Favorite Historical Battle?

[Roughneck]

Speaking of historic battles, I've always favored Hans Langsdorff and the Admiral Graff Spee. Most famous for "The Battle of the River Platte" (Links: Page 1, Page 2).

That in a day and age where industrialised mass murder was "acceptable", honor and chivalry not only existed but was expected...

The next morning Graf Spee buried her dead in a funeral attended only by a few of the crew and a handful of petty officers, as everyone else was busy working on the ship. A naval band let the procession from the dock to the Northern Cemetery on the outskirts of Montevideo. Crowds lined the streets to see the spectacle, including many of the British seamen formerly held on Graf Spee. In a scene that seems out of place in the 20th century, enemies approached each other and exchanged best wishes and handshakes.

After giving a short eulogy at the gravesite, Langsdorff walked down the row of caskets sprinkling dirt on each one. At the end of the row, he came face to face with captain Dove, who stood saluting his former captor. Langsdorff paused, looked him in the eye, and stood at attention to return his salute. Dove left a wreath, which said "To the brave memory of the men of the sea from their comrades of the British Merchant Service."

As a last salute to the fallen Germans was given, photographers immortalized the moment: Everyone stood with their arm outstretched in the Nazi salute, except Langsdorff who gave the traditional salute of the old German Navy. All eyes were on the graves, except minister Langmann's, who glared disapprovingly at Langsdorff.

The propagandists on both sides were distressed by this moment. The German media had portrayed Langsdorff as a hero dedicated to the Reich and its leader, boldly standing exposed on the highest point of the conning tower despite his wounds as he won a victory akin to Coronel. They also reported that the British had spat upon the coffins of the fallen German heroes along the funeral route. There propaganda efforts went out the window when the crew of the Graf Spee vehemently denied these charges, and the photos of the funeral were splashed across the front pages of the world's newspapers.

British propagandists were equally annoyed, as their attempts to paint all Germans as heartless villains were dispelled by Captain Dove's radio interviews about how chivalrously the British sailors had been treated.

cheers,

 

[dick van cock]

The Battle of Santiago (1962)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Santiago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOtL1m1o_ok

 

[meesterperfect]

"Now dig this baby,and stop actin so crazy"

I beileve this battle changed EVERTYTHING:

Battle of Khalkhin Gol (Japan-Russia Border war).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khalkhin_Gol

In 1939 the japanese attacked Russia, the 2 fought horrendous battles but after severe losses the Japanese eventually decided the Russian border was impenatrable.
They then concentrated thier forces on the South Pacific, hence Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entering WWII and eventually the tragedy of the atomic bomb.
Had The Japanese succeeded in invading Russia, Russia would then have had a 2 front war and more likely would have lost and been occupied by Germany and Japan.
Also this would have Gave the Germans much more force to the west against the U.S. and Great Britain and its likely the allies would have not suceeded in repelling the germans back to Berlin. In fact Great Britain and all of Europe may likely had been conquered by Germany eventually had the Russians not won the Battle of Khalkhin Gol and repelled the Japenese.

It basically changed the world as we know it today and for the past 69 years.

 

[historylover]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifteen_Decisive_Battles_of_the_World

The Battle of Marathon, 490 BC
Excerpt: Two thousand three hundred and forty years ago, a council of Athenian Officers was summoned on the slope of one of the mountains that look over the plain of Marathon, on the eastern coast of Attica. The immediate subject of their meeting was to consider whether they should give battle to an enemy that lay encamped on the shore beneath them; but on the result of their deliberations depended, not merely the fate of two armies, but the whole future progress of human civilization.

Defeat of the Athenians at Syracuse, 413 BC
Known as the Battle of Syracuse.
Excerpt: Few cities have undergone more memorable sieges during ancient and mediaeval times than has the city of Syracuse.

The Battle of Gaugamela, 331 BC
Also called the Battle of Arbela.
Excerpt: ... the ancient Persian empire, which once subjugated all the nations of the earth, was defeated when Alexander had won his victory at Arbela.

