The Military History Thread

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March 18, 1907
Battle of Nacaome

On February 1, 1903, Honduran Conservative Manuel Bonilla rebelled against recently elected Liberal President Juan Angel Arias. Following a series of victories, Bonilla seized the capital, Tegucigalpa, on April 10 and was proclaimed president. In turn, Liberal General Dionisio Gutiérrez, supported by Liberal Nicaraguan President José Santos Zelaya, rebelled against Bonilla on December 23, 1906. The Honduran Army chased the Liberal rebels into Nicaragua. As a consequence, President Zelaya demanded reparations, which Honduras refused. Now the Honduran Liberals, plus the Nicaraguan Army invaded Honduras in February 1907. On February 25, the invaders seized San Marcos, capturing 200 rifles, 10,000 cartridges and a Krupp field gun.

Zelaya dispatched a second force, 600 men on board 2 steamers. Their objective was the Honduran Caribbean banana ports, an important source of revenue. The United States, hoping to rein in Zelaya’s ambitions, landed Marines at Puerto Cortés, La Ceiba, and Trujillo to protect US financial interests. The American naval commander, Captain William Fullam, extracted a promise from the Nicaraguans that American property would not be violated. In exchange he permitted the Nicaraguan troops to land at La Ceiba and Puerto Cortés. Fullam also arranged the surrender of the sole Honduran warship, the dilapidated torpedo boat Marietta.

On March 11, some 5000 Salvadorans under Gen. José Dolores Preza joined 1500 Hondurans. Together they met the Nicaraguans at the town of Nacaome (or Namasigue), 35 miles southeast of Tegucigalpa. The battle raged for 5 days (March 18-23). It opened with a bombardment by the Nicaraguans’ Krupp artillery. On the second day, the Salvadorans and Hondurans attacked into fire from Maxim machine guns, making their first battlefield appearance in Central America. As the fighting raged, almost half the Hondurans defected. The Salvadoran and Honduran Conservatives were cut to pieces, losing more than 1000 men. The Nicaraguan victory was largely due to superior weapons. Zelaya reported, “The number of dead which they left on the field [was] so great that we were unable to bury all.”

Bonilla and 500 followers fled to the fort on the Isle of Amapala in the Gulf of Fonseca. Realizing the hopelessness of his position, Bonilla sought refuge aboard the US cruiser Chicago. The American chargé d’affaires, Philip Brown, in collaboration with the Salvadoran and Nicaraguan chancellors, supported Terencio Sierra for the Honduran presidency. However, a Liberal provisional government had declared Miguel Davila president. Davila dispatched troops against Sierra’s supporters, who were defeated. Although a Liberal, Davila was distrusted by Zelaya.

Zelaya next attempted to foster a revolution in El Salvador. In 1906, Guatemala and El Salvador had signed a friendship pact which Zelaya interpreted as anti-Nicaraguan. At this point, Guatemala intervened to halt Zelaya. Mexico and the United States again stepped in to prevent the conflict from spreading.

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March 19, 1703
Failure at Guadeloupe

In January 1703, 6 English warships arrived at Barbados under Commodore Hovenden Walker, escorting 10 transports bearing 4000 soldiers, who were to subdue the French West Indies, then sail north to attack Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. Six weeks later, by which time a quarter of his men had died, deserted or fallen ill, Walker proceeded to Antigua to join Governor-General Christopher Codrington, arriving early in March. Codrington had raised 14 companies of militia in the Leeward Islands, replacing Walker’s losses.

On March 16, Walker and Codrington quit Antigua with 18 armed merchantmen and 17 smaller vessels carrying 4000 troops, escorted by Boyne (80, flag), Chichester (80), Cumberland (80), the 70-gun Burford, Edgar and Yarmouth, the 60-gun Sunderland, the 50-gun Anglesea, frigate Maidstone, and the auxiliary James and Sarah. Two days later, most of these rendezvoused off Marie Galante, and the next day steered for Guadeloupe.

On the morning of March 19, the English expedition was sighted off the island. Governor Charles Auger and his second-in-command Hérmon Coinard de la Malmaison alerted their 1400 militia. The invaders paused briefly off the Saintes before rounding the southern tip of Guadeloupe and striking north towards the capital of Basse-Terre. The English arrived about noon and split into 2 divisions, with warships threatening Ft. la Madaleine at the Baillif River, while the transports proceeded 6 miles further north. After a couple of days probing the defenses, Walker disembarked 400-500 men on the afternoon of the 21st opposite the Goyaves Islands, only to be driven off by a French counterattack. The English frigate accidentally drifted under the guns of Val de Lorge the next day, losing 37 crewmen killed before it could be rescued.

