Your nation's most epic military last stand

[Kraslavia]

Defence of Kamiennyje Ostrovy - 250 soldiers of Kamiennostrovskij Pouk Obrony Nabzezeh (Kamienne Ostrovy Costal Defence Regiment) for one week defend forts and airstrip against Vanhanian fleet. They fought to last man. From guns to rifles, than to pistols. In the end commander Boris Nikolayevich Ratycykij killed with sabre 5 or 6 vahric soldiers, before died at his post.

[Awyyn]

The ancient fall of the Outer Empire (which has sense been reclaimed within the last year) nearly 1600 years ago. When the ruler at the time, Empress Aurora was informed of a large scale impending assault against the Outer Empire she decided to seal the Inner Empire and abandon the Outer. (Thus the Inner and Outer Empires were created)

Without warning those of the Outer Empire were suddenly and fiercely attacked. When it was clear that aid was not coming, and the army was ordered to retreat the Heads of the High Houses ruling in the Outer Empire ordered the armada to evacuate as many civilians as they could. For three weeks the High Houses of Tovgorod (official Imperial Name of the Outer Empire), and their legions fought to hold the port of the same name while thousands were evacuated across the sea. When even the walls had fallen the soldiers of the Empire stood firm in the streets holding to the last to ensure that the port itself remained secured. Even after the last ship had fled the port the fighting continued until at last they were no more. An army of 200,000, the largest part of the Imperial Armed Force at the time, fell during this time in order to protect the retreating civilians.

After the Veil was put in place the Inner Empire was sealed away for the next 1600 years, and only recently it has been discovered that there are a few hundred descendants of survivors that managed to escape inland.

[Ubaria]

Battle of Isthmia - Second Greek Civil War
March 1963

The 33rd Infantry Brigade, part of the 1st Infantry Division under the New Democratic Greek Army were tasked with holding a key rebel strongpoint in the town of Isthmia, a strategic town for its position linking two parts of Greece together. On the 15th March 1963 it came under heavy fire from 3 Mechanized Divisions and an Artillery detachment of the Pro-Soviet Government which was attempting a crackdown on any rebels as part of the operation to destroy any resistance.

At first the battle was no more than small firefights at the edge of the town, however severe artillery bombardment reduced most of the city to rubble, with only a few key buildings standing. When the government marched in with tanks and armored trucks, they expected a crushing victory, they were wrong. With reinforcements on the way, the 33rd would hold Isthmia for 4 weeks whilst outnumbered 5:1, and lacking armored support or artillery. Eventually they were reinforced, but not after taking 70% losses including various commanders and weapons caches.

[Eurasian Socialist Federation]

Due to the ESF being the USSR in the 2030s, and no major war was fought other than the Second World War, here is the Battle of Stalingrad:

The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943) was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies
fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in the south-western Soviet Union. Marked by constant close quarters combat and disregard for military and civilian casualties, it is amongst the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare. The heavy losses inflicted on the Wehrmacht make it arguably the most strategically decisive battle of the whole war.[13] It was a turning point in the European theatre of World War II–the German forces never regained the initiative in the East and withdrew a vast military force from the West to replace their losses.

The German offensive to capture Stalingrad began in late summer 1942 using the 6th Army and elements of the 4th Panzer Army. The attack was supported by intensive Luftwaffe bombing that reduced much of the city to rubble. The fighting degenerated into building-to-building fighting, and both sides poured reinforcements into the city. By mid-November 1942, the Germans had pushed the Soviet defenders back at great cost into narrow zones generally along the west bank of the Volga River.

On 19 November 1942, the Red Army launched Operation Uranus, a two-pronged attack targeting the weaker Romanian and Hungarian forces protecting the German 6th Army's flanks. The Axis forces on the flanks were overrun and the 6th Army was cut off and surrounded in the Stalingrad area. Adolf Hitler ordered that the army stay in Stalingrad and make no attempt to break out; instead, attempts were made to supply the army by air and to break the encirclement from the outside. Heavy fighting continued for another two months. By the beginning of February 1943, the Axis forces in Stalingrad had exhausted their ammunition and food. The remaining elements of the 6th Army surrendered. The battle lasted five months, one week, and three days.

[Davinhia]

What is YOUR most epic military last stand ? Final Battle, Davinhia Defense 1

Did they succeed, partly succeed or fail ? Fail

How many soldiers opposed the ennemy ? 1,232

During the first Davinian defense, Canwall used the rest of their military on the capitol. 1,000,000 soldiers flanked us. With it being the final battle, all sides of the war attacked eachother. Being low on numbers, we were able to make them surrender when they had a very low amount at the grove street capitol building.

