The world's an oppressive place to live through -yet with a little pride it's worth it
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November, 22
845: The Battle of Ballon occurs. At Ballon (modern-day Redon, Brittany), the forces of Charles the Bald, King of West Francia were defeated by the 1,000 Bretons under Nevenoe (or Nomenoe), Duke of Brittany. In the 20th century the battle was given emblematic status by Breton nationalists.
The statue of Nevenoe in Bain-sur-Oust
1718: At Ocracoke Inlet, off the coast of North Carolina, Royal Navy 1st Lt. Robert Maynard, commanding a squadron of two sloops, HMS "Ranger" and HMS "Jane", killed British pirate, Edward Teach (best known as Blackbeard), when the latter boarded with a boarding party the Maynards' sloop Ranger. Blackbeard was beheaded and his head was tied to the bowsprit of his ship for the trip back to Virginia.
Edward Teach's severed head hangs from Maynard's bowsprit
1940: During the Greco-Italian War, the Greeks capture Korçë, the third largest Albanian city and chief Italian base in Albania. The British PM, Winston Churchill, sent the following message to the Greek PM, Ioannes Metaxás: Heartfelt congratulations on the great Greek victories on the Albanian front, culminating in the capture of Koritza. We are all inspired by this feat of Greek valour against an enemy so superior in numbers and equipment. This recalls the classic age. Long live Greece.
A Greek sentry overlooking Korçë
1942: The Soviet 4th Mechanised Corps (Gen. Vasily Timofeyevich Volsky) from the S and the 4th Tank Corps (Gen. Andrey Grigoryevich Kravchenko) from the N, join hands at Kalach on the Don, thus establishing the complete encirclement of the 300,000 men of 6. Armee (General der Panzertruppen Friedrich Paulus) and 4. Panzer-Armee (Generaloberst Hermann Hoth). The Soviets report gains of up to 80 km (50 miles) S of Stalingrad.
1943: The Cairo summit opens between Churchill, Roosevelt and Chiang Kai-shek to discuss ways to defeat Japan.
1963: In Dallas, Texas, US President John F. Kennedy is killed and Texas Governor John B. Connally is seriously wounded by Lee Harvey Oswald, who is later captured and charged with the murder of police officer J. D. Tippit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K8Q3cqGs7I
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November, 23
1248: During the Reconquista, forces of King Fernando III of Castile won victory over the Moors and take Seville.
King Fernando III of Castille is venerated as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church
1808: During the Peninsular War, the Battle of Tudela occurs. A 31,000-strong Franco-Polish force under Jean Lannes, 1st Duc de Montebello, 1st Sovereign Prince de Sievers, defeated the 19,000 Spaniards of Don Francisco Javier Castaños, 1st Duke of Bailén, at Tudela, Navarre. 4,000 Spanish soldiers were killed or wounded, compared to only 650 French or Polish casualties.
There is a legend about this battle engraved on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris
1863: During the American Civil War, the three-day Battle of Chattanooga begins. On 23 - 24 November, Union forces struck out and captured Orchard Knob and Lookout Mountain. On November 25, Union soldiers assaulted and carried the seemingly impregnable Confederate position on Missionary Ridge. One of the Confederacy’s two major armies was routed. The Federals held Chattanooga, the Gateway to the Lower South, which became the supply and logistics base for Sherman’s 1864 Atlanta Campaign. The U.S. suffered ca 5,800 killed or wounded. The C.S. casualties accounted for 6,670 killed or wounded.
1940: Romania signs the Tripartite Pact and officially becomes Axis Power.
Romanian troops; Stalingrad, 1942
1946: During the First Indochina War, the Vietnamese port city of Hải Phòng is bombarded by the French fleet killing from 2,000 to 6,000 Vietnamese civilians in one afternoon.
1985: Gunmen, from the Abu Nidal Organization, hijack EgyptAir Flight 648 while en route from Athens to Cairo. The subsequent raid on the aircraft by Egyptian troops in Malta, led to 60 deaths, making the hijacking of Flight 648 one of the deadliest such incidents in history.
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November, 24
1542: During the Anglo-Scottish Wars, the Battle of Solway Moss occurs. A ca 3,000-strong English army under Thomas Wharton, 1st Baron Wharton defeated a Scottish army of ca 15 - 18,000 Scots led by Robert Maxwell, 5th Lord Maxwell. The two armies met near the River Esk on the English side of the Anglo-Scottish Border. Only 7 Englishmen were killed compared to 20 Scots killed in the battle, hundreds drowned and 1,200 Scottish troops taken prisoners.
1835: The Texas Provincial Government authorizes the creation of a horse-mounted police force called the Texas Rangers, with Robert McAlpin Williamson as their first Major, a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction based in Austin, the capital of Texas, in the United States.
1850: During the First Schleswig War, the Battle of Lottorf occurs. Two Companies of the Schleswig-Holstein 11th Infantry Battalion attacked the Danish outpost in the village of Lottorf. The Danes suffered no losses at all, while the Schleswig force had one soldier killed and one wounded.
1940: The First Slovak Republic, a client state of Nazi Germany signs the Tripartite treaty. Slovakia officially becomes an Axis power.
Jozef Tiso, the Clerofascist leader of the First Slovak Republic, a puppet fascist state, ally of Nazi Germany
1940: During the Greco-Italian War, the Greek cavalry pursuits the Italians beyond Korçë: One entire Italian division has broken in disorder and three further Italian battalions had been scattered and were being pursuit by the Greeks. Greek advanced units reach the outskirts of Pogradec, some 32 km (20 miles) N of Korçë, on the shores of Lake Ohrid. The small mountain town of Muskopol, 16 km (10 miles) NW of Korçë, falls to the Greeks who continue their advance towards Elbasan.
