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True heroes no myths.

Discussion in 'World War 2' started by Mothman, Sep 16, 2007.

  1. Mothman

    Mothman New Member

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    Were there any true "heroes", by that i mean anyone that showed outstand courage in battle and so on, who and wich side and where can i find anywhere its written about them?
     
  2. Simonr1978

    Simonr1978 New Member

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    A good place to start would be to look up the top bravery awards for each nation (Victoria Cross for UK and Commonwealth, Medal of Honor for the US, Hero of the Soviet Union, etc...). Google these and you'll amost certainly find a page listing the recipients, with a bit of luck you may well find the citations or at least an account of what the decoration was awarded for.

    This is an account of Fighter Command's only VC recipient of the Battle of Britain:

    http://www.battle-of-britain.com/BoB2/B ... _cross.htm
     
  3. Grieg

    Grieg New Member

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    Go here:





    http://www.army.mil/cmh/moh.html

    to read all U.S. Medal of Honor citations.

    I've always admired this man:

    MURPHY, AUDIE L.

    Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Company B 1 5th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Holtzwihr France, 26 January 1945. Entered service at: Dallas, Tex. Birth: Hunt County, near Kingston, Tex. G.O. No.. 65, 9 August 1945. Citation 2d Lt. Murphy commanded Company B, which was attacked by 6 tanks and waves of infantry. 2d Lt. Murphy ordered his men to withdraw to prepared positions in a woods, while he remained forward at his command post and continued to give fire directions to the artillery by telephone. Behind him, to his right, 1 of our tank destroyers received a direct hit and began to burn. Its crew withdrew to the woods. 2d Lt. Murphy continued to direct artillery fire which killed large numbers of the advancing enemy infantry. With the enemy tanks abreast of his position, 2d Lt. Murphy climbed on the burning tank destroyer, which was in danger of blowing up at any moment, and employed its .50 caliber machinegun against the enemy. He was alone and exposed to German fire from 3 sides, but his deadly fire killed dozens of Germans and caused their infantry attack to waver. The enemy tanks, losing infantry support, began to fall back. For an hour the Germans tried every available weapon to eliminate 2d Lt. Murphy, but he continued to hold his position and wiped out a squad which was trying to creep up unnoticed on his right flank. Germans reached as close as 10 yards, only to be mowed down by his fire. He received a leg wound, but ignored it and continued the single-handed fight until his ammunition was exhausted. He then made his way to his company, refused medical attention, and organized the company in a counterattack which forced the Germans to withdraw. His directing of artillery fire wiped out many of the enemy; he killed or wounded about 50. 2d Lt. Murphy's indomitable courage and his refusal to give an inch of ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction, and enabled it to hold the woods which had been the enemy's objective.
     
  4. majorwoody10

    majorwoody10 New Member

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    murphy kept himself mostly hidden in the smoke of the burning halftrac and the germans could not figure out were the broom that was sweeping their decks clean of landsers was hidden ..murphy a small skinny texas kid (the us marines and paratroops both turned him down as being too scrawny ) finally joined the infantry where one more than one occasion german bullets passed through the folds of his clothing without touching his slim frame...
     
  5. corpcasselbury

    corpcasselbury New Member

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    Yeah, until that last round hit.
     
  6. Commando

    Commando recruit

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    The "Cockleshell Heroes" would be some brave men, that definitely deserved the name of "hero".
     
  7. majorwoody10

    majorwoody10 New Member

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    in murphys first ever combat action in tunisia, he was walking up a trail with his leut . a pair of itallian officers on horseback blundered on to the patrol and were ordered to surrender ...they turned and fled and muprhy shot them both dead with his garrand , his leut was appalled and scolded him but murphy then pointed out that the dead riders were enemy soldiers and that there was actually a war being fought and their purpose was to kill enemy soldiers , the sad ugly truth ...which had not yet quite sunk into his green commanders young head...
     
  8. corpcasselbury

    corpcasselbury New Member

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    I'm amazed that Murphy came to that realization as soon as he did, all things considered.
     
