Luckiest victories in a battle?

[rbis4rbb]

What armies had extremely good luck in particular battles? This is a non battle, but for example the Japanese being saved from Mongols by two hurricanes. Luck like that.

 

[Birdjaguar]

The Union army in Maryland in September 1862. They found copies of Lee's plans and were able to corner him at Sharpsburg (Antietam) and fight him to a draw. This gave Lincoln enough of a win to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. It also gave Lincoln reason to fire McClellan and put another stupid general in charge: Burnside.

 

[privatehudson]

Marengo comes to mind, Napoleon was being spanked for being too confident before Dessaix arrived and Melas figured the battle was won and left the field. A defeat there would have done his career some damage. He was also lucky in many of his earlier campaigns, especially in facing incompetent commanders like Mack. Then again, as he said himself, he preferred a lucky general to a good one.

 

[Uiler]

Well from the Three Kingdoms era:

1. Chibi. One of the most important battles in Chinese history as it cemented the "tripod" of Wei, Shu and Wu and stopped Cao Cao's advance to reunify China. Outnumbered 10 to 1, the reason why Wu and Shu-Han's fire attacks worked so well against Wei was because of a very very unseasonable SE wind. This gave rise to legends that Zhuge Liang actually used magic to bring up the wind.

Also on thunderstorms, Zhuge Liang had Sima Yi trapped in a valley and being burnt to death when a sudden unseasonable thunder storm stopped the fires. Sima Yi went on to found the Jin dynasty that reunited China.

I guess it's like the pseudo-random number generator in Civ 3. Sometimes it works for you, but man, sometimes it works against you.

2. The future hegemon Cao Cao was beaten by Lu Bu and his camp was in disarray. Lu Bu (or his men depending on if you go by the novel or history) actually encounted Cao Cao alone and defenseless on the battlefield. However they didn't recognise him and asked him "Where is Cao Cao?" He pointed to a random soldier on a horse and off they went. Of course, off he went - in the opposite direction...

 

[Verbose]

Marengo comes to mind, Napoleon was being spanked for being too confident before Dessaix arrived and Melas figured the battle was won and left the field. A defeat there would have done his career some damage. He was also lucky in many of his earlier campaigns, especially in facing incompetent commanders like Mack. Then again, as he said himself, he preferred a lucky general to a good one.

One version has it that it was the cavalry general Kellermann who saved Napoleon's ass that day. (Lucky for Bonny, at least.) It seems both men knew this as well, and Napoleon resented having been saved by "little Kellermann" as he would disparingly call him.

 

[privatehudson]

Depends on how you look at it. Kellerman's charges kept Napoleon's forces in the battle long enough for Dessaix to arrive and launched an important attack later in the battle, but it was Dessaix's and Boudet's divisions that turned the tide really. Without Dessaix Napoleon could not have gone on the offensive. Without either of them, Napoleon would have been handled badly for his over-confidence, and his career would have felt the results.

Luckily for Napoleon Dessaix died before he could contest who had done more to win the victory.

 

[Dreadnought]

The Zulus were lucky at the battle of Islandwana...the British commander (forget how to spell his name) divided his army in half not once...but twice before engaging the Zulus.

 

[pawpaw]

The Zulus were lucky at the battle of Islandwana

and the native levies who carried the ammo to the front lines fled--leaving the soldiers with no bullets. the english beat off the first 2 attacks no problem

 

[Esckey]

Midway WW2, the Lady Luck couldn't of planned it any better. Such great timing, with 3/4 of the japanese planes on the decks refeuling and rearming(all the ammo and feul on the deck in plainsite) when wouldn't you know it, a couple of squadrons of US dive bombers, who were suppose to be there when the torpedo bombers came in on the first run, appear outta thin air and rain destruction on every jap carrier.

 

[rilnator]

The Battle of Britain. Several German bombers, off track from their target decide to get rid of their payload and it lands on London. The British respond with an air raid on Berlin, infuriating Hitler and re-directing the Luftwaffe from attacking radar sites and airfields to concentrating on London.

