Great Military Battles (& Campaigns) in History

[jusplay4fun]

The use of the word 'great" by me was in the context of significant, NOT that any war is "really good" (unless for defensive reasons).

[Apatheist]

The use of the word 'great" by me was in the context of significant, NOT that any war is "really good" (unless for defensive reasons).

I accept that.
In that case, I'd add Stalingrad.

[jusplay4fun]

The use of the word 'great" by me was in the context of significant, NOT that any war is "really good" (unless for defensive reasons).

I accept that.
In that case, I'd add Stalingrad.

Stalingrad was an AMAZING battle, and we have a map on CC that commemorates that great battle; it is fittingly complex.

To me, that was the turning point of the War on the German Eastern Front vs. the Soviets. There were a few key battles in WWII in 1943 that turned the tide in favor of the Allies. In the Pacific theater, the Battle of Midway and the Battle at Guadalcanal were key to turn the tide. I would put El Alamein in that category, too, in the Western theater of WW2/WWII.

as for the importance of the Second Battle of El Alamein for the British forces:

The British Eighth Army made a stand at the railway halt of El Alamein, the last defensible position before the Nile Delta and the Suez Canal. As Churchill famously declared: "Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein, we never had a defeat."[^2]

https://www.historytools.org/stories/el ... e_vignette

[Apatheist]

The use of the word 'great" by me was in the context of significant, NOT that any war is "really good" (unless for defensive reasons).

I accept that.
In that case, I'd add Stalingrad.

Stalingrad was an AMAZING battle, and we have a map on CC that commemorates that great battle; it is fittingly complex.

To me, that was the turning point of the War on the German Eastern Front vs. the Soviets. There were a few key battles in WWII in 1943 that turned the tide in favor of the Allies. In the Pacific theater, the Battle of Midway and the Battle at Guadalcanal were key to turn the tide. I would put El Alamein in that category, too, in the Western theater of WW2/WWII.

as for the importance of the Second Battle of El Alamein for the British forces:

The British Eighth Army made a stand at the railway halt of El Alamein, the last defensible position before the Nile Delta and the Suez Canal. As Churchill famously declared: "Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein, we never had a defeat."[^2]

ht[url]tps://www.historytools.org/stories/el-alamein-the-battlefield-that-changed-the-course-of-world-war-ii#google_vignette[/url]

I agree on the turning points.
What baffles me is why, having achieved all that they did, they made such a mess of assaults like Monte Cassino, mainly down to poor communication. By that stage they really should have got their collective act together.

[jonesthecurl]

My father was at Alamein, and later at Monte Cassino. among others.

[HitRed]

My grandmother was an air raid warden in the USA.

Uncle was a B-24 bombardier over Japan.

[Apatheist]

My grandmother was an air raid warden in the USA.

Uncle was a B-24 bombardier over Japan.

Unless they were in Hawaii, ARP was a pretty cushy job in the US, I'd have thought.

[Dukasaur]

My maternal grandfather and his brother both fought for the Sokol partisans. My grandfather was briefly interned at Sachsenhausen, but released without too much harm. His brother was captured and interned at Terezin (Theresienstadt) concentration camp and nearly starved to death. Weighed less than 45 kilos by the end of the war. He survived on some scraps smuggled in by the Communists. Partly as a result, he converted to Communism and stayed a loyal Party member his whole life. My grandfather remained a lifelong anti-Communist. He served on the Czech General Staff from 1945 to 1948 and edited the official history of WWII from the Czech point of view. It was not very complimentary toward Stalin, so when the Communists took over in '48 he was purged from the Army and narrowly avoided getting shot. He spent the rest of his life in minimum-wage tour guide jobs. Despite their extreme disagreements, he remained on reasonably civilized terms with his brother.

My paternal grandfather was completely apolitical and wanted nothing to do with either side. He was a doctor, however, and he did aid various partisans, not for political reasons but because being a doctor required it. He also delivered packages to P.O.W. camps as part of his service to the Red Cross.

[Apatheist]

Not all super-heroes wear capes.
I think one of my great-uncles was in mine clearing, until he cleared one the hard way.

[jusplay4fun]

These are Great Stories and posts shared about many brave relatives. Thanks for sharing, ALL. Any more?

[jusplay4fun]

Here is a battle of interest, to me:

The Battle of Cerami was fought in June 1063 and was one of the most significant battles in the Norman conquest of Sicily, 1060–1091. The battle was fought between a Norman expeditionary force and a Muslim alliance of Sicilian and Zirid troops. The battle was a resounding Norman victory that utterly routed the opposing force, causing divisions amongst the Muslim aristocracy which ultimately paved the way for the eventual capture of the Sicilian capital, Palermo, by the Normans and subsequently the rest of the island.

