This day in military history..

March 8th

1944: The US 8th Air Force carries out another heavy attack against Berlin.
1945: Beginning of secret negotiations at Bern, Switzerland, between representatives of the American OSS (Allan Dulles) and the German High Command in Italy (General von Vietinghoff and SS General Wolff) for an early surrender of German forces in Italy. In the East, the Red Army penetrates into the southern suburbs of Breslau.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1942: Lae and Salamaua were occupied by the Japanese to provide defensive depth for their important air and sea base at Rabaul.
1942: 7th Division AIF arrives in Adelaide from the Middle East. Elements of the Division had been sent to Java where they soon became prisoners of the Japanese.source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1942: The Dutch surrender to Japanese forces on Java. Japan captures Rangoon, Burma.
1943: Japanese troops counter-attack American forces on Hill 700 in Bougainville in a battle that will last five days.
1965: 3,500 United States Marines arrive in South Vietnam, becoming the first American combat troops in Vietnam.
1966: Australia announces it is going to substantially increase its number of troops in Vietnam.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_8

1901: Halifax Nova Scotia - Samuel Benfield Steele 1849-1919 commanding Lord Strathcona's Horse, arrives back in Halifax with his regiment after fighting the Boers in South Africa.
1993: Somali Republic - Canadian Navy supply ship HMCS Preserver heads home after three-month tour of Somalia; her three Sea King helicopters airlifted 430 tonnes of supplies into Mogadishu.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Mar&day=08

1975: South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu orders the withdrawal of South Vietnamese forces from the Central Highlands. In late January 1975, just two years after the cease-fire had been established by the Paris Peace Accords, the North Vietnamese launched Campaign 275. The objective of this campaign was the capture of Ban Me Thuot in the Central Highlands. The battle began on March 4 and the North Vietnamese quickly encircled the city. As it became clear that the communists would take the city and probably the entire Darlac province, Thieu decided to withdraw his forces in order to protect the more critical populous areas. Accordingly, he ordered his forces in the Central Highlands to pull back from their positions. Abandoning Pleiku and Kontum, the South Vietnamese forces began to move toward the sea, but what began as an orderly withdrawal soon turned into panic. The South Vietnamese forces rapidly fell apart. The North Vietnamese were successful in both the Central Highlands and further north at Quang Tri, Hue, and Da Nang. The South Vietnamese soon collapsed as a cogent fighting force and the North Vietnamese continued the attack all the way to Saigon. South Vietnam surrendered unconditionally on April 30.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih

1940: Heavy fighting is reported at the outskirts to Viipuri, as the Red Army continues its attempt to capture the city. This prompts the Finns to seek an immediate armistice, which the Russians refuse. Therefore the Finnish delegation in Moscow is instructed to sue for peace.
1942: Rangoon falls to the Japanese as the British forces escape to the north. The 17th Indian Division was now holding the Irrawaddy area and the 1st Burma Division the upper Sittang valley. The Chinese Expeditionary Force were farther north, with the Fifth Chinese Army defending Mandalay and the 6th Chinese Army was at Toungoo and defending the Burmese province of Shan.
1943: The RAF use GEE for the first time for target marking during a raid on Essen. The technique was known as 'Shaker' and consisted of aircraft marking the target with flares, allowing aircraft further behind to see the target more clearly. However the results of the raid were disappointing.
1944: The US 8th Air Force carries out another heavy attack against Berlin.
1945: The Red Army penetrates into the southern suburbs of Breslau. Beginning of secret negotiations at Bern, Switzerland, between representatives of the American OSS (Allan Dulles) and the German High Command in Italy (General von Vietinghoff and SS General Wolff) for an early surrender of German forces in Italy. British and Canadian troops involved in Operation 'Blockbuster' enter Xanten on the Rhine after several days of heavy fighting, further to the South, U.S. troops enter Bonn.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1862 - Ironclad ram CSS Virginia destroys USS Cumberland and Congress
1945 - Phyllis Daley becomes first African-American Ensign, Navy Nurse Corps
1958 - Battleship USS Wisconsin (BB-64) is decommissioned, leaving the Navy without an active battleship for the first time since 1895.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

March 7 - April 4
Operation RIPPER. Drives the Communists back to the 38th Parallel and retakes Seoul. Seven U.S. divisions participate (U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division, 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 24th, and 25th Infantry Divisions, and the 1st Marine Division.)
 
March 12th

1900: Australians arrive at Bloemfontein, South Africa - Members of the New South Wales Mounted Rifles, under Lord Roberts, reached Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State, under Roberts' strategy of taking the war into the Boer Republics.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

538: Witiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city in the hands of the victorious Roman general, Belisarius.
1938: Anschluss: German troops occupy Austria; annexation declared the following day.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_12

1940: A peace treaty is concluded between Finland and Russia, that formally ends the "Winter War". The terms of this treaty are harsh for Finland, who are forced to cede the entire Karelia Isthmus, and the city of Viipuri, which is renamed Vyborg. The also lose parts of eastern Karelia, Lake Ladoga, the Rybachiy Peninsula and the Petsamo area. The also have to grant the Russian a 30 year lease of the Hangö Peninsula. However, the ever 'generous' Russians drop their recognition of the Kuusinen puppet government in Moscow. The British finalise their plans for the invasion of Norway. Landings are to be made at Narvik and Trondheim in order to secure the rail line to Sweden and the large iron-ore fields.
1942: US troops occupy New Caledonia. The British evacuate their garrison from the Andaman Islands, just off the Burmese coast south of Rangoon. Convoy PQ-12 arrives unscathed at Murmansk, earning the distinction of being the last PQ convoy to sail without losses.
1943: German troops evacuate Vyazma.
1944: The Swedes announce an investigation of the ‘mysterious object which crashed out of the sky’ (a ‘flying torpedo’ V1) from a German research station, 40 miles away.
1945: RAF Bomber Command sets another new record for single target, when 4,851 tons are dropped on Dortmund.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1917 - All American merchant ships to be armed in war zones
1942 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt designates Admiral Ernest J. King to serve as the Chief of Naval Operations, as well as the Commander-in-Chief, United States Fleet to which he was appointed on 30 December 1941.
1956 - In first overseas deployment of Navy missile squadron, VA-83 left on USS Intrepid
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm
 
