Top Ten Bloodiest Battles in History and pre-Train Logistics

[JimBowie1958]

There are many lists for such battles, and here are a couple of them.




This one only looks at modern battles
Top 10 Most Bloody Battles In History - Top 100 arena Blog

This Wikipedia list doesnt even include the battle of Plataea
List of battles by casualties - Wikipedia


Modern historians tend to be dismissive of ancient counts of forces and rely on modern logistical estimates to derive what they view as more accurate estimates, but this is a very flawed process.

Ancient armies were well known for having each man carry their own food in dehydrated form, like dried corn/barley, then grind it into a grain and make bread from it. Supplemented by slaves acting as porters to carry food between supply trains/ships and the men is hardly a difficult prospect.

Is it truly unrealistic to think that Xerxes might have had half a million men in his forces at Thermopylea?

 

[westwall]

There are many lists for such battles, and here are a couple of them.




This one only looks at modern battles
Top 10 Most Bloody Battles In History - Top 100 arena Blog

This Wikipedia list doesnt even include the battle of Plataea
List of battles by casualties - Wikipedia


Modern historians tend to be dismissive of ancient counts of forces and rely on modern logistical estimates to derive what they view as more accurate estimates, but this is a very flawed process.

Ancient armies were well known for having each man carry their own food in dehydrated form, like dried corn/barley, then grind it into a grain and make bread from it. Supplemented by slaves acting as porters to carry food between supply trains/ships and the men is hardly a difficult prospect.

Is it truly unrealistic to think that Xerxes might have had half a million men in his forces at Thermopylea?

All of these lists ignore the Brusilov Offensive of World War One. The Germans and Austrians lost 950,000, and the Russians lost between 500,000 and 1,000,000 (no one will ever know) making it the worst offensive I know of.

 

[yiostheoy]

I don't have any idea how to order these, but this is my guess list:

- Moscow in WW2

- Stalingrad in WW2

- Gettysburg in the US Civil War

- Verdun in WW1

- The Somme in WW1

- there were a bunch more in WW1

- Tarawa in WW2

- Okinawa in WW2

- Normandy in WW2

- Waterloo

 

[usmbguest5318]

This Wikipedia list doesnt even include the battle of Plataea
List of battles by casualties - Wikipedia

Seems like it's time for you to a bit of deeper digging and if appropriate, to make a contribution to Wikipedia. Just be sure to provide footnotes so people can link to your source for the information you input.

 

[Pete7469]

Battle of Saragarhi - Wikipedia

 

[JimBowie1958]

But is it possible that the technology available to ancient empires was capable of allowing hundreds of thousands of men to be concentrated into one area for a major battle, like Plataea or the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains?

It would seem that a great number of modern logistical assumptions do not necessarily translate into the limitations faced by the ancient emperors.

Or do they?

 

[Unkotare]

Antietam

 

[whitehall]

Iwo Jima? About 6,000 Marines KIA in a month? Overloard and Cobra, the Normandy campaign June -Aug 1944 almost half a million American and German casualties. Somehow pop-history glorifies the Normandy landing and then forgets about the breakout.

 

[Picaro]

I would think one would find Chinese casualties in the Japanese invasions would be up there somewhere, especially in the battles for the urban areas. Don't have time to look and see myself at the moment. I can also guess that some battles in the Indian sub-continent could be found, especially from the Islamic hordes butchering their way into India could hit hundreds of thousands.
The Warring States era in Ancient China could also turn up some contenders as well as the Mongol eras into both China and Persia.

 

[whitehall]

And then there is Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Can we call them battles?