March 20 in Military History — On This Day

⚔️📍 Paris, France1815

Napoleon Returns to Paris — The Hundred Days Begin

Napoleon entered Paris in triumph after escaping from Elba, with troops sent to arrest him joining his march instead. King Louis XVIII fled the city without a shot being fired. Napoleon had marched from the south with just 1,000 men and gathered an army along the way.

The Hundred Days shocked Europe and forced the Allied powers to mobilize against Napoleon one final time, culminating in his defeat at Waterloo and permanent exile.

Outcome

Napoleon reclaims French throne; Waterloo campaign begins

Fall of Baghdad

Operation Iraqi Freedom opens with 'Shock and Awe' — a night-time cruise missile and precision bombing campaign against Baghdad. Three US Army divisions and the 1st Marine Division drive north from Kuwait simultaneously. The 3rd Infantry Division reaches Baghdad's outskirts in 21 days. On April 5, 'Thunder Run' — a tank column charges straight through the city center — and the Republican Guard collapses. On April 9, a US military vehicle pulls down the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square before a watching world.

The speed of Baghdad's fall seemed to validate Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's 'transformation' theory — that a smaller, faster military could defeat conventional armies cheaply. The iconic statue pull-down provided a powerful visual of liberation — though the watching crowd was small and the toppling partly staged. What the cameras didn't show was the looting of Baghdad's museums, hospitals, and ministries that began immediately, while US forces watched under orders not to intervene — Rumsfeld's dismissal: 'Stuff happens.'

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