March 13th

1941: The Luftwaffe carries out heavy raids against the British ports of Glasgow and Liverpool.
1942: The Red Army launches an attack against Heeresgruppe B (von Manstein) from the Kerch peninsula in the eastern Crimea.
1944: The Red Army recaptures Cherson at the mouth of the Dnestr river on the Black Sea.
1945: The Soviet 1st Belorussian Front (Zhukov) captures the Oder fortress of Küstrin, 70 miles east of Berlin, while the 2nd Belorussian Front (Rokossovsky) launches an offensive against the Braunsberg pocket south of Königsberg. Following a 600-bomber raid by the US 8th Air Force, the RAF (with 800 bombers) attacks Swinemünde north of Stettin, a major port of disembarkation for German escapees from the East, causing heavy damage to the docks and killing hundreds of refugees.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1943: Japanese reconnaissance flight over Darwin - In addition to the 64 air raids on Darwin the Japanese made numerous reconnaissance flights over northern Australia.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1895: Award of first submarine building contract to John P. Holland Torpedo Boat Co.
1917: Armed merchant ships authorized to take action against U-boats.
1959: Naval Research Laboratory takes first ultraviolet pictures of sun.
1963: USS Albany (CG-10) and aircraft from Navy Airborne Early Warning Squadron Four from Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico aid five ill crewmembers of Norwegian freighter Jotunfjell.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1884 - The siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins (ends on January 26, 1885).
1900 - Boer War: British forces occupy Bloemfontein, Orange Free State.
1940 - Russo-Finnish Winter War ended.
1943 - World War II: In Bougainville, Japanese troops end their assault on American forces at Hill 700.
1954 - Battle of Điện Biên Phủ: Viet Minh forces attack the French.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_13

1915: British forces end their three-day assault on the German trenches near the village of Neuve Chapelle in northern France, the first offensive launched by the British in the spring of 1915.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih

1940: Hostilities between the Soviet Union and Finland cease. The Finns have lost 25,000 killed and 45,000 wounded, while the Russians have lost an estimated 200,000 killed and an unknown number of wounded.
1941: The Luftwaffe carries out a heavy raid against Clydebank, near Glasgow. 35,000 of the towns population of 47,000 are made homeless.
1942: The Red Army launches an major attack against Army Group B from the Kerch peninsula in the eastern Crimea.
1943: A Chinese counter-attack throws the Japanese back across the Yangtze River.
1944: British troops take the ‘Golden Fortress’ (Razabil) in Arakan, Burma. U.S. submarine Sandlance sinks a Japanese troopship convoy en route to the Marianas. The Russians announce the capture of Kherson in the southern Ukraine.
1945: A surprise armoured thrust by the British in central Burma, cuts off 3,000 Japanese in Mandalay. Following a 600-bomber raid by the US 8th Air Force, the RAF with 800 bombers attacks Swinemünde North of Stettin, a major port of disembarkation for German refugees from eastern Germany, causing heavy damage to the docks and killing hundreds of civilians. The 2nd Belorussian Front launches an offensive against the Braunsberg pocket to the South of Königsberg.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm
 
Beware the ides of March

March 15th

1944: The Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front breaks through German defenses and reaches the Bug river, a 1941 German starting line for Operation Barbarossa.
1945: The Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front begins an offensive in the Ratibor area of Upper Silesia. In the West, attacks by troops of the US First Army to expand the Remagen bridgehead meet with little success.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1943 - Numbered fleet system established
1947 - Ensign John W. Lee becomes first African American officer commissioned in regular Navy. He was assigned to USS Kearsage.
1957 - Airship ZPG-2 lands NAS Key West after 11 day non-stop flight across the Atlantic
1966 - Establishment of River Squadron Five in Vietnam
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1940:First two women from the Voluntary Aid Detachments organisation enlist in the AIF - Most Voluntary Aids transferred after August 1942 into the new Australian Army Women's Medical Service. Over 200 Voluntary Aids served in the Middle East and Ceylon during the Second World War.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

933: After a ten-year truce, German King Henry I defeats a Hungarian army at the Battle of Riade near the river Unstrut.
1311: Battle of Halmyros: The Catalan Company defeats Walter V of Brienne to take control of the Duchy of Athens, a Crusader state in Greece.
1781: American Revolutionary War: Battle of Guilford Courthouse - Near present-day Greensboro, North Carolina, 1,900 British troops under General Charles Cornwallis defeat an American force numbering 4,400.
1939: World War II: Nazi troops occupy the remaining part of Bohemia and Moravia; Czechoslovakia ceases to exist.
1943: World War II: Third Battle of Kharkov - the Germans retake the city of Kharkov from the Soviet armies in bitter street fighting.
1944: World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino - Allied aircraft bomb the Nazi-held monastery and stage an assault.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_15

1744: France declares war on Britain, in War of the Austrian Succession; called King William's War in North America; to Oct. 14, 1748.
1943: Freetown, Sierra Leone - Canadian Pacific steamer, Empress of Canada, torpedoed by German U-Boat and sunk off the coast of West Africa, with the loss of 400 lives.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Mar&day=15

1941: The British 'Northern Force' having concentrated the 4th and 5th Indian Divisions begin their offensive for Italian fortress of Keren in Eritrea.
1942: U-503 is sunk near the Grand Banks, off Newfoundland, by another aircraft from the US squadron, VP-82.
1944: The Japanese begin crossing the Chindwin for an advance against Kohima. The U.S. 1st Cavalry Division lands on Manus in the Admiralty Islands. The heaviest RAF raid of war is made against Stuttgart, with 3,000 tons dropped from 863 bombers, for the loss of only 36 planes. The allies pound Cassino, dropping 1,250 tons of bombs and firing 195,969 shells in 7 and a half hours, but the troops make slow headway.
1945: U.S. troops report slow progress on Luzon in the Philippines.

