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Authors:

Victoria Charles and Sun Tzu

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ISBN: 978-1-78310-779-7

Victoria Charles and Sun Tzu

Art of War

Contents

Introduction

Millennia of War

Portraying War in Art

The Artists of War

The Art of Modern Warfare

Chronology

Antiquity

Dark to Middle Ages

Early Modern Age and Wars for European Dominance

The Napoleonic Wars

Other Conflicts in the 19th Century

The World Wars

Mythological Battles

The Trojan War

Battle of the Amazons

The Rape of the Sabine Women

Antiquity to Christianisation of the Roman Empire

The Victory Stele of Naram-Sin of Akkad

Battle of Kadesh

Battle of Marathon

Battle of Thermopylae

Battle of Mantinea

The Campaigns of Alexander the Great

Battle of the Granicus River

Battle of Issus

Battle of Arbela (Battle of Gaugamela)

Battle of Heraclea

Battle of Cannae

Battle of Zama

Siege and Fall of Carthage

Battle of Alesia

Battle of Teutoburg Forest

Battle of Milvian Bridge

Dark and Middle Ages

Battle of Tolbiac

Battle of Tours

Battle of Roncevaux Pass

Siege of Paris

Battle of Hastings

The Crusades

Siege of Jerusalem

Battle of Hattin

Sieges of Zara and Constantinople

Heiji Rebellion

Battle of Ichi-no-Tani

Battle of Bouvines

Battle of Taillebourg

Battle of Lake Peipus (Battle of the Ice)

Battle of Ain Jalut

Battle of Bannockburn

Battle of Cassel

Battle of Crécy

Battle of Agincourt

Siege of Orléans

Battle of San Romano

Battle of Anghiari

Siege and Fall of Constantinople

Battle of Castillon

Early Modern Age to Wars for European Dominance

Battle of Nancy

Battle of Fornovo

Battle of Garigliano

Siege of Kufstein

Battle of Marignano

Siege and Fall of Tenochtitlan

Battle of Pavia

Battle of Kawanakajima

St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre

Battle of Arques

Siege of Breda

Battle of Nördlingen

Battle of Lens

Battle of the Dunes (Battle of Dunkirk)

Battle of Tournai

Storming of Valenciennes

Battle of Vienna

Battle of Leuze

Battle of Poltava

Battle of Denain

Battle of Fontenoy

Battle of Lauffeld

Battle of Bunker Hill

Battles of Saratoga

Siege of Yorktown

Battle of Valmy

Battle of Fleurus

The Napoleonic Wars

Battle of Arcole

Battle of Rivoli

Alexander Suvorov’s Italian and Swiss Campaign

Battle of the Pyramids

Battle of Aboukir

Battle of Hohenlinden

Battle of Friedland

The Third of May 1808

Battle of Wagram

Battle of Borodino

Battle of Leipzig

Battle of Waterloo

Conflicts of the 19th Century

Third Siege of Missolonghi

Battle of the Alamo

Battle of the Smala

Battle of Montebello

Battle of Balaclava

Battle of Solferino

Battle of Gettysburg

Siege of Vicksburg

Battle of Atlanta

Battle of Sadowa (Battle of Königgrätz)

Battle of Gravelotte

Battle of Little Big Horn

Battle of Omdurman

Boxer Rebellion

Russo-Japanese War

The World Wars

First World War

The Second World War

War and Abstraction

Knight, Death, and the Devil

Battle of Cascina

The Charge of the Lancers

The Bombing of Guernica

Bibliography

Index

Édouard Detaille, Attack of French Hussars
at Gravelotte, 16 August 1870, 1890.

Oil on canvas, 480 x 320 cm.

Musée de l’Armée, Paris.

