March 13 in Military History — On This Day

Battle of Tamai

At Tamai the Beja warriors of Osman Digna charged with such ferocity that they briefly broke one of the British infantry squares — a rare feat that stunned the British — before rifle fire and reserves restored the line and drove them off with heavy loss. It was this fight that inspired Kipling's tribute to the 'Fuzzy-Wuzzy' who 'broke a British square.'

Tamai's breaking of the square became legendary as a mark of the extraordinary courage of the Beja fighters, and immortalised the Mahdist warrior in Victorian imagination even as the British won the field.

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⚔️📍 Petrograd, Russia1917

Russian February Revolution — Tsar Nicholas II Abdicates

Mass protests over food shortages and the catastrophic costs of WWI exploded into revolution as soldiers refused to fire on protesters. Within days the Tsar abdicated, ending 300 years of Romanov rule. The calendar date was February 27 in Russia's Old Style calendar.

The February Revolution ended the Russian Empire but installed a Provisional Government that fatally chose to continue the war, opening the door for Lenin's Bolshevik coup in October.

Outcome

Tsar abdicates; Provisional Government established

Moscow Peace Treaty

The Moscow Peace Treaty, signed on March 12, 1940 and entering into force on March 13, ended the Winter War. Finland ceded approximately 11% of its territory, including the entire Karelian Isthmus with Viipuri, the Salla region, part of Lapland near Salla, and leased the Hanko Peninsula to the Soviet Union as a naval base for 30 years. The human cost was severe: roughly 430,000 Finnish Karelians — 12% of Finland's population — were evacuated to rump Finland, abandoning their ancestral homes. The Finns were given 10 days to evacuate the ceded territories.

Though Finland survived as an independent nation — which Stalin had not originally intended — the peace terms were harsh. The loss of Karelia created a burning desire for revenge that led Finland to join Germany's Operation Barbarossa in 1941 in what Finns called the 'Continuation War.'

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Battle of Dien Bien Phu

The decisive battle that ended French rule in Indochina. General Giap surrounded a French garrison at a remote valley with 50,000 Viet Minh troops and, impossibly, hauled artillery over jungle mountains to shell the airstrip. Resupply became impossible. After 57 days, the surviving garrison of roughly 10,800 surrendered. France's defeat was total and humiliating.

Ended 80 years of French colonial rule in Indochina. The Geneva Accords that followed temporarily divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel — North Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh, South Vietnam under US-backed Ngo Dinh Diem. Eisenhower, fearing a communist 'domino effect,' began sending military advisors to South Vietnam. American involvement had begun.

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