This Day on the Battlefield: Trenton

OK, so it actually took place on December 25th-26th, but I had other stuff to do. This battle is immensely famous, and rightly so, because it was of monumental strategic importance to American history. While no great tactical success (although the tactics leading up to the battle itself are pretty remarkable), the monumental moral value of this victory must not ever be underestimated, for it may have single-handedly saved the revolutionary fire from sputtering out on the North American continent.

Background:

By the last days of 1776, "the game was pretty near up." According to none other than George Washington himself. While the year had started out highly for the rebels with the taking of Boston in March, the pendulum swung back mercilessly for the redcoats as the year went on- with Washington being repeatedly defeated by General William Howe and forced from New York City. His army had gone from over 10,000 in July to little over 2,000 in December, and would be disintegrating almost entirely in but a scant few days when the one-year enlistments of most of its remaining soldiers expired. Under these conditions, it seemed relatively impossible to raise another army and continue the struggle.

Washington knew that he needed a victory. And in fact, he wrote the phrase "victory or death" on a paper in his office. Of course this presented manifest problems. How would he win a victory with such a dilapidated army, and in such terrible weather conditions as those present at the end of December, 1776?

The Plan:

Washington, camped across the Delaware River, planned to attack a detachment of some 1,500 Hessians encamped in winter quarters at Trenton, New Jersey.

Washington did have somewhat of an advantage with this plan. No one would be expecting an attack in such cold weather. The traditional campaigning season had long since ended. The standard of the time was to camp for the winter in a specific quarters and then march out again during the spring.

Additionally, there was a great feeling of resentment amongst the American colonists at the mere presence of the Hessians on American soil. They viewed this as a conflict between kindred spirits, and the Hessians as a foreign, mercenary interference in that conflict. An attack on the Hessians would thus be an easy motivational tool.

The problem was, of course, that it would be a logistical nightmare for Washington to get his troops across that river. It would be a nighttime crossing of a body of water (always a very difficult maneuver even under the best of circumstances), and what's more, the Delaware River had large chunks of ice in it. And then, after the crossing, Washington would need to march several miles in the snow, and many of his soldiers did not have boots, let alone proper winter clothing.

The March:

Washington did have an ace up his sleeve though- John Glover, the officer who had saved his army in New York in the summer. Glover had been a fisherman before the war, and so had ample experience in seamanship.

Glover ferried Washington's army across the Delaware River, ice and all, with no casualties and in good condition, though it did take longer than Washington would have liked. The march was difficult. Bloody footprints were indeed, left behind in the snow.

The Battle:

Washington wanted to attack the detachment at Trenton before the sun rose, but that was an impossibility at this point. The Continental Army however, did arrive in good order by the early morning, and achieved complete surprise.

Washington occupied the high ground from the north, while John Stark marched into the city from the west. The fog of war was present in earnest when the Hessian commander, Colonel Rall, was told that he was surrounded. Because of this, he attempted to organize a counterattack.

Washington however, was in a very strong position, and easily countered these movements. Colonel Rall himself was mortally wounded in the assault, and the detachment was forced to surrender. It was over in minutes.

After taking the lion's share of the detachment as prisoners, Washington's troops returned to their own quarters.

Aftermath:

The moral value of the victory was immense. It showed that American soldiers could indeed defeat their enemies, and that the revolution was not a hopelessly lost cause. The victory allowed Washington to prevent his army from disintegrating at the end of the year and as the winter broke, more soldiers signed up to the ranks.

Washington had bought his army and his cause time and the good publicity that it desperately needed. The victory was probably singularly responsible for preventing the Continental Army and by extension, the revolution itself, from collapsing. His daring attack against all expectations is indeed a foremost example of the old adage 'fortune favors the bold.'

Washington would go on to win another valuable victory and maintain his momentum in less than two weeks: The Battle of Princeton.

For some famous trivia, the future President James Monroe was present at this battle and was wounded in it.

Refrences:

Mount Vernon's Digital Encyclopedia on the Battle of Trenton.

Battle of Trenton 1776 American Revolution George Washington

This Day on the Battlefield: Trebia

We do not know the exact date of it, but this battle took place around this time in 218 B.C. This was the first major battle of the Second Punic War, where the Carthaginian Commander-in-Chief Hannibal opposed the host of the Roman Consul Tiberius Sempronius Longus near the Trebia River in northern Italy.

