On This Day ... in 1781 & Others
The Royal Navy suffered a rare defeat at the hands of the French, at the battle of the Capes of the Chesapeake, which helped seal the American victory during the War of Independence .
Rear Admiral Thomas Graves, commanding 19 ships of the line, faced the talented Comte de Grasse du Bar with 24 ships. De Grasse was landing French troops at the Chesapeake to link up with General Washington's advance on Yorktown. Graves failed to seize an opportunity to fall upon the French fleet whilst it headed for the open sea, and several of his own ships suffered heavily, one subsequently having to be scuttled.
With a British relief force unable to reach him by land or sea, General Cornwallis at Yorktown had to surrender to Washington on 20 October.
1800: Malta surrendered to British forces.
1914: HMS Pathfinder was sunk by U-21, the first Royal Navy warship lost to submarine attack.
1915: On the North-West Frontier, Trooper Hull of the 21st Lancers won the Victoria Cross for his rescue under fire of an unhorsed officer lying at the mercy of tribesmen.
1940: RAF airfields continued to bear the brunt of Luftwaffe attacks, Biggin Hill in particular receiving another pounding.
1940: The United States Government transferred 50 elderly destroyers to the Royal Navy under the Lend Lease agreement. Despite their age, the ships provided a desperately needed reinforcement, particularly for escorting convoys. The most famous was undoubtedly HMS Campbeltown, the former USS Buchanan, expended on 28 March 1942 when, packed with five tons of explosives, she rammed the dock gates at St Nazaire during the famous raid to deny the use of the facilities by the Tirpitz.
1943: US and Australian troops mounted the first major Allied airborne operation in the Pacific theatre, landing in the Markham valley in New Guinea.
Comments
"helped seal the American victory": come now, the French won it for them. Due credit to Geo Washington for hanging on long enough for the French to take their opportunity, but the French won at sea and at Yorktown, whatever fairy-tales the yanks indoctrinate their kiddies with.
Posted by: dearieme | September 5, 2006 2:39 PM
Do you feel better now? You actually prefer to lose to the French than British Colonials?
Posted by: Bram | September 5, 2006 7:10 PM
What on earth has preferring got to do with history? The frogs won fair and square: credit where it's due.
Posted by: dearieme | September 6, 2006 6:34 PM
...yeah, and it took about 10 years of constant diplomacy, the near certainty that the Americans would win because (1) they damn well wouldn't give up, and (2) the British weren't exactly happy about pounding the colonials. The British could have won easily. They were more pissed that they would have to send prisoners to Australia instead of to the closer colonies.
If the French didn't want to confront the British every where possible, they never would have come in. Like oil and water those two...for a thousand years.
Saying that...when they did come in, they showed their stature as a premire world power.
Posted by: bjbarron | September 6, 2006 11:39 PM
Boy, I'm sure glad the Germans started acting up in the last century so we could all be friends again.
Posted by: Cris | September 5, 2008 1:56 AM
Actually, the Revolutionary War (WOI across the Pond) was probably the last time the French actually did something tremendous militarily.
But hey, what do I know? McCain didn't call Rocky Balboa Sarkozy to get France's approval of his running mate.
Oops.
Posted by: Cricket | September 8, 2008 12:33 AM