What was the largest battle in history?
Counted by soldiers engaged, the largest battle in history was the Battle of the Dnieper in 1943, with close to 4 million Soviet and German soldiers. The Somme in 1916, with 3 to 4 million, and Kursk in 1943, with more than 3.4 million, come next. Campaigns such as Operation Barbarossa were larger, but they were many battles, not one.
This page answers one question: which battles drew in the most soldiers? We count everyone both sides committed to a battle or a named operation, from its first day to its last, not the dead; for death tolls see the deadliest battles in history. The fifteen battles below are ordered by the number of soldiers engaged, largest first, from the Dnieper in 1943 down to Leipzig in 1813; see how we chose and counted them. Every figure is an estimate. Where historians disagree we give the range, place the battle by its midpoint, and say whose number it is.1
1 The Dnieper, 1943
- Where
- The Dnieper River in Ukraine and eastern Belarus, from Gomel to Zaporizhzhia, including Kiev
- War
- World War II, Eastern Front
- Sides
- Soviet Union vs Germany
- Strength
- Over 2.6 million Soviet soldiers (National WWII Museum; 2.5 million in a Russian count) vs about 1.5 million Germans (the same Russian count); almost 4 million in all (National WWII Museum)
- Result
- Soviet victory; Kiev retaken on 6 November 1943
After Kursk the Red Army gave the Germans no time to dig in. It opened its drive on the Dnieper on 26 August 1943 with more than 2.6 million soldiers, and on 15 September Hitler allowed Army Group South to fall back behind the river, the line he meant to hold as his Eastern Wall. By the count of the National WWII Museum almost four million men fought on both sides. Russia’s Parlamentskaya Gazeta gives 2.5 million Soviet soldiers against about 1.5 million Germans in the combat sectors, the same total in round numbers. Krivosheev’s tables split the battle into separate strategic operations, Chernigov-Poltava and the Lower Dnieper among them, so they give no single figure for the whole.2
The first bridgehead on the west bank was taken on 22 September, and by the end of the month there were no fewer than 23. By November the Germans in the south had been thrown back some 250 km, and on 6 November the Red Army freed Kiev, held by the Germans since September 1941; from Gomel to Zaporizhzhia Soviet troops now stood across the river. The cost was huge: the museum counts 1.6 million Soviet casualties, more than 417,000 of them killed or missing.3
Why it ranks here: No other battle or operation we count drew in so many men: almost four million, with every source we found putting the Soviet side alone at 2.5 million or more. It makes the list on size and on consequence, the river line broken and Kiev retaken, though few readers know its name and the German figure rests on a single Russian count.4
2 Somme, 1916
- Where
- The river Somme, Picardy, northern France
- War
- World War I, Western Front
- Sides
- Britain, its Empire and France vs Germany
- Strength
- 53 British and Empire and 44 French infantry divisions (Elizabeth Greenhalgh) vs the German armies on the Somme, no total by side; more than 3 million (HISTORY) to about 4 million soldiers in all (Mémorial de Verdun and Historial de Péronne)
- Result
- No breakthrough; over 1 million casualties on both sides
The Somme was the Allies’ great offensive of 1916. When the Germans attacked at Verdun on 21 February, the British went in earlier than planned to help their ally. It became a battle of rotation: across four and a half months the armies fed divisions in, bled them and pulled them out, and by the end, in Elizabeth Greenhalgh’s count for the Australian War Memorial, 44 French infantry divisions had served there beside 53 British and Empire divisions. HISTORY puts the soldiers of both sides who fought on the Somme at more than 3 million; the education services of the Mémorial de Verdun and the Historial de la Grande Guerre at Péronne write of four million men who knew its battlefields. Neither source splits the total by side.5
At 7:30 a.m. on 1 July, 14 British divisions attacked, and by nightfall the British Army had suffered over 57,000 casualties. The offensive ground on until Douglas Haig shut it down on 18 November. The two museums’ table, after the historian Alain Denizot, counts 1,059,535 casualties in all, 437,322 German, 419,654 British and Empire and 202,559 French: more than a quarter of the men who passed through.6
Why it ranks here: Every count we found puts more than three million men through the Somme in four and a half months, and one museum count four million, about 3.5 million at the midpoint and the most for any World War I battle on this list. It makes the list on size, fame and memory; certainty is held down because both totals are round numbers built from divisions, not headcounts.7
