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  • 2018-06-08 (xsd:date)
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  • Was James Doohan Shot Six Times on D-Day? (en)
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  • A meme purportedly relaying the heroic exploits of James Doohan, who is best known as the actor who played Scotty in the original Star Trek series, was shared by the Meanwhile in Canada Facebook page in June 2018, in remembrance of D-Day: The story presented in this meme is largely accurate. Doohan was one of some 14,000 Canadian soldiers who landed in Normandy, France, in June 1944 during World War II. He did suffer several gunshot wounds during the invasion, which ultimately resulted in the loss of his middle finger. It's also true that one of these bullets was stopped by a cigarette case in his pocket. However, this meme doesn't identify the likely source of these gunshots: A nervous Canadian sentry. Doohan was a commissioned lieutenant with the 14th Field Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, and was tasked with invading an area of Normandy code-named Juno Beach. As the meme states, Doohan successfully led his men across the beach littered with anti-tank mines, and also managed to take out two German snipers: Although Doohan escaped the initial moments of the invasion relatively unscathed, his luck didn't last: Doohan attempted to hide his missing finger in episodes of Star Trek (a hand double was even used in some close-up scenes), but he wasn't always successful. For example, Doohan's injury can be briefly glimpsed in the famous episode The Trouble with Tribbles: There is at least some debate over the provenance of the bullets that wounded Doohan. Although books such as D-Day: The Essential Reference Guide and Fight to the Finish: Canadians in the Second World War state that Doohan was wounded by friendly fire, Doohan's mother was told, at least initially, that her son had been hit by German bullets. We have also encountered varying reports about the number of times Doohan was shot (ranging from six to eight.) We attempted to locate accounts from Doohan himself about the incident, other than the one presented in his autobiography, but didn't turn up much additional information. The most revealing report appears to come from a New York Times article that centered around a letter Doohan sent director Steven Spielberg shortly after the release of the film Saving Private Ryan in 1998 (which mentioned Doohan being hit by German bullets): Doohan also downplayed his heroics, saying that the mines on the beach were anti-tank mines and that his men were not heavy enough to trigger them. Doohan also said that he wasn't sure if he had truly killed two German snipers and added that he didn't notice the gunshot wounds in his legs until he got to the medic: (en)
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