1794: A Royal Navy squadron landed British troops to take a Republican French fortification in Corsica at San Fiorenzo.

1917: The German U-boat U-85 spotted a vulnerable merchant ship, Farnborough, west of Fastnet, and hit her aft in the engine-room with a torpedo. As the merchantman's crew could be seen taking to a lifeboat, U-85 surfaced to finish off her badly damaged victim, which was already sinking.

However, the hunter now became the hunted - Farnborough was in fact HMS Q-5, one the famous Q-ships, commanded by Commander Campbell. As the "Panic Party" escaped in the lifeboats as planned, Campbell remained behind with a small gunnery team, ignored the rising water, and patiently waited for his target to close to point-blank range. Their concealed guns opened fire on the U-boat at only 100 yards, and hit her with almost every round out of 45 fired, quickly sinking her. Campbell then summoned help to tow Q-5 towards shore, where she was safely beached. Campbell received the Victoria Cross.