Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma was a British naval officer, colonial administrator and close relative of the British royal family. Mountbatten, who was of German descent, was born in England to the prominent Battenberg family and was a maternal uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and a second cousin of King George VI.
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Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Mountbatten commanded the destroyer HMS Kelly and the 5th Destroyer Flotilla. In August 1941, he received command of the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. He was appointed chief of Combined Operations and a member of the Chiefs of Staff Committee in early 1942 and organised the raids on St Nazaire and Dieppe.
In March 1947, Mountbatten was appointed Viceroy of India and oversaw the Partition of India into India and Pakistan. He then served as the first Governor-General of India until June 1948. In 1952, Mountbatten was appointed commander-in-chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet and NATO Commander of Allied Forces Mediterranean.
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Who Assassinated Lord Mountbatten?
On 27 August 1979, Mountbatten went lobster potting and tuna fishing in his 30-foot (9.1 m) wooden boat, Shadow V, which had been moored in the harbour at Mullaghmore.
IRA member Thomas McMahon had slipped onto the unguarded boat the previous night and attached a radio-controlled bomb weighing 50 pounds (23 kg). When Mountbatten and his party had taken the boat just a few hundred yards from the shore, the bomb was detonated.
The boat was destroyed by the force of the blast and Mountbatten’s legs were almost blown off. Mountbatten, then aged 79, was pulled alive from the water by nearby fishermen but died from his injuries before being brought to shore.
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