7 Times the Underdog Punched Way Above Their Weight
By: Márton Ujvári
Tags: Guerilla, History, Vietnam War, World War II, Military History

7 Times the Underdog Punched Way Above Their Weight

At the Battle of Chancellorsville during the American Civil War, Gen. Robert E. Lee led his Confederate army to victory against a Union force twice its size. (Source: Library of Congress)

History is filled with one-sided wars, from the Third Punic War, through the British invasion of Zanzibar (thought to be the shortest armed inter-state conflict ever), and to the 1991 invasion of Iraq, there are several examples of a stronger power striking down its weaker opponent without much trouble.

It has also been common throughout history to see war as a game of numbers: victory inevitably goes to the side with more men, better equipment, or a superior military infrastructure and planning. This was perhaps most widespread in the decades preceding World War I: staff officers dedicated years and decades to cut down a few minutes from the railway mobilization timetable.

In this article, I’ll show seven examples where an outnumbered, outgunned, or both, inferior force managed to either beat its adversary or turn what was seen as a quick, easy fight into one where clearly superior forces were struggling beyond what anyone anticipated. The list is by no means ranked, it is more of a collection than a ‘Top 7’ of such wars.

1. Winter war

This one is a rather well-known example among history fanatics, yet, it remains barely mentioned in multiple school curriculums around the world. Still, the story of how a small country outnumbered ten to one in manpower and up to one hundred to one in technology never ceases to amaze the people who come across the story.

A Finnish machine gun nest in February, 1940 / Source: Military Museum of Finland

In the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union divided much of Eastern and Northern Europe into spheres of influence. Finland belonged to the Soviet Union based on the pact, and in October 1939 the first Soviet demand arrived: Finland was to cede much of the Karelian Isthmus, some strategic areas in the North, and islands in the Gulf of Finland to the Soviet Union. In addition, Finnish fortifications on the Isthmus were to be destroyed and land leased for a Soviet military base in Southern Finland, within striking distance of Helsinki, Finland’s capital.

In exchange, the Soviets offered minor territorial concessions along the Karelian Isthmus, nowhere near in size or importance to the territory demanded in other parts. The Finns also had their offer: during the negotiations in Moscow they offered much smaller concessions in Karelia — all while preparing for an eventual Soviet attack by quietly mobilizing their military in the form of ‘refreshment training’.

By the second half of November negotiations broke down and everyone knew that war was coming. Most observers and the Soviet leadership expected the war to be quick, decisive, and extremely one-sided. What followed was anything but by even the most moderate estimates, the Soviets lost twice as much in dead (about 50,000 to 25,000 Finnish dead), about four times as much as wounded (roughly 188,000 to 44,000 Finnish wounded), 20 times as many tanks (at least 600 to 20–30) and almost 20 times as many aircraft (a very rough estimate of 1,000 to 62). It is also important to mention that Soviet reports from the period underreported casualties, therefore I gave the lowest later estimate I found. It is worth pointing out, however, that some Russian historians believe the accurate figures to be 120–130,000 Soviet dead and as many as 3,500 tanks lost.

Although Finland lost more territory in the peace treaty, the Winter War helped the country avoid the fate of the Baltic States — Soviet military bases in its territory and eventual occupation either directly or via a communist puppet government.

The war also exposed the apparent weakness of the Soviet military, something which was noticed not only by Germany but the western Allies as well. This ineffectiveness against Finland was caused partly by the environment: a harsh winter and an almost non-existent road network meant the large Soviet columns were easy (or easier) pickings for the Finns utilising guerilla tactics whilst maintaining a high morale sustained by better food, shelter, and winter clothing. But the difficulties faced by the Red Army also showed the devastating effect Stalin’s late 1930s purge of Soviet military leadership had on its effectiveness

2. Indochina Wars

Another obvious example of successful underdogs in war is Vietnam (or its northern half at least), the country that beat not one, but two world powers in relatively quick succession (not to mention the role the Viet Minh had in ending Japanese rule). First of these was France in the late 1940s and early 1950s to end colonial rule, then came the United States of America in the 1960s and early ’70s. In both of these cases, the success of Vietnamese resistance was caused by guerilla tactics that were used to the extreme, much better knowledge and use of terrain, and excellent, almost fanatical morale.

