Favourite Last Stand Action

F

Fix bayonets

Active member
What is everyone's favourite Last Stand Action?

You can nominate more than one if you so wish but please state why you have chosen that/those particular action and tell us the story of battle as YOU have seen it,if someone has put the battle or action on previously and your version of events differs tell it how you know it.

My favourites are:

1. The Battle of The LittleBighorn (Custer's Last Stand)-I like this action because even though some of the cavalry men of Custer's command tried to get out of the trap, they were not cowards, they were very brave, because they had to fight all of the way and it takes a great deal of courage to go towards people who wish to kill you. But those who relised there was no chance of getting out alive and chose to die fighing they are the bravest of the brave.

2. Isandlwana-I like this action because even with all hope lost the British and Colonail troops fought to the end.

Even when the Imperial troops of the 1st Battalion and one company of the 2nd Battalion 24th Regiment of Foot and other native and auxilary units were running low on ammunition or their ammunition completely exhausted and fighing im small groups, they manged to hold off the massed Zulus (for a short amount of time) with bayonets, riffle butts and bare hands.

One Zulu warrior saidafterwards "Those redcoats how few they were but how they fought..."

3. Maiwand-The 66th Regiment of Foot had to brewak their defensive square after a a nearby Indian regiment's square was also broken by Afghan horsemen. The 66th took refeuge behind a garden wall and was attacked by Afghans on foot, the fighing was fierce and hand-to-hand. With their casualties mounting and their ammunition running low. The survivors of the 66th Charged out from their defensive position in a final bid for freedom. The were cut off by Afghan horsemen nd surrounded. The 66th numbers down to 12 men formed a rally sqaure and fought to the end.

I like this action because the Last Stand 66th showed that the men of the 66th fought and died gallantly and in a way accepted death.
 
Well. I aren’t preferable to making a last stand. But as for my favorites (favorites? :shock: )


1. Cameron, Mexico. Yep it’s the French Foreign Legion. It shows that you don’t have to have quantity to make a larger force suffer to the max. Although this one had survivors...it was a slug match to the end.

2. Strong Point Isabelle, Fortress of Dien Bien Phu, Viet Nam. This was the last of the fortified points to fall to the Vietnamese during this epic siege. Once again, this strong point fell after the Foreign Legion made one, last bayonet backed attack.

3. Islandwanda, Africa: yep, those British fought to the last man against the Zulus...1400 British against 30,000 Zulus. When they ran out of ammunition it was bayonets and hand to hand. And they died in those little neat squares.

4. And one little ship...the Jervis Bay. In 1940 this was a liner given a few artillery guns and sent to escort freighters in the Atlantic. She was assigned as the only escort for a convoy of 37 ships when the convoy ran into a German battleship Admiral Scheer. Rather than running for their lives and allowing her convoy charges to be sunk by the German, the Jervis Bay put herself in between the convoy and the other, and repeatedly attacked the larger German. After an aborted attempt at ramming her larger opponent, and quite ventilated by shellfire, she finally slipped under the sea. Of her crew of 255, only 65 were rescued. Her sacrifice wasn’t in vain: the convey only lost five ships to this Germans pursuit.
 
last stands

couple of fav's

1) ISURAVA-39th Australian millitia battalion (150 men), with peicemeal reenforcements from 2/14 AIF(350) men, and 53 millitia(250 men). also the 2/16 joined later.

They held off attacks from 10,000 japanese(5000 were employed in frontal attacks ,while the rest were employed in a movement to outflank the aussies)
for three days they fought, untill lack of ammunition and overwhelming numbers forced them into a fighting withdrawal furthur down the kakoda track.

some that were cut off took 21 days (19 without food) walking thru the jungle untill they got back to friendly forces.

one of the most interesting things that happened was that 1 day before the battle 30 troops (the worst wounded ones) were ordered to go back to port moresby this quote by their medical officer sums it up nicely: "The battalion was in trouble, so twenty seven of the thirty went back. The three who didn't were minus a foot; had a bullet in the throat, and a forearm blown off. We never did it for God, King and Country-forget that. We did it because the 39th expected it of us."

2) the 24th foot ( south wales borderers) at Chilianwalla 1849 and Isandlwana 1879 were nearly wiped out in both of these battles.
3) 24th foot at rorkes drift.
4) The 11th foot (devonshire regiment) at Salamanca in the penisular war.
they got into a fierce volloying contest and came out of it with 4 officers and 67 men.
 
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