The Irregulars
While working as a correspondent for Collier’s Magazine in 1944, Hemingway attached himself to “the 22nd Infantry Regiment commanded by Col. Charles’ Buck’ Lanham, as it drove toward Paris”. He somehow gained permission to run an intelligence operation in Rambouillet, France. He formed his version of the Dirty Dozen, a militia made up of a secret agent, French soldiers, and civilians. This posse obeyed his every command and called him Papa, Captain, or Le Grande Capitan.
Sounding like something out of a Quentin Tarantino movie, the group – known as The Irregulars – idolized Hemingway so much that they copied his mannerisms. Although he was given permission, a correspondent/journalist fighting in the War was a violation of the Geneva Convention, and Hemingway was court-martialed!
