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Warfare Through the AgesRoman, Greek, Japanese, etc. Topics cover all manner of pre-modern warfare and empire-building and crushing.
1644 William Penn, English Quaker & founder of Pennsylvania
1734 Francis Lightfoot Lee, Signer, d. 1797
1784 King Ferdinand VII of Spain
1827 James Sidney Robinson, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1892
1837 Ellison Capers, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1908
1882 Eamon De Valera
1890 General of the Army Dwight D Eisenhower
1906 Hannah Arendt, historian ("The Origins of Totalitarianism")
Died...
1066 King Harold of English perishes at Hastings
1536 Garcilaso de la Vega, Spanish poet and diplomat, KIA
1880 Victorio, Apache chief and murderer, killed by Mexican army
1944 Erwin Rommel, Field Marshall, forced suicide at 52
2002 Norbert Schultze, tunesmith ("Lili Marlene"), at 91.
Event...
1066 Battle of Hastings, in which William the Conqueror wins England
1586 Mary Queen of Scots tried for conspiracy against Elizabeth of England
1694 Port Nelson (on Hudson's Bay) surrenders to a French force commanded by Pierre le Moyne d'Iberville, after withstanding a three week siege.
1758 Hochkirch: Austrian Marshal Daun defeats Frederick the Great
1773 Neapolitan frigate Etruria captures a Moroccan pirate off Sicily
1774 1st Continental Congress is 1st to declare colonial rights in Philadelphia
1806 French defeat the Prussians at Iena and Auerstadt.
1843 British arrest Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell for conspiracy
1867 15th & last Tokugawa Shogun resigns in Japan
1894 HMS St. Lawrence is launched from the Kingston naval yards. (Canada) Boasting 112 guns, the ship is bigger than Nelson's HMS Victory.
1899 Orders are issued from the Militia Department to begin recruiting Canadian volunteers for service in South Africa. The men are to be between the ages of 22 and 44, at least five feet, six inches tall, and be "a good shot."
1912 Theodore Roosevelt was shot by an assassin, He continued his speech anyway.
1917 1st Aeronautic Co. (USMC) prepared for Azore duty at Cape May, New Jersey.
1918 Naval Aviators of Marine Day Squadron 9 make first raid-in-force for the Northern Bombing Group in World War I when they bombed German railroad at Thielt Rivy, Belgium.
1920 Part of Petsamo province ceded by Soviet Union to Finland
1925 Anti-French uprising in Damascus
1933 Nazi Germany announces withdrawal from League of Nations
1939 German submarine U 47 quickly carries out second attack in the confines of Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands, and torpedoes battleship HMS Royal Oak, 58°55'N, 02°59'W, which sinks in 13 minutes.
1939 German armored ship DKM Deutschland sinks Norwegian freighter Lorentz W. Hansen 420 miles east of Newfoundland, 49°05'N, 43°44'W.
1939 U.S. freighter Scanstates is detained at Kirkwall, Orkneys, by British authorities; freighter Exporter is detained at Gibraltar by the British
1939 U.S. freighter Nashaba is detained at Le Havre by French authorities
1940 Heavy cruiser USS Louisville departs Recife, Brazil, for Rio de Janeiro, as she continues "showing the flag" in Latin American waters.
1940 Department of State announces that the U.S. passenger liners Monterey, Mariposa, and Washington are being sent to the Far East to repatriate American citizens from that region in view of prevailing "abnormal conditions" there. This move is made because of the shortage of accommodations on the ships already engaged in the Far East trade. Monterey is to go to Yokohama, Japan, and Shanghai, China; Mariposa will proceed to Shanghai and Chinwangtao, China, and Kobe, Japan.
1942 Heavy fighting, Templeton's Crossing, Kokoda Trail.
1942 Motor torpedo boats PT-60, PT-38, PT-46, and PT-48 engage Japanese surface force comprising battleships IJN Haruna and IJN Kongo, light cruiser IJN Isuzu, and seven destroyers bombarding Henderson Field, Guadalcanal. Destroyer IJN Naganami turns back the motor torpedo boats; Japanese bombardment destroys 48 of 90 planes at the field, putting the facility temporarily out of action. PT-60 is damaged by grounding on coral reef off Guadalcanal.
1942 SBDs (Guadalcanal-based VS 3) attack six-ship Japanese convoy escorted by eight destroyers heading southward toward Guadalcanal between Santa Isabel and Florida Islands, 08°50'S, 160°00'E, but inflict no damage.
1942 Japanese submarine I-7 shells Espiritu Santo.
1942 Submarine USS Finback attacking Japanese convoy, sinks army transport Teison Maru about 20 miles off Tansui harbor, on northwest tip of Formosa, 25°20'N, 121°25'E.
1942 Submarine USS Greenling sinks Japanese army cargo ship Takusei Maru six miles off Todo Zaki, off northeast coast of Honshu, 39°33'N, 142°15'E.
1942 Submarine USS Grampus lands Australian coastwatchers on coast of Vella Lavella.
1942 Submarine USS Sculpin sinks Japanese army cargo ship Sumiyoshi Maru 75 miles southwest of Kavieng, New Ireland, 03°51'S, 151°21'E.
1942 Submarine USS Skipjack sinks Japanese army cargo ship Shunko Maru about 450 miles west-southwest of Truk, 05°35'N, 144°25'E.
1942 Japanese reinforcements land on Guadalcanal.
1943 Japanese planes attack six Lambu Lambu-based U.S. motor torpedo boats off Choiseul Bay, damaging PT-183.
1943 Submarine USS Grayback sinks Japanese fleet tanker Kozui Maru, 27°35'N, 127°30'E, and eludes hunter-killer operations carried out by aviation supply ship Takasaki.
1943 Naval Air Facility, Igarape Assu, Brazil, is established.
1943 Coast Guard Cutter USCG Dow runs aground off Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, and is abandoned.
1943 Attempted mass escape from Sobibor Concentration Camp
1943 Fifth Air Force subjects Rabaul to a major air raid.
1943 Japan declares Philippine Independence, under President Jose Laurel
1943 US Air Force bombs Schweinfurt
1944 Field Marshal Erwin Rommel commits suicide rather than face trial for his part in an attempt to overthrow Hitler
1944 British troops enter Athens
1944 While TF 38 remains nearby to provide cover for the ongoing salvage of crippled heavy cruiser USS Canberra that had been damaged the previous day, Japanese aerial counterattacks continue, inflicting damage on carrier USS Hancock, 23°30'N, 121°30'E; light cruiser USS Reno (suicide plane); and destroyer USS Cassin Young (strafing), 22°30'N, 124°50'E. Light cruiser USS Houston is damaged by aerial torpedo, and destroyer USS Cowell is damaged when she fouls USS Houston as USS Cowell lies alongside assisting in salvage efforts, 22°27'N, 124°01'E. Heavy cruiser USS Boston - later relieved by fleet tug Pawnee - takes USS Houston in tow. At this juncture, heavy air attacks on TF 38, together with enemy radio propaganda broadcasts that reflect a vast overestimation of the destruction wreaked by attacking Japanese aircraft, prompts Commander Third Fleet to withdraw TG 38.2 and TG 38.3 to the eastward to set upon any important Japanese fleet units that would attempt to finish off the "crippled remnants" of TF 38. The enemy, however, does not take the bait.
During TF 38 operations against Japanese shipping and installations on Formosa, Navy carrier-based planes damage coastal minelayer Enoshima and auxiliary submarine chasers Cha 7 and Cha 151 off Takao.
1944 Submarine USS Angler sinks Japanese army transport Nanrei Maru south of Tablas Strait, 11°53'N, 121°39'E.
1944 Submarine USS Bonefish sinks Japanese merchant cargo ship Fushimi Maru in South China Sea off west coast of Luzon, 16°12'N, 119°45'E.
1944 Submarine USS Dace sinks Japanese merchant tankers Eikyo Maru and Nittetsu Maru and damages merchant ore carrier Taizen Maru off North Borneo, 06°05'N, 115°55'E.
1944 British submarine HMS Sturdy sinks Japanese Communication Vessel No.128 in Gulf of Boni.
1944 Carrier USS Saratoga and destroyer escort USS Howard F. Clark are damaged in collision during maneuvers off Oahu.
1947 Chuck Yeager in Bell XS-1 makes the first supersonic flight, Mach 1.015
1949 Chinese Red army occupies Canton
1950 MAG-12 (USMC) began operations out of Wonsan Airfield in North Korea.
1953 Ike promises to fire as Red any federal worker taking 5th amendment
1960 Peace Corps 1st suggested by JFK
1963 Border clashes between Algeria and Morocco
1964 Martin Luther King Jr. awarded Nobel Peace Prize
1965 Joe Engle in X-15 reaches 80 km
1968 1st live telecast from a manned US spacecraft (Apollo 7)
1976 Soyuz 23 carries 2 to Salyut 6, but returns without docking
1983 US Marine peacekeeper Sgt Allen Soifert killed by sniper in Beirut
1986 Concentration camp survivor Elie Wiesel wins Nobel Peace Prize
By Avalon:
Australian
1942 Japanese counter-attack Australians at Templeton’s Crossing.
1927 HMAS Adelaide arrives at the British Solomon Islands Protectorate as part of a British punitive expedition. The Royal Australian Navy operated as part of a British empire force in one of the first instances in which Australian forces intervened in regional affairs.
By Cap. Teancum:
1322 - Battle of Bylan. Scots defeat English under Edward II. English forced to recognize Scottish independence.
1747 - Second Battle of Cape Finisterre. British fleet again defeated French.
1805 - Battle of Elchingen. After repairing the bridge under fire, Ney stormed and captured the village and convent.
1806 - Battle of Auerstadt. French under Marshal Davout deliver heavy defeat to Prussian army.
1863 - Battle of Bristol Station. Confederate General Robert E. Lee attempts to drive the Union army out of Virginia but fails when an outnumbered Union force repels the attacking Rebels.
In September 1863, two corps from the Union Army of the Potomac moved to Tennessee to reinforce the army of General William Rosecrans after his loss at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19 and 20. When Lee heard of this, he suspected that the diminished Yankee army in Virginia was vulnerable. Lee was still outnumbered nearly two to one, but if he could place his army between the main Union force and Washington, D.C., the Confederates could relieve pressure on Virginia by forcing the Yankees closer to Washington.
On October 10, Lee moved his troops from their defenses along the Rapidan River and attempted to turn the Army of the Potomac's right flank. Union commander General George Meade was alerted to Lee's movement, and he quickly drew his army closer to Washington. The aggressive Lee realized that he had a chance to cut the Union army up piecemeal during the withdrawal. Confederate General Ambrose P. Hill spotted Yankees from General George Sykes's Fifth Corps near Bristoe Station on the afternoon of October 14. Thinking this was the rear of the Union army, Hill attacked and began driving the Federals away in disarray. The Confederates were surprised by the sudden appearance of Union General Gouverneur K. Warren's Second Corps. Warren's men were returning from a small battle at Auburn, Virginia, earlier that morning. Hill decided to attack this new force as well, but the Yankees were well protected by a railroad cut.
In a very short engagement, the Confederates suffered 1,400 men killed, wounded, and captured, while the Union lost only 546. "Bury these poor men," Lee somberly told Hill, "and let us say no more about it." The Union army was driven back 40 miles from its original positions, and the Confederates destroyed a large section of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, a key Union supply line. Nonetheless, the gains were temporary. The next month, Meade drove Lee back behind the Rapidan River.
1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis begins on October 14, 1962, bringing the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear conflict. Photographs taken by a high-altitude U-2 spy plane offered incontrovertible evidence that Soviet-made medium-range missiles in Cuba--capable of carrying nuclear warheads--were now stationed 90 miles off the American coastline.
Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union over Cuba had been steadily increasing since the failed April 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, in which Cuban refugees, armed and trained by the United States, landed in Cuba and attempted to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. Though the invasion did not succeed, Castro was convinced that the United States would try again, and set out to get more military assistance from the Soviet Union. During the next year, the number of Soviet advisors in Cuba rose to more than 20,000. Rumors began that Russia was also moving missiles and strategic bombers onto the island.
Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev may have decided to so dramatically up the stakes in the Cold War for several reasons. He may have believed that the United States was indeed going to invade Cuba and provided the weapons as a deterrent. Facing criticism at home from more hard-line members of the Soviet communist hierarchy, he may have thought a tough stand might win him support. Khrushchev also had always resented that U.S. nuclear missiles were stationed near the Soviet Union (in Turkey, for example), and putting missiles in Cuba might have been his way of redressing the imbalance.
Two days after the pictures were taken, after being developed and analyzed by intelligence officers, they were presented to President Kennedy. During the next two weeks, the United States and the Soviet Union would come as close to nuclear war as they ever had, and a fearful world awaited the outcome.
