History Main / TrappedBehindEnemyLines

* The Polish WW2 series ''Czterej pancerni i pies'' had this as a recurring plot device. The titular tank crew would find themselves behind enemy lines either because an enemy counterattack managed to cut off their position or because their mission was to move around the enemy and attack them from behind.

* ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonorAirborne'' not so much as "trapped behind", but more of "dropped behind".

* Parodied in ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus''. The "Ypres 14" sketch had a group of WorldWarOne British soldiers trapped behind German lines. Since there were five of them and only rations for four, they had to decide who would stay behind and "take the other way out" (commit suicide rather than be captured).

* ''Film/SeventyOne'' is about a British Army recruit getting separated from his unit and lost in Belfast during TheTroubles.

* ''Film/TheLostBattalion'' features the eponymous unit of American soldiers surrounded by the Germans in the [[WorldWarI Argonne Forest]].

* The last mission of ''VideoGame/HaloReach'' is this. [[spoiler: The player character is the last surviving member of Noble team on Reach. The mission is a desperate LastStand.]]

** Also AndreNorton's novel ''Star Guard'' (1955)

** The trope probably applies to commando operations in general, as these troops are usually trained to infiltrate behind enemy lines and conduct sabotage--essentially, trapping themselves behind enemy lines intentionally, with the expectation that they may not be extricated easily if at all.

An elite unit of soldiers is cut off behind enemy lines and has to fight their way to safety. It's usually the result of hubris either on the part of the unit or (more often) their higher command.

* ''Film/TheWarriors''

* Literature/HonorHarrington's fate after the break-out from the StateSec ship ''Tepes'', at the end of ''In Enemy Hands''. Followed in the next book by probably one of the biggest {{prison break}}s in all of history, fictional or RealLife, escaping with roughly half a million prisoners and a [[VehicularTurnabout squadron of large warships]].

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** This was dramatized into the film Bat 21, itself based on a written dramatization of the same name (the main rescue pilot was a CompositeCharacter).

* Happens in just about every SvenHassel novel, including an obligatory scene where Sven and his colleagues find themselves in the midst of enemy troops and either get mistaken for a special unit (e.g. [[GermanRussians Volga Germans]] or Foreign Legion), or saved by [[CunningLinguist Porta's quick-thinking chatter]].

* Happens quite a bit in the first book of ''TheSalvationWar'', seeing as everyone who dies ends up in {{Hell}}. Leads to the formation of LaResistance, with the odd historical character or twelve joining, no less.

** This is the basis of the "hedgehog" system of defense, which has long roots in siege warfare, but modernized during World War II with the introduction of the possibility of resupply by air. Defending troops would be concentrated at strategic locations that are easily defensible, even if they can also be easily surrounded. Supply would be conducted by air and large numbers of enemy troops would be tied down and exhaust themselves besieging these positions. If done well, this can be very effective--for example, the Demyansk pocket during World War 2. If the defenses cannot hold, they can be a disaster, as the surrounded troops would have nowhere to retreat and are certain to be annihilated-- eg. the Germans at Stalingrad and Uman and Belarus and Moldova and Budapest and the French at Dien Bien Phu.

* The last mission of ''HaloReach'' is this. [[spoiler: The player character is the last surviving member of Noble team on Reach. The mission is a desperate LastStand.]]

* ''CallOfDuty 4: ModernWarfare'' has the missions "Hunted" and "Death from Above" where the player's SAS Squad must fight to the evacuation point after their helicopter is shot down. Ironically, they were heading home after rescuing someone else from enemy hands. The missions "Heat" and "One Shot, One Kill" also count.

* The German film ''Film/{{Stalingrad}}'', where an entire German army is encircled and trapped inside Stalingrad by a Soviet double-envelopment offensive from both flanks. Based on RealLife.

-> “All units must get used to having Japanese parties in the rear and, when this happens, regard not themselves, but the Japanese, as surrounded.”

* ''BAT21''

* ''FreeSpace 2'' has a bonus mission that drops a small group of starfighters at an unknown jumpgate deep inside enemy space to explore where it leads to record anything they can. The extraction ship drop from hyperspace exactly 15 minutes later and leave immediately if the pilots are not back by then.

* [[SeventyOne '71]] is about a British Army recruit getting separated from his unit and lost in Belfast during TheTroubles.

* The German film ''Film/{{Stalingrad}}'', when the entire German army is cut off and trapped inside Stalingrad by an attack on the flanks. Based on RealLife.

* Several of the Wehrmacht's 'moving pocket' operations on the Russian Front.
** This is the basis of the "hedgehog" system of defense, which has long roots in siege warfare, but modernized during World War II with the introduction of the possibility of resupply by air. Defending troops would be concentrated at strategic locations that are easily defensible, even if they can also be easily surrounded. Supply would be conducted by air and large numbers of enemy troops would be tied down and exhaust themselves besieging these positions. If done well, this can be very effective--for example, the Demyansk pocket during World War 2. If the defenses cannot hold, they can be a disaster, as the surrounded troops would have nowhere to retreat and are certain to be annihilated--eg. the Germans at Stalingrad and the French at Dien Bien Phu during the French War in Vietnam.

* An attack went too far, or didn't get sufficient support from other troops, and the enemy cut off their line of retreat.
* Did not retreat quickly enough from an overwhelming attack, and the enemy cut off their line of retreat.
* Transport failure dumped them in the middle of nowhere.

* [[SeventyOne '71:]] is about a British Army recruit getting separated from his unit and lost in Belfast during TheTroubles.