Lopsided Victories
Alexander And Aristotle History is full of battles and wars. Most people feel, and rightfully so, that if one side far outnumbers the other and has more weapons, they should be triumphant. Usually this would be the case, but there are a lot of times where this didn't hold true. The most important factor in some battles has turned out to be generalship, not the amount of troops or weapons. Other times luck has played a huge part in a battle. One has only to look at Alexander the Great and the battles that he fought. He was routinely outnumbered by huge amounts. Alexander only lived to be 32 years old, but in that short lifetime conquered most of the known world. Alexander defeated the Persians several times in battle and yet they are said to have had over 300,000 men facing his 35,000. He seemed unstoppable. He conquered Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia and Bactria. He probably would have conquered India, but his men demanded a halt to battle. They were tired of it, so he withdrew. The American Civil War saw its share of lopsided victories. One of the greatest was at the battle of Chancellorsville. The battle took place in Virginia and lasted from April 30, 1863 to May 6, 1863. The Union Army of the Potomac outnumbered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia by at least 2 to 1 in men and weapons. The Confederate Army was commanded by Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Northern Army by Maj. Gen Joseph Hooker. The Union Army crossed the Rapidan River and the fighting started. Hooker was one not to take chances, but a man can be too careful. On the other hand Lee seized every opportunity and eventually was able to chase the Union Army back to where they came from. The Union Army was disgraced, loosing the battle to a force half its size.
Battle Of New Orleans One of the most lopsided victories in a battle occurred after a war was over. A peace treaty had been signed in Europe to end the War of 1812, but due to slow communications, neither the British or Americans knew this and the British began to amass troops to attack New Orleans. Andrew Jackson went there and rallied his men. The British were building their forces in Jamaica and getting ready for an invasion. Jackson had managed to fortify the city before the attack. Jackson's defenders were a crude affair and were composed of regular army, pirates under Jean Lafitte, militia, free African-American volunteers and Creole volunteers. Jackson's forces were far smaller than the British and a ragtag bunch and should have been easy pickings for the professional British forces. The Americans were routinely slaughtering British advances. At the end of the battle the British suffered over 1,500 casualties with almost 500 men captured and the Americans had suffered seventy causalities and 6 dead.
Italian Tanks In North Africa In World War II, the Italians had sent over 500,000 troops to North Africa. Against them were 50,000 British troops. The Italians expected a quick victory because of the overwhelming odds. One would think that a force that is outnumbered by 10 to 1 wouldn't be able to last very long. The British did have on thing in their favor and that was superior weapons. The battle ranged from December 1940 to February 1941 and in this time the British annihilated an Italian army of 130,000 soldiers, destroying the morale of the rest of the Italian force. Yes they won the battle, but then diverted their forces to Greece to fight the Germans and in the process almost lost the war in Africa after their stunning victory. It was as if strategy was being planned by politicians rather than military people and this might have been the case. I guess that one of the most lopsided victories has to be that of Israel over the Arab forces. Israel found itself in a battle against Egypt, Jordan and Syria with troops and arms also being contributed by Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria. Nothing could have been more lopsided than this. Egypt is said to have amassed over 1,000 tanks and about 100,000 soldiers on the Israeli border. The Arab countries denied planning an attack on Israel and when Israel bombed Egyptian airfields, they claimed that it was an unwarranted act of aggression. At that point Jordan attacked western Jerusalem and Netanya. Israel was the clear victor even though it was completely outnumbered. While not ultimately a win, the ancient Greeks held off the entire Persian Army of anywhere from 300,000 to 500,000 men in 480 B.C. Other estimates of the Persian army are over 1,000,000 men under arms. This was accomplished at a pass, in what is now know as the Battle of Thermopylae. The Greek forces were estimated at 300 Spartans and about 1200 troops from other Greek Cities. Others say that the total amount of soldiers sent from Greece to block the pass was 7,000. This force held the pass for 7 days. After the second day of battle the Greeks were betrayed by a man named Ephialtes who showed the Persians a path that led behind the Greeks. King Leonidas, who was there with his 300 man personal guard, found out about the betrayal and dismissed most of his force and only the 300 Spartans remained with 700 Thespians and 400 Thebens according to one account. Another states that there was a much smaller force there and most remained and fought to the death. Almost all who remained were slaughtered. This is perhaps one of the most famous last stands in the history of the world. I would like to end this article with the most lopsided military victory in the history of warfare. What do you think it was? Think carefully, because you know about it already. Yes it was when 182 Spanish soldiers under Francisco Pizarro conquered the entire Inca Empire of hundreds of thousands of people. Talk about being outnumbered, no army could have been more outnumbered than they were. The only advantages that they had were steel and horses, but how could this ensure victory over so many. That is one of the great historical mysteries of all time. The Spanish started out with deceit and trickery and captured the emperor of the Inca Empire. The campaign took decades, but it resulted in the utter defeat of the Inca nation. It is estimated that the Incas numbered about 16,000,000 people. Can you imagine, 182 against 16,000,000? The Spanish were outnumbered almost 88,000 to 1. Of course this figure is an estimate and contains women and children, but even if men only accounted for one quarter of the population, that meant being outnumbered by about 22,000 to 1. Of course they didn't face the entire Inca nation at once, but still faced considerable odds in battle. |
