Military History Anniversaries 1 thru 15 August

Events in History over the next 15 day period that had U.S. military involvement or impacted in
some way on U.S military operations or American interests worldwide

 Aug 01 1801 – Tripolitan War: The schooner USS Enterprise defeated the 14-gun Tripolitan
corsair Tripoli after a fierce but one–sided battle.

 Aug 01 1907 – U.S. Army: Air Force Day » On this day the U.S. Army Signal Corps established
a small Aeronautical Division to take care of all matters pertaining to military ballooning, air
machines and all kindred subjects. The Signal corps began testing its first airplane at Fort Myers,
Virginia, on August 20, 1908. After more testing with an improved Wright Flyer, the Army formerly
accepted this airplane, identified as “Airplane No. 1,” on August 2, 1909.

In early 1913, the Army ordered its aviators who were training in Augusta Georgia, and Palm
Beach, Florida to Texas to take part in the 2 nd Division maneuvers. In Galveston on 3 MAR, the chief
Signal Oficer designated the assembled men and equipment the the “1 st Provisional Aero Squadron”
with Capt. Charles DeF. Chandler as squadron commander. They began flying activities a few days
later. On 4 DEC, general orders redesignate the unit as the 1 st Aero Squadron, effective 8 DEC. The
first military unit of the U.S. Army devoted exclusively to aviation has remained continuously active
since its creation.
Air Force Day was established on August 1, 1947, by President Truman "in recognition of the
personnel of the victorious Army Air Forces and all those who have developed and maintained our
nation's air strength." August 1 was chosen to mark the 40th anniversary of the establishment, in
1907, of the Aeronautical Division in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer of the Army.

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 Aug 01 1914 – WWI: First World War erupts » Four days after Austria-Hungary declared war on
Serbia, Germany and Russia declare war against each other, France orders a general mobilization, and
the first German army units cross into Luxembourg in preparation for the German invasion of France.
During the next three days, Russia, France, Belgium, and Great Britain all lined up against Austria-
Hungary and Germany, and the German army invaded Belgium. The “Great War” that ensued was
one of unprecedented destruction and loss of life, resulting in the deaths of some 20 million soldiers
and civilians.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria & Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg

On June 28, 1914, in an event that is widely regarded as sparking the outbreak of World War I,
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, was shot to death with his wife by
Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Ferdinand had been inspecting his uncle’s imperial
armed forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite the threat of Serbian nationalists who wanted these
Austro-Hungarian possessions to join newly independent Serbia. Austria-Hungary blamed the
Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the
problem of Slavic nationalism once and for all. However, as Russia supported Serbia, an Austria-
Hungary declaration of war was delayed until its leaders received assurances from German leader
Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would support their cause in the event of a Russian intervention.
On 28 JUL, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe’s
great powers collapsed. On 29 JUL, Austro-Hungarian forces began to shell the Serbian capital of
Belgrade, and Russia, Serbia’s ally, ordered a troop mobilization against Austria-Hungary. France,
allied with Russia, began to mobilize on 1 AUG. France and Germany declared war against each
other on 3 AUG. After crossing through neutral Luxembourg, the German army invaded Belgium on
the night of August 3-4, prompting Great Britain, Belgium’s ally, to declare war against Germany.
For the most part, the people of Europe greeted the outbreak of war with jubilation. Most
patriotically assumed that their country would be victorious within months. Of the initial belligerents,
Germany was most prepared for the outbreak of hostilities, and its military leaders had formatted a
sophisticated military strategy known as the “Schlieffen Plan,” which envisioned the conquest of
France through a great arcing offensive through Belgium and into northern France. Russia, slow to
mobilize, was to be kept occupied by Austro-Hungarian forces while Germany attacked France.
The Schlieffen Plan was nearly successful, but in early September the French rallied and halted the
German advance at the bloody Battle of the Marne near Paris. By the end of 1914, well over a million
soldiers of various nationalities had been killed on the battlefields of Europe, and a final victory for
neither the Allies nor the Central Powers was in sight. On the western front–the battle line that

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 stretched across northern France and Belgium–the combatants settled down in the trenches for a
terrible war of attrition.
In 1915, the Allies attempted to break the stalemate with an amphibious invasion of Turkey, which
had joined the Central Powers in October 1914, but after heavy bloodshed the Allies were forced to
retreat in early 1916. The year 1916 saw great offensives by Germany and Britain along the western
front, but neither side accomplished a decisive victory. In the east, Germany was more successful,
and the disorganized Russian army suffered terrible losses, spurring the outbreak of the Russian
Revolution in 1917. By the end of 1917, the Bolsheviks had seized power in Russia and immediately
set about negotiating peace with Germany. In 1918, the infusion of American troops and resources
into the western front finally tipped the scale in the Allies’ favor. Bereft of manpower and supplies
and faced with an imminent invasion, Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in
November 1918.
World War I was known as the “war to end all wars” because of the great slaughter and
destruction it caused. Unfortunately, the peace treaty that officially ended the conflict–the Treaty of
Versailles of 1919–forced punitive terms on Germany that destabilized Europe and laid the
groundwork for World War II.

 Aug 01 1914 – WWI: Blockade of Germany » The British — with their overwhelming sea
power — established a naval blockade of Germany immediately on the outbreak of WWI, issuing a
comprehensive list of contraband that all but prohibited American trade with the Central Powers, and
in early November 1914 stated the North Sea to be a war zone, with any ships entering the North Sea
doing so at their own risk. The blockade was unusually restrictive in that even foodstuffs were
considered "contraband of war". There were complaints about breaches of international law; however,
most neutral merchant vessels agreed to dock at British ports to be inspected and then escorted—less
any "illegal" cargo destined for Germany—through the British minefields to their destinations.
The Northern Patrol and Dover Patrol closed off access to the North Sea and the English Channel
respectively. The German government regarded the blockade as an illegal attempt to starve its civilian
population and wanted to retaliate in kind. The German High Seas Fleet set out multiple times, from
1914 to 1916, to reduce the British Grand Fleet and regain access to vital imports. The sea conflicts
culminated in the Battle of Jutland in 1916.
The blockade hurt American exports. Under pressure especially from commercial interests
wishing to profit from wartime trade with both sides, Washington protested vigorously. Britain did
not wish to antagonize the U.S. It set up a program to buy American cotton, guaranteeing the price
stayed above peacetime levels and mollifying cotton traders. When American ships were stopped
with contraband, the British purchased the entire cargo, and released the empty ship. A memorandum
to the British War Cabinet on 1 January 1917 stated that very few supplies were reaching Germany or
its allies either via the North Sea or other areas such as Austria's Adriatic ports (which had been
subject to a French blockade since 1914).
Both Germany and the United Kingdom relied heavily on imports to feed their population and
supply their war industry. Imports of foodstuffs and war materiel of European belligerents came
primarily from the Americas and had to be shipped across the Atlantic Ocean, thus Britain and
Germany both aimed to blockade each other. The British had the Royal Navy which was superior in

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 numbers and could operate throughout the British Empire, while the German Kaiserliche Marine
surface fleet was mainly restricted to the German Bight, and used commerce raiders and unrestricted
submarine warfare elsewhere. The blockade is considered one of the key elements in the eventual
Allied victory in the war. The German Board of Public Health in December 1918 claimed that
763,000 German civilians died from starvation and disease caused by the blockade up until the end of
December 1918. An academic study done in 1928 put the death toll at 424,000. An additional
100,000 people may have died during the continuation blockade in 1919.

 Aug 01 1942 – WW2: Ensign Henry C. White, while flying a J4F Widgeon plane, sinks U–166 as it
approaches the Mississippi River, the first U–boat sunk by the U.S. Coast Guard.

 Aug 01 1943 – WW2: PT-109 is sunk » A Japanese destroyer rams an American PT (patrol
torpedo) boat, No. 109, slicing it in two. The destruction is so massive other American PT boats in the
area assume the crew is dead. Two crewmen were, in fact, killed, but 11 survived, including Lt. John
F. Kennedy.

LTJG Kennedy (standing at right) in 1943 on PT-109 & being awarded for his gallantry in action

Japanese aircraft had been on a PT boat hunt in the Solomon Islands, bombing the PT base at
Rendova Island. It was essential to the Japanese that several of their destroyers make it to the
southern tip of Kolombangara Island to get war supplies to forces there. But the torpedo capacity of
the American PTs was a potential threat. Despite the base bombing at Rendova, PTs set out to
intercept those Japanese destroyers. In the midst of battle, Japan’s Amaqiri hit PT-109, leaving 11
crewmen floundering in the Pacific.
After five hours of clinging to debris from the decimated PT boat, the crew made it to a coral
island. Kennedy decided to swim out to sea again, hoping to flag down a passing American boat.
None came. Kennedy began to swim back to shore, but strong currents, and his chronic back
condition, made his return difficult. Upon reaching the island again, he fell ill. After he recovered, the
PT-109 crew swam to a larger island, what they believed was Nauru Island, but was in fact Cross
Island. They met up with two natives from the island, who agreed to take a message south. Kennedy
carved the distress message into a coconut shell: “Nauru Is. Native knows posit. He can pilot. 11 alive
need small boat.”
The message reached Lieutenant Arthur Evans, who was watching the coast of Gomu Island,
located next to an island occupied by the Japanese. Kennedy and his crew were paddled to Gomu. A
PT boat then took them back to Rendova. Kennedy was ultimately awarded the Navy and Marine

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 Corps Medal, for gallantry in action. The coconut shell used to deliver his message found a place in
history—and in the Oval Office. PT-109, a film dramatizing this story, starring Clift Robertson as
Kennedy, opened in 1963.

 Aug 01 1944 – WW2: Warsaw Revolt begins » During World War II, an advance Soviet armored
column under General Konstantin Rokossovski reaches the Vistula River along the eastern suburb of
Warsaw, prompting Poles in the city to launch a major uprising against the Nazi occupation. The
revolt was spearheaded by Polish General Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski, who was the commander of the
Home Army, an underground resistance group made up of some 40,000 poorly supplied soldiers. In
addition to accelerating the liberation of Warsaw, the Home Army, which had ties with the Polish
government-in-exile in London and was anti-communist in its ideology, hoped to gain at least partial
control of Warsaw before the Soviets arrived.

Although the Poles in Warsaw won early gains–and Soviet liberation of the city was inevitable–
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ordered his authorities to crush the uprising at all costs. The elite Nazi SS
directed the German defense force, which included the Kaminiski Brigade of Russian prisoners and
the Dirlewanger Brigade of German convicts. In brutal street fighting, the Poles were gradually
overcome by the superior German weaponry. As the rebels were suppressed, the Nazis deliberately
razed large portions of the city and massacred many civilians.
Meanwhile, the Red Army gained several bridgeheads across the Vistula River but made no efforts
to aid the rebels in Warsaw. The Soviets also rejected a request by the British to use Soviet air bases
to airlift supplies to the beleaguered Poles. The rebels and the city’s citizens ran out of medical
supplies, food, and eventually water. Finally, on 2 OCT, the surviving rebels, including Bor-
Komorowski, surrendered.
During the 63-day ordeal, three-fourths of the Home Army perished along with 200,000 civilians.
As a testament to the ferocity of the fighting, the Germans also suffered high casualties: 10,000
killed, 9,000 wounded, and 7,000 missing. During the next few months, German troops deported the
surviving population, and demolition squads destroyed what buildings remained intact in Warsaw. All
of its great treasures were looted or burned. The Red Army remained dormant outside Warsaw until
January 1945, when the final Soviet offensive against Germany commenced. Warsaw, a city in ruins,
was liberated on 17 JAN. With Warsaw out of the way, the Soviets faced little organized opposition
in establishing a communist government in Poland.

 Aug 01 1944 – WW2: Destruction of Warsaw (1 Aug thru 16 Jan) » The destruction of the Polish
capital was planned before the start of World War II. On 20 June 1939, while Adolf Hitler was
visiting an architectural bureau in Würzburg am Main, his attention was captured by a project of a

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 future German town – "Neue deutsche Stadt Warschau". According to the Pabst Plan Warsaw was to
be turned into a provincial German city. It was soon included as a part of the great Germanization
plan of the East; the genocidal Generalplan Ost. The failure of the Warsaw Uprising provided an
opportunity for Hitler to begin the transformation.
After the remaining population had been expelled, the Germans continued the destruction of the
city. Special groups of German engineers were dispatched to burn and demolish the remaining
buildings. According to German plans, after the war Warsaw was to be turned into nothing more than
a military transit station, or even an artificial lake – the latter of which the Nazi leadership had
already intended to implement for the Soviet/Russian capital of Moscow in 1941. The demolition
squads used flamethrowers and explosives to methodically destroy house after house. They paid
special attention to historical monuments, Polish national archives and places of interest.
By January 1945, 85% of the buildings were destroyed: 25% as a result of the Uprising, 35% as a
result of systematic German actions after the uprising, and the rest as a result of the earlier Warsaw
Ghetto Uprising, and the September 1939 campaign. Material losses are estimated at 10,455
buildings, 923 historical buildings (94%), 25 churches, 14 libraries including the National Library, 81
primary schools, 64 high schools, University of Warsaw and Warsaw University of Technology, and
most of the historical monuments. Almost a million inhabitants lost all of their possessions. The exact
amount of losses of private and public property as well as pieces of art, monuments of science and
culture is unknown but considered enormous. Studies done in the late 1940s estimated total damage at
about US$30 billion. In 2004, President of Warsaw Lech Kaczyński, later President of Poland,
established a historical commission to estimate material losses that were inflicted upon the city by
German authorities. The commission estimated the losses as at least US $31.5 billion at 2004 values.
Those estimates were later raised to US $45 billion 2004 US dollars and in 2005, to $54.6 billion.

 Aug 01 1944 – WW2: Battle of Normandy (1 thru 13 AUG phase) » The U.S. advance following
Operation Cobra was extraordinarily rapid. Between 1 and 4 August, seven divisions of Patton's Third
Army had swept through Avranches and over the bridge at Pontaubault into Brittany. The Westheer
(German army in the west) had been reduced to such a poor state by the Allied offensives that, with
no prospect of reinforcement in the wake of Operation Bagration, the Soviet summer offensive
against Army Group Centre, very few Germans believed they could now avoid defeat. Rather than
order his remaining forces to withdraw to the Seine, Adolf Hitler sent a directive to von Kluge
demanding "an immediate counterattack between Mortain and Avranches" (Unternehmen Lüttich) to
"annihilate" the enemy and make contact with the west coast of the Cotentin peninsula.
Eight of the nine Panzer divisions in Normandy were to be used in the attack but only four (one of
them incomplete) could be relieved from their defensive tasks and assembled in time. German
commanders immediately protested that such an operation was impossible given their remaining
resources but these objections were overruled and the counter-offensive commenced, on 7 AUG
around Mortain. The 2nd, 1st SS and 2nd SS Panzer Divisions led the assault, although with only 75
Panzer IVs, 70 Panthers and 32 self-propelled guns. Hopelessly optimistic, the offensive was over
within 24 hours, although fighting continued until 13 August. By 8 AUG the city of Le Mans—the
former headquarters of the German 7th Army—had fallen to the Americans. With von Kluge's few
remaining battle worthy formations destroyed by the First Army, the Allied commanders realized that
the entire German position in Normandy was collapsing.

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 Aug 01 1950 – Korean War: Lead elements of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division arrive in country
from the U.S in defense of Pusan/Naktong Perimeter.

 Aug 01 1950 – Cold War: America’s Plan to Develop the H-Bomb Announced » U.S. President
Harry S. Truman publicly announces that his administration was committed to developing a
Hydrogen bomb. This bomb was going to be many more times more powerful than the Atomic bombs
that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Truman was eager to support the development of the Hydrogen or H-bomb in order to regain
American nuclear supremacy. Some months earlier the Soviets had successfully detonated their own
A-bomb at a test site in Central Asia. The Soviet nuclear program had been greatly helped by
Communist spies in the American nuclear weapons program. This came as a great shock to the
Americans and they were forced to come to the conclusion that the Soviets knew everything about
their A-bomb program, Truman was worried because he believed that only the American A-bomb
was preventing the Soviets from attacking the west in order to spread communism. Now that the
Soviets had the bomb they might be more willing to attack America or its allies.
President Truman was also deeply worried by events in China, because some months previous the
communists had seized power in the Asian Giant. He and his administration believed that they needed
to develop a weapon that was even more powerful than the A-bomb. This was essential if the Reds
were to be kept in check and to maintain America as the most powerful nation on earth. Truman
announced on the radio to the American public that he intended to provide the US military and
scientific community with all the resources that they needed in order to develop the H-bomb. The
President assured the public that the ‘superweapon’ would only be used as a deterrent.

The Americans raced to develop the H-bomb and it took them over two years. On November 1st
the Americans successfully detonated a device, with the codename of Mike on a South Pacific Atoll
in the Marshall Islands. The device was 10.4 thermo-nuclear device was developed using the
principles of Teller-Ulan. The H-bomb was so powerful that it obliterated the atoll. The mushroom
cloud from the explosion climbed to a height of over 50,000 feet within two minutes of its detonation.
The cloud stretched for over sixty miles.
The detonation of the H-bomb was deemed to be a great success and many Americans believed
that it make them stronger and that the Soviets would never risk a war with the US. However, only
three years later, the Soviet’s detonated their own H-Bomb and this ushered in a new and more
dangerous phase in the Cold War.

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 Aug 01 1957 – U.S.*Canada: The United States and Canada form the North American Air Defense
Command (NORAD)

 Aug 01 1964 – Vietnam War: North Vietnamese Accusations » The North Vietnamese government
accuses South Vietnam and the United States of having authorized attacks on Hon Me and Hon Ngu,
two of their islands in the Tonkin Gulf.
They were partly correct; the attacks, conducted just after midnight on 30 JUL, were part of a
covert operation called Oplan 34A, which involved raids by South Vietnamese commandos operating
under American orders against North Vietnamese coastal and island installations. Although American
forces were not directly involved in the actual raids, U.S. Navy ships were on station to conduct
electronic surveillance and monitor North Vietnamese defense responses under another program
called Operation De Soto.
The Oplan 34A attacks played a major role in events that led to what became known as the Gulf of
Tonkin Incident. On 2 AUG, North Vietnamese patrol boats attacked the destroyer USS Maddox
which was conducting a De Soto mission in the area. Two days after the first attack, there was
another incident that still remains unclear. The Maddox, joined by destroyer USS C. Turner Joy,
engaged what were thought at the time to be more North Vietnamese patrol boats attacking!
Although it was questionable whether the second attack actually happened or not, the incident
provided the rationale for retaliatory air attacks against the North Vietnamese and the subsequent
Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which became the basis for the initial escalation of the war in Vietnam and
ultimately the insertion of U.S. combat troops into the area.

 Aug 01 1969 – Vietnam War: The U.S. command in Saigon announces that 27 American aircraft
were lost in the previous week, bringing the total losses of aircraft in the conflict to date to 5,690.

 Aug 01 1990– Kuwait*Iraq: British Airways Flight 149 » At 18:05 GMT this British Airways
flight departed from London Heathrow Airport, its route to Kuala Lumpur taking the flight via
Kuwait City and Madras. At 01:13 GMT on 2 August 1990, it landed at Kuwait International Airport
and the passengers were disembarked for what should have been an hour wait. The airport was
deserted and there was little-to-no staff on the ground; at the point of its landing, all other scheduled
flights by other airlines had been cancelled for several hours already at this point.
After leaving the aircraft, all the passengers and crew were captured on the ground by Iraqi forces
who had overrun Kuwait City. The majority of the detained passengers were initially transferred to
the airport hotel within the boundaries of the airport. Later on, the passengers were confined to
various hotels in Kuwait, also designated by the Iraqis for other foreigners to report to. The Iraqis
claimed the passengers to be "honored guests", and were moved in the following week under armed
escort by a mix of policemen and soldiers from Iraq, to locations in Kuwait and Iraq. During the early
stages of the crisis, Captain Brunyate stayed with the passengers and crew to reassure them but later
escaped with help from members of the Kuwaiti resistance. Brunyate later explained that his father,
who had worked in Iraq, had personally run afoul of Saddam Hussein and he feared reprisals if his
surname was recognized.

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 According to statements made by some of the ex-hostages, multiple passengers have claimed to
have witnessed various atrocities during their detention, such as attacks made upon Kuwaiti citizens
by Iraqi forces; some hostages had been themselves subjected to forms of mental and physical abuse,
which included instances of mock executions or rape, and were kept in unsanitary conditions with
little food. During a location transfer of the hostages by bus, a British Airways stewardess was raped
by an Iraqi soldier. The soldier was reportedly executed near the hostages after cabin purser Clive
Earthy complained about the incident to the lead officer of the Iraqi troops detaining them. One
passenger Jennifer Chappell stated that she witnessed Iraqi tanks driving over cars with Kuwaiti
civilians trapped inside while her brother John saw the execution of a Kuwaiti soldier at the hands of
Iraqi troops. Another hostage, David Fort was injured after an Iraqi guard pushed him down a flight
of stairs.
After ten days, the detainees were dispersed to various military-industrial sites. Women and
children were given the opportunity to return home in late August, whereas those who remained were
used as human shields, and transferred between sites. Sites would contain between eight and 20
detainees of mixed nationalities, typically British and American citizens, as well as French, German,
Japanese and others.
Different groups of detainees were released at various stages, often dependent upon their
nationality, but also including criteria such as ill health and the bodies of those individuals who died
during their captivity. While some passengers were detained only for a few weeks, others were
detained for months, often in poor conditions. Former British Prime Minister Edward Heath travelled
in person to Baghdad for direct talks with Iraq's President Saddam Hussein, and is credited with
leading negotiations to successfully release the hostages taken. During mid December 1990, the last
of the remaining American and British hostages were released by Iraq.

-o-o-O-o-o-

 Aug 02 1776 – American Revolution: Delegates sign Declaration of Independence (date most
accepted by modern historians) » Members of Congress affix their signatures to an enlarged copy
of the Declaration of Independence.
Fifty-six congressional delegates in total signed the document, including some who were not
present at the vote approving the declaration. The delegates signed by state from North to South,
beginning with Josiah Bartlett of New Hampshire and ending with George Walton of Georgia. John
Dickinson of Pennsylvania and James Duane, Robert Livingston and John Jay of New York refused
to sign. Carter Braxton of Virginia; Robert Morris of Pennsylvania; George Reed of Delaware; and
Edward Rutledge of South Carolina opposed the document but signed in order to give the impression
of a unanimous Congress. Five delegates were absent: Generals George Washington, John Sullivan,
James Clinton and Christopher Gadsden and Virginia Governor Patrick Henry.
Exactly one month before the signing of the document, Congress had accepted a resolution put
forward by Richard Henry Lee that stated “Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right
ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British
Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to
be, totally dissolved.”

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 Congress adopted the more poetic Declaration of Independence, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, two
days later, on July 4. The president of Congress, John Hancock, and its secretary, Charles Thompson,
immediately signed the handwritten draft, which was dispatched to nearby printers. On 19 JUL,
Congress decided to produce a handwritten copy to bear all the delegates’ signatures. Secretary
Thompson’s assistant, Philadelphia Quaker and merchant Timothy Matlack, penned the draft.
News of the Declaration of Independence arrived in London eight days later, on 10 AUG. The
draft bearing the delegates’ signatures was first printed on January 18 of the following year by
Baltimore printer Mary Katharine Goddard.

 Aug 02 1813 – War of 1812: Ft. Stephenson successfully defended » Fort Stephenson, located on
the Sandusky River in Ohio, was commanded by Major George Croghan and garrisoned with 160
regular army troops. General William Harrison considered the fort unnecessary and ordered it
abandoned. Major Croghan refused that command saying that his men could defend it and that
withdrawing would leave his men susceptible to attack. On July 31stBritish ships and troops
commanded by General Proctor arrived at the fort. They demanded that the fort surrender, and if it
did not the British would leave the defenders in the hands of the Indians. Croghan refused.
On 1 AUG the British opened fire on the fort. They fired through the night, but their bombardment
left no mark on the fort whose walls withstood the attack without a problem. The next day the British
and their Indian allies launched a ground assault. The Americans waited until the British and Indians
were 100 feet away before opening fire and caused the opposing forces to retreat.

 Aug 02 1865 – War of 1812: CSS Shenandoah learns the war is over » The captain and crew of
the C.S.S. Shenandoah, still prowling the waters of the Pacific in search of Yankee whaling ships, is
finally informed by a British vessel that the South has lost the war.

CSS Shenandoah in dry dock in Williamstown, Victoria, Australia, 1865.

The Shenandoah was the last major Confederate cruiser to set sail. Launched as a British vessel in
September 1863, it was purchased by the Confederates and commissioned in October 1864. The 230-
foot-long craft was armed with eight large guns and a crew of 73 sailors. Commanded by Captain
James I. Waddell, the Shenandoah steered toward the Pacific and targeted Yankee whaling ships.
Waddell enjoyed great success, taking six ships in the South Pacific before slipping into Melbourne,
Australia, for repairs in January 1865.
Within a month, the Shenandoah was back on the loose, wreaking havoc in the waters around
Alaska. The Rebel ship captured 32 additional Union vessels, most of which were burned. The
damage was estimated at $1.6 million, a staggering figure in such a short period of time. Although the
crew heard rumors that the Confederate armies had surrendered, Waddell continued to fight. He

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 finally accepted an English captain’s report on August 2, 1865. The Shenandoah pulled off another
remarkable feat by sailing from the northern Pacific all the way to Liverpool, England, without
stopping at any ports. Arriving on 6 NOV, Waddell surrendered his ship to British officials.

 Aug 02 1914 – Pre WWI: German Propaganda » The German government’s idea was to make
the people think that they were entering a defensive war and were in no way the aggressors. With the
assassination of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand, the Austro-Hungarian Empire engaged the hostilities. On
the 2nd of August, while France was mobilizing its forces and sending them to the borders, Germany
had already crossed the borders of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. The same day German press
falsely claimed that France had bombed Nuremberg and for the public opinion, it meant that France
was one of the aggressors of this war, and that Germany had the perfect right to defend itself.

 Aug 02 1914 – Pre WWI: German Belgium Ultimatum » Germany demands that Belgium grant
free passage across its territory to German troops, to enable them to invade France and reach Paris
most expeditiously. The ultimatum gave Belgium two alternatives: grant free passage or suffer
occupation as an enemy of Germany. On 3 AUG, Belgium replied to the German note, courageously
refusing (in the name of its internationally guaranteed neutrality) the request for free passage:

 Aug 02 1914 – Pre WWI: German troops overthrow Luxembourg » German 69th infantry
regiment enters Luxembourg. German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg justified the
complete occupation of Luxembourg in terms of military necessity, arguing that France was ready to
invade Luxembourg itself. The French minister in Luxembourg dismissed this argument, claiming
that it would not have considered violating Luxembourg's neutrality unless Germany had done so
first. Bethmann Hollweg attempted to prove his country's regret by offering Luxembourg
compensation for the losses due to the military presence. On 4 AUG, Bethmann Hollweg told the
Reichstag: “We have been forced to ignore the just protestations of Luxembourg and the Belgian
government. We shall make amends for this injustice as soon as our military goal is accomplished.”

However, when it seemed that Germany was on the verge of victory, the Chancellor began to
revise his statements. In his Septemberprogramm, Bethmann Hollweg called for Luxembourg to
become a German federal state, and for that result to be forced upon the Luxembourgish people once
Germany achieved victory over the Triple Entente. However, the British and French halted the
German advance at the Battle of the Marne in mid-September. This resulted in the indefinite
continuation of German occupation.

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 Aug 02 1914 – Germany*Turkey: Secret Treaty of Alliance » Germany and Turkey sign a secret
treaty, meant to go into effect in the event of war between Germany and Russia. Subsequently, Russia
declared war on Turkey on November 3, 1914, and on November 5, 1914, Great Britain and France
also declared against Turkey. Following were the treaty conditions:
1. The two contracting parties agree to observe strict neutrality in regard to the present conflict
between Austria-Hungary and Serbia.
2. In case Russia should intervene with active military measures, and should thus bring about a casus
foederis for Germany with relation to Austria-Hungary, this casus foederis would also come into
existence for Turkey.
3. In case of war, Germany will leave her military mission at the disposal of Turkey. The latter, for
her part, assures the said military mission an effective influence on the general conduct of the army,
in accordance with the understanding arrived at directly between His Excellency the Minister of War
and His Excellency the Chief of the Military Mission.
4. Germany obligates herself, if necessary by force of arms ... [cipher group lacking] Ottoman
territory in case it should be threatened.
5. This agreement which has been concluded for the purpose of protecting both Empires from
international complications which may result from the present conflict goes into force as soon as it is
signed by the above-mentioned plenipotentiaries, and shall remain valid, together with any similar
mutual agreements, until December 31, 1918.
6. In case it shall not be denounced by one of the high contracting parties six months before the
expiration of the term named above, this treaty shall remain in force for a further period of five years.
7. This present document shall be ratified by His Majesty the German Emperor, King of Prussia, and
by His Majesty the Emperor of the Ottomans, and the ratifications shall be exchanged within a period
of one month from the date of its signing.
8. The present treaty shall remain secret and can only be made public as a result of an agreement
arrived at between the two high contracting parties. In testimony whereof, etc.

 Aug 02 1914 – Pre WWI: Paris Mobilizes » On June 28, 1914, the news reached Paris of the
assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by Serbian nationalists in Sarajevo.
Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28 JUL, and following the terms of their alliances, the
German Empire joined Austria-Hungary, while Russia, Great Britain and France went to war against
Austria-Hungary and Germany in quick succession. The war was opposed by some prominent
socialists and pacifists, but the press and most political leaders pressed for war. On 31 JUL, one day
before a general mobilization was declared in France, one of the most prominent leaders of the
French Left, the socialist politician Jean Jaurès, an outspoken opponent of going to war, was
assassinated at the Café Croissant on Montmartre, not far from the offices of the socialist newspaper
L'Humanité, by Raoul Villain, a mentally-unstable man who considered Jaurès an "enemy of France."

Most male Parisians of military age were required to report on 2 AUG to designated stations
around the city for mobilization into the army. The army command expected that up to thirteen
percent would not appear, but to their surprise all but one percent appeared as ordered. The poet and

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 novelist Anatole France, at the age of seventy, appeared at the recruitment station to show his
support. The Ministry of the Interior was prepared to arrest prominent pacifists and socialists who
opposed the war, but, in the face of little opposition to the war, the arrests were never carried out.]
The next day, August 3, Germany declared war on France.

 Aug 02 1916 – WWI: Battleship Leonardo da Vinci » Completed just before the beginning of
World War I, the ship saw no action and was sunk by a magazine explosion in 1916 with the loss of
248 officers and enlisted men. The Italians blamed Austro-Hungarian saboteurs for her loss, but it
may have been accidental. Leonardo da Vinci was refloated in 1919 and plans were made to repair
her. Budgetary constraints did not permit this and her hulk was sold for scrap in 1923.

 Aug 02 1917 – U.S. Army: Army Air Corps formed as Army takes 1st delivery from Wright
Brothers.

 Aug 02 1917 – WWI: Mutiny breaks out on German battleship » With British forces settling into
new positions captured from the Germans in the much-contested Ypres Salient on the Western Front
of World War I, Germany faces more trouble closer to home, as a mutiny breaks out aboard the
German battleship Prinzregent Luitpold, anchored at the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven.
During the 2 AUG mutiny, some 400 sailors marched into town calling for an end to the war and
proclaiming their unwillingness to continue fighting. Although the demonstration was quickly
brought under control by army officials and the sailors were persuaded to return to their ships without
real violence that day, some 75 of them were arrested and imprisoned and the ringleaders of the
mutiny were subsequently tried, convicted and executed. “I die with a curse on the German-militarist
state,” one of them, Albin Kobis, wrote his parents before he was shot by an army firing squad at
Cologne. As Willy Weber, another convicted sailor, whose death sentence was later commuted to 15
years in prison, put it: “Nobody wanted a revolution, we just wanted to be treated more like human
beings.”

German battleship Prinzregent Luitpold & Albin Kobis

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 Discontent and rebellion within the German Imperial High Seas Fleet continued throughout the
following year, as things went abysmally for Germany on the battlefields of the Western Front after
the initial success of their spring offensive in 1918. It was rumored that naval commanders were
plotting a last-ditch attempt, against the orders of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Reichstag government, to
confront the mighty British navy and break the Allied blockade in the North Sea. The force of this
rumor, combined with sinking morale, led to an even more significant mutiny at Wilhelmshaven on
October 29, 1918, sparked by the arrest of some 300 sailors who had refused to obey orders.
The unrest soon spread to another German port city, Kiel, where on 3 NOV some 3,000 German
sailors and workers rose in revolt, taking over ships and buildings and brandishing the red flag of
communism. The following day, 4 NOV, the rebels at Kiel formed the first Workers’ and Soldiers’
Council in Germany, defying the national government and seeking to act in the spirit of the Russian
soviets. On the same day, the government of the Austro-Hungarian Empire asked the Allies for an
armistice, which they were granted. An isolated and internally divided Germany was forced to sue for
its own armistice barely a week later, and the First World War came to an end.

 Aug 02 1918 – Japan*Siberia: Siberian Intervention (Expedition) of 1919-1922 » This was the
dispatch of troops of the eleven Entente powers to the Russian Maritime Provinces as part of a larger
effort by the western powers and Japan and China to support White Russian forces against Soviet
Russia and its allies during the Russian Civil War. The Imperial Japanese Army continued to occupy
Siberia even after other Allied forces withdrew in 1920.

