@@joecarson8281 I find there's a Python reference for every occasion :). For example, in the supermarket I see Wensleydale cheese and my mind says "Oh! I thought you were talking to me, sir. Mister Wenslydale, that's my name. :)
That actor was Lex van Delden, a Dutch actor and singer. His film credits include A Bridge Too Far, Soldier of Orange and Bad Timing. He was the son of composer Lex van Delden.
The officer in question was the extraordinary Digby Walker and when they were making this film they found him living in Kenya. He was leading bayonet charges all over the place with just the umbrella.
@steiner554I think you're talking about Jack Churchill. He was English, but carried a Scottish claymore, bagpipes, and even a bow an arrow. The original 'mad lad'.
That poor young German soldier now had to go back to his comandante and say, "With all due respect, sir, you made me look like a complete jackass out there! Sir."
@@paddy7812 I just looked outside, no more British flags here. If you're up for it, feel free to try again, when you're not busy being beheaded in your own country. 🤣
@@l337pwnagenot like they had a vast empire, beat napoleon and won in the falklands, malaysia, borneo, burma, north africa, arabian peninsula, etc. etc. Post empire while the US lost every war they ever entered alone...
This is based on Major Digby Tatham-Warter who led a bayonet charge wearing a bowler hate and carrying a black umbrella. He use to hunt tigers for fun in India. Once one of his fellow officers remarked on his umbrella stating 'that thing won't do you any good' to which Digby replied ' Oh my goodness Pat, but what if it rains?' He was captured after being injured....managed to escape from the hospital and to evade further capture where he and another joined the Dutch resistance and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order medal He died in 1993 aged 75
The umbrella was reputedly due to his inability to remember passwords, on the basis that no sentry would ever mistake the man carrying an umbrella for anything but an Englishman.
We also have a soldier called Mad Jack Churchill. No relation to Winston Churchill. He went into battle with a bow and arrow. He apparently killed a German with it. No joke look it up
================================= One of the best bits of British cinema - ever! ================================= The "Was there anything else?" is just the icing on the cake. /
@@SamanthaSinger reviewing the scene, one can imagine it's an omage to Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It's a guy at the base of a castle asking for something.
It's nowhere near as bad as America. Have you seen there border. They have 18 times the amount of people crossing. And let's not get started on France and more. Britain is nowhere near as bad and I'm saying that as an Asian.
British viewers of a certain age will recognise the German actor from Auf Wiedersehen Pet, he played Helmut the guy who invited Neville to his home after he found the bomb on the building site
After Market Garden, the bridge of Arnhem has been bombed and destroyed by allies on okt 6th and 7th 1944. Reason was because Germans kept using the bridge to move reinforcements to the south and were a threat to the allies in the city of Nijmegen and the villages of Lent and Elst.
I still think it would have been better had he said something like "of course. we accept. Please all lay down you weapons and come this way with your hands up"
But he was absolutely right. They didn't have the facilities to take them prisoner. What would have happened if they accepted? You couldn't split the tea ration that far.
"Nein i am talking about YOUR surrender" -No we aren't "Yes we are! -Nope "Clearly vhe have zhe advantage! -No you don't "WE DO! WE DO Clearly you are NOT vinning zhis battle! -Yes we are! "YOU DONT ! YOU DONT! these are not negotiations it is just mocking! -No it issen't
For those wondering, in the case of a unit on a mission that prevents them from escorting large groups of POWs, the proper procedure would be to accept the prisoners, disarm them, report their surrender to your superiors, and direct the prisoners to travel to a rendezvous point on their own accord to be picked up for internment. You are required to accept a surrender, but you don't have to babysit them yourself, especially if you have a mission to complete.
It was clear sarcasm, German soldier was sent to propose outnumbered and surrounded Brits to surrender. It is more clear if you see the whole episode or the whole movie of course.
@@slavsh Yes, I understand that it was a joke, but a lot of the previously written comments were asking if it was legal to refuse to accept an enemy's surrender. I was just trying to clarify that detail.
At Chosin, the Chinese sent a message to Chesty Puller asking him to surrender. He responded "Why should I surrender? I have you exactly where I want you!" The Chinese responded "How so? It is we who has you surrounded!" Puller Responded "EXACTLY! I can now go north, south, east, or west and still kill you!" Puller would later address his men "We are surrounded on all sides! They can't get away from us now!"
Rommel had a similar approach when pushing deep into enemy territory heading for their HQ so that when they lost all control they were easy to pick of unit by unit. When a subordinate would reming him they were now 'trapped' because they were behind the eneny who had closed his escape route he would explain that HE was behind THEM. And he was right - it worked every time :).
I could just imagine this unlucky soldier thinking "I have to go and tell MY general that although theirs'd like to take our surrender they currently don't have the facilities. Ya, that would go down well".
