50 Fun Facts About Military History

Which Dutch exotic dancer was shot by a French firing squad in 1917 as a convicted German spy?

Mata Hari, by one eyewitness account, refused a blindfold before twelve French soldiers shot her at Vincennes. Later biographers argue the French Army needed a scapegoat.

Which Japanese word first named the typhoons that wrecked Mongol invasion fleets in 1274 and 1281?

Kamikaze means divine wind, a name given to the storms that scattered Kublai Khan's ships. Japan revived the word in 1944 for suicide pilots who flew their aircraft into Allied warships.

Which aid movement grew from Henry Dunant's horror at the wounded abandoned at Solferino in 1859?

The Red Cross began with a five-man committee that Dunant joined in Geneva in February 1863. His campaign earned him a share of the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.

Which English king, the last to die in battle, was killed fighting Henry Tudor at Bosworth in 1485?

Richard III lay in a lost grave for more than 500 years until archaeologists found his skeleton beneath a Leicester car park in 2012. DNA from his sister's descendants confirmed the identity.

Which war between English and French kings began in 1337 over the French throne?

The Hundred Years' War actually ran for 116 years, broken up by long truces. It was triggered when Edward III of England claimed the crown of France.

Which Carthaginian general led war elephants over the Alps to invade Italy in the Second Punic War?

Hannibal's elephants fought in his victory at the Trebia, but by Polybius's account all but one died in the cold that followed. He still routed Roman armies at Lake Trasimene and Cannae.

Which Native American nation's language was the basis of the code US Marines used at Iwo Jima?

Navajo had no word for submarine, so the code talkers called it an iron fish. Six of them worked around the clock during the first two days of the battle for Iwo Jima.

Which new weapon did the British first send into battle at Flers-Courcelette in September 1916?

Tank began as a cover name: to keep the project secret, the first hulls were described as water carriers. The label stuck after the machines went into action in 1916.

During which war did British troops occupy Washington and burn the White House and the Capitol?

The War of 1812 brought the only capture of the US capital by a foreign power since the Revolutionary War. British troops torched the White House in August 1814 after routing an American army at Bladensburg.

Which nurse, called the Lady with the Lamp, tended British wounded at Scutari in the Crimean War?

Florence Nightingale earned the nickname on her night rounds of the wards. She was also an innovator in statistics, famous for the polar area diagram she used to show what was killing soldiers.

On which Greek battlefield did Athens defeat a Persian army sent by Darius I in 490 BC?

Marathon gave its name to the 26.2-mile race through a legend that a messenger ran to Athens with news of the victory. Michel Bréal suggested the event for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.

Which narrow pass did King Leonidas and 300 Spartans hold to the death against a Persian army?

Thermopylae held for two days until a local man, Ephialtes, showed the Persians a path behind the Greek lines. Leonidas then sent most of the army away and stayed with 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians.

Which conqueror, tutored by Aristotle, broke Persian power at Gaugamela and never lost a battle?

Alexander the Great had, by the age of 30, created an empire stretching from Greece to northwestern India. He took the Macedonian throne at 20, after his father was assassinated.

Which small river did Julius Caesar lead a legion across in 49 BC, starting a Roman civil war?

The Rubicon marked the line between Cisalpine Gaul and Italy proper, so by marching troops over it Caesar deliberately broke the law limiting his command. Crossing it became an idiom for passing the point of no return.

Which Thracian gladiator escaped a training school near Capua and led a slave revolt against Rome?

Spartacus broke out with about 70 fellow gladiators and his following swelled into an army that Crassus finally crushed. Some 6,000 captured survivors were crucified along the Appian Way.

Which king of Epirus beat Rome at Asculum at such cost that ruinous victories still carry his name?

Pyrrhus gave English the phrase Pyrrhic victory, coined from wins that cost him unacceptably heavy losses. He lost all his gains in Italy after the Battle of Beneventum in 275 BC.

Where in Germania did Arminius ambush and destroy three Roman legions under Varus in AD 9?

Teutoburg Forest ended Rome's run of expansion under Augustus, and afterwards the Rhine became the empire's frontier. Arminius had Roman citizenship and a Roman military education, which helped him deceive Varus.

