On this day in Military History

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49 BC: During the Cæsar's Civil War (one of the last politico-military conflicts in the Roman Republic before the establishment of the Roman Empire, fought between Cæsar and his followers - the Populares - and the Senate and its followers - the Optimates - supported by Gnæus Pompey the Great) the Battle of the Bagradas River occurs, in N. Africa. A Populares' army led by Quintus Scribonius Curio is defeated by the combined forces of Optimates under Publius Attius Varus, the Roman governor of Africa, and the Numedians led by their King Juba I. Curio fought to his death, along with his army, rather than attempting to flee to his camp.


1511: The Portuguese naval general officer, Afonso de Albuquerque, with 17 or 18 ships and 1,200 men, subdued the port city of Malacca which controls the strategic strait of Malacca, the narrow, 805 km/500-mile stretch of water between the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia) and the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Fidalgo (=nobleman) Afonso

1814: During the Anglo-American War, the Burning of Washington occurs. British troops (ca 4,500) under Maj. General Robert Ross, invade Washington DC occupy it and set fire to many public buildings amongst them the White House and the United States Capitol.


1821: The Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821) ends, with the signing of the Treaty of Córdoba, Veracruz, Mexico. Representatives of the Spanish crown and the Mexican General Agustín Cosme Damián de Iturbide y Aramburu sign the treaty which recognized Mexican independence.


1942: Battle joined in the Eastern Solomons with the Japanese trying to land reinforcements on Guadalcanal. US forces beat off the Japanese Combined Fleet sinking the carrier Ryujo, but suffering damage to the carrier USS "Enterprise" (CV-6).

The Ryujo

1949: The North Atlantic Treaty, signed on April 4, 1949, is ratified by the 12 countries that signed it (Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom, United States). NATO goes into effect.


1968: Opération Canopus; France's first two-stage thermonuclear test, at Fangataufa atoll. The test made France the fifth country to test a thermonuclear device (2,600 Kt) after the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and China.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNcEQczhP-U

The crown prince Karl Johan was none other than turncoat and general most hateable guy of the times, Bernadotte
He "took over" from von Bülow after the battle and wrote it up as his victory, despite the vact that Bülow had actually violated his orders by not withdrawing and engaging the french..
Also they reenact this battle every year, so right now there's a battle going on there

So, it's good ol' Friedrich von Bülow again. Thanks JCR

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1537: The Honourable Artillery Company was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1537 by King Henry VIII. It is the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior in the Territorial Army.

The Regiment's badge; its motto: Arma Pacis Fulcra (=Armed Strength for Peace)

1580: During the War of the Portuguese Succession (fought from 1580 to 1583 between the two main claimants to the Portuguese throne, António, Prior of Crato, proclaimed initially as King of Portugal, and Philip II of Spain, who eventually succeeded in claiming the crown reining as Philip I of Portugal), the Battle of Alcântara occurs. A 14,800-strong Spanish army (including 1,800 horse) under Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel, 3rd Duke of Alba and the commander of the Duke of Alba's bodyguard, Sancho d'Avila, defeated a 8,500 Portuguese force (500 horse) commanded by António, Prior of Crato and his lieutenant, the Count of Vimioso.

Dom Filipe I of Portugal

1758: During the Seven Years' War, the Battle of Zorndorf occurs. 43,000 Russians under Count Wilhelm von Fermor, advanced within 100 km (62 miles) of Berlin in order to join the Austrians of Count Leopold Joseph von Daun. The Prussian King, Frederick II the Great, ahead of his 36,000-strong army, moved and attacked the Russians at Zorndorf, 10 km (6 miles) southeast of Küstrin. The Prussians lost 12,800 men, the Russians lost over 18,000 men. The battle appeared inconclusive, however. Although the Russians kept the battlefield on the following day, Fermor was the first to retreat towards Landsberg. His retreat prevented the Russians from reaching their Austrian allies and allowed Frederick to claim the battle as his victory.

Frederick II the Great of Prussia

1830: The Belgian Revolution begins. After a performance at the Brussels opera, the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, riot erupted, quickly followed by uprisings elsewhere in the country against the rule of the Northern Provinces (=Netherlands) over the Southern (=today's Belgium).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmJ_5lHQMk8
Daniel Auber's La Muette de Portici (=The Mute Girl of Portici), a sentimental and patriotic opera which led the crowd to pour into the streets after the performance, shouting patriotic slogans

1898: 700 Greek Christian-Cretans slaughtered and 77 British guards (including the British Consul) killed, in reprisal attacks by Turkish and Turkish-Cretan mobs, for the Cretan Insurrection of 1897 in the city of Heraklion. The Great Powers (United Kingdom, France, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Italy, Germany) decided that Ottoman Turkey could no longer maintain control of the island and intervened.

Flag of the Cretan Revolutionaries. The inscription reads Union or Death (Union with Greece)

1941: Panzergruppe 2 (Generaloberst Guderian), along with the 2. Armee (Generaloberst von Weichs), attack southeast from their positions around Gomel and Bryansk, in an attempt to link up with units of Heeresgruppe Süd (=Army Group South) and encircle Kiev. Panzergruppe 1 (Feldmarshall von Kleist) begins a breakout towards the north from its bridgeheads across the Dnieper, with the aim of linking up with units of Heeresgruppe Mitte (=Army Group Centre) east of Kiev. The German 6. Armee (Feldmarshall von Reichenau) engages the bulk of the Soviet forces gathered around Kiev to stop them from retreating.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljqvytZSxAM

1942: The Battle of Milne Bay, Papua, begins. Two thousand Japanese land at Milne Bay, South East of Port Moresby and advance up Kokoda Trail. They are confronted with 9,000 (half non-combat personnel) Australian troops.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXmbhkcpfqA

1942: Battle of Eastern Solomon's continues with a Japanese destroyer being sunk off Santa Isabel.


