Larry Thorne: The Nazi SS Officer Who Became A U.S. Green Beret

All That's Interesting ^ | June 7 2019 | All That's Interesting

[euram]

How Larry Thorne went from Nazi to U.S. Army hero while building one of the most famed legacies in the history of modern warfare.

[euram]

He was killed in Vietnam in 1965.

I notice that Thorne's biography on the Virtual Wall mentions his service in the German Army but makes no mention of the SS.

https://www.virtualwall.org/dt/ThorneLA01a.htm

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

Well, it was the Waffen-SS, and he apparently joined as a Finn just because he wanted to fight Russians.

[2banana]

There is a fine line...

“He was flying in a South Vietnamese Air Force H-34 helicopter when the weather turned bad. Caught in heavy fog and rain, Thorne would not order his chopper to leave out of concern for the men on the ground that his chopper crew was supporting.

The weather grew so bad that the chopper crashed into a mountainside and all on board were killed.”

[DUMBGRUNT]

Related and may be of interest.
A friend sent them yesterday.

Shortest US soldier in Vietnam War was not short in courage

https://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/shortest-us-soldier-in-vietnam-war-was-not-short-in-courage/article_b21d09ea-5b48-5c7a-9c41-a5cf01514252.html

Giant Killer: The incredible mysterious life of the shortest US soldier
A dwarf, a Vietnam hero, a CIA operative, and a homeless man the almost unbelievable life of Richard James Flaherty.

https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/giant-killer-richard-james-flahertys-life

There are MANY great men in the US Armed Forces, known and sadly unknown.

[lump in the melting pot]

This man hated communists very, very passionately

[Bulwyf]

Everything I know about this guy I learned from Sabaton.

[Jan_Sobieski]

The Finns have some of the most outstanding warrior feats in history

[pierrem15]

The Germans created special units for allied foreign combatants under the Waffen-SS banner. The Wehrmacht had no way of integrating foreign units.

Sometimes these were ideologically motivated foreign volunteers like Wiking or Charlemagne, whose behavior was as bad as the German Waffen-SS units. Others were local forces like the Estonian Waffen-SS units who basically constituted units of the armed forces of that country, sometimes serving under their own officers.

A Karelian Finn, Thorne had an enduring hatred of Communism. I suspect he and Rafał Gan-Ganowicz would have gotten along well if they had ever met.

[Perseverando]

Thanks for posting. I thoroughly enjoyed the articles.

[ExTexasRedhead]

More information about Thorne:

http://www.virtualwall.org/dt/ThorneLA01a.htm

Larry Alan Thorne
Major
SD-5891, HQ, MACV ADVISORS, MACV
Army of the United States
Norwalk, Connecticut
May 28, 1919 to October 19, 1966
(Incident Date October 18, 1965)
LARRY A THORNE is on the Wall at Panel 2E, Line 126
See the full profile or name rubbing for Larry Thorne

[StoneWall Brigade]

Interesting very interesting

[Paal Gulli]

He was the inspiration for Capt. “Sven” Kornie in Robin Moore’s book, “The Green Berets.”