_weightedmean_tokens': False, 'pooling_mode_lasttoken': False, 'include_prompt': True})
)

Usage

Direct Usage (Sentence Transformers)

First install the Sentence Transformers library:

pip install -U sentence-transformers

Then you can load this model and run inference.

from sentence_transformers import SentenceTransformer

# Download from the 🤗 Hub
model = SentenceTransformer("kiwi1229/distilroberta-dis-01")
# Run inference
sentences = [
    'What was the outcome of the War of the Sixth Coalition?',
    'In the War of the Sixth Coalition (March 1813 – May 1814), sometimes known in Germany as the War of Liberation, a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and a number of German States defeated France and drove Napoleon into exile on Elba.  After the disastrous French invasion of Russia of 1812 in which they had been forced to support France, Prussia and Austria joined Russia, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Portugal and the rebels in Spain who were already at war with France.\n\nThe War of the Sixth Coalition saw major battles at Lützen, Bautzen, and Dresden. The even larger Battle of Leipzig (also known as the Battle of Nations) was the largest battle in European history before World War I. Ultimately, Napoleon\'s earlier setbacks in Portugal, Spain, and Russia proved to be the seeds of his undoing. With their armies reorganized, the allies drove Napoleon out of Germany in 1813 and invaded France in 1814. The Allies defeated the remaining French armies, occupied Paris, and forced Napoleon to abdicate and go into exile. The French monarchy was revived by the allies, who handed rule to the heir of the House of Bourbon in the Bourbon Restoration.\n\nThe "Hundred Days" War of the Seventh Coalition was triggered in 1815 when Napoleon escaped from his captivity on Elba and returned to power in France.  He was defeated again for the final time at Waterloo, ending the Napoleonic Wars.\n\nBackground: Invasion of Russia\n\nIn June 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia to compel Emperor Alexander I to remain in the Continental System. The Grande Armée, consisting of as many as 650,000 men (roughly half of whom were French, with the remainder coming from allies or subject areas), crossed the Neman River on 23 June 1812. Russia proclaimed a Patriotic War, while Napoleon proclaimed a "Second Polish War".  But against the expectations of the Poles, who supplied almost 100,000 troops for the invasion force, and having in mind further negotiations with Russia, he avoided any concessions toward Poland. Russian forces fell back, destroying everything potentially of use to the invaders until giving battle at Borodino (7 September) where the two armies fought a devastating battle. Despite the fact that France won a tactical victory, the battle was inconclusive. Following the battle the Russians withdrew, thus opening the road to Moscow. By 14 September, the French had occupied Moscow but found the city practically empty. Alexander I (despite having almost lost the war by Western European standards) refused to capitulate, leaving the French in the abandoned city of Moscow with little food or shelter (large parts of Moscow had burned down) and winter approaching. In these circumstances, and with no clear path to victory, Napoleon was forced to withdraw from Moscow.\n\nSo began the disastrous Great Retreat, during which the retreating army came under increasing pressure due to lack of food, desertions, and increasingly harsh winter weather, all while under continual attack by the Russian army led by Commander-in-Chief Mikhail Kutuzov, and other militias. Total losses of the Grand Army were at least 370,000 casualties as a result of fighting, starvation and the freezing weather conditions, and 200,000 captured. By November, only 27,000 fit soldiers re-crossed the Berezina River. Napoleon now left his army to return to Paris and prepare a defence of Poland against the advancing Russians. The situation was not as dire as it might at first have seemed; the Russians had also lost around 400,000 men, and their army was similarly depleted. However, they had the advantage of shorter supply lines and were able to replenish their armies with greater speed than the French, especially because Napoleon\'s losses of cavalry and wagons were irreplaceable.\n\nFormation of the Sixth Coalition\n\nRussia, Britain and Sweden form an alliance \n\nAt the beginning of 1812 Britain had already been at war with France for eight years, and had been fighting alongside the Portuguese and Spanish in the Peninsular War for more than three years.\nRussia and Sweden, which had opposed Napoleon up to 1807 and 1810 respectively, had been forced to join his Continental System against Britain, but continued to trade secretly with her.\nOn 9 January 1812, French troops occupied Swedish Pomerania to end the illegal trade with the United Kingdom from Sweden, which was in violation of the Continental System. Swedish estates were confiscated and Swedish officers and soldiers were taken as prisoners. In response, Sweden declared neutrality and signed the secret Treaty of Saint Petersburg with Russia against France and Denmark–Norway on 5 April. On 18 July, the Treaty of Örebro formally ended the wars between Britain and Sweden and Britain and Russia, forming an alliance between Russia, Britain, and Sweden. When Napoleon marched on Moscow in June 1812, neither Britain nor Sweden was able to give direct military support to Russia, though that same month the British and Spanish armies had advanced into central Spain, defeating the French at Salamanca and capturing Madrid, tying down a French army of 230,000. Britain also helped subsidize the Russian war effort while Swedish Crown Prince Charles John, formerly French Marshal Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, had struck up a friendship with Alexander, and gave him moral support, strategic and tactical advice on how to defeat the French, as well as valuable insights on Napoleon himself (having had much contact with Napoleon as a member of the extended Imperial Family). However Russia bore the brunt of the French onslaught on her territory alone.\n\nAfter the French Grande Armée retreated from Moscow on 18/19 October 1812 and suffered heavy casualties due to extreme cold, food shortages and repeated Russian attacks, Napoleon did not seem to be as invincible as before. On 14 December, the last French troops had left Russian soil, and Paris\' allies were seriously considering rebellion and joining the Tsar\'s side.\n\nDefection of Prussia \nThe Convention of Tauroggen was a truce signed 30 December 1812 at Tauroggen (now Tauragė, Lithuania), between Generalleutnant Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg on behalf of his Prussian troops (who had been compelled to augment the Grande Armée during the invasion of Russia), and by General Hans Karl von Diebitsch of the Russian Army. According to the Treaty of Tilsit (9 July 1807), Prussia had to support Napoleon\'s invasion of Russia. This resulted in some Prussians leaving their army to avoid serving the French, like Carl von Clausewitz, who joined Russian service. When Yorck\'s immediate French superior Marshal MacDonald, retreated before the corps of Diebitsch, Yorck found himself isolated. As a soldier his duty was to break through, but as a Prussian patriot his position was more difficult. He had to judge whether the moment was favorable for starting a war of liberation; and, whatever might be the enthusiasm of his junior staff-officers, Yorck had no illusions as to the safety of his own head, and negotiated with Clausewitz. The Convention of Tauroggen armistice, signed by Diebitsch and Yorck, "neutralized" the Prussian corps without consent of their king. The news was received with the wildest enthusiasm in Prussia, but the Prussian Court dared not yet throw off the mask, and an order was despatched suspending Yorck from his command pending a court-martial. Diebitsch refused to let the bearer pass through his lines, and the general was finally absolved when the Treaty of Kalisch (28 February 1813) definitely ranged Prussia on the side of the Allies.\n\nMeanwhile, Austria\'s alliance with France ended in February 1813, and Austria then moved to a position of armed neutrality. It would not declare war on France until half a year later, in August 1813.\n\nDeclarations of war \nOn 3 March 1813, after the United Kingdom agreed to Swedish claims to Norway, Sweden entered an alliance with the United Kingdom and declared war against France, liberating Swedish Pomerania shortly thereafter. On 17 March, King Frederick William III of Prussia published a call to arms to his subjects, An Mein Volk, and declared war on France as well. The first armed conflict occurred on 5 April in the Battle of Möckern, where combined Prusso-Russian forces defeated French troops.