The Greatest Battles of All Time

1 Marathon, 490 BC

Where

Plain of Marathon, Attica, Greece

War

Greco-Persian Wars (Darius I's expedition)

Sides

Athens and Plataea vs the Persian Empire

Strength

About 10,000 Greeks (Nepos) vs 100,000 Persian foot in Nepos, about 25,000 in a modern estimate

Result

Athenian victory; the Persians sailed away

In the late summer of 490 BC a Persian expedition sent by Darius I, fresh from taking Eretria on Euboea, landed at Marathon, northeast of Athens. It brought Hippias, the exiled tyrant of Athens, whom the Persians meant to set up at the head of a pro-Persian regime. Herodotus says the fleet sailed with 600 triremes. Athens sent about 10,000 hoplites and Plataea joined them; Nepos counts 1,000 Plataeans and 10,000 men in all, and Sparta would not march before the full moon. Nepos gives the Persians 100,000 foot and 10,000 horse, while the historian Jona Lendering reckons about 25,000, so their strength is disputed.²

Led by Miltiades, the Athenians crossed the plain at a run, the first Greeks known to charge that way, Herodotus says. Their wings broke the Persian flanks and then turned in on the center, and the invaders fled to their ships. Herodotus counts 6,400 Persian dead against 192 Athenians; Lendering points out that 6,400 is exactly 192 times 100 divided by 3, a sign of invention, though the losses were heavy.³

Myth vs fact: the runner who brought the news to Athens and dropped dead is not in Herodotus; the story appears centuries later in Plutarch. It still gave the first modern Olympics, in 1896, a race from Marathon to Athens, and the word went round the world.⁴

Why it is here: Full marks for recognition and memory, since every marathon run anywhere carries its name, take it to 45 and one of the four ancient places. It ended one Persian expedition, not the war: Xerxes came back ten years later, so decisiveness and consequence score 4.⁵

Read the full story of the Battle of Marathon ›

2 Salamis, 480 BC

Where

The strait between the island of Salamis and Attica, Greece

War

Greco-Persian Wars (Xerxes' invasion)

Fleets

Allied Greek fleet (Eurybiades of Sparta, Themistocles of Athens) vs the Persian fleet of Xerxes

Strength

310 to 380 Greek triremes (Aeschylus, Herodotus) vs perhaps 500 Persian in a modern estimate; 1,207 in Herodotus and Aeschylus (disputed)

Result

Greek victory; Xerxes recalled his army

Ten years after Marathon, Xerxes invaded Greece himself. After Thermopylae and Artemisium he took Athens in the last days of September 480 BC, while the allied Greek fleet lay off the island of Salamis, opposite the city. With the Greeks beside the Athenian harbor, the supply ships could not follow the Persian army to the Isthmus of Corinth. Herodotus counts 378 Greek ships and Aeschylus 310; both give Xerxes 1,207 ships in all, while a modern estimate puts the Persians at Salamis at about 500, with no consensus.⁶

Themistocles of Athens may have lured the enemy in with a false message that the Greeks were about to slip away; Herodotus tells it, and it may or may not be true. In the narrows the Persian numbers counted for little, and by nightfall at least a third of their ships had been beaten. Diodorus, writing four centuries later, puts the losses at 40 Greek ships and more than 200 Persian. Xerxes recalled his army from the Isthmus, and the next summer the army he had left in Greece lost the land war at Plataea.⁷

For World History Encyclopedia's Mark Cartwright the victory won the Greeks a freedom that allowed “a never-before-seen period of artistic and cultural endeavour”: the Athens of the following century.⁸

Why it is here: Full marks for decisiveness and consequence, because it turned Xerxes' invasion back to Asia and saved Greek independence, give it 44 and one of the four ancient places. Against the whole of world history its name is a little less known than Marathon's and less alive in popular culture, so recognition and memory score 4.

Read the full story of the Battle of Salamis ›

3 Gaugamela, 331 BC

Where

Plain of Gaugamela, near Arbela (Erbil), northern Iraq

War

Alexander the Great's war against the Persian Empire

Sides

Macedonians and Greeks under Alexander vs the Persian Empire under Darius III

Strength

Alexander about 47,000 (Arrian); the Persian total is unknown, ancient figures run from about 245,000 to over 1,000,000

Result

Decisive Macedonian victory; Darius fled

Eleven days before the battle, on 20 September 331 BC, Darius III's soldiers watched the moon turn blood red and go dark, and in Babylonian omen lore such an eclipse foretold the end of a dominion. On 1 October the king, already beaten at Issus, met Alexander on a wide plain in northern Iraq. Arrian gives Alexander 7,000 cavalry and about 40,000 infantry, and Darius 40,000 cavalry, 1,000,000 infantry and 200 scythed chariots. The million is impossible. Other ancient writers give totals from about 245,000 to more than a million; no reliable modern figure exists, and Britannica calls some of the ancient totals fantastic.⁹

The Persian line stretched to follow Alexander as he edged to the right, a gap opened, and he drove his Companion cavalry into it straight at Darius, who fled as he had at Issus. A Babylonian diary written at the time tells it differently: “the troops abandoned their king” and went home. Arrian's 300,000 Persian dead against about 100 Macedonians is as unbelievable as his million.¹⁰

The result is not in doubt. Alexander marched on to Babylon and Susa, then burned the palace at Persepolis. Darius was seized by Bessus and two other nobles; as Alexander closed in, Nabarzanes and Barsaentes wounded him, and he died before Alexander could see him. The eclipse had been read right: Darius was gone, and the Babylonian diarist was already calling Alexander “king of the world.”¹¹

Why it is here: It has the highest score of the ancient world, 46, with full marks for recognition, decisiveness and consequence: few single battles have ended a great empire so completely. Only the inflated Persian numbers of the ancient writers hold it back, so certainty scores 3.

