Category: Manly Stuff
Peter Ortiz was a proper war hero long before he went to work in Hollywood. Public domain.
Robert Downey, Jr. is one of the most esteemed actors of his generation. His depiction of Tony Stark as Iron Man across 10 big-budget superhero movies became iconic. I once read a commentary by a British film critic who said that Downey’s English accent in the Sherlock Holmes films was the only example of an American playing a Brit that he felt was in any way believable. What makes that so remarkable is that Downey never took acting lessons. He just got in front of the camera and did his thing. He’s a natural.
There was a time when this was the rule rather than the exception. John Wayne’s natural swagger certainly could not be learned. Back in the Golden Age of Hollywood, actors were not necessarily mushy, fragile prima donnas. They often were drawn from the ranks of truly manly men out in the real world. Principle among them was one Peter Ortiz.
Filmography of a Hero
Peter Ortiz starred in 27 films and two television series. His filmography includes such classics as She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Retreat, Hell!, The Outcast, Twelve O’Clock High, Wings of Eagles, and Rio Grande. Ortiz brought a gritty realism to the sundry roles he played on screens both large and small. That’s because he was arguably the baddest man ever to grace the silver screen.
Pierre Julien Ortiz was born in New York in 1913. His mother was of Swiss stock, while his dad was a Spaniard born in France. He was educated at the French University of Grenoble. Ortiz spoke 10 languages. In 193,2 at age 18, he joined the French Foreign Legion.
The Foreign Legion is comprised of some legendarily rough hombres. Peter Ortiz thrived in this space. He earned the Croix de Guerre twice while fighting the Riffian people in Morocco. In 1935, Ortiz turned down a commission as an officer in the Legion to travel to Hollywood and serve as a technical advisor for war films.
Peter Ortiz is shown here second from the left with his team of OSS operators in occupied France during World War 2. Marine Corps photo.
Proper War
We modern Americans often overlook this fact, but World War II burned on for a couple of years before we got involved. As soon as the shooting started, Ortiz left Hollywood and returned to the Legion as a sergeant. He soon earned a battlefield commission and was wounded while destroying a German fuel dump. He was captured soon thereafter but escaped through Portugal, eventually making it back to the United States.
War was a growth industry in the early 1940s, and American citizens with combat experience were invaluable assets. Ortiz enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in June of 1942 and earned a commission as a Second Lieutenant 40 days later. He made captain by year’s end and was deployed to Tangier, Morocco, assigned to the Office of Strategic Services. The OSS was the predecessor to the CIA. Captain Peter Ortiz was now officially a spy.
Undercover Ops
Ortiz was wounded badly, recovered, and then parachuted into occupied Europe several times. He repatriated downed Allied flyers and helped organize French Underground units. In August 1944, he was captured by the Germans. He survived torture by the Gestapo and somehow avoided execution. In April 1945, Ortiz’s POW camp was liberated. Now a Lieutenant Colonel, he made his way back to Hollywood to pick up where he left off.
In 1954, Southeast Asia was heating up, so Lt. Ortiz volunteered to return to active duty. However, by then, he was more than 40 years old and sort of famous. The Marines turned him down but promoted him to full Colonel in retirement.
Decorations
We’ve glossed over this guy’s amazing career. He was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) by the government of England. He earned both the Navy Cross and the Purple Heart, each twice. The Navy Cross is our second-highest award for valor, right after the Medal of Honor. Here’s an excerpt from his first Navy Cross citation:
“Operating in civilian clothes and aware that he would be subject to execution in the event of his capture, Major Ortiz parachuted from an airplane with two other officers of an Inter-Allied mission to reorganize existing Maquis groups in the region of Rhone.
By his tact, resourcefulness and leadership, he was largely instrumental in affecting the acceptance of the mission by local resistance leaders, and also in organizing parachute operations for the delivery of arms, ammunition and equipment for use by the Maquis in his region.
