This day in military history..

May 8
US Naval History
1911 - Navy ordered its first airplane, Curtiss A-1, Birthday of Naval Aviation
1942 - Battle of the Coral Sea ends with Japanese retiring from area
1945 - VE - Day, Germany's unconditional surrender to the Allies
1963 - Navy ships evacuate 2,279 civilians from Haiti during crisis.
1972 - U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aircraft mine Haiphong Harbor in North Vietnam.
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May 9
1457 B.C. Battle of Megiddo earlist reasonably recorded Battle
1864 Spotsylvania Maj. Gen. John Sedgewick KIA by Sharpshooter
1915 Battle of Artois
1940 U-9 sinks French sub Doris
1941 R.N. captures U-110 with intact Inigma machine aboard
1955 W. Germany joins NATO
 
May 10
US Naval History
1775 - Force under Ethan Allan and Benedict Arnold cross Lake Champlain and capture British fort at Ticonderoga, New York.
1800 - USS Constitution captures Letter of Marque Sandwich.
1862 - Confederates destroy Norfolk and Pensacola Navy Yards.
1949 - First shipboard launching of LARK, guided missile by USS Norton Sound.
1960 - USS Triton (SSRN-586)completes submerged circumnavigation of world in 84 days following many of the routes taken by Magellan and cruising 46,000 miles.
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May 10
70 Romans assault Jerusalem
1655 England captures Jamaica from Spain
1775 Colonial troops capture Ft. Ticonderoga
1796 Battle of Lodi, Italy
1801 Tripoli declares War on the US
1857 Supoy Mutiny in India starts
1863 Gen Stonewall Jackson dies
1864 Spotsylvania battle @ the "Mule Shoe"
1865 CS President Jeff Davis captured in Ga. CSS Nashville & CSS Morgan surrender @ Nanna Hubba Bluff on the Tombigbee River north of Mobile, Ala.
1940 1st German air raid on England. Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister. Germany invades Belgium, Netherlands & Luxemburg. England invades Iceland.
1941 Rudolf Hess parachutes into England
1942 Thailand invades the Shan States
1969 Battle of Hamberger Hill starts
 
May 11
1745 Battle of Fontenoy
1862 CSS Virginia destroyed to prevent capture
1864 Battle of Yellow Tavern, Va Gen. J.E.B. Stuart killed
1943 US troops invade Attu Island in the Alutians
1945 USS Bunker Hill hit by 2 Kamakazes & suffers extensive damage
 
May 11
US Naval History
1862 - CSS Virginia blown up by Confederates to prevent capture.
1898 - Sailors and Marines from USS Marblehead cut trans-oceanic cable near Cienfuegos, Cuba, isolating Cuba from Spain.
1943 - Naval task force lands Army troops on Attu, Aleutians.
1965 - U.S. destroyers deliver first shore bombardment of Vietnam War.
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May 12
1780 British capture Charleston, S.C.
1821 Battle of Valtetsi
1863 Battle of Raymond, Miss.
1864 Spotsylvania, Battle @ the Mule Shoe & @ the "Bloody Angle"
1865 Battle of Palmito Ranch, Tx 1st day
1942 2nd Battle of Karkov
1949 USSR ends Berlin blockade
1975 Mayaguez Incident Khemer Rouge sieze SS Mayaguez in international waters
 
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May 12
US Naval History
  • 1780 - Fall of Charleston, SC; three Continental Navy frigates (Boston, Providence, and Ranger) captured; and one American frigate (Queen of France) sunk to prevent capture
    1846 - U.S. declares war against Mexico
    1975 - SS Mayaguez seized by Khmer Rouge and escorted to Koh Tang Island.
    1986 - Destroyer USS David R. Ray deters an Iranian Navy attempt to board a U.S. merchant ship.
 
May 13
US Naval History
1908 - Navy Nurse Corps established.
1908 - Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, later called Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, was officially established in the Territory of Hawaii as a coaling station for U.S. Navy ships transiting the Pacific Ocean.
1943 - Bureau of Navigation renamed Bureau of Naval Personnel
1945 - Aircraft from fast carrier task force begin 2-day attack on Kyushu airfields, Japan
1964 - Organization and deployment of world's first all nuclear-powered task group, USS Enterprise, USS Long Beach, and USS Bainbridge*, to Sixth Fleet