 

[rbis4rbb]

The Union army in Maryland in September 1862. They found copies of Lee's plans and were able to corner him at Sharpsburg (Antietam) and fight him to a draw. This gave Lincoln enough of a win to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. It also gave Lincoln reason to fire McClellan and put another stupid general in charge: Burnside.

Ahhh yes, I just learned about this in history class.

 

[Verbose]

The Zulus were lucky at the battle of Islandwana...the British commander (forget how to spell his name) divided his army in half not once...but twice before engaging the Zulus.

Or you could say that this was the great misfortune for the Zulus. Their king Cetewayo had instructed his commanders NOT to engage British troops in the open field, knowing full well what European fire power would do to his troops.

They disregarded his instructions, attacked and got lucky. Which meant that for the rest of the war the Zulus tried to repeat Isandlwana, and were cut to pieces every single time.
That's kind of what colonial warfare was like. You walked a small army into enemy territory, waited for the natives to obligingly attack and then mowed them down. The Zulus knew how it usually worked, but Isandlwana seemed to indicate other possible outcomes.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Marengo comes to mind, Napoleon was being spanked for being too confident before Dessaix arrived and Melas figured the battle was won and left the field. A defeat there would have done his career some damage. He was also lucky in many of his earlier campaigns, especially in facing incompetent commanders like Mack. Then again, as he said himself, he preferred a lucky general to a good one.

I was going to add this one myself, but thought that someone else might want to, and I'm not surprised by who.
Desaix, marched to the sound of the guns and saved the day.

 

[bigmeat]

manzikert, at the first sign of battle the left and right wing of the byzantine army fled and insteadof there rearguard coming to surely saving the battle, they withot even fighting

 

[pawpaw]

manzikert, at the first sign of battle the left and right wing of the byzantine army fled and insteadof there rearguard coming to surely saving the battle, they withot even fighting

the cuman turk mercanaries deserted
the rear guard was commander by the son of the emperor that romanus IV had deposed--so he abandoned him

 

[Vrylakas]

In May 1920, Poland was allied with Ukrainian nationalists under Simeon Petljura in attempting to drive the Bolsheviks out of Ukraine. Polish forces fought their way up to the outskirts of Kijów/Kiiv/Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, when a small advance band of Polish troops were stunned to see a tram car coming down the street like any other afternoon. They got on and rode right into downtown Kiev, when the Bolshevik military commander of the city happen to get on the tram - and was promptly arrested. Kiev fell to Polish forces, though fortunes would change and in a couple months Poles would be defending Warsaw itself from the Russians.

 

[Mirc]

The Ottomans: an earthquake destroyed the walls of the city the were attacking. This is good luck.

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

Spion Kop (I think I spelled it right, well it was a great victory for the Boers).
The Battle of Quebec for the British in the 7 Years War (French and Indian War).
The Siege of Rhodes (Pierre D'Aubusson beats back the Ottomans).
The Battle of England, over England anyway during WW2. Because if Germany could have landed their armies, they would have been finished.

 

[Thundercow]

The Battle of England, over England anyway during WW2. Because if Germany could have landed their armies, they would have been finished.

The possible success of Operation SeaLion is very heavily debated. In truth, the situation was very similar to the situation during the Napolenic Wars - if Hitler could overcome logistical difficulties and get his army intact into Britain, they would have won. The problem would be getting there. The RAF was still intact and would have far more TOT (Time Over Target) than the Luftwaffe, because of the range limitations of German fighters and the distances involved. Furthermore, the British Navy's preponderance can never be ignored.

There's also the problem that the Germans lacked all of the logistics and high quality landing craft that the Allies had in '44 when they executed the Normandy Invasion. IIRC, the Germans were planning to make do with river barges, some of which would be loaded with horses for the artillery (sea-sick horses would be unpleasant at best).

 

[IamSid]

The Israelis fighting for their lives in the 1948 war. Being attacked by 7 Arab countries with almost no military!