5 Most Costly Pyrrhic Victories In History

is victory on the battlefield always worth the price paid in blood does the vanquishing of your enemies justify the slaughter of thousands the history of war is littered with occasions where the obsessive pursuit of victory has blinded men to all other strategic considerations the unrelenting focus on winning a single battle resulting in such high losses that the outcome of the entire war was jeopardized here are my choices for five of the costliest pyrrhic victories in history over 200 years ago an unassuming village on the outskirts of moscow witnessed two of the greatest armies ever assembled clash in a battle that would forever alter the fate of europe and the world as over a quarter of a million men engaged in a ferocious slaughter that left over 60 000 dead in just 24 hours making it the bloodiest single day of battle of the entire napoleonic war and one of the bloodiest in all of human history the war-ravaged soil left littered with the corpses of a now shattered french invasion force this once grand army reduced to a mere shadow of its former power despite technically having won the day this so-called victory would prove to be hollow as unable to recover from such enormous casualties the french army would soon be forced to undertake an epic but arduous retreat during the depths of winter across frozen russian territory they had earlier conquered in more optimistic times a rooney saw a deal that would directly lead to the downfall of the greatest commander and tactician of the era as within just three years napoleon found himself utterly defeated and sent into exile these fateful few hours of combat at borudino dooming not just his invasion of russia but also sowing the seeds of his ultimate defeat this disastrous example of winning the battle but losing the war undoing all of the great achievements napoleon had struggled to bring to fruition in the long and strife-ridden years that had come before by 1812 napoleon had already accomplished previously unthinkable feeds on both the military and diplomatic battlefields smiting multiple coalitions of the greatest powers on earth which had coalesced against him after years of warfare and shrewd political maneuvering this array of mighty kingdoms and empires had been vanquished one by one and forced to sue for peace however protected on their islands by the formidable might of the royal navy the british empire persisted as the sole thorn in the emperor's side unable to overcome the british fleet that barred his path across the english channel napoleon was forced to resort to more unconventional tactics to subdue his old enemies in london creating what became known as the continental system to isolate the british behind the europe-wide trade embargo and once and for all put an end to their incessant financing of france's continental enemies if he could not defeat the british empire militarily he would instead crush them economically monumental victories over prussia spain italy and austria had already forced nearly all of europe's rulers to accept participation in this economic assault on british prosperity and with the defeat of russia in 1807 sarah alexander the first was strong-armed into an alliance with napoleon the french agreeing to back russia against the ottoman empire in exchange for russia joining the continental system yet the russians are proved to be an unreliable and unwilling participant in this marriage of necessity and he continued to allow trade to flow between russia and great britain in defiance of napoleon's treaty no doubt recognizing that such a loss in trade would prove ruinous to the russian economy with the tsar making no secret of his preparations for a planned future war with france napoleon realized that it was only a matter of time until russia joined with the british against him in yet another hostile coalition and so plans were drawn up for a pre-emptive invasion of russia to subdue the tsar and neutralize this threat in the east once and for all for years napoleon had swept aside all who had stood before him and he had already easily defeated the russians just a few years earlier during the war of the fourth coalition confident that he could recreate this success and once again best his enemies on the battlefield in the summer of 1812 napoleon gathered a massive army of over half a million men drawn from across the continent the french emperor personally in command of what was at the time the largest army ever assembled in the history of european warfare as the french marched into russia napoleon was sure that he could force the russians to engage him in a quick battle where he could win a decisive victory that would smash the enemy's will to resist thus leaving the tsar no option but to sue for peace and comply with the trade embargo against britain ending the entire invasion before winter set in yet on this occasion victory would prove far more elusive rather than meeting the invaders on the battlefield the russian army performed a scorched earth retreat evading the pursuing french army as they withdrew deep into the sprawling russian empire luring napoleon's half a million men ever further from home until their supply lines became perilously long with the russian army burning crops and destroying everything in their wake that might be of use to the invaders the french soldiers soon fell prey to disease hunger and exhaustion the mere three weeks of supplies they had been issued with now little more than a faint memory as winter loomed on the horizon it was clear that the increasingly frustrated napoleon would be denied the quick and decisive battle he so craved and with his mighty and proud army now reduced to foraging for every morsel of food to stave off hunger as many as 100 000 