5 First Hand Accounts of the Worst Military Disasters in History
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Extracts taken from:
Paterculus' Roman History, translated by F.W. Shipley.
James Brundage, "The Crusades: A Documentary History", (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 1962)
"Captain Cuellar´s Narrative of the Spanish Armada" translated by Robert Crawford 1897
"The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier" by Jakob Walter
Account of Second Lieutenant David Rodger Fyffe in "Gallipoli: The Dardanelles Disaster in Soldiers' Words and Photographs" by Richard van Emden and Stephen Chambers:
www.amazon.com/Gallipoli-Dard...
Editing by David Kelly and Luiz Murphy
Image Editing by Manuel Rubio - check out his amazing channel: @ArtandContext
Music from Epidemic Sound and Artlist
Thumbnail Art by Ettore Mazza
Art by Bilal Erlangga
00:00 9 AD Battle of the Teutoburg Forest
05:09 1187 Battle of Hattin
11:12 1588 The Spanish Armada
17:54 1812 Napoleon´s Invasion of Russia
25:31 1915 Landing at Gallipoli
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How long does it take you to make one of these video's??
@@SECRETORDEROFTHEKNIGHTSTEMPLARI love when channels would rather post comments from sponsored vendors than to answer legitimate questions from their fans. 😂😂
rather than advertise hoverpens, make a disclaimer that you got your info and pics wrong. 3:25 Caesar was long dead, you confused Augustus with Caesar.
Hearing the soldier at Gallipoli compare himself and his comrades to the Romans and Crusaders of old, after hearing the tales from those two already, felt like a grim foreshadowing.
Yes; particularly because they, like many before them, came abruptly and brutally to learn that the primary experience of war is death, horror and waste. Being soldiers they suddenly found thenselves trapped in the hellish nightmare. Whoopsies!
This is A.I , it's put the story together , it's from outside the knowing
@@nothere57 As an avid user of ChatGPT, I can safely say this isn't AI.
@@nothere57I definitely trust your perfectly written comment over this established and large KZhead channel
@joelewis6021 you trust anybody hey , except truth , it's too well written to be a australian soldier who landed at on those shores
"Mistakes were made." is one of my favorite historical phrases of all time. Perfect for all occasions.
😂😂😂
A huge understatement
Haigspeak
Words to live by
That Napoleonic soldier had frostbite at the very end, didn't he? The way he described it, it sounded like his whole nose, ears, and hands were afflicted. I really hope he didn't suffer for long, I'm horrified to imagine having to live with the aftermath.
He was able to return to his job as a stonemason, married, and had 10 children. He was one of the lucky ones. His account contains many more harrowing tales, and is well worth a read.
@Outforawalkwitch where can i read the full account?
@@gab5853 You can buy the book, the title is in the description of the video. Maybe you can read it online for free as well. My parents had a copy which I read when I was a teenager.
They had tin belt buckles and buttons amongst other uses,that were gilded to look gold. In Russia the tin changed from white to grey tin which is its powder form( temperature reasons)! Even their trousers were* (where dyslexia/predictive text related edit) falling down.
Supposed to be extremely painful when your skin turns black - worst Xmas ever!
Varus, a General who trusted the civility of Barbarians more than the discipline of his Soldiers.
Must be a distant relative of US Senator Durban.
VARUS. QUINCTILLIUS VARUS. GIVE ME BACK MY LEGIONS!!!
Where were the barbarians?? The germans had their own civilization one that repeatedly bested the romans and eventially destroyed western rome
@@squiglemcsquigle8414Every person who does not speak Greek is a barbarian. I am sorry but that is the etymology of the word. Your complains to the ancient people.
@user-sc5iv2rp2t then the romans are also barbarians which isnin anyway against his point And that still doesnt remove the fact that both the romans and the greeks were racist states
Varus - the lesson every nation needs to learn. Don’t send bureaucrats to handle your wars.
The problem is court culture or thinking a class/ work/person is superior to another
Amen
The politicians start the wars but the military has to fight them.
