History buffs: "underdog" battles?

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outnumbered Scottish forces under Robert the Bruce defeats Edward the 2nd's forces and frees Scotland for the next four hundred years.



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Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what is for lunch.
Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the outcome of the vote.
Let he that hath no sword sell his garment and buy one. Luke 22-36
They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night. Song of Solomon 3-8
The man that can keep his head and aims carefully when the situation has gone bad and lead is flying usually wins the fight.
 
Not to take anything away from Sakai's epic fight (anyone who can have eye surgery without anaesthesia is beyond my approval or criticism, anyway) but there was the epic fight of, (Oh, jeez I'm getting old, here) was it Mannock or Ball whose epic last dogfight was against 50+ Albatrosses?

The greatest WWI dogfight was Werner Voss' amazing lone standoff against the best pilots of No.56 Sqdrn, the cream of the RFC. He wound up getting shot down, but not before amazing them all with the tenacity and skill he displayed. Not to mention putting a buttload of 8mm Maxim rounds through each and every British plane there...

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"..but never ever Fear. Fear is for the enemy. Fear and Bullets."
10mm: It's not the size of the Dawg in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog!
 
Well, I didn't want to make everybody dust off their French for "Bois de la Brigade Marine." :)

Right up to Khe Sanh, the gents with the balls and anchors on their collars do seem to have some good ones, don't they? And they're so darn quotable while doing it.

Which reminds me. We (including me) all need a refresher course in American history: Nobody's mentioned "I have not yet begun to fight."

Steve
 
The Battle of Britain, 1940-41.
"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
All hearts go out to the fighter pilots,
whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day..."
-Sir Winston Churchill

And may God have mercy on the pitiful descendents of those courageous men.
 
Tamara,

Mannock appears to have died in an engine fire following successful combat and Ball died mysteriously against the Richtofen Jasta. Official credit was given to Lothar von Richtofen, who was apparently in Berlin at the time, but Flak is suspected.

McCudden was justifiably very impressed with Voss' flat half-spin, among other things.

And, yes, Sakai's eye surgery without anesthetic is one of the things I try not to think about.

Thanks for making me feel old, BTW. I'm 29.

Steve
 
Auerstadt was an impressive French victory. As part of the twin victories (Jena being the other one where Napoleon with 90,000 men against Hohenlohe's 35,000), Davout, with 27,000 men, defeated a much larger Prussian force of 60,000 under Brunswick & King Frederick III.

Another impressive French victory was won by General Jean Rapp who led the 20,000 "Army of the Rhine", a delaying force, against the larger III Corps of Wurtemmberg (Austro-Hungarian) and defeated it at La Suffel (near Strasbourg) ten days after Waterloo. Another subordinate, Marshal Suchet, equitted himself equally well in Piedmont.
 
Cortez taking on the Aztec Empire with 600 warm bodies.

Second battle at Adobe Walls. Famous for Quanah Parkers quote: "We no fight against guns who shoot today and kill tomorrow" in reference to Billy Dixon picking a Comanche off a horse at something over 1500 yards with a Sharps buffalo gun.

The defense of Malta during WWII by three biplanes against the Italian Air Force and later, the Luftwaffe.

(Of note, the defense of Malta earned the entire island the George Cross, which is still flown on the Maltese flag.)

Cochise vs. the US Army. :D

LawDog

[This message has been edited by LawDog (edited May 14, 2000).]
 
Battle of Midway.

Robert E. Lee splitting his forces before Richmond during the height of McClellan's Peninsula fiasco. Lee's brilliance, and McClellan's stupidity, cost the Union a chance to capture Richmond and possibly make the war a year or more shorter.

The United States of America vs. Great Britain, 1775-1783.
 
A single Russian Heavy Tank (KV serieis) holding up an entire panzer division for one day. The Germans finally brought up an 88 to take it out.
 
One of my favorites is recorded in the book of I Samuel 17. I don't know which side was actually inferior, because both Israelites and Philistines were acting cowardly. Goliath, however challenged the Jews to send out a combatant to fight him. A shepherd boy, David, took the challenge and the rest is history. There are a number of other battles in the Old Testament that have inferiors beating the superior forces. Another fine example is Jonathan and his armor bearer who went up against a Philistine garrison with an interesting outcome. I believe a British officer used this account in I Samuel 14 to his advantage in a battle in the 20th century.
 