1944: French armour reaches Paris (Leclerc's 2e Division Blindée) as the 5,000-strong German garrison surrenders. De Gaulle enters Paris.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW0iCxTiAR8

1991: The Battle of Vukovar begins. An 87-day siege of the Croatian city by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), supported by various Serbian paramilitary forces, between 25 August-November 18, 1991.

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1071: The Battle of Manzikert, the first battle of the Byzantine-Seljuq Wars, occurs. A 20,000-strong Byzantine army under the Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes (including the 500 Frankish and Norman mercenaries under Roussel de Bailleul - commonly known as Frangopulos, some Oghuz and Pecheneg mercenaries and a contingent of Bulgarian, Georgian and Armenian troops led by the Armenian General Nicephoros Basilaces) was defeated by some 20-30,000 Seljuqs under their Sultan, Muhammad bin Da'ud Chaghri, commonly known as Alp Arslan (=Heroic lion). The Byzantine Emperor was captured alive. Alp Arslan, treated him with generosity, and terms of peace having been agreed to, dismissed him, loaded with presents and respectfully attended by a military guard. This famous conversation is recorded to have taken place after Romanos IV was brought as a prisoner before the Sultan:
-Alp Arslan: What would you do if I was brought before you as a prisoner?
-Romanos: Perhaps kill you, or exhibit you in the streets of Constantinople.
-Alp Arslan: My punishment is far heavier. I forgive you, and set you free.
The decisive defeat of the Byzantine army and the capture of the Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes played an important role in undermining Byzantine authority in Anatolia and Armenia.


1278: László IV of Hungary and Rudolph I of Holy Roman Empire, with 30,000 troops, defeat the 25–30,000 troops under Přemysl (=the Ploughman, the mythical ancestor of the Přemyslid dynasty) Ottokar II of Bohemia in the Battle of Marchfield near Dürnkrut in (then) Moravia.
Ottokar's camp was plundered, he himself was found slain at the battlefield.


1303: Allahudeen Khilji, the Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate, of Khalaj (Turco-Afghan) origin, leads a huge army and captures Chittorgarh, Rajasthan, India.


1346: During the Hundred Years' War, the Battle of Crécy occurs. An Anglo-Welsh army of 9,000 to 10,000 troops, commanded by Edward III of England defeated an allied force of 35,000 to 100,000 troops comprised French, Genoese mercenaries, Basques from the Kingdom of Navarre, Czechs from the Kingdom of Bohemia and Majorcans from the Kingdom of Majorca, under the French King Philip VI. The combination of new weapons and tactics have caused many historians to consider this battle the beginning of the end of classic chivalry. The English losses were given as a few hundred while the French had lost their ally, the King of Bohemia (Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, nome de guerre the Black Prince, took the King's feathers and motto, Ich Dien (=I serve) as his own and this can be seen today in the Prince of Wales' crest), 11 princes, an Archbishop, about 1,200 knights and over 8,000 others.

King of Bohemia's Crest

WWI-1914: The Battle of Tannenberg begins. It was fought by the Russian First and Second Armies (General Aleksandr Vassilievich Samsonov)and the German Eighth Army (Generalfeldmarschall Paul von Hindenburg) and ended on the 30th August. The battle resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Russian Second Army. The Russians lost 78,000 killed or wounded; 92,000 made prisoners.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JidDI60nBqw

WWI-1914: Following Mons, the British Expeditionary Force fights a rear-guard action at the Battle of Le Cateau. Le Cateau was an artilleryman's battle, demonstrating the devastating results which modern quick-firing artillery using airbursting shrapnel shells could have on infantry advancing in the open.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXMFeQ7yiss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svw-uq8aIXs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIEalEBrHKA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM0BcwRgswM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya5wz5FGwl4

WWI-1914: The German colony of Togoland in West Africa, surrendered to the Entente forces who had invaded it unopposed on 6 August.


1922: During the Greek Campaign to Minor Asia, the Turkish Büyük Taarruz (Great Offensive) begins. The major Greek defence positions of Afyonkarahisar held by the Greek A' Corps were overrun within a few hours.


1941: German losses on Eastern Front reach 440,000, more than in the entire war before the beginning of Operation Barbarossa on 22nd June.


1942: The Massacre of Chortkiv, Western Ukraine occurs. At 2:30 am in the morning the German Schutzpolizei started driving Chortkiv's Jews out of their houses, split them in groups of 120, packed them into freight cars and deported 2,000 local Jews to the Belzec death camp. Five hundred Jewish sick and children were murdered on the spot.


1957: Soviet Union announces the first successful long flight, of 6,000 km/3,728 miles, of the R-7 Semyorka, the world's first true ICBM (= Intercontinental Ballistic Missile).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sO6U48u9d8

1966: SWAPO (South West Africa People's Organization) guerrilla forces launched an attack against a unit of the South African Police, and South African Air Force, at Omugulugwombashe, Namibia. It was the first armed battle in the Namibian War of Independence.

