![]() Serving in this capacity in North Africa, Sicily, and France, he was awarded several medals for bravery, chief among them the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, the British Distinguished Service Cross, and even the French Croix de guerre. Taking that knowledge back to America, he was made part of a unit called the “Beach Jumpers” whose job it was to make bogus beach landings designed to confuse the enemy as to the location of the real landings. Commissioned an officer at the outbreak of World War Two, the actor served on Lord Louis Mountbatten’s staff in England where he observed the British make cross-channel raids on German positions designed to confuse and deceive the enemy. Awarded three Purple Hearts and a Silver Cross for bravery, he was to spend months after the war recovering from the many wounds he received before being discharged and beginning his long acting career-a career, by the way, that is still going strong today.įew would have guessed the dashing actor and first husband to Joan Crawford would give up the sparkling lights of Hollywood to serve his country, but that’s exactly what he did. A combat infantryman during the war, he survived the bloody landings at Omaha Beach in June of 1944 and was even capture by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge in December, 1944 (though he managed to escape). This versatile actor with a long acting career and over 100 movies to his credit was one of the most decorated soldiers turned actors of World War Two. He later quipped about his military service by saying that he “Never fired a shot and maybe never wanted to. While performing that dangerous task, he was hit in the leg by mortar shrapnel and sent home-where he walked with a limp the rest of his life. Art Carneyīefore becoming Jackie Gleason’s lovable but bumbling side kick on the hit 1950s TV sitcom The Honeymooners, Carney fought at Normandy in July of 1944 as part of a machine gun squad. He also fought in the famous Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944 and was even rumored to have been known to answer German propaganda that was being broadcast at regular intervals from a loudspeaker by shouting “Toot Toot Tootsie goodbye!” I guess Mel Brooks was Mel Brooks even back then. A corporal in the combat engineers, his job was to destroy enemy obstacles and included occasionally defusing mines-a job that required a steady nerve, a calm demeanor, and no doubt a good sense of humor. ![]() Hard to believe the off-the-wall director and actor famous for such goofy films as Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, and Space Balls was a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), but it’s true. His wounds bothered him after the war, resulting in acute leg pain that made it increasingly difficult to mount a horse (Matt Dillon without a horse? Unthinkable!) It became so bad he had to undergo a series of operations to remove bullet fragments that had fused into the bone. After undergoing surgery several times, Arness was honorably discharged in 1945, having received the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart medals. As a rifleman for 3rd Infantry Division, Arness landed at Anzio, Italy in January, 1944, where he was wounded by enemy fire and evacuated. Think Matt Dillon wasn’t for real? The fictional old west sheriff was every bit as tough as the six-foot, seven-inch tall actor who played him. In November, 1943, Albert (then a young Navy Lieutenant by the name of Eddie Heimberger-his real name), rescued dozens of stranded and wounded Marines from the landing craft he commanded, much of the time while under heavy enemy machine-gun fire. People generally remember Eddie Albert as the inept farmer and perennial straight man on the goofy hit 1960’s TV show Green Acres, but few know that he also won the Bronze Star with Combat “V” for his actions during the invasion of Tarawa.
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