British Military Journal

Fokker F.XXIIs of No. 1 Air Observer and Navigation School getting loaded at Prestwick, Ayrshire. The aircraft were used to drop food supplies to army camps in southwest Scotland which were cut off by snow drifts during the severe winter of 1939-40.

23 December 1745: Government highlanders commanded by Norman MacLeod of Dunvegan were defeated by a numerically superior Jacobite force led by Lord Lewis Gordon at Inverurie. Gordon's Jacobite force was predominantly lowlanders along with regular soldiers from the Royal Ecossais.

20 December 1745: The Earl of Loudoun dispatched a force of pro-Hanoverian highlanders from Inverness under Norman MacLeod of Dunvegan, George Munro of Culcairn, and James Grant of Grant to confront Lord Lewis Gordon and his Jacobite forces at Aberdeen.

18 December 1745: As Charles Edward Stuart's army continued its withdrawal back to Scotland, Jacobite forces under Lord George Murray fought a rearguard action against pursuing government dragoons commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Philip Honeywood at Clifton, south of Penrith.

RMS Empress of Britain arriving at Greenock on 17 December 1939 with the first Canadian soldiers to arrive in Britain. The vessel was one of four liners of Canadian troop convoy TC.1. In the background is the battlecruiser HMS Hood that escorted TC.1.

8 December 1745: The Jacobite army marched from Leek to Macclesfield. From Meriden Common, the Duke of Cumberland set off in pursuit with Bland's Dragoons, Lord Mark Kerr's Dragoons, Cobham's Dragoons, Ligonier's Horse, Kingston's Horse, and 1000 mounted infantry.

5 December 1745: The Jacobites held a council of war at Derby. With Cumberland's army at Lichfield, Marshal Wade's army at Wetherby, and the Earl of Stair assembling a force to defend London, where King George himself took the field, it was decided to withdraw back to Scotland.

3 December 1745: The Jacobites marched from Macclesfield to Leek. As heavy snow continued to fall, the Duke of Cumberland deployed 11 battalions of foot and 6 regiments of horse and dragoons north of Stone, anticipating a clash with the Jacobite army. None was to come.

2 December 1745: As the Jacobites rested in Macclesfield, the Duke of Cumberland began to concentrate his forces on the snowy fields north of Stone. With heavy snow falling one soldier stated that it was the most "extreme cold Atmosphere that ever I felt".

27 November 1745: While the Jacobite army rested at Preston, Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and Captain-General of the British Army arrived at Lichfield to take command of the government forces in Staffordshire, taking over from Lieutenant-General Sir John Ligonier.

25 November 1745: The vanguard of the Jacobite army marched from Garstang to Preston. Field Marshal Wade set off with his army from Newcastle towards Durham while Brigadier-General William Douglas and the Liverpool Blues demolished part of the Warrington Bridge over the Mersey.

The German High Seas Fleet in the North Sea en route to the Firth of Forth where it would surrender on 21 November 1918 before sailing up to Scapa Flow for internment. Flying overhead is the Royal Navy airship NS8. © IWM Q 19293.

Watercolour by Captain Thomas Davies of the Royal Artillery depicting British and Hessian forces assaulting Fort Washington on 16 November 1776. Davies was an eyewitness to the battle and later commanded the captured position, renamed Fort Knyphausen after the Hessian commander.

9 October 1855: Royal Navy ships Vesuvius, Curlew, Recruit, Weser, and Ardent began cruising in the Sea of Azov. The squadron commanded by Captain Sherard Osborne would destroy a large number of Russian supplies from the Don basin at Mariupol, Azov, Glofira, and Gheisk.

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.

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. #CrimeanWar

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. #CrimeanWar

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 also secure the ports of Balaklava and Kamiesch.

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

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 Cardigan's Light Cavalry Brigade supported by 'C' Troop Royal Horse Artillery, with Riflemen riding on the guns.