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479 BC: During the Second Persian Invasion of Greece, the Battle of Platæa occurs. Spartans, Athenians, Corinthians, Megarans along with hoplites from 18 minor Greek city-states (110,000 according to Herodotus, ca 40,000 according to modern consensus), under the Spartan General Pausanias, fought the Persian army at the final battle on Greek soil of the Persian Wars, in the triangular ledge of Platæa, 1,000 feet (300 m) above sea level, on the northern side of Mount Cithæron. The Persians, numbering some 300,000 according to Herodotus, 70-120,000 according to modern consensus, under the Persian military commander Mardonius, were decisively defeated. Herodotus claims that the Greeks as a whole lost only 159 men. Plutarch, who had access to other sources, gives 1,360 Greek casualties. Persian casualties numbered in the tens of thousands.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHcSPKupxJc

479 BC: During the Second Persian Invasion of Greece, the Battle of Mycale occurs. It took place on the slopes of Mount Mycale, on the coast of Ionia, opposite the island of Samos. The battle was fought between an alliance of the Greek city-states, including Sparta, Athens and Corinth, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I, on the same day as the Battle of Platæa. 110-250 Greek ships, with 40,000 men under the Spartan Leotychidas, defeated the Persian forces comprised 300 ships and 60,000 men, under Tigranes. The Persians, seeking to avoid a battle, beached their fleet below the slopes of Mycale, and, with the support of a Persian army group, built a palisaded camp. The Greeks landed the heavily armoured hoplites and in the battle that followed, routed the Persians. Over the next 30 years, the Greeks, primarily the Athenian-dominated Delian League, would expel (or help expel) the Persians from Macedon, Thrace, the Aegean islands and Ionia. Peace with Persia finally came in 449 BC with the Peace of Callias, finally ending the half-century of warfare.


410: The sacking of Rome by the Visigoths under Alaric I, ends after three days.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpHMPzk6uI4

663: The Battle of Baekgang; the Korean forces of Baekje or Paekche (one of the three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla), and their allies, the Japanese of Yamato, fought the allied forces of Silla and the Tang Dynasty of China. The Battle of Baekgang was Japan's greatest defeat in its premodern history. Japan's losses were enormous, at least 10,000 killed. The victory gave Silla control of all former Baekje lands in Korea.


1793: During the French Counter Revolution, the three-year War in the Vendée begins. The war was fought between Catholics and Royalists on the one hand and Republicans on the other in the Vendée, a coastal region in western France. In 1986 Reynald Secher wrote a controversial book entitled: A French Genocide: The Vendée, in which he argued that the actions of the French republican government during the revolt in the Vendée (1793–1796), a popular mostly Catholic uprising against the anti-clerical Republican government during the French Revolution, was the first modern genocide.


1810: The Naval Battle of Grand Port, fought between squadrons of frigates from the French Navy and the Royal Navy from 20-27 August, in the island of Mauritius, SW Indian Ocean, ends. The battle was a disaster for the British; one ship was captured after suffering irreparable damage, the grounded ships were set on fire to prevent their capture by French boarding parties and the third vessel was seized as it left the harbour by the main French squadron from Port Napoleon, Mauritius, under Commodore Jacques Hamelin. The British defeat was the worst the Royal Navy suffered during the entire Napoleonic war, and it left the Indian Ocean and its vital trade convoys exposed to attack from French frigates.


1813: During the War of the Sixth Coalition, the two-day Battle of Dresden ends. A 214,000-strong coalition army from Austria, Russia and Prussia, under the Austrian Field Marshal Karl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg was defeated by the 135,000 French commanded by Napoleon himself. The Coalition lost some 38,000 men and 40 guns. French casualties totaled around 10,000.

The opposing forces on August 26


The opposing forces on August 27

1896: The Anglo-Zanzibar War occurs; it consisted of one battle lasting approximately 45 minutes. Believed to be the shortest war in recorded history, the Anglo-Zanzibar War began at 9:00 AM on August 27, 1896, and lasted for 37 to 45 minutes. Zanzibar’s only warship, the ageing HHS "Glasgow" (a royal yacht belonging to the Sultan of Zanzibar), was sunk by two shells.


1916: Romania enters the war on the side of the Allies. Romania's military forces, numbering 600,000 men, were quickly set in motion after the declaration of war by Romania on Austria-Hungary. Romania dispatched three armies across the Carpathians into Transylvania.


1941: Heeresgruppe Nord (=Army Group North) (von Bock) captures Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.


1944: The Canadians cross the Seine around Rouen. The remaining 1,800 Germans at Toulon surrender as the French claim a total of 17,000 captured for just 2,700 French casualties.


1979: An IRA bomb kills British World War II admiral Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma and 3 others while they are boating on holiday in Sligo, Republic of Ireland. Another bomb near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland kills 18 British soldiers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gEMTc9uRzE

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489: Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, invades Italy with the approval of the eastern emperor Zeno. On 28 August, Theodoric defeats Odoacer, the King of Italy, at the Battle of Isonzo, forcing his way into Italy.

A 5th c. Theodoric Solidus

1189: During the Third Crusade, the 25,000 crusaders of Guy de Lusignan, King of the crusader state of Jerusalem, begin the Siege of Acre.


1542: During the Turkish–Portuguese Conflicts of 1538–1557, the Battle of Ofla in Ethiopia occurs. About 290 Portuguese musketeers and 23 Ethiopians under Cristóvão da Gama are scattered by the several thousand Ottomans led by the Somali Imam and General of Adal who invaded Ethiopia, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi. Cristóvão da Gama was captured and brought to Ahmad al-Ghazi's camp, where he was tortured in an attempt to force him to convert to Islam. In the end Ahmad al-Ghazi chopped off Gama's head.

Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi

1640: During the Bellum Episcopale (=Bishop's War), a political and military conflict, which occurred in 1639 and 1640 centred around the nature of the governance of Church of Scotland, and the rights and powers of the crown, the Battle of Newburn occurs. A 24,000-strong Scottish Covenanter army under Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven, defeated a 15,000-strong English Royalist army under Edward Conway, 2nd Viscount Conway, 2nd Viscount Killultagh.

