The Perfect Medieval Siege Tactic

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Attacking a castle was a difficult task for any army; but attacking forces came up with a multitude of ways to bring down castle defences and attack those within.
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Credit:
Simple History Creator: Daniel Turner (B.A. (Hons) in History, University College London)
Video Directors: Anthony Barrett, Denis Blinov
Script: Tash Martell
Script Review: Denis Blinov
Narrator: Chris Kane (vocalforge.com)
Artists: ShyShelly, Arya Ahumada Lydisma
Animators: Kuldip Bheda, Krunal, Mani Kumar, Bharghavi
Editor: Alec Urbany, James Dowse
Brand Partnerships: Barbara Abraul
Senior Production Manager: Umar Ijaz
Simple History Channel Manager: James Dowse

[@Simplehistory]

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[@王素真-t7l]

Hello simple history I love your channel because it teaches me about history and make me inspired to be a soldier went I grow up but can u make a video like Christmas truce and the türkiye soldier saves a Australian wounded soldier and I would love to watch those on your youtube videos have a good day!!!

[@王素真-t7l]

I can't watch all your vids daily so I'm kinda sorry.

[@김종환-c5k]

'SPY IS SAPPING MY CASTLE!'

[@Seebee2007]

*spy checks with sword*

[@김종환-c5k]

​@@Seebee2007EYELANDER WAS REAL!? 😲

[@Seebee2007]

@@김종환-c5k FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!

[@theskullboy8700]

**blasts degroot keep theme”

[@ViceN53X]

In all seriousness, I want a medieval construct kit for Engie

[@cannonball666]

Guye Fawkes: "Bring the torch closer to see if there is gunpowder in this barrel"

[@corymorimacori1059]

“Kings, queens, dragons, dwarves, horses, fortresses, magic and swords!” JRR Tolkien

[@brianmoyachiuz905]

Eeeey, a fellow ERB fan

[@SoundwaveDevastation]

fellow ERB fan lets goo

[@soggywafl]

This is the first video game sponsor that I think I am actually going to try! And thanks for the great video, as usual!

[@MonkeyJedi99]

I was tickled that the ad read was introduced by an animated host in medieval armor... with a frag grenade and slide-action pistol.

[@youngmasterzhi]

Sappers: Nothing is beneath them, but they’re always beneath you!

[@MonkeyJedi99]

Battle cry of the Underminer!

[@Switcharoo12]

Except counter-sappers that tunneled under the tunnelers.

[@EGRJ]

@@Switcharoo12 "You may have undermined me, but I undermined your undermining!"

[@psychodoxie6987]

​@@EGRJI have undermined your undrrmining of our undermining

[@is_it_zeek]

Behold, the underminer!

[@Marinealver]

What can the defender do against mining? Countermining! Dig a tunnel but dig it deeper and then seal it off. When the miners tunnel over the unstable ground it will cause a cave in.

[@pierluigiadreani2159]

The war in the alps during ww1 was maybe one of the pinnacle of this. Austrians and Italians digging tunnel in the hard mountains and placing giant mines to Blow up part of the mountains where the enemy was stationing. Nightmare fuel

[@Goc4ever]

My most sincere congratulations Simple History, well done. I never heard of such a tactic in the Middle Ages before but now i do, thank you. Fun fact: today the word today sapping is used to refer to combat engineers which is very similar to the sapping of the middle ages.

[@theprancingprussian]

A sap is also a term for zigzag trenches used to approach a frontline, often used to approach early modern forts which were damn near impossible to use escalades on and were resistant to artillery at its effective range, they brought guns way closer than point blank, similar to using a battering ram or trebuchet on a stone wall, minimal damage but over time can make it crumble

[@shawnfoogle920]

More Medieval videos. Love em

[@DeeperSoul]

Nothing beaten the most sneaky one that "Sailing the ships from land" yet in history.

[@dubenforcer]

Surprised he didn’t mention the Battle of the Crater from the American Civil War

[@ChantalsShoulderFly]

Siege of Petersburg

[@MrPhantomPC]

That game you got as a sponsor looks sick. Their advertising department knew what audience to hit.

[@midhunmanu007]

Thank you Simple History for making such great videos .

[@TheDesertFox1996]

Interesting concept I had forgotten and didn't realize the extent of its use. would be fascinating to see it used in modern conflicts.

