Most Interesting Military Battle (for a report)

Alpine3

Alpine3

Active member
self explanatory. I need to do a research paper on any military battle from the middle ages onward. I'm leaning towards Stalingrad, Midway or Okinawa, but im open to any suggestions, especially if people have done some in the past!
 
The D-Day landing would be a really good, if over used, topic. The amount of planing and organization put into that would easily lend itself to a University paper (assuming you are in Uni/collage) as well as the amount of documentation on it would make primary sources really easy to find.
 
Stalingrad, so many interesting events and places that took play
I would do The Battle of Kursk: Largest tank battle to ever take place. Fought between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
Soviets: 5000 tanks 2 million soldiers 2500 aircraft

VS

Nazi Germany: 2000 tanks 800000 soldiers 2000 aircraft

=The largest battle of mankind that took place
 
Pretty much anything in the pacific theater of WW2. It would be easy and sweet as hell. Marines land on a beach, take casualties and start kicking ass, Japanese fight to the last man. Bad as fuck.

Don't do the civil war, that shit will make you cry.
 
midway might be cool, im dont think stalingrad is that interesting, I mean it was a massive battle, but it was just a battle of attrition. An interesting one involving pretty intense strategy with tons of information would be the invasion of france during WWII by the Germans with the maginot line and all that
 
okinawa, watch the pacific part when they are in this battle. or stalingrad cause soo much shit happened. lol. i love this type of stuff!
 
300 was the battle of Thermopile (part of Peloponnesean war) and last time i checked that was a little bit before the middle ages.
 
Guidelines for final paper due April 28 (8-10pages)

Analyze a single battle since the Middle Ages, other than

the three we discuss in class (Agincourt, Waterloo, Somme). You will use at least three non-internet

sources such as books journal articles, and primary sources when

applicable. Most students will be

limited to English language primary sources but there are number of website

about WWI and WWII, among others, where you will be able to access first hand

accounts such as diaries and field reports.

Use the following format as a guide only, originality of

scholarship is always welcome:

1) Introduction:

general summary of the battle, of the war in which it took place, and the

importance for that war in history

2) Why did the

battle turn out the way it did: strength of forces, human error, quality of the

arms, morale, etc.?

3) What does the

battle reveal about prevailing conceptions and limitations warfare in that age?

4) What does the

battle reveal about the societies that waged it – e.g. social structure,

national sentiment, recruitment, etc?

5) Conclusion:

does the battle contain a single most important lesson or historical

revelation?

^^^^^^^ heres the whole assignment. im just having trouble coming up with a battle that would be interesting and easy at the same time to do. haha seems like WWII would be best time frame? but then again idk.

 
Uhhhhhhh Peloponnesian War was Delian League vs Peloponnesian League. Nary a Persian to be found.

Battle of Tours yo.

Sack of Constantinople by Mehmet II - the shit they did to get the upper hand was tight.
 
Battle of Antietam, first major battle of the Civil War and the bloodiest day in American history

Pretty gnarly battle, they had reporters show up and watch the battle from a hill not realizing what was about to happen
 
im aware just sayin it might be more interesting to write about a tactical, strategic battle versus one of attrition
 
Battle of Kursk July 1943- August 1943

The battle was the largest armoured battle and the largest overall battle in history. It involved the forces of the Red Army, and Nazi Germany. It was also one of the costliest battles of all time as well with huge losses.

Nazi Germany:2000 Tanks (give or take a couple hundred)800000 Infantry (Give or take a few thousand)2000 aircraft ( Give or take a couple hundred)
Germany's contribution consisted of Army Group North and Centre reconfiguring to perform a giant blitzkrieg encirclement on the prevailing Soviet salient in the line.
Army Group South was not involved due to their total annihilation and Stalingrad
The German army groups mainly composed of the German 9th army, 2nd and 4th panzer armies as well as additional reserve units. They were commanded by Walter Model and Werner Kempf( I cant remember the other 2 commanders)
Outcome: They lost, marked the beginning of the end of the war for the fascist Reich. The last offensive Germany ever launched in the East.
Losses:
200000 men killed( Give or take a few thousand)Destruction and total Annihilation of Germany's Panzer CorpDestruction of the Luftwaffe