The conqueror of Newburn, Alexander Leslie

1824: During the Greek War for Independence, the Naval Battle of Gherontas occurs. In 1824, Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II, unable to supress the revolted Greeks alone, asked for help from Mehmet Ali Pasha the Vali (=governor) of Egypt, Syria & Arabia. Mehmet Ali, assigned to his son Ibrahim the task to handle the Greek question according to his wills. Ibrahim brewed a bold plot with determination:
Ibrahim's plan envisaged an annihilating victory of the Turco-Egyptian fleet over the revolted Greeks in the Aegean, as requirement for a succesful landing operation on Greece (on the Peloponnese specifically). Thus, on 6 June, the Ottoman fleet destroyed completely the island of Kassos and on the 21st, the island of Psara. According to Ibrahim's plan, the next "victim" would be Samos. Hosref Pasha, with 40 frigates and corvettes, set sail for Samos and on 17 July, the Ottoman fleet was sighted off Samos. The Greek fleet, with only 21 warships and 4 fireships, did its best to avoid the Ottomans draw close to Samos, engaging them in a series of harassing battles for a week. Hosref withdrew his fleet and returned to Bodrum, in Minor Asia. There he waited for the Egyptian fleet to arrive. And indeed, on 19 August, the Egyptians arrived as planned. Ibrahim divided his fleet into two groups. One group (under the Egyptian Ismael Gibraltar) would attack sections of the main Greek line and destroy them before other ships could come to their aid. The other group (under Hosref Pasha) would attack the enemy, break through their lines and then cut off the retreat of the enemy fleet. The Turco-Egyptian fleet numbered 25 frigates, 25 corvettes, 50 brigs and 300 freighters with 2,500 guns, assembled along the Bodrum coast.
The Greek fleet assembled around the islands of Patmos, Leros and Lipsi with 70 warships (800 guns). The ships came from Hydra, Spetsæ & Psara. On 22 August, the Greek Admiral Andreas Miaoules arrived from Hydra onboard his flagship Kimon.

The statue of Admiral Miaoules at Hydra

On 28 August, early in the morning, 22 Greek warships left the Gherontas bay, moving on silent, searching for the Ottoman flagship. Guessing that the rest of the Greek fleet must be nearby, Ismael Gibraltar with his fleet, set out from Bodrum to engage the Greeks (his plan was to break through the Greek line and with his massive force - compared to the force confronted him - to crush the Greeks). As he did so, Miaoules with the rest of the Greek fleet appeared out of the blue. Ismael Gibraltar, immediately made the signal to change routes and ordered his ships to attack the Greek flagship. Papanikoles, with his fireships, runned to the enemy frigates to defend the flagship. The Ottomans broke the line, trying to avoid the visible danger. Papanikoles' effort to burn the enemy frigates, failed though (due to the wind). The Spetsan Lekkas Matrozos with his fireship, tried to attach his vessel on a Turkish brig but he failed too. In a similar effort, Andreas Pipinos was seriously wounded. Hosref Pasha, with his fleet, entered the battle, trying to block the Greeks combine their forces. The two Greek forces united though and the battle started. Ibrahim ordered his ships to steer and take advantage of the gap created between enemy vessels. Hosref Pasha, watching this, and to show that the Turks are no less courageous than the Egyptians, ordered his ships to do the same. Thus, the Turkish and Egyptian ships, engaged with the Greeks in a general melee.

The Turks though, were unaware that they were about to put themselves against the most skilful sea captain of the Aegean - Andreas Miaoules.
Miaoules, knowing that the Greek vessels are smaller and more agile than the large ships of the Turks, signaled his ships to divide into two squadrons. The first squadron would engage the Egyptians, the second the Turks. He also ordered the 17 fireships to enter the battle. The Spetsan fireships under Lazaros Mussus, attacked the Egyptians. The Hydran fireships, under Georgakes Theokhares, attacked the Turks. The Hydran Georgios Vatikiotes on a small fireship, blew up a large Turkish frigate with 1,100 crew with all hands on-board. Panic spread amongst the Turco-Egyptian fleet. In the evening, Hosref Pasha accepted his defeat and sailed back to Bodrum. Ismael Gibraltar, withdrew to Crete. Thus, Samos was saved. The combat was so unequal, that the French Admiral and writer Julien de la Gravière, comments on the battle of Gherontas:
Perhaps, seamanship has nothing more interesting to display other than the events that took place at the Gherontas battle.
The Ottoman defeat led ultimately to the Greek control of the Aegean Sea. The Greeks were thus able to provide troops and provisions to the mainland from the islands without the fear of the Ottomans.


WWI-1914: The First Naval Battle of the Great War, the Battle of Heligoland Bight, fought at the North Sea, occurs. The 54-strong British Grand Fleet under Admiral of the Fleet David Richard Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty, ambushed the Hochseeflotte (=German High Seas Fleet) under Admiral Franz Ritter von Hipper. Three German light cruisers and one destroyer were sunk. Three more light cruisers were damaged, 712 sailors killed, 530 injured and 336 taken prisoner. The British suffered one light cruiser and three destroyers damaged, 35 killed and 40 wounded. The battle was regarded as a great victory in Britain, where the returning ships were met by cheering crowds.

Admiral Beatty

1924: The August Insurrection, an unsuccessful uprising of the anti-Soviet Georgian Patriots begins, aimed at restoring the independence of Georgia from the Soviet Union. The insurrection was suppressed by the Red Army and CheKa troops under orders of Joseph Stalin and Sergo Ordzhonikidze. Several thousand citizens of Georgia were purged.

Ordzhonikidze, Stalin & Mikoyan

1943: The Danish government refuse a German ultimatum, as the sabotage campaign run by the Danish Resistance, reaches a crescendo.


1944: The last German garrison at Marseilles surrenders to the French, who take 37,000 prisoners for 4,000 French casualties.


1988: During the Ramstein Airshow, three aircraft of the Frecce Tricolori demonstration team collide and the wreckage falls into the crowd. 75 are killed and 346 seriously injured.
Graphic video-warning!

