I watched this History Channel special over the weekend called something like "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors".  I'm not sure when it originally aired, since I'm a TiVO guy and we don't pay attention to that sort of nonsense.  Apparently, the special was based off of a book by the same name.

The show was about a particularly heroic destroyer squadron during the battle of Samar, near Leyte Gulf (that's WWII in the Pacific, US vs Japan for those who don't remember their history classes).

The short version is that the Japanese caught our fleet with its pants down, and the only task force we had in the area was something like 4 destroyers and a small aircraft carrier.  The Japanese navy however had the Yamato and a bunch of battlecruisers.  In other words, ONE ship of the Japanese task force outclassed the entire US force in the area.

Well, the Destroyer guys ("tin can sailors" in reference to their nonexistant armor) made a literally suicidal rush against the Japanese force, and by the time all was said and done, had sunk a few cruisers, damaged some other ships, and held the whole force up long enough for the "real" warships to show up.  One Destroyer even went toe to toe with two battleships and actually survived the engagement, causing significant damage to the larger ships.  One of the lucky coincidences that saved the Destroyers for a while was that the Japanese were expecting to engage cruisers and battleships, and so were loaded with armor piercing rounds.  These pretty much just punched straight through the Destroyers, leaving large holes but not exploding.

In the end of course, all the Destroyers were sank, but this totally goes down as the Alamo of the Pacific Fleet in my book.  I can't image the level of chutzpah it would have taken to engage even one ship 6 times your tonnage, let alone a half dozen, especially knowing that your guns can't penetrate their armor, and your only effective weapon is your torpedos, which you have to be in very close range to use effectively.

Hats off to you, men.