most decisive battle in history?

Question

just a question for yall, what do you think is the most decisive battle in history?

Salamis is my choice

Answer 1

The most decisive battle is likely the one that never happened, after the Mongols crushed the Poles at Liegnitz and the Hungarians at Muhi in the 13th century.

The withdrawal of both Batu Khan and Subudei Khan ensured that the Mongol "drive to the Atlantic" would never be resumed with the same intensity, especially after the death of Chingghis Khan and the recall of all the Mongol Khans for election of a new Great Khan. That alone ensured that European civilization survived both the destruction of its cultural heritage and the massacre of its populations.

While Thermopylae and Salamis were important for Western civilization as well, their singular impact is reduced by the fact that each is in contest with other battles occured that were just as important (Plataea, arguably more than Thermopylae, for instance).

As for Kursk, the Battle of Britain, and the Doolittle Raid, the suicidal retaliatory bombing of Tokyo in the wake of Pearl Harbor (which is definitely NOT a decisive battle, and had almost NO true military impact other than as a limited morale-booster) all of these are colored both by overexposure on the History Channel, and serious tunnel vision on part of the majority of the American public when looking at military history. How anyone could seriously think Antietam, for instance had far more impact than Kadesh, is beyond imagining.

Answer 2

ooh good question. So many what ifs....

Midway 1942.... the Japanese follow-up to the attack on Pearl Harbour. If the Japs had won, and knocked out the US aircraft carriers, then they would have established dominance in the Pacific. Would the US have been forced to seek terms? The US victory ensured their eventual victory.

The Somme, 1916. Not for the win or loss, but the effect it had on the masses view of war. Never again would a Western power allow the massacre of their young men on such a scale again. This is seen today in Iraq... mass body bags would loose the public opinion and the US public would vote for a President who would not get all their boys killed.

Waterloo 1815. What would Europe been like with France as the dominant continental power? Would there have been a United States of Europe as a major mid 19th Century Superpower?

Kursk, Stalingrad, Operation Barbarossa, were probably the most decisive of WW2....

Answer 3

September 11, 2001.
The Revolutionary War.
Or Nobunaga's battles in Medieval Japan.
Or Alexander the Great of Macedonia and his conquest journey.
Or Tangun of Korea fighting for his land.

Answer 4

You really can't answer that. There have been so many major battles in so many wars around the world. I would say Tarawa during WW2 for Americans. It gave the Americans a foot hold in the pacific to advance in attacking Japan. Iwo Jima would be one too. The airfield that was seized in Iwo Jima was a major win for the allies.

Answer 5

Battle of Britain

Answer 6

When we bombed Japan after Pearl Harbor

Answer 7

Kursk

Answer 8

Stalingrad.

Answer 9

Thermopylae

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