\n\nMeanwhile, Napoleon withdrew some 20,000 troops from the ongoing Peninsular War to reinforce his position in Central Europe, which left his Iberian forces weakened and vulnerable to Anglo–Spanish–Portuguese attacks. On 17 March 1813, his brother King Joseph Bonaparte of Spain withdrew from Madrid, a clear sign of losing control. Wellington led a 123,000-strong army across northern Spain, taking Burgos in late May, and decisively defeating Jourdan at the Battle of Vitoria on 21 June. Marshal Soult failed to turn the tide in his large-scale Battle of the Pyrenees (25 July to 2 August).\n\nIn June, the United Kingdom formally entered the coalition. Initially, Austria remained loyal to France, and foreign minister Metternich aimed to mediate in good faith a peace between France and its continental enemies, but it became apparent that the price was to be the dismantling of the Confederation of the Rhine, the Napoleon-controlled union of all German states aside from Prussia and Austria, and the return to France\'s pre-Revolutionary borders. Napoleon was not interested in any such compromise that would in effect end his empire, so Austria joined the allies and declared war on France in August 1813.\n\nWar in Germany\n\nSpring campaign of 1813 \n\nNapoleon vowed that he would create a new army as large as that he had sent into Russia, and quickly built up his forces in the east from 30,000 to 130,000 and eventually to 400,000. Napoleon inflicted 40,000 casualties on the Allies at Lützen (near Leipzig, 2 May) and Bautzen (20–21 May 1813) but his army lost about the same number of men during those encounters. Both battles involved total forces of over 250,000 – making them among the largest battles of the Napoleonic Wars to that point in time. The lack of horses for Napoleon\'s cavalry did not allow him to follow-up his victories with a vigorous pursuit, robbing him of decisive results.\n\nDespite losing as many men as the Allies, Napoleon\'s victories had greatly demoralized the Prussians and Russians. Losses were heavy, and the Russian and Prussian forces were in shambles. Both Allied armies were in dire need of substantial reinforcements en route from the east and from Prussian recruiting depots. Many Russian officers yearned to return to Russia having achieved their goal of ridding Russia of the French. Frederick William of Prussia had always viewed a renewed war with France as dubious, and the two defeats at Lützen and Bautzen had led him to reconsider peace. Moreover, the Prussians and the Russians were hopeful of bringing the Austrians into the war and a break in the fighting would give them time to negotiate with Vienna. Another victory by Napoleon may very well have led to a favorable peace as not only were the Russians and Prussians at their nadir, but the Austrians, with their 150,000 troops would have seen a decisive French victory as ample proof that another war with France would be most undesirable.\n\nHowever, despite the two victories over the Prussians and Russians, French losses had been heavy and a chronic lack of horses for his cavalry meant that Napoleon could not fully exploit his victories and inflict a decisive defeat in the same vein as Austerlitz or Friedland. Napoleon\'s new army was filled with fresh conscripts, lacked many necessities and was exhausted from their long march from France and Napoleon\'s rapid maneuvering. The French were "in dire need of a period of reconstruction and recuperation" and Napoleon needed time to acquire horses for his depleted cavalry and bring up more reinforcements. Therefore, Napoleon was amiable to the armistice offered by the Allies despite the Allies being in a grave condition. During the armistice, a disastrous interview with Austrian Chancellor Metternich, in which Napoleon heaped recriminations on the Austrians and threw his hat to the ground and stamped it with his foot, ensured that Austria would join the coalition against France. Napoleon did not know it at the time, but the armistice would turn out to be a grave mistake as the Allies gained far more from the suspension of hostilities than he did.\n\nMeanwhile, on 19 May 1813, a Swedish corps of 15,000 occupied Hamburg without orders from Bernadotte, following a Danish declaration that they would hold the city for Napoleon, irrevocably binding Denmark to France, an action that would guarantee full Swedish cooperation in North Germany. The Swedish occupation of Hamburg came as welcome news to the Allies, insofar as holding a wealthy center of finance was a blow against Napoleon. However, Bernadotte\'s initial misgivings at extending his troops so far from the Allied lines were validated when Marshal Davout approached Hamburg with a large French force, intent on retaking the city. The Swedes quietly withdrew on 26 May and Davout would occupy the city until after Napoleon\'s abdication in 1814. It would be the last major action of the Spring before the Armistice of Pläswitz.\n\nArmistice of Pläswitz; Austria joins the coalition \n\nThe belligerents declared an armistice from 4 June 1813 which lasted until 13 August, during which time both sides attempted to recover from approximately a quarter of a million losses since April. During this time Allied negotiations finally brought Austria out in open opposition to France (like Prussia, Austria had moved from nominal ally of France in 1812 to armed neutral in 1813). Two principal Austrian armies deployed in Bohemia and Northern Italy, adding 300,000 troops to the Allied armies. In total the Allies now had around 800,000 frontline troops in the German theatre, with a strategic reserve of 350,000. As a consequence of the armistice, the French lost their initial advantage in numbers as the Austrians, and Russia\'s huge manpower reserves, were brought to the front.\n\nNapoleon succeeded in bringing the total imperial forces in the region up to around 650,000 (although only 250,000 were under his direct command, with another 120,000 under Nicolas Charles Oudinot and 30,000 under Davout). The Confederation of the Rhine furnished Napoleon with the bulk of the remainder of the forces, with Saxony and Bavaria as principal contributors. In addition, to the south, Murat\'s Kingdom of Naples and Eugène de Beauharnais\'s Kingdom of Italy had a combined total of 100,000 men under arms. In Spain an additional 150–200,000 French troops were being steadily beaten back by Spanish and British forces numbering around 150,000. Thus in total around 900,000 French troops were opposed in all theatres by somewhere around a million Allied troops (not including the strategic reserve being formed in Germany).\n\nDuring the armistice, three Allied sovereigns, Alexander of Russia, Frederick Wilhelm of Prussia, and Bernadotte of Sweden (by then Regent of the Kingdom due to his adoptive father\'s illness) met at Trachenberg Castle in Silesia to coordinate the war effort. Allied staffs began creating a plan for the campaign wherein Bernadotte once again put to use his fifteen years of experience as a French general as well as his familiarity with Napoleon. The result was the Trachenberg Plan, authored primarily by Bernadotte and the Austrian Chief of Staff, Field-Marshal Lieutenant Joseph Radetzky, that sought to wear down the French using a Fabian Strategy, avoiding direct combat with Napoleon, engaging and defeating his marshals whenever possible and slowly encircling the French with three independent armies until the French Emperor could be cornered and brought to battle against vastly superior numbers.\n\nFollowing the conference, the Allies stood up their three armies: The Army of Silesia, with 95,000 Prussians and Russians, commanded by Field Marshal Gebhard von Blücher; the Army of the North, 120,000 Swedes, Russians, Prussians, and German troops from Mecklenburg, the Hanseatic region and North Germany, under the independent command of Sweden\'s Crown Prince Bernadotte; and the Army of Bohemia, the primary Allied force in the field, with which the Allied sovereigns Alexander, Francis and Frederick William oversaw the Campaign, numbering 225,000 Austrians, Russians, and Prussians commanded by Prince Karl von Schwarzenberg.\n\nRenewal of hostilities; French losses and defecting allies \n\nFollowing the end of the armistice, Napoleon seemed to have regained the initiative at Dresden (26–27 August 1813), where he inflicted one of the most lop-sided losses of the era on the Prussian-Russian-Austrian forces. On 26 August, the Allies under Prince von Schwarzenberg attacked the French garrison in Dresden. Napoleon arrived on the battlefield in the early hours of 27 August with the Guard and other reinforcements and despite being severely outnumbered having only 135,000 men to the Coalition\'s 215,000, Napoleon chose to attack the Allies. Napoleon turned the Allied Left Flank, and in skillful use of terrain, pinned it against the flooded Weißeritz River and isolated it from the rest of the Coalition Army. He then gave his famed cavalry commander, and King of Naples, Joachim Murat leave to destroy the surrounded Austrians. The day\'s torrential rain had dampened gunpowder, rendering the Austrians\' muskets and cannon useless against the sabers and lances of Murat\'s Cuirassiers and Lancers who tore the Austrians to shreds, capturing 15 standards and forcing the balance of three divisions, 13,000 men, to surrender.