Favourite historical battle?

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A bit underwhelming, imo.
 




Europe is really lucky Genghis' sons and grandsons were hardcore alcoholics with shortened life spans.
 
I like reading about famous naval battles. Being British I guess the Battle of Trafalgar's gotta be my fav

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

The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement fought by the British Royal Navy against the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies, during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (1796–1815).[3]

Twenty-seven British ships of the line led by Admiral Lord Nelson aboard HMS Victory defeated thirty-three French and Spanish ships of the line under the French Admiral Villeneuve in the Atlantic Ocean off the southwest coast of Spain, just west of Cape Trafalgar, near the town of Los Caños de Meca. The Franco-Spanish fleet lost twenty-two ships, without a single British vessel being lost. It was the most decisive naval battle of the war.

The British victory spectacularly confirmed the naval supremacy that Britain had established during the eighteenth century and was achieved in part through Nelson's departure from the prevailing naval tactical orthodoxy.[4] Conventional practice, at the time, was to engage an enemy fleet in a single line of battle parallel to the enemy, to facilitate signalling in battle and disengagement, and to maximise fields of fire and target areas. Nelson instead divided his smaller force into two columns directed perpendicularly against the enemy fleet, with decisive results.

During the battle, Nelson was shot by a French musketeer; he died shortly thereafter, becoming one of Britain's greatest war heroes. Villeneuve was captured along with his ship Bucentaure. Admiral Federico Gravina, the senior Spanish flag officer, escaped with the remnant of the fleet and succumbed months later to wounds sustained during the battle. Villeneuve attended Nelson's funeral while a captive on parole in Britain.

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my favourite all time historical battle is at sea!, the English navy spearheaded literally by Lord Nelson against the combined fleet of the Spanish navy and France's imperial navy leaded on the french side by Admiral Villeneuve, a spineless coward, and on the Spanish side by Admiral Federico Gravina one of the best commanders of the time but Napoleon (my goat historical figure) wasnt gonna have a spanish commander; all of this in the BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR.

the outcome of this battle which had the English leaded by Nelson's balls of steel and brilliant tactics would change the history of the entire planet, the toughest men (on both sides) on wooden ships firing eachother, boarding hand to hand fights.

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I like reading about famous naval battles. Being British I guess the Battle of Trafalgar's gotta be my fav

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



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Credit to Lord Nelson, but I read that it was just a series of unfortunate events for the Spanish Armada towards and during the battle. Maybe they're just trying to discredit the Brits, like some salty mma fighter who got ktfo and saying he can beat his opponent 9/10.
 
The great khans battles and the 47 ronin
 
Battle of Camaron where the French Foreign Legion with 65 men held out against a Mexican army that at it's maximum was 3,000. All the legionnaires were either killed, wounded to the point they couldn't fight or captured except three. The three out of ammunition refused to surrender and threatened a bayonet charge, until it was negotiated that the men could leave the site with their colors and arms and the Mexicans had to treat their wounded. When the three were brought forward to the Mexican commander the question was asked " "Is this all of them? Is this all of the men who are left?" Then, in amazement, he exclaimed, "These are not men! They are demons!"

Always had a romanticism about the unwinnable battle, similar to battles like Thermophily, Wake Island, Rourke's Ridge and the Alamo. April 30 to the Legion is always celebrated as Camaron day there is a plaque at the battle site "Here there were less than sixty opposed to a whole army. Its numbers crushed them. Life rather than courage abandoned these French soldiers on April 30, 1863. In their memory, the motherland has erected this monument"
 
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Bannockburn, 1314. 3,000 Scots defeated around 15,000 English in the decisive battle of the Scottish Wars of Independence.

The Scottish King, Robert de Bruce, was challenged to single combat on the first day of the battle by Sir Henry de Bohun. Bruce was riding an unarmoured horse, wearing chain mail and carried only a small axe. Bohun was riding a war horse, wore full plate armour and carried a lance. Bruce avoided his charge and killed Bohun with a single blow of his axe so powerful it split his helm, skull and face. And snapped the axe shaft.

The English heavy cavalry were unable to break the Scottish infantry, and suffered huge losses. According to legend, a small group of Knights Templar had pledged to fight for Bruce in return for his protection from the Pope, who had outlawed the Order, and mounted a charge that broke the English cavalry. Most historians however agree that this was almost certainly propaganda started by the English themselves to excuse their defeat to a Scots army they outnumbered almost 5 to 1.

The English heavy cavalry tried to retreat, and trampled many of their own infantry. The retreat quickly became a rout, and then a massacre. Hundreds of English soldiers were dragged down by their armour and drowned trying to forge the Bannockburn itself. After the battle, a man could walk across the Burn using the corpses of Englishmen as a bridge.

Neither side kept an accurate record of infantry casualties. Only knights were considered important. The Scots lost two knights in the battle. The English? A Monk who was present at the battle recorded,

Two hundred pairs of spurs all red,
Were taken from the knights there dead.
 
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Bannockburn, 1314. 3,000 Scots defeated around 15,000 English in the decisive battle of the Scottish Wars of Independence.

The Scottish King, Robert de Bruce, was challenged to single combat on the first day of the battle by Sir Henry de Bohun. Bruce was riding an unarmoured horse, wearing chain mail and carried only a small axe. Bohun was riding a war horse, wore full plate armour and carried a lance. Bruce avoided his charge and killed Bohun with a single blow of his axe so powerful it split his helm, skull and face. And snapped the axe shaft.

