#Militarylopnik article, on the author of a book I've read

"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
01/09/2014 at 15:39 • Filed to: None

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Along the way Crisp had three tanks blown up underneath him, hijacked a New Zealand officers' Mess lorry, and shot down a low-flying German Heinkel bomber with a burst from his machine gun while it was in the middle of a strafing run. The beating he took seemed to fuel his thirst for action. He found it at the battle to lift the German siege of Tobruk, where he fought continuously for 14 days, on an average of 90 minutes sleep a night. He won !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , where he led his tank in a single-handed charge across an airfield that temporarily checked an advance of 70 German Panzers.

DISCUSSION (9)

lucky's pepper > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
01/09/2014 at 16:05

Love Bad Ass of the Week, though articles like this one on Bob Crisp make me realize how big a p**** I am.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
01/09/2014 at 16:07

That is an amazing story and the guy writing the profile is an entertaining writer. Probably helps that the subject matter pretty much writes itself.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > lucky's pepper
01/09/2014 at 16:12

Dude: looks like his book is back in print . Last time I checked it wasn't. You'd enjoy it, I strongly suspect - he just writes matter-of-factly about doing insane things like seizing the colors tank and taking the hit that put shrapnel in his head, but at the same time he writes more sobering things: for example, he excerpts poetry written by a very nihilistic soldier who'd been taken as a POW, and recounts a mistaken identity attack on a UK tank. He also relates things like getting crabs from a pair of silk pajamas he found abandoned. No, really.

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Highly recommended book.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much
01/09/2014 at 16:13

Crisp isn't a bad writer himself, his book is back in print as well, and very worth it.

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You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
01/09/2014 at 16:14

I had to check out the Simo Hayha article. The writers here are great.

Throughout this campaign, Häyhä basically just ran around doling out head-shots like the ice cream man gives out Dove bars on a hot sunny day in the Sahara desert.

lucky's pepper > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
01/09/2014 at 16:28

A self-penned book by a war hero who was also a drunken womanizer? To me that is a must read. Amazon has Brazen Chariots for $11.42. Next book order will include a copy.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > lucky's pepper
01/09/2014 at 16:30

He was (mis)advised to cure the crabs with gasoline. He attempted to do so in the middle of the night with high-octane plane grade on hand for the tanks. Hijinks ensued.

The book ends with the nurse asking for his next of kin.

lucky's pepper > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
01/09/2014 at 16:41

I'm sold, if for no other reason by your use of the phrase "hijinx ensued" to describe what happens when a man tries to kill crabs with aviation fuel.

lucky's pepper > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much
01/09/2014 at 16:51

He is a great writer. My favorite is an excerpt from the article on Hans-Ulrich Rudel (an unrepentant Nazi but one of the toughest human beings to ever live):

"Rudel was a maestro of bomb-humping the fuck out of any piece of equipment larger than an outboard speedboat motor. Flying in the 1st Squadron of Dive Bomber Group 2, Rudel spent a solid five years of his life turning any and all vehicles with the Soviet Red Star on it into busted-to-shit, melted-down hunks of twisted steel and corpse-parts. It got to be to the point where you seriously couldn’t ride your bike through the Ukraine without this psychotic dive-bomber air-mailing a bomb into your eye socket."