What is the most famous last stand in history?
Thermopylae in 480 BC is the most famous last stand of all and the model for the idea. The Spartan king Leonidas and a small rearguard, including 300 Spartans, held the narrow pass of the Hot Gates for three days against the vast army of Xerxes, dying to cover the Greek retreat.
Some battles are remembered not for who won but for who refused to run. A last stand is the moment a hopelessly outnumbered force decides to hold anyway, to buy time, to shield others, or simply to make the enemy pay. These are the fifteen greatest last stands in history, where defeat became something close to immortality. They are ranked by a score, not by date, and how we chose and ranked them is explained right after the list.
1 Thermopylae, 480 BC
- Where
- The pass of Thermopylae, central Greece
- War
- Greco-Persian Wars, Xerxes' invasion of Greece
- Held by
- 300 Spartans among 4,000 Greeks, per Livius.org
- Against
- The army of Xerxes
- Outcome
- Rearguard destroyed on the third day; the pass lost
In the late summer of 480 BC the Persian king Xerxes marched his invasion army south toward the Hot Gates, a strip of coast between mountain and sea where numbers counted for little. The Spartan king Leonidas held it with a Greek force that Jona Lendering of Livius.org puts at 4,000 men. Herodotus lists them: 300 Spartans, but also 700 Thespians, 400 Thebans and men from Tegea, Mantinea, Corinth, Phocis and Locris.1
For two days the Persian assaults broke on the narrow front. Then a local man, Ephialtes, led a Persian force over a mountain path to the Greek rear. Leonidas sent most of the allies away and stayed with the Spartans, the Thespians, who refused to leave him, and the Thebans, whom Herodotus says he kept as hostages. The rearguard was surrounded and killed on the third day. The road into Greece lay open, and, in Livius.org's account, Athens was sacked before the Greek fleet won at Salamis. Myth vs fact: it was never 300 men alone, but a Greek coalition, and on the last day the Spartans still fought beside 700 Thespians. The reconstructed epitaph “Go tell the Spartans”, quoted by Livius.org, and the 1955 statue of Leonidas at the pass, described by the Greek National Tourism Organisation, keep the story alive.2
Why it ranks here: It takes full marks for recognition, defiance and memory: the rearguard chose to stay knowing it would die, and every later stand is measured against it. Only consequence and certainty hold it back, a point each: it delayed the Persians rather than stopped them, and much rests on Herodotus. It is still clear at No. 1.
2 The Alamo, 1836
- Where
- San Antonio de Béxar, Texas
- War
- Texas Revolution
- Held by
- 189 to 257 Texian defenders
- Against
- Santa Anna's army, about 1,800 in the final assault
- Outcome
- Stormed on 6 March 1836; the defenders killed
Santa Anna's army began to arrive at San Antonio de Béxar on 23 February 1836 and shut the Texian rebels inside the old mission of the Alamo. Their commander, William Travis, wrote that his men were “determined to defend the garrison to the last” and kept begging for help. Thirty-two men from Gonzales slipped through the Mexican lines on 1 March, but no larger relief ever came.3
Before dawn on 6 March, the thirteenth day of the siege, about 1,800 Mexican assault troops stormed the walls, and the fight was over in no more than ninety minutes. The official list names 189 defenders, though research may raise the total to 257. As many as seven who lived through the assault were executed on Santa Anna's orders, and whether Davy Crockett was among them is still debated. The Mexicans lost about 600 killed and wounded. On 21 April Sam Houston's army charged at San Jacinto shouting “Remember the Alamo!” won in eighteen minutes and captured Santa Anna the next day. Myth vs fact: the Alamo did have survivors, nearly twenty women and children and Travis's enslaved servant Joe.4
Why it ranks here: It matches Thermopylae on recognition and memory, and its battle cry carried Texas to independence within weeks. It sits second because the garrison was holding while it waited for relief, not choosing a hopeless fight from the start.
3 Rorke's Drift, 1879
- Where
- Mission station at Rorke's Drift, Natal, South Africa
- War
- Anglo-Zulu War
- Held by
- About 150 British and colonial troops, many of them sick
- Against
- Up to 4,000 Zulu warriors
- Outcome
- Held; 17 defenders killed, 11 Victoria Crosses
On 22 January 1879 a Zulu army destroyed a British column at Isandlwana. That same day the small garrison at the mission station of Rorke's Drift, B Company of the 24th Foot under Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead and a party of Royal Engineers under Lieutenant John Chard, learned that thousands of warriors were on the way. Burdened with hospital patients and sure to be caught in the open if they ran, they agreed to stay and fight, and walled the post with mealie bags, biscuit boxes and crates of tinned meat.5
The attackers came from four senior Zulu regiments that had formed the reserve at Isandlwana, and Chris Peers writes that King Cetshwayo had forbidden any advance into Natal, so their commander, Prince Dabulamanzi, crossed the river against orders. For about twelve hours they stormed the barricades. They set the hospital on fire and broke in, and the defenders fought to get the patients out. When the Zulus withdrew, 17 British soldiers were dead and almost every survivor was wounded; the National Army Museum counts 400 Zulu dead, Peers at least 350. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded to the defenders. The 1964 film Zulu gave the battle worldwide fame.6
Why it ranks here: It is the best-documented stand on this list and one of the few that was won, with full marks for defiance and memory. Consequence holds it at No. 3: in the National Army Museum's words it had little effect on the Zulu War as a whole.7
4 Westerplatte, 1939
- Where
- Westerplatte, at the mouth of the port of Gdańsk (Danzig)
- War
- German invasion of Poland, World War II
- Held by
- About 200 Polish soldiers (studies give 164 to 215, per Czerwiński)
- Against
- German forces estimated at just over 500 to more than 3,000, the battleship Schleswig-Holstein and dive bombers
- Outcome
- Held 7 days; 15 defenders killed
The Polish Military Transit Depot at Westerplatte stood on a peninsula at the mouth of the port of Gdańsk, then the Free City of Danzig. By 1939 its garrison had been raised to just over 200 men. Popular memory says they were to hold for six hours, or twelve, until help came; Daniel Czerwiński of the IPN writes that this order concerned a local German provocation, and that it is still uncertain whether the commander, Major Henryk Sucharski, was told before the attack that no relief would come.8
The battleship Schleswig-Holstein was ordered to open fire at 4:45 on 1 September 1939 and did so three minutes later, Czerwiński writes; the Museum of the Second World War also gives 4:48. Myth vs fact: those salvos are remembered as the first shots of the war, but Czerwiński calls them one of the first, if not the first. He puts estimates of the German assault force at anywhere from just over 500 to more than 3,000, and writes that on 2 September 47 Ju 87 dive bombers struck the post. Some accounts say Sucharski then broke down and his deputy, Captain Franciszek Dąbrowski, kept the fight going; Czerwiński finds this hard to decide. The IPN's own summary says Sucharski meant, in line with orders received earlier, to surrender after the first attacks but fought on when his officers, led by Dąbrowski, objected. The garrison held for seven days and surrendered on 7 September; 15 defenders were killed, and the Museum of the Second World War counts 13 badly and 25 to 40 lightly wounded. The state ceremony marking the outbreak of the war still begins there at 4:45 on 1 September.9
Why it ranks here: Expected to hold for a few hours, the garrison held for seven days, which earns it full marks for defiance, memory and certainty. It ranks fourth, ahead of more famous names, because those three fives outweigh its modest recognition outside Poland and the fact that it did not change the course of the September campaign.
