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The Most One-sided Battle in History

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  Quote Komnenos Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: The Most One-sided Battle in History
    Posted: 02-Sep-2005 at 03:22
A bit of a spin-off from "Today in history"

Is it Omdurman?

At the Battle of Omdurmanin 1898, British troops, led by Lord Kitchener, defeat the Sudanese and re-occupy the Sudanese capital , Khartoum. It was a desive victory for the colonial power in the war against the forces of the Madhi Mohammed Ahmed, a religious leader in the Sudan, who had declared a Jihad against the Ottoman-British occupiers. The forces of the Madhi, Sudanese tribesman armed with guns and more traditional weapons like spears and swords, were no match for the British machine guns and artillery. On the British side, out of a force of approximately 8000, 48 were killed and 382 wounded, while the Sudanese casualties were somewhat higher, out a force of 50.000, 10.000 were killed and 15.000 were wounded.

Which makes it a ratio of 1 to 200 casualties.

Any other contenders for the title?


Edited by Komnenos
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  Quote Spartakus Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2005 at 06:28
Before even read your post i was thinking of the same extact battle!!
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  Quote the Bulgarian Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2005 at 06:35

Hmm, let me see.

In WW2 there was fortres in Belgium that was suposed to be impregnable. It had a strong heavy artilery defence, but it was defenceles against an air assult - something the Germans didn't fail to notice. Nobody expected an attack fro the air, after all. The Germans managed to capture it with just 15 casualties, where as the Belguese lost much more men. I don't rememder exact numbers and which fortres it was, but I'm sure professor Komnenos would gladly enlighten us.

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  Quote yan. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2005 at 11:33

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Eben-Emael

 

I think there were some very one-sided battles in WWI - all those mass infantry charges into machine gun fire. Can't remember any dates or places, though.

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  Quote Ahmed The Fighter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2005 at 14:06
Battle of Yarmuk when 20,000 arab soldiers inflicted heavy losses on Byzantine army of 40,000 men near Yarmuk river.
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  Quote Ahmed The Fighter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2005 at 14:11
Battle of Strling Bridge,William Wallace with his 15,000 men defeated English army of 50,000 men in great decisive battle. 
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  Quote Conan the destroyer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2005 at 14:15

Battle against nanzhao, Gao Pian uses an army of 30,000 crossbowmen to defeat a Nanzhou army several times the size of his. Taking very few losses.

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  Quote Styrbiorn Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2005 at 14:21
Originally posted by Ahmed The Fighter

Battle of Yarmuk when 20,000 arab soldiers inflicted heavy losses on Byzantine army of 40,000 men near Yarmuk river.


...which was largely due to 10,000+ men switching sides. The heavy losses were close to nearly the whole remaining Byzantine army though.



Anyway, there are certainly loads of examples of these world-wide, but the only I can think of now is Narva, where Karl XII's 9,700 strong army lost 600 men killing or capturing virtually every single man of the opposing 35,000 strong Russian army, and at Wallhof where Gustav Adolf with 1,000 infantry and about as many cavalrymen defeated a 7,000 strong Polish army. The Poles lost 1,500-2,000 men dead and wounded, the Swedes zero dead and a dozen or two wounded.




Edited by Styrbiorn
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  Quote Ahmed The Fighter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2005 at 14:44
Battle of Agincourt between England and France in hundred years war, 5,000-9,000 English defeated 12,000-30,000 French the casualties 100 English and 5,000 French with 1,000 prisoners.
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  Quote Ahmed The Fighter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2005 at 14:52
 Battle of Adrianople between Romans under empror Valens and Germanic tribes(visigoths and ostrogoths),20,000 Germans defeated 30,000 Romans,Romans casualties 20,000 men.
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  Quote Ahmed The Fighter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2005 at 15:03
  Battle of the little big horn 1750 native Americans defeated 780 Americans with guns,Casualties 42 Indians, 262 Americans.
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  Quote Zagros Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2005 at 15:08

Mons Graupius NE Scotland.

Roman kills: 10,000 Pict Kills: 360

Roman Army 20k

Pict Army 30k

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  Quote Heraclius Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2005 at 16:22

Originally posted by Ahmed The Fighter

 Battle of Adrianople between Romans under empror Valens and Germanic tribes(visigoths and ostrogoths),20,000 Germans defeated 30,000 Romans,Romans casualties 20,000 men.

 The Romans were winning this battle, the massacre occurred when the Gothic cavalry returned, until then it had been looking like a Roman victory, so it cant be considered totally one-sided.

 As for Yarmuk I have to disagree there aswell, have to remember the Byzantine army was pretty shattered after the recent Persian wars the desertions certainly didnt help either.

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  Quote Paul Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2005 at 16:55

A few come to mind...

Agincourt 10-15,000 French dead including the post-battle prisoner massacre to a couple of hundred English.

1st day of the Somme, how many Germans died?

Pearl Harbour, 2,898 Amercans vs 64 Japanese.

Trafalgar 14,000 French and Spanish killed vs 449 British.

The Bismark incident probably provided two of the most one sided battle Hood and Prince of Wales vs Bismark and a few days later Bismark vs Rodney and King George V. Also Duke of York vs Scharnhorst. All were practical no casualties on the victor, so infinity to 1.

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  Quote Heraclius Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2005 at 17:04
 A brief look on wikipedia says 465,000 to 600,000 german casualties with over 600,000 allied casualties, so certainly not one sided.
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  Quote dirtnap Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2005 at 17:06
There was this one battle that stands out in my mind, hmm lets see, oh yeah I think it was called The battle of Thermopylae (480 BC) during the Persian wars.

The numbers are too convincing.

A few thousand Greeks against what 500,000 Persians

The Greeks lost something maybe 1000 while the Persians lost 30,000. Talk about one sided.





Edited by dirtnap
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  Quote strategos Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2005 at 17:06
Originally posted by Paul

 

Pearl Harbour, 2,898 Amercans vs 64 Japanese.

 

Pearl harbor was not really a battle though...,

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  Quote Laelius Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2005 at 17:21
I'd have to include the battle of Leyte Gulf which resulted in the virtual destruction in the Japanese surface fleet as well as its naval air force.  This was likely the last great hurrah in naval warfare.
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  Quote Zagros Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2005 at 17:31

The Bismark incident probably provided two of the most one sided battle Hood and Prince of Wales vs Bismark and a few days later Bismark vs Rodney and King George V. Also Duke of York vs Scharnhorst. All were practical no casualties on the victor, so infinity to 1.

heh, I read that as Bismarck vs Rodney King



Edited by Zagros
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  Quote Mosquito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2005 at 18:52

Battle of Kirholm 1605. Poles had 3000 soldiers, Swedish army including mercenaries had about 9000-12000.  Poles lost about 100 men, Swedes lost about 6000-8000.

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