History's famous military retreats -

When has losing ground enabled combatants to gain the upper hand? Click and find out.

© Getty Images/Public Domain

March of the Ten Thousand, 401–399 BCE -

The Ten Thousand were a force of mercenary units, mainly Greeks, who went to war in Persia. They were hired by Cyrus the Younger, who planned to battle it out with his brother Artaxerxes II and seize the throne.

© Public Domain

March of the Ten Thousand, 401–399 BCE -

The mercenaries marched for months across Anatolia and clashed with their enemy at the Battle of Cunaxa, during which Cyrus the Younger was slain. Staring defeat in the eye but refusing to surrender, the surviving mercenaries retreated back to Greece.

© Public Domain

Retreat from Harfleur, 1415 -

The siege of Harfleur took place from August 18 to September 22, 1415, at Harfleur in Normandy, France. The English, led by King Henry V, triumphed, but their numbers were decimated. An outbreak of dysentery further weakened the ranks.

© Public Domain

Retreat from Harfleur, 1415 -

Opting for a tactical retreat, Henry made his way toward the English-held port city of Calais, all the time pursued by the vengeful French. On October 25, 1415, they were forced to fight the numerically superior enemy at a place called Agincourt. The ensuing Battle of Agincourt resulted in one of the most important English triumphs in the Hundred Years' War.

© Getty Images

Escape from the Battle of Long Island, 1776 -

The Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776, progressed to the point where the Continental Army, commanded by George Washington, was in danger of being defeated by numerically superior British forces.

© Getty Images

Escape from the Battle of Long Island, 1776 -

Washington was forced to make a tactical decision, instructing his troops to retreat to Manhattan. In all, 9,000 combatants were evacuated, with no further loss of life.

© Public Domain

Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, 1812 -

Napoleon's disastrous decision to invade Russia in 1812 ended with the ignoble retreat of the Grande Armée from Moscow after finding the city empty of the Russian military and civilian population.

© Getty Images

Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, 1812 -

Harsh winter conditions, hunger, prowling wolves, and Cossack sharpshooters all took their toll on Napoleon's men. In all, of the more than 500,000 soldiers who went into Russia, fewer than 100,000 ever made it out.

© Getty Images

Russian retreat against Napoleon, 1812 -

Russia's response to the invasion by the Grande Armée had been to employ a series of tactical retreats, drawing the French into a slow, drawn-out campaign.

© Getty Images

Russian retreat against Napoleon, 1812 -

The Russians also operated a scorched-earth policy, denying their enemies anything of use, including areas of Moscow which they themselves torched.

© Getty Images

Retreat from Gettysburg, 1863 -

Following General Robert E. Lee's failure to defeat the Union Army at the Battle of Gettysburg, which took place between July 1–3, 1863, in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, he reluctantly ordered a retreat to Virginia.

© Getty Images

Retreat from Gettysburg, 1863 -

Lee's infantry faced dreadful weather, treacherous roads, and enemy cavalry raids. Overcome with shame and remorse, Lee submitted his resignation as commander of the Confederate Army. Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865, refused to accept it.

© Getty Images

Nez Perce War, 1877 -

An armed conflict in 1877 between several bands of the Nez Perce tribe of Native Americans and their allies and the US Army erupted after the indigenous peoples were moved off their ancestral lands.

© Getty Images

Nez Perce War, 1877 -

Outnumbered and outgunned, around 700 members of the tribe made an epic 1,400-mile (2,253-km) retreat through three states, battling the pursuing US Army as they went. After a 15-week chase, the Nez Perce were eventually run down near the Canadian border.

© Public Domain

The Great Retreat, 1914 -

In August and September 1914, the British Expeditionary Force and the French Fifth Army withdrew to the Marne River, southeast of Paris, after being defeated by the armies of the German Empire at the Battle of Charleroi and the Battle of Mons.

© Getty Images

The Great Retreat, 1914 -

The Great Retreat, as it was later referred to, allowed Allied forces to regroup and prepare for the First Battle of the Marne, which ended in victory for Franco-British forces.