Read the full story of the Battle of Gaugamela ›

4 Alesia, 52 BC

Where

Alesia, on Mont Auxois near Alise-Sainte-Reine, Burgundy, France

War

Gallic Wars

Besiegers

Julius Caesar's ten legions with auxiliaries, about 60,000 men by Britannica's estimate

Defenders

Vercingetorix with 80,000 men by Caesar's count, plus a relief army he put at 250,000 foot and 8,000 horse

Outcome

Relief army beaten; Vercingetorix surrendered and Gaul was conquered

In 52 BC most of Gaul rose against Rome under Vercingetorix of the Arverni. He shut himself into Alesia, a hilltop town in Burgundy, with an army Caesar puts at 80,000 chosen men and grain for about 30 days. Caesar did not storm the hill. His army, about 60,000 men by Britannica's estimate, dug an 11-mile ring of works around it, then a second ring 14 miles long facing outward, against the Gallic relief army they knew was coming.¹²

Hunger came first. Vercingetorix sent the women and children out of the town, the Romans would not let them through, and they starved between the lines. When the food was gone, the chieftain Critognatus urged the garrison to eat those too old to fight rather than surrender. Then the relief army arrived, by Caesar's count about 250,000 infantry and 8,000 cavalry. The Gauls attacked from inside and outside at once until Caesar broke their last assault with his reserves and German cavalry, and the next day Vercingetorix surrendered. He was kept a prisoner in Rome for six years, led in Caesar's triumph and executed in 46 BC. Caesar's Gallic numbers are almost certainly inflated, but his ditches are real: excavations ordered by Napoleon III in 1861 and 1862 found them around the hill.¹³

Why it is here: A siege counts here when it decided a war, and Alesia ended Gallic independence and made Caesar's name, with Caesar's own inflated numbers holding certainty to 3. On 43 it ties Actium, Teutoburg Forest and Red Cliffs, and on recognition too; it leads Red Cliffs on consequence and takes the last ancient place as the oldest of the rest.

Read the full story of the siege of Alesia ›

5 Hastings, 1066

Where

On the ridge at Battle, East Sussex, 7 to 8 miles from Hastings, England

War

Norman conquest of England

Sides

William, Duke of Normandy, vs King Harold II of England

Strength

About 5,000 to 7,000 men a side (modern estimates cited by English Heritage); 5,000 to 8,000 Normans (World History Encyclopedia); no one counted

Result

Norman victory; Harold killed, William crowned on Christmas Day 1066

Harold, Earl of Wessex, was crowned king of England on 6 January 1066, after the death of the childless Edward the Confessor, and two rivals came for the crown. Harold destroyed Harald Hardrada of Norway at Stamford Bridge on 25 September; a few days later William of Normandy landed at Pevensey, and Harold rode south to meet him on a ridge 7 to 8 miles from Hastings. English Heritage cites modern estimates of 5,000 to 7,000 men a side, and World History Encyclopedia puts William's army at 5,000 to 8,000.¹⁴

On 14 October the English fought on foot behind their shield wall while Norman archers and perhaps 2,000 to 3,000 mounted knights came up the slope again and again. The battle lasted all day until Harold fell and the English line broke. Myth vs fact: the arrow in Harold's eye on the Bayeux Tapestry was added during 19th century repairs, and the accounts closest to the battle say Norman knights hacked him down.¹⁵

This one battle ended five centuries of Anglo-Saxon rule. William was crowned in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, and when the Domesday survey was made in 1086, Norman inspectors who spoke French and Latin questioned a people who spoke English. The tapestry that tells the story, 70 meters of embroidery, is on show at the British Museum until July 2027.¹⁶

Why it is here: With 49 it shares the highest medieval score with Constantinople: full marks for recognition, decisiveness, consequence and memory, since one afternoon killed a king and changed who ruled England for good. It drops a single point, for certainty, because the size of the armies is a guess.

Read the full story of the Battle of Hastings ›

6 Hattin, 1187

Where

The Horns of Hattin, west of the Sea of Galilee, in present-day Israel

War

Saladin's war against the Crusader states

Sides

Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, vs King Guy of Lusignan of Jerusalem

Strength

About 30,000 Ayyubids vs perhaps 20,000 Crusaders, some 1,200 of them heavy horse (Britannica); Solecki gives well over 30,000 vs 15,000 to 20,000

Result

Ayyubid victory; the Crusader field army destroyed, King Guy captured

In the summer of 1187 Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, invaded the Kingdom of Jerusalem and besieged Tiberias. King Guy of Lusignan called out almost every fighting man in the kingdom and gathered the army at the springs of Saffuriya. Britannica puts it at perhaps 20,000 men with some 1,200 heavy horsemen and Saladin's army at about 30,000; the historian Piotr Solecki gives the Franks 15,000 to 20,000 and the sultan well over 30,000, and Ibn al-Athir counted 12,000 regular horsemen. All of it is estimated.¹⁷

On 3 July the Franks left the springs of Saffuriya, and as soon as they had left the water behind, Saladin's skirmishers harried them in the heat, the Frankish chronicler Ernoul writes. Next morning the smoke of the burning scrub blew into the Franks' faces, and the parched army was driven onto the twin hill called the Horns of Hattin. Guy was taken, and the relic of the True Cross was captured. Ibn al-Athir wrote that since their first assault on Palestine the Franks had never suffered such a defeat.¹⁸

With its army gone the kingdom fell apart: Acre opened its gates within days, most of the kingdom's strongholds followed, and Jerusalem surrendered on 2 October 1187. The West answered with the Third Crusade, which won back Acre but never Jerusalem.¹⁹

Why it is here: Full marks for decisiveness and consequence: one battle cost the crusaders their army and, within three months, Jerusalem. It is better known to readers of crusade history than to the wider world, so recognition and memory score 4, and on 44 it takes the fourth medieval place, two points ahead of Manzikert.

Read the full story of the Battle of Hattin ›

7 Agincourt, 1415

Where

Near Azincourt, northern France, about 75 km (45 miles) south of Calais

War

Hundred Years' War

Sides

Henry V of England vs the French army under the Constable, Charles d'Albret

Strength

About 6,000 to 8,500 English vs 12,000 to 30,000 French (Britannica, Anne Curry; disputed)

Result

English victory; about 6,000 to 7,000 French dead, a few hundred English (about 400 by Britannica's estimate)

Henry V invaded Normandy in August 1415 to press his claim to the French crown. The siege of Harfleur took more than five weeks, and disease, death and desertion thinned his army; he was marching for English-held Calais when a French army barred his road near Azincourt on 24 October.²⁰

On St Crispin's Day, 25 October, the French came on through rain-soaked plowland between two woods, into the arrows of archers sheltered behind sharpened stakes. As the field narrowed they were packed so tightly that many could barely lift their weapons, and the dead lay heaped in front of the English line. Britannica estimates the French dead at about 6,000 and the Pas-de-Calais tourist board at 7,000, many of them nobles, against about 400 English by Britannica's estimate; the Dukes of Alençon and Brabant were killed, and the Dukes of Orléans and Bourbon were taken to England as prisoners. Myth vs fact: the French did not have the vast superiority of legend; Anne Curry of the University of Southampton, working from muster rolls and pay records, puts the English at about 8,500 and the French at around 12,000, against the common estimate, in Britannica, of about 6,000 English and 20,000 to 30,000 French.²¹

The victory opened the way to Henry's conquest of Normandy, and by the Treaty of Troyes of 1420 he was recognized as regent and heir of France. Shakespeare's Henry V of 1599 gave the world its Saint Crispin's Day speech and its “band of brothers,” and Curry argues that his version is the one most people still carry in their heads.²²

