The Ones That Got Away...

[Anubis the Jackal 77]

Ironic, considering it was nearly all shot in the UK, with a few Brits as the lead characters and all British extras. My old workmate died 5 times over the course of the series!

 

portraying the Brits as blithering idiots or in minor support roles and sometimes both

[Raskolnikov 0]

Someone who got away in almost every sense is Jamal Al-Gashey, who is widely believed to be the last surviving member of the Black September hostage takers involved in the 1972 Munich massacre. Over 35 years on, he still lives in hiding, fearing retribution from Israel, and has only really emerged from hiding once, to be interviewed for the documentary 'One Day in September'. Admittedly, he's a real outside bet, but if Mossad do ever get an inkling of where he's holed up I don't imagine they'd think twice about dispatching him to join his comrades.

[themaninblack 2,112]

Someone who got away in almost every sense is Jamal Al-Gashey, who is widely believed to be the last surviving member of the Black September hostage takers involved in the 1972 Munich massacre. Over 35 years on, he still lives in hiding, fearing retribution from Israel, and has only really emerged from hiding once, to be interviewed for the documentary 'One Day in September'. Admittedly, he's a real outside bet, but if Mossad do ever get an inkling of where he's holed up I don't imagine they'd think twice about dispatching him to join his comrades.

 

Maybe Agent Blair will lend a hand...

[Raskolnikov 0]

Tsutomo Yamaguchi has been verified by Japan as the only known survivor of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, and I'm still trying to work out whether this makes him one of the luckiest or unluckiest people ever. In light of the fact that he's still alive at 93, I'm inclined to lean towards the former.

[Canadian Paul 97]

Tsutomo Yamaguchi has been verified by Japan as the only known survivor of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, and I'm still trying to work out whether this makes him one of the luckiest or unluckiest people ever. In light of the fact that he's still alive at 93, I'm inclined to lean towards the former.

 

According to Wikipedia, "As of March 31, 2008, exactly 243,692 living hibakusha (atomic bombing victims)"... I can't imagine the level of bureaucracy it must have taken to provide that precise of a figure.

 

Anyhow, taking a random yearly-mortality rate into account, that man's 1 in 200,000.

[Geronimo 3]

Great escape in the news this week, 65 years on. Frank Stone, one left behind, featured here may get an obit for his role as a witness to what happened.

[Ulitzer95 12,577]

The last surviving member of the Pegasus Bridge Operation, Colonel David Wood died on March 12 at the age of 86. ITV aired an obituary on the lunchtime news today.

[Geronimo 3]

The last surviving member of the Pegasus Bridge Operation, Colonel David Wood died on March 12 at the age of 86. ITV aired an obituary on the lunchtime news today.

Last surviving officer. I would assume that there were others involved still alive.

[Handrejka 1,903]

I was thinking recently about sole survivors of plane crashes and came across this guy. He's 83 this year and his work as a journalist may ensure he gets an obit.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A9stor_Mata

[TAFKAG 70]

Great Escape tunnel digger Alex Lees going underground again.

[Body Snatcher 44 107]

G'Day all.

 

I Hope that the other Australians on the forum will agree with me when I say (write) that remaining Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels of WWII should be recognized on this thread. Most of the Britishers probably don't know what I'm on about so here is a link here to help explain it.

They contributed to the Australian war effort in the South Pacific in a crucial way helping to halt the Japanese overland invasion Of P.N.G. A fact which has only recently been acknowledged by the government as of April this year. Old news I know but I'm rarely up to date at the best of times!.

 

The oldest surviving Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel is Oviri Ondeki (102)

[TAFKAG 70]

Have just been watching the Band of Brothers series again, that, apart from portraying the Brits as blithering idiots or in minor support roles and sometimes both, is one of the best pieces of war drama ever made. I was looking up Easy Company on Wiki and there are quite a few still left alive. I think Richard Winters would get a UK obit.

 

The living ones I could find at first glance, ordered by birth. I'm not going to go in depth, this is just what I saw from the Wiki article for Band of Brothers. Anyone who has more can expand.

 

Frank Perconte (b. March 10 1917)

Richard Winters (b. January 21 1918)

Joseph A. Lesniewski (b. August 29 1920)

Lynn "Buck" Compton (b. December 31, 1921)

Donald Malarkey (b. 1921)

William Guarnere (b. April 28 1922)

Edward Heffron (b. May 16, 1923)

Darrell "Shifty" Powers (b. 1923)

 

I do as it happens & it's quite comprehensive, but the likes of Hubert Suerth Jr & co. aren't realistically going to get UK obits. James Alley died last year, John Martin in 2005 & neither got any real press mention.

 

Winters definitely will - Compton probably will for his post-Easy Company career, as well as his war-time links.

Guarnere... possible as he's high profile of the veterans. The rest... I doubt it.

 

Some of them are doing extremely well considering they are now all over 85.

Shifty Powers has died.

