5 Incredible But Lesser Known Last Stands

last stands have always had a way of capturing the imagination with tales of incredible feats of heroism and self-sacrifice where men are faced with impossible odds yet still refused to give up despite certain death yet while famous last stands such as those at Thermopylae the Alamo and Rorke's drift are all well known in the english-speaking world history is littered with countless other examples of incredible last stands that are lesser-known but no less amazing number five the siege of szigetvár in 1566 a small group of less than 3,000 Hungarian and Croatian soldiers held off at the seizuring Ottoman army over 100,000 men strong enduring waves of overwhelming attacks of elite enemy soldiers and relentless bombardment from terrifyingly powerful weapons refusing to surrender at every step of the way by the time the seed was over the leaders of both armies would be dead along with nearly all of the 3,000 defenders and as many as 20,000 Ottomans in a bitter clash that was later referred to as the battle the saved civilization although the ottomans had been victorious the cost had been high and the last stand of the 3,000 is considered by many to have been responsible for postponing an ottoman attack on a Vienna and are saving Europe from Ottoman domination the sixteenth century had been a time of near constant war between the Ottoman Empire and Habsburg dynasty with both sides holding claims over the contested kingdom of Hungary under the brilliant stewardship of the famous sultan Suleiman the Magnificent the Ottoman Empire had grown massively in size and was expanding its reach deep into Europe this expansion had spread great fear amongst the European powers who were keen to prevent any further Ottoman encroachment into Christendom yet age 72 sultan suleiman once again set out to war leading one of the largest armies ever assembled on a campaign to take the Habsburg capital of Vienna an expedition that would prove to be his last sultan süleyman's plan had been to capture the city of echo on his way to Vienna however news reached his ear of a troublesome Croatian nobleman who had been leading attacks on the Ottoman supply trains cowl nikola Zorinsky was a wealthy landowner and seasoned soldier who operated out of his small fortress at szigetvár yet the three thousand men he commanded were seen as no match for the Sultan's great army and so the decision was made to first deal with this minor annoyance before continuing the march on Vienna the Sultan surrounded Zorinsky and his three thousand defenders and the fortress at szigetvár expecting to easily remove this form from his side yet despite being surrounded on all sides by an overwhelming force of at least 100,000 men Zorinsky refused Ottoman demands for his surrender even though he was outnumbered by as much as fifty to one and must have known that there was no chance for victory on August the 6th the battle began as Suleiman ordered his men to attack waves of Ottoman soldiers advanced on the fortress only to be thrown back again and again by the defiant offenders suffering heavy casualties with each failed assault the layout of the fortress made breaking through difficult with each section of the town divided by water which was accessible only via narrow bridges which made excellent choke points large-scale attacks consisting of tens of thousands of Ottoman foot soldiers were repeatedly sent against the defenders over the course of a bloody month of fighting however each time the attacks were repulsed yet with each victory the defenders found the numbers dwindling as more and more of them were cut down in the desperate fighting as the siege began to draw to its inevitable end the last few surviving defenders retreated into the old town under heavy cannon fire and prepared to make the final stand the sultan had been both enraged and impressed by the defiance and bravery of sir insky and his men even going so far as to offer the noblemen leadership of croatia in exchange for his surrender but the stubborn count send no reply and continued to fight on with the fortress walls reduced to rubble and much of the town aflame the final all-out attack was planned however just as victory seemed certain Suleiman died of natural causes in his tent his passing was kept secret from the army for fear that they might give up the battle upon finding out that Sultan was dead and even his personal physician was said to have been strangled so as to keep the secret despite the Sultan's death commanders began the final attack however Zorinsky still had some surprises up his sleeve as the Ottoman army poured into the city the defenders opened fire with a large hidden mortar which had been loaded with broken iron killing six hundred attackers squashed together as they crossed a narrow bridge Zorinsky then lit a burning fuse connected to three thousand pounds of gunpowder which was stored under the fortress and led the remaining survivors on one last charge into the enemy where he was cut down in a hail of arrows and bullets the ottomans dispatched the last defenders and perhaps just as they began to celebrate the long-awaited victory relieved that the seed was finally over they received the rinsky's parting gift as the Gunpowder magazine exploded killing another 3,000 optimum soldiers inside the fortress almost all of zuransky's garrison had been wiped out yet the siege had cost the ottomans nearly 30,000 soldiers crippling the Sultan's army and perhaps forcing him to abandon the plan push towards Vienna thanks to rinsky's incredible last hand Vienna had been saved and it would be over a century before the ottomans would threaten Central Europe again not before the last stand of the Swiss Guard in 1527 the ancient city of Rome was captured and plundered by a leaderless band of rampaging