5 Little Bighorn, 1876
- Where
- Little Bighorn River, Montana Territory, United States
- War
- Great Sioux War of 1876 to 1877
- Held by
- Custer's battalion of the 7th Cavalry, about 210 men
- Against
- 1,500 to 1,800 Lakota and Cheyenne warriors (estimates)
- Outcome
- Custer's battalion wiped out; 268 of the force killed
On 25 June 1876 Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer found a great Lakota and Cheyenne camp beside the Little Bighorn River, a village of about 8,000 people with 1,500 to 1,800 warriors by modern estimates. He split the 7th Cavalry into four parts, sent Major Reno to attack the village and rode on with five companies, about 210 men.10
Custer's battalion was cut off on the ridges above the river and destroyed to the last man; about 40 were cornered on the hill where the stone monument now stands. The battalions of Reno and Captain Benteen survived, besieged on the bluffs into the next day. In all, 268 soldiers, civilians and scouts of the regiment's force were killed, against an estimated 60 to 100 Lakota and Cheyenne. Myth vs fact: “Custer's Last Stand” was not a chosen defense. Custer attacked, and the stand came only once he was surrounded. The victory was short-lived for the Lakota and Cheyenne: within a year most had surrendered, and the government took the Black Hills without compensation. In 1991 Congress renamed the battlefield and ordered an Indian Memorial, dedicated in 2003, so the site now honors both sides.11
Why it ranks here: The phrase “last stand” belongs to this battle, so it takes full marks for recognition and memory, and recognition wins it the three-way tie on 39 points. But Custer attacked and was cut off rather than choosing to hold, which gives it the lowest defiance score on the list and keeps it at No. 5.
6 Shiroyama, 1877
- Where
- Shiroyama hill above Kagoshima, Japan
- War
- Satsuma Rebellion (Seinan War)
- Held by
- Saigō Takamori and fewer than 400 (Griffis) to about 500 (Mounsey) rebel samurai
- Against
- About 15,000 imperial troops (Mounsey, Griffis)
- Outcome
- Overrun on 24 September 1877; Saigō killed
Saigō Takamori led the samurai of Satsuma in the largest and last revolt of the old warrior class against the Meiji government, whose reforms had taken away the samurai's stipends and privileges and replaced them with a conscript army. The Nipponica encyclopedia puts his forces in all at more than 30,000 men, but through 1877 they were beaten back across Kyushu by an imperial army that Griffis describes as largely raw levies from the peasantry and middle classes. The survivors entered Kagoshima on 1 September by Mounsey's account (Griffis gives the 2nd) and then entrenched on Shiroyama, the hill above the city.12
Government troops surrounded the hill. The figures differ: the British diplomat Augustus Mounsey, writing in 1879, puts the rebels at about 500 and the imperial force posted around the hill at 15,000, while William Elliot Griffis gives fewer than 400 rebels attacked by 15,000 troops. The general assault came before dawn on 24 September. Myth vs fact: Saigō is often said to have committed seppuku, but Mounsey writes that he was among the first to fall, wounded by a bullet in the thigh, and that one of his lieutenants cut off his head to spare him capture; Griffis also has him beheaded by a friend. Mounsey counts the leaders and a hundred of the principal samurai killed around him and 210 taken, Griffis nearly three hundred dead. The rebellion was over. Mounsey, writing in 1879, records that thousands of the people of Satsuma had already visited Saigō's grave to pray.13
Why it ranks here: Shiroyama ended the Satsuma Rebellion and, with it, the samurai as a fighting class, and that consequence puts it ahead of Saragarhi in the tie on 39 points. Disputed numbers (certainty 3) and the fact that the rebels were cornered rather than choosing their ground keep it at No. 6.
7 Saragarhi, 1897
- Where
- Saragarhi post, Samana Ridge, North-West Frontier (now Pakistan)
- War
- Frontier rising of 1897 (Tirah campaign)
- Held by
- 21 soldiers of the 36th Sikhs
- Against
- 8,000 to 10,000 Afridi and Orakzai tribesmen (estimates)
- Outcome
- Overrun after about seven hours; all 21 killed
Saragarhi was a small signaling post on the Samana Ridge, the link between Fort Lockhart and Fort Gulistan, held by 21 men of the 36th Sikhs under Havildar Ishar Singh. On 12 September 1897, during the great frontier rising of that year, a tribal army of Afridis and Orakzais, estimated at 8,000 to 10,000 men, surrounded it.14
The garrisons of both forts could see the attack but could do nothing to help. The 21 held from nine in the morning until half past four in the afternoon and threw back two assaults. At the third rush the tribesmen broke down the door and opened a breach in the wall, and the defenders fought on in their quarters until none was left. The signaler kept Fort Lockhart informed to the very last. All 21 were awarded the Indian Order of Merit after their deaths. The Sikh Regiment of the Indian Army marks 12 September as Saragarhi Day, and in 2021 a bronze Sikh soldier 10 feet tall was unveiled in Wolverhampton, the first statue in Britain to honor them. One caution: no defender survived, so the details of the fight come from the attackers and from watchers at the forts, as Captain Nevill noted in 1912.15
Why it ranks here: Few stands were so plainly chosen: 21 men, no relief possible, no surrender. It ranks seventh because the post's fall changed little in the campaign, its fame, huge in India, is smaller elsewhere, and with no defender left alive the attackers' numbers are only estimates (certainty 3).