\n\nThe Allies were forced to retreat in some disorder having lost nearly 40,000 men to only 10,000 French. However, Napoleon\'s forces were also hampered by the weather and unable to close the encirclement the Emperor had planned before the Allies narrowly slipped the noose. So while Napoleon had struck a heavy blow against the Allies, several tactical errors had allowed the Allies to withdraw, thus ruining Napoleon\'s best chance at ending the war in a single battle. Nonetheless, Napoleon had once again inflicted a heavy loss on the primary Allied Army despite being outnumbered and for some weeks after Dresden Schwarzenberg declined to take offensive action.\n\nHowever at about the same time the French sustained several serious defeats, first at the hands of Bernadotte\'s Army of the North on 23 August, with Oudinot\'s thrust towards Berlin beaten back by the Prussians, at Großbeeren. At the Katzbach the Prussians, commanded by Blücher, took advantage of Napoleon\'s march toward Dresden to attack Marshal MacDonald\'s Army of the Bober. During a torrential rainstorm on 26 August, and due to conflicting orders and a breakdown of communications, MacDonald\'s several corps found themselves isolated from one another with many bridges over the Katzback and Neisse rivers destroyed by surging waters. 200,000 Prussians and French collided in a confused battle that degenerated into hand-to-hand combat. However, Blucher and the Prussians rallied their scattered units and attacked an isolated French corps and pinned it against the Katzbach, annihilating it; forcing the French into the raging waters where many drowned. The French suffered 13,000 killed and wounded and 20,000 captured. The Prussians lost but 4,000 men.\n\nNapoleon himself, lacking reliable and numerous cavalry, was unable to prevent the destruction of a whole army corps, which had isolated itself pursuing the enemy following the Battle of Dresden without support, at the Battle of Kulm (29–30 August 1813), losing 13,000 men further weakening his army. Realizing that the Allies would continue to defeat his subordinates, Napoleon began to consolidate his troops to force a decisive battle.\n\nThe French then suffered another grievous loss at the hands of Bernadotte\'s army on 6 September at Dennewitz where Ney was now in command, with Oudinot now as his deputy. The French were once again attempting to capture Berlin, the loss of which Napoleon believed would knock Prussia out of the War. However, Ney blundered into a trap set by Bernadotte and was stopped cold by the Prussians, and then routed when the Crown Prince arrived with his Swedes and a Russian corps on their open flank. This second defeat at the hands of Napoleon\'s ex-Marshal was catastrophic for the French, with them losing 50 cannon, four Eagles and over 20,000 men. Further losses occurred during the pursuit that evening, and into the following day, as the Swedish and Prussian cavalry took a further 13,000–14,000 French prisoners. Ney retreated to Wittenberg with the remains of his command and made no further attempt at capturing Berlin. Napoleon\'s bid to knock Prussia out of the War had failed; as had his operational plan to fight the battle of the central position. Having lost the initiative, he was now forced to concentrate his army and seek a decisive battle at Leipzig.\n\nCompounding the heavy military losses suffered at Dennewitz, the French were now losing the support of their German vassal states as well. News of Bernadotte\'s victory at Dennewitz sent shock waves across Germany, where French rule had become unpopular, inducing Tyrol to rise in rebellion and was the signal for the King of Bavaria to proclaim neutrality and begin negotiations with the Austrians (on the basis of territorial guarantees and Maximillian\'s retention of his crown) in preparation of joining the Allied cause. A body of Saxon troops had defected to Bernadotte\'s Army during the battle and Westphalian troops were now deserting King Jerome\'s army in large numbers. Following a proclamation by the Swedish Crown Prince urging the Saxon Army (Bernadotte had commanded the Saxon Army at the Battle of Wagram and was well liked by them) to come over to the Allied cause, Saxon generals could no longer answer for the fidelity of their troops and the French now considered their remaining German allies unreliable. Later, on 8 October 1813, Bavaria officially ranged itself against Napoleon as a member of the Coalition.\n\nBattle of Nations and the Frankfurt peace proposals \n\nNapoleon withdrew with around 175,000 troops to Leipzig in Saxony where he thought he could fight a defensive action against the Allied armies converging on him. There, at the so-called Battle of Nations (16–19 October 1813) a French army, ultimately reinforced to 191,000, found itself faced by three Allied armies converging on it, ultimately totalling more than 430,000 troops. Over the following days the battle resulted in a defeat for Napoleon, who however was still able to manage a relatively orderly retreat westwards. However, as the French forces were pulling across the White Elster, the bridge was prematurely blown and 30,000 troops were stranded to be taken prisoner by the Allied forces.\n\nNapoleon defeated an army of his former ally Bavaria at the Battle of Hanau (30–31 October 1813) before pulling what was left of his forces back into France. Meanwhile, Davout\'s corps continued to hold out in its siege of Hamburg, where it became the last Imperial force east of the Rhine.\n\nThe Allies offered peace terms in the Frankfurt proposals in November 1813. Napoleon would remain as Emperor of France, but it would be reduced to its "natural frontiers".  That meant that France could retain control of Belgium, Savoy and the Rhineland (the west bank of the Rhine River), while giving up control of all the rest, including all of Poland, Spain and the Netherlands, and most of Italy and Germany.  Metternich told Napoleon these were the best terms the Allies were likely to offer; after further victories, the terms would be harsher and harsher. Metternich aimed to maintain France as a balance against Russian threats, while ending the highly destabilizing series of wars.\n\nNapoleon, expecting to win the war, delayed too long and lost this opportunity; by December the Allies had withdrawn the offer. When his back was to the wall in 1814 he tried to reopen peace negotiations on the basis of accepting the Frankfurt proposals.  The Allies now had new, harsher terms that included the retreat of France to its 1791 boundaries, which meant the loss of Belgium and the Rhineland (in Germany).  Napoleon adamantly refused.\n\nWar in Denmark and Norway\nFollowing the Battle of Leipzig, Bernadotte and his Army of the North parted ways with the rest of the Coalition armies, determined to see the guarantees over the Danish cession of Norway to Sweden enforced. In December 1813, Bernadotte\'s Army, now some 65,000, composed only of Swedish and Russian troops following the secondment of the Prussian troops to Blücher\'s army, attacked the Danish Army in Holstein. In a lightning campaign of only two weeks the Swedes subdued the Danes. General Anders Skjöldebrand defeated the Danes at Bornhöved on 7 December 1813. Three days later, the Danish Auxiliary Corps scored a minor victory at Sehested.\n\nHowever, while the Danish victory managed to ensure the retreat of the main Danish army from immediate destruction, and brought about a three-week armistice, it could not change the course of war. Following a break-down of negotiations, the armistice concluded and on 14 January 1814 Bernadotte invaded Schleswig, swiftly invested and reduced its fortresses and occupied the entire province. The Danes, heavily outnumbered, could not prevent an Allied advance on Jutland or Copenhagen, and sued for peace. It would be the final chapter in the long and bloody history of conflicts between Sweden and Denmark with the former definitively victorious.