History OneManArmy / RealLife

** Its more conventionally-armed (76 mm cannon) cousin, the KV-1, was no slouch either. Senior Lieutenant Kolobanov had five of them, [[LetsSplitUpGang and three roads to cover]]. He sent off the two pairs to cover the less risky ones, [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking then dug in to guard the third by his lonesome]], aided by the fact that the road was surrounded by swamps on either side. Then roughly 22 Panzers (likely Czech-made) showed up. The Soviets hit the leading tank and the rear tank and then went to work on the sitting ducks... MookHorrorShow and CurbStompBattle ensued, during which the Kliment Voroshilov tank [[NoSell no-selled]], by various accounts, 135 to 156 direct hits. You may have heard of ''Kolobanov's Medal'' in the same game mentioned above.

* Canadian UsefulNotes/LeoMajor in World War 2. He started his career on D Day, capturing a German half track. Then, he went on to capture 93 German soldiers during the Battle of the Scheldt, and then single-handedly liberated the Dutch town of Zwolle. During a whole night, he stormed the city, firing a machine gun and throwing grenades, making the Germans believe a whole detachment of the Canadian Army was attacking, causing them to retreat.

* WWII also provides an example in [[http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/leo-major-montreal-zwolle-nazis-1.4660487 Leo Major]], a sniper who single-handedly liberated the Dutch town of Zwolle. After the [[ItsPersonal death of a comrade]], he grabbed his friend's firearms and charged into the town. He found a German soldier and told him [[BackupBluff the town was surrounded]], promising their safety if they left quietly. After freeing the man, he wandered through the town firing his gun and setting off grenades to make his threat seem real - before finding the town's Gestapo headquarters and setting it on fire. He took several German prisoners but did have the help of local resistance fighters by then. Upon returning home he kept his exploits secret from his family until an official telegram with words of gratitude arrived from the Netherlands. When asked why he kept quiet, he replied that [[RealityIsUnrealistic he didn't think anyone would believe him]]. The town has a street named after him, and his story is taught in area schools to this day.

* One-ship-navy. In 1591, the English ship HMS Revenge was part of a fleet of 6 ships stationed in the Azores. When they sighted 53 Spanish ships approaching, the other 5 vessels fled, but the Revenge stayed behind because half the crew was sick with fever and Captain Sir Richard Grenville wouldn't leave them for the Spanish Inquistion. People are still arguing about whether or not the Revenge couldn't escape in time or whether Captain Grenville was just crazy enough to order the ship to turn back and attack, but either way the Revenge ended up fighting all 53 Spanish ships on her own. The Revenge was 400 tonnes; the Spanish flagship San Felipe alone was three times her size. The Revenge had a crew of 190 men, half of whom were sick; the Spanish fleet totalled 5,000 men. The Revenge still managed to sink or disable sixteen enemy ships in a battle that lasted for a full day and a night, before eventually surrendering when she ran out of ammo. Of her 190 crew, only 16 survivors made it home.

* During UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest killed more men (30) than perhaps any other military General in recorded history. This does not even include a case where he killed one of his own officers in self defense during a murder attempt.
* One of the highest combat kill scores in human history goes to Heinrich Severloh, the everyman German soldier assigned to man WN 62, the machinegun nest that the Americans optimistically codenamed "Easy Red."[[note]] Each of the Normandy landing beaches were divided on Allied maps into sections designated by a radio phonetic alphabet letter ("Easy" being Allied phonetic for E) and a color. Easy Red was the section of Omaha Beach between Easy Green and Fox Green. Utah Beach ran from Able Green to Charlie Red, Omaha Beach from Dog Green to Fox Red, Gold Beach from George Green to Item Red, Juno Beach from Jig Green to Love Red, and Sword Beach from Mike Green to Oboe Red.[[/note]] Firing [[MoreDakka over 12,000 shots from his machinegun]] and 400 shots from two rifles, he managed to rack up between ''1500 and 2500 casualties'' in a single day's fighting, only retreating when all three of his guns failed due to heat warping. His testimony is, however, rather unreliable when one considers that he also claims that there were only 30 Germans defending all of Omaha, when his own emplacement alone held 19 men... reliable figures aside, no-one doubts that he caused a 'lot' of casualties. When he was taken prisoner, he was afraid to speak about the battle for decades for fear of retaliation, and the American [=GIs=] and their families simply nicknamed the unknown enemy [[RedBaron "the Beast of Omaha Beach."]]

