Rambling Anecdotes

[4V50 Gary]

The 101 Airborne had a German born Jewish interrogator, David Bernays, who hated Nazis. His family including himself fled Germany while the going was good. Anyway, near Cherbourg they captured a civilian who spoke German. The Col. ordered David Bernays (the German speaking Jew) to take the man away and execute him (spies are fair game). No problem since Bernays hated nazis and had killed some already.

As they were walking away, Bernays give him an instruction in German. "You speak German?" the prisoner asked. When Bernays said he did, the prisoner asked him where he was from. Bernays mentioned the town and the German asked, "Do you know Herr Bernays?" "He's my father!" At this point the prisoner spun around and cried out, "Little David!" With that he hugged his captor. The German was an older man drafted into the labor service and wanted to surrender the first chance he got. Before the war he was the Bernays's house servant who help Herr Bernays and his family to leave Germany. Bernays returned the prisoner unharmed and after vouching for him, they put him to work in the kitchen. Little David Bernays cried when he recounted the story to Nibley about how he almost killed the man who had saved him and his family.

[4V50 Gary]

"When the Australians cooked we could smell their food. What I found most irritating was one time when they shouted out their menu in Japanese."

[4V50 Gary]

"One day, one of my teammates and I, aided by the German Police, conducted one of our raids. We surrounded an apartment building and went from apartment to apartment starting at the top floor and working our way down, checking on the identities of the people we found.

In one apartment, I started to question a man who claimed to have been an ordinary soldier, but who stated he had lost his Soldbuch - the Pay Book which every soldier carried, and which listed every place he had been stationed and every unit he had been assigned to. For us, checking the Soldbuch often provided very useful information.

I ordered the man to raise his shirt, and there was the telltale SS Tattoo under his left armpit. I told him he would have to come with us. He asked for permission to get his jacket from his bedroom in the back.

He emerged from the bedroom swinging a rubber truncheon at me. I pulled out my revolver, closed my eyes, remember that there was no bullet in the chamber and so squeezed the trigger twice. The bullet hit him and broke his arm.

I had never fired the revolver before. I am sure that if I had not closed my eyes I would not have hit him. My reaction was one of sheer panic, when I saw him running at me with the truncheon.

This was a very fortunate shot, because he could have struck me with the truncheon even if I had hit him elsewhere. The revolver does not have much stopping power. I was extremely lucky."

Lucky fellow and the Army should have given its people more training. The other two pistols he was issued was a 1911 and a Walther PPK (32 ACP). The writer is a Counter Intelligence Corps man in WW II.

[4V50 Gary]

During World War II, "soldiers excused from duty while being treated for syphilis or gonorrhea were said to be 'whores de combat,' and the Good Conduct ribbon became known as the 'No-Clap medal.'

Clearly a play on hors de combat (out of combat implying wound).

[4V50 Gary]

Steel chambers that encases the bullet along with a bolt to seal the breech are not overrated. This happened to a boy who along with his friends snuck into a German training camp.

"I remember one boy wedging a rifle bullet into a tree then looking around for something to hit the detonator (meaning primer) of the bullet with. He found this nail and used a stone to hit into the back of the bullet casing. He struck it twice and nothing happened. The third time there was a almighty crack as the bullet explosed. There was a flash and puff of smoke. It scared the hell out of the boy, who had dropped the stone and the nail in fright and ran a distance away before stopping to look back. He had a small larceration on his hand. A small piece of the brass case had torn off and hit his hand. It was not that deep but it bled a lot. I actually sat down and took off my socks and gave him one of my socks to wrap around his hand. I told him 'Don't you forget to give that sock back.'"

Also do not throw rocks at undetonated bombs that are lodged in trees. One girls saw her siblings doing just that and when she recognized the thing in the tree, she shooed them away and told her papa (who in turn reported it to the Army).

[Hawg]

When I was a kid I used to smash .22 LR bullets between two bricks. They just made a small pop and nothing went anywhere. Later on I took one and put it in a hole in a piece of concrete and shot it with a pellet rifle from about 25 feet. It wasn't just a small pop and that case definitely went somewhere. I don't know how far it went but it was buzzing when it went by my head.

[4V50 Gary]

Hawg - you've just Witnessed for God's love and protection of lil'l children.

