It must be said that each of us is unlikely to realize what we are capable of if at some point an extreme life situation arises. And not just a one-time powerful surge of adrenaline, thanks to which a person can, fleeing from a predator, immediately climb an inaccessible rock, and a fragile granny can send a hefty robber flying with a single handbag.
Such cases occur relatively often - and we are surprised when reading or hearing about them in the media. But no less surprising are situations when a person in a difficult circumstances shows unprecedented fortitude and composure - when 99 out of 100 would probably give up in the face of the problem. And this thread in the AskReddit community is dedicated to various similar cases from world history, a selection of which Bored Panda has collected specially for you.
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
Nicholas Winton
Nicholas Winton helped 669 children escape the death camp. His efforts went unrecognized for 50 years. In 1988, while sitting as a member of a TV audience, he suddenly found himself surrounded by the kids he'd rescued.
Dude is a legend. Here is the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqqbM1B-mPY
Witold Pilecki
Rotmistrz Witold Pilecki. He purposely made himself be caught and thrown into death camp in Auschwitz to infiltrate it and organize underground resistance and do general recon. He then escaped with another prisoner to fight in Warsaw uprising.
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman. When she was a slave she would do work right alongside the men. Once when she was just a child she was taken into to big house to take care of the kids, and she snuck a sugar cube. She had never had sugar before. She knew she was going to be whipped, so she ran off and hid in the pig pen for days, fighting the pigs for food, before they found her.
Later on she was struck in the head by a lead weight thrown at another slave by an angry shop owner. She suffered brain damage but was back in the fields while she was still bleeding. All her life, she would suffer from hallucinations and sleeping spells. She interpreted her visions as signs from God.
Later on, she escaped slavery and joined the underground railroad. If slaves lost their nerve and wanted to go back, she would hold them at gunpoint. During the civil war she led a naval raid on a plantation at Combahee Ferry and freed 750 enslaved people.
In the 1890s she had brain surgery, where the doctor "sawed open my skull, and raised it up, and now it feels more comfortable."
She lived to be 90 or 91.
Scientists still haven’t definitively determined how it all works - one person, finding themselves in extreme conditions, may literally fall into a stupor, while another suddenly becomes the Hulk and Captain America combined - and when the wave of adrenaline recedes, they're back to the same ordinary person, often perplexed: “how the hell did I manage to do all this?” And some of the stories told in this collection are precisely from this area. But this, as you understand, is not all...
Joe Medicine Crow
Joe Medicine Crow, the last Warchief of the Crow. He completed all the ritual rights to become Warchief while fighting in WW2. Which included taking an enemies weapon, touching an enemy without killing him, leading a war party and stealing an enemies horse (he stole 50 from the SS ).
Someone's grandpa named Liberatus
My Grandpa Liberatus,
Was working solo on his farm in the 1950’s, when both hands were sucked into an auger slicing them up right to the shoulders. Was able to kick the controls to reverse the blades and get himself out, then drove himself in a grainery truck 45 minutes to the hospital, steering and shifting gears with his knees. Doctors were able to save one arm above the elbow but none of the other.
Still worked another 40 years with hooks for arms, Fathered 9 children, 6 after his accident and harvested 1000 acres on a hundred year old family farm. Smoked like a chimney, drank like a fish, ate red meat 3 times a day, passed away in his sleep 2 days before his 99th birthday.
He was a hard man, but absolutely devoted to his family and was a great Grandfather to over 20 grandkids. He taught me about resiliency, resourcefulness and mental toughness. Every grandkid, on their first birthday, got a rocking horse that he built in his workshop using hand tools that he built custom attachments for his prosthetics. I still have mine, from 56 years ago, as a reminder of him when times are tough.
Desmond Doss
Private Desmond Doss. He refused to use a gun but carried 75 men to safety including two of the wounded Japanese soldiers on the other side & used his medical knowledge to save their lives. He is the only conscientious objector to be awarded the Medal of Honor as awarded by President Harry S. Truman.
Much more rare are cases when a person actually realizes everything, and at the same time does something heroic completely consciously, absolutely taking into account all the possible consequences of their deed - both for others and for themselves. Previously, songs and legends were written about such people; today films and TV series are made. But, and this is the sad truth of life, thousands and thousands of similar cases of self-sacrifice either did not remain in people’s memory, or were simply erased from it.
