What a brave bloke. A salute from me at the least.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituar ... nd-VC.html
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
and for his post war career as well. 
To the tune of "Mademoiselle from Armentières"
Napoleons army ran away, As you do
The guard stood firm for Frances Pride, As you do
They said the guard will stand and die
But we heard what their Colonel cried
It wasn't pretty I tell you.
Resistance is fertile
I read a similar obituary recently concerning another fellow. Its staggering to read what these chaps got up to, almost superhuman in some respects. I read a book recently about one Regiments exploits during the period of 1939/1940, it illustrated how desperate most of the actions were and the bravery shown by some units during the period preceding the Dunkirk episode.
Sad to report that Knut Haugland died on xmas day too, especially in view of our Freshman game coming up, as he was one of the actual Norwegian Agents trained by SOE that successfully blew up the Heavy Water plant:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituar ... gland.html
That is sad news DM, one of the heroes of Telemark, and one of life`s true adventurers...and an exceptionally modest man. 
It is really sad news. I was really looking forward to meeting him in March on a Ray Mears expedition to retrace the "Heroes of Telemark" mission.
We're losing the generation that fought WW2 quite quickly now, it won't be long before they're all gone.
When I want your opinion - I'll tell you what it is!
Recently read the official VC book which goes through a lot of the VC winners from The Crimea to the present, and boy, what some of these Heroes did to get their medals defies belief if it wasn't due to the fact that fellow soldiers (and sometimes the enemy) saw them do it.
I remember reading about Jeremy Clarksons Father in Law (and watching that program he did about the VC) who won his at Arnhem taking out Tiger tanks with a PIAT! By himself. Temporarly blinded from a HE shell from one of the said Tigers. With no trousers on (they had been blown off in the blast). He ran out of ammo and ran back to his HQ and kept going back to take out more Tigers, even though the orderlies said he shouldn't even be walking.
I also found out that the Germans had noted in regimental diaries there was this maniac running about blackend head to foot, bleeding from his eyes and ears, half naked, immobilising all their tanks trying to attack this one position!
"There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell."
General William Tecumseh Sherman