"Which historical battle fascinates you most and why?" Topic

I am most fascinated by the battle of Little Bighorn, there is so much mystery attached to this event even after 140 years, with conflicting accounts and missing information. No one knows exactly how events played out that day, and we never will. Fun to read all of the theories and conjecture though.

Stalingrad would be a close second for me, just because of the sheer scale and ferocity of the battle, and how arguably the course of an entire world war was changed by the outcome.

What battle interests you most? Not just from a wargaming standpoint, just general interest.

Cowpens for me. Morgan knew exactly what to expect of his own militia, and how to channel their weakness into strength. He gave them permission to run away. In fact he REQUIRED it of them. Then he told them what to do and where to go. With honor intact!
On top of that, he knew exactly how the enemy would act and react, and made his plans accordingly.
It would be hard to find a better thought out and executed battle.

Gettysburg. Why Picketts charge?

Dunkirk (perhaps this is not a battle????). How did they pull that one off?

Thermopalye (sp?) No way they should have been able to hold the Persians.

Stalingrad. Nasty, close in, ruined city, desperate struggle.

Gettysburg, it's the first battlefield that I ever visited, I have walked it many times since. Even the History of the field itself is remarkable, how many people know that somewhere, when they are walking Pickett's Charge (or the PPT assault as some of us prefer)you are walking over the officer's pool of old Camp Colt? Or that Gettysburg was the home of the US Army's WW1 Tank School commanded by Major Dwight Eisenhower or that it was the site of a WW2 Prison Camp? And to walk the Battlefield itself, to go down to where the boys from the 1st MN wound up gosh, how did any of them survive? It's remarkable how much of the field still exists.

Another battle that always fascinated me was Midway, I mean that was such a remarkable battle. And lastly (I'm really trying to limit myself to three) would be Trafalgar. As a young child we went to Madame Tussaud's in London and back then (I don't know if they still have it) we saw the representation of what it was like on Victory's gun deck. It was Hell of Earth but something about it hooked me.

Battle of Berlin. Fight to the death. Women, children, old people, hold nothing back on a modern battlefield.

I too have walked the battlefield and stayed in a hotel (on my honeymoon) right down the block from Checkpoint Charlie and across the way from the Brandenburg Gate. I was reading a book about the French SS unit that was headquartered in the subway station just outside my window!

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

1 – Little Big Horn – One of the first battles I read about as a kid. The battlefield itself is haunting, and just the mystery surrounding it. On a LBH thread recently one of the posters recommended Lakota Noon as a good read on the battle. I picked it up off B&N and started it the day I got it.

2 – Gettysburg – Read the Killer Angels while on CQ one night. The bug bit me and I have not been cured yet.

3 – Thermopylae – 300 Spartans, certain death. An epic in selflessness and heroism. Was introduced to the battle as a teen when my Mom purchased Charles Grant's The Wargame for me.

Shiloh: Surprise, failure to follow up or stay organized, unfortunate events, lack of preparation. First great battle of the ACW, 24k losses.

Ligny/Quatre Bras, Waterloo: Luck, loss of nerve, wasted efforts.

Battle off Samar during the Battle of Leyte Gulf: Surprise by the Japanese Fleet. Courageous defense by the US DD's and aircraft of Taffy 3. The loss of nerve and the retreat by the Japanese Fleet at the point of victory.

Terry

Flodden, just because its local to where I live – just how did they fit all those guys in this one field?!

Tsushima.

First Bull run (ACW) and Arnhem (WWII) for me, so many variables, anything could have happened.

Puebla – You have a bunch of civilians bailing out their failed army and government by beating down one of the best armies on the planet at the time. The tactics were highly situational (terrain, weather). There were a couple of major strategic blunders on the losing side (going it alone in the first place, believing the civilian populace would support a foreign power over their own failed government). Operationally, the civilians provided amazing support, and the losers had kind of already outrun their own logistics. Plus, the deciding factor was a bunch of deputized farmers, with big, long, pointy sticks. Go, rednecks!

LBH. Seven years old, bought the Ladybird book from the newsagents stand beside the open-air swimming pool in Saltwell Park.

Amazing – written and illustrated by Frank Humphris, highly recommended even to the adult reader for the superb paintings and as a salutary example that there was once a time when unvarnished, agenda-free history was considered suitable reading for kids.

Just last week, bought the Custer Library edition of W.A. Graham's "The Custer Myth" at Barter Books.
My interest in that battle hasn't waned in the slightest with the intervening forty-one years, and at least as many books.

waterloo, so mush written and still a mystical battle

Waterloo, Gettysburg, Kursk

The Battle of Franklin. The utter sadness of it all.

There are a couple for me.

Chanslorsville – Lee is heavily outnumberd 134,000 to 60,000. Part of his army is away on a separate campaign. Hooker steals a march on him and flanks his army. Rather than retreating Lee violates one of the maxims of war and splits his army, not once but twice, (or three times if you count the reinforcements he sent east after Marie's Heights fell). He attacks, and wins!

Masada – A group of Jewish civilians take on the biggest empire in the area. They lose, are trapped, hold a Roman legion up for several months, and as the end is near, they value their freedom so much they take their own lives rather than surrender and become slaves.

Thermopolae – Death before dishonor

The Alamo – Another group that loves freedom so much they'd rather die than surrender.

And what of Marengo, Austerlitz, Auerstedt, Montmirail?

The Guadalcanal campaign: ferocious fighting at the bad end of a logistical chain, fought with new weaponry and much confusion by both sides, and incredibly important to the war overall.

GM 100's miserable march in the Central Highlands in 1954. Rwads like a movie.

