Jack Churchill - Badass of the Month - October 2009

**mrblackmagic** · Posted On: 10/19/2009 7:20pm

One of his anecdotes involved a Claymore. Either he is the only person to have a confirmed kill in WWII with a Claymore or he took that one nazi officer hostage with a Claymore. I forget which.

Originally Posted by Lebell

i'm waiting for a french badass of the month...

lolol!

get it?

St. Germaine?

**SBG-ape** · Posted On: 10/19/2009 10:25pm

Captain Jack is certainly a badass, but I have to say something about: "arguably the UK's Badass of All Time".

The arguably makes that comment reasonable, Jack Churchill would certainly be in the running, but greatest English badass would have to go to William Marshal. That man did so many badass things that he'd probably need 2 months to do him justice.

A few William Marshal bullet points:

He was a medieval knight
A tournament champion & accomplished soldier
He mentored & knighted the crown prince despite the fact that he (Marshal) was a poor knight without property or political standing.
He served 1 queen, 1 prince & 4 English kings.
He ended up his life as the Regent in charge of England & one of England's riches men.

Now here are some of the bigger points:

When 3 guys accused William of sleeping with the wife of the crown prince William demanded the right to prove his innocence by dueling them. He said he'd fight them all at once, or 1 at a time, but if it was going to be 1 at a time he'd be willing to cut off some of his fingers just to make the fight fair. See: William Marshal had a reputation, from the tournament circuit, for winning fights against multiple opponents.

Another good story is that when Marshal was 70 (& ruling England until the king came of age) he led England's armies (led as in on a horse at the front of the charge) & put down both a civil uprising & a French invasion in the same year.

Again, this is not to take anything away from Jack Churchill. I just want people who're looking for badasses to keep Medieval Europe in mind. There are some great stories there.

Edit: have my fonts gone mad?

**Conde Koma** · Posted On: 10/19/2009 11:05pm

Both William Marshal and Jack Churchill sound like badasses. Props to the English for having them.

**adouglasmhor** · Posted On: 10/20/2009 3:14am

Originally Posted by Lebell

i'm waiting for a french badass of the month...

lolol!

get it?

Guillaume le Maréchal (closest we'll get).

**Lebell** · Posted On: 10/20/2009 4:27am

Lolland doesnt have warheroes, just war criminals... :-(

Well there was this one dutch soldier who took out some 5 tanks all by himself except the problem was he did it in the waffen ss.
I'm going to dig through history to see if we have any badases, but don't hold your breath.

**Cuchulain** · Posted On: 10/20/2009 7:32am

Robert Henry Cain, was a complete badass. As were all the recipients of the Victoria Cross.

An exerpt;

Cain was one of three Majors defending the front line in Lonsdale Force's sector at the southern end of the eastern perimeter.[20] Over the coming days of battle he became determined to destroy as much enemy armour as possible[22] and sited himself in a laundry's garden, much to the chagrin of the Dutch owner.[23] Over the coming days Cain was everywhere, dealing with armour and snipers and encouraging his men.[24] On the afternoon of Thursday 21st two tanks approached Cain's position. Guided by a colleague in a building above him, Cain waited in a trench until the first tank was close enough to engage.[25] The tank fired at the building, killing Cain's colleague and showering him with masonry but despite this, Cain kept his position.[25] Staff Sergeant Richard Long of the Glider Pilot Regiment remembered that through the clouds of dust, Cain fired round after round from his PIAT until the tank was disabled,[23] but whilst engaging the second tank a round exploded in the PIAT with a bright flash and Cain was thrown backwards.[23] Cain recalled thinking he was blind and "shouting like a hooligan. I shouted to somebody to get onto the PIAT because there was another tank behind. I blubbered and yelled and used some very colourful language. They dragged me off to the aid post."[26] The British brought forward one of the Light Regiment's 75mm guns which blew the tank apart.[2]
Witnesses believed that Cain was incapacitated, but within half an hour his sight returned.[23] He refused morphia and against all advice returned to the front lines, decising that he "wasn't wounded enough to stay where [he] was".[23] On the following day his eardrums burst from the constant firing and barrage, but he was content to stuff his ears with bandages and continue fighting.[2][23] On Sunday 24th, shortly after a truce to allow the evacuation of casualties, Cain was alerted to the approach of a Tiger tank. Together with a Royal Artillery gunner he raced for a 6 pounder anti-tank gun, manoeuvred it into position, fired and disabled the tank.[27] He wanted to continue using the gun, but the recoil mechanism was destroyed.[2]
By 25 September, the area occupied by the Lonsdale Force saw heavy fighting against Self-propelled guns, flame thrower tanks, and infantry. There were no PIATs available to the force by now; instead Cain armed himself with a two inch mortar. Mortars are muzzle-loading indirect fire weapons but Cain was forced to fire it on an almost horizontal plane due to the enemy's proximity. His citation states that his leadership ensured that the South Staffordshire gave no ground and drove the enemy off in complete disorder.[28] By the end of the Battle, Cain had been reportedly responsible for the destruction or disabling of six tanks, four of which were Tigers, as well as a number of self-propelled guns.[2]
That night the Division began to withdraw in Operation Berlin. Many men shaved and blackened their faces and Cain removed a week's growth of beard from his face, drying himself on his dirty, blood-soaked Denison smock.[29] After successfully crossing the Rhine, this lead Brigadier 'Pip' Hicks to comment "there's one officer, at least, who's shaved".[30] Cain made sure all of his men were over the river by dawn, before he himself crossed in an old boat.

Also for a living legend, Sir Renulph Fiennes.

**adouglasmhor** · Posted On: 10/20/2009 8:24am

Originally Posted by Lebell

Lolland doesnt have warheroes, just war criminals... :-(

Well there was this one dutch soldier who took out some 5 tanks all by himself except the problem was he did it in the waffen ss.
I'm going to dig through history to see if we have any badases, but don't hold your breath.

William the Silent (Willem van Oranje)
Recruited refugees as pirates to attack spaniards and colaborators.

Ik kan niet goedkeuren dat vorsten over het geweten van hun onderdanen willen heersen en hun de vrijheid van geloof en godsdienst ontnemen.

**mrblackmagic** · Posted On: 10/20/2009 10:55am

Originally Posted by adouglasmhor

Guillaume le Maréchal (closest we'll get).

Nice.

Jean-Louis Michel, but he was technically Haitian.

**Father Dagon** · Posted On: 10/20/2009 2:13pm

Originally Posted by Gabetuno

As best I know, most monosyllabic words in modern English stem from Old English and Norse languages. Plus the Norse did a lot of fucking and raping, so I bet it's theirs.

You referring to futh?