What was the greatest military plan for a single battle in history?

Question

Im biased. I love Hannibal at Trebia...what's your favorite.

Answer 1

Canae. The double envelopement there became the standard for all military thought from there forward. Its one of the first battles they teach at West Point.

Answer 2

What exactly is your metric for determining the answer to this question? Is it victory with the most favorable casualty ratio? Is it victory that led to a great strategic advantage? Is it a victory that saw little or no deviance from the original plan? Or is it a victory that saw triumph against overwhelming odds?

If you're talking Hannibal, Cannae would be it. Trebia, Lake Trasimine were noteworthy, but Cannae is the one that opened up the road to Rome and total victory - if only Hannibal had taken it.

Is it Marathon? Salamis and Plataea are far more convincing as epic battles, as they led to both the destruction of the Persian host and the cessation of the Persian will to conquer Hellas.

Third Battle of Kharkov? The architect of that was Field Marshal Erich Von Manstein, the man who was responsible for the armored drive through the Ardennes that crushed Western Europe in seven weeks, the man who brought the mighty fortress of Sevastopol to its knees.

There are countless noteworthy battles besides, but until you've defined your parameters a bit more clearly, this is one question that defies both consensus and serious extrapolation.

Answer 3

Colonel-General Erwin Rommel at the Battle of Gazala May 26 to June 21,1942
An important battle of the World War II Western Desert Campaign, fought around the port of Tobruk in Libya. The combatants on the Axis side were Rommel and his Panzer Army Afrika, consisting of German and Italian units; Allied forces were the British Eighth Army, commanded by Major General Neil Ritchie under the close supervision of the Commander-in-Chief Middle East, General Sir Claude Auchinleck. It was the battle that lead to the fall of Tobruk. Unfortunatly Rommel was on the wrong side and it turned out to be a short lived victory.

Answer 4

I'm biased too, i liked Paul Hausser's tactical plan at the 3rd Battle of Kharkov, 1943. His II. SS Panzer Corps defeated a Red Army 7 times his size, and he stabilized the front after the debacle at Stalingrad.

Answer 5

If you want to call the D Day invasion a single battle, then Operation Overlord.

Otherwise, maybe Marathon.

Answer 6

The Great Raid, in the history books it was the rescue of 500 POW from a camp held by the japanese in the philippines

Answer 7

Well D-Day was a disaster for the Americans so that wasn't a good plan but mind due there has never been a god plan in American history.The Somme because the British got it in the end.

Answer 8

Sun Tzu said, "Consummate skill in the art of war is not the winning of great battles, but of achieving one's aim with out fighting."

So, I would answer either Hitler's conquest of the Rhineland or Austria.

Answer 9

Gotta be the Battle of Marathon.

Answer 10

good god you took the words out of my mouth.I was going to say Hannibal at lake Trebia.when the romans cast themselves into the water they drowned because the weight of there armor took them to the bottom.