This day in military history..

Mar 27
1794 Congress authorizes building of the Frigates USS Chesapeake, Constitution, President, United States, Congress, & Constillation.
1799 USS Constitution recaptures merchantman Neutrality from the French
1809 Battle of Ciudad-Real
1811 Battle of Anholt
1814 Battle of Horsehoe Bend. HMS Hannable, Hebrus & Sparrow capture French Frigates Etoile & Sultane
1836 Goliad Massacre
1865 Mobile Campaign: Union troops begin to besiege forts around the town of Spanish Fort
1886 Geronimo surrenders
1942 Rear Admiral John Wilcox falls overboard from USS Washinton, body not recovered. US Navy "Q Ship" USS Atik sunk by U-23
1943 Australian aircraft sink PT-121 & PT-353 off New Britain. HMS Dasher, a CVE, mysteriously explodes & sinks. Royal Navy tries to cover it up.
1945 Aireal mining of Japanese ports & seaways begins
 
In a decade or so, we will probably be unable to talk with WWII veterans and their history will fade into history books. Already we have lost contact with the survivors of the Sandakan – Ranau death marches.
Perhaps what the prisoners of Sandakan deserve of the future is that each generation asks itself the question – what happened at Sandakan?
 
42RM said:
In a decade or so, we will probably be unable to talk with WWII veterans and their history will fade into history books. Already we have lost contact with the survivors of the Sandakan – Ranau death marches.
Perhaps what the prisoners of Sandakan deserve of the future is that each generation asks itself the question – what happened at Sandakan?
Click to expand...

In total, only six Australian servicemen managed to escape. During the second marches, Gunner Owen Campbell and Bombardier Richard Braithwaite managed to escape into the jungle, where they were assisted by locals and eventually rescued by Allied units.

During July, Private Nelson Short, Warrant Officer William Sticpewich, Private Keith Botterill and Lance Bombardier William Moxham managed to escape from Ranau and were also helped by the local people, who fed them and hid them from the Japanese until the end of the war.

Of the six survivors, only three survived the lingering effects of their ordeal in order to give evidence at various war crimes trials in both Tokyo and Rabaul.

The world was able to receive eyewitness accounts of the crimes and atrocities committed. Captain Hoshijima was found guilty of war crimes and hanged on April 6 1946. Capt Takakuwa and his second-in-charge, Capt Watanabe Genzo, were found guilty of causing the murders and massacres of prisoners-of-war and were hanged and shot on 6 April 1946 and 16 March 1946 respectively.
 
Mar 28
845 Vikings sack Paris & recieve a ransom of 3 1/2 tons of silver to leave
1800 USS Essex becomes the 1st US Navy ship to pass the Cape of Good Hope
1809 Battle of Medelin
1814 naval Battle of Valparaiso HMS Phoebe & Cherub capture USS Essex
1862 Battle of Glorietta Pass, New Mexico Territory
1863 Gunboat USS Diana captured @ Pattersonville, La
1939 Nationalists capture Madrid
1941 Battle of Cape Matapan
1942 St. Nazaire Raid
1951 Battle of Mao Khe
 
Mar 28
1416 Battle of Towton
1847 Siege of Vera Cruz ends
1879 Battle of Kambula
1898 Crew from the US Revenue Cutter Bear finish herding Reindeer 2,000 miles to Point Barrow, Ak to feed 97 iced in Whaler crewmen
1930 Sub HMS L-1 runs aground
1942 HMS Trinidad sinks Destroyer Z-26 & is then damaged by one of her own malfuntioning torpedoes that was going in circles
1967 France launches its 1st SSBN Redoubtable
1973 Last US combat troops leave S. Vietnam. Operation Barrell Roll ends
 
