Crécy 1346

         
          The battle of Crécy was fought by the English led by king Edward the third against the French led by Philip the fifth of France. In 1337 the hundred war between England and France began. This war reached its peak in 1346 with sieges and counter-sieges over Aquitaine. Edward the third raised an army of experienced soldiers 10,000 men strong to invade France with more than half of them yeoman archers.

           His men left from Portsmouth and landed in Normandy. He was cut off in enemy territory when his fleet got their orders wrong and left prematurely. They had no option but to march north to Flanders which was friendly territory. King Phillip the six had mustered a force which far outnumbered the English army and went to intercept.

          Edward discovered that all bridges were either destroyed or to well defended to cross the river Somme. If Edward couldn't get his force across the waterway his troops would be cornered. Edward offered a large reward to anyone who could get them across. Gobin Agache took Edward up on his offer. He guided Edward to the ford at Blanque Taque. Edward happened upon a strong defencive position which would make the most of the barrage of arrows.

          The English deployed themselves between the villages of Wadincourt and Crécy-en-Ponthieu. Before the English army was a ridge which gradually fell away to open land and behind the army was a forest. Edward's front line covered the whole of the front slope with 1,800 phalanx and men-at-arms on the right and 800 on the left. Both of those divisions were supported with 1,000 longbowmen. The rest of the longbowmen connected the divisions into a 'v'. The archers were protected from cavalry by pits and spikes driven into the ground. There were 700 men-at-arms a little behind the archers with 2,000 archers on their flanks.

       
          Phillip marched his troops in sight of king Edwards as he wanted to camp with the British in sight but he couldn't control his troops. The French troops were bloodthirsty and would not wait. King Phillip was forced to wage battle that day. Phillip sent out his Genoese mercenaries who were crossbowman first. He did this as he believed that the crossbow was more effective than the longbow. Battle began when the Genoese fired upon the bowman. In return the yeoman archers fired a tornado of arrows on the Genoese crippling and routing them in one volley. The English then fired upon the French men-at-arms in the front row. The French cavalry charged through the mangled and wounded then cut their way through the Genoese and charged up the hill to get at Edward's men-at-arms. They were shot at by thousands of bows as Edward had predicated that the French would attack like that. The French cavalry charged fifteen times and were repulsed every single time.

          The death totals were between 2,000-10,000 French dead and only 100 English dead. This was a massive victory for King Edward.

Photo taken from wikipedia video taken from marshallpoe on youtube.

Battle of Thermopylae 480 BC

          The battle of Thermopylae was fought between the Greek city states and the Persian Empire. The Greek City States were led by King Leonidus and the Persian Empire was led by  Emperor Xerxes. Xerxes raised a force of around 300,000 men. This was the second invasion of Greece as the first led Xerxes father Darius an usurper. They were defeated by the Athenians at the battle of Marathon which ended the fist invasion.

          Themistocles proposed that the Spartans hold the narrow pass called Thermopylae while the Athenian navy defends the straits of Artemisium. King Leonidus led 7,000 Greeks including 300 Spartans north to the ''hot gates''. Leonidus deployed his troops in a phalanx twelve men deep. Thermopylae was a very narrow pass and it protected Leonidus's flanks. This meant that the Persians would have to face them infantry against infantry. Leonidus was aware of a narrow pass which would led the Persians behind the Greeks and left a detachment of Phoenician infantry defending it.

          Xerxes ordered 5,000 archers to fire upon the Greeks. This was ineffective as the Greeks hard large bronze shields and good quality helmets. The Greeks performed a phalanx across the narrowest part of the 'hot gates'. Xerxes sent waves of 10,000 men to combat the Greek shield wall. As the Greeks had long sarissas and short swords. It was said that after the first waves that the Persians were cut to ribbons with only two or three Spartans dying. The tactics of the Greek phalanx was that the first line was pushed from behind by the second line which was pushed by the third line and so on. They would trample over the lightly armoured Persians and kill them with their short swords.

Xerxes sent waves and waves of men at the Greeks. A Greek traitor called Ephialtes showed the Persians a route through the mountain which led behind the Greek's lines. When Leonidus found out about the Persians were on the mountain pass He sent back his whole army except for the 300 Spartans and 700 Thebians which would hold the pass so that the rest of the Greeks could retreat safely. The whole rearguard was annilated. In total 2,000 Greeks were killed.

Movie taken from 300 and photo taken from Rome Total War.

Battle of Hastings 1066

                              The Battle of Hastings

          On his deathbed Edward the Confessor is said to have bequeathed his kingdom to Harold Godwin who was a powerful nobleman. He had no claim to the throne but the council elevated him to the throne. The duke of Normandy a distant relation to Edward the Confessor claimed that Edward bequeathed him the throne should he die without a successor in 1051. William's claim was believed legitimate by most of Europe.

          King Harald Hardrada of Norway also claimed the throne and landed his troops in north-east England.This took Harold by surprise and he had an insufficient force (the fryd had already disbanded after two months on standby this was the maximum time the law allowed militia to operate for). Harold went to meet Harald Hardrada in battle at Stamford bridge with his bodyguards the housecarl and the fryd who hadn't dispersed. Harold's troops were victorious and Harald Hardrada was killed in action.

          Less than a week later Harold heard that Duke William had landed at Pevensey Bay. Harold immediately led his  depleted army south to London to gather as many men as he could. He stayed in London for just five days before he marched to the coast to confront the Normans.
 
