World War II/Awesome: Difference between revisions
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* Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin, the Commanding General of the XIV Panzer Corps in Italy, led the Defence of the Gothic Line, and the Defence of Monte Cassino. Two of the most successful German Delays in the Southern Frnt. When reports of an Allied Bombers massing to blow up the Monastery, he saw to it that the Clergy were quickly evacuated as well as the treasures were shipped back to the Vatican rather than fall into the Allied and his own men's hands. Plus, von Senger und Etterlin was also an Anti-Nazi, which got him in trouble quite often, though never implicated in the conspiracies against Hitler.
At the risk of turning this simply into a list of every action and operation of WW2, the Dambusters' raid of May 16/May 17 of 1943 has to be mention here. The pilots had to fly very low - In darkness - To reach their target, that they were in constant danger of hitting trees, chimneys, and power lines. A few of them even flew under power lines. Once they reached the dams, they had to fly straight and level at the target with every gun in a mile radius firing at them, lit up with spotlights to help the German gunners. Those attacking the Eder dam had to hop over to a tiny peninsula before dropping back down, hitting precisely the correct altitude in time to drop the bombs before pulling away again. Did I mention that they're doing this in huge 4-engined Lancasters, so overloaded with bombs that they've had to take out one of the gun turrets, so they can actually take off?
* Witold Pilecki, a Polish hero, snuck into Auschwitz just to document the whole Holocaust and bring proof to the Allied high command, since those guys were skeptical about it. "Snuck in" isn't the right way to put it. - He volunteered to be sent to Auschwitz by the Germans as part of his mission. He managed to escape with proof of what's going on, and later, commanded a partisan unit during the Warsaw Uprising. Unfortunately, he was quietly shot by the Soviets shortly after the war.
* 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.
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** 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. He lost both legs before the war, while showing off with low-level acrobatics (According in his diary - "Crashed slow-rolling near the ground. Bad show."). Most assumed he'll never walk again. He did -Without a stick. Returned to flying and got 22 kills in a Spitfire.
** Basically having no legs helped in high-G moves. - It's harder for the blood to pool into his legs and for him to G-lock.
** At France, he was shot down, his right leg was stuck in his aircraft. The Germans allowed the British to drop him a new one, which he promptly used to leave the hospital and run off.
** While being held as a prisoner at Stalag Luft III (The facility were [[The Great Escape]] events occurred), Bader's legs were confiscated from him to prevent him from making more attempts to escape from the camp. Seems the officer in charge of the facility doesn't want to explain to his superiors that he could not keep a legged man and was shamed into returning the legs shortly thereafter. In 1942, Bader escaped from the Stalag Luft III with four other prisoners.
** He ended up in the Colditz (Oflag IV C), where he managed to convince the commandant that he can't properly execrise in the castle grounds and so had little space to walk around the countryside on parole. During these walks, he filled his legs with chocolate, tobacco, and other goods from the red cross parcels, and used them to carry on a propaganda campaign against the Nazis amongst the surrounding farms.
* James MacLachlan.
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