12 Siege Defenders Who Beat The Odds

The Spartans did not build walls for their city.Lycurgus once noted a city is better protected with "brave men and not by bricks."What happens when those brave men leave for campaign?

By 272 BCE, Sparta was far past its prime; it no longer held land power in Greece. The shrinking city-state still had some fight left. The army campaigned in Crete, leaving few men in Sparta. This made Sparta look ripe for plunder.Pyrrhus of EpirusStill smarting from a costly expedition in Italy, Pyrrhus of Epirus decided to take advantage of the situation and led his army to the seemingly undefended city.

The Spartan womenrefused to evacuate and abandon the city.They helped the few remaining defenders. They dug a trench and supported the outnumbered troops. Over two days, Spartan warriors and allies held off Pyrrhus's forces. They forced him to retreat when Macedon forces arrived. The great general died soon after.

Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, faced a long, brutal siege lasting almost two and a half years. In the summer of 1941, Axis forces rapidly advanced into the Soviet Union during the initial success of Operation Barbarossa.Operation BarbarossaBy August 31, 1941, rail lines cut off Leningrad from supplies.

The city was completely surrounded bySeptember 1941The German army, supported by Italian and Finnish allies, chose to avoid costly urban fighting. They starved the unprepared city into submission. Adolf Hitler ordered all surrender offers ignored, committing to wiping Leningrad off the face of the Earth.

Artillery and bombing raids hit the city. Hunger killed more. Soviet efforts to supply the city continued, but never provided enough. Adults ate about half a pound of bread daily; children and the elderly got half that. Diets included things likeleather soup.

Some turned tocannibalismDuring the terrible "hungry winter" of 1941-1942, this happened at night. Spring brought some change. The Soviets evacuated about half a million civilians. Those left behind planted gardens and cleared rubble. Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 played on loudspeakers, defying the German besiegers.Symphony No. 7The symphony played on loudspeakers defied the besieging Germans.

A land corridor opened in 1943, ending the siege in January. Over 800,000 civilians died.

Malta proved a tough island for the Ottomans to take. The Ottomans wanted the island's strategic spot but never conquered it. By WWII, Malta was a British Crown colony stuck between Sicily and Italian lands in Libya. Winston Churchill noted that Malta, like Cyprus, acted like a giant, unsinkable aircraft carrier and a major problem for the Axis powers.

For nearly two and a half years, the Axis bombed Malta, trying to force a surrender so a German-Italian force could land. The Luftwaffe and Italian air force launched over 3,000 raids, making Malta one of the most bombed places in the war. However, they could not break Malta's defenses enough to allow a landing. A plan called "Operation Hercules" existed.Operation Hercules planned to drop German troops on Malta. General Rommel's North African campaign needed too many resources for that.German troops intended to drop on the island, but General Rommel's North African campaign needed too many resources.

The British Royal Navy managed to getAn earlier Ottoman expedition secured the Maltese island of Gozo in 1551 but did not attack Malta itself and left. The Ottomans returned in 1565 with a large force of up to 40,000 men and hundreds of galleys, expecting success, but the defenders were ready.The Allies paid a heavy price protecting the island, losing nearly 500 aircraft and many ships. Malta held, though. Italians suffered huge losses in transport and merchant shipping, which ended the North African campaign. Without Malta, the Royal Air Force could intercept every Axis supply shipment heading to Africa. Maltese civilians suffered badly from the air attack, but holding Malta proved vital for the Allied war effort.

After taking Constantinople, the Ottoman Empire conquered Southern Europe and the Mediterranean. After nearly a century of military wins, the empire focused on Malta by the mid-1500s. The Order of Malta held the island then, having received it from Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1530.

An earlier Ottoman expeditionhappened in 1551An Ottoman expedition secured Gozo but did not attack Malta and then left. The Ottomans returned with many more men in 1565. An expeditionary force of up to 40,000 men, supported by hundreds of galleys, arrived expecting success, but the defenders were ready.

Grandmaster Jean Parisot de Valette learned of an attack coming. He stripped the fields of grain and poisoned the wells so Ottoman forces could not live off the land. The 600 knights of the Order of Malta gained local militia and a few hundred troops from Italy and Spain.