8 The Swiss Guard at Rome, 1527
- Where
- Around St Peter's Basilica, Rome
- War
- War of the League of Cognac (Sack of Rome)
- Held by
- 189 Swiss Guards under Kaspar Röist
- Against
- Thousands of Landsknechts of Emperor Charles V
- Outcome
- Pope saved; 147 guards killed, 42 survived
On 6 May 1527 Landsknechts in the pay of Emperor Charles V, led by Charles III of Bourbon, broke into Rome. Standing between them and Pope Clement VII were the 189 men of his Swiss Guard, commanded by Kaspar Röist of Zurich. They were professional soldiers hired to guard one man, and that morning their job became a matter of buying minutes.16
The guards held their ground near St Peter's for hours against thousands of attackers. While they fought, 42 of them hurried the pope along the Passetto di Borgo, the walled corridor that runs from the Vatican to Castel Sant'Angelo, and got him inside the fortress. The rest stayed and died: 147 guards fell, Röist among them. Clement VII survived. Rome did not escape so lightly. Months of plunder followed, and the civilian victims numbered more than 30,000. The figures of 189, 147 and 42 come from the Guard's own tradition as set down by Swiss and Vatican historians; other accounts of the sack give different totals, and no independent roll of the dead survives.17
The date is still the Guard's most important day. New recruits swear their oath every 6 May, on the anniversary of the fight, and the Guard is preparing to mark the 500th anniversary of the sack in May 2027.18
Why it ranks here: Defiance does not come purer than this (defiance 5), and it achieved its aim: the pope lived (consequence 4). It sits at No. 8 because few people outside Catholic and Swiss memory know the story and its numbers rest mainly on one institution's tradition (certainty 3); it is placed above Szigetvár, which has the same score, as the older stand.
9 Szigetvár, 1566
- Where
- Szigetvár castle, southern Hungary
- War
- Ottoman-Habsburg wars, Suleiman's last campaign
- Held by
- Miklós Zrínyi and 2,300 to 2,500 Hungarians and Croats
- Against
- Suleiman's army, 50,000 regulars to about 100,000 (estimates vary)
- Outcome
- Fell on 7 September 1566 after a final sally; Zrínyi killed
In 1566 the aging Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent led his army into Hungary for the last time. The castle of Szigetvár stood in his way, held by Miklós Zrínyi, Nikola Zrinski to the Croats, with 2,300 to 2,500 men. Estimates of the Ottoman army run from 50,000 regulars to about 100,000 men, and the siege began in early August.19
The garrison held for more than a month. On 7 September, with the inner castle in ruins, Zrínyi led the last of his men out on foot and was killed on the castle bridge, hit by several bullets; almost all who followed him died. Myth vs fact: older books say Suleiman died days before the castle fell, but recent research puts his death in his tent in the first hours of that same day. His court hid it, so Zrínyi never knew. The Hungarian defense ministry's history calls the fall of Szigetvár the end of the great era of Ottoman conquest in Hungary. It also says that a ballad written in the next century by Zrínyi's great-grandson and namesake made the stand and his death an essential part of Hungarian historical consciousness.20
Why it ranks here: Zrínyi's sally was as deliberate as Thermopylae and the castle held a sultan's last campaign at bay for more than a month, so it scores high on defiance and consequence. Recognition outside Hungary and Croatia is modest and estimates of the Ottoman army run from 50,000 regulars to about 100,000 (certainty 3), which leaves it at No. 9, tied on points with the Swiss Guard.21
10 Camarón, 1863
- Where
- Walled farmhouse at Camarón, Veracruz, Mexico
- War
- French intervention in Mexico
- Held by
- 3rd Company, Foreign Regiment: 3 officers and 62 legionnaires
- Against
- About 2,000 Mexican cavalry and infantry
- Outcome
- Overrun at six in the evening, after a fight that began at dawn; 3 legionnaires still standing
In 1863 France was fighting to install its own regime in Mexico, and the Foreign Legion guarded the roads inland from Veracruz. On 30 April the 3rd Company, led by Captain Jean Danjou with Sub-lieutenants Vilain and Maudet, was out on the road where a large convoy of silver was expected. Near Camarón some 600 Mexican horsemen caught the company in the open, and the legionnaires fell back into a farmhouse whose walls enclosed a yard on three sides.22
There, in the smoke of the burning buildings, Danjou made his men swear to resist to the end. The odds were about 62 against 2,000. Danjou fell early and Vilain took over; by the afternoon Maudet was leading the last handful. When their cartridges ran out, Maudet and the few men left charged with the bayonet. They had held from about ten in the morning, and by the Legion's own count they had killed some 300 Mexican soldiers and wounded as many again. At six in the evening, when the Mexicans finally took the yard, three legionnaires were still on their feet. Much of the story was told by those survivors and shaped into a novel-like account in 1867, so its details are tradition as much as record.23
Every 30 April the Legion celebrates Camerone in its regiments, on operations and among veterans, and Danjou's wooden hand is carried on parade.24
Why it ranks here: Few units have made a defeat into a founding creed so completely, so defiance and memory both score 5. It stays at No. 10 because the fight changed little in the war and the story is famous mainly within France and among soldiers.
11 Xiang Yu at Gaixia, 202 BC
- Where
- Gaixia and the Wu River crossing, eastern China
- War
- Chu-Han Contention
- Held by
- Xiang Yu with 800 horsemen, down to 28 at the end
- Against
- Han army; 5,000 cavalry sent in pursuit
- Outcome
- Xiang Yu killed himself; the Han dynasty followed
After the fall of the Qin dynasty, two men fought for China: Xiang Yu, the Hegemon-King of Western Chu, and Liu Bang of Han. By the winter of 203 to 202 BC Xiang Yu was walled up in his camp at Gaixia, his men hungry and exhausted, inside several rings of Han and allied troops. At night he heard his enemies singing the songs of his own land of Chu on every side, and took it to mean that Han had won over the people of Chu.25
That night he broke out to the south with about 800 horsemen. The Han sent 5,000 cavalry after him. At Dongcheng only 28 riders were left, and he charged once more. At the Wu River a local official waited with a boat and urged him to cross. Xiang Yu refused: he had taken 8,000 young men of that land west with him, and none had come home. He gave his horse to the official, fought on foot, killed several hundred Han soldiers, by Sima Qian's count, and then cut his own throat. Liu Bang took the title of emperor that same year, 202 BC; Chavannes dates the day to 28 February.26
In China the story has been retold for two thousand years, above all in the opera and film Farewell My Concubine.27
Why it ranks here: Asia's classic last stand: a refusal to flee that ended a civil war and opened the Han dynasty (consequence 4). It ranks No. 11 because it rests on a single ancient source (certainty 3) and is little known in the West.
