Forgot to send this one sorry folks! On this day...... 19 May *1652:* Following the demand by an English captain of a salute from a Dutch convoy on 12 May, the first action of the First Anglo-Dutch War was fought in the Straits of Dover, when a Dutch fleet of forty ships under Tromp sought to assert its freedom of navigation. It was met by 23 ships under General-at-Sea Blake. The action was inconclusive, but marked the formal start of hostilities. *1915:* Ottoman forces mounted a major counter-attack against the northern bridgehead in Gallipoli, held by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The ANZACs held their ground, and inflicted some 10,000 casualties on the Turkish troops, their worst losses of the First World War. Lance Corporal Jacka was awarded the Victoria Cross for his lone defence of a position at Courtney's Post - his comrades having been killed, seven Turks broke into the trench, but he killed all of them in a close-quarter fight. *1917:* On the Western Front, Sergeant White of the South Wales Borderers charged a German machine-gun in an attempt to open the way for his company to advance. When only a few feet from the position, he was caught by a full burst from the weapon and killed. He was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. *1918:* In France, Sergeant Ruthven rallied a company of the 22nd Australian Battalion after the company commander fell casualty, then advanced alone to capture a machine-gun post and kill or capture some 40 enemy. He received the Victoria Cross. *1941:* During an action in Abyssinia, Italian tanks led a counter-attack against men of the King's African Rifles. However, Sergeant Leakey, a Kenyan, managed to scramble atop one of the tanks, forced open the hatch, and killed all the crew inside, except for the driver, who he induced to drive the vehicle into the British lines. He then went forward again and attacked another tank in similar fashion, but was killed fighting its crew. His actions disrupted the Italian attack, which was successfully driven off. He was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. In Iraq, the British forces defending the RAF base at Habbaniyah succeeded in taking Fallujah from troops loyal to the pro-Axis regime of Rashid Ali. *1944:* As the date for the Normandy landings drew closer, Bomber Command <http://www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/index.html> launched another major effort against railway yards and coastal batteries in France. 900 aircraft attacked marshalling yards in Boulogne, Orleans, Amiens, Tours and Le Mans, as well as gun positions at Merville and Le Clipon and a radar station at Mont Couple. Seven aircraft failed to return. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.322 / Virus Database: 266.11.14 - Release Date: 20/05/2005