When I was in the Navy, I did a tour on the DSRV-2 Avalon. (Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle). We did a rescue exercise with the Royal Navy deploying aboard the HMS Revenge as our Mother Sub. Some striking differences between our two Navies: US Sub force: "DIVE! DIVE! Ah OOGA! Ah OOGA (Divng alarm) DIVE! DIVE!" Royal Navy : "Diving now. Diving now." (In a soft spoken "Oh by the way" Tone of voice" ) Once a week we have a four hour cleaning we call Field Day. Every now and then, the ships cleanliness falls below standard before the next scheduled field day. U.S. Navy: "THIS IS THE CAPTIAN! THE SHIP LOOKS LIKE SHIT! COMMENCE FIELD DAY!" Royal Navy: "All hands. Captain here, I regret to inform you that the cleanliness of this ship has fallen below acceptable standards. We shall clean until the problem has been rectified. That is all."
Definitely a different approach :). I knew of a guy who fought up Italy in WW2 who described the American troops as a great bunch of guys; incredibly brave - but who should never be given live ammunition :).
@@Ellis01234567890Probably from the book. The author interviewed the real people when he wrote his books. So you get a story based on eyewitness account.
The joke he makes didn’t happen, the Germans did ask the British to surrender but and the conversation was with a British sergeant on parole. Although frost did historically say ‘tell him to go to hell’
Reminds me of the action on S. Georgia. Where the Prime Minister ordered the garrison to surrender to the Argentinians. The commander replied that he would not surrender but would instead make their eyes water. He ended up destroying an Argentinian submarine and inflicting major damage on Argentinian warships before surrendering.
What unit are you referring to? To my knowledge the Royal Marines on the Falklands had no contact with London whilst they were fighting, and they surrendered on orders of the local Governor after putting up stiff resistance. The only submarine damaged was the ARA Santa Fe (Formerly USS Catfish from WW2) and it was fatally damaged by rocket attack from helicopters of the Royal Navy, before beaching itself in Grytviken in South Georgia where the crew disembarked and joined the Argentinian Marines in defending the island, only to surrender a few days later when the RN put on a display of naval gunnery near the Argentinian troops. The sub was then destroyed by the British Army using it as a target for Milan anti-tank missiles before it was towed out to sea and sunk after the conflict as it's weapons had become unstable.
I really like this movie, but…. The real John Frost was an advisor to the film and HATED this scene. The key line about not being able to take the Germans prisoner was originally supposed to be his characters line. Frost thought it was a stupid thing to say. He insisted the script be changed and they shifted the line to the other officer.
It's hard to get at the truth sometimes so fr back, but the character on the bridge in the film is Major Harry Carlyle based on Digby Tatham-Warter (who did carry an umbrella about with him!). My partner knew a lady in the late 1980s who claimed to be Digby' grand-daughter (he died in the 90s) and who said her grandfather had told her the exchange on the bridge was accurate and that's what he had said. I guess one would have to ask the screenwriter if he made it up or not :).
@@SamanthaSinger I was wondering if that was a film line or impromptu; in any event, as my WW1 grandfather would say: "it's a good story, and the world needs good stories".
@@HeronPoint2021 His grand-daughter said he had told her it was exactly as shown and it's well known that he carried an umbrella because he had abad memory for passwords but he knew no German would carry an umbrella :).
Actually from what I’ve read frost hated it because the joke was never said and in fact the conversation was with a British sergeant on parole, which seems to me suggests it didn’t happen.
@@Greebo-ne1sc Like so much of history we can never know for sure. My partner knew a lady who said she was his Grandaughter and said that he told her it's how it happened ... but who knows? Also why would he hate it just because it didn't happen. It's good 'theatre' so why would he care? That doesn't ring true. Again, who knows?
It always bugged me though that the German messenger returned and just shook his head instead of conveying the witty response. Convey the witty response, you blighter! What's the point of giving a witty response if the messenger is just going to shake his bloody head?!?
Y’all were outnumbered, and outgunned, and instead of listening to them and considering surrender to the Germans given the circumstances, you told them instead that you couldn’t take *them* prisoner. Operation Market Garden was not British command’s finest hour.
I'd suggest you read up on the failures of British planning behind Market Garden. This was beyond a "things look bad" Plan failed to survive first contact and was completely inflexible once things started going wrong..
@@a-cell4564 Whoosh, and there it went again, right over your head. I'd suggest you read up on British humour, it's alright I understand a lot of people from our colonies lack in that dept it's nothing to be ashamed of old chap.