Allied commanders of the Siberian Intervention

 Aug 02 1934 – Germany: Hitler becomes Fuhrer » With the death of German President Paul von
Hindenburg, Chancellor Adolf Hitler becomes absolute dictator of Germany under the title of Fuhrer,
or “Leader.” The German army took an oath of allegiance to its new commander-in-chief, and the last
remnants of Germany’s democratic government were dismantled to make way for Hitler’s Third
Reich. The Fuhrer assured his people that the Third Reich would last for a thousand years, but Nazi
Germany collapsed just 11 years later.
Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria, in 1889. As a young man he aspired to be a
painter, but he received little public recognition and lived in poverty in Vienna. Of German descent,
he came to detest Austria as a “patchwork nation” of various ethnic groups, and in 1913 he moved to
the German city of Munich in the state of Bavaria. After a year of drifting, he found direction as a
German soldier in World War I, and was decorated for his bravery on the battlefield. He was in a
military hospital in 1918, recovering from a mustard gas attack that left him temporarily blind, when
Germany surrendered.

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 He was appalled by Germany’s defeat, which he blamed on “enemies within”–chiefly German
communists and Jews–and was enraged by the punitive peace settlement forced on Germany by the
victorious Allies. He remained in the German army after the war, and as an intelligence agent was
ordered to report on subversive activities in Munich’s political parties. It was in this capacity that he
joined the tiny German Workers’ Party, made up of embittered army veterans, as the group’s seventh
member. Hitler was put in charge of the party’s propaganda, and in 1920 he assumed leadership of
the organization, changing its name to Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National
Socialist German Workers’ party), which was abbreviated to Nazi.
The party’s socialist orientation was little more than a ploy to attract working-class support; in
fact, Hitler was fiercely right-wing. But the economic views of the party were overshadowed by the
Nazis’ fervent nationalism, which blamed Jews, communists, the Treaty of Versailles, and Germany’s
ineffectual democratic government for the country’s devastated economy. In the early 1920s, the
ranks of Hitler’s Bavarian-based Nazi party swelled with resentful Germans. A paramilitary
organization, the Sturmabteilung (SA), was formed to protect the Nazis and intimidate their political
opponents, and the party adopted the ancient symbol of the swastika as its emblem.
In November 1923, after the German government resumed the payment of war reparations to
Britain and France, the Nazis launched the “Beer Hall Putsch”–an attempt at seizing the German
government by force. Hitler hoped that his nationalist revolution in Bavaria would spread to the
dissatisfied German army, which in turn would bring down the government in Berlin. However, the
uprising was immediately suppressed, and Hitler was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison
for treason.
Imprisoned in Landsberg fortress, he spent his time there dictating his autobiography, Mein Kampf
(My Struggle), a bitter and rambling narrative in which he sharpened his anti-Semitic and anti-
Marxist beliefs and laid out his plans for Nazi conquest. In the work, published in a series of volumes,
he developed his concept of the Fuhrer as an absolute dictator who would bring unity to German
people and lead the “Aryan race” to world supremacy.
Political pressure from the Nazis forced the Bavarian government to commute Hitler’s sentence,
and he was released after nine months. However, Hitler emerged to find his party disintegrated. An
upturn in the economy further reduced popular support of the party, and for several years Hitler was
forbidden to make speeches in Bavaria and elsewhere in Germany.
The onset of the Great Depression in 1929 brought a new opportunity for the Nazis to solidify
their power. Hitler and his followers set about reorganizing the party as a fanatical mass movement,

15
 and won financial backing from business leaders, for whom the Nazis promised an end to labor
agitation. In the 1930 election, the Nazis won six million votes, making the party the second largest in
Germany. Two years later, Hitler challenged Paul von Hindenburg for the presidency, but the 84-
year-old president defeated Hitler with the support of an anti-Nazi coalition.
Although the Nazis suffered a decline in votes during the November 1932 election, Hindenburg
agreed to make Hitler chancellor in January 1933, hoping that Hitler could be brought to heel as a
member of his cabinet. However, Hindenburg underestimated Hitler’s political audacity, and one of
the new chancellor’s first acts was to exploit the burning of the Reichstag (parliament) building as a
pretext for calling general elections. The police under Nazi Hermann Goering suppressed much of the
party’s opposition before the election, and the Nazis won a bare majority. Shortly after, Hitler took on
dictatorial power through the Enabling Acts.
Chancellor Hitler immediately set about arresting and executing political opponents, and even
purged the Nazis’ own SA paramilitary organization in a successful effort to win support from the
German army. With the death of President Hindenburg on August 2, 1934, Hitler united the
chancellorship and presidency under the new title of Fuhrer. As the economy improved, popular
support for Hitler’s regime became strong, and a cult of Fuhrer worship was propagated by Hitler’s
capable propagandists.
German remilitarization and state-sanctioned anti-Semitism drew criticism from abroad, but the
foreign powers failed to stem the rise of Nazi Germany. In 1938, Hitler implemented his plans for
world domination with the annexation of Austria, and in 1939 Germany seized all of Czechoslovakia.
Hitler’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, finally led to war with Germany and France. In the
opening years of World War II, Hitler’s war machine won a series of stunning victories, conquering
the great part of continental Europe. However, the tide turned in 1942 during Germany’s disastrous
invasion of the USSR.
By early 1945, the British and Americans were closing in on Germany from the west, the Soviets
from the east, and Hitler was holed up in a bunker under the chancellery in Berlin awaiting defeat. On
30 APR, with the Soviets less than a mile from his headquarters, Hitler committed suicide with Eva
Braun, his mistress whom he married the night before.
Hitler left Germany devastated and at the mercy of the Allies, who divided the country and made it
a major battlefield of Cold War conflict. His regime exterminated nearly six millions Jews and an
estimated 250,000 Gypsies in the Holocaust, and an indeterminable number of Slavs, political
dissidents, disabled persons, homosexuals, and others deemed unacceptable by the Nazi regime were
systematically eliminated. The war Hitler unleashed upon Europe took even more lives–close to 20
million people killed in the USSR alone. Adolf Hitler is reviled as one of history’s greatest villains.

 Aug 02 1943 – WW2: Treblinka Extermination Camp Revolt » In early 1943, an underground
Jewish resistance organization was formed at Treblinka with the goal of seizing control of the camp
and escaping to freedom. The planned revolt was preceded by a long period of secret preparations.
The clandestine unit was first organized by a former Jewish captain of the Polish Army, Dr. Julian
Chorążycki, who was described by fellow plotter Samuel Rajzman as noble and essential to the
action. Chorążycki (who treated the German patients) killed himself with poison on 19 APR when

16
 faced with imminent capture, so that the Germans could not discover the plot by torturing him.
Another former Polish Army officer, Dr. Berek Lajcher took his place

Dr. Julian Chorążycki Dr. Berek Lajcher

The uprising was launched on Monday 2 AUG, a regular day of rest from gassing, when a group
of Germans and 40 Ukrainians drove off to the River Bug to swim. The conspirators silently unlocked
the door to the arsenal near the train tracks, with a key that had been duplicated earlier. They had
stolen 20–25 rifles, 20 hand grenades, and several pistols, and delivered them in a cart to the gravel
work detail. At 3:45 p.m., 700 Jews launched an insurgency that lasted for 30 minutes. They set
buildings ablaze, exploded a tank of petrol, and set fire to the surrounding structures. A group of
armed Jews attacked the main gate, and others attempted to climb the fence. Machine-gun fire from
about 25 Germans and 60 Ukrainian Trawnikis resulted in near-total slaughter. Lajcher was killed
along with most of the insurgents.
About 200 Jews escaped from the camp. Half of them were killed after a chase in cars and on
horses. The Jews did not cut the phone wires, and the camp Commandant Stangl called in hundreds of
German reinforcements, who arrived from four different towns and set up roadblocks along the way.
Partisans of the Armia Krajowa (Polish: Home Army) transported some of the surviving escapees
across the river and others ran 19 miles and were then helped and fed by Polish villagers. Of those
who broke through, around 70 are known to have survived until the end of the war, including the
future authors of published Treblinka memoirs.

 Aug 02 1944 – WW2: Neutral Turkey breaks diplomatic relations with Germany.

 Aug 02 1944 – WW2: U.S. Ninth Air Force stops bombing bridges over the Loire and Seine Rivers in
France in order to speed the Allied advance.

 Aug 02 1945 – WW2: Potsdam Conference concludes » The last wartime conference of the “Big
Three”–the Soviet Union, the United States, and Great Britain–concludes after two weeks of intense
and sometimes acrimonious debate. The conference failed to settle most of the important issues at
hand and thus helped set the stage for the Cold War that would begin shortly after World War II came
to an end.
The meeting at Potsdam was the third conference between the leaders of the Big Three nations.
The Soviet Union was represented by Joseph Stalin, Britain by Winston Churchill, and the United
States by President Harry S. Truman. This was Truman’s first Big Three meeting. President Franklin
D. Roosevelt, who died in April 1945, attended the first two conferences–in Tehran in 1943 and Yalta
in February 1945.

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 At the Potsdam meeting, the most pressing issue was the postwar fate of Germany. The Soviets
wanted a unified Germany, but they also insisted that Germany be completely disarmed. Truman,
along with a growing number of U.S. officials, had deep suspicions about Soviet intentions in Europe.
The massive Soviet army already occupied much of Eastern Europe. A strong Germany might be the
only obstacle in the way of Soviet domination of all of Europe. In the end, the Big Three agreed to
divide Germany into three zones of occupation (one for each nation), and to defer discussions of
German reunification until a later date.
The other notable issue at Potsdam was one that was virtually unspoken. Just as he arrived for the
conference, Truman was informed that the United States had successfully tested the first atomic
bomb. Hoping to use the weapon as leverage with the Soviets in the postwar world, Truman casually
mentioned to Stalin that America was now in possession of a weapon of monstrously destructive
force. The president was disappointed when the Soviet leader merely responded that he hoped the
United States would use it to bring the war with Japan to a speedy end.
The Potsdam Conference ended on a somber note. By the time it was over, Truman had become
even more convinced that he had to adopt a tough policy toward the Soviets. Stalin had come to
believe more strongly that the United States and Great Britain were conspiring against the Soviet
Union. As for Churchill, he was not present for the closing ceremonies. His party lost in the elections
in England, and he was replaced midway through the conference by the new Prime Minister, Clement
Attlee. Potsdam was the last postwar conference of the Big Three.

 Aug 02 1964 – Pre Vietnam War: North Vietnamese torpedo boats attack U.S. destroyer » The
USS Maddox (DD-731) had been cruising around the Tonkin Gulf monitoring radio and radar signals
following an attack by South Vietnamese PT boats on North Vietnamese facilities on Hon Me and
Hon Nhieu Islands (off the North Vietnamese coast) under Oplan 34A. U.S. crews interpreted one
North Vietnamese message as indicating that they were preparing “military operations,” which the
Maddox’s Captain John Herrick assumed meant some sort of retaliatory attack. His superiors ordered
him to remain in the area.

Early that afternoon, three North Vietnamese patrol boats began to chase the Maddox. About 3
p.m., Captain Herrick ordered his crew to commence firing as the North Vietnamese boats came
within 10,000 yards of his ship; at the same time he radioed the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga for
air support. The North Vietnamese boats each fired one torpedo at the Maddox, but two missed and
the third failed to explode. U.S. gunfire hit one of the North Vietnamese boats, and then three U.S.
Crusader jets proceeded to strafe them. Within 20 minutes, Maddox gunners sunk one of the boats

18
 and two were crippled; only one bullet hit the Maddox and there were no U.S. casualties. The
Maddox was ordered to withdraw and await further instructions.
In Washington, President Lyndon B. Johnson, alarmed by this situation, at first rejected any
reprisals against North Vietnam. In his first use of the “hot line” to Russia, Johnson informed
Khrushchev that he had no desire to extend the conflict. In the first U.S. diplomatic note ever sent to
Hanoi, Johnson warned that “grave consequences would inevitably result from any further
unprovoked offensive military action” against U.S. ships “on the high seas.” Meanwhile, the U.S.
military command took several critical actions. U.S. combat troops were placed on alert and
additional fighter-bombers were sent to South Vietnam and Thailand. The carrier USS Constellation
was ordered to the South China Sea to join the USS Ticonderoga. Admiral U.S. Grant Sharp,
commander of the Pacific Fleet, ordered a second destroyer, the USS C. Turner Joy, to join the
Maddox on station and to make daylight approaches to within eight miles of North Vietnam’s coast
and four miles of its islands to “assert the right of freedom of the seas.”

 Aug 02 1965 –Vietnam War: 1st Vietnam report indicating the US was losing » In 1964, CBS
hired Morley Safer as a London-based correspondent. He worked from the same desk that had once
been used by Edward R. Murrow. The following year, in 1965, he became the first full-time staff
reporter of the CBS News bureau in Saigon to cover the growing military conflict in Vietnam. Safer's
1965 Vietnam broadcast, "The Burning of Cam Ne," was notable and controversial because he had
accompanied a company of Marines to the village for what was described as a "search and destroy"
mission. When the Marines arrived, they were fired on by snipers. They told the inhabitants to
evacuate the village, which the Marines then burned down.
Safer's report was among the earliest to paint a bleak picture of the Vietnam War, showing
apparently innocent civilians as victims. However, many American military and political leaders
judged the story to be harmful to United States interests and criticized CBS News for showing it.
United States President Lyndon Johnson reacted to this report angrily, calling CBS's president and
accusing Safer and his colleagues of having undermined America's role there.

Some ex-Marines who saw Safer's story on television during the war shared President Johnson's
opinion. They claim that Safer never had time to be properly briefed on the operation, and was
therefore not aware that four Marines had already been killed there and twenty-seven wounded. Ex-
Marine Larry Engelmann, author of a story on the Vietnam War, claimed Safer's story was "highly
sensational". He alleged: "The fact is that this village had been a pretty tough village and these people
had been warned repeatedly that the village would be torched if they continued to shoot at Marines...
But there was none of that in Morley Safer's story."

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 In the PBS series, Reporting America At War, Safer himself said, "...the denials themselves were
absurd. [Officials claimed] I had gone on a practice operation in a model village — a village the
Marines had built to train guys how to move into a village. Or the whole thing was a kind of
"Potemkin" story that I had concocted. There are still people who believe that." After the incident was
broadcast, Marines were forbidden from burning any more villages.

 Aug 02 1971 – Vietnam War: Nixon administration acknowledges secret army in Laos » The
Nixon administration officially acknowledges that the CIA is maintaining a force of 30,000
‘irregulars’ fighting the Communist Pathet Lao in Laos. The CIA trained and equipped this force of
mountain tribesman, mostly from the Hmong tribe, to fight a secret war against the Communists and
to sever the Ho Chi Minh Trail into South Vietnam. According to a once top-secret report released
this date by the U.S. Defense and State Departments, U.S. financial involvement in Laos had totaled
$284,200,000 in 1970.

 Aug 02 1990 – Iraq*Kuwait: Iraq invades Kuwait » At about 2 a.m. local time, Iraqi forces
invade Kuwait, Iraq’s tiny, oil-rich neighbor. Kuwait’s defense forces were rapidly overwhelmed, and
those that were not destroyed retreated to Saudi Arabia. The emir of Kuwait, his family, and other
government leaders fled to Saudi Arabia, and within hours Kuwait City had been captured and the
Iraqis had established a provincial government. By annexing Kuwait, Iraq gained control of 20
percent of the world’s oil reserves and, for the first time, a substantial coastline on the Persian Gulf.
The same day, the United Nations Security Council unanimously denounced the invasion and
demanded Iraq’s immediate withdrawal from Kuwait. On 6 AUG, the Security Council imposed a
worldwide ban on trade with Iraq.
On 8 AUG, Operation Desert Shield, the American defense of Saudi Arabia, began as U.S. forces
raced to the Persian Gulf. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, meanwhile, built up his occupying army in
Kuwait to about 300,000 troops. On 29 NOV, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution
authorizing the use of force against Iraq if it failed to withdraw by January 15, 1991. Hussein refused
to withdraw his forces from Kuwait, which he had established as a province of Iraq, and some
700,000 allied troops, primarily American, gathered in the Middle East to enforce the deadline.

At 4:30 p.m. EST on January 16, 1991, Operation Desert Storm, the massive U.S.-led offensive
against Iraq, began as the first fighter aircraft were launched from Saudi Arabia and off U.S. and
British aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf. All evening, aircraft from the U.S.-led military coalition

20
 pounded targets in and around Baghdad as the world watched the events transpire on television
footage transmitted live via satellite from Iraq. Operation Desert Storm was conducted by an
international coalition under the supreme command of U.S. General Norman Schwarzkopf and
featured forces from 32 nations, including Britain, Egypt, France, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.
During the next six weeks, the allied force engaged in an intensive air war against Iraq’s military
and civil infrastructure and encountered little effective resistance from the Iraqi air force or air
defenses. Iraqi ground forces were helpless during this stage of the war, and Hussein’s only
significant retaliatory measure was the launching of SCUD missile attacks against Israel and Saudi
Arabia. Saddam hoped that the missile attacks would provoke Israel to enter the conflict, thus
dissolving Arab support of the war. At the request of the United States, however, Israel remained out
of the war.
On 24 FEB, a massive coalition ground offensive began, and Iraq’s outdated and poorly supplied
armed forces were rapidly overwhelmed. By the end of the day, the Iraqi army had effectively folded,
10,000 of its troops were held as prisoners, and a U.S. air base had been established deep inside Iraq.
After less than four days, Kuwait was liberated, and the majority of Iraq’s armed forces had either
surrendered, retreated to Iraq, or been destroyed.
On 28 FEB, U.S. President George Bush declared a cease-fire, and on 3 APR the U.N. Security
Council passed Resolution 687, specifying conditions for a formal end to the conflict. According to
the resolution, Bush’s cease-fire would become official, some sanctions would be lifted, but the ban
on Iraqi oil sales would continue until Iraq destroyed its weapons of mass destruction under U.N.
supervision. On 6 APR, Iraq accepted the resolution, and on 11 APR the Security Council declared it
in effect. During the next decade, Saddam Hussein frequently violated the terms of the peace
agreement, prompting further allied air strikes and continuing U.N. sanctions.
In the Persian Gulf War, 148 American soldiers were killed and 457 wounded. The other allied
nations suffered about 100 deaths combined during Operation Desert Storm. There are no official
figures for the number of Iraqi casualties, but it is believed that at least 25,000 soldiers were killed
and more than 75,000 were wounded, making it one of the most one-sided military conflicts in
history. It is estimated that 100,000 Iraqi civilians died from wounds or from lack of adequate water,
food, and medical supplies directly attributable to the Persian Gulf War. In the ensuing years, more
than one million Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the subsequent U.N. sanctions.

-o-o-O-o-o-

 Aug 03 1797 – Post American Revolution: Lord Jeffrey Amherst dies » 1st Baron Jeffrey
Amherst, who twice refused the position of commander of British forces against the rebelling
American patriots, dies at his estate, called Montreal, in England.

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 Amherst is remembered foremost for victory against the French in the Seven Years’ War,
culminating in the surrender of Montreal–after which Amherst named his estate–and Canada by the
French to the British in 1760. This triumph was matched in magnitude by the notoriety he gained
through his mishandling of Indian affairs following the war. Amherst ignored British Superintendent
of Indian Affairs Sir William Johnson’s advice to continue the tradition of gift exchange with British-
allied Indians following the surrender of Canada; Amherst believed in the efficacy of punishment for
poor behavior instead of rewards for good behavior. Thus, he curtailed gift-giving and would
eventually become the first military strategist to knowingly engage in biological warfare. Most
infamous was Amherst’s use of smallpox-infected blankets to spread the deadly disease among
Native Americans.
Western Indians had begun a series of frontier attacks known as Pontiac’s Rebellion in the spring
of 1763. After this pan-native uprising enjoyed some success, Amherst suggested to Colonel Henry
Bouquet that the British might expose the rebelling Indians to smallpox. Bouquet suggested infected
blankets as an effective means of achieving Amherst’s goal, a supposition that proved correct when a
smallpox epidemic engulfed Ohio Valley natives a few months later. Although exact numbers are
difficult to ascertain, typically three-quarters of the population died in such outbreaks.
Although Amherst became the governor of Virginia in 1759 as a reward for his military success,
he never served in the role, returning to Britain in November 1763. He was later twice asked to return
to North America to lead Britain’s efforts to put down the Patriot rebellion, but he declined, first in
1775 and again in 1778.

 Aug 03 1914 – WWI: Germany and France declare war on each other » On the afternoon of this
day in 1914, two days after declaring war on Russia, Germany declares war on France, moving ahead
with a long-held strategy, conceived by the former chief of staff of the German army, Alfred von
Schlieffen, for a two-front war against France and Russia. Hours later, France makes its own
declaration of war against Germany, readying its troops to move into the provinces of Alsace and
Lorraine, which it had forfeited to Germany in the settlement that ended the Franco-Prussian War in
1871.
With Germany officially at war with France and Russia, a conflict originally centered in the
tumultuous Balkans region—with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his
wife by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, and the subsequent standoff between
Austria-Hungary, Serbia and Serbia’s powerful Slavic supporter, Russia—had erupted into a full-
scale war. Also on 3 AUG, the first wave of German troops assembled on the frontier of neutral

22
 Belgium, which in accordance with the Schlieffen Plan would be crossed by German armies on their
way to an invasion of France. The day before, Germany had presented Belgium and its sovereign,
King Albert, with an ultimatum demanding passage for the German army through its territory.

This threat to Belgium, whose perpetual neutrality had been mandated by a treaty concluded by
the European powers—including Britain, France and Germany—in 1839, united a divided British
government in opposition to German aggression. Hours before Germany’s declaration of war on
France on August 3, the British foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, went before Parliament and
convinced a divided British government—and nation—to give its support to Britain’s entrance into
the war if Germany violated Belgian neutrality.
“The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime,” Grey
famously remarked to a friend on the night of 3 AUG. The next day, Britain sent its own ultimatum to
Berlin: halt the invasion of Belgium or face war with Britain as well. A reply was demanded by
midnight that night. At noon that day, King Albert finally made a concerted appeal for help to France
and Britain, as guarantors of Belgium’s neutrality according to the Treaty of 1839. To do so earlier, to
call in the French and British too soon, would have risked violating his country’s neutrality before
Germany had done so. When London received no answer to its ultimatum—the first German troops
had in fact crossed the Belgian frontier at Gemmerich, 30 miles from the fortress city of Liege, that
morning—Britain declared war on Germany.
In August 1914, as the great powers of Europe readied their armies and navies for a fight, no one
was preparing for a long struggle—both sides were counting on a short, decisive conflict that would
end in their favor. “You will be home before the leaves have fallen from the trees,” Kaiser Wilhelm
assured troops leaving for the front in the first week of August 1914. Even though some military
leaders, including German Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke and his French counterpart, Joseph
Joffre, foresaw a longer conflict, they did not modify their war strategy to prepare for that eventuality.
One man, the controversial new war secretary in Britain, Lord Horatio Kitchener, did act on his
conviction that the war would be a lasting one, insisting from the beginning of the war—against
considerable opposition—on the need to build up Britain’s armed forces. “A nation like Germany,”
Kitchener argued, “after having forced the issue, will only give in after it is beaten to the ground. This
will take a very long time. No one living knows how long.”

 AUG 03 1918 – WWI: German train carrying ammunition at the Hamount Station Belgium got
triggered and caught fire resulting in massive destruction and the death of 1,750 people.

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 Aug 03 1943 – WW2: Patton Slaps Soldiers » On this day Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, commander
of the Seventh U.S. Army, visited a military hospital in Sicily. He traveled past the beds of wounded
soldiers, asking them about their injuries. Coming to the bed of a soldier who lacked visible signs of
injury, Patton inquired about his health. The soldier, 18-year-old Pvt. Charles H. Kuhl, had been
tentatively diagnosed as having a case of psychoneurosis. He told Patton that he couldn’t mentally
handle the battle lines. “It’s my nerves,” he said. “I can hear the shells come over but I can’t hear
them burst.”

Enraged, Patton slapped Kuhl across the face and called him a coward. As Patton left the tent, he
heard Kuhl crying and turned back, striking the soldier again and ordering him to leave the infirmary
tent. It later emerged that Kuhl had malaria and a high fever. A week later, in a far less publicized
incident, Patton slapped Pvt. Paul G. Bennet, who had been hospitalized for his “nerves.” News of
both incidents reached Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, who on 17 AUG sent a letter to Patton reprimanding
him. “I am well aware of the necessity for hardness and toughness on the battle field. … But this does
not excuse brutality, abuse of the ‘sick,’ nor exhibition of uncontrollable temper in front of
subordinates,” Eisenhower wrote.
Eisenhower ordered Patton to apologize to the men, but, feeling that he was too valuable a leader
to lose, allowed to retain his command. Months later, on 21NOV, radio broadcaster Drew Pearson
revealed to U.S. audiences that Patton had slapped Kuhl. Many members of Congress and the press
called for Patton’s removal from command, and outrage over the alleged “cover-up” was also
widespread. The Senate delayed Patton’s confirmation as major general and Eisenhower relieved him
of his command of the Seventh Army. He would go on to serve as a decoy during the invasion of
Normandy and be given command of the Third Army, which he brilliantly led in an Allied victory in
the Battle of the Bulge.

 Aug 03 1944 – WW2: Siege of Myitkyina ends » The fighting in the Burma Campaign in 1944
was among the most severe in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II. It took place along the
borders between Burma and India, and Burma and China, and involved the British Commonwealth,
Chinese and United States forces, against the forces of Imperial Japan and the Indian National Army.
British Commonwealth land forces were drawn primarily from the United Kingdom, British India and
Africa.

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 On 19 May, the Chinese 22nd and 38th Divisions encircled Kamaing, a town in the Kachin State
of the northernmost part of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Two days before, on 17 May,
Merrill's Marauders captured the airfield in its capital city of Myitkyina after a march across the
Kumon Bum Mountains which nearly crippled the already weary Marauders. If Chinese troops from
Ledo had been flown in that afternoon to attack the town immediately they could have overwhelmed
the small garrison, but support and logistic units were flown in first and the opportunity to capture the
town easily was lost, as Japanese reinforcements arrived in the town.

Spent 75-mm howitzer shells piling up outside the besieged city Myitkyina, Burma

The resulting prolonged siege was not very well directed and cost the allies many men,
particularly amongst the Marauders who were kept in the line for reasons of American prestige, and
among the Chindits who were forced to remain in the field to disrupt Japanese relief attempts far
longer than had been planned. However, because of the deteriorating situation on the other fronts, the
Japanese never regained the initiative on the Northern Front.
The long siege also resulted in heavy Japanese losses. When the airfield was captured, the
Japanese in the town at first intended to fight a delaying action only, aided by the monsoon rains. On
10 JUN, Major General Genzo Mizukami, who had been sent with reinforcements and placed in
charge of the garrison, was ordered personally to "Defend Myitkyina to the death". The Japanese dug
in and repelled several Chinese attacks. Further resistance appeared hopeless by the end of July.
Mizukami evacuated the survivors of the garrison before fulfilling the letter of his orders by taking
his own life inside the defended perimeter. Myitkyina was finally captured on 3 AUG. It was the
largest seizure of Japanese-held territory to date in the Burma campaign. The airfield at Myitkyina
became a vital link in the air route over the Hump.

 Aug 03 1948 – Cold War: Chambers accuses Hiss of being a communist spy » In hearings before
the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), Whittaker Chambers accuses former State
Department official Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union. The accusation
set into motion a series of events that eventually resulted in the trial and conviction of Hiss for
perjury.

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 Whittaker Chambers & Alger Hiss

Chambers was a little known figure prior to his 1948 appearance before HUAC. He was a self-
professed former member of the Communist Party. Chambers also admitted to having served as a spy
for the Soviet Union. He left the Communist Party in 1938 and offered his services to the FBI as an
informant on communist activities in the United States. By 1948, he was serving as an editor for Time
magazine. At that time, HUAC was involved in a series of hearings investigating communist
machinations in the United States. Chambers was called as a witness, and he appeared before the
committee on August 3, 1948. He dropped a bombshell during his testimony. Chambers accused
former State Department official Alger Hiss of having been a communist and a spy during the 1930s.
Hiss was one of the most respected men in Washington. He had been heavily involved in America’s
wartime diplomacy and attended the Yalta and Potsdam conferences as an American representative.
In 1948, he was serving as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Hiss angrily denied the charges and declared that he did not even know Whittaker Chambers. He
later admitted that he knew Chambers, but at the time he had been using a different name–George
Crosley. In the weeks that followed Chambers’ appearance before HUAC, the two men exchanged
charges and countercharges and their respective stories became more and more muddled. Finally,
after Chambers publicly declared that Hiss had been a communist “and may be one now,” Hiss filed a
slander suit. During the course of that trial, Chambers produced microfilmed copies of classified State
Department documents from the 1930s, which he had hidden in hollowed-out pumpkins on his farm.
The “Pumpkin Papers” were used as evidence to support his claim that Hiss had passed the papers to
him for delivery to the Soviets. Based on this evidence, Hiss was indicted for perjury for lying to
HUAC and a federal grand jury about his membership in the Communist Party. The statute of
limitations had run out for other charges related to his supposed activities in the 1930s. After the first
trial ended with a hung jury, Hiss was convicted in January 1950 and served 44 months in jail. Hiss
always maintained his complete innocence. For his part, Chambers remained equally adamant in his
accusations about Hiss.

 Aug 03 1958 – Cold War: Nautilus travels under North Pole » The U.S. nuclear submarine
Nautilus accomplishes the first undersea voyage to the geographic North Pole. The world’s first
nuclear submarine, the Nautilus dived at Point Barrow, Alaska, and traveled nearly 1,000 miles under
the Arctic ice cap to reach the top of the world. It then steamed on to Iceland, pioneering a new and
shorter route from the Pacific to the Atlantic and Europe.

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 The USS Nautilus was constructed under the direction of U.S. Navy Captain Hyman G. Rickover,
a brilliant Russian-born engineer who joined the U.S. atomic program in 1946. In 1947, he was put in
charge of the navy’s nuclear-propulsion program and began work on an atomic submarine. Regarded
as a fanatic by his detractors, Rickover succeeded in developing and delivering the world’s first
nuclear submarine years ahead of schedule. In 1952, the Nautilus’ keel was laid by President Harry S.
Truman, and on January 21, 1954, first lady Mamie Eisenhower broke a bottle of champagne across
its bow as it was launched into the Thames River at Groton, Connecticut. Commissioned on
September 30, 1954, it first ran under nuclear power on the morning of January 17, 1955.
Much larger than the diesel-electric submarines that preceded it, the Nautilus stretched 319 feet
and displaced 3,180 tons. It could remain submerged for almost unlimited periods because its atomic
engine needed no air and only a very small quantity of nuclear fuel. The uranium-powered nuclear
reactor produced steam that drove propulsion turbines, allowing the Nautilus to travel underwater at
speeds in excess of 20 knots.
In its early years of service, the USS Nautilus broke numerous submarine travel records and on
July 23, 1958, departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on “Operation Northwest Passage”–the first crossing of
the North Pole by submarine. There were 116 men aboard for this historic voyage, including
Commander William R. Anderson, 111 officers and crew, and four civilian scientists. The Nautilus
steamed north through the Bering Strait and did not surface until it reached Point Barrow, Alaska, in
the Beaufort Sea, though it did send its periscope up once off the Diomedes Islands, between Alaska
and Siberia, to check for radar bearings. On 1 AUG, the submarine left the north coast of Alaska and
dove under the Arctic ice cap.
The submarine traveled at a depth of about 500 feet, and the ice cap above varied in thickness
from 10 to 50 feet, with the midnight sun of the Arctic shining in varying degrees through the blue
ice. At 11:15 p.m. EDT on August 3, 1958, Commander Anderson announced to his crew: “For the
world, our country, and the Navy–the North Pole.” The Nautilus passed under the geographic North
Pole without pausing. The submarine next surfaced in the Greenland Sea between Spitzbergen and
Greenland on 5 AUG. Two days later, it ended its historic journey at Iceland. For the command
during the historic journey, President Dwight D. Eisenhower decorated Anderson with the Legion of
Merit.
After a career spanning 25 years and almost 500,000 miles steamed, the Nautilus was
decommissioned on March 3, 1980. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982, the world’s

27
 first nuclear submarine went on exhibit in 1986 as the Historic Ship Nautilus at the Submarine Force
Museum in Groton, Connecticut.

 Aug 03 1965 – Vietnam War: TV news shows Marines burning village » CBS-TV news shows
pictures of men from the First Battalion, Ninth Marines setting fire to huts in the village of Cam Na,
six miles west of Da Nang, despite reports that the Viet Cong had already fled the area. The film
report sparked indignation and condemnation of the U.S. policy in Vietnam both at home and
overseas. At the same time, the Department of Defense announced that it was increasing the monthly
draft call from 17,000 in August to 27,400 in September and 36,000 in October. It also announced
that the Navy would require 4,600 draftees, the first such action since 1956.

 Aug 03 1966 – Vietnam War: Marines launch Operation Prairie » U.S. Marine units commence
Operation Prairie, a sequel to an earlier operation in the area (Operation Hastings), which involves a
sweep just south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) against three battalions of the North Vietnamese
324B Division. An additional 1,500 Marines from Seventh Fleet ships off Quang Tri Province
conducted amphibious landings on September 15 to assist in the operation, which lasted until 19 SEP
and resulted in a reported 1,397 communist casualties.

 Aug 03 1988 – Cold War: Soviets release Mathias Rust » Soviet authorities free Mathias Rust,
the daring young West German pilot who landed a rented Cessna on Moscow’s Red Square in 1987.
Rust was serving a four-year sentence at a labor camp when the Soviets approved his extradition as a
goodwill gesture to the West.

