Dictionary of Battles: From the Earliest Date to the Present TimeHarbottle, Thomas Benfield
History
Dictionary of Battles: From the Earliest Date to the Present Time
Harbottle, Thomas Benfield
Battles
Fought 57 B.C., between 50,000 Romans, under Cæsar, and the Suevi,
300,000 strong, under Galba. The Suevi attacked the Roman entrenched
camp, but were repulsed with very heavy loss and their army dispersed.
Pont Valain (Hundred Years’ War).
Fought 1370, between the French, under du Guesclin, and the English,
under Sir Thomas Granson. The French surprised the English camp, but the
English rallied, and a severe conflict followed, in which the French
attack was at first repulsed. A flank movement of the French, however,
threw the English into disorder, and they were defeated with a loss of
nearly 10,000 in killed, wounded and prisoners, among the latter being
Sir Thomas Granson.
Poonah (Second Mahratta War).
Fought October 25, 1802, between the forces of Jeswunt Rao, and the
united armies of the Peshwa and Sindhia of Gwalior. After an evenly
contested action, Jeswunt Rao got the upper hand, and gained a complete
victory, Sindhia fleeing from the field, leaving behind him all his guns
and baggage.
Port Arthur (Chino-Japanese War).
This place, held by a Chinese garrison of 9,000 men, was attacked and
stormed by the Japanese, after a short bombardment. The Chinese made but
a feeble resistance, the assailants losing only 270 killed and wounded.
Port Arthur (Russo-Japanese War).
Fought February 8, 1904, between a Japanese fleet of 16 warships, under
Vice-Admiral Togo, and the Russian fleet of 6 battleships and 10
cruisers, under Vice-Admiral Stark, lying at anchor off Port Arthur. The
Japanese attacked with torpedo boats, and succeeded in seriously
damaging 2 battleships and a cruiser, which were beached at the mouth of
the harbour. They then opened a bombardment, in which they injured a
third battleship and four more cruisers sustaining no damage to their
own ships. The Russians lost 56 killed and wounded, the Japanese, 58,
chiefly in the torpedo boats.
On April 13, the Japanese torpedo flotilla attacked the Russian
squadron, under Makaroff. The battleship Petropavlovsk was torpedoed and
sunk, Makaroff and 700 officers and men being drowned. The battleship
Pobieda, and a destroyer were also torpedoed, but managed to reach the
harbour. The Japanese suffered no material loss.
After numerous only partially successful attempts to block the fairway,
the Japanese, on May 2, sent in a fleet of merchant steamers,
accompanied by the torpedo flotilla. Of these, eight succeeded in
reaching the outer harbour, and two of them broke the boom guarding the
inner harbour, and were blown up by their commanders in the fairway.
Several others were sunk near the harbour entrance. Of the 179 officers
and men forming the crews of the merchant steamers, only 42 were rescued
by the Japanese, though a few survivors fell into the hands of the
Russians. This is one of the most daring exploits in the history of
naval warfare.
Porte St. Antoine (Wars of the Fronde).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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