Mar 30
1296 English sack Berwick-upon-Tweed
1865 battles at Hatcher's & Gravelly Run & Five Forks
1939 He-100 sets a speed record of 463 MPH
1941 US Marines land on Johnston & Palmyra Islands to build defences. USS Vincennes departs Simonstown with gold to be deposited in the US
1944 RAF Raid on Nurember consists of 572 Lancasters, 214 Halifaxes & 9 Mosquitos. 95 bombers are lost, RAF's largest loss on an air raid. US Torpedo planes drop mines for the 1st time, in Palau harbor.
1945 Red Army captures Vienna & Gdansk
1972 Vietnam: N. Vietnam begins the Easter Offensive
1982 Royal Marines arrive in Port Stanley
 
Mar 31
1671 HMS Sapphire is run aground in the Isles of Scilly to prevent capture when 4 ships are sighted. The ships turn out to be friendlies & the Officers are Court Martialed & shot for cowardice.
1822 Ottomans massacre the Greek population of Chios after a failed rebellion
1863 Union troops evacuate Jacksonville, Fla. USS Hartford, Albatross & Switzerland run back by the CS batteries @ Grand Gulf
1865 Union cavalry are pushed back @ Dunwiddie Courthouse, but Confederates pull back when large numbers of Union Infantry arrive
1866 Spanish Navy bombards Valpraiso, Chile
1921 R.A.A.F. formed
1942 Japanese invade Christmas Island
1944 Adm. Koga, C-N-C Combined Fleet, is killed in an aircraft crash during a Typhoon
1945 USS Indianapolis damaged in air attacks. German pilot defects with an Me-262, landing @ an American airfield
1992 USS Missouri, last US Battleship, is decommisioned
 
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Lets us all give a salute right now infront of the screen to honor those people.
 
April 1
1318 Scottish(sp?) capture Berwick-upon-Tweed from the English
1572 Sea Beggars(Dutch) capture Brielle from the Spanish
1865 Battle of Five Forks
1917 John Eopolucci is the US Navy's 1st KIA when a U-Boat sinks SS Aztek, he was a Naval Armed Guard on board
1918 R.A.F. formed from Royal Flying Corp & Royal Naval Aviation Service
1924 R.C.A.F. formed
1944 Carriers attack Woleai & Raid Ulithi
1945 US troops invade Okinawa, USS West Virginia & HMS Indomitable damaged in air attacks.
USS Queenfish sinks Awa Maru in dense fog. Awa Maru had been given free passage by the US to deliver supplys to POW Camps. Queenfish's Captain relieved & Court Martialled
1948 E. Germans begin the Berlin Blockade
1969 Harrier enters service with R.A.F.
2001 Chinese fighter collides with US Navy EP-3E & crashes, killing pilot. P-3 is detained by China after an emergency landing.
 
April 2
1755 British capture the Pirate fortress of Suvarnadurg on India's west coast
1781 Frigate USS Alliance captures British Privateers Mars & Minerva
1801 1st naval Battle of Copenhagen
1865 Confederates evacuate Petersburg. The CS Govt abandonds Richmond & the CS Navy destroys the James River Squadron of Ironclads. Battle of Selma, Ala.
1908 HMS Berwick cuts destroyer HMS Tiger in two in a collision.
1941 HMS Ark Royal delivers Hurricanes to Malta
1945 During air attacks off Okinawa USS Franks collides with USS New Jersey & USS Borrie with USS Essex
1982 Argentina invades The Falkland Islands
 
April 3
1799 USS Constitution captures the packet Carteret, a French Prize.
1813 Boats from HMS San Domingo capture Privateers Arab, Lynx, Racer & Dolphin on the Rappahannock River
1865 Union troops occupy Richmond
1942 Japanese attack the Bataan Peninsula
1944 Tirpitz damaged by British Carrier planes
1982 Battle of Grytviken
 
April 4
1655 British destroy 2 batteries & 9 Algerian ships @ Porto Fatima
1776 Continental Navy Frigate Columbus captures HMS Hawk, first capture of Royal Navy ship by US.
1808 HMS Mercury, Alceste & Grasshopper capture 7 Merchantmen & destroy 2 gunboats & force ashore 7 other gunboats near Rota
1854 US Marines & sailors protect US citizens @ Shanghai
1933 Zeppelin USS Akron crashes @ sea, blimp J-3 crashes looking for survivors.
 
