Where in the World? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Belgium

The Battle of Waterloo put an end to Napoleon's plans to re-establish his French empire, and heralded a 99-year period of relative peace and prosperity in Europe. The battle pitched Wellington's army of about 67,000 troops against Napoleon's army of 74,000.

The bulk of Wellington's force was composed largely of Dutch and German allied forces. The battlefield today is well preserved. The key landmarks of Hougoumont farm can be visited as well as La Haye Sainte, although that is still a working farm.

Answer: Germany

The Battle of Blenheim pitched a multi-national alliance of British, Prussians, and Dutch, led by John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough, against a Franco-Bavarian force in the name of the French monarch Louis XIV. Whilst sides were roughly equal at about 60,000 each, the allied victory was decisive.

Although the war was to last for another 11 years this battle prevented the French from seizing Vienna, which would have altered the outcome of the war entirely. As it was, this setback ultimately thwarted French dynastic ambitions in Europe. Interestingly John Churchill's father was Sir Winston Churchill - but not that one!

Answer: Belgium

Bastogne was the scene of a bitter siege between 20th and 27th December 1944 during the German Ardennes offensive. Amongst other heroic, makeshift defensive engagements these actions served to nullify Hitler's plan to repeat his masterstroke of 1940 by driving for Antwerp and forcing the Allies back across the Channel. It is debatable whether this plan would have ever succeeded, but the determined and dogged defense of 'the battered bastards of Bastogne' ensured it did not. Bastogne today looks a lot like it did in 1944. Outside of the town is a very impressive Battle of the Bulge museum.

The siege was featured in the HBO series Band of Brothers. It contains one of my favourite exchanges between a departing and battered soldier and an incoming paratrooper from the 101st Airbourne Division: Departing soldier: "you do realise you're going to be surrounded, don't you?" 101st trooper: "We're paratroopers, it's our job to be surrounded".

Answer: Czech Republic

Otherwise known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, the Battle of Austerlitz pitched the French, led by the 'Little Corporal', against the combined armies of Russia and Austria. With bold and brilliant use of the natural terrain, Napoleon inflicted a crushing defeat on his opponents, which may well have been enough to cause the collapse of an already tottering French state.

Instead, the Austrians sued for peace, allowing Napoleon to dominate Europe for another ten years. The legacy of that period can still be felt even today.

Answer: Pennsylvania

Fought over three days, the Battle of Gettysburg represented the high-watermark of the Confederacy, led by the mercurial Robert E Lee. Led by General Meade, 85,000 Union troops, faced 71,000 troops of the Confederacy. Although neither side achieved a crushing victory, Lee was criticised for continuing the battle after the first day when it was evident that he was unlikely to win. Instead, he lost many irreplaceable troops by hurling them at fixed Union positions. Following this defeat Lee never again was able to seize the initiative and take the war to the Union. Coincidentally, on the very last day of the battle - July 4, 1863, a certain General Grant achieved a corresponding victory at Vicksburg, Mississippi, which started the general retreat on the western front.

The Rangers of the Gettysburg battlefield will tell you that it is the most faithfully preserved battlefield in the world. Having been there myself, it is well worth a visit, especially to stand on the site of the heroic, but ultimately doomed, Pickett's Charge.

Answer: Iraq

The Achaemenid Empire was a confederation of many vassal states or satraps who owed fealty to Persia and its King, Darius III. Having already been bested by Alexander at the Battle of Issus, Darius summoned an army from across its empire with the intention of crushing Alexander's smaller, but high trained army. Estimates have it that Alexander's army numbered up to 57,000. Estimates of the Acheamenid army talk of a huge host numbering over a million men. Modern historians consider this to be implausible, given the logistics required to supply such a force, and tend to put the army size at between 60,000-100,000. All historians, ancient or modern, generally agree that Alexander was heavily outnumbered.

History has delivered many brilliant generals or those who have periods of brilliance but very rarely, if ever has there been such a military leader as exceptional as Alexander. His tactics for this battle were utter genius, focusing on the inherent weaknesses and flawed thinking of his opponent, which he exploited with total and complete devastation. This battle saw the collapse of a once mighty empire and spread Greek/Macedonian influences as far as India.

