This day in military history..

June 16th

1940: In the West, German forces, supported by heavy artillery and Stuka dive bombers, continue their assault on the Maginot Line on a broad front. Units of IXX.Panzerkorps (Guderian) reach Besancon on the Swiss border. The French government of Paul Reynaud resigns and is replaced by one led by Marshal Petain. 57,000 British troops are evacuated from Nantes and St. Nazaire. U-101 (Kptlt. Frauenheim) sinks the British merchant ship Wellington Star in the Bay of Biscay. In the Baltic, the Red Army occupies Latvia and Estonia. Tens of thousands of "hostile' natives and their families are rounded up and deported separated from one another to NKVD prison camps in the Soviet Union.
1941: The US State Department orders the closing by July 10 of all German consular offices and tourist agencies in the United States.
1942: The British light cruiser Hermione is sunk by U-205 (Kptlt. Reschke) South of Crete in the Mediterranean.
1944: Another 244 V-1s are launched against London. In Italy, the British Eighth Army (Alexander) approaches Perugia.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1942: HMAS Nestor sunk - The HMAS Nestor was in the Mediterranean, north of Tobruk, when she was bombed and sunk.
1948: Malayan Emergency declared - Lasting 13 years, involvement in the Malayan Emergency was the longest continuing military commitment in Australia's history. Fifty-one Australian servicemen died in Malaya (although only 15 of these deaths occurred as a result of operations) and 27 were wounded, the majority of whom were in the army.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1487 - Battle of Stoke Field, the last dying breath of the Wars of the Roses.
1745 - British troops take Cape Breton Island, which is now part of Nova Scotia, Canada.
1745 - Sir William Pepperell captures the FrenchFortress Louisbourg in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia during the War of the Austrian Succession.
1746 - War of Austrian Succession: Austria and Sardinia defeat a Franco-Spanish army at the Battle of Piacenza.
1755 - French and Indian War: French surrender Fort Beauséjour to the British, leading to the expulsion of the Acadians.
1779 - Spain declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the siege of Gibraltar begins.
1815 - Battle of Ligny and Battle of Quatre Bras, two days before Waterloo.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June 16

1862: Battle of Secessionville - A Union attempt to capture Charleston, South Carolina, is thwarted when the Confederates turn back an attack at Secessionville, just south of the city on James Island. In November 1861, Union ships captured Port Royal, which lay about halfway between Charleston and Savannah. This gave the Federals an important base from which to mount operations along the southern coast.
1918: Battle of the Piave River rages on the Italian front, marking the last major attack by the Austro-Hungarian army in Italy of World War I.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?

1940: The British submarine Grampus is sunk by four Italian torpedo boats off Syracuse, Sicily. U-101 sinks the British merchant ship Wellington Star in the Bay of Biscay. The Red Army occupies Latvia. Tens of thousands of "hostile' natives and their families are rounded up and deported to NKVD prison camps around the Soviet Union. Estonia is also occupied by the Soviet Union. French front cracking as the Germans break through in Champagne to Dijon, with units of 19th Panzer Korps reaching Besancon on the Swiss border. German forces, supported by heavy artillery and Stuka dive bombers, continue their assault against the Maginot Line on a broad front. The French government of Paul Reynaud resigns and is replaced by one led by Marshal Petain who immediately appoints Weygand as Minister of National Defence. 57,000 British troops are evacuated from Nantes and St. Nazaire.
1941: The British attempt to continue their offensive to relieve Australian held Tobruk, but suffer heavy tank losses to German 88mm Flak guns.
1942: Lieutenant General Ritchie gives General Norrie permission to withdraw XXX Corps past Tobruk and as far as Mersa Matruh to re-equip. General Gott's XIII is ordered to take up defensive positions on the Egyptian frontier. This left the city exposed to another siege, for which its defenses were inadequate, having been allowed to deteriorate during the winter.
1943: 93 out of 94 Japanese planes are destroyed during a massive attack on allied shipping round Guadalcanal.
1944: U.S. Marines repulse the Japanese counter-attacks on Saipan. The real flying bomb offensive on Britain begins as 95 V1's cross the coast before 6am and a total of 244 reaching England that day. The German press calls it the ‘beginning of the day of vengeance’. The Eighth Army captures Foligno and Spoleto, east of Orvieto and approach Perugia.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

:m1:
 
June 17th

1940: In the West, German troops cross the Loire near Orleans. The French premier, Marshal Petain, requests Germany's and Italy's terms for an armistice.
1942: Leaving behind a garrison of some 30,000 troops, the British Eighth Army withdraws from Tobruk.
1943: The British battleships Valiant and Warspite are transferred from Scapa Flow to Oran and Alexandria in North Africa in preparation for Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily.
1944: German troops evacuate the island of Elba off the west coast of Italy.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1945: Australians land at Weston, North Borneo - The Australian landings on Borneo were aimed at denying the Japanese oil and establishing bases for naval operations. The value of these operations has been subject to continuing debate.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1755: Saint John New Brunswick - Robert Monckton 1726-1782 takes Fort Gaspereau without firing a shot; French abandon garrison at mouth of Saint John River; last French forts in Acadia gone.
1776: Quebec - End of the American invasion of Quebec as the last troops of the Army of the Continental Congress start leaving the province.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jun&day=17

1833 - USS Delaware enters drydock at Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk, VA, the first warship to enter a public drydock in the United States
1870 - USS Mohican burns Mexican pirate ship Forward
1898 - Navy Hospital Corps established
1940 - Chief of Naval Operations asks Congress for money to build two-ocean Navy
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjun.htm

1775: The British take Bunker Hill outside of Boston, after a costly battle.
1913: U.S. Marines set sail from San Diego to protect American interests in Mexico.
1944: French troops land on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
1965: 27 B-52s hit Viet Cong outposts, but lose two planes in South Vietnam.
source: http://www.historynet.com/today_in_history?tihMonth=6&tihDay=17&tdih=GO

1863http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1863 - Battle of Aldie in the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War.
1876: Battle of the Rosebud - 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook's forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory.
1877: Battle of White Bird Canyon - the Nez Perce defeat the US Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in the Idaho Territory.
1940 - World War II: the British Army's 11th Hussars assault and take Fort Capuzzo in Libya, Africa from Italian forces.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_17

:m1:
 
June 18th

1940: In the West, German troops capture Le Mans and Cherbourg; the garrisons of Belfort, Metz and Dijon surrender. General de Gaulle forms the French National Committee at London and vows to continue the war on the side of Britain.
1941: Germany and Turkey sign a ten-year nonaggression pact. Free French troops occupy Damascus in Syria.
1942: In the East, infantry units of 11. Armee (von Manstein) break into the outer defenses of the fortress of Sevastopol in the Crimea. In Libya, the British Eighth Army evacuates Sidi Rezegh and El Adem.
1944: In Normandy, the US First Army (Bradley) cuts off and isolates the German forces defending Cherbourg. In Italy, the US Fifth Army (Clark) captures Prugia.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1943: Australian government announces that Australia is no longer threatened with invasion By 1943 it was clear that the Japanese no longer had the capacity to threaten Australia with invasion, though it seems that such an invasion was never planned by the Japanese.
1953: Australian prisoners of war of the Korean War released at Panmunjon. Twenty-nine Australians were taken prisoner in Korea. One prisoner died while in captivity.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1429 - French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc crush the main English army under SirJohn Fastolf at the Battle of Patay. This turns the tide of the Hundred Years' War.
1778 - American Revolutionary War: British troops abandon Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1812 - War of 1812: The U.S. Congress declares war on the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1815 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Waterloo leads to Napoleon Bonaparte abdicating the throne of France for a second and final time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_18

1940: England - RAF's 242 'Canadian' Squadron withdraws from France.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jun&day=18

1815: At the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon is defeated by an international army under the Duke of Wellington.
1918: Allied forces on the Western Front begin their largest counter-attack yet against the German army.
1944: The U.S. First Army breaks through the German lines on the Cotentin Peninsula and cuts off the German-held port of Cherbourg.
1945: Organized Japanese resistance ends on the island of Mindanao.
1951: General Vo Nguyen Giap ends his Red River Campaign against the French in Indochina.
source: http://www.historynet.com/tdih0618.htm

