ABT NEWS SPECIAL FEATURE | www.abtnews.net
If Hollywood created a character who was shot through the face, head, stomach, leg, hip, and skull, tore off his own damaged fingers when a doctor refused to amputate them, survived two plane crashes, dug a tunnel out of an Italian POW camp, and ended his autobiography with the line “Frankly, I had enjoyed the war,” critics would dismiss the film as absurd fiction.
Yet every word of that sentence is historically documented fact.
Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart (1880–1963) was a British Army officer of Belgian noble descent whose military career spanned nearly five decades. Adorned with a black eye patch, an empty sleeve, and a chest full of medals, including the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest military award for valor, Carton de Wiart became a living legend.
1. Lie Your Way into War: The Boer War (1899–1902)
Born in Brussels in 1880, Carton de Wiart was sent to boarding school in England and later attended Balliol College, Oxford. However, academia could not hold his interest once conflict broke out in South Africa.
Determined to fight in the Second Boer War, the 19-year-old dropped out of Oxford, lied about his age and name, and enlisted under the pseudonym “Trooper Carton,” claiming to be a 25-year-old British subject.
His trial by fire was swift. In South Africa, he suffered severe gunshot wounds to both his stomach and groin. Invalided back to England, his secret was exposed when his furious father discovered he had quit university. Undeterred by either his injuries or his father’s anger, Carton de Wiart promptly returned to South Africa as a commissioned officer with the 4th Dragoon Guards.
2. Somaliland & The Western Front: Losing an Eye and a Hand
When World War I erupted in 1914, Carton de Wiart was stationed in British Somaliland fighting the forces of Mohammed bin Abdullah (referred to by the British as the “Mad Mullah”). During an assault on an enemy fort at Shimber Berris, he was shot twice in the face, losing his left eye and part of his ear. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO).
Rather than taking light duty, he immediately asked to be sent to the Western Front in France.
Carton de Wiart in service uniform. Source: Discovering Belgium
Carton de Wiart’s Victoria Cross medal. Source: National Army Museum Collection / Victoria Cross.
The Infamous Amputation Incident
In 1915, during the Second Battle of Ypres, an artillery shell exploded in Carton de Wiart’s trench, shattering his left hand. According to historic accounts, when a field surgeon refused to amputate two shattered, hanging fingers right away, Carton de Wiart simply bit or pulled them off himself to get back into action. Surgeons subsequently amputated the rest of his hand.
Winning the Victoria Cross
Despite missing an eye and a hand, he returned to the trenches. During the Battle of the Somme in July 1916 at La Boisselle, Carton de Wiart commanded the 8th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment. After three other battalion commanders were killed or incapacitated, Carton de Wiart took command of all four units.
Exposing himself fearlessly to relentless enemy machine-gun and artillery fire, he organized defenses, rallied retreating troops, and held the ground at all costs. For his extreme bravery, he was awarded the Victoria Cross (VC).
By the time WWI ended in 1918, he had been wounded seven more times—shot through the skull, ankle, hip, leg, and ear.
3. World War II: Crashes, Captivity, and Great Escapes
Between the world wars, Carton de Wiart lived in Poland as head of the British Military Mission. When Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland in September 1939, he evacuated his mission under Luftwaffe airstrikes and escaped across the border into Romania.
CARTON DE WIART'S INJURY & SURVIVAL TIMELINE
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1899 - Second Boer War : Shot in stomach & groin
1914 - Somaliland Campaign : Shot twice in face; loses left eye
1915 - Battle of Ypres : Shattered hand; pulls off own fingers
1916 - Battle of the Somme : Awarded Victoria Cross; shot in head
1917 - Passchendaele & Cambrai: Shot in hip, leg, and ear
1941 - WWII Mediterranean : Bomber crashes in sea; swims ashore
1941 - Italian POW Camp : Tunnels out; evades capture for 8 days
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The Mediterranean Plane Crash
In April 1941, at age 61, Major-General Carton de Wiart was flying in a Wellington bomber to Serbia to negotiate aid for Yugoslavian forces. Both engines failed off the coast of Italian-controlled Libya, forcing the plane to ditch into the Mediterranean Sea.
Unconscious crew members were saved as Carton de Wiart, one-eyed, one-handed, and over 60 years old, swam approximately one mile to shore in dark, open waters. Upon reaching land, he was captured by Fascist Italian authorities and sent to the high-security Vincigliata castle POW camp near Florence.
Tunneling Out at Age 62
Refusing to remain a prisoner, Carton de Wiart made five escape attempts. In one famous breakout, he spent seven months digging a bedrock tunnel alongside fellow officer General Richard O’Connor.
In March 1943, he successfully escaped through the tunnel. Disguised as an Italian peasant, he managed to evade recapture for eight days, an extraordinary feat considering he spoke no Italian, wore a black eye patch, was missing an arm, and bore distinctive facial scars.
4. Final Years and Indomitable Legacy
In August 1943, the Italian government released Carton de Wiart to act as a diplomatic messenger to negotiate their secret armistice with the Allies. Prime Minister Winston Churchill subsequently appointed him as his personal diplomatic representative to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in China, a position he held until 1946.
After retiring from military life, Carton de Wiart published his memoirs, titled Happy Odyssey. In its opening pages, he summarized his decade-long experience of bullet wounds, lost limbs, plane crashes, and artillery bombardments with characteristic irony:
“Governments may think and say what they like, but force cannot be eliminated, and it is the only real power, and frankly, I had enjoyed the war.”
Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart passed away peacefully at his home in County Cork, Ireland, in 1963 at the age of 83, having survived bullet hits to virtually every major section of his body and outlived almost every doctor who told him he wouldn’t survive the night. Legend!
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