Quote of the Day: Tailgunner edition

Tam has a very interesting post about jet bomber tail gunners:

The number of gun kills from defensive gun positions on jet bombers is truly tiny. More dudes have driven dune buggies on the moon than have scored a confirmed gun kill from a jet bomber.

Go read the whole thing that starts in 1916 and ends in the Vietnam war.  And a scan of the Borepatch archives looking for something else turns up this comment from Aesop about when Hollywood stars weren't a lot of dirty traitors:

Was doing an Internet wander the other day. Cary Grant's WWII service consisted of making movies, like Destination: Tokyo, about a US submarine tasked with infiltrating Tokyo Bay to secure weather and other data for the upcoming Doolittle B-25 raid. He later made Operation: Petticoat, in a somewhat lighter vein, and the boat used in several scenes during the movie, made in Key West in 1958 was the Archerfish. There was a picture of the Archerfish tied up alongside several other boats in Tokyo Bay for the WWII Surrender Ceremony, alongside the sub tender Balao. Serving aboard the Balao was one Seaman Bernard Schwarz. You might know him as Tony Curtis. The next time Curtis, Grant, and Archerfish were together was making Operation Petticoat.

Lee Marvin earned his Purple Heart for taking a 7.7 round through the butt offshore from Saipan, and was later shot again in the foot. 

At a prior invasion at Tarawa, a former coast guardsman later commissioned a Lt j.g. in the Navy won a Bronze Star with combat "V" for using his landing craft to pick up a total of 47 Marines while under intense shore fire, in the surrounding waters from sunk or grounded landing craft. His name Was Eddie Albert, from Green Acres, The Longest Day, and The Longest Yard.

Jimmy Stewart, originally joined the Army Air Corps as a private. Taking additional flying lessons (he was already a rated pilot before the war) at his own expense, he was discharged to accept a commission, eventually working his way up to a full colonel and wing commander of a B-24 wing. While in command of that wing, one of the men under his command was a young radio operator, eventually staff sergeant, named Walter Matthau.

Ermes Borgnino did 10 years' service in the Navy starting in 1935, leaving as a gunner's mate first class. You know him as Ernest Borgnine, Academy Award winner, commander of the PT 73, and Lee Marvin's commanding general in The Dirty Dozen. 

The PITA colonel who kept trying to bust Lee Marvin and his unit in Dirty Dozen was Robert Ryan, who in real life had been a Marine Corps drill instructor at Camp Pendleton during WWII. Marvin had been previously busted down from corporal for being a screw-up; Ryan was in all probability a sergeant when he was discharged.

David Niven had graduated from Sandhurst (the British version of West Point), resigned his commission and left the military to become an actor, but returned to Britain once war broke out to serve as an infantry and later a commando officer during WWII. One of his best and lifelong friends, assigned as his batman, which was the only way a Lt. Col. and a private could be seen together in the British Army, was Private Peter Ustinov.

Victor McLaglen, 1935 Academy Award winner, and frequent sidekick with and the other half of the epic fight with John Wayne in The Quiet Man, had served twice in the British Army, first as a member of the Guards Regiment at Windsor Castle, until he was kicked out because he'd only been 14 years old when he enlisted trying to get into the Boer War. He re-enlisted (legally) when WWI broke out, and served as an infantry Captain in the Middlesex Regiment with service in the trenches of France and the Middle East. At one point he was also heavyweight boxing champion of the British Army, and between his illegal and legal enlistments, he was a boxer, wrestler, and Winnipeg police constable in Canada.

Don Rickles made it to seamen first class in 2 years' service on a torpedo boat tender during the war. Just after WWII, Gavin Macleod, from Love Boat, Operation Petticoat, Pork Chop Hill, The Sand Pebbles, and the always-negative-waves Moriarity in Kelly's Heroes, was serving his time enlisted in the Air Force band. 

That's just off the top of my head. They were all better men than the current crop of pampered Hollywood princes, and made of much sterner stuff.

But the all-time best WWII war story was delivered by WWII USAAC fighter pilot and flight instructor George Gobel, who never left Oklahoma during the war, and pointed out to Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, and Dean Martin, that that's where they must have needed him , and reminded everyone that while he served there, "there was not one Jap aircraft got past Tulsa, and we didn't even have guns in our aircraft".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbpc-NJHcZ8

And never forget that Christopher Lee was The Real Most Interesting Man In The World.  And when I say he was the most interesting man in the world, I mean Chuck Norris shut up and listened when Christopher Lee spoke.  Men strode the Earth in those days.