3 Kursk, 1943
- Where
- The Kursk salient and the Oryol and Belgorod-Kharkov sectors, Soviet Union (today Russia and Ukraine)
- War
- World War II, Eastern Front
- Sides
- Soviet Union vs Germany
- Strength
- Operation Citadel: 1.35 to 1.9 million Soviet vs 780,000 to 800,000 German (German Historical Museum; Glantz); with the counteroffensives to 23 August, more than 2.5 million Soviet vs more than 940,000 German (National WWII Museum), more than 3.4 million added together; a Soviet count of 1974 gives 4.15 million
- Result
- Soviet victory; Citadel halted on 13 July, Kharkov retaken on 23 August
Operation Citadel was Germany’s last great offensive in the East: pincers from Oryol and Belgorod were to cut off the salient around Kursk, whose front the museum in Berlin puts at 150 km, and win back the initiative. Germany’s national history museum counts about 800,000 German soldiers and more than 2,000 tanks against about 1.35 million Red Army men; the historian David Glantz, as cited by the National WWII Museum, gives more than 780,000 Germans against more than 1.9 million Soviet troops. Added together, Glantz’s figures give about 2.7 million men for Citadel alone.8
The attack opened on 5 July and stalled: Walter Model’s 9th Army gained ten kilometers in the north, Hermann Hoth’s 4th Panzer Army just over 30 in the south, and on 13 July Hitler called it off. The Soviets had struck the Oryol bulge on 12 July, and as their counteroffensives rolled on to Kharkov, taken on 23 August, their forces grew, by the National WWII Museum’s count, to more than 2.5 million men against more than 940,000 Germans: more than 3.4 million added together. A Soviet study of 1974, tabulated by the historian Alan Kimball, counts 4.15 million on both sides. Myth vs fact: Prokhorovka was not a duel of 700 to 800 tanks a side, as Pavel Rotmistrov claimed; researchers count about 910 tanks there in all, 294 German and 616 Soviet.9
Why it ranks here: Counted the way this list counts, from the first day of Citadel to the last day of the counteroffensives that followed, Kursk drew in more than 3.4 million men, and a Soviet count puts it higher still. It makes the list easily on size and fame; certainty is held down because the total comes from phases that sources count in different ways.10
4 Berlin, 1945
- Where
- The Oder and Neisse fronts and the city of Berlin, Germany
- War
- World War II, Eastern Front
- Sides
- Soviet Union and the Polish 1st and 2nd Armies vs Germany
- Strength
- About 2.1 million (Krivosheev: 1,906,200 Soviet and 155,900 Polish) to 2.5 million Soviet and Polish soldiers (German Historical Museum, dzieje.pl) vs about 760,000 (dzieje.pl) to 1 million Germans (German Historical Museum); about 2.8 to 3.5 million added together
- Result
- Soviet victory; the Berlin garrison surrendered on 2 May 1945
By the end of January 1945 the Red Army stood on the Oder and the Lusatian Neisse, less than 80 km from Berlin. In February and March it brought up about 2.5 million soldiers with more than 6,000 tanks and 7,500 aircraft; Krivosheev’s tables, which count men at the start of the operation, give the three Soviet fronts 1,906,200 and the two Polish armies another 155,900. Facing them on the Oder front stood about a million Germans by the German Historical Museum’s count, or about 760,000 by dzieje.pl’s, among them improvised police and Volkssturm units short of fuel and ammunition. Added together, that is about 2.8 to 3.5 million men.11
The offensive opened on 16 April. On the Seelow Heights the 1st Belorussian Front was held for three days and lost almost 40,000 killed and wounded and 900 tanks before it broke through on 20 April. On 25 April the ring around the city closed; inside it stood only 80,000 to 100,000 defenders, nearly half of them Volkssturm. Hitler killed himself on 30 April, and on 2 May General Helmuth Weidling signed the order for the garrison to surrender. More than 361,000 Soviet and Polish soldiers were killed or wounded; German military dead are put at about 100,000.12
Why it ranks here: Even on the lowest counts close to three million men fought for Berlin, and on the highest about 3.5 million, which places it among the very largest. It makes the list on every criterion and loses ground only on certainty, because the Soviet and German figures each vary by a few hundred thousand men between sources.13
5 Moscow, 1941 to 1942
- Where
- The approaches to Moscow, Soviet Union (today Russia)
- War
- World War II, Eastern Front
- Sides
- Germany (Army Group Center) vs Soviet Union
- Strength
- About 1.8 million (Encyclopedia of Russian History) to 1.9 million Germans (David Stahel) vs 1.25 million Soviet soldiers (Stahel; Krivosheev) when Operation Typhoon began; about 3.1 million added together at the start, before Soviet reinforcements
- Result
- Soviet victory; the Germans driven back from Moscow, the Wehrmacht’s first major defeat
