Hot answers tagged warfare
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It is true that bombs in World War II would make a whistling sound as they fell. This could be heard by both the pilot and the target, however due to the Doppler effect, they heard different things. The pilot would hear a high pitched whistle and as the bomb accelerated it lowered in pitch. The target would initially hear a higher pitched whistle than what ...
20
Cavalry sabres (a.k.a. Shashkas) were still widely used in the Russian Civil War (1918-1922) and appear in many books on that period. This weapon is primarily associated with Cossacks even though it was standard equipment in the Russian and later Soviet army. The Russian Wikipedia article claims that Shashkas were still used by the cavalry in the Second ...
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It appears that the real demise of the Mayan Empire was a number of factors, including drought, warfare, and disease. NASA archeologist Tom Sever used satellite images combined with archeological findings to piece together the most likely scenario. Using pollen trapped in layers of lake sediment, scientists learned that around 1,200 years ago, just before ...
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I believe that the last use of sword in Western military were cavalry sabres used in cavalry charges alongside revolvers. Those were used in the Crimean war and in the USA Civil War. So we are talking mid-19th century. After the USA Civil War automatic rifles made cavalry obsolete (or nearly so) so I do not think you will find any more examples.
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I think there are a couple of points in your question which I think need clarification and context:
"Before the Japanese could surrender" : There seems to be an implication here that Japan was about to surrender and didn't quite get the chance. The second bombing occurred three days after the first. The regime in Japan had made it very clear over a long ...
10
Ironically, even though tanks were introduced in 1916 (at the battle of the Somme), they had little impact on World War I. They did not break up the trench warfare of the time (even though they were designed to do that).
It was during the period BETWEEN the two world wars, that generals thought about tanks. The British expert was Basil Lidell-Hart, and the ...
10
The first example of catapulting plague victims into a besieged city was that of Caffa (Modern day Fiodosiya) in the Crimea. This was in fact the first account of plague in European history.
Caffa had been under siege by the Mongol (aka. Tartar or Golden Horde) army. The siege had been long a protracted. First starting in 1343, it was lifted by the arrival ...
10
Hitler opinions on mustard gas seem to be quite the opposite from what you describe, given this quote from Mein Kampf 1:
At the beginning of the War, or even during the War, if twelve or fifteen thousand of these Jews who were corrupting the nation had been forced to submit to poison-gas, just as hundreds of thousands of our best German workers from ...
9
Around 1542 (the date is not certain) a chinese junk was blown onto the shores of the island of Tanegashima of the southern coast of Kyushu. On board were three Portuguese travellers, the first Westerners to land on Japanese soil.
To Lord Tokitada, the daimyo of Tanegashima, the most strking thing about the stranded Westerners were the guns that two of them ...
9
Generally, individual branches of the armed forces were responsible for countering the codes of their allied opposition. The German naval intelligence agency (Beobachtungsdienst) broke the British naval codes.
The unified UK code-breaking effort was helped by a single system being used so widely across the German forces.
One of the ironic bits of ...
9
In Europe, armies were often of generally the same size and makeup (at least in the instances you mention) and tactics codified, so in open engagements equipment and (that being equal) minor differences in proficiency could well mean the difference between winning and losing a battle.
In the Chinese example you mention, sheer force of numbers caused Qin to ...
9
There are a number of good accounts of the development of warfare in Europe, but the two key things you need to realise are:
a) "morale"
b) "mass"
Much of European warfare has been conditioned by these two abstract concepts. Broadly, morale is the capacity of a unit to continue to engage in what it is doing despite adverse outcomes and mass is the capacity ...
9
Here are some rough specs for common planes (as I said in the comment, the endurance depends on various factors).
Sopwith Camel (BR)
combat endurance (at 1000 m) - 2:30 (hr.:min.)
cruise endurance (...) - 5:00
SPAD S.XIII (FR)
combat endurance (...) - 1:30-2:00
cruise endurance (...) - 3:00
Albatross D.III (GER)
combat endurance (...) - 1:30-2:00
...
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Another 3 advices to add to Sardathrion's:
Try not to let emotions affect you into mistaking incidents for trends (one such example from History SE was when someone described US involvement in Vietnam as being a pattern of massacres. While Mai Lai is indeed horrific, it's (given the scale) a minor blip that serves to prove the opposite trend (out of ...
