09-10-2007, 09:39 AM
I think its an overexaggeration to say elephants were usually misemployed. It is true that they were a fragile weapon that could end up being a danger to their own side, but had they not had quite regular successes, they would not have been used for so long. To give just a brief off-the-top-of-my-head shortlist of examples:
Alexander the Great's toughest battle was at the River Hydapses. This was the first battle where he had a superiority in cavalry, yet he couldn't make his trademark decisive cavalry charge through the enemy line because his cavalry could make no headway against the Indian elephants who were posted at regular intervals in the Indian line.
Among Alexander's Successors, elephants were widely used. The most cautious (and yet in its own way most decisive) use of elephants was their use as a reserve at Ipsus in 301 BC. When his own cavalry on one flank was routed by Antigonus' superior cavalry, Seleucus redeployed his 400 elephants as an anticavalry screen facing to the rear. Antigonus victorious cavalry was completely unable/unwilling to get back past the elephants to rejoin the battle in the centre, resulting in Antigonus defeat and death.
Xanthippus defeat of the Romans at the Bagradas River was chiefly through a frontal assault by elephants (followed up with envelopment by cavalry on both wings)
Pyrrhus defeated the Romans twice, at Heraclea and Asculum, and in both cases the elephants achieved breakthroughs at crucial moments.
Hannibal's few remaining elephants played a significant part in his victory at the Trebbia River (though all but one died from cold/fatigue afterwards).
Like I said, just the examples that spring readily to mind, but sure there are more. Elephants needed very careful handling to be succesful, but then so do most weapon systems.
Interesting (and annoying) to hear that someone has recently done a book devoted to war elephants, as it was something I was thinking of commissioning, or even writing, myself. I hadn't come across the Kistler book, but will put it on my Christmas list.
Phil Sidnell
Alexander the Great's toughest battle was at the River Hydapses. This was the first battle where he had a superiority in cavalry, yet he couldn't make his trademark decisive cavalry charge through the enemy line because his cavalry could make no headway against the Indian elephants who were posted at regular intervals in the Indian line.
Among Alexander's Successors, elephants were widely used. The most cautious (and yet in its own way most decisive) use of elephants was their use as a reserve at Ipsus in 301 BC. When his own cavalry on one flank was routed by Antigonus' superior cavalry, Seleucus redeployed his 400 elephants as an anticavalry screen facing to the rear. Antigonus victorious cavalry was completely unable/unwilling to get back past the elephants to rejoin the battle in the centre, resulting in Antigonus defeat and death.
Xanthippus defeat of the Romans at the Bagradas River was chiefly through a frontal assault by elephants (followed up with envelopment by cavalry on both wings)
Pyrrhus defeated the Romans twice, at Heraclea and Asculum, and in both cases the elephants achieved breakthroughs at crucial moments.
Hannibal's few remaining elephants played a significant part in his victory at the Trebbia River (though all but one died from cold/fatigue afterwards).
Like I said, just the examples that spring readily to mind, but sure there are more. Elephants needed very careful handling to be succesful, but then so do most weapon systems.
Interesting (and annoying) to hear that someone has recently done a book devoted to war elephants, as it was something I was thinking of commissioning, or even writing, myself. I hadn't come across the Kistler book, but will put it on my Christmas list.
Phil Sidnell