Greek Cavalryman in the Greco-Italian War; He's armed with the 7.35x52 mm Mannlicher-Carcano M1938 bolt action Carbine, wears the Adrian helmet and carries the M1887 Cavalry Sabre
1942: The Red Army begins an offensive against Heeresgruppe Don (Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein) toward Kotelnikovo, breaking through the lines of 4th Romanian Army (Gen. Constantin Constantinescu-Claps).
Romanian troops in Kotelnikovo
1943: Escort Aircraft Carrier USS "Liscome Bay" (CVE-56) (Cpt. I.D. Wiltsie) is torpedoed near Tarawa. Only 272 of her crew of 916 were rescued.
1944: The allies cross the Saar near the Franco-German border. Troops of the French First Army (Gen. Jean de Lattre de Tassigny) capture Mühlhausen/Mulhouse in Alsace, while the French 2nd Armoured Division (Gen. Philippe Leclerc) takes Strasbourg.
1944: 88 USAAF Boeing B-29 heavy bombers from Saipan Island in Pacific, bomb Tokyo for first time, but to little effect.
1951: During the Korean War, the second day of the three-day offensive launched by the Chinese against elements of the Royal 22e Régiment (the Van Doos) on Hill 335 in Korea, is fought.
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November, 25
1177: The Battle of Montgisard occurs. A crusader army of several thousand troops from the Kingdom of Jerusalem, under the 16-year old King Baldwin IV, seriously afflicted by leprosy, defeated the 26,000-strong Ayyubid army under Sultan Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, commonly known as Saladin, at Mons Gisardi, near the modern-day city of Ramla, Israel. The Ayyubid force was routed and their casualties were massive.
1826: The sister ship of the American Frigate, USS "Hudson", a 64-gun superfrigate (with thirty-two 42-pounder carronades on the spar deck and thirty-two 32-pounder guns on the main deck) is delivered to Greece. She will become the flagship of the Revolutionary Greek Navy under the name "Hellas".
1905: The Danish Prince Carl, of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, arrives in Norway to become King Haakon VII of Norway, the first king of independent Norway after the 1905 dissolution of the personal union with Sweden.
The coronation of King Haakon VII and Queen Maud on 22 June 1906
WWI-1917: The Battle of Negomano, fought between a German force, consisting of 1,500 - 2,000 Askari (=local troops in East Africa, Northeast Africa, and Central Africa serving in the armies of European colonial powers) and German troops, under Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck, and the Portuguese, occurs. The Germans invaded Portuguese East Africa and defeated a Portuguese contingent of roughly 1,000 men, comprised local and European soldiers, under João Teixeira Pinto at Negomano (modern-day Ngomano, Mozambique). The German casualties were light, with only a few Askaris and one German killed. The Portuguese, on the other hand, had suffered a massive defeat: 200 troops were killed or wounded, 700 made prisoners.
1936: Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire, sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, directed against the Communist International (Comintern), an organ of the USSR.
Japanese ambassador to Nazi Germany, Viscount Kintomo Mushakoji and foreign minister of Nazi Germany Joachim von Ribbentrop sign the Anti-Comintern Pact
1942: During Operation Harling, (the cutting off, of the enemy-controlled route between Thessaloniki and Athens in Greece) the blowing up of the railroad bridge leading from Athens to Thessaloniki, occurs on the night of 25 - 26 November. 150 Greek partisans, following plans drawn by Edmund Charles Wolf Myers, commonly known by his nickname Eddie Myers, and assisted by a group of British SOE officers, which included Christopher Montague Woodhouse, 5th Baron Terrington, blew up the railroad bridge of Gorgopótamos. The blast ruined two of the six poles of the bridge. In reprisal, the German occupation forces executed 16 Greek locals. The area around the bridge has been designated a national monument.
1973: Georgios Papadopoulos, head of the military Regime of the Colonels in Greece, is ousted in a hardliners' coup led by Brigadier General Demetrios Ioannidies.
The old (left) and the new dictator
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November, 26
1476: Vlad III Dracula defeats the Dormitor (=ruler) of Wallachia, Basarab III with the help of the Moldavian Prince, Stephen the Great and the Hungarian voivode of Transylvania, Stephen V Báthory, and becomes the ruler of Wallachia for the third time.
bust statue of Vlad Dracula in his birthplace, Sighisoara, Romania
1865: During the Chincha Islands War (a series of coastal and naval battles between Spain and its former colonies of Peru and Chile) the Naval Battle of Papudo occurs. The Chilean corvette "Esmeralda", commanded by Juan Williams Rebolledo, while flying British colours, engaged the Spanish ship "Virgen de Covadonga", under the command of Luis Fery, 48 nm N of Valparaiso, Chile, near the coastal town of Papudo. The Spaniards thought that the ship may have been one of the similarly-built British vessels and did not open fire first. The battle lasted only half an hour and the Spaniards suffered 4 crewmen killed and 22 wounded. 122 crewmen crewmen captured (including Cdr. Fery).
The Esmeralda (left) and the Virgen de Covadonga
1912: During the First Balkan War, the Battle of Driskos occurs. A Garibaldini (=Italian volunteers fought for Greece in the wars of 1897 and 1912 against the Ottoman Empire; they formed a battalion of 1,100 "red-coats", commanded by the youngest son of Giuseppe Garibaldi, Ricciotti) force, under the Greek volunteer, Alexandros Romas, advanced against a strong Ottoman force, positioned themselves at Driskos, a hill near the Epirotan capital, Ioannina, in the Epirotan sector of the Greek front. The battle was successful from a Greek point of view. Amongst the Greek dead was the 53-year old poet, patriot, parliamentarian and famous chess player, Lorenzo Mabilis (or Mavilis).