\n\nOn 14 January 1814, the Treaty of Kiel was concluded between Sweden and Denmark–Norway. By the terms of the treaty, the Kingdom of Norway was to be ceded to the King of Sweden. However, the Norwegians rejected this, declaring independence and adopting their own constitution on 17 May. On 27 July, Bernadotte and his Swedish forces (the Russians parted ways after the Danish Campaign) invaded Norway with 70,000 well-trained, well-equipped men, many of whom were veterans of the Leipzig Campaign. Facing them were 30,000 Norwegian militia, who were short on equipment and training but full of patriotic ardor and acquitted themselves well in the face of overwhelming odds. Following a short war, where the Norwegians fought well, winning battles at Lier and Matrand, but could not stop the Swedes from advancing, an armistice (the Convention of Moss) was concluded on 14 August. The terms of Union were generous to the Norwegians as Bernadotte and the Swedes had no wish to inaugurate the union of Sweden and Norway with further bloodshed. Norway agreed to enter into a personal union with Sweden as a separate state with its own constitution and institutions, except for the common king and foreign service. The Union between Sweden and Norway was formally established on 4 November 1814, when the Parliament of Norway adopted the necessary constitutional amendments, and elected Charles XIII of Sweden as King of Norway.\n\nWith his primary goal of detaching Norway from Denmark and binding it with Sweden achieved, Bernadotte and his Army of the North played no further major role in the war against the French beyond occupying the Low Countries and masking the French forces still garrisoned in fortresses throughout northern Germany.\n\nPeninsular War\n\nWhile events unfolded in the East, the Peninsular War in Iberia continued to be Napoleon\'s "Spanish ulcer" tying down hundreds of thousands of French soldiers. In 1813, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, finally broke the French power in Spain and forced the French to retreat. In a strategic move, Wellington planned to move his supply base from Lisbon to Santander. The Anglo-Portuguese forces swept northwards in late May and seized Burgos; they then outflanked the French army, forcing Joseph Bonaparte into the valley of the River Zadorra. At the Battle of Vitoria, 21 June, the 65,000 French under Joseph were routed by 53,000 British, 27,000 Portuguese and 19,000 Spaniards. Wellington pursued and dislodged the French from San Sebastián, which was sacked and burnt.\n\nThe allies chased the retreating French, reaching the Pyrenees in early July. Marshal Soult was given command of the French forces and began a counter-offensive, dealing the allied generals two sharp defeats at the Battle of Maya and the Battle of Roncesvalles. Yet, he was put again onto the defensive by the British army and its Portuguese allies, lost momentum, and finally fled after the allied victory at the Battle of Sorauren (28 and 30 July).\n\nIn the Battle of the Pyrenees Wellington fought far from his supply line but won with a mixture of manoeuvre, shock and persistent hounding of the French forces.\n\nOn 7 October, after Wellington received news of the reopening of hostilities in Germany, the Coalition allies finally crossed into France, fording the Bidasoa river. On 11 December, a beleaguered and desperate Napoleon agreed to a separate peace with Spain under the Treaty of Valençay, under which he would release and recognize Ferdinand VII as King of Spain in exchange for a complete cessation of hostilities. But the Spanish had no intention of trusting Napoleon, and the fighting continued on into France.\n\nWar in France\n\nDuring the last months of 1813 and into 1814 Wellington led the Peninsular army into south-west France and fought a number of battles against Marshals Soult and Suchet. The Peninsular army gained victories at Vera pass, the Battle of Nivelle, the Battle of Nive near Bayonne (10–14 December 1813), the Battle of Orthez (27 February 1814) and the Battle of Toulouse (10 April).\n\nAfter retreating from Germany, Napoleon fought a series of battles, including the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube, in France, but was steadily forced back against overwhelming odds.  During the campaign he had issued a decree for 900,000 fresh conscripts, but only a fraction of these were ever raised. In early February Napoleon fought his Six Days\' Campaign, in which he won multiple battles against numerically superior enemy forces marching on Paris. However, he fielded less than 80,000 soldiers during this entire campaign against a Coalition force of between 370,000 and 405,000 engaged in the campaign. At the Treaty of Chaumont (9 March) the Allies agreed to preserve the Coalition until Napoleon\'s total defeat. After defeating the French on the outskirts of Paris, on 31 March the Coalition armies entered the city with Tsar Alexander I at the head of the army followed by the King of Prussia and Prince Schwarzenberg. On 2 April the French Senate passed the Acte de déchéance de l\'Empereur, which declared Napoleon deposed.\n\nAbdication and peace\nNapoleon was determined to fight on, proposing to march on Paris. His soldiers and regimental officers were eager to fight on. But Napoleon\'s marshals and senior officers mutinied. On 4 April, Napoleon was confronted by his marshals and senior officers, led by Ney. They told the Emperor that they refused to march. Napoleon asserted that the army would follow him. Ney replied, "The army will follow its chiefs".\n\nNapoleon abdicated on 11 April 1814 and the war officially ended soon after, although some fighting continued until May. The Treaty of Fontainebleau was signed on 11 April 1814 between the continental powers and Napoleon, followed by the Treaty of Paris on 30 May 1814 between France and the Great Powers including Britain. The victors exiled Napoleon to the island of Elba, and restored the Bourbon monarchy in the person of Louis XVIII. The Allied leaders attended Peace Celebrations in England in June, before progressing to the Congress of Vienna (between September 1814 and June 1815), which was held to redraw the map of Europe.\n\nSee also \n Napoleonic Wars\n Peninsular War\n War of the Fifth Coalition\n The Hundred Days or the War of the Seventh Coalition\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nCitations\n\nSources\n\nFurther reading\n\nExternal links \n Napoleon, His Armies and Tactics\n Collection of historical eBooks about the War of the Sixth Coalition \n\nCoalition, 6th\n1810s in France\n1810s in Europe\nConflicts in 1813\nConflicts in 1814\nCoalition Wars',
    'The 2nd Armoured Division was a division of the British Army that was active during the early stages of the Second World War. The division\'s creation had been discussed since the beginning of 1939, with the intent to form it by splitting the 1st Armoured Division. A lack of tanks delayed this until December 1939. For a short period after its creation, the division had no assigned units until the 1st Light Armoured Brigade was assigned to it from the 1st Armoured Division, and the 22nd Heavy Armoured Brigade from Southern Command.\n\nIn early 1940, 1st Armoured Division was given priority for equipment, leaving the 2nd Armoured Division understrength and equipped largely with light tanks. After the Battle of France, with the threat of a German invasion of the United Kingdom, priority for equipment shifted to the 2nd Armoured Division, which was brought up to strength. The plan was to use the division to counter-attack the flanks of a feared German invasion force. In August 1940, an armoured regiment from the division was transported to Egypt and transferred to the 7th Armoured Division, but it was replaced by another. In October, it was decided to transfer the rest of the division to Egypt, as reinforcements for Middle East Command.\n\nBefore leaving for Egypt, the division exchanged brigades with the 1st Armoured Division. Since the brigade received in exchange consisted of only one armoured regiment, division strength was reduced to three armoured regiments. Upon arriving in Egypt in December 1940, the division was further reduced in order to provide support for Operation Lustre, an expeditionary force to Greece. The detached units included two-thirds of the division\'s tanks, a battalion of infantry, and artillery support. The remnants of the division then moved to the province of Cyrenaica in Italian Libya, which had been conquered during Operation Compass. The division\'s remaining tanks were worn-out; they were supplemented by captured Italian models that were equally decrepit. In March, a German-Italian counter-attack led to the destruction of the division, and the ejection of the British from Cyrenaica, except for Tobruk. The consensus of historians is that there was little the division could have done to prevent this, given the circumstances of its being under equipped, poorly supplied, lacking proper training, and having inadequate communications and an unclear chain of command.