1991: Following the failed coup d'état attempt by a group of members of the Soviet Union's government to take control of the country from Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet Union collapses – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4bWo49OoFo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3FgakSEDfA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoeSnG-dUFw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wyq09lyG5x0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBeLqrrQAkE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E583Oe8QhBA

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1350: During the Hundred Years' War, the Battle of Les Espagnols sur Mer (=the Spanish on the Sea) occurs. An English fleet of 50 ships commanded by Edward III, the King of England, with his son, Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Prince of Aquitaine nom de guerre the Black Prince, defeated a Castilian fleet of 40 ships commanded by the Franco-Castilian Charles d'Espagne at the Southern coast of England, off Winchelsea. Between 14 and 26 Castilian ships were captured, and some were sunk, while 2 English vessels were sunk and many suffered heavy losses.


1521: Belgrade is finally captured by Ottoman Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent and his 250,000 soldiers. Most of the city was razed to the ground and its entire Christian population was deported to Istanbul, to the area since known as the Belgrad Ormanı (=Belgrade forest).


1526: During the Ottoman Wars in Europe, the Battle of Mohács occurs. A 35-40,000-strong Hungarian army under the King Lajos II of Hungary and Bohemia, was defeated by the 55-65,000 Ottomans led by Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. The Hungarian King was killed in the battle. The Ottoman victory led to the partition of Hungary for several centuries between the Ottoman Empire, the Habsburg Monarchy, and the Principality of Transylvania. The death of Lajos II marked the end of the Lithuanian Jagiellon dynasty (their dynastic claims were absorbed by the Habsburgs).

The last King of the House of Jagiellons, King Lajos II

1541: The Ottoman Turks capture Buda, the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom. The West and North portions of Hungary recognized a Habsburg as king and were named Royal Hungary, while the Central and Southern counties were occupied by the Sultan. The East was ruled by the son of Zápolya under the name Eastern Hungarian Kingdom which after 1570 became the Principality of Transylvania.


1665: During the Northern Wars, the Swedes enter Warsaw unopposed, under their King Karl X Gustav. Jan II Casimir, the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, fled to Silesia. He was regarded a weak king and even members of Polish nobility encouraged Karl Gustav to claim the Polish crown.

Karl X Gustav of Sweden

1756: Frederick II the Great, the King of Prussia, with his well-prepared army crossed the frontier and preemptively invaded Saxony, thus beginning the Seven Years' War which lasted until 1763.

Prussian Infantry advance

WWI-1916: The Greek D' Corps surrenders to the Germans. Its troops board trains and are moved to Görlitz, Germany, where they will remain until the end of the War. Bulgarian troops occupy Eastern Macedonia and Thrace regions of Greece.

The Greeks at Görlitz

WWI-1918: The New Zealanders of the New Zealand Division, captured Bapaume (east of Amiens, south of Arras), breaking through the Le Transloy-Loupart trench system. By 08:30 hours a company (Capt. H. C. Meikle) of the 3rd Rifles had entered Bapaume.


1944: The British begin the Race for Amiens. U.S. troops liberate Soissons, 96 km (60 miles) Northeast of Paris. Montelimar is taken by the French who also cross the Rhone in several places. The Canadians enter Rouen.


1944: The Soviets capture the Romanian oilfields at Ploesti, Romania and enter Hungarian occupied Transylvania.


1944: The Slovak Uprising begins. Itwas an armed insurrection organized by the Slovak resistance movement during World War II. It was launched on August 29, 1944 from Banská Bystrica in an attempt to overthrow the collaborationist Slovak State of Jozef Tiso. Although the rebel forces (ca 18,000, later increased to 78,000) were defeated by Nazi Germany, guerrilla warfare continued until the Soviet Army liberated Slovakia in 1945.


1949: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-CdK8KgIDw

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1363: In late August 1363 AD the two main contenders for control of China, Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang, faced off on Poyang (also called Boyang) Lake, the largest freshwater body of water in China. In the end Zhu Yuanzhang would win the battle and go on to found one of China’s greatest dynasties: the Ming. Accounts say hundreds of boats and around 850,000 sailors from the combined fleets of the Han and the Ming navies met in Lake Poyang. The Han by far had the larger navy, which consisted of 11 squadrons and more than 600,000 men equipped with what the Han called lóu Chuán (楼船, tower ships) which were essentially floating fortresses, crammed with troops.


1799: During the War of the Second Coalition, the Vlieter incident occurs: The surrender without a fight of a squadron of the navy of the Batavian Republic, commanded by Rear-Admiral Samuel Story, during the Anglo-Russian Invasion of Holland to the British navy under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby and Admiral Sir Charles Mitchell, on a sandbank near the Channel known as De Vlieter, near Wieringen.

Sir Ralph Abercromby

1813: During the War of the Sixth Coalition, the two-day Battle of Kulm occurs. 32,000 French troops under General Dominique-Joseph René Vandamme, Count of Unseburg, attacked an army of 54,000 Austrians, Russians, and Prussians under the Russian Field Marshal Mikhail Bogdanovich Barklay-de-Tolli, but were defeated with heavy losses on both sides.


1922: During the Greek Campaign to Minor Asia, the Second Battle of Dumlupınar, which began on the 16 August, ends. It was the last battle in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922. The Greek forces were organised in the Army of Asia Minor, under Lt. General Georgios Hatzanestes, with a total of 177,000 men in 12 infantry and 1 cavalry divisions. The Turkish forces were organised in the Western Front, under General Ismet Pasha, with a total of 208,000 men in 18 infantry and 5 cavalry divisions. The Turkish plan envisaged the launching of converging attacks on the entire front against the occupied by the Greeks defensive line. The Greek high command although anticipated a major Turkish offensive, failed to estimate correctly the size of the Turkish formations and the exact date of the Turkish attack. When the Turkish attack opened, Greek reinforcements were still underway to the front. In the first three days of the battle, the biggest part of Greek A' and B' Corps, with some 34 infantry battalions and 130 artillery pieces was destroyed as an effective fighting force. The remaining I and VII Infantry Divisions were too weak to hold against the Turkish offensive. At 23:00 hours, on 30 August 1922, Maj. General Frangu ordered his forces (I & VII ID) to retreat further westwards. The end of the battle of Dumlupınar spelt the beginning of the end for the Greek presence in Asia Minor.
To commemorate this victory, 30 August is celebrated as Zafer Bayramı (=Victory Day), a national holiday in Turkey.