Vietcong forces crossing a river / Source: The Eyewitness History of the Vietnam War by George Esper

While the French and American troops were fighting far from home in a foreign land where they didn’t speak the language, the (North) Vietnamese were fighting close to home, and in many cases, for their home. The latter was more and more reinforced by the atrocities committed by United States (US) troops, partly as a result of terrible communication with the locals and partly due to the extreme stress caused by being constantly harassed by hit-and-run attacks.

As a result of the aforementioned factors, Vietnam gained its independence from France following the catastrophic battle of Dien Bien Phu. Two decades later, North Vietnam made peace with the US in 1973 and reunited the country under communist rule in 1975 — three decades after Ho Chi Minh first declared independence in 1945. The greatest American fear, a ‘red wave’ spreading throughout Southeast Asia didn’t come to pass, it turned out that Ho Chi Minh was genuine in his patriotic desires and only wanted an independent Vietnam. Today, the country is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

3. Westerplatte

Now we jump back to World War II. The invasion of Poland by the Third Reich and the Soviet Union is often portrayed as Polish defences rapidly collapsing and the country being overrun extremely quickly. However, his is rather far from the truth. Before being attacked from the rear by the Soviets on 17 September, the Polish put up a fearsome resistance against the attacking Wehrmacht and Waffen SS units.

One of the most impressive feats of such resistance was the case of the fortified Westerplatte military base in Danzig (present-day Gdansk). In the case of a German invasion, the objective for the post consisting of a few concrete bunkers was to delay the enemy and hold out for 12 hours. In September 1939, that turned into resisting for a week, enduring air raids, a naval bombardment, a landing by German marines, and various attempts by engineers to disrupt the remaining fortifications.

The Westerplatte on 8 September 1939, a day after the Polish surrender / Source: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183–2008–0513–500

The roughly 200 defenders of the position distracted more than 3,000 German troops, a battleship, and two torpedo boats. The casualties were also disproportionate: before surrendering on 7 September, the Polish lost 15 dead and 40 wounded, compared to 50 dead and about 150 wounded on the German side.

The Germans were so impressed by the fierce resistance that the Polish commander, Major Sucharski, was allowed to keep his ceremonial saber when surrendering and the German troops stood at attention when the remaining Polish garrison marched out of the post. While Major Sucharski died in 1946, his fate was different from that of many other Polish war heroes who were executed by the new communist leadership — he died of peritonitis in an Allied military hospital in Italy.

4. The 1848–49 Hungarian Uprising

When the revolutionary wave of 1848 — or in Hungary’s case large non-violent protests — reached Pest, the estates general in Pressburg (present-day Bratislava) opted to accept the demands of the people, and thus the Laws of April were created. The king, Ferdinand I of Austria (and V of Bohemia and Hungary) accepted the several acts passed by the estates general and enacted them. As a result, all serfs were liberated, the tax-exemption of the nobility was abolished and the legal framework of a modern state (at least for its time) was created, including a publicly elected parliament and a government responsible not to the king, but to said parliament.

Protesters gathered to the National Museum on 15th March 1848 / Source: Wikimedia Commons

These reforms, however, led to reduced power and influence for the Imperial Court in Vienna. As revolts throughout the Habsburg Empire were brought under control, the reforms in Hungary were seen as less and less desirable and nationalities under Hungarian rule were supported in their revolts against the government in Pest (today’s Budapest) — unsuccessfully. After much hesitation, the Hungarians finally marched on Vienna, only to be badly defeated at Schwechat in late October 1848. Following this, the Hungarian forces retreated from Austria, with the royal army hot on their heels.

Throughout the winter, as expected, the regular Austrian army battered the Hungarians, even capturing Pest and gaining control of much of Transylvania. The Hungarian troops bent but did not break entirely. The army under the leadership of Arthur Görgei (arguably the best military leader on the Hungarian side despite his very young age) forced the Austrian army attacking from the west to play a game of cat and mouse in the mountains of today’s Slovakia for two months (January and February of 1849), providing time for a larger body of recruits to be trained up in Eastern Hungary. While Görgei was luring and outmaneuvering the Austrians in the Tatra mountains, Jozef Bem, a veteran of the 1830–31 Polish uprising took command of Hungarian forces in Transylvania and slowly started pushing the Austrian and Romanian forces back.

