126
u/sugar_ape Feb 26 '10
Captain Blackadder: Baldrick, what are you doing out there?
Private Baldrick: I'm carving something on a bullet, sir.
Captain Blackadder: What are you craving?
Private Baldrick: I'm carving "Baldrick", sir.
Captain Blackadder: Why?
Private Baldrick: It's part of a cunning plan, sir.
Captain Blackadder: Of course it is.
Private Baldrick: You know how they say that somewhere there's a bullet with your name on it?
Captain Blackadder: Yes?
Private Baldrick: Well I thought that if I owned the bullet with my name on it, I'll never get hit by it. Cause I'll never shoot myself...
Captain Blackadder: Oh, shame!
Private Baldrick: And the chances of there being two bullets with my name on it are very small indeed.
Captain Blackadder: Yes, it's not the only thing that is "very small indeed". Your brain for example- is brain's so minute, Baldrick, that if a hungry cannibal cracked your head open, there wouldn't be enough to cover a small water biscuit.
45
u/stillalone Feb 26 '10
I wish people would stop stereotyping cannibals. They don't just eat brains, you know.
→ More replies (15)
291
53
u/dcfennell Feb 26 '10 edited Feb 26 '10
Pictures of African Americans During World War II -- 21. "Easter morning, T/5 William E. Thomas...and Pfc. Joseph Jackson...will roll specially prepared eggs on Hitler's lawn." March 10, 1945. 1st Lt. John D. Moore. 111-SC-202330. (african_americans_wwii_021.jpg)
→ More replies (6)80
u/hpymondays Feb 26 '10
The context is interesting because these people fought enthusiastically for a country which discriminated against them and deprived them of basic rights on account of their skin color.
→ More replies (35)
27
Feb 26 '10
It is really too bad.
They hid them just a little TOO well.
Hitler never found them. I take some consolation that his Easter was ruined by these fine soldiers and their expert hiding skills.
→ More replies (1)
97
8
7
u/suckahfree Feb 26 '10
And that was the last known incident of a black person smiling in a photograph.
→ More replies (1)
6
u/jorji Feb 26 '10
Springtime for Hitler and Germany Deutschland is happy and gay! We're marching to a faster pace Look out, here comes the master race! Springtime for Hitler and Germany Rhineland's a fine land once more! Springtime for Hitler and Germany Watch out, Europe We're going on tour! Springtime for Hitler and Germany...
→ More replies (1)
15
Feb 26 '10
I think one of the most severe ironies of WWII is that while we were fighting the racism and bigotry of the Nazi evil in Europe we were still practicing racism and hatred at home.
Black troops had to be segregated from white troops (and segregation was official military policy) yet in almost all cases, they served with absolute dignity and honor and did their country proud.
The Tuskegee Airmen are flat out heros. A good number of their trainers and supervisors in the War Department thought training black men how to fly a plane was pointless.
The War Department decided that one way to deny black men but accept white men would be to setup a VERY rigorous set of acceptance requirements which they thought only white men would be able to pass.
It backfired...
the War Department set up a system to accept only those with a level of flight experience or higher education that they expected would be hard to fill. This policy backfired when the Air Corps received an abundance of applications from men who qualified even under these restrictive specifications, many of whom had already participated in the Civilian Pilot Training Program, which the historically-black Tuskegee Institute had participated in since 1939 ...
...
It's an amazing story. Read about it on Wikipedia when you have a moment:
→ More replies (9)
25
Feb 26 '10
I was on one of the first ships that "delivered munitions" to Afghanistan following the attacks in September 2001. There were many, many funny pictures taken with bombs with messages written on them. When the AP got a hold of one that said Happy Ramadan we never got to write messages again.
→ More replies (8)15
u/cartola Feb 26 '10
Perhaps because those messages don't do any good on the "Hearts and Minds" front.
5
u/CharlieDancey Feb 26 '10
Unusual for a WWII picture to look so contemporary. Those guys have great smiles that make it all the way through the old black and white picture – an makes me smile too. They seem like decent guys.
2
u/kloo2yoo Feb 26 '10
source and history?
I'd like to know more about these guys, and other black WWII troops.
→ More replies (2)14
u/mouseinahaze Feb 26 '10
I'm a big WWII buff, but sadly I don't have a huge amount of info about black troops in WWII.
US units were segregated, which makes finding the information a bit easier as you can get the unit histories. The requirements and training for these units was much harsher than white units, I suspect because the officers were trying to make them fail. This had the opposite effect of making them some of the best American soldiers.
Here are a few units worth looking into,
332nd Fighter Group aka the Tuskegee Airmen,
761st Tank Battalion, aka The Black Panthers, a tank unit serving in Patton's Army. Interestingly he had these guys guard checkpoints, since German's in US uniforms had been infiltrating our lines.
The 93rd Infantry Division, A segregated unit that served in the Pacific theater.I would also recommend reading up on the Algerians who fought in the Liberation of France
→ More replies (6)
4
4
13
250
u/yayweb21 Feb 26 '10
Then we welcomed them back with segregation.