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Last stand is a loose military term used to describe a body of troops holding a defensive position in the face of overwhelming odds. The defensive force usually takes very heavy casualties or is completely destroyed while also inflicting high casualties on the opponent as well and, with rare exceptions such as Rorke's Drift, ultimately defeated.
The situation can arise in one of two ways. Sometimes, perhaps because of geography or lack of supplies or support, the troops in question cannot retreat from their position without being instantly destroyed by the enemy. At other times, the troops in question are forced to follow orders and cannot consider retreat, even though the moral choice is open to them. In both cases, surrender to the enemy is an option but either the group as a whole, or their commanding officer, decides instead to "go down fighting". In some cases the soldiers may consider that surrender may also result in their deaths, and that to fight to their death is a better choice in the circumstances.
A siege will often lead to a last stand by the defenders of the besieged city. However, while sieges are generally characterised by a lengthy engagement, last stands are generally brief and decisive.
Famous last stands
| Name | Date | Defending army | Attacking army | Ratio | Details | |||||
| Battle of Thermopylae | 480 BC | 300 Spartans and 6,700 other Greeks | 60,000 to 300,000 Persian army (modern estimates) 800,000 to 2,100,000 Persian army (ancient sources) |
1:9 to 1:43 1:114 to 1:300 |
King Leonidas and his Spartan bodyguards, accompanied by a force of allied Greek city states, held back a much larger Persian force under Xerxes for three days in one of the most memorable and eulogized last stands in classical antiquity. *Historical ranges vary (see Battle of Thermopylae). | |||||
| Battle of the Persian Gate | 330 BC | 700 to 40,000 Persians | 10,000 to 17,000 Macedonians | 4:1 to 1:25 | Ariobarzanes led the Persian resistance at the Persian Gate, in a last stand against Alexander the Great and killed a large number of Alexander's Macedonian troops. Despite Ariobarzanes' skillful tactics, Alexander defeated him and burned Persepolis to the ground. | |||||
| Battle of the Hydaspes River | 326 BC | 22,000 Pauravas | 41,000-135,000 Macedonian army | 1:2 to 1:6 | Porus' smaller Paurava Indian army fell against Alexander the Great's large army near the Hydaspes in Punjab, where Alexander's army suffered up to 12,000 casualties in another Pyrrhic victory. Alexander was impressed and spared Porus' life. | |||||
| Siege of Numantia | 134-133 b.c.e. | ~4,000 militia | 60,000 legionaires | 1:15 | The culminating and pacifying action of the long-running Numantine War between the forces of the Roman Republic and those of the native Celtiberian population of Hispania Citerior. The city refused to surrender and starvation set in. Cannibalism ensued and eventually some began to commit suicide with their whole families. The remnant population finally surrendered only after setting their city on fire. Scipio took it and had its ruins levelled. | |||||
| Catiline Conspiracy | 62 BC | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Catiline and his army were annihilated at Pistoria (now Pistoia). "eave to your enemies a bloody and mournful victory." | |||||
| Siege of Masada | 73 | 1,000 Jews | 15,000 Romans | 1:15 | Jewish zealots committed mass suicide rather than face the prospect of surrender to the Roman army at Masada | |||||
| Battle of Nihawānd | 642 | 30,000 | 100,000-150,000 | 1:3 to 1:5 | The Sassanid Empire fought its final battle against the Arab conquerors. The Arabs outmaneuvered and defeated the Sassanid force, effectively ending the empire. | |||||
| Battle of Karbala | 680 | 73 | 30,000+ | 1:410 | Muhammad's grandson Husayn ibn Ali- (Husayn, Son of Ali) with 71 men, and a military detachment from the forces of Yazid I, the Umayyad caliph, numbering in the thousands, fought in Battle of Karbala, in which Husayn and all his men died. | |||||
