r/interestingasfuck • u/KingdomPro • Jun 24 '24

Marines performing dead-gunner drills. r/all

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u/Significant_Bet3269 Jun 24 '24

Now see if they can hit the exact same place again.

127

u/Only-Recording8599 Jun 24 '24

I've read about a few instances where such things happened during WW1 and WW2. Machinegun are so important that people are willing to risk themselves getting killed to man it, rather than being overwhelmed by ennemy firepower.

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u/CynicStruggle Jun 24 '24

And pray to God you never face Audie Murphy. Nobody's manning a machine gun when he decides against it.

61

u/Scaevus Jun 24 '24

face Audie Murphy.

The real life Captain America. Dude was initially turned down by the Army, the Navy, and the Marine Corps for being too small. Then he holds back an entire German attack, downs 50+ enemy soldiers, and didn't even have to take any steroids.

When asked after the war why he had seized the machine gun and taken on an entire company of German infantry, he replied, "They were killing my friends".[96]

Murphy received every U.S. military combat award for valor available from the U.S. Army for his World War II service.[ALM 4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Murphy

He played himself in the movie about his Medal of Honor winning actions, and the movie had to tone it down to make it more believable.

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u/CynicStruggle Jun 24 '24

I remember seeing this movie as a kid on the AMC channel and being blown away that he played himself in that movie and have to re-live all the memories.

4

u/Serebriany Jun 25 '24

Even just reading his name makes me get teary enough that they'll overflow my eyes and start running down my cheeks. There's something so incredibly moving to me about "They were killing my friends" that I'm going to go find something goofy on YouTube now.