Although his identity had become known to the Gestapo with the resultant increase in personal hazard, he voluntarily conducted to the Spanish border four Royal Air Force officers who had been shot down in his region, and later returned to resume his duties. Repeatedly leading successful raids during the period of this assignment, Major Ortiz inflicted heavy casualties on enemy forces greatly superior in number, with small losses to his own forces.”
Ruminations
There were two Hollywood films that were based upon his personal adventures. 13 Rue Madeleine came out in 1947. Operation Secret hit theaters in 1952. Ortiz had one son, Pete Junior, who served as a Marine officer himself, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel.
Of his dad, the younger Marine said, “My father was an awful actor, but he had great fun appearing in movies.” Colonel Peter Ortiz might not have been the greatest actor of all time, but he was an amazing warrior.
United States
Navy Cross with gold star 
Legion of Merit
Purple Heart with gold star 
American Campaign Medal
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal
Marine Corps Reserve Ribbon
Parachutist Badge
United Kingdom
Officer of the Order of the British Empire
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France
Chevalier of the Legion of Honor
Médaille militaire
Croix de guerre des théâtres d’opérations extérieures with bronze and silver stars
Croix de Guerre 1939-1945 with two bronze palms and silver star
Croix du combattant
Médaille des Évadés
Médaille Coloniale with the campaign clasp: “MAROC”
Médaille des Blesses
1939–1945 Commemorative war medal (France)
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Morocco
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“Neither the Huns nor their hornbows make us afraid!”
The Geatish king Gizur challenges the invading Huns to a pitched battle on behalf of the Goths, from the
Scandinavian epic poem Battle of the Goths and the Huns, which preserves place names from the Gothic rule in South-Eastern Europe.
IRON MEN FOR IRON TIMES!!
Grumpy
December 19, 1854 was a cold day in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. Three prospectors carefully traversed a rough trail in aptly named Rocky Canyon in El Dorado County, near the North Fork of the American River.
Unknown to them, 14 heavily armed bandits lay in ambush ahead. Unknown to both parties, three miners watched from a nearby hilltop. They were about to become witnesses to what historian John Boessenecker calls, “The single most extraordinary feat of self-defense by an American civilian in the annals of frontier history.”
Jonathan R. Davis was born in Monticello, S.C. in 1816. Following his education at the University of South Carolina, he enlisted in the Palmetto Regiment of Volunteers and was quickly promoted to lieutenant.
Davis fought with distinction in several battles in the Mexican War. He was wounded at Churubusco in 1847, along with over 1,100 other American casualties. In those days, simply surviving one’s wounds and the inevitable infections was too much for all but the toughest of men. Jonathan Davis proved to be made of boot leather and barbed wire—a tough man indeed.
Davis mustered out of the Army in 1848 with the honorary rank of captain, and, along with hundreds of other veterans, cast adrift after the war; he later headed for the gold fields of California. There, his soldierly demeanor, skills with arms and unblemished character earned the respect of his fellow prospectors. He was known as a superior marksman, and described by a friend as “second to none in the state as a fencer.” He was never seen without his two Colts and a big Bowie knife.
The Gold Rush drew dreamers, dilettantes and desperadoes from all nations, either to seek their fortunes in the streambeds and hills, or to prey upon those who did. Since most honest prospectors were armed and determined, the predators frequently formed murderous gangs and operated by raid and ambush.
One such gang was made up of two Americans, five Australians, two Britons, four Mexicans, and a Frenchman. In just the two days previous to December 19, they had robbed and murdered six Chinese and four Americans. Ambushing three men in a lonely canyon must have seemed like plucking flowers. But one of those men had never been anybody’s daisy.
Ambushing The Wrong Party
As Davis, his good friend Doctor Bolivar Sparks, and James McDonald picked their way along the trail, all 14 bandits leaped from cover and opened fire. McDonald was killed instantly, dropped before he could even pull his revolver. Dr. Sparks got off two shots as he fell, his fire apparently going wild.
