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+--- Thread: Actor David Niven - Rebel, whiskey salesman, Commando (/Thread-Actor-David-Niven-Rebel-whiskey-salesman-Commando--333)
Actor David Niven - Rebel, whiskey salesman, Commando - Byrd - 01-29-2024
https://www.wwiidogtags.com/ww2-history/david-niven-celebrity-soldier/
“Look, you chaps only have to do this once. But I’ll have to do it all over again in Hollywood with Errol Flynn!”
So today I learned that David Niven has a pretty wild history. He was always cool and suave in his roles, so I would have suspected that he came from minor aristocracy. As it turns out, he was from an upper class family and his father and grandfather died as war heroes... but that's not the end of the tale by any means.
The "Dogtags" website has some interesting tidbits, including the bit where he was arrested for mouthing off and then shared some whiskey in jail with his guard, leading to his doing a jailbreak. He left for America and resigned his commission enroute.
In spite of this mark, when WWII came around, he went back to England to serve, got commando training, and ended up in a Special Forces unit called "Phantom." He was awarded the Legion of Merit.
Wikipedia also has some juicy tidbits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Niven
A number of fairly famous people were in Phantom: https://www.phantomghq.co.uk/famous-phantom
More about Phantom (from their website) for the curious: Phantom developed the use of new technology to listen in to the radio traffic of a battle which enabled them to combine this information with other reconnaissance to give invaluable information about how the battle was progressing. They then relayed it back, via their Squadron HQ signallers and liaison officers, directly to those in charge of the battle, giving an unprecedented, up to date and accurate picture of what was going on.
https://www.phantomghq.co.uk/copy-of-phantom-s-origins
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GHQ_Liaison_Regiment