mercenaries the eternal city's population was seemingly forsaken by God as they were subjected to a 10-month long campaign of violence and humiliation at the hands of their new overlords that would see 10,000 murdered in the orgy of violence yet despite such calamity the Pope managed to escape the mobs clutches thanks to the heroic last stand of the Swiss Guard the tiny band of 189 bodyguards holding off the 24,000 strong horde just long enough for the Pope to make his final escape in a rearguard action that nearly Sauron completely wiped out at the time Europe was roughly split into two camps those loyal to the Habsburg LED Holy Roman Empire and those who wish to rein in the Emperor's power led by France and the Pope the Pope wished to free himself from domination by the Holy Roman Empire and so had aligned himself with France however when the French army in Italy was defeated by Imperial oops Rome itself lay vulnerable the men of the Emperor's army had for too long gone unpaid and were growing increasingly mutinous riled up by Protestant elements in the army who viewed Rome as a valid target for religious reasons and further encouraged by men whose main concern was plunder the commander was forced to march on Rome which was known to be rich in loot the army growing in size along the way as bandits and opportunists saw a chance to enrich themselves beyond belief Rome had been less dangerously undefended with just 5,000 militiamen and 189 Swiss Guard manning its walls after all who would risk eternal damnation by striking at the heart of Christendom such a small and unprepared force proved no match for the Emperor's forces and despite brave resistance the city quickly fell however the Imperial Army's commander was killed in the assault the leaderless army entered the city and now lacking any respected commanders all semblance of restraint and order melted away as the wild men began pillaging Rome's numerous treasures churches and palaces were stripped of their wealth while thousands of citizens were robbed and slaughtered as men who had previously suffered at the hands of the Pope's armies unleashed the bloody revenge murder and plunder was in the air yet perhaps the greatest prize still remained a large the Pope himself upwards of 20,000 men descended upon the Vatican however realizing that the Pope's life was in danger 189 Swiss Guards stood in their way the men forming a defensive line on the steps of st. Peter's Basilica in an effort to block the murderous mob from capturing the Pope who was in the process of fleeing to safety the two forces met in a bloody Meli however despite standing their ground and fighting bravely the hundred and eighty-nine elite Guardsmen were overwhelmed by the massive numbers of their foe and the majority of them were hacked to pieces around 40 injured God's managed to withdraw with their lives and fought a desperate delaying action across the escape bridge fending off the frenzied attacks of the imperial troops as the Pope made his way to the safety of a nearby castle despite suffering horrendous casualties the men had spent their blood in a last and that brought the Pope just enough time to escape the small band of bloodied and bruised survivors joining him in the nearby fort where they hope to wait out the sacking of their beloved city for 10 months the plunder and terror would continue during which even the graves of saints would be looted before the Pope was eventually forced to sign a humiliating peace treaty that ceded land to the Holy Roman Empire and greatly damaged his prestige yet thanks to the sacrifice of the Swiss Guards he had survived the sacking of Rome with his life the heroic last stand still recognized to this day with all new recruits being sworn in on may the sick feed year the same date that the gods demonstrated their bravery so many centuries ago number three Sato Benkei in 1189 the life of the near mythical Japanese warrior monk came to an end while single-handedly defending a bridge against 500 samurai who had been sent to apprehend his master the six-foot five man mountain of a warrior is said to have slaughtered three hundred men before finally being impaled by a storm of hundreds of arrows the unusual manner of his death becoming just as legendary as his extraordinary life and known as the standing death of Benkei his loyalty and honor until the bitter end earning him a permanent place in Japanese folklore benkei's origins are shrouded in mystery however he's thought to have been born into humble origins from an early age he proved to be unusual growing much larger than the other boys his age and becoming so unruly but people began calling him The Devil's child frustrated by his behavior his parents sent him to a monastery hoping that life with the monks might taint him however he continued to find himself drawn to trouble until age 17 he left the monasteries to become a wandering bandit monk by now he was far taller than average at the height of six feet five and his time spent with the warrior monks had left him extremely competent in armed combat and endowed him with great strength skills he intended to put to use and he is said to have defeated 200 men in various battles he had participated in using the seven different weapons he carried with him at all times to ruthlessly dispatch his foes disdainful of what he saw as unworthy arrogant samurai he posted himself at a bridge in Kyoto where he would challenge any samurai attempting to pass the either pay at all or fight him in a duel by doing so he is said to have defeated 999 samurai collecting their swords as prizes however one evening while waiting for sword number 1,000 he encountered a young man of small stature who accepted his challenge the fight seemed like an unfair mismatch however seemingly against the odds the young challenger