Battles where War Elephants were sucessful?

[Aulus Perrinius]

I've read and heard of a lot of battles where war elephants suffered pretty ignominious defeats and so I was wondering if anyone could tell about me battles they were used sucessfully and if anyone could tell me about their gear and that of their rider's and their ranks, organization, breeds, etc, and if anyone has book recomendations that would be great.

-Thanks

[M. Demetrius]

In this account the elephants played a large role, if that's what you're looking for, from the fighting for Sicily in the first Punic War:

Polybius The Rise of the Roman Republic, Book I.34

"As soon as Xanthippus gave the order to the elephant-drivers to advance and break the enemy's [Roman] line, and to the cavalry on each wing to perform an outflanking movement and charge, the Roman army also moved forward, clashing their shields and spears together, as is their usual custom, and shouting their battle-cry. The Roman cavalry, which was far outnumbered, was quickly routed on both wings. As for the infantry, those who were stationed on the left wing, partly to avoid the charge of the elephants and partly because they despised the mercenaries who opposed them, charged the Carthaginian right, drove it back and pursued it as far as the enemy's camp. Of the remainder of the Roman line which faced the elephants, the maniples in front fell back before the weight of the charge, were trampled underfoot and perished in heaps in the fighting, but the main body of the legionaries, because of its great depth, was able for a while to hold its formation unbroken. But at last the maniples in the rear were encircled on all sides by the cavalry and found themselves compelled to face about and engage them; on the other hand, those who had managed to force their way to the front through the elephants and regroup behind them were faced by the Carthaginian phalanx of heavy infantry, which was completely fresh and in unbroken order, and were cut to pieces. From this point the Romans came under terrible pressure from all sides. The greater number were trampled to death by the enormous weight of the elephants, while the rest were shot down in their ranks as they stood by the overwhelming numbers of the Carthaginian cavalry. Only a small body tried to save themselves by flight, and for these the only line of retreat lay across level ground. Some were dispatched by the elephants and the cavalry, while a body of about 500 who retreated with Regulus were soon afterwards captured, their commander with them."

***
Not long after that, the Romans developed numerous strategies to defeat the elephants, javelins and arrows in particular, so they were not as serious of a shock weapon.

[Aulus Perrinius]

hock: Boy, I would hate to have been at that battle.

-Thanks

BTW would you happen to know what tactics elephant commanders employed to counter the enemy's anti-elephant tactics? And would you know of any useful links?

[Justin of the New Yorkii]

The battle M Demetrius mentioned between Regulus and Xanthippus was fought in North Africa, not Sicily, if memory serves correctly.

Hannibal used them effectively against Spanish tribes according to Polybius, and they may have taken part in his victory at Trebia.

They were used en masse by the Ptolemies and Seleucids at the Battle of Raphia; I don't know of any other battle that saw more elephants take the field. The Ptolemies won, but the Seleucid elephants fared better than their opponents, again according to Polybius.

The Romans used war elephants at the battles of Pydna and Cynoscephelae and won both battles. They were used in a relatively minor role at Pydna, but at Cynoscephelae they smashed right through a loose group of phalangites who didn't have enough time to form a phalanx.
I'm pretty sure Polybius is the best source for those battles too.

The Sasanid Persians used elephants, but I'm not sure how well they fared with them.
But I know that the Eastern Roman Empire had a habit of adopting its enemies' most effective tactics and units (i.e., mounted archers and cataphracts), and they never tried copying the Sasanids' use of elephants.
That may have been simply due to the costs of procuring and maintaining a stable of them in Constantinople (domestically raised elephants are docile and gentle, so adult elephants had to be captured in the wild for use in warfare). Or it might have been due to the fact that elephants weren't reliable and predictable enough to be worth the trouble.