#OnThisDay 1944 Operation Market Garden, the Allies push to the River Rhine began. Garden, the ground assault was led by the Irish Guards armour whose commander was J.O.E. Vandeleur, whose family were from Clare. It would prove to be a “Bridge Too Far.”
#OnThisDay 1862 At the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest single day of the American Civil War, the Irish Brigade attack Confederate lines along the Sunken Road, aptly named Bloody Lane. The Irish Brigade suffer 113 KIA, 422 WIA & 5 MIA or over 50% of their men.
#OnThisDay 1941 Sixteen Irish soldiers were killed & more badly wounded when the anti-tank mine they were training with prematurely exploded in the Glen of Imaal. It is considered to be the worst single incident for the Irish Defence Forces.
#OnThisDay 1922 Commandant Tom Keogh, who fought in the Easter Rising, led Collins’ Squad, took part in Bloody Sunday & attacked the Four Courts, along with 8 Free State soldiers were killed when their truck passed over a mine on a bridge at Carrigphooka, Cork.
#OnThisDay 1920 English criminal & spy Frank Digby Hardy was run out of Dublin having had his plans foiled by Arthur Griffith who misled Hardy into revealing his mission to capture Michael Collins to a room of international reporters.
