You Shall Not Pass/Real Life




 * The Roman legend of Horatius at the bridge is one of the earliest examples of this trope, making it Older Than Feudalism. Horatius is sometimes referred to as "Horatio".
 * On January 26, 1945, Audie Murphy (a real-life example of a One-Man Army if there ever was one) held off a German unit singlehandedly. He used his personal weapon until he ran out of ammunition, then climbed into the burning wreckage of several tank destroyers to use their .50 caliber machine guns until those ran out of ammunition, and then used a field telephone to direct close artillery fire on the oncoming Germans. It should be noted that while he was doing this, he not only was wounded by enemy fire, he was still bandaged from an earlier wound received in combat against the Germans. (He was also fighting in two feet of snow in temperatures that hovered around 14 degrees Fahrenheit.) He kept this one-man battle up for almost an hour before reinforcements arrived at his position. When the reinforcements finally did arrive, he organized them into a counter-attack, which he led, driving the Germans from the field. For being such a balls-out badass, Murphy was awarded the Medal of Honor. Twice.
 * He was also suffering from malaria at the time. The man was a total Badass.
 * Not to mention that he weighed barely over a hundred pounds.
 * He should have been awarded every medal in the Allied inventory for what you just described.
 * He did get every US Medal, as well as French and Belgian medals for it. Wrote his autobiography, which was a bestseller. Then they made a movie of it, where only he was considered Badass enough to play himself. He considered his actions too unbelievable, so he had them tone it down. Still made the highest grossing movie for about 20 years until Jaws. He did pay the price in bad dreams though, suffering from PTSD and using his considerable pull with Congress to get them to approve better mental health care for Vietnam vets. There's a reason why his is the second most visited grave in Arlington (after JFK).
 * Not just that, but apparently those tank destroyers freaking exploded after he stepped out. Movie-style.
 * The 101st Airborne Division got theirs during the Battle of the Bulge, when they held the town of Bastogne for seven days against an entire Panzer corps. When the Germans demanded his surrender, General Anthony McAuliffe sent a one-word reply: "NUTS!"
 * In World War II the three destroyers and one destroyer escort of Taffy 3 threw themselves headlong at the more numerous and ridiculously stronger Japanese naval force (four battleships, one of which was the biggest in the world, as well as eight cruisers and eleven destroyers) off Samar in order to allow their escort carriers to withdraw and to protect the vulnerable transport ships in Leyte Gulf. Between the ferocity of the destroyer attack and heavy air assault by what were considered second rate pilots flying off of cheap-ass escort carriers (boy did that opinion get revised), the Japanese commander in charge of the attack lost his nerve, thinking that Task Force 34 (which was off chasing a decoy fleet) had not taken the bait after all, and he was facing a full U.S. fleet. He called off the attack, and thousands of U.S. soldiers and sailors were spared.
 * The determination of the American sailors during the battle is exemplified by a quote from the Captain of the destroyer USS Johnston. With his ship all but sunk and only one engine remaining, he spotted a Japanese cruiser attacking one of the escort carriers. His response was simply badass: "Fire on that cruiser. Draw their fire on us."
 * Not to be left out, the pilots of Taffy 3, who were equipped with mostly depth charges (for submarines) and bombs meant for land targets, flew against the Japanese anyway, dropping any bomb they could be armed with. When bombs ran out, they strafed the enemy fleet with machine gun fire. When they were out of bullets, pilots continued flying dry runs in the hopes that they would draw fire away from the planes that still had ammo.
 * A quote from an American signal officer on one of the (now badly damaged) escort carriers as the Japanese withdrew: "Goddamnit, they're getting away!"
 * "Hang on, boys - we're sucking 'em into 40mm range!"
 * An interesting note is that this battle was on the 90th anniversary of the infamous "Charge of the Light Brigade".
 * The Captain of the destroyer escort told his crew: "This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can."
 * When the aforementioned USS Johnston was dealt its deathblow by one of the enemy destroyers, it is said by a survivor that the Japanese captain saluted the Johnston as it sank. Such respect from the enemy is testament to the determination of the crew.
 * The destroyer escort USS Samuel B. Roberts (so lightly armed that it's only one step above a cargo ship), closed to point blank range with enemy ships; so close that the Japanese could not lower their guns far enough to target it. Over the course of the battle, the Roberts destroyed the rudder of one Japanese cruiser in one torpedo hit, and set fire to the bridge of another. It was only fatally wounded by a volley from the battleship Kongō, a battleship only out done in tonnage by the infamous Yamato and Musashi. To this day, the Roberts is known as "the destroyer escort that fought like a battleship."


