After watching the history channel I'd say the Battle of Stalingrad had to be the fiercest I've seen on tv.

In it's day Agincourt must rank quite high on the scale

The Battle of Badajoz. The attack started at 2200 hours. 3000 British dead in just a few hours and in mainly 1 spot. Wellington broke down upon seeing the carnage in the breaches. 72 hours followed of an army out of control ending with 4000 dead civilians, who were on their side.

Here is a link in support of my consideration of Assaye, India 1803.

It can be noted that, as the link quotes, Wellington considered it his hardest battle, and did not care to speak of it, but when asked , wuold repliy with one word grunted - 'Assaye'.

Although outnumbered ten to one, General Arthur Wellesley defeated the well trained Mahratta army in one of the fiercest battles in India. It was the first of many victories by the future Duke of Wellington, and the bloodiest for the number, he recalled, that I ever saw.

http://www.britishbattles.com/second...tta/assaye.htm


The '74th Highlanders' quoted became 2nd Bn. The Highland Light Infantry, and, as the link states, they lost all their Officers that day,but one wounded left on the field; they also lost all their NCO's but the quarter-master, down to the Corporals, who continued leading their remnants in the battle.The were awarded the honour of an Elephant on their badge, and each year the Regiment celebrates the battle by allowing the Corporals to take over command of the Regiment for the day. Assaye Day.

Uniquely, I believe, The Highland Light Infantry are in fact not Light Infantry; they have a Support Company, and march at the normal infantry 120 paces as opposed to 180. The 'Light Infantry' title is another hard earned battle honour.

Is therer a simple way to do a summary of all these battles, so we could get running poll going? Or is it better that we keep delving and debating?

I'm now starting to lean towards Gettysburg, having just checked it out, it combined the worst elements of massed infantry tactics coming up against new technology. The casualties weren't as fierce as WWI, but still...

Originally Posted by Partisan

Is therer a simple way to do a summary of all these battles, so we could get running poll going? Or is it better that we keep delving and debating?

I'm now starting to lean towards Gettysburg, having just checked it out, it combined the worst elements of massed infantry tactics coming up against new technology. The casualties weren't as fierce as WWI, but still...

The problem is that there is no real criteria for "fiercest".

I personally think that would be possible to work out a ratio based on length of battle, area size and casualties involved but it would be a lot of work and in the end it probably wouldn't include some of the less tangible factors.
There is also the issue of accurate casualty counting for battles such as Cannae or Adrianople lets face it not even the Russians have an accurate count of its WW2 losses.

I think this is one argument that is best left to personal opinion as I am sure a popular vote would put Stalingrad at the top of the list through the shear magnitude of battle but in reality there are many contenders for the title.

Originally Posted by Vitaly

What do you think was the single fiercest battle in history?

The fiercest Battle of all time has got to be the Battle of the Atlantic,in sheer terms of importance,to conducting the second world war.
in terms of casualties the Germans lost 30,000 out of 40,000 Submariners,and 773 out of just over a 1000 submarines. 3500 merchant ships,175 warships,and 50,000 odd Allied Seamen,and spanned the whole war,and covered 1000's of square miles.



"Of all the branches of men in the Forces there is none which show more devotion and faces grimmer perils than the Submariner. Great deeds are done in the Air or on the Land but, never the less nothing surpasses their exploits".

Originally Posted by Partisan

Is therer a simple way to do a summary of all these battles, so we could get running poll going? Or is it better that we keep delving and debating?

I'm now starting to lean towards Gettysburg, having just checked it out, it combined the worst elements of massed infantry tactics coming up against new technology. The casualties weren't as fierce as WWI, but still...

While a much smaller battle the intensity of loss @ Cold Harbor exceeds Gettysburg considerably. In big Battles, Sharpsburg is well ahead of Gettysburg.

Battle of the Buldge (ww2), battle of Ypres (ww1), battle of passchendaele(ww1)
no doubt that ww1 had some of the feircest battles known to man, war is ugly, but that war was extremly ugly.

but then again i dont know much about battles not happing on european soil so just my 2 cents

The battle for Iwo Jima deserves consideration. For the Marines, it was a grinding, non-stop, 24/7 battle. For the Japanese, it was futility in that little more than 600 survived out of more than 22,000.