"Oddball WW2 question - old battlefields" Topic

So just curious, were their any significant WW2 actions on ancient battlefields from previous wars?
Poltava
Borodino
Waterloo
Brietenfield
Cannae
Battle of Nations
That kind of thing.

Borodino for sure, 1941.

Interesting question when you consider how geography has contributed to European battlefield locations being repeated over the centuries. I look forward to seeing more replies here.

How far back would you want to go? Consider North Africa for instance and all the wars of Rome alone. It would be all but impossible for it not to have overlapped others, especially in Europe. But no one really mentions it I guess.

The whole notion of a battle and a battlefield changes between 1871 and 1914. Waterloo has a three mile frontage. Borodino I think is five or six. The "Battle of the Bulge" is about 100 miles north-south. Even Alamein is (I think) better than 30. So a WWII action fought on a pre-1900 battlefield is unlikely to involve more than a brigade on a side. How many WWII engagements that small would you regard as "significant?" (Was ANY brigade action in Germany in 1945 significant? If not, there goes Breitenfield and Leipzig.) And can we even locate Cannae with precision?

As I recall, British forces passed over the old Waterloo battlefield in both world wars, but there was no serious fighting.

Pre-1900, I can find you some matches. The windmill from which Napoleon observed the Battle of Ligny had been used previously for the Battle of Fleurus (Jourdan 1794) and by Luxembourg in 1690. At Lutzen 1813, some French actually deploy at the monument to the 1632 battle.

I believe the armor for the Arras attack in May 1940 mustered under the Vimy Ridge Memorial.