The Garibaldini colours and a Garibaldini officer; First Balkan War
1940: During the Greco-Italian War, the Battle of Pogradec, a town situated on the shores of Ohrid lake, on the Albano-Yugoslav border, opens. The battle was a stiff one because the Italians had heavily fortified the town. A heavy Greek artillery bombardment was followed by bayonet charges launched by the divisions of the Greek C' Corps (Χ, ΙΧ and ΧV Divisions under Lt. Gen. Georgios Tsolákoglu) for four days. On 1 December the first Greek troops entered the town, which was now in ruins after the concentrated shelling. The Greeks inflicted heavy losses on the Italians who were reported to be on full retreat further to the north so as to avoid encirclement and total defeat. The Battle of Pogradec cost the Greeks 3,000 killed, wounded or missing and concluded on 10 December.
The midfielder of Panathinaikos FC and star of the pre-war football team, Demetrios "Mimes" Pierrakos, was killed in this battle. His remains repatriated after ten years and received a proper hero's burial in November 1950, in Athens, Greece
1943: German occupying forces round-up and massacre 118 male residents of the village of Monodendri in Laconia, Greece. 89 were prominent members of the Spartan society.
The memorial to the massacre
1943: A strong ELAS (=Greek People's Liberation Army) force comprised infantry and cavalry launch an attack against German forces in Nevropolis, in Thessaly, Greece. The Germans are overrun and forced to fold back to the towns of Karditsa and Trikala, with serious losses. The insurgents suffered 75 killed or wounded.
1950: During the Korean War, troops from the People's Republic of China launch a massive counterattack in North Korea against South Korean and United Nations forces: Between dark and midnight of 25 - 26 November, two Chinese People's Volunteer Army Regiments, attacked the U.S. 9th Infantry, 2 Infantry Division, in the Ch'ongch'on Valley from the N, while a third attacked the center of U.S. 38th Infantry, 2 Infantry Division, positioned on the Paengnyong River. At the same time another Chinese People's Volunteer Army Regiment attacked U.S. 9th Infantry's positions from the NE. By noon of 26 November, ROK II Corps' 7th and 8th Divisions had been overrun and ROK II Corps was retreating in mass.
Chinese forces swarm a UN position
2008: The first of the more than 10 co-ordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai - India's largest city - by Islamic terrorists, known as the 2008 Mumbai attacks, occurs. The Pakistan-based terrorists will eventually kill 164 and injure more than 300 people in Mumbai. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPUq1WF8Scc
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November, 27
1868: During the American Indian Wars, the Battle of Washita River occurs. Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s 7th U.S. Cavalry, attacked Black Kettle’s Southern Cheyenne camp on the Washita River, near present day Cheyenne, Oklahoma. The U.S. suffered 13 killed, 21 wounded, while Custer's men found the bodies of 103 Native American warriors. Many modern historians though, consider the destruction of Black Kettle's village too one-sided to be called a battle.
Maj. Gen. Custer
1940: General Carlo Geloso, the CO of Italian 11th Army in Albania, notifies Italian C-in-C, General Umbaldo Soddu, that a new line of defence is chosen in the hope of avoiding the loss - even temporerarily - of Sarandë, Gjirokastër and Përmet in Albania. Italian forces - according to General Geloso - are exhausted and their efficiency is reduced by 70%.
1940: The British Admiralty decides to send the Battleship HMS "Ramillies" (07) and two Cruisers from the Mediterranean fleet to reinforce the Atlantic fleet. They are to sail to Malta with a supply convoy, link up with Force H and then sail onto Gibraltar. Just as the reach the rendezvous point, off Cape Spartivento in Sardinia, the "Ramillies", the two Cruisers, the Aircraft Carrier HMS "Ark Royal" (91) and ten Destroyers are intercepted by Admiral Inigo Campioni's squadron of two Battleships, seven Cruisers and sixteen Destroyers. However, as soon as the Battlecruiser HMS "Renown" (1916) from Force H joined in, the Italians withdrew with one Cruiser and two Destroyers damaged, while the British suffered damage to the heavy Cruiser HMS "Berwick" (65).
1942: The French scuttle 79 warships docked at Toulon as German troops enter the City, but four submarines manage to escape.
1944: The Red Army breaks through the German-Hungarian defensive lines and captures the Hungarian town of Mohács (the place of two major battles in history: The battles of Mohács of 1526 and 1687).
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November, 28
1443: Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu (Skanderberg), the Albanian lord who successfully defended his land against the Ottoman Empire for 25 years, liberates his hometown Krujë from the Ottomans and raises his war flag, the black double-headed eagle on a red background.
Skenderbeu's helmet (left) and his equestrian statue in Krujë
1912: During the First Balkan War, Albania declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire.
Ismail Qemali, leader of the Albanian national movement, after the Assembly of Vlorë declaring to Albanian People the decision of independence
1920: During the Irish War of Independence, the Kilmichael Ambush occurs. Thirty-six IRA volunteers of the 3rd West Cork Brigade under Tom Barry, ambushed a Royal Irish Contabulary section of 18 officers under District Inspector Francis William Crake at Kilmichael (Irish: Cill Mhíchil) a village in County Cork, Ireland. RIC lost 17 killed (including Inspector Crake), one wounded. IRA suffered three killed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RX_Uqw4w04 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzeGS0Vt_gA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbMsX4kOeVQ
1940: During the Greco-Italian War, the Greeks are closing in on Gjirokastër and occupy a number of heights overlooking the city after a violent struggle with the Italians, whose resistance has stiffened. Both sides have suffered heavy losses. First reports of women and children used as shields by the Italians. At Vanista, 22 Greeks entered an Albanian village and were confronted by hundreds of Italians; the Greeks scattered them and took 50 prisoners.
1941: Overextended and short of supplies, the III. Panzerkorps (Generaloberst Eberhard von Mackensen) evacuates Rostov and withdraws to the Mius river, 48 km (30 miles) to the West.
