Questions tagged [warfare]
For questions related to: acts of organized violence between groups of people where the violence often has a political purpose; the impact of such violence on peoples/nations; and any other related questions.
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Are there any records that indicate a submarine vs submarine battle?
I am aware of only one which is the U-864 was sunk by the HMS Venturer but that was when both were being submerged -- according to wikipedia. Is that accurate? Which battles did happen between two (...
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In medieval battles, what would happen with non-noble POWs?
What would typically happen if large masses of non-noble soldiers would surrender in a war like the 100-years war?
Would they be later exchanged for POWs from the other side?
Or would they be slowly ...
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Did the Pope's crossbow and archery bans have any effect?
One of the more famous and certainly curious decisions at the Second Council of the Lateran in 1139 was a ban on using missile troops against Christians. Specifically, Canon 29 states that:
We ...
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How could a skilled battle commander like Napoleon Bonaparte lose to Prussians at Waterloo (Belgium) as such?
According to this website Napoleon Bonaparte lost the battle at Waterloo to Prussians because of (chronologically):
The failure of Grouchy keeping the Prussians away from the Battlefield.
The late ...
MCW♦
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Were kamikaze pilots an effective strategy for Japan?
history.howstuffworks.com claims kamikaze pilots were not overly effective. Wikipedia states that there was no noticeable increase in number of ships lost even as kamikaze pilots became more common, ...
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What caused this cratering pattern at Hiroshima?
I was reading this article here, which includes an interesting photo of Hiroshima:
The caption on the photo indicates that it was taken three weeks after the atomic bomb was dropped.
The photo seems ...
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What happened to the rowers during boarding actions in ancient Greece?
My research thus far has led me to the following conclusions: The main methods of dispatching enemy ships during naval combat in ancient Greece was by ramming and by boarding, with ramming being the ...
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Could skirmishers pass through friendly formations in ancient/medieval warfare? [closed]
I'm trying to get a visualization of how skirmishers were used in historical battles, especially during ancient Greek warfare. Could skirmisher formations pass through friendly formations? As in was ...
MCW♦
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How severe were the casualties in ancient/medieval battles?
I've heard that in most battles prior to the introduction of gunpowder weapons, the casualties were usually very low (around 5% even in long battles) prior to the moment when someone's formation was ...
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Battles won by much weaker side [closed]
I'm interested in battles that were won by much weaker side or even lost by it, but for example making the stronger side to keep fight against this weaker force and thus providing it strategic victory....
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How was Napoleon's invasion of Russia supplied?
How was such a great army, like the army of Napoleon on its way to Moscow, supplied with food and other needed things? Were they transporting it from France or maybe stealing from territory on their ...
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Did French troops use chemical weapons during the Siege of Laghouat in 1852?
During the Siege of Laghouat in Algeria, the French army massacred around 3627 civilians.
Many sources suggest that the colonial army also used chemical weapons in that confrontation.
However in these ...
CommunityBot
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Was there any war won by the victim without sending forces to lands/seas/air of the attacker?
Was there ever in history a victim that won the war, remaining totally on its own lands? No sea, air, or land attacks on the lands of the attacker or their allies.
A necessary notice about what is &...
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Was there any Empire that only used bronze?
As far as I know, the Hittite and the Assyrian were Bronze Age empires but one of the reasons why they conquered other people was because of their mass produced iron weapons.
Mycenaean used bronze but ...
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How much louder was a Napoleonic era cannon than a musket?
I recently stumbled upon this impressive quote about the Battle of Borodino in a video (here at 5:07):
"The artillery roared to such an extent that from dawn until the middle of the day we ...
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Did Western China have special-named martial arts during Islamic era?
Islam brought by Prophet Mohammad had reached (parts of) Central Asia in less than 50 years after his death. Central Asia, especially China, is nowadays famous of its martial arts. Even in some muslim ...
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What caused the shift from annexation of territory, to colonization of territory?