Prior to sunup on March 23, Walker and Codrington disembarked 4000 troops at 3 points - Gros Francois Cove (north of Ft. la Madaleine), Val de Lorge, and Vieux Habitants Inlet - overrunning the outnumbered defenders in heavy fighting. The French made an orderly retreat through Basse-Terre, digging in behind the 370-man garrison of Ft. St. Charles on the south bank of the Gallions River. Codrington meanwhile occupied the capital; he then spent 9 days installing an 11-gun siege battery, which opened fire on Ft. St. Charles on April 2.

On April 3, three French warships and 12 lesser vessels arrived at Ste. Marie with 820 men from Martinique in 12 companies, 2 marine, 4 militia and 6 buccaneer, under Jean Gabaret, recently promoted to lieutenant general for the French West Indies. This relief force marched into Ft. St. Charles with banners flying and trumpets blaring, hoping to demoralize the surprised English besiegers. Gabaret reorganized the defenses and launched a sortie on April 6, engaging the bulk of Codrington’s army throughout the morning before retiring in the afternoon. The French were compelled to abandon Ft. St. Charles 2 hours before dawn on April 14, blowing up its magazine. The were pressed further east.

On the morning of April 27, a large flotilla of English boats circled around the southern tip of the island and attempted to capture Trois Rivieres, but was hampered by heavy seas. Disease and hunger were now sapping the attackers’ resolve and Codrington himself fell ill, sailing off to Nevis to recuperate. By May 5, the remaining English commanders decided to evacuate Guadeloupe, and over the next 2 weeks 2277 troops were taken off. On the morning of May 15, Basse-Terre was set ablaze and Walker’s fleet departed. Although the invasion left behind enormous damage, only 27 Frenchmen had been killed and 50 wounded. English losses, mostly from disease, were rather heavier.

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March 20, 1746
Siege of Ft.William

After the victory at the Battle of Falkirk (see posting), the Jacobite leadership temporarily held the initiative. Forts Augustus and William had long been a thorn in the side of the western Scottish clans, and when their clan chiefs saw how easily Ft. George (built on the site of Inverness Castle) was taken, they clamored for the capture of Fts. Augustus and William. Prince Charles Edward Stuart obliged and released the Irish Piquets, Royal Ecossais and more than 1500 clansmen of Cameron of Lochiel, MacDonald of Lochgarry (Glengarry) and MacDonald of Keppoch who descended on Fort Augustus at the end of February 1746. This fort was as poorly designed as Ft. George and fell by March 5 after a siege of just 2 days, the Jacobites capturing the fort’s artillery.

Both sides now attention shifted to Ft. William, the last remaining strongpoint in the Great Glen. The Duke of Cumberland apparently looked upon it as the only fort in the Scottish Highlands “of any consequence” and said that he would be taking “all possible measures for the security of it”. The elderly governor of the fort was Alexander Campbell who was described as a “careful and good man”, but there were doubts about his competence and on March 15 he was superseded by Captain Caroline Frederick Scott of Guise’s 6th Regiment.

The government garrison when reinforced comprised 2 companies of the 6th, 2 other companies of regulars and a company of the Campbell of Argyll Militia, about 400 men in all. Ft. William was more solidly built than Augustus and its triangular shape was calculated to take advantage of the cover afforded by the head of Loch Linnhe. Ft. William’s armament consisted of six 12-pounders, eight 6-pounders, seven smaller pieces, two 13-inch mortars and eight Coehorn mortars. There was also plenty of ammunition but the fort did not have a permanent supply of water. On February 25, the garrison began demolishing the service town of Maryburgh so as to clear a field of fire. However, nothing could be done to stop the besiegers using the outlying heights. The garrison was supported by the sloop Baltimoreand the bomb vessel Serpant.

The Jacobite operation was entrusted to the same team who had taken Ft. Augustus: Lt-Col. Stapleton, the French regulars and the clansman under Cameron of Lochiel and MacDonald of Keppoch. The Jacobites focused their seaward blockade down Loch Linnhe at the Corran Narrows and they actually succeeded in capturing one of Baltimore’s boats. However, Alexander Campbell was determined to “destroy that nest of rebels” and early in the morning of March 4 he embarked 71 of his men in 6 boats at Ft. William, and over the next 5 hours they made their way down the loch and surprised the Jacobite sentries in the Narrows, scattering them.

Having been delayed at Castle Stalker due to bad weather conditions, Captain Scott and the Serpant arrived on the 15th, and Scott laid down that the garrison must keep up a frequent harassing fire on Jacobite positions, at night, with light cannon.

The Jacobites arrived with siege cannon on March 20 and both Cameron of Lochiel and MacDonald of Keppoch wrote to Charles Edward Stuart to inform him that they had declared war on Clan Campbell, claiming that many crimes had been committed against them by the Campbells, including the burning of 400 homes in a single day. On March 22, the Jacobites sent a drummer to Captain Scott with a letter requiring him to surrender, but his answer was that he would defend the place to the last extremity.

