War And Politics - Television Tropes & Idioms

War Is Hell and Politics tend to be dull and boring. Every so often though, someone does or says something so impressive that the only proper response is an awestruck silence. Here we catalog some of those moments.

As one might expect, the website Badass Of The Week

describes lots of these...

Examples:

The US Military's index of citations for Congressional Medal of Honor recipients (found here) is essentially a giant database of Crowning Moments of Awesome.

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Politics

The all time greatest peak of political awesomeness has got to be British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's speeches in the darkest moments of World War II when it seemed that Britain was the last stand against Adolf Hitler's tyranny. Regardless of the odds, Churchill created fighting inspiration in a bombed and lonely little nation with inspiring speech after inspiring speech, each culminating in something like "We will never surrender!" and "This was their finest hour!". Made all the more awesome by the fact that he saw World War II coming- and everyone knew it- and wasn't smug about it, just inspirational.
- The fact that he was fairly "old guard" - almost certainly both racist and sexist - and still managed to win the respect of this troper is a testament to his resilience and his awesome quotes.
- "If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons."
- Churchill had another moment when Parliament was on the edge of passing a resolution supporting General Dyer's actions in the Amritsar Massacre, in which the general had his troops fire into a crowd of unarmed Indian protesters. He talked them out of it.
- A slightly more mundane example for Churchill is when Nancy Astor, first female MP in British history, told him that if he was her husband, she would poison his coffee. His response was "And if you were my wife, I would drink it".
  - Astor could dish it out as well as receive it. "I married beneath me. All women do."
- And then there was the time Bessie Braddock MP said to him "Prime Minister, you're drunk!" His response? "This may be well and true, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly."
- G. B. Shaw, so the story goes, sent Churchill a pair of tickets for the opening of his new play, with a note: "Bring a friend, if you have one." Churchill wrote back: "Cannot attend; send tickets for second night, if you have one."
- Not to mention that he apparently scrawled out his plan to win the war, probably including D-Day at the point, on a coffee napkin. And carried it through. And won.
- Aside from all this, the fact that Churchill's political career was able to recover after the disaster of Gallipoli (see below) is a Crowning Moment in and of itself. Gallipoli may have been the Crowning Moment of Awesome for the Turks, but for the British officers who planned it, it was a Dethroning Moment of Suck.
- This troper's father likes to tell the one about the small child who approached an ill and bedridden Churchill to cloyingly ask "Is it true you're the greatest man in the world?" Churchill's reply: "Yes. Now bugger off."
"Senator McCarthy, Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"
- The fiction-tested, Fanon-approved response is, "I left it with your mother. In bed. Last night. Oooh, burn!"
  - ...Annnnnd then they broke out the wiffle canes.
A very recent CMOA occured in the Australian senate when during his speech, Independent senator Nick Xenophon labelled the Church Of Scientology a Criminal organization, demanding a senate inquiry into the organisation, and made allegations of members experiencing blackmail, torture and violence, forced imprisonment, and coerced abortions, echoing other criticisms of Scientology, the next day, State Crime Command of New South Wales Police recieved statements from xenophons by 7 former members and promptly commenced an investigation into the church.
The standards are pretty high for a true Moment in politics, but Lloyd Bentsen at the 1988 Vice Presidential debate, telling Dan Quayle that "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy: I knew Jack Kennedy; Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine... Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.", after Quayle had attempted for weeks to build up the comparison. Dang.
- Dan Quayle was also responsible for a mixed sitcom-real life moment of awesome. After his speech in which he condemned the show Murphy Brown for positively showing a woman who chose to be a single parent, the producers of the show responded with an episode where the character dealt with the criticism, featured several real-life single parents, and was generally taking the high road in dealing with the speech both in terms of the fictional character and the show itself...until the very end of the episode when they showed a dump truck backing up to Quayle's official residence and dumping a load of the vegetable which Dan Quayle would misspell potatoe.
In the early 1990s the Republican Party (then in minority) was engaged in a full-blown campaign against the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, including spreading rumors that he was gay...until Barney Frank, at the time the only openly gay member of Congress, publicly threatened to out Republican politicians and senior staffers if it continued. This was made even more awesome when he admitted afterward that he didn't actually know any, and was bluffing... and it still stopped.
Rick Mercer was already known for his political commentary and snarkiness on This Hour Has 22 Minutes, but one short segment on the show in 2000 cemented his reputation and made him a truly national figure. One of the main planks of the Canadian Alliance at the time was their demand that if a certain percentage of the population signed a petition, there should be a national referendum on the issue. Mercer started a petition that would force a referendum on whether Alliance leader Stockwell Day should have to change his name to Doris Day. The response was such that Alliance quietly and immediately removed that part of their platform and no one could ever take Stockwell Day seriously again.
Mohandas K Gandhi's Salt March to Dandi in 1930 pretty much displayed to the entire world how committed to non-violent winning of independence Gandhi was. Other colonies around the world suffered greatly in their struggles for independence - France held onto Indochina heavily and Algeria even heavier; Belgium gave up the Belgian Congo in six months and left it in chaos; India's independence took over a century but apart from riots was fairly peaceful.
- Apart from the fact that the country split was half, and the aftermath left a million dead with several times that number displaced from their homes. It was short - but brutal.
- India tried to violently eject the British (see Sepoy Mutiny, 1857) but they lost and the entire country was disarmed as one result (they also reorganized the colonial military). The Indians fought non-violently for the same reason black people did in the US- resorting to force of arms would just have resulted in a lot of casualties and no victory.
- The difference is they were not facing a Police State with No Sympathy and a Hard on for Police Brutality, namely Burma...
Gandhi, who, when asked "what do you think of Western Civilization?" replied "I think it would be a very good idea."
Dennis Skinner complaining about the then-Social Democratic Party leader David Owen's allocated time during Prime Minister's Questions being too long.
Dennis Skinner: What I want to know, Mr Speaker, is why you allow this 'ere pompous git...
The Speaker: That, sir, is unparliamentary language! I demand you withdraw it.
Dennis Skinner: In deference to you, Mr Speaker, I withdraw pompous.
- Note this is how Edwina Curry tells the story. Dennis Skinner himself said he called Dr. Owen a "pompous sod" and the Speaker told him "You had better withdraw that". Also, after withdrawing pompous, he was sent out of the room.
The civil rights activists in the glory years of the American Civil Rights Movement when they kept to their doctrine of passive resistance in the face of barbaric racist brutality from lowlife toughs to Commissioner Bull Conner and thereby making their enemies fall into the trap of looking like despicable bullies while they destroyed all doubts in the watching world of their heroism.
- The Freedom Rides. Enough said.
The Bhutanese royal family's recent voluntary relinquishment of absolute dictatorial power despite an approval rating in the high nineties—yes, this is an inverted trope in action. And Jigme Singye Wangchuck's idea for a calculus of a nation's holistic well being.
Former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau has at least two of them.
- The first came during the October Crisis of 1970, when terrorists in Quebec (Separatists with bombs!) kidnapped a local politician and a British diplomat. Trudeau would and did do anything to stop them. Outside Parliament, CBC reporter Tim Ralfe asked him how far he would go to maintain law and order. He turned, looked at the reporter, and said, "Well, just watch me." Three days, he invoked the War Measures Act (last invoked during World War II).
- The second instance was when he was riding on the train through the town of Salmon Arm. There was protest against him happening. So he calmly looked out the window, opened it, stuck out his arm, and gave them all the finger. It is now known as the Salmon Arm salute in Canada.
  - That's arguably a bad example, given how many Western Canadians had very good reason to be angry with Trudeau. Perhaps a better moment is during the first referendum in 1980, when his stirring speeches played an important role in contributing to the win of the NO forces, and the patriation of the Constitution two years later. Of course, given that according to many people both inside and outside the province, Quebec was royally screwed by Trudeau's patriating of the Constitution without its consent, and the fact that Quebecois punished their Liberal MPs for supporting the Constitution act in the 1984 election, it takes some of the luster away from it.
  - You fail to realize that just because he pissed many people off, that doesn't make all these crowning moments of awesome less awesome. It's what made him admirable to so many. It's generally said love him or hate him, you have to admit, he was a gutsy sunnva bitch.
- Him doing the pirouette behind the Queen of Great Britain (and of Canada, it is worth noting). Of course this may depend on your view of the monarchy.
- Another one you missed: During the 1967 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day parade in Montreal, rioting Quebec separatists threw rocks and bottles at the grandstand where Trudeau was seated. Rejecting the pleas of his aides that he take cover, Trudeau stayed in his seat, facing the rioters, without any sign of fear. The image of the young politician showing such courage impressed the Canadian people, and quite possibly influenced the outcome of the subsequent election.
- "The state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation." In still-conservative, 1967 Canada.
King Juan Carlos of Spain's exchange with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez at the 2007 Ibero-American Summit. After a speech in which Chavez called former Spanish PM Jose Maria Aznar a "fascist" for aiding the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Juan Carlos declared that to call a democratically-elected PM a fascist was an insult to those who had lived under Franco's regime and demanded an apology. When Chavez refused to apologize and continued speechifying about the alleged evils of Aznar's government, Juan Carlos interrupted him mid-sentence with "¿Por qué no te callas?" or "Why don't you shut up?" The declaration found great favor with the Spanish people and has even become a popular ringtone.
- Juan Carlos was groomed as Franco's successor from the age of ten. He was an apparently loyal follower of the dictatorship throughout his adolescence and early adulthood but almost immediately after Franco's death he restored democracy. He refused to take power after the military executed a coup so he could be returned to authority, pretty much single-handedly saving a struggling democracy, and renounced almost all of the ancestral powers he once wielded. His life is a series of crowning moments.
  - Restored democracy? Spain never had democracy before Juan Carlos.
  - Well, Spain had a democratically elected government in one form or another from 1873 to 1939...
- In contrast, (arguably) Chavez's biggest crowning moment was after the coup d'etat he planned failed in a big way and he had to surrender to the authorities, when he went on TV with the famous discourse beginning with "Lamentablemente, por ahora, los objetivos que nos planteamos no fueron logrados..." (Unfortunately, for now, our objectives have been not accomplished...). It was one of the very few times where a Venezuelan politician blamed himself and took responsibility for anything he did, and that gained him some support, helping him win the presidency in 1998. "Por ahora" became his Catch Phrase for a long time, and even tried to pull it back recently, with narmtastic results.
Another crowning moment for Hugo Chavez was when in April 2002, he was restored after the government of the coup that overthrew him (incidentally one of the shortest lived dictatorships in history) was deposed in a massive surge of public support for Chavez. After the coup plotters fled the palace, Chavez, who had been kidnapped, was returned by loyalist military elements and carried back to the palace on top of the crowd who had gathered there to besiege the coup government. Upon his return, he immediately made a public statement declaring to his enemies: "Those who want to oppose me - fine, oppose me. But please don't oppose the constitution." To this day, Chavez remains one of the most popular - and polarizing - politicians in Latin America.
Another Venezuelan example is when late Venezuelan president Rómulo Betancourt said that "My hands shall burn if I have touched the national treasure". He then got his hands burned after an assassination attempt few weeks later. The Hypocritical Humor potential of this is still strong, forty years later.
Nelson Mandela - A man who changed from a South African anti-apartheid activist to lifer political prisoner to President of South Africa had his supreme moment of awesomeness when he went to Canada for an official visit and made a speech in Toronto's SkyDome in front of 45,000 schoolkids who greeted him like a rock star.
Neil Kinnock's speech to the Labour Conference in 1985. A turning point in the history of Labour, Kinnock took on Militant, most notably with this section:
"I'll tell you what happens with impossible promises: You start with far-fetched resolutions; they are then pickled into a rigid cold dogma. And you go through the years, sticking to that: Outdated, misplaced, and irrelevant to the real needs. And you end in the grotesque chaos of a Labour council - a Labour council [Liverpool City Council] - hiring taxis to scuttle round a city, handing out redundancy notices to its own workers. I'm telling you now: No matter how entertaining, how fulfilling to short-term egos - I'll tell you and you'll listen - I'm telling you, I'm telling you - you can't play politics with people's jobs and people's services."
Two words: Tank Man.
- Also a You Shall Not Pass.
- It gets even more awesome, unbelievably. "Chairman Jiang, what happened to Tank Man?" —"I think never killed."
- Many people also credit one to the man driving the tank, who instead of running over the man as had been reportedly done the previous day, stopped the tank column.
Nikita Khrushchev: "We will bury you!", while smacking his shoe.
- On the subject of Khrushchev, the U-2 spy plane incident was the definitive Cold War CMOA. The Soviets shot down a U-2 over Central Asia, released a terse report about shooting down an American spy plane, and the U.S. immediately tried to cover it up with a story about failing oxygen equipment. Then Khrushchev came out and said, "By the way, the pilot is alive and well and the plane's virtually intact."
- Don't forget the two letters.
Adlai Stevenson at the UN Security Council during the Cuban Missile Crisis "Yes or no! Don't wait for the translation—yes or no!" See the movie Thirteen Days for a dramatization.
- A close second comes with Adlai's response to a woman telling him that he had the vote of all thinking Americans: "That's not enough! I need a majority!" ...which may have ended up losing him the election.
The Berlin Airlift, the Crowning Moment of Awesome of Western logistics and industrial power. After the Soviet Union blocked all access by road and rail to Berlin, Stalin was already sitting in his chair, laughing maniacally at what he perceived to be the final defeat of the Western occupation; it was obvious an airlift would fail, as it would involve dropping at least 1534 daily tons of food to keep Berlin alive. The Western response: they gathered all the cargo airplanes they could, parked them in Germany in three nearby runways, and they started dropping supplies over Berlin. By the winter of 1948, you could see an airplane packed with 10 tons of food taking off every 3 minutes, all of them delivering almost 200,000 tons of supplies every month! Humiliated in the worst way possible, the Soviet Union finally agreed in mid-1949 to lift the blockade.
- There were even CMOAs within the Airlift, and one was Operation Little Vittles. Gail Halvorsen, cargo plane pilot, was spending his spare time at Berlin, when he rallied a couple of kids and asked them some questions about the airplanes. He then pulled out two sticks of Wrigley's Doublemint, and told them he would drop off more if they didn't fight for it. Then he said: "I'll wiggle my wings". The next day, he rocked his airplane while dropping some chocolate bars tied to a handkerchief parachute. After a few days of dropping candy into Berlin, he soon got a stack of mail addressed to "Uncle Wiggly Wings". When William H. Tunner, the general in charge of the operation, heard Halvorsen's story, he christened it "Operation Little Vittles", other pilots joined the fun, and when the news reached the USA, children and companies from all over the States handed over their candy to help out, dropping 3 tons of candy into Berlin.
- A Soviet-controlled radio tower was causing access problems to one airfield, Tegel. The French just blew it up.
- And the whole thing started with a CMOA for the people of Berlin. Surrounded by the Soviet occupation zone in Germany, the Soviets were heavy-handed in their attempt to have the Communists seize control of the city council, with the obvious goal of getting the French, Americans and British out of the city. The politicians and people of Berlin, not wishing to see the city fall to the Soviets as it had in war three years before, gave a collective "fuck you" to the USSR. Their example of collective brass balls was what convinced the West that the city was worth saving.
George Reid, one of Australia's early prime ministers, was a rather rotund fellow. This once prompted a heckler to call out, "What are you going to call it, George?", to which Reid replied, "If it's a boy, I'll name him after myself. If it's a girl, I'll name her Victoria after our queen. But if, as I strongly suspect, it's nothing but piss and wind, I'll name it after you, sir."
Martin Luther King Jr's speeches:
- The "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington. It was made even more awesome by the fact that the "I have a dream" portion came towards the end of his speech, and marked the point where he was basically finished with his planned remarks, and just started making up pure awesome off the top of his head.
- In his final speech, he practically predicts his assassination and goes on to say that it's okay because he can see that we are on the right path:
  I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
At the height of the oil crisis of the 1970s, Kissinger visited King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. Kissinger told him that the embargo must be lifted or force might be used by the United States against Saudi Arabia. The King told the representative of the superpower nation: "We come from the desert, and we have been living on camel milk and dates... and we can easily go back and live in the desert again."
Ali Khamenei's 2005 condemnation of his subordinate, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's, assertion that the Holocaust may not have happened. Who says Iranian politicians are all crazy?
Several of the speeches made by Elizabeth I are CMoA. Most notable is her 'Tilbury speech', given in 1588 to the English soldiers stationed at Tilbury, when the Spanish Armada was threatening the kingdom. One of the most famous lines: " I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England, too."
- In 1597 a Polish ambassador was received with more than usual pageantry. Instead of the expected pleasantries, the ambassador started a tirade full of complaints in Latin. Elizabeth, who was 63 at the time, immediately rebuked him in perfect Latin.
  - That ties in nicely with an earlier response to Phillip II's threat of war "I fear a mistake in my Latin more than I fear the King of Spain!".
In 1933, a group of businessmen who were concerned that Roosevelt's New Deal was seriously damaging their ability to do business and their profit margins, approached a retired Marine Corps Major General named Smedley Butler with a proposal to back a coup that would essentially reduce Roosevelt to a figurehead puppet, turn America into a fascist state and, significantly, give Butler enough power and influence that would essentially make him the ruler of America. Butler's response? He went to Congress and publicly revealed the entire plot.
Another comedian got a CMoA when he was invited to the White House Press Dinner in 2006 as the keynote speaker. He was apparently brought on by the organizer of the event, who apparently either thought his brand of humor would be right up President Bush's alley...or got the joke. Stephen Colbert, standing not two seats away from the president of one of the most powerful executive branches in history, proceeded to do his best at eviscerating the man with vicious humor more suitable to a Friars' Roast, in the face of little laughter. Despite the minimal laughter, when the camera showed someone who was laughing—usually people who didn't have a stake, such as the actor Laurence Fishburne—they were laughing fit to burst.
I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message, that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound - with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world.
- Undercut, mind you, by the opening remarks, where President Bush delivered a speech... accompanied by a Bush impersonator delivering his "thoughts". Perhaps Bush did get the joke after all...
  - Isn't the White House Press Corps Dinner traditionally a celebrity roast of the President? Its very unlikely that President Bush didn't know exactly what he was in for when he accepted the invitation. Still doesn't detract from Colbert's achievement, though, given how there are roasts and then there are arson attacks.
As long as we're on the subject of politically inclined humorists.... Jon Stewart must be mentioned for his complete and utter ownage of a "serious" political show to which he was invited as a guest. The show? "Crossfire". Against established pundits Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson. See the carnage here. The appearance has been cited as a cause for the eventual cancellation of the show.
- Made even more amazing from the fact that Stewart was dead. fucking. serious. throughout the majority of the interview.
Carlson: "Why didn't you ask him a real question, instead of just suck up to him?"
Jon Stewart [sarcastically]: "Yeah, "How are you holding up?" is a real suck up and I was actually giving him a hot stone massage.
Carlson [not getting it]: "Yeah, cuz it sounded that way!"
- For more Serious Jon, see the on-screen execution of Jim Cramer.
- Also worth watching is his 2007 appearance on Bill Moyers' Journal regarding Alberto Gonzales' testimony to the Senate Oversight Committee investigating the US Attorneys dimissal controversy.
- Jon Stewart is a walking political CMOA-spouter. Also, he was once voted "Most Trusted Journalist in America" by a TIME magazine poll. He beat Brian Williams. Also, do not ever imply that New York City is not part of "Real America". EVER. He will hear about it, and he will claw your testicles out of your scrotum.
Teddy Roosevelt was once shot in the chest just before a campaign speech. Roosevelt was saved by the copy of the speech and his glasses case in his jacket pocket, but went ahead and gave the speech with a bullet wound in his chest.
- "Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."
- See also: Everything else he did. Teddy Roosevelt was a walking CMoA.
- He tops the list inthis article listing the five most badass Presidents of all time, beating Jackson, who nearly beat his would-be assassin to death and George Washington, who...you know, was our first President and was so badass that even bullets wouldn't touch him.
Robin Cook's resignation speech, which received the first ever standing ovation from the House Of Commons. For the record, you're not supposed to clap in the house of commons, that's why everyone cheers and waves. His speech was just that awesome.
With the exception of Romania, every one of the former Soviet countries converted to democracy quite peacefully at the end of the Cold War.
- Romania was perhaps the most awesome of all. Ceauşescu was a giant prick. He got a quick trial and an informal execution out back (they supposedly had too many volunteers who wanted to help shoot him). Seeing dead presidents on TV isn't that common an occurrence.
- Special kudos must go to Lech Walesa and Solidarity in Poland. At its height, reportedly, ten million members in 38 million country. This Polish troper is at loss as to how was it possible.
The Baltic Way. 2 million long human chain. That's over 600km. It is also a quarter of the entire population of the three Baltic States.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's CMOA was his apology to the Aboriginal Australians. Considering nobody else in Australian politics ever had the balls to do it (especially not John Howard), it's not surprise that it'll go down in the history books... But part of the awesome came when the opposition leader, Brendan Nelson started speaking. Everyone not in the room at the time immediately turned their backs on him (not sure if anyone in the chamber did). Serves him right, considering he was in the Howard government as well.
- Unless it was more an astute political move intended to cement his relatively recent arrival to power with an obvious populist move.
  - It becomes a little less of a CMOA when you notice that, under his government, the welfare of the Australian Aboriginals has not improved one iota in the following years.
Brian Mulroney's immortal line, "You had an option, sir".
Julius Caesar has a few CMOAs in war, but his first COMA was when Sulla basically took over Rome as a dictator, and started executing hundreds of his political enemies, had the body of his greatest enemy, Marius, Caesar's uncle, thrown in the Tiber, and basically stripped Caesar of his inheritance and his priesthood. Sulla offered him to divorce his wife, Cornelia, to show his support. Caesar refused. In person, Or So I Heard. This shocked even Sulla to the point where Caesar was spared, giving him the opportunity to go into hiding, and joined the army to escape Sulla. Shall I say, "owned"?
- Sorry to dissapoint you, but Caesar was protected by the Vestal Virgins, and Sulla was probably his uncle. Caesar could not have entered the army as an officer without his permission. Anyway, the priest job sucked, as it involved what may have been the silliest hat ever invented, and some really weird taboos.
- Pwned, Punished... both derived from the latin "Poena." Caesar did it first.
- As a young man in 75 BC, Caesar found himself captured by a band of Sicilian pirates. While waiting for his ransom to be paid he told the pirates he'd find and crucify them upon his release. They thought he was bluffing - until he was released, returned with a fleet, captured the pirates, and ordered the governor of Asia to crucify them. When this took too long, he broke the pirates out of their jail and crucified them himself. Moral of the story: Julius Caesar doesn't bluff.
- This might be untrue (and my memory might be a bit rusty), but This Troper's history teacher told a story: after a conspiracy by a guy called Cataline, the Roman Senate was discussing what to do with the conspirators. Now, most of them are saying "execute them with no trial". Caesar stands up, and delivers a speech against this, because you don't kill Romans without a trial. Marcus Cato, an opponent of Caesar (and who's half-sister was having an affair with Caesar at the time) stands up and starts accusing Caesar of being a part of the conspiracy. While this is going on, a note is passed along to Caesar, who reads it. Cato makes the claim that the note is from another conspirator, and demands it to be read aloud. The gist of the note ends up being something along the lines of: "Your half-sister, and she wants to see me tonight." BURN.
Despite being ravaged by brain cancer and still recovering a few months after the surgery on those cancerous tumors, Ted Kennedy went to the 2008 Democratic Convention despite the fact that his wife and his doctor both told him not to go. Even then, few people thought he would speak. But no, he wanted to speak. And not only did he speak, he spoke as if he were a man half his age and in perfect health. Even some Republican-leaning commentators were teary-eyed and in awe of what he had done. This troper immediately recognized that this was a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
- And even more when he with great fanfare cast the deciding vote to raise medicare reimbursements by forcing insurance companies to compete fairly.
Ever heard of Claire Engle? He helped break the Southern filibuster streak for Civil Rights back in 1964, showing up to vote despite a brain tumor that robbed him of his ability to speak and left him partially paralyzed. When the roll call came for him, Engle could not answer. The entire chamber looked to see him slowly raise on arm and point it at his eye, signalling an "Aye" vote in favor of the bill. He died a month and a half later. They do not make 'em like that anymore, folks.
Susan Porter, a rather harmless-looking blond unarmed security guard got one when Michael Stone, a triple-murderer and terrorist, attempted to burst into Stormont with (he claimed) the intention of killing Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. Now, admittedly the man is at this point arthritic and probably crazy, but he was raising a gun in her face and she thought he might be wearing a suicide vest. With an air of mildly annoyed calm, Porter yanked the gun off him and equally calmly whacked him over the head with it... twice. Then she sat on him while her colleagues searched him and later helped to lug him away.
The Finnish President Risto Ryti during the Continuation War realized that Finland was short of munitions. Therefore he got more out of the Germans with the promise that he wouldn't make a separate peace with Russia. The only problem, one which the Germans, inexperienced with democratic legalisms didn't catch, was that he only made a personal promise, not in the name of the Finnish state. As a result, when it became appropriate, Ryti resigned and the Finnish state made peace with the Russians unbound by Ryti's promise. Thus making a Crowning Moment of Scam.
- After Ryti's CMOS, the German forces that had secured the northern border around Lapland during the Continuation War(As per an agreement), Finland was oblicated to remove them from inside their borders by the peacetreaty, an act that escalated in to the Lapland War, just a while after giving one-tenth of its land to the Soviets, while demobilizing its armed forces. Yes.
The Finnish Prime Minister Jukka Rangell was asked by Himmler how Germany might help with Finland's "Jewish Problem". Rangell replied, "Finland has no Jewish problem".
- Jews served in the Finnish army on equal footing with Christians, so there were a few occasions when Jewish officers were offered German military decorations. Also, there were a few field synagogues in mixed Finnish-German military camps.
Generalissimo Franco was a nasty old coon to say the very least, but he had his moments. He managed to insert a mole deep inside Hitler's system. When Hitler came to remind him of old favors and to demand Franco's help in conquering Gibraltar, Franco didn't dare refuse, but didn't dare accept either. He knew from his source exactly what resources the Germans needed most. So he promised that if he was given just what the German's couldn't spare he would help. Of course the Germans couldn't and left him alone. The Crowning Moment of Dibbling.
Benjamin Disraeli's primary goal in life was to be more awesome than anyone else in British politics. His personal crowning moment, though, was probably the Congress of Berlin. In a nutshell, the Congress was supposed to secure peace between Russia and Turkey. Disraeli somehow fixed this so that this involved basically giving Cyprus - which at the time was a highly defensible island positioned to dominate the eastern Mediterranean - to Britain. What makes this even more awesome, though, was that in order to, basically, steal this island, Disraeli had to get past Otto Von Bismarck (a true Magnificent Bastard, and possibly the person who came out of the Congress in the best position.)
During the conflict about the introduction of tuition fees in several German states in 2006 a group of about 50 students in Bochum occupied an unused building on the campus of Bochum's university, held it for eight months and used it as a central to coordinate state-wide, sometimes even nation-wide protests and also provided room for cultural events and classes that only had inadequate rooms in the University. Their biggest Crowning Moment of Awesome was when the university's new rector took office in December and tried to kick the students out of that building. Even though running water and heating to the building were cut off, the student's were under on-again-off-again police surveillance and the university's administration as well as the youth organizations of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Conservative Party (CDU) and Liberal Party (FDP) launched a propaganda campaign against the occupiers, the students didn't only hold the building until the morning of February 1st, they also managed to launch a counter propaganda campaign that even reached some nation wide media attention, put the Police under surveillance, kept 24/7 watches in and around the building and kept the building open for "business as usual"
- Also, even though the occupying students had only engaged in peaceful protests and there were rarely more than ten students in the building at night by the middle of January due to the stressful situation (the others being on surveillance duty of taking a time out), the police apparently still thought they needed 160 heavily armed riot cops to clear out a building which basically consisted of one big room with only three exits.
An eyewitness report of Sojourner Truth's famous "Ain't I A Woman?" speech relays that when she ended her speech she was returned with a thunderous standing ovation from all the women present. It would be pretty hard to give that speech and not have it be a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
- Especially since she managed to tie it to both black civil rights and women's liberation, by pointing out all of the terrible things she'd endured as a slave and then pointing out that she was a woman and by managing all of those things, she proved that women weren't the frail, weak things that society considered them to be.
Harriet Tubman, the most famous "conductor" of the Underground Railroad slave escape network when she spotted slavecatchers watching northbound trains for her and her charges. Without hesitation, she had her party take a southbound train, knowing her enemies would never anticipate an African American would be so daring as to retreat into enemy territory.
- Considering that Harriet Tubman was also afflicted with narcolepsy, sending her to unwakeable sleep at completely random intervals, this makes her entire career that much more impressive.
American Presidents, at least prior to the past thirty years or so of politics, were rife with such moments.
- Theodore Roosevelt Jr.'s life consists of a parade of CMoA inter spaced with the occasional Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming. The man was made of win, and Iron, but mostly win. One incident bears special mention. During a campaign speech running for his third presidential term, a would-be assassin fired a shot that hit him square in the chest. Granted, the bullet did plow through a good bit of padding (his glasses case and his speech papers), but it still lodged in his chest afterward. Most people, just to be safe would go to the hospital or at least get a bandage on the thing. Ol' Teddy figured that since he's not coughing up blood, it didn't hit his lung, so he finished his speech with the bleeding hole in his chest left untreated.
- The best part? When he got up to give that speech, he said "I feel as fit as a bull moose." The third party on whose ticket he ran that year took its nickname from that quote: the Bull Moose Party. Raise your hand if you've ever had a political party named after your Crowning Moment.
- As if to sum up his life, one of his friends mentioned that, after he died in his sleep, that Death had to take him in his sleep, because there was no way he would have been able to if Teddy was awake.
  - And then, there's the Crowning Moment Of Awesome for the Buffalo Soldiers for saving the Teddy and his Rough Riders' asses in Cuba, though they didn't get too much credit for it.
