Tuesday 13th December Why was the Battle of the Somme such a disaster for the British Army? On July 1st 1916, a battle commenced that made the bloodiest day inn British military history. 60,000 British men died on the first day of fighting, with a third of them perishing in the first hour. The aim of this essay is to examine factors of the battle and decide which one contributed the most to the failure of the battle. The plan for the Battle of the Somme was to assemble a huge new army of soldiers.
Machine guns were built twice more powerful than in the Civil War, firing up to 600 bullets a minute which was the equivalent of 250 riflemen. Artillery experienced a massive technological progression with the building of several thousands of powerful cannons with shells filled with tiny pellets that exploded deep into the ground. Gas grenades were introduced that caused blindness and destruction of the lungs of the enemies. The invention of the telephone and radios
The Mexicans had devastating numbers and in around 90 minutes they had packed the Alamo, murdering all inside. There is some debate over Crockett's death. It is definite that a trickle of rebels about ten were taken thriving and later killed by order of Santa Anna. Some ancient sources suggest Crockett was among them, other sources say he fell in encounter. Crockett and the other so men in the Alamo battled bravely till the
Many of the deadliest battles in history occurred during the First World War. Such battles include Ypres, the Marne, Cambrai, the Somme, Verdun, and Gallipoli. The Germans employed the Haber process of nitrogen fixation to provide their forces with a constant supply of gunpowder, despite the British naval blockade. [143] Artillery was responsible for the largest number of casualties[144] and consumed vast quantities of explosives. The large number of head wounds caused by exploding shells and fragmentation forced the combatant nations to develop the modern steel helmet, led by the French, who introduced the Adrian helmet in 1915.
D-Day: Up Close and Personal On Tuesday June 6, 1944, General Dwight Eisenhower ordered what is now proven to be the largest amphibious invasion in military history. This full frontal assault involved thousands of American, British, and Canadian forces as they came ashore under heavy enemy resistance on various strategic beaches in the province of Normandy, France. The next day, major fighting was over and the German defensive line was broken, allowing for the penetration of what Adolf Hitler christened “Fortress Europe”, and ultimately a path to Berlin (Durflinger, McAndrew). However, the fact that the Allies incurred an estimated 10,000 casualties due to a direct assault with no cover to speak of is nothing less than heartbreaking (D-Day).
It was known for its ambitious use of fire ships. (Wikipedia 5) Zhu’s force consisted of over 200,000 Ming sailors and they were able to defeat the Han rebel force, which consisted of over 650,000 sailors. The victory destroyed the last opposing rebel faction, leaving Zhu Yuanzhang in control of the Yangtze River Valley and spreading his power in the south. (Wikipedia 6 ) Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to be very suspicious of “the educated courtiers around him and exerted and extremely authoritarian regime, which was known as “the tyrant of Nanjing”. (China tour 3) This harsh government style was because of the influence of governmental institutions of a previous Mongol period that was marked by a strong centralization.
Greek soldiers formed dense groupings called phalanxes that were usually eight to sixteen men deep. Phalanxes, when packed together, provided an impressive wall of heavily armed men. For the phalanx to succeed, the men had to practice rigid discipline; if the phalanx broke, all of the hoplites might well be killed. b. Macedonian, to 500 BCE The man who finally beat the Greek system was a Macedonian and one of the greatest military minds of all time was Alexander the Great. His use of flexible, fast arms like cavalry and light infantry.
Military generals took advantage of this and took control of certain parts. There were 26 “barrack emperors,” all killing each other for rule over that part of the empire. Finally, the last reason is the invasion of the Germanic tribes. The main tribe to make an impact was the Huns. They attack fast and furiously and breached into Balkan from Hungary then onto Northern Italy.
Once the Knights reached Jerusalem, they took control by ransacking every building and torturing and killing almost all of the 60,000 unarmed civilians living in Jerusalem. The first crusade ended in Christian victory in 1099, but this was not the last of “Gods” crusades, 6 more followed the first with the Holy Lands changing control every time costing hundreds of thousands of lives all while the bible blatantly spoke against wars and killing. This
Stalin had many motives to claim increasingly more of Eastern Europe. The largest of them all being that during the over 25,000,000 Russians may have died, which is the largest casualty has received during war. Russia had been invaded by other countries, the most famous of them being Napoleon and then WWI and WWII. With all the Countries taken over by the Nazi’s the USSR decided to start liberating many of the Eastern European countries, turning them into Communist states. For the USSR this would mean large buffer zones before (another war) enemies get into mainland Russia.