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A History of War in 100 Battles
Richard Overy
Illustrated edition – recommended for viewing on a colour tablet.This book introduces readers to a whole range of military history with all the drama, dangers, horrors and excitement that we associate with Stalingrad or the Somme. Battles are acute moments of history, and through them we can understand how warfare and world history have evolved.Choosing just one hundred battles from recorded human history is a challenge. Not just because it is necessary to cover almost 6,000 years of history, but because men have fought each other almost continuously for millennia. Anyone who knows anything about the history of war may be disappointed at what has had to be left out. However, each of the 100 memorable battles described shows both how the nature of armed combat has changed over human history, and also how, despite changes in technology, organisation or ideas, many things have remained the same.It is an old adage that you can win a battle but lose a war. The battles featured here almost always resulted in victory for one side or another, but the victor did not necessarily win the war. Some battles are decisive in that broader historical sense, others are not. The further back in time, the more likely it is that an enemy could be finished off in one blow. The wars of the modern age, between major states, have involved repeated battles until one side was battered into submission. Some of the great generals of the recent past – Napoleon, Robert E Lee, Erich von Manstein – have been on the losing side but are remembered nonetheless for their generalship.Some on the winning side have all but disappeared from the history books or from public memory. Equally, in many battles, the issue is not victory or defeat, but what the battle can tell us about the history of warfare itself. New weapons, new tactics, new ways of organising armed forces can have a sudden impact on the outcome of a battle. But so too can leadership, or the effects of a clever deception, or raw courage. That is why the book has been divided up into clear themes which apply equally to the battles of the ancient world as they do to the battles of today.As Professor Richard Overy laments: “Battle is not a game to plug into a computer but a piece of living history, messy, bloody and real. That, at least, has not changed in 6,000 years.”
COPYRIGHT
William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 77–85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London W6 8JB WilliamCollinsBooks.com (http://WilliamCollinsBooks.com)
This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2014
Copyright © Richard Overy 2014
Richard Overy asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Edited and designed by Tall Tree Ltd
Cover photograph © Arkady Shaikhet.
Courtesy of Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins
Source ISBN: 9780007452507
Ebook Edition © October 2014 ISBN: 9780007452521
Version: 2014-09-23
CONTENTS
COVER (#ud4af9a5b-c820-5398-9eee-bdc50f24e281)
TITLE PAGE (#u329932b7-b4b8-51bd-86cb-688bfebb6999)
COPYRIGHT (#ub87bb3ee-8940-591e-89e9-a5c8d08cd20c)
MAPS (#u1701cfed-8c96-5ca0-b4f8-61f5de5eb8dd)
PREFACE (#ulink_211576a2-7f10-5d21-9ef7-86d0c5fad803)
INTRODUCTION: THE TRUTH OF BATTLE (#ulink_310bb101-5ac9-51f4-a47c-6dbd2fbe1ce0)
CHAPTER 1: LEADERSHIP (#ulink_e1d58892-ee7c-5425-996c-986b69e66bfe)
1 BATTLE OF GAUGAMELA (#ulink_86857f71-7baf-588b-9887-d9f755d33ab2)
2 BATTLE OF CANNAE (#ulink_2f7992e7-6efd-578f-b596-f70ea6181ff5)
3 BATTLE OF ACTIUM (#ulink_5c94d5a8-20d0-5a09-a337-a834e68685cf)
4 BATTLE OF THE MILVIAN BRIDGE (#ulink_9dd7399f-4db7-565f-9a29-27e236922f23)
5 BATTLE OF HASTINGS (#ulink_e352e734-5d0f-58c0-bf68-2e7e7a317d40)
6 BATTLE OF ZHONGDU
7 BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN
8 BATTLE OF MOHÁCS
9 SIEGE OF VIENNA
10 BATTLE OF VALMY
11 BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR
12 BATTLE OF AUSTERLITZ
13 BATTLE OF MAIPÚ
14 BATTLE OF VOLTURNO
15 BATTLE FOR WARSAW
16 THIRD BATTLE OF KHARKOV
CHAPTER 2: AGAINST THE ODDS
17 THERMOPYLAE AND SALAMIS
18 BATTLE OF ZELA
19 BATTLE OF EDINGTON
20 BATTLE OF CLONTARF
21 BATTLE OF LEGNANO
22 BATTLE OF THE RIVER SALADO
23 BATTLE OF AGINCOURT
24 SIEGE OF BELGRADE
25 BATTLE OF PLASSEY
26 BATTLE OF LEUTHEN
27 RORKE’S DRIFT
28 BATTLE OF ADWA
29 BATTLE OF OMDURMAN
30 FALL OF SINGAPORE
31 BATTLE OF SANTA CLARA
CHAPTER 3: INNOVATION
32 BATTLE OF LEUCTRA
33 BATTLE OF CARRHAE
34 BATTLE OF AIN JALUT
35 BATTLE OF CRÉCY
36 BATTLE OF LEPANTO
37 THE SPANISH ARMADA
38 BATTLE OF BREITENFELD
39 BATTLE OF NASEBY
40 BATTLE OF POLTAVA
41 BATTLE OF SOLFERINO–SAN MARTINO
42 BATTLE OF KÖNIGGRÄTZ (SADOWA)
43 BATTLE OF SHANGANI
44 BATTLE OF TSUSHIMA
45 THIRD BATTLE OF EDIRNE
46 THIRD BATTLE OF CAMBRAI
47 BATTLE OF FRANCE
48 BATTLE OF BRITAIN
49 PEARL HARBOR
50 BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC
51 HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI
52 OPERATION DESERT STORM
CHAPTER 4: DECEPTION
53 THE FALL OF TROY
54 BATTLES OF MOUNT VESUVIUS
55 BATTLE OF RONCESVALLES
56 BATTLE OF KLEIDION–STRUMITSA
57 BATTLE OF MANZIKERT
58 BATTLE OF LAKE PEIPUS
59 FALL OF TENOCHTITLÁN
60 BATTLE OF BLENHEIM
61 BATTLE OF HOHENFRIEDBERG
62 BATTLE OF THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM
63 SIEGE OF YORKTOWN
64 BATTLE OF THE LITTLE BIG HORN
65 BATTLE OF ALAM HALFA
66 THE NORMANDY INVASION
67 OPERATION BAGRATION
68 THE SIX DAY WAR
69 TET OFFENSIVE
CHAPTER 5: COURAGE IN THE FACE OF FIRE
70 BATTLE OF MARATHON
71 BATTLE OF THE CATALAUNIAN FIELDS (CHÂLONS)
72 BATTLE OF POITIERS–TOURS
