Historical Battles Timeline ⚔️ Famous Battles in History 🎖️
This chronological list of historical battles covers all the important military engagements in recorded history.
- ADDucation’s Historical Battles list was originally compiled by Robert Junker and last updated 18 Aug 2024.
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Historical Battles | Where | When | Attackers | Victors | Defenders |
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Battle of Marathon | 🇬🇷 Greece | 490 BC | Athenians and Plataeans. | Attackers | Persian invaders. |
Battle of Issus | 🇹🇷 Turkey | 333 BC | Macedonians under Alexander the Great. | Attackers | Persian minions under the command of Darius III. |
Battle of Cannae | 🇮🇹 Italy, Apulia | 216 BC | 40,000 Carthaginians (†8000) under Hannibal. | Attackers | 80,000 Romans († 70,000) under Lucius Paullus. |
Battle of Teutoburg Forest | 🇩🇪 Germany, Lower Saxony | 9 AD | Germans under Arminius. | Attackers | 3 Roman legions under Varus (Varus Battle). |
2nd Battle of Lechfeld | 🇩🇪 Germany, Bavaria | 955 | Hungarian troops attacked under Bulcsú. | Defenders | Saxony / Franconia / Bavaria under Otto I. / Red Konrad. |
Battle of Hastings | 🏴 England, East Sussex | 1066 | 9000 Normans under Duke William II attacked. | Attackers | 10,000 Anglo-Saxons under King Harold II. |
Battle of Kosovo | 🇽🇰 Kosovo Polje | 1389 | An estimated 20,000 Christian Serbs and Bosnians, led by Prince Lazar and Vuk Brankovic, attacked the Turks. | Defenders | 35,000 Turks (Ottoman Empire) under Sultan Murad I, Sultan Bayezid I and Yakub. |
Battle of Grunwald | 🇵🇱 Poland, Masuria | 1410 | 27,000 German troops, under Grand Master Jungingen, attacked. | Defenders | 39,000 Poles and Lithuanians under Władysław II Jagiello. |
Siege of Orléans | 🇫🇷 France | 1428/29 | The French, under Joan of Arc, attacked the Burgundians and English. | Attackers | English and Burgundians under the Earl of Salisbury. |
Battle of Constantinople (Istanbul) | 🇹🇷 Turkey | 1453 | The Byzantines, under Emperor Constantine XI, attacked the Turks. | Defenders | 50,000 Turks under Sultan Mehmed II. |
Battle of Towton | 🏴 England, Yorkshire | 1461 | The 40,000 strong House of York army, under Edward IV, attacked the House of Lancaster during the War of the Roses. | Attackers | 60,000 of the House of Lancaster under Henry Beaufort. |
Battle of Hohenlinden | 🇩🇪 Germany, near Munich | 1800 | 100,000 French, under Moreau and Ney, attacked the Austrians and Bavarians. | Attackers | 120,000 Austrians under John of Austria. |
Battle of Austerlitz | 🇨🇿 Czechia | 1805 | 73,000 French (139 guns), under Emperor Napoleon I Bonaparte, attacked the Russian and Austrians (278 guns). | Attackers | 85,000 Russians and Austrians under Tsar Alexander I and Emperor Francis II. |
Battle of Trafalgar | Atlantic Ocean | 1805 | 27 British ships, under Nelson, attacked French and Spanish ships. | Attackers | 33 Spanish and French ships under Villeneuve. |
Battle of Leipzig | 🇩🇪 Germany, Saxony | 1813 | 210,000 Frenchmen, with 700 guns, under Emperor Napoleon I Bonaparte, attacked the Prussians, Austrians and Russians. | Defenders | 310,000 Prussians, Austrians and Russians under Prince Schwarzenberg and Alexander I. |
Battle of Hanau | 🇩🇪 Germany, Frankfurt | 1813 | 60,000 French troops, under Napoleon I, attacked the Bavarian and Austrian troops. | Attackers | 45,000 Bavarians / Austrians under Carl von Wrede. |
Battle of Waterloo | 🇧🇪 Belgium | 1815 | 72,000 Frenchmen with 246 guns under Emperor Napoleon I Bonaparte attacked. | Defenders | 68,000 English / Dutch (156 guns) and 31,000 Prussians under Wellington and Blücher. |