It soon became clear that the 2 Jacobite firing positions on Sugar Loaf Hill and Cow Hill were too far from the target and on the 23rd a further battery was opened on Cow Hill, but closer to the target. The 6” guns apparently caused Captain Scott some concern but his gunners were hammering back effectively. It was impossible for the Jacobites to get near to the ramparts of the fort without being seen because the nights were clear and moon-lit. The only chance they had of getting to grips was when parties left the fort for water.

The Jacobites became frustrated and there were feuds between the Camerons and the MacDonalds, as well as between the Highlanders in general and the French. There were also apparently feuds between John Murray of Broughton, the Prince”s Secretary and almost everyone else. MacDonald of Keppoch had apparently threatened to beat Murray with a stick.

On March 27 the Jacobites unmasked a battery of four 6-pounders on the ground above the Governor’s garden, and so the emphasis of attack shifted from the mortars to the cannon. The following day the Jacobites opened up a bombardment east of the fort with red-hot shot with the aim of making the cramped interior of the fort untenable. Further rounds included cold roundshot, grapeshot, old nails and red-hot lengths of notched iron that were intended to lodge in the timbers, a Jacobite specialty.

Captain Scott was unable to hit back effectively with his artillery, so instead he dispatched Captain George Foster with 150 men to assault the Jacobite battery on the evening of the 31st. The watch relief between the Camerons and MacDonalds was apparently muddled, leaving the battery unprotected at the crucial moment. As a result the government sortie was able to spike two 6” mortars and a 6-pounder cannon. They were also able to capture and bring back two more 6” mortars and three French 4-pounders. The party then turned against the other Jacobite battery that was above the Governor’s garden but on this occasion they did not have the advantage of surprise and Scott had to send 2 successive reinforcements to get them out of trouble. They returned safely to the fort.

The siege had dragged on for much longer than expected, and Charles Edward Stuart called on Cameron and MacDonald to bring their men back to Inverness. Thus on April 3, Captain Scott found that the enemy had disappeared, leaving behind all their equipment apart from that which was easily transportable.

In the aftermath of the Siege of Fort William the Baltimore was involved in intercepting French sailings and also preventing or deterring the movement of Jacobite clansmen in the western capes and isles to the army of Prince Charles. Attention now focused on the Inverness region.

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1068
Battle of Kerlés

The Pechenegs of the Pontic Steppe regularly invaded the Byzantine Empire from around 1026, suggesting a movement west from the lands east of the Dniepr to the region of the Lower Danube. The Byzantine historians John Skylitzes and George Kedrenos mention clashes between the Pechenegs and their eastern neighbors, the Ouzes in the 1040s. The Ouzes had been forced west across the Volga by the Cumans. Skylitzes and Kedrenos also wrote of conflicts between groups of Pechenegs. After being defeated in such an intertribal conflict, 2 Pecheneg clans migrated to the Byzantine Empire in the early 1040s. Pressured by both the Cumans and the Rus, the Ouzes moved to the Lower Danube region in 1060.

Hungary was exposed to raids by the neighboring nomadic peoples. The Pechenegs made a plundering raid into Transylvania during the reign of King Stephen, according to the king’s legends. Solomon ascended the throne of Hungary with German assistance at the age of 10 in 1063. His cousins, Géza, Ladislaus and Lampert, tried to dethrone him with Polish assistance, but he made peace with them, granting Géza their father’s duchy which included the parts of Hungary to the east of the Tisza River. Duke Géza’s main residence was in the fortress of Bihar (now Biharia in Romania).

The Illuminated Chronicle and other 14th- and 15th-century Hungarian chronicles preserve detailed reports of the 1068 invasion of eastern Hungary. The Chronicle states that the commander of the invaders, Osul, was the retainer of “Gyula, Duke of the Comans”. On the other hand, Simon of Kéza recorded that the marauders were Bessi, or Pechenegs, arch-enemies of the Hungarians in his Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum. The Annales Posonienses also states that the marauders were Pechenegs, but misdates the battle to 1071. The invasion was misdated to 1059 in a west-Russian chronicle which identified the invaders as Cumans and Vlachs (Romanians). Modern historians agree that the invaders of 1068 were Pechenegs or Pechenegs and Ouzes.