Tagged badass because, well, you know.  And that applies to Frederick Libby, SSgt Sam Turner, Jimmy Stewart, Lee Marvin, Eddie Albert, David Niven, and Sir Christopher.

Oh no, Canada!

Remember this from 7 years ago?  Ukranian priests are badass.

It looks like they're now matched in badassitude by Canadian priests who need a SWAT team to take them down for holding church services:

But He knows the way that I take;
when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.
My feet have closely followed his steps;
I have kept to his way without turning aside.

- Job 23:10-11

This post tagged "fascists" because, well, you know, eh?

Badass - ur doin' it wrong

 

Spotted by the eagle eye of The Queen Of The World.

Christopher Lee's Special Forces career

I was attached to the SAS from time to time but we are forbidden – former, present, or future – to discuss any specific operations. Let's just say I was in Special Forces and leave it at that. People can read in to that what they like.

- Christopher Lee, 2011 interview in London Daily Telegraph

I have posted before about how Sir Christopher was a total badass and the real Most Interesting Man In The World.  I just stumbled across this interview from Belgian TV where they located an impossible to find special forces unit patch, which they presented to him on camera.  It's quite a moment, with Sir Christopher expressing how grateful he was in that manner that shows what a Gentleman used to be in an older and more vigorous age.  Bravo to the Belgian Television channel for making that happen.



And more vigorous it was indeed.  He talks about his time in Popski's Private Army (for American readers of a certain age, think Rat Patrol).  It's said that their Jeeps are the only wheeled vehicles that ever drove in Venice's St. Mark's Square.  When I said Lee as a badass, I hadn't quite realized just how badass he really was.  In reality, when Christopher Lee spoke, Chuck Norris got quiet and listened.  Here is a short list of Lee's badassitude:

• His mother was an Italian Countess whose family got its coat of arms from Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.  He died in the Second Crusade around 1100 A.D.  One of her great great uncles was a Cardinal and was buried in the Pantheon in Rome right next to Raphael.  A painting of the Cardinal hangs in Windsor Castle.
• He was engaged to a woman who was Swedish nobility, and had to ask the King of Sweden for permission to marry her.  Permission was granted but the wedding did not go through for other reasons.
• He witnessed the last public execution by guillotine in Paris.
• He served with the Gurkhas of the 8th Indian Army Division at the battle of Monte Cassino.  
• He was cousin to Ian Flemming, author of the James Bond novels.  Flemming tried to get him cast as Dr. No but the role was already filled.  Lee had to wait until Man With The Golden Gun to play a Bond villain.  Interestingly, in the novel the villain was basically a thug; Lee played him as the dark opposite of Bond.
• He was in over 200 films, not counting dozens of TV appearances.
• When he was filming The Lord Of The Rings, director Peter Jackson told him that he wanted Lee to make a particular sound when he got stabbed in the back.  Lee said that's not how people sound when they get stabbed in the back; Jackson asked how he knew, and Lee just said "Oh, I know."  Maybe he learned what that sounded like when he was fighting with the Gurkhas.
• He is the only cast member of that film to ever have met J.R.R. Tolkien.
• He was the oldest person to ever record Heavy Metal, releasing a song on his 90th birthday in 2012.  The following year he release a Heavy Metal Christmas Album (!); the song Jingle Hell reached #22 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making him the oldest person to enter the music charts at 91.

Here's an early performance of his rock genre, from Rhapsody of Fire's 2005 album, singing a duet with Fabio Lione:

Regular readers of this blog will remember that we've seen his basso profundo voice here before:



That's quite a life.  Here is a photo of Flight Officer Lee looking out on the liberation of Rome in 1944.

Yeah, that all qualifies as badass and the actual most interesting man in the world.  I'm glad that they found the unit patch for him.

WWII Medal of Honor recipient reports to the Final Muster

Technical Sgt Francis Currey, dead at 94.  Dwight has an excerpt from his Medal Of Honor citation, which is simply astounding.  RTWT at his place; I'll give you two excerpts from his NYT obit to illustrate just how bad ass he was:

By the time the European war ended, he had been awarded a Silver Star and a Bronze Star for exploits after the events at Malmedy and three Purple Hearts, in addition to his Medal of Honor.

