Greatest British Battles?!

A bit subjective!

"The twin Second World War clashes of Imphal and Kohima have been named as the greatest ever battle involving British forces.

The two victories over the Japanese, which took place in the same region of North West India over the same period in 1944, were voted the winner of a contest run by the National Army Museum to identify "Britain's Greatest Battle".
Taken as a single victory, Imphal-Kohima was on a shortlist of five battles which topped a public poll and on Saturday, they were selected as the ultimate winner by an audience of more than 100 guests at a special event at the museum, in Chelsea, west London. Imphal-Kohima received almost half of all votes.




In second place was D-Day and Normandy, in 1944 (25 per cent), ahead of Waterloo, in 1815, (22 per cent), Rorke’s Drift, during the Zulu War in 1879 (three per cent), and Aliwal, during the First Sikh War in 1846 (two per cent).


At the event, each contender had their case made by a historian giving a 40 minute presentation. The audience, who had paid to attend the day, then voted in a secret ballot after all five presentations had been made.


The case for Imphal and Kohima was made by Dr Robert Lyman, an author and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/10008053/Second-World-War-clashes-named-as-Greatest-British-Battle.html

 

What really got me were the comments at the bottom; some twat wanted to know why Crecy & Agincourt weren't included because apparently England (ie Britain) was "a nation state" at the time!

 

Take a virtual like, Lou.

 

Ruling out air and sea battles seemed a bit much. Were the people who voted historians, or just people who filled seats and got their history lessons from TV?

 

I guess I miss anything. What about BLENHEIM? ....

 

I posted a thread allowing us to vote a few months ago....That does not seem right...The public including me voted for what they thought was greatest battle and then its ignored and some acedemics then say what was the greatest battle...Why have a public vote in the first place...?

 

Well at least it got people talking

 

As with most issues where a public vote decides an issue we end up with a decision that only a minority want. In this case as already mentioned it is a very subjective but also as given by such a small group totally meaningless.

Brian

 

ONLINE VOTING RESULTS

#

Battle

Votes

1

Waterloo

365

2

Aliwal

362

3

D-Day/Normandy

357

4

Rorke's Drift

168

5

Imphal/Kohima

164

6

Musa Qala

161

7

El Alamein

156

8

Naseby

121

9

Somme

85

10

Blenheim

73

11

Goose Green

65

12

Quebec

60

13

Culloden

57

14

Imjin River

57

15

Lexington/Concord

48

16

Plassey

45

17

Megiddo

44

18

Gallipoli

40

19

Balaklava

39

20

Salamanca

37

And we get imphal/Kohima as the winner...Why have a public vote at all...Yes it is subjective...but why open it to public if you intend to ignore them and put your own first...

 

That's pretty interesting. It means the entire poll was therefore meaningless and effectively an ego trip for someone.

 

Mboto Gorge?

 

I'd have gone for Spion Kop...but we don't like to advertise those sort of endings...Or even Iswandlahna over Rourkes Drift. Classic defeats...

 

...Or even Iswandlahna over Rourkes Drift. Classic defeats...


Yes, but they made great movies though.

 

It must have been a government-run poll. They never listen to the voters, anyway.

 

It is a very difficult choice. Some may not agree with the voters. All I can say is that it was one hell of a battle. I had written about it 26 years ago. Reproduced here http://bameduniya.blogspot.in/2013/04/ww-ii-battle-kohima-voted-british.html

 

Its not the battle...my own grandad fought there...Its the voting...It was open to a public vote...it did not win the public vote...the decision was made by others...why have the public vote in that case? All the battles are subjective...I went for Goose Green purely for infantry fighting rather than greatest I suppose where strategy and world influence mattered...But the public vote did not go to Kohima did it...

 

I agree, there wasn't much bloody point having a public vote.
Welcome to the forms btw rbhatto, thanks for the article.