To me, the
“heroic last stand” is one of the most awesome of all the awesome
footnotes of history. Sure, not all of them work out this way, but I can
almost see the noble bunch of heroes looking at one another and saying,
“This is it, gentlemen, we are royally screwed, surrounded, and the
cavalry apparently ain’t coming so lets make this bunch pay dearly for
our blood.” They are the brawniest bunch you can imagineand the ones the
people back home are counting on to keep them safe.
Now,
in my admittedly biased and prejudiced mind, not all Last Stands are
created equal. So, for the purpose of this list, I’ve got five criteria
in mind. Not every last stand here meets all five, but they must meet at
least three.
1.
If you are the aggressor, you can’t have a Last Stand because you are
getting your just desserts. Simply put, you started it and if you hadn’t
started it, you wouldn’t be getting wiped out to the last man, now would you? (Think Custer)
2. The odds are laughably against your team. We’re talking AT LEAST 3:1 against and the worse the odds, the burlier the last stand glory.
3.
Everybody, or at least just about everybody, dies. It’s not a Last
Stand if enough of you are left to make another last stand at some
point.
4. Everyone EXPECTS to die. No surrender even if asked to. As
one burly sergeant in a furball of a fight put it, “Surrender? Not
bloody likely!” (Exception: You surrender on YOUR terms and it’s
honored.)
5. The sacrifice has to mean something in the larger scheme
of things. Otherwise, you should have bloody well retreated or
something to try staying alive since what you did was get everyone
killed for nothing.
So, with no further ado, and in no particular order, here are my suggestions for the burliest of the burly Last Stands.
1
The Last Stand at Thermopylae
circa 480 BC
This
was the stuff legends are made of and since Frank Miller’s film 300
came out, a whole new generation of people have been acquainted with the
heroic sacrifice of Leonidas and his handpicked guard of 300 warriors,
all of whom had mature sons who could carry on the family name.
What a lot of people don’t seem to remember is that as awesome as Leo
and his wild bunch were, they didn’t stand completely alone. Other
city-states, notably Arcadia and Thespia, sent troops as well, so the
force opposing the massive Persian army was closer to 6,000 than just
300. Still, that this group stopped those thousands cold in their tracks
at the Hot Gates for three days and in the end were only dislodged by
treachery is nothing short of amazing. The action scored a perfect 5 out
of 5 on the criteria. The best legend, probably apocryphal – but maybe
not, was one Spartan hoplite’s reply to a Persian envoy’s boast that,
“Our arrows will blot out the Sun.” The hoplite replied, “So much the
better, for then we shall fight in the shade!”
2
The Last Stand of the Swiss Guard
May 6, 1527
Rome
was sacked by the troops of the Holy Roman Empire under Emperor Charles
V in 1527. When the troops, mostly rabble and mercenaries, of the
empire breached the city, they immediately ignored the orders of Charles
and pretty much everyone else in command and made straight for Vatican
Hill intent on pillaging the richest treasures in Christendom. They also
had murder on their mind and Pope Clement VII was high on the list of
targets. The famous Swiss Guards, who used to do more than just stand
around looking pretty for tourists, formed a fighting square on the
steps of St. Peter’s Basilica to face upwards of 20,000 bloodthirsty
troops who were storming the city. Only 189 Guardsmen remained after the
fighting to take the city, but these troops chose to make their stand
in hopes of buying Clement time to escape the city through one of the
warrens of tunnels under Rome. Clement made good his escape as the Guard
managed to hold the porch of the church and prevent the doors from
falling, but only 42 Swiss Guards survived and none of them were
uninjured. Again, this one scores a 5 out of 5 and proves that when the
Swiss decide not to be neutral, they aren’t a bunch to take lightly.
3
Battle of the Alamo
February 23 to March 6, 1836
This
one siege and especially its climactic pre-dawn final battle is the
reason natives of Texas poke their chests out a little farther than most
other Americans. It is a singular event in Texan history and it’s what
lead directly to Texas becoming first a nation and later a state in the United States of America. Not only that, but “Remember the Alamo!”
has rung down the years as a major battlecry for people who’ve never
crossed the Texan border, but who feel a giddy sense of bravado in the
face of utter annihilation.
At
the old Spanish mission, 182 poorly armed Texas rebels faced upwards of
2000 crack Mexican troops under the command of the finest Mexican
general, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.
The Mexicans had cavalry and a battery of cannon. The Texans had grit,
determination, and cannons with very little ammunition. For 12 days, the
Texans stood down Santa Anna, enduring bombardments daily. Finally,
Santa Anna had enough and ordered a full assault on the mission in a
surprise pre-dawn attack. Every defender of the mission was killed but
Santa Anna did spare the women and children as well as sparing and
freeing two African American slaves
found in the fort. This last stand garners a 4.5 out of 5 because
technically, the Mexicans were the “good guys” since the Texans were
rebels against the lawful authority in Mexico City.
