"The Ritchie-Hook Award " Topic

Me and a couple of mates at work with an interest in military history have a semi-regular email exchange which I call the 'Ritchie-Hook' Award, after the mad-as-a-badger hero in the Evelyn Waugh 'Sword of Honour' trilogy.

Here is this month's entry, from Operation Goodwood:

"On 18 June 1944, while taking part in Operation Goodwood, [John Gorman] was commanding a group of M4 Sherman tanks east of Cagny that suddenly encountered a mixed group of four German tanks at a range of only 300 yards (270 m). The group included one of the formidable Tiger II heavy tanks. As he knew his Sherman's gun would have little effect on the Tiger's thick armour, Gorman ordered his driver to ram the German tank. Gorman's gunner had time to fire one round before impact, but the shell was an explosive one, not armour piercing, and had little effect.
Both tanks were disabled by the collision and both crews immediately abandoned their vehicles. The last to leave the Sherman was the assistant driver, whose exit was slowed by his hatch being blocked. Once clear of the tank, he followed a group of men who were running for a nearby ditch, only to discover after joining them that they were the German tank crew. They glared at him, so he simply saluted and ran off to join his own crew."

link

Now, according to my mate the British and German tank commanders appeared out of their turrets at the same time and, on seeing each other, drew their side arms and fired at each other and missed. After a couple of shots the German commander THREW his pistol at the British commander!

Now; what wargames rules allow for that, not to mention the necessity of saluting the people you're running away from?!

Nick

I'm pretty sure is was covered in "Tractics".

No … just joking.

B

Wasn't Carton de Wiart the inspiration for Ritchie Hook?

Hehe – maybe so, but we've expanded to include all the mad-as-a-badger eccentric chaps who seemed to inhabit the British and Empire forces in 1939-1945. I would love to hear of German candidates – no point regarding our American cousins: they had their own special, but different, brand of common sense with particularly colourful language… General Anthony McAuliffe comes to mind!

But I would still love to read of any particularly bonkers episodes – British, American, Soviet, German or any other nationality.

Here's an earlier nominee: Major Anders Lassen (Danish) link

Famously he hated writing after action reports. His most celebrated one whilst in the commandos was just five words: "Landed. Killed Germans. ed off."

Just read the raiders book on Anders Lassen…..he was joined by a US reporter who took to joining in the action rather than reporting much……the whole bunch were off the wall to put it mildly.

Apparently Carton de Wiart was not the inspiration for Ritche-Hook, OTH my wife's 20mm Commonwealth army for Burma/Malaya includes does include a battaion of the Royal Corp of Halberdiers as well as Pankot Rifles, Muzzafirabad Guides, the Dibrapur Hussars and the Mirat Artillery….arguably the most literary Brigade group possible.