men are thought to have died due to disease and starvation the terrible conditions they were forced to endure depleting their numbers and fighting ability barely a month into the invasion as the french edged ever closer to moscow napoleon's shaken confidence finally returned the emperor now utterly certain that the russian tsar would never surrender his capital without a fight it would be near the small village of borudino just a few miles outside moscow that napoleon would be proven correct in his assessment of the situation however although he was about to finally be given the grand battle he had for so long been seeking this epic clash with his enemy would not end in the manner he had foreseen while napoleon was already busy planning the terms of surrender that he would impose upon the defeated tsar russian soldiers were hard at work constructing earthworks and fortifications around the spot they had chosen to make their stand the surrounding terrain proving to be an ideal location for a defensive battle on the 7th of september 1812 what would become the bloodiest battle of the war was unleashed as napoleon threw 130 000 troops into a full frontal attack against the 120 000 russian defenders this blunt and crude strategy executed much to the dismay of his subordinates many of whom had pleaded with the emperor to march around the russian left flank and attack from the rear yet unwilling to divide his forces and risk allowing the russians to escape his clutches napoleon pressed forward in search of a killing blow that would annihilate his foe and end the war in one decisive strike as nearly a quarter of a million men clashed in such a confined space unimaginable scenes of slaughter occurred over the next few hours as ferocious attacks were followed by equally fierce counter-attacks as each side vied for supremacy the french determined to break an enemy who was equally resolute in their unwillingness to retreat with the day wearing on the fighting seesawed along a three-mile front with either side able to punch through the defenses of the other the combined firepower of over 1 000 cannons relentlessly bombarding the battlefield wreaking a terrible toll on the densely packed formations of infantry men the vulnerable men under orders to stand their ground despite the carnage and death tearing through their lines despite the rapidly mounting casualties napoleon pressed on with the aggressive full frontal assault as tactical finesse gave way to outright chaos the teeming mass of men engaged in a deadly brawl for survival now hacking slashing and stabbing their way through the smoke-obscured battlefield with sabres and bayonets any sense of order or direction now a faint memory as more and more officers fell victim to the slaughter the battle was a stalemate until late afternoon when french forces finally captured the main russian defensive emplacement forcing the entire russian army to fall back however despite the enemy being in their most vulnerable position of the day napoleon refused to send in his elite imperial guard a move that would have utterly crushed the russian army which was now in full retreat this uncharacteristic caution is thought to have allowed the russian army to escape total annihilation and lift a fight another day however perhaps realizing that he was over 1 800 miles from home and deep within hostile territory napoleon was reluctant to leave himself with nothing in reserve for the assault on moscow still to come napoleon had technically won the day however the battlefield he had seized control of was now carpeted with the corpses of his troops some 35 000 of his best men lost in a battle that had failed to achieve its main goal had the russian army been destroyed such an enormous sacrifice might have been worthwhile however it had escaped the emperor's clutches and fallen back in good order its ability to wage war still intact while the russian army had suffered equally with at least 40 000 of its own casualties fighting on home ground meant that it could reinforce and resupply with relative ease the french had no such luxury stranded some 800 miles from home napoleon would have to press on with the remnants of his now battered and heavily depleted invasion force this gloomy situation made even worse by the loss of 2 000 officers and 49 generals replacing conscripts was difficult enough but competent and experienced officers were years in the making the formidable army that had marched into russia just months earlier was now little more than a hollowed-out shell of its former glory the invasion was as good as over but napoleon refused to accept the reality of his predicament despite capturing moscow just a few days after the battle napoleon was once again denied the glorious victory he had for so long envisioned rather than being received by a kneeling czar he instead discovered the city largely abandoned its supplies plundered its buildings soon to be burnt to ashes in the night by his russian enemies two months were wasted as napoleon waited in the city for a surrender that did not materialize his army steadily becoming weaker while the russians grew ever stronger with each passing day desperately short of supplies with winter on the way and with no hope of forcing the tsar to accept defeat the decision was made to abandon moscow and return home before the entire french army was consumed by starvation and exposure the infamous winter retreat had begun a grueling ordeal that would see the tattered remnants of napoleon's one's grand army reduced to eating the few remaining horses and even the corpses of their fallen comrades in a desperate but often futile attempt to stay alive as they marched on foot across hundreds of miles of territory that was now little more than a frozen wasteland the