In our recent video on the Nazis of the Nuremberg trials, we compared 21
Nazis' IQ scores. But IQ tests are by no means a flawless measure of intelligence,
so today we're going to do away with the numbers and look at some actions and
tactics carried out by some big-brained soldiers during the Second World War.
Bernard P. Bell was born in West Virginia and signed up for the US Army in August 1942,
serving in the 142nd Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division.
By December 1944, he was a technical sergeant serving in Mittelwihr, France.
On the 18th, Bell led an eight-man squad against a German position located inside a
school. He personally took out two German guards without firing a single bullet,
probably using his bayonet, and then he threatened to obliterate the
remaining 26 German occupants with hand grenades. All the Germans surrendered,
and Bell's men occupied the school, preparing for a follow-up German attack.
The next day, the Germans hit the school with artillery and mortar shells, and the day after
that, they launched a massive assault. Fire from a German tank smashed apart the upper stories,
but Bell kept his head, climbing through the rubble of the building’s
second floor to direct artillery strikes against the tank, forcing its retreat.
From his vantage point, Bell could also see that many of the German troops were hiding behind
a series of walls. Climbing back down through the rubble, he linked up with a friendly tank.
We'll let Bell's Medal of Honor citation describe what happened next:
"[Bell] unhesitatingly exposed himself to heavy small-arms fire to stand beside
a friendly tank and tell its occupants where to rip holes in walls protecting
approaches to the school building. He then trained machine guns on the gaps and mowed
down all hostile troops attempting to cross the openings to get closer to the school building.
By his intrepidity and bold, aggressive leadership, Bell enabled his 8-man
squad to drive back approximately 150 of the enemy, killing at least 87 and capturing 42."
In short, with a bit of quick thinking and no small amount of bravery,
Bell snatched victory from the jaws of death.
Richard "Dick" Winters was born in Pennsylvania and joined the US Army in 1941, the year America
entered the war. By the time of the 1944 Normandy landings, he was in command of Company E,
2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division.
On D-Day, his company landed in the French hamlet of Le Grand Chemin and was given the
vague instruction "There's fire along that hedgerow there. Take care of it."
Conducting some quick reconnaissance, he learned that the Germans had a few artillery
pieces along a hedgerow near Brécourt Manor, but he couldn't ascertain their
numbers. He gathered a force of just 12 men and returned to the German battery to take it out.
On closer inspection, however, Winters determined that the hedgerow concealed
four 105mm howitzers, all connected by trenches defended by some 60 German troops.
But numbers aren't everything, and Winters knew that.
He used the Germans' trenches against them,
creating covering fire with a pair of M1919 machine guns while a contingent
of his unit flanked a German machine gun position. With the machine gun taken out,
Winters' men now had access to the trenches. They fought their way from howitzer to howitzer,
jamming TNT down the artillery pieces' barrels and detonating them with German stick grenades.
After all four guns were down, Winters fled,
though he'd also acquired a German map during the action—a map that detailed
the location of all the German batteries and machine-gun positions in the area.
Using ingenuity and subterfuge, Winters dealt the Germans a crippling blow,
and he almost received a Medal of Honor, but the top brass were fools and gave him a DSC instead.
Over on Utah Beach, at which the German howitzers had been firing,
another American man made excellent use of his mind and charisma.
During the Normandy landings, Theodore Roosevelt Jr—former US President Roosevelt's oldest son—was
Deputy Division Commander of the US 4th Infantry Division, and 56 years old.
Despite his role and age, Roosevelt insisted that
he must personally take part in the landing at Utah Beach. After arguing his point with
the division's commander, Major General Raymond Barton, Roosevelt got his wish.
On D-Day, strong currents pushed the landing about 1.8 kilometres or 2,000 yards south
of the intended landing zone. Roosevelt was the first senior officer, and only general,
to storm the beach. Despite enemy fire, he set off with his cane and pistol to survey the terrain,
determining that this accidental landing zone was, in fact, superior to the intended one.
Contacting his officers, he famously said, "We'll start the war from right here!"
Roosevelt then proceeded to direct the landing, guiding men and tanks
off the beach while maintaining a relaxed, confident demeanour. He even recited poetry.
Barton later wrote, "He had landed with the first wave, had put my troops across the beach,
and had a perfect picture of the entire situation. I loved Ted. When I had bade
him goodbye, I never expected to see him alive. After the war, when asked to name the most heroic
action he'd ever seen, American General Omar Bradley answered, "Ted Roosevelt on Utah Beach."
But he wasn't just heroic. Without Roosevelt's ingenuity and coolness
under pressure, the improvised landing may very easily have spelled disaster.
Brains weren't limited to World War II's officers and soldiers, however.