An Ottoman assault onFort St. Elmosucceeded, but it cost a lot. Over time, sickness and the defenders' strong will weakened the Ottoman force. Though near collapse, de Valette and his troops refused to surrender. A Spanish army arrived just in time on September 7, 1565, and the defeated Ottoman army pulled out.

A British view shows one major American Revolution fight happened along the southern Spanish coast. Britain held the key peninsula, which caused the Spanish monarchy to lose it.This happened in 1713.An attempt to get it back failed in 1727 during the Anglo-Spanish War, 1727-1729.

British resources strained by the American war gave the French and Spanish a 1779 chance to take back territory.Gibraltar.A small, isolated British garrison of 5,000 men faced an army over 65,000 French and Spanish troops right outside their walls.

The sea gave the British a huge advantage. The Royal Navy kept breaking blockades and supplying the fortress. The British garrison held for over three years. A final push occurred in September 1782, using red-hot shot to destroy floating batteries, and the assault failed.Red-hot shot.(Heated shot) destroyed the floating batteries, and the assault failed.

Britain lost the American Revolution, but keeping Gibraltar was a consolation. The peninsula would matter in future British fights. Spain disliked the peninsula's population.Spain firmly rejected the idea of shared Spanish rule in 2002.Spain firmly rejected the prospect of shared Spanish rule in 2002.

Defending a siege usually means being outnumbered. But the gap between two forces was rarely as wide as it was during the siege of the Georgian fortress ofQueli.In 914, Mikel Gobron, the Christian commander of the 200-man garrison, fought a Sajid dynasty army of at least 20,000. Gobron and his men held for nearly a month, inflicting heavy losses on the attackers.

Gobron and his garrison were eventually defeated and killed. However, they caused so many losses to the Sajid army that the fortress was retaken within the year, and the Sajid invasion stopped. Gobron became a saint.A saint.He was a saint in the Georgian Orthodox Church.

The Ottomans won many fights in Southern Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. Still, they could not take the key Habsburg stronghold of Vienna.

The first attempt happened late in an Ottoman push into Hungary. Suleiman the Magnificent's large army secured the empire's hold on the kingdom, pushing back a Habsburg attack from the prior year.

A long campaign and bad weather slowed the Ottoman advance into Austria. They made little progress against the city's defenses. As the weather turned, Suleiman made one last push.Suleiman pushed to take Vienna.The assault failed. The Ottomans chose to stop losing ground and lifted the siege the next day on October 14, 1529.

The second attempt happened after 150 years of fighting between the Ottomans and the Habsburgs. By 1683, the Ottoman Empire reached its peak, stretching from Algeria to the Persian Gulf.Kara Mustafa Pasha.As Grand Vizier of the Ottomans, Kara Mustafa Pasha assembled a massive army in the spring of 1683. The defending garrison faced bleak prospects; they were outnumbered more than ten to one, and aid from neighboring states offered no guarantee.

Mustafa did not expect the garrison's resolve. He wanted maximum loot by taking Vienna whole. A desperate fight lasted two months. The Ottomans broke into Austrian defenses several times but faced setbacks each time. Help finally arrived on September 11, 1683, when a multinational force led by thePolish Hussars.saved the city.

After a tough fight, German infantry made ground. The Winged Hussars fully used this advance.Winged Hussars.They launched the biggest cavalry charge in history to save Vienna. Mustafa lost his life paying for the failure, and the Ottomans never recovered from that defeat. The first failure was small; the second was a disaster.

The TV series.Vikings.The History Channel might have made the TV series, but it took many liberties. In the show, Ragnar's brotherRollo.Rollo, who was not actually his brother or alive at the same time, guides the Franks to victory in defending Paris. In reality, Rollo was a Viking leader who unsuccessfully besieged the city.

After raids on Paris, a large Viking force arrived in885They arrived to demand more tribute. Count Odo, a real person whose story differed from the show, refused payment. Just 200 Frankish men-at-arms held off a Viking force that sources count as 30,000. The force was likely much smaller, but the Franks held the much larger army back for months. The Vikings made only two main attempts to breach the walls, but they were stopped each time by a relieving army led byCharles the Fat.Charles the Fat (who probably wasn't portly) arrived.

To Count Odo's anger, Charles paid off the invaders and let them sail upriver to steal from nearby Burgundy. Odo eventually removed the king and took the crown for himself in 888.

