I'm sure he was a very brave man. War is full of very brave men. Some live, some die. Some of the bravest die on their very first mission.

As for Otto Skorzeny, I don't get the impression he was in love with battle. I think he was just a very good professional soldier with extremely good nerves and quick judgement, combined with a lot of experience. He probably had similar abilities in many ways to Smoky Smith, although he had the bad luck to be on the losing side in a war.

Adolf Galland was another such. He flew for the Luftwaffe, shot down about 150 planes, and survived the war. He was asked by some journalist only a few years ago, "General Galland, how does it feel to be a real, living war hero?"

He answered, "I remember no heroes...only those who lived and those who died."

He was clearly not in love with the romance of war. Nor were many of them, once they'd had a good taste of it.

One who was in love with it, though, was Patton. That man lived only for the glory of battle. Without a war on, he didn't know what to do with himself.