Background:

After his famous crossing of the Alps in the autumn, Hanibal, after much labor, arrived in Italy with the core of his army intact. At a small engagement near the Ticinus River, Hannibal defeated the forces of the other Roman Consul, Scipio the Elder. This was mostly a glorified skirmish and the major parts of the two armies took no part in the battle. After his victory, Hannibal moved on, strengthening the forces that had been depleted by his crossing of the Alps and turning the Cisalpine Gauls of the region (who had a long-lasting hatred of the Romans) over to his side.

The Campaign:

After the Gauls turned on the Romans (which Polybius and Livy agree as occurring by a night slaughter, though Livy doesn't make it sound as big a deal - 21.48), Scipio moved his forces toward the Trebia river and met up with his co-Consul Tiberius (who was stationed in Sicily beforehand during the Ticinus affair) at the city of Ariminium. After this, a small skirmish broke out in which the Romans were victorious. This victory spurred Tiberius to accept a general engagement, and it would cost him. Scipio had in fact advised Tiberius not to attack, saying that the Gauls would desert Hannibal during the winter, leaving him weakened in the Spring. Tiberius however, ignored his colleague's advice, showing the weakness that was so often-present in Roman commanders: the insatiable desire for glory and a triumph in Rome. The glory on the field would instead be Hannibal's.

The Disposition of the Forces:

The Roman and allied forces, according to Livy, comprised about 28,000 men all told. The primary emphasis of this force would be on the legionary, working behind his Scutum shield and thrusting forward with his Gladius after an initial round of engaging at a distance with the throw of his two Pilum. A minority of the force was cavalry, which the Romans themselves never truly emphasized throughout most of their military career.

The Carthaginian forces on the other hand, were a quite varied lot, comprising many different peoples and fighting styles. I recall one writer (who I am won't to remember, unfortunately) describing his army as a "gathering of all the nations and races of the world." There were African spearmen, swordsmen from Iberia with short swords, and the unruly Celts with their longswords. Hannibal's cavalry force, the Numidians, was excellent, and had earlier allowed him to prevail at the Ticinus. A number of other cavalry served in his ranks as well which was generally superior to Rome's. The "Carthaginians" probably numbered slightly less than the Romans.

Map of the Battle

The Battle:

1st Phase:

The battle began with the Roman cavalry charging after the Numidians, who continuously eluded them. During the meantime the Romans moved forward in proper legionary formation, and the Carthaginian missile troops covered the heavier infantry as they moved up to engage.

2nd Phase:

Now the Carthaginian cavalry made an attack on the Roman cavalry, and defeated them on both flanks. The elephants, which the Romans had certainly never trained or prepared for and had no experience with up until now, also charged the center of the Roman line. Yet despite this, the Romans, according to Livy (21.55), did hold firm for a time, and even had success in turning the elephants back against their own men. (21.56)

The frontal infantry assault, too, did seem to go well for the Romans. As expected, they were pushing back the African and Gallic infantry.

3rd Phase:

The frontal assault was just that, however...a front. Not noticing that their cavalry had been defeated on both flanks, the Roman flanks came under withering missile fire and a cavalry assault. It was here that the lynchpin of Hannibal's trap fell down on the Romans.

Hannibal earlier had sent out a force of 2,000 men under his brother Mago consisting of 1,000 infantry and the same amount of cavalry. This ambushing force now came out of hiding and attacked the Roman rear, causing much chaos. The Roman formations began to fall apart, and the victorious infantry in the center, seeing that they could do nothing to help their comrades, fell back to Placentia.

Aftermath:

This defeat was not catastrophic, but it announced with full force that the Romans had a dangerous enemy in their midst in Italy. New elections were held in Rome (Livy,  21.57), and the weary city elected Gnaeus Servilius Geminus and Gaius Flaminius Nepos as Consuls.

These two men would go on to witness the genius of Hannibal at even greater heights in the coming year of 217 B.C.

For Rome, dark days were ahead.