The English heavy cavalry were unable to break the Scottish infantry, and suffered heavy losses. According to legend, a small group of Knights Templar had pledged to fight for Bruce in return for his protection from the Pope, who had outlawed the Order, and mounted a charge that broke the English cavalry. Most historians however agree that this was almost certainly propaganda started by the English themselves to excuse their defeat to a Scots army they outnumbered almost 5 to 1.

The English heavy cavalry tried to retreat, and trampled many of their own infantry. The retreat quickly became a rout, and then a massacre. Hundreds of English soldiers were dragged down by their armour and drowned trying to forge the Bannockburn itself. After the battle, a man could walk across the Burn using the corpses of Englishmen as a bridge.

Neither side kept an accurate record of infantry casualties. Only knights were considered important. The Scots lost two knights in the battle. The English? A Monk who was present at the battle recorded,

Two hundred pairs of spurs all red,
Were taken from the knight there dead.
It's funny how in the "Braveheart" movie they portrayed Robert the Bruce as pussy, the guy was a serious badass and deserved better than he was portrayed in that movie.
 
the actions of Zvika Greengold during the Yom Kippur War were pretty outrageous
"Greengold's "Koah Zvika" (Zvika Force) spotted Syrian tanks belonging to the Syrian Army's 51st Independent Tank Brigade,[3] which had broken through the line and were advancing unopposed northwest along the road to Nafekh. Greengold's two tanks engaged the opposing T-55s, with Greengold destroying six.[3] His tank was damaged, so he switched tanks and sent his original tank back for repairs.[6]

Then he spotted the advancing 452nd Tank Battalion. He engaged the enemy, taking advantage of the darkness and moving constantly to fool the Syrians into thinking the opposition was stronger than it was. Greengold destroyed or damaged ten enemy armoured vehicles before the confused Syrians withdrew, believing they were facing a sizable force.[3] Even Greengold's superiors were deceived; as the fighting wore on, he did not dare report how weak he actually was over the radio for fear it would be intercepted. He could only hint "the situation isn't good".[7] At a time when Zvika Force consisted of only one tank, Colonel Yitzhak Ben-Shoham, the brigade commander, assumed it to be "of at least company strength".[7]

For the next 20 hours, he fought, sometimes alone, sometimes in conjunction with other tanks, displaying an uncanny knack for showing up again and again at the critical moment to tip the scales of a skirmish. At 2230, he was joined by eight[6] or ten[7] tanks under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Uzi Mor. After being briefed by Greengold, Mor ordered an advance. Most of his tanks were knocked out by a Syrian force; Mor was seriously wounded, Greengold's driver was killed, and Greengold's uniform caught on fire.[7] Greengold took charge of one undamaged tank, while the other two carried away the wounded.[7] He had to change vehicles "half a dozen times"[2] as his tanks were knocked out.

Greengold recalled in a 2015 Jerusalem Post article that at sunrise, he was part of a force of 14 tanks that engaged an entire Syrian armored division, "made up of some 100 tanks and 40 armored personnel carriers."[6] When Nafekh itself came under attack from a fresh force of T-62s, he and others rushed over to bolster the defense.[2] In a lull in the fighting, an exhausted Greengold got out of his latest tank and dropped to the ground, murmuring, "I can't anymore."[3]

Afterward, he claimed 20 enemy tanks destroyed; another estimate places his tally at 60.[4]"

matter of fact, any military person that's ever been on Badass of the Week is straight up G
 
It's funny how in the "Braveheart" movie they portrayed Robert the Bruce as pussy, the guy was a serious badass and deserved better than he was portrayed in that movie.

Agreed. But then Braveheart was about as historically accurate as 300:rolleyes:

Oh, and the term brave heart itself was taken from Bruce. On his deathbed, he made his greatest Knight, Sir James,"the Black"Douglas promise to take his heart on Crusade. Douglas wore Bruce's heart in a small casket around his neck while fighting against the Moors in Spain. In his last battle, Douglas was cut off from the other Scottish knights, and threw the casket at the Moors, shouting,

"Lead on, Brave Heart. And where thou leads, a Douglas follows
!":cool:
 
Agreed. But then Braveheart was about as historically accurate as 300:rolleyes:

Oh, and the term brave heart itself was taken from Bruce. On his deathbed, he made his greatest Knight, Sir James,"the Black"Douglas promise to take his heart on Crusade. Douglas wore Bruce's heart in a small casket around his neck while fighting against the Moors in Spain. In his last battle, Douglas was cut off from the other Scottish knights, and threw the casket at the Moors, shouting,

"Lead on, Brave Heart. And where thou leads, a Douglas follows
!":cool:
Imagine the look on the face of the Moore that opened that box. I'd be "what the hell?!?! Did this guy really just thrown mummified body parts at me?"
 
CPL Tony Stein at Iwo Jima was a straight up Legend as well

Took a Stinger machine gun off an airplane, made an improvised SAW, singlehandedly charged and took out an enemy Japanese Machine Gun Nest, and had to run back to the shore 8 separate times to get more ammo, each time picking up and carrying an injured Marine back.....

Seriously, our society doesn't produce cats like that anymore haha
 
Probably the most significant battle of WWII (arguable, but certainly top 3):

 
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