Introduction

“The art of war” – the first association people have with this term, has, not surprisingly, nothing to do with art but everything to do with war: the ancient military treatise The Art of War. Generally attributed to Chinese general Sun Tzu (depending on transliteration also Sun Wu or Sunzi), the book was written in feudal China, roughly 400 to 200 years before Christ. On a side note, depending on the scholarly point of view, the writings – which already had garnered a certain reputation by the time of the so-called Warring States Period – were either written by Sun Tzu alone, with minor annotations after his death from other military thinkers, or alternatively modified and co-written by other Chinese military strategists as well. Whichever way, they provide a broad collection of proverbs concerning key aspects of warfare. Infused with Taoist philosophy, the treatise does not only provide pragmatic advice on such things as military spending or marching order, but is first and foremost meant as educative literature for the ambitious leader. Interestingly enough it does not cover all aspects of warfare in precise detail, as a first-time reader might expect. Instead, many of these thematically arranged proverbs are primarily meant to teach the ideal military leader how to develop a keen eye for the intricacies of leading men and analysing circumstances. On occasion Sun Tzu and his co-authors do provide very specific advice on how to act in different situations and how to interpret different warning signs, but the overall purpose remains one of facilitating a way of thought. In short, it concerns itself more with overall strategy, to a minor degree with logistics and the least with tactics. These characteristics are what make the ancient writings even today popular among military officers, businessmen, historians and military hobbyists, who revere the book for its timeless wisdom that remains applicable and even transferable to other domains, such as business, in an age that differs so fundamentally to the era in which the original was written.

The title of this art book has, of course, been chosen intentionally to invoke the Chinese general and his writings. While the primary purpose is to showcase art that has been inspired by war, it is also meant to be a chronology of important and decisive battles in the history of the world. In this context, we want to apply the general’s wisdom to the wars that have been fought throughout the ages, whether the factions involved have acted according to them or whether they have shown an almost criminal neglect of the most basic principles of warfare. Of course, their application is not based on a deep military or historical analysis, but it is rather meant as an inspiration for the reader to delve into the history and circumstances as well as Sun Tzu’s writing him- or herself. Beginning with one of the earliest armed conflicts, the Battle of Kadesh, this book visits battlefields from the ever war-torn landscapes of Europe to the more inconspicuous battlegrounds in the frozen wastes of Finland or the scorching deserts of the Middle East and ends its grand tour with the wars that changed the understanding of war and warfare forever: the World Wars. Every conflict is accompanied by artwork, either contemporary or retrospective, meant to show how the depiction of war changed (or remained the same) throughout the centuries.

Millennia of War

Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.

To make a list of all the wars, battles or minor armed conflicts that humanity has ever fought throughout its history, would be go beyond the scope of the possible. For one, we can say for certain that not all conflicts have been recorded or handed down in history and not all accounts of those battles that have been committed to the collective memory of mankind, are above scrutiny. One of the most famous truisms expresses this by saying that “history is written by the victor”, which seems to cast a shadow of doubt over those eras of human history that are less well documented. How many minor conflicts have fallen through the cracks of the stage that is history? How many records have been written by historians who were mired too much in their culture and perspective? For the moment, these questions remain unanswerable. What is left, is to trust sources with a claim to relative objectivity. Thus, no book can ever claim to include a full account of the history of warfare. What can be done, however, is to select among the most incisive conflicts that are known to us. This is exactly what this book is trying to accomplish. To give an overview of the battles which have shaped civilisation in general or, sometimes, specific cultures. In choosing which conflicts to represent, not only the scope of the conflict was a decisive criterion, but also other aspects, such as the application of new technology, cunning tactical manoeuvres, tales of individual bravery or political background. For this purpose, the writings of various scholars and authors have been chosen to create a reading experience that includes both contemporary and classic perspectives on the various conflicts.

The texts are not meant to give a perfectly detailed account of every battle but are rather accompanying pieces to the artwork, giving a glimpse of the events surrounding the battle or the actual fighting itself. Due to their age, some of these descriptions adopt a point of view that is either outdated by scholarly standards or still rooted in the last century, where war was not yet the subject of scrutiny it is today. While it is acknowledged that there is a fundamental problem in relying upon historical accounts or retrospective analyses which exhibit a more or less obvious bias, there is still a benefit to be gleaned from examining those kinds of texts. At the very least they will reveal the perspectives prevalent in the minds of many historiographers or scholars throughout theirs centuries and offer an outlook into an age when war was regarded as either a perfectly valid method of expansion, a battle of wits between cultured men or a tool of natural selection.

Portraying War in Art

While most battles that will be shown in this art book have been chosen for their role in the history of civilisation, the selection is also distinctly governed by the “canvas”, meaning that a share of the conflicts, despite lacking the majority of criteria that earned other battles a spot in the book, have been chosen because their artistic representation contributes to the understanding of the purpose of war-inspired art. Assuming that war art is not simply l’art pour l’art, it stands to reason that the creation of battle paintings always served a specific purpose. Be it glorification, criticism, documentation or the exercise of artistic self-expression.

