What is the most amazing military victory in history?

[Alex Woehr]

For a war I think the Mongol Horde probably takes the cake. From 1211-1241 Gengis Khan and his son with their comparatively small army took over China, the Turks, Russia and much of eastern Europe, all having armies more numerous and more advanced than their attackers.

[Capt Dizle]

Originally posted by Alex Woehr
For a war I think the Mongol Horde probably takes the cake. From 1211-1241 Gengis Khan and his son with their comparatively small army took over China, the Turks, Russia and much of eastern Europe, all having armies more numerous and more advanced than their attackers.

I think you have a top ten there but you can in no way say that the Mongol army was backward. Gengis developed a military that was eons ahead of its time.

[Ted Striker]

And they would have gotten into Europe but the Muslims stopped them. Then Kublai Khan died and his western army had to return back home before they had a chance to counterattack and breakthrough. This was right after Baghdad got sacked.

[Edan]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Considering Israel outnumbered its enemies, had more weapons, a unified command structure, it was rather surprising they didn't take the whole thing.

Nonesense. Israel was able to muster up about 45k troops, and of that, only 15,000 went into field combat while the other 30,000 were defending local positions. The arabs states combined had armies totaling 80,000.

The US had embargoed the whole region, while Britain had embargoed Israel, while supplying the Arab states. Israel had to make do with less than 20,000 light arms that had been smuggled in. Israel had no tanks, no artillery, and 11 obsolete planes. They finally managed to procure weapons from, ironically, checkoslovakia a months after the fighting had started. The arab armies, in contrast, were very well armed.

As for command structure, while the arabs have never been ones to model one's command structure after, there was numerous infighting, suspicion and dissent between the Jewish groups which climaxed when, after the Irgun refused to join the IDF, Ben Gurion attacked an Irgun ship that bringing in arms - resulting in a number of deaths. Add to that vulnerable communication lines and that the arab forces had an overwhelming geographical advantage.

And for an army that was so much larger, better armed and more unified, why did the Israelis have such a high number of casualties?

US state department records from before the war predict a total Israeli victory.

Source?

[Edan]

The least amazing military victory I can think of would be Antietam, where the larger force, with a copy of the plans of the other side, managed to accomplish a less than stunning victory.

[Shi Huangdi]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
No Blitzkrieg over the Maginot Line?

Germany's humiliation of France during WWII definitely has to rank as a very amazing victory. I'd also add on Kemal Ataturk against the allies during the Turkish War of Independence, where against all odds he managed to come back from a defeat during a world war and preserve Turkey.

[Ned]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Wasn't the most amazing victory Alexander the Great's conquest of Persia, especially the battle where he destroyed the Persian army despite attacking across a river and being massively outnumbered. I believe it was the most lopsided victory in history until the Gulf War.

Caesar at Alesia was outnumbered 6-1, completely surrounded and attacked from all directions at once. The fight was close. Caesar won only by brilliant maneuvers in the nick of time.

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Shi Huangdi


Germany's humiliation of France during WWII definitely has to rank as a very amazing victory. I'd also add on Kemal Ataturk against the allies during the Turkish War of Independence, where against all odds he managed to come back from a defeat during a world war and preserve Turkey.

Good call BD, that's one that has long been forgotten but was EXTREMELY humiliating for the allies.

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Ned


Caesar at Alesia was outnumbered 6-1, completely surrounded and attacked from all directions at once. The fight was close. Caesar won only by brilliant maneuvers in the nick of time.

This was during the conquest of Gaul, correct? Didn't the Romans consider Gaul to be unconquerable at one point?

[Kingof the Apes]

I'd say Gulf war was amazing. Look what they did, in just 100 hours.

[Ned]

Originally posted by Ted Striker


This was during the conquest of Gaul, correct? Didn't the Romans consider Gaul to be unconquerable at one point?

In fact, the Gauls conquered Rome a few centuries before.

After Ceasar had been in Gaul for nearly ten years, the Gauls finally got their act together and united under one leader, Vercingetorix. They had significant early successes. But Caesar recovered and forced Vercingetorix to take a defensive stand at Alesia. Ceasar built fortifications around Alesia. When Vercingetorix sent for reinforcements. Caesar built defensive works in the other direction as well, facing out. When the Gauls attacked, they attacked from Alesia and from outside Alesia at the same time.

At one point in the line, the Romans were being overwhelmed. But Ceasar rushed reinforcements to the weakened area. The battle was, as I said, extremely close.

In the words of Maximus, aka, Russel Crowe, Roman Victor!

[muxec]

Israel victory in Sept. 1973

[Mattaba]

Austerlitz, it was brilliant, Napoleon made is enemies do what he wanted.

[MrWhereItsAt]

As the Barmy Army keeps reminding Australia at the cricket here: "Saturday's for rugby: 32-31 "

Excellent

[Vlad Antlerkov]

The Pirates' victory over the Yankees in 1960 World Series, off of Mazeroski's (and Hal Smith's) home runs.

Oh, wait, you mean military victories. In that case:

-- The Mongols conquering Russia in the winter of 1237-38. To my knowledge, it's the only winter campaign against Russia that's been remotely successful.

-- I'll second Ned's nomination of Alesia. (Didn't know he was outnumbered by that much.)