Against All Odds! : Dramatic Last Stand Actions

by Bryan Perrett

• ISBN13: 9780304354566
• ISBN10: 0304354562
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-08-01
• Publisher: Octopus Pub Group

Summary

What fierce motivation drives warriors to commit themselves to a last stand against a more powerful and better-armed enemy? The reasons are countless: anger, fear, brotherhood, personal glory, and survival. These 13 examples of persistence against incredible odds come from two centuries worth of combat in Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America. Follow glorious battles from Napoleon and Wellington at Hougoumont to the bloody Civil War battle at Antietam to Pork Chop Hill in Korea.

Table of Contents

Introduction	6	(9)
The Defence of Hougoumont	9	(17)
`An Old Dilapidated Ruined Fort' -- Jellalabad, 1841--41	26	(18)
The Bloodiest Day: Antietam (Sharpsburg), 17 September 1862	44	(15)
Captain Fetterman's Disobedience	59	(15)
Stricken Field: Maiwand, 27 July 1880	74	(23)
The Place of Stones: Mafeking, October 1899 -- May 1900	97	(23)
Boxers and Bannermen: The Siege of the Peking Legations, June -- August 1900	120	(18)
The Lost Battalion: The Argonne Forest, 2--7 October 1918	138	(8)
A Fondness for the Bayonet: 2nd Hampshires at Tebourba Tunisia, 30 November -- 3 December 1942	146	(17)
The Defence of Kohima, 6--18 April 1944	163	(18)
Hinge of Victory: The Defence of Mortain, 7--12 August 1944	181	(16)
Bloodbath on Sulphur Island: Iwo Jima, February -- March 1945	197	(10)
Pork Chop Hill: Korea, 16--18 April 1953	207	(10)
Bibliography	217	(2)
Index	219