In the second half of the 19th century, Japan underwent a major change. Within one generation, the Japanese changed from a backward feudal state to a modern industrial nation. Some 700 years of tradition were dropped as theMeiji emperor.oversaw sweeping changes.

Not everyone accepted these changes, especially those prominent in the old regime. Imperial decree in 1876 abolished samurai. Many took jobs in the new government and military, but some fought the changes violently. Several small rebellions started and the last one proved the most destructive.

1877In Kagoshima, students of a famous former samurai were present.Saigo Takamori.Takamori seized a government armory. Takamori took charge, gathering a mixed army of supporters and samurai to march on Tokyo. Scholars still argue about his plan, but first, the Kumamoto castle blocked the way.

Kumamoto struggled after an earlier, brief, violent uprising called theThe Shinpuren rebellion occurred.Extremists attacked local troops with only swords and suicidal courage. Modern firepower won, but the government soldiers performed terribly.

Takamori's larger group lacked organization but had modern weapons. They expected an easy win against the demoralized government army. Though built in the Middle Ages, the castle held up against modern arms. For several weeks, government troops, led byTani Tateki.Tani Tateki's men fought hard to stop Takamori's forces for nearly two months.

In April 1877, a huge government army arrived to help the besieged garrison. By September, Takamori's army was reduced to 500 survivors. At Shiroyama, the last samurai chose death over surrender; every one of them died in a final charge.

Some places often face sieges. The Levant city ofAcre.was one such place. This city became a focus for multiple crusades, changing hands several times during the medieval period. By Napoleon's time, the Ottoman Empire controlled Acre since it joined the empire in 1517.

Napoleon had little reason to think Acre would resist much after capturing Jaffa days earlier. However, theconductof the French army after taking Jaffa hardened the city's garrison's resolve. Supported by two Royal Navy ships, the Ottoman garrison made Napoleon's main troops struggle much harderthan expected.

Even though the French beat a relieving Ottoman force, the siege moved slowly and cost much. When one gap opened in the walls, attackers saw a second wall built behind it. With more Ottoman aid coming, Napoleon pulled back to Egypt.

The Dutch revolt against Habsburg rule lasted decades in the namedThe 80 Years' War., which lasted from 1568 to 1648. Rivals of the Habsburgs helped the struggle. England, Scotland, and France offered aid at different times.

In October 1580, a Spanish force, led by the Dutch turncoat George de Lalaing, besieged Steenwijk. De Lalaing's force outnumbered the town's garrison ten to one.Ten to one.The Dutch troops withstood the Spanish bombardment and refused surrender. Help arrived in December, bringing an Englishman named John Norris (or Norreys).John Norris (or Norreys).Norris broke through the siege to reinforce the town's struggling garrison.

Norris did not just defend the town passively. He led daring raids to disrupt the besiegers. As winter set in and losses mounted for both sides, de Lalaing abandoned the siege near February 1581. Steenwijk changed hands again in the following years.

Ivan the Terrible's youngest son, Dmitry, died in 1591 when an assassin killed him at age 9. Years later, a young man claimed to be Dmitry.Dmitry.Dmitry seized power with Poland-Lithuania's aid. His reign ended about eleven months later.

Another Dmitry, known as False Dmitry II, appeared and claimed to be the real Dmitry.real.False Dmitry I's widow confirmed his identity. Then, with Poland-Lithuania's support, False Dmitry II brought an army into Russia to claim his right. The advancing army captured towns, making the Troitsky Monastery another target.widow.She confirmed his identity. With Poland-Lithuania backing, False Dmitry II brought an army into Russia to claim his right. The army captured towns along the way; the Troitsky Monastery became another target.

Monks, nobles, peasants, and a few professional troops guarded the monastery. Defenders held out for over 16 months, frequently attacking the attackers. Scurvy caused terrible losses; about 2,000 of the 2,400 defenders died during the siege.

A relieving army forced False Dmitry II's army to lift the siege in January 1610. False Dmitry II's exploits ended poorly that year when a Tartar princeling he had mistreated beheaded him. The story continues.

False Dmitry III appeared the next year. A country tired of Dmitrys quickly eliminated him. The strange period of Russian history became known as the Time of Troubles, ending with the rise of the Romanov dynasty.Romanov dynasty..