clavus

So, what would you consider the greatest ass-kicking in history?

I’d say the Battle of Thermopolae. THREE HUNDRED Spartans took on the greatest army on earth; that of the God-King Xerxes II. When it was over, the Spartans had killed TENS OF THOUSANDS of Persian soldiers. Though the 300 were eventually killed, the monumental can of whoopass they opened crippled the Persian army and sent them packing. Xerxes was never able to clean the poop-stains out of his royal pants.


So, what’s you favorite tale of historical ass-kicking? The Battle of Little Bighorn? Boom-Boom Mancini vs. Duk Koo Kim? The Enola Gay vs. Hiroshima? Hannibal’s first scrap with the Romans? C’mon! Tell it!

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SecretMethod70

I forget the name of it, but the battle in which the Athenians slaughtered the Spartan fleet by trapping them. If I remember correctly that was pretty cool and caused them to win against the odds.

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james t kirk

Kursk

World War II.

Basically, a million Russians squared off against about a million Germans in a field over a few days. Each soldier on each side knew that it was a battle to the death. Neither side took prisoners. Imagine what that must have felt like? Knowing that you were pretty much assured to die.

At the end of the day, a few Russians were still standing, so there were the victors.

The Russians lost more that single battle than the United States has ever lost in every war it has ever fought combined. Something to think about.

KungFuGuy

GWBush vs. the US Constitution! Ouch...oh wait, dont mean to thread jack.


well to get some honorble mentions out of the way...

the battle of troy
moses vs. the egyptians.


ps./ really cool thread topic!

MrFlux

I think you have your facts a bit wrong there Clavus, here's an entry on the battle of Thermopylae from wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae

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saut

The first ass-kicking that came to mind was the battle of Austerlitz.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austerlitz

denim

How about this? Lord vs Sennacherib:

Not only did Adonai wipe out 180,000 people overnight, but he also made the guy's sons kill him. That's a serious ass whippin'.

Gortexfogg

The Battle of Cannae was quite an ass kicking too. With around 80,000 Romans killed against Cathagenian forces, it was the worst defeat in Roman history.

Strange Famous

Maybe Hernando Cortes vs The Aztecs?

I dont know enough about military history to be sure, but he basically (with the aid of an allied tribe I wont even try and spell!) destroyed an entire culture and civilisation - and he didnt do it out of hate, or rage, or even the desire to conquer, but out of love of God, which is the scariest thing.

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Astrocloud

[edit] I was going to say something sarcastic but


I think the point of an "ass kicking" battle really is sickening.. because you get cases like when the Italians invaded Ethiopia during WWII where it was tanks against spears.


Um, gee that was glorious.

Strange Famous

5.6 million

then again, more Russians died than Jews, but mostly in rather different circumstances. Personally, none of my immediate relations died in death camps, but one of my grandfathers spent two years in a concentration camp in France and was half starved there.

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Astrocloud

Even Battles like Thermopolae -the Spartans were raised from childhood to be warriors and the Persians were whipping slaves into battle...

Now think about that -the Persians would conquer a region and take men captive in order to make them slaves to fight professional solders.

Sure Xerxes supposedly had a great team of archers that would suppposedly 'blot out the sun with their arrows'. But think about what motivated the slaves to fight versus what motivated the Spartans. Hmmm... is it still glorious or possibly (with clear hindsight) obvious that the Spartans would hold them off?

Furthermore it seems like a tragedy that men were made slaves -just to be slaughtered by the Spartans. I don't know... I question the glory of every battle.

WarWagon

Remember the Alamo!

H12

I got into a fight once with a guy I didn't like, and I sent him home with a bloody nose and to the hospital to repair one of his nuts. Will that work?

On topic though, I think the Battle of Troy was pure ass-kicking.

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opackfan

The SAS vs the terrorists in the Iranian embassy...you never EVER want to screw with the SAS.

World's King

Well, the first thing that popped in my head was the Columbine High School shooting but...


You know what... No. I'm gonna say it. My favorite ass-kicking was the Columbine High School shooting. Even with as unpopular I'm gonna be for saying that I don't care. If you all can point out a battle in a war where people died and more people suffered from then I'm gonna point out the one battle in the war between popular and unpopular where the unpopular finaly said, "Fuck you, I'm in charge now." It was a huge heads up for the entire world. Leave people the fuck alone.

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Ballzor

Spetznaz

Dont EVER fuck with them

Read in a magazine one where these idiots held hostages in a building for like 11 hours or something.
Spetznaz wasnt even called in but showed up and called for one of the terrorists to come out and negotiate

They chopped off his head and threw it back in with a note stuck in the head by knife that said something like surrender if you dont want to end up like him

They were about to surrender but the spetznaz stormed the place and killed them all anyways.

Asskicking, no, this was anal rape.

Spartak

The Soviet Union in WWII, because of stupid ideologies from above (ie capture this city by a certain date, and hold this city at all costs, etc), skilled commanders were made to sacrifice young conscripts by the thousands. As a result an estimated 20 million Soviets (mostly males) lost their lives.