12 Rezang La, 1962
- Where
- Mountain pass near Chushul, Ladakh, India, at about 16,000 to 16,500 feet
- War
- Sino-Indian War
- Held by
- C Company, 13th Battalion, Kumaon Regiment: about 120 men
- Against
- A much larger Chinese force (strength not reliably recorded)
- Outcome
- Overrun; 109 to 114 defenders killed
In November 1962 China's army was pushing into Ladakh. C Company of 13 Kumaon, commanded by Major Shaitan Singh, held Rezang La, a pass at about 16,000 feet on the southeastern approach to the valley, town and airfield of Chushul. A ridge crest stood between the company and the Indian guns, so it could not be given artillery support. It was on its own.28
On 18 November the Chinese opened with heavy artillery fire and then came on in strength. The company fought what India's defense minister later called a "last man, last bullet" battle. Major Shaitan Singh was killed and received the Param Vir Chakra, India's highest wartime gallantry award, after his death. How many died is given differently: India's defense minister counts 114, Shaitan Singh and 113 of his men, out of a company of about 120, while one study counts 109 killed out of 123 and 14 survivors, nine of them badly wounded. Chinese losses are disputed too, from about 500 killed and wounded in that study to more than a thousand in other Indian estimates.29
A memorial was raised in the Chushul plain in 1963. India's defense minister rededicated it, renovated, on the 59th anniversary in 2021.30
Why it ranks here: A company that chose to hold to the end at a height where men struggle to breathe, with no hope of support (defiance 5), and a strong living memory in India. It ranks No. 12 because it did not change the outcome of a lost war and its casualty figures still vary (certainty 3).
13 Masada, 73 to 74 AD
- Where
- Desert fortress on a plateau above the Dead Sea, Judaea
- War
- First Jewish-Roman War
- Held by
- Sicarii rebels and their families: 960 people, according to Josephus
- Against
- Rome's Tenth Legion under Flavius Silva
- Outcome
- Mass suicide as the Romans broke in, per Josephus; 2 women and 5 children survived
Jerusalem fell to Rome in 70 AD, but the war was not quite over. The last rebels, a militant faction called the Sicarii led by Eleazar ben Ya'ir, held the fortress of Masada on a sheer-sided plateau above the Dead Sea. In 73 AD the Roman governor Flavius Silva marched against them with the Tenth Legion and built a huge ramp of stone and beaten earth against the western side.31
When the wall was breached, Josephus writes, Eleazar persuaded the defenders that death was better than slavery. The men killed their families and then themselves, and the Romans who came in found 960 dead. Two women and five children who had hidden survived to tell the story. Myth or fact? The suicide may have happened, but Josephus is the only written source for it, and the excavations led by Yigael Yadin in 1963 to 1965 found only 25 skeletons, according to the Jewish Virtual Library. A 2024 study even suggests the siege itself was short rather than long.32
For modern Israel the rock became a national symbol. For years new soldiers were sworn in on the summit with a promise that Masada would not fall again; Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman, quoted by the Jewish Virtual Library, says the practice was abandoned in 1986.33
Why it ranks here: Masada is famous and central to Israeli memory (recognition 4, memory 5), so it belongs here. It sits at No. 13 because it was the end of a siege, not a chosen fight to the death in battle, and the story depends on one ancient writer (certainty 2).
14 Brest Fortress, 1941
- Where
- Brest Fortress on the Bug River, Belarus (then the Soviet Union)
- War
- German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa)
- Held by
- Units of the Soviet 6th and 42nd Rifle Divisions and others, with officers' families
- Against
- German 45th Infantry Division
- Outcome
- Main resistance broken in a week to 9 days; last holdout taken 23 July
At 4:15 on the morning of 22 June 1941, in the first hour of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the 45th Infantry Division attacked the old fortress of Brest on the border river Bug. Inside were units of the Soviet 6th and 42nd Rifle Divisions, other troops and the families of officers. The surprise was complete and losses among the garrison and the families were huge. The Germans had planned to take the fortress in half a day.34
Instead, cut-off groups fought on inside the fortress through the last days of June. Attempts to break out failed, and many of those who tried were killed or captured. The East Fort, the last strong pocket, fell on 30 June. After that, scattered men hid in the ruins into July; Major Pyotr Gavrilov was taken prisoner on 23 July, the 32nd day of the war. Myth vs fact: the official account still says the fortress held out for about a month, but historians put the real fighting at about a week to nine days, followed by isolated holdouts, and the Soviet story long left out that much of the garrison ended in German captivity.35
The Soviet state named it a Hero Fortress in 1965, and the huge memorial complex opened on 25 September 1971.36
Why it ranks here: The holdouts kept fighting long after the front had moved hundreds of miles east, with nothing to gain but defiance (defiance 5). It ranks No. 14 because it did not slow the invasion in any real way and decades of Soviet myth-making blur the facts (certainty 3).
15 Zadwórze, 1920
- Where
- Railway station at Zadwórze, 33 km from Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine)
- War
- Polish-Soviet War
- Held by
- About 330 young volunteers under Captain Bolesław Zajączkowski
- Against
- Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Army, more than ten times stronger
- Outcome
- Destroyed; 318 killed, Budyonny delayed before Lwów
In August 1920, while the battle for Warsaw was being decided, Semyon Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Army was closing on Lwów. A battalion of about 330 volunteers under Captain Bolesław Zajączkowski, most of them young men from the city, was falling back before it. On 17 August, at Zadwórze, 33 kilometers from Lwów, the battalion ran into the Soviet 6th Cavalry Division.37
The Poles took a nearby hill and, the IPN says, beat off six cavalry charges in eleven hours of fighting; with their ammunition gone, they fought on with rifle butts and bayonets. Szymon Nowak writes that the last of them made a stand at a railway hut, where Zajączkowski urged them on: "Boys! To the last round!" (our translation). He kept his last bullet for himself rather than be taken. Of about 330, 318 were killed, almost the whole battalion. The day they bought slowed Budyonny's march and kept Lwów from being taken.38
Poland calls it the Polish Thermopylae, and Zajączkowski was sometimes called the Polish Leonidas. When the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was to be created in Warsaw, the IPN writes, Jadwiga Zarugiewicz, the mother of a Zadwórze defender whose body was never found, was asked to choose one of three coffins of soldiers exhumed in Lwów; the one she chose went to the tomb.39
Why it ranks here: A volunteer battalion that chose to fight to the end (defiance 5) and gave Lwów time that counted (consequence 3). It closes the list because outside Poland almost nobody knows it (recognition 2).