Military education was central to the roman upper class and most famous generals were more bureaucrat then general. Based on what little records exist of his prior career, Varus was an incompetent who owed his position in government solely to his friendship with Tiberius. it's thought that anti-roman sentiment in Judea largely originated from his vast mistreatment and poor rule in the area. for example. Similarly his defeat was easily avoidable
Julius Caeser is the best example I can think of for a career politician who was extremely competent in warfare. He was arrogant and made many mistakes, but he was also adaptive and had a firm grasp of logistics. Both skills happen to be very useful in bureaucracy.
I love this channel. Nothing like hearing directly from the source. Invaluable to those who don't have convenient access to this sort of information.
What a bleak one this was though. If time machines are invented, I'll go back, but I'm not getting out. I'll watch from a safe distance but no way will my feet hit soil. It's a suicide mission.
Great doco. Just a point of order; you had a statue of Gaius Julius Caesar pop up when he mentioned "Caesar" discussing the account of the Teutoburg Forest. It was of course Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus, aka Octavian, Gaius' grand nephew, being referred to in the account. Old mate Julius had been dead for 49 years at the time of the battle.
I was wondering about that.
*Give me back my Legions!*
I too was acutely aware of that glaring oversight, and was just about to point it out, never mind.
He sure took the news horribly too, weeping it's said, where are my Legions Varus! He never got over that, no matter how well Germanicus came back with a vengeance.
Picky picky picky!!
Every military disaster is also a triumph for the other side. In a sense, nearly every battle is a disaster for half those involved.
The only thing worse than a battle won,is a battle lost. ‘Wellington’
I see what you’re trying to say.. but no. Most defeats are not “disasters” for the losing side, and many “defeats” are not even straightforward defeats, more like concessions. Not to mention stalemates
u win some and you experience an apocalypse sometimes.
Thats nonsense … it can easily become s total disaster for both sides! Winning does not mean it wad not a disastrous battle!
what if they are in a 1:4 ratio?
The Gallipoli Landing will never fail to infuriate me. Especially when I learned of the arse-backward motivation for it. Thinking there was a "backdoor" to Germany. What a waste of life.
Blame the British for that mistake and Australians died for it.
Plan was made for knock the ottomans out of to war and link with russians through straits and the black sea.
İf you're on that track, get hold of the writings of Winston Churchill's father. He didn't have much good to say about his son. He was the reason behind Gallipoli
@jrgingerninja I'm guessing you demand reparations 😂. You mean blame politicians.
I have read it landed in slightly the wrong place
This channel is a historical gem.
The guy in the Spanish armada that filled his clothes with metal in the middle of the ocean was not too bright.
No, it makes sense if you can't swim anyway.
Ok but tell me the the Country Native Horse, sitting, and sliding down frozen hills with both luggage and a mounted rider isn’t the coolest little thing. Lovely creature.
Spanish Armada: I am from Scotland, the west coast, my ancestors hail from Arran. We did a gene swab a few years back and, lo and behold, Spanish blood. This possibly confirms the old family tale of a shipwrecked Spaniard settling down on the island a sireing a few children with local women.
Very possible. The Spaniards who washed ashore in Scotland were luckier than the ones who washed ashore in Ireland. There, the English executed all the POWs, and the local Irish robbed and killed most of those remaining.
Welcome, hermano.
Not all the Spanish fared badly in Ireland. There’s a higher than normal incidence of curly black hair and brown eyes in Counties Kerry, Clare and Galway, particularly. Some of the shipwrecked sailors clearly survived.
Amazing how few people who entrusted their lives to wooden ships in the past knew how to swim.
Swimming is useless in the open sea.
@@RogueReplicant is that why so many sailors didn't know how to swim? because it was pointless?
@@user-fg3lt6mo7j Being able to swim is very important for a sailor. If you are on your own in the middle of the sea its pointless but if you are near a coast or friendly ships its very beneficial. It was one of the advantages that Athens had over Sparta on the sea. Athenian sailors whose ship sank where able to stay alive and be reenlisted in another ship while the Spartan manpower died. Sure certain times it was useless but it gave the chance of not having to replace an experienced sailor on a later date.
