Dinner guest?

[Naphtali]

Were the opportunity to present itself - among the millions of Allied and Axis soldiers, politicians, and government bureaucrats - which single person would you want to have as a dinner guest? Please exclude your relatives and friends.

The question arose in my mind when I found an obscure montage photograph among my stored junk that I was sorting through to dispose of.

My guest would be Sergeant John C. Woods, US Army-European theater.

 

[Captain Lex]

Churchill. 100%.

 

[LocktownDog]

Betty Grable .... oh wait, doesn't fit the criteria ....

 

[Rathdown]

Goering, without a doubt or hesitation.

 

[dhermann1]

Winston!!!!!!!!

 

[Hunter_aka_Scotty]

First pick would be actor Christopher Lee. Still living I might add.

Other runners up in my mind were George S. Patton, Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, Winston Churchill, Jack Churchill and Otto Skorzeny.

 

[Stearmen]

I would like to hear General Patton speaking French. He was fluent you know, and an Francophile!

 

[Shangas]

I would like to hear General Patton speaking French. He was fluent you know, and an Francophile!

Given the general's famous demeanor, I'd pay to see that happen!

WWII dinner-guests...gosh.

Churchill.

Or...

George VI.

 

[Big Bertie]

Evelyn Waugh. Perhaps with fellow author Anthony Powell.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Harry S. Truman

 

[Edward]

If we included the Great War, I'd say either Wilfred Owen or whoever it is that is buried in London as the Unknown Soldier. Them, or perhaps one of the German soldiers who I understood were the first (at least in the particular areas about which I have read accounts - it was by no means universal) to raise the white flag and stood up in no man's land to initiate the Christmas Day Truce in 1914.

As to WW2.... maybe Blair "Paddy" Mayne. An interesting character; in some ways the sort of man I believe Buck Alec might have turned out to be had he had the same opportunities. If my German and his English were up to facilitating conversation (or we had an interpreter), Oskar Schindler, or Dietrich Bonhoeffer, or Colonel von Staffenberg.

 

[this one guy]

At Midway Admiral Spruance was given an unfamiliar and high pressure role on short notice. The battle resulted in Japan's loss of naval dominance in the Pacific, which it never regained.
This would be an interesting dinner discussion.

 

[SHOWSOMECLASS]

My Grandfathers brother was in Patton's 3rd Army 71st Infantry and my Grandmother's brother was in the the 75th Infantry which sustained heavy losses in its first major offensive. Both are gone now.
I have requested their military records, the folks in St Louis responded, "a major fire destroyed most WWII veterans records". I would really like to hear their story's.

Sigh