 * Gullies Macbean held a gap in the wall alone against enemy troops trying to outflank the Jacobite army during the Jacobite uprisings and killed 13-14 men with a sword (they had guns) single-handedly including one Lord Robert Kerr. Some stories state that an officer tried to pull his men back to save him after seeing his bravery but he had already been mortally wounded.

"One of the defenders recalled thinking, "Christ, there's no one between us and Port Moresby. If the Japanese get through us, Australia's gone.""
 * The Battle of Pavan Khind was the Indian version of Thermopylae, with 300 Marathan warriors holding a narrow pass long enough for their king Shivaji to reach a defensible position against a superior force and almost dying to the man.
 * The Alamo, where 182-260 Texan revolutionaries held off 2400 Mexican soldiers for 13 days. During the final assault, its estimated that the Texans killed about one third of the attacking Mexican troops before losing all but two of their number.
 * Rorke's Drift, where 139 British soldiers held off thousands of Zulu warriors. Although in all fairness, the Zulus were much more poorly armed; flintlock muskets and guns captured at Ishandlwana were their only firearms.
 * Ishandlwana was such a disaster for the British that there were in all likelihood far more modern rifles in the Zulu force than in the British. However, Zulu marksmanship left much to be desired, and its been said that the Zulu unfamiliarity with firearms led to their treating the range setting on the sights as a power setting for the round. This would cause bullets to miss wildly high at typical combat ranges.
 * The Irish legend of Cú Chulainn had the legendary hero single-handedly preventing the entire army of Connaught from entering Ulster. While tied to a post and using one arm. That is what Badass is.
 * The slogan "They shall not pass" was meant to harken back to ¡No Pasarán! which was a famous Republican (anti-fascist) slogan during the Spanish Civil War. Francisco Franco sent an army to capture the Spanish capital of Madrid. They planned to attack the city through the enormous city park Casa de Campo. The outnumbered, underequipped and poorly trained Republican forces fought them to a standstill when they had barely penetrated the city. Madrid would become the first major city to face aerial bombardment, but would stand unconquered until the very end of the war when all else of Spain had succumbed and the phrase "They shall not pass!" was answered by Francisco Franco's retort, ¡Hemos pasado!, "We have passed."
 * It goes back farther than that, to the Battle of Verdun at least, where it was uttered by General Nivelle. The Germans indeed did not pass. Verdun, by the way, was the site of one of the bloodiest and most horrible battles in all human history.
 * Fittingly, Tolkien served in the British Army during that war.
 * It was used one year later by general Eremia Grigorescu of the Romanian army at the Battle of Marasesti (well technically was something like: "One doesn't pass through here"). The Germans, again, did not pass (although in the previous year they had conquered half the country). They also lost almost 50000 people, the Romanians lost about 27000.
 * "They Shall Not Pass" was the warcry of the anti-fascists at the Battle of Cable Street. The "They" was a British Fascist Union parade led by Oswald Ernald Mosley, attempting to march through the mostly Jewish and Irish East End of London. Incidentally, they did not.
 * Although they did achieve their greatest electoral success directly afterwards. Something of an own goal for the left.
 * Well, not really. It also spurred the creation of legislation banning uniforms for political parties (the BUF were known as "Black Shirts" for a reason) and scared a lot of formerly supportive types. In the long run the BUF fell apart and Mosley got sent to prison for supporting Hitler, so...
 * There's also Dian Wei, of Three Kingdoms China. When Cao Cao was doublecrossed and ambushed by Zhang Xiu, Dian Wei and his unit managed to get him out of the castle and cover his retreat. In the violent battle that ensued, Dian Wei's men were all killed, but he went on to fight with terrifying violence even though he was drunk and his weapons were stolen, first by bludgeoning an enemy barehanded and stealing his sword, then using that sword until it broke, then grabbing a couple enemies and using them as weapons. Allegedly, he was still cursing at the enemies as he died, and his body remained standing. His enemies were so terrified by the ferocity with which he fought, they didn't dare approach his body until they were SURE he was dead, and that bought Cao Cao ample time to flee.
 * Oda Nobunaga's page, Mori Ranmaru, made one such stand at Honnouji's main gate when Mitsuhide betrayed Nobunaga. He failed to hold Honnouji's gate, but not for lack of trying, as Mitsuhide had to set the entire area on fire and throw nearly a third of his army at him and his brothers to finally bring them down.