(*My Ship, and avatar)
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May 14
US Naval History
1801 - Tripoli declares war against the United States
1836 - U.S. Exploring Expedition authorized to conduct exploration of Pacific Ocean and South Seas, first major scientific expedition overseas. LT Charles Wilkes USN, would lead the expedition in surveying South America, Antarctica, Far East, and North Pacific.
1845 - First U.S. warship visits Vietnam. While anchored in Danang for reprovisioning, CAPT John Percival commanding USS Constitution, conducts a show of force against Vietnamese authorities in an effort to obtain the release of a French priest held prisoner by Emperor of Annam at Hue.
1975 - Marines recapture Mayaguez, go ashore on Koh Tang Island and release the crew.
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May 13
1568 Battle of Langside
1863 Spotsylvania Battle of the "Bloody Angle" ends
1865 Battle of Palmito Ranch ends Confederates win the last battle of the War
1940 Germany invades France
1943 The Afriks Korps & Italian troops surrender in north Africa
May 14
1264 Battle of Lewes
1509 Battle of Agnadello
1747 Battle of Cape Finisterre
1863 Sherman captures Jackson, Miss
1864 Battle of New Market, Va 1st day
1940 Netherlands surrenders to invading Germans
1943 Japanese sub I-177 sinks Australian hospital ship Centaur
 
May 15th

1940: In the West, the German XX.Panzerkorps (Hoth) repels a counter-attack by French armored forces, destroying 125 out of 175 tanks. An attack by 6.Armee against the Dyle line in Belgium is repulsed. After the fall of Rotterdam the Dutch Army surrenders. RAF Bomber Command begins a strategic air offensive against targets inside Germany by attacking industrial installations in the Ruhr, but with minimal effect.
1941: In Libya, the British Eighth Army begins an offensive against the German Afrikakorps, recapturing Halfaya Pass and Sollum.
1942: In the East, the German 11.Armee captures Kerch in the eastern Crimea, forcing the Soviet forces to withdraw across the straits to the Taman peninsula. At Charkov, the German 6.Armee repulses heavy Soviet attacks.
1943: German, Italian and Croatian forces begin an offensive against Tito's partisan army in Montenegro.
1944: In Italy, German troops begin withdrawing from the Gustav Line to new positions, the Adolf Hitler or Dora Line, 30 miles S of Rome.
1945: The Axis-allied Croation forces that surrendered to British troops in Austria are handed over to Tito's partisans who without delay proceed to massacre them; they kill a total of 110,000, including women and children.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/may.html

1915: Major General W.T. Bridges commander of the First Division, AIF, died on 18 May while being taken to Egypt for treatment. His body was returned to Australia and buried overlooking the Royal Military College, Duntroon.
1942: Movement of prisoners of war (A Force) to Thailand from Singapore begins for work on the Burma–Thailand railway
1945: Private E. Kenna, 2/4th Battalion, originally from Hamilton, Victoria, wins the Victoria Cross near Wewak.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1525 - The battle of Frankenhausen ends the Peasants' War.
1701 - The War of the Spanish Succession begins.
1864 - Battle of New Market, Virginia – Students from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate Army to force UnionGeneralFranz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley.
1897 - The Greek army retreats with heavy losses in Greco-Turkish War
1918 - Finnish Civil War ends.
1948 - Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia attack Israel.
1988 - Soviet war in Afghanistan: After more than eight years of fighting, the Red Army begins its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_15

1800 - CAPT Preble in Essex arrives in Batavia, Java, to escort U.S. merchant ships
1942 - First Naval Air Transport Service flight across Pacific
1969 - Sinking of USS Guitarro (SSN-665)
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmay.htm

1781: A 352-man-strong Loyalist force commanded by Major Andrew Maxwell surrenders a fortified frame building, named “Fort Granby,” to a Patriot force in South Carolina.
1967: U.S. forces just south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) come under heavy fire as Marine positions between Dong Ha and Con Thien are pounded by North Vietnamese artillery. On May 18, a force of 5,500 U.S. and South Vietnamese troops invaded the southeastern section of the DMZ to smash a communist build up in the area and to deny the use of the zone as an infiltration route into South Vietnam.
1970: At the White House, President Richard Nixon presents Sgt. John L. Levitow with the Medal of Honor for heroic action performed on February 24, 1969, over Long Binh Army Post in South Vietnam. He was the only enlisted airman to win the Medal of Honor in Vietnam and was one of only four enlisted airmen ever to win the medal, the first since World War II.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?

