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| Charles Herbert Lightoller, DSC & Bar, RD, RNR (30 March 1874 – 8 December 1952) (Source) |
The program WWII in Color: Road to Victory (Netflix) particularly caught my eye because, well, it's history, it's World War II, and I like the idea of seeing those events in color. Life is in color, for far too many people historical events are seen as being in black and white. They weren't you know, color film did exist in World War II but it was pretty expensive. That's why most of the footage of the war was in black and white. It gives the events of that war a certain unreality. (There were many who were outraged by the colorization of the movie The Longest Day, I was not among them.)
My only quibble with this program is that whoever put the films together wasn't all that knowledgeable of the equipment used in that war. I mean seriously, when you're talking about the German Panzerwaffe, it's rather inept to show French tanks advancing to the attack. I suppose the historians (one of my favorites, James Holland, is involved) can't check everything!
At any rate, it's entertaining and informative. The first episode is about Dunkirk. Which is where I learned of Mr. Lightoller, pictured above. Seems that the episode depicted in the film Dunkirk, which featured one of the many small boats used to pick up troops from Dunkirk, was based on Mr. Lightoller's actions during the evacuation from France.
What I didn't know was that in addition to captaining this small boat -
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| Motor Yacht Sundowner (Source) |
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| HMS Garry in 1905 (Source) |
As commander of the River-class destroyer HMS Garry, he and his crew sank the German U-Boat UB-110 in June of 1918. That event was surrounded by some controversy, which you can read about here. Needless to say, the U-Boats were deeply hated by the Royal Navy.
While Commander Lightoller certainly led an eventful life, he had served prior to World War I aboard this ship, as her Second Officer -
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| RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912. (Source) |
This short YouTube film tells Commander Lightoller's tale from Titanic to Dunkirk.
I would recommend the Wikipedia article on Commander Lightoller and this entry from the Encyclopedia Titantica.
All three of his sons served in World War II, the youngest (as noted in the YouTube clip) died on nearly the first day of the war. The son who accompanied him to Dunkirk later served in the Royal Navy and was also killed in action in 1945. Unbeknownst to Lightoller, his middle son was serving with Montgomery's 3rd Division and had been evacuated from Dunkirk some 48 hours before his father and brother arrived to evacuate others. That son survived the war.
Lightoller's grandson also served in the Royal Navy during the Cold War, rising to command the submarine HMS Rorqual in the 1970s.
A man worth knowing.
I enjoyed the movie "Dunkirk" and it's almost companion film "Darkest Hour", I watched them both again on-line last week.
ReplyDeleteBoth are excellent!
DeleteHey Old AFSarge;
ReplyDeleteYou ain't kidding, his while family pitched in and were there for pivotal events in history, and they continued to serve. Kinda like your family. We have started to form a warrior class here in the United States where military service tends to be a father, son daughter, nephew,niece cousin kinda thing and it is passed down that way. It is the same in my family, my son is the first to not join, but that may change in the future who knows. Enjoy the snow up there in Little Rhody...and keep shoveling, LOL
Don't know how long that will last.
DeleteThanks for the recommendation Sarge - I have seen the series on Netflix, but am a bit hesitant as it seems that many new retrospectives of history are less "this is what happened" and "this is our modern interpretation of how things happened and how you should think about it".
ReplyDeleteWhen I was reading on WW II growing up, one of my most vivid memories are color pictures from the German invasion of The Soviet Union.
I have a book of photographs by an unknown German photographer taken during the drive on Stalingrad. All color photos. Really brings it home, to me, black and white sanitizes war.
DeleteVery interesting. Will peruse his history this afternoon, and see what links and rabbit holes appear and follow them, too.
ReplyDeleteHistory isn't black and white. Neither the wars nor the things that caused the wars.
As to colorization of movies? Part of me says no, part of me says meh. It is what it is. Some of the early colorizations were and are quite atrocious. Recent ones that are done digitally are very scary well done.
With the technology these days, it is scary well done.
DeleteInteresting Wikipedia report on the man. War is Hell. Rest in Peace, Warrior!
ReplyDeleteHe was indeed a warrior.
DeleteWOW! Quite the adventurer. Looks like he was on 4 or 5 ships which were sunk, and several others with major calamities.
ReplyDeleteYou did not mention a few other facts of interest:
"Lightoller went to the Yukon in 1898 to prospect for gold in the Klondike Gold Rush. Failing at this, he then became a cowboy in Alberta, Canada.[13] In order to return home, he became a hobo, riding the rails back across Canada." and [Post WW1 when White Star declined to rehire him, he resorted to "... taking such odd jobs as an innkeeper, a chicken farmer, and later property speculator, at which he and his wife had some success."
And "After the Second World War, Lightoller managed a small boatyard in Twickenham, West London, called Richmond Slipways, which built motor launches for the river police."
Everyone needs to read the Wikipedia entry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lightoller
Thanks for telling us about him!
John Blackshoe
The man had quite a life.
DeleteBack when he was still alive, I remember hearing someone once joke that the reason Chuck Yeager is still alive is because God loves Chuck Yeager! I think the same goes for this man, who has quite a family history. Destined for great things, and God wanted them around.
ReplyDeleteCould well be!
Delete