The Alamo, Dunkirk, The Bridge at Arnhem?

Question

Which of these is the most memorable defeat? And why

But at the Alamo 13% of the defenders were British! If it had fallen would it have affected anyone outside of Texas?

Last time I checked, Scots and Irish are Brits!

JoeS. So wales, Ireland and Scotland are not part of the British Isles? You are the idiot!

Answer 1

I think that although the Alamo may be the most memorable but certainly not the most important thing historically, because if the Allies attempt at arnhem bridge had succeded then the Allies would have reached Berlin earlier, before the Communist Russians, what this means is that the Allies would have found the Radioactive stores if the Russians hadn't found them we wouldn't have the Cold War because the Russians wouldn't have had Nuclear weapons and so things like the Cuban missile crisis would never have happened, so its most important in historical terms, the Alamo was really unimportant the early USA wouold have taken over that area anyway so it doesnt affect territory.




Incidentally, you are correct in thinking that the Scots Irish and Welsh are British, at the moment, England, Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland all dont exist as individual countries, they all exist as a part of the United Kingdom or Great Britain, they dont exist as separate countries. So therefore the 13% of British fighting at the Alamo could have been from any part of Britain but are primarily British and ddin't come from any other country.

Answer 2

While all three defeats were crushing, the loss at the Alamo is the most memorable. It is not just because I am an American (I know about the other defeats listed and many other crushing losses), but that there was a rallying cry after the fall of the Alamo. The rallying cry "Remember The Alamo" was used to spur on the rest of the fighters in the Texas Revolution which ultimately ended with Texas winning.

Dunkirk would best be remembered more for the largest evacuation operation (Operation Dynamo) that rescued over 330,000 soldiers from almost certain death. The Arnhem Bridge operation (made famous by the movie A Bridge Too Far) was more of a military bungle - if the full complement soldiers were dropped in closer to the bridge, then the outcome may have been different.

However, those defeats were minuscule when compared to the demolition of the Roman Army against Hannibal at Cannae (excellent battle to look into for the military buffs).

Answer 3

I'd go with the Alamo because its ingrained in everyone's memory through movies and tv. In addition, it was just a handful of fighters - somewhere around 200 or so, they revise the number upwards every couple of years - fighting against overwhelming odds. Another reason its memorable is because David Crockett and James Bowie both died there - and they're American folk heroes.

Actually, the battle was little more than a bunch of would-be land grabbers trying to take the land from Mexico and fighting to keep what they had effectively stolen. Of course, the Mexicans had stolen it from the Indians, but that never gets mentioned.

Another reason possibly for the Alamo's being more memorable is because it was fought on what is now American soil. And, had the battle of the Alamo not been fought, Sam Houston's troops wouldn't have conquered Santa Ana at San Jacinto and all of us in Texas would now be speaking Spanish.

Answer 4

Depends which side your on since someone won

I always felt Hitlers failure to capitalise on Dunkirk was ultimately his undoing, as it allowed the Allies to escape instead of capturing the BEF. If he had achieved this, the Britain would have likely had to sue for peace, and Hitler could have focused on the Eastern front. As it was the Germans ended up fighting on 2 fronts

The biggest failure at Arnhem was that they followed thru with the plan instead of concentrating on opening Antwerp as a second front. Ultimately Arnhem proved how limited Airborne infantry had become by the end of the war, in spite of the early promise it had shown

Dont know enough about the Alamo

Answer 5

Operation Market Garden a.k.a. The Bridge at Arnhem
remained a barrier to the Allied advance until March 1945. The defeat of Allied forces at Arnhem is considered the last major German victory of the Western Campaign.Had Operation Market Garden been a success countless allied soldiers would have survived and it would have brought a end to the German offense in the east.

Answer 6

Depends which side of the Atlantic one comes from....The Yanks are obviously going to say the Alamo......but us Brits will problably say either Dunkirk or Arnhem, but my money is probably on Dunkirk, because even out of defeat there was a moral victory with the floatilla of small ships sailing from Blighty to France & rescuing our brave lads from the hands of the Nazi German's...It went onto show Britain's resolve in the face of adversity.......

Answer 7

Idiot!!!

The Scots and Irish are separate from the English. The English refer collectively to themselves, Scots, Welsh and Irish as British. The Scots, Irish and Welsh refer themselves as separate ethnic identities.

This was a deliberate attempt to foster unity.

Try the 1916 Easter Rebellion, a defeat at the time, but unified the Irish to defeat the biggest Empire of the time, the British!!!

Answer 8

From your tag I wonder why you don't include Isandlwhana or Roarke's Drift. Clearly you are out to showcase Brit involvement.

Of course as a former Tennessean, the Alamo gets the nod and not for the 13% who were Brits, but for the butt kicking Scots-Irish that were really there.

Answer 9

I'll go for Dunkirk because it not only saved the few allied troops form being finaly crushed by the germans, but it was also a great act of bravey from all the civilian small boat owners who participated.

Answer 10

dunkirk was huge in scale but it wasn't all out defeat cause so mamany escaped/. the alamo is what we rememebre but it too was nt a defeat because it inspired greatness later. but some really cool guys died at the alamo.