1943: The first WWII conference amongst the Big Three (the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom) in which Stalin was present, takes place in Tehran, Iran, to discuss war strategy.
1944: The U.S. Ninth Army (Lt. Gen. William Hood Simpson) breaks through the Siegfried Line and advances, in heavy fighting, to the Roer River from Julich to Linnich. The French First Army (Gen. Jean de Lattre de Tassigny) closes its pincers at Bumhaupt; part of German LXIII. Armeekorps (Generalleutnant Ernst Dehner) is trapped.
1950: During the Korean War, all U.S. units N of the Ch'ongch'on are ordered to retreat south of the river. Later in the day the 2nd Infantry Division, now with the Turkish Brigade attached, is ordered to withdraw to Wawon, about 4 miles (6.5 km) NE of Kunu-ri. The 1st Marine Division is surrounded at the reservoir and begins to fight its way south. Fighting is done across frozen rivers and in temperatures down to -35°F (-37°C).
MacArthur says the U.N. forces are in an entirely new war with China.
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November, 29
1807: During the Peninsular War, the Prince-Regent, Queen and the entire Royal Family of Portugal boarded on fifteen ships, escorted by English warships concentrated on the Tagus, accompanied by many rich merchants, the administration, judges and servants. Approximately 10,000 people, including the entire governmental apparatus, joined the Royal Family as they moved to Brazil, to escape from Napoleonic troops.
General Jean-Andoche Junot's forces crossed the border to conquer Portugal in order to partition it
1830: The November Uprising, an armed rebellion against the Russian Empire in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine, instigated by young Commissioned Officers at the Imperial Russian Army's military academy in Warsaw, begins.
1845: During the Swiss Civil War, the Sonderbund (="separate alliance" in German; an alliance formed by seven Catholic cantons in order to protect their interests against a centralization of power) is defeated by a Swiss federal army of 100,000 troops, led by General Guillaume-Henri Dufour in a campaign that lasted for 26 days. In 1848, a new Swiss Federal Constitution ended the almost-complete independence of the cantons and transformed Switzerland into a federal state. The Jesuits were banished from Switzerland.
1847: Missionaries Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife Narcissa, and 15 others are attacked and massacred by Cayuse and Umatilla tribal members causing the Cayuse War, an armed conflict that took place in the Northwestern United States from 1847 to 1855 between the Cayuse people of the region and the U.S. Government and local Oregon Volunteers. The Cayuse were defeated, their numbers reduced and most of their tribal lands were confiscated.
50th Anniversary of the Whitman Massacre, 1897
1864: During the American Civil War, the Battle of Spring Hill occurs. The Confederate Army of Tennessee, commanded by Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood and numbering some 12,000 troops, attacked a 7,000-strong Union force under Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield. Because of a series of command failures, the Confederates were unable to inflict serious damage on the Federals (the battle of Spring Hill was a minor affair in terms of casualties; about 350 Union and 500 Confederate soldiers were killed or wounded).
1872: With the Battle of Lost River, the Modoc War (a conflict between the Native American Modoc tribe and the U.S. Army in southern Oregon and northern California from 1872 - 1873) begins. A U.S. 1st Cavalry Regiment force comprised 40 troopers fought a short battle with about 100 Modoc near the Lost River along the California-Oregon border. The casualties in this short battle included one U.S. soldier killed and seven wounded, and two Modoc killed and three wounded.
1929: U.S. Lt. Cdr. Richard Byrd becomes the first person to fly over the South Pole. Byrd, along with pilot Bernt Balchen, co-pilot/radioman Harold June, and photographer Ashley McKinley, flew the American three-engined transport plane, Ford Trimotor from his base camp named Little America, constructed on the Ross Ice Shelf, to the South Pole and back in 18 hours, 41 minutes.
1941: Depleted by continuous savage fighting, blizzards and sub-zero temperatures, the offensive launched by Heeresgruppe Mitte (=Army Group Centre) (Generalfeldmarschall Fedor von Bock) begins to grind to a halt as German units find it increasingly difficult to make ground. The Soviets launch a counter-attack at Rostov-on-Don, forcing the Germans to evacuate the city and withdraw west towards the river Mius.
1943: The second session of AVNOJ, the Anti-fascist council of national liberation of Yugoslavia, is held in Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The decisions and the resolutions of the second AVNOJ conference were, amongst others:
-to create a federal Yugoslavia, based on the right of self-determination of nations, in which the southern Slavic peoples would live in six constituent republics with equal rights
-to name Tito, Marshal of Yugoslavia and Prime Minister
-to deny King Petar II Karadzordzevic’s return to the country until a popular referendum had been held on the status of the monarchy.
1944: Soviet troops cross Danube into southwest Hungary, making large gains.
1950: During the Korean War, the Chinese People's Volunteer 40th Army attacked in force the Turks at dawn of 29 November. It soon became clear the Ch'ongch'on defence line could not be held so a general withdrawal of all units back to the Sunch'on line was ordered. Turkish forces, in bayonet fighting, stopped the Chinese advance near Kunu-ri. American, South Korean, British and Turkish troops on the west coast fight desperately to keep from being surrounded and cut off by the Chinese central thrust.
Soldiers of the Turkish Brigade move into position in December 1950, shortly after suffering severe casualties attempting to block encirclement of the U.S. 2nd Division at the Ch'ongch'on river in North Korea
1990: The United Nations Security Council passes United Nations Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing use all necessary means to uphold and implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 660 to restore international peace and security if Iraq did not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by 15 January 1991.
2007: The Armed Forces of the Philippines lay siege to The Peninsula Manila hotel after soldiers led by Senator Antonio Trillanes stage a mutiny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb6j9Gr7-8Q
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November, 30
1700: During the Great Northern War, the Battle of Narva occurs. A Swedish army of some 10,500 troops, commanded personally by King Carl XII, assisted by General Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld, defeated a Russian siege force three times its size under Tsar Peter the Great and Field Marshal Karl Yevgeny de Croy, at Narva in Estonia. The Swedes suffered 700 - 900 killed, 1,200 wounded while the Russians lost 8,000 - 10,000 killed or wounded and 20,000 captured. 180 Russian cannon and 230 Russian Imperial standards were also captured by the Swedes.
