World War II/Awesome

World War II contained the most concentrated real life Badassery, not only demonstrated by the soldiers who fought the war, the commanders who led the soldiers and the politicians who inspired the resistance against fascism, but also from ordinary people caught in an extraordinary situation. It is the real reason why nobody is allowed to assassinate Hitler. The following list is a tribute to those who fought and died to ensure the liberty of generations to come. It was truly their finest hour.

Lest we forget.


 * And we never shall.

For some countries, World War II was not an event. It was a way of life for an entire generation. We might never see their like again. (And hopefully won't.)

The Allies - United We Stand
Some moments are so awesome that it's not just about one nation. It's about many countries coming together to achieve one noble goal. To quote a historian writing about "Why the Allies Won?": The embattled democracies of 1939 would lead a world crusade just six years later.

""Two kinds of people are staying on this beach! The dead, and those who are going to die! NOW GET MOVING!""
 * D-Day. General Eisenhower, on the 20th Anniversary of D-day, explained it best when he visited one of the many cemeteries in Normandy: "When I look at all of these graves, I think of the folks back in the States whose only son is buried here. Because of their sacrifice, they don't have the pleasure of grandchildren. Because of their sacrifice, my grandchildren are living in freedom."
 * A British Coastguardman, after seeing the largest invasion fleet in history, went home to his wife and could only say: "A lot of men are going to die tonight. We must pray for them."
 * For the British, D-Day was often seen as the culmination of their crowning national epic. After five years of "blood, sweat, and tears", the British were coming back to the continent to avenge the defeats of 1940. Even more fitting, Admiral Ramsey - who organized the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940 - would be the one who would lead the entire naval invasion task force.
 * The Pointe du Hoc assault involved a bunch of Rangers climbing up a cliff, capturing a well defended (but empty) gun battery, blocking enemy reinforcements and finding and destroying the relocated guns. On the first day. They then held the gun emplacement for another day, preventing Omaha Beach from failing. The site still has bomb craters visible. A lot of them.
 * Sailors manning the landing craft were supposedly told: "Fight to get your men ashore. Fight to save your ships. And if you have any strength left, fight to save yourselves!"
 * It was also a moment of pride for Canada, as the only units to take all of their objectives for D-Day were Canadian (the 6th Canadian Armoured Regiment and the Queens Own Rifles of Canada). This despite 50% casualties for the first wave and a seawall twice as high as the one at Omaha Beach.
 * There's also the sergeant on Omaha Beach that got the GIs moving after they'd hunkered down behind any bit of cover they could and wouldn't move forward. He ran up and down the beach in plain view of the enemy screaming at them, a line quoted in Call of Duty 2: Big Red One


 * Operations Fortitude, Ironside, and Vendetta: the Allied misinformation campaign that tried to convince the Germans that the Allies were going to attack Calais, Norway, Aquitaine, or southern France instead of Normandy. It worked brilliantly. The Allies even convinced the Germans that the massive army in Normandy was merely a diversion, and that the real attack was about to hit Calais. Consequently, the Germans didn't even reinforce Normandy, giving the Allies time to consolidate their beachhead. It was the largest hoax in human history.

United Kingdom - "Their Finest Hour"
Britain's moment would come standing alone against Nazi Germany in 1940, even as her cities were being devastated by aerial bombing.

"The Doctor: Amazing. Nancy: What is? The Doctor: 1941. Right now, not very far from here, the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it, nothing. Until one tiny, damp little island says "No. No, not here." A mouse in front of a lion. You're amazing, the lot of you. I don't know what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me."
 * The British Empire holding out for as long as it did. Had the mainland fallen, the Second World War would have been over before the Soviet Union or the United States became involved. After that, Germany would have hit the USSR with everything it had and most likely would have won. It would be highly unlikely that the USA would ever declare war on Germany. As such, without Britain and their Dominions standing strong, Europe would have been dominated by a Nazi empire.
 * For one troper, it's always been best summarized by the Ninth Doctor's words to Nancy in the episode, "The Empty Child":

""The Second World War has acquired a unique and hallowed place in British history, not purely because the war itself turned out to be so just, but also because of the extraordinary heroism of the servicemen and civilians caught up in it. It is not possible to record all the acts of courage and self-sacrifice that the ordinary people made for the common good: women fire-fighters who stood their ground while buildings were crumbling all around them; pensioners ready to die firing a shotgun at the enemy 'as long as I take one with me.' The ordinary British people showed themselves to be resourceful, unselfish and modest, yet incredibly heroic in a way that is hard to imagine looking at that snarling driver who made obscene gestures to you as he cut you up at the traffic lights. Never again would there be such a sense of unity and purpose in Great Britain. Back in 1940 Winston Churchill had said that future generations would look back and say 'This was their finest hour.' And he was quite right.""
 * Honorable mention should be given to all the foreign pilots who fought alongside the RAF, though the Commonwealth Countries obviously had a heavy involvement, but there's Polish, French, Belgian, Dutch, Czech Republic, Irishmen, and even some American volunteers (Although the "Eagle Squadrons," whom you see in the movies occasionally did not really show up until a huge chunk of the campaign was over).
 * John O'Farrel on the Blitz and the Battle of Britain said it best:

"Queen Elizabeth: The children will not go without me. I will not go without the King. And the King will never leave his country."
 * That passage never, ever fails to make me cry. Rule, Britannia.
 * Speaking of Churchill: "We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; We shall never surrender."
 * Operation Dynamo, also known as the "Miracle at Dunkirk." Three hundred thousand soldiers were successfully evacuated to Britain from France, not just in Royal Navy ships. But with lifeboats, private pleasure boats and fishing ships, which were often piloted by their owners instead of military personnel. There's a reason we call it "the Dunkirk spirit."
 * Operation Chariot. The Royal Commandos rammed a dock gate with a destroyer, whilst under heavy German fire. They succeeded, rendering the docks useless, until five years later after the raid.
 * Not to mention carrying a massive force of commandos to wreak havoc against German-held targets. Five Victoria Crosses were awarded for actions taken part in this operation. No wonder Winston Churchill called it, "The greatest raid of all!"
 * One of them has the distinct honor of being the only VC awarded on recommendation of the foe! This also caused Hitler to give out infamous commands to execute any commandos captured on sight, since they cause that much damage.
 * That would be Thomas Durrant. Not only was the VC awarded by recommendation of the enemy. Commander Gerard Roope was also awarded the VC,, because of his actions of destroyer HMS Glowworm against the German battlecruiser Admiral Hipper during 1940. Seriously, Glowworm's final action is a CMOA on its own.
 * There was only one VC awarded solely on the enemy's recommendation (Both Durrant and Roope were supported by their own men's testimonies). This was Lloyd Trigg, a New Zealander of the RNZAF, who attacked a U-Boat in his Liberator patrol aircraft. His plane was hit, because of the U-Boat's intense anti-aircraft fire. Since the tail was on fire, he could've break off his attack, ditch, and hope for a rescue. Or did was he actually did: turn into the murderously accurate AA fire and bomb the sub. Trigg sank the submarine while his plane was shot under him, crashing into the sea, and killing everyone aboard. The seven survivors of the submarine were eventually rescued by a Royal Navy vessel, and the sub's captain recommended the VC gallantry award for Flying Officer Trigg. The lesson is this: any VC award is usually the result of an outstandingly Crowning Moment of Awesome.
 * The Glowworm's final action IS recorded as a CMOA (Entry below).
 * The Battle Of The River Plate. The Germans were fooled by the British into thinking that they have a massive fleet waiting for the Admiral Graf Spee, a pocket battleship, which was trapped in a neutral port, actually the AGS had were three cruisers. The German Captain scuttled his ship instead.
 * The biplanes attack that was launched from a carrier that badly damaged the Italian Naval fleet in Taranto Harbor (This cause them half their battleship strength). Later, the Japanese used the same tactics to attack the American Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor.
 * The same planes, the outdated Fairey Swordfish, which later crippled the Bismarck's steering, preventing it from escaping the pursuing British battleship.
 * HMS Jervis Bay, was a merchant cruiser that was armed, it was escorting a convoy in the North Atlantic. Suddenly, being attacked by the Admiral Scheer, a German pocket battleship. The Jervis Bay steamed right at the enemy, pitting her six-inch guns against the Scheer's 11 inch guns, while the convoy escaped. The Jervis Bay was sunk, but she saved all of the merchant ships (except five).
 * Operation "Double Cross" - The act of using triple agents to send false information back to the Nazis, which also included getting them, by stating they'd landed in London north-west when they hit the city center, to alter the V-2's settings so they'd fall short.
 * The fact that Operation Double Cross was so successful, it can be said without exaggeration that the British basically ran Germany's Secret Service in the UK.
 * The glider attack just after midnight on D-Day at Bénouville drawbridge, by the men of the 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire, and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, led by Major John Howard. The gliders pinpointed a landing forty yards from the objective and the bridge was taken, with only a loss of two men. The bridge is now called "Pegasus Bridge," a reference to the Pegasus emblem of the shoulder patches British Airborne soldiers.
 * Operation Mincemeat. Planting false information in a very convincing way.
 * The Volunteer Defence Corps, later the Home Guard (Immortalized by Dads Army): Men who were too young, had jobs too important to the war effort, or were too old to serve in the army for reals, taking up arms, uniforms, and planning to act as a backup line of defense in case of an invasion. Considering that in the early names, they have barely any ammunition, even uniforms, and would have been massacred if the Nazi had invaded.
 * Alan Turing and the Bletchley Park crew, cracking German codes and ciphers (Helped immensely by Polish expats). How crucial were they? They broke the German Enigma code, every single one. Allowing the Naval convoys to be aware of every German naval attack it was going to run into and scattered accordingly.
 * Not only was Churchill reading Hitler's mail before Hitler does, the code-breakers found ways to get the German's to tell them that day's "key" - Enigma works by having a to start with a three letter combo, which sets the initial positions. Bletchley Park would get the RAF to drop a mine in part of France's Coastal waters. It would relayed dutifully by the Germans' chain of command for distribution to warn the ships. Since these warnings are always similarly formatted, with the same wards, Station X knew what it said, to what letter, before they decoded it. All that Bletchley Park then had to do was reverse engineer the code to get that day's setting, and German traffic from the rest of the day would be an open book.
 * Another Crowning Moment would be the "Battle of the Beams," with Air Ministry's "scientific intelligence" comping up with ingenious ways to block Luftwaffe's radio navigation. They managed to defeat three German radio systems.
 * Brigadier Charrington and the 1st Armored Brigade were the last at the Grecian evacuation and not all of them can be evacuated. When the beachmaster informed Charrington quietly that they could be put on the first boat, Charrington responded "Who do you take me for?" and stated he'd will be going last.
 * HMS Ledbury, under Roger Hill, at Malta: when Hill saw the doomed ship's crew being surrounded by burning petrol, he ordered the Ledbury in. Its sailors pulled the injured to safety, personally by climbing down the ropes and scramble nets, risking their own fiery deaths if this goes wrong.
 * The Royal Family staying in London "for the duration," putting themselves at the risk of being blown to smithereens every night which almost happened when Buckingham Palace was bombed, as a gesture of defiance and winning the loyalty of the British people in the process. (Princess Elizabeth would serve in the Women's Auxiliaries in the last months of World War II as an auto mechanic. In late 1944, she turned eighteen). When asked way Elizabeth and Margaret were not evacuated to the safety of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) answered:

"Queen Elizabeth: Finally. Now I can look the East End in the face."


