On this day...... 31 July

1915: Captain Liddell, 7 Squadron Royal Flying Corps, flying an RE5 reconnaissance aircraft, with 2nd Lt Peck as his observer, was badly wounded during a fight with a German aircraft near Ostend.  Despite his injuries, severe damage to his aircraft, and continuous heavy ground fire, he succeeded in returning to Allied lines.  He was awarded the Victoria Cross, but died of his wounds a month later.

1917: Field Marshal Haig launched his main offensive of the year in an attempt to take pressure off the French, suffering mutinies after appaling casualties during Nivelle's offensive in Champagne.  The British attack was once again on the Ypres sector.  Three years of artillery bombardment had reduced the landscape, with a fragile and high water-table, to a quagmire.  Gough's Fifth Army quite literally bogged down trying to take formidable German defensive positions, in what became perhaps the most terrible of all the British experiences on the Western Front: Third Ypres or Passchendaele.  By November, 320,000 casualties had been suffered.  Thirteen VCs were won on the first day:

• Brigadier-General Coffin
• Lieutenant Colonel Best-Dunkley, Lancashire Fusiliers, posthumous
• Captain Colyer-Fergusson, Northamptonshire Regiment, posthumous
• Captain Ackroyd, Royal Army Medical Corps
• Second Lieutenant Hewitt, Hampshire Regiment, posthumous
• Sergeant Bye, Welsh Guards
• Sergeant Edwards, Seaforth Highlanders
• Sergeant Rees, South Wales Borderers
• Lance-Sergeant Mayson, King's Own (Royal Lancaster) Regiment
• Corporal Andrew, New Zealand's Wellington Regiment
• Corporal Davies, Royal Welch Fusiliers, posthumous
• Guardsman Whitham, Coldstream Guards
• Private McIntosh, Gordon Highlanders

1940: The Luftwaffe probed air defences along the south and east coasts, provoking several air actions.  The night saw unusually heavy activity with raids over many different parts of the country, including south Wales.  The day's events are recorded on the RAF's Battle of Britain website.

1942: Bomber Command attacked Dusseldorf with 630 aircraft.  The bombers inflicted significant damage, but at a high cost: 29 aircraft failed to return.

1945: The four-man midget submarine XE.3, commanded by Lieutenant Fraser, crept into the Johore Straits at Singapore to attack the Japanese heavy cruiser Takao, whilst XE.1 headed for another cruiser, Myoko.  After 11 hours bumping along the bottom in often dangerously shallow water, Fraser managed to position XE.3 directly below Takao, and his diver, Magennis, squeezed out of a hatch which could only be partly opened, blocked by the cruiser's hull, to attach limpet mines to her underside.  The task was made even more difficult by problems with his breathing apparatus.  Once Magennis had returned to XE.3, Fraser released the submarine's main weapons - large explosive charges carried on each side of the vessel.  However, one of the racks for the limpet mines would not release, upsetting the trim of the submarine; Magennis once more had to swim outside to help free it, which he managed after several minutes of difficult work.  XE.3 was then able to make her escape.  Meanwhile, XE.1 could not find Myoko, so her crew decided also to attack Takao, even though there was now a risk that XE.3's charges might go off whilst they were underneath the cruiser.  Charges dropped, XE.1 followed her sister out to sea.  Takao was badly damaged by the explosions and never went to sea again. Fraser and Magennis both received the Victoria Cross.