Sources:

Polybius, Histories, Book 3. Tufts University, Perseus Digital Library. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0234%3Abook%3D3%3Achapter%3D67

Livy, The History of Rome: Book 21. (J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., London, 1905) Trans: Rev. Canon Roberts. Edited by Ernest Rhys. http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah../Livy/Livy21.html Battle of Trebiea 218 B.C. Rome Carthage Hannibal 2nd Punic War

This Day on the Battlefield: Austerlitz

Well, it was actually on December 2nd and this entry is a day late, but whatever. This battle was an immensely important part of modern history. Ironically, the outcome of the action wasn't of much long-term importance to France, but rather its greatest rival for the coming century-and-a-half, the rising nation of Germany. It can truly be said that France's greatest general- Napoleon Bonaparte, was the grandfather of its coming principal antagonist. History is not without a strong sense of irony.

Background:

In 1805, Napoleon, Emperor of the French, was facing the Third Coalition- an alliance led by Great Britain, Austria, and Russia. After the disastrous defeat at Trafalgar earlier in the year, Napoleon knew that an invasion of Britain was now impossible, and he made the correct decision to deal with his Continental enemies- the Austrians and Russians.

The Coronation of Napoleon

The Campaign:

In addition to his mastery of battlefield tactics, Napoleon was also a masterful military organizer who revolutionized the way units were put together, moved, and supplied themselves. He was the innovator of the corps system. Each corps would be under the command of one of his senior officers, and each would be responsible for its own line of march and supply. This allowed his armies to march longer, farther, and more efficiently than their opponents. There are many who say that winning a battle is not a matter of tactics, but of organizing for it, and Napoleon was preeminent in this art during his storied career. The Austerlitz Campaign is perhaps the best example.

Napoleon crossed the Rhine on September 25th. This was already very late in the season to begin a campaign, and Napoleon's intention was to crush his enemies before they could concentrate their forces.

His opponent in the initial stages was the Austrian general Karl Mack, who marched his forces into Bavaria without waiting for the Russians to arrive and reinforce him. This is precisely what Napoleon wanted. The Austrian concentrated his forces around the town of Ulm, which Napoleon made his primary objective.

This is where the brilliance of the corps system showed itself. Napoleon directed each one toward Ulm, closing the noose around Mack's neck. Mack was compelled to surrender, taking a sizable force out of commission that could now no longer be utilized against the French when the decisive moment arrived.

Napoleon takes the surrender of Mack

It was at this point that Napoleon needed to consider the possibility of Prussian intervention. He skilfully conducted a non-aggression pact over the tomb of Frederick the Great to nullify this possibility. The adept diplomacy did not stop there. The Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II, offered an armistice to Napoleon. The French Emperor had nothing to gain from a cessation of hostilities at this point, and so offered terms that were deliberately punitive: Austria to abandon Tyrol and Venice and the retreat of the Russians to Poland. These terms were, as Napoleon planned, rejected.

Though he only had 35,000 men, the Russian commander, Mikhail Kutuzov, crossed the Danube and drove back a French detachment. Napoleon responded to the defeat in stride and seized Vienna, which had been abandoned.

Napoleon still intended to destroy Kutuzov's force before it could link up with any others, but one of his underlings, Marshal Joachim Murat, negotiated an armistice wherein the Russians would leave Germany. A furious Napoleon ordered his subordinate to attack, but this was indecisive, and the Russo-Austrian forces gathered strength. The two forces would meet near Austerlitz.

The Battle:

Napoleon's position was strong, but that of his Russian and Austrian enemies was not. Their columns were isolated.

Phase I:

A Coalition attack toward the French right was repulsed. The offensive was centered toward the French stationed in the village of Telnitz, and with reinforcements by Marshal Davout, the situation was stabilized.

Phase II:

Napoleon had in fact deliberately kept his right weak, so that he could attack in strength toward his primary objective. When he saw that his enemy's center was weakened, the French Emperor ordered an attack toward the area known as Pratzen Heights, which was the lynchpin of the Russo-Austrian line.

A cavalry charge into the Russo-Austrian line nearly killed the Russian Grand Duke Constantine and destroyed the cavalry brigade of General Liechtenstein of the Austrians.

French Cuirassiers

Phase III:

Now the finishing touches were administered by Napoleon. The IV Corps under Marshal Soult marched toward the French right and made a flank and rear attack on the enemy. Now that they were pressed everywhere, the Russo-Austrians were forced to retreat in confusion.