\n\nBackground\nDuring the interwar period, the British Army examined the lessons learnt from the First World War; and a need was seen for experimentation with and development of theories of manoeuvre and armoured warfare, as well as the creation of the short-lived Experimental Mechanized Force. The long-term impact was for the army to start to move towards mechanisation, to enhance battlefield mobility. By the 1930s, the army had established three types of divisions: the infantry division, the mobile division (later called an armoured division), and the motor division (a motorised infantry division). The primary role of the infantry division was to penetrate the enemy\'s defensive line, with the support of infantry tanks. Any gap created would then be exploited by mobile divisions, and the territory thus captured would be secured by the fast-moving motor divisions. These tactics would transform the attack into a break-through, while maintaining mobility.\n\nThe Mobile Division was created in October 1937; it included six light tank regiments, three medium tank regiments, two motorized infantry battalions, and two artillery regiments. The light-tank units were intended for reconnaissance only. General John Burnett-Stuart, who was responsible for training the Mobile Division, stated that the infantry were not "to be put on to a position by tanks and told to hold it, and they are not meant to fight side by side with your tanks in the forefront"; the infantry\'s role was simply to protect the tanks when they were stationary. Burnett-Stuart\'s tactics did not conform with British doctrine, which promoted combined-arms co-operation to win battles, as did German armoured warfare doctrine, which held that tanks by themselves would not be a decisive weapon. However, Burnett-Stuart\'s thinking predominated within the British armoured forces until the doctrine was reformed in 1942.\n\nIn the 1930s, tensions increased between Germany and the United Kingdom. During 1937 and 1938, German demands for the annexation of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia led to an international crisis. This was resolved in September 1938 by the Munich Agreement, which allowed for German annexation. Tensions did not subside, and the British government debated how best to prepare the army for war. In January 1939, the Secretary of State for War Leslie Hore-Belisha proposed splitting the Mobile Division into two smaller formations but found no support for this move. The issue was broached again a month later, and was accepted in principle by the cabinet. Shortly after, the French were informed of a preliminary timetable for the arrival of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in the event of war: "One Regular Armoured Division will become available about the middle of 1940, the second would not be available \'till a later date. The formation of a second division during this period was complicated by the slow pace of British tank production.\n\nFormation and home service\n\nThe 2nd Armoured Division was activated on 15 December 1939, with Major-General Frederick Hotblack as the first general officer commanding (GOC). Hotblack had joined the Royal Tank Corps in 1916, and by 1918 he had become the army\'s expert on German tanks. During the 1930s, he had been posted to Germany, where he witnessed and reported on the development of German armoured forces. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, in September 1939, he was the BEF\'s senior advisor on armoured vehicles. \n\nThe division had no assigned fighting sub-units until the following month, when the 1st Light Armoured Brigade was transferred from the 1st Armoured Division (previously the Mobile Division), and the 22nd Heavy Armoured Brigade was transferred from Southern Command. On assignment to the division, the 1st Light Armoured Brigade comprised three armoured regiments: the 1st King\'s Dragoon Guards (KDG), the 3rd The King\'s Own Hussars (3H), and the 4th Queen\'s Own Hussars (4H). The 22nd Heavy Brigade consisted of the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars, and the 3rd and the 4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters).\n\nThe 2nd Support Group, which would comprise the division\'s supporting arms, was formed in February. It did not have sub-units allocated until March; it was then composed of the 3rd Field Squadron, Royal Engineers; the 12th Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery (12 RHA); the 102nd (Northumberland Hussars) Light-Anti-aircraft/Anti-tank Regiment; and two motorised infantry units – the 1st Battalion, The Rangers, King\'s Royal Rifle Corps, and the 1st Battalion, Tower Hamlets Rifles, Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort\'s Own).\n\nThe war establishment – the nominal full wartime strength – for a light armoured brigade was 108 light tanks and 66 cruiser tanks. A heavy armoured brigade\'s war establishment was 157 cruiser tanks. British doctrine defined light tanks as reconnaissance vehicles armed only with machine guns. Cruiser tanks were swift moving, more heavily armoured, and equipped with both a machine gun and an anti-tank gun. The primary role of the cruiser tank was to engage and destroy opposing armoured forces. Its main weapon, a 2-pounder anti-tank gun, was only supplied with armour-piecing rounds. This meant that cruiser tanks were ineffective against entrenched infantry, or in suppressing hostile artillery. Despite its war establishment, the division comprised a total of only 77 Vickers light tanks in January 1940.\n\nIn early 1940, to bring it up to full strength, the 1st Armoured Division was given priority for equipment, to ensure it would be operationally effective when deployed to France. However, the 2nd Armoured Division strength only increased slowly; and it was not immediately issued with cruiser tanks. On 14 April, the 1st Light Armoured Brigade became the 1st Armoured Brigade, and the 22nd Heavy Armoured Brigade was renamed the 22nd Armoured Brigade. The renaming followed a change in the war establishment of an armoured regiment. The armament of regiments and brigades was to be homogeneous, with each brigade having 166 cruiser tanks. In total, including tanks assigned to headquarter units, an armoured division now had an establishment of 340 tanks, sixteen 25-pounder field gun-howitzers, and twenty-four 2-pounder anti-tank guns. By May, the division had 31 light tanks in the 1st Armoured Brigade. The 22nd Armoured Brigade had no serviceable tanks, and made do with lorries in lieu of tanks. The division had two 25-pounders, supplemented by four First World War–vintage 18-pounder field guns, four QF  howitzers of similar vintage, and two anti-tank guns.\n\nOn 10 May, Major-General Justice Tilly took command after Hotblack was removed following an apparent stroke. Tilly had been an armoured warfare instructor and commander of the 1st Tank Brigade prior to the outbreak of the war.\n\nDuring this period, the division was held in reserve in the Lincolnshire area. In June, the number of serviceable tanks fluctuated between 178 and 197. After the Battle of France, the division was moved to a position between Northampton, Northamptonshire, and Newmarket, Suffolk. The division\'s role was to strike into the flanks or the rear of any potential German landing in East Anglia or north of The Wash. During July, the division was given equipment priority and received new 25-pounders. By 4 August, the division had 17 new cruiser tanks, and the number of light tanks had increased to 226. During August, despite the threat of invasion, the War Office decided to reinforce Middle East Command. The 3H was transferred to Egypt to reinforce the 7th Armoured Division; it was replaced by the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment (3RTR). The division had a steady increase in tank strength, and at the end of September it had 256 light tanks and 54 cruisers.\n\nBy October, the threat of a German invasion had receded. The British could now spare additional forces for the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre, including the 2nd Armoured Division. Prior to being dispatched, the 22nd Armoured Brigade was exchanged for the 3rd Armoured Brigade of the 1st Armoured Division. The 3rd Armoured Brigade consisted of only one regiment, the 5th Royal Tank Regiment (5RTR). The division departed Liverpool in late October, on Convoy W.S. 4a.\n\nOverseas service\n\nArrival in the Middle East\nThe convoy sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and arrived at Suez at the end of December. The division arrived in Egypt with just three armoured regiments: the 4H, the 3RTR, and the 5RTR. The KDG, which had previously been equipped with light tanks, had been made the division\'s armoured-car regiment. This had been intended as a stop-gap measure while the 1st The Royal Dragoons, based in Palestine, was mechanised to take on the role. In January 1941, after the division\'s arrival in Egypt, the KDG were outfitted with Marmon-Herrington Armoured Cars. On arrival, Tilly reported to General Archibald Wavell (in command of Middle East Command and all British land forces in the Middle East) that "the mechanical state of his two Cruiser regiments" was in question, with "the tracks ... practically worn out" and "engines [that] had already done a considerable mileage" without overhaul before being transported. The intention had been to replace the tracks once the tanks arrived in Egypt, but the available spare parts were found to be useless.