Monty Python got some good alliterative mileage out of that term in their movie “And Now For Something Completely Different.” One sequence in the movie is a fake WWII British newsreel, in black and white, with suitably bombastic narration that includes the opening line “Yes, the war against the Hun continues – and as Britian’s brave boys battle against the Boche…” By the standards of genuine WWII newsreels, that’s actually not as over-the-top as it sounds to modern ears. And during a real WWII deception operation, the fake letter from General Nye to General Alexander which was the centrepiece of the “Mincemeat” disinformation scheme used such phrases as “We have had recent information that the Boche have been reinforcing and strengthening their defences in Greece and Crete…”
Greatest Battle
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CC, I am disgusted by this lack of knowledge. “similar tolkeinesque novel”???
It was the Return of the King, the final book in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. (I know, I know. everyone has an obsession, this is mine)
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I read the Hobbit, but none of their battles seemed compelling or very interesting to me… at least not in epic scope.
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From actual history, I would say Kursk, I forget the statistics of that battle but it was the largest tank battle in history.
AFA fictional battles, I just blanked out on those, but if you’re going with Tolkien, in the Silmarillion there’s a battle where an entire continent gets destroyed. Of course, there were gods involved, but…
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CC, I am disgusted by this lack of knowledge. “similar tolkeinesque novel”???
It was the Return of the King, the final book in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. (I know, I know. everyone has an obsession, this is mine)
yeah yeah. i’d forgotten the actual “name” of that battle and figured it was the original one.
sorry.
(at least i got 5 armies one) -
Well it would be idiotic for someone not to mention Stanlingrad here. Did more to change the course of modern history than I know of. Also, kudos to the Russians again for Leningrad - the seige that lasted for over 900 Days.
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@TG:
Well it would be idiotic for someone not to mention Stanlingrad here. Did more to change the course of modern history than I know of. Also, kudos to the Russians again for Leningrad - the seige that lasted for over 900 Days.
ahhh
i’ve withstood longer . . . . -
Battle of Cowpens. Daniel Morgan trapped by the British, his men tired and unsupplied. In an old farmer’s field, Morgan stops his barely 900 men with just as many militia. The British regulars out number his entire column, including a fiercesome company of Colonel Tarlton’s deadly dragoons. By the end of the day, the Britsh army is in retreat, and the begining of the end to the Revolutionary war is set.
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You just gotta love Nathanael Greene. The Germans have their Desert Fox (Rommel), but we have our Swamp Fox. 8)
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I’d have to say Stalingrad…
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i take by grandest you mean scale? because otherwise, its no contest going to be one of the modern battles of the recent Iraq war, desert storm, etc. the battles there were swift and decisive. if you mean scale however, Im going to go with Agincourt (sp?)
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i take by grandest you mean scale? because otherwise, its no contest going to be one of the modern battles of the recent Iraq war, desert storm, etc. the battles there were swift and decisive. if you mean scale however, Im going to go with Agincourt (sp?)
scale…yes…but amzing, yes :wink: …either or…
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Actully on the History channel on the Most, it was the Battle of Berlin, although it didnt last that long, the amount of forces and preperation for it was HUGE!!! it was straight fighting from Poland all the way to the Reichstag. i say Berlin for Grandest Battle.
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I dunno… the Battle of Berlin lasted quite a while if you ask me. :)
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1-Crecy (hundred years war)
2-Stalingrad
3-Kursk
4-Midway
5-Saratoga (US War of Independence).
6-First Bull Run (US Civil War)
7-Gettysburg (ditto)
8-Canae (Punic Wars)
9-Somme (WW1)
10-Waterloo (Napoleonic Wars)This List isn’t in order just 10 off the top of my head.
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real history:
Normandy
Midway
OkinawaFantasy:
Alderran (talk about a smackdown!)
Yavin
Endor (damn those teddy-bears!) -
How could Alderran be considered a battle? :roll:
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fantasy wise, im still goin with Pelennor Fields, that was crazy. Think hundreds of thousands of medieval style men, orcs, trolls, and some elves and dwarves layin the smackdown on eachother, with a wizard, an undead army, and Ringwraiths (crazy enemies). that would have been crazy
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Janus ain’t kidding. Seen The Two Towers? Pelennor Fields is 10x bigger than that. Rohan and Isenguard were nothing compared to Gondor and Mordor.
I may be biased, but I think the best fantasy battle of all time was in the book Dragons of the Winter Night, by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. A small force of 50 knights armed with Dragonlances (Big pointy shiny things which kill Evil Dragons pretty damn well) defend the last bastion of freedom on the continent from the Evil army. It ends with the heroic death of Sturm Brightblade, killed by his childhood friend, former lover, and leader of the Dragonarmy, Kitara uth Matar.
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For Fantasy Battles, you really have to read the Silmarillion (sp?)…
all the battles of the Lord of the Ring are just peanuts compared to that…
having several dragons and Balrogs fielded… and the death of one Dragon flattening (or was it creating, when it dropped dead to the ground) an entire mountain range… that is grand scale :) -
Janus ain’t kidding. Seen The Two Towers? Pelennor Fields is 10x bigger than that. Rohan and Isenguard were nothing compared to Gondor and Mordor.
I may be biased, but I think the best fantasy battle of all time was in the book Dragons of the Winter Night, by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. A small force of 50 knights armed with Dragonlances (Big pointy shiny things which kill Evil Dragons pretty damn well) defend the last bastion of freedom on the continent from the Evil army. It ends with the heroic death of Sturm Brightblade, killed by his childhood friend, former lover, and leader of the Dragonarmy, Kitara uth Matar.
I dunno… I tend to dislike reading battles where a small force hold off against impossible odds against a much larger force… it just doesn’t very realistic to me. :wink:
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