Of those already mentioned, Gettysburg and the 100 Days for the "what ifs" and the Bighorn for the mystery as well.

But my personal obsession is Bosworth. Far too much mystery for a battle so big, so important and so recent. There have been huge changes in our understanding of the battle in my time studying it, and I think if I can make another 25 years I'll see things change again.

I just can't pick one so here are my top ten in chronological order. Yes, I know there are really eleven but cut me a break! I've eliminated so many.

Kadesh – propaganda vs. historical fact a Gordian knot to untangle.

Lake Tramisene and Cannae – I like it when Romans get whooped.

The Battle of Tours (AD 732) – too often under rated.

The Battle of Hattin – the death of the infamous Reynaud de Chatillon.

The Battle of Breitenfeld – Gustav Adolphus fanboy.

The Battle of Antietam – the ACW at its bloody best/worst.

Battle of Dubro-Brody – A titanic battle during Operation Barbarossa which is under studied and recognized. It had T-35 tanks in it; 4-5 actually saw combat!

The Battle of Midway – the role of Chance in battle.

The Battle of Huai-Hai (1948-49) in which the Chinese communists defeated the Nationalists. AKA the Battle of Hsupeng.

The Valley of Tears – the desperate defence of the Israelis in the face of overwhelming Syrian forces in 1973. It could have gone either way.

Cheers and good gaming.
Rod Robertson.

Austerilitz, Thermopylae , Telamon, Alesia and Kursk!

Bulge One big gamble
Gettysburg- Classic study in concentration of force
, Kolin – classic failure of the indirect approach
Carrhae- triumph of the horse archer

Gettysburg, Rourke's Drift, Little Bighorn are my three. Read extensively on all three but still read new books on them.

Khartoum.
Makes an interesting "what if?" exercise seeing if you could set up a better defense with limited resources to force a much higher attrition rate before being overrun (I'd have turned the city into a maze of streets designed to channel attackers toward firepower-heavy checkpoints.)
Might even make a good alt history novel, with modern urban combat specialists going back in time to assist Gordon… ;-)

Wow, so many that fascinate…

Albuera – so bloody, so close
Kursk – enormous numbers
Battle of the Bulge – myth and mystic
Waterloo – still unknowns
Gettysburg – pivotal
New Orleans (1815) – how?
Battle of Britain – critical to winning the war
Jutland – what if?
etc. etc.

Kings Mountain….the myth that American Riflemen hid behind trees and rocks while taking deadly aim at the enemy is clearly exposed here.

Oh, wait……

OK, then Cowpens.

Jutland and the might have beens.

Guadalcanal for the ferocity and courage.

Gaugamela for the audacity and brilliance.

Minden. How on earth did the British and Hanoverian infantry do it? And what was George Sackville thinking?

Waterloo. For all the obvious reasons.

LBH, Mars-Le-Tour, Waterloo, kolin, and many more.

The Great seige of Malta, 1565. It's an obsession I cannot stop reading about.
Boswoth and Towton.

The Battle of Lepanto, 1571.

The Battle of Koniggratz, aka the Battle of Sadowa, 1866.

Manzikert, 1071. Treachery? Conflicting accounts. Why this day of battle was different than the previous withdrawals of the Byzantines led by Romanus Diogenes also conducted under attack.

Froeschwiller, 1870. 40,000 French v. 100,000 Germans. It's got a little bit of everything. Heroic cavalry charges, colorful units, and mitrailleuses. Many "What ifs…?"

Hmmmm….

Based on books I've read about it I'd have to say Dien Bien Phu, 1954. First became interested in it due to the FFL's involvement.

Hastings. So much decided by the outcome of that one battle.

Tigranocerta. Romans outnumbered 2 and a half to 1, and attacking across a river, but win anyway. Against cataphracts, no less!

Civil war battle of franklin

Sad and amazing on so many levels

Fulford Gate, Stamford Bridge & Hastings.

If I have to choose one, Cannae. Honorable mentions: Trebia, Lake Trasimene, Granicus, Issus, Gaugamela, Austerlitz, Trafalgar, Jutland, Lorraine, Case Yellow, Denmark Strait, Afrikakorps campaigns (El Agheila, Tobruk, Halfaya Pass) and of course Normandy battles like Villers-Bocage and Caen.

Sekigahara.

Loads really…

Koniggratz as its my pet period, Waterloo (boring choice I know), Isandlewana, Guildford Courthouse, Dien Bien Phu and Arnhem. Oh and Arderydd, if only we knew a bit more about it.

There are a few, but the ones that interest me most are:

Pavia
The Great Siege of Malta
Lepanto, and
The "Noche Triste" (Cortes' retreat from Tenochtitlan, across the channels)

Towton

The bloodiest day on English soil

Kursk : The bigest tank battle.
Hattin : the begining of the end of the Christian.
Hastings: a new era for England,

Lots of great battles listed here. Too hard to limit to just one, however I don't see this one listed yet.

Monocacy, the battle that saved Washington. Great potential and lots of opportunities- plus my Great Great Grandfather participated as a Principal Musician in the 151st NY.

Little Bighorn: Endless mysteries and an epic clash
Gettysburg: The ultimate Civil War battle and greatest battlefield
The Alamo: A small band of rebels fights to the death in an old fort
Waterloo: Mostly because of Les Miserables and epic
Omaha Beach: Saving Private Ryan started my interest. I still wonder how men could face that hell and endure it to victory.
Brandywine: The largest battle of the Revolution and a great battlefield to visit

Not so much a battle(s), but I found the France '40 and North African Campaigns very interesting, etc.

Also the Battle of Dien Bien Phu …