@@SamanthaSinger They do, just not the whole time. In 1914 and 1940 the first thing the BEF did after 48 hours of war is to run for more than hundred miles
@@iHaveOneOfEach Yes, AFTER they left their safe island to try and stop the Germans. SUre they weren't able to due to lack of spending between the wars but bravely doing your best and failing is not 'hiding'. I suspect you are just being deliberately provocative :).
not accepting a surrender is a horrific breach of war etiquette this is the least British thing ever just shows how bad we got towards the end of the war
The German soldier was sent to discuss terms for the BRITISH to Surrender. At that point the brits were outnumbered and surrounded. The British responded, as a JOKE, by refusing a German surrender. Lesson of the day: don't form an opinion before you know the context of what you're seeing.
Well the ones liberating the camps were often taking the "Ntzee" officers prisoner to face trial, rather than summarily executing them, so swings and roundabouts.
@@danv.872 Who were the nazis? Of course crimes are committed by both sides during war, but the Allies won and its thanks to them we were rid of the nazis, the spread of fascism, and their camps. Thank you to the Allies who sacrificed so you and me are free. Who is naive enough to pretend armies won't commit crimes on both sides during wars? But one side of that conflict was the nazis.
As the axis powers say ‘we committed systematic genocide and war crimes which literally killed millions across the world, but because the allies committed a few massacres of usually small numbers of soldiers we are the same’
@@RustyPetterson It's not true, pretty sure I've seen this guy on other videos where he rpetends 90% of the SAS is Scottish and 60% of the british army as a whole while pretending the English can't fight and have to rely solely on the Scots, it's a bit of a yawn fest.
Keep in mind the German soldier was Waffen SS, even at this stage in the war they were imbued with a sense of superiority, so the response must have been totally incomprehensible.
No, they have to accept a surrender but they don't have to take responsibility for the surrendered troops. If they DO take responisiblity then they have to treat them reasonably well but that doesn't apply. Of course if the Germans HAD surrendered then they wouldn't have been allowed to attack first afterwards. But they didn't, so it doesn't apply.
@@daikucoffee5316 I presume you have some evidence? Check this our for example casebook.icrc.org/a_to_z/glossary/surrender You'll see it only says those surrendering must be considered hors de combat (i.e. not a threat and not to be attacked). Nowhere does it say one force MUST negotiate terms or take surrendered persons into their care. But I'm sure you will point me to an international dicument that says otherwise? Or are you just guessing?
@Samantha I could not agree more - Sir Sean Connery, Sir Michael Caine, Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir Dirk Bogarde, Edward Fox, Gene Hackman, James Caan and those are just the ones that spring to mind but rewatching older films there are always some future stars hidden away in minor roles.
@Samantha Sir William Connolly, Bill Nighy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Henry Cavill, James Purefoy, Daniel Craig, Sean Bean, Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Matthew Goode, Ben Whishaw, Tilda Swinton are the ones who spring to my mind.
@Samantha Sometimes you can have both. I am told by my female friends Henry Cavill is very attractive and I thought he was very good in Fallout and I even watched The Witcher and even enjoyed the first two series. For me the ideal next James Bond but we live in strange times so tradition seems to be viewed in a different light than it has been previously.
They have to accept surrender (i.e. agree killing thosewho surrender) butthey don't have to take responsibility for them. And when you don't have "the proper facilities" ... well, what can you do?
It may have been a defeat but the potential of success was a swift end to the war, which couldn’t be ignored. The British and Polish paratroopers fought valiantly and the Dutch are still honouring them to this day.
Correct, given the Japanese captured all the clean water on the north side of the river the British (and indians, Australians etc) where in no position to fight while the same isn't true at Arnhem.
discussing surrender would have bought time and saved lives . Note British war crime , establishing military positions in civilian homes and making no provision to protect the civilians , two war crimes .
It's never a war crime to refuse a particular offer of surrender. There are many reasons why a commander might consider it not the best time to surrender. Deaths are inevitable (otherwise no country would ever go to war!!) and it's a balance between military benefit and troop suffering. Always minimising suffering even if it gives away some military advantage is not a requirement of the Geneva conventions. It was also not a condition of the conventions back then to protect civilians in all situations as a first priority above military success. So, no, not two war crimes.
You have entirely missed the point of this clip havn't you? As for positions in civilian homes thats what most sensible people call urban warfare, it's been around for quite a while and the civilians could have left at any point in the first day if they wanted to.
@@copferthat I don't need to, the Dutch including those on this route where very thankful to be out of the rule of Hitler and they showed it then as they still do today, you do understand how war works right? And in your opinion is being under NAZI occupation better then being liberated?
You rubes should actually watch the movie so you will fully understand the context. I won't be the spoiler this time. Great war flick...'A Bridge Too Far' Top notch cast: Anthony Hopkins, Sean Connery, Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, and a cast of hundreds!!!