\n\nOn 5 January, Tilly died following an air crash. He was replaced by Major-General Michael Gambier-Parry on 12 February 1941. Gambier-Parry had served in the infantry during the First World War, transferred to the Royal Tank Corps in the 1920s, and commanded an infantry brigade in the 1930s. Prior to his appointment as GOC, he was part of a diplomatic mission to Greece.\n\nWhile the division was en route to Egypt, Operation Compass had been launched. This was a counter-attack against the Italian invasion of Egypt. The initial objective was limited: to destroy forward Italian forces and advance as far as Sollum, near the Libyan border, if the situation allowed. By the time the division had arrived, Compass was on the verge of defeating the Italian 10th Army. By February, the offensive had captured the Italian Libyan province of Cyrenaica. Further prosecution of the offensive was discussed, but it was believed that the province of Tripolitania would be too hard to defend or supply if captured and that the occupation of Cyrenaica would provide sufficient security for Egypt. The British believed that there would not be an Axis threat to their gains until at least May, by which time additional Allied forces would be available to reinforce the Cyrenaica garrison.\n\nBritish strategy shifted to supporting Greece, and to maintaining the status-quo in the Balkans, to prevent additional countries from being occupied by Germany or Italy. After discussions with the Greek government, it was decided to dispatch a substantial expeditionary force. This was partly made up by reducing the garrison in Cyrenaica. The transportation of this force was codenamed Operation Lustre. On 27 February, as a result, the 1st Armoured Brigade was detached from the division and assigned to the expeditionary force. On 18 March, it arrived in Greece with two armoured regiments, which included 52 cruisers and 52 light tanks. The division also lost the 1st Battalion, The Rangers, the 12RHA, and the 102nd (Northumberland Hussars) Regiment to the expeditionary force. These units subsequently fought in the Battle of Greece.\n\nMove to Libya\n\nIn March, the remnants of the 2nd Armoured Division departed Egypt and travelled to Libya, suffering many breakdowns en route. The 5RTR began the journey with 58 cruisers, but arrived with 23. Once in Libya, the division consisted of the KDG, the 3H, the 5RTR, the 1st Tower Hamlets Rifles, and the 104th RHA. The 6th Royal Tank Regiment (6RTR), based in Cyrenaica, was assigned to the division. The 6RTR had been involved in Operation Compass, and towards the end of the operation had been stripped of its remaining serviceable tanks to reinforce other British units. It was then re-equipped with captured Italian Fiat M13/40 tanks. Although equipped with a good 47mm anti-tank gun, the M13 was slow, uncomfortable, and mechanically unreliable. The British tanks were also unreliable, having exceeded their engine lives. Other division deficiencies included a lack of transport, understaffed workshops, a lack of spare parts, and radios that lacked the required equipment to remain functional. By the end of March, the division had 102 tanks: 3H had 26 MK VI light tanks and 12 M13s; 5RTR, 25 Cruiser Mk IVs; 6RTR, 36 M13s; 3rd Armoured Brigade HQ, 3 MK VI light tanks.\n\nBenghazi was the port closest to the frontline. However, Axis bombing had rendered it unusable for landing supplies. The 2nd Armoured Division therefore had to rely on overland routes from Tobruk, which was about  away via the coastal road, or  via desert tracks. A lack of transport meant the British Army created a series of static stockpiles to supply their forward area. This made it impossible to supply a garrison west of El Agheila, which was the most favourable defensive position. It also restricted the mobility of the 2nd Armoured Division, which could not move beyond the range of their supply dumps.\n\nThe terrain between El Agheila and Benghazi was optimal for armoured warfare, and no easily defensible infantry position existed. Lieutenant-General Philip Neame, GOC Cyrenaica Command, believed his position was untenable without a fully equipped armoured division supported by two complete infantry divisions and adequate air support. The only other major formation available to Neame was the 9th Australian Division. It was under-equipped, under-trained, and lacked direct communication with the 2nd Armoured Division. One of the 9th Australian Division\'s brigades remained at Tobruk. The other two were positioned north of Benghazi to hold the high ground of the Jebel Akhdar. The 3rd Armoured Brigade was based southeast of Mersa Brega, where the 2nd Support Group was located. Neame was ordered to give ground if attacked, as the conservation of his force was important. The 2nd Armoured Division had the conflicting objectives of avoiding tank losses while having to be ready to operate offensively against the flanks of any attacking Axis armoured force. Neame also predicted that once operations got underway, the 2nd Armoured Division\'s tank numbers would rapidly dwindle due to breakdowns.\n\nAxis offensive\n\nMarch\n\nAfter the destruction of the 10th Army, Italy dispatched reinforcements to its frontline. This included four infantry divisions, the 102 Motorised Division "Trento" and the 132nd Armoured Division "Ariete". Germany supplemented this effort with the two-division strong  ( Erwin Rommel). At the end of March, the German 5th Light Division (147 tanks) and the "Ariete" Division (46 M13/40s) were on the border of Cyrenaica. The British underestimated the size of the Axis effort, believing that only four divisions would be available to them until the end of May, of which only two could be used in offensive operations due to supply constraints. Royal Air Force (RAF) aerial reconnaissance observed Axis troop movements towards Cyrenaica, and on 25 February spotted German armoured cars that were superior in speed and armament to those used by the 2nd Armoured Division. The reconnaissance elements of the latter avoided contact with their German counterparts to minimise losses.\n\nThe British forward area was patrolled by one platoon from the 1st Tower Hamlets Rifles, supported by an anti-tank gun from the 9th Australian Division, and elements of the KDG. On 23 March, the division had its first action when a German reconnaissance patrol was engaged and forced to withdraw, near El Agheila, the Australians claiming three German vehicles knocked out. Axis forces took up position in an abandoned colonial fort near El Agheila and ambushed a patrol from the 1st Tower Hamlets Rifles the following day. German armoured cars also attacked and one was knocked out by the Australian gun crew, which also suffered casualties. The British screening force then withdrew to Mersa Brega, ceding El Agheila to the Axis. German tanks followed, and one or two were lost to anti-tank mines (possibly left over Italian mines, which had not been cleared).\n\nOn 31 March, the Axis resumed their advance, and engaged just after dawn. Sources describe either one engagement from both the British and German perspectives or two clashes. The German 5th Light Division reported engaging up to five British tanks, in two inconclusive engagements with no losses on either side. While observing the Axis advance, the 5RTR reported a patrol of four enemy tanks, which they engaged, claiming three Italian tanks possibly destroyed, with one British tank damaged in return. By 09:00, the 3rd Armoured Brigade started a planned withdrawal. After 10:00, German forces attacked the 2nd Support Group. Fighting lasted through the day, with the British fending off several assaults, including attacks by German Junkers Ju 87  dive bombers. The 2nd Armoured Division claimed two aircraft destroyed and the Germans recorded their own tanks being subjected to friendly fire. A request for the 3rd Armoured Brigade to be deployed to reinforce the 2nd Support Group was denied. Gambier-Parry reported that there was "insufficient time to get them into action from their present position before dark". After dark, the 2nd Support Group withdrew  to Agedabia. The Germans captured Mersa Brega the next morning, without further incident. The fighting cost the division 59 men, one tank, eight universal carriers and numerous other vehicles.