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Historical most lop-sided casualty-ratio battles(preferably w/ the underdog winning)

Forgetful Coyote

Forgetful Coyote

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Dec 13, 2011
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Aint know where better this topic'd fit in than here, so here yall go...

I'm gone go head vote the Siege/Battle of Muret:

The French Crusaders had 8(yea, EIGHT !!!!!) casualties)!!!!) even tho they only had like 2000 troops, if that, on their side(and thats a higherish estimate dpendign on source used..).

The combined forces of Aragorn and 2 other allies, with 20000-40,000 troops on ther side suffered 15,000-20,000 casaulties... yeah. LOL cant even call it a David v Goliath situation... David vs Goliat looks like a mostly equal fight in comparison.

I'll let the below vids give ya a mush better explanation-illustraion than I possiblye could after several brewskis...

Short summary:


PC Video Game LOOSE(!) simulation + somewhat more detailed summary in beginning:




All things considered... IMO this is one of the most impressive feats of combat I've ever read about..
 
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Thx for the replies yall, tho I still dont think any of them suggestions come close to the casualty ratio of Muret,
8 : 15-20k

All while'st being the underdog by a absolute ridiculous margin. The odds were goddang staggering, not Thermopylae level bad, but.. damn near I'd say.

ETA: You're right Mr Greg, its Aragon, not Aragorn. For some reason I've heard some historians pronounce it Aragorn so I assumed it was spelled that way.. apologies and thanks for correction!
 
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Dingo

200 Rhodesian SAS, paratroopers and some pilots versus 10,000 Zimbabwe militia.

End result: 1 SAS soldier killed, 1 pilot crash landed his aircraft and was killed. 8 wounded.

3,000 militia dead. 5,000 wounded.

That's an effective raid. The Rhodesian's could never be bested in the field and were the most effective counter insurgents to ever hand out dirt naps.
 
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Mirbat also comes to mind.

One has to be careful with the numbers in medieval and crusader battles. Legend, lore and memory/myth can inflate and deflate numbers substantially. The sizes given by early accounts and historians for some of these armies is often now questioned based on things like logistics. Aragon’s forces are thought to have been more like 4-6k.

Cheers, Sirhr
 
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PA Peach Massacre of 2016-2018

One man, and his rifle, stands alone against a hoard of fuzzy grey tree rats.

Thousands of peaches lost.

Hundreds of squirrels killed.

Human casualties : 0

(Official numbers may be a bit off from reported numbers. ?)
 
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Battle of Long Tan in 1966, probably not the most outrageous ratio, but still an incredible modern example of being inordinately outnumbered & somehow coming away victorious.
 
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Just Macca said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Dingo

200 Rhodesian SAS, paratroopers and some pilots versus 10,000 Zimbabwe militia.

End result: 1 SAS soldier killed, 1 pilot crash landed his aircraft and was killed. 8 wounded.

3,000 militia dead. 5,000 wounded.

That's an effective raid. The Rhodesian's could never be bested in the field and were the most effective counter insurgents to ever hand out dirt naps.
Click to expand...

The Selous Scouts raiding the ZANLA camp is another good one. Body count wasn't quite as lopsided, but the Scouts were on the offense instead of defense, and it was all ground action - no air strike.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eland
 
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