Aftermath:

Peace was arranged with the Treaty of Pressburg, ending the War of the Third Coalition. France was now the preeminent power in Germany, eclipsing the Austrians. Francis II would in the next year renounce the ancient title of Holy Roman Empire, at last dissolving the anachronistic entity that had lasted for a millennium. Napoleon would consolidate the former Imperial territories and principalities into the much more compact Confederation of the Rhine to serve as a buffer between France and its principal Continental enemies- Prussia, Austria, and Russia.

The Holy Roman Empire in 1789

Its replacement, the Confederation of the Rhine, at maximum in 1812 (by ziegelbrenner)

Assessment:

The political consequences of this battle- the dissolution and replacement of the old Holy Roman Empire, were monumental. Though Napoleon would go down to defeat in the end, the victors of the Napoleonic Wars opted to keep his idea of a German league (the German Confederation) and did not attempt to restore the Holy Roman Empire. The several hundred polities that composed the old entity were thus reduced to around forty, with Austria and Prussia the preeminent figures in the organization.

The first major step toward German unification had thus at last taken place. Prussia and Austria (and later on, France) would go on to decide the fate of the new Germany in the latter half of the century.

The German Confederation after the Napoleonic Wars

Sources:

Edward Cust, Annals of the Wars of the Nineteenth Century, (London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1863)

Reginald George Burton, From Boulogne to Austerlitz, Napoleon’s Campaign of 1805, (London: George Allen & Company, LTD, 1912)

Walter Scott, The Life of Napoleon, (Philadelphia: E.L. Carey and A. Hart, 1839) Battle of Austerlitz 1805 Napoleon Bonaparte

This Day on the Battlefield: Ticinus

OK so well, it might not really be "this day" because no known exact date is given for this battle. All we know is that it took place in November of 218 B.C. This was the first open engagement of the 2nd Punic War, which would rage across the Mediterranean for the next twenty years. Opposed to each other were the forces of the Roman Consul Scipio the Elder (the father of the soon-to-be Scipio Africanus) and the famous Hannibal Barca, who was about to give the Romans their first lesson in the combined arms tactics that he so excelled at.

The Campaign:

Hannibal's famous crossing of the Alps took place earlier in the month. Bringing his army across the treacherous mountains, in November, complete with horses and elephants, is rightly considered one of the greatest logistical triumphs in military history, and has been celebrated ever since. Hannibal did lose a large portion of his army in the process of crossing the imposing mountains, but he did succeed in getting the bulk of his fighting force into Italy, right in Rome's backyard.

Low on supplies from the crossing, Hannibal was forced to survive on the means he could, and needed to contend with the Gallic tribes in the north of Italy. After leveling a settlement of the Taurini, he was able to secure the allegiance of the other Gauls in the area.

This caught the attention of the Romans and Scipio set out to engage him, taking a reconnaissance party.

Disposition of the Forces:

This was not a full-out engagement between two entire armies, but is more in line with a relatively light skirmish. Hannibal's force consisted entirely of cavalry, while Scipio's consisted of cavalry and light skirmishing infantry known as Velites.

Velites were usually around 16-20 years of age and were not full members of the Roman legion that engaged in combat with sword and shield, but threw javelins at the enemy and then retreated behind the main line of heavy infantry.

Part of Hannibal's cavalry force consisted partially of the famous Numidian cavalry- swift, skilled riders on light horses. This cavalry force was vastly superior to the Romans' own cavalry, and would prove crucial time and again in Hannibal's major battlefield victories. These were formed on the flanks of his army while his other cavalry formed the center.

A sketch of the Numidian Cavalry

The Battle:

The outcome was pretty simple. Hannibal ordered a charge along his cavalry line, neutralizing the Velites. A general cavalry engagement then followed, during which the Roman cavalry got outflanked by the fast-riding Numidians.

The Romans retreated, and the only real notable action their side performed that day was the Consul's son- the future Scipio Africanus, saving his father's life during the battle.

Aftermath:

Since the battle was little more than a scouting engagement, it did not have a major impact on the war- but it did signify that Hannibal had arrived, and showcased the effectiveness of his cavalry. This is something the Romans would underestimate to their own peril.