Why it is here: Full marks for recognition, memory and certainty take it to 46: Shakespeare made it the most quoted battle in English, and its muster rolls and eyewitnesses make it one of the best documented. Henry died in 1422 and by 1453 England had lost everything in France but Calais, so decisiveness and consequence score 4.²³

Read the full story of the Battle of Agincourt ›

8 Constantinople, 1453

Where

Constantinople (today Istanbul), capital of the Byzantine Empire

War

Ottoman conquest of the Byzantine Empire

Besiegers

Sultan Mehmed II: 60,000 to 80,000 by modern estimates, 150,000 to 200,000 in older accounts

Defenders

Emperor Constantine XI: about 7,000 soldiers, 2,000 of them foreigners, plus 700 Genoese

Outcome

Stormed on 29 May 1453 after a siege begun on 6 April; the Byzantine Empire ended

Constantinople had been the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire for well over 1,000 years, but by 1453 the empire held little more than the city and the Morea in Greece. On 6 April the 21-year-old Sultan Mehmed II opened the attack with an army that modern historians put at 60,000 to 80,000; the eyewitness Sphrantzes claimed 200,000, the Foundation of the Hellenic World about 150,000. Constantine XI had some 7,000 soldiers, 2,000 of them foreigners, plus 700 Genoese under Giovanni Giustiniani. All these numbers are disputed.²⁴

Mehmed’s answer to the old walls was cannon: the largest was 9 meters long and fired a 500-kilogram ball. To get past the boom across the harbor, 70 of his ships were hauled overland on a railed road into the Golden Horn. After some seven weeks the walls were cracking, and at dawn on 29 May he attacked from three sides. The last emperor died fighting and the city was looted for three days; as one Byzantine put it, everything was decided by the cannon.²⁵

Mehmed made the city his capital, and Hagia Sophia became a mosque. The historian Mark Cartwright calls the fall the end of the old Roman Empire and the last surviving link between the medieval and ancient worlds. Turkey still marks 29 May as the anniversary of the conquest.²⁶

Why it is here: Full marks for recognition, decisiveness, consequence and memory give it 49 points, level with Hastings for the best medieval score and well clear of Manzikert, the best that missed; it counts because the siege decided the fate of a state. Certainty drops a point, since both armies’ sizes rest on partisan chroniclers.

Read the full story of the fall of Constantinople ›

9 Mohács, 1526

Where

Plain of Mohács by the Danube, southern Hungary

War

Ottoman-Hungarian wars

Sides

Ottoman Empire (Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent) against the Kingdom of Hungary (King Louis II)

Strength

60,000 to 100,000 Ottomans vs about 25,000 Hungarians (disputed)

Result

Ottoman victory on 29 August 1526; Louis II drowned; 14,000 to 24,000 Hungarian losses

In the summer of 1526 Suleiman the Magnificent led the Ottoman army up the Danube into Hungary, the kingdom that guarded Central Europe from the south. The Hungarian defense ministry’s account puts his regular troops at no more than 60,000; other estimates run to about 100,000. King Louis II met him on the plain of Mohács on 29 August with some 25,000 men, by the count of the eyewitness chancellor Brodarics. The figures are disputed.²⁷

The Hungarian heavy cavalry charged the Ottoman center and broke into it, but artillery and the Janissaries stopped it, and the Ottoman wings closed round the army. By evening 10,000 infantry and 4,000 horsemen had fallen, with seven prelates and 28 barons; another count gives 24,000 casualties. Louis drowned in a marsh as he fled, and on 11 September the sultan reached Buda and had it burned.²⁸

The real catastrophe, in the defense ministry’s account, was the death of the king. His crowns passed to the Habsburg Ferdinand I, and Mohács began the Habsburgs’ Turkish wars, which reached their climax in the two Ottoman sieges of Vienna and ran on into the eighteenth century. Hungary itself was split into Royal Hungary, Ottoman Hungary and Transylvania, a division that lasted until the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. Hungarians still shrug off a lesser misfortune with “more was lost at Mohács”.²⁹

Why it is here: Full marks for decisiveness, consequence and memory give it 46 points, level with Sekigahara and one point above the Spanish Armada, the best early modern battle that missed. It loses a point on recognition, being less known outside Central Europe, and one on certainty for the disputed army sizes.

Read the full story of the Battle of Mohács ›

10 Sekigahara, 1600

Where

Sekigahara, Mino Province (today Gifu Prefecture), Japan

War

War for the succession to Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Sides

Eastern Army (Tokugawa Ieyasu) against the Western Army (Ishida Mitsunari and the Toyotomi loyalists)

Strength

About 80,000 a side by the National Park Service’s account, over 150,000 in all (traditional figures)

Result

Eastern Army victory on 21 October 1600; about 30,000 dead by the National Park Service’s count

After Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had united Japan, died in 1598, the council ruling for his heir split between Tokugawa Ieyasu and Ishida Mitsunari, drawing in almost every daimyo. In October 1600 the two armies met where the main roads of Japan cross at Sekigahara, about 80,000 men each by the National Park Service’s account, over 150,000 in all.³⁰

The battle began in fog at about 7:30 a.m. on 21 October. Some 28,000 Mōri troops on Mount Nangu never moved, and Kobayakawa Hideaki, with about 15,600 men on Mount Matsuo, had secretly agreed to change sides. When he turned on his allies the Western Army collapsed, and by early afternoon about 30,000 men lay dead, by the Park Service’s count. Myth vs fact: Stephen Turnbull reports the historian Shiramine Jun’s finding that the earliest accounts have Kobayakawa change sides as the battle began, which makes the story of Ieyasu’s gunners firing on his hill to force his hand a myth.³¹

Ieyasu became the master of Japan and three years later was named shogun, which is why the Japanese call it the battle that divided the realm. It ended the century of civil war and began the Edo period, some 260 years of peace and isolation; the Tokugawa shogunate lasted until the Meiji Restoration of 1868.³²

Why it is here: Full marks for decisiveness, consequence and memory give it 46 points, level with Mohács and one point above the Spanish Armada, the best early modern battle that missed. Recognition scores 4, as the name is less known outside Japan, and certainty 4, because the army sizes are traditional figures.