1942: Rommel begins his final attempt to break through at El Alamein in the Battle of Alam Halfa. However, the 15th Panzer Division fails to break through the 8th Army's lines and sustains heavy casualties losing about 30 tanks forcing the Germans to withdraw back to their start lines.


1945: A Royal Naval force takes Hong Kong.


1995: NATO launches Operation Deliberate Force against Bosnian Serb forces.

[4X4Driver]

August 30, Victory Day, Turkey

Each year on 30th August the people of Turkey celebrate "Victory Day," which honours the success of the Turkish forces in what was to be the final battle of the Turkish War of Independence, and the cessation of links with the Ottoman Empire. The holiday is traditionally dedicated to the Turkish Armed Forces.

The Battle of Dumlupinar was the last battle in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), part of the Turkish War of Independence in the closing days of the Ottoman Empire. The battle was fought between 26th August and 30th August 1922, near Afyonkarahisar in Turkey.

Following the battle on the Sakarya River (Battle of Sakarya) in August & September 1921, the Greek forces under General Papoulas retreated to a defensive line extending from the town of Izmir (Nicomedia) to the towns of Eskisehir and Afyonkarahisar. The Greek line formed a 700 km arc, stretching in a broadly North-South direction along difficult hilly ground, with high hills (called tepes) rising out of broken terrain. Most militarists considered it to be easily defensible.

A single track railway line ran from Afyonkarahisar to Dumlupinar (a fortified valley town some 50 kilometres West of Afyonkarahisar surrounded by the mountains Murat Dagi and Ahir Dagi), and thence to Izmir (Smyrna) on the coast. This railway was the main Greek supply route. The Greek HQ at Smyrna was effectively incapable of communicating with the front, or exercising operational control.

The Turkish attacked the Southern flank of the Afyonkarahisar defensive line on the morning of 26th August 1922, watched from the commanding peak of Kocatepe by Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk), CGS Fevzi Pasha, Ismet Inönü and Nureddin.

The Turkish guns silenced the Greek batteries by knocking out their observation posts. The Turkish infantry took advantage of this and advanced against strong opposition and made significant gains.

The breakthrough the next day came when the Turkish 4th Corps under Col. Sami took the 5,000 foot high peak of Erkmentepe, and Fahrettin led his cavalry into the Greek rearguard. The Greeks fell into disarray. General Frangou (commanding the Greek 'I' Division) retreated West from Dumlupinar, losing touch with 'A' Corps. The Greek Corps commanders Tricoupis and Dighenis fell back towards Dumlupinar, but many of their disintegrating forces ran for Izmir.

The Turks closed the ring around Dumlupinar on 30th August with Fevzi and Mustafa Kemal commanding the two encircling columns, and finally secured the victory. The remnants of the Tricoupis and Dighenis Corps, who were trying to escape North from Dumlupinar across the slopes of Murat Dagi, were surrounded on 2nd and 3rd September as they descended to the Banaz valley.

The Turks chased the other fleeing Greeks 250 miles to Izmir. The last Greek troops left Anatolia on 16th September. The Armistice of Mudanya was signed by Turkey, Italy, France and Great Britain on 11th October 1922. Greece was forced to accede to it on 14th October 1922.





Brief history of the whole event- Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdnsiYjoqOQ&NR=1

Part-2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuisL...eature=related

[valtrex]

1813: During the Peninsular War, British and Portuguese troops besieging San Sebastián, Spain, defeat French occupying troops. The relieving troops lost all self-control and burnt down the city. British rank and file and even high officials ran completely amok, pillaging and burning the city a whole week long, torturing inhabitants suspect of keeping money or gems, raping women and killing an estimate 1,000 inhabitants. Only the street at the foot of the hill (now called 31 August Street) remained intact. The tragedy is remembered every year on 31 August with an extensive candlelit ceremony.


1907: The Anglo-Russian Convention is signed by Alexander Petrovich Izvolsky, Foreign Minister of the Russian Empire and Sir Arthur Nicolson, 1st Baron Carnock, the British Ambassador to Russia. The Convention served as the catalyst for creating the Triple Entente (with the French Third Republic joining the alliance), which was the basis of the alliance of countries opposing the Central Powers in 1914 at the onset of World War I.

The Triple Entente: Marianne (=French Third Republic), Mother Russia, Britannia

1920: During the Polish-Soviet War, the Battle of Komarów occurs. The Soviet 1st Horse Army under Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny sustained heavy casualties and barely avoided being outflanked by six Polish Infantry and Cavalry Regiments under Juliusz Rómmel. The Polish lost approximately 500 killed and 700 horses. It is assumed that the Soviets lost at least 4,000 men during the battle.

Polish Memorial to the Battle

1923: Following the murder, within Greek territory, of the Italian General Enrico Tellini and three of his assistants by unknown assailants, on 27 August, Italian forces bombarded and occupied the Greek island of Corfu on 31 August, killing at least fifteen civilians because Greece was unable to identify the killers. The ulterior motive for the invasion was Corfu's strategic position at the entrance of the Adriatic Sea. Italian forces left Corfu on 27 September.