Meth is bad. We know the German Army distributed Pervitin, a form of meth, to soldiers and sold it commercially to civilians as well. Here's the account of one BundDeustcherMadel girl who crewed a 20 mm AA gun deployed against Soviet soldiers in Berlin:

"I took a lot of Pervitin. Once you had it you didn't care about anything and you didn't feel tired or anything. It was my way of dealing with my own pain and fear. It caused weird hallucinations and you would see strange things that were not there. People with you would think you were crazy because you were acting like a lunatic. I could not keep still and would pace around and be talking to people who were not there. They fetched a doctor for me and I went beserk on him. It took five of them to hold me down. They searched my pockets and found a few remaining Pervitin tablets. They confiscated them and then tied me up until the effects of the drug had worn off. It was horrible being under the influence of the drug and being tied up so you could not work off the energy that it gave you. They tied my hands and took my shoes off me, and tied up my legs so I couldn't even stand up. My parents were so angry with me when they were told. The doctor who dealt with me told my parents to make sure I did not use this drug again as e believed it was very dangerous and that I might hurt myself without even knowing it. After that I did not use it again, but I can see how some people, especially German soldiers, had become addicted to it. When you were high on it you felt like Thor. You felt like you could destroy the world single-handed. No wonder Hitler liked it so much."

I learned that the "pep pills" given to our paratroopers before jumping in Normandy were also amphetamine based.

[Ricklin]

The Germans are not the only ones that provide Amphetamines, how do you think the USAF manages to fly bombing missions to the middle East from the US Midwest?

[4V50 Gary]

With 6 mm plate! Ned Kelly Gang in Down Under armored themselves for a shoot out with the police. Weight is a mere 97 lbs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armour_of_the_Kelly_gang

I don't think my knees could take that extra weight for long. I surrender before the police get here.

[Aguila Blanca]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9nW4w5tHVM

[4V50 Gary]

Everyone knows about WW II Lend Lease where the United States provided material of war to the British Commonwealth of Nations, Republic of China and the Soviet Union. The Soviets saw the USA stenciled on American equipment and reasoned that it was a patriotic slogan that meant Ubiyat Sukinsyna Adolfa or Kill that SOB Adolph.

This concludes our Russian languish and hystery lesson for today. Class dismissed.

[4V50 Gary]

Ranger James Wilson Nichols describes the Texas Ranger fare of penolie:

It is corn parched brown and ground into a coarse meal and mixed with brown sugar. We rangers.... seldom ever stopped to cook, and when we began to feel hungry and came to water, [we] take our tin cup half full of water and stir some penolie into it. It keeps off hunger.

Nichols was a Republic of Texas Ranger. The excerpt is from David Sullivan and James Worsham's The Life of Samuel H. Walker to be released by Casemate next year. It is well researched and covers Walker's early life including his service as a volunteer in a war against the Seminoles, his failed business venture in Florida that preceded his service as a Texas Ranger under Capt. John C. Hays.

[4V50 Gary]

Also from the same book: Don't bring a sword to a gunfight.

A company of Texas Rangers who were serving as the Texas Mounted Riflemen had camped near the Mexican line. They had been scouting to etermine the enemy position and the best route of approach for the American army. When the rangers awoke in the morning, they saw a regiment of Mexican lancers lined up preparing to charge. Col. Jack Hays had to buy time for his men. With saber in hand, he rode and challenged the Mexican colonel to a saber duel. Ranger Buckner Barry remembered the event:

"Hays knew no more about saber fighting than I did.... Soon the Mexican commander advanced waving his saber, while his horse seemed to dance rather than prance. Within a few feet of the Mexican, Hays pulled a pistol and shot him dead from his horse. With that the lancers charged 'like mad hornets." Hays galloped back to his men shouting for them to dismount and take shelter behind our horses."

Exciting stuff in the book. I should do a book review for publication.

[Old No7]

Oh man, you can't leave us hanging -- what happened to Col. Hays???

Old No7

ps: I really enjoy your posts! Except for that last one that left us wondering...

[4V50 Gary]

The book isn't about Hays but about Sam Walker. As mentioned earlier, the Rangers had their horses lay down in the woods sheltered themselves there. They were overrun by the lancers who charged through them. Gunfire from the Rangers rifles and emptied a lot of saddles and the lancers reorganized for another charge. Several charges and melee ensued but the majority of the rangers survived.

Prior to that incident Hays was famous for his fight at Enchanted Rock where he was isolated from his company and climbed Enchanted Rock to elude the Commanches. The Commances followed and assailed him. Sheltering himself in a crevice, Hays fired only when an Indian was close and Hays was certain of a hit. Numerous Indians were killed or wounded. If you go to the Ranger Museum in Waco, you'll see the famous painting of Capt. Hays at Enchanted Rock.

Read more about it here:
https://www.forttours.com/pages/jackhays.asp

Sidenote: The (post-war) engraved Henry lever action rifle belonging to Birges Western Sharp Sharpshooter Lorenzo Baker is at the museum and it's worth a visit. There's a lot off BBQ guns there too.