Read the full story of the Battle of Sekigahara ›

11 Vienna, 1683

Where

Vienna and the Kahlenberg heights, Austria

War

Great Turkish War

Sides

Ottoman Empire (Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa) against the Habsburg garrison and a relief army of imperial, German and Polish troops (King John III Sobieski)

Strength

About 100,000 to 120,000 Ottomans vs 16,000 defenders and a relief army of 65,000 to 69,000

Result

Ottoman defeat; siege broken on 12 September 1683; 10,000 to 15,000 Ottoman losses

In July 1683 Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa closed round Vienna, the Habsburg capital, with about 120,000 men by the City of Vienna’s count, 100,000 by the Wilanów Palace museum’s. Count Starhemberg held the walls with 11,000 soldiers and 5,000 citizen militia and volunteers. He held out for two months, and the only hope was a relief army being gathered by the emperor’s ally, King John III Sobieski of Poland.³³

By early September some 65,000 imperial, German and Polish troops were massed at Tulln, 69,000 by the Wilanów count, and on 12 September they came down from the Kahlenberg. Late in the afternoon after a trial charge by Polish hussar companies, about 20,000 horsemen charged, and the Ottoman army broke and fled, losing about 10,000 dead by the dzieje.pl count, almost 15,000 by the Wilanów museum’s. Sobieski wrote to the Pope: “Venimus, vidimus, Deus vicit”, we came, we saw, God conquered.³⁴

The battle turned the Ottoman advance into a retreat. Kara Mustafa was strangled on the sultan’s orders, Pope Innocent XI drew Austria, Poland and Venice into a Holy League, Buda fell in 1686, and at Karlowitz in 1699 the sultan recognized Austria’s possession of Hungary and Transylvania; Austria emerged as the major power of Central Europe.³⁵

Why it is here: Full marks for recognition, consequence, memory and certainty give it 48 points, level with Yorktown for the highest early modern score. It drops a point only on decisiveness, because it decided a campaign, not the war, which ran on until 1699.

Read the full story of the siege and battle of Vienna ›

12 Yorktown, 1781

Where

Yorktown and Gloucester Point, Virginia

War

American Revolutionary War

Besiegers

About 16,000 to 19,900 American and French troops under Washington and Rochambeau; de Grasse’s French fleet offshore

Defenders

About 7,500 to 9,000 British, German and Loyalist troops under Cornwallis

Outcome

Surrendered 19 October 1781; 7,416 British missing and captured

Yorktown is where a colonial revolt became a world war’s turning point. France had signed an alliance with the United States in 1778, and Britain was fighting France and Spain far beyond America. In the summer of 1781 Cornwallis fortified Yorktown as a base the Royal Navy could supply, but on 5 September a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse beat the British off the Chesapeake while Washington and Rochambeau marched south. By late September the allies numbered about 16,000 by our sum of the park historian Charles Hatch’s figures, or 19,900 by the American Battlefield Trust’s count; Cornwallis had about 7,500 by Hatch’s count, 9,000 by the Trust’s.³⁶

The allies closed round the town on 28 September, dug siege lines on 6 and 11 October and stormed Redoubts 9 and 10 on the night of 14 October. On 19 October the garrison marched out to Surrender Field and laid down its arms, a third of all British forces in North America, the National Park Service notes. When the news reached London, the Trust records, Lord North cried “It is all over”; in March 1782 Parliament voted to make peace, and the Treaty of Paris of 1783 secured American independence. Myth vs fact: the British band playing “The World Turned Upside Down” at the surrender is, says the Trust, apocryphal.³⁷

Why it is here: Full marks for recognition, decisiveness, consequence and certainty give it 48 points, level with Vienna for the highest early modern score; it is counted because this siege decided a war. Memory scores 4, as its anniversary is kept mostly as a local one.

Read the full story of the siege of Yorktown ›

13 Trafalgar, 1805

Where

Off Cape Trafalgar, south-west Spain

War

Napoleonic Wars

Fleets

British fleet (Nelson) vs combined French and Spanish fleet (Villeneuve)

Strength

27 vs 33 ships of the line; about 18,000 vs nearly 30,000 men

Result

British victory, 21 October 1805; 17 enemy ships captured and one burned; Nelson killed

In 1805 Napoleon was weighing an invasion of Britain, and for that he needed control of the Channel. When the plan failed he turned on Austria and ordered Vice-Admiral Villeneuve to take the combined French and Spanish fleet out of Cadiz into the Mediterranean; 33 ships of the line sailed on 19 October. Nelson was waiting with 27. The enemy had nearly 30,000 men and 2,632 guns to his 18,000 men and 2,148 guns.³⁸

On 21 October, off Cape Trafalgar, the British came on in Nelson’s two columns, straight at the enemy line and so slowly in the light wind that the leading ships took the enemy’s fire almost alone. At 11.45 a.m. Victory flew the signal “England expects that every man will do his duty”. By 5.30 p.m. 17 enemy ships had been captured and another was a blazing wreck. The British lost 449 killed; Royal Museums Greenwich puts the French and Spanish dead at 4,408, and the Fondation Napoléon’s figures come to about 4,550 by our sum. Nelson himself was shot on Victory’s deck at 1.15 p.m. and died at 4.30.³⁹

Trafalgar ended Napoleon’s hopes of invading Britain and began a century of British naval supremacy, though the war on land went on for another ten years, until Waterloo. The National Museum of the Royal Navy still marks 21 October as Trafalgar Day.⁴⁰

Why it is here: Full marks for recognition, decisiveness, memory and certainty give it 48 points, level with Austerlitz and behind only Waterloo in its era, and well clear of Borodino, the best Napoleonic battle that missed. Consequence scores 4, because it did not end the war with Napoleon.

Read the full story of Trafalgar ›

14 Austerlitz, 1805

Where

Near Austerlitz (Slavkov u Brna), Moravia, Czech Republic

War

Napoleonic Wars, War of the Third Coalition

Sides

France vs Russia and Austria

Strength

About 73,000 French vs about 85,000 to 90,000 Russians and Austrians

Result

French victory, 2 December 1805; Allies lost about 27,000 including 12,000 prisoners, French about 8,000 to 9,000

Six weeks after Trafalgar, Napoleon won on land what he had lost at sea. He had taken Vienna, but he was deep in enemy country, and at Olmütz a Russian and Austrian army had grown to some 90,000 under the eyes of their emperors. J. Rickard puts the Allies on the day at about 85,000 against some 73,000 French. Napoleon asked for an armistice and gave up the Pratzen Heights, and the Allies took both as signs of weakness.⁴¹

On 2 December, in the Battle of the Three Emperors, they sent their main weight against the French right. As the “sun of Austerlitz” burned off the morning mist, two of Soult’s divisions climbed onto the abandoned heights and cut the Allied army in two. By mid-afternoon the Allies were driven from the field, with about 27,000 lost, 12,000 of them prisoners; the French lost around 9,000 by Rickard’s count. Myth vs fact: Napoleon’s 30th Bulletin claimed some 20,000 drowned in the frozen ponds, but when the ponds were drained only two bodies were found, Rickard writes.⁴²

The Treaty of Pressburg on 26 December took Austria out of the war, and in 1806 Napoleon’s new Confederation of the Rhine led to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. A peace monument now crowns the Pratzen plateau.⁴³

Why it is here: Full marks for recognition, decisiveness, consequence and certainty give it 48 points, level with Trafalgar and behind only Waterloo in its era. Memory scores 4: no national day keeps it, though a peace monument stands on the battlefield.