The Swedish monument to the battle in Narva
1853: During the Crimean War, the Naval Battle of Sinop occurs. A fleet of Imperial Russian warships comprised 6 ships of the line, 2 frigates, 3 steamers under Admiral Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov, struck and annihilated a patrol force of 14 Ottoman ships anchored in the harbour of Sinop on the most northern edge of the Turkish side of Black Sea coast (the ancient Paphlagonian port city of Sinōpē). Once the Ottoman fleet was destroyed the Russians engaged Ottoman coastal batteries and destroyed them. The Russians lost 37 killed and 233 wounded; at least three of their ships were damaged. Ottoman forces lost over 3,000 men killed or wounded and their leader Osman Pasha was captured. The battle was a contributory factor in bringing France and Britain into the conflict.
1864: During the American Civil War, the Battle of Franklin occurs. It was one of the worst disasters of the war for the Confederate States Army. The Army of Tennessee, numbering some 30,000 men, led by General John Bell Hood, mounts a dramatically unsuccessful frontal assault on Union positions of the 38,000-strong Ohio Army, commanded by General John McAllister Schofield around Franklin, Tennessee. Hood lost six generals and almost a third of his troops. The assault at Franklin is frequently known as the Pickett's Charge of the West in reference to the Confederate assault at Gettysburg.
1940: During the Greco-Italian War, the Greeks launch a strong offensive against the remaining Italians occupying the Pogradec valley; the Italians defend their positions desperately yet soon are forced to retire, with serious losses. The Greeks captured six heavy arty pieces, fifty machine-guns, considerable quantity of mortars (especially the 45 mm Brixia M35 light mortar) and other material. 15 Italian officers and 200 other ranks, made prisoners.
Greek military, train its troops on how to use the captured, Italian made, Brixia light mortars; photos found here: http://greek-war-equipment.blogspot.com/
1942: The Naval Battle of Tassafaronga, near the Tassafaronga area on Guadalcanal, occurs. A Japanese squadron of 8 destroyers under Rear-Admiral Raizo Tanaka, defeated a larger U.S. Navy force comprised 5 cruisers, 4 destroyers, commanded by Rear-Admiral Carleton Herbert Wright, in a nighttime naval engagement. The U.S. suffered 1 cruiser sunk, 3 cruisers heavily damaged, 395 crewmen killed or drowned. The Japanese lost 1 destroyer sunk with 197 crewmen killed or drowned.
The victor, Rear-Admiral Tanaka
1942: Greek Submarine RHNS "Papanikolis" (Y-2) (Lt. Cdr. Nikolaos Russen) attacks and sinks, off the harbour of Alimnia islet, Dodecanese, a 8,000-ton German freighter. She also sinks a number of German and Italian sailers, in fact she took prisoner one of them (220 tons).
1950: During the Korean War, the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division withdraws from Kunu-ri and begins a two-day nightmare struggle as the division has to fight through roadblock after roadblock on the narrow road leading south, which became known as The Gauntlet. The U.S. 1st Marine Division begins its famous fighting withdrawal from Chosin Reservoir. The U.S. 5th and 7th Marines begin fighting their way to the 1st Marine Division command post at Hagari. They finally make it (4 December) after fighting their way in subfreezing temperatures. U.N. casualties reach 4,300 killed or wounded since the opening of the Chinese massive counter-attack on 26 November. Most of the wounded are frostbite victims.
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December, 1
1826: During the Greek War of Independence, French philhellene Charles Nicolas Fabvier, commanding 480 troops, forces his way through the Turkish cordon and ascends the Acropolis of Athens, which had been under siege for quite some time. He'll deliver a one-month supply of gunpowder to the defenders of the besieged Acropolis and will remain there, until its capture by the Ottomans in May 1827.
Greek Infantryman of Charles Nicolas Fabvier's Tactical
1913: The Greek flag is raised by King Constantine and PM Eleutherios Venizelos on Phirka Fort in Canea, Crete, before a delirious crowd that is gathered in the port area. Crete unites with Greece. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JillgzEqc98
1918: Transylvania proclaims union with Romania, following the incorporation of Bessarabia (27 March) and Bukovina (28 November).
1,228 official Transylvanian delegates arrived to Alba Iulia to sign the resolution for the unification of Transylvania with Romania
1918: The new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes is proclaimed by the Prince-Regent Alexander I Karadzordzevic. The new Kingdom was made up of the formerly independent kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro, as well as a substantial amount of territory that was formerly part of Austria - Hungary: Bosnia, Croatia, Herzegovina and Slovenia.
The Flag and CoA of the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
1925: The final of the seven Locarno Treaties is formally signed in London by the WWI European Allied powers and the new states of Central and Eastern Europe, and the defeated Germany (which was, by this time, the Weimar Republic). The Locarno Treaties were an early attempt at disarmament.
1940: During the Greco-Italian War, the Greeks push further north, towards Elbasan and in the central sector, they are pressing the Italians back, towards Berat. For the first time since the beginning of hostilities, Greek waships shelled the Albanian port city of Sarandë. Well-armed Albanian bands help Greeks in their penetration in Albania. The situation is serious, according to Mussolini, it might even become tragic (Cabinet Meeting of 1 December 1940; Count Galeazzo Ciano's Diary).