© Getty Images

Allied evacuation of Gallipoli, 1915-16 -

In November 1915, the decision was made to evacuate Allied troops from Gallipoli, Turkey, after heavy losses were sustained during an ill-planned land-based invasion.

© Getty Images

Allied evacuation of Gallipoli, 1915-16 -

Over five nights in December, 36,000 Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzac) combatants were withdrawn to waiting transport ships. British and French troops followed them in January 1916.

© Getty Images

Mao Zedong's Long March, 1934–35 -

The Long March was a 6,000-mile (10,000-km) historic trek undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China in 1934–35.

© Getty Images

Mao Zedong's Long March, 1934–35 -

Led by Mao Zedong, the march was effectively a retreat from Nationalist forces during the Chinese Civil War. While not a military success, the Long March served as inspiration for many to join the Communist Party.

© Getty Images

Dunkirk evacuation, 1940 -

An evacuation rather than a retreat, the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and other Allied troops from the French seaport of Dunkirk in May and June of 1940 saw about 198,000 British and 140,000 French and Belgian troops saved from advancing German forces.

© Getty Images

Dunkirk evacuation, 1940 -

The rescue, known as Operation Dynamo, remains the biggest evacuation in military history.

© Getty Images

Retreat from Crete, 1941 -

A fatal breakdown in communications led to a chaotic withdrawal of British and Dominion troops from Crete after the German airborne attack on the Greek island in 1941.

© Getty Images

Retreat from Crete, 1941 -

With the Germans snapping at their heels, 18,600 men of the 32,000 Allied troops on Crete were evacuated over May 28–June 1. Pictured is HMS Kipling as it arrived in Alexandria Harbor, Egypt, carrying evacuees following the retreat from Crete.

© Getty Images

Relocation of Russia, 1941 -

After German officials contravened the non-aggression Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, doing so by invading the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Stalin relocated Russian factories far to the east behind the Ural Mountains and well out of range of the German war machine. 

© Getty Images

Relocation of Russia, 1941 -

This remarkable evacuation of industrial machinery guaranteed round-the-clock output of armaments and munitions manufacture. And like they did nearly 130 years earlier, the Russians adopted a scorched earth policy, destroying everything as they retreated from the Wehrmacht, again denying their enemies anything of use—but also depriving their own citizens of food and shelter.

© Getty Images

Battle of Chosin Reservoir, 1950 -

On November 27, 1950, Chinese forces launched a surprise attack on United Nations and US troops stationed at the Chosin Reservoir in eastern North Korea during the Korean War.

© Getty Images

Battle of Chosin Reservoir, 1950 -

Overwhelmed by sheer numbers, the Americans and their allies were forced to retreat south down the Korean Peninsula in extreme cold over rigged terrain, suffering heavy casualties along the way.

© Getty Images

Fall of Saigon,1975 -

On April 30, 1975, Saigon fell to North Vietnam. The capture of the city was preceded by Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of almost all American civilian and military personnel in Saigon, along with tens of thousands of South Vietnamese civilians.

© Getty Images

Fall of Saigon,1975 -

After the fall of Saigon in 1975, almost two million Vietnamese fled the country by boat and risked their lives in order to seek freedom from the Vietnamese Communist regime.

© Getty Images

Highway of Death, 1991 -

On the morning of February 26, 1991, more than 1,500 Iraqi vehicles began their retreat out of Kuwait in the wake of Saddam Hussein's illegal and unprovoked invasion of the country.

© Public Domain

Highway of Death, 1991 -

Coalition forces monitoring their progress attacked the fleeing Iraqis. Pictured: demolished vehicles line Highway 80, also known as the "Highway of Death," the route Saddam's defeated forces took as they retreated from Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm.

Sources: (History Collection) (EyeWitness to History) (English Heritage) (The Army Historical Foundation) 

See also: The secretive history of the special forces

© Public Domain