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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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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Why didn't Germany blockade the Strait of Gibraltar during WW2?
The Strait of Gibraltar, at its narrowest point, is about 14 km wide. Why didn't Germany blockade it during WW2?
It seems to me that only a handful of submarines and destroyers could do the job. Wasn'...
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Why were ships-of-the line not supposed to open fire on frigates during fleet actions?
Found this passage in the book Patrick O'Brian's Navy (p. 57)
In the era of fighting sail there was an unspoken convention that line-of-battle ships did not fire on frigates during any fleet action ...
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Why bother to attack in trench warfare?
At least on the western front, trenches were heavily defended. Any charge was just suicidal, with heavy losses for the attacker and much smaller losses for the defender. As there is a big strategic ...
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When did bombs actually look like this?
I guess most are familiar with the cartoonish "bomb icon". It is used to warn of metaphorical or literal explosive danger and shows a deep black sphere with a smaller cylinder attached. That is where ...
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Did World War II-era bombs actually whistle?
In WWII-era films and newsreels, aerial bombs are often shown making a whistling sound as they fall; starting high pitched, then decreasing as the bomb approaches the Earth (example here, starting at ...
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Was Switzerland really impossible to invade during WW2?
My question is not about an alternative scenario, nor about the reasons that caused Switzerland to not get invaded (as could be seen here: Why was Switzerland not attacked during the two World Wars?). ...
user38955
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How would a Spartan have held his shield?
I am astonished at the weight of a Spartan shield, which I have read would have weighed 30 lbs (13.5 kg). This is, of course, extremely heavy for most people.
Ergo, it raised the question for me: ...
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When were swords last used in European warfare?
Specifically, I'm interested in the last documented occurrence of swords (of any sort) being used as a primary weapon by infantrymen or cavalrymen in Western warfare. That is, when did any European or ...
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How did pilots know when to release bombs on airplanes during World War2?
Given that during this time computing technology wasn't advanced enough to calculate when to drop bombs accurately on a target, I recall hearing something about bomber pilots using a modified watch to ...
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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 the Nazis plan to defeat America during World War II?
Yamamoto famously advised against a war with the United States, because he could tell how powerful they would be once they got going. The Nazis, however, declared war on the United States of their ...
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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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How did Genghis Khan's army feed so many horses?
The average horse eats 10-20 pounds per day, according to this pet website. Considering the fact that the horses may have to eat even more because of the hard traveling they had to endure, it's likely ...
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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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Did archers synchronize fire? Why?
I noticed that in medieval movies and TV shows, when there is a big battle happening, groups of archers always synchronize their firing. I was wondering whether this is something that writers made up ...
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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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Has there been any "invasive plants warfare" in the past?
Has there been any events of warfare in the past which used invasive plants to damage any country's (or kingdom's) food crops or its natural vegetation?
Some details:
The damage done by invasive ...
user45361
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Were slings used for throwing hand grenades? If not, why?
It seems using a sling is far more effective than throwing things with your bare hands. As far as I know, slingers were widespread in the Ancient era, as well as in the Middle ages:
However, in XIX-...
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In what way were Renaissance battles like chess matches?
I have been reading Ross King's Brunelleschi's Dome: The Story of the Great Cathedral in Florence. Although the book is well documented, it has an astonishing passage for which the author provides no ...
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How did Europeans first acquire gunpowder?
I know that gunpowder was first invented in China around the 10th century, and it seems that gunpowder likely made its way to Europe via the "Silk Road." However, there doesn't seem to be a ton of ...
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Why were Royal Navy ships forbidden to attack the ARA Veinticinco de Mayo in Argentinian waters?
I watched this video on the British hunt for the Argentinian aircraft carrier ARA Veinticinco de Mayo, during the Falklands war.
Involved, among other ships, was the Royal Navy nuclear submarine HMS ...
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Why was PTSD not written about as much before the 20th century?
As late as WW1 there was very little literature surrounding PTSD/'shellshock'. In fact, the term was not coined until the 1980's.
Considering the fact that warfare has been a part of human life since ...
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Why didn't the British Grand Fleet force an engagement with the German Imperial Navy in WW1?
I'm watching the channel The Great War on YouTube, which documents the goings on of the First World War week by week (careful, it's addictive and there are literally hundreds of episodes).
It is my ...
