Awesome stuff you see on the internet
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@siam ha ha Italians are good buggers aye. Fucking lol.
My great uncle wrote a couple of books about his experiences in WW2 in Africa. Far out we had some badass mofo's knocking around in that war.
Jeep stuck in the sand due to the size of Upham's steel balls. Gold.
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@paekakboyz lying in barbwire after a botchedPOW prison escape, ciggie in mouth, German corporal threatens to shoot him and our man instructs him to "go get an officer, you're to lowly to shoot me". Legend! π
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i'll admit it...almost teared up there, fucking legend
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@kiwiwomble you're younger than me mate, did you have a passing knowledge of him? Just curious because he was as well known about as Peter Snell in my day
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@siam yeah, knew the basics, VC and Bar, fondness for doing things himself (often with a hand grenade) out of a dont ask someone to do something your wouldn't do yourself attitude, POW and generally being a pain in the arse whilst imprisoned , the basic humility of the man .
But hadn;t had it fleshed out like that with the finer points and quotes
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@kiwiwomble cool, same as meπ
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@siam Being a military nerd, I had read his VC award papers as a kid. It wasn't 'run through machinegun fire to rescue comrade' it was that like a dozen times, a series of events. That was what was so amazing!
The KING has been graciously pleased to
approve the award of a Bar to the VICTORIA
CROSS to: β
Captain Charles Hazlitt UPHAM, V.C. (8077),
New Zealand Military Forces.
Captain C. H. Upham, V.C.,. was commanding a Company of New Zealand troops
in the Western Desert during the operations
which culminated in the attack on El
Ruweisat Ridge on the night of I4th-i5th
July, 1942.
In spite of being twice wounded, once
when crossing open ground swept by enemy
fire to inspect his forward sections guarding
our mine-fields and again when he completely
destroyed an entire truck load of German
soldiers with hand grenades, Captain Upham
insisted on remaining with his men to take
part in the final assault.
During the opening stages of the attack
on the ridge Captain Upham's Company
formed part of the reserve battalion, but,
when communications with the forward troops
broke down and he was instructed to send
up an officer to report on the progress of
the attack, he went out himself armed with
a Spandau gun and, after several sharp
encounters with enemy machine gun posts,
succeeded in bringing back the required
information.
Just before dawn the reserve battalion
was ordered forward, but, when it had
almost reached its objective, very heavy fire
was encountered from a strongly defended
enemy locality, consisting of four machine
gun posts and a number of tanks.
Captain Upham, without hesitation, at
once led his Company in a determined
attack on the two nearest strongpoints on
the left flank of the sector. His voice could
be heard above the din of battle cheering on
his men and, in spite of the fierce resistance
of the enemy and the heavy casualties on
both sides, the objective was captured.
Captain Upham, during the engagement,
himself destroyed a German tank and several
guns and vehicles with grenades and although
he was shot through the elbow by a machine
gun bullet and had his arm broken, he went
on again to a forward position and brought
back some of his men who had become
isolated. He continued to dominate the
situation until his men had beaten off a
violent enemy counter-attack and consolidated the vital position which they had
won under his inspiring leadership.
Exhausted by pain from his wound and
weak from loss of blood Captain Upham was
then removed to the Regimental Aid Post but
immediately his wound had been dressed he
returned to his men, remaining with them all
day long under heavy enemy artillery and
mortar fire, until he was again severely
wounded and being now unable to move fell
into the hands of the enemy when, his gallant
Company having been reduced to only six
survivors, his position was finally over-run by
superior enemy forces, in spite of the outstanding gallantry and magnificent leadership
shown by Captain Upham.
The Victoria Cross was conferred on
Captain Upham for conspicuous bravery
during the operations in Crete in May, 1941,
and the award was announced in the London
Gazette dated I4th October, 1941. -
Last time I saw one of these flying it was dropping JDAMs on Iraq!
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@mariner4life What happens? For those of us who don't feed Zuckerberg.
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@bones said in Awesome stuff you see on the internet:
I didn't think this was going to be funny at first...but fuck I'm in tears.
you can see the tin is bulging!
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@mariner4life said in Awesome stuff you see on the internet:
@nevorian oh god i loooove eeepopotamoose
When I finally get access to the tiktok back-end... that's the one video I'm going to leave in existence as I burn the rest of it to the ground.