The Battle of the Metaurus, 207 BC
Excerpt: That battle was the determining crisis of the contest, not merely between Rome and Carthage, but between the two great families of the world...
Victory of Arminius over the Roman Legions under Varus, 9 AD
Known as the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.
Excerpt: ..that victory secured at once and forever the independence of the Teutonic race.

The Battle of Chalons, 451 AD
Also called the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields or the Battle of the Catalun.
Excerpt: The victory which the Roman general, Aëtius, with his Gothic allies, had then gained over the Huns, was the last victory of imperial Rome.

The Battle of Tours, 732 AD
Also called the Battle of Poitiers.
Excerpt: the great victory won by Charles Martel ... gave a decisive check to the career of Arab conquest in Western Europe, rescued Christendom from Islam, [and] preserved the relics of ancient and the germs of modern civilization...

The Battle of Hastings, 1066 AD
Excerpt: ..no one who appreciates the influence of England and her empire upon the destinies of the world will ever rank that victory as one of secondary importance.

Joan of Arc's Victory over the English at Orléans, 1429 AD
Known as the Siege of Orléans.
Excerpt: ..the struggle by which the unconscious heroine of France, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, rescued her country from becoming a second Ireland under the yoke of the triumphant English.

Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1588 AD
Excerpt: The England of our own days is so strong, and the Spain of our own days is so feeble, that it is not easy, without some reflection and care, to comprehend the full extent of the peril which England then ran from the power and the ambition of Spain, or to appreciate the importance of that crisis in the history of the world.

The Battle of Blenheim, 1704 AD
Excerpt: Had it not been for Blenheim, all Europe might at this day suffer under the effect of French conquests resembling those of Alexander in extent and those of the Romans in durability.

The Battle of Pultowa, 1709 AD
Also called the Battle of Poltava.
Excerpt: The decisive triumph of Russia over Sweden at Pultowa was therefore all-important to the world, on account of what it overthrew as well as for what it established

Victory of the Americans over Burgoyne at Saratoga, 1777 AD
Known as the Battle of Saratoga.
Excerpt: The ancient Roman boasted, with reason, of the growth of Rome from humble beginnings to the greatest magnitude which the world had then ever witnessed. But the citizen of the United States is still more justly entitled to claim this praise.

The Battle of Valmy, 1792 AD
Excerpt: ..the kings of Europe, after the lapse of eighteen centuries, trembled once more before a conquering military republic.

The Battle of Waterloo, 1815 AD
Excerpt: The exertions which the allied powers made at this crisis to grapple promptly with the French emperor have truly been termed gigantic, and never were Napoleon's genius and activity more signally displayed than in the celerity and skill by which he brought forward all the military resources of France...

 

[radomu]

I'm very impressed that you guys are taking this thread seriously.

I am also in fond of the Russo-Japanese War.
The Russian fleet had to take months to come from Finland all the way around the Cape of Good Hope (remember, the Suez canal was under Franco-British control) and get to Southern Japanese sea and get beaten in 45 minutes

 

[Theopolis Q. Hossenffer]

For me the Battle of Midway in June 1942 was one of the most important sea battles in WWII Pacific as it made the Japanese military take a step back and think, as Yamamoto said after Pearl Harbor" We have awakened a sleeping Giant and filled him with a terrible resolve." The Victory over the unbeatable Japanese Navy gave the American people hope even more that the earlier B-25 attack on Japan and helped them realize that the Japanese were not unstoppable after all.

 

[bombardier52]

I can't get enough of Gettysburg or Little Big Horn. I must have read 25 books about both. When I visited those battlefields there was a sense of the combatants still being there. Walking Pickets Charge or up Little Round Top is just awe inspiring. Following the line of markers up the hill to Custer's last stand spot is also just an amazing experience.

 

[radomu]

I don't know, I'm just not interested in the American Civil War AT ALL...

I'm actually more interested in the American Revolutionary War, but not that wierd campaign to free the slaves.

