British Army Timeline of Events

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British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England and Scotland and was administered by the War Office from London...

Timeline of Events

1537

8.25.1537

The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed.

1759

8.1.1759

Seven Years' War: The Battle of Minden, an allied Anglo-German army victory over the French. In Britain this was one of a number of events that constituted the Annus Mirabilis of 1759 and is celebrated as Minden Day by certain British Army regiments.

1775

6.12.1775

American Revolution: British general Thomas Gage declares martial law in Massachusetts. The British offer a pardon to all colonists who lay down their arms. There would be only two exceptions to the amnesty: Samuel Adams and John Hancock, if captured, were to be hanged.

1779

7.16.1779

American Revolutionary War: light infantry of the Continental Army seize a fortified British Army position in a midnight bayonet attack at the Battle of Stony Point.

1780

9.24.1780

Benedict Arnold flees to British Army lines when the arrest of British Major John André exposes Arnold's plot to surrender West Point.

1798

8.27.1798

Wolfe Tone's United Irish and French forces clash with the British Army in the Battle of Castlebar, part of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, resulting in the creation of the French puppet Republic of Connaught.

1812

8.16.1812

War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army.

1840

10.14.1840

The Maronite leader Bashir II surrenders to the British Army and then is sent into exile on the islands of Malta.

1881

7.1.1881

General Order 70, the culmination of the Cardwell-Childers reforms of the British Army, comes into effect.

1908

4.1.1908

The Territorial Force (renamed Territorial Army in 1920) is formed as a volunteer reserve component of the British Army.

1914

8.23.1914

World War I: the Battle of Mons; the British Army begins withdrawal.

9.9.1914

World War I: The creation of the Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade, the first fully mechanized unit in the British Army.

1925

3.9.1925

Pink's War: The first Royal Air Force operation conducted independently of the British Army or Royal Navy begins.

1940

6.17.1940

World War II: the British Army's 11th Hussars assault and take Fort Capuzzo in Libya, Africa from Italian forces.

7.19.1940

World War II: Army order 112 forms the Intelligence Corps of the British Army.

1944

11.1.1944

World War II: Units of the British Army land at Walcheren in the Netherlands.

12.3.1944

Greek Civil War: Fighting breaks out in Athens between the ELAS and government forces supported by the British Army.

1945

5.4.1945

World War II: The liberation of the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg by the British Army.

1979

8.27.1979

An IRA bomb kills British World War II admiral Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma and 3 others while they are boating on holiday in Sligo, Republic of Ireland. Another bomb near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland kills 18 British soldiers.

1989

2.20.1989

An IRA bomb destroys a section of a British Army barracks in Ternhill, England

12.13.1989

Attack on Derryard checkpoint: The Provisional Irish Republican Army launch an attack on a British Army permanent vehicle checkpoint near Rosslea, Northern Ireland. Two British soldiers are killed and one badly wounded.

2006

11.11.2006

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II unveils the New Zealand War Memorial in London, United Kingdom, commemorating the loss of soldiers from the New Zealand Army and the British Army.

2007

7.31.2007

Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and the longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end.