Gen. Harold K. Johnson, Army Chief of Staff, reports on his recent visit to Vietnam to President Lyndon B. Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. He admitted that the recent air raids ordered by President Johnson had not affected the course of the war and said he would like to assign an American division to hold coastal enclaves and defend the Central Highlands. General Johnson also advocated creating a four-division force of Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) and U.S. troops to patrol the Demilitarized Zone along the border separating North and South Vietnam and Laos. Nothing ever came of General Johnson's recommendation on the SEATO troops, but President Johnson ordered the 173rd Airborne Brigade to Vietnam in May 1965 and followed it with the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in September of the same year. These forces, along with the first contingent of U.S. Marines--which had arrived in March--were only the first of a massive American build up. By 1969, there were more than 540,000 U.S. troops in South Vietnam.
source: http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&displayDate=3/15&categoryId=vietnamwar
 
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Happy Saint Patrick's Day to all!

March 17th - Happy Saint Patrick's Day to all!

1945: The US Third Army (Patton) captures Koblenz on the Rhine. The Ludendorff bridge at Remagen, seized by US troops on March 7, suddenly collapses, killing dozens of US Army engineers working to reenforce it.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1917: Australians occupy Bapaume, Western Front - Originally the objective for the first day of the Somme campaign, Bapaume was occupied by the 5th Division after fighting rearguards from the German retreat of early 1917.
1942: General MacArthur flies to Darwin - Having left the Philippines after the Japanese invasion, General MacArthur was appointed to command the newly created South West Pacific Area. Australia became the base from which he would launch offensive action against the Japanese in the Pacific.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1898 - USS Holland, first practical submarine, launched
1942 - United States Naval Forces Europe established to plan joint operations with British
1959 - USS Skate ( SSN-578 ) surfaces at North Pole
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

45 BC - In his last victory, Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger in the Battle of Munda.
624 - Muhammad wins a key victory over his Meccan adversaries in the Battle of Badr.
1776 - American Revolution: British forces evacuate Boston, Massachusetts after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery overlooking the city.
1913 - The Uruguayan Air Force is founded.
1939 - Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945): The Battle of Nanchang between the Kuomintang and the Japanese breaks out.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_17

1765: Quebec City - First Canadian St. Patrick's Day celebrated by Irish troops serving in the British Army at Quebec.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Mar&day=17

1863: Battle of Kelly's Ford, Virginia - Union cavalry attack Confederate cavalry at Kelly's Ford, Virginia. Although the Yankees were pushed back and failed to take any ground, the engagement proved that the Federal troopers could hold their own against their Rebel counterparts.
source: http://www.history.com/tdih.do

1941: The 11th African Division captures Jijiga in central Abyssinia, having advanced 744 miles up the Italian built Strada Imperiale in just seventeen days.
1943: The Japanese attack British positions in Arakan, western Burma.
1944: The British blow up the Manipur bridge South of Imphal. New Zealand troops take Cassino railway station.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm
 
March 18th

1940: Hitler and Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass in northern Italy, Mussolini agreeing to Italy's entry into the war "at an opportune moment".
1945: In the East, the Soviet 2nd Belorussian Front (Rokossovsky) captures the fortress city of Kolberg after 68,000 civilian refugees have been evacuated by sea. The US Third Army captures Boppard on the Rhine.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1915: Allied fleet attempts to force the Dardanelles - This was the second allied attempt to force a naval break through of the Turkish defences in the Dardanelles.
1943: Admiral Yamamoto, Imperial Japanese Navy, killed - American Intelligence decoded signals that provided the timetable for Yamamoto's flight. His aircraft was intercepted and shot down near Bougainville by American Lightnings from Guadalcanal. Yamamoto, Commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, was the architect of the attack on Pearl Harbour.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1945 - Carriers begin 3 month Okinawa Campaign by destroying aircraft on Kyushu, Japan
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1915 - World War I: Massive naval attack in Battle of Gallipoli. Three battleships are sunk during a failed British & French naval attack on the Dardanelles.
2003 - US enters war in Iraq. About $1 billion was taken from Iraq's Central Bank by Saddam Hussein and his family, just hours before the United States began bombing Iraq, biggest bank robbery in history.
source: [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_18"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_18[/URL]

1942: Canadian forces establish unified military commands in Atlantic, Newfoundland, Pacific areas. Dawson Creek, BC - US Army Engineers start building Alcan (Alaska) Highway to supply the North West in case of Japanese invasion.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=Mar&day=18

1942: US forces occupy the New Hebrides in order to help protect Australia's west coast from direct Japanese invasion.
1943: Chindit forces cross the Irrawaddy in Burma.
1944: A New Zealand tank attack on Monte Cassino is repulsed, with the loss of all 17 tanks. The Germans conduct their heaviest night raid on London since 1941 as the Luftwaffe intensifies the ‘Little Blitz’.
1945: The US Navy hits Kure naval base in the Inland Sea, Southwest of Tokyo. Kolberg falls to the Polish 1st Army, of the 2nd Belorussian Front, although the Germans manage to evacuate 80,000 refugees and wounded first.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm
 
