5 True War Stories That Put Every Action Movie to Shame

[The Straight Story]

The Half-Assed Hollywood Effort:

Luke's Red Squadron from Star Wars. If instead of fancy space technology, the Red Squadron used a flare gun and a slingshot to destroy the Death Star.

The Badass True Story:

Stretching at 825 feet and capable of displacing more than 50,000 metric tons, the Bismarck was the largest battleship in the world when it was launched. Seeing this bastard through a pair of binoculars, you'd have to think it was too big to be possible.

Not only did it boast eight 15-inch guns (if you're thinking that sounds tiny, understand the shells were 15 inches across) and five dozen smaller armaments, the ship's onboard targeting computer was so precise it blew away HMS Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy, with one freaking shot. The subsequent destruction of the HMS Hood and the loss of almost all its sailors was considered one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in all of WWII.

Fortunately, the battleship did have one fatal weakness: a small and vulnerable rudder, presumably located right below its thermal exhaust port. Enter Lieutenant Commander John Moffat of the Fleet Air.

Just after nightfall on May 24, 1941, Moffat and his squad of biplane bombers assaulted the Bismarck from every direction, in most cases skimming just above the water-line to avoid the battleship's fire.

Although they were flying in the black of night likely using some old timey version of the Force, Moffat was able to fire a torpedo in a one-in-a-million shot that struck the Bismarck square on its rudder, the one vulnerable spot in 50 thousand tons of armor and bristling weaponry. The hit left the most feared battleship in the Kriegsmarine floating dead in the water. The Royal Navy promptly sailed in to finish the job.

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_18550_5-true-war-stories-that-put-every-action-movie-to-shame.html#ixzz0poDXFSv2

[Downtown Hound]

1. Those are good, but this guy makes Rambo look like a crippled old lady

A Finnish sniper that killed between 500-800 invading Russians, most of them without even using a scope. The Russians called him "The White Death."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4



Simo Häyhä (Finnish pronunciation: <'simɔ 'hæy̯hæ>) (December 17, 1905 – April 1, 2002), nicknamed "White Death" (Russian: Белая смерть, Belaya Smert; Finnish: Valkoinen Kuolema; Swedish: den Vita Döden; German: der weiße Tod) by the Red Army, was a Finnish sniper. Using a standard iron-sighted, bolt action rifle in the Winter War, he has the highest recorded number (505) of confirmed kills in any major war.<1><2>

[Confusious]

2. The blond knight

Erich Hartmann: 352 aerial victories

Even though he fought for Germany during World War 2, from what I read, he sounded like a decent human being in a pot of vile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Hartmann

[Pholus]

3. Don't forget the X-craft!

Tiny improvised 4 man subs making a successful attack on the Bismark's sister ship in an inaccessible fjord.

[Doc_Technical]

4. Check out the story of Hans Joachim Marseille

In one mission he shot down 6 planes in 11 minutes.

http://www.2worldwar2.com/marseille.htm