Favorite Single Battle?

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I'm curious what you would consider your favorite single set-piece battle and why (if this thread gets going, I'm hoping I can learn about some new battles and then hit the books!).

Here are my current favorite three off of the top of my head. I tend to like battles that involve the underdog winning despite overwheming odds against them--I suppose because I find these types of battles inspiring and moving reading.

Agincourt 1415. Ridiculously outnumbered and thoroughly exhausted, the English defeat the French with superior tactics and command structure. Part of my love for this battle comes from Shakespeare's Henry V, particularly the famous St. Crispian speech (even if you hate Shakespeare, as a grognard, you will probably like this speech!).

Chancellorville 1863. Outnumbered two to one, Lee throws out the rulebook, maneuvers like crazy, and spanks the Yanks.

Stalingrad 1942. The first thing that I think of when I hear the phrase "pincer move" or the word "encirclement." Epic, bloody, and prolonged. Shifted the tide on the eastern front--and of the entire second world war. Inspiring because the Russians learned so many hard lessons before they had their first major, decisive victory.
 

John Paul

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Syracuse:I'm to lazy to look at the date,but this is where the Athenians lost the Peloponnesian War.Due to lack of agressiveness and the alienation of a capable commander who later defected to the Spartans,almost the whole land Army of Athens was wiped out along with a huge naval defeat inflicted upon them.
 
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Cheetah772

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Yeah....

Hello,

Zama: it's one of the most important battles in the world history because after Carthage was defeated, the Rome Republic would become the greatest ancient power ever known to the modern world.

Tours, Vienna: these two battles were important because it stopped the spread of Islam into the Western World, for that, I am thankful. In addition to these battles, there was the battle, which I have forgotten the name, that ended the Mongols' advance into the Central Europe, and saved Europe from becoming the backwater continent like Russia is today.

Aushewitz (sp?): Napoleon's greatest victory, which brought France to the world stage for a while. With his victory, soon, the Europe was in turmoils because of the liberal (not the modern liberalism, it's different!) ideas that destroyed much of nobility and Old Guards within the European continent.

Hue: It's a Vietnamese city caught in the middle of Tet offensive, Americans saw some of the most fiercous city fighting during that city, which changed many people's attitudes about the Vietnam War in general.

The battle of Mongashui (sp?): In 1993, Americans were at best in beating the crap out of Skinnies (thats what Somanlians were called), more than 3,000 enemy soldiers died at hands of about 100 or so elite American soldiers (Rangers, Delta Forces, etc.) in a day's heavy fighting. I'm a proud American, and I love it when Americans beat the crap out of anybody who dared to cross America! I highly recommend anybody to watch "Black Hawk Down" movie, it's a damn good one! Way to go, Rangers and Delta Force, I salute you all!

Chancellorville: Where Lee and Jackson were at their best, outmanuevuring the superior Union forces to beat the crap out of them!

Bighorn battle: Where Custer made his stand, fought like hell, killing a lot of Indians before was overran by superior numbers of Indian baddies.

Dan
 

LaPalice

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Re: Yeah....

Originally posted by Cheetah772


Aushewitz (sp?): Napoleon's greatest victory, which brought France to the world stage for a while. With his victory, soon, the Europe was in turmoils because of the liberal (not the modern liberalism, it's different!) ideas that destroyed much of nobility and Old Guards within the European continent.

Dan
Austerlitz.
I don’t think Napoleon destroyed the nobility in Europe. After 1815 all the monarchies were still there, and the nobility ruled Europe. Even in France the monarchy was restored untill 1848.
It was peharps one of his major politic mistakes. When Napoleon defeated the Austrians, he sould have destroyed their empire, and should have done the same thing with Prussia in 1806 after Iena, dividing them in several little states. He sould have created a powerfull Poland instead of those two monarchies, not only a duchy. But he wanted to be considered by the European monarchs like one of them. Unfortunately for him, that was impossible.
It was the Revolution wich changed Europe. It didn’t propagate the idea of democracy but the idea of nationalism, like in Prussia in 1806 and the rebuilding of her army.
The Napoleon’s reign was a dictatorship and the consequence of the failure of the Revolution. Nothing liberal in it.


La Palice.
 

Mantis

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Re: Yeah....

Originally posted by Cheetah772
Bighorn battle: Where Custer made his stand, fought like hell, killing a lot of Indians before was overran by superior numbers of Indian baddies.

Dan
Custer's REAL last words:

"That's a F*CK of a lot of Indians..."
 

Mantis

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Kursk. Staligrad.

Vimy Ridge.

From http://www.fylde.demon.co.uk/vimy.htm

The Battle

It was at Vimy, in 1917, that all four Divisions of the Canadian Corps attacked simultaneously for the first (and last) time, about 100,000 men taking part in the battle. Vimy Ridge was an important part of the Germans' defences, barring the way to the mines and factories in the Douai plain which had been of great use to them in their continuation of the war. The very nature of the Ridge gave it strong, built-in defence, but these natural defences had been supplemented by strong-points, elaborate trench-systems and underground tunnels linking natural caves. All previous Allied attempts to capture the Ridge had failed, and there was a strong body of opinion among the Allied commanders that the Ridge was possibly impregnable and incapable of ever being taken by a direct attack.