The Pechenegs crossed the “Gate of Meses” and plundered the Nyírség region, reaching as far as the fortress at Bihar. After taking much booty, they returned to Transylvania along the valley of the River Somes, planning to return to their homeland through the Borgo Pass (Tihuta Pass, in Romania). Solomon and his cousins Géza and Ladislaus gathered their troops at the fortress of Doboka to seek battle near the confluence of the Rivers Beszterce and Sajo (now the Bistrita and the Sieu, respectively). In an attempt to avoid battle, the Pechenegs fled to a hill where the Hungarians annihilated them. The hill was named for the Hungarian battle cry - Kyrie eleis, according to Bóna.

The most famous legend of Duke Ladislaus - canonized as King St Ladislaus - took place during the Battle of Kerlés. According to the legend, which incorporates elements of earlier Oriental tales, a “Cuman” warrior tried to escape from the battlefield, taking a beautiful girl with him. Ladislaus fought a duel with the warrior, and despite being wounded he killed the “pagan”. The legend was recorded shortly after Ladislaus’ death, because it identified the girl as the daughter of the Bishop of Várad, and Ladislaus’ successor, Coloman the Learned, prohibited the marriage of bishops. The legend was depicted on the walls of many churches in the Kingdom of Hungary, especially in the northern and southeastern territories (in modern Slovakia and Romania).

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March 21, 1646
Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold

By the spring of 1646, the Royalist cause was desperate. Only a few isolated garrisons held out against Parliament and all but the most stubborn were finally laying down their arms. Col. John Birch captured Hereford in mid-December 1645, Chester fell to Sir William Brereton in February 1646 and Lichfield early in March. While the New Model Army steadily conquered the west, Lord Leven and the Covenanters laid siege to the stronghold of Newark.

The last Royalist army in the field was a force of 3000 troops raised by Lord Jacob Astley from Wales and the Midlands: the 700 horse were mostly survivors of veteran cavalier regiments, the foot were experienced troops released from local garrisons or from those which had surrendered. Astley left Oxford on December 22, 1645, to go round the garrisons in the West Midlands, trying to raise an army. His task was difficult, and not the less so by his extreme want of money. It he had possessed a good supply of this, he might have raised a fairly formidable force; without it he could do nothing with the drunken dissolute bands of robbers who formed the bulk of the Royalist garrisons. Astley arrived at Worcester early in 1646. One of his first acts was to march out to Madresfield. The Royalist garrison there had been besieged since October, but had held out, and Astley was now able, with a party from the garrison, to raise the siege.

Astley went from Worcester to Ludlow, intending to unite with Sir William Vaughan. But the presence of Parliamentarian troops and the floods of the thaw made movements impossible, and prevented Astley attempting anything. He fell back towards Bewdley. On February 5, Chester surrendered after a siege of 16 weeks.. Lord Byron had held out to the last and had to yield to want of fuel and food. Horses, dogs, and cats had been eaten, and Byron was unable to do more. The fall of Chester was a serious blow to the Royalist cause, in that it set free a large Parliamentary force. Astley, finding it useless to look towards Chester, set to work to collect men to go to the relief of the King at Oxford. But he was too late. In mid-March 1646, Astley marched from Bridgnorth to Worcester, intending to join forces with the King and 1500 horse stationed at Oxford.

Cols. Thomas Morgan and John Birch joined forces at Gloucester on March 15 and marched with 2300 Parliamentarians to block Astley’s advance. Meanwhile, Sir William Brereton was cautiously approaching from Lichfield to join Morgan and Birch with a further 1000 horse from Cheshire and the Midlands.

Avoiding the Parliamentarian garrison at Evesham, Astley outmaneuvered his pursuers and crossed the River Avon by setting up a bridge of boats near Bidford. He marched into the Cotswolds where his progress was delayed by Parliamentarian skirmishers, though Morgan was reluctant to commit to a full-scale attack until Brereton’s forces came up. Having marched his troops 25 miles without resting, Astley halted at the village of Donnington, about 2 miles from Stow-on-the-Wold, during the evening of March 20. During the night, Brereton’s cavalry finally joined up with Morgan. Realizing that he could not avoid battle, Astley drew up his army on a steep hillside to the north of Stow. The Parliamentarians formed up facing them.

The final field battle of the 1st Civil War began at dawn on March 21. The 2 armies were conventionally deployed with foot in the center and horse on the flanks, the Parliamentarians having a numerical edge. Lord Astley commanded the Royalist center, with Sir Charles Lucas on the right flank and Sir William Vaughan on the left. Sir William Brereton commanded the Parliamentarian right flank, with Birch in the center and Morgan on the left.

Morgan led the initial Parliamentarian attack on the left but was twice thrown back when Lucas counterattacked. A fierce struggle developed in the center with neither side prevailing. The battle was decided by Brereton’s cavalry on the Parliamentarian right. Outnumbered nearly 2-1, Vaughan was unable to withstand Brereton’s attack and was routed. Brereton then turned against the flank of Astley’s infantry in the center. When Lucas’ cavalry also broke and fled, Astley withdrew his infantry into Stow-on-the-Wold where, after fighting through the streets and a gallant stand in the market square, he finally ordered his men to lay down their arms.