1964 - Khrushchev ousted as premier of Soviet Union. Nikita Khrushchev is ousted as both premier of the Soviet Union and chief of the Communist Party after 10 years in power. He was succeeded as head of the Communist Party by his former protégé Leonid Brezhnev, who would eventually become the chief of state as well. The new Soviet leadership increased military aid to the North Vietnamese without trying to persuade them to attempt a negotiated end to hostilities. With this support and no external pressure to negotiate, the North Vietnamese leadership was free to carry on the war as they saw fit.
Also on this day, U.S. aircraft are permitted to fly with Laotian planes on operations against Communist movements along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. After considerable pressure from both Laos and the U.S. Air Force, the Pentagon authorized the Yankee Team jets to fly cover with the Laotian Air Force T-28s that were bombing the trails and installations used by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops making their way into Laos. The U.S. jets protected the Laotian planes from North Vietnamese MiGs attacks.
1968 - U.S. servicemen sent to Vietnam for second tours. U.S. Defense Department officials announce that the Army and Marines will be sending about 24,000 men back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours because of the length of the war, high turnover of personnel resulting from the one year of duty, and the tight supply of experienced soldiers. This decision had an extremely negative impact on troop morale and the combat readiness of U.S. forces elsewhere in the world as troops were transferred to meet the increased personnel requirements in Vietnam.
__________________ All warfare is based on deception. Sun Tzu - Art of war - Chapter One - Laying Plans
1066 Battle of Hastings, in which William the Conqueror wins England
Today's book:
The Battle of Hastings 1066 by M. K. Lawson
Book Review:
I found Lawson's book to be quite interesting and refreshing. Its a whole new look at Battle of Hasting. The author does this by reassessing all the sources of the battle including the Bayeux Tapestry, previous books written on the battle and by drawing his own conclusion based on what he have learned. In doing this, the author have determined that perhaps, the armies were larger then initially believed, Norman cavalry may not have play that much of a role in the battle and King Harold probably didn't died from an arrow in his eye. There are more of course but it would be easier if you read the book yourself.
The book rested basically on the author's own interpretation of the campaign but it appears to be well researched and well written material. The main source of the battle, the Bayeux Tapestry gets an indepth look and it may be that it didn't get all the facts right.
Interesting book, well recommended for anyone who got any interest in mediveal warfare or English history in general. For anyone out there who got a great interest in the battle itself, this would be a "must read" material.
1641 Paul de Chomedy de Maisonneuve claims Montreal
1655 Jews of Lublin are massacred
1690 A British fleet of 34 ships, carrying 3400 sailors and New England militia, drops anchor off Quebec in view of capturing the French town.
1793*Battle of Wattignies. French defeat Austrians forcing them to raise the siege of Maubeuge.
1815 Napoleon arrives at St. Helena
1861 Combat at Potosi/Big River Bridge, Mo
1863*The C.S.S. Hunley, the first successful submarine, sinks during a test run, killing its inventor and 7 crewmembers.
Horace Lawson Hunley developed the submarine from a cylinder boiler. It was operated by a crew of eight--one person steered while the other seven turned a crank that drove the ship's propeller. The Hunley could dive, but it required calm seas for safe operations. It was tested successfully in Alabama's Mobile Bay in the summer of 1863, and Confederate commander General Pierre G.T. Beauregard recognized that the vessel might be useful to ram Union ships and break the blockade of Charleston Harbor. The Hunley was placed on a railcar and shipped to South Carolina.
The submarine experienced problems upon its arrival. During a test run, a crewmember became tangled in part of the craft's machinery and the craft dove with its hatch open; only two men survived the accident. The ship was raised and repaired, but it was difficult to find another crew that was willing to assume the risk of operating the submarine. Its inventor and namesake stepped forward to restore confidence in his creation. On October 15, he took the submarine into Charleston Harbor for another test. In front of a crowd of spectators, the Hunley slipped below the surface and did not reappear. Horace Hunley and his entire crew perished.
Surprisingly, another willing crew was assembled and the Hunley went back into the water. On February 17, 1864, the ship headed out of Charleston Harbor and approached the U.S.S. Housatanic. The Hunley stuck a torpedo into the Yankee ship and then backed away before the explosion. The Housatanic sank in shallow water, and the Hunley became the first submarine to sink a ship in battle. Unfortunately, its first successful mission was also its last--the Hunley sank before it returned to Charleston, taking yet another crew down with it. The vessel was raised on August 8, 2000, and will now reside in an exhibit at the Charleston History Museum.
1877*Battle of Aladja Dagh. Russians defeat Turks during the Russian-Turkish War.
1914 Battle of Warsaw, begins (ends Oct 21)
1915 The first convoy of Canadian troops enters Portsmouth Harbour at dawn this morning. The men will soon be transported to Salisbury Plain for training and preparations to move to the Western Front.
1917 USS Cassin was torpedoed by German submarine U-61 off the coast of Ireland. In trying to save the ship, Gunner's Mate Osmond Kelly Ingram becomes first American sailor killed in World War I and later is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism. He became the first enlisted man to have a ship named for him, in 1919.
1928 German dirigible "Graf Zeppelin" lands in Lakehurst, NJ
1935 The German Army activates three panzer divisions.
1939 DKM Admiral Graf Spee took a break to meet Altmark for refueling
1940 Major General Commandant Thomas Holcomb issued orders to mobilize the Marine Reserve for WW II.
1941 German submarine U-553 begins onslaught against convoy SC 48, torpedoing and sinking British motorship Silvercedar at 53°36'N, 30°00'W, and Norwegian freighter Ila at 53°34'N, 30°10'W, before the U-boat is driven off by Canadian destroyer HMCS Columbia [ex-USS Haraden]. U-432, U-502, U-558 and U-568, followed by U-73, U-77, U-101 and U-751 converge on the convoy, and one of these boats, U-568, torpedoes and sinks British steamer Empire Heron at 54°55'N, 27°15'W, before being driven off by British corvette HMS Gladiolus. Consequently, TU 4.1.4, comprising four U.S. destroyers, is directed to proceed to SC 48's aid as the west-bound convoy it had been escorting, ON 24, is dispersed
1941 Tojo becomes Prime Minister of Japan
1942*25th Brigade, 7th Division, drive Japanese attackers back from Templeton's crossing, New Guinea.
1942 Submarine Base, Fremantle-Perth, Australia, is established.
1942 Patrol Wing 14 is established at San Diego, California, for operations in Western Sea Frontier.
1942 Heavy cruiser USS Portland bombards Japanese shipping and installations at Tarawa, Gilberts.
1942 Japanese heavy cruisers IJN Chokai and IJN Kinugasa bombard Henderson Field, covering the movement of six destroyers and eleven transports to Tassafaronga, Guadalcanal. Planes from Henderson Field, including USMC and Navy SBDs (VMSB 141, VB 6, other unidentified units), USAAF B-17s and P-39/P-400s, Navy F4Fs (VF 5), and USMC PBY (personal "flag" plane of Commanding General 1st Marine Aircraft Wing), conduct a succession of attacks upon Japanese supply convoy off Tassafaronga undamaged by VS 3's strike the previous day.
1942 USAAF B-17s damage transport Azumasan Maru which, along with merchant cargo ship Kyushu Maru, is run aground, where uncontrollable fires destroy both ships. Air attacks also sink Sasago Maru and damage destroyer IJN Samidare.
1942 Off San Cristobal, Solomons, destroyer USS Meredith takes on board the crew of tug Vireo at approach of planes from Japanese carriers IJN Shokaku and IJN Zuikaku. Before USS Meredith can scuttle the tug with a torpedo to prevent her from falling into enemy hands, however, the destroyer is overwhelmed and sunk in the ensuing air attack, by bombs and aerial torpedoes; Vireo and her tow (a gasoline barge), though, having been abandoned, drift off, untouched by the enemy. Some USS Meredith survivors reach safety on board the tug.
1942 Submarine USS Skipjack engages Japanese auxiliary Kifuku Maru at 04°36'N, 146°59'E. USS Skipjack's torpedoes miss; Kifuku Maru returns fire with her guns and escapes into a rain squall.
1942 Four Japanese ships beach, land reinforcements on Guadalcanal.
1943 U.S. freighter James Russell Lowell, in convoy GUS 18, is torpedoed by German submarine U-371 at 37°18'15"N, 07°10'30"E and abandoned. British whaler Southern Sea rescues the 41-man merchant complement and the 28-man Armed Guard. With hopes high for saving the ship, the merchant crew reboards the ship and Southern Sea takes James Russell Lowell in tow. As weather conditions worsen, all but the master and two men abandon ship once more
1943 Submarine USS Tullibee attacks 10-ship Japanese convoy, sinking transport Chicago Maru, 24°35'N, 120°30'E.
Atlantic
1943 Advanced Amphibious Training Base, Fowey, Cornwall, England, is established.
1943 Sir Andrew Cunningham is appointed First Sea Lord of the Admiralty
1944 Command designated Minecraft, Pacific Fleet is established; Rear Admiral Alexander Sharp breaks his flag in minelayer USS Terror.
1944 TG 30.3 (Rear Admiral Laurance T. DuBose) is formed to cover the retirement of the crippled heavy cruiser USS Canberra and light cruiser USS Houston; an augmented TG 38.1 (Vice Admiral John S. McCain) provides cover while TG 38.2 (Rear Admiral Gerald F. Bogan) and TG 38.3 (Rear Admiral Frederick C. Sherman) take up position to waylay Japanese fleet units that might try to attack the damaged ships. TG 38.4 (Rear Admiral Ralph E. Davison), meanwhile, attacks Japanese installations near Manila, drawing an enemy aerial response that damages carrier USS Franklin,16°29'N, 123°57'E.
1944 Sweep Unit arrives off Ngulu Atoll, Western Carolines. Light minelayer USS Montgomery destroys Japanese radio and weather station, and, accompanied by five motor minesweepers (YMS), enters the lagoon to begin minesweeping operations which will continue daily until 23 October.
1944 Special Air Task Force (STAG 1) operations continue in Southwest Pacific as four TDRs are launched against Matupi Bridge, as part of coordinated attack by other Green Island-based PBJs (VMB 423), F4Us (VMF 218 and VMF 222) and SBDs (VMSB 244 and VMSB 341) against Simpson Harbor Rabaul. Poor picture reception and pilot error results in none of the TDRs hitting theirtargets.
1944 USAAF P-38 sinks Japanese auxiliary sailing vessel No.5 Yamato Maru off Bochi archipelago, 01°10'N, 128°21'E.
1944 Dutch submarine Zwaardvisch sinks Japanese oceanographic research vessel No.2 Kaiyo Maru off Surabaya, Java, 06°30'S, 111°35'E.
1944 Minesweeping test is conducted in Bay de Ciotat, France, using blimp; the blimp proved very satisfactory, using loud hailer, VHF radio, and smoke flares to direct attention to mines.
1944 Peleliu secured; Japanese KIA c. 12,000, US over 1,200.
1944 Pro-Nazi coup in Hungary ousts Horthy government
1948 First women officers on active duty sworn in as commissioned officers in regular Navy under Women's Service Integration Act of June 1948 by Secretary of the Navy John L. Sullivan: CAPT Joy B. Hancock, USN; LCDR Winifred R. Quick, USN; LCDR Anne King, USN; LCDR Frances L. Willoughby, MC, USN; LT Ellen Ford, SC, USN; LT Doris Cranmore, MSC, USN; LTJG Doris A. Defenderfer, USN; and LTJG Betty Rae Tennant, USN.
1960 USS Patrick Henry begins successful firing of four Polaris test vehicles under operational rather than test conditions. Tests are completed on 18 October.
1964 Kosygin & Brezhnev replace Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev
1965 U.S. Naval Support Activity Danang Vietnam, established.
1966*Operation Attleboro continues in Tay Ninh Province. U.S. troops move into Tay Ninh Province near the Cambodian border, about 50 miles north of Saigon, and sweep the area in search of Viet Cong as part of Operation Attleboro, which had begun in September.
The purpose of this operation was to find and eliminate all enemy troops west of the Michelin rubber plantation. It was the largest U.S. operation to date and included elements of the U.S. 1st and 25th Infantry Divisions; the 196th Light Infantry Brigade; the 173rd Airborne Brigade; and at least two South Vietnamese army battalions. Engagements continued through the middle of November. At the height of the fighting, a record 20,000 Allied troops were committed. They were opposed by major elements of the 9th Viet Cong Division, one of the best-trained Communist formations. Communist resistance was strong because the Tay Ninh area contained the site of the principal Viet Cong command center for guerrilla operations in South Vietnam and the central office of the National Liberation Front. Operation Attleboro ended on November 25. By then, 2130 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops had been killed.
1983 US Marine sharpshooters kill 5 snipers at Beirut Intl Airport
The First World War (1): The Eastern Front 1914-1918 by Geoffrey Jukes
Book Description:
This book unravels the complicated and tragic events of the Eastern Front in the First World War. The author details Russia's sudden attack on German forces, despite her inadequate resources. A crushing defeat at Tannenberg was followed by Germany inflicting humiliation after humiliation on desperate Russian troops. For a while, those forces led by General Brusilov and facing Austria-Hungary fared better, but in the end this front too collapsed. Morale plummeted, the army began to disintegrate, and the Tsar was forced to abdicate - paving the way for the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917.