March 24th

1941: In Libya, the newly arrived Afrikakorps under Generaloberst Rommel begins an offensive and recaptures El Agheila, the farthest point reached by the British 8th Army (Wavell) in February.
1944: The Luftwaffe attacks London with 90 medium bombers (He-111s and Ju-88s), while the RAF bombs Berlin with 810 heavy Lancasters. In Italy, the US Fifth Army's (Clark) bridgehead at Anzio is bombarded by German heavy long-range guns (Screaming Mimies) and Luftwaffe aircraft using guided bombs, causing severe casualties in men, ships, and equipment. Persistent US and British attacks against the Gustav Line at Cassino are repulsed by the German defenders.
1945: In a major effort (Operation Plunder), units of the British Second Army (Dempsey) cross the lower Rhine at Wesel, followed by 40,000 US and British airborne troops (Operation Varsity). The US Third Army captures Speyer and Ludwigshafen on the upper Rhine. In the East, the 1st Ukrainian Front captures Neisse in Upper Silesia.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1901: Veldfontein - Australians capture Boer convoy and guns at Veldfontein 1942: Port Moresby bombed by Japanese - The Japanese had hoped to occupy Port Moresby as a base from which to cut off shipping to Eastern Australia. Their defeat in the Battle of the Coral Sea thwarted the planned naval attack and invasion against Port Moresby.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1918: German forces cross the Somme River, achieving their first goal of the major spring offensive begun three days earlier on the Western Front. Operation “Michael,” engineered by the German chief of the general staff, Erich von Ludendorff, aimed to decisively break through the Allied lines on the Western Front and destroy the British and French forces. The offensive began on the morning of March 21, 1918, with an aggressive bombardment.
1944: Wingate dies in Burma - Maj. Gen. Orde Wingate, leader of the 77th Indian Brigade, also called the Chindits, dies in a transport plane crash. He was 41 years old.
1975: North Vietnamese launch "Ho Chi Minh Campaign" - The North Vietnamese "Ho Chi Minh Campaign" begins. Despite the 1973 Paris Peace Accords cease fire, the fighting had continued between South Vietnamese forces and the North Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam. In December 1974, the North Vietnamese launched a major attack against the lightly defended province of Phuoc Long, located north of Saigon along the Cambodian border. They successfully overran the provincial capital at Phuoc Binh on January 6, 1975. President Richard Nixon had repeatedly promised South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu that the United States would come to the aid of South Vietnam if the North Vietnamese committed a major violation of the Peace Accords. However, by the time the communists had taken Phuoc Long, Nixon had resigned from office and his successor, Gerald Ford, was unable to convince a hostile Congress to make good on Nixon's promises to Saigon.
source: http://www.history.com/tdih.do?

1765 - American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain passes the Quartering Act that requires the 13 American colonies to house British troops.
1944 - In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 prisoners begin breaking out of Stalag Luft III.
1999 - Kosovo War: NATO commences air bombardment against Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country. source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_24

1945: Netherlands - Canadian Corporal Fred Topham wins VC for bravery as Canadian paratroopers and air support help Canadian Army cross the Rhine in Operation Varsity; start of the liberation of the Netherlands.
SOURCE: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Mar&day=24
 
March 25th

1941: Yugoslavia joins the Tripartite Pact.
1945: The British Second Army captures Wesel which has been nearly 100% destroyed by Allied bombing.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1945: Chowne, VC - Lieutenant Chowne, 2/2 Battalion AIF, originally from Sydney, New South Wales, wins the Victoria Cross posthumously at Dagua, New Guinea. source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1802 - The Treaty of Amiens is signed as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace" between France and United Kingdom.
1821 - Greece declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire, beginning the Greek War of Independence.
1865 - American Civil War: In Virginia, Confederate forces capture Fort Stedman from the Union in a bloody battle.
1971 - Bangladesh Liberation War: Beginning of Operation Searchlight of Pakistan Army against East Pakistani civilians.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_25

1968: Johnson meets with the "Wise Men" - After being told by Defense Secretary Clark Clifford that the Vietnam War is a "real loser," President Johnson, still uncertain about his course of action, decides to convene a nine-man panel of retired presidential advisors. The group, which became known as the "Wise Men," included the respected generals Omar Bradley and Matthew Ridgway, distinguished State Department figures like Dean Acheson and George Ball, and McGeorge Bundy, National Security advisor to both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. After two days of deliberation the group reached a consensus: they advised against any further troop increases and recommended that the administration seek a negotiated peace. Although Johnson was initially furious at their conclusions, he quickly came to believe that they were right. On March 31, Johnson announced on television that he was restricting the bombing of North Vietnam to the area just north of the Demilitarized Zone. Additionally, he committed the United States to discuss peace at any time or place. Then Johnson announced that he would not pursue reelection for the presidency. source: http://www.historychannel.com/

1942: US troops occupy the Society Islands.
1944: Manstein persuades Hitler to allow the First Panzer Army to break out to the west of Lvov, not south.
1945: The U.S. Navy begins the pre-invasion bombardment of Okinawa firing more than half a million shells and rockets in a week. Greek partisans temporarily take over Samos Island from the Italian garrison. The U.S. First Army breaks out of the Remagen bridgehead.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1813 - USS Essex takes Neryeda, first capture by U.S. Navy in Pacific
1898 - Assist. SECNAV Theodore Roosevelt proposes Navy investigate military application of Samuel Langley's flying machine, beginning naval aviation.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm
 
March 28th

1940: The British War Cabinet decides to lay mines in neutral Norwegian waters and to establish military bases on the coast of Norway.
1941: In the Mediterranean, the British Navy attacks Italian naval forces at Cape Matapan, Greece, and sinks three cruisers and one destroyer.
1942: Under the new tactical doctrine of area saturation bombing, introduced by Air Vice Marshal Harris, the RAF launches a heavy incendiary attack (234 bombers) against Lübeck on the Baltic that devastates 265 acres of the city.
1944: The Red Army recaptures Nikolaev on the Black Sea and enters Rumanian territory.
1945: Argentina declares war against Germany. The US Third Army captures Limburg on the Lahn. In the East, the 1st Belorussian Front captures Gotenhafen north of Danzig. Hitler replaces General Guderian with General Krebs as chief of the OKH.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1918:Sergeant S.R. McDougall, VC. - Sergeant S.R. McDougall, 47th Battalion, originally from Recherche, Tasmania, wins the Victoria Cross at Dernancourt.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1794 - Allies under the prince of Coburg defeated French forces at Le Cateau.
1809 - Peninsular War: In the Battle of Medelin the France defeats Spain.
1854 - Crimean War: France declares war on Russia.
1860 - First Taranaki War: The Battle of Waireka begins.
1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Glorieta Pass - In New Mexico, Union forces succeed in stopping the Confederate invasion of New Mexico territory. The battle begun on March 26.
1942: In occupied France, British naval forces raid the German-occupied port of St. Nazaire.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_28