| Battle of Roncevaux Pass | 778 | Roland and his warriors fought to the last man against the Basques. | ||||||||
| Battle of Maldon | 10 August 991 | approximately 200 Anglo-Saxons | 2,000-4,000 Vikings | 1:10 to 1:20 | A handful of Anglo-Saxon warriors led by Byrhtnoth fought and were eventually overwhelmed by a force of 2,000 - 4,000 Vikings. | |||||
| Sack of Baghdad | 1258 | 50,000 Baghdadis | 120,000 Mongol army | 1:2 to 1:3 | The defending army of Baghdad under Caliph Al-Musta'sim made a last stand against Hulagu Khan's large invading army. The destruction of Baghdad brought an end to the Abbasid Caliphate and the Islamic Golden Age. | |||||
| Battle of Posada | November 1330 | 10,000 | 30,000+ | 1:3 | After having agreed to an armistice, Basarab's guides led the 30,000-strong Hungarian army into an ambush; the Hungarians were slaughtered by the 10,000-strong Wallachian army led by Basarab I. When the Hungarian king Charles I Robert saw his knights being killed, he gave his royal insignia to one of his captains (who was subsequently killed) and fought his way back to Hungary in disguise. | |||||
| Defence of Meerut Fort | January 1399 | Much smaller | Much larger | The army of Tamerlane was stopped by Ilyaas Awaan, the military commander of Meerut Fort in northern India. Tamerlane's experienced army vastly outnumbered Awaan's small defending force, but Awaan stopped Tamerlane for two months. It was only after the death of Awaan that Tamerlane's army was able to take the fort. Tamerlane developed great respect for Awaan and openely praised his bravery and courage. He later mentioned Awaan in his memoirs as the opponent who gave him the fiercest resistance with an extremely small force. | ||||||
| First Siege of Krujë | June 1450 | 1,500 Albanians | 150,000 Ottomans | 1:100 | After leaving a protective garrison of 1,500 men under his trusted lieutenant Vrana Konti (also known as Kont Urani), Skanderbeg harassed the Ottoman camps around Krujë and attacked the supply caravans of Sultan Murad II's army. By September, the Ottoman camp was in disarray, as morale sank and disease ran rampant. The Ottoman army acknowledged that the castle of Krujë would not fall by strength of arms, and lifted the siege and made their way to Edirne. | |||||
| Battle of Agincourt | 25 October 1415 | 6-9,000 English | 12-36,000 French | 2:3 to 1:6 | The English army, with no means of retreat, but with technological superiority, defeated the numerically superior French army. | |||||
| Fall of Constantinople | May 1453 | 7,000 Byzantine Greeks and Latin allies | 80-200,000 Ottomans | 1:11 to 1:21 | Constantinople was captured by Turks under Mehmed II, and Emperor Constantine XI died in battle, signaling the end of the Byzantine Empire. | |||||
| Battle of Szigetvár | August 1566 | 2,300 Croats and Hungarians | 90,000 Turks | 1:39 | All but seven defenders under the leadership of Croatian ban Nicholas Šubić Zrinski were killed or captured, while the Ottoman Turks suffered up to 25,000 killed. | |||||
| Battle of Myeongnyang | October 26 1597 | 13 Korean panokseon battleships | 333 Japanese fleet | 1:25 | During the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592-1598), Korean admiral Yi Sun-sin held off a fleet of 333 Japanese ships with only 13 ships, using cannons and hwacha. | |||||
| Battle of Pavan Khind | 1660 | 150 Marathas under Baji Prabhu Deshpande | Bijapuri Army (15,000+) | 1:100 | Baji Prabhu Deshpande defended Pavan Khind, a small pass and huge cliffs between Kolhapur and Satara, with 150 men against the Bijapur army for more than 14 hours, allowing Shivaji to escape to a safer place. | |||||
| Battle of Culloden | 16 April 1746 | 5,400 Jacobites | 9,000 British troops | roughly 1:2 | The last battle between the Jacobite forces under Prince Charles Edward Stuart (aka "Bonnie Prince Charlie") and the forces of King George II ended the Rising of the '45. | |||||
