This is quite the week in history. On April 19th a shot rang out, fired by no one knows whom. It echoes down history as long as America lasts, as the “shot heard round the world”. One of the men who heard it was Captain Samuel Whittemore, here is a bit about him:
His fellow minuteman started firing at the oncoming British Grenadiers of the 47th Regiment of Foot, falling back to reload, then firing again. Sam waited. Finally, when the column was directly in front of him, he stood and fired his musket. A grenadier fell dead. He drew his two pistols, firing both at almost point blank range. Another grenadier fell dead, a third fell mortally wounded. The British soldiers were on top of him, he had not the time to reload his musket or pistols, so drawing his sword, he started flailing away at the bayonet wielding soldiers. A soldier leveled his Brown Bess musket, at point blank range, and fired. The .69 caliber ball struck Sam in the cheek, tearing away part of his face and throwing him to the ground. Sam valiantly tried to rise, fending off bayonet thrusts with his sword, but he was overpowered. Struck in the head with a musket butt, he went down again, then was bayoneted thirteen times and left for dead.
…After the British column had fought its way clear, the town’s people and minuteman started to search for their wounded compatriots. Several had seen Sam Whittemore’s “last stand” and approached to remove his body. To everyone’s astonishment Sam was not only still alive, but conscious and still full of fight. Laying there, he was trying to load his musket!
By the way, on that April 19th in 1775, he was 80 years old.
One of the first of many American Badasses.
“My God, How Can Such Men Be Defeated?” said Marine General Holland M “Howlin’ Mad” Smith referencing the sacrifices his men made to take Tarawa in WWII. In point of fact, they cannot.
That’s what happened this week in what came to be known as “Great Satan” some 243 years ago.
Seventy-five years ago this week. some people whom Captain Whittemore would have recognized as kindred spirits started a revolt against the forces occupying their homes. That was the beginning of the revolt of the Warsaw Ghetto. In which a group of half-starved Jews rose up against their Nazi oppressors. Thay had very few weapons, a few grenades, and some Molotov cocktails. As was said at Ace’s
Alone, half-starved and after watching thousands of their relatives die from disease, starvation and then later, mass deportation to the Treblinka extermination camp, a few hundred or so managed to hold off the German police and even Waffen SS units for a few weeks armed only with a couple pistols and molotov cocktails. Rather than be slaughtered, they chose to fight and die for their honor. And five years later, the fighting spirit of those martyrs laid the foundation for the modern state of Israel […]
They lost and were liquidated. Or were they? Five years later also this week, the State of Israel became an independent country, and like America in 1776, was instantly embroiled in war. Also like America, they persisted, fighting against overwhelming odds and winning through. And because America saw, and sees, itself in Israel, Little Satan, no matter what The European anti-Semites, who are running loose once again, may say or attempt to do, they will persist and thrive.
As General Smith said, “My God, How Can Such Men Be Defeated?”. The answer, as it always is, is a stalwart people, who will defend themselves will not be. It becomes clear when one sees pictures such as this.
From the Prime Minister