* That's compared to another of history's great snipers, Vasily Zaytsev, who while fighting against the Nazis, only managed to rack up a '''''mere''''' 242 confirmed kills to his name. Zaytsev was active on the front for the very short time, basically less than half a year. Remember, he wasn't an infantryman, he was a Marine, and he was transferred to Stalingrad from the Pacific Fleet only in Summer 1942. By the end of the summer, he was raking kills so quickly that the Soviet media made him a posterboy of all snipers in the army, despite his relatively average kill count. In the end, the brass realized that they [[SlaveToPR couldn't risk him getting killed on the front due to the effect it would have on morale]] and recalled him to Moscow, where he helped organize sniper schools and served as an [[VeteranInstructor instructor]]. Soviet snipers in general, because of the desperate conditions they fought in and how long the brass kept them at the front, tended to rack up enormous kill counts far in excess of other Allied forces, who rotated their snipers through combat zones.

* The first time the German Army encountered a T-34 tank during Operation Barbarossa near the Dniepr river, it was like nothing they had ever seen. A [=PaK=] 36 anti tank gun was brought up to engage it. It [[TheJuggernaut advanced through the gun's fire, ignoring it entirely]], and [[CarFu crushed it underneath its treads]]. It then engaged and destroyed two Panzer [=IIs=] of the 17th Panzer Division before proceeding to carve a nine mile swath through the rest of the German forces sent to destroy it. Finally, the Germans managed to get a howitzer behind it and destroy it at close range. From the German report:

** Its more conventionally-armed (76 mm cannon) cousin, the KV-1, was no slouch either. Senior Lieutenant Kolobanov had five of them, [[LetsSplitUpGang and three roads to cover]]. He sent off the two pairs to cover the less risky ones, [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking then dug in to guard the third by his lonesome]], aided by the fact that the road was surrounded by swamps on either side. Then roughly 22 Panzers (likely Czech-made) showed up. The Soviets hit the leading tank and the rear tank, and then went to work on the sitting ducks... MookHorrorShow and CurbStompBattle ensued, during which the Kliment Voroshilov tank [[NoSell no-selled]], by various accounts, 135 to 156 direct hits. You may have heard of ''Kolobanov's Medal'' in the same game mentioned above.

** It was said that when scout Luke Short was ambushed by a band of fifteen Indians, he draw his pistols and fired back, killing three of them in quick succession. Some of the Indians gave chase on horseback, and Short killed two of them before finally reaching safety.
** Mexican outlaw Augustine Chacon had a habit of going up agaisnt more than one gunfighter and always seemingly won. Like one time where a posse followed Chacon's trail to a box canyon, cornered him in and then called out for his surrender, but, the day-old outlaw decided he wasn't going to. Chacon then equipped himself with two revolvers and charged his pursuers on horseback. Four more cowboys were killed and Chacon rode off with a slight wound to one of his arms.

* UsefulNotes/MiyamotoMusashi gained his reputation after pulling one of these on the entire Yoshioka school. After he beat its two heirs in one-on-one combat, the entire school attacked him with bowmen, gunmen and swords. Musashi ambushed them, killed their figurehead leader and got away.

* If the official record of the eight-hour [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Shewan Battle of Shewan, Afghanistan]] is to be believed, an individual U.S. Marine designated marksman (not a sniper) went 20 for 20 -- 20 kills with 20 shots -- while his platoon and three Afghan police squads was fighting off a company-sized Taliban ambush.

* Cathal Brugha was one of the only rebel leaders to survive the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland. And why's that? When defending his post, he took a whole platoon of British soldiers alone. He ended up in coma for a while and was not thought to survive, but he pulled through (though he was later shot down by his former comrades during the Civil War).