42 -BC-Tiberius Claudius Nero - "Tiberius", Roman Emperor (14-37)
1816 William Preston, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1887
1825 Thomas Turpin Crittenden, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1905
1832 George Crockett Strong, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1863
1886 David Ben Gurion, PM of Israel (1948-1953, 1955)
1905 Dmitri Shostakovitch, composer ("The Leningrad Symphony")
1908 Enver Hoxha, dictator of Albania (1944-85)
Died...
1323 Count Amadeo V the Great of Savoy, at 74
1793 Queen Marie Antoinette of France, beheaded
1946 Alfred Rosenberg, Nazi war criminal, hanged
1946 Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Nazi war criminal, hanged at 54
1946 Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Nazi war criminal, hanged
1946 Fritz Sauckel, Nazi war criminal, hanged
1946 Hans Franc, Nazi war criminal, hanged
1946 Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi war criminal, hanged
1946 Julius Streicher, Nazi war criminal, hanged
1946 Wilhelm Frick, Nazi war criminal, hanged
1946 Wilhelm Keitel, Nazi war criminal, hanged
1951 Liaquat Ali Khan, PM of Pakistan, assassinated by Said Akbar
1959 George C Marshall, soldiers & statesman, Nobelist (1953), at 78
1981 Moshe Dayan, Israeli general and Minister of Defense, at 66
Event...
1311 The Council of Vienne was convened, called by Clement V. During its three sessions, the council suppressed the Knights Templars (the principal military-religious order of the Middle Ages).
1690 The commander of the British forces beseiging Quebec sends a delegation to meet with Frontenac and demand the town's surrender. Frontenac announces that his reply will come "from the mouths of my cannon and muskets."
1710 British troops capture Port Royal, Nova Scotia
1775 Portland, Maine, burned by British
1781 Washington takes Yorktown
1808 King Joachim Murat of Naples seizes Capri from King Ferdinand IV of Naples
1813 Battle at Leipzig: Napoleon loses to Prussia, Austria, and Russia
1820 LtCol Anthony Gale, 4th Commandant of the Marine Corps, was found guilty during a general court martial and was dismissed from the Marine Corps.
1834 "Second" Great Fire of London burns much of the city, including Parliament
1859 John Brown (abolishionist) led a 20 man raid and successfully captured the Federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Va
1861 Skirmish at Bolivar Heights, WVa
1861 Skirmish at Warsaw, Mo
1863 U.S. Grant is named commander of Union forces in the West
1885 Capt Alfred Thayer Mahan becomes Superintendent of the Naval War College
1891 Valparaiso, Chile: Riot between US sailors and local citizens
1925 Locarno Pact, European nations agree to accept boundaries as they are
1926 Chinese troop ship sinks in Yangtze River, 1,200 die
1926 Mohammed Nadir Khan begins coup in Afghanistan, 1,200 killed
1939 German tanker Emmy Friedrich, whose known cargo included refrigerants needed for the magazine cooling systems in armored ship DKM Admiral Graf Spee, then on a raiding foray into the Atlantic, departs Tampico, Mexico. Neutrality Patrol assets, including carrier USS Ranger and heavy cruiser USS San Francisco, are mobilized to locate and trail the ship if the need arises.
1939 U.S. freighter Gateway City is detained by British authorities; freighter Black Heron, detained by the British at Weymouth, England, since 7 October, is released.
1940 First WW II draft lottery; #158 drawn first. Sixteen million men were registered for the draft under Selective Training and Service Act.
1940 Fifth group of ships involved in the destroyers-for- bases agreement--Twiggs (DD-127), Philip (DD-76), Evans (DD-78), Wickes (DD-75), McCalla (DD-253), Rodgers (DD-170), Conner (DD-72), Conway (DD-70), Stockton (DD-73) and Yarnall (DD-143)--arrive at Halifax, Nova Scotia.
1940 First black American promoted to general: Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr.
1940 Warsaw Ghetto established
1941 Germany advanced to within 60 miles (96 K) of Moscow
1941 Battle to protect convoy SC 48 continues. German submarines U-502 and U-568 reestablish contact before retiring upon arrival of TU 4.1.4. Destroyer USS Livermore sweeps ahead of the convoy, depth-charges U-553; destroyer USS Kearny, sweeping astern, drops charges to discourage tracking submarines. Later, U-502 and U-568, augmented by U-432, U-553, and U-558 renew attack upon SC 48. The U-boats commence a determined assault on SC 48 during the night of 16-17 October.
1941 Destroyer USS Charles F. Hughes, while escorting convoy HX 154, rescues the only seven survivors of British freighter Hatasu (torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-431 on 2 October, 600 miles east of Cape Race), at 51°56'N, 35°58'W.
1941 Destroyers USS Peary and USS Pillsbury are damaged in collision during night exercises in Manila Bay, P.I.
1942 Japanese surface force, with heavy cruisers IJN Maya and IJN Myoko, and Rear Admiral Tanaka Raizo, with light cruiser IJN Isuzu and seven destroyers shelled Henderson Field.
1942 TF 17, formed around carrier USS Hornet, strikes Japanese troops on Guadalcanal, and seaplane base at Rekata Bay, Santa Isabel, Solomons.
1942 Seaplane tender (destroyer) USS McFarland is damaged by Japanese dive bombers, Lunga Roads, Guadalcanal, 09°24'S, 160°02'E.
1942 After attacks by PBYs fail, USAAF B-26s (11th Air Force) sink Japanese destroyer IJN Oboro about 20 miles northeast of Sirius Point, Kiska, 52°17'N, 178°08'E, and damage destroyer IJN Hatsuharu.
1942 Submarine USS Thresher mines the approaches to Bangkok, Thailand, in the first U.S. Navy submarine mine plant of World War II.
1942 U.S. freighter Winona, in convoy bound for Rio de Janeiro, is torpedoed by German submarine U-160 at 11°00'N, 61°10'W; and veers out of line, grazing the stern of steamship Austvangen. One merchant seaman and two Armed Guard sailors suffer injuries in the attack, but there are no fatalities among the 42-man crew or 15-man Armed Guard.
1942 USAAF sinks a Japanese destroyer near Kiska, off Alaska.
1943 USAAF B-24 sinks Japanese auxiliary submarine chaser Cha 31 off Cape Lambert, New Britain, 04°00'N, 145°45'E.
1943 Submarine USS Mingo attacks Japanese escort carrier IJN Chuyo north-northwest of Truk, 11°02'N, 151°21'E. Although USS Mingo claims two damaging hits, the carrier emerges from the encounter unscathed; destroyer IJN Hatsukaze depth charges USS Mingo but does not damage her.
1943 American-built destroyer escorts transferred under Lend-Lease to Great Britain (HMS Byard, HMS Bentinck, HMS Berry, HMS Drury, and HMS Bazely) enter combat for the first time as escorts for convoy ONS 20. HMS Byard will sink U-841 on the next day. The British classify the ships as "frigates."
1943 U.S. freighter James Russell Lowell, torpedoed by German submarine U-371 the day before, is beached off Colla, Algeria, by British tug. The ship breaks in twain and sinks two weeks later, a total loss.
1943 US Navy accepts its first helicopter, a Sikorsky YR-4B (HNS-1) at Bridgeport, Connecticut.
1943 Anti-Jewish riot in Rome
1943 New Guinea: the Japanese begin major counterattacks at Finschhafen
1943 Philippines "independent under temporary Japanese supervision."
1944 Japanese torpedo planes attack TG 30.3 and again damage light cruiser USS Houston, 20°54'N, 125°09'E.
1944 Destroyer USS Ellet, together with surveying ship USS Bowditch, two infantry landing craft (gunboat) and a submarine chaser arrive at Ngulu Atoll, western Carolines, and encounter no opposition.
1944 TF 38 planes sink Japanese torpedo boat Hato, 130 miles east-southeast of Hong Kong, 21°49'N, 115°50'E, and damage auxiliary vessel Santos Maru.
1944 Submarine USS Besugo damages Japanese destroyer IJN Suzutsuki off Toizaki, 32°30'N, 132°36'E.
1944 Submarine USS Tilefish sinks Japanese guardboat No.2 Kyowa Maru five miles north of Matsuwa Jima, 48°07'N, 153°04'E.
1944 Auxiliary minesweeper No.6 Hakata Maru is sunk by U.S. aircraft (perhaps PB4Y) off Minami Daito Jima, 25°30'N, 131°00'E.
1944 USAAF aircraft (14th Air Force) sink Japanese cargo vessel Tensho Maru. They also damage auxiliary vessel Santos Maru and cargo ships Sagamigawa Maru, No.5 Okinoyama Maru, and No.3 Akatsuki Maru; and destroy army cargo vessel (in drydock at Kowloon) Bunzan Maru.
1944 USAAF P-38s sink Japanese auxilliary sailing vessel No.6 Take Maru off Cagayan, Sulu Archipalego.
1944 RAAF Beaufighters sink Japanese Communications Vessel No.135 off Ambon harbor.
1944 Coast Guard icebreaker USCG Eastwind, supported by sistership USCG Southwind, captures German weather ship Externsteine off Cape Borgen, Shannon Island, east coast of Greenland. USCG Eastwind's crew unofficially christens the captured auxiliary "Eastbreeze." Both icebreakers, however, are damaged by pack ice in the doing.
1946 Ten Nazi leaders hanged as war criminals after the Nuremberg trials
1953 Batista regime sentences Fidel Castro sentenced to 15 years for rebellion
1957: USMC "Choppers" evacuated flood victims in Valencia, Spain.
1962 Missile Crisis: JFK learns of Soviet missiles in Cuba
1964 China becomes world's fifth nuclear power
1970 The Canadian government invokes the War Measures Act today in response to terrorist acts by members of the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ).
1973 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Henry A Kissinger & Le Duc Tho
1978 Polish Resistance worker Karol Wojtyla elected pope as John Paul II
1982 Geo. Shultz warns US will withdraw from UN if they vote to exclude Israel
1900 New South Welshmen in action at Lake Chrissie, South Africa.
1945 Birth of 2RAR (re-established February 1, 1995).
1967 Royal Australian Navy Helicopters deploy to Vietnam. An RAN Helicopter Flight Vietnam (RANHFV '67) joins the US Army's 135th Aviation Company at Vung Tau, supporting American troops in South Vietnam.
By Cap. Teancum:
1187 - Guy de Lusignan, last Christian King of Jerusalem, surrendered city to Saladin.
1529 - After three weeks of hard fighting, Turks raise the siege of Vienna.
1934 - The Long March. The embattled Chinese Communists break through Nationalist enemy lines and begin an epic flight from their encircled headquarters in southwest China. Known as Ch'ang Cheng--the "Long March"--the retreat lasted 368 days and covered 6,000 miles, nearly twice the distance from New York to San Francisco.
Civil war in China between the Nationalists and the Communists broke out in 1927. In 1931, Communist leader Mao Zedong was elected chairman of the newly established Soviet Republic of China, based in Kiangsi province in the southwest. Between 1930 and 1934, the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek launched a series of five encirclement campaigns against the Soviet Republic. Under the leadership of Mao, the Communists employed guerrilla tactics to resist successfully the first four campaigns, but in the fifth, Chiang raised 700,000 troops and built fortifications around the Communist positions. Hundreds of thousands of peasants were killed or died of starvation in the siege, and Mao was removed as chairman by the Communist Central Committee. The new Communist leadership employed more conventional warfare tactics, and its Red Army was decimated.
With defeat imminent, the Communists decided to break out of the encirclement at its weakest points. The Long March began at 5:00 p.m. on October 16, 1934. Secrecy and rear-guard actions confused the Nationalists, and it was several weeks before they realized that the main body of the Red Army had fled. The retreating force initially consisted of 86,000 troops, 15,000 personnel, and 35 women. Weapons and supplies were borne on men's backs or in horse-drawn carts, and the line of marchers stretched for 50 miles. The Communists generally marched at night, and when the enemy was not near, a long column of torches could be seen snaking over valleys and hills into the distance.
The first disaster came in November, when Nationalist forces blocked the Communists' route across the Hsiang River. It took a week for the Communists to break through the fortifications and cost them 50,000 men--more than half their number. After that debacle, Mao steadily regained his influence, and in January he was again made chairman during a meeting of the party leaders in the captured city of Tsuni. Mao changed strategy, breaking his force into several columns that would take varying paths to confuse the enemy. There would be no more direct assaults on enemy positions. And the destination would now be Shensi Province, in the far northwest, where the Communists hoped to fight the Japanese invaders and earn the respect of China's masses.
