History YouShallNotPass / RealLIfe

* Two words: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Man Tank Man]].

*** He did get every US Medal, as well as French and Belgian medals for it. Wrote his autobiography, which was a bestseller. Then they made a movie of it, where only he was considered Badass enough to play himself. [[RealityIsUnrealistic He considered his actions too unbelievable, so he had them tone it down]]. Still made the highest grossing movie for about 20 years until ''{{Jaws}}''. He did pay the price in bad dreams though, suffering from PTSD and using his considerable pull with Congress to get them to approve better mental health care for Vietnam vets. There's a reason why his is the second most visited grave in Arlington (after JFK).

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_shipka_pass#Second_Battle_of_Shipka_Pass Second battle of Shipka Pass]]. The pass was defended by poorly armed Bulgarian volunteers and Russians troops, who managed to hold the pass against well armed Ottoman forces (who outnumbered them seven times) for three days until reinforcements arrived. When the defenders ran out of ammunition, they switched to throwing rocks. When they ran out of rocks, they used the [[Improvised Weapon bodies of their fallen comrades as projectiles]].

* Henri Winkelman's defense of the Netherlands during WorldWarTwo also qualifies. The Dutch, knowing they were outclassed by the Germans, planned to sacrifice most of the country and create a defensive perimeter within the Netherlands for the British or French to use as a beachhead. Although the Netherlands fell, Winkelman, leading a small and poorly-trained Dutch military, held the Nazis for four days and destroyed 500 German aircraft (the largest losses the Luftwaffe would experience prior to the Battle of Britain) in the process. These aircraft included 280 Ju-87 transports, along with 1500 German paratroopers. Winkelman's defense probably saved Britain from an invasion.

* 'The Defense of Fort [[=McHenry=]]' as written by Francis Scott Key (and later adapted into the Star-Spangled Banner) describes the efforts of the aforementioned fort protecting Baltimore to hold back a British fleet sent to take the city. With the earlier destruction of Washington D.C., had Baltimore fallen, the United States would have had to ask for surrender terms in the War of 1812.

* 'The Defense of Fort McHenry' as written by Francis Scott Key (and later adapted into the Star-Spangled Banner) describes the efforts of the aforementioned fort protecting Baltimore to hold back a British fleet sent to take the city. Had Baltimore fallen, the United States would have had to ask for surrender terms in the War of 1812.

* Henri Winkelman's defense of the Netherlands during WorldWarTwo also qualifies. Although the Netherlands fell, Winkelman, leading a small and poorly-trained Dutch military, held the Nazis for four days and destroyed 500 German aircraft (the largest losses the Luftwaffe would experience prior to the Battle of Britain) in the process. These aircraft included 280 Ju-87 transports, along with 1500 German paratroopers. Winkelman's defense probably saved Britain from an invasion.

* Legend has it that when Philip II sent the message 'If I enter Laconia, I will raze Sparta,' the Spartans sent a one word reply: [[BadAss 'If.']]

* On January 26, 1945, Audie Murphy (a real-life example of a OneManArmy if there ever was one) held off a German unit singlehandedly. He used his personal weapon until he ran out of ammunition, then climbed into the burning wreckage of several tank destroyers to use their .50 caliber machine guns until those ran out of ammunition, and then used a field telephone to direct close artillery fire on the oncoming Germans. It should be noted that while he was doing this, he not only was wounded by enemy fire, he was still bandaged from an earlier wound received in combat against the Germans. (He was also fighting in two feet of snow in temperatures that hovered around 14 degrees Fahrenheit.) He kept this one-man battle up for almost an hour before reinforcements arrived at his position. When the reinforcements finally did arrive, he organized them into a counter-attack, which he '''''led''''', driving the Germans from the field. For being such a balls-out badass, Murphy was awarded the Medal of Honor.

*** He did get every US Medal, as well as French and Belgian medals for it. Wrote his autobiography, which was a bestseller. Then they made a movie of it, where only he was considered Badass enough to play himself. He considered his actions too unbelievable, so he had them tone it down. Still made the highest grossing movie for about 20 years until ''{{Jaws}}''. He did pay the price in bad dreams though, suffering from PTSD and using his considerable pull with Congress to get them to approve better mental health care for Vietnam vets. There's a reason why his is the second most visited grave in Arlington (after JFK).