What caused the shift from annexation of territory, to colonization of territory?
I've been thinking about this for some time, but can't come to any definite conclusions as my knowledge in history ...
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Are there records of animal "blood lust"?
I remember reading in some older books about ancient combat that animals would sometimes get "into the fight" so to speak. For lack of a better term, this was evidenced by horses actually attacking (...
MCW♦
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What was the nature of conflict between Helvetii and German in prelude to Gallic Wars?
In Caesar's diaries from Gallic Wars, he states that Helvetii battled Germans "almost daily, repelling them from their own territories or waging wars on German frontiers".
What were German ...
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Where and how were the catapults/trebuchets operators trained?
Practice makes perfect: give someone enough time with a sling, bow or crossbow and after a while he will learn to hit the target - you don't need to know much science, as much of the learning revolves ...
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How effective were longbow archers against plate-armored infantry?
It is quite common knowledge that longbows most likely did not penetrate the plate armor worn by the French chevaliers at Poitiers and Agincourt. However, how effective were these longbows in ...
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Is there a historical example or a manuscript about troop formation or fighting stance on a boat?
Is there a historical example or a manuscript about troop formation or fighting stance on any sort of boat or ship?
Especially during colonialism or the golden age of piracy, no specific location so ...
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Were any of the early settlements in America attacked from the sea?
I have a textbook which describes various considerations colonists made in selecting sights for settlements. For example, it says that Jamestown was too swampy, so there were many mosquitoes and ...
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Did the Nazi Army have a telephone conversation pattern?
The film "Valkyrie" (2008) depicts that while Stauffenberg was on his way to Berlin, Friedrich Fromm called Keitel to ask him about the rumors circulating in Berlin about Hitler's death.
Fromm to ...
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Would Hannibal's men have known about his strategies?
At things like the battle of Lake Trasimene, Cannae, etc. Hannibal's plans always seemed to involve some degree of offering some form of bait to the Romans, some group of men the Romans were (...
CommunityBot
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Has any war in recorded history ever resulted in the complete annihilation (civil and military) of an enemy - all of them killed with no survivors?
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In reviewing the Wiki topic on War of annihilation it is clear that there have been several examples (many of them in recent history) wherein the goal of a war was to utterly destroy an enemy ...
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Is there a database of wars in Europe since 1945?
I'm currently improving a Timeline I build some time ago, this Timeline of Wars in Europe since 1945. I did used several sources, including Wikidata, to get the list of conflicts to include. Yet, ...
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How did the Itelmen conduct war/warfare during the long 19th century?
As per what the question says I'm mostly looking for the sort of weapons and tactics that the Itelmens used and any potential academic and non-fiction material which I can read and look at since ...
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What's the correlation between an excessive unmarried male population and a big war breaking out?
I recently heard a commentator talking about the effects of the one-child policy in China. It went basically like this:
For various economic and cultural reasons, it's considered better to have a ...
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Did soldiers wear helmets in the 19th century? [closed]
When trying to do research in military history, I got interested in 19th century warfare. I know that they wore a lot of hats back then, but did they also wear helmets? I know that helmets existed at ...
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How far could an English war bow shoot?
The range of the medieval weapon is not accurately known, with estimates from 165 to 228 m (180 to 249 yds)
So says Wikipedia. I did read, however, in a semi-fictional, semi-historical work of ...
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Did archers lay on their back to draw bows?
I saw a movie called "The Hero" from 2002. I know the movie has a lot of artistic scenes, and less to do with reality. In one scene, many of the Chinese archers laid on the ground and used a big ...
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How did medieval camp followers work?
So I'm writing a medieval epic fantasy book, as one does.
I've read in a few places that armies should have camp followers, but frankly, I'm not sure what that means or how that might operate.
As I ...
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Has anyone ever named a war after their own country or faction?