 * It's her grace and determination which caused Adolf Hitler to call her "The most dangerous woman in Europe."
 * The Royal Family even followed rationing. Even Eleanor Roosevelt complained of being subject to rationing and no hot water when she visited London during that time.
 * Even Princess Elizabeth had to collect rationing coupons for her wedding dress for her marriage to Philip Mountbatten (the present-day Duke of Edinburgh) in 1947.
 * The Battle of Normandy's key part was the British and Canadian forces drawing the foe against them in the east, that way the US forces in the West could build up for the breakout. This meant engaging the Germans in the close-in forests, hedgerows, and bocage country, when the Nazi had made sure to leave a lot of traps, guns, and tanks ready. It's two months of this!
 * Operation Compass. Richard O'Connor, a British commander, found out that Italy's positioning in North Africa is a grievous flaw. He launched an attack on them with 36,000 men and 275 tanks against 150,000 Italians with 600 tanks. The British took under 2,000 casualties, and yet captured/killed 115,000 Italians and 400 tanks. Anthony Eden remarked, "Never has so much been surrendered by so many to so few."
 * The Hurricat and Camships - Hurricane planes which are launched by catapulting from ships, just to compensate for lack of aircraft carriers. One plane, hurled into the air by itself, with no way of landing, over the North Atlantic which is freezing, against the much larger German forces. Out of the 175 sorties, only one pilot died because of parachute failure. The Hurricane appearing seemingly out of nowhere would scare the Luftwaffe off sometimes. Garth Ennis, a war comic writer, said that when he first head of this, he could not believe they were real.
 * Admiral Cunningham's comment on the Royal Navy's role in the evacuation of Create. When the British Army was forced to retreat, the Army expressed concerns that he would loose too many ships. Nevertheless, the Admiral was determined that 'the Navy should not let the Army down.' "It takes three years to build a ship," he said, "but it takes three centuries to build a tradition."
 * The air defence of Malta by the Royal Air Force. Historians are arguing over whether the whole business was down to three Gloster Gladiator biplanes, named "Faith," "Hope," and "Charity." Whatever the case, those three fighters made a name for themselves that today the three-aircraft unit which defends the Falkland Islands was given those names (The fourth, reserve aircraft is ominously named "Desperation").
 * The reinforcements themselves were CMoA - The Spitfire and Hurricane land-based fighters were fitted with oversized drop tanks and were flown half the length of the Mediterranean, flown off aircraft carriers, since the Med was too perilous to get a cargo ship through.
 * At the D-Day (June 6, 1944) landings, Bill Millin played his bagpipes. He landed on Sword Beach, wearing a ceremonial dagger and carrying his pipes, he had no other weapons on him. While his brigade stormed the beach, he played, as they crossed the bridges encountering sniper fire; the German snipers thought that Bill was a madman and they later said so, and they held their fire. This is why you don't fuck with the Scottish. Bill passed away in 2011. Here's his obituary at The Economist, which further details why this man deserves to be on this list.
 * Everything about Jack Churchill: Jack Churchill.
 * Though Bernard Montogmery was not Britain's greatest WWII general. The accolade goes to William Slim, a tough fighter who rose to the rank of Field-Marshal and ultimately commanding the whole Allied armies in India and Burma. Slim's achievement is eclipsed by the fact that Montgomery was a better self-publicist and politician, and the war was fought nearest Home. However Slim's three achievements as a General are the long retreat out of Burma and into India - which is over-a-thousand-miles-long fighting retreat. This was a difficult move for any General, but they carried out through jungles and monsoon. Then Slim forms the Army's nucleus, that they were not just beat, but to utterly destroy, the Japanese: Not with British soldiers, but also with large Indian, African components, and the small yet potent American force that was under his command. William Slim retains and rebuild the British Empire forces, gave them fighting spirits, and belief in themselves. This was needed at the Imphal/Kohima during 1944, where his army faced, fought, and defeated the Japanese invasion of India. He follows this up with blitzkrieg reconquest of Burma, that destroyed the last of the two Japanese Army corps. All of this was done on the "forgotten front," Britain's war effort against the Japan, this starve them of resources and manpower. Since everything was needed for the German war. An example, knowing that D-Day was imminent in June 1944, William had to defeat the Japanese Army, whose army outnumbered his, and defend India. Plus, he's aware that he can't expect much reinforcements and replenishment from Home. And he still won. Slim was preparing for the reconquest of Malaya, Singapore, and French Indochina when the war ended. The Veterans of the 14th Army remembers him to this day with love and affection.
 * This can't be overstated. William Slim was the one who termed them "The Forgotten Army," and he was one of the few Generals in the British Army's long history, who not only believes in The Men First, but DEMANDS it from his officers, as seen by the page quote.
 * In one of Hitler's speeches, he said that German soldiers would be there to defeat any British forces, who lands in mainland Europe. After when the British manage to do so without being defeated, one British soldier sends Hitler a telegram asking where those soldiers who were supposed to defeat them were.

United States - "The Greatest Generation"
The US military started the war with green, untested troops, and in just 4 years, it was the most powerful nation on Earth. "In no engagement of its entire history has the United States Navy shown more gallantry, guts, and gumnption than in those two morning hours between 0730 and 0930 off Samar."
 * The US War Production's jaw-dropping enormous capacity and efficiency and its' extent can be summed up in one line: The Ford Motor Company alone would produce more military equipment than Italy.
 * One of the reasons why Japan struck first was that they believe that Americans could not sustain a prolonged wartime efforts. How does one say Nice Job Breaking It, Hero in Japanese?
 * ニースの仕事はそれを壊す, 主人公!
 * On the contrary, they, the Japanese, knew that they could not stand up to the United States in a prolonged conflict very well. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (one of the masterminds behind the Pearl Harbor attack) was in the US and studied several years there, and knew full well that Japan could not match America's production capacity. The attack on Pearl Harbor came since there was a US and UK blockade against Japan that was creating a critical oil shortage (which was the intended effect) and Japan had to break the blockade somehow. So the design behind the Pearl Harbor attack was to cripple the US naval forces in the Pacific in a swift strike and then push onwards into the mainland US, without any resistance, the United States would be forced to retreat from the Pacific theater entirely. This almost succeeded: the US carriers were forced out into sea and weren't at anchor in Pearl Harbor as the Japanese assumed; that left the United States with a means of fighting back. The Japanese also failed to destroy the American submarine base at Pearl Harbor (it was completely undamaged), which allowed the US forces to successfully commence a raiding campaign similar to Germany's wolf packs in the Atlantic theater against Japan, which hampered Japan's production capacity.
 * Yamamoto, a Japanese commander, was the only one who thought that their asses got served. However, the Japanese High Command, were so high on themselves that they thought that the US would cave under the might of Imperial Japan eventually.
 * Henry Ford had one last great project, aka "Willow Run." After pioneering the automobiles' mass-production, he offered to the US government that he would build a factory that could produce one four-engined heavy bomber every hour. Most people thought that this was impossible and they were correct. "Willow Run" didn't average a bomber every hour; it actually averaged one bomber every SIXTY-THREE minutes.
 * "The United States built more merchant shipping in the first four and a half months of 1943 than Japan put in the water in seven years."
 * This partially due to the U.S.'s deploying the "Liberty Ships." Though most vessels are built to last the decade or more, the Liberty Ships were build to last approximately six months. So, no reason to build a ship that gonna last long if a single torpedo would sink it anyway. This allows these ships to be cheaply massed produced and in greater quantity.
 * The Battle of Wake Island gets an extra special mention, this is America's first victory of the entire war. Their story goes like this: During three straight days of Japanese bombing, both the Marines and civilian contractors on the island somehow managed to trick the bombers into bombing fake positions. The Japanese believed that they completely knocked out all of the defenses on Wake Island, so the over confident fleet, the same one which took out Guam the day before, went to Wake Island with no air support whatsoever. The Marine commander orders his men to hold until the Japanese ships were within 4,800 yards, which is 5" artillery range, since those are the biggest guns that the Marines had. Once the orders came, the Marines let loose with all the artillery on the Japanese ships, even sinking one less than 15 seconds. The fleet then retreated out of range, just to be attacked by the remaining four American airplanes. These planes were armed with 100 lbs bombs, which one of the pilots were told that its impossible to sink a ship with, his response was along the lines of "then they just aren't trying hard enough," next proceeding to sink a Japanese destroyer with one after receiving a direct hit on its supply of depth charges, causing the ship to explode and forcing the Japanese to retreat more further.
 * The Japanese eventually captured Wake Island upon their return with a huge fleet and air support, after their first troop wave were they completely decimated by the already stationed Marines. The Marine commander, through a mixture of down communication lines and a confirmation that Pearl Harbor won't be coming to aid them, decided to surrender to the Japanese forces. The latter intended to kill off every single American on the island, but orders from their own commanded them not to do so, because the Wake Island battle was already being fixated on by the international world media's attention, and it would be considered as an undeniable war atrocity if a few hundred American Marines and civilians were to disappear.
 * The Chinese Air Volunteer Group, aka the Flying Tigers. In every engagement, they were outnumbered, flying from bomb cratered dirt runways and living under the most intolerable and harshest conditions, even using the obsolescent Curtiss P-408 against a much more technologically advance Japanese aircraft, flying against skillful and experienced Japanese pilots, the AVG won victories and inflicted losses out of all proportion to their numbers on the Japanese. Most of the credit must go to its innovative commander, Claire Chennault, who developed the "boom and zoom" tactics of high-speed slashing attacks which allows the pilots to take advantage of the P-40B's strengths, its acceleration, and top speeds against Japanese fighter aircraft that are far better but can't accelerate or climb as well.
 * Kinda true. Though outnumbered, the AVG mostly fought against obsolete Japanese aircraft. Their success was mostly to Chennault's brilliantly conceived network of warning stations that gave them the time to achieve the altitude and position required to implement their boom and zoom tactics.
 * The Hawaiian US Pacific Fleet Radio Intelligence guys deserved the CMOA when they discovered plans for the Japanese invasion of Midway, allowing Admiral Nimitz to plan a devastating ambush. Nimitz remarked that the radio intelligence officer's prediction of the Japanese Fleet's location was "Only 5 minutes, 5 degrees, and 5 miles off," which is a bullseye given the circumstances.
 * During the battle, the USS Yorktown entered with a repair crew from the docks at Pearl Harbor still on board and making repairs from the Battle of the Coral Sea. After received several bombs from the Japanese airstrike, the damage control parties did a very good job, next a second wave arrived with torpedoes, they thought they were attacking a whole new carrier. The ship survived after taking a pair of torpedoes as well. Yorktown eventually went down after a submarine attacke while limping home with battle damage from less than 3 Japanese airstrikes, all of which failed to sink her.
 * Another great trivia piece. After the Battle of the Coral Sea, Yorktown was taken for repairs to Hawaii, before we knew about Midway. Everyone estimated that it would take months before the Yorktown was battle worthy again. How long it took? 72 HOURS!!!
 * The war's entire course during the Pacific turned on the attack of the Torpedo Squadron Eight at the Battle of Midway. Flying obsolete and slow torpedo planes, the squadron pressed their attack through the mighty teeth of the entire Japanese fighter screen from all four carriers, and they were wiped out except for the last man. Pressing their suicidal attack drew the fighters down to a low altitude, thus allowing the dive bombers from two carriers an attack that leaves them unopposed completely on the Japanese carriers for a moment that they were rearming their planes. Three out of the four carriers were sunk in the ensuining attack (the fourth was sunk later on that day), and the Japanese Navy never recovered.
 * However, Torpedo Squadron 8 was not alone with their sacrifice. Both of their ships, the Enterprise and the Yorktown, were virtually annihilated while attacking the Japanese carriers, thus giving the dive-bombers to win the day. Many bomber units from Midway were wiped out as well to keep the Japanese off-balance earlier. Their bravery was such that one of the Japanese carrier commanders paid them the ultimate compliment that a member of the IJN could ever bestow upon a foe: "These men are samurai."
 * A troper's grandfather was one of the crewmen aboard the Enterprise, one of her men refueled the bombers when they returned to the ship. Her grandfather usually described the battle from the crew's POV: "Everyone aboard saw how many planes took off, and how few came back. Everyone aboard wished they could have flown with them. We weren't sure what the Grim Reaper used anymore   a battery of 40mm cannons, or a Devastator [torpedo bomber]." (To clarify, her grandfather was referring to the fact that almost every man who went into a Devastator died).
 * In October 25, 1944, the US Navy's own Crowner of bravery was the Battle of Samar. A badly outnumbered, small group of light American warships found themselves facing one of the main Japanese fleet, which included the world's largest battleship the Yamato. Despite the insane odds, the Americans fought so fiercely that the Japanese retrieved so much damage that the Japanese had to retreat. In fact, the official history of the United States Navy would describe the engagement with the following words:

"A platoon of engineers appears in one terse sentence of a German commander's report. They have fought bravely, says the foe, and forced him to waste a couple of hours in deployment and maneuver. In this brief emergence from the fog of war the engineer platoon makes its bid for recognition in history. That is all."
 * For dramatic effect, what should be noted that this battle occurred on the same day as the famous Charge of the Light Brigade immortalized by Lord Alfred Tennyson. A troper still gets chills when remembering the lines from that most epic of poems and relating it to the vicious yet desperate battle off Samar: "Storm'd at through shot and shell, while horse and hero fell, they that had fought so well..."
 * One ship - USS. Samuel B. Roberts, a destroyer escort - challenged a Japanese cruiser five times its size and won, before being sunk herself. Her gun crews fought so fiercely that one of her guns blew up from overheating literally. The gun's crew chief - Chief Paul Carr - was found mortally wounded by the repair party later. He was torn open from the neck to the crotch with his internal organs exposed. Yet Paul was still begging for someone to load the gun and fire.
 * The Robert's Captain, after his commander ordered to attack, he delivered this line: "We will enter a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival could not be expected. We will do what damage we can."
 * Not only that, Carr and his crew had fired 324 rounds in 35 minutes. Most of the time, they were without power and had to load manually. For example, a full magazine for a 5 inch gun mount is 325 rounds.
 * The Ronbert's smaller size helped the ship to survive longer: she got so close to the Chikuma, a Japanese cruiser, that the foe can't depress their guns low enough to hit her. The Chikuma's shells flew over the small American ship, while the latter mauled the cruiser to bits. The destroyer escort fought like a battleship!
 * Another ship, the USS Johnston, a destroyer, delivered a performance that probably would never be equaled in the annals of naval history. Her skipper, Lt. Commander Ernest E. Evans, received the Medal of Honor posthumously, for the shp's whole performance during the battle that can only be considered as one huge CMOA.
 * During the battle's first few minutes, the Johnston launched a solo torpedo attack against all of the Japanese fleet, this knocked out the Japanese cruiser, Kumano, in the process. Another cruiser withdraw to help the crippled Kumano. This attack galvanized the American Admiral apparently to send the rest of the destroyers into the fray and all of them performed with unmatched dedication.
 * More incredibly, albeit the Johnston was severely damaged during the torpedo attack, Commander Evans kept his ship in the fight. While the other destroyers were charging forward to launch their torpedoes, the Johnston - While battered. - Followed closely to provide fire supports for her healthier sisters.
 * The bridge was supposedly was up in flames, plus, the electrical power was gone. The captain - Who was badly wounded - continues shouting orders down into the engine room.
 * Eventually, Johnson was damaged so badly that it was down to one working engine, a Japanese cruiser began pounding on the hapless American Escort Carriers - Beginning with the Gambier Bay, a carrier. When seeing this, Commander Evans gave the following order: "Commence firing on that cruiser, draw her fire on us and away from the Gambier Bay." This order alone would've been enough for someone to earn the Medal of Honor, but he, Commander Evans, went farther: He not fought off the cruiser, he fought off a whole squadron of foe destroyers!
 * This doesn't detract from the Johnston's crew's bravery and sheer badassery. But it has been speculated that the IJN destroyers retreated since they had finished their torpedo's runs, not because of the Johnston's firing.
 * It's more likely that the destroyer's torpedoes were launched at maximum range due to the Johnston's firing, but therefore missed.
 * The Japanese were awestruck by the Johnston's crew's sheer courage that was displayed, treating their fallen foe with unprecedented gallantry. Instead of machine-gunning the survivors, the Japanese crewmen tossed cans of food to the Americans. Also, according to legend, one Japanese Captain got so moved that he stepped outside of his bridge and saluted while the Johnston went down.
 * The Gambier Bay, sadly, didn't survive, since she was attacked by several other Japanese cruisers. The sinking carrier produced a CMoAs of her own. Rather than surrending to despair, the crew fired back tat the attacking enemy cruisers with the ship's lone 5 inch cannon to the very end. During one point, the enemy closing in, the anti-aircraft gunners were then ordered to man their stations, being told "Don't worry boys! We're sucking the Japanese into 40mm rage!"
 * The escort carriers' fire proved to be more than just for show though. Approximately, one escort carrier was saved when the 5-inch gun destroyed a torpedo that was going to hit their ship. Another escort carrier (most likely the Kalinin Bay) actually scored a direct hit on a Japanese cruiser with her microscophic 5-inch gun. This hit caused a catastrophic explosion in a torpedo mount that left the cruiser lame and helpless, which allowed the torpedo bombers to finish it off. In a nutshell, one of the escort carriers - described by their creews as "Combustible, Vulnerable, and Expendable," faced a fully armed Japanese cruiser, survived, but won.
 * The maniacal courage displayed by the Americans in this battle, can be summed up at best by the words of a young signal officer on the American flagship. Although the Americans had lost four ships, over a thousand sailors, and are barely clinging onto life, after realizing that the Japanese were retreating, the young American officer shoutted: "Goddammit, they're getting away!"
 * Bob Campbell, an American air ace, who fought in that battle (and survived) recorded in his diary: "The CVEs [escort carriers] launched, landed and re-launched all of their planes while under fire. [...] In the heat of the battle TMBs [torpedo bombers] had to make dummy attacks when they expended their torpedoes to hold off the enemy until others came back with a load [of torpedoes]. Fighters did the same thing. It must have taken a lot of guts to make a run on a battleship with no ammo." (Emphasis mine)
 * Additionally, most of the ordnance on the CVEs and their aircraft were high explosive bombs for ground attack, which are largely ineffective against armored ships.
 * In fact, the first American pilot, who spotted the Japanese - who had a hard time convincing the rest of the fleet they were in danger (I'm sure those battleships are Japanese. They have pagoda masts!" - Quickly proceeded to attack on his own using depth charges, which were comply useless against anything, except a submarine.
 * In spite of their armaments, which are lopsided, the American airmen's actions off the Samar thoroughly impressed their Japanese opponents. One Japanese officer, who had survived many other airstrikes (Including ones which consists of over thousands of planes, each equipped with proper torpedoes and armor-piercing bombs) said that he believed Samar was the finest work of the American pilots bar none.
 * A troper's grandfather was onboard the USS Hoel, one of the 3 US destroyers in the battle. That anyone on that ship who managed to survive having his ship shot out from under him from the likes of the Yamato is a CMOA all on its own.
 * Even the Japanese would give the ultimate tribute to the USS Hoel. After when the Hoel was sunk, the Japanese commander was triumphantly told that they had sunk an American cruiser. They can't believe that such a small ship - It's smaller than a destroyer - could have done so much damage.
 * This troper would like to dedicate the above comment to his grandfather, a survivor off the Hoel, who'd died on July 26, 2008. You'll always be a badass to me for making it through that fight, granddad.
 * Manly Tears, dammit! sniff.
 * This other troper, whose home country was liberated partly due to the actions of the American fleet off Samar, expresses the hope that soldiers, sailors, and airmen now in Heaven are still talking about what happened on October 25, 1944. So, that whenever a survivor of this battle finally has to meet St. Peter, they can simply say "I was there."
 * The next best US destroyer action of WW2 was the Battle of Vella Gulf, were 6 US destroyers, which up till then had been resoundingly ineffective in the Naval Battles of Guadalcanal, successfully ambushed 4 Japanese destroyers, hitting all four in what's quote probably a perfectly executed torpedo attack by surface ships in the entire war by using the nearby island to hide themselves from the Japanese radar and its' sight. The latter didn't even know they were under attack, until their ships began to explode and only the Shigure's bizarre luck kept it from being a perfect clean sweep when the torpedo that hit its rudder failed to explode.
 * Very nearly as impressive is the action during the night of November 14, 1942, by the battleship USS Washington off SAvo Island. Yes, they had radar and the Japanese did not, but the USS South Dakota was simultaneously surrounded by multiple large Japanese ships with very powerful searchlights and got chewed up rather badly. And the Washington was engaging the Japanese at very close range, even for this time. I've read rather different accounts of this battle in various places, differing significantly on the details, but what does not differ is that they were out of position, unsupported, surrounded, standing alone against a Japanese force that included at least one battleship and possibly others, and they sank one Japanese battleship and multiple smaller vessels in a matter of minutes.
 * The battle was fought principally betwixt two American battleships - South Dakota and Washington, against a lone Japanese battleship, the Kirishima. Mainly, the South Dakota suffered from electrical problems and was not able to fire a shot while the Japanese were pounding her. Meanwhile, the Washington snuck up on the Kirishima and wrecked her with accurate gunfire. It would be the second to the last time battleships would ever face another in a surface fight, and cemented the reputation of Admiral "Ching" Lee (Commander of the Washington) as the greatest battleship commander in the US Navy.
 * What's more dramatic than the fight between the Washington/South Dakota and Kirishima was the battle of Guadalcanal several nights earlier. A scratch American force lead by two cruisers ended up fighting a Japanese task force lead by two battleships. In what's often described as the most chaotic naval battle of the war, both sides only began firing at point-blank range, which cause devastating casualties on both sides. Scott and Callaghan - Two American Admirals - were killed during the fight, while the Japanese commander himself was wounded. While the Americans sustained far more casualties, they stopped the Japanese from bombarding Henderson Airfield, which was providing vital air support for the Marines fighting for their lives on Guadalcanal. The commander of the Marines, who was later asked how victory in Guadalcanal became possible, thanked his soldiers, God, but most of all "The brave sailors such as Admiral Scott and Callaghan, who gave their lives to prevent another bombardment of Henderson Field."
 * The final defense of Henderson Field, on Guadalcanal, during the night of October 26, 1942, also counts. Two under strength battalions of mixed US Marine and US Army National Guard troops held the final defensive lines against Japanese Sendai Division, who are an elite Imperial Marine unit fresh from occupation duty in China. Despite the massive day-long Japanese artillery bombardment, despite the fact that the Japanese made a night attack during a torrential thunderstorm that cut visibility to a few feet in places, despite the defenders being outnumbered by more than ten to one, the line held. Anti-tank guns loaded with anti-personnel canister shot and watercooled heavy machine guns played upon the Japanese advance, like fire hoses, but the Japanese reached the American trenches at multiple points, and men fought in the mist and mud with grenades and trench knives. By dawn the Sendai Division was shattered beyond all hope of repair and reeling back. The Sendai Division was so badly mauled in the space of a few hours that it was withdrawn from the line, its colors cased, and its survivors used as reinforcements for other units. At this point the Japanese lost the initiative and from then on it was the Japanese, who were on the defensive on Guadalcanal.
 * The very last battle between true battleships also deserves mention. This was the Battle of Surigao Strait, where the Japanese battleships Fuso and Yamashiro met their ends at the hands of American battleships. There were not just any U.S. battleships, however. These were battleships that had been sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor, getting one final measure of revenge.
 * Also, ironically enough, a CMOA for the battleship, Yamashiro, which somehow managed to survive an avalanche of U.S. shells thick enough to appear on radar after she'd already taken two or three torpedo hits. Only after being struck by two more torpedoes did she finally sink.
 * The liberation of the Cabanatuan Prison Camp in January 1945; a story which is told faithfully in the film, The Great Raid.
 * Almost everything by the 442nd Infantry Regiment's accomplishments, comprised primarily of Japanese-Americans. Beginning with the fact that most of them enlisted in the Army right out of relocation camps. The most decorated unit for its size in US military history. 21 Medal of Honor winners. 9,486 Purple Hearts with about 3,000 personnel.
 * Seconded, because really, that deserves double crowning.
 * For those that have no idea what a Purple Heart is, it's a medal awarded when wounded in battle. Which means, effectively, these guys took three bullets a piece and kept...On...Fighting.
 * The official US Army report says that the unit had 93% casualty rate.
 * The 442nd was ordered to report for a recognition ceremony, showed up vastly understrength, and with one company down to 8 men out of 185. One General was outraged that has so few men were there. Virl R. Miller, the 442nd's commanding officer, replied "General, this is the whole regiment. The rest are dead or in the hospital." Miller later refused to shake hands with a General that had ordered his unit to attack strategically pointless targets.
 * It should be also be noted that the troops of the 442nd left the complaints about being used as cannon fodder to their officers, and never complained - This despite the horrific casualty rate, and the fact most of them had family locked up in internment camps even as they were loyally serving their country.
 * In the vein of the above post, all the African-American soldiers, pilots, and sailors that fought, despite being second-class citizens and facing a shamefully huge amount of racism from their comrades.
 * Of the particular note is Doris Miller, Cook 3rd Class of the US Navy. During the Pearl Harbor attack, he carried wounded sailors off the bridge (Including trying to carry the Captain to safety when he was wounded). Then, when the gunner, who he was supposed to be supplying ammo for, died. He took over and ended up shooting down 10 or 20 Japanese planes. Despite being a mere cook and having no training. He was awarded the Navy Cross for his bravery, becoming the first African-American to receive this honor.
 * How was John F. Kennedy gone unmentioned? Not allowed to join the army because of chronic back problems, he managed to convince his father to pull some strings to get him in the Navy. He threw out his back again whilst serving as the skipper of the torpedo boat, PT-109, when his boat was rammed by a Japanese destroyer and cut in half. He swam for over four hours towing a wounded shipmate to safety with his teeth, despite the pain.
 * JFK is particularly admirable when you think about how, unlike quote a few well-known modern politicians that you can probably name, he used family connections to ENTER, rather than dodge, not only military service but actual combat.
 * Surprisingly, General Douglas Mac Arthur has not been mentioned, if only for two of the best one-liners in history. His words as he evacuated from the Philippines as the Japanese advance? "I shall return." His words as he landed in the Philippines along with the invading US Army? "I have returned."
 * USS Nevada. One of the oldest battleships at Pearl Harbor and generally considered obsolete, was the only large warship to actually get moving during the attack, all while being commanded by a Naval Rserve lieutenant, and was only prevented from actually making it out of the harbor when ordered to stop, just to ensure that the channel was not blocked.
 * The Nevada didn't just move during the attack, she started moving from a cold start, which is damn impressive for a ship that big. She was hit by a torpedo and five bombs, too. Once the damage became critical she wasn't just stopped, she was beached - And before she hit the bottom, the Nevada too down three enemy fighters. She was also the only ship present at Pearl Harbor that fought at Normandy, providing fire support for the landings at Utah Beach. Nevada also fought at Iwo Jima and Okinawa (where she was hit by a kamikaze pilot). Now that's a ship.
 * The Nevada's final career was also a sorta CMOA. She was used as a test target for not one, but two atomic bombs. She survived. Perhaps fittingly, the test target beside the Nevada was the battleship Nagato - which was Yamamoto's flagship at Pearl Harbor. The Nagato also survived the two atomic blasts, but sank the night after the second nuclear blast. Nobody - Except for the Nevada's battered hull - Was present to watch the Nagato sink.
 * It must be added, the Navy then decided to use the Nevada for target practice, after having the Iowa and TWO other ships shooting at it, she still did not sink.
 * The Battered Bastards of Bastogne. 'Nuff said.
 * But we'll say more anyway.
 * HELL YEAH. AIRBORNE ALL THE WAY.
 * Made completely of volunteers, who undergone a rigorous training course with a high failure rate.
 * After the battle, the news portrayed the 101st Airborne as being rescured by Patton's tanks. No member of the 101st has ever agreed that they needed rescuing. In fact, they'll get quite annoyed if it's suggested.
 * At the Battle of the Bulge, many other units displayed great courage, but they never received the same recognition as the 101st Airborne. One historian, after conducting an exhaustive search, found this snippet about an American engineer platoon, whose identity would be forever lost to history:


 * For a non-combat related example; Ralph Lawrence Carr, 29th Governor of Colorado, and the only elected official to publicly apologize for the treatment of Japanese-Americans during the war. Even albeit it cost him his political career.
 * The Trinity test of the first A-Bomb was undoubtedly a Crowning Moment of Awesome - It made the biggest explosion that the world had ever known. Causing many scientists' jaws to drop in the process, launched the Atomic Age, and even produced the Badass quote from Robert Oppenheimer "I am become death, destroyer of worlds." (Ripped from the Bhagavad Gita), which is an awesome way to cap an CMOA. But, given atomic weaponry's nature, it's best ot focuse on the "awe" part.
 * A more pessimistic, yet still a badass quote about the Trinity test from Kenneth Bainbridge: ""Now we are all sons of bitches.""


 * Unknown if this makes it more of a CMoA or just a truly terrifying, was the fact that the scientists involved didn't actually know what would happen. They were more worried that the explosion's sheer power might cause the atmosphere to spontaneously combust, literally destroying the world...AND THEY DID IT ANYWAY!
 * Anyone that has seen the Dogfights episode "Long Odds" can talk about the scouting mission by Old 666, were a Japanese plane squadrons painfully discovered was heavily customized by their crew into what is probably the most well-armed aircraft of the war.
 * Just to clarify, Old 666 was a B-17E bomber, serial number 12666. It was believed to be a cursed bomber mainly because it comes back from every mission with horrific battle damage. It was left at the end of a runway for spare parts. One crew, which was under Captain Jay Zeamer, needed a bomber, and the Old 666 was the only one available. So, the crew took her, fixed her up, and loaded her with more (and bigger) guns than a normal B-17, replacing her usual loadout of .30 cals with .50 cals, and raising her gun count from 13 to 19. While on mission the Japanese planes attacked what they thought was the defenseless nose, until the custom front station smashed three Zeroes. For an hour, the bomber continued to fight off a swarm of no less than 15 Japanese fighters by itself. The bomber suffered extreme damage again, with most, if not all of the crew, wounded (and one dead), but managed to land mostly intact.
 * Therefore, not even Satan himself can ignore the effects of More Dakka.
 * For more details, that mission was the only bomber mission were two members of the same crew got the Medal of Honor for different actions and every other member won the Distinguished Service Cross. The first MoH went to Jay Zeamer, the pilot, for firstly shooting down an enemy plane with a remote controlled gun, and then, while wounded with a broken leg and multiple fragment wounds brought the plane down to where the crew didn't need the broken oxygen system by watching the increase in manifold pressure in the engines, and refused first aid, lapsing into unconsciousness, until the plane crash landed, at which point he was so badly injured; the rest of the crew removed him last, assuming that Jay was dead. The other went to bombardier, Joseph Sarnoski, for shooting down multiple Japanese planes while wounded, and then after getting hit with a 20mm shell that blew him out of the compartment, sought aid until a second wave of fighters came, and shot down at least one of them. He, unfortunately died at his station from his wounds.
 * Also, from the same episode, the story about the dive bomber pilot pulling substitute CAP duty and taking on three Japanese Zeroes and winning (I think it was three, been a while since I saw the episode).
 * And it took the last one down by accidentally clipping it with a wing while trying to dodge(?) - It turns out that the little American dive bomber was a lot physically tougher than the feared Zeroes. Talk about a Fragile Speedster.
 * Butch O'Hare, a U.S. Navy pilot, had a crowning moment was when his ship, the U.S.S. Lexington, was spotted by a Japanese spy plane. When a wave of Japanese Bettys arrived to try and sink the ship, the Americans sent their fighters to meet them. The fighters successfully defended the Lexington, but during a second wave of Bettys appeared, the only planes close enough to stop them belonged to O'Hare and his wingman, and unfortunately, the wingman's guns jammed, forcing O'Hare to fight them off on his own. Alone, he managed to shoot down five of them and the other four turned away without firing on his ship. Chicago's O'Hare International Airport is named after him for this reason, a fitting tribute to an exceptional pilot from Chicago.
 * The rarely-talked about Navajo Code Talkers deserve credit for helping in the Pacific Theater. Their code was never broken (not even by a captured American soldier that knew Navajo). After the war, they were to remain silent about their accomplishments because nobody wanted the Navajo secret to get out (the reason the Navajo were chosen was because German "tourists"/spies had come to the US after WW1 to study various Native American languages, since Cherokee had been used in the first World War and the Germans wanted to be prepared in case the US used that technique again. They had forgotten the Navajo). Once modern technology made their abilities obsolete, they were allowed to come out and be awesome.
 * Japanese codebreakers were asked if they had made any advances in breaking the code. Their reply? "Break it? We couldn't even transcribe it."
 * The B-24 Liberator 'Sacktime,' of the 467th Bomb Group, was rammed by a German fighter of the Sonderkommando ELBE over Germany, taking out half of the tail assembly. Despite having only half their usual rudder and elevator control, the crew managed to fly to allied Belgium, holding the plane stable by brute force on the controls (the cockpit controls were directly connected to the control surfaces), with the left wing titled thirty degrees down; they then, unable to land the plane, allowed the entire crew to bail out and survive.
 * The 9th Armored Division of the US Army came into the war assigned to a camp on the British coastline opposite of the German defenses in Calais, ostensibly as a part of Gen. George S. Patton's First U.S. Army Group. This was part of Operation Fortitude, tricking the Germans into believing the Allied forces would invade there instead of Normandy. Less than three months after they went into line, with little to no real combat experience, the Division's units saw action scattered along the front at the Battle of the Bulge, fighting at St. Vith, Echternach, and holding off the Germans long enough for the 101st Airborne to dig in a defense for Bastogne. German prisoners spoke of the 9th as "The Phantom Division" because it seemed that wherever combat was, the 9th was. Following this they crossed the Ruhr, and elements of the Division seized the Ludendorff bridge at Remagen, the last intact bridge over the Remagen. Establishing a bridgehead there allowed eight thousand Allied soldiers to cross the Rhine in the first day alone. As if this was not enough, they then went on to make use of that bridgehead to move further into Germany. While there, along with elements of the 1st Infantry Division, they liberated the Zwodau and Falkenau concentration camps. Awesome? I think so.
 * One of the most spectacular battles in the Pacific, is the Battle of the Philippine Sea, aka The Great Marinas Turkey Shoot. There, the Japanese lost 3 of their carriers, and 600 of their planes were brought down. The American casualties were only 123 of their planes, which were either shot down, or just ran out of fuel. Also, 80 of the crew survived.
 * A troper saw Bockscar, the B-29, that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton last year. It serves to mention that Bockscar almost did not return home, because they had to re-reoute from their prime target, then wait for a clear sight due to overcast skies before they could drop the bomb. While the Japanese literally never saw it coming, Bockscar had to re-reoute from their original intended landing point of Iwo Jima, landing instead at Okinawa with nearly empty fuel tanks!
 * General George S. Patton did many of these during the war, but what really seals the deal is that he was the most feared General on ALL fronts of the war by Germany. Supreme Badass who military career was only held back by his hotheadedness.
 * The history of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning was full of CMoAs. Here are a few:
 * It was originally intended to fulfill the role of a short-range, heavily armed (and by "heavily armed," I mean a four .50-caliber machine guns and one 20mm cannon) interceptor, to be produced in limited quantity. Lockheed expected a maximum order of fifty aircraft, as that was what was in the original specifications, bu the experimental designs performed so well that the production order was increased at least a hundredfold.
 * The ratio of enemy planes shot down to P-38s lost to all causes - Including mechanical failures of various kinds. - Was two P-38s lost for every three enemy planes shot down. Take the mechanical failures and the like out of the equation, and the ratio just jumps to five enemy planes shot down to every P-38 lost to enemy fire - the highest ratio of any Allied fighter craft in the war.
 * A squadron of P-38s, which gotten separated from the bomber group they were escorting over Nazi-occupied territory. In stead of returning to the base, they decided to go on an all-out attack against whatever targets they could find: rail yards, ammo dumps, airstrips, and what have you. If memory serves, they shot up at least twenty assorted rail cars, five locomotives, two fuel dumps, and three ammo dumps, as well as damaging or destroying around seventy enemy aircraft, both on the grounds and the air. Total cost of materiel destroyed: several hundred million dollars. Total P-38s lost: NONE.
 * Admiral Fletcher has one minor moment of awesomeness at Midway. He was just an average when it comes to skill-at-arms, but he was a man of integrity. When the Carrier Yorktown was out of action, he gave command over to Spruance knowing that Spruance would get the credit. As Fletcher's career pretty much ended by 1943, after he was so often Overshadowed by Awesome, and as he was kinda forgotten by history, this act could count as a Heroic Sacrifice.