summer clothing covering their atrophied bodies providing little protection against the harsh cold biting into their bones by the time the ragged band of survivors made it back to the sanctuary of home as many as four hundred thousand of the half a million men who had entered russia just six months earlier had been left behind where they fell the cost of victory at borradino so great that the battle had directly sown the seeds of napoleon's ultimate defeat the fatal blow to his power and reputation so great that it led to the war of the sixth coalition and napoleon's eventual overthrow and exile on the island of elba isolated outnumbered and facing certain defeat the people of the tiny and subjugated nation of armenia nevertheless stood alone against the terrifying might of the persian overlords this defiant army of peasants merchants and nobles motivated not by riches or glory but simply by the right to practice their own religion in peace in what's considered to be the first battle in defense of the christian faith these rebels drawn from all sections of society took up arms against their oppressors under the leadership of a general who would go down in history as a warrior saint the attempt by the persian king to forcibly convert the armenian people to paganism provoking an all-out rebellion although the resulting showdown between the two sides on the plains of avaray ended in a predictably decisive defeat for the rebels it came at a huge cost for the persian victors in control of such a vast empire the persian king could easily replace the ranks of the fallen with fresh troops however by making martyrs of the slain rebels he inadvertently created a fiery symbol behind which future resistance could rally the subsequent rebellions that would be unleashed forcing the persians to abandon their attempts to convert armenia by force and instead recognize its religious freedom in 301ad the kingdom of armenia became the first nation to officially convert to christianity surrounded on both sides by the immense might of the byzantine empire in the west and the persian empire in the east this isolated bastion of christianity struggled to maintain its independence until 428 a.d when it finally fell victim to partition between its two neighbours although now technically occupied by outsiders the territory controlled by the persian empire was initially given a remarkable level of autonomy the armenian people allowed to continue practicing the christian religion under the governance of the traditional armenian noble houses with only the governor directly appointed by the persian court yet this delicate balance would be thrown into disarray with the ascension of king yazigurd ii to the persian throne persian kings had long suspected that the armenian christians living in the empire were little more than byzantine spies these dangerous political tools of the eastern romans sowing discontent and unrest wherever they went however king yazikurt ii was also a zealous adherent to zoroastrianism the official pagan religion of the persian empire unwilling to tolerate the presence of a heretical foreign religion within his borders the new persian king immediately set about removing this christian influence from his lands determined to root out the adherence of a church whose loyalties lay with rome and constantinople rather than eastern zoroastrianism a huge wave of missionaries arrived from persia tasked with converting the local population while the armenian church saw its tax obligations significantly increased yet it would be the later issuing of a royal decree demanding that all armenians convert to zoroastrianism that sparked open rebellion fearful that their identity and very way of life was now under threat the armenian people steadfastly refused to surrender their faith uncowed by the terrifying mighty to raid against them should they resist the persian king's wishes led by the nobleman vardan mamaconian the rebels took up arms and prepared to defend their religious rights no matter the cost as an enormous persian army descended upon their nation to force the issue at the point of a sword as the rebels gathered their forces vada and mamaconian pleaded for aid from the byzantine emperor in constantinople a fellow christian who was sympathetic to the armenian struggle however battle would be forced upon the rebels before any outside assistance could arrive on may 26 451 a.d some 66 000 armenian rebels faced off against as many as 200 000 persians on the avaray plane with no outside help forthcoming the armenians were weakened even further when fearing for their position and privileges a number of powerful nobles defected taking their soldiers with them to join the persian side although the rebel army still possessed a number of accomplished veterans and well-trained troops the balance of power was so tipped against them that as the two sides drew their weapons the armenian soldiers would have likely already made their peace with their almost certain defeat and death choosing to press on regardless in defense of their faith the battle that followed raged for the best part of the day the outnumbered armenian rebels defying the odds as they held their own against the ferocious persian onslaught which included elite units of immortals however any hope of victory soon proved to be fleeting as the persian general ordered his elephant core to charge the enormous hulking beasts easily smashing through the armenian lines and unleashing carnage and slaughter in their wake as men were impaled upon their fearsome tusks or simply trampled under the crushing weight this overwhelming charge utterly shattered the remaining armenian forces as vardhan mamagonian and several other important commanders fell amidst the stampeding elephants broken and