On 21 September 1745 the Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart destroyed Sir John Cope's government force at Prestonpans, east of Edinburgh, in a quarter of an hour at most. Many of Cope's men were raw recruits, landed at Dunbar only days before. Guided across a marsh before dawn by a local man, Robert Anderson, the Highlanders fell on the government line out of the morning mist. Cope's gunners and dragoons fled almost at once, the infantry broke after a single volley, and most of the foot were killed or taken. Cope rode off with a few hundred dragoons. The victory left the Jacobites in control of Scotland and opened their road into England.
Battle of Prestonpans, 1745: the Highland charge
21 September 1745 · 281 years ago
On 21 September 1745 the Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie, destroyed Sir John Cope's government force at Prestonpans, east of Edinburgh, in about fifteen minutes.
Read the full story of Battle of Prestonpans, 1745: the Highland charge ›Also on this day
Battle of Porkuni
21 September 1944 · 82 years ago
Near Lake Porkuni in Estonia, Estonians of the Red Army's Estonian Rifle Corps fought fellow Estonians from Waffen-SS and pro-independence units during the Soviet Tallinn Offensive. It was the largest clash between Estonians on opposite sides, and it ended in Soviet victory.
1944: during Operation Market Garden, the last of Lieutenant-Colonel Frost's British paratroopers near the north end of the Arnhem road bridge were ordered to break out in small parties in the early hours. The same day part of the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade under Major General Stanisław Sosabowski dropped near Driel, on the south bank of the Lower Rhine. According to MacDonald, 750 men jumped, and the Germans had sunk the ferry by which they were to cross; Sosabowski has his own article.1