  9. bosworth gannaway

    bosworth gannaway New Member

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    Better to have shot the horses and taken the enemy officers prisoner, since it is not the mere killing of quantities of the enemy that is critical - it is also the gathering of intelligence that will win battles, campaigns and wars. Not only that, but the chances are that any mounted officers in circumstances such as these are likely to be at least middle or higher ranking field or staff officers, and could therefore have been very useful as sources of information. Mind you, I doubt that Murphy's officer would have been too much influenced by the above, since being a shavetail he would doubtless have been shocked at the victims being officers. Being shot in the back would also have offended his sensibilities ; as would the fact that being mounted, they were also endowed with a certain nobility lacking in any soldier or officer grunting his way along a muddy trail.
     
  10. TISO

    TISO New Member

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    starshy leytnant Zelenko Katarina Ivanovna
    [​IMG]

    Su-2 light bomber in which she was killed (plane belonged to deputy regimental commander A.I.Pushkin - she flew his plane as her was damaged in previous recce mission):
    [​IMG]

    She was a veteran of Winter war with Finnland ( the only female pilot) and and at time of her death a bomber pilot and assistant commander of 5. flight of 135. BAP (part of 16.SAD ( mixed air division) of 6.th Armys VVS - South-Western front):
    On the battlefield since 22.06.1941 she made 40 combat missions and fought german fighters on 12 ocasions.
    On 12. of september 1941 during return from her third recce mission of the day in area Romen - Nzhina - Prilyuki - Piryatina - Luben, pair of bombers doing the recce was attacked by Me-109 fighters. Soon the other airplane (kapitan Lebedyev) was hit and has left the fight. Zelenko and her gunner were alone against 7 Me-109's. She managed to shoot down one but her airplane was hit. Both she and her gunner aviator-observer laytnant N.Pavlik were wounded. She ordered Pavlik to bail out and continued dogfight. Soon she ran out of ammunition. Then she preformed Taran ( ramming attack). She destroyed another Me-109, her airplane exploded on impact. She was killed. All this happened over vilige of Anastasevka in Shumy area.
    She was posthumously decorated with order of Lenin ( December 1941) and golden star of Hero of Soviet Union (5. May 1990) .
    http://aeroram.narod.ru/win/taran.htm - site is in Russian ( a very good site dealing with ramming attacks by soviet aircrews)
     
  11. TISO

    TISO New Member

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    Battle for Taranovka station (Kharkov region) on march 2-nd 1943.
    25 men platoon of 78. Guards infantry regiment defended station against determined german attack.

    Battle started when Germans started determined attack on the villige defended by 78. Guards inf. reg. Only 25 men platoon under command of lt. Shironin defended the rail station. Platoon was cut of and on their own. Men found a 45mm gun whose crew was killed earlier in an air strike. Germans attacked them with 35 tanks and armoured wehicles. Platoon had some artilery support from the village and engeneers mined some aproches to the area.

    St.sgt (starshy sergant - senior sargent) Sergey Nechipurenko and pvt. Aleksandr Tjurin knocked out 3 enemy tanks with 45 mm gun, before they were knocked ot themselves by SP gun (Tjurin WIA, Nechiprenko KIA). As the same wheicle was to overrun their position pvt. Andrey Skvortsov sacrificed his life by jumping under the tracks and destroyed it with AT granade.
    German attack was stoped and both sides became mired in ferocious fighting. Pvts. Piotr Shkodin, Vasili Tatsurenko and sgt.Ivan Sedih trew themselves under german tanks with AT granades thus destroying them.
    After failing to capture rail station german finally pulled back. They lost 16 tanks and armored wheicles and suffered around 100 KIA and many more WIA.
    Lt Shironin was badly wounded and only 5 of his men survived. All men under Shironin's command were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in a rear occasion when the highest decoration was given en masse.