Dayum.  Here's Wikipedia's depiction of his ribbons:

You don't see that every day.  And this is cool (again, from the NYT):

In the late 1990s, Mr. Currey became the first Medal of Honor recipient to be portrayed as a G.I. Joe action figure. In his later years, he was honored at an annual parade in Hurleyville.

Ave atque vale.

Ten years ago on this blog

Woah

Big brass ones. He has 'em. Needs a gun, though.

Hat tip: Chad Crayton.

Badass of the week

This dude drove off an attacking bear by biting off its tongue:

According to Russian truth orifice RT, Nikolay Irgit was collecting shed antlers in the Tuva region with a couple of mates. 

The deer and moose remains, RT said, can fetch a tidy sum on black markets for their alleged medicinal properties and to make furniture. 

You need a licence to scavenge them – which Irgit and company did not have so the gang were likely hoping for a quick and painless trip. 

They set up camp, cooked some grub, sang Ging Gang Goolie then split up. 

The gods were not smiling upon Irgit, it seems, as he soon met a brown bear – one of the largest carnivores second only to its cousin, the polar bear. 

Scared, Irgit screamed at the beast, hoping it would scarper. Instead it charged the lad, chomping down on his head and also injuring his hands and stomach. 

At this point, chances of survival are drastically waning and yet our heroic antler thief prevailed. 

The police report said that as the bear had its teeth locked round his skull, Irgit "managed to bite the bear's tongue off, after which the bear was frightened and ran away".

Woah.  Sadly, Our Hero is being prosecuted for collecting antlers without a license.

It wasn't just the D-Day men that were Greatest Generation

The women were pretty bad-ass, too.



Let's all have a safe weekend.  If you can't have that, then have a bad-ass one.

And he had a bottle of Mad Dog to wash it down, 'natch

Seen on Gab.ai.  All the cool kids hang out there.

Only badasses need apply in Helsinki

Seen at the Helsinki airport.  Best.  Marketing.  Ever.

Makes me want to go to Helsinki in November, just to show how badass I am.

Badass of the year

Russian Special Forces officer surrounded by ISIS calls in airstrike on himself.

Hat tip: Chris Lynch.

Goose. It's what's for dinner

Just saying' it's a bad idea to forget your place on the food chain.

Johann Mattheson - Sonata No.2 in G major

Image via Das Wik

You don't often run across a composer who can fairly be described as "badass".  Johann Mattheson puts the lie to the claim that classical music is for pantywaists.

Mattheson was friends with Georg Frederic Handel - both were born around the same time in Hamburg and grew up in the same musical community.  They had an argument during a performance of Mattheson's opera Cleopatra in 1704, an argument that soon escalated to swordplay.  Mattheson very nearly killed Handel, who was only saved because a button on the great composer's coat deflected Mattheson's thrust.

The two quickly got over their mutual murderous rage and spent the rest of their lives as fast friends.  Pretty badass, all in all.

Mattheson  went on to be not only a composer, but a diplomat, traveling all over Europe.



A final footnote of badassery is that the complete list of Mattheson's compositions all went missing after World War II.  They were discovered in Armenia in 1998 and returned to Hamburg.  All in all, a wide ranging character, that Herr Mattheson.

Kilted To Kick Cancer - Day 20: Domo Arigato, Mr. Kiltobato

Today was Japan Fest with #2 Son.  In addition to cool things Japanese, that meant it was picture time!

I expect I was the only guy there in a kilt, and so attracted quite a lot of attention.  Antonio thought it was badass, but he was dressed up, too.

And I loved this lady of a Certain Age, rocking Sailor Moon.

I'm saving the best for tomorrow, though.  In the meantime, a musical interlude. 

I have a secret
I've been hiding
under my kilt ...

We're two thirds of the way through the fundraiser. Please click through to donate to this cause.  It's fully tax deductible, as a 501(c)3 charity.  The Donate link is here, and please select Team Borepatch.

And if you click through to read Brigid's post you'll see why she is also invested in this - her Dad is fighting that same fight right now.  She is so invested that she's made an enormously generous offer: the first twenty all donations of $50 or more via Team Borepatch will receive an autographed copy of her amazing The Book Of Barkley.

Note that I've modified the rules - all donations will get a copy of her outstanding book, because I'll buy them myself for her to sign.  So not only can you get a great read, not only can you support a great cause, but you'll help drive her rankings on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  And you can watch me riding in a kilt.  If you screw your courage to the sticking point.

R.I.P Colonel Tresham Gregg, total badass

Wow:

Colonel Tresham Gregg, who has died aged 94, had an adventurous Army career as a leader of wartime Italian partisans, having already acquired a reputation as a serial escaper from PoW camps.

