I just want to share the story of my real life superhero. Leo Major, a soldier from the French Canadian Army during WWII. When i red about his story i was in disbelief that it is possible for a man to this. He is a real life superhero that is what he is. He had cheated death a million times and ate fear for breakfast. He was really humble. He did not tell his accomplishments even to his family and friends for the reason that they will not simply believe him. Until somebody from his unit told them.
If i would have the chance i would have tried to meet him to just shake his hands and tell him that he is one of the best soldiers that ever walked this planet. He has died back in 2008 at age 87. Lucky for those who have shared him his life.
So i copied a story about him from
www.badassoftheweek.com that i have red. People who have a passion about the second world war would love to read this story. And fact about this man would be with us forever.
I hope someday a movie about him would be made. For the rest of the world to know what men sacrificed for us to walk earth in peace.
(
www.badassoftheweek.com)
I know that technically we have to be enemies for the time being (at least
until the final horn sounds on the third period of the Olympic Hockey tournament
and we've finally decided who gets US-Canada bragging rights for the next four
years), but all this talk about Canada and the Winter Games and all that crap
has got me thinking about one thing – dead Nazis, and lots of 'em. In a large
way this weird subliminal association between Canadians and machine gunned SS
soldiers has to do with the actions of one man – a lowly Private in the Canadian
military who went out and did some of the most insane shit you'll ever read
about. During his adventures ripping the hedgerows of Normandy into sawdust,
Leo Major became not just the only Canuck to receive the Distinguished Conduct
Medal (the second-highest award for bravery offered by the Royal government)
twice, but the only person from any Commonwealth country to win it for actions
in two separate wars.
Of course, being a total head-smashing badass isn't just about kicking in
teeth, confiscating enemy ballsacks, and then standing there while some
high-ranking self-important douchebag pins a small chunk of tin on your chest.
Much like many of the bizarre contests that we are watching on television during
this Olympic cylce with equal parts respect and WTF confusion, there are style
points involved, and holy shitballs did Private Leo Major of the Chaudiere
Regiment of the Canadian Army bring his A-game to Europe back when Hitler needed
a good bit of iron-fisted cock-punching justice.
Major kicked things off by landing on Normandy along with the rest of the
Canadian military, and I'd wager that anybody who's ever played any of the ten
billion World War II-themed video games on the market today can tell you that
running across a beach while Nazis shoot machine guns at your face is no
picnic. Well not only did Majors miraculously manage to somehow not die
nose-down in the surf, but on his first day in the lovely French countryside he
went out and single-handedly captured one of these bad boys:
Leo Major, a scout and sniper by trade, charged out in broad daylight, popped
an entire squad of Nazis, stole their ride, and then impressed all his superiors
when they discovered that the jacked truck was loaded up with communications
gear that would prove invaluable in terms of intercepting and deciphering German
messages during the Normandy Campaign. For those of you out there who aren't
experts in military tactics and strategy, being able to know what your enemy is
going to do before he does it is kind of a good thing if you enjoy not losing
wars, and that's a benefit that the Allies had in no small part to Leo Major's
raging iron ballsack.
Helping out the intel cause one bullet at a time was great and all, so about
a week later Major went out and pissed off a squad of battle-hardened badass SS
soldiers. Sure, the SS were the most elite force the Nazis could field, but
Major still smoked all eight of them. Unfortunately right as the last guy was
getting ready to eat it he chucked a phosphorous grenade that blew up in Leo's
face, covering him with a very unpleasant coating of burning-hot liquid. Major
lost all vision in his right eye, but when the Allied docs told him to pack up
and head home, this German-smiting asskicker demanded to stay on the front. He
argued, in true badass fashion, that as long as he had one eye to look into the
scope of his rifle he was still capable of serving his country. From that point
on, Leo Major went into battle with an eyepatch on his right eye, which is a
detail that is so awesome I think I may have just crapped. Oh, and just in case
Nazi-killing pirate snipers still aren't tough enough for you somehow, Major
also refused evacuation a few years later when his APC drove over a landmine and
he broke his back in a couple places. Even something as ridiculous as a
fractured spine didn't stop this maniac from finishing out the war, going out to
fight in another one, and winning bravery medals in both.
