Military history of Spain Portugal and engage French forces on the frontiers while Spanish "guerrilleros" wore down the occupiers. Acting in concert, regular and irregular allied forces prevented Napoleon's marshals from subduing the rebellious Spanish provinces. The Spanish navy, put to sea in support of France during the War of the Third Coalition in 1805, suffered terrible losses at the Battle of Trafalgar, having been weakened by yellow fever in the preceding years; in many ways this marked the nadir of Spanish naval history. The events in mainland Spain had extensive consequences for her empire. Spain's colonies in the Americas had shown an increasing
Battle of Buna–Gona: Allied forces and order of battle number of guns, or the availability of ammunition. While tanks were available, there was initially no means to transport them. Several authors have commented on the lack of naval support and either directly or indirectly referred to the potential of naval gunfire support. The problems of providing effective fire support, the solutions, and the lessons learned were fundamental in developing future Allied tactics and doctrine. The failure to make effective provision to support attacking infantry both protracted the battle and increased the Allied losses. The Allied forces commenced the battle on 19 November with two 3.7 inch Mountain howitzers from