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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'...
user27618
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Classical battle sizes vs medieval battle sizes
Why did classical battles did tend to be larger than in the medieval period? One particular example I am thinking of was the Battle of Stamford Bridge, which had around 30,000 participants, compared ...
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What was the cleanest war ever fought?
If not all, the vast majority of wars in known history were dirty, cruel and with a lot of civilian casualties. That makes me wonder if there has ever been a "clean" war where both sides played "by ...
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Have any kings ever been serving admirals?
As the title says, has any person who has held or has gone on to hold the title of King (or some other similar monarchical title) ever been a serving admiral, who has exercised actual command of a ...
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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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How did a besieged city/castle defend itself vs. catapulting diseased dead bodies into it?
I was a bit shocked to read that diseased dead bodies/animals where catapulted into besieged castles/towns. Biological warfare in the middle ages. But this "method" of warfare had probably a lot of ...
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Who was the last European king to actively engage in combat?
Specifically, I would like to know who the most recent European monarch (or monarchs, if they lived roughly at the same time) is that actively engaged in combat whilst reigning: that is, used a sword, ...
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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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In Antiquity, were Persian arrows considered superior to their Greek counterparts?
In Xenophon's Anabasis I ran into the following part:
The Persian bows are also large, and consequently the Cretans could
make good use of all the arrows that fell into their hands; in fact,
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Why did Sun Tzu believe you shouldn't wait beside a river when eager to fight?
In Sun Tzu's Art of War, Chapter 9 (The Army on the March), Verse 5, Tzu says
If you are anxious to fight, you should not go to meet the invader near a river which he has to cross.
My thinking is ...
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What was the most recent country to be conquered and disappear?
In the Old Days, one country would conquer another and add it to its empire. What was the most recent country to be conquered and cease to exist as a country?
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What made Alexander great?
Historians have titled Alexander III of Macedon "the Great". In a very short period of time he conquered one of the largest empires in ancient history and was undefeated in battle.
What I'd like to ...
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Why were people from the Asian Steppes able to militarily dominate Europeans on a repeated basis?
From the Huns through the Mongolians, why were nomadic people from the east able to create such havoc in Europe? Was it an endless 'first mover' advantage with horse domestication? Was it a higher ...
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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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What forces/incentives drove the Mongols to conquer a much larger territory than they could comfortably settle or rule?
Internet resources on the Mongol Empire usually dwell on the Mongol conquests of a huge mass of territory. Unfortunately, seldom are the reasons behind the conquests explained. One gets the impression ...
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Roughly, what percentage of arrows can be reused after a battle?
The English Longbowman according to some sources can shoot at/above 10 arrows per minute. Some of the medieval battles would last for many hours. Back-of-the-envelope math says the number of shots ...
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What other one word responses have been made to military ultimatums besides "Nuts!", "Mokusatsu" and "If"?
I am aware of three well known circumstances where a one word response was given to a military ultimatum:
The Japanese government responded “mokusatsu” to the Potsdam Declaration prior to the ...
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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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What really happened to the Maya civilization?
Are there any reliable sources that explain the "disappearance" of the Maya? I am highly skeptical about the following account as it states that the cities were destroyed by the war when in ...
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How did Aztec armor and weaponry match up to the Spaniards?
If you discount the germs and the gunpowder, how did the average Aztec warrior match up against the average Spaniard facing him? As I understand it European metallurgy was considerably more advanced, ...
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Did the Germans have a team equivalent to the one from Bletchey Park in the UK during WWII?
There is a lot of information about the British code breakers at Bletchey Park and the work they did for cryptography, computing and the war effort.
Still, I haven't heard a lot about a German ...
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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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How frequently were homing pigeons used in the World Wars?
It seems that the strategic weight of specially bred pigeons is much higher than I thought at first, based on the number of pigeons used and the effort to stop them. (In WW2 Germans even trained ...
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If salt was scarce and expensive, how did people "salt the earth" to ensure their enemies would stay defeated?
A common theme through much of history seems to be ensuring that the recently defeated enemy cannot recover from the loss. A way to ensure that is restricting the ability to grow food -- i.e. "...
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What is the longest retreat?
What is the longest sustained retreat by a military force in history, by total length? Not counting naval examples, as they can be much longer.
When I search for it I get a lot of results to 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 ...