leedless the surviving rebels were swiftly massacred the entire uprising appearing to now be completely subdued as thousands lay dead upon the battlefield yet despite the armenian army being decisively beaten the persian victory would prove to be a hollow one the stubborn resistance of the rebels had inflicted far greater casualties upon the persian army than was anticipated and facing rebellions and wars across the vast land mass of their empire the persian king was unable to continue his campaign while on the other hand rather than falling victim to despair at their defeat the armenian people rallied behind the slain vada and mamagonian and his men who had now risen to become national martyrs legendary heroes whose memory inspired the nation to continue its struggle the flame of resistance lit at the battle of everee continued to burn and when the persians once again returned to forcibly convert the armenian christians a few years later a new rebel army led by vardan mamigonian's nephew van won a great victory that resulted in the treaty of nevas an agreement that the persians would abandon their attempts to convert armenia once and for all enshrining the armenian people's right to religious freedom in law the loss of a single man in battle might seem irrelevant when compared to the widespread slaughter wars often on a leash however when the ability and personal genius of that one man are capable of altering the outcome of a battle an entire war and even a nation's destiny then his loss becomes far more significant with the 30 years war ravaging europe in 1632 such a debilitating loss would be incurred by sweden at the battle of lutzen a nation who had experienced something of a golden age of prosperity and military success under the leadership of king gustavus adolphus a man widely viewed as one of the greatest generals in history fighting for their king and their very lives amidst a fog covered battlefield the swedes prevailed against the german enemies however despite suffering a casualty rate of over 50 percent it would be the loss of the man whose achievements and military prowess led to him being known as the lion of the north that would be felt most keenly this fateful final battle in the long and illustrious career of one of history's greatest warrior kings seeing gustavus adolphus fall at the very hour of his victory in doing so depriving sweden of a leader who could have led the nation to unthinkable heights had he survived the protestant reformation which began in 1517 had bitterly divided europe between two competing christian factions this simmering rivalry erupted into what became europe's most destructive conflict prior to the world wars of the 20th century as in 1618 the two sides engaged in a struggle that would see as many as 8 million perish now known as the 30 years war due to the length it was fought for this religious and political clash between the greatest powers in europe was ignited by the holy roman emperor's attempt to force all of the protestant german states to convert to catholicism ferdinand ii was a staunch catholic and was unwilling to idly sit by and allow protestant influence to spread an influence which would no doubt eat away at his own personal power and privilege unwilling to submit to the holy roman emperor's demands the protestant states of germany formed the protestant union an alliance of several smaller states who banded together to fight in a conflict that was not only a struggle for religious freedom but also a tug of war between the great powers of austria and prussia for dominance of germany as the war rapidly escalated the holy roman emperor began to gain the upper hand however just as the german protestants seemed on the brink of defeat the kingdom of sweden entered the war on the side of their protestant allies in 1630 this addition of yet another nation into the already tangled web of alliances would have normally been of little consequence however sweden was led by no ordinary man king gustavus adolphus had already spent much of his life at war and he had proved himself to be a more than capable military tactician the many innovative reforms he had implemented revolutionizing the way battles were fought and transforming the swedish army into one of the most effective fighting forces in europe while most of the european powers primarily utilized unreliable mercenary troops king gustavus adolphus had created a national standing army of well-trained highly disciplined professional soldiers armed with the latest weaponry a body of men whom under his charismatic and forward-thinking leadership quickly made sweden one of the most powerful nations on the planet despite her relatively small population and harsh climate despite portraying himself as a pious defender of the protestant faith against predatory catholic tyrants the swedish king likely entered the war for far more earthly reasons the recent presence of austrian-led catholic league forces on the baltic sea presenting a clear and present danger to swedish security at the head of his 20 000 strong army king gustavus adolphus invaded northern germany and quickly won a series of stunning victories that drove the holy roman emperor's forces back the presence of this energetic and charismatic monarch who led from the front single-handedly reviving the protestant cause within just two years the swedes had completely reversed the tide of war and were now threatening the catholic stronghold of bavaria in the south desperate to strike back at the swedish king the imperial commander albrecht von wollenstein attacked saxony further north hoping to cut the protestant army supply lines and force the saxons to renounce their alliance with sweden as the swedes marched on saxony to respond general von wallenstein split off