Prior to the Boor war Winston was posted in India where he had polo ponies and was a top rate polo player. Unfortunately he had an accident in which his hitting arm was pulled out of socket the night before a big match. He taped his upper arm to his chest and played that way, still being skilled enough to lead his team in scoring in the big match.

In those days the normal weapon for a cavalry officer was a sword, but after dislocating his shoulder he could not do a sword any more, so in the Dirvish (Middle east), wars he carried a pistol instead.

In the Boer war he was hired as a correspondent but was caught in the wrong place and arrested by the Boers, IIRC, but escaped and made his way to the coast and escaped by ship to england where he made enough money lecturing to paying audiences to finance his political future since in those days members of parliment had to be self sufficient as it paid nothing,

Winston churchill was never short of courage physically or mentally.

A wonderfully great man....and he was proud of being half American!

One hellof an author too

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

I have been through the regions in modern transport (Unimog and siberian trucks) that Slavamir crossed and cannot even fathom how he survived...then I spent 4 weeks with a bunch of Mongolian herders in the Gobi doing a film for Nat Geo.

Having seen the Gulags, or what remains of them, up close and after speaking with many Eastern russians (Khanty, Sibirs, etc) they are a far different breed than we are...

I once asked a man who walked out of the Canadian Rockies after surviving a plane crash. He splinted his own broken leg, made a crutch and walked out...over 250 miles! He said "I just decided I wasn't going to die" and he didn't.

Willpower is an amazing thing, combined with being raised in extremely harsh conditions and learing how to face adversity is the key.

E ver hear of "The Night Witches"? an all female group of pilots that flew wood and canvas biplanes over German lines doing harassment and interdiction missions on the Eastern Front during WWII. they averaged 10 to 15 missions A NIGHT! They were based 15 flying minutes from the front, flew in 2 person configuration (Pilot & Navigator) with NO GUNS in a plane that burned like a Japanese paper lantern! Many flew over 1500 missions in 4 1/2 years and almost 90% were awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union medals for their service. Now almost all have died of old age but the pictures I have seen they all look like your great granny. 4 1/2 years, no R & R time, 15 missions a night in winter (-10 to 15 deg C) in a P-2 trainer with just a compass and altimeter!

And they called the RAF brave during the Battle of Britian!

Read about the war the Russians fought against the Germans during WWII and even Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal seem like a cakewalk.

I think the scale of the Russian front and the size of the battles was driven home to me when Guderian talked about there counter attacks. No longer could the panzer divisions slice and dice like they did in France and Poland, the Russians were so persistant they could only move forward with infantry divisions in support. The attacks were often strong enough that his entire army had to change its direction of attack to meet them...the forces designated to protect the flanks...entire infantry divisions were over whelmed.

France was a vacation compared to this.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Sounds like he was a few cards short of a full deck

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1979 240D- 316K miles - VGT Turbo, Intercooler, Stick Shift, Many Other Mods - Daily Driver

1982 300SD - 232K miles - Wife's Daily Driver

1986 560SL - Wife's red speed machine

The carnage on the eastern front was unbelievable. It could be argued that the russian strategy could only have been used in a dictatorship. Twenty million dead IIRC. The movie about the russian and german sniper battle includes scenes of the behind the line action on the russian front.....they sent men into battle lined up behind each other, when the guy in front was killed the next one would pick up the rifle and advance, they were lined up ten deep. Retreat was impossible as there were machine guns placed behind the lines, to shoot anybody who ran.

The germans apparently had no clue what they were getting into when they took on Russia.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Guderian and most other German generals knew quite well what they were getting into, Hitler burried his head into the sand.

You have to remember that before the war the Germans worked closely with the Russians to develope tanks, and had did there training in Russia. Lots of the famous German generals were very familer with Russia before the war.


Guderian told Hitler it was a bad idea, they had 10k tanks! Later on Hitler said you know maybe you were right.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

its hard for a dictator to see reality....sometimes for a duly elected president as well.

Hitler was deeply flawed. He had a few good ideas and a lot of very bad ones.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.