5 Epic Retreats in Military History

2/1/2019 5 Epic retreats in Military History
Wednesday, January 23, 2019

STORE ABOUT US MEDIA PARTNERS CONTACT US YOUR WORK SUBSCRIPTION
TERMS OF SERVICE
NEWS GUEST BLOGGERS WORLDWIDE REVIEW MEDIA MILITARY VEHICLES
VIDEO FORUM STORE
5 Epic retreats in Military

History
HISTORY INSTANT ARTICLES Mar 18, 2016 Andrew Knighton
Most Read
1. The Day North

Korea Fired A
Missile At SR
SHARE: Facebook Twitter
71 Blackbird
Can a retreat ever be considered a success? Most 2. The Biggest

are a sign of failure, as armies pull back from the Petrol V8 Ever
objectives they seek to take or are driven from their Built That
Powered The
territory by invaders. A few are tactical retreats, that
Sherman Tank
is deliberate schemes to weaken or deceive an
approaching enemy. Some retreats are mishandled 3. PANERIAL –
and become disasters. Below are a few of the more The Silent
memorable retreats in history. Forest
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/history/5-epic-retreats-military-history.html 1/8
Pliska, 811 4. When A

British
Destroyer
Rammed a
German
Cruiser In
World War
Two
5. US Hercules
Plane Lands
On & Takes
Off From An
Aircraft
The Khan Krum was perhaps the greatest challenge Carrier
facing Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus I. Having
brought together many of the Bulgar tribes, Krum 6. Exhibition
had launched raids into Byzantine territory, carrying shows the
dark side of
off great masses of wealth. He was celebrated by
the Nazi Youth
his men and reviled by the Byzantines. Movement
When Nicephorus gathered an army of 70,000
7. Footage taken
soldiers, Krum knew that he could not stand against
at The Tomb
him. He had nowhere near as many men, and the of The
strength of those he had did not lie in pitched Unknown
battles, a form of combat which would favour the Soldier
Byzantine heavy cavalry.

8. Jack Hinson:
Advertisement
A Civil War
Sniper Hell
Bent on
Revenge
9. Museum
Uncovers
Remarkable
Account of the
Fray Bentos
Boys’ Three
Days of Hell in
So Krum retreated, surrendering his capital of WWI
Pliska, gathering more troops as he retreated north
into the hills. Luring the Byzantines after him, he 10. WWII-era Plane
Crashes at
trapped them in a steep-sided valley. Retreat turned
Naval Air
into an ambush, and he smashed the Byzantines, Station, Killing
killing Nicephorus and driving his army out of Bulgar Two
lands.
Crécy, 1346
During the Hundred Years War against the French,

the English kings achieved most of their notable
successes through raids known as chevauchées.
Striking into lands held by the French crown, they
would pillage and burn. This served two purposes –
to undermine the local economy, and to prove that
the French monarchy could not protect people,
encouraging them to switch allegiance to the
English. The retreat was always an important part of
the chevauchée – returning to English-held territory
before French forces could catch them.
In August 1346, King Edward I was leading just

such a chevauchée through northern France when
he found himself pursued by a larger French army.
The retreat could not continue indefinitely, as the

English were slowed down by the challenge of
moving through hostile territory while weighed down
with stolen loot. Instead of continuing in his attempts
to escape, Edward picked a defensive spot at Crécy,
and on 25 August he fought the French there.
Effective archery, solid infantry and superior ground
allowed the English to defeat the numerically
superior French and their heavily armoured knights,
in the first of three great battlefield successes for
English archers over the course of the war.
Effective archery, solid infantry and superior ground

allowed the English to defeat the numerically
superior French and their heavily armoured knights,
in what was the first of three great battlefield
successes for English archers over the course of
the war.
Russia, 1812
Napoleon’s retreat by Vasily Vereshchagin. Photo

Credit.
Advertisement
Napoleon’s invasion of Russia is the story of two

retreats – one by the defenders, and one by the
thwarted invaders.
In the face of the previously invincible French

armies, the Russians did not stand and fight, but
withdrew deep into their own territory. By using a
scorched earth policy, they deprived the over-
extended French army of the resources it needed to
feed itself. Then came the factor that the Russians
understood, but for which the French were woefully
unprepared – the harshness of a Russian winter.
Having defeated, but not broken the Russians at

