History's Greatest Battles

• The Siege of Vicksburg, 1863. The Death Knell Moment of the Rebellion. The South Reduced to Eating Rats.

  With the fall of Vicksburg, the Union seized the entire length of the Mississippi River, cleaving the Confederacy in half. The South’s western states... Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas... were now isolated, their soldiers and resources cut off from the Eastern war effort. What had once been a united rebellion was now a fractured resistance, fighting a war it could no longer sustain.Vicksburg. May 19 - July 4, 1863.Union Forces: 75,000 Soldiers.Confederate Forces: 30,000 Soldiers.Additional Reading and Episode Research:Foote, Shelby. The Civil War, A Narrative.McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom.Newman, Ralph. The Civil War: An American Iliad.Donald, David. The Civil War and Reconstruction.Other Episodes on the Civil War:The Battle of Gettysburg.The Siege of Fort Fisher. The Battle of Antietam.Support the showSocial Media:www.HistorysGreatestBattles.comYoutube | TikTok Support The Show:https://covertwars.com

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• The Siege of Port Arthur, 1905. Russia Humiliated. Mechanized Slaughtering Ushered in as New War Standard.

  Japan’s triumph sent a shockwave through Russia... a psychological wound as devastating as the battlefield losses. Defeat at the hands of an Asian power shattered the empire’s confidence and exposed the weaknesses of its military. Meanwhile, Japan now held a strategic gateway, a fortified port that would fuel its next offensives. From here, men, weapons, and supplies would pour northward, driving deeper into Russian-held territory, pushing the enemy further toward collapse.Port Arthur. June 1, 1904 - January 2,  1905.Russian Forces: 40,000 Soldiers, 506 Guns.Japanese Forces: 80,000 Soldiers, 474 Guns.Additional Reading and Episode Research:Connaughton, R.M. The War of the Rising Sun and the Tumbling Bear.Okamoto, Shumpei. The Japanese Oligarchy and the Russo-Japanese War.Relevant Episodes:S01 EP77. The Naval Battle of Tsushima.S01 EP04. The Battle of Mukden.Support the showSocial Media:www.HistorysGreatestBattles.comYoutube | TikTok Support The Show:https://covertwars.com

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• The Siege of Malta, 1565. Ottoman Power Halted in its Tracks. Muslim Invasion of the Central and Western Mediterranean Sea Ends, Forever.

  The triumph of the Knights of Malta shattered the momentum of Sultan Suleiman’s ambitions, halting the Ottoman drive for total dominance over the Mediterranean. Though his empire still loomed over the region, the siege had exposed its vulnerabilities. That dream of turning the sea into an Ottoman stronghold lingered for a few more years, only to be obliterated in full at Lepanto, where the Christian fleets delivered the final, decisive blow.Malta. May 21 - September 8, 1565.Maltese Forces: 700 Knights of Malta with 8,500 Maltese Men-at-ArmsIslamic Ottoman Army: ~ 32,000 soldiers.Islamic Ottoman Navy: 185 Ships, comprising of ~ 130 galleys and ~ 30 Galliots.Additional Reading and Episode Research:Sire, H.J.A. The Knights of Malta.Balbi Translation: Correggio, Balbi di. The Siege of Malta.Hoppen, Alison. The Fortification of Malta by the Order of St. John.Support the showSocial Media:www.HistorysGreatestBattles.comYoutube | TikTok Support The Show:https://covertwars.com

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• The Siege of Rhodes, 1522. One Small Order of Knights Stops Islam from an Open Door to Europe.

  With the fall of the city and the island, Suleiman secured uncontested Ottoman dominance over the eastern Mediterranean. No Christian stronghold remained to challenge his fleets, no force lingered to disrupt his empire’s control over these waters. The sea, once a battleground, was now an Ottoman domain, its trade routes and strategic ports firmly in the sultan’s grasp.Rhodes. July 28 - December 21, 1522.Ottoman Turkish Forces: unknown but likely ~ 100,000 soldiers.Knights of St. John: 500 Knights and Sergeants. Possibly ~ 6,000 Rhodian Citizen Militia.Additional Reading and Episode Research:Brockman, Eric. The Two Sieges of Rhodes.Sire, H.J.A. The Knights of Malta.Bradford, Ernle. The Shield and the Sword.Support the showSocial Media:www.HistorysGreatestBattles.comYoutube | TikTok Support The Show:https://covertwars.com

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• The Siege of Imphal, 1944. Japanese Army Left to Rot. British and Indian Refusal to Surrender Alters History.

  The road to India was within the Japanese Imperial Army's grasp, but at Imphal and Kohima, the Japanese advance was not just halted, it was broken. Their columns had fought, bled, and died to reach the gates of British India, but when the final shots were fired, they had nothing left. Their supply lines had collapsed. Their men were starving. Their dream of conquest had been reduced to corpses rotting in the jungle mud. With this failure, the last serious threat to British rule in India vanished. Japan would never again mount an offensive of this scale in the region. The invasion had been more than blunted, it had been crushed, and with it, the fate of the war in Southeast Asia was sealed.Imphal. March 15 - May 31, 1944.Japanese Forces: ~ 85,000 troops, and 7,000 Indian Nationalist Army Auxiliaries. British and Indian Forces: ~ 120,000 troops.Additional Reading and Episode Research:Slim, Sir William. Defeat into Victory.Evans, Sir Geoffrey. Imphal: Crisis in Burma (History of the Second World War by Pitt, Barrie).Turnbull, Patrick. Imphal-Kohima, 1944.Support the showSocial Media:www.HistorysGreatestBattles.comYoutube | TikTok Support The Show:https://covertwars.com

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