[@Princess_Celestia_]

Not very likely to happen, it much more effective and less intinsive and time consuming to just use a bunker buster to take out a fortification, and we got missiles that can render trenches into craters at the drop of a hat, so there's really no considerable use for sapping with tunnels these days.

[@princessmarlena1359]

“Have fun storming the castle!”

[@Harikejn]

At the battle of Epra (9:30), there is rumor that Erwin Rommel was there. During that time he was a captain. Also digging tunnels was also done during the WWII, when the POW's were escaping from the prisons from the occupiers. There is a rumor that movie Great Escape was dedicated to one truth story when only three POW's managed to escape. Similar escape was also during the WWII, but in Yugoslavia. The couple of the Yugoslav immigrants were arrested by the occupiers and they were held in city Sremska Mitrovica (now Serbia). And they also did decide to dig tunnel, and they managed to dig tunnel, and they escaped. When they escaped, they went to Fruška Gora, (a mountain near city of Novi Sad), and after that they joined the resistance. Believe it or not during the Roman Empire Sremska Mitrovica was called Sirmium.

[@thewafflegamer6152]

fun fact: the biggest usage of this tactic led to the biggest explosion in history prior to the first nuclear bombs.

[@karhonglooi7485]

The battle of Messines, orchestrated by British general Herbert Plumer with 1mil pounds of TNT

[@TheBeingX]

Great Video. I even saw the Tactic being used in the Anime Youjo Senki. To great effect

[@davidburke8682]

There has been use of tunneling in the war in ukraine sometimes making their own or finding old post and pre ww2 soviet tunnel systems

[@MalevolentBite]

So this is why Army Sappers symbol is a red castle / tower

[@buc6780]

This channel’s videos make me realize how entertaining and cool history is and how the school system needs to be changed because it makes most of the students hate it …

[@not_theone8196]

10:33 the romans us this tactic

[@mickeyadaptus2215]

Would've been cool to bring up the 80 years war as an example, that had alot of siege battles where sapping was required.

[@afisto6647]

The siege of Rennes during the Hundread Years War tell us one of the famous case of it. I let you ckeck out.

[@Rlemans5920]

2024 will be the Medieval Year!

[@Fidd88-mc4sz]

A "petard" was a high-angle extremely short-barrelled primitive muzzle-loaded howitzer, which fired a large explosive cannon-ball into castles or towns as a siege weapon. The expression "hoist by his own petard", meaning to be undone by one's own device, plan or scheme, used in one of Shakespeare play's, and coined by him, literally describes someone flung into the air by his own weapon (the petard). Another form of petard, the "Petard mortar", which fired a huge 80lb bomb, fitted in Churchill AVRE tanks some 90m, was used to destroy houses and concrete bunkers during WW2! It filled the same role as the Sturmtiger, but was a more practical weapon, as it could carry many more rounds, although had less much less range.

[@Guranga93]

Made me think of a video called ''Massive tunnel bomb hits Syrian army base''

[@barbiquearea]

Besides moats and castles built around large bodies of water. I imagine trying to sap a castle that is built on very high ground (such as at the top of a mountain) must have been especially challenging. I don't know of any accounts where a mountain fortress fell to sapping.

[@not_theone8196]

Let’s get it a simple history vidwo

[@velcro8299]

I now understand the word to undermine someone.

[@connorthompson8376]

There was actually an example of sapping used in the American Civil War. It was called the battle of the crater. The union forces managed to blow up the confederate fortifications, but then sent their forces into the crater instead of around it. Nobody thought to provide ladders. I think there was one confederate officer, who called it “a turkey shoot.”

[@Princess_Celestia_]

They couldn't go around the crater because of all the Confederate trenches on either side. These trenches are why they made that crater to start with. The plan was to undermine and explode a section of enemy trenches creating a gap they could exploit. Problem was they didn't realize just how deep of a crater they where going to make. And they didn't have time to make ladders because then the gap whould get shorn up and any advantage it had given them would have been squandered.

[@connorthompson8376]

@@Princess_Celestia_ I think that sounds reasonable. Ultimately, there were multiple factors that led to the failure. Also, I don’t know how accurate it was, but I came across a novelization of the battle, where an all black unit was originally trained for the operation, new to go around it, and then was swapped out, because the higher-ups didn’t want blacks to be the heroes. Like I said, I have no idea whether that novel was even the least bit accurate. It also made the claim that the sharp edge of the crater had something to do with the type of explosives being used. Again, I can’t vouch for accuracy.

