On this day...... 12 August

1812: Wellington liberated Madrid from French occupation.

1854: During the Crimean War, Lieutenant Bythesea and Stoker Johnstone, from HMS Arrogant, were landed on 9 August on Wardo Island in the Baltic to intercept a Russian courier team reported to be carrying important military dispatches.  After three days in hiding, the pair successfully ambushed the five-strong Russian party, despite being armed only with pistols.  They captured three of the Russians, and the mail-bags of the other two, dropped as they fled.  They safely made it back to Arrogant with their prisoners and the captured documents.  Both men received the Victoria Cross.

1857: During the Indian Mutiny, Captain Blair of the Bombay Light Cavalry mounted a successful lone assault on a house held by eight mutineers.  Elsewhere, Lieutenant Crowe led Seaforth Highlanders in an attack on a fortified village; under his leadership, it was overrun in less than a minute.  And at Lucknow, Private Dempsey ran through flames carrying a sack of gunpowder to allow engineers to blow a breach in the enemy defences.  All three received the Victoria Cross.

1914: Britain declared war on the Austrio-Hungarian Empire.  Meanwhile, the Royal Flying Corps prepared to deploy to France to support the British Expeditionary Force.  An advanced ground party of personnel was sent ahead across the Channel, whilst 2, 3, 4 and 5 Squadrons gathered at Dover to prepare to fly their aircraft across; the first-ever flight over the Channel, by Bleriot, had only been five years before.  The first aircraft, flown by Lieutenant Harvey-Kelly, landed safely in France on 13 August.  1 Squadron had only recently re-equipped with fixed wing aircraft, having previously operated airships and balloons, so did not deploy to France at this time.

1915: Flight Commander Edmonds of the Royal Naval Air Service conducted the first ever successful aerial torpedo attack.  Flying a Short 184 seaplane from HMS Ben-My-Chree off the Dardanelles, he sank a Turkish supply ship in the Sea of Marmara.

1916: On the Somme, an Australian soldier, Private O'Meara, ventured into No Man's Land repeatedly over the period 9-12 August to rescue wounded men, as well as collecting ammunition from the rear and bringing it up to the forward positions.  He was awarded the Victoria Cross.

1918: On the Western Front, three Victoria Crosses were won.  Sergeant Statton of the 40th Australian (Tasmania) Battalion attacked no less than six machine-gun nests during the day, at times armed only with a revolver.  Sergeant Spall, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, sacrificed his life to cover the retreat of his platoon when it became isolated, mounting a lone defence with a Lewis Gun until overwhelmed by his opponents.  And Private Dinesen, a Dane serving with the Quebec Regiment, five times attacked on his own to knock out enemy positions holding up the advance.

1940: The Luftwaffe launched major attacks along the south coast, including raids on "Home Chain" radar stations and RAF Manston.  Fighter Command claimed numerous victories over enemy aircraft; 15 RAF fighters were lost in action.  The day's events are recorded on the RAF's Battle of Britain website.

That night, eleven Hampdens from 49 and 83 Squadrons conducted low-level attacks on the vital Dortmund-Ems Canal, aiming for a pair of aqueducts which carried the canal over the River Ems near Munster.  Following previous attacks, the Germans had positioned strong anti-aircraft defences around the aqueducts.  Two Hampdens were shot down, but eight managed to bomb the target.  By the time Flight Lieutenant Learoyd's aircraft made its approach at only 150 feet in the dark, the defences were fully alert, and searchlights found and held his aircraft.  The Hampden was very badly damaged by anti-aircraft shells, but Learoyd held her steady for a good bomb run.  He then nursed the crippled aircraft back to the UK, where he managed to circle until dawn to pull off a good landing at first light.  Learoyd received the Victoria Cross.  That stretch of the canal was put out of action for over a month.

1941: Bomber Command mounted a major daylight low-level raid by 54 Blenheim light bombers against the massive power stations near Cologne at Knapsack and Quadrath.  As well as hitting a pair of important industrial targets, it was hoped that the raids might force the Luftwaffe to pull back some of its fighters from covering the invasion of the Soviet Union.  Accurate bombing was achieved, but ten Blenheims fell victim to flak or fighters.

1943: During a Bomber Command raid on Turin, a Stirling bomber of 218 Squadron, piloted by Flight Sergeant Aaron, was hit by a burst of fire, probably from the rear turret of another RAF bomber by mistake in the dark.  The navigator was killed, and Aaron suffered appalling wounds to the face, chest and right arm.  With one engine knocked out, the flight engineer and bomb aimer, neither of them trained as pilots, took over the controls and turned the aircraft towards Allied airbases in North Africa.  Upon reaching the African coast, Aaron insisted on returning to his seat and supervise the preparations for landing.  Unable to speak with his jaw shattered, he wrote instructions for landing with his left hand.  At the fifth attempt, the crew managed a good wheels-up landing on the airfield at Bone under his guidance.  Nine hours later, Aaron died of his wounds in hospital.  He was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.  The flight engineer and bomb aimer each received the Distinguished Flying Medal.