« Rock and roll and politics? | Main | Automotive heaven or hell: your warranty knows »
June 01, 2006
The role of honor and heroes in the West
There's an interesting interview with James Bowman, the author of Honor: A History, over at National Review. Well worth a read in its entirety, Bowman leaves me wondering if the West has the ability to save itself, given its near-terminal self-loathing nature.
Bowman points to the dearth of heroic tales for kids to read, internalize and emulate, as a symptom -- and a cause -- of our current woes. He notes that the one-time popularity of true-life stories of real men performing awe-inspiring feats of bravery were eclipsed by the rise of fantasy and comic-book superheroes.
I don't want to trivialize Bowman's work -- there's much more to it than what sounds like a facile bit of pop-culture bashing. In the course of the interview, Bowman mentions Major H. F. Fane-Hervey as an example of the kind of hero once celebrated, but now only found on the obituary pages of British papers.
A few key-strokes later and I'd found his story -- and it's as amazing as Bowman says.
In September 1940, a large Italian Army entered Egypt from Libya and advanced on Sidi Barrani where it constructed a forward base. On December 9, the British went on the offensive under the command of General Richard O'Connor.
Major Fane-Hervey, or "Fanny" Hervey, as he was known, led "B" squadron in a dawn attack by two squadrons on the camp at Nibeiwa, south of Sidi Barrani. It was defended by mined approaches, Italian M11 medium tanks, heavy AA guns and more than 120 machine-gun emplacements.
Fane-Hervey's troop broke through and engaged anti-tank and field-guns at point blank range, destroying several of them. By 10 a m, the camp had been captured, together with large quantities of guns, ammunition, lorries, and between 2,000 and 3,000 prisoners. Despite receiving a number of direct hits (one on his third tank), he rallied his troop and, later that morning, led his two remaining tanks into an attack on Tummar where he knocked out more enemy guns.
The next day, Fane-Hervey was once more in the leading troop in the attack on the base at Sidi Barrani. His tank took hits, and was finally immobilized with all radio communications gone. Fane-Hervey ordered his crew to bail out and set his tank on fire to avoid its capture.
Although it seemed that he was now a prisoner, he persuaded the Italians that they were surrounded and the Italian officer surrendered his force. For his part in the two-day action, Fane-Hervey was awarded the MC.
On January 3 1941 Fane-Hervey was again in the leading troop in the attack on the encampment at Bardia. After Phase One of the attack, Fane-Hervey withdrew his battered tank, which had received about 40 direct hits; his commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Jerram, said, "There's my tank, Hugh. You're in Phase Two - off you go."
The C O was more than 6 feet tall and Fane-Hervey just 5ft 6in, but there was no time to adjust the height of the seat and Fane-Hervey went back into battle standing on the ammunition boxes.
[...]
On June 20 1942, Fane-Hervey was in action at Tobruk, serving as a major in the 7th Royal Tank Regiment. He was in command of a squadron supporting the 2nd South African Division, when his tank was hit and caught fire.
His gunner was wounded and trapped in the burning tank but Fane-Hervey freed him and threw him clear. According to one witness, German soldiers who saw the incident applauded openly.
Fane-Hervey, wounded and suffering from burns, was taken prisoner. But he and a brother officer escaped from the hospital during the night and made their way through the enemy lines with three other escapers. After eight days' hiding, with little food or water and moving only by night, they tried to steal a truck.
After an exchange of fire in which three Germans were killed, Fane-Hervey and most of his group were re-captured. He was subsequently transferred to Italy, where he was imprisoned. In September 1943, Fane-Hervey, as the senior British officer, was in command of 100 men when the PoW camp at Fontanellato was abandoned after the Italian armistice.
After making arrangements for the accommodation of those who hoped to wait for the arrival of the Allies, he and a Royal Marine headed south. In November, he was recaptured in the area of Monte Cassino, some 10 miles from the Allied lines, and incarcerated in a civilian prison at Frosinone.
[...]
The Germans decided to send the PoWs to a camp in Germany, and Fane-Hervey and his comrades were loaded into a freight train. On the way, he badgered the guards into allowing them a hot bath and a Polish refugee was ordered to chop up wood to heat the boiler. Fane-Hervey appropriated the man's hatchet, concealed it in his clothing and used it to hack through the side of the truck. Twenty-four PoWs escaped.
Fane-Hervey made his way to Rome ..., adopted the alias of "Count Paolo Fattorini", and regularly took a box next to the German commander at the opera, on one occasion obtaining his signature on his programme.
His contacts with the English College at the Vatican and with Monsignor O'Flaherty's resistance organisation stood him in good stead and, having obtained an apartment in the abandoned British Embassy, he used his ingenuity to gain access to the sealed wine cellar and was able to celebrate the Christmas of 1943 in some style.
After Rome was liberated in June 1944, Fane-Hervey captured and handed over five Germans to the Allies. He was awarded a Bar to the MC he had won in 1941.
X-Men? Superman? Spiderman?
Major Fane-Hervey's repeated escapes and courage under fire are far more exciting than the fictional exploits of any cartoon character, and today's youth and permanent adolescents are ill served by their ignorance of men like "Fanny" Hervey.
Posted by Mike Lief at June 1, 2006 12:14 AM
| TrackBack
Comments
I couldn't disagree with your vision of the world more. Boys should know that real men can cry, show feelings, and experience emotion. Caring, love, kindness, and charity are values that matter more than the stoicism my father was pelted with as a child. There is nothing gallant about war. I barely made it through SavingPrivate Ryan but I watched it because it really does show how cruel and foolish war can be. Real men love their neighbors. They don't dream about killing them. OOAL you need to smoke a nice fat joint and chill out.
Posted by: Sbarro at June 1, 2006 11:42 PM
Sbarro --
Tell me, should the West smoke a "nice fat joint and chill out," or should we stop the slaughter in Darfur by using force to protect the innocents?
Should the Allies have had another snifter of brandy and allowed the Thousand Year Reich to continue its genocide?
Would you have spent the 1860s in a haze of reefer and laudanum, speechifying against the evils of war? Of course, absent that "cruel and foolish war," slavery would have continued.
But, hey, risking your life to free the slaves, that's a real buzz kill.
Freedom is worth fighting and dying for.
Or do you subscribe to the hedonistic credo, "Sod off; I've got mine, Jack."
You exemplify the generation of un-men we've created as a result of a process Kim Du Toit has dubbed "The Pussification of the Western Male".
Did you bother to read the linked interview with James Bowman? Do you understand the implications of a society unwilling to defend itself?
Sigh.
Less marijuana; more military history.
ASAP.
Posted by: Mike Lief at June 2, 2006 12:21 AM
The real problem is that much of the country gets its news from Jon Stewart.
Posted by: Vermont Neighbor at June 2, 2006 12:37 PM