How we chose and ranked these last stands
We counted a fight as a last stand when a clearly outnumbered force chose to hold its ground knowing it could be destroyed, whether or not it survived. That is why Rorke's Drift, which the defenders won, is here, and why long sieges of whole cities, such as Constantinople in 1453, are left to our guide to the greatest sieges in history. Isandlwana, where a British column was overrun in the open, was a disaster rather than a chosen stand.40
We considered 24 candidates and scored each one from 1 to 5 on five criteria. Recognition counts three times, because this page answers the question of which last stands are the most famous; defiance, consequence and memory count twice, and certainty once:
- Recognition (×3). 5 if the name is known far beyond military history and appears on most published lists of its kind, 1 if only specialists know it.
- Defiance (×2). 5 if a small force chose to hold against hopeless odds and fought to the end, 1 if it was simply caught and overwhelmed.
- Consequence (×2). 5 if it decided a battle or a war, 1 if it changed nothing about the outcome.
- Memory (×2). 5 if it is still a living tradition (a day of remembrance, a monument, a unit custom, a song), 1 if it is forgotten.
- Certainty (×1). 5 if the numbers and events are confirmed by independent sources, 1 if they rest on one source or are disputed.
The list is ranked by total score, not by date. Ties go to the better-known stand, then to the one with the greater consequence, then to the older one. The scores are our editorial judgment, made on the evidence in the sources below, and the table shows every one of them, so you can see exactly why Thermopylae is first and why Little Bighorn, the most famous name after it, sits only fifth: Custer attacked and was cut off, he did not choose to hold.
| Rank | Name | Recognition ×3 | Defiance ×2 | Consequence ×2 | Memory ×2 | Certainty ×1 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thermopylae | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 47 |
| 2 | The Alamo | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 45 |
| 3 | Rorke's Drift | 4 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 41 |
| 4 | Westerplatte | 3 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 40 |
| 5 | Little Bighorn | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 39 |
| 6 | Shiroyama | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 39 |
| 7 | Saragarhi | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 39 |
| 8 | The Swiss Guard at Rome | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 38 |
| 9 | Szigetvár | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 38 |
| 10 | Camarón | 3 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 37 |
| 11 | Xiang Yu at Gaixia | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 36 |
| 12 | Rezang La | 3 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 36 |
| 13 | Masada | 4 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 34 |
| 14 | Brest Fortress | 3 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 34 |
| 15 | Zadwórze | 2 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 34 |
Close calls
Five stands came close and did not make the fifteen:
Wizna, 1939. On our old list. Captain Władysław Raginis's men held bunkers from 7 to 10 September 1939, and Raginis took his own life rather than surrender. But the numbers are uncertain: Paweł Sztama of the IPN gives probably 720 defenders and cites Tomasz Wesołowski's count of under 650. Low certainty and little effect keep it off the list.41
Roncevaux, 778. Roland's rearguard is one of the great legends of Europe, but the history is thin. Einhard records only that Gascons ambushed Charlemagne's rearguard in the Pyrenees, killed every man and plundered the baggage, Roland among the dead. The Song of Roland, written around 1100, turned the Basque ambush into an epic battle against a Saracen army. An ambush, not a chosen stand.42
Hodów, 1694. Accounts speak of seven banners from two Polish forts; Zbigniew Hundert counts about 400 men from the Okopy Świętej Trójcy, at most a quarter of them hussars, besides about 200 from the Szaniec Panny Marii. They held the village against a far larger Tatar horde, which withdrew after several hours of fighting. One of the finest stands in Polish history, and one that was won, but it is little known outside Poland and changed little in the war, so it stays just off the list.43
Wake Island, 1941. On 11 December 1941 a garrison of 524 Marines, sailors and soldiers, helped by civilian contractors, threw back a Japanese landing and sank two warships. When the Japanese came back on 23 December, the commander surrendered after more than eleven hours of fighting, once he learned the relief force had been recalled. A great stand, but not a last one.44
Gandamak, 1842. On the retreat from Kabul, a column of 4,500 British and Indian troops and 12,000 camp followers was cut to pieces in the passes, and the last men of the 44th Foot made their stand at Gandamak. Only one European, Dr William Brydon, reached Jalalabad. It was the end of a doomed retreat rather than a chosen stand, and it decided nothing.45
See these desperate defenses beside every other kind of warfare in the greatest battles of all time, or meet the commanders who led from the front in the greatest military commanders in history.
What does "last stand" mean?
A last stand is a final, determined defense by people who expect to be overwhelmed. Collins defines it as a final attempt to defend yourself before you are beaten, and Oxford Learner's Dictionaries files it under a sense of "stand" meaning a strong effort to defend yourself, illustrated by rebels making a desperate last stand.46
In this guide the term means a fight in which a small force chose to hold its ground against far greater numbers, whether or not it survived. That is why Rorke's Drift, which the defenders won, stands here beside Thermopylae and the Alamo. For battles in which the smaller side came out on top, see battles won against the odds, and for long blockades of cities and fortresses, the greatest sieges in history.
Did any last stand actually win?
Yes, a few. Rorke's Drift in 1879 is the clearest case: about 150 British and colonial soldiers held off several thousand Zulu warriors for about twelve hours and survived. Others lost the fight but still achieved their aim, by holding far longer than anyone planned or by buying time for others, as at Westerplatte in 1939 and Zadwórze in 1920.47
At Rorke's Drift the Zulu force arrived at about half past four in the afternoon and kept storming the defenses through the night. When it was over, several hundred Zulus lay dead (around 400, by the museum's count) and 17 British soldiers had been killed. The National Army Museum adds a sober note: the stand lifted British morale after the disaster at Isandlwana, but it had little effect on the course of the war.48
Westerplatte is a different kind of success. The small Polish depot at the mouth of the port of Gdańsk is often said to have been ordered to hold for six hours, or twelve, until help arrived; Daniel Czerwiński of the IPN writes that this order concerned a local German provocation, and that it is uncertain whether its commander, Major Henryk Sucharski, knew that no relief would come. Just over 200 men faced a German force estimated at anywhere from just over 500 to more than 3,000, backed by the guns of the battleship Schleswig-Holstein and by dive bombers. They held for seven days and surrendered on 7 September. Fifteen defenders were killed. Read the full story of the defense of Westerplatte.49
Other stands bought time that mattered. Herodotus says Leonidas sent most of the Greek allies away before the end, so the rearguard at Thermopylae covered their escape. At Zadwórze in August 1920, a Polish volunteer battalion fought almost to the last man. Szymon Nowak writes that its stand let neighboring Polish units withdraw safely and gave time to prepare the defense of Lwów.50
The Alamo is a harder case. Films like to say that Sam Houston used the siege to raise an army, but the Handbook of Texas points out that he spent most of it at the convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos, not with the troops. What the delay did allow was the declaration of independence, the forming of a revolutionary government and the drafting of a constitution, all before Santa Anna could strike the settlements.51 › Sam Houston
Did anyone survive the Alamo?
