military

Russia’s Winter War with Finland was supposed to be an easy victory for the fearsome Red Army. But when the Finns refused to go gently, their resistance would change the course of history.

As they say, everyone loves a dark horse, and the history of warfare is full of scrappy underdogs using a combination of brains, skill, and often, a little bit of sheer luck to come out on top. Here are 24 cagey facts about the most unlikely military victories in history.

We had a guy in Basic who was horrible. He got kicked out of one training cycle and thrown into ours for being an absolute idiot.

A Karen kicked me out of a veteran’s parking spot because her husband outranked me—but that was just the start of my nightmare.