Any enslaved person who ran for freedom
Any enslaved person who said f**k this and ran for freedom.
A lot of unknown women
A lot of unknown women
The men : women ratio in this list is enough to show that this entry should be higher! Too many women's efforts ignored, glossed over, & obliterated by patriarchal history.
Galvarino
Galvarino. He was a Mapuche warrior whose hands were amputated by Spanish conquistadors. His response? He rigged blades to his wrist stumps and led a rebellion against the Spanish.
Human memory is a strange thing. We can remember for years some insignificant detail, like the chorus of a song we heard once in our youth - and we can completely forget about an incredibly important work meeting that we planned just the day before yesterday. In the same way, different people leave our memory. Just yesterday you were sitting on your grandmother’s lap, today she’s just a photo in a frame on the chest of drawers, and tomorrow the old lady will disappear forever, leaving only a couple of lines and numbers in documents...
Princess Khutulun
Khutulun, a Mongolian Princess, insisted that any man who wished to marry her must defeat her in wrestling, forfeiting horses to her if they lost.
She gained 10,000 horses defeating prospective suitors.
Daniel Inouye
Daniel Inouye
During a WWII assault on a fortified German position in Italy, gets shot in the stomach, shrugs it off and takes out two machine gun nests. As he's about to lob a grenade to take out a third, his right arm gets nearly amputated at the elbow by enemy fire. Now he's staring at his useless, dangling arm still reflexively clutching a live grenade. Shouts at his platoon to stay back for fear of the grenade going off, pries the live grenade out of his useless hand and throws it with his other hand, taking out the German in the bunker. Continues to move forward killing at least one more German before getting shot, for the fifth time that day, before falling unconscious. Wakes up to members of his platoon hovering over him. Proceeds to tell them to get back to their positions because "nobody called off the war!". Has to have his arm amputated without anesthesia at the field hospital. Comes back home, gets awarded a purple heart (and eventually a medal of honor), yet still gets refused service by a barber because they "don't cut J*p hair". Serves his country for 50 more years as a US senator.
While I don't necessarily agree with his politics, I respect the life of service he led.
Giles Corey
Giles “More weight” Corey was pretty bad**s. Refused to testify at the Salem witch trials, so they “pressed” him- ie. They piled rocks on top of him as torture to force him to testify that his wife was a witch. They piled rock after rock on top of him. His last words were “more weight”, then he died.
Wasnt this about if he got killed before confession his children would be allowed to inherit, thus he sort of comiitted suicide by asking for more weight
Giles is actually my 10th great-grandfather! He's 100% the most badass member of my family tree, it's so cool knowing he's still remembered and admired all these years later.
That's so cool! I loved reading about him. He's still fascinating to read about.
Load More Replies...
I believe they ended up killing his wife anyway. Made their children orphans, because of religious insanity.
Alas, this is an objective process - we simply cannot remember everything. Even if some people have made tremendous efforts to help us simply live, or live well. Let it be at the cost of their own well-being, at the cost of their health or even life. This and similar threads are an attempt to bring back to our memory some outstanding persons who may have been ordinary people, who may even have been jerks for most of their lives - but at some point became true heroes.
So please feel free to read every given paragraph in this selection, upvote the special ones for you, and maybe add your own stories in the comments below the list. After all, history is a book that we all write together, so let's make this book a tad bit more interesting and exciting!
Terry Fox
I think that Terry Fox has to be up there. To run a marathon every day on the Marathon of Hope, on one leg (and a crappy prosthesis), while riddled with cancer is beyond anything I can understand. Imagine the courage and determination that required.
Awww YES! Our Canadian hero made it to the list!!! Thanks OP for including Terry.🥰
Roy Benavidez
Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez.
On May 2, 1968, a 12-man Special Forces patrol, which included nine Montagnard tribesmen, was surrounded by an NVA infantry battalion of about 1,000 men. Benavidez heard the radio appeal for help and boarded a helicopter to respond. Armed only with a knife, he jumped from the helicopter carrying his medical bag and ran to help the trapped patrol. Benavidez "distinguished himself by a series of daring and extremely valorous actions... and because of his gallant choice to join voluntarily his comrades who were in critical straits, to expose himself constantly to withering enemy fire, and his refusal to be stopped despite numerous severe wounds, saved the lives of at least eight men."
