On this day...... 11 September

1297: William Wallace and Sir Andrew de Moray (or Murray) defeated an English force under Earl Warenne at Stirling Bridge.  The English attempted attack across the bridge with their Welsh infantry.  Wallace waited until they had partially crossed before charging, trapping large numbers of the Welsh against the river.  They were massacred, and their commander Cressingham, loathed by the Scots, was flayed.  Wallace allegedly had a swordbelt made from his skin.  The victory briefly gave Wallace control over most of Scotland, until Edward I exacted revenge at Falkirk the following year.

1709: The last, bloodiest, and most closely fought of the Duke of Marlborough's battles: Malplaquet.  With nearly 200,000 men involved, the battle was the largest in European history until the Napoleonic wars, and probably the bloodiest in history to that date.  Marlborough and Prince Eugene had captured the fortress of Tournai, and were advancing on Mons.  The best path through woods and rough terrain was blocked by the French Marshal Villars at the village of Malplaquet.  Villars proved the best French general Marlborough had ever had to face.  British, Prussian and Austrian infantry attacked the French left wing in the Bois de Taisnieres: the fighting in the woods degenerated into a dreadful holocaust.  Villars then committed the so-called "Wild Geese" of the Royal Irlandois - Irishmen in Louis XIV's service - in a counterattack.  They were met and routed by Irishmen loyal to Queen Anne, the Royal Irish.  The fighting on the other wing was equally intense, Dutch troops taking the Allied lead.  The Dutch army, perhaps the most professional in Europe, never really recovered from its horrendous losses that day.  The climax of the battle was a massive cavalry fight in the centre, when Marlborough unleashed 30,000 troopers against the French cavalry.  Eventually, Marshal Boufflers, who had taken over command after Villars was severely wounded, chose to retreat.  Marlborough and Eugene had lost some 24,000 men from 110,000, whilst the French lost up to 20,000 from perhaps 80,000.  The strategic results of the battle were minor.

1857: At Delhi, Private Green of the 75th Regiment won the Victoria Cross for his rescue of a wounded comrade.

1940: The Luftwaffe continued to attack London day and night .  The day's events are recorded on the RAF's Battle of Britain website.  Dr Arthur Merriman, a government scientist rather than an ordnance disposal expert, succeeded in removing most of the explosive from a bomb which had fallen in Regent Street.  When it finally detonated, it caused minimal damage.  He was awarded the George Cross.

1944: The Royal Navy midget submarine X-24 carried out a successful attack on a floating dock at Bergen, Norway.  This was the second attack on the harbour by X-24 - she had survived a previous operation on 14 April 1944, when she had sunk a large merchantman and put the coaling wharf out of use for the rest of the war.  Once again towed to the area by the submarine HMS Sceptre, X-24 laid two mines under the dock, which broke it in two and damaged two ships moored alongside.  X-24 is preserved at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport, the only remaining X-boat.

2001: Terrorists hijacked four US airliners.  Three were deliberately crashed into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, while the fourth crashed in open country.  UK forces subsequently participated in Coalition operations against the Al Qaida terrorist organisation and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.