World War II/Awesome: Difference between revisions

* Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz in the Pacific. Just because of his role, he gets an aircraft carrier class named after him. Though this isn't the only thing named after him.

** Adm. Nimitz displayed two bits of magnanimity awesomeness. Upon landing in Japan during the war's conclusion, one of the first things that he did was visit the Japanese military hospital. In 1961, he helped sponsor the Japanese museum ship, Mikasa,'s restoration. Which had been the flagship in the Russo-Japanese war.

** Most of Nimitz's CMOA involved him putting his trust in his Radio Intelligence unit and his own instincts, against the advice of his senior officers - And being right every time.

** Merely the simple fact that Nimitz somehow managed to get his senior officers, not just a few which hated each other, to work together, and with an army of officers even he despised, virtually seamlessly through the whole war is an accomplish CMOA itself, especially with the personalities involved. Also, a few victories that became a reality just 'cause Nimitz was just *that* much of a people person. His basic strategy was to "do as little as possible," by finding competent people for every task that he can think of, to the point that he could theoretically just go on a vacation for weeks and yet left the war effort going on without a hiccup. Nice guy that he was, even managed to find creative ways of shuffling people to were he felt incompetent into jobs were their were useful, just to the point that he almost never had to demote or fire anyone. Is there a trope for [[Badass Manager]]?

** Another brave clergyman was Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, a prominent official at the Vatican. During the Nazi occupation of Rome, O'Flaherty was one of the heads of a huge underground movement dedicated to helping Allied POWs, Jewish refugees, and so forth evade capture by the Gestapo, usually hiding them in convents, seminaries, their own houses, and in some cases, the Vatican itself. Everything that O'Flaherty did had a sort of daredevil flare to it. - For example, when one man was hiding developed appendictis, the Monsignor smuggled him into a hospital, and with some help of the nuns tricked a German military surgeon into operating. The man recovered on a ward full of German officers before O'Flaherty smuggled him out quietly again. Eventually, Colonel Herbert Kappler, the leader of the Gestapo in Rome, discovered O'Flaherty's role in the organization and became obsessed with trying to stop him. Unfortunately for him, he can't arrest O'Flaherty, since the Monsignor was inside the Vatican which gave him diplomatically immunity, and when he was out of the Vatican, he was always able to outwit his pursuers. After the war, O'Flaherty visited Kappler in prison every month (By some accounts, he's his only visitor), and eventually converted his former nemesis to Catholicism. It's impossible to do a full story any justice here, but it's not an exaggeration to say that Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty's life was just a one long, Crowning Moment of Awesome from start to finish.

*** [[Twenty-Faces]] is Catholic?

*** Bonus points for outfitting the Swiss Guards with machine guns just in case. That's right; he was willing to pit the ''Swiss Guards'' against the Nazi war machine if Hitler tried to stop him. The Pope's not playing around.

* Tomoyuki Yamashita - One of the Japanese Honor embodiments during World War 2. His actions when he was involved in the Alexandra Hospital on February 15, when Yamashita heard of the massacre in the Hospital, he went round the beds of the surviving patients, and saluted them; he apologized profusely for the shocking conduct of his soldiers. Even buying some crates of canned fruits, opened them, with his bayonet, and served the fruit to the patients. Once he learned that some of the Japanese soldiers were looting the Hospital he ordered them to be executed...Even before his own execution after the War Trials, he proclaimed that he had no disrespect for America. {{quote|''"As I said in the Manila Supreme Court that I have done with all capacity, so I don't ashame in front of the gods for what I have done when I have died. But if you say to me 'You do not have any ability to command the Japanese Army' I should say nothing for it, because it is my own nature. Now, our war criminal trial going on in Manila Supreme Court, so I wish to be justify under your kindness and right. I know that all your American and American military affairs always has tolerant and rightful judgment. When I have been investigated in Manila court I have had a good treatment, kindful attitude from your good natured officers who all the time protect me. I never forget for what they have done for me even if I had died. I don't blame my executioner. I'll pray the gods bless them. Please send my thankful word to Col. Clarke and Lt. Col. Feldhaus, Lt. Col. Hendrix, Maj. Guy, Capt. Sandburg, Capt. Reel, at Manila court, and Col. Arnard. I thank you."''}}

* September 1, 1942: Luftwaffe pilot Hans Joachim Marseille, who shoots down 17 Desert Air Force fighters over the course of three sorties. June 17, 1942: Marseille destroys 6 aircrafts within seven minutes. September 15, 1942: Marseille destroys 7 Australian fighter crafters within eleven minutes.

* Daniel Inouye, who was the son of Japanese immigrants, joined the US army and fought in Europe. On April 21, 1945, he was throwing grenades at a German bunker when he was shot at the stomach. He refuses medical aid and continues throwing, but just as he was about to let his last grenade fly, one of the Germans shot their own grenade and nearly blew his right arm off! Inouye's fingers remained clenched around the grenade, preventing it from going off, so he pried it out of his cold, dead hand, and threw it. Successfully destroying the bunker. Daniel was hit in the leg, before passing out from blood loss, and even after getting his arm amputated without any anesthetic, all he had to say was how much he wanted to return to the battlefield.-

* Koichi Tohei, who later develops the Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido sytle of aikido, was a captain in the Japanese army in China. Since he treated the Chinese POWs well, the Chinese army had a tendency to avoid his company. Also, he said to have not lost a signle man in the whole campaign, and even returned to Japan with more soldiers than he started with.

* German Commander Nikolaus von Falkenhorst, a German commander, was given literally just a few hours to plan Operation Weserübung, which is the German invading both Denmark and Norway, by Adolf Hitler. He proceeds to write the plan using a tour guide of Norway he found in his hotel. The operation was successful.