:sniper:
 
June 19th

1940: German troops capture Brest, Toul and Strassburg.
1943: The RAF carries out a raid on the Schneider armaments works at Le Creusot.
1944: A violent storm in the English Channel wrecks the Allied artificial 'Mulberry' harbors at Omaha Beach and Arromanches.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1952:Jamestown Line, Korea - The 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, relieved the 1st Battalion, the Leicestershire Regiment on the Jamestown line, Korea.
19 June - 6 July 1941:Lieutenant A.R. Cutler, VC - Lieutenant A.R. Cutler, 2/5th Field Regiment, 7th Division, originally of Manly, New South Wales, wins the Victoria Cross for a series of actions at Merdjayoun and in the Damour area, Lebanon.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1179 - The NorwegianBattle of Kalvskinnet outside Nidaros. EarlErling Skakke is killed, and the battle changes the tide of the civil wars.
1306 - The Earl of Pembroke's defeat Bruce's Scottish army at the Battle of Methven.
1807 - AdmiralDmitry Senyavin destroys the Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Athos.
1816 - Battle of Seven Oaks between Northwest Company and Hudson Bay Company, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
1821 - Decisive defeat of the Philikí Etaireía by the Ottomans at Drăgăşani (in Wallachia).
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_19

1864: CSS ALABAMA SUNK OFF FRANCE - Off the coast of Cherbourg, France, the Confederate raider CSS Alabama loses a ship-to-ship duel with the USS Kearsarge and sinks to the floor of the Atlantic, ending an illustrious career that saw some 68 Union merchant vessels destroyed or captured by the Confederate raider.
1944: United States scores major victory against Japanese in Battle of the Philippine Sea - in what would become known as the "Marianas Turkey Shoot," U.S. carrier-based fighters decimate the Japanese Fleet with only a minimum of losses in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The security of the Marianas Islands, in the western Pacific, were vital to Japan, which had air bases on Saipan, Tinian, and Guam. U.S. troops were already battling the Japanese on Saipan, having landed there on the 15th. Any further intrusion would leave the Philippine Islands, and Japan itself, vulnerable to U.S. attack. The U.S. Fifth Fleet, commanded by Admiral Raymond Spruance, was on its way west from the Marshall Islands as backup for the invasion of Saipan and the rest of the Marianas. But Japanese Admiral Ozawa Jisaburo decided to challenge the American fleet, ordering 430 of his planes, launched from aircraft carriers, to attack. In what became the greatest carrier battle of the war, the United States, having already picked up the Japanese craft on radar, proceeded to shoot down more than 300 aircraft and sink two Japanese aircraft carriers, losing only 29 of their own planes in the process. It was a described in the aftermath as a "turkey shoot."
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp

1940: More than 100 German bombers make raids over Britain. The Germans invite the French to send a representative to discuss armistice terms as their troops reach River Loire, advance on Lyons, capture Strasbourg, Brest and Tours. Rommel takes Cherbourg.
1941: The Russians order a black-out of all major cities and towns near the border. However, they still do not allow their troops to take up battle positions, in spite of information given by two German deserters of an imminent attack.
1942: Rommel launches a surprise attack from the southeast against Tobruk. This throw's the garrison into confusion which allows German troops to breach the outer defenses. Plans for the offensive in to the Caucasus are captured by the Russians when a staff officer from the 23rd Panzer Division is shot down. Against all order, he was carrying the plans on his person. 40th Panzer Corps commander, General Stumme and his chief of staff are immediately sacked and imprisoned on Hitlers express orders. No changes were made to the plan as although the Russians considered them authentic, they believed that it was only a subsidiary thrust and that the main objective was still Moscow, which suited the Germans.
1943: RAF carries out a raid on the Schneider armaments works at Le Creusot.
1944: The Air Ministry release the first official details of the V1's (range 150 miles, speed 300-350 mph, 2,000lb bomb) as AA gunners start calling them ‘Doodlebugs’. 20 allied divisions now oppose 16 German in Normandy.
1945: The Australians are now in control of both sides of the Brunei Bay entrance.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1917: France - Arthur William Currie succeeds Englishman Julian Byng as commander of the Canadian Corps.
1918: France - Canadian air ace Billy Bishop shoots down five German planes in his last dogfight, bringing his total enemy kills to 72.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jun&day=19

1778: General George Washington’s troops finally leave Valley Forge after a winter of training.
source: http://www.historynet.com/tdih0619.htm

:sniper:
 
June 20th

1940: German troops capture Lyons. The German heavy cruiser Gneisenau is damaged by a torpedo from the British submarine Clyde.
1941: President Roosevelt, in a message to Congress, denounces the sinking of the American merchant ship Robin Moor by U-69 (Kptlt. Metzler) as 'an act of piracy'.
1944: In the East, the Red Army captures Viipuri on the Soviet-Finnish border.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1864: Australians in action at Te Ranga, New Zealand - More than 2,500 men from the Australian colonies crossed the Tasman to fight in the New Zealand Wars. Most joined the Waikato militia regiments and became involved in patrolling and garrison duties.
1943: Darwin bombed - Darwin was bombed by Japanese aircraft 64 times during the Second World War.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

451 - According to some sources, this was the date of the Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' victory over Attila the Hun.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_20

1402: Battle of Angora (Ankara)-Tatars defeat Turkish Army
1779:Battle of Stone Ferry
source: http://academiccalendar.info/june/20.html

1964: Westmoreland becomes Commander of MACV - Gen. William Westmoreland succeeds Gen. Paul Harkins as head of U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV). Westmoreland had previously been Harkins' deputy. Westmoreland's initial task was to provide military advice and assistance to the government of South Vietnam. However, he soon found himself in command of American armed forces in combat as the war rapidly escalated and U.S. combat forces were committed to the war.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp

1940: The RAF bomb Rouen airfield. German troops capture Lyons and the vital port of Brest in Brittany. French envoys drive behind German lines to receive armistice terms. Italian forces begins an offensive along the Riviera coast into France.
1942: Fort Lenin in Sevastopol falls to the Germans.
1943: The British announce a five-day U-boat attack on the Atlantic convoys and claim that 97% of ships survived. The RAF institutes ‘shuttle bombing’ runs, with planes leaving England, bombing Germany, reloading in North Africa, bombing Italy and the returning to England begin, with 60 RAF bombers attacking the radar works at Friedrichshafen.
1944: The Japanese retreat from Imphal in Manipur towards the Burmese frontier. Eighth Army take Perugia as its advance North continues. U.S. troops attack the outer defenses of Cherbourg.
1945: Australians troops land at Lutong on Sarawak and gain 25 miles to the Seria oilfields.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1898: On the way to the Philippines to fight the Spanish, the U.S. Navy seizes the island of Guam.
1941: The U.S. Army Air Force is established, replacing the Army Air Corps.
source: http://www.historynet.com/tdih0620.htm

1813 - Fifteen U.S. gunboats engage 3 British ships in Hampton Roads, VA
1815 - Trials of Fulton I, built by Robert Fulton, are completed in New York. This ship would become the Navy's first steam-driven warship.
1898 - U.S. forces occupied Guam, which became first colony of U.S. in the Pacific.
1913 - First fatal accident in Naval Aviation, ENS W. D. Billingsley killed at Annapolis, MD
1934 - Commander in Chief, Asiatic Fleet Admiral Frank Upham reports to CNO that based on analyses of Japanese radio traffic, "any attack by (Japan) would be made without previous declaration of war or intentional warning."
1944 - Battle of Philippine Sea ends with Japanese losing 2 aircraft carriers and hundreds of aircraft.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjun.htm

:m16shoot:
 
