Strange Military Deaths

[Music] four strange military debts although deaths shouldn't be entertaining throughout history there have been some occasions where the poor soul has been so unlucky or caught in such strange circumstances it's almost impossible to be anything other than interested there was the owner of the Segway who later died falling off a cliff while on one or famous early 20th century dancer Isadora Duncan who jumped in her car got her scarf Tangled in the wheels and was strangled to death the moment the driver took off and the military is no exception not all who die while wearing a uniform do so in battle or as you might expect some Unfortunate Souls have died in truly strange ways number one the siege of famagusta in more early modern times military deaths could be ceremonial unusual or just plain gruesome one that still stands out around 500 years later is that a Venetian Captain Mark Antonio bragaden in 1570 the Ottomans invaded famagusta in Cyprus as part of their goal to seize control of the Mediterranean at the time the island was under the control of the venetians and famagusta was in the hands of strong leadership in bragaden however this wasn't enough as the force of the Ottomans bombarding the city for months on end menthavenetians found themselves running low on food ammo and resources despite the citizens begging that they surrender bragodin refused until July 31st 1571 when the city was dying and many of its citizens starving the next day he surrendered to Lala Mustafa Pasha commander of the Ottoman Army who promised safe passage off the island to the venetians what happened next is unclear but whatever did happen Pasha changed his mind about providing safe passage for the surrendered forces possibly in Anger due to the massive wasp of tens of thousands of Ottoman troops in The Siege or possibly in response to six missing ottoman hostages that bragodin either killed or simply did not know the whereabouts of or even just in Anger at bragodin's continued Victor's attitude accounts differ on this but they do not on what happens next in response Pasha said about executing one of the strangest and most gruesome deaths on Captain bragadin later going down in history for its brutality Pasha ordered that bragodin's nose and ears be cut off and over the coming days wounds still gaping and open he was forced to carry Earth to fill ditches kissing the ground every time Pasha crossed his path after 17 days of torture according to Crowley he was then tied to a chair and set above a ship's mask for the masses to stare and jeer before finally being taken and literally skinned alive one of the most horrific execution methods in history finally his corpse was stuffed with straw dressed in Commander robes and paraded through the streets of famagusta atop a cow it was a strange and brutal death for the revered Venetian captain I'm sure glad I wore my vessies to the battlefield today not only are they waterproof but they're great for dry weather too thank you wow Sergeant history where'd you get those military-issued shoes new protocol soldier from now on all simple history recruits are required to wear vessi shoes made of dime attacks fit to survive the battlefield rain or shine I love how much more comfortable they are than normal weatherproof shoes and they're so stylish too vessies are my go-to shoes by my door they are giving away a pair of socks of your choice to the first 100 shoes sold using my code sock simple history check out their early Black Friday sale at vessey.com forward slash simple history number two nuclear accident on January 3rd 1961 two Army Specialists John a Burns and Richard Leroy McKinley alongside Navy electrician Richard C Legg found themselves tasked with the responsibility of restarting the sl-1 nuclear reactor in Idaho after it had been shut down for 11 days for routine maintenance all three military personnel were on active duty and only in their 20s both leg and burns had received their certification as reactor operators and McKinley was due to pass his own the next month before things went tragically wrong the sl-1 power plant short for stationary low power reactor number one was a prototype small mobile reactor at one of America's major Atomic testing stations the idea was that the tech could be developed so the Army could employ it in remote areas unfortunately when Burns age 22 went to restart the reactor it's believed he pulled the control rod 20 inches out of the core which was tragically too far the resulting reaction caused a wall of steam metal and water to rush towards the three men killing Burns and leg instantly with McKinley dying approximately two hours later it was the first nuclear reaction on U.S soil to result in casualties and not necessarily the way you'd expect to go on duty number three the chichijima incident long before George H.W bush or George Bush Senior was President he was a World War II fighter pilot involved in Pacific Air Raids in chichijima a small but well fortified Japanese island on the 2nd of September 1944 Bush was tasked with destroying the Island's radio towers it was 8 15 am when the Japanese anti-aircraft guns hid in weight in the forest below and the Squadron of TBM Avengers nose dived over their target Bush watched as thunderous Flack greeted them with the lead planes burning up into Smithereens shaking holding his brat and taking heavy fire himself he continued to fly through the dark clouds of what remained of his peers and unloaded his four 500 pounds bombs seeing his engine Up in Smoke he managed to parachute himself into the middle of the ocean a few miles Northeast of the chichijima island but his crewmates were not as quick and perished with the Japanese already sailing out to capture him he was rescued by a U.S submarine that emerged from the ocean to take him on board he was the lucky one over the decades author James Bradley spoke to and tracked down the family and friends of Bush's Naval aviator Piers as well as relatives of the Japanese commanders Bradley uncovered transcripts of secret War crime trials that showed just how horrifically eight other American pows of chichijima had died American bombers would kill more Japanese civilians than soldiers during World War II so their Fates when captured were merciless they were beaten and tortured before being killed but it's what came next that was truly gruesome as instructed by Lieutenant General tachibana the unprovisioned Japanese dissected and skinned alive the now dead Airmen and eight their fallen enemies not a meal many would want to share the truth of the cannibalism that occurred during World War II was only uncovered decades later when the sealed document finally came to light number four John Sedgwick Union general John Sedgwick has gained his place in history for two reasons for being the highest ranking Union casualty of the United States Civil War and for his awkwardly ironic death on the battlefield it was a light Skirmish that took place on May 9 1864. in fact the general was busy bantering with officer Martin T McMahon when as he described a Sprinkle of bullets came down upon them and several officers dodged out of the way Sedgwick himself a well-liked general laughed and teased his officers that the enemy couldn't hit an elephant at this distance which really is just asking for trouble moments later another reign of bullets forced a nearby Soldier to abruptly Dodge to the ground in essence throwing himself at Sedgwick speed who laughed and repeated his comment according to McMahon he said why my man I am ashamed at you dodging that way they couldn't hit an elephant at this distance what happened next seemed almost comically time after the soldiers quick replied the general laughed and said all right my man go to your place mere minutes after the second a third sprinkle of bullets hit the party and general Sedgwick was tragically struck under his left cheek dying almost instantly Jess goes to show you should never tempt fate although in the military a certain amount of death is unfortunately expected it's very rare that you would encounter the truly strange ironic or just plain gruesome ways to go these poor people experience let's just hope there are no bullets or elephants on the horizon

Channel: Simple History

Views: 1,076,412

Keywords: simple history, animated history, educational, education, four, strange, military, deaths, death, segway, Jimi, Helselden, isadora, duncan, siege, famagusta, 1570, Venetian, Captain, Marc, Antonio, Bragadin, ottoman, Lala, Mustafa, Pasa, Mustapha, Nuclear, Accident, SL-1, legg, McKinley, byrnes, Chichi Jima, chichijima, bush, 1944, John, Sedgwick, 1864, elephant, civil, war

Id: P9sL1A-7vSU

Length: 9min 29sec (569 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 08 2022