Yes. Almost every Texian fighter died in the assault of 6 March 1836, but the Alamo's own historians say nearly twenty women and children who had lived through the siege were spared and allowed to go home. William Travis's enslaved servant, Joe, also survived, and so did Susanna Dickinson, the best-known survivor, with her infant daughter.52
Mexican soldiers found Dickinson, the wife of the defender Almeron Dickinson, and her daughter Angelina after the battle. Santa Anna questioned the women, gave each a blanket and two silver dollars and released them. He then sent Dickinson to Sam Houston with a letter of warning, and she reached him at Gonzales around 12 March. Joe later told the Texas Cabinet that he had taken a gun and fought beside Travis, and that after the battle he was hit by a pistol shot and a bayonet thrust before a Mexican captain stepped in. Santa Anna questioned him in Béxar and set him free. The old line that Thermopylae had its messenger of defeat but the Alamo had none rests on a myth, the Alamo's historians point out: the Alamo had survivors. Read the full story of the Battle of the Alamo.53
Why does Poland have more than one "Thermopylae"?
Because the comparison has been used for two different battles. Wizna in September 1939 is the one most often meant, and Zadwórze in August 1920 is the other. In both a small Polish force fought almost to the end against a much larger army, and in both the commander chose death over capture.54
Zadwórze came first. On 17 August 1920, during the Polish-Soviet War, a volunteer battalion under Captain Bolesław Zajączkowski, falling back toward Lwów, was caught at Zadwórze by Budyonny's cavalry. The Poles took a hill and the railway station and, the IPN says, beat off six cavalry charges in eleven hours. When their ammunition ran out they fought on with rifle butts and bayonets, and at the end Zajączkowski shot himself rather than be taken. The IPN puts the dead at 318. Szymon Nowak writes that the battle became known as the Polish Thermopylae and that Zajączkowski was sometimes called the Polish Leonidas. Read the full story of Zadwórze.55
Wizna earned the name nineteen years later. Its fortified section, about 9 kilometers long, lay where the Biebrza meets the Narew and covered the routes across the marshes toward Białystok. Its main line rested on six heavy concrete bunkers, started only in the spring of 1939 and never fully finished. When the position could no longer be held, Raginis killed himself; the Border Guard Museum writes that he used a grenade. His remains were exhumed in 2011 and identified by DNA, and on 10 September 2011 they were buried in a war grave inside the ruined command bunker where he died.56
Is the comparison fair? In one way, yes: like Thermopylae, both were delaying actions by a small force holding a narrow approach. But the name also hides real differences. Thermopylae was fought by a coalition of Greek cities with thousands of men, and Wizna from concrete bunkers built months before the war. The name is a tribute, not a measurement.
Can you place them in time? Try Put the Battles in Order.
Notes
A number in the text points to a note; each note names the works that paragraph draws on, listed in full under Sources.
- Livius.org, “Thermopylae (480 BCE)”; Herodotus, “Herodotus on Thermopylae”. ↩
- Herodotus, “Herodotus on Thermopylae”; Livius.org, “Thermopylae (480 BCE)”; Visit Greece, “Thermopyles”. ↩
- The Alamo, “Battle and Revolution”; Stephen L. Hardin, “Alamo, Battle of the”. ↩
- Stephen L. Hardin, “Alamo, Battle of the”; The Alamo, “Battle and Revolution”; Handbook of Texas, “San Jacinto, Battle of”; The Alamo, “Myths and Legends”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Defence of Rorke's Drift”. ↩
- Military History Matters 124, “Rorke’s Drift”; National Army Museum, “Defence of Rorke's Drift”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Defence of Rorke's Drift”. ↩
- Muzeum Gdańska, “Wartownia nr 1 na Westerplatte”; Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk, “Historia półwyspu Westerplatte”; Polish History Museum, “The defence of Westerplatte”. ↩
- Polish History Museum, “The defence of Westerplatte”; Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk, “Historia półwyspu Westerplatte”; Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, “Westerplatte”; Muzeum Gdańska, “Wartownia nr 1 na Westerplatte”. ↩
- National Park Service, “The Battle of the Little Bighorn”. ↩
- National Park Service, “The Battle of the Little Bighorn”; National Park Service, “A Chronology of the Battle of the Little Bighorn”; National Park Service, “Then + Now”; National Park Service, “Fighting for the Black Hills”; National Park Service, “Indian Memorial”. ↩
- Kotobank, “西南戦争 (Seinan War)”; William Elliot Griffis, “The Mikado's Empire”; Augustus H. Mounsey, “The Satsuma Rebellion”; National Diet Library of Japan, “Satsuma Rebellion”. ↩
- Augustus H. Mounsey, “The Satsuma Rebellion”; William Elliot Griffis, “The Mikado's Empire”; National Diet Library of Japan, “Satsuma Rebellion”; Kotobank, “西南戦争 (Seinan War)”. ↩
- The Tribune, “The Battle of Saragarhi (1897): A saga of valour”; H. L. Nevill, “Campaigns on the North-West Frontier”; Forces News, “Battle of Saragarhi”. ↩
- H. L. Nevill, “Campaigns on the North-West Frontier”; The Tribune, “The Battle of Saragarhi (1897): A saga of valour”; National Army Museum, “Miniature memorial obelisk commemorating the Battle of Saragarhi”; City of Wolverhampton Council, “Historic new memorial to Sikh soldiers officially unveiled in Wolverhampton”. ↩
- Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, “Sacco di Roma”; Vatican News, “Schweizer Garde”. ↩
- Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, “Päpstliche Schweizergarde”; Vatican News, “Schweizer Garde”; Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, “Sacco di Roma”. ↩
- Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, “Päpstliche Schweizergarde”; America Magazine, “Swiss Guard to mark 500th anniversary of the Sack of Rome”. ↩
- Honvédelem.hu, “The Siege of Szigetvár, August-September 1566”; Hrvatska enciklopedija, “Siget”. ↩
- Hrvatska enciklopedija, “Siget”; Pál Fodor and Szabolcs Varga, “Miklós Zrínyi and Süleyman’s Death (PDF)”; Honvédelem.hu, “The Siege of Szigetvár, August-September 1566”. ↩
- Honvédelem.hu, “The Siege of Szigetvár, August-September 1566”; Hrvatska enciklopedija, “Siget”. ↩
- Fondation Napoléon, “Document”. ↩
- Ministère des Armées, order of the day no. 46 for Camerone, 30 April 2024; Élysée, “Cérémonie de Camerone à Aubagne”; Fondation Napoléon, “Document”. ↩
- Ministère des Armées, order of the day no. 46 for Camerone, 30 April 2024; Élysée, “Cérémonie de Camerone à Aubagne”. ↩
- Sima Qian, “Les mémoires historiques de Se-ma-Ts’ien, tome II”; Kotobank, “垓下の戦い (Battle of Gaixia)”. ↩
- Sima Qian, “Les mémoires historiques de Se-ma-Ts’ien, tome II”; Kotobank, “劉邦 (Liu Bang)”. ↩
- The China Project, “Film Friday”. ↩
- Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, “Lest We Forgot”. ↩
- Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, “Lest We Forgot”; Office of Rajnath Singh, “Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh dedicates to the Nation renovated Rezang La Memorial at Chushul in Ladakh”; Broadsword, “Renovated Rezang La memorial honours gallant Indian defenders in 1962 war”. ↩
- Office of Rajnath Singh, “Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh dedicates to the Nation renovated Rezang La Memorial at Chushul in Ladakh”. ↩
- Flavius Josephus, “The Wars of the Jews”; Jewish Virtual Library, “Masada”. ↩
- Flavius Josephus, “The Wars of the Jews”; Jewish Virtual Library, “Masada”. ↩
- Jewish Virtual Library, “Masada”. ↩
- Brest Hero-Fortress Memorial Complex, “Hall 2. «Battle»”; Brest Hero-Fortress Memorial Complex, “О Брестской крепости”; Pen & Sword Books, “Rostislav Aliev”. ↩
- Brest Hero-Fortress Memorial Complex, “Hall 2. «Battle»”; Brest Hero-Fortress Memorial Complex, “О Брестской крепости”; Pen & Sword Books, “Rostislav Aliev”; Roger Moorhouse, “The Fortress at Brest”; Osteuropa 12/2010, “Heroism, Tragedy, Courage”. ↩
- Brest Hero-Fortress Memorial Complex, “О Брестской крепости”. ↩
- Institute of National Remembrance, “98th Anniversary of the Battle of Zadwórze”; Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, “101. rocznica bitwy pod Zadwórzem, 21 sierpnia 2021”; Szymon Nowak, “Bohaterowie spod Zadwórza”. ↩
- Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, “101. rocznica bitwy pod Zadwórzem, 21 sierpnia 2021”; Szymon Nowak, “Bohaterowie spod Zadwórza”; Institute of National Remembrance, “98th Anniversary of the Battle of Zadwórze”. ↩
- Institute of National Remembrance, “98th Anniversary of the Battle of Zadwórze”; Szymon Nowak, “Bohaterowie spod Zadwórza”; Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, “Jadwiga Zarugiewicz (1879-1968)”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Defence of Rorke's Drift”. ↩
- Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, “Obrona Wizny”; Border Guard Museum, “Władysław Raginis”. ↩
- Einhard, “Einhard”; Cours de Civilisation Française de la Sorbonne, “The Song of Roland”. ↩
- Museum of King Jan III's Palace at Wilanów, “Jaka husaria walczyła pod Hodowem w 1694 r.?”. ↩
- The National WWII Museum, “The Battle of Wake Island”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “First Afghan War”. ↩
- Collins English Dictionary, “someone's last stand”; Oxford Learner's Dictionaries, “stand”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Defence of Rorke's Drift”; Polish History Museum, “The defence of Westerplatte”; Szymon Nowak, “Bohaterowie spod Zadwórza”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Defence of Rorke's Drift”. ↩
- Polish History Museum, “The defence of Westerplatte”; Muzeum Gdańska, “Wartownia nr 1 na Westerplatte”; Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk, “Historia półwyspu Westerplatte”. ↩
- Herodotus, “Herodotus on Thermopylae”; Szymon Nowak, “Bohaterowie spod Zadwórza”. ↩
- Stephen L. Hardin, “Alamo, Battle of the”. ↩
- The Alamo, “Myths and Legends”; Margaret S. Henson, “Dickinson, Susanna Wilkerson”. ↩
- Margaret S. Henson, “Dickinson, Susanna Wilkerson”; Nolan Thompson, “Joe”; The Alamo, “Myths and Legends”. ↩
- Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, “Obrona Wizny”; Border Guard Museum, “Władysław Raginis”; Szymon Nowak, “Bohaterowie spod Zadwórza”. ↩
- Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, “101. rocznica bitwy pod Zadwórzem, 21 sierpnia 2021”; Szymon Nowak, “Bohaterowie spod Zadwórza”. ↩
- Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, “Obrona Wizny”; Border Guard Museum, “Władysław Raginis”; Border Guard Museum, “Poszukiwania i ekshumacja szczątków kpt. Władysława Raginisa 2010-2011 r.”; Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, “Uroczystość pogrzebowa kpt. Władysława Raginisa i por. Stanisława Brykalskiego, bohaterów spod Wizny, 10 września 2011”. ↩
Sources
- Livius.org (Jona Lendering), “Thermopylae (480 BCE)”
- Herodotus, Histories 7.202 to 7.223, trans. G. C. Macaulay, Livius.org, “Herodotus on Thermopylae”
- Visit Greece (Greek National Tourism Organisation), “Thermopyles”
- The Alamo (official site), “Battle and Revolution”
- Stephen L. Hardin, “Alamo, Battle of the”, Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Association
- Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Association, “San Jacinto, Battle of”
- The Alamo (official site), “Myths and Legends”
- National Army Museum, “Defence of Rorke's Drift”
- Military History Matters 124 (Chris Peers), on The Past, “Rorke’s Drift: why did the Zulus lose?”
