Awesome / The War of the Worlds (1898)

• First time the humans takes down a tripod. Five Martian tripods attacks the town of Shepperton, there the British Army has put up defense lines with their artillery, and one of them goes near the river harbour, there a massive gathering of refugees was waiting for ships to take them away from the battlefield, and it seems that it's about to unleash its ray gun at the people when the artillery hits it right on and turn it into Swiss cheese. Cue massive cheers from the protagonist and every human around him. Thought the cheerfulness disappears as soon it comes when the other Martians does a Roaring Rampage of Revenge on the humans, but their loss was enough to give the British Army time to prepare itself for future attacks, as well causing the Martians to take them more seriously - seriously enough that they start using the Black Smoke to clear their units out instead of engaging them head on.
• The last stand of HMS Thunder Child. She manages to take down two Tripods. When the remaining Tripods open fire she still keeps going, despite being on fire and almost dead in the water, she charges a third Tripod as her ammunition stores explode, clearing a path for the escaping refugee ships.
  • To make this better... The Thunder Child is a weak and antiquated ship: Wells describes her as a torpedo ram, a ship designed to take out enemy vessels through torpedoes and ramming while the guns keep enemy light ships at bay. The Thunder Child is oversized and overgunned compared to historical torpedo rams, but is still far weaker than even a proper contemporary cruiser, let alone a battleship... And she still took down two Tripods, possibly three, and scared the Martians so much they wouldn't dare to come close to the coast for fear of facing the Channel Fleet, composed of actual battleships.

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