1943: The British X Corps (Lt. Gen. John Hawkesworth) opens the U.S. Fifth Army's (Lt. Gen. Mark Wayne Clark) offensive on the German Gustav Line, just north of where the Garigliano River flows into the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Moroccan Goumiers in Garigliano
1950: During the Korean War, the British Commonwealth Brigade, which attacked north from Sunch'on to link up with U.S. 2nd Infantry Division to help it withdraw, is stopped on the same mountain roads by Chinese forces. The Chinese virtually wipe out the U.S. 9th and 38th Infantry Regiments on the retreat route. By the time the remnants of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division reach the British lines, nearly a third of its strength is lost, about 5,000 men. Task Force Faith, part of the U.S. 7th Infantry Division and named for its commander, Lt. Col. Don Carlos Faith, Jr., begins to fight its way from the east bank of the Chosin Reservoir to Hagari to join up with the U.S. 1st Marine Division. The task force reaches Hadong, fighting in frigid temperatures of -35° F (-37° C) only to find that the expected regimental tank company had already retreated to Hagari. It is then hit by an all-out Chinese attack. Lt. Col. Faith is killed. Only 385 of the original 3,200-man task force make it to U.N. lines. Faith was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
The Chinese overran this position the previous night, and American dead are in the foreground, killed in their sleeping bags
1989: The right-wing military rebel Reform the Armed Forces Movement attempts to oust Philippine President Corazon Aquino in a failed bloody coup d'état. The coup was led by Colonel Gregorio Honasan, General Edgardo Abenina, and retired General Jose Zumel.
Last edited by valtrex; 12-01-2010 at 04:09 AM.
Reason: typo
The world's an oppressive place to live through -yet with a little pride it's worth it
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December, 2
1775: The USS "Alfred", the Schooner Man originally named "Black Prince", becomes the first ship-rigged vessel to fly the Continental Colours (the first national flag of the United States); the flag is hoisted by John Paul Jones.
1804: At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor Napoleon I of the French, the first French Emperor in a thousand years. The entire ceremony - which lasted for more than three hours - was described by the press and particularly by Le Moniteur. This newspaper published a book describing the ceremony, entitled Le Sacre de S.M. l'Empereur.
Napoleon crowning with the Charlemagne Crown, his wife Josephine
1805: During the War of the Third Coalition, the Battle of Austerlitz occurs. The battle is also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors because on the battlefield were present, the Emperor of the French, Napoleon I, the Tsar of All Russias Alexander I, and the Holy Roman Emperor of the Austrian Empire, Franz II. A 72,000-strong French army crashed the combined two largest armies of Europe, at Austerlitz (today's Slavkov u Brna) about 10 km (6 miles) SE of Brno in Moravia (present day Czech Republic). Allied casualties numbered at about 27,000 out of an army of 73,000 men. The French lost 9,000 killed or wounded. Austerlitz set the stage for a near-decade of French domination of the European continent. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pyLWIM3YAM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPY1AGGeBGY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZdorgYXMHI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0FazjWcZCY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XId_Qz-FKo
1823: The Monroe Doctrine is introduced. U.S. President James Monroe proclaims that the United States would neither interfere with existing European colonies nor meddle in the internal concerns of European countries.
The U.S. fifth President, James Monroe
1852: President of the Second French Republic, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon I by his brother Louis Bonaparte, a year after he dissolved the Chamber, had all the party leaders arrested, and summoned a new assembly to prolong his term of office for ten years, becomes Emperor of the French, Napoleon III.
Emperor Napoleon III
1899: During the Philippine-American War, the Battle of Tirad Pass occurs. A 60-man Filipino force under Brig. Gen. Gregorio del Pilar, defended Tirad Pass, a passageway to Cordillera Mountains, for five hours from the attacks launched by 500 U.S. troops of the 33rd Infantry Regiment under Major Peyton C. March, delaying the American advance in order to ensure Emilio Aguinaldo's - leader of the Philippine Independence Movement - escape. 52 Filipino soldiers died, including Gen. del Pilar. The U.S. suffered 2 killed, 9 wounded. The battle is considered the Filipino Thermopylæ.
Gregorio del Pilar's equestrian statue at Tirad Pass
1920: The Turco-Armenian War, a conflict between the Turkish Revolutionaries of the Turkish National Movement and the first modern Armenian State, the Democratic Republic of Armenia, concludes with Turkish victory. Armenia forced to flee more than half its pre-war territory and to give up all the territories granted to it at the Treaty of Sèvres.
Wilsonian Armenia according to the Treaty of Sèvres. It was named Wilsonian because its boundary configuration was drawn by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson
1941: German patrols are by now, just 8 km (5 miles) from the Kremlin.
1943: A Luftwaffe raid against the Allied naval base at Bari in Italy, hits an ammunition ship which explodes, sinking 17 other ships, including an American Liberty ship, the SS "John Harvey", with a stockpile of WWI-era mustard gas.
1980: During the Salvadoran Civil War, four U.S. Roman Catholic nuns who worked with the poor and war refugees, are raped and murdered by a death squad in El Salvador.
Nuns, Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Jean Donovan, and Dorothy Kazel
1993: 44-year old Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar is shot and killed - according to others he committed suicide - in Medellín, Colombia during a firefight with Colombian Police.
Police remove Escobar's dead body
The world's an oppressive place to live through -yet with a little pride it's worth it
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December, 3
1800: During the War of the Second Coalition, the Battle of Hohenlinden occurs. A 54,000-strong French army, comprised 42,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry, with 99 cannon, under General Jean Victor Marie Moreau, defeated an Austro-Bavarian army consisting of 46,000 infantry, 14,000 cavalry with 214 cannon commanded by the Austrian Archduke, John. The Austrians lost 11,700 killed, wounded or captured, with 50 cannon and 85 artillery caissons captured. The Bavarians lost only 24 killed, 90 wounded but their losses also included 1,754 prisoners, 26 artillery pieces, and 36 caissons. The French lost 3,000 killed or wounded. This crushing victory, coupled with First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte's victory at the Battle of Marengo on 14 June 1800, effectively forced the Austrians to sign an armistice and end the war.
