One of the last from "The Great Escape" dies aged 92

@axis_roll I have not watched the History Channel in years. It became to heavily involved in reality TV.

We cut the cord.

@CWO:

@Gargantua:

This was an awesome read - Thanks Marc.

Glad you liked it.  The story reminded me a bit of a 1942 British film I have on DVD: “Went the Day Well?”, a movie about Nazi paratroopers in British uniforms who infiltrate an unsuspecting village in England (with the help of a local traitor) for a secret mission, then put it under military occupation when their cover is blown.  It’s astonishingly frank and uncompromising in depicting the way war inflicts brutalities on innocent civilians and on the way these civilians respond with equal brutality to defend themselves.  The scene that always sticks in my mind is the one in which a sweet little old lady talks pleasantly to a German soldier until he’s lulled into carelessness, then throws a jarful of pepper into his eyes and kills him with a meat cleaver while he’s writing in agony.

It’s a great firm isn’t it Marc … and still very “fresh” fit its age.

@General:

   Cool!  Go Army!     Those were the days.    "Let’s all sing along"  A person doesn’t see that kind of stuff anymore. The Office of Emergency Management of yesteryear sure operated a bit different differently than the Homeland Security of today in regards to information to the public. Get’s me kinda in the mood to beat the Russians into the Ukraine.

Yes, I love the almost boyish enthusiasm in this video.  It’s made in a similar spirit to those G.I. Joe action figure commercials from the early 1960s, which actually used new lyrics set to the same tune (“G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe, fighting man from head to toe…”).

Some of the armoured / motorized maneuvers in the Caissons video remind me of the tank and bouncing-jeep sequence (set to the tune of “You’re in the Army Now”) found near the end of the classic WWII cartoon “War Dogs” :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMt8DJJg7bc

As Worsham said, adding jets would have made it too easy: so many of us rank the 262 as the best of the war. He was mixing it up. Made me think a bit.

My first interest in WW2 was planes.

Thank you for your time and effort Worsham.

Japan would have lost that battle to the western powers.

The Great War was really a European conflict with a minor chase in the Pacific against a number of Light German cruisers. The Central powers objectives did not include much outside Europe/ Middleast

Remembered for what they did….and never forgotten!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4QJyg3MyWE

The top one is the Third Reich’s Naval Ensign, and the bottom one is their normal flag. Same with Calvin’s British Flags

I always like reading stories like that, about guys who “seem” to lead normal lives but have some incredible histories/back stories. It’s also sad to hear about their deaths too, as they are a dying breed.