 * Which is more badass if you consider that up until then he was The Woobie.
 * Speaking of Feudal Japanese fighters, one must not forget Saito Musashibo Benkei. He was a Warrior Monk who stood guard on a bridge and confiscated swords from passing samurais. He was able to defeat 999 of them before losing to warlord Minamoto no Yoshitsune. So Benkei decided to serve Yoshitsune as his retainer. When Yoshitsune lost the war against his elder brother and committed Seppuku inside a besieged castle, Benkei once again guarded the bridge leading to the castle's main gate so no enemy could interrupt his master's ritual suicide. No one who got near him was left alive, so the enemy decided to riddle him with arrows instead. But then he still stood tall blocking the way, biding enough time for his master to die a honorable death. When the enemy gathered enough courage to examine him a while later, they found that he had died, standing up.
 * Filipino general Gregorio del Pilar deserves a mention: when the regiment of President Emilio Aguinaldo was regrouping in Northern Luzon, pursued by the Americans, he was assigned protector of Tirad Pass. Despite being only with about 60 men and facing battalions, they stood their ground to the last man.
 * And of course there's the old joke about the wizened white-bearded professor bellowing this when he sets his students a mid-term.
 * I know who you're talking about, but he's neither wizened nor white-bearded.
 * Tank Man, a Chinese civilian who stopped before some tanks that were used against protesters. The fact that these tanks were on their way home does not make his act less impressive.
 * Also from World War II, the Russian Order 227: Not A Step Back. Similarly, the "Backs Against the Wall Order" issued by Haig in 1918 at the moment when it looked pretty certain that the Germans were going to win.
 * The British military has a history of this.
 * Rorke's Drift 1879, as mentioned above
 * The sieges of Mafeking and Ladysmith in the Boer War, 1900
 * The battle of Mons, 1914, where 2 British Batallions held up four times their number of Germans. They passed, but only at great loss and after being greatly delayed. Though only armed with bolt-action rifles, their rate of fire made the German forces believe that they were facing a large concentration of machine-guns.
 * The Battle of Britain.
 * Operation Market Garden, 1944. The 1st Airborne hung on - against German tank divisions, no less, without any vehicles of their own - for ten days in Arnhem, when they were supposed to be relieved by the XXX Corps in four, and none of the supply drops had reached them.
 * The battle of the Imjin River, 1950. 4,000 men of the 29th Infantry Brigade inflicted 10,000 casualties on the advancing Chinese army and held them up two days before finally being overwhelmed. And even then, only because they'd fired every bullet they had.
 * HMS Jervis Bay, converted cruise liner and sole escort of a 37-ship convoy in WWII. Before being sunk, held off the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer long enough for 32 of the ships to escape.
 * HMS Rawalpindi, converted passenger ship, encountered the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau as they attempted to break out into the North Atlantic in WWII. The ensuing battle was short, only 40 minutes before the Rawalpindi was sunk, but her radio report alerted the British Royal Navy and the battlecruisers were forced to turn back.
 * The British destroyer HMS Glowworm (1,450 tons) faced down the German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper (18,000 tons) alone in the North Sea on 8 April 1940, and, when her torpedoes missed, rammed the larger ship in a last-ditch attempt to take it with her. The impact caused serious damage to the cruiser, and the Glowworm even managed to keep firing at point blank range when she was wrapped around the bows of the larger ship, before breaking off and sinking. The Captain, Lt Cdr Gerard Broadmead-Roope, received the Victoria Cross on the recommendation of the Hipper's commanding officer.
 * Another British Example is the last stand at Saragarhi during the Indian frontier wars in 1897. 21 Sihk soldiers decided to sacrifice their lives to slow a force of 10,000-14,000 rampaging Pashtuns in order to buy enough time for the nearby forts to get reinforcements. That's deciding to stand against odds of ~500-1 compared to the Stand at Thermopylae of around 30-1 (figure varies wildly, based on modern estimates). Includes a moment when the commander of the Sihks gives his men time to fall back by facing the enemy ALONE. They died to a man but slowed the advance for long enough to allow for the later fort attacks to be foiled and inflicted (at least) 180 kills plus many more injuries. All 21 were given the then-equivalent of the Victoria Cross.
