What is the most numerically surpsing victory in military history?

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Agathon
The battle went thus:

The English advanced to within bowshot in an attempt to goad the French into attacking.

It worked. The French cavalry attacked. However the mud and bowshots against horses repulsed this attack.

Note that the French still have the advantage after this little episode.

The French sent in their heavy infantry. The funnel effect of the terrain and the mud turned this into a crowd disaster. Unable to maneuver many French soldiers fell over and sank in the mud, those that did reach the English line were at a massive disadvantage due to the crowding and the mud and had their heads bashed in.

The idea that the English longbows mowed down the French as they advanced is pure bunk.

ok, ok . . . . . .


We get it already. You PWNed!

[General Ludd]

I'll just quote a paragraph fro the book I'm reading right now:

The lopsided casualty figures were typical of colonial battles. Cortes overthrew the civilization of the Aztecs with five hundred men, ten bronze cannons, and twelve muskets. In the battle of Blood River, in 1838, Boer forces slew three thousand Zulus while losing only three themselves. At the battle of Plassey, Clive, with a force of eight hundred Europeans and two thousand Indians, defeated an army of fifty thousand, with a loss of only twenty-two men. In 1865, in Tashkent, in just one of a series of such battles, a Tatar army of thirty thousand was defeated by a Russian army of two thousand, In 1897, "a Royal Niger Co. force composed of 32 Europeans and 507 African soldiers armed with cannons, Maxim guns, and Snider rifles defeated the 31,000 army of the Nupe Emirate of Sokoto." In a "battle" that the English invader Younghusband waged against the Tibetans in 1903, six hundred Tibetans were killed without British losses, and then "The remnant simply turned and walked away with bowed heads."

[Kassiopeia]

Marathon. I've heard someone describe it as "identical to WW2 era Denmark managing to repulse the Wehrmacht's invasion". I think Hannibal's win in Cannae wasn't that surprising, he clearly had a plan he used to encircle the Roman army and had IIRC sacked the Romans a few times already (Tresimene or somesuch), but in Marathon it was a bit more random - mainly because the Persian cavalry didn't make it to the fray in time. And Marathon was close to not even happening, the council of Greek generals, IIRC, decided to attack right away without the Spartans with the margin of one vote.

[Serb]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker

Originally posted by Serb
Bah
The best army of Europe made bunch of untrained peasants who took arms for the first time in their lives, flee.

The story of Russia: a bunch of untrained peasants.

They fleed to fight another day, when they back they kicked everyone asses.
That is the stroy of Russia- kicking of everyone butts.

[Kuciwalker]

Which is why you won the cold war

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by Serb

kicking of everyone butts.

Surely you mean showing their asses?

[Last Conformist]

Originally posted by Serb

Bah
The best army of Europe made banch of untrained peasants who took arms for the first time in their lives, flee.

Really surprising.

One has to hope the Russian leadership was surprised. When a great power goes to war and its army is routed in the first battle, one likes to think things did not go to plan.

[Last Conformist]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse

I also dispute the weight of the bows used. It took a hell of a lot of muscle to draw a longbow. A hell of a lot more than a modern archer needs to draw a standard bow. A hell of a lot more than you or I could summon up without a lot of exercise. Probably something like 60 lbs or more (compared to a modern bow's 30 or so)...

About 150 lbs, according to Keegan's A History of Warfare.

[Serb]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Which is why you won the cold war

Which is why you never had balls to make it a real war.

Cold wars are for pussies.

[Serb]

Originally posted by Sprayber


Surely you mean showing their asses?

Name me a single neighbour of Russia or any great power except Brits (despite thier intervention to Russian civil war failed) whose asses weren't kicked by Russians.

[Agathon]

Name me a single neighbour of Russia or any great power except Brits (despite thier intervention to Russian civil war failed) whose asses weren't kicked by Russians.

Japan?

The Americans were responsible for beating them in WWII and they certainly handed you guys your asses.

[Kuciwalker]

The Germans kicked Russia's ass big time in WWI.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Serb
Which is why you never had balls to make it a real war.

Cold wars are for pussies.

Which makes Russia a pussy

[Serb]

Originally posted by Last Conformist

One has to hope the Russian leadership was surprised. When a great power goes to war and its army is routed in the first battle, one likes to think things did not go to plan.

Like Russia was ever ready for a war. Every time when war starts Russia doesn't ready, however it doesn't change the outcome- Russia get her crap together and wins.

[Agathon]

The Germans kicked Russia's ass big time in WWI.

That's a really bad example considering what happened next.