June 21st

1940: Franco-German armistice negotiations begin at Compiegne in the same railroad car of Marshal Foch where the German delegates received the Allied armistice terms in November, 1918. Hitler issues a proclamation announcing the end of the war in the West, and orders flags to be flown throughout Germany for ten days.
1941: General Auchinleck replaces General Wavell as C-in-C of the British Eighth Army in Libya.
1942: The Afrikakorps captures Tobruk, taking 33,000 British prisoners. In the East, German infantry and combat engineers of 11. Armee (von Manstein) are gaining ground in their assault on Sevastopol. The Luftwaffe carries out a night raid on Southampton.
1943: The RAF launches a heavy raid on Krefeld in the Ruhr (44 aircraft lost).
1944: The US 8th Air Force carries out raids on Berlin and the synthetic fuel plants at Leuna-Merseburg.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1941: Damascus occupied - Damascus was a secondary objective for the Allies during the five-week Syrian campaign, in which the capture of coastal towns of Damour and Beirut and the inland town of Merdjayoun were more important to the outcome.
1951: 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, awarded United States Presidential Distinguished Unit Citation - United States Presidential Distinguished Unit Citation awarded to 3RAR for "extraordinary heroism and outstanding performance" at the battle of Kapyong, Korea.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

524 - Godomar, King of the Burgundians defeats the Franks at the Battle of Vezerone.
1798 - Irish Rebellion of 1798: The British Army defeats Irish rebels at Battle of Vinegar Hill
1813 - Peninsular War: Battle of Vitoria
1813 - Laura Secord sets out to warn British forces of an impending U.S. attack on Queenston, Ontario during the War of 1812.
1824 - Greek War of Independence: Egyptian forces capture Psara in the Aegean Sea.
1826 - Maniots defeat Egyptians under Ibrahim Pasha in the Battle of Vergas
1854 - First Victoria Cross won during bombardment of Bomarsund in the Aland Islands.
1864 - Maori Wars: The Tauranga Campaign ends.
1942 - World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at nearby Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by the Japanese against the U.S. mainland.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_21

1916: U.S. soldiers attacked by Mexican government troops - With World War I entering its third year, a controversial U.S. military expedition against Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa brings the neutral United States closer to war itself, when Mexican government troops attack U.S. Brigadier General John J. Pershing's force at Carrizal, Mexico.
1969: Communists storm U.S. base near Tay Ninh - Approximately 600 communist soldiers storm a U.S. base near Tay Ninh, 50 miles northwest of Saigon and 12 miles from the Cambodian border. The North Vietnamese had been shelling the base for two days, followed by six attacks on the city itself and the surrounding villages. Ten Americans were killed and 32 were wounded. Total communist losses around Tay Ninh during the two-day battle were put at 194 killed.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?

1940: The isolated German troops at Narvik are now close to exhaustion and will be unable to hold out for very much longer. Franco-German armistice negotiations begin at Compiegne, during which Hitler informs the French representatives of his terms in the same railway carriage as the German surrender was signed in 1918. Hitler issues a proclamation announcing the end of the war in the West and orders flags to be flown throughout Germany for ten days.
1942: The Luftwaffe carries out a night raid against Southampton. German infantry and combat engineers of 11th Army are gaining ground slowly in their assault on Sevastopol, but the ferocious Russian defense at Sevastopol forces Adolf Hitler to do something he doesn't like to do, namely delay the German Summer offensive.
1944: A further Russians assault against the Finns opens in eastern Karelia. The Red Army begins an offensive between lakes Ladoga and Onega on the northern front.
1945: Organised resistance on Okinawa ends after 82 days of the bloodiest fighting in the Pacific, during which 98,654 Japanese have been killed and 6,922 captured. U.S. loses were 6,990 killed and 29,598 wounded.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1915: Germany uses poison gas for the first time in warfare in the Argonne Forest.
1919: Germans scuttle their own fleet at Scapa Flow, Scotland.
1963: France announces it will withdraw from the NATO fleet in the North Atlantic.
source: http://www.historynet.com/tdih0621.htm

:m16shoot:
 
June 22nd

1940: An armistice between France and Germany is signed at Compiegne. Its terms, read out loud to the French delegation by Generaloberst Keitel, provide for the occupation of the entire Channel and Atlantic coastlines, all major industrial areas, Alsace-Lorraine (to be returned to Germany). Most of southern France will remain unoccupied, with a French administrative center at Vichy; the French Army and Navy is to be demobilized and disarmed; France is to bear the cost of the German occupation, and all French prisoners of war are to remain in Germany until a peace treaty is signed.
1941: Beginning of OPERATION BARBAROSSA, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. At 3:15 a.m. CET, German, Rumanian and Finnish forces comprising 183 divisions (3,500,000 men), 3,350 tanks, 7,184 guns and 1,945 aircraft launch the biggest military operation in history on an 1,800-mile front from 'Finland to the Black Sea' (title of the German Army campaign song). Three army groups supported by powerful Panzer armies and Luftwaffe bomber fleets, Heeresgruppe Süd (von Rundstedt) with Panzergruppe 1 (von Kleist), Heeresgruppe Mitte (von Bock) with Panzergruppen 2 (Guderian) and 3 (Hoth), and Heeresgruppe Nord (von Leeb) with Panzergruppe 4 (Hoepner) go into action against 132 Soviet divisions (2,500,000 men), 20,000 tanks and 7,700 aircraft. The overall objective of the campaign is to destroy the Soviet forces in western Russia by fall and to occupy the European part of the Soviet Union up to the line Archangelsk - Urals - Volga - Astrachan. In the first few hours of the attack, the Luftwaffe destroys 1,500 Soviet aircraft on the ground at 60 airfields and 300 in the air. The Red Army forces along the border seem unprepared for the assault and offer only limited resistance. At London, Winston Churchill announces Britain's support for the Soviet Union, thus making the Bolshevik state her much-needed ally.
1944: On the central front in the East, the Soviet 1st Baltic and 3rd Belorussian Fronts (Vassilevsky) and the 1st and 2nd Belorussian Fronts (Zhukov) begin Operation Bagraton, a massive offensive against Heeresgruppe Mitte (Busch) on a 300-mile front between Polotsk and Bobruysk. The German forces of 63 divisions, 900 tanks and 10,000 guns are facing vastly superior Soviet forces of 124 divisions, 5,200 tanks, 30.000 guns and 6,000 aircraft. The Luftwaffe launches a surprise night raid (60 aircraft) on the US 8th Air Force's shuttle base at Poltava in the Ukraine, destroying 44 B-17s and 500,000 gals. of fuel. In the West, US bombers carry out a saturation on besieged Cherbourg. President Roosevelt signs the GI Bill of Rights which promises generous benefits for returning US servicemen.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1807 - HMS Leopard attacks USS Chesapeake
1865 - Confederate raider Shenandoah fires last shot of Civil War in Bering Strait
1884 - Navy relief expedition under CDR Winfield S. Schley rescues LT A.W. Greely, USA, and 6 others from Ellesmere Island, where they were marooned for 3 years on Arctic island.
1898 - ADM Sampson begins amphibious landing near Santiago, Cuba.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjun.htm

1807: British seamen board the USS Chesapeake, a provocation leading to the War of 1812.
1915: Austro-German forces occupy Lemberg on the Eastern Front as the Russians retreat.
1942: A Japanese submarine shells Fort Stevens at the mouth of the Columbia River.
source: http://www.historynet.com/tdih0622.htm

1945: Beaufort, Borneo occupied - The Australian occupation of Brunei was aimed at permitting the establishment of an advanced fleet base to protect Brunei's oil and rubber resources.
1945: Japanese resistance on Tarakan ends - Codenamed Oboe 1, the landings at Tarakan were primarily aimed at establishing a fighter airfield, though in the end this was not done. source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1971: In a major engagement near the Demilitarized Zone, some 1,500 North Vietnamese attack the 500-man South Vietnamese garrison at Fire Base Fuller. Despite U.S. B-52 raids dropping 60 tons of bombs on June 21 and a 1,000-man reinforcement on June 24, the South Vietnamese had to abandon the base since a North Vietnamese bombardment had destroyed 80 percent of their bunkers. In an attempt to clear the surrounding area of enemy mortar and rocket sites, South Vietnamese forces swept the region on June 25. On June 28, a Saigon spokesman announced that 120 South Vietnamese had reoccupied Fire Base Fuller, but would not rebuild the fortifications. Casualty figures were reported at nearly 500 North Vietnamese dead, with 135 wounded. On July 1, fighting again flared up around the base, as 300 communists were pushed back with the help of U.S. and South Vietnamese air power and with 150 additional South Vietnamese troops.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

