History’s biggest Badasses
Francis Pegahmagabow
Francis Pegahmagabow was a quiet Ojibwe sniper who turned World War I’s chaos into a disciplined ledger of survival and fear. He came home decorated, unheard, and spent the rest of his life fighting a country that loved his kills more than his voice.
Rank - 126
Roy Benavidez
Roy Benavidez was a U.S. Army Special Forces medic who, in May 1968, fought for six hours while grievously wounded to rescue surrounded comrades in Vietnam.
His actions redefined battlefield courage, turning sheer willpower and self-sacrifice into living legend.
Rank - 127
Albert Jacka
Albert Jacka was an Australian soldier and the first from his nation to receive the Victoria Cross in World War I for recapturing a trench at Gallipoli in 1915. He survived extraordinary frontline violence only to die young in peacetime, his legend growing larger as his body finally gave out.
Rank - 128
Paddy Mayne
A founding member of the SAS and one of World War II’s most feared raiders, leading audacious nighttime attacks that destroyed enemy airfields and shattered the myth of rear-area safety. Brilliant, violent, and deeply unstable, he embodied the brutal effectiveness of irregular warfare and became a lasting archetype of special forces legend.
Rank - 131
Jack Churchill
A British Army officer in World War II who went into combat armed with a broadsword, longbow, and bagpipes, turning audacity and spectacle into battlefield weapons. He became legendary for leading commando raids and capturing enemy soldiers through sheer nerve in an age dominated by guns, tanks, and artillery.
Rank - 132
William Marshall
William Marshal (c.1147–1219) was an English knight and statesman who served four kings and became the most celebrated tournament fighter and battlefield commander of the High Middle Ages. Renowned for his unwavering loyalty and mastery of mounted combat, he helped preserve the English crown during civil war and was later mythologized as the living ideal of chivalry.
Rank - 137
Harold G. “Hal” Moore
U.S. Army officer whose calm, uncompromising leadership at the Battle of Ia Drang defined modern airmobile warfare and the brutal reality of command under fire.
Rank - 139
Smedley D. Butler
Smedley D. Butler was a two-time Medal of Honor–winning U.S. Marine who spent decades fighting America’s overseas wars during the age of imperial expansion. After retiring, he became one of the nation’s fiercest critics of war profiteering, condemning the very system that had made him famous.
Rank - 148
John III Sobieski
John III Sobieski was the Polish king who thundered downhill at Vienna and changed Europe’s fate in a single charge.
Rank - 152
Haji Murad
Mountain warlord, double-crossing survivor, and nightmare of the Russian Empire. He fought for faith, power, and family in that order—then died doing all three at once, proving the Caucasus never belonged to anyone who wanted it neatly.
Rank - 153
Leonidas I
Leonidas I, the third son who was never meant to be king, died in a narrow pass at Thermopylae turning a doomed delay into a legend sharp enough to outlive the empire that killed him.
Rank - 169
Adrian Carton de Wiart
A walking catalogue of injuries, Adrian Carton de Wiart charged through the twentieth century’s worst battles with the attitude of a man personally offended by mortality.
Rank - 175
Otto Skorzeny
Otto Skorzeny (1908–1975) was an Austrian SS commando famed for his audacious World War II special operations.
Rank - 179
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon’s life reads like a battlefield map—bold advances, scorched retreats, and a legacy carved in dust, defiance, and the fine print of history’s moral gray zone.
Rank - 187
Maurice De Saxe
Bloated, brilliant, and half-dying, Maurice de Saxe turned Fontenoy into a masterpiece of smoke, steel, and spite—the last waltz of France’s hungover genius.
Rank - 188