Heroic Actions On The Battlefield

Another point I always liked about the Spartans battle that I forgot to add was that One of their Kings (they had two) King Leonidas fought that battle with his men and died with them.

I wish modern leaders had to do this as I would bet we would have alot less wars.

The WTC site was very definitely a battlefield and all three of your examples are worthy of note.

[edit on 04/8/12 by GradyPhilpott]

This certainly looks like some piece of history I´ll have to study further. Imagine, I never even heard of the Chosin Reservoir before. They don´t teach us these things in school... Now because you mentioned it here, I´ll have a chance to learn some valuable history I might otherwise have missed.

[edit on 2004/11/6 by Hellmutt]

I had a little suprise a few weeks ago. I have a very rare surname, basically, if you have it, then we're related. Well, I was reading about a Kiwi, one of only three people to win the VC twice which is just mind blowing, and he married a girl with my surname.

Reflected glory I know, but something to treasure.

I think the figure as to the amount of Persians was exaggerated ten times.Perhaps ten thousand men not a hundred thousand.
I do not think primitive people could keep that many men in the field.And it does make for a good propaganda story.
The Book of Lists 2 I think has ten outstanding winners of the Congressional medal Of Honour. In the Commonwealth,such suicidal bravery is expected.
One American picked up an aircraft flare that backfired out of the shute,and carried the blazing magnesium flare to a window,he engulfed in flames. Survived believe it ot not.

There are far too many stories of bravery related to battlefields to do real justice to this thread. The foregoing stories and “nominees” are all relevant.

Audie Murphy



The totality of his awards
I always have believed Audie Murphy was the bravest person on any battlefield.

Murphy seemed to me to be the atypical hero. The hero that is a hero because of his actions not because he set out to do something great or heroic.

Soldier
Above the call. Herbert then wrestled with his own demons, and finally admits defeat as a civilian.

What others said about him:


To me, true heroics are committed by the frightened person that in spite of their fear or maybe because of it presses on. The mother that enters a firey room knowing she may well die in an attempt to save her child, the frightened youth that takes to the water to save someone from impending shark attack, the whistleblower that knows they will lose their job or worse- to me these are the things that make for the hero.


Not to denigrate the Spartans for they are probably the epitome of 'militaryness' I believe that they were professionals involved more in honor than in heroics by happenstance.

Chosin, Khe Sahn, Bataan, Roarks Rift, Trafalgar, Little Round Top, Pickets Charge, Dan Dailey, Smedly Butler, Chesty Puller, Alvin York, Douglas Bader,
the 42 ronin, Masada, NYPD/NYFD on 9/11, Flight 93, etc etc etc

So many Brave men have given their lives in Battle and all of those metioned here are Worthy of the title of this thread.
But my choice would be the Defence of Rorke's Drift, Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded at Rorke's Drift ( Highest Military Award for Valor in the face of the Enemy in the UK, equivelent would be the Congressional Medal of Honour in the US ) the highest number ever awarded at one time.

www.rorkesdriftvc.com...

Of course I may be biased.

100,000 is a rather conservative estimate on the numbers of persians from records of that day.Storys on both side range from 100,000 to 5,000,000. There are both Persains and Greeks account of this story. This land army has only about half of the Persains power as they had a navy that was just as big.


Greek city-states--- ------------------Persia

Commanders

Leonidas† ------------------------------Xerxes I

Strength
7000 troops ----------------------------Estimated at over five million;
--------------------------------------------probably hundreds of thousands

Casualties
At least 300; likely over 2000------- Possibly 20 000

John Rambo. Took on Missile firing helecopters with just a Bow and Arrow.

Looking back on the first post on this thread. I just had to add this extra little detail for those who didn't go through "The Story in pictures" section on the Glowworm site...



[edit on 2006/4/23 by Hellmutt]

Canadians in Italia were attacked by a company sized german unit with Panther tanks. They knocked out the Panthers with PIAT fire,threw the mangled bodies out and repelled the charge with their own tanks.
A VC in there somewhere.Raely talks about it.

Another book to consider""The Mosquito Fleet" about American PT Boats.Very exciting.Especially when a PT boat took on a bigger German minesweeper.
"We asked What ship are you?"
"I will never forget the answer." A broadside of 88's and 20mm's.We were hung up on the German's side ,and they were lobbing grenades and rifle fire at us.
He had over 20 wounds but survived.