@shaneomahony5469 Not to mention falling overboard from your ship outside of sinkings or battles was common, especially during storms. So knowing how to swim to keep you alive long enough for your crewmates to rescue you is pretty important.
Fantastic work as usual, these memoirs bring history to life. All the things forgotten to time; comrades’ personality, their small talk, and thoughts are revived through these stories. The closest a human could possibly come to actually going back in time
22:00 is such an interesting thing to learn about domestic Russian military horses. The visual I got in my head was so comical despite the rest of the horrid situation being described.
“Varus, Varus, give me back my legions!” -Augustus Caesar
Well done. There is an error at 3:20 however. “Caesar” is referring to Augustus Caesar (Octavian). It is he who Suetonius attributes the famous words: “Varus, give me back my legions!" The bust shown in the video is of Julius Caesar, however, who of course was long dead.
Very well done video as always! These stories make me think there is a lot to recover through archeology!
What an interesting topic for a video. I look forward to listening to this all now. Thank you.
great content as usual, keep it up
This channel is so underrated. I really appreciate what you're doing. I love discovering the perspectives of peoples from so long ago
I been waiting for a new one to drop, this channel is awesome!!!!!!
I knew it was going to be absolutely amazing, everything ive watched from you in the short time since I discovered your videos, just fire, fire fire content!!!
Fabulous narration style! gold tier content right there
Can you do more first hand accounts of the napoleonic wars? Thanks 👍
"There's a short, angry man on a horse wearing a goofy hat. The end"
Beautifuly written. Enjoy these very much.
*D A M N !* this channel is so good. I can’t watch them fast enough and then watch some more old ones.
I really enjoyed this. I did find some of it hard to follow
Thank you for mentioning the tragedy that was Gallipoli. That mission makes me cry as an Australian
Opening with Teutoberg Forest is wild. No matter the day or subject, its a balat when VotP uploads.
1066, had a huge effect tearing England from a Scandinavian future ( Cnut etc) into a European entanglement. Had Harold won a scandinavian conglomeration may have consolidated from modern day USA to Russia. Its only conjecture and what iff but interesting to contemplate.
History “what if’s” are my favourite thing to contemplate. That’s a very interesting take and a very likely scenario as a Scandinavian conglomerate would’ve been the superpower of the day. Their prowess in shipping and thirst for exploration and conquest would’ve taken them east to Russia, conquering the Kievan Rus, and west to the New World by island hopping from Iceland to Greenland, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and down the eastern seaboard of the United States. It opens up an entire alternate history which changes the Age of Discovery where my own country of Australia would have a totally different history of European settlement. I imagine the continent of Australia may have multiple sovereign countries in the modern day with different languages, cultures and customs instead of being a predominantly white Anglo Saxon nation which is part of the British Commonwealth. It’s something I find quite fascinating to consider.
What makes it even more interesting is that William The Conqueror was the descendent of Vikings who settled in Normandy. William was one of the great great grandchildren of Rollo. So technically the Scandinavian connection continued
@@MrMaxLionsThe Anglo-Saxons were germanic, from parts of scandinavia and northern germany anyway. The scandinavians were germanic.
Or if Harold Hadrada had won
The illustrations are amazing.
"Mistakes were made" ~Major Benteen when asked what happened at little bighorn
Such good content it’s insane
Great video!
Thanks for the great narration. The French account was the saddest of all, but the Spanish/Portuguese account was the most instructive. Well-laid plans and all. All their might was nothing compared to the power of nature. Their mistake wasn't in the planning and execution. It was hubris and pride. In the end, it was as though God himself was chastising them for their arrogance.
Still believe in God after hearing all this? Ok. He didn't stop any other invasion, where was he when the Nazis were around.
That's nonsense, you have no idea about the historical causes.
