Battle of Camaron
The French Foreign Legion has a reputation for fierce combat and peerless bravery, and they proved that on April 30th, 1863, in the midst of the Second French Intervention in Mexico, an ongoing conflict involving European nations attempting to force Mexico to pay back debts owed to them. A small infantry patrol, led by Captain Jean Danjou was attacked and besieged by a force that eventually reached 3,000 infantry and cavalry. They numbered just 65 men.
Caught during a patrol by a numerically superior cavalry company, Captain Jean Danjou was forced to retreat his men to a nearby defensible hacienda. Realizing the desperation of the situation, Danjou forced his men to take an oath to fight to the death rather than surrender. He made them swear fealty on his wooden, prosthetic hand. The men fought for hours, winnowing their forces down as waves of Mexican infantry assaulted the house. Over the course of the battle, Danjou and most of his officers were killed. Out of food, water, and eventually ammunition, the last of Danjou’s men, numbering only five, mounted a bayonet charge. At the end of the fight, only nineteen men were left alive, seventeen of whom were severely wounded and later died.
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Defense of Polish Post Office
World War II History is filled to the brim with desperate last stands, as future entries on this list will show. However, this first one is special due to the fact that it was one of the first in the entirety of the war. On September 1st, 1939, the first day of World War 2 in Europe, Polish Postmen defended their Post Office Building in the border city of Danzig for 15 hours against assaults by SS Units stationed in the city, alongside Danzig police and Brown Shirts from the Nazi Party.
At four in the morning the Germans cut the phone and electricity lines to the building. They launched several assaults upon the beleaguered defenders, each of which was repulsed with heavy casualties, one of which ended with a Polish officer blowing himself up with a grenade to stop them. Later in the day artillery was brought up, but even with this support their attacks were repulsed. They set up a bomb beneath the building and blew a wall, but the stubborn Poles simply retreated to the basement and refused to surrender. After gasoline was poured into the breach and set alight, the remaining few surrendered. Those that did were executed as partisans, except for four who managed to escape from the building and weren’t captured.
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The Stand of the Swiss Guard
The Swiss Guard today are known for their colorful outfits and patrols through the Vatican, where they serve as the Pope’s personal bodyguard. However, in the Middle Ages, they served a far more practical purpose: warring on the Holy See’s behalf. When Rome was Sacked by the Holy Roman Emperor, as part of his ongoing dispute with Pope Clement for meddling in Italian politics, the Swiss Guard were the ones tasked with holding back the overwhelming forces facing them. What followed was their most celebrated moment: the Stand of the Swiss Guard.
Joined by remnants of the Roman garrison, the Swiss made their stand in the Teutonic Cemetery within the Vatican. The Guard’s commander, Captain Röist was wounded early in the fighting, and later sought refuge in his house, where he was killed by Spanish soldiers in front of his wife. The Swiss fought bitterly, but were immensely outnumbered and almost annihilated. Some survivors, accompanied by a band of refugees, fell back to the Basilica steps. Those who went toward the Basilica were massacred, and only about forty survived. This group of forty managed to stave off the Holy Roman Emperor’s troops pursuing the Pope’s entourage as it fled, buying time for His Holiness to escape unharmed.
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Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Of all the nations in World War II, none suffered anywhere near as much within their borders as the Poles did. It should not be surprising then, that yet another famous last stand on this list should come from the same region of the world. By 1943, the Final Solution had become such common knowledge on the streets of Warsaw that the Jews living within the city’s ghetto were under no illusions as to what their fate would be should they peacefully go along with the Germans when the weekly raids occurred. So instead, they armed themselves, and revolted.
In January of 1943, the Germans entered the ghetto. Knowing that this sweep would send thousands more to the concentration camps, the people revolted. The resulting fight would last until May, as the under equipped and desperate defenders fought house to house against overwhelming superiority, artillery and tank support. They were eventually wiped out after inflicting heavy losses on the Germans, but their heroic sacrifice inspired dozens of other uprisings within Poland, as well as breakouts from the concentration camps.