- Speaking of the Roosevelts, his cousin, FDR, did have a Crowning Moment that's not often mentioned. This troper read a biography of FDR that mentioned that a friend of his visited him to see how he was doing (as by that time, he had already been lamed by polio) at one point. In response, the bedridden future president waits for the friend to get close enough, decks him hard enough to send him across the room, then gently chides him for coming in expecting to see an invalid. Hell, maybe awesome's a Roosevelt bloodline trait.
  - This troper thinks that FDR is awesome solely based on the fact that he had polio, a disease that crippled him and initially had him struggling much worse than he did, and still managed to pull America out of its worst financial disaster while keeping them comforted, create the middle class and keep them and the poor in mind despite being a rich man himself (he was notoriously disliked among aristocrats for "betraying his class"), lead the way towards victory in World War 2, essentially paving the way for Truman to get the victory (Although Truman was a great president on his own), AND was so well liked that they elected him FOUR TIMES. Not to mention the accomplishments of his first lady, Elanor. Clearly the Roosevelts have Essence of Awesome in their blood.
- JFK snuck himself into the Navy when the army wouldn't accept him because he had a bad back. While in service, he was thrown off-deck with a crewmate, and swam back to shore with an injured back and the crewmate being dragged by his TEETH!
- Harry Truman desegregating the United States Armed Forces by Executive Order. Several of his generals said that this would cause a lot of strife in the army, tension between blacks and whites, and was basically bad for military cohesion. Truman's response? Basically, "Deal with it."
  - Also, he fired Douglas Mac Arthur for disobeying Truman's orders by trying to ferment war against Red China. Mac Arthur was wildly popular with the people, and Truman was roasted for his actions. This was one of the most politically disastrous actions Truman ever took, but he was determined to never let the military get away with insubordination, particularly during the Cold War, and made no attempts to distance himself from it. He even went so far as to make sure he fired Mac Arthur before Mac Arthur could resign. Later he said: "I didn't fire Mac Arthur because he was a dumb son-of-a-bitch, although he was, but that's not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail."
- Dwight Eisenhower was practically a walking CMOA, being basically the greatest war hero of WWII, but one of his greatest came at the end of his presidency, when he gave this farewell speech on the Military-Industrial complex.
- Andrew Jackson survived an assassination attempt at point-blank range. Both pistols misfired, despite being in perfect working order, and he proceeded to beat the crap out of the shooter with his cane.
  - He later built a statute of himself on the spot of the attempt.
  - "I have only two regrets: I didn't shoot Henry Clay and I didn't hang John C. Calhoun."
- Ronald Reagan was making quips as he was being wheeled into hospital after his assassination attempt.
  - "Honey, I forgot to duck"
  - To his surgeons: "I hope you're all Republicans." This prompted his head surgeon, a liberal Democrat, to say "Today, we're all Republicans, Mr. President."
  - Not to mention his "Tear down this wall!" speech, wherein he basically tells Russia that if they actually want people to get along, do well and be happy, then maybe certain eyesores have to go. Or the time he walked out on negotiations. And of course, the infamous line (delivered in jest when he thought he was off-air) "People of America, I have just signed into law a bill outlawing the Soviet Union. We begin bombing in five minutes."
  - During the 1986 American Bombing of Libya, errant bombs also fell on the French Embassy. The French government had previously refused to allow the American F-111s to overfly French territory, forcing them to fly a longer, overnight route. Reagan responded to the protest from the French government, remarking "Well, the boys were tired."
  - When the nation's air traffic controllers went on strike during a labor dispute (in breach of their contract), Reagan said that any controller that didn't return to work within 48 hours would forfeit their job, and he did just that. When people started saying that he fired the controllers, Reagan responded "I didn't fire them - they QUIT!"
George Washington. On top of everything else he's known for, which is a list of crowning moments in of itself, he is also a religious legend. During a battle on July 5, 1755, then-Lieutenant Colonel Washington took part in a battle during the French and Indian Wars. During this battle, greater than 2/3rds of his forces, over 1,100 men, were killed with fewer than twenty enemy casualties. As an officer, he was singled out by Indian sharpshooters. However, despite seventeen bullets which killed two horses from beneath him and punched four holes through his jacket, Washington was unharmed. Upon seeing this the Indian Chief called off any further attempts, declaring, "This man is under the protection of the Great Spirit...he was not born to be killed by a bullet."
- His decision to leave Presidential office after two terms also stands out in this troper's mind. It's not quite as flashy as the previous entry, but, perhaps, more profound in that he chose to give up his power when the people were almost ready to crown him as King of the United States. King George of England reportedly had believed that Washington would become a despot with his power and nearly abdicated the throne upon hearing that he chose to step down.
  - Washington was emulating HIS hero, Cincinnatus, who was made Dictator of Rome (absolute ruler for a limited time) to deal with a war with the Aequians and the Sabines. He was a farmer who left his field immeidately when called to duty and when the crisis was over immediately resigned his power to return to the farm. Both were great men.
- When James Monroe ran for re-election in 1820, his opponent (John Quincy Adams) received only one Electoral Vote. While this may appear to be a CMOA for Monroe, the reason for this unusual result was not because the lone Elector from New Hampshire truly believed Adams was the better man, but because he believed that Washington should go down in history as the only President elected unanimously. (Or, as is just as likely, the voter, William Plumer, thought Monroe's administration was wasteful and extravagant, and had a particular hatred for Monroe's Vice Pres, Daniel D. Thompkins).
Just to throw Monroe a bone, he is the only U.S. President to have a non-American Capital City named after him: Monrovia, Liberia.
- 19th President Rutherford B. Hayes didn't do too badly either. He has a department (Presidente Hayes) and its capital (Villa Hayes) in Paraguay named after him. He's a national hero in Paraguay due to his decision to favour their claims to the Gran Chaco over those of Argentina in negotiations after the War of the Triple Alliance. Argentina (in alliance with Brazil and Uruguay) had defeated the Paraguayans in the war and it was the Argentines who asked Hayes to mediate.
No love for Abraham Lincoln? He inarguably presided over the United States' darkest hour, but reunified the country.
This troper recalls an interview with Gerry Adams, leader of the Irish political party Sinn Féin. He was thinking back to a meeting he was having once, where they happened to be discussing The Troubles. After spending hours listening to some men discussing solutions they had clearly no intention of acting on, Adams spoke up with exactly these words: "Fuck it. Let's do something about this."
So how about that time Canadian Prime Minister Chretien clobbered a burglar in his own home? Not bad for a little guy from Shawinigan. There was also the time when, with Chretien's Liberal Party leading in the polls a week or two before the 1993 Election, the governing Conservative Party resorted to attack ads which alluded to Chretien's speech impediment and physical appearance, caused by Bells' Palsy. Chretien responded with a speech comparing the attack ads to being teased about his appearance as a kid, concluding that "God gave me a physical defect, but He gave me other qualities and I'm grateful" and moving some in the audience to tears. As a touching speech, it was a Crowning Momentof Heartwarming, but as a shrewd political manouevre that upped Chretien's political popularity, Crowning Momentof Awesome.
- Also, he strangled a hippie. Instant win.
Émile Zola, in order to clear Dreyfus of false charges, deliberately arranged for his own arrest, knowing that he would be sent to prison, in order to exonerate a captain whom he had never met. Zola's closing speech (full text here) to the jury is full of Awesome, almost Shakespearean:
"Dreyfus is innocent. I swear it! I stake my life on it — my honor! At this solemn moment, in the presence of this tribunal which is the representative of human justice, before you, gentle. men, who are the very incarnation of the country, before the whole of France, before the whole world, I swear that Dreyfus is innocent. By my forty years of work, by the authority that this toil may have given me, I swear that Dreyfus is innocent. By all I have now, by the name I have made for myself, by my works which have helped for the expansion of French literature, I swear that Dreyfus is innocent. May all that melt away, may my works perish if Dreyfus be not innocent! He is innocent. All seems against me — the two Chambers, the civil authority, the most widely-circulated journals, the public opinion which they have poisoned. And I have for me only an ideal of truth and justice. But I am quite calm; I shall conquer. I was determined that my country should not remain the victim of lies and injustice. I may be condemned here. The day will come when France will thank me for having helped to save her honor."
Then there was the case of Dusko Popov, a double agent during WWII for the Allies. Not only was he successful in misleading the Nazis, he was decorated by both sides with high honors.
This troper feels that Guy Fawkes' life was incredibly awesome. Not only did he try to blow up the British Parliament, his last act was to jump off the gallows and break his neck, cheating his executors from torturing him. Badass.
- The co-conspirator Robert Keyes wasn't so lucky - he tried to pull the same trick, but the rope broke; as a result, he was still fully conscious when they drew and quartered him. Eeeessshhh...
In the famous Norway Debate of May, 1940 - the debate in the British House of Commons that actually led to Chamberlain's resignation - an MP in Chamberlain's own government, a famously poor orator once described as "the most dour, the most drab, the least popularly attractive figure in cabinet", Leo Amery, stood up and delivered one of the greatest speeches ever heard in Parliament, ending with a famous quote from Oliver Cromwell: "You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"
While revolutions were erupting all over Europe in the year 1848, King Frederik VII, newly ascended to Absolute Monarch of Denmark upon the death of his father, received a very polite letter from a group of citizens asking him to hand over Government to the people. The next day he happily consented and a year later Denmark had a democratic constitution.
- He is quoted for the comment "Now I can sleep for as long as I like in the morning again."
In 1905, facing civil unrest and mutinies all over Russia (The Small Russian revolution), Czar Nicholas 2 summoned his more popular cousin Grand Duke and General Nicholas Nicolaievitj Romanov and ordered him to crush the rebellion and institute a military dictatorship. The Grand Duke refused, pointed a gun towards his own head, and threatened to commit suicide on the spot if the czar did not agree to democratic reforms. Russia got a parliament the year after, but it turned out to be too little, too late.
The Norwegian teachers' and students' resistance during WWII - the Nazis had conquered all of Europe at that point, yet they had their asses handed to them by teachers refusing to join the Nazi party to such an extent that it would be impossible to keep running a school system at all. 12.000 out of 14.000 teachers refused publicly. Then, when they'd won, they read the following statement aloud for their classes (Keep in mind, this is in Nazi-governed territory):
"Our task is to give you knowledge and the necessary practical education should every one of you get their fulfillment as a human being, so that he or she can fulfill their role in society for the benefit of themselves and others. This is a calling given to us by the people of Norway, and for which the Norwegian people can hold us responsible. [...] The call of the teacher is, however, not solely to gift their pupils with knowledge. They are also to teach them to believe in and and desire that which is true and just. Therefore, they cannot, without breaching with their calling as a teacher, teach anything conflicting with their conscience. Those who do, are sinning against those students given them to teach, and against themselves. This I swear I will not. I will not encourage you to do anything I believe is wrong, nor will I teach you anything which I believe is untrue. I will, as I have heretofore done, let my conscience be my guideline, and then I believe I will be upholding my pact with the great majority of the people who have bestowed upon me the teacher's task."
- Norway had more of those moments. When the Supreme Court soon after the military defeat was asked to confirm the legality of certain of the German occupier's actions that contravened Norwegian and international law, the Justices simply responded that their legal arguments would have no effect on an occupier's brutal policies, after which they resigned to a man to avoid staining their honour.
Rosa Parks. Enough said.
- Please Elaborate for the foreign tropers.
Canadian prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald was a notorious drunkard, to the point where he vomited on stage while his opponent was giving a speech. Macdonald quipped that "every time my opponent speaks, it makes me want to vomit." He also gets bonus points for saying, on a different occasion, "I know you people would rather have John A. drunk, than George Brown sober."
In 1417, during the Hundred Years War, Isabeau of Bavaria ordered her son Charles, the dauphin of France, to come back to court. At that time his protector Yolande of Aragon made the following reply: "We have not nurtured and cherished this one for you to make him die like his brothers or to go mad like his father, or to become English like you. I keep him for my own. Come and take him away, if you dare."
In the early part of World War II, Italy issued an ultimatum to Greece, basically that they had to surrender parts of their land to Axis forces or face war. The Prime Minister of Greece responded to the ultimatum with a single word: "No." To add to this C Mo A, when the Italians responded by invading Greece with the Albanians, the Greeks beat them back, forcing Nazi Germany to intervene. A national holiday was made in response to this C Mo A.
- Not to mention that this event might have make Nazi Germany lose World War II. No kidding, since Operation Barbarossa was delayed by several weeks because Nazi Germany is helping Italians out, Moscow wasn't captured because of that time delay. If battle in Greece ended just few days earlier, Germany might have actually crushed USSR and the war might be different.
- Churchill congratulated their C Mo A with his own C Mo A: "Until now, we knew that Greeks were fighting like heroes; from now on we shall say that heroes fight like Greeks!"
Hillary Rodham Clinton. Crowning Moment of Awesome.
"I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me? Or were you in it for that young Marine and others like him? Were you in it for that mom struggling with cancer while raising her kids? Were you in it for that boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage? Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?.... Whether you voted for me, or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose. We are on the same team, and none of us can sit on the sidelines.... I haven’t spent the past 35 years in the trenches advocating for children, campaigning for universal health care, helping parents balance work and family, and fighting for women’s rights at home and around the world... to see another Republican in the White House squander the promise of our country and the hopes of our people."
- A lot of Clinton's speeches were like that. This speech comes to mind, especially the "It is a violation of human rights" spree about three-quarters way through. Most powerful part of the speech.
The Suez Canal crisis of the 1950s was the Crowning Moment of Awesome for General Abder Nasser, then-President of Egypt, who with U.S. help outmaneuvered and outsmarted Britain, France and Israel and left three of the most powerful countries on Earth with egg on their faces as he successfully retook control of the Suez Canal for Egypt.
- Israel? One of the most powerful countries on Earth?? In the 1950s??? Surely you jest. Also I seem to recall the Israelis completed all of their objectives by conquering all of the Sinai Peninsula in 4 days without any help, and were pressured to withdraw by political blackmail only months after the crisis was already over, so if anyone had any leftover egg on his face, it was Britain and France (who couldn't hold on to the Canal) and Egypt (who was completely routed by a nation 1/100 its size and population, and less than 10 years old).
- Future Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson also gained a Crowning Moment of his own when he spearheaded the creation of a United Nations force to keep the peace until a settlement was worked out, an action that gained him the Nobel Peace Prize.
- A veto on Nasser. The Egyptian army- IN SPITE OF BEING MOBILIZED and IN SPITE OF BEING AT THE SCENE- was caught utterly unaware and more or less had its forward elements crushed piecemeal. Nasser owed his victory more to the Soviets intervening and threatening war coupled with Ike's refusal to extend them oil supplies.
At the 2008 DNC, on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech, Barack Obama became the first African American to be a major party candidate for president. Even his opponent John McCain came out and admitted that this was a CMOA for the American people.
- The entire moment is best summed up by an excerpt from Obama's own victory speech, when he told the story of one of his supporters - Ann Nixon Cooper. Already 106 years old, she was the daughter of a slave, a witness of the Great Depression, World War 2, The Cold War, the Fall of the Soviet Union, and the War on Terror. She had spent most of her adult life unable to vote because she was both black and a woman. And yet on this day, she had just voted the first African-American president into office.
- And let's not forget that 2 million people came to the National Mall to watch the Inauguration, with only one bad incident (pedestrian got hit by a subway with no serious injuries).
- McCain gets one as well in his concession speech, which was incredibly magnanimous ("We never hide from history. We make history").
  - Hell, McCain is a walking CMOA full stop. And this is coming from a relatively liberal person. He's a badass war hero (see below) and is a class act: he had to point out twice in the Town Hall debate that Obama would still be a good president, and was sadly pushed from his relatively (as compared to the campaign) moderate stance for the sake of the campaign (John Kerry famously said at the DNC that he wasn't that much of a "maverick" at the DNC).
- Screw it — the entirety of November 4th, 2008, is one huge Crowning Moment for not only Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, but John McCain for bowing out so graciously he regained the respect of millions who voted for his opponent, especially in his pledge to do whatever he could to help his former opponent, now President; Obama's brilliant campaign strategists who orchestrated one of the most well-run presidential campaigns ever; and the citizens of the United States in general for tearing down one of the largest racial divides in American history, proving to the entire world that yes, we are sick of and recognize the mistakes we have made over the past eight years, and we are damn determined to change whatever we need to in order to become a respected nation worldwide once again, making history in the process. This disaffected college student has never been prouder of his country.
From a recent Newsweek article: At the end of August, as Hurricane Gustav threatened the coast of Texas, the Obama campaign called the Red Cross to say it would be routing donations to it via the Red Cross home page. Get your servers ready — our guys can be pretty nuts, Team Obama said. Sure, sure, whatever, the Red Cross responded. We've been through 9/11, Katrina, we can handle it. The surge of Obama dollars crashed the Red Cross Web site in less than 15 minutes.
You can pin a lot on Martin Luther; some of it good, some of it bad. He was a vitriolic, insulting writer and delved into anti-Semitism late in his life. Still, going before The Diet of Worms and the Holy Roman Emperor and defending what were then-heretical views took extraordinary courage, even if he probably didn't utter the "Here I stand" line. This takes particular bravery when you remember that the last person to stand before a Church Council with a personal guarantee of safe conduct from the Holy Roman Emperor (Jan Hus and Emperor Sigismund at the Council of Constance, a century before) was tried and executed despite that guarantee.
- Before that, a condemnation of Luther's preachings (what would become the basis of Lutheranism) was distributed. Luther's response was to publicly burn both the condemnation and a copy of canon law. According to legend, he said as he threw them into the flames, "What they would do to me, I do to them."
Ask practically any Chilean about Ricardo Lagos and his index finger. The one he used to point at a TV camera during an interview as he verbally beat none other than Augusto Pinochet in live TV.
In 133 BC, Tiberius Gracchus was elected tribune of the people. He immediately began to enact a series of laws that would take land away from the rich and give it to the poor. Naturally, the rich weren't best pleased and elected a tribune of their own who would veto the laws, which he did. Furious, Gracchus had the tribune escorted from the Assembly. As they began to go through the ceremonial rites of the day - the opening of the law courts, the opening of the marketplace, the opening of the temples - Gracchus stood up and vetoed every. Single. One. He promised to continue doing this every day until the laws were passed. They were passed.
Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward certainly deserve a C Mo A, as their investigations concerning Watergate were probably the single most important factor that would eventually lead to Richard Nixon resigning. To put it into perspective, they were both relatively unknown reporters going up singlehandedly against the president of the USA for most of the initial, and crucial, part of the investigation.
Captured (with the rest of his crew) for spying on North Korea in the USS Pueblo incident, Commander Lloyd M. Bucher was forced to make a public confession. Since the Koreans didn't know English well enough, they let him prepare the confession himself. Even after the brutal treatment he had undergone, he dared to sneak in the following sentence: "We paean the North Korean state. We paean their great leader Kim Il Sung." (Despite checking the confession before it was broadcast, they failed to catch the pun: "Paean" = "pee on".)
- In another act of defiance, whenever they were posing for propaganda photos the crew-members secretly gave a middle finger salute (and explained the gesture as a Hawaiian good luck sign). The North Koreans did find out about this one, and made them suffer for it ...
Back in the 20s, New South Wales Premier Jack Lang borrowed loads of money from Britain to build the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The 30s and the depression struck, Britain tried to get it's money back, and Jack Lang refused to give it, so they could keep building the bridge. The Federal Government posted a bill saying they could seize the money from New South Wales to pay it back to Britain, so Jack Lang took all the money from the NSW treasury and decided to run the whole goddamn economy of cash. The freaking Premier robbed the State Bank, which is awesome by sheer audacity.
Pakistan's lawyers physically fighting off police in Pakistan as they protested against their dictator's disregard of the rights of his citizens. Coolest lawyers ever!
Harvey Milk's attitude to threats of assassination was not to avoid it - quite the opposite. He made a recording to be played in case he was assassinated, stating, "If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door."
- Harvey Milk in general was a CMOA for anyone gay in the United States. He really helped dispel the flamboyant image of gay people for many.
How have we not mentioned the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo yet?
- Please Elaborate
- Also, the related group Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo—Grandmothers of... etc. These two organizations started protesting fairly early on during the Dirty War—something that took a whole lot of guts—and aren't going to stop until their goals are realized.
All four of the Mirabal sisters from the Dominican Republic.
- Please Elaborate
A more recent COMA would be Daniel Hannan telling the British PM Gordon Brown off while at the EU. Slightly ironic in that all he was doing was telling him that they're broke. The fallout from this speech is that he's become a hero to the Conservative movement . . . In America!
In the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, the Coalition of Austria, Prussia, Britain, and Russia decided to settle the matter of Europe once and for all at the Congress of Vienna, using the lessons taught by Napoleon's peace-making strategy of division and recreation to their own advantage. Talleyrand, the French representative, was distrusted for his association with the Emperor (in exile on Elba), and represented a King few liked of a nation that was both distrusted for Revolutionary sentiment and still occupied by the armies of the Coalition itself. By ingratiating himself with Spain (snubbed by the big four), he secured seats in the inner councils for himself and Spanish delegate. When Prussia and Russia revealed their plan to annex Poland to Russia and Saxony to Prussia, Talleyrand parleyed the resulting fears into a secret treaty between Austria, Britain, and France to protect Saxony. By the end of the Congress of Vienna, the beaten and occupied nation of France had nonetheless secured its borders (and annexed several small enclaves), broken the Coalition, and restored itself as a major player in the Concert of Europe - Metternich may have been the conductor, but the French cripple had written the opening movement.
1976: Alabama State Attorney General Bill Baxley re-opened Birmingham's 16th Street Church bombing case (a watershed even in the American Civil Rights movement, and the basis for Spike Lee's 4 Little Girls). He immediately received threats and warning from the state's chapter of the Ku Klux Klan (who were long considered responsible for the bombing). In those days (with the lawsuits that would destroy the Klan as a unified national organization a decade away) this was akin to having a mob boss telling a New York District Attorney "Are you sure you want to go after that guy?". This is Baxley's full response to the Klan - printed on official state letterhead:
My response to your letter of February 19, 1976 is — kiss my ass.
Thomas de Mahay, a French nobleman, was condemned to die during the original Reign of Terror. After the Revolutionary Tribunal drew up his death sentence, they asked him to review the document and deliver any final words he had. His response: "I see that you have made three spelling mistakes."
The stories centering around how The Black Panther party stood up to racist police by using the law to their benefit.
- Please Elaborate
Similarly The 1968 Olympics Black Power salute.
Québécois prank team successfully tricks Sarah Palin into believing she's speaking to the President of France.
- Which pales with the couple of Miami radio hosts who successfully tricked both Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez into believing each one were talking with the other. Within months of difference. And broadcasting the pranks live.
Iraqi reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi got his CMOA when he threw his shoes at the President of the United States on live television. Needless to say, al-Zaidi is now considered a national hero among Iraqis while Americans are surprised that Bush was fast enough to dodge the shoes.
- Bush arguably had a CMOA himself when he responded to the incident saying that he was sure that a free society was emerging, told the authorities that arrested al-Zaidi not to "overact" and that it was an "interesting way for a person to express himself".
- There is a joke about this. An Iraqi woman tries to go to the bathroom in one of Iraq's new malls. The security stops her. "Ma'am, that's the men's room." "Oh. Is al-Zaidi inside?" "No, why do you ask?" "Then how can it be the men's room? He's the only man in Iraq."
Margaret Thatcher was attending an SAS training session as the VIP hostage. They came in shooting and she just sat down, perfectly calm, while her aide dived for cover, with her saying, "Get up George, you're embarrassing me."
Now-President Obama's speech on the final day of the Democratic National Convention.
Obama: They have not served a Red America or a Blue America— they have served the United! States! OF AMERICA!!
U.S. President Calvin "Silent Cal" Coolidge was once told by a woman at a party that she had bet her husband that she could get Coolidge to say more than two words. Coolidge's response: "You lose."
Jewish actor Peter Lorre fled Germany shortly after Hitler came to power, virtually dooming himself to poverty and obscurity after his breakout role as a child killer in M. While struggling to find work in Paris he received a telegram from one of his former employers begging him to return to Berlin for a job. Lorre's reply? "There is not enough room in Germany for two murderers like Hitler and me."
Lasantha Wickrematunge, 1958-2009. This man was a newspaper editor in Sri Lanka, and one who refused to accept censorship by the government. He knew his death was likely, he could have left the country - he had offers from embassies to give him safe passage to their countries - but he refused to give up. And after he was murdered, knowing it was coming, one last editorial was published, an open letter to his readers and to the President. The last words, his last words, are "God knows I tried".
Alan Cranston, an American journalist in Germany, felt that the official American translation of Mein Kampf had edited out Hitler's more worrying ideas about militarism and the Jewish people. So he made his own. This was completely illegal of course, and Cranston got the shit sued out of him (by Hitler) and was forced to stop distributing his translation. He had managed to get out half a million copies by this time. This was in 1939.
The 1772 swedish coup d'etat is a measure of sheer gutsiness: A three-pronged coup ended up going off at different times (the planning was off) leaving the king (the instigator of the coup) trapped alone in the capital, with no way to contact his fellow plotters. Gustav III then manages to by sheer force of personality convince most of the soldiers in the capital to follow him. Leading to a decisive but bloodless coup.
In January of 2009, the US 'National Socialist Movement', best known for their Neo-Nazi slogans and intents, sponsored a highway cleanup project just outside of a major city in Missouri. Shortly afterwards, the state legislature declared that stretch of highway the "Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Memorial Highway".
The Iran 2009 presidential election is currently turning into one. After an overtly rigged election, the people of Iran take to the streets in protest, refusing to back down even to violent police responses. Further made awesome by the coverage, which came mostly from Iranian citizens twittering events as they happen.
- Dude. DUDE!!
The Boston Massacre . In a riot in Boston just before the American Revolution a number of people were shot by the soldiers. That wasn't what was awesome. What was awesome was afterwards, which was that at the beginning of a civil war, BOTH factions were able to have enough sense of justice and trust in one another and in the system to give a fair trial to the soldiers involved.
- To flesh this out a bit—this was one of the early ticks towards the American Revolution. British soldiers were being unfairly heckled by a mob, and the soldiers fired into the crowd, killing several people - five, to be precise. The revolutionaries latched onto this and Paul Revere in particular created a very inflammatory engraving of a row of soldiers in formation, firing blindly into a crowd of innocent bystanders◊. America at large wanted these soldiers dead. Boston lawyer John Adams, despite being egotistical, obnoxious, and disliked, was scrupulously honest and said "Hell no." Not only did he, author of the Massachusetts constitution, member of the Declaration of Independence writing committee, second-ever president, defend the soldiers, he got most of them off.
  - Often overlooked, but the first person killed in the Massacre (and the first person to truly die for this country) was Crispus Attics — a black man.
The history of the Caribia and the Koenigstein ships; both ships departed from Hamburg in 1939 full of Jewish families planning to arrive in Barbardos and Trinidad, but thanks to the preassure of Hitler they weren't allow to arrive there, they tried to arrive in Venezuela and then president Eleazar Lopez Contreras pretty much went against his cabinet and Hitler himself allowing them to arrive to Puerto Cabello, there, in the middle of the night they were recieved by over 50 families in Mampote, where they stayed with them. Truly something that gives you back hope about humankind.
China's reaction to the US and NATO's bombing their embassy in Belgrade on March 24, 1999. This is 100,000 college students doing this in their free time. Clinton had to apologize publicly five times before they calmed down. Needless to say, they scared the American ambassador shitless.
- No, that's not what happened. Those students were bused in by Chinese authorities. The Chinese government censored the earlier apologies because they wanted to keep the outrage going. Like most things the People's Republic does, it was carefully orchestrated.
- Of course the Chinese government orchestrated it. What doesn't the Chinese government not orchestrate? The point is, it's still 100,000 college students cooperating with the government. China's education system and its government hadn't had the best relationship recently.
Australian PM Gough Whitlam, one, for actually doing something about the Wave Creek strikers (and in favour of the strikers), but for his oft-quoted line after his forced resignation
Whitlam: ...May well God Save The Queen, because nothing will save the Governor-General!
John Wilkes, the 18th century's master of the snappy comeback to insults. The Earl of Sandwich claimed "I do not know, sir, if you will die by the pox or on the gallows!" Wilkes responded: "That would depend on whether I embrace your lordship's mistress, or your principles."
- Wilkes had another one when one of his constituents told Wilkes that he'd rather vote for Satan than Wilkes. The politician's reply was, "Naturally. And if your friend declines to run, can I count on your vote?"
The Coronation of the last Hapsburg Emperor . A great feast was laid on. Magnificient dishes were brought out for the courtiers to gaze at in wonder. Every one was awed by the display. Then they all gave a toast to the health of the country and the Emperor. And all of the food was transferred to a nearby hospital for the wounded soldiers there to enjoy a kingly feast. While the Emperor and his Court fasted to celebrate the Coronation.
- Emperor Charles I's entire life was one big tragedy, but it could have been one CR Mo A after another. He was one of the two world leaders to actively try to end WWI diplomatically (the other was Pope Benedict XV), tried to prevent the Germans from sending Lenin back to Russia (which led to the creation of the Soviet Union), was the only leader to forbid the use of chemical weapons, expanded democracy in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Parliament hadn't met since 1912) in the middle of a war—including allowing anti-war and anti-Habsburg activists to take their seats, commuted the death sentance on a bunch of army officers who plotted to overthrow him, voluntarily left his country after the war when it became clear that Parliament wouldn't support him, and then allowed his two restoration attempts in Hungary to collapse to spare his people a civil war. Oh, and it's quite probable that had he not lost his throne he could have prevented WWII.
  - His son Otto von Habsburg has a few, too. He has a Ph D in political science, was marked for death by the Nazis (a number of Habsburgs died in concentration camps) and escaped to the US, where he managed to make sure Austria didn't get divided like Germany and was quickly restored to independence—despite not being allowed back until the 1960's. Then he became a founding father of the European Union, worked to end communism in eastern Europe, served in the European Parliament from 1979 to 1989 (in 1989, at the age of 77, he punched out anti-Catholic bigot Ian Paisely for holding up a sign that said "JPII=Antichrist"), and when film of him was shown in a Hungarian movie theater everyone stood up and sang the Royal Anthem.
Uesugi Kenshin. 'nuff said.
- Please Elaborate
"If you strike at, imprison, or kill us, out of our prisons or graves we will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you, and perhaps, raise a force that will destroy you! We defy you! Do your worst!" - James Connolly, 1909.

