Actors in real theatre of war
QUESTION Apart from Michael Caine, are there any other actors still working who served in the Korean War?
Michael caiNe, born Maurice Micklewhite Jr, was called up for National Service from 1952 to 1954.
he opted to serve in Korea as a member of the 1st Battalion Royal Fusiliers, an infantry regiment.
Stationed on the front line along the Samichon River, he saw extensive combat and participated in dangerous night-time patrols into no-man’s land.
after contracting malaria and being discharged in 1953, he returned to london and studied acting. caine’s first film role was as Private lockyer in the 1956 war movie a hill in Korea.
Two decades before alan alda played the fictional hawkeye Pierce in M*a*S*h, the TV series about an american team of medical staff during the Korean War, he had served in the U.S. military.
alda was deployed for six months in North Korea. contrary to several biographies, he was not in charge of a gunnery unit but, by his own admission, oversaw a mess tent!
Fellow M*a*S*h actor Jamie Farr, who played Sgt Maxwell Q. Klinger, served in Korea shortly after hostilities ended in 1953.
action hero chuck Norris was an air Policeman in the U.S. air Force stationed at Osan air Base, South Korea, in 1958.
he studied the Korean martial arts of Tang Soo Do and Tae Kwan Do, becoming the first Westerner to be awarded an eighth-degree black belt.
hollywood actor James Garner, born James Bumgarner, was a U.S. army private during the Korean War. he fought with the 5th Regimental combat Team and was awarded two Purple hearts for injuries sustained during the conflict.
John Horner, Driffield, E. Yorks.
QUESTION Was the Minoan civilisation wiped out by a tsunami?
MiNOaN is the name coined by the archaeologist Sir arthur evans for a civilisation that flourished in crete and other aegean islands from 3000 Bc to 1450 Bc.
Recognised as the first advanced european civilisation, it has left us a treasure trove of artwork, tools, written records (some still undeciphered) and the ruins of magnificent buildings, of which the Palace of Knossos is the supreme example. The civilisation traded widely across the Mediterranean to cyprus, egypt and anatolia.
The reasons for its demise are unclear, but it is probable it followed a massive volcanic eruption on the island of Thera (now Santorini)
This was one of the biggest in human history, with a Volcanic explosivity index of seven, wreaking four times as much havoc as Krakatoa.
it appears there must have been a warning of the impending disaster since no human remains have been discovered. Fortunately for posterity, much of the thriving city of akrotiri was covered in ash and preserved in the same way as Pompeii would be 1,500 years later.
While the Minoan civilisation may not have disappeared immediately, the devastating effects of the eruption are likely to have sent it spiralling into an irreversible decline.