Hitler sent his armor first to take Ukraine, and only at the start of October 1941 did Army Group Center attack Moscow in Operation Typhoon. The historian David Stahel puts the army group at some 1.9 million men, almost two million under a single commander, against 1.25 million Soviet troops of the Reserve, Western and Bryansk Fronts; the Encyclopedia of Russian History counts 1.8 million Germans with 1,700 tanks, and Krivosheev also gives the Soviet fronts 1,250,000 men. Added together, about 3.1 million men faced each other when the battle began.14
The double pocket at Vyazma and Bryansk opened the road, but rain and mud stalled the advance until the ground froze in November. German assault troops came within eight kilometers of the city before the last push failed in early December, and frostbite put more than twice as many Germans out of action as enemy fire. On 5 December the Soviets struck back with fresh troops brought from the east, among them 34 divisions from Siberia, and the Wehrmacht had to retreat for the first time, in places more than 200 km. Krivosheev counts 1,021,700 Soviet soldiers in the counteroffensive even after 658,279 casualties in the defense, which means hundreds of thousands of fresh men had arrived; no study we found gives one total for the whole battle.15
Why it ranks here: Counting only the men on hand when Typhoon began, Moscow already passes three million, and the Soviet reserves fed in for the winter counteroffensive push it higher. It makes the list on size, consequence and fame, with certainty held down because the German figure varies and no source gives a full Soviet total.
6 Operation Bagration, 1944
- Where
- Belarus, Lithuania and eastern Poland
- War
- World War II, Eastern Front
- Sides
- Soviet Union and the Polish 1st Army vs Germany
- Strength
- About 2.4 million Soviet and Polish soldiers (Krivosheev: 2,331,700 Soviet and 79,900 Polish) vs about 500,000 in Army Group Center (German Historical Museum) to over 800,000 in all the German forces holding the salient (Great Soviet Encyclopedia); about 2.9 to 3.2 million added together
- Result
- Soviet victory; Army Group Center destroyed
By June 1944 Germany’s Army Group Center held a bulge some 1,000 km long around Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev and Bobruisk, and Hitler refused every request to pull it back. Germany’s national history museum gives the army group 40 divisions with about 500,000 men; the Great Soviet Encyclopedia counts 63 divisions and 3 brigades, over 800,000 men, because it adds the 2nd Army and the units of the neighboring army groups that also held the salient. Against them Krivosheev lists 2,331,700 Soviet soldiers in four fronts and 79,900 in the Polish 1st Army, and Bruce Menning and World History Encyclopedia both give about 2.4 million. Added together, that is about 2.9 to 3.2 million men.16
The Red Army attacked on 22 June, two weeks after the Allies landed in Normandy. Once the front broke, 1.2 million Soviet soldiers with 4,000 tanks trapped the German 4th and 9th Armies and the 3rd Panzer Army; Minsk fell on 3 July and Vilnius ten days later. By the end of July Army Group Center had practically ceased to exist, with about 350,000 German soldiers killed or captured in four weeks. The pursuit went on to the end of August, and Krivosheev counts 765,815 Soviet casualties in the whole operation, 178,507 of them killed or missing.17
Why it ranks here: Its size rests on the Soviet side, some 2.4 million soldiers committed over ten weeks, one of the largest forces any single operation drew in. It makes the list on size and consequence, a whole army group destroyed, while the German figure, uncertain by some 300,000 men, and a name far less known in the West than Stalingrad or Kursk hold it back.18
7 Vistula-Oder, 1945
- Where
- Poland and eastern Germany, from the Vistula to the Oder
- War
- World War II, Eastern Front
- Sides
- Soviet Union and the Polish 1st Army vs Germany
- Strength
- About 2.2 million Soviet and Polish soldiers (Krivosheev: 2,112,700 Soviet and 90,900 Polish; dzieje.pl) vs about 500,000 Germans (dzieje.pl); about 2.7 million added together
- Result
- Soviet victory; the front moved about 500 km west in 23 days
In December 1944, against the advice of his army chief of staff Heinz Guderian, Hitler sent troops from Poland to Hungary to relieve Budapest. On 12 January 1945 the Red Army struck instead from its bridgeheads on the Vistula, against Josef Harpe’s Army Group A: Georgy Zhukov’s 1st Belorussian Front toward Warsaw, Ivan Konev’s 1st Ukrainian Front toward Silesia. Krivosheev gives the two fronts 2,112,700 men and the Polish 1st Army 90,900 more, and dzieje.pl sets 2.2 million Soviet and Polish soldiers against about 500,000 Germans. Added together, that is about 2.7 million men.19
