Not only Lithuania wields a sword against giants: a look at the present and the past, what ended it for other countries
To conquer Greece, Xerx gathered a then-powerful army of over 200 people and attacked in the summer of 480 BC. Leonid I, who trusted in Persia, had a personal guard of 300 Spartans and another 5,620 soldiers he was able to call in Greek cities.
The Persian Army’s road to southern Greece stretched through a narrow Thermopilean Passage. The Greeks established themselves in it, deploying forces in the narrowest places, thus diminishing the capabilities of the enemy army.
The 200-year-old broke through the Persians in a couple of days without attack, but on the third day the defense was in vain – not without betrayal. A local resident, Efialt, transferred a Persian platoon to the back of Leonid I on a mountain road at night. But the messenger also warned the Greeks. Realizing that there was no way out, Leonid decided to save more of the army by sending it aside. By not detaining Xerxi’s army, their cavalry could catch up with Greek infantry and beat them in the open.
He himself stayed with the 300 Spartans, though he realized everyone would die. The Spartans held on until everyone fell. According to Herodotus, 20 Persians and 4,000 Greeks were not killed by the Thermopylae, and the Spartans were spared by the Spartans, despite the order to withdraw.
Although the Persians occupied part of Greece after the Battle of Thermopylae, the heroism of the Spartans and Tespians overwhelmed the Persian fighting spirit and set an example for other Greeks who defended their lands.
At the beginning of the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939–1940 (Winter War), in November 1939, the Red Army outnumbered the defended Finnish army by more than one and a half times, and its troops joined 25 years before it was mobilized. The USSR army of cannons and mortars had five and the number of aircraft nine times higher.
World public opinion was on the side of the brave Finnish nation.