4
Battle of Camaron
April 30, 1863
This small engagement in Mexico while much of the world was focused on the American Civil War
to the north, put the French Foreign Legion on the map and began a
legend that persists today in the unofficial motto, “The Legion dies, it
does not surrender.” Everything fell out because a group of 65 Foreign
Legion troops, led by Capt. Jean Danjou were carrying supplies to
Veracruz in support of the French campaign in Mexico under Napoleon III.
Caught out in the open, the French troops managed to make a fighting
retreatto the small hacienda of Cameron. There, surrounded and backs to
the wall, the handful of Legionnaires fought like they were possessed.
They repulsed attack after attack, cavalry charge after cavalry charge,
until their ammunition began to run low.
Even
after Capt. Danjou was felled by a bullet to the chest, his men fought
on. Finally, only six of the men remained and they were out of bullets
and powder. At this point, they have killed enough Mexicans to surrender
honorably. After all, only six are left ALIVE, much less standing. But
no, led by the highest remaining NCO, a corporal, the six men fixed
bayonets and, with the cry of “Vive l’France”, charged the Mexican
forces. Three were struck by rifle fire and killed outright. The
remaining three were surrounded, wrestledto the ground and asked to
surrender. Most men would have said fine and thanked their luck they
were alive.
Not
this bunch. One of the men looked up and said they would surrender only
if they were allowed to keep their regimental Colors, keep their
weapons, carry their dead with them, AND be given a safe conduct escort
to their own lines. Accordingto the accounts of eyewitnesses, the
Mexican commander shook his head, laughed and ordered his men to comply
with the Legionnaires’ demands. “After all,” he is supposed to have
said, “What is one to do with devils like these?” To this day, April 30
is called Cameron Day in France and is celebrated by the Legion much as the Marine Corps Birthday is celebrated every November in America.
5
Battle of Shiroyama
September 24, 1877
This
battle would again only garner a 4 out of 5 on the criteria because
Saigo’s samurai were technically rebels. BUT, they were rebels because
the Emperor was destroying their way of life. Bushidoand the sword had
ruled samurai behavior for over a thousand years
and now the nobility of the samurai and his training were being swept
aside in favor of conscript troops with rapid firing weapons.
So,
the samurai under their commander Saigo were retreating to their base
of operations when they were caught and surrounded on the hill of
Shiroyama. The 300 of them had their traditional bows and, of course,
their matchless katanas. The 30,000 Imperial troops had rifled muskets
and gatling guns.
The
Imperial commander asked Saigo to surrender peacefully and be spared,
but, being a samurai, Saigo couldn’t really do that. Instead, he spent
the night of September 23 getting buzzed on sake and ready to die. At
3:00 AM, the Imperial troops began an artillery bombardment followed by a
full frontal attack. Saigo was twice wounded before committing ritual
suicide to avoid the dishonor of capture. The thirty men who survived
the artillery barrage charged the Imperial lines and began laying about
them with their katanas. They acquitted themselves well, but in the end,
every one of them was killed and the way of the samurai was dead . . .
at least until the start of World War II.
6
Battle of Rorke’s Drift
January 22, 1879
Okay,
this is another slightly technical violation of my criteria. After all,
if the Brits hadn’t been trying to take the Zulu’s land, Rorke’s Drift
never would have happened. BUT, in my defense, these particular 139
soldiers weren’t invading anything. They were left behind while the “big
boys” went off to get massacred at the Battle of Islawandha.
No,
this was a group of cooks, supply clerks, Royal Engineers, and other
guys who could fight if they had to, but hadn’t really been called upon
very much. They were the prime example of the “in the rear with the
gear” soldiers. Unfortunately, all their buddies were wiped out at the
aforementioned Battle of Islawandha. To make matters worse, a whole crap
load of Zulus didn’t get to take part in the battle because everyone
was dead before they got there. So, those bored Zulus decided to take
out their frustrations on the supply depot at Rorke’s Drift.
The
Zulus had numbers, surprise, the high ground, and knowledge of the
terrain. The defenders had bags of grain, Martini-Henry rifles, and
bayonets “with some guts behind them”. The Zulus attacked in massive
waves all through the afternoon of January 22 and through the night and
early morning of January 23. They were gathering for another assault
when their scouts spotted the British relief column complete with cannon
and decided to retire.
The
defenders gained a new respect for the Zulus and in the process
garnered 11 Victoria Crosses, the most ever awarded for a single
engagement. True, they weren’t wiped out, but when they looked up and
saw every surrounding hill bristling with Zulu warriors, no one thought
he was getting out alive.
7
Battle of Pasir Panjang
13 February 1942
1,400
Malay, British, Indian and Australian soldiers faced off against 13,000
Japanese troops in an attempt to save Singapore or at least give the
civilians time to evacuate. Soldiers from the Royal Malay Regiment, The
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment, the British 2nd Loyals
Regiment, the 44th Indian Brigade and the 22nd Australian Brigade made a
futile attempt to stop the advancing Japanese towards the centre of
Singapore. The majority of the defenders fell in the battle. Those that
did not became prisoners who would later be pressed into service on the
Thai-Burma Railroad where they would be forced to built a famous bridge
over a famous river.