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Battle of Shiroyama
Japan has a rich history of heroic sacrifice in the face of overwhelming odds. The Battle of Shiroyama is so famous in fact, that it inspired the (somewhat true) events made famous by the Tom Cruise movie The Last Samurai. By 1877, the old Samurai Shogunate was dying. Modernity had arrived to Japan, and the old way of the sword was being replaced with machine guns and field artillery. Not content to sit idly by and watch his way of life die, Saigō Takamori led what would become known as the Satsuma Rebellion, in a last ditch effort to prevent the end of the Samurai.
At the end of the war, Saigō was left with less than 500 loyal followers, having been beaten and outmaneuvered by modernized Armies loyal to the Emperor. They took a position atop the hill of Shiroyama as over 30,000 Imperial troops, armed with machine guns and repeating rifles surrounded them. Saigō defended his position with limited musket support and a few pieces of outdated artillery, melting down metal statues to produce bullets and tending to injuries with a carpenter’s saw. After a heavy artillery barrage lasting the night, the Imperial forces attacked. The Samurai counter-charged, engaging the conscripts in hand to hand combat with superior sword fighting skills. Saigō was mortally wounded, carried to a place by subordinates and committed seppuku. After his death, what few men remained drew their swords and plunched downhill toward the Imperial positions, and to their deaths.
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Battle of Samar
Not every ‘last stand’ on this list took place on firm ground. The Battle of Samar was a part of WWII in the Pacific theater. It was part of a larger action called the “Battle of Leyte Gulf,” one of the largest naval battles in history, which took place in the Philippine Sea off of Samar Island. The American 3rd fleet was lured after a Decoy fleet, leaving only an escort carrier group of the 7th fleet (Known as “Taffy 3”) to guard the coastline. A Japanese surface force of battleships and cruisers that they had no idea was there arrived, prompting one of the biggest naval mismatches in the entirety of the war.
Taffy 3’s three destroyers and four destroyer escorts had neither the firepower nor the armor to effectively engage the 23 ships of the Japanese force, but nevertheless desperately attacked to cover the retreat of their slow aircraft carriers. Aircraft from the carriers strafed, bombed, rocketed, depth-charged, and even fired a handgun from the cockpit of one fighter at the Japanese force, even resorting to what is known as “dry” runs: attacks utilizing no ammunition, once they had run out. Taffy 3 lost two escort carriers, two destroyers, a destroyer escort and several aircraft. In exchange for these heavy losses, they sank three Japanese cruisers and caused enough confusion for the Japanese to retreat, sparing the carriers and ground transports that were sitting helpless in the harbor.
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Battle of Rourke’s Drift
Here is another famous last stand that has a movie based off of it: The Battle of Rourke’s Drift, immortalized by the 1964 movie Zulu. By 1879, tensions between the British Colony of South Africa and the Zulu Kingdom, one of the last, greatest African nations not yet colonized by the Imperialist powers, erupted into the Anglo-Zulu War. The battle’s prelude came after Lt. General Lord Chelmsford led his men into the worst defeat ever of a modernized Western Army by a technologically inferior native force. Having wiped out Lord Chelmsford’s forces, the victorious Zulu’s moved to the former trading post of Rourke’s Drift.
There were less than 150 British and Colonial troops, squaring off against around 4,000 Zulu warriors. Surrounded, cut off from both communication and supply, and facing overwhelming enemy numbers, the men were forced to utilize wounded and sick men to man the barricades, as they set up a nasty line of fortifications to delay and funnel the enemy into killing zones. The buildings they held were fortified, with firing holes knocked through the external walls and doors barricaded with furniture. For half a day and the entire evening of January 22nd, 1879, the men held off against overwhelming forces, ultimately driving off the superior force after taking heavy casualties.
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Battle of Roncevaux Pass
Last Stands were not unique to the modern era. In fact, they have inspired art and poetry for countless centuries, from the last stand of the 300 to the Alamo. However, one story lives on thousands of years after the event, immortalized by the epic poem The Song of Roland. The Battle of Roncevaux Pass occurred in 778 between Frankish armies under Charlemagne and a force of Basque ambushers, at the top of Roncevaux Pass, a high mountain pass in the Pyrenees on the present day border of France and Spain.