 * Dr. Liviu Librescu, Romanian-born Holocaust survivor, scientist and academic professor. On April 16, 2007, Librescu was teaching a class at Virgina Tech when gunman Cho Seung-Hui entered Norris Hall and began shooting into classrooms. Librescu personally kept the door shut to prevent Cho from entering the classroom so his students could escape, saving the lives of all but one of them. It took five shots to take him down. Of course, he had a history, since surviving the Holocaust takes a Determinator in itself...
 * Another World War II example would be the battle of Henderson Field. Hell, the entire series of battles over Guadalcanal qualifies, with a small force of US Marines, Wildcat fighters, and PT boats holding out against disproportionate odds with little support.
 * At one point, two American cruisers chose to fight two Japanese battleships to prevent another bombardment of Henderson Field. Two American admirals and one of the cruisers was lost, but the Japanese force was turned back. The Marine commander, who was earlier angry at how the Navy had abandoned them, would later say that this "You Shall Not Pass" moment did more to save Henderson Field than anything else -- even more than God and his own marines.
 * The above pretty much all applies to the battle for Wake Island as well. Four Wildcat fighters and a detachment of marines held off an Japanese invasion force and sunk several ships in the bargain, infuriating the Japanese High Command so much they sent an entire carrier division to take the tiny island.
 * During World War 2, the Polish 1st Armored Division was assigned to stop an entire German Army from fleeing from the "Falaise Gap". Outnumbered and outgunned, the Polish held their lines against incredible odds that resulted in the death or capture of countless German soldiers - including the bulk of seven Panzer Divisions. At one point, the Polish General told his troops "We are all exhausted, and the ammunition is running out. But there will be no retreat, and no surrender. Tonight we die."
 * Also the Battle of Wizna often called "The Polish Thermopylae", not without a reason... Hell, it got a metal song written for it, "40:1" by Sabaton (video)
 * Towards the end of the World War II, the Soviet grand offensive in Finland culminated in the Battle of Tali-Ihantala where the vastly outnumbered and outgunned Finnish forces (18th division and 5 battalions) were given an order of no retreat, and halted the advance of the Soviet armored battalion and two whole army corps while reinforcements arrived. The battle ended in a decisive victory for the Finnish army and is seen as the reason Stalin forsook the attempts to conquer Finland.
 * World War One had Serbians pull this. Surrounded but unwilling to give up, the supreme command ordered a full retreat along with a lot of civilians and the king himself. Having no other choice, a large detainment of troops were forced to counter-attack Austro-Hungarian and German forces under a barrage of artillery to allow army, refugees and the king to retreat.
 * To this point it even came with a badass quote by Major Dragutin Gavrilović: "Exactly at three o'clock, the enemy is due to be crushed by your fierce charge, destroyed by your grenades and bayonets. The honor of Belgrade, our capital, must not be stained. Soldiers! Heroes! The supreme command has erased our regiment from its records. Our regiment has been sacrificed for the honor of Belgrade and the Fatherland. Therefore, you no longer need worry about your lives: they no longer exist. So, forward to glory! Long live Belgrade!"
 * Fall of Constantinople - the last Byzantine emperor was said to have led an epic last charge of futility against the Ottoman forces... but one could easily see the whole siege as one protracted last stand.
 * Camarón, Veracruz, Mexico, 30 April 1863. An understrength French Foreign Legion company (less than 50 men) surrounded by over 2000 Mexicans. The captain of the company chose to keep fighting to distract the Mexicans from attacking an important French convoy. With no food, little water, and little ammunition, the Legionnaires held out for ten hours -- and then the last six men able to fight, having run out of bullets, fixed bayonets and charged.
 * Then they did it all over again at Dien Bien Phu.
 * According to my father, a Legionnaire, at least in the late 1930s the anniversary of Camerone was the Legion's sole real holiday. All year (though there was extra wine at Christmas).
 * To this day, Camerone is the reason why all Mexican soldiers are required to salute members of the French Foreign Legion, regardless of their respective ranks.
 * In the U.S. Civil War, The 20th Maine was positioned on Little Round Top at the extreme left flank and ordered to "hold to the last". As they ran out of ammunition, the enemy tired, and the trope was subverted.
 * As the ammo ran out, Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain gave the order for bayonets and led a downhill charge that drove off the Confederates long enough for re-inforcements to secure the flank.
