Most Decisive Land Battle in History

[Meshfan]

Hm...........

1. Battle of Waterloo

2. Battle of Zama

3. Battle of Yorktown

4. D-Day

5. Battle of Marathon


I took into account the long lasting effects of this battle..........

:p :p

[MichaelWittmann]

I would have to say it is either Waterloo or D-Day, both changed the face of europe and things would be entirly differant if their outcomes were reversed. But I must say that the Battle of Britan was more critical. If Hitler had won that, He would have denied a 2nd front, taken out england with an invasion, and then would have been able to destroy the commies.

[nistrum]

Battle of Cannae

that day the most lives were lost in military history.. if hanibal had pressed on rome after that victory you could have kissed anything we call history goodbye... beat that :D

[Martocticvs]

hehe how can anyone forget about Cannae? That was possibly the most tactically perfect battle in history. And possibly the bloodiest too. If Hannibal had indeed gone straight on to Rome, well, there was barely anything left there to defend the city with. Rome was his for the taking, and he didn't take it. Odd really.

[nistrum]

i think he was using some kind of twisted logic.. rome stopped short of totally decimating the carthginians, i suppose he just thaught he would do them the same favour.. im not quite sure.

[Meshfan]

Hm....... in my opinion, the two most tactically perfect battles were:

1. Austerlitz

2. Cannae <---------Hannibal pwned. Trapped the Romans inside his own troops and massacred the Romans.

[bigz]

Marathon was not exactly decisive. The importance of the battle showed the Persians where not inviciable and gave confidence to both the Greeks and subdued peoples to revolt against their overlord.

D-Day was decisive but even without it,Russia and Germany would have fought until one or the other was defeated. Regardless of Stalins bullying tactics for a 2nd front. The battle for Berlin finally sealed the future of modern politics for the next 45 years.

Yorktown also decisive but regardless who won, indepence would have happened anyway(although slavery would have been abolished a generation earlier and the colonials would be still supping tea. United States of Canada HMMMM?)

So its between Waterloo and Zama. It has to be Zama just because it happened earlier and allowed the Roman empire to bloom. Without which we wouldn't have £'s(The first Euro) or lb's although Napoleons kg's are starting to take over.(thank God the 10 day week didn't take off)

[Meshfan]

I looked at the longterm effects caused by the outcome of the battle. Certainly Zama saved the Roman Empire from invasion and being conquered. Waterloo brought down the great Napoleon which ended his dreams of a unified Europe under one ruler. Yorktown had the most profound effects; it resulted in the birth of a new country. D-Day was a pivotal step in sea-based invasions.

[nistrum]

trhe other thing about D-Day was the joint ops thing. i dont know for sure but wasnt that the biggest (and pretty much only) joint ops style battle up to date? i mean in terms of army airforce navy involvement. not to mention the use of armoured airbourne and infantry units deployed in a single initiative. i could be talking rubbish of course.

[Gotardo]

I have quite some on my mind, but the one that's out now is Stalingrad, turning point on the East Front of WWII, the germans got pwned, and the war was a là inverse, the germans retreating more or less steadly gruought the rest of the war. Broke the "invencibility" myth of the Wermach.
Kursk, the biggest tank battle in history, and so on. :)