On May 28, 1987, Rust, then a 19-year-old with less than 40 hours of flying time, flew the light
plane from Helsinki, Finland, to Red Square, the site of the Kremlin, Lenin’s Tomb, and frequent
Soviet patriotic demonstrations. He had not been detected once during the 500-mile flight. Rust said
his flight was in the interest of world peace, and he signed autographs in Red Square until he was
arrested. His seemingly effortless penetration of Soviet air space raised serious questions about the
USSR’s ability to defend itself from air attack.

-o-o-O-o-o-

 Aug 04 1790 – U.S. Coast Guard: The Revenue Cutter Service, forerunner of the COAST GUARD
was established by Alexander Hamilton when the first Congress authorized the construction of 10

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 vessels to enforce tariff and trade laws, prevent smuggling, and protect the collection of federal
revenue.

 Aug 04 1864 – Civil War: Union generals squabble outside of Atlanta » A Union operation
against Confederate defenses around Atlanta, Georgia, stalls when infighting erupts between Yankee
generals.
The problem arose when Union General William T. Sherman began stretching his force—
consisting of the Army of the Ohio, the Army of the Tennessee, and the Army of the Cumberland—
west of Ezra Church, the site of a major battle on 28 JUL, to Utoy Creek, west of Atlanta. The
Confederate army inside of Atlanta, commanded by General John Bell Hood, had attacked Sherman’s
army three times in late July and could no longer mount an offensive operation. Sherman now moved
General John Schofield, who commanded the Army of the Ohio, from the east side of Atlanta to the
west in an attempt to cut the rail lines that supplied the city from the south and west. Schofield’s force
arrived at Utoy Creek on 3 AUG.

Generals Schofield and Palmer

The Army of the Cumberland’s Fourteenth Corps, commanded by General John Palmer, had also
been sent by Sherman to assist Schofield. But on 4 AUG, the operation came to a standstill because
Palmer refused to accept orders from anyone but General George Thomas, commander of the Army
of the Cumberland. Although Schofield was the director of the operation, Palmer felt that Schofield
was his junior. The two men had been promoted to major general on the same day in 1862, but
Schofield’s appointment had expired four months later. Schofield had been reappointed with his
original date of promotion, November 29, 1862, but Palmer insisted that the reappointment placed
Schofield behind him in seniority.
Agreeing only to relay Schofield’s order to his division commanders, Palmer refused even to
accept Sherman’s orders. On August 5, Sherman declared that Schofield was senior to Palmer, upon
which Palmer resigned and returned to his Illinois home. The delay provided the Confederates ample
time to extend their defenses and protect their western rail links.
An example of how generals’ egos could be both large and fragile, the incident would be
laughable if it were not for the event’s consequences. When the Yankees attacked on 6 AUG, they
suffered 300 casualties, which might have been prevented if the squabble had not occurred.

 Aug 04 1873 – Westward Expansion: Custer and 7th Cavalry attacked by Indians » While
protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, Custer and his 7th Cavalry clash for the first time with
the Sioux Indians, who will defeat them three years later at Little Big Horn.

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 During the previous two years, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry
had not fought a single battle against the hostile Indians of the western Plains. Hungry for action,
Custer was pleased when the 7th Cavalry was ordered to help protect a party of surveyors laying out
the route for the proposed Northern Pacific Railroad. The new transcontinental railroad (the third in
the United States) was to pass through territory controlled by hostile Sioux Indians. Custer was
optimistic that the assignment would give him a chance to improve his reputation as an Indian fighter.
Initially, the military escort saw little action. The hostile Indians seemed to be avoiding or ignoring
the survey party. For Custer, the mission turned into something of a lark. He spent much of his time
shooting buffalo, antelope, elk, and other animals. To find good hunting, he often led the 7th Cavalry
far away from the survey party and the main body of the military escort.
On this day Custer was far ahead of the rest of the force, camping along the Tongue River in
southeastern Montana. Suddenly, a large band of Sioux warriors appeared on the horizon and
attacked. The Indians were led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, but the young braves seemed to have
attacked impetuously and with little planning. Custer, who had been taking an afternoon nap, reacted
quickly and mounted an effective defense. After a brief skirmish, the Indians withdrew.
Since only one soldier and one Indian were killed in the skirmish, Custer’s short battle along the
Tongue River seemed relatively insignificant at the time. However, Custer’s easy escape in his first
encounter with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse may have given him a dangerously scornful view of
their fighting abilities. It helped to confirm his belief that the Plains warriors tended to flee rather than
fight. As a result, when Custer again encountered Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse at the Little Big Horn
River three years later, his greatest fear was that they would withdraw before he could attack, and he
rushed in without proper reconnaissance. That time, though, the Indians stood and fought, leaving
Custer and more than 200 of his men dead.

 Aug 04 1914 – WWI: Germany invades Belgium. In response, the United Kingdom declares war on
Germany. The United States declare their neutrality.

 Aug 04 1944 - WW2: Anne Frank captured » Acting on tip from a Dutch informer, the Nazi
Gestapo captures 15-year-old Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family in a sealed-off area of an
Amsterdam warehouse. The Franks had taken shelter there in 1942 out of fear of deportation to a
Nazi concentration camp. They occupied the small space with another Jewish family and a single

30
Jewish man, and were aided by Christian friends, who brought them food and supplies. Anne spent
much of her time in the “secret annex” working on her diary. The diary survived the war, overlooked
by the Gestapo that discovered the hiding place, but Anne and nearly all of the others perished in the
Nazi death camps.

Annelies Marie Frank was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on June 12, 1929. She was the
second daughter of Otto Frank and Edith Frank-Hollander, both of Jewish families that had lived in
Germany for centuries. With the rise of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in 1933, Otto moved his family to
Amsterdam to escape the escalating Nazi persecution of Jews. In Holland, he ran a successful spice
and jam business. Anne attended a Montessori school with other middle-class Dutch children, but
with the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940 she was forced to transfer to a Jewish school. In
1942, Otto began arranging a hiding place in an annex of his warehouse on the Prinsengracht Canal in
Amsterdam.
On her 13th birthday in 1942, Anne began a diary relating her everyday experiences, her
relationship with her family and friends, and observations about the increasingly dangerous world
around her. Less than a month later, Anne’s older sister, Margot, received a call-up notice to report to
a Nazi “work camp.” Fearing deportation to a Nazi concentration camp, the Frank family took shelter
in the secret annex the next day. One week later, they were joined by Otto Frank’s business partner
and his family. In November, a Jewish dentist—the eighth occupant of the hiding place—joined the
group.
For two years, Anne kept a diary about her life in hiding that is marked with poignancy, humor,
and insight. The entrance to the secret annex was hidden by a hinged bookcase, and former
employees of Otto and other Dutch friends delivered them food and supplies procured at high risk.
Anne and the others lived in rooms with blacked-out windows, and never flushed the toilet during the
day out of fear that their presence would be detected. In June 1944, Anne’s spirits were raised by the
Allied landing at Normandy, and she was hopeful that the long-awaited liberation of Holland would
soon begin.
On August 1, 1944, Anne made her last entry in her diary. Three days later, 25 months of
seclusion ended with the arrival of the Nazi Gestapo. Anne and the others had been given away by an
unknown informer, and they were arrested along with two of the Christians who had helped shelter
them. They were sent to a concentration camp in Holland, and in September Anne and most of the
others were shipped to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. In the fall of 1944, with the Soviet
liberation of Poland underway, Anne was moved with her sister Margot to the Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp in Germany. Suffering under the deplorable conditions of the camp, the two
sisters caught typhus and died in early March 1945. The camp was liberated by the British less than
two months later.

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 Otto Frank was the only one of the 10 to survive the Nazi death camps. After the war, he returned
to Amsterdam via Russia, and was reunited with Miep Gies, one of his former employees who had
helped shelter him. She handed him Anne’s diary, which she had found undisturbed after the Nazi
raid. In 1947, Anne’s diary was published by Otto in its original Dutch as Diary of a Young Girl. An
instant best-seller and eventually translated into more than 50 languages, The Diary of Anne Frank
has served as a literary testament to the nearly six million Jews, including Anne herself, who were
silenced in the Holocaust.
The Frank family’s hideaway at Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterdam opened as a museum in 1960. A
new English translation of Anne’s diary in 1995 restored material that had been edited out of the
original version, making the work nearly a third longer.

 Aug 04 1944 - WW2: British Eighth Army occupies southern Florence, Italy below the Arno;
Germans have destroyed all bridges except the historic Ponte Vecchio.

 Aug 04 1944 - WW2: French Resistance leaders parachute into Brittany to organize the uprising
against the Germans.

 Aug 04 1953 – Cold War: Eisenhower warns of “ominous” situation in Asia » Speaking before
the Governor’s Conference in Seattle, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warns that the situation in
Asia is becoming “very ominous for the United States.” In the speech, Eisenhower made specific
reference to the need to defend French Indochina from the communists.

By 1953, U.S. officials were becoming increasingly concerned with events in Asia and elsewhere
in the so-called “Third World.” During the early years of the Cold War (1945 to 1950), the focus of
America’s anticommunist foreign policy was on Europe. With the outbreak of war in Korea in 1950,
however, the American government began to shift its focus to other areas of the globe, particularly
Asia. During the presidential campaign of 1952, Eisenhower was harshly critical of President Harry
S. Truman’s foreign policy, declaring that too little attention had been paid to Asia and that the
Korean War was the result of ignoring communist intentions in that corner of the world. Shortly after
taking office in early 1953, the victorious Eisenhower adopted a “get tough” policy toward the
situation in Korea, even hinting that nuclear weapons might be employed to break the military
stalemate between U.S. and communist forces. On July 27, 1953, an armistice was signed, bringing
the Korean War to an end.

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 Just over a week later, Eisenhower addressed the Governor’s Conference and suggested that the
communist danger in Asia was far from over. He specifically noted the communist threat in French
Indochina, where the French military was battling Vietnamese revolutionaries for control of Vietnam.
Eisenhower defended his decision to approve a $400 million aid package to help the French in their
effort as “the cheapest way that we can prevent the occurrence that would be of most terrible
significance to the United States.” According to Eisenhower, communist victory in Indochina would
have far-reaching consequences. “Now let us assume that we lose Indochina. If Indochina goes,
several things happen right away. That last little bit of land hanging on down there, the Malay
Peninsula, would be scarcely defensible. The tin and tungsten that we so greatly value from that area
would cease coming.” One by one, other Asian nations would be toppled. “So you see, somewhere
along that line, this must be blocked and it must be blocked now.”
Eisenhower’s speech marked the first appearance of what would come to be known as the
“domino theory“–the idea that the loss of Indochina to communism would lead to other Asian nations
following suit, like a row of dominos. The speech also indicated that the United States was fully
committed to the defense of Indochina to prevent this possibility. After the defeat of the French in
1954, America took France’s place in fighting the Vietnamese communist revolutionaries, thus
beginning its slow but steady immersion into the Vietnam War.

 Aug 04 1964 – Vietnam: Reported North Vietnamese PT boat attacks result in retaliation strikes »
At 8 p.m., the destroyers USS Maddox and USS C. Turner Joy, operating in the Gulf of Tonkin,
intercept radio messages from the North Vietnamese that give Captain John Herrick of the Maddox
the “impression” that Communist patrol boats are planning an attack against the American ships,
prompting him to call for air support from the carrier USS Ticonderoga.
Eight Crusader jets soon appeared overhead, but in the darkness, neither the pilots nor the ship
crews saw any enemy craft. However, about 10 p.m. sonar operators reported torpedoes approaching.
The U.S. destroyers maneuvered to avoid the torpedoes and began to fire at the North Vietnamese
patrol boats. When the action ended about two hours later, U.S. officers reported sinking two, or
possibly three of the North Vietnamese boats, but no American was sure of ever having seen any
enemy boats nor any enemy gunfire. Captain Herrick immediately communicated his doubts to his
superiors and urged a “thorough reconnaissance in daylight.” Shortly thereafter, he informed Admiral
U. S. Grant Sharp, commander of the Pacific Fleet, that the blips on the radar scope were apparently
“freak weather effects” while the report of torpedoes in the water were probably due to “overeager”
radar operators.
Because of the time difference, it was only 9:20 a.m. in Washington when the Pentagon received
the initial report of a potential attack on the U.S. destroyers. When a more detailed report was
received at 11 a.m. there was still a lot of uncertainty as to just what had transpired. President
Johnson, convinced that the second attack had taken place, ordered the Joint Chiefs of Staff to select
targets for possible retaliatory air strikes. At a National Security Council meeting, Secretary of
Defense Robert McNamara, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, and McGeorge Bundy, Special Assistant
to the President for National Security Affairs, recommended to the president that the reprisal strikes
be ordered. Johnson was cautious at first, but in a follow-up meeting in the afternoon, he gave the
order to execute the reprisal, code-named Pierce Arrow.

33
 The President then met with 16 Congressional leaders to inform them of the second unprovoked
attack and that he had ordered reprisal attacks. He also told them he planned to ask for a
Congressional resolution to support his actions. At 11:20 p.m., McNamara was informed by Admiral
Sharp that the aircraft were on their way to the targets and at 11:26, President Johnson appeared on
national television and announced that the reprisal raids were underway in response to unprovoked
attacks on U.S. warships. He assured the viewing audience that, “We still seek no wider war.”
However, these incidents proved to be only the opening moves in an escalation that would eventually
see more than 500,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam.

 Aug 04 1967 – Vietnam War: Court upholds court-martial conviction of officer who participated in
demonstration » The U.S. Court of Military Appeals in Washington upholds the 1965 court-martial
of Second Lieutenant Henry H. Howe, who had been sentenced to dismissal from the service and a
year at hard labor for participating in an antiwar demonstration.

 Aug 04 1969 – Vietnam War: Secret negotiations are initiated in Paris » The first secret
negotiating session takes place between Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan
Thuy, at the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris.

Xuan Thuy and Jean Sainteny

Kissinger reiterated an earlier proposal put forth on 14 MAY for a mutual withdrawal of North
Vietnamese and U.S. troops and also warned that if no progress was made by 1 NOV toward ending
the war, the United States would consider measures of “grave consequences.” Xuan Thuy responded
with the standard North Vietnamese line that the United States would have to withdraw all its troops
and abandon the Thieu government before there would be any “logical and realistic basis for settling
the war.” The negotiations ended with only an agreement to keep open the new secret channel of
communications. These secret talks would continue, but would not bear fruit until late 1972, after the
North Vietnamese Nguyen Hue Offensive had failed and President Nixon had launched Operation
Linebacker II, the “Christmas bombing” of North Vietnam.

 Aug 04 1992 – WWII: Yōhei Kōno, Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan, issued a formal apology for
forcing women into sexual slavery during World War II.

 Aug 04 1995 – Croatian War: Operation Storm begins » ‘Storm’ was the last major battle of the
Croatian War of Independence and a major factor in the outcome of the Bosnian War. It was a
decisive victory for the Croatian Army (HV), which attacked across a 630-kilometre (390 mi) front

34
 against the Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK), and a strategic victory for the Army of the Republic
of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH).
The HV was supported by the Croatian special police advancing from the Velebit Mountain, and
the ARBiH located in the Bihać pocket, in the Army of the Republic of Serb Krajina's (ARSK) rear.
The battle, launched to restore Croatian control of 4,000 square miles of territory, representing 18.4%
of the territory it claimed, and Bosnian control of Western Bosnia, was the largest European land
battle since the Second World War. Operation Storm commenced at dawn on 4 August 1995 and was
declared complete on the evening of 7 AUG, despite significant mopping-up operations against
pockets of resistance lasting until 14 AUG.
It was a strategic victory in the Bosnian War, effectively ending the siege of Bihać and placing the
HV, Croatian Defence Council (HVO) and the ARBiH in a position to change the military balance of
power in Bosnia and Herzegovina through the subsequent Operation Mistral 2. The operation built on
HV and HVO advances made during Operation Summer '95, when strategic positions allowing the
rapid capture of the RSK capital Knin were gained, and on the continued arming and training of the
HV since the beginning of the Croatian War of Independence, when the RSK was created during the
Serb Log revolution and Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) intervention. The operation itself followed
an unsuccessful United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission and diplomatic efforts to settle the
conflict.

-o-o-O-o-o-

 Aug 05 1812 – War of 1812: Battle of Brownstone » In an early scrimmages of the war as U.S.
Forces forded Brownstown creek south of Fort Detroit, 200 U.S. soldiers were set upon by two dozen
Indians led by the Shawnee war chief Tecumseh, Chickamauga war chief Daimee, Wyandot chief
Roundhead, and several others. Faced with such opposition, OIC Major Thomas Van Horne ordered a
retreat, whereupon the untrained American militia scattered in a panic. Van Horne was able to save
only half of his command; 18 men were killed, 12 were wounded, and 70 went missing. Most of those
listed as "missing" were dispersed during the battle and returned to Detroit during the ensuing days.
Josiah Snelling, known colloquially as the Prairie Chicken, was cited for gallantry for his actions
during the Battle and promoted to Major. Later, after Fort Detroit’s Commander Brigadier General
William Hull surrendered it to Tecumseh, Snelling's testimony was used at Hull's court-martial. One
minor chief, Blue Jacket, died in the battle. This was not the famous Shawnee chief Blue Jacket, but
most likely was one of his sons. By an act of the United States Congress on June 1, 1813, the widows
of those men killed in the battle were awarded half pay for five years.

 Aug 05 1861 – Civil War: Congress adopts the nation’s first income tax to finance the Civil War.
(3% of incomes over $800)

 Aug 05 1861 – U.S. Army: Flogging » As the number of civilians flocked into Civil War service
grew, the United States Army finally abolished flogging. An attempt had been made earlier in the
century but the punishment had been reinstated in 1833 for desertion. Congress had abolished
flogging in the Navy in 1850, after a public campaign by Herman Melville, although other corporal
punishments were retained.

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 Aug 05 1862 – Civil War: Battle of Baton Rouge » The Battle was a ground and naval battle
fought in East Baton Rouge Parish. On the evening of 4 AUG as Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge
marched 5,000 Confederate troops closer to the city the element of surprise was lost when they were
discovered by Union sentries. Despite this, the attack was launched at daybreak. The Union troops
were in the center of Baton Rouge, while the Confederates were lined up in two divisions, north of
the city. The action occurred around Florida Street, and began with the Confederates pushing their
opponents all the way across town. Bitter fighting took place, especially around Magnolia Cemetery.
The Union commander, Brigadier General Thomas Williams, was killed in action. Colonel Thomas
W. Cahill took over.
The colonel led a retreat back to prepared defensive lines near the Penitentiary, under the
protection of the Union warships. The Confederate troops began coming under fire from the
gunboats. The Confederate ram Arkansas arrived not long after but her engines failed just four miles
above the city. Her commander ordered her set afire to prevent her capture. Without any prospect of
naval support, Breckenridge was unable to attack the Union positions and withdrew. Union troops
evacuated the city a week later, concerned for the safety of New Orleans, but returned that autumn.
Confederates occupied Port Hudson, which they held for almost another year. The Union victory
halted Confederate attempts to recapture the capital city of Louisiana.

 Aug 05 1864 – Civil War: Union scores a victory at the Battle of Mobile Bay » Union Admiral
David Farragut leads his flotilla through the Confederate defenses at Mobile, Alabama, to seal one of
the last major Southern ports. The fall of Mobile Bay was a huge blow to the Confederacy, and the
victory was the first in a series of Yankee successes that helped secure the re-election of Abraham
Lincoln later that year.

Battle of Mobile Bay. At left foreground is the CSS Tennessee; at the right the USN Tecumseh is sinking

Mobile became the major Confederate port on the Gulf of Mexico after the fall of New Orleans,
Louisiana, in April 1862. With blockade runners carrying critical supplies from Havana, Cuba, into
Mobile, Union General Ulysses S. Grant made the capture of the port a top priority after assuming
command of all Federal forces in early 1864.
Opposing Farragut’s force of 17 warships was a Rebel squadron of only four ships; however, it
included the CSS Tennessee, said to be the most powerful ironclad afloat. Farragut also had to
contend with two powerful Confederate batteries inside of forts Morgan and Gaines. On the morning
of August 5, Farragut’s force steamed into the mouth of Mobile Bay in two columns led by four

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 ironclads and met with devastating fire that immediately sank one ofits iron-hulled, single-turret
monitors, the U.S.S. Tecumseh. The rest of the fleet fell into confusion but Farragut allegedly rallied
them with the words: “Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead!” Although the authenticity of the quote
has been questioned, it nevertheless became one of the most famous in U.S. military history.
The Yankee fleet quickly knocked out the smaller Confederate ships, but the Tennessee fought a
valiant battle against overwhelming odds before it sustained heavy damage and surrendered. The
Union laid siege to forts Morgan and Gaines, and both were captured within two weeks. Confederate
forces remained in control of the city of Mobile, but the port was no longer available to blockade
runners.
The Battle of Mobile Bay lifted the morale of the North. With Grant stalled at Petersburg,
Virginia, and General William T. Sherman unable to capture Atlanta, Georgia, the capture of the bay
became the first in a series of Union victories that stretched to the fall election.

 Aug 05 1914 – U.S.*Nicaragua: Bryan-Chamorro Treaty » Signed between the United States
and Nicaragua. The United States gained the right to construct a canal across Nicaragua, an option to
build a naval base on the Gulf of Fonseca, and a long-term lease on the Corn Islands in the Caribbean.
Nicaragua’s neighbors protested, claiming the treaty imperiled their security, and the Central
American Court of Justice upheld the validity of their claim. The United States and Nicaragua
ignored the ruling; the treaty remained in effect, but the United States used it only to build a
lighthouse on the Corn Islands. The refusal of the United States to honor the ruling of the court
destroyed the influence of that body, and in March 1918 the court formally ceased to exist. The
Bryan-Chamorro Treaty was abrogated in 1970.

 Aug 05 1914 – WWI: Battle of Liège » First battle of the war. By 4 AUG, the German 1st, 2nd
and 3rd Armies—some 34 divisions of men—were in the process of aligning themselves on the right
wing of the German lines, poised to move into Belgium. In total, seven German armies, with a total of
1.5 million soldiers, were being assembled along the Belgian and French frontiers, ready to put the
long-held Schlieffen Plan—a sweeping advance through Belgium into France envisioned by former
German Chief of Staff Alfred von Schlieffen—into practice. The 2nd Army, commanded by Field
Marshal Karl von Bulow, was charged with taking the city of Liege, located at the gateway into
Belgium from Germany. Built on a steep 500-foot slope rising up from the Meuse River, some 200
yards wide, and defended by 12 heavily armed forts—six on either side of the river, stretching along a
30-mile circumference—Liege was considered by many to be the most heavily fortified spot in
Europe.
Bulow’s 2nd Army, numbering some 320,000 men, began its attack on Liege and its 35,000
garrison troops on 5 AUG. Six brigades, commanded by General Otto von Emmich, were detached
from the 2nd Army to form a special “Army of the Meuse” that would open the way for the rest of its
comrades through Liege. Confident of an easy victory with little significant Belgian resistance, the
Germans assumed Emmich’s men could topple Liege while the rest of the German troops were still
assembling. In fact, the Belgians put up a valiant defense from the first moment—a struggle led by
their sovereign, King Albert, who had earlier urged his subjects to fight this threat to their neutrality
and independence at all costs. By the end of the first day all of Liege’s 12 fortresses remained in
Belgian hands.

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 Liege eventually fell to the Germans on 15 AUG, but only after they had brought up the most
powerful land weapons in their arsenal, the enormous siege cannons. One type of cannon, built by the
Austrian munitions firm Skoda, had a barrel measuring 12-inches (305mm); the other, manufactured
by Krupps in Essen, Germany, was even more massive at 16.5 inches (420mm). Until that point, the
largest guns had measured 13.5 inches and were used by the British navy; the largest on land had only
measured 11 inches. The heavy shelling of Liege began on 12 AUG; on 15 AUG, after taking 11 of
Liege’s 12 forts and exploding the walls of the 12th , Fort Loncin, with a shell, Emmich and his
comrade Erich Ludendorff entered Loncin to find Liege’s commander, General Gerard Mathieu
Leman, alive but unconscious. Taken prisoner by the Germans, he later wrote to King Albert from
Germany, “I would gladly have given my life, but Death would not have me.” For their parts,
Emmich and Ludendorff were awarded Germany’s highest military medal, the Pour la Merite cross,
for their capture of Liege.
The main German advance through Belgium, towards France, began three days later. Fearful of
civilian resistance, especially from snipers, or franc-tireurs, shooting at them from hidden positions in
trees and bushes, German troops from the first day in Belgium took a hard line against the native
population. As early as 5 AUG, the Germans had begun not only the shooting of ordinary civilians
but the deliberate execution of Belgian priests, whom German propaganda at home insisted were
encouraging franc-tireur (free shooter) activity. “Our advance in Belgium is certainly brutal,” wrote
German Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke to his Austrian counterpart, Conrad von Hotzendorff, on
5 AUG. “But we are fighting for our lives and all who get in the way must take the consequences.”
In total, German troops killed 5,521 civilians in Belgium and 896 in France, earning Germany the
full measure of Belgian hatred and damning it in the eyes of many foreign observers. The steadfast
Belgian resistance, meanwhile, at Liege and elsewhere during the German advance, would earn the
small country and its valiant king the world’s respect, and provide a shining example, and a worthy
cause, to the other Allied nations then entering what would become Europe’s most devastating
conflict.

 Aug 05 1915 – WWI: Warsaw, evacuated by the Russians, is occupied by Germans.

 Aug 05 1917 – WWI: British troops attack canal of Ypres in Boesinghe, Belgium.

 Aug 05 1917 – WWI: The entire US National Guard is taken into national service, subject to
presidential rather than state control.

 Aug 05 1944 – WW2: Hundreds of Jews are freed from forced labor in Warsaw » Polish
insurgents liberate a German forced-labor camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners, who join in
a general uprising against the German occupiers of the city.

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 As the Red Army advanced on Warsaw in July, Polish patriots, still loyal to their government-in-
exile back in London, prepared to overthrow their German occupiers. On 29 JUL, the Polish Home
Army (underground), the People’s Army (a communist guerilla movement), and armed civilians took
back two-thirds of Warsaw from the Germans. On 4 AUG, the Germans counterattacked, mowing
down Polish civilians with machine-gun fire. By 5 AUG, more than 15,000 Poles were dead. The
Polish command cried to the Allies for help. Churchill telegraphed Stalin, informing him that the
British intended to drop ammunition and other supplies into the southwest quarter of Warsaw to aid
the insurgents. The prime minister asked Stalin to aid in the insurgents’ cause. Stalin balked, claiming
the insurgency was too insignificant to waste time with.

On 5 AUG the Nazi Governor-General of Poland, Hans Frank wrote: “Almost every part of the
city of Warsaw is on fire.” Far from being limited to using its resources in attacking military
objectives, the Nazis attack with fury houses, monuments and the Polish cultural heritage: they
demolished the Sigismund Column with a cannon, destroyed the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, flew
the Royal Castle and burned libraries and archives.
In addition, German forces, especially the Gestapo and SS, perpetrate mass crimes unprecedented
against the Polish population, and display the most repulsive techniques to try to gain advantage over
the AK. They used civilians, including children, as human shields, even tying them to their battle
tanks so the insurgents will not dare shoot them. In the Varsovian district of Ochota the SS
Sturmbrigade RONA, formed by Russians, commit all kinds of crimes against Polish civilians:
robberies, fires, murders, tortures and mass rapes, often in groups, of both women and girls. No
patients are rescued from the oncology center Maria Sklodowska-Curie Institute: on August 6th SS
unit sets it on fire, lighting the mattresses of the beds of the sick, who are burned alive. On 19 AUG
they executed and burned 60 patients who had been evacuated from that hospital. Only 10,000 people
are killed in the Ochota district. In the district of Wola more than 40,000 are massacred: the biggest
slaughter suffered by Poland in all its history.
Britain succeeded to getting some aid to the Polish patriots, but the Germans also succeeded-in
dropping incendiary bombs. The Poles fought on, and on 5 AUG they freed Jewish forced laborers
who then joined in the battle, some of whom formed a special platoon dedicated solely to repairing
captured German tanks for use in the struggle. The Poles would battle on for weeks against German
reinforcements, and without Soviet help, as Joseph Stalin had his own plans for Poland.

 Aug 05 1951 – Korean War: The United Nations Command suspends armistice talks with the North
Koreans when armed troops are spotted in neutral areas.

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 Aug 05 1963 – Cold War: Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed » Representatives of the United States,
the Soviet Union, and Great Britain sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited the testing of
nuclear weapons in outer space, underwater, or in the atmosphere. The treaty was hailed as an
important first step toward the control of nuclear weapons.
Discussions between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning a ban on nuclear testing
began in the mid-1950s. Officials from both nations came to believe that the nuclear arms race was
reaching a dangerous level. In addition, public protest against the atmospheric testing of nuclear
weapons was gaining strength. Nevertheless, talks between the two nations (later joined by Great
Britain) dragged on for years, usually collapsing when the issue of verification was raised. The
Americans and British wanted on-site inspections, something the Soviets vehemently opposed. In
1960, the three sides seemed close to an agreement, but the downing of an American spy plan over
the Soviet Union in May brought negotiations to an end.

The Cuban Missile Crisis provided a major impetus for reinvigorating the talks in October 1962.
The Soviets attempted to install nuclear-capable missiles in Cuba, bringing the Soviet Union and the
United States to the brink of a nuclear war. Cooler heads prevailed and the crisis passed, but the other
possible scenarios were not lost on U.S. and Russian officials. In June 1963, the test ban negotiations
resumed, with compromises from all sides. On 5 AUG, British, American, and Russian
representatives signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. France and China were asked to join the
agreement but refused.
The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was a small but significant step toward the control of nuclear
weapons. In the years to come, discussions between the United States and the Soviet Union grew to
include limits on many nuclear weapons and the elimination of others.

 Aug 05 1974 – Vietnam War: Congress cuts military aid to South Vietnam » Congress places a
$1 billion ceiling on military aid to South Vietnam for fiscal year 1974. This figure was trimmed
further to $700 million by 11 AUG. Military aid to South Vietnam in fiscal year 1973 was $2.8
billion; in 1975 it would be cut to $300 million. Once aid was cut, it took the North Vietnamese only
55 days to defeat the South Vietnamese forces when they launched their final offensive in 1975.

 Aug 05 2002 – Post Civil War: USS Monitor gun turret recovered after 140 years » The rusty
iron gun turret of the U.S.S. Monitor broke from the water and into the daylight for the first time in
140 years. The ironclad warship was raised from the floor of the Atlantic, where it had rested since it
went down in a storm off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, during the Civil War. Divers had been
working for six weeks to bring it to the surface.
Nine months before sinking into its watery grave, the Monitor had been part of a revolution in
naval warfare. On March 9, 1862, it dueled to a standstill with the C.S.S. Virginia (originally the
C.S.S. Merrimack) in one of the most famous moments in naval history–the first time two ironclads
faced each other in a naval engagement. During the battle, the two ships circled one another,
jockeying for position as they fired their guns. The cannon balls simply deflected off the iron ships. In
the early afternoon, the Virginia pulled back to Norfolk. Neither ship was seriously damaged, but the
Monitor effectively ended the short reign of terror that the Confederate ironclad had brought to the
Union navy.

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 Designed by Swedish engineer John Ericsson, the Monitor had an unusually low profile, rising
from the water only 18 inches. The flat iron deck had a 20-foot cylindrical turret rising from the
middle of the ship; the turret housed two 11-inch Dahlgren guns. The shift had a draft of less than 11
feet so it could operate in the shallow harbors and rivers of the South. It was commissioned on
February 25, 1862, and arrived at Chesapeake Bay just in time to engage the Virginia.
After the famous duel, the Monitor provided gun support on the James River for George B.
McClellan’s Peninsular Campaign. By December 1862, it was clear the ship was no longer needed in
Virginia, so she was sent to Beaufort, North Carolina, to join a fleet being assembled for an attack on
Charleston. The Monitor served well in the sheltered waters of Chesapeake Bay, but the heavy, low-
slung ship was a poor craft for the open sea. The U.S.S. Rhode Island towed the ironclad around the
rough waters of Cape Hatteras. As the Monitor pitched and swayed in the rough seas, the caulking
around the gun turret loosened and water began to leak into the hull. More leaks developed as the
journey continued. High seas tossed the craft, causing the ship’s flat armor bottom to slap the water.
Each roll opened more seams, and by nightfall on December 30, the Monitor was in dire straits.
That evening, the Monitor’s commander, J.P. Bankhead, signaled the Rhode Island that he wished
to abandon ship. The wooden side-wheeler pulled as close as safety allowed to the stricken ironclad,
and two lifeboats were lowered to retrieve the crew. Many of the sailors were rescued, but some men
were terrified to venture onto the deck in such rough seas. The ironclad’s pumps stopped working,
and the ship sank before 16 of its crew members could be rescued. The remains of two of these sailors
were discovered by divers during the Monitor’s 2002 reemergence.
Many of the ironclad’s artifacts are now on display at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News,
Virginia.

-o-o-O-o-o-

 Aug 06 1777 – American Revolution: The bloody Battle of Oriskany prevents American relief of
the Siege of Fort Stanwix. Casualties and losses: US 465 - GB & Indians 93.

 Aug 06 1787 – Post American Revolution: In Philadelphia, four years after the Treaty of Paris
which officially ended the American Revolution, delegates to the Constitutional Convention begin
debating the first complete draft of the proposed Constitution of the United States. Today, the U.S.
Constitution is the oldest written constitution in operation in the world.