At one point in the battle an NVA soldier accosted him and stabbed him with his bayonet. Benavidez pulled it out, drew his own knife, killed him and kept going, leaving his knife in the NVA soldier's body. He later killed two more NVA soldiers with an AK-47 while providing cover fire for the people boarding the helicopter. After the battle, he was evacuated to the base camp, examined, and thought to be dead. As he was placed in a body bag among the other dead in body bags, he was suddenly recognized by a friend who called for help. A doctor came and examined him but believed Benavidez was dead. The doctor was about to zip up the body bag when Benavidez managed to spit in his face to show that he was alive. Benavidez had a total of 37 separate bullet, bayonet, and shrapnel wounds from the six-hour fight with the enemy battalion.
Someone's grandma
My grandmother. Her husband died of heart disease in 1948, leaving her to raise 8 children between the ages of 9 months and 13 years old. She was a saint.
Henry Johnson
For your consideration…..
He was 26 years old, 5-foot-4, weighed 130 pounds and came from Albany, New York.
And on the night of May 15, 1918, Pvt. Henry Johnson, a member of the all-black 369th Infantry Regiment, found himself fighting for his life against 20 German Soldiers out in front of his unit's trenchline.
He fired the three rounds in his French-made rifle, tossed all his hand grenades and then grabbed his Army-issue bolo knife and started stabbing. He buried the knife in the head of one attacker and then disemboweled another German soldier.
"Each slash meant something, believe me," Johnson said later. "There wasn't anything so fine about it," he said. "Just fought for my life. A rabbit would have done that."
By the time what a reporter called "The Battle of Henry Johnson" was over, Johnson had been wounded 21 times and become the first American hero of World War I.
Shih Ching
Shih Ching. After marrying a pirate, she was a Chinese [escort] who inherited his fleet upon his death. She took no s**t, ruled her ships with an iron grip, and was so effective that the Chinese government dispatched an armada to put an end to her. She took 63 of their ships and kicked their bums. After two years of fighting, during which they even forced Dutch and British ships to surrender, they offered her and her 17,000 crew members amnesty. She lived to be 69 years old, kept ALL of her winnings, and spent her latter years operating a casino and brothel.
Is this the one they reference in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies?
Goyaałé (Geronimo)
Also worthy of consideration: Goyaałé (Geronimo.)
"One day he came into my quarters at Fort Sill in a most peculiar mood. He told me no one could kill him, nor me either, if he willed it so. Then he bared himself to the waist. I was dumbfounded to see the number of bullet holes in his body. I knew he had been in many battles and had been fired on dozens of times, but I had never heard of anyone living with at least fifty bullet wounds on his body. Geronimo had that many scars.
Some of these bullet holes were large enough to hold small pebbles that Geronimo picked up and placed in them. Putting a pebble in a bullet wound he would make a noise like a gun, then take the pebble out and throw it on the ground. Jokingly I told him he was probably so far away that the bullets didn’t penetrate him, but that if he had been nearer they probably would have killed him. 'No, no,' he shouted. 'Bullets cannot kill me!'"
- Charles F. Lummis
Stephen Hawking
Maybe not in a traditional sense, but Stephen Hawking. Dude wouldn’t let something as trivial as ALS stop him from becoming an accomplished physicist. He essentially had to do all the math in his head, without the ability to write down notes as he worked.
Simo Hayha
Simo Hayha
(The famous Finnish sniper who defended the independence of Finland from the USSR in 1939 - 1940. Having received a serious wound that almost deprived him of half of his face, Simo partly regained his health and returned to duty. - BP)
Well Häyhä did not return to duty after his injury, but he did murk 500 soviet soldiers beforehand.
Léo Major
Léo Major.
Canadian sniper/reconnaissance, lost an eye, was told you’re going home..replied with why? I only need 1 eye to snipe…liberated an entire town in holland, took over a dozen prisoners, all single handedly after his fire team partner was killed
Someone's mom
My mom. Having to deal with my raging abusive alcoholic c**t of a father yet always being there for me.