And the English Armada of 1589 did not end well. All in all, there will be another Spanish Armada in the 1590s which failed again because of the “elements” and a third one was in the plans but then Philip II died and the new king Philip III decided that that was enough. Peace will be negotiated after Elizabeth I’s death.
@@ManuelMartinez-gv8dt lol that was a wise decision
Jeez man.. I don't know if I'm just in a weird mood or if this is just a compelling video or what but I've read and watched about the Battle of Teutoburg Forest dozens of times and I'd say I have a decent grasp on it - Roman history is one of my absolute favorite topics. But for whatever reason - maybe since it was so long ago and seems almost mythical or whatever - I never really thought about the firsthand human experience on a close, personal level. I guess a lot of people do that with ancient stories and war stories - focusing on the highlights and great deeds/feats, courage, valor, etc. and not the gritty, gratuitous details, gore, fear, panic, etc. from the mud and the trenches.. But what I'm getting at is, listening to this, I'm just thinking how messed up that would be - to be an already superstitious Roman soldier in an army in a foreign land, far from home and familiar sights, environs, culture, etc., deep in the woods surrounded by a massive hostile army of strong, brutal, lifelong, elite warriors with strange gods and forest spirits and mystical, almost magical beliefs and rituals who are perfectly at home in the hostile, unfavorable terrain you find yourself in - and to watch all of your allies being slaughtered, tortured to death or abandoning their honor and loyalty and attempting to flee and seeing your officers abandoning you - and knowing you're very shortly going to die in battle if you're lucky and if not, you're going to be mercilessly tortured with unimaginable and very creative tactics until you beg for death... I'm just really deeply and empathetically thinking about what that would feel like in that moment... I know the Romans brutalized the hell out of the Germanic people - and I have ancestry from those parts - but I'm fascinated with Roman history and I always find myself looking through their eyes when hearing their stories.
I think the same way. When you read that 20,000 men were killed nearly 2000 years ago its easy to just read the numbers and never give it the thought of all the individual men that died, all of whom had families and lives at home and see it from their eyes.
Innocent women and children too.
Also, they couldn't get a decent pizza or any good spaghetti anywhere.
I know I am "tardy to the party," but don't you see the parallels playing out today? I am referring to one aspect of the Israel / Gaza conflict. I mean, many of the people targeted on October 7th were in favor of better relations with Palestinians, and actively helped Gazans cross the border to work in the envelope communities. These same Gazans (think about Arminius) returned home with Intel for Hamas. I'm not saying that we shouldn't help people. I'm saying that we shouldn't expect those who are helped to have our ideals, or be grateful.
@@lavaughnrannow879 Damn.. Yeah. That's messed up.. It does seem like it's always the ones trying to help and make peace who get stabbed in the back the most..
Did I hear that correctly? Varus marched into Germania and setup COURT!?
I'm Canadian and my family derives from Ireland, I have a LOT of Spanish in me because of the Spanish Armada which surprised me so much when I found out
Thats not why you have spanish. Hiberno celts hail from spain.
@@Uthandol well still cool!
A lot of boinking going on. I know two women who have no idea who their fathers are.
You are what's referred to as black irish
@@dannygiles2442yes ive heard that term:)
Very well done.
Very interesting video about 5 of the worst military disasters in history. I've always been fascinated by these events and it's great to hear first-hand accounts of what happened. Thanks for sharing!
This is awesome 🔥✊🏿
It's tragic to hear such tales of horror and devastation. It is horrible to imagine how many people befell such horrible fates throughout the annals of history. We are lucky, truly lucky, to be born in one of the most peaceful periods in all of our existence.
Today we are closer to this than you might think, you know where I am talking about
@@pricenaseenChicago?
