Some mistakes had disastrous consequences
Battlefields serve as a permanent reminder of some of history's bloodiest military engagements. The bucolic landscapes we see today were once stained with the blood of hundreds, sometimes thousands, felled in the throes of mortal combat. Preserved for posterity, these conflict locations remain hallowed turf, historical landmarks of past campaigns and encounters, many of which influenced the outcome of world wars.
Click through and tread the fields of history's bloodiest battles.
The mournful ruins of Belchite near Zaragoza in Aragon stand as a reminder of the military operations that took place between August 24 and September 7, 1937 at this small town when it was visited by the Spanish Civil War. Francisco Franco's forces bombed it to pieces in an attempt to flush out The Republicans.
Fought on June 18, 1815 at Waterloo in Belgium, the Battle of Waterloo was a decisive engagement between Napoleon's army and those of a British-led coalition under the command of the Duke of Wellington. Nearly 33,000 men fell on that day, which ended in defeat for the French emperor. The Lion's Mound (pictured) was built in 1820 and provides sweeping views of the battlefields.
The Somme battlefields on the Western Front serve as a reminder of one of the deadliest battles in human history. More than one million men fell during the First World War offensive, which took place between July 1 and November 18, 1916 near the Somme river in France. The remains of some of the trenches have been preserved, a landscape that tell its own story.
The Battle of Thermopylae took place in August or September of 480 BCE. An epic clash between Greek forces, mostly Spartan, commanded by King Leonidas I, and a superior Persian army led by King Xerxes I, the battle was held at the narrow coastal pass of Thermopylae. There are several monuments set around this battlefield in Greece, one of which is a statue of the defeated Leonidas in full battledress.
The Battle of Isandlwana marked the first major encounter in the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Using mainly traditional spears and cow-hide shields, the Zulus, numbering some 20,000 warriors, easily overwhelmed a column of 1,800 British troops and support staff. The battlefield is set near an isolated hill in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.
Named for a town on the south coast of England, the famous battle of October 14, 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, the Duke of Normandy, and English forces led by King Harold, actually took place nearer the present-day town of Battle, itself named for Battle Abbey, founded in 1095 to commemorate the engagement. The ruins of the abbey, plus a stone marking the spot where Harold fell, lie within the boundaries of the battlefield.
The Battle of the Boyne was fought on July 1, 1690, and pitted the forces of King James II against those of William III. The well-maintained Boyne battlefield is located near the River Boyne, close to the town of Drogheda in Ireland.
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought on July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and is arguably the most famous of the military confrontations to take place during the American Civil War. Unionist forces won a decisive victory over their Confederate enemy, but 8,000 of the 51,000 casualties were killed in combat. Several memorials are set on the battlefield, which is a National Military Park, including the Gettysburg National Cemetery where President Lincoln gave his historic Gettysburg Address.
Historians regularly cite the Battle of Stalingrad as one of the bloodiest in the annals of warfare. It began on August 23, 1942 when German forces attempted to take the city, located in southern Russia and today called Volgograd. By the time hostilities ended on February 2, 1943, Axis casualties numbered 800,000 while Soviet forces are estimated to have suffered 1,100,000 casualties, and approximately 40,000 civilians died. The ruins of the Grudinina Mill stand as a permanent memorial to those who perished, and is located next to a museum facility.
The last pitched battle to be fought on British soil, the Battle of Culloden took place on April 16, 1746 on Drummossie Moor, overlooking Inverness in Scotland. Culloden was the climax of the Jacobite Rising when the forces of Charles Edward Stewart were roundly defeated by British government troops led by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. The battleground is marked by a series of memorial cairns.
The first major defeat of the English in the Wars of Scottish Independence, the Battle of Stirling Bridge was fought on September 11, 1297, and ended with victory for the armies of Andrew Moray and William Wallace. The landmark Wallace Monument (pictured) overlooking the city of Stirling commemorates the battle.
The American victory at the Battle of Princeton on January 3, 1777 was one of the most consequential of the American Revolution. General George Washington decided to attack the British in New Jersey and famously crossed the Delaware River to do so. His success bolstered American morale and provided much-needed confidence to his soldiers. Princeton Battlefield State Park features a stone trail marker and the Clarke House Museum.
Also known as the Battle of Bosworth Field, this was the last significant engagement of the War of the Roses, a series of 15th-century English civil wars that lasted a protracted 32 years. Bosworth took place on August 22, 1485 near Ambion Hill in Leicestershire. The battlefield is clearly way signed.
A last-ditch attempt by the Nazis to seize the upper hand ultimately failed at the Battle of the Bulge, which took place in sub-zero temperatures in and around the densely forested Ardennes region in Belgium and Luxembourg from December 16, 1944 to January 25, 1945. The battle cost the Reich some 100,000 casualties; the Americans approximately 81,000. Various memorials can be found set in and around the woodland.
Union and Confederate forces clashed at Chickamauga, Georgia, on September 18, 1863, in what proved to be the most significant defeat for the Union Army in the American Civil War's Western Theater. With losses on each side amounting to 34,000 killed and wounded. The battlefield, which also preserves the site of the Siege of Chattanooga and is a National Military Park, is marked by several monuments and commemorative cannons.
A key military engagement during the Second Punic War between the Romans and Hannibal's Carthaginians, the Battle of Cannae, fought on August 2, 216 BCE near the ancient Italian village of Cannae in Apulia, saw Hannibal's forces massacre a superior Roman army. The battleground has one monument to the battle set within the archaeological site of Cannae di Battaglia.
