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David Niven fought at Carentan in WW2
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- Опубліковано 18 сер 2024
- Note to viewers: The cross medal worn by Niven at the end of this video is the Victoria Cross (VC), not the Iron Cross. The image was selected just to show Niven wearing medals, not the Iron Cross specifically. I don't believe there are any images out there of him wearing the Iron Cross.
As a side point, the VC he is wearing in the image belonged to Corporal Arthur Cross, a WW1 hero. Cross lent the VC to Niven for usage in his film Carrington, VC (1954).
To anyone interested, I highly recommend David Niven's autobiographical books 'The Moon's A Balloon' and 'Bring On The Empty Horses.' He was a fantastic writer and they are full of fantastic stories from a Hollywood long gone.
What a lovely British Gentleman, brilliant sense of humour.
David Niven was also a great actor.
@@chrisholland7367most definitely.
And what had happened was
Love how he describes getting shelled as rudeness 😂 They where just built differently back then
These days he would be cursing and swearing 🤬
@@frankcharalambous7395as you should over war.
It is a rather rude way to carry on though . It’s not really playing with a straight bat .
Pure class! A real gentleman!
The greatest generation. Jerry pooping off how rude
Niven made this comment on his war service were these:
“I will, however, tell you just one thing about the war, my first story and my last. I was asked by some American friends to search out the grave of their son near Bastogne. I found it where they told me I would, but it was among 27,000 others, and I told myself that here, Niven, were 27,000 reasons why you should keep your mouth shut after the war.”
Wow, wow, wow. That’s really sad.
Discretion truly is the better part of valor.
@@williamgebhart2435Bravo
The image where he has a VC looks to be the film 'Carrington VC'. That used a real VC from ww1 soldier. I looked it up as I wondered whose medal row he was wearing. He'd have had his own service medals but I don't think he had any gallantry awards.
He was a relentless womaniser.
@@TeddyBear-ii4yc Compared to his flatmate, Errol Flynn?
Gotta love the language. "Rudeness"😂😂 I'll bet it was intense af...these guys knew how to laugh into the face of death,the Brits are the best at dry & dark humour
In my childhood, coins were commonly referred to as shrapnel. WWI derived wry expression.
As an adult I appreciate its darkness.
British officers have been known to underreport danger to superiors who thought they were doing fine while being overrun.
We have a tendency to downplay things.
Oh yes, bit of unpleasantness, with that Hitler chap and all.
@@jeffreyobrien8056 we do that in Australia, or did.
@@paulkerrigan9857 I think there was an episode in the Korean war where A British squadron was surrounded on a small hill and about to be wiped out. The commander called the Americans for an air strike because they were in a 'bit of a sticky situation'...The Americans didn't follow it up because it didn't sound that bad. The Squadron was then wiped out.
The Cross seen being held up to in his chest is in fact a British Victoria Cross that was awarded to Corporal Arthur Cross who won it in the first world war,
It was on loan and used by Niven in the film
Carrington VC.
Niven, one real legend.
I've personally see him at the supermarket in Switzerland I was 15 really gifted to have encountered that gentleman after a salute and a smile he goes back to his own life
Yes
I distinctly remember, over the years, hearing David Niven speak. It was always a treat as his very British accent, paused cadence and overall delivery were genuinely elegant.
A class of man we will never see again
Yes we will because It’s a cycle, 3 generations before the Greatest Generation was horribly uncouth which lines up with genz so alpha should aline with the Silent Generation (WW1) & they will have the next Greatest Generation, this cycle goes all the way back at least to ancient Rome when this began being recorded & I’d bet the farm day 1
Men like this still exist and always will. They stay overshadowed until needed.
@RickyMiller1911 what they are allowing in the UK is definitely sad.
@@ahannan9you mean the disproportionate expenditure on infrastructure across the UK?
One day we will but probably not for several generations at least
This is when most actors who played military personnel had actually served in the military.
Not John Wayne.
@@amh9494
Notice the modifier ''Most''.
Yep , Many of them on the Front lines
@@amh9494 Watch his older films a little more closely those skinny little legs and large body and his lurching swagger were not put on for effect on camera he suffered from quite severe physical difficulties which he tried to hide all his life. He couldn't have gotten a job cooking for recruits in the military even though he desperately wanted to help. So instead he did what he could and tried to make films showing the bravery and sacrifices of the men who did what he wished he could.