War - B.C.E.

The Battle of Marathon. The Greek army was outnumbered ten to one by the invading Persians, but with the assistance of longer weapons, the sheer determination from knowing their failure would mean the country being enslaved, and a startling new tactic (hoplites were supposed to march forward and engage rank by rank; the Athenians ran screaming down the beach) they were able to win. Bonus points to Pheidippides, who was sent to inform the government in Athens of the victory. He elected to run nonstop through the entire 26 mile journey, and then all the way back. The marathon races are named after Pheidippides's run.
- According to the nearest-to-contemporary source (Herodotus), Pheidippides was a professional runner who ran from Athens to Sparta in two days, gave a message, then ran back with the reply, which he delivered to the Athenian Assembly before the Battle of Marathon. No mention was made of his running to Athens from Marathon after the battle, or of his collapsing and dying, until Plutarch. . . five hundred years later.
  - Reportedly, the distance for the marathon was 26 miles, extended so that royalty could watch the end of the race, at the 1908 Olympics in London.
The battle of Thermopylae could be considered the Spartan people's combined Crowning Moment Of Awesome, but individual Spartans certainly had their own; just go to That Other Wiki and look up 'Laconic Phrase' for a list.
- One of the best, however, has to be their response to the threat of invasion and oppression made by Philip II of Macedon, Alexander the Great's father and a masterful conqueror in his own right:
  Philip of Macedon: "You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city."
  Spartan ephors: "If."
  Both Philip and Alexander left Sparta alone.
  - It's worth noting that by this point in time Sparta was broken as a power after a century of near continuous war, especially the Battle of Leuctra. Whether this makes the statement more awesome (holding off the might of Philip with nothing more than Sparta's reputation) or less awesome (Philip deciding that Sparta was now insignificant and could be safely ignored) is left to individual discretion.
- Just for completeness, a couple of the most famous, from the Battle of Thermopylae:
  - When told that the Persian archers were so numerous that their arrows would blot out the sun, Dieneces, a Spartan officer, replied:
    "Good, then we shall fight in the shade."
  - Leonidas I of Sparta commanded the enormously outnumbered Greek defense at Thermopylae. Xerxes offered to make Leonidas kings of all Greece if he would join with him. Leonidas replied:
    "If you had any knowledge of the noble things of life, you would refrain from coveting others' possessions; but for me to die for Greece is better than to be the sole ruler over the people of my race."
  - Xerxes then ordered the Greeks to surrender their arms, to which Leonidas replied with his most famous statement:
    "Come take them".
  - This line is actually now the motto for a division of the Greek army, not because it makes any sense on its own (it doesn't), but because of the defiance and history it evokes.
  - Also the motto for the Special Operations forces for US Central Command.
  - Unlike the more well known meme, what Leonidas actually said to the Persian Ambassador before kicking him into a bottomless pit"
    "You want Earth and water? Dig it out for yourself!"
Xerxes gets his own in crossing the Hellespont. He tries to build a bridge out of his boats, which is blown away by a storm. Does he give up? Nope. He orders the sea to be whipped and shackled. Then he rebuilds his bridge and crosses successfully.
On the topic of classical history, Julius Caesar:
Caesar: The die is cast. (Alternatively, "Let the dice fly high!")
Caesar: I came. I saw. I conquered.
- This troper considers the CMOA for the Roman Republic to be the Battle of Alesia. Julius Caesar was alone in Gaul, thousands of miles behind enemy lines, with twelve legions (30,000-60,000 troops). He was besieging the essentially impenetrable fortress of Alesia. Garrisoning Alesia were 80,000 Gauls, big, hairy, muscular men with penchants of dismemberment and no concept of personal safety. Caesar was attacked on one side by the 80,000 Gauls inside of Alesia, and on the other side by 250,000 more Gauls from Vercingetorix's, the Gaulic leader's, allies... Caesar crushed them.
Early in his military career, Caesar once had his men build a bridge in just two days across a wide river into Gaulish territory, marched his legions across and called them to formation on the other side, and then had them immediately turn around, march right back and tear the bridge down. The message was sent: "We can put an army on your turf anytime we want. We own you."
For the Romans, their greatest disaster was possibly the Battle of Cannae, which was fought against Hannibal and the Carthaginians. In a single day they lost as many as 80,000 soldiers, along with one third of the entire government. Allies soon deserted them, and Rome itself was left practically defenseless. Yet this battle was often seen as the crowning moment that ushered the start of the Roman Empire, and for a simple reason: despite the terrible losses, the Romans decided to keep on fighting! (And they did eventually win the war!)
- Cannae was Hannibal's Crowning Moment of Awesome as well. After years in hostile territories with little help from his homeland, his army having lost much of their men crossing the Alps, weary after many subsequent battles, and facing what is considered the greatest Roman army in history at that moment (and of course the Romans had one of the best armies in the world even then) with an army half the size composed mainly of unreliable Gaulish auxiliaries and mercenaries, what did Hannibal do? Annihilate the Roman legions in what is widely considered the best executed military maneuver in all of recorded history. Said manoeuvre has been employed many times since, including in the Gulf War, and is required learning for would-be military officers all around the world to this day.
  - We haven't even mentioned bringing elephants across the Alps.
  - And they all subsequently got sick and died from the journey, so he never got to use those elephants. Moron.
Alexander the Great. So, so many.
- This troper likes Alexander's Take That to Sparta. Sparta had been ignored, as pointed out above, when the time came to attack Persia. After conquering the Persians, he sent to Athens 300 Persian armors with the following inscription: "Alexander son of Philip, and the Greeks - except the Spartans - from the barbarians living in Asia."
- There's also untying the Gordian Knot- by slicing through it with a sword.
- And the fact that he was the acting leader of his country- at age 16.
- On the subject of Alexander, his encounter with Diogenes the Cynic is worthy of mention. Alexander approached the philosopher and asked if there was anything he could do for him. "Yes," answered Diogenes. "Stand aside; you're blocking my sunlight," or words to that effect. Alexander was certainly impressed: "if I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes."
- No one ever bothers to mention how he got his horse Bucephalus? When everyone was all "WTF?!" at the unruly, rebellious horse, a 12-year-old Alexander figured out that it was scared of its own shadow and tricked him into starting at the sun. Minutes later, the animal was under Alex's thumb and he got it as his own ride.
  - Sounds more like a legend to me.
Practically everything that Sun Tzu (aka Sun Zi and Sun Wu) did, such as:
- Defeating armies five the size of his own, and conquering three states at the time and turning a relatively minor state into a superpower in China through said battles.
- Making an enemy army run between three cities and capturing the fourth.
- Seeing right through his opponent's Xanatos Gambit and replying with his own, and even when that didn't totally succeed, he annihilated the supposed relief army, despite losing at first.
- And the fact still stands that his Art of War is still considered relevant by today's armies.
- Sun Tzu is also a MagnificentBastard; one of the rulers of the day asked him to make an army of ouf the ruler's wives and concubines. He said okay, lined them up, gave them parade drill instructions, apologised for his failure to make himself understood when they ignored him, repeated the instructions, had one of them (the ruler's favorite) executed for failing to obey orders, and was halfway to making them into a credible army before the alarmed ruler asked him to stop (presumably before he ran out of women).
  - Correction in regards to the "credible army": He actually did.
General Di Qing had to capture a key pass with impressive defences and challenging topology, which was easy to defend but difficult to attack. How did he seize the stronghold? He partied. More accurately, he and his troops partied for a week and a half, luring the enemy to lower their guard. Then he gathered his most trusted men and stormed the pass, defeating the drunken and oblivious defenders.
In 539 BCE, Cyrus King of Persia was well on his way to conquering the Babylonian Empire. However, the walls of the city were well-known to be completely impregnable. The only openings in the walls contained the Euphrates River (along with metal grates to keep people from swimming through). This did not deter the Persians. Cyrus had a bunch of troops camp outside the walls, then, upstream, other troops diverted the river. His troops walked under the walls through mud and waist-deep water, and the entire Babylonian Empire fell within hours. Some of the walls, incidentally, are still there.
This probably belongs in the political part of this page, but Julius Ceasar had one when a large number of his soldiers rebelled. He had them line up in front of him, and address them as "citizens" instead of soldiers. This basically told them all that they weren't in the army anymore, and they BEGGED him to take them back. He did.