around one third of his men for use elsewhere confident that the advancing swedish army would not meet him in battle until the approaching winter had passed however upon hearing that his enemies forces were now divided king gustavus adolphus rushed to attack the catholic troops near lutzen in saxony around eighteen thousand swedes faced off against twelve thousand catholic imperials who had now dug defensive trenches along the main road while they awaited the urgent recall of the troops who had so recently been sent away yet king gustavus adolphus was determined to strike before the enemy could gather his full strength as the two sides clashed upon a battlefield obscured by heavy fog and gunpowder smoke the swedish king would once again demonstrate his willingness to lead from the front heading a daring cavalry charge against enemy musketeers that threatened to break the enemy lines however on the cusp of victory disaster was about to strike as the king charged deep into the heart of the enemy's formation the heavy fog covering the battlefield had now mixed with the choking smoke produced from the nearby town of lutzen which had earlier been set ablaze by the imperial commander amid this blinding smoke and fog king adolphus became separated from the bulk of his escort and rode astray behind enemy lines suddenly finding himself alone in a hostile sea of enemy troops eager to slay this royal prize the imperial musketeers frantically opened fire on the exposed king as his bullet-riddled body fell from his horse the hostile troops closed in unleashing a frantic flurry of stabs and cuts before delivering a final and fatal close range shot to the king's temple the vengeful soldiers determined to ensure that the king was dead the battle would rage for most of the day as the swedes fought on ignorant of their leader's demise however as the sun set the imperial commander retired from the battlefield after losing his main artillery battery to the swedes realizing that it would be futile to continue the fight twelve thousand catholics and around ten thousand protestants had been killed or seriously wounded in the battle however after nine hours of deadly combat the swedish-led protestants had secured their victory yet the price paid would be crippling not just because of the number of men killed while ordinary soldiers could eventually be replaced a once in a generation leader could not king gustavus adolphus was not only a brilliant military strategist but also the kind of charismatic leader of men upon whom the fate of an entire nation could rest the survival of such a man could have seen sweden's fortunes rise to unthinkable heights in the years of his reigns still to come however his death in battle not only led to the protestant calls losing direction but also ushered in a period of swedish decline as deprived of the warrior king the swedes saw their power and influence begin to wither away an all-out struggle for domination of the mediterranean world between the ascendant romans and declining greeks would see one of the greatest commanders in history fall victim to his own success as despite besting the roman legions in two decisive battles the greek king pirus of eperus would be defeated nonetheless his hard-won tactical victories on the battlefield inflicting such a high number of irreplaceable casualties on his army that he was rendered unable to exploit the triumphs he had won this devastating loss of some of his most experienced soldiers and officers left king pirus unable to land a final killing blow on his foe thus forcing the end of his entire campaign in what became the original pyrrhic victory the military genius who had twice defeated a rome which was still in its infancy coming within a hairs breath of smothering the young republic centuries before it could place much of the known world in its stranglehold these victories that led to defeat leaving rome as the undisputed master of italy and paving the way for its growth into one of the largest empires in human history in 280 bc the italian peninsula had yet to fall completely under roman control with large areas of the south and the island of sicily still home to powerful greek colonies yet although rome was still merely the promise of the mighty empire it would eventually rise to become the republic's ever-growing power was beginning to raise alarm amongst the greek city-states of italy who began to suspect that it was only a matter of time until these upstart latin barbarians moved against them the state of torentum was the largest and most powerful of these greek colonies in italy with many of her most influential citizens pushing for war no doubt believing that the romans should be put in their place before it was too late this pro-war faction was granted the perfect justification for an attack when roman naval ships sailed into tarantine waters in violation of an earlier treaty signed by both sides although the roman fleet commander would later claim that he was merely sightseeing along the coast whatever the truth of the matter the tarantines wasted no time in moving against the trespassing roman ships sinking several and taking a sizeable number of prisoners in the process such an affront could not simply be ignored and when a roman ambassador who had been sent to demand an explanation was insultingly dismissed the roman senate was left with little option but to declare war although the tarantines were confident in their own power they knew that they would stand little chance of victory against the roman legions without allies turning to their ancestral homeland of greece the tarantines requested aid from king peres veperus a man who was ranked as one of the most talented generals of the ancient world and who had under his command one of the best