Preparations for the battle were thorough and extremely detailed. Behind their lines, the Canadians built a full-scale replica of the ground over which their troops would have to attack, giving all units the chance to practice their attacking movements and so understand what they (and neighbouring units) were expected to do on the day. Regular reconnaissance patrols, assisted by information gathered from aerial photography, meant that records of changes to the German defences on the Ridge were always up-to-date. Tunnellers dug subterranean passages under the Ridge - a total of five kilometres in all on four levels - allowing the attacking troops to move close to their jumping-off positions in some safety. Once the battle had begun, these same tunnels allowed the wounded to be brought back under cover and also provided unseen and safe lines of communications. (Some sections of the tunnels can still be visited and there is an excellent "Virtual Tour" available on the World Wide Web. See the link at the end of this article.)

The Infantry attack was preceded by a powerful artillery bombardment which lasted almost three weeks, involving about 1,000 guns, including huge, 15-inch howitzers. For the first two weeks, some guns were not fired at all, so that the Germans would not be able to locate their positions but eventually, these guns joined in the bombardment, too.

Although the shelling was aimed at the German trenches and defensive positions on the Ridge, the Canadians also shelled enemy batteries. They had become adept at locating German gun-positions and had identified the positions of 80 per cent of them.

April 9th., 1917 - Easter Monday - dawned cold, with freezing rain and sleet. The ground conditions were very bad, with slippery mud waiting for hamper the Canadians as they began their assault. Heavily laden, the men began to cross the shattered No-Man's Land, skirting as best they could the shell-holes and craters, until they came to the muddy, slippery slopes of the Ridge itself. They advanced behind a creeping barrage - a curtain of falling shells which crept forward just ahead of them. At key places in the advance, fresh troops took over the lead, until by the middle of the afternoon, three of the Canadian divisions had captured most of Vimy Ridge. By the next day, Hill 145 was also in Canadian hands, leaving just a few isolated outposts. By April 12th these, too had been taken and the Canadians' victory was complete.

After three years, the Germans were now driven from Vimy Ridge. There was to be no breakthrough, however, as the Canadians were unable to get their artillery out of their positions and across the muddy, shell-torn ground of the battlefield. However, they had captured more ground, more prisoners and more guns than any previous "British "offensive in the war thus far. It was the greatest Allied Victory yet.

Although the victory at Vimy came quickly, it did not come without cost. Of the 10,602 Canadian casualties, there were 3,598 dead. This is a high and tragic number, but it must be compared with the 200,000 Canadian, British, French and German dead who lie buried on the ridge from earlier, unsuccessful attacks. And the Canadians alone lost 24,000 killed or wounded on the Somme the previous year.

For Canada, the attack on Vimy Ridge marked a turning-point in the country's march towards distinct nationhood. In the words of Brigadier-General Alexander Ross, DSO, who commanded the 28th (North West) Canadian Battalion at Vimy,

"It was Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific on parade. I thought then that in those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation."
 

Scipio

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Re: Yeah....

Originally posted by Cheetah772
Bighorn battle: Where Custer made his stand, fought like hell, killing a lot of Indians before was overran by superior numbers of Indian baddies.

Dan
Huh? I thought the Indians were the goodies???
 

Scipio

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Verdun & Stalingrad, I guess because that were IMO the most horrible & senseless battles in the human history.
 
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LaPalice

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German offensives in March 1918.

The deseperate german attempts to gain the decision in the west before the coming of the American troops. The desesperate allied fights against the ennemy breakthroughs.

La Palice.
 

Wolfe Tone

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At home:

Clontarf, 1014 AD.....the High King of Ireland, Brian Boru, defeats the Vikings near Dublin but is killed himself.

The Yellow Ford, 1598....Irish forces under Hugh O'Neill ambush and defeat an Anglo-Irish force under the English commander Bagenal.

Benburb, 1646.....Owen Roe O'Neill ( Hugh's nephew) defeats an Anglo/Scots army in a set piece battle.

Aughrim, 1691.....in the largest battle ever fought in Ireland a Franco/Irish ( mostly Irish!) army is defeated, thus ending any hopes for Ireland for many years to come.

Abroad:

Hydaspes 326 BC....Alexander defeats an Indian Army in a very hard fought battle that might just have gone the other way!

Siege of Alesia 52 BC.....Caesar surrounds the Gallic fortress of Alesia in a double line of envelopment and totally defeats his enemies in one of the great encounters of his career.

Hastings 1066.....William of Normandy defeats the Saxon King Harold and takes England for the Normans. This has a profound effect on the subsequent history of these islands.

The siege of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) 1521 AD, Cortes defeats the Aztec empire in a truly classic struggle. A battle that that had huge implications for the European conquest of the New World, spelling doom for the native civilizations of the Americas’.

Wagram, 1809....Napoleon defeats the Austrians under Archduke Charles in a classic Napoleonic battle that the Austrians just might have won.

Vicksburg, 1863.....Grant's superb campaign that turned the Confederate front around Vicksburg, which combined with Gettysburg spelt the doom of the CSA.

The Somme, 1916......how not to do it!

Warsaw,1920.....the Poles ( with French advice) stop Marshal Tukhachevsky’s Red Armies at the gates of the Polish capital and stop them from advancing into western Europe.....imagine if the Russians had won!

France 1940....how to do it.

Stalingrad, 1942/43......classic modern battle of envelopment.

Suez Canal, 1973......Israelis show their élan in open warfare while the Egyptians show they can give their enemies a run for their money.

Just samplers really!.....I could go on with loads more!
 
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