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#12
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08-07-2012, 10:42 PM
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Re: Dead US Soldiers Pulled Out Of Destroyed Tank - WWII
At our irish family's funeral for my uncle Ned, my cousin (who is a tall and lean irishman himself) told a remarkable tale about his dad who was caught in the gunner position inside a US tank when it got hit during WWII. During operations, it was hot as hell inside the tank and so nobody wore a shirt, but as a young irishman, Ned was only a slip of a fellow. He was so young and tall and long and lean that he needed to wear suspenders over his bare chest to keep his pants up. When the tank got hit, everyone (four men?) inside had been instantly killed by the blast or were very nearly dead and lying unconscious within the dark blackness of the burning, smoking tank. However, a US soldier was nearby and had witnessed the hit and so bravely ventured to crawl to the top of the tank, to open the hatch and try to help anyone trapped within. He could see nothing through billowing black smoke and although he called and shouted, he got no response from within. Then he reached down into the tank and started rummaging around with his hand. He felt Ned lying unconscious still at his firing position inside the tank. Without knowing if the found man was dead or alive, the rescuer managed to locate Ned's suspenders and to grab a firm hold of those. In this way, he was able to raise Ned up and out of the burning tank and to further haul this half-naked and nearly dead body beyond the terrible scene and so bring him to safety. Everyone else in the tank perished.
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#13
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08-07-2012, 11:17 PM
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| My Rank: CORPORAL Poster Rank:1627 Join Date: Dec 2010 Posts: 338 Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Quoted: 47 Post(s)
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Re: Dead US Soldiers Pulled Out Of Destroyed Tank - WWII
Wow. Amazing tale there, IC |
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#20
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08-14-2012, 03:45 AM
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| My Rank: PRIVATE Poster Rank:10881 Join Date: Jul 2012 Posts: 12 Mentioned: 0 Post(s) Quoted: 1 Post(s)
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Re: Dead US Soldiers Pulled Out Of Destroyed Tank - WWII
they are french from the 2 DB of the free french forces who fought alongside the allies.
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