This day in military history..

May 19
1643 Battle of Rocroi
1863 Union Army assaults the defences of Vicksburg, Miss. & is repulsed
1864 Spotsylvania Union Army launches the last unsucsessfull attack of the battles in the Spotsylvania Courthouse area.
1865 The Captain of the CSS Stonewall sells the ship to the Spanish @ Havana, Cuba
 
May 20
685 Battle of Dunnichen
1217 2nd Battle of Lincoln
1521 Battle of Pampeluma
1631 Madgeburg captured by Holy Roman Empire & inhabityants massacred
1813 Battle of Bautzen 1st day
1863 US Navy destroys Yazoo City Navy Yard, Miss.
1941 Germany invades Crete
1969 Battle of Hamburger Hill ends
 
May 21
1809 Battle of Aspern-Essling 1st day
1813 Battle of Bautzen 2nd day
1863 Union troops begin siege of Port Hudson
1878 naval Battle of Iquique, War of the Pacific. 2 Chilean & 2 Peruvian ships fight with 1 lost on both sides
 
May 21st

1940: In the West, an attack by a French armored brigade under General de Gaulle against 7.Panzer-Division (Rommel) at Arras fails after initial success. The French Ninth Army is surrounded and destroyed, its commander, General Giraud, taken prisoner.
1941: In the battle for Crete, 80 Ju-52s crash-land a regiment of 5.Gebirgsjäger-Division (Ringel) to support the hard-pressed paratroopers at Maleme airfield. In the south Atlantic, against strict orders not to attack American vessels, the US merchant ship Robin Moor is sunk by U-69 (Kptlt. Metzler). This sinking of a neutral American vessel is publicly denounced by President Roosevelt and becomes yet another argument for him in his secret desire for bringing the United States into war against Germany.
1943: The Luftwaffe carries out a raid by FW-190 fighter bombers against Malta.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/may.html

1968: HMAS Sydney leaves Brisbane - HMAS Sydney left Brisbane on its tenth voyage to Vietnam with 4th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, embarked.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/may.htm

1850 - Washington Navy Yard begins work on first castings for the Dahlgren guns
1917 - USS Ericsson fires first torpedo of war
1944 - During preparations for the invasion of Saipan an accidental ordnance blast on LST 353 sets off cataclysmic ammunition explosions at West Loch, Pearl Harbor, killing 163 and injuring 396. Six tank landing ships (LST-39, LST-43, LST-69, LST-179, LST-353, LST-480), three tank landing craft (LCT-961, LCT-963, LCT-983), and 17 track landing vehicles (LVTs) are destroyed in explosions and fires.
1964 - The initiation of the standing carrier presence at Yankee Station in the South China Sea.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmay.htm

1969 : Military spokesman defends "Hamburger Hill" - A U.S. military command spokesman in Saigon defends the battle for Ap Bia Mountain as having been necessary to stop enemy infiltration and protect the city of Hue. The spokesman stated that the battle was an integral part of the policy of "maximum pressure" that U.S. forces had been pursuing for the prior six months, and confirmed that no orders had been received from President Nixon to modify that basic strategy. On May 20, the battle, described in the American media as the battle for "Hamburger Hill," had come under attack in Congress from Senator Kennedy (D-Massachusetts), who described the action as "senseless and irresponsible." On May 22 in Phu Bai, South Vietnam, Maj. Gen. Melvin Zais, commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division that took "Hamburger Hill," responded to continuing media criticism by saying that his orders had been "to destroy enemy forces" in the A Shau Valley and that he had not received any other orders to reduce casualties by avoiding battles.
source: http://www.history.com/tdih.do?

1863 - American Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson – Union forces begin to lay siege to the Confederate-controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana.
1941 - 950 miles off the coast of Brazil, the freighter SS Robin Moor becomes the first United States ship sunk by a GermanU-boat.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_21

1941: The first U.S. ship, the S.S. Robin Moor, is sunk by a U-boat.
1951: The U.S. Eighth Army counterattacks to drive the Communist Chinese and North Koreans out of South Korea.
source: http://www.historynet.com/today_in_history?tihMonth=5&tihDay=21&tdih=GO

:bravo:
​
 
May 22
334 B.C. Battle of Granicus. Alexander the Great defeats the Persians led by Darius III
1455 1st Battle of St. Albans
1809 Battle of Aspern-Essling 2nd day
1863 Union troops launch another unsucsessfull attack on Vicksburg, Miss. Gen. Grant decides on conventional siege.
1968 US sub USS Scorpion sinks in the Atlantic
 