Audie Murphy
I think Audie Murphy is up there. For those who don't know, most decorates US Soldier including the medal of honor. Some of his actions during WW2 include 1. Holding off a German assault with the .50 mouted atop off of a destroyed tank (M10 Jackson I believe) after gaining a battlefield commision (Sgt to LT). He had his men fall back and dig in. While ontop of the tank he was calling for IDF dangerclose pretty much right on top of himself. They got so close when the guy on the other end of the radio asked how close he said something along the lines of "give me a minute, I'll let you talk to one of the bas***ds" This would last an hour, and he would sustain an injury to the leg and he would repel the attack 2. When him and a buddy were in a crater/foxhole by themselves, two Germans surrendered. Something felt off to him, however his buddy believed them, stood up to go detain them, except they gunned him down. So in a fit of rage, he picked up a machinegun I believed it was and went on a one man rampage. After the war, I find one of his actions that speak highly of his character is how he refused to partake in cigarette and alcohol commericals despite financial difficulty as he was aware of the influence he would have on kids.
🎵 He saw crosses grow on Anzio where no soldiers sleep and where hell’s six feet deep. That death does wait, there’s no debate. He charged and attacked, he went to hell and back. 🎵
Charles Upham
Charles Upham was a NZ soldier who won 2 Victoria Crosses. He had a reputation of carrying a flour sack full of grenades instead of a rifle. If you read the wiki, it goes through the whole saga that led to his awarding of the first VC and then casually mentions that he was suffering from Dystentary at the time.
The Viking at Stamford Bridge
There are a lot of good people mentioned in here for various reasons but I'll throw out two more people.
First the unknown viking at Stamford Bridge, he held off the entire English army until they floated a soldier under the bridge to stab the viking in the testicles. Dude was straight stacking bodies before getting stabbed in the no no spot.
Second is Norman Borlaug, Norman was not a great warrior but a scientist, he developed a variant of wheat that had a higher yield and wouldn't fall over so harvests would be greater. He has saved countless lives from dying of starvation.
Ranulph Fiennes
Lookup Sir Ranulph Fiennes. Explorer and all around bada**. And only within the last generation. First to visit both north and South Pole. Crossed Antarctica by foot. War hero. During an expedition in the arctic got frostbite and cut his fingers off with a saw. Had a heart attack in 2000. But ran 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days 3 years later. Pure iron in my opinion
And coincidentally related to movie stardom brothers Ralph and Joseph Fiennes (some variety of cousin, if I remember aright)
Jack Churchill
Jack Churchill. Went into battle armed with a broadsword, a bow and arrow, and bag pipes. In WW2.
One more user's grandma
My grandmother was definitely born in the wrong generation. She was bad a*s. She was the oldest of 8, basically helped raised her siblings. Married my grandfather (an absolute man-child) and had 7 kids.
She basically had to drag my grandfather to get a job in the 50's. She was an excellent seamstress, making clothes for quite a few well known people in her community, even some outfits for a couple of films.
She dragged my grandfather around the world for holidays for them to enjoy, and she was wicked smart! In middle school I used to go to their house for lunch and watch the Price Is Right. Almost every time she was within $500 of the final showcases. Mad skills! If she had been born in my generation she would have been some sort of CEO, Lawyer, or Doctor.
I love all the posts about grandma's! Mine was amazing too. Survived Polio but it crippled her. That never stopped her, she raised 3 kids and over 20 foster children, gardened, canned, made clothes for the entire family, and I never heard her complain. She's my hero! My favorite picture of her is her stretching up to close the garage door. She was tiny, only 4 foot something, and wearing heels. I don't know how she did, since one of her legs was several inches shorter than the other?! Amazing woman!
Saitō Musashibō Benkei
Saitō Musashibō Benkei. He was a Japanese monk from the 1100's. He took part in many battles, but my favorite was his last where he had to gaurd a bridge as a suicide mission.
His master, Minamoto no Yoshitsune (another famous Japanese figure) was about to be captured (another long, but interesting story in of itself), but chose to kill himself before that could happen. Benkei had to keep the enemy from crossing the only bridge to the castle that Yoshitsune was hiding in. As Benkei was firecly loyal, he went through with it.
Benkei was a big dude, so no one was all that brave facing him, and every single one that did try crossing just got killed in a single file line. Eventually, they gave up on swords and just shot arrows from across the bridge. Even then, after getting shot by a barrage, he was still standing on his feet. Nothing they could throw could kill him.