 * On October 9, 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, Col. Avigdor "Yanosh" Ben-Gal, commanding the Israeli 7th armored brigade, which by that time was down to 17 Centurion tanks, was defending the Kuneitra salient against the Syrian 7th division, which consisted of over a thousand T-62 tanks and a comparable number of infantry-bearing APCs and artillery pieces. Ben-Gal refused to retreat, and told his men "They will not pass through. The fate of Israel rests on your shoulders. They will not pass." Even though the 7th brigade lost another ten tanks by nightfall, they managed to hold on, and Ben-Gal was made a general after the war.
 * Both the first, and second battles of Thermopylae combined this trope with Delaying Action for retreating troops.
 * The Great Patriotic War of the USSR had two really awesome you-shall-not-pass moments: the Brest Fortress and the Battle of Dubosekovo.
 * During the Battle of Waterloo, both Napoleon and Wellington seemed obsessed with defending a small farmhouse on the flank of the battlefield (Hougoumont). It has been theorised that both thought the battle would turn on this farmhouse, but for one reason or another, they poured men into it. Wellington had it for the entire battle, but early on it looked like Napoleon would take it, possibly winning the battle. One British sergeant held the gates to the Hougoumont closed on his own for several minutes while nearly a quarter of the French army was at the doors.
 * Done twice by the Philippine Expeditionary Force to Korea during the Korean War:
 * First was during the Battle of Yultong Bridge, where the the 10th Battalion Combat Team was sent to hold the bridge in question. This battalion was composed of around 900 troops, and they were facing several thousand Chinese soldiers of two army groups. The Filipino soldiers held the bridge, with total casualties (killed and wounded) numbering 50, with Chinese casualties described as heavy.
 * The second time was during the Battle of Hill Eerie, fought by a UN force composed of American and Filipino soldiers. After the Hill was taken by a Filipino platoon led by future Philippine president Fidel V. Ramos, the Filipinos found themselves having to hold the hill from Chinese attempts to retake it, which included an artillery battle. On the dawn of June 20, 1952, the Chinese had advanced sufficiently to engage in hand-to-hand fighting but the Filipino troops were able to hold the position. By morning, the artillery battle continued but the allied forces successfully defended Hills Eerie and 191. It was estimated that the Chinese forces suffered 500 casualties while the Filipinos only had 24.
 * During the War of the Revolution in the United States, as British General John Burgoyne was advancing down the Hudson Valley with his army, the New York State militia left him a note pinned to one of the trees along his axis of advance: "This far wilt thou go, and no farther." Cue the Battle of Saratoga, wherein the Continental Army and the New York militia handed the British one of the worst defeats in their history.
 * When the Japanese invaded Joseon Korea in the late 1500's, Admiral Yi Sun Shin stopped a Japanese armada attempting to secure an overseas supply route for their northward advance at Myeongdong Strait. The Japanese fleet numbered over 300. Yi had 13. Yi won. Decisively. Undersupplied, the Japanese retreated and eventually abandoned the peninsula.
 * The Battle of Kokoda could be considered this in a way. Virtually all of Southeast Asia had fallen to the Japanese, and all that lay between the as-yet undefeated Japanese forces and Port Moresby (the capture of which would likely have resulted in a total cutting off of Australia from the other allies) was a 60 mile track defended by inexperienced Australian militia. The Australians took massive losses, but managed to stop the Japanese advance in its tracks before launching a counteroffensive, handing the Japanese army their first defeat of the war.


 * During the Yom Kippur War, Israel's 7th and 188th Armored Brigades held the Golan Heights against a far, far numerically superior Syrian force. At one point, the 7th's tanks were outnumbered roughly 12:1, while the 188th's holding actions resulted in its near-complete destruction.
 * In The Korean War, the Battle of Kapyong was this, with Canadian and Australian soldiers defending the Kapyong valley from the invading Chinese. At one point in the battle, the Canadians called down artillery fire on their own positions because they were so overwhelmed. And when an Australian major called a US general for backup, the general thought that all the units were already wiped out. The battle ended with 32 Australians killed, 10 Canadians killed and over a 1000 Chinese killed.
 * A single Viking Berserker in the Battle of Stamford Bridge is said to have held off the Anglo-Saxon forces trying to cross said bridge killing 40 men in the process. He was only killed when a Saxon floated under the bridge and speared from below several hours after beginning to hold of the bridge.
 * It's thought that the warrior, if this is true, probably wielded a Daneaxe, an early and rather large battle axe. If so, he would have probably been able to physically block the bridge by passing the head through a figure-8 motion in front and to the side of his body, smashing spears in half and preventing swordsmen getting close. Voila, one man meat grinder. This is why they had to find a barrel and float a guy downstream!