:salute:
 
June 23rd
1940: Hitler makes a brief sightseeing visit to Paris; motoring through nearly empty streets, he makes a special point of viewing Napoleon's tomb, ending his tour at the Eiffel tower.
1941: In the East, German forces of Heeresgruppe Süd cross the river Bug in southern Poland and capture Brest-Litovsk. Slovakia declares war on the Soviet Union.
1942: The Afrikakorps reaches the Egyptian border near El Alamein.
1944: Generaloberst Dietl, C-in-C of 20. Gebirgsarmee on the Arctic front in northern Finland, is killed in an air crash.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1915: exactly one month after Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, the Italian army attacks Austro-Hungarian positions near the Isonzo River, in the eastern section of the Italian front; it will become the first of twelve Battles of the Isonzo fought during World War I.
1969: North Vietnamese encircle Ben Het - Ben Het, a U.S. Special Forces camp located 288 miles northeast of Saigon and six miles from the junction of the Cambodian, Laotian and South Vietnamese borders, is besieged and cut off by 2,000 North Vietnamese troops using artillery and mortars. The base was defended by 250 U.S. soldiers and 750 South Vietnamese Montagnard tribesmen. The siege lasted until July 2 when the defenders were reinforced by an allied relief column.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

1933 - Commissioning of USS Macon, Navy's last dirigible
1961 - Navy's first major low frequency radio station commissioned at Cutler, ME
1972 - Navy helicopter squadron aids flood-stricken residents in Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, and Pittstown area of PA
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjun.htm

1885: Sudan contingent disembarks - The New South Wales contingent spent a little over two months in the Sudan without seeing any serious action. Upon their return they spent some time at the North Head Quarantine Station.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1944: Normandy France - Canadian army goes into action for the first time, as a separate unit, not under Montgomery's British command.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jun&day=23

1757 - Battle of Plassey - 3,000 British troops under Robert Clive defeat a 50,000 strong Indian army under Siraj Ud Daulah at Plassey.
1758 - Seven Years' War: Battle of Krefeld - British forces defeat French troops at Krefeld in Germany.
1760 - Seven Years' War: Battle of Landeshut - Austria defeats Prussia.
1942: Germany's latest fighter, a Focke-Wulf FW190 is captured intact when it mistakenly lands at RAF Pembrey in Wales.
1943: The British destroyers Eclipse and Laforey sink the ItaliansubmarineAscianghi in the Mediterranean after she torpedoes the cruiser HMS Newfoundland.
1945: The Battle of Okinawa ends when organised resistance of Imperial Japanese Army forces collapses in the Mabuni area on the southern tip of the main island.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_23

1884: Chinese Army defeats the French at Bacle, Indochina.
1944: In one of the largest air strikes of the war, the U.S. Fifteenth Air Force sends 761 bombers against the oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania.
1952: The U.S. Air Force bombs power plants on Yalu River, Korea.
source: http://www.historynet.com/tdih0623.htm

:army:
 
June 24th

1940: An armistice is signed between France and Italy at Villa Indusa near Rome.
1941: In the East, German troops of Heeresgruppe Nord capture Kaunas and Vilna in Lithuania. Hungary breaks off diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.
1942: In Yugoslavia, beginning of an offensive by German, Italian and Croatian forces against Tito's partisan army.
1943: The RAF launches a heavy raid on Elberfeld in the Ruhr.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1927:Opening of the Menin Gate Memorial Ypres, Belgium - The Menin Gate Memorial to the missing records the names of over 56,000 Allied soldiers, among them 6,176 Australians missing in the battles near Ypres in the First World War.
1942: Afrika Korps attacks Egypt - Afrika Korps attacks Egypt, forcing Allied forces back to El Alamein, where one of the pivotal battles of the war was fought later in the year.source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1314 - End of the Battle of Bannockburn. Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce defeat Edward II of England. Scotland regains its independence.
1812 - Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon'sGrande Armée crosses the Neman River beginning his invasion of Russia.
1910 - Japan invades Korea.
1932 - A military coup ends the absolute power of the king of Siam (Thailand).
1940 - France and Italy sign an armistice.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_24

1915: First operational flight of new German fighter plane - Young Oswald Boelcke, one of the earliest and best German fighter pilots of World War I, makes the first operational flight of the Fokker Eindecker plane. The years of the First World War, saw a staggering improvement not only in aircraft production, but also in technology, on both sides of the conflict. The war began just a decade after Orville and Wilbur Wright made their historic 12-second flight at Kittyhawk, Maryland; by 1918, fighter airplanes had been developed that could serve purposes of observation and reconnaissance, tactical and strategic bombing, direct attack on ground and air targets and use in naval warfare.
1945: British bombers destroy the "Bridge Over the River Kwai." Thousands of British and Allied prisoners of war, forced into slave labor by their Japanese captors, had built a bridge, under the most grueling conditions, over the River Kwai, linking parts of the Burma-Siam (now Thailand) railway and enabling the Japanese to transport soldiers and supplies through this area. British aircraft bombed the bridge to prevent this link between Bangkok and Moulein, Burma.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?

1940: British commandos make their first raid against France at Le Touquet, although this is aborted without casualties.
1941: Army Group North sweeps into Lithuania and White Russia, taking Vilna and Kaunas. Hungary breaks off diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.
1942: The Germans advance into Egypt as the British retreat continues. Sollum and Sidi Barrani are evacuated by the Eighth Army. The Luftwaffe launches the first in a series of night raids against Birmingham. Major General Eisenhower is appointed commander of all US troops in Europe.
1944: The Russians report major advances against Army Group Centre. Hitler orders all but one of the five German divisions of the 53rd Korps that are encircled at Vitebsk to fight their way out.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1813: Niagara Ontario - Force of 440 British Iroquois attack and harass Col. Charles Boerstler and 570 Americans as they move through wooded country to attack the British outpost at Beaver Dam; Lt. James Fitzgibbon was already warned of their approach by the Iroquois and Laura Secord; to escape being massacred, Boerstler surrenders with 462 men to Fitzgibbon and his 50 British regulars; Americans forced back across Niagara River in this Iroquois victory in defence of Canada.
1944: Shetland Islands Scotland - RCAF Flight Lieutenant David Ernest Hornell 1910-1944 and crew on anti-submarine patrol in amphibious plane when they tangle with a German U-Boat; sink it with depth charges, but have to ditch their plane in rough seas; crew take turns in life raft, and rescued the next day, but Hornell dies from hypothermia; awarded Victoria Cross posthumously
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jun&day=24

1833 - USS Constitution enters drydock at Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston, MA, for overhaul. The ship was saved from scrapping after public support rallied to save the ship following publication of Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem, "Old Ironsides."
1926 - Office of Assistant SecNav set up to foster naval aeronautics; aircraft building increased
1948 - Berlin airlift initiated to offset the Soviet Union's blockade access of U.S., France, and Great Britain to their sectors of Berlin.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjun.htm

:sniper:
 
June 25th

1940: At 1:35 a.m. CET, all acts of war between the French and German armed forces cease officially.
1941: German armored forces of Panzergruppe 1 (von Kleist) capture Lutsk and Dubno in eastern Poland (USSR territory).
1942: The Afrikakorps captures Sidi Barrani, Sollum and Halfaya Pass in Libya. The RAF launches a 1,000-bomber raid on Bremen which causes heavy damage to the Focke-Wulf plant and devastates 27 acres of the inner city (49 aircraft lost). Major-General Eisenhower is appointed C-in-C of US forces in Europe.
1944: In Normandy, the British Second Army (Dempsey) begins a major offensive in the area of Caen (Operation Epsom). In the East, 40,000 troops of Heeresgruppe Mitte are surrounded by the Red Army in the area of Vitebsk. General Koenid is appointed C-in-C of the Free French forces.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1916: Private J.W.A. Jackson, VC - Private J.W.A. Jackson, 17th Battalion, originally from Gunbar, New South Wales, wins the Victoria Cross south-east of Bois Grenier, near Armentières, France.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1940: Atlantic - Canadian destroyer Fraser sunk in collision off France.
1942: Bremen Germany - RCAF joins RAF in thousand-bomb raid on port of Bremen; Second World War.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jun&day=25