One of the interesting aspects of this battle is the huge number advantage by the Muslim alliance, but their defeat by a group of trained and discipline mounted knights:

136 mounted knights[a]
"only slightly more" infantry

vs.
3,000 horsemen[2]
50,000 infantry

Army composition
Normans
Roger's force consisted of 136 mounted Norman knights who were highly disciplined and well versed in the Frankish tactic of the heavy cavalry charge. The Norman force would also have contained an infantry element but, owing to Roger's chronic shortage of manpower, this almost certainly did not exceed approximately 150 troops and would have consisted of Norman as well as Calabrian Lombard sergeants and dismounted knights and squires.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cerami

and

The Battle of Cerami was an overwhelming victory for the Normans against a numerically superior foe. eleventh-century According to the 11th-century Benedictine monk and historian Goffredo Malaterra, the Normans killed around 15,000 Zirid and Sicilian soldiers in their victory.

https://scalar.usc.edu/works/multicultu ... -of-cerami

[jonesthecurl]

These are Great Stories and posts shared about many brave relatives. Thanks for sharing, ALL. Any more?

On the other hand, my Uncle Peter was a German soldier, enlisted straight from the Hitler Youth and captured. As a P.O.W. he was put to work on a farm in South Wales, where my Aunt Barbara was a 'land girl'. I don't suppose the liaison met with much approval at first, but he was a nice guy.

[Apatheist]

These are Great Stories and posts shared about many brave relatives. Thanks for sharing, ALL. Any more?

On the other hand, my Uncle Peter was a German soldier, enlisted straight from the Hitler Youth and captured. As a P.O.W. he was put to work on a farm in South Wales, where my Aunt Barbara was a 'land girl'. I don't suppose the liaison met with much approval at first, but he was a nice guy.

Would I be right to assume that the "Jones" in your name was from the Welsh side of the family?

[jonesthecurl]

ha, ha, yes. Someone traced that side of the family back to the beginning of the 18th century, and all were Welsh through-and-through. My Mum was a cockney, and my brother and I the first in the Jones clan to have any none-Welsh blood.
Now we have part-Flemish and part-Haitian descendants.

[jusplay4fun]

When Japanese soldiers first realized World War II was lost

In 1942 on Guadalcanal, Japanese soldiers entered the jungle convinced that courage, discipline, and night attacks would once again bring victory. What they encountered instead was an enemy that did not collapse under pressure—American forces who fought through systems: logistics, artillery, machine guns, and coordination on a scale they had never faced before. Battles at places like the Tenaru River, Bloody Ridge, and during the October offensives slowly dismantled long-held assumptions about how war was won. This video explores the moment when belief gave way to reality. Not through a single defeat, but through exhaustion, hunger, disease, and a campaign that could not be won by spirit alone. Guadalcanal became a psychological turning point, where many Japanese soldiers realized that World War II would be decided not by bravery, but by which side could sustain the war longer than the men fighting it.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/wh ... 642f&ei=14

I would say that this battle shook the confidence of the Japanese, but they did not see it as an inflection point in the War. One of the ironies is that Admiral Yamamoto told the Japanese High Command that the Japanese Navy could do damage, but within two years that the United States would eventually become a SERIOUS adversary, similar to an awaking a sleeping giant.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto famously remarked after the attack on Pearl Harbor, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." This statement reflects his concern about provoking the United States into a full-scale war, recognizing the potential consequences of their actions.

I think that there was discussion in this thread about the Battle of Midway and this battle for Guadalcanal were the likely inflection points (turning points) of the war in the Pacific vs. the Empire of Japan. At Midway, the Japanese had hope to destroy the US Carriers. Instead, the Japanese lost FOUR of its aircraft carriers instead, along with their pilots and crews.

[HitRed]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoroku_Y ... iant_quote

The quotation is portrayed at the very end of the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora! as "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."[1] There is no evidence that Yamamoto ever wrote or said the quote.

[jusplay4fun]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoroku_Y ... iant_quote

The quotation is portrayed at the very end of the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora! as "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."[1] There is no evidence that Yamamoto ever wrote or said the quote.

Whether Admiral Yamamoto said that or not, the quote (alleged or otherwise) summarizes the eventual result of the War in the Pacific Theater of WW2.

Also, from the article HitRed cited above:

The other common quotation attributed to Yamamoto predicting the future outcome of a naval war against the United States is, "I can run wild for six months... after that, I have no expectation of success".[6] As it happened, the Battle of Midway, the critical naval battle considered to be the turning point of the War in the Pacific, concluded exactly six months after the Pearl Harbor attack. Similar to the above quotation was another quotation: Yamamoto, when once asked his opinion on the war, pessimistically said that the only way for Japan to win the war was to dictate terms in the White House.[7]