Unarmed WW2 Hollywood had

this other guy’s neck. Then when a stretcher arrived my dad, who by now had lost the use of both legs and an arm, got off and insisted it be used to help someone more seriously injured.” Doss’s hatred of violence stemmed from a Christian upbringing in Virginia. His mum, Bertha, raised him as a devout Seventh Day Adventist.

He opposed killing – having had an almighty scare when his brother nearly died in a playfight. And he despised violence after witnessing fights between his mother and father, Tom, haunted by memories of action in the First World War. Desmond Jr goes on: “My father was an incredibly peaceful, gentle man. What’s great about this film is that Andrew Garfield portrayed that characteristic just right.

“He was so good that when I saw his portrayal on the screen it was like I was looking at my dad again.

“At the premiere I went over to Andrew, shook his hand and he asked me: ‘How do you think I did?’ And I told him: ‘ You nailed it!’

“We spent quite a few emotional minutes standing there. And Andrew said: ‘ Well, if you think so, then that makes it so’.”

The movie outlines how Doss and his brother both signed up, to their father’s dismay. Doss believed he could work as a medic and never

Dad was blown into the air after standing on grenade then sniper hit him in arm DESMOND DOSS JR ON HEROICS WHICH WERE CUT FROM MOVIE