World War Two Looking for all the World War Two examples? They have their own page now.

World War One

Sir Edward Gray was a walking Crowning Moment of Awesome just before the start of the war. He was a simple man who spent his entire life trying to prevent war from breaking out. But when it was clear that the Germans would not back down, he realized that Britain had to enter the war as a united country or it would lose. So, to the surprise of all his peers, the normally soft-spoken Gray delivered a passionate speech before Parliament, which convinced the rival political parties to set aside their differences and issue a joint declaration against Germany. It was only then - after he had ensured British unity and done his duty for this country - that the pacifist Edward Gray went to a friend, wept, and said "I am a man who has wasted his entire life."
- He was also known as an unpoetic man, yet he would say the words that would come to epitomize the start of the First World War: "The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."
The Canadian soldiers in WWI had theirs in Vimy Ridge. The victory was seen as a landmark for Canadian history, for both uniting the country, as soldiers from all parts of Canada were part of the campaign, and for bringing Canada to the attention of the rest of the world.
- This troper's history teacher would disagree. According to him, the Germans actually more or less fled the area (during or before the battle, I forgot) and the gains of it was rather overblown, on how the ridge didn't really give a good position to attack the Germans further. But, as always, history's confusing when you have all the information, and misleading when you don't. So Yeah.
  - Your history teacher is WRONG.
  - Seconded, but here's WHY: By the time of the Arras Campaign, the Germans had already beaten off two Western Allied offensives to take Vimy Ridge (one by the British, the other by the French), and EASILY recognized its strategic worth (it looked down over the plain and dominated the surrounding area for TENS OF MILES around in every direction, and was used to call down Artillery strikes. It was THAT That made it valuable, not the fact that it was a good secondary position to move against the Reichwehr, but because it allowed them to do so without getting the tripe shelled out of them- well, more than usual anyway-). Far from planning a retreat, they designated Vimy as a "Festung Bereich" (Fortress Area), giving it greater priority for supplies and reinforcements than others, and mandating that it be held to the last man and DEMANDING that any officer would SHOOT those attempting to retreat under ANY circumstances or face execution themselves (a VERY drastic measure that- regardless what some of the poetry would have you believe- was VERY unusual and indeed the officers at Vimy were "pardoned" in the aftermath). In the months leading up to the attack, they continuously fortified the ridge to the point where it was probably the equal of some of the smaller Verdun forts (which were probably THE most powerful fortified areas in the war up until the Siegfried/Hindenburg Line). When the attack actually CAME, it is likely that the Germans were no more outnumbered than two-to-one in the actual combat, a far slimmer ratio than the one at the Somme on June 1st or in the prior attacks (granted, the full total of Western Allied forces was 170,000 men, but that includes axillary, support, artillery, and Command units, and while the German sum includes that in the consideration, during an assault, the defender could use pretty much everyone in the area while the attacker only had those who cam straight up). And IN SPITE of all of that, the Germans STILL. LOST. THE. RIDGE. So Yeah, it looks like you and your "history teacher" Did NOT do the Research.
This Troper, who is a Canadian history major, specializing in WWI, and just finished his term paper on this, feels the next 100 days were better. 4 Canadian divisions defeated 47 German divisions. In contrast, the US army, with 12 times the manpower in the field (which is to say 48 divisions), in the same period of time defeated 36 divisions.
- Don't forget Ypres, where the Canadians were some of the first Allied troops to be attacked with poison gas and refused to retreat, even without gas masks.
- They survived without gas masks by breathing through rags soaked in their own urine.
  - Only works with chlorine.
- There were several battles of Ypres, and arguably each was a demonstration of both terrible carnage and awe-inspiring, stoic bravery. In particular, the Regular British Army ("The Old Contemptibles") was virtually wiped out during the first such battle - its soldiers literally fighting to the death and not falling back. Survivors who were later interviewed were all content to simply say "I was at First Ypres".
- Ah, "Canada's Hundred Days". Truly a C Mo A for us Canuks.
The arrival of the American Expeditionary Force during the First World War also resulted in another famous crowning moment of awesome: "Lafayette, I am here!"
Speaking of the First World War, the exploits of the Czech Legion during the Russian Civil war literally turned the journey of several thousand Czech P.O.W.s into their crowning national epic.
- Sort of like the retreat of the Ten Thousand recounted by Xenophon. Their side lost the battle; they just wanted to go home. They got double crossed and had to fight their way out. The difference is that unlike Xenophon's Greeks, the Czechs stopped en route to conquer Siberia from the Bolsheviks and hold it for many months before pulling back.
The French likewise had some of their proudest moments during the First World War, despite the terrible casualties they suffered. In particular, the "Miracle at the Marne" in 1914 prevented the Germans from occupying Paris, which allowed the French to keep fighting on.
At one point in the battle, legend has it that General Foch (who would later become the commander of all the Allied armies in 1918) sent this message: "My right flank is a shambles. My center retreats. The situation is excellent. I attack!"
In another famous incident, French taxi cabs were used to ferry troops to critical sectors of the battle. The taxi drivers supposedly told their civilian passengers that they had to "Go to battle," and proudly arrived at the appointed assembly area in perfect parade order. The historian Barbara Tuchman would poignantly note that this would be "The last gallantry of 1914. The last crusade of the Old World."
- That was the work of General Gallieni, and this was a critical turning point of the war. He used planes to monitor the German position and saw they had left their flank open as they bypassed Paris to continue crushing the French army. He hurled his army, which was pretty much cobbled together as it was meant to defend Paris and little else, against the Germans, and took the wind out of them, allowing Joffre to push forward and counterattack, stopping the Germans in their tracks at the Marne.
  - To top it off? He made sure the taxi drivers got paid.
- This troper's favourite example is actually of a slightly different nature. Clemenceau deciding (against severe pressure) to retain civilian control because "War is too important to be left to the military."
Even tiny Belgium would have its own epic during the First World War. At the start of the war, Germany demanded that its troops be given safe passage over Belgian territory. The Belgians refused based on a simple principle: They were a neutral country. The refusal is mind-bogglingly courageous when you consider that the German army was more than a hundred times the size of Belgium's. Moreover, when the Germans did attack, the Belgians fought back stubbornly right until the end of the war four years later.
- Legend has it that when the Belgian king first announced his intention to resist the Germans, the entire capital of Brussels came out to applaud and celebrate his decision. The Austrian ambassador, who was now at war with the Belgians, wept after seeing the patriotic display.
The Ottoman Turks' major WWI moment is the Battle of Gallipoli, when the seemingly backward and second-rate Ottoman Empire scored a resounding victory against the British Empire and its colonies, won through both careful preparation before the British landing and sheer guts when the British finally attacked. The battle's great hero, the Turkish officer Mustapha Kemal, would later rally his countrymen to kick out the foreign troops occupying what was left of the Ottoman Empire after the war ended, and created the modern Republic of Turkey, serving as its first president and prime minister. Made all the more awesome when one considers what a basket case the old Ottoman Empire was for at least a century before the war.
- Meh, more like a glorified Pyhrric victory. The Western Allies came far closer to defeating the Turkish and German defenders than vice versa, and the attempted Turkish counterattacks (which you NEVER hear of) made things like Lone Pine look like masterpieces of tactics (granted, there were exceptions, but not many of them). In addition, the campaign probably crippled the Turks far worse than it did the Western Allies, as it pretty much killed off the "Old Breed" of 1911 and the Balkan Wars, and more-or-less paralyzed the Turkish army for the remainder for 1915 (leading to the disastrous defeat in the Caucasus and various Armenian revolts in the interior). Impressive? To an extent, but it was probably Gallipoli more than almost anything else that made the Ottoman Empire's death inevitable (seriously, even if the Central Powers had WON WWI, does anybody think the Turks would be able to compete with the Germans or Austrians for dominance in Africa or even the Middle East?). Sure, impressive, but let's keep some perspective here.
- "I am not ordering you to fight. I am ordering you to die. In the time that it takes us to die, other forces and commanders can come and take our place."
Ironically, Australians and New Zealanders often also consider Gallipoli to be their Crowning Moment of Awesome. Despite the horrific losses, ANZAC (Australia-New Zealand Army Corps) forces also showed bravery and unity that was almost unmatched during the entire war. The historian John Keegan would go as far as to say that the epic of Gallipoli would be fought within sight of Troy - the original epic of Western Civilization - and "It is difficult to say which one Homer would have thought the more heroic."
- Specifically, the most Awesome part (at least to this troper) is the retreat. The ANZACs set up water timers on the guns, which worked for days after the troops had already disappeared. The Turks spent about a week shooting at nothing, and the ANZACs got away with almost zero casualties.
  - Many Australians also like to observe that this was the only part of the campaign that Australian officers were allowed to command over, everything before that being based on British orders. The implication is always that if the Australians had just been allowed to run the thing from day one, they would have successfully accomplished a nigh-on impossible objective.
  - Not likely, given the lack of experienced ANZAC commanders and the relative success in the early days of the campaign.
Kemal would also get another Crowning Moment of Awesome when he unveiled the Gallipoli memorial after the war. Rather than glorifying his own achievements, he simply said that the mothers of the soldiers who died in the battle could rest easy, for their sons were now buried on friendly soil. His speech was so magnanimous that it was inscribed on the ANZAC memorial in Australia.
- The nation he founded got another moment when they announced that beach where the landing took place would henceforth be known as ANZAC Cove.
- Here's the quote, in its entirety:
"Heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives! You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well."
The Australian Light Horse charge of Beersheba, the only successful cavalry charge of the 20th century, 800 men on horse back charging towards the Turkish lines wielding their bayonets like short swords, Of the 800 cavalrymen who participated in this unbelievable charge, the Australians suffered just 31 troopers killed and 36 wounded. They captured 750 Turks, 9 artillery pieces, 3 machine guns, and tons of other munitions and supplies. Even more importantly, they seized 17 of the 19 wells at Beersheba intact, recovering 90,000 gallons of fresh, drinkable water from the town. In addition to giving the army a chance to stave off death by dehydration, victory at Beersheba turned the Ottoman flank, allowing the British Army to eventually roll up the enemy forces and defeat them once and for all. Jerusalem fell two months later, and all of Palestine crumbled soon afterwards, CMOA with emphasis on the A.
- Definitely not the only one. Polish cavalry had several in both the Polish - Bolshevik war of 1920 and in 1939.
Sir John Monash. Perhaps the greatest military commander in World War 1, he was one of the first Generals to use armour, infantry and airborne units in a cohesive manner, won numerous victories against the Germans, was the last man knighted on the battlefield, and the first to be knighted in such a way in over two hundred years, by King George V. But what made him truly awesome wasn't his tactical ability, it was the fact that in the mess and the mud of World War 1 he was able to deliver hot meals to his men every day. The fact that he was an Australian Jew in a time when anti-Semitism was high only adds to this amazing man's legacy.
Sir Herbert Plumer was also one of the few outstanding commanders from the First World War. Although he looked like a traditional British General (of the Blackadder stereotype), he showed meticulous attention to detail and worked hard to ensure that his men suffered only minimal casualties. He proved so popular that, after the war, he was made a Field Marshal and presided over the creation of many memorials for the dead. At the opening of one such memorial, he famously told the families of soldiers who were "Missing in Action" that "At last, it can be said that he is not missing. He is here!"
The Canadians and the Australians had two Crowning Moments of Awesome when they work together. The first was the Battle of Amiens in World War I, where the Canadians and Australians, working together, broke the German line, forced them back 10 miles, and the speed of their advance was so great they captured German officers still eating breakfast. The attack was so successful that Erich Ludendorff, one of the leaders of the German Army, declared that it was "The Black Day of the the German army"
- The second time was the battle of Kapyong during the Korean war. The Canadians and Australians had a about 1,000 men between them, set up on two hills. They were surrounded by the Chinese, with estimates of their forces ranging from 5,000-20,000 men. The situation got so bad that the Canadians called down artillery fired on themselves, and during the break in the fighting, the Australians called HQ for support, only to find out that HQ considered them wiped out because No One Could Survive That. At the end of the battle, when the Chinese had retreated, the casualties stood at 32 killed for the Australians, 10 killed for the Canadians, and over 1,000 Chinese Casualties.
Here's another relatively unknown but quite astonishing feat of arms: Operation Polar Bear. Just after the Bolsheviks took power in Russia, Woodrow Wilson sent a small force of US troops, with much smaller numbers of British, French, and Canadian troops attached, to Archangel, Russia, to prevent the Bolsheviks from selling US-made weapons in the warehouses there to the Germans after their separate armistice. The US unit was a single infantry regiment, and not even an Army unit—the 339th Infantry was a National Guard unit. Their orders were to safeguard the arms, initially. They ended up having to fight their way most of the way across Siberia, during a Russian winter, above the Arctic Circle. This was a feat to compare with the Anabasis. The Bolsheviks were disorganized but there were a lot of them, and the Americans soon found that they did not take prisoners. In little Siberian towns like Shenkursk and Ust Padenga they fought off human wave assaults by the Bolsheviks in -70 degree cold, during whiteout conditions, and in almost every engagement, in total darkness unless there was moonlight; in some engagements the sole illumination was the muzzle flashes of their captured Maxim guns. In waist-deep snow, in near total darkness, in frigid conditions where men could get frostbite in minutes, they could not dig trenches so at Shenkursk they constructed defensive fortifications of frozen corpses. And when the US government, having for a while apparently forgotten where they were and what they were doing, after a year ordered them to withdraw, they carved a path through two thousand miles of hostile territory back to Archangel and the sea, and withdrew in good order. And it is a story not in any history book I have ever seen. Still it is commemorated by the unit crest of the 339th Infantry: crossed bayonets on a white shield, with the motto "Штик решает!" ("The bayonet decides!")
World War I; France versus Germany; one on one. After a long, bloody, hellish fight...the French defeat the Germans in the Battle of Verdun, surviving what basically amounts to hell on Earth. Who says the Germans always beat the French?
- Verdun, conceived and executed by German commander Falkenhayn so that "the French General Staff would be compelled to throw in every man they have. If they do so the forces of France will bleed to death". Verdun, the battle which led the British to attack at the Somme in order to draw off German pressure. Verdun, where Nivelle's orders, as the Germans closed on the last French fortresses, ended, simply, "ils ne passeront pas".
  - Actually, Falkenhayn wanted to capture Verdun, not to turn it into a "French meat grinder". This is a myth based on the "Christmas Manifesto", which bears a fake date - it was used to explain further attacks with little progress or hope of success. But the goal was still to take the city.
If you think about it, World War One as a whole counts as a Crowning Moment of Awesome for Germany, when you consider how lopsided the conflict was. On one side you had the French, British, and Russian Empires, the countries that made up their colonies, the United States, and a host of lesser powers. On the other you have Germany itself, two decrepit and increasingly feeble empires in the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires, both of which were dependent on German support or otherwise had to be bailed out by the Germans, Germany's few African colonies, and a minor power in Bulgaria. The fact that the Germans were able to keep up the fight for so long with so few allies is badass enough, but it's also worth noting that while Germany lost on the Western Front against France, Britain, the U.S. and the other Allies, it won against Russia, gaining sizable territorial concessions in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk...at least until the Treaty was subsequently rendered null and void after the war.
- Then again, Russia was just as decrepit as Austria-Hungary or the Ottoman Empire (Tannenburg appropriately showed the capabilities of the Russian military in 1914), the United States was ambivalent at best until 1917 (President Wilson making his name on "staying out of the war"), Austria-Hungary had the benefit of terrain against Italy, and Bulgaria was commonly considered the Prussia of the Balkans for its disciplined and well-trained military - it consistently took a Romanian-Serbian-Greek tag-team to best them. If Wilhelm hadn't lost his nerve and ordered divisions transferred East on the verge of First Marne, Germany may have been able to take Paris despite how bad the Schliffen Plan fundamentally was. Also...
- That's probably because Germany was the only country that did any decent preparation for the war. Most European nations had armies of only a few hundred thousand men (Britain had only 150,000 soldiers spread out across its vast empire). Germany had 4 million fully trained, well-armed men. When the war started, all the other nations were left playing catch-up.
  - Oh come on. The First World War with twenty million pointless deaths is a Crowning Moment of Not In The Least Bit Awesome for all concerned. Especially Germany, who channeled its resentments into the rise of Hitler.
  - Somebody has a Critical Research Failure. PARTICULARLY when when takes into account that Hitler wasn't the root of the problem, just a very malignant symptom of one going back to the 1830's (see Imperial Germany's discussion page). The main Dethroning Moment Of Suck came when the Western Allies did NOT occupy and forcibly reform Germany ala 1945.
In World War I, the man charged with defending the German colonies in East Africa was General Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck. With 12,000 men, mostly native soldiers, General Lettow-Vorbeck took on nearly 45,000 under British command. Using his knowledge of the terrain and guerilla tactics, Lettow-Vorbeck won every single engagement in East Africa. He staged constant raids on the British colonies for supplies and ammunition and was invading Northern Rhodesia and captured the town of Kasama by the time British magistrate Hector Croad approached him under a white flag of truce and informed him of the armistice. Lettow-Vorbeck agreed to a cease-fire and marched north to surrender his undefeated army to the British. By the end of the war he had only 155 Germans and slightly over 1,100 native troops left in his command. He refused to support the nazis when they took power, and was under constant surveillance by the German government during that time. After the war, he was impoverished but gained a decent living after Germany's economic recovery.
- Karen Blixen, who wrote the novel "Out of Africa" (which was made into a movie), rode on the same boat at Lettow-Vorbeck on the way to Africa. Later, she would recall that "No man ever gave me so strong an impression of what the German Empire stood for" as Lettow-Vorbeck did.
Adrian Carton de Wiart. The most stereotypically eccentric British officer of all time (and he wasn't even British, he was actually of Belgian descent). He also fought in the Boer War and WW 2, but is most famous for his WW 1 exploits. Notably, he refused to carry a gun because "I would only get angry and shoot my own men". He was wounded seven times in battle due to leading from the front, losing his eye and hand, which he viewed as a minor inconvenience, and only got prosthetics because high command wouldn't let him go back to the front otherwise (he threw them away immediately afterwards). His contemporaries described him as looking like a maverick pirate on land, with his eyepatch and empty sleeve.
- ...Commisar Yarrick?
The WWI Christmas Truce. Proving that even pacifism can be awesome. Really. Celebrating Christmas in front of your mortal enemies, and having them join in?! Truly awesome.
This troper demands to know why Sergeant Alvin C. York has not yet been mentioned on this page! "I didn't want to kill any more than I had to. But it was they or I. And I was giving them the best I had."
I feel compelled to mention the RMS Olympic, older sister to the Titanic, which served as a transport vessel during the war. In May 1918, just three years after the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, she rammed and sank a German U-Boat, and remains the only Merchant Vessel to do so. "Old Reliable" indeed!
So no mention of the Red Baron or Billy Bishop? Or of Canadian pilot Roy Brown for SHOOTING DOWN THE RED BARON?
- Questionable about who shot down the Red Baron. Some say Roy Brown, others say an Aussie AA nest. Though given the fact that the latter was just an elevated Machine gun at the time makes it a CMOA enough.
The German East Asiatic Squadron. Dodging out of China when the war starts and making your way across the entire Pacfic ocean to smack down a British squadron specifically sent to hunt you down is awesome enough. Managing to con a French port to supply you along the way, however, is magnificent.
- They also managed to con a British port (Easter Island) into supplying them with fresh meat and other supplies. Yet this feat was made doubly awesome by the way the Germans paid the islanders. Having run out of cash (mainly to pay for supplies from the French port they conned), the German Admiral issued checks payable to a German bank in Chile. When the islanders came to collect the money several months after the German Admiral and most of his crew were killed by the British fleet, the German bank showed no hesitation. They honored the checks.
The escape of the Dresden: After a battle at the Falkland Islands that destroyd the entire fleet of which it was a part of, the SMS Dresden managed to escape despite damage suffered during the battle, go around Cape Horn and into the fjords and channels of southern Chile, where, with the aid of helpful german colonists (the south of Chile has a lot of them) they managed to evade pursuit by british ships for two months. When the british fleet finally caught up to the Dresden in the Juan Fernandez islands, the captain sent an officer (Lt. Wilhelm Canaris, who years later would be instrumental to the july 20 plot to assasinate Hitler) to negotiate the terms of surrender. Meanwhile, the crew prepared to evacuate and sink their own ship rather than surrendering. Being the great-grandson of one of the sailors of the Dresden, This Troper may not be perfectly objective, but i still think it's a pretty damn awesome story.
When the French retook Jerusalem, one colonel had the guts to go down into Saladin's tomb and proudly declare "Here we are again, Saladin!" after Jerusalem had been lost to the Muslims during the Crusades.
- I'm sorry - after WHO retook Jerusalem? Edmund Allenby, anyone?
Dannreuther, Firing Officer on the HMS Invincible at Jutland. When his ship was blown in half under him, the fore half sank into the water slowly enough for him to step out from his mast-head position onto a piece of debris. The legend (unfortunately unreliable) says he did it without getting his feet wet. His exit from his disrupted ship was an epic CMOA worthy of Wagnerian opera. The catch? He was Wagner's godson.