Here is a great Old Testament story:
Gideon and three hundred men rout the
combined armies of Midian and Amalek.
Judges 6-8.
 
1836--780 Texians caught nearly twice as many Mexicans under Santa Anna napping(literally) at San Jacinto,and the Republic of Texas was secured.

Bill

[This message has been edited by Bill Mitchell (edited May 14, 2000).]
 
small but detirmined Irish forces of the IRA bleed the British occupation forces and goverment intrastructure until Britan agrees to partition the country and southern Ireland is quasi-free for the first time in over 400 years

this won't be popular but her goes.

detirmined underground forces in Viet Nam resist the French, Japanese, French again and then American occupational forces, never really winning very many battles at all until all the big dogs take thier toys and go home in frustration.

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Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what is for lunch.
Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the outcome of the vote.
Let he that hath no sword sell his garment and buy one. Luke 22-36
They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night. Song of Solomon 3-8
The man that can keep his head and aims carefully when the situation has gone bad and lead is flying usually wins the fight.
 
Orde Wingate (of WW II Chindit fame) had just captured an Italian fortress in Ethiopia. The telephone rang. He had an Italian speaking officer answer it. His "Italian" officer reported that they were being attacked by a large force of British infantry and armor and that said force was headed in the caller's direction next. Wingate and his men (a paltry force) then walked into the next fort which was abandoned.

Not to knock the Italians, but has anybody read Capt. Erwin Rommel's WW I book, Infantry Attacks? With a few companies of infantry, Rommel bluffed and captured over 10,000 Italians, 200 machine guns, 18 cannons in Longarone.
 
Notably, you will not see an example of a citizen militia defeating an organized army without the assistance of artillery.
 
How about the battle of Marathon where a ragtag force of Athenians defeats 20,000 persian troops. A messaneger subsequently runs 23 miles to tell news of the victory and colapses and dies upon reaching his destanation.
 
I cannot believe that this one hasn't been mentioned yet...

In the wee morning hours of 17 June 1775, three Massachusetts regiments, 200 men from Connecticuit and a company from New Hampshire (for moral support :)), about 500 men in all, file silently through a deserted Charlestown, just north of the occupied Boston. Lead by Col. William Prescott and Col. Isreal Putnam, the men worked furiously for four hours that morning to fortify Breed's Hill.

When dawn approached, the watch abord HMS Lively in Boston Harbor was astounded to find the 160 foot long, 80 foot wide bastion. The Royal Navy wasted no time in commencing bombardment. In all, more than 1500 British regulars would lay seige to the hill.

"Don't fire until you se the whites of their eye's" -- Isreal Putnam

When all said and done, the Americans suffered 140 killed and 301 wounded. More than 2/3 of the force.

The Brits suffered, 19 officers and 207 men killed, 70 officers and 828 men wounded; 40% of the British attacking force.

Though at the time, it was thought a terrible loss due inpart to the death of Dr. Josephe Warren, a surgeon, a leader and a son of liberty. However, this single day cost the British their momentum, crippled their army and set them on the defensive well into 1776.

"I wish we could sell them another hill at the same price." -- Nathanael Greene

It was the second defining point of the Revolution (the first being the battles of Lexington and Concord.) Benjamin Franklin wrote his famous letter to his friend William Strahan:

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Mr. Strahan: You are a member of Parliament and one of that majority that has doomed my country to destruction. You have begun to burn our towns and murder our people. Look upon your hands! They are stained with the blood of your relations! You and I were long friends. You are now my enemy and I am

Yours, B. Franklin[/quote]

Though perhaps not quite a clear victory for the Revolution, this battle indeed did extend its life and increased its support.

~USP


[This message has been edited by USP45 (edited May 15, 2000).]
 
Okay, what about most of the battles by Belisarius? He did it not once or twice but almost always. I would have to dig for the numbers but try 15 thousand vs 150,000. I believe that was one campaign.

[This message has been edited by Glamdring (edited May 14, 2000).]
 
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