1885: Regina Saskatchewan - Louis Riel surrenders to Middleton's troops; North West Rebellion ends after 100 days; 80 killed on each side
1756: London England - England declares war on France to start the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), the European counterpart to the French and Indian War.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=May&day=15

1940: RAF Bomber Command (Peirse) begins a strategic air offensive against targets inside Germany by attacking industrial installations in the Ruhr, but with minimal effect. After the fall of Rotterdam, Holland surrenders. The German 20th Panzer Korps (Hoth) repels a counter-attack by French armoured forces, destroying 125 out of 175 tanks. An attack by 6th Army (von Reichenau) against the Dyle line in Belgium is repulsed.
1941: The British Army under Auchinleck, launch an offensive, operation 'Brevity' against the Afrika Korps and manage to recapture Halfaya Pass, Sollum and Capuzzo. RAF night raids on Hanover, Berlin and Cuxhaven. The Luftwaffe begin preparatory attacks against Crete.
1942: British forces retreating from Burma reach the Indian frontier. General Stilwell crosses the border in to Assam in India.
1944: A Japanese attack on Hunter’s Hill, North of Kohima is repulsed.
1945: The U.S. Tenth Army is now within 2,000 yds of Naha docks.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm
 
May 15
US Naval History
1800 - CAPT Preble in Essex arrives in Batavia, Java, to escort U.S. merchant ships
1942 - First Naval Air Transport Service flight across Pacific
1969 - Sinking of USS Guitarro (SSN-665)
(Sunk while alongside a pier).
1991 - Amphibious Task Force arrives at Chittagong, Bangladesh, for relief operations after Cyclone Marian
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May 15
1862 Union troops unsucsessfully attack Ft. Darling, Va
1864 Battle of New Market, Va. Battle of Resaca, Ga.
1905 Battle/Siege of Port Arthur Japanese sails into Russian minefield losing Battleships Hatuse & Yashima
1919 greece invades Izmir, Turkey
1940 USS Squalus recommissioned, after sinking & repair, as USS Sailfish
 
May 16
1771 Battle of Alamance, N.C. Pre Rev. War uprising, Militia defeats rebels
1811 Battle of Albuera
1822 Turks capture Souli
1862 Battle of Princeton, Va
1863 Battle of Champion's Hill, Miss.
1864 Battle of Drewry's Bluff, Va
1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends
 
May 16
US Naval History
1820 - Congress becomes first U.S. warship to visit China
1919 - Three Navy flying boats begin 1st trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland
1965 - First US gunfire support in Vietnam by USS Tucker
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May 17th

1940: In the West, troops of 6.Armee occupy Brussels. French prime minister Pierre Laval is replaced by Paul Reynaud who forms a new government.
1941: The German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen leave Gotenhafen in the Baltic to begin operations against British convoys in the Atlantic (Operation Rheinübung).
1942: In the East, Heeresgruppe Mitte (von Bock) begins a counter-offensive against Soviet attacks toward Charkov and the Donbas.
1943: The Luftwaffe carries out a night raid (89 aircraft) against Cardiff in Wales.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/may.html

1917: Bullecourt captured - After two failed attempts to capture the village of Bullecourt, the allies were finally successful, though the victory had cost 7,000 casualties.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/may.htm

1940 - World War II: Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium.
1940 - World War II: The old city centre of the Dutch town of Middelburg is bombed by the German Luftwaffe, to force the surrender of the Dutch armies in Zeeland.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_17

1940 - FDR announces plans to recommission 35 more destroyers
1942 - USS Tautog (SS-199) sinks Japanese sub, I-28; while USS Triton (SS-201) sinks I-164
1951 - Aircraft from carriers attack bridges between Wonsan and Hamhung, Korea
1962 - Naval amphibious ready group lands Marines to guard Thailand's borders from Communist probes
1966 - Naval Support Activity Saigon established
1973 - First woman to hold a major Navy command, Captain Robin Lindsay Quigley assumes command of Navy Service School, San Diego, CA.
1987 - USS Stark (FFG-31) struck by Iraqi Exocet missile in Persian Gulf, killing 37 Sailors. 21 were wounded.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmay.htm

1863 : Battle of Big Black River, Mississippi - The Union army defeats the Confederates on the Big Black River and drives them into Vicksburg in part of a brilliant campaign by General Ulysses S. Grant. Grant had swung his army down the Mississippi River past the strong riverfront defenses, and landed in Mississippi south of Vicksburg. He then moved northeast toward Jackson and split his force to defeat Joseph Johnston's troops in Jackson and John C. Pemberton's at Champion's Hill.
1972 : South Vietnamese reinforcements near An Loc - Preceded by five B-52 strikes, which reportedly killed 300 North Vietnamese to the south, South Vietnamese forces arrive by helicopter to within two miles of An Loc in continuing efforts to relieve this besieged city. It had been surrounded by three North Vietnamese divisions since early April. The North Vietnamese had been holding An Loc under siege for almost three months while they made repeated attempts to take the city. The defenders suffered heavy casualties, including 2,300 dead or missing, but with the aid of U.S. advisors and American airpower, they managed to hold An Loc against vastly superior odds until the siege was finally lifted on June 18.
source: http://www.history.com/tdih.do?