[Nocturnalis]

"Last Stands" are a common occurrence in Noctish history. The most famous is the Battle of Paentmarwy.

The Battle of Paentmarwy (1945) was the final, decisive battle in the Noctish Civil War (1937-1945). This war was fought between the Royal-Lunist Army and the Army of the Republic of Nocturnalia over ideological differences. Republican forces were ambushed by the Lunists near the town of Paentmarwy, caught out in the open with little cover. The Battle was a last stand for the Republicans, whom would ultimately lose both the battle and the conflict, resulting in a Lunist victory and the establishment of the Second Empire. Upon the Declaration of the Imperial Federation, the bravery and resolution of the Royal-Lunist Army is commemorated every year on Lunaer Day.

[Arko-Oklahoma]

The wars against Texas(The Arko-Texan and Texo-Oklahoman wars) had 1 turning point. The battle of Norman, a city about 20 miles south of Oklahoma city, the capitol of then what was just Oklahoma. Norman had been invaded and occupied by Texan forces who were using it to attack Oklahoma City. A brigade of war weary soldiers stationed at Moore rushed the military garrison in Norman and were successful at commandeering the Texan air force that had been stationed there and cutting off supply lines. After taking control of the air force, reinforcements from Fort Sill and Tinker had surrounded the city and took all of the soldiers as P.O.W's and took their technology, which they and the Arkansans used to turn the tide of the war.

[Torsiedelle]

The Battle for Anvil Mountain Castle, July, 1946

The last major battle of WWII for the Old Empire, a small force of Imperial Legionaries and armor held out against the Soviet Assault. Supported by SA-40 tank destroyers, a heavy tank group and several hundred infantry held up in the Castle, built upon an artificial flat hill in Stavropol Krai, and fought to near destruction against the Red Army. The Soviets were held back, but the castle was still later surrendered. The next month, the Empire ceased to exist as a political entity, when the Imperial Legion took control of the government and made peace with the Soviet Union.

Anvil Mountain Castle was also the site of the final stand of Asiatic invaders, when, in 1558, the King's 1st Regiment surrounded the Mongoloids, who had attempted to take the fortress. Armed with arquebuses and canons, the Imperial troops wiped out the invaders in a brutal slaughter that kept other forces from attacking the empire for the next several decades.

[Felvenia]

Battle of Fetom Hill: It is the 24th of July, 1949. Felvenia has been under Jongerb control for over 25 years. Resistance groups are highly prevalent in the north of the country, mostly around the northest major town in Felvenia, Patrek. There are also many forests. There are small underground groups in Mutren, the capital that is located in the north-east. There is also strong resistance in the south, as the industrial city of Nupsen has been held by resistance troops for an astonishing 25 days before being forced to retreat by Jongerb artillery. Jongerb military presence, however, is strongest in the east, and there have been no attempts to liberate the eastern cities of Jozro and Gapno.

2 Resistance platoons of around 90 resistance fighters have been forced to retreat to Fetom Hill, the highest peak of Felvenia at 687 meters above sea level. The reason? A battalion of Jongerb forces, numbering around 200 men, has been hot on their tails ever since they retreated from Nupsen. They've been chasing them for 3 weeks, and they know that the Felvens can't run any more. The altitude advantage used by the Felvens was put to good use. They have been holding the hill for a week, inflicting maximum casualties upon the enemy using the heavily-wooded hill, but still lost around a dozen men. After the humiliating defeat, the Jongerb called in for reinforcements, and with no honour at all, the Jongerbs ordered an air strike. The bombers roared overhead, dropping something similar to napalm. The entire hill burned, taking the Felvens with it. Afterwards, the Jongerb went up to the hill and finished off anyone who survived. On the peak of the hill, today stands a monument with a resistance member raising a Mosin-Nagant, the iconic weapon used by the Felvenese Resistance during Jongerb rule. It is said to picture Ulrich Roptrov, who was promptly captured after surviving the fire. He raised his Mosin-Nagant at the Jongerb searching party, which he promptly found out was empty. He was executed a couple of days later, with his famous last words being: "The Jongerb will give you a shovel to bury your own grave, the Jongerb will give you pain so you can only suffer, but only a Felven will give you true freedom!". The battle symbolizes Felvenese determination and loyalty, and the Jongerb's use of unhonourable and unethical techniques just to gain the upper hand.

[Imperium Sidhicum]

Well, there's quite a few.

In Battle of Krodoss VII, 2243, the combined task force of Alpha, Gamma and Sigma Legions held their ground on one of the moons of Krodoss VII against overwhelming Skargh forces in a desperate attempt to delay the Human-Skargh Coalition in their advance towards Charybdis Rift, a space-time anomaly greatly extending starship jump distances, the control of which would enable Coalition fleets to strike deep into the heart of the Imperium.

