ROSS SIMPSON

CAMILLE
BOHANNON

An oil painting by American artist John Trumbull depicts the fatal wounding by bayonet of Brig. Gen. Hugh Mercer, center, at the
Battle of Princeton.

A younger Mercer Oak now stands where the original marked the
scene of the fatal wounding of Brig. Gen. Hugh Mercer.

MIKE GRACIA

During World War II on this day in 1944, the Battle of the Bulge began in
Belgium. It was the final major German counteroffensive in the war.

The Germans achieved a total surprise attack due to a combination of
Allied overconfidence, preoccupation with Allied offensive plans, and
poor aerial reconnaissance due to bad weather. American forces bore
the brunt of the attack and incurred their highest casualties of any
operation during the war. The battle also severely depleted Germany’s
armored forces, and they were largely unable to replace them.

The "Bulge" was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the
United States in World War II and the third deadliest campaign in
American history.

Akagi Japanese aircraft carrier.

Deep-sea explorers and historians on Sunday announced they apparently
found a second World War II-era Japanese aircraft carrier that sank during
the Battle of Midway.

Director of undersea operations for Vulcan Ind. Rob Kraft said a review of
sonar data captured Sunday showed either the Japanese carrier Akagi
or the Soryu resting in nearly 18,000 feet of water in the Pacific Ocean
more than 1,300 miles northwest of Pearl Harbor. Hawaii. 

The researchers used an autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV,
equipped with sonar to find the ship. The vehicle had been out
overnight collecting data, and the image of a warship appeared in
the first set of readings on Sunday morning.

Officials said the crew planned to deploy the AUV for another eight-hour
mission where it will capture high-resolution sonar images of the site to
measure the ship and confirm its identity.  
     
The finding came on the heels of last week’s discovery, another Japanese
aircraft carrier, the Kaga, which U.S. forces also sank during the Battle of
Midway in June 1942.

Until now, only one of the seven ships that went down in the air-and-sea
battle, five Japanese vessels and two American ships, had been found.

.

Hopelessly trapped at Yorktown, Virginia, British General Lord Cornwallis surrenders 8,000 British soldiers and seamen to a larger Franco-American
force, effectively bringing an end to the American Revolution on this day
in 1781.

Lord Cornwallis was one of the most capable British generals of the
American Revolution.

Storming of Redoubt #9.

The storming of Redoubt No. 10.

The victory at Yorktown was honored in a 1783 medallion minted in
Paris and designed there by US Ambassador Benjamin Franklin.