History is filled with military blunders, some tragic, some hilarious and some amazing .

Today I have a list of some of the worst military blunders and achievements in history.

The Battle of Long Tan

The battle of long tan took place in the early years of the Vietnam war, a small detachment of Australian soldiers from the 1st task force set up a base near a stronghold and major supply route for the communists, after success in the area, the Vietnamese sent a force of 1,500-2,500 soldiers to retake the area.

The battle of long tan was situated at a rubber plantation in nui dat, on the night of the 16th of august the 1st Australian task force came under attack by artillery and in the morning following an estimated force of 2,000 north Vietnamese attacked.

Cut off due to monsoon rain and poor visibility the 1st Australia task force dug in and fought against a vastly overwhelming army, 108 men held the rubber plantation for 2 days before relief came in the way of artillery fire.

By the end of August 18th, the official death toll stands at, 24 wounded, 1 killed(Australian) and conservative estimates put 245 killed, 350 wounded and 3 captured(North Vietnamese) making it an astounding overwhelming victory for the 1st Australian task force.

Brazil sinks their own ship

The Brazilian cruiser Bahia seemed to be doomed from it's inception, 6 months after she was first constructed(1910) she was used to hold Rio de Janeiro hostage, under the threat of bombardment to remove the naval practice of flogging, eventually this would be successful.

In world war 2 she was used as a convoy escort for ships patrolling dangerous waters, however on the 4th of July, 1945 a kite flying from her was used for anti aircraft practice by Bahia's own gunners, one gunner accidentally aimed to low and hit depth charges stored inside the ship resulting in a catastrophic explosion killing almost everyone on board and sinking her within minutes.

The Confederates accidentally kill their best general

Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson was arguably the best general in the confederate in the American civil war, was returning at night after a skirmish that was halted due to darkness, while returning to camp stonewalls own soldiers accidentally shot him 3 times after failing to wait for his patrols reply to who they were, and after identifying themselves one soldier was heard saying "It's a yankee trick" and fired again.

Stonewall would not receive medical attention til the next morning, being dropped off his stretcher to escape artillery fire, when he was treated his arm was amputated and due to sub standard medical practices then, pneumonia would eventually set in he would die after a short battle with it.

The Battle of Karánsebes

The Battle of Karánsebes is possibly one of the biggest friendly fire incidents in history, on the night of the 21st of september, 1788 the Austrian army were camped around the town of Karánsebes and began fortifying it against the ottoman empire, however a small vanguard of hussars were sent forward to scout for ottoman's, while they found no one they did meet a small group of Tzigani(Romani) who offered to sell them alcohol which they bought.

Shortly after another infantry regiment happened upon their camp and saw the party the hussars were having and demanded to have some alcohol, this started a heated argument and eventually led to the hussars setting up fortifications around their alcohol to protect it, but as the night progressed the infantry became more violent and eventually one soldier shot another and a skirmish broke out.

Unbeknownst to the army that this was an argument among their own army and in the ensuing melee someone began to yell "Turks!" both parties fled and it is reported an officer speaking German commanded them to halt, but the non german speakers heard it as "Allah" and though they were under attack by ottoman troops.

As the forward base continued to flee back towards their main camp, and officer thought it was a cavalry charge by the ottomans and order the garrison to attack with everything.

By the end of the night over 10,000 troops were killed by friendly fire forcing the entire army to retreat, two days later the ottoman army did indeed assault Karánsebes but only found the thousands of corpses and no defenses and took Karánsebes with no fight at all.

It still remains one of the worst military mistakes and friendly fire incidents in history.

The Great Emu War

This one hurts me personally as an Australian.

After a particularly hot summer in Western Australia, the emu population had exploded and they were rampaging across the country side in search of food and water, destroying farms and crops, so the government ordered 2 Australian soldiers to thin the growing emu population.

After extensive efforts of tracking and finding colonies of birds they begin to employ ambush tactics on the birds however sometimes only killing a dozen at a time owing to birds incredible movement speed often times after the first shot was fired the birds would scatter in different directions and the soldiers would have to spend another day setting up ambush points in hopes of culling more.

However after a week of this and abysmal success one man was injured and the Australian government called the war off and eventually the emu's were left alone.

It stands as a ridiculous defeat of the Australian military by the local wildlife, and one day they may come back for revenge.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article, if you enjoyed it please consider up voting and resteeming or following me!