In the evening of August 15, 778, Charlemagne’s rearguard was suddenly attacked by the Basques as they crossed the mountain pass. The Franks were caught off guard by the surprise attack, with their army in confusion and disarray as they tried to escape the ambush.The Basques managed to cut off and isolate the rearguard and the baggage train from the rest of the escaping army, and although the Basques were not as well equipped, they held the upper ground and the knowledge of the terrain that gave them a huge advantage in the skirmish. As Charlemagne tried to regroup and evacuate his army, the now-famed paladin Roland and his men held for a considerable amount of time, before the Basques finally massacred them completely. Though killed to the last man, the rearguard nonetheless succeeded in allowing Charlemagne and his army to continue to safety.
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Pavlov’s House
Stalingrad is rightly remembered as one of the largest battles in human history. It took the lives of countless men, and photos of its wrecked city streets serve as a testament to the intensity and desperation of the fighting that went on there for months. “Pavlov’s House,” named after Sergeant Yakov Pavlov whose platoon seized and then defended the building, was the site of one of the most courageous last stands of the battle.
The house was a four-story building in the center of Stalingrad, built in a strategically ideal position to overlook both the Volga river and the large square in the central part of town. As such it was essential for both sides to take as an ideal sniping nest/defensive position. Pavlov and about 25 of his men held the building against increasingly intense German attack for over 60 days, living, sleeping and fighting within the ruined building, because leaving the building meant certain death by sniper fire. Lacking beds, the soldiers tried to sleep on insulation wool torn off pipes. The Germans attacked the building several times a day. Each time German infantry or tanks tried to cross the square and to close in on the house, Pavlov’s men laid down a withering barrage of machine gun and anti-tank rifle fire from the basement, the windows and the roof. Eventually, the defenders – as well as civilians who were still living in the basement all that time – were relieved by Soviet forces after enduring a brutal siege that lasted from the 27th of September to the 25th of November, 1942.
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Retreat from Kabul
The Zulu War was not the first time the British Army had found itself stranded, alone with no hope of survival in the midst of a last stand. During the First Anglo-Afghan War, a similar event led to a decidedly less happy conclusion than that of Rourke’s Drift: the Retreat from Kabul, Afghanistan. An uprising in the aforementioned city led General Sir William Elphinstone to peacefully withdraw the garrison after making an agreement with the local leaders. On January 6th, 1842 a force of around 4,500 soldiers set out alongside a huge contingent of civilians for the British garrison of Jalalabad, more than 90 miles away.
Soon after leaving Kabul, it came under attack from Afghan tribesmen. Many of the column died of exposure, frostbite or starvation or were killed during the fighting. The Afghans launched numerous attacks against the column as it made slow progress through the winter snows. In total the British army lost 4,500 troops, along with about 12,000 civilians: the latter comprising both the families of Indian and British soldiers, plus workmen, servants and other camp-followers. The final stand was made just outside a village called Gandamakon on the 13th of January. Out of more than 16,000 people from the column commanded by Elphinstone, only one European and a few Indian sepoys reached Jalalabad.
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Fall of Constantinople
No city in the Middle Ages was more populous, rich or culturally vibrant than Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire (modern day Istanbul, Turkey.) However, this last stand came at the very end of the Byzantine Empire’s thousand year existence. Trapped, cut off and assaulted on all sides by the invading Muslim Ottoman forces, the Empire was enduring its final death throes. Not even the forty-foot high Theodosian walls could save them from this final, 53 day siege.
The army defending Constantinople was relatively small, totaling about 7,000 men, 2,000 of whom were foreigners. They were led by Constantine XI, the last descendant of a long line of Greek Emperors. By contrast, the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II had 80,000 men, as well as an enormous artillery corps, which battered the thick walls into submission over the course of the siege. Once the walls were breached, the Turks swarmed into the city. Constantine, who had been leading the defense of his beloved city, remarked: “The city is fallen and I am still alive.” He then tore off his imperial ornaments so as to let nothing distinguish him from his fellow soldier,s and led a final charge where he was killed. His body was never found.