The Soviets:
5000 tanks( Give or take a few hundred)2 million infantry ( Give or take a few thousand) 2500 Aircraft (Give or take a few hundred)
After destroying Army Group South at Stalingrad the Soviets could now concentrate their forces on Germany. Along with fresh reinforces from the Japanese front, the Soviets were now able to form a massive line on the outskirts of Kursk and Moscow. A salient(peninsula) occurred in the line that Germany focused to capitalize on and the Russians planned to blunt. This plan was meant to crush and mark the end of the war for Germany.
The Soviets had many more divisions, most being infantry and armored, the few that come to mind are the
60th, 65th, and 70th Infantry divisions
and as for armored
5th Guards Tank Army, 2nd Tank Army( There is way more but those are the only ones I can remember
The Soviets were led by General Nikolai Watutin, and General Rokosovsky( Spelling i think is wrong)
Losses:
860000 casualties2000 Tanks1500 Aircraft
Outcome: Massive victory for the Soviets, while massive losses were sustained they were able to rebuild and out build the Germans, coupled with a massive population. The destruction of the Panzer corps and luftwaffe made the Soviet Army unstoppable in the East which would steamroll all the way over Berlin eventually.

The Battle: It came down to armor and the Soviets success to blunt the blitzkrieg on the salient. They reinforced their lines and the powerful T-34 tanks proved no match for German Panzer armor. While the Nazi's were able to deploy some Tigers and King Tiger tanks there just wasn't sufficient numbers to turn the tide. This battle proved the Soviets had superior production of arms over the German war machine. The Germans also lost due to reusing the same old tactics that the Soviets had seen and experienced much earlier on. Marked the end of the war for Germany.

 
the battle of tippecanoe. henry harrison used it as his slogane for preisdent( he won the battle epicly) tippecanoe and tyler too.

Also the battle of new orleans where Andrew Jackson won the battle and killed a lot of Brits. but the war was done for a month. he didnt get the message

 
Actually i think the seige of Leningrad was the biggest battle of WW2. Its so underestimated for some reason, but many more people died during the seige and the city of Leningrad was turned to dust.

The seige of Stalingrad recieves more attention though for some reason.
 
The only thing with the siege of Leningrad was that there was little to no armor involved, Yes the Soviets lost thousands of civilians and over a million casualties and was one hell of a battle. All it really was was a pocket of soldiers numbering over a million encircled and cut off, a phenomenon not unfamiliar in many places on the Eastern Front, nor was it offensive.
Stalingrad gets so much attention because a relatively small amount of soldiers defeated an entire army group. There was a building in Stalingrad that had been surrounded by the Germans from the very start and was sometimes occupied by dozens of Red Army soldiers or only occupied by a squad of soldiers at other times. The Germans could not take it and by late 1942 the building was marked as a stronghold/fortress on German battle maps.
 
maybe for most interesting doing something on the push through fallajuh. iraq has had some insane city battles. its stuff that people havent heard a lot about and would give you a great opportunity to write about something not many have looked into due to time period.
 
I spent too much time reading and researching in to the Byzantines to leave this be. I don't like using wikipedia, but a little vouch for fall off Constantinople:

"The Fall of Constantinople marked the end of the Byzantine Empire, an empire which had lasted for over 1,100 years, and was a massive blow for Christendom. After the conquest Mehmed made Constantinople the Ottoman Empire's new capital. Several Greek and non-Greek intellectuals fled the city before and after the siege, migrating particularly to Italy. It is argued that they helped fuel the Renaissance. Some mark the end of the Middle Ages by the fall of the city and empire."

That's just the surface...
 
Market Garden would be sick if you were thinking WW2 phase. if not do some sick medieval siege or ancient roman war.
 
I would The Battle of Tours.

733 AD, Charles Martel and his Troops against a bunch of Islamics. It really stopped the movement of Islam into Europe.
 
I would definitely do Stalingrad. More than enough information there for an 8-10 page paper, and it was a major turning point in WWII. Not to mention how long it took and how brutal the winter was that helped to defeat the Nazi's. That's just my .02 though. Good luck.
 
D-Day. There was so much crazy shit that went into establishing the beach heads. Just finished learning about it in history 12, some really miraculous stuff.
 
Also I think the battle of bastogne would be a good one. I believe it was one of the last battles of the brutal cold winters in the european tour of the american forces.
 
It was the last offensive the Germans mounted on the Western Front, they made very good initial success by pushing the allies back 65 miles but eventually could go no further. Enter the Battle of Bastogne...
At this point in the war the Red Army was marauding across the East and troops on both fronts were ordered back to defend Germany.
 
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