- Muzeum Gdańska, “Wartownia nr 1 na Westerplatte” (in Polish)
- Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk, “Historia półwyspu Westerplatte” (in Polish)
- Polish History Museum, polishhistory.pl (Daniel Czerwiński, IPN), “The defence of Westerplatte: the first battle of the Second World War”
- Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, “Westerplatte: symbol prawdy i odpowiedzialności” (in Polish)
- National Park Service, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, “The Battle of the Little Bighorn”
- National Park Service, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, “A Chronology of the Battle of the Little Bighorn”
- National Park Service, Battlefields, “Then + Now: Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument”
- National Park Service, “Fighting for the Black Hills: Understanding Indigenous Perspectives on the Great Sioux War of 1876-1877”
- National Park Service, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, “Indian Memorial”
- Kotobank (entries from Nipponica, Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, Yamakawa and other Japanese reference works), “西南戦争 (Seinan War)” (in Japanese)
- William Elliot Griffis, “The Mikado's Empire”, 5th ed. (New York: Harper & Brothers, copyright 1886), pp. 585-586
- Augustus H. Mounsey, “The Satsuma Rebellion: An Episode of Modern Japanese History” (London: John Murray, 1879), pp. 208-220
- National Diet Library of Japan, Modern Japan in archives, “Satsuma Rebellion”
- The Tribune (Ravneet Kaur), “The Battle of Saragarhi (1897): A saga of valour”
- H. L. Nevill, Campaigns on the North-West Frontier (London: John Murray, 1912), pp. 267 to 270, Internet Archive, “Campaigns on the North-West Frontier”
- Forces News (BFBS), “Battle of Saragarhi: remembering a proud last stand”
- National Army Museum, Online Collection, “Miniature memorial obelisk commemorating the Battle of Saragarhi”
- City of Wolverhampton Council, “Historic new memorial to Sikh soldiers officially unveiled in Wolverhampton”
- Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (Urban Fink), “Sacco di Roma” (in Italian)
- Vatican News, “Schweizer Garde: Vereidigung erneut unter Pandemie-Bedingungen” (in German)
- Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (Roland Beck-von Büren), “Päpstliche Schweizergarde” (in German)
- America Magazine (Vatican News), “Swiss Guard to mark 500th anniversary of the Sack of Rome”
- Honvédelem.hu (Hungarian Ministry of Defence portal), from For the Homeland Unto Death: 1100 years, “The Siege of Szigetvár, August-September 1566”
- Hrvatska enciklopedija (Leksikografski zavod Miroslav Krleža), “Siget” (in Croatian)
- Pál Fodor and Szabolcs Varga, “Miklós Zrínyi and Süleyman’s Death”, Történelmi Szemle 2016/2, English summary, Institute of History, Research Centre for the Humanities, “Miklós Zrínyi and Süleyman’s Death (PDF)”
- Fondation Napoléon, napoleon.org (account by Louis Noir, 1867), “Document : Récit de Camerone, 30 avril 1863 (Mexique)” (in French)
- Ministère des Armées, État-major des armées, order of the day no. 46 for Camerone, 30 April 2024 (PDF, in French)
- Élysée (Office of the President of France), “Cérémonie de Camerone à Aubagne” (in French)
- Sima Qian, Shiji, chapters 7 and 8, trans. Édouard Chavannes, Les mémoires historiques de Se-ma Ts’ien, vol. 2 (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1897), pp. 316-320 and 381, Internet Archive, “Les mémoires historiques de Se-ma-Ts’ien, tome II” (in French)
- Kotobank (entries from Nipponica, Yamakawa and Ōbunsha reference works), “垓下の戦い (Battle of Gaixia)” (in Japanese)
- Kotobank (entries from Nipponica, by Kageyama Tsuyoshi, and other Japanese reference works), “劉邦 (Liu Bang)” (in Japanese)
- The China Project (David Seamans), “Film Friday: Xiang Yu, the tragic Chinese hero”
- Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (Ramesh Phadke), “Lest We Forgot: The Battle of Rezang La”
- Office of Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister of India, “Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh dedicates to the Nation renovated Rezang La Memorial at Chushul in Ladakh”
- Broadsword (Ajai Shukla), “Renovated Rezang La memorial honours gallant Indian defenders in 1962 war”
- Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, book 7, chapters 8 and 9, trans. William Whiston, Project Gutenberg, “The Wars of the Jews”
- Jewish Virtual Library, “Masada”
- Brest Hero-Fortress Memorial Complex, “Hall 2. «Battle»”
- Brest Hero-Fortress Memorial Complex, “О Брестской крепости” (in Russian)
- Pen & Sword Books, author page for Rostislav Aliev, The Siege of Brest 1941, “Rostislav Aliev”
- Roger Moorhouse, “The Fortress at Brest: a story of heroism, sacrifice and unreconstructed Soviet historiography”
- Osteuropa 12/2010 (Alena Paškovič and Christian Ganzer), “Heroism, Tragedy, Courage: The Museum for the Defence of the Brest Fortress” (abstract)
- Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), “98th Anniversary of the Battle of Zadwórze: celebrations in honor of the heroes”
- Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, “101. rocznica bitwy pod Zadwórzem, 21 sierpnia 2021” (in Polish)
- Szymon Nowak, “Bohaterowie spod Zadwórza” (Warsaw: Institute of National Remembrance, 2020), pp. 6, 28-29, 32-33 (in Polish)
- Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, “Jadwiga Zarugiewicz (1879-1968)” (in Polish)
- Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, Przystanek Historia (Paweł Sztama), “Obrona Wizny” (in Polish)
- Border Guard Museum, Muzeum Polskich Formacji Granicznych (Miłosz Filipowiak), “Władysław Raginis” (in Polish)
- Einhard, Life of Charlemagne, ch. 9, trans. S. E. Turner, Internet Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University, “Einhard: The Life of Charlemagne”
- Cours de Civilisation Française de la Sorbonne, “The Song of Roland: the epic that founded French literature”
- Museum of King Jan III's Palace at Wilanów (Zbigniew Hundert), “Jaka husaria walczyła pod Hodowem w 1694 r.?” (in Polish)
- The National WWII Museum (Gregory J. W. Urwin), “The Battle of Wake Island: Nation's Morale Lifted in 1941”
- National Army Museum, “First Afghan War”
- Collins English Dictionary, “someone's last stand”
- Oxford Learner's Dictionaries, “stand” (noun)
- Margaret S. Henson, “Dickinson, Susanna Wilkerson”, Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Association
- Nolan Thompson, “Joe”, Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Association
- Border Guard Museum, Muzeum Polskich Formacji Granicznych (Miłosz Filipowiak), “Poszukiwania i ekshumacja szczątków kpt. Władysława Raginisa 2010-2011 r.” (in Polish)
- Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, “Uroczystość pogrzebowa kpt. Władysława Raginisa i por. Stanisława Brykalskiego, bohaterów spod Wizny, 10 września 2011” (in Polish)