Initially, the Sidh forces numbered around 6 million, the defense force being composed of exactly 1/3 of each respective legion. The numbers of the enemy have never been precisely accounted for, numbers being greatly exaggerated for propaganda purposes, but even human and Skargh historians estimate that Sidh forces were outnumbered at least 10 to 1 and would have to fight under complete enemy aerospace superiority and incessant orbital bombardment. Although wiped out almost to a man, fewer than 500 managing to evacuate off-world, the Krodoss VII task force did succeed in their assigned task, delaying the enemy as planned and allowing Imperial fleets to reinforce Charybdis Rift area, allowing them to hold the enemy off for more than a year afterwards.

To this day, a jar of the barren soil of the sixth moon of Krodoss VII is one of the most treasured battle-trophies of Alpha, Gamma and Sigma Legions, as are several dozens of enemy flags taken in that battle.

The Skargh, being a fearsome martial race, esteemed the bravery of Sidh defenders and would themselves erect a shrine for the fallen Sidh defenders who had proven themselves such challenging adversaries. The shrine stands to this day, and is one of the few locations in the Imperium which the Skargh are permitted to visit to pay their respects during the occasional cease-fires with the Skargh empire. Descendants of the Skargh who fought in that fabled battle indeed do visit, given the chance, to honour their own ancestors and those who proved truly worthy foes to them.

[Paleoworld Texas]

Well, aside from the stand at the Alamo, there is one other noteworthy last stand in Texian history...

The Stand of the Guadalupe Battalion, where the saurs of the 2nd Battalion, 34th Infantry Division made a stand in the cities of Guadalupe and Monterrey in the Fall of 1916, which had been captured by the Texian Army back in March of that year, against eight Mexican divisions who mounted a desperate assault to retake the area from the entrenched Allies. The 2nd held on for nearly two weeks from September 7 onwards but were eventually overwhelmed as their compatriots regrouped to the north of the city to launch a counter-assault and by the 29th, only twenty of the 450 original members of the Battalion were able to return to divisionary headquarters near the muncipality of Doctor Gonzáles. The others were either killed, wounded and thus left behind in the city with medics, or had been taken prisoner by the Mexicans, Battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Warren McGrath being unaccounted for; reports were that he fought alongside his saurs, firing his M96 pistol at the marauding enemy and even used his ceremonial Army saber in several CQC encounters with individual Mexican soldiers before he finally fell in battle somewhere between the 16th and the 21st.

The attack was soon repelled by the end of the first week of October with heavy losses inflicted on the Mexicans and Texas continued its control of Guadalupe though with significant cost. A memorial was erected in Guadalupe in 1986 on the 70th anniversary of the end of the 2nd Battalion's stand with ten of the surviving members of the Guadalupe Battalion and their families attending to commemorate the memorial and honor the memories of their lost brothers-in-arms.

[Ainin]

The Battle of Outpost Bravo, the opening battle in the Concordian War.

[Mensirada Nysgceballada Ghebanea]

The 385th Knights Battalion held out against Inferius forces outnumbering them 666,000:1 in the Human-Inferius War, as humanity was driven back to Gheba. They were slaughtered, but the civilians managed to escape the Inferius's ravening grasp.

[Kettering Town]

1934 The last stand of the Airship Ambassador, its crew held off the 100 strong maxtopian invasion fleet until its port manoeuvring engines were silenced and the ship dived nose first into the lead maxtopian ship, on a hill where the battle took place a plaque stands there with a gun from the ambassador only 5 crew members lived to tell the tale.

[Russkaya Imperiya]

The First Battle of Warsaw in 1940 in which 15,000 German soldiers besieged the Russian city if Warsaw which was defended by 4,000 soldiers and 2,000 militiamen. The battle lasted a full year before the defenders were overwhelmed and were forced to retreat. The city of Warsaw was regained about six months later.

[Kuzbeckistan]

The siege of Tyre where 1,000 Kuzbecki Troops and over 23,000 Civilians were trapped in there for months by the Yishraelis. Every day the Yishraelis would try to attack and Artillery fire was constant

[Arlye Austros]

hmmm, catchy...

I think its the overall case of the Drake Passage War.

As the Second Patagonian Civil War raged, the Military Junta carried out a series of abuses against native population. Among those affected, around 300 Zexians were submitted to internment in work camps, and some were killed in the Sarmiento Incident.

This lead to the involvement of the Zexian Empire on behalf of the Republicans, however it all turned south quickly as the Junta surrundered afterwards and the Zexians continued their attack from the Drake Passage, south of Patagonia.

