Monday, June 6, 2016

D Day June 6, 1944

Members of Filthy 13 (Dirty Dozen) before flying back to Normandy.
From Left: Joseph Oleskiewicz, George Radeka, Jack Agnew, James F. Green, and Robert Cone.
Description based on www.forum.101airborne.pl
One of Poppy's and my favorite movies and one of the most fascinating stories out of WWII and D-Day. The mohawks and warpaint had to scare the ever-loving shit out of the Nazis.

7 comments:

Andrew said...

One of my favorite war films too. Lee Marvin's chronic alcoholism was a problem during filming. Charles Bronson was so angry with Lee Marvin for constantly turning up dead drunk that he threatened to punch him. Marvin said he hated this movie, it was MGM's biggest moneymaker of 1967.

drjim said...

One of my uncles was in the "first wave" that parachuted into the area.

Anonymous said...

What a HUGE difference between the young men who fought the Nazis in World War II, as compared to the current "millenials" who need "safe spaces" and get the vapors if someone chalks "Trump 2016" on a sidewalk!

Rusty

Stretch said...

Along with Mohawks, Uncle Jim's unit wore Confederate flags on their sleeves. They were a Virginia National Guard unit. One of the first Nazi officers they captured did a double take at the flag and asked "General Robert E. Lee?"
Uncle Jim's NCO said "We are Virginians!"
Nazi: "Ah, then there is no dishonor in surrendering to such soldiers."

Unknown said...

My Grandfather would have jumped with his pet bear... except that he would have been 63 years old.

As a Mohawk timberjack, the jumping wouldn't have bothered him at all... or any of my other grand uncles who were Mohawk ironworkers on the NYC skyscrapers.

A Texan said...

I read about the Mohawks - they were, indeed, to scare the crap out of the Nazis. You see, that kind of haircut was only given to prisoners sentenced to death in Nazi-land, so the plan was that they'd see these guys and realize that they had no hope but to surrender. Don't know if it worked, but it is a great story.

Anonymous said...

OMG, Somebody call the SCOTUS....Cultural Appropriation!!!!