What makes a battle decisive? Jonathon Riley draws on his personal experience as a soldier and historian to explore the definitive battles of the modern era from Yorktown in 1781 to Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Each battle included is a turning point, the outcome of which has changed the face of history. The battles at Ligny, Quatre Bras and Waterloo in 1815 concluded more than twenty years of war with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France and instituted alliances that dominated Europe until 1860. The Ardennes in 1944 was decisive because Hitler threw away the last army he had which could have stalled the Allied advance into Germany. The war ended less than five months later. Dien Bien Phu confirmed the collapse of French colonial power in Indo-China, and paved the way for US involvement in Vietnam to stem the tide of Communist expansion.
Since Operation Desert Storm no battle can be said to have been decisively concluded and the closing chapter looks to 21st century emergencies where opponents abandon conventional conflict.
- 256 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Halftitle Page
- Title Page
- Contents
- List of Maps
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- 1 What Is Decisive?
- 2 Yorktown, 1781: The World Turned Upside Down
- 3 Ligny, Quatre Bras and Waterloo, 1815: The Hundred Days
- 4 Gettysburg and the Siege of Vicksburg, 1863: Confederate High Tide
- 5 Sedan, 1870: Birth and Death of Empire
- 6 Third Gaza, 1917: Strategic Diversion, Tactical Deception
- 7 Amiens, 1918: The Black Day of the German Army
- 8 The Arakan, Imphal and Kohima, 1944: Smashing the Myth
- 9 The Ardennes, 1944: Hitler’s Last Gamble
- 10 Dien Bien Phu, 1954: Wind of Change
- 11 Kuwait, 1990–91: Desert Storm
- 12 The Twenty-first Century: Is Decisive Victory Still Possible?
- Bibliography and Sources
- Index of Persons
- Imprint page
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Yes, you can access Decisive Battles by Jonathon Riley in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & World History. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.