easily disarmed and defeated the strong but slow Benkei with a far superior fighting technique believing that he had finally met a man worthy of the title of samurai Ben Kei became his loyal retainer the young challenger none other than Yoshida soon the man who would go on to establish himself as one of the greatest warriors of the era and candidate for one of the most famous samurai in Japanese history the pair went on to fight in the game PI war their efforts contributing to victory and earning Yoshida soon awards and titles from the Emperor however his elder brother would grow envious of his success and betrayed him having yosh it soon declared an outlaw between 1185 and 1189 Benkei stayed loyal to his master joining him in the life of an outlaw as they hid from the soldiers who hunted them while performing deeds that have become the embodiment of idealism and Dorothy however the pair could not outrun their fate forever they were eventually encircled by 500 samurai at a castle in northern Japan and realizing that there was no hope of escape began making preparations for their last stand your should soon retreated to the inner keep where he planned to commit ritual suicide while Benkei positioned himself on the bridge in front of the main gate blocking the attacking soldiers access to the castle in a bid to by his master enough time to take his own life just as he had done at the bridge in Kyoto all those years ago NK challenged the enemy soldiers to face him in battle 300 samurai are said to have met their end at the blade for the imposing man before the remainder realized that fighting him up close and personal was a near suicidal proposition the 200 men remaining decided to dispatch Benkei from a safe distance and so fired follies of arrows at him from across the bridge dozens of which found their mark and impaled the man where he stood yet amazingly despite the horrendous wounds he suffered from the dozens of arrows piercing his body Benkei appeared to still be standing weapon in hand for a while nobody dared approach the invincible man however eventually the samurai cautiously moved forward discovering that the man had somehow died on his feet perhaps held in an upright position by the arrows somehow his bizarre death written into legend as the standing deaths of Benkei the grizzled warriors lone last stand on the bridge had bought his Master the time he needed to end his life according to tradition his sacrifice becoming the epitome of loyalty honor and duty and widely viewed as the ideal way for a samurai to die number 2 the Saxon house goals at Hastings the year 1066 was a time of great change and turmoil for England a year that would see the reigning king fall in battle after taking an arrow to the eye and an invading force of Normans conquer the country cover for the battles fought that year were not only remarkable because of the impact they had on history but also as being the site of two legendary last stands that perfectly encapsulated the code of honour the warriors fighting the battles adhere to their deeds are coming through the ages long after the men who fought them and passed in January of 1066 the king of England died without an heir leading to a succession crisis as several powerful men claimed the throne Harold Godwinson was crowned king however he had to quickly mobilize his troops to fend off threats from two powerful rivals the first threat came from the king of Norway Harald Hardrada but then a meeting in battle at Stamford Bridge to test which side was worthy of the crown it was during this battle - the first of two incredible last hands to take place in 1066 occur as the English forces rushed forward towards the Viking lines the only route via a small wooden bridge that crossed the river in front of them loomed a lone unnamed bazooka warrior who defiantly plot to the bridge in a bid to delay the English advance and allow the Viking forces more time to organize according to chroniclers of the battle the lone Berserker single-handedly halted the English advance slaying any who dared approach him before eventually being killed after an English house-call swam under the bridge and speared him in the groin from below the Berserker stand was ended however not before his great axe had claimed the lives of over 40 English warriors yet his sacrifice proved to be in vain as the English pored over the bridge and defeated the Viking army killing Harald Hardrada in the process Duke William of Normandy now remained the English Kings last opponent and after hearing that the Normans had just crossed the channel from France the King rushed his battle weary men south to meet the man decide who would rule England once and for all the two forces clashed at the small village of battle which has been named after the historic fight and despite king harald holding the high ground which was the perfect defensive position of his infantry the eager warriors were lured out of formation and charged down the hill when Duke Williams forces pretended to flee in panic the retreat was a brilliant trick and the Normans turned around and attacked the now vulnerable English infantry in the ensuing chaos of battle King Harald was shot through the eye with an arrow and killed yet despite the majority of his army quickly routing his loyal house calls the backbone of his army and elite bodyguards who were sworn to protect him maintained the oath and closed ranks around their dead Kings body where they fought to the death the men surrounded by the victorious Normans and cut down where they stood falling on the same bloody patch of grass where their dead King lay number one the Battle of sera carry on the 12th of September 1897 a small force of 21 Sikhs of the British Indian Army fought to the death against a horde of 10,000 Afghan tribesmen in a defensive battle that's