The conqueror of Hohenlinden, General Jean Moreau; in 1806 he broke faith with Napoleon and was banished to the U.S.
1854: During the Eureka Rebellion (an organised rebellion by gold miners at Eureka Lead in Ballarat Goldfields, Victoria, Australia), the Battle of Eureka Stockade occurs. On 30 November, some 500 Australian diggers under Peter Fintan Lalor, took an oath on the Southern Cross flag to defend the Stockade. Early in the morning of Sunday 3 December, the British 12th and 40th Regiments with Victoria Police Troopers, launched an attack on the Stockade. The battle was over in twenty minutes. Twenty-two diggers and five troops were killed. The Eureka rebellion is considered by some historians to be the birthplace of Australian democracy.
The Eureka Flag based on the constellation of the Southern Cross. It has been used as a symbol of protest by organisations and individuals at both ends of the political spectrum in Australia
1912: During the First Balkan War, the Naval Battle of Elli occurs. A Royal Hellenic Navy fleet comprised the armoured cruiser RHNS "Georgios Averof", three coastal defence battleships and four destroyers, led by Rear-Admiral Pavlos Kunduriótes, defeated an Imperial Ottoman fleet consisting of the Battleships RS "Barbaros Hayreddin" and RS "Turgut Reis", one armoured corvette, one protected cruiser and four destroyers, under Ramiz Bey, off the Dardanelles. Admiral Kunduriótes, frustrated by the slow speed of the three older Greek battleships, hoisted the Flag Signal for the letter Z which stood for Independent Action, and sailed forward alone at a speed of 20 knots, against the Ottoman fleet. Both Greek and Ottoman forces suffered minor damage during the engagement, but the Ottomans were unable to break through the Greek fleet and retired back into the Dardanelles. The Ottomans suffered 59 crewmen killed or wounded. 2 Greek crewmen were killed.
The signal sent by Admiral Kunduriótes from his flagship "Georgios Averof" to the fleet, at the start of the Battle of Elli: By the power of God and with the wishes of the King and in the name of justice, I sail with unstoppable force and with confidence about victory against the enemy of the nation
1940: During the Greco-Italian War, some fifty tanks of the Italian Centauro Division, attacked up the valley of the River Dhrino. They succeded in making a bulge in the Greek line but Italian infantry could not exploit this. The severe struggle in the mountainous region W of Pogradec continued. The obstinate resistance offered by the Italians in the area N of Përmet was crushed by intensive Greek artillery fire and Greek infantry entered the town of Përmet. 500 Italians were captured, six heavy artillery guns, abundant material fell into Greek hands.
The Italian made Carro Veloce CV-35 Tankette and Fiat-Ansaldo M13/40 were the only armoured vehicles the Italians used in their invasion of Greece, due to the Greek harsh and mountainous terrain
1942: Several German divisions ordered to be transferred from Western Europe begin arriving in the area of Heeresgruppe Don (=Army Group Don) (Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein) NW of Stalingrad in preparation of Operation Winter Tempest, the relief of the encircled 6. Armee (General der Panzertruppen Friedrich Paulus).
1944: The December events begin in Athens, Greece: During a demonstration organised by EAM (=National Liberation Front; EAM was organized by the Greek Communist Party and other smaller parties) that involved from 100,000 to 250,000 people, Greek Police and British troops panicked and opened fire to the crowd, killing more than 28 demonstrators and injuring 148. A 37-day period of full-scale fighting in Athens between EAM fighters and smaller parts of ELAS, and the forces of the British Army and the Greek government, begin. The Greek Civil War opens.
1944: Armoured units of the U.S. 3rd Army (Gen. George S. Patton) succeed in penetrating the fortified German lines of the Westwall (Sigfried Line) near Saarlautern/Saarlouis.
1971: Pakistan launched an air attack in the western sector of Indo-Pakistani border on a number of Indian airfields, including Ambala in Haryana, Amritsar in Punjab, and Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir. A full scale war begins between the two countries (Indo-Pakistani War of 1971). On the evening, the Pakistani army launched ground operations in Kashmir and Punjab. It also started an armoured operation in Rajasthan. The Chhamb area witnessed a particularly intense battle where the Pakistanis forced the Indians to withdraw from their positions. Two Pakistani tank regiments, equipped with U.S.-made Patton tanks, confronted the Indian First Armoured Corps, which had British Centurion tanks. In what proved to be the largest tank battle of the war, both sides suffered considerable casualties.
Last edited by valtrex; 12-03-2010 at 04:31 AM.
Reason: typo
The world's an oppressive place to live through -yet with a little pride it's worth it
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December, 4
306: Barbara, the young daughter of a rich pagan named Dioscorus, is martyred for her Christian belief, during the reign of Roman Emperor Galerius Maximi****, in Nicomedia (modern-day İzmit, Turkey). Saint Barbara became the patron saint of artillerymen and Saint Barbara's day is celebrated by many armed forces throughout the world; more specifically by, the British Royal Artillery, RAF Armourers, Australian Royal Regiment of Australian Artillery, RAAF Armourers, Canadian Explosive Ordinance Disposal Technicians, Canadian Air Force Armourers, Royal Canadian Artillery, Canadian Military Field Engineers, New Zealand RNZAF Armourers, RNZA, Irish Defence Force's Artillery Regiments, United States Army and Marine Corps Field and Air Defense Artillery, Italian Navy, Spanish Artillery, German Artillery, Greek Artillery, Cypriot Artillery.
Artillery camps throughout Greece and Cyprus, host celebrations in honour of the saint, where the traditional sweet of lukumás (right) is offered to military personnel and visitors, allegedly because it resembles cannonballs
1110: During the First Crusade, the coastal city of Sidon (modern-day Sidon, Lebanon) is sacked by the Crusader forces of King Baldwin of Jerusalem and King Sigurd of Norway.