Read the full story of the Battle of Austerlitz ›

15 Leipzig, 1813

Where

Around Leipzig, Saxony, Germany

War

Napoleonic Wars, War of the Sixth Coalition

Sides

Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden vs Napoleon's France and its allies

Strength

320,000 to over 325,000 coalition soldiers vs 180,000 to nearly 200,000 under Napoleon; over half a million in all

Result

Coalition victory, 16 to 19 October 1813; about 93,000 (HISTORY, our sum) to over 100,000 (WHE) casualties

Napoleon lost nearly half a million men in Russia in 1812 and by March 1813 had raised a new army, mainly through forced conscription. By the autumn Austria and Sweden had joined Russia and Prussia, and the coalition now outnumbered him heavily. In October their armies converged on Leipzig from several directions.⁴⁴

The fighting ran from 16 to 19 October. HISTORY puts the coalition at more than 320,000 men against about 180,000 French and allied troops; the World History Encyclopedia gives over 325,000 against nearly 200,000. By the 18th the coalition had closed a ring around the city and Napoleon ordered a retreat. Then a bridge over the Elster was blown too early, trapping thousands of his men in Leipzig; HISTORY counts about 30,000 captured, and Marshal Józef Poniatowski drowned trying to swim the river. The losses are disputed: HISTORY gives about 38,000 French and 55,000 coalition casualties, the Habsburg history site 90,000 dead. It was the largest battle fought in Europe before World War I, and within weeks the Confederation of the Rhine had dissolved and French power east of the Rhine was gone. A 91-meter monument, unveiled on the centenary in 1913, still stands over the field.⁴⁵

Why it is here: It took the fourth Napoleonic place, one point above Borodino, because it decided the war in Germany and redrew the map of central Europe, full marks for decisiveness and consequence; it is less known worldwide than Waterloo, so recognition 4, and its strengths and losses vary between sources, so certainty 4.

Read the full story of the Battle of Leipzig ›

16 Waterloo, 1815

Where

Ridge of Mont-Saint-Jean, south of Brussels, Belgium

War

Napoleonic Wars, the Hundred Days

Sides

Wellington's Anglo-allied army and Blücher's Prussians vs Napoleon's French army

Strength

68,000 Anglo-allied troops and 48,000 Prussians vs 72,000 French; about 188,000 in all (our sum)

Result

Allied victory, 18 June 1815; nearly 40,000 French killed, wounded or captured and 22,000 Allied casualties (National Army Museum); Napoleon abdicated

In March 1815 Napoleon escaped from exile and took back power in France. Rather than wait for the armies of Europe to gather, he struck first, crossing into Belgium in June to beat the British and Prussian armies there before they could join. He mauled the Prussians at Ligny, but their army of 48,000 regrouped and marched to help Wellington, who drew up on the ridge of Mont-Saint-Jean south of Brussels.⁴⁶

On 18 June Napoleon had 72,000 men and 246 guns against Wellington's 68,000 men and 156 guns. All day the French attacked: first the château of Hougoumont, then the center with infantry columns and massed cavalry that broke against squares of British and allied infantry, while the Prussians fought their way into the village of Plancenoit behind the French right. At about 7 pm Napoleon sent in his last reserve, the Imperial Guard. It was thrown back by British guardsmen and light infantry, and the whole French army dissolved into flight. The National Army Museum puts French losses at nearly 40,000 and Allied losses at 22,000. Napoleon was forced to abdicate and spent the rest of his life in exile on St Helena. More than two centuries on, the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards still keep 18 June as Waterloo Day, for the charge of the Scots Greys.⁴⁷

Why it is here: It is the one battle of the Napoleonic age, and one of very few on this list, with full marks on all five criteria: it ended Napoleon's rule for good, everyone knows its name, it is still commemorated, and no battle of the era is better documented.

Read the full story of the Battle of Waterloo ›

17 Vicksburg, 1863

Where

Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the Mississippi River

War

American Civil War

Besiegers

Ulysses S. Grant's Union army with David D. Porter's gunboats; 77,000 Union troops engaged

Defenders

John C. Pemberton's Confederates, 33,000 engaged, with over 170 cannon

Outcome

Surrendered 4 July 1863 after a 47-day siege; Pemberton's army of some 29,000 men paroled

Whoever held the Mississippi held the heart of North America, and in 1863 the Confederate guns on the bluffs at Vicksburg still closed it to the Union. Lincoln called the city the key: the war, he said, could never be brought to a close until that key was in the Union's pocket. Its defenders had had more than a year to ring it with earthworks and over 170 cannon.⁴⁸

Ulysses S. Grant spent months failing to reach it from the north. Then, on the night of 16 April 1863, Rear Admiral David D. Porter ran his gunboats and transports south past the batteries, and on 30 April they ferried Grant's infantry across the river at Bruinsburg, below the city. Grant struck inland, took Jackson and cut Vicksburg off from the east. Two assaults in May failed, so he laid siege; HISTORY counts 15 miles of Union trenches closing around Pemberton's force of 29,000. After 47 days, on 4 July 1863, Pemberton surrendered and Grant paroled his army. With Port Hudson falling five days later, the Union controlled the entire Mississippi and the Confederacy was split in half. The surrender came the day after the last fighting at Gettysburg, and the two victories together turned the war in the Union's favor that summer.⁴⁹

Why it is here: It is counted here as a siege that decided a campaign: it gave the Union the Mississippi and split the Confederacy, full marks for consequence and certainty, but it won a region rather than the war, so decisiveness 4, with recognition and memory 4. It ties Adwa on 43 and goes above it on recognition.

Read the full story of the siege of Vicksburg ›

18 Gettysburg, 1863

Where

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

War

American Civil War

Sides

Army of the Potomac (Meade) vs Army of Northern Virginia (Lee)

Strength

93,921 Union vs 71,699 Confederate

Result

Union victory, 1 to 3 July 1863; 51,112 killed, wounded, captured or missing (estimate)

Fresh from his victory at Chancellorsville, Robert E. Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia north in June 1863, his second invasion of Union territory, his men hoping to feed themselves from the farms of Pennsylvania. On 1 July his men ran into John Buford's Union cavalry at the crossroads town of Gettysburg, and the largest battle of the Civil War began.⁵⁰

For three days the armies fought over the ridges and hills south of the town. On 3 July some 150 Confederate cannon opened a bombardment near 1 pm, and then about 12,000 men advanced across open fields against the Union center in Pickett's Charge. Close-range rifle and artillery fire threw them back; the National Park Service says the attack cost Lee over 5,000 men in an hour. The American Battlefield Trust estimates 51,112 casualties, the bloodiest single battle of the war, and on 4 July Lee began his retreat to Virginia. The Confederacy still fought on until his surrender at Appomattox in April 1865. On 19 November 1863 Abraham Lincoln followed the orator Edward Everett at the dedication of the soldiers' cemetery and gave the Gettysburg Address.⁵¹

Why it is here: It has the highest score of the industrial age: the best known battle of its century, with Lincoln's address to keep it alive, so recognition and memory 5. It broke Lee's second invasion, but the war went on for almost two more years, so decisiveness and consequence 4.