Zhukov’s front entered the abandoned Polish capital on 17 January. On 21 January Konev crossed the German border east of Breslau, and by the end of the month he held the Upper Silesian industrial region almost intact, while Soviet soldiers freed Auschwitz. Zhukov had bridgeheads across the Oder at Küstrin and Frankfurt, and his troops and Konev’s stood about 80 km from Berlin. In 23 days the front moved about 500 km west. Krivosheev counts 193,125 Soviet casualties, 43,251 of them killed or missing; we found no reliable count of German losses.20
Why it ranks here: About 2.7 million men took part, a total that rests mostly on the Soviet side, since the German figure is one round number from one source. It makes the list on size and consequence, carrying the Red Army from the Vistula to the Oder in three weeks, though few readers outside Poland know its name.21
8 Normandy, 1944
- Where
- Normandy, northern France
- War
- World War II, Western Front
- Sides
- The United States, Britain, Canada, France, Poland and other Allies vs Germany
- Strength
- More than 2 million Allied soldiers landed by 21 August (White House fact sheet), vs about 640,000 Germans in Niklas Zetterling’s count (other estimates run from 540,000 to over a million)
- Result
- Allied victory, 6 June to late August 1944; German army in France broken, Paris liberated on 25 August
At dawn on 6 June 1944 about 150,000 American, British, Canadian, French, Polish and other Allied soldiers came ashore on five Normandy beaches, covered by 1,200 warships and 7,500 aircraft. That was only the first wave. By the end of June the German Historical Museum counts close to a million Allied soldiers and 150,000 vehicles in France (the National WWII Museum gives more than 850,000 troops), and Hitler still refused to send the divisions waiting in eastern France to the fight. Cherbourg fell on 26 June, and on 8 August a failed German counterattack left some 50,000 men of the German 7th Army trapped in the Falaise pocket.22
The size of the battle lies in that steady build-up. From D-Day to 21 August, a White House fact sheet of June 2014 counts more than two million Allied soldiers landed in northern France and 226,386 Allied casualties, against German losses of over 240,000 casualties and 200,000 captured. Paris was liberated on 25 August, and by 30 August the Germans were retreating across the Seine. The German side is harder to count, because German returns measured strength in several different ways. Niklas Zetterling, who worked through them unit by unit, arrived at about 640,000 German soldiers, in the middle of earlier estimates that run from 540,000 to over a million.23
Why it ranks here: Just over 2 million Allied soldiers and about 640,000 Germans, added together, make some 2.6 to 2.7 million, which puts Normandy at No. 8, level with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria and placed above it as the older battle. It scored 46, with full marks for recognition, consequence, memory and certainty as the best-documented battle on the list; only its size, smaller than the great Soviet operations, holds it here.24
9 Manchuria, 1945
- Where
- Manchuria (northeast China), northern Korea, southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands
- War
- World War II, Soviet-Japanese War
- Sides
- Soviet Union and Mongolia vs Japan and Manchukuo
- Strength
- About 1.6 to 1.7 million Soviet and Mongolian soldiers (Krivosheev: 1,669,500 Soviet and 16,000 Mongolian; Asia Times: 1.6 million) vs about 1 million Japanese (Asia Times); about 2.6 to 2.7 million added together
- Result
- Soviet victory; the Kwantung Army destroyed in 25 days
The Soviet Union declared war on Japan on 8 August 1945 and attacked in the early hours of 9 August. Three fronts, the Transbaikal and the 1st and 2nd Far Eastern, went in with the Pacific Fleet, the Amur Flotilla and Mongolian units. Krivosheev’s tables give them 1,669,500 Soviet soldiers and 16,000 Mongolian; Asia Times puts the operation at 1.6 million Soviet troops against 1 million Japanese, the only count of the Japanese side we found. Added together, that is about 2.6 to 2.7 million men.25
The front was some 2,700 km wide, and Krivosheev records advances of 200 to 800 km, with tank and mechanized units covering 70 to 90 km a day. According to the historian Max Hastings, as quoted by Asia Times, some armored units advanced 93 miles on the first day, while the 200,000-strong army of the puppet state Manchukuo proved useless. In 25 days the Red Army broke the Kwantung Army, Japan’s strongest army group, and took Manchuria, northern Korea, southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, at a cost Krivosheev puts at 36,456 Soviet casualties, 12,031 of them killed or missing.26
Why it ranks here: About 2.6 to 2.7 million men took part, a total resting on firm Soviet strength figures and a round Japanese one. It makes the list on size and consequence, Japan’s strongest army group destroyed in under a month, though few Western readers know it.27