...

The following month Gregg was surprised by a German patrol near Derna, Libya, and taken prisoner. In an attempt to escape, he tried to sabotage the Germans’ reserve petrol supply with sugar but he was handed over to the Italians too quickly for the ploy to be effective.

As he was marched to the port in Benghazi, Gregg dived out of the column of PoWs and hid in a shop. After two hours he was spotted by two Italian soldiers who were looting the place. They refused to believe his story that he was a German soldier “taking a leak”.

...
Back in PG29 he was serving a third month in solitary confinement when, in September 1943, the Armistice was announced and he was released. He had relations in Switzerland and could have headed north; but he chose to stay with his closest friend, Captain “Donny” Mackenzie of the Cameron Highlanders, who was suffering from malaria.

...

In spring 1944 they were contacted by the partisans. Gregg and Mackenzie led a successful raid on a police station at Ferriere, then ambushed two truckloads of troops sent to flush them out.

...

The Prefect of Piacenza put a price on their heads; but they were in a natural stronghold, and when a Fascist Alpini battalion attacked over the mountains, Gregg not only forced its commander to give them all his heavy weapons as the price for freeing him, but also recruited many of his men.

Just, wow.  Read the whole thing, of which this is only a short excerpt.  The basassitude was strong in this man.  Rest in peace, Colonel.

Hat tip: Jeff via email, who writes:

This chap caught my eye at once, given his general resemblance to TE (of Arabia) Lawrence. I did not expect, when reading on, to find a story almost as astonishing as Lawrence's. You would hesitate to put it into a novel.

A late boss of mine did the same sort of work in Yugoslavia, Greece and finally China which Gregg, without training and preparation, did in Italy with his comrade Donald MacKenzie. Had Ian been alive to read this obit, he would have chuckled and shaken his head in admiration.

For the past three years, I have lived in Italy in terrain south of, but a little less rugged than that in which Gregg and his partisans worked. Before and after the Italian surrender/change of sides in 1943, it was complicated and dangerous to be an Italian. My village had been keenly fascist (Italian style: nothing like the Nazis) before the War, but that did not stop the Germans generating on the War Memorial a list of civilian casualties barely shorter than that of military column.

I may say that I can tell from the photograph of the funeral procession for Captain Mackenzie that every class of Italian is represented in this Resistance group: I am virtually certain that the gentleman in the tie and riding boots is the local Count.

These days the Germans are welcome in Italia as tourists, but residents have to work hard to be liked. It is a little easier for us Brits, and for Americans.

The Daily Telegraph is much reduced from its great days, but its devotion to the Obituary is admirable. Can you tell me, is there a US equivalent? Your WWII and Korea generation are passing on, and you are losing some remarkable men and women; and the Vietnam lads may be beginning to lose a member or two. It would be a shame not to have the chance to read up on them.

Local knowledge, right there.  The Telegraph was my daily read when we lived in Blighty - the Times was too grotesquely anti-American and the other offers were either tabloids (like the Sun: hello, page 3!) or leftie nutcases like the Guardian.  And the obits were a delight to read, written with a panache not seen in the Colonies.  Well, at least these Colonies.

The only place that I've seen the like is (I believe) The Atlantic, which used to run Mark Stein's obituary columns in each issue.  His obit of Profumo was a delight to read, but I believe that Stein got his start at the Telegraph, of all places.

And so alas, the obits on the western shores of the Pond are a pale imitation of those still found in her Britannic Majesty's scepter'd Isle.

No turning aside

Photo credit: SERGEY GAPON/AFP/Getty Images

But He knows the way that I take;
when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.
My feet have closely followed his steps;
I have kept to his way without turning aside.

- Job 23:10-11

The priests in Ukraine are the most badass priests on Earth, and I say that reverently.

Photo credit: SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

- Psalm 23:4

Photo credit: Konstantin Chernichkin/Reuters

Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
He guides the humble in what is right
and teaches them his way.

- Psalm 25:8-9

Badass.  Here endeth the Sunday lesson.

The most badass guy of World War II?

People will say it was Audie Murphy, but he was never asked to be the face of G. I. Joe.  Holy cow.

Careful with that Sriracha ...

Man, that looks hot.

Off with 'is head!

Last execution by Guillotine in France.  Christopher Lee was here.  I gave the Christopher Lee background here.

This guy is my hero

Win.