Guts And Glory World War II – Ben Thompson

The battalion commander, Marine legend “Chesty” Puller (a five-time Navy Cross recipient so tough that when they first showed him a flamethrower, all he said was “Where the hell do you put the bayonet?”), demanded that his men be evacuated. But his superiors said that it was too dangerous and that those units were lost. Puller, a cranky Virginian and a veteran of Marine Corps battles in Haiti, China, and Nicaragua, growled, “You’re not going to throw these men away!”

He then flagged down a US Navy destroyer and ordered the crew to commence operations to rescue the stranded companies. Even though Puller had absolutely no authority to do it, the destroyer agreed, and ten landing craft were deployed to evacuate the Marines. When the evacuation came under heavy fire from enemy troops in the jungle, one ultrabrave Coast Guard officer named Douglas Munro heroically put his small gunboat between the landing craft and the Japanese to shield the evacuation from enemy fire.

Munro was killed in action, but five hundred Marines were saved from certain death thanks to his actions. To this day, Munro remains the only member of the United States Coast Guard ever to receive the Medal of Honor. OceanofPDF.com OceanofPDF.com The Battle of Kursk July 5–August 23, 1943 Kursk, Russia History shows that there are no invincible armies and that there never have been. —Soviet premier Josef Stalin CHURNING UP THE BARREN RUSSIAN LANDSCAPE at thirty-four miles per hour, Lieutenant Samusenko of the First Guards Tank Army glared through the T-34’s gunsights at the rapidly approaching formation of hulking enemy panzers.

Samusenko was unfazed as explosions mulched up the countryside, dive-bombers screamed overhead, and armor-piercing shells whizzed past the turret. The lieutenant was just one among an 840-vehicle- wide sea of Soviet T-34 medium tanks hurled into action against the best- equipped, most fanatical troops Adolf Hitler had to offer. With little less than the survival of Mother Russia on the line, Lieutenant Samusenko calmly ordered the vehicle’s driver to accelerate to maximum speed and the loader to slam another 76.2mm antitank shell into the main cannon.

In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights. OceanofPDF.com YOU ARE HERE TODAY FOR THREE REASONS.

FIRST, BECAUSE YOU ARE HERE TO DEFEND YOUR HOMES AND YOUR LOVED ONES. SECOND, YOU ARE HERE FOR YOUR OWN SELF-RESPECT, BECAUSE YOU WOULD NOT WANT TO BE ANYWHERE ELSE. THIRD, YOU ARE HERE BECAUSE YOU ARE REAL MEN AND ALL REAL MEN LIKE TO FIGHT. —General George S. Patton, Commander, US Third Army OceanofPDF.com INTRODUCTION My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British prime minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Go home and get a nice quiet sleep. —British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, September 30, 1938 ON JUNE 28, 1919, THE LEADERS OF FRANCE, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States met at an old palace outside Paris and signed the Treaty of Versailles, marking the official end of the First World War (which was just called the Great War before we had a second world war to compare it to—more on this in here). It had been the bloodiest and most brutal war in human history, leaving millions dead and ruining cities and lands all across Europe.

For the most part the war had been a draw, with both sides losing a ridiculous number of men for very little gain. But in the end, Germany’s government was the one that finally collapsed in 1918, and it was replaced with guys who decided it made sense to stop fighting and end this horrible thing once and for all.

The Allied powers, particularly France, were eager to make sure Germany suffered for starting such a terrible war. So the terms of the treaty were more lopsided than a gorilla sitting on a teeter-totter. Big chunks of Germany were cut out and given to France, Denmark, Poland, and Belgium. Germans weren’t allowed to have an army bigger than a hundred thousand guys, and they couldn’t have warplanes, tanks, or new battleships. They had to pay crazy huge amounts of cash to France and Britain, and sanctions and bills were imposed on them that would cripple any economy on earth.

German money became worthless. Factories closed. People lost their jobs. The country fell into poverty and depression.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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