10 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
- 1,140,000 French and 1,250,000 Germans over ten months by the Mémorial de Verdun’s count, about 2.4 million added together; 2.3 million in 85 French and 50 German divisions by Clive Harris’s count
- Result
- French defensive victory, 21 February to 18 December 1916; about 712,000 casualties, 306,000 of them killed or missing
On 21 February 1916 the German Fifth Army attacked the forts of Verdun with ten infantry divisions, some 150,000 men, and almost 1,200 guns; the night before, the French had about 25,000 infantry in unfinished positions on the right bank of the Meuse. Philippe Pétain, given the defense, set up a noria, a waterwheel that brought division after division up the single road from Bar-le-Duc, the Sacred Way, and took the worn ones out; at its height it carried 90,000 men a week.28
That rotation is what made Verdun so large. It became the longest battle of the war, and by its end about three quarters of the whole French army had fought there. When the French retook Douaumont and Vaux in the autumn and the last attack ended on 18 December, the Mémorial de Verdun and the Historial de la Grande Guerre count 1,140,000 French and 1,250,000 German soldiers who had faced each other on some 200 square kilometers. Clive Harris’s account of the battle, as the Western Front Association’s review reports it, gives 2.3 million men in 85 French and 50 German divisions. The French count puts the dead and missing at 163,000 French and 143,000 Germans, and the casualties of both armies at about 712,000.29
Why it ranks here: About 2.35 million men, between the two counts, put Verdun at No. 10, behind Normandy and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria and ahead of Stalingrad. It scored 43: full marks for recognition and memory, 4 for consequence because ten months of slaughter barely moved the front, and 4 for certainty because the totals are built from divisions rotated through the sector, not from muster rolls.30
11 Stalingrad, 1942 to 1943
- Where
- Stalingrad (today Volgograd) and the Don steppe, Soviet Union
- War
- World War II, Eastern Front
- Sides
- Soviet Union vs Germany, Romania, Italy and Hungary
- Strength
- Soviet: 547,000 at the start of the defense, 1,143,500 in the counteroffensive (Krivosheev). Axis: German 6th Army about 430,000 at the start, plus 230,900 Romanians, 229,000 Italians and the 209,000-strong Hungarian 2nd Army (Krinko and Medvedev); about 2.2 million in all by our sum
- Result
- Soviet victory, 17 July 1942 to 2 February 1943; 6th Army destroyed, about 91,000 taken prisoner
Russian historians date the battle from 17 July 1942, when Army Group B attacked in the great bend of the Don on its way to the Volga; the German 6th Army under Friedrich Paulus then numbered about 430,000 men. As it pushed into the city, Germany’s allies filled the long flanks beside it: the Russian historians Evgeniy Krinko and Maksim Medvedev count 230,900 Romanians and 229,000 Italians, with the 209,000 men of the Hungarian 2nd Army farther up the Don. By mid-November the Germans held about 90 percent of the ruined city.31
Meanwhile the Red Army brought fresh forces up around Stalingrad. For the counteroffensive that began on 19 November, the Russian General Staff study edited by Grigori Krivosheev counts 1,143,500 Soviet soldiers. The pincers closed four days later around about 250,000 Germans and more than 30,000 Romanians and Soviet auxiliaries; Paulus surrendered on 31 January 1943, the northern pocket on 2 February, and some 91,000 men went into captivity. That makes our sum a floor: Krivosheev counts 547,000 Soviet soldiers when the defense began in July and 643,842 Soviet casualties before the counteroffensive, and Krinko and Medvedev put the military losses of both sides at no less than 2 to 2.5 million.32
Why it ranks here: Lower than most readers expect: adding those figures gives about 1.1 million Axis and 1.14 million Soviet soldiers, some 2.2 million in all (our sum, not one study’s total, and a floor), which places Stalingrad at No. 11. It scored 44 on full marks for recognition, consequence and memory; size and certainty are 4, because Axis strength and Soviet strength before November both vary by source.33
12 Marne, 1914
- Where
- The Marne valley east of Paris, France
- War
- World War I, Western Front
- Sides
- France and the British Expeditionary Force vs Germany
- Strength
- About 2 million men in all (World History Encyclopedia), roughly a million on each side (Holger Herwig)
- Result
- Allied victory, September 1914; the German armies fell back about 40 miles to the Aisne
