What military figure would you like to meet?

Just wondering who'd you like to sit down, talk to in a conversation asking any questions at all, and why those people?

I'll post after a few others have.

 

My cousins who died in action that I never met

 

American Civil War - JEB Stuart
Pre-WWII European - Napoleon
WWII - Manstein or Guderian

If I had to only pick one it would be Napoleon.

 

Wow, there are so many I'd like to meet. Some of the top ones would be the flag raisers from BOTH photographs on Iwo Jima, Joshua Chamberlin, Omar Bradley, Erich Hartmann, Robert Johnson, Mitsuo Fuchida, Charles Butler McVay III, Mochitsura Hashimoto, the men of E Company, 506th Regiment, 101 Airbourne Division. There are more but those are just some examples.

 

Joshua Humphrey - To know what it was like to be tasked with designing the USN's first frigates.

Daniel Morgan - Where he got his insiration for the tactics used in the Battle of Cowpens

Anyone involved in the Battle off Samar - It's my favorite and I want to hear ALL the stories. Both sides

Any carrier captain - what it was like to command the future of the navy, the carrier

 

I would love to interview my grandfather now that I am older and know what to ask him as far as his motivation for joining the German cause and his life afterwards.

As for famous figures, well there is good ole Sepp and StuG ace Hauptmann Peter Franz.

 

I'd like to meet McNaughton, Albert Speer, Stalin, Lenin, Genghis Kahn, and Churchill.

And yes, theres just sooo many to meet.

 

I agree, I wish I could talk to my grandfather about his wartime experiences. The other day I saw a photograph of him with his platoon and realised that they shared the same relatiounship as I do with my troop. I would like to talk to him about that and his experiences as an officer. I might prefer to wait a few years, until I have actually seen combat and then compare notes as it were.

 

Shifty, in "Band of Brothers." Or maybe that 101st trooper during the Normandy drop in "As Eagles Screamed." The one who kept charging at German positions while riding a french horse and holding a luger in each hand. He survived (up to that point at least) according to the author.

 

Historically speaking, It would have to be Hitler...I cant believe It was'nt already said. Has any one person, had more of an Impact on our civilization within the last 200 years?

 

200? Theres more then Hitler

 

I would have liked to have met Audie Murphy. A very humble man who never could shake the demons of combat. I actually teared up a bit when I visited his gravesite at Arlington (both times).

 

Hitler ca 1940 to see if he truly was that amazing in talking and expression.

Hitler ca April 1945 whether he was really that ruins of a person

Rommel ca 1941 to see him in winning action.

 

Some of the desceased vets in my family, veterans in general.

 

Aside from General's and Admirals, the ones i'd like to talk with the most are these three in particular:

1) Captain Richard Wallace Annand (Victoria Cross Recipient). of the Durham Light Infantry (A famed British unit) Although I never met him face-to-face, we did exchange a few letters and Christmas Cards. This man was VERY brave as well as a great Gentleman. While meeting him, i'd have also loved to have met his wife Shirley. Sadly, both are now deceased. :mourn: :mourn:

2) Audie Leon Murphy. (Medal of Honor Recipient) I'd have loved to have met this brave Gentleman who was from Farmersville, Texas-just a hop-skip-and-a-jump-down-the-road from where I now reside. :mourn:

3) I'd love to meet up with Remy Schrijnen (Knights Cross Recipient) and his wife again. Though I spent 12 hours with him and his wife in Sept 2000, that was too short of a time-though I am greatful I at least had 12 hours to spend with such a Gent. It sure was great to have exchanged many letters and cards with two of these three Gentlemen-something that I will never forget. :mourn:

In addition, I would also love to have talked with every member of U 181-especially those crewmembers who I never met. Kapitans of U 181 (respectively) Wolfgang Luth, Kurt Freiwald. Alos from the Vets I spent two days with at their reunion and who are no longer with us: i'd have liked much more time with: Karl Kaiser, Dietrich Hille, Mickey Muller & Gunther Bartussek.

Two who I later knew about but who could not attend the reunion because of health problems and had exchanged mail and emails with are: Franz-Josef Hawran and Gerhard Kortz (SP?) both now deceased. :mourn: :mourn: Herr Hawran sent me some pictures of his time on U 181, and one in particular is my favorite shot of him. He's wearing tropical tan uniform with dark blue overseas cap, gloves, and is standing on U 181's conning tower leaning against an MG-42 mounted for A.A.A. purposes.

 

While there are sooooooooooo many, I will post each time I come up with one.

So far I got Zhukov and Stone Wall Jackson

 

non WW 2 (mostly*)

Sui Wen Ti
Peter the Great
Charlemagne
Atilla
Sun Tzu
Hannibal
Nelson
Joan of Arc
Saladin
Black Beard
Sam Houston
Foch
Custer
Alexander the Great
Napoleon
Nathan Bedford Forest
Genghis
Hitler *
Fredrick the Great
Cromwell
Cortes
Julius Caesar
Stalin *
John Paul Jones
Cleopatra

 

George S Patton

Harold Gregory "Hal" Moore, Jr

 

I would love to be at a tea party or beer hall with Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler.. Can you imagine the conversations we would have!

 

Hans von Luck, and ask him what it was like in the Gulag. (even though I have read about it countless times in his book! )

Or maybe Roosevelt and ask him what he felt when he was informed of Pearl Harbour.

Or Monty when he realized that Market garden had failed.

Or just any soldier from either side, really.