Soldiers of the Machine Gun Corps (74th Division) are cheered as they march through the Grand Place, Tournai, on 10 November 1918. Tournai had been captured by the German II Corps on 23 August 1914, and remained in German hands until liberated by the British on 8 November 1918. 📸 IWM (Q 9668)

12 November 1940: Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov met with Adolf Hitler and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in Berlin for a conference to discuss spheres of influence between Germany, Italy, Japan and the Soviet Union, and the possibility of the Soviets joining the Axis.

12 November 1944: RAF Lancasters of No. 9 and No. 617 Squadrons carrying 12,000 lb Tallboy bombs attacked and sank the German battleship Tirpitz off Tromsø, Norway. Tirpitz capsized after being hit by two Tallboy bombs and the shockwaves of others that hit the water nearby. Painting by Jim Laurier.

Soldiers of the Machine Gun Corps (74th Division) are cheered as they march through the Grand Place, Tournai, on 10 November 1918. Tournai had been captured by the German II Corps on 23 August 1914, and remained in German hands until liberated by the British on 8 November 1918. 📸 IWM (Q 9668)

21 October 1805: A Royal Navy fleet under Vice-Admiral Horatio, Lord Nelson, defeated Vice-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve's combined Franco-Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar. Prior to the battle, Napoleon had already abandoned his plans of invasion of Britain, and they were never revived.

16 October 1939: Ju 88 bombers of Kampfgeschwader 30 conducted the first bombing raid on Britain, targeting Royal Navy warships in the Firth of Forth. The raid was intercepted by No. 602 and No. 603 Squadrons, resulting in the first German aircraft to be shot down in the air war over Britain.

Armoured cars going into action, passing men of the Northumberland Hussars on the Zillebeke Road, on 15 October 1914. Earlier that day, the Hussars had come into contact with German cavalry southeast of Ypres, near Zillebeke and Zandvoorde. 📸 Harold Robson / IWM (Q 50706)

Royal Navy destroyer HMS KEPPEL (D84) on her arrival back at Greenock on 12 October 1943 following the vessel's ramming and sinking of the surfaced German submarine U-229 south-east of Cape Farewell, Greenland on 22 September. 📸 Lt S J Beadell / IWM (A 19691)

13/18th Royal Hussars during an exercise near Vimy, on 11 October 1939. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, the regiment was transferred to the Royal Armoured Corps and fought as a reconnaissance unit in the Battle of France in 1940, before being evacuated at Dunkirk. 📸 IWM (O 117)

14 October 1853: At the request of the Ottomans, the British and French fleets left Besika Bay and transited the Dardanelles as the Ottoman army prepared to engage Russian forces occupying Wallachia. The Austrian army's mobilisation against Russia continued.

12 October 1854: British commander Lord Raglan issued instructions for the army to prepare for a winter campaign in the Crimea and ordered fuel to be stockpiled at Scutari. The French commander Canrobert issued similar instructions. The grand raid to seize Sevastopol would last longer than expected.

Royal Navy destroyer HMS KEPPEL (D84) on her arrival back at Greenock on 12 October 1943 following the vessel's ramming and sinking of the surfaced German submarine U-229 south-east of Cape Farewell, Greenland on 22 September. 📸 Lt S J Beadell / IWM (A 19691)

13/18th Royal Hussars during an exercise near Vimy, on 11 October 1939. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, the regiment was transferred to the Royal Armoured Corps and fought as a reconnaissance unit in the Battle of France in 1940, before being evacuated at Dunkirk. 📸 IWM (O 117)

9 October 1760: With Frederick the Great's forces concentrated in Silesia, Russian and Austrian troops occupied large parts of the Prussian capital, Berlin and seized around 18,000 muskets and 143 cannons from the Berlin arsenal, during the Third Silesian War, part of the Seven Years' War.

10 October 1939: Admiral Erich Raeder urged Adolf Hitler to consider invading Norway to secure ports and anchorages so as to protect Germany's vital iron ore traffic and to use Norway as a base to allow the Kriegsmarine to attack the North Atlantic sea lanes to Britain.

Soldiers of the 8th (Service) Battalion, Black Watch (Royal Highlanders), part of 9th (Scottish) Division, resting by the roadside near Contalmaison Wood during the Battle of Le Transloy (1-18 October 1916).