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 Aug 06 1862 – Civil War: Confederate ship blown up by crew » The CSS Arkansas, the most
feared Confederate ironclad on the Mississippi River, is blown up by her crew after suffering
mechanical problems during a battle with the USS Essex near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The Arkansas‘s career lasted just 23 days. In August 1861, the Confederate Congress appropriated
$160,000 to construct two ironclad ships for use on the Mississippi. Similar in style to the more
famous C.S.S. Virginia (Merrimack), the ships were both 165 feet long and 35 feet wide, and were
constructed in Memphis. Since a labor shortage delayed completion, they were not finished when the
Union captured Memphis in May 1862. One ironclad was burned to prevent capture, and the
Arkansas was towed south to the Yazoo River.
Lieutenant Isaac Brown, the ship’s commander, showed great innovation and determination in
completing construction of the craft. A sunken barge loaded with railroad rails was raised so that the
rails could be bolted to the hull of the Arkansas, and local planters opened their forges to the builders.
On 12 JUL, the work was completed and Brown steered the ship down the Yazoo and into the
Mississippi.
The Arkansas came out of the Yazoo with guns blazing. She ran off three Union ships, inflicting
heavy damage on two of them, and ran a gauntlet of 16 Union ships, damaging several as she slipped
down the river toward Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Union commander, Admiral David Farragut, was
furious that a single ship could cause so much damage to his flotilla, so he sent his ships in pursuit of
the Confederate menace. At dusk, Farragut marked the position of the Arkansas as it lay anchored at
Vicksburg. In the dark, he sent his ships one by one past this position, and each ship fired a volley
into the spot where the Arkansas should have been. But Brown had fooled the Yankees by moving his
ship after dark.
The Arkansas sparred with two other Union ships on 22 JUL, successfully running off the ships
but suffering damage to her engines. The ship was ordered south to Baton Rouge on 3 AUG to
support Confederate operations there, but the Arkansas suffered more engine problems and ran
aground. While the crew worked on repairs, the USS Essex steamed up for a confrontation. The
Arkansas set sail, but a propeller shaft broke and left the vessel circling helplessly. She ran aground
again, and the crew blew up the ship before the Essex could move in for the kill. Although the
Arkansas was never defeated, unreliable engines doomed the craft to an early death.

 Aug 06 1864 – Civil War: Confederate forces evacuate Fort Gaines in Mobile Bay, Alabama »
The Mobile Bay joint land-sea operation began when Major General Gordon Granger landed with
1,500 Union soldiers on the west side of Dauphin Island, seven miles from Fort Gaines, on 3 AUG.
The Confederate troops burned their outbuildings and retreated into the fort the next day as Granger’s
forces moved within 1,700 yards of the fort.

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 Fort Gaines, with only one gun able to reach the channel, inflicted no damage on the Union fleet.
Granger’s troops had begun shelling the fort, intent on using it as a staging area in the taking of
Mobile. The sand dunes gave Federal sharpshooters the advantage of looking down into the fort, like
a shooting gallery. In addition to the land-based artillery, the Union monitors Chickasaw and
Winnebago lobbed shells at the fort from the north. The officers’ quarters and quartermaster’s
building, which stood higher than the fort’s walls, took damage.
Colonel Charles Anderson led Fort Gaines’s 800-man garrison, which included a battalion of
cadets aged twelve to sixteen from the Pelham Military Academy in Mobile. Anderson had orders to
hold the fort at any cost. On 6 AUG, the majority of Fort Gaines’s officers presented a petition to
Anderson, declaring their position indefensible and therefore requesting the fort be surrendered.
Although Anderson disagreed with his officers’ sentiments, the veiled threat of mutiny prompted
Anderson to respond favorably to Union Rear Admiral Farragut’s demand for surrender.

 Aug 06 1914 - WWI: Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia.

 Aug 06 1914 - WWI: Serbia declares war against Germany.

 Aug 06 1914 - WWI: German Zeppelin bombs Liege, 9 killed.

 Aug 06 1914 - WWI: First Battle of the Atlantic - two days after the United Kingdom had declared
war on Germany over the German invasion of Belgium, ten German U-boats leave their base in
Heligoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea.

 Aug 06 1915 - WWI: As part of the ‘August Offensive’ Allied forces land at Suvla Bay on the
Aegean Sea to launch a fresh but largely unsuccessful attack against Turkish and German forces on
the Gallipoli Peninsula. In total, the Allies suffered nearly 20,000 casualties during the landings.

 Aug 06 1917 - WWI: Battle of Mărăşeşti between the Romanian and German armies begins.

 Aug 06 1918 - WWI: Second Battle of the Marne ends.

 Aug 06 1919 - WWI: Romanian forces bring down Hungarian Soviet Republic in Budapest.

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 Aug 06 1934 – U.S.*Haiti: US troops leave Haiti, which had been occupied since 1915.

 Aug 06 1940 – Pre WW2: Estonia becomes Soviet Union Republic » In April 1940 Germany
invaded Denmark and Norway and started its offensive against the Benelux countries and France. In
mid-June, when the Wehrmacht was about to march into Paris and the world’s attention was focused
on this event, the Soviet Union threatened Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with military action and
presented them with an ultimatum, demanding they allow additional troops into the country and that
they install pro-Soviet governments. On 14 JUN, Tallinn and the northern coast of Estonia were
blocked by the Soviet Baltic fleet. All three Baltic countries accepted the ultimatums and were soon
occupied by the Red Army.
Estonia was occupied on the basis of the enforced ‘dictate of Narva’ on 17 JUN; the government
of Jüri Uluots resigned. On 21 JUN a pro-Soviet puppet government was formed and the
Sovietization process began. In July, parliamentarian elections were quickly carried out, which were
not free and did not correspond with the constitution of the Republic of Estonia. The convened puppet
parliament declared Estonia a ‘Soviet socialist republic’ and indicated its aim was to join the Soviet
Union. In order to present the coup d’état as a popular revolution, numerous meetings were organized
in which Estonian communists made speeches and the Red Army kept an eye on the proceedings.
The change in power was not considered legitimate in Estonia or abroad. On 23 JUL U.S. Under-
Secretary of State Sumner Welles announced that the USA did not recognise the changes carried out
in the Baltic countries by force. This was the beginning of the Western countries’ politics of non-
recognition. On 6 AUG Estonia was incorporated as a union republic into the Soviet Union.

 Aug 06 1942 – WW2: HMCS Assiniboine sinks U-210 » Germany’s U-210 submarine undertook
a single war patrol, departing Kiel on 18 July 1942 under the command of Rudolf Lemcke and
heading for the north central Atlantic Ocean. The patrol was uneventful until 6 AUG when Convoy
SC 94 was located. Despite heavy fog, U-210 was spotted on radar by the Canadian destroyer
Assiniboine. The U-boat nearly escaped into the fog but the destroyer suddenly reappeared a mere 50
yards away as U-210 crossed its bow. Both ships opened fire; while the range was too close for the
destroyer's main guns, her machine gun fire shot up the bridge and conning tower, preventing use of
210’s deck gun. As the destroyer passed astern, a shell from her rear battery hit the conning tower,
killing the entire bridge crew; fifty caliber machine gun fire silenced the submarine's flak gun.
The senior surviving officer of U-210 ordered her to dive, but forced a slow straight course which
allowed Assiniboine to ram her just abaft the conning tower as she dove. This resulted in the
submarine's electric motors failing and damage to the propellers. The ballast tanks were blown and
the attacking destroyer rammed again as U-210 surfaced; a pattern of shallow-set depth charges were
dropped at the same time. As the submarine sank, Assiniboine hit her with another 4.7-inch (119 mm)
shell. 37 survivors were pulled from the water and became prisoners of war. Six men of her crew died
during this battle.

 Aug 06 1942 – WW2: Churchill fires his Middle-East commander » Like his foe Rommel (and
his predecessor Wavell and successor Montgomery), Auchinleck was subjected to constant political
interference, having to weather a barrage of hectoring telegrams and instructions from Prime Minister
Churchill throughout late 1941 and the spring and summer of 1942. Churchill constantly sought an

44
 offensive from Auchinleck, and was downcast at the military reverses in Egypt and Cyrenaica.
Churchill was desperate for some sort of British victory before the planned Allied landings in North
Africa, Operation Torch, scheduled for November 1942.

Churchill badgered Auchinleck immediately after the Eighth Army had all but exhausted itself
after the first battle of El Alamein. Churchill and the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Alan
Brooke, flew to Cairo in early August 1942, to meet him, where it emerged he had lost the confidence
of both men. He was replaced as Commander-in-Chief Middle East Command by General Sir Harold
Alexander (later Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis).
Joseph M. Horodyski and Maurice Remy both praise Auchinleck as an underrated military leader
who contributed the most to the successful defence of El Alamein and consequently the final defeat of
Rommel in Africa. The two historians also criticize Churchill for the unreasonable decision to put the
blame on Auchinleck and to relieve him.

 Aug 06 1945 – WW2: Atomic bomb dropped on Japan » The United States becomes the first and
only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese
city of Hiroshima. Though the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end of World War
II, many historians argue that it also ignited the Cold War.

Little Boy Atomic Bomb and her deliverer Enola Gay on the city of Hiroshima

Since 1940, the United States had been working on developing an atomic weapon, after having
been warned by Albert Einstein that Nazi Germany was already conducting research into nuclear
weapons. By the time the United States conducted the first successful test (an atomic bomb was
exploded in the desert in New Mexico in July 1945), Germany had already been defeated. The war
against Japan in the Pacific, however, continued to rage. President Harry S. Truman, warned by some
of his advisers that any attempt to invade Japan would result in horrific American casualties, ordered
that the new weapon be used to bring the war to a speedy end. On August 6, 1945, the American

45
 bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. A blast equivalent
to the power of 15,000 tons of TNT reduced four square miles of the city to ruins and immediately
killed 80,000 people. Tens of thousands more died in the following weeks from wounds and radiation
poisoning. Three days later, another bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, killing nearly 40,000
more people. A few days later, Japan announced its surrender.
In the years since the two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, a number of historians have
suggested that the weapons had a two-pronged objective. First, of course, was to bring the war with
Japan to a speedy end and spare American lives. It has been suggested that the second objective was
to demonstrate the new weapon of mass destruction to the Soviet Union. By August 1945, relations
between the Soviet Union and the United States had deteriorated badly. The Potsdam Conference
between U.S. President Harry S. Truman, Russian leader Joseph Stalin, and Winston Churchill
(before being replaced by Clement Attlee) ended just four days before the bombing of Hiroshima.
The meeting was marked by recriminations and suspicion between the Americans and Soviets.
Russian armies were occupying most of Eastern Europe. Truman and many of his advisers hoped that
the U.S. atomic monopoly might offer diplomatic leverage with the Soviets. In this fashion, the
dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan can be seen as the first shot of the Cold War. If U.S. officials
truly believed that they could use their atomic monopoly for diplomatic advantage, they had little
time to put their plan into action. By 1949, the Soviets had developed their own atomic bomb and the
nuclear arms race began.

 Aug 06 1945 – WW2: USS Bullhead (SS–332) missing. Most likely sunk by Japanese Army
aircraft (73rd Chutai) off Bali in the Java Sea. 84 killed.

 Aug 06 1954 – Vietnam War: Johnson Administration officials argue for resolution » Defense
Secretary Robert S. McNamara and Secretary of State Dean Rusk appear before a joint Congressional
committee on foreign affairs to present the Johnson administration’s arguments for a resolution
authorizing the president “to take all necessary measures.” The New York Stock Exchange, reacting
to the news of the crisis in Vietnam, experienced its sharpest decline since the death of President
Kennedy. There were various rallies and peace vigils held across the United States protesting the
bombing raids. Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater said he supported President
Johnson’s ordering of the retaliatory raids, but that he intended to make the whole question of
Vietnam a campaign issue.

 Aug 06 1971 – Vietnam War: Green Berets are charged with murder » The U.S. Army
announces that Colonel Robert B. Rheault, Commander of the Fifth Special Forces Group in
Vietnam, and seven other Green Berets have been charged with premeditated murder and conspiracy
to commit murder in the summary execution of a Vietnamese national, Thai Khac Chuyen, who had
served as an agent for Detachment B-57. Chuyen was reportedly summarily executed for being a
double agent who had compromised a secret mission. The case against the Green Berets was
ultimately dismissed for reasons of national security when the Central Intelligence Agency refused to
release highly classified information about the operations in which Detachment B-57 had been
involved. Colonel Rheault subsequently retired from the Army.

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 Aug 06 1971 – Vietnam War: First U.S. Army troops deployed to Vietnam stand-down for
withdrawal » The last remaining troops of the Fourth Battalion, 503rd Infantry of the 173rd
Airborne Brigade, (the first U.S. Army ground combat unit to arrive in Vietnam in May 1965), cease
combat operations and begin preparations to leave Vietnam.
The first U.S. ground combat unit of any branch to reach Vietnam was the Third Marine
Regiment, Third Marine Division, which began arriving on March 8, 1965. The initial U.S. combat
forces were followed by a vast array of combat, combat support, and logistics units that together with
U.S. Navy and Air Force personnel in-country reached a peak of 543,400 in April 1969. In June 1969,
President Richard Nixon gave the order, as part of his “Vietnamization” policy, which began the
process of reducing American troop strength; the troop withdrawals began the following fall and
continued until the Paris Peace Accords were signed in January 1973.

 Aug 06 1990 – Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo
against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

 Aug 06 2011 – Afghanistan: Insurgents shoot down a U.S. military helicopter during fighting in
eastern Afghanistan, killing 30 Americans, most of them belonging to the same elite unit as the Navy
SEALs who killed former Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden. It was the deadliest single loss for
American forces in the decade-old war against the Taliban. The dead included 25 Navy SEALs from
SEAL Team Six, the unit that carried out the raid in Pakistan in May that killed bin Laden. They were being
flown by a crew of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. A total number of 38 people died in the
crash, killing 7 Afghans and one interpreter. The Taliban claimed they downed the helicopter with rocket fire
while it was taking part in a raid on a house where insurgents were gathered in the province of Wardak.

-o-o-O-o-o-

 Aug 07 1782 – American Revolution: Purple Heart day » General George Washington
authorizes the award of the Purple Heart for soldiers as an award for military merit. It is considered
the first military award of the United States Armed Forces. Only 3 were given. As we know it today it
was reestablished in 1932 to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Washington.

 Aug 07 1789 – DOD: Shortly after the establishment of a strong government under President George
Washington Congress created the United States War Department as a civilian agency to administer
the field army under the president (as commander in chief) and the secretary of war. Retired senior
General Henry Knox, then in civilian life, served as the first United States Secretary of War. In
September 18, 1947, it was split into Department of the Army and Department of the Air Force and

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 joined the Department of the Navy as part of the new joint National Military Establishment (NME),
renamed the United States Department of Defense in 1949.

 Aug 07 1791 – Native Americans: In the Northwest Indian War United States troops destroy the
Miami town of Kenapacomaqua near the site of present–day Logansport, Indiana. Casualties and
losses: Indians 43 – US 3.

 Aug 07 1794 – U.S. President George Washington invokes the Militia Law of 1792 to suppress the
Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania.

 Aug 07 1791 – Civil War: Battle of Moorefield » On 30 JUL, Confederate cavalry commanded by
Brigadier General John McCausland moved north of the Potomac River and burned most of the town
of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. He then moved west to threaten more towns and the Baltimore &
Ohio Railroad. McCausland was pursued by a smaller Union cavalry force commanded by Brigadier
General William W. Averell. McCausland's troops, with fresh horses, were able to escape the Union
cavalry and threaten more towns. After re-crossing the Potomac River, McCausland moved south and
camped between the West Virginia towns of Moorefield and Romney—closer to Moorefield.

McCausland positioned a brigade led by General Bradley Johnson on the north side of the South
Branch of the Potomac River, while his own brigade camped on the south side. Those campsites were
better suited for grazing their tired horses than they were for providing for the security of the troops—
McCausland assumed that Averell's pursuing force was still 60 miles away in Hancock, Maryland. He
was correct that Averell had been forced to rest his horses near Hancock, but Averell was reinforced
and ordered to continue the pursuit a few days later.
On the night of 6 AUG, Averell's cavalry cautiously moved toward the Confederate camps. Using
an advance guard disguised as Confederate soldiers, Averell's cavalry quietly captured all of the
Confederate pickets that separated the Union force from the sleeping Confederates. On the early
morning of 7 AUG, Averell's first brigade attacked the Confederate brigade camped on the north side
of the river. Many of these rebels were sleeping and did not have their horses saddled. In some cases,
entire Confederate regiments simply tried to run away, leaving behind weapons and loot taken from
Chambersburg.
Although the Confederates attempted to offer resistance on the south side of the river that
separated the two Confederate camps, many of those men were also caught unprepared. Averell
added his second brigade to the fight, and it charged across the river. The disorganized Confederate
force was no match for Averell's cavalry, which was armed with sabers, 6-shot revolvers (hand guns)
and 7-shot repeating rifles. Over 400 men were either killed or captured, while the Union force lost
less than 50. Averell's victory inflicted permanent damage on the Confederate cavalry, and it was
never again the dominant force it once was in the Shenandoah Valley.

 Aug 07 1914 – WWI: Battle of Mulhouse begins » At five o’clock in the morning French troops
launch their first attack of World War I, advancing towards the city of Mulhouse, located near the
Swiss border in Alsace, a former French province lost to Germany in the settlement ending the
Franco-Prussian War in 1871.

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 Aug 07 1942 – WW2: U.S. forces invade Guadalcanal » The U.S. 1st Marine Division begins
Operation Watchtower, the first U.S. offensive of the war, by landing on Guadalcanal, one of the
Solomon Islands.

On June 8, 1942, the Japanese landed on Guadalcanal Island and began constructing an airfield
there. Operation Watchtower was the codename for the U.S. plan to invade Guadalcanal and the
surrounding islands two months later. During the attack, American troops landed on five islands
within the Solomon chain. Although the invasion came as a complete surprise to the Japanese (bad
weather had grounded their scouting aircraft), the landings on Florida, Tulagi, Gavutu, and
Tananbogo met much initial opposition from the Japanese defenders.
But the Americans who landed on Guadalcanal met little resistance-at least at first. More than
11,000 Marines had landed, and 24 hours had passed, before the Japanese manning the garrison there
knew of the attack. The U.S. forces quickly took their main objective, the airfield, and the
outnumbered Japanese troops retreated, but not for long. Reinforcements were brought in, and fierce
hand-to-hand jungle fighting ensued. “I have never heard or read of this kind of fighting,” wrote one
American major general on the scene. “These people refuse to surrender.”
The Americans were at a particular disadvantage, being assaulted from both the sea and air. But
the U.S. Navy was able to reinforce its troops to a greater extent, and by February 1943, the Japanese
had retreated on secret orders of their emperor (so secret, the Americans did not even know it had
taken place until they began happening upon abandoned positions, empty boats, and discarded
supplies). In total, the Japanese had lost more than 25,000 men, compared with a loss of 1,600 by the
Americans. Each side lost 24 warships.
The first Medal of Honor given to a Marine was awarded to Sgt. John Basilone for his fighting
during Operation Watchtower. According to the recommendation for his medal, he “contributed
materially to the defeat and virtually the annihilation of a Japanese regiment.”

 Aug 07 1943 – WW2: The 2nd Battle of Smolensk (7 AUG – 2 OCT) » This was the beginning of a
Soviet strategic offensive operation conducted by the Red Army as part of the Summer-Autumn
Campaign of 1943. In it Soviet forces reconquered Smolensk. Staged almost simultaneously with the
Lower Dnieper Offensive (13 August–22 September), the offensive lasted two months and was led by

49
 General Andrei Yeremenko, commanding the Kalinin Front, and Vasily Sokolovsky, commanding
the Western Front. Its goal was to clear the German presence from the Smolensk and Bryansk
regions. Smolensk had been under German occupation since the first Battle of Smolensk in 1941.
Despite an impressive German defense, the Red Army was able to stage several breakthroughs,
liberating several major cities, including Smolensk and Roslavl. As a result of this operation, the Red
Army was able to start planning for the liberation of Belarus. However, the overall advance was quite
modest and slow in the face of heavy German resistance, and the operation was therefore
accomplished in three stages: 7–20 August, 21 August–6 September, and 7 September–2 October.
Although playing a major military role in its own right, the Smolensk Operation was also
important for its effect on the Battle of the Dnieper. It has been estimated that as many as 55 German
divisions were committed to counter the Smolensk Operation — divisions which would have been
critical to prevent Soviet troops from crossing the Dnieper in the south. In the course of the operation,
the Red Army also definitively drove back German forces from the Smolensk land bridge, historically
the most important approach for a western attack on Moscow.

 Aug 07 1943 – WW2: Red Army recaptures Bogodukov, a city in eastern Ukraine, for the second
time. Bogodukhov was occupied by the German Army from 16 October 1941 to 17 February 1943
and again from 11 March to 7 August 1943. It was liberated by the Russian 1st Tank Army.

 Aug 07 1944 – WW2: U.S. 3rd Army reaches suburbs of Brest, Brittany (France).

 Aug 07 1944 – WW2: Volkswagen halts Beetle production » Under the threat of Allied bombing
during World War II, the German car manufacturer Volkswagen halts production of the “Beetle,” as
its small, insect-shaped automobile was dubbed in the international press.
Ten years earlier, the renowned automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche had signed a contract with
Germany’s Third Reich to develop a prototype of a small, affordable “people’s car.” The German
chancellor, National Socialist (Nazi) leader Adolf Hitler, called the car the KdF (Kraft-durch-Freude)-
Wagen (or “Strength-Through-Joy” car), after a Nazi-led movement ostensibly aimed at helping the
working people of Germany. Porsche didn’t like that moniker; he preferred Volkswagen (meaning
“people’s car”), the name under which the car had originally been developed. In 1938, the
government built a factory to produce the car in the city of KdF-stat. The first production-ready
Beetle debuted at the Berlin Motor Show in 1939. Several months later, Germany invaded Poland,
sparking the conflict that would explode into world war.
During the war years, the German army’s need for a lightweight utility vehicle took precedence
over the production of affordable passenger cars. The result was the Type 62 Kubelwagen, a
convertible vehicle with a modified Beetle chassis, four doors and 18-inch wheels (compared with the
Beetle’s 16-inch ones) to give it better ground clearance. Though production at the KdF-stat factory
was dedicated primarily to the Kubelwagen and its amphibious counterpart, the Schwimmwagen, the
factory did continue to produce Beetles from 1941 to August 7, 1944, when production was halted
under threat of Allied bombing.

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 Type 62 Kubelwagen

In the war’s aftermath, a devastated Germany was divided into four sectors. Those under British,
French and American control would combine to form West Germany, while the region under Soviet
control became East Germany. KdF-stat (soon renamed Wolfsburg), which was in the British sector,
and its auto factory remained in relatively good shape for having been a target of Allied bombs.
Volkswagen, then under the control of the British military, began turning out Beetles again in
December 1945. By 1949, the company (now called Volkswagen GmbH) was back in German hands,
and in 1972 the Beetle passed the iconic Ford Model T as the top-selling car in history.

 Aug 07 1944 – WW2: Operation Lüttich » German counter-attack from 7 to 13 AUG during the
Battle of Normandy, which took place around the American positions near Mortain in northwestern
France. The German offensive is also referred to in American and British histories of the Battle of
Normandy as the Mortain counterattack. The assault was ordered by Adolf Hitler, to eliminate the
gains made by the First United States Army during Operation Cobra and the subsequent weeks, and
by reaching the coast in the region of Avranches at the base of the Cotentin peninsula, cut off the
units of the Third United States Army which had advanced into Brittany.
The main German striking force was the XLVII Panzer Corps, with one and a half SS Panzer
Divisions and two Heer Panzer Divisions. Although they made initial gains against the defending
U.S. VII Corps, they were soon halted and the Allies inflicted severe losses on the attacking troops,
eventually destroying most of the German tanks involved in the attack. Although fighting continued
around Mortain for six days, the American forces had regained the initiative within a day of the
opening of the German attack. As the German commanders on the spot had warned Hitler in vain,
there was little chance of the attack succeeding, and the concentration of their armored reserves at the
western end of the front in Normandy soon led to disaster, as they were outflanked to their south and
the front to their east collapsed, resulting in many of the German troops in Normandy being trapped
in the Falaise Pocket.
By 13 AUG, the offensive had fully halted, with German forces being driven out of Mortain. The
Germans had lost 120 tanks and assault guns to Allied counter-attacks and air strikes, more than two-
thirds of their committed total. As Hitler ordered German forces in Normandy to hold their positions,
the U.S. VII and XV Corps were swinging east and north toward Argentan. The German attack west
left their 7th Army and Panzergruppe West in danger of being encircled by Allied forces. As
American forces advanced on Argentan, British and Canadian forces advanced on Falaise, threatening
to cut off both armies in the newly formed Falaise Pocket.

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 Although American casualties in Operation Lüttich were significantly lighter than in previous
operations, certain sectors of the front took severe casualties. Notably the positions held by the U.S.
30th Division around Mortain,. By the end of 7 AUG alone, nearly 1,000 men of the 30th Division had
been killed. Estimates for American casualties from 6–13 AUG vary from 2,000-3,000 fatalities, with
an unknown number of wounded.

 Aug 07 1944 – WW2: In Normandy, Canadian forces launch drive toward Falaise. Cherbourg
Harbor opens for Allied traffic in France.

 Aug 07 1964 – Vietnam War: Tonkin Gulf Resolution is passed » The U.S. Congress passes
Public Law 88-408, which becomes known as the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, giving President Johnson
the power to take whatever actions he deems necessary to defend Southeast Asia including “the use of
armed force.”
The resolution passed 82-2 in the Senate, where Wayne K. Morse (D-OR) and Ernest Gruening
(D-AK) were the only dissenting votes; the bill passed 416-0 in the House of Representatives.
President Johnson signed it into law on August 10. It became the legal basis for every presidential
action taken by the Johnson administration during its conduct of the war. Despite the initial support
for the resolution, it became increasingly controversial as Johnson used it to increase U.S.
commitment to the war in Vietnam. It would be repealed in May 1970.

 Aug 07 1967 – Vietnam War: North Vietnam and People’s Republic of China sign aid agreement
» The North Vietnamese newspaper Nhan Dan reports that the People’s Republic of China (PRC)
has signed a new agreement to give Hanoi an undisclosed amount of aid in the form of an outright
grant.
Chinese support to the Communists in Vietnam had begun with their backing of the Vietminh in
their war against the French. After the French were defeated, the PRC continued its support of the
Hanoi regime. In April 1965, the PRC signed a formal agreement with Hanoi providing for the
introduction of Chinese air defense, engineering, and railroad troops into North Vietnam to help
maintain and expand lines of communication within North Vietnam. China later claimed that 320,000
of its troops served in North Vietnam during the period 1965 to 1971 and that 1,000 died there. It is
estimated that the PRC provided over three-quarters of the total military aid given to North Vietnam
during the war.

 Aug 07 1990 – U.S.*Iraq: Bush orders Operation Desert Shield » President George Herbert
Walker Bush orders the organization of Operation Desert Shield in response to Iraq’s invasion of
Kuwait on 2 AUG. The order prepared American troops to become part of an international coalition
in the war against Iraq that would be launched as Operation Desert Storm in January 1991. To support
Operation Desert Shield, Bush authorized a dramatic increase in U.S. troops and resources in the
Persian Gulf.
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and hard-line Iraqi nationalists had always believed Kuwait should
be part of Iraq, but nationalist propaganda aside, acquiring control of Kuwait’s oil fields was
Hussein’s primary interest. In addition, control of Kuwait represented a strategic military objective
should Iraq be forced into a war with its western-friendly Arab neighbors. Hussein calculated

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 incorrectly that the United States and the United Nations, who were closely tracking Iraq’s military
buildup along Kuwait’s borders, would not try to stop him. However, when Iraqi ground forces
entered Kuwait on August 2, 1990, President Bush immediately proclaimed that the invasion “would
not stand” and vowed to help Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in their efforts to force the Iraqis from
Kuwaiti land.

On November 29, 1990, the United Nations Security Council authorized the use of “all means
necessary” to remove Hussein’s forces from Kuwait, giving Iraq the deadline of midnight on January
16, 1991, to leave or risk forcible removal. After negotiations between U.S. Secretary of State James
Baker and Iraq’s foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, failed, Congress authorized President Bush to use
American troops in the coming conflict.
Just after midnight on 17 JAN in the U.S., Bush gave the order for U.S. troops to lead an
international coalition in an attack on Saddam Hussein’s army. U.S. General Norman Schwarzkopf
led “Operation Desert Storm,” which began with a massive bombing of Hussein’s armies in Iraq and
Kuwait. The ensuing campaign, which is remembered in part for the United States’ use of superior
military technology, introduced the term “smart bombs” to the global vernacular—precision-bombing
devices aimed primarily at destroying infrastructure and minimizing civilian casualties. In response,
Hussein launched SCUD missiles into Saudi Arabia and Israel. Iraq’s use of SCUDs, notoriously
inaccurate weapons designed to terrorize civilian targets, nearly succeeded in inciting the Israelis to
retaliate. Hussein hoped an Israeli military response would draw neighboring Arab nations into the
fight on Iraq’s side, but he again committed a grave miscalculation. Bush reassured Israelis that the
U.S. would protect them from Hussein’s terrifying SCUD attacks and Israel resisted the urge to
retaliate. Soon after, U.S. –installed Patriot missiles destroyed SCUD missiles in flight and further
foiled Hussein’s plan to goad Israel into a holy war.
Following an intense bombing of Baghdad, U.S.-led coalition ground forces marched into Kuwait
and across the Iraq border. Regular Iraqi troops surrendered in droves, leaving only Hussein’s hard-
line Republican Guard to defend the capital, which they were unsuccessful in doing. After pushing
Hussein’s forces out of Kuwait, Schwarzkopf called a ceasefire on 28 FEB; he accepted the surrender
of Iraqi generals on 3 MAR.

 Aug 07 1998 – U.S.*International Terrorism: U.S. embassies in East Africa bombed » At 10:30
a.m. local time, a massive truck bomb explodes outside the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. Minutes
later, another truck bomb detonated outside the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam, the capital of
neighboring Tanzania. The dual terrorist attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, and
wounded more than 4,500. The United States accused Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, a proponent of
international terrorism against America, of masterminding the bombings. On 20 AUG, President Bill

53
Clinton ordered cruise missiles launched against bin Laden’s terrorist training camps in Afghanistan
and against a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, where bin Laden allegedly made or distributed chemical
weapons.
Osama bin Laden was born in 1957 into one of Saudi Arabia’s wealthiest and most prominent
families. His father, an immigrant from South Yemen, had built a small construction business into a
multibillion-dollar company. When his father died in 1968, bin Laden inherited an estimated $30
million but for the next decade drifted without focus and lived a jet-setting lifestyle. In 1979,
however, everything changed when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Like tens of thousands of
other Arabs, bin Laden volunteered to aid Afghanistan in repulsing what he saw as the godless
communist invaders of the Muslim country.

For the first few years of the Afghan War, he traveled around Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf
raising money for the anti-Soviet Afghan fighters. In 1982, he traveled to the front lines of the war for
the first time, where he donated construction equipment for the war effort. Bin Laden directly
participated in a handful of battles, but his primary role in the anti-Soviet jihad was as financier.
During the war, he made contact with numerous Islamic militants, many of whom who were as anti-
Western as they were anti-Soviet.
In 1989, the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, and bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia. He grew
increasingly critical of the ruling Saudi family, especially after hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops
were welcomed onto Saudi soil during the Persian Gulf War. Although his passport was taken away,
he slipped out of Saudi Arabia in 1991 and settled in the Sudan. From there, he spoke out against the
Saudi government and the continuing U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia, which he likened to the
Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
After the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, the United States began to
suspect that bin Laden was involved in international terrorism against the United States. The military
organization he built during the Afghan War–al Qaeda, or “the Base”–was still in existence, and U.S.
intelligence believed he was transforming it into an anti-U.S. terrorist network. In 1995, bin Laden
called for guerrilla attacks against U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia, and three months later a terrorist
attack against a U.S. military installation killed five Americans. Under U.S. and Saudi pressure he
was expelled from the Sudan in May 1996. One month later, a truck bomb killed 19 U.S. servicemen
in Saudi Arabia. Whether or not bin Laden was involved in planning these attacks has not been
established.

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 With 200 of his followers, bin Laden returned to Afghanistan, which was then falling under the
control of the Taliban, a faction of extreme Islamic fundamentalists. Bin Laden provided funding for
the Taliban military campaign against the city of Kabul, which fell to the militia in September 1996.
Soon after his arrival in Afghanistan, bin Laden issued a fatwah, or religious decree, calling for war
on Americans in the Persian Gulf and the overthrow of the Saudi government. In February 1998, he
issued another fatwah stating that Muslims should kill Americans, including civilians, anywhere in
the world.

On August 7, 1998–the eighth anniversary of the deployment of U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia–two
U.S. embassies in East Africa were bombed almost simultaneously. The attack at the Nairobi
embassy, which was located in a busy downtown area, caused the greater devastation and loss of life.
There, a truck loaded with 2,000 pounds of TNT forced its way to the back entrance of the embassy
and was detonated, shattering the embassy, demolishing the nearby Ufundi Coop House, and gutting
the 17-story Cooperative Bank. By the time rescue operations came to an end, 213 people were dead,
including 12 Americans. Thousands of people were wounded, and hundreds were maimed or blinded.
The attack against the U.S. embassy in Dar es Saalam killed 11 and injured 85.