See Also:

Livy's account of the battle.
Polybius' account of the battle. Battle of Ticinus 218 B.C. 2nd Punic War Hannibal

This Day on the Battlefield: Lutzen

November is a time that is late in the traditional campaigning season, and not many battles are fought in the mid-point of autumn, as armies moved toward their winter quarters, preparing for the next campaign in the Spring. Nevertheless, it was on this date (ten days later in the modern Gregorian Calendar, but still traditionally marked on the date of the old Julian Calendar) in 1632 that one of the most important battles of the devastating Thirty Years' War occurred- Lutzen. It was here that the Protestant forces, though victorious, suffered a horrible loss- the leader which had singularly rescued their cause from certain destruction.

Background:

Begun in 1618, the Thirty Years' War was actually a series of smaller wars from the period 1618-48 which were fought primarily on German soil. Religious as well as political reasons existed for the conflict, which was the last and most destructive of the religious wars set off by the Reformation.

Things at first did not appear to be going well for the Protestant princes in Germany. Defeat at the Battle of White Mountain (1620) removed Frederick V from the Bohemian throne and caused confusion. Christian IV of Denmark intervened and was in turn defeated. The Treaty of Lubeck was a humiliation, forcing the Danish King to surrender territory and abandon any support for Protestant powers in the Holy Roman Empire.

Led by talented generals in Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, and Albrecht von Wallenstein, it seemed that nothing would stop the Catholic Imperial forces from overrunning all of Germany and bringing the heretical Protestant sect to heel at last.

It was at this point that a "lion from the North" emerged, succeeding where Christian IV failed. Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, landed in northern Germany. He would go on to defeat Tilly at the decisive Battle of Breitenfeld in September 1631, paving the way for a new era in battlefield tactics and shattering his formidable Catholic army. Gustavus defeated Tilly again at the Battle of Rain, this time costing the latter his life (as an aside, there is a touching story of this battle that I've written about here on one of my other blogs).

In a year, the tide of the war had changed completely. Gustavus was now in control of most of Germany. Left with no other options, the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II, was compelled to recall Wallenstein, who he never fully trusted.

The Campaign:

Wallenstein had success in the 1632 campaign, defeating the Saxons and even inflicting a loss on Gustavus himself at the Battle of Alte Veste. Saxony was now under threat and it was imperative that this hotbed of Protestantism be protected.

In November, Wallenstein began to move toward winter quarters at Leipzig (incidentally, very near the vicinity where Breitenfeld was fought). He did not expect any more moves from Gustavus because the campaigning season was at its end. Wallenstein split his forces, sending part of them toward the Rhineland under General Pappenheim.

Hoping to surprise Wallenstein, Gustavus set out from his camp to attack the Imperial army. When he heard of this, Wallenstein gathered what forces he could and made ready for battle, setting up a strong defensive position. Gustavus' gambit to take Wallenstein by surprise had failed.

The two armies met near the village of Lutzen.

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden

Albrecht von Wallenstein

The Battle:

Positioning of the forces

Phase I:

The battle began with a Swedish cavalry assault on Wallenstein's left flank, which was weak. After some initial success, Pappenheim arrived on the field and began to push the Swedes back. However, the general was mortally wounded in his counterattack. He would not be the only notable casualty.

In the confusion of the charge, Gustavus got separated from his men and was shot in the back by an Imperial musketeer. He died on the field, and the Protestants lost their champion.

Gustavus' death

Phase II:

The Swedish center had begun advancing on the entrenched Imperial center and right. Led by the battle-hardened Yellow and Blue regiments, the infantry marched forward, but was crushed by Imperial artillery and musket fire. To add more injury to the picture, the Imperial left wing cavalry rode in to flank the Swedish assault. The infantry assault as expected panicked and broke, with the Yellows and Blues, the best of the Swedish army, being almost totally destroyed.

The King's Chaplain, Jakob Fabricius, then began to rally the retreating men, and General Dodo Freiherr zu Innhausen und Knyphausen (did you get that?), a trusted professional soldier, held the reserves steady, and thus began to restore order amongst the fleeing infantry.

Phase III:

After a lull in the battle, the Protestant second-in-command, Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, organized another attack. This last phase would come down to the grim 'push of pike.' This latter part is somewhat ironic, because a central piece of Gustavus' Adolphus' success in the war was the rescinding of the importance of pike formations in his army, with long lines of musketeers that could bring maximum firepower to bear against an enemy taking preeminence.