Read the full story of the Battle of Gettysburg ›

19 Adwa, 1896

Where

The hills east of Adwa, Tigray, northern Ethiopia

War

First Italo-Ethiopian War

Sides

Ethiopian Empire (Menelik II) vs Kingdom of Italy (Baratieri)

Strength

80,000 to 120,000 Ethiopians vs about 17,000 to 17,700 Italians and Eritrean askari with 56 guns; disputed

Result

Ethiopian victory, 1 March 1896; about 6,000 Italian dead and over 3,000 prisoners; Ethiopia stayed independent

Italy meant Ethiopia to be its share of Africa. It claimed that the Treaty of Wuchale of 1889 made the country its protectorate, a reading that rested on a difference between the treaty's Italian and Amharic texts, which Emperor Menelik II rejected. Menelik had spent years importing modern rifles and artillery, and when Italy invaded he called a general mobilization; HISTORY puts the army he raised at 80,000 to 120,000, EBSCO at about 100,000.⁵²

General Baratieri had about 17,000 Italians and Eritrean askari; HistoryNet gives 17,700 men and 56 guns. In the night before 1 March he sent three columns through the mountains toward Adwa, but they could not coordinate, one was cut off by bad maps, and Menelik engaged each brigade separately and overwhelmed it. By evening the Italians had fled, leaving their artillery, about 6,000 dead and more than 3,000 prisoners; the World History Encyclopedia calls it the worst defeat of a European army in the history of colonialism. Crispi's government fell, and on 26 October 1896, by HistoryNet's account, Italy signed the Treaty of Addis Ababa on Menelik's terms: Wuchale annulled and Ethiopia's independence recognized without conditions. Ethiopia stayed free while nearly all of Africa fell under European rule, and Adwa Victory Day is still a national holiday.⁵³

Why it is here: It took the fourth industrial place, two points above Sedan, because it settled a war and the fate of a state, full marks for decisiveness, consequence and memory; outside Africa and Italy it is far less known, so recognition 3, and its numbers are disputed, certainty 4. It ties Vicksburg on 43 and goes below it on recognition.

Read the full story of the Battle of Adwa ›

20 Tsushima, 1905

Where

Tsushima Strait, between Korea and Japan

War

Russo-Japanese War

Fleets

Japanese Combined Fleet (Togo) vs Russian Second and Third Pacific Squadrons (Rozhestvensky)

Strength

Japanese Combined Fleet vs 38 Russian ships

Result

Japanese victory, 27 to 28 May 1905; 34 of 38 Russian ships sunk, captured or interned; Japan lost 3 torpedo boats and 117 killed

In 1904 Japan went to war with Russia over Manchuria and Korea, and by early 1905 it had destroyed Russia's Pacific fleet at Port Arthur. The tsar sent his Baltic Fleet to restore the balance. Its ships steamed some 18,000 nautical miles around Africa and arrived worn out in May 1905, trying to slip through the Tsushima Strait to Vladivostok.⁵⁴

Admiral Heihachiro Togo was waiting with the Combined Fleet, faster, better gunned and in better order. On 27 May he turned his battle line across the Russians' course, the maneuver later called crossing the T, and pounded their leading ships; that night destroyers and torpedo boats finished the work. Of 38 Russian ships, 34 were sunk, captured or interned in neutral ports, and Togo lost only three torpedo boats. The British naval historian Julian Corbett counted 4,830 Russians killed and 5,907 taken prisoner, against 117 Japanese dead. Fearing revolution at home, the tsar's government sued for peace, signed at Portsmouth in September 1905. Corbett judged that the battle made Japan both a major naval power and the leading nation of the Far East; the lesson of big guns and speed fed straight into the design of HMS Dreadnought. Togo's flagship Mikasa survives as a memorial ship at Yokosuka.⁵⁵

Why it is here: It took an industrial place on the strength of what it decided: a war won in two days and a new great power in Asia, full marks for decisiveness, consequence and certainty. It is less known in the West than Gettysburg and less alive in memory, so recognition and memory 4.

Read the full story of Tsushima ›

21 The Marne, 1914

Where

The Marne valley between Paris and Verdun, France

War

World War I, Western Front

Sides

France and the British Expeditionary Force vs Germany

Strength

About two million men in all, roughly a million on each side

Result

Allied victory, 6 to 10 September 1914; the German armies fell back about 40 miles to the Aisne

Germany went to war in 1914 with a plan to knock France out in about six weeks by swinging through Belgium, and only then to turn on Russia. By early September Alexander von Kluck's First Army was within 30 miles of Paris. Instead of passing west of the city, it turned east after the retreating French, and French airmen saw the move.⁵⁶

Joseph Joffre saw that Kluck's right flank was exposed, and on 6 September the Allies counterattacked. The French Sixth Army struck at Kluck's rear along the Ourcq, a 30-mile gap opened between the German First and Second Armies, and the French Fifth Army and the British pushed into it. About two million men fought, roughly a million on each side. On 9 September the Germans began to withdraw, some 40 miles, to the river Aisne, where both sides dug in; the trench lines of the Western Front began there. Losses are disputed: HistoryNet gives about 263,000 Allied casualties and about as many German, while the historian Holger Herwig counts roughly 67,700 in the five German armies between Verdun and Paris. Myth vs fact: the Paris taxis did not win the battle; the World History Encyclopedia counts 600 cabs carrying some 3,000 reinforcements to the front, a small share of two million men, though the Musée de l'Armée still shows one of the “Marne taxis”.⁵⁷

Why it is here: It has the highest score of World War I: it wrecked the Schlieffen Plan and condemned Germany to a long war on two fronts, full marks for recognition, decisiveness and consequence. It is commemorated less than Verdun or the Somme, memory 4, and its losses are disputed, certainty 4.⁵⁸

Read the full story of the Battle of the Marne ›

22 Gallipoli, 1915 to 1916

Where

Gallipoli peninsula and the Dardanelles, Ottoman Empire (today Turkey)

War

World War I, Dardanelles campaign

Sides

Britain, the British Empire (with Australia and New Zealand) and France vs the Ottoman Empire, with some German officers

Strength

Some 559,000 Allied troops over the campaign (Gallipoli Association; the National Army Museum gives nearly 500,000); Ottoman strength not firmly known

