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Old 07-05-2013, 06:03 PM
 
Location: Scotland
7,964 posts, read 11,813,461 times
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Finland defeating Russia gotta be up there right?

Winter War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Old 07-05-2013, 08:25 PM
 
1,898 posts, read 2,016,623 times
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Finland lost.

Ok I will bite. Depends on the criteriea of "greatest"

I think these are all possible contenders.

1949 Israel vs the whole Middle East. Israel fighting off a gang bang of arabs without tanks, planes or a navy.

300 BC (or therebouts) Macedons vs Persians at Gaugamela. Led to fall of Persian empire and greatly changed the history of most of the known world at that time.

June 1942 Battle of Midway, US vs Japan. Led to fall of Japanese Empire and export of US influence over all of Asia and the Pacific.

Sept 1941 Siege of St Petersburgh. Led to fall of Nazis and the enslavement of eastern Europe to a new master.

Last edited by justanokie; 07-05-2013 at 09:35 PM..
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Old 07-05-2013, 08:31 PM
 
Location: Scotland
7,964 posts, read 11,813,461 times
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Lol. Look again.

Finland
25,904 dead or missing
43,557 wounded
1,000 captured
957 civilians in air raids
20–30 tanks
62 aircraft
70,000 total casualties

Russia
126,875 dead or missing
188,671 wounded, concussed or burned
5,572 captured
3,543 tanks
261–515 aircraft
323,000 total casualties
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Old 07-05-2013, 08:39 PM
 
Location: Tricity, PL
61,313 posts, read 86,209,732 times
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In ancient world there were many very impressive military victories. The battle of Cannae comes to mind.

I also think that the battle of Stalingrad was very impressive.

Last edited by elnina; 07-05-2013 at 08:49 PM..
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Old 07-05-2013, 08:44 PM
 
Location: Victoria TX
42,579 posts, read 86,681,866 times
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Yes, Finland did lose. The Russians tried to claim a small amount of territory from Finland, Finland resisted, and in the final armistice, the Russians gained even more Finnish territory than they had demanded in the first place. That territory is still Russian.
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Old 07-05-2013, 09:00 PM
BMI
 
Location: Ontario
7,455 posts, read 7,227,363 times
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Battle of Stalingrad (aug. 23rd 1942 - feb. 2nd 1943)

Turning point of WW2

German 6th Army captured.
20 divisions, over 110,000 soldiers.
22 generals captured, including for the first time a Field Marshal (Paulus).

After the war only 6,000 of the captured german soldiers managed to return to Germany.
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Old 07-05-2013, 09:31 PM
 
Location: SF Bay Area
2,033 posts, read 1,972,366 times
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I'd say the Battle of Brittan. It was the first battle that made Germany realize that overrunning Europe wasn't going to be as easy as they thought. It was the first battle in human history I think that was solely fought between aircraft.
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Old 07-06-2013, 01:16 AM
 
Location: Westminster, London
872 posts, read 1,381,101 times
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For a single battle, probably the Battle of Tannenberg (1914), on the Eastern Front of the First World War.

One of the most complete military victories in history, in which the Germans cleanly encircled 4 entire Russian Corps despite a two-fold numerical disadvantage. Also, relatively few fatalities given the scope of the battle, given that the bulk of the Russian Second Army surrendered after it became evident their situation was hopeless. The following is a communique from Russian Northwest Headquarters illustrating the totality of their defeat and the absolute state of disarray of their armed forces, now fighting each other in confusion:

Quote:
There is no information about the situation of the Corps of the Second Army on the evening of the 31st ... There is no news of the XIII Corps. Isolated men of the XV Corps are arriving in batches at Ostrolenka. A portion of the XXIII Corps is fighting with the I Corps, a portion was with the XV Corps.
Also an impressive maneuver battle in the use of screening tactics, encirclement and the Napoleonite principle of divide-and-conquer.



Above, a single cavalry division screens the Russian First Army advance in the north, while the bulk of the German army ablates the Russian Second Army to the south.

Last edited by MissionIMPOSSIBRU; 07-06-2013 at 02:22 AM..
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Old 07-06-2013, 02:28 AM
 
Location: Sweden
23,862 posts, read 71,246,297 times
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Personally, I think the end of the dano-swedish war in 1658 was pretty good.
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Old 07-06-2013, 05:33 AM
 
Location: Finland
24,144 posts, read 24,695,670 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jtur88 View Post
Yes, Finland did lose. The Russians tried to claim a small amount of territory from Finland, Finland resisted, and in the final armistice, the Russians gained even more Finnish territory than they had demanded in the first place. That territory is still Russian.
I agree that Finland eventually did lose, but we won by retaining our independence. It's naïve to think that Stalin would have stopped there had he gained what he wanted in the negotiations. Stalin wanted the whole country, starting the war and setting up a puppet government in the first days of the war indicate this.

If Finland wouldn't have take up arms, we'd had probably followed the same path as the Baltic States - eventually total occupation without war. I'd also like to remind you that the public favored war in this case, istead of giving up territory, so technically the war was a democratic decision.
What is interesting to see in the casualties section is that the number of captured was very low. The fighting was literally "to the death".


I would like to mention the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Some 20,000 German barbarians destroyed 3 Roman legions and the battle led to the Roman withdrawal from parts of modern Germany. The battle was so humiliating for the Romans, that the lost legions (XVII, XVIII, XIX) were never raised again, and those numbers were banned to use in another legion.
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