Battle Digest

17/04/2025

It happenned 250 years ago! Lexington/Concord (April 19th, 1775).

Tension between Britain and her North American colonies had been building for years. After numerous protests and acts of defiance, things took a serious turn after the December 1773 Boston Tea Party, when an irate King George III and Parliament took more drastic action to teach their rebellious citizens in Massachusetts a lesson. After shutting down Boston’s port, dissolving elected government, and placing the colony under military occupation, the dry tinder of Colonial resentment was ready to ignite. The spark came on the morning of 19 April 1775, as a British force moved west to destroy military supplies secretly stored in Concord. When the column came upon a small company of militia waiting on Lexington Green, the fateful “shot heard round the world” rang out. The American Revolution had begun.

Learn more: www.battledigest.com/product/lexington-and-concord

30/03/2025

Mailing out First Marne (Sept. 5-12, 1914) this week!
In the summer of 1914, an assassin in Sarajevo ignited the flames of war among the Great Powers of Europe. Hoping for a quick victory, Germany launched its Schlieffen Plan, a massive offensive sweep through Belgium that turned south toward Paris. Under the onslaught, French divisions and their newly arrived British allies were soon in full retreat. It seemed that France would soon surrender, allowing Germany to turn its attention east toward Russia. But everything changed in early September at the Marne River, where the Allies exploited German mistakes to halt the advance. And because this “Miracle of the Marne” deprived Germany of a swift victory, it changed the war from what was expected to be quick and decisive into a grinding contest of trench warfare and unthinkable attrition.
Learn more: www.battledigest.com/product/first-marne

12/02/2025

Battle of the Month: Verdun (Feb. 21 - Dec. 18, 1916)
By early 1916, World War I was in its second year. Germany was fighting on two fronts – France and Great Britain in the West and Imperial Russia in the East. With the prospect of prolonged fighting in the East, Gen. Erich von Falkenhayn, Chief of the German General Staff, believed the war would be decided in the West. To break the western stalemate, Falkenhayn planned a battle of attrition. He believed the French would defend Verdun, with its significant military and historical importance, to the last man. He would, therefore, bleed them “white” and force France to sue for peace.

But a competent Gen. Pétain leading determined French defenders thwarted German plans. Over 10 months, in the largest and longest battle of World War I, it became clear that Falkenhayn’s attrition strategy had utterly failed. For the French, the costly victory would become a symbol of national pride and an enduring reminder of the carnage of war.

Learn More: www.battledigest.com/product/verdun

20/01/2025

Here's a nice discussion between me and my West Point classmate, Mark Valley (a Hollywood actor you may have seen in some movies over the years). Here's his podcast episode on Battle Digest. Enjoy!

12 Battles Every American Should Know

06/01/2025

Our winter issue just hit the mail: The Battle of Hastings (October 14th, 1066)
In January of 1066, King Edward the Confessor died childless, leaving the Witan (council of nobles and priests) to elect a new king. Although they quickly chose the powerful Harold Godwinson to serve, other rivals made claims to the throne. The first two were, Tostig Godwinson (Harold’s brother), and Harald Hardrada (King of Norway). When a Norwegian force led by Tostig and Hardrada attacked in the northeast, Harold quickly defeated them at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. The third claimant was Duke William II of Normandy, whom history would know as William the Conqueror. After William landed on the southern coast, Harold moved to stop him. The resulting Battle of Hastings and the Norman victory over Harold’s Saxons would profoundly change the future of England.

Learn more: www.battledigest.com/product/hastings

03/12/2024

It's the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge!
After the invasion of Normandy in June of 1944 and the breakout that followed, U.S. and Allied forces pushed Adolf Hi**er’s armies back toward Germany. By September, after three months of hard fighting, the Germans had their backs against their own borders, defending along the West Wall/Siegfried Line. As the Allies regrouped for another push, Hi**er struck in a bold counteroffensive that would become known as the Battle of the Bulge. The surprise attack broke through the thinly held American sector in the Ardennes before driving west. Initially, the surprised American defenders were overwhelmed. Soon, however, adaptive commanders and resolute soldiers stopped the German assault in what would become the largest single land battle in American history. In the end, Hi**er’s desperate gamble ‒ his last major offensive in the Western Theater ‒ only hastened his defeat.

Learn more: www.battledigest.com/product/battle-of-the-bulge

16/11/2024

Battle of the Month: Agincourt (25 Oct. 1415)
Since the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, when Duke William of Normandy, a vassal of the French King, invaded England and became King William I of England, a series of land disputes roiled England and France into the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453). In this war, William’s heirs launched numerous invasions into France to reclaim what they considered their rightful possessions. Edward III gained one-third of France in 1360, but by his death, he had lost most of it. His great-grandson, King Henry V, continued the struggle in 1415. And although Henry’s campaign did little to alter the war, his victory at Agincourt was a tactical masterpiece against great odds. On the muddy fields of Agincourt, an army of mostly commoners (English longbowmen) defeated the nobility of France (armored knights). The age of professional armies was coming.
Learn more: www.battledigest.com/product/agincourt

01/10/2024

Check out our Fall Issue: The Battle of Gaugamela (1 Oct. 331 B.C.)

