Congratulations to Mr. Prewitt. It should be noted, however, that France’s highest order of merit is called the Legion of Honour (Légion d’honneur), not the Legion of Armour, and also that France doesn’t actually have knighthoods in the same sense as Britain does. “Chevalier” (knight) is indeed one of the Legion of Honour’s five levels, and the name is a holdover from the days when France still had an aristocracy, but the French nobility system went out the window with the French Revolution. I once saw a series of amusing cartoons depicting what life in France would be like today if the Bourbon monarchy hadn’t fallen, and one of them showed an irate air traveler standing at the ticket counter of “Royal Air France” and telling the ticket agent “But I’m a baron and I have a confirmed reservation!” The agent replies, “I’m sorry, sir, but the Duke of So-and-so has precedence over you, so we gave him your seat.” In fairness, the same sort of thing actually happens in real-life republican France. A few years ago, there was scandal involving one of the major D-Day anniversaries (I think it was the 50th one), when the French government contacted various hotels in Normany and appropriated some of their existing reservations so that various French officials could have rooms for the event. Some of those rooms, however, had been reserved by foreign veterans of the D-Day invasion. When the story broke on the front page of French newspapers (under such headlines as “Our Liberators Insulted!”), public opinion was outraged and the French government beat a hasty retreat. The prevailing editorial opinion over this affair was: Do this to our own citizens if you want, but don’t do this to the heroes who ended the occupation of France.
New WWII Movie on the Way
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It seems Mel Gibson is set to direct “Destroyer,” based on the book, Hell From the Heavens: The Epic Story of the USS Laffey and World War II’s Greatest Kamikaze Attack. Reports indicate production should begin this fall or winter.
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Thank you for that.
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And as a nice tie-in to A&A, note that the USS Laffey which, almost incredibly, survived six kamikaze hits and four bomb hits (DD-724, which shared the name of its predecessor, DD-459) was an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer – the class which is the basis for the Allied destroyer sculpt in A&A 1941.
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I am hoping The Final Battle comes out and it wasn’t a joke.
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@Caesar:
I am hoping The Final Battle comes out and it wasn’t a joke.
That should be such a good movie!
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IMDb has it listed in pre production!
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It will be interesting to see how the world reacts to the Wehrmacht being seen as part of the good guys.
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There will be German baddies too so I doubt it will generate too much upset.
In truth there were goodies and baddies on all sides. Films have allowed dignity and humanity to some German and Japanese characters for some time. A notable recent example being Letters from Iwo Jima. The willingness to depict good Germans goes back to very soon after the end of the war in fact. One of the great facets of WW2 was the swift move to forgive across Europe. My aunt married a German POW. It is remarkable.
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USS Laffey Kamikaze Attack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP6TDSSMrxM -
@Caesar:
It will be interesting to see how the world reacts to the Wehrmacht being seen as part of the good guys.
Exactly what part did Wehrmacht play in the Japanese kamikaze attack on the US destroyer Laffey ? Please tell me…
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Two different films Narvik. Destroyer & The Final Battle.
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I mean according to the battle of Castle Itter, there was a SS officer that helped the allies out.
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