Felician Myrbach's 1906 drawing of officers of the elite Prussian Garde du Corps sharpening their swords on the stone steps of the French Embassy in Berlin in 1806 in an effort to provoke war with Napoleon.
Baghdad fell to Anglo-Indian forces commanded by General Frederick Stanley Maude on 11 March 1917 during the Mesopotamian Campaign of the First World War. Maude's forces crushed the final Ottoman defensive line at the Diyala River on 10 March, forcing an immediate evacuation of the city.
10 March 1814: The Battle of Laon concluded as a victory for the Prusso-Russian forces over Napoleon, forcing a French withdrawal. Realising he could not break the Allied lines or take the town of Laon, Napoleon issued orders for a retreat toward Soissons, covered by a rearguard under Marshal Ney.
9 March 1862: USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (rebuilt from the engines and lower hull of the USS Merrimack) fight to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads, the first battle between two ironclad warships.
On 9 March 1847, US forces under General Winfield Scott launched the first large-scale amphibious assault in US history, landing roughly 12,000 troops near the fortress city of Veracruz, Mexico, during the Mexican-American War.
8 March 1801: British forces under Sir Ralph Abercromby launched an amphibious landing at Abukir in Egypt during the War of the Second Coalition. The operation forced a beachhead against French defenders, serving as the prelude to the British victory at the Battle of Alexandria later that month.
On Strategists and Strategy: Collected Essays, 2014-2024 is a curated volume by renowned military historian Sir Lawrence Freedman that examines modern warfare, strategic thought, and foreign policy over the last decade.
German infantry march into the former Rhineland DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) preceded by their regimental band, on 7 March 1936. German commanders had orders to retreat immediately if they met military resistance.
The Battle of Craonne was a major engagement of the War of the Sixth Coalition fought on 7 March 1814. It pitted Emperor Napoleon's French forces against a combined Russo-Prussian force under Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.
Indian riflemen guard an oil refinery belonging to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company on Abadan Island in the River Shatt-el-Arab in August 1941, during the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran (Operation COUNTENANCE).
📸 John Keating / IWM (E 5329)
5 March 1936: The Supermarine Spitfire made its first flight from Eastleigh Aerodrome in Southampton. It entered service with the RAF in August 1938 and became the RAF's main fighter aircraft from 1941. It remained with RAF squadrons until the early 1950s. Over 20,300 were built between 1938-1948.
Balaklava served as the principal supply base for the British Army during the Crimean campaign (1854–1856). This small, deep-water harbour was crucial for delivering food, ammunition, clothing, and equipment to British troops involved in the Siege of Sevastopol.
📸 James Roberston / IWM (Q 71108)
British Commandos watching fish oil tanks burning during Operation CLAYMORE on 4 March 1941. The commando raid on the Lofoten Islands, Norway, resulted in the destruction of approximately 3,600 tonnes of fish oil used in the production of vitamins A and D for the Wermacht.
📸IWM (N 396)
Lance Corporal R. Hearn and Private F. Slater of the 1st Royal Norfolk Regiment, 3rd Division, cover a crossroads in Kervenheim on 3 March 1945. Corporal Hearn is using a captured German MP40 submachine gun.
📸 IWM (B 15048)
HMS ECHO leading HMS ECLIPSE photographed from HMS FURY while on convoy duties off Iceland on 3 March 1942. The three warships would form part of a task force sent out to intercept the German battleship TIRPITZ as it sailed from Narvik to Trondheim on 11-14 March 1942.
📸 IWM (A 8089)
Men of the Royal Marine Division training in the snow at Hawick in March 1942. Their mountain and cold-weather warfare training was part of the deception operation HARDBOILED, designed to fool the Germans into believing a landing in Norway was imminent.
"The eye-tooth of the bear must be drawn, and until his fleet and naval arsenal in the Black Sea are destroyed there is no safety for Constantinople, no security for the peace of Europe" - Sir James Graham, First Lord of the Admiralty to Lord Clarendon, 1 March 1854.
Bolshevik artillery on the shore of Gulf of Finland firing on sailors and naval infantry of the Baltic Fleet on Kotlin Island who were in revolt against the Soviet government during the Kronstadt rebellion (1-18 March 1921), which was part of the Russian Civil War.
"A little more grape Capt. Bragg" - General Taylor at the Battle of Buena Vista, 23 February 1847.
21 February 1808: Russian troops under Friedrich Wilhelm von Buxhoevden crossed the Swedish-Russian border in Finland without a formal declaration of war, capturing the town of Loviisa and initiating the Finnish War, which lasted until September 1809.
20 February 1864: A Confederate force under Brigadier-General Joseph Finegan decisively defeats Union forces commanded by Brigadier-General Truman Seymour at the Battle of Olustee, Baker County, Florida. The victory ensured Confederate control of Florida’s interior for the rest of the war.
20-25 February 1944: Operation ARGUMENT, "Big Week", saw the US Eighth Air Force, US Fifteenth Air Force and RAF Bomber Command strike German aircraft factories, ball-bearing plants and other military-industrial targets, aiming to cripple the Luftwaffe in the lead up to the Normandy landings.
US volunteer infantry standing along a street in Saltillo, Mexico, in 1847 during the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). US forces under General John E. Wool occupied the city in early 1847. It was a crucial logistics and control point in the Coahuila region.
📸 Amon Carter Museum of American Art
Soldiers of the Royal Canadian Regiment crossing the Paardeberg Drift on the Modder River during the Battle of Paardeberg, 18-27 February 1900. The Second Boer War (1899-1902) saw Canadian troops deploy overseas for war for the first time.
Damage to Thionville (Diedenhofen) Railway Station caused by a raid carried out by the Independent Air Force in 1918. The IAF was created to conduct long-range bombing missions, targeting industrial centres, railways, and civilian morale to damage the enemy's war-making capacity.
📸 IWM (Q 60300)
On 15 February 1944, 142 B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers, 47 B-25 Mitchell and 40 B-26 Marauder medium bombers dropped 1,150 tons of high explosives and incendiary bombs on the abbey of Monte Cassino, reducing it to a smoking mass of rubble.
On 15 February 1898, USS Maine suffered an internal explosion and sank in Havana Harbor with the loss of 260 crew members. Sensationalist journalism in the US blamed Spain for the disaster, and the incident would lead to the US intervention in the Cuban War of Independence and war with Spain.
A sniper from "C" Company, 5th Battalion, The Black Watch, 51st (Highland) Division, in position in a ruined building in Gennep, Netherlands, on 14 February 1945.
📸 IWM (B 14626)
The Battle of the Tugela Heights was a series of military actions from 14-27 February 1900 during the Second Boer War. It resulted in a decisive British victory that broke the Boer defensive line along the Tugela River and led to the relief of Ladysmith on 28 February 1900, ending a 118-day siege.
13 February 1812: Persian forces under Crown Prince Abbas Mirza defeated the Russians under General Pyotr Kotlyarevsky at the Battle of Sultanabad during the Russo-Persian War of 1804-1813. While a relatively minor engagement, Abbas Mirza promoted it as a major triumph to bolster Persian morale.