Germany’s war plan was to swing through Belgium, take Paris and force France to surrender in about six weeks. Alexander von Kluck’s First Army crossed the Marne on 4 September, but instead of passing west of Paris it swung southeast after the retreating French, and French airmen saw it turn. On 5 September Michel-Joseph Maunoury’s Sixth Army struck its right flank from the direction of Paris. As Kluck turned to meet it, a 30-mile gap opened between the German First and Second Armies, and the French Fifth Army and the British Expeditionary Force moved into it.34
The main front ran about 100 miles from Verdun to Compiègne, and the fighting there was fiercest from 6 to 8 September. On 9 September Karl von Bülow was ordered to withdraw his Second Army, and the Germans fell back about 40 miles to the Aisne, where both sides dug the first trench lines of the Western Front. About two million men had fought, World History Encyclopedia writes, and the historian Holger Herwig speaks of a million men on either side. Neither the French nor the German army published official casualty figures for the battle, but Germany’s hope of a quick war was gone.35
Why it ranks here: About two million men, a million a side, put the Marne at No. 12, behind Stalingrad; it sits at the bottom of our 2 to 3 million size band, so size scores 4. It scored 43 on full marks for recognition and consequence: it ended Germany’s plan to win in the west before turning east.36
13 Meuse-Argonne, 1918
- Where
- Between the Argonne Forest and the Meuse, northwest of Verdun, France
- War
- World War I, Western Front
- Sides
- The American First Army, with French troops, vs Germany
- Strength
- 1.2 million Americans vs about 450,000 Germans (AP); the US Army also counts 135,000 French soldiers; about 1.65 to 1.8 million added together
- Result
- Allied victory, 26 September to 11 November 1918; more than 26,000 Americans killed and 95,786 wounded
In September 1918 John J. Pershing’s First Army staff carried out a complex shuffle that moved 220,000 soldiers out of the front while bringing more than 600,000 soldiers and 3,823 guns into the sector between the Argonne Forest and the Meuse, northwest of Verdun. The offensive opened on 26 September. Green American divisions stalled amid machine-gun fire, rain and monumental traffic jams behind the front before the 79th Division finally captured Montfaucon, and the fighting settled into a grinding advance through forests, ravines and fortified hills.37
The US Army’s history of the campaign counts over a million American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines and 135,000 French soldiers in the offensive; an Associated Press account for the centenary gives 1.2 million American troops against about 450,000 Germans. In forty-seven days the Americans pushed the front back more than 48 kilometers, forced the Germans to commit forty-six divisions and took over 26,000 prisoners. It was one of several Allied attacks that brought the armistice of 11 November. The cost made it, in the Army’s words, the largest and most costly military operation in American history: more than 26,000 men killed and 95,786 wounded.38
Why it ranks here: Added together, 1.2 million Americans and some 450,000 Germans make about 1.65 million, and the 135,000 French the Army counts bring it near 1.8 million, still clearly behind the Marne: No. 13. It scored 35 on full marks for certainty and a strong memory as the largest battle in American history, while recognition and consequence of 3 reflect a name little known outside the United States and one offensive among several.39
14 The Bulge, 1944 to 1945
- Where
- The Ardennes, Belgium and Luxembourg
- War
- World War II, Western Front
- Sides
- The United States, with British and other Allied forces, vs Germany
- Strength
- Over 200,000 Germans vs about 80,000 Americans at the start (German Historical Museum); over 600,000 Americans in all (National WWII Museum), vs German forces put at about 300,000 with reinforcements (History Hit) to 500,000 (Baltimore Sun)
- Result
- Allied victory, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945; about 80,000 US casualties, 19,276 killed
Hitler gathered his last reserves for a winter blow through the Ardennes: break the thin American line, take the port of Antwerp and split the British army in the north from the Americans in the south. On 16 December 1944 more than 200,000 German soldiers with about 600 tanks attacked a sector held by barely 80,000 Americans. The surprise was complete, and the Germans drove a deep bulge into the line, which gave the battle its English name.40
The Allies answered by pouring men in. At Bastogne the encircled Americans refused a German demand to surrender with one word, “NUTS!” and Eisenhower turned George S. Patton’s Third Army, about 230,000 men, north to relieve them. By the end more than 600,000 American troops had taken part, which the National WWII Museum calls the largest battle the US Army has ever fought; History Hit counts 610,000. German strength is less certain: History Hit gives about 200,000 followed by some 100,000 reinforcements, the Baltimore Sun 500,000. By 25 January 1945 the line was restored. The United States had about 80,000 casualties, with 19,246 dead by the Army’s official count (the National Archives gives 19,276), the Germans 80,000 to 100,000 casualties by the Army’s count.41
