That is no where
close to the bloodiest battle in history in three hours. In Half the time, the battle of pearl harbor left 2467 dead, 1178 wounded and 1 captured, and along with 217 Aircraft, Five Battleships, One Minelayer, three destroyers and 5 midget submarines destroyed (Americans and Japanese Together).
Most of those "sunk" ships were raised from that shallow harbor and repaired. If only the Japanese had struck those tasty, unfortified fuel tanks instead of relegating them to a low target priority for a 3rd wave attack, the Pacific War would have been a lot different.
If you want a fantastic naval engagement from WW2, take a look at the Battle off Samar, where a seemingly insignificant Taffy 3 comprised of 6 small carriers and a handful of destroyers and destroyer escorts go up against the pride of the Japanese navy (or what's left of it). You would expect to see those American ships sunk, and the Japanese shelling the American landings in the Phillipines. You would be dead wrong.
The lineup was incredible: the
IJN Yamato with over 20 escorts against a puny force of 7 (I think) American destroyers and destroyer escorts. The battle is characterized by daring charges by these puny destroyers against the Japanese, sinking cruisers with torpedo attacks and pounding them with 5" guns. The planes on the carriers were launched immediately to make attacks against the Japanese fleet, but many planes were not properly equipped, and were attempting to strafe or drop depth charges onto the Japanese. Some were completely unarmed and simply made fake torpedo runs at the Japanese to cause them to change course and incite confusion. The
Yamato was flanked by torpedoes that completely missed their targeted cruiser, and was taken out of the battle for ten minutes while she avoided them. The
UU Samuel B. Roberts, the "destroyer escort that fought like a battleship", used its pair of 5" guns to beat up on three ships at least 10 times her size, and survived for more than an hour. On one occassion, the ship got so close to a Japanese cruiser so that the Japanese ship could not train its guns low enough to hit the destroyer escort. It then unloaded with it's anti-aircraft gun onto the bridge, killing its commanding officer. The already damaged
USS Johnston single-handedly fought off a light cruiser leading a half-dozen destroyers to torpedo the American carriers. It was a breathtaking account of heroism and bold action...
The
Dogfights episode on the History Channel does this battle justice. If you can catch it on a rerun, try to--CG animations show you the entire battle.
on July 3, 1866, during the Austro-Prussian War. The Prussians lost 9,172 officers and men killed, wounded or missing — the Austrians 44,872 officers men killed, wounded or missing.
I wouldn't really count it as a battle, but the one where the B-17 escapes from 17 or so Japanesse aircraft is pretty unbelievable too.