In
the final hours of battle, a Malay soldier, 2nd Lieutenant Adnan Bin
Saidi, led a 42-man platoon against thousands of invaders, leaving
himself as a sole survivor. The Japanese suffered a disproportionately
high number of casualties because of these men’s bravery so as
punishment for being burly and courageous they tortured Adnan before
executing him.
8
Siege of Bastogne
19 December 1944-December 26, 1944
Early
in the Battle of the Bulge about 12,000 under-equipped and exhausted US
Paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division seized the town of Bastogne
to defend this strategic crossroads from the German Advance. They were
promptly and completely surrounded by roughly 15 Divisions of Germans.
The 101st could only be sustained by airdrops from C-47s and things
looked suitably grim. Seeing the hopelessness of the American position,
German commander, General Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz asked the
101st’s acting commander, Captain Anthony McAuliffe to surrender,
McAuliffe’s famously terse reply was “Nuts!”.
Under
their impetuous commander, the unit held off multiple German Panzer
attacks, until eventually relieved by George S. Patton’s US Third Army
on December 26. One of the units of the 101st to take part in the battle
was the legendary Easy Company immortalized in the TV series “Band of
Brothers.”
9
The Saxon Housecarls at Hastings
October 14, 1066
On
January 6, 1066, Harold Godwinson became King Harold II following the
death of his brother-in-law, Edward the Confessor. By late summer, he
was faced with two imminent attempts to invade England. The first came
in the northeast from his traitorous brother, Tostig, and King Harald
Hardraada of Norway. While celebrating his defeat of Hardraada at a
victory feast, Harold received word that Duke William the Bastard had
landed at Pevensey in the south with 7,000 men. Harold gathered his
forces, marched south to London, and by the evening of October 13,
deployed his forces along Battle, or Senlac, Ridge near Hastings.
The
battle developed into a deadly engagement between the Saxon infantry
and the Norman cavalry and archers. Initially, Norman arrows were
harmlessly deflected by Saxon shields, and Saxon axes and spears
shattered the first Norman charge. Overcome by confidence, the Saxon
infantry unwisely followed the retreating cavalry in reckless pursuit
and were cut down by the Norman reserve. Harold reformed his forces and
the Saxons braced for additional charges. The battle evolved into
relentless pounding on the Saxon line by the Norman cavalry. The Saxons
more than held their own and inflicted heavy casualties. Just before
evening, William feigned a general withdrawal and many Saxons again
broke ranks to pursue. The knights wheeled round and destroyed the Saxon
infantry in the open field.
Harold
and his housecarl bodyguard remained intact and just as formidable on
the ridge. William ordered a final charge. This time he first had his
archers aim not at the Saxon shields but release their volleys into the
air so the arrows would fall on the Saxons from above. The tactic
worked, but the Harold and his housecarls fought on until an arrow
struck the king in the eye. As Harold struggled to pull it free, four
Norman knights (one of whom may have been William) attacked. One speared
Harold in the chest, and a second nearly decapitated him with a sword.
As he fell, the other two Normans delivered additional blows. With
Harold’s fall, the Saxon forces panicked and retreated into the nearby
woods except for the housecarls who fought to the death around the body
of their dead king.
10
The Battle Off Samar
October 25, 1944
The
Battle Off Samar (also known as “The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors)
has been cited by historians as one of the greatest military mismatches
in naval history. It took place in the Philippine Sea off Samar Island,
in the Philippines. It all started when Admiral William Halsey, Jr. was
lured into taking his powerful U.S. Third Fleet after a Japanese decoy
fleet. He thought this fleet was the main Japanese battle group and if
he could catch them, he could destroy what was left of the Japanese
navy.
To
defend his rear, he left behind only “Taffy 3,” a light screen of
destroyers, destroyer escorts, and three escort “baby” carriers. A
powerful Japanese surface force of battleships and cruisers thought to
have been defeated and in retreat earlier had instead turned around
unobserved and came upon the tiny force of tiny ships. With nothing else
he could do, Admiral Spruance in command of Taffy 3 gave the order,
“Small Boys (meaning destroyers and escorts) attack.”
With
that order Taffy 3’s destroyers and destroyer escort desperately
charged forward and attacked with 5 inch guns which could not penetrate
even the thinnest armor of the Japanese armada and torpedoes, while
carrier aircraft dropped bombs and depth charges, then out of bombs,
strafed the bridges of the Japanese heavy ships. While the Americans
suffered more losses in ships and men than were lost at the Battle of
Midway, they caused so much damage and confusion to convince the
Japanese commander, Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita thought he had stumbled
upon the lead element of Halsey’s main fleet. Fearing for his forces, he
ordered his ships to regroup and ultimately withdraw rather than
advancing to sink troop and supply ships at Leyte Gulf. Taffy 3’s bold
defense in the face of overwhelmingly superior firepower saved the
invasion of the Phillippines.
Source: http://listverse.com/2009/08/28/10-heroic-last-stands-from-military-history/
