Detail from George Augustus Schultz's battle map of Culloden showing the Duke of Cumberland's army moving from column to line formation just beyond Dalcross Castle on Drumossie Moor on the morning of 16 April 1746.
📸 © Royal Collection Trust
The USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) struck an Iranian mine in the central Persian Gulf on 14 April 1988 during Operation EARNEST WILL, a mission to escort reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers during the Iran-Iraq War. Four days later, the US launched a massive retaliatory strike against the Iranian navy.
10 April 1814: British, Portuguese, and Spanish forces under Field-Marshal Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington, defeated Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult's forces at the Battle of Toulouse. The battle happened four days after Napoleon's abdication, but the commanders had not yet received the news.
5 April 1854: The first troops of the British contingent sent to defend Turkey against Russia arrived at Gallipoli. The force consisted of the Rifle Brigade and the 7th and 11th Companies of the Royal Engineers under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir George Brown.
4 April 1944: The USAAF and the RAF launched their first major bombing raid on Bucharest, Romania, targeting oil refineries and railway marshalling yards. The bombing aimed to destroy oil resources and disrupt supply lines from Romania, which was a critical fuel provider for the Axis forces.
3 April 1944: The Royal Navy executed Operation TUNGSTEN, targeting the German battleship TIRPITZ, which was moored in Kaafjord in northern Norway. Although fifteen bombs struck the battleship, the resulting damage was inadequate to either sink or disable the vessel.
📸 IWM (A 22638)
2 April 1801: A Royal Navy fleet under Admiral Sir Hyde Parker and Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated the Dano-Norwegian navy under Vice-Admiral Johan Olfert Fischer and Vice-Admiral Steen Andersen Bille at the Battle of Copenhagen during the War of the Second Coalition.
"Preparations for war usually take months. Concentrating troops at their main assembly points generally requires the installation of supply dumps and depots, as well as considerable troop movements, whose purpose can be guessed soon enough.
- Carl von Clausewitz
Pipes and Drums of 4 SCOTS and 3 SCOTS lead the parade from Edinburgh Castle to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, which was formed in March 2006.
📸 CC MARK OWENS / UK MOD © Crown copyright 2026
1 April 1918: The Royal Air Force is created by the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service under the Air Ministry, which had been established three months earlier. The creation followed the Air Force (Constitution) Act 1917, which received Royal Assent on 29 November 1917.
The 9th (Glasgow Highland) Battalion, Highland Light Infantry of the Territorial Force at Gailes Camp, Ayrshire, in 1909. The Territorial Force came into existence on 1 April 1908 as part of the army reforms under Richard Haldane, Secretary of State for War.
From February to April 1855, the British built the Grand Crimean Central Railway to facilitate the movement of ammunition and supplies from their supply base at the port of Balaklava towards the front lines during the siege of Sevastopol. It also operated as the world's first hospital train.
31 March 1814: Allied forces entered Paris following the surrender of the city, effectively ending the War of the Sixth Coalition. This pivotal event, which followed the Battle of Paris, led to the immediate downfall of Napoleon Bonaparte, forcing his abdication and exile to Elba.
Stormer vehicle armed with Starstreak SP HVM being unloaded from a C-17 at RAF Akrotiri on Cyprus. The Mach 4 + Starstreak is designed to counter threats from very high-performance, low-flying aircraft, UAVs and late-unmasking attack helicopters.
📸 Sgt Lee Goddard / UK MOD © Crown copyright 2026
Unbuttoned crew of a British Army FV432 armoured personnel carrier in full NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) gear. The driver can be seen wearing headphones over his respirator hood, and the gunner mans a GPMG (General Purpose Machine Gun) on a standard pintle mounting.
📸 IWM (CT 675)
The remarkable and largely untold story of the air defence network in Scotland during the Second World War is revealed in a new book by the National Museum of Flight’s aviation curator, Ian Brown.
Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks' Union forces crossing the Cane River on 31 March 1864 during the Red River Campaign, en route to Shreveport, the then capital of Louisiana and Confederate Trans-Mississippi military headquarters.
Lieutenant-Colonel Dave Mans, 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, on the ground as others still descended after being launched from an RAF A400M during a Joint Airborne Task Force (JATF) jump into Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, on 30 March 2026.
📸 Cpl Aaron J Stone / UK MOD © Crown copyright 2026
Churchill tanks of 6th Guards Tank Brigade carrying paratroopers from the American 17th Airborne Division pass through Dorsten in Germany, while an Achilles tank destroyer waits, 29 March 1945.
📸 Norman Midgley / IWM (BU 2740)
Lübeck Cathedral burning following the raids, Bundesarchiv
234 aircraft from RAF Bomber Command struck the historic port city of Lübeck on the night of 28-29 March 1942 in what was regarded as the first major success for RAF Bomber Command against a German target during the Second World War. 7 Wellingtons, 3 Stirlings, 1 Hampden, and 1 Manchester were lost.
Battle of Kambula Hill, The Illustrated London News
29 March 1879: A British force of approximately 2,000 men under Colonel Evelyn Wood successfully defended their heavily fortified camp at Kambula against an assault by an estimated 20,000 to 22,000 Zulu warriors commanded by Mnyamana kaNgqengelele and Ntshingwayo kaMahole during the Anglo-Zulu War.
RAF aerial reconnaissance photo taken after the St Nazaire Raid (Operation CHARIOT) on 28 March 1942 showing damage to the Normandie Dock as well as dockyard installations. The dry dock was the only facility on the Atlantic coast large enough to repair the German battleship TIRPITZ.
📸 IWM (C 2352)
A Royal Engineers officer fixing an explosive charge to a tree to cause it to fall across a road near Roye on 27 March 1918, during the German Spring Offensive.
📸 Lt Thomas Keith Aitken / IWM (Q 11573)
Royal Navy Avenger-class escort carrier HMS DASHER (D37) suffered an internal explosion and sank in the Firth of Clyde on 27 March 1943. The vessel sank within eight minutes with the loss of 379 of the 528 crew members, in one of the worst Royal Navy losses in home waters.
The First Battle of Gaza, fought on 26 March 1917 during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War, was the first attempt by the British Empire's Egyptian Expeditionary Force to invade southern Palestine and capture the strategically important town of Gaza from the Ottoman Empire.
The 13-inch sea coast mortar (Model 1861) "Dictator" at the Siege of Petersburg during the American Civil War. In the foreground, the figure on the right is Brigadier-General Henry J. Hunt, chief of artillery of the Army of the Potomac. The mortar could fire 225-pound projectiles up to 2.5 miles.
British airborne troops in Hamminkeln on 25 March 1945. The town was captured by 12th (Airborne) Battalion, The Devonshire Regiment, during Operation VARSITY. The battalion deployed by glider on 24 March and succeeded in capturing Hamminkeln with 140 casualties.
📸 Jim Christie / IWM (BU 2293)
An A-10 Thunderbolt II from the 81st Fighter Squadron, Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, pulls away from an air-to-air refuelling tanker while en route to hit Serbian targets during Operation ALLIED FORCE, which began on 24 March 1999.
📸 SRA Greg L. Davis / USAF
A British Light Tank Mk VI, with the distinctive Malta camouflage, on a firing range on 24 March 1942. The "Malta wall" or "rubble wall" camouflage was unique to Malta-based units and helped them to blend into the island's countryside.
📸 IWM (GM 474)
A corporal handles Thompson 'Tommy' submachine guns at the Royal Ordnance Depot in Weedon, England, following their arrival from the United States through the Lend-Lease scheme on 23 March 1942.
📸 Lt Puttnam / IWM (H 18068)