An interesting conversation has come up on the Science Fiction and Fantasy SE site. I will try to summarize it as briefly as possible.
Someone asked a question about the second Star Wars prequel. ...
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How did Hussars change from heavy cavalry into light cavalry?
In 16th century Polish hussars were heavy cavalry, they were what knights became. In 17-18th centuries hussars were light cavalry. How and why did the change happen? Wiki mentions the change, but ...
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Why bother attacking castles at all? Why not go around?
Castles were designed to hold people, weapons, and supplies to survive a siege. They were well-defended. Taking one could easily be a long, bloody struggle.
Why attack at all? Most castles I've seen ...
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Did the Battle of Red Cliffs take place on the border between Cao Cao and Liu Bei's territories?
In the YouTube video Three Kingdoms - OverSimplified, we have this depiction of the Battle of Red Cliffs:
The video suggests the Battle of Red Cliffs (赤壁之战) takes place on the border between Cao Cao ...
MCW♦
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Did Henry V’s archers at Agincourt fight with no pants / breeches on because of dysentery?
At the Battle of Agincourt (1415), according to the War History Online article The Time English Soldiers went to Battle without Pants, and Won
The conditions for the archers at the start of the ...
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Where was gunpowder invented/ discovered?
There are many people on the internet claiming that India discovered/ invented gunpowder for eg, many of these claims quote Dr. Gustav Oppart (acs.org, and see below). Wikipedia says that gunpowder ...
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Was the quality of Roman armor really worse than the armor of knights of the XII-XIV centuries?
When I was studying the metallurgy of ancient Rome, I saw a rather controversial study done by Michael Fulford, David Sim and Alistair Doig called "The production of Roman ferrous armour:a ...
CommunityBot
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Were British infantry trained to shoot attacking aircraft with rifles?
In WWII the Allies were surrounded at Dunkirk as they waited for the Navy to ferry them back to England. In the movie "Dunkirk" there are entire Battalions of British troops standing in huge ...
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What is the price of modern warfare compared to medieval in terms of GDP?
I recently read that the Russians launched 35 missiles each costing around 1 million USD on Jarov, which made me realize that modern warfare is, to put it mildly, very expensive. But I would probably ...
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How was reconnaissance performed in medieval warfare?
During the middle ages reconnaissance played at least a minor part in a tactician's plans. As evidenced by this question Irish Hobelars would be used to scout ahead in terrain that was too difficult ...
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Do wars in Europe rarely start on a Wednesday? [closed]
When the Russian ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, was asked by the German newspaper Die Welt whether Russian armed forces would start to invade the Ukraine on Wednesday February 16th, as ...
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Have sanctions ever stopped a nation from starting or continuing a war?
I am asking about nations that would be considered “Great Powers”. It is my understanding that the U.S. oil embargo on Imperial Japan did nothing to stop Japan’s war in China and actually caused them ...
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Were the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki necessary? [closed]
The United States bombed Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Before the Japanese could surrender, they bombed Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The two bombs killed over 200,000 people, most of them civilians.
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Why did armies meet on the battlefield, and how often did they? (medieval times) [closed]
A common criticism I hear of fiction set in medieval-esque worlds is that it makes no sense for the defending army to leave the fortifications in order to meet the attacking army on the battlefield. ...
MCW♦
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Who said: "Armies prepare to fight their last war, rather than their next war"?
There is a famous quote which I've seen phrased in several different ways.
"Armies prepare to fight their last war, rather than their next war"
"Generals prepare to fight their father'...
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Was the M4 Sherman used frequently in artillery capacity?
I've heard the M4 Sherman had instruments on it that allowed it to act as an artillery piece. Is there any evidence to suggest this was effective?
I've heard that the Sherman had of course, its High ...
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How, just how you can burn down a stone structure? [closed]
I often encounter claims that this or that stone temple or fortress was "burned down" sometime in the past. How this could happen? One example (of many) is the claim that Church of St. Mary ...
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