In WW II there was a mixture of ignorance and pragmatism. Ignorance of what warfare was becoming and certainly would become before it was over. At the outset there were as many biplanes as monoplanes in use. There were still Calvary units, and swords, and the bolt action rifle was
the killing machine.
If you happened to be one of the unlucky ones who got shot while performing some act of heroism, you'd share a last cigarette with your buddy and tell him to tell your sweetheart/mother you loved her. Whose 1938 nightmares, included being crushed by a tank tread, roasted by a flame thrower, machine gunned to mush, or atom bombs?
At the outset, those daring young men in their flying machines were depending on their bravado(balls) and skill(luck) to outwit the Red Baron. Anyone who'd even heard of radar was sworn to secrecy, the only missiles were if the pilot dropped his thermos of tea, AA fire/barrage balloons were a challenge, and enemy aircraft were usually trying to catch up after they saw you fly over. I've heard/read they feared mechanical failure and even weather, more than the enemy. That didn't last, as the air war matured faster than a teenage boy in a whorehouse.
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What interests me is what motivates someone who suddenly finds himself in the most dire of circumstances, to risk his life in the course of saving someone else’s.
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I doubt if risk is foremost when you, and your buddies, are at risk 24/7. I had to laugh when a reporter asked a survivor of throwing himself on a grenade, what he was thinking at the time. I doubt like hell he had time to hold the grenade up like Yorick's skull and think a monolog debating his options. It's just reaction, preplanned although maybe not consciously. In other situations it's likely they expect to survive whether they're successful or not. There will always be situations where a man is sure he won't make it but is determined to take as many with him as possible, or just has no choice.
Patton nailed it...
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No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.
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