-->Hamilton is really a colossus to the anti-republican party [i.e., the Federalists]. Without numbers, ''he is an host within himself''. [Emphasis added.]

** Scaring off an entire Mamertine (the Sons of Mars) army that harrassed his army's retreat from Sicily by cutting their biggest warrior in half with one blow

** Finally being killed because he was paralysed from behind, because he was too much raw badass to actually kill in face-to-face combat
* German WWI commander Erich Ludendorff called August 8th 1918 the "Black Day" for Germany when it was reported to him entire German units were finding individual British soldiers they could surrender to.

* Canadian UsefulNotes/LeoMajor in World War 2. He started his career on D Day, capturing a German half track. Then, he went on to capture 93 German soldiers during the Battle of the Scheldt, and then single-handedly liberated the Dutch town of Zwolle. During a whole night he stormed the city, firing a machine gun and throwing grenades, making the Germans believe a whole detachment of the Canadian Army was attacking, causing them to retreat.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Rudel Hans Rudel]], Stuka dive bomber pilot of the Luftwaffe, is probably responsible for the single-handed destruction of more stuff than any other person in history. He destroyed over 2000 targets, including, but not limited to, 519 tanks, 150 artillery pieces, a destroyer, two cruisers and a battleship. He also shot down 11 planes.

** Well, each gurkha is a one man army. A ''regiment'' of gurkhas is more than sufficient reason to say "ScrewThisImOuttaHere"

* Captain Benjamin L. Salomon earned a posthumous Medal of Honor during the Battle of Saipan. Among other things, he took on four Japanese soldiers at once, and as his citation stated, he "kicked the knife out of the hand of one, shot another, and bayoneted a third. Captain Salomon butted the fourth enemy soldier in the stomach and a wounded comrade then shot and killed the enemy soldier." Later on, he took over a machine gun whose crew had been killed to cover the withdrawl of wounded Americans. When his body was found after the battle, almost 100 enemy soldiers were in front of his machine gun.

* The Viking at Stamford Bridge. This was a huge, nameless warrior clad in chain mail, a helmet with a nose guard and an axe who stepped up to cover regrouping of Harald Hårdråde's forces after they were ambushed without their armor and pushed into retreat by King Harold Godwinson, the Saxon king during the time. The Norsemen fled across a bridge (later dubbed Stamford Bridge although a bridge by that name didn't exist at the time) to provide a choke point so the English army wouldn't be able to surround them with their metaphorical pants down. Then this man volunteered to stand alone on a bridge wide enough for three men to cross, facing an army thousands strong and ''held''. He stood alone for hours, fighting back against the Saxon horde, killing 40 men and wounding untold numbers. Presumably the Vikings were too busy standing in awe of him to realize they should be using this opportunity to run, because they were still there when the Saxons finally broke through. Oh, and the kicker? he was brought down (according to legend) by an intrepid Saxon soldier who hopped in the river, floated under the bridge and stabbed him in the groin (which based on his exploits presumably provided a pretty damn big target).

** The bomber itself was also one-plane-air-force for the other missions it flew. It bristled with seven extra .50cals compared to a standard B-17E at the time. While adding extra guns was common practice, one of those guns was wired to the pilots control yoke... so Jay Zeemer had a gun to shoot with. These were all added because [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor the crew wanted to take on the missions no one else would fly.]] These included a Skip bombing mission on a carrier [[note]] B-17s normally drop their bombs from an altitude of 10,000ft or higher [[/note]], a low-altitude raid on Rabaul Island, and a ''diving'' attack on Japanese search-lights during a night raid… all these were things that the B-17s smaller cousins like the B-25 Mitchel were used for, and yet, this crew did them any way.
* The ''USS-Enterprise'' CV-06 can qualify as a one ship navy. Especially during the period of 30 October 1942 to 27 May 1943 where it served as the only operation US carrier in the Pacific after the loss of the ''Hornet'' in the Battle of Santa Cruz. At the start of the period the ship sailed out into action with a placard on its deck labeled "Enterprise vs Japan."(the Enterprise won) During this period the ship sank a Japanese battleship and sixteen other ships while crippling 8 more.