Borodino, and not brought them to battle at Moscow
as he had hoped, Napoleon found that, despite
military victory, he had not conquered his enemies.
As winter drew on and his exhausted troops ran low
on supplies, he was forced to withdraw, harassed
along the way by Russian attacks. The French and
their allies lost an estimated 380,000 men dead,
deserted or captured by the Russians, as well as
leaving valuable field guns and horses abandoned
in the snow.
Kabul, 1842
British and Indian troops outside Kabul 1842.
From its beginning in 1839, the British invasion and

attempted occupation of Afghanistan had been a
painful one. The locals bitterly resented the invaders
and fought against them. This was not the sort of
field warfare the British were well prepared for,
gunning down enemies in open combat. Instead,
they faced persistent and sporadic resistance.
One of the British bases was the walled cantonment

in Kabul. In 1842, the British commander there,
Major-General William Elphinstone, found himself
effectively besieged by Afghans led by Akbar Khan.
The Afghans were determined to drive out the
British, and Elphinstone was incapable of the sort of
innovation or decisive action needed to tackle them.
After a period of messy and indecisive fights and

negotiations, in which the British suffered humiliating
losses, Elphinstone gained an agreement from
Akbar Khan to allow the isolated British population
to safely retreat down the Khyber Pass to India.
16,000 men, women and children set out down the
snow-laden pass, attacked by Afghans every step of
the way. Within a week, they were nearly all dead,

including Elphinstone. Only a handful of Indian
soldiers and a single European, Surgeon-Major
William Brydon, lived to tell the tale.
Dunkirk, 1940
Dunkirk 1940.
The 1940 invasion of France was one of Adolph

Hitler’s greatest triumphs. Tearing at high speed
through the French and British lines, the Germans
separated the Allies, shattering the French and
isolating the British.
By 21 May, the British Expeditionary Force had

access to only one Channel port – Dunkirk. On 19
May the government had ordered Admiral Bertrand
Ramsay to prepare for an evacuation through there,
and a call had gone out for every boat the British
could lay their hands on. On 25 May, the British
forces were ordered to retreat to Dunkirk, and the
next day Operation Dynamo, the evacuation across
the English Channel, began.
A British counter-attack at Arras on 21 May had

convinced Hitler that the British were still a threat,
and so he halted the advance on Dunkirk from 24
May until the surrender of Belgium on 28 May. This
gave the British time to prepare their defences, and
when the attack recommenced it faced stiff
resistance. Luftwaffe bombs put the harbour out of
the action, but the Royal Air Force kept German
bombers from wiping out the troops. 848 British,
French and Belgian ship, from private motor boats
to military destroyers, transported out 340,000 Allied
soldiers, two-thirds of them British. France was
about to fall, but thanks to Dunkirk the war would go
on.
Sources:
Nigel Cawthorne (2004), Turning the Tide:
Decisive Battles of the Second World War.
Geoffrey Ellis (1991), The Napoleonic Empire.
Nicholas Hooper and Matthew Bennett (1996),
The Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Warfare: The
Middle Ages.
Geoffrey Regan (1991), The Guinness Book of
Military Blunders.
© Copyright 2019 - War History Online

5 Epic Retreats in Military History

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

5 Epic Retreats in Military History

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

2/1/2019 5 Epic retreats in Military History

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

NEWS GUEST BLOGGERS WORLDWIDE REVIEW MEDIA MILITARY VEHICLES

VIDEO FORUM STORE

5 Epic retreats in Military

1. The Day North

Can a retreat ever be considered a success? Most 2. The Biggest

Pliska, 811 4. When A

Byzantine heavy cavalry.

During the Hundred Years War against the French,

In August 1346, King Edward I was leading just

The retreat could not continue indefinitely, as the

Effective archery, solid infantry and superior ground

Napoleon’s retreat by Vasily Vereshchagin. Photo

Napoleon’s invasion of Russia is the story of two

In the face of the previously invincible French

Having defeated, but not broken the Russians at

British and Indian troops outside Kabul 1842.

From its beginning in 1839, the British invasion and

One of the British bases was the walled cantonment

After a period of messy and indecisive fights and

the way. Within a week, they were nearly all dead,

The 1940 invasion of France was one of Adolph

By 21 May, the British Expeditionary Force had

A British counter-attack at Arras on 21 May had

© Copyright 2019 - War History Online

You might also like