Route of the First Crusade through Middle East
1676: During the Scanian War (fought on Scania - the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula - and Northern Germany, involving the union of Denmark-Norway, Brandenburg and Sweden), the Battle of Lund occurs. A 12,300-strong Dano-Dutch army, with 56 cannon, under Frederick von Arenstorff were defeated by 8,000 Swedes with 10 cannon, under their King, Karl XI and Field Marshal, Baron Simon Grundel-Helmfelt. The Danes suffered huge losses, numbered at 6,000 - 6,500 men killed or wounded, 2,000 taken prisoner. Swedish losses accounted for ca 3,000 killed or wounded, 200 taken prisoner.
King Karl XI in the battle of Lund
1940: During the Greco-Italian War, the Albanian port city of Sarandë, although heavily fortified by the Italians, is unable to withstand to the Greek artillery fire and falls to the Greeks. The Italian military and civil authorities, withdrew towards Himarë. Italian troops are also withdrawing from Gjirokastër towards Tepelenë in order to avoid encirclement. The heights overlooking from Gjirokastër to Tepelenë, were taken at the point of the bayonet. Colonel Mordechai Frizís, CO of the Greek 8th Rgt is killed near Përmet on the same day. He is the first high ranking officer of Jewish origin (the fourth overall Greek high ranking officer killed since the beginning of hostilities) to fall in battle in World War II.
Frizís as a young officer with his wife in the interwar period. At the time of his death, his regiment did not have a Rabbi into chaplaincy service; the Orthodox Christian chaplain said the Shema for him
1942: The Polish writer and resistance fighter Zofia Kossak-Szczucka and the devout Polish Roman Catholic, Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz, form in Warsaw the Konrad Żegota Committee, an underground organization of Polish resistance in German-occupied Poland with the aim to help the country's Jews and find places of safety for them in occupied Poland.
The Żegota memorial in Warsaw
1942: During the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Carlson's Long Patrol, an operation by the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion under Lt. Col. Evans Carlson concludes. In a series of small unit engagements over 29 days, the 2nd Raiders killed almost 500 Japanese soldiers while suffering only 16 killed.
1943: Tito’s Partisans establish a provisional government in the liberated part of Yugoslavia.
1971: During the Indo-Pakistani War, India launches a swift three-****ged assault of nine infantry divisions with attached armoured units and close air support into East Pakistan with the aim to capture Dhaka, East Pakistan's capital. Lt. Gen. Sagat Singh, who commanded 4th Corps (8th, 23rd, and 57th divisions), led the Indian thrust into East Pakistan. The Indian Missile Boat Group comprised three OSA class missile boats, escorted by two anti-submarine patrol vessels, begin Operation Trident and sink with their Styx anti-ship missiles, the Pakistani Navy destroyer PNS "Khyber" and the minesweeper PNS "Muhafiz", while the destroyer PNS "Shajehan" was badly damaged, off Karachi.
Lt. Gen. Sagat Singh, GOC 4 Corps
The world's an oppressive place to live through -yet with a little pride it's worth it
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December, 5
1492: Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic).
The statue of Christopher Columbus in his native city, Genoa
1746: During the War of the Austrian Succession, Genoa - in order to avoid a sack - surrendered to an Austrian army and briefly experienced Spanish Habsburg foreign rule. On 5 December, with a great popular insurrection, Genoa restored its aristocratic republic.
1757: During the Seven Years' War, the Battle of Leuthen occurs. Frederick the Great's Prussian army of 36,000 with 167 cannon, defeated a 80,000-strong Austrian army with 210 guns under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine. The Prussians lost 1,141 killed, 5,118 wounded, 85 captured. The Austrians suffered 3,000 killed, 7,000 wounded, 12,000 captured. 51 Imperial Austrian standards and 116 arty pieces fell into Prussian hands. The key to victory in this battle was the pre-battle operational maneuvers.
Frederick the Great, rallying his troops
1912: During the First Balkan War, a Greek volunteer force of 200 Epirotans and Cretans under Gendarmerie Major, Spyridon Spyromílios, engage and defeat the Ottoman garrison of the coastal town of Himarë in modern-day Albania (with the help of the Greek warship RHNS "Achelous" which bombarded the Turkish positions with her guns) and occupy it.
Major Spyromílios
1941: With the main forces of Heeresgruppe Mitte (=Army Group Centre) (Generalfeldmarschall Fedor von Bock) just 30 km (19 miles) from Moscow, Hitler abandons the offensive for winter and agrees to some local withdrawals to more defensive terrain. Soviet Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov launches a counter-offensive across the frozen upper Volga in the area of Kalinin, to the northwest of Moscow. He uses General Ivan Stepanovich Konev's Kalinin Front (=a military formation of roughly Army Group size) for the purpose, but despite the severe cold and exhaustion of the German troops, his forces meet severe resistance, with only the 31st Army (Maj. Gen. V.H. Dolmatov) enjoying any success as it pushed towards Turginovo.
1941: Hungary and Romania declare war on UK.
Hungarian aircraft of Hungarian Air Force in WWII
1943: Operation Crossbow, an allied campaign against German long-range weapons begins with U.S. bombardment against Ski Sites (V-2 and V-3 sites) in N France.
1944: Marshal Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky attacks with 53rd and 7th Guards Armies from NE of Budapest and advances 96 km (60 miles) in eight days.
Hungarian artillery firing
1964: During the Vietnam War, for his heroism in battle earlier in the year (early in the morning of 6 July, 1964, his base at Nam Đông was attacked by a two-battalion force of Vietcong. Under Captain Donlon's leadership, the two-battalion attack was repulsed) Captain Roger Donlon is awarded the first Medal of Honor of the war.
November, 22
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