Courage

[Carruthers]

I tend not to read the obituary columns of national newspapers as, although not yet in my dotage, I find myself further down life’s road than I would wish; a point brutally rammed home when I made a will earlier this year.

However, my gaze is occasionally drawn to an account of someone of my dad’s generation who served in WW2 with great distinction, returning to civilian life and seemingly just picking up where he left off.

I’m at the herbivorous end of the spectrum so I don’t have any real interest in war, its prosecution or the political motivations behind it, but what I do find interesting is how ordinary men and women acquitted themselves in the most extraordinary of circumstances.

Two lives which may be of interest are those Vernon Coles and Bill Sparks.

Coles was an engineer on midget submarines which attacked German battleships sheltering in Norwegian fjords, returning to civilian life with the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works.

Sparks was a member of a Royal Marines mission to sink a number of cargo ships at Bordeaux. Canoes, each crewed by two Marines, were paddled over eighty miles up the Gironde Estuary under cover of darkness to attach limpet mines to the ships.

Of the ten men who embarked on the mission, only two survived, Sparks being one of them. After the war, he eventually returned to London Transport where he worked as a bus inspector.

Those men displayed enormous courage and each knew what was expected of him and would been thoroughly prepared for his mission.

What I find absolutely astonishing, is the bravery shown by individuals who suddenly find themselves in the most dire of circumstances and act without concern for their own safety.

One such is Joel Halliwell VC, who in WW1 captured a stray German horse and rescued ten wounded men while under heavy fire. I mean him no disservice when I describe him as an ordinary man who, like millions of others, served in WW1.

Earlier this year, The Antiques Roadshow recorded two episodes to commemorate the start of WW1. One sequence was recorded at a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in France where three generations of the Halliwell family were represented.

You can see the relevant section here:

Antiques Roadshow - France.

Bill Harriman, the presenter, is visibly moved at the account of Lance Corporal Halliwell’s bravery.

Surely nobody can endure experiences like those above without being deeply affected in some way or another but, as I said, they returned to civilian life and picked up where they left off.

None of us knows how we’d behave in extremis. Few would willingly volunteer to find out.

[xoxoxoBruce]

The ones who did what they thought was expected of them, when they heard 'over the top' they went, even knowing most of the last 50,000 who did, are dead. Even the soldiers who didn't distinguish themselves in the Army's eyes, witnessed and often committed, horrendous acts of inhumanity.

When it was over, most didn't want to talk about it, they wanted to forget, return to before. Many died in the next few years, from alcohol abuse, suicide, "accidents"(turned on the stove but forgot to light it), or just disappeared. There would be an occasional whisper and knowing wink, 'He hasn't been right since the war', but mostly nobody discussed it. They didn't really understand how war twisted people in a way they couldn't just rub some dirt in it and forget.

In recent years, I've come to believe, what you do to others will haunt you more than what they did to you.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

snip--

In recent years, I've come to believe, what you do to others will haunt you more than what they did to you.

As it should.

[Gravdigr]

I can hold a grudge like nobody's business, but, there is a lot of truth in what Bruce said.^^^

[Cyclefrance]

Interesting to find this topic. There's been a quite a lot of WW programmes and articles circulating this year. I was watching a programme a few weeks back about the reconnaissance Spitfires that flew missions into Europe, France , Belgium, etc., and even into Germany as far as Berlin.

All the more remarkable as these planes were stripped of their fire-power - all they had was blue painted body to make them blend in with the sky! Their task was to take photographs of prospective bomb sites and of those that had been bombed, plus also missions to discover changes in the landscape that might suggest the development of weapons sites. Such missions over northern France and Belgium discovered the launch ramps that were being constructed to send the pilotless flying bombs that would devastate southern England in the latter half of the war nicknamed 'doodle-bugs' by Londoners and known more correctly as V1s. These missions also led to the detection of the more sinister V2 rocket sites at places like Blockhaus and La Coupole, now museums.

As if this wasn't interesting enough, two weeks a later a friend sent me a link to a youtube video about an American stationed over here who had flown these blue spitfires. The personal approach to this short film makes it all the more interesting and, in places, chilling. The link is here

[xoxoxoBruce]

Not too long ago Carruthers posted a bunch of WW II aerial reconnaissance Luftwaffe targets.

Also the NCAP collection.

[Cyclefrance]

[quote=xoxoxoBruce;907248]Not too long ago Carruthers posted a bunch of WW II aerial reconnaissance Luftwaffe targets.

WW2 tit for tat - thanks Bruce

[Carruthers]

The brave pilots who flew the aircraft such as the unarmed photo recce Spitfires were the best of the best, but they’d have training and time to understand what was required of them and how to extricate themselves with the best chances of survival when the chips were down.

What interests me is what motivates someone who suddenly finds himself in the most dire of circumstances, to risk his life in the course of saving someone else’s.
Is it some deep seated instinct to ‘do the right thing’ ?
Perhaps it is not wanting to have the fate of another on their conscience for the rest of their lives. Whatever it is, I take my hat off to them.

[xoxoxoBruce]

In WW II there was a mixture of ignorance and pragmatism. Ignorance of what warfare was becoming and certainly would become before it was over. At the outset there were as many biplanes as monoplanes in use. There were still Calvary units, and swords, and the bolt action rifle was the killing machine.

If you happened to be one of the unlucky ones who got shot while performing some act of heroism, you'd share a last cigarette with your buddy and tell him to tell your sweetheart/mother you loved her. Whose 1938 nightmares, included being crushed by a tank tread, roasted by a flame thrower, machine gunned to mush, or atom bombs?

At the outset, those daring young men in their flying machines were depending on their bravado(balls) and skill(luck) to outwit the Red Baron. Anyone who'd even heard of radar was sworn to secrecy, the only missiles were if the pilot dropped his thermos of tea, AA fire/barrage balloons were a challenge, and enemy aircraft were usually trying to catch up after they saw you fly over. I've heard/read they feared mechanical failure and even weather, more than the enemy. That didn't last, as the air war matured faster than a teenage boy in a whorehouse.

What interests me is what motivates someone who suddenly finds himself in the most dire of circumstances, to risk his life in the course of saving someone else’s.

I doubt if risk is foremost when you, and your buddies, are at risk 24/7. I had to laugh when a reporter asked a survivor of throwing himself on a grenade, what he was thinking at the time. I doubt like hell he had time to hold the grenade up like Yorick's skull and think a monolog debating his options. It's just reaction, preplanned although maybe not consciously. In other situations it's likely they expect to survive whether they're successful or not. There will always be situations where a man is sure he won't make it but is determined to take as many with him as possible, or just has no choice.

Patton nailed it...

No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Of course the enterprising, will make a buck while expressing their patriotism and gratitude.