After enduring starvation, aerial bombardment, and almost daily skirmishes with Nationalist forces, Mao halted his columns at the foot of the Great Wall of China on October 20, 1935. Waiting for them were five machine-gun- and red-flag-bearing horsemen. "Welcome, Chairman Mao," one said. "We represent the Provincial Soviet of Northern Shensi. We have been waiting for you anxiously. All that we have is at your disposal!" The Long March was over.
The Communist marchers crossed 24 rivers and 18 mountain ranges, mostly snow-capped. Only 4,000 troops completed the journey. The majority of those who did not perished. It was the longest continuous march in the history of warfare and marked the emergence of Mao Zedong as the undisputed leader of the Chinese Communists. Learning of the Communists' heroism and determination in the Long March, thousands of young Chinese traveled to Shensi to enlist in Mao's Red Army. After fighting the Japanese for a decade, the Chinese Civil War resumed in 1945. Four years later, the Nationalists were defeated, and Mao proclaimed the People's Republic of China. He served as chairman until his death in 1976.
1949 - Communists defeated in Greek Civil War.
1968 - Bombing halt discussed. In a series of meetings with U.S. Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu insists that North Vietnam assent to three conditions prior to a bombing halt. He said the North Vietnamese had to (1) agree to respect the neutrality of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), (2) stop shelling South Vietnamese cities and towns, and (3) agree to South Vietnamese participation in the Paris talks. He also demanded that the National Liberation Front, the Communist political organization in South Vietnam, be excluded from the negotiations. Thieu seemed to soften during his discussions with Bunker: on October 22, he announced that he would not oppose a bombing halt.
1991 - Handguns in Texas. On a Wednesday afternoon in Killeen, Texas, George Jo Hennard drives his pickup truck through the plate-glass window of Luby's Cafeteria and begins firing indiscriminately into the crowded restaurant with a semi-automatic pistol. The deranged Hennard killed 22 people and wounded 20, one fatally, before turning the gun on himself.
Present in the restaurant was Suzanna Gratia, who narrowly escaped being shot but whose mother and father were killed. Gratia had her own gun with her that day but had left it locked in her car as required by Texas state law. After recovering from the tragedy, Gratia became a fierce advocate of the right to carry concealed handguns in public places and led a popular movement that resulted in the approval of the Texas Concealed Handgun License Act in 1995. In 1996, she was elected to the Texas House of Representatives as Suzanna Gratia-Hupp and continued to be a vocal proponent of the right to bear arms.
__________________ All warfare is based on deception. Sun Tzu - Art of war - Chapter One - Laying Plans
1813 Battle at Leipzig: Napoleon loses to Prussia, Austria, and Russia
Today's book:
Leipzig 1813: The Battle of the Nations by Peter Hofschroer
Book Description:
The battle of Leipzig was, in terms of the number of combatants involved, the largest engagement of the entire Napoleonic Wars. It was the only engagement in which all Allied armies (including even the Swedes) fielded troops against Napoleon. Peter Hofschroer looks at the numerous battles leading up to Leipzig as well as the battle itself, providing a fascinating and illuminating overview of the whole campaign. A wealth of background information is chronicled, including the strategies of both sides and detailed information on each of the combatant forces.
1734 Count Grigori Orlov, inept favorite commander of Catharine the Great
1926 Karl G Henize, Astronaut (STS 51F)
1933 William A Anders, Maj Gen, USAF/Astronaut (Apollo 8)
1956 Mae C Jemison, Astronaut (STS 47)
Died...
1312 Duke Jan II of Brabant and Limburg
1586 Sir Philip Sidney, of wounds while fighting for Dutch independence
1605 Akbar, First Moghul Emperor India (1566-1605), at 62
1702 Count Walraad the Old of Nassau-Usingen
1806 Emperor Jean Jacques Dessalines of Haiti
1910 Julia Ward Howe, lyricist ("Battle Hymn of Republic"), at 91
1920 Gerard Leman, Belgian general, defender of Liege. 1914
Event...
1483 Pope Sixtus IV launched the Spanish Inquisition, placing it under joint direction of the Church and state. Tomas de Torquemada, 63, was appointed Grand Inquisitor in charge of removing Jews and Muslims from Spain.
1651 Battle of Worcester, King Charles II, defeated, tries to flee to France
1690 Part of the English force besieging Quebec attempts to land on the Beauport Flats, just north of the town. The landing is hampered by foul weather and the fire of a small militia party, which force the invaders to withdraw.
1691 New royal charter for Massachusetts, now including Maine, Plymouth
1775 The garrison of 80 British regulars at Fort Chambly surrenders to a beseiging American force of 150 rebels supported by 300 Canadiens. Much needed ammunition and other supplies fall into American hands: 227 barrels of provisions, 127 barrels of powder, and numerous muskets and cannon.
1777 British General John Burgoyne surrenders in defeat at Saratoga
1781 British General Lord Cornwallis surrenders in defeat at Yorktown
1814 Marines and Sailors landed on Grand Terre Island, Louisiana, to punish pirates.
1815 Napoleon arrives at St Helena
1861 Skirmishing begins, vicinity Frederickstown/Ironton, Mo (to 21st)
1862 Battles of Leetown & Thoroughfare Gap, VA
1871 President US Grant suspends writ of habeas corpus
1894 Ohio National Guard kills 3 while rescuing a black man from a lynch mob
1912 First Balkan War: Bulgaria, Greece , Serbia exchange declarations with Turkey
1916 USS Arizona commissioned at the Brooklyn Navy Yard
1917 British bomb Germany for the first time
1918 Yugoslavia proclaims itself a republic
1922 LCDR Virgil C. Griffin in Vought VE-7SF makes first takeoff from U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, USS Langley anchored in York River, Virginia.
1933 Albert Einstein arrives in US, a refugee from Nazi Germany
1941 U-568 torpedoes and damages USS Kearny near Iceland, resulting in 11 killed and 22 injured.
1942 Heavy fighting on the Kokoda Trail, at Eorea Creek, in Papua.
1943 9th Australian Div beats off Japanese at Finschhafen
1943 Japanese sub I-36 scouts Pearl Harbor with a reconnaissance plane.
1943 Japanese sub I-37 scouts Kilindini, East Africa, with a small plane.
1943 Sub USS Tarpon sinks the German raider Michel in the Bonin Islands.
1944 Naval Forces land Army rangers on islands at the entrance to Leyte Gulf in preparation for landings.
1945 Juan Peron becomes dictator of Argentina
1961 NASA civilian pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 to 33,100 m
1967 Pete Knight in X-15 reaches 85 km altitude
1975 1st Space Shuttle main engine test at Natl Space Tech Labs, Miss
1977 West German commandos storm hijacked Lufthansa in Mogadishu, Somalia freeing all 86 hostages & killing 3 of the 4 hijackers
1978 Congress restores Jefferson Davis' rights as an American citizen
1989 Following San Francisco earthquake, 24 US Navy and Military Sealift Command ships rendered assistance. 67 killed.
By Avalon:
Australian
1942 Heavy fighting between Australians and Japanese on the Kokoda Track near Eora Creek.
1950 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment in action at Sariwon, Korea. In a bold bluff, the battalion's second-in-command, Major Ferguson, convinces at least 1,500 North Korean soldiers to surrender at Sariwon during confused fighting.
By Cap. Teancum:
1244 - Battle of La Forbie. Only battle of the sixth crusade, Frankish Christians cut down by Egyptians.
1346 - Battle of Neville's Cross. David II of Scotland defeated by English. David was captured and held for ten years while his ransom was paid in installments.
1492 - Columbus sights the isle of San Salvador.
1864 - Longstreet returns to command. Confederate General James Longstreet assumes command of his corps in Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness in May, Longstreet missed the campaign for Richmond and spent five months recovering before retuning to his command.
Longstreet was one of the most effective corps commanders in the war. He became a brigadier general before the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861, and he quickly rose through the ranks of the Army of Northern Virginia. He became a divisional commander, and his leadership during the Seven Days' Battles and the Second Battle of Bull Run earned him the respect of the army's commander, General Robert E. Lee, who gave him command of a corps just before the Battle of Antietam in September 1862.
His leadership at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg sealed his reputation as a brilliant corps leader, but Longstreet was less successful when given an independent command. In spring 1863, he led a force in northern North Carolina and southern Virginia, and he made an expedition to relieve Confederate forces in Tennessee in fall 1863. He enjoyed little success in either situation.
The Union Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan River in early May 1864 for another attempt at capturing the Confederate capital at Richmond. At the Battle of the Wilderness on May 6, Longstreet was shot by his own troops while scouting the lines during the battle. Ironically, it was just a few miles from the spot where Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson had been mortally wounded by his men just one year earlier. Longstreet was hit in the neck and shoulder, and he nearly died. He was incapacitated for the rest of the campaign and did not rejoin his corps until it was mired in the siege of Petersburg, Virginia, in October 1864.
After the war, Longstreet worked at a variety of government posts, including U.S. minister to Turkey. He broke with his fellow Confederates by joining the Republican Party, and he dared to criticize some of Lee's tactical decisions. Though he was reviled by many of his fellow generals for this later behavior, he outlived most of his detractors. He died in Gainesville, Georgia, at the age of 82 in 1904.
1941 - Konoye government falls. On this day in 1941, the government of Prince Fumimaro Konoye, prime minister of Japan, collapses, leaving little hope for peace in the Pacific.
Konoye, a lawyer by training and well studied in Western philosophy, literature, and economics, entered the Japanese Parliament's upper house by virtue of his princely status and immediately pursued a program of reform. High on his agenda was a reform of the army general staff in order to prevent its direct interference in foreign policy decisions. He also sought an increase in parliamentary power. An antifascist, Konoye championed an end to the militarism of Japanese political structures, especially in light of the war in Manchuria, which began in 1931.
Appointed prime minister in 1933, Konoye's first cabinet fell after full-blown war broke out between Japan and China. In 1940, Konoye was asked to form a second cabinet. But as he sought to contain the war with China, relations with the United States deteriorated, to the point where Japan was virtually surrounded by a U.S. military presence and threats of sanctions. On August 27, 1941, Konoye requested a summit with President Roosevelt
in order to diminish heightening tensions. Envoys were exchanged, but no direct meeting with the president took place. (The U.S. government believed it could send the wrong message to China-and that Japan was on the losing end of that war anyway.)
In October, Konoye resigned because of increasing tension with his army minister, Tojo Hideki. Tojo succeeded Konoye as prime minister, holding on to his offices of army minister and war minister. Imperial Japan's foreign policy was now formally controlled by the military. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Konoye was put under military surveillance, his political career all but over until 1945, when the emperor considered sending him to Moscow to negotiate peace terms. That meeting never came off.
When Saipan fell to the U.S. Marines and Army, Tojo's government collapsed. Upon Japan's surrender, Tojo shot himself to prevent being taken prisoner by the United States. He lived and was tried by an international war-crimes tribunal--and hanged on December 22, 1948. As for Konoye, the grand irony of his career came when he was served with an arrest warrant by the U.S. occupying force for suspicion of war crimes. Rather than submit to arrest, he committed suicide by drinking poison.
1961 - Algerians massacred in Paris. Paris police massacre more than 200 Algerians marching in the city in support of peace talks to end their country's war of independence against France.
Tensions were running high in Paris at the time, with Algerian terrorists setting off bombs in the French capital and randomly killing Paris policemen. In response, Paris police chief Maurice Papon ordered a crackdown on Paris' Algerian community, explaining to his officers that they would be protected against any charges of excessive violence. Police searched the Algerian ghettos for terrorists, killing a number of innocent Algerians before turning their guns on a group of 30,000 protesters who defied a curfew and gathered near the Seine River on the night of October 17. The next day, the police released an official death toll of three dead and 67 wounded, a figure generally disregarded by witnesses who observed bodies littering the area and floating in the Seine.
In 1981, it was revealed that Maurice Papon had collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation of France, and he was forced to resign his three-year-old position as budget minister in the cabinet. Papon, a former official in France's Vichy regime, was suspected of aiding in the deportation of hundreds of French Jews to the Nazi death camps. After avoiding a trial for 17 years, Papon was found guilty of ''complicity in crimes against humanity'' in 1998 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. During his trial, documents about the 1961 massacre in Paris surfaced, acknowledging that Papon's policemen had killed many more Algerians than previously admitted.
1966 - President Johnson goes to Asia. President Johnson leaves Washington for a 17-day trip to seven Asian and Pacific nations and a conference scheduled in Manila.
En route to Manila, Johnson visited New Zealand and Australia; in Melbourne, antiwar demonstrators heckled him. In Manila, he met with other Allied leaders who had forces in South Vietnam and they pledged to withdraw their troops within six months if North Vietnam "withdraws its forces to the North and ceases infiltration of South Vietnam." A communiqué signed by the seven participants (the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, South Vietnam, Thailand, and the United States) included a four-point "Declaration of Peace" that stressed the need for a "peaceful settlement of the war in Vietnam and for future peace and progress" in the rest of Asia and the Pacific. When the conference concluded on October 26, Johnson flew to South Vietnam for a surprise two-and-a-half hour visit with U.S. troops at Cam Ranh Bay.
