Most humiliating defeats in History

Oops- double post.

 

Couldn,t agree more they will slaughter each other i will be suprised if Al Qaeda doesn,t attack hard once the U.S is gone.

The middle east is like a forest that hasn,t had rain for twenty years you don,t go in there lighting fires.

 

As a New Zealander who had a family member in the battle yes it stings that we didn,t win when we should have but i don,t find it humiliating because our rifle companies fought like hell they didn,t roll over and go belly up.

 

Why would this be a humiliating defeat for the US? Sadam is gone and Al Qaeda is thoroughly despised there. The Sunniis and Shias may go after each other and that would be a shame but it's not really our problem.

 

Just thought about starting this up again.

A new one I would thing would be the partisan war in Yugoslavia, it was quite a failure for the Germans who could never successfully dislodge the "inferior slavs."

 

The German V weapons as described by Dr Göbbels.... V1 was supposed to bring London on its knees in days rather than weeks.

 

Raid on Dieppe WWII

 

First:

Battle of Watling Street AD60ish
Boadicea's uprising --
Rebels 100,000 to 230,00 strong
Romans 10,000

Casualties:
Rebels 80,000
Romans 400


Second:

Teutoburgerwald 9ADish
Germans under Arminius troops prob around 10-15k
Romans under Varius
3 legions, 3 alae, many auxiliaries total around 20-25k

Losses: German unknown but minimal
Roman practically everyone, ove 20k

"VARIUS! GIVE ME BACK MY LEGIONS!"
quote attributed to Caesar Augustus

Are those humiliating enough?

How about The Battle of Trafalgar? yeah, Ricky Nelson....wait, no, LORD Nelson bought the farm, but he laid into the French/Spanish fleet for SURE!

Iwd wrote:
"One has to be very careful about opposition numbers sited in Greek and Roman battle accounts."
Absolutely! The Romans were, arguably, the very first really good propagandists when it came to spreading word about the invincibility of their legions to other peoples. I guess this is due to their nobles such as Plutarch and Plint and Cato spreading the word about just that sort of thing! I can see it now...cato gets word that a Roman legion defeats a few hundred Celts, and the next thing you know, the Roman 14th legion Felix, defeated Vercingetorix and 120,000 Celts while the Romans were crossing a river and their weapons were still in scabbard!

 

One has to be very careful about opposition numbers sited in Greek and Roman battle accounts.

 

The last attempt to invade Finland by Stalin, summer 1944

Battle of Ilomantsi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Two attacking Red Army divisions were decimated in this last major engagement on the Finnish front, before the armistice was concluded in early September, 1944. The commandership of the Finnish forces in the Battle of Ilomantsi was carried out by the famed Finnish General — and a Knight of the Mannerheim Cross — Erkki Raappana.

Military historians note that the two Red Army divisions were completely routed after a week and a half of fighting, leaving behind over 3,200 Red Army soldiers dead, thousands wounded and missing, and over 100 pieces of heavy artillery, approximately 100 mortars and the rest of the Soviet ordnance for the Finns to capture.

 

Battle of Islandwana- Zulus vs British Army

 

Already mentioned numerous times starting with post number 8 I believe.
I don't think it holds a candle to Tippermuir especially given Elcho's reply to Montrose's querry about waiting until the next day as it was the Sabath. Soemthing about "The Lord's day for the Lord's work".
See:
Battle of Tippermuir, 1 October 1644
or
Battle of Tippermuir - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Oh my bad. Stalingrad...According to the Germans the Red Army was a rabble

 

I'd echo the Yugoslavian Partisan War (really a Civil War) during World War II - embarassing for the British, at least. They were duped into backing the Communists and allowing the Communists to gain power there, all by a now very famous Spy.

 

Ooh, glad to see this thread resurrected!
How about the Battle of Hattin, 4/7/1187?
Territorial raids by a Frankish lord led to the massacre of a Crusader army by Saladin and the destruction of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem-
Battle of Hattin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Battle of the Chesapeake Bay? The British should have engaged while the French were still at anchor.

 

Battle of Diu (1509).

18 (5 naus and caravelas) Portuguese ships defeated About 250 galleys and dhows of the Egyptian-Ottoman fleet. Spice trade open for the Portuguese.

 

Well if were going back to the 13th Hundreads and even the 15th.
Hernando Cortes from 1518-1522, AKA Conquitadors.

300 men Vs 700,000+++ Aztecs Warriors.

Google Books
id=YK3MiKWXVfcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=conquistador&source=bl&ots=xZY3twhQD2&sig=PTP7bWkzdAC64yFP5rygfLtnmug&hl=en&ei=a63PS5jqAaSOMoXt_cgG&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CCoQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q&f=false

Scholars estimate that the population of the Inca Empire probably numbered over 16,000,000. The Conquest of Peru was the historic process of military conquest of the Inca Empire by Spanish conquistadores. After years of preliminary exploration and military skirmishes, 182 Spanish soldiers under Francisco Pizarro and their native allies ambushed the emperor of the Inca Empire and captured him in the 1532 Battle of Cajamarca

Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

These warriors achieve to defeat Cortés in "la noche triste". But just after it, Cortés proved he was a rough soldier in Otumba.

Otumba Battle

After Hernán Cortés was forced to evacuate the city of Tenochtitlan during the rainy Noche Triste ( June 30 of 1520 ), in which the Mexica or Aztecs killed off much of the Spanish forces in the city, about 500 Spanish survivors, and Tlaxcaltec allies under the same conditions, decided to fight or die despite not already have guns and have lost much of their horses and muskets after their defeat during the flight from Tenochtitlán ...

 

Battle of La Rochelle

The naval Battle of La Rochelle took place on 22 June 1372 between a Castilian-French and an English fleet.
Hundred Years War


The victory was overwhelming: Pembroke was captured, along with 400 knights and 8,000 soldiers. In his return to the Iberian Peninsula, Bocanegra captured four additional English ships. The French and Castilians decisively defeated the English, securing French control of the Channel .