@@ianjardine7324 You’ve got it all wrong. David Niven served in a front line regiment and ended the war as a Lieutenant Colonel. He was awarded the Legion D’honneur for bravery.
With each video I learn of long past heroes who never spoke of their own heroism. God bless them all.
read his book the moons a ballon it a good one .i do not recormend paul newmens books .it just full of goodness and charm .paul mybe a good man but it a boring read .
@andydudley1775 Thank you, Andy for your suggestion. I see that book is not obscure even though it was written in 1971. I look forward to reading it.
@andydudley1775 Thank you, Andy for your suggestion. I see that book is not obscure even though it was written in 1971. I look forward to reading it.
It is the best autobiography I have read by far.
A fascinating life he led.
100% agree stuff in that book to strange for fiction.
David Niven was Commissioned into the Highland Light Infantry at that stage attached to the Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own) and after Commando training transferred to 30 Commando. He landed in Normandy a week after D Day serving in the Phantom Signals Unit, a Commando forward Reconnaissance unit that sought out targets using signal technology. The unit was attached to all U.K. , Canadian and US corps including those at Cherbourg etc. He was awarded the LOM by the US for his service in the J Section of SIGINT supporting their operations after D Day.
He also organised and took part in night raids on the French coast using especially silenced speed boats.
@@plausible_dinosaurWhere did you hear that? I knew he was in 'Phantom' before D-Day... part of their role was to go underground in the event of an invasion. 👍
He wasn't in Phantom in Normandy. Had left during Jan 1943.
@TeddyBear-ii4yc I've never heard that about Phantom. They were liaison and signals. Reconnaissance for the Commander in Chief.
@@Mongo_UK well going 'underground' with a radio would keep the c-in-c informed, no? I think I've conflated info from a documentary on anti-invasion activities and his book. The hides or lairs were several sections of 6ft dia concrete utility pipe (with the ends bricked up) buried around Southern England.
His autobiography is a brilliant book, written with wit & very funny.
What a life he lived
Was it The Moons a Balloon
"Any rudeness!?" Ha ha. Much respect to the British fighters
i like the humour .rude is very mild way of putting it .purely an army term for hell.
David Niven.... absolutely fantastic man
The Greatest Generation !!
May God Bless and Keep Him Always 🙏
Too late - he’s already dead.
The black and white picture at the end is a picture of my great grandfather Lance Corporal Arthur Henry Cross VC MM.
He loaned his VC for the film Carrington VC UK or Court Martial US..
I love this gentleman. His autobiography is a must read.... ❤️
A true combat veteran exhibiting the British dry and wry sense of humor and stiff upper lip.
I was lucky enough, when stationed in England, to meet two RAF Battle of Britain fighter pilots.
My son was also able to go and listen to Feldmarshal Rommel’s son. Rommel’s son had been alive during the war.
Any of these veterans (men and women) are worth listening to and learning from.
i met jacky man in a hydra poole in headly court r.a.f. hospitol that place is a legend too ..not say much but he watched us all a lot .
Lovely gentleman. Greatly missed.
One of my favorite actors. I didn’t know he fought in the war.
He was in the movie The Guns of Navarone with Gregory Peck.
What kinda shown is this. Guest wasn't interrupted 50 times and I didnt hear bunch of 'wow' and 'thats awesome'
Dick Cavett had a great show. It ran from 1968 into the 1980s. Everybody was on that show.
He has at least 2 great autobiography, well worth a read, Moons a Balloon and Bring on the Empty Horses? ( I think,if I'm not getting Echo and The Bunnymen song title mixed up ),any way ,a man that lived a great life .
Brilliant books. I’ve still got them.
My grandmother had both and I read them and loved both!
Michael Curtiz directed The Charge of the Light Brigade and in one scene he wanted riderless horses in the background. Being Hungarian, English wasn't his first language, so his direction came out as "Bring on the empty horses". The Echo song is Dancing Horses.
I believe the Hollywood one, BOTEH, is full of 'borrowed' anecdotes & stories.
I'll have to find them, would love to read them.
Any rudeness hahahaha a classic British understatement
A true gentleman & great storyteller.
I remember trying to stop myself from laughing out loud on a public bus going over the Sydney Harbour Bridge one evening after work. I was reading "The Moon's A Balloon"🌟💖
He was an absolute star when he was interviewed so articulate and interesting ? And lived a life
His autobiography is great
A real gentleman, and a splendid actor.