1986 - U.S. aid to Contras signed into law. In a short-lived victory for the Nicaraguan policy of the Reagan administration, the President signs into law an act of Congress approving $100 million of military and "humanitarian" aid for the Contras. Unfortunately for Ronald Reagan and his advisors, the Iran-Contra scandal is just about to break wide open, seriously compromising their goal of overthrowing the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua.
Congress, and a majority of the American public, had not been supportive of the Reagan administration's efforts to topple the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Reagan began a "secret war" to bring down the Nicaraguan government soon after taking office in 1981. Millions of dollars, training, and arms were funneled to the Contras (an armed force of Nicaraguan exiles intent on removing the leftist Nicaraguan regime) through the CIA. American involvement in the Contra movement soon became public, however, as did disturbing reports about the behavior of the Contra force. Charges were leveled in newspapers and in Congress that the Contras were little more than murderers and drug runners; rumors of corruption and payoffs were common. Congress steadily reduced U.S. assistance to the Contras, and in 1984 passed the second Boland Amendment prohibiting U.S. agencies from giving any aid to the group. Even before this action, however, the Reagan administration had been covertly subverting any attempts to limit the Contra war through extra-legal and illegal means (one result being the Iran-Contra scandal).
Even with this illegal aid the Contra effort stalled by late 1985. Reagan went on a full pressure media campaign to convince the American people and Congress that the Contras were worthy of assistance. Reagan claimed that the Sandinista government was a satellite of the Soviet Union, that Nicaragua was instigating revolution in neighboring Central American nations, and that the Contras were merely to be used as a "shield" against any possible Sandinista encroachments in the region. He was able to convince Congress to provide $100 million of aid, some of it designated as "humanitarian" assistance to the hungry and sick Contras and their supporters. However, news sources began to break the story about the Iran-Contra scandal only a short time later. Congress began an investigation into the Reagan administration's clandestine and illegal support of the Contras during the years prior to the passage of the $100 million aid package. The investigation uncovered a scheme whereby some of the funds from illegal U.S. arms sales to Iran were funneled to the Contras. The Contra war effort staggered on, creating death and destruction in the Nicaraguan countryside and little else, until a peace plan put together by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias was finally accepted by the Sandinista government. In 1990, elections were held in Nicaragua, which resulted in the Sandinistas losing the presidency.
__________________ All warfare is based on deception. Sun Tzu - Art of war - Chapter One - Laying Plans
1244 - Battle of La Forbie. Only battle of the sixth crusade, Frankish Christians cut down by Egyptians.
Today's book:
Chronicles of the Crusades by Jean de Joinville, Geffroy de Villehardouin, Margaret R. B. Shaw (Translator)
Book Review:
The one feature that strikes me the most in reading the Chronicles of the Crusades is how terribly unfocused they were. Granted, the fourth and seventh Crusades were latecomers in the grand quest, but one wonders how much thought was really put into what they were doing.
Chronicles is a collection of two contemporary French accounts of the Crusades. The first, by Villehardouin, is entitled The Conquest of Constantinople, and it covers events in the fourth Crusade. It was a well-meaning venture that, while stopped in Venice to obtain transport ships, was sidetracked into attacking the Greek empire based in Constantinople. Villehardouin himself was a knight of some rank during this campaign. His style of writing is crisp and direct, and he refers to himself often in the third person as he relates the sieges, battles, and political machinations that make up the French and Venetian invasion. It's interesting to note how often he justifies their actions as following God's plan, and equally how often he dismisses as vile and un-Christian those actions of the crusaders who had other ideas about how to wage war. Case in point: a group of crusaders met not in Venice but elsewhere (many groups did this) and actually did travel to Syria to fight there. God, according to Villehardouin, cursed their unfaithfulness and caused them to fail. All hinges apparently on the quaint medieval notion that the Eastern Orthodox Church was, by being non-Catholic, also non-Christian. But in any case, off to Constantinople they went and had a grand time getting caught up in political battles left and right and undoubtedly weakening the non-Christian Greek Christians that much more before the Turks eventually came and took over. For storytelling I give Villehardouin high enough marks, but his political analysis needs some work.
The second account is Joinville's The Life of Saint Louis. Joinville is also a highly placed participant and aid to king Louis of France during the seventh Crusade. Unlike Villehardouin they do actually reach Saracen lands and fight there. Joinville is a much more personal account of things, involving actual conversations and a wide selection of individual actions by Joinville and Louis. He is also considerably less dogmatic in his evaluations of God's will, though he is nearly fanatical about the piousness of Louis. But even there he tells us accounts of his disagreements with his king and how they were resolved. Though his goal is clearly hagiography, he does present a much more personal account of their life on in the campaign than Villehardouin's earlier work. Joinville also continues the narrative back to France, with aspects of Louis's reign there given to us.
Both accounts present us with fairly clear and readable accounts of what might be otherwise forgettable events in history. Neither the fourth nor the seventh Crusades have the historical importance of the early ones but thanks to these participants they won't be lost to us, so pick up a copy and take a look at how the Crusaders handled themselves in the quest for honor, glory, piety, and adventure.
1239 Stefanus V, Prince of Transylvania, King of Hungary (1270-72)
1668 Count Wierich von Daun, Austrian Field Marshal, Prince of Teano
1668 Elector Johan Georg IV of Saxony (1691-94)
1806 John Breckinridge Grayson, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1861
1811 Hugh Thompson Reid, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1874
1818 Edward Otho Cresap Ord, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1883
1829 Charles Sidney Winder, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1862
1829 Lucius Marshall Walker, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1863
1831 Kaiser Frederik III von Hohenzollern of Germany (1888)
1919 Pierre Trudeau, PM of Canad PM (1968-1979, 1980-1984), d. 2000
1922 Little Orphan Annie
1930 Frank Carlucci, National Security Adviser, Sec of Defense (1987-89)
1931 John LeCarre, novelist ("The Spy Who Came in from the Cold")
1939 Lee Harvey Oswald, sometime Marine, JFK assassin, killed by Jack Ruby, 1963
Died...
1216 King John of England (1199-1216), signer of Magna Charta
1676 Nathaniel Bacon, Virginian rebel, killed at 29
1708 Henry of Nassau, Constable and Field Marshal of the Netherlands
1830 Peter I Petrovic Njegos, Prince-Bishop of Montenegro
1931 Thomas Alva Edison, inventor, at 84
Event...
1016 Danes defeat Saxons at Battle of Assandun (Ashingdon)
1469 Ferdinand of Aragon marries Isabella of Castile
1685 Louis XIV revoked the 1598 Edict of Nantes, which had permitted French Protestants limited religious tolerance. The Huguenot exodus which followed drained France's industrial economy, and possibly hastened the French Revolution.
1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, ends War of Austrian Succession
1767 The Mason-Dixon Line, between Maryland and Pennsylvania, agreed upon
1776 Col John Glover & the Marblehead Regiment fight the British in the Bronx
1790 Little Turtle begins attacks on Josiah Harmer's Army (See Oct 29)
1812 U.S. sloop of war USS Wasp captures brig HMS Frolic.
1859 Under orders of President James Buchanan, U.S. Marines reach Harper's Ferry, VA and under command of Robert E Lee assault the arsenal seized by abolishionist John Brown and 21 of his followers.
1862 Morgan's raiders capture Federal garrison at Lexington, KY
1863 Battle of Charlestown, WVa
1867 USS Ossippee and USS Resaca participate in formal transfer of Alaska from Russia ($7.2 million) to U.S. authority at Sitka and remain to enforce law and order in new territory.
1898 American flag raised in Puerto Rico
1900 A British flying column, aided by a detachment from the Royal Canadian Field Artillery, drives Boer rebels from their camp at Elizabeth Rust, in the Transvaal.
1908 Belgium annexes Congo Free State
1912 Italo-Turkish War ends
1912 Beginning of the 1st Balkan War
1915 Third Battle of the Isonzo begins (to Nov 4)
1918 Czechoslovakia declares Independence from Austro-Hungarian Empire
1918 Canadian troops enter the village of Pecquencourt where they are met by 2000 joyous citizens. It is the second day of the Pursuit to Mons, the great chase of the Canadian Corps against part of a collapsing German Army.
1925 French Gen Sarrail begins three day bombardment of Damascus
1934 Red Chinese begin the Long March
1939 Naval landing force from gunboats Ashville and Tulsa and destroyer USS Whipple is drawn from Kulangsu, China, where it had been protecting the American Consulate and the Hope Memorial Hospital since 17 May.
1939 US freighter West Hobomac was detained by British authorities.
1939 German armored ship DKM Admiral Graf Spee transfers crews of British freighters Newton Beech and Ashlea to tanker Altmark. The two German ships then part company for a time
1940 Coast Guard cutter USCG Campbell arrives at Lisbon, Portugal.
1940 Heavy cruiser USS Louisville arrives at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as she continues "showing the flag" in Latin American waters.
1941 PBY (VP 73) drops package containing blood plasma and transfusion gear for use in treating the wounded on board USS Kearny; USS Monssen retrieves the package but the gear becomes disengaged and sinks. PBM (VP 74) repeats the operation a few hours later; this time the drop is successful and USS Monssen retrieves the medical supplies intact. Destroyers USS Plunkett, USS Livermore and USS Decatur, meanwhile, make concerted depth charge attacks on sound contacts at 54°53'N, 33°08'W with no visible results. German submarines break off operations against SC 48.
1941 Russian spy Richard Sorge arrested in Tokyo
1942 Vice Admiral William F. Halsey Jr. relieves Vice Admiral Robert L. Ghormley as Commander South Pacific Area and South Pacific Force, on board auxiliary Argonne (AG-31) at Nouméa, New Caledonia.
1942 Submarine USS Grampus torpedoes Japanese light cruiser Yura, 07°47'S, 157°19'E, but her "fish" fails to explode.
1942 Submarine USS Greenling sinks Japanese transport Hakonesan Maru close inshore off northeast coast of Honshu, 38°46'N, 142°03'E.
1942 U.S. freighter Angelina, straggling from New York-bound convoy ON 137, is again torpedoed by German submarine U-618 at 49°39'N, 30°20'W, and abandoned; an "exceptionally heavy sea" claims 33 crewmen and 13 Armed Guards; British rescue ship Bury rescues six men(one of whom dies later) from a raft and three from a lifeboat. Only four merchant seamen and four Armed Guards thus survive the ship's loss.
1942 U.S. freighter Steel Navigator, also straggling from convoy ON 137, takes on 40° list as her sand ballast shifts; Armed Guard volunteers shovel ballast for 30 hours without relief (reducing the list to 12°) until financial bonus offered by ship's master induces reluctant merchant sailors to lend a hand in the arduous work.
1943 Light carrier USS Cowpens and destroyer USS Abbot are damaged in collision during maneuvers in Hawaiian Operating Area.
1943 Submarine USS Flying Fish attacks Yokosuka-bound Japanese escort carrier IJN Chuyo, 19°27'N, 145°20'E. Although USS Flying Fish claims one hit, the enemy flattop bears a charmed life, having survived an attack by USS Mingo on 16 October 1943 as well, and continues on to her destination on schedule.
1943 Submarine USS Lapon torpedoes and sinks Japanese merchant cargo ship Taichu Maru, 33°59'N, 136°24'E, and scores two "dud" hits on auxiliary minesweeper Keijin Maru.
1943 Submarine USS Silversides sinks Japanese army cargo ship Tairin Maru, 22'N, 143°23'E.
1944 TG 38.1 and TG 38.4 attack principal Japanese airfields near Manila and shipping in the harbor, sinking passenger-cargo ship Hoeisan Maru, 14°35'N, 120°50'E, and army cargo ship Urato Maru and merchant cargo ship Tempi Maru, 14°35'N, 120°55'E. Meanwhile, TG 38.2 pounds enemy shipping off northern Luzon, sinking auxiliary submarine chaser Cha 95, transports Taiho Maru and Hokurei Maru (damaged on 5 October by USS Cabrilla), and merchant cargo ships Hoten Maru, Terukuni Maru, and Tsingtao Maru off Camiguin, northern Luzon, 18°54'N, 121°51'E; cargo ship Shinko Maru near Babuyan Channel, 18°35'N, 121°40'E; and landing ships T.135 and T.136 and minelayer/netlayer Maeshima off northeastern Luzon, 17°46'N, 120°25'E. Cargo ship No.3 Taibi Maru may have also been lost in these attacks at this time.
1944 Rangers begin landing on outlying islands in Leyte Gulf.
1944 The first bombardment ships begin shelling Japanese installations on Leyte.
1944 Seventh Fleet aircraft, meanwhile, sink Japanese ships Daikoku Maru, No.2 Gokuku Mar, No.8 Nankai Maru, Rinkyu Maru, Yoto Maru, and Zuin Maru in the Cebu area.
1944 Submarine USS Bluegill sinks Japanese army cargo ships Arabia Maru and Chinzei Maru, and merchant cargo ship Hakushika Maru in South China Sea, west-southwest of Manila, 14°06'N, 119°40'E.