Aftermath of 1993 World Trade Center (left) and 1998 Nairobi and Dar es Salaam U.S. Embassy Bombings (center & right)

By 1997, American intelligence officers knew that bin Laden operatives were active in East Africa
but were unable to break up the terrorist cell before the embassies were attacked. They had even
heard of a possible plot to bomb the U.S. embassy in Nairobi but failed to recommend an increase in
security before the attack. Meanwhile, Prudence Bushnell, the U.S. ambassador to Kenya,
independently asked the State Department to move the Nairobi embassy because of its exposed
location, but the request was not granted. Revelations of these pre-bombing security issues provoked
much controversy and concern about the United States’ vulnerability abroad. Few, however, voiced
concern that the proliferation of terrorists eager to kill innocent civilians and themselves in order to
strike a blow against the U.S. would soon shatter America’s sense of invulnerability at home.
Within days of the 7 AUG bombings, two bin Laden associates were arrested and charged with the
attacks. However, with bin Laden and other key suspects still at large, President Clinton ordered a
retaliatory military strike on 20 AUG. In Afghanistan, some 70 American cruise missiles hit three
alleged bin Laden training camps. An estimated 24 people were killed, but bin Laden was not present.
Thirteen cruise missiles hit a pharmaceutical plant in the Sudan, and the night watchman was killed.
The United States later backed away from its contention that the pharmaceutical plant was making or
distributing chemical weapons for al Qaeda.
In November 1998, the United States indicted bin Laden and 21 others, charging them with
bombing the two U.S. embassies and conspiring to commit other acts of terrorism against Americans

55
 abroad. To date, nine of the al Qaeda members named in the indictments have been captured; six are
in the United States, and three are in Britain fighting extradition to the United States.
In February 2001, four of the suspects went on trial in New York on 302 criminal counts
stemming from the embassy attacks. On 29 MAY, all four were convicted on all counts. Saudi citizen
Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-‘Owhali and Tanzanian Khalfan Khamis Mohamed admitted to directly
taking part in the terrorist attacks but claimed they did not knowingly engage in a conspiracy against
the United States. Lebanese-born U.S. citizen Wadih El-Hage and Jordanian Mohammed Saddiq
Odeh admitted ties to bin Laden but denied involvement in any terrorist acts. All four were sentenced
to life in prison without parole.
On September 11, 2001, the world learned that the U.S. embassy attacks were merely a prelude to
a far more devastating strike against the United States. On that day, 19 al Qaeda terrorists deftly
exploited weaknesses in U.S. domestic security and hijacked four U.S. airliners that they flew into the
World Trade Center towers in New York; the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia; and a rural field in
western Pennsylvania. Four thousand people were killed in the almost simultaneous attacks and
10,000 were wounded. On October 7, America struck back with Operation Enduring Freedom, the
U.S.-led international effort to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, destroy the al Qaeda network
based there, and capture bin Laden dead or alive.

 Aug 07 2014 – National Holiday: Purple Heart Day » Observed on 7 AUG of each year as a time
for Americans to pause to remember and honor the brave men and women who were either wounded
on the battlefield or paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives. Purple Heart Day is also known as
National Purple Heart Day, Purple Heart Recognition Day and Purple Heart Appreciation Day. The
holiday was first observed in 2014, is considered an unofficial observance meaning that businesses,
government offices etc. do not close on this day. Observance guidance is:
o States, Counties, and Cities pause in recognition of the service and sacrifice of their local sons
and daughters as do sports and entertainment entities.
o Major League Baseball teams pay homage to their local Purple Heart recipients during special
pre-game and 7th inning ceremonies.
o Veteran and military organizations hold remembrance meetings for fallen heroes and special
events to thank soldiers, veterans, and Purple Heart recipients on this day.
o The Purple Heart Foundation, the fundraising arm of the Military Order of the Purple Heart,
recommends donating time and money to the foundation or to other organizations working with
Purple Heart recipients.
o People take the time to listen to soldiers and veterans and learn more about their life stories and
their military service.
o American flags are flown at homes and businesses.

-o-o-O-o-o-

 Aug 08 1775 – American Revolution: Morgan and Virginians arrive in Cambridge » Captain
Daniel Morgan and his Virginia riflemen arrive in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Earlier, Morgan had
earned the nickname “The Old Waggoneer” from a young George Washington during the Seven

56
 Years’ War in 1755, when he removed the wounded from the site of the disastrous Battle of the
Wilderness in his wagon.
Morgan continued to lead the Virginia militia between the Seven Years’ War and the outbreak of
rebellion in New England at the Battle of Lexington and Concord in 1775. When New England
Patriots laid siege to British-occupied Boston in 1775, the Continental Congress requested that other
colonies send men to aid in the effort. Virginia’s House of Burgesses selected Morgan to recruit and
lead one of the colony’s two rifle companies.

Morgan needed only 10 days to assemble 96 men and only 21 days to march them to
Massachusetts, where he would serve under his old compatriot, the newly appointed commander in
chief of the Continental Army, General George Washington. Fighting under Washington, Morgan’s
men’s extraordinary skill as snipers earned them the nickname “Morgan’s Sharpshooters.” Later,
Morgan led the three companies from Boston to the failed invasion of Canada, resulting in Morgan’s
spending a year as a prisoner of war but also earning him a promotion to colonel.
Upon his release, Colonel Morgan was placed in charge of creating the 11th Virginia Regiment,
which he would command. His test for potential riflemen was reputed to be simple: they had to hit a
broadside print of a British officer of King George from 100 yards away at their first attempt. Morgan
earned Washington’s further respect with a stunning victory at Cowpens, South Carolina, in 1781. In
1794, when President Washington was faced with the need to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in
western Pennsylvania, which threatened to shatter the still fragile Union, he called on Daniel Morgan
yet again. In this, his last military command, Morgan managed to assemble such an overwhelming
force that he put down the rebellion without firing a single shot.

 Aug 08 1863 – Civil War: Lee offers resignation » In the aftermath of his defeat at Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania, Confederate General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation as commander of the
Army of Northern Virginia to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
The letter came more than a month after Lee’s retreat from Pennsylvania. At first, many people in
the South wondered if in fact Lee had lost the battle. Lee’s intent had been to drive the Union army
from Virginia, which he did. The Army of the Potomac suffered over 28,000 casualties, and the
Union army’s offensive capabilities were temporarily disabled. But the Army of Northern Virginia
absorbed 23,000 casualties, nearly one-third of its total. As the weeks rolled by and the Union army
reentered Virginia, it became clear that the Confederacy had suffered a serious defeat at Gettysburg.

57
 As the press began to openly speculate about Lee’s leadership, the great general reflected on the
campaign at his headquarters in Orange Courthouse, Virginia.

The modest Lee took the failure at Gettysburg very personally. In his letter to Davis, he wrote, “I
have been prompted by these reflections more than once since my return from Pennsylvania to
propose to Your Excellency the propriety of selecting another commander for this army… No one is
more aware than myself of my inability for the duties of my position. I cannot even accomplish what
I myself desire… I, therefore, in all sincerity, request your Excellency to take measure to supply my
place.”
Lee not only seriously questioned his ability to lead his army, he was also experiencing significant
physical fatigue. He might also have sensed that Gettysburg was his last chance to win the war.
Regardless, President Davis refused the request. He wrote, “To ask me to substitute you by
someone… more fit to command, or who would possess more of the confidence of the army… is to
demand an impossibility.”

 Aug 08 1910 – U.S. Army: The US Army installs the first tricycle landing gear on the Army's
Wright Flyer

 Aug 08 1918 – WWI: Battle of Amiens » The Allies launch a series of offensive operations against
German positions on the Western Front during World War I with a punishing attack at Amiens, on the
Somme River in northwestern France.
After heavy casualties incurred during their ambitious spring 1918 offensive, the bulk of the
German army was exhausted, and its morale was rapidly disintegrating amid a lack of supplies and
the spreading influenza epidemic. Some of its commanders believed that the tide was turning
irrevocably in favor of Germany’s enemies; as one of them, Crown Prince Rupprecht, wrote on 20
JUL, “We stand at the turning point of the war: what I expected first for the autumn, the necessity to
go over to the defensive, is already on us, and in addition all the gains which we made in the spring—
such as they were—have been lost again.” Still, Erich Ludendorff, the German commander in chief,
refused to accept this reality and rejected the advice of his senior commanders to pull back or begin
negotiations.

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 Meanwhile, the Allies prepared for the war to stretch into 1919, not realizing victory was possible
so soon. Thus, at a conference of national army commanders on 24 JUL, Allied generalissimo
Ferdinand Foch rejected the idea of a single decisive blow against the Germans, favoring instead a
series of limited attacks in quick succession aimed at liberating the vital railway lines around Paris
and diverting the attention and resources of the enemy rapidly from one spot to another. According to
Foch: “These movements should be exacted with such rapidity as to inflict upon the enemy a
succession of blows….These actions must succeed each other at brief intervals, so as to embarrass the
enemy in the utilization of his reserves and not allow him sufficient time to fill up his units.” The
national commanders—John J. Pershing of the United States, Philippe Petain of France and Sir
Douglas Haig of Britain—willingly went along with this strategy, which effectively allowed each
army to act as its own entity, striking smaller individual blows to the Germans instead of joining
together in one massive coordinated attack.
Haig’s part of the plan called for a limited offensive at Amiens, on the Somme River, aimed at
counteracting a German victory there the previous March and capturing the Amiens railway line
stretching between Mericourt and Hangest. The British attack, begun on the morning August 8, 1918,
was led by the British 4th Army under the command of Sir Henry Rawlinson. The German defensive
positions at Amiens were guarded by 20,000 men; they were outnumbered six to one by advancing
Allied forces. The British—well assisted by Australian and Canadian divisions—employed some 400
tanks in the attack, along with over 2,000 artillery pieces and 800 aircraft.
By the end of 8 AUG—dubbed “the black day of the German army” by Ludendorff—the Allies
had penetrated German lines around the Somme with a gap some 15 miles long. Of the 27, 000
German casualties on 8 AUG, an unprecedented proportion—12,000—had surrendered to the enemy.
Though the Allies at Amiens failed to continue their impressive success in the days following 8 AUG,
the damage had been done. “We have reached the limits of our capacity,” Kaiser Wilhelm II told
Ludendorff on that “black day.” “The war must be ended.”
The Kaiser agreed, however, that this end could not come until Germany was again making
progress on the battlefield, so that there would be at least some bargaining room. Even faced with the
momentum of the Allied summer offensive—later known as the Hundred Days Offensive—the front
lines of the German army continued to fight on into the final months of the war, despite being
plagued by disorder and desertion within its troops and rebellion on the home front. Casualties and
losses: Allies 1,070,000 of which 127,000 were US - Ger & Aus-Hung 1,172,075.

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 Aug 08 1942 – WW2: German saboteurs executed in Washington » Six German saboteurs who
secretly entered the United States on a mission to attack its civil infrastructure are executed by the
United States for spying. Two other saboteurs who disclosed the plot to the FBI and aided U.S.
authorities in their manhunt for their collaborators were imprisoned.
In 1942, under Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s orders, the defense branch of the German Military
Intelligence Corps initiated a program to infiltrate the United States and destroy industrial plants,
bridges, railroads, waterworks, and Jewish-owned department stores. The Nazis hoped that sabotage
teams would be able to slip into America at the rate of one or two every six weeks. The first two
teams, made up of eight Germans who had all lived in the United States before the war, departed the
German submarine base at Lorient, France, in late May.

Just before midnight on 12 JUN, in a heavy fog, a German submarine reached the American coast
off Amagansett, Long Island, and deployed a team who rowed ashore in an inflatable boat. Just as the
Germans finished burying their explosives in the sand, John C. Cullen, a young U.S. Coast
Guardsman, came upon them during his regular patrol of the beach. The leader of the team, George
Dasch, bribed the suspicious Cullen, and he accepted the money, promising to keep quiet. However,
as soon as he passed safely back into the fog, he sprinted the two miles back to the Coast Guard
station and informed his superiors of his discovery. After retrieving the German supplies from the
beach, the Coast Guard called the FBI, which launched a massive manhunt for the saboteurs, who had
fled to New York City.
Although unaware that the FBI was looking for them, Dasch and another saboteur, Ernest Burger,
decided to turn themselves in and betray their colleagues, perhaps because they feared capture was
inevitable after the botched landing. On 15 JUL, Dasch called the FBI in New York, but they failed to
take his claims seriously, so he decided to travel to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. On 18
JUL, the same day that a second four-man team successfully landed at Ponte Verdra Beach, Florida,
Dasch turned himself in. He agreed to help the FBI capture the rest of the saboteurs.
Burger and the rest of the Long Island team were picked up by 22 JUN, and by 27 JUN the whole
of the Florida team was arrested. To preserve wartime secrecy, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
ordered a special military tribunal consisting of seven generals to try the saboteurs. At the end of July,
Dasch was sentenced to 30 years in prison, Burger was sentenced to hard labor for life, and the other
six Germans were sentenced to die. The six condemned saboteurs were executed by electric chair in
Washington, D.C., on August 8. In 1944, two other German spies were caught after a landing in
Maine. No other instances of German sabotage within wartime America has come to light. In 1948,
Dasch and Burger were freed by order of President Harry Truman, and they both returned to
Germany.

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 Aug 08 1942 – WW2: U.S. Marines capture the Japanese airstrip on Guadalcanal.

 Aug 08 1944 – WW2: U.S. forces complete the capture of the Marianas Islands.

 Aug 08 1944 – WW2: Eight German officers are hanged in Berlin for their role in the July 20 Hitler
assassination plot; by February 3, 1945, 4980 will be executed.

 Aug 08 1944 – WW2: Japanese take Hengyang in their drive south across China, taking the US
Fourteenth Air Force air base at Hengyang.

 Aug 08 1945 – WWII: Soviets declare war on Japan; invade Manchuria » The Soviet Union
officially declares war on Japan, pouring more than 1 million Soviet soldiers into Japanese-occupied
Manchuria, northeastern China, to take on the 700,000-strong Japanese army.

The dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima by the Americans did not have the effect intended:
unconditional surrender by Japan. Half of the Japanese inner Cabinet, called the Supreme War
Direction Council, refused to surrender unless guarantees about Japan’s future were given by the
Allies, especially regarding the position of the emperor, Hirohito. The only Japanese civilians who
even knew what happened at Hiroshima were either dead or suffering terribly.
Japan had not been too worried about the Soviet Union, so busy with the Germans on the Eastern
front. The Japanese army went so far as to believe that they would not have to engage a Soviet attack
until spring 1946. But the Soviets surprised them with their invasion of Manchuria, an assault so
strong (of the 850 Japanese soldiers engaged at Pingyanchen, 650 were killed or wounded within the
first two days of fighting) that Emperor Hirohito began to plead with his War Council to reconsider
surrender. The recalcitrant members began to waver.

 Aug 08 1945 – Cold War: Truman signs United Nations Charter » President Harry S. Truman
signs the United Nations Charter and the United States becomes the first nation to complete the
ratification process and join the new international organization. Although hopes were high at the time
that the United Nations would serve as an arbiter of international disputes, the organization also
served as the scene for some memorable Cold War clashes.

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 August 8, 1945, was a busy day in the history of World War II. The United States dropped a
second atomic bomb on Japan, devastating the city of Nagasaki. The Soviet Union, following through
with an agreement made earlier in the war, declared war on Japan. All observers agreed that the
combination of these two actions would bring a speedy end to Japanese resistance. At the same time,
in Washington, D.C., President Truman took a step that many Americans hoped would mean
continued peace in the post-World War II world. The president signed the United Nations Charter,
thus completing American ratification of the document. Secretary of State James F. Byrnes also
signed. In so doing, the United States became the first nation to complete the ratification process. The
charter would come into full force when China, Russia, Great Britain, France, and a majority of the
other nations that had constructed the document also completed ratification.
The signing was accomplished with little pomp and ceremony. Indeed, President Truman did not
even use one of the ceremonial pens to sign, instead opting for a cheap 10-cent desk pen.
Nonetheless, the event was marked by hope and optimism. Having gone through the horrors of two
world wars in three decades, most Americans–and people around the world–were hopeful that the
new international organization would serve as a forum for settling international disagreements and a
means for maintaining global peace.
Over the next decades, the United Nations did serve as the scene for some of the more notable
events in the Cold War: the decision by the Security Council to send troops to Korea in 1950;
Khrushchev pounding the table with his shoe during a U.N. debate; and continuous and divisive
discussion over admission of communist China to membership in the UN. As for its role as a
peacekeeping institution, the record of the U.N. was not one of great success during the Cold War.
The Soviet veto in the Security Council stymied some efforts, while the U.S. desire to steer an
independent course in terms of military involvement after the unpopular Korean War meant less and
less recourse to the U.N. to solve world conflicts. In the years since the end of the Cold War,
however, the United States and Russia have sometimes cooperated to send United Nations forces on
peacekeeping missions, such as the effort in Bosnia.

 Aug 08 1950 – Korean War: U.S. troops repel the first North Korean attempt to overrun them at the
battle of Naktong Bulge, which continued for 10 days. Casualties and losses: US 1,800 - NKA 3,500.

 Aug 08 1953 – U.S.*South Korea: Foreign Minister Byeon Yeong-tae and US Secretary of State
John Foster Dulles initial a mutual security pact. The agreement committed the two nations to provide
mutual aid if either faces external armed attack and allows the United States to station military forces

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 in South Korea in consultation with the South Korean government. Two months after the signing of
the Korean Armistice Agreement which brought a halt to the fighting in the Korean a Mutual Defense
Treaty between the United States and the Republic of Korea was signed 1 OCT

 Aug 08 1968 – Vietnam War: Nixon and Agnew receive the Republican Party nomination » At
the Republican National Convention in Miami, Richard M. Nixon and Spiro T. Agnew are chosen as
the presidential and vice-presidential nominees for the upcoming election. In his speech accepting the
nomination, Nixon promised to “bring an honorable end to the war in Vietnam” and to inaugurate “an
era of negotiations” with leading Communist powers, while restoring “the strength of America so that
we shall always negotiate from strength and never from weakness.” The party subsequently adopted a
platform on the war that called for “progressive de-Americanization” of the war. Nixon was successful
in his campaign bid and once in office, he instituted a program of “Vietnamization” (the turning over
of the war to the South Vietnamese) and U.S. troop withdrawals.

 Aug 08 1973 – Vietnam War: Vice President Agnew under attack » Vice President Agnew
branded reports that he took kickbacks from government contracts in Maryland as “damned lies.”
Agnew had taken a lot of heat in the media when he assumed a lead position as Nixon’s point man on
Vietnam. He frequently attacked the student protest movement, blaming the intellectual community,
which he referred to as “impudent snobs,” for campus unrest. Despite the charges of bribery and
income tax evasion, Agnew vowed that he would never resign and blamed his troubles on the press,
who, he said, were out to get him for his controversial stand on the war. Ultimately, however, he
resigned from office on October 10, 1973.

 Aug 08 1980 – Iran-Iraq War: Ceasefire » After almost eight years of a war that had claimed an
estimated one million lives, a cease-fire between Iran and Iraq was reported holding. The truce,
arranged by the United Nations, went into effect at 7 A.M. local time. By nightfall, there were no
reports of violations. A team of 350 United Nations observers spread out along the 740-mile border
between the combatants. ''They are on the ground in large numbers from north to south, and the
cease-fire is holding,'' Col. William Phillips, the Irish operations chief of the 24-nation Iran-Iraq
Military Observer Group said.
The war - fought on land and in the air, in the oil lanes of the Persian Gulf and with missile and
chemical weapons attacks - produced no major territorial gains for either side. Yet Iraq, which
invaded Iran on Sept. 22, 1980, has proclaimed victory. Motorists and demonstrators poured onto the
streets of Baghdad overnight, blowing horns, beating tambourines and spraying water. The response
in Teheran, the capital of Iran - which accepted United Nations peace terms the previous month after
delaying for a year - was more cautious. It reflected the uncertainties provoked by an Iranian about-
face described by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Iranian leader, as deadlier than poison. ''We will
abide by the cease-fire completely, and there will be no shooting,'' the Iranian President, Hojatolislam
Ali Khamenei, reportedly told Iranian soldiers.

 Aug 08 1990 – Gulf War: Iraq occupies Kuwait and the state is annexed to Iraq as its 19th province.
This would lead to the Gulf War shortly afterward.

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 Aug 08 2000 – Post Civil War: Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after
136 years on the ocean floor and 30 years after its discovery.

During raising in 200 and immersion in sodium hydroxide bath, July 2017

-o-o-O-o-o-

 Aug 09 1757 – French & Indian War: Fort William Henry, NY, surrender » The Siege of Fort
William Henry was conducted by French General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm against the British-held
Fort William Henry. The fort, located at the southern end of Lake George, on the frontier between the
British Province of New York and the French Province of Canada, was garrisoned by a poorly
supported force of British regulars and provincial militia led by Lieutenant Colonel George Monro.
After several days of bombardment, Monro surrendered to Montcalm, whose force included nearly
2,000 Indians from a large number of tribes. The terms of surrender included the withdrawal of the
garrison to Fort Edward, with specific terms that the French military protect the British from the
Indians as they withdrew from the area.
In one of the most notorious incidents of the French and Indian War, Montcalm's Indian allies
violated the agreed terms of surrender and attacked the British column, which had been deprived of
ammunition, as it left the fort. They killed and scalped many soldiers, took as captives women,
children, servants, and slaves, and slaughtered sick and wounded prisoners. Early accounts of the
events called it a massacre and implied that as many as 1,500 people were killed, although it is
unlikely more than 200 people (less than 10% of the British fighting strength) were actually killed in
the massacre.
On the afternoon after the massacre, most of the Indians left, heading back to their homes.
Montcalm was able to secure the release of 500 captives they had taken, but they still took with them
another 200. The French remained at the site for several days, destroying what remained of the British
works before leaving on 18 AUG and returning to Fort Carillon. For unknown reasons, Montcalm
decided not to follow up his victory with an attack on Fort Edward. Many reasons have been
proposed justifying his decision, including the departure of many (but not all) of the Indians, a
shortage of provisions, the lack of draft animals to assist in the portage to the Hudson, and the need
for the Canadian militia to return home in time to participate in the harvest.
The exact role of Montcalm and other French leaders in encouraging or defending against the
actions of their allies, and the total number of casualties incurred as a result of their actions, is a
subject of historical debate. The memory of the killings influenced the actions of British military
leaders, especially those of British General Jeffery Amherst, for the remainder of the war.

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 Aug 09 1776 – American Revolution: Guy Johnson predicts Indian allegiances » On Staten
Island Guy Johnson, British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, returns from England and shares his
confidence that the Iroquois will choose to ally themselves with the British crown.

Johnson reassured British Secretary of State for the American Colonies Lord George Germain that
the Iroquois Six Nations would cooperate with the royal troops as soon as Generals William Howe
and John Burgoyne initiated the “grand operation” to quell the American rebellion. The Patriots, he
felt, could depend only on those Indians who came under the influence of New England missionaries,
which was a small fraction of the total number of Indians in the Northern provinces. Johnson was
correct in his assessment. The Iroquois attempted to maintain their neutrality at the beginning of the
conflict, but by 1777, Joseph Brant (also known as Thayendanegea), a formally educated Mohawk
and Freemason, led the Iroquois into an alliance with Britain.
Most Native Americans saw Great Britain as their last defense against the land-hungry European
settlers who were encroaching into their ancestral territory. Racist settlers managed to undermine any
goodwill toward them remaining in the Native American population during the revolution by
committing atrocities such as the massacre of neutral, Christian Indian women and children at prayer
in Gnaddenhutten, Ohio in 1778. In another example, a Continental officer undermined his own cause
with the murder of Cornplanter, a Shawnee leader and Patriot ally, in 1777.
At the close of the War for Independence, the Patriots’ few Indian allies received worse treatment
at the hands of their supposed friends than natives who had sided with Britain. Having promised
Continental soldiers land in return for their service, Congress seized land from its Indian allies in
order to cede it to officers on the verge of mutiny in 1783.

 Aug 09 1862 – Civil War: Rebels score narrow victory at the Battle of Cedar Mountain »
Confederate General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson narrowly defeats a Union force led by General
John Pope at Cedar Mountain, Virginia.
Jackson had moved north in July 1862 after it became clear that the primary Union force in the
east, General George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac, was not going to attack Richmond, Virginia.
McClellan was camped on the James Peninsula southeast of Richmond, where General Robert E. Lee
stopped him at the Seven Days’ Battles in late June. Frustrated with McClellan’s lack of action,

65
 President Abraham Lincoln began shifting troops from the peninsula to Pope’s newly formed Army
of Virginia, which was operating near Washington, D.C.

Jackson, who was sent north by Lee to counter the growing Yankee presence in northern Virginia,
fell on part of Pope’s force at Cedar Mountain on 9 AUG. Despite being severely outnumbered,
Pope’s army dealt Jackson a near-humiliating defeat. Jackson attacked in the afternoon, but a fierce
Union counterattack, led by General Nathaniel Banks, almost broke Jackson’s line. The arrival of
Confederate General Ambrose P. Hill provided Jackson with enough troops to launch another assault
that evening. That attack drove the Federals from the field, and only nightfall prevented a complete
rout of the Yankees.
Union losses totaled 2,300 out of 8,000. The Confederates suffered 1,300 casualties out of 18,000.
But the battle was nearly a disaster; Jackson miscalculated, and the Confederates almost lost to an
army half their size.

 Aug 09 1862 – Civil War: Battle at Calfkiller Creek (Dug Hill) » This was a minor skirmish that
occurred in White County Tennessee. The major players in this battle were Confederates Gen. George
Gibba Dibrell and guerilla Champ Ferguson and Union Col. William B. Stokes and guerilla Tinker
Dave Beaty. Stokes had been sent by Governor Andrew Johnson to try and locate Champ Ferguson.
Stokes was unable to get anybody in Sparta to talk until he finally threatened to burn the town down.
Stokes was able to locate Ferguson along the Calfkiller River. Stokes and his army camped out along
the Calfkiller in an effort to perfect their plan to capture Champ Ferguson.
Historians do not know when Tinker Dave Beaty joined Stokes, but he was at the battle. Beaty
may have been motivated by the opportunity to capture or kill Ferguson. The next morning the Union
forces were unaware that the Confederates led by Dibrell and Ferguson were hiding in the bushes
along the road. As the Union troops were traveling along the road to carry out their plan, the
Confederate troops jumped out of the bushes and fought the Union troops right there in the road. The
battle took the Union troops by surprise, and was a total rout for them. Champ Ferguson and Tinker
Dave Beaty, according to historians, came face to face with each other. Beaty was able to wound
Ferguson, and lay him up for a few months, so all was not lost. In general the Battle of Dug Hill is
vital to our understanding of the Civil War in the Upper Cumberland area.

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 Aug 09 1864 – Civil War: Siege of Fort Morgan » The Siege occurred as part of the battle for
Mobile Bay, in Alabama. Union ground forces led by General Gordon Granger conducted a short
siege of the Confederate garrison at the mouth of Mobile Bay under the command of General Richard
L. Page. Granger's soldiers landed at Pilot Town on 9 AUG and began moving siege artillery within
range. The Union fleet also turned their guns on the fort. For the next two weeks Union forces kept up
a heavy and consistent artillery fire. On 16 AUG the Confederates abandoned two batteries of the
outer defenses and Granger moved his siege mortars within 500 yards of the fort and his 30-pounder
rifled guns to within 1,200 yards.
On 23 AUG General Page unconditionally surrendered the fort. Indignant, he broke his sword over
his knee instead of surrendering it to the Federals. Page's situation was further worsened when he was
suspected of destroying munitions and works within the fort after the surrender agreement. For this he
was arrested by the Federal authorities and imprisoned. The fall of Fort Morgan to the Union forces
sealed the mouth of Mobile Bay. The Confederate surrender helped shut down Mobile, Alabama, as
an effective Confederate port city.
The city of Mobile, Alabama would fall on April 12, 1865, at the end of the Civil War, after the
Battle of Fort Blakeley on April 9, 1865. General Page remained imprisoned until July 1865. A court
of inquiry was convened in New Orleans to investigate the charges against Page for violating the laws
of war. The court, however, found him "Not Guilty". The court found that much of the destruction of
ammunition resulted from a fire in the Citadel and that Confederates had spiked the artillery pieces
before they had raised a white flag of surrender.

 Aug 09 1877 – Native Americans: Battle of Big Hole » Having refused government demands that
they move to a reservation, a small band of Nez Perce Indians clash with the U.S. Army near the Big
Hole River in Montana.

The conflict between the U.S. government and the Nez Perce was one of the most tragic of the
many Indian wars of the 19th century. Beginning with the tribe’s first contact with the explorers
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, the peaceful Nez Perce had befriended and cooperated with the
Americans. Even when hordes of white settlers began to flood into their homelands along the Snake
River (around the present-day intersection of the Oregon, Washington, and Idaho state borders), most
of the Nez Perce peacefully moved to a reservation.

However, about a quarter of the Nez Perce, most of them stockmen and buffalo hunters, refused to
accept internment on a reservation. Government pressure to force these last resisters to comply finally

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 led to the outbreak of the Nez Perce War of 1877. A small band of warriors—never more than 145
men, though burdened with about 500 noncombatants—fought U.S. soldiers at four major battles.

The third battle of the Nez Perce War occurred on this day in 1877. Fleeing eastward with hopes
of escaping to Canada, the Nez Perce made camp in the Big Hole Basin in present-day western
Montana. At 3:30 a.m., Colonel John Gibbon attacked the sleeping Indians with a force of 183 men.
Raking the Indian lodges with withering rifle fire, the soldiers initially seemed to be victorious. The
Nez Perce, however, soon counterattacked from concealed positions in the surrounding hills. After
four days of sporadic fighting, the Nez Perce withdrew.

Both sides suffered serious casualties. The soldiers lost 29 men with 40 wounded. The army body
count found 89 Nez Perce dead, mostly women and children. The battle dealt the Nez Perce a grave,
though not fatal, blow. The remaining Indians were able to escape, and they headed northeast towards
Canada. Two months later, on 5 OCT, Colonel Nelson Miles decisively defeated the Nez Perce at the
Battle of the Bear Paw Mountains. Those who were not killed surrendered and reluctantly agreed to
return to the reservation. The Nez Perce were only 40 miles short of the Canadian border.

 Aug 09 1914 – WWI: Walter Rathenau of AEG takes charge of German war production » Barely
one week after the outbreak of the First World War, German Minister of War Erich von Falkenhayn
puts Walter Rathenau of the large electronics firm Allgemeine-Elektrizitats-Gellellschaft (AEG) in
charge of organizing all the raw materials for Germany’s war production.

The issue of how to effectively collect and utilize raw materials for the production of munitions
and other war supplies was especially important for Germany, who was prevented from importing
anything by the Allied naval blockade in the North Sea, in place from the beginning of the war.
Rathenau, the son of AEG’s founder, had approached the German War Department proposing to
“save Germany from strangulation” with an idea of centralizing the management of the war
production process under a single organization, a raw materials agency. In Rathenau’s vision, the
agency would take inventory of the raw materials available—not only in Germany but in all German-
occupied territories, such as Belgium—and allocate them to the firms that could use them best. Each
commodity used in war production would have its own raw materials company, with a board of
directors drawn from the firms that used the given commodity.
In this way, Rathenau convinced Falkenhayn, he would combine the best aspects of the capitalist
free-market system would be united with the principles of collective management to enable a smooth,
optimally effective war production process. Falkenhayn was convinced, and made Rathenau the head

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 of what became the KRA, the German war production organization. Appointing Rathenau—who was
Jewish—to head war production was an extraordinary step for a Prussian military officer to take at
the time.
In the end, however, Rathenau served in the new post only briefly, as many of the businesses the
KRA administered bristled under an organization directed by a Jew. In April 1915, Rathenau was
forced to resign; he subsequently returned to his post at AEG, becoming chairman of the company
upon his father’s death in June 1915. Rathenau remained active in politics, and worked to support the
creation of the Third Supreme Command, an effective military dictatorship under Paul von
Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, in August 1916. He opposed some of the Command’s decisions,
however, including the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917 and Ludendorff’s desire
to annex territory on the Eastern Front.
After the war, Rathenau joined the Democratic Party; he served as minister for reconstruction
from 1919 to 1921 and became foreign minister in 1922. In June of that year, shortly after signing the
controversial Treaty of Rapallo with the Soviet Union—which reestablished diplomatic relations
between the two countries—Rathenau was murdered in Berlin by right-wing anti-Semitic extremists.

 Aug 09 1914 – WWI: German U-15 sunk » U-15 became the first U-boat loss to an enemy
warship after it was rammed by British light cruiser HMS Birmingham. Constructed by Kaiserliche
Werft Danzig, U-15 was ordered on 23 February 1909 and was commissioned three years later on 7
July 1912. The boat left port for its first patrol on 1 AUG, but on 9 AUG was forced to lie stopped on
the surface off the coast of Fair Isle, in Shetland, Scotland, after its engines had failed. While stranded
on the surface, the British warship HMS Birmingham spotted the boat through a thick fog and could
hear hammering from inside the boat as the crew tried to repair the damaged engines. The
Birmingham's Captain Arthur Duff ordered his crew to fire on the U-boat, but missed. As U-15
attempted to dive to avoid the attack, Duff ordered for his ship to ram the submarine at full speed,
cutting it in half and killing all 23 members of its crew.

 Aug 09 1942 – WW2: Battle of Savo Island » Naval battle of the Pacific Campaign between the
Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied naval forces. The battle took place on August 8–9 and was the
first major naval engagement of the Guadalcanal campaign, and the first of several naval battles in the
straits later named Ironbottom Sound, near the island of Guadalcanal.
The Imperial Japanese Navy, in response to Allied amphibious landings in the eastern Solomon
Islands, mobilized a task force of seven cruisers and one destroyer under the command of Vice
Admiral Gunichi Mikawa. The task forces sailed from Japanese bases in New Britain and New
Ireland down New Georgia Sound (also known as "the Slot"), with the intention of interrupting the
Allied landings by attacking the supporting amphibious fleet and its screening force. The Allied
screen consisted of eight cruisers and fifteen destroyers under British Rear Admiral Victor Crutchley
VC, but only five cruisers and seven destroyers were involved in the battle. In a night action, Mikawa
thoroughly surprised and routed the Allied force, sinking one Australian and three American cruisers,
while suffering only light damage in return. The battle has often been cited as the worst defeat in a
fair fight in the history of the United States Navy.
Casualties and losses: Allies - 3 heavy cruisers sunk, 1 heavy cruiser heavily damaged (later
scuttled), 2 destroyers damaged, and 1,077 killed, Japan - 3 cruisers lightly damaged, 129 killed.

