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World War II/Awesome: Difference between revisions
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** 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|Oh, Crap!]]"
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*** A troper's father has talked about how when the Greman motorcycle-paratroopers landed they were immediately beaten to death by very angry Cretan villagers. A friend of the troper even talked about how his father and uncle had yelling matches of who will go back to Greece to fight and which one will stay back. Both wanna go and they only had enough money for one flight from America to Greece.
*** The battle for Crete birthed some massive CMOA from Creforce, the Allied presence there. The British, Canadian, Australian, Kiwi, and Greek soldiers, beset by poor infrastructure, bad communication, and whole divisions being kept in reserve for a sea invasion (which didn't happen), because of a misinterpretation of intelligence reports. And they still nearly won, aboslutely devastating the German invaders, several divsions holding or retaking areas. Special notice was made at the time of the bravery and might of New Zealand's 28th Battalion (Maori), and the determination of the under-armed Greek soldiers and civilians.
*** To be fair, it's also the Germans' CMOA. They were outnumbered, mounted an invasion of an island while in the face of the Royal Navy's superiority, and most importantly, launched the first large-scale use of airborne troops in history, and was successful. While Operation Varsity at the end of the war involved even more paratroopers, this, along with Market Garden, stand as rare examples where paratroopers would be the main assault force of a military operation. And this one was successful (although [[Pyrrhic Victory| very
** During the Fall of Greece, hundreds of British, Australian, and New Zealand soldiers too to the hills and countryside just to avoid captivity. The memorials and documents, like ('''ADD LINK OF THE STORY''') : tells of the help by the Greeks to Australian and NZ escapers; there was the vital help food, clothing, and shelter given to the escapers by the stricken by famine Greek people, who when they did this were risking and losing their lives. On May 24, 1935, the Australian Ambassador to Greece unveiled a memorial recognizing the gratitude of the Commonwealth soldiers in southern Crete towards the local people.
**** To the Greeks, hospitality is always been sacred.
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