34 Famous Battle Facts

1. The Battle of Marathon in 490 BC saw the Greeks triumph over a Persian invasion. Legend has it that Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to deliver news of the victory, thus inspiring the modern-day marathon race.
2. The Battle of Hastings in 1066 marked the end of Anglo-Saxon rule in England. The victor, William the Conqueror, became the first Norman King of England.
3. The Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, depicted in the movie “300”, saw a small Greek force led by King Leonidas of Sparta hold off a massive Persian army for three days.
4. The Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point of the American Civil War. Over the course of three days in 1863, the Union Army halted the northward advance of the Confederacy.
5. The Battle of Waterloo in 1815 marked the end of Napoleon Bonaparte’s reign. He was defeated by allied forces under the Duke of Wellington.
6. The Battle of Actium in 31 BC saw Octavian (later known as Augustus) defeat the combined forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, leading to the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire.
7. The Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 was a significant Scottish victory during the First War of Scottish Independence. It is famously depicted in the movie “Braveheart”.
8. The Battle of Stalingrad is considered one of the bloodiest battles in history, with estimates of up to 2 million casualties. The Soviet victory marked a turning point in World War II.
9. The Battle of Alesia in 52 BC saw Julius Caesar’s victory over the Gauls, marking the expansion of the Roman Republic over Gaul.
10. The Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 confirmed British naval superiority. The British Royal Navy, under Admiral Lord Nelson, defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet.
11. The Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC saw Alexander the Great’s forces defeat Darius III of Persia, leading to Alexander’s control over the Persian Empire.
12. The Battle of Midway in 1942 marked a turning point in the Pacific theater of World War II. The United States Navy decisively defeated an attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy.
13. The Battle of Little Bighorn, also known as Custer’s Last Stand, in 1876 was an overwhelming victory for the Native American forces against the U.S. 7th Cavalry.
14. The Battle of Agincourt in 1415 is one of the most famous battles of the Hundred Years’ War. The outnumbered English, led by King Henry V, used longbowmen to devastating effect against the French cavalry.
15. The Battle of Yorktown in 1781 marked the end of the American Revolutionary War with the defeat of British forces by the combined American and French troops.
16. The Battle of the Bulge in 1944 was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II and the third-deadliest campaign in American history.
17. The Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with about 23,000 casualties.
18. The Battle of Culloden in 1746 was the final confrontation of the Jacobite rising of 1745 and resulted in a devastating defeat for the Jacobites.
19. The Battle of Cannae in 216 BC is regarded as one of the greatest tactical masterpieces in military history. Hannibal’s Carthaginian forces virtually annihilated a significantly larger Roman army.
20. The Siege of Orleans in 1429 marked a turning point in the Hundred Years’ War. The French, led by Joan of Arc, broke the English siege.
21. The Battle of Zama in 202 BC marked the end of the Second Punic War with Roman victory over Carthage and Hannibal.
22. The Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses. The death of Richard III and the ascension of Henry VII marked the end of the Plantagenet dynasty and the beginning of the Tudor era.
23. The Siege of Leningrad, also known as the 900-Day Siege, from 1941 to 1944 during World War II resulted in severe famine in the city, with the deaths of up to 1.5 million soldiers and civilians and the evacuation of 1.4 million more.
24. The Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of Nations in 1813, was the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte’s French army by the Coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sweden led by Tsar Alexander I and Karl von Schwarzenberg. It was the largest battle in Europe before World War I.
25. The Battle of Chickamauga was the second-deadliest of the American Civil War, surpassed only by the Battle of Gettysburg.
26. The Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775, despite being a British victory, proved to the British that the Americans were formidable opponents in the Revolutionary War.
27. The Battle of Okinawa in 1945 was the last major battle of World War II and the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific theater.
28. The Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863 is known as Robert E. Lee’s “perfect battle” because of his risky decision to divide his army in the presence of a much larger enemy force.
29. The Battle of Verdun in 1916 was one of the longest and deadliest battles of World War I, with an estimated 700,000 to 900,000 casualties.
30. The Battle of Somme in 1916 saw one of the largest battles of World War I, with more than one million men wounded or killed, making it one of the bloodiest battles in human history.
31. The Battle of Plassey in 1757 marked the start of the British East India Company rule in India.
32. The Battle of Kursk in 1943 was the largest tank battle in history, involving some 6,000 tanks, 2,000,000 troops, and 4,000 aircraft.
33. The Battle of Saratoga in 1777 is often considered the turning point of the American Revolution. The American victory convinced France to officially recognize the United States and enter the war as their ally.
34. The Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC is known for the tactical military blunder of Roman general Crassus against a smaller Parthian cavalry force.

Originally posted 2023-09-21 19:18:14.

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