French Revolutionary / Napoleonic Wars

Say what you will about the guy, but Napoleon Bonaparte and those who followed him practically existed in one long Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
- Somewhat contested, but at the Battle of Waterloo the French Imperial Guard was asked to surrender. Their response, depending upon who you ask, was either "La Garde meurt, elle ne se rend pas!" (The guard dies, it does not surrender!), or, more to the point, Merde
- After an alliance of half of Europe finally defeated him, Napoleon eventually escaped his imprisonment and headed back to Paris. When the army that was sent to stop him by the new King confronted Napoleon's small group, he walked up to them and told them that they could do the bidding of their puppet king and his masters, or they could follow their Emperor (Napoleon). The entire army sent to stop him bowed down before him.
  - To this troper, it will always be the Battle of Austerlitz and following war against Prussia. At Austerlitz, Napoleon managed to completely outmaneuver and destroy the combined armies of Austria and Russia (which were vastly numerically superior to his own), inflicting huge casualities and capturing many cannons and battle standards while suffering minimal losses to his own forces. A few months after that, he took on Prussia (which was considered to have had the best army in the world at that time, and had only a few years before spent many months fruitlessly warring against the French) and managed to completely crush them in 19 days. He then visited the tomb of Frederick the Great, the Prussian ruler and military strategist, and demanded his generals remove their hats, stating "If he was alive we wouldn't be here today".
  - And then there's the incident early in his career when he used a small detachment of artillery to fight off a group of British warships.
- Not to forget, of course, Wellington's master stroke. He demoralised the entire French army, including the supposedly fearless veterans, by having a pair of hidden brigades on a hill stand up.
- 1805. Cape Trafalgar. Admiral Horatio Nelson, holding up the telescope to his blind eye. "I see no ships."
  - Not quite right. Actually, totally, totally wrong... Battle of Copenhagen, 1801. Admiral Hyde Parker, who hasn't got the best view of the situation, gives the order to withdraw. Nelson, who can see an opportunity, ignores the signal. He remarked to his Flag Cpatain, "You know, Foley, I have only one eye. I have a right to be blind sometimes." Raising his telescope to his right (blinded) eye, he added "I really do not see the signal." Nelson goes on to win a resounding victory.
  - Hell, the victory at Trafalgar is a CMOA in and of itself. The British Navy faces the combined fleet of Spain and France. They are outnumbered, outmanned, and outgunned. They then proceed to utterly decimate their opponent without losing a single ship themselves.
In 1793, when the First Coalition was on the verge of crushing revolutionary France, the National Convention declared mass conscription — a move unprecedented in modern Europe — raised a million men for the army in a few months, drove the attackers out of France, and even invaded some of its neighbors.
From this moment until such time as its enemies shall have been driven from the soil of the Republic, all Frenchmen are in permanent requisition for the services of the armies. The young men shall fight; the married men shall forge arms and transport provisions; the women shall make tents and clothes and shall serve in the hospitals; the children shall turn linen into lint; the old men shall betake themselves to the public squares in order to arouse the courage of the warriors and preach hatred of kings and the unity of the Republic.
A personal one for General Gerhardt "Vorwärts" von Blücher: the Waterloo campaign. He started off by personally leading a cavalry charge, was rescued after being wounded and had his army slip out of Napoleon's grasp, arrived on the field of Waterloo just in time to flank the French as they began retreating, and finished off by donning Napoleon's hat (thus making clear that the 23 years of war since the French revolution were Definitely Really Over). Oh, and he was in his eighties at the time.
Back in the 19th century, Marshal Michel Ney was one of two marshals who helped Napoleon upon his escape from Elba. After Napoleon met his Waterloo, Ney was arrested and sentenced to death by firing squad. (The other guy got off easy.) He denied a blindfold, and demanded - and was given the right to give the order to shoot. His last words?
Ney: "Soldiers, when I give the command to fire, fire straight at my heart. Wait for the order. It will be my last to you. I protest against my condemnation. I have fought a hundred battles for France, and not one against her... Soldiers - Fire!"
Again the Napoleonic Wars: During the 1812 French invasion of Russia, Napoleon's troops were approaching Moscow. The Muscovites fled the city, but not before burning it to the ground before the French could get to it. And, in a crafty twist, the Russians took all the fire engines with them (yes, they did exist in 1812). The French Army was devastated by the freezing winter and the lack of provisions.
- Exactly the same thing would be done—although not in Moscow; but further west—during World War Two.
In 1808, the government of Spain tried to avoid war with Napoleanic France by allowing French troops to march through on their way to occupy Portugal. The ruse backfired when France occupied Spain and sent the royal family into exile. The people of Madrid took matters into their own hands and fought the French in the "Dos de Mayo uprising," initially securing key parts of the city. They were eventually crushed by the French, who responded by executing any civilians who had been arrested with a weapon, which amounted to several hundred executed. Rather than intimidating the populace, the rest of Spain took up arms and ignited the Peninsular War, from which "guerrilla warfare" would take its name.
But the Spanish weren't done yet. The city of Saragossa was besieged by the French, and they assaulted the gateway into the city. The Spanish took heavy casualties and the men abandoned their posts. However, a woman named Agustina de Aragon, who had been bringing food to the soldiers, rushed forward, loaded and fired a cannon with no prior training and shredded a wave of French soldiers at point blank range. This inspired soldiers and townsfolk to come to her aid. The attack was successfully beaten off, and Agustina would eventually become Duke Wellington's only female officer, reaching the rank of Captain by the time the war ended.
The most major crowning moment for the Spanish was the Battle of Bailén, where they were pretty much the first people anywhere to defeat the once-invincible legions of Napoleon and France since 1801, and hence was an enormous hit against French prestige. Napoleon himself is noted as being mortified at the defeat.
Thomas Cochrane, one of Britain's naval commanders (and later an admiral) in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Put it this way: his exploits were so legendary that he inspired both the most famous fictional Royal Navy captains, Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey (and Hornblower then became the inspiration for Captain Kirk). His feats include taking a Spanish ship twice the size of his small sloop in the Mediterranean, continuously going ashore to Spain to fight in the Peninsular War, and simultaneously holding a Parliamentary seat at home and using it to campaign for more democratic reforms. Then he was convicted (possibly framed) for stock exchange fraud and fled to South America...where he spent his time playing in a key part in the wars of independence of Chile, Brazil and Greece after he'd popped back to Europe for a bit, basically building the navies of those three countries. In the end he was so popular that the government had to drop the charges against him. And then in 1854 he tried to sign up for the Crimean War, despite being in his eighties, and sulked when he was refused. In fairness, he also tried to introduce chemical warfare 100 years early and the British Government told him it would set a dangerous precedent...
The capture of the Dutch fleet in 1795, by the French cavalry . Complete with horses. No seriously.◊
- This was possible because the French General, Charles Pichegru, overcame the Dutch's water-based defences by craftily attacking in winter, when everything had frozen over (including the harbours where the ships were moored).
Ensign Edward Keogh and Sergeant Patrick Masterson (or Masterman, records vary) of the 87th Foot. On 5 March 1811, at the Battle of Barrosa, Ensign Keogh was the first British officer to touch a French Imperial Eagle. He grabbed it and was immediately killed... and then Sergeant Masterson came in after him, stabbed the French ensign carrying it, snatched it and ran off shouting "By Jaysus, boys, I have the Cuckoo!"
Napoleon's Polish Chevaulegers of the Guard at Somosierra. One hell of a charge up the quite narrow pass filled with Spanish partisans and cannons. 125 cavalrymen have taken about 3 000 prisoners. In eight minutes.
- Also a notable example on behalf of the Spanish gunners, who would rather die than abandon their batteries.
During the Battle of Waterloo, the British held the farmhouse of Hougoumont for the entire duration of the battle with around 2000 men, which diverted 33 French divisions (14000 men), which seriously compromised the French battle plans, Wellington himself said "The success of the battle turned upon the closing of the gates at Hougoumont"

Israel's Wars

Israel. 'Nuff said. Just go to for details. They've been repeatedly at war with coalitions of all the Arab countries that border Israel, and every time, by virtue of superior training and technology, Israel has Kicked. Their. Asses.
- Not quite... In the 1948 War of Independence, the Israelis had bare bones equipment against the Arab nations' professional armies, tanks and planes. (The only plane the Israelis had, the pilot threw hand grenades out the window!) They had to build their own mortar launcher, the Davidka. They still won. Partly thanks to the World War II veterans who had migrated to Israel.
- In the Six-Day War, Israel completely routed the Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian armed forces in, well, six days, via a pre-emptive strike that took out most of the Egyptian Air Force on the tarmac. They were outnumbered five to one in air forces.
  - It doesn't hurt that they had guys like Imi Lichtenfeld and Zvika Greengold on their side, gentlemen who raised the art of badassery to levels previously unknown to mankind.
- Entebbe. Some terrorists hijacked a plane and routed it to Entebbe Airport in Uganda. Everyone who was a Jew or an Israeli (read: most of the plane) were held hostage, the terrorists planning to kill them. An Israeli unit, consisting of about 100 people total, was sent to get them back. They flew from Israel to Uganda at night, under hostile radars. without ground control, and rescued nearly everyone, with the aide of a limo they'd disguised to look like that of Idi Amin. One hostage was caught in the crossfire; one Israeli soldier, the leader of the force, Yonatan Netanyahu, was killed. I call that the crowning moment of awesome. Also, the pilot of the aircraft received his own crowning moment of awesome when he refused to leave the passengers, even though he wasn't Jewish and could have escaped.
  - Don't forget that the Ugandan army stationed soldiers to help the hijackers. The Israeli commandos took a few of them out too.
  - The commandos had excellent preparation, in part because an Israeli firm had built the airport. The firm rapidly built a mock-up for the commandos to train in before they were sent in to storm the plane.
- The Bekaa Valley Turkey Shoot. Precise numbers vary, but taking out 85 aircraft while losing none of your own is impressive to say the least.
- The Yom Kippur War. The Arabs attacked on Yom Kippur (the holiest day of the year to Judaism) specifically because they thought all the Jews would be busy praying and fasting. In fact, it backfired, as it made it easier to send communications and move troops on the empty roads, and to marshal troops from soldiers gathered at the synagogues.
  - Within the Yom Kippur War itself, you have the exploits of Zvika Force. One fearless tank commander and a force of battered Centurion tanks that totaled sixteen at its largest and one at its lowest effectively held off five full Syrian divisions of T-62s for thirty hours straight. Lieutenant Zvika Greengold himself scored no less than sixty confirmed tank kills during this battle.
When the Israelis bribed an Iraqi pilot to fly his Soviet MiG to Israel to be studied, while the Mossad got his entire family out of Iraq. This led to much pwnage of Arab-piloted MiGs by Israeli pilots in subsequent wars.
Aaron Wolf("A Purity of Arms") tells how when he was patroling the streets of Jerusalem with the IDF, the religious quarter, inflamed by the stabbing of a Jew by an Arab rioted. A small Arab girl happened to be in front of the mob. Aaron and his comrades formed up around the girl and escorted her out of danger. When they took the girl to her Aunt's the aunt thought the soldiers were coming to arrest her but when she heard, all she could say was, "thank you." In that way Aaron and his friends put justice and the law before ethnic rivalry in the short term but in the long term did something to add to the honor of Jews and the Israeli people.
- And if someone says that isn't awesome, well, being able to take such things for granted certainly is awesome.
Operation Magic Carpet aka On Wings of Eagles. In 1949 Israel was struggling to recover from the Independence War and form a working country, yet when fears for the safety of Yemenite Jews came up, still managed to rescue them all IN SECRET. Working with the king of Yemen (who may deserve his own CMOA for this) they airlifted approximately 50,0000 Jews out of Yemen and brought them to Israel. Many of the evacuees had never seen planes before, and were very hesitant to board, until reminded of a couple of verses in the Torah, about being 'carried on the wings of eagles."

Turkish Wars

The Siege of Malta, pitting nearly 50,000 Ottoman Turks against (at most) 9,000 Knights Hospitaller. Among the highlights:
- The Knights asked the nations of Europe for aid, and got only promises of lavish memorials. The Knights' Master, facing mass desertions, shamed those who would leave into going back to their positions, by saying, basically "No one would blame you for running, and I forgive you for abandoning your comrades."
- Two elderly Knights of the Order, by their request, taking up longswords and being lashed to thronelike chairs, in front of a gate that was about to be breached, swinging furiously at anyone coming through.
- The apparently-invincible Ottoman Navy limping home after six months, and having to return to Constantinople by cover of night, to avoid a public shaming.
The Siege of Vienna in 1683, where the Austrians held out against a massive Ottoman siege long enough for reinforcements to arrive and pulverize the Turks, which was arguably the Ottoman Empire's last hurrah before it started its long, slow decline. It was also indirectly responsible for introducing Central Europe to the delights of coffee, as the victorious armies looted some from the Turkish supply train.
- How the heck can you bring up the Battle of Vienna without mentioning the Poles? The charge of three thousand winged, armored hussars down the Kahlenberg hill, led by none other than King Sobieski himself, breaking the enemy lines and into the Turkish camp itself surely counts as a C Mo A on its own. (Even if, say, the Battle of Kircholm was arguably more of a C Mo A, at least from a strictly military point of view, for the Polish winged warriors.)
- The whole coffee thing was also a Polish contribution. Franciszek Kulczycki, a nobleman who served as a messenger between King John III of Poland and the besieged city was asked to pick one thing from the captured camp as a reward for his deeds (sneaking past an army of Turks, to be precise). He had chosen the cofee bags and opend the first cafe in Europe in Vienna.
At a time when many European countries were desperately trying to make peace with the Ottomans, Vlad Tepes AKA Dracula, was able to buffer the rest of Europe by sheer force of brutality, culminating in his impalement of 20,000 Turkish prisoners and turning back Mehmet-freaking-II, the guy who, you know, conquered Constantinople. He got honored by the Pope for his actions. So, yeah.
During the battle of Lepanto, Alessandro Farnese boarded an Ottoman galley by leaping across the gap between ships in full battle armor (which would have been instant death if he had missed or was hit by a pike mid-flight), and proceeded to slaughter his way through the whole ship, dual-wielding his two swords. His armor was dyed black by the end of the battle... with blood. The guy was a terror.
When the Turks besieged Constantinople in 1453, the Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI (age 48) refused the Sultan Mehmet II's (age 19—nineteen!) offer to surrender and live out his life in exile. He personally defended his city during the battle on May 29, was killed, and buried in a mass grave alongside his men. He was the last Byzantine emperor; all the claimants afterwards were only pretenders.
- Mehmet himself was possibly the most immensely dignified Bad Ass emperor since Alexander the Great.
- Among other accompishments, Mehmet authored one of the first legal documents on religious freedom, and nearly conquered Rome to further legitimize his claim as Caesar (he had referred to such after conquering the Byzantine Empire, and had a bit of a claim due to being descended from the Byzantine ruling family at some point in his lineage). His true CMOA, however, is when, at the age of 12, he requested his father return and lead the Ottoman army in the Battle of Varna. When his father refused, Mehmet replied, "If you are the Sultan, come and lead your armies. If I am the Sultan, I hereby order you to come and lead my armies." His father complied.
After winning the Battle of Nicopolis, Ottoman Sultan Bayzid I agreed to set his numerous prisoners free for a rather modest ransom. Traditionally, your prisoners would be forced to swear an oath to never take arms against you again. Bayzid's terms? "Bring it."
Hungary defended whole Europe for centuries against the Turks (from the end of the 14th century to the end of the 17th). The whole period was a long CMOA for Hungary, but some moments stand out:
- The siege of Nándorfehérvár (now Belgrade) in 1456, where the turks almost succeeded in planting their flag on the castle (thus conquering it according to the customs of the age). One of the defenders, Títusz Dugovics jumped down the castle with the flag-carrier.
- The siege of Eger in 1552, where even the women of the city defended the castle by spilling hot oil and tar on the turks establishing their reputation as amazons. The defenders also used some badass devices, like a mill-wheel rigged with 16th century pyrotechnics. The castle was of course successfully defended by 2100 Hungarians from at least 40,000 Turks.
- The siege of Szigetvár: the defenders held the castle for weeks despite being vastly outnumbered. When their resources ran out, they (~300 light horsemen) led by Miklós Zrínyi, baron of Croatia rushed out of the castle in a suicide attack killing thousands of turks in the progress. The Turkish sultan died of natural causes some days before.
- Maybe not quite for Hungary

Medieval Wars

In 1472 during the war between France and Burgundy, duke Charles the Bold attacked the town of Beauvais. Though the whole town was pretty much very awesome in their defense, the CMOA goes to Jeanne Hachette. One of the Burgundians had actually managed to climb up the wall and plant a Burgundian flag. Jeanne grabbed an axe, attacked him, threw him in the moat. She then grabbed the flagpole, broke it and threw it down as well. The defenders were fired up after this and the city held. King Louis XI of France was so grateful that a procession was made in her honor.
It is said that when the Caliph Umar was touring Jerusalem after the surrender of said city to his forces he was in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre when the call to prayer rang out. He refused to pray in the Christian shrine, for fear that his followers would someday demand that it be converted into a mosque because of it, and instead lay his rug in the courtyard. Said church has remained a Christian house of worship to this day.
Manzikert. Not the battle itself; it involved the Romans walking half the day turning around, and getting ambushed by mounted archers... then one of Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes's subordinate commanders (brought along as much because he was not trusted to remain in Constantinople as anything) spread the word that the Emperor was dead to insure the effective rout of the Roman army. Even the courage of the Emperor himself, not surrendering until unhorsed and too badly wounded to use his sword, isn't what I speak of. It was when the Seljuk Sultan Alp Arslan, upon having the man identified to him, ceremoniously placed his foot on the man's neck... then helped him up, had his wounds seen to, and placed as the guest of honor during the subsequent banquet. Alp Arslan demanded nothing more than the obligatory tribute/ransom and minor territorial adjustments, and once the treaty was worked out sent the man home with a massive escort befitting the Emperor he was while he prepared to march upon the Fatamid heretics in Egypt he regarded as his actual enemies. Of course Romanos was overthrown in a coup led by some of the deserters, he had his eyes put out, and nobody bothered to re-garrison an Anatolia already depopulated by internal land policies against nomads wandering in (large swaths of which were signed over to the Seljuks for aid against a rebellious Norman mercenary).
Alp Arslan: "What would you do if I were brought before you as a prisoner?"
Romanos: "Perhaps I'd kill you, or exhibit you in the streets of Constantinople."
Alp Arslan: "My punishment is far heavier. I forgive you, and set you free."
In 1302, after a period of unrest, the citizens of Flanders decided to fight the French opposition which officially owned their lands. After some skirmishing (including the killing of every Frenchman in Bruges) two forces of roughly equal number met near Kortrijk. The point, however, is that the Flemish force consisted nearly entirely of infantry militia armed with pikes and the goedendag, a local weapon that's little more than a large, heavy club with a spike on top. The French force was made up of infantry and, notably, 2500 mounted knights, noble soldiers trained from childhood and considered ten times the worth of a regular combatant. They were broken utterly on the Flemish pike wall and the French were slaughtered. Knights were permitted to wear golden (or gilded) spurs to signify their nobility and superior skill. This battle is named The Battle of the Golden Spurs for the large number of them that littered the battlefield.
Towards the end of the Anglo-Scottish wars came the Battle of Bannockburn (probably a Crowning Moment of Awesome in its own right for Scotland as a whole - an excellent example of choosing your battlefield, quite apart from anything else). The story every historian loves, though, is what happened the day before the battle. Robert the Bruce, out of armour, armed only with an axe and riding a small pony, was taking a look at the English lines when Sir Henry de Bohun, in full armour, armed to the teeth and riding a bloody great warhorse, charged straight at him. The sensible thing to do would have been to retreat back to his own lines. Instead, Bruce just split de Bohun's head in half with a single blow, breaking his axe in the process. Legend says he then complained as "I have broken my good axe."
A brief summary of the events of 1066 in England:
- The last Anglo-Saxon king, Harold Godwinson, is crowned under heavy duress, as it's questionable whether the crown was meant to go to him or to William the Conqueror, a Norman (French-speaking Viking). Suddenly, all of England is up for grabs (even the Pope endorses that people go and fight there for it). William, in France, gathers a giant army and heads for the South of England, while Harald Hardrada of Norway heads for the North.
- Harold Godwinson's brother Tostig allies with Hardrada and beats the crap out of the Earls Edwin and Morcar. Harold Godwinson, expecting William but not Hardrada, marches his army 180 miles from London to York. He catches the Vikings completely by surprise (who still manage to put up a decent fight, despite not actually wearing armour) and eventually wins, signing a truce with the Vikings on condition that they never invade England again, effectively bringing an end to the Viking Age.
  - This despite the CMOA-within-a-CMOA of a single Viking soldier, who stood alone on the bridge the Saxons needed to cross, killing dozens and holding them off long enough for the other Vikings to... well, lose, I guess. But it was still pretty Bad Ass.
- Harold Godwinson then marched his soldiers 241 miles down to Sussex, where they fought the Normans for hours before being routed. The Normans had infantry, archers and cavalry. The Saxons had infantry. Every single housecarl (the only permanent infantry) died defending their king.
  - Few seem to understand just how awesome this was, and what a Badass Harold Godwinson was. Harald Hardrada was basically the last viking king, and essentially was the real life Conan (he was an unusually large and strong barbarian warrior who travelled widely and eventually carved out an empire). Godwinson force-marched his men to the north of England, outwitted and defeated *The Real World Conan*, then force-marched to the South of England and *very nearly* beat the king of the Normans. Unlike the modern French reputation, the Normans were also descended from vikings and notorious for being humungous Badasses themselves. Hence 1066 was Godwinson's CMOA even though he died, and lost everything.
  - Am I the only one who thinks the battles of 1066 bear unusual similarity to 300?
Hundred Year's War. Crècy and Agincourt. Both times, the English (mostly longbowmen) find themselves outnumbered by at least three-to-one, probably more. The French forces contained large contingents of armed and armoured knights on horseback. The French are utterly routed both times. Combined, the French lost over 3,800. Only 300 Englishmen died over the course of both battles (though many were wounded).
- The bulk of the French armies were noble knights, where the English force was mostly commoners. At the time, nobles would often be ransomed if they lost the battle, but commoners would be killed out of hand. So the English were literally fighting for their lives.
- Speaking of Crècy, King John I of Bohemia was among the noble dead. Thing was, he was blind and went into battle led by a handful of knights who tied themselves together to 'take [him] far enough forward for [him] to strike a blow with [his] sword.'
- Not to mention the English archers destroying the French NAVY at the Battle of Sluys.
- Joan of Arc, full stop. Little peasant girl from Domrémy, a small village in what is today Lorraine, approaches the local garrison commander saying that she was chosen by three Saints to drive the English from France and bring the Dauphin to Reims for his coronation, and is laughed out. From this ignoble start, she correctly predicts a decisive French defeat near Orléans, and parleys this into a personal meeting with the Dauphin himself. From here, she:
  - Is sent to Orléans to break the siege, a daunting proposition considering the horrible setbacks the French have taken. The English already controlled all of northern France except the city, and the loss of the city would permit the English free reign in central France and destroy the Dauphin's cause. By the time of Joan's arrival, the city was extremely desperate and almost ready to surrender despite the consequences of a sack. In this air, she dictated three letters to the English army and their King, promising to break the siege and drive them from France. Her first two letters ignored, her third was extremely succinct, and once it was sent, she proceeded to override the cautious tactics of the French garrison and the Bastard of Orléans (a well-respected individual, mind) and lead direct assaults on two of the most heavily fortified and defended positions, winning both times and isolating the siege force in their own works. The third battle saw the siege fully lifted and the road to Reims opened.
    You, men of England, who have no right to this Kingdom of France, the King of Heaven orders and notifies you through me, Joan the Maiden, to leave your fortresses and go back to your own country; or I will produce a clash of arms to be eternally remembered. And this is the third and last time I have written to you; I shall not write anything further.
  - Amusingly, bested the English in circumstances almost identical to Agincourt except for the available forces, routing almost thrice their number in mostly longbowmen with armored knights and a cavalry charge.
  - Was captured by the Burgundians, sold to the English, and put on trial for heresy. Lacking decisive evidence to even initiate a trial according to the proper canon law, the English authorities proceed to install their own partisans, cow inquisitors and clerics through death threats, keep her prisoner using their own soldiers rather than the proper church authorities, and even doctor the court records in a manner that shocked even those of the era. She, an illiterate peasant girl, proceeded to defend herself admirably and stymie even the most ardently English bishops, even avoiding semantics traps that could have been used as confessions of guilt, the most famous of these below serving even to stun her interrogators into silence. She was only undone by trickery: threatened with execution, she was eventually forced to sign an abjuration recanting her "heresy" and, among other things, agreeing to wear women's clothing, with the English substituting a different abjuration in the court's records. She was then raped by an English guard and all of her clothing stolen and replaced by men's clothing, which she wore rather than going nude. This, taken as evidence of a relapse into heresy, was sufficient for the English to rush her to the stake. Notably, the Pope himself authorized a retrial after the war ended in order to find her innocent, at the behest of the Inquisitor-General and Joan's mother.
    Interrogator: Do you know whether or not you are in God's grace?
    Joan of Arc: If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me. I should be the saddest creature in the world if I knew I were not in His grace.
  (Note that any straightforward answer to this is wrong: an affirmative answer is heresy by claiming to know God's will, and a negative answer is heresy by affirming one to not be in God's grace)
By 1260, the Mongol armies had already run roughshod over China, Korea, Russia (in the winter!), Eastern Europe, and then headed into Syria. After Hulagu Khan's forces sacked Baghdad and Damascus, and annihilated the Hashashin (the famed Assassin cult of Persia), their rampage seemed nigh-unstoppable. Then the Mamluk army of Egypt stopped them in their tracks in the Battle of Ayn Jalut. This was the first time that the Mongols had ever been dealt a decisive defeat in battle.
- Though not the last time. In 1286 the Mongols decided to hit Hungary, a kingdom whose shit they ruined about forty years ago. They thought it would be a breeze. They were wrong. Their defeat was so bad it sent the mongols running, never to return.
- On the subject of Mongols, Jalal-al-adin Mingburnu deserves a mention. After defeating the Mongols at the Battle of Parwan (itself an impressive feat) in 1221, he was confronted at the Indus River with 5000 warriors by a 50 000 strong Mongol army led by Ghengis himself. From dawn until midday his army held against the Mongol onslaught. Finally the young prince realised the game was up. He charged the Mongol centre one last time, driving them back. He threw off his armour, wheeled his horse around and, determined to avoid capture, hurled himself over the edge of the 70 foot cliffs, and made for the other side. Ghengis and his lieutenants hurried to the riverbank to observe. Some of the Mongols drew their bows, but the great Khan stopped them, with the words 'Such sons as this should a father have!' (Jalal's father, Mohammed II Khwarezm-Shah, had previously executed a group of Mongol merchants and ambassadors, enraging Ghengis and triggering the Mongol invasion of the Khwarezmian Empire, which you have probably not heard of since the Mongols annihilated it so efficiently).
The Battle of Grunwald is considered a Crowning Moment Of Awesome in Poland. The Teutonic Knights even attempted to provoke Polish and Lithuanian forces to strike first by giving them two swords as a gift "if you don't have enough to fight us". Suffice to say - they had. Even having technological advantage in the form of artillery, the Teutonic Knights were massacred, with most of their high officials killed or captured. But Poland apparently has a tendency of pulling CMoAs in the military field. Just see above.
- Poles get bonus points by actually being more militarily up to date than the Order: they consulted recently published treatise on military logistics and used pontoon bridge to cross the Vistula river, surprising the Knights, who considered it impossible.

