News coming out of Mariupol in Ukraine reminds me of an episode from the Second Sino-Japanese War, what eventually became a part of WWII.

As the Chinese military was forced to withdraw from Shanghai in the face of a superior Japanese army in October 1937, one regiment stayed behind to guard a strategically located warehouse to cover the retreat. Soon, "the Eight Hundred Brave Warriors" became a rallying cry for the Chinese for the remainder of the war. 

Even today, their story lives on. But of course it has become more myth than fact, more propaganda than truth. And unfortunate details and tragic codas are largely forgotten.

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