In the Second World War, Germany built some of the most advanced weapons ever fielded by any army in history. Their tanks were terrifying. Their artillery was precise. Their machine guns set the standard that everyone else spent the war trying to match. [music] And their infantry rifle, the Carabiner 98K, was a weapon any…
It was the single most dangerous hover in the history of Australian helicopter operations. In September 1969, a Royal Australian Air Force Irakcoy pilot held his aircraft motionless above a canopy of triple layer jungle in Longan Province while enemy tracer fire stitched through the air around his cockpit. 60 m below, five SAS troopers…
1970 Camp Pendleton Marine Base, Southern California. The largest Marine Corps base on the West Coast. Home to thousands of Marines, training facility, combat preparation, real warriors. Bruce Lee stood in front of 60 Marine combat instructors, hand-to-hand combat specialists, men who taught Marines how to kill, how to survive, how to win. The Common…
1969 Oakland, California, Chinatown. Saturday afternoon, 3:00 p.m. Bruce Lee taught an outdoor class. 20 students, working forms, practicing techniques, footwork, drills, basic training. The sun was hot, the air was still, normal training day. Then he heard it. Laughter, mocking, cruel, a voice, loud, aggressive. Look at these clowns dancing, calling it fighting. That…
1970 Los Angeles Main Street Boxing Gym. The real deal. Not a fitness gym. A fighter gym where professionals trained. Where champions were made. Sweat, blood, canvas, heavy bags hanging from chains, speed bags rattling, the smell of leather and linament. Bruce Lee stood at the heavy bag. Working combinations, sharp, fast, precise. Then he…
1969, San Diego, California, Naval Amphibious Base, Coronado, home of the Navy Seals. The most elite fighting force in the world. Men who’d seen real combat, real war, real killing. Bruce Lee stood in front of 50 of them, invited to give a martial arts demonstration to show them kung fu, to teach them techniques….
1972 Los Angeles dive bar in West Hollywood. 11 p.m. Lee Marvin sat at the corner booth, drunk, loud, angry. The dirty dozen had made him a star. The war veteran who became Hollywood’s toughest guy. Real tough, not acting. He’d served in World War II, seen combat, killed men. Tonight, he was drinking hard…
1973 Hollywood Hills private party at a producers’s estate. Charles Bronson stood in the corner, drinking hands, surrounded by admirers. He was the toughest man in Hollywood. Everyone knew it. Deathwish had just made him a superstar, the vigilante, the street fighter, the real deal. You know what’s Bronson said loud enough for half the…
1972 Hollywood Hills Mansion, the biggest party of the year. Every A-list star was there. Warren Batty, FA Dunaway, Steve McQueen, and Jack Nicholson. Fresh off Five Easy Pieces, becoming the hottest actor in Hollywood. Cocky, drunk, loud. He stood in the center of a crowd holding court. You know what’s fake? Kung Fu. All…
1973 Gold’s Gym, Venice Beach, California. Arnold Schwarzenegger, 26 years old, Mr. Olympia Champion, stood surrounded by bodybuilders, 240 lb of pure muscle, the biggest, strongest man in the world. Across the gym, Bruce Lee, 32 years old, 135 lbs, was practicing kicks. Arnold watched, laughed, turned to his training partner. Look at that little…
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