Other Wars

The Irish Revolution, of course, for ending centuries of British rule and showing the oppressed of the world that the mightiest colonial empire of the day could be beaten in its own backyard.
- Made all the more significant due to the fact that the British were defeated by ordinary men and women. Not soldiers, just people who had grown tired of centuries of oppression, and through sheer grit, determination and a refusal to be conquered, they rid themselves of their oppressors. If nothing else makes this troper proud to be Irish (and there are many, many things), that does.
The response of a defeated General Pedro Maria Anaya, in the Mexican War, after being asked to hand over the remaining ammo: "If I had any ammunition, you would not be here."
Bonaparte was awesome, no doubt about it. But consider Toussaint L'Overture. Don't know who he is...he's the general that damn near singlehandedly raised an army or former peasant slaves and drove out the better armed and equipped Napoleon's army and navy from Haiti. Haiti became the first free republic in the Western Hemisphere. Haiti is also the only Black slave colony to gain their independence through war rather than revolt or protest; by outright stomping their slave masters into submission. Of course, you don't hear about it in Western schools, but that doesn't make it any less Bad Ass.
- You hear about him, he's mentioned in passing when covering slave revolts just before the Civil War (I think...). This Troper is an American high-school student from the midwest.
The capture of Detroit in 1812 probably counts as well. It was captured without a shot being fired, because, I kid you not, the natives and the British and Canadian soldiers, ran around in a big circle, making it seem like there was ten times as many troops as they actually had.
During the battle of the Alamo, the few hundred Texans lasted 13 days in a last stand against 6000 Mexican soldiers. While they didn't win the battle, they went on to win the war: hundreds of thousands of fired-up Texans against the borderline-Caligula Antonio López de Santa Anna. "Remember the Alamo!"
- Not to mention the legend about the line in the sand, where Colonel Travis supposedly drew a line in the sand, and told the people that if they were willing to stay and fight (presumably to their deaths), that they should cross the line. According to legend, all but one crossed. And Jim Bowie, who'd been injured and couldn't move, asked to be carried over the line. Awesome. Trope of its own, that one, this sort of thing, which says something.
- By the way, despite what the legend says, Davy Crockett may not have died fighting at the Alamo. Some accounts say he was captured. Santa Anna's officers pleaded with him to spare Crockett and his men out of respect for their bravery, but Santa Anna ordered them executed. According to the account by a Mexican at the battle named Pena (which some think may be a forgery), Crockett was executed by swords. So you say this is not a crowning moment of awesome? Well, how about this: Crockett didn't say a thing as he was cut to bits. He just stood there and didn't complain. That, my friends, is how a Bad Ass dies.
- They knew full well what was coming, too. "I am beseiged with a thousand or more Mexicans under Santa Anna. I have substained continual Bombardment and cannonade for 24 hours and have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded surrender at disgression otherwise the garrison will be taken to the sword if the fort is taken. I have answered the demand with a cannon shot and our flag still waves proudly over the wall. Then I call you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism, of everything dear to American character, to come to our aid with all dispatch. The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily and will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due his honor and that of his country — VICTORY OR DEATH." William Barret Travis, Lt. Col Commander - Texas Military Forces, Alamo Garrison, 02 March 1836
- And it was all trumped nearly two months later at San Jacinto. With his army believed to be cornered and facing a final defeat come April 22, Sam Houston chose to attack first one day earlier. Helped by Santa Ana's failure to post lookouts while his troops rested, Houston's army defeated the Mexican forces that outnumbered them nearly two-to-one in only eighteen minutes.
- This isn't to say Antonio López was not himself awesome. He is among the few whose CMOAs lasted the better part of his life. In no particular order: double crossed Spain to become a Mexican commander, gaining a rank in the process, using his military influence to instate the losing candidate as president of Mexico, ruling as both dictator and president for 11 non-consecutive terms totaling 22 years, fighting off the better-armed French in his home state of Vera Cruz (having horses shot out from under him and losing half of his left leg), and finally, fathering 8 (or more; history is muddled on that point) children.
An amazing one that few seem to know about: Admiral Yi Sun-sin's defense of Korea during both Hideyoshi Toyotomi's first and second invasions. He restored and improved the design of the first ironclad warship in history from a handful of designs over a century old, the Turtle Ship (geobukseon), also turning it from a ramming galley into the fastest gunnery platform available to either side. Using these and the mainstay panokseons, he then managed to cripple all Japanese supply lines across the East Sea. After the first invasion, jealous rivals for power had him imprisoned and tortured nearly to death by working with a Japanese agent in the court to make him appear to be a traitor - they planted information to trick the king into ordering Yi Sun-sin to launch an attack into dangerous waters where his fleet would likely be destroyed by rocks and currents, orders which Yi refused to obey even with knowledge of the consequences for him personally. After this, they demoted him to the rank of a common infantry soldier, which he endured with dignity and humility. Hideyoshi would later tried to invade again, and in a single battle, the Korean navy was reduced from 150 ships to 13 (12 of which were saved by a single officer named Bae Sol, in his own Crowning Moment of Awesome, and none of which were geobukseon). Yi was again placed in command of the Navy, but the King of Korea wanted to abolish the Navy, thinking it was hopeless. Yi's response to his King, the man who had thrown him in prison and had him tortured? "I still own thirteen ships...As I am alive, the enemies will never gain the Western Sea." He then proceeded to absolutely crush Japanese force with a 10-to-1 ship superiority over his own (well over 30:1 including support ships) at Myeongnyang, enough so that the Japanese Navy was eventually forced to call a full-scale retreat. He was hit by a stray bullet in the very last battle of the war, the Battle of Noryang Point, as his ships literally chased the Japanese ships out of Korean waters. His final orders were to hide his body and press the attack, to avoid demoralizing his forces at a crucial moment. The Japanese navy was so utterly demoralized at Noryang that it would not rally again for the rest of the war. Perhaps most impressively of all, Yi Sun-sin never lost a single battle. The only defeat the Korean Navy suffered during six years and two wars was during the brief period he had been removed from command.
- Naturally, the Imjin wars were not won without more CMOAs. Gwak Jae-u, a common landowner during the first invasion, rallied one of the first of many militias after Korean regulars abandoned his home to the imminent Japanese depradations. He proceeded to appropriate government supplies for his own army, noting that they had been abandoned, and refused government orders to return the supplies and disband his men, even when they sent military forces to quash his "rebellion". The intervention of an official from the capital gave him official sanction and avoided infighting, and he proceeded to fight one of the most successful guerilla campaigns of the war along the Nakdong River, working with other guerilla leaders like Kim Myeong to keep the Japanese from crossing the Nakdong west into Jeolla Province and Yi Sun-sin's home base during the first invasion. Most impressively, during the first Japanese attack on Jinju Castle, General Kim Si-min stood firm with less than 4000 men against the Japanese 20000, until he was incapacitated by a glancing shot to the head on the third day. Gwak Jae-u approached the Japanese from behind with only 3000 men, where they proceeded to make enough noise to create the appearance of a far larger Korean relief force. The Japanese withdrew, unsuccessful.
- Almost as impressive was General Gwon Yul. After stalling the Japanese advance into Jeolla from the north, he proceeded to arrive at a ruined fortification at Haengju with less than 2500 men with the intent to repair and prepare for their next attempt. The Japanese, confident after their crushing victories thus far, sent over 30000 men to destroy his army and pacify the province. Through the use of the hwacha and the use of the terrain to his advantage, Gwon Yul would proceed to outright kill or cripple a third of the Japanese army before they yielded. The Japanese never made it past his first line of defence. He also would serve as Yi Sun-sin's commander during the latter's brief disgrace, and became the commander in chief of the Korean military during the second invasion, playing his part to keep the Japanese hemmed in and on the defence even as the newly-restored Admiral Yi Sun-sin rebuilt the navy from Won Gyun's horrible loss.
- Haengjusan means "Apron Mountain" in Korean, and was given this name after the battle cited above. The steep southern face of the hill fronts on the Han River in what is now Seoul. In addition to the 2500 men and the hwacha artillery, women in the area held the hem of their skirts, loaded the fronts with rocks and then flung them on to the heads of the invading Japanese. The dioramas at the museum of the top of the hill are amazing and gory.
- The Siege of Dongnae: "It is easy for me to die, but difficult to let you pass."
The War of 1812 doesn't get as much attention in American history as it deserves. Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry had a Crowning Moment of Awesome in the Battle of Lake Erie: When his flagship, the U.S.S. Lawrence, was severely damaged, Perry took down his battle flag (bearing the words "Don't Give Up The Ship," which had been the dying command of his close friend James Lawrence a few months before), took it through heavy gunfire on a rowboat to the U.S.S. Niagara which had been holding back, and raised it there. After winning the battle, he wrote a brief message on the back of an envelope to be sent to his commanding officer, General William Henry Harrison:
Dear General:
We have met the enemy and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop.
Yours with great respect and esteem,
O.H. Perry
- Perry has an entire class of frigates named after him. Enough said.
- Heck, Perry deserves a Crowning Moment just for inventing the line, "We have met the enemy and they are ours." Of course, the line gets even better in 1970 when cartoonist Walt Kelly paraphrased it as "We have met the enemy, and he is us" in an Earth Day poster.
- The entire US Navy recieved its first (of many) CMOA in the War of 1812 when in a space of 5 months American 44 Gun Frigates like the USS Constitution and USS United States handed the previously invincible Royal Navy defeat after defeat, including 3 Frigate on Frigate engagements, leading up to 29 December order to all Royal Navy ships to not engage American 44 Gun Frigates with anything less then squadron strength.
- On the other hand, it should be noted that Britain fought the war to a favourable conclusion at the same time as facing Napoleon at his height. That itself is a rather impressive feat.
- While the War of 1812 was pretty much a draw in terms of Britain and the United States, it is considered a CMOA for the (then) Canadian colonies. English, French,and First Nations, all who had been at each other's throats for centuries (and with the English conquest recent enough to have people alive who'd seen it), stood up to the Americans and turned the expected, easy, victory, into a grinding two year long stalemate.
  - And then we burned down the White House! Understandably, Americans try not to bring that up. So I (being Canadian) bring it up at every possible opportunity.
  - Ahem. This American troper hears that claim a lot from Canadians and likes to remind them that the Battle of Bladensburg was won entirely by crack British regulars with NO Canadian assistance whatsoever. He then also likes to point out that we Yanks captured and burned Toronto.
  - The forces came from Upper Canada where they lived, not from across the pond. Just because it was before Confederation doesn't mean it wasn't Canadians. We still consider it our history. Confederation would take place within a few decades after the war of 1812, We didn't just 'spring' out of no where you know. We didn't 'not exist' one day then 'exist' the next. The people who burnt down the White House, who lived where Canada is, who had family and friends there and relatives and ancestors. That was Canada.
  - Sorry, wrong. You can easily and readily find out what regiments participated in the battle (see the 44th East Essex Regiment of Foot for example) and they were all composed of soldiers born and based in Britain who had just recently been fighting in Europe against Napoleon. When Napoleon was defeated they were transferred to fight in North America and when that war was over they went back home to the UK, fighting all around the empire in the decades to come. These regiments all have very well documented histories (and still exist in some form or another in the current British army) but none of them could even loosely be called "Canadian" and anything else is just a myth.
  - However, even the Americans had their own CMoAs during that day. First Lady Dolley Madison stayed behind in the White House, even after all of the politicians, staff, and her own bodyguard left. She quickly tried to save as many items of importance as possible, including the iconic painting of George Washington. She finally left the White House literally seconds before the British arrived. Meanwhile, William Thorton managed to talk the British out of burning the US Patent Office, and they likewise spared the Marine Barracks, possibly out of respect for the Marines who fought at the Battle of Bladensburg.
  - Even the weather couldn't resist joining in. Shortly after the British started burning Washington D.C., a massive hurricane and tornado struck, putting out the fires and forcing the British to retreat.
- Another moment would come in the Battle of New Orleans, where a small American force held off a massive British force, inflicting over a thousand casualities while only suffering seventy one themselves. The battle was so costly, that even though they were due to receive reinforcements, the British called off the attack, believing that a another battle would be too costly for them.
  - This (British) troper considers that a crowning moment of awful for the British rather than a crowning moment of awesome for the American force (although kudos to them for getting organized and armed so quickly). It couldn't have happened if the British commander hadn't been so utterly, abysmally stupid.
  - That's hardly fair to Pakenham - he inherited an absolutely impossible situation from Keane, and got fucked over by chance & his subordinates/RN counterparts at every opportunity. Hell, one of his subordinates managed to completely miss collecting the gear needed for getting over the obstacles of the Jackson Line; that's not even getting into the poor performance of the 44th (East Essex).
Lebanon must be mentioned as well. Just refusing to be broken after over 30 years of taking blows would do it. But this troper has witnessed and been part of more wartime and peacetime CMOA than she can list here.
- More a victory in international intervention; despite being backed by the only remaining super-power (essentially, we can argue details elsewhere), both politically and militarily, Israel was forced to pull out of a costly stalemate with Hezbollah fighters since pretty much everyone else was against it in the first place.
- This troper was a film student from 2004-2008 and was largely taught the fundamentals and principles of film making by one teacher. This teacher was from Lebanon and happened to be there when the 2006 conflict erupted. She made a film from footage captured during said conflict. In 2008, when this troper was preparing to graduate, the woman who taught him how to use his vision along with the tools of media, was preparing to return for more. In the entire world, no group is more respected amongst film and news crews than war photographers and videographers. There is no person more courageous than someone who will shoot under fire, but only shoot footage. They are the reason we've seen anything not witnessed by our own eyes.
"Come on, you sons of bitches, DO YOU WANT TO LIVE FOREVER?"
- "Kerls, WOLLT IHR DENN EWIG LEBEN?◊"
The passengers of Flight United 93 went against terrorists supposedly armed with a bomb who hijacked their plane. The only bad part is their death while doing it.
- Which arguably adds to the CMOA. From the standpoint of the passengers that chose to fight, both success and failure would lead to their death. All they were fighting for were the lives of others, knowing that they would certainly die in the process. THAT...is awesome.
Pretty much any sequence of events that results in somebody earning the Medal of Honor, Victoria Cross, or other national equivalent.
- This troper, who works as a newspaper designer, had a discussion with his editor about how we were to present the obituary of a Medal of Honor recipient, in the highly unlikely chance we would ever run such an obit. The order stands in our style manual- we will run the Medal of Honor Citation, and a photograph, and nothing else, for nothing else ever needs to be said about such a person.
Admiral Jackie Fisher, largely responsible for the creation of the modern Royal Navy, related one incident that occurred in China during the Second Opium War. A British gunboat was trading fire with a Chinese fort and taking casualties. American sailors, who had rowed an observing US Navy officer over to the ship, one by one stepped out from under cover and took the place of British sailors manning the guns who had been killed or wounded, to the point where, when the officer came out on deck to leave, he saw the forward gun manned entirely by Americans. With the simple act of assisting fellow sailors, that small group of Americans had made it clear that the acrimony between the United States and Great Britain was over.
In the Battle of Camerone, 30 April 1863, an understrength French Foreign Legion company held out for ten hours against between 2000 and 3000 Mexican troops, refusing calls to give up. The Legion soldiers had little ammunition, no food, and little water. The last six men still on their feet fired their final rounds and charged with bayonets. Three of them survived and were given a last chance to surrender. They agreed on condition that they keep their weapons and their wounded get medical attention. A Mexican officer supposedly said, "To such men as you I can refuse nothing."
The American Civil War provides one of my personal favorites, and one of the most famous quotes of all-time: at the Battle of Mobile Bay, the Confederacy's last major port, Admiral David G. Farragut was ordered to take the Bay, which was heavily mined (tethered mines were known as "torpedos" at the time). When one Union ship hit a mine and sank, the others started to pull back. Farragut, seeing this, shouted through a trumpet, "What's the trouble?" The response came back, "Torpedoes!" Farragut's reply is well-known even to those without much knowledge of the war: "Damn the torpedoes!" He followed this up with. "Four bells. Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full speed!" This has often been paraphrased as simply "Full speed ahead." Nevertheless, the "Damn the torpedoes!" line was real. David G. Farragut had huge cojones.
- He got two destroyer classes named after him (one for each testicle?).
For Prussia, and their resident Magnificent Bastard Bismarck, the moment would be 1870-71, during which, having convinced France to declare war on them, they smashed a numerically superior force equipped with early machine guns (at one point pretty much pulling off the Charge of the Light Brigade, only it worked) while wearing some severely awesome pointy headgear. They finished up by declaring the creation of Germany in Versailles, palace of the French kings and emperors.
- Frederick the Great had his moment in 1757, defeating the world's two greatest land powers. In two weeks. With just thirty thousand men.
  - Also, Frederick William the Great Elector in 1678. When the Swedes saw him coming, they turned around and started for home. Instead of letting them go, he put his army on sleighs and chased them across the snow until 90% of them starved to death. That's right; they were more afraid of the Prussians than starvation. This campaign was closely studied by a German army major named Heinz Guderian, who decided to try it with trucks and tanks. Hence, Blitzkrieg.
Dutch War of Independence. When you fight a war against a massive military power... and you have staking musketeers and fight a massive naval battle in a flooded country side... awesome.
- Not to mention partially financing your revolt by selling arms to your oppressing opponent.
- When the ragtag fleet of the Sea Beggars was suddenly no longer allowed to find refuge in English harbors in 1572, they made a desperate attack on Brielle. There was little resistance and therefore surprisingly easy to take. Encouraged, they also managed to take Flushing, signaling the start of all-out revolt.
- In 1590 the city of Breda was taken by Maurice of Nassau in an interesting way. He let 70 soldiers hide in a ship with peat, which nobody checked. The city was taken with few Dutch casualties. Maurice had obviously read the Iliad, his opponents hadn't.
- In 1628 Admiral Piet Hein captured the Spanish treasure fleet coming from South America with an enormous amount of silver. That fleet was hiding from the storm in a bay on the coast of Cuba. Hein lost 150 men to illness and desertion, and brought home 11.5 million guilders worth of goods (est.: half a billion today's euros). It helped finance the Dutch forces and was a heavy blow to the Spanish, who had been counting on and needing the money to finance their efforts against the Dutch.
Operation Black Buck during the Falklands War. A bunch of Vulcan bombers, months from retirement, on two months notice, are fixed up, with parts scrounged from all over the place. Their crews re-learn (or learn in many cases) conventional bombing and air-to-air refuelling, then one bomber, with the help of a lot of Victor tankers (which also refuelled each other), pulls off the then longest-distance bombing raid in history, taking out the runway at Port Stanley, which forces an Argentine Mirage squadron to spend the war defending the Argentine mainland. Then it's done four more times.
- Of course let us not forgot that the Vulcan bombers were the UK's nuclear bombers. There was a distinct message to those bombing runs: if we can do it with conventional arms, we can do it with nuclear too. They couldn't, but the Argentines didn't need to know that.
- Come to think of it, the entire of the Falklands War. Single-handedly turned Margaret Thatcher, an unpopular Prime Minister at that point, into the "Iron Lady" and won her the 1983 General Election. Brought down the Argentine junta as well.
  - Everyone expected the British to either fold or lose; they were fighting a long way from home and the Royal Navy had been decaying and undermanned ever since the Second World War.
  - To an extent, this was also the RAF trying to show that they were being useful. They had long advocated the decommissioning of the RN's carriers, claiming that they could do the job with land-based aircraft. A better CMOA owed to the RN articularly the pilots and the Royal Marines, who did an outstanding job on the far side of the world with some good (Sea harrier) some bad (type 55) and some utterly fucking awful (Seacat. What idiot thought of a operator-guided point defence misile?) equipment. And the one heavy life helicopter that got off Atlantic Conveyor.
