what is the greatest underdog victory of the 20th century in your opinion?

Question

in my opinion, its the battle of longewala
it was fought between indian and pakistani forces in the 1971 war
basically about 5000 pakistanis supported by about a hundred tanks attempted to overrun a small outpost manned by an odd company of about 120 soldiers....
by the next morning though only three of the indians had died while the pakistanis had suffered heavy casualties
then by dawn the air force was able to come and destroyed about sixty tanks, resulting in the largest tank loss to any country (pakistan) after world war two...
oh yah and by the way it was an indian victory
oh well thats my opinion time to hear yours

Answer 1

I would say Bastonge during the Battle of the Bulge of WWII myself. With the 101st Airborne Division holding out against the Germans being completely cutoff from Allied forces. Making due with what they could carry in literally and taking from the guys running in the opposite direction with the German Army on their heels.

Answer 2

I can't argue with any of the prior answers. It is always heartening when outnumbered forces prevail by virtue of grit and determination. But in terms of the strategic importance of the victory, I would have to go with the RAF's defeat of the German air force during the Battle of Britain. Germany had by then conquered all of Europe. It therefore had all of Europe as an asset. The RAF, by any rational criteria, should have lost, and the U.K. would have been defeated. Consider the problems of WWII if the allies did not have the British Isles as a staging area for the rest of the war. I believe we still would have ultimately won, but it would have been a much longer and bloodier mess. I do not mean to diminish the heroism of other "underdogs", but I think this was the greatest in that it was the most important strategically.

Answer 3

Something tells me you are Indian... and this does seem to be an impressive battle. The Vietnamese forcing the US out of Vietnam is another. A third world country fighting a guerrilla war that frustrated and eventually caused the US to leave the war is quite impressive.

Other lopsided clashes might include the Russians defeating Paulus and the German 6th Army in Stalingrad, the RAF driving Nazi planes from the sky in the Battle of Brittian and the Japanese defeat of a huge British force in Singapore.

Answer 4

Two of them..first the destruction of the apartheid system in south Africa by Nelson Mandela..2nd..The battle of 'Long Tan' in which C company 6th battalion RAR..{Australia} was attacked by the North Vietnamese 355th regiment and the 3rd battalion the 33rd regiment NVR special forces!..120 soldiers facing almost 6000 enemy troops!..{i know, i was there!}..The battle started in a raging thunderstorm, in a rubber plantation and went on for about 4 hours, finally the armour arrived and put an end to it and the NVR retreated!..We lost 19 KIA, and about 20 wounded!..They lost {on body count} 285 men, but years after we learned there casualty's were more than a thousand!..Few Americans know Australia was even in Viet Nam!..Or Korea, or both Iraq wars from the very beginning!..But were used to that now!

Answer 5

The 3rd Battle of Kharkov, Mar 11-14, 1943, Germans defeated a Soviet force 7 times their size.

The II SS Panzer Korps, equipped with heavy Tiger tanks, played a significant role. It was comprised of the LAH and Das Reich divisions, (the so-called classic SS divisions).

Under the command of Paul Hausser, it checked the Soviet advance on Kharkov, but, threatened with encirclement, Hausser withdrew against explicit orders from Hitler. The act so infuriated Hitler, he refused to award Hausser Knights Cross with Oak Leaves after the battle.

Answer 6

I'm not up on Land battles involving Soldiers but from a Naval perspective I would have to say the Battle off Samar Island in the Phillipines.

Task Force Taffy 3 was caught by surprise by the bulk of the Japanese Imperial Fleet. Taffy 3 was a small group of cheap built Pocket Carriers that were protected by 3 destroyers and 4 pocket destroyers. Early one morning they were shocked to see the pagoda masts of the IJN main fleet coming over the horizon. 4 Monstrous Battleships, including the largest battleship ever built (The Yamato), 2 Heavy Cruisers and 6 Light Cruisers, and 11 Destroyers. This was the Center Force under the command of Admiral Kurita. They passed under cover of darkness through the San Bernadino strait and now was poised to destroy the ships assisting the Leyte Gulf Philipine invasion of General MacArthur.
while 3 of the escort destroyers and all of the escort carriers fled east then south into rain squalls making cover smoke and screaming for help from Taffy's 1 & 2, The three Destroyers and one destroyer escort charged straight into the Japanese fleet firing their guns and torpedoes. The combined power of all 4 attacking US ships were outmatched by just the secondary armament of just one of the Japanese ships. By all rights Taffy 3 should have been whiped off the face of the planet. By that afternoon. many of Kurita's Cruisers were sunk and the rest heavily damaged and fleeing North. All 4 US Ships were sunk, and one of the escort carriers, but they gave far more than they recieved. All 4 Ships and their commanders and many of the ships crew are memorialised today still with modern ships named after them.

Their plight and battle are remembered in a book called "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors"

Answer 7

Finland versus Russia during the Wnter War of 1940.

Answer 8

The great raid on the POW Camp Batan. May how spelled that wrong. Even if it was the Army.

Answer 9

should be the television, on a extreme function point, it could communicate seen messages to all of us around the international, and on yet another point, it is going to be the only ingredient that has entertained each houselhold for actually hundreds of hours each twelve months

Answer 10

NO doubt about it............it has to be:

The 1969 Mets!!

They were the ULTIMATE underdogs! They went from being a laughingstock to beating the Baltimore Orioles in the 1969 World Series to become world champions!

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