...or so they thought. Turned out he died. He literally died on his feet and didn't fall over until someone was brave enough to check to see the status of arrow-covered body.
TL:DR; Big scary dude stopped an army from crossing a bridge, then his corpse kept them from crossing even after he died.
There's a belief in Japan that honorable men die on their feet, standing as the life flows out of them and back to the earth from which they came. Saitō Musashibō Benkei exemplifies this but for a more recent example, watch the anime Basilisk and focus on the character Hyoma Muroga.
Hugh Glass
"In one of the more remarkable treks known to history, Glass set his own leg, wrapped himself in the bear hide his companions had placed over him as a shroud, and began crawling. To prevent gangrene, Glass laid his wounded back on a rotting log and let the maggots eat the dead flesh. Deciding that following the Grand River would be too dangerous because of hostile tribes, Glass crawled overland south toward the Cheyenne River. It took him six weeks to reach it. Glass survived mostly on wild berries and roots. On one occasion he was able to drive two wolves from a downed bison calf, and feast on the meat. Reaching the Cheyenne, he fashioned a crude raft and floated down the river, navigating using the prominent Thunder Butte landmark. Aided by friendly natives who sewed a bear hide to his back to cover the exposed wounds as well as providing him with food and a couple of weapons to defend himself, Glass eventually reached the safety of Fort Kiowa."
ethanol713 reply
Earnest Shackleton
(Famous Antarctic explorer, one of the main figures in the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. The member of four Antarctic expeditions, three of which he commanded. - BP)
Never lost a man on his expeditions. His last words to his doctor were "what do you want me to give up now?"
Theodore Roosevelt
Teddy Roosevelt was a bada**
Josef Broz Tito
Josef Broz Tito, leader of Post-WW2 Yugoslavia. He broke with Stalin and the USSR in the mid-1940s. Stalin repeatedly tried to have Tito killed. When Stalin died a private letter from Tito to Stalin was found in Stalin's bedside table: “Stop sending people to kill me… If you don’t stop sending killers, I’ll send one to Moscow, and I won’t have to send a second.” By the 1960s he was an influential world leader organizing the non-aligned pact of nations against both NATO and the USSR,
The Tito regime itself killed in cold blood some 500,000 people, mainly collaborators, anti-communists, rival guerillas, Ustashe, and critics. (They get a pass on the Ustashe). After the war it probably killed even more people, including the rich, landlords, bourgeoisie, clerics, and in the late 40s even pro-Soviet communists.
Must be a new BP censor. Lots of "kill", "killing" etc left unexpurgated in this thread, even a "disemboweled" yet they felt the need to use "[escort]" as a euphemism for whore
Robert Smalls should have been on this list. Born a slave, stolen a confederate gunship leading other slaves, fought for the Union, after the war became congressman, and if I remember correctly even ended up buying the house of his former master. Robert Smalls is absolutely a badass
I would like to add one more. Vilém Bufka. Young pilot in Czechoslovakia who didn't want to give up when Nazis took over, so he fled to Poland, then from Poland to France, passed training and went on bombing mission, crash-landed so he wasn't on the airfield when it was bombed by Germans, fled to Africa in the last minute, got to Brittain and joined RAF. Went on many night bombings, and then he was shot down and went to POW camp. In camps he did everything he could to help escapes and even forced Red cross to check the conditions there, to stay there and not be removed by Germans, he went for surgery with no painkillers.
Not to diminish any of these bad asses, but it’s interesting how many of them are military related.
My cousin granpa : randomly became a French Résistance member because his brother got arrested for an unknown reason by SS. He took his riffle with a few friends, attacked the local Kommandantur and set free his brother and other prisoners. Instantly became a fugitive, leaving his farm,wife and kids. Got arrested and deported twice to German camps, escaped twice. Still did resistance acts, killed multiple Nazis on the woods around the city he lived. Took the Eagle Nest of Hitler with 2nd DB when Liberation came ( he had a Nazi knife he took there as a souvenir), then fought until the 8th of May 1945 around Berlin. Then casually came back to his life after War, didn't asked any honour nor talked about what he did untill the 80's, and always promoted peace and friendship between France and Germany on comitees he joigned, learnt to speak German and had multiple German Friends. Jean Nevers for those who want to know his name.