Needless to say, the depiction of war has certainly changed over the centuries, not only because the preferred media of display changed, e.g. from wall carvings to wall mosaics to illuminated manuscripts, but also because the understanding of war shifted over the centuries. One of the few constants, however, was and is the “propaganda value” of war depiction. Be it the aforementioned wall paintings, namely the depiction of victorious Ramesses II at the Battle of Kadesh, the sculpted battle scenes on Trajan’s Column or the oil painting of Napoleon at the Battle of the Pyramids, their purpose remains the same: a glorification of a military leader or a celebration of military exploits. This characteristic naturally also brings with it a certain amount of falsification – to use the conflict at Kadesh as an example again: the only (visual) account of the battle that has survived is Egyptian, which is thus certainly not unbiased. Furthermore, the relief shows Ramesses II as the conqueror of the Hittite people, which is, historically speaking, not quite true. Although the battle was enormous in its proportions, especially considering the epoch, it did not decisively end the conflict between the two peoples. In fact, Ramesses was not the glorious architect of the downfall of the Hittite empire at all. Rather, the constant raids of a yet unidentified seafaring culture weakened the empire to such a degree that they could not maintain power in the region.

In contrast, Napoleon does not need any exaggeration of his deeds. His military genius is indisputable, as his campaigns through Europe prove just too well. Paintings of his exploits, however, show another aspect that pervades centuries of war art. In the majority of paintings detailing the Napoleonic Wars, he occupies the central spot in the composition. The way he is shown is reverent, sometimes almost affectionate. He is always portrayed as being calm and serene – an unshakeable military leader. The figures of enemies in these paintings display the tendency to fall to their knees or on their backs, recoiling in horror and awe from this magnificent, unconquerable foe. In short, he becomes a messianic figure, guiding France towards its destiny.

This raises the question about whether war-inspired art was ever meant to be or ever could be purely documentary. Since most of the contemporary accounts and depictions, were created or commissioned by the victor, it certainly entails a perspective that shows the victorious side of the conflict in a more favourable light.

Then there are those depictions that show events that had happened decades or centuries earlier. Apart from the fact that artists conjuring a scene from a past battle have to rely on older accounts, there is almost always an artistic reason for the re-visitation: Classicism, for example, is famous for idealising the art and history of ancient Greece while the Russian realist painters chose scenes from their country’s history to create a patriotic aesthetic that celebrates the spirit and the accomplishments of the Russian people. This leads to a certain “romanticisation” of events that ignores the less sympathetic (or outright horrific) details to focus on what is perceived as the glorious aspect of war. Taking a masterpiece painting from Ilya Repin as an example, that in itself is not a direct battle painting, but shows a well-known war-host of cossacks that enjoyed immense popularity in 18th century Russia: Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (1880-1891; State Russian Museum, St Petersburg) shows a merry band of Ukrainian cossacks gathered around a table, writing a humorous and profanity-filled letter in response to a demand note sent to them earlier by Sultan Mehmed IV. The noble warriors are a sympathetic bunch – free, wild and indomitable men. Furthermore they are resisting a ruler who had the clear agenda of conquering the lands they were protecting. This impression, however, is not complete. While the Zaporozhian Cossacks surely were an indomitable bunch, they also had the tendency to engage in raping and pillaging on their raids. While that is not unusual for a raiding army of that age, it does not correspond with the impression that the painting is trying to create. The point here is not to condemn the idealisation or “romanticisation” of war paintings but rather to point out that the artistic reception of war does not necessarily entail the mandate to portray events exactly as they happened or as truthful as possible. Which is true for art in general – just as art is highly individual and subjective in intention, choice of motive and execution, so is art inspired by war, maybe even more so. We can conclude that the documentary aspect of war-art is a recent development. This will be explored in more detail in the section “The Artists of War”.

This leaves the last aspect of art and war to be discussed here: criticism. Art that is outright critical of war is hard to find before the 17th century. One of the first examples might be Peter Paul Ruben’s The Horror of War (after 1638; The National Gallery, London) which is an allegorical depiction that shows Mars, the Roman god of war, marching, hell-bent on living up to his title, out of a temple, while several putti and a (literally) rubenesque woman are trying to dissuade him from his plan of action. They are surrounded by figures that symbolise either various disasters that come in the wake of wars, like famine or plague, or are just human figures that are trying to flee from the approaching Mars. While the painting clearly does not attempt to cast war in a favourable light, its visual style does not correspond to the title and makes it initially hard to identify as a piece of “criticism”. One of the first explicit and truly haunting contributions to artistic war criticism comes from Francisco Goya, roughly 150 years later. In his series The Disasters of War, a collection of several dozen sketches, he shows a wholly different face of war: the cruelties, the massacres and the bestiality. In this context, war art becomes effectively “documentary” again, as these sketches are based on personal experience. Thus, Goya heralded later artists who would give the depiction of war their very own note: artists like Otto Dix, Salvador Dalí or Pablo Picasso.

