TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
5 April
◆1242 Battle of the Neva: Prince Alexander of Novgorod defeats the Teutonic Knights.
◆1614 American Indian princess Pocahontas (d.1617) married English Jamestown colonist John Rolfe in Virginia. Their marriage brought a temporary peace between the English settlers and the Algonquians. In 1616, the couple sailed to England. The “Indian Princess” was popular with the English gentry.
◆1762 British capture Greneda from French.
◆1799 Battle of Magnano: Austrians defeat the French.
◆1811 Battle of Barrosa: English defeat the French.
◆1812 British take Badajoz, Spain, from the French by storm.
◆1861 Federals abandoned Ft. Quitman, Tx.
◆1862 Union forces under General George McClellan arrive at Yorktown, Virginia, and establish siege lines instead of directly attacking the Confederate defenders. ★
◆1865 Confederate General Robert E. Lee pulls his troops from Amelia Court House and begins a desperate race west to escape pursuing Yankee troops. On April 2, Lee’s men were forced to evacuate Richmond and Petersburg after a ten-month siege. The hungry army arrived at Amelia Court House expecting to find rations, but only ammunition and canons had been delivered. Lee was distraught, and he sent his troops out to the countryside to find food. They found little, however, and were forced to move on with empty stomachs.
◆1869 Daniel Bakeman, the last surviving soldier of the U.S. Revolutionary War, died at the age of 109.
◆1916 Battle of El Hanna: Unsuccessful British attempt to break the Turkish siege of Kut.
◆1937 Colin Powell, U.S. Army general, was born in Bronx New York.★
◆1942 The Japanese offensive down the Bataan peninsula continues. In fierce fighting, at Mount Samat, the US 21st Division takes heavy losses as the Japanese take the position. Elsewhere, Japanese forces leave Luzon for Cebu Island.
◆1942 US naval forces (Task Force 39) arrive to reinforce the British naval position at Scapa Flow, with the aircraft carrier, USS Wasp and the battleship, USS Washington. The British are in need the assistance as ships have been drawn for Operation Ironclad which is directed against Madagascar.
◆1942 Colombo, Ceylon: Japanese First Air Fleet inflicts heavy damage.
◆1943 Burma: Br 6th Bde HQ is overrun by advancing Japanese in the Arakan.
◆1943 The Axis defenses on the Wadi Akarit Line have been improved over the course of the past few days. The line is occupied, mostly, by Italian troops. The German 15th Panzer and 90th Light Divisions are held in reserve behind the line. Most of the Axis armor is further north, engaging the US 2nd Corps around El Guettar. In the evening the British 4th Indian Division begins a night advance against the Djebel Fatnassa position. Good progress is achieved.
◆1944 The Ploesti oil installations and rail sidings are attacked by B-17 and B-24 bombers of the US 15th Air Force, with a strong fighter escort. ★
◆1945 On the Italian west coast, American units from US 5th Army begin to attack north near Massa, south of La Spezia.
◆1945 On Luzon, south and west of Manila, the US forces on either side of Laguna de Bay are beginning to make significant gains in their attacks. In Manila Bay, on Caballo Island, American troops pour thousands of gallons of a diesel/gasoline mixture into Fort Hughes and set it on fire but fail to entirely eliminate Japanese resistance.
◆1945 The battleship, USS Nevada, is damaged by Japanese fire from a shore battery.
◆1945 It is announced that General MacArthur will take control of all army forces in the Pacific theater of operations and Admiral Nimitz will command all naval forces in preparation for the invasion of Japan.
◆1946 USS Missouri arrives in Turkey to return the body of Turkish ambassador, Mehmet Munir Ertegun, who had died in Washington, DC, in November 1944, to the U.S. and to show U.S. support and willingness to defend Turkey.
◆1947 Five Marine guards were killed and eight wounded when attacked by Communist Chinese raiders near the Hsin Ho ammunition depot in Northern China. This last major clash between Marines of the 1st Marine Division and Communist forces occurred shortly after withdrawal and redeployment plans from China were issued for the 1st Division and 1st Marine Aircraft Wing on 1 April.
◆1951 Operation RUGGED, a general advance to the Kansas Line north of the 38th parallel began.★
◆1951 General MacArthur’s letter of March 20 to House minority leader Joseph W. Martin criticizing President Truman’s strategy and the concept of limited war was made public.
◆1962 NASA civilian pilot Neil A. Armstrong took the X-15 to 54,600 m.
◆1964 Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur died in Washington, D.C., at age 84. William Manchester wrote his biography: “American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur.”
◆1967 The 4th Marines began a multi-battalion operation named Big Horn in Thua Thien Province.
◆1968 In Vietnam the siege of Khe Sahn ended after 76 days.
◆1972 Moving out of eastern Cambodia, North Vietnamese troops open the second front of their offensive with a drive into Binh Long Province, attacking Loc Ninh, a border town 75 miles north of Saigon on Highway 13.
◆1991 The space shuttle “Atlantis” blasted off on a mission that included the deploying of the second of “NASA’s” Great Observatories. NASA launched the $670 million Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. It was directed to a suicide plunge in 2000.
◆1999 NATO attacks struck Belgrade, Nis and Novi Sad in the most ferocious attacks for a 13th straight day. The first Kosovo refugees were flown out to Norway and Turkey and the US said it would take some 20,000 to Guantanamo Ari Base in Cuba. Pres. Clinton asked for public donations for the relief effort.
◆2002 US mediator Anthony Zinni met with Yasser Arafat in Ramallah as Israeli forces continued their offensive.★
◆2003 In the 18th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom US 3rd Infantry troops entered Baghdad for the first time. Coalition troops took several objectives surrounding the capital in the north and northwest. US warplanes hit Iraqi positions near the commercial center of Mosul. Up to 3,000 Iraqi fighters were killed as American armored vehicles moved into Baghdad.★