  - The HMS Sheffield was hit by an Argentine bombing run on 4 May 1982. The crew, after evacuating the ship, sat in the lifeboats singing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life."
- Because of the loss of Atlantic Conveyor, the landing force walked to Port Stanley.
The defence of Rorke's Drift in 1879 when 136 British soldiers held off what was estimated to be four to five thousand Zulu warriors. The British had better guns, but unlike the film version, the attacking Zulus did have firearms and technological superority will often bow down in the face of overwhelming numerical advantages. Despite the odds against them, the British troops managed to hold the Zulu forces off for a whole night and in the morning the Zulu forces had retreated. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded for the defence, the most received in any single action.
The Charge of The Heavy Brigade. Pretty much the same as the charge of the light brigade, but more effective.
- Actually, the Charge of the Heavy Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava was three regiments of British Heavy Cavalry (about 800 men) against almost the entire Russian cavalry (about 3000 men). The Heavy Brigade charged uphill at the Russians, and sent them running.
- The Battle of Balaclava was also the location of The Thin Red Line. Early in the morning, two regiments of Russian cavalry charged one battalion of Highland Infantry. The normal tactic for infantry facing cavalry is to form square, but here there wasn't time to change formation from line. The Highlanders held firm, gave them two shattering volleys at close range, then watched as the Russians peeled off.
- Why the 93rd (Sutherland) Highlanders didn't form square or in a four-deep line depends on who you believe; according to Sir Colin Campbell, their commander at Balaclava; "I knew the 93rd, and I did not think it worth the trouble of forming a square.", which reflects either absolute confidence in the 93rd, or absolute contempt for Russian cavalry.
- When it comes to cavalry charges, I'd like to mention Napoleon's Spanish campaign in 1808. The road to Madrid led through a long, rising, far from straight Somosierra canyon, defended by twelve thousand Spaniards and sixteen cannons in four batteries. Napoleon issued some order to his Polish Chevaux-Légers escort squadron (some four or five hundred men) - most probably he told them to scout ahead - but they either misinterpreted the order or just wanted to show off ("Forward, you sons of dogs, the Emperor is watching!") - and in a single charge scattered the defenders and took all the cannons, allowing the infantry to easily secure the canyon.
The admiral Michiel de Ruyter of the Dutch republic had many moments of awesome. The crowning one is during the second English-Dutch war at the attack of Chatham. His ships sailed up the Thames, causing panic. The English had blocked the river Medway with a chain. The Dutch ships sailed on and broke the chain. Many English ships were destroyed and soon a peace was signed that was most favorable to the Republic.
- In a crowning moment of being great sports, the English fleet send their ship 'the Chatham' in 2007 to a navy show in the Netherlands, at a commemoration of de Ruyter's birth 400 years before.
  - Well done, Limey neighbours, lets drink a pint for each of the ships destroyed or captured.
In 1709, the Russian army was mocked as a muddled excuse for a military. They were ill-equipped, badly-trained and certainly no match for the brilliant Swedish army, the best in the world, commanded by possibly the greatest general of his day, Charles XII. Nine years before the Russian armies had been annihilated at Narva by a Swedish army one fourth their size. The Swedish had spent the intervening years defeating Poland-Lithuania. So when Charles XII invaded Russia, Peter I led the Swedes further and further inland, leaving scorched earth behind him and going too fast for the Swedish supply trains to keep up. The Russians finally turned to fight at Poltava - in central Ukraine. When the Swedes were at their weakest, Peter turned around and crushed them. The Great, indeed. Charles and the Swedish army were so far from Sweden that they retreated to the Ottoman Empire.
Can a lifetime be a Crowning Moment Of Awesome? Submitted, the case of Jack Lucas. Mr. Lucas joined the Marines at age 14 (fudging his age, as many did at the time). At 17, he saved his squad from a grenade by jumping on it, and survived. For this, he became the youngest since the Civil War to earn the Medal of Honor. After the war, he finished his degree, then joined the Army Airborne to get over a fear of heights. During this time, he suffered a double chute failure, and survived that. It took leukemia to finally stop him. Just...damn.
Joshua Chamberlain's fight in the American Civil War at the Battle of Gettysburg, holding off a frenzied assault from the Confederates at the far left flank of Little Round Top, where, had they faltered, the South would have likely forced General Meade's entire left side to pull back. They suffered heavy casualties, and were running out of ammunition. Then came the CMOA. From Chamberlain's report of the day: "At that crisis, I ordered the bayonet. The word was enough." The 20th Maine fixed bayonets and charged down the hill, catching the Confederates completely by surprise, and winning the day. It took monstrous brass balls to make that call. Especially when you consider that nearly one third of his men were mutineers from another Maine regiment that he'd talked into joining his unit the day before the battle.
- Chamberlain would get another CMOA at the end of the war. He was the officer placed in charge of supervising the surrender of the Confederate Army. Immediately, he ordered all of the Union soldiers to show only one thing to their Confederate counterparts: Respect.
May 21, 1879. War of the Pacific between Chile and the Perú/Bolivia duo. We Chileans still remember how Navy Captain Arturo Prat, as his ship Esmeralda started sinking after battling the Peruvian battleship Huascar, said "¡Al abordaje, muchachos!" (translation: "stand by for boarding, boys!") and, followed by at least 21 sailors as well as some officers, jumped on the board of the enemy ship. Almost all of them died, but even the Peruvians were very impressed.
- The kicker, though? The same day, Navy Captain Carlos Condell and his ship Covadonga fought a similar battleship, the Independencia. But captain Condell used his wits and managed to get it running aground, capturing it shortly thereafter. In his words: "¡Aquí se fregaron!" (Spoanish: "Here they got busted!")
Hector A. Cafferata, United States Marine Corps, at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. He single-handedly held off an entire regiment of Chinese in the Korean winter, in only his socks and shirt for seven hours, defending a number of wounded comrades. He also lost part of his hand flinging a grenade away from the wounded marines. Supposedly, the officer who reported the action counted over a hundred dead Chinese around the ditch where he fought, but left it out because he thought no one would believe it.
- Honorable mention goes to his squadmate Kenny Benson who was blinded by an exploding grenade, but continued to load weapons by feel.
Chosin was a Crowning Momment of Awesome for the Marines. They were surrounded by the Chinese in a winter as nasty as Russia's. But they chopped their way through several times their number. Carrying THEIR OWN DEAD with them all the way in trucks, a real-life example of No One Gets Left Behind. According to legend, the Marine general said,"Retreat, hell. Were advancing in another direction.
The British Army had a Crowning Moment Of Awesome during the Korean War. More specifically, the "Glorious Glosters" regiment at the Battle of Imjin River. At the time the British were still massively in debt from the Second World War and their government had basically crippled them even further by spending even more money trying to maintain what was left of the Empire. The British soldiers joked that out of all the armies of all the nations in the conflict, only the Chinese were given less pay, and even they were throwing away better equipment than anything the British had. Anyway, the Gloucestershire regiment (and a few Belgians, Americans, Phillipines and Luxembourg soldiers), consisting of about 4000 men, suddenly found themselves facing a Chinese army consisting of 70,000 men. They radioed for help and were told to "sit tight where you are". So that's exactly what they did. They fought a desperate rear guard action and held out for two days, killing 10,000 of the Chinese. They fought until they ran out of ammo and continued to fight using anything that came to hand, including lobbing buckets of processed cheese at the enemy.
- And then they were surrounded and taken prisoner. But it was awesome while it lasted.
- The order to stay put has been attributed to a communications failure between the British commander on the spot and his American superior. Apparently the Americans didn't realise that when a British officer says things are "a bit sticky" he means "the position is desperate"...
- Arguably the fact that China, a country that for the last century had been humiliated by the west and had just been taken over by the communists and had been fought on for the last 20 years by the Japanese, nationalists and communists managed to hold its own against the west is a CMOA.
A little known but important military CMOA is the tale of Outpost Harry. Near the end of the Korean War (while peace negotiations were going on and the much of the press was ignoring the fact the war was still going on), the Chinese/North Koreans were attempting to take a hill no larger than Time Square that was dubbed "Outpost Harry". Had they taken it, the UN would have had to retreat eight miles due to it's strategic significance. Thing was, due to the "end-of-war is near" status of the UN and the small size of the hill, only a Company-sized unit could be there at a time. So for eight straight dates, the post was occupied at various times by five rifle companies who were rotating- four American and one Greek. So in total, about 500 or 700 men defended the area... against about 13 or 15 thousand chinese. Most of the American companies had been at Chosin Resevoir and the Greek company was from the "Sparta Batallion". Needless to say, the Chinese didn't stand a chance against such units of CMOA pedigree, and lost 4,500 trying to take it while only 114 UN troops died during their successful defense. All five companies (including the Greek one) were given the third highest Unit Citation in the US military. Which makes you wonder what they had to do to get the best one.
The Turkish Brigade at Wawon, Korea, November 26-30, 1950 The full extent of what happened in the confused fighting in the area of Kunu-ri and Wawon may never be fully understood, but this much is known: the Turkish Brigade took over 80% casualties in those five days. Observers said they fought like men possessed by demons, routing the Chinese until they ran out of ammunition, then charging with bayonets, never retreating, never surrendering. It is known that the Chinese never again made a frontal assault against a position they knew to be held by Turkish troops for the rest of the war. The courage and skill they displayed during the battle earned Turkey membership in NATO.
Colombia, in its role as a United States client-state...er, ally, was the only South American nation to contribute troops to the Korean War. One battalion, one thirtieth of their entire army. In March, 1953, the Chinese decided they wanted to take Old Baldy, a critical position that would force UN forces to retreat eight miles. The 3rd Batallon Korea, as they were known, were the ones holding the area. It took an eight thousand artillery round bombardment and a full Chinese division to force one thousand young and inexperienced soldiers off that hill, which made them national heroes...even as the unit gained the dubious distinction of enduring the most casualties of any Colombian unit.
Following up the above Colombian CMOA, the Colombian military recently freed 15 hostages, 4 of them high valued, from FARC, and all without firing a shot. The military basically infiltrated the organization and tricked the captives into transporting the prisoners elsewhere. Thus, a Crowning Espionage Of Awesome. The misuse of the Red Cross only slightly negates it.
- They used the Red Cross vehicles to save the lives of innocents. That's the greatest use of the Red Cross imaginable.
The Battle of Derna is arguably the original Crowning Moment of Awesome for the United States Marine Corps. William Eaton and Lt. Presley O'Bannon led ten Marines and 500 mercenaries across hundreds of miles of desert to attack the Tripolitanian city of Derna, which was held by around 4000 Tripolitanian troops. Despite being badly outnumbered and plagued by conflict between the Muslim and Christian mercenaries, they captured the city with minimal casualties, and then held it against a counter-attack. The Battle of Derna is where the "Shores of Tripoli" in the Marine Hymn come from.
Andrew Jackson triumphed heavily in the Battle of New Orleans. Though it was politically and militarily useless (the lessons learned there were misinterpreted and led to...shall we call them heavy?...casualties during the American Civil War), he still managed to take out a superior force of British soldiers with a force of militia, irregulars and pirates.
The Royal Navy's routing of the Spanish Armada in 1588, the victory that confirmed England as a heavyweight in world politics and one of two CMoAs for Sir Francis Drake. The other one was his "singing of the King of Spain's beard" from the year before, where he sailed a small fleet into Cadiz harbour and burnt dozens of Spanish ships, setting back invasion preparations for a year.
The Siege of Mafeking.
Simón Bolívar kicked the Spanish out of Latin America- and got a country named after him (Bolivia).
- The liberators (and to some degree their enemies) have an entire pantheon of badasses. Bolivar's best would probably be his march across the Andes... Which was either complete madness a sheer act of utter inspired willpower. But O'Higgins, San Martin, et. al. all have their moments.
- Special mention for Chilean lawyer, guerrilla warrior and kickass Master Of Disguise Manuel Rodríguez Erdoíza, fearless enough to disguise himself as a pauper to go and open the door of the carriage belonging to Marcó del Pont, the Chilean governor and La Resistance enemy n°1 in those years, just because he wanted to see his nemesis face to face. And he lived to escape and tell it. Badass
Oliver Cromwell, a gentleman farmer who had never used a sword until he was over 40, organized his troops into the most disciplined and effective force in the English Civil War, to the point that even though he had spearheaded an initiative to remove standing MPs and Lords from commanding armies the new CIC demanded he be exempt and helped establish the first true professional army of England, the New Model Army, which preceded to wipe the floor with the rest of the British Isles. Of specific mention in his forcefully bringing Britain and Ireland under one rule for the first time ever was the battle of Dunbar. Outnumbered and falling back to England the enemy appeared to have cut him off. As the enemy assumed battle would begin the next day he launched a surprise assault, demolishing the enemy in a hugely one sided battle. A similar tactic had already helped win the day at the Battle of Marston moor, the largest of the conflict.
- Shouldn't the fact that Cromwell was a horrible human being sort of exclude him from being mentioned here?
  - We have Communists, Fascists, horrible autocrats, Absolute Monarchists, and war criminals here. You can't pick and choose.
The SAS are a force to be reckoned with, but their ending of the Iranian Embassy Siege in 1980 is their CMOA, even if some aspects are a bit controversial.
- Kate Adie, a BBC reporter there, gets one for a 45-minute unscripted live report, while crouched behind a car door.
Say what you will about the politics around and especially after it, but this one is annoyed that nobody's thought to note the First Battle of Mogadishu, the one of Black Hawk Down fame, here. Think about it: 19 Americans were killed, as opposed to thousands of Somalis - on their home turf! Several of the men involved deserve special metnion themselves, such as the two Delta operators that elected to land alone by the crash site of Mike Durant to hold off an advancing crowd of several hundred. Two very well deserved Medals of Honor. This one honestly believes that any other force in the world, cut off and surrounded in the same circumstances, would have been killed, to the last man.
What do you do when, having spent years fighting one enemy, suddenly face war on another two fronts, one of which you cannot reach due to the ice trapping your navy in the ports? Well, if your name is Charles X of Sweden, you say "Screw the navy" and walk across the ice... (well, a sled in the case of the king, but the army got to walk)
One man: Hérnan Cortéz. Something of a real-life Magnificent Bastard. And yes, he had advantages, disease, horses and superior weapons. Still, his conquest of Mexico took guts, innovativeness and a whole lot of luck. A true testament to the motivational power of greed. Especially as the superior weaponry was far less helpful than often thought given the size of the enemy and steel armour was too exhausting to wear. That he was operating without the permission of his superiors but was successful enough, bold enough and strong enough to hold off the retaliation of said superior and couched his highly illegal actions as on behalf on the Emperor so as to be granted the possession he had already taken by force is pretty awesome.
- Francisco Pizarro defeated the Incas in even less time, with even fewer men and fewer native allies.
  - Only that his allies later commited the BIG screw up of executing their biggest enemy among the conquistadores, Diego de Almagro. Such an action completely ruined Pizarro's reputation, caused a HUGE revolt from Almagro's supporters, and Pizarro himself got a sword though his throat. Nice Job Breaking It Heroes.
Harold "Breaker" Morant, an Australian soldier in the Boer War, has become something of a folk hero in his native country. It's unknown how many of his supposed feats are true and how many he made up, but one that is definitely true is his last words. Sentenced to death on trumped up charges so the British could hide their orders to execute soldiers who tried to surrender, he defiantly shouted at the firing squard "Shoot straight, you bastards! Don't make a mess of it!"
When Zhuge Liang went south to suppress the rebellion of the Nanman, he ended up defeating, capturing, and releasing their leader Meng Huo seven times. This was part of his overall strategy: the Nanman needed to be convinced that the Han were both magnanimous in victory and impossible to defeat. It worked well, as after the rebellion had finally been put down, Zhuge did not even need to leave any soldiers or Han officials behind to keep the Nanman in check.
The American invasion of Quebec in 1775 saw the French Canadian citizens of Quebec team up with the British authorities who had conquered them a scant 15 years before to defeat the Americans and drive them back to the American colonies. Score one for Canadian unity!
How about the Slave Trade Act of 1807? Britain decided that the slave trade was morally unconscionable and so blockaded the Coast of West Africa, declared any ship carrying slaves a pirate ship, and set up a country for liberated slaves.
- The whole campaign to end the slave trade was rife with CMoAs. In one notable instance, the Brazilian government allowed slavery to flourish in their territory, even though they had outlawed it. The British promptly sent an entire battle squadron to Brazil and sank or captured every slave trader they could find. When the Brazilian government protested, the British merely replied "We're just enforcing your own laws."
A particularly infamous quote attributed to an unknown soldier is as follows:
Drill Sergeant: How did you climb over that huge mountain?
Recruit: Well, sir, it was in my way.
Samuel Whittemore. The monument in Arlington, MA: "Near this spot, Samuel Whittemore, then 80 years old, killed three British soldiers, April 19, 1775. He was shot, bayoneted, beaten and left for dead, but recovered and lived to be 98 years of age." What it doesn't say is that he killed the first with a musket, then drew his dueling pistols and killed another. He fired five shots, then when the British got closer, he went after them with a sword. He was shot in the face and bayonetted 13 times...and still recovered to survive another 18 years.
John McCain during the Vietnam War.
- In July 29, 1967, aboard USS Forrestal, he survived his A-4E Skyhawk catching on fire WHILE HE WAS IN IT after a missile from another fighter accidentally discharged on the carrier's deck. The fire killed 134 sailors, injured scores of others, destroyed at least 20 aircraft, and took 24 hours to control.
  - After he was shot down by the Vietnamese and taken to the Hanoi Hilton, his cellmates thought he was about to die when he was brought in. McCain recovered and remained in the Hanoi Hilton for 5 and a half years [he was given the choice to leave in 1968 but he said he would not leave until everyone captured before him was released]. It gets better. When asked to give the names of his fellow pilots- he instead gave the names of the Green Bay Packers football team, or possibly whichever comes to mind.
Familiar with the term 'diehard' as in the film Die Hard? Ever wondered where it comes from? In 1811 at the Battle of Albuera, Lt Colonel William Inglis of the British 57th Foot was hit by a 4 lb grapeshot in his neck and back, causing massive blood loss and severe pain. Despite this, as his men were pressed by a superior number of French troops able to pick off the compressed line easily, he insisted on remaining just behind the lines and encouraged his men by yelling "Die hard, 57th, die hard!" The line held, the French were forced to retreat, and it's now the motto of the regiment.
The Battle of Long Tan during the Vietnam War. 100 Australians and New Zealanders against roughly 3000 Vietnamese. Have a guess who came out on top.
- made more apparent when you consider that before the battle started the Australians and new zealanders were litteraly rained upon by over 100 mortar rounds, and then suffered from poor visibility due to the monsoon that opened up during the battle, and an almost critical ammuntion shortage, which was compounded by the fact that at the time, no one though to issue tools to help break open the ammuntion crates and the rifle's magazine was considered part of soldier's weapon and issuing was strictly controlled (meaning that even after ammo was dropped, the soldiers had to smash the crates open with either a machete or rifle-butt, get the ammo box out and then manually reload each magazine by hand. in the middle of a battle.)
Oda Nobunaga may have gained himself a reputation for brutality and terror over the years, but the battle of Okehazama still stands as his single greatest moment. Faced with 25,000 enemy troops led by Imagawa Yoshimoto, the Odani clan was only able to rally 1,800 soldiers. Most of his aides pleaded with him to surrender, and in response, he gave this speech

'Imagawa has 40,000 men marching toward this place? I don't believe that. He 'only' has 25,000 soldiers. Yes, that is still too many. So Sado, you want me to surrender. What if we do surrender? Will you be satisfied losing your life that way? What if we hold like Katsuie wants? What if we stay here in this castle, lock it up, and wait until the Imagawas lose their appetite, stop the siege, and go home? We would prolong our lives for 5 or 10 days, and what we cannot defend will stay as such. We are at the bottom of the pit, you know, and our fate is interesting. Of course the misery is great, too. But this is how I see it: it's the chance of a lifetime. I can't afford to miss it. Do you really want to spend your entire lives praying for longevity? We were born to die! Whoever is with me, come to the battlefield tomorrow morning. Whoever is not, stay where you are and watch me win it!'

