page_title: Last stand
section_title: Tactical significance
hierarchical_section_title: Last stand / Tactical significance
caption_attribution_description: Nikola Šubić Zrinski's Charge from the Fortress of SzigetvárOil on canvas, 455 x 645 cm The scene is the sortie of Count Nikola Šubić Zrinski, Ban (Viceroy) of Croatia, and his men, the heroic defenders of the castle of Szigetvár, against the besieging Turks in 1566, in which Zrinski lost his life. The painting had been commissioned by the Vienna court, and currently held at the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest.
context_page_description: A last stand is a military situation in which a body of troops holds a defensive position in the face of overwhelming and virtually insurmountable odds. The defensive force usually takes very heavy casualties or is completely destroyed. Troops may make a last stand due to a perceived duty; because they are defending a tactically crucial point; to buy time to enable a trapped army to escape; due to fear of execution if captured; or to protect their ruler or leader. Last stands loom large in history, as the heroism and sacrifice of the defenders exert a large pull on the public's imagination. Some last stands have become a celebrated part of a fighting force's or a country's history.
context_section_description: A "last stand" is a last resort tactic, and is chosen because the defending force realizes or believes the benefits of fighting outweigh the benefits of retreat or surrender. This usually arises from strategic or moral considerations, such as staying and fighting to buy time for wounded soldiers or civilians to get to a safe place, leading defenders to conclude that their sacrifice is essential to the greater success of their campaign or cause, as happened at the end of the Battle of Saragarhi. The situation can arise in several ways. One situation is that retreat by the defending force would lead to immediate defeat, usually due to the surrounding geography or shortage of supplies or support, as happened to the Royalist infantry on Wadborough Hill after the Battle of Naseby.
  Some military thinkers have cautioned against putting an opposing force into a last stand situation, recognising that trapped men will fight harder. Sun Tzu wrote: "To a surrounded enemy, you must leave a way of escape". Similarly, they have sometimes suggested deliberately putting their own forces in such a situation, for example by burning boats or bridges that could tempt them to retreat.
  The historian Bryan Perrett suggests that although the majority of last stands throughout history have seen the defending force overwhelmed, on rare occasions the outnumbered defenders succeed in their desperate endeavours and live to fight another day, and he lists the Battle of Agincourt and the Battle of Rorke's Drift as such engagements.
caption: Siege of Szigetvár (1566) -- Nikola Šubić Zrinski's charge from the fortress of Szigetvár (painting by Johann Peter Krafft, 1825)
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