Otto Becher (1908–77) was a senior officer in the Royal Australian Navy. After graduating from the Royal Australian Naval College in 1926, he was posted to a series of staff and training positions prior to specialising in gunnery. He assisted in the extraction of Allied troops from the Namsos region of Norway during the Second World War and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Following service in the Mediterranean theatre, he returned to Australia as officer-in-charge of the gunnery school at HMAS Cerberus for two years. He was given command of HMAS Quickmatch in 1944 and earned a Bar to his Distinguished Service Cross for operations against Japanese forces in the Pacific. After the war he was posted to the Navy Office and later to the aircraft carrier HMAS Sydney; in 1951 he was given command of the destroyer HMAS Warramunga. Warramunga formed part of Australia's contribution to the United Nations forces engaged in the Korean War; he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his role. Promoted to rear admiral in 1959, he served as Flag Officer Commanding Australian Fleet and then as Flag Officer-in-Charge East Australia Area before retiring in 1966.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Becher> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1759: Seven Years' War: British forces defeated the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham near Quebec City, New France, though General James Wolfe was mortally wounded. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Plains_of_Abraham> 1814: War of 1812: Fort McHenry in Baltimore's Inner Harbor was attacked by British forces during the Battle of Baltimore, later inspiring Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner", which later became the national anthem of the United States. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Scott_Key> 1933: Elizabeth McCombs became the first woman elected to the Parliament of New Zealand. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_McCombs> 1988: Hurricane Gilbert reached a minimum pressure of 888 mb (26.22 inHg) with sustained flight-level winds of 185 mph (295 km/h), making it the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record at the time. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Gilbert> 2008: Five synchronised bomb blasts took place within a span of few minutes in Delhi, India, resulting in 30 deaths and 130 injuries. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13_September_2008_Delhi_bombings> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: gooseberry: 1. A fruit closely related to the currant. 2. Any of several other unrelated fruits, such as the Chinese gooseberry (kiwifruit) or the Indian gooseberry (amla). 3. (British, informal) An unwanted additional person: Robert and Susan were so in love that nobody could go near them without feeling like a gooseberry. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gooseberry> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: You will have to know life … If you are to become a writer you’ll have to stop fooling with words … It would be better to give up the notion of writing until you are better prepared. Now it’s time to be living. I don’t want to frighten you, but I would like to make you understand the import of what you think of attempting. You must not become a mere peddler of words. The thing to learn is to know what people are thinking about, not what they say. --Sherwood Anderson <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sherwood_Anderson> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/daily-article-l Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