9 October 1760: With Frederick the Great's forces concentrated in Silesia, Russian and Austrian troops occupied large parts of the Prussian capital, Berlin and seized around 18,000 muskets and 143 cannons from the Berlin arsenal, during the Third Silesian War, part of the Seven Years' War.

7 October 1864: Union sloop-of-war USS Wachusett under Commander Napoleon Collins engaged with and captured the Confederate sloop-of-war CSS Florida in the Port of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. The action sparked a diplomatic incident between the United States and Brazil.

8 October 1941: During the Battle of the Sea of Azov, elements of Germany's Army Group South captured the port city of Mariupol, which fell without much of a fight. Its capture gave the Germans access to the Sea of Azov, and the city would be occupied by the Germans until 10 September 1943.

Soldiers of the 138th (3rd Lower Alsatian) Infantry Regiment take a rest during the German Imperial Army manoeuvres in the autumn of 1899. The regiment had been raised on 11 March 1887. 📸 IWM HU 68430

Royal Marines of 41 Commando embark in a Wessex helicopter from 845 Naval Air Squadron on the flight deck of HMS Albion (R07) in October 1962, prior to Albion's deployment to the Far East. The Centaur-class HMS Albion had been converted to a commando carrier in January 1961. 📸 IWM (A 34658)

US Army Special Forces and US Air Force Combat Controllers with Northern Alliance troops on horseback in the Dari-a-Souf Valley, Afghanistan, in October 2001. 📸 Master Sgt. Chris Spence

8 October 1941: During the Battle of the Sea of Azov, elements of Germany's Army Group South captured the port city of Mariupol, which fell without much of a fight. Its capture gave the Germans access to the Sea of Azov, and the city would be occupied by the Germans until 10 September 1943.

7 October 1864: Union sloop-of-war USS Wachusett under Commander Napoleon Collins engaged with and captured the Confederate sloop-of-war CSS Florida in the Port of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. The action sparked a diplomatic incident between the United States and Brazil.

7 October 1855: British and French warships set sail from Kameisch Bay in the Crimea bound for a rendezvous off Odessa before sailing to their objective of Kinburn Fort, which guarded the Bug and Dneiper rivers and the access to the Russian shipyards at Nikolaev.

Royal Marines of 41 Commando embark in a Wessex helicopter from 845 Naval Air Squadron on the flight deck of HMS Albion (R07) in October 1962, prior to Albion's deployment to the Far East. The Centaur-class HMS Albion had been converted to a commando carrier in January 1961. 📸 IWM (A 34658)

6 October 1777: British forces under the command of General Sir Henry Clinton captured Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery on the Hudson River during the American Revolutionary War. British troops were then able to dismantle the river chain, which prevented naval movement upriver.

6 October 1762: British forces led by Brigadier-General William Draper and Rear-Admiral Samuel Cornish captured Manila from the Spanish during the Anglo-Spanish War (1762–63), part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). Manila was returned to Spain in April 1764 as per the Treaty of Paris.

5 October 1853: Backed by British and French fleets in the Dardanelles, the Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia after issuing an ultimatum to St Petersburg to remove its armies from the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. It began what became known as the Crimean War.

4 October 1693: At the Battle of Marsaglia in northern Italy, the French army under Marshal Nicolas Catinat employed the mass use of the bayonet for the first time. The French infantry line advanced and then launched a bayonet charge on Victor Amadeus II's army of the Grand Alliance and routed them.

The Vickers Wellington twin-engine, long-range medium bomber entered service with the Royal Air Force and Royal New Zealand Air Force in October 1938. Designed by Rex Pierson and Barnes Wallis at Vickers-Armstrongs, the aircraft prototype made its first flight on 15 June 1936.

A patrol from 21 Special Air Service (Reserve) Regiment stops to check a compass bearing in a wood in South Jutland during a training exercise against the Danish Home Guard in July 1970. 21 SAS were to form part of NATO stay-behind forces in the event of a Warsaw Pact invasion. 📸 Leslie Wiggs

4 October 1693: At the Battle of Marsaglia in northern Italy, the French army under Marshal Nicolas Catinat employed the mass use of the bayonet for the first time. The French infantry line advanced and then launched a bayonet charge on Victor Amadeus II's army of the Grand Alliance and routed them.