The Zexian ships launched a full-scale attack from Antartica and invaded Tierra del Fuego. In days, the Patagonian Forces, numbering around 100.000 in the island, retreated north of the Porvenir Area and west of Ushuaia. For weeks, the Patagonians resisted, using mountains and coordinated sea-air strikes to slow down the Zexian advance. Finally, they halted the invasion and a ceasefire was agreed. During the following tensions, Patagonians and Zexians filled the island with troops, until Patagonia entered the Systems Commonwealth, leading to international support ton her side and the treaty that arranged a retreat by the Empire.

[Baxten]

Our most epic battle was the Battle of Vega Springs. Basically, we sent 1500 men to a territory that Nazi Germany took over in our home country of Australia. We were thinking the German force was small, only about 1000. In reality, they had around 71,000 troops. When we got to Vega Springs, we were met with resistance. Many men were slaughtered in the battle. But, a bomb was released, blowing a hole in the German Bunker. Our men courageously charged into the bunker, killing the 61,000 Germans that didn't retreat. The other 10,000 returned to finish the battle, but a tank had come to support us, and the other Germans were defeated. Around 1300 out of the 1500 were killed. It also inspired the Baxten Movie Protecting the Homeland

[Yukonastan]

[OOC: Your nation's Kasserine Pass moment? Counterpart to this thread.]

[Soviet Chernarus]

Although Chernarus's "Greatest military last stand" is often in dispute with historians, these are still more of the common battles that come to mind:

Battle of the Devil's Ridge
-The Chernarussian Revolution
(June 12 - June 23, 1916)

As the rebel forces were annihilated by a more better equipped and trained army, the remnants of the army, numbering around 800 troops, attempted to make a last stand in the northern parts of the province of Chervotsky. As they were assaulted almost 20 times by nearly 8,000 troops, a force 8 times their size, they were able to hold out for 11 days until being overwhelmed. Able to inflict heavy casualties - around 2,000, with 900 dead, rebel generals realized the importance of terrain. The 800-strong force was virtually annihilated, with only 55 survivors.

The Battle of Kassin Lake
-The Chernarussian Revolution
(August - September 1917)

Fought near a lake named after a local hero, a 1,000 strong rebel force in Mithuania fought against Kochov's almost 12,000 strong force, sent to crush the rebellion. In a brutal battle lasting from late-August to mid-September, the rebels, who fought in the forests surrounding the lakes, were able to resist a stronger army with superior equipment and training. They staged ambushes and made traps, as well as learning how to surviving the wilderness. Only 3/4ths, around 750 of the men were armed with rifles. However, despite the cleverness and determination of the rebels, they were eventually annihilated, with around 20 survivors. Some 200 casualties were inflicted to the opposing force, with eighty dead. Largely forgotten by the public, there is a memorial honoring the dead in the battlefield that was erected in 1922.

The Battle of Samsinilaya
-The Chernarussian Second Civil War
(January - March 1951)

Surrounded by pro-democratic forces in the small and insignificant town of Samsinilaya, they were ordered to retreat to nearly government controlled towns; however, the commanding officer chose to fight until the end, to give the main Chernarussian army a chance to retreat. With only 2,000 men, they faced a force nearly 10 times this size - 20,000 men; despite being poorly equipped and trained, they still severely outnumbered. The small defending force were ordered to fight to the death by the officer; managing to repel the first, second, and third wave of attackers, inflicting an estimated 750 casualties while suffering only 100 of their own. However, the fourth and fifth waves managed to penetrate the defensive lines, causing several mile gaps in the defenses. The rebels quickly rushed the defenses, and engaged in a one-month long battle with the force, who successfully delayed the rebels. The entire force was annihilated, except for some 80 survivors.

[The Bjork Confederacy]

The Battle of Staunton, Virginia during the Bjorkan War of Independence. A regiment of 1,000 Bjorkan soldiers were bogged down by heavy rain and surrounded 1 mile east of Staunton by 67,000 US troops. The Bjorkan troops dug trenches and for te next 4 days, the Americans unsuccessfully assaulted their positions. On the fifth day, the Americans captured the first line of trenches and the Bjorkan positions were captured shortly thereafter. Only 37 Bjorkan prisoners were captured, with the 963 remaining soldiers either left to die or already dead. The Americans lost catastrophic numbers with 3,000 casualties on the first day alone. It proved to be a stretch victory for the Bjorkans, as the Americans needed to resupy and retreat without suffering further casualties.

Losses:
Americans: 22,000 (6,000 dead, 15,000 wounded, 1,000 MIA)
Bjorkans: 1,000 (all) (963 dead, 37 captured)