I'm interested in battles that were won by much weaker side or even lost by it, but for example making the stronger side to keep fight against this weaker force and thus providing it strategic victory. This might be by high morale, skills of the defending commander (of course also brave attacks of the weaker side are also accepted) or -- last not least -- just luck. I would like not to take into account battles, where "weaker" side was equipped in some devastating weapon, say two tanks against million of spear-men, so eg. conquest of Peru (ca. 1520-1530) with Spanish having muskets and horses is not accepted.
I'm also not interested in heroic suicides that were clueless and achieve nothing but great remembrance in national poetry (like Massada (ca. 72) or both Warsaw Uprisings (1943 and 1944)).
From my first research, the most known are:
- Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC), where Spartans kept resistance against much larger Persian army, being defeated eventually, but allowing other Greek forces to prepare to fight,
- Battle of Crécy (1346) and similar battle of Agincourt (1415) where English forces, being outnumbered ca. 2:1, won with minimal losses, having better weaponry and combined with terrain advantages,
- siege of Rhodes (1480) where Knights Hospitaller stood to much larger Ottoman army, being outnumbered at least 10 times,
- Battle of Kircholm (1605) where outnumbered Polish hussars (ca. 3000) destroyed Swedish forces (11000), having minimal losses,
- Rorke's Drift (1879), where the weaker side was better armed than stronger one, but in this case it was also high morale of defenders and use of available terrain,
- East Africa Campaign (WW1) where combined German and native (askaris) troops managed to keep attention of large Allied forces during the war, surrendering few days after the Armistice, being the German longest-fighting unit,
- cruisers of German Empire, like Emden and Dresden (in WW1 too), binding some part of Royal Navy for long time.
These pointed by me are the most popular in culture. Are there any less known, but in which the weaker side should be honored for its bravery?