TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
31 August
◆1346 Edward III of England besieges Calais.
◆1423 Battle of Cravant: French defeated by the Anglo-Burgundians.
◆1644 Battle of Fowey: Cornish Royalists defeat the Parliamentarians.
◆1756 The British at Fort William Henry, New England, surrendered to Louis Montcalm of France.
◆1777 Samuel Mason, a captain in command of Fort Henry on the Ohio frontier, survives a devastating Indian attack only to become one of the young nation's first western desperados.★
◆1778 British killed 17 Stockbridge Indians in Bronx during Revolution.
◆1802 Captain Meriwether Lewis left Pittsburgh to meet up with Captain William Clark and begin their trek to the Pacific Ocean.
◆1819 The cutters Alabama and Louisiana captured the privateer Bravo in the Gulf of Mexico. The master, Jean Le Farges -a lieutenant of Jean Lafitte- was later hanged from the Louisiana's yardarm on the Mississippi River. The cutters then sailed for Patterson's Town on Breton Island to destroy the notorious pirates' den there.
◆1822 Fitz John Porter (d.1901), Major General (Union volunteers), was born.
◆1864 General William T. Sherman launches the attack that finally secures Atlanta, Georgia, for the Union, and seals the fate of Confederate General John Bell Hood's army, which is forced to evacuate the area.
◆1865 The US Federal government estimated the American Civil War had cost about eight-billion dollars. Human costs have been estimated at more than one-million killed or wounded.
◆1899 Paul E. Garber, US founder and 1st curator of National Air & Space Museum, was born.
◆1935 President Roosevelt signed an act prohibiting the export of U.S. arms to belligerents.
◆1939 At noon, despite threats of British and French intervention, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler signs an order to attack Poland, and German forces move to the frontier.★
◆1940 US National Guard assembled. They will be mobilized for 1 year, extended to 2, to train and assist in war games to test new tactics.
◆1940 56 U-boats were sunk this month (268,000 ton).
◆1941 US Agricultural Secretary Claude Wickard announces that meat rationing will probably be necessary.
◆1942 The Battle of Guadalcanal. Japanese General Kawaguchi lands 1200 troops on the island.
◆1942 3rd Marines leave San Diego bound for American Samoa.
◆1943 Australian 9th Division sails from Milne Bay for landing near Lae, NE New Guinea.
◆1943 American carrier based aircraft strike Marcus island. The Independence, Essex and Yorktown are involved. These ships are part of the newly formed Fast Carrier Task Force.
◆1943 Commissioning of USS Harmon (DE-678), first Navy ship named for an African American Sailor.
◆1944 US 4th Corps (part of US 5th Army) advances after German forces conduct withdrawals from some positions along the Arno River.
◆1944 Carrier task group begins 3-day attack on Iwo Jima and Bonin Islands.
◆1944 A US B-24-J bomber crashed into Maoer Mountain in China after having completed its bombing mission over the port of Takao in Taiwan. All 10 men onboard were killed. The wreckage was not discovered until Oct, 1996.
◆1945 General MacArthur establishes the supreme allied command at the main port of Tokyo, as the first foreigner to take charge of Japan in 1000 years. In discussing the preparations for the formal surrender ceremony, scheduled for September 2nd, he said: "The surrender plan has been going splendidly. There is every indication that the occupation will continue without bloodshed or friction." The American occupation is continuing at a rate of 300 troop planes per day.
◆1945 The remaining Japanese troops in the Philippines formally surrender.
◆1945 The Japanese garrison on Marcus Island surrenders to the American Admiral Whiting.
◆1949 Six of the 16 surviving Union veterans of the Civil War attended the last-ever encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, held in Indianapolis, Indiana.
◆1950 Far East Air Force B-29s completed air strikes on the docks and railway yards at Songjin and the industrial factory at Chinnampo. From Aug. 28-31, aircraft dropped 326 tons of bombs on Songjin and 284 tons on Chinnampo.
◆1950 The second battle of the Naktong Bulge began as the North Korean I Corps crossed the lower Naktong River in a well-planned attack against the U.S. 2nd and 25th Infantry Divisions.
◆1951 The former enemies of the world war reconvened in San Francisco to finalize negotiations on the peace treaty to formally end WW II. Japan agreed to pay the Int’l. Red Cross about $15 per POW while the allies agreed not to bring charges against it.
◆1951 The last United Nations Command offensive of the war occurred when the 1st Marine Division began its assault against the Punchbowl and from Aug. 31 to Sept. 3. The 2nd Infantry Division seized Bloody Ridge at a cost of 2,700 casualties.
◆1961 A concrete wall replaced the barbed wire fence that separated East and West Germany, it would be called the Berlin wall.
◆1962 Last flight of Navy airship made at NAS Lakehurst, NJ.
◆1965 President Johnson signs into law a bill making it illegal to destroy or mutilate a U.S. draft card, with penalties of up to five years and a $10,000 fine.
◆1990 -East & West Germany signed a treaty to join legal & political
◆1995 NATO planes and UN artillery blasted Serb targets in Bosnia for a 2nd day in response to the market attack in Serajevo.