June 18.
1429. The Battle of Patay. This battle is to the French what Agincourt is to the British, and it turned the tide of the 100 Years War in favor of the French. Although nominally led by Joan of Arc, the victory really occurs before the main hosts of the armies even meet, and thus her involvement was limited (other than the general morale boost that her presence seems to have given the French armies during her involvement with their campaigns).
The British tactics that had proven so successful at Agincourt and other battles was simple but very effective. Heavy reliance on the skilled English Longbowmen, who had planted many stakes in front of their position to prevent/delay/thwart cavalry charges and hinder infantry, giving the longbowmen time to massacre their opponents. Here, however, their system failed when a stag wandered onto the field near where the British were establishing their position. The cry to kill the stag revealed the British position, and the French moved in swiftly. For once the French tactics of a mounted cavalry charge with heavy cavalry served them well, as the British were completely routed. Longbowmen were not equipped to deal with mounted cavalry at close quarters, and were killed in droves.
1815. The Battle of Waterloo. Things, erm, goes less well for the French. The battle was fought near the borders of Belgium by French armies under the returned banner of Napoleon against the so-called Seventh Coalition, an Anglo-Prussian army with British forces under the command of the Duke of Wellington, and Prussian forces under von Blucher.
The French had about 75,000 troops, against an Anglo-Prussian force of nearly 120,000. Nevertheless, while often thought of as a lopsided victory, according to Wellington it was "the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life."
Regardless, the victory was decisive, ending the series of wars that had convulsed Europe since 1790. It ushered in a period of 50 years of well-needed peace in Europe, which wouldn't see much combat again until the Crimean War.
1940. Winston Churchill gives the Finest Hour speech. It is the third of the three famous speeches he gave during, roughly, the Battle of France (the first being "blood, toil, sweat and tears", and the second being "we shall fight on the beaches"). In this speech, he explains/justifies the moderately low level of support England gave France, which has now been effectively conquered by Nazi Germany, confirms the evacuation of many allied forces, and resists calls to purge appeasers.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Winston Churchill
....However matters may go in France or with the French Government or with another French Government, we in this island and in the British Empire will never lose our sense of comradeship with the French people. If we are now called upon to endure what they have suffered we shall emulate their courage, and if final victory rewards our toils they shall share the gains, aye. And freedom shall be restored to all. We abate nothing of our just demands—Czechs, Poles, Norwegians, Dutch, Belgians, all who have joined their causes to our own shall be restored.
What General Weygand has called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands.
But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth [5] last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour. |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsKDGM5KTBY