There have been wars all over the world the last 100 years . You may be lucky there isn’t a war going on wherever you are but the last 20 plus years alone we had Bosnia Kosovo , war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan , Ukraine and Israel /Palestine . Not very peaceful times if you ask me
@@sean5558 And yet, his comment still holds up. With 24-hour news and the Internet bringing awareness of wars and conflicts in every corner of the world, it's easy to feel that there's more of it than ever before. But the fact remains: the past 50 years has seen fewer people dying to war than at any point in human history. This includes both military and civilian victims, and also both death in action and due to the disease and famine that routinely accompanied war, historically. According to official figures, the death toll of US service personnel in the conflicts following 9/11, in Iraq and Afghanistan, is 7,057. A little over a hundred years ago, in northern France, those sort of figures would have been seen following "a rough morning". We hear it more, these days, but the scale is incomparable.
@@sean5558 Between the years 1000 and 1050 there were around 31 wars. Between 1973 and 2023 there have been about 20
I enjoyed this. Thanks.
I would love more videos like this
I'm surprised that instead of the Spanish armada, which the Spanish never said was invincible, you didn't cover the counter armada from England the next year which was a total disaster, costing possibly 15-20,000 English lives at least and over 50 ships. A much bigger disaster that was covered up and still is not taught in British schools and rates only a passing comment in the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Black legend
Wow, i studied history in school and never knew of the british disaster at sea
He covered a British disaster in the video, gallipoli. Spaniards are so sensitive.
26:15 "one felt somehow as if one were grasping hands across the centuries with the great adventures of ancient times". Well, yes, but specifically the Romans in Teutoberg Forest, Christians at Hattin, Spanish Armada and Napoleonic French in Russia. All far from home, incredibly brave and doomed.
Great video
“The damnable hands of the damned” goes hard.
These are good stories to show a great power can lose and hopefully people can learn from them. 😊
Left out some appalling mistakes in the Prussian-French War of 1870-1871. French attacked ONE tiny little town... pulled back and decided to play a defensive war. They kept getting surrounded in spite of having better rifles. They lost control of all three major cities that had been surrounded and sieged; Metz and Paris were the last two taken. Lots of stupid logistic problems like... forgetting to stockpile enough food in the cities. There is a full 6 hour documentary about it here on youtube. I never knew about this war or how violent it got. 6 months later France (with a different Government (after their King, Napolean III was captured in the first siege just up the road from Metz). Also, France had access to a wheeled Machine gun. First of its kind in a European war. They used it ONCE! Then never touched it again
Yay a new one!
1st hand accounts of how war is really not so glorious
need this in spotify
“Slow in mind as he was in body” 🤣🤣
Please do a long form reading of Francis DeCuellars time in Ireland
Undead zombie Caesar must have been pretty angry in 9AD
Wrong Caesar - woops
Doesn't Caeser as a blanket term generally refer to Julius and Augustus because the younger adopted the name of the elder anyway? Like technically his final name was Augustus but he retained the Caesar part and it can be used as a term for Roman ruler as they were codifying the whole Emperor thing, I've found
@@bethmarriott9292Yes, but in the video, Julius Caesar's statue was shown, implying that Caesar had awoken from the dead.
Incredible.
River Allia 390 BC, The Caudine Forks 321 BC, Asculum 279 BC, Trebia 218 BC, Trasimeme 217 BC, Cannae 216 BC, Arausio 105 BC, Carrhae 53 BC, Teutoburg Forest 9, Abritus 251, Adrianople 378... Ancient Rome took some seriously heavy blows.
Romans were like phoenixes well till they fell first in west then in east
I'm listening to tell words of people who's tales have echoed for centuries, and sometimes millenia. But, I feel as though Voices of the Past puts me in a room with these ancient people and I'm hearing from the source personally.
Where is the testimony of Leroy Jenkins?
Such a good horse that guy had it sounds like
Interesting to note that although we now almost exclusively refer to him as Octavian or Augustus contemporaries would have just called him Julius Ceasar after the adoption.
There are some hectic adventures described here. Though wont do do so, I don't think we could underestimate the gravity of the situations in which the survivors found themselves.
You gotta love history💯
Hi sometime I get confused as to what part of the narrative is the actual account and what is framing and introductory narration by you or somebody else. You do have the same tone of voice and similar tone and word patterns
Its all me reading, and its all historical accounts
My Great Grandmas Brothers were at Gallipoli with the NZers, one was shot in the jaw and the other was killed
So one brother survived the injury with his jaw?
