May 4 in Military History — On This Day

Battle of Tewkesbury

Three weeks after Barnet, Margaret of Anjou's Lancastrian army — which had landed in the west intending to march into Wales and raise reinforcements — was cornered by Edward IV at Tewkesbury. Somerset attempted a flanking attack through woodland but was counter-attacked and his division destroyed. The Lancastrian line broke and fled; many were cut down in the meadows that became known as 'Bloody Meadow.' Prince Edward of Westminster, Henry VI's only son and the entire future of the Lancastrian line, was killed in the rout.

Tewkesbury extinguished the legitimate male Lancastrian line. Henry VI, already imprisoned in the Tower of London, was murdered shortly after the news arrived. Margaret of Anjou was captured and eventually ransomed to France. For the next twelve years, there was no plausible Lancastrian claimant — except a young Welshman in Brittany named Henry Tudor.

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⚔️📍 Coral Sea, South Pacific1942

Battle of the Coral Sea Begins — First Carrier Battle in History

American and Japanese carrier forces began the first naval battle in history fought entirely by aircraft — neither fleet's surface ships came within sight of the other. Both sides launched air strikes against the opposing carrier groups.

Though a tactical Japanese victory, the Coral Sea battle stopped Japan's invasion of Port Moresby and removed two Japanese carriers from the Battle of Midway, contributing to Japan's decisive defeat a month later.

Outcome

Japanese tactical victory; Australian invasion stopped

Casualties

3,000

The Cassinga Raid

South African paratroopers dropped on the settlement of Cassinga, deep inside Angola, in a raid on what Pretoria called a SWAPO guerrilla base and the target's defenders called a refugee camp. Hundreds were killed — the dispute over whether they were fighters or refugees remains bitter to this day — and Cuban forces racing to the scene were caught in South African fire.

Cassinga became a defining and contested atrocity of the wider war, commemorated by Namibia as a massacre of refugees and defended by South Africa as a legitimate strike; it exemplified how the Angolan war was entangled with South Africa's war against Namibian independence.

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Sinking of HMS Sheffield

Two Argentine Super Étendard naval strike jets, each carrying a single AM39 Exocet anti-ship missile refuelled by a KC-130 tanker, descended below radar level and fired their weapons at long range. HMS Sheffield, a Type 42 destroyer, had her electronic warfare systems switched off to avoid interfering with satellite communications when the missile struck. The Exocet failed to detonate its warhead fully, but its burning rocket fuel ignited fires that could not be controlled, and Sheffield was abandoned. She sank six days later while under tow.

The loss of Sheffield was a profound psychological shock — a modern guided-missile destroyer had been destroyed by a single missile fired from over the horizon. It transformed international understanding of naval warfare, triggered a global scramble for Exocets, and forced Britain to reassess its anti-missile defences.

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