often viewed as one of the greatest last an history and has been compared to the Spartans last and at Thermopylae due to the enormous odds stacked against them facing certain death the men unanimously agreed to defend the remote outpost they were Manning rather than retreat or surrender yet they would not sell their lives cheaply by the time the battle was over as many as six hundred Afghans would lay dead around the ruined outpost the tribesmen made to pay a bloody price for the victory by the bullets and bayonets of the 21 sikhs the volatile area known as the Northwest Frontier Province had always proved troublesome for the British to maintain control over with rebellions attacks and raids by tribesmen a common occurrence in an effort to maintain order in the region five companies of the 36 seek remand had been sent to man a series of forts in the area which had been designed to provide a solid defense against any incursions while quelling any potential arp risings yet two of these forts were out of each other's line-of-sight due to the rocky landscape and so a small communications post had been constructed at Sarah Gauri to enable the two forts to relay messages back and forth the outpost itself was little more than a small block house with a signalling tower that had been built on top of rocky ridge yet it was crucial for the survival of the two forces served and therefore for the defense of the entire region if the outpost fell the to force would be isolated and unable to communicate with each other making picking them off one by one far easier yet despite the outposts importance the Afghan uprising of 1897 had led to the army being stretched thin and just 21 soldiers of the 36th Sikh regiment could be spared to defend it life for the 21 men of the remote outpost might have ordinarily been dull and uneventful the day taken up with monotonous duties in the baking the Sun however on the morning of the 12th of September 1897 a storm was coming one that would cost them their lives but write their names in the history books at 9:00 a.m. while conducting his usual observations the detachment commander sergeant issue ah Singh saw an approaching horde of 10000 Afghans the tribesmen rapidly closing in on the outpost intending to destroy it and thus cut off communications between the two forts had served an urgent request for reinforcements were sent to nearby fort Lockhart however no help was coming out numbered nearly 500 to 1 the 21 men knew they stood no chance against the enemy and at this point could have attempted to retreat or surrender however after holding a brief meeting the unanimously agreed to stand their ground and fight to the last man knowing that doing so might buy the men in the nearby forts valuable time to reinforce and prepare for the coming on sport like the Spartans at Thermopylae the sikhs knew that they could use the narrower approaches to the outpost to their advantage as the enemy would be prevented from deploying their full force at one time instead having to attack through narrow choke points in several smaller groups wave after wave of Afghans were cut down as they crashed against the Sikh lines each time failing to break through the outer wall however with each new attack the sikhs ammunition and strength was dwindling each wave inflicting more irreplaceable casualties on the already tiny group of soldiers while the detailed events of the unfolding battle were broadcast back to the men in the nearby fort in real time by 2:00 p.m. the sikhs were down to just 10 men and virtually out of ammunition yet they still fought on shocked by the stiff resistance they were encountering the Afghan leaders promised the remaining men safe passage if they were just surrender yet such offers were flatly refused desperate to end the battle the Afghans set fire to the bushes around the outpost using the resulting smoke cloud as cover to break through the wall fierce hand-to-hand fighting ensued as the remaining sikhs battled the tribesman with bayonets and bare hands with the sikh leader sergeant ishshah' Singh ordering his men to fall back to the inner wall the badly injured man remaining behind where he sacrificed his life leading a bayonet charge to by his men precious me it's to fall back yet the onslaught could not be stopped and after broadcasting his last message back to the fort the last Sikh remaining alive entered the fray the lone man reportedly taking down 20 Afghans before being overwhelmed and killed with sera gory destroyed the nearby fort was the next target however the 21 sikhs had delayed the Afghans long enough for reinforcements to arrive the fort had been saved when a relief column eventually recaptured sera Gauri the burnt bodies of the 21 Sikh soldiers were found surrounded by the corpses of 600 tribesmen the 21 men who had fought the death were posthumously awarded the Indian Order of Merit which was the highest gallantry award of that time with the events of the incredible battle still celebrated to this day on the 12th of September every year the names and deeds of the remarkable men who sacrificed their lives that day becoming legend so those are my choices for five incredible but lesser-known last stands let me know your thoughts and which lesser-known last stands you would have included in the list in the comments below and I hope to see you again soon

Channel: Unknown5

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Keywords: Last Stands, legendary, incredible, last, stands, unknown5, top 5, top 10, top 15, top 20, history, education, documentary, historical, documentaries, list, spartans, vikings, 1066, Szigetvár, Swiss Guard, Saito Benkei, Benkei, Housecarls, Saragarhi, ottoman, japan, japanese history

Id: k5AZzCiyPjs

Length: 22min 33sec (1353 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 02 2017