Let us for a moment examine the paintings themselves: what is portrayed and how it is portrayed? One of the most striking aspects of western battle paintings is their “leader-centricity”. A substantial number of depictions feature a – usually victorious – leader, general or warlord as their central character; whether he is in the thick of the fighting, calmly watching the events from afar, negotiating the terms of surrender after the battle or – mostly the case in ancient depictions – towering godlike over vanquished foes. This is especially true for the majority of paintings painted in the 19th century that revisited historical battlefields. Understandably so, since a victory in battle is usually attributed to the strategic genius of a leader. Beyond that, the examination of history in general tends to revolve around dominant characters. Another subset of the “leader-centric” painting deals with the death of one such person. Usually meant to commemorate the leader in question, these paintings dramatise the events surrounding the death and set the stage for a heroic death scene. Examples are the death of General Talbot at the Battle of Castillon or The Death of General Wolfe (1770; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa) by Benjamin West.

However, there had also always been a strong tendency towards the depiction of individual, representative scenes in the history of war-related art. Beginning with Greek vase-painting, some artists had to make good use of their limited space for depiction and thus chose scenes that would best represent the conflict in question. The same is true for a lot of images from illuminated chronicles, which also exhibit the tendency for small, orderly battle scenes that summarise the events of the battle in a compact way. For that purpose realistic proportions are often sacrificed to create a depiction that captures the whole of the battle in one image. Larger battle scenes can be found in the late Dutch or German Gothic art. A prominent example is Albrecht Altdorfer’s The Battle of Alexander at Issus, which, being part of a larger cycle of historical paintings that were commissioned by William IV, Duke of Bavaria, tries to grasp the full scope of the battle by depicting the two large armies pitted against each other with the two opposing leaders being small figures in the masses of soldiers. Furthermore, the painting exhibits another aspect that prevailed in the arts until the Renaissance: both the Greek and the Persian armies are portrayed as medieval knights; thus subjected to a “transculturation”. This peculiar aspect can also be found in many illuminated documents from early medieval times and has its roots in the fact that the artists responsible never had access to any material that might have helped them to develop a realistic depiction. However, that changed with the Renaissance and the rise of cultural exchange, archaeological discoveries and a new interest in painting in a realist manner. Art in general became more precise and differentiated.

The late 19th century saw a rise in paintings about contemporary battles that were less focused on particular leading figures but instead depicted detailed scenes putting equal – if not more – emphasis on the common soldier. This trend continued with advances in photography which suddenly enabled “true realism” – the opportunity to show and document all facets of war and give the interested viewer access to the material in a speed that had been impossible before.

Leonardo da Vinci, Cavalry Battle,
Study for the Battle of Anghiari, c. 1504.

Ink on paper, 14.7 x 15.5 cm.

Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice.

Leonardo da Vinci, Study of a
soldier holding a lance, 1503-1504.

Red chalk on paper, 22.7 x 18.6 cm.

Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Budapest.

The Artists of War

“We were specialists in camouflage, but at that time were fighting for our lives as ordinary infantry. The unit was composed of artists, since it was the theory of someone in the Army that we would be especially good at camouflage.” (Kurt Vonnegut, Bluebeard)

For centuries, battles were just one of the many motives the multi-faceted artist chose to depict. His motivation was usually of a purely aesthetic nature or on occasion, financial when he was commissioned to create such a painting. This started to change around the time of the American Revolution, when artists such as John Trumbull or Emanuel Leutze (painter of the famous Washington Crossing the Delaware; situated in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York), started to focus more on or even specialise in war-related art. This is not surprising, since this development can be retraced in the world of art in general. While there have always been outstanding artists that worked in multiple fields and never settled on one subject, a certain trend started to evolve roughly after the Renaissance. Artists chose one thematic field which they adhered to for the majority of their creative life. In war-related art this development continued as such. Apart from the “civilian” artists that chose to make the wars of their country the subject of their art, even governments started to appoint official war artists, who partly served in the army themselves, and commissioned them to document conflicts. From there it was only a short step to armies developing specific art programmes and the “embedded artist” – an artist-soldier, whose impressions of war and conflict were at the same time absolutely subjective but also unadulterated. In the same way, the function of the war photographer rose to prominence. It is in this context that the term “documentary” can truly be applied to war-related art. Not that the impressions captured by war artists and photographers are beyond bias or distortion, but even if they just chronicle one person’s subjective war experience, they already transcend centuries of war paintings in terms of realistic, documentary quality. However, this truthfulness heralded at the same time the end of war art in its then current form. Artists who fought in World War I did not come back with impressions of noble warriors assaulting enemy positions, recklessly brave cavalry charges or cunning manoeuvres. Instead they showed the horror of losing friends to gas attacks or being crushed by tanks and the gruelling experience of trench warfare, being under constant artillery fire. In a way, this World War brought about the end of glorification of war in art.