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Siege of Szigetvár
Few last stands were more heroic and less well-known than the Siege of Szigetvár. It occurred over a century after the Fall of Constantinople, and involves the Ottomans once more as the attackers. In this case, it was between Croatian soldiers loyal to the Austrian Emperor, and the massive Ottoman Empire led by Suleiman the Magnificent. Szigetvár as a strategically vital fortress that blocked the Ottoman’s advance towards the Austrian capital of Vienna. Recognizing this, the ailing Ottoman Emperor put the town to a siege in August of 1566.
Facing off against an Ottoman force that numbered in the hundreds of thousands was a tiny, 2,300 man force of Croats led by Nikola Šubić Zrinski. Over the course of the battle, over 20,000 Turks lost their lives trying to seize first the outer walls, then the inner walls, and finally the citadel over the course of a grueling, month long campaign. As the Turks were pressing forwards along a narrow bridge to the citadel, the defenders suddenly flung open the gate and fired a large mortar loaded with broken iron, killing 600 attackers. Nikola then ordered a charge and led his remaining 600 troops out of the castle. He received two musket wounds in his chest and was killed shortly afterwards by an arrow to the head. After cutting down the last of the defenders the besiegers poured into the fortress. The Ottoman Army entered the remains of Szigetvár and fell into the booby trap; thousands perished in the blast when the castle’s magazine exploded.
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Battle of Cerro Corá
South America has a rich history of warfare and martial prowess, one often forgotten in the wake of our Eurocentric view of the world. This battle, the Battle of Cerro Corá, was fought at the end of the Paraguayan War, when Argentine, Brazil, and Uruguay allied to destroy Paraguay. The war was the deadliest conflict in South American history, resulting in the death of almost 70% of Paraguay’s adult male population. This battle was the final conflict in that war.
On March 1st, 1870, an Allied column of troops had learned that the President of Paraguay, Francisco Solano López, was in the vicinity of the town of Cerro Corá. They ambushed him and his personal guard, killing the Vice President and Secretary of State of Paraguay as they tried to flee. President López was surrounded by six cavalrymen, and after refusing to surrender by firing his revolver, a soldier thrust his lance into López’s abdomen, mortally wounding him. He was able to escape with the aid of a friend, but was unable to climb the rocky hill to freedom. Left alone, he was found by the Brazilians, but refused to surrender again, and was shot in the back.
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Wake Island
The Final World War II last stand on this list occurred in the Pacific Theater. At the onset of the American entry into World War II, the Japanese Navy had two major objectives with the surprise attack: destroy the Fleet Carriers sitting in Pearl Harbor (they failed, the carriers were out to sea on patrol that day) and the capture of Wake Island, a tiny refueling port and airport in the Pacific, roughly between the American-held Island of Guam and Hawaii.
On the morning of December 11th, 1941, the Garrison repelled the first Japanese landing attempt. The US. Marines fired at the invasion fleet with their six 5-inch coast-defense guns. They sank several ships and managed to maintain (temporary) air superiority with their 4 Wildcat fighter aircraft. The second landing attempt was supported by carriers returning from the attack on Pearl Harbor. On December 23rd, the Japanese attacked with overwhelming numbers. In the end, the US lost 49 Marines, and at least 70 US civilians. A massacre occurred later that killed most of the remaining prisoners. By contrast, the Japanese had failed to take the relatively-weak garrison for weeks, losing over 125 Japanese Marines in ground combat, as well as over 100 sailors from the sunken ships, as well as 28 aircraft that were shot down.
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Battle of Myeongnyang
There were more Last Stands involving the Japanese than one might think. The Battle of Myeongnyang may have been separated from the Battle of Wake Island by nearly 350 years, but in many ways the principle was the same. The Imjin War was a conflict between the Japanese Shogunate and the Korean Kingdom of Joseon. It was an invasion of Korea that lasted for decades, and was characterized by overwhelming Japanese superiority in both armies and fleets. At the time of the battle, Japan fielded anywhere from 120 to 330 ships, whereas the Koreans faced this mismatched number with just 13.
