What was the biggest military battle in the history of the world?

Question

My teacher said the battle at Charonea between Alexander the Great and the Persians was one of the biggest in history, but were any others bigger?

Answer 1

In terms of deaths on both sides, here's the top 12 in history:

2,000,000 - Brusilov Offensive (4 June-20 September 1916)
1,800,000 - Battle of Stalingrad (1942–1943)
1,500,000 - Siege of Leningrad (1941–1944)
700,000 - Battle of Moscow (1941–1942)
552,000 - Battle of Gallipoli (1916)
500,000 - Battle of Smolensk (1941)
400,000 - Battle of Kiev (1941)
370,000 - Battle of Voronezh (1942)
370,000 - Battle of Belarus (1941)
330,000 - First Battle of the Marne (1914)
300,000 - Battle of the Somme (1916)
300,000[1] - Siege of Tenochtitlan (1519–1521)

Answer 2

The biggest battle in history was either Stalingrad (1942-43), Kursk (1943), or Moscow (1941-42). All three probably involved about as many soldiers (1 million+) as the total populations of the macedonian and Persian empires.

Answer 3

The Battle of Stalingrad 1942-1943 (Land)
The Battle of Leyte Gulf 1944 (Naval)

Answer 4

Probably the Battle of the Kursk Salient in WWII (certainly the largest tank battle) in which the Soviets inflicted a massive defeat on the Germans. You can read about it in "A World At Arms" by Gerhard L. Weinberg.

Answer 5

Stalingrad, which lasted from August 23, 1942 until Feb 2, 1943 and saw between 1.7 and 2 million casualties.

Answer 6

The battle of Charonea was between the armies of Macedonia, Philip commanding and the armies of Athens and Thebes. Not even close to the biggest land battle ever. Tell your teacher to get an education.

Answer 7

I'm not sure in terms of numbers WWll was a war not a battle, I think segigahara Japan 1601or the naval battle between Russia and Japan in1905 sorry forget the name

Answer 8

Depends what you mean by big. The highest death toll goes to the battle of Stalingrad during WWII. That's when the Russians tried to take back Stalingrad from the Nazis. I think around 1 mil died in that battle.

Answer 9

More recently Napolean's aborted invasion of Russia was HUGE, considering manpower and material logistics, next would be the WW II Normandy D-Day invasion, again in terms of manpower and logistics... In terms of human lives? Could be a toss-up, but I bet our civil war vs the Stalingrad siege will be very near front-runners. Lots of perspective lost between the of definitions of "war" as opposed to "battles"

Answer 10

I would have to agree with the battle of Stalingrad as the blodiest, but the largest battle was the Battle of Kursk. It was the largest tank battle in history.