1800 - Essex becomes first U.S. Navy vessel to pass Cape of Good Hope
1814 - HMS Phoebe and Cherub capture USS Essex off Valparaiso, Chile. Before capture, Essex had captured 24 British prizes during the War of 1812.
1848 - USS Supply reaches the Bay of Acre, anchoring under Mount Carmel near the village of Haifa, during expedition to explore the Dead Sea and the River Jordan.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1942: In response to General Stilwell's request for a British counter-attack to relieve the pressure on Chinese forces around Toungoo, Alexander orders the 1st Burma Corps to attack at Paungde and Prome in the Irrawaddy valley. Under the new tactical doctrine of area saturation bombing, introduced by Air Vice Marshal Harris, the RAF launches a heavy incendiary attack (234 bombers) against Lübeck on the Baltic that devastates 265 acres of the old city. The RAF lost 13 aircraft and from one of these the Germans were able to obtain their first specimen of the GEE equipment. In retaliation for the raid on Lübeck, Hitler orders the Luftwaffe to bomb historic British towns and cities.
1943: The British First Army goes onto the offensive in northern Tunisia.
1944: Merrill’s ‘Marauders’ begin a 10-day defensive action against 1,300 Japanese at Nhpum Ga Ridge. The Russians recapture Nikolaev on the Black Sea and enter Romanian territory.
1945: The 1st Belorussian Front captures Gotenhafen (Gdynia) north of Danzig, along with 9,000 prisoners, after a long struggle. Hitler replaces General Guderian with General Krebs as chief of OKH. The British Second Army begin its drive towards the Elbe as the U.S. First Army captures Marburg, 60 miles Northeast of Koblenz. The US Third Army captures Limburg on the Lahn.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

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March 29th

1945: The US Third Army (Patton) captures Frankfurt am Main. In Hungary, the Red Army seizes the oilfields south of Komorn, the last source of petroleum for the German war effort.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1885:New South Wales contingent arrive in Sudan - New South Wales' offer to send a contingent to the Sudan was a demonstration of the depth of imperial sentiment in colonial Australia.
1941:Battle of Matapan, Greece _ HMA ships Perth, Vendetta and Stuart were among 13 Allied ships involved in the battle which saw the loss of five Italian ships and 1,230 men. Victory at Matapan gave the Allies sea control of the Eastern Mediterranean until the end of the campaigns in Greece and Crete.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1461: Wars of the Roses: Battle of Towton - Edward of York defeats Queen Margaret to become King Edward IV of England.
1847: Mexican-American War: United States forces led by General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege.
1865: American Civil War: Battle of Appomattox Court House begins.
1879: Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.
1973: Vietnam War: The last U.S. combat soldiers leave South Vietnam.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_29

1954 - Carrier aircraft began reconnaissance near Dien Bien Phu, Indochina
1960 - Launch of first fully integrated Fleet Ballistic Missile from USS Observation Island
1973 - Naval Advisory Group and Naval forces, Vietnam disestablished and last U.S. prisoners of war left Vietnam.
1975 - Evacuation of Danang by sea began.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm
 
March 30th

1941: In Libya, the Afrikakorps resumes its offensive against the British 8th Army.
1945: On the Oder front, German troops of Heeresgruppe Weichsel (Heinrici) evacuate their last remaining bridgehead at Wollin N of Stettin.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1944 - First use of torpedo squadrons from carriers to drop aerial mines (Palau Harbor)
1972 - Easter Offensive began in Vietnam
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1965: A bomb explodes in a car parked in front of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, virtually destroying the building and killing 19 Vietnamese, 2 Americans, and 1 Filipino; 183 others were injured. Congress quickly appropriated $1 million to reconstruct the embassy. Although some U.S. military leaders advocated special retaliatory raids on North Vietnam, President Lyndon B. Johnson refused.
source: http://www.history.com/

1939 - First flight of the Australian C.A.C. CA-16 Wirraway.
1940 - Sino-Japanese War: Japan declares Nanking to be the capital of a new Chinese puppet government, nominally controlled by Wang Ching-wei.
1945 - World War II: Soviet Union forces invade Austria and take Vienna, Polish and Soviet forces liberate Gdańsk.
1945 - World War II: a defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1 to Americans.
1972 - Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_March

1644: Montreal Quebec - Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve 1612-1676 defeats a large band of marauding Iroquois on the site of the Place d'Armes; aided by force of 30 settlers; they had massacred several habitant families.
1885: Battleford Saskatchewan - Cree chief Poundmaker [Pitikwahanapiwiyin] 1826-1886 attacks and surrounds Battleford with 200 warriors; local settlers forced to seek shelter in NWMP barracks for a month. A formidable soldier, Poundmaker had participated in the signing of Treaty 6, and in 1881 had guided the Marquis of Lorne from Battleford to Calgary. But he was distressed at the treatment given the Cree people, and had agitated for fulfillment of the promises made under Treaty.
1972: Halifax Nova Scotia - Last daily rum ration issued to Canadian naval personnel.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Mar&day=30

1942: The Allies formally divide the Pacific theatre into two commands. General MacArthur takes control of the South-West Pacific Command based in Australia and covering the Philippines, new Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Dutch East Indies. The second command covered the remainder of the Pacific and came under the control of Admiral Nimitz, who was based at Pearl Harbor. His Pacific Ocean Command was then sub divided in to three, which were the North, Central and South Pacific Areas. The 6th Chinese Army abandons Toungoo, and fails to destroy the bridge over the river Sittang as well. This leaves the way to the Chinese border wide open for the Japanese Army. The abandonment of Toungoo also exposed 1st Burma Corps left flank, whose attacks in the Prome area had been turned back by the Japanese. It was therefore forced to withdraw towards the Yenangyuang oilfields.
1942: The RAF make a second unsuccessful attempt to sink the Tirpitz while in port at Trondheim.
1943: Elements of the Eighth Army break through at the Gabes Pass, over 100 miles into Tunisia and heads North.
1944: The siege of Imphal begins, as the Japanese cut the road to the North. The RAF suffers its heaviest losses in single raid when 96 bombers (600 aircrew) out of 795 are shot down during a raid on Nuremberg. Kleist and Manstein are sacked by Hitler and replaced by Schorner and Model.
1945: Russians troops finally capture Danzig, along with 45 U-boats and 10,000 prisoners. Breslau and Glogau are surrounded, 180 miles South East of Berlin. Russian troops cross the Austrian border to the North of Koszeg. German troops of Army Group Weichsel evacuate their last remaining bridgehead at Wollin to the North of Stettin. The U.S. First Army begins a 3 day battle for Paderborn.
 