1944 Submarine USS Raton sinks Japanese army cargo ship Taikai Maru and army cargo ship Shiranesan Maru in South China Sea, southwest of Luzon, 12°37'N, 118°46'E.
1944 Special Air Task Force (STAG 1) operations continue in Southwest Pacific as three TDRs are launched against lighthouse on Cape St. George, New Ireland. None hit the target.
1944 Naval Advanced Base, La Havre, France, is established.
1944 Motor torpedo boat PT-558 is damaged in engagement with two German R-boats west of Portofino; while retiring to Leghorn, Italy, PT-561 is damaged by heavy seas. Tank landing ship LST-906 drags anchor and is damaged when driven ashore by heavy sea, Leghorn.
1944 Soviet troops invade Czechoslovakia during WW II
1962 US launches Ranger 5 for lunar impact; misses Moon
1967 Soviet Venera 4 becomes the 1st probe to send data back from Venus
1968 In Operation Sea Lords, the Navy's three major operating forces in Vietnam (TF 115, 116, and 117) are brought together for the first time to stop Vietcong infiltration deep into South Vietnam's Mekong Delta.
By Avalon:
Australian
1943 Strong attack by Japanese 20 Bde on Australian 9 Div at Scarlet Beach, New Guinea.
1944 HMAS Geelong sunk HMAS Geelong was one of four corvettes lost during the Second World War. It collided with an American merchant ship off New Guinea.
1950 3RAR, with American tanks in support, captures Samgapo, Korea.
1967 HMAS Perth struck by return fire near Cape Lai, Vietnam, while on the United States 7th Fleet 'gunline'. This was the only occasion on which an Australian warship suffered casualties from enemy fire during the Vietnam War.
By Cap. Teancum:
1759 - Battle of Campen. French defeat Prussians during the Seven Years' Way.
1812 - Russians drive French out of the city of Polotsk.
1812 - Battle of Winkova. French advance guard lost all their guns and equipment to Russian calvary during the retreat from Moscow.
1863 - General Sickles visits his troops. Union General Daniel Sickles returns to visit his old command, the Third Corps of the Army of the Potomac. He was recovering from the loss of his leg at Gettysburg, and the visit turned sour when the army's commander, General George Meade, informed Sickles that he would not be allowed to resume command until he completely recovered from his injury.
Sickles had a somewhat checkered past. As a Congressman in 1859, he killed his wife's lover across from the White House in Washington, D.C., but was acquitted when his lawyers employed a temporary insanity defense. He used his political leverage to secure a commission as a brigadier general when the war began, and his personal skills endeared him to his men. He rose quickly, and by early 1863 he was commander of the Third Corps.
At Gettysburg, Meade posted Sickles' troops at the left end of the Union line. The Army of the Potomac was arranged in a three-mile long, fishhook-shaped line on the top of Cemetery Ridge and Culp's Hill. On the morning of July 2, Sickles noticed that just in front of his position was a section of high ground. In his estimation, this rise could be used by the Confederates to shell the Union position. Sickles expressed confusion over his orders and three times Meade explained that Sickles was to hold the end of Cemetery Ridge. Sickles was unhappy with the explanation, failing to understand that Meade was fighting a defensive battle. He moved his corps forward anyway, and the move nearly cost the Union the battle. A furious Meade ordered Sickles to withdraw his troops, but the Confederates were already attacking. After heavy losses, the Third Corps moved back to Cemetery Ridge.
Despite his wound, Sickles hurried back to Washington to conduct damage control. One of his first visitors was President Lincoln. Sickles was one of the few Democrats who welcomed Lincoln to Washington in 1861, and Lincoln remembered that gesture. Sickles gave his account of the battle and justified his move. He even claimed that his action prevented Meade from retreating and therefore prevented a Union defeat. This began a war of words between Meade and Sickles that lasted the rest of their lives. When the reports on the battle were filed that fall, Sickles did not fare well. Many, such as General Gouverneur K. Warren and General-in-Chief Henry Halleck, blasted Sickles for his actions.
The hatred that Sickles developed for Meade after the Gettysburg incident peaked on October 18, when Meade made it clear that he had no intention of restoring Sickles to command. Sickles later testified in front of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War against Meade, but his own combat career was effectively over. He spent the next half-century defending his record, attacking Meade, and trying to shape the history of Gettysburg by continuing to promote his account of the battle before he died in 1914.
1955 - Emperor Bao Dai attempts to dismiss Diem. A communiqué from Emperor Bao Dai's office in Paris announces that he has dismissed Ngo Dinh Diem from the premiership and annulled his powers.
In a message to the Vietnamese people Bao Dai prophetically declared, "police methods and personal dictatorship must be brought to an end, and I can no longer continue to lend my name and my authority to a man who will drag you into ruin, famine and war." Unfortunately, Diem suppressed the message and it was never publicly transmitted to the people.
Bao Dai had appointed Diem prime minister in June 1954, but soon decided that he was the wrong man to lead South Vietnam. However, by late 1955, Diem was firmly entrenched, having retained control of the government through a questionable referendum. Emperor Bao Dai retired and remained in France. From the beginning, Communists and other rivals caused trouble for Diem's regime. His refusal to institute necessary political reforms and the rising unrest among the people, especially the Buddhists, eventually led to a coup in November 1963, in which he and his brother were murdered.
1968 - Stock market soars with rumors of bombing halt in Vietnam. Rumors that the Johnson administration will soon announce a bombing halt send sales volume on the New York Stock Exchange soaring; U.S. bond prices also climb. The rumors were true and on October 31, in a televised address to the nation, Johnson said that based on recent developments in the Paris peace negotiations, he had ordered a cessation of all bombing raids over North Vietnam.
__________________ All warfare is based on deception. Sun Tzu - Art of war - Chapter One - Laying Plans
Balkan Wars, 1912-1913 : Prelude to the First World War by Richard Hall
Book Description:
Richard Hall examines the origins, the enactment and the resolution of the Balkan Wars, during which the Ottoman Empire fought a Balkan coalition of Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia, that collapsed in 1913. Based on archival as well as published diplomatic and military sources, this book provides the first comprehensive perspective on the diplomatic and military aspects of the Balkan Wars. It demonstrates that, because of the diplomatic problems raised and the military strategies and tactics pursued to resolve those problems, the Balkan Wars were the first phase of the greater and wider conflict of the First World War.
__________________ All warfare is based on deception. Sun Tzu - Art of war - Chapter One - Laying Plans
1810 Cassius Marcellus Clay, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1903
1824 Rufus Saxton, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1908
1834 Francis C. Barlow, Mar Gen, U.S., d. 1896
1859 Alfred Dreyfus, Maj., French Army
1901 Adm. Arliegh "31 Knot" Burke, destroyerman, CNO, d. 1996
1934 Jakubu Gowon, military dictator of Nigeria (1966-75)
Died...
1813 Marshal of France Josef Poniatowski, drowns at Leipzig
1863 John Tommy, MW at Gettysburg; the first Chinese-American to die for the US
1921 Antonio Granjo, Premier of Portugal, murdered
1983 Maurice Bishop, PM of Grenada & others murdered in coup
Event...
1298 140 Jews of Heilbron Germany are murdered
1466 Second Peace of Thorn
1765 Stamp Act: Congress met in NY, wrote Declarationl of Rights & Liberties
1780 British regulars and Loyalist troops defeat an American detachment of 360 men at Stone Arabia (on the Mohawk River, northern N.Y.). About 100 Americans are killed in the engagement, for 1 dead regular and some wounded troopers in the Loyalists ranks.
1781 Cornwallis surrender at Yorktown takes effect at 2 PM; Revolutionary War ends
1800 US Marines & Navy participated in paying of tribute to Dey of Algiers. (Extortion for Barbary Pirates to leave American vessels unmolested)
1812 Napoleon begins his retreat from Moscow
1818 US & Chicasaw Indians sign a treaty
1843 Captain Robert Stockton in USS Princeton, the first screw propelled naval steamer, challenges British merchant ship Great Western to a race off New York, which USS Princeton won easily. A testiment to the engineering genius of John Eriksson.
1861 Skirmish at Big Hurricane Creek, Mo
1862 Bertram T. Clayton, Brooklyn's most famous cavalryman, born in Alabama
1863 Battle of Buckland Mills, VA
1864 Battle of Cedar Creek: Phil Sheridan defeats Jubal Early
1864 Approximately 25 Confederate raiders made surprise attack on St Albans, Vermont
1879 William Tecumseh Sherman says, "War is hell"
1888 Jewish settlement of Moshav Gederah is attacked by Arabs
1901 Santos-Dumont proved airship maneuverable by circling Eiffel Tower
1912 Tripoli passes from Turkish to Italian control
1915 Russia and Italy declare war on Bulgaria
1915 The U.S. submarine base at New London, Connecticut, is established.
1918 Canadian troops enter the town of Denain, where they are welcomed as liberators by cheering crowds who fill the streets and embrace the men.
1919 1st US Distinguished Service Medal awarded to a woman
1926 Russian Politburo expels Trotsky & followers
1935 Red Chinese "Long March" ends (began Oct 21, 1934)
1939 VP 21 (PBYs), assigned to the Asiatic Fleet to provide aerial reconnaissance capability to safeguard the neutrality of the Philippines, departs Pearl Harbor for Manila, P.I. The squadron will fly via Midway, Wake, and Guam. Seaplane tender (destroyer) USS Childs will provide support at Wake, the least developed place on the movement westward.
1939 U.S. freighter Black Hawk is detained by British authorities; freighter Black Eagle, detained by the British since 12 September at the Downs, is released.
1940 Light cruiser USS St. Louis, with Greenslade Board embarked, departs Guantanamo Bay for San Juan, Puerto Rico
1941 Destroyer USS Charles F. Hughes and USS Gleaves, while screening convoy HX 154, depth-charge suspicious contacts at 59°58'N, 23°15'W, and 60°00'N, 23°20'W, and 59°57'N, 22°41'W.
1941 Unarmed U.S. freighter Lehigh is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-126 about 75 miles off Freetown, Sierre Leone, 08°26'N, 14°37'W. While there are no fatalities, four men are slightly injured.
1942 Small reconnaissance seaplane from Japanese submarine I-19 reconnoiters Nouméa, New Caledonia.
1942 Destroyer USS O'Brien, damaged by submarine torpedo on 15 September
1942, breaks in two and sinks en route to United States for repairs, 53 miles north-northwest of Tutuila, Samoa, 13°30'S, 171°18'E.
1942 Submarine USS Amberjack arrives at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, assigned temporarily to Commander, Aircraft, South Pacific, for duty. Over the next three days, two of the submarine's fuel tanks will be cleaned and converted to carry aviation gasoline. She will also take on board 100-pound bombs and embark USAAF enlisted ground crew for transportation to Guadalcanal.
1942 SBDs (VS 71, VMSB 141, VB 6) from Henderson Field attack three Japanese destroyers north of Guadalcanal, damaging Uranami.
1942 Submarine USS Grampus lands Australian coastwatchers on Choiseul Island, Solomons.
1942 U.S. freighter Steel Navigator, straggling from convoy ON 137, is attacked by German submarine U-610; Steel Navigator briefly drives off the shadower with 5-inch gunfire, but the U-boat returns and torpedoes and sinks the freighter at 49°20'N, 32°00'W. Hastily launched motor boat swamps in heavy seas; no.3 lifeboat swamps as the ship plunges and spills its 35 occupants into the sea. U-610 surfaces and approaches the survivors' boats and rafts; when questions shouted by the submarine's commander fail to get answers, the enemy threatens to cut a raft in two. After answers are given in the brief interrogation, the Germans refuse to provide a course to the nearest land and depart. Subsequently, survivors right no.3 boat and redistribute themselves; the boats becomes separated.
1942 Fishing boat (nationality not determined) tows no.1 lifeboat, with 25 men on board, from U.S. freighter Coloradan, which had been torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-159 on 9 October 1942, into Thorne Bay, South Africa; the Americans reach Cape Town the next day.
1942 Master and radio operator in gig from U.S. freighter Steel Scientist, sunk by German submarine U-514 on 11 October 1942, reach Tarlogie, British Guiana
1943 Moscow Conference, attended by the Secretary of State and British and Soviet foreign ministers, convenes.
1943 Heavy cruiser USS Tuscaloosa, accompanied by one U.S. and three British destroyers, transports Norwegian troops and equipment to Spitzbergen to reestablish bases destroyed in the German raid of 8 September 1943. A second allied force, with carrier USS Ranger included, provides cover for the operation.
1943 U.S. freighter Delisle, in convoy WB 65, fouls mine laid by German submarine U-220 as the merchantman lies to, 15 miles out of St. John's, Newfoundland, rescuing survivors of British freighter Penolver. Delisle suffers no casualties and is abandoned by the 32-man crew and 7-man Armed Guard, and three sailors from Penolver. British trawler HMS Miscou rescues the survivors.