With the surrender, the last Royalist field army ceased to exist. Astley and Lucas were among the 1600 prisoners. Those who escaped the field were possibly the worse off; they were overtaken and cut down by Fleetwood’s dragoons. All the Royalist arms and ammunition were taken. Astley’s force, which he had collected with so much care and maneuvered with so much skill, was destroyed. Astley fully recognized this. Worn out by his marches and his fight, he sat down on a drum and said: “You have done your work, boys, and may go play, unless you will fall out among yourselves.”

The defeat of the last Royalist field armies was followed by the gradual surrender of remaining garrisons around the country. After the surrender of Exeter and Barnstaple to General Fairfax in April, the New Model Army marched to besiege the Royalist capital at Oxford. As the Parliamentarians approached, King Charles escaped disguised as a servant and made his way to Newark in Nottinghamshire, where he surrendered to the Scottish army rather than to Parliament with the intention of exploiting divisions between the Scots and the English Parliament. By order of the King, Newark surrendered on May 6. The surrender of Oxford took place on June 24. Worcester surrendered a month later on July 22. Other fortresses maintained a stubborn yet futile resistance throughout 1646 and beyond. The last Royalist outpost was Harlech Castle in Wales, which finally surrendered to Parliamentarian forces on March 13, 1647.

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March 22, 1862
Battle of Vinh Long

The Vĩnh Long campaign was undertaken by the French and Spanish as a reprisal for Vietnamese guerrilla attacks in February and March 1862 on French troops and gunboats in the vicinity of My Tho. French marching columns were sniped at on the roads, and on March 10, 1862, the gunboat No. 25, carrying a company of soldiers, blew up shortly after it left My Tho; 52 were killed or wounded, and a commission of enquiry found that the explosion was due to sabotage.

Convinced that the mandarins of the province of Vĩnh Long were behind these attacks, Adm. Louis-Adolphe Bonard, the French commander-in-chief, decided to capture the town of Vĩnh Long with a flotilla of dispatch vessels and gunboats and a joint Franco-Spanish landing force. On March 20, he arrived before the fortress of Vĩnh Long with the dispatch vessels Ondine (his flagship) and Shamrock, the gunboats Dragonne and Fusée and 7 small gunboats. The landing force, embarked aboard the gunboats, numbered 700 French and 300 Spanish soldiers, under Lt-Col. Reboul of the marine infantry. These troops, reinforced by the ships’ landing companies, were set ashore at Dinh Kao, southeast of the citadel.

On the morning of the 22nd, the French and Spanish advanced against the Vietnamese batteries, which had been exchanging fire with the gunboats. Crossing 2 ditches, the attacked the main works in the afternoon and after a 7-hour struggle captured the battery, taking 68 cannon.

The Vietnamese fell back to a fortified earthwork at My Cui, 12 miles west of My Tho. Bonard sent 2 columns under the command of naval Captain Desvaux and Col. Palanca y Guttierez to capture My Cui. Desvaux’s column, 2 companies of Algerian turcos and a detachment drawn from the garrison of Vĩnh Long, approached My Cui via Cai Lay. Palanca y Guttierez’s column, comprising 200 Spanish troops, a company of turcos and a section of artillery, marched directly from Vĩnh Long. The 2 columns attacked My Cui simultaneously and captured it. Lt. Vergnes, who was watching the hills around My Tho with a detachment of marines, intercepted and inflicted a further defeat on the retreating Vietnamese. Vietnamese casualties were heavy, and the allies also captured a large number of weapons.

Coming on the heels of earlier allied victories at My Tho (April 1861) and Bien Hoa (December 1861), the capture of Vĩnh Long disheartened the Court of Hue, and in April 1862 Emperor Tu Duc let it be known that he was willing to make peace.

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March 23, 2003
Battle of An Nasariyah

During Operation Iraqi Freedom, Nasiriyah was the HQ of Iraqi 3rd Corps (11th Infantry, 51st Mechanized, and 6th Armored Divisions, all at around 50% strength). The 51st operated in the south covering the oilfields, and the 6th was north near Al Amarah, which left three brigade-sized elements of the 11th Infantry in the An Nasiriyah area.

The rapid advance of coalition forces on their drive toward Baghdad left many cities with Iraqi defenders still intact. On the morning of March 23, a US Army supply convoy of the 507th Maintenance Company mistakenly veered off Highway 8 and then turned toward the city and into an ambush, drawing fire from every direction. 11 American soldiers were killed and several taken prisoner (including Pfc Jessica Lynch). However, a few managed to escape and form a screen around their wounded. They were soon rescued by a company from Task Force Tarawa under the command of Major William Peeples.