Poland - "For Our Freedom And Yours!"
Not only was Poland the "First to Fight", they technically never surrendered. Exiled Polish forces (which was the fourth largest Army among the Western Powers, outnumbering even the Free French) fought in every major air and land campaign in the Western Allied Campaign with distinction. And all this despite the fact that Poland were essentially given to the Soviets as war booty after the war. The following are just some of the most important contributions of the Poles:
 * Before the war, Polish mathematicians managed to crack the Enigma Code's forerunner. Poland knew the attack was coming. So, they went on to hand over everything to the British GCCS, this contributing to the UK's own codebreaking.
 * During the war, Polish intelligence was not less epic: One agent impersonated a German General and was inspected the French coastal fortifications in France. Another one was Witold Pilecki (described in the Individuals section) and others delivered important data on V-2 rockets to the Brits (and in the form of actual parts).
 * Everyone expected the Third Reich to roll up at Poland in the matter of days. It took them six weeks to finally take Warsaw, and their tank force had been mauled so badly that they needed to take the winter re-arming before they could fight France.
 * And I'd like to point out that it was not just Germany. It was also the Soviet Union. Poland held out alone against the two most powerful armies on Earth for over a month! By comparison, France, considered one of the world's greatest armies at the time, lasted about two weeks from when the Germans started getting serious to the capture of Paris.
 * Incidentally, while the "cavalry charging tanks" thing would have been a CMOA, if it had been true, the truth is in many ways awesome. The Polish Cavalry had been trained as a fast-moving guerrilla-type anti-tank units, who'll gallop into place, set up their light anti-tank gun, fire a couple of shots, pack it up, and gallop off somewhere else. During the early part of the campaign, a troop of them came across a formation of German infantry out in the open, so they charged with sabers drawn, akin to Henry V. Eventually a couple of German armored cars showed up and drove off the Poles, killing some of them. The German commanders then showed the corpses to German and Italian correspondents, telling them that they've been killed whilst charging at tanks with lances, because the Poles are just that stupid. Meanwhile, the Polish cavalry, fighting dismounted with its anti-tank weapons were busy stopping the German blitzkrieg in its tracks at a place called, Mokra...
 * The myth has likely endured to the present day because, whereas the Nazis tried to portray it as an act of extreme stupidity and evidence that the entire Polish country was Too Dumb to Live, the rest of the world saw brave heroes willing to give their lives against hopeless odds in the defense of their homeland.
 * This is partially Truth in Television. The rare examples were the cavalry was needed to break through the means of transport (i.e. horses). However few that was.
 * During the fall of Poland, tens of thousands of Poles managed to escape from Poland, from the USSR, from internment camps in Romania, and make their way to France and Britain at any means necessity and to keep fighting. Go check at a map. See what's right between Poland and France? Germany, as well as its client states of the period and its ally, Italy. Ten of thousands of them, in ones and twos. Makes The Great Escape look kinda small.
 * Once they got to France, the Polish soldiers and airmen were treated as an embarrassment by the French, given them outdated equipment and kept away from the fight. Eventually, they, the Polish, got to fight anyway and preform so well that one French general suggested that if they'd had a couple more Polish divisions they could've beaten the Germans back.
 * Some of the best performing fighter squadrons, during the Battle of Britain were flown by Polish pilots. The top scorer on both sides in the Battle was a Czech, Josef Frantisek, who flew with the Polish 303 squadron.
 * A Troper recently visited an RAF base up in Lincolnshire, and learned a rather interesting fact. During the Battle of Britain most Generals thought that letting Poles fly in fighter squadrons was stupid, due to the need for more soldiers fast they allowed it anyways. The first squadron in the air got a kill each in one battle, better than any fighter squadron before them.
 * Speaking of the RAF and foreign pilots, a Belgian named Jean de Selys was HARDCORE. As members of his family had been murdered by the Gestapo, the war was very personal for him. He was a crazy, fearless, and creative, and now there's a statue of him in Brussels. I think disobeying orders to fly alone into a Nazi-occupied city in 1943, just above treetop level, to strafe the Gestapo building where his father was executed, then drop a funeral wreath and note, was pretty impressive.
 * A member of Squadron 303, Stanislaw Karubin, once he realized that he was out of ammunition during an intense dogfight, being on the tail of a German fighter near the tree-top level. Normal men would started to return to base at this point, but Karubin closed in on the armed German fighter and climbed right about it, then started lowering his craft onto enemy fighter. The German pilot was so shocked to see the underside of the Polish fighter over him, he instinctively reduced the altitude of the flight and crashed into the ground.
 * The strange story of Boleslaw "Mike Killer" Gladych, who was pretty much a living CMoA, as well as a total Badass. Gladych started the war as a Polish Air Force cadet, completing his training too late to see combat. He led a group of students to Romania, where they were interned. Gladych wasn't amused, and escaped to France, where he joined a squadron intended to fight for Finland against the USSR (yes, really.) Then France decided that they needed the pilots more once Germany attacked, so he fought for France. Gladych claimed several kills in the Armee de L'Air, but his records do not survive to confirm this. When France fell, Gladych decided the Germans hadn't heard the last of him yet and escaped to England, where he joined the Polish 303 Squadron, flying Spitfires. Approximately three and possibly five kills ensued in his first two sorties, but the second ended with him crashing, almost fatally, into a telegraph pole. He Got Better and returned to combat with 302 "City of Poznan" Sqdn. After a tour there, Gladych was grounded (supposedly for almost shooting down Winston Churchill's transport accidentally, though this is unconfirmed.) That just would not do, so he wandered off and hooked up, completely and unoffically, with the USAAF 56th Fighter Group to fly P-47s alongside Francis "Gabby" Gabreski, who had previously worked with him in the RAF. While with the 56th, Gladych found three FW190s on his tail. He rid himself of that paricular problem with a vicious strafing run of a Luftwaffe airfield; Gladych had learned that the first aircraft on a strafing run usually came through unscathed, but during the next planes went through all kinds of hell. The FW190s, which were somewhat similar in appearance to the P-47, received the full wrath of the Luftwaffe AAA, and Gladych headed home. Gladych was officially kicked out of the Polish Air Force when they learned of his "arrangement" with the USAAF, is recorded in USAAF records as a member of the RAF, and was never an official member of the American military. He was just too awesome for any one military.
 * Both the Polish Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts had their own Crowning Moment of Awesome during World War II. When they were outlawed by the Nazis as a "Non-Aryan" institution they went underground and carried on their scouting just like before the war. Not only that but they formed the part of La Resistance, using their Scouting skills for such things as acting as couriers for Resistance agents. And during the Warsaw Revolt, Scouts would crawl for what amounts to miles through the sewers of the city to deliver messages in incredibly uncomfortable circumstances, all the while the enemy was trying to block the passages with nets or flood them with water.
 * Robert Baden-Powell would be proud.
 * All Scouts would be proud.
 * The Polish Scouts weren't the only ones. Scouts all over the world had their own Moments of Awesome. It gives the phrase "Scout's Honor" a whole new meaning.
 * After the Battle of Monte Cassino, Polish casualties were so numerous that a cemetery was erected for their dead. The dedication echoed that of the Spartans at Thermopylase: "You, stranger passing by. Tell Poland that here, for our freedom and yours, we still lie."
 * The other thing which makes the Polish awesome? Even their pets fought. In the Battle of Monte Cassino, one of the artillery supply units was aided by a Syrian Brown Bear they're raised from a cub. Wojtek, known as the "Soldier Bear" became so popular and so well liked among the soldiers for his personality and efficiency in moving crates of ammunition that his unit's badge was changed to a bear carrying an artillery shell. Wojtek smoked cigarettes, drank beer from the bottle, wrestled with the men, and retired to Edinburgh Zoo after the war.
 * According to one story, Wojtek (who was fond of steam baths) entered the bathhouse at his unit's base one day and found a spy. Recognizing him as a threat, Wojtek punched out the spy. Can ya imagine what must have gone through the spy's head on being uncovered by a bear?
 * This troper suspects that it was a combination of the words 'Oh,My,' 'fucking,' 'God,I'm,about', 'to', 'be,punched,''by,' and 'bear.'
 * Alternatively, "Everything's Worse with Bears!" as he ran like hell.
 * Somehow, I think it may have been "Oh, Crap!"
 * This troper's grandfather was among the Polish troops at Monte Cassino and he's damn proud.
 * Really, all that was needed to be said for this to be a CMoA was "The Polish troops at Monte Cassino had a bear as a pet. This bear punched a spy."
 * In another battle (This time in the Normandy Campaign), the Polish 1st Armored Division proved instrumental in preventing the escape of thousands of German soldiers caught in the "Falaise Pocket." It suffered grievious casualties as it had to fight with little support and ammunition. Canadian troops, who later visited the battle site, erected a simple sign that said: "A Polish Battlefield."
 * When the battle was over, the 1st Polish Armored Division's commander was given the Iron Cross (Germany's highest award for valor) from a captured German prisoner. The German had won the Iron Cross five years earlier in Poland - In the battle that ended with the destruction of the 1st Armored Division's predecessor. In a way, it signified a complete reversal of what had happened in September of 1939.
 * Unidentified Polish soldiers who were buried in Normandy bear a simple, English epitaph to commemorate their sacrifice: "Died for Poland."
 * The defense of the Gdansk post office.
 * The Warsaw Uprising. Despite the fact that they lost, it was still completely awesome. For details, they fought for 63 days straight regardless of initial supplies being enough for just a week, and that the Germans called it the heaviest their city-fight since Stalingrad. There's a museum in Warsaw devoted to it.
 * The Polish Navy had its moments. The destroyer, Piorun (British-built, bu lent to the Free Polish Forces), once faced the German Navy's pride - The Battleship, Bismarck - In a night gun battle. Despite facing a ship twenty times its size, the Piorun survived and gained time for British cruisers to catch up with the Bismarck. What's more remarkable however, was the bold challenge the Piorun's Captain sent to the Germans before attacking: "I am Pole!"
 * The Polish submarine Orzel was ordered to sea mere minutes before the Germans began bombing Gdansk. They slipped past the German destroyers and aircraft patrols to an Estonian (neutral) port to refuel. International law stated they could only stay there one day, but a German merchant ship was also there, and both had to leave at least 6 hours after refueling. They took their time leaving, therefore the Orzel was trapped in port long enough that the Estonians had the authority to disarm the submarine. Partway through the process, the German merchant ship left. The crew of the Orzel sabotaged the unloading of munitions, and quietly slipped their moorings that night. They used charts drawn from memory and a list of lighthouses of the Baltic and North Seas to navigate by, and had to sneak through the narrow channels between Denmark and Sweden under the noses of German ships (once crash-diving to avoid the sudden lighting of a cruiser's searchlights). They made it safely to British coastal waters, where they were added to the Royal Navy's strength for the duration. For their Baltic escape, they were awarded their country's highest honor.
 * Defense of Hel, a Polish peninsula. The plan was to hold defense for two weeks. They lost source of supplies, were under heavy fire from German naval artillery, and they surrendered when there was no point of fighting any longer after 32 days. The most noteworthy moment was when the Polish Army realized that they could not use missiles because of their destroyed equipment, so they buried them. Once the Nazi decided to try to attack not from the sea but from land, Hel became an island.
 * The 1st Independent Polish Parachute Brigade. General Sosabowski went into Operation Market Garden with misgivings, let his support elements be cut from his brigade to see them chewed up in the meat grinder of Arnhem, finally went in with his paras, found his Rhine crossing gone, made the crossing anyhow, and covered the retreat of the British 1st Airborne Division, at a cost of almost a quarter of his brigade in casualties. The survivors are honored every year in Oosterbeek, and not for nothing.
 * In the Polish city, Czestochowa - In its' holiest shrine. - Lies a memorial for all of its great victories won by Polish soldiers. The memorial includes several battles from World War 2 - Including France 1940, The Battle of Britain, Monte Cassino, The Falaise Gap, the Market-Garden, just to name a few. No one - Including the pro-Soviet Communist Government, who tried for fifty years to erase the the memory of the Free Polish Forces - Ever dared to take down the memorial. Today, the site is now considered the most important place of pilgrimage for Polish people.
 * Not only does Poland never surrender, they had no quislings as well. When one group offered their collaboration to the Germans, they turned it down - It was just so small and insignificant, they didn't bother. Another time, one captured officer was released to deliver an offer of limited collaboration to the La Resistance command, and the command told him to "solve the mater honorably." After a few days, he shot himself.
 * Get it? They basically told him to commit Seppuku! This guy, as well as the Wizna commander (below), get bonus Awesome usually reserved for the Samurai, despite never being anywhere in space or time near Feudal Japan.
 * The Battle of Wizna, anyone? The Polish were outnumbered 59 to 1, and they held off the German Army for three days. The Polish managed to take out 10 tanks and a few AFV's, and an untold amount of infantry. They had six 76mm guns, 42 Machine Guns, and only two Anti-Tank Rifles, compared to the Germans 350 Tanks, Air Superiority, and 600+ heavy weapons (mortars, Machine Guns, Rockets, etc.) along with a lot of artillery. Also, the Polish commander swore by his life that he won't let the fort fall into enemy hands. When the situation became hopeless, he agreed to surrender to prevent unnecessary deaths of his soldiers, then blew himself up with a grenade. The Sabaton song 40:1 is named for it.
 * 40:1 Music Video
 * This English Troper is so impressed by the tenacity of these Polish actions that he has gained a whole lot of respect for the Poland. All I can say and do is salute them all and say thank you for fighting so much for our freedom.
 * Seconded by an American troper, who hopes that there's a special place in heaven for the insanely courageous men and women who knocked on Peter's door as a result of never, ever shirking that courage.
 * On the 65th Anniversary of VE Day - Which was described as the last one that'll ever feature actual veterans from the war - For the very first time, the Poles were asked to join the victory parade. Not jus that, they are given the honor to lead it. No one objected. Everyone agreed they deserved it.
 * Consider the fact that Poland has a tradition of valor and a military history to booth, which makes any Western European nation seem weak and incompetent. Especially when ya consider just how many times they butchered through obstacles, like the Ottoman Armies, to rescue cities, like Vienna.