By the time Görgei’s army reached the Great Hungarian Plain, there was a newly-trained Hungarian army that stood a chance against the Austrians in open battle. The political leadership appointed Henryk Dembinski, another veteran of the 1830–31 uprising as commander of the forces in the main theater of war (i.e. not in Transylvania or today’s Vojvodina). His command was regarded as anything from subpar to downright terrible both by most of his subordinates and later commentators alike. Under his leadership, the Hungarian army made an indecisive attempt at attacking the Austrians but failed at the battle of Kápolna in late February.

The Hungarian forces were not crushed, only defeated. Much of their army didn’t even see combat during the two days of battle, and even those parts which did weren’t destroyed but managed to retreat in good order. Frustration with Dembinski went from simmering to boiling over following Kápolna: corps commanders and other officers of his army refused to serve under him and follow his orders. This forced the political leadership to remove Dembinski from command and give the position to Antal Vetter, a good soldier and one of the most suitable men for the job.

Vetter fell ill, however, and was replaced by Arthur Görgei, something that had a crucial impact on the following months of the war. Under his overall command, the main Hungarian army followed the plan of George Klapka and tried to encircle and destroy the main Austrian army around Hatvan, to the southeast of today’s Budapest. Although this plan didn’t succeed, the Hungarian army inflicted a series of defeats upon the Austrians and sent Windisch-Grätz retreating to the west before turning back to liberate Buda and Pest, the capital of Hungary.

The Battle of Tápióbicske, one of the Hungarian victories in spring 1849 / Source: Hungarian National Museum (original painting by Mór Than)

The Hungarians managed to put up more than a fair fight: in late April of 1849 Franz Joseph was forced to ask for Russian help amid humiliating circumstances. At the meeting, the Habsburg emperor knelt before the Russian tsar and kissed his hand while asking for military assistance against the ‘rebel hordes’ Windisch-Grätz reported as utterly crushed just two months earlier.

Once the Russian army entered the fight with 200 000 soldiers and the peace signed with Piedmont-Sardinia, in Italy, allowed Austria to redirect more men to the Hungarian theatre of war, Hungary didn’t stand much chance against the coordinated attack of two great powers of that age. Görgei managed to pull off his trick again by luring much of the Russian intervention force after his forces through Northern and Eastern Hungary. He intended to buy time for other Hungarian forces to defeat the Austrians before the Russians could really enter the fight. Despite his efforts, by 11th August 1849, almost all other armies were crushed as a result of poor leadership from some generals and a general lack of supplies. Görgei was left isolated with an army hopelessly outnumbered and surrounded on all sides.

Following the resignation of the political leadership, Görgei, as dictator, surrendered with his remaining forces — to the Russians. This was a powerful signal and an insult to the Austrians that it wasn’t them, but the Russian intervention that decided the conflict. Görgei asked the Russians to pardon all his men as they only followed his orders — his punishment became the reversal of said request: while several of his subordinates (friends among them) were executed, thousands imprisoned and many more conscripted into the Austrian army as punishment, he lived for 68 more years with half his country thinking he was a traitor.

Two fortresses, however, managed to hold out for another two months before surrendering to the Austrians on the terms that they were to be pardoned — a promise that was kept, there was no violent crackdown against the garrisons.

5. The Peninsular War

In 1808 Napoleon’s French Empire occupied and took over its former ally, Spain, to aid its attack on Portugal. This happened without any real difficulty as Spanish commanders didn’t expect allied French forces to suddenly occupy fortresses and disarm any Spanish forces they came across. In two months, it seemed that Napoleon’s tried and tested strategy of ‘crush the army, then occupy the capital’ had worked perfectly: both the Spanish king and his successor abdicated and Napoleon’s brother, Joseph, became King of Spain. In the following years, it turned into an incredibly costly and drawn-out conflict for the French that ate up enormous resources and manpower until Napoleon’s defeat and abdication in 1814.

Contrary to other enemies of Napoleon in Central and Eastern Europe, the Spanish didn’t submit to French rule too easily. A popular uprising began almost as soon as the Spanish Bourbons were forced to abdicate. The Madrid revolt in early May of 1808 was suppressed violently by elite French troops (Imperial Guard infantry and Mameluke cavalry). French forces in the citadel of Barcelona were besieged for almost a year before being relieved. These and other setbacks in 1808 and 1809 didn’t break the fighting spirit of the Spanish people.