Can I add my mom? She lost her mom at 9 years old and her dad married the epitome of an evil step mother a few years later. At 18 she and her brother were struck by a drunk/high driver that killed my uncle instantly. Mom was thrown out the back window and being it was a rural area, she had to walk a quarter mile to get help with a messed up back, dislocated thumb, and massive cuts everywhere. 6 months after that accident, she finds her dad dead from a heart attack and the step mother proceeds to take darn near EVERYTHING from mom and her siblings so mom moves away. She ended up meeting my dad, they had me and the rest is history. She's the most hard working and determined person I've ever known. Most of my friends call her "mom" to this day and she's a spare grandma to a ton of kids. There's no one like her.
There are lots of stories of partisans in Europe doing their best to fight the Nazis in occupied territory. Extremely brave, and some had no military training.
Giorgio Perlasca might be in this list as well. As an Italian meat importer, he went to work in Hungary during WWII. Pretending to be a Spanish ambassador , he gave fake Spanish documents to more than 5000 Hebrew people to help them escape the Nazis. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Perlasca
Tibor Rubin should have been included. He's the only Holocaust survivor to receive the American Medal of Honor for his service in the Korean war. In addition to single-handedly holding off a North Korean regiment for a day, when he was later wounded and captured, he repeatedly broke out of the POW camp, stole food and supplies from the NK warehouse, then broke back in and distributed them to the other prisoners. He was nominated for the MoH several times for different acts, but his anti-Semitic First Sergeant threw the paperwork away each time. He finally received the medal half a century later.
Stanislav Petrov. On duty at the Oko command center on September 26, 1983, when the computer falsely indicated the U.S. had launched 5 missiles at Russia. Instead of alerting the Kremlin, as he was required to do, he decided to wait for confirmation, suspecting it was a computer error. He was right, and, for all intents and purposes, single-handedly prevented WWIII.
I read a book about female spies from WWII and I just thought they were so badass. Imagine being trained to use your "feminine wiles" to infiltrate Nazis and stuff and sending secret radio transmissions or transporting weapons all because women were so undervalued they were seen as no threat.
If you want to know about more bada$ses check https://www.badassoftheweek.com
I have two of my own. First, Ivan Pavlovich Sereda. Soviet soldier in WW2 , the cook for his unit. A German Panzer suddenly attacked his unit as he was cooking a stew. The soldiers in his unit were either mown down or fled. Sereda, being an absolute maniac, picked up an ax and jumped on top of the tank. He ran around on it stomping his feet and shouting in different voices to make the crew think that they were outgunned. He hacked away at the main gun of the tank and eventually destroysd the cannon. He keens hacking away until help arrives. At this point, the tank is basically inoperable: no guns, no sights, and the crewmen are shıtting their pants in terror. So help arrives and they find this madman standing atop a wrecked tank hacking away with an axe. (Keep in mind I’m writing this all from memory so it might be best to fact check) Second is my great grandpa. He immigrated from china with my grandfather (also a badäss) and opened a restaurant. He raised enough money to bring about
[Two parts cause word limit] four other children and his wife over. Then he gets drafted in the early 40s ww2 and invades Italy, making it to Rome. On the way his squad is holed up in a house in Sicily, surrounded by enemies. He volunteers to sneak out of the house to scout the area. He finds a vineyard and fills his helmet with grapes, as they’re running out of food. He and the unit survive on grapes for three days, while he’s making multiple trips out for more food while waiting for reinforcements. And he was at Monte Cassino. Sadly, he never got any recognition during his lifetime, and only received any awards posthumously :(
Load More Replies...
Gilberto Bosques Saldívar (20 July 1892 – 4 July 1995) was a Mexican diplomat and before that a militant in the Mexican Revolution and a leftist legislator. As a consul in Marseille, Vichy France, Bosques[a] took initiative to rescue tens of thousands of Jews and Spanish Republican exiles from being deported to Nazi Germany or Spain, but his heroism remained unknown to the world at large for some sixty years, until several years after his death at the age of 102 (not 103, as sometimes reported). For about two decades after World War II, Bosques served as Mexico's ambassador to several countries. Bosques's feat in saving nearly 40,000 people from execution by the Third Reich or Francoist Spain went unrecognized even among specialists in the history of rescuers of Jews until after 2000, and especially the year 2008.