After a delay, the Marines of 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines attacked Nasiriyah from the south, supported by Cobra gunships. During this action, the Marines captured the bridges spanning the Euphrates River, defended by Fedayeen and Ba’ath Party paramilitaries. In heavy fighting, several Iraqi platoon-sized units, two ZSU-23-4s and several mortar and artillery positions were destroyed. The Marines took heavy casualties in their assault, with 18 killed and 8 Amphibious Assault Vehicles destroyed. The Marines also came under friendly-fire, when an Air National Guard A-10 strafed a convoy on the northern outskirts of the city.

After this delay Marine Regimental Combat Team 1 (RCT-1) began the main attack. On the evening of March 24, 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion (2nd LAR) pushed north of the Saddam Canal, leading RCT-1 through Ambush Alley. As they assaulted north, they were engaged with two anti-aircraft guns defending an Iraqi compound. Requesting air and tank support, the Marines were able to destroy the two guns and capture the compound. After establishing defensive positions, the Marines encountered a massive sandstorm, cutting off communication with main elements to the south in Nasiriyah. Unbeknownst to the Marines, Iraqi reinforcements also began to enter the city.

As 2nd LAR set up a defensive perimeter for the evening, Iraqi reinforcements were mobilized and sent south to Nasiriyah from Kut, unaware of 2nd LARs defensive position. They quickly found themselves in an ambush. The ensuing “Battle of the Coil” resulted in catastrophic losses for the Iraqis. Aided by tank fire and artillery, the Marines killed over 300 Iraqi soldiers in the engagement, without suffering a single casualty. The last Iraqi attack was beaten off just after dawn and a large number of Iraqi prisoners taken.

Overwhelmed by their losses, the Iraqis were forced to retreat. 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines (the “Thundering Third”) held open Ambush Alley as the rest of RCT-1 passed through Nasiriyah on the night of March 24-25. By March 27, most of the city had been subdued. The Americans shifted their focus to cordon-and-search operations, hunting down remnants of Saddam’s Fedayeen militia.

The Battle of Nasiriyah was costly for both Iraqi and American forces. The Iraqis lost over 430 soldiers killed in action, with another 300 wounded and 1000 captured. The Americans lost 32 killed in action, 60 wounded, and 6 captured (from the ambush on the supply convoy). As a result of RCT-1’s struggle in the city, Col. Joe Dowdy was relieved of command. Most of the American POWs were later freed on April 13 (Pfc Lynch was rescued on April 1 by American special operation forces).

Initial reporting of the battle emphasized the supposed heroism of Jessica Lynch. On April 3, The Washington Post ran a front-page story which read: “Lynch, a 19-year-old supply clerk, continued firing at the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot wounds and watched several other soldiers in her unit die around her”. This description soon was questioned. On the 15th, the Post ran a story questioning its own account. On April 24, Pfc Lynch testified before Congress. She called the earlier reports a lie, and said that she had in fact never fired her weapon, because she was knocked unconscious when her vehicle crashed. Critics charged that earlier accounts were part of a White House-led effort to fabricate Lynch’s story.

The US learned a costly lesson in Nasiriyah. While the rapid advance was critical for a swift victory, failure to clear regions and cities of fighters could prove deadly for rear echelon forces supporting the front line.

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1379
Siege of Urganch

Khwarezm was located downstream from Transoxiana, around the delta of the Amu Darya River. The area had once been the center of a major empire, but that had been destroyed by Genghis Khan (see posting, Battle of the Indus), and Khwarezm had become part of the territory of the Golden Horde. This ended at the start of the 1360s when Husayn Sufi seized power. He died soon after Tamerlane’s first expedition into the area, at the start of the 1370s, and was succeeded by his brother Yusef Sufi. Yusef came to terms with Tamerlane and agreed to provide his brother’s daughter as a bride for Tamerlane’s son. A second expedition followed when the bride was not forthcoming, and the marriage quickly took place. A third expedition was very short-lived, but indicated that Yusef was not willing to act as Tamerlane's vassal.

During 1378, while Tamerlane was distracted by the affairs of the Golden Horde, Yusef raided Bokhara. When Tamerlane sent an ambassador to Yusef’s court he was seized, as was a messenger sent to protest the first seizure.

Early in 1379 Tamerlane gathered his army and invaded Khwarezm, blockading the capital city of Urganch. At the same time parties were sent out to pillage the rest of the country. Yusef Sufi was trapped inside Urganch, from where he sent a letter to Tamerlane offering to fight a duel to decide the outcome of the war, presumably not expecting the partly-crippled Tamerlane, by now in his mid-40s, to accept the challenge. Yusef had badly misjudged his opponent. Tamerlane donned his armor and rode up to the city walls (after overcoming the resistance of his own Amirs). Yusef lost his nerve (if he had ever genuinely intended to come out to fight). After staying outside the walls for some time Tamerlane returned to his camp, having won a moral victory.