That, and Alexander The Great at the battle of Gaugamela, where he defeated the largest Persian army, on a plain, with his battle hardendend Macedonians. Even when outnumbered, and facing shock tactics (such as a Scythed chariot charge, right in the beggening of the battle), the skilled Macedonians went on to rout Darius' forces. Even though Darius managed to flee the battle, Alexander captured his family. So the battle of Gaugamela is seen as the turning point in Alexanders' war on Persia.

PS there is a monument at Thermopolae to the dead Spartans, to this day.

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denim

I bet it successfully sent a message, though. You seem to have received it.

mystmarimatt

July, 1863. Gettysburg.


Little Round Top - On July 3rd, what was left of regiment under the command of Lt. Col. Joshua Chamblerlain, about 150 guys, held the tail end of the Union lines against an attack by a much, much larger confederate force that was trying to go around the Union main lines and attack from the rear, after defending their post through about three enemy charges, Chamberlain, low on ammunition, orders a fucking bayonet charge. the confederates are thoroughly spanked.

Picket's Charge - on July 4th, 3 whole divisions of Confederate troops, about 15,000 soldiers, charged across a mile long section of field, obstructed by fences, and gets completely ripped apart by Union artillery. It signals the beginning of the downfall of the confederacy.

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bundy

Britains war with Zanzibar lasted all of 13minutes.

i reckon the Zanzibar army took one look at the massive colonial fleet that had come to the party and they thought, "fuck this...".

no lives were lost, but i believe it remains the fastest battle in history.

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mbchills

Troy

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denim

B52 crew vs Japanese city of your choice.

VF19

We're talking Custer's last stand here, people.

Lasereth

What about The Alamo? A generic response, but I remember my high school World Cultures teacher telling us that each soldier defending the Alamo killed an average of 17 men each at that battle.

-Lasereth

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Fire

agincourt

7000 english

24000+ french

Do not charge longbow lines

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firevra

Being from Texas, the Alamo. It's deeper then what you think, but I guess so is every battle.

mattevil

ok I'm a movie freak not a history buff so I'm saying piper versus keith david in They Live. C'mon they based the south park cripple fight on it.

Lebell

Some of you are confusing epic battles with ass-kickings

Anyway, I will say my favorite ass-kicking has GOT to be Gulf War I.

Those asshat Iraqi's didn't even know what the hell hit them.

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mystmarimatt

Ah ha!

Don't charge longbow lines when all your guys are in armor that gets stuck in the vast pool of mud you chose to fight in, and if you happen to fall face-forward into that mud, you suffocate or drown. The longbowmen weren't weighed down, and their cloth clothing didn't get stuck in the mud.

Oh, and don't let nobility choose the gameplan. leave that to actual generals.

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Words of Wisdom:

If you could really get to know someone and know that they weren't lying to you, then you would know the world was real. Because you could agree on things, you could compare notes. That must be why people get married or make Art. So they'll be able to really know something and not go insane.

Fremen

Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Ass.handed.to.him!

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KellyC

battle of dien bien phu, french lost to vietnamse, ended their control of the southeast. goddamn i hated french. They are the reason why there's communism in vietnam.

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high_way

actually it lasted 1 hour 40 min, from when the first message was sent till the flag was raised.

SHORTEST WAR IN HISTORY

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ChrisJericho

Minotauro vs Bob Sapp.

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Seaver

Yeah, I finally agree with SF on something. Dont remember exactly how many, but a few hundred soldiers conquored an empire of about 6million.

Other than that Agincourt, Gaugamela, Thermopolae, all definately need to be mensioned. Kursk was stated but that battle was in no way one sided, epic yes, but not an ass whoopin.

Though I do believe Midway must be mensioned, and sadly hasn't been yet. It was THE turning point in the Pacific campaign, where the US Navy went patched over the bleeding wound after Pearl and smashed the Japanese Army so hard they never fully recovered.

There are tons of other lesser known battles that I could mension but only a handful of you would know what I'm talking about, so I'll leave them out.

aurigus

I guess it really depends on what kind of ass kicking you mean. Total number of casualties vs viciousness of the battle. Probably an ancient roman army + barbarian of the day would win for Viciousness.

dy156

Nolan Ryan vs. Robin Ventura in 1993.
The batter charged the mound, and for once, a pitcher just kicked the batter's ass. Forget the no hitters and strike outs- this is what made him a legend.





As for true Battles, though not as decisive as those mentioned above, the Battle of Tours was probably one of the great turning points in history. I won't look it up, but I bet the details can be found on the internet somewhere. In about the mid 700's a.d., the Germans defeated the Muslim armies, and prevented the Islamic expansion from continuing to Europe. It was one of the few instances where midevil infantry, with the help of winter cold, defeated cavalry, and thank goodness.

Phaenx

Molon Labe, bitches. That's easily the greatest response ever in the history of mankind. "Lay down your arms" "Come and get them (molon labe)."

You don't fuck with that.

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feelgood

Gotta be The battle of Stalingrad. Some 400,000 Soviets were killed while 300,000 Germen killed or captured.

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Seaver

Um.. I do believe it was French. The Song of Roland was a Fench song basically bragginb about the battle. But if you include that as one of the most influencail battles, you need to include the defeat of the Turks through Serbia as well. Well, they never really defeated the Turks, the attrition on both sides caused the raids to come to a close.