Louis Zamperini. Read 'Unbroken', or watch the movie. Here is the summary from the wiki page: 'Louis Silvie Zamperini (January 26, 1917 – July 2, 2014) was an American World War II veteran, an Olympic distance runner and a Christian Evangelist. He took up running in high school and qualified for the United States in the 5,000 m race for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, finishing 8th while setting a new lap record in the process. Zamperini was commissioned in the United States Army Air Forces as a lieutenant. He served as a bombardier on B-24 Liberators in the Pacific. On a search and rescue mission, his plane experienced mechanical difficulties and crashed into the ocean. After drifting at sea on a life raft for 47 days, with two other crewmates, Zamperini landed on the Japanese-occupied Marshall Islands and was captured. He was taken to a total of four different prisoner-of-war camps in Japan, where he was tortured and beaten by Japanese military personnel—specifically including Mutsuhiro Watanabe—because of Zamperini's status as a famous Olympic runner. He was later taken to a new prison camp at a coal factory, and after much hardship, he was finally released. Following the war he initially struggled to overcome his ordeal, afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder. He later became a Christian evangelist with a strong belief in forgiveness. From 1952 onwards, he devoted himself to at-risk youth.'
Must be a new BP censor. Lots of "kill", "killing" etc left unexpurgated in this thread, even a "disemboweled" yet they felt the need to use "[escort]" as a euphemism for whore
Robert Smalls should have been on this list. Born a slave, stolen a confederate gunship leading other slaves, fought for the Union, after the war became congressman, and if I remember correctly even ended up buying the house of his former master. Robert Smalls is absolutely a badass
I would like to add one more. Vilém Bufka. Young pilot in Czechoslovakia who didn't want to give up when Nazis took over, so he fled to Poland, then from Poland to France, passed training and went on bombing mission, crash-landed so he wasn't on the airfield when it was bombed by Germans, fled to Africa in the last minute, got to Brittain and joined RAF. Went on many night bombings, and then he was shot down and went to POW camp. In camps he did everything he could to help escapes and even forced Red cross to check the conditions there, to stay there and not be removed by Germans, he went for surgery with no painkillers.
Not to diminish any of these bad asses, but it’s interesting how many of them are military related.
My cousin granpa : randomly became a French Résistance member because his brother got arrested for an unknown reason by SS. He took his riffle with a few friends, attacked the local Kommandantur and set free his brother and other prisoners. Instantly became a fugitive, leaving his farm,wife and kids. Got arrested and deported twice to German camps, escaped twice. Still did resistance acts, killed multiple Nazis on the woods around the city he lived. Took the Eagle Nest of Hitler with 2nd DB when Liberation came ( he had a Nazi knife he took there as a souvenir), then fought until the 8th of May 1945 around Berlin. Then casually came back to his life after War, didn't asked any honour nor talked about what he did untill the 80's, and always promoted peace and friendship between France and Germany on comitees he joigned, learnt to speak German and had multiple German Friends. Jean Nevers for those who want to know his name.
Can I add my mom? She lost her mom at 9 years old and her dad married the epitome of an evil step mother a few years later. At 18 she and her brother were struck by a drunk/high driver that killed my uncle instantly. Mom was thrown out the back window and being it was a rural area, she had to walk a quarter mile to get help with a messed up back, dislocated thumb, and massive cuts everywhere. 6 months after that accident, she finds her dad dead from a heart attack and the step mother proceeds to take darn near EVERYTHING from mom and her siblings so mom moves away. She ended up meeting my dad, they had me and the rest is history. She's the most hard working and determined person I've ever known. Most of my friends call her "mom" to this day and she's a spare grandma to a ton of kids. There's no one like her.
There are lots of stories of partisans in Europe doing their best to fight the Nazis in occupied territory. Extremely brave, and some had no military training.
Giorgio Perlasca might be in this list as well. As an Italian meat importer, he went to work in Hungary during WWII. Pretending to be a Spanish ambassador , he gave fake Spanish documents to more than 5000 Hebrew people to help them escape the Nazis. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Perlasca
Tibor Rubin should have been included. He's the only Holocaust survivor to receive the American Medal of Honor for his service in the Korean war. In addition to single-handedly holding off a North Korean regiment for a day, when he was later wounded and captured, he repeatedly broke out of the POW camp, stole food and supplies from the NK warehouse, then broke back in and distributed them to the other prisoners. He was nominated for the MoH several times for different acts, but his anti-Semitic First Sergeant threw the paperwork away each time. He finally received the medal half a century later.