43rd American Balloon Company at Bertrange Farm as they were moving to a forward area by means of both motor and horse transport on 1 October 1918. 📸 IWM (Q 70182)

The Vickers Wellington twin-engine, long-range medium bomber entered service with the Royal Air Force and Royal New Zealand Air Force in October 1938. Designed by Rex Pierson and Barnes Wallis at Vickers-Armstrongs, the aircraft prototype made its first flight on 15 June 1936.

A patrol from 21 Special Air Service (Reserve) Regiment stops to check a compass bearing in a wood in South Jutland during a training exercise against the Danish Home Guard in July 1970. 21 SAS were to form part of NATO stay-behind forces in the event of a Warsaw Pact invasion. 📸 Leslie Wiggs

43rd American Balloon Company at Bertrange Farm as they were moving to a forward area by means of both motor and horse transport on 1 October 1918. 📸 IWM (Q 70182)

Covenanter cruiser tanks advance near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, during Exercise BUMPER on 30 September 1941. The British and Canadian exercise in the Chiltern Hills tested the capability to defeat a German invasion and saw more than 250,000 personnel take part. 📸 Humphrey Spender / IWM (H 14346)

General Bernard Montgomery studying a map spread over the bonnet of his jeep at Eighth Army Headquarters in Italy on 30 September 1943. The first Allied troops would enter Naples the following day. It followed an anti-Fascist uprising that had begun in the city on 27 September.

1 October 1854: To assist in the siege of Sevastopol, the Royal Navy began landing the Naval Brigade and 50 naval guns at Balaklava. Made up of Royal Marines and sailors from the fleet, the brigade was commanded by Captain Stephen Lushington of HMS Albion.

29 September 1789: The US Congress passed the "Establishment of Troops" bill, which established a federal army of several hundred men and was overseen by the newly formed Department of War. The Department was established to centralise control over the nation's defence, primarily overseeing the army.

Reservists of the Parachute Regiment board local civilian buses to travel to the airport at the start of Exercise LIONHEART in September 1984. One of the objectives of the exercise was to establish the ability of the Territorial Army to mobilise using British civilian transport. 📸 IWM (CT 358)

A British Mark IV tank captured and used by the Germans before being recaptured by the Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Regiment) during the Battle of St. Quentin Canal on 29 September 1918. 📸 Lt David McLellan / IWM (Q 9744)

Reservists in Tyne and Wear report for duty at a Territorial Army Centre at the start of Exercise LIONHEART in September 1984. LIONHEART was the biggest mobilisation and exercise for the British Army since the Second World War, involving 131,565 UK personnel. 📸 © Crown copyright / IWM (CT 355)

Covenanter cruiser tanks advance near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, during Exercise BUMPER on 30 September 1941. The British and Canadian exercise in the Chiltern Hills tested the capability to defeat a German invasion and saw more than 250,000 personnel take part. 📸 Humphrey Spender / IWM (H 14346)

Sergeant J. Whawell and Sergeant J. Turrell of the Glider Pilot Regiment search for German snipers in a school damaged by mortar fire, during the fighting in Arnhem on 20 September 1944, during Operation MARKET GARDEN. An empty CLE Canister lies open on the ground in the doorway of the school.

General Bernard Montgomery studying a map spread over the bonnet of his jeep at Eighth Army Headquarters in Italy on 30 September 1943. The first Allied troops would enter Naples the following day. It followed an anti-Fascist uprising that had begun in the city on 27 September.

A British Mark IV tank captured and used by the Germans before being recaptured by the Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Regiment) during the Battle of St. Quentin Canal on 29 September 1918. 📸 Lt David McLellan / IWM (Q 9744)

Reservists of the Parachute Regiment board local civilian buses to travel to the airport at the start of Exercise LIONHEART in September 1984. One of the objectives of the exercise was to establish the ability of the Territorial Army to mobilise using British civilian transport. 📸 IWM (CT 358)

29 September 1789: The US Congress passed the "Establishment of Troops" bill, which established a federal army of several hundred men and was overseen by the newly formed Department of War. The Department was established to centralise control over the nation's defence, primarily overseeing the army.