* Stanley "Swede" Vejtasa, an American bomber pilot during the Second World War; took down three Japanese Zeroes whilst flying a ''Dauntless''[[note]]a large and somewhat unwieldly dive bomber, not a fighter[[/note]] - one of which tried to ram him. He would then go on to shoot down another seven planes whilst flying a ''Wildcat'' in the Battle of Santa Cruz [[note]]at the time, a somewhat outdated and outclassed fighter craft[[/note]].

* WWII also provides an example in [[http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/leo-major-montreal-zwolle-nazis-1.4660487 Leo Major]], a sniper who single-handedly liberated the Dutch town of Zwolle. After the [[ItsPersonal death of a comrade]], he grabbed his friend's firearms and charged into the town. He found a German soldier and told him [[BackupBluff the town was surrounded]], promising their safety if they left quietly. After freeing the man, he wandered through the town firing his gun and setting off grenades to make his threat seem real - before finding the town's Gestapo headquarters and setting it on fire. He took several German prisoners, but did have the help of local resistance fighters by then. Upon returning home he kept his exploits secret from his family until an official telegram with words of gratitude arrived from the Netherlands. When asked why he kept quiet, he replied that [[RealityIsUnrealistic he didn't think anyone would believe him]]. The town has a street named after him, and his story is taught in area schools to this day.

* If you talked to any gangster in Chicago or New York during the 1920s, they'd tell you that the [[CoolGuns/SubmachineGuns Thompson M1921/M1928]] was expensive and heavy, but could instantly turn one man into a man with the firepower of an entire army.

** There's also the Soviet WW2 sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the most accomplished known female sniper in history with 309 kills, including 36 German snipers sent with [[AssassinOutclassin specific orders to kill her]].

* One of the highest combat kill scores in human history goes to Heinrich Severloh, the [[BadassUnintentional everyman German soldier]] assigned to man WN 62, the machinegun nest that the Americans optimistically codenamed "Easy Red."[[note]] Each of the Normandy landing beaches were divided on Allied maps into sections designated by a radio phonetic alphabet letter ("Easy" being Allied phonetic for E) and a color. Easy Red was the section of Omaha Beach between Easy Green and Fox Green. Utah Beach ran from Able Green to Charlie Red, Omaha Beach from Dog Green to Fox Red, Gold Beach from George Green to Item Red, Juno Beach from Jig Green to Love Red, and Sword Beach from Mike Green to Oboe Red.[[/note]] Firing [[MoreDakka over 12,000 shots from his machinegun]] and 400 shots from two rifles, he managed to rack up between ''1500 and 2500 casualties'' in a single day's fighting, only retreating when all three of his guns failed due to heat warping. His testimony is, however, rather unreliable when one considers that he also claims that there were only 30 Germans defending all of Omaha, when his own emplacement alone held 19 men... reliable figures aside, no-one doubts that he caused a 'lot' of casualties. When he was taken prisoner, he was afraid to speak about the battle for decades for fear of retaliation, and the American [=GIs=] and their families simply nicknamed the unknown enemy [[RedBaron "the Beast of Omaha Beach."]]

* There's also the Soviet WW2 sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the most accomplished known female sniper in history with 309 kills.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Rudel Hans Rudel]], Stuka dive bomber pilot of the Luftwaffe, is probably responsible for the single-handed destruction of more stuff than any other person in history. He destroyed over 2000 targets, including, but not limited to, 519 tanks, 150 artillery pieces, a destroyer, two cruisers and a battleship. He also shot down 11 planes. Reading the achievements section of his Wikipedia article indicates he was pretty badass. Quite good looking, too.

* If you talked to any gangster in Chicago or New York during the 1920s, they'd tell you that the [[CoolGuns/SubmachineGuns Thompson M1921/M1928]] could instantly turn one man into a man with the firepower of an entire army.

* During UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest killed more men (30) then perhaps any other military General in recorded history. This does not even include a case where he killed one of his own officers in self defense during a murder attempt.

** [[ReluctantWarrior York was also a pacifist]] that went back to the battlefield [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming to pray for both his dead comrades and the Germans he'd killed]].

