TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
27 May
◆1607 Battle of Jamestown: English settlers repulse an attack by c. 200 Indians
◆1813 Americans captured Fort George, Canada. Fort George served as the headquarters for the Centre Division of the British Army.
◆1862 Battle of Hanover Court House, VA (Slash Church, Peake's Station). Elements of Brig. Gen. Fitz John Porter’s V Corps extended north to protect the right flank of McClellan’s Union army that now straddled the Chickahominy River.
◆1863 Confederate defenders turned back a major assault on Port Hudson, inflicting severe losses on the Union Army.
◆1864 Battle of Dallas, GA.
◆1908 Congress passes the “Second Dick Act,” one of a series of laws enacted between 1903 and 1916 that completely restructured the old “militia” into the modern “National Guard.”
◆1942 The Japanese invasion fleet for Midway puts to sea from Saipan and Guam with troop transports carrying 5000 men. They are escorted by cruisers and destroyers. Likewise, the invasion force for the Aleutians sets sail in two groups from Ominato.
◆1942 The damaged USS Yorktown arrives at Pearl Harbor and repairs begin immediately.
◆1942 The “Americal” Infantry Division is organized primarily from Guard elements separated from their parent divisions by the Army’s reorganization of 1942.
◆1943 On Attu American forces make some progress along the Clevesy Pass. Japanese are driven off of Fish Hook Ridge in heavy fighting. Also, Americans begin work on an airfield at Alexai Point.
◆1943 Churchill and American General Marshall leave for North Africa for talks with General Eisenhower on the Italian campaign. Churchill wants to exploit opportunities in the Mediterranean and to get Italy to surrender. Marshall wants to avoid commitments that will interfere with the invasion of western Europe that is now being prepared.
◆1943 The 29th Ranger Battalion (Provisional), composed of volunteers from the 29th Infantry Division (DC, MD, VA), takes part in Exercise “Columbus,” a joint Anglo-American wargame in southern England.
◆1944 On Biak Island, the US 41st Infantry Division (General Fuller) lands near Bosnek. Naval escort for the landing is provided by cruisers and destroyers under the command of Admiral Fechteler. The forces of Admiral Crutchley and Admiral Berkey provide support. The Japanese garrison, led by Colonel Kuzume, numbers about 11,000 men but it does not resist the landings. On the mainland, American troops make limited gains in their advance toward Sarmi.
◆1944 German forces counterattack around Artena but the US 3rd Division (part of the 6th Corps) holds on to the town.
◆1945 For the first time in history, an entire army is moved by air transport. American aircraft fly the Chinese 6th Army from Burma to China.
◆1945 On Okinawa, American forces attacking southward, continue to encounter heavy Japanese resistance. Japanese aircraft begin a two-day series of strikes against the Allied naval forces around the island. The US destroyer Drexler is sunk.
◆1945 The US 25th Division, part of the US 1st Corps, takes Santa Fe on Luzon. There is still heavy fighting in several parts of Mindanao.
◆1949 Russians stopped train traffic to and from West Berlin.
◆1958 The Air Force received its first production Republic F-105B Thunderchief.
◆1965 Augmenting the vital role now being played by U.S. aircraft carriers, whose planes participated in many of the raids over South and North Vietnam, U.S. warships from the 7th Fleet begin to fire on Viet Cong targets in the central area of South Vietnam.
◆1972 Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev and U.S. President Richard Nixon, meeting in Moscow, sign the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) agreements.
◆1988 Two days before the start of the Moscow summit, the Senate voted 93-5 to ratify a treaty eliminating medium-range nuclear missiles.
◆1997 In Paris, Russian President Boris Yeltsin joined 16 NATO leaders, including President Clinton, to sign a historic agreement giving Moscow a voice in NATO affairs.
◆1999 In North Korea US inspectors found an empty tunnel at a suspected nuclear arms site.
◆1999 The Philippine Senate ratified an accord with the US for joint military exercises.