March 31st

1945: In the Southeast, the Red Army enters German territory near Sopron in Hungary, while capturing Ratibor in Upper Silesia. In the West, the US Third Army reaches Siegen 20 miles east of the Rhine.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1921: Formation of the Royal Australian Air Force - The Australian Air Force became the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) on 31 August 1921.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/mar.htm

1854 - Commodore Matthew Perry negotiates Treaty of Kanagawa to open trade between U.S. and Japan
1971 - Poseidon (C-3) missile becomes operational when USS James Madison began her 3rd patrol carrying 16 tactical Poseidon missiles.
1992 - USS Missouri (BB-63), the last active American battleship is decommissioned.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1942 - In World War II, Japanese forces invade Christmas Island, then a British possession.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_31
 
April 1st

1945: In the East, bitter fighting rages in the western suburbs of the fortress city of Breslau. In the Southeast, the Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front (Tolbukhin) reaches Wiener Neustadt in its advance toward Vienna. In the West, the US Ninth Army (Simpson) reaches Lippstadt, thus trapping 300,000 German troops of Heeresgruppe B (Model) in the socalled Ruhr pocket.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/april.html

1921First AIF disbandedDuring the four years of the First World War the first AIF gained a reputation for military prowess remains very much in the consciousness of Australians to the present day.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/apr.htm

1893 - Navy General Order 409 of 25 February 1893 establishes the rate of Chief Petty Officer as of this date.
1942 - First Naval Air Transportation Service (NATS) squadron for Pacific operations commissioned
1966 - The command, US Naval Forces Vietnam established
1967 - Helicopter squadron HAL 3 activated at Vung Tau
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesapr.htm

1572 - in the Eighty Years' War, the Watergeuzen capture Brielle from the Spaniards, gaining the first foothold on land for what would become the Dutch Republic.
1865 - American Civil War: Battle of Five Forks - In Siege of Petersburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive.
1924 - The Royal Canadian Air Force is formed.
1945 - World War II: Operation Iceberg - United States troops land on Okinawa in the last campaign of the war.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_1

1865 : Richmond captured - The Rebel capital of Richmond falls to the Union, the most significant sign that the Confederacy is nearing its final days.
1918: the Allied Supreme War Council formally confers the post of commander in chief on the Western Front to General Ferdinand Foch.
source: http://www.history.com/tdih.do

1941: General Platt and his 'Northern Force' capture Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. A pro-axis coup, led by Raschid Ali seizes power in Iraq.
1942: Japanese begin landing in Dutch New Guinea. The Japanese force the Chinese out of Toungoo, north of Rangoon.
1945: The U.S. Tenth Army, with 1,457 ships in support, invades Okinawa which is 325 miles from Japan. 60,000 troops land unopposed and establish an 8-mile bridgehead. The 3rd Ukrainian Front capture Sopron in Hungary, a vital road junction between Budapest and Vienna and also reaches Wiener Neustadt as it continues its advance toward Vienna. The fighting in Breslau continues. The U.S. First and Ninth Armies link up at Lippstadt cutting off a third of a million German troops in the Ruhr area. The U.S. First Army enters Hamm, 40 miles Northeast of Essen.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm
 
April 2nd

1941: The German Afrikakorps captures Agedabia in Libya.
1942: Axis air forces begin a bombing campaign against La Valetta, the British naval base on Malta in the Mediterranean.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/april.html

1917: Private J.C. Jensen, VCPrivate J.C. Jensen, 50th Battalion, originally from Loegstoer, Denmark, wins the Victoria Cross at Noreuil, France
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/apr.htm

1781 - Frigate Alliance captures 2 British privateers, Mars and Minerva
1827 - First Naval Hospital construction begun at Portsmouth, VA
1898 - Adoption of U.S. Naval Academy coat of arms
1947 - UN places former Japanese mandated islands under U.S. trusteeship
1951 - First Navy use of jet aircraft as a bomber, launched from a carrier, USS Princeton.
1960 - USS Glacier begins 12 days of relief operations, providing helicopter and boat transportation and emergency supplies to residents of Paramaribo, Suriname after floods.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesapr.htm

1801 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Copenhagen - The British destroy the Danish fleet.
1865 - American Civil War: Siege of Petersburg broken - Union troops capture the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia, forcing Confederate General Robert E. Lee to retreat.
1917 - World War I: The Battle of Vimy Ridge commences when the Canada Corps launches an artillery bombardment of the German trenches. To that time, the biggest artillery bombardment in history.
1972 - Vietnam War: Easter Offensive begins - North Vietnamese soldiers of the 304th Division take the northern half of Quang Tri Province.
1975 - Vietnam War: Thousands of civilian refugees flee from the Quang Ngai Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops.
1982 - Falklands War: 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands by Argentina. See also 1833 invasion of the Falkland Islands by United Kingdom
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_2

1941: German Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel, "the Desert Fox," resumes his advance into Cyrenaica, modern-day Libya, signaling the beginning of what nine days later will become the recapture of Libya by the Axis forces. Early Italian successes in East Africa, which included occupying parts of Sudan, Kenya, and British Somaliland, were soon reversed after British offensives, led by British Field Marshall Archibald Wavell, resulted in heavy Italian casualties and forced the Italians to retreat into Libya. But Axis control of the area was salvaged by the appearance of Rommel and the Afrika Korps, sent to East Africa by the German High Command to bail their Italian ally out.
source: http://www.history.com/tdih