Why it ranks here: Over 600,000 Americans and 300,000 to 500,000 Germans, with British troops on the northern flank, make roughly a million men added together, enough for No. 14 and well ahead of Leipzig. It scored 40 on full marks for recognition, memory and certainty of the American figures; consequence is 3 because it only delayed a defeat already settled.42
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
- About 300,000 to over 325,000 allied soldiers vs 180,000 to nearly 200,000 under Napoleon; about 500,000 to 520,000 in all
- Result
- Coalition victory, 16 to 19 October 1813; over 100,000 casualties
Napoleon came back from Russia in December 1812 having lost nearly half a million men, and by March 1813 he had raised a new army of 150,000 men, mainly by forced conscription. Austria and Sweden joined Russia and Prussia, and the coalition formed three armies to close on him. By 14 October some 177,000 French troops had gathered around Leipzig, as the coalition armies closed in.43
The battle lasted from 16 to 19 October. On the first day alone the French lost 25,000 men and the allies 30,000. On 18 October the coalition brought up strong reinforcements, and Napoleon’s German allies took the chance to change sides. During the retreat a bridge over the Elster was blown too early, leaving some 30,000 men to be captured. The sizes are given in round numbers: over 325,000 allied soldiers against nearly 200,000 under Napoleon in World History Encyclopedia, 320,000-plus against about 180,000 in HISTORY, around 300,000 allies and nearly half a million in all at HistoryOfWar.org, and 520,000 at the Habsburg history site. For almost a century only Mukden in 1905, where the Russians alone had over 300,000 men, matched it. Ancient record holders cannot compete on evidence: Darius’s army at Gaugamela is given anywhere from about 245,000 to over a million men by ancient writers, and no reliable modern figure exists.44
Why it ranks here: Just over half a million men make Leipzig the smallest battle on the list and the only one before 1900, No. 15; it was still the largest battle in Europe before World War I. It scored 33, level with the Brusilov Offensive, and takes the last place on recognition, helped by full marks for consequence: it ended French rule east of the Rhine.45
How we chose and counted these largest battles
We counted a single battle or a named operation with one plan and fixed dates, such as the Battle of the Dnieper or Operation Bagration, and measured it by the soldiers both sides committed to it from its first day to its last. Whole campaigns, wars and fronts do not count: Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of 1941, was many battles, and the Eastern Front was a war within a war. Sieges are in our guide to the greatest sieges in history, battles ranked by the dead in the deadliest battles in history, and the record holders of antiquity in the greatest ancient battles: their numbers do not survive a check of the sources. More on the war of millions is in the greatest battles of the Eastern Front, of World War II and of World War I.46
We scored 25 candidates on five criteria to decide which fifteen belong here; the list is then ordered by size, largest first, because that is what the title promises. Size counts four times, because this page is about the largest battles; recognition and the certainty of the numbers count twice, because a ranking by size stands or falls on its figures; consequence and memory count once. Each criterion is scored from 1 to 5:
- Scale: soldiers engaged (×4). The combined strength of both sides over the whole battle or operation, from its first day to its last, counting reinforcements and units rotated through the line (not the number present on one day), on the figure most modern studies use: 5 = 3 million or more, 4 = 2 to 3 million, 3 = 1 to 2 million, 2 = 200,000 to 1 million, 1 = under 200,000.
- Certainty of the numbers (×2). 5 if both sides' strengths are documented in archives and agree across independent studies, 1 if they rest on one ancient or partisan source or differ by more than half.
- Recognition (×2). 5 if the name is known far beyond military history and appears on most published lists of its kind, 1 if only specialists know it.
- Consequence (×1). 5 if it decided a war or changed the map (an army, a regime or a country won or lost), 1 if it changed nothing beyond the battlefield.
- Memory (×1). 5 if it is still a living memory (a day of remembrance, a memorial, a famous image or song), 1 if it is forgotten.
