On this day...... 3 September

1650: The Scots army had enjoyed success in outmanoeuvring Cromwell and Lambert around Dunbar, but overreached themselves on 2 September, adopting a vulnerable and cramped position.  This allowed Cromwell to launch a pre-emptive attack the following day across the Broxburn stream, and roll up the Scots' line.  The English claimed to have inflicted vast casualties on their opponents, but although they secured a significant victory, far more Scots ran than died, and their army was not destroyed.

1651: The Third Civil War ended at Worcester, where the first battle of the First Civil War had been fought in 1642 at Powick Bridge.  The largely Scottish Royalist army of Charles II had based itself in Worcester, while the King desperately tried to raise levies from the countryside to offset his numerical inferiority compared to Cromwell.  Fleetwood led the first Parliamentary attack across Powick Bridge itself, diverting attention from another force with pontoons which bridged the Severn and Teme unhindered.  Cromwell crossed over to support Fleetwood, routing a Highland brigade.  Charles responded with a bold counter-attack which initially fared well, but the Scots cavalry failed to back him up.  The Royalists retreated into the city, but the Parliamentarians successfully stormed key defences and by the following morning most of the Scots infantry had surrendered, although most of the cavalry managed to escape north.

1782: Sir Edward Hughes fought his fourth battle against the great French commander Pierre-Andre de Suffren de Saint-Tropez off Cuddalore; the British fleet numbered twelve, Suffren's fifteen.  Suffren attacked, but the British ships managed to concentrate upon the French centre, dismasting Suffren's flagship and another ship of the line.  Suffren withdrew to Trincomalee, but lost a ship, wrecked on entering the harbour.

1915: In Kenya, an Australian officer, Lieutenant Dartnell, serving with the Royal Fusiliers, fell wounded in a skirmish with German colonial forces.  He could have been evacuated, but insisted on staying behind with more badly wounded men in an attempt to protect them from the German native levies, who had a reputation for killing the wounded.  He too was murdered, and awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.

1916: Over Cuffley, Lieutenant Leefe Robinson of 39 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, attacked the German Schutte-Lanze airship (often mistakenly referred to as a Zeppelin) SL11, bringing it down in flames.  Leefe Robinson received the Victoria Cross.  Across in France, another four VCs were won that day as the British launched a new attack at Guillemont on the Somme.  Captain Allen, Royal Army Medical Corps, went to the help of an artillery battery that had been hit by enemy fire.  He ignored exploding ammunition and further German shellfire to tend to the wounded, despite being repeatedly wounded himself by shrapnel.  Lieutenant Holland, Prince of Wales' Leinster Regiment, although seriously ill, led a bombing attack through murderous fire, eventually taking the enemy position and over fifty prisoners, despite his platoon being reduced to just five men.  Sergeant Jones, the King's Regiment, similarly captured a German position at heavy odds, then held it for two days against the inevitable counter-attacks.  And Private Hughes, of the Connaught Rangers, ignored multiple wounds to attack single-handed a machine-gun nest.

1918: Corporal McNamara, of the East Surrey Regiment, was establishing a field telephone connection in captured German trenches when an enemy counter-attack broke through.  McNamara, unarmed, borrowed a revolver from a badly wounded officer and went forward to help fight off the attack.  He took over a Lewis Gun, but found himself isolated, and fought his way through to the nearest friendly position.  He received the Victoria Cross.

1939: War was declared on Germany, following the invasion of Poland.

1940:   Although the Luftwaffe's effort was smaller than in previous days, significant air combat was still experienced over the south-east.  The day's events are recorded on the RAF's Battle of Britain website.

1943: The British 8^th Army landed on mainland Italy at Reggio di Calabria, having crossed the Straits of Messina from Sicily.  The British 5^th and Canadian 1^st Divisions were the first ashore under the cover of a heavy naval and artillery bombardment.  Full details can be found here.