1917 - Navy convoy of troopships carrying American Expeditionary Forces arrives in France
1950 - North Korea invades South Korea beginning Korean Conflict
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjun.htm

1876: General George A. Custer and over 260 men of the Seventh Cavalry are wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians at Little Big Horn in Montana.
source: http://www.historynet.com/tdih0625.htm

1969: The U.S. Navy turns 64 river patrol gunboats valued at $18.2 million over to the South Vietnamese Navy in what is described as the largest single transfer of military equipment in the war thus far. The transfer raised the total number of boats in the South Vietnamese Navy to more than 600. This was part of the "Vietnamization" program, which President Richard Nixon initiated to increase the fighting capability of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces (to include the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps) so that they could assume more responsibility for the war. Vietnamization included the provision of new equipment and weapons and an intensified advisory effort.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=1929

:m16:
 
June 26th

1941: In the East, German forces of Heeresgruppe Nord capture Dünaburg in Latvia. The Luftwaffe carries out raids on Leningrad. Finland declares war on the oviet Union.
1942: Generaloberst Rommel, C-in-C of the Afrikakorps is promoted to Generalfeldmarschall (field marshal).
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1956: Sungei Siput, Malaya - Men of the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, attacked a Communist camp near Sungei Siput in Perak, Malaya. Three of the Communists were killed in the fight.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1943: Tunisia - RCAF bomber wing begins operating from North Africa; 3 squadrons; a prelude to invasions of Sicily and Italy.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jun&day=26

1884 - Congress authorizes commissioning of Naval Academy graduates as ensigns
1918 - Marine brigade captures Belleau Wood
1959 - Twenty-eight Naval vessels sail from Atlantic to Great Lakes, marking the formal opening of Saint Lawrence Seaway to seagoing ships.
1962 - NAVFAC Cape Hatteras makes first Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) detection of a Soviet diesel submarine.
1973 - Navy Task Force 78 completes minesweeping of North Vietnamese ports.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjun.htm

1862: General Robert E. Lee attacks McClellen’s line at Mechanicsville during the Seven Days’ campaign.
1863: Jubal Early and his Confederate forces move into Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
1900: The United States announces it will send troops to fight against the Boxer Rebellion in China.
1916: Russian General Aleksei Brusilov renews his offensive against the Germans.
1917: General Pershing arrives in France with the American Expeditionary Force.
1918: The Germans begin firing their huge 420 mm howitzer, "Big Bertha," at Paris.
1924: After eight years of occupation, American troops leave the Dominican Republic.
1942: The Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter flies for the first time.
source: http://www.historynet.com/tdih0626.htm

1948: The Berlin Airlift began in earnest as the United States, Britain and France began ferrying supplies to the isolated western sector of Berlin after the Soviet Union cut off land and water routes.
1950: President Harry S. Truman authorized the Air Force and Navy to enter the Korean conflict. (The order, made on June 26, was not made public until June 27.)
source: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20080626.html

:m16:
 
June 27th

1941: In the East, German forces encircle several Soviet divisions near Minsk and capture Riga, Bobruisk and Przemysl. Hungary declares war on the Soviet Union.
1944: The Red Army recaptures Orsha on the Dnepr and destroys the German pocket near Vitebsk.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1864: Battle of Kennesaw Mountain - Union General William T. Sherman launches a major attack on Confederate General Joseph Johnston's army in Georgia. Beginning in early May, Sherman began a slow advance down the 100-mile corridor from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Atlanta, refraining from making any large-scale assaults. The campaign was marked by many smaller battles and constant skirmishes but no decisive encounters. Johnston was losing ground, but he was also buying time for the Confederates.
1944: U.S. troops liberate Cherbourg, France - The Allies capture the fortified town and port of Cherbourg, in northwest France, freeing it from German occupation.
1950: President Harry S. Truman announces that he is ordering U.S. air and naval forces to South Korea to aid the democratic nation in repulsing an invasion by communist North Korea. The United States was undertaking the major military operation, he explained, to enforce a United Nations resolution calling for an end to hostilities, and to stem the spread of communism in Asia. In addition to ordering U.S. forces to Korea, Truman also deployed the U.S. 7th Fleet to Formosa (Taiwan) to guard against invasion by communist China and ordered an acceleration of military aid to French forces fighting communist guerrillas in Vietnam.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?

1911: Royal Military College Duntroon opens. The Royal Military College Duntroon was created at the suggestion of Field Marshal Lord Kitchener; its first commandant was Colonel W.T. Bridges, who was later killed at Gallipoli.
1950: UN recommends assistance to South Korea - United Nations Security Council recommends United Nations assistance to South Korea after the North Korean invasion of 25 June.
1950: RAAF bomber Squadron to Malaya - Six RAAF Lincolns of No. 1 Squadron and a flight of Dakotas from No. 38 Squadron formed part of the Far East Air Force. The RAAF's contribution represented Australia's first involvement in the Malayan Emergency.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1709 - Peter the Great defeats Charles XII of Sweden at the Battle of Poltava.
1743 - War of the Austrian Succession: Battle of Dettingen On the battlefield in Bavaria, George II personally led troops into battle. The last time that a British monarch would command troops in the field.
1759 - General James Wolfe starts siege of Quebec.
1806 - The British capture Buenos Aires.
1991 - Slovenia, after declaring independence two days previous, is invaded by Yugoslav troops, tanks, and aircraft, starting the Ten-Day War.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_27

1940: Japanese troops occupy part of the Hong Kong peninsula. French C-in-C in Syria accepts armistice terms. All French ships in British ports are seized by the Royal Navy. German troops reach Franco-Spanish border.
1941: German forces capture Bobruisk and Przemysl. Hungary declares war on the Soviet Union and agrees to send troops to help Army Group South.
1942: German troops begin to outflank the British positions at Mersa Matruh. As this happens the British start to withdraw towards the El Alamein line, confirming radio intercepts that had indicated they would. Convoy PQ-17 sets sail from Iceland. It consists of 35 merchants, 3 rescue ships and 2 tankers for refueling and is heavily loaded with 297 aircraft, 594 tanks, 4246 lorries and gun carriers, plus an additional 156,000 tons of cargo. The convoy is to be guarded by 21 close escorts, 7 warships from a cruiser covering force and a further 19 warships in a distant covering force. All told 1 aircraft-carrier, 2 battleships, 6 heavy cruisers, 23 destroyers, 4 corvettes, 3 minesweepers, 2 AA ships, 4 ASW trawlers are to protect the convoy. Additionally, 15 submarines, six of them Russian are placed ahead of the the convoy.
1944: The Red Army recaptures Orsha on the Dnieper and destroys the trapped German 53rd Korps near Vitebsk. Further gains are reported by the Russians at Mogilev to the South of Vitebsk. The British gain Hill 112 in Normandy.
1945: The U.S. Sixth Army reaches Aparri, effectively ending the campaign on Luzon.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1905: The crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin mutinies.
1918: Two German pilots are saved by parachutes for the first time.
1927: The U.S. Marines adopt the English bulldog as their mascot.
source: http://www.historynet.com/tdih0627.htm

:salute:
 
June 28th

1940: Following an ultimatum to the Rumanian government, the Red Army occupies Bessarabia and the northern part of Bukovina.
1941: German troops of Heeresgruppe Mitte capture Minsk.
1942: Beginning of the first stage of Fall Blau (Operation Blue), the new German summer offensive on the southern front in Russia. From the area of Kursk, the German 2. Armee and 4. Panzerarmee, with 50 divisions, advance toward Voronesh on the upper Don.
1944: In Normandy, Operation Epsom designed to break through the German defenses near Caen is halted by the fierce resistance of the I. and II. SS-Panzerkorps. source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1794 - Joshua Humphreys appointed master builder to build Navy ships at an annual salary of $2,000.
1814 - USS Wasp captures HMS Reindeer
1865 - CSS Shenandoah captures 11 American whalers in one day
1970 - USS James Madison (SSBN-627) completes conversion to Poseidon missile capability
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjun.htm

