TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
6 November
◆1282 Battle of Menai Straits: Pr. Llewellyn of Gwynedd defeats Luc de Tany.
◆1528 A Spanish barge under Don Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca landed in East Texas. The survivors of 2 barges spent the winter on an island they named Isla de Malhado, "The Island of Misfortune." By the spring of 1529 there were 15 castaways left and half the native population was dead from disease.
◆1632 Battle of Lutzen: Swedes defeat the Imperialists.★
◆1792 The Battle of Jemappes: The French defeat the Austrians, to overrun Belgium.
◆1794 French troops conquer Nijmegen.
◆1827 Marines prepared to fight pirates at Andros, Greece.
1850 In the San Francisco Bay, Yerba Buena and Angel islands were reserved for military use.
◆1851 U.S. Navy expedition under command of LT William Lewis Herndon, on a mission to explore the valley of the Amazon and its tributaries, reaches Iquitos in the jungle region of the upper Amazon after their departure from Lima, Peru.
◆1854 John Philip Sousa, "The March Master," American bandmaster, composer and the king of American march music, was born in Washington, D.C.
◆1861 Jefferson Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America.
◆1863 Battle of Droop Mountain, in West Virginia.
◆1888 Benjamin Harrison of Indiana won the presidential election, beating incumbent Grover Cleveland on electoral votes, 233-168, although Cleveland led in the popular vote.
◆1891 Comanche, the only 7th Cavalry horse to survive George Armstrong Custer’s "Last Stand" at the Little Bighorn, died at Fort Riley, Kan.★
◆1900 President McKinley was re-elected, beating Democrat William Jennings Bryan.
◆1908 Dutch capture Venezuelan navy.
◆1917 Bolshevik "October Revolution" (October 25 on the old Russian calendar), led by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky, seized power in Petrograd.★
◆1918 Americans enter Sedan.
◆1918 U.S.A. promises to exercise influence to secure for Romania political and territorial rights.
◆1928 In a first, presidential election results were flashed on an electronic sign outside the New York Times building; Herbert Hoover beat Alfred E. Smith.
◆1939 The American cargo ship, City of Flint, is returned to her captain, Joseph H. Gainard in Haugesund. Since October 9th, the ship has journeyed under the command of a German prize crew from the Deutschland.
◆1941 USA lent Soviet Union $1 million.
◆1941 On Neutrality Patrol, USS Omaha (CL-4) and USS Somers (DD-381) intercept the German blockade runner Odenwald. The smuggler is carrying a cargo of rubber from Japan, disguised as U.S. freighter, board her after the German crew abandoned the ship, and brought the ship to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where the boarding party was awarded salvage shares.
◆1945 The first landing of a jet on a carrier took place on the USS Wake Island when an FR-1 Fireball touched down.
◆1950 A Chinese offensive was halted at Chongchon River, North Korea. General Douglas MacArthur charged the Chinese with unlawful aggression.
◆1956 The Eisenhower-Nixon Republican ticket won the presidential elections beating Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson.
◆1956 Pressure from the US and USSR affected a cease-fire in the Middle-East. The UN created an emergency force (UNEF) to supervise a cease fire.
◆1968 Richard Nixon was elected 37th pres of US, defeating Hubert Humphrey.
◆1970 South Vietnamese forces launch a new offensive into Cambodia, advancing across a 100-mile-wide front in southeastern Cambodia. The new offensive was aimed at cleaning out border sanctuaries and blocking North Vietnamese forces from moving through Cambodia into South Vietnam. The 6,000-man South Vietnamese task force pulled out on November 11 after failing to find new Communist troop sanctuaries. Forty-one enemy soldiers were reportedly killed in the operation.
◆1971 The US Atomic Energy Commission exploded a 5-megaton bomb beneath Amchitka Island, Alaska, just 87 miles from the Petropavlovsk Russian naval base. It registered as a magnitude-7 earthquake.★
◆1979 Ayatollah Khomeini took over in Iran.
◆1984 President Ronald Reagan was re-elected.
◆1995 The US Air Force launched the most powerful unmanned rocket, Titan 4, with a $1 bil. Milstar communications satellite for the defense dept.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
6 November
*LEONARD, TURNEY W.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Company C, 893d Tank Destroyer Battalion. Place and date: Kommerscheidt, Germany, 4-6 November 1944. Entered service at: Dallas, Tex. Birth: Dallas, Tex. G.O. No.: 74, 1 September 1945. Citation: He displayed extraordinary heroism while commanding a platoon of mobile weapons at Kommerscheidt, Germany, on 4, 5, and 6 November 1944. During the fierce 3-day engagement, he repeatedly braved overwhelming enemy fire in advance of his platoon to direct the fire of his tank destroyer from exposed, dismounted positions. He went on lone reconnaissance missions to discover what opposition his men faced, and on 1 occasion, when fired upon by a hostile machinegun, advanced alone and eliminated the enemy emplacement with a hand grenade. When a strong German attack threatened to overrun friendly positions, he moved through withering artillery, mortar, and small arms fire, reorganized confused infantry units whose leaders had become casualties, and exhorted them to hold firm. Although wounded early in battle, he continued to direct fire from his advanced position until he was disabled by a high-explosive shell which shattered his arm, forcing him to withdraw. He was last seen at a medical aid station which was subsequently captured by the enemy. By his superb courage, inspiring leadership, and indomitable fighting spirit, 1st Lt. Leonard enabled our forces to hold off the enemy attack and was personally responsible for the direction of fire which destroyed 6 German tanks.
*REEM, ROBERT DALE
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps, Company H, 3d Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division (Rein.). Place and date: Vicinity Chinhung-ni, Korea, 6 November 1950. Entered service at: Elizabethtown, Pa. Born: 20 October 1925, Lancaster, Pa. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as a platoon commander in Company H, in action against enemy aggressor forces. Grimly determined to dislodge a group of heavy enemy infantry units occupying well-concealed and strongly fortified positions on commanding ground overlooking unprotected terrain. 2d Lt. Reem moved slowly forward up the side of the ridge with his platoon in the face of a veritable hail of shattering hostile machine gun, grenade, and rifle fire. Three times repulsed by a resolute enemy force in achieving his objective, and pinned down by the continuing fury of hostile fire, he rallied and regrouped the heroic men in his depleted and disorganized platoon in preparation for a fourth attack. Issuing last-minute orders to his noncommissioned officers when an enemy grenade landed in a depression of the rocky ground in which the group was standing, 2d Lt. Reem unhesitatingly chose to sacrifice himself and, springing upon the deadly missile, absorbed the full impact of the explosion in his body, thus protecting others from serious injury and possible death. Stouthearted and indomitable, he readily yielded his own chance of survival that his subordinate leaders might live to carry on the fight against a fanatic enemy. His superb courage, cool decisiveness, and valiant spirit of self-sacrifice in the face of certain death reflect the highest credit upon 2d Lt. Reem and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.