MagWeb.com Poll 2002

Pivotal Battles

by Russ Lockwood
CEO, MagWeb.com

These three questions are about your opinion of climactic battles.

    The first is the most pivotal.
    The second is one that is the most fascinating to you.
    The third is if you could "time travel," which battle would you see.

You may find a battle fascinating while it may not be pivotal in the course of history, and if you were to pick one to view, you might pick a completely different battle.

That's not to say picking a battle is easy--so many to choose from and so many that have impacts upon the future course of events. I will say that as I went through these, I found myself saying a multitude of "Good one," "Nah," and "Hadn't thought of that one."

Most Pivotal Battle in History
Stalingrad6.83%
Hastings6.34%
D-Day4.39%
Marathon4.39%
Saratoga4.39%
Waterloo3.90%
Salamis2.93%
Battle of Britain2.93%
Tours2.93%
Siege of Vienna2.44%
Midway1.95%
Yorktown1.95%
Thermopylae1.95%
Trenton1.46%
Gettysburg1.46%
Moscow 19410.98%
Pearl Harbor0.98%
Yarmuk0.98%
Austerlitz0.98%
Trafalgar0.98%
Poitiers0.98%
Marne0.98%
Manzikert0.98%
Teutoberg Wald0.98%
No Answer22.93%
Other Answers18.05%

Most Fascinating Battle in History
Waterloo15.12%
Gettysburg10.24%
Stalingrad3.90%
Cannae2.44%
Midway2.44%
Austerlitz2.44%
D-Day/Normandy2.44%
Borodino 18121.95%
Leipzig1.46%
Thermopalye1.46%
Battle of the Bulge1.46%
Chancellorsville1.46%
Agincourt0.98%
Antietam0.98%
Hastings0.98%
Battle of the Atlantic0.98%
Grunwald0.98%
Madrid 19360.98%
Pavia0.98%
Saratoga0.98%
Chickamauga0.98%
Guadalcanal/Solomon Islands0.98%
Operation Crusader WWII0.98%
No Answer23.90%
Other Answers18.53%

Time Travel to See a Battle
Waterloo13.66%
Gettysburg10.73%
Borodino4.39%
Austerlitz3.90%
Cannae2.93%
Thermopylae1.95%
Zama1.46%
Stamford Bridge1.46%
Rorkes's Drift1.46%
Midway1.46%
Kadesh0.98%
Battle of the Bulge0.98%
Alesia0.98%
Marston Moor0.98%
D-Day0.98%
Clontarf 1014 AD0.98%
Saratoga0.98%
No Answer25.37%
Other Answers23.90%

Most Pivotal Battle: Other Answers Garnering 1 Vote Each

Quebec 1759, Cannae, Plataea, Ankara 1402, Constantinople, Tenochtitlan 1521, Kosova, Poltava, Blenheim 1704, Guadalcanal, Kursk, Zama, Actium, Koenigratz 1866, Vicksburg, Atom Bombing of Japan, Valmy, Chesapeake Bay, Cuban Missile Crisis, Leipzig, Charles Martel at Chalons, Arbela, Constantinople 1453, Khalkin-Gol, Chalons, Defeat of Spanish Armada, Badr Mohammed defeats the Makkans, Gravelotte-St. Privat, Shiloh, American War of Independence, Eylau, Kaiserschlacht 1918, Mogadishu, al-Qadisiya, no such thing, the last one...

Most Fascinating Battle: Other Battles garnering 1 vote each

Bunker Hill, Chalons, Brietenfeld, Battle of France 1940, Culloden Moor, Eylau, Flodden, Fontenoy, German Invasion of Soviet Union, Auerstadt, Vicksburg campaign, Aquae Sextiae, Hubbarton, Hydaspes, Kursk 1943, Alesia, Little Big Horn, Beth Horon Pass Judaea 2866 CE, Marengo, Adua, Minden, Mogadishu, Nigbolu, Orel 1919AD, Oriskany, Malplaquet, Plaines Abraham Quebec 1759, Rorke's Drift, Scipio Africanus campaigns, Siege at Peking, Slim's campaign in Burma, Cowpens, The Battle of Jutland, The Siege of Malta, The Vicksburg Campaign ACW, Wagram, Kommandorski Islands, No opinion

MagWeb.com Analysis

Time Travel to View a Battle: Other Battles garnering 1 vote each

Bosworth 1485, Antietam, Britenfeld, Chancellorsville, Chattanooga, Civitate, Caesar in Spain, Bannockburn 1314, Cannas, Siege of Fort Niagara, Fochswiller-Worth, Gaugamela, Gravelotte, Grunwald, 1st Bull Run, Heraclea, Cortes vs. Aztecs, Alexander, Assaye, Leipzig 1813, Battle of Lake Erie, Leukai 132BC, Luethen, Malplaquet, Marathon, Marengo, Market-Garden, Mars la Tour 1870, Jutland, Mount Badon c. AD 500, Murfreesboro Dec 1862, Pavia, Agincourt, Sadowa, Salamanca, Siege of Troy, Stalingrad, Any Han battle, Tarawa, The Battle of Trafalgar, The Ebro 1938, Lepanto, Tours, Trafalgar, Wagram, Adua, Wellington, Hastings, Godzilla vs. Tokyo 1956

MagWeb.com Analysis

Quite the array of battles here. As always, when you ask an open-ended question, you get an almost infinite number of responses.

In 1999, we asked for the three most pivotal battles and then correlated the responses:

    Combined Top 20 (selected regardless of preference)
      1. Waterloo 10.9%
      2. Stalingrad 8.9%
      3. Hastings 5.6%
      4. Gettysburg 4.3%
      5. D-Day 3.9%
      6. Saratoga 3.6%
      6. Siege Vienna 1529 3.6%
      7. Marathon 2.3%
      7. Zama 2.3%
      9. Midway 2.0%
      9. Moscow 1941 2.0%
      9. Salamis 2.0%
      9. Yorktown 2.0%
      13. Kursk 1.6%
      13. Leipzig 1.6%
      13. Trafalgar 1.6%
      16. Austerlitz 1.3%
      17. A-bomb (Hiroshima) 1.0%
      17. Arbela (Gaugamela) 1.0%
      17. Battle of Britain 1.0%
      17. Manzikert 1.0%
      17. Spanish Armada 1.0%

As you can see, some consensus regarding the battles, although Stalingrad rose to the top in 2002 while Waterloo fell down the list.

Regarding the ability to time travel, the answers in 1999 were:

    Waterloo 21.5%
    Austerlitz 9.3%
    Gettysburg 5.6%
    Borodino 3.7%
    Cannae 3.7%
    Kadesh (Quadesh) 3.7%
    Leipzig (1813) 3.7%
    Thermopylae 3.7%
    Aspern-Essling 2.8%
    Hastings 2.8%
    Zama 2.8%
    Arbela (Gaugemela) 1.9%
    Leuthen 1.9%
    Marathon 1.9%
    Rorke's Drift 1.9%
    And lots of single ansers duplicating many of the 2002 answers.

A slight shift down from Waterloo and up for Gettysburg, but Waterloo remains on top. In fact, the top 5 are identical from three years ago, except some positional movement and differeng percentages. If in doubt, go with the classics!

War, Warfare, and MagWeb.com

Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 2002 by Coalition Web, Inc.
This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com