\n\nApril\n\nThe Germans followed, and attacked the 2nd Support Group on 2 April. The latter withdrew a further , and lost men in rearguard actions or to being surrounded. On the desert flank, the 3rd Armoured Brigade continued to withdraw, although only at  in order to match the slowest vehicles, which were towing artillery. For most of the day, their movements were shadowed by armoured vehicles they were unable to identify. During the afternoon, the withdrawal was further slowed by breakdowns, conflicting orders, and the need to rest and refuel. This allowed the shadowing armoured vehicles to gain ground. Nine tanks from the 5RTR were ordered to conduct a rearguard action and took up hull-down positions. The 5RTR believed the shadowing tanks were Italian, although they were actually German. The German tanks advanced in an arrowhead formation towards the 5RTR. When the range was between , both sides opened fire. The 5RTR suffered five tank losses and 24 casualties. The 5RTR\'s after action report claimed at least eight enemy tanks in return, although German records indicate that only three German tanks were destroyed, "along with an unrecorded number damaged". The remaining British tanks withdrew to friendly positions, and the regiment regrouped  further back. The brigade then resumed its retreat, with no German vehicles following. During the day, Gambier-Parry, Neame, and Wavell all issued contradictory orders and queries to the division. These concerned the feasibility of withdrawal, the division\'s capacity to block the coastal road, and whether the division should remain concentrated or split up. The discussions were hampered by ignorance of events, and notably included Neame informing Gambier-Parry that the 3rd Armoured Brigade was not to be committed en masse without his permission.\n\nEarly on 3 April, the 3rd Armoured Brigade reached Antelat (~ northeast of Agedabia, and half way to Msus), and had been located by German aerial reconnaissance. Unknown to the division, the bulk of the German 5th Light Division had halted near Bir el Ageradt and was focused on resupplying, although German and Italian detachments were ordered to probe the southern flank of the 2nd Armoured Division and reconnoitre towards Msus. In the afternoon, the movements of the 3H and the 6RTR caused alarm and confusion within the 5RTR, which at first believed them to be German. The RAF then reported Axis forces approaching Msus, the site of the main divisional supply dump. The 3rd Armoured Brigade, along with some elements of the Support Group, were ordered to move to Msus to deal with the hostile force. However, the division was crippled by a breakdown in communication, resulting in conflicting, late, and missed orders. None of the division arrived at Msus during the day. It was established late in the afternoon that the RAF had mistakenly identified friendly vehicles in the area as the enemy. By the end of the day, the 3rd Armoured Brigade had been reduced to 18 light tanks, 26 M13s, and 12 cruisers.\n\nOn 4 April, Axis forces entered Benghazi, which had been abandoned by the Allies. During the day, divisional artillery fire halted German reconnaissance forces near Charruba. At midday, Lieutenant-General Richard O\'Connor (GOC British Troops in Egypt) arrived at the front and held a meeting with the senior commanders in Cyrenaica, including Gambier-Parry, who opined that the Axis forces would not attempt a further advance now that Benghazi had been taken. However, the decision was made to withdraw from the Jebel Achdar, and for the 2nd Armoured Division to concentrate at Mechili to protect the withdrawal of the Australian infantry. Brigadier Edward Vaughan\'s recently arrived 3rd Indian Motor Brigade was ordered to secure Mechili, an old Italian stone-and-mud colonial fort ringed by trenches, to ensure it was in Allied hands when the division arrived. Communication failures impeded the division\'s withdrawal during the day, and further tanks were lost from breakdowns. A supply convoy dispatched for the division was attacked by 18 Axis aircraft, and destroyed with the loss of  of fuel. By the end of the day, the 5RTR had nine cruiser tanks, and the 6RTR had nine M13s. The following day, alarmist reports suggested Axis armoured forces had passed Msus; but the KDG, and other Allied units, verified that this was not the case. The tank sightings turned out to be the 2nd Armoured Division. In reality, the nearest Axis unit was  from Msus.\n\nGeneral withdrawal\n\nOn 6 April, Axis forces moved towards Mechili, with the intention of advancing toward the coast, and thereby encircling the retreating Allied forces. This move was reported by the KDG and the RAF. The division started the day with 8 cruiser tanks, 14 light tanks, and 2 M13s. During the day, the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade was attached to the division. Mechili was subjected to Axis artillery fire, and Indian patrols took numerous Axis prisoners around the perminter throughout the day. Neame, unaware of these events, set off into the desert to locate Gambier-Parry to deliver new instructions. At the same time, the attack on the fort prompted O\'Connor to order a general withdrawal of all Allied forces towards Gazala, via Derna.\n\nConflicting and confusing orders to withdraw were issued, which fragmented the division, the withdrawal orders failing entirely to reach the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade. At first, the division moved east towards Mechili. Following its instructions, the 2nd Support Group turned north towards the coastal road. The divisional headquarters, including Gambier-Parry and a battery of artillery, continued towards Mechili. The 3rd Armoured Brigade, which had run low on fuel, moved north to Maraura, but found little petrol there. The brigade then moved towards Derna, via Giovanni Berta. At the same time, the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade escorted a fuel convoy from Mechili towards where they expected the division to be. In the afternoon, a patrol of the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade, based at El Adem, intercepted advanced Italian troops at Acroma, near Tobruk, and took 18 prisoners. A buildup of Axis forces took place near Mechili. Towards dusk, a German officer demanded the garrison\'s surrender and was refused. Near Derna, German troops briefly managed to block some desert tracks, before moving to a position near the coastal road east of the town. German patrols intercepted and disrupted some Allied convoys, and captured Neame and O\'Connor, but the route east remained open until the following day.\n\nEarly on 7 April, Brigadier Reginald Rimington, GOC 3rd Armoured Brigade, was mortally wounded and captured after an ambush on a desert track en route to Derna. By dawn, the 2nd Support Group and the 3rd Armoured Brigade were stretched out, stuck in traffic west of Derna; Gambier-Parry and the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade had been surrounded at Mechili; and other elements of the division were positioned near Derna to control the road and desert tracks, fighting with Axis forces intermittently throughout the day. At Timimi, near Gazala, Axis armoured cars ambushed retreating Australian forces, but were repulsed by a lone cruiser tank from the 5RTR, whose remaining tanks arrived at Derna in the afternoon. By 14:30, the majority of the division had moved through Derna. To the south of Derna, German forces had captured the town\'s airfield and established a blocking position. The division\'s rearguard, now separated from the rest of the division, fought an afternoon-long battle with this German force. Several German attacks were fended off, with eight German armoured cars claimed as destroyed. Around 17:15, the 5RTR attacked the German position and lost their remaining tanks but successfully covered the withdrawal of the remainder of the rearguard. Barton Maughan, author of the Australian official history for this period of the fighting, wrote "by coincidence ... the 5th Royal Tanks ... [were] where they were most needed and could be most effectively employed that day". The British official history recorded "the action cleared the road also for any troops that remained in Derna" as well as allowing the rearguard to get away.\n\nDemise\nAt Mechili, on 7 April, the Germans continued to build up their forces surrounding the British position. The garrison was subjected to intermittent artillery fire, and skirmishing took place around the perimeter. Two separate German envoys demanded the garrison surrender, and both demands were refused by Gambier-Parry. Around 22:00, Gambier-Parry re-established communication with Cyrenaica Command. He was informed that neither the rest of his division nor any other force would be joining him, and was ordered to break out at first light, with El Adem his destination.