** This total is actually very doubtful and outright disproven by Soviet records of losses in the same sector. It turned out to be a work of propaganda: contemporary sources show Hayha being credited with 219 kills in total, a more reasonable number (and possibly still overstated). The 705 figure is likely counting ''all'' kills made by his unit as his own, a common propaganda tactic at the time. Still impressive.

* Besides UsefulNotes/SimoHayha, there was Igor Sigorenko, who had about 500 confirmed kills, the most of any soldier on the Allied side. Noah Adamia is worth noting, in that he was the most prolific sniper (with about 300 kills) to actually die in battle.

** The Germans had an even nastier surprise when they met the TonkaTough Kliment Voroshilov (KV) heavy tanks, especially the massive KV-2, which mounted an enormous [[{{BFG}} 152mm anti-fortification howitzer]] and was nicknamed "Dreadnought". When the 6th Panzer Division established a bridgehead on the Dubsya River, ''one'' KV-2 held the entire division off for a day. It wasn't destroyed either - it retreated when it ran out of ammunition. (This event was the basis for the infamous ''Raisenai Heroes'' medal in ''VideoGames/WorldOfTanks'')

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Rudel Hans Rudel]], Stuka dive bomber pilot of the Luftwaffe, is probably responsible for the single-handed destruction of more stuff than any other person in history. He destroyed over 2000 targets, including, but not limited to, 519 tanks, 150 artillery pieces, a destroyer, two cruisers and a battleship. Reading the achievements section of his Wikipedia article indicates he was pretty badass. Quite good looking, too.

* 20-year old SS-Sturmmann Anti-Tank Gunner Fritz Christen, 3rd Waffen-SS Division Totenkopf, was left the lone survivor of his AT gun battery after a Soviet counter-attack with tanks and infantry wiped out the rest of the battery on September 24, 1941. He manned his gun for 3 days, fighting with his submachinegun when attacked by infantry, crawling among leftover guns to drag ammo boxes for his weapons, firing at Soviet tanks with his AT gun when they approached. When German reinforcements found him, they counted 13 destroyed tanks and about 100 dead Soviet soldiers.

* One of the highest combat kill scores in human history goes to Heinrich Severloh, the [[BadassUnintentional everyman German soldier]] assigned to man WN 62, the machinegun nest that the Americans optimistically codenamed "Easy Red."[[note]] Each of the Normandy landing beaches were divided on Allied maps into sections designated by a radio phonetic alphabet letter ("Easy" being Allied phonetic for E) and a color. Easy Red was the section of Omaha Beach between Easy Green and Fox Green. Utah Beach ran from Able Green to Charlie Red, Omaha Beach from Dog Green to Fox Red, Gold Beach from George Green to Item Red, Juno Beach from Jig Green to Love Red, and Sword Beach from Mike Green to Oboe Red.[[/note]] Firing [[MoreDakka over 12,000 shots from his machinegun]] and 400 shots from two rifles, he managed to rack up between ''1500 and 2500 casualties'' in a single day's fighting, only retreating when all three of his guns failed due to heat warping. His testimony is, however, rather unreliable when one considers that he also claims that there were 30 men defending Omaha, when his own emplacement held 19... reliable figures aside, no-one doubts that he caused a 'lot' of casualties. When he was taken prisoner, he was afraid to speak about the battle for decades for fear of retaliation, and the American [=GIs=] and their families simply nicknamed the unknown enemy [[RedBaron "the Beast of Omaha Beach."]]

* One of the highest combat kill scores in human history goes to Heinrich Severloh, the [[BadassUnintentional everyman German soldier]] assigned to man WN 62, the machinegun nest that the Americans optimistically codenamed "Easy Red."[[note]] Each of the Normandy landing beaches were divided on Allied maps into sections designated by a radio phonetic alphabet letter ("Easy" being Allied phonetic for E) and a color. Easy Red was the section of Omaha Beach between Easy Green and Fox Green.[[/note]] Firing [[MoreDakka over 12,000 shots from his machinegun]] and 400 shots from two rifles, he managed to rack up between ''1500 and 2500 casualties'' in a single day's fighting, only retreating when all three of his guns failed due to heat warping. His testimony is, however, rather unreliable when one considers that he also claims that there were 30 men defending Omaha, when his own emplacement held 19... reliable figures aside, no-one doubts that he caused a 'lot' of casualties. When he was taken prisoner, he was afraid to speak about the battle for decades for fear of retaliation, and the American [=GIs=] and their families simply nicknamed the unknown enemy [[RedBaron "the Beast of Omaha Beach."]]