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 Aug 09 1945 – WW2: Aug 09 1945 – WWII: A-Bomb Dropped on Nagasaki » The United States
planned to drop their second atom bomb (Fat Man), on August 11 in the event of the Japanese
rejecting the offer to surrender and end the war. However, weather conditions meant that August 11th
was not ideal so the USAAF decided that the best date for dropping the second Atomic Bomb was
sooner.  In the early morning of August the 9th a specially adapted B-29 bomber, called “Bock’s
Car,” took off with the world’s second atomic bomb.

The crew and plane that dropped the bomb

Nagasaki was an industrial center and it was very important in the shipbuilding centers. The
bomb was dropped on Nagasaki at 11:02:35 a.m. as the citizens were at work or at school. The
explosion had the force of some 20,000 tons of dynamite. The city was protected to some extent by
the hills that surrounded it. The bomb still did unimaginable damage and it is estimated that up to
80,000 died, nearly all of them civilians. The number will never be known because of the scarcity of
records. The bomb obliterated many and some people were simply turned to dust. Unknown numbers
died of radiation sickness and other developed cancers, caused by the bomb, years after it was
dropped. The bomb divested the city and left it in smoldering ruins, with dangerously high levels of
radioactivity. The city’s infrastructure collapsed and with it the health services. Japan was too
exhausted at this stage to stage an effective response and relieve the victims.
The General in charge of the Atomic bomb project (known as the Manhattan project) and who
oversaw the development of the world’s first nuclear weapon, believed that he could have another,
atom bomb ready by the 18th of August. Despite the devastation caused there were, still some in the
Japanese military who opposed any efforts to agree to an unconditional surrender. However, the
majority knew that Japan could not continue and that it had lost the war. The Emperor of Japan gave
his permission for unconditional surrender and the government agreed to the allies terms of and
eventually the country was occupied by western soldiers under the command of General MacArthur.

 Aug 09 1967 – Vietnam War: Marines launch Operation Cochise » First Marine Division
launches Operation Cochise to strike the enemy wherever possible within the Que Son Basin and

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 surrounding hills, with emphasis on the Hiep Duc area which intelligence officers believed contained
the 2d NVA Division's headquarters and logistic base. Meanwhile, the First Cavalry Division
continued with Operation Pershing, a major clearing operation in the Binh Dinh province designed to
improve the security situation in support of the ongoing pacification effort. Final casualty results for
COCHISE included 156 enemy killed and 13 captured. Marine casualties were light in comparison,
10 killed and 93 wounded.

 Aug 09 1985 – Cold War: Arthur Walker found guilty of spying for Soviet Union » Arthur
Walker, a retired U.S. Navy officer, is found guilty of espionage for passing top-secret documents to
his brother, who then passed them to Soviet agents. Walker was part of one of the most significant
Cold War spy rings in the United States.

Convicted spy Arthur J. Walker is escorted into Federal Court in Norfolk, Va. on Nov. 12, 1985

The arrest of Arthur Walker on May 29, 1985, came just one day after the arrest of his brother,
John, and John’s son, Michael. All three were charged with conducting espionage for the Soviet
Union. John Walker, also a Navy veteran, was the ringleader, and government officials charged that
he had been involved in spying for the Soviets since 1968. He recruited his son, who was serving in
the U.S. Navy, a short time later. Arthur Walker was drawn into the scheme in 1980 when, at his
brother’s suggestion, he took a job with VSE, a Virginia defense contractor. Over the next two years,
the government charged, Arthur Walker provided John with a number of highly classified documents
dealing with the construction of naval vessels. For his services, Arthur Walker received about
$12,000. A nasty divorce between John Walker and his wife eventually brought the spy ring to light
when his wife, angry after their separation, went to the FBI to inform on her husband. It was revealed
at their trials that the motivation of all the Walker men was the repayment of large debts they had
accrued.
Arthur Walker was found guilty of seven counts of espionage on August 9, 1985. He was
sentenced to life in prison and fined $250,000. John and Michael Walker later pled guilty to
espionage charges, with John receiving two life sentences and Michael receiving 25 years in prison.
A fourth conspirator, Jerry Whitworth, a friend of John Walker’s, was convicted in 1986 on 12 counts
of espionage and sentenced to 365 years in prison. With the arrests and convictions, the U.S.
government claimed that it had broken one of the most destructive spy rings in the United States in
the history of the Cold War.

-o-o-O-o-o-

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 Aug 10, 1776 – American Revolution: news reaches London that the Americans had drafted the
Declaration of Independence.

 Aug 10 1861 – Civil War: Rebels defeat Union force at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek » The
struggle for Missouri erupts with the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, where a motley band of raw
Confederates defeat a Union force in the southwestern section of the state.
Union General Nathaniel Lyon, who commanded a force of 6,400 soldiers near Springfield,
Missouri, was up against two Rebel forces commanded by Generals Sterling Price and Ben
McCulloch. Although the Confederates were poorly equipped and trained at this early stage of the
war, Price and McCulloch had a combined force nearly twice the size of Lyon’s. But the impetuous
Union commander did not want to cede the region without a fight, and so he planned an attack on 10
AUG.
Lyon sent General Franz Sigel with 1,200 men to attack the rear while he struck the surprised
Confederates just after dawn. At first, the artillery barrage sent the Rebel camp into a panic, and the
day seemed to belong to the Yankees. But Sigel mistook a force emerging from the smoke for an
Iowa regiment, when it was actually a Louisiana regiment clad in similar uniforms since many of the
Rebel units were dressed in colors of their own choosing. The Confederates pushed Sigel back, and
the tide turned against Lyon’s force as well. In intense heat and humidity, the armies battled
throughout the morning. Lyon was killed during one of the Confederate assaults, but the Union line
managed to hold their ground. Although the Rebels withdrew from the field, the Union army was
disorganized and running low on ammunition. Losses were heavy, with both sides each suffering
about 1,200 casualties. The Federals soon retreated to Springfield and then back to the railhead at
Rolla, Missouri, 100 miles to the northeast. Southwestern Missouri was secured for the Confederates.

 Aug 10 1914 – WWI: German ships Goeben and Breslau reach Constantinople » After eluding
their British pursuers—not once but several times—in a dramatic chase through the Mediterranean
Sea, the German cruisers Goeben and Breslau safely anchor off the Dardanelles—the waterway
connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara and the only passage from the Mediterranean to the
Black Sea—at five o’clock on the afternoon of August 10, 1914, and are subsequently escorted by the
Turks to safety in Constantinople.

German ships Goeben and Breslau

7

When World War I broke out in August 1914, Germany had only two warships stationed in the
Mediterranean: the battle cruiser Goeben and the light cruiser Breslau, both under the command of

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Wilhelm Souchon. Souchon, having heard over wireless radio on the afternoon of 3 AUG that
Germany had declared war on France, was preparing to engage the French fleet in the Mediterranean
when the order came at 2 a.m. on 4 AUG from the chief commander of the German navy, Admiral
Alfred von Tirpitz, to head for Constantinople instead. Germany had decided to put every possible
pressure on Turkey, with whom it had signed a treaty of alliance the day before, to declare war on the
Allies. With Turkey on its side, Germany would control the Black Sea passage and effectively cut
Russia off from the other Allies, as well as its supply routes. A landing of Souchon’s ships at
Constantinople, it was reasoned, would help force Turkey out of its neutrality and into active
participation in the war.
Meanwhile, the British Royal Navy, focusing on the Goeben and Breslau as the leading threat to
the transport of French colonial troops from North Africa to France, had already ordered its
Mediterranean fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir Berkeley Milne, to locate and track the two German
ships, particularly the swift and powerful Goeben. As war had not yet been declared in Britain,
Milne’s fleet could pursue, but not attack. On the morning of 4 AUG, the British ships Indomitable
and Indefatigable, unexpectedly encountered the Goeben and Breslau off the coast of Algeria. Neither
ship fired, but each trained their guns on the other and their crews neglected to make the customary
mutual salute. A chase ensued, as Indomitable and Indefatigable followed the two German ships
toward Messina, Italy, where Souchon planned to obtain coal from German merchant steamers
anchored there before making the trip to Constantinople, 1,200 miles away. The Goeben and Breslau
outran their pursuers, pulling out of sight close to the end of that day.
Souchon maneuvered his ships into neutral Italian waters and anchored off Messina; the British
ships, observing international law, did not pursue him. Thinking Souchon was either going to try to
return to port in the Adriatic Sea or make an attempt to reach the western Mediterranean—and thus
the Atlantic Ocean—Milne sent the Indomitable and Indefatigable west of Messina to block his path,
never guessing the German ships were actually heading east, to Turkey. While refueling with
difficulty in Messina, Souchon received a telegram canceling the order to go to Constantinople, as the
Turkish leaders had rescinded permission for the Goeben and Breslau to pass through the
Dardanelles. Under pressure from Italian authorities to leave immediately and knowing the British
ships—their country now openly at war with Germany—were waiting for him in the Mediterranean,
Souchon decided to head for Constantinople anyway, deciding “to force the Turks, even against their
will, to spread the war to the Black Sea against their ancient enemy, Russia.”
When the Goeben and Breslau left Messina they were seen and pursued by only one light cruiser,
the Gloucester. Equal to the Breslau in speed and gun power but easily outmatched by the Goeben,
the Gloucester engaged in a brief trade of gunfire but mostly simply trailed the German ships as they
headed in the direction of the Adriatic Sea, which a British squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral
Ernest Troubridge had earlier been sent to monitor in case of action by the Austrian navy. On the
morning of 7 AUG, in a massive opportunity lost, Troubridge declined to pursue the Goeben,
believing that the ship, if intercepted, could use its 11-inch guns with their superior range—compared
to the 9.2-inch guns on Troubridge’s ships—to destroy his four cruisers one after another. Troubridge
justified his withdrawal by citing the order the British Admiralty had given the Mediterranean fleet
not to engage “superior forces”—an order certainly intended not to prohibit action against the Goeben
itself but against the Austrian navy if it appeared to accompany the German ships to safety.

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 Thus the Goeben and Breslau sped on, pursued only by the Gloucester. On the afternoon of 8
AUG, with the Goeben poised to enter the Aegean Sea, the Gloucester gave up the chase, leaving
Souchon free to meet up with another fuel ship in the Greek Isles and head on to Constantinople. The
Turkish leader, Enver Pasha, under pressure from German authorities, finally agreed to allow the
ships to enter the straits, and to fire on any British pursuer who tried to come after them. At nine
o’clock on the evening of August 10, the Goeben and Breslau entered the Dardanelles.
The Goeben and Breslau were repaired, renamed and taken into the Turkish navy—on October 29,
1914, they took part in the attack by the Turkish fleet—commanded by Souchon—on Russia’s ports
in the Black Sea, marking the Ottoman Empire’s official entrance into the First World War.

 Aug 10 1944 – WW2: American forces defeat the last Japanese troops on Guam.

 Aug 10 1945 – WW2: Japan submits its acquiescence to the Potsdam Conference terms of
unconditional surrender, as President Harry S. Truman orders a halt to atomic bombing. Negotiations
between Washington and Tokyo ensued. Meanwhile, savage fighting continued between Japan and
the Soviet Union in Manchuria.

 Aug 10 1949 – Cold War: Truman signs National Security Bill » President Harry S. Truman signs
the National Security Bill, which establishes the Department of Defense. As the Cold War heated up,
the Department of Defense became the cornerstone of America’s military effort to contain the
expansion of communism.

 Aug 10 1950 – Korean War: President Harry S. Truman calls the National Guard to active duty to
fight in the War.

 Aug 10 1955 – Vietnam War: Diem refuses to negotiate with Communists » Declaring that South
Vietnam is “the only legal state,” Ngo Dinh Diem, Premier of the State of Vietnam, announces that he
will not enter into negotiations with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) on
elections as long as the Communist government remains in power in Hanoi.
The elections had been scheduled for 1956 under the provisions of the Geneva Peace Accords of
1954 that brought an end to the First Indochina War. Diem reaffirmed the position laid down in his
broadcast of July 6 in which he stated that South Vietnam was not bound by the Geneva Accords.

 Aug 10 1961 – Vietnam War: First use of the Agent Orange by the U.S. Army » In 1969, it
became widely known that the 2, 4, 5-T component of Agent Orange was contaminated with dioxin, a
toxic chemical (chemical structure illustrated above) found to cause adverse health effects and birth
outcomes in laboratory studies. In April 1970, the US government restricted use of 2, 4, 5-T, and
therefore Agent Orange, in both Vietnam and the US.

 Aug 10 1966 – Vietnam War: Marines fight bitter battle in Quang Tin Province » Troops of the
First Battalion, Fifth Marines fight a bitter battle against NVA forces in Quang Tin province, 60 miles
west of Tam Ky. In Thailand, a U.S.-built air base is opened in Sattahib. Ultimately, there would be

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 five major airbases and over 49,000 U.S. military personnel in Thailand. The bases would be turned
over to the Thais and the U.S. troops withdrawn in 1973.

 Aug 10 1972 – Vietnam War: North Vietnamese forces attempt to cut off Saigon » North
Vietnamese forces block Routes 1, 4, and 13, all major South Vietnamese ground supply routes to
Saigon. For the next two months, Communist forces repeatedly interdicted these and other key supply
routes critical to Saigon’s survival in an attempt to strangle the city. This was all part of the Nguyen
Hue Offensive, which had been launched in late March.
In an invasion by more than 120,000 communist troops, the North Vietnamese had taken Quang
Tri and lay siege to An Loc and Kontum. Despite desperate fighting on a level heretofore unseen in
the war, the South Vietnamese forces, with American advisors and U.S. tactical air support, had
withstood the invasion and were preparing to retake Quang Tri. At one point, the North Vietnamese
forces had been less than 60 miles from Saigon, but were stopped by the South Vietnamese forces at
An Loc, on Highway 13 north of the city.

 Aug 10 1997– U.S.*Panama: US and Panama sign Panama Canal Zone accord, guaranteeing
Panama would have control of the canal after 1999.

 Aug 10 1997– England*China: The last British troops leave Hong Kong. After 156 years of British
rule, the island is returned to China.

 Aug 10 2017 – U.S.*North Korea: Missile threat rhetoric » North Korea has announced it was
finalizing a plan to fire four of its Hwasong-12 missiles over Japan and into waters around the tiny
island, which hosts 7,000 U.S. military personnel on two main bases and has a population of 160,000.
It said the plan, which involves the missiles hitting waters 19 to 25 miles from the island, could be
sent to leader Kim Jong Un for approval within a week or so. It would be up to Kim whether the
move is actually carried out. … North Korea, no stranger to bluffing, frequently uses extremely
bellicose rhetoric with warnings of military action to keep its adversaries on their heels. If carried out,
it would have been the North’s most provocative missile launch to date.

-o-o-O-o-o-

 Aug 11 1864 – Civil War: Confederates abandon Winchester VA » As Union General Philip
Sheridan approaches the city General Jubal Early, wary of his new foe, moved away to avoid an
immediate conflict.
Since June, Early and his 14,000 troops had been campaigning in the Shenandoah Valley and the
surrounding area. He had been sent there by General Robert E. Lee, who’s Army of Northern Virginia
was pinned near Richmond, Virginia by the army of Union General Ulysses S. Grant. Early’s
expedition was intended to distract Grant, and he carried out his mission well. In July, Early moved
down the Shenandoah Valley to the Potomac River, brushing aside two Federal forces before arriving
on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. Grant dispatched troops from his army to drive Early away, but
Early simply returned to the Shenandoah and continued to operate with impunity.

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 Generals Jubal Early and Philip Sherman

Now Grant sent General Philip Sheridan to deal with Early. Sheridan had been appointed on 1
AUG to command the Army of the Shenandoah, and he was quick to take action when he arrived on
the scene. On August 10, he marched his force toward Winchester. Early was alarmed, and pulled out
of the city on 11 AUG to a more defensible position 20 miles south of Winchester. Sheridan followed
with his force, settling his troops along Cedar Creek—just north of Strasburg, Virginia.
As ordered by Grant, Sheridan stopped to await reinforcements. His army, consisting of both
infantry and cavalry, would eventually total about 37,000 troops. Sheridan waited for a few days, but
Confederate raider John Mosby and his Rangers burned a large store of Sheridan’s supplies. Alarmed
and nearly out of food, Sheridan pulled back on 16 AUG. This retreat was reminiscent of many Union
operations in Virginia during the war. Early and others thought Sheridan was as timid and uncertain
as other Federal commanders. That opinion changed little in the next month as Sheridan continued to
wait and gather his force.
However, Sheridan would later prove he was very different from previous Yankee leaders. In
September, he began a campaign that drove the Confederates from the valley and then rendered the
area useless to the Southern cause by destroying all the crops and supplies.

 Aug 11 1919 – Post WWI: Weimar Constitution adopted in Germany » Friedrich Ebert, a
member of the Social Democratic Party and the provisional president of the German Reichstag
(government), signs a new constitution, known as the Weimar Constitution, into law, officially
creating the first parliamentary democracy in Germany.

Friedrich Ebert

Even before Germany acknowledged its defeat at the hands of the Allied powers on the battlefields
of the First World War, discontent and disorder ruled on the home front, as the exhausted and hunger-
plagued German people expressed their frustration and anger with large-scale strikes among factory

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 workers and mutinies within the armed forces. Beginning in 1916, Germany had basically been
operating under a military dictatorship, the Supreme Army Command, led by Paul von Hindenburg
and Erich Ludendorff. In late October 1918, however, with defeat looming on the horizon,
Hindenburg pushed Kaiser Wilhelm II and the German government to form a civil government in
order to negotiate an armistice with the Allies. The Kaiser and Reichstag subsequently amended the
latter organization’s constitution of 1871, effectively creating a parliamentary democracy in which
the chancellor of Germany, Prince Max von Baden, was responsible not to Wilhelm but to the
Reichstag.
This was not enough, however, to satisfy the far leftist forces within Germany, who capitalized on
the chaos of the last days of a losing war effort to lead a general workers’ strike that 7 NOV, and call
for the establishment of a socialist republic along the lines of the Bolshevik government in Russia.
Hoping to pacify the radical socialists, von Baden transferred his powers to Ebert, the leader of
Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), on 9 NOV. Over the next six months, the Reichstag, led
by the SPD, worked to write a new constitution that would solidify Germany’s status as a
parliamentary democracy. Meanwhile, many within Germany blamed the government for what they
saw as the humiliating terms imposed on the country by the victorious Allies in the Treaty of
Versailles, particularly the treaty’s demands for German war reparations, justified by a clause that
placed blame for the war squarely on the shoulders of Germany.
Under vicious attack from both the militarist right and the radical socialist left and identified by
both sides with the shame of Versailles, the Weimar government and its constitution—signed into law
on August 11, 1919—seemed to have a dim chance of survival. In this atmosphere of confrontation
and frustration, exacerbated by poor economic conditions, right wing elements began to take an ever
more pervasive hold over the Reichstag. This process, intensified by the worldwide depression that
began in 1929, would culminate in the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, who exploited the weakness of
the Weimar system to lay the foundations for himself and his National Socialist German Workers’ (or
Nazi) Party to dissolve the parliamentary government and take absolute control over Germany.

 Aug 11 1943 – WWII: Germans begin to evacuate Sicily » German forces begin a six-day
evacuation of the Italian island of Sicily, having been beaten back by the Allies, who invaded the
island in July.

The Germans had maintained a presence in Sicily since the earliest days of the war. But with the
arrival of Gen. George S. Patton and his 7th Army and Gen. Bernard Montgomery and his 8th Army,
the Germans could no longer hold their position. The race began for the Strait of Messina, the 2-mile

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 wide body of water that separated Sicily from the Italian mainland. The Germans needed to get out of
Sicily and onto the Italian peninsula. While Patton had already reached his goal, Palermo, the Sicilian
capital, on 22 JUL (to a hero’s welcome, as the Sicilian people were more than happy to see an end to
fascist rule), Montgomery, determined to head off the Germans at Messina, didn’t make his goal in
time. The German 29th Panzergrenadier Division and the 14th Panzer Corps were brought over from
Africa for the sole purpose of slowing the Allies’ progress and allowing the bulk of the German
forces to get off the island. The delaying tactic succeeded. Despite the heavy bombing of railways
leading to Messina, the Germans made it to the strait on 11 AUG.
Over six days and seven nights, the Germans led 39,569 soldiers, 47 tanks, 94 heavy guns, 9,605
vehicles, and more than 2,000 tons of ammunition onto the Italian mainland. (Not to mention the
60,000 Italian soldiers who were also evacuated, in order to elude capture by the Allies.) Although
the United States and Britain had succeeded in conquering Sicily, the Germans were now reinforced
and heavily supplied, making the race for Rome more problematic.

 Aug 11 1944 – WWII: In France, the U.S. Third Army crossed the Loire River and at Nantes,
France, Germans scuttled ships as Allies approached.

 Aug 11 1967 – Vietnam War: U.S. pilots cleared to bomb Hanoi-Haiphong area » For the first
time, U.S. pilots are authorized to bomb road and rail links in the Hanoi-Haiphong area, formerly on
the prohibited target list. This permitted U.S. aircraft to bomb targets within 25 miles of the Chinese
border and to engage other targets with rockets and cannon within 10 miles of the border. The
original restrictions had been imposed because of Johnson’s fear of a confrontation with China and a
possible expansion of the war.

 Aug 11 1970 – Vietnam War: South Vietnamese troops assume responsibility for guarding border
» As part of the Vietnamization effort, South Vietnamese troops relieve U.S. units of their
responsibility for guarding the Cambodian and Laotian borders along almost the entire South
Vietnamese frontier. Nixon’s strategy in Vietnam was to improve the fighting capability of the South
Vietnamese forces so that they could assume the responsibility for the war and, allowing for the
withdrawal of U.S. forces. The assumption of the responsibility for the border areas was significant
because those areas had previously required the presence of large U.S. combat formations.

 Aug 11 1972 – Vietnam War: Last U.S. ground combat unit departs South Vietnam » The Third
Battalion, Twenty-First Infantry, departs for the United States. The unit had been guarding the U.S.
air base at Da Nang. This left only 43,500 advisors, airmen, and support troops left in-country. This
number did not include the sailors of the Seventh Fleet on station in the South China Sea or the air
force personnel in Thailand and Guam.

 Aug 11 1984 – Cold War: Reagan jokes about “outlawing” the Soviet Union » A joke about
“outlawing” the Soviet Union by President Ronald Reagan turns into an international embarrassment.
The president’s flippant remarks caused consternation among America’s allies and provided grist for
the Soviet propaganda mill.

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 As he prepared for his weekly radio address on August 11, 1984, President Reagan was asked to
make a voice check. As part of his pre-speech, non-over-the-air sound check just moments before the
broadcast, Reagan made the following joke: "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you I just
signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes." The
embarrassing comment was a parody of the actual opening line in his prepared remarks: "My fellow
Americans, I'm pleased to tell you that today I signed legislation that will allow student religious
groups to begin enjoying a right they've too long been denied, the freedom to meet in public high
schools during nonschool hours." Unfortunately Reagan, whose career actually began as a radio
announcer in Iowa, was a victim of what's known as a "hot mic" or "live mic," a microphone
inadvertently left on to broadcast or record off-the-record remarks.
Since the voice check was not actually broadcast, it was not until after he delivered his radio
address that news of his “joke” began to leak out. In Paris, a leading newspaper expressed its dismay,
and stated that only trained psychologists could know whether Reagan’s remarks were “a statement of
repressed desire or the exorcism of a dreaded phantom.” A Dutch news service remarked, “Hopefully,
the man tests his missiles more carefully.” Other foreign newspapers and news services called Reagan
“an irresponsible old man,” and declared that his comments were “totally unbecoming” for a man in
his position. In the Soviet Union, commentators had a field day with Reagan’s joke. One stated, “It is
said that a person’s level of humor reflects the level of his thinking. If so, aren’t one and the other too
low for the president of a great country?” Another said, “We would not be wasting time on this
unfortunate joke if it did not reflect once again the fixed idea that haunts the master of the White
House.”
Reagan’s tasteless joke provided additional ammunition for commentators at home and abroad
who believed that the anticommunist crusader was a reckless “cowboy” intent on provoking a conflict
with the Soviet Union. Ironically, the man who also referred to Russia as an “evil empire” went on to
establish a close personal relationship with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev after the latter came to
power in 1985. The two men later signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987,
which eliminated an entire class of nuclear weapons.

-o-o-O-o-o-

 AUG 12 1676 – Colonial America: King Philip’s War ends » In colonial New England, King
Philip’s War effectively comes to an end when Philip, chief of the Wampanoag Indians, is
assassinated by a Native American in the service of the English.

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 Chief Metacomet (King Philip)

In the early 1670s, 50 years of peace between the Plymouth colony and the local Wampanoag
Indians began to deteriorate when the rapidly expanding settlements forced land sales on the tribe.
Reacting to increasing Native American hostility, the English met with King Philip, chief of the
Wampanoag, and demanded that his forces surrender their arms. The Wampanoag did so, but in 1675
a Christian Native American who had been acting as an informer to the English was murdered, and
three Wampanoag were tried and executed for the crime.
On 24 JUN, King Philip responded by ordering a raid on the border settlement of Swansee,
Massachusetts. His warriors massacred the English colonists there, and the attack set off a series of
Wampanoag raids in which several settlements were destroyed and scores of colonists massacred.
The colonists retaliated by destroying a number of Indian villages. The destruction of a Narragansett
village by the English brought the Narragansett into the conflict on the side of King Philip, and within
a few months several other tribes and all the New England colonies were involved.
In early 1676, the Narragansett were defeated and their chief killed, while the Wampanoag and
their other allies were gradually subdued. King Philip’s wife and son were captured, and his secret
headquarters in Mount Hope, Rhode Island, were discovered. On August 12, 1676, Philip was
assassinated at Mount Hope by a Native American in the service of the English. The English drew
and quartered Philip’s body and publicly displayed his head on a stake in Plymouth. King Philip’s
War, which was extremely costly to the colonists of southern New England, ended the Native
American presence in the region and inaugurated a period of unimpeded colonial expansion.

 Aug 12 1867 – Post Civil War: Secretary of War Edwin Stanton suspended » President Andrew
Johnson attempted to fire Secretary of War Edwin Stanton on multiple occasions because Stanton
opposed Johnson's more lenient attitude toward the South during Reconstruction. Johnson wanted to
readmit states from the Confederacy without any guarantees of civil rights for the freed slaves, and
Stanton strongly opposed this policy and favored much harsher treatment of the former rebellious
states.
In 1867, President Johnson decided that Stanton's opposition was crippling his presidency, so he
attempted to remove Stanton from office. Stanton refused to leave, claiming that the Tenure of Office
Act prevented his removal. In 1868, Johnson suspended him and appointed Ulysses S. Grant as his
replacement, but the Senate overruled President Johnson and Stanton continued in his position.
Johnson tried a third time to remove him from office, appointing General Lorenzo Thomas as a
replacement, but Congress again backed Stanton.

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 Radical Republican forces in Congress began an impeachment trial against Johnson over his
continued attacks on Stanton, but they were unable to gather enough votes in the Senate to remove the
president from office. In the end, Edwin Stanton resigned his post on May 26, 1868. Stanton was
eventually appointed to the Supreme Court by Ulysses S. Grant in 1869, but he died before he could
take office.

 Aug 12 1898 – Spanish American War: Armistice ends the Spanish-American War » The brief
and one-sided Spanish-American War comes to an end when Spain formally agrees to a peace
protocol on U.S. terms: the cession of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Manila in the Philippines to the United
States pending a final peace treaty.

The Spanish-American War had its origins in the rebellion against Spanish rule that began in Cuba
in 1895. The repressive measures that Spain took to suppress the guerrilla war, such as herding
Cuba’s rural population into disease-ridden garrison towns, were graphically portrayed in U.S.
newspapers and enflamed public opinion. In January 1898, violence in Havana led U.S. authorities to
order the battleship USS Maine to the city’s port to protect American citizens. On 15 FEB, a massive
explosion of unknown origin sank the Maine in the Havana harbor, killing 260 of the 400 American
crewmembers aboard. An official U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry ruled in March, without much
evidence, that the ship was blown up by a mine but did not directly place the blame on Spain. Much
of Congress and a majority of the American public expressed little doubt that Spain was responsible,
and called for a declaration of war.
In April, the U.S. Congress prepared for war, adopting joint congressional resolutions demanding
a Spanish withdrawal from Cuba and authorizing President William McKinley to use force. On 23
APR, President McKinley asked for 125,000 volunteers to fight against Spain. The next day, Spain
issued a declaration of war. The United States declared war on 25 APR. On 1 MAY, the U.S. Asiatic
Squadron under Commodore George Dewey destroyed the Spanish Pacific fleet at Manila Bay in the
first battle of the Spanish-American War. Dewey’s decisive victory cleared the way for the U.S.
occupation of Manila in August and the eventual transfer of the Philippines from Spanish to
American control.
On the other side of the world, a Spanish fleet docked in Cuba’s Santiago harbor in May after
racing across the Atlantic from Spain. A superior U.S. naval force arrived soon after and blockaded

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 the harbor entrance. In June, the U.S. Army Fifth Corps landed in Cuba with the aim of marching to
Santiago and launching a coordinated land and sea assault on the Spanish stronghold. Included among
the U.S. ground troops were the Theodore Roosevelt-led “Rough Riders,” a collection of Western
cowboys and Eastern blue bloods officially known as the First U.S. Voluntary Cavalry. On July 1, the
Americans won the Battle of San Juan Hill, and the next day they began a siege of Santiago. On 3
JUL the Spanish fleet was destroyed off Santiago by U.S. warships under Admiral William Sampson,
and on 17 JUL the Spanish surrendered the city–and thus Cuba–to the Americans.
In Puerto Rico, Spanish forces likewise crumbled in the face of superior U.S. forces, and on 12
AUG an armistice was signed between Spain and the United States. On 10 DEC, the Treaty of Paris
officially ended the Spanish-American War. The once-proud Spanish empire was virtually dissolved,
and the United States gained its first overseas empire. Puerto Rico and Guam were ceded to the
United States, the Philippines were bought for $20 million, and Cuba became a U.S. protectorate.
Philippine insurgents who fought against Spanish rule during the war immediately turned their guns
against the new occupiers, and 10 times more U.S. troops died suppressing the Philippines than in
defeating Spain.

 Aug 12 1914 – WW1: The Battle of Haelen » The Battle, also known as 'The Battle of the Silver
Helmets' in Belgian folklore, comprised the first cavalry action of the war. It was fought at a river
crossing at Haelen in Belgium, around 30km from the main Belgian line at Louvain. The significance
of the engagement lay chiefly in its being the first cavalry attack of the war, although the Belgian
army's success in driving back repeated German cavalry charges all day on the 12th was also worthy
of note. It was also one of the few setbacks encountered by the Germans during their successful
invasion of neutral Belgium. Advance squadrons of Georg von der Marwitz's cavalry corps proved
unable to defeat a single Belgian cavalry division under de Witte guarding the Haelen bridge, despite
numerous attempts with sabers and lances from early in the morning.
De Witte repulsed the German cavalry attacks by ordering his men (which included a company of
cyclists and another of pioneer engineers) to dismount and meet the attack with massed rifle fire,
which succeeded in inflicting significant casualties upon the Germans. Although the Belgian success
was hailed by some as a huge setback to German ambitions - it wasn't - it did provide an early
demonstration of the modern-day irrelevance of the cavalry in offensive situations. In all the Germans
suffering 150 dead, 600 wounded and some 200-300 prisoners; the number of dead horses was placed
at around 400. Belgian losses totaled approximately 500.

 Aug 12 1914 – WW1: Russian troops take East-Prussia and occupy the town of Marggrabowa.

 Aug 12 1914 – WW1: Big Bertha fires on forts round Liege » Big Bertha, German Dicke Bertha,
a type of 16.5-inch howitzer was first used by the German army to bombard Belgian and French forts
during World War I. The gun was nicknamed “Big Bertha” by German soldiers after one of its
projectiles completely destroyed Fort Loncin during the siege of Liège, Belgium. A total of 12 Big
Berthas were put into service.
The gun was designed and built under great secrecy by the firm Krupp, Germany’s largest
armaments manufacturer, in the years before the war for the sole purpose of overcoming modern
Belgian and French forts built of reinforced concrete. At the time of their construction, the Big

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 Berthas were the largest, most-powerful mobile artillery pieces in use by any army. The gun could
fire projectiles weighing up to 1,785 pounds to a distance of almost six miles. The most widely used
type of shell was equipped with a delayed-action fuse that exploded after having penetrated up to 40
feet of concrete and earth.