armies in greece with such a man at their side the tarantines were convinced that rome could be easily crushed king pierce had long fancied himself as the next alexander the great and viewing the tarantine call to arms as an opportunity to further his ambitions and establish a foothold in italy he agreed to intervene further tempted by the tarantine promise that their assembled force of 50 000 infantry and 20 000 cavalry would be his to command believing that his hour had finally arrived in 280 bc king pirus gathered his force of twenty thousand infantry three thousand cavalry and twenty war elephants and took up arms against rome convinced that military success in italy would enable him to capture sicily subdue carthage and thus make him master of the mediterranean an essential stepping stone if he was to grow strong enough to eventually capture the true symbolic prize of macedon the birthplace and seat of power of alexander the great the man he so envied and idolized despite facing a formidable army of eight legions containing over 80 000 men king pirus was sure that his arrival in italy would attract vital and overwhelming support from the numerous resentful tribes who had already been subjugated by the romans however as this wave of rebellions failed to materialize he prepared to face his enemy on more even terms the first battle of the war took place at heraclia the roman legionaries and greek phalanxes pitting their unique fighting styles against one another in a contest for supremacy that is said to have dragged on for much of the day with neither side able to eke out an advantage over the other as the fight appeared to be descending into a bloody stalemate king pirates decided to gamble everything by unleashing the 20 war elephants he had been holding in reserve the sight of these living tanks charging directly towards them casting terror into the hearts of the romans most of whom had probably never laid eyes upon the giant beasts before amidst the chaos the panicked horses of the roman cavalry broke formation and galloped away from the approaching elephants the disorganized retreat through their own lines breaking the tide roman infantry formations and throwing the entire army into disarray taking advantage of the now disorganized enemy king pirus ordered his cavalry into the fray the charging greek horsemen easily routing the remaining legionaries who now fled for their lives and some accounts suggest that the entire roman army would have been slaughtered were it not for one of the wounded elephants running a mock amongst the greek lines an event that delayed pierce's pursuit of the retreating legionaries as he struggled to restore discipline thus allowing the bulk of the roman army enough of a respite to escape across a nearby river to safety with the fighting now over as many as 15 000 romans and 11 000 greeks lay dead upon the battlefield however despite paying such a dangerously high price for his success king pirus had won the day and prepared to offer his enemy terms with such a significant and decisive victory under his belt king pirus was sure that rome would be forced to sue for peace however he was about to discover that the romans were not a people who were easy to break unwilling to surrender or even negotiate so long as peris remained in italy the roman senate voted to continue the war with renewed vigor demonstrating a stubborn determination and willingness to fight to the bitter end that would prove pivotal to rome's survival during her many future life or death struggles still to come as winter fell the two sides broke off and prepared for the renewed conflict that would surely come in the spring it was clear that there would be no peace so long as rome still possessed an army with which to fight when spring finally arrived beerus pushed into the region of appulia encamping near the city of asculum an area which was about to become the site of his next battle a battle which would not only decide the course of the war but also determined the future of greek roman and world history for several days the 70 000 strong roman army engaged in a tense standoff against a roughly equal number under king pirus neither side willing to be the first to commit to battle however the inevitable slaughter could not be delayed indefinitely having learned from the previous defeat the romans did everything they could to nullify the terrifying power of the greek war elephants eventually managing to force king pirus into battle at a location surrounded by a river and densely packed trees natural terrain that would make deploying elephants and cavalry far less effective with the battle now reduced to a contest between each side's infantry roman sword met greek spear as the legions and phalanxes hacked and stabbed at each other in a brutal melee that lasted the entire day the carnage only coming to a halt with nightfall as the romans slept pirus redeployed the bulk of his army to more favorable level ground his nighttime maneuver forcing the romans into battle on terrain that would be suitable for cavalry and more importantly his elephant as day broke the fighting resumed the romans pressing forward in a desperate attempt to shatter the greek lines before their elephants could break through this second day of battle seeing the use of an ingenious roman anti-elephant weapon 300 wagons loaded with archers and slingers were strategically placed amid the roman lines in an effort to ward off the fearsome elephants these ancient tank-like creations armed with wooden and iron poles as well as spikes and tridents protruding in all directions these sharp defenses combined with the barrage of fire and missiles discouraging the now wary elephants from getting too close for a moment it seemed as though the strange new