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Operation GNEISENAU was intended to draw Allied reserves south, widen the German salient and link it with the salient at Amiens. On 9 June 1918, the Germans advanced twenty-one divisions nine miles on a 23 mile front along the Matz River against fierce French and American resistance. But the French had intelligence warning of the impending attack and following a surprise counterattack at Compiègne on 11 June halted the German advance. Op GNEISENAU was ended on 12 June at a cost of around 35,000 Allied and 30,000 German casualties
The ground invasion of Iraq was preceded by air strikes on 19 March 2003 and on 20 March 2003 major ground operations began. This first stage of what became the Iraq War lasted just over one month and involved a coalition of forces from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland. This first stage of the Iraq War ended on 1 May 2003.
The United Kingdom’s National operational title for its participation in Op IRAQI FREEDOM was titled Operation TELIC, and the operational name continued to be used until 2011.
The First Allied Airborne Army took off from twenty-two airfields and formed two air fleets over Hatfield and March in southern England. The vast armada formed was 19 miles long and three miles wide and consisted of over 1,000 transport aircraft along with 500 gliders attached to tow planes. All were escorted and protected by hundreds of fighter aircraft.
On 21 March 1918, General Ludendorf ordered a massive offensive in the area between Arras and La Fère against the British Third and Fifth Armies; included in the latter was the 36th (Ulster) Division. German High Command had moved some fifty divisions from the eastern front, where the Russians had surrendered, to confront what they perceived as a weakened British Expeditionary Force (BEF).
In April 2021, the NATO Allies and their Operation RESOLUTE SUPPORT partners made the political decision to begin the orderly withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan from 01 May 2021, with the United Kingdom government planning to complete a coordinated and deliberate drawdown of all UK troops within months.
Following the completion of the mission of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) at the end of 2014, a new, follow-on, NATO-led mission called Operation RESOLUTE SUPPORT was launched on 1 January 2015 to provide further training, advice and assistance for the Afghan security forces and institutions. The United Kingdom's military support for this NATO-led mission is Operation TORAL.
The United Nations Eighth Army launched Operation RIPPER on 7 March 1951 and forced the Chinese PVA and the North Korean KPA out of Seoul by 14 March 1951. The liberated city was a ruin and its 1.5 million pre-war population now reduced to some 200,000 mainly starving and homeless.
The Allied commander in Italy, General Sir Harold Alexander, issued an order to US Lieutenant General Mark Clark, commanding (US) Fifth Army, to:
'carry out an assault landing on the beaches in the vicinity of Rome with the object of cutting the enemy lines of communication and threatening the rear of the German XIV Corps'
The 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment (1 R IRISH) contributed the international Kabul Protection Unit (KPU) providing transport and security support for Op RESOLUTE SUPPORT; the NATO mentoring operation to train, advise and assist the Afghan forces. The 1 R IRISH KPU operated in the high-profile city of Kabul with a local population of some 5 million and a large expatriate community engaged in military and civilian aid programmes; the latter an attractive target for both the Taliban and the self-styled Islamic State.
The 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment (1 R IRISH), commanded by Lieutenant Colonel M G T Lewis R IRISH, deployed on Operation TORAL for seven months, leaving a 140-strong Rear Operations Group at Clive Barracks in Shropshire, England.