* One of the highest combat kill scores in human history goes to Heinrich Severloh, the [[BadassUnintentional everyman German soldier]] assigned to man WN 62, the machinegun nest that the Americans optimistically codenamed "Easy Red." Firing [[MoreDakka over 12,000 shots from his machinegun]] and 400 shots from two rifles, he managed to rack up between ''1500 and 2500 casualties'' in a single day's fighting, only retreating when all three of his guns failed due to heat warping. His testimony is, however, rather unreliable when one considers that he also claims that there were 30 men defending Omaha, when his own emplacement held 19... reliable figures aside, no-one doubts that he caused a 'lot' of casualties. When he was taken prisoner, he was afraid to speak about the battle for decades for fear of retaliation, and the American [=GIs=] and their families simply nicknamed the unknown enemy [[RedBaron "the Beast of Omaha Beach."]]

* WWII also provides an example in [[http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/leo-major-montreal-zwolle-nazis-1.4660487 Leo Major]], a sniper who single-handedly liberated the Dutch town of Zwolle. After the [[ItsPersonal death of a comrade]], he grabbed his friend's firearms and charged into the town. He found a German soldier and told him [[BackupBluff the town was surrounded]], promising their safety if they left quietly. After freeing the man, he wandered through the town firing his gun and setting off grenades to make his threat seem real - before finding the town's Gestapo headquarters and setting it on fire. He took several German prisoners, but did have the help of local resistance fighters by then. The town has a street named after him to this day. Upon returning home he kept his exploits secret from his family until an official telegram with words of gratitude arrived from the Netherlands. When asked why he kept quiet, he replied that [[RealityIsUnrealistic he didn't think anyone would believe him]].

* Alvin York singlehandedly wiped out a German machine gun nest in WW I, making the leader of that nest (according to Cracked.com, 133 people) surrender to him.
** This really doesn't do him justice. He took fire from 32 machine guns and took out twenty of them with fire form his M1917 Enfield rifle before they gave up.
** And they surrendered because he's an ''American''. To quote, Germans at that times often thinks that Americans are the sissy ones compared to British gentlemen. So it was basically like: "If the Americans are like this, ''then how about the British?'' Fuck it, I'm outta here!"
** [[ReluctantWarrior And he was a pacifist]] that went back to the battlefield [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming to pray for both his dead comrades and the Germans he'd killed]].

* The Viking at Stamford Bridge. This was a huge, nameless warrior clad in chain mail, a helmet with a nose guard and an axe who stepped up to cover regrouping of Harald Hardrada's forces after they were ambushed without their armor and pushed into retreat by King Harold Godwinson, the Saxon king during the time. The Norsemen fled across a bridge (later dubbed Stamford Bridge although a bridge by that name didn't exist at the time) to provide a choke point so the English army wouldn't be able to surround them with their metaphorical pants down. Then this man volunteered to stand alone on a bridge wide enough for three men to cross, facing an army thousands strong and ''held''. He stood alone for hours, fighting back against the Saxon horde, killing 40 men and wounding untold numbers. Presumably the Vikings were too busy standing in awe of him to realize they should be using this opportunity to run, because they were still there when the Saxons finally broke through. Oh, and the kicker? he was brought down (according to legend) by an intrepid Saxon soldier who hopped in the river, floated under the bridge and stabbed him in the groin (which based on his exploits presumably provided a pretty damn big target).

** Jonathan R. Davis was a miner who was striking a claim in California when eleven bandits suddenly ambushed him. Easy to say that when he drew his pistols and knife, there were eleven bandits less in California afterwards.