Battle of Fredericksburg | 🇺🇸 USA, Virginia | 1862 | 72,000 Confederate soldiers, under General Lee, attacked Union troops. | Attackers | 100,000 Union army soldiers under General Burnside. |
Battle of Gettysburg | 🇺🇸 USA, Pennsylvania | 1863 | 75,000 Confederates, under General Lee, attacked 88,000 Union soldiers. | Defenders | Union Army (88,000) under General Meade. |
Battle of Königgrätz / Sadowa | 🇨🇿 Czechia | 1866 | 278,000 Prussians, under Chief of Staff Moltke, attacked Austrian forces. | Attackers | 271,000 Austrians under Benedek. |
Battle of Sedan | 🇫🇷 France | 1870 | 120,000 Frenchmen, with 564 guns, attacked German forces. | Defenders | 200,000 Germans with 744 guns under Moltke. |
Battle of Little Big Horn River | 🇺🇸 USA | 1876 | Cheyenne, Dakota, and Arapaho, under chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, attacked. | Attackers | Cavalry Regiment under General Custer. |
Battle of Tannenberg | 🇵🇱 Poland | 1914 | 300,000 Germans, under General Hindenburg, attacked Russian army. | Attackers | 2nd Russian Army (300,000) under Samsonov. |
Battle of Verdun | 🇫🇷 France | 1916 | 75 French divisions (†167,000) under Joffre, Pétain and Nivelle attacked. | Undecisive | 50 German divisions (†150,000) under Falkenhayn. |
Battle of Jutland | North Sea, Skagerrak strait | 1916 | The Battle of Jutland was the last naval battle primarily fought by battleships.
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Undecisive |
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Battle of Britain | 🏴 England | 1940 |
Of all the historical battles this is the only one fought primarily by aircraft. |
Defenders |
|
Pearl Harbor | 🇺🇸 USA, Hawaii | 1941 | 4,000 American soldiers, on 10 ships and 261 aircraft were killed. | Attackers | Surprise attack by 360 Japanese aircraft under Admiral Chūichi Nagumo. Perspectives from both Japanese and American perspectives. |
Battle of Midway | Pacific Ocean | 1942 |
The most recent of all naval historical battles. |
Attackers |
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Battle of Stalingrad | 🇷🇺 Russia | 1942 | 850,000 German, Italian and Romanian soldiers, under Generalfeldmarschall (Grand Admiral) Paulus, attacked a much larger Soviet army. | Defenders | 1,700,000 Soviet soldiers under Zhukov, Timoshenko and Vasilevsky. |
Battle of Ardennes | 🇧🇪 Belgium | 1944 | 250,000 German soldiers, under Rundstedt, attacked US army forces. | Defenders | 1st and 3rd US Army (400,000) under Eisenhower. |
Battle of Huế | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | 1968 | 10,000 († 668) US Americans and South Vietnamese attacked. | Attackers | 10,000 († 2400[US] OR 5133[VN] North Vietnamese. |
Gulf War | 🇰🇼 Kuwait, 🇮🇶 Iraq | 1991 | 490,000 [1] Coalition forces under US General Schwarzkopf, attacked Iraqi forces. | Attackers | 550,000 Iraqi soldiers during the Gulf War. |
Battle of Baghdad | 🇮🇶 Iraq | 2003 | 45,000 Iraqis under Saddam Hussein attacked American-led forces. | Defenders | 300,000 Americans under Commander Franks. |
See also: Worst Dictators & Tyrants… | Famous Assassinations…
Historical battles notes: †: Died. [1] Coalition forces from Kuwait, USA, UK, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, France, Iraqi Kurdistan plus 30 other countries. [US] MACV US Military Assistance Command figures. [VN] PAVN Vietnam People’s Army of Vietnam figures.
War does not determine who is right – only who is left– Bertrand Russell
After That Marathon List of Historical Battles Try These History Related Lists
- List of Kings and Queens of England…
- Maritime shipping disasters…
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