Greetings, and welcome to the World Affairs Board!
The World Affairs Board is the premier forum for the discussion of the pressing geopolitical issues of our time. Topics include military and defense developments, international terrorism, insurgency & COIN doctrine, international security and policing, weapons proliferation, and military technological development.
Our membership includes many from military, defense, academic, and government backgrounds with expert knowledge on a wide range of topics. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so why not register a World Affairs Board account and join our community today?
In your opinion, what was the worst battle in history to participate in as a soldier?
My vote goes to Stalingrad...
"By and by when each nation has 20,000 battleships and 5,000,000 soldiers we shall all be safe and the wisdom of statesmanship will stand confirmed."
-- Mark Twain, Notebook, 1902
The Somme. I think that's the worst by such a long margin, that I'd really have to be convinced of another one that was worse.
Guadal Canal - same kind of conditions as the Somme but you're now cut off and pretty well both sides degenerated into battles between death squads and not armies.
The Somme. I think that's the worst by such a long margin, that I'd really have to be convinced of another one that was worse.
Guadal canal was worse in some ways, Utah beach was worse in some ways, Antietam, really....all the battles i named.
If you want an ABSOLUTE worst of all time, how'd you like to have been one of Leonidas' 300 Spartans at Thermopolyae as you faced down an army of Persians that numbered well over 300,000 men?
Being a Roman at Cannae would've been no fun either. Nor a Carthaginian at the second fall of Carthage. Nor a Trojan when the Greeks burst forth from the Trojan Horse, etc, etc.
Hell, perhaps someone can tell me what a 'pleasant' battle is like. I doubt ANYONE here has ever heard a word about the terrain features i fought for, but i can assure you, the men who fell in those places are everybit as dead as the men that fought at The Somme.
Well, when I consider how bad a battle is, I consider what the weather was like, whether or not poison gas was used (nasty stuff) if the soldiers were well supplied, the psychological factors (including the inability to retreat, or officers who'd shoot you for deserting) and all that. Being outnumbered is pretty bad, but if it's quick...
I think the average survival time for a soldier entering Stalingrad was less than 24 hours...
"By and by when each nation has 20,000 battleships and 5,000,000 soldiers we shall all be safe and the wisdom of statesmanship will stand confirmed."
-- Mark Twain, Notebook, 1902
A non-military laymans opinion:
Being a Russian soldier during the WWII!
Charging the German lines, while having the NKVD behind you shooting anyone who falters! Talk about being between the rock and the hard place.
Maybe being one of Pickett’s Virginians walking that bloody mile on Cemetery Hill and into the mouths of the Union cannons!
When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. - Anais Nin
Comment