1944: France - RCAF fighters down 26 German planes over France; mostly in support of railway yard bombing.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jun&day=28

1918: Corporal P. Davey, VC - Corporal P. Davey, 10th Battalion, originally from Goodwood, South Australia, wins the Victoria Cross at Merris, France.
1945: Private L.T. Starcevich, VC - Private L.T. Starcevich, 2/43rd Battalion, originally from Subiaco, Western Australia, wins the Victoria Cross at Beaufort, North Borneo.1950: Seoul captured - The North Korean People's Army captured Seoul in their initial southward advance, by the end of the Korean War the city had changed hands four times.source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

:salute:
 
June 29th

1941: On the Arctic front in northern Finland, the German 20. Gebirgsarmee (Dietl) launches Unternehmen Silberfuchs (Operation Silver Fox), an offensive to capture the Soviet port of Murmansk. Several divisions of the Soviet West Front (Pavlov) are encircled near Bialystok.
1942: The Afrikakorps captures Mersah Matruh in Egypt.
1944: In the East, German troops of Heeresgruppe Mitte (Busch) encircled near Bobruisk surrender to the Red Army (70,000 prisoners). In the West, Cherbourg is captured by the US VII Corps (Collins).
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1943 US forces landed in New Guinea.
1965 US troops took offensive action for the first time against North Vietnamese forces.
source: http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/onthisday.asp

1925 - Ships and men from 11th and 12th Naval Districts assist in relief after earthquake at Santa Barbara , CA
1950 - Truman authorizes sea blockade of the Korean coast
1950 - USS Juneau fires first naval shore bombardment of Korean Conflict
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjun.htm

1944: Camilly France - Canadian Second Corps under Guy Simonds sent to join the Second Army in the Caen sector with the Eighth Army on its left and the First Corps on its right; second Infantry Division sent immediately since infantry casualties heavy; Crerar told his First Army headquarters not required in the line at present.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jun&day=29

1950: Australia commits military units to the United Nations Force in Korea - Australia was one of the first nations to commit units, from each of the three services, to the war in Korea. Australians in Korea fought as part of the United Nations Command.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

:bravo:
 
June 30th

1940: German troops occupy the British Channel Islands off the coast of Brittany.
1941: In the East, German forces of Heeresgruppe Mitte (von Bock) capture Lemberg (Lvov). Pilots of Luftwaffe fighter wing JG-51 down 100 Soviet bombers attacking German armored forces east of Minsk; its CO, Oberst (Colonel) Mölders, accounts for 5 of them. Vichy France breaks off diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.
1942: In the East, beginning of an offensive by 6. Armee (Paulus) from the area of Belgorod toward the Don. Returning from a successful patrol in the Gulf of Mexico (12 ships sunk), U-158 (Kptlt. Rostin) is destroyed by a US Mariner flying boat off Bermuda.
1944: In the West, the RAF carries out a saturation raid (250 Lancasters) on 2. and 9. SS-Panzerdivisions (Das Reich and Hohenstauffen) at Villers-Bocage near Caen. The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Finland.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1815 - USS Peacock takes HMS Nautilus, last action of the War of 1812
1943 - Third Fleet Amphibious Force lands troops on Rendova Island while naval gunfire silences Japanese artillery
1951 - Naval Administration of Marianas ends
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjun.htm

1941: HMAS Waterhen sunk - HMAS Waterhen was sunk on the Tobruk run.
1942: Australian troops raid Salamaua - The raid on Salamaua was carried out by men of the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles and the 2/5th Independent Company, they caused damage to Japanese facilities and supplies.1950: No. 77 Squadron RAAF committed to Korea - Prime Minister Menzies announced that No. 77 Squadron RAAF was to be committed to combat duties in Korea. This was the first Australian unit committed to the war in Korea; they were equipped with Mustangs.source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/jun.asp

1944: Off the Shetlands, Scotland - Flight Lt. David Hornell VC scores U-boat kill; one of four by RCAF 162 Squadron this June.
1976: Goose Bay Newfoundland - US Air Force closes base at Goose Bay, Labrador, when lease expires.
1992: Croatia - Canadian peacekeepers start trek to Sarajevo, Bosnia; 800 troops in armored vehicle convoy move to keep airport open as part of international relief effort to bring in food and medicine.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jun&day=30

:rambo:
 
July 1st

1940: German troops complete the occupation of the Channel Islands, the only British territory ever captured by Germany during WWII. The French government of Marshal Petain moves from Bordeaux to Vichy. Marshal Balbo is replaced by Marshal Graziani as C-in-C of Italian forces in Libya. In the first 6 months of the year, German U-boats have sunk 900,000 tons of Allied shipping.
1941: In the East, armored forces of Panzergruppe 4 (Hoepner) of Heeresgruppe Nord (von Leeb) cross the Dvina and capture Riga, while units of Panzergruppe 2 (Guderian) of Heeresgruppe Mitte (von Bock) reach the Beresina near Borisov near Minsk.
1942: Infantry and combat engineers trof 11.Armee (von Manstein) complete the capture of the fortress of Sevastopol in the Crimea. In Egypt, armored units of the Afrikakorps approach the defensive lines of the British Eighth Army at El Alamein on the road to Alexandria.
1944: Since D-Day, the Allies have landed 920,000 tropps, 177,000 vehicles and 600,000 tons of supplies and equipment. In 24 days of fighting, they have lost 62,000 men killed, wounded and missing. In the East, troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front (Chernyakovsky) recapture Borisov.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/july.html

1916: First day of the battle of the Somme - This was the worst single day in the history of British arms with 60,000 men being killed or wounded. The battle of the Somme then continued for four months and resulted in more than 1,200,000 casualties on both sides.
1945: 7th Division landed at Balikpapan, Borneo - The landing at Balikpapan was the largest and final Australian amphibious landing of the Second World War.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/jul.asp

1916: Beaumont-Hamel France - Newfoundland troops capture Beaumont-Hamel on the first day of the Battle of the Somme; bloodiest battle in history will cause casualties of one million dead or wounded by the time it ends in November.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jul&day=01

1797 - Naval Regulations passed by Congress
1800 - First convoy duty; USS Essex escorts convoy of merchant ships from East Indies to U.S.
1801 - U.S. squadron under Commodore Dale enters Mediterranean to strike Barbary Pirates
1850 - Naval School at Annapolis renamed Naval Academy
1851 - Naval Academy adopts four year course of study
1911 - Trial of first Navy aircraft, Curtiss A-1. The designer, Glenn Curtiss, makes first flight in Navy's first aircraft, A-1, at Lake Keuka, NY, then prepares LT Theodore G. Ellyson, the first naval aviator, for his two solo flights in A-1.
1914 - Prohibition of alcohol begins in the Navy
1916 - Establishment of informal school for officers assigned to submarines at New London, CT
1918 - USS Covington hit without warning by two torpedoes from German Submarine U-86 and sank the next day
1951 - Responsibility for the Government of Trust Territories transferred from Navy to Department of Interior.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjul.htm

1862: Battle of Malvern Hill Union artillery cuts down Confederate attackers on the last of the Seven Days' battles.
1863: The Battle of Gettysburg begins The largest military conflict in North American history begins this day when Union and Confederate forces collide at Gettysburg. The epic battle lasted three days and resulted in a retreat to Virginia by Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.
1942: The Battle of El Alamein begins Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is brought to a standstill in the battle for control of North Africa. Reinforced by American supplies, and reorganized and reinvigorated by British General Claude Auchinleck, British, Indian, South African, and New Zealand troops battled Rommel, and his by now exhausted men, to a standstill in Egypt. Auchinleck denied the Axis Egypt. Rommel was back on the defensive-a definite turning point in the war in North Africa.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