However, the Koreans had something the Japanese did not: Admiral Yi Sun-sin. Despite having no formal training, Admiral Yi is widely known today as one of the greatest naval tacticians in history. The Battle of Myeongnyang was his masterpiece. Yi lured the Japanese into a narrow strait with an unusual current pattern: they flowed at a very strong 10 knots, first in one direction, then in the opposite direction, in three hour intervals. Timing the battle perfectly, Admiral Yi was able to coordinate the shifting of the current to benefit his ships: first by forcing the Japanese to with the current, bogging down the fleet and trapping it in the narrow strait as the ships lost cohesion and bounced into each other. Then, when the current shifted once more, it gave his own heavily-armored and well-coordinated ships the current at their back, allowing them to smash headlong into the scattered units. They ended up ramming over 30 Japanese ships, sinking them and winning a stunning victory.
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The Hellish Battle of Hel
The German invasion in Poland can be seen in many ways as an entire nation’s ‘last stand’ against an overwhelming invader. One of the more notable of the countless last stands that the brave men and women of Poland engaged in was the Battle of Hel. There was a Polish military port in the city of Hel, and the Polish Military had been in control of the northern part of the peninsula since the 1920s. Approximately 2,800 soldiers were stationed in the area.
Starting from the very first day of the invasion, September 9th, 1939 to October 2nd, 1939, the outnumbered garrison was the target of Luftwaffe air attacks, Naval Shelling from the Baltic Sea, and a coordinated ground campaign that included hourly artillery barrages and an ever shrinking territory on the Hel Peninsula. By 14 September Polish forces on the Hel peninsula were cut off from the mainland. After initially being stalled by Polish defences, the Germans brought land artillery batteries and an armored train battery to support their barrage. Polish military engineers detonated a number of torpedo warheads in the narrowest part of the peninsula, and for a time separated the peninsula from the mainland, transforming it into an island. It took the better part of a month to overwhelm the garrison, which finally capitulated, the last pocket of Polish Army resistance to hold out against the German Wehrmacht.
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The Centurion Who Died for the sake of Duty
On January 10, 69 AD, the Roman Emperor Galba chose the wrong man to become his deputy and heir. Marcus Otho, a powerful man in Rome, expected to be appointed to this office, but instead Galba chose one Piso Licinanus. This unexpected choice led Otho to conspire to assassinate both of them and seize power. Five days later, on January 15th, Otho struck. Galba and Piso were being carried on litters through the street, when they were accosted by a large company of renegade Praetorian Guards in Otho’s employ. The Praetorians were supposed to be the personal bodyguard of the Emperor, but had long been an overtly political force in Rome. Of all the soldiers present, only Sempronius Densus stood firm, while his colleagues either joined in the murder or melted away.
According to Plutarch, Sempronius gave his life defending both Galba and Piso:
“No man resisted or offered to stand up in his defence, save one only, a centurion, Sempronius Densus, the single man among so many thousands that the sun beheld that day act worthily of the Roman Empire, who, though he had never received any favour from Galba, yet out of bravery and allegiance endeavoured to defend the litter. First, lifting up his switch of vine, with which the centurions correct the soldiers when disorderly, he called aloud to the aggressors, charging them not to touch their emperor. And when they came upon him hand-to-hand, he drew his sword, and made a defence for a long time, until at last he was cut under the knees and brought to the ground.”
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Natalya Kovshova, Sniper and Hero of the Motherland
The German invasion of Russia is filled with accounts of heroic men and women dying for the sake of the Motherland in a war of extermination. Natalya Kovshova grew up in the USSR just prior to the outbreak of WWII. Together with her friend, Mariya Polinava, they joined in the Great Patriotic War, forming a close bond as Sniper and spotter. They both fought from the very beginning: participating in the Battle of Moscow when their Rifle Regiment was sent to help defend the capital. During the battle, Kovshova proved to be an expert sniper, killing many German soldiers. She also dug numerous anti-tank emplacements, machine gun nests, and infantry trenches during the defence. She took the job of training new soldiers how to use the rifles. She also trained the best students to become snipers, teaching them marksmanship early; passing on her shooting skills.
