Posted on 03/08/2015 5:21:05 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Thanks. It’s been too many decades since I’ve seen the movie, and one more gruff pronouncement from Patton wasn’t as memorable as seeing him doing it. I still don’t understand why they wouldn’t show it, but it must not have fit their vision somehow. Personally, I think it would have been hilarious. Maybe that was their problem: it would have thrown everything out-of-balance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEqwLLFNC3w
That video is one I had not seen before. Grim stuff; I wonder about the propriety of bringing up certain things that an elderly man would have had no control over (or knowledge of) when he was a young soldier. Maybe that's just me.
My Uncle C wrote about a trip in a jeep which included an incident involving a civilian driving a car in a hot spot. Fortunately, nobody paid the ultimate price (that he was aware of):
"... in doing so I failed to find the right road that led off the main road, and as we were going down the main road towards Metz, some good GI shouted, “Where in (the) hell are you going?” so we stopped and asked him why. He said to wait a couple of minutes and we would find out. In about two minutes there were five explosions ahead of us and he said that was German mortar fire and we had better turn around and get out of there. We stayed for a few minutes, and more of those things kept coming in, so I decided it was not too comfortable here and headed back to my own area. Many a time since (then) I have thanked that soldier for stopping me. The odd thing about this whole incident was that some darned Frenchman came by with a car and drove on down the road, and he wouldn’t stop, so we let him go-- and typically French luck let them get through before some fire landed near there."
Mr. niteowl77
>I thought that scene was set in Sicily.
You are confusing it with a Sicily scene where in one of Patton’s amphibious operations, another colonel and his XO are standing on the beach and Patton yells from a ridge that our boys are getting shot up on the beach and why aren’t they moving? Then he asked the second-in-command if he is the executive officer. When he replies “Yes”, Patton yells, “Well, you’re now the commanding officer. You’ve got 4 hours to get down there and relieve that beachhead or I’ll fire you too!” Then the XO says to his former commander that there are about 100,000 guys on this island who’d like to shoot that son of a bitch, leaving it to the audience which army he’s talking about.
Dammit, this is one of my all-time favorite movies!
>No, that was in Italy during the Sicily campaign.
You’re wrong, same as another guy. Post #43
Well, there you go. I didn’t remember.
A history book is one thing, and setting up a dramatic film is something else again. Bastogne was the obvious climax.
Right you are. I was conflating the two scenes.
Mine, too. You've motivated me to watch it again while it's still hazy in my mind, before you remind me of all its great scenes!
Churchill mentions in his book he found relief while crossing the Rhine.
I seem to recall photographs, or even a movie, of Churchill pissing either in the Rhine or just across it. I’m going to search, and I’ll post it if I find it.
http://www.strangehistory.net/2014/10/28/churchill-urinating-germany/
German General Walther von Reichenau swam the Vistula in Poland in front of his troops in 1939. He later died of a heart attack in Russia.
Given Sir Winston’s drinking regime he would many opportunities.
When I was researching Winnie’s (sprinkling) baptism of German fortifications, I was struck by how disdainful the commentators were of him for that. In contrast, I was with him in spirit, thinking it admirable and morale-building—and I’m half-German (but all American). I’m think I recall my father telling me he emulated Churchill when his division passed through the Siegfried Line in late March, on its way into southern Germany.
“Devereux was released from the Hokkaido Island prison camp on September 15, 1945
That is 2 weeks after the surrender documents were signed on the Missouri. It must have been an isolated site.”
Turns out it was pretty isolated. Northen Japan quite a ways from the coast and the main city of Sapporo (site of the 1972 Winter Olympics).
First occupied by Americans on 5 July 1945. POWS arrived from China. First food drops by B-29’s was 28 Aug 1945. RAMP team arrived 11 Sept; POWS departed camp 17 Sept.
http://mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/fukuoka/fuk_01_fukuoka/fukuoka_01/HakGroup.htm
There some other camps in the area, but this is the one Devereux was at.
http://www.mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/hokkaido/hakodate_3_main.html
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