Soon after this incident a large part of the garrison, under the command of a general called Hadji, sallied from the besieged city. They were intercepted by a force led by Tamerlane’s second son Omar Shaykh, and a battle began that lasted until nightfall, only ending when the defenders retired behind the walls. After this fight Tamerlane ordered his men to begin the siege-proper. Battering rams and catapults were set at work, and Yusef’s palace was so badly damaged that he was forced to seek shelter elsewhere. This phase of the siege lasted for 3 months and 15 days, and towards the end of this period Yusef sickened and died.

After the 3-month bombardment Tamerlane’s troops had created a number of breaches in the walls, and at last he ordered an assault. Despite a vigorous defense the city soon fell; it was plundered, all of the civil public buildings destroyed while the religious leaders and learned men were ordered to move to Kesh, Tamerlane’s birthplace.

Urganch would soon suffer a worse fate. In the late 1380s the new ruler of Khwarezm allied himself with Tamerlane’s most persistent enemy, Toktamish, and took part in raids into Transoxiana. This triggered Tamerlane's fifth expedition into Kkwarezm, at the end of which Urganch was razed to the ground and barley sown on the site.

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March 24, 1945
Operation Varsity

By March 1945, the Allies were ready to cross the Rhine. Following the "Broad Front Approach" laid out by General Eisenhower, it was decided to attempt to breach the Rhine in several areas. Field Marshal Montgomery, commanding 21st Army Group, devised a plan, code-named Operation Plunder, subsequently authorized by Eisenhower. Plunder envisioned British 2nd Army (Miles Dempsey) and US 9th Army (William Simpson) crossing at Rees, Wesel, and an area south of the Lippe Canal.

Montgomery insisted on an airborne operation to support the amphibious assaults; this was code-named Operation Varsity. Three airborne divisions were initially chosen to participate, British 6th and US 13th and 17th, all under US XVIII Airborne Corps (Matthew Ridgeway). 6th Airborne had participated in the Normandy invasion, but the American divisions had not seen action (through a regiment of the 13th had briefly fought in southern France. It became apparent there were was only enough air transport in the area for 2 divisions, so the 13th was scratched. 6th and 17th Divisions were to land around Wesel to disrupt the opposition to British 2nd Army. Varsity would be the largest single-lift airborne operation of the war.

Unlike Market Garden, the airborne forces would be dropped only a short distance behind German lines, thereby ensuring that Allied ground forces would be able to link up with them within a short period. It was also decided that the 2 divisions would be dropped simultaneously in a single lift, instead of being dropped several hours apart, addressing what had also been a problem during Market Garden. Supply drops would also be made as soon as possible to ensure adequate supplies were available to the airborne troops.

By this time, the German divisions in the West were rapidly declining, in both numbers and quality. Montgomery had the equivalent of 30 divisions to face 10 German under Günter Blumentritt. 7th Parachute and 84th Infantry Divisions would bear the brunt of the airborne attack. Both were understrength, with little over 4000 men each, with about 50 guns. Although farms and villages were well prepared for defense, there were few mobile reserves. These consisted of 150 AFVs, mostly in 47th Panzer Corps. The Germans also possessed a great number of AA guns. The defense was weakened when the Allies launched a major air attack a week before Varsity. This involved over 10,000 aircraft hitting airfields and transport targets.

The Rhine crossings began on the evening of March 23 and by the early hours of the 24th, the Allies had secured a number of bridgeheads. Meanwhile, the airborne force (541 transports and 1050 troops carriers towing 1350 gliders) was taking off from England and France to rendezvous over Brussels before heading for the drop zones. This immense force stretched over 200 miles and took 2.5 hours to pass any given point. 2150 fighters provided protection. At 10 AM on March 24, the landings began, 13 hours after the crossings began.

The first British element to land was 8th Parachute Battalion, of 3rd Parachute Brigade, which dropped earlier than planned, but landed successfully against heavy AA fire. By 11:00 the drop zone, in the Diersfordter Wald, was cleared and the entire brigade had formed up. The key objective at Schnappenberg was taken by 9th British and 1st Canadian Battalions.

The next British unit to land was 5th Parachute Brigade. Although its landing was not as accurate as the 3rd’s, due to poor visibility around the drop zone, which also made it harder for the paras to assemble once on the ground, the landing was successful. The area came under heavy artillery fire, but the area was soon cleared. The brigade then moved east to clear an area near Schnappenberg. By 3:30 PM, all objectives had been taken and the brigade had linked up with other British airborne units.

