The actual quote is, "Shoot straight, you bastards! Don't make a mess of it!" and was spoken by Lieutenant Harry "Breaker" Harbord Morant, as he gave his cigarette case to the squad leader of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders detailed as the firing squad who were about to execute him after his conviction for the murders German missionary Daniel Heese and at least nine Boer prisoners in retaliation for Morant's perceived murder of his friend and superior officer Captain Hunt.
Breaker Morant has become a sort of Australian folk hero; one of Morant's co-defendants (the only to escape execution) writing a memoir on the events of Morant's unit during the Boer War contributed greatly to this.
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