Result

Ottoman victory; naval attack from 19 February 1915, landings from 25 April, evacuation complete 9 January 1916; over 250,000 Allied and 250,000 to over 300,000 Ottoman casualties

The Allies hoped that a fleet that forced the Dardanelles and reached Constantinople might knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war and open a supply route to Russia through the Black Sea. On 18 March 1915 the attempt failed when HMS Irresistible, HMS Ocean and the French Bouvet sank on mines laid by the Ottoman minelayer Nusret; Turkey still marks the day as Canakkale Victory and Martyrs’ Day.⁵⁹

Troops landed at Cape Helles and Anzac Cove on 25 April. Colonel Mustafa Kemal saw that the Anzac landing was no feint and led the counterattack that pinned the invaders below the heights. The last Allied troops left on 9 January 1916. The Gallipoli Association counts, approximately, over 250,000 Allied and more than 300,000 Ottoman casualties; HISTORY gives 250,000 Allied and roughly as many Ottoman. The fleet never got through the Straits, so the supply route to Russia was never opened, and Winston Churchill, who had pressed for the plan, resigned from the Admiralty. Kemal became the first president of the Turkish Republic in 1923, and 25 April became Anzac Day, one of Australia’s most important national days. Myth vs fact: of some 559,000 Allied troops only about 50,000 were Australians and 13,000 New Zealanders.⁶⁰

Why it is here: Full marks for recognition, memory and certainty: a failed landing shaped the memory of two nations and made the name of the founder of modern Turkey. It decided its front rather than the war, so decisiveness and consequence 4; on 46 points, level with Verdun, it holds one of the era’s four places four points clear of the Somme, the best battle of the era left out.

Read the full story of Gallipoli ›

23 Verdun, 1916

Where

The hills north of Verdun, on both banks of the Meuse, France

War

World War I, Western Front

Sides

France vs Germany

Strength

At the start about 150,000 Germans in ten divisions with almost 1,200 guns, vs about 25,000 French infantry on the right bank

Result

French defensive victory, 21 February to 18 December 1916; almost 700,000 to about 740,000 casualties (the upper figure our sum)

Erich von Falkenhayn, Germany’s chief of staff, chose Verdun, a ring of forts on the Meuse, for the great attack of 1916 that was to end the war of positions. At 7.15 on the morning of 21 February almost 1,200 guns opened fire, and ten divisions, some 150,000 men, went in against about 25,000 French infantry on the right bank. Fort Douaumont fell on 25 February.⁶¹

Philippe Pétain fed the battle along the single road from Bar-le-Duc, the Sacred Way, where at the height of the fighting a truck passed every five seconds, and three quarters of the French army fought at Verdun. The last German push died short of Fort Souville in July, and the battle ended on 18 December almost where it had begun. The Mémorial de Verdun counts 163,000 French and 143,000 German dead and almost 700,000 killed and wounded in all; HistoryNet gives about 400,000 Allied, in effect French, and 340,000 German casualties. In the Mémorial’s reading, the failure at Verdun and the losses on the Somme pushed Germany into all-out submarine warfare, which brought the United States into the war. Myth vs fact: Falkenhayn’s claim that he meant to bleed the French army white comes from his postwar memoirs, and historians still argue over his real aim.⁶²

Why it is here: For France it is the battle of World War I, kept alive by Robert Nivelle’s watchword "they shall not pass" and the Douaumont ossuary with the remains of 130,000 soldiers: full marks for recognition, memory and certainty. The front barely moved, so decisiveness 4; on 46 points, level with Gallipoli, it takes one of the era’s four places four points ahead of the Somme.⁶³

Read the full story of Verdun ›

24 Hundred Days Offensive, 1918

Where

The Western Front from Amiens through the Hindenburg Line to Mons, France and Belgium

War

World War I, Western Front

Sides

The British Empire, France and the United States, under Ferdinand Foch’s overall command, vs Germany

Strength

At Amiens on 8 August alone: 13 attacking divisions with over 2,000 guns, 450 tanks and 1,900 aircraft

Result

Allied victory, 8 August to 11 November 1918; Germany signed the armistice; about 1.07 million Allied and 786,000 to 1.17 million German casualties

By summer 1918 Germany’s spring offensives had won ground but exhausted its army, and the initiative passed to the Allies under Ferdinand Foch. At 4.20 on the morning of 8 August the Australian and Canadian Corps led an attack near Amiens by 13 divisions with over 2,000 guns, 450 tanks and 1,900 aircraft. The Australians advanced 11 kilometers and the Canadians nearly 13, and Erich Ludendorff called it "the black day of the German Army". He and the Kaiser now concluded in private that Germany could no longer win the war.⁶⁴

The British broke into the Hindenburg Line on 26 September and crossed the St Quentin Canal on the 29th, while the Americans fought in the Meuse-Argonne. The armistice took effect at 11 o’clock on 11 November. The National WWI Museum puts Allied casualties at close to 1,070,000 and German losses at 1,172,075, many of them prisoners; HistoryNet gives the same Allied figure and 786,000 German. Myth vs fact: the German army was not "undefeated in the field": its own high command saw that it could not go on and had the government seek an armistice. Hindenburg and Ludendorff spread the stab in the back legend afterward, and the far right, above all the DNVP and the Nazi party, turned it against the Weimar Republic.⁶⁵

Why it is here: Full marks for decisiveness, consequence and certainty: this run of offensives won World War I. But it is a campaign with a less familiar name, remembered above all in Canada, so recognition 4 and memory 3; on 43 points it takes the era’s fourth place, one point ahead of the Somme.⁶⁶

Read the full story of the Hundred Days Offensive ›

25 The Battle of Britain, 1940

Where

The skies over southern England and the English Channel

War

World War II

Sides

Britain’s Royal Air Force, with airmen from 16 nations, vs the German Luftwaffe

Strength

Fighter Command: about 768 aircraft in July 1940 and some 1,400 within weeks; Luftwaffe: just over 1,000 single-engine fighters plus its bombers

Result

British victory; the German invasion of Britain postponed indefinitely on 17 September 1940

After France fell in June 1940, Britain stood alone. Germany’s leaders wanted it beaten quickly, to free their backs for the planned war on the Soviet Union, and when Britain refused to make peace Hitler ordered Operation Sea Lion, a landing that first needed command of the air. Britain officially dates the battle from 10 July to 31 October 1940; the Luftwaffe struck at shipping and ports, then at RAF airfields from 13 August and at London from 7 September.⁶⁷

On 15 September, now kept as Battle of Britain Day, the Luftwaffe lost 56 of the 1,700 aircraft it sent, by the German Historical Museum’s count; on 17 September Hitler postponed Sea Lion indefinitely. One Fighter Command airman in five came from overseas, among them 145 Poles, and the Polish No. 303 Squadron became the top scoring unit in the RAF. Myth vs fact: Churchill’s "few" were not as outnumbered as legend has it: the RAF kept some 1,400 fighter pilots against about 1,200 German single-engine pilots. The losses are still argued over: one reference work gives 788 British and 1,294 German aircraft, the German museum 2,265 Luftwaffe aircraft for the whole air war against Britain into 1941. That spring Hitler turned his aircraft east against the Soviet Union, with Britain unbeaten behind him.⁶⁸

Why it is here: It kept Britain in the war, and with it the base for D-Day, so full marks for recognition, consequence and memory; it prevented a campaign rather than ending one, so decisiveness 4, and the loss figures differ widely, so certainty 4. Level with Berlin on 47 points and recognition, it takes the era’s fourth place on consequence.

