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Neil Ritchie @neilritchie.bsky.social · 7h

14 October 1853: At the request of the Ottomans, the British and French fleets left Besika Bay and transited the Dardanelles as the Ottoman army prepared to engage Russian forces occupying Wallachia. The Austrian army's mobilisation against Russia continued.

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Neil Ritchie @neilritchie.bsky.social · 1d

12 October 1854: British commander Lord Raglan issued instructions for the army to prepare for a winter campaign in the Crimea and ordered fuel to be stockpiled at Scutari. The French commander Canrobert issued similar instructions. The grand raid to seize Sevastopol would last longer than expected.

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Neil Ritchie @neilritchie.bsky.social · Oct 11

HMS SCYLLA's mascot watching over proceedings during a visit by Winston Churchill to the Home Fleet base at Scapa Flow on 11 October 1942. Photo by Lt. C. H. Parnall.

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The Military Journal @militaryjournal.net · 4d

Soldiers of the 8th (Service) Battalion, Black Watch (Royal Highlanders), part of 9th (Scottish) Division, resting by the roadside near Contalmaison Wood during the Battle of Le Transloy (1-18 October 1916).

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The Military Journal @militaryjournal.net · 5d

9 October 1760: With Frederick the Great's forces concentrated in Silesia, Russian and Austrian troops occupied large parts of the Prussian capital, Berlin and seized around 18,000 muskets and 143 cannons from the Berlin arsenal, during the Third Silesian War, part of the Seven Years' War.

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Neil Ritchie @neilritchie.bsky.social · 7d

7 October 1855: British and French warships set sail from Kameisch Bay in the Crimea bound for a rendezvous off Odessa before sailing to their objective of Kinburn Fort, which guarded the Bug and Dneiper rivers and the access to the Russian shipyards at Nikolaev.

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Neil Ritchie @neilritchie.bsky.social · 9d

5 October 1853: Backed by British and French fleets in the Dardanelles, the Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia after issuing an ultimatum to St Petersburg to remove its armies from the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. It began what became known as the Crimean War.

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The Military Journal @militaryjournal.net · 10d

4 October 1693: At the Battle of Marsaglia in northern Italy, the French army under Marshal Nicolas Catinat employed the mass use of the bayonet for the first time. The French infantry line advanced and then launched a bayonet charge on Victor Amadeus II's army of the Grand Alliance and routed them.

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The Military Journal @militaryjournal.net · 12d

A patrol from 21 Special Air Service (Reserve) Regiment stops to check a compass bearing in a wood in South Jutland during a training exercise against the Danish Home Guard in July 1970. 21 SAS were to form part of NATO stay-behind forces in the event of a Warsaw Pact invasion.

📸 Leslie Wiggs

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Neil Ritchie @neilritchie.bsky.social · 13d

1 October 1854: To assist in the siege of Sevastopol, the Royal Navy began landing the Naval Brigade and 50 naval guns at Balaklava. Made up of Royal Marines and sailors from the fleet, the brigade was commanded by Captain Stephen Lushington of HMS Albion.

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Neil Ritchie @neilritchie.bsky.social · 15d

29 September 1854: The Royal Navy began landing the Royal Marine Brigade at Balaklava to defend the port. 1,216 Royal Marines, under Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Hurdle, would be landed over three days and incorporated into the army.

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Neil Ritchie @neilritchie.bsky.social · 16d

28 September 1854: The Allies established camp on the plateau before Sevastopol while the heavy siege guns continued to be landed. A local Tatar reported a large Russian army was present in the interior of the Crimea. French engineers cut off the water supply to Sevastopol.

📸 Roger Fenton, 1855

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Neil Ritchie @neilritchie.bsky.social · 18d

26 September 1854: The Allied army crossed the Tractir Bridge over the Chernaya River to the east of Sevastopol. British forces moved to occupy the small port of Balaklava as their supply base, while the French secured the more spacious port of Kamiesch as their base.

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Neil Ritchie @neilritchie.bsky.social · 19d

25 September 1854: The Allied army came within sight of Sevastopol. Ruling out a direct assault on Sevastopol from the north, the Allied commanders began a flank march around it to lay siege from the south and moved to secure the ports of Balaklava and Kamiesch.

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Neil Ritchie @neilritchie.bsky.social · 20d

23 September 1854: The Allies moved out from their camps at the Alma and continued on towards Sevastopol, halting at the Katcha River. On the same day, the Russians continued to scuttle ships of their Black Sea Fleet to block the entrance to Sevastopol harbour.

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Jacobite Wars @jacobitewars.com · 22d

A plan of the battle of Prestonpans by Paul Fourdrinier, based on a plan drawn by an officer of engineers who was present at the engagement. The identity of the engineer on whose map this published map is based is unknown.

📜 RA CP/MAIN/5 f.164-164b

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Neil Ritchie @neilritchie.bsky.social · 23d

An officer of the 1st Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) with a horse of the 9th (2nd Pomeranian) Uhlans, which had been captured in the cavalry action at Nery on 1st September 1914.

📸 Robert Cotton Money / IWM (Q 51483)

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The Military Journal @militaryjournal.net · 23d

Winston Churchill, his wife Clementine and their daughter Mary bid goodbye to the crew of the battlecruiser HMS RENOWN, which brought them back to Greenock on 20 September 1943 following Churchill's attendance at the First Quebec Conference.

📸 IWM (A 19209)

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Neil Ritchie @neilritchie.bsky.social · 23d

20 September 1854: The Allied army attacked Prince Alexander Menshikov's Russian army occupying the heights overlooking the River Alma in the Crimea. In less than three hours, the Russians were dislodged at the bayonet point, the Highlanders firing their rifles "within a yard of the Russians".

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Neil Ritchie @neilritchie.bsky.social · 24d

19 September 1854: As the Allied army set off towards Sevastopol, the British advance guard encountered Russian cavalry at the Bulganak River which were engaged by Lord Cardigan's Light Cavalry Brigade supported by 'C' Troop Royal Horse Artillery, with Riflemen riding on the guns into action.

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The Military Journal @militaryjournal.net · 28d

HMS ARK ROYAL and other ships of the Home Fleet, including BULWARK and EAGLE and the cruiser SHEFFIELD, anchored in the Clyde shortly before the beginning of the NATO exercise STRIKEBACK in September 1957.

📸 © Crown copyright IWM (A 33882)

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The Military Journal @militaryjournal.net · 29d

British Mark I tanks fuelling up prior to the battle of Flers–Courcelette on 15 September 1916 during the battle of the Somme. This would be the first time tanks would go into combat. They were operated by the Heavy Branch of the Machine Gun Corps.

📸 © IWM Q 5576

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Neil Ritchie @neilritchie.bsky.social · Sep 14

14 September 1854: The Allied expeditionary force of 30,000 French, 26,000 British, and 5,000 Ottoman troops began landing unopposed in the Crimea at Kalamita Bay, 25 miles north of the city and naval base of Sevastopol, the objective of the Allied forces.

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Neil Ritchie @neilritchie.bsky.social · Sep 13

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Neil Ritchie @neilritchie.bsky.social · Sep 13

Pussy and Mickey, mascot cats of the Polish Merchant Navy ship SS Kordecki, checking out the ship's Oerlikon 20mm cannon.

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