[Octopus of Odstock 2,186]

Shifty Powers has died.

 

When our least favourite poster goes on about "most sig-nif-icant death" next time, I'm going to through Shifty Powers' name in the ring. I'm very saddened by his passing.

 

Times have changed, but in the 1940's, marksmen were admired & what is undeniable is the fact that because Shifty was such a good shootist, he not only saved the lives of pretty much all of his colleagues, but helped his company win the battles which helped the Allies win the war. He wasn't alone in doing that, but we owe the likes of Shifty a huge debt.

 

Powers was also such a thoughtful & interesting speaker - he utters some of the more philosophical remembrances on the Band of Brothers DVD's.

 

A brave, talented & interesting man. RIP Shifty.

 

He certainly contributed more in his life than some crap actor who did a few Kung Fu movies....

[TAFKAG 70]

Bataan Death March survivor, war hero, radio station founder, writer and politician Bert Bank has died.

 

He won't get a UK obit, BCAlum (or me or anyone else here) won't have heard of him and tabloids never paid millions for his life story, but he sounds a damn sight more interesting than the nonentities that pass for celebrities these days, so I'm giving him a passing mention.

[DevonDeathTrip 2,358]

How about French executioner Marcel Chevalier, 88, possibly the last survivor of an extinct profession? As far as I can work out, he is the only remaining living person to have carried out an execution by guillotine.

[maryportfuncity 10,642]

There are two surviving residents of St Kilda, including the son of Mary Gillies, the woman whose death from appendicitis in January 1930 finally prompted the remaining islanders to petition for evacuation. It's widely - and wrongly - believed now that the islanders were driven off, in fact they got together and decided to leave.

[Godot 149]

There are two surviving residents of St Kilda, including the son of Mary Gillies, the woman whose death from appendicitis in January 1930 finally prompted the remaining islanders to petition for evacuation. It's widely - and wrongly - believed now that the islanders were driven off, in fact they got together and decided to leave.

Funny you should mention this. I was chatting to someone only last week about the upcoming 80th anniversary. Many years ago I asked about interviewing some survivors but was told they didn't like to talk about their time there.

[Tuber Mirum 125]

Keeping on topic, The Sun have just done an interview with Rochus Misch, the last survivor of Hitler's bunker.

 

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman...icle2158743.ece

Misch is looking absolutely fit as a fiddle on the BBC today. Sprightly and lucid as a 92 year old deadpool candidate oughtn't to be.

There's another 10 years in him at least, barring assassination or accident.

[maryportfuncity 10,642]

There are two surviving residents of St Kilda, including the son of Mary Gillies, the woman whose death from appendicitis in January 1930 finally prompted the remaining islanders to petition for evacuation. It's widely - and wrongly - believed now that the islanders were driven off, in fact they got together and decided to leave.

Funny you should mention this. I was chatting to someone only last week about the upcoming 80th anniversary. Many years ago I asked about interviewing some survivors but was told they didn't like to talk about their time there.

 

Not sure about the reluctance with regard to interview, 85 year old Mr Gillies was quoted in the Guardian piece and clearly had the journo round to his home. No mention name wise of the other survivor though.

[VSBfromH 74]

Colonel Otakar Cerny

 

The Czech-born war veteran "who escaped from Nazi prisoner of war camps three times, helped stage The Great Escape and survived being imprisoned in Colditz, has died ... a month before his 90th birthday. ... Col Cerny was born and raised in Czechoslovakia, where he has long been hailed a war hero, but joined the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He flew numerous death-defying missions over enemy territory and earned two Military Cross medals. ... Shot down over Holland in 1941, he was captured by the Germans: trapped in a series of prison camps, he made numerous bids for freedom – and even helped stage the legendary Great Escape by digging tunnels with a spoon."

[DevonDeathTrip 2,358]

I never knew that there were any Chinese veterans of the D Day campaign, but apparently they sent along 24 naval officers to help the British. The last survivor, Huang Tingxin, has just died at the age of 91.

[Guest Guest]

Albert Scanlon, former Busby babe and survivor of the Munich Air crash has died

[DevonDeathTrip 2,358]

Retired escapologist's assistant Dorothy Young celebrates her 103rd birthday today. She is the last survivor of Harry Houdini's touring show, which came to an abrupt end when Houdini died of peritonitis in 1926. Here's some grainy

taken of Mrs Young at the "2008 Official Harry Houdini Seance".

[TAFKAG 70]

[Edit The Daily Mail say that William Thomas was the last surviving participant of the Great Escape, so it looks as if they've all been rounded up now]

 

The Daily Mail is mistaken. There is one remaining survivor, Paul Royle, aged 94.

How about Jack Harrison? I suppose he didn't actually escape, but he did get the t-shirt.

[TAFKAG 70]

I think there might have been some discussion on the Lusitania a while back but I can't find the last survivor, Audrey Lawson-Johnston in a DL search.

Audrey's finally sunk.