8
For completeness, all wikipedia has to say:
The range of the medieval weapon is not accurately known, with estimates from 165 to 228 m (180 to 249 yds). Modern longbows have a useful range up to 180 m (200 yd). A 667 N (150 lbf) Mary Rose replica longbow was able to shoot a 53.6 g (1.9 oz) arrow 328 m (360 yd) and a 95.9 g (3.3 oz) a distance of 249.9 m ...
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Britain didn't use their navy because ships don't work on land. You need boots on the ground to exert control. They could have bombed the few coastal cities and fortifications, but it wouldn't have achieved much. It would still be necessary to break the enemy line and posses their territory which the ships couldn't do. All that could be achieved is the ...
7
Try to go back to primary source and archaeological evidences. Are there mass graves? What about population movement? What do statistics have to say about the population, economy, and whatnot?
You can look at the documents and narratives's authors and find out inconsistencies within them or evidence of forgeries/lies -- note that lack of such is not ...
7
I believe Sun Tzu's comments were meant to be more cautionary than anything. A commander has to consider the consequences of such an action in order to make a more informed decision. If you need to conduct a forced march to obtain a strategic advantage, such as cutting off the enemy supply line or gaining control of a water crossing before they can, then you ...
7
All the sources I've perused can, just as Wikipedia does, only surmise on the how and why gunpowder made its way to Europe.
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology offers a nutshell overview of the possible routes that might have been taken:
Just how the secret of gunpowder traveled west-ward to Europe will probably never be ...
7
A lot of it comes from conditioning and training the animal to battle conditions along with genetics.
For horses, Kikkuli, the master horse trainer of Hittites in 1345 BCE, described his methods for conditioning horses or chariot warfare in one of the first horse training treatises. His methods aren't too far removed from techniques used today.
Europeans, ...
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The Greeks had demonstrated military superiority over the Persians for many years. Both Cimon and Agesilaus had led successful expeditions into Persian territory. That Persia maintained its dominant position over Greece had not so much to do with their own military capabilities, but rather because of the incessant warfare amongst Greek cities. Their focus on ...
7
I voted up lins314159's answer. I would like to add a couple of things though.
The vast majority of Alexander's empire actually started his tenure as the Persian's empire. So a great deal of credit (and attention) should be paid to all the work they did to put that empire together.
However, Persia's loss of the Persian-Greek wars 100 years earlier had ...
7
The earliest recorded example of bacteriological warfare seems to be the Hittite plague (1715 BC):
A long-lasting epidemic that plagued the Eastern Mediterranean in the 14th century BC was traced back to a focus in Canaan along the Arwad-Euphrates trading route. The symptoms, mode of infection, and geographical area, identified the agent as Francisella ...
7
According to "Logistics of Warfare in the Crusades", Ibn Battuta noted the use of personal water-skins in the ninth century:
People had the organizational skills and means to equip armies for crossing deserts and some glimpses of how this was done can be gleaned from Ibn Battuta, probably the only author to pay attention to such problems. Although he ...
7
Having done some archery, I can attest to the fact that you can get a lot more people on the line, shooting at the same time, if their movements are at least broadly in sequence.
The combined benefits of the physical impact of more archers in the same space, and the moral impact of a thousand arrows hitting at the same time rather than a steady stream, seem ...
6
The first recorded battle using what is believed to be gunpowder is the siege of Di'an in 1132. Although the weapons are not guns, it is well attested that the Chinese at this time had perfected gunpowder, so it can be assumed that this is what is being used.
Guns appear in China during the 12th and 13th century, the oldest preserved one is from around ...
6
Your main question has been pretty well answered, but I'd like to clarify a few points:
If the attackers had plague victims to toss over the wall, it means they were also exposed to the plague. Which might adversely affect their ability to maintain the siege.
Even an extremely virulent plague like the Black Death only killed something like a third to ...
6
In most cases, they would forage (or pillage) from neighboring areas. As in invading army, they had no qualms about taking whatever they wanted or needed. In situations where they were sending troops considerable distances or for prolonged periods of time, they had to develop other methods.
In some situations they would create relay stations, which would ...
6
Indeed, in a somewhat similar situation, in the 15th century Italian Condottieri such as Sforza, Braccio da Montone and Malatesta did use their mercenary armies to seize control of city-states and become dukes and lords. However, in 17th century Northern Europe such a development was more or less unthinkable. The reason is, I think, that the power in 17th ...
6
As someone in the comments has said, Jerusalem must be on the top of the list.
From Wikipedia
During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged
23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times.
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