On This Day ... in 1775 & Others
Perhaps some 4,000 American revolutionary soldiers under Colonel William Prescott advanced onto the Charlestown Peninsula on 16 June to seize the hills overlooking Boston Harbour. Their orders were to take Bunker Hill, the highest and most easily defended of the heights. Instead, they occupied Breed's Hill, nearer to the harbour, and hastily constructed defensive positions there. Their presence was detected on the morning of 17 June by the British forces across the water in Boston. Royal Navy ships began a bombardment, while General Howe landed 3,000 troops on the southern shore of the Peninsula.
Two determined charges were launched up Breed's Hill, but were driven off by rebel fire. Reinforcements arrived, allowing a third bayonet assault. Rebel ammunition supplies were now low, and Prescott was driven from the hill. His men suffered heavy losses in their flight north.
The British had lost over 1,000 men, mainly in the first two attacks on the hill, the revolutionaries losing over 400 men, mainly in the retreat. The battle is normally known as Bunker Hill, despite being fought on the neighbouring heights.
1815: Lord Uxbridge's cavalry fought a running battle with French troops as they covered the retreat of Wellington's army from Quatre Bras to Mont Saint Jean, south of the little village of Waterloo.
1858: British troops under Sir Hugh Rose routed Indian mutineers at Kotah-ki-Serai. Lakshmi Bai, the Rani of Jhansi, one of the most capable of the Indian leaders, was killed; she was mortally wounded attacking the 8th Hussars. Captain Heneage, Farrier Hollis, Sergeant Ward and Trooper Pearson of that regiment all received the Victoria Cross for leading the charge which broke the Rani's troops.
1919: Lieutenant Agar, Royal Navy, assigned to support intelligence operations along the Russian coast, took a tiny torpedo-armed Coastal Motor Boat from a base in Finland to attack the Bolshevik naval forces at Kronstadt. He evaded patrolling destroyers, but the CMB was damaged by gunfire. Agar managed to effect repairs, and returned to the attack, sinking a cruiser. Although his mission was unauthorised, he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
1940: Britain suffered her worst ever maritime disaster when German bombers caught and sank the troopship Lancastria as she evacuated troops and refugees from Saint Nazaire The number of people aboard will never be known, but was in the order of 6-9,000. Fewer than 2,500 survived.
Comments
Classic example of a Pyrrhic Victory.
Posted by: POWinCA | June 16, 2009 11:49 PM
Bunker Hill. Drilled into us as an example of how the rebels would stand and fire as opposed to the running guerilla battle that followed the British return to Boston from Lexington & Concord the year before.
Stupid decisions on both sides of this one. Rebels proving they will stand and fight by fortifying a hill on the end of a peninsula, and british generals proving that rebels won't stand and fight by attacking a fortified position that they could have simply surrounded, and wait for the rebels to starve. But noooo...
Read 'Oliver Wiswell' by Kenneth Roberts, Doubleday, Duran. for the whole story.
Posted by: lenf | June 17, 2009 1:28 AM
Ad yet in the end the American succeded in driving General how and his troops out of Boston never to return. Standing for Liberty in the face of insurmountable odds became a hallmark of the American fighting spirit that started in places like "Bunker Hill" and continued through the Alamo and Bastogne.
Posted by: Davis | June 17, 2009 3:44 PM
Both sides learned. The Americans knew sooner or later they would have to be able to stand against British bayonets. The Brits learned that Americans can shoot - and went looking for their flanks instead of headlong charges in later battles.
Posted by: Bram | June 20, 2010 2:48 AM