David Niven was a unique and very talented man of the old school!
Dirk Bogarde is another actor who was in WW2 ,in fact he was with a regiment that arrived at Bergen-Belsen.
There were a fair few of them.
@@CS-zn6pp yes , including some you would never have thought in a million years. It always makes me feel differently about them. How they bottled up all the horror. Niven seems completely unfazed here , reminiscing about an incident. Yet he was an intelligent man and would have been scared I presume, yet carried on , the brave.
@@CS-zn6pp Audie Murphy was the most highly decorated soldier in US history.
@@malcolmentecott536probably in history☝️
An officer and a gentleman absolutely first class !
Such a classy gent. Like an earlier Michael Caine.
Also, watch your diamonds.
But very posh not cockney
It's amazing how humor can be found in hell
Humour MUST be found in Hell.
There is an exchange in one of Sven Hazels books: "How can they laugh like this?
"If they wouldn't laugh like this, they would go insane!"
The Men of the Greatest Generation were really something special...
Proper men and proper gentlemen
Absolute Gentleman 👍🥈
A true gentleman and fantastic actor
He sounds like Rowley Birkin QC from the Fast Show: 'Of course I was vey vey drunk at the time'.
The GREATEST GENERATION EVER
Who'd knew about David Niven great actor
The photo at the end with someone holding a medal to his chest... it's no Iron Cross its a Victoria Cross, clearly in jest, the highest award for valour.
Indeed, just wondering who’d have that particular medal to hand for the clip; a genuine VC holder sharing a witticism with Niven, or a props tech on a later movie? David played a number of military roles from the UK Forces in addition to his aforementioned Normandy Campaign, battle honour.
That was a still from the 1954 film Carrington VC. David Niven played Major Charles Carrington VC an officer on trial by courts martial for theft. The VC he wore in the film was genuine and had been borrowed from Arthur Henry Cross who had served in the machine gun corps in WW1 and had earned the VC in 1918 for his action at Ervillers France on the 26th March
That’s not a German iron cross he’s wearing, it’s the British Victoria Cross, the highest award for bravery that can be given.
The metal, which is the one on the very left as we see it, actually belonged to Arthur Cross, VC MM. The medal was presented to David Niven for his role in a film from 1954 called Carrington VC. Presumably, Mr. Niven gave the medal back to Harry after filming nobody would just give away their VC. The very same medal was actually sold at auction in 2012 for over £100,000.
Funnily enough, I was once mistaken for David Niven while holidaying on the Isle of Capri, although he was 43 years old older than me! I suppose people only remember the young versions of famous people - they rarely know what they look like in old age.
David Niven was a well-known actor when the war broke out in 1939. He returned to England and rejoined the British Army (he had originally been in the army from 1930 to 1933) ended the war with the rank of lieutenant.
colonel
What do you mean by "he returned to England"? He had left England in the 2nd half of the 30's?
@@user-ox7xr8nu4t He left England for America in 1933 and resigned his commission in the army by telegram on the boat over to New York.
From '34 to '39 he made his living as a movie actor in Hollywood, rising to the position of 'leading man' in the later years.
The day after Britain declared war on Germany in 1939, Niven returned home and rejoined the British Army. He was alone among British stars in Hollywood in doing so.
@@user-ox7xr8nu4t David Niven was Scottish. . .
@@tconbo4514 Answer the question.
Always loved this great actor, and war hero ❤
Humble hero.
I loved every one of his films.
Any 'rudeness'. The British today could never field an army with such gentleman as Britain does not produce this kind anymore.
We do, but you have to get out the cities, our country folk are still eating hammers and shitting nails, only the immigration to blame
We do. They just don't associate with ruffians on social media. They have grouse to shoot and scotch to drink.
BS
@mattruzh8470 what is BS?
Britain produces guys name muhammad now. I can assure you.They are very much different than the fella who was just being interviewed.
Nigel farage 😂
John McClain - not the one in 'Die Hard' movies . . .
Yes, one and the same. Long before he changed his name to Bruce Willis and saved people from terrorists in tall buildings. Greatest generation!
Love the idea of wandering around wearing the iron cross at formal events. Wonder how many noticed 😊.
His two autobiographies are hilarious and brilliantly written
Definition of understatement, absolute gentleman.
What a class act David Niven was, he reminds me of my father...