In the following six years, the Spanish regular forces didn’t achieve major successes in open pitched battles (and that is to put it mildly) but managed to tie down massive French forces by becoming guerilleros and adopting a way of fighting that was so unusual in contemporary Europe that it became forever known as guerilla warfare. By attacking supply lines and patrols, constantly harassing French forces, and avoiding direct engagements the Spanish guerillas helped the outnumbered Portuguese-British regular army of Arthur Wellesley fight the French on a more equal footing.

Spanish guerillas attacking a French column of soldiers / Source: Quadros da História de Portugal (original painting by Roque Gamerio)

Also called ‘Napoleon’s Vietnam’, the Peninsular War led to half a million dead and wounded on the French side and enabled the Coalition forces to invade France from the South by early 1814. However, this victory didn’t come cheap, over a million Spanish civilians and soldiers died as a result of the fighting. The popular uprising also inspired thinkers in other parts of Europe to enact military and government reforms. The Prussians, for example, completely overhauled their government and military in favour of a light infantry doctrine paired with wider citizen’s rights for the subjects of the Prussian king, something which they hoped would empower their population to engage in a popular uprising similar to that of Spain.

6. Chinese Civil War

For the first half of the 20th century, China suffered from repeated civil wars and foreign interference, the most notable of which was the Japanese invasion of first Manchuria in 1831, and then of China itself in 1937. The country was plagued by multiple warlords claiming control of various regions as well as foreign invaders. By the late 1940s the two major forces in this civil war were the communists led by Mao Zedong and the nationalists (also called Kuomintang) under the leadership of Chiang Kai Sek.

This situation was a huge surprise, however, in 1935, right after the infamous Long March, communist forces led by Mao Zedong numbered only a few thousand men along the Sino-Soviet border in the north, kept alive by a trickle of supplies arriving from the Soviet Union. By 1949, they were in full control of mainland China, save for the British colony at Hongkong, the Portuguese colony of Macau, and the Kuomintang forces left in Taiwan. There were two major factors that played a crucial role in their victory.

Kuomintang soldiers marching to fight the Japanese during World War II / Source: Wikimedia Commons (Unknown author)

The first was that the Japanese invasion forced the different sides fighting for control of China to unite — at least until the common foe was defeated. This gave the communists an opportunity to increase their support and gather their strength, something which they capitalized upon extensively by uniting more and more forces under their command.

The other was the extensive use of asymmetrical tactics. At the end of World War II, in 1945, all major urban regions of China were under the control of the Kuomintang. Mao Zedong’s idea to counter this was simple: under his command, the communist forces took control of rural agricultural lands and starved the nationalist pockets out one by one. It is a less well-known fact about Mao that he wrote a book on the theory of guerilla warfare and as we’ve seen he was definitely writing from experience.

7. Ethiopia against Italy

In the late 19th century, the European powers divided Africa among themselves to such extent that by the end of the century only one country managed to remain independent, Ethiopia. Italy had its sights on adding the country to its colonial holdings in the last decades of the century. If you’ve been reading the article so far, you know what comes next: they had a hard time.

In the years before the first war, Emperor Menelik II managed to unite his people and began modernizing Ethiopia: a national bank, railroads, electricity, and modern firearms were all introduced under his reign, as well as a new capital at Addis Ababa built. The emperor achieved this through clever diplomacy with European powers, most importantly France and Russia, who provided weapons and military advisors to train Ethiopian troops.

Italians taken prisoner by Ethiopians in the First Italo-Ethiopian War / Source: Wikimedia Commons (photo by Charles Michel)

When the first war between Italy and Ethiopia broke out in 1894, half of Menelik II’s army was armed with archaic weapons — bows, spears, and swords. To compensate for their somewhat inferior armament, they used numerical superiority against the invading Italian forces. After the Ethiopians destroyed almost the entire Italian force invading their territory, their independence was guaranteed by the Treaty of Addis Ababa.

It was 40 years later, under the reign of Halie Selassie I, that Italy, now a fascist dictatorship under Mussolini, tried to conquer Ethiopia again. Although the Ethiopian army put up a fierce resistance (even taking out tanks by ruining their tracks using steel rods), their army was still armed with a mixture of outdated and modern firearms and archaic weaponry. While that was enough in the 1890s, this time the Ethiopians were defeated by a much larger Italian army utilizing hundreds of tanks and aircraft.

In both cases, Ethiopia managed to turn what was expected to be ‘defeating hordes of savages’ into a tough, desperate fight for a European army that had extensive military training, standardized equipment, and modern technology on its side.