Over a year later, On the 14th of August 1942, Kovshova’s regiment was engaged in heavy fighting near the village of Sutoki-Byakovo. Facing overwhelming German forces, supported by tanks and aircraft, the Soviet soldiers were killed one after another, until only Kovshova and Polivanova remained, both wounded. As being captured was not an option, Kovshova decided to pull the pin of her grenade, and wait to blow the German soldiers up when they reached the trench. When the Germans finally reached the trench, Kovshova detonated the grenades, killing herself, Polinava, and many German soldiers. She was posthumously awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union shortly after, in recognition of her sacrifice. It is estimated that Kovshova and Polivanova together killed over 300 German soldiers.
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Battle of Agincourt
By October 25th 1415, Henry V, King of England, was in dire straits. Following a near-disastrous campaign into France earlier in the Summer, Henry found himself with his back to the wall. After failing to siege some of the larger castles in the north of France, the wily King was all but trapped, bottled up in place by a numerically superior French army filled with heavy cavalry and the cream of the French nobility. By contrast, The English had very little food, had marched 260 miles (420 km) in two and a half weeks, were suffering from sickness such as dysentery, and faced much larger numbers of well-equipped French men at arms.
However, the Warrior King had chosen the site of his battlefield well. His army faced the French army directly: with two sets of woods on either side screening him and preventing the cavalry from getting around his sides. With little choice but a frontal assault, the French were forced to attack across muddy, swampy ground after a recent rain. The French cavalry, despite being somewhat disorganised and not at full numbers, charged towards the longbowmen, but it was a disaster, with the French knights unable to outflank the longbowmen (because of the encroaching woodland) and unable to charge through the forest of sharpened stakes that protected the archers. Two attacks followed, both repulsed in bloody fashion. Upon hearing that his youngest brother had been wounded in the groin, King Henry took his household guard and stood over his brother, in the front rank of the fighting, until he could be dragged to safety. The king received an axe blow to the head, which knocked off a piece of the crown that formed part of his helmet. However, total victory was achieved, and the King was able to extricate his army in one of the most famous battles of the Middle Ages.
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Thomas Baker fights to the end in Saipan
By 1944 Japan was losing in the Pacific, but it was far from defeated. The Battle of Saipan was fought during the “Island Hopping” campaign that eventually saw US Army landing on Okinawa just off the coast of the Japanese Home Islands. Thomas Baker was a US Army soldier in the midst of the invasion. During his time in the battle – June 19th to July 7th, 1944 – Thomas repeatedly proved his immense gallantry and bravery. When his entire company was held up by fire from automatic weapons and small-arms fire from strongly fortified enemy positions that commanded the view of the company, Sgt. (then Pvt.) Baker voluntarily took a bazooka and dashed alone to within 100 yards of the enemy. Through heavy rifle and machine gun fire that was directed at him, he knocked out the strong point, enabling his company to assault the ridge.
On 7th July 1944, the defensive perimeter of which Sgt. Baker was a part of was attacked from three sides by around 5,000 Japanese. During the early stages of this attack, Sgt. Baker was severely wounded, but insisted on remaining in the line and fired at the enemy at ranges sometimes as close as 5 yards until his ammunition ran out. Without ammunition and with his weapon battered to uselessness from hand-to-hand combat, he was carried about 50 yards to the rear by a comrade, who was then himself wounded. At this point Baker refused to be moved any further, stating that he preferred to be left to die rather than risk the lives of any more of his friends.At his request, he was placed in a sitting position against a small tree. Another comrade, withdrawing, offered assistance. Sgt. Baker refused, insisting that he be left alone and be given a soldier’s pistol with its remaining eight rounds of ammunition. When last seen alive, Sgt. Baker was propped against a tree, pistol in hand, calmly facing the foe. Later Sgt. Baker’s body was found in the same position, gun empty, with 8 Japanese lying dead before him.
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