Stanislav Petrov. On duty at the Oko command center on September 26, 1983, when the computer falsely indicated the U.S. had launched 5 missiles at Russia. Instead of alerting the Kremlin, as he was required to do, he decided to wait for confirmation, suspecting it was a computer error. He was right, and, for all intents and purposes, single-handedly prevented WWIII.
I read a book about female spies from WWII and I just thought they were so badass. Imagine being trained to use your "feminine wiles" to infiltrate Nazis and stuff and sending secret radio transmissions or transporting weapons all because women were so undervalued they were seen as no threat.
If you want to know about more bada$ses check https://www.badassoftheweek.com
I have two of my own. First, Ivan Pavlovich Sereda. Soviet soldier in WW2 , the cook for his unit. A German Panzer suddenly attacked his unit as he was cooking a stew. The soldiers in his unit were either mown down or fled. Sereda, being an absolute maniac, picked up an ax and jumped on top of the tank. He ran around on it stomping his feet and shouting in different voices to make the crew think that they were outgunned. He hacked away at the main gun of the tank and eventually destroysd the cannon. He keens hacking away until help arrives. At this point, the tank is basically inoperable: no guns, no sights, and the crewmen are shıtting their pants in terror. So help arrives and they find this madman standing atop a wrecked tank hacking away with an axe. (Keep in mind I’m writing this all from memory so it might be best to fact check) Second is my great grandpa. He immigrated from china with my grandfather (also a badäss) and opened a restaurant. He raised enough money to bring about
[Two parts cause word limit] four other children and his wife over. Then he gets drafted in the early 40s ww2 and invades Italy, making it to Rome. On the way his squad is holed up in a house in Sicily, surrounded by enemies. He volunteers to sneak out of the house to scout the area. He finds a vineyard and fills his helmet with grapes, as they’re running out of food. He and the unit survive on grapes for three days, while he’s making multiple trips out for more food while waiting for reinforcements. And he was at Monte Cassino. Sadly, he never got any recognition during his lifetime, and only received any awards posthumously :(
Load More Replies... Gilberto Bosques Saldívar (20 July 1892 – 4 July 1995) was a Mexican diplomat and before that a militant in the Mexican Revolution and a leftist legislator. As a consul in Marseille, Vichy France, Bosques[a] took initiative to rescue tens of thousands of Jews and Spanish Republican exiles from being deported to Nazi Germany or Spain, but his heroism remained unknown to the world at large for some sixty years, until several years after his death at the age of 102 (not 103, as sometimes reported). For about two decades after World War II, Bosques served as Mexico's ambassador to several countries. Bosques's feat in saving nearly 40,000 people from execution by the Third Reich or Francoist Spain went unrecognized even among specialists in the history of rescuers of Jews until after 2000, and especially the year 2008.
Louis Zamperini. Read 'Unbroken', or watch the movie. Here is the summary from the wiki page: 'Louis Silvie Zamperini (January 26, 1917 – July 2, 2014) was an American World War II veteran, an Olympic distance runner and a Christian Evangelist. He took up running in high school and qualified for the United States in the 5,000 m race for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, finishing 8th while setting a new lap record in the process. Zamperini was commissioned in the United States Army Air Forces as a lieutenant. He served as a bombardier on B-24 Liberators in the Pacific. On a search and rescue mission, his plane experienced mechanical difficulties and crashed into the ocean. After drifting at sea on a life raft for 47 days, with two other crewmates, Zamperini landed on the Japanese-occupied Marshall Islands and was captured. He was taken to a total of four different prisoner-of-war camps in Japan, where he was tortured and beaten by Japanese military personnel—specifically including Mutsuhiro Watanabe—because of Zamperini's status as a famous Olympic runner. He was later taken to a new prison camp at a coal factory, and after much hardship, he was finally released. Following the war he initially struggled to overcome his ordeal, afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder. He later became a Christian evangelist with a strong belief in forgiveness. From 1952 onwards, he devoted himself to at-risk youth.'
