July 8

July 8, 1709 – Battle of Poltava

In the early campaigns of Charles XII of Sweden, Russian forces under Peter I were humiliated in a fantastic showing by the twenty-seven year old Swedish ruler. The battle of Narva had seen the death of countless Russian troops and more importantly, the Swedish were able to exact such high tolls from the Russian army with fewer men.

In the spring of 1709, Charles marched his depleted Swedish force to lay siege to the fort of Poltava on the Vorskla River in the Ukraine. En route his men suffered 33% casualties due to starvation and frostbite, while the wet weather had depleted the armies supply of gunpowder and rendered cannons obsolete. When the Russians opposed the Swedish forces they had the numerical superiority. The Swedish had 22,100 cavalry and infantry with 3-7,000 allied cavalry and 34 cannons. The Russians had 60,000 cavalry and infantry with 102 cannons. This numerical superiority was taken advantage of in the battle of Poltava as superior Swedish troops pushed the Russian center back, but were enveloped by the much larger force. In the end, the battle marked the end of the great Swedish empire in the northern European region. The Russian victory propelled them to super-power status in that region of the world

Russian forces fight against Swedish. Painted 1726

July 8, 1941 – Division of Occupied Yugoslavia

As German influence in World War II spread over much of Europe, only a few stalwart nations remained audacious enough to confront the will of the German military. One of those was Yugoslavia who defended her borders after a military led coup.

In the aftermath of the short campaign the major axis nations divided Yugoslavia into spheres of influence. Croatia was to be independent (with Italian support). The province of Ljubljana and part of the Dalmatian and Adriatic islands were annexed to Italy. Bosnia fell under the protection of Italy and Germany took Montenegro, Carinthia, and Cariola. Hungary took some northern territory as well