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MAJ Ken Landgren
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Edited 4 y ago
The tactics of Hannibal at that battle was virtually replicated in his greatest victory at the Battle of Cannae. Hannibal had 50,000 soldiers and the Romans had 86,000 soldiers. The size of Hannibal's cavalry was almost twice the size of the Roman cavalry. Here are crucial tasks that were accomplished:

- Hannibal created a plan that anticipated how the Roman would fight. The Romans fought in large formations moving forward with the cavalry protecting the flanks.
- He had a relatively thin line of heavy infantry that had to bow backwards to give the Romans the impression they were winning, and make the Roman army commit to marching into to the bowing Carthaginian infantry line.
- His cavalry ran off the Roman cavalry which exposed the Roman flanks.
- Hannibal hid a large portion of his infantry behind the heavy infantry and they eventually sealed off the flanks.
- Hannibal's cavalry sealed off the rear. The Roman army was completely surrounded and chaos ensued as the Roman army tactic was conducting frontal attacks, not defending the flanks and the rear simultaneously.
- The last task was to slaughter the Roman army. Historians say about 14,000 Roman soldiers escaped the battle. I read Hannibal's soldiers often cut the hamstrings of Roman soldiers so they could not run off, and many Roman soldiers committed suicide due to the ferocity of the aftermath of the battle.

Great military commanders had the ability to predict enemy actions, force the enemy to react in a predictable manner. Alexander the Great and Patton had these skills. One example is Patton took over a beleaguered US Army in S Africa. He had to whip the army into shape. A week later after the assumption of command he was able to defeat a very large German tank force with just infantry, artillery, and tank killers.

I love Patton so I will ramble on about him. He conducted an amphibious operation in Sicily. He conducted two more amphibious operations to outflank the German army. The Germans had only one mission and that was to rush to the port escape from Sicily with Patton hot on their tails. Patton and his army landed in France I believe 2 weeks after D-Day. He used fighter planes to protect his flanks and front. The fighter planes often decisively engaged German units giving Patton the flexibility to maneuver and attack on his terms. They also provided exquisite intelligence to Patton. Patton was definitely a winner.
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PVT Mark Zehner
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Awesome!
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CW5 Jack Cardwell
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Thanks for sharing.
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