One of the many military engagements that took place during the English Civil War, the Battle of Montgomery saw a Parliamentarian force advance upon a Royalist army that was attacking Montgomery Castle in mid-Wales. Fighting began on September 17, 1644, and ended in a Royalist defeat. The battleground and castle ruins are open to the public.
The Battle of Rorke's Drift took place on January 22–23, 1879, and is one of the most famous confrontations of the Anglo-Zulu War. Around 150 British and colonial troops managed to defend a mission station at Rorke's Drift in Natal Province, South Africa from staggered attack by 3,000 to 4,000 Zulu warriors. The battleground features several grave markers and drystone cairns.
Vicksburg is where Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove out Confederate forces led by John C. Pemberton during a major military engagement that lasted from May 18– July 4, 1863. The Vicksburg National Military Park preserves key sites on the various battlegrounds.
The landing by troops from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) at Gaba Tepe on April 25, 1915 marked the beginning of the land phase of the Gallipoli Campaign of the First World War. After wading ashore at a location later named Anzac Cove, the British Empire forces came under sustained fire from well dug-in Ottoman Turkish defenders. Since 1916, April 25 has been celebrated as Anzac Day.
During the Second World War, the region around the Dutch towns of Arnhem, Oosterbeek, Wolfheze and Driel became synonymous with the Battle of Arnhem, an attempt by Allied forces in September 1944 to capture and secure bridges and towns along the Meuse river and two arms of the Rhine. The bridge at Arnhem proved a "bridge too far," when German resistance and counter attack successfully halted the Allied advance.
The defense by a handful of Texans and Tejanos of the Alamo Mission during a 13-day siege in 1836 by Mexican troops led by Santa Ana remains one of the defining moments in American history. The Alamo Mission, located in San Antonio, still stands and today serves as a museum.
A large stone cross landmarks the pocket of moorland near Branxton in Northumberland, northern England, where the Battle of Flodden took place on September 9, 1513. Essentially a clash between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, Flodden was the largest battle fought between the two warring realms. It resulted in an English victory.
Omaha (pictured), one of the five sectors of Normandy beachhead chosen by the Allies for the June 6, 1944 D-Day landings, witnessed some of the fiercest fighting, with American forces alone suffering 2,400 casualties. Several memorials landmark all five sectors where the Allies waded ashore.
The Battles of Lexington and Concord announced the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, when the first shots were fired on April 19, 1775 in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay. The famous Minute Man statue and North Bridge located at Concord are reminders of the outbreak of armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and its 13 colonies in America.
In September 52 BCE, the forces of Julius Caesar clashed with a confederation of Gallic tribes at Alesia (modern-day Alise-Sainte-Reine) in France in what was the last major engagement between Gauls and Romans. Caesar's emphatic win and the surrender of the chieftain Vercingetorix effectively ceded control of Gaul to Rome. The battlefield site includes reconstructions of the Roman fortifications that helped besiege the hapless Gauls.
Napoleon's Grande Armée won an important victory against Russian forces at the Battle of Borodino, which took place on September 7, 1812 during his ill-fated Russian campaign. The battlefield, distinguished by two obelisks, is now part of the State Borodino War and History Museum and Reserve.
The greatest military victory achieved by Napoleon took place near the town of Austerlitz in the Austrian Empire (modern-day Slavkov u Brna in the Czech Republic) when his Grande Armée defeated larger Russian and Austrian forces on December 2, 1805. The battlefield is overlooked by an impressive memorial.
The Vietnam War's most infamous siege took place at the United States Khe Sanh Combat Base in northwestern Quang Trị Province after the North Vietnamese Army surrounded and completely cut off the Marine facility. The ensuing battle took place from January 21–July 9, 1968 and ended when American reinforcements arrived. The remote battleground is today littered with abandoned tanks, planes, and helicopters, displayed as reminders of the battle—the longest, deadliest and most controversial of the war.
The biggest tank engagement ever to have taken place, the Battle of Kursk was a mighty clash of armor between German and Russian forces that took place during July and August 1943 near the city of Kursk, on the Eastern Front. The Red Army prevailed, but not before both sides suffered heavy casualties. The battleground is marked by a huge bell tower at Prokhorovka, which also commemorates the Battle of Prokhorovka, an engagement that was part of the wider Kursk campaign.
The Saratoga National Historical Park in upstate New York embraces the location where the Battles of Saratoga took place, a series of engagements during the Saratoga Campaign of September 19 and October 7, 1777, that concluded with a decisive victory for the Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War.
Known also as the Battle of Bussaco, this was a military engagement fought in Portugal on September 27, 1810 during the Peninsular War. The battleground where Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese Army defeated French forces on the wooded slopes of the Serra do Buçaco in central Portugal is memorialized by a stone obelisk.
Sources: (Discover Magazine) (National Army Museum) (Holocaust Encyclopedia) (New Georgia Encyclopedia) (ThoughtCo) (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency) (Britannica)
See also: Impressive photos of World War II
Historic battlefields you can visit
Discover these famous conflict locations
TRAVEL History
Battlefields serve as a permanent reminder of some of history's bloodiest military engagements. The bucolic landscapes we see today were once stained with the blood of hundreds, sometimes thousands, felled in the throes of mortal combat. Preserved for posterity, these conflict locations remain hallowed turf, historical landmarks of past campaigns and encounters, many of which influenced the outcome of world wars.
Click through and tread the fields of history's bloodiest battles.