In 1939, a Ukrainian man named Ivan Pavlovich was drafted into the Red Army and designated a cook.
By August 1941, he was working in the field kitchen of the 91st Tank Regiment in Latvia,
and one day, all the men he'd been cooking mi goreng for were ordered
to advance to the front line to fight the Germans.
No soldier, Pavlovich stayed behind—only to be present when the German 8th Panzer
Division approached his position from the rear. Most of the tanks passed by without
noticing the field kitchen, but one tank, a Panzer 38, seemed to be heading right for it.
When the Panzer stopped near the kitchen, Pavlovich seized a rifle and an axe and sprinted
for the tank, dodging machine-gun fire to clamber onto the vehicle and bend the hell out of its
barrel with axe blows. He then took a tarpaulin and covered the tank's vision slits so its crew
couldn't see and, continuing to smash his axe against the Panzer's hull, ordered his Red Army
comrades to surround the tank and undermine it with grenades unless the German crew surrendered.
The thing is, Pavlovich didn't have any comrades with him.
It was all a ploy—one the Germans fell for.
They surrendered, and Ivan Pavlovich was made a Hero of the Soviet Union.
While rushing a tank with an axe might seem a little more crazy than smart,
the rest of it certainly took some quick thinking on Pavlovich's part.
The September 1944 Battle of Arnhem was ultimately a terrible defeat for
the British forces trying to drive the Germans from the Netherlands,
but a contingent of Brits was able to hold one end of Arnhem's road bridge for a time.
Among these men was John Grayburn,
a lieutenant serving in A Company of the 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment.
After parachuting into the area, his company crept through Arnhem's backyards to the bridge's
main ramp and waited beneath it in silence as German traffic occasionally passed overhead.
Here, Grayburn exhibited great smarts and patience. If he'd engaged the passing Germans,
he might have been able to destroy a few of them, but this would advertise his position
to the enemy before the British had even had a chance to consolidate their position.
After reinforcements led by Lieutenant Colonel John Frost arrived, Grayburn tried to make a
play for the bridge. In command of 2 Platoon, he had his man blacken their faces and wrap
their boots in strips of curtains to muffle their movement. Once it was dark, they began
across both sides of the bridge in single file, using the steel girders as protection.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. The Germans spotted them and opened fire. A bullet smashed
into Grayburn's shoulder, but despite this, he organised a hasty withdrawal, ensuring that every
single one of his remaining men had made it back down the ramp before following them to safety.
Points for ingenuity, and points for coolness under pressure.
For the next three days, Grayburn commanded the defence of the bridge,
engaging in house-to-house combat and using a fighting patrol to distract the Germans who’d
set explosives on a section of the ramp. This bought the Royal Engineers the time
they needed to remove the fuses and prevent the destruction of the Allies' only way into Arnhem.
In the end, though, the Germans had too strong of a grip on the city, and Grayburn was slain
when he stood in full view of a German tank while trying to direct his units' retreat.
For his actions, he received a posthumous Victoria Cross. The citation read,
"There is no doubt that, had it not been for this officer's inspiring leadership
and personal bravery, the Arnhem bridge could never have been held for this time."
You've almost certainly heard of the Canadian
soldier Léo Major and his rampage through the Dutch city of Zwolle,
but we wanted to focus on the part where he used his wits to deceive a German officer.
Knowing that the Allies were going to bombard German-held Zwolle, where many Dutch civilians
still resided, Major snuck into the city with his friend in an attempt to liberate it all by
themselves. During their escapades, Major's friend was shot dead, and this sent Major into a fury.
He ran through the streets gunning down Germans, and then he captured a German
vehicle and forced the driver to bring him to his officer, who was chilling in a nearby tavern.
Entering the tavern, Major disarmed the German officer. Then, learning that the
officer could speak French, Major returned the officer's gun and said,
in French, "[T]he war is almost finished and I am a member of the advance [Allied]
party [This is] a lovely town and I didn't want [anyone] to destroy [it]."
Leaving the tavern, Major proceeded to cause as much of a ruckus as possible,
hoping to convince the Germans that a large Allied force was indeed sweeping
through the city. He ran through the streets lobbing grenades and mowing down Germans. He
even stumbled into an SS headquarters and filled the officers inside it with lead.
By four in the morning, the Germans had entirely abandoned the city. The
Allies called off the bombardment, and countless civilian lives had been saved.
This was due to Major being an absolute madman, yes, but if he hadn't handled that German officer
so smoothly, his plan might never have worked. It was Léo Major's wit that saved Zwolle.
So, of the stories we covered today, which do you think was most indicative of intelligence?
Can you think of any other "intelligent" Allied soldiers from the Second World War?
What about Axis ones? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.