1943: A specially trained and equipped Royal Air Force squadron destroys two river dams in Germany.
1951: Korea- Chinese Communist Forces launch second step, fifth-phase offensive and gain up to 20 miles of territory.
source: http://www.historynet.com/today_in_history
 
May 18th

1940: In the West, XIX.Panzerkorps (Guderian) in its rapid advance toward the Channel coast reaches Peronne. German troops occupy Antwerp.
1942: The RAF launches a major attack against Mannheim.
1944: In Italy, the US Fifth Army (Clark) capters Gaeta S of Rome.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/may.html

1885:Sudan contingent departs Suakin - New South Wales troops of the Sudan contingent depart Suakin for Sydney having a little over two months in the Sudan without seeing any serious action.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1775 - Benedict Arnold captures British sloop and renames her Enterprise, first of many famous ships with that name
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmay.htm

1803 - Napoleonic Wars: The United Kingdom revokes the Treaty of Amiens and declares war on France.
1811 - Las Piedras Battle first great military triumph of the liberating revolution of the Río de la Plata in Uruguay leaded by Jose Artigas.
1863 - American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg begins, ending on July 4
1944 - World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino - Germans evacuate Monte Cassino and Allied forces take the stronghold after a struggle that claimed 20,000 lives.
1944 - World War II: SS troops burn down six villages in the Brkini hills in south western Slovenia.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_18

1943: Hitler gives the order for Operation Alaric - Adolf Hitler launches Operation Alaric, the German occupation of Italy in the event its Axis partner either surrendered or switched its allegiance.
1969: Communists attack Xuan Loc - More than 1,500 communist troops attack U.S. and South Vietnamese camps near Xuan Loc, located 38 miles east of Saigon. After five hours of intense fighting, the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces were driven off. At the U.S. camp, 14 Americans were killed and 39 wounded; 24 enemy soldiers were killed in the action. At the South Vietnamese camp, 4 South Vietnamese were killed and 14 wounded, with 54 communist soldiers reported killed and 9 captured.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp

1940: Germans take Antwerp, Belgium’s second city. Allied forces are seriously split as German tanks of 19th Panzer Korps (Guderian) reach Peronne and Rommels 7th Panzer Division reaches Cambrai during their rapid advance toward the Channel coast. Amiens is occupied. Regions ceded to Belgium in Treaty of Versailles (1919) re-incorporated into Germany.
1941: General Dentz tells the French Army in Syria to "match force with force". The 5th Indian Division captures the Italian fortress of Amba Alagi after 18 days of fighting. The British column from Palastine (Habforce), arrives at Habbaniyah and relieves its garrison. Italy annexes the Yugoslavian territory of Dalmatia.
1942: The Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm attacks and hits the German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen off Norway, but she makes it back to Kiel. Despite increasing losses, Churchill remains determined to continue the Artic convoys to Russia. The New York Times reports on an inside page that Nazis have machine-gunned over 100,000 Jews in the Baltic states, 100,000 in Poland and twice as many in western Russia. The RAF launches a major attack against Mannheim. German forces finally halt the Russian summer offensive just short of Kharkov and let loose Group von Kleist’s with a strength of 15 Divisions (1st Panzer Army and 17th Army), of which two are Panzer and one Motorised. The Germans aim for Izyum to the South of Kharkov in order to pinch off the Russian salient. The Germans attack with their usual skill, technology, and ferocity and drive through the Russian defenses. The Germans have a 4.4-1 edge in tanks, 1.7-1 edge in artillery, and 1.3-1 edge in infantry on the battlefield. Russian co-ordination is poor and the Germans quickly gain local air superiority. Russian officers lack adequate combat experience to handle the fast pace of the German blitzkrieg, and their divisions literally come apart.
1943: The Japanese launch a new offensive along the Yangtze river, 250 miles north east of the Nationalist capital of Chunking.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1792: Russian troops invade Poland.
1944: The Allies finally capture Monte Cassino in Italy.
1969: Two battalions of the 101st Airborne Division assault Hill 937 but cannot reach the top because of muddy conditions.
source: http://www.historynet.com/today_in_history?tihMonth=5&tihDay=18&tdih=GO

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May 18
1268 Battle of Antioch Crusader State of Antioch falls to Muslims
1756 Seven Years War (French & Indian War in North America) begins
1864 Spotsylvania: Hancock's Corps once again assaults the Confederate lines.
2009 Sri Lankan Civil War ends
 
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