Corfuans (Corfiots to the locals) watch, as Italian troops parade on the streets of Corfu

1939: The Gleiwitz incident occurs. It was a staged attack by Nazi forces posing as Poles on 31 August 1939, against the German radio station Sender Gleiwitz in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia, Germany, on the eve of World War II in Europe. A small group of men in Polish Army uniforms seized control of the local Radio broadcasting station and transmitted a short anti German message in Polish. Germany claimed these were acts of Polish aggression.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwYcRIhe7p0

1944: The British 11th Armoured Division captures Amiens and take the German bridge across the Somme in surprise attack. Montpellier, Beziers, Narbonne and Nice all taken. The U.S. Third Army reaches the river Meuse.


1944: The Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front captures Bucharest, the capital of Romania and begins to round up members of the Fascist Antonescu government.


1949: During the Greek Civil War, the last Battle fought between the Communist Democratic Army and the Greek Army ends. Operation Torch, the last offensive operation conducted by the Greek Army with eight divisions, two independent brigades, fourteen light infantry regiments, 150 mountain and field artillery guns, 100 planes - including the just arrived 51 Curtiss SB2C Helldiver - against the Communist strongholds of Mount Grammos and Vitsi begins on 2 August. On 27 August, the Army seized Mount Grammos and Communist morale and resistance collapsed. By 31 August the Greek Army was firmly in control of Grammos-Vitsi. The retreat of the 8,000 insurgents of the Greek Democratic Army in Albania after its defeat, marks the end of the Greek Civil War. Greek Army suffered 15,268 men killed in the Civil War, 37,255 wounded, 3,843 missing. Greek Democratic Army lost ca 38,000 insurgents. 5,000 were executed, both sides. 4,289 civilians executed by Communists.

General Thrasybulus Tsakalotos, head of Operation Torch and conqueror of Grammos-Vitsi

[stonecutter]

1813: During the Peninsular War, British and Portuguese troops besieging San Sebastián, Spain, defeat French occupying troops. The relieving troops lost all self-control and burnt down the city. British rank and file and even high officials ran completely amok, pillaging and burning the city a whole week long, torturing inhabitants suspect of keeping money or gems, raping women and killing an estimate 1,000 inhabitants. Only the street at the foot of the hill (now called 31 August Street) remained intact. The tragedy is remembered every year on 31 August with an extensive candlelit ceremony.

W...T....F?? This doesn't sound like the (disciplined) British at all.

[valtrex]

1644: During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (an intertwined series of conflicts that took place in England, Ireland, and Scotland between 1639 and 1651 after these three countries had come under the "Personal Rule" of the same monarch) the Battle of Tippermuir occurs. A Royalist Irish-Scottish army of some 2,000 foot, 150 horse under the Scottish nobleman James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, defeated a 8,000-strong (including 1,000 horse) army of Scottish Covenanters under John Wemyss, 1st Earl of Wemyss. The outcome of the battle proved Montrose's strategic genius and revived the Royalist cause in Scotland.

The conqueror of Tippermuir, James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose

1870: During the Franco-Prussian War, the Battle of Sedan occurs. It resulted in the capture of Emperor Napoleon III and his new French Army of Châlons, comprised 202 infantry battalions, 80 cavalry squadrons and 564 artillery guns, and practically decided the war in favor of Prussia and its allies, though fighting continued under a new French government. The French lost over 17,000 men killed and wounded with 21,000 captured to the Prussian army of 200,000 with 774 guns, commanded by Generalfeldmarschall Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke. The capture of the French emperor left the Prussians without an opposing government willing to make a quick peace. Indeed, two days after news hit Paris of Emperor Napoleon's III capture, the French Second Empire collapsed in a bloodless revolution, leading to the creation of a new provisional government which would carry on the war for five more months sparing no effort to try to change France's fortunes.

French Emperor Napoleon III, surrenders his sword to Prussian King Wilhelm I

1911: The Pisa class, Armoured Cruiser Georgios Averof, built at Orlando Shipyards at Livorno in Italy is commissioned into the Royal Hellenic Navy. She served her country in two Balkan Wars and two World Wars. She's now a floating museum, towed to Phaleron Bay, Piræus, Greece. The ship is regarded as in active service, carrying the Rear Admiral's Rank Flag. Every Hellenic Navy ship entering or sailing in Phaleron Bay honours the Averof while passing: The crew are ordered to attention (with the "Still to" bugle call) and from the relevant Boatswain's pipe every man on decks stands to attention, officers saluting, looking to the side where the Averof is in sight.

The ol' Averof as her crew used to call the ship, today

1939: Three German Army Groups begin the invasion of Poland at 4:45am. Massive strikes by the Luftwaffe destroy vital communications and assembly areas, decimating the Polish air force on the ground. Panzer and motorised divisions make deep penetrations into the Polish defences, using tactics soon to be known as the Blitzkrieg. Officially, the first shots of the war are fired from the 280 mm deck guns of the vintage First World War Battleship Schleswig-Holstein. Under the guise of honouring the anniversary of the Battle of Tannenburg, the German Battleship, complete with a hidden cargo of Marine assault troops, was allowed by the Polish authorities to anchor directly off the strategic peninsula of Westerplatte, located at the mouth of the Vistula River in Danzig. At 4:47am, permission was given to the ship to open fire on the island, a strategic point on the Baltic Coast needed to support the troops advancing to the south. Shortly after 4:47am, the ship opened up its massive main guns, firing at near-point-blank range and zero elevation. Needless-to-say, the shells literally pounded the small island, but although the ships guns devastated the target, they inflicted minimal casualties on the Polish stationed within. When the Assault Marines hidden within the Battleship disembarked and launched their main assault on the island, they were repulsed taking heavy casualties. Another assault was launched later in the morning the Assault Marines after more shelling from the Schleswig-Holstein, but this also ended in heavy German casualties. The Westerplatte would prove impossible to take on the first day of World War 2. Lieutenant Wladyslaw Gnys of 2 Krakow Air Regiment shoots down two Dornier 17 Bombers. These were to be the first German airplanes to be shot down in World War 2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZPGu7dwUOM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKx1ccUDUQU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWy8Ed8MhF4

1939: The Wound Badge (=Verwundetenabzeichen) for Wehrmacht, SS, Kriegsmarine, and Luftwaffe soldiers is instituted. The final version of the Iron Cross (= Eisernes Kreuz) is also instituted on this date.