Which seafaring raiders shocked Christian Europe in 793 by sacking the monastery of Lindisfarne?

Vikings killed monks, drowned others and carried off captives and church treasure at Lindisfarne. The attack of 8 June 793 is often treated as the start of the Viking Age.

Which embroidered cloth, nearly 70 metres long, depicts the Norman conquest of England in 1066?

The Bayeux Tapestry is technically an embroidery, since its scenes are stitched rather than woven. It was probably commissioned by Bishop Odo, the half-brother of William the Conqueror.

Which hilltop fortress in modern Israel fell to Rome in AD 73 after engineers raised a siege ramp?

Masada was breached after the besiegers hauled a siege tower with a battering ram up a ramp built against the western face. By Josephus's account, the defenders chose mass suicide over capture.

Which French heroine, burned at the stake at about nineteen, helped lift the siege of Orléans?

Joan of Arc reached Orléans with a relief army at about seventeen, and nine days later the English abandoned the siege. She was canonized in 1920.

At which 1415 battle did Henry V's outnumbered army, mostly archers, beat the French?

Agincourt was won by an army in which English and Welsh archers made up nearly 80 percent of the men. Henry V led his troops in person and took part in the hand-to-hand fighting.

Which sultan of Egypt and Syria crushed a crusader army at Hattin in 1187 and then retook Jerusalem?

Saladin was a Kurd who used his Egyptian power base to wrest control of Syria from his rivals. His victory at Hattin restored Muslim military dominance in the Levant.

Which Ottoman sultan conquered Constantinople in 1453 at the age of 21, ending the Byzantine Empire?

Mehmed II battered the city's walls with cannons and bombards, a sign that ramparts could no longer keep invaders out. He made Constantinople the new Ottoman capital in place of Adrianople.

Which Frankish leader, grandfather of Charlemagne, beat an Umayyad army at Tours in 732?

Charles Martel got his byname, an Old French word for hammer, from later chronicles. He was never king: he ruled the Franks as Mayor of the Palace.

Which Spanish conquistador scuttled his own ships before marching on the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan?

Hernán Cortés sank the fleet to eliminate any idea of retreat among his men. The expedition he led went on to bring down the Aztec Empire.

Which English monarch addressed troops at Tilbury in 1588 as they awaited the Spanish Armada?

Elizabeth I left her bodyguard and went among the soldiers with an escort of only six men. The Armada had in fact been driven from the Strait of Dover eleven days earlier.

Which 1571 sea battle, the last great clash of galleys, cost Cervantes the use of his left hand?

Lepanto saw a Holy League fleet from Messina defeat the Ottoman navy off western Greece. Cervantes took three wounds aboard the Marquesa, two in the chest and one that left his arm useless.

Which country's Admiral Yi Sun-sin used turtle ships to beat Japanese invasion fleets in the 1590s?

Korea's Yi Sun-sin never lost a battle during the Imjin War. At Myeongnyang he led 13 ships to victory over a Japanese fleet of at least 133.

Which Japanese warrior class lost the right to carry swords in public under an 1876 Meiji edict?

Samurai privileges were stripped away in steps: the 1876 edict left swords only to former lords, the military and the police. An earlier decree had let them cut off their topknots.

Which warlord won at Sekigahara in 1600 and founded a shogunate that ruled Japan until 1868?

Tokugawa Ieyasu spent part of his childhood as a hostage of a rival lord. He later made his base in the fishing village of Edo, the settlement that grew into Tokyo.

Which Swedish king, called the father of modern warfare, was killed at Lützen in 1632?

Gustavus Adolphus was killed as his troops fell back at Lützen, yet his subordinates re-formed the infantry and narrowly won the battle. His reign made Sweden one of Europe's primary military powers.

At which Virginia port did Lord Cornwallis surrender to American and French forces in 1781?

Yorktown's surrender ceremony went ahead without Cornwallis, who claimed to be ill and sent Brigadier General Charles O'Hara in his place. It was the last major land engagement of the war.

Which French ruler lost most of the Grande Armée on a winter retreat from Moscow?