The Soviet Union - "Heroes of the Great Patriotic War"

 * What can be be considered about CMoA are many historians have estimates which shows that around 70% of the entire German warmachines was arrayed against the Soviet Union since Operation Barbarossa, and remained around that kind of duration of the war. Mind you, there's lower end estimates. The USSR was insanely so big that Germany had little choice but commit most of their armed forces against it.
 * The Road of Life (Дорога Жизни). Where thousands of truckers risked their lives to transport supplies to the besieged city of Leningard and evacuate the trapped citizens over Lake Ladoga, which is frozen, in the case of constant bombardment. Albeit many trucks were sunk before they made it to their destination, millions were saved thanks to the Road of Life.
 * Stalingrad is mainly considered the "turning point" of the Second World War, which was won thanks to the incredible sacrifices made by the Soviet soldiers. At one point, a little group of Soviet soldiers held out in a grain silo against a huge German assault for many days. When they, the Soviet troops, were about to be destroyed, they were supposedly sent this message by High Command: "The Soviet Union thanks you. Your sacrifice was not in vain."
 * One Unit - The Rodimtsev's Guards - Started the battle with only 10,000 men. It ended the battle with less than 300 survivors. Other Soviet Divisions suffered heavily and at least one general literally broke down and sobbed as he reported that his Division was annihilated. According to The Other Wiki, one soldier was about to die yet he scratched a message on a wall that said "Rodimtsev's Guardsmen fought and died here for their Motherland."
 * A tiny example: Pavlov's House. For two months, one half of a ruined house defended by little more than a dozen soldiers managed to hold against successive German attacks.
 * Tiny? Pavlov's house was made entirely out of CMOA. They were able to take down Panzers, like sitting ducks, by mounting anti-tank rifles so high up the cannons simply could not reach high enough to fight back. The Germans labeled it on their maps as "The Fortress," and assaulted it every day for two months, at which point the unit was relieved of their duty. Sometimes, they would have to send people out inbetween enemy waves just to kick down piles of German corpses because they were piling up too high for them to see. Pavlov's House was anything but small.
 * Speaking of Stalingrad, those who've read the book "Enemy at the Gates" (which is completely different from the movie version) would probably remember Emil Metzger, a German soldier,'s experiences. As a veteran of Stalingrad, Emil spent many years in a prison camp before he was finally sent home to his wife. When they reunited, he was shocked that they remained faithful to on another despite the fact that "in their nine years of marriage, this was just their fifth day together as man and wife." Love endures.
 * While on the subject of Stalingrad, a troper's father has a story, which was passed to him by a former Red Army T-34 Tank Commander. The latter, later in life, immigrated to the US for unknown reasons. The troper's father encounter him during his Law School, where the commander ran a laundromat with his wife, who is also Russian. His father noticed, at one point, a picutre of the man with his crew, on a T-34 tank. His dad talked to the man and found out that the commander had served in the army that relieved Stalingrad and turned the war tide. More importantly, this commander had served with Marshall Georgy Zhukov. When his father asked about Zhukov, the commander said, "Zhukov...Now there, was a man." He remembered the approach to Stalingrad, where he rode on top of his T-34, and distinctly remembered watching Zhukov, standing atop the lead tank, calmly watching, with a sneer on his face, as if "daring the Germans to shoot him." The commander said "Some generals lead from the back. Zhukov, lead from the front." To add to it, Zhukov won the 'Hero of the Soviet Union,' the Soviet's equivalent of the Medal of Honor, four times. Only one other man got that and he didn't deserve them.
 * "For a short time, tanks continued to be produced and then manned by the volunteer crews of factory workers. They were driven directory from the factory floor straight to the front line, often without paint or even gunsights." Build 'em, man 'em, roll them out the front door, and start fighting.
 * Siege of Sevastopol. Period.
 * In terms of sheer losses however, Operation Bagration was the Red Army's greatest victory. A massive offensive launched in 1944, the operation allowed the Russian army to recapture all of their home territories all the while inflicting catastrophic losses on the Germans - More than they had lost at Stalingrad. The only reason it's not well remembered is because it coincided with the C Mo A of the Western Allies: D-Day.
 * The Battle of Kursk also deserves mention - Particular the climax at Prokhorovka. Faced with Germany's superior tanks that are immue to Soviet anti-tank guns, Soviet tankers charged the German positions and literally rammed their vehicles into enemy Panzers. According to legend, some days later, Zhukov - Commander of the Red Army troops - Would visit the battlefield, which was still full of wrecked vehicles and butchered men. Supposedly, he was so moved by the courage of his own men that all he could do was to take off his cap in respect. He was left utterly speechless.
 * According to some Russian sources, the proudest moment in Soviet military history is The Battle for Volokolamsk, even though it's unknown today. It was one of the main highway that leads to the capital of Moscow. When the German Panzers were closing in, a commissar defending the highway the highway was supposed to have remarked, "Russia is big, but we cannot run. Moscow is behind us." Short of rifles, several Divisions of troops literally fought the Germans with nothing more than bare hands. And yet it was there that German advancement was finally halted.
 * The Second World War is Ukraine's Crowning Moment of Awesome as well, with only the Orange Revolution coming anywhere close. After initially welcoming the Nazis, they rapidly realized their errors and fought back with massive tenacity - A quarter of the Soviet deaths in the war were Ukrainian.
 * Also from Ukraine and crossing over with a Crowning Moment in Sports: The Soccer Match of Death. A Ukrainian soccer team was challenged by occupying Germans to play against their teams. Once they started winning they were threatened with death. They kept winning. They were executed. In other words, they turned soccer to martyrdom.
 * Operation August Storm. Which is one of the most brilliant campaigns of the war, it involved moving over a million troops from the Western front in secret and consisted of double pincer movement over an area the size of Western Europe that utterly destroyed the Japanese defenders. The Soviet army took no less than 640,276 prisoners, while suffering only 12,031 losses. And, although it is still a matter under dispute, some historians believe that subsequent Japanese surrender was largely due to this devastating offensive and not the A-bombs.
 * I'll just leave this here...
 * Typical of Soviet World War 2 aircraft, many II-2s were "gifts" presented to specific pilots and partially paid for by organizations, like hometowns, factories, or comrades of another fallen pilot. The most famous of these was an aircraft purchased with the saving of a seven-year-old daughter of another fallen pilot, who was a commander of the 237th Sh AP. After learning of her father's death, the girl sent 100 rubles directly to Stalin asking him to use the money for an II-2 to avenge her father. Remarkably, Stalin actually received the letter and 237th Sh AP got a new II-2m3 with the inscription "From Lenochka for father" on the side.
 * Remarkable indeed yet not exceptional at all. Maria Oktyabrskaya, a telephonist from the city Simpherople learned that her husband died in action and decided that It's Personal. She raised 50,000 rubles!!!, transferred the amount to the State Bank and then eventually wrote a letter to Stalin requesting a personal tank. They named the tank "Sister in Arms" and she went to the front as its crew member, and spent next four months fighting, like a fury. One time in combat, a shell hit the tank's track, Maria tried to repair it, despite being under enemy fire, but was wounded, and later died. She was awarded with an order of the Hero of the Soviet Union. So impressed were her comrades that when the tank got destroyed they gave their next one the same name...And then the next one...And the next.
 * The "Night Witches" - Female combat pilots, who fly obsolete biplanes with eff-off heavy bombs attached and gliding towards German positions on night-time bombing runs. All while putting up with institutional sexism from their command. Garth Ennis sums them up: "Young women in their teens and early twenties, flying obsolete biplanes at night against the most lethal military machine in the world, facing potentially catastrophic consequences should they be captured alive...That, to me, is heroism, and that deserves to be acknowledged."
 * A wing commander of the 588th "Night Witches" night bomber Regiment by the name of Sr. Lieutenant Irina Sebrova, participated in 1,008 night missions and 92 day missions. This equals to 44 tours of duty for an American.
 * The second time she was shot down behind enemy lines, Irina trekked 10 miles through the snow at night to return to the base without getting killed!
 * To the Germans, the Flying Sewing Machines are infamous for the simple fact that the latter were so quiet, that detecting them was just a matter of luck, as anything.
 * Don't forget the younger participants. The war dislocated so many people, so many families, that many kids ended up unofficially joining the Soviet combat formations. Affectionately called the "Sons of the Regiment," these kids did everything from menial work, to message relaying, and scouting missions. With the units, they also advanced, and many of the SotR were later recognized.
 * Roman Smishyk: an ex-peasant and a very humble private, whose platoon was on pinned by enemy forces comprising of 16 tanks during one occasion. So, Roman grabbed three anti-tank grenades and three cocktail bottles, crawled towards the Germans, who are advancing, and one by one burned three tanks. He returned to the home positions, replenished his ammunition, and repeated this trick. Basically: One guy wacked six tanks single-handedly. Nazis whined that this game had one fucked up balance and logged off.
 * Stalin staying with the Muscovites in the Moscow Subway. One of the awesome examples of Villainous Valour.
 * In November 7th, the Soviet Armies coming from the Red Square Parade to the frontlines, during the Battle of Moscow.
 * The latter Allied successes were not the first time the myth of the invincibility and superiority of Imperial Japan was shattered. Though unknown today mostly, the Battles of Lake Khasan and Khalkin Gol in the closing years of the 1930s saw decisive Soviet victories against attempts by Japn to invade the USSR via Manchuria. While the Battle of Lake Khasan was mostly a Pyrrhic Victory for the Soviets, the Battle of Khalkin Gol decisively routed the Japanese forces that Japan would never make an offensive movement towards the Soviet Union again. In this battle, Georgiy Zhukov would earn his first major victory, as well as his first of four Hero of the Soviet Union medals.