| Fourth Mysore War | 4 May 1799 | 30,00 Mysore troops | 60,000 British troops | roughly 1:2 | Tipu was betrayed in this war by one of his commanders, Mir Sadiq, a traitor who was bought by the British. Tippu Sultan died defending his capital on May 4. The Kingdom of Mysore became a princely state of British India. | |||||
| Defensa del Parque de Artillería de Monteleón | May 2 1808 | 37 Spanish soldiers | Hundreds of French soldiers | ? | Pedro Velarde y Santillán led the defence of the artillery barracks in Madrid during the spontaneous popular uprising against Napoleon. Hundreds were killed, among them Velarde and nearly all of his troops. | |||||
| Battle of the Alamo | March 1836 | 183-250 defenders | 1,400-1,600 Mexican assaulters | 1:6 to 1:7 | The Battle of the Alamo during the Texas Revolution was the first and last stand for the Coahuila y Tejas, The Texans held out for 12 days. On the last day, every single armed defender was killed in the battle. | |||||
| Battle of Blood River | 16 December 1838 | 470 Voortrekkers defenders | 10-20,000 Zulu attackers | 1:21 to 1:43 | 470 Boer Voortrekkers successfully defended an impromptu laager of wagons against 10,000 Zulus. | |||||
| Battle of Chapultepec | 13 September 1847 | Niños Héroes - Six Mexican cadets fought to the last man, after General Bravo ordered them to fall back during the Siege of Chapultepec; one of the last events of the Mexican-American War | ||||||||
| Battle of Camarón | 30 April 1863 | 65 Legionnaires | 1600 Mexican attackers | 1:25 | The French Foreign Legion's stand at Camerone (Spanish: Camarón), Mexico. | |||||
| Battle of Port Hudson | May 23-July 9 1863 | 4,652-6,800 CS troops | 30-40,000 US troops | 1:6 | Major General Franklin Gardner defended the last Confederate bastion on the Mississippi River against two major attacks by the Union Army of the Gulf, commanded by Major General N P Banks and a Union flotilla led by Admiral David G Farragut. It was the longest siege in US military history, with the highest casualty rate suffered by Union Army during the Civil War. The Union flotilla was severely damaged, making it the worst defeat suffered by Farragut during the war. | |||||
| Battle of Ringgold Gap | 27 November 1863 | 10-20,000 CS troops | 30-60,000 US troops | 1:3 | The division of Confederate Major General Patrick Cleburne held the pass of Ringgold Gap in Northwest Georgia to cover the retreat of the Confederate Army of Tennessee against the entire Union Army corps of Joseph Hooker of the Army of the Potomac, taking approximately the same number of casualties as their enemy while outnumbered 3:1. Just two days before, the same division had successfully held Tunnel Hill, the north end of Missionary Ridge, against the four divisions of Major General William T. Sherman's corps on the third day of the Third Battle of Chattanooga, only to have that victory nullified when the center of the line across ridge two miles south, under the direct command of Gen. Braxton Bragg collapsed under assault by the troops of George Henry Thomas. | |||||
| Battle of Acosta Ñu | 16 August 1869 | 6,000 mostly children | 20,000+ Brazilian troops | 1:3 | During the Triple Alliance War, while retreating from Asuncion, a Paraguayan army of mostly children held back a Brazilian regiment, until being massacred. | |||||
| Battle of the Little Bighorn | 25 June 1876 | 650 Americans | 950-1200 Lakota | roughly 1:2 | Custer's famous last stand. | |||||
| Battle of Shipka Pass | 21 August 1877 | 5000 Russian soldiers and Bulgarian Opalchentsi | 30,000 Turkish soldiers | 1:6 | 5000 Russian soldiers and Bulgarian Opalchentsi led by General Darozhinsky repelled 30,000 troops commanded by Suleiman Pasha at the Battle of Shipka Pass. | |||||
| Battle of Shiroyama | 24 September 1877 | 300-400 samurai under Satsuma | 300,000 troops of the Imperial Japanese Army | 1:750 to 1:1000 | 300 samurai faced 300,000 troops of the Imperial Japanese Army at the Battle of Shiroyama. | |||||
