1339: A mercenary fleet of Genoese galleys in French pay attacked Harwich, hoping to disrupt Edward III's supply lines to his army in the Low Countries. Like Portsmouth the year before, Harwich was unprotected despite its importance. This time however, the French and Italian raiders enjoyed far less success. The local militia put up a stout fight and drove them back out of the town. The raiders then attempted three times to set fire to the town, but the wind was blowing in the wrong direction and the flames failed to spread. The sailors returned to their ships and left empty-handed.

1387: The Earl of Arundel secured a major success when ships under his command captured a French-Burgundian merchant fleet.

1917: The first British dedicated night bomber unit, 100 Squadron, was sent to operate in France, equipped with obsolescent BE2 and FE2 aircraft.

1918: As British troops fell back in the face of a German attack, men of the South Lancashire Regiment had to negotiate both a swathe of barbed wire and a difficult river crossing. To win them time, Corporal Davies stayed behind with a Lewis Gun. His heavy fire held up the Germans long enough for most of the company to escape. Davies received the Victoria Cross.

1944: Halifax LW 430, which took off from RAF Leconfield, North Yorkshire at 1906 hrs, was one of 72 shot down during a 1000-bomber raid on the German capital. It was to prove the second worst night of losses Bomber Command suffered during the war. Unexpected high winds blew the formation far off course and night fighters, along with heavy ground fire, took their toll. LW430 crashed in flames in a field at Torgau, some two hours drive south of Berlin. The crew were buried with full military honours in Berlin on 1 September 2005, sixty-one years after they disappeared.

1945: Commonwealth forces launched an amphibious and airborne assault across the Rhine; Operation Varsity. Bomber Command carpet-bombed Wesel, destroying 97% of the town, before Commandos crossed the river and established a bridgehead in the ruins: the surviving defenders were too dazed to fight. 21,000 airborne forces were also dropped on the east bank, including some light tanks carried in the massive British Hamilcar gliders. The main river crossing was conducted behind a 20-mile long smokescreen. During the fighting, a paratrooper fell wounded in the open. Two medics were killed trying to reach him, but undaunted, Corporal Topham of the Canadian 1st Parachute Battalion then went to his aid. While tending his wounds, Topham was himself shot in the face, but he ignored his injury and carried the man to safety. Later in the day, he managed to rescue three men from a blazing armoured vehicle, the ammunition of which was continually exploding. Topham received the Victoria Cross.

2003: British forces completed operations to secure Umm Qasr, Iraq's deep water port, while Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy minehunters and divers worked in very difficult weather to clear a safe channel into the port to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid.