History's Greatest Battles
Where the course of history has been decided on the battlefield. These are the battles that made us -- a detailed, entertaining, and tangent-free program about history's greatest battles. In this podcast we journey through the constancy of human conflict, where the fates of nations and the course of global history have been decided on the battlefield. This podcast delves into our world-history's most significant and seminal battles, exploring not just the events themselves but their profound impact on the world we live in today. Each episode is meticulously crafted by ardent and dedicated history fans with a passion for military history and an appreciation for the art of storytelling. Join us as we unravel the strategies, heroics, and consequences that have shaped civilizations and forged the destiny of entire continents.
Episodes
132 episodes
The Siege of The Alamo, 1836. The Violent Slaughter that made modern America. Heroic Last Stand.
The fall of the Alamo ignited a fierce, unrelenting resistance to Santa Anna’s advance, forging the resolve that would drive his army into the dirt and wrest from him the independence of Texas.The Alamo. February 23 - March 6, 1836.<...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 42
•
21:00
The Siege of Sevastopol, WWII 1941-42. The Largest Military Invasion in Recorded History.
The battle for Sevastopol, and the wider fight for Crimea, siphoned off critical German divisions from the southern push toward the Caucasus, delaying the drive for oil and momentum. At the same time, it gutted Soviet naval power in the Black S...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 41
•
21:55
The Siege of Khe Sanh, 1968. The Killing Stroke of Communist Vietnam's Final Major Offensive.
The North Vietnamese defeat marked the terminal collapse of their ambitious 1968 campaign: an orchestrated “General Offensive” designed to fracture American resolve and ignite a nationwide uprising, brought to its knees by the very forces it s...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 40
•
20:12
The Siege of Fort Stanwix, American Revolution. 1777. Where an Insurrection Turn into a Revolution.
Britain’s failure to seize Fort Stanwix played a critical role in the collapse of their strategy to divide the colonies. Without control of the fort, they were unable to secure the Hudson River corridor or dominate central New York, objectives ...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 39
•
20:19
The Viking Siege of Paris, 886 AD. Just 200 Parisian Men Held Paris Against 30,000 Vikings.
The siege didn’t just test the walls of Paris, it revealed its worth to all of France. In holding the city, the defenders exposed the spine of the realm. And when Charles the Fat chose appeasement over action, he sealed his fate. The dynasty of...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 38
•
21:00
The Siege of Plataea, 429-427 BC. First Recorded Use of Chemical Warfare. Executions. Collapse of Hellenistic Honor.
Plataea represented the first large-scale deployment of siege technology and engineered tactics in Greek warfare: an evolution that redefined how cities were attacked and defended. But its legacy reached further. It signaled the beginning of a ...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 37
•
23:48
The Siege of Stalingrad, 1943. Hitler's Critical Error.
Germany’s failure to take Stalingrad did more than cost them a city, it collapsed the entire southern campaign. With the 6th Army destroyed and the line of advance broken, the push toward the Caucasus oil fields disintegrated. Those field...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 36
•
17:35
The Siege of Boulogne, 1544. The Collapse of a Throne Built on Defiance.
King Henry, having taken Boulogne through sheer force of will, stood at the height of his final campaign, but he could not convert occupation into dominance. The victory, though real, yielded no strategic transformation. Faced with financial st...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 35
•
19:07
The Siege of Basra, 1982-87. Chemical Warfare. Nerve Gas. A Million Casualties.
The fighting around Basra was the bloodiest of the Iran-Iraq War, grinding through thousands of lives as both sides hurled everything they had into the struggle. It was here that Iraq unleashed chemical weapons on a massive scale, forcing the w...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 34
•
25:26
The Siege of Badajoz, 1812. Total Carnage, Absolute Gore. Napoleon's Spanish Divisions Decimated by Wellington.
When the guns fell silent and the blood-soaked ruins of Badahose lay under British control, the last obstacle between Wellington and Spain was gone. The fortress had been the key, the final lock on the door that led into Napoleon’s empire...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 33
•
23:27
The Siege of Gibraltar, 1779- 1783. The Longest Siege in British History. Key to WWII Centuries Later.
The last great effort to reclaim Gibraltar ended in defeat, sealing Britain’s hold over the gateway to the Mediterranean. The Rock remained under the Union Jack, and with it, Britain maintained the power to dictate the movement of fleets,...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 32
•
26:16
The Siege of Carthage, 146 BC. Rome Annihilates an Entire Civilization. A General Shames Himself Before his Wife.
Carthage... was annihilated. Its streets, once filled with merchants and soldiers, became killing grounds. Its walls, once impenetrable, were torn apart stone by stone. Its people, once masters of the sea, were either slaughtered in the ruins ...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 31
•
27:08
The Siege of Vicksburg, 1863. The Death Knell Moment of the Rebellion. The South Reduced to Eating Rats.
With the fall of Vicksburg, the Union seized the entire length of the Mississippi River, cleaving the Confederacy in half. The South’s western states... Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas... were now isolated, their soldiers and resources cut off f...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 30
•
35:04
The Siege of Port Arthur, 1905. Russia Humiliated. Mechanized Slaughtering Ushered in as New War Standard.
Japan’s triumph sent a shockwave through Russia... a psychological wound as devastating as the battlefield losses. Defeat at the hands of an Asian power shattered the empire’s confidence and exposed the weaknesses of its military. Meanwhile, Ja...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 29
•
23:22
The Siege of Malta, 1565. Ottoman Power Halted in its Tracks. Muslim Invasion of the Central and Western Mediterranean Sea Ends, Forever.
The triumph of the Knights of Malta shattered the momentum of Sultan Suleiman’s ambitions, halting the Ottoman drive for total dominance over the Mediterranean. Though his empire still loomed over the region, the siege had exposed its vulnerabi...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 28
•
29:09
The Siege of Rhodes, 1522. One Small Order of Knights Stops Islam from an Open Door to Europe.
With the fall of the city and the island, Suleiman secured uncontested Ottoman dominance over the eastern Mediterranean. No Christian stronghold remained to challenge his fleets, no force lingered to disrupt his empire’s control over these wate...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 27
•
20:48
The Siege of Imphal, 1944. Japanese Army Left to Rot. British and Indian Refusal to Surrender Alters History.
The road to India was within the Japanese Imperial Army's grasp, but at Imphal and Kohima, the Japanese advance was not just halted, it was broken. Their columns had fought, bled, and died to reach the gates of British India, but when the final...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 26
•
25:57
The Siege of Grozny, 1994-95. Total Russian Military Command Failure. Grozny's Apocalyptic Destruction Breeds Insurgency.
Russia’s failure to impose enduring control over Chechnya exposed a fundamental erosion of its military strength and the brittle resolve of its leadership. What should have been a swift and decisive campaign instead unraveled into a prolonged d...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 25
•
16:28
The Siege of Baghdad, 1258. Islam Nearly Wiped from the Earth. Mongol Expansion. Wholesale Slaughter.
When the Mongols tore through Baghdad, they did not merely sack a city for its plunder or to claim power, this time they dismantled a civilization. The once-great capital of the Islamic world, a center of power, knowledge, and commerce for half...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 24
•
23:37
The Siege of Magdeburg, 1631. Wholesale Savagery. Slaughter of Faiths.
The annihilation of Magdeburg was more than a military defeat... it was a warning, one that sent shockwaves through the Protestant states of northern Germany. Those who had hesitated, those who had wavered in their allegiance, now saw the cost ...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 23
•
27:22
The Siege of St. Augustine, FL. 1702. Spanish Fort Unconquered. Delays British American Dominance.
Spain’s victory did more than just hold the line, it secured Florida as a critical bastion, shielding its Atlantic trade routes and standing as a barrier against the rising power of the American colonies. For decades to come, it would remain a ...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 22
•
21:36
The Siege of Kut-Al-Amara, WWI. Longest Unrelieved Siege in British History. Iraq Formed. British Government Toppled.
Kut was the longest unrelieved siege ever suffered by a British force, and its fall sent shockwaves through the empire. It wasn't just a battlefield defeat, it was a total unraveling. The loss shattered illusions of invincibility, exposed the f...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 21
•
21:18
The Siege of Paris, 1870 - 1871. France Falls... But France Refuses to Forget; Seeding WWI.
Paris' surrender marked the end of the Franco-Prussian War, a conflict that not only crushed the Second French Empire but also gave birth to a new European superpower. In the wake of victory, the German Empire was proclaimed, uniting the fragme...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 20
•
22:54
The Siege of Fort Fisher, US Civil War, 1865. The South's Last Artery, Severed. Heroic Last Stand of the Damned.
The fall of Fort Fisher sealed Wilmington’s fate, shutting down the last open port of the Confederacy and severing its final link to the outside world. No more weapons. No more supplies. No more war materiel smuggled through the blockade. With ...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 19
•
18:37
The Siege of Sevastopol, 1854 - 1855. Crimean War. First Use of Electrically Detonated Land Mines, Russia's Crimean Dreams Destroyed.
The loss of the port city shattered Russia’s campaign in the Crimean War. With Sevastopol gone, the Tsar’s ambitions in the region collapsed. His fleet was crippled, his armies bled white, and his empire humiliated on the world stage. No reinfo...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 18
•
20:21