The gun and its carriage, when fully assembled, weighed about 47 tons. The Big Berthas generally
operated in pairs, and each was crewed and serviced by about 240 men. For transport to the
battlefield, the howitzer was disassembled into components and loaded onto five special wagons
pulled by gasoline-powered motor tractors. For long-distance travel, the road wagons and other
equipment were moved by railway cars. After detraining, the transport wagons were hauled by tractor
to the firing site, where the guns were reassembled. Under ideal conditions a Big Bertha could be
assembled in six hours.
At the start of war, the German army had only two Big Berthas, and both saw their first action
against the complex of Belgian forts around Liège. In five days, they destroyed a succession of forts
and compelled the surrender of the city, thereby opening the way for the German army to advance
westward through southern Belgium on its way to invading northern France. Farther to the west, the
forts around the city of Namur were similarly battered into surrender by the Big Berthas and Škoda
12-inch mortars on August 21–25. Two more successful sieges followed at Maubeuge (August 25–
September 8) and Antwerp (September 28–October 10). In 1915, as more Big Berthas were built and
fielded (for a total of 12 guns), they produced similar results against Russian forts. The Battle of
Verdun in 1916 proved to be the swan song for the Big Berthas, which were unable to penetrate the
reinforced concrete of the modernized French forts at Douaumont and Vaux.
According to some sources, the nickname “Big Bertha” was bestowed on the guns in honor of
Bertha Krupp von Bohlen und Holbach, owner of the Krupp firm. In popular usage, the name Big
Bertha was also applied, incorrectly, by members of the Allied forces to the extreme long-range
cannons with which the Germans shelled Paris in 1918; those guns are properly known as Paris Guns.

 Aug 12 1918 – WW1: Battle of Amiens ends » Allies defeat Germans in the last great battle on
the Western Front. It was a major turning point in the tempo of the war. The Germans had started the
war with the Schlieffen Plan before the Race to the Sea slowed movement on the Western Front and
the war devolved into trench warfare. The German Spring Offensive earlier in 1918 had once again
given Germany the offensive edge on the Western Front. Armored support helped the Allies tear a
hole through trench lines, weakening once impregnable trench positions: the British Third Army, with
no armored support, had almost no effect on the line, while the Fourth, with fewer than a thousand
tanks, broke deep into German territory.

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 The British war correspondent Philip Gibbs noted Amiens' effect on the war's tempo, saying on 27
AUG that, "the enemy...is on the defensive" and, "the initiative of attack is so completely in our hands
that we are able to strike him at many different places." Gibbs also credits Amiens with a shift in
troop morale, saying, "the change has been greater in the minds of men than in the taking of territory.
On our side the army seems to be buoyed up with the enormous hope of getting on with this business
quickly" and that, "there is a change also in the enemy's mind. They no longer have even a dim hope
of victory on this western front. All they hope for now is to defend themselves long enough to gain
peace by negotiation."

 Aug 12 1920 – Polish*Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw » The battle, fought from August 12–25 as
Red Army forces commanded by Mikhail Tukhachevsky approached the Polish capital of Warsaw
and the nearby Modlin Fortress, was a decisive Polish victory. Poland, on the verge of total defeat,
repulsed and defeated the Red Army in what Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik leader, called it "an
enormous defeat" for his forces.
After the Polish Kiev Offensive Soviet forces launched a successful counterattack in the summer
of 1920, forcing the Polish army to retreat westward in disarray. The Polish forces seemed on the
verge of disintegration and observers predicted a decisive Soviet victory. On 16 AUG, Polish forces
commanded by Józef Piłsudski counterattacked from the south, disrupting the enemy's offensive,
forcing the Russian forces into a disorganized withdrawal eastward and behind the Neman River.
Estimated Russian losses were 10,000 killed, 500 missing, 30,000 wounded, and 66,000 taken
prisoner, compared with Polish losses of some 4,500 killed, 10,000 missing, and 22,000 wounded.
In the following months, several more Polish follow-up victories saved Poland's independence and
led to a peace treaty with Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine later that year, securing the Polish state's
eastern frontiers until 1939. The British diplomat Edgar Vincent, 1st Viscount D'Abernon regards this
event as one of the most important battles in history on his expanded list of most decisive battles,
since the Polish victory over the Soviets stopped the spread of communism to Europe.

 Aug 12 1940 – WW2: Luftwaffe bombs British radar stations » The Luftwaffe attacked the
[Radar] Chain as well as airfields in its attempt at 'destroying his ground organization.' Heavy attacks
were made on six stations in the southeast on 12 AUG, with considerable damage done; one, Ventnor,
was knocked out for eleven days, but an ordinary radio transmitter was soon putting out pulses on the
same frequency and 'though these produced no echo, the enemy, hearing them, could only suppose
that the station had been repaired.' Meanwhile, the Reichsmarschall cancelled any further attacks on
radar targets, arguing, 'It is doubtful whether there is any point in continuing the attacks on radar sites,
in view of the fact that not one of those attacked has so far been put out of action.'
The Germans did not understand how the Britain’s Dowding air defense system worked. It waswas
built by the Royal Air Force just before the start of war, and proved decisive in the Battle of Britain.
During the early war period, the Luftwaffe consistently underestimated the value of the system. A 16
July 1940 Luftwaffe intelligence report failed to even mention it, in spite of being aware of it through
signals intercepts and having complete details of its WWI predecessor. A later report on 7 AUG did
make mention of the system, but only to suggest that it would tie fighters to their sectors, reducing
their flexibility and ability to deal with large raids.

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 It was not just about radar which gave early warning of high flying aircraft from about 150 miles
out to the coast. It gave no information about height nor about the passage of aircraft once aircraft
reached the British coast. Britain had created an "integrated air defense system" Its real strength was
the C3 system which collected information from radar, wireless intercepts, the observer corps and
other sources, assessed this information and used the information to give real time directions to
aircraft, AA guns and the civil defense system. Impressive stuff without any computers. There was
also a degree of redundancy.
The Germans missed the weakest links in the Air defense network. This was not the radars, which
were hard to hit and well defended, but the sector control stations which directed up to four squadrons
to raids. The sector stations had to be built on Air Ministry land and were typically in wooden huts.
The Germans did hit the sector station at Biggin Hill crippling the station until an alternative could be
occupied outside the base. After the war, the fighter control system was largely demobilized. The
explosion of the Soviet atomic bomb in 1949 and the presence of Tupolev Tu-4 "Bull" aircraft that
could deliver it to the UK led to the rapid construction of the ROTOR system. ROTOR re-used many
existing GCI and CH systems with more sophisticated control rooms in fortified underground
bunkers. ROTOR was itself replaced by AMES Type 80 Master Control rooms and then the
Linesman/Mediator system in the 1960s.

 Aug 12 1941 – WW2: Roosevelt and Churchill confer, map out short- and long-term goals »
President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet on board aboard the
USS Augusta at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, to confer on issues ranging from support for Russia to
threatening Japan to postwar peace.

When Roosevelt and Churchill met for the first time as leaders of their respective nations, chief
among the items on their agenda was aid to the USSR “on a gigantic scale,” as it was desperate in its
war against its German invaders. A statement was also drafted, which Roosevelt chose to issue under
his name, that made it plain to Japan that any further aggression would “produce a situation in which
the United States government would be compelled to take counter-measures,” even if it meant “war
between the United States and Japan.”
The president and the prime minister also agreed to compose and make public a document in
which the United States and Britain declared their intention “to ensure life, liberty, independence, and
religious freedom, and to preserve the rights of man and justice.” They also promised to strive for a

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 postwar world free of “aggrandizement, territorial or other,” addressing those nations currently under
German, Italian, or Japanese rule, offering hope that the integrity of their sovereign borders would be
restored to them. This document would be called the Atlantic Charter and, when finally ratified by 26
nations in January 1942, would comprise the founding principles of the United Nations.

 Aug 12 1942 – WW2: Churchill visits Stalin » Churchill flies to Moscow for four days, makes
speech and meets Stalin. Video at https://www.britishpathe.com/video/mr-churchill-in-moscow
contains a lengthy sequence illustrating Russian war effort: wrecked German planes in Russian fields;
Russian tanks; Cossack troops marching along road; men and women in arms factory making shells,
tanks, guns; new Russian anti-tank gun in action on test range.

 Aug 12 1944 – WW2: Operation Aphrodite » Aphrodite and Anvil were the World War II code
names of United States Army Air Forces and United States Navy operations to use B-17 and PB4Y
bombers as precision-guided munitions against bunkers and other hardened/reinforced enemy
facilities, such as those targeted during Operation Crossbow. The plan called for B-17 aircraft that
had been taken out of operational service (various nicknames existed such as "robot", "baby", "drone"
or "weary Willy") to be loaded to capacity with explosives, and flown by radio control into bomb-
resistant fortifications such as German U-boat pens and V-weapon sites.

Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.

It was hoped that it would match the British success with Tallboy and Grand Slam ground
penetration bombs but the project was dangerous, expensive and unsuccessful. Of 14 missions flown,
none resulted in the successful destruction of a target. Many aircraft lost control and crashed or were
shot down by flak, and many pilots were killed. However, a handful of aircraft scored near misses.
One notable pilot death on 12 AUG was that of Lt Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., USNR, the elder brother of
future US President John F. Kennedy.
The program effectively ceased on January 27, 1945 when General Spaatz sent an urgent message
to Doolittle: "Aphrodite babies must not be launched against the enemy until further orders".

 Aug 12 1944 – WW2: Winston Churchill and Marshal Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia meet in
Naples, Italy.

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 Aug 12 1944 – WW2: Operation PLUTO » First Pipeline under the Ocean (PLUTO) becomes
operational, taking fuel from Isle of Wight, England to Cherbourg, France. The scheme was
developed by Arthur Hartley, chief engineer with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Allied forces on
the European continent required a tremendous amount of fuel. Pipelines were considered necessary to
relieve dependence on oil tankers, which could be slowed by bad weather, were vulnerable to German
submarines, and were also needed in the Pacific War. Geoffrey William Lloyd, the Secretary for
Petroleum, in 1942 met Admiral Mountbatten, Chief of Combined Operations, whose area this was,
and then the Chairman of Anglo-Iranian. Hartley's idea of using adapted submarine telephone cable
was adopted.
The battle of Normandy was won without a drop of fuel being delivered via the Pluto cross-
channel pipelines. Only eight per cent of the fuel delivered to the Allied forces in North-West Europe
between D-Day and VE Day was via those pipelines; the rest being by tanker, either in bulk or in
cans, or by airlift.

 Aug 12 1944 – WW2: Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre » German troops of the 2nd Battalion of
SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 35 of 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS, commanded
by SS-Hauptsturmführer Anton Galler, entered the mountain village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema. With
them came some fascists of the 36th Brigata Nera Benito Mussolini based in Lucca, dressed in
German uniforms.
The soldiers immediately proceeded to round up villagers and refugees, locking up hundreds of
them in several barns and stables, before systematically executing them. The killings were done
mostly by shooting groups of people with machine guns or by herding them into basements and other
enclosed spaces and tossing in hand grenades. At the 16th-century local church, the priest Fiore
Menguzzo was shot at point-blank range, after which machine guns were then turned on some 100
people gathered there. In all, the victims included at least 107 children (the youngest of whom, Anna
Pardini, was only 20 days old), as well as eight pregnant women (one of whom, Evelina Berretti, had
her stomach cut with a bayonet and her baby pulled out and killed separately).
After other people were killed through the village, their corpses were set on fire at the church
from which the soldiers used its pews for a bonfire to dispose of the bodies. The livestock were also
exterminated and the whole village was burnt down. All this took three hours. The SS men then sat
down outside the burning Sant'Anna and ate lunch. In all 560 people were killed.

 Aug 12 1944 – WW2: Emperor Hirohito of Japan informs the imperial family that he has decided to
surrender.

 Aug 12 1948 – Post WW2: Court of justice sentences General Friedrich Christiansen, commander of
the German Wehrmacht in the Netherlands, to 12 years imprisonment.

 Aug 12 1948 – U.S. Navy: USS Nevada (BB-36), which served in both WWI and WWII, is struck
from the naval record. At the end of World War II, the Navy decided that Nevada was too old to be
retained, so they assigned it to be a target ship in the atomic experiments at Bikini Atoll in July 1946
(Operation Crossroads). The ship was hit by the blast from the first atomic bomb, Able, and was left

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 heavily damaged and radioactive. Unfit for further service, Nevada was decommissioned on 29
August 1946 and sunk for naval gunfire practice on 31 July 1948.

 Aug 12 1950 – Korean War: Bloody Gulch massacre - 75 American POWs are murdered by North
Korean Army.

 Aug 12 1952 – Korean War: The 4 day Battle of Bunker Hill (Hill 122) began. First Major Marine
Combat in Western Korean

 Aug 12 1952 – Cold War: Soviets test “Layer-Cake” bomb » Less than one year after the United
States tested its first hydrogen bomb, the Soviets detonate a 400-kiloton device in Kazakhstan. The
explosive power was 30 times that of the U.S. atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and the
mushroom cloud produced by it stretched five miles into the sky. Known as the “Layer Cake,” the
bomb was fueled by layers of uranium and lithium deuteride, a hydrogen isotope. The Soviet bomb
was smaller and more portable than the American hydrogen bomb, so its development once again
upped the ante in the dangerous nuclear arms race between the Cold War superpowers.

Shortly after the "BRAVO" test, Sakharov's team had the same idea of using radiation implosion.
Work on the "Layer Cake" design was halted. On November 22, 1955, the Soviet Union exploded its
first true hydrogen bomb at the Semipalatinsk test site. It had a yield of 1.6 megatons. This began a
series of Soviet hydrogen bomb tests culminating on October 23, 1961, with an explosion of about 58
megatons. Khrushchev boasted, "It could have been bigger, but then it might have broken all the
windows in Moscow, 4,000 miles away."

 Aug 12 1965 – Vietnam War: Henry Cabot Lodge sworn in as Ambassador to Vietnam » At the
swearing-in ceremony for the new Ambassador to Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge, President Johnson
proclaims that the United States would not continue to fight in Vietnam “if its help were not wanted
and requested.” The appointing of Lodge and the recall of former Ambassador Frederick Nolting, Jr.,
signaled a change in U.S. policy in South Vietnam. Lodge was a firm believer in the domino theory
and when he became convinced that the United States could not win in Vietnam with President Ngo
Dinh Diem, he became very critical of Diem’s regime in his dispatches back to Washington. Diem

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 was ultimately removed from office and assassinated during a coup by opposition South Vietnamese
generals that began on November 1, 1963. Diem and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, were assassinated
sometime after midnight on 2 NOV.

 Aug 12 1969 – Vietnam War: VC launch new offensive » Viet Cong forces launch a new
offensive with attacks on 150 cities, towns, and bases, including Da Nang and Hue. The heaviest
attacks were aimed at the area adjacent to the Cambodian border northwest of Saigon; an estimated
2,000 Communists attacked Tay Ninh, Quan Loi, Loc Ninh, and An Loc. Further north, North
Vietnamese commandos fought their way into the U.S. First Marine Division headquarters in Da
Nang. They were eventually driven out by the Marines, who killed 40 Communist soldiers, sustaining
five killed and 23 wounded in the process.

-o-o-O-o-o-

 Aug 13 1779 – American Revolution: Penobscot Expedition » This was a 44-ship American
naval armada mounted during the Revolutionary War by the Provincial Congress of the Province of
Massachusetts Bay. The flotilla of 19 warships and 25 smaller support vessels sailed from Boston on
July 19, 1779 for the upper Penobscot Bay in the District of Maine carrying an expeditionary force of
more than 1,000 colonial Marines and militiamen. Also included was a 100-man artillery detachment
under the command of Lt. Colonel Paul Revere. The Expedition's goal was to reclaim control of what
is now mid-coast Maine from the British who had seized it a month earlier and renamed it New
Ireland. It was the largest American naval expedition of the war. The fighting took place over a
period of three weeks in July and August on land and at sea,

Britain defending New Ireland from the Penobscot Expedition under command of British Commander George
Collier who destroyed the American Fleet

The Americans landed troops in late July and attempted to besiege Fort George in actions that
were seriously hampered by disagreements over control of the expedition between land forces
commander Brigadier General Solomon Lovell and the expedition commander, Commodore Dudley
Saltonstall, who was later dismissed from the Navy for ineptitude. For almost three weeks General
McLean held off the assault until a British relief fleet under the command of Sir George Collier
arrived from New York on 13 AUG, driving the American fleet to destruction up the Penobscot
River. The survivors of the American expedition were forced to make an overland journey back to
more populated parts of Massachusetts with minimal food and armament.
Contents

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 One of its greatest victories of the war for the British, the Expedition was also the United States'
worst naval defeat until Pearl Harbor 162 years later in 1941.

 Aug 13 1781 – American Revolution: Patriot forces led by Colonel William Harden and Brigadier
General Francis Marion, known as the “Swamp Fox,” lure British commander Major Thomas Fraser
and his 450 soldiers into an ambush at Parker’s Ferry, 30 miles northwest of Charleston, South
Carolina. Meanwhile, 3,000 soldiers set sail with the French fleet on their way to aid the Patriot
cause.

 Aug 13 1812– War of 1812: USS Essex Defeats the HMS Alert -- The USS Essex commanded by
Captain Porter encountered the British Sloop of war the Alert. The Essex clearly outgunned the Alert,
but the Alert commanded by Captain Laugharne hoped to get a jump on the Essex by being disguised
as a merchant ship.

32-gun sailing frigate USS Essex (left & capturing the HMS Alert (right)

The Essex was not fooled and was ready for the Alert when it approached. Porter maneuvered the
Essex to turn abruptly as the Alert made ready a volley, thus its volley landed feebly at sea, and the
Essex made ready a broadside. Within eight minutes the Alert struck its colors and became the first
British ship to be captured by the Americans in the war. On September 7th Porter and the Essex put in
at Delaware Bay in the course of its voyage the Essex had captured eight merchant vessels, one
warship and had captured 400 prisoners.

 Aug 13 1864 – Civil War: Deep Bottom Run (Strawberry Plains) campaign begins » Sensing a
weakness in the Confederate defenses around Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia, Union General
Ulysses S. Grant seeks to break the siege of Petersburg by concentrating his force against one section
of the Rebel trenches. However, Grant miscalculated, and the week-long operation at Deep Bottom
Run that began on 13 AUG failed to penetrate the Confederate defenses.
Grant was operating on the information that General Robert E. Lee, commander of the
Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, was sending part of his force to the Shenandoah Valley to
support General Jubal Early, who had spent the summer fending off Union forces and threatening
Washington, D.C. Without realizing that this information was false, Grant believed that a section of
the Confederate trenches around Deep Bottom Run, between Richmond and Petersburg, was now
lightly defended.

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 Grant shipped parts of three corps north across the James River on 13 AUG. Led by General
Winfield Scott Hancock, the plan called for a series of attacks along the Confederate fortifications.
Beginning on 14 AUG, the Yankees tried for six days to find a weakness. Although a Union force
broke through at Fussell’s Mill, a lack of reinforcements left the Federals vulnerable to a Confederate
attack, and the Rebels quickly restored the broken line.
The campaign cost 3,000 Union casualties and about 1,500 for the Confederates. The Southern
defensive network, stretching over 20 miles, remained intact, but the failed operation prevented Lee
from shipping troops to Early in the Shenandoah; Early would soon face defeat at the hands of a
larger Union force commanded by General Philip Sheridan.

 Aug 13 1898 – Spanish-American War: Battle of Manila » A land engagement which took place
in Manila this day at the end of the Spanish–American War, four months after the decisive victory by
Commodore Dewey's Asiatic Squadron at the Battle of Manila Bay. The belligerents were Spanish
forces led by Governor-General of the Philippines Fermín Jáudenes, and American forces led by
United States Army Brigadier General Wesley Merritt and United States Navy Commodore George
Dewey. American forces were supported by units of the Philippine Revolutionary Army, led by
Emilio Aguinaldo.
The battle is sometimes referred to as the "Mock Battle of Manila" because the local Spanish and
American generals, who were legally still at war, secretly and jointly planned the battle to transfer
control of the city center from the Spanish to the Americans while keeping the Philippine
Revolutionary Army, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, out of the city center. The battle left American forces
in control of Intramuros, the center of Manila, surrounded by Philippine revolutionary forces, creating
the conditions for the Battle of Manila of 1899 and the start of the Philippine–American War.

 Aug 13 1906 – U.S. Army: Brownsville affair » An incident of racial injustice that occurred in
1906 in the southwestern United States due to resentment by European-American residents of
Brownsville, Texas, of the Buffalo Soldiers, black soldiers in a segregated unit stationed at nearby
Fort Brown. When a European-American bartender was killed and a European-American police
officer wounded by gunshots one night, townspeople accused the members of the African-American
25th Infantry Regiment. Although their commanders said the soldiers had been in the barracks all
night, evidence was planted against the men.

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 As a result of a United States Army Inspector General's investigation, President Theodore
Roosevelt ordered the discharge without honor of 167 soldiers of the 25th Infantry Regiment, costing
them pensions and preventing them from ever serving in federal civil service jobs. The case aroused
national outrage in both black and white communities. After more investigation, several of the men
were allowed to re-enlist.
Following publication of a history of the affair in the early 1970s, a renewed military
investigation exonerated the discharged black troops. The government pardoned the men in 1972 and
restored their records to show honorable discharges, but it did not provide retroactive compensation
to them or their descendants. Only one man had survived to that time; Congress passed an act to
provide him with a tax-free pension. The other soldiers who had been expelled all received
posthumous honorable discharges.

 Aug 13 1918 – U.S. Marine Corps: Women enlist in the United States Marine Corps for the first
time. Opha Mae Johnson was the first of over 300 to enlist in the Marine Corps Reserve during WWI.

Opha Mae Johnson

Her early duties included clerking at Headquarters Marine Corps, managing the records of other
female reservists who joined after her. She was promoted to sergeant in September 1918, and was the
highest-ranking woman in the Corps during her time of service. She was a charter member of the
American Legion’s first post of woman’s Marine Corps reservists. After the war all military services
began steadily disenrolling woman from active service, and Johnson became a clerk in the War
Department, still working for the Marine Corps as a civil servant until retiring in 1943.

 Aug 13 1918 – WWI: Five days after an Allied attack at Amiens, France, German commander Erich
Ludendorff declares “the black day of the German army”. The day before Ludendorff and Paul von
Hindenburg, chief of the German army’s general staff, had told the new naval chief, Admiral
Reinhardt Scheer, that Germany’s only hope to win the war was through submarine warfare. “There
is no more hope for the offensive,” the downtrodden Ludendorff told a staff member. “The generals
have lost their foothold.”

 Aug 13 1918 – WWI: Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany summons his principal political and military
leaders to a crown council at Spa, a resort town in Belgium, to assess the status of the German war

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 effort during the war. Commander Erich Ludendorff recommends that Germany initiate immediate
peace negotiations. Ludendorff failed, however, to present the true extent of the military’s
disadvantage on the battlefield; instead, he blamed revolt and anti-war sentiment on the home front
for the military’s inability to continue the war effort indefinitely.

 Aug 13 1918 – WWI: German crown council meets at Spa, Belgium » Five days after an Allied
attack at Amiens, France, leads German commander Erich Ludendorff to declare “the black day of the
German army,” Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany summons his principal political and military leaders to
a crown council at Spa, a resort town in Belgium, to assess the status of the German war effort during
World War I.

Erich Ludendorff Kaiser Wilhelm II Paul von Hindenburg Reinhardt Scheer Paul von Hintze

On 11 AUG, after the Allied victory at Amiens kicked off a new Allied offensive on the Western
Front, Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg, chief of the German army’s general staff, told the new
naval chief, Admiral Reinhardt Scheer, that Germany’s only hope to win the war was through
submarine warfare. “There is no more hope for the offensive,” the downtrodden Ludendorff told a
staff member on 12 AUG. “The generals have lost their foothold.”
At the crown council assembled on August 13-14 by the Kaiser at Spa, where the German High
Command had its headquarters, Ludendorff recommended that Germany initiate immediate peace
negotiations. Ludendorff failed, however, to present the true extent of the military’s disadvantage on
the battlefield; instead, he blamed revolt and anti-war sentiment on the home front for the military’s
inability to continue the war effort indefinitely. Meanwhile, the chief military adviser to Austrian
Emperor Karl I informed Wilhelm that Austria-Hungary could only continue its participation in the
war until that December. Though the Kaiser thought it advisable to seek an intermediary to begin
peace negotiations, his newly appointed foreign minister, Paul von Hintze, refused to take such an
approach until another German victory on the battlefield had been achieved. Hintze, working on
suppressing discontent and rebellion within the German government, told party leaders the following
week that “there was no reason to doubt ultimate victory. We shall be vanquished only when we
doubt that we shall win.”
Meanwhile, on the battlefront in Flanders, Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, one of the German
army’s most senior commanders, wrote of his own doubt to Prince Max of Baden (the kaiser’s second
cousin, who would become chancellor of Germany the following October): “Our military situation
has deteriorated so rapidly that I no longer believe we can hold out over the winter; it is even possible
that a catastrophe will come earlier….The Americans are multiplying in a way we never dreamed
of….At the present time there are already thirty-one American divisions in France.” The Allied

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 commanders, for their part, pushed their troops forward on the Western Front and made aggressive
preparations for future offensives in 1919, unaware that victory would come before the year was out.

 Aug 13 1940 – WW2: The Battle of Britain escalates » German aircraft begin the bombing of
southern England, and the Battle of Britain, which will last until 31 OCT, escalates.

The Germans called it “the Day of the Eagle,” the first day of the Luftwaffe’s campaign to destroy
the RAF, the British Royal Air Force, and knock out British radar stations, in preparation for
Operation Sea Lion, the amphibious invasion of Britain. Almost 1,500 German aircraft took off the
first day of the air raid, and 45 were shot down. Britain lost 13 fighters in the air and another 47 on
the ground. But most important for the future, the Luftwaffe managed to take out only one radar
station, on the Isle of Wight, and damage five others. This was considered more trouble than it was
worth by Herman Goering, commander of the Luftwaffe, who decided to forgo further targeting of
British radar stations because “not one of those attacked so far has been put out of operation.”
Historians agree that this was a monumental mistake on the part of the Germans. Had Goering and
the Luftwaffe persisted in attacking British radar, the RAF would not have been able to get the
information necessary to successfully intercept incoming German bombers. “Here, early in the battle,
we get a glimpse of fuddled thinking at the highest level in the German camp,” comments historian
Peter Fleming. Even the Blitz, the intensive and successive bombing of London that would begin in
the last days of the Battle of Britain, could not compensate for such thinking. There would be no
Operation Sea Lion. There would be no invasion of Britain. The RAF would not be defeated.

 Aug 13 1942 – WW2: The 'Manhattan Project' commences » Major General Eugene Reybold of
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorizes the construction of facilities that would house the
"Development of Substitute Materials" project, better known as the Manhattan Project. This was the
codename for the American effort to develop and test nuclear weapons during World War II. Run by
General Leslie Groves, the construction of the actual bomb was overseen by Robert Oppenheimer,
who was head of the Los Alamos Laboratory where it was developed.

Oak Ridge K-25 plant, Hanford B Reactor, and S-50 Plant

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 In 1939 a letter written by Leo Szilard and signed by Albert Einstein was delivered to US
President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The letter urged the United States to develop uranium stockpiles and
commence research efforts, especially as Nazi Germany might do the same. Two bomb types were
developed: Little Boy, a uranium bomb, and Fat Man, a plutonium bomb. The work was carried out
with extreme secrecy; many of those working on the project had no idea what they were working
towards. Despite the security, Soviet spies managed to penetrate the project, and were aware that the
US had developed the bomb.
On July 16, 1945, the Trinity test became the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. Less than a
month later, President Harry Truman authorized the use of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, to date the only use of nuclear weapons in history. The bombs brought about the quick end
of WWII without the need for a catastrophic invasion of Japan, but with an exceptionally high loss of
civilian life in the two destroyed cities.

 Aug 13 1944 – WW2: USS Flier (SS–250) sunk by a Japanese mine south of Palawan in Balabac
Strait. 78 killed, 8 survived and were rescued.

 Aug 13 1948 – Cold War: Record day for the Berlin Airlift » Responding to increasing Soviet
pressure on western Berlin, U.S. and British planes airlift a record amount of supplies into sections of
the city under American and British control. The massive resupply effort, carried out in weather so
bad that some pilots referred to it as “Black Friday,” signaled that the British and Americans would
not give in to the Soviet blockade of western Berlin.
Berlin, like all of Germany, was divided into zones of occupation following World War II. The
Russians, Americans, and British all received a zone, with the thought being that the occupation
would be only temporary and that Germany would eventually be reunited. By 1948, however, Cold
War animosities between the Soviets and the Americans and British had increased to such a degree
that it became obvious that German reunification was unlikely. In an effort to push the British and
Americans out of their zones of occupation in western Berlin, the Soviets began to interfere with road
and rail traffic into those parts of the city in April 1948. (Though divided into zones of occupation,
the city of Berlin was geographically located entirely within the Russian occupation area in
Germany.)
In June 1948, the Russians halted all ground and water travel into western Berlin. The Americans
and British responded with a massive airlift to supply the people in their Berlin zones of occupation
with food, medicine, and other necessities. It was a daunting logistical effort, and meant nearly round-
the-clock flights in and out of western Berlin. August 13, 1948, was a particularly nasty day, with
terrible weather compounding the crowded airspace and exhaustion of the pilots and crews.
Nevertheless, over 700 British and American planes landed in western Berlin, bringing in nearly
5,000 tons of supplies.
The joint British-American effort on what came to known as “Black Friday” was an important
victory for two reasons. First and foremost, it reassured the people of western Berlin that the two
nations were not backing down from their promise to defend the city from the Soviets. Second, it was
another signal that the Soviet blockade was not only unsuccessful but was also backfiring into a
propaganda nightmare. While the Soviets looked like bullies and heartless despots for their efforts to

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 starve western Berlin into submission, the British and Americans–flaunting their technological
superiority–were portrayed as heroes by the worldwide audience.

 Aug 13 1961 – Cold War: Berlin is divided » Shortly after midnight on this day, East German
soldiers begin laying down barbed wire and bricks as a barrier between Soviet-controlled East Berlin
and the democratic western section of the city.
After World War II, defeated Germany was divided into Soviet, American, British and French
zones of occupation. The city of Berlin, though technically part of the Soviet zone, was also split,
with the Soviets taking the eastern part of the city. After a massive Allied airlift in June 1948 foiled a
Soviet attempt to blockade West Berlin, the eastern section was drawn even more tightly into the
Soviet fold. Over the next 12 years, cut off from its western counterpart and basically reduced to a
Soviet satellite, East Germany saw between 2.5 million and 3 million of its citizens head to West
Germany in search of better opportunities. By 1961, some 1,000 East Germans–including many
skilled laborers, professionals and intellectuals–were leaving every day.

In August, Walter Ulbricht, the Communist leader of East Germany, got the go-ahead from Soviet
Premier Nikita Khrushchev to begin the sealing off of all access between East and West Berlin.
Soldiers began the work over the night of August 12-13, laying more than 100 miles of barbed wire
slightly inside the East Berlin border. The wire was soon replaced by a six-foot-high, 96-mile-long
wall of concrete blocks, complete with guard towers, machine gun posts and searchlights. East
German officers known as Volkspolizei (“Volpos”) patrolled the Berlin Wall day and night.
Many Berlin residents on that first morning found themselves suddenly cut off from friends or
family members in the other half of the city. Led by their mayor, Willi Brandt, West Berliners
demonstrated against the wall, as Brandt criticized Western democracies, particularly the United
States, for failing to take a stand against it. President John F. Kennedy had earlier said publicly that
the United States could only really help West Berliners and West Germans, and that any kind of
action on behalf of East Germans would only result in failure.
The Berlin Wall was one of the most powerful and iconic symbols of the Cold War. In June 1963,
Kennedy gave his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” (“I am a Berliner”) speech in front of the Wall,
celebrating the city as a symbol of freedom and democracy in its resistance to tyranny and
oppression. The height of the Wall was raised to 10 feet in 1970 in an effort to stop escape attempts,
which at that time came almost daily. From 1961 to 1989, a total of 5,000 East Germans escaped;
many more tried and failed. High profile shootings of some would-be defectors only intensified the
Western world’s hatred of the Wall.

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 Finally, in the late 1980s, East Germany, fueled by the decline of the Soviet Union, began to
implement a number of liberal reforms. On November 9, 1989, masses of East and West Germans
alike gathered at the Berlin Wall and began to climb over and dismantle it. As this symbol of Cold
War repression was destroyed, East and West Germany became one nation again, signing a formal
treaty of unification on October 3, 1990.

 Aug 13 1966 – Vietnam War: Prince Norodom Sihanouk criticizes the U.S. » The Ruler of neutral
Cambodia, criticizes the United States about the attack on Thlock Track, a Cambodian village close
to the South Vietnamese border. Sihanouk routinely challenged the United States and its South
Vietnamese allies for border violations, but tacitly permitted communist forces to use his territory for
transit, supply dumps and base areas. In the United States, General William C. Westmoreland,
Commander of Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) met with President Johnson at his
ranch in Texas to provide the general’s personal assessment of allied progress in the war, reporting
that advances were being made against the communist insurgents.

 Aug 13 1966 – Vietnam War: General William C. Westmoreland, Commander of Military

Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) met with President Johnson at his ranch in Texas to provide
the general’s personal assessment of allied progress in the war, reporting that advances were being
made against the communist insurgents.

 Aug 13 1972 – Vietnam War: Sappers raid Long Binh ammo dump » Communist sappers
(demolitions specialists) attack the ammo dump at Long Binh, destroying thousands of tons of
ammunition. Some observers said that the Communists might have been reverting to guerrilla tactics
due to the overall failure of the Nguyen Hue Offensive that had been launched in March.

 Aug 13 1972– Vietnam War: Ex-U.S. Army Captain J. E. Engstrom says that a military report he
helped prepare in 1971, estimating that 25 percent of the lower-ranking enlisted men in Vietnam were
addicted to heroin, was suppressed and replaced by a “watered-down” version considered more
acceptable to the U.S. command.

 Aug 13 1978 – Palestinian Insurgency: Beirut Lebanon bombing » A bomb destroys an office
building in West Beirut housing the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Front, killing more than
175 people and injuring another 80. The bombing was allegedly carried out by the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine – General Command.

