1879: Following the disaster at Isandlwana, Lord Chelmsford led another force into Zululand against Cetshwayo's capital at Ulundi. Reconnaissance patrols skirmished with Zulu forces on 3 July, just outside the kraal. At one point, a British horse fell, trapping its rider. As Zulus rushed at the man, Captain the Lord Beresford of the 9th Lancers and Sergeant O'Toole of the Frontier Light Horse spurred to his aid and got him up behind Lord Beresford. The man was concussed, however, and had to be held in place by O'Toole galloping alongside as they headed for the British lines.

Captain d'Arcy of the Frontier Light Horse went to the aid of another rider similarly thrown from his horse. But when he tried to get the man into the saddle behind him, d'Arcy's horse objected and threw both of them off. D'Arcy tried frantically to get the other man onto the horse, but his double fall had left him unconscious, and d'Arcy reluctantly had to abandon him and save himself when the Zulus closed in. Beresford, d'Arcy and O'Toole all received the Victoria Cross for their heroic efforts.

1901: During a Boer War action, Lieutenant English of the 2nd Scottish Horse won the Victoria Cross for his outstanding leadership and courage, including a dash across open ground in front of Boer riflemen only 30 yards away to fetch more ammunition for his troop.

1915: At Gallipoli, Lieutenant James of the Worcestershire Regiment, who had already distinguished himself in action a few days previously, led a bombing party to spearhead an attack on a Turkish position. They took part of the Turkish trenches, but all of his men were killed or wounded. Alone, James held off enemy counter-attacks until the British forces had consolidated the defence of the newly won position behind him. He received the Victoria Cross.

1916: During the continuing heavy fighting of the Somme offensive, a bombing party from the Worcestershire Regiment was forced to retire by heavy German opposition. The officer leading the team had been badly wounded, and Private Turrall insisted on staying behind with him. Turrall both dressed the officer's wounds and fought a dogged single-handed battle with the enemy, holding them at bay for three hours. A British counter-attack then won an opportunity for Turrall to carry the officer back to the British lines. He was awarded the Victoria Cross.

1940: The Royal Navy reluctantly mounted Operation Catapult on the orders of Winston Churchill, to destroy the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir and Oran on the Algerian coast to prevent it falling into German hands. The French Navy had refused four alternatives offered to them: to join the British outright; be interned in British ports; sail to French ports in the West Indies; or scuttle their own ships. The bombardment sank three battleships and cost some 1,300 French lives. The French ships and shore batteries returned fire, but failed to hit any British ships.

Along the Channel coasts, RAF Bomber Command Blenheims made their first attacks on barge concentrations, as the Germans began to muster shipping for a possible invasion of Britain.

1941: RAF Blenheims mounted daylight raids across the Channel, attacking a power station at Comines.

1942: The advance of Rommel's Axis forces into Egypt towards Alexandria and the Suez Canal was finally halted after three days of heavy fighting at the First Battle of El Alamein by General Auchinleck's Commonwealth troops. Unable to breach the British defences, and with supplies running short, the German and Italian troops began to dig their own defensive positions.

1950: Fleet Air Arm Firefly and Seafire aircraft from HMS Triumph and aircraft from USS Valley Forge flew the first naval air strikes of the Korean War. The Fleet Air Arm attacked Haeju airfield.