On This Day ... in 1264 & Others
Following his victory at Northampton on 5 April, Henry III advanced south to confront Simon de Montfort's main rebel force, which had been besieging Earl Warenne in Rochester.
The two armies met at Lewes castle, where de Montfort drew his men up on a nearby hill. However, his left wing, composed of poorly armed volunteers from London, impetuously left the safety of the hill to attack the Royal army. Prince Edward's knights cut them to pieces, then chased the survivors for several miles across the fields.
The centre of the Royal army then attempted to attack up the hill, but they in turn were routed by more disciplined elements of de Montfort's force. The Royalist nobility suffered heavy losses and King Henry, much battered in his armour, was forced to flee to Lewes Priory.
By the time Prince Edward returned to the field from his cross-country chase, it was too late, and he too was forced to seek sanctuary with his father in the priory. They surrendered the following day, leaving de Montfort de facto ruler of England.
1501: Explorer Gaspar Corte Real left Lisbon on his second voyage to Newfoundland and is never heard from again
1760: French fleet arrives in the St. Lawrence from France, but retreats to the Bay of Chaleur when it learns of the fall of Quebec
1801: Tripoli declares war against the United States
1814: The United States landed force of 600 men at Port Dover and proceed to burn settlements on Lake Erie
1940: As the Luftwaffe pounded Rotterdam, securing the surrender of the Netherlands, RAF and French aircraft mounted desperate and costly attacks against bridges over the Meuse, scene of another German breakthrough.
6 Blenheims bombed a road junction at Breda without loss.
Ten Battles were detailed to pontoon bridges erected by then Germans across the Meuse River north of Sedan. All the aircraft returned safely.
The remainder of the morning's bombing operations were flown by the few surviving bombers (29 in all) of the French Air Force in attempt to halt the German breakthrough at Sedan.
The AASF faired little better with just 62 Battles and 8 Blenheims available for operations. The afternoon saw Air Vice-Marshal Playfair, the Commander of the AASF, gamble everything with all available aircraft being ordered into the air to bomb the Germans at Sedan. It was a massacre
No 12 Squadron lost 4 out of 5 aircraft
No 142 Squadron 4 out of 8; No 226 Squadron 3 out of 6
No 105 Squadron 6 out of 11; No 150 Squadron 4 out of 8
No 88 Squadron 1 out of 10
No 103 Squadron 3 out of 8
No 218 Squadron 10 out of 11 aircraft.
Total Fairey Battle losses were 35 out of 63 aircraft.
Eight Blenheims were also involved (all flown by No 114 Squadron) and only three returned.
A total of 102 crew members either lost their lives or were taken prisoner - a terrible price to pay as the pontoon bridges remained intact. In one last raid on the bridges, 6 Blenheims of No 2 Group were lost during an attack by 28 aircraft.
This series of losses effectively finished the AASF as a fighting force and all attacks over France were subsequently carried out by home-based bomber units. In the days that followed the squadrons of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and AASF moved from base to base in an attempt to stay ahead of the German advance.
1956: At Sungei Siput in Malaya, the 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, attacked communist terrorists
1942: The first Japanese coded radio messages were broken that indicated the forthcoming Japanese operation at Midway
In Washington, President Manuel Quezon established Philippine government in exile
1948: Israel is established as a Jewish state following the partition of Palestine
1955: The Soviet Union and seven of its European satellites sign a treaty establishing the Warsaw Pact, a mutual defence organization that put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states
1982: British troops conducted a very successful night raid on Pebble Island in the Falklands, where Argentine attack aircraft were based.
On the 10th of May, an 8-man recon team from D squadron's Boat Troop paddled ashore in 2-man klepper canoes. Caching the canoes, they moved inland over the barren, wind-swept landscape, towards the enemy-held airstrip. As with the rest of the Falkland islands, the terrain did not offer much cover and establishing a covert OP (observation post) was difficult, although not impossible. The recon team dug in and started observing the enemy, radioing back their findings to D squadron HQ onboard the helicopter carrier, HMS Hermes.
Due to proximity of civilians close to the airstrip, the use of air strikes was ruled out and the SAS were given the green light to conduct the raid. On the night of May 14th 45 men from Mountain Troop, D squadron boarded Seakings from Royal Naval Air Squadron 846. Accompanying them was a Naval Gunfire Forward Observation (NGFO) specialist who would direct gunfire from HMS Glamorgan onto the Argentine defenders.
Once landed on Pebble Island, the men of Mountain Troop linked up with their Boat Troop colleagues who escorted them to the objective, using routes they had previously proved. Cut-off groups got in position to prevent the enemy leaving or counter-attacking the target area. A cover group, including a mortar team was established to keep any Argentinean defenders pinned down whilst the assault team went in.
As artillery fire from HSM Glamorgan and mortar fire from the SAS cover group slammed into the Argentine ammo and fuel dump, the assault teams moved onto the airstrip, placing explosives on the Argentine aircraft. The SAS placed their charges in the same part of each plane to prevent the Argentineans from cannibalising aircraft from spare parts. The assault teams also raked the parked planes with fire from M16s and M203 grenade launchers. Others fired 66mm LAW rockets at their targets.
The response from the Argentine garrison, housed in nearby buildings was noticeable by its absence. The SAS attackers had expected a heavy firefight but instead only received light return fire. Only 2 SAS men were lightly injured in the raid, at least one of these was hurt from when an SAS explosive charge detonated early.
30 minutes after the attack started, the SAS began to withdraw, leaving burning on the airstrip behind them 6 Pucaras, 4 TMC Mentors and 1 SkyVan transport aircraft. In one action, the SAS had destroyed half of the Pucaras the Argentineans had on the islands.