1596: An English fleet under the Earl of Essex, Lord Howard of Effingham and Francis Vere capture and sack Cadiz, Spain.
1690: Led by Marshall Luxembourg, the French defeat the forces of the Grand Alliance at Fleurus in the Netherlands.
1898: American troops take San Juan Hill and El Caney, Cuba, from the Spaniards.
1950: American ground troops arrive in South Korea to halt the advancing North Korean army.
1961: British troops land in Kuwait to aid against Iraqi threats.
1966: The U.S. Marines launch Operation Holt in an attempt to finish off a Vietcong battalion in Thua Thien Province in Vietnam.
source: http://www.historynet.com/today_in_history

251 - The Battle of Abrittus is won by the Goths against the Romans. Roman EmperorsDecius and Herennius Etruscus are killed.
1097 - Battle of Dorylaeum: Crusaders under Bohemond of Taranto defeat a Seljuk army under Qilich Arslan I.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_July

:salute:
 
July 2nd

1940: The British liner Arandora Star, carrying 1,500 German and Italian prisoners of war to Canada, is sunk by U-47 (Kptlt. Prien) off the west coast of Ireland, with many casualties.
1941: On the extreme southern front in the East, troops of the German 11th (von Schobert) and the Rumanian 3rd (Dumitrescu) and 4th Rumanian (Ciuparea) Armies begin an offensive from Moldavia toward Vinnitsa and the Black Sea port of Odessa. The RAF carries out night raids on Bremen and Cologne. China breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany and Italy.
1943: The US Fifteenth Air Force, based in Libya, raids three airfields in southern Italy.
1944: In Italy, German troops evacuate Siena. Field Marshal von Rundstedt resigns as C-in-C of German forces in the West and is replaced by FM von Kluge.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/july.html

1950: No. 77 Squadron flies first combat mission in Korea - First combat mission flown by No. 77 Squadron in Korea. No. 77 Squadron was the first Australian unit committed to the war in Korea.1952: Operation Blaze - A Company 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, raids Chinese positions on Hill 227 during Operation Blaze, Korea. The objective of the operation was to capture a prisoner and destroy the Chinese position's garrison.1993: Death of Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop - Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop gained fame for the medical services he rendered to his fellow prisoners of the Japanese on the Burma-Thailand railway during the Second World War.source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/jul.asp

1941: Canada - RCAF authorized to enlist women; followed by army, navy.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jul&day=02

1923 - Commissioning of Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC.
1926 - Distinguished Flying Cross authorized by Congress.
1937 - Amelia Earhart disappears in Pacific. Navy conducts extensive unsuccessful search
1945 - USS Barb (SS-220) bombards Japanese installations on Kaihyo Island, Japan; first successful use of rockets against shore positions.
1946 - Establishment of VX-3 to evaluate adaptability of helicopters to naval purposes.
1950 - USS Juneau and 2 British ships sink 5 of 6 attacking North Korean torpedo boats and gunboats.
1967 - During Operation Bear Claw, Seventh Fleet Amphibious Force conducts helicopter assault 12 miles inland at Con Thien.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjul.htm

1853http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1853 - The Russian Army invades Turkey, beginning the Crimean War.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2

1863: The second day of the Battle at Gettysburg - General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia attacks General George G. Meade's Army of the Potomac at both Culp's Hill and Little Round Top, but fails to move the Yankees from their positions.
1944: American bombers deluge Budapest, in more ways than one -

as part of Operation Gardening, the British and American strategy to lay mines in the Danube River by dropping them from the air, American aircraft also drop bombs and leaflets on German-occupied Budapest.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

1298: An army under Albert of Austria defeats forces led by Adolf of Nassua.
1625: The Spanish army takes Breda, Spain, after nearly a year of siege.
1747: Marshall Saxe leads the French forces to victory over an Anglo-Dutch force under the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Lauffeld.
1926: Congress establishes the U.S. Army Air Corps.
source: http://www.historynet.com/today_in_history

:salute2:
 
July 3rd
1940: Heavy units of the British Navy, codenamed Force H (Somerville), launch an attack (Operation Catapult) on the French fleet stationed at Mers-el-Kebir near Oran in Algeria, sinking the battleship Bretagne and heavily damaging the battleship Provence and the battlecruiser Dunkerque. 1,300 French sailors are killed and hundreds wounded. Reaction in both occupied and Vichy France is one of shock and outrage at this totally unexpected and ruthless action by their former ally. Some 59 other French warships that had sought refuge at Plymouth and Portsmouth are seized by the Royal Navy, but only after overcoming armed French resistance in some cases.
1941: For the first time since the beginning of the German attack on the Soviet Union, Stalin speaks to the Russian people over the radio. Demanding utmost resistance 'in our patriotic war against German Fascism', he calls for a policy of scorched earth if the Red Army is forced to yield ground and the formation of 'people's partisan' groups behind enemy lines, as well as the summary execution of all cowards and shirkers.
1942: In Egypt, due to exhaustion and lack of supplies, especially fuel for the armored divisions, German and Italian forces of the Afrikakorps suspend all offensive operations before El Alamein and begin constructing defensive positions.
1943: In the East, the opening of Unternehmen Zitadelle (Operation Citadel), the massive German counter-offensive to encircle and destroy the Soviet forces in the Orel-Belgorod salient near Kursk. is delayed by one day because of heavy Soviet air attacks against the German deployment areas. The RAF carries out a heavy night raid on Cologne, causing considerable damage and killing hundreds of civilians.
1944: In the East, 28 divisions of Heeresgruppe Mitte (Model) are encircled or destroyed by the Soviet 1st and 3rd Belorussian Fronts in the Minsk area. The Soviets claim 400,000 German dead and 158,000 taken prisoner.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/july.html

1812: St. Clair River - Frederic Rolette 1785-1831 captures General William Hull's schooner Cayahoga and finds Hull's battle plans; War of 1812.
1814: Fort Erie Ontario - Major General Jacob Brown crosses Niagara River and captures poorly defended Fort Erie from the British; War of 1812.
1942: Washington DC - Canada and the United States form joint military, naval, and air office in Washington.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jul&day=03

1900: Leeuw Kop, South Africa - 400 Imperial Bushmen in action at Leeuw Kop, South Africa.
1950: Pilots of No. 77 Squadron involved in friendly fire incident - Pilots of No. 77 Squadron accidentally destroy a train carrying American and Republic of Korea soldiers having been assured by the United States 5th Air Force Tactical Control Centre that the area under attack was in North Korean hands.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/jul.asp

1898 - At Battle of Santiago, Cuba, RADM Sampson's squadron destroys Spanish fleet
1950 - USS Valley Forge and HMS Triumph participate in first carrier action of Korean Conflict. VF-51 aircraft (Valley Forge) shoot down 2 North Korean aircraft. The action is first combat test of F9F Panther and A1D Skyraider.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjul.htm

1775: George Washington rides out in front of the American troops gathered at Cambridge common in Massachusetts and draws his sword, formally taking command of the Continental Army. Washington, a prominent Virginia planter and veteran of the French and Indian War, had been appointed commander in chief by the Continental Congress two weeks before. In agreeing to serve the American colonies in their war for independence, he declined to accept payment for his services beyond reimbursement of future expenses.
1863: Pickett leads his infamous charge at Gettysburg - Troops under Confederate General George Pickett begin a massive attack against the center of the Union lines at Gettysburg on the climactic third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, the largest engagement of the war. General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia encountered George Meade's Army of the Potomac in Pennsylvania and battered the Yankees for two days. The day before Pickett's charge, the Confederates had hammered each flank of the Union line but could not break through.
1940: Operation Catapult is launched - 1940, British naval forces destroy the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir, a port in Algeria, in order to prevent Germany from co-opting the French ships to use in an invasion of Britain.
1968: U.S. command announces new high in casualties - The U.S. command in Saigon releases figures showing that more Americans were killed during the first six months of 1968 than in all of 1967. These casualty figures were a direct result of the heavy fighting that had occurred during, and immediately after, the communist Tet Offensive. The timing and magnitude of the attacks caught the South Vietnamese and American forces completely off guard, but eventually the Allied forces turned the tide. Militarily, the Tet Offensive was a disaster for the communists. By the end of March 1968, they had not achieved any of their objectives and had lost 32,000 soldiers with 5,800 captured. U.S. forces suffered 3,895 dead; South Vietnamese losses were 4,954; non-U.S. allies lost 214. More than 14,300 South Vietnamese civilians died.
source: http://www.historynet.com/today_in_history

