Win or lose, both the Axis and Allied armies produced many men in World war 2 that went
above and beyond the call of duty for their respective countries. Some of these were the
men that put their bodies on the line time and time again in a nationalistic fervour that won
them infamy amongst the opposing armies and others were the men who used their immense
skill to simply terrorise enemies from afar. With that being said, in today’s Front video,
we’ll be staying true to the channel name and taking a look at 14 men from 13 different
countries who greatly impacted the battlefields they fought on. Regardless of how they did this,
the men chosen all had an impact on their enemies in one way or another,
usually through sheer skill and force of will in combat as well as propaganda in some cases.
Although we all know that such a complex and massive war can’t be distilled down
to the individual, this video intends to highlight the men who were on the front
lines and aims to simplify their actions in the context of only a battlefield. Please
do keep in mind as well that this is Part 1 of a Potential 3 part series,
so don’t stress if your country didnt show up in this video, as there’s a high likelihood it will
show up in the next one that will be coming next week. So make sure you turn notifications on and
stay tuned for upcoming videos and without further adieu, let’s get into this one!
First up, we have Simo Hayha. This Finnish beast of a sniper will undoubtedly be the
most well-known of all the men I list off today and that is for good reason. During World War 2,
and more specifically the winter war against the Russians, Simo, a young Finnish boy from
the South of Finland right near the Russian border, was being trained as a sniper. This
unassuming 5 foot tall man turned out to have quite an eye for detail and his superiors thus
gave him his shot as a Marksman in the Finnish army. Not only did he take this shot, but he quite
literally shot over 500 Russian men, earning him the infamous nickname of the White Death.
Eventually, as a result of being used as a propaganda piece for the Finnish and Russian
soldiers being deathly scared of him, Russian high command sent everything after the Hayha,
and he often found himself in situations where there were multiple Russian snipers
looking for a single movement on Hayha’s behalf. 11 days before the war ended,
one of these Russian marksmen got lucky and landed an explosive shot right on Hayha’s
jaw. According to the man himself, although badly wounded, he still picked up his rifle and
landed himself his final kill of the war, then passing out and being rushed back to hospital.
Next up, we have yet another infamous Marksman, however this time coming from the other side of
the Pond in Russia. Ivan Sidorenko was just another failed art student before
he enlisted in the Red Army on a whim. Although first drafted into a mortar unit,
Sidorenko sometimes got bored and wandered off on his own to find German soldiers to kill. He
adopted the motto “One Shot, One Kill” and was so successful and shooting the German soldiers
from afar that his red army commanders quickly promoted him and gave him underlings to train.
Due to his and the men under him’s success, Soviet politicians quickly jumped on the bandwagon and
manufactured mass propaganda called “the cult of the Sniper” designed to intimidate German forces,
and this it did, with German forces throwing everything they could at the men,
but to little avail. In three years it was reported that Sidorenko himself had killed
an estimated 400 men and because he was so valuable to the Soviets,
after he became wounded a couple times, they withdrew him from the front lines
and he was instructed to remain a trainer for new markmen coming through the ranks.
Jack Churchill, otherwise known as Fighting Jack Churchill or Mad Jack,
was the man from Britain quoted as saying “Any officer who goes into action without his sword
is improperly dressed.” Although he wasn’t ethnically Scottish, mad Jack obviously enjoyed
their culture, and when Wehrmacht soldiers heard the distinctive sound of Bagpipes,
they knew the seemingly crazy man with the sword and longbow wasn’t far away.
Churchill was essentially the most brazen soldier the war had ever seen. In addition
to having the last recorded longbow kill in history, some of Mad Jack’s other exploits
included escaping multiple PoW camps, surviving multiple close range explosions and capturing
more than 40 Germans at sword point in just one of his many raids and these are just to name a few,
making him an unforgettable pest that the Germans would never forget.
Going back to a more methodical type of soldier on the battlefields of World War 2,
we have the German tank commander Kurt Knipsel. Although German high-command
preferred to use the Panzer Ace Michael Wittman as a source for their propaganda
and Knispel largely flew under the radar, his impact on enemy armoured forces is undisputed,
and many historians regard him as the most proficient armoured fighter for good reason.
Knispel during his stint as tank commander claimed 168 tanks destroyed, making him the most
successful fighter in armoured warfare history to date. Unfortunately for the seasoned tank veteran,
his life was tragically cut short just 2 weeks before Germany surrendered,
when his outnumbered tank was hit and the ammunition within it exploded. He was hit
with shrapnel in the head and died in a field hospital 2 hours later.
Nicknamed the “Killer”, Clive Caldwell wasn’t necessarily the bad-natured type, he was just
really good at what he did and didn’t like German pilots. Fighting for the Royal Australian Air
Force in World War 2, Caldwell quickly found his wings in the Curtiss P-40 Tomahawks and Kittyhawks
that were supplied to him. His official score was 28.5 enemy aircraft downed including an ace
in a day, which means he shot down 5 planes in one day. Although a remarkable score for any pilot, it
still does not reflect the presence Caldwell had in North Africa against seasoned German Pilots.
Due to the fact that Caldwell had witnessed one of his close friends being shot by a
German pilot whilst parachuting to the ground, Caldwell adopted an eye for an eye approach, and
every German plan he downed or damaged, he would also shoot the parachuting pilot, something that
angered the German pilots greatly, although they could just never seem to get Caldwell in the end.
The only combat soldier to receive the revered Victoria’s Cross twice, New Zealand born Charles
Upham was quite a man who left quite an impression on both the men he fought with and against. His
first Victoria’s Cross came from Greece where he destroyed multiple German machine gun nests
single handedly and then organised his men to help him mount a rescue of wounded allied soldiers,
among other things and his second one came from Egypt where in spite of being twice wounded, he
managed to destroy an entire truckload of Germans, and once again organise the men of his company to
stage a final assault on the important ridge of El Ruweisat. Upham himself destroyed multiple
tanks and several machine gun nests before he was wounded again and had to sustain a violent
German counter attack. With only 6 survivors, his company eventually succumbed to the Germans after
ferocious fighting, where the German’s were more than relieved to be taking him prisoner.
The last entry for Part 1 of the series is the French Tank Commander Pierre Bilotte.
Although it is known that the French got trampled by the German Blitzkrieg in WW2,
that doesn’t take away from the fact that many defenders were still extremely brave and skilled,
and Pierre Bilotte is a prime example of this.
In May of 1940, at the height of the Wehrmachts power, Bilotte was stationed to defend the French
village of Stonne. The village had changed hands numerous times and was the subject of
furious fighting on both sides. Bilotte, however, stepped it up a notch, when on the 16th of May,
he and his one tank crew single-handedly broke through the German defensive line and destroyed
enemy 13 tanks and enemy 2 enemy gun positions, swinging the momentum for the French army for the
time being. His tank ultimately received over 140 hits from enemy tanks and guns,
however, miraculously, none managed to penetrate the tanks armour and his crew
survived only to be eventually captured by the German military. Bilotte himself however,
managed to escape his prison, and cause more headaches for the Germans by becoming Chief
of Staff in the Free French Army, helping orchestrate D-day and the French Resistance.