Now when Tryphon saw Jonathan came with so great a force, he durst not stretch his hand against him. I Maccabees 12:24&25&31& 41&42
Therefore Nabuchodonosor was very angry with all this country, and sware by his throne and kingdom, that he would surely be avenged upon all those coasts of Cilicia, and Damascus, and Syria, and that he would slay with the sword all the inhabitants of the land of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and all Judea, and all that were in Egypt, till ye come to the borders of the two seas.
Then he marched in battle array with his power against king Arphaxad in the seventeenth year, and he prevailed in his battle: for he overthrew all the power of Arphaxad, and all his horsemen, and all his chariots. Judith 1:12&13
The Anti-Christ gathers his armies and prepares for the mother of all battles. A final showdown between Good and Evil. The doomsday struggle called Armageddon. The Secret Bible: The Apocalypse, 2006
I’m here to tell you what really happened at the siege of Forli. The Borgias s2e8: Truth and Lies, young Sforza to Rodrigo, Showtime 2012
Two hundred and thirty detested Templars and Hospitallers are handed over to Muslim clerics. Again, Saladin acts to Muslim rules of war. Mystery Files s2e7: Saladin, National Geographic 2007
They are granted freedom from slavery on condition they quit the Holy Land for ever. Many return to Europe with tales of Saladin – a Muslim warrior with greater chivalry than any European knight. ibid.
Saladin’s legacy of mercy and compassion is echoed today on the modern battlefield. ibid.
You will never find scientists leading armies into battle. You just won't. Especially not astrophysicists – we see the biggest picture there is. We understand how small we are in the cosmos. We understand how fragile and temporary our existence is here on Earth. Neil deGrasse Tyson
And never since was there seen a more doleful a battle in all Christian land. For there was but rushing and riding, foyning and striking and many a grim word was there spoken of either to other, and many a deadly stroke. And thus they fought all the long day and never stinted till the noble knights were laid to the cold earth, and ever they fought still till it was near night, and by then there were a hundred thousand lay dead upon the earth. Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur
So all day long the noise of battle rolled
Among the mountains by the winter sea. Alfred Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King
‘Forward the light brigade!’
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldiers knew
Some one had blundered:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred. Alfred Lord Tennyson, Charge of the Light Brigade
Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained. Duke of Wellington
I used to say of him that his presence on the field made the difference of forty thousand men. Duke of Wellington, re Napoleon
The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. Duke of Wellington
The hardest battle you’re ever going to fight is the battle to be just you. Leo F Buscaglia
Let us die even as we rush into the midst of the battle. The only safe course for the defeated is to expect no safety. Virgil, Aeneid
To be nobody but yourself in a world that’s doing its best to make you somebody else is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting. e e cummings
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle. Plato, attributions & variations
Dead battles, like dead generals, hold the military mind in their dead grip and Germans, no less than other peoples, prepare for the last war. Barbara W Tuchman, August 1914
Probably the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, but the opening battles of all subsequent wars have been lost there. George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, 1941
The first blow is half the battle. Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer
For the mangled bodies that had been the flower of the English nobility and youth covered the ground as far as the eye could see. Orderic Vitalis, Ecclesiastical History, re Hastings battlefield
It seemed that out of battle I escaped
Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped
Through granites which titanic wars had groined. Wilfred Owen, Strange Meeting
Monday 8th August 1588 has gone down as one of the greatest naval battles in history ... It was a bloodbath. Dan Snow, Armada: 12 Days to Save England III, BBC 2015
9th August: The wind direction suddenly changed. ibid.
Northern France. The Somme. 1916. Here at one of the most infamous battles of all time over a million men fought against the most powerful army in the world. And more than 100,000 lost their lives. Dan Snow’s Battle of the Somme, Discovery 2014
On a blustery November day four centuries ago the English were preparing themselves for one of the greatest national celebrations ever seen. Beneath the dome of St Paul’s they gathered to celebrate their tiny nation’s victory over the world’s greatest super-power: Spain. Dan Snow, Empire of the Seas: How the Navy Forged the Modern World I, BBC 2010
The new world of the Americas offered wealth beyond imagining. ibid.
Hawkins and Drake ... they were slave traders. ibid.
[John] Hawkins produced the fastest ships of their kind anywhere in the world. The first was built in 1570 at the Queen’s dockyard in Deptford. ibid.
The King’s [Charles I] failure to run a modern efficient navy sparked a constitutional crisis. ibid.
The Laws of War offered a blueprint for structure and discipline at sea, they would later be applied through all areas of government. ibid.
He [Pepys] was determined to professionalise every aspect of the Navy’s operations. ibid.
In 1665 came the inevitable clash with the Dutch. ibid.
A vast efficient Navy. This was England’s Heart of Oak. A Navy that now lay at the centre of the national project and its future. ibid.
English warships fleeing pell-mell across the horizon ... The French were coming. Dan Snow, Empire of the Seas: How the Navy Forged the Modern World II: The Golden Ocean
Church bells rang out in panic. ibid.
On board was a year’s worth of trade ... The convoy was such a vital national interests that it was given an escort of 102 warships. ibid.
They found 93 French warships waiting for them. ibid.
English dockyards built over a hundred and fifty naval new ships. ibid.
Five tons of iron nails. ibid.
The Navy was the single largest consumer of produce in the country. ibid.
It even captured Gibraltar and Minorca, two important bases in the Mediterranean. The English Navy was now a global weapon. ibid.
The slave trade was a lucrative sideline. ibid.
And then there were the pirates. ibid.
Voltaire saw instantly that commerce and naval power were linked. ibid.
Britannia really did rule the waves. ibid.
The most epic naval battle in British history – Trafalgar. The boy’s name was Horatio Nelson. Dan Snow, Empire of the Seas: How the Navy Forged the Modern World III: High Tide
The Navy was a national enterprise. ibid.
20th April 1770 – the ship was called The Endeavour; the commander was James Cook. ibid.
Cook was going to claim undiscovered lands for the British. ibid.