\n\nThe planned break-out was to be led by a single cruiser tank, with infantry support from the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade. The intent was to use a small force to punch a hole through the Axis defensive positions prior to dawn, to negate the Axis anti-tank gun advantage; that would then be followed by the rest of the force east into the desert. Maughan wrote, "If the original plan had been adhered to, if it had been boldly executed, a great measure of success might have been achieved. But the operation miscarried badly". On 8 April, the tank was delayed and the cover of dark lost. Despite this, the 18th King Edward\'s Own Cavalry (18th Cavalry) achieved surprise when they attacked and scattered the personnel of an Italian battery. Instead of exploiting this success, the rest of the escape column waited for the cruiser tank to advance. A second attack was launched by the 11th Prince Albert Victor\'s Own Cavalry (Frontier Force), which likewise broke through the Axis defenses. However, the cruiser tank was destroyed when it advanced towards the battery silenced by the 18th Cavalry; the Italians had returned to their guns.\n\nFollowing this Allied failure, the Axis forces attacked the garrison. Gambier-Parry decided to surrender, to spare further casualties, and fighting ceased by 08:00. Roughly 3,000 Allied troops were captured at Mechili, including Gambier-Parry and Vaughan. A force of at least 150 men, from the 3rd RHA and the 2nd Lancers (Gardner\'s Horse), refused to capitulate. They charged, unmolested, through Axis positions in non-armoured vehicles. The majority of this small force made it to Tobruk, taking prisoners en route. Elements of the 6RTR, which had failed to reach Derna prior to the Axis arrival, moved south into the desert to avoid contact. They continued east, before meeting British reconnaissance forces near El Adem on 10 April, and reached Tobruk just prior to midnight. On 10 May 1941, the 2nd Armoured Division was disbanded. The units that constituted the division continued the war with other formations. In October 1941, XXX Corps was formed with officers largely from the remnants of the 2nd Armoured Division HQ staff.\n\nAssessment\n"This division [has not] had an opportunity for adequate training...  It was a collection of units, three of which had only [just] joined... rather than a trained formation. The breakdown in control and administration was largely due to this fact". – From a contemporary after action report, by 2nd Armoured Division senior officers.\n\nAn unnamed officer from the division later blamed the division\'s fate on Gambier-Parry, whom he called "a conventional and slow minded soldier who couldn\'t cope with the unexpected". The historian David French wrote that some critics, such as Major-General David Belchem, blamed the poor performance of British armoured formations in the desert on officers who had cavalry backgrounds and knew little of armoured warfare. French wrote "such strictures are exaggerated", highlighted that Gambier-Parry started his career in the infantry before he transferred to the Royal Tank Corps, and stated that singling him out for blame is harsh.\n\nSeveral factors have been identified as key reasons for the division\'s rapid decline in tank strength and ineffectiveness in the face of Axis forces: tanks that were not serviceable, an inadequate logistical support system, a lack of training, a burdensome chain of command, and ineffective communications. The 5RTR lost 38 tanks in Libya, but only nine were lost to enemy action. With the exception of one that was destroyed when it hit a thermos bomb, the rest had broken down. The lack of a forward port or railhead meant that supplies had to be moved at least , but there was insufficient transport to build up a sufficient stockpile of supplies for the division. The division\'s staff were undertrained for the task they were asked to perform. While brave, the tank crews were inflexible and failed to follow their tactical training. British tactical doctrine encouraged ambush counter-attacks, but the formation failed to undertake any. At the squadron and regimental level, the chain of command impeded mobility, as permission was needed to move a single tank from an assigned position. This resulted in rapid tank losses once combat was underway. At the higher level, the division received instructions from Gambier-Parry, Neame, Wavell, and O\'Connor. This overlapping chain of command resulted in delayed, misunderstood, mixed, and changed orders that severely impeded the division\'s capability.\n\nDue to these factors, the general and historian David Fraser wrote, once "the Germans chose to drive across the chord of the Cyrenaican arc there was little to stop them". At no point during the Axis advance, did the division offer a threat or hindrance. However, when they did engage, both sides lacked flexibility and acted against their own doctrines. Furthermore, the German lack of understanding of what the 2nd Armoured Division was doing resulted in their 5th Light Division having to send 83 tanks to workshops for repairs after they had chased the 2nd Armoured Division through the desert.\n\nGeneral officer commanding\n\nOrders of battle\n\nDecember 1939 – October 1940\n\n1st Light Armoured Brigade (assigned 19 January 1940, and renamed the 1st Armoured Brigade on 14 April)\n 3rd (The King\'s Own) Hussars (until 14 August 1940)\n 4th Queen\'s Own Hussars\n 1st King\'s Dragoon Guards\n 3rd Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment (from 11 August 1940)\n\n22nd Heavy Armoured Brigade (assigned 15 January 1940, and renamed the 22nd Armoured Brigade on 14 April)\n 2nd Royal Gloucestershire Hussars\n 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters)\n 4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters)\n\n3rd Armoured Brigade (assigned 5 October 1940)\n 5th Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment\n\n2nd Support Group (assigned 5 February 1940)\n 1st Battalion The Rangers, The King\'s Royal Rifle Corps\n 1st Battalion, Tower Hamlets Rifles, Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort\'s Own)\n 102nd (Northumberland Hussars) Light Anti-Aircraft/Anti-Tank Regiment\n 12th Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery (until 7 August 1940)\n 2nd Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery (from 11 July 1940)\n 3rd Field Squadron, Royal Engineers (until 9 June 1940)\n 142nd Field Park Troop (from 30 March 1940 until 9 June)\n\nDivisional troops\n 2nd Armoured Divisional Signals, Royal Corps of Signals\n Royal Engineers\n 3rd Field Squadron (assigned 10 June 1940)\n 142nd Field Park Troop (assigned 10 June 1940)\n\nLibya, 1941\n\n3rd Armoured Brigade\n 3rd (The King\'s Own) Hussars\n 5th Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment\n 6th Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment\n\n3rd Indian Motor Brigade (6–8 April 1941)\n 2nd Lancers (Gardner\'s Horse)\n 11th Prince Albert Victor\'s Own Cavalry (Frontier Force)\n 18th King Edward\'s Own Cavalry\n\n2nd Support Group\n 1st Battalion, Tower Hamlets Rifles, Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort\'s Own) (also known as the 9th Battalion, the Rifle Brigade (Tower Hamlets Rifles)\n 1st Company, Free French 1st Motor Marine Infantry Battalion (attached)\n 102nd (Northumberland Hussars) Anti-Tank Regiment\n 104th (Essex Yeomanry) Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery\n\nDivisional troops\n 1st King\'s Dragoon Guards (Armoured Car, divisional reconnaissance regiment until 22 March 1941)\n 2nd Armoured Divisional Signals\n\nSee also\n\n British Army during the Second World War\n British Armoured formations of World War II\n List of British divisions in World War II\n\nNotes\n Footnotes\n\n Citations\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n\nExternal links\n\n \n\nArmoured divisions of the British Army in World War II\nBritish armoured divisions\nMilitary units and formations established in 1939\nMilitary units and formations disestablished in 1941\nMilitary units and formations of the British Empire in World War II',
]
embeddings = model.encode(sentences)
print(embeddings.shape)
# [3, 768]

# Get the similarity scores for the embeddings
similarities = model.similarity(embeddings, embeddings)
print(similarities.shape)
# [3, 3]

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Training Details

Training Dataset

Unnamed Dataset

• Size: 21,875 training samples
• Columns: <code>sentence_0</code>, <code>sentence_1</code>, and <code>sentence_2</code>
• Approximate statistics based on the first 1000 samples:

  	sentence_0	sentence_1	sentence_2
  type	string	string	string
  details	<ul><li>min: 4 tokens</li><li>mean: 36.21 tokens</li><li>max: 512 tokens</li></ul>	<ul><li>min: 512 tokens</li><li>mean: 512.0 tokens</li><li>max: 512 tokens</li></ul>	<ul><li>min: 30 tokens</li><li>mean: 510.33 tokens</li><li>max: 512 tokens</li></ul>

• Samples: | sentence_0 | sentence_1

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