History Repeats
4205raymond
Member Posts: 3,316 ✭✭✭✭
When i was discharged from the Army in 1964 I went to work in a machine shop. I worked there for about two years and life and circumstances forced me to move on. Still I came back at night and worked four hours part time to make ends meet. Always wanted to be a toolmaker but it was not to be. Guess that's why my best friend and hunting partner was a Berlin trained toolmaker. We had one guy from France who was on the CNC machine and one from Italy that was strictly the huge lathe. We had three formen and Frank from Hungary was the shop manager. Frank was a quiet fella and did all the complicated stuff. Rarely left his monster Bridgeport and ruled the shop with a iron fist so to speak for the owners. I only had one run in with Frank and after I tucked my tail between my legs and went back to work the fellas from Italy and France came over and said to me "Don't ever get on the wrong side of Frank or you will be sorry. Frank stuffed Molotov Cocktails in Russian tanks."
Tonight i watched the boob tube a little and they interview two young fellas, 18 and 19 years old. Journalist asked them what they were going to do. They said they loved their city Kyiv and tonight they would be making Molotov Cocktails. They were asked "What will you do when the tanks come" and they replied "We will be on the street". And so I thought of Frank from Hungary and I hope he is alive and well or in Heaven. History does repeat itself.------------------------------Ray
Comments
I believe that any soldiers riding around in a tank are going to have the hatch latched unless one of them has their head and upper body sticking out of it in which case he's going to see anyone trying to sneak up on the tank to thrown a Molotov Cocktail or a grenade into it.
It's Hollywood movies where things like that happened. The only tank I've ever heard of that was actually blown up by throwing something into it was a member of the French underground during WWII that lucked up and lobed a grenade off of a building as a German Tank rolled by as the hatch was being opened up and that was pure luck.
I think old Frank was blowing smoke instead of blowing up tanks.
Smitty, Frank was never one to blow smoke. He probably got them when they opened the hatch or fried them when they hit the street, I used the word stuffed because that was what was conveyed to me. Probably a figure of speech? I suppose when a tank is disabled you can't sit in that thing forever and many times they are used for cover. Probably would have been more accurate if the two guys had called Frank a Hungarian Freedom Fighter----------------------Ray