Got a joke for you. A sailor walks into a bar. No, wait. A Marine walks into a bar. No, no. Hold on.

Okay, sorry, got it now.

Three young boys with a toy cannon line up across the Cane River in the great state of Louisiana in the fall of 1941. They point the giant fake gun over the water and in the direction of the United States Army, who are in the midst of war games (intense combat training) under the direction of … Major General George S. Patton, Jr. Yeah, THAT Patton.

Then bang! Patton is caught off guard and — oh, you know what? This isn’t a joke at all — it actually happened, and the three Prud’homme boys (Alphonse, 14; Kenneth, 12, and Mayo, 9) to this day are known as the only force to ever defeat “Old Blood and Guts”.

According to witnesses, one of the umpires of the exercises (they used referees to determine who won what battle) went up to the boys’ father and said the following:

“Mr. Prud’homme do you mind calling off your boys? They’re holding up our war.”

To hear the entire tale, listen to the following podcast, conducted by the writers at the popular miscellaneous blog Boing Boing.

Ladies and gents, presenting, the Battle of Bermuda Bridge:

Can’t make this stuff up.