Major's first larger-than-life action came during the Battle of the Scheldt
in the Netherlands in late 1944. Major and his best friend (a lumberjack named
Willy, because when you're a hardcore Canadian you're more or less obligated to
be best friends with a lumberjack commando) went out to scout a town and figure
out what the hell happened to a company of Canadian infantry that had failed to
return from a reconnaissance mission. Major went into the town, discovered that
the company had been captured, and then single-handedly captured the entire
enemy garrison by running up and down guard posts jamming his rifle in peoples'
faces and screaming at them. He returned to the Allied camp with 93 German
prisoners in tow. Because this was so insane, the British high command offered
him a Distinguished Conduct Medal, but Leo told them to get bent and shove the
medal up their asses. In Major's opinion, Allied High Command General Bernard
Montgomery was such an incompetent dickbrain that he wasn't qualified to be
giving medals out to anyone, and any award issued by him was about as worthless
as he was. Try to keep in mind, now, that this is a Private talking about the
most senior officer in his army. Say what you'd like about maintaining respect
for the chain of command, but this takes some giant balls.
Luckily for Democracy, the Canadian high command didn't see fit to reprimand
this guy for his not so subtle diss of Monty, and their decision ended up paying
off in one of the most balls-out one-man battles ever fought – the single-handed
capture of the Dutch town of Zwolle by Private Leo Major and his implacable
rage.
One quiet night in 1945 Major and his buddy were sent out to do some recon in
the Nazi-occupied town of Zwolle, report back on enemy numbers, and maybe
establish contact with the Dutch resistance. Sadly, not long into the mission,
Willy the Lumberjack was cheap-shotted and killed by a German machine gun. This
set off one of the most epic blood rages ever recorded. Leo Major completely
flipped his shit, strapped three machine guns onto his back, grabbed a huge sack
of hand grenades, and charged into the quiet town with his guns and weapons
blazing. Leo ran around like a berserker madman, creating such a clusterfuck of
explosions, fires, and dead bodies that the German garrison was convinced that
they were fighting a vastly superior force. During his mad rampage of Nazi
destruction, this one-eyed juggernaut kicked in the door of an SS officer's
club, kiled four high-ranking enemy commanders in a firefight, and then went and
ran out and burned down the local headquarters of the Gestapo. By the time the
sun rose on Zwolle the next morning, the entire German garrison had evacuated
and the town was returned to Dutch control. To this day Leo Major is still
remembered as the sole savior of Zwolle, an honor that kind of blows my mind a
little.
Major would deservedly receive his first DCM for the insanity at Zwolle, but
the second one would come a decade later and halfway around the world, during
the fighting in the Korean conflict. Major, who by this time had graciously
been promoted to Corporal, was sent to infiltrate a key hill that had just been
captured from the Americans by a huge force of nearly forty thousand Chinese
soldiers. Major snuck in with 19 other French Canadian hardasses, set up
fortifications, and – for whatever reason – decided to open fire on the Chinese.
In a massive battle that lasted for three days and nights, Leo Major and his
20-man platoon somehow captured the hill and held off desperate counterattacks
by two full divisions of the Chinese army. Major was right in the middle of the
whole thing, pumping up his men and calling mortar fire down mere feet from his
position to ensure maximum detonation of his enemies. That's some stone-cold
shit right there, but at this point we know it to be par for the course for this
guy.
Leo Major died in 2008, but nowadays he is fondly remembered as a hero to
Canadians, Dutch, and pretty much anybody who's a fan of guys in eyepatches that
kick their enemies in the groin as hard as possible whenever the opportunity
presents itself. His old unit now offers a yearly award in his name to the
toughest company in the regiment, and the people of Zwolle continue to teach him
in their public school curriculum. There's also a constellation named after
him, but there's a slight chance that may have been around first. (
www.badassoftheweek.com)