Post-war Hays became a politician and moved to San Francisco and was elected Sheriff for a term. ETA: Endnotes on pages 418-9 mention Hays' post war activities. Hays was also a founding father of the City of Oakland. Oakland can be nice and much warmer than San Francisco but unfortunately is crime ridden.

[Old No7]

Great -- thanks for sharing the update.

Old No7

[4V50 Gary]

In the wake of the evacuation at Dunkirk, the English anticipated a German invasion. The 1/7 Middlesex "Die Hards" was sent to Scotland and were greeted by the Scottish troops.

"What the bloody hell do you want? We don't want you here!"

Some Die Hard responded, "We bloody don't want to be here either!"

[4V50 Gary]

The Germans used the 88mm very successfully as an anti-tank gun. It was so notoroious to the tank regiments that after the war, if Bingo was being played in a British Legion Club, when '88' was called, the shout would always go up, "Driver reverse!"

[4V50 Gary]

Every account I read of the Western Desert mentions the flies and how one could not eat without being bothered by them. In Rommel's command staff, there was a competition for killing flies and the winner got a big wood iron cross for the day. The next day the contest would begin again. One platoon of the Desert Rats had another solution.

"One old sweat came to our battalion as a corporal and brought with him a good way of getting rid of the flies. When we stopped for connor (food), this corporal would take his boots off and change his socks. He had a fungal infection between his toes and his feet and socks stunk to high heaven. We would tell him to hang his socks off one of the vehicles and this in many cases attracted enough flies for us to eat our grub in peace."

[4V50 Gary]

"We were three sheets to the wind (old term meaning drunk) in no time and stumbling out of the bar I realized I wanted to crap. Dysentery gives you no warning so off I ran trying to pull my trousers down at the same time.

I came across what I thought was an empty courtyard so I dropped my trousers and started to do my bits and pieces. It appeared I had gate crashed the victory parade in Tunis. All of a sudden a staff car pulled up and who should be standing up in the back but Monty himself. I didn't see why I should stop what I was doing and nor did Monty because he just stood there and saluted me. As the red caps moved in to feel my collar, our own battalion police grabbed me and marched me off with my trousers still around my ankles. They slung me in the back of a lorry going back to our battalion. The Provost Sergeant climbed in the back with me and gave me a right ticking off. I was told to make myself scarce back at battalion, so I lost myself which was a good thing because the red caps turned up and asked to see Bombhead.

He told them in no uncertain terms that it was not one of his riflemen who had relieved himself in front of the army commander. I kept out of Bombhead's way for the rest of the time we were at Hamman Lif!

[Ricklin]

What a great description of Toxic Sock Syndrome.

[4V50 Gary]

"The Battalion now went into reserve and we got down to some maintenance on our vehicles as mechanised warfare is hard on both men and equipment. We were always ready for a quick move though and sure enough Bombhead decided to move at 630 next morning. He always had a bit of theatre about him, so at 0625 out came his hunting horn on which he played the battalion call for move. His battalion replied with a series of impressions of yapping dogs. The officers did not know what to do and some suppressed a smiled. The upshot was that Bombhead never blew his horn again."

Bombhead is Lt. Col. Douglas Darling who commanded the 7/95 from 1942 after the Battle of Alamein.

[4V50 Gary]

"Within a mile of the beach, we approached a village and took up position. I was now the Number 1 on the gun. Through the hills about 500 yards away, we could see a church steeple with a bell in it. There was a only little a bit of firing going on, so Frank Dollin, the Number 1 on the other gun, said, 'Do you reckon you could hit that bell with a Vickers? A single shot.' So we had a bet on who could hit it first. He fired one round and missed. I fired a round from my gun and missed. He then fired a burst and hit this bell, which of course consequently went 'Ding, dong, ding, dong.' This must have been the signal for the Italians to evacuate the place, because they all began jumping out of their trenches and running away."

No one wanted to die for Mussolini.

[4V50 Gary]

Afrika Korps' nickname for the Australians of the Eighth Army:

The Ten Thousand Thieves - clearly a reference to Botany Bay

[eastbank]

as a left hander and getting ready for a deer drive i was standing with several other divers with the rifle slung over my shoulder when one of the men said your rifle is not on safe and pushed the safty off(rifle was a 760 rem pump with a left hand safty installed) and he was going to press the trigger to show every one the gun was on safty now. i turned towards him and punched him in the face, at the very least it would have deafened the closest drivers. a lesson well learned as he never touched my rifle after that. we laugh about it now after many years.