-o-o-O-o-o-

 Aug 14 1842 – Seminole Wars: Second Seminole War » The war, also known as the Florida War,
was a conflict from 1835 to 1842 in Florida between various groups of Native Americans collectively
known as Seminoles and the United States, part of a series of conflicts called the Seminole Wars. The
Second Seminole War, often referred to as the Seminole War, is regarded as "the longest and most
costly of the Indian conflicts of the United States. Casualties and losses: US 1,600 military, civilians
UNK – Seminoles UNK. Unsubstantiated estimates of US$30,000,000 to $40,000,000 have been
given. After they has been defeated by Col. William Jenkins Worth, commander of Army forces in

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 Florida, he recommended that the remaining Seminoles be left in peace if they would stay in southern
Florida. Worth eventually received authorization to leave the remaining Seminoles on an informal
reservation in southwestern Florida, and to declare an end to the war on a date of his choosing which
was 14 APR. However, subsequently all but around 300 were removed from Florida to Oklahoma.

 Aug 14 1862 – Civil War: Confederate invasion of Kentucky begins » Confederate General
Edmund Kirby Smith begins an invasion of Kentucky as part of a Confederate plan to draw the
Yankee army of General Don Carlos Buell away from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and to raise support
for the Southern cause in Kentucky.

Generals Edmund Kirby Smith, Don Carlos Buell, and Braxton Bragg

Smith led 10,000 troops out of Knoxville, Tennessee, on 14 AUG and moved toward the
Cumberland Gap—the first step in the Confederate invasion of Kentucky. After a Federal force
evacuated the pass in the face of the invasion, Smith continued north. On 30 AUG, he encountered a
more significant force at Richmond, Kentucky. In a decisive battle, the Confederates routed the
Yankees and captured most of the 6,000-man army. The Confederates occupied Lexington a few days
later.
General Braxton Bragg, who moved into Kentucky from Chattanooga, routed a small Union force
and sat on Buell’s supply line. He later linked to Smith’s force. In September, Buell followed the
Confederates northward. The major encounter in the campaign would come on October 8, when Buell
would defeat Bragg’s army at Perryville, Kentucky. After Perryville, Bragg and Smith retreated back
to Tennessee. They succeeded in drawing Buell away from Chattanooga, but they lost the contest for
Kentucky.

 Aug 14 1900 – Boxer Rebellion: Peking relieved by multinational force » During the Boxer
Rebellion, an international force featuring British, Russian, American, Japanese, French, and German
troops relieves the Chinese capital of Peking after fighting its way 80 miles from the port of Tientsin.
The Chinese nationalists besieging Peking’s diplomatic quarter were crushed, and the Boxer
Rebellion effectively came to an end.
By the end of the 19th century, the Western powers and Japan had forced China’s ruling Ch’ing
dynasty to accept wide foreign control over the country’s economic affairs. In the Opium Wars,
popular rebellions, and the Sino-Japanese War, China had fought to resist the foreigners, but it lacked
a modernized military and millions died.
In 1898, Tz’u Hsi, the dowager empress, gained control of the Chinese government in a
conservative coup against the Emperor Kuang-hsu, her adoptive son and an advocate of reforms. Tz’u
Hsi had previously served as ruler of China in various regencies and was deeply anti-foreign in her

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 ideology. In 1899, her court began to secretly support the anti-foreign rebels known as the I Ho
Ch’uan, or the “Righteous and Harmonious Fists.”
The I Ho Ch’uan was a secret society formed with the original goal of expelling the foreigners
and overthrowing the Ch’ing dynasty. The group practiced a ritualistic form of martial arts that they
believed gave them supernatural powers and made them impervious to bullets. After witnessing these
fighting displays, Westerners named members of the society “Boxers.” Most Boxers came from
northern China, where natural calamities and foreign aggression in the late 1890s had ruined the
economy. The ranks of the I Ho Ch’uan swelled with embittered peasants who directed their anger
against Christian converts and foreign missionaries, whom they saw as a threat to their traditional
ways and blamed for their misery.
After the dowager empress returned to power, the Boxers pushed for an alliance with the imperial
court against the foreigners. Tz’u Hsi gave her tacit support to their growing violence against the
Westerners and their institutions, and some officials incorporated the Boxers into local militias. Open
attacks on missionaries and Chinese Christians began in late 1899, and by May 1900 bands of Boxers
had begun gathering in the countryside around Peking. In spite of threats by the foreign powers, the
empress dowager began openly supporting the Boxers.
In early June, an international relief force of 2,000 soldiers was dispatched by Western and
Japanese authorities from the port of Tientsin to Peking. The empress dowager ordered Imperial
forces to block the advance of the foreigners, and the relief force was turned back. Meanwhile, the
Peking-Tientsin railway line and other railroads were destroyed by the Chinese. On 13 JUN, the
Boxers, now some 140,000 strong, moved into Peking and began burning churches and foreign
residences. On 17 JUN, the foreign powers seized forts between Tientsin and Peking, and the next
day Tz’u Hsi called on all Chinese to attack foreigners. On 20 JUN, the German ambassador Baron
von Ketteler was killed and the Boxers began besieging the foreign legations in the diplomatic quarter
of the Chinese capital.
As the foreign powers organized a multinational force to crush the rebellion, the siege of the
Peking legations stretched into weeks, and the diplomats, their families, and guards suffered through
hunger and degrading conditions as they fought desperately to keep the Boxers at bay. Eventually, an
expedition of 19,000 multinational troops pushed their way to Peking after fighting two major battles
against the Boxers. On 14 AUG, the eight-nation allied relief force captured Peking and liberated the
legations. The foreign troops looted the city and routed the Boxers, while the empress and her court
fled to the north. The victorious powers began work on a peace settlement.
Due to mutual jealousies between the nations, it was agreed that China would not be partitioned
further, and in September 1901 the Peking Protocol was signed, formally ending the Boxer Rebellion.
By the terms of agreement, the foreign nations received extremely favorable commercial treaties with
China, foreign troops were permanently stationed in Peking, and China was forced to pay $333
million as penalty for its rebellion. China was effectively a subject nation. The Boxers had failed to
expel the foreigners, but their rebellion set the stage for the successful Chinese revolutions of the 20th
century.

 Aug 14 1912 – U.S.*Nicaragua: United States Marines invade Nicaragua to support the U.S.-
backed government installed there after José Santos Zelaya had resigned three years earlier.

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 Aug 14 1917 – WWI: As World War I enters its fourth year, China abandons its neutrality and
declares war on Germany. China’s major aim was to earn itself a place at the post-war bargaining
table. Above all, China sought to regain control over the vital Shantung Peninsula and to reassert its
strength before Japan, its most important adversary and rival for control in the region.

 Aug 14 1944 – WW2: Battle of Normandy Operation Tractable (14-25 AUG) » In conjunction
with American movements northward to Chambois, Canadian forces launched Operation Tractable;
the Allied intention was to trap and destroy the German 7th Army and 5th Panzer Army near the
French town of Falaise. Five days later, the two arms of the encirclement were almost complete; the
advancing U.S. 90th Infantry Division had made contact with the Polish 1st Armored Division and
the first Allied units crossed the Seine at Mantes Gassicourt, while German units were fleeing
eastward by any means they could find.
By 22 AUG, the Falaise Pocket—which the Germans had been fighting desperately to keep open
to allow their trapped forces to escape—was finally sealed, ending the Battle of Normandy with a
major Allied victory. All German forces west of the Allied lines were now dead or in captivity and
although perhaps 100,000 German troops escaped they left behind 40,000–50,000 prisoners and more
than 10,000 dead in the Battle of Normandy. A total of 344 tanks and self-propelled guns, 2,447 soft-
skinned vehicles and 252 artillery pieces were found abandoned or destroyed in the northern sector of
the pocket. The Allies were able to advance freely through undefended territory and by 25 AUG all
four Allied armies (First Canadian, Second British, First U.S., and Third U.S.) involved in the
Normandy campaign were on the river Seine.

 Aug 14 1945 – WW2: Japan’s surrender made public » In the afternoon Japanese radio
announced that an Imperial Proclamation was soon to be made, accepting the terms of unconditional
surrender drawn up at the Potsdam Conference. That proclamation had already been recorded by the
emperor. The news did not go over well, as more than 1,000 Japanese soldiers stormed the Imperial
Palace in an attempt to find the proclamation and prevent its being transmitted to the Allies. Soldiers
still loyal to Emperor Hirohito repulsed the attackers. That evening, General Anami, the member of
the War Council most adamant against surrender, committed suicide. His reason: to atone for the
Japanese army’s defeat, and to be spared having to hear his emperor speak the words of surrender.

Emperor Hirohito & Gen. Korechika Anami

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 Even though Japan’s War Council, urged by Emperor Hirohito, had already submitted a formal
declaration of surrender to the Allies, via ambassadors, on 10 AUG, fighting continued between the
Japanese and the Soviets in Manchuria and between the Japanese and the United States in the South
Pacific. In fact, two days after the Council agreed to surrender, a Japanese submarine sank the Oak
Hill, an American landing ship, and the Thomas F. Nickel, an American destroyer, both east of
Okinawa.

 Aug 14 1947 – Great Britain*Pakistan: Pakistan gains independence from Great Britain.

 Aug 14 1964 – Vietnam War: Hanoi prepares for more air attacks » Hanoi is reported to be
holding air-raid drills for fear of more U.S. attacks in the wake of the Pierce Arrow retaliatory raids
that had been flown in response to the Gulf of Tonkin incident. The North Vietnamese government
urged all civilians with nonessential posts to leave the city. In ground action, ARVN troops ambushed
a Viet Cong unit south of Saigon. Meanwhile, Viet Cong guerrillas attacked three hamlets in the Vinh
Binh Province along the coast in the Mekong Delta. A U.S. helicopter crashed 50 miles northwest of
Saigon, killing three U.S. airmen.

 Aug 14 1965 – Vietnam War: Seventh Marines land at Chu Lai » The advance units of the
Seventh Marines land at Chu Lai, bringing U.S. Marine strength in South Vietnam to four regiments
and four air groups. The Marines were given the responsibility of conducting operations in southern I
Corps and northern II Corps, just south of the Demilitarized Zone. Hanoi Radio broadcasted an
appeal to American troops, particularly African Americans, to “get out.” This was purportedly a
message from an American defector from the Korean War living in Peking. In South Korea, the
National Assembly approved sending troops to fight in South Vietnam; in exchange for sending one
combat division to Vietnam, the United States agreed to equip five South Korean divisions.

 Aug 14 1965 – Vietnam War: Hanoi Radio broadcasted an appeal to American troops, particularly
African Americans, to “get out.” This was purportedly a message from an American defector from
the Korean War living in Peking.

 Aug 14 1965 – Vietnam War: In South Korea, the National Assembly approved sending troops to
fight in South Vietnam; in exchange for sending one combat division to Vietnam, the United States
agreed to equip five South Korean divisions.

 Aug 14 1972 – Vietnam War: Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark reports after his tour of
North Vietnam with the International Commission of Inquiry into U.S. War Crimes in Indochina, that
if Democratic candidate George McGovern were elected president in November, all U.S. POWs
would be freed by North Vietnam within three months. He further reported that the POWs he
interviewed during his trip were “unquestionably… well treated” and that he saw damage to North
Vietnam’s dikes in at least six places, and other extensive destruction in nonmilitary areas.

 Aug 14 1973 – Vietnam War: U.S. Bombing of Cambodia Ceases » After several days of intense
bombing in support of Lon Nol’s forces fighting the communist Khmer Rouge in the area around
Phnom Penh, Operations Arc Light and Freedom Deal end as the United States ceases bombing

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 Cambodia at midnight. This was in accordance with June Congressional legislation passed in June
and ended 12 years of combat activity in Indochina. President Nixon denounced Congress for cutting
off the funding for further bombing operations, saying that it had undermined the “prospects for
world peace.” The United States continued unarmed reconnaissance flights and military aid to
Cambodia, but ultimately the Khmer Rouge prevailed in 1975.

 Aug 14 1980 – Cold War: Workers in Gdansk, Poland, seize the Lenin Shipyard and demand pay
raises and the right to form a union free from communist control. The massive strike also saw the rise
to prominence of labor leader Lech Walesa, who would be a key figure in bringing an end to
communist rule in Poland.

 Aug 14 2013 – WW2: National Navajo Code Talkers Day.

-o-o-O-o-o-

 Aug 15 1780 – American Revolution: “Swamp Fox” routs loyalists » American Lieutenant
Colonel Francis Marion, the “Swamp Fox,” and his irregular cavalry force of 250 rout a party of
Loyalists commanded by Major Micajah Gainey at Port’s Ferry, South Carolina. Meanwhile, General
Horatio Gates’ men consumed half-baked bread, which sickened them overnight and contributed to
their disastrous performance at the Battle of Camden, also in South Carolina, the following day.
Marion, a mere five feet tall, won fame and the “Swamp Fox” moniker for his ability to strike and
then quickly retreat without a trace into the South Carolina swamps. Famed as the only senior
Continental officer to escape the British following the fall of Charleston on May 12, 1780, his
military strategy is considered an 18th-century example of guerilla warfare and served as partial
inspiration for Mel Gibson’s character in the film The Patriot (2000).

Col. Francis Marion Horatio Gates Thomas Sumter Nathaniel Greene

Marion took over the South Carolina militia force first assembled by Thomas Sumter in 1780.
Sumter, the other inspiration for Mel Gibson’s character in the film, returned Carolina Loyalists’
terror tactics in kind after Loyalists burned his plantation. When Sumter withdrew from active
fighting to care for a wound, Marion replaced him and joined forces with Major General Nathaniel
Greene, who arrived in the Carolinas to lead the Continental forces in October 1780.
Greene was given the Southern command after Gates’ poor decision to fight the British with his
ailing troops at Camden. After suffering over the night of 15 AUG with diarrhea, Gates engaged the
British on the morning of 16 AUG. Although the Continentals outnumbered the British two to one,
the encounter was a disaster for the Patriots, leaving 900 men dead and 1,000 as British captives.

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 Aug 15 1812 – War of 1812: Battle of Fort Dearborn » This was an engagement between United
States troops and Potawatomi Native Americans near Fort Dearborn in what is now Chicago, Illinois.
It immediately followed the evacuation of the fort as ordered by the commander of the United States
Army of the Northwest, William Hull. The battle lasted about 15 minutes and resulted in a complete
victory for the Native Americans. Afterwards, Fort Dearborn was burned down. Some of the soldiers
and settlers who had been taken captive were later ransomed. Following the battle, the federal
government became convinced that all Indians had to be removed from the territory and the vicinity
of any settlements, as settlers continued to migrate to the area. The fort was rebuilt in 1816.
Casualties and losses: Indians 15 - US 93.

 Aug 15 1861 – Civil War: Just months after he surrendered Fort Sumter, South Carolina, Union
General Robert Anderson is named commander of the Department of Kentucky. Released by
Confederates nearly six weeks after the surrender of Fort Sumter, Anderson was promoted to
brigadier general. As Department of Kentucky Commander he carefully maintained the balance of
neutrality in the state. But poor health forced him to resign his command two months later, and
William T. Sherman replaced him. Anderson returned to active duty briefly in 1865 to hoist the
American flag over Fort Sumter after the Confederate surrender.

 Aug 15 1914 – WWI: Japan gives ultimatum to Germany » The government of Japan sends an
ultimatum to Germany, demanding the removal of all German ships from Japanese and Chinese
waters and the surrender of control of Tsingtao—the location of Germany’s largest overseas naval
bases, located on China’s Shantung Peninsula—to Japan by noon on 23 AUG.
The previous 6 AUG, the day after Britain entered World War I against Germany, the British
foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, had requested limited naval assistance from the Japanese navy in
hunting down armed German merchant ships. Japan gladly agreed, seeing the war as a great
opportunity to pursue its own interests in the Far East. As one Japanese statesman, Inoue Karou, put
it, the war was “divine aid…for the development of the destiny of Japan.” Thus the Japanese hurried
to honor their 1902 alliance agreement with Britain, serving Germany with its ultimatum on August
15.

Japanese WWI battleship Siege of Tsingtao

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 “We consider it highly important and necessary in the present situation to take measures to remove
the causes of all disturbance of peace in the Far East,” the ultimatum began, “and to safeguard general
interest as contemplated in the Agreement of Alliance between Japan and Great Britain.” When
Germany did not respond, Japan declared war on 23 AUG; its navy immediately began preparing an
assault against Tsingtao. With Britain contributing two battalions to Japan’s force of 60,000, the
Japanese approached the naval base across China, breaching that country’s neutrality. On 7 NOV, the
German garrison at Tsingtao surrendered, and Japanese troops were home by the end of the year.
The most important initial result of Japan’s entry into World War I on the side of the Allies was to
free a great number of Russian forces from having to defend against Germany from the east. For his
part, Japan’s foreign minister, Kato Tataki, would skillfully use World War I to redefine his country’s
relationship with its most important rival, China, and to assert its supremacy in the Far East. Forcing
an internally divided China to submit to the majority of the humiliating 21 Demands in early 1915,
Kato extended Japan’s control over the Shantung Peninsula and indirectly over the rest of China. The
Japanese economy began to boom during wartime, largely on the strength of the exploitation of
Chinese raw materials and labor. As part of the post-war settlement at Versailles, Japan was given
control of the Pacific Islands formerly under German rule, and allowed to maintain its hold on
Shantung, at least until Chinese sovereignty was restored in 1922.
Japan’s aggressive actions against China and quick economic expansion during World War I—
while the great powers of Europe were occupied elsewhere—would have far-reaching effects over the
course of the 20th century. Over the coming years, ambitious militarist leaders would assert their hold
ever more strongly on the Japanese government and its powerful economy, clashing brutally with
China and other rivals in the Far East while readying themselves for another great struggle many of
them had long anticipated: between Japan and the United States.

 Aug 15 1914 – The American steamer SS Ankon, the first ship to officially go through the locks of
the Panama Canal, transits the canal as part of the ceremony opening the canal Aug. 15, 1914. Ancon
was later purchased by the Navy in 1918, USS Ancon (ID-1467) was used to bring U.S. troops home
after World War I.

 Aug 15 1942 – WW2: Operation Pedestal » This was a British operation to get desperately
needed supplies to the island of Malta in August 1942. Malta was the base from which surface ships,
submarines and aircraft attacked Axis convoys carrying essential supplies to the Italian and German
armies in North Africa. In 1941–42, Malta was effectively under siege, blockaded by Axis air and
naval forces. To sustain Malta, the United Kingdom had to get convoys through at all costs. Despite
serious losses, just enough supplies were delivered for Malta to survive, although it ceased to be an
effective offensive base for much of 1942. The most crucial supply was fuel delivered by the SS
Ohio, an American-built tanker with a British crew.
The operation started on 9 August 1942, when the convoy sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar.
The convoy was also known as the "Battle of Mid-August" in Italy and as the Konvoj ta' Santa Marija
in Malta. The arrival of the last ships of the convoy on 15 August 1942, coincided with the Feast of
the Assumption (Santa Marija) and the name Santa Marija Convoy or Sta Marija Convoy is still used.
That day's public holiday and celebrations, in part, celebrate the arrival of the convoy. The attempt to
run fifty ships past bombers, E-boats, minefields, and submarines has gone down in military history

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 as one of the most important British strategic victories of the Second World War. However, it was at
a cost of more than 400 lives, with only five of the original fourteen merchant ships reaching the
Grand Harbour at Malta

 Aug 15 1942 – WW2: The Japanese submarine I–25 departs Japan with a floatplane in its hold which
will be assembled upon arriving off the West Coast and used to bomb U.S. forests.

 Aug 15 1943 – WW2: Battle of Kiska: Operation Cottage » Having learned bitter lessons at
Attu, American commanders made certain that their soldiers had better equipment and proper
clothing for the assault on Kiska where they expected to encounter several times as many Japanese
troops as they’d faced on Attu. However, when U.S. ships arrived at Kiska this day the weather was
strangely clear and the seas quiet, and the invasion force of 34,426 Canadian and American troops
landed unopposed. Then, after several days of scouring the island, they discovered that the Japanese
had evacuated the entire garrison on 28 JUL under cover of fog. On 24 AUG when U.S. troops
declared Kiska Island secure, the Battle of the Aleutian Islands ended. Allied casualties nevertheless
numbered 313 as the result of friendly fire, booby traps, disease, or frostbite. As with Attu, Kiska
offered an extremely hostile environment.
Following its defeat in the Aleutians, the Japanese navy reassigned some of its Pacific forces to
defend Japan’s northern flank against a possible American invasion from the Alaskan Peninsula. This
decision removed a significant number of Japanese troops and resources that might otherwise have
been committed to resisting U.S. forces in the South Pacific that were then island-hopping toward
Japan. To fuel Japan’s perception that it was threatened from the U.S. Northwest, American planes in
the Aleutians conducted occasional bombing raids against Japan’s Kuril Islands, which lie between
Japan and Alaska. Two years after the Battle of the Aleutian Islands, Japan formally surrendered to
the Allies on September 2, 1945, effectively ending World War II.

 Aug 15 1943 – WW2: Battle of Vella Lavella island » This battle was fought 15 August thru 6
October 1943 between Japan and the Allied forces from New Zealand and the United States. Vella
Lavella, an island located in the Solomon Islands, had been occupied by Japanese forces early during
the war in the Pacific.
Japanese forces, after losing the battle for the airfield in the fighting around Munda Point,
abandoned New Georgia entirely and redeployed to defend nearby Kolombangara Island. The Allies
recaptured Vella Lavella in late 1943, following their decision to bypass the large concentration of
Japanese troops on the island of Kolombangara. US troops landed at Barakoma on 15 AUG and
advanced along the coasts, pushing the Japanese north. In September, New Zealand troops took over
from the Americans and they continued to advance across the island, hemming the small Japanese
garrison along the north coast. On 6 OCT, the Japanese began an evacuation operation to withdraw
the remaining troops, during which the Naval Battle of Vella Lavella was fought. Following the
capture of the island, the Allies developed it into an important airbase which was used in the
reduction of main Japanese base at Rabaul.

 Aug 15 1944 – WW2: Operation Dragoon » Allied forces land in southern France. The invasion
by 60,000 troops between Cannes and Toulon was initiated via a parachute drop by the 1st Airborne

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 Task Force, followed by an amphibious assault by elements of the United States Seventh Army,
followed a day later by a force made up primarily of the French First Army. It was Allies first use of
“baby aircraft carriers,” LSTs (landing ship, tank) with flight decks added for liaison aircraft.
Operation Dragoon is often forgotten, but it was vital to the war effort. The D-Day landings in
Normandy had been successful, but the vast motorized Allied armies needed mountains of supplies,
which required good ports. When the US Seventh Army landed along the poorly defended French
Riviera, Gen. Alexander Patch’s masterful leadership led to swift victory. By the end of August the
crucial ports of Marseille and Toulon were in Allied hands, and within one short month of the
landings, the Dragoon forces had linked with the Overlord forces. The landing caused the German
Army Group G to abandon southern France and to retreat under constant Allied attacks to the Vosges
Mountains.

 Aug 15 1944 – WW2: Battle of Port Cros » The Devil’s Brigade was landed on the island of Port
Cros to secure it from the Germans in advance of the main landings of Operation Dragoon. The island
held five fortifications which housed guns heavy enough to bombard the invasion beaches, and the
Devil’s Brigade seized them all in a day’s fighting, three of the forts by assaulting them. The other two
surrendered without resistance. The action by the Devil’s Brigade was conducted simultaneously with
attacks on other islands of the Hyeres, and were instrumental to the success of the landings on the
beaches.
Earlier that same day USS Somers was patrolling the waters of the Hyeres off of Port Cros when it
encountered two enemy warships. One was a former corvette of the Italian Navy, built as primarily an
anti-submarine platform, though equipped with guns for a surface action against smaller ships. It was
being operated by the German Kriegsmarine. The other was a French aviso, also operated by the
Kriegsmarine, and armed for a surface engagement. Somers, an American destroyer, was part of the
support fleet for Operation Dragoon, which was scheduled to begin with the commando actions about
four hours following contact.
USS Somers attacked the former Italian ship with a spread of torpedoes, one of which struck the
enemy vessel. The Germans were unfamiliar with much of the damage control procedures of the
Italian built ship, and the vessel began to founder quickly. The formerly French vessel attempted to
come to its rescue when it was taken under fire by Somers’ deck guns. The Germans returned fire, but
their vessel was hit several times, and it too began to sink. Somers patrolled the area for a few more
hours against the possibility of German e-boat intervention against the Devil’s Brigade action, before
returning to the main body of the invasion fleet.
The action between USS Somers and the two German patrol vessels was one of the very few
surface actions fought by the US Navy in the European Theater during the Second World War. After
the action Somers provided gunfire support for the troops landing on the beaches during the initial
assault of Operation Dragoon. The action prompted the US Army to occupy the nearby Isle of Levant,
as a coast watching station for further potential German naval activity. Two days later USS Endicott
and a flotilla of motor torpedo boats sink two additional German patrol boats during a ruse operation
to draw German forces away from the landing beaches.

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 Aug 15 1944 – WW2: Operation Dragoon » 1,300 Allied land-based bombers from Italy,
Corsica, and Sardinia with escorting fighters strike targets in southern France against no German air
opposition on the first morning of the Allied amphibious invasion of southern France. The 1st
Airborne Task Force makes a parachute landing as part of the invasion. Flying from the escort aircraft
carrier USS Tulagi (CVE-72), U.S. Navy Observation Fighter Squadron 1 (VOF-1)—The first U.S.
Navy fighter squadron with pilots trained as naval gunfire observers—makes its combat debut,
relieving the more vulnerable battleship and cruiser based floatplanes of this duty. The only effective
German air raid of the entire operation takes place that evening when a Junkers Ju 88 sinks the fully
loaded tank landing ship USS LST-282 with a glide bomb off Cap Dramont.

 Aug 15 1945 – WW2: The Philippines were ordered to surrender by Tokyo this date, after the
dropping of the atomic bombs on mainland Japan and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria.

 Aug 15 1945 – WW2: The Japanese emperor speaks » Emperor Hirohito broadcasts the news of
Japan’s surrender to the Japanese people. Although Tokyo had already communicated to the Allies its
acceptance of the surrender terms of the Potsdam Conference several days earlier, and a Japanese
news service announcement had been made to that effect, the Japanese people were still waiting to
hear an authoritative voice speak the unspeakable: that Japan had been defeated.

That voice was the emperor’s. In Japan’s Shinto religious tradition, the emperor was also divine;
his voice was the voice of a god. And on August 15, that voice—heard over the radio airwaves for the
very first time—confessed that Japan’s enemy “has begun to employ a most cruel bomb, the power of
which to do damage is indeed incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives.” This was the
reason given for Japan’s surrender. Hirohito’s oral memoirs, published and translated after the war,
evidence the emperor’s fear at the time that “the Japanese race will be destroyed if the war
continues.”

A sticking point in the Japanese surrender terms had been Hirohito’s status as emperor. Tokyo
wanted the emperor’s status protected; the Allies wanted no preconditions. There was a compromise.
The emperor retained his title; Gen. Douglas MacArthur believed his at least ceremonial presence
would be a stabilizing influence in postwar Japan. But Hirohito was forced to disclaim his divine
status. Japan lost more than a war—it lost a god.

 Aug 15 1950 – Korean War: Two U.S. divisions are badly mauled by the North Korean Army in
the five day Battle of the Bowling Alley in South Korea. The U.S. 23rd Infantry suffered 37
casualties, while the Wolfhounds (23rd Infantry Division) lost 17 KIA, 88 WIA and four missing.
The 8th Field Artillery lost four men killed, 32 wounded and two missing. General Paik wrote that his
1st Division lost 56 officers and 2,244 enlisted men. He estimated the NKPA dead at 5,690.

 Aug 15 1961 – Cold War: Berlin Wall built » Two days after sealing off free passage between
East and West Berlin with barbed wire, East German authorities begin building a wall–the Berlin
Wall–to permanently close off access to the West. For the next 28 years, the heavily fortified Berlin
Wall stood as the most tangible symbol of the Cold War–a literal “iron curtain” dividing Europe.

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 The end of World War II in 1945 saw Germany divided into four Allied occupation zones. Berlin,
the German capital, was likewise divided into occupation sectors, even though it was located deep
within the Soviet zone. The future of Germany and Berlin was a major sticking point in postwar
treaty talks, and tensions grew when the United States, Britain, and France moved in 1948 to unite
their occupation zones into a single autonomous entity–the Federal Republic of Germany (West
Germany). In response, the USSR launched a land blockade of West Berlin in an effort to force the
West to abandon the city. However, a massive airlift by Britain and the United States kept West
Berlin supplied with food and fuel, and in May 1949 the Soviets ended the defeated blockade.
By 1961, Cold War tensions over Berlin were running high again. For East Germans dissatisfied
with life under the communist system, West Berlin was a gateway to the democratic West. Between
1949 and 1961, some 2.5 million East Germans fled from East to West Germany, most via West
Berlin. By August 1961, an average of 2,000 East Germans were crossing into the West every day.
Many of the refugees were skilled laborers, professionals, and intellectuals, and their loss was having
a devastating effect on the East German economy. To halt the exodus to the West, Soviet leader
Nikita Khruschev recommended to East Germany that it close off access between East and West
Berlin.
On the night of August 12-13, 1961, East German soldiers laid down more than 30 miles of barbed
wire barrier through the heart of Berlin. East Berlin citizens were forbidden to pass into West Berlin,
and the number of checkpoints in which Westerners could cross the border was drastically reduced.
The West, taken by surprise, threatened a trade embargo against East Germany as a retaliatory
measure. The Soviets responded that such an embargo be answered with a new land blockade of West
Berlin. When it became evident that the West was not going to take any major action to protest the
closing, East German authorities became emboldened, closing off more and more checkpoints
between East and West Berlin. On August 15, they began replacing barbed wire with concrete. The
wall, East German authorities declared, would protect their citizens from the pernicious influence of
decadent capitalist culture.
The first concrete pilings went up on the Bernauer Strasse and at the Potsdamer Platz. Sullen East
German workers, a few in tears, constructed the first segments of the Berlin Wall as East German
troops stood guarding them with machine guns. With the border closing permanently, escape attempts
by East Germans intensified on 15 AUG. Conrad Schumann, a 19-year-old East German soldier,
provided the subject for a famous image when he was photographed leaping over the barbed-wire
barrier to freedom.
During the rest of 1961, the grim and unsightly Berlin Wall continued to grow in size and scope,
eventually consisting of a series of concrete walls up to 15 feet high. These walls were topped with

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 barbed wire and guarded with watchtowers, machine gun emplacements, and mines. By the 1980s,
this system of walls and electrified fences extended 28 miles through Berlin and 75 miles around
West Berlin, separating it from the rest of East Germany. The East Germans also erected an extensive
barrier along most of the 850-mile border between East and West Germany.
In the West, the Berlin Wall was regarded as a major symbol of communist oppression. About
5,000 East Germans managed to escape across the Berlin Wall to the West, but the frequency of
successful escapes dwindled as the wall was increasingly fortified. Thousands of East Germans were
captured during attempted crossings and 191 were killed.

In 1989, East Germany’s communist regime was overwhelmed by the democratization sweeping
across Eastern Europe. On the evening of November 9, 1989, East Germany announced an easing of
travel restrictions to the West, and thousands demanded passage though the Berlin Wall. Faced with
growing demonstrations, East German border guards opened the borders. Jubilant Berliners climbed
on top of the Berlin Wall, painted graffiti on it, and removed fragments as souvenirs. The next day,
East German troops began dismantling the wall. In 1990, East and West Germany were formally
reunited.

 Aug 15 1964 – Cold War: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev declares that he is ready to begin
disarmament talks with the West. Though the Russian leader declined to discuss specific plans for
disarmament, his statement was interpreted as an indication that he sought to limit the possibility of
nuclear conflict between the Soviet Union and the Western powers. Nothing came of Khrushchev’s
offer.

 Aug 15 1968 – Vietnam War: Heavy fighting erupts in and around the DMZ » South Vietnamese
and U.S. troops engage a North Vietnamese battalion. In a seven and a half hour battle, 165 enemy
troops were killed. At the same time, U.S. Marines attacked three strategic positions just south of the
DMZ, killing 56 North Vietnamese soldiers.

 Aug 15 1970 – Vietnam War: Regional Forces victorious » South Vietnamese officials report that
regional forces killed 308 Communist troops in four days of heavy fighting along a coastal strip south
of the DMZ. This was one of the biggest victories of the war for the regional forces in the war and
was extremely significant since one of the prime objectives of Nixon’s Vietnamization policy was the
strengthening of the regional/popular forces so that they could help secure the countryside.

 Aug 15 1971 – Vietnam War: North Vietnamese capture Vietnamese marine base » In South
Vietnam, North Vietnamese troops increase operations along the DMZ. This activity had begun on
August 12 and continued until the 15th. The North Vietnamese captured the South Vietnamese
marine base at Ba Ho, two miles south of the DMZ; most of the defenders were killed or wounded,
but the Communists suffered 200 dead in taking the base.

 Aug 15 1973 – Vietnam War: The United States four yearlong carpet-bombing campaign of
Cambodia ends. The U.S. dropped upwards of 2.7 million tons of bombs on Cambodia, exceeding the
amount it had dropped on Japan during WWII (including Hiroshima and Nagasaki) by almost a
million tons. During this time, about 30 per cent of the country's population was internally displaced.

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 Estimates vary widely on the number of civilian casualties inflicted by the campaign; however, as
many as 500,000 people died as a direct result of the bombings while perhaps hundreds of thousands
more died from the effects of displacement, disease or starvation during this period.

[Source: www.history.com/this-day-in-history, www.history.navy.mil/today-in-history/july-16.html,

https://www.historycentral.com, & https://www.historyanswers.co.uk/history-of-war/day | July 2020 ++]

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