It's simple, Battle of Thermopylae was tactical defeat, but strategic victory. I can tell you of battle with similar effects, from history of my country - Poland. It was Battle of Zadworze during Polish-Bolshevik War. It was fought on August 17, 1920 near the train station of Zadworze, a small village located 33 kilometres from the city centre of Lwów. 330 Poles were defending against Bolsheviks (number unknown). They fought from noon till dusk. By dusk the Poles' ammunition was almost completely depleted, yet the Polish unit managed to repulse six consecutive cavalry charges. Polish commander, captain Zajaczkowski decided that the further defence of the station was impossible and ordered his units to retreat towards Lwow. However, the retreat was halted by three Bolshevik airplanes strafing the Polish defenders. After suffering heavy casualties, Zajączkowski ordered his men to organize a last pocket of resistance near the lineman's hut. After hand-to-hand combat with sabres and bayonettes, the Polish resistance was broken. Out of 330 Polish soldiers who seized the train station earlier that day, 318 were dead. Several dozen wounded Poles were captured by the Red Army and most probably murdered. Captain Zajączkowski himself committed suicide in order not to be captured by the enemy. Only twelve Polish soldiers returned to the Polish lines to recount what had happened during the battle. At that time, it was tactical defeat. However, the 11 hours long fight halted the advance of the whole Russian 6th Cavalry Division for almost 24 hours. This allowed for the strengthening of the defences of Lwów. In addition, because of the defence of Zadwórze, the 1st Cavalry Army of Siemion Budionnyi could not reach the forces fighting in the Battle of Warsaw and attack the undefended right flank of the forces of Józef Piłsudski advancing towards the rear of the Red Army forces around Warsaw. When the forces of Budionnyi finally regrouped and restarted their march northwards, it was already too late and the Battle of Warsaw ended with a complete defeat of the Red Army (the 1st Cavalry Army was later defeated in a Battle of Komarow, which became known as "the biggest cavalry battle since 18th century").
Because of the heroic defence and number of casualties, the battle of Zadwórze was nicknamed the "Polish Battle of Thermopylae". The name is even more significant, when we realise, that if we had lost battle of Warsaw, Bolsheviks would have had a clear way to invade rest of Europe (which was weakend after the WWI). Vladimir Lenin viewed Poland as a bridge that had to be crossed so that communism could be brought to Central and Western Europe, and the Polish-Bolshevik War seemed the perfect way to test Bolshevik strength. Bolshevik speeches asserted that the revolution was to be carried to western Europe on the bayonets of Soviet soldats and that the shortest route to Berlin and Paris lay through Warsaw. It didn't happen, thanks to polish victory in the battle of Warsaw, which in turn was in great measure possible due to the defend of Zadworze. Like the British historian A.J.P. Taylor said, the Polish-Bolshevik War "largely determined the course of European history for the next twenty years or more.[...] Unavowedly and almost unconsciously, Soviet leaders abandoned the cause of international revolution."
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