Friday 21 June 2019

Today in Military History June 21

June 21 533   A Byzantine expeditionary fleet under Belisarius sails from Constantinople to attack the Vandals in Africa, via Greece and Sicily (approximate date).

June 21  1529   French forces are driven out of northern Italy by Spain at the Battle of Landriano during the War of the League of Cognac.

June 21 1798   Irish Rebellion of 1798: The British Army defeats Irish rebels at the Battle of Vinegar Hill.

June 21 1813   Peninsular War: Wellington defeats Joseph Bonaparte at the Battle of Vitoria.

June 21 1824   Greek War of Independence: Egyptian forces capture Psara in the Aegean Sea.

June 21 1826   Maniots defeat Egyptians under Ibrahim Pasha in the Battle of Vergas.







June 21  1854  
    The first known recipient of the Victoria Cross Charles Davis Lucas( then Boatswains Mateon HMS Hecla in the Baltic, , with two other ships, was bombarding Bomarsund, a fort in the Åland Islands off Finland. The fire was returned from the fort, and at the height of the action a live shell landed on Hecla's upper deck, with its fuse still hissing. All hands were ordered to fling themselves flat on the deck, but Lucas with great presence of mind ran forward and hurled the shell into the sea, where it exploded with a tremendous roar before it hit the water. Thanks to Lucas's action no one on board was killed or seriously wounded by the shell, and accordingly he was immediately promoted to lieutenant by his commanding officer
The medal was presented to him on 26th June 1857 by Queen Victoria.

June 21  1864   American Civil War: The Battle of Jerusalem Plank Road begins.

June 21  1898   The United States captures Guam from Spain.

June 21 1900   Boxer Rebellion. China formally declares war on the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Japan, as an edict issued from the Empress Dowager Cixi.

 June 21 1919   Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet at Scapa Flow, Orkney. The nine sailors killed are the last casualties of World War I.

June  21 1941 2nd French troops occupies Damascus Syria

 June 21 1942   World War II: Tobruk falls to Italian and German forces.
June 21 1942   World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by Japan against the United States mainland.

June 21 1945   World War II: The Battle of Okinawa ends when the organized resistance of Imperial Japanese Army forces collapses in the Mabuni area on the southern tip of the main island.
June 22 217 BC   Battle of Raphia: Ptolemy IV Philopator of Egypt defeats Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid kingdom.

June 21 168 BC   Battle of Pydna: Romans under Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeat Macedonian King Perseus who surrenders after the battle, ending the Third Macedonian War.

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Today in Military History September 12

1897 21 Sikh soldiers of the Army of British India  where killed at  Saragarhi hill fort   https://www.army.mod.uk/news-and-events/news/2020...