I would challenge anyone with an interest in military history to examine Alexander's tactics and not marvel at the brilliant audacity of this unique genius.

Answer: Italy

As with all ancient battles, army estimates are difficult to establish. Modern historians, however, reckon that Hannibal's army of about 35,000, which consisted of a patchwork of tribes, inflicted a massive defeat on a professional Roman army twice its size.

The battle saw the first recording of a a double envelopment known also as the Cannae Envelopment. Although Hannibal was ultimately ground down and defeated by Rome's superior resources, this battle is still studied in military colleges today.

Answer: Sussex

The Norman Conquest is seen as the starting point for modern British history. a William I imposed a system of government which still has a huge impact on modern British society. I always feel a bit sorry for the defeated Saxons, as they really did not get a break in this campaign. The Saxon army had first traveled north and seen off a determined invasion by the Norwegians under Harold Hardrada, defeating them at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire.

Just three days later, the Norman army under William the Bastard (who became William I) landed on the south coast, where upon the exhausted Saxons, under the newly crowned Harold Godwinson, had to turn around and march nearly 300 miles to meet this new threat. Despite this, the Saxons gave their Norman foe a run for their money, and may have carried the day were it not for their lack of discipline in abandoning their superior position to pursue what they mistakenly thought was a retreating enemy. As the Duke of Wellington was to say after Waterloo - it was a close run thing.

Although the Normans gave their name to the northern French region of Normandy, they were actually Vikings. The Normans were prolific settlers and had only been in this region for about 100 years. They also settled in Ireland, Italy, the Middle East, north Africa and modern day Turkey.

William I was an effective but brutal monarch, so it is not surprising that the title 'the Bastard' was exchanged for 'the Conqueror', the epithet by which he tends to be more commonly known today.

Answer: Spain

The British fleet consisted of 27 ships against 33 French and Spanish. In the French and Spanish fleet were some of the biggest ships in the world at the time. The French/Spanish force was commanded by the capable Admiral Villeneuve.

Unfortunately for him, the British commander was the brilliant Horatio Nelson. Nelson broke all the rules of the time including the long held practice of observing 'the line of battle', whereupon the opposing fleets would form a line and shoot at each other until one side withdrew. These tactics were developed to ensure that the fleet would be preserved, however it meant that naval engagements in the 18th century were rarely conclusive.

Nelson brilliantly re-wrote the rule book by sailing through the enemy line, not at the middle, but the three quarter point. This allowed him to isolate a smaller force, and defeat it in detail before turning to the larger, but now numerically inferior remainder. The result was a devastating victory for the British, which put an end to Napoleon's plans to invade England. Instead he found himself with an implacable, troublesome foe who posed a constant threat to his burgeoning continental empire.

For his part, Nelson was killed at the moment of his greatest triumph. However, his memory is still revered in Britain with many buildings, roads and even companies named after him. His flagship, the HMS Victory, is preserved in Portsmouth, and most famously Trafalgar Square in London is a stop for all tourists. It is dominated by Nelson's Column with a statue of the great man himself at the top guarded by four bronze lions, which was sculptured by the artist, Edwin Landseer.

Nelson's victory endured for over a century and lesser men tried to emulate his genius. As late as 1915 Admiral Jellicoe's efforts at the Battle of Jutland were expended on 'crossing the T' Nelson style. The battle and Nelson's tactics are even today the subject of much discussion by military historians. One interesting piece of work is the mathematical study of the Battle of Trafalgar by Fredrick Lanchester and his theory of force concentration.

Answer: Greece

The battle saw 212 Holy League ships defeat a much larger force of about 300 Ottoman ships. The result was a major victory for the Holy League. Popular folklore has it that this battle devastated the Ottoman Empire and traumatised it into a state from which it never recovered.

Actually, the defeat was more of a set back. The Ottomans quickly rebuilt their fleet and not long after resumed their expansion seizing, for example the island of Cyprus. The effects of Lepanto, though, were that the Ottomans were reluctant to risk their fleet against the Spanish and Roman Catholic states and restricted the activities to the eastern Mediterranean.

In the end it was the superior technology of the Europeans that rendered the Ottoman fleet obsolete and ultimately nullified their maritime expansion into Europe.