The score decides only which battles make the fifteen; their order is set by the number of soldiers both sides committed, using the midpoint where historians give a range, with ties going to the older battle. The scores are our editorial judgment, made on the evidence in the sources below, and the table shows every one of them. That is why the Dnieper, an operation few readers have heard of, stands first with close to 4 million men, and why Leipzig, the only battle before 1900 to make the list, sits at No. 15: its half a million soldiers were a record for a century, but a fraction of the armies of the world wars.47
| Rank | Name | Scale: soldiers engaged ×4 | Certainty of the numbers ×2 | Recognition ×2 | Consequence ×1 | Memory ×1 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Dnieper | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 39 |
| 2 | Somme | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 47 |
| 3 | Kursk | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 46 |
| 4 | Berlin | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 48 |
| 5 | Moscow | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 43 |
| 6 | Operation Bagration | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 42 |
| 7 | Vistula-Oder | 4 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 34 |
| 8 | Normandy | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 46 |
| 9 | Manchuria | 4 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 35 |
| 10 | Verdun | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 43 |
| 11 | Stalingrad | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 44 |
| 12 | Marne | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 43 |
| 13 | Meuse-Argonne | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 35 |
| 14 | The Bulge | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 40 |
| 15 | Leipzig | 2 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 33 |
Close calls
Five battles came close and did not make the fifteen:
Brusilov Offensive, 1916. Aleksei Brusilov attacked on 4 June 1916 with all four of his armies, about 200,000 men, on a 200-mile front. By John Rickard’s count the Russians lost a million men, the Austrians at least as many and the Germans 350,000, but no study gives a firm total of the men engaged. On score it missed the list: 33, level with Leipzig and below it on recognition.48 › Brusilov Offensive, 1916
Sedan, 1870. On 1 September 1870 Helmuth von Moltke’s 200,000 German troops trapped the 120,000 men of the French Army of Châlons at Sedan, and Napoleon III gave himself up with his army, by the Fondation Napoléon’s figures. It brought down the Second Empire and its numbers are firm, but at about 320,000 men it was smaller than Leipzig and is less known, so it missed by a point.49
Huaihai, 1948 to 1949. Around Xuzhou some 600,000 Communist troops faced about 800,000 Nationalists, destroyed five Nationalist armies of around half a million men and threatened Nanjing, by Gary Bjorge’s study for the US Army; about 5 million civilian laborers carried their supplies. It sealed the Nationalists’ fate in the Chinese Civil War, but the figures vary and few readers outside China know it, so it scored 30.50
Kiev, 1941. In September 1941 the panzer groups of Heinz Guderian and Ewald von Kleist closed a giant pocket east of Kiev around the Soviet Southwestern Front, which Krivosheev puts at 627,000 men; by the German count about 665,000 prisoners were taken. The German strength in the battle is seldom given, so its total size is uncertain, and it scored 29.51
Shanghai, 1937. In 1937 China committed about 750,000 soldiers to the Shanghai campaign and Japan around 250,000, by the figures in Peter Harmsen’s history as The Strategy Bridge summarizes them; by the fifth month the Chinese had lost over 200,000 men. Chinese strength figures are rough and few readers outside Asia know the battle, so it scored 28.52
What was the largest battle before gunpowder?
Nobody can say for certain, because ancient armies were counted by writers who inflated them. Gaugamela in 331 BC and Cannae in 216 BC are the strongest candidates, each probably with more than 100,000 men on the field: a fifth of Leipzig, the smallest battle on this list, and a sliver of the battles of the world wars.53
Ancient historians loved big numbers. Arrian, our best source for Alexander, credits Darius III at Gaugamela in 331 BC with 1,000,000 infantry and 40,000 cavalry, and puts Alexander's army at 7,000 cavalry and about 40,000 infantry. No ancient state could have fed a million men on one plain, and modern estimates for the Persian army mostly fall between about 50,000 and 100,000, sometimes higher. Even on those figures Gaugamela was one of the largest battles of antiquity.54
Cannae in 216 BC is better documented: by World History Encyclopedia's count a Roman army of over 80,000 met Hannibal's fewer than 50,000. At Red Cliffs in AD 208, the warlord Cao Cao boasted of 800,000 men; his opponent Zhou Yu argued the real figure was far lower, and the allied armies facing him were smaller still. The war at Kurukshetra in the Mahabharata, with eighteen armies that would add up to several million warriors, is a legend preserved in an epic poem, not a battle record. In medieval Europe even the great set pieces, such as Grunwald in 1410, involved a few tens of thousands of men on each side.55
Why do the numbers never agree?
Even for modern battles, totals depend on what is counted. Some historians include only front-line combat troops, others the full strength of the armies, with the supply, artillery and air units behind the line. Soviet and German figures were shaped by wartime secrecy and later politics, and the opening of Soviet archives after 1991 shifted many estimates. For a battle that lasted months, the number of men present on any single day can be a fraction of the number who passed through it. That is why we give ranges and order the list by their midpoints, and why two honest lists can put Kursk, Berlin and Moscow in a different order: a Soviet study of 1974 counts 4.15 million men at Kursk, enough to rival the Dnieper.56
