On this day...... 23 August

1338: English efforts to supply their beleagured duchy of Gascony received a setback when French and Castilian ships ambushed a food convoy off Talmont at the mouth of the Gironde; two of the largest ships were lost with their vital cargo.

1372: The Welsh exile Owain ap Thomas led a French galley squadron up the Charente in a surprise night raid that captured the Captal de Buch, Edward III's outstanding Gascon commander, and the strategically important castle at La Soubise.

1643: Parliamentarian attempts to conscript troops in Norfolk provoked a Royalist revolt in King's Lynn.  The Earl of Manchester rushed a force from the Eastern Association to seal off the town, but was too weak to assault it, and could not persuade local militia to turn against their brethren.  The town finally surrendered on 15 September.

1900: When Boers managed to cut off and surround a company of the King's Regiment, Private Heaton volunteered to break through their positions and report the unit's plight.  He managed to get past the Boers at great risk, and successfully reached headquarters.  A relief force arrived in time to save the company from being forced to surrender.  Heaton received the Victoria Cross.

1914: At the Battle of Mons, the British Expeditionary Force, in its first action, temporarily held up the advance of General von Kluck's German First Army, despite being massively outnumbered.  Some 1,600 casualties were suffered - considered very heavy at the time. The BEF fought a rear-guard action almost daily for the next four days as it withdrew.  Four VCs were won:

• Lieutenant Dease, Royal Fusiliers (posthumous)
• Corporal Garforth, 15th Hussars
• Lance-Corporal Jarvis, Royal Engineers
• Private Godley, Royal Fusiliers

Dease and Godley manned a machine-gun to hold off overwhelming numbers of attackers at a key bridge.  Dease was killed during the fight, and Godley taken prisoner when, two hours later, he ran out of ammunition.  Garforth worked in the open, exposed to enemy fire, to cut an escape route through barbed wire for British cavalry.  Jarvis similarly worked in the open for ninety minutes to lay demolition charges on a bridge and then successfully destroy it.

1918: The British continued to pursue the German army across France.  A further three VCs were awarded.  Lieutenant Joynt, 8th (Victoria) Australian Battalion, took command of his battalion when it had suffered heavy casualties and led a bayonet charge on a defended wood.  Private McIver, The Royal Scots, having spotted a German scout, chased him back to his own lines.  He followed the man into a strong-point, where he killed six of its defenders, and captured twenty prisoners and a pair of machine-guns.  Later in the day, when a British tank mistakenly attacked friendly troops, McIver ran through its fire to warn the crew of their error.  And Lieutenant McCarthy, 16th Australian Battalion, broke into a German trench and proceeded to clear it, killing 22 enemy, and capturing 50 men and five machine-guns.

1940: The day proved relatively quiet, with a number of raids by individual German aircraft.  The day's events are recorded on the RAF's Battle of Britain website.