World War II/Awesome: Difference between revisions
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** Another recipient for the Medal of Honor: Was a medic, who continually ran out, under fire, and according to the official report, was responsible for saving the lives of a dozen of soldiers on the battlefield. Takes guts to run out under fire. He did it all unarmed. He was a conscientious objector and refused to carry a weapon.
*** His name is Desmond Doss: http://articles.latimes.com/2006/mar/26/local/me-doss26
*** [[Mel Gibson]] and co. made a movie about Desmond and it's called [[Hacksaw Ridge]] and here's the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEjh7-thFok
** One of the recipients, Hershel Woodrow "Woody" Williams, was a flamethrower specialist (a weapon which takes some serious balls to carry into battle, because it's carrying two full tanks of highly flammable napalm on their backs) in the Pacific Theater. While the Iwo Jima invasion was going on, the Marine cleared out seven Japanese strongpoints and halted a banzai charge during the course of a single day, while all the bullets were ricocheting off of this fuel tanks. He only retreated once, since he ran out of fuel.
** Pvt. Harold H. Moon, age 23, participated in the Battle of Leyte. Now Moon had a reputation as a troublemaker. Also, he was released from the stockade so he can participate in battle. During a Japanese counterattack against the U.S. beachhead, his position was the target of both enemy gunfire and mortars after his comrades were killed. Moon man a machine gun in his foxhole, gunning down any advancing troops, and repeatedly exposed himself to kill the attackers. His surrounded position was the focal point of the attack for more than four hours. Frustrated, the Japanese sent a whole platoon to overwhelm the American Private; he emptied his entire magazine into the advancing line, killing eighteen and sending the others retreat. Eventually, he was finally shot and killed after attempting to lob a grenade at a foe machine gun. When men that were sent to recover Moon's body, they discovered corpses approximately 200 dead Japanese soldiers about 100 yards of his position.
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*** In one episode of the HBO series,
**** According to most eyewitness accounts, Spiers was credited also with taking the fourth gun emplacement all by himself on D-Day.
* The Civil Air Patrol was created just as an organization to preserved aviation history for civilians instead of letting them become the sole domain of government, like what Nazi Germany, right after Pearl Harbor. During World War 2, people within the military doubted whether or not civilian volunteers are effective. Several days into their probationary period, they spot a sinking merchant ship and saving the lives of the surviving crew. Events like these are eventually leading to the CAP's CMoA, where they sunk a U-boat, taking time to loose another depth charge on the sub, despite the fact they're running low of fuel. After that, CAP pilots proceeded to sink another one, damage 10 others, track a good number of others for the Army Air Corps to take on, and would often times fake dive bombing runs as though they aren't armed, driving the subs underwater and wasting their time. A German submariner remarked that they had to stop their coastal operations "because of those damn yellow red planes." That's correct, a bunch of civilians doing this part time were considered a threat to Nazi Germany's navy. Now they're the U.S. Air Force's civilian auxiliary.
* Col. Joseph A. Gregory, who is a sniper and [[WW 1]] veteran from Canada had a CMOA at Dieppe. After when he and his squadmates clear a few bunkers, he went to the beach to catch the last ships to England. A boat that was stuck in the sand and while helping to push it out, a bullet ircocheting of the water whizzed past his forehead, blinding him on one eye, and knocking him into the water. He got up and proceeded to board another boat, which was then sunk from under him. He made for another motorboat, and was pulled into it by Sgt. Major McEvoy, who nursed his head and carried him over to a destroyer and into sickbay, where he said, "You'll be alright now, Joe." Just when the Sargent spoke, a dive bomb hit sickbay, killing McEvoy, knocking Colonel Gregory out, and washed him into the sea. Another boat fished him out of the water and was put beside an Oerlikon gun, which made enough noise to knock him out again. Later he came to one of the gunners and asked, "Holy Jesus, we're pretty near home?" The receiving answer "Home be b-we're still at Dieppe." The colonel survived the rest of the war and the Canadian Army employed him for recruitment advertising.
** Another Canadian from Dieppe was captured. First, he escaped from the CATTLE TRAIN that was carrying Canadian prisoners by jumping out after ALMOST BEING SPOTTED several times, trekked all the way down to Vichy France, got on a British ship to Gibraltar, and from there a long hike back to Britain. That's right, this guy traversed in just a few days across France. Also, he went to help form the Brittany Escape Line, a very ballsy operation which smuggled downed airmen, escaped POW's, and espionage/spy agents, who managed to get out of France before the Gestapo caught them.
** Found it, the founder of the Brittany Escape Line (aka Shelburne Escape Line)'s name is Guy Hamilton.
** It's one of the few Underground escape lines that evaded infiltration by the Gestapo.
* King Christian X of Denmark has several candidates.
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