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Jaw Dropping World War II Stories that Deserve to be in the History Books

Khalid Elhassan August 25, 2021 37 min

Skeeter Vaughan's knife throwing feat earned him a place in history — Skeeter Vaughan. Film Web

George's Blind's smile in the face of death was a feat of courage few can manage — George’s Blind’s smile in the face of death was a feat of courage few can manage. Quora

19. The Stunning Feat of a World War II French Resistance Fighter

Georges Charles Louis Blind (1904 – 1944) was a French fireman, ambulance driver, and French Resistance member from Belfort. He became famous in 1984 when a photograph was published in an attempt to identify an anonymous man who had pulled off a feat of extraordinary courage in the face of mortal danger. It depicted a man with his back to a wall, identified as near a moat in the Belfort Citadel, and a wide smile across his face as he faced a German firing squad with its raised rifles aimed at him. A Belfortian stepped forward and identified the man in the picture as Georges Blind, his father, who had died in Nazi custody.

Georges Blind in fireman uniform before the war. Musee de la Resistance

Blind, a blacksmith, had become a fireman in 1929. He took his first steps towards joining the Resistance just a few months into the German occupation of France when he and others sheltered a statue of Edith Cavell, a WWI heroine who had been executed by the Germans. As a fireman, he had a pass that allowed him to drive fire brigade trucks and ambulances between the Belfort region and Alsace. He eventually became a resistance courier and used his ambulance to transport fugitives on the run from the Nazis, weapons, information, and clandestine publications. He was arrested by the Germans on October 14^th, 1944, and jailed.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.