I’m not sure many people realise just how impressive those numbers are.
1 Like
I can’t believe Smedley Butler hasn’t rated a mention yet.
Not only did he distinguish himself mightily on the field of battle, he wrote War is a Racket and blew the whistle on a well-financed fascist plot to overthrow the US government. Reading the wiki article: guaranteed to blow your mind.
EDIT: the wiki article I’m referring to is the one on Butler himself.
1 Like
My favorite opening in all of Wikipedia is, “The prototypes of the Mizar were made by mating the rear portion of a Cessna Skymaster to a Ford Pinto.” I mean, just let that sink in.
OK, OK, it’s not the opening paragraph, I admit, but it is the first line of the body. So, it’s close.
I have “War is a Racket.” I thought Butler badly overplayed his hand - it reads like a screed, and many of the very valid points he makes are lost in a sea of hyperbole. While Butler and the McCormack-Dickstein committee claimed there was evidence the coup was a real threat, none was produced, and it seems more likely Butler was just the victim of a hoax.
Actually, there is a very interesting story behind the artist, William Orpen a.k.a. Billy Orps, too.
Here’s one for you…My mum. Joined the army at the start of WW2, was assigned to anti-aircraft gun sites in London during the Blitz. Trained to use early radar as a ‘predictor’, marked German plane positions for the guns. No VC, didn’t bite any of her fingers off - just did her job, like so many British. Now (at 90) blind, due to her sight being damaged by the radar cathode-ray tubes. She’s my hero.
5 Likes
MIne too. Without her and her generation my family would have been wiped from history.
Ethnically we were surplus to Nazi requirements.
And now he’s black and leader of S.H.I.E.L.D.
1 Like
Too bad nobody listens today.
2 Likes
“They don’t like it, Upham!”
(Apologies to our transatlantic counsins for such a nerdy old-British-sitcom catchphrase reference.)
1 Like
Don’t Panic!
whenever movies or newsreel footage of old WW2 USAF airplanes came on tv, my grandmother would stare at them intently. a few times, she told me “I riveted the wings of that one.”
1 Like
“In 1908 he married Countess Friederike Maria Karoline Henriette Rosa Sabina Franziska Fugger von Babenhausen”
You can’t make this stuff up. Fugger von Babenhausen.
4 Likes
I must make this my new online identity.
Ok, I’ve edited the entry to “he not only bit off his own fingers but those of his enemies”.
One grenade fell on the lip of Gurung’s trench. He quickly grabbed it and hurled it back at the enemy. Almost immediately another grenade came over. This one fell directly inside the trench. Again Gurung snatched it up and threw it back.
A third grenade landed just in front of the trench. Gurung attempted to throw it back, but it exploded in his hand, blowing off his fingers, shattering his right arm and severely wounding him in the face, body and right leg. His two comrades were also badly wounded and lay helpless in the bottom of the trench.
The enemy, screaming and yelling, now formed up shoulder to shoulder and attempted to rush the position by sheer weight of numbers. Gurung, regardless of his wounds, loaded and fired his rifle with his left hand and kept up a steady rate of fire.
The attacks came in wave after wave, but the Japanese were beaten back with heavy losses. For four hours Gurung remained alone at his post, calmly waiting for each new onslaught, firing into his attackers at point blank range, determined not to yield an inch of ground. His comrades could hear him shouting: “Come and fight a Gurkha!”
3 Likes
Think about it: you can marry this bird then have affairs with women called Maria, Karoline, Henriette, Rosa, Sabina and Franziska without ever worrying about using the wrong name here or there.
Well, he was more a soldier and less of a word-smith. I think he was also rushing to prevent an actual coup, and ended up inadvertently ensuring that it would not happen in such an outright manner. Things probably never left the “gentleman’s agreement” stage, so there was little to actually delete.
Besides, fnords are not admissible as evidence.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
