Battle

This book records nearly all of the wars in history. The lavishly illustrated book takes readers in a visual journey through 5000 years of combat. Although all of the wars introduced in this book are not in detail, they give readers a general idea about the weapons used in wars and how combatants fight.

In the ancient warfare, solders rely on muscle power to fight against enemy. They learned to use sword, spear, and dagger. In order to protect themselves, they wore heavy iron armors in battles. Several kinds of armies they have are infantry, cavalry, and chariot. Emperors commonly deploy their troop in phalanx so that they march toward enemy in an irresistible torrent and defend imperviously as a fortress. They know the best way to conquer enemy is to siege their troops; therefore, tactics, such as routing enemies’ flanks or sending a covering force to the back of enemies’ troops are widely used. All the people in the ancient pay full attention to every battle because a losing battle may mean the enslavement by other countries. Some soldiers even believe the only purpose of life is to fight in battles and win.

In the middle ages, fortress and castles are broadly constructed, which makes invasion harder the before. Siege machines, such as ram, ballista, and catapult are built. There are three means to breach strongholds. To get over fortresses, soldiers climb up special ladders onto walls. To get through fortresses hundreds of soldiers push rams to knock doors open. To get under fortresses, engineers mine underground and dig tunnels. Mongol flourishes in the middle age. It strikes central Asia and penetrates deep into Europe. Soldiers of Mongol are skillful archers. A hail of unleashed arrows is enough to put enemy to flight. Once enemies’ heavy armored knights swarm forward, they avoid direct clash, give way before knights’ charge, but swiftly turn to outflank them. This smart tactic is one reason for Mongol’s conquest. Mongol’s soldiers are also known for their ferocity. They collect ears from fallen enemy and mount heads on lances. They sack every city they have conquered, tear down most of its building, and massacre slaves.

Great changes have taken place in the early modern warfare. Instead of construction of tall stonewall fortification; defenders have cannons and other missile weapons placed alongside walls to cover the approaches of besiegers. Besiegers have to adopt new tactic to dig zigzag trenches so as to prevent the exposure to direct fire. On the battlefield, commanders seek effective ways to deploy cannons and artillery. Soldiers armed with muskets substitute the knights charging with lances and swords. In the sea warfare, naval soldiers oaring galleys try to ram and board enemies’ ships although cannons are mounted on ships. Korean turtle ships with spiked plates deterring enemies from boarding prove formidable vessels and trounce Japanese army.

Two signs of modern warfare are the army’s functions and explosive technology. Soldiers receive serious discipline and are often punished. Recruits are trained to be proficient in using musket and artillery. Calvary remains the elite arm executing functions, such as screening, reconnaissance, and shock charge. The development of explosive technology also leads to the transformation of warfare. Muskets’ range and accuracy are greatly increased when spiral grooves inside the barrel making bullets spin are built. Machine guns and revolvers also come into existence. Artillery firing high explosive shells replaces the shoot of stone. Railroads revolutionize the speed of the transmission of mass armies. At sea, ironclad steam-driven battleships ended the reign of the wooden ships. The emergence of balloons and early aircraft raises warfare into sky.

The world war I begins with German’s aggression into Britain, France, and Russian and ends with the utter defeat of German. Modern industrial countries are able to manufacture firepower, such as artillery, machine guns, and rifles in a large scale and rapid speed. The maneuverable transportation can easily mobilize millions of soldiers to the front line in one week and keep the supply of munitions. War becomes cruder and fiercer. Soldiers are like grains reaped by machine guns. One gas assault usually leaves thousands of dead bodies strewing the battlefield. Trench warfare prevails. Soldiers wearing gas masks, ambushing in trenches, propping on their elbows, and firing machine guns must fight till the lose of the last blood because of such command, “a soldier who can no longer advance must guard the territory already held. No matter what the cost is, he must be killed where he stands rather than drawback.” Aerial spotter takes over the reconnaissance role. Bombers relentlessly bombard pivot cities and inflict huge casualties on enemy. Although German claims several victories of offensive and gains broad land at first, they prove incapable of inflicting massive casualties on allies without suffering similar losses themselves. Final allied counterattack forces German to accept the armistice term. Emperor of German abdicates and German becomes a republic.

World war II consists of two distinct conflicts, one fights in Europe and North Africa, the other in the pacific and Asia. The European war is a conflict of Hitler’s own making. The impact of economic depression allows Adolf Hitler’s nazi party to come into power. Hitler develops a tactic which combines air power and armored divisions to achieve rapid victory. Based on the heart of the tactic—speed and decisiveness, German concentrate their firepower to hit the enemies’ weakest point and exploit breakthroughs with maximum mobility. Tanks and aircrafts are key weapon enabling German to win the lightning war against Poland, Norway, and France. However, harsh winter weather slows down the speed of German’s invasion when German’s force infiltrates deeply into Stalingrad in Russian. Stubborn soviet soldiers clinging on fighting for every building demoralize German’s spearhead. The long lasting battle inside the ruined city makes German run out of supply, whereas reinforcement of soviet is ferried each night. Tortured by both attack and malnutrition, Germans finally withdraw from the city. The disembarking on the beach of Normandy lifts the curtain on the defeat of Germans. Soviet multiple rocket launchers known as stalin organ annihilate a considerable amount of defending Germans. Germany was defeated in the east and west. When nazi’s capital Berlin was occupied, Hitler committed suicide. The origin of the pacific war lay in Japan’s expansionist policies is Asia. Japan’s goals are to conquer china and Southeast Asia, creating a great Asia under Japanese control. However, us opposes Japanese invasion of china and forbids the oil transportation to Japan, which presents Japanese with two choices between abandoning imperial ambitions or fight a war against America. To stun American and give Japan time to consolidate its conquest in Asia and establish a defensive perimeter, Japan implements a risky plan—raiding the Pearl Harbor. Fast and highly maneuverable Japanese zero fighters skimming in a low altitude plunge from above and blast American ships and aircrafts. Despite the immense damage of us fleet, us carriers were out of port and fortunately survived. In Asia Japan successively conquered Hong Kong, Singapore, and Philippine and reach the peak of its expansion. Feeling the superiority of his naval aircrafts and pilots, Japanese army leader seek to advance in the pacific and draw us pacific fleet into battle. However, the success of code breaking provides us with details of Japanese plan. The midway battle is an overwhelming us victory, which marks a turning point in the pacific war. The subsequent sea battles are ended with the heavy lose of Japan. Because of the lost control over the sea and the certainty to be killed in the unequal air battle, elite Japanese pilots commit suicidal mission—using their aircrafts as flying bombs to crash into the deck of us warships so that they will at least not die in vain. After being dropped two atom bombs which devastate population and industry, Japan has no choice but to unconditionally surrender.

To such an unprecedented extent is the more advanced and mighty modern weapons being invented that it becomes a threat of the extinction of mankind when the world war III begins. In spite of this, regional warfare, civil conflicts, and terrorism never stop. The Iran-Iraq war, the event of 9.11, and the U.S. invasion of Iraq break dreams of eternal peace. Maybe more new wars will be recorded in the next edition of the battle.