1940: Hitler gives orders that the invasion of Denmark and Norway is to begin on the 9th April 1940.
1941: The 5th Light Division recaptures Agedabia from the British and fans out into three columns, two of which race across the desert in an attempt to cut off the retreating British, while the third pushes up the coast road towards Benghazi. Rear Admiral Bonnetti, the commander of the Italian Red Sea Flotilla orders his seven destroyers out on 'do or die' missions. All the destroyers are sunk or captured without achieving any worthwhile results.
1942: British retreat from Prome, upper Burma.
1944: The Russians announce their entry into Romania and threaten to shoot one third of all German POWs if the 18 divisions of the trapped 1st Panzer Army do not surrender. The Russian army crosses the river Prut, East of Cernovcy and liberates the little city Gerca.
1945: The 3rd Ukrainian Front and Bulgarian forces take Nagykanizsa, thereby gaining control of the main Hungarian oil production region. 2nd Ukrainian front under Malinovsky conquers the industrial area of Mosonmagyarovar and reaches the Austrian border between Dounau and the Neusiedler lake. The British 7th Armoured Division enters Rhine on Dortmund-Ems canal, 60 miles Northeast of Essen.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm
 
April 3rd

1945: In the East, while the siege of Breslau in Silesia continues, the Red Army captures Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. In the West, units of the British Second Army (Dempsey) reach Münster; the US Ninth Army captures Recklinghausen in the Ruhr, while the US First Army (Hodges) takes Fulda and Kassel.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/april.html

1885: Tamai was the largest and most significant engagement in which the 770 man New South Wales contingent to the Sudan were involved. In comparison with the British units involved in the battle, Australian involvement was minimal.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/apr.htm

1797 - CAPT Thomas Truxtun issued first known American signal book using numerary system
1942 - ADM Nimitz named Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, a joint command, and retained his other title, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet
1992 - First five coed recruit companies from Orlando, FL Naval Training Center granduate.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesapr.htm

1865 - American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America.
1982 - Great Britain dispatched a naval task force to the south Atlantic to reclaim the disputed Falkland Islands from Argentina.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_3

1916: St. Eloi Belgium - Second Canadian Division troops see action at St. Eloi in Flanders; until April 20.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Apr&day=03

1942: Japanese aircraft bomb Mandalay in central Burma, killing 2,000. They met no opposition from the RAF as all its aircraft had by now been withdrawn to India. The final Japanese offensive on Bataan begins with a five hour artillery and air bombardment, after which the Japanese launch infantry attacks supported by some tanks, which allows them to make penetrations in to US-Filipino defensive positions.
1944: Forty-two Royal Navy, fleet Air Arm Barracuda torpedo-bombers hit the Battleship Tirpitz 14 times in a daring raid on the Alten Fjord, in Norway.
1945: MacArthur is appointed as C-in-C of land forces in the Pacific. Admiral Nimitz is appointed as C-in-C of all naval forces in the Pacific. The Austrian resistance leader Major Szokoll and Russian military authorities confer about co-operation on the Russian offensive against Vienna. The 2nd Ukrainian front advances close to Vienna. The Russians breach the German defensive lines between Wiener Neustadt and Neusiedler lake. Hard fighting continues as the Red Army advances towards Bratislava.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm
 
April 4th

1945: The British Second Army captures Osnabrück, while the US Third Army (Patton) advancing toward Leipzig takes Suhl and Gotha. The US 8th Air Force launches its heaviest raid to date (700 bombers) against Kiel on the Baltic.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/april.html

1918: First action at Villers-BretonneuxVillers Bretonneux, overlooking the Somme and within artillery range of Amiens, was a principal objective when the Germans renewed their March offensive in early April. They were repulsed by British units of the 5th Australian Division.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/apr.htm

1776 - Continental Navy frigate Columbus captures HM Tender Hawke, first American capture of British armed vessel
1854 - Sailors and Marines from sailing sloop, Plymouth, protect U.S. citizens at Shanghai
1898 - Appointment of first Civil Engineering Corps officer, Mordecai Endicott, as Chief, Bureau of Yards and Docks
1949 - Establishment of NATO
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesapr.htm

1918 - World War I: Second Battle of the Somme ends.
1945 - World War II: American troops liberate Ohrdruf forced labor camp in Germany.
1945 - World War II: Soviet Army takes control of Hungary.
1975 - Vietnam War: Operation Baby Lift - A United States Air Force C-5A Galaxy crashes near Saigon, South Vietnam shortly after takeoff, transporting orphans - 172 die.
2007 - 15 British Royal Navy personnel held in Iran are released by the Iranian President.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_4

1949: CANADA JOINS NATO - Canada signs the North Atlantic Treaty with Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the U.S.; becomes founding member of North Atlantic Treaty Organization; NATO members pledge to defend each other in event of Soviet attack.
1942: Sri Lanka - RCAF Squadron Leader L.J. Birchall spots Japanese fleet heading for Ceylon; alerts naval base and averts disaster for the British Fleet and a second Pearl Harbour.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Apr&day=04

1776: After the successful siege of Boston, General George Washington begins marching his unpaid soldiers from their headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, toward New York in anticipation of a British invasion.
source: http://www.history.com/tdih.do

1941: German and Italian troops enter Benghazi unopposed.
1944: The 17th Indian Division reaches the Imphal plain after a 20-day fighting retreat. Japanese forces begin five weeks of attacks to reach Imphal from the South and begin their attack on Kohima, Assam. Army Group Centre, under General Busch launches a counterattack which succeeds in reaching German units surrounded at Kovel in the Pripet swamps since the 19th March.
1945: The Russian 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian front complete the liberation of Hungary. Troops of the 2nd Ukrainian front capture Bratislava. The Germans forces counterattack in Moravska-Ostrava and Nitra. The US Third Army advancing toward Leipzig takes Suhl and Gotha and finally clears Kassel of German resistance. The British Second Army captures Osnabrück. The French First Army enters Karlsruhe.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm
 
