TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
26 March
◆1351 Battle of the Thirty: 30 French knights under Charles de Blois defeat 30 English knights under Jean de Montfort.
◆1804 Congress ordered the removal of Indians east of the Mississippi to Louisiana.
◆1804 The Louisiana Purchase was divided into the Territory of Orleans and the District of Louisiana.
◆1864 General James B. McPherson assumes command of the Union Army of the Tennessee after William T. Sherman is elevated to commander of the Division of the Mississippi, the overall leader in the West.
◆1865 A detachment of sailors led by Acting Ensign Peyton H. Randolph of U.S.S. Benton joined troops under the command of Brigadier General B.G. Farrar. They lead a combined expedition to Trinity, Louisiana, where they captured a small number of Confederate soldiers as well as horses, arms and stores.
◆1885 Battle of Duck Lake (Sask): Louis Riel's rebels defeat Canadian forces.
◆1910 US forbade immigration to criminals, anarchists, paupers and the sick.
◆1913 First Balkan War: The Bulgarians capture Adrianople from the Turks, ending the war.
◆1914 William Westmoreland, U.S. army general during the Vietnam War, is born.★
◆1917 First Battle of Gaza: The Turks hold the British.
◆1941 Suda Bay, Crete: Italian torpedo boats attack the heavy cruiser HMS 'York.'
◆1942 ADM King becomes both Chief of Naval Operations and Commander, U.S. Fleet.
◆1943 Elsie S. Ott, US army nurse, became the 1st woman to receive air medal.
◆1943 Battle of Komandorski Islands, prevents Japanese reinforcements from reaching Attu.★
◆1944 Japanese patrols again sight large American naval forces heading for Palau Island. They decide to disperse their warships.
◆1944 In Italy, a major reorganization of the Allied forces takes place. The New Zealand Corps is taken out of the line and broken up. Other units of the Eighth Army are brought from the east side to replace it along with the French Corps. The next Allied offensive will not be until May when this reorganization is complete.
◆1945 Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, and Patton attack at Remagen on the Rhine.
◆1945 The US 7th Army begins to send units of US 15th and US 6th Corps across the Rhine River between Worms and Mannheim. To the north all the Allied armies continue to advance.
◆1945 On Iwo Jima, the few hundred Japanese troops remaining on the island mount a final suicide attack. They are wiped out by elements of the 5th Marine Division, which have been assigned the task of reducing the last pockets of resistance. About 200 of the Japanese garrison of 20,700 remain alive as prisoners of the marines of US 5th Amphibious Corps. American casualties have been almost 6,000 dead and 17,200 wounded.
◆1945 About 14,000 men commanded by General Arnold and drawn from the units of the Americal Division land just south of Cebu City on the island of Cebu. Admiral Berkey leads a bombardment group in support.
◆1945 US naval forces (TF58 and TF52) continue air strikes on Okinawa. US Task Force 54 (Admiral Deyo), with 10 battleships, 10 cruisers and 33 destroyers, begin the main bombardment of Okinawa. The US 77th Infantry Division (General Bruce) lands on Kerama Retto and overruns the small Japanese garrison. The British Pacific Fleet (Admiral Rawlings), also designated Task Force 57, with 4 fleet carriers, 2 battleships, 5 cruisers and 11 destroyers, attacks airfields and other targets on Sakashima Gunto. Japanese submarines make unsuccessful attacks on the Allied ships. Coast Guardsmen participated in the landings at Geruma Shima, Hokaji Shima, and Takashiki in the Ryukyu Islands. Kamikaze attacks wear on the US fleet.
◆1946 International Ice Patrol resumed after being suspended during World War II.
◆1951 The United States Air Force flag design was approved.
◆1954 The U.S. set off the second H-bomb blast in four weeks in the Marshall Islands at Bikini Island.★
◆1958 The U.S. Army launched America’s third successful satellite, Explorer 3.
◆1966 Operation Jackstay in Navy’s first amphibious assault in Vietnam’s inland waters.★
◆1968 Operation Bold Dragon III began in Mekong Delta it is under the direct control of the Chief of Naval Operations, Vietnam. The force included two SEAL platoons operating from U.S. naval vessels off the coast of Long Tau and Ba Xuyen during Phase I and off Phu Quc Island in Phase II. It was supported by Army and HA(L)-3 helicopters.
◆1970 500th nuclear explosion since 1945 was announced by the US.
◆1975 The city of Hue, in northernmost South Vietnam, falls to the North Vietnamese.
◆1976 The United States and Turkey sign a four-year military pact, reopening US bases in Turkey.
◆1983 US performed a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
◆1999 American-led NATO forces launched a third night of airstrikes against Yugoslavia and 2 MiG-29 fighters were shot down as Serbian troops continued to sweep ethnic Albanian villages in Kosovo.
◆2003 In the 8th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom about 1,000 members of the US Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade parachute into northern Iraq and seize control of an airfield. The U.S. Navy announces that Iraq’s Persian Gulf oil export terminal of Mina al-Bakr has escaped sabotage and is ready to resume operations.
◆2003 NATO officially signed up 7 eastern European nations to become members: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.