1944: The Canadians of the 2nd Division liberate Dieppe.

Royal Hamilton Light Infantry at a grave site in Dieppe, 1 September 1944

1951: The Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty (ANZUS treaty) was concluded at San Francisco on 1 September 1951. The treaty bound the signatories to recognise that an armed attack in the Pacific area on any of them would endanger the peace and safety of the others.


1961: The Eritrean War of Independence fought between the Ethiopian government and Eritrean separatists, begins with the shooting of the Ethiopian police by Hamid Idris Awate.

Hamid Idris Awate, the leader of the Eritrean Liberation Army

1982: Korean Air Lines Flight 007 is shot down by Soviet interceptors over the Sea of Japan near Moneron Island just west of Sakhalin island over prohibited Soviet airspace. All 269 passengers and crew aboard were killed, including Lawrence McDonald, a sitting member of the United States Congress.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We_JvG2jC_A

2004: Beslan school hostage crisis commences when armed terrorists take children and adults hostage in Beslan in North Ossetia, Russia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0oWbFDf-1M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Muaq2OulU0k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9HQmgZfsy4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqEdf2PY948
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3m-P8M2GGA

[JCR]

W...T....F?? This doesn't sound like the (disciplined) British at all.

Happened with every british siege operation in Spain.
And with every other siege operation in history.

Every Hellenic Navy ship entering or sailing in Phaleron Bay honours the Averof while passing: The crew are ordered to attention (with the "Still to" bugle call) and from the relevant Boatswain's pipe every man on decks stands to attention, officers saluting, looking to the side where the Averof is in sigh

This is called "front (nach backbord/steuerbord)" in german and "passing honours" in english. Is done every time two warships pass each other.
Also this is done with memorials or museum ships: germans render passing honours to Laboe memorial/U995, americans to the USS Arizona.
Russians to the Aurora, I guess.

Btw, the bugle calls/pipe calls are international
The greeks got them from the royal navy, the germans got them from the royal navy etc...

[valtrex]

Btw, the bugle calls/pipe calls are international
The greeks got them from the royal navy, the germans got them from the royal navy etc...

Thanks, didn't know that bugle calls/pipe calls are international...and yes, our Navy is heavy influenced by the Royal Navy (from the rank insignias to the uniforms)

[valtrex]

31 BC: During the Final War of the Roman Republic (fought between Cleopatra of Egypt, assisted by Mark Antony, and Octavian) the Naval Battle of Actium, fought on the Ionian Sea, at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf, Epirus, Greece (near the current Actium NATO AWACS forward operating base) occurs. 250 warships, mostly small liburnian vessels and Hexeres with 16,000 Legionary Marines and 3,000 archers commanded by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, a close friend, son-in-law and lieutenant to Octavian, defeated a Ptolemaic fleet of some 230 warships, mostly quinqueremes with some larger Deceres with 2,000 Archers and 20,000 Legionary Marines, commanded by Mark Antony and supported by 60 Egyptian warships of Queen Cleopatra of Ptolemaic Egypt. Mark Antony lost his fleet, his army deserted in large numbers; Octavian had sole and uncontested control of Mare Nostrum and following Mark Antony's and Cleopatra's death, became Augustus Cæsar of Rome.


1898: During the War of the Sudan, the Battle of Omdurman, near Khartoum, Sudan, occurs. A 25,800-strong Anglo-Egyptian army under Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, defeated a 52,000-strong army of Abdullah Ibn-Mohammed, the successor to the self-proclaimed Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah. Around 10,000 Mahdist Sudanese were killed, 13,000 were wounded, and 5,000 were taken prisoner. Kitchener's force lost 47 men with 382 wounded.


1939: The Luftwaffe raids Warsaw. German troops capture the Jablunka pass in the Tatra mountains. Fighting continued for the strategic peninsula of Westerplatte at the mouth of the Vistula River. A massive attack was launched by 60 Stuka dive bombers of the II and III Stukageschwader Immelmann directed at crushing the garrison. The air assault was not directly followed up by a German attack from the ground and the Polish troops were able to reorganise their defences. Hitler indicates to the UK and France that he would withdraw from Poland provided that he was allowed to retain Danzig and the Polish Corridor. This was dismissed and a joint ultimatum was given to Germany to withdraw its troops from Poland within twelve hours or find itself in a state of war with Britain and France.


1945: The Instrument of Surrender of Japan is signed by Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and accepted aboard the battleship USS "Missouri" (BB-63) in Tokyo Bay.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcnH_kF1zXc

[Connaught Ranger]

1979: An IRA bomb kills British World War II admiral Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma and 3 others while they are boating on holiday in Sligo, Republic of Ireland.

May those murdered by terrorists + Rest In Peace +

Actually, he was killed in Mullaghmore, Co. Leitreim,

Leitrim has a very small coastline between County Sligo and County Donegal.

On that day I was leaving Manorhamilton Military Post, County Leitreim, and returning to my Battalion base in Finner Camp, Bundoran, Co. Donegal, which is quite close by to Mullaghmore, It was the day before I was to start training for going overseas with the 46th Irish Battalion U.N.I.F.I.L.

Post #191 :- The final version of the Iron Cross (= Eisernes Kreuz) is also instituted on this date.

WRONG! Technically, the last version of the Iron Cross is the 1957 de-Nazified version, official made for issue to German veterans of WW2.

Connaught Ranger.