The Swedish infantry eventually broke through and took the Imperial artillery position, rendering their entire line vulnerable. In this atmosphere, Wallenstein had no choice but to retreat, despite additional reinforcements arriving later.

Aftermath:

Both sides suffered about the same number of casualties (several thousand). Tactically, the Protestant forces could claim victory, as the Imperial Catholics retreated from the field. Strategically, Saxony was also saved from invasion. However, in the meantime, the Protestants lost Gustavus Adolphus, who saved them from destruction.

His body was returned to Sweden in early 1633 and buried in Riddarholm Church. He was voted to be called 'Gustavus Adolphus the Great.' No other Swedish monarch shares the moniker.

 

Assessment:

The close Swedish victory at Lutzen could be seen as a short-term strategic gain, but a long-term strategic loss. The Imperial military continued to recover nicely, and dealt its Protestant foes severe defeats such as at Nordlingen in 1634. Gustavus' death opened the way for the seesaw of the Thirty Years' War to reverse again.

With Gustavus' death, the best chance at ending the Thirty Years' War was halted, and the tumult would continue for another sixteen years. Germany would feel the terrible effects of this continued bloody seesaw between its Protestant and Catholic Princes.

See also:

A very good summary of the campaign and battle by Pierre Cloutier Battle of Lutzen 1632 Thirty Years' War

Ivy Mike: The First H-Bomb

It was on this day 61 years ago that the world entered the thermonuclear era. At the Enewetak Atoll, the arms race entered a new and dangerous phase as a device that made the terrible explosives used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II look like ants was detonated.

Background:

In 1949, the Soviet Union successfully detonated its first atomic device- RDS-1. It was modeled on the Fat Man device dropped on Nagasaki and had a similar yield. While the United States had earlier added more powerful weapons to its stockpile as demonstrated in tests such as Operation Greenhouse, the Soviets acquired the bomb years earlier than expected, and Washington was alarmed that it may lose its preeminence in atomic weapons if it failed to push the envelope and test more powerful bombs.

The RDS-1 test convinced President Truman that it was necessary to develop a hydrogen bomb, where part of the explosive yield would be produced by nuclear fusion.

A fusion device was speculated about as early as the Manhattan Project, but the possibility had never been seriously attempted until this time.

The Project:

Edward Teller, a veteran of the Manhattan Project and the main advocate of the idea of a hydrogen bomb since then, was called in to work on the new project at Los Alamos National Laboratory. What emerged out of all the complicated physics was the Teller-Ulam device- a sort of layered bomb wherein one fission reaction would set off a fusion reaction, followed by another fission reaction.

This was a breakthrough. Not only did it demonstrate that a hydrogen bomb was theoretically possible, but the design also broke free of any limits to a bomb's destructive power. While a classical fission device like the bombs used up to this point had an upper limit in terms of destructive power (the 500 kiloton Ivy King bomb, the second shot in the Operation Ivy series, was the most powerful non-thermonuclear device ever tested), thermonuclear bombs do not have any such limit. In theory, it would be possible to build a hydrogen bomb powerful enough to destroy a planet for instance (though finding enough fissile material to do this would certainly be a problem!). This would be done by adding additional fusion-fission stages to the bomb.

The Device:

Codenamed "Sausage," the Ivy Mike device was not actually designed by Edward Teller himself, but Richard Garwin, on Teller's suggestion. It was massive, weighing 73.8 metric tons and was two-stories tall. Part of the reason for the size of the device was the need for supercooled liquid fuel to induce the fusion reactions.

The Sausage device, to the left

The Shot:

Edward Teller was not present for the final test of his design (as the video above shows). The time scheduled for the detonation was 7:14 A.M. local time. The test was a success. The mushroom cloud reached a maximum height of 36.5 kilometers and had a diameter of 96.5 kilometers (Nuclear Weapon Archive). Ivy Mike vaporized the island it stood on and left a large crater that is still visible today, as seen below:

The estimated yield of the blast was 10.4 megatons- hundreds of times more powerful than any atomic device ever detonated before that point.