[@CARL_093]

this is a huge gamble and game of time if it succeed a sure win taking over the fort or castles is sure win or up for grasp

[@Yeeoldman63]

I got a new cross section video idea. Since you did the Sturm Tiger, you need to finish the family with The König Tiger and the Porsche tiger.

[@not_theone8196]

2:28 ooohhhh😮

[@ItssMrN]

Very nice 👍

[@TerryTurner]

Clever!😁👍

[@stevenrusch6341]

In WoW: BFA, the Alliance should have considered sapping at the Ruins of Capital City.

[@natetendencia]

I watched the movie Ironclad. There was a scene of the enemy army underming the castle.

[@theprancingprussian]

Looking for a good depiction of this to increase knowledge and this looks perfect Edit: how would the miners know when they were under a target, were they looking for the foundations or measure the distance, in ww1 there was nothing much too look out for

[@iwacuinstituteoffamilycounsell]

Could you do a video on black hawk down?

[@chriskeller3705]

BEHOOOLD THE UNDERMINERRRRR

[@toxic_nation3004]

During the wars in iraq during in early 2000s militias used to tunnel and plant ieds under held compounds

[@Hasan_bruh]

I think i heard two instances of sapping in the Russia-Ukraine was( they used pre built tunnels tho)

[@thepunisher8676]

Can you do a video about Patton's Panthers

[@louisgantt4606]

Didn't mentioned the battle of the crater. Undermining during the US Civil War.

[@dukeofmania6504]

Is this where “You’re undermining me” came from or is that a coincidence?

[@bearcub460]

You didn't mention the Battle of the Crater 1864.

[@natheriver8910]

Very interesting

[@Dan-pt2tn]

So this is where today's sappers originated. Essayons. Where the 12bravos at?

[@Nyx571]

Its shovel time

[@Covey7342]

Disappointed there was no mention of the Battle of the Crater during the American Civil War

[@EGRJ]

Ashes, ashes, they all fall down.

[@devavratthaker3236]

Did you know about the civil war dogs ?

[@grahamquinn]

Stone thrower, trebuchet?

[@MonkeyJedi99]

Stone throwers include trebuchets, catapults, and other machinery.

[@grahamquinn]

@MonkeyJedi99 I meant specifically that contraption but thanks for not educating me lol

[@eyeroll5060]

Essayons et Faisons

[@luisemoralesfalcon4716]

Wouldn't the soldiers beneath use less armor so they have less heatstroke? This just begs to be used on a D&D campaign.

[@codyadams3870]

Is this still being used

[@dillonbuford]

I don't believe the term " curtain wall" is being used correctly

[@ethanaleman]

Castles are cool

[@ProfessorDreamer]

Simple History can you do a Simple History video on the Rise Of Religious Extremism.

[@Dan-pt2tn]

And then the rise of secularism after that.

[@coolsnake1134]

Tunnel warfare and tunneling in general has been used in many wars since the second world war, it was used extensively by the Viet Cong, it was used in Iraq and Afghanistan during the war on terror, and even in 2024 it's seeing a return in the Russo Ukrainian war as well as the Israel hamas war as Hamas is using tunnels and IDF has to find and destroy them

[@coolsnake1134]

Tunnels are also used by the Mexican cartels to sneak under the US / Mexico border in order to smuggle narcotics money and weapons between US and Mexico

[@Ezioww1]

Please vidéo for afo armé français d'orian ww1

[@RandomYT05_01]

They tried tunneling in WW1. Didn't work.

[@Newdivide]

The Ottomans used this tactic during the siege of Vienna

[@H1GHSKY17]

Under 1h gang

[@DD-vn2ev]

Polish American volunteers in France, The Blue Army. Please

[@ftra1987]

Syrian free army tunnels under army base and destroyed the base.

[@marcossoarestv3557]

BRAZIL MAN WAR, HA HA HA,

[@VentiVonOsterreich]

Use of CE is confusing please stick to the conventional AD thanks

[@micahistory]

1st like and comment!

[@SOUL-KING-93]

I sharted ;0

[@Blastoice]

The animations on this video are dire, it looks like its been done in ms paint. Whats happened to the quality?

[@Joaquin-cu2dg]

First

[@Thomas-yw7zg]

CE was created in the 500 something A.D by a scientist. It was flawed so the Gregorian Priest created a new system, Before Christ, Adoniils Diniri. They are not the same, go back to saying A.D, we notice.