| Battle of Isandlwana | 22 January 1879 | 1,400 British soldiers | 22,000 Zulu troops | 1:16 | A British force of 1,400 men was overwhelmed by a 22,000 strong Zulu army at the Battle of Isandlwana and suffered over 1300 dead. | |||||
| Rorke's Drift | 22 January 1879 | 139 British infantry | 4,000-5,000 Zulu warriors | 1:29 to 1:36 | 150 British soldiers successfully defend the supply station at Rorke's Drift against 4,000 Zulu warriors. This engagement resulted in the largest number of Victoria Crosses ever awarded a regiment in a single battle. | |||||
| Battle of Tomochic | 20 October 1892 | In the last battle of the Tomochic revolt, 100 serrano riflemen stood against 1200 Federal troops for seven days in the Tomochic forest and finally in the town itself. | ||||||||
| Shangani Patrol | 3 December 1893 – 4 December 1893 | 34 British South Africa Police | 3,000 Matabele warriors | 1:88 | The Shangani Patrol was a group of white Rhodesian settlers killed in battle on the Shangani River in Zimbabwe. The incident achieved a lasting, prominent place in Rhodesian colonial history as part of the mythology of white conquest. | |||||
| Battle of Saragarhi | 12 September 1897 | 21 Sikhs | 10,000 Afghan and Orakzai troops | 1:476 | The Battle of Saragarhi was fought between 21 Sikhs of the 4th Battalion (then 36th Sikhs) of the Sikh Regiment of India, defending an army post, against 10,000 Afghans and Orakzai tribesmen. | |||||
| Battle of San Juan Hill | July 1, 1898 | 800 Spanish | 15,000 Americans, 4,000 Cubans | 1:24 | The Americans suffered almost three times as many losses compared to the Spaniards. | |||||
| Battle of El Caney | July 1, 1898 | 500 Spanish | 8,500 Americans, 1,000 Cubans | 1:19 | The Spanish army held off the more heavily armed Americans for 12 hours while waiting in vain for reinforcements. | |||||
| Siege of Baler | - | 50 Spaniards | Between 300 and 2,000 Filipinos grossing as the siege advanced | 1:6 to 1:40 | Fifty Spanish soldiers and four officers defended this site, surrounded for a whole year, not knowing that the Filipino-Spanish war was over. | |||||
| Siege of Mafeking | October 1899 - May 1900 | 2000 UK Combatants | 8000 Boer Combatants | 1:4 | The Siege of Mafeking was the most famous British action in the Second Boer War. It took place at the town of Mafeking (now Mafikeng) in South Africa over a period of 217 days, from October 1899 to May 1900, and turned Robert Baden-Powell, who went on to found the Scouting movement, into a national hero. The lifting of the Siege of Mafeking was a decisive victory for the British and a crushing defeat for the Boers. | |||||
| Battle of Tirad Pass | 2 December 1899 | 60 Filipino troops | 500 American soldiers | 1:8 | The stand of 60 Filipino soldiers under General Gregorio del Pilar covered the retreat of President Emilio Aguinaldo during the Philippine-American War. | |||||
| Battle of Doiran | 18 September 1918 | 35,000 Bulgarian troops (1 Division) | at least 75,000 British and Greek troops (6 Divisions) | 1:2,5-3 | The stand of the Bulgarian 9th Infantry Division on the fortified position around Doiran under General Vladimir Vazov against superior Allied forces. The Bulgarians inflicted 59,000 casualties on the enemy while losing 494 killed. The Bulgarian victory saved the country from an Allied occupation. | |||||
| Lost Battalion | 2 – 7 October 1918 | An American battalion under Major Charles White Whittlesey held out in the Argonne Forrest. | ||||||||
| Defense of Sihang Warehouse | 26 October – 1 November 1937 | 414 Chinese | 414 Chinese soldiers defended the Sihang Warehouse against Japanese forces. | |||||||
| Battle of Westerplatte | 1 September – 7 September 1939 | 182 Polish soldiers 25 civilians | 3,500 German soldiers plus
47-70 Stuka dive bombers |
1:18 | The Polish garrison held out for a week against the German invaders. The exact number of German losses remains unknown or undisclosed, but are estimated to be in range of several hundred. Polish casualties were much lower - 15 killed and 53 wounded. | |||||