@@darknation6174 yeah, he spent a year and a half recovering in England, not sure why he didn't come home, and then rejoined the Division in Belgium where a third brother was fighting
So you're telling me there was French guy essentially using a Russian horse as a toboggan in the early nineteenth century - now I have heard everything 😂
The recount of Gallipoli sounds so romantic, until the nightmare begins. Sad to think that once they landed, almost 2/3 of those men would be dead from dysentery, not a very romantic way to go. It's actually the only accurate comparison to the battles of old, disease would generally take the largest majority of every fighting force over time. Just another example of the hubris of men that don't actually do any of the fighting, those in charge show little regard for your life. People's lives are considered incidental, compared to the personal glory of those at the top! That aspect of history never changes.
Nice shout out to Minard's graphic.
listening to this as i boot up Helldivers 2 at 4am, can relate
Shoutout to Marcus Crassus, he's an honorable mention at least.
Easily my favorite channel on KZhead.
My favorite is Fall of civilizations. This is my second favorite.
Great video! Please include New World military disasters such as Colonel Custard's defeat and how the Aztecs decimated the Spanish conquistadors and chased them out of their capital Tenochtitlan (The Sad Night).
2:12 anyone know the name of the painting at the time stamp? Staggering.
For some reason I can't quite understand historical accounts of events and battles that took place so long ago when things like "they sent word" or "messengers left/arrived" with simple messages like "continue moving" or "we cannot continue moving". The time it must take for messages and responses to form complete communications has to be sometimes weeks or months. I just can't grasp how armies could be stuck without water, and in these communication loops be able to respond with "we won't go on because we are thirsty".
Not gonna lie. That meteor pen sounds cool as s***
Wasn’t Augustus the Emperor when the Teutoburg Forrest thing happened? I vaguely remember reading about how he was despondent for a long time afterward, crying out something like “Varus! Give me back my legions!” while not leaving his bedroom for a long time. How could Varus’s body be sent to Caesar then? He was long dead before Octavian beat Antony to become Augustus, right?
What I want to know is what kind of sailor doesn’t know how to swim. Or anyone that decides “yeah, I wanna go on a ship that will sail on the seas for months but idk how to swim, oh well”
I had absolutely ZERO doubt that the Battle of Hattin would be on this list 😂 fuck Gerard of Ridefort, all my homies hate Gerard of Ridefort.
it's always been the best battle plan to wait for the other guy to eff up
What about Queen Boudica's defeat by Roman Suetonious, "somewhere", around 60 A.D.?
Who makes the translations for these texts?
I really think Harold Godwinson in 1066 deserves a mention. So many mistakes. He could’ve waited 2 days for 30,000 reinforcements but didn’t, he fought on foot which prevented him from giving clear orders, he used an extremely old and not very effective defence system (Anglo Saxon shield wall) and so many more. No wonder the Normans won
You should do the Yugoslav wars of the 90-s
When will art and context release a new video?
It's out now! ;)
@@ArtandContext ok thanks
Who is the source on the teuteburg battle?
Just knew instantly from the title that Napoleon had to be on the list, just like I'd expect him on the biggest wins
Can you please announce the dates and locations of these stories when introducing? Just for some of us only listening 🙏
#2 Was cool
8:20 the drawing of a lion on the knight's shield is almost Disney-cute
I think we need to discuss the term "first hand"
"He went to this rich province a poor man, and left that poor province a rich man"
This guy is insanely hard to follow along to
The greatest losses of one side are always the greatest victories of the other.
How about the Battle of New Orleans in early 1815? Our Lady of Prompt Succor, hasten to help us!
@5:08 supplant Battle of Hattin (1187 CE) for Manzikert (1071 CE) as THAT failure under Romanos IV Diogenes precipitated a greater change in the strategic situation of the Eurasian world.
>CE
Ugh I just got into penmanship, Spencerian, and the hover pen ad was like sign.