As I suspect you've seen by now in the above video, Edward Teller received the news of the successful test not from a telephone, but by using a seismograph. His simple message back to Los Alamos was "It's a boy." This signified that the project to develop a hydrogen bomb was successful.

Aftermath:

The successful detonation of the Sausage device proved that the Teller-Ulam design worked in reality. Ivy Mike however, was far too big to be weaponized. It was merely a rather fiery and spectacular experiment that proved that the hydrogen bomb design was sound. The Soviets derisively called Ivy Mike something like a fusion factory- because that's what it was. Nevertheless, the arms race would now take an even more explosive and dangerous turn. Operation Ivy touched off the next wave of testing to weaponize the hydrogen bomb- Operation Castle, which would produce weapons even more fearsome.

See also:

Making the H-Bomb (more background, including the economic and geopolitical context)
Operation Ivy project film
Operation Ivy at Nuclear Weapon Archive Operation Ivy Mike Thermonuclear Weapon Cold War

Weapons of War: The Tsar Bomba

52 years ago today- October 30th, 1961, at the nuclear test site at Novaya Zemlya, the Soviet Union detonated the most powerful weapon ever manufactured by mankind. With a staggering yield of 50 megatons of TNT (that's 50 million tons), the aptly named Tsar or 'Emperor Bomb' was more than twice as powerful as the next most powerful nuke tested. Actual footage of the detonation is below:

The Tsar Bomba was the climax of the high-yield thermonuclear weapons tests conducted by the superpowers in the 1950's and early 1960's. These were the times where the nuclear weapons detonations that we all know were captured on camera (after 1963, the Partial Test Ban Treaty went into effect and all subsequent testing was conducted underground).

Background:

No nuclear testing had been conducted by either the Soviet Union or the United States since 1958. Tensions remained high however, and as the 1960's began, the Soviets wanted to send a very loud message, timing it for the meeting of the 22nd Soviet Congress.

The Bomb:

Staggeringly, the Soviets' original intention was for the construction of a 100 megaton device. However there were numerous problems that began to become apparent as the numbers began to be crunched by the scientists. The first problem was the very high likelihood that the pilots flying the plane that would drop the bomb would be killed in the ensuing blast (as it turned out, they barely had enough time to safely get out of the way of the final 50 megaton version- and that was with a parachute to slow the bomb's fall). The second problem was the very high fallout that the 100 megaton version was expected to generate. It was also calculated that most of the energy of such a large weapon would radiate into space, making it very inefficient.

To reduce these risks, a uranium tamper inside the device was replaced with a lead one. Thus there would be less fissile and radioactive material. This reduced the yield by approximately 50%.

Like all thermonuclear weapons (popularly known as the hydrogen bomb), it was a multi-staged "Teller-Ulam" device. However unlike most, the Tsar Bomba was a three-staged weapon, whereas most thermonuclear weapons only contain two stages (I'll get into the nitty gritty of this science in an upcoming post).

The Test Results:

The bomb's detonation caused the aircraft that dropped it to fall many thousands of meters. The fireball was visible from 1,000 kilometers away. A person standing 100 kilometers from ground zero would still have gotten third degree burns, and windows were broken as far away as Finland. The mushroom cloud stretched into the mesosphere- around 60 kilometers high. The shockwave from the explosion circled the planet three times before it dissipated.

Aftermath:

Fortunately, the Tsar Bomba was far too big to be of practical use as a weapon. It was simply a very huge and ominous show of force. Nevertheless, it increased tensions between the superpowers and set off a new wave of nuclear testing.

The next two years would see the Cold War reach the tipping point of becoming the hottest one in history- the annihilation of civilization almost seemed imminent in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Cooler heads prevailed in the end, and tensions were reduced through the Partial Test Ban Treaty. As the 1960's rolled on, missile technology improved to the point of allowing smaller, more accurate nuclear weapons to be delivered more efficiently, and monster double-digit megaton bombs became unnecessary.

The Tsar Bomba is ultimately a curiosity- showcasing the destructive potential of man and serving as a dire warning that failure to communicate is no longer an option in the nuclear age.

See Also:

Nuke Calculator at SD.net (This tool allows the user to experiment with varying nuclear weapon yields and see the approximate results)
The Tsar Bomba at Nuclear Weapon Archive Soviet Union Tsar Bomba Cold War Nuclear Weapons Hydrogen