Different Battles

It includes the environment, factors and conditions that must be understood to successfully apply combat power, protect the force, or complete the mission. This includes enemy and friendly armed forces ; facilities; weather; terrain; and the electromagnetic spectrum within the operational areas and areas of interest. Battles are decided by various factors. The number and quality of combatants and equipment, the skill of the commanders of each army, and the terrain advantages are among the most prominent factors.

A unit may charge with high morale but less discipline and still emerge victorious. This tactic was effectively used by the early French Revolutionary Armies. Weapons and armour can be a decisive factor. On many occasions armies have achieved victories largely owing to the employment of more advanced weapons than those of their opponents. An extreme example was in the Battle of Omdurman , in which a large army of Sudanese Mahdists armed in a traditional manner were destroyed by an Anglo-Egyptian force equipped with Maxim guns.

On some occasions, simple weapons employed in an unorthodox fashion have proven advantageous, as with the Swiss pikemen who gained many victories through their ability to transform a traditionally defensive weapon into an offensive one. Likewise, the Zulus in the early 19th century were victorious in battles against their rivals in part because they adopted a new kind of spear, the iklwa.

Even so, forces with inferior weapons have still emerged victorious at times, for example in the Wars of Scottish Independence and in the First Italo—Ethiopian War. Discipline within the troops is often of greater importance; at the Battle of Alesia , the Romans were greatly outnumbered but won because of superior training. Battles can also be determined by terrain. Capturing high ground, for example, has been the central strategy in innumerable battles. An army that holds the high ground forces the enemy to climb, and thus wear themselves down.

Areas of dense vegetation, such as jungles and forest, act as force-multipliers, of benefit to inferior armies. Arguably, terrain is of less importance in modern warfare, due to the advent of aircraft, though terrain is still vital for camouflage, especially for guerrilla warfare. Generals and commanders also play a decisive role during combat. Hannibal , Julius Caesar , Khalid ibn Walid , Subutai , and Napoleon Bonaparte were all skilled generals and, consequently, their armies were extremely successful.

An army that can trust the commands of their leaders with conviction in its success invariably has a higher morale than an army that doubts its every move. The British in the naval Battle of Trafalgar , for example, owed its success to the reputation of celebrated admiral Lord Nelson.

Battles can be fought on land, at sea and, in the modern age, in the air. Naval battles have occurred since before the 5th century BC. Air battles have been far less common, due to their late conception, the most prominent being the Battle of Britain in However, since the Second World War land or sea battles have come to rely on air support.

Lists of battles - Wikipedia

Indeed, during the Battle of Midway , five aircraft carriers were sunk without either fleet coming into direct contact. Battles frequently do not fit one particular type perfectly, and are usually hybrids of different types listed above. A decisive battle is one of particular importance; often by bringing hostilities to an end, such as the Battle of Hastings or the Battle of Hattin , or as a turning point in the fortunes of the belligerents , such as the Battle of Stalingrad.

A decisive battle can have political as well as military impact, changing the balance of power or boundaries between countries. The concept of the decisive battle became popular with the publication in of Edward Creasy 's The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World.

British military historians J.

Lists of battles

Liddell Hart Decisive Wars of History , among many others, have written books in the style of Creasy's work. There is an obvious difference in the way battles have been fought throughout time. Early battles were probably fought between rival hunting bands as disorganized mobs.

However, during the Battle of Megiddo , the first reliably documented battle in the fifteenth century BC, actual discipline was instilled in both armies. However, during the many wars of the Roman Empire , barbarians continued using mob tactics. As the Age of Enlightenment dawned, armies began to fight in highly disciplined lines. Each would follow the orders from their officers and fight as a single unit instead of individuals. Each army was successively divided into regiments , battalions , companies , and platoons. These armies would march, line up, and fire in divisions.

Native Americans , on the other hand, did not fight in lines, utilizing instead guerrilla tactics. American colonists and European forces continued using disciplined lines, continuing into the American Civil War. A new style, during World War I , known as trench warfare , developed nearly half a century later. This also led to radio for communication between battalions. Chemical warfare also emerged with the use of poisonous gas during World War I. By World War II , the use of the smaller divisions, platoons and companies became much more important as precise operations became vital.

