Twice on 24 October a battle sent an army into a disastrous retreat. In 1812 the French and Italian troops of Eugène de Beauharnais fought the Russians all day for Maloyaroslavets, a burning wooden town on the road from Moscow to Kaluga. They kept it, but the next morning Cossacks nearly captured Napoleon, and after a council of war he turned his army back onto the road it had stripped bare on the way to Moscow. In 1917 German and Austro-Hungarian troops broke the Italian front at Caporetto on the Isonzo after a gas and artillery bombardment that began at two in the morning. A young Erwin Rommel took Monte Matajur, and the Italian army fell back to the Piave.
Battle of Maloyaroslavets, 1812: the fight that turned Napoleon back
24 October 1812 · 214 years ago
At Maloyaroslavets, the French and Italian troops of Eugène de Beauharnais fought the Russians as Napoleon's army left Moscow for Kaluga. The town changed hands repeatedly and stayed French, but Napoleon gave up the southern route and turned back onto the ravaged Smolensk road.
Read the full story of Battle of Maloyaroslavets, 1812: the fight that turned Napoleon back ›Battle of Caporetto, 1917: the breakthrough on the Isonzo
24 October 1917 · 109 years ago
Near Kobarid on the Isonzo front, Austro-Hungarian and German forces attacked the Italian army in World War I. Using gas and infiltration tactics they broke the Italian line, forcing a long retreat that ended at the Piave river.
Read the full story of Battle of Caporetto, 1917: the breakthrough on the Isonzo ›Also on this day
In 1944, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, American carrier aircraft caught Admiral Kurita's battleships in the Sibuyan Sea and sank the giant battleship Musashi. By the count of Bob Hackett and Sander Kingsepp, she took 19 torpedo and 17 bomb hits. The whole battle is told on our 23 October page.1
