The conquest of the Aztec Empire by Hernan Cortez

Chance upon this documentary from the BBC.

I think it's a brilliant documentary, which I believed it's pretty accurate in its potrayal of the Aztecs. The battle scenes seemed very realistic and the weapons of the era are well reconstructed. The potryal of the Aztec human sacrifice is in-line with the historical records of the Aztec Codexes. The mindset of the characters are pretty accurate based on historical records. Perhaps, Alvarado should have been taller and show more scenes of Aztec Jaguar and Eagle warriors. But it's a masterpiece of a documentary given its time limit of 1 hour.



The best part is the Tlaxcalan coyote warrior shouting a 'battle cry' and the Tlaxcalan rush forward to attack the Spaniards.

Review
Historical accuracy: 5/5
Characters: 4/5
Drama: 4/5

Aztecs

The clash of the Aztecs with the Spanish conquistador always fascinated me.
The concept of Aztec warfare to capture enemy combatants for human sacrifice puts them in a serious disadvantage vis-a-vis the Spaniards.

Documentary of the Battle of Verdun

Battle of Verdun

One of the bloodiest battles in history. I was reading a book by Osprey about the order of battle; found that this battle together with the battle of the Somme bled the flower of French, British and German manpower dry.

The casualties suffered were horrendous, as machine guns and artillery mowed down rows and columns of men trying to advance to attack the enemy's trench, in only a few yards.

The enormous casualties degenerated the belligerents to trench warfare as both sides lack the manpower for offensive campaign.

The rules of maneuver warfare of double envelopment or flanking attack were negated to suicidal frontal attacks.

Battle of Granicus

I was reading one of the campaign book by Osprey.

It was dedicated to one of Alexander's victory over Darius's Persian army.

The most gruesome part of the battle was the annihilation of the Greek Mercennaries, which Alexander slaugthered almost to a man.

The heavy infantry or Mecedonian Phalanx used a 20 foot long sarrisae pike outranged the Greek Hoplite's 7-8 foot long spear. The reach advantage enjoyed by the Macedonians meant that many Greeks were bludgeoned before they could even come into striking distance of the Macedonian heavy infantry.

Alexander the Great

Was watching the movie, Alexander by Oliver Stone, starring Colin Farell.

The battle scene was realistic but the acting is a bit off, with strange accents by Olympias.

The highlight of the show was the battle of Guagamela.

The scythed chariot vs the Greek phalanx was the most realistic.

The movie is historically accurate but the (product/movie)is a tough sell to the audience especially the American audience.

Hephaestion, Alexander's campanion calvary officer, child hood buddy and confidant was also Alexander's love interest, creating a homophobic backlash against the movie.

In ancient Greek history, the scared band of Thebes was reportedly a group of heavy infantary whose strength was that the cohesion of the group was founded on homosexual love. The reason was that figthing men in homosexual relationship will die fighthing for one another, creating a highly motivated, cohesive and effective fighthing force. This is contary to the belief that homosexuality in the fighting force disrupted morale and creating infighting and weak figthing spirit.

Ironically, the Scared Band of Thebes was destroyed by Alexander and his father Philip II in his quest to unite Greece.

BBC documentary

The documentary that started my interest in military history

The rise of Nazi Germany

Reason for this blog

Thank you for stumbling into my blog.

I always have read enthusiastically about military history ranging from Ancient Egypt, Greeks, Romans, Chinese, to the Islamic, Mongols and age of gunpowder.
My burning passion for the stories for the development of events and stories of why it happen, who were involved, events that led to the outcome led me to create this blog.

Updates will in order shortly.