| Battle of Suomussalmi | 7 December 1939 – 8 January 1940 | 11,000 Finnish soldiers | 45,000-50,000 Soviet soldiers | Roughly 1:4 | The Battle of Suomussalmi was a battle in the Winter War conflict. In this one-month battle the vastly superior Soviet forces lost against the light Finnish ski troops. In this battle the Motti-tactic was used succesfully. | |||||
| Battle of Wake Island | December 7 1941-December 23 1941 | forces.| | ||||||||
| Battle of Moscow | October 1941 - January 1942 | Defense of the Soviet 316th Rifle Division under command of General Ivan Panfilov at Dubosekovo near Volokolamsk during the Battle of Moscow. | ||||||||
| Defence of Brest Fortress | 22 June – 30 July 1941 | 3,500-4,000 Soviet soldiers | 30,000-40,000 German soldiers | roughly 1:10 | The defenders were cut off from the outside world and ran out of food, water and ammunition, but still fought and counter-attacked to the very end. | |||||
| Battle of Dražgoše | 9 January – 11 January 1942 | ~200 Slovenian partisans | ~2000 Wermacht troops with supporting artillery | 1:10 | In the first confrontation between Slovenian partisans and occupying German forces, the village of Dražgoše was razed to the ground following three days of ferocious fighting, in which nine partisans and more than 100 German soldiers were killed. Following the partisan retreat, Germans rounded up the locals, executed adult males and older boys on site and interned the rest of the population to concentration camps. | |||||
| Battle of Pasir Panjang | 13 February 1942 | 1,400 Malay, British, Indian and Australian soldiers | 13,000 Japanese troops | 1:9 | 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. In the final hours of battle, a Malay soldier, 2nd Lieutenant Adnan Bin Saidi, led a 42-man platoon against thousands of invaders, leaving a sole survivor. The Japanese suffered a disproportionately high number of casualties, and tortured Adnan before executing him. | |||||
| Battle of Corregidor | 5 May – 6 May 1942 | 13,000 American and Filipino soldiers | 75,000 Japanese troops | 1:6 | The 4th Marine Regiment fell under the advance of the Imperial Japanese Army's final assault at the Battle of Corregidor. | |||||
| Battle of Buna-Gona | 16 November 1942 – 22 January 1943 | Japanese defence of the Papuan beachheads at the Battle of Buna-Gona. | ||||||||
| Battle of Ramou (臘猛) | May – 14 September 1944 | 1,260 Japanese Troops | 50,000 Chinese (Nationalist) Troops | 1:40 | One Japanese regiment fought five Chinese divisions in South China, near Burma. Three Japanese soldiers were ordered by Major Kanemitsu, the officer commanding, to report to headquarters after their position fell and became the only survivors. There was no air cover or supply. | |||||
| Battle of Angaur. | 20 September – 30 September 1944 | 1,400 Japanese Troops | 15,000 American Troops | 1:10 | The Japanese defense of Angaur. | |||||
| Battle of Iwo Jima. | 19 February – 26 March 1945 | 22,000 Japanese Troops | 110,000 American Troops | 1:5 | The Japanese defended Iwo Jima against a combined land, sea, and air assault by the United States. | |||||
| Battle for Berlin | 16 April – 8 May 1945 | 766,750 German Soldiers | 2,500,000 Soviet soldiers | 1:3 | Last stand of the German army against Soviet forces in the German capital. | |||||
| Bukit Kepong Incident | 23 February 1950 | 25 police and auxiliary police personnel | 200 Communists | 1:8 | A police station near Muar, Malaysia was besieged by Communist guerrillas. | |||||
| Battle of Chosin Reservoir | 26 November 1950 – December 13 1950 | About 30000 U.S. and British soldiers | 60000 | Roughly 1:2 | UN force was surrounded by China's People's Liberation Army | |||||
| Battle of the Imjin River | 22 April – 25 April 1951 | The Gloucestershire Regiment at the Battle of the Imjin River. | ||||||||
| Battle of Dien Bien Phu | 13 March – 7 May 1954 | 10,800 French | 63,000 Vietnamese | 1:5 | The final battle of the First Indochina War pitted French colonial forces against Viet Minh revolutionary forces under General Vo Nguyen Giap. | |||||