Jonathan Davis drew his Colts and commenced firing until they ran dry. It is unknown if any of his slugs missed, but when the firestorm ended, seven of his attackers lay dead or dying, and the rest had also run out of ammo.
The fight wasn’t over. Four of the bandits charged, one with a short sword, the other three with knives. Davis drew his Bowie and engaged. In seconds, he had killed three and grievously injured the gang’s leader, among other wounds, cutting off his nose and a finger. The three surviving bandits ran for their lives. And those three miners on the hilltop saw it all.
Davis had suffered two flesh wounds, but he immediately began tearing strips from his shirt and bandaging not only his good friend Dr. Sparks, but also three mortally wounded but still breathing bandits, trying to save their lives as well. He won, they had lost, and as the victor, mercy was his duty to give.
When the witnesses came running up the trail, Davis leaped to McDonald’s body, grabbed his loaded revolver and shouted “Halt!” John Webster, Isaac Hart and P.S. Robertson identified themselves and explained they had been out hunting game and had seen the entire fight. They assisted Davis in tending the wounded, then returned to their camp, bringing back 15 others to witness the bloody scene and help dig graves.
As the sun went down, three wounded bandits died. The noseless leader confessed to his gang’s 10 murders on the 17th and 18th. He died the following day. One of the miners counted six bullet holes in Jonathan Davis’s hat and 11 more through his shirt and coat.
The bandits’ bodies yielded $491 in gold and silver coins, nine watches (two silver and seven gold), and 4 ounces of gold dust. Davis informed the group that Dr. Sparks, who was still clinging to life, had a home and family in Coloma; he urged that all the ill-gotten plunder should go to Dr. Sparks’. They agreed.
The Aftermath
The next day, all the dead were buried. Being law-abiding men, the group formed a coroner’s jury, wrote out a report of the incident, citing all evidence and witnesses statements, and concluded Davis’s party acted in self-defense. Seventeen of them signed it and it was sent to Placerville, the county seat. Davis carried his friend Bolivar Sparks to his home in Coloma, where the doctor passed away on December 26th.
In the months following, many people expressed doubt about Davis’s deed, and city folk proclaimed it wild exaggeration. Davis sought neither publicity nor notoriety, but was stung by the challenges to his honor, and felt it was disrespectful to his dead friends. Finally, Davis and the witnesses appeared before Judge R.M. Anderson and a court of inquiry, where detailed depositions and comparisons of statements set the matter to rest.
Jonathan Davis said, “I did only what hundreds of others might have done under similar circumstances, and attach no particular credit to myself for it.” Indeed, hundreds of others might have—but would they have done it so well?
Welsh policeman Ernest Rollings was one of millions of men who enlisted for active duty in #WorldWarIThirteen years after the guns fell silent, he was hailed as The Man Who Ended The War.
During the Battle of Amiens in 1918, Lieutenant Rollings led a daring armoured cars raid 10 miles behind enemy lines. He and his men killed many Germans before they reached a farmhouse in the village of Framerville that was being used as an enemy base.
Rollings burst in to find the occupants had just fled, leaving a pile of hastily-torn documents.Rollings, who gathered up the papers, received a bar to his Military Cross for his bravery during the raid.
After the war, he returned to his career in the police service. Then in 1931, the Sunday Express reported that the papers recovered in Framerville contained detailed plans of all the gun posts, troop placements and defensive points along the seemingly impregnable Hindenburg Line.
The paper revealed that this intelligence and the subsequent Allied offensive probably shortened the war by six months and saved 500,000 lives.
Until then, the incredible importance of the papers had been unknown to the public and to the man who recovered them.
Neath police sergeant Ernest Rollings was tracked down by reporters and hailed in newspaper headlines as The Man Who Ended The War. At last, the extraordinary effects of his gallantry had been revealed.
Lieutenant Ernest Rollings, MC and Bar
September 15, 1893 – February 3, 1966