contraptions were working as the romans gradually forced the greeks back however king pirus managed to move his entire core of elephants to his flank which was well clear of the wagons and instead of using them to charge the infantry as the romans had expected he threw them against the roman cavalry the panicked horsemen routed in the face of the oncoming tide of elephants even before the distance between them was closed with the roman infantry now exposed the greek elephants once again charged deep into their tightly packed formations the rampaging beasts making short work of their fragile human quarry just as in the battle of heraklia a few months earlier the elephant charge swung the battle in favor of the greeks as the roman lines buckled in the face of their onslaught before falling back and running for their lives by the time the battle was over six thousand romans and around three and a half thousand greeks lay dead upon the ground yet despite having won two stunning victories against the enemy king pirus was unable to press home his advantage with his foes stubbornly refusing to even contemplate surrender or negotiation of any kind the greek king realized that the tenacious romans would fight on no matter the cost if he were to crush rome countless more battles would lay ahead each clash of whirls bleeding his already depleted army of irreplaceable manpower unlike the romans who had vast reserves and numerous vassals to call upon for aid king pirus had no way of replenishing his troops and was swiftly abandoned by his allies when it became apparent that there would be no quick and decisive victory over rome his victories at both heraclia and asculum had left king pirus in the unusual position of being unable to continue the war despite never having lost a battle the price paid in blood for his successes simply too steep to allow him to carry on the fight stranded in italy with a third of their number lost and with no reinforcements on the horizon morale amongst the ranks of the heavily depleted greek army plummeted to dangerous levels as the prospect of countless hard-fought battles still to come loomed on the horizon realizing that his position was now hopeless king pirus made the difficult decision to abandon the campaign instead moving his forces to the island of sicily to aid greek colonies in their ongoing struggle against the carthaginians king pirus would briefly return to italy a few years later only to be defeated by the romans in 275 bc at the battle of beneventum this final failure his signal to abandon his overseas adventures and return home the two original pyrrhic victories that have been immortalized with his name leaving rome as the unchallenged master of italy and paving the way for the rise of the continent-spanning empire at the dawn of the american revolution colonial rebels and the british army engaged in a fierce struggle atop the strategically important hills surrounding the city of boston that could have so easily extinguished the dream of american independence before it had a chance to take hold outnumbered and outmatched by a superior foe this largely untrained and untested force of farmers and tradesmen nevertheless stood their ground and endured three relentless british assaults before finally being forced to abandon their position and retreat however despite winning the day the victorious british were left bloodied and shaken by the tenacious and deadly resistance offered up by men whom they hear just hours earlier viewed as little more than an untrained rabble to be swept aside with ease instead of facing an ill-disciplined mob the arrogant british encountered a determined and resolute enemy who made them pay dearly for victory with over half of the attacking force injured or killed these sobering losses demonstrating that the rebellion would not be so easily crushed the surprise outcome of the battle making the british far more cautious while at the same time providing the revolutionary cause with a vital morale and confidence boost the world had now seen that an inexperienced but dedicated band of patriots could stand toe-to-toe with the might of the british empire the outnumbered men who held their own atop the hill against overwhelming odds ensuring that the fledgling flame of american liberty would burn ever fiercer when the 13 colonies first entered open rebellion against the british overlords it must have seemed as though this small band of idealists would stand little chance against the might of the empire they now faced after all how could an untrained rabble of farmers and frontiersmen possibly have any hope of defeating the disciplined and battle-hardened redcoats who had been sent to crush the insurrection and dispense the king's justice to its instigators by the summer of 1775 blood had already been shed on both sides however a large scale and decisive engagement had yet to be fought the rebellious colonists for the most part remaining untested in battle the strength of their mettle and resolve yet to be tempered in the fires of war when the redcoats inevitably came for them would the colonists stand and fight or would they break and flee as many anticipated this question would finally be answered during the siege of boston just two months after the battles of lexington and concord which had marked the beginning of the american revolution fifteen thousand rebels surrounded the city of boston hoping to trap and eventually destroy the five thousand strong british garrison inside yet despite seemingly possessing the advantage achieving such a feat would be no simple task situated on a highly defensible peninsula the british force currently occupying the city could effectively hold their position indefinitely the unchallenged might of the royal navy ensuring the uninterrupted