The Art of Modern Warfare

Nevertheless, war painting has not completely ceased to exist, although today people trust photos for documentation, glorification is neither presentable nor feasible and criticism is the main purpose of war-related art. Embedded artists still exist and continue to share their war experience artistically with those who are willing to view and listen. The “art of war” has changed as well. First the Cold War in the second half of the 20th century and then the asymmetrical War on Terror in the early 21th century have further twisted the face of conflict – although the motives for war have stayed largely the same: ethnic hatred, economic interests, intervention and misguided religious fervour. Technological advances have rendered much of what was previously true in warfare null and void. What then, remains true from the original Art of War? This: “[War] is a matter of life and death […]”

Chronology

Antiquity

Battle of Kadesh (illustrated: 2134-661 BCE)	1274 BCE
Battle of Marathon	490 BCE
Battle of Thermopylae (illustrated: 1814)	480 BCE
Battle of Mantinea	362 BCE
Battle of the Granicus River (illustrated: 17th century)	334 BCE
Battle of Issus (illustrated: 1529)	333 BCE
Battle of Arbela (illustrated: 17th century)	331 BCE
Battle of Heraclea (illustrated: 17th century)	280 BCE
Battle of Cannae (illustrated: 19th century)	216 BCE
Battle of Zama (illustrated: 1688-1689)	202 BCE
Siege of Carthage	149 BCE
Battle of Alesia (illustrated: 1899)	52 BCE
Battle of Teutoburg Forest (illustrated: 1909)	9 CE
Battle of Milvian Bridge (illustrated: 1520-1524)	312 CE

Dark to Middle Ages

496 CE	Battle of Tolbiac (illustrated: 1836)
732 CE	Battle of Tours (illustrated: 1834-1837)
778 CE	Battle of Ronceveaux Pass (illustrated: 15th century)
886 CE	Siege of Paris (illustrated: 1834-1836)
1066	Battle of Hastings (illustrated: c. 1082)
1099	Siege of Jerusalem (illustrated: 14th century)
1160	Heiji Rebellion (illustrated: 13th century)
1184	Battle of Ichi-no-Tani
1187	Battle of Hattin
1204	Sieges of Zara and Constantinople (illustrated: 1584 and 1840)
1214	Battle of Bouvines (illustrated: 1827)
1242	Battle of Taillebourg (illustrated: 1837) Battle of Lake Peipus (illustrated: 16th century)
1260	Battle of Ain Jalut (illustrated: late 1480s)
1314	Battle of Bannockburn
1328	Battle of Cassel (illustrated: 1837)
1346	Battle of Crécy
1415	Battle of Agincourt (illustrated: 15th century)
1429	Siege of Orléans (illustrated: 1907)
1432	Battle of San Romano (illustrated: c. 1435-1455)
1440	Battle of Anghiari (illustrated: 16th/17th century)
1453	Siege of Constantinople (illustrated: 1455) Battle of Castillon (illustrated: 1839)

