# fiercest warriors in history **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 18, 2000, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiercest-warriors-in-history/41687 "2000-11-18T00:05:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2000, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiercest-warriors-in-history/41687/41 "2000-11-20T17:04:46Z")
DrDoom - I hope those tears weren’t caused by excessive laughter! 😉 The story at that web page is written in an emphatic style not popular nowadays, but the facts are true. casdave - I’m not an expert on swiss mercenaries, so I suppose I will have to read more on them. All the descriptions I read are of their infantry and long pikes. Though William Tell (almost certainly a ficitional character) is of course famous for his crossbow shot, and crossbows were a traditional weapon in Switzerland, I didn’t know that they were a habitual weapon of the swiss mercenaries. ishmintingas - Thank you for the information! I never knew that GBS had written a play starring a swiss soldier. I’m off to the library today to find it! ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2000, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiercest-warriors-in-history/41687/42 "2000-11-20T17:06:28Z")
Howzabout them Spartans? I mean, remaining silent while foxes chew your entrails is some tough shit! Anyone know - any basis for the legend? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2000, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiercest-warriors-in-history/41687/43 "2000-11-20T17:12:41Z")
How about them Plains Indian braves? I mean, the Sun Dance where their breast muscles are slowly torn out and they remain silent and perfectly impassive throughout this ordeal for several hours, while staring into the sun, is some _seriously_ tough shit. (And this is no legend, but documented fact.) They have my vote! ---
**Author:** ![zwaldd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a9adbd/32.png) [@zwaldd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zwaldd)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2000, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiercest-warriors-in-history/41687/44 "2000-11-20T18:00:47Z")
going by the op’s definition of fierce, i’d have to say fire ants. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2000, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiercest-warriors-in-history/41687/45 "2000-11-20T19:23:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tomcat \* > \*\*A group not mentioned yet are the Kalistas from the Philipines. As the story goes, these are the ones that gave the US Marines their nick-name “Leather-Necks” because of their habit of jumping out of the jungle and slicing the throats of their heavily-armed enemies (this was during the Sapnish-American war I guess). So the Marines made leather collars for protection. > Going further back than that we come to the most famous victim of Kalista wrath: Magellan. He raped and pillaged a village or three while the village men were off hunting. One singular returning hunter swam out to the boat, climbed on board, fought his way through the crew, and killed Magellan. > \*\* Well, the “leatherneck” story is at the very least debatable. Marines (British and US) wore leather stocks long before the SA war. The phrase “leatherneck” dates back to at least 1890 in reference to British marines. See: [http://www.wilton.net/wordorl.htm](http://www.wilton.net/wordorl.htm) The Magellan story is just wrong. Magellan died in an ill-advised skirmish with natives on the island of Mactan, the primary lesson being that people in armor shouldn’t trying fighting in thigh deep water. [http://marauder.millersv.edu/~columbus/data/art/WINCHE01.ART](http://marauder.millersv.edu/~columbus/data/art/WINCHE01.ART) ---
**Author:** ![Sauron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2000, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiercest-warriors-in-history/41687/46 "2000-11-20T19:44:41Z")
I was gonna mention the Amazons, but now I’d have to agree with zwaldd: fire ants. Nasty buggers. ---
**Author:** ![Nixon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@Nixon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nixon)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2000, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiercest-warriors-in-history/41687/47 "2000-11-20T20:32:42Z")
I’m surprised that no one has mentioned the Red Army’s performance on the Eastern Front once they recovered from the blizkrieg in 1941. From December 1941 to May 1945, the commies kicked serious ass. (Of course now, from Chechnya to the Kursk fiasco, they are a pale shadow of what they once were.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fiercest-warriors-in-history/41687.md?page=2)