Ah, now that would be the egotistical General Douglas McArthur. This bit I can tell you, as well. (^^ I run on RBIs, y'know ;P)
McArthur was actually part of a failed campaign in this place called Batan (which I've only now realised I have NO idea of where it is. Oh well. It's in the pacific region, somewhere). He and the troups fled to the nearest safe zone, which was.... ta da! Australia!
He landed in Darwin by ship at night, caught the troup train down through the red centre, then addressed a semi-improptu mass media press corp from the platform of the Terowie (South Aust) railway station (which was the railway base of the major troup departure point in for the central part of the mainland - a looooong way from Darwin, let me tell ya!) with the now extremely famous announcement "I came out of Batan, and I *shall* return!"
Return he did, with a stack more troups, and basically kicked the Jap's rear ends from arsehole to breakfast time.
It's well documented that he kinda took the Batan defeat a tad too personally. Later, he went on to screw up in a whole heap of other warzones, like Korea, so really, this was his crowning glory, so to speak.
I only know so much about *this* instance, because the now historic, nearly extinct township of Terowie (pronounced Ter-OW-ee, btw) is about 25 mins drive from where I grew up. The railway station is gone now, BUT the platform remains, complete with a little plaque monument to the McArthur event.
There! See, now I don't have to shoot you! *grins*
And, yes, it is very literally a stone's throw. If you were *really* good with a slingshot, that's a posibility. A light catapult, no worries! Scary, ne?
Strangely enough, I'd never quite thought of it as THAT imminent, until I wrote that stuff for you. *mind boggles*
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Date: 24 Apr 2005 09:16 am (UTC)McArthur was actually part of a failed campaign in this place called Batan (which I've only now realised I have NO idea of where it is. Oh well. It's in the pacific region, somewhere). He and the troups fled to the nearest safe zone, which was.... ta da! Australia!
He landed in Darwin by ship at night, caught the troup train down through the red centre, then addressed a semi-improptu mass media press corp from the platform of the Terowie (South Aust) railway station (which was the railway base of the major troup departure point in for the central part of the mainland - a looooong way from Darwin, let me tell ya!) with the now extremely famous announcement "I came out of Batan, and I *shall* return!"
Return he did, with a stack more troups, and basically kicked the Jap's rear ends from arsehole to breakfast time.
It's well documented that he kinda took the Batan defeat a tad too personally. Later, he went on to screw up in a whole heap of other warzones, like Korea, so really, this was his crowning glory, so to speak.
I only know so much about *this* instance, because the now historic, nearly extinct township of Terowie (pronounced Ter-OW-ee, btw) is about 25 mins drive from where I grew up. The railway station is gone now, BUT the platform remains, complete with a little plaque monument to the McArthur event.
There! See, now I don't have to shoot you! *grins*
And, yes, it is very literally a stone's throw. If you were *really* good with a slingshot, that's a posibility. A light catapult, no worries! Scary, ne?
Strangely enough, I'd never quite thought of it as THAT imminent, until I wrote that stuff for you. *mind boggles*