Instead of the locked trench warfare of World War I, during World War II, a dynamic network of battles developed where small groups encountered other platoons. As a result, elite squads became much more recognized and distinguishable. Maneuver warfare also developed with an astonishing pace with the advent of the tank , replacing the archaic cannons of the Enlightenment Age. Artillery has since gradually replaced the use of frontal troops.

Modern battles now continue to resemble those of World War II, though prominent innovations have been added. Indirect combat through the use of aircraft and missiles now constitutes a large portion of wars in place of battles, where battles are now mostly reserved for capturing cities. One significant difference of modern naval battles as opposed to earlier forms of combat is the use of marines , which introduced amphibious warfare. Today, a marine is actually an infantry regiment that sometimes fights solely on land and is no longer tied to the navy.

A good example of an old naval battle is the Battle of Salamis. Most ancient naval battles were fought by fast ships using the battering ram to sink opposing fleets or steer close enough for boarding in hand-to-hand combat. Troops were often used to storm enemy ships as used by Romans and pirates.

This tactic was usually used by civilizations that could not beat the enemy with ranged weaponry. Another invention in the late Middle Ages was the use of Greek fire by the Byzantines, which was used to set enemy fleets on fire. Empty demolition ships utilized the tactic to crash into opposing ships and set it afire with an explosion. After the invention of cannons, naval warfare became useful as support units for land warfare.

During the 19th century, the development of mines led to a new type of naval warfare. The ironclad , first used in the American Civil War , resistant to cannons, soon made the wooden ship obsolete. The invention of military submarines , during World War I , brought naval warfare to both above and below the surface. With the development of military aircraft during World War II , battles were fought in the sky as well as below the ocean. Aircraft carriers have since become the central unit in naval warfare, acting as a mobile base for lethal aircraft. Although the use of aircraft has for the most part always been used as a supplement to land or naval engagements, since their first major military use in World War I aircraft have increasingly taken on larger roles in warfare.

During World War I, the primary use was for reconnaissance, and small-scale bombardment.

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Aircraft design began specializing, primarily into two types: Some of the more notable aerial battles in this period include the Battle of Britain and the Battle of Midway. Another important use of aircraft came with the development of the helicopter , which first became heavily used during the Vietnam War, and still continues to be widely used today to transport and augment ground forces.

Today, direct engagements between aircraft are rare — the most modern fighter-interceptors carry much more extensive bombing payloads, and are used to bomb precision land targets, rather than to fight other aircraft. Anti-aircraft batteries are used much more extensively to defend against incoming aircraft than interceptors. Despite this, aircraft today are much more extensively used as the primary tools for both army and navy, as evidenced by the prominent use of helicopters to transport and support troops, the use of aerial bombardment as the "first strike" in many engagements, and the replacement of the battleship with the aircraft carrier as the center of most modern navies.

Battles are usually named after some feature of the battlefield geography , such as the name of a town, forest or river, commonly prefixed "Battle of Occasionally battles are named after the date on which they took place, such as The Glorious First of June. In the Middle Ages it was considered important to settle on a suitable name for a battle which could be used by the chroniclers. A counterattack by the 5th and 6th French and British armies resulted in the First Battle of the Marne.

That forced the battle worn Germans shorn of supplies to full retreat by 11th September and withdrew northwards along Lower Aisne River. By saving Paris from German capture and pushing them 45 miles away, it was a great strategic victory for France, and enabled them to continue the war. The British and her allies planned to sail a huge fleet at the mile Dardanelles water strait that linked the Mediterranean and Istanbul, the Ottoman capital they planned to capture.

The plan aimed to force the Ottoman Empire to surrender. Then a young admiral named Winston Churchill who had planned the attack was left humiliated. There also were about Ottoman Turkish troops that died and about , wounded troops from either side. The battle of Gallipoli was immortalized in the Gallipoli film starring Mel Gibson. The Ottoman victory propelled lieutenant colonel of the 19th Turkish division Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to prominence.

He later became the founding father of the modern day Turkish Republic in Believed to be the biggest naval battle of the First World War, on the 31st of May and the 1st of June in the Battle of Jutland pitted the British against the German fleet with their so-called "dreadnought" battleships. It was a bloody battle that involved ships and about , troops.

They blew up after German shells hit their ammunition magazines.

