What is something that happened in history, that if it happened in a movie, people would call "plot hole"?

1. The Dunkirk evacuation would be an eye-rolling example of *and of course the good guys’ friends come galloping in at the last minute to save the seemingly doomed heroes...*
   — Charlie--Dont--Surf


2. A lone Soviet tank holding an entire German division for 1 day in the Battle of Raseiniai in 1941. From Between Giants: The Battle for the Baltics in World War II: >A KV-1 or KV-2 tank (accounts vary) advanced far behind the German lines after attacking a column of German trucks. The tank stopped on a road across soft ground and was engaged by four 50 mm anti-tank guns of the 6th Panzer Division anti-tank battalion. The tank was hit several times but fired back, disabling all four guns. A heavy 88 mm gun of the divisional anti-aircraft battalion was moved about 730 m (800 yd) behind the tank but was knocked out by the tank before it could score a hit. During the night, German combat engineers tried to destroy the tank with satchel charges but failed despite possibly damaging the tracks. Early on the morning of 25 June, German tanks fired on the KV from the woodland while an 88 mm gun fired at the tank from its rear. Of several shots fired, only two penetrated the tank; German infantry advanced and the KV opening machine-gun fire against them and the tank was knocked out by grenades thrown into the hatches. According to some accounts, the crew was buried by the German soldiers with full military honors; in other accounts, the crew escaped during the night.
   — bustead


3. The Prime Minister of Australia, Harold Holt, went missing in 1967 while swimming.
   — TheEverestt






4. I don't know who wrote the script to the [Gimli Glider](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider), but the whole deal was just contrived as hell. Kinda like if they'd made a *Speed 3*, or if The Asylum ripped off *Sully*. SPOILERS INCOMING! - First, a fuel gauge goes out on an Air Canada jet. Which is kinda implausible since this particular plane was a new state o' the art 767 that had only been in service for 2 years at that point, but whatevs. - Because the fuel gauge is busted, the ground crews have to fuel the plane manually. Part of this is that they have to convert the fuel quantity from volume to weight in order to load the necessary amount onto the plane. BUT WAIT! Canada had *just* converted to the metric system at this time, yet the crew mistakenly used the conversion factor for *pounds* instead of *kilograms*. Meaning that there was only half as much fuel as needed for the long-haul flight. What. - The pilot double-checks the ground crew's calculation, except *he* uses the incorrect conversion factor as well. The plane takes off anyway. Uh oh. - During a stopover in Ottawa, the pilot checks the fuel levels *again* and uses the incorrect conversion factor *again*. Meaning the plane *still* doesn't have enough fuel for the long flight to Edmonton. Okay what the fuck. - Somewhere over Ontario at 41,000 feet, the plane predictably runs out of fuel entirely. This is not good, folks, I don't see how they could possibly surv-...wait, what? The pilot, the SAME pilot who mistakenly measured the fuel TWICE, just so happens to also be a very experienced glider pilot who thinks he can land this fuckin' thing with just *math* and [glide ratios](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliding_flight#Glide_ratio) and shit? What kinda cheap-ass Marty Stu redemption arc horseshit IS this?? - Sigh. Okay, where they gonna land this thing? Doesn't look like they can make it to Winnipeg, so they might have to ditch in the middle of a fie-...uhh, I mean this [DECOMMISSIONED AIR FORCE BASE RIGHT HERE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCAF_Station_Gimli) that the co-pilot just happens to know alllll about since he was stationed there when he was in the service. Right. - So they're coming in to land at RCAF Deus Ex Machina. Cool. But...what's this? There's a...*what*? A *drag race* happening on the runway where they need to land?? Are we in sweeps week or something? Take about last-minute, unnecessary drama. - ...not as last-minute as the two boys riding bicycles on part of the runway who narrowly missed a 767 coming in for a silent landing right on top of them, though!! Whew. But in the end, everyone's fine. Crew is fine, passengers are all fine, the racecar drivers are fine, the kids on bikes are fine. The metric system sort of took a hit but oh well. And trusty ol' C-GAUN was even repaired and put back into service. Hooray!
   — SmoreOfBabylon


5. Napoleon's escape from Elba
   — Socialist7


6. Literally everything Hannibal put his mind to
   — FixedExpression






7. I'm sure the leaders of England, Germany and Russia just happen to be cousins in this Great War. They just made that up so they could use the same actor to play both [King George V and Tsar Nicholas II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_V#/media/File:Tsar_Nicholas_II_%26_King_George_V.JPG).
   — thetank19


8. Leonard Funk In January 1945 Funk’s company was deployed to Belgium to help prevent a German breakout during the Battle of the Bulge. After a 15-mile march in heavy snow, the company lost its executive officer, and Funk took command. Failing to gather enough infantrymen to take out a German strongpoint, he recruited men from the company office. Funk led this makeshift platoon of 30 clerks through waist-deep snow, under artillery shelling and harassing fire, overran the strongpoint and captured 30 Germans. Another unit had captured 50 enemy troops, and U.S. forces corralled the two groups of prisoners in the yard of a house, leaving four men to guard them. Funk returned to the fight. Later that day, after running into heavy resistance, Funk and another soldier returned to warn the four-man guard and check on the prisoners. In the interim a patrol of Germans, wearing white camouflage capes similar to those worn by American troops, had surprised the guards and freed the prisoners. Also mistaking the Germans for U.S. troops, Funk walked straight into the yard, where an enemy officer shoved a machine pistol into his gut. Perhaps as a ruse, perhaps from stress or perhaps simply because he was struck by the absurdity of the situation, Funk —who spoke no German—began to laugh. The more he laughed, so the story goes, the angrier the German officer got. The angrier he got, the more he shouted, the less Funk understood and the more the young American laughed. Finally seeming to regain his composure, Funk moved to unsling his Thompson submachine gun as if to surrender it. But instead of giving up the weapon, he emptied a full magazine into the red-faced officer. The other Germans quickly returned fire, while Funk yelled at the other GIs to pick up dropped German weapons and join the fight. In less than a minute his ragtag force killed 21 of the enemy, wounded 24 more and recaptured the remainder. “That was the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen,” Funk reportedly cracked in the aftermath of the firefight. http://www.historynet.com/the-laughing-paratrooper.htm
   — ThesAndman6672