Norway - "With His Army of Heroes"
[...]
 * Though being a small nation, chasing after a neutrality policy and having just one tank. Just so "the soldiers could see what one looked like" it's quite impressive for the Norwegian military to have three:
 * First, when Germany invaded, though they could have run their invasion force up the Oslo Fjord and attack Oslo. Too bad their top of the line troop carrier was sunk by Norwegian torpedoes.
 * The "troop carrier" was actually the Blucher, a heavy cruiser, a top of the line warship which was built in the 1930s. The Norwegians in contrast had a virtually unarmed patrol boat, a tiny cannon manned by volunteers in a dilapidated fort, and a bunch of 50 year-old torpedoes mounted on a shore battery. After that ship was sunk, the Blucher continued up the fjord. As they drew nearer to the fort, the torpedoes were fired. They struck true and destroyed the Blucher, allowing the King and the government to escape from Oslo with much of the country's gold reserve, and allowing them to continue the fight in exile.
 * Anecdotes claims that the fort's commander, seeing the Blucher, and not getting word about the Germans at all, said "Either I will be decorated or I will be court-martialed. Fire."
 * Oscarsborg Fortress not only did that damage, not only saved the Norwegian government, not only it stand with barely any casualties...It did so with almost all its soldiers being green, untrained recruits; with one of its main guns unable to be armed, and with most of its weapons being forty years old. (The extra kicker is that Germany sold those weapons to Norway forty years ago).
 * Also worth mentioning is the HMS Glowworm's contribution during the campaign. The Glowworm encountered the Blucher's sister ship, the Admiral Hipper, and was nearly blasted out of the water due to the firepower disparity (The Glowworm was just a destroyer that has less than one-fifth the size and firepower of the Hipper). Courageously, the Glowworm's Captain just rammed his ship into the Hipper, severely damaging the bigger German warship even though he lost his own life doing this. The Glowworm's Captain was eventually awarded the Victoria Cross, thanks to the German sailors, who had survived the battle,'s testimonies. - They were that impressed by the actions of their enemy.
 * When considering this, and that of the American destroyers of Samar, and the Poles of Piorun, one quickly concludes that among the requirements for command of a destroyer in an Allied navy in WW2 were balls of titanium and an insane amount of courage.

Germany - "Some acts are heroic no matter how terrible your leader was"
[...]
 * Germany's use of blitzkrieg tactics at the beginning of the war was rather impressive... but for obvious reasons we won't write about "Hey, remember that cool stuff the Nazis did?"
 * Adolf Hitler, of all people. In 1923, before Beer Hall Putsch, the NSDAP's membership only had 15,000 men. By 1941, Hitler held absolute authority over 90 million people. Could he - or anyone, for that matter - have envisaged this happening to just himself and a few other people twiddling their thumbs in the National Socialist German Workers' Party?
 * Before his rise to power, Hitler was considered to be totally weak. Also, some high ranking government officials just installed him as Chancellor, that way he can ultimately fail and be the fall guy for their own shortcomings. One man even mentions "We've boxed him in, we've hired him as our act." That's a bit premature.
 * Adolf Hitler won Time Magazine's Person of the Year award. Imagine if he wasn't completely insane and a rabid racist: we would've remembered him as the man to bring Germany back from the brink, reinvigorating their cultural identity, and bring them back to the world power again. Even if someone assassinated him in 1938, he would be remembered far more fondly than he is. The man would have been a Crowning Moment of Awesome if only he had gotten murdered.
 * Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, the "Desert Fox" was able to outwit the Allies for as long as he and his Afrika Korps were able.

Japan - "A Thousand praises to The Emperor"
[...]

Italy - "Chi ha cara la gloria, il corpo ha vile."
[...]

Others

 * The French Resistance. Particularly their actions on D-Day, where after given a coded message through the BBC, they launched massive sabotage attacks.
 * Vive la Résistance!
 * De Gaulle's reaction (he was the chief of the FFF) when the German radio stated that "Free French soldiers will be shot and not taken prisoner for felony." Although officially the French had surrendered, De Gaulle's reaction was the same, in that German prisoners would be shot too.
 * Bir Hakeim is a CMoA in its own right. The Free French held on a piece of rock in the middle of the desert, all of Rommel's Afrikakorps and the Italians surrounded them, but the Italians retreated after ten days, possibly saving the VIIIth British army from Ritchie's incompetence.
 * The whole island of Malta. By surviving a siege by the Germans and Italians for three years. For this, the entire population was awarded the George Cross collectively, which was the highest civilian award for gallantry in Britain. Malta's now an independent state, the medal is on its flag.
 * To elaborate, the island was the most heavily bombed allied country during WWII, since Malta is on their way to becoming an important Mediterranean trade route. Even though they were bombed like crazy, many of its ancient buildings survived thanks to its Islanders' bravery.
 * During the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, elements of the Royal Hungarian Army were dispatched to quell the Polish resistance. Despite Nazi Germany more directly occupying their homeland by that point in the war, the Hungarian forces not only refused to shoot any Pole as ordered. But they went so far as to provide aid and allow Polish reinforcements to come into the city before the Germans finally had them pulled out. Indeed, as if to further drive home the centuries-long brotherhood, some Hungarians even deserted in order to fight alongside the Poles.

[...]

The Holocaust - Not One More
The Holocaust was one of the worst atrocities ever committed by humankind. Eleven million people lost their lives because of ideology gone mad. These are the people who saw what was happening and said "Not one more."

[...]

Individual Heroes
Superheroes and fictional badasses bow to no one... except to these guys.

""For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty at Saipan, Mariana Islands, 19 June to 7 July 1944. When his entire company was held up by fire from automatic weapons and small-arms fire from strongly fortified enemy positions that commanded the view of the company, Sgt. (then Pvt.) Baker voluntarily took a bazooka and dashed alone to within 100 yards of the enemy. Through heavy rifle and machinegun fire that was directed at him by the enemy, he knocked out the strong point, enabling his company to assault the ridge. Some days later while his company advanced across the open field flanked with obstructions and places of concealment for the enemy, Sgt. Baker again voluntarily took up a position in the rear to protect the company against surprise attack and came upon 2 heavily fortified enemy pockets manned by 2 officers and 10 enlisted men which had been bypassed. Without regard for such superior numbers, he unhesitatingly attacked and killed all of them. Five hundred yards farther, he discovered 6 men of the enemy who had concealed themselves behind our lines and destroyed all of them. On 7 July 1944, the perimeter of which Sgt. Baker was a part was attacked from 3 sides by from 3,000 to 5,000 Japanese. During the early stages of this attack, Sgt. Baker was seriously wounded but he insisted on remaining in the line and fired at the enemy at ranges sometimes as close as 5 yards until his ammunition ran out. Without ammunition and with his own weapon battered to uselessness from hand-to-hand combat, he was carried about 50 yards to the rear by a comrade, who was then himself wounded. At this point Sgt. Baker refused to be moved any farther stating that he preferred to be left to die rather than risk the lives of any more of his friends. A short time later, at his request, he was placed in a sitting position against a small tree. Another comrade, withdrawing, offered assistance. Sgt. Baker refused, insisting that he be left alone and be given a soldier's pistol with its remaining 8 rounds of ammunition. When last seen alive, Sgt. Baker was propped against a tree, pistol in hand, calmly facing the foe. Later Sgt. Baker's body was found in the same position, gun empty, with 8 Japanese lying dead before him. His deeds were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Army.""
 * Two words: Léo. Major. Quoting from Cracked: A private in the Regiment de la Chaudiere, Leo Major got his first taste of combat during the Normandy landings, where he single-handedly captured a German half-track and had his left eye burned out with phosphorus. After successfully arguing that he shouldn't be sent back to Canada, since he only needed his right eye to look down the sights of his rife (an argument as logically sound as it was existentially terrifying), he kept fighting across France, Belgium, and Holland. In 1945, a Canadian army company was captured while patrolling near the German-held Dutch town of Zwolle. The Canadians decided to bring up the heavy guns and level the whole damn town, but first, they needed to know where the Germans were, and perhaps also to contact the Dutch resistance to see if they would terribly mind being exploded today. Major and a friend, Willie Arsenault, volunteered for the exceptionally dangerous scouting mission inside the town about to be blown to hell. And then they thought: Fuck that. Why waste a perfectly good town? Wouldn't it be better if they just captured the damn thing themselves while they were down there? Seeing no problem with that plan, they each took a machine gun and waited until nightfall. Under the cover of darkness, the two men crept toward the first outpost covering the approach to the town. Unfortunately (for the Germans), the sentry heard them coming and fired at the noise, killing Arsenault. Major took the gun out of his dead friend's hands and charged down the whole damn town. He shot the sentry and the guy next to him (and probably the horse they rode in on). The rest of the Germans in the bunker fled, leaving behind a small ammunition dump. Major strapped a captured German machine gun, Arsenault's leftover weapon, and his own rifle to his back, then filled a sack with grenades and made his way toward the town center. He spent the rest of the night ambushing patrols in the town, most of which fled (understandably) from the guy swinging a grenade sack dressed in a jacket made out of machine guns. He found the local SS Headquarters, kicked down the front door and killed most of the death squad inside, then set fire to the Gestapo HQ and continued to hurl grenades at isolated groups of German soldiers until the entire force fled the town.
 * They gave him the Distinguished Conduct Medal for liberating Zwolle single-handedly. Major was awarded a second DCM during the Korean War - he's one of only three people to be awarded the medal twice in different wars.
 * BAKER, THOMAS A. Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company A, 105th Infantry, 27th Infantry Division. Place and date: Saipan, Mariana Islands, 19 June to 7 July 1944. Here's his Medal of Honor Citation.

