# Which battles in world history can be remembered as much/more for use of a new or unique weapon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 3, 2013, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700 "2013-04-03T03:48:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700/1 "2013-04-03T03:48:12Z")
See subject. Barring the primeval _2001_ sock-'em with a bone moment, So far, off the top of my head: Hannibal, elephants Hannibal, snakes on a boat (shout out to **Tamerlane** in current thread on viable combat animals!) Hiroshima A-bomb Israel '73 (I think), Syria, UAVs Kuwait, Saudi, Israel, 1991, Patriot ABM Israel 2012, that tank anti-tank missile thing (🙂 help?) ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700/2 "2013-04-03T04:04:38Z")
Battle of Agincourt, the English Longbow. To be fair, it also included the use of knee-deep mud and heavy French armor. I wasn’t able to find the specific battle, but I remember reading that the introduction of the first successful two-handed sword resulted in a great many bodies missing both legs at the knee. To continue the trend (towards inferior armor rather than superior weaponry
), the Battle of Wisby resulted in a great many dead due to the defenders not having advanced their armor past the point of riveted mail & leather leggings, while the attackers were heard to say something on the order of “ooh, hey, shiny axes
” again resulting in a great many people losing limbs, with the number of dead rising so high that they couldn’t be looted in time (in the height of the summer), so they were buried en mass still in their armor. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700/3 "2013-04-03T04:10:34Z")
Ypres, WWI: first extensive use of poison gas (although it had been used a few times on a smaller scale previously). Somme, WWI: tanks ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700/4 "2013-04-03T04:15:38Z")
All the Israel ones are wrong. UAVs, ABM and Active tank protection measures were in use long before the OP believes. UAVs were extensively used in Vietnam and as far back as WW2. The US and Soviets both deployed ABMs before the 1972 treaty took effect. The Soviet Naval Infantry had active protection measures on their tanks from the 1970’s and they saw extensive use in Afghanistan. Come to think of it, Hannibal elephants is wrong as well. It was used in the Sub Continent for thousands of years before Hannibal and by Hellenistic rulers in the East. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700/5 "2013-04-03T04:16:53Z")
NM ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700/6 "2013-04-03T04:20:30Z")
Second siege of Constantinople. The use of Greek fire. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700/7 "2013-04-03T04:21:37Z")
I had to look up the actual name of the battle (The Battle of Hampton Roads) because I only knew it as the first battle between ironclad ships. > **[Battle of Hampton Roads](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hampton_Roads)** > > The Battle of Hampton Roads, also referred to as the Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack (rebuilt and renamed as the CSS Virginia) or the Battle of Ironclads, was a naval battle during the American Civil War. > The battle was fought over two days, March 8 and 9, 1862, in Hampton Roads, a roadstead in Virginia where the Elizabeth and Nansemond rivers meet the James River just before it enters Chesapeake Bay adjacent to the city of Norfolk. The battle was a part of the effort of the Confederacy to... ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700/8 "2013-04-03T04:28:41Z")
Battle of Taranto, 1940, Torpedo Bombers. The battle really isn’t generally known for anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700/9 "2013-04-03T04:33:28Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Battle of Agincourt, the English Longbow. The longbow wasn’t new or unique at Agincourt. See the wiki article on [English longbow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_longbow): > [@](#): > > English use of longbows was effective against the French during the Hundred Years’ War, particularly at the start of the war in the battles of CrĂ©cy (1346) and Poitiers (1356), and most famously at the Battle of Agincourt (1415). ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700/10 "2013-04-03T04:58:29Z")
Trojan war and a giant wooden rabbit. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700/11 "2013-04-03T05:00:29Z")
The Crimean War introduced railroads and electrical telegraphy. (If the siege of Sevastopol counts as a battle for these purposes
) (Non-electrical telegraphy goes back quite a way
) ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700/12 "2013-04-03T05:03:05Z")
Crecy - possible first use of cannons in the west? ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700/13 "2013-04-03T05:04:20Z")
Pearl Harbor. First large scale attack from an aircraft carrier. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700/14 "2013-04-03T05:18:09Z")
The Battle of Khalkhin Gol: first combined arms attack of armor and air power. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700/15 "2013-04-03T05:22:49Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > Pearl Harbor. First large scale attack from an aircraft carrier. Taranto.😉 ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700/16 "2013-04-03T05:41:57Z")
Perhaps the September 7, 1776 attack of the submarine Turtle on the HMS Eagle in the New York harbor. This was the first submarine attack though it was completely unsuccessful. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700/17 "2013-04-03T05:45:22Z")
The Gatling Gun was first used in war during the U.S. Civil War on the Union side, but I don’t know which battle. It wasn’t an official weapon of the Union Army however. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700/18 "2013-04-03T05:55:14Z")
The Battle of Leyte Gulf, 1944, first organized use of Kamikazes (though I don’t think that’s what the battle is most remember for nor did that weapon have much effect on the outcome.) ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700/19 "2013-04-03T06:08:25Z")
Hebrews vs. Philistines. Slingshot. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700/20 "2013-04-03T06:10:27Z")
Isn’t the slingshot a pre-historic weapon? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battles-in-world-history-can-be-remembered-as-much-more-for-use-of-a-new-or-unique-weapon/654700.md?page=2)