 * From what I read on Cracked.com (accurate?), the soldier who speared him thought of the idea himself. They compared him to a modern video-gamer hitting the warrior in his only weak spot since he wore heavy armor. His weak spot was his nads. What a way to go!
 * An anecdote told by/about either the 82nd or 101st Airborne Division in World War II: an Allied tank unit was retreating from the Germans, according to most versions during the Battle of the Bulge, when they came across paratroopers digging fighting positions. One of the paratroopers, it's claimed, told the tankers that if they were looking for a safe place, they should pull in behind his foxhole -- "because I'm the __ Airborne, and this is as far as the bastards are coming."
 * At the Karelian skies 28 June 1944, Capt. Hans Wind and Nils Katajainen flew over the Finnish lines, and spotted a regiment (some fifty planes) of Il-2 Shturmoviks, escorted with another regiment of Soviet fighters, flying towards their lines. It was two against one hundred. What did they do? They attacked! (Both survived.)
 * A few of the above examples involve Filipinos or the Philippines, but from an international relations standpoint, the Philippines itself did this for other countries during World War II. Japan opened a surprise attack on the Philippines on December 8, 1941, just ten hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and soon had total control over the sea and air territories of the country. The Japanese planned to completely take the Philippines by March and then proceed to the rest of Southeast Asia. The Filipino forces on land disagreed and fought against the Japanese's superior firepower and forces with nothing but limited ammunition, soldiers, civilian support, while their great ally, America, was busy fighting the Axis Powers in Europe and couldn't send sizable reinforcements to fend off the Japanese. Though they eventually lost to Japan’s superior forces and firepower, The Philippines was able to successfuly slow down the Japanese forces, allowing the other South East Asian nations an additional month to prepare for the Japanese. The day the Philippines finally surrendered, April 6, is a public holiday known as the "Araw ng Kagitingan" ("Day of Valor"), not to celebrate a the inevitable loss, but to celebrate that the country held the line to the point that the opposing Japanese commander was disgraced and ashamed that their forces could not subdue the Philippines within the planned time frame.
 * Legend has it that when Philip II sent the message 'If I enter Laconia, I will raze Sparta,' the Spartans sent a one word reply: 'If.'
 * Henri Winkelman's defense of the Netherlands during World War Two also qualifies. The Dutch, knowing they were outclassed by the Germans, planned to sacrifice most of the country and create a defensive perimeter within the Netherlands for the British or French to use as a beachhead. Although the Netherlands fell, Winkelman, leading a small and poorly-trained Dutch military, held the Nazis for four days and destroyed 500 German aircraft (the largest losses the Luftwaffe would experience prior to the Battle of Britain) in the process. These aircraft included 280 Ju-52 transports, along with 1500 German paratroopers. Despite the fact that the Netherlands eventually fell, the damage done to the Nazi air force was catastrophic, and would permanently damage the Luftwafte.
 * 'The Defense of Fort McHenry' as written by Francis Scott Key (and later adapted into the Star-Spangled Banner) describes the efforts of the aforementioned fort protecting Baltimore to hold back a British fleet sent to take the city. With the earlier destruction of Washington D.C., had Baltimore fallen, the United States would have had to ask for surrender terms in the War of 1812.
 * The Second Battle of Ypres in World War I. When the Germans unleashed the first poison gas attack in history, the French colonial troops facing them broke and ran. Despite the gas, First Canadian Division, only supposed to defend a few hundred metres of trenches, rushed everything they had to plug a 7 kilometre gap in the line with a few scattered French detachments that hadn't broke. For 48 hours, suffering over 33% casualties in facing a horror no soldiers until then ever had, they prevented the Germans from exploiting the attack.
 * The Second battle of Shipka Pass. The pass was defended by poorly armed Bulgarian volunteers and Russians troops, who managed to hold the pass against well armed Ottoman forces (who outnumbered them seven times) for three days until reinforcements arrived. When the defenders ran out of ammunition, they switched to throwing rocks. When they ran out of rocks, they used the bodies of their fallen comrades as projectiles.
 * In 1521, the Holy Roman Empire began an invasion of France through the Ardennes. The town of Mézières was generally agreed to be a position that couldn't be held, but Pierre Terrail de Bayard had 1000 men with which to defend it against an Imperial army of 35,000. Bayard and his troops not only held out -- after six weeks they forced the enemy to back off. He was acclaimed as the savior of France for this.