In the fourth century B.C., Philip II built Macedonia into the dominant power among the Greek states. But his untimely death prevented him from a planned invasion of the Persian empire. This task would fall to his 20-year-old son, Alexander, who, in 334 B.C., embarked on one of the most extraordinary campaigns in history. Alexander the Great’s conquests of Asia Minor, Egypt, Syria, and the Levant were significant enough. But when he turned his army east into the heart of the Persian empire to meet Darius III, King of Persia, the result was one of the most climactic battles of the ancient world. Alexander’s lopsided victory at the Battle of Gaugamela not only destroyed the Persian empire and ended the Achaemenid dynasty but also allowed Greek ideas and customs to spread throughout the known world.

Learn more: www.battledigest.com/product/gaugamela

13/09/2024

Battle of the month: Antietam (17 Sept., 1862)
After a year and a half of fighting, the Confederacy held the military initiative in the Civil War. In the West, Confederate forces were on the march toward the Ohio River Valley. In the East, Gen. Robert E. Lee, who had recently assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia, had just defeated Gen. John Pope’s Union Army of Virginia in the Second Bull Run Campaign. During the late summer of 1862, Confederate forces launched their first invasion of the North. When Union forces met them near Sharpsburg, Maryland, along Antietam Creek, the result was the “bloodiest day” in American military history. Although the Battle of Antietam was a tactical draw, Union Gen. George McClellan stopped Lee’s invasion. It was a significant enough strategic “victory” to discourage European intervention in the Civil War and for President Abraham Lincoln to broaden the moral aspects of the conflict by issuing his famous Emancipation Proclamation.
Learn more: www.battledigest.com/product/antietam

06/08/2024

Battle of the month: Cannae (3 Aug. 216 B.C.)
During the third century B.C., Rome’s growing power and influence around the Mediterranean created clashes with older, more established powers. One of these powerful city-states was Carthage. Rome and Carthage fought in three Punic Wars. The first (264-241 B.C.E.) involved influence over Sicily, the second (218-201) involved influence in Spain, and the third (149-146) focused on Tunisia and ended Carthage’s independent existence.
It was during the Second Punic War, after Hannibal had been handing Rome defeats and losses for nearly two years, when the Roman Senate had finally had enough. After raising the largest army they had ever fielded, they sent it against Hannibal, who had just seized an important grain supply depot at Cannae. But Hannibal was more than ready. On that fateful day, he handed Rome one of the most crushing defeats in history. Through superior tactics and leadership, Hannibal completely enveloped and destroyed the larger Roman army arrayed against him. And yet, despite his tactical brilliance and generalship, Hannibal would win the battle and still lose the war.
Nevertheless, Hannibal’s classic double-envelopment would become one of history’s great tactical masterpieces, inspiring military leaders for over 2,000 years. German Gen. Field Marshal Count Alfred von Schlieffen famously tried to expand Hannibal’s tactics to the strategic level, in a plan that failed to capture Paris in World War I. More recently, U.S. Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf claimed to have modeled Desert Storm on Cannae.
Learn more: www.battledigest.com/product/cannae

17/07/2024

Battle of month: Gettysburg (1-3 July 1863).
The Battle of Gettysburg was the largest battle ever fought on North American soil, with over 160,000 soldiers fighting for three days in and around this small Pennsylvania town. The toll was high on both sides including 23,055 Union casualties (3,155 killed) and 28,063 Confederate casualties (3,903 killed).

Although Antietam holds the dubious honor of the deadliest single day of fighting, more men fell on the fields of Gettysburg in three days than on any other North American battlefield before or since. More importantly, this battle represented a strategic turning point in the American Civil War, and has thus been referred to as the “high-water mark” of the Confederacy. Although, tactically a draw, strategically it was a major victory for the Union. After the battle, the Army of Northern Virginia limped home, never to regain their former strength and confidence. And although the fighting would continue for another two years, Gettysburg instilled new confidence in the Union army. They had proven to themselves, and to the world, that they could fight and win against the remarkable Robert E. Lee.

Learn More: www.battledigest.com/product/gettysburg

29/06/2024

Mailing out this week! The Battle of Camden (Aug. 16, 1780).

In 1780, as the American Revolution entered its fifth year, British Gen. Sir Henry Clinton looked to break the stalemate that had settled in the North. His “Southern Strategy” would leverage what was thought to be strong Loyalist support in the Southern colonies to subdue the population and further isolate the rebellion. After capturing Charleston, South Carolina, Clinton left Lt. Gen. Charles Earl Cornwallis in charge of the campaign. As Cornwallis recruited Loyalists, set up a ring of outposts, and prepared to move into North Carolina, he got word of a Continental army, commanded by Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates, moving south toward Camden. During the resulting battle, Cornwallis routed Gates, destroyed the Southern Continental Army, and handed the Americans their worst battlefield defeat of the war. It appeared that Cornwallis’s path to victory was open. Or so it seemed.

Learn more: www.battledigest.com/product/camden