 

[D-rock]

My favorites are:

The Battle of Cannae
The Battle of Thermopylae
The Battle of Mohi
The Battle of Legnica
The Battle of Trebia
The Battle of Trasimene
The Battle of Leuctra
The Battle of Tours

 

[ninetysixcavy]

Being that I'm not a History major...I'd have to say Normandy (D-Day). It's probably one of the most infamous battles ever. I also love to hear about the Texas Revolution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Revolution But that was a war, not a battle.

 

[radomu]

Being that I'm not a History major...I'd have to say Normandy (D-Day). It's probably one of the most infamous battles ever. I also love to hear about the Texas Revolution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Revolution Man, they kicked their ass..

infamous but successful.
The largest naval invasion ever.

 

[Funkwerkz]

Battle of Sakarya, 22 days of fighting without any break.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sakarya

 

[radomu]

Battle of Sakarya, 22 days of fighting without any break.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sakarya

no one remembered about the greek war for independence, thank god!

 

[Galactic]

The storming of Normandy.

Couldn't agree more. We saved not only France, but a good portion of Europe. With a LOT of help. But we did it.

Only question is, I wonder if things turned out the way those insanely brave men thought they would when left the Higgins' boats?

You know what? On second thought, I bet they weren't thinking about much when they ran up on the beaches.

God Bless Them.

Every One.

 

[TunnelOfLove]

Winter War

Finland:
250,000 men
30 tanks
130 aircraft
26,662 dead
39,886 wounded
1,000 captured

Soviet Union:
1,000,000 men
6,541 tanks
3,800 aircraf
126,875 dead or missing
264,908 wounded
5,600 captured

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_war

 

[DukeLaCrosse]

the battle of the forest moon of Endor

 

[gunslingingbird]

The Battle of Unnumbered Tears, Nirnaeth Arnoediad

 

[maildude]

3. The Stand At Thermopylae
2. Gettysburg

1. The Normandy Invasion

 

[Jagger69]

That in a day and age where industrialised mass murder was "acceptable", honor and chivalry not only existed but was expected...

Excellent observation! I too have always been fascinated with the story of the fabled pocket battleship and the honorable and chivalrous way that the saga ended. Sure one of the last examples of that type of thing in the history of warfare.

 

[Member2019]

The CSA-USA duality, which was brewing since our independence ...

It would be definately funny if the Confederate States of America prospered.

Or the CSA and USA would continually be in a state of war, even if not actual engagements, for decades upon decades to come.
It would have radically altered the Americas, and probably been like much of the Franco-Germanic history for a good half century.
But eventually Americans would have got sick of fighting one another, even if it was only idelogical.

Though I'm pretty sure that slavery would be abolished even then

It would have taken time, but it probably would have within another 50 or so years.
Understand slavery was not the main issue, but the lack of representation the south felt.
The north could continually veto and override everything with majority, sometimes supermajority, because of the different in representation.
And then there was the long-standing, nearly century long difference in wealth.

It goes back to the origins of the Federalists v. the Republicans -- Hamilton and Jefferson.
Hamilton favored a strong, financial-industrial approach to the prosperity of the US, which favored the north.
It went through many battles of the National Bank, several Presidents who broke it (including Andrew Jackson, one of my top five Presidents), and back again.

Again, slavery -- while significant (especially with the common northern's viewpoint) -- was just one symptom of difference in that root cause.

Even after the war, the south was still undergoing massive retribution from the north, one of the reasons they honestly didn't want to "give up" because they knew it would happen.
The assassination of the Republican President in Lincoln only made things worse, as the Democrat President in Johnson was never trusted from the get-go by (what we now call) "Radical" Republicans of the north (ironically, Lincoln wasn't one, not by a long shot).
Johnson's main interest was trying to keep the union together and not making it into a country that constantly whipped the south, but tried to heal the union.

For that, they impeached him, despite his loyalty to the Union during the rebellion (versus other Senators from the south).

If history is any indication, Americans think Johnson is one of the worst Presidents merely because he was impeached, knowing nothing of the entire chronology, civics and history that was behind what Johnson was trying to do.
As such, it will not bode well for Clinton if history holds its course, regardless of what people say today, as they did after the civil war ended as well.
Rather tragic that people don't stop to understand the reasons, and politics, behind what actually transpired.