World War II

[eagleair89]

70 years ago this year, WWII began. The BBC takes a look at that time of giant men, the struggles of many and the horror and glory of war.

BBC NEWS | Europe | I was in Hitler's suicide bunker

WAR EAGLE

[AU49]

Originally Posted by eagleair89

70 years ago this year, WWII began. The BBC takes a look at that time of giant men, the struggles of many and the horror and glory of war.

BBC NEWS | Europe | I was in Hitler's suicide bunker

WAR EAGLE

There was horror all right, but nobody but a romantic fool; some feather merchant; an idiot that fought it from the States; a writer looking to make a name for himself writing about the misery of others; finds any part of it glorious. You won't find it hard to place yourself in there some where.

[eagleair89]

Originally Posted by AU49

There was horror all right, but nobody finds any part of it glorious.

You won't find it hard to place yourself in there some where.

maybe you should read Patton's Biography. If you do not like that one, try MacArthur's......

man has found war glorious for basically his entire existence on this rock........right or wrong just the way it is.

As for your last sentence.........................have a wonderful day AU49

Bless your sweet little pea pickin' heart

WAR EAGLE

[AU49]

eagle eye, I always thought that a childish name, smart mouth might be more appropriate. Credentials? One authlor bucked the President of the United States, the other slapped a helpless kid that had enough. Real winners.
Neither had a reason for being if they could not general in a war, professional warriors. Might be biased? Naw, never.

[driver]

Originally Posted by AU49

eagle eye, I always thought that a childish name, smart mouth might be more appropriate. Credentials? One authlor bucked the President of the United States, the other slapped a helpless kid that had enough. Real winners.
Neither had a reason for being if they could not general in a war, professional warriors. Might be biased? Naw, never.

AU49, that's the way to keep old eagle eye in line. I'm glad to see you're not letting him post just anything and get away with it. I think between us we can keep him straightened out.

The fact that there is some evidence in support of eagle eye's opinion does not matter. If we are to succeed at beating a smart ass down, we need to keep it up no matter whether he is right or wrong on whatever the subject might be.

I would bestow glory on anybody who ever occupied a foxhole under fire or went ashore on a defended beach. But every guy I've ever met or heard or read who has done those things, he sees no glory in it at all. So maybe glory is like beauty - it is in the eye of the beholder, and anyone who would claim it ain't got it.

Now let's go after eagle eye. I think he should be fined for every sentence he starts with a lower case letter. if he doesn't pay up you arrest him and put him in chains. then I'll beat him half to death with one of my dangling participles. but we give him NO glory, OK.

[Cap'n Andy]

Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte... just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes.

Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that when you're in the water, Chief? You tell by looking from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know, was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week.

Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin', so we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, it was kinda like old squares in the battle like you see in the calendar named "The Battle of Waterloo" and the idea was: shark comes to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the shark go away... but sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a shark... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then...

ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces.

You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I know how many men, they averaged six an hour.

On Thursday morning, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boatswain's mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. Bobbed up, down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist.

Noon, the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us. He swung in low and he saw us... he was a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper. Anyway, he saw us and he come in low and three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and starts to pick us up.

You know that was the time I was most frightened... waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water; 316 men come out and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

that's about all I have to say about that.