a music that defeated a beast

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/music-soothed-savage-beast-normandy-watch.html > Jack Tueller was part of a US P-47 Thunderbolt fighter group that had landed near Normandy two weeks after the D-Day invasion. They knew that not far from the airstrip was a lone German sniper. Other soldiers did not want Tueller to play for fear he would draw the sniper’s fire. Tueller was caught between reason and compassion. > MPs came to Tueller the next morning and told him the German had surrendered and had asked, “Who played that trumpet last night?” > Tueller went to the beach where the soldier was being held as a POW to speak to him. The 19-year-old was in disguise dressed as a French peasant. The young soldier told him “I couldn’t fire because I thought of my fiancé. I thought of my mother and father. My role is finished.” > Then, in tears, he took Tueller’s hand and shook it – no longer his enemy. Tueller says “. . . music had soothed the savage beast.” > How did Tueller know what to play? Years earlier he had a chance meeting with Louis Armstrong. Armstrong gave him this advice: “Always play the melody, man. Look at them, see their age group, play their love songs.”

Equivalent to when you return to the lobby mid game when the enemy has you cornered

Reminds me of the The Pied Piper of Saipan, Guy Louis Gabaldon, a US Marine who was close to a Japanese family and spoke Japanese prior to the invasion of Saipan. Assigned to guard duty after the first day, according to Gabaldon, The first night I was on Saipan, I went out on my own ... I always worked on my own, and brought back two prisoners using my backstreet Japanese. Gabaldon was reprimanded by his superior officers, and threatened with a court-martial for leaving his post and punished him with a second night on guard duty. However, according to him that second night he went out and did it again. He carefully approached a cave, shot the enemy guards outside, moved off to one side of the cave, and yelled in Japanese, Youre surrounded and have no choice but to surrender. Come out, and you will not be killed! I assure you will be well-treated. We do not want to kill you! The next morning he says he returned with 50 Japanese prisoners. As a result, Gabaldon was permitted by his commanding officer to act as a lone wolf operator, armed with nothing but chocolate and a bag of grenades. The next day, Gabaldon captured two more enemy guards. He convinced one of them to return to his cave, with an offering of surrender. Shortly thereafter, a Japanese officer showed up. After speaking to Gabaldon, the officer accepted the conditions of surrender—and over eight hundred Japanese soldiers and civilians surrendered to Gabaldon, who turned them over to the U.S. military authorities. In total, exact numbers are iffy, but in his Medal of Honor citation (ended up with the Navy Cross) he persuaded over 1,300 Japanese soldiers and civilians to surrender. Source: Wikipedia

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