Read the full story of the Battle of Britain ›

26 Midway, 1942

Where

Around Midway Atoll, central Pacific

War

World War II, Pacific War

Fleets

US Pacific Fleet (Nimitz) vs Japanese Combined Fleet (Yamamoto)

Strength

3 US carriers and the aircraft of the Midway base vs 4 Japanese fleet carriers

Result

US victory; 4 Japanese carriers sunk for 1 US carrier; about 3,057 Japanese and 362 American men lost

Six months after Pearl Harbor, Japan still meant to remove the United States as a Pacific power. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto planned to strike the American outpost at Midway and destroy the US carriers when they came out to save it. But Navy cryptanalysts in Hawaii had been breaking Japanese codes since early 1942. When Midway sent out a false message that it was short of fresh water, the Japanese duly reported that their target "AF" was short of water. Three American carriers were waiting.⁶⁹

Early on 4 June 1942 planes from four Japanese carriers bombed Midway. While they were back aboard to rearm, dive bombers from Enterprise and Yorktown found the fleet and set Akagi, Kaga and Soryu ablaze. Hiryu struck back twice and crippled Yorktown, then was caught herself that afternoon. Japan lost four carriers, hundreds of aircraft and about 3,057 men; the United States lost Yorktown, 144 aircraft and about 362 men. The Navy’s own historians call it the strategic high water mark of Japan’s war: after it the two fleets were equals. In the National WWII Museum’s words, it stopped the growth of Japan in the Pacific and let the United States begin shrinking the Japanese empire. In June 2025 the US Navy Memorial in Washington laid a wreath for the 83rd anniversary.⁷⁰

Why it is here: Full marks for recognition, decisiveness, consequence and certainty: four fleet carriers knocked out in one day turned the Pacific War. Memory is 4, a living anniversary in the United States and much fainter elsewhere; on 48 points it stays one point clear of Berlin, the best battle of the era left out.

Read the full story of the battle of Midway ›

27 Stalingrad, 1942 to 1943

Where

Stalingrad (today Volgograd), on the Volga, Soviet Union

War

World War II, Eastern Front

Sides

Germany and its Axis allies vs the Soviet Union

Strength

Just under 300,000 Axis troops against the city vs the Soviet 62nd Army, about 54,000 men at first and constantly reinforced

Result

Soviet victory; the German 6th Army surrendered 31 January to 2 February 1943, about 91,000 taken prisoner

In summer 1942 Hitler’s armies drove toward the Volga and the oil of the Caucasus. The German 6th Army under Friedrich Paulus, about 270,000 men with 500 tanks by the count of dzieje.pl (the Russian historians Krinko and Medvedev give about 430,000), reached the approaches to Stalingrad on 17 July. By mid-November, after weeks of fighting from house to house, it held about 90 percent of the city. The Soviet 62nd Army under Vasily Chuikov, about 54,000 men at the start, clung to a strip of riverbank, constantly reinforced from across the Volga.⁷¹

On 19 November the Red Army struck the Romanian armies on the 6th Army’s flanks, and within three days some 250,000 Germans and more than 30,000 Romanian and Soviet auxiliaries were trapped. Hitler forbade a breakout, and Erich von Manstein’s relief attack was stopped 48 kilometers short in December. Paulus surrendered on 31 January 1943 and the last pocket gave up on 2 February. About 150,000 Germans had died in the pocket; some 91,000 went into captivity, and perhaps 6,000 of them came home. Soviet dead number more than 400,000 by the German Historical Museum’s estimate; dzieje.pl puts Soviet losses at over 1.1 million, about 480,000 of them killed. The initiative in the east passed to the Red Army, and most Germans, the museum notes, saw the turning point of the war: Goebbels’ call for "total war" on 18 February did not silence their doubts. Since 1967 The Motherland Calls has stood over the battlefield on Mamayev Kurgan.⁷²

Why it is here: Full marks on all five criteria: the destruction of a whole German army is the turning point most accounts name, and with Normandy it is one of the two battles of World War II to score 50.

Read the full story of the battle of Stalingrad ›

28 Normandy, 1944

Where

The Normandy coast and its hinterland, northern France

War

World War II, Western Front

Sides

The United States, Britain, Canada and 12 other Allied nations vs Germany

Strength

About 150,000 to nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed on 6 June and more than 850,000 by the end of June (National WWII Museum), vs 58 German divisions in the West, most of them near Calais

Result

Allied victory; German forces trapped at Falaise in August, Paris liberated on 25 August 1944

In May 1943 Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to invade France the next spring. The Germans expected the blow at Calais, the narrowest point of the Channel, where the Atlantic Wall was strongest and most of their 58 divisions in the West stood. Instead, on 6 June 1944, troops from the United States, Britain, Canada and 12 other nations came ashore on five Normandy beaches, carried by over 7,000 vessels: nearly 160,000 by the National WWII Museum’s count, about 150,000 by the German Historical Museum’s. It was the largest amphibious invasion in history. The first day cost the Allies over 10,300 killed, wounded or missing, about 2,400 of them on Omaha Beach, though the museum warns that D-Day figures are approximations.⁷³

By the end of June more than 850,000 Allied soldiers were ashore by the National WWII Museum's count (the German Historical Museum says close to a million), and on 31 July the Americans broke through at Avranches. In mid-August the Allies encircled and destroyed much of the German army near Falaise, with Canadian troops and the Polish 1st Armoured Division of General Stanisław Maczek closing the gap from the north. Paris was liberated on 25 August, with French forces in a prominent role. The western Allies drove on toward Germany, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum judges that the invasion and the victories that followed likely saved hundreds of thousands of Jews in western and central Europe from murder.⁷⁴

Why it is here: Full marks on every criterion: the largest seaborne invasion in history opened the second front and within three months had broken the German army in France. With Stalingrad it shares the top score of World War II, and it closes the list as its latest battle.

Read the full story of D-Day and the battle of Normandy ›