The First Battle of Dernancourt was fought on 28 March 1918 near
Dernancourt in northern France during World War I. Two Australian
divisions had been sent south from Belgium to help stem the tide of the
German Spring Offensive towards Amiens and, with the British
35th Division, they held a line west and north of the Ancre river and
the area between the Ancre and Somme. The German 2nd Army concentrated
its assault between Albert and Dernancourt, attacking off the line of
march after a short artillery preparation. The dawn attack was under the
cover of fog, but other than one small penetration in the early morning
that was quickly repelled, the Germans failed to break through the
Allied defences. An Australian sergeant, Stanley McDougall (pictured),
was awarded the Victoria Cross for his part in defeating the German
penetration. A week later the Germans renewed their attempts to advance
in the sector, culminating in the Second Battle of Dernancourt when the
Germans were again defeated.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Dernancourt>
Today's selected anniversaries:
American Civil War: An invasion of the New Mexico Territory by
the Confederate States Army was halted by Union forces at the Battle of
French aviator Henri Fabre's floatplane, the Fabre Hydravion,
became the first aircraft to take off from water under its own power at
the Étang de Berre near Martigues in southern France.
The name of Turkey's largest city was changed from
Constantinople to Istanbul, with the government requesting other
countries to use Turkish names for its cities.
A siege of a hotel in Mogadishu by Al-Shabaab militants, which
began the previous day and killed at least 20 people, ended with the
Somali Armed Forces recapturing the premises.
Wiktionary's word of the day:
(science fiction) A subgenre of speculative fiction, based on the
society and technology of the Atomic Age (c. 1945–1965).
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Words are not (except in their own little corner) facts or
things: we need therefore to prise them off the world, to hold them
apart from and against it, so that we can realize their inadequacies and
arbitrariness, and can relook at the world without blinkers.
--J. L. Austin