Haitiansoldier | 23 Feb 2017 4:42 p.m. PST |
Of course, my first reaction and probably the same is true for you would be none. War is horrible, I get that. But if you HAD to choose some to fight in, which would they be and whose side would you go on? Do you believe in the cause? As for me? Thermopylae-Greek, but NOT a Spartan. Other Greeks escaped and plus, Sparta would be too tough for me to handle. Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD-Roman Braddock's Defeat at the Monongahela-French allied Indian warrior Monmouth-Continental soldier Vertières-Haitian Waterloo-Prussian The Alamo-Mexican Little Bighorn-Sioux Isandlwana-Zulu |
jeffreyw3 | 23 Feb 2017 4:53 p.m. PST |
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Eumelus | 23 Feb 2017 5:12 p.m. PST |
I'd fly with the Lafayette Escadrille. Drink, fly, and either survive to be a hero or die pretty quickly – and never have to endure the muddy hell of the trenches. Plus Whiskey and Soda were pretty cute. |
repaint | 23 Feb 2017 5:21 p.m. PST |
Honestly, really none. Now to answer in the spirit of your question, I might have fancied the idea to be in the team that took down Ben laden in Pakistan. But again, it is really by stretching my comfort zone. As an historian, I would have like to see the battle of Waterloo, which was probably a very unpleasant affair too. |
sneakgun | 23 Feb 2017 5:47 p.m. PST |
Clontarf to protect King Brian… |
Joes Shop | 23 Feb 2017 6:10 p.m. PST |
None, had my share of trigger time. No desire to either repeat it or go back in time for same. |
Ashokmarine | 23 Feb 2017 6:11 p.m. PST |
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Frederick | 23 Feb 2017 7:13 p.m. PST |
I have to weigh in on the None side here If pushed, though Crecy or Agincourt on the English side Rossbach on the Prussian side Capporetto on the German side France 1940 on the German side |
Glengarry5 | 23 Feb 2017 7:55 p.m. PST |
The Great Pig War of 1859! Causalities: one Hudson's Bay porker Or The Anglo-Zanzibarian War Duration: between 38 and 45 minutes Causalties: 500 Zanzibarians to one wounded British sailor. I'd be fighting for the crown of course. |
ochoin | 23 Feb 2017 8:21 p.m. PST |
Probably only in this one: link |
robert piepenbrink | 23 Feb 2017 8:32 p.m. PST |
Hmm. There are wars I'm proud some ancestor fought in, and battles I'm very glad a particular side won. Perhaps if I were told "if you don't fight, history may be changed"--or, these days, "we promise a quick and glorious death"--I'd find my nerve. But to watch--I'd pay serious money to be on Ambion Hill with a good set of binoculars just to find out what really happened at Bosworth. Reasonable money for a decent view of the Little Big Horn or a few others, but Bosworth is the biggie. |
Grelber | 23 Feb 2017 9:18 p.m. PST |
Marathon--on one of the Athenian flanks, six or seven ranks back. Though, truth be told, I'm happier in my warm, safe little house, and don't want to go off to fight in any battles. Grelber |
Buck215 | 23 Feb 2017 9:36 p.m. PST |
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miniMo | 23 Feb 2017 10:48 p.m. PST |
Troy. Like Protesilaos, for a share of the glory of the Achaians. But definitely not one of Odysseus' crew! Ragnarok. World's ending anyways, might as well go out with in style! |
Mike Target | 24 Feb 2017 5:40 a.m. PST |
Battle of Magdala on the British side. 13000 combatants, only 20 casualties, and only 2 dead. I'll take those odds… |
bsrlee | 24 Feb 2017 6:38 a.m. PST |
I too would rather stay home, safe and comfortable. Otherwise I'm with Glengarry5. Now, drone footage of some of those battles would be fun – just think what the locals would have thought of the nasty buzzing critters circling the battlefield – Valkyries, Angels, Demons or whatever. |
foxweasel | 24 Feb 2017 7:34 a.m. PST |
Do we get an invisibility cloak, or a guarantee we can't die? |
piper909 | 24 Feb 2017 5:16 p.m. PST |
A similar topic was on TMP recently and I remarked there about my frequent dreams about being in pre-modern battles -- and it made me think about how I'd probably opt for the siege of Orleans and the followup French campaigns so I could witness Joan of Arc firsthand and learn the true story (?) about her personality and career. |
wrgmr1 | 24 Feb 2017 8:57 p.m. PST |
Battle of Britain, only because I would get to fly a Spitfire. |
Old Contemptibles | 25 Feb 2017 7:04 p.m. PST |
Battle of Britain for me. |
Great War Ace | 26 Feb 2017 1:34 p.m. PST |
@wrgmr1: not a given. There were more Hurricanes than Spits. And lots more of other airplanes in total than either of those two. Boulton-Paul Defiant, that's your plane. |
Great War Ace | 26 Feb 2017 1:41 p.m. PST |
I'm reading "Knight of Germany", the biography of Oswald Boelcke. He describes a 1915 attack by the French that he witnessed through binoculars from c. 800 yards, while visiting an artillery division. His description was fairly detailed, since this formed a unique experience for him. His Teutonic ardor admired the combat and he was quite clinical about the utter depravity of high explosive-laced battle, and bayonet and rifle butt hand to hand combat. His ardor was further encouraged by the total failure of the French assault and the virtual annihilation of the same. But, if he were answering this question, I have no doubt in asserting that Boelcke would NOT pick that battle, or any other trench warfare fracas, as the battle he would want to participate in. I have stood on the English side and received the Norman attacks. And I have gone up and down the hill with the Breton left on the Franco-Norman side, reenacting Hastings in 2006, because of this very question. I picked Hastings because it is "my" battle. I had to do everything possible to engage with it. But, for real, I would do everything humanly possible to avoid it or any other battle, no matter what the scale. I carry, but the last thing on earth I want is to ever have to pull this gun and shoot it in anger………….. |
arthur1815 | 26 Feb 2017 3:11 p.m. PST |
The Battle of Hook's Farm with HG Wells; Sittangbad with Brigadier Peter Young, and the toy soldier battles fought by Robert Louis Stevenson and his stepson Lloyd Osborne! |
BW1959 | 26 Feb 2017 6:59 p.m. PST |
I'm a coward so probably not any. But if I had to pick one it would be Vicksburg with the 17th Ohio Light Artillery so I could meet and talk to my Great-great-grandpa. |
Rick Don Burnette | 27 Feb 2017 9:30 a.m. PST |
Considering the conditions of not only the battle but also the campaign and the living conditions, none, not even the air wars in WWI or Korea, where the pilots only had to worry about the relatively clean combat. |
Weasel | 27 Feb 2017 9:38 a.m. PST |
The premise is you HAVE to pick one. Assuming we get to pick the side, I suppose Union lines on day 3 of Gettysburg doesn't sound so bad. |
Great War Ace | 27 Feb 2017 8:38 p.m. PST |
Oh, in that case, the center battle of the nine battles at Ascalon, 1099. |
Rick Don Burnette | 05 Mar 2017 3:35 p.m. PST |
The premise is you have to pick one?? Nuts I have eaten my share of Army food, played enough at so called training (I was a paper pusher at a "political" installation, a supply type) And know enough that I need not play the game of "you must choose" |