    Defenders of Taranovka station:
    lt. Piotr Shironin (WIA died june 30 1968)

    senior sergants:
    Nechipurenko Sergai V. (KIA),
    Vernigorenko Ivan G. (survived , died january 26 1984),
    Zimin Sergei G. (KIA)

    segants:
    Grudinin Vasili S. (KIA)
    Kirayanov Nikolai I. (KIA)
    Sedih Ivan V. (KIA)
    Suhin Aleksandr I. (KIA)

    privates:
    Bukayev Ivan P. (survived, died August 11. 1971),
    Chertenkov Ivan M. (KIA),
    Fazdeyev Stepan P. (KIA),
    Gertman Pavel A. (KIA),
    Isakov Vasili L. (survived, died of his wounds August 30 1943),
    Kraiko Aleksei I. (KIA),
    Shkodin Piotr T. (KIA),
    Silayev Ivan N. (KIA),
    Skvortsov Andrei A. (KIA),
    Subbotin Nikolai I. (KIA),
    Pavlov Vasili M. (KIA),
    Tantsurenko Vasili D. (KIA),
    Tjurin Aleksandr N. (WIA, survived, died June 18. 1980),
    Toropov Aleksandr F. (survived, died May 27. 1946),
    Vizgalin Ivan O. (KIA) and
    Zlobin Yakov D. (KIA
     
  12. majorwoody10

    majorwoody10 New Member

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    western soldiers would be hard pressed to match the kind of sacrifice and selfless bravery shown by soviet soldiers or even germans for that matter ..the eastern front was and still is the most terrible ,horrific and gigantic struggle ever seen in history

    tarawa ,tobruk ,malta ,iwo ,bastogne and arnheim were certainly bad enough for the participants but all of them pale when held up to the nightmare ost front , in scope ,duration and shear magnitude ,there is no contest

    there were hundreds , if not thousands of murphys in the red army and the wermacht ..of course , none of them were actually on the good guys side ...(winks at tiso )
     
  13. TISO

    TISO New Member

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    As i said in some other topics that is just a matter of good PR :D
     
  14. TISO

    TISO New Member

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    What about the last battle of crew of Russian battleship Knyaz Suvorov flagship of Russian 2.nd Pacific squadron in the Russian dissaster called the battle of Tsushima? Crews of most Russian ships fought like lions but it didn't help since they were commanded by idiots.

    The last battle of battleship Knyaz Suvorov (Князь Суворов):
    Just 20 minutes into the battle Knyaz Suvorov was thouroughly wrecked by accurate and rapid Japanese artilery fire, engulfed by flame, with damaged gun batteries and shot-off smoke stacks and masts. Most of officers were killed and admiral Rozhdestvenski was critically wounded.
    Ship left the formation. Sailing alone on one part of the battlefield ship was encountered by Japanese II.division of battleships doing a monuver and fired on again.
    Around 17:00 wounded admiral Rozhdestvenski was taken abourd a Russian destroyer Vedovy (Бедовый). At the same time from Suvorovs 900 men crew around 100 were still alive. At around 18:00 Suvorov was again fired on by Japanese II. battleship division sailing past him. At the time Suvorov was still returning fire even if hugely outnumbered. Later when sea calmed a bit Japanese torpedo boats sailed into the area and found Suvorov at 19:20. One of them fired spread of torpedos at Suvorov from distance of only 300 meters and scored 3 hits. Around 10 minutes later battleship Knyaz Suvorov sunk beneath the sea. Few surviving sailors made their last stand by the last working 75mm gun and fired at at japanese torpedo boats even as ship was sinking.

    Knyaz Suvorov (Borodino class battleship) in Revel (today Tallinn in Estonia) 26.9.1904., during a fleet parade for tzar Nikolay II.
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Officers and the true heroes the the ordinary seaman of Knyaz Suvorov just before embarking on the way to far east:
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    The last stand in a Japanese comic:
    [​IMG]

    Same article and few others here:
    http://www.fun-online.sk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5324&highlight=varyag
     
  15. majorwoody10

    majorwoody10 New Member

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    well tiso, the soviets and the nazis put tens of millions of innocent people in mass graves and this was not as a result of wartime area bombing .the usa put thousands of japanese americans in drafty buildings in the high desert where they were not beaten ,starved or tortured . no amount of pr spin can change these grim factoids .compared with hitler ,stalin and mao the very worst western leaders come off like gandhi and santa claus.
     
  16. TISO

    TISO New Member

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    Forgeting south america again?
     
  17. majorwoody10

    majorwoody10 New Member

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    sry tiso , i keep forgetting about our massive death camps in the frozen wastes of equador and panama ....
     

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