Napoleon I marched nearly half a million men into Russia, and more than half died of starvation, exhaustion, typhus and cold. By the Berezina river he commanded only about 49,000 troops.

Which British admiral was shot dead by a French musketeer during his victory at Trafalgar?

Horatio Nelson had already lost his right arm at Tenerife and most of the sight in one eye on Corsica. The fatal musket ball was fired from high in the rigging of the French ship Redoutable.

Which British commander beat the French at Waterloo in 1815 and later served as prime minister?

The Duke of Wellington won at Waterloo together with a Prussian army under Blücher. Years later he remarked that Assaye in India, not Waterloo, was the best battle he ever fought.

Which Prussian general wrote the unfinished treatise On War, published by his widow Marie in 1832?

Carl von Clausewitz died before finishing the book, so his wife edited his collected works and published them between 1832 and 1835. It is considered a seminal treatise on military strategy.

Which three-day battle in July 1863 ended with Pickett's Charge repelled at Cemetery Ridge?

Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle in American military history up to that time, with over 50,000 combined casualties. Pickett's Charge sent about 12,000 Confederates against the centre of the Union line.

In which Virginia village did Robert E. Lee surrender to Ulysses S. Grant in April 1865?

Appomattox Court House was home to Wilmer McLean, who had moved there to escape the war after the First Battle of Bull Run opened on his farm. The surrender was signed in his parlour.

At which 1879 battle did Zulu warriors armed mainly with spears overrun a British camp?

Isandlwana was the British Army's worst defeat against an indigenous foe with vastly inferior technology. The defenders had Martini-Henry breechloading rifles, two mountain guns and a rocket battery.

Which 1905 naval battle saw Admiral Togo's fleet destroy a Russian squadron sent from the Baltic?

Tsushima ended a voyage of over seven months and 18,000 nautical miles for the Russian ships. The loss of almost every heavy warship forced Russia to sue for peace.

Which Austrian archduke was shot dead with his wife Sophie in Sarajevo in June 1914?

Franz Ferdinand was killed by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb student who was too young to be executed and was sentenced to 20 years in jail instead.

Which Cunard liner did the German submarine U-20 sink off Ireland in 1915 with a single torpedo?

RMS Lusitania sank in only 18 minutes after a second explosion inside the ship followed the torpedo strike. Only six of several dozen lifeboats and rafts were lowered successfully.

Which German pilot, credited with 80 air victories in World War I, was known as the Red Baron?

Manfred von Richthofen began the war as a cavalryman and transferred to the air service in 1915. His fighter wing was nicknamed the Flying Circus for the bright colours of its aircraft.

Which US naval base did 353 Japanese carrier aircraft strike in two waves on 7 December 1941?

Pearl Harbor was hit by planes launched from six aircraft carriers, and the raid prompted the US to declare war on Japan the next day.

Which of the five Normandy landing beaches cost the Allies the most casualties on D-Day?

Omaha was assaulted by the US 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions, who met unexpectedly strong defences. Troops weakened by losses in the landing itself could not at first clear the exits off the sand.

Which Japanese city was destroyed on 6 August 1945 by Little Boy, the first atomic bomb used in war?

Hiroshima was picked as an embarkation port and industrial centre that housed a major military headquarters. Roughly half of the deaths from the bombing came on the first day.

Which German field marshal, nicknamed the Desert Fox, led Axis forces in North Africa?

Erwin Rommel was implicated in the 20 July 1944 plot to kill Hitler and offered a choice between suicide and a trial ending in disgrace and execution. He took a cyanide pill.

At which Dutch city did British paratroopers fail to hold a Rhine bridge in Operation Market Garden?

Arnhem was the northernmost objective, and only a small force reached its road bridge, where it was overwhelmed after four days. The remnants of the 1st Airborne Division were withdrawn after nine days of fighting.

Which French stronghold in Indochina did General Giap's Viet Minh besiege and overrun in 1954?

Dien Bien Phu fell after the Viet Minh hauled heavy artillery up the rear slopes of the surrounding mountains, where it was nearly impervious to French counter-battery fire.