          On the 13th of October 1066 Harold deployed his force on Senlac Hill. This was a very strong defencive position. It dominated the Hastings to London road, its front was only 550 metres long and Harold's flanks were secure by steep slopes cut with gullies. News of Harold's appearance surprised William but did not dismay him. William gathered up his 6,000 troops and marched them to Senlac Bay on the 14th of October.

          William deployed his well rested troops into three divisions. He deployed the French and his             mercenaries on the right, on the left was a mainly Breton force and in the centre he placed his Norman men-at-arms and knights which he led. The battle begun at 9am. William sent out his archers to rain arrows down on Harold's force until their quivers were empty. Harold had very few archers to retaliate. After the archers made way for the men-at-arms. The Anglo-Saxon line held under the men-at-arms charge. The Norman knights then tried to brake Harold's line with no more success than the men-at-arms had. Soon after the battle began William's Breton force began to flee chased by a group of ill-disciplined frydmen. William managed to rally his other two divisions and sent his Norman knights to surround and destroy the frydmen.

          After prodding the Anglo-Saxons with attack after attack he decided on a new stratagem and sent a force which pretended to retreat to draw out Harold's men from the ridge which was inspired by his Breton force earlier. Many of Harold's undisciplined frydmen fell for the ruse and were surrounded and destroyed. William ended the battle with another stratagem. He ordered his archers to fire arrows very high into the air forcing the Anglo-Saxons to raise their shields high in the air. This left them susceptible to a frontal assault and William poured his men-at-arms and Norman cavalry into the Anglo-Saxon front line. The Normans made their way quickly through the Anglo-Saxon ranks and cut down Harold. With no leader and Harold's two brothers lying dead Harold's force disintegrated giving victory to William.

          William was crowned William the Conqueror ten weeks later in Westminster Abbey on Christmas day.

       
       video made by the bbc. Picture made by new world encyclopedia.
       

Introduction

              Hi, I am Rory O'Callaghan. I am hopefully going to enlighten you of the geography of battles throughout history. In my posts I will go through a selection of battles and give you an idea what happened and why e.g. I will start with the battle of Cannae in Italy. This was a battle between the Romans and the Carthaginians. I plan to put up a new battle each week. If you have any battles in particular you would like me to post just comment and I will consider putting the battle up.
                      Thanks alot, Rory

Battle of Cannae 216 BC

                           

                              THE BATTLE OF CANNAE

          In 218 BC war broke out between Rome and Carthage, the second of the Punic Wars. Hannibal  had an army of mixed forces. In the ranks were Carthaginians, Numidians, Spaniards and Gauls. They fought their way northwards crossing the treacherous alps in the middle of winter. This was an astonishing feat and took the Romans by surprise. 

          Hannibal needed to feed his troops in order to continue the invasion of Italy. This brought Hannibal to the corn-growing province of Cannae in southern Italy. In the centre of the province was a vast granary used to supply the Roman legions. Hannibal camped on the right bank of a river south of Cannae.

           Hannibal had already defeated the Romans on two previous occasions and with the Roman's grain supplies threatened, the Senate mustered the greatest army that Rome has ever put to field. This Roman force was placed under the command of consul Paulus and consul Varro. They alternated supreme control over the army so that each consul commanded the army on different days.

          The August sun beat down upon the soldiers who faced each other for three days before any action took place. Paulus was a lot more experienced than Varro in the art of war. Paulus didn't want to face the Carthage army head on which Varro ignored. On the fourth day while in command Varro began the battle as he was confident of victory with superior numbers and gave battle for the honour of Rome.

          The Roman army consisted of 80,000 infantry troops and 6,000 cavalry this was deployed with a skirmish line in front of tightly packed phalanx of foot soldiers with Roman cavalry and Rome's allies cavalry on the flanks.

           Hannibal deployed his Spaniards and Gauls in a half moon formation facing the skirmish line of the Romans. At the end of the crescent was his higher quality Carthaginian infantry. The left flank was protected by Hannibal's heavy cavalry led by Handrubal, while the right flank was protected by light Numidian cavalry. The Numidian light cavalry were free to operate on the open ground away from the river (the river was past Hannibal's left flank). 

          The fighting really began when Hannibal sent his heavy cavalry to engage the Roman cavalry. The Roman cavalry was led by consul Paulus. Hannibal's heavy cavalry destroyed the Roman cavalry and what was left of it left the field of battle. The Spanish and Gaulish infantry then engaged the Roman legions. By weight of numbers the Roman's pushed the half-moon crescent inside out so the Romans sensing an easy victory rushed into the apparently disintegrating centre. While this was happening the Numidian light cavalry routed the allied cavalry under the command of Varro. Hannibal then split his reserve infantry and sent them round the back of the Roman legions, the highly trained Carthaginian infantry attacked both flanks of the Roman legions and the Numidian light cavalry attacked the unprotected backs of the legions, slaughtering the legions.

          Hannibal crammed the Roman legions with his 40,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry so tightly that the close packed soldiers had no space to swing a sword. It is estimated that between 50,000 and 70,000 Romans died in battle for the loss of only 6,000 of Hannibal's men. This tactic is now called double envelopment and has been used by many generals since 216 BC when the battle took place, for example at Tannenberg.

just an awesome video for you

                                    Thanks for the video Titus Labienus
                                    Photo by wikipedia.