6th Airlanding Brigade was tasked with landing in company-sized groups and taking several objectives, including the town of Hamminkeln. The gliders landed against considerable AA fire, the landings made more difficult by much haze and smoke. A number of gliders landed in the wrong areas or crashed. However, the majority came down safely, allowing the troops to secure intact the 3 bridges over the Issel they were tasked with, as well as Hamminkeln, with the aid of American paratroops who had been mistakenly dropped nearby.

507th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) was the lead element of 17th Airborne Division and the first US unit to land. It was to land entirely in a clearing 2 miles west of Wesel; however, excessive ground haze confused the transport pilots and the regiment landed in 2 groups, half in the intended drop zone, and half to the northwest near Diersfordt. The separated troops made their way to the drop zone, overrunning a German battery on the way. By 2:00, the 507th had secured all objectives and cleared the area around Diersfordt, causing heavy German losses.

The 513th PIR was the next American unit to land. En route to the drop zone, its transports had to pass through a belt of German AA weapons, losing 22 planes, with another 38 damaged. The regiment also suffered from pilot error due to heavy ground haze, and actually missed its designated drop zone, landing in the area of British 6th Airlanding Brigade. Despite the error, the paratroopers quickly rallied and aided the British, eliminating several German batteries covering the area. The combined forces then stormed Hamminkeln. By 2:00, the 513th had secured its objectives.

The last American unit to land was 194th Glider Infantry Regiment. The unit landed accurately, but took heavy casualties; 12 transports were lost to AA fire and another 140 damaged. The Americans landed in the midst of a number of German batteries engaging the Rhine crossings; these were cleared. The 194th was soon able to report its objectives secured, having destroyed 42 guns, 10 tanks, 2 AA vehicles and 5 self-propelled guns.

By nightfall, 15th (Scottish) Division had linked up with elements of 6th Airborne and by midnight the first bridge was across the Rhine. By the 27th, there were 12 and 14 divisions had crossed, penetrating up to 10 miles.

Casualties were heavy, though lighter than expected. 6th Airborne lost 1400 killed, wounded or missing out of 7220 landed. 17th Airborne lost about 1300 men out of 9650. The air forces lost 56 transport aircraft. German casualties are not known with any certainty, but included 3500 prisoners.

The operation has since come in for some criticism on the grounds that it was not necessary and that the resources expended would have been better employed on the ground. The operation also highlighted the vulnerability of glider units, and Varsity was the last major operation to employ gliders.

[Ennath]

March 25, 1016
Battle of Nesjar

After the defeat of Olav Tryggvason at the Battle of Svalde (see posting), Norway had been divided into a Swedish part governed by Sveinn Hákonarson and a Danish part run by Eiríkr Hákonarson. However, after Eiríkr joined his brother-in-law Canute the Great in his campaign to conquer England, Danish rule collapsed, and power was assumed by Olav Haraldsson, a claimant from the Harald Fairhair family line.

Sveinn, who was based in Trøndelag, learned that Olav was rallying support in Eastern Norway. He set sail along the coast of Norway. Along the way he joined forces with those of several allies among Norway’s farmer-chieftains. The most prominent of these was Erling Skjalgsson.

Olav Haraldsson, on the other hand, had finished raising his forces, and had begun moving northwards to confront Sveinn. The fleets clashed off the coast on Palm Sunday March 25, 1016 . Few accounts of the battle survive; however, it is generally regarded as a fierce battle with heavy casualties. None of the major players were killed, as would be usual in this age of chieftains leading from the front. However, Sveinn was forced to retreat, thus relinquishing his grip on power. Sveinn retreated to Sweden, but died of illness before he could muster a force to retake Norway.

Icelandic skald Sigvat Tordarson composed the Nesjavísur in memory of the battle. The Nesjar Monument was erected on the 1000th anniversary of the battle in Helgeroa village in Larvik, Vestfold County, where the battle is believed to have occurred.

The road now seemed open for Olav to establish a unified rule of Norway. Within a few years he had won more power than had been enjoyed by any of his predecessors on the throne. However, he was forced to ally with Erling Skjalgsson, an uneasy partnership. It ended violently when Erling was killed at the Battle of Boknafjorden in Rogaland in 1028. His followers got revenge 2 years later, when King Olav himself was killed in the Battle of Stiklestad (see posting).

The written sources mentioning Sveinn were all written over 150 years after his death. The Swedish historian Staffan Hellberg in 1972 claimed to be able to show that Sveinn was a fictitious person. The debate formed part of the wider debate about the value of the 12th and 13th century sagas for 11th century history and earlier, and is an example of the saga skepticism, particularly widespread in Swedish academia. Hellberg’s conclusions remain speculative.