May 23
1430 Joan of Arc captured
1568 Battle of Heiligerlee begins the 80 Years War
1706 Battle of Ramillies
1862 Battle of Front Royal, Va. Battle of Lewisburg, Va
1864 Battle of Jericho Mills, Va
1939 US sub USS Squalus sinks off New Hampshire
 
May 25
1085 Spain takes Toledo from the Moors
1862 Battle of Winchester, Va
1864 Battle of New Hope Church, Ga
1865 20 tons of gun powder explode in a warehouse in Mobile. Ala.
1940 Battle of Dunkirk begins
1982 HMS Covenrty & MV Atlantic Conveyor sunk in Argintine air strike.
 
May 26
451 Battle of Avarayr
1736 Battle of Ackia
1864 Battle of Dallas, Ga
1918 Battle of Sordarapat
1940 Dunkirk evacuations begin
1942 Battle of Bir Hakiem
 
May 27th

1941: In the Atlantic, the crippled German battleship Bismarck is relentlessly bombarded by dozens of British warships, including the battleships Rodney and King George V. After all her guns are silenced, she is sunk by torpedos from the cruiser Dorsetshire; there are only 14 survivors out of a crew of 2,200. In Libya, the Afrikakorps recaptures Halfaya Pass.
1942: Off the northern coat of Norway, Luftwaffe bombers sink 5 ships of Convoy PQ-16.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/may.html

1965:HMAS Sydney's first voyage to Vietnam - HMAS Sydney departs on first voyage to Vietnam with 1RAR embarked.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1813 - War of 1812: In Canada, American forces capture Fort George.
1905 - Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima begins.
1940 - World War II: 97 out of 99 members of a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are massacred while trying to surrender at Dunkirk. The German commander, Captain Fritz Knoechlein, is eventually hanged for war crimes.
1941 - World War II: U.S.President Roosevelt proclaims an "unlimited national emergency".
1942 - World War II: Operation Anthropoid - assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague.
1965 - Vietnam War: United States warships begin bombardments of National Liberation Front targets within South Vietnam for the first time.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_27

1940: British position in Flander’s worsens as King Leopold of Belgium surrenders the remnants of his Army.
1941: Having been reinforced by the 15th Panzer Division, Rommel retakes the Halfaya Pass on Egyptian border. The 10th Indian Division begins to advance north from Basra towards Baghdad. 400 miles west of Brest, the crippled Bismarck is relentlessly bombarded by dozens of British warships, including the battleships Rodney and King George V. After all her guns are silenced, she is sunk by torpedo's from the cruiser Dorsetshire. There are only 110 survivors out of a crew of 2,300. The convoy HX129, becomes the first to have continuous escort protection across the Atlantic. Germans paratroopers take Canea and with it the main British supply point of Suda Bay. This convinces Major General Freyberg VC, that the situation has gone against the British and that he must withdraw from Crete to save what he can.
1942: Japanese Combined Fleet lifts anchor and sets sail for Midway. On the same day, Admiral Nimitz, having been for warned of the impending Japanese attack against Midway by US intelligence who were intercepting Japanese naval signals, issues orders for Task Force 16 (Admiral Spruance) with the carriers Enterprise and Hornet, plus 6 cruisers, 11 destroyers, 2 tankers and 19 submarines, to sail for Midway the next day. The Afrika Korps, having pushed round the British defenses, move northeast. They are engaged by elements of the British 1st and 7th Armoured Divisions. Many tank losses were taken by both sides, although as the battle went on the British armour became increasingly scattered. The Italian Ariete Armoured Division continued to meet stiff resistance from the Free French at Bir Hacheim, while the Italian Trieste Motorised Division further north, found itself grinding through minefields under heavy fire as a result of a navigation error. The siege of Sevastopol rages on, becoming the only incident of a formal siege of a modern fortress being pushed through to final reduction. Sevastopol is the premier port on the Black Sea, and its defenses include three zones of trenches, pillboxes, and batteries. The strongest defenses lie in the middle zone, which includes the heights and the south bank of the Belbek River. Among these hills are "Fort Stalin" on the East and the massive western anchor of "Fort Maxim Gorki I," with its turret of twin 305 mm (12-inch) guns sweeping the length of the Belbek valley. 105,000 men defend this port. Against this the Germans and Romanians range 203,000 men and some of the most powerful siege artillery ever disposed by any army in World War II. Field Marshal Erich von Manstein aims 305 mm, 350 mm, and 420 mm howitzers at the Russians, along with two of the new, stubby "Karl" and "Thor" 600 mm mortars. Also on hand is the 800 mm (31.5-inch) "Big Dora" from Krupp, which has to be transported to position by 60 railway wagons. "Big Dora" is commanded by a major general and a colonel, protected by two flak regiments and periodically fed with a 10,500 lb. shell. Czech patriots shoot Reinhard Heydrich in the suburbs of Prague. His condition is described as critical.
1943: The first British ‘liaison’ team is dropped into Yugoslavia to join up with Tito’s partisans.
1944: Start of the monsoon season bogs down operations in Burma. 12,000 U.S. troops land on Biak in the Schouten Island Group, 350 miles West of Hollandia. MacArthur says, 'this marks the strategic end of the New Guinea campaign'.
1945: Chinese troops are now 25 miles North of Foochow and take Loyaun. The U.S. Sixth Army takes Santa Fe on Luzon.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1944: American General MacArthur lands on Biak Island in New Guinea.
source: http://www.historynet.com/today_in_history
 
