The Battle at Chaffin’s Bluff took place along Confederate fortifications near Fort Harrison. This was the strongest point of the Confederate line, and close to Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital. By mid-morning on 29 September 1864, Union soldiers had crossed open fields and swept along trench lines to take Fort... More
The Battle at Chaffin’s Bluff (also known as the Battle of Chaffin’s Farm) took place along Confederate fortifications near Fort Harrison and Fort Johnson in Virginia on 29 September 1864. It was part of the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign, a determined attempt by the Union Potomac Army to wrest Richmond, Virginia, from... More
The French army crossed the border into the southern Netherlands, now Belgium, on 15 June, Napoleon skilfully inserting his army between the allied armies of Wellington and von Blücher. With the Anglo-allied on his left and the Prussians on his right, he then despatched Marshal Ney to advance on Wellington... More
Napoleon ordered Marshal Ney to take the left wing of the French army and seize the crossroads at Quatre-Bras whilst Napoleon attacked the Prussians at Ligny with the centre and right wing of his army. Ney would defeat Wellington and prevent him from helping his Prussian allies. Despite his orders,... More
As US forces closed in on Baghdad and secured the airport, two ‘Thunder Runs’ were launched to assess the state of the Iraqi defences around the city. The first ‘Thunder Run’ on 5 April proceeded north towards the city and then turned west towards the airport, experiencing resistance and losing... More
Securing Basra was one of the invasion’s most important initial objectives due to its size and its location in Iraq’s main oil producing region. The attack on the city soon deteriorated into a protracted siege, with many of its one million inhabitants trapped by the fighting, whilst also being deprived... More
On Hitler's birthday, 20 April, Marshal Zhukov’s 1st Belorussian Front began shelling Berlin’s city centre, while Marshal Ivan Konev’s 1st Ukrainian Front advanced through its southern suburbs. On 23 April General Helmuth Weidling assumed command of the city’s remaining garrison, consisting of disorganized Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS divisions, and poorly trained... More
Fort Eben-Emael was part of the defences along the Belgian–Dutch border, providing artillery cover for two of the three key bridges in the area crossing the Albert Canal. As part of the German plan for the invasion of France through the Low Countries, the elimination of the fort would allow... More
After the Germans’ initial advance towards Moscow in 1941, followed by a winter stalemate, the Russians launched a series of new offensives aimed at pushing the Germans out of the area at the beginning of 1942. Hitler’s stubborn refusal to allow his troops to retreat to more tenable positions resulted... More
As the Germans made easy progress into Soviet territories during the opening phase of Operation Barbarossa, the Red Army hastily attempted to organize a defensive line to protect the approaches to Moscow. The German attack towards Smolensk began in earnest on 10 July and made good initial progress towards the... More
In preparation for Operation Cobra, American forces pushed southwest to take control of the remainder of the Cotentin Peninsula still under German control. The Americans made progress towards St-Lô against stubborn German resistance in the infamous hedgerow fighting – negotiating sturdy embankments topped by tangled bushes and shrubs – that... More
The Battle of Aboukir on 25 July 1799, when the Turkish Ottomans failed to expel the French forces from Egypt, was Napoleon’s final victory in Egypt. The Ottomans had landed at Aboukir Bay on 14 July where they overwhelmed the French garrison at Fort Aboukir. The Ottomans stayed put, with... More