1944 TG 38.1 and TG 38.4 continue attacks on principal Japanese airfields near Manila and shipping in theharbor. Navy carrier-based planes sink army cargo ship Belgium Maru and merchant cargo ships Jogu Maru and Toshikawa Maru, 14°35'N, 120°55'E, and Kurugane Maru and Tsukubasan Maru, damage oiler Ondo (damaged by USS Bluefish in November 1943), and damage cargo ship Urado Maru so severely that that ship is run aground. TG 38.1 and TG 38.4 then proceed south to provide direct support for the landings at Leyte.
1944 Off Leyte, destroyer USS Ross is damaged by mine, 10°17'N, 125°40'E; destroyer USS Aulick, by shore battery, 11°13'N, 125°02'E.
1944 Seventh Fleet aircraft sink Japanese ships Kosei Maru, Kafuku Maru, Koei Maru, No.8 Kanekichi Maru, No.11 Akita Maru, and No.18 Taigyo Maru at Cebu.
1944 Submarine USS Narwhal lands men and supplies on southwest coast of Negros, P.I.
1944 Special Air Task Force (STAG 1) operations continue in Southwest Pacific in two flights (one TDR each) conducted this date against Japanese gun positions west of Ballale. In the first, one drone misses its target during its run; in the second, the drone drops part of its ordnance (the two four-100-pound bomb clusters) on the target before it crashes.
1944 Destroyer escort USS Gilligan bombards Mille Atoll.
1944 USAAF B-24 sinks Japanese weather ship Shonan Maru in northern waters of Makassar Strait.
1944 Secretary of Navy orders black American women accepted into Naval Reserve.
1950 UN forces enter Pyongyang, capital of North Korea
1951 Pres Harry S Truman formally ends state of war with Germany
1960 France grants Mauritania independence
1960 The US imposed an embargo on exports to Cuba
1966 Operation "Dover," Vietnam.
1967 Mariner 5 made fly-by of Venus
1986 USSR expelled 5 US diplomats
1987 The US destroyed 2 Iranian oil-drilling platforms used for military purposes in the Persian Gulf.
By Avalon:
Australian
1942 Japanese counter 25 Bde’s attack at Templeton’s Crossing on the Kokoda Track.
1945 War Widow's Guild of Australia founded. The guild's first president was Mrs Jessie Vasey, widow of Major General G.A. Vasey. It is still an active organisation today. Major General Vasey was killed in an aircraft accident near Cairns while returning to operational service.
By Cap. Teancum:
1864 - St. Albans raid. Confederates enter Vermont from Canada and raid the town of St. Albans. Along the way, they robbed banks, looted, and attempted to set fire to the town before being chased back into Canada. A judge in Canada released the raiders, creating a minor diplomatic crisis between the United States and Britain, but the British paid reparations to the town of St. Albans and the matter was resolved without further conflict.
1935 - Ethiopia stands alone. The League of Nations votes to impose deliberately ineffectual economic sanctions against Fascist Italy for its invasion of Ethiopia. Steps that would impede the progress of the invasion, such as banning the sale of oil to Italy and closing the Suez Canal, were not taken, out of fear of igniting hostilities in Europe.
In the first loss of Ethiopian independence in its long history, tens of thousands of Ethiopians were killed as the Italian army employed poison gas and other modern atrocities to suppress the country. By the end of 1936, the Italian conquest of Ethiopia was complete. Ethiopia's leader, Emperor Haile Selassie, went into exile but returned in 1941, when British and Ethiopian troops liberated the country. Ignoring the British occupation authorities, Selassie quickly organized his own government.
1943 - Chinese and Suluks revolt against Japanese in North Borneo. On this day in 1943, local Chinese and native Suluks rise up against the Japanese occupation of North Borneo. The revolt, staged in the capital, Jesselton, resulted in the deaths of 40 Japanese soldiers.
The Japanese had begun scooping up islands in the Dutch East Indies in late 1941. Kuching, on the northern coast of Borneo, was taken in December; January of '42 saw the fall of Brunei Bay and Jesselton, also in North Borneo. The British and Dutch forces on the islands were dealt swift and severe blows. Attempts by the Allies to hold on to other islands in the region--Malaya, Sumatra, and Java--began shortly thereafter, with British General Archibald Wavell commanding a unified force of British, Dutch, and Australian soldiers. It was a disastrous failure.
The treatment of Allied and civilian prisoners in the Japanese-controlled islands was horrendous, with hundreds dying of disease and starvation. The rebellion of Chinese settlers and native Suluks in the Borneo capital of Jesselton, although delivering a blow to the Japanese to the tune of 40 dead occupying soldiers, was dealt with quickly and brutally. The Japanese destroyed dozens of Suluk villages, rounded up and tortured thousands of civilians, and executed almost 200 without trial. In one extreme example of cruelty, several dozen Suluk women and children had their hands tied behind them and were hanged from their wrists from a pillar of a mosque. They were then shot down by machine-gun fire.
North Borneo would not be liberated until 1945, mostly the work of Australian forces. The next year, it would be made a colony of Britain. That region of Borneo controlled by the Dutch was given sovereignty in 1949 after a rebellion by Indonesian forces.
1958 - The first Cold War world's fair closes. In Brussels, Belgium, the first world's fair held since before World War II closes its doors, after nearly 42 million people have visited the various exhibits. Officially called the Brussels Universal and International Exhibition, the fair's overall theme was "A World View, A New Humanism." As such, the fair was supposed to celebrate the universality of the human condition and encourage dialogue and peaceful relations among the nations of a world only recently torn asunder by war, and now caught in the clutches of the Cold War.
Officials in the United States, however, saw the fair as something quite different: An opportunity to promote America's particular "world view," and to meet the Soviets head-on in the continuing propaganda battle for the "hearts and minds" of the world's people. The fair, therefore, became a showplace for the American and Soviet ways of life, and their exhibition halls became the headquarters for this battle. The adversarial context was accentuated by the fact that the U.S. and Soviet exhibition halls were located directly across from one another.
The Soviet exhibit centered on the technological and scientific accomplishments of the communist state. A replica of Sputnik I, the unmanned satellite put into orbit by the Soviets in 1957, was the centerpiece of the imposing exhibition hall. The United States decided on a different tack, and focused on the everyday life of Americans. Mock voting booths were set up; beautiful women showed off the latest fashions; home furnishings and appliances were in abundance; and a typical American "Main Street" was constructed.
It probably came as something of a shock to both U.S. and Soviet officials when Czechoslovakia won first place for best exhibition hall.
1965 - Communists attack Plei Me Special Forces camp. North Vietnamese troops launch a major assault on U.S. and South Vietnamese Special Forces Camp at Plei Me in the Central Highlands, 215 miles north of Saigon.
During a week of savage fighting, defenders of the besieged outpost, manned by 12 U.S. Green Berets, 400 Montagnard tribesmen, and a handful of South Vietnamese guerrilla specialists, repelled repeated Viet Cong attacks. The tide of the battle turned finally with the arrival of several hundred South Vietnamese reinforcements and numerous Allied air strikes. With the camp secured, General William Westmoreland, senior U.S. military commander in Saigon, decided to seize the advantage and send in the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) to "find, fix, and defeat the enemy forces" that had threatened Plei Me. This decision would result in November in the battle of the Ia Drang Valley, the war's bloodiest battle to date.
1972 - Kissinger discusses draft peace treaty with President Thieu. Henry Kissinger and U.S. officials hold meetings in Saigon with South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu to discuss the proposed peace treaty drafted by Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, the chief North Vietnamese negotiator in Paris.
Thieu remained adamant in his opposition to the draft treaty provisions that permitted North Vietnamese troops to remain in place in the South. Kissinger tried to convince Thieu to agree to the provisions anyway, but Thieu still balked. This would be a major stumbling block in the continuing negotiations. In an attempt to further the peace process, President Nixon announced a halt in bombing of North Vietnam above the 20th parallel. He also sent a message to North Vietnamese Premier Pham Van Dong confirming that the peace agreement was complete and pledging that it would be signed by the two foreign ministers on October 31.
However, Thieu's continued recalcitrance caused so much friction at the negotiating table that the North Vietnamese walked out. They returned only after Nixon ordered the resumption of the Linebacker II bombing campaign against North Vietnam. The peace treaty was eventually signed in January 1973 (after the United States threatened to sign it alone with the North Vietnamese if Thieu refused to participate) and the cease-fire went into effect at midnight on January 27, 1973. Under the terms of the treaty, all U.S. military forces departed two months later. As Thieu feared, the peace treaty left 160,000 troops in the South and the fighting in South Vietnam resumed after only a brief pause. As U.S. military aid, which had been promised by President Nixon, slowed and then ceased altogether, the South Vietnamese were left fighting for their very lives. They held out for two years, but succumbed to the North Vietnamese in 1975, when Saigon fell in just 55 days.
__________________ All warfare is based on deception. Sun Tzu - Art of war - Chapter One - Laying Plans
1945 War Widow's Guild of Australia founded. The guild's first president was Mrs Jessie Vasey, widow of Major General G.A. Vasey. It is still an active organisation today. Major General Vasey was killed in an aircraft accident near Cairns while returning to operational service.
Today's book:
Living with the Aftermath: Trauma, Nostalgia and Grief in Post-War Australia by Joy Damousi
Book Description:
This very moving book, based on oral testimonies, focuses on the shifting patterns of mourning and grief in the experiences of Australian women who lost their husbands during the Second World War and the wars in Korea and Vietnam.
1780 Marie Pauline Bonaparte, sister to Napoleon, Duchess of Parma
1819 Daniel Edgar Sickles, sleaze, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1914
1820 Benjamin Franklin Cheatham, Maj Gen, C.S.A.
1820 George Jerrison Stannard, Brig Gen, U.S.,
1822 Mansfield Lovell, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1884
1900 Heinrich Himmler, head of Hitler's SS and mass murderer
Died...
1139 Duke Henry X of Bavaria (1126-38)
1268 Conradin von Hohenstaufen, beheaded in Naples at 16
1740 HRE Charles VI (1711-40), leaving a mess for Maria Teresa
1964 Herbert Hoover, President, at 90
Event...
1097 First Crusaders arrive in Antioch
1528 Treaty of Gorinchem
1600 Battle of Sekigahara establishes Tokugawa shogunate rulers in Japan
1740 Maria Theresa becomes the ruler of Austria, Hungary, & Bohemia
1803 US Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase from France
1813 German Kingdom of Westphalia abolished
1818 49th parallel established as the border between US & Canada, US & Britain agree to joint control of Oregon country
1824 Schooner USS Porpoise captures four pirate ships off Cuba.
1857 A detachment of the Royal Canadian Rifles arrives at Ft. Garry (Winnipeg) today as a counter to the appearance of U.S. cavalry on the border.
1883 Treaty of Ancon, Peru cedes Tarapaca to Chile
1903 US wins disputed boundary between the District of Alaska & Canada
1926 President Calvin Coolidge ordered Marines to guard the U. S. Mail.
1930 British White Paper restricts Jews from buying Arab land
1936 Spanish Republican government flees Madrid for Barcelona
1939 Commander Atlantic Squadron informs his ships to use plain language radio reporting of contacts.
1939 U.S. freighter Scanstates, detained at Kirkwall, Orkneys, by British authorities since 14 October, is released.
1940 Oiler USS Ramapo delivers district patrol craft YP-16 and YP-17 at Apra Harbor to augment the local defenses at Guam.
1940 Light cruiser USS St. Louis, with Greenslade Board embarked, arrives at San Juan, Puerto Rico.
1940 Nazis ration cheese in the Netherlands
1941 PBYs (VP 73) provide air coverage for convoy ON 26.
1942 Japanese submarine I-175 is damaged when she runs aground at Truk, Carolines.
1942 District patrol craft YP-405 burns and sinks off Smith Shoal light.
1942 U.S. freighter Pierce Butler is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-177 off the coast of South Africa at 29°40'S, 36°35'E. All hands (41-man merchant complement and 21-man Armed Guard) abandon ship in four lifeboats.
1942 British hospital ship HMS Atlantis rescues the last 13 survivors from U.S. freighter Excello, sunk by German submarine U-181 on 13 November.
1942 Damaged U.S. tanker Brilliant encounters auxiliary schooner Isabel H., whose master pilots the ship to Musgrave harbor, Newfoundland, where she anchors to await an escort to St. John's.
1942 Aussie 16th Bde relieves 25th on the Kokoda Trail, Papua.
1942 Chinese troops fly over "the Hump" to train in India.
1943 Submarine USS Gato sinks Japanese transport Tsunushima Maru between Truk and Kavieng, 01°26'N, 148°36'E.
1943 Submarine USS Kingfish sinks Japanese merchant cargo ship Sana Maru off Banbon Bay, French Indochina, 12°36'N, 109°30'E.
1943 Aircraft (VC 13) from escort carrier USS Core, escorting convoy UGS 20, sink German submarine U-378 north of the Azores, 47°40'N, 28°27'W.
