Greatest Battle of all Time

[TR1]

What do you guys think, in terms of importance, or size, or casualties, or just plain "epicness" of the battle?

I would have to nominate Stalingrad and Berlin....and Leyte Gulf.

[Telnyashka]

Anglo-Zanzibar War

[gaijinsamurai]

Waterloo (plus battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras)

[Whitcomb]

Anglo-Zanzibar War

you mean the one that lasted 38 minutes?

[ShakesFIST]

The great "I asked for no lettuce on my damn taco" war of 2006 between the soldiers of ShakesFIST and Taco Bell.

[titget]

"By early 1968, 6,000 Marines at Khe Sanh were surrounded by 20,000 North Vietnamese troops"

Some may question the tactical advancements of Khe Sanh but, 76 days of blood and sweat is an amazing battle and victory in my opinion.

[Kitsune]

One more chance for me to mention Kiev September 1941 and to point out how exaggerated Stalingrad as "the Mother of all defeats" really is.
During this battle the German armed forces encircled and annihilated one vast Soviet force. Overall Soviet losses exceeded one million soldiers. German overall losses were around 100.000 men. The number of POW's taken by the Germans was 665.000, more than six and a half times as Prisoners taken by the Soviets in Stalingrad. Captured material was also colossal.
This is probably the largest defeat in a single battle in military history. After it it was clear that the Sovietunion was in grave danger to be crushed. It's to the Russian credit that they managed to recover from this one.

[Blarney]

Battle of Tours hands down. Had Europe lost, most the world would be muslim and vastly different than it would be today.

[TR1]

One more chance for me to mention Kiev September 1941 and to point out how exaggerated Stalingrad as "the Mother of all defeats" really is.
During this battle the German armed forces encircled and annihilated one vast Soviet force. Overall Soviet losses exceeded one million soldiers. German overall losses were around 100.000 men. The number of POW's taken by the Germans was 665.000, more than six and a half times as Prisoners taken by the Soviets in Stalingrad. Captured material was also colossal.
This is probably the largest defeat in a single battle in military history. After it it was clear that the Sovietunion was in grave danger to be crushed. It's to the Russian credit that they managed to recover from this one.

no **** kiev and smolenks were great defeats, but the leadership and war readiness and morale of the soviet troops defeated there could not compare to the battle hardened and supremely equipped germans at stalingrad. Also, stalingrad was a battle with far more casualties than kiev, deny it or whatever, but that is the truth. and it definitly ranks higher in terms of combat intensivity. Kiev was not worthy of calling a great battle,, more like a rout and utter surrounding and anhialation. Stalingrad on the other hand, was a brutal encounter with heavy casialties on both sides.

[Laconian]

Thermopylae, Hastings 1066, Yorktown, Waterloo

[ogukuo72]

In terms of the sheer number of men involved and killed, how about Verdun?

[mudbunny]

I have no idea, but I'll venture a guess and say one of the Crusade battles in Jerusalem.

[Kilgor]

One more chance for me to mention Kiev September 1941 and to point out how exaggerated Stalingrad as "the Mother of all defeats" really is.
During this battle the German armed forces encircled and annihilated one vast Soviet force. Overall Soviet losses exceeded one million soldiers. German overall losses were around 100.000 men. The number of POW's taken by the Germans was 665.000, more than six and a half times as Prisoners taken by the Soviets in Stalingrad. Captured material was also colossal.
This is probably the largest defeat in a single battle in military history. After it it was clear that the Sovietunion was in grave danger to be crushed. It's to the Russian credit that they managed to recover from this one.

It wasnt the defeat of the germans that made it so awesome. It was number of factors.

Fierce fighting...even hand to hand
The tenacity of both the german and soviet soldiers to survive in hellish conditions.
The city being a strategic point on the volga, and a personal conflict over the city bearing stalin's name.
Hitlers declaration that the city was as good as captured, but with a amazing counterstroke, resulted in the starvation and crushing defeat of his most powerful army.

It wasnt the battle that lost the germans the war, but it was their high tide mark.

[sheroo]

The greatest battle will always be the one you are in

[little fatso]

the battle of *****sburg during the american civil war where in three short days 58-59,000 americans lost there lives(more than vietnam) some of the wars greatest heros of the war like chamberlain, Lee, Longstreet, Buford, Pickett, and Stuart faught in this battle which changed the course of the civil war.