Cormac OBrien - Outnumbered : miraculous stories of incredible victories against the odds

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OUTNUMBERED

INCREDIBLE STORIES OF HISTORYS MOST SURPRISING BATTLEFIELD UPSETS

CORMAC OBRIEN

To Jason Rekulak, who gave me a shot

CONTENTS

Greek Audacity and Courage Defy the Worlds Greatest Empire

Alexander the Great Leads a Martial Storm into Mighty Persia

Hannibals Masterpiece Thrashes Rome and Creates a Legend

Roman Arms Become Trapped Between the Scorching Sun and the Wrath of Parthia

Caesar Shows His Enemies the Meaning of Roman Tenacity

Byzantiums Finest Take on the Germanic Corsairs of North Africa

French Chivalry Endures the Flight of the Bodkins on St. Crispins Day

A Kings Coming of Age Meets Swedens Finest Hour

Frederick the Great Steals Victory from the Jaws of Defeat

Frances Iron Marshal Avenges the Disaster of Rossbach

Hooker Came, He Saw, He Got Conquered

Modern Arms and Raw Nerve Achieve the Incredible

Russia Is Impaled on the Spike of the Pickelhaube

A Brilliant Japanese Gambit Steals the Gibraltar of the East

INTRODUCTION

It often happens, that fortune in war and love turns out more
favorable and wonderful than could have been hoped for or expected.
JEAN FROISSART, Chronicles

IN SUMMER 480 BCE, A GREEK ARMY PLANNED TO THWART a Persian invasion by occupying the pass of Thermopylae, the Hot Gates as it is known to the Greeks, where the mountains came down to the Strait of Euboea to create a choke point for anyone hoping to invade Greece.

The Persians owned a vast empire, the greatest humanity had ever seen. Filled with troops from across Asia, the army of the Persian king was an unprecedented host, numbered in the hundreds of thousands, all bearing down on the glorified mule track of Thermopylae. There the Greeks waited for them.

The men of Greece were Thebans, Athenians, Corinthians, and Spartans. They hailed from myriad city states, at once divided and united by the sea, jealous of each others power and yet proud to identify themselves as brothers in a Hellenic heritage. They traded as often as they battled, fixed in their parochial view of the world. Above all things, they valued civic independence.

Fiercely agonistic, they nevertheless understood the scale of the Persian threat and organized, in their way, a concerted response. And Thermopylae was to be its greatest effort.

After two days of fierce battle in the narrow pass, the Persians, foiled by the heavily armored Greeks, discovered a path through the mountains that allowed them to deliver a force around the Greek rear. Learning of the flanking maneuver, the commander of the Greeks, King Leonidas of Sparta, elected to stay in the pass with a token force to give the rest of the army an opportunity to withdraw before the trap closed.

The brave gambit allowed the majority of the Greeks to fight another day. For Leonidas and his fellows, however, the end was near. On the third day, 300 Spartans, accompanied by contingents of Thespians and Thebans, received the Persian onslaught from both ends of the pass. Wildly outnumbered, they all died, fighting to the last.

History remembers the 300 Spartans (though it is considerably less kind to the Thespians and Thebans who died with them) in film, literature, and legend. The popular imagination is enthralled by their sacrifice. Moreover, Leonidas and his little command actually achieved what they set out to do: delay the Persian onslaught. In combination with the battles waged at sea, Thermopylae set the tight Persian timetable back just long enough to limit the enemys options. By the time summer gave way to fall, the Persian king had yet to crush the Greek alliance, whose bold and clever resistance ultimately forced the invaders to decamp before the onset of winter.

This book takes a look at armies that faced similarly daunting odds but that went one step furthernot only did they achieve their missions, they survived to tell the tale. From ancient times to the Second World War, Outnumbered explores one of the most compelling phenomena in war: the upset victory against dreadful odds.

The causes for victory or defeat, it will be seen, are as diverse as the reasons for going to war in the first place. In many instances, genius makes an appearance, whether through assiduous preparation, an uncanny appreciation of events, or some prescient judgment call. But just as often, the numerically superior force lays the groundwork for its own defeat: Overconfidence, disastrous decision-making, ineffectual staff work, and good old stupidity rear their ugly heads again and again. Sometimes technology proves decisive, and terrain plays a role in nearly every clash.

Perhaps nothing, however, is as common in the following pages as a difference in doctrinethe gulf that yawns between two armies in the way they make war, often because of cultural differences. From divergent ethics to variations in weaponry, this is as much a saga of human diversity as it is a history of beating the odds.

Finally, there is luck. As Prussian military thinker Carl von Clausewitz asserted, War is the province of uncertainty. Truer words were never written. Battle is the (often futile) act of finding order in chaos, an unavoidable fact that underpins everything in the hellish, murderous confusion of mass killing. Though it is often difficult to remember from our removed perspective, it is vital to understand that Lady Luck plays a role in every military clasha sobering reminder that humankinds quest for a foolproof weapon or stratagem is a futile one.

CORMAC OBRIEN

CHAPTER 1

SALAMIS
480 BCE

GREEK AUDACITY AND COURAGE DEFY THE WORLDS GREATEST EMPIRE

375 GREEK SHIPS VERSUS 1,000 PERSIAN SHIPS

IN 498 BCE, THE GREAT ANATOLIAN CITY OF SARDIS FELL prey to one of the most notorious acts of arson in history. Seat of the local satrap, or Persian governor, Sardis was besieged by rebelsmost of them Greekswho hoped to throw off Persian rule in Ionia. They forced their way into the city, only to see the garrison retreat safely into the citadel.

A standoff ensued. The streets may have belonged to the attackers, but the Persian soldiers made a mockery of the Greek occupation by their very presence in the fortress, whose walls defied any hope of breaching. During this period of inertia a fire broke out, probably started by Greeks. Raging out of control, the flames claimed scores of homes and the temple of Cybele, the citys patron goddess. The Greeks ultimately retreated from Sardis, only to be thrashed by Persian relief forces and scattered. Within four years, the Ionian revolt was suppressed.

The burning of Sardis, however, left an ugly scar on the consciousness of the Persian king, Darius. Most abominable of all was the defilement of Cybeles sacred temple, which was reduced to a smoldering ruin. To those who worshipped this ancient Asian goddess, patroness of fertility and strength, blasphemy had occurred within the very walls of a Persian city. Vengeance was compulsory.

But against whom? For Darius, the answer was obvious. Athens had openly aided the Ionian rebels and led the attack on Sardis. Ionia, comprising the Mediterranean coast of modern Turkey, was a land of Greek city states founded centuries earlier by voyagers from the Greek mainlandthriving communities that looked to the free cities of Athens and Sparta as cultural progenitors while living under the domination of Persian masters. To secure their own independence, the Ionian rebels turned to Sparta, greatest military power of the Greek world, for help. They were rebuffed. Athens was more supportive: The warriors who had marched on Sardis and watched its buildings burn were mostly Athenian.

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