May 27
927 Battle of the Bosnian Highlands
1798 Battle of Oulart Hill, Ireland
1812 Battle of La Cronilla
1860 Garibaldi attacks Palermo
1862 Battle of Hanover Courthouse, Va
1863 Union troops unsucsessfully attack Port Hudson, La. At Vicksburg, Miss. Federal fleet attack Confederate fortifications. return fire sinks USS Cincinnati. Gunboat CSS Chattahoochee is sunk by boiler explosion @ Blountstown, Fla on the Apalachicola River. Later repaired & returned to service.
1864 Battle of Pickett's Mills, Ga
1958 1st flight of F-4 Phantom II
 
Last edited:
May 27
US Naval History
1805 - Naval forces capture Derne, Tripoli; raise U.S. flag over foreign soil
1813 - American joint operations against Fort George, Canada
1919 - Navy NC-4 completes trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland to Lisbon, Portugal
​
 
May 28
585 Battle of the Eclipse Eclipse of the Sun occurs during the battle
1588 Spanish Armada sets sail for England
1905 Battle of Tsushima ends
1940 Belguim surrenders. Narvik, Norway recaptured from Germans
1982 Falklands War Battle of Goose Green
 
May 29
363 Battle of Ctesiphon
1167 Battle of Monte Porzio. Battle of Legano
1453 Constantinople falls ending the Byzentine Empire
1780 Battle of Waxhaws
1861 Union troops occupy Newport News, Va
1940 1st flight of the F4U Corsair
1945 1st combat mission of the B-32
 
May 30
70 Siege of Jerusalem Romans breach 2nd wall, defenders retreat to 1st wall.
1431 Joan of Arc burned @ the stake
1434 Battle of Lipany
1814 Treaty of Paris ends War of the 6th Coalition
1862 Confederate troops evacuate Corinth, Miss.
 
May 31
1223 Battle of Kalka River
1862 Battles of Seven Pines & Fair Oaks, Va
1916 naval Battle of Jutland
1942 Japanese mini subs attack Sydney harbor
 
June 1
1204 France takes Rouen
1215 Mongols take Beijing
1679 Battle of Drumclog
1794 naval 3rd Battle of Ushant
1813 "Don't give up the ship!" HMS Shannon captures USS Chesapeake
1862 Battle of Fair Oaks, Va ends
1864 Fighting araound Cold Harbor, Va begins
1918 Battle of Belleau Wood
1939 1st flight FW-190
1941 Battle of Crete ends
 
June 2
455 Vandals start sacking Rome
1098 1st siege of Antioch ends with Crusaders capturing the City
1763 Chippewas capture Ft. Michilimackinac
1865 Gen. Kirby Smith surrenders C.S. Army forces in the Trans-Mississippi area
 
June 3
1861 Battle of Philippi, Va
1864 Battle of Cold Harbor, Va Union Army suffers 7,000 casulties in 1 hour
1865 Ironclad CSS Missouri surrenders on the Red River
1940 Dunkirk evacuation ends
1969 Australian Carrier HMAS Melbourne collides with USS Frank E. Evans cutting Evans in half off Vietnam
1989 Tiannimin Square massacre
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top