He then proceeded, via a combination of trickery, cunning, and sheer luck, to scare the disorganized army into a full scale retreat, and even got Imagawa Yoshimoto's head out of the bargain, permanently cementing his reputation amongst the warlords of the Sengoku era.

Sanada Yukimura, at the very end of the Osaka Campaign, the final stages of the Sengoku era, was down to a few brave men accompanying him. And against him are thousands and thousands of Tokugawa soldiers. What does he do? Rally those few remaining men and do a Foe Tossing Charge straight to Tokugawa Ieyasu's camp. Along the way, he killed every single soldiers that came to him, until he is in front of Ieyasu who was about to retaliate for self defense... and then he stops and said his last words: "I am Sanada Genjirou Yukimura. An adversary worthy of your peers. Unfortunately I am too tired to fight you now." before he fell down to his death. There is a reason why Ieyasu considers Yukimura "Japan's Number 1 Soldier".

Danish naval hero Admiral Peter Wessel Tordenskjold won himself undying fame (including a mention in the Danish Royal Anthem) during the Great Northern War 1700-1720. One of his greatest deeds was the capture of the supposedly invincible Swedish Fortress Carlsten in 1719, where he walked into the fortress alone and bluffed the Swedish Commander into thinking that he had 20.000 soldiers (He actually had 500).
The Charge of the Light Brigade, already mentioned on this page, was both a Crowning Moment of Awesome and a Dethroning Moment of Suck at the same time. During the Crimean War, more than 600 members of the British cavalry made a brave but suicidal attack to try and seize a battery of Russian guns, due to a phenomenal screwup by their idiot commanders. Many of the soldiers were brutally shot down, but they displayed tremendous courage and skill in fighting to the bitter end. In this case, the Crowning Moment goes to the soldiers for their determination and bravery, and the Dethroning Moment goes to the numbskulls who got them killed in the first place.
- History Marches On: They probably could have held the guns they had charged, had the Heavy Brigate's commander not decided that his orders to support the Light Brigade were phenomenally screwed up.
After climbing for three nights, the 25 men of the 18 Grenadiers tasked with assaulting Tiger Hill came under heavy fire. The seven who were able to remain close to the Pakistani bunkers huddled in cover and launched an attack that night, taking one bunker. The next day, they were attacked by approximately 100 soldiers intent on retaking it. Six of them were killed... The one survivor, Grenadier Yogendra Singh Yadav, was so grievously wounded (with fifteen gunshot wounds) that he was thought dead. Their weapons were collected, but when Grenadier Yadav regained consciousness, he discovered that they had overlooked a grenade in his pocket. He threw this, killing one soldier, and armed himself with the rifle of a fallen soldier, killing five more. The Pakistanis, believing themselves to be under a full scale attack, moved to retreat, and Grenadier Yadav heard them radioing for an attack on the Indian MMG base further down on the mountain. As he had lost a great deal of blood, he hopped into a drain [here I assume he means an open, metal pipe descending the mountain] and slid down 400m, where he was able to alert his companions of the impending attack, and make them aware of the opening at the peak. Two companies moved in and captured the peak successfully, and the MMG base was successfully defended. For this, he was awarded the Param Vir Chakra, India's highest medal for gallantry. The citation states the medal was awarded posthumously, because somebody in New Delhi had read the report and decided that there was simply no way this guy was still alive.
In 1803, during the height of the Indian Wars in the United States, the Shawnee tribe was in near-constant conflict with the American colonists. They gained strength by uniting their tribes behind a strong military leader, Tecumseh. His brother, Tenskwatawa ("The Prophet") served as their spiritual leader, and through their influence, the Shawnee were quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with in thhe Ohio and Indiana Territories. Eager to thwart his influence, William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana Territory, sent a letter to the troops stationed there, instructing them to challenge Tenskwatawa, to ask to "cause the sun to stand still - the moon to alter its course". And what happened when they did? A solar eclipse.
The Chinese Communist Party at the battle of the Luding Bridge. General idea of what's happening: it's the 1930s, the Communists aren't doing well in China and they're being hunted down by the Nationalist, "democratic" GMD. Mao Zedong decides to cross most of China to get somewhere where the Communists can recoup and rebuild strength - the Long March. As they go on, the Communists lose lots of soldiers to the Nationalists and start having to take detours, but at one point they have to use the Luding Bridge - the river below is too treacherous to cross. The GMD know this and so they want to blow the bridge up, but then realise that it's absolutely vital to trade and work out a compromise - taking away the planks from half of the bridge, leaving only the chains dangling. They station a few soldiers around the bridge, the Communists will be sitting ducks, easy victory. So they planned. Instead, when they found out about the bridge, about twenty or so Communist volunteers crossed it by swinging from chain to chain, above a roaring river, while the GMD were firing at them with machine guns. Not only did they get through and not only did they beat the GMD stationed there and eventually successfully complete the Long March, only three Communists died at Luding Bridge. I may not like their ideology, but they kicked arse.
- Depends on who you ask. According to a few witnesses (including some Communist ones), the GMD had no regulars in the area save for some associated militia, who are said to have used MUSKETS to try and Hold The Line. Is that what happened? Probably not entirely, but the fact remains that it is unlikely that they were storming a fortress (though, to be fair, given the limits of their equipment, they didn't have to be).
The actions of Paul Rusesabagina during the Rwandan Genocide. Some call this guy the Rwandan Oskar Schindler, and with good reason.
New France probably got a few of those, as one would expect a people faced with four wars in seventy years against enemy colonies that out-populated them 10-to-1 (and had more support from home. And had the most powerful natives (the Iroquois) as allies. And had control of the sea. Frontenac's defiance (answering "I have no reply to make to your general other than from the mouths of my cannons and muskets.") to a British general demanding his surrender is perhaps the most famous. Phips had his 2300 militia and regular plus thirty-four warships attack Frontenac's 2000 militia. He lost.
- Even in defeat, the French Canadian held their ground: at the battle of Quebec in 1759, after the battle was lost and with the French regulars withdrawing from the field with the Highlanders of the 78th regiment in hot pursuit, it fell to a handful of French-Canadian militia to hold the bridge out of the battlefield. They did. The 78th took more casualties than any other British regiment involved. Not what you'd usually expect out of militia.
Tibor "Ted" Rubin Korean War veteran & Medal of Honor recipient. Son of a Jewish shoemaker, born 18 June 1929 in Hungary. He was imprisoned in the Mauthasen concentration camp in Austria for two years during WW 2 (during which both his parents and one of his sisters perished). Emigrated to the USA in 1948, passed his citizenship in 1950 and enlisted in the army the same year. Was consistently 'volunteered' for the most dangerous patrols and missions by an anti-semitic sergeant. Three times recommended for the Medal of Honor by his commanding officers... the paperwork for which was 'lost' by the same sergeant. Captured by the Chinese in late October 1950 and SENT TO ANOTHER CONCENTRATION CAMP where he not only survived for 30 MONTHS, but also - according to other Americans imprisoned with him - SNUCK OUT OF CAMP EVERY NIGHT to steal food from Chinese and North Korean supply depots, sharing the food out among the other prisoners, and is credited by many of those survivors with keeping them alive. "He also took care of us, nursed us, carried us to the latrine... He did many good deeds, which he told us were mitzvahs in the Jewish tradition... He was a very religious Jew and helping his fellow men was the most important thing to him." (quote from The Other Wiki). Repeatedly refused his captors' offers to release him to Hungary, which by then was behind the Iron Curtain. Awarded his Medal of Honor by President George W. Bush on 23 September 2005. He lives in California. That's right, HE'S STILL ALIVE! \o/
Oh come on now. American Civil War, the very first bloody battle, which the Confederates won. Geneal 'Stonewall' Jackson earns his nickname by standing stock still on his horse in the face of artillery fire shredding his men, a bullet hitting his hand, and rifle fire passing apparently so close to him he could hear it buzzing. His entire division ducked for cover, until a lieutenant (history gets fuzzy as to who) yelled "There stands Jackson like a stone wall, now up and fight!" Jackson becomes Stonewall Jackson, and the south goes on to win the day.
When a man has a nickname like "The Father of the American Navy", you know he has some serious testosterone-see the battle off Samar during World War Two, recounted in that war's CMOA page, for what the men of the United States Navy have to do to live up to John Paul Jones. Born in Scotland, he took to the sea with the British before joining the fledgling Continental Navy. His was the first American warship to be saluted by another nation (the French, at the time one of the reigning superpowers in Europe), he launched repeated attacks against the British Isles themselves during the Revolutionary War and his raiders became among the few invaders to ever set foot on British soil since the medieval period, and he learned that a powerful British warship, the Drake, was in the area specifically to stop Jones. Jones' first instinct was to attack in broad daylight, but his crew balked, so on the way back from his raid, Jones encountered the Drake again, which had taken on additional British soldiers to board and overwhelm Jones. One hour of cannon fire and boarding later, Jones captured the Drake and brought it back with him to America. A year later, Jones commanded another, slightly larger, ship, and very quickly found himself facing one of the most feared British warships-the Serapis. Outgunned, outmaneuvered, and damaged, the British demanded that Jones surrender. Jones famously shouted "I have not yet begun to fight!" and kept on fighting. An hour later, Jones' ship was burning and badly damaged, with its flag shot away. Jones still forced the Serapis to surrender, and the Serapis' captain was knighted upon his return to England. Jones himself was later knighted by the French and became an admiral in the Russian Navy, and his cast-iron testicles set the bar for all American naval officers to come.
This tropers great-great-great-something-father Piotr was a captain in the Russian army during the Great Northern War. In one of numerous lost battles he is caught and sent to Visingsö Prison on an island in Sweden. There he ESCAPES, is the only one to survive, swims to shore and joins the Swedish army (under the name Peter, and is given the surname "Snygg", meaning "handsome") to avoid being captured. Theres even a "secret" in my family that it was this Badass that killed Karl XII of Sweden in one of the many circulating conspirations to do that. Being a family legend this last thing is most certainly not true and the rest is probably greatly exaggerated, but we still honor him. Oh, and he stayed in Sweden when the war was over.
Shirley Temple managed to lead 700 refugees out of Czechoslovakia because the border guards were fans of hers.
Simo Häyhä was a farmer and a hunter in Finland. Than, when the Finnish-Russian winter war broke out this man did what might actually be the most awesome of all crowning moments. In temperatures betwee −20 and −40 degrees Celsius (−4 and −40 degrees Fahrenheit) Simo decided to camp out in the forest and shoot russians. Not only did he kill some russians with no previous military background, he actually holds the record of most recorded sniper kills during a war. Not only did he do this at extremely low temperatures, he also did it with an iron-sighted Mosin-Nagant. In under 100 days he raised his bodycount up to 505 confirmed sniper kills. But did it stop at that? No. On top of that he was also credited with over 200 kills with his Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun bringing his killcount upto 705 confirmed kills within 100 days. You'd think it ends there. You are wrong my friend, oh so wrong. On the 6th of march 1940 he was shot in the jaw and according to the soldiers that found him "half his head was blown off". Did this stop him? No. The man woke up from a coma after 7 days and went on to live.
- Not only did he live, he lived on to the age of 94, dying in April 1, 2002.
  - For added badass, the day he woke up is the day the war ended
Chuko "Sleeping Dragon" Liang, full stop. During the Three Kingdoms period of China's history, he was present in a city with only a 100-man personal guard when he learned that an army of over 100,000 men was advancing on him. In response, Chuko Liang told his men to hide, ordered that the city gates be left open, and stood on top of those gates, unarmed, playing a lute. When the enemy general got close enough to see this, he decided the city was a trap he could not yet comprehend and ordered a full retreat
The Battle of Saragarhi. 21 soliders of the 36th Sikhs, British Indian Army fought between 10,000 and 14,000 Afghans, delaying them long enougth that when the Afghans finally destroyed the fort reinforcements had arrived at Fort Gulistan to crush the Afgans.

Gurmukh Singh, the last man standing repeatedly shouted the regimental battle-cry "Jo Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal." He who cries God is Truth, is ever victorious. After killing 20 Afghans in hand to hand combat they resorted to burning down the post he was in. All 21 defenders revived posthumous Indian Orders of Merit, the highest award Indians could receive at the time.

Charles II of Spain. Known as "The Last Habsburg", Charles was born sickly and deformed. Not even his own family members thought he would live. When Charles learned that his family was fighting over the throne BEFORE HE WAS DEAD, what did he do? He secretly wrote a will leaving the throne of the Spanish Empire to a five year old boy, who just happened to be the grandson of Louis XIV, king of France. At the time, France and Spain hated each other.
- How deformed? Jay Leno chin deformed.
- Louis XIV. After his grandson was given the throne, Spain went to war over who would be king. Louis, already late in life, goes to war against almost all of Europe, and of course loses. However, when a treaty was presented that would remove his grandson, Louis WENT TO WAR AGAIN and managed to reach a stalemate.

War on Terror

Shin Bet's assissination of Yahya Ayyash ranks as one of the top Crowning Moments Of Awesome for the entire war on terror. Hamas' top bomb maker had made bombs that has killed over 90 Israli citizens. A master of disguise Ayyash hd evaded an intense 3-year manhunt when Shin Bet convinced an informant a cell phone to give to Ayyash's nephew on guise of wanting to bug Ayyash's conversations. However the phone contained 15 grams of high explisive and when Ayyash's voice was detected on the line the phone was remote detonated instantly turning the terrorist's head into a pink mist.
The current conflict has had no shortage of BadAssery. For an extensive collection of many a Real Life Crowning Moment Of Awesome, visit the "Someone You Should Know" archive here. For example:
- The Battle of Roberts Ridge in Afghanistan, fought on top of a 10,000-foot mountain.
- Also in Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif with a cavalry charge supported by B-52s, which gets a CMoA for two reasons: they captured a city, and we're talking about cavalry plus jet-powered bombers.
- Operation Red Wing: four Navy SEALs, against 80-200 Taliban troops. One of them walks into enemy fire to get cell phone reception, is shot twice, and gets back under cover. After finishing his call. Read the book by the lone survivor, Marcus Luttrell. It is called, oddly enough, Lone Survivor.
- It's worth noting that the call was for reinforcements. The Americans didn't get there in time, but the Afghans did. Frankly, this troper thinks the Afghan civilians standing up to the Taliban to protect a single wounded man is pretty darn hardcore.
  - Well, I live in Kabul (I am a non-Afghan expat civilian) and I can assure everyone that the amount of badassery found among the inhabitants of this country is unique. In December 2008 a bunch of villagers near the border to Pakistan got so pissed off by a band of rampaging militants (the word Taliban is actually a misnomer and should be avoided; the enemies of Afghanistan are of several types) that they gathered their guns and routed the hardcore insurgents in tough firefight. It's a bit like the local Joe Bloggs taking on a bunch of Apache warriors — and winning.
  - These are, after all, the same people who handed the Soviet Union their own version of Vietnam.
- This troper remembers a particular British soldier who fought of 150 Taliban soldiers almost singlehandedly, most of it while wounded. This troper also assumes he achieved this feat by taking cover behind his own enormous brass balls.
- The U.S. Marines recently had another CMoA in Afghanistan when a 30-man patrol was ambushed by a force of about 250 insurgents. It was a slaughter: more than 50 insurgents died, and not a single Marine was seriously wounded. Worthy of particular mention is the Marine sniper who, after killing 20 enemy fighters with 20 shots while under fire, asked to remain anonymous, presumably because he didn't want to be treated as a hero.
In Amara, Iraq, in 2004, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders that had been pinned down in an ambush fixed bayonets and charged an enemy that outnumbered them 5-1, killing 35 and sustaining only three minor wounds.
- Scottish regiments tend to get them- during World War One they often went over the top wearing kilts and in some cases caused Germans to run away.
Attorney General John Ashcroft was in the Intensive Care Ward of a hospital with a pancreas problem, and had transferred his authority to his deputy, James Comey. Bush administration officials had asked Comey to retroactively declare a domestic spying program as legal - Comey refused. White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Counsel Alberto Gonzales went to confront Ashcroft at a hospital, in order to get his signature authorizing the program. Ashcroft was able to lift himself up to explain his opinion on the issue, but concluded "that doesn't matter, because I'm not the attorney general." Subverted a few weeks later when he authorized the program after recovering. Transcript
This troper recalls a video shot by insurgents in Iraq somewhere. It shows an insurgent sniper - filmed by his spotter - shooting an American medic climbing out of a Humvee; the round hits the medic in the stomach and he goes down. But just as the insurgents start patting themselves on the back, the medic stands back up, returns fire along with his mates, and takes down the two insurgents. The kicker, though, is that the medic then goes over and treats the wounded insurgents...
- Here is the video.
Two words: Brian Chontosh
Using an enemy combatant as a human shield against his own grenade. Those crazy Israelis again... Two IDF guys get ambushed by two Hamas fighters. The climax of the video has an IDF guy run firing at the last standing Hamas fighter, who throws a grenade at his feet, so the IDF guy grabs the Hamas fighter and spins behind to escape being fragged! Liveleak video here.
Kim Campbell, Badass Chick pilot in Iraq. Flew her A-10 Warthog on a mission, got most of its vital parts blasted off the plane, flew all the way back to base and landed it manually. The Other Wiki.
- Warthog pilots have cmoa every missions... Unlike supersonic jet fighters, they fly in close and low to shoot with their guns and launch a volley of missiles.
This troper remembers the story of one soldier who definatly qualifies as a one lucky bastard. His convoy (a mix unit of Iraqi and American forces) found an IED. They disabled one from a distance, and it was his turn to make sure that the area of clear. When he's right next to the IED, a second one embedded in concrete explodes, sending him several feet in the air. Everyone's rushing in to help him, with medics taking off everything but his body armor to start treating shrapnel wounds in his legs (the body armor was in bad shape, but it did it's job amazingly well). When a helicopter arrives, he the procceedes to get up and with the help of a buddy walks into the helicopter while keeping his right hand held up high to give any insurgent who may of been still watching the bird. He then collapses once the helicopter takes off and states how gratefull he was that he didn't give the guy who blew him up the satisfaction.
The conflict in Afghanistan provided a new sniper record for longest confirmed kill, set by a Canadian corporal named Rob Furlong. Using a McMillan Tac-50, he managed to pick off a member of an al Qaeda weapons team at a distance of over 2.4 kilometres. To be fair, he only managed to hit the guy on the third shot.
- Hell, the fact he managed to hit him at all is a C Mo A. I can picture it perfectly; the insurgent looking around going the arabic equilivant of "What the fuck?" as two bullets whiz by with no shooter in sight, then its lights out on the third...
During an attack on a Taliban compound in Helmand province, a Royal Marine was shot during a confused withdrawal under fire. An Army Air Corps Apache gunship flight spotted him, seemingly still alive and well behind enemy lines. Unable to summon an airlift or ground counterattack in time, the Apache pilots came up with another plan. Four Marine volunteers were asked to lash themselves to the fuselage of the Apaches and fly to where the wounded soldier lay, which happened to be within very close range of a 200-strong enemy force with at least one functioning Stinger tube and RPG-7s out the kazoo, then pick him up and fly back. Bear in mind that the various militant groups in Afghanistan have been on the wrong end of the Apache's weapons rather often, and if captured their crews will probably be getting off lightly if they're merely beheaded. They were also very short of fuel, and when briefing the Marine volunteers they also discovered that they were short one rescue harness, so one Marine had to just hang on. Then It Got Worse, repeatedly. The Marine they were trying to rescue turned out to be built like a brick outhouse and required three men to carry him. One Apache landed at the wrong end of the compound, and the Marines walked straight into an enemy position. The wind picked up at a crucial moment and deprived the Apache carrying the casualty of lift at a crucial moment.They came home with the Marine they set out to rescue, though sadly he was dead by the time they arrived. Neither Apache suffered a single hit.
Then, there is the incident which led to Pakistan finally taking the Taliban seriously: A single, 120 personnel strong Pakistani army convoy, supported by two chinese Type 85 tanks are ambushed by a Insurgent force half their size and are crushed. Uniquely, the first pitched battle since the French occupation of Vietnam that insurgent militia have won against Army regulars.
Pirates capture an American ship for the first time in a hundred years. What do the crew do? Be hostages? Heck no: they retake the whole ship and radio the shipping company, telling them what they did.
- This being only the second time that a crew had the balls to fight back against the Somali pirates; the first was a North Korean crew.
  - In fairness to the crews of other attacked ships, freighter crews aren't supposed to be armed, since shipping companies don't like the appearance of raising their own army, and it tends to be a bad thing on oil tankers. And, generally speaking, pirates will let you go when you pay them off, so fighting back tends to be pointlessly life-threatening. If it hadn't been a US ship, and thus incurred the wrath of the US military, it could've ended a lot worse.
  - Fighting back isn't pointlessly life-threatening when the alternative is to let a criminal decide your fate.
- The ship's captain, Richard Phillips, gets a Crowning Moment of his own for volunteering to be a hostage so the pirates would leave the rest of his crew alone. Then, when one of the pirates was on board the U.S.S. Bainbridge for negotiations, three U.S. Navy SEALs sniped the three other pirates with three bullets (Rule Of Three at its finest) and rescued Captain Phillips.
  - The SEALs remained hidden the whole time, waited for exactly the right moment, then took the pirates down with perfect accuracy. We finally have something resembling a real-life answer to an age-old Internet question. Ninjas: 3, Pirates: 0.
- This incident keeps piling on the awesome: the U.S.S. Bainbridge, it turns out, was named after an early U.S. Naval captain who became a merchant marine captain after he retired from the Navy; his ship was attacked and sunk by pirates. Need I say that the U.S.S. Bainbridge avenged him?
During the Second Battle of Fallujah, Us Army Staff Sergeant David Bellavia led his squad into a house that had been set up as a killing ground by insurgent troops. The entire squad was repelled with several wounded. Instead of waiting to bring up heavier firepower to level the house, though, Bellavia was enraged by being driven out by a gaggle of taunting insurgents. He picked up a new rifle, got a couple of other soldiers to cover the exterior of the house so no one would attack him from behind, and proceeded to storm, assault, and clear the entire house singlehandedly. It ended with him killing the last insurgent hand-to-hand, and is detailed in his book House To House: A Soldier's Memoir.
the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, 1st Batallion 7 month tour in Iraq: they suffered only 36 casulties, 1 fatal, and killing enough enemy milita that when they were transferred out, the enemy milita's commander thought that a SAS squadron had been defending it. Not bad for a regiment whose last combat assignment was in Ireland, back in the 80s and 90s.

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