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April 5th

1942: Hitler orders plans for the execution of Fall Blau (Operation Blue), the new summer offensive on the southern front in the East designed to reach the Volga, as well as to capture the Caucasus oilfields.
1944: German forces of Heeresgruppe Mitte (von Kluge) encircled in the Kowel pocket are relieved after bitter fighting.
1945: The Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front reaches the outskirts of Vienna which has minimal German forces to defend it. In the West, the French First Army (de Tassigny) captures Karlsruhe on the upper Rine. The US 8th Air Force carries out another heavy attack (450 bombers) against Kiel which causes severe damage to the cruisers Hipper and Emden.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/april.html

1951: 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, involved in Operation Rugged, Korea - Operation Rugged involved United Nations' forces crossing the 38th Parallel and occupying strong defensive positions formed by a line of hills codenamed the Kansas Line and including Hills Salmon, Cod and Sardine, 45 kilometres north of Seoul.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1885: Winnipeg Manitoba - Two permanent artillery batteries arrive in Winnipeg.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Apr&day=05

1242 - During a battle on the ice of Chudskoye Lake, Russian forces rebuff an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights.
1654 - The Treaty of Westminster, ending the First Anglo-Dutch War, is signed.
1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Yorktown. The battle begins when Union forces under General George McClellan close in on the Confederate capital Richmond, Virginia. (Editor's note: The first battle for Yorktown during the Revolutionary War was the one for which two World War II aircraft carriers were named for.)
1942 - Second World War: Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy Cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.
1972 - Vietnam War: North Vietnamese forces invade Binh Long Province, launching a second front of the Nguyen Hue Offensive.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_5

1982: A British Naval Task Force leaves for the Falkland Islands, which have been invaded by Argentina
source: http://www.tnl.net/when/4/5

1946 - USS Missouri arrives in Turkey to return the body of Turkish ambassador to the U.S. and to show U.S. support and willingness to defend Turkey.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesapr.htm

1918: First stage of German spring offensive ends - General Erich von Ludendorff formally ends “Operation Michael,” the first stage of the final major German offensive of World War I. Operation Michael had produced the biggest gains of territory on the Western Front by either side since 1914. The Germans had advanced almost 40 miles, inflicted some 200,000 casualties and captured 70,000 prisoners and more than 1,000 Allied guns. The costs of battle were high, however: Germans suffered nearly as many casualties as their enemies and lacked the fresh reserves and supplies the Allies enjoyed following the American entrance into the war.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/

1917: German forces finish their withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line.
1940: RAF launch attacks against ships at Wilhelmshaven. Norway and Sweden are both informed of the allied intention to mine Norwegian waters.
1942: Fuhrer Directive 41 rolls off the mimeograph machines in Rastenberg and the Wehrmacht has its marching orders for 1942. Leningrad is to finally be captured, but that's a secondary objective. The big plan is in the South, which involves 2nd Army and 4th Panzer Army breaking through to Voronezh on the Don. 6th Army will break out South of Kharkov and combine with the 4th Panzer Army to surround the enemy. After that, the 4th Panzer Army and 6th Army will drive East under the command of Army Group B and surround Stalingrad from the North, while Army Group A's 17th Army and 1st Panzer Army will do so from the South. Once Stalingrad is taken, the 6th Army will hold the flank defense line while Army Group A drives South into the Caucasus to seize the oilfields and become the northern punch of a grand pincer movement (the southern half being Rommel) to seize Suez, the Nile Delta, the Middle-East and its oilfields.
1944: The RAF and USAAF conduct the first of 24 round-the-clock raids on the Ploiesti oil refineries in Romania. A Jewish inmate, Siegfried Lederer, escapes from Auschwitz-Birkenau and makes it safely to Czechoslovakia. He then warns the Elders of the Council at Theresienstadt about Auschwitz.
1945: A U.S. military government is established on Okinawa. The US 8th Air Force carries out another heavy attack (450 bombers) against Kiel. The 3rd Ukrainian Front reaches the railway North West of Vienna, cutting rail link with Linz. Eighteen U.S. divisions begin the clearance of Ruhr Pocket.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm
 
April 6th

1941: German, Italian and Hungarian forces begin the invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece. The Luftwaffe carries out several devastating bombing raids against Belgrade.
1942: Axis bombers attack the port of Alexandria in Egypt.
1943: Units of Heeresgruppe A (von Weichs) begin an offensive against the Black Sea port of Novorossisk in the Caucasus. US and British forces in Tunisia launch an attack against 5.Panzerarmee (von Arnim).
1945: In the East, after eliminating the Heiligenbeil pocket, the Soviet 3rd Belorussian Front (Vassilevsky) reaches the Baltic coast in East Prussia, separating communications between 2.Armee (von Tippelkirch) defending besieged Königsberg and 4. Armee (Hossbach) holding the Vistula delta N of Marienbrg. In the Southeast, Tito partisans occupy Sarajevo in Bosnia.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/april.html

1942: US 41st Division arrives in Australia - Between December 1941 and August 1945 some one million Americans were stationed in Australia.
1952: 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, arrives in Korea The Battalion remained in Korea until September 1953.source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/apr.htm

1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Shiloh begins - In Tennessee, forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant meet Confederate troops led by General Albert Sidney Johnston at Shiloh.
1865 - American Civil War: Battle of Sayler's Creek - Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia fights its last major battle while in retreat from Richmond, Virginia.
1917 - World War I: United States declares war on Germany
1941 - World War II: Operation Castigo begins; Germany invades Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Greece.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_6

1942: Aldershott England -General Andrew G.L. (Andy) McNaughton 1887-1966 forms the First Canadian Army in Britain with five divisions, two armored brigades, and 3 other divisions slated for home defence.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Apr&day=06

1776 - Sloop-of-war Ranger, frigate Queen of France and frigate Warren capture British Hibernia and 7 other vessels
1862 - Naval Gunfire from Tyler and Lexington help save Union Troops at Battle of Shiloh
1909 - Commander Robert E. Peary reports reaching the North Pole
1917 - U.S. declares war on Germany
1945 - First heavy kamikaze attack on ships at Okinawa.
1961 - USS Lake Champlain brings oxygen to aid stricken passenger of British liner Queen of Bermuda.
1968 - USS New Jersey recommissioned for shore bombardment duty in Vietnam
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesapr.htm
 
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