1916: The Battle of the Somme begins. More than 100,000 men are killed in the first day.
1944: The U.S. First Army opens a general offensive to break out of the hedgerow area of Normandy, France.
1945: U.S. troops land at Balikpapan and take Sepinggan airfield on Borneo in the Pacific.
source: http://www.historynet.com/today_in_history

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July 4th

1940: In direct response to the devastating British attack on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir, the Vichy French government of Marshal Petain breaks off diplomatic relations with Britain. In the House of Commons, prime minister Churchill declares,'I leave the judgment of our actions with confidence to Parliament. I leave it to the nation and I leave it to the United States [?!]. I leave it to the world and to history.' German Stukas and MTBs attack a British convoy S of Portland, sinking 5 merchant ships. Italian bombers raid Malta and Alexandria.
1941: Units of Heeresgruppe Mitte (von Bock) capture Ostrov s of Pskovsk.
1942: Off the northern coast of Norway, German U-boats and Luftwaffe torpedo planes attack Convoy PQ-17 bound for Murmansk. Over a period of 6 days, they sink 24 ships out of a total of 37. In the East, the German 11.Armee (von Manstein) completes the occupation of the Crimea, taking 97,000 Soviet prisoners. For the first time, 6 B-17s of the US 8th Air Force join an RAF bomber formation in raids on German airfields in Holland.
1943: General Sikorski, leader of the London-based anti-Communist Polish government-in-exile, is killed in a plane crash at Gibraltar, some suspect as the result of deliberate sabotage.
1944: In the East, the Soviet 1st Baltic Front begins an offensive toward Riga, capturing Potolsk and threatening to isolate Heeresgruppe Nord in its fighting retreat from iEstonia.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/july.html

1776 - American colonies declare their independence from Great Britain
1777 - John Paul Jones hoists first Stars and Stripes flag on Ranger at Portsmouth, NH.
1801 - First Presidential Review of U.S. Marine Band and Marines at the White House.
1842 - First test of electrically operated underwater torpedo sinks gunboat Boxer
1863 - Confederates surrender of Vicksburg, MS, gives Union control of Mississippi River.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjul.htm

1944: Carpiquet France - Canadians take village of Carpiquet and part of airfield; Keller's 8th Brigade: North Shores, Queen's Own, and le Régiment de la Chaudière, with the 7th Brigade's Winnipeg Rifles under command; supported by the 10th Canadian Armoured Regiment (Fort Garry Horse) and the Assault Vehicles, Royal Engineers of the 79th British Armoured Division; the Canadians have 428 field guns, backed by naval fire including the 9 16-inch guns of the battleship Rodney and the 15-inch guns of the monitor Roberts; take 117 dead and 260 wounded; position held for five days until Caen is taken in Operation Charnwood.
1945: Berlin Germany - Canadian troops enter Berlin as part of British garrison force; to share occupation duties.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jul&day=04

1918: Battle of Hamel, France - The Battle of Hamel was the first set-piece operation planned and conducted under Lieutenant General Sir John Monash. It came to be regarded as a model for later Western Front battles.
1918: Lance Corporal T.L. Axford, VC - Lance Corporal T.L. Axford, 16th Battalion, originally from Carrieton, South Australia, wins the Victoria Cross at Vaire and Hamel Woods, France.1918: Private H. Dalziel, VC - Private H. Dalziel, 15th Battalion, originally from Irvinebank, Queensland, wins the Victoria Cross at Hamel Wood, France.1941: Acting Wing Commander H. Edwards, VC - Acting Wing Commander H. Edwards, No. 105 Squadron, Bomber Command, RAAF, originally from Fremantle, Western Australia, wins the Victoria Cross in a raid on Bremen.source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/jul.asp

1861: Union and Confederate forces skirmish at Harpers Ferry.
1863: The Confederate town of Vicksburg, Mississippi, surrenders to General Ulysses S. Grant.
1946: The United States grants the Philippine Islands their independence.
source: http://www.historynet.com/tdih0704.htm

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July 5th

1940: In retaliation for the British action at Mers-el-Kebir, Vichy French warships based at Dakar capture 3 British merchant ships, while French aircraft stationed in Morocco attack British shipping off Gibraltar. The British destroyer Whirlwind is sunk by U-34 (Kptlt. Rollmann) SW of Ireland. The RAF carries out night raids on Kiel and Wilhelmshaven.
1941: In the East, units of 6.Armee (von Reichenau) break through the Stalin Line E of Lvov, while Panzergruppe 1 (von Kleist) continues its advance toward Zhitomir and Berdichev in the Ukraine. The RAF carries out night raids on M=FCnster and Bielefeld.
1942: Armored units of 4.Panzerarmee (Hoth) reach the Don at Voronesh.
1943: Beginning of Unternehmen Zitadelle (Operation Citadel), the massive counter-offensive by Heeresgruppe Mitte to eliminate the Soviet salient between Orel and Belgorod near Kursk. On a 200-mile front, 37 divisions totaling 900,000 men of 9.Armee (Model) attacking from the north, and 4.Panzerarmee (Hoth) attacking from the south, including 11 Panzer divisions with 2,500 tanks and assault guns, 10,000 guns and Nebelwerfer (rocket guns), as well as 1,800 aircraft go into action against 1,300,000 Soviet troops in deeply echeloned defensive positions and protected by 8,000 land mines per square mile, 3,300 tanks, 20,000 guns and 2,500 aircraft. Taken together, the opposing forces in this operation constitute the largest concentration of military power ever assembled in history; the greatest tank and air battles of WWII will be fought here. -- In the northern sector, the Germans advance 6, in the southern, some 25 miles against stubborn Soviet resistance inflicting heavy casualties in tanks and infantry.
1944: German mini-U-boats begin operations off the Normandy coast, sinking 4 small Allied warships and damaging the British cruiser Dragon.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/july.html

1813: Plattsburgh New York - British begin three weeks of raids on Fort Schlosser, Black Rock and Plattsburgh, New York; War of 1812 raids.
1814: Chippewa Ontario - Major General Jacob Brown defeats Gen. Phineas Riall and 1,800 British at Street's Creek (Chippewa); British retreat back toward Burlington, destroying Chippewa Bridge to prevent pursuit; 148 British dead, 48 Americans; with Winfield Scott.
1950: Esquimalt BC - Royal Canadian Navy destroyers HMCS Cayuga, Athabaskan, and Sioux leave Esquimalt for Pearl Harbor escorted by cruiser Ontario; to come under UN control during Korean War.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jul&day=05

1814 - Sloop-of-war Peacock captures British Stranger, Venus, Adiona, and Fortitude.
1815 - Commodore Stephen Decatur's squadron arrives at Tripoli to collect reparations for seizure of American merchant ships in violation of Treaty of 1805.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjul.htm

1943: An Allied invasion fleet sails for Sicily (Operation Husky, July 10, 1943).
1945: Liberation of the Philippines declared.
1950: Task Force Smith - First clash between American and North Korean forces.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_5

1861: Battle of Carthage, Missouri - the first large-scale engagement of the Civil War is fought in southwestern Missouri, signaling an escalation in the hostilities between the North and South. After the clash at Fort Sumter in April, the state was deeply divided. The Missouri State Guardsmen, a force of 6,000 men commanded by Confederate Governor Claiborne Jackson and Colonel Sterling Price, were poorly equipped and outfitted mostly in civilian clothing. Their Union counterpart was a force of 1,100, mostly German-Americans from St. Louis, commanded by General Franz Sigel. Sigel's force occupied Springfield in late June, and then collided with the Confederates at nearby Carthage on July 5. Outnumbered, Sigel eventually withdrew, but was able to hold off several small attacks. By nightfall, the Union troops had retreated through Carthage and escaped a dangerous trap. Both sides declared victory, and losses were light: 13 Union men were killed and 31 were wounded, while 40 Confederates were killed and 120 were wounded. The forces remained in the area of Springfield, gathering strength over the next month. They would fight again in August at Wilson's Creek, Missouri.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=2235

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