April 5
1242 Battle of Lake Piepus
1818 Battle of Maipu
1849 Danish Ship-of-the-line Christian VIII, Frigate Gefion, & steamers Hekla & Greiser attack German batteries @ Eckernford. Christian VIII is damaged & blows up & Gefion surrenders
1862 Siege of Yorktown begins
1918 Japanese troops & Royal Marines land @ Vladisvostok during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War
1942 Japanese Carriers Raid Columbo, Ceylon. HMS Cornwall & Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the Island
1945 Off Okinawa USS Thornton is damaged in a collision with USS Ashtabula & eventually scrapped. USS Nevada is damaged by shore batteries
1992 Siege of Sarajevo begins
 
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April 6
46 B.C. Battle of Thapsus
1250 Battle of Fariskur
1453 Siege of Constantinople begins
1779 Frigates USS Queen of France & Ranger & sloop USS Warren capture 8 British ships
1797 Boats from HMS Miagicienne & Regulus destroy 11 ships & cut out 2 others @ Cape Roxo, San Domingo
1812 Siege of Badajoz ends
1862 Battle of Shiloh begins
1865 Battle of Saylers Creek
1911 Battle of Deciq
1941 Germans invade Yugoslavia & Greece. German air raid on Greek port of Piraeus blows up the ammo ship SS Clan Fraser, wrecking the port
1945 Battle of Slater's Knoll, Bouganville
1968 USS New Jersey reactivated
 
April 7
451 Attila the Hun sacks Metz
1776 USS Lexington captures HMS Edward
1800 HMS Leviathan & Emerald capture Spanish frigates Carmen & Florentina & 11 Merchantmen
1862 Battle of Shiloh ends
1863 US Navy ships exchange fire with Ft. Sumter
1939 Italy invades Albania
1944 USS Champlin rams/sinks U-856
1945 Battle of the East China Sea. IJN Yamato & 5 other IJN ships sunk
1989 Soviet sub Komsomolets sinks
2003 US captures Baghdad
 
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April 8
1740 3 R.N. Ships-of-the-line capture Spanish Princesa 64
1814 R.N. boats destroy 28 ships on the Connecticut River
1862 Confederate troops on Island #10 surrender
1863 Monitor USS Keokuk sinks from damage sustained the previous day in the exchange of fire with Ft. Sumter
1864 Battle of Mansfield
1942 US troops on Bataan surrender, largest surrender in US history. USS Seadragon delivers food to, & evacuated radio and SigInt personnel from, Corrigidor
 
April 9
1241 Battle of Liegnitz
1388 Battle of Nafels
1709 British Channel Squadron defeats French, capturing Glorieux & recapturing HMS Bristol though it sank from damage
1782 Battle of the saintes begins
1864 Battle of Pleasant Hill, La. CSS Squib damages USS Minnesota with a spar torpedo near Newport News
1865 Battle of Appamattox Courthouse, followed by the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Mobile Campaign: Confederates evacuate, & Union troops occupy Ft. McDermett. Union troops capture Ft. Blakely.
1914 1st(?) aireal bombing attack of warships by aircraft
1917 Battle of Arras begins
1940 Gerrmany invades Denmark & Norway
1942 Japanese air raid on Trincomalee. Carrier HMS Hermes & destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk @ sea. PT-59 torpedoes USS Capello in Naragansett Bay
1945 Armored Ship Adm. Scheer sunk
 
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april 10
1741 Battle of Mollwitz
1862 Battle of Ft. Pulaski begins
1868 Battle of Arogee
1940 Light Crusier Konigsberg sunk @ Bergen by air raid
1941 USS Niblack depth carges U-Boat after picking up survivors from sunk ship. US is not @ war with Germany @ this time!
1963 USS Thresher sinks
 
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