Most Famous Battles in History Throughout history there have been great battles which are ingrained in our culture. Some of them are famous, some not so much. Julius Caesar presided over one of the biggest lopsided wins. Caesar had decided to go into Gaul for the glory so he could return to Rome in a powerful position. The battle of Alesia was his ticket. Gaul was composed of mostly France and Belgium. The deciding battle in Gaul was the battle of Alesia. Caesar had about 75,000 soldiers under his control. The Gauls under Vercingetorix had a total of 80,000 under siege with another relief army which came to their aid of an additional 250000 to 400000 men depending on which report you believe. Caesar claimed the lesser amount. That meant Caesar with 75,000 men was fighting a force of 330,000 Gauls. He had built a fence around the 80,000 who were hold up in the town to starve them out. When he heard a relief army was on the way he then build a second fence and stationed his troops in between the fences. As the relief column attacked, he sent out his cavalry and thinking he had far more men than they thought the relief column ran and many were killed. The Gauls in the city were cut down getting over their fence and retreated. Vercingetorix surrendered knowing if he didn’t his people would die of starvation and there was no longer any way he could win. Caesar took him to Rome and waited for a holiday and then had him executed in front of the crowd. One of the greatest battles in the history of the world was the Battle of Marathon. It took place in 490 B.C. The Persians decided to invade Greece and had a huge army and navy. The organization of the Athenian army was strange by today’s standards. There were ten generals in command and each one served as supreme commander for one day. The Athenians decided not to wait for the Persian attack but to attack first. The generals had been divided on this point and when an attack was decided on four generals gave up their commands to Miltiades who then became supreme commander. The Greeks knew they were vulnerable to the Persian cavalry. They had found out the cavalry hadn’t arrived yet at the Persian camp so they attacked. The Persians had about 15,000 soldiers in the camp at the time and the Greeks had about 11,000. The Greeks used an old trick of drawing the Persian soldiers into the center of their lines and then surrounding them as they cut them down. The Persians began to run and that was their end. Alexander the Great fought many battles, but his greatest is said to be the Battle of Gaugamela which is also called the Battle of Arbela. It took place in 331 B.C. almost 400 years before the battle of Alesia. Alexander wanted to completely conquer the Persian Empire controlled by Darius III. He knew he was outnumbered and would have to fight in a place known by the Persians, and yet he decided to do it. Darius knew he had to stop Alexander or his empire would fall so he prepared his battle plans. The battle took place in what today is Iraq. Darius had smoothed the area so his chariots would have no problem. Alexander had a force of 40,000 soldiers and 7,000 cavalry. Alexander had drawn most of the Persian cavalry into the battle and the rest of the Persian force was open to flanking. Alexander took his personal cavalry and went into the gap left by the Persian cavalry and then outflanked the Persian flank and rear and seeing this Darius ran. This panicked the Persian army and they also ran. As they were running away the Greeks were following them and cutting them down. Alexander became the ruler of southwest Asia. When the loses of this battle were estimated they were said to be about 700 for Alexander’s Macedonian army and anywhere between 20,000 to 100,000 for the Persians. Napoleon was winning every battle in Europe. He had left the army to support the French Revolution. Napoleon became the Emperor of France and King of Italy. He won many battles but his three most famous were the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, Prussia in 1806, and the Battle of Friedland, Prussia in 1807. Even though he had victories in these battles, the battle he is remembered the most for is one he lost. It was the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The battle is so famous that it found its name into the English language as meaning a complete defeat. People now say this or that was his or her Waterloo. He had suffered a huge loss before that in 1812 when he invaded Russia with the Grand Army of 250,000 ill prepared soldiers who then had to face the Russian winter. It is said only a few hundred survived. Napoleon had been exiled, but came out of it shortly later. When the battle of Waterloo was about to begin Napoleon had sent an army to destroy some allied armies before they could get ready and won some minor battles. The major part of the battle came when Napoleon’s army of 55,000 soldiers, 15,000 cavalry and 246 cannons faced Wellington’s 53,000 soldiers, 12,000 cavalry and 156 cannons. Napoleon wanted to attack but was stopped by a rain storm. The Prussian army joined Wellington. Wellington committed his reserves and that did the trick forcing the French back. Now the Prussians who had retreated joined the attack against the French. The French lost 26,000 killed and wounded, 9,000 captured and the allies lost 22,000. Napoleon agreed to abdicate and he was thrown into prison. When we look at these battles and compare them to the Battle of Huai-Hai in China they pale by comparison. I know not many of you ever heard of this battle but it was one of the biggest. This was the final fight for control of China between the Communists also known as the CCP and Kuomintang also known as KMT. When this fight was over half a million KMT soldiers were either dead, captured or converted. These numbers have to be considered incredible. The battle took place in 1948. We humans are good at killing each other and sometimes over practically nothing. We got so good because we practiced a lot. Unfortunately, not much has changed except for the lethalness of our weapons. Let’s hope we finally wise up in the future.
|