""For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as chaplain on board the U.S.S. Franklin when that vessel was fiercely attacked by enemy Japanese aircraft during offensive operations near Kobe, Japan, on 19 March 1945. A valiant and forceful leader, calmly braving the perilous barriers of flame and twisted metal to aid his men and his ship, Lt. Comdr. O'Callahan groped his way through smoke-filled corridors to the open flight deck and into the midst of violently exploding bombs, shells, rockets, and other armament. With the ship rocked by incessant explosions, with debris and fragments raining down and fires raging in ever-increasing fury, he ministered to the wounded and dying, comforting and encouraging men of all faiths; he organized and led firefighting crews into the blazing inferno on the flight deck; he directed the jettisoning of live ammunition and the flooding of the magazine; he manned a hose to cool hot, armed bombs rolling dangerously on the listing deck, continuing his efforts, despite searing, suffocating smoke which forced men to fall back gasping and imperiled others who replaced them. Serving with courage, fortitude, and deep spiritual strength, Lt. Comdr. O'Callahan inspired the gallant officers and men of the Franklin to fight heroically and with profound faith in the face of almost certain death and to return their stricken ship to port.""
 * That's right folks, this man was too weak to sit up on his own after being wounded, was left with a pistol with eight rounds and propped up against a tree. When they retook the area, he had eight dead Japanese around him. All this after breaking his rifle in hand-to-hand combat after running out of ammo.
 * Joseph T. O'Callahan. From his Medal of Honor citation:


 * Nancy Wake, "The White Mouse", was a young Australian journalist who had married a French businessman. She joined the resistance movement as a courier, smuggling messages and supplies to underground groups and helped spirit away many Allied prisoners of war. In 1942, the Gestapo named her "the White Mouse". She was #1 on their wanted list, going for five million francs.
 * She escaped to England where she trained as a spy and in 1944, PARACHUTED back to France to help with the D-day preparations.
 * She commanded 7,000 French troops that engaged in guerrilla warfare to sabotage the Nazis.
 * Once, the supply drops were threatened by the destruction of radio codes. She embarked on a marathon bike ride, cycling about 500 km in 72 hours and crossing several German checkpoints, in order to find an operator to radio Britain and request new codes.
 * She once strangled a German soldier who was about to give the alert, WITH HER BARE HANDS.
 * Let's not forget her husband who was tortured and executed by the Gestapo for refusing to give her up.


 * Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe,


 * General Anthony McAuliffe.


 * Major James H. Howard.


 * Audie Murphy.


 * Jack Churchill.


 * In WWII, to some soldiers being vivisected couldn't stop them.


 * Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz in the Pacific.


 * Brigadier Gen. Theodore Roosevelt (Son of President Teddy Roosevelt, who had numerous CMoA himself requested several times to lead the assault on Utah Beach on D-Day personally.


 * Charles Hazlitt Upham.


 * Major James H. Howard, a U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF),


 * Maynard H. Smith,


 * The Battle of Kiev.


 * George Patton.


 * Jasper Maskelyne.

"The tradition held up. And bringing sixteen and a half thousand soldiers out of the island cost not only ships but the lives of two thousand men of the Royal Navy. With the greatest respect for the memory of A.B.C., I'd say there was glory."
 * William Patrick Hitler deserves a mention for being a Magnificent Bastard. He was Adolf's least favorite Nephew, living in England with his mother. In 1933, William moved to Berlin just when the Nazis began coming to power, thus he began to take advantage of his last name. His uncle gave him jobs, but eventually blackmailing him about a dark patch in the Hitler family tree (either it was someone being Jewish or being a polygamist), which would have ruined Hitler's reputation for a spotless family record. It worked and Willy lived off of his uncle until 1938, when Adolf tried to get him to renounce his English citizenship. The nephew fled the country, winding up in America, using the Hitler name to his advantage, where he became a minor celebrity as a foe of the Nazis. After a lecture tour of how his uncle was an asshole, during the outbreak of WWII, he got stranded in the US. William fought for the American Navy. After the war, he lived anonymously in the USA with his wife.
 * Allegedly, an American soldier was named Adolf Hitler. When asked about changing his name, he answered "Let the other guy change his."
 * Admiral Cunningham, who is also of the British Royal Navy, uttered the most memorable and courageous line, during the evacuation of Crete. The British fleet was under immense air attack from German bombers, but there were thousands of British and Commonwealth soldiers, who still needed to be saved. When one of Cunningham's ships was blown up by the bombers, one of Cunningham's officers advised that he withdraw. The Admiral stoically replied: "It takes three years to build a ship. It takes three hundred to build a reputation. The evacuation will continue!"
 * It was General Wavell, who was the C-in-C of all the British forces in the Mediterranean area during that time. A meeting in Alexandria over whether the Mediterranean Fleet could sustain. Cunningham (Still misquoted to this day) summed up the situation "It takes three years to build a ship. It will take three hundred years to build a new tradition. The evacuation will continue." - Later, in his autobiography that "There is rightly little credit or glory to be expected in these operations of retreat." To quote Alexander Fullerton's novel, Last Lift From Crete:


 * For individual CMoAs, there's the official listing of the Medal of Honor recipients.
 * Werner, the nephew of Luftwaffe chief, Hermann . Werner was borned in the United States, joined the USAAF, and flew B-17s...with Jack Rencher, who was considered as "uniquely qualified" and was ordered to shoot him if the latter ever attempted to land in Germany. However, Rencher related that   was a first rate pilot, and that was the only time he was less eager to rain destruction on Germany was when Cologne was their target, since his grandmother lived there. Nevertheless,   who Rencher said could have been easily excused from the mission, pressed on and carried it out.
 * Werner, the nephew of Luftwaffe chief, Hermann . Werner was borned in the United States, joined the USAAF, and flew B-17s...with Jack Rencher, who was considered as "uniquely qualified" and was ordered to shoot him if the latter ever attempted to land in Germany. However, Rencher related that   was a first rate pilot, and that was the only time he was less eager to rain destruction on Germany was when Cologne was their target, since his grandmother lived there. Nevertheless,   who Rencher said could have been easily excused from the mission, pressed on and carried it out.


 * ULTRA - The German and Japanese codes being decrypted, as well as the huge deception effort to make sure the Germans did not find out. It's Generally believed to have shortened WW2 by two years.
 * Resulting in the creation of the world's first electronic computer.


 * USS Enterprise (CV-6)


 * The Doolittle Raid.


 * The 332nd Fighter Group,


 * Simo


 * Both the Finns and the Western allies that had made deals with their respective Devils. But the Finns just had to be closer to their unpleasant co-belligerents that the Western Allies. Some of the Finish soldiers were Jews, leading to some odd results.
 * Finnish battalion Solomon Klass, a commander, rescued a German unit that was surrounded and was offered an Iron Cross. Klass refused promptly.
 * Some Finnish Jewish soldiers set up a field Synagogue, which is a few feet from the German camp and made sure the Germans can hear them.
 * Alexander Matrosov


 * Admiral Cunningham


 * Hideki Tojo, combined a Crowning Moment of Awesome, Go Out with a Smile, The Atoner, and Redemption Equals Death with his final words from the gallows. He accepted responsibility for his crimes fully, apologized for everything, begged the Americans to be merciful to the Japanese people, and then, according to some witnesses (Though accounts vary), he threw himself from the gallows to get it over with.


 * As was detailed in the Band of Brothers book, the Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Regiment.


 * During the Battle of Britian, there's one particular CMOA - Flight Lieutenant John Nicolson


 * The Civil Air Patrol


 * Col. Joseph A. Gregory,


 * King Christian X of Denmark has several candidates.


 * Dutch Major Landzaat,


 * Tomoyuki Yamashita


 * Jimmy Launder


 * Dutch Major Landzaat,


 * Field Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery.


 * Werner von Braun


 * Edward Charlton VC -


 * Some of the Canadian VC winners:
 * Aubrey Cosens
 * Padre John Foote.
 * Charles Hoey.
 * Charles Meritt.


 * Edward Charlton VC


 * Some Canadian VC winners:


 * Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin,


 * Witold Pilecki, a Polish hero,


 * The Germans have managed to have a small number of heroes who are famous for resisting Hitler and his regime:
 * In 1938, Georg Elser decided that Hitler was a threat to the world. He decided to assassinate him by planting a bomb near where Elser worked and where Hitler was scheduled to give a speech. Hitler survived, because he finished his speech early and catch the train back to Berlin. The bomb killed a number of prominent Nazis and Georg Elser died in a concentration camp.
 * The students of the White Rose Society, who organized one of the few public protests against the Nazi regime. The Nazis rounded them up and executed them.
 * Claus von Stauffenberg's attempted to assassinate Hitler later in the later part of the war.
 * Do note that some think this was a plan by several German high commanders to obtained a separate peace with US and UK (After taking over), so they can concentrate their army on Russia. It still takes some serious guts to kill Hitler in his own headquarters. Plus, it almost worked - The bomb, which was hidden in a suitcase, was moved behind a table leg before it exploded.


 * Douglas Bader.


 * James MacLachlan.


 * Flt. Lt. Colin Walker, who piloted the Short Sunderland,


 * The "Fuzzy-Wuzzy Angels,"


 * Singapore's 1st Malay Brigade


 * General George S. Patton,


 * Juan Pujol Garcia, aka GARBO,


 * September 1, 1942: Luftwaffe pilot Hans Joachim Marseille


 * Daniel Inouye


 * Koichi Tohei


 * German Commander Nikolaus von Falkenhorst


 * Sergeant John Basilone


 * Roman Smishuk,


 * Chesty Puller


 * A non-combat example: David B. Parkinson


 * Father Maximilian Maria Kolbe.


 * Captain Clarence E. Coggins, 45th Division, US Army serving in the 179th Infantry. After arriving in Germany shortly, he was captured. A general tried to interrogate him and learn of the location of his fellow American troops. He eventually convinced the general that the German camp was surrounded by allied soldiers and surrendering would be the best option. Clarence even drove back to his division in the GENERAL'S OWN CAR, with 946 German soldiers, all their arms, equipment, and vehicles in tow.

[...]