Acts of Chivalry and Honour

[Jon G.]

Thank you for clarifying that, Redcoat. Clearly, I had access to only half the story.

De la Penne does come across as a very dashing, courageous and outright chivalrous character... such types were probably always a tiny minority; maybe even more so in WWII. Or that's my impression.

[DrG]

The truth is he was awarded the highest Italian medal by the captain of HMS Valiant for services to the Allied cause.

He was awarded the Medaglia d'Oro al Valor Militare for the sinking of the Valiant in the harbour of Alexandria, not because of the attack on the port of La Spezia. See the official decree: http://www.quirinale.it/onorificenze/De ... rato=13253.

[AlifRafikKhan]

German SS gives water to wounded Russian soldier, Dnieper River 1941...

[Harro]

Nice photo but obviously taken for propaganda reasons.

[AlifRafikKhan]

It is possible Harro, especially if we know that the SS man notorious for their behaviour in the Russian front and to Russian soldiers,,,

[bil]

I am sure the Russian didn't care why he was given the drink,just that it happened. ---bil

[AlifRafikKhan]

On 22 June 1941, Luftwaffe fighter ace, Hauptmann Heinz ‘Pietzsch’ Bretnütz shot down a Russian SB-2 twin-engine bomber. His Bf 109 F-2 (W.Nr. 6674) “Chevron Triangle” was hit in the engagement however, necessitating an emergency landing in the area of the front lines between Erzvilkas and Nemaksciai. Badly wounded, he was rescued by farmers who hid him from retreating Russian troops....

Source : http://www.fliegerhorst-sandhofen-colem ... etnutz.htm

[AlifRafikKhan]

Captured German paratroopers carry a British soldier who has lost a foot to a mine, May 1944...

Source : Book "World War II In Photographs" by Carlton Books

[AlifRafikKhan]

A US medic gives roadside first aid to a German Luftwaffe officer, shot up in his staff car, Chartres, August 17. 1944...

Same source as above

[Stephan]

This true story I head in a lenghy reportage from Swedish Radio while sitting in my car a couple of years ago. Thus - Im sure of the reportage, Im convinced the reporter believed it was thrue. But I dont know exact sources nor exact time.
Soviet-Finland front. Summer 1944?? The finnish bataljon was defending among other along a lake with lots of reeds along the lake shores.
They had survived several assault during the summer, which they successfully managed to defend.

After the third one, they did an extra search through the reeds. And found (probably among other wounded and dead), one wounded russian soldier lying in a boat, who apparently was wounded there on a earlier assault several weeks earlier. He was hiding / lying in his boat, two other soldiers were dead. He had a lot of water around so he survived although almost without food. It was a private, an older tatarian man. Apparently one of the last constripts when the soviets no longer had any big reserves left...
Him surviving the hell of several weeks is of course a miracle in itself, not to mention his wounds. Probably because he was a poor man, used to hard work and live and survive on almost anything...

The battalion doctor patched him up, they gave him food (small portions of course) lots of cigarettes, and took initiative he was exchanged at the nearest exchange of wounded.

(Hereby we do also learn they apparently had sometimes some exchange of wounded and prisoners. I dont think this is commonly known).

[Optiow]

I know that in many battles both sides agreed to have a ceasefire to evacuate the wounded. There were also some holidays like Christmas where the sides might have a ceasefire.

[AlifRafikKhan]

A well-defined sense of chivalry led the Fallschirmtruppen to treat wounded prisoners with consideration, as shown in this relaxed group on Crete in 1941...

Source : "Fallschirmjäger, German Paratrooper" from Osprey

[AlifRafikKhan]

A Gebirgsjäger in white snow camouflage (note also the white camouflage cover for the bergmütze) shares a cigarette with captured Soviet soldiers, also well protected against the weather. This photo was taken in the far north of the Eastern Front in April 1942...

Source : "Gebirgsjäger, German Mountain Troops" from Osprey

[AlifRafikKhan]

Nice touching story from German military musician Jochen Nubel:

Would be grateful for your help regarding a WWII episode that I witnessed in 1944 as a German soldier after the Normandy landings. My friend and I were both aged 19, I was born in 1925. In August or September of 1944 a comrade of mine, Herbert Schmidt, and myself found a wounded British soldier in a wood leaning against a tree. His legs were both fractured, he was wailing and he could no longer walk. He shouted to us: “Don’t kill me!” And we replied: “We won’t kill you!” We were all very scared of being killed. Then he sang the German national anthem composed by Hayden based on a poem by Ferdinand von Freiligrath. We sang the British hymn “God save the King” in order to calm him. Then he said: “I am a flutist of the London Symphony Orchestra.” We answered: “We are also musicians!” He seemed to be glad about this. Then we put him onto our bicycle. When we put "Tommy" on the saddle of our military tandem bicycle and his feet onto its pedals he cried out loud because his fractured legs hurt him very strongly and he clutched the handle bar firmly. He pointed to his military knapsack that he had forgotten on the ground in the wood and we fetched it for him. All German soldiers had received the order to transport wounded enemy soldiers to the German mobile army surgical hospitals to be operated on or to be aided in any other way. Yet we did not know where a MASH could be found and were afraid that our company commander might think we wanted to desert.

We pushed the bike for about one and a half hours across the flat Belgian landscape. Fortunately there was no shooting or bombing. As our English was extremely bad and "Tommy" couldn't speak any German we didn't talk much. Still, we said we were musicians, which we both could understand. In German it is Musiker. He had pantomimed some flute playing and we some piano playing. Perhaps this created some sympathy among us.

Finally we found a hospital, left "Tommy" there and trusted that he received help. We got into some trouble with our platoon leader but explained to him what we did and he Okayed it. It would be really interesting to find out if "Tommy" was in fact operated on and could use his legs and feet again afterwards. Some time later I lost my company and my commander sent my parents a telegram with his condolences informing them that I had died and they published my obituary in my hometown newspaper but this is another story. In hindsight, “Tommy’s” leg injuries may have been caused by landing badly by parachute, so he may have been a paratrooper? Unfortunately we never heard of him again. Now I would very much like to find this British comrade and to invite him to my home near Avignon where I live as a pianist.

Thank you very much in advance.

Yours faithfully,

Jochen Nubel
14 rue van Dongen
F 84310 Morieres-les-Avignon
France”

Source: http://warveteran.co.uk/page18.html

[Polar bear]

... Commander Morgan (IIRC his name) asked to have the honour to give it to Durand de la Penne ...

Always about Italian Navy, I want to remember Commander Salvatore Todaro who, having sunk a cargo in Middle Atlantic, decided to tow with his submarine the cargo crew until Canarian Islands.

let me add today that the Italian navy named a destroyer in honour of Luigi Durand de la Penne and a submarine in honour of Salvatore Todaro.

greetings, the pb