1943 Destroyer USS Cowie is damaged in collision with U.S. steamship Craigsmere in New York Harbor.
1943 USAAF B-25s and RAF Beaufighters attack German convoys north of Crete, sinking transport Sinfra which, unbeknownst to the attackers, is transporting POWs.
1943 Canadian successes continue in central Italy as the Royal Canadian Regiment captures the village of Oratino and the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment takes San Stefano without a fight. The Germans are being forced steadily back to the Biferno River, and this is where they establish their new line of defence.
1944 Naval Operating Base, Guam, is established.
1944 Under the overall command of General Douglas MacArthur, who makes good on his promise to "return" to the Philippines, and Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, Commander Seventh Fleet, TF 78 and TF 79 land four divisions of the U.S. Sixth Army on Leyte. Fast carriers and battleships of the Third Fleet provide support, as do the older battleships and escort carriers of the Seventh Fleet.
1944 Japanese aerial counterattacks (horizontal bombers) result in damage to escort carrier USS Sangamon, 10°46'N, 126°23'E, and salvage vessel Preserver (ARS-8), 10°50'N, 125°25'E, and (aerial torpedo) to light cruiser USS Honolulu, 11°01'N, 125°07'E. Japanese shore batteries damage destroyer USS Bennion, 10°50'N, 125°25'E, and tank landing ship LST-452, 11°01'N, 125°01'E.
1944 Submarine USS Hammerhead sinks Japanese transport Oyo Maru, 04°41'N, 113°22'E, and army cargo ship Ugo Maru, 04°52'N, 113°24'E, off Borneo.
1944 Special Air Task Force (STAG 1) operations continue: three TDRs are launched against Japanese gun positions west of Ballale: one is lost, one makes a hit with its bomb but crashes before it can be directed into its ultimate target (the beached Japanese freighter serving as an antiaircraft gun site off the Kahili airstrip and christened the "Kahili Maru"), the last achieves a bomb hit and crashes into "Kahili Maru" as planned.
1944 Russian and Yugoslav troops liberate Belgrade
1944 US First Army secures Aachen
1944 Revolution by workers & students in Guatemala
1952 Task Force 77 establishes ECM Hunter/Killer Teams of 2 ECM equipped aircraft and an armed escort of 4 Skyraiders and 4 Corsairs.
1952 Emergency proclaimed in Kenya due to Mau Mau rebellion
1962 Chinese Army occupied Ladakh, claimed by India
1963 S Africa begins trial of Nelson Mandela & 8 others on conspiracy
1967 Operation Coronado VII began in Mekong Delta, Vietnam.
1973 OPEC oil embargo begins
1983 Due to political strife, USS Independence ordered to Grenada.
1983 IBM-PC DOS Version 2.1 released
1987 Ten die as an Air Force jet crashes into a Ramada Inn near Indianapolis
1988 Britain ends suspects right to remain silent in crackdown on IRA
1990 Anti-Gulf War protest marches begin in 20 US cities
By Avalon:
Australian
1900 New South Wales naval contingent enters Peking. New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia sent naval contingents as part of a British empire force deployed against anti-western Chinese secret societies.
1942 16 Bde attacks Japanese positions at Eora Creek.
1944 RAN supports US landings on Leyte, The Philippines.
1945 Birthday 3RAR
By Cap. Teancum:
1827 - Battle of Navarino. During the Greek War for Independence, a combined Turkish and Egyptian armada is destroyed by an allied British, French, and Russian naval force at the Battle of Navarino.
In 1821, the first nationalist uprisings by the Greeks against their Turkish rulers touched off a wave of sympathy in Britain and France, whose cultural traditions enshrined respect for ancient Hellenic values. The Russians also sympathized with the Greeks as fellow members of the Orthodox Church struggling against a mutual foe--the Ottoman Empire. After Turkey enlisted the aid of Egypt in the conflict, Britain, France, and Russia sent allied squadrons to the Bay of Navarin, on the southwest coast of the Peloponnese in the eastern Mediterranean.
The European allies had hoped to resolve the conflict by a simple show of force, but upon arrival their squadrons were immediately fired on by the opposing Egyptian and Turkish naval force. British Admiral Sir Edward Codrington's squadron led the European counterattack, and within hours the Europeans' superior artillery completely annihilated the Turkish and Egyptian fleets. The Turkish defeat was so complete that in 1828, they began to evacuate Greece, and in 1832 Greece won its independence after nearly 400 years of Turkish rule.
1914 - First Battle of Ypres begins. Last offensive operation on the western front before both sides settled into trench warfare. Casualties from August to November, 1914: 677,440 Germans, 854,000 French, 84,575 British.
1964 - Relations between South Vietnam, the United States, and Cambodia deteriorate. A series of incidents and charges bring relations between Cambodia, South Vietnam, and the United States to a low point. Cambodia under Prince Norodom Sihanouk had tried to maintain its neutrality in the growing conflict between Saigon and the Communists in Vietnam, but the country became a sanctuary for Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces fighting the Saigon government. Sihanouk, not strong enough to prevent the Communists from using his territory, came under increasing political and military pressure from the United States and South Vietnam.
In this incident, South Vietnamese planes strafed a Cambodian village; when Cambodia protested, Saigon replied by reiterating its accusation that Cambodia was providing refuge for Viet Cong forces that were attacking across the border into South Vietnam. On October 22, the United States charged that Cambodian troops crossed over into South Vietnam and seized an U.S. officer advising South Vietnamese forces. On October 25, the officer's body was recovered just inside South Vietnam, and Cambodia was accused of placing the body there to allow the rescue force to be fired on. The next day, Cambodians shot down a U.S. Air Force C-123 cargo plane, loaded with ammunition for a Special Forces camp; eight U.S. servicemen aboard were killed. By October 28, the United States admitted that the plane had strayed over Cambodian territory by mistake, but argued that such incidents arose because of the poorly defined border and the activities of the Viet Cong in the area.
Despite the charges and threats from Prince Sihanouk and U.S. losses in personnel and planes, neither side pursued the matter. However, the use of Cambodia as a sanctuary by the Communists remained a contentious issue; in 1970, President Richard Nixon ordered U.S. and South Vietnamese forces to attack the sanctuaries in what became known as the Cambodian Incursion.
__________________ All warfare is based on deception. Sun Tzu - Art of war - Chapter One - Laying Plans
1952 Task Force 77 establishes ECM Hunter/Killer Teams of 2 ECM equipped aircraft and an armed escort of 4 Skyraiders and 4 Corsairs.
Today's book:
Corsair: The F4U in World War II and Korea by Barrett Tillman, Kenneth A. Walsh
Book Description:
This is the remarkable story of an airplane that became a legend--with a sleek silhouette and bent wings, it doubled as a day and night fighter, could fly off carriers or from land, and served both as a dive bomber and reconnaissance plane. Filled with facts and figures, this fast-paced history begins with the nerve-wracking test flights of the 1940s and concludes with the F4Us that were active thirty-eight years later. Placed skillfully in between are the stories that gave birth to the legend: the exploits of the aces, including the Medal of Honor recipient who shot down twenty-five enemy planes, and the details of the combat missions of Charles A. Lindbergh. During thirty months of combat in World War II with the U.S. Navy and Marines, the Corsair shot down more than two thousand Japanese planes. In Korea the U-bird, as it was called, was credited with ten aerial victories.
A trip down memory lane for anyone who has followed the career of this Cadillac of the props, this new paperback edition of a book first published in hardcover in 1979 offers fine historical aviation reading that presents a riveting picture of the men and machine that helped win two wars.
1861 Skirmishing ends, vicinity Frederickstown/Ironton, Mo (began 17th)
1864 Battle of Westport, Mo 1914 Battle of Warsaw ends
1916 The British offensive against the Ancre Heights is renewed today, with the 4th Canadian Division taking part in the attack. Backed by a heavy artillery barrage, the Canadians capture Regina Trench in less than 15 minutes for the loss of fewer than 200 men; a far cry from two earlier attempts against the same objective which cost over 2300 Canadians for no gain in ground.
1917 1st Americans to see action on the front lines of WW I
1934 Red Chinese "Long March" begins (ends Oct 19, 1935)
1937 Spanish Nationalists capture Gijon
1939 U.S. freighter City of Flint, under prize crew from German DKM Deutschland, puts in to Tromsø, Norway, for water. Norwegian government, however, orders the ship to leave; she sails for Soviet waters.
1939 U.S. freighter Meanticut is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities and ordered to proceed to Oran to discharge certain cargo earmarked for delivery to Italy
1940 Light cruiser USS St. Louis with Greenslade Board embarked, departs San Juan for return visit to' Hamilton, Bermuda.
1941 Germans massacre 7,000 people in "reprisals" at Kragujevac, Yugoslavia.
1942 Destroyer USS Grayson is damaged in collision with fleet tug Vireo during efforts to salvage the latter, Solomons area, 12°08'S, 161°04'E. Salvage party from USS Grayson ultimately brings the tug (abandoned on 15 September 1942) and its tow safely into Espiritu Santo after a 400 mile voyage.
1942 Japanese carrier Hiyo is damaged by engine room fire after departing Truk; she thus cannot participate in the Battle of Santa Cruz.
1942 Submarine USS Guardfish sinks Japanese merchant cargo ship Nichiho Maru about 120 miles north-northeast of Formosa, 27°03'N, 122°42'E.
1942 Submarine Gudgeon, attacking Japanese convoy in the Bismarck Sea, sinks transport Choko Maru about 110 miles west-northwest of Rabaul, 03°30'S, 150°30'E.
1942 In advance of the North African landings, Major General Mark W. Clark, USA; Brigadier General Lyman M. Lemnitzer, USA; two additional Army officers; and Navy Captain Jerauld Wright are landed at Cherchel, French North Africa, from British submarine HMS Seraph to meet with a French military delegation to ascertain French attitudes toward impending Allied operations. Among issues discussed is the French request for an American submarine to evacuate General Giraud from occupied France. Since none is available for that mission, a British submarine under temporary U.S. command will be substituted.
1943 Submarine USS Steelhead damages Japanese aircraft transport Goshu Maru southeast of Ulithi, Carolines, 08°16'N, 141°53'E.
1943 RAAF Beaufort damages Japanese light cruiser Kiso 53 miles from Cape St. George, 04°23'S, 153°11'E.
1943 Japanese cargo ship No.11 Chofoku Maru is sunk by mine while en route from Surabaya to Penang; cargo ship Rakuto Maru is damaged by mine off Padamarang Island.
1943 Destroyer USS Murphy is cut in two when she is accidentally rammed by U.S. tanker Bulkoil 265 miles east-southeast of Ambrose Lightship, New York. Murphy's forward section sinks.
1943 Aircraft (VC 13) from escort carrier USS Core damage German submarine U-271, north of the Azores.
1943 German planes attack convoy MKS 28, strafing and torpedoing U.S. freighter Tivives about 15 miles off Cape Tenes; one of 48 merchant seamen and one of the 25-man Armed Guard perish in the ensuing abandonment as the ship sinks swiftly. Free French-manned corvette HMS LaMalouine rescues the survivors, who also include the six-man staff of the convoy commodore and one passenger.
1944 Leyte landings continue. Off invasion beaches, transport USS Warhawk (AP-168) is damaged in collision with battleship USS Tennessee (BB-43), 10°57'N, 125°02'E, while Japanese mortar fire damages tank landing ships LST-269, LST-483, and LST-704, 10°50'N, 125°25'E.
1944 TG 38.2 (Rear Admiral Gerald F. Bogan) attacks Japanese shipping and installations near Panay, Cebu, Negros, and Masbate, Navy carrier-based planes sinking auxiliary minesweeper Wa.8, 11°30'N, 123°20'E; auxiliary submarine chaser Cha 15, 12°55'N, 121°35'E; and army tanker Doko Maru, 12°35'N, 122°16'E.
1944 British submarine HMS Tantivy sinks Japanese merchant cargo ships No.2 Chokyu Maru, No.3 Takasago Maru, and Otori Maru in Makassar Strait.
1944 Destroyer USS Eberle (DD-430) bombards targets near San Remo, Italy.
1944 Aachen, first city inside Germany, falls to U. S. troops.
1950 Chinese forces occupy Tibet
1960 HMS Dreadnought, the first British nuclear submarine, is launched
1966 Operation "Madison," RVN.
1967 Thousands opposing Vietnam War try to storm Pentagon
1969 Bloodless coup in Somalia
1971 Nobel prize for literature awarded to KGB agent Pablo Neruda
1975 Venera 9, first craft to orbit the planet Venus launched
1988 Ferdinand & Imelda Marcos indicted on racketeering charges.
By Cap. Teancum:
1094 - El Cid defeated Muslim forces on the plains of Cuarte. First victory of Christians over Muslims in open battle.
__________________ All warfare is based on deception. Sun Tzu - Art of war - Chapter One - Laying Plans
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