| Battle of Rezang La/Chushul | 18 November 1962 | The 13th Battalion, Kumaon Regimentled by Shaitan Singh at Rezang La (Sino-Indian War). | ||||||||
| Battle of Ia Drang | 14 November – 17 November, 1965 | 'C' Coy 13 Kumaon (123) | Viet Cong (6000) | 1:50 | The 1st Battalion/7th Cavalry, the 2nd Battalion/7th Cavalry, and the 1st Battalion/5th Cavalry at the Battle of Ia Drang. | |||||
| Battle of Long Tan | 18 August – 19 August, 1966 | Australian Army (108) | North Vietnamese Army, Viet Cong (1,500-2,650) | 1:15 | The Battle of Long Tần is arguably the most famous battle fought by the Australian Army during the Vietnam War. It was fought in a rubber plantation near the village of Long Tần, about 4 km north-east of Vung Tau, South Vietnam on August 18–19, 1966. | |||||
| Battle of Longewala | 05 December – 06 December, 1971 | 1 Indian Company (120) | 1 Pakistani Armoured Brigade (3,000) | 1:20 | The Indian 'A' company of 120 odd soldiers of the 23rd Battalion, Punjab Regiment, managed to hold a 2,000-3,000 strong assault force of the 51st Infantry Brigade of the Pakistani Army, backed by the 22nd Armoured Regiment, before the Indian Air Force flew in. | |||||
| Battle of Khe Sanh | 21 January – 8 April, 1968 | 6,000 Marines | 20,000 North Vietnamese | roughly 1:3 | 6,000 U.S. forces, primarily Marines, successfully defended this base against 20,000 North Vietnamese forces. | |||||
| 22 October 1973 | The Barak Armored Brigade defending the southern Golan Heights during the Yom Kippur War. | |||||||||
| Battle of Xuan Loc | April 1975 | 6,000 ARVN soldiers | 40,000 North Vietnamese | 1:7 | During last major battle of the Vietnam War, the Battle of Xuan Loc, the vastly outnumbered ARVN 18th Division stood and fought at Xuan Loc. | |||||
| Battle of Vukovar | August 25 and November 18, 1991 | 2,000 Croatian National Guard | 36,000 Mixture of various Serb forces | 1:18 | Only one brigade of Croatian soldiers clashed with the JNA army, then the fourth biggest army in Europe. JNA troops, consisting of mostly Serbian soldiers completely enclosed the city. Most Croatian soldiers were killed (about 2000) while the other side suffered enormous losses (about 10 000). Up to this date, there has been no official confirmation of the latter. The city was completely obliterated by 700 000 different projectiles (during only 3 months of the battle), and occupied until 1998. | |||||
| Battle of Mogadishu | October 3 and 4, 1993 | 160 USSOF and UNOSOM II | 2,000+ Somali National Alliance - affiliated militias | 1:13 | ||||||
| Battle of Hill 776 | 29 February – 01 March, 2000 | 85 Russian paratroopers | ~2,000 Chechen mujahideen | ~1:24 | During one of the last major battles of the Second Chechen War, a vastly outnumbered company of Russian airborne troops stood and fought against an assault by Chechen rebels on Hill 776 near Ulus-Kert in the Chechen Republic. All but one of the 85 Russians died - 400 rebels were killed. | |||||
 | This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. |
See also
References
- Thomas Kelly (University of Minnesota) (2003), "Persian Propaganda - A Neglected Factor in Xerxes' Invasion of Greece and Herodotus", Iranica Antiqua 38, p. 198, gives 60,000 to 300,000 as a common range of modern estimates.
- Philip De Souza, The Greek and Persian Wars, 499-386 BC, p. 41, gives 150,000 to 200,000 as a modern consensus.
- ^ Aryo Barzan, Encyclopaedia Iranica.
- Nicholas Hammond, Sources for Alexander the Great: An Analysis of Plutarch's Life and Arrian's Anabasis Alexandrou
- An Encyclopedia of Battles: Accounts of Over 1,560 Battles from 1479 B.C. to the Present By David Eggenberger, pg 305
- Age of Faith, Durrant
- Edwin Pears, The Destruction of the Greek Empire and the Story of the Capture of Constantinople by the Turks
- Perrett, Bryan. Last Stand: Famous Battles Against the |Odds. London: Arms & Armour, 1993.