Early Modern Age and Wars for European Dominance

Battle of Nancy (illustrated: 1831)	1477
Battle of Fornovo (illustrated: 1578-1579)	1495
Battle of Garigliano (illustrated: 1836)	1503
Siege of Kufstein (illustrated: 1572)	1504
Battle of Marignano (illustrated: 1836)	1515
Siege of Tenochtitlan (illustrated: late 17th century)	1521
Battle of Pavia (illustrated: 1528-1531)	1525
Battle of Kawanakajima (illustrated: 1844-1848)	1561
Massacre of St Bartholomew (illustrated: 1833)	1572
Battle of Arques (illustrated: 17th century)	1589
Siege of Breda (illustrated: 1635)	1625
Battle of Nördlingen (illustrated: c. 1634, 17th century)	1634
Battle of Lens (illustrated: c. 1835)	1648
Battle of the Dunes (Dunkirk) (illustrated: 1837)	1658
Battle of Tournai (illustrated: 17th century)	1667
Storming of Valenciennes (illustrated: 19th century)	1677
Battle of Vienna (illustrated: early 18th century)	1683
Battle of Leuze (illustrated: late 17th century)	1691
Battle of Poltava (illustrated: 1717)	1709
Battle of Denain (illustrated: 1839)	1712
Battle of Fontenoy (illustrated: 1828)	1745
Battle of Lauffeld (illustrated: 1836)	1747
Battle of Bunker Hill	1775
Battle of Saratoga (illustrated: 1852)	1777
Siege of Yorktown (illustrated: 1836)	1781
Battle of Valmy (illustrated: 1834)	1792
Battle of Fleurus (illustrated: 1837)	1794

The Napoleonic Wars

1796	Battle of Arcole (illustrated: 1796)
1797	Battle of Rivoli (illustrated: 1844)
1798	Battle of the Pyramids (illustrated: early 19th century)
1799	The Russian Italian/Swiss Campaign (illustrated: 1899) Battle of Aboukir (illustrated: 1807)
1800	Battle of Hohenlinden (illustrated: 1836)
1807	Battle of Friedland (illustrated: 1807)
1808	Dos de Mayo-Uprising in Spain (illustrated: 1814)
1809	Battle of Wagram (illustrated: 1912)
1812	Battle of Borodino (illustrated: 1900)
1813	Battle of Leipzig (illustrated: 19th century)
1815	Battle of Waterloo (illustrated: 1818, 1843, 1898)

Other Conflicts in the 19th Century

Third Siege of Missolonghi (illustrated: 1826)	1825
Battle of the Alamo (illustrated: 1905)	1836
Battle of the Smala (illustrated: 1843)	1843
Battle of Montebello	1859
Battle of Balaclava (illustrated: 1861, 19th century)	1854
Battle of Solferino (illustrated: 1859)	1859
Battle of Gettysburg (illustrated: 1870) Siege of Vicksburg (illustrated: 1863)	1863
Siege of Atlanta (illustrated: 1864)	1864
Battle of Sadowa (illustrated: 1894)	1866
Battle of Gravelotte (illustrated: 1873, 1886)	1870
Battle of Little Big Horn (illustrated: c. 1878)	1876
Battle of Omdurman (illustrated: 1899)	1898
Boxer Rebellion (illustrated: 1900)	1899
Russo-Japanese War (illustrated: 1904)	1904

The World Wars

1914	Battle of the Ardennes Battle of TannenbergFirst Battle of the MarneFirst Battle of Ypres
1915	Second Battle of Ypres Gallipolli Campaign
1916	Battle of Verdun (illustrated: 1916) Battle of Jutland Battle of the Somme
1917	Third Battle of Ypres Battle of Passchendaele (illustrated: 1917) Battle of Arras Battle of Cambrai
1918	Second Battle of the Marne Battle of Amiens
1837	Bombing of Guernica (illustrated: 1940-1941)
1939	German Invasion of Poland
1940	German Invasion of Denmark and Norway Western Offensive Battle of Dunkirk Battle of Britain
1941	Battle of Tobruk Japanese Invasion of Burma Operation Barbarossa Attack on Pearl Harbor
1942	Battle of Midway Second Battle of Tobruk Allied Landing at Guadalcanal Siege of Stalingrad Battle of El Alamein
1943	Battle of Tripoli Battle of Kharkov
1944	Operation Overlord (Battle of Normandy) (illustrated: 1944-1945) Operation Market Garden Battle of the Bulge
1945	Allied Invasion of Germany Battle of Berlin Battle of Iwo Jima Battle of Okinawa Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Amazonomachy, fragment of a floor-mosaic
in Daphne (a suburb of ancient Antioch),
2nd half of the 4th century BCE. Marble and limestone,

154 x 384 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Photographer: Wikimedia Commons user Clio20.

Mythological Battles

Amazonomachy, detail of a red-figure vase
that is attributed to the Eritrea Painter,

c. 420 BCE. Terracotta, 20.5 x 49.5 cm.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Photographer: Marie-Lan Nguyen.

The Trojan War

(c. 1194-1184 BCE)

Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans […] (Iliad, Book I)

History of Greece