Staring defeat Beatty withdrew until Jellicoe arrived with the main fleet. The outgunned Germans retreated to home. The British lost 14 ships and had in casualties, while the Germans lost 11 ships and over men. From then on, the Germans never seriously challenged the British control of the North Sea.

It also secured for the British control of shipping lanes which ensured Britain put in place a blockade that caused Germany to be defeated in Beginning on February 21st and ending on the 19th of December in , the Battle of Verdun was one of the longest and most savage of all World War One battles. Nearly three quarters of the French army fought in this battle. It began when the German army under General Erich Von Falkenhayn command, began attacking French forts and trenches with artillery fires from guns, according to Verdun Memorial Museum reports.

The General intended to end the trench warfare that begun in to enable his troops to move. In the initial days, the Germans breached the French front lines and took over Fort Douaumont without a fight. Still the French infantry in spite of heavy shelling were unmoved from their positions, and repelled the Germans. French General Henri Petain was appointed to defend Verdun and command the troops.

He raised the traffic volume on Bar-le-Duc to Verdun route which took men, basic supplies, and artillery to the battlefield. About trucks, cars, ambulances, buses and vans used this route. But by June end the Germans had captured Fort Vaux. The Germans tried to take over Verdun on July 11 and 12 and failed. In autumn the French counter attacked and recaptured Fort Douaumont, and few days later entered Fort Vaux which the Germans had deserted.

From December 15th to 18th, the French attacked and nearly retook territory they had lost since February 21st. After the battle ended there were over , victims - , dead or missing and about , wounded on both warring sides. Also called the Third Battle of Ypres, the Battle of Passchendaele gained notoriety not only for its many casualties, but also for the widespread mud.

This battle was fought in Ypres, a town along the British lines. Field Marshal Douglas Haig longed for a British offensive in Flanders after a warning that a German blockade would cripple the British war efforts. He wanted to get to the Belgian coast and destroy German submarines stationed there.

Civil War Battles

The British were further spurred on by the success of an attack on the Messines Ridge on June , and its capture. The British infantry began to attack on the 31st of July at Ypres. The constant shelling turned the clay into soil and destroyed drainage systems. The left wing of the attack was successful unlike the right wing. Many men and horses drowned in this mud. On the 16th of August, British attacks resumed with no results.

There was a stalemate for a month but when weather improved attacks resumed on 20th September. On November 6 the little of what remained of Passchendaele village was captured by the British and Canadian forces. That gave Haig an excuse to halt the offensive and claim victory. That despite the fact that Passchendaele was less than five miles beyond where the Haig led offensive had begun. The three month battle of Passchendaele had , British and allied casualties and , German casualties.

Also called the 12th battle of the Isonzo, the Battle of Caporetta saw Austro-Hungarian and German forces break through the Italian defenses in northern Isonzo after catching the Italian soldiers by surprise. The Italian defeat, resulted in dismissal of Luigi Cadorna as Chief of Staff, and a change of government. When Cadorna through deserters and aerial reconnaissance learned of German involvement, he called off his own attacks in mid September , and assumed a defensive stance.

Six German divisions under the command of Otto vob Below, supplemented the Third Supreme nine Austrian army divisions.

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The Germans chose a kilometer-long line in front of Caporetta, north of Gorizia along Isonzo, as the preferred point of attack where the Italians were weak for the combined offensive. At 2 am on the 24th of October, at Tolmino, the combined Austrian, Hungarian and German forces attacked and surprised the Italians. The assault broke through the Italian Second Army lines immediately.

By close of day, the German, Austria, and Hungary forces had progressed 25 kilometers, and breached the Italian lines using of grenades and flamethrowers, and adopting infiltration tactics. Below attacks at River Tagliamento endangered a bulk of Italian forces which led to Capello recommending a withdrawal there, but was overruled by Cadorna.

Cadorna made most of Italian forces to cross the river which took four days culminating on the 30th of October, As a result, Cadorna ordered Italian forces to withdraw to the River Piave. The Italians incurred , casualties of which 90 percent were prisoners. As a result Cadorna was dismissed and Marshal Armando Diaz replaced him. Fought from the 20th of November until the 4th of December in , the Battle of Cambrai in northern France between the British and Germans marked the first time battle tanks were used on a mass scale in battle. Use of tanks was combined with air power and heavy artillery.