This Being the Last Month of the Year

The thought that it’s the last month of the year had me imagine other last somethings; last stands, last words, last whatever, which are as interesting as the month’s holiday air.

Surely, last stands are fascinating in that they show man’s courage and nobility in the face of unimaginable odds.

The earliest known last stand goes back to antiquity. In 480 BC, three hundred Spartans and other Greek allies led by King Leonidas battled for three days against thousands of Persians led by Xerxes. The Battle of Thermopylae is the story of the recent movie 300.

Almost a century later, in 326 BC, Alexander the Great led his Macedonian army twice the size of the army of Indian defenders in the Battle of the Hydaspes River. His army suffered thousands of casualties, and though he won the battle, he was impressed by the last stand and thus spared the life of Porus, the Indian army’s leader.

The Siege of Masada in AD 73, while not exactly a battle, remains famous as a unique last stand. A thousand Jews chose to commit mass suicide rather than surrender to the Roman army.

And there were those 71 men, led by Mohammed’s grandson Husayn ibn Ali, who fought the Umayyad caliph’s force of thousands.  In the Battle of Karbala, Husayn and his warriors all died to the last man.

Constantine XI died in battle in the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, marking the end of the Byzantine Empire. Seven thousand Greek and Latin allies battled 200 thousand Ottoman Turks led by Mehmet II.  Constantinople is today’s Istanbul, Turkey.

The Battle of Myeongyang in 1597 had 13 Korean battleships arrayed against 333 of the Japanese fleet.

The Alamo was a garrison during the Texas Revolution of 1836. Lawyer William Travis led 185 volunteers in its defense against two thousand Mexicans. They held on for 12 days, and were all killed by the 13th day.  This last stand was immortalized in an old movie of the same title (theme song: Green Leaves of Summer), starring John Wayne.

Our country has three famous last stands.  The Siege of Baler of 1898-1899 had 50 Spanish soldiers on the defense for a year, surrounded by hundreds of Filipinos, not knowing that the war was over.  The Battle of Tirad Pass in 1899 during the Philippine-American War had 60 Filipino soldiers led by Gen. Gregorio del Pilar defend the retreat of President Emilio Aguinaldo.

World War II’s Pacific theater saw the Battle of Corregidor in 1942 with less than 11 thousand Filipino and American soldiers fighting 75 thousand Japanese troops.

At the European theater of the same war, some 12 thousand US paratroops battled it out in the Siege of Bastogne against 15 divisions of the German army. By December 22, they were completely surrounded.  Four days later Gen. George Patton and his US Third Army Division saved them.

Germany has its famous last stand in the Battle for Berlin in 1945.  Over 700 thousand German soldiers fought it out with more than two million Soviet forces.

So did the Japanese hold their last stand in the Battle of Iwo Jima.  Some 22 thousand Japanese soldiers fought more than a hundred thousand American troops.

The First Indochina War had the French take the last stand in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu of 1954.  Almost 11 thousand colonial French forces faced 63 thousand Viet Minh revolutionary forces in the final battle.

In the 1966 Battle of Long Tan, 108 Australian fighters were at odds against two thousand North Vietnamese soldiers, or Viet Congs.

One of the last major battles during the American war in Vietnam was the Battle of Xuan Loc in 1975.  Six thousand American soldiers faced some 40 thousand Viet Congs.

The 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, immortalized on the silver screen with Black Hawk Down, had 160 UN and US rangers faced off in hostile territory against two thousand militias.

A last stand is far from a cheerful last hurrah, though it could be its macabre approximation.   It’s the last defense of warriors whose option is to go down fighting rather than surrendering.

‘Leave to your enemies a bloody and mournful victory,’ Catiline had declared.  His own last stand was in 62 BC.

‘Nuts,’ came the famous one-word reply of Anthony McAuliffe when asked to surrender by the German commander during 1942’s Siege of Bascogne.

(16 Dec 2007)