"I will hold."

During the Battle of Belleau Wood, 1st Lt. Cifton B. Cates, USMC, sent this message on 19 July 1918 to his headquarters:

"I have only two men out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold."

Lt. Cates is saying here that he only has 2 Marines left out of an original company that would have been about 100 to 120 Marines.

"Lost Over Laos" and "Farewell to a Hero"

In 1971, as American forces hastened their withdrawal from Vietnam, a helicopter was hit by enemy fire over Laos and exploded in a fireball, killing four top combat photographers: Larry Burrows of Life magazine, Henri Huet of Associated Press, Kent Potter of United Press International, and Keisaburo Shimamoto of Newsweek. The remoteness of the crash site made a recovery attempt impossible. "Lost Over Laos" provides an inside look into these events against the backdrop of U.S. operations in Laos during the Vietnam War. Starting around page 166, this book includes the story of how Associated Press correspondent Mike Putzel and Major James Newman made a flight over the crash site.

Books Related to Leadership thru Influence

The requirement to practice "leadership thru influence" is pretty common.  This calls on one to achieve outcomes without direct management controls over budget, staff, etc. Here are some books on this subject of indirect influence (or topics near to it) that I recommend.