I visited a guy once who was in his unit. He had pictures of them riding about on motor bikes with Phantom painted on them..
My grandad was too.
He was a British intelligence officer
Absolute legend 👏
Hard as nails, don't let the manner fool you!
Niven. Ultimate cool guy.
That's not an Iron Cross, it's a VC.
The actual medal was awarded to Corporal Arthur Cross in WW1 for using a revolver to retake a British position and took 7 German soldiers prisoner, and forced them to carry 2 machine guns and ammunition back to British lines at Ervillers.
A smart and fascinating man ❤
Rudeness 😂...so very British..
That bridge is still there in Carentan - there is a war memorial of the engineer that built it that died due to the artillery that Niven is on about!
Niven’s memoir of his early life “The Moon's a Balloon” (1971) was a best seller and it’s a fascinating read.
I say old boy.sounds terribly smashing
Great story telling.
He was a lovely man. His autobiography The Moon’s A Balloon, is worth a read.
Very British with his rudness comment, keep calm and understated
His father was killed in WW1 and his Grandfather was KIA at Islawandana in the Zulu War.
The photograph towards the end is a Role David played, in a film called Carrington V.C. It's on wiki go read about it. It is not a picture of him getting the Iron Cross from his friend. If you admired David's Service, check out Sir Christopher Lee's RAF Service during WW2.
This is quite a lovely way to get an iron cross
He has no need to brag or proclaim his greatness or humanity, his humility does it for him.
Wasn't that cross in the last picture a Victoria cross?
Yes, it's a real one from another soldier that they used as a prop
@@rw2266 thankyou I thought I recognized it
Yes.
A still from the film Carrington VC . As far as I know Niven was extremely private about his own awards and I cannot remember seeing a picture of him in his actual uniform post war
Loved him in the movies and author.😊
David Niven had a very active, and little known participation in many theaters during the European campaign. Years later, when a streaker ran across the stage while he was hosting the Academy Awards presentations, he commented how "rude the streaker was, to be interrupting the show while displaying his inadequacies!" There are no longer gentlemen like him among us. Shame.
Spoke so beautifully. And yes a true gentleman.
I read somewhere that Brando said
when he worked with Niven
he never laughed so hard is in life.
Tremendous Mr Niven 🙏RIP🌹
Brilliant, unrepeatable generation... 🌹
David Niven was one of those actors that I remember best from my childhood movies. I didn't know he had fought in Cherbourg en Cotentin. I wonder if the bridge he refers to is the Passarelle Michel LeGrand, which crosses the boat basin in the city's center. It's about the oldest bridge in town.
Trained at Achnacarry😊
Most British video I've seen in a long time.
Niven was a decorated soldier in WW2, a brave man.
Truly the greatest generation!!!
Love David. I'm not alone✨
I think the picture of him in full uniform is one where he is playing a film role of an officer who has won the Victoria Cross because. good soldier as he was, I don't think he achieved that honour.
His very best film was.... A matter of life and death..... My absolute favourite film
LOOK CAREFULLY... The final image shows him 'wearing' the VC! That raises several questions.
All of them answered in the comments
A publicity still from the mid 50's film Carrington VC
He always reminds me of my late Father.
A lot of countries gave out crosses to soldiers from other countries. For example my grandfather got three of them. One in WWI he got was a Croix de Guerre he got from France and then in WWII he got two more of them also from France. Then the army not wanting to be outdone gave him a distinguished service cross.
An old English gentleman - thank you, David. 🏴 🇬🇧
So anyway we shelled Jerry and we were home for tea and bikkies by 5 . Such lovely fireside stories of what was a pretty horrific time in history.
Hmmmm! I priti sure that the last photo was a Victoria Cross!
Don't You just love David Niven, one of the Great British actors!
He did really serve in WWII!
The humour his generation found in the most turbulent of times is inspiring!
Wonderful actor and a real gentleman.
"If there was any rudeness...".
I'll use that on next contact :-D
Love this man
Nice to know the gerrys dropped re supplies to the wrong side great story by David niven
Still a few about. RM Sgt under fire, casually walking to see what was going on said ' bloody cheeky Bastards and its Friday'. They went on to choose a cd for later!!! Classic.
A bygone age he’s just class ❤
A real legend of a man.❤
Niven had the most interesting life.
Read “The Moon is a Balloon.”
Hard to put down.
He was a real Treasure !