* In WorldWarII the three destroyers and one destroyer escort of Taffy 3 threw themselves headlong at the more numerous and ridiculously stronger Japanese naval force ('''four''' battleships, one of which was the biggest in the world, as well as eight cruisers and eleven destroyers) off Samar in order to allow their escort carriers to withdraw and to protect the vulnerable transport ships in Leyte Gulf. Between the destroyer attack and heavy air assault by what were considered second rate pilots flying off of cheap-ass escort carriers (boy did that opinion get revised), the Japanese commander in charge of the attack lost his nerve, thinking that Task Force 34 (which was off chasing a decoy fleet) had not taken the bait after all, and he was facing a full U.S. fleet. He called off the attack, and thousands of U.S. soldiers and sailors were spared.

*** He did get every US Medal, as well as French and Belgium medals for it. Wrote his autobiography, which was a bestseller. Then they made a movie of it, where only he was considered Badass enough to play himself. He considered his actions too unbelievable, so he had them tone it down. Still made the highest grossing movie for about 20 years until ''{{Jaws}}''. He did pay the price in bad dreams though, suffering from PTSD and using his considerable pull with Congress to get them to approve better mental health care for Vietnam vets. There's a reason why his is the second most visited grave in Arlington (after JFK).

* At the Karelian skies 28 June 1944, [[AcePilot Capt. Hans Wind]] and [[Wingman Nils Katajainen]] flew over the Finnish lines, and spotted a regiment (some fifty planes) of Il-2 Shturmoviks, escorted with another regiment of Soviet fighters, flying towards their lines. It was two against one hundred. What did they do? They ''[[AttackAttackAttack attacked!]]'' (Both survived.)

* A few of the above examples involve Filipinos or the Philippines, but from an international relations standpoint, the ''Philippines itself'' did this for other countries during World War II. Japan opened a surprise attack on the Philippines on December 8, 1941, just ten hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and soon had total control over the sea and air territories of the country. The Japanese planned to completely take the Philippines by March and then proceed to the rest of Southeast Asia. The Filipino forces on land disagreed and fought against the Japanese's superior firepower and forces with nothing but limited ammunition, soldiers, civilian support, while their great ally, America, was busy fighting the Axis Powers in Europe and couldn't send sizable reinforcements to fend off the Japanese. Though they eventually lost to Japan’s superior forces and firepower, The Philippines was able to successfuly slow down the Japanese forces, allowing the other South East Asian nations an additional month to prepare for the Japanese. The day the Philippines finally surrendered, April 6, is a public holiday known as the "Araw ng Kagitingan" ("Day of Valor"), not to celebrate a the inevitable loss, but to celebrate that the country held the line to the point that the opposing Japanese commander was disgraced and ashamed that their forces could not subdue the Philippines within the planned time frame.

* A single Viking Berserker in the Battle of Stamford Bridge is said to have held off the Anglo-Saxon forces trying to cross said bridge killing 40 men in the process. He was only killed when a Saxon floated under the bridge and speared from below sveral hours after begginig to hold of the bridge.
** It's thought that the warrior, if this is true, probably wielded a Daneaxe, an early and rather large battle axe. If so, he would have probably been able to phsitcally block the bridge by passing the head through a figure of 8 motion in front and to the side fo his body, smashing spears in half and preventing swordsmen getting close. Voila, one man meat grinder. This is why they had to find a barrel and float a guy downstream!

** I know who you're talking about, but he's neither wizend nor white-bearded.

* Liviu Librescu, Romanian-born Holocaust survivor, scientist and academic professor. On April 16, 2007, Librescu was teaching a class at Virgina Tech when gunman Cho Seung-Hui entered Norris Hall and began shooting into classrooms. Although shot through the door and hit five times, Librescu, 76, held the door of his classroom shut which allowed 22 of his 23 students to escape out the windows before he died of his wounds.