delivery of all the supplies they needed lacking any kind of navy with which to contest their enemies dominion over the waves the colonial militia besieging the city were forced to explore alternative strategies eventually deciding to use the hills surrounding boston to their advantage if these elevated positions could be seized and fortified with artillery they would serve as an ideal vantage point from which to bombard the british below forcing them to evacuate or even surrender such a strategic move had been anticipated by british commanders who began making their own plans to preempt the enemy and occupy the surrounding hills and when the colonial army received intelligence reports detailing the enemy's intent they were forced to act immediately before it was too late some 1200 colonial troops under the command of william prescott immediately set out to take bunker hill however instead chose to occupy breed's hill a smaller position that was closer to boston and its harbour therefore bringing the prized targets of the royal navy warships docked at the harbour within canon range the colonial soldiers toiled through the night to fortify their position against the almost certain attack from the british that would come with dawn constructing a 160 foot long fort consisting of deep ditches and thick walls and fences as the sun rose the british were shocked to see the hill already occupied by the enemy the newly erected defenses likely to make the task of capturing the hill far more costly than anticipated realizing the bloody endeavor a full frontal assault would descend into at a british war council general clinton urged his fellow officers to surround the hill and cut off the colonists retreat starving the rebels out without engaging in direct and costly battle however the other three generals outvoted this plan which they viewed as overly cautious and bordering on cowardice believing that the untrained rabble of rebels on the hilltop would prove no match for the disciplined redcoats a level of hubris and arrogance that would soon come back to horn them confident that the colonists on the hilltop would fold and retreat in the face of a determined advance the british marched straight up the hill the waiting rebels reportedly ordered to hold their fire until they could see the whites of their enemies eyes as the british lines closed into an uncomfortably close range the tightly packed ranks were quickly decimated by the waves of withering volleys unleashed by the colonists who were themselves relatively safe from return fire behind the hastily constructed defenses in the face of such a one-sided barrage the british advance was halted and turned back the chaos unleashed heightened by the colonists ruthless targeting of british officers the majority of whom now lay dead upon the hill's slopes despite this carnage the retreating redcoats were ordered to reform at the base of the hill and advance once again this second wave unsurprisingly facing the same fate as the first the attacking british soldiers forced to climb over the corpses of the fallen comrades only to be cut down themselves two all-out assaults had been successfully repulsed by the colonists however as the british prepared the third wave the rebels knew that their time was coming to an end the men now critically low on ammunition determined to carry the day the british dropped their heavy cumbersome packs reformed into columns instead of lines and fixed bayonets for the third and final push as they marched forwards in column formation instead of long drawn out lines fewer men were exposed to the colonists volleys and with fewer rounds fired due to the americans ammo shortage the redcoats were now able to successfully close the distance and engage the rebels with the bayonets the fighting descending into a vicious melee that finally broke the defender's lines and forced them to retreat the hill had finally been overrun and captured however this minor objective had been won at a huge cost that could have been entirely avoided had a different strategy been utilized just two hours of fighting had left over a thousand british soldiers wounded or dead a staggering casualty rate of nearly 50 percent yet to make matters even worse a disproportionate number of these casualties were valuable and experienced officers this single battle wiping out a significant portion of the entire british officer corps stationed in north america yet the battle of bunker hill would prove to be a pyrrhic victory not simply because of the number of casualties it inflicted the illusion of british superiority had been utterly smashed the entire rebel call was rejuvenated by the realization that the inexperienced amateur militia could stand toe-to-toe with the might of the professional british army the tenacious and deadly defense of breeds hill convincing the rebellion's leaders that their cause was far from a forlorn hope had the british easily won the battle the entire independence movement might have died out as a wave of doubt swept across the colonies however the people of the fledgling united states now resolve to fight on with renewed vicar until the very end while in london the king was now convinced that peace and reconciliation was out of reach setting the stage for a full-scale war to determine the fate of the colonies so those are my choices for five of the costliest pyrrhic victories in history let me know your choices in the comments below and i'll see you again on the next video

Channel: Unknown5

Views: 428,596

Keywords: pyrrhic, pyrrhic victories, history, documentaries, historical documentary, education, unknown5, top5, top 5, documentary, napoleon, pyrrhus

Id: M0RUkFgpu08

Length: 49min 7sec (2947 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 21 2021