Ah yeah the Chosin Resivoir. For the longest time my Grandfather avoided telling stories about his time in Korea at command of a mortar squad, though a few years back he began telling stories of the Chosin resevoir and other battles. But dang, that Captain sure went down like soldier. After sinking several other ships he uses whats left of his ship to ram into a german one, haha I love it!

The pleasure is all mine.

Well with the risk of getting my head chewed off: My greatest hero is someone who fought one the other side.. My grandfather, who's Hungarian from birth but fought as a german Fallshirmjäger (airborne) during WWII. He has blessed me with a view of that part in history many have missed.. I've heard stories of bravery and heroics on the German side that tends to be left out in the history books. "History is written by the winners"
He "visited" among others Eben Emael Narvik, Crete, and finally Bastogne where he caught a bullet in the hip that ended the war for him.

Just found this:

Ten amendments for airborne I'd say it'll work great as rules for any soldier..

More info on Fallschirmjägers
Link

First and foremost, I'll try to say just one positive thing so this whole post isn't depressing. My vote for the greatest act of heroism named so far definately goes to those german troops who exposed themselves to their adversaries to make contact and offer a truce. Fighting is easy. Standing up for the right thing in the military, particularly when it means going over to see the enemy without your weapon, is amazing. Believe me- I've been there done that as far as taking a stand in the military is concerned (and I wasn't faced with the threat of execution for treason at least!)

Also I guess I should second that feeling of surprise that they don't teach some of this stuff in history class. Jay Gould makes into into texts for trying to corner the gold market- something nobody cares about or needs to know, but the USS Alligator and her Marines (famous pirate fighters after the Spanish abandoned the Carribean- an important event in the development of America's place as a leader in this hemisphere) do not get mentioned.
Almost nobody realizes that after 1066, no nation successfully raided a port on Britain's home soil until April 1778, when John Paul Jones unleashed his detatchment of devil dogs on two british ports. www.grunt.com...


That's it for the positive stuff...
The media has really cheapened heroism. Right after 9/11 they started mass-producing heroes for us to vicariously fight and win through, so that we wouldn't actually have to DO anything in the name of patriotism and civic virtue. God forbid that anyone should get in touch with the key volunteers network at a local base... just go get a bumpersticker to show your support.

The war in Iraq has made matters worse. They seemed to think that the older generation will say "hey, the kids can fight a war- I guess all those problems with violence, teen pregnancy, and academic failure were left wing alarmist BS- it worked too! I gotta say, the right has found a great way to rally the base: they proved their success on family values by sending kids off to kill strangers!

Flight 93: not heroes. It wasn't their call- they were stuck and they were f*cked. (and they were probably shot down).

Jessica Lynch: Do I even have to say anything?

Lance Armstrong: Road bikes -ARE- scarry to me, but going to France isn't heroism. The worst thing that could happen is that they might surrender- then you could be in trouble because they don't fight outsiders so well, but they do tend to cut off their ruler's head from time to time. Good for Lance for rubbing their nose in it though!

Ah, the number of acts of herosim is staggering, many of which we never hear about. This quote comes from the following website and in my opinion is the greatest act of herosim one could ever engage in, that is, giving one's life to save his fellow man....

WETZEL, WALTER C. Private First Class, U.S. Army, 13th Infantry, 8th Infantry Division. Place and date: Birken, Germany, 3 April 1945. Entered service at: Roseville, Mich. Birth: Huntington, W. Va. G.O. No.: 21, 26 February 1946. Citation: Pfc. Wetzel, an acting squad leader with the Antitank Company of the 13th Infantry, was guarding his platoon's command post in a house at Birken, Germany, during the early morning hours of 3 April 1945, when he detected strong enemy forces moving in to attack. He ran into the house, alerted the occupants and immediately began defending the post against heavy automatic weapons fire coming from the hostile troops. Under cover of darkness the Germans forced their way close to the building where they hurled grenades, 2 of which landed in the room where Pfc. Wetzel and the others had taken up firing positions. Shouting a warning to his fellow soldiers, Pfc. Wetzel threw himself on the grenades and, as they exploded, absorbed their entire blast, suffering wounds from which he died. The supreme gallantry of Pfc. Wetzel saved his comrades from death or serious injury and made it possible for them to continue the defense of the command post and break the